Michael Devlin is serving 74 life sentences in solitary confinement

[taintfutcha]

http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2008/CRIME/01/31/boys.kidnapped.ap/art.devlin.jpg


ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP) -- A former pizza shop manager who kidnapped two boys was moved to a prison in northwest Missouri Wednesday to begin serving his 74 life sentences in solitary confinement.

Michael Devlin, 42, had been under evaluation at a prison intake center in St. Joseph since October, when he pleaded guilty in three counties and in federal court in the 2002 abduction of then-11-year-old Shawn Hornbeck and the January 2007 abduction of 13-year-old Ben Ownby.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/01/31/boys.kidnapped.ap/index.html (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080201/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq)

[Morbid]

Thanks to anyone that helps out by posting other crime-related stories, but I would just ask that if the title is not going to explain what the story is about, at least give a short description in the actual post.

Obviously, the link provided has nothing to do with the title as this link goes to the same story you made in the foreign crime section.

[Killroy]

Thread fixed

[taintfutcha]

sorry about that-

fudged up all over the place-


will try to get it right next time- try being the key word-

much thanks for setting it smooth

[Morbid]

No big deal. Some of these forums are new, and no real precedent has been set. It's all good and I do appreciate you even posting any stories.

[taintfutcha]

cheers-

[ThreeOnAMeathook]

How does one serve more than one life sentence? Do they just leave the remains in the cell or what?

[ells9824]

How does one serve more than one life sentence? Do they just leave the remains in the cell or what?

For this particular ped, I suggest we just put him in a cage outside somewhere and let nature take its course.

[Whisper]

What drove Devlin to kidnap two boys?


Michael Devlin struggled to lock away the thoughts. He knew they were monstrous. He knew they were wrong, these compulsions that burdened him. But the Kirkwood pizza shop manager was losing the battle now.

It was still a couple of years before Devlin would kidnap his first victim — a boy riding his bike in rural Missouri. And it would be several more years before authorities descended on his tiny apartment in Kirkwood and discovered two boys, both alive, one missing for four years and the other four days.

At this moment, in his early 30s, he was on a Lake Michigan vacation with his parents. He had spotted a boy about 10 years old. And all the defenses built up over the years — the largely successful efforts to distract himself and steer away from temptation — crumbled. He thought about kidnapping that boy. The only thing stopping him was the fishing boat strapped to his vehicle. Too easy to get caught.

On the drive back to Kirkwood, however, he went hundreds of miles out of his way, meandering along rural back roads, on the prowl. It was the start of an unrelenting two-year search for a victim.

"The fuse was lit,"

■ ■ ■
How Devlin ended up going down his dark path has been a long-held mystery.

He revealed little to authorities before pleading guilty and receiving 74 life sentences in 2007. But Devlin has opened up since arriving behind the solid-steel cell door where he spends 22 hours a day at a maximum-security state prison in Cameron, Mo.

He gave an 11-hour interview in 2008 to agents from the FBI's behavioral analysis unit, including Canning. Last year, he spoke for four hours with a Maryland Heights police investigator who studies sex offenders.

These previously undisclosed interviews are the only known times that Devlin has tried to help authorities understand what caused him to commit his crimes.

The investigators, who described the interviews to the Post-Dispatch last week, said they wanted to get inside Devlin's head to learn what compelled him and uncover details that could help train law enforcement or devise new ways of looking at crimes by others. Such post-conviction interviews have emerged as an important tool.

"It allows us to better understand the patterns of offending and to stop it — or at least better react to it," Canning said.

■ ■ ■
When the FBI visited Devlin in March 2008, the agents expected a tough interview.

Canning and Melissa Thomas, FBI profilers from the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime in Quantico, Va., spent weeks preparing. They worked through scenarios. They sketched out ways to keep the conversation going. They invited Lynn Willett, an FBI agent from the St. Louis office, to join them as a familiar face for Devlin — she was one of the agents who first confronted him about his crimes.

