True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

*Please be aware that shocking details are shared in this post. I have tried to be as sensitive as possible without shying away from the facts of the cases included. The contents of this blog are not suitable for anyone under the age of 18*

In this post I have decided to include three Serial Killers who you may not have heard of before. In my Serial Killers of The 70s, 80s and 90s Series, I have tried to include Serial Killers who you will be familiar with as well as unfamiliar with. In this final post in this series I have decided to briefly focus on three very dangerous and frightening men, all three are American but their murderous paths were each unique and no less disturbing, enough to give you nightmares. 

Before I delve in to these three cases, I just want to say that I hope you have enjoyed this series and managed to catch up with the posts below: 

- The Dating Game Killer: Rodney Alcala

- He Murdered Over 90 Women: Samuel Little

- The Killer Clown: John Wayne Gacy: Did He Have Help?

- 400 Victims? The Monster of The Andes: Pedro Lopez

- The Many Faces Of Ted Bundy

- The Butcher Of Rostov: Andrei Chikatilo

- BTK: Bind, Torture, Kill: Dennis Rader

- The Evil Child Killer: Robert Black

- The Grim Sleeper: Lonnie Franklin Jr

- Finally Caught! The Green River Killer: Gary Ridgway

- The Shocking Crimes Of Alfred Gaynor

- The Cul-De-Sac-Killer: Stephen Akinmurele 

So, moving on to the three cases in this post, please be aware that I will be sharing some disturbing details. 

Scott William Cox (also known as Seth Scott Cutter): 

As is usually the case, his life of petty crime soon turned deadly and he was convicted of two murders. Scott frequently used the services of sex workers and had been violent to the women on several occasions. A lot of the incidences went unreported but one of the women was beaten so badly by Scott that she almost died. The lady went through a horrendous ordeal of being sexually assaulted, beaten, strangled and had an object forced into her rectum before being thrown out of his truck. A witness saw the victim being thrown from the truck and was able to give the police a description of the vehicle. Fortunately and by some miracle, the lady was able to survive the horrific ordeal and gave what information she could to investigators. 

Scott soon found the cops on his tail and he was brought in for questioning, He was not only suspected of this horrible crime but also of the unsolved murders of two women. He pleaded innocence but the evidence against him was overwhelming. He ended up confessing to the murders of two women by the names of Rheena Ann Brunson and Victoria Rhone. Both women had been sex workers who had been sexually assaulted, beaten and left for dead by Scott in the same style as many of his other victims. He claimed to have been only responsible for these two murders but nobody else. Investigators believe that Scott is a Serial Killer and could be responsible for up to 20 other murders which currently remain unsolved. Being a long distance lorry driver at the time of the crimes through the 1980s and 1990s, Scott was able to be in various locations throughout the United States and would regularly use the services of sex workers in those locations. As I mentioned before, a lot of women who had survived his assaults refused to go to the police fearing that they would end up in trouble themselves because of their line of work or that they would not be believed. 

Now, due to the confessions to the two murders and being highly suspected as being a dangerous Serial Killer who was clearly a danger to women, you would think that they would have locked him up and threw away the key. What happened was a bit of a mess because when he gave these confessions it was reportedly under duress so the confessions were thrown out of court but he was convicted on DNA evidence. 

Scott ended up serving 20 years of a 25 year sentence and was released in 2013 with certain conditions. He was fitted with a GPS tag on his ankle which is basically a tracking device that informs the police of his whereabouts at any given time. He is not allowed to visit certain public places and he is subject to a curfew. In the UK we call this 'out on licence'. If Scott is found to be violating his conditions, no matter how small, he will be sent straight back to prison. 

As of 2023, investigations into the possible victims connected to Scott William Cox is still ongoing but as of this moment, he is out there and that is a scary thought. 

RIP to Rheena Ann Brunson, Victoria Rhone and to the numerous suspected victims who have yet to be identified. Thoughts also to the countless women who survived Scott William Cox's evil assaults and I hope that they were able to somehow move on with their lives despite such a horrific ordeal. 

