Gary Evans (serial killer)
Encyclopedia
Gary Charles Evans was a confessed serial killer
in and around the Capital District
of Upstate New York
. His penchant for stealing antiques and his multiple escapes from custody — including one that ended in his death — made him headline news in the area on numerous occasions.
to Roy Evans and Flora Mae Lee. As a child, he suffered beatings at the hands of both parents, and claimed that he was raped by his father when he was eight. Flora Mae Evans was a mentally ill woman who attempted suicide on numerous occasions, once misfiring a weapon and accidentally shooting her husband in the shoulder. His parents divorced in 1968, and his mother remarried and divorced four times before coming out
as a lesbian
when Gary was seventeen. In the summer of 1968, Evans lived with his older sister and her husband in Cohoes, New York
, after his parents divorced. Evans' brother-in-law was a violent man, and physically abused
Gary and his sister. The abuse prompted Gary to return to his mother.
Beginning in early adolescence
, Evans often ran away from home, stealing from local drug dealers to survive. He spent 90 days in a county jail for breaking into a house in 1970. In the mid-1970s, Evans shared an apartment with two old neighborhood friends, Michael Falco, who practiced zoosadism
and bestiality, and Timothy Rysedorph. He also stepped up his thievery by studying antiques and jewelry. Evans became adept at speaking with antiques dealers and pretending to be a dealer himself, all the while casing for ways that he could break into the establishments unnoticed while Falco or Rysedorph assisted. On one occasion, he was stymied by a shop's alarm system and resorted to tunneling under the outside wall to get in undetected. Evans was convicted of 15 antiques-related felonies
during his life.
and sent to Clinton Correctional Facility
. While he was in Clinton, he met and befriended "Son of Sam" Killer, David Berkowitz
. Evans, Berkowitz, and a few other inmates studied weight lifting together, with Evans as the mentor. David Berkowitz was transferred to Sullivan Correctional Facility
in the late 70s and never saw Evans again. Berkowitz wrote "kites" to Evans (kites are short letters inmates write each other to communicate and pass time in prison). In 2005 it was discovered that Evans had kept these prison kite letters, probably planning to make money from selling them at auction.
Evans was transferred to Great Meadow Correctional Facility and paroled on March 31, 1980, but was quickly back in jail for possession of stolen property while on parole
.
His name first came to public light on June 12, 1980, when he escaped over the wall of the Rensselaer County
jail. He fled to the Troy Public Library, where police apprehended him on the outside ledge while onlookers cheered. Evans was treated as an extreme escape risk from then on, and was caught planning escapes on more than one occasion. With the additional escape conviction, Evans was sentenced on September 11, 1980, to Clinton Correctional and paroled from Attica Correctional Facility
on December 29, 1982. He was arrested twice more the following spring and was in county jail until his early release on March 31, 1984.
in East Greenbush, New York
. About a week later, Falco became the first known associate of Evans to disappear. Evans convinced local criminals and law enforcement that Falco had fled to California
. Only 13 years later would he reveal that he had shot Falco to death, rolled his body in a sleeping bag and disposed of it in a swamp near his sister's home in Lake Worth, Florida
. Evans recounted that he thought Falco had stolen merchandise from him and that Falco would report him to the authorities.
Evans returned from Florida to Troy in April and, on April 21, 1985, stole $12,000 from local drug dealers. That led to a high-speed police pursuit through Cohoes
and landed Evans back in custody. He was sentenced to another 2-to-4 years in Sing Sing
the following July.
The police being unaware that Falco was dead, let alone that Evans had killed him, Evans was paroled on March 1, 1988.
Soon after his release from Sing Sing, Evans started working with another neighborhood thief, Damien Cuomo (born September 10, 1961). Evans and Cuomo targeted a coin and jewelry store owned by 63-year-old Douglas J. Berry in Watertown, New York
, several hours drive away from the Capital District. On September 8, Evans and Cuomo broke into Berry's store and, when Berry awoke in the back room, Evans shot him to death.
On December 27, 1989, less than four months after Berry's murder, Cuomo left his apartment with Evans and was never seen alive again. Not until his 1998 confessions did Evans recount that he shot Cuomo to death soon after they left Cuomo's apartment and buried his body nearby. Similar to Falco four years prior, Evans believed Cuomo had been stealing from him and that he would turn him over to police. Evans convinced Cuomo's girlfriend (and mother of his child) that Cuomo had abandoned them and fled the area voluntarily. Barely a month later, Evans started a sexual relationship with her. Over the next several years, Evans spent much of his time with Cuomo's girlfriend and daughter, who had no idea that he was responsible for Cuomo's death.
casing a coin and jewelry shop on the first floor which was owned by Gregory Jouben, 36. On October 17, 1991, Evans walked into Jouben's shop, asked him to price a piece of merchandise, and then shot him to death. The small community in sparsely populated Herkimer County
was outraged by one of the few murders of the year in the area.
