Charlie chop-off

1972

• On March 9, the body of eight-year-old Douglas Owens ( born Douglas Owens ) was found on the roof of a house on East 121st Street, two blocks from his house in Harlem . The boy received 38 knife wounds, his penis was cut in half ^[2] .
• On April 20, a seriously injured ten-year-old boy was found in the corridor of an apartment building on the West Side . The offender stabbed him, raped, cut off the penis and took it with him. The victim survived and was able to give a description of the attacker: he was a dark, thin man who limped while walking. The offender introduced himself as Michael and lured the boy into the building, promising to give 50 cents. Police found the boy's penis in a park where children played with him ^[2] .
• On October 23, the body of nine-year-old Wendell Hubbard ( born Wendell Hubbard ) was found by boys playing on the roof of a building on Fifth Avenue . Hubbard was killed with a knife, his penis was cut off ^[2] .

1973

• On March 7, at around 1:00 pm, the body of eight-year-old Luis Ortiz ( born Luis Ortiz ) was found in a stairwell in the basement of 200 houses on West 106th Street. He was inflicted 38 knife wounds and injuries similar to those inflicted on previous victims. ^[2]
• On August 17, the body of seven-year-old Stephen Cropper ( born Steven Cropper ) was found on the sixth floor of an apartment building at East Houston Street , 325. The boy was partially stripped, and several cut wounds were present on exposed areas of the body. ^[2] The murderer’s victim’s penis left untouched ^[1] .

On May 15, 1974, 33-year-old Erno Soto was arrested for molesting a Puerto Rican boy. C 1969, he periodically received treatment in a psychiatric hospital in Manhattan. Soto confessed to the murder of Stephen Cropper, and the only boy who survived the attack said that Soto looked like an assailant, but refused to confidently identify him. Employees of the hospital where Soto was detained claimed that he was undergoing treatment at the time of the murder, but nevertheless did not rule out that he could leave the hospital without asking, as he had done many times ^[1] .

Despite the fact that Soto was not found guilty of murder, researchers believe his guilt is likely, in particular because the killings ended with his arrest. On the possible guilt Soto claimed an anonymous source. Also noteworthy is the reason for placing him in a psychiatric hospital. Soto again met his wife, with whom he broke up a few years before. During this time, she gave birth to a son from a black man. When the boy was eight, Soto’s mental condition deteriorated altogether and in 1969 he became a patient in a psychiatric hospital. ^{[1] [2]}

Writer in her book On the Track of Murder ( Eng. On the Track of Murder ) used the pseudonym Miguel Rivera for Soto. The book was published in 1975, and since then some authors, including , have mistakenly named a suspect in their books by this name ^{[1] [2] [3]} .

• Newton, Michael. The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. - New York: Checkmark Books, 2000. - ISBN 0-8160-3978-X .
• Vronsky, Peter. Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters. - New York: Berkley, 2004. - ISBN 0-425-1940-2.