The Survival Story of Scott Johnston and Sean Farmer Notes:

Header Image Source: Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Other Image Sources:

Scott Johnston and Sean Farmer at the campground where they were shot by killer Randall Lee Smith (via scnow.com)

Randall Lee Smith died mere days after being taken into custody in Giles County of a blood clot in 2008 (via btdonline.com) 

"Randall Lee Smith (June 29,1953– May 10, 2008) was a convicted murderer from Pearisburg, Virginia. He pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Robert Mountford Jr. and Laura Susan Ramsay, who were killed while hiking the Appalachian Trail, in May 1981. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison, but was released in 1996 on mandatory parole after serving 15 years. Both Smith's sentence and his early release were met with anger by the victims' families as well as the hiking community. Hikers protested outside the courtroom the day after his sentencing, and a spokesman for the Appalachian Trail Conference said Smith is the "first person convicted of murdering a hiker who has had the opportunity to leave prison". His probation ended in 2006.

On May 6, 2008, Smith attempted to kill two fishermen less than two miles from the site of the 1981 murders. He befriended the two fishermen, who shared their dinner with Smith, before opening fire on them without warning. Both men were shot twice, but survived. Smith was arrested that day after attempting to escape in one of the victim's trucks and subsequently crashing. He died in jail four days later as a result of injuries sustained in the crash.

The novel Murder on the Appalachian Trail (1985), by Jess Carr, is a fictionalized account of the 1981 murders.

The 1981 murder and 2008 attack on the fishermen were also depicted in the Investigation Discovery series Dead Silent: The Curse of Dismal Creek, season 1, episode 1, broadcast on October 25, 2016..."

— Source: Randall Lee Smith Wikipedia

The Glamour Girl Slayer Notes:

Header Image Source: Photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash

Other Image Sources:

Harvey Murray Glatman mugshot (via Wikipedia Commons)

Harvey Glatman, “The Glamour Girl Slayer,” in jail 1958 from Bettmann/Getty Images (via AllThatsInteresting.com)

Judy Ann Dull from Wikipedia Commons (via AllThatsInteresting.com)

Harvey Glatman took this photo of Judy Dull before he raped, strangled, and left her dead body in the desert from Bettman/Getty Images (via AllThatsInteresting.com)

Photo of Shirley Ann Bridgeford bound and gagged was taken by Harvey Glatman before he raped and strangled her from Bettmann/Getty Images (via Bettman/Getty Images)

Personal photo of Lorraine Vigil (via AllThatsInteresting.com)

"Harvey Murray Glatman (December 10, 1927 – September 18, 1959) was an American serial killer active during the late 1950s. He was known in the media as "The Lonely Hearts Killer" and "The Glamour Girl Slayer." He would use several pseudonyms, posing as a professional photographer to lure his victims with the promise of a modeling career.

Born in the Bronx to a Jewish family and raised in Colorado, Glatman exhibited antisocial behavior and sadomasochistic sexual tendencies from an early age. When he was twelve years old, his parents noticed that he had a red, swollen neck. He described having been in the bathtub, placing a rope around his neck, running it through the tub drain, and pulling it tight against his neck," achieving some kind of sexual pleasure from this act." His mother took him to the family physician and was told he "would grow out of it."

Later Glatman began committing robberies, burglaries, and eventually escalated to sexually assaulting the women of the homes he targeted. One burglary got him arrested. After his parents bailed him out Glatman was arrested again a month later when he abducted and sexually assaulted another woman. His parents were unable to bail him out and he was incarcerated. During this time he was diagnosed as a schizophrenic (or, at the time, having a split-personality disorder or having psychoneurosis. Glatman was released in November that same year.

Glatman moved to Los Angeles, California in 1957 and started strolling around modeling agencies looking for potential victims. He would contact them with offers of work for pulp fiction magazines, take them back to his apartment, tie them up and sexually assault them, taking pictures all the while. He would then strangle them and dump the bodies in the desert. His two known model victims were Judith Dull and Ruth Mercado.[2] A third victim, Shirley Ann Bridgeford, was met through a Lonely Hearts ad in the newspaper.

Glatman also is a suspect in the slaying of "Boulder Jane Doe," a victim whose corpse was discovered by hikers near Boulder, Colorado in 1954. Her identity remained a mystery for 55 years. In October 2009, the Sheriff's Office was notified by Dr. Terry Melton, of Mitotyping Technologies in State College, Pennsylvania that her lab had made a match between the Jane Doe's DNA profile and that of a woman who thought the unidentified murder victim might be her long-lost sister. The positive identification of "Boulder Jane Doe" was an 18-year-old woman from Phoenix, Arizona named Dorothy Gay Howard.

Glatman was arrested in 1958, caught in the act of kidnapping what would have been his fourth known murder victim, Lorraine Vigil. A patrolman saw him struggling with a woman at the side of the road and arrested him. He willingly confessed to the other three murders and eventually led the police to a toolbox containing pictures that he had taken of the victims. He was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, a sentence that he accepted willingly. He specifically asked the warden to do nothing to save his life. He was executed in the gas chamber of San Quentin State Prison on September 18, 1959..."

— Source: Harvey Glatman Wikipedia