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The Roadside Strangler · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

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Dispression. Mister Michael Ross's childhood growing up on a Connecticut chicken farm might have
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looked idyllic from the outside if you like chicken farms, but in reality,
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he was raised in a household full of turmoil. Born in nineteen fifty nine,
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Michael was the eldest of Patricia Lane and Dan Ross's four children, and
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he was also Patricia's least faith. She was physically abusive to all of her
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kids, but Michael was the one who received the most severe beatings. As
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well as the abuse that she dished out, Patricia also abandoned her young family
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for a period of time while the children were young, and at one point
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she was institutionalized. As a young child, Michael was allegedly sexually abused by
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one of his uncles, and when he was six, that uncle took his
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own life. After living through his own sexual abuse, Michael went on to
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molest two girls during his preteens. Even after his victims came forward about the
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assaults, he repeatedly insisted that he had not assaulted the girls, they'd just
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been playing doctors together. As punishment for these incidents, he was once again
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beaten by his parents. Despite becoming a sexual offender at a young age,
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Michael was surprisingly successful as a student, keeping to himself but maintaining good grades.
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When he graduated high school, he decided to study economics at Cornell University,
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New York, and it was during this time at Cornell that he truly
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developed his habit of obsessively stalking young women. The stalking started during his sophomore
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year and escalated to sexually assaulting one of his victims during his final year of
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college. Michael graduated from Cornell in May nineteen eighty one, and that same
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month, he committed his first murder. Just like the stalking, Once Michael
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started to kill his victims after assaulting them, he didn't stop. Between May
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nineteen eighty one and June nineteen eighty four, Michael took the lives of at
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least eight confirmed female victims. The oldest victim was also his first, a
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twenty five year old student, and the youngest were only fourteen years old when
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he killed them. Michael followed a clear pattern when carrying out his crimes.
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He picked up most of his victims while they were out hitch hiking or walking
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along the road side. He then kidnapped and sexually assaulted them before strangling them
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to death. Strangely, he never looked his victims in the eye while killing
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them. Instead, he strangled them from behind. He made some effort to
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dispose of the bodies in remote locations, but not enough to prevent the remains
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from eventually being discovered. As law enforcement and the media began to pick up
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on the connection between the crimes, Michael was given the nickname the Roadside Strangler.
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On the thirteenth of June nineteen eighty four, Michael picked up seventeen year
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old Wendy Beerboult, not knowing that she would be his last victim. Just
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like the seven girls before her, Wendy was sexually assaulted and strangled, and
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her remains were discovered several days later. However, unlike the other victims,
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multiple witnesses had seen the abduction take place, and their detailed descriptions of the
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Roadside Strangler's vehicle eventually led authorities to Michael Ross, who happened to live close
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to the dump sites where each of the bodies had been discovered. When Michael
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was confronted and arrested, he went quietly, even confessing that he was the
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killer. He agreed to take investigators to the locations where he had dumped several
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of the bodies. In late nineteen eighty five, he pleaded no contest to
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two murders, resulting in a one hundred twenty year prison sentence. And I
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know what you're thinking at this point, Joe, were four minutes into the
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story, and this sounds kind of like the end, but it's far from
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the end. In July nineteen eighty seven, Michael was found guilty of committing
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another four of the eight murders that he confessed to, and this time a
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judge sentenced him to death. For more than seventeen years, he was imprisoned
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waiting for the dates of his execution. During his time on death row,
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Michael was discovered to have been the perpetrator of another murder, the killing of
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sixteen year old Paula Pereira in nineteen eighty two, resulting in another eight years
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being added to his sentence. Despite her young age, Paula had struggled with
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mental health issues, and the year before her murder, she had even tried
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to take her own life by overdosing. However, she survived the suicide attempt,
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and when her peers at school found out, they only started making fun
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of her, calling her Tailnow. Because of that bullying, Paula stopped taking
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the bus to school, choosing instead to hitchhike. Her boyfriend tried to convince
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her to take the bus because he was worried about her safety, but Paula
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told him only nice people picked me up. Then, in March nineteen eighty
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two, Paula hitchhiked home from school, and the driver of the car was
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the last person to see her alive. Almost three weeks after Paula disappeared,
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her body was found dumped on the side of the road in New York.
