John Francis Roche

John Francis "Jack" Roche (September 6, 1927 – January 26, 1956) was an American serial killer, burglar, and rapist who murdered at least four people in the Yorkville neighborhood of Eastern Manhattan between 1953 and 1954.

Following his arrest, Roche admitted responsibility in two additional murders that other people had already been convicted of, resulting in one of those convictions being overturned.

Roche was born on September 6, 1927, in Port Chester, New York, one of three children to immigrant parents from Ireland.

The family moved out of Port Chester shortly after his birth and settled in New York City.

Roche's father, Patrick, was an alcoholic who repeatedly assaulted his wife and at one point attempted suicide.

Roche's mother made money by working as a prostitute in a tenement flat.

According to psychological reports, Roche spent a considerable amount of time in confinement in his youth.

At age 12, Roche began committing petty crimes, many of which landed him on probation.

At age 13, he was sent to a reformatory school.

In his adolescent years, his mother abandoned him, and Roche began escalating his crimes.

In 1951 he was detained for armed robbery, for which he was given a short prison term, getting out sometime before July 1952.

Roche might have committed his first murder on July 26, 1952, when 23-year-old Josephine Brown was strangled to death on a deserted street in Queens.

For her murder, police arrested 18-year-old Oliver L. Freeman, an area rapist known to police as "The Batman", and he was convicted of first-degree manslaughter for Brown's death.

He was sentenced to 10 to 20-years imprisonment.

On August 22, 1953, 22-year-old sailor Edward Bates was bludgeoned and stabbed to death in Queens.

Not long after, police began investigating Paul A. Pfeffer, a man with a lengthy criminal history, and he was arrested on August 27.

On November 15, Roche burglarized an apartment that belonged to 85-year-old Rosa Chronik.

Investigators allege that while he was ransacking the place, Rosa interrupted him, and in a panic Roche stabbed her to death and fled.

This murder was Roche's first confirmed.

Paul Pfeffer, on the other hand, was convicted of Bates' murder in January 1954, and he was sentenced to 20-years imprisonment.

Roche did not commit another murder until April 8, 1954.

That day, he stalked 17-year-old Marion Brown through the apartment complex she lived in and where she worked as a waitress.

Once in a secluded area of a hallway, Roche attacked Brown and proceeded to rape her, while Brown attempted to scream for help, but Roche eventually killed her and fled.

After the murder, Roche got a call from his fiancée, Yolande Graspo.

Graspo exclaimed she was frightened at the news of Brown's murder and wanted Roche to walk her home, unknown to her that Roche was the killer.

Roche agreed to lead Graspo home, and he did, leaving her unharmed.

On April 16, Roche flagged down a taxi, driven by 43-year-old Alexander Jablonka.

With the same knife used to kill Brown, Roche stabbed Jablonka to death and fled.

During the period of time after Jablonka's murder, there was speculation that his murder and the murder of Brown were perpetrated by the same person, something the Yorkville police denied, saying there was not enough evidence and the news could cause a panic among Yorkville residents.

On June 2, Roche approached 14-year-old Dorothy Westwater after she left her apartment room for school.

He attacked her and forcefully dragged her under a staircase.

He proceeded to stab Westwater in the neck, back, and chest a total of eight times, before raping her and shattering her skull with a lead pipe.

By the time Westwater was found, she was still alive but in dreadful condition, having to be rushed to the hospital, where she died as a result of her injuries.

The series of brutal slayings caused a moral panic among the Yorkville population, with authorities overwhelmed with the string of murders, finally having to admit that there was a link between each of the killings.

It was reported that men in the general area of the murders accompanied young girls to protect them from the killer.

On June 5, 1954, Roche was arrested by patrolman Gustave Roniger.

Roniger noticed Roche driving erratically on the wrong side of the road and pulled him over.

Since Roche could not produce a driver's license he was arrested and booked to the closest police station.

When asked what he was doing, Roche simply replied, "Just out for a pleasant day."

For the murder of 14-year-old Dorothy Westwater, Roche was convicted, sentenced to death, and subsequently executed at Sing Sing in 1956.