Leslie Irvin (serial killer)

Leslie Irvin
Irvin (center) after being arrested
Born	(1924-04-02)April 2, 1924 Indiana, United States
Died	November 9, 1983 (aged 59) Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana
Cause of death	Lung cancer
Other names	The Mad Dog Killer
Criminal penalty	Death overturned to life imprisonment
Killings
Victims	6+
Span of killings	1954–1955
Country	United States
State(s)	Indiana
Date apprehended	April 8, 1955

Leslie "Joe Goebbels" Irvin (April 2, 1924 – November 9, 1983) was an American serial killer whose killing spree in the early 1950s terrorized residents of southwestern Indiana and whose Supreme Court case set a precedent for ensuring a fair trial for defendants even in the wake of a great deal of pretrial publicity.

Irvin was ultimately arrested in connection with six murders which were committed in four separate incidents. This killing spree began December 2, 1954 and ended March 28, 1955. The crimes took place in Vanderburgh and Posey counties in Indiana and Henderson county in Kentucky. The victims were:

In the last incident, Goebel's wife, Mamie, was shot but survived, permanently blinded. Elizabeth had a two-year-old daughter who was spared.

In connection with the confession they claimed to have extracted from Irvin, the police claimed he admitted to two dozen burglaries and robberies. It turns out that Irvin had a criminal history. He had received a sentence of 10 to 20 years for armed robbery in Indianapolis in 1945, served 9 years, and moved to Evansville in May 1954.

Irvin became a suspect after someone recalled seeing his car at the Duncan property slightly before the murders there. This led to his arrest. Later, weapons and some loot that tied him to one of the murders were found. He was captured the first time because his car was spotted on a rural road in Western Vanderburgh County. It was seen by Edward Peerman, Gary Peerman, Alan Peerman, Russell Peerman, Pete Molinet and Larry Weber. The boys recognized a dent in the door of his car that had been reported in the paper. It had been parked on a lane off the road and the boys pulled in right behind him and yelled at him. They were just out having fun and were not sure it was Leslie Irvin at the time. The parents of the Peerman boys called the police and they verified that it was indeed Leslie Irvin the boys had seen on the road.

After some wrangling between Kentucky and Indiana over which would try Irvin first, it was decided to begin with the trial for the Kerr murder.

Pretrial publicity was seen as a problem from the onset. Ninety-five percent of the homes in the county that was the site of the trial received newspapers with articles about the case, and the area was blanketed with radio and television. In the Supreme Court review, Justice Frankfurter made a special point “to attack the District Attorney's 'collaboration' with the media campaign” associated with the arrest and trial.

During the course of the voir dire examination, which lasted some four weeks, petitioner filed two more motions for a change of venue and eight motions for continuances. All were denied.