Nathaniel WHITE

Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Rape
Number of victims: 6
Date of murders: 1991 - 1992
Date of arrest: August 2, 1992
Date of birth: July 28, 1960
Victims profile: Juliana R. Frank, 28 / Christine M. Klebbe, 14 / Laurette Huggins Reviere, 34 / Angelina Hopkins, 23, and Brenda L. Whiteside, 20 / Adriane M. Hunter, 27
Method of murder: Stabbing with knife / Beating
Location: Orange County, New York, USA
Status: Sentenced to 150 years to life in prison on May 27, 1993

Nathaniel White (born July 28, 1960) is an African American serial killer. Active in the Hudson Valley region of New York during the early 1990s, White confessed to beating and stabbing six women to death while on parole.

Killings

White claimed to have found inspiration for his first murder while watching Robocop 2: "The first girl I killed was from a 'Robocop' movie... I seen him cut somebody’s throat then take the knife and slit down the chest to the stomach and left the body in a certain position. With the first person I killed I did exactly what I saw in the movie."

This first killing took place on March 25, 1991—after White had been convicted of abducting a 16-year-old girl, but before he started his prison sentence—and police did not make the connection at the time. In a plea bargain that would later be heavily criticized, White had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for the abduction and would therefore be eligible for parole after just one year.

White was paroled in April of 1992 and returned to Orange County, New York. White's first victim was the young niece of his girlfriend at the end of June, and he killed four others during the month of July.

Victims

Juliana R. Frank

White's first victim was Juliana Frank, 29, of Middletown, who was pregnant with her third child when she was killed in 1991. Her naked body was left on a set of abandoned railroad tracks in Middletown.

Christine M. Klebbe

White's youngest victim was Christine Klebbe, 14, who had just finished eighth grade. The niece of White's girlfriend, Jill Garrison, Klebbe disappeared on June 29. Her family reported her missing on July 1, 1992 and her body was discovered in Goshen, New York on August 4.

Laurette Huggins Reviere

Laurette Reivere was killed in her Middletown home on July 10, 1992.

Angelina Hopkins and Brenda L. Whiteside

Cousins Angelina Hopkins and Brenda Whiteside met White at the Blue Note Tavern in Poughkeepsie, New York on July 20, 1992. They were last seen leaving the bar with him in his pickup truck. Their bodies were found August 4, along with the body of Christine Klebbe. Cause of death in both cases was determined to be severe blunt trauma to the face and head.

Adraine M. Hunter

Adriane Hunter of Middletown, was stabbed to death in the early morning July 30, 1992. Her body was discovered in Goshen later that day. She was 27.

Investigation

Angelina Hopkins's sister, Cecilia, witnessed Hopkins and Whiteside leaving the Blue Note Tavern with four men on the night of their disappearance. Poughkeepsie police did not act on the missing person report as they did not have enough information about the men, so Cecilia and her mother continued investigating on their own.

The New York State Police began investigating on July 30, after the body of Adriane Hunter was found and authorities began to suspect it was related to the earlier disappearances and murders.

On August 2, White returned to the Blue Note where Hopkins identified him and he was arrested. White confessed and led police to his dumping ground in Goshen on August 4.

White was arraigned by a grand jury on August 7 for the murder of Christine Klebbe. On September 9, the other five murders were added to the indictment.

White was charged with six counts of second degree murder and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. White was convicted on all counts on April 14, 1993 and sentenced to 150 years to life. His sentence began at Great Meadow Correctional Facility on May 27, 1993.

White's case was cited by New York governor George Pataki in defense of his push to reinstate the death penalty.

Wikipedia.org

Six words tell about Nathaniel White

By Mike Levine - Times Herald-Record

January 15, 2007

Wednesday, April 14, 1993 - The day dragged on as endless as loss. The families of the dead waited. At first, they made small talk with each other, even sharing lunch on a picnic table outside.

In time, they fell numb and exhausted into silence.

Only Nathaniel White relaxed, napping and reading in his holding cell. Worrying about catching "Cops'' on TV by 7 p.m. Maybe one day he'd be a TV movie, too. He's been approached, you know.

Broken victims come and go forgotten. Mass murderers always get their 15 minutes of fame.

Nathaniel White got his.

He got the news team coverage. The curiosity seekers. The in-depth life stories on what made Nathaniel tick.

We all stood with video cameras and pens to tell a world that surely wanted to know all the gory details.

