Patrick Kearney

Patrick Wayne Kearney (born September 24, 1939), also known as The Trash Bag Killer and The Freeway Killer, is an American serial killer and necrophile who murdered a minimum of twenty-one young men and boys throughout southern California between 1962 and 1977.

Patrick Wayne Kearney was born on September 24, 1939, as the oldest of three sons and was raised in a reasonably stable family of middle-class background.

As a thin and sickly child, he was often a target for bullies at school, who beat him up frequently and berated him as a "queer" despite his supposed interest in girls.

In his teens, he became withdrawn and harbored fantasies about killing personal enemies, often ending in Kearney skinning them alive.

In addition, he developed sexual fantasies revolving around domination and began engaging in bestiality

when he was 13.

Born in East Los Angeles, California, Kearney also lived in Texas.

He returned to California following a brief marriage that ended in divorce and eventually worked as an engineer for Hughes Aircraft.

It was from his experiences in his early years in California that Kearney cultivated his skill as a gay pickup artist.

Kearney mostly sought out partners in San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, where he used his fluency in Spanish and keen interest in Latin American culture as a basis to connect with potential partners.

Kearney claimed to have killed his first victim, a hitchhiker he picked up and murdered in Orange, California, around 1962.

Kearney confessed to having committed his first murder in the spring of 1962.

The victim's name is unknown, but he was confirmed to be age nineteen and white.

Kearney had convinced the male to take a ride on his motorcycle with him to a secluded area outside of Indio, California.

When they arrived, Kearney shot the man in the head and sexually assaulted the body.

It is unknown if the body was ever found, but Kearney did indeed confess to committing this murder and two additional ones during 1962.

The second victim was the younger cousin of Kearney's first victim, who had witnessed Kearney drive away with the victim.

He claimed several more victims, mostly transients, before moving to Redondo Beach, near Los Angeles, in 1967 with a man named David Hill, who became his lover.

As time passed Hill and Kearney began to argue more often, and Kearney would go out for long solitary drives in his Volkswagen Beetle or his truck.

He would then pick up and kill young male hitchhikers or young men from gay bars.

Kearney was a necrophile and was generally consistent in the manner in which he murdered his victims and disposed of their remains.

Being of slight build, Kearney was forced to resort to a system of subduing his victims that was unlikely to fail or create situations which could place him in physical danger or cause unwanted exposure to authorities.

He was not sadistic and did not inflict pain on his victims as the other two "Freeway Killers" did, preferring quickness and efficiency.

While Kearney did later confess to having mutilated his victims' bodies out of curiosity, such as cutting open one of their stomachs, he did so post-mortem and did not inflict any physical suffering.

The first murder that Kearney confessed to and was convicted of, occurred "sometime around Christmas" of 1968, while he was living in Culver City, approximately one year after he and David Hill had taken residence together.

The murder took place inside his Van Buren Avenue residence.

According to Kearney, this victim (whose name is known as "George") was lured into his vehicle in San Diego and taken to his home, then shot in the head moments after entering the house.

The victim was then dragged to his bathroom, where he was sodomized, then skinned and dismembered in the bathtub with an X-Acto knife.

Kearney also extracted the bullet from the victim's head to ensure the murder would not be traced to him.

He then buried the dismembered body behind his garage.

Kearney did not kill for over a year following this murder, primarily out of fear that law enforcement would inquire about the disappearance of George.

Years later, the identity of this victim has yet to have been discovered besides his first name.

As time passed, Kearney greatly refined his modus operandi, which enabled him to carry out his crimes much more efficiently and frequently.

Starting in 1974, Kearney is estimated to have committed murders on an almost monthly basis.

After picking up his victims along the Freeway or at gay bars in his Volkswagen or in his truck, Kearney would typically shoot his victims in the temple above the ear with a Derringer .22 pistol in his right hand, while steering his car with his left hand and simultaneously monitoring the car's speed to avoid exhibiting any unusual behavior to potential witnesses.

After murdering his victims, Kearney would leave the bodies slumped upright in the passenger seat and drive to a secluded area to sexually violate them.

After copulating with his victims' corpses, Kearney would usually mutilate and dismember the remains with a hacksaw before disposing of them in various locations such as canyons, landfills, and along the freeways, usually in industrial trash bags.

In some cases, Kearney disposed of the bodies in the desert, where they could be consumed by carrion-eating animals.

Kearney would sometimes drain the victim's blood to eliminate odor and would also sometimes bathe the body parts prior to disposal to minimize the presence of dried blood and eliminate fingerprint evidence.

Sometimes, Kearney would beat his victims after they were dead.; he perceived beating his dead victims as a cathartic exercise and a means by which he could effectively vent suppressed anger and acquire a sense of power.