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The Bathtub Strangler was one of the most infamous serial killers in the United States of America in 1981. Bathtub Strangler was the moniker that was associated with James Samuel Walraven.
Walraven, a resident of Decatur, Georgia, had been sentenced to life in prison for the serial killings of three women who were found strangled in their bathtubs. Two of his victims appeared to have been s*xually assaulted before their murders.
Who was James Samuel Walraven?
James Samuel Walraven was born in Decatur, Georgia in 1949. James allegedly grew up in a broken family and was known to be a well-behaved child yet withdrawn emotionally. His mother, Mildred Walraven, had testified during his trial saying that James had issues with his father as he was an alcoholic.
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Walraven's father would treat both his sister and him poorly. He would tackle, suffocate, abuse, and throw things at them which led to his embarrassment, per the Atlanta Journal Constitution. While it took Mildred twelve years to get a divorce from her husband, James Walraven started to show signs of emotional distress from his junior year in high school.
As an adult, James Samuel Walraven took a special interest in tennis and was a frequent visitor at the tennis courts in Atlanta and DeKalb County. Walraven reportedly ran into trouble at the place in June 1980 when he was found to have pointed his gun at a fellow player, Jeff Campbell.
Walraven served 30 days in prison for the charges of threatening to kill a friend, per UPI Archives. Jeff Campbell reportedly described James Walraven as:
"He was a very up and down sort of person, very moody, very unstable."
Walraven had reportedly been instituted in several mental institutions over the years.
How many murders did the Bathtub Strangler commit?
James Samuel Walraven or the Bathtub Strangler took three victims between April to June 1981. His tennis acquaintance who was assaulted, Campbell, described Walraven as a generally moody and unpredictable person. The situation worsened as he was released after his jail time in 1980.
The first victim, Louise Dal Santo (22), was found face-down in the bathtub of her Woodcreek apartment on April 15, 1981. According to court documents, her brother, Dario Dal Santo, found her naked in the bathtub. The forensic reports determined the cause of death to be manual strangulation while the medical examinations determined that she had been r*ped before her murder.
The second murder took place on May 29, 1981, when 22-year-old Gisele Clardy was found similarly in her bathtub in Cherry Hill Apartments in DeKalb County. According to court documents, Gisele had been found naked with only her blouse on in almost four inches of water. While the forensic reports failed to establish the presence of foreign DNA in her private parts, the bruises around her loins led to the belief that she was sexually coerced into intercourse as well.
The third victim was 22-year-old Patricia Berry who was found dead in her bathtub in her Windermere apartment on June 15, 1981. Berry had been manually strangulated and r*ped as well, per the court documents. Her body was naked waist down and partially submerged in the water.
Walraven was arrested on July 14, 1981, and was sentenced to death on November 16 the same year. However, a retrial took place and he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1983. It was later reported in 2004 that the convict took his own life by hanging himself with a bedsheet in prison.
