ABSTRACT
As reported in a research report written for the National Institute of Justice (Conners et al., 1996):
e Southside slayer and rapist case is notable not only because it dealt with the crimes, capture, trial, and conviction of a very cunning signature killer but because it marked one of the rst cases for which a killer’s identication was based on DNA evidence that was subsequently upheld on appeal when the DNA evidence was challenged. is famous case began in Virginia in 1987, when police investigated the rape-murders of four women in Richmond and Arlington. Eventually, detectives arrested Timothy Spencer for those crimes that the press had dubbed “e Southside Slayer” cases, and prosecutors cited as crucial evidence in that series the biologic uids recovered around each of those murder scenes.
