Vincent Johnson

Case record: Vincent Johnson

Identity

Vincent Johnson was an American homeless crack addict. He was born January 6, 1969. He was described as 5'3" and 130 pounds and was known as the Brooklyn Strangler.

Background

Between the summers of 1999 and 2000, police investigated a series of murders of prostitutes in the Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhoods of Brooklyn. The case involved roughly 30 known associates of prostitutes in the area who were detained for questioning. DNA testing excluded one man as the killer, and he was cleared as a suspect. After being cleared, he began cooperating with detectives and helped lead them toward Vincent Johnson.

Johnson was described by police as a panhandler and crack addict. Detectives said Johnson sometimes spent time at the Glenwood hotel on Broadway in Williamsburg, and he also frequented a methadone clinic on the Lower East Side. Police said Johnson had also spent time at a single-room-occupancy hotel on West 92nd Street in Manhattan. Police said Johnson had once lived on a cot in a utility room underneath the Williamsburg Bridge approach ramp.

The offence

Police believed Johnson strangled six women in Brooklyn. Police said all the killings involved strangulation, apparently with whatever ligature was at hand. Police also said the victims were found nude or partly clothed, and most had been arrested in the past on prostitution or drug-related offenses.

Johnson confessed to murders of six women: Patricia Sullivan, Rhonda Tucker, Joanne Feliciano, Elizabeth Tuppeny, Vivian Caraballo and Laura Nusser.

Johnson denied involvement in the death of Katrina Niles, and as of 2006 he continued to deny involvement in her death.

Police considered it likely he had sex with at least three of his victims.

Method and placement of bodies

Police said Johnson bound the bodies with ligatures but did not attempt to hide them. The women were left where they were killed: two on rooftops and one in a vacant lot in roughly the same vicinity in Williamsburg; two in apartments in Bedford-Stuyvesant; and one in a utility room under the Williamsburg Bridge, where Johnson was known to have slept occasionally on a cot.

Police said the victims were strangled with different objects: two with their own shoelaces/sneaker laces, one with a drawstring from a pair of sweatpants/sweat pants, two with electrical wire/electrical cord/electrical chord, and one with what was probably a discarded piece of cloth/piece of cloth.

For the first three victims, police and Johnson’s statements described different placement details, including an elevator room on a rooftop and rooftops at specific addresses. The victims were described as having been found on rooftops, in apartments, and in a vacant lot.

Suspect behaviour and statements

Johnson initially refused to provide a DNA sample to police and denied knowing any of the women. Detectives had observed him spitting on the street, and Johnson’s saliva was retrieved and given to the medical examiner for testing. Police said that when Johnson was taken in for questioning, he refused to provide a DNA sample and said he had not known any of the slain women. A detective recalled warning him not to spit inside and said Johnson explained that he had tuberculosis.

After his saliva was tested, Johnson’s DNA matched DNA found on four of the victims. Johnson later made statements implicating himself in the four killings he had been charged with, but then refused to make a videotaped statement and asked for a lawyer.

Johnson admitted strangling five women and accepted a sentence of life in prison rather than the state-funded murder sentence that could have been sought.

Johnson admitted little, if any, feelings of guilt. Police said he reportedly claimed he was acting out hatred of his mother. Johnson reportedly claimed that images of his mother clouded his mind as he committed his final murder.

Johnson’s statements included the following verbatim quotations:

• Johnson told investigators: “The thoughts of my childhood and foster care and mom came into my mind”
• Johnson told investigators: “I didn't see strangling her as doing something wrong at the time”
• Johnson wrote: “I'm sorry I did it”
• Johnson wrote: “I hope this brings closure. I need help.”
• Johnson told investigators about Elizabeth Tuppeny: “I didn't see strangling her as doing something wrong at the time”
• Johnson said, after killing his first victim, Laura Nusser, that he reported feeling “sorry” and wanting to apologize to her family.

Police said Johnson’s final-murder-related statement included that his mother’s one day off from work was always a Thursday, and that his deliberate fixation came about due to his loathing of his mother’s Thursday schedule.

Victims

Police believed the victims were:

• Patricia Sullivan
• Rhonda Tucker
• Joanne Feliciano
• Elizabeth Tuppeny
• Vivian Caraballo
• Laura Nusser

Police also discussed Katrina Niles as a sixth woman whom police believed was part of Johnson’s alleged year-long strangulation spree, but Johnson denied involvement in her death.