In 1993, Evans stole over 800 antiques from a group shop in Quechee, Vermont
. Evans used an engine crane to steal a thousand-pound bench out of an Albany
cemetery, but he was arrested when his fence
became nervous and turned him in. In early 1994, Evans agreed to assist the authorities by obtaining information on Jeffrey Williams, who was implicated in the high-profile murder of Karolyn Lonczak. When Williams was found guilty, Evans was released on February 12, 1994, with police still unaware that Evans himself had killed at least four people at that point.
Police needed Evans to stay clean before testifying against Williams. Instead, on March 20, 1994, Evans stole a valuable first American edition of the Havell of London printing of John James Audubon
's Birds of America
out of a library in Woodstock, Vermont
. When Evans tried to sell the book through a prison inmate, he was turned in and wound up in federal prison. (The recovered book sold for over $300,000 at an auction in 2002.) With the shortened sentence he received for returning the book, Evans was released on June 6, 1996.
After his 1996 release, Evans reunited with Rysedorph, and they continued committing burglaries. In January 1997, a shop in Great Barrington, Massachusetts
was burgled of $80,000 in merchandise. The following July, Evans sold antique jewelry in Albany which police later linked to the Great Barrington burglary.
In 1997 Evans took up building and construction in Texas while he was avoiding public attention and probation while he was sought after by his probation officer P. H. Roley, but soon after he was traced by sheriff John L. Langston and soon vanished for months.
, near where he was living in a tent as a survivalist.
In reality, Evans had committed the perfect murders, with three of his victims unrecovered and two others a fair distance away, with no apparent connection to him. On June 18, 1998, although police had little hope of bringing murder charges, Evans surprised them by confessing to the murders of Falco, Cuomo and Rysedorph. He aided police in recovering all three bodies, including Falco's in Florida. Later, Evans also admitted to the murders of Berry and Jouben. The local news was abuzz with reports that their most notorious thief and burglar was actually a serial killer.
Evans was indicted on eight counts of murder in Rensselaer County, New York
on August 12, 1998, for the deaths of Falco, Cuomo and Rysedorph. Because Rysedorph's murder involved him witnessing Falco's murder and because it occurred after New York reinstated the death penalty in 1995, Evans was eligible to be executed for his crimes. The following day, he was arraigned
on another count of murder in Little Falls
for Jouben's death.
The day after his Little Falls arraignment, Evans was being transported from Rensselaer County to an Albany court. Unbeknownst to authorities, Evans had a handcuff key shoved deep into his sinus cavity
and managed to free his hands while in the police van. When they reached the Troy-Menands Bridge
, Evans suddenly kicked out the side window of the vehicle, jumped out and started running. When police cornered him, Evans leaped off the bridge and plunged to his death into the shallows of the Hudson River
over 60 feet below. When authorities retrieved his body, they found the handcuff key up his nose and a razor blade taped to his ankle.
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
in and around the Capital District
Capital District
New York's Capital District, also known as the Capital Region, is a region in upstate New York that generally refers to the four counties surrounding Albany, the capital of the state: Albany County, Schenectady County, Rensselaer County, and Saratoga County...
of Upstate New York
Upstate New York
Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...
. His penchant for stealing antiques and his multiple escapes from custody — including one that ended in his death — made him headline news in the area on numerous occasions.
Early life
Evans was born in Troy, New YorkTroy, New York
Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital...
to Roy Evans and Flora Mae Lee. As a child, he suffered beatings at the hands of both parents, and claimed that he was raped by his father when he was eight. Flora Mae Evans was a mentally ill woman who attempted suicide on numerous occasions, once misfiring a weapon and accidentally shooting her husband in the shoulder. His parents divorced in 1968, and his mother remarried and divorced four times before coming out
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
as a lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
when Gary was seventeen. In the summer of 1968, Evans lived with his older sister and her husband in Cohoes, New York
Cohoes, New York
Cohoes is an incorporated city located at the northeast corner of Albany County in the US state of New York. It is called the "Spindle City" because of the importance of textile production to its growth. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 16,168...
, after his parents divorced. Evans' brother-in-law was a violent man, and physically abused
Physical abuse
Physical abuse is abuse involving contact intended to cause feelings of intimidation, injury, or other physical suffering or bodily harm.-Forms of physical abuse:*Striking*Punching*Belting*Pushing, pulling*Slapping*Whipping*Striking with an object...
