A Spine-Chilling Tour Revisiting the Michael Ross Murders
A Spine-Chilling Tour Revisiting the Michael Ross Murders
Known as the Roadside Strangler, Michael Ross is a good example of the classic organized offender. Between 1981 and 1984, Ross murdered eight girls and women aged between 14 and 25 in Connecticut and New York, raping seven out of his eight murder victims.
At the time of his arrest, the Roadside Strangler was working as an insurance salesman and traveled his route in a blue Toyota. He was extremely effective in avoiding apprehension and the authorities didn’t even realize a serial killer was responsible for the deaths. In fact, there was hardly any physical evidence in these cases except for the recovered bodies.
Ross confessed to each of the eight murders and was convicted for the last four of them. He was sentenced to death on July 6, 1987 and spent the next 18 years on death row.
In 2005, Ross was executed by the state of Connecticut, making it the first execution in Connecticut (and the whole of New England) since 1960, and the last execution in Connecticut before the state repealed capital punishment in 2012.
Michael Bruce Ross (July 26, 1959 – May 13, 2005) was an American serial killer. In 2005, he was executed by the state of Connecticut. Connecticut ended capital punishment in 2012, and the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled capital punishment unconstitutional in 2015, converting the sentences of the state's remaining death row inmates to life in prison without parole
Between 1981 and 1984, Ross murdered eight girls and women aged between 14 and 25 in Connecticut and New York. He raped seven out of his eight murder victims. He also was alleged to have raped, but not killed, a 21-year-old woman named Vivian Dobson in 1983 and a woman named Candace Farris in Indiana. Plainfield police rejected the possibility that Ross had been Vivian Dobson's rapist. They did not press charges and Ross made no confession.
Ross confessed to the eight murders and was convicted for the last four of them. He was sentenced to death on July 6, 1987, in Connecticut by judge G. Sarsfield Ford. In 2001, while on death row, Ross pleaded guilty to first degree manslaughter for killing Paula Perrera in New York in 1982, and was sentenced to 8 and 1/3 to 25 years in prison. He spent almost 18 years on death row before his execution in May 2005
Ross was executed by lethal injection on May 13, 2005, at Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers, Connecticut. He was 45 years old. Ross did not request a special last meal before facing his execution, thereby dining on the regular prison meal of the day: turkey à la king with rice, mixed vegetables, white bread, fruit, and a beverage. When asked if he would like to make a last statement, he said, without opening his eyes, "No, thank you." Ross was pronounced dead at 2:25 a.m. His remains were buried at the Benedictine Grange Cemetery in Redding, Connecticut.
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