Father Forgive Me, For I Have Sinned

He played imaginary name games while on the road and sometimes with other people if their name fit the schtick. Peculiar in other ways (never used ice, only drank Dr. Pepper), he was as quiet and ordinary as the neighbor next door. Yet he was a serial killer. Father, Forgive Me, for I Have Sinned has a few subthemes: addiction, confession and absolution, and sexual abuse in the church. Any of the five main male characters could be the killer, one who strangles young ladies, mostly in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Bible verses from the Psalms left at or near the scene of each murder offered few leads as to the perp or his motive. Theologians in New Orleans gave their opinions but were as stumped as law enforcement, unable to clearly profile the man. When local and regional police got close to identifying and apprehending him, the Gulf South Strangler moved to Carolina and Tennessee with the string of deaths following. Some serial killers are never found. Unlike the infamous serial killers of history, these deaths included no sexual or other physical abuse of the body. Funny how the simplest of rude childhood behaviors could change a man into a monster.