John Crutchley: The Vampire Rapist Who Walked Free

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Picture a guy with a shiny resume that includes working for top tier intelligence agencies,

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a steady job, and a picture perfect family. That was John Crutchley on paper.

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The sort of man who seemed to have his life neatly squared away.

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Behind the scenes, though, he was busy swiping classified documents,

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conveniently hopping states whenever something important went missing,

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and engaging in a very offbeat pastime, one that involved syringes, restraints,

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and actual human blood. Then came Thanksgiving weekend when a young woman decided to trust

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Crutchley for a ride. What happened next was so mind-boggling that even veteran detectives weren't

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sure what they just stumbled into. Was he simply a twisted sadist or was there something far darker

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at play? And the real question, how many more victims were out there? They called him the vampire

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rapist. But before we dive into that story, if you like your true crime brief and bingeable,

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you're in the right place. Hit follow now for at least two new episodes every week.

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This is 10 Minute Murder. Let's get into it.

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[Music]

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In October 1946 in Clarksburg, West Virginia,

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William Crutchley and Mildred Burnside welcomed a new baby into the world.

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But this wasn't just any birth. It was supposed to be a do-over, a cosmic correction to the tragedy

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that had struck the year before when their daughter, Donna June Crutchley, went in for emergency

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surgery and never came out. Losing Donna shattered Mildred. When she learned she was pregnant again,

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she clung to the idea that this was fate's way of making things right. She didn't just hope for

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another daughter. She expected one. So when the nurses handed her a baby boy, the moment that

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should have been filled with relief and joy was replaced with something else entirely.

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From the second John Brenning Crutchley took his first breath, he was already a disappointment.

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His mother didn't see him as her child. She saw him as the wrong child. The baby she never asked for.

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The placeholder for the daughter she lost. And since nature hadn't given her what she wanted,

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Mildred decided to take matters into her own hands. For the first six years of John's life,

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she dressed him as a girl. If he protested, she ignored him. If he did something to irritate her,

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or if his father found a reason, the punishments were brutal. The beatings were frequent enough,

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but some left more permanent marks. Like the times his fingers were burned with an iron.

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John would later recall that on at least a few occasions, they hit him so hard that he lost consciousness.

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John didn't grow up rough housing with other kids or riding bikes around the neighborhood. He

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withdrew, spending most of his time alone, buried in books about electronics and technology.

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In a world where people had been nothing but cruel, machines made sense to him. They didn't judge him.

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They didn't hurt him. They did exactly what they were supposed to do. By the time he was a teenager,

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his obsession had become a skill. He repaired electronics for extra cash. And eventually,

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that talent got him into college. He earned a bachelor's degree in physics, one of the few things

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in life that was entirely his own. But if anyone thought education would steer him toward a stable

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productive life, they were about to be very, very wrong. By 1969, John Crutchley had checked off all

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the traditional milestones. College degree, marriage, a promising career in engineering. But like most

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things in his life, stability was just an illusion. His first marriage ended before he even finished

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his master's degree, leaving him free to reinvent himself. Again, he took a job at Delco Electronics,

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way down in Cochamo, Indiana, working with cutting edge technology. But when he abruptly moved to

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Fairfax County, Virginia, the company noticed something strange. Important materials had vanished.

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An internal investigation was launched, but no one could tie the missing equipment back to Crutchley.

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So he walked away, unscathed. Then came a familiar pattern, a new state, new job, and a new wife.

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This time he was working for a major electronics firm in Washington, DC,

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before yet another sudden relocation. This time to Florida. And once again, when he left,

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sensitive materials disappeared. Only this time, the stakes were higher. His employers weren't just

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tech companies. He had ties to the FBI, the CIA, US Navy, and NASA. And when he left, he took classified

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information from all of them. If Crutchley had been a little more careful, he probably could have kept

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collecting secrets indefinitely. But in the end, his downfall wasn't a security breach, or an

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advanced cybersecurity team tracking stolen data. It was a 19 year old lady who fought to survive.

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Her name was Laura Murphy, and she was hitchhiking to Malibar, Florida. It was Thanksgiving, and Crutchley

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was home alone for the weekend. His wife and son had gone to visit family in Maryland. He stopped to

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offer her a ride. She accepted. She asked if he could take her home. He agreed, but he said he needed

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to grab a notebook from his house, first. That was a lie. By the time Laura realized that something was

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off, they were already parked outside his home. He invited her inside. She declined. He didn't care.

