Transcript

Racist Serial Killer: Four Men Dead In 36 Hours | The FBI Files

From The FBI Files · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 50 min · 6,520 words · 136 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Racist Serial Killer: Four Men Dead In 36 Hours | The FBI Files", an episode of The FBI Files published December 20, 2025 (50 min, about 6,520 words). It mentions 19 people, works and ideas, including Joseph Christopher, Buffalo, Glenn Dunn, Madonna Gourney, Thomas Ruan.

What this episode is about

A serial killer targeting African-American men wreaks havoc in Buffalo, New York, leaving the community in fear as authorities struggle to identify him. With only shell casings as evidence, local law enforcement enlists the help of an FBI profiler to unravel the case and prevent further violence before more lives are lost.

Key takeaways

  • A killer's choice exposes deep racial divides, reminding us that some fears are still painfully real.
  • Innocent lives lost to senseless violence; racial profiling isn't just a statistic—it's a gripping tragedy.
  • Even a serial killer can teach us about community vigilance; safety often lies in collective awareness.
  • Witnesses became unlikely heroes, proving that even in darkness, hope can come from ordinary people.
  • Profilers turned the tide, demonstrating that understanding the mind can be more powerful than any weapon.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Glenn Dunn, New York, New York, Larry Robinson, Buffalo
  2. – 10:00: Madonna Gourney, Buffalo, Harold Green, John Rean
  3. – 15:00: Buffalo, Emanuel Thomas, Harold Green, Glenn Dunn
  4. – 20:00: Buffalo, Thomas Ruan, Emanuel Thomas, New York, New York
  5. – 25:00: Buffalo, Ernest Jones, Parlor W. Edwards, New York, New York
  6. – 30:00: Buffalo, Colin Cole, Edward Cosgrove, New York, New York
  7. – 35:00: New York, New York, Buffalo
  8. – 40:00: Buffalo, New York, New York, Joseph Christopher, John Rean
  9. – 45:00: Joseph Christopher, New York, New York, Buffalo
  10. – 50:00: Joseph Christopher, Buffalo, Glenn Dunn, Madonna Gourney

Notable quotes from "Racist Serial Killer: Four Men Dead In 36 Hours | The FBI Files"

  • Dunn promised to wait while Robinson went in to cash his paycheck.
    about Glenn Dunn · at
  • Buffalo homicide detective John Rean initially thought the slaying might be a result of a car theft ring.
    about Buffalo · at
  • The victim, 32-year-old Harold Green, was rushed into emergency surgery as detectives arrived at the hospital.
    about Harold Green · at
  • 31-year-old Emanuel Thomas had been killed while crossing a residential intersection.
    about Emanuel Thomas · at
  • Lieutenant Thomas Rowan conducted the ballistics analysis that were found at the scene.
    about Thomas Ruan · at
  • In January of 1981, the FBI and local investigators searched for the 22 caliber killer wanted for the murders of at least eight black men in New York City in Buffalo.
    about FBI · at
  • On May 5th, 1981, she confronted Joseph Christopher in a lineup.
    about Madonna Gourney · at
  • The state jury found Joseph Christopher guilty for the murders of Glenn Dunn, Harold Green, and Emanuel Thomas.
    about Joseph Christopher · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Joseph Christopher — Person · Primary suspect/identified perpetrator (the '22 caliber killer') · 18 mentions · first at
    Identified by investigators as the racist serial killer responsible for multiple Buffalo-area shootings; later convicted and imprisoned.
  • Glenn Dunn — Person · Victim (first confirmed shooting victim in narrative) · 5 mentions · first at
    14-year-old shot in a supermarket parking lot; his murder is one of the core cases linking the .22 shell casings and later conviction.
  • Madonna Gourney — Person · Key eyewitness / identifying witness · 5 mentions · first at
    Psychiatric nurse who observed a suspicious man at the first shooting scene and later identified Joseph Christopher in lineups.
  • Thomas Ruan — Person · Forensic/ballistics lead (law enforcement) · 3 mentions · first at
    Led ballistic linkage across scenes; identified Ruger 10/22 characteristics and explained evidentiary value of shell-casing marks.
  • Emanuel Thomas — Person · Victim · 5 mentions · first at
    Third victim in the initial 36-hour spree; forensic details (powder burns, close-range shots) shaped investigative understanding.
  • Harold Green — Person · Victim · 4 mentions · first at
    Second major victim described; killed in a similar .22-caliber attack, strengthening the serial pattern and linkage via shell casings.
  • John Rean — Person · Lead local investigator (homicide detective) · 2 mentions · first at
    Buffalo homicide detective central to early investigative decisions, witness development, and managing the flood of tips.
    Buffalo homicide detective John Rean initially thought the slaying might be a result of a car theft ring.
  • Edward Cosgrove — Person · Lead prosecutor / coordinating official · 1 mention · first at
    Erie County District Attorney coordinating the hunt; public-facing leader amid community pressure and federal involvement.
    Erie County District Attorney Ed Cosgrove was in charge of coordinating the hunt.
  • Larry Robinson — Person · Witness / associate of victim · 4 mentions · first at
    Was with Glenn Dunn immediately before the shooting and discovered him wounded; provided police with early account and fingerprints.
    Robinson came around to the driver's side and discovered Dunn was not moving.
  • John DeFranks — Person · Assistant District Attorney / prosecutor · 2 mentions · first at
    Monitored the case early and later used ballistic evidence to secure indictment; articulated lack of robbery/personal motive.
    With this match, assistant district attorney John DeFranks was able to get an indictment from a grand jury.
  • Parlor W. Edwards — Person · Victim (taxi driver) · 2 mentions · first at
    Found murdered and mutilated in an abandoned taxi trunk; raised uncertainty about whether the cab murders were linked to the .22 shootings.
    It belonged to 71-year-old Parlor W.
  • Ernest Jones — Person · Victim (taxi driver) · 2 mentions · first at
    Second taxi driver murdered with similar mutilation; strongly linked to Edwards’ case, but disputed linkage to the .22 shooter cases.
    Like Edwards, Jones was a taxi driver who had his throat slashed and heart cut out before his body was moved to a remote location.
  • Jim Calstrom — Person · Narrator/host (on-camera presenter) · 1 mention · first at
    Introduces the case framing and explains why profiling was needed; serves as authoritative narrator as former FBI NY office head.
    Racial powder keg. And it looked like others might be following his bloody example. I'm Jim Calstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office. When it became clear that…
  • Colin Cole — Person · Surviving victim (attempted murder victim) · 2 mentions · first at
    Targeted in a hospital strangulation attempt; profiler assessed this as likely copycat behavior rather than the shooter’s pattern.
    On the night of October 10th, Colin Cole slept in Buffalo General Hospital.

