Arthur Shawcross' apartment

This is Arthur Shawcross' former apartment.

It is situated at 241 Alexander Street in Rochester, New York.

Shawcross was nicknamed the "Genesee River Killer" due to his habit of dumping his victims' bodies in the river, which ran through the center of the city.

Between March 1988 and December 1989, he murdered at least 12 women, most of whom were sex workers.

In 1972, Shawcross raped and murdered two young children. However, he was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter because the district attorney did not have enough evidence to directly link him to the crimes. There were also fears that a jury would fail to convict him if he mounted an "extreme emotional disturbance" (EED) defense.

Shawcross was allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter in exchange for leading the police to one of his victims' bodies. Consequently, he received a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.

Roughly 15 years later, a parole board determined that Shawcross was no longer a threat to society. This decision was made despite warnings from psychiatrists, most of whom believed that he was a sociopath who was highly likely to reoffend.

Following his release in 1987, he was forced to move from city to city, as many of his neighbors were aware of his past and refused to accept his presence in their communities.

In June 1987, Shawcross' parole officer decided to move him to a hotel in Rochester without alerting the local authorities. Then, four months later, he started living in this apartment building on Alexander Street.

The "Genesee River Killer" committed his first serial murder on March 18th, 1988. On that date, he picked up a sex worker called Dorothy "Dotsie" Blackburn from Lyell Avenue and strangled her to death.

Over the course of the next 22 months, he claimed the lives of 11 more women.

As bodies continued to turn up in the Genesee River, people began to speculate that the notorious Green River Killer had moved from Seattle to Rochester.

Shawcross' crime spree finally came to an end after a police helicopter spotted him close to a location where he had previously dumped one of his victims' bodies. At the time, he was revisiting the crime scene—something that he often did in the aftermath of a murder.

Although he attempted to mount an insanity defense during his trial, this strategy failed, and he was eventually found guilty of 11 murders.

On November 10th, 2008, he suffered a cardiac arrest and died while serving a 250-year prison sentence.

Photos

Photos of the apartment building and other related images.

241 Alexander Street

This Google Street View image of 241 Alexander Street was taken in June 2019. More recent images of the building show that it is now painted a dark gray color.

The building was constructed in 1920. It is part of the Normandie Brownstone apartment complex, which is currently owned by Excelsior Communities LLC.

Shawcross lived here between October 1987 and January 1990. He was arrested on January 5th, 1990, after the police spotted his vehicle near one of his victims' dump sites.

Former tenants remember seeing him cycling around the complex. On many occasions, he had a fishing pole with him (he was an avid fisherman).

Apartment building

This Google Street View image was taken in August 2021. As you can see, the exterior is now painted dark gray.

Dunkin' Donuts

Former tenants of the Normandie Brownstone apartment complex recalled how Shawcross used to cycle down to this Dunkin' Donuts store on the corner of Monroe Avenue and Alexander Street.

Following his arrest, it came to light that he regularly overheard police officers talking about the case while he was at the store.

On one occasion, Shawcross told officers at Dunkin' Donuts that he had warned his girlfriend to be careful because "a bad guy was out there."

Coordinates: 43.149304, -77.597839

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