When Devlin walked into the prison's small conference room in shackles, a white T-shirt and orange prison pants, the agents quickly explained why they were there. He interrupted.

"What took you guys so long?" they recalled him saying.

Devlin wanted to talk. And, fueled by Dr Pepper, he stopped talking only for the agents to load fresh videotapes.

"He knew he was an anomaly, someone we would find interesting," Canning said.

They did find Devlin interesting, but not remotely sympathetic. He seemed introspective about what drove him to commit his crimes, but his curiosity was clinical, emotionless, they said. He talked about growing up in Webster Groves and his fear of disappointing his parents. He talked about how he struggled for years to control his attraction to young boys. He insisted he never kidnapped or assaulted any other boys. And he offered no rationalizations for what he did.

When Maryland Heights police Capt. William Carson spoke to Devlin in May 2010, he asked Devlin how he would describe his sexual orientation. Devlin responded with one word: Sick.

Both the FBI and police investigators said they were inclined to believe Devlin.

"I think he was being very honest," Canning said.

"I do, too," Thomas said.

■ ■ ■
Devlin told the FBI agents he had no issues with his adoption by his parents as an infant. He described a mostly happy childhood, one free of sexual or physical abuse. He told Carson the same thing two years later. This is one area where investigators doubted Devlin's story. They know most sex offenders suffered some kind of abuse as children.

Devlin did recognize that he had always struggled with feelings. He told them how as a young boy he witnessed a child getting run over by a school bus and yet felt nothing.

About age 13 he realized he was attracted to young boys, investigators said. He could not explain why, telling Carson that his attraction was as instinctual as for someone attracted to women: "It's just the way you are." Devlin acknowledged one unsuccessful attempt to molest a younger boy when he was still a teenager. But he then described the years he spent attempting to ignore his desires. This is different from most offenders, who tend to commit their first crimes as teenagers and continue for decades, until caught.

"He was smart enough to understand that he could not legally act on his compulsions," Canning said. "He had to divert his compulsions."

He did that with obsessive behaviors, anything to keep his mind busy. He ate, ballooning to well over 300 pounds. He cleaned his apartment repeatedly. He played video games for hours and hours. And he worked. Devlin, who was 41 years old when he was arrested in 2007, spent his entire working life at the Imo's pizza shop in downtown Kirkwood.

"Imo's was a very positive thing in his life," Canning said.

Devlin also tried to avoid temptation, Thomas said. He stayed away from the children of family and friends. He preferred to work in the back of the pizza shop, away from the students who visited after school. He developed a reputation as someone who didn't like children. He did not go online to look at pornography, a detail that surprised investigators.

"He was able to manage those compulsions to a point — until he couldn't manage it anymore," Thomas said.

■ ■ ■
The breaking point came on that trip to Lake Michigan.

Devlin gave up resisting his impulses, he told investigators. His attempts at romantic relationships with adult men had not blunted his feelings. He knew he didn't have the 'social confidence," in his words, to groom a child to molest, as some offenders do. He decided to kidnap one. But he was scared of getting caught. For at least two years he drove around rural Missouri looking for the right child at the right moment. He was cautious. He told investigators he came close to abducting several children, but each time something was not right. He recalled that he nearly took a child who came to the door trick-or-treating on Halloween.

"It was about opportunity and availability," Carson said. "He was constantly looking for the opportunity."

The right moment came on Oct. 6, 2002, as he drove along an empty road in Richwoods, Mo. He spotted 11-year-old Shawn Hornbeck on his bike. No one else was around. Devlin used his truck to knock the boy off his bike.

Canning recalled asking Devlin what it was about that moment that made him act.

Devlin's response: It just was.

"As a parent, it sent chills through my body," Canning said. "And as a law enforcement agent, how do you defend against that?"

■ ■ ■
Devlin said he did not have a plan for what to do after the abduction. He kept the boy tied up in his apartment for a month. He decided to kill the boy, taking him to a rural spot in Washington County where he began to strangle him. The boy begged for his life, striking a bargain to keep quiet if he could live. His abductor agreed.