Companies & orgs

  • FBI — Company · Key investigator · 1 mention · first at
    The FBI was called in to assist local authorities in profiling and capturing the serial killer.

Places & events

  • Buffalo — Place · Setting · 27 mentions · first at
    Primary location where the serial killer targeted African-American men, creating a climate of fear.
  • New York, New York — Place · Setting · 19 mentions · first at
    The state where the serial killings occurred, including Buffalo and New York City.
    The Army was holding a 25-year-old Private Joseph Christopher on charges of assaulting a fellow soldier.
  • Cheektowaga — Place · Secondary setting · 4 mentions
    A suburb of Buffalo where one of the serial killer's victims was found.
    After talking to Gourney, Buffalo detectives got word of a similar shooting in the nearby suburb of Chetoaga.
  • America — Place · Broad context · 2 mentions · first at
    The country where the serial killings took place, highlighting racial tensions.
    With the identity of the racist assassin unknown, the press dubbed him the 22 caliber killer.

Full transcript with timestamps

A serial killer was on the loose in western New York. He chose his victims for the color of their skin.

The community was gripped by fear, not knowing when or where he would strike next. The only evidence he left behind was Spence shell casings. To focus their search, local authorities called on an FBI profiler for help. They needed to stop his murderous rampage before the killer ended another life.

In Buffalo, New York, a sniper targeted African-American men. He held a city hostage and threatened to ignite a racial powder keg. And it looked like others might be following his bloody example. I'm Jim Calstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office. When it became clear that physical evidence alone wasn't enough to corner the killer, FBI profilers developed other means. Their work provided the only hope of flushing him out and connecting him to his crimes.

On September 22nd, 1980 in Buffalo, New York, Larry Robinson drove up to a supermarket with Glenn Dunn. Dunn promised to wait while Robinson went in to cash his paycheck. While he waited, Dunn decided to step out of the car for a cigarette. At about 9:45 p.m., psychiatric nurse Madonna Gourney just finished her shift. On her way home, she decided to pick up some groceries. Not far from where she parked, Gourney spotted Dun fidgeting in the shadows. She was alone and felt unsafe. There had been robberies in the area, and Gourney did not want to be another victim.

She headed straight for the lit entrance where she passed another man who appeared to be waiting for a ride.

Gourney felt safer once inside. Larry Robinson had only a short wait in line to collect his money. Looking for his ride, he noticed Dunn's car parked at the end of the building. When Robinson tried to get in, the door was locked.