Gary and his sister. The abuse prompted Gary to return to his mother.
Beginning in early adolescence
Adolescence
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...
, Evans often ran away from home, stealing from local drug dealers to survive. He spent 90 days in a county jail for breaking into a house in 1970. In the mid-1970s, Evans shared an apartment with two old neighborhood friends, Michael Falco, who practiced zoosadism
Zoosadism
Zoosadism is a term coined by Ernest Borneman referring to pleasure derived from cruelty to animals. Zoosadism is part of the Macdonald triad, a set of three behaviors that are a precursor to sociopathic behavior.-Research:...
and bestiality, and Timothy Rysedorph. He also stepped up his thievery by studying antiques and jewelry. Evans became adept at speaking with antiques dealers and pretending to be a dealer himself, all the while casing for ways that he could break into the establishments unnoticed while Falco or Rysedorph assisted. On one occasion, he was stymied by a shop's alarm system and resorted to tunneling under the outside wall to get in undetected. Evans was convicted of 15 antiques-related felonies
Felony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
during his life.
Early prison time and escape
Evans's lengthy prison record started on January 13, 1977, when he was sentenced for a burglary in Essex County, New YorkEssex County, New York
Essex County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 39,370. Its name is from the English county of Essex. Its county seat is Elizabethtown...
and sent to Clinton Correctional Facility
Clinton Correctional Facility
Clinton Correctional Facility is a New York State Department of Correctional Services state prison for men located in the Village of Dannemora, New York. The prison itself is sometimes colloquially referred to as Dannemora, although its actual name is derived from its location in Clinton County,...
. While he was in Clinton, he met and befriended "Son of Sam" Killer, David Berkowitz
David Berkowitz
David Richard Berkowitz , also known as Son of Sam and the .44 Caliber Killer, is an American serial killer and arsonist whose crimes terrorized New York City from July 1976 until his arrest in August 1977.Shortly after his arrest in August 1977, Berkowitz confessed to killing six people and...
. Evans, Berkowitz, and a few other inmates studied weight lifting together, with Evans as the mentor. David Berkowitz was transferred to Sullivan Correctional Facility
Sullivan Correctional Facility
Sullivan Correctional Facility is a New York State correctional facility located in Fallsburg, New York. It is operated by the New York State Department of Correctional Services...
in the late 70s and never saw Evans again. Berkowitz wrote "kites" to Evans (kites are short letters inmates write each other to communicate and pass time in prison). In 2005 it was discovered that Evans had kept these prison kite letters, probably planning to make money from selling them at auction.
Evans was transferred to Great Meadow Correctional Facility and paroled on March 31, 1980, but was quickly back in jail for possession of stolen property while on parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
.
His name first came to public light on June 12, 1980, when he escaped over the wall of the Rensselaer County
Rensselaer County, New York
Rensselaer County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 159,429. Its name is in honor of the family of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the original Dutch owner of the land in the area. Its county seat is Troy...
jail. He fled to the Troy Public Library, where police apprehended him on the outside ledge while onlookers cheered. Evans was treated as an extreme escape risk from then on, and was caught planning escapes on more than one occasion. With the additional escape conviction, Evans was sentenced on September 11, 1980, to Clinton Correctional and paroled from Attica Correctional Facility
Attica Correctional Facility
The Attica Correctional Facility is a maximum penitentiary in the town of Attica, New York, operated by the New York State Department of Correctional Services. After it was constructed in the 1930s, it held many of the most dangerous criminals of the time. A tear gas system is installed in the mess...
on December 29, 1982. He was arrested twice more the following spring and was in county jail until his early release on March 31, 1984.
Disappearances and murders (1980s)
Evans immediately resumed his antiques and jewelry scams with his partners. On February 16, 1985, Evans and Falco burgled a flea marketFlea market
A flea market or swap meet is a type of bazaar where inexpensive or secondhand goods are sold or bartered. It may be indoors, such as in a warehouse or school gymnasium; or it may be outdoors, such as in a field or under a tent...
in East Greenbush, New York
East Greenbush (town), New York
East Greenbush is a town in Rensselaer County, New York, USA. The population was 15,560 at the 2000 census. The word Greenbush is derived from the Dutch "Greenen Bosch," referring to the pine woods that originally covered the land. The first settlement of the land now known as East Greenbush was...
