Dealers insist the serial killer isn't paid, but does receive favors; state plans inquiry

This drawing of Marilyn Monroe is one of several by Arthur Shawcross. One large portrait of the screen legend sold for $250 on eBay.

By Greg Livadas

Democrat and Chronicle

(Sept. 10, 1999) -- Autographs and artworks by convicted serial killer Arthur Shawcross are for sale on the Internet.

EBay, a Web-based auction house, is listing items reportedly created by Shawcross, who is serving a 250-year sentence in Sullivan Correctional Facility for the grisly killings of 11 local women. Recently, eBay has been in the news after bids for an unborn child and a human kidney for transplant reached into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Both were believed to be hoaxes.

"Shawcross is more famous for the other things he can do with his hands than his artwork, such as strangling and partially consuming some 11 prostitutes . . . which really makes this weird piece of prison art something the high bidder will treasure forever!" reads the description accompanying one Web item.

Some of the sellers are marketing the original artwork as from "The Genesee River Killer," and even boasting the number of victims, saying he "slaughtered 19 prostitutes, probably more."

The mother of one victim was shocked that someone would use the notoriety of Shawcross as a marketing advantage.

"Who would want to buy artwork or an autograph from a serial killer? They're disgusting. They're making him out to be a hero," said Liz Vigneri, of Rochester, whose daughter, Maria Welch, was murdered by Shawcross in 1989. "If any money changes hands, it should go to the children. He left many children without mothers."

The state Department of Corrections plans to investigate whether New York's Son of Sam law has been broken.

The law prohibits inmates from profiting from their crimes. While Shawcross is not selling the items himself, he does receive occasional favors from those he sends his artwork to.

"Inmates are not allowed to run a business while incarcerated," said Michael Houston, a department spokesman. "We will conduct an investigation and if we can determine one is being done, we will take steps to prevent that."

Inmates do not have access to computers or Internet services, Houston said. But they can purchase paint and other art-related materials in prison stores or through the mail because art is considered a recreational activity.

Another Shawcross lot up for bid recently included four index cards, "each with a fearful note penned by the deadly serial killer, and every card, signed in full and fingerprinted once! Notes include, 'Do you see me at night when you sleep? Look deep in the darkness, the eyes tell it all. When you feel the fear, I will be there.' "

One of the sellers is art dealer Walter O'Reilly, of Mahopac, Putnam County, who has corresponded with Shawcross for about two years.

"Let me just say we don't fund a serial killer. He's not compensated for this," O'Reilly said. "This is not blood money. He pays for the whole thing himself."

"Things started arriving in the mail," he said. "And if Art needs a shirt or a pair of shoes, I take care of him. If he sent me a nice painting and I did well on it, I'd get a letter from him saying, 'Boy, I could really use a pair of sneakers.' "

Shawcross' art has included a portrait of NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, and Marilyn Monroe has been the subject of several drawings. One large portrait sold for $250.

"Art basically draws whatever is prominent in his thoughts at the moment," O'Reilly said.

A recent oil painting, of a motorcyclist on the open road with the words "Ride Fast, Ride Free," sold for $200.

O'Reilly said the 54-year-old Shawcross, who is eligible for parole in 2240, has been known to take requests -- including one for a portrait of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

"Some of the bigger collectors have made requests through me," O'Reilly said. "Sometimes he does them, sometimes he doesn't."

O'Reilly has sold artwork by other serial killers, including John Wayne Gacy, who was executed in 1994 for killing 33 men and boys in Illinois. O'Reilly said Shawcross' work is much better.

"There have been a couple with real photographic quality," he said. "It's such a bizarre and tragic thing. It is interesting to me that someone who can do such terrible things can do something so beautiful, too."

O'Reilly said he has sold prison art -- including work by Shawcross -- to police officers, lawyers, doctors and a dentist. But he doesn't recall any sold to anyone in the Rochester area.

Dr. Russell Barton, a retired Pittsford psychiatrist who examined Shawcross after his arrest, said the lure of owning something connected to a notorious criminal has existed for centuries.

"In the days when people were hanged in England, people would pay quite a sum of money for a piece of the rope," Barton said. He said the value is "probably the ownership that it may be brought out and toasted just to shock everybody."

Kregg Sanders, a Danville, Ill., dealer specializing in autographs of criminals, said some of his customers are true autograph collectors but believes others are probably mentally ill and collect because they have an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Sanders, who tries to sell Shawcross autographs on eBay, said he doesn't sell much criminal art.

"Jeffrey Dahmer is going to be worth big dollars," Sanders said. "Shawcross is worth about $1 to $2 on a good day. A real good day."

Sanders gets his share of criticism about his business, mostly from religious groups.

"I'm just a guy marketing autographs," he said. "They aren't the embodiment of evil. It really harms no one since the criminal doesn't benefit from this."

Sanders said he never pays the criminal in cash. "If they ask for a book of stamps, we'll send them a book of stamps."

Assemblyman Joseph Robach, D-Greece, said he's willing to look at proposed amendments to the original 1977 Son of Sam bill to see whether any laws are being broken, or whether additional laws could stop the marketing of serial killer paraphernalia.

The question is whether buying Shawcross a pair of shoes or giving him a roll of stamps means he is profiting from his crimes.

And if the autographs and artwork are given to others, what's to prevent those people from selling their property?

"I don't think others should be able to do that," Robach said. "I think we should look at every loophole available to try to shut these people down."

No one from the San Jose, Calif.-based eBay would comment yesterday specifically about the Shawcross sales. But earlier this year, the site banned the sale of guns and ammunition after people tried selling a missile, a bazooka, a rocket launcher and other weapons.

A spokeswoman said illegal items as well as pets and firearms are not permitted on the site. But with 6 million users and more than 3 million items up for bid each day, tracking inappropriate items can only be done when someone complains on their community watch site.

Convicted serial killer to be charged in wake of his work being marketed on eBay

(Sept. 14, 1999) -- The state Department of Corrections has temporarily taken away the art privileges of Arthur Shawcross after learning that the convicted serial killer may be profiting from the sale of his work.

Shawcross (pictured), 54, who is serving a minimum 250-year prison term for murdering 11 Rochester-area women, has also been charged with two violations of inmate conduct: soliciting goods or money and selling articles without approval.

A disciplinary hearing is scheduled for Thursday. Shawcross won't have a lawyer but can have an inmate assistant to help him put together his case.

If convicted at the hearing, Shawcross can be fined, lose some privileges, be transferred to another prison or be placed in "keeplock" time, where he would get minimum privileges and be allowed to keep a minimal amount of property.

His privileges were suspended Friday, a day after the Democrat and Chronicle told the Department of Corrections that Shawcross' items were being sold on eBay, an Internet auction site.

A departmental investigation determined that Shawcross had been mailing autographs and artworks from the Sullivan Correctional Facility to others and receiving fees in return. New York's Son of Sam law prohibits inmates from profiting from their crimes.

"I just think the whole thing is totally disgusting," said Carole Mulhern, director of victim, witness and community services for the Monroe County District Attorney's Office. Seven relatives of Shawcross' victims contacted her Friday when they learned Shawcross' art was being sold.

The artwork is being advertised on eBay as the work of a "cannibal killer" who murdered "19 prostitutes, maybe more." Not all of Shawcross' victims were prostitutes.

Meanwhile, Sen. Michael F. Nozzolio, R-Fayette, Seneca County, chairman of the state Crime Victims, Crime and Corrections Committee, plans to introduce legislation mandating that proceeds from the sale of personal art in prison -- including agents' fees -- go to victim assistance.