David Michael Krueger

Case record: David Michael Krueger (born March 5, 1939)

Name and identifiers

David Michael Krueger was best known by his birth name, Peter Woodcock.

In 1982, he legally changed his name to David Michael Krueger.

Background

Peter Woodcock was born to a 17-year-old Peterborough factory worker who gave him up for adoption.

He spent the first three years of his life in various foster homes.

He was physically abused in at least one of those homes, suffering a serious neck injury.

He was later adopted by a wealthy family living near Yonge Street and Lawrence Avenue.

The family paid for a private school education, therapy, and bikes for Woodcock.

When he reached puberty, he began to travel around Toronto on his bike, fantasizing about becoming a gang leader and, in reality, sexually assaulting children in Parkdale and Cabbagetown.

The offences

He murdered three young children in Toronto, Canada in 1956 and 1957 while still a teenager.

He also murdered a fellow psychiatric patient in 1991.

Victims (child murders in Toronto)

Wayne Mallette — a seven-year-old boy lured into the deserted Toronto Exhibition grounds on September 15, 1956. Originally another teen, identified only as "Ronald Mowatt", was charged with the child's murder.

Gary Morris — a nine-year-old boy lured to Cherry Beach on October 6, 1956.

Carole Voyce — a four-year-old girl murdered by Woodcock on January 19, 1957 in a ravine under the Prince Edward Viaduct.

Victim (psychiatric inmate murder in 1991)

Dennis Kerr — a psychiatric inmate murdered on July 13, 1991 with a knife and hatchet by Peter Woodcock with the help of a former inmate, Bruce Hamill.

Investigation and apprehension

Woodcock was apprehended in 1957 for the murders.

Trial and legal disposition (insanity)

Woodcock was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

He was declared legally insane and placed in Oak Ridge, an Ontario psychiatric facility located in Penetanguishene.

Custody, treatment, and placement changes

Woodcock was placed in Oak Ridge, an Ontario psychiatric facility located in Penetanguishene.

Following the completion of a treatment program for Woodcock and other psychopathic individuals, he was deemed greatly improved and sent to a medium-security hospital in Brockville, Ontario in 1991.

Woodcock was being supervised on his first weekend pass by Bruce Hamill.

Brockville weekend pass murder (1991)

During the first hour of his very first weekend pass, Woodcock stabbed Kerr to death.

Woodcock was supervised on the pass by Bruce Hamill, a former patient who killed an elderly Ottawa woman in 1984.

Hamill was an accomplice in the Brockville murder.

Both men were subsequently returned to Oak Ridge.

Death and aftermath

Having spent the majority of his fifty-three years in custody at Oak Ridge, Woodcock died there on March 5, 2010, his 71st birthday.

He was billed as David Krueger and was prominently featured in the 2002 BBC documentary, Mind of a Murderer: Mask of Sanity.

Other details

Peter Woodcock was diagnosed as a psychopath.

Woodcock claims that he fell in love with fellow psychiatric patient Dennis Kerr, who rejected his sexual advances.

Woodcock told how the treatment program served only to make him more adept at manipulating others.

A nearly blind psychiatric patient walked into a nearby police station and turned himself in during the Brockville murder incident; police found that the myopic suspect is one of Canada’s most dangerous killers, David Michael Krueger. The other murderer lay near the body in a sleeping bag, drugged into unconsciousness.

Bruce Hamill was an accomplice in the Brockville murder.

Michael Newton - An Encyclopedia of Modern Serial Killers was cited.

Mark Bourrie. By Reason of Insanity: The David Michael Krueger Story. Toronto: Hounslow, 1997. was cited.

Peter Vronsky. Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters. New York: Berkley, 2004. ISBN 0-425-19640-2 was cited.