Open the door. Dunn did not respond. Robinson came around to the driver's side and discovered Dunn was not moving. He was bleeding from the head. Robinson ran back into the store to summon help. When Madonna Gourney left the store, she noticed commotion at the end of the building and asked if she could be of any help. The security guard replied that it wasn't necessary. The situation was under control. With three bullet wounds to his head, Dunn was in critical condition. Paramedics struggled to save the young victim.

His heart had stopped. Efforts to revive him were feudal. He was pronounced dead on arrival. When police informed Dun's family, they discovered he was only 14 years old. The forensics team searched for clues to the killer's identity. Fingerprints lifted from the car belonged to Dunn and Robinson.

The blood was confirmed as Duns. The only trace left by the asalent was spent bullet casings.

They had been fired from a 22 caliber weapon. A check of the car's license plates revealed it had been stolen the night before from a local dealer.

Police questioned Robinson. He told them that he only knew Dunn casually from the neighborhood and did not know the car had been stolen.

Robinson said he'd been walking to the supermarket earlier in the evening when Dunn drove up and offered a ride. Friends and family would later confirm that he and Dunn barely knew each other.

I'm here at the toparket. The crime was already making news. As the story broke, Madonna Gourney returned home from the supermarket, still troubled by the incident.

This guy that was sitting there, Gourney was upset to learn that a young boy had been killed in the parking lot. She decided to call police the next morning to see if she could be of any help.

Buffalo homicide detective John Rean initially thought the slaying might be a result of a car theft ring.

Exploring where the stolen car had come from and uh the people that may have been responsible for it. Uh it became apparent that this was not the focal point of the investigation.

To develop leads, police canvased nearby residents, hoping someone may have witnessed the shooting. A uniformed officer found a witness willing to cooperate and called a detective to question her.

What we got? Barbara Wniaak lived next door to the supermarket. Yes ma'am. She told the detectives that she had heard the gunfire and seen the asalent.

Why don't we just start from the beginning? At around 9:45 on the previous evening, she was cooking when she heard three pop-like sounds. She hurried to her window to see what had caused the noises. She saw a white man running from a parked car.

He wore a hooded sweatshirt that obscured his face. You hear of anything else? Are you anything you forgot?

While the detective spoke to Wnjak, he was informed that a witness from the supermarket had called offering her help. It was psychiatric nurse Madonna Gourney.

The real reason I called was because a 14-year-old kid had been killed in that car the night before. And all I could think of at the time was I'm a mother. If somebody killed my kid, I would really want to know who it was. you would be willing to come down to the station.

Gourney recounted what she had seen that night at the supermarket, hoping it would be of some help.

Because he had a bag. When I pulled in, I noticed a man standing under the lampost near the edge of the parking lot. When I got out of the car, I purposely walked farther away from him with the idea that yeah, I was alone. It was dark. Um pro if if he was standing there, he was probably up to no good. and I didn't want to be part of it.

Anxious, Gourney looked for other people who might be of assistance if she were to become a victim of crime.

My first reaction was, "Wow, there is somebody else out here." As I walked closer to the door and was able to get a better look at him, I thought to myself, if something does happen, he's not going to be of any help to me. because basically he had a very dazed or very dopey look on his face and I wasn't impressed.

You also mentioned suspicious. She described him as a slender white man with dark hair who held a brown paper bag on his lap.

He wore metal rimmed glasses and a hooded sweatshirt which shadowed his features.

The description seemed promising since the previous witness had described a similar man running from the scene.

Thank you very much. Detectives hoped that Gourney could provide details for a sketch.

After talking to Gourney, Buffalo detectives got word of a similar shooting in the nearby suburb of Chetoaga. The victim, 32-year-old Harold Green, was rushed into emergency surgery as detectives arrived at the hospital. His situation was critical after being shot in the left side of the head with 22 caliber slugs.

Are you with the green? Detectives found his wife in the waiting room and asked what she knew of the shooting.

Her husband had stopped at a fast food restaurant. He was sitting in his car eating his lunch when a hooded white asalent walked up and shot him. When an employee heard the gunfire and saw the shooter sprint from the scene with a brown paper bag, she called her manager. The method of this attack resembled the one from the night before. Detectives speculated that there was a possible connection between the two victims. Mrs. Green said neither she nor her husband knew Glenn Dunn or his family.

Her husband was a successful engineer and a pillar in his community. He moved in different circles than the teenage car thief.

Investigators found the two victims shared nothing in common. Green died without regaining consciousness. Only one piece of evidence linked both shootings. Lieutenant Thomas Ruan of the Chetoaga Police Department led the forensic investigation.

We had our first piece of hard physical evidence that connected the shooting in Chikawaga at the fast food restaurant, the shooting which took place in Buffalo, New York. Um, that single fact that tied everything together was spent cartridge casings from a 22 caliber. At that point, it was only identified as a firearm because we didn't know what type of firearm had produced the uh the spent shell casing.

