Craigslist is a website where you can find almost anything: a new apartment, some garden equipment, a ride from L. But throughout the years, an unlucky few have found themselves unexpectedly purchasing danger: robberies, sexual assault, sudden violent death. Craigslist did not respond to a request for comment on this story. There, on the online marketplace, Anderson posted numerous classified advertisements.
Eventually, he found year-old Katherine Ann Olson, who was looking for a babysitting gig. Anderson had placed an ad claiming to be a woman named Amy, looking for someone to care for her 5-year-old. He stuffed her into the trunk of her car, where she bled to death. On March 31, , Anderson was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder, among other charges, and sentenced to life imprisonment without the chance for parole.
The gig looked like a dream come true, for a certain kind of drifter:. We need someone to watch our farm down in southern Ohio. Live for free in a double-wide trailer, nothing in the way of duties except to take in the peacefulness of the countryside andβ¦make sure no one steals any farm equipment or perpetrates any mischief.
But behind the offer lay a murderous plot: Beasley, 53 years old, was seeking victims. Already on the run from the law for operating a brothel out of a halfway house , Beasley turned to hunting male victims on Craigslistβfirst, to secure fake identity papers; then later, to secure income while on the lam.
Because the gig involved a live-in work situation, victims were instructed to bring cash and possessions with them. Over four months in , this Craigslist Killer shot and killed three middle-aged men David Pauley, Ralph Geiger and Timothy Kern with the help of Brogan Rafferty, a year-old accomplice from a broken home whom Beasley had befriended at church.
