Leslie Irvin

Diagnoses

Personal

Passions

American serial killer, known as 'The Mad Dog Killer' and 'Joe Goebbels,' 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 on 2 December 1954 and ended on 28 March 1955. The crimes took place in Vanderburgh and Posey counties in Indiana and Henderson county in Kentucky. 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 escaped from the Gibson County jail in Princeton, Indiana on 20 January 1956. He did this by making keys with paperback novel covers, tin foil, and glue. He fled to the West. On 9 February 1956 he was arrested in San Francisco while trying to pawn some rings taken in a Los Angeles burglary. Irvin was retried and convicted on 13 June 1962. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and died at Indiana State Prison, Michigan City on 9 November 1983 of lung cancer. Link to Wikipedia biography