Harrison Graham

Harrison Graham (born September 9, 1959[1]) is an African-American[2] serial killer.

In August 1987, he was arrested for the murders of seven women in Philadelphia. His crimes were discovered after Graham was evicted from his apartment due to persistent foul odors. The smell was subsequently identified as coming from the bodies of his victims, which he had wrapped in bedding and piled in the bedroom.

At his mother's urging, Graham turned himself in to authorities after a week as a wanted fugitive.[3] Initially, Graham asserted that the bodies had been in the apartment when he first occupied the unit. He eventually confessed to the crimes, saying that he killed the women in drug-fueled hazes or during sex.

In court, Graham opted for a bench trial due to fears that the gruesome evidence would sway jurors. Two women testified that Graham had not only attacked them, but also claimed to have killed women previously.

The judge rejected Graham's defense that he was psychotic and suffered from multiple personality disorder.[4] He was convicted of seven murder counts and seven charges of desecrating a corpse.

Graham was initially sentenced to the death penalty, though that sentence was overturned on appeal due to his mental illness and low intelligence.[4] As of March 2016, he is imprisoned at State Correctional Institution – Coal Township.[1]

Graham was arrested only months after fellow Philadelphian Gary M. Heidnik was arrested for similar crimes, though Heidnik earned far more publicity. News coverage of Graham's crimes was limited mainly to the Philadelphia area. Criminal justice professor Anthony Walsh[2] suggests that the lack of media attention to Graham's crimes is symptomatic of a broader unawareness or neglect of black serial killers in America: though African-American Graham killed more people than did white Heidnik, the media all but ignored Graham's crimes.

References

  1. 1 2 According Harrison's Pennsylviana Deptartment of Corrections file, Inmate Number AS0978, accessed online 27 March 2016 at http://inmatelocator.cor.pa.gov/#/
  2. 1 2 Walsh, Anthony (2005). African Americans and Serial Killing in the Media: The Myth and the Reality. Homicide Studies Vol. 9 No. 4, November 2005 271-291 DOI: 10.1177/1088767905280080
  3. ↑ Heine, Kurt (1988). 'Marty' Graham Guilty of 7 Murders, Philly.com, 27 April 1988; accessed 27 March 2016
  4. 1 2 Ramsland, Katherine (2013) Cookie Monster and the serial killer, Psychology Today, accessed 23 March 2016


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