White seemed to have a jolly good time through it all. Like the jail-house New York TV interview where he claimed ``voices'' made him kill. Just like in the movies, you know.

Preparing for trial, he hit the law books like so many other lawless men who suddenly become constitutional scholars when it comes to saving themselves.

He grew fat in jail, about 40 pounds worth, the charge of mass murder obviously agreeing with him. Three hots and a cot, a nice law library and a sympathetic government-paid lawyer for company, all that was missing was a fireplace.

For the trial, he was fitted with a free suit and bookish glasses. He went on the witness stand and lied like a wise guy know-it-all.

The conceit of the killer is that he will be believed. That the whole world revolves around him and that his demands must be obeyed.

The jury spent its second day debating the verdict of a man who had confessed to murder on three separate occasions, a man who had led police to the decomposed bodies while eating a slice of pizza.

While Nathaniel White relaxed in his holding cell, the families of his dead worried. Could the jury really buy White's line?

At 4:30, the word spread. There's a verdict. The families of the dead filed in. Nathaniel White came in from his holding cell, left hand in his pocket, his mouth resting on his right fist. Disconnected.

From out of nowhere, bystanders descended on the courtroom, standing in back.

Yes, Nathaniel White owned the spotlight. Experts say there's not one mass murderer who doesn't enjoy it almost as much as the killing.

And we always show up to fulfill their exhibitionist fantasies. We the people are addicted to violence.

Violence and cruelty is the American pornography. It titillates.

No kidding, with a 10-inch-long knife? How deep? Then what did he do next? Was she naked? How many times?

The hypocritical mainstream media masks the gore with social concern. Why did he do it? He had a bad childhood? What is the real Nathaniel White like?

What he is like is this:

He murdered five women and one 14-year-old girl.

That's all we need to know.

What can be said about Nathaniel White is what can be said about most killers.

They are empty dullards. Stupefying in their evil, witless in their lies. Is there anything remotely interesting about Nathaniel White?

If we want to focus on anyone, focus on the victims. If we want to witness something fascinating about the human psyche, witness the courage of the victims' families. Of the families of the dead, some of whom spent all of Easter riding around outside the county so they would not be reminded of their pain.

See the next sunny day and consider the six people who will not see the sky because of Nathaniel White. Think of them out in the woods, so badly decomposed they had to remove their remains with a shovel.

Come into the courtroom with the family of the dead and listen to justice.

The court clerk asks, How do you find the defendant on the charge of intentionally causing the death of Julianna Frank?

"Guilty.''

On the charge of intentionally causing the death of Laurette Reviere Huggins?

"Guilty.''

Of intentionally causing the death of Angelina Hopkins?

"Guilty.''

Of causing the death of Brenda L. Whiteside?

"Guilty.''

Causing the death of Adraine Hunter?

"Guilty.''

The death of Christine M. Klebbe?

"Guilty.''

The jury foreman spoke the only six words anyone need know about Nathaniel White.

The victims

Juliana Frank, 29, of Middletown, was pregnant with her third child when she was stabbed to death. Her body was found March 22, 1991, at the end of Stanton Street in Middletown. She was unemployed at the time of her death.

Angelina Hopkins, 23, of Poughkeepsie, was the mother of two children. Her body was found Aug. 4, 1992, off of Harriman Road in Goshen. She had been bludgeoned to death.

Laurette D. Reviere Huggins, 34, of Middletown, was the mother of three children. She worked at Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield in Middletown. Her body was found stabbed and strangled, July 10, 1992, in her home.

Adraine Hunter, 27, of Middletown, had two children, the youngest 4 months old. Her body was found stabbed to death July 30, 1992, off of Harriman Drive in Goshen. She worked with troubled adolescents at Blueberry Treatment Center.

Christine Marie Klebbe, 14, of Goshen, completed eighth grade at Circleville Middle School in June 1992. Her body was found Aug. 4, 1992, off of Echo Lake Road in the Town of Goshen. Klebbe was the niece of Nathaniel White's girlfriend, Jill Garrison.

Brenda Whiteside, 20, of Elmsford, was a nursing student about to enter her profession. Her body, bludgeoned to death, was found Aug. 4, 1992, off of Harriman Drive in Goshen.

Relatives Cracked Serial-Killing Case

The New York Times

August 7, 1992

In a story that could come out of a mystery novel, the critical breakthrough in the arrest of Nathaniel White, who has confessed to killing six people, came not from any of the four police departments that were investigating the slayings.

