This young man was comparatively unusual in that the targets of his lust were elderly women.
In 1982, the Kearsley Home of Christ Church Hospital in Pennsylvania, which had become a retirement home, interviewed candidates for the post of diet technician. One candidate, 22-year-old Anthony Joyner, was especially impressive, polite to both interviewers and residents, chatting easily to the elderly ladies who had made Kearsley their final abode. Although his slight build meant that his friends jokingly called him a faggot, he did in fact have a girlfriend.
Anthony soon became a familiar sight at Kearsley, ascertaining the residents’ nutritional needs and spending time with them at barbecues and cream teas. He was a hard worker and well liked by his colleagues and by many of the older women, with whom he had a special rapport. The building had been made into sixty apartments so that each resident had their privacy as well as access to a communal lounge, an on-site doctor and private hospital facilities. There was also a security guard.
One of the home’s oldest residents, 92-year-old Margaret Eckard was also the most lively, so a nurse was surprised to find her lying dead on the floor on the morning of 21st January 1983. There was bruising around her nose and mouth alongside smears of blood. Further examination revealed traces of blood in her vagina and anus, but dead bodies sometimes leak bloody fluid so the doctor decided that she had died of natural causes and she was duly buried.
The following month, on the 12th February, 85-year-old Katherine Maxwell’s door was found to be open, and when a nurse peaked in, she saw the octogenarian lying dead on top of the bed. Her pyjamas were streaked with blood. Again, the death was put down to natural causes and no autopsy was performed.
Shortly afterwards, 86-year-old Elizabeth Monroe was found dead in her bed. Again, there was bleeding from the vagina. The home’s usual physician, Dr Williams, was out on call, so another physician did the paperwork, reporting that Elizabeth had died of natural causes. When Dr Williams returned and heard that a third resident had died with blood smears in the genital area, he asked for an autopsy but the body had already been embalmed. The medical examiner assured him that there was nothing to worry about, that his patient had died of illness associated with old age.
Lillie Amlie, 89, was the next unexpected death. Despite her advancing years, she had a boyfriend and loved to party. She had been in her usual high spirits on 1st June 1983, had gone for a late-afternoon nap, but then failed to arrive in the dining room for her evening meal. A nurse investigated and found her face down in the bath, which only had a few inches of lukewarm water in it. Strangely, she was wearing stockings and jewellery and there was blood around her nose, mouth, vagina and anus. However, Lillie had had a heart condition and the staff decided that she must have slipped and fallen into the tub.
Eugenia Borda, 90, a religious woman who was believed to have been a virgin, was the next to be found dead in her bed. There was blood around her nose, mouth, vagina and anus. Dr Williams was so alarmed at this pattern – convinced by now that it indicated rape – that he refused to sign the death certificate.
A few hours later, 72-year-old Mildred Alston was found dead across the hall, her panties lying next to the bed. She too had blood around her face and genitals. The medical examiner ruled that both women had been murdered, Eugenia of strangulation and Mildred of suffocation.
Detectives investigated and found that Mildred’s wedding and engagement rings and her purse had been stolen. Security was good so they suspected an inside job.
They began to question the friends and family of every employee and struck gold when one said that Anthony Joyner had boasted of raping women to prove that he was a man.
Taken into custody, Anthony soon broke down and admitted, ‘I killed all of them.’ He said that he’d done so after fights with his girlfriend, but he played down the murder element, saying that he’d put pillows over the sleeping women’s heads so that they wouldn’t recognise him as he raped them and that they’d accidentally died of suffocation during the sexual assaults. In another instance, he’d stuffed a rag into a victim’s mouth to stop her screaming and she’d choked to death on the rag.
He talked on, admitting that he’d mainly entered the building at night through the cellar and sneaked into the residents’ rooms. He’d chosen most of his victims at random, with the exception of Mrs Amlie, who had confronted him when he stole $20 from her. Disturbingly, he had responded by telling her how attractive she was. He had sneaked into her apartment again one afternoon, planning to steal further cash, only to find her about to take a bath, whereupon he’d thrown her onto the bed, raped her and held a pillow over her face. Believing that she was dead, he’d gone to loot through her apartment but she’d revived and tried to leave the room. Grabbing her, he’d dragged her to the bathroom and held her down in the bath until she drowned.
Anthony was sent to a Philadelphia detention centre, where he was denied bail. He soon started to rewrite history, accusing detectives of framing him, but the autopsies showed that all six women had been raped and murdered and Anthony had no alibi. He had also admitted previously breaking into an apartment and raping a 62-year-old woman some time before starting the Kearsley job.
At his trial in April 1984, Anthony’s ex-girlfriend testified against him, saying that he’d told her he would soon be famous. He had also allegedly told her that there had been lots of murders at the home.
The diet technician took the stand and said that he’d been pushed around by detectives and that they had sworn at him despite the fact that he never used bad language. Facing the death penalty, he was fighting for his life.
The jury were out for ten hours then found him guilty of all six murders, although they were deadlocked over the penalty. It was the judge who imposed a sentence of life imprisonment. Anthony smiled when he heard this, relieved to avoid execution.