There’s Danger Here

Blaine Milam and Geoffrey West never knew each other. They were born years apart. The only thing in common is that both men were murderers. They carried the common theme of being tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Both men died the same day by their respective states. 
At 18, Blaine murdered a 13 month old girl after torturing her for over 30 hours. She was the daughter of his girlfriend who received a lesser sentence of life.
Geoffrey was 21 and strapped for cash. He and his girlfriend robbed a gas station then executed the clerk. A 33 Patty Berry who left behind two young boys. 
They both claimed to have found God before their execution date and implored others to do the same.
Sources:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/death-row-inmate-s-haunting-final-words-before-execution-for-baby-s-exorcism-death-revealed/ar-AA1NmEw7?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=68d6cb14f77844b0b270e9bbda6e80c5&ei=74
https://kfmx.com/blaine-milam-execution/
https://www.kltv.com/2025/09/24/rusk-county-man-convicted-toddlers-exorcism-death-set-be-executed/
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/01/14/texas-court-criminal-appeals-stays-execution-blaine-milam/
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/texas-prisoner-seeks-stay-of-execution-on-claims-of-junk-science-arbitrary-sentencing
https://thearc.org/resource/ex-parte-blaine-milam/
https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/18/18-5494/58378/20180803112031347_milamcertpet.pdf
https://www.kltv.com/2025/09/25/man-facing-execution-fatally-beating-13-month-old-girl-during-exorcism/
https://www.yourconroenews.com/neighborhood/moco/news/article/Milam-has-big-heart-sister-testifies-9260873.php
https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-6518/164393/20201221163729092_Milam%20-%20SHC%20BIO%20Edited%20-%20with%20tables.pdf
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/double-execution-texas-alabama-execute-inmates-within-minutes-of-each-other/ar-AA1NjNVT?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=68d6cb14f77844b0b270e9bbda6e80c5&ei=74
https://www.murderauction.com/auction/listing/geoffrey-todd-west-scheduled-for-execution-by-nitrogen-hypoxia-in-alabama-on-september-25-2025-for-the-1997-execution-style-killing-of-margaret-parrish-berry-during-a-250-robbery-after-23-years-on-death-row-als/870280
https://apnews.com/article/alabama-execution-nitrogen-abbee4a788ad61f5b8d7cfe0d7afe992

This episode is for the understanding of why it is that I do what I do. Why I write to those incarcerated and hear their stories. What brought me to this point? It includes a couple stories from my time working as a prison nurse. As well as insight as to what special accommodations are made. 

Herbert "Herb" Mullin was born into a typical American family. He grew up well socially in California. He was voted "Most likely to succeed." Then, after high school, his best friend died, and he delved into drugs and religious rhetoric. He broke mentally, and his schizophrenia reared its head. He was smart enough to mask, even in mental institutions, which he found himself in twice. But the thought that he was meant for more, came to a head when the voices started. The voices told him to be the savior, but demanded sacrifice. He dutifully completed those sacrifices, only stopping when he was caught. He was 26 when his spree both started and ended. Spending the rest of his life, behind bars. 
Sources: 
Green, Ryan. 2024. I Hear Voices. A descent into the dark half of psychotic killer, Herbert Miller
https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/news/2022/08/19/herbert-mullin-dies-of-natural-causes/
https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/herbert-mullin-serial-killer-sacrifice
https://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Mullin,%20Herbert.htm

Jane started out in this world as Honora Kelley. She lived in poverty until her mother died. Her father had a psychotic break and subsequently signed her over to the state. From there she was sent to a poorhouse, then was adopted as an indentured servant. She did well in the family home and was loved by the family, taking their name of Toppan, hiding her Irish heritage by changing her first name to Jane. In her 20's she set out on her own in the world training as a nurse. From the start she did well, learning at an incredible rate. But with power, she learned she could control people's fates and immediately began killing. After being dismissed from two hospitals, she shifted to private nurses. She did well until she killed two generations in the same house in two months. Suspicions were confirmed with autopsies and Janes spree was over. 
Sources:
https://www.lowellhistoricalsociety.org/lowells-ties-to-jolly-jane-massachusetts-female-serial-killer/
https://thewestendmuseum.org/history/era/immigrant-neighborhood/jolly-jane-toppan-the-mgh-nurse-turned-mass-murderer/
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/465836
https://www.alcatrazeast.com/crime-library/serial-killers/jane-toppan/

For this month, we remain in Canada and on the missing/endangered/murdered list, still in the A names. It is truly difficult to read, name after name, case after case, and feel it is all so similar. These are women, sisters, sometimes mothers who are known on a government list, and for months, we remain at the top of it. Women are tragically and horrifically being lost to their families.
This is the September group of those women: Amanda Sophia Bartlett, Amber Alyssa Tuccaro, Andria Meise, and Annette Margaret Holywhiteman
Sources:
⁠https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/amanda-sophia-bartlett⁠
⁠https://storiesoftheunsolved.com/2025/02/01/amanda-bartlett-disappearance/⁠
⁠https://orb.binghamton.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1145&context=alpenglowjournal⁠
⁠https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/amber-alyssa-tuccaro⁠
⁠https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/andria-lucille-meise⁠
⁠https://storiesoftheunsolved.com/2020/02/24/the-disappearance-of-andria-meise/⁠
⁠https://www.wltribune.com/news/sisters-appeal-for-information-on-missing-woman-5486628⁠
⁠https://nationtalk.ca/story/the-case-of-andria-lucille-meise-cbc⁠
⁠https://globalnews.ca/news/429464/not-seen-since-2008/⁠
⁠https://www.kelownanow.com/columns/Kelowna_RCMP/news/Kelowna_RCMP/13/03/26/5_Years_Later_Police_Continue_Search_For_Andria_Lucille_Meise⁠
⁠https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/anette-margaret-holywhiteman⁠
⁠https://www.justicefornativepeople.com/2018/08/annette-holywhiteman-skull-found-in.html⁠
⁠https://www.townandcountrytoday.com/westlock-news/human-remains-investigation-continues-1863107⁠
⁠https://www.rcmp.gc.ca/en/murdered-annette-holywhiteman⁠
⁠https://edmontonsun.com/2012/04/13/holywhitemans-death-senseless⁠
⁠https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/skull-found-near-westlock-belonged-to-missing-woman-1.1161937⁠
⁠https://vancouversun.com/news/edmontons-project-kare-examines-links-to-accused-winnipeg-serial-killer⁠
⁠https://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/murdered-annette-holywhiteman⁠