Instead, the suspect's name was first offered to the police by the mother and two sisters of one of the victims, who took it upon themselves to look into the woman's disappearance.

On Sunday night, after two weeks of visiting the Bluenote Tavern here, where Angelina Hopkins, 23 years old, and her cousin, Brenda Whiteside, 20, were last seen on July 20, the Hopkins family talked to the man who had left with the two young women that night.

He gave them his name, and it was Nathaniel White.

A Quick Confession

By the next morning, the State Police had been told about Mr. White and his criminal history. A few hours later Mr. White was picked up for questioning. He soon confessed to the killings, the police say.

Within 48 hours of the Hopkins family's encounter with Mr. White, he was telling the police where to find the bodies of the two women.

"They did good police work," said Capt. Donald Briggs of the Poughkeepsie police. "If it wasn't for them, this wouldn't be solved."

Mr. White remains in the Orange County jail. His lawyer, Bernard Brady, said that he intended to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. A grand jury is to convene Friday to consider an indictment in one killing.

Memories of the Fatal Night

This afternoon, Cecilia Hopkins, 21, sat in her mother's apartment, waiting to prepare for her sister's funeral. She recalled that she had been with her sister, Angelina, and Ms. Whiteside on July 20. The Bluenote Tavern was filled, and loud reggae and house music pumped through the club. When the two women left with four men, she declined to go along.

Later that night, the police now say, it appears that Mr. White was left alone with the two women.

The next day, Ms. Hopkins and her mother filed a missing-persons report. They gave the police nicknames and first names for the men. But the Poughkeepsie police said they needed more information.

"We told them to find out who they left with and we would do the rest," said Detective T. R. Alston of the Poughkeepsie Police.

It was then that the Hopkins family became private investigators.

"I couldn't sleep nights," Ms. Hopkins said. She was haunted by memories of sharing a room with her sister and going dancing with her. She and her mother, Anna Theresa Hopkins, vowed to return to the Bluenote. Police Not Welcome

The tavern is in a rough part of the city, amid vacant lots and streets where drug dealing takes place. It is not a place, the police said, where an officer is welcome to ask questions.

On nightly visits to the Bluenote, Mrs. Hopkins and her daughter talked to people who had seen the men and pieced together more detailed descriptions. But they still had no full names.

On Sunday night, a friend called Cecilia Hopkins to say that one of the men was at the bar.

The two women rushed to the club after calling a police officer, asking that he meet them there. "When Mr. White was approached by the officer, he told him, 'I don't talk to cops,' " Captain Briggs said.

Then the two women took over and Mr. White starting talking.

He admitted that he had left with the two women on July 20, Ms. Hopkins said, adding that he dropped them off at a train station.

"He'd been scared to talk to police," Ms. Hopkins said. "But he seemed to be willing to give us whatever information he could. He didn't seem out of the ordinary."

Ms. Hopkins gave Mr. White's name and license number to the police. After the Poughkeepsie police ran a check and learned of Mr. White's criminal record, they knew they had a suspect. The license number was for a stolen vehicle; Mr. White had previously been convicted of robbery and arrested in an abduction.

Before being given Mr. White's name, the State Police had been starting to see connections emerging among the missing and slain women.

The State Police had begun investigating the case on July 30, when the body of Adraine M. Hunter was discovered in Goshen and the local police asked for assistance. Later, they would learn Ms. Hunter's corpse was only a mile away from the bodies of Ms. Whiteside and Ms. Hopkins.

Trying to identify Ms. Hunter's corpse, the State Police put out a description of the body. The Poughkeepsie Police Department told the State Police about the two missing women. They also were aware that Christine M. Klebbe, 14, of Goshen, had been missing since July 1.

"We didn't have any direct connections with the Hunter case," said Capt. Michael Cahill of the State Police. "But there was a lot of suspicion that there was a connection with three other missing girls."

Don't Blame Parole for Murders

The New York Times

August 8, 1992

The case of Nathaniel White, charged with six murders committed after his release on parole, has revived criticism that the parole system irresponsibly returns violent criminals to society.

But the criticism is off target. Parole officials apparently made reasonable judgments in releasing Mr. White. And it is doubtful that any feasible alternative system would prevent such killings. There is indeed good reason to abolish the parole system -- but not in the mistaken belief it would reduce violent crime.

In 1986 Mr. White pleaded guilty to robbery and received a sentence of three to nine years. He had no previous criminal record and behaved well in prison. That earned him the right to parole release when he first became eligible in 1989.