. About a week later, Falco became the first known associate of Evans to disappear. Evans convinced local criminals and law enforcement that Falco had fled to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Only 13 years later would he reveal that he had shot Falco to death, rolled his body in a sleeping bag and disposed of it in a swamp near his sister's home in Lake Worth, Florida
Lake Worth, Florida
Lake Worth is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, which takes its name from the body of water along its eastern border, originally called "Lake Worth", and now generally known as the Lake Worth Lagoon. The lake itself was named for General William J. Worth, who led U.S. forces during the last...
. Evans recounted that he thought Falco had stolen merchandise from him and that Falco would report him to the authorities.
Evans returned from Florida to Troy in April and, on April 21, 1985, stole $12,000 from local drug dealers. That led to a high-speed police pursuit through Cohoes
Cohoes, New York
Cohoes is an incorporated city located at the northeast corner of Albany County in the US state of New York. It is called the "Spindle City" because of the importance of textile production to its growth. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 16,168...
and landed Evans back in custody. He was sentenced to another 2-to-4 years in Sing Sing
Sing Sing
Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison operated by the New York State Department of Correctional Services in the town of Ossining, New York...
the following July.
The police being unaware that Falco was dead, let alone that Evans had killed him, Evans was paroled on March 1, 1988.
Soon after his release from Sing Sing, Evans started working with another neighborhood thief, Damien Cuomo (born September 10, 1961). Evans and Cuomo targeted a coin and jewelry store owned by 63-year-old Douglas J. Berry in Watertown, New York
Watertown (city), New York
Watertown is a city in the state of New York and the county seat of Jefferson County. It is situated approximately south of the Thousand Islands. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 27,023, an increase of 1.2% since 2000. The U.S...
, several hours drive away from the Capital District. On September 8, Evans and Cuomo broke into Berry's store and, when Berry awoke in the back room, Evans shot him to death.
On December 27, 1989, less than four months after Berry's murder, Cuomo left his apartment with Evans and was never seen alive again. Not until his 1998 confessions did Evans recount that he shot Cuomo to death soon after they left Cuomo's apartment and buried his body nearby. Similar to Falco four years prior, Evans believed Cuomo had been stealing from him and that he would turn him over to police. Evans convinced Cuomo's girlfriend (and mother of his child) that Cuomo had abandoned them and fled the area voluntarily. Barely a month later, Evans started a sexual relationship with her. Over the next several years, Evans spent much of his time with Cuomo's girlfriend and daughter, who had no idea that he was responsible for Cuomo's death.
1990s
In October 1991, Evans spent two weeks on the roof of a building in Little Falls, New YorkLittle Falls (city), New York
Little Falls is a city in Herkimer County, New York, USA. The population was 5,188 at the 2000 census. The name is derived from a small cataract near the city....
casing a coin and jewelry shop on the first floor which was owned by Gregory Jouben, 36. On October 17, 1991, Evans walked into Jouben's shop, asked him to price a piece of merchandise, and then shot him to death. The small community in sparsely populated Herkimer County
Herkimer County, New York
Herkimer County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. It was created in 1791 north of the Mohawk River out of part of Montgomery County. As of the 2010 census, the population was 64,519. It is named after General Nicholas Herkimer, who died from battle wounds in 1777 after taking part...
was outraged by one of the few murders of the year in the area.
In 1993, Evans stole over 800 antiques from a group shop in Quechee, Vermont
Quechee, Vermont
Quechee is one of five unincorporated villages in the town of Hartford, Windsor County, Vermont. Quechee is also a census-designated place. It is the site of the Quechee Gorge on the Ottauquechee River and is also the home to the Quechee Lakes planned community initiated in the late 1960s, which...
. Evans used an engine crane to steal a thousand-pound bench out of an Albany
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
cemetery, but he was arrested when his fence
Fence (criminal)
A fence is an individual who knowingly buys stolen property for later resale, sometimes in a legitimate market. The fence thus acts as a middleman between thieves and the eventual buyers of stolen goods who may or may not be aware that the goods are stolen. As a verb, the word describes the...
became nervous and turned him in. In early 1994, Evans agreed to assist the authorities by obtaining information on Jeffrey Williams, who was implicated in the high-profile murder of Karolyn Lonczak. When Williams was found guilty, Evans was released on February 12, 1994, with police still unaware that Evans himself had killed at least four people at that point.
Police needed Evans to stay clean before testifying against Williams. Instead, on March 20, 1994, Evans stole a valuable first American edition of the Havell of London printing of John James Audubon
John James Audubon
John James Audubon was a French-American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. He was notable for his expansive studies to document all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations that depicted the birds in their natural habitats...