John Lowe met a woman named Sue and the couple built a thriving dog breeding business in Keepers Cottage Stud, Surrey England. In 1986 Christine brought her two daughters Lucy and Stacy out to pick out a puppy. As a way to get through a hard time after Christine left their father. The girls leave with the puppy and Christine a date. 
Over time Christine moves in with John and Sue bringing along her girls to the mix. While everything starts out fine, it slowly deteriorates. 
Abuse creeps in. 
Stacy eventually leaves to start her own family. Returning for a time when Sue's health fails. After she passes, once again Stacy is out of the home. 
Christine and Lucy too have enough and attempt to leave. But the leaving has deadly consequences. Ones that clearly could have been avoided if police had done due diligence. 
 
Sources:
 
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-surrey-48436674
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-surrey-45251194
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/oct/31/puppy-farmer-jailed-double-murder-shooting-john-lowe
https://dpglaw.co.uk/inquest-surrey-police-involvement-murder-of-christine-and-lucy-lee/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/john-lowe-pensioner-found-guilty-of-puppy-farm-murders-9825571.html
https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/who-john-lowe-full-story-15055709
 
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-surrey-29743897

Bruce McArthur grew up in Canada on a family farm. He reports believing his father knew of his closeted homosexuality and tried to work it out of him. Bruce married and moved to Toronto and had two children before confessing his sexual preference. He had a run-in with the law after beating a man in 2001. Still, he supposedly kept his nose clean and was free and clear after probation. He worked as a landscaper during the day, but at night, other gay men were slowly disappearing from the Village, an area in Toronto that housed many of the clubs/all men bathhouses that Bruce would haunt. A cry to find out what was happening went out, but it wasn't received by the masses until decades later when it began again. This time, the voices couldn't be stifled and the ensuing investigation all led to Bruce. Bruce was killing men and hiding them in his work. After his arrest he received a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
Sources:
 
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/08/us/bruce-mcarthur-toroto-serial-killer-sentencing
https://allthatsinteresting.com/bruce-mcarthur
Ling, J. 2020, Missing froom the Village. The story of serial killer Bruce McArthur, the search for justice, and the system that failed Toronto’s queer community

Robert Berdella Jr was born into a Catholic family in Ohio. He was a loner, and once high school finished, he moved on to Kansas City. He was expelled from college and turned his life around almost immediately. Participating in the community, to the point that when his crimes came to light, many people thought he was framed. Still he confessed to the torture and murder of multiple men, all of whom he dismembered and threw in the trash when he was done. 
 
Sources:
Becker, Ryan. Robert Berdella: The true story of a man who turned his darkest fantasies into reality. 2020
https://allthatsinteresting.com/robert-berdella
https://search.worldcat.org/title/Robert-Berdella-:-the-true-story-of-the-the-Kansas-City-butcher/oclc/962023749
https://criminalminds.fandom.com/wiki/Robert_Berdella
https://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Berdella,%20Robert.htm

Amanda Cook was 14 when she decided to go to the fair with her family. Just fifteen minutes from home in the Manitoba district of Canada. She checked in with her father throughout the day, getting money for games. He last remembered seeing her around 6:60-7pm. But then nothing, the family searched for her. They called the RCMP. Four days later her body was found, near the grounds, mostly nude. She had been beaten to death. Months later a suspect was charged and tried. Three times until his eventual acquittal, leaving the family with unanswered questions and Amanda's case, unsolved. 
 
Sources:
True Crime Central. Taken S3E08. Amanda Cook
https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/
https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/amanda-jane-cook
https://www.thecanadianlibrary.ca/post/story-of-amanda-cook
https://www.scc-csc.ca/cases-dossiers/search-recherche/27738/
https://canadianmedialawyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/R._v._Mentuck.pdf
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/gag-order-obscures-mans-innocence/article25576991/

In 1988, 16-year-old David Brom murdered all family members in his home, burying an ax into each one of them in Rochester Minnesota. For which, he received four life sentences. However, in 2023, legislative changes allowed for the possibility of parole early due to his age at the time of sentencing.  On July 29th 2025, 53 year David was released into a work released program in nearby Twin Cities. 
 
 
Sources: 
 
https://www.kttc.com/2025/07/31/brom-murders-inside-look-investigation-case-file/
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/david-brom-axe-murders-family-teenager-released-prison/
https://law.justia.com/cases/minnesota/supreme-court/1990/c3-89-2269-2.html
https://www.foxnews.com/us/minnesota-ax-murderer-who-killed-own-family-1988-gets-early-release-under-law-supported-gov-tim-walz
https://www.kttc.com/2025/07/29/digging-deeper-axe-murderer-david-broms-next-chapter/