"He felt like he had control over Shawn," Canning said.

Devlin said he always knew that the boy did not want to be with him.

"He did not have an illusion in his mind that this was anything but forcible and wrong," Carson said.

They lived together in Kirkwood for four years using various cover stories — that they were father and son, or Devlin was a friend of the boy's father. Later, a list of the many missed opportunities by local authorities and residents emerged. This point seemed to still upset the FBI agents.

"Many people in the community decided to not pay attention," Canning said.

■ ■ ■
After four years, Devlin decided he wanted another boy. Again, he was cautious. He spent several months following school buses, looking for the right opportunity. He spotted a boy getting off a bus in Beaufort, in Franklin County. He soon returned to the tiny town and kidnapped William "Ben" Ownby, then 13.

Devlin might have gotten away again, but a friend of Ben's noticed Devlin's truck and provided a partial description to authorities. Devlin's boss at Imo's called police when the details were reported by the media.

After four days, both boys were rescued. Devlin was in jail.

The FBI agents believe Devlin would have continued his abductions if he had not been caught, although he did not seem to have a long-term plan for what to do with his captives.

"Every day that went by that he didn't get caught — things went his way — it just continued," Thomas said.

"If it were up to him," Canning said, "he would've kept it up."

■ ■ ■
The FBI agents questioned Devlin about other victims. A task force had failed to find any connections to other missing-child cases. Devlin denied hurting any other children. He told the agents he would have admitted to other crimes if he were responsible just so he could get the death penalty. He was depressed. He wanted to die. He had stopped taking his diabetes medication. He said he did not want to be in protective custody. (Just last month, Devlin suffered minor wounds when another prisoner stabbed him repeatedly with a homemade "ice pick" fashioned from typewriter parts.)

Last year, talking with Carson, Devlin again denied having other victims.

Now Devlin's story is studied and dissected by law enforcement and child safety experts across the nation, an attempt to draw some lessons from such criminal acts. At the very least, the survival of Devlin's two victims, dubbed the Missouri Miracle, has changed how investigators think about child abduction cases — that they should expect a bad ending.

In 2007, Canning and Thomas were part of a national FBI team that rushes to the scene when a child is abducted. They were both in Kirkwood when the boys were missing and Devlin was just a pizza store manager. They recalled the practical but pessimistic atmosphere in the police command center as the days passed. And they also remember seeing the two boys once they were rescued, how there was not a dry eye in the place, no matter how hardened or weary the investigator.

"Bottom line in this case is that it gave hope that there are victims out there that are alive," Thomas said.

[....]http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/d46ce33c-e7aa-5ef3-8ab9-ad3c9c6854f1.html
http://i53.tinypic.com/rkwiuv.jpg
May 21, 2007 -- Michael Devlin is seen in this photo provided by the Washington County Sheriff's Department prior to his arraignment in Potosi, Mo. Devlin is charged with kidnapping and sexually abusing the then 11-year-old Shawn Hornbeck in 2002

[Whisper]

Michael Devlin stabbed in prison with 'ice pick'

Notorious child kidnapper Michael J. Devlin was stabbed repeatedly by another inmate armed with a homemade "ice pick" at Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron, Mo., according to prison officials.

The attack occurred April 9 during breakfast in the dining hall of the maximum-security state prison where Devlin, formerly of Kirkwood, is serving 74 life sentences for kidnapping and assaulting two boys.

Prison officials said Devlin suffered superficial wounds requiring a brief hospital stay. He has since returned to Crossroads. Prison officials declined to provide more details, citing an ongoing investigation.

Another inmate, Troy L. Fenton, who is serving a life sentence at Crossroads for robbery and shooting a police officer, told the Post-Dispatch that he stabbed Devlin. Fenton wrote two letters to the Post-Dispatch and provided a copy of the state corrections department's incident report.