That same night, homicide detectives were summoned to another shooting. It was the third attack on an African-Amean man in less than 36 hours. 31-year-old Emanuel Thomas had been killed while crossing a residential intersection.

From eyewitness accounts, the investigators pieced together the chain of events. An hour earlier, Frenchie Cook left the home of his friend Emanuel Thomas.

Thomas, a freelance house painter, told his wife he was going to the store and would be right back.

Be careful. Neighbor Thomas Jackson saw the two friends walk by and head for the corner of East Ferry and Zenner Streets. As Thomas and Cook crossed the intersection, the killer struck from out of the darkness. With a gun concealed in a paper bag, he shot Thomas several times in the left side of the head. Thomas collapsed to the pavement. Frenchie Cook was in shock. He never saw the asalent approach. He did not know anyone that would want Emanuel Thomas dead.

Where do you live? A teenage witness who saw the shooting from across the street described the suspect as a hooded white male around 5'8 or 5'9. The forensic team retrieved 22 caliber shells resembling those found from the previous shootings. They were sent to the lab for comparison. Detectives had little else to go on. In this particular case, we had two common denominators. We had black men and we had a 22 caliber weapon that was used to kill them. Other than that, there were no connections between the victims, either collectively or even singly, and no connection with a shooter.

Startled investigators came to the realization that Buffalo had a serial killer on the loose. Police had no leads and only one apparent motive. Assistant District Attorney John DeFranks was called in to monitor the case. We uncovered no evidence that there was a robbery motive. We uncovered no evidence that this was a situation involving bad blood between the attacker and the victim. What we had was an assassin randomly shooting people on the basis of race. With the identity of the racist assassin unknown, the press dubbed him the 22 caliber killer.

He was already on the prowl for his next victim. The 22 caliber killer was preying on African-Amean men in Buffalo, New York, killing three in 36 hours and leaving little evidence behind. Emanuel Thomas had been the killer's latest victim. gunned down crossing the street in front of his home. Medical examiners performed an autopsy. They found powder burns near the entry wounds. This meant that the muzzle of the murder weapon was placed close to his temple. From the pattern and severity of the burns, examiners believe they were caused by a sawed off rifle.

They removed two mangled 22 caliber slugs from his head and sent them to the ballistics lab for analysis. As investigators searched for answers, community fear turned into anger. Erie County District Attorney Ed Cosgrove was in charge of coordinating the hunt. They ask you,

the black community demanded action by the police. And of course, because of the nature of the of the attacks and because of the the the psychotic nature of the person ultimately responsible, it it wasn't going to be an easy task.

The next day, on September 24th, Joseph McCoy walked down a residential street in Niagara Falls, 20 miles north of Buffalo. In front of a church, the 43-year-old man was ambushed and killed. A witness described the shooter as a slender white man dressed in khakis. Once again, police found nothing but 22 caliber shells at the scene. The shells along with the slugs extracted from the victim were sent to the Erie County Department of Central Police Services to compare to the others.

Lieutenant Thomas Rowan conducted the ballistics analysis that were found at the scene.

In this case, it presented a rather difficult challenge to the firearms examiners and law enforcement is that the bullets themselves as it went into the body, they broke up. uh they disintegrated and broke into tiny little pieces making uh specific identification of uh the weapon from the bullets inside of the victims very difficult not impossible for the firearms examiners. The shell casings could tell them more. Every gun leaves specific marks on a shell when it fires. The firing pin, ejector, and extractor from a weapon make impressions on the casings.

For examiners, this is the gun's fingerprint. They found that the markings on the casings from the four crime scenes all matched. The relationship of the firing pin impression, the ejector, and the extractor marks suggested fairly early on that a specific type of weapon was used, and that was a Ruger Model 1022. The fourth shooting sent more shock waves through the black community, and investigators still had no suspect. Local officials had no answers. They called on the FBI for assistance. Special Agent Chipm Razowitz realized the case had the greatest urgency for the community.

It was important for the FBI to to get involved in this case because uh there were African-Americans being killed in in the area and everybody was was scared to walk the streets daytime and nighttime.

A composite sketch was rendered by an FBI artist who worked with several witnesses that had gotten glimpses of the killer. The sketch was circulated through patrols, newspapers, and television.

Police also carried the sketch door to door, hoping that someone would recognize the suspect. When thousands of calls began to pour in, Detective Regan realized the composite did little to focus the investigation. Basically, the composite sketch was like every man. as a result of it being published, I think we got somewhere around in the neighborhood of 6,000 calls uh that had to be checked out. And one of the fears really is that uh you may actually get the suspect and but and because you've done so many of these, it becomes routine and you don't pay attention. That's the ultimate fear that you go right by the man.

While local investigators tracked down leads in the Buffalo area, FBI agents pursued those outside of Erie County. Leads were followed in Pennsylvania, Ohio, all of New England, and across the border in Canada. To have that many leads, we were occupied 24 hours a day. We were looking for one lone white male uh who possibly could be walking next to you uh in a street or having lunch with you at some cafeteria and you don't know if you had the 22 caliber killer next to you.

On October 8th, 1980, workers on a construction site in the Buffalo suburb of Amherst came across an abandoned taxi on the service road of the New York freeway. When no one returned to move it, they contacted the state police.

The trooper who responded inspected the empty cab. He found a wallet under the front seat that held a driver's license, but no money. It belonged to 71-year-old Parlor W. Edwards, an African-Amean cab driver.

The keys were missing, and Edwards was nowhere in sight. The trooper decided to search the trunk, but found it locked.

No keys, nothing. Using a crowbar, he forced it open. He found the missing driver.

Parlor Edwards was literally bludgeoned to death in a parking lot in the town of Chikawaga. We found pieces of his skull, parts of his mouth, teeth that had been knocked out. Great deal of blood. Before throwing Edward's body into the trunk, the killer had also cut open the driver's chest and removed his heart. It wasn't clear that the Edward slaying was connected to the others since a 22 caliber rifle was not used.

The fact that he was a black male certainly raised suspicion in the minds of the investigators said, "Could the killer have now progressed to mutilation of the body?" In this case,

no one knew for sure. Perhaps it was an isolated incident perpetrated by a copycat killer.

Manpower dedicated to the murders swelled to 150 personnel from various agencies. The hotline rang 24 hours a day. No calls led to a suspect.

With community pressure mounting, the frustration grew for special agent Richard

Farey. In this case, we had several crimes occurring. We had no evidence to indicate who that person was responsible. And for an investigator, it was extremely difficult for us to accept the fact that we could not find anything that could identify this person positively.

Early on October 9th, a water worker was driving towards a dock area in the town of Tanawanda, just a few miles from Buffalo. On the edge of the road, he spotted a man laying face down near the tall grass.

The worker approached and saw that the man wasn't breathing. He immediately called authorities. They arrived within minutes.

Investigators identified the victim as 41-year-old Ernest Jones. Like Edwards, Jones was a taxi driver who had his throat slashed and heart cut out before his body was moved to a remote location. He was the sixth African-Amean male to be murdered in the Buffalo area in less than three weeks. Authorities were baffled. With little evidence to guide them, they weren't sure if one person was responsible for all six homicides. Only one aspect linked the first four shootings with the deaths of the two cabbies.

Basically, what you have is a the four shootings which are definitely linked. You have the two cab drivers who are linked to each other, but not necessarily to this. There's controversy even within the police, within uh teams uh of investigators as to whether or not they're connected.

Agents and local authorities had no way of knowing if there were one or two serial killers out there killing black men.

By October 9th, 1980, six African-Amean men had been found slain in the Buffalo area. Authorities were not certain that only one person was responsible.

In just 3 weeks, the serial killings had split the local community along racial lines. District Attorney Edward Cosgrove led the investigation.

It's hard to even describe the community mind at that time. There were demands for action all over from the black community for the police to stop what was happening here. I had press conferences uh uh that were attended by the national press. Everybody descended upon Buffalo and everybody wanted answers for me. I didn't have the answers.

The story made national headlines. A $100,000 reward was offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the 22 caliber killer. President Jimmy Carter took notice. With the wedge of civil rights violations dividing the Buffalo community, the president declared the investigation a federal case. Local lawmen now had the full resources of the FBI at their disposal. As federal agents began sifting through the collected information, another incident rocked upstate New York. On the night of October 10th, Colin Cole slept in Buffalo General Hospital.

Cole was an inmate from a local jail recuperating from a drug overdose. Just as visiting hours were coming to a close, a man walked down the hall of the seventh floor, looking for Cole's room. The recovering addict gasped for breath as the man tightened the ligature.

Hey, what's going on? A nurse administering medication surprised the strangler. He fled, leaving Cole alive.

Had a strangle seventh floor intruder. He's wearing a blue cap. The nurse alerted hospital security, but the call came too late. It was the seventh attack on a black man in just 3 weeks. No one knew for sure if the 22 caliber killer was responsible for this attack. What we have is this frame scene.

Lieutenant Thomas Rowan and his team had little understanding of serial killers at the time.

Two pieces of glimpsing into the mind of a serial killer is like twinkling your toes into the abyss of the very weird. You're never really sure what's there.

Local investigators needed someone who was more familiar with these types of offenders. They called upon John Douglas of the FBI Behavioral Sciences Unit to provide a profile of the 22 caliber killer. Through this process, Douglas would provide the team with insight to the killer's psychological behavior. Currently senior analyst of apbnews.com, an online crime news website, Douglas spent 20 years pioneering the science of profiling on

site consultation. A profile is designed to uh to come up with the most probable offender. Its goal is is to eliminate uh a lot of false leads. It's an attempt is being made as well to maybe refocus the investigation of law enforcement or possibly reinforce the investigation by telling them that you're on the right track here.

Douglas was on the next plane to Buffalo. During the trip, he familiarized himself with the case files.

Have to walk in the shoes of both the subject and walk in the shoes of that victim to truly understand really what took place during that assault. I'm going to be asking myself the question, why? Why this this victim?

He confirmed what local investigators believe. The only connections among the six murder victims were their race and sex.

They were black men who had been chosen by at least one killer as targets of opportunity. The strangled survivor, Colin Cole, was not a random victim since he'd been sought out in his hospital room. The profiler believed Cole's attacker was at the very least a racist copycat, not necessarily responsible for any of the murders.

Douglas needed to probe further. He had to meticulously recreate each murder from the known evidence. Reviewing all six attacks, the profiler looked for behavioral characteristics that could be ascribed to just one offender. When you look at serial killers, you look at patterns as well as signature. Signature is something that the offender does is kind of repetitive behavior, but behavior that that the subject has to do. It's more of a ritual.

Douglas found the behavior from each of the four shootings to be similar. The 22 caliber killer had surprised random victims, fired quickly from close range, then bolted, leaving his prey before they were dead. The assassin's signature was a blitz style of attack. The cababby murders didn't seem to fit that pattern. In those two cases, the killer had severely bludgeoned the victims, mutilated, then dumped them far from where they were killed. The killer had spent a great deal of time with the bodies even after death.

To Douglas, this suggested two different killers. There are different types of serial killer. They're the very personal types of serial killers and the impersonal style and type of serial killer. The personal type of an offender wants to look in the eyes of of the victim. And they want to spend hours if at all possible with their victims being in a position of total control and domination. That's what really is going to to turn them on. It appeared the cabbies were murdered by a personal type of serial killer.

Those crimes demonstrated a rage and overkill that were not evident in the shootings. Douglas believed that the psychopathology of the 22 caliber killer left a seemingly different behavioral thumbrint. The assassination style of um of serial killer are somewhere in in an age group between 25 to 28 is when they first begin to surface. How they could be described as really even more of an asocial type of personality. Not so much antisocial but asocial, keeping to themselves. They generally become obsessed with with weapons. They may be found with having multiple weapons as well.

the person would probably if he was in the military, I said that he'd have difficulty in in any branch of the service and would probably at some point would even receive a a discharge.

To the profiler, it looked as if Western New York may have had two distinct serial killers on the loose. Douglas reported his findings to local investigators.

Because the technique of profiling was new in 1980, a few had doubts about its reliability.

Some people look at this that this is some type of voodoo or witchcraft. I mean, how are you able to determine, for example, age of the offender? And actually, it's pretty easy once you do enough of these cases. From his experience with similar cases, the profiler added that the 22 caliber killer would most likely be an avid hunter having a history of menial jobs. Douglas stressed that it was up to the local team to find or eliminate suspects based on his profile.

This is a a good tool, but really it's you. You're the people up there. You police, you're going to solve the case. I'm not going to solve the case. To me, this is the easy part. I'm just going to try to help you maybe refocus the case, give you an idea, paint a portrait of the offender, but really you're the one who going to knock on the doors and and wear out the the leather soles and and come up with the suspect.

A national all points bulletin of the 22 caliber killer's profile was received by law enforcement agencies around the country. Investigators had a description but still had no name. Late in 1980, the FBI and local police searched for leads in the unsolved murders of six black men from Western New York. Hoping to focus the massive investigation, an FBI profiler was called in to assess connections between the cases.

He believed it was possible that two distinct racist killers were responsible. He comes out.

2,000 suspects were interrogated, but police made no arrests. Buffalo wasn't the only city in New York State facing terror in the streets. 400 miles southeast in New York City, a knife wielding attacker was terrorizing Midtown. Commuter Ivan Frasier was the victim of a subway knifing three days before Christmas.

Blocking the attack with his arm, he survived and reported the assault to the NYPD.

At 1:25 in the afternoon, Ivan Frasier noticed another rider talking with an attractive woman. To Frasier, it appeared the man was trying to pick her up. Don't work.

