(Rochester, N.Y.) - Even as his crimes were unfolding, Arthur Shawcross lived and worked alongside people who had no idea he was a murderer.
Word of his death has some wondering whether they could have noticed something that might have made a difference.
"We were very sad…because he was the person who was causing all of the grief to other people," said Eileen Goldman Perry who worked with Shawcross.
Shawcross had only worked for her former husband's company for about 6 months when three detectives showed up asking to see his timecards.
Perry said, "They said, ‘We think he's a suspect in the serial killings.’ It was shocking!"
Shawcross worked nights in the food preparation area at G&G Foods, which has since closed. Co-workers said he was “dependable,” but kept to himself.
"He did his job,” Perry said. “He didn't talk to anyone; he was as normal as any employee could be."
Perry testified at his trial, pointing him out in court. He never looked up, even when she delivered a small bombshell about identical blue and white towels found at every crime scene. "It was a cloth the company sold," she explained.
She never knew his victims, but in that courtroom 18 years ago, she learned how each of them was loved by a family, and how the families endured much to make sure justice would be served.
"They would go over and hug each other and some would cry,” she recalled. “Especially hearing his name now…it brings that part of it back."
The description was one we heard often after his arrest: Shawcross was quiet, almost polite--the opposite of the monster many people associated with his crimes.
Perry said she knew when she testified against him that he would never get out of prison, but still, the ordeal was hard to forget.
Shawcross’s employment records provided key evidence--police matched his time cards against the nights of the murders and found that he was not working on each of the nights a woman was killed.
