David Krueger

David Michael Krueger
Krueger (then Woodcock) in 1957.
Born	Peter Woodcock (1939-03-05)March 5, 1939 Peterborough, Ontario
Died	March 5, 2010(2010-03-05) (aged 71) Penetanguishene, Ontario
Killings
Victims	4
Span of killings	1956–1957, 1991
Country	Canada
Date apprehended	January 21, 1957

David Michael Krueger (March 5, 1939 – March 5, 2010), best known by his birth name, Peter Woodcock, was a Canadian serial killer and child rapist. He gained notoriety for the murders of three young children in Toronto in the late 1950s, as well as for a murder on his first day of unsupervised release from the psychiatric institution he was incarcerated in for his earlier crimes.

An adopted child, Krueger lived in numerous foster homes as an infant, and showed signs of severe emotional trauma when he found a permanent foster home at the age of 3. Unable to adjust to social situations, he was bullied by his peers. He would often wander from his home by foot, bicycle or train to parts of Toronto where he would molest dozens, and ultimately murder three young children. Found not guilty by reason of insanity for his crimes, he was sent to a psychiatric facility where he was deemed a psychopath. Experimental treatment programs for psychopathy tried with him proved ineffective when he murdered a fellow psychiatric patient in 1991; after his death in 2010, he was described in the Toronto Star as "the serial killer they couldn't cure."

Peter Woodcock was born in Peterborough, Ontario to a 17-year-old factory worker, Waita Woodcock, who gave him up for adoption after breastfeeding him for a month. Adoption agency records report that the newborn, Peter, showed feeding problems and cried constantly. As an infant, he stayed in various foster homes, unable to bond with any of his foster parents. After his first birthday, he became terrified of anybody approaching him, and his speech was incoherent—described as strange whining animal noises. He was also physically abused by at least one of his early foster parents, with a 2-year-old Woodcock having to be given medical treatment for an injured neck after receiving a beating. He was placed into a stable home at the age of 3, to foster parents Frank and Susan Maynard – an upper-middle-class couple with another son. Susan Maynard, who was described as a "forceful woman with an exaggerated sense of propriety", became strongly attached to the maladjusted child who would still scream when someone approached him. By the age of 5, Woodcock would no longer scream when approached, but he remained a strange child and became the target of neighbourhood bullies. He often wandered far away from his neighbourhood, once being found cowering in some bushes, in an attempt to hide from other children.