Identifying An American Serial Killer

After 35 years of investigating, the Days Inn Killer has been identified by authorities, and victims and their families can have closure.

The Killer

Meet Harry Edward Greenwell (December 9, 1944 — January 31, 2013.) Greenwell was recently named the serial killer known as the I-65 Killer in Indiana and Kentucky between 1987 and 1989. Greenwell is believed to have killed 3 hotel clerks along the I-65 corridor but was never convicted as he died years before the crimes were linked to him.

The Case

On February 21, 1987, it’s believed that Greenwell is the man that sexually assaulted and shot Vicki Heath, a 41-year-old night clerk at the Super 8 motel in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. The lobby of the Super 8 showed signs of a fight. There was a telephone being uprooted from the wall. Her body was later found by authorities behind a dumpster near the motel.

Greenwell is suspected of striking again on March 3, 1989, at the Merrillville, Indiana Days Inn. Mary “Peggy” Gill (24) was a night auditor at the Days Inn when she was sexually assaulted and shot twice in the head. Her body was dumped near the parking lot of the Days Inn and $179.00 was taken from the hotel.

Four hours after the attack on Mary Gill, Greenwell assaulted and shot Jeanne Gilbert (34), who was a part-timer at the Remington, Indiana Days Inn. Her body was found early in the morning hours, near the roadway by a passing motorist. Greenwell had taken 250 dollars from the motel. Both women were shot with a .22 caliber handgun.

It was on January 2nd, 1990, when Greenwell is believed to have attacked a hotel clerk at the Columbus, Indiana Days Inn. This was his third attack at a Days Inn. The victim was working the night shift when she was sexually assaulted and stabbed. Later, she was able to give a description of her assailant that lead to a composite drawing of the suspect. DNA evidence linked the attack to the 1989 murders.

In 1991 Greenwell is believed to have assaulted another woman in Rochester, Minnesota. She survived and gave a similar description of the attacker. Her case was officially linked through DNA analysis in 2013. It was the only known incident along interstate 90.

The Investigation

The murders had gone cold and the case was a cold case until 2008 when DNA from the evidence was submitted for testing. In 2010, the Kentucky State Police announced that they were dealing with a serial killer. DNA from four other states is connected to the case, but in those instances, the victims were left alive after the sexual assaults and robberies. Due to the dates, being between January and March, police believed they were dealing with a seasonal worker that traveled. Elizabethtown police suspected that it was a truck driver or traveling salesman.

Who Was Harry Edward Greenwell

Greenwell was born in Louisville, Kentucky to his parents, Paul and Dorothy. Greenwell had a capacity for breaking the law and was arrested at 21 for armed robbery. He was sentenced to two years in the reformatory and five years of probation. It didn’t slow him down. In 1965 Greenwell was arrested in Jefferson County, Kentucky for sodomy. He was paroled out of the Kentucky State Penitentiary in 69.

On April 28, 1978, Greenwell lost his wife in a house fire in Vernon County, Wisconsin. He remarried in 90 but was again arrested and sent to prison for a burglary in Iowa. During the case, he escaped custody and was recaptured on two occasions. He was released from prison for the final time in 1983.

Today, the authorities are satisfied that Greenwell was the Days Inn or I-65 killer, as he was called. His DNA also leaves open the hope that more cases and victims might find closure in knowing that he’s dead. While it might have taken 32 years for the police to put a name on their suspect, the authorities finally identified the brutal man known as the Days Inn Killer.

Serial Killers

Serial killers are people who have killed at least three others over an extended time with a cool-down time in between the murders. Serial cases account for less than one percent of total murders committed in a single year, according to the FBI. While most of the known serial killers are white males between 20 and 45, females account for 15 percent of American serial killers.

Approximately 76 percent of all the documented serial killers in the 20th century were American. From 1900 to 2010, 40 percent of reported and documented serial killers were African American.

Having met three serial killers through 25 years with law enforcement and corrections, I can say that they are all different, with differing methodologies, motives, and thought processes. It would take even the most devout social scientist's lifetimes to be able to dissect the inner workings of serial killers enough for us to say we understand them. Even then, I suspect it would be just scratching at the surface.

References: Wikipedia, CBS News, FBI.Gov

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