Eugene Victor Britt (born November 4, 1957) is an American serial killer and rapist who killed at least seven girls and women in Gary and Portage, Indiana between May and September 1995. Suspected in a total of ten murders, he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Biography
Eugene Britt was born on November 4, 1957, in a large impoverished family residing in Gary, Indiana. Both of his parents were alcoholics, with his father frequently beating his mother. Due to this constant abuse, at age 14, Eugene dropped out of school and fled from home, living on the streets and using drugs. Around this time, he began to show signs of an intellectual disability.
In April 1978, he attacked a 17-year-old girl who was returning home from the Roosevelt High School, robbing and raping her. Britt would later be arrested for this crime, receiving a 30-year sentence in December of that year. After serving half of his sentence, he was paroled in August 1993 and returned to Gary, where he resorted to sleeping in homeless shelters due to financial constraints. During this period, he lived with one of his sisters and changed several jobs, doing low-skilled work. He preferred to spend most of his free time travelling around the city, riding on his bicycle. In early autumn 1995, Britt was hit by a train, causing him severe injuries due to which he had to use a wheelchair for the next several weeks.
Exposure
On November 3, 1995, Eugene was arrested on suspicion of killing 8-year-old Sarah Lynn Paulsen, whose body had been found on August 22 near her home in Portage.
While investigating her death, officers found about 20 fibers of blue polyester yarns and green colors which matched the uniforms worn by employees of the Hardee's restaurant chain. At that time, Britt worked in a local division based in Portage and had been sent home in the middle of the day for an administrative offense, and was even seen riding his bicycle near the crime scene. Upon learning this, police officers confiscated his uniform so they could examine it.
Three days later, Britt confessed to killing Paulsen to Clyde Smith, the head of the homeless shelter where he had lived until his arrest, in addition to nine other murders. After that, Smith convinced Eugene to give himself up to law enforcement, which he did on the following day. During an 8-hour interrogation, Britt confessed to killing ten people in total, including Sarah Paulsen. According to his confessions, he had killed the other victims between May 9 and September 12, dumping their bodies in various locations around Gary. He indicated the dumping sites on a map, and much to the police's surprise, at least seven of these deaths had previously been ruled as non-homicidal in nature. For example, one of the victims' bodies was found in a state of severe decomposition, with the medical examiner unable to establish the cause of death.
Britt's victims were predominantly young girls and women, excluding one man, aged between 8 and 51. One of the victims was a prostitute. During the interrogation, he claimed to have committed the murders on the orders from voices in his head, attacking the victims in desolate areas, from behind, after which he dragged them to the side, where he raped and thereafter strangled the chosen victim. The circumstances surrounding the man's murder, according to his testimony, were different from the others: according to Eugene, two men had attempted to steal his bicycle, causing it to break down, but he managed to frighten them off with his imposing physique. Because of this, he got lost while searching for spare parts. After some time, he managed to track down one of the robbers, whereupon he proceeded to beat up and then strangle him. Britt additionally clarified that the injuries caused from the train were intentional, as he had planned on committing suicide.
Based on Britt's testimony in the following days, police found some bones and clothes in one of the indicated gravesