He’s one of the most brutal serial killers of the modern era, who built a torture chamber inside his own house. He’s Maury Travis – a twisted man who taunted the police and took delight in physically and mentally torturing his victims.
Between 2000 and 2002, Travis targeted Black women addicted to drugs who frequented an area known as “The Stroll” in St. Louis, Missouri.
The “Strangler” would lure these women to his house with promises of money and drugs, only to torture and kill them before dumping their bodies along roadways in the St. Louis metro area.
Although investigators only linked him to 12 murders, Travis claimed to have killed as many as 17.
Travis evaded capture for nearly two years until he made a fatal mistake.
On May 19, 2002, in an effort to draw public attention to the 12 unsolved murders, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published an article covering the struggles of one of Travis’ victims before she met her violent end.
Less than a week later, the author of the article, reporter Bill Smith, received an anonymous letter at his desk, which read:
“Dear Bill, nice sob story about Teresa Wilson. Write one about greenwade write a good one and I’ll tell you where many others are to prove im real here’s directions to number seventeen search in a fifty yard radius from the X put the story in the Sunday paper like the last.”
The envelope also contained a computer-generated map with a small X drawn on it.
When police searched the marked area, they found the skeletal remains of an unidentified woman, but recovered no substantial evidence from the crime scene or the contents of the envelope. Once again, investigators assumed they had hit a dead end.
However, a cybercrime detective with the Illinois State Police made a breakthrough in the case—the map sent by the killer was printed off a travel website, Expedia.com.
Federal investigators subpoenaed Expedia to find out everyone who had used their site to search that particular area between the time Bill Smith’s article had been published and the date stamped on the envelope.
Only one computer had downloaded that map on the evening of May 20 — the computer belonging to a 36-year-old man named Maury Travis.
While searching Travis’ house, police found a secret torture chamber in the basement covered in bloodstains. Investigators also recovered various women’s items such as shoes, underwear, and wigs, along with a stun gun.
Inside the file cabinet, there was a knapsack containing tape, belts, rope, and gloves.
Most chilling of all, police found several videotapes containing footage of his crimes.
One of the tapes, labeled “Your Wedding Day,” showed Travis torturing, abusing, and raping his victims.
Travis’ psychological and physical torment also included gagging his victims and wrapping masking tape around their faces.
The scenes on the tapes were so disturbing that St. Louis Police Chief Joe Mokwa ordered even the most seasoned detectives who watched them to undergo psychological therapy and counseling.
Despite being held on suicide watch, on June 10, 2002, Travis managed to hang himself inside his prison cell without admitting to any of the murders.