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He attacked her, strangling her with the ligature until she blacked out. When she came to, she was naked,

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tied to his kitchen countertop. He had set up lights and video equipment, preparing to document

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exactly what he was about to do. Then, the real horror began. Crutchley sexually assaulted Laura,

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but that wasn't the only thing he wanted from her. Using syringes, he extracted her blood and drank it

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in front of her. Afterward, he dragged her to the bathroom, wrists and ankles shackled, and left her

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in the bathtub. Hours later, he returned to do it all over again. Then, he came back the next morning.

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By the third time, Crutchley had to leave the house. He warned Laura not to try escaping.

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His brother, he claimed, would find her and kill her if she did. Laura didn't listen. As soon as she was

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gone, she climbed out the bathroom window and crawled toward the road, still naked, still bound at the

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wrists and ankles. Cars drove past her, ignoring the sight of a bruised blood-drained woman struggling

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for help. But eventually, someone did stop. She was so traumatized at first, she didn't even agree to

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press charges. But at the hospital, doctors determined that she had lost 40-45% of her blood. If she hadn't

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been found, she would have been dead within 12 hours. When she finally regained her strength,

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she told investigators everything. And that's when they got a warrant for Crutchley's house.

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Inside the home, police found his videotape of Laura, though conveniently, the parts where he

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raped and drained her blood had been already erased. But that wasn't the only thing they uncovered.

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Tucked away in his belongings was a thick stack of index cards. Each one containing names,

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addresses phone numbers, and disturbing notes about his victims. Some were just personal details.

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Others listed sexual preferences and descriptions of their encounters. When investigators reached out

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to these individuals, a horrifying pattern emerged. Many described Crutchley's sexual habits as

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escalating from kinky to outright assault. The evidence was overwhelming. But for one FBI profiler,

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this wasn't just a case of a violent rapist. It was something much worse.

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Robert Ressler, one of the pioneers of criminal profiling, was brought onto the case. He didn't need

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much time to form his conclusion. Quote, "I was very glad they asked me to get involved. Because while

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the police knew they had called a dangerous rapist, I thought it probable that they had a serial killer

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in custody." To Ressler, this wasn't an impulsive crime. Crutchley had been practiced, methodical,

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controlled. The way he restrained Laura drained her blood and left no trace of his previous victims,

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suggested this wasn't his first time. If others before her had been less lucky,

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if they hadn't escaped, then they were probably dead. Crutchley's ability to evade detection for so

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long pointed to a level of caution and organization rarely seen in offenders who strike only once.

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He moved across state lines frequently, worked in high security fields, and had a documented habit

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of stealing classified materials without getting caught. If he'd applied that same precision to violent

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crimes, it was entirely possible that there were victims scattered across multiple states,

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women who had vanished without a trace. Their fates buried in the gaps of Crutchley's well-documented,

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but largely unexamined history. While law enforcement built their case, Crutchley had an unexpected

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ally. His wife, instead of condemning him, she defended him. She dismissed Laura's experience as

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an exaggeration, claiming that she and John had engaged in similar encounters themselves.

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According to her, what happened to Laura wasn't rape or torture, just a, quote, "gental rape,

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devoid of any overt brutality." She genuinely believed that Laura should have been grateful,

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but public opinion and the weight of the evidence were against her, realizing there was no way out,

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Crutchley pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexual battery. John Crutchley was never formerly

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connected to any murders, though investigator suspect he was involved in several across the country.

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For his crimes against Laura, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison, but was released after only

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11. The very next day, he was arrested again for testing positive for marijuana. In Florida,

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this counted as a third strike, earning him an automatic life sentence. In prison, things got

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weirder. Guards discovered 13 genital piercing he had somehow managed to acquire behind bars.

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He died in March 2002. Officially, the cause of death was auto-erotic asphyxiation gone wrong,

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which honestly seems about right. Thanks for listening to this episode of 10 Minute Murder.

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If you're a brand new listener, make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this

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episode for today. Thank you so much for listening to 10minute Murder.