Jeffrey Gorton

Last updated
Jeffrey Gorton
Born
Jeffrey Wayne Gorton

(1962-11-01) November 1, 1962 (age 61)
Height6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Conviction(s) Criminal Sexual Conduct-1st Deg; Homicide - Felony Murder; Homicide - Murder First Degree-Premeditated; Homicide - Felony Murder [1]
Criminal penalty Life imprisonment without parole
Details
Victims2
Span of crimes
1986–1991
CountryUnited States
State(s) Michigan
Date apprehended
2002
Imprisoned at Richard A. Handlon Correctional Facility, Michigan [1]

Jeffrey Wayne Gorton (born November 1, 1962) is an American murderer and rapist, who was convicted in 2002 of the rape and murder of flight attendant Nancy Ludwig on February 17, 1991, at the (then) Hilton hotel in Romulus, Michigan. He later pleaded no contest to charges that he raped and murdered a professor and provost of the University of Michigan-Flint, Margarette Eby, on November 9, 1986. [2]

The two rapes and murders were proved to be the work of one person by matching semen samples taken from the two crime scenes. Gorton had left a latent fingerprint at the Eby crime scene; when it was matched to him, the Michigan State Police learned the killer's identity. Gorton was then proven to be the rapist by matching the DNA of his semen with that of the samples taken from the two murder victims. [3]

Gorton was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. [1]

The murders of both Margarette Eby and Nancy Ludwig by Gorton were depicted in the episode "Silk Stalkings" in the television series Forensic Files as well as in the Investigation Discovery television series Your Worst Nightmare in the episode "Fight or Flight".

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DNA profiling</span> Technique used to identify individuals via DNA characteristics

DNA profiling is the process of determining an individual's deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) characteristics. DNA analysis intended to identify a species, rather than an individual, is called DNA barcoding.

Andrew Stuart Luster is heir to the Max Factor cosmetics fortune and a convicted sex offender. He is the great-grandson of cosmetics giant Max Factor Sr. In 2003, he was convicted of multiple sexual assaults using the date-rape drug GHB.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colin Pitchfork</span> British child-murderer and rapist

Colin Pitchfork is a British double child-murderer and rapist. He was the first person convicted of rape and murder using DNA profiling after he murdered two girls in neighbouring Leicestershire villages: Lynda Mann in Narborough in November 1983, and Dawn Ashworth in Enderby in July 1986. He was arrested on 19 September 1987 and was sentenced to life imprisonment on 22 January 1988 after pleading guilty to both murders, with the judge giving him a 30-year minimum term.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Marcia Trimble</span> American child murder victim (1965–1975)

Marcia Virginia Trimble was a nine-year-old girl who disappeared on February 25, 1975, while delivering Girl Scout Cookies in the affluent Green Hills area of Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Her body was discovered 33 days later on Easter Sunday near the Trimble family home. She had been sexually assaulted. During the early years of their inquiry into the assault and murder, the police persisted in investigating one particular suspect, finally charging him in 1979 but he was released in 1980 for lack of evidence.

Raymond Edmunds, also known as the Donvale Rapist and Mr. Stinky, born 12 March 1944 at Queen Victoria Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, is a convicted rapist and double murderer who was active in Victoria, Australia from the 1960s to the mid-1980s.

Rape can be categorized in different ways: for example, by reference to the situation in which it occurs, by the identity or characteristics of the victim, and by the identity or characteristics of the perpetrator. These categories are referred to as types of rape. The types described below are not mutually exclusive: a given rape can fit into multiple categories, by for example being both a prison rape and a gang rape, or both a custodial rape and the rape of a child.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alphabet murders</span> Unsolved serial murders

The Alphabet murders are an unsolved series of child murders which occurred between 1971 and 1973 in Rochester, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timothy Wilson Spencer</span> American serial killer (1962–1994)

Timothy Wilson Spencer, also known as The Southside Strangler, was an American serial killer who committed three rapes and murders in Richmond, Virginia, and one in Arlington, Virginia, in the fall of 1987. In addition, he is believed to have committed at least one previous murder, in 1984, for which a different man, David Vasquez, was wrongfully convicted. He was known to police as a prolific home burglar.