Cleophus Prince Jr:

Cleophus Prince Jr is an American Serial Killer who is also known as The Clairemont Killer. He is currently serving his sentence on death row at the infamous San Quentin State Prison for the murders of six women but he is also suspected of more murders. Cleophus was sentenced to death in 1993 and is still on death row in 2023 due to endless appeals. Cleophus was born on the 24th of July, 1967 in Birmingham, Alabama. His methods of murder were horrific, each of the victims had been robbed, subjected to a terrifying sexual assault and stabbed to death. The known murders were said to have all taken place in 1990 in San Diego County, California in what was a sickening murder spree which spanned months. 

Cleophus had severed some time in the US Navy before the murders but was discharged due to theft and misconduct. All of Cleophus's victims were young females who he spied on and broke into their homes and apartments. He would attack the women and subject them to a sickening sexual assault before stabbing them to death with knives he had found in their kitchens. 

He was finally brought to justice when he was arrested for an attempted theft and information had gotten through to investigators that he had been heard previously bragging about the murders and seen wearing victim's jewelry as well as giving stolen items from various crime scenes to girlfriends as gifts. DNA he had given previously on another theft arrest provided investigators with enough evidence to connect him to the murders. On the day of his arrest in 1991, investigators tricked him into attending the police headquarters to complete some bail paperwork, once he arrived he was taken into custody. 

At his trial in 1992 he was found guilty of first degree murder for the deaths of the six women and 21 other felony charges. He was sentenced to death in 1993 and continued to appeal his sentence to which these appeals were thrown out. He is still currently on death row as of October 2023. 

RIP to the known victims of Cleophus Prince Jr:

Tiffany Schultz, Janene Weinhold, Holly Tarr, Elissa Keller, Pamela Clark, Amber Clark (who were also mother and daughter). RIP also to the possible unknown victims that have never been identified. 

Ronald Dominique: 

Ronald Dominique, also known as 'The Bayou Strangler' was responsible for the horrendous murders of 23 men and boys, aged between 16 and 46 in the 1990s through to 2006. The victims were sexually assaulted and murdered. Ronald confessed to all 23 murders saying that he murdered his victims because he did not want to go to prison, he was scared that his victims would report him to the police. All of the disturbing murders took place in Louisiana. 

Born in Thibodaux, Louisiana on the 9th of January 1964, Ronald grew up in hardship with his hardworking parents struggling to make ends meet. They both had laboring jobs which provided very little money. Ronald was the youngest of two children and the family lived in a trailer park and did what they could to get by. School life was tough for Ronald and he struggled to fit in and was very self conscious about his weight. He had dreams of what he wanted to do with his life and had focused on doing something in the computer science field. Despite the dedication to his studies and graduating school, he attended university but quickly dropped out. He was known to suffer bouts of depression and was confused about his sexuality. 

When he finally came to accepting his sexuality he began to frequent LGBTQIA+ bars and clubs in the hopes of meeting someone. Ronald suffered homophobia and bullying because narrow minded people would see him out and about near to certain establishments or on dates with other men and he would be the target for abuse. The constant taunting led Ronald to deny that he was gay and his depression at not being able to fully be himself deepened. Things soon went from bad to worse when he was arrested for sexually harassing various men on the telephone, leaving obscene phone calls. 

He tried to get some form of employment but could only seem to land low paid jobs which he couldn't seem to keep hold of. He ended up having to borrow money constantly from relatives and lived with his mother because he couldn't afford a place of his own. Circumstances continued to be dire and he turned to alcohol which resulted in another arrest for driving under the influence. 

As I've previously mentioned in the two earlier cases, the petty crimes soon moved into something more sinister and horrific. Ronald had been accused of sexually assaulting and beating a young man in August of 1996 at his sister's house. He was arrested over the incident and the case went as far as court but was thrown out after the young man failed to appear, so he basically got away with that incident. 

