John Frank Hickey killed a fellow worker and two boys over twenty-nine years and was caught because he could not stop writing to the family of one of his victims. He is one of the earliest serial killers to be identified and convicted in the United States.
He was born in 1865, was an alcoholic, and had a history of offences against children. Edwin W. Morey, thirty-four, a co-worker, was killed in 1883 in Massachusetts. Michael Kruck, ten, was killed in 1902 and Joey Joseph, seven, in 1912, both in New York State.
After the Joseph killing he sent a series of taunting postcards, which gave him the name the Postcard Killer and eventually led police to him. He was arrested on November 18, 1912 and sentenced to life imprisonment on November 29 that year, eleven days later. He died in prison on May 8, 1922.