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Ralph NUSS

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

   


A.K.A.: "Donald Russell"
 
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Gay necrophile
Number of victims: 2 - 3
Date of murders: October 1966
Date of birth: ???
Victims profile: Arland Withrow, 17 / Thomas Brown, 18 / Robert Pugh
Method of murder: Strangulation
Location: Michigan/Ohio, USA
Status: Sentenced to life in prison in Michigan
 
 

 
 

A psychiatric social worker with the Federal Correctional Institute in Ypsilanti, Michigan, Nuss was justly famous for his rehabilitation programs, aimed at helping prisoners "go straight" upon release. 

Unknown to his associates, Nuss led a double life as "Donald Russell," well known in the local gay community that offered him at least two victims in October 1966. The homicides began October 16, when the strangled, violated corpse of Arland Withrow, 17, was fished out of a creek near Ypisilanti. Eight days later, Robert Pugh, a teacher, was dragged from a river at Toledo, Ohio, some forty miles away. Like Withrow, Pugh had been molested after death. 

Investigation led detectives to a youth who knew "Don Russell," while a second spoke of "Ralph," alleged to hold a prison job in Ypsilanti. Under questioning, Nuss readily confessed the Withrow slaying, while denying that he murdered Robert Pugh. Ironically, he did confess to killing Thomas Brown, an 18-year-old trucker who had lately vanished in the city. Nuss stood weeping in the courtroom as a judge decreed a term of imprisonment.

Michael Newton - An Encyclopedia of Modern Serial Killers - Hunting Humans


SEX: M RACE: W TYPE: N MOTIVE: Sex

MO: Psychiatric social worker and gay necrophile slayer of male sex partners

DISPOSITION: Life sentence on two counts, in Mich.

 

 

 

 
 
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