Mark Branch — The Friday The 13th Copycat Killer
Paramount PicturesMark Branch owned three hockey masks, knives, and a machete.
As a grocery store clerk who rented horror movies in his spare time, Mark Branch seemed like any other teenager of the 1980s. However, the 19-year-old native of Greenfield, Massachusetts, was anything but. On Oct. 24, 1988, he made his horror-film fantasies a reality by killing an 18-year-old college student while dressed as Jason from Friday the 13th (1980).
Sharon Gregory’s mutilated body was found in her bathtub by her identical twin, Cheryl, while Branch himself was nowhere to be found. After slicing up her abdomen, chest, and head, the masked killer vanished into the night.
People reported seeing Branch skulking about town but authorities initially had no luck tracking down their prime suspect. However, authorities learned that Gregory had been writing an evaluation of the man for her Greenfield Community College psychology class.
“Sharon Gregory had in her possession a psychological profile of Mark Branch, and that profile was wanted badly by Mark Branch,” said Greenfield Police Chief David McCarthy. “He didn’t like her having it, and he wanted it.”
Weekly World NewsThe manhunt for Branch lasted an entire month.
The town shuttered its doors and canceled Halloween events. A Video Expo 1 rental store employee revealed that Branch rented “strictly gore, period — the gorier, the better.” A search of his home substantiated that, yielding 75 horror films, 64 true crime books, three knives, hockey masks — and a machete.
Police set up a command post in Buckland, Massachusetts after residents reported spotting Branch in town. Those claims were echoed in Franklin and West Counties, while Branch’s car was found abandoned on the edge of Greenfield’s forests. He was ultimately found in Buckland on Nov. 28 — dead and hanging from a tree.
While his death was ruled a suicide, some believe locals dispensed vigilante justice to Branch. Ultimately, that urban legend continues to this day, while the paper Gregory wrote about Branch remains missing.
