John Rodney McRae

John Rodney McRae (November 20, 1934 – June 28, 2005) was an American murderer and suspected serial killer.

McRae was officially convicted of two sexually-motivated murders of young boys, one committed at age 15, but is the prime suspect in at least three more.

He never admitted his guilt, and died in prison while serving a life sentence.

John Rodney McRae was born on November 20, 1934, in the small town of Belleville, Michigan, to John Alexander and Josephine Smith McRae, who also had a younger daughter.

In the early 1940s, the family left Michigan and moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where McRae attended a military school for some time, before they eventually returned to Michigan in 1946.

There, the elder McRae found lodging in suburban St. Clair Shores, where the family earned a positive reputation for leading law-abiding, honest lives.

McRae went to the Lakeview High School, where he mainly engaged in sports and was on the football team, but by this time, he also started to engage in small-time crime.

In 1948, McRae and a friend ran away from home, for which missing persons reports were filed, only to later be found in an auto repair shop in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where McRae had been working as a day laborer.

By the age of 15, he was 5'2" and weighed 90 pounds, but was unpopular in school and the neighborhood because of his aggressive and disruptive behavior towards other children and students. As a result, McRae was frequently disciplined by the school administration, and earned a reputation as a bully.

During this period, he also stole money from his parents and other people's property such as cars and boats, and even more disturbingly, he dissected a dog near the family home.

McRae also began to exhibit signs of an apparent sexual disorder, as he started assaulting and sexually harassing children of both sexes who were significantly younger than him.

In early September 1950, 8-year-old Joseph "Joey" Housey, Jr. went missing from St. Clair Shores.

A search operation was organized by police and local residents, who found the boy's mutilated body in a lovers' lane only two blocks away from his house on September 23.

Housey's jugular vein and carotid artery, as well as blood vessels on both wrists, had been slashed with a dull paring knife, after which he had been hit on the head several times with a rock.

The body had then been buried in a shallow grave with a small concrete slab, which had been washed away by rain over the following days, allowing the grave to be located.

A forensic autopsy concluded that Housey had been sexually abused.

McRae lived near the Houseys and was among the volunteers who assisted the police in the search.

Like most local teenagers, he was interrogated by the officers as part of procedure, but quickly became a suspect after he alleged that he "accidentally" discovered the location of a beam headlight Housey had been playing with the day he disappeared.

McRae was unable to provide an alibi as to his whereabouts on the day of the disappearance, after which law enforcement officers showed up at his home with an offer that he undergo a polygraph test.

However, McRae had fled the day before, leaving behind a note addressed to his mother which read ""I want you ''to know I hart nothing to do with the Housey boy.

I love you and I've caused you too much trouble."''

During a search of the house, the officers found a razor stained with dried blood amongst McRae's belongings, which was seized for forensic examination.

He was considered missing for a few days before being located in the Canadian city of Sarnia, where his uncle resided.

McRae was returned to St. Clair Shores' police station, where he confessed to killing Housey during interrogations on October 1, 1950.

However, he refused to admit to raping the victim and was unwilling to explain his motive for the murder, claiming that it had occurred to him in a dream.

McRae also stated that shortly before he escaped, he had confessed the killing to his mother and father, who later confirmed this claim.

His father later told the policemen that after his son had informed him of the deed, he said the following to him: "If you did do it, you better go out to the lake and start swimming. Its better that way. Remember son, I'm only asking you to swim if you are guilty." According to McRae's father's testimony, after a brief conversation with his son, he shook his hand, asked him to write a letter after his arrival in Canada, and walked him to the coast.

McRae later testified that he managed to swim some distance from shore, but was soon forced to turn back due to fatigue, after which he stole a neighbor's motorboat and fled to Sarnia.

In the months that followed, McRae recanted his testimony and declared himself insane.

At the request of his attorney, a psychiatric exam was conducted in late October of that year, which found him to be completely sane and aware of his actions.

On February 21, 1951, by a jury verdict, McRae was found guilty of killing Joseph Housey, and on February 29, the court imposed a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.

During his sentencing, McRae remained calm and showed little to no emotion, and later refused to say anything to the court when the judge asked him.

Later on, when reporters asked him for comments, he simply said: "I'm disgusted, that's all."

Following his conviction, McRae was transferred to the Michigan Reformatory in Ionia, where he learned the trade of an auto mechanic and underwent several sex offender rehabilitation programs.

During his incarceration, he never exhibited violent tendencies, was never disciplined and was considered a model prisoner.

In 1971, after a series of decisions by the Supreme Court questioned the imposition of the death penalty and life without parole on juvenile offenders, Governor William Milliken commuted McRae's sentence to life imprisonment with a chance of parole by executive order.

McRae was paroled from prison on February 2, 1972, after spending 21 years behind bars.

He then returned to Detroit, where, with the support of his parents, he soon found housing and work.

In 1973, he married Barbara Ann Heckman, who gave birth to his son Martin in 1974.

The following year, McRae was finally allowed to leave Michigan, moving to Brevard County, Florida, to work as a guard at a juvenile detention facility.