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“He Was a True Sociopath”

Reported by: Rachel Barnhart
Email: rbarnhart@13wham.com
Last Update: 11/12/2008 6:55 pm
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Shawcross Dies--Of 3 Who Cracked the Case--No Tears Were Shed
Archival Video: 13WHAM Reports Arthur Shawcross' Arrest
Archival Video: Arthur Shawcross Arrest Press Conference
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(Rochester, N.Y.) – Not one of the three people at the center of the Shawcross investigation was sad to hear Shawcross had died.

“He was a true sociopath," former Sheriff Andy Meloni said. He remembered the Shawcross case like it was yesterday. “He was probably the most unconscionable human being I've ever heard speak about his deeds.”

Rochester Police Captain Lynde Johnston oversaw the homicide unit. “It sure was getting them tired, working long hours, sleeping on desks, and never going home. I worried about them.”

Former Sheriff’s investigator John McCaffrey recalled, “This was time away from our families. This encompassed us. We knew he wasn't going to stop killing.”

McCaffrey was a lead investigator for the state police when he made a find that broke the case wide open: he was in a helicopter, searching for a missing woman in Northampton Park when he spotted one of Shawcross's victims. “I observed, frozen in the ice of Salmon Creek, a body.”

Standing on a bridge above the body was none other than Shawcross himself, who later confessed. As part of his interrogation, police handed him a stack of photographs, including shots of some of the victims.

McCaffrey said, “He went through those photographs like he would…a deck of cards.”

“He dealt them like a deck of cards. ‘Didn't do this one, did this one, didn't do this one,’ ...like playing a game of poker,” Johnston said.

None of the three-- McCaffrey, Johnson, Meloni --  was sorry to hear Shawcross is dead.

“Maybe there's some solace for the families, because they’re never going to get over this,” Johnson said. “He destroyed a lot of people's lives.”

“He showed no remorse whatsoever,” McCaffrey said. “It saves the taxpayers a lot of money.

“We're saving taxpayers $25,000 a year,” Meloni added.

Captain Johnston said one thing he does regret about Shawcross's death -- the ability to question him about other unsolved cases.
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