(Originally published in Fringe! All American Vampire)

Your father walked out of the barn and left you to your chores. Finally, it was just you and the pigs. You run your hands along the cold skin of the animal. One bullet behind the ear, and that was it; all went still. Something in that stillness of death tugs at you, and you check to make sure the door is latched. Then you take off your close and slit the belly of the hog. Fresh, steaming organs erupt from the gash, and you tremble as you pick them up. Soon you will bathe in the cooling blood. You are Patrick Kearney, at just eight years old.

~

Bodies of homosexual men and young boys were found either dumped whole or dismembered into trash bags all along the freeways and highways between Los Angeles, California, and Mexico in the 1970s. Originally thought to be the work of one man, dubbed the “Freeway Killer”, it was found out to be three separate individuals with no connection to each other. They all just decided to start killing around the same time, in roughly the same area. Patrick Kearney was one of them.

Kearney was a rare breed of monster. Five foot five, meek and mild, at first glance, no one would assume the depravity that lurked behind those thick glasses. At a young age, he was taught to kill and butcher pigs. That was where his attraction to death took hold. Much like another killer of homosexuals, Jeffery Dahmer, Kearney was a necrophiliac.

As a man who had felt powerless his whole life, he craved absolute power over someone else. He achieved this by shooting his victims in the head when their backs were turned, often after entering his car, and then violating their corpses. To understand, or attempt to, the mind of a man that twisted and deranged, it is important to look at his past. To see where in life things could have gone wrong.

For Kearney, he claimed to be the victim of bullying by his peers and was a withdrawn child. This led to him feeling extreme resentment and isolation. Being a target by one's peers can cause many to withdraw from society. That kind of response, when combined with an unhealthy mind, allowed for all sorts of dark fantasies to take hold.

On the family farm, a young Kearney would smear himself with the viscera and blood of slaughtered pigs. The reek of fresh decay enticed him sexually, and he would engage in acts of bestiality. Most accounts have Kearney’s blood-lust and deviant urges, more or less, under control into his early adulthood.

*Similar pig farm from Kearney’s childhood*

In 1957, he was fresh out of high school and ready to mingle with the Los Angeles gay scene. Here, Kearney would pick up men in random bars and gay clubs. He also would travel down to Mexico, where, being fluent in Spanish, he never went to bed alone. It was at this early time in Kearney’s adulthood that things could have gone a different way.

Perhaps if he had remained a healthy member of the gay community, he could have developed enough support to help him unpack the demons of his past. To let go of the resentment and anger that had warped his thoughts. This wasn’t to be. A year later, at 19, Kearney joined the Air Force and met David Hill, a married man who would become his lover and the trigger for his murder spree.

After being discharged from the armed forces, the two decided to give things a shot and moved in together. All was not well in their love nest, and it wasn’t long before Hill broke off their relationship and moved back in with his wife. Kearney killed his first victim not long after, in 1962.

Two others would follow in quick succession until Hill came back to him. Kearney’s first three victims have never been identified, and only one of their remains was ever recovered. Known simply as “George”, his body was revealed by Kearney to police. Buried under the floor of his garage.

This would track with other necrophiliacs. That mental sickness causes an abnormal response when presented with a dead body or the scent of decay. Normally people are averse to the smell of rot, but for a necrophiliac, it is arousing. To go back to Dahmer for a moment, he was known to keep decomposing bodies in his home and enjoyed the smell. It wouldn’t be a stretch to think that Kearney kept “George” close in order to get off on the decomposition.

When Hill came back into his life, that early wave of murder came to an end. Over 20 more victims would follow, their deaths coinciding with issues in his relationship with Hill. In this, as well as because his crimes were sexually motivated, Kearney shares similarities with what has become known as a “rage rapist.”

A “rage rapist” is a person who lashes out in a violent sexual attack against people unknown to them. They use these victims as a proxy for the person they are angry with but feel unable to strike against for whatever reason. That would follow with Kearney since these murders and subsequent violations of the corpses seemed to match up against times when Hill would leave or the two would fight.

Most of Kearney’s victims were hitchhikers or gay men he brought home. Being a small and unassuming man, it was easy for Kearney to come off as no threat. Then once the victim was in his car, he would shoot them in the back of the head, just like the pigs from his childhood. He then employed further butchery techniques back home in his bathroom.

There the bodies were dismembered at the joints and disemboweled, hung up to bleed out over the tub in an attempt to lessen the smell. He would also wash the pieces to get rid of evidence. Once cleaned, Kearney would skin some of his victims before portioning them out into trash bags for disposal across a lonesome highway.

His murders finally came to an end in 1977. Until he killed his second-to-last victim, a young man named John LaMay, Kearney had been relatively unknown to the police. LaMay had actually arrived at Kearney’s house to see Hill, who he had befriended. Kearney would later explain to police that Hill hadn’t been home, but he invited LaMay inside anyway.

He shot the 17-year-old and dismembered him like the others, but this time, he made a mistake. Kearney had been practically a stranger to his other victims, but LaMay had talked about visiting Hill. So when he turned up missing, the police were pointed straight to the pair. When they arrived at the home however, the two men had fled.

It is important here to note just how evil Kearney was. Not only was he a serial killer of men, but also children. His youngest victim was Ronald Smith Jr at age 5. His final victim, Merle Chance, had only been 8 years old.

As the heat grew to locate the two, their families and friends urged them to give up. Surprisingly, that is just what they did. Hill and Kearney walked into a police station in Redondo Beach and turned themselves in. Hill was released, as police determined he had no knowledge of the murders.

*Right, Patrick Kearney. Left, David Hill.*

Kearney would go on to confess to all charges in order to avoid the death penalty. While police were able to confirm he had killed over 20 people, it is suspected that his true body count is well over 60. As of 2024, Patrick Kearney is serving multiple life sentences in Mule Creek State Prison.

Sources

[Harold Schechter, The Serial Killer Files (Ballantine Books-Random House); Murderpedia (Patrick Wayne Kearney);Youtube: Evil Among Us]

Human Monsters: Patrick Kearney, the Trash Bag Killer

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