In the account of police charges and investigations, an unnamed fifth victim was described as found in a large storage room underneath the Williamsburg Bridge approach ramp by firefighters responding to a rubbish fire that had apparently been set by homeless people. Police said that victim had not been identified at the time of that description.

Timeline

• August 5, 2000 — An investigator described DNA evidence linking Vincent Johnson to strangulation murders of six women and described charging him with four counts of first-degree murder in four killings; he was arrested about 6:45 p.m. as he was heading across the Williamsburg Bridge.
• March 10, 2001 — Johnson was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Investigation

DNA evidence linked Johnson to the crimes. Investigators said DNA definitively excluded another homeless man as the killer. After that man was cleared, he began cooperating with a detective and helped police make progress in locating Johnson.

An officer recovered a cup containing Johnson’s saliva for genetic testing after observing Johnson spitting in a cup from a window by an interrogating officer. Police said results showed Johnson’s DNA matched DNA found on four of the victims.

Police said they obtained DNA samples from possible suspects in recent weeks and that DNA had conclusively linked Johnson to the crimes.

Police said detectives had been consulting with other homicide squads to determine whether Johnson was responsible for any other homicides.

Deputy Chief Joseph Cuneen made a statement at a news conference about a forensic-evidence and modus-operandi connection. Deputy Chief Joseph Cuneen also called Johnson “extremely dangerous” and said the investigation could not explain how Johnson overpowered the victims, most of whose bodies showed no signs of a struggle.

Verbatim quotation at the news conference by Deputy Chief Joseph Cuneen:

“A connection was made through forensic evidence, witness accounts and the modus operandi of the victims that were killed.” Verbatim quotation by Deputy Chief Joseph Cuneen: “extremely dangerous,”

Arrest

Detectives from the Brooklyn North homicide task force arrested Johnson about 6:45 p.m. while he was heading across the Williamsburg Bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn. The arrest followed a police news conference where police released Johnson’s picture, warned the public, and asked for help capturing him.

Police said Johnson weighed 130 pounds and was 5 foot 3 inches tall. Police said detectives had spotted him while canvassing Lower East Side and Williamsburg areas where he had allegedly frequented.

Trial / guilty plea

Johnson pleaded guilty to strangling five women. He served life in prison without parole.

Sentencing

On March 10, 2001, Johnson was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Other details

Police described Johnson as using the name “Vinceny.”

Police said Johnson’s 10-month killing spree began in August 1999 and included murders between the summers of 1999 and 2000.

Police said the first killing occurred on Aug. 26, 1999, and the most recent on June 22, as described in the investigation coverage.

A civic group representative, Marrin Rodriguez of El Puente, said: “It was not like he was going to kill 20 people without being caught.” Marrin Rodriguez added that “But they were scared. After all, he was beating women, choking them.”

Police said residents adjusted their lives to avoid a killer they believed was stalking their streets, including that many women stopped leaving apartments at night and some began to walk only in pairs or groups, even by day. Others kept their children cooped up.

Police said in the most recent killing, Patricia Sullivan, 48, was found June 22 strangled with her sneaker laces on a dirty mattress in a vacant lot on Marcy Avenue in Williamsburg.

Police said the first three killings were Vivian Caraballo, 26, found on Aug. 26, 1999 in the elevator room on the roof of 237 South Second Street in Williamsburg and strangled with a piece of cloth; Joanne Feliciano, 35, found strangled with sneaker laces and speaker wire on Sept. 16, 1999 on the roof of 171 South Fourth Street; and Rhonda Tucker, 21, found inside her apartment on Park Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant on Sept. 25, 1999, strangled with the drawstring from her pants.

Police said a little more than a week after Tucker’s slaying, the body of Katrina Niles, 34, was found in a Marcy Avenue apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant, strangled with electrical cord and her throat slashed.

Police said that four months later firefighters responding to a rubbish fire in a large utility storage room underneath the Williamsburg Bridge approach ramp found the decomposed body of a woman whom police tentatively identified as Laura G. Nusser, 43. Police said they later learned Johnson had once lived in the room on a cot and that she was last seen with him in the area, and that she was strangled with an electrical cord.

Police said charges had yet to be brought in Katrina Niles’s and Laura Nusser’s cases.

Police said Johnson’s statement included that his first victim was Laura Nusser and that he killed her after they had sex in Williamsburg in August.

Police said Johnson wrote a short apology to Nusser’s husband and daughter and pleaded for help.

The following verbatim quotation was attributed to Johnson’s written apology:

“I'm sorry I did it” “I hope this brings closure. I need help.”