Richard Grissom

Richard Anthony Grissom Jr. (born November 10, 1960) is an American serial killer who murdered three young women in Johnson County, Kansas, over eight days in June 1989.

Having been imprisoned years earlier for killing his neighbor, Grissom disposed his victims' bodies and they have never been found to date.

Richard Anthony Grissom Jr. was born on an American military installation in South Korea, the son of a US army Sergeant and a South Korean woman, on November 10, 1960.

Its unknown what his original name was, but soon after his birth his family gave him up to an orphanage, where three years later he was adopted by US army Sergeant Richard Grissom Sr. and his wife Fredonia.

Afterwards the family moved to the United States.

Even there, his new family moved across numerous states before finally settling in Kansas state.

Details of his childhood are not exactly known, but after his family moved to Leavenworth in the mid-1970s, Grissom enrolled at Leavenworth High School, where he gained popularity as a friendly, good looking, and smart kid who regularly got As and Bs and was a halfback for his school's football team.

On the morning of January 27, 1977, Grissom left his home after an argument with his parents.

Sometime after leaving, he stole a railroad spike, which he used to break into the home of his neighbor, 72-year-old Hazel Meeker.

In the house he attacked Meeker, viciously beating her until her death, then left the house.

Meeker's granddaughter, Carla, went to visit her grandmother, but found her dead body in a pool of blood.

She contacted the police who showed up and conducted an investigation.

Police discovered that there were footprints in the snow all around the house, and they subsequently followed the trail which led them to the southern railroad tracks.

They continued to follow them until they ended right where Grissom was hiding in a trailer park.

When they noticed him, Grissom attempted to bury a handgun he had stolen from another home under the snow, but police handcuffed him before he could.

In police custody, Grissom confessed to the murder and added that he had lost one of his shoes in the creek while running from the home.

Police later went back to the area but could not locate it, but took his word as when he was arrested, he was only wearing one shoe.

In April 1977 Grissom, since he was 16 years old, was convicted under a juvenile court and was sent to be housed at a Boys Industrial Center in Topeka.

In February 1979, Grissom and two other juveniles escaped from the center and were on the run for about a day.

During this time they broke into a home in Jefferson County.

They were recaptured without resentence, with the superintendent of the youth center filing a juvenile delinquency charge against Grissom.

Grissom was released in 1980, and soon after enrolled at Kansas State University.

In September Grissom traveled to Manhattan where he applied for the track team.

During practice he garnered the nickname "rock man" for the fact that he would fall on almost every jump.

By October Grissom quit the track team and instead took up racquetball, where he was regarded as a star competitor.

He also took up a job at Arby's.

The following year he joined the softball team.

In 1982 Grissom was listed in the student directory as a sophomore studying architecture.

In November 1982, a month before the final exams, Grissom stole $190 from a Manhattan resume service.

He was arrested in January 1983, and two months later pleaded no contest to a theft charge was given a suspended sentence and was placed on a three-year probation.

Afterwards Grissom drifted between Kansas City and Manhattan.

In 1984 Grissom stole a Mazda RX-7, for which he was sentenced to serve time in prison.

In June 1988 he was paroled.

On June 8, 1989, Grissom, who presented himself as Randy Rodriguez, rented a storage locker in southern Johnson County, which was to remain his until July 1.

Afterwards, in just over a week's span, three young women all in their early twenties went missing in Johnson County.

The first of these cases was 24-year-old Joan Marie Butler of Overland Park.

On June 18, she visited a friend's house in Kansas City on the Country Club Plaza.

That was last time anyone heard from her, as when she failed to show up for work the following day she was reported missing.

On June 25, her rental car was spotted at an apartment complex with witnesses recalling seeing a man fleeing the car.

He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1990.