The woman seemed annoyed and got up to exit at the next stop. Frasier returned to his article. Without warning, the man across the aisle slashed Frasier in the forearm and wrist, then dashed away. He described the asalent as a white man in his early 30s with brown hair wearing a blue jacket. 2 hours later at 3:30 in the afternoon, 19-year-old Lewis Rodriguez was walking on the west side of Midtown Manhattan when he was jumped by a white man demanding his wallet.

Rodriguez fought off the initial blow, but the attacker lunged at him again, stabbing him twice in the chest. Before he died, Rodriguez described him to police as a white man with brown hair wearing a blue jacket. 3 hours after Rodriguez, Antoine Davis was found stabbed to death in front of a Midtown bank. By 10:35 p.m., Richard Rener died in front of a hotel on 49th Street. He was also stabbed. By 11 p.m., the killer was back on the subway looking for another victim. He spotted Carl Ramsay. In the dim light, no one noticed the knife.

Bleeding severely, Ramsay crawled out of the subway. By midnight, he was dead. In less than 24 hours, four black men were dead. The New York City Press dubbed the killer the Midtown Slasher. The rash of attacks on black men in Manhattan had many similarities to the profile of the 22 caliber killer. New York City investigators called on John Douglas to provide a profile of the slasher. because I did an independent analysis and when I started to paint a portrait of that person, my goodness, it was just like the Buffalo, New York case as well.

We have a subject here approaching his victim's bullet style of attack. There was one major difference. The Midtown slasher used a knife. The 22 caliber killer used a rifle. Now, we don't have the the 22 uh 22 weapon, but maybe the reason for that is we don't have the 22 weapon because we now we're dealing in areas that are very highly populated. If you have a 22 weapon, the sound of this would draw attention to himself.

Douglas determined that the signature behavior was identical. With a gun or a knife, the asalent attacked in the same way. By late December, District Attorney Cosg Gro realized something else that bolstered the profiler's conclusion.

He investigated. During that period of time, there had not been any assaults here in the city of Buffalo. It was quiet with respect to the activity of this 22 caliber asalant.

By the early weeks of 1981, the killer seemed to have disappeared. In January of 1981, the FBI and local investigators searched for the 22 caliber killer wanted for the murders of at least eight black men in New York City in Buffalo. Following months of investigation, Buffalo Detective John Rean and his team were unable to come up with the name of a viable suspect. The case is in limbo and everybody is frustrated. They don't know where to go. We don't have a name. We have no idea. Then out of the blue, uh, there's a call made to the Buffalo Police Department homicide.

An officer from the Army's criminal investigative division in Fort Benning, Georgia made the call.

Interested in coming down and seeing what we have? The Army was holding a 25-year-old Private Joseph Christopher on charges of assaulting a fellow soldier. On January 13th, 1981, Private Christopher attempted to stab an African-Amean enlistee.

While he was in custody, Christopher tried to castrate himself with a razor. Feel better.

When Captain Darothy Anderson began administering medical aid to the prisoner, he began muttering that he'd killed black men in the New York and Buffalo area.

He didn't know the exact number of his victims. It was just something he had to do.

Troubled by his story, Anderson reported it to the Army's criminal investigative division. She told the C officer of Christopher's ramblings.

The CD officer remembered receiving an APB on the New York killings. I was just wondering sir if there was

he called the Buffalo police homicide division as instructed by the teletype for district attorney Cosgrove this explained why the killings had stopped in New York state

from the time of our discovery of the second cab driver's gruesome death until almost Christmas of 1980 when we had the killings the four killings in New York City there had been a sessation of attacks And apparently that was when Joseph Christopher was in the army down in Georgia. As we later found out,

the FBI and the police finally had a name, Joseph Gerard Christopher. Agent Amrazowitz and his team compared Joseph Christopher's background to the 22 caliber killer profile.

He was pretty accurate. They described him as a white male, but early 30s uh uh a loner uh possibly if he were in the military, he would be hospitalized. He he would be uh seeking uh uh psychiatric care. Uh prior to being in a military, he would have had menial type labor. As soon as you had the name Joseph Gerard Christopher, you knew that that profile matched. Investigators tracked down several friends and acquaintances of Christophers.

Detective Lob. David Robinson had been a friend of the suspect for over a decade.

You familiar with a gentleman named Joseph Christopher, friend of mine. They often shot target practice and went deer hunting together at Christopher's family cabin.

A little bit. He also told investigators that Christopher had a gun collection that his father had left him when he died. The collection included a 22 Ruger rifle,

but Robinson never saw one that was cut down. Investigators secured a search warrant for Christopher's last known residence. They arrived at his mother's house in Buffalo, New York on April 22nd 1981.

Looks like our boys are real, huh? In Christopher's bedroom, FBI agents recovered metal rimmed glasses and khaki clothing that matched witness accounts of the perpetrator's apparel.

