Harvey Glatman: The California Serial Killer Who Photographed His Victims
Bettmann/Getty ImagesCalifornia serial killer Harvey Glatman killed at least three women between 1957 and 1958.
In the 1950s, Harvey Glatman abducted, bound, raped, and murdered at least women in Los Angeles while pretending to be a photographer.
Glatman’s reign of terror began in August 1957, when he offered 19-year-old model Judy Ann Dull $50 to pose for the cover of a pulp magazine. Once he had Dull back at his apartment, however, Glatman attacked. He repeatedly raped the young mother, then took photos of her bound and gagged. Finally, Glatman took Dull to the desert, where he strangled her to death.
With a taste for blood, Glatman soon killed again. He abducted Shirley Ann Bridgeford, then Ruth Mercado, binding, raping, and killing them both. But when this California serial killer tried to kill for a fourth time, his murder spree came to a sudden halt.
Bettmann/Getty ImagesJudy Dull, photographed by California serial killer Henry Glatman, shortly before he killed her.
In October 1958, Glatman met up with Lorraine Vigil. Like most of his other victims, Vigil was an aspiring model who’d agreed to have Glatman photograph her. But as they drove together toward the fake “gig,” Vigil suddenly realized that Glatman was taking her out of the city.
“I did not become alarmed, however, until we entered the Santa Ana Freeway and he began driving at a tremendous speed. He wouldn’t answer my questions or even look at me,” Vigil later said.
When Glatman pulled a gun on Vigil and attempted to bind her hands, the aspiring model fought back. She was able to wrest the gun from his grip and hold him at gunpoint until the police arrived.
But Glatman never expressed any remorse for his crimes once caught. According to History, he refused to acknowledge appeals to spare his life, and even told the appeals board “I only want to die.”
He was executed in September 1959.