He said he was motivated to attack out of anger at Devlin's crimes.
[...]
Fenton said he fashioned two "ice picks" from the metal guide bars on his typewriter, even going so far as to name one "Shawn" and the other "Ben." According to prison documents, prison guards spotted Fenton assaulting Devlin, ordered him to stop and Fenton complied, dropping prone to the ground. Fenton also was cited for having a 15-inch sharpened steel rod, complete with a plastic handle, hidden under his pillow in his cell.

Devlin's security has been a concern for state prison officials since his arrest. Officials contemplated sending him out of state or providing him with a new identity. However, some victims' family members objected to the move, and the plan was dropped.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_760735f6-7b7b-11e0-b48f-001a4bcf6878.html

[Tundratot]

However, some victims' family members objected to the move, and the plan was dropped.

Finally, a win for victim's rights! Pity Fenton did not succeed.

[FlowerWhiskers]

I get the shivers every time I see Devil...err, Devlin's mugshot. This was one of the biggest local news stories of the decade here. I remember sitting in my cubicle at work on a boring afternoon a few years ago, when one of my co-workers started screaming (albeit happily) "They found Shawn Hornbeck! He's alive, he was with that other kid that just went missing!" I was just like, HOLY SHIT WOW.

Ever since Shawn disappeared, the news always gave updates on the anniversary of his disappearance, or when his parents were helping other parents of missing kids through their foundation. It almost seemed like his parents kind of knew in the back of their minds the chances of finding him were next to nil, so they decided to honor their son by helping other families. And then, when all the leads were cold and all hope was lost, he is found...with another kid who disappeared in a similar fashion just a few days before they were found. If Ben Owensby, the other kid, had never been kidnapped, Shawn may have never been found. Destiny is crazy, eh?

[princessgrandma]

Oh yeah, Fenton definitely had the right idea. This sick fuck needs to be shanked and badly.

Stealing young boys off the street for his own sick reasons, then keeping the one for four years. Thank God someone saw he get the second boy, or who knows how long this would have gone on? I hope both boys recover their lives and don't have any really bad lasting effects, and gethe help they need in getting past this nightmare and living a normal life with their families.

Thank God he didn't kill them and they were found alive. This is one case where "Prison Justice" would be requested, if I had a direct line inside prison.

[badfish76]

Nothing like a good shanking to make my day. Wish it could have been more through.

[malq]

How does one serve more than one life sentence? Do they just leave the remains in the cell or what?

That's a good question.
I think it an impact sentence. More than once he is gonna be sitting there thinking damn, only 75 lives to go. Pretty grim.

[LDhummingbird]

Michael Devlin stabbed in prison with 'ice pick'

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_760735f6-7b7b-11e0-b48f-001a4bcf6878.html

Aww, this story just warms my charred-black little heart.

[Rockin Ma]

That's a good question.
I think it an impact sentence. More than once he is gonna be sitting there thinking damn, only 75 lives to go. Pretty grim.

Don't be such a Negative Nancy. It's not that grim, it's only 73 lives to go!

[radi0ph0nic]

That's a good question.
I think it an impact sentence. More than once he is gonna be sitting there thinking damn, only 75 lives to go. Pretty grim.

Maybe it's like a video game... Does getting stabbed count as losing a life?

[Toxic]

I think more than one life sentence like that is partly to appease the public...74 life sentences is impossible to outlive, but it sure sounds nice!

[Gidget]

Only superficial wounds? Damn. A girl can hope...

[redsaid]

Such a fitting sentence when so many other cases wind up with like 2 years for child abuse. If he wants to die, let him live. get an occasional 'superficial' wounding, a big bubba as a cell mate, spit (or worse) in his food, etc. Obviously LWOP X 75 gives the other inmates plenty of lives to take from him before mother nature and father time get to it. And if I know them both like I think I do, they believe in Karma too, so have at 'em boys.

[brokenandtwisted]

Anyone know what's up with the boy that lived with him for four years? It would be interesting to read up on the child.

[Rockin Ma]

brokenandtwisted http://www.shawnhornbeck.com/

[brokenandtwisted]

LOL! I actually never once thought to Google his name. Duh.

I'm having an off-day. :crazy: