Gerald Turner raped and strangled a 9-year-old girl who knocked on his door while she was trick-or-treating in Fond du Lac, Wis.
A jury convicted him in 1975 of several crimes, including second-degree murder, child enticement and sexual assault. Turner, who became known as the “Halloween Killer,” was sentenced to 38 years in prison.
He was paroled in 1992, but in 2003 was sent back to prison for another 15 years for violating his parole by possessing pornography.
His parole file contained a letter he wrote to Lisa Ann French, his victim.
“I doubt that I could ever fully realize the terror you experienced at my hands,” Turner wrote. “… On that night, I became a monster.”
Turner contended that he wouldn’t have drawn such scrutiny if he had killed a child on any day other than Halloween. “If it had happened on some other day, like Valentine’s Day, nobody would have gave a damn,” he said.
