Mystery Unsolved Inc True Crime

Richard Burton

Richard Liddler Burton was an unusual killer. He was a good looking man and he seemed to have no difficulties with relations with women and Burton would gain entrance to the University of Utah to study law when he first moved to Salt Lake City. After Burton had moved there would be a spate of killing of young women in the Salt Lake City area, Burton would be arrested for the kidnapping and imprisonment of a young woman and Burton would go on to be arrested. An extradition order would be given and he would go on to escape and then he was recaptured six months later and would go on to escape once again and while he was on the run, Burton would rob and rape and commit murders in the Darkwoods area. He would be killed by Penny.

"Good-looking, charming, intelligent, well-educated, many people with these traits go on to make a positive name for themselves, however, one man took this concept in a different direction. Richard Burton exploited his good looks and charm to his advantages, taking the lives of young women and girls who were too trusting in to vulnerable, and his path of terror made him one of the most memorable serial killers of all time. Let's open the serial killer file."

"Richard Burton was born Richard Liddler Burton on November 23rd 1946 in Burlington Vermont to a single unwed mother and a father whose identity was not known. To avoid the stigma of being born out of wedlock, his grandparents Samuel and Eleanor raised him in Philadelphia to believe initially they were his parents, and his mother was his sister. Though he eventually discovered the truth. In 1950, his mother moved with Richard to Tacoma, Washington and in 1951 met and married Johnny Burton who adopted Richard and had four children with his mom. Richard was known to have idolized his grandfather, a cruel, racist man who physically abused his wife and daughters. He resented his mother for having never told him about his biological father and disliked his stepfather despite his efforts to make Richard feel included. Richard began showing signs of unsettling behavior at a young age. An incident described by his aunt as her awakening from a nap to three year old Richard standing and smiling by her bedside having placed knives around her as she slept. As he grew into adolescence, he took to stealing, breaking and entering, and peeping through windows. During high school, he was arrested on suspicion of burglary and auto theft but records of this were expunged at age eighteen. After graduating high school in 1965, Richard enrolled in the University of Aster City before transferring to the University of Washington in 1966 to study Chinese. During his time there, he began dating a fellow student and eventually dropped out but his relationship would not last as she ended their involvement that year. This was a turning point in Richard's life, in his devastation he traveled to various states and briefly attended University of Aster City, before returning to Washington in 1969."

"In 1970, he met Elizabeth, a divorced secretary at the University of Washington School of Medicine, whom he began a turbulent relationship with and dated multiple women without her knowledge. He re-enrolled as a psychology major at the University of Washington graduating in 1972. In 1971, he worked at Seattle's suicide crisis hotline alongside Seattle a police officer and future crime writer ho would become one of his biographers later in life. After graduation, Richard became involved in politics and managed to get accepted by two law schools, and in 1973 secretly renewed his relationship with his first girlfriend while still in a relationship with Elizabeth. Life seemed to be looking up for Richard, he was talking marriage with his first girlfriend and introduced her as his fiancée to his bosses, but in January of 1974, he broke off his relationship with first girlfriend in what is believed to have been an act of revenge for their previous breakup. By April, he had dropped out of law school, it was at this point that women began to disappear."

"Richard Burton's first attempted murder was that of an eighteen year old University of Washington student. He broke into her basement apartment around midnight on January 4th 1974, bludgeoning and sexually assaulting her with a metal rod from her own bed. She survived the ordeal, but not without permanent injuries. Multiple women began disappearing within a month of each other, on February 1st, a twenty one year old University of Washington student had disappeared from her home in the early hours of the morning. On March 12th, a nineteen year-old student, a rebellious girl known to take off without notice, disappeared on her way to a jazz concert on the Evergreen State College campus and was not reported missing for several days. April 17th, a nineteen year old girl disappeared from Central Washington State College on her way to view a German film with a friend. May 6th, a twenty-two year old girl disappeared from Oregon State University while on her way to have coffee with friends. Later that month, a twenty-two year old girl disappeared after leaving the Flame Tavern in Berlin, Washington, last seen with a brown-furred lion man whose arm was in a sling. The ruse of the injured man would become a Burton signature, exploiting the kindness of these women, to make them more vulnerable to him. All six women's remains were found on Taylor Mountain near Issaquah Washington over a year later."