He came to the attention of police again in 2002 after he punched a woman in a parking lot during an argument over her driving. Despite this being a disturbing incident and another red flag, nothing further came of it as the pair were said to have apologized to each other and didn't wish to take the matter further. 

Ronald tried to fit in with the local LGBTQIA+ community and was always hanging around the bars and nightclubs, often dressed in drag. He was a huge fan of the legendary Patti LaBelle and his outfits and makeup were said to be a tribute to her but no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't gel with anyone. Maybe people could sense there was something not quite right about him? or maybe it was the aura that he gave off or his reputation for being short fused? Whatever the case, he didn't feel that he was getting the acceptance that he felt he deserved. 

Despite not being that popular he was still able to meet various men for encounters. This soon turned sour, he would set up situations where he would arrange to meet young boys and men, trick them back to his trailer (where he was now living) and subject the poor victims to a horrendous rape before murdering them by strangulation or suffocation. His reported final victim was said to have been murdered after being violently struck over the head with a blunt object. After murdering his victims he would dispose of their bodies. Most of his victims were African American and not all of them were gay, his victim's ages ranged from 16 to 46. 

Ronald's sickening crimes were soon to be put to an end when he was arrested in November of 2006. A young man contacted the police and reported that Ronald had tried to force himself on him in his trailer after luring him there with the promise of drugs. Ronald was taken in for questioning and DNA samples were taken from him before he was released. 

Forensics soon matched Ronald's DNA with traces of semen and other bodily fluids that had been left on/in the victims and at the crime scenes and he was promptly arrested again. Ronald wasn't shocked when the police arrived at the homeless shelter he had been staying at, he told them that he knew after the DNA had been taken from him that it would only be a matter of time before he was arrested. 

RIP to the known victims of Ronald Dominique:

David Mitchell, Gary Pierre, Larry Ranson, Oliver LeBanks, Joseph Brown, Bruce Williams, Manuel Reed, Angel Mejia, Mitchell Johnson, Michael Vincent, Kenneth Randolph Jr, Anoka Jones, Datrell Woods, Larry Matthews, Michael Bamett, Leon Lirette, August Watkins, Kurt Cunningham, Alonzo Hogan, Wayne Smith, Chris DeVille, Nicholas Pellegrin, Christopher Sutterfield. Thoughts also to the young man who escaped in the first known incident at the hands of this dangerous individual and to any other possible survivors. As I mentioned before in the previous cases, I can only hope that these brave people were able to move on in some way with their lives after what they had been through. 

Further Reading & Sources: 

- The Bayou Killer: Life of Serial Killer Ronald J Dominique | Book by Jack Smith

- Ronald Dominique: Article | Mirror

- Ronald Dominique | Crime Library

- Ronald Dominique | Wikipedia

- Ronald Dominique | Murderpedia

- Drag Queen Turned Serial Killer | Documentary | A&E

- Cleophus Prince Jr | Wikipedia

- Cleophus Prince Jr | Murderpedia

- The Clairemont Killer | Book by C.L Swinney

- People v. Prince | Court Documents | Find Law

- Cleophus Prince Jr: Article | LA Times

- Cleophus Prince Jr | Documentary | Born to Kill

- Scott William Cox | Wikipedia

- Scott William Cox | Yamhill County

- Scott William Cox: Article | Oregon Live

- Scott William cox | Ranker

- People v. Scott | Court Documents

I hope you found this post and this series on Serial Killers of The 70s, 80s & 90s to have been an interesting (but obviously disturbing) read. I hope you found this post as well as the previous ones, to be informative. I really appreciate all of the feedback, comments and thoughts about each of the cases that I have covered over the past few months and I appreciate each and every one of my readers. 

I hope you will join me again next Sunday and beyond for more weekly true crime content. 

Take care and I hope to see you in my next post as well as on my socials x