Two years later, police say, he murdered a 29-year-old woman in Middletown, N.Y. But no evidence linked him to the slaying. Instead he was arrested about the same time for a lesser crime, brandishing a razor while accosting a teen-age girl.

For that, court and parole officials agreed to let him plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge and serve nine months in jail. He was released on parole again in April. In July he allegedly murdered five women; he told news reporters that he had killed because voices told him to, and that he was imitating Robocop, the movie character who is half human, half machine.

Had Mr. White been made to serve his full nine years, obviously, he would not have been free to commit any murders. Yet for now it's hard to fault the parole board. The 1986 conviction was Mr. White's first, and his prison record was exemplary. He easily qualified for release after three years. The razor incident seemed too minor to warrant an additional six.

Some critics believe they could prevent such violence by getting rid of parole. True public safety, they say, lies in requiring criminals to serve out their full terms. Thus a few states and the Federal courts have abolished parole, substituting fixed sentences that permit only minor adjustments for good behavior.

But the fixed sentences for given crimes are typically far less than the maximums possible under the parole system. They tend to match the actual time now served by inmates before their release on parole. Judges have for years understood that most convicts are released after serving a third to a half of their maximum sentences. So they calculate accordingly: the judge who initially sentenced Mr. White no doubt figured his robbery was worth three years, not nine.

Legislators could, of course, set longer fixed terms, but only if they are prepared to pay for more prisons. In New York, requiring convicts to serve out the maximum terms now imposed would immediately create the need for at least 50,000 more cells. That would cost $4.4 billion in capital funds and an additional $1.25 billion annually.

New York doesn't have that kind of money to spend on crime control. If it did, spending such amounts on police and drug treatment would purchase far more public safety than using it to build more prisons.

Fixed sentences would be preferable to parole for one powerful reason: They would eliminate the damaging public confusion. Had Mr. White been sentenced reasonably to three years for robbery in 1986, and nine months for the razor incident in 1991, no one would now blame authorities for his string of murders.

Truth in sentencing, in other words, would greatly reduce public cynicism about justice. That's more than a marginal benefit.

Court Links Abuse Count To Parolee

The New York Times

August 8, 1992

A man who the police say has confessed to killing six people was accused of child abuse by the Orange County Department of Social Services about a month before the last five slayings, Family Court officials said today.

A parole official said the parole officer for the suspect, Nathaniel White, was never told of the charge.

"This allegation is news to us," said David Ernst, a spokesman for the New York State Division of Parole. Information that a parolee has molested children, he added, would be considered a parole violation, and the parolee would be returned to jail until the matter was adjudicated.

Mr. White was on parole for a 1986 robbery conviction. He was arrested and charged with a parole violation last year for abducting a 16-year-old girl at knifepoint. He was released from jail in April.

On Monday, Mr. White confessed to six slayings, five of which were apparently committed within the previous five weeks.

Dan Bloomer, Orange County's Acting Commissioner of Social Services, said it was his department's responsibility to notify the parole board about any child abuse violations. He said he could not discuss Mr. White's situation because of state confidentiality laws. Notified Social Workers

But Mr. Ernst said that at the Social Services Department's request, the parole division had notified social workers when Mr. White was released from the Franklin Correctional Facility in Malone on April 23. On May 5, when Mr. White's parole officer visited the case worker responsible for his family court case, "the caseworker did not volunteer any information about this," Mr. Ernst said.

John Cameron, a clerk for Judge Elaine Slobod of Orange County Family Court, said an order of protection against Mr. White was issued in May, ordering him to stay at least 1,000 feet away from two children. Judge Slobod also ordered that the children be removed from their home to another parent's house.

The Times Herald Record of Middletown reported today that the children were the daughters of Jill Garrison, Mr. White's girlfriend. Family Court officials declined to identify the children.

A Family Court hearing for Mr. White is scheduled for Aug. 26, Mr. Cameron said.

The charge of Mr. White's abuse was first reported to the state child abuse hot line in January, while Mr. White was still in jail. The Social Services Department brought formal charges against him in May.

Several government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Mr. White's case was not a particularly egregious family court violation.

Francis D. Phillips, the Orange County District Attorney, who had received a copy of the complaint, said that Mr. White's abuse of the children would have been a misdemeanor if proven true. Mr. Phillips described it as "a fairly mundane report."

"It did not set off any red flags," Mr. Phillips said.