's Birds of America
Birds of America (book)
The Birds of America is a book by naturalist and painter John James Audubon, containing illustrations of a wide variety of birds of the United States. It was first published as a series of sections between 1827 and 1838, in Edinburgh and London....
out of a library in Woodstock, Vermont
Woodstock (town), Vermont
Woodstock is the shire town, and capital, of Windsor County, Vermont, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 3,232. It includes the villages of Woodstock, South Woodstock and Taftsville.-History:...
. When Evans tried to sell the book through a prison inmate, he was turned in and wound up in federal prison. (The recovered book sold for over $300,000 at an auction in 2002.) With the shortened sentence he received for returning the book, Evans was released on June 6, 1996.
After his 1996 release, Evans reunited with Rysedorph, and they continued committing burglaries. In January 1997, a shop in Great Barrington, Massachusetts
Great Barrington, Massachusetts
Great Barrington is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,104 at the 2010 census. Both a summer resort and home to Ski Butternut, Great Barrington includes the villages of Van...
was burgled of $80,000 in merchandise. The following July, Evans sold antique jewelry in Albany which police later linked to the Great Barrington burglary.
In 1997 Evans took up building and construction in Texas while he was avoiding public attention and probation while he was sought after by his probation officer P. H. Roley, but soon after he was traced by sheriff John L. Langston and soon vanished for months.
Manhunt leading to the end
Evans jumped probation on October 3, 1997. Early the following morning, Rysedorph made a phone call to his wife and was never heard from again. That morning, Evans shot Rysedorph to death when he had his back turned and then dismembered him with a chainsaw. Evans had suspected Rysedorph of stealing from him and also claimed Rysedorph tricked him into thinking Falco had stolen from him 13 years earlier. The timing of Evans jumping probation and Rysedorph's disappearance was too coincidental causing authorities to suspect that Rysedorph was dead and that Evans was involved. They began a nationwide manhunt that lasted almost eight months. With the aid of Damien Cuomo's girlfriend, they finally caught up with Evans. On May 27, 1998, Evans was arrested without incident near St. Johnsbury, VermontSt. Johnsbury, Vermont
St. Johnsbury is the shire town of Caledonia County, Vermont, United States. The population was 7,571 at the 2000 census. St. Johnsbury is located approximately northwest of the Connecticut River and south of the Canadian border.St...
, near where he was living in a tent as a survivalist.
In reality, Evans had committed the perfect murders, with three of his victims unrecovered and two others a fair distance away, with no apparent connection to him. On June 18, 1998, although police had little hope of bringing murder charges, Evans surprised them by confessing to the murders of Falco, Cuomo and Rysedorph. He aided police in recovering all three bodies, including Falco's in Florida. Later, Evans also admitted to the murders of Berry and Jouben. The local news was abuzz with reports that their most notorious thief and burglar was actually a serial killer.
Evans was indicted on eight counts of murder in Rensselaer County, New York
Rensselaer County, New York
Rensselaer County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 159,429. Its name is in honor of the family of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the original Dutch owner of the land in the area. Its county seat is Troy...
on August 12, 1998, for the deaths of Falco, Cuomo and Rysedorph. Because Rysedorph's murder involved him witnessing Falco's murder and because it occurred after New York reinstated the death penalty in 1995, Evans was eligible to be executed for his crimes. The following day, he was arraigned
Arraignment
Arraignment is a formal reading of a criminal complaint in the presence of the defendant to inform the defendant of the charges against him or her. In response to arraignment, the accused is expected to enter a plea...
on another count of murder in Little Falls
Little Falls (city), New York
Little Falls is a city in Herkimer County, New York, USA. The population was 5,188 at the 2000 census. The name is derived from a small cataract near the city....
for Jouben's death.
The day after his Little Falls arraignment, Evans was being transported from Rensselaer County to an Albany court. Unbeknownst to authorities, Evans had a handcuff key shoved deep into his sinus cavity
Paranasal sinus
Paranasal sinuses are a group of four paired air-filled spaces that surround the nasal cavity , above and between the eyes , and behind the ethmoids...
and managed to free his hands while in the police van. When they reached the Troy-Menands Bridge
Menands Bridge
The Menands Bridge, officially known as the Troy-Menands Bridge, carries New York State Route 378 across the Hudson River in New York connecting Menands with Troy. A through truss span, it was built in 1933....
, Evans suddenly kicked out the side window of the vehicle, jumped out and started running. When police cornered him, Evans leaped off the bridge and plunged to his death into the shallows of the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
over 60 feet below. When authorities retrieved his body, they found the handcuff key up his nose and a razor blade taped to his ankle.