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You've not heard of this guy? Killed more women and children than Son of Sam? A brutal murderer with no cool nickname?

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – He's killed more people than the Son of Sam, but there are no made-for-TV movies about Alfred Gaynor.

The one-time handyman did not even pick up a macabre nickname as he attacked and strangled at least eight women in his hometown of Springfield in the 1990s, becoming one of his state's most prolific serial killers.

The scale of his killing spree only recently became clear when Gaynor, imprisoned on four murder convictions, confessed this fall to four other unsolved slayings in which he'd been a longtime suspect. Charges are possible in two more deaths for which he's confessed: a 20-year-old mother and her toddler daughter in 1996.

The deaths terrorized this western Massachusetts city, where Mace permit requests soared as the women's bodies were discovered in alleys, vehicles and their own homes between 1995 and 1998.

His new confessions came as part of a convoluted plea deal for his imprisoned nephew, who'd been convicted in another murder for which Gaynor, 44, now claims responsibility.

The families of the strangled women — including the victims' 16 children, now teens and adults — vacillate between relief to see him held accountable and anguish over learning details of the deaths.

"Some people are just evil through and through," said Janice Ermellini, whose 34-year-old daughter, Jill Ann, was killed in 1997 by Gaynor in an abandoned truck shortly after she moved to Springfield from Windsor Locks, Conn.

"When he finally confessed, I felt like a weight was removed from my shoulders. But that day in court when I heard the gruesome details ... it's different. There's no peace. It goes through my mind constantly," Ermellini said.

Gaynor remains relatively unknown beyond Springfield, where he met several of his victims in their mutual search for crack cocaine. Others were low-income single mothers, often acquaintances, whom he robbed for drug money.  ...

In the eight murders, his calling card was brutality: Authorities say several of the women were tightly bound, some had socks or other objects jammed in their throats, and the rapes involved violence that went beyond sexual gratification. In three cases, the women's bodies were found by their children.

Gaynor insisted for years that he was innocent, even after his first four murder convictions in 2000. It was only after the 2006 death of his 67-year-old mother, a woman described as his family's matriarch and one of his strongest supporters, that he admitted he was a rapist and killer.

He told police and prosecutors in a 2008 interview that he kept quiet until after her death because he "just couldn't destroy everything she believed in." ...

And now, his victims' families await a final chapter: whether he'll be indicted based on his confession in two more 1996 deaths — 20-year-old Amy Smith and her 22-month-old toddler, Destiny, who was trapped for days without food or water in a sweltering apartment with the strangled woman's body.  ...

Gaynor blames his actions on the crack cocaine he once told police was his "first and last love."

He says he killed his first victim in April 1995 when 45-year-old Vera Hallums let him sleep on her floor. He beat her with a kitchen pot and bound her with electrical cords. He said he had planned to rape her, but that she strangled first on the cords.

Four slayings followed in 1997, then three more in the first three months of 1998. In most cases, Gaynor stole cash and items to pawn for drugs: Mickey Mouse earrings from one woman, a few coins for bus fare from another.

This bastiche has his own prison 'art' for sale. Click at your own discretion.

Here's what's drawn my attention to Alfred Gaynor...

The deaths terrorized this western Massachusetts city, where Mace permit requests soared as the women's bodies were discovered in alleys, vehicles and their own homes between 1995 and 1998.

Sigh.

If you’re close enough to mace a crackhead, you’ve allowed him to get too close. Mace is ineffective when drugs impair the pain response necessary to stop an attack. Tasers are ineffective if one misses (you only get one shot) or if the attacker’s clothing is too thick. And if the State forbids (or, by overly onerous and in some cases, impossible-to-fulfill requirements and limitations) personal gun ownership...you have these sorts getting away with murder, since Massachusetts has no death penalty.

The only solution for onerous states like MA, IL, WI and CA is for the State to issue one Officer per household, to make sure the persons therein are kept safe. The only way to truly satisfy a Statist is to bring the State home with him.

Or, better for you if you live in a 'free' State...

Now! Penetrates clothing that Tasers won't! Get one soon! You and only you are responsible for your own protection!

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