List of Craigslist killers

The term Craigslist Killer, in relation to current events, refers to a person or persons perpetrating a crime against a victim who either posted advertisements to, or answered requests for personal services on Craigslist, a popular classified advertising website. In the past, when similar such cases were described in the media, they were commonly known as "Want Ad Murders" and the perpetrators were called "Want Ad Killers" or "Lonely Hearts Club Killers", e.g. the Lonely Hearts Killers, due to their method of finding victims through newspaper classified ads and personal or lonely hearts club ads.

there have been three different murder cases in which the suspects met their victims through Craigslist and have been referred to in the media as "The Craigslist Killer". The three cases are not related.

The Minneapolis "Craigslist Killer"
Michael John Anderson, age 19, murdered Katherine Anne Olson, a 24-year-old theater graduate and professional nanny, on October 25, 2007 in a Minneapolis, Minnesota suburb after seeing an ad for her services as a nanny on Craigslist. Posing as a married woman named "Amy," he exchanged emails with her, and when she arrived at his house for an interview, he shot her in the back with a .357 Magnum and put her body into the trunk of her car, which he drove to the Burnsville Nature Preserve, where he abandoned it.

The car with Olson's body in it was discovered on October 26, 2007.

Anderson was found guilty of 1st and 2nd degree murder and 2nd degree manslaughter and received a life sentence without parole on April 1, 2009.

The New York "Craigslist Killer"
On March 25, 2009, police arrested 16-year-old John Katehis of Queens, New York for the murder of the former radio reporter George Weber. Before his retirement, Weber had worked as an on-air reporter for WABC in New York City, KGO in San Francisco, and KTLK and KMPC in Los Angeles.

Katehis confessed to the crime when apprehended. He said that he was a sadomasochist and that he had responded to his victim's advertisement on Craigslist for "rough sex," but stabbed Weber in self-defense after Weber tried to stab him. Weber's body was found bound and he had been stabbed 50 times.

The Boston "Craigslist Killer"
In 2009, three assaults on women took place—one of them a murder—in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The assaults, which were closely spaced in time, exhibited strong similarities to each other, and were suspected by law enforcement officials of being committed by the same individual.

The first incident took place on Friday, April 10, 2009, at the Westin Copley Place Hotel, in Boston, Massachusetts, in which a Las Vegas prostitute was bound and robbed at gunpoint. The next incident was committed on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at the Copley Marriott, also in Boston, and resulted in the death of Julissa Brisman. The third incident occurred on Thursday, April 16, 2009 at a Holiday Inn Express in Warwick, Rhode Island, resulting in the attempted robbery of an exotic dancer.

The motive for the crimes does not seem to be sexual in nature, as none of the victims were sexually assaulted. Criminal profiler John Kelly, of New Jersey’s STALK Inc., believes the motive for the attacks may be drug-related.

On April 20, 2009, police arrested Philip Markoff—a 22-year-old medical student at Boston University—and charged him with armed robbery and kidnapping for the events of April 10, and murder in the death of Julissa Brisman on April 14.They arrested him on Interstate 95 in Walpole, Massachusetts Security camera video and other physical evidence led to Markoff's arrest. He was arraigned on Tuesday, April 21, where a procedural not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf. He will be held without bail on a murder charge, although separate bonds were set on charges of armed robbery and kidnapping stemming from an incident involving a second woman. Markoff is originally from Sherrill, New York.