The FBI profile drawn up by John Douglas predicted the 22 caliber killer would be fascinated by guns and the military.

The Christopher basement was an underground firing range. Agents found the inherited gun collection and portions of a sawed off gun barrel.

Among the paraphernalia, forensic specialists found boxes of.22 ammunition, a misfired 22 caliber cartridge along with a rotary magazine. Ballistic specialist Thomas Rowan believed the evidence was significant. Finding the rotary magazine for the 1022 Ruger was an important feature that supported uh a widely held theory throughout the investigation. Uh that the shooter specifically picked something so he could keep the profile of the weapon low enough to fit inside of a paper bag when he conducted these executions of these men on the street.

The rotary magazine enabled Christopher to have a full load of ammunition and allowed the saw-edoff weapon to remain concealed in a bag without having to reload.

A second warrant allowed investigators to search the family cabin in Ellington, New York. Detectives dug in the spot where Robinson told them he and Christopher shot rifles.

The excavation yielded two shells marred with a unique firing pin mark. The same marking was on the shells collected at the crime scenes. Firearms specialists of the Erie County Department of Central Police Services examined the shell casings that were found at the Christopher home and cabin. They compared them to the casings found at the first four crime scenes. They concluded that the shells were all fired from the same gun. With this match, assistant district attorney John DeFranks was able to get an indictment from a grand jury.

The casings spoke for themselves. Put the casing under the microscope. You had your evidence. It couldn't be altered or tainted.

Joseph Christopher was extradited from Georgia and returned to Buffalo, New York to stand trial. Officers fitted Christopher with a ski mask to prevent witnesses from identifying him through the media. We put a mask on him for purposes of preventing potential witnesses from observing his face on the television and then basing their identification on that rather than upon their own recollection.

Okay. All right. Thank you, Miss Gourney, for coming down. One of those key witnesses was Madonna Gourney to take a look at. She had seen the 22 caliber killer the first night he struck in the parking lot of the supermarket.

On May 5th, 1981, she confronted Joseph Christopher in a lineup. It was a little scary. I was concerned with the possibility of being actually anyone in the lineup being able to see us who were there to identify someone in the lineup. Gourney was protected by the bright lights that shone in the eyes of the subjects. She was able to identify Christopher in two different lineups.

Agents and local police felt certain that they had the 22 caliber killer. Questions of Christopher's mental competency delayed the trial. already decided.

In December 1981, a judge pronounced Joseph Christopher mentally incompetent to stand trial.

That's all we can do here. He was committed to the Mid Hudson State Psychiatric Center where he received treatment. On February 17th, 1982, Christopher was deemed fit for prosecution. The trial began on April 6th, 1982. The community watched every step the prosecution took.

The media reported uh this entire case on a day-to-day basis, sometimes on a minute-by-minute basis. Uh it was good for the community because they wanted answers. They wanted information and it was good for us because it began to convince the community that we had the right individual and that their fears could be somewhat ellayed. The state jury found Joseph Christopher guilty for the murders of Glenn Dunn, Harold Green, and Emanuel Thomas. He was sentenced to 60 years to life imprisonment. Prosecutors never tried him for the Manhattan knifings.

One question still remained. Was Christopher also the taxi cab slasher. Though the FBI profile excluded Christopher as the suspect, he later revealed details of the cab driver's wounds that only the killer could have known. We wanted to make sure here in in Buffalo and every county that we didn't we we we satisfied the community's need for professionalism, thorowness, competence, and all the other things that that that that the community expects of its policemen and prosecutors. And we were able to satisfy that need because we we were successful.

Through science and good detective work, Joseph Christopher would never be free to kill again. He spent the rest of his life behind bars until his death, curiously from a rare form of male breast cancer at the age of 37.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Racist Serial Killer: Four Men Dead In 36 Hours | The FBI Files"?

Jim Calstrom (Host), Madonna Gourney (Guest), John Rean (Guest), Thomas Ruan (Guest), Edward Cosgrove (Guest), John Douglas (Guest), Joseph Christopher (Guest).

What is "Racist Serial Killer: Four Men Dead In 36 Hours | The FBI Files" about?

A serial killer targeting African-American men wreaks havoc in Buffalo, New York, leaving the community in fear as authorities struggle to identify him. With only shell casings as evidence, local law enforcement enlists the help of an FBI profiler to unravel the case and prevent further violence before more lives are lost.

What is mentioned in this The FBI Files episode?

19 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Joseph Christopher, Buffalo, Glenn Dunn, Madonna Gourney, Thomas Ruan, FBI. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Racist Serial Killer: Four Men Dead In 36 Hours | The FBI Files"?

The episode runs 50 min; the transcript is about 6,520 words in 136 timestamped sections.

More from The FBI Files

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 25, 2026.