Walter E Ellis

Investigation

The North Side Strangler victims were all African-American women. Milwaukee Police Department Homicide Detective Steven Spingola authored an e-magazine article, The Killer in Our Midst: the Case of Milwaukee's North Side Strangler, which chronicled his investigation of the homicides of Sheila Farrior and Florence McCormick. Trained in criminal background analysis, Spingola provided a detailed profile of the killer, which Milwaukee talk-radio host and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Wagner described as "eerily accurate." Spingola, however, retired before Detectives Gilbert Hernandez and Kathy Hein, of the Milwaukee Police Department's cold case homicide unit, reexamined DNA evidence that linked a suspect to the homicides.

On September 7, 2009, Walter E. Ellis (then aged 49), was arrested on suspicion of being the notorious serial killer. Ellis had been arrested 12 times between 1981 and 1998, when he was sentenced to five years for reckless endangerment. Ellis was initially charged with two counts of first degree intentional homicide and held on $1 million bail. The Milwaukee County district attorney's office later filed five new murder charges against him: three of intentional homicide and two under the previous statute of first degree murder.

In addition to the seven cases in which he was formally charged, Ellis was connected through DNA evidence to three other homcides: Jessica Payne, Carron Kilpatrick, and Maryetta Griffin. In each of these cases men other than Ellis were charged with the murders, based on the investigations conducted by the Milwaukee Police Department. In the Payne case, Chaunte Ott was wrongly convicted of the killing and served 12 years in prison before the DNA results showed his innocence and he was released. In the Griffin case, William Avery was wrongly convicted and served 6 years before he was able to obtain the DNA evidence that showed his innocence and he too was released. Curtis McCoy was wrongly charged with the Kilpatrick homicide, but was acquitted by a jury even before the DNA evidence linking the crime to Ellis was found. Ott received a settlement from the City of Milwaukee, while Avery won a civil rights trial against two Milwaukee Police Department detectives, Gilbert Hernandez and Daniel Phillips. http://morelaw.com/verdicts/case.asp?s=WI&d=79164

Initially represented by Attorney Russell Jones in defense of these claims, Ellis pleaded not guilty, and stood prepared to defend himself. Jones was withdrawn from the case, and then on February 18, 2011, Ellis pleaded no contest to seven murders or intentional homicides, and was convicted despite not admitting his guilt. On February 24, 2011, he was given seven life sentences, to be served consecutively, without the possibility of parole. After he was convicted, he was initially held at the Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin, for Assessment and Evaluation in accordance with the Wisconsin Administrative Code, from where he was transferred to the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility in Boscobel, Wisconsin. In November 2011, Ellis was transferred to the maximum custody unit at the South Dakota State Penitentiary.

Name

The use of the name "North Side Strangler" in reference to the case has been limited to one local news organization, WTMJ, Channel 4, which is believed to have coined the nickname, although it has been picked up by some bloggers and by British media as well. Use of the nickname, however, has also been a subject of criticism in other Milwaukee media.

Death

Ellis died at a Sioux Falls, South Dakota hospital on December 1, 2013 from apparent natural causes, according to a South Dakota Department of Corrections news release.