A serial rapist is someone who commits multiple rapes, whether with multiple victims or a single victim repeatedly over a period of time. Some serial rapists target children. The terms sexual predator, repeat rape and multiple offending can also be used to describe the activities of those who commit a number of consecutive rapes, but remain unprosecuted when self-reported in research. Others will commit their assaults in prisons. In some instances, a group of serial rapists will work together. These rapists can have a pattern of behavior that is sometimes used to predict their activities and aid in their arrest and conviction. Serial rapists also differ from one time offenders because "serial rapists more often involved kidnapping, verbally and physically threatening the victims, and using or threatening the use of weapons."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Floyd Thomas Jr.</span> Convicted American serial killer

John Floyd Thomas Jr. is an American serial killer, serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the murders of seven women in the Los Angeles area during the 1970s and 1980s. Police suspect Thomas committed 10 to 15 more murders.

Ming Sen Shiue is a Taiwanese-American murderer, kidnapper, stalker, and rapist convicted of the murder of six-year-old Jason Wilkman, the kidnapping of Mary Stauffer and her daughter Elizabeth, and multiple counts of rape of Mary Stauffer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Jessica Heeringa</span> 2013 disappearance and murder case in Michigan, U.S.

Jessica Lynn Heeringa was a 25-year-old woman from Norton Shores, Michigan, who disappeared in the Exxon gas station where she was working the late shift on April 26, 2013.

Rotherham shoe rapist is a media epithet given to convicted British serial rapist James Desmond Lloyd from Rotherham, a metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. After attacking his victims, Lloyd stole their footwear and jewellery to keep as trophies. Lloyd was known to be active between 1983 and 1986 when his offending suddenly stopped. He was arrested in 2006 after a familial DNA profile linked him to the crimes. He pleaded guilty to four rapes and two attempted rapes, and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Angela Samota</span> 1984 murder in Texas, US

The murder of Angela Samota occurred on October 13, 1984, when she was attacked while in her apartment, raped and killed. The case remained unsolved until DNA evidence surfaced in the 2000s, following which charges were brought against a convicted rapist, Donald Andrew Bess Jr., who was subsequently tried and received a death sentence. He died of natural causes while awaiting execution in October 2022.

Vasily Efimovich Filippenko, known as The Leningrad Strangler, was a Soviet serial killer and rapist, operating in Leningrad in the area of the Obvodny Canal.

The University Phantom of Bochum, shortened to the Uni-Phantom, is a German serial sex offender who is said to have committed up to 21 assaults, first in Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis and later moving to Bochum. The first act was committed in 1994 at Sprockhövel, with the last rape assigned to him occurring in December 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony McKnight</span> American serial killer and rapist

Anthony McKnight was an American serial killer, rapist, kidnapper, and sex offender who killed five women and assaulted five others in Oakland, California, over a period of five months in late 1985 and early 1986. In 2008, he was found guilty of these murders and sentenced to death, but died awaiting execution in 2019.

Artyom Viktorovich Grabovoi, known as The Knyaze–Volkonskoye Maniac, was a Russian military officer, serial killer and rapist responsible for the murders of two women and one girl in the village of Knyaze–Volkonskoye, Khabarovsk Krai between January and February 2014. He was never arrested for the crimes, as he hanged himself upon learning that he was being investigated, with his guilt definitely proven post-mortem and the case officially closed.

Lloyd Clark Fletcher is an Australian convicted rapist and murderer whose most well known crime was the sexual assault and murder of 15 year old Janet Phillips in Wynnum, Queensland on 19 July 1987. He is currently serving an indefinite life sentence without possibility of parole in Queensland.

Dmitry Yevgenyevich Kuleshov, known as The Spruce Robber, is Kazakhstani-born Russian serial killer, rapist and pedophile who murdered two children in Rostov-on-Don in 2006, after being released for a similar murder committed as a teenager in 1994. Convicted and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for the latter crime, his case sparked outrage over the release of dangerous offenders.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Offender Tracking Information System (OTIS) - Offender Profile". mdocweb.state.mi.us. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
  2. Reyes, Traciy (30 December 2015). "Nancy Ludwig, Jeffrey Gorton: 'Your Worst Nightmare' Looks Back At 1991 Case Of Northwest Airlines Flight Attendant Found Dead In Detroit Hotel On Investigation Discovery". The Inquisitr News. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
  3. Blood Justice, by Tom Henderson, New York, N.Y. : St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2004. ISBN   0-312-99087-1