Angel Maturino Resendiz is a former serial killer awaiting death on the Texas death row. He was an illegal immigrant from Mexico who travelled on trains to commit his crimes.

He was 39 years old when he was arrested in July 1999. He had been known chiefly under the alias Rafael Resendez-Ramirez up until that date.

Resendiz also used the name Angel Reyes Resendiz and had about thirty aliases that he used. He had killed nine people with rocks and other objects in their homes, so he could collect money for alcohol and drugs. He did rape some women, but raping was secondary to him. It took a long time for authorities to catch him, since he had no fixed address, and that he wandered around Mexico, the United States, and Canada until he was captured.

Here is a list of his victims:

1. August 29, 1997, Lexington, Kentucky, Christopher Maier , 21 years old. He was a University of Kentucky student who was bludgeoned to death. His girlfriend was raped and nearly died after being beaten, but she survived.

2. October 4, 1998, Hughes Spring , Texas, Leafie Mason , 81 years old. She was hammered to death with a fire iron by Resendez, who entered through a window. Fifty yards outside her door was the Kansas City-Southern Rail line.

3. December 17, 1998, West University Place, Texas, Claudia Benton , 39. Benton, who studied at the Baylor College of Medicine and worked with children, was raped, stabbed, and bludgeoned repeatedly after she entered her home, which is near the West University train tracks. Police found her Jeep Cherokee in San Antonio and found Resendiz's fingerprints on the steering column. After the murder, Resendiz had a warrant for his arrest for burglary, but not yet for murder.

4 and 5. May 2, 1999, Weimar, Texas, Norman J. Sirnic , 46 years old, and Karen Sirnic , 47 years old. Norman and Karen were bludgeoned to death by a sledgehammer in a parsonage of the United Church of Christ. The building was located adjacent to a railroad. Their red Mazda was also found in San Antonio three weeks later, and fingerprints link their case with the Claudia Benton case.

6. June 4, 1999, Houston, Texas, Noemi Dominguez , 26 years old. Noemi was bludgeoned to death in her apartment near the rail tracks. Seven days later, her white Honda Civic was discovered by state troopers on the Del Rio, Texas International Bridge.

7. June 4, 1999, Fayette County, Texas, Josephine Konvicka , 73 years old. Josephine was killed by the blow of a pointed garden tool on the head while she lay sleeping. Her farmhouse is not far from Weimar. Resendiz attempted to steal the car but was unable to take it away since he could not find the car keys.

8. and 9. June 15, 1999, Gorham, Illinois, George Morber Senior , 80 years old, and Carolyn Frederick , 52 years old. Resendiz shot George Morber in the head with a shotgun and then clubbed Carolyn Frederick to death. Their house was located only 100 yards away from a railroad line. Later, an onlooker sees a man matching Resendiz's description driving Carolyn Frederick's red pickup truck in Cairo, Illinois, which is located 60 miles south of Gorham.

Resendiz never killed able bodied people, for he himself was not that strong. Most of his victims were found covered with a blanket. People living in the area of the murders were terrified that he might appear after Benton and the Sirnics were murdered, especially the people living near train tracks.

The police tracked down Resendiz's sister, Manuela, and knew she would be important in his capture. Manuela feared that her brother might kill someone else or be killed by the FBI, so she agreed to help. A Texas Ranger named Drew Carter , accompanied by Manuela and a Spiritual Guide met up with Resendiz on a bridge connecting El Paso, Texas with Zaragoza , Mexico. Resendiz surrendered to him.

The state of Texas tried Resendiz for the murder of Doctor Claudia Benton. He was found guilty and was sentenced to death by lethal injection.

In 1999, Jim Mattox, former Texas Attorney General--wary of the controversy miring the many confessions and recantations by Henry Lee Lucas--remarked of Resindiz that "I hope they don't start pinning on him every crime that happens near a railroad track."[1] http://www.ble.org/pr/archive/headline0625a.html

External links

• Article on Angel Maturino Resendiz http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial2/railroad/