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She had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death. For more than a decade,
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that case was unsolved until Michael admitted that he had been involved in two
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murders in New York, one of which seemed to match the details of the
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Paula Perera case. To confirm Michael's claims, investigators collected and analyzed my DNA,
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comparing it to samples that had been taken from Paula's clothing. The samples
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matched. Michael had been the driver who picked up Paula while she was trying
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to catch a ride home from school. During one of his police interviews about
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Paula's murder, Michael admitted quote, as soon as I saw her, she
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was dead. While Michael was imprisoned, he found love with a woman named
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Susan Powers, who quickly became his fiancee. She didn't care that he was
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a serial killer. She loved him anyway and believed that he'd changed his ways.
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Although Susan eventually broke up with Michael, she remained loyal to him and
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kept visiting him in prison for the rest of his life. As well as
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his bond with Susan, Michael spent a lot of time behind Barr's exploring religion,
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as he had quickly turned to Catholicism after he was arrested. Before long,
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he was a practicing Catholic, praying the Rosary every single day and having
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regular meetings with priests. Catholicism gave Michael a deep sense of peace about his
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own wae mortality. Even though he did not agree morally with the death penalty,
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which is ironic, he began to agree with the decision that he should
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personally be sentenced to death, claiming that this was because he wanted to spare
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his victim's families any more pain. He was aware that the process of changing
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his death sentence to a less severe penalty would result in countless hours in court,
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during which the families of his victims would have to relive their trauma.
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A Cornell University graduates named Kathy Yeager argued that Michael was able to accept his
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death sentence because he truly believed his sins were forgiven by God, including all
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of those sexual assaults and murders he'd committed. He's not being punished, she
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said. He's moving on to life eternal. That's what is ironic about the
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death penalty. He's looking forward to the peace. Finally, Michael's execution was
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scheduled for the twenty sixth of January two thousand and five. Only one hour
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beforehand, his lawyer managed to arrange a stay of exit acution, putting the
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execution on hold for another two days. It was rescheduled for two a m.
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On the twenty ninth of January, but once again it was postponed,
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this time because there were doubts about Michael's mental competence after his lawyer claimed that
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he was affected by a condition called death Row syndrome, which was known to
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cause delusions and suicidal tendencies and people who had spent a long time waiting for
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their execution dates. Despite the allegations of death row syndrome, the execution went
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ahead several months later. Michael Ross died on the thirteenth of May two thousand
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and five at the age of forty five. He was executed by lethal injection.
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Shortly before the execution was carried out, he was asked if he had
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any last words, and, keeping his eyes closed, he calmly responded,
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no, thank you. It was the first execution to take place in New
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England in more than four decades, and the only lethal injection to ever take
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place in the state of Cannet. When Michael died, he was more than
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twice the age of most of his victims. He graduated college, found love,
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and found religion. Despite the legal drama surrounding his execution, he died
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peacefully, a privilege that he had already taken from each of the girls that
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he murdered. That is ten Minute Murder for today brief and bingeable true crime.
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I'm Joe the host, and thank you for taking the time to listen
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to ten Minute Murder. If you're a brand new listener, welcome super pumped
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I'm sure there's more. I'm on more of those than that, but those
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got a case that you want to talk to me about, email it to
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me Joe at ten minute Murder dot com. You can go to the website
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ten minute Murder dot com and find all the things about the podcast. And
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you might look at this episode that we've talked about today and think, well,
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Joe must be super pro the death penalty, and I don't think we're
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ready to have that conversation about the death penalty. I will tell you that
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I am not in favor of the death penalty, which I know sounds weird
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hearing me say that. A guy that does a podcast about murders and murderers,
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the death penalty is mentioned pretty often and I don't seem too upset about
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it. That's because I get it. I understand why people would be pro
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death penalty. I happen to be not pro death penalty. And I've talked
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about this subject with other people and they were like, well, what if
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it was one of your family members that was murdered? How would you then
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you would feel different about the death penalty then, And I said, you're
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probably right, which is why I don't get super passionate on this podcast about
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it. I do get that there are two sides to it. I just
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happen to fall on one of the sides, the things that you shouldn't kill
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people, but also totally respect your opinion and belief that you should kill killers.
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And if you think that sounds weird coming out in mouth words, then
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imagine that living in my brain and the two sides of that conflicting. It's
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weird. Anyway. That's the episode for today. Thank you so much for
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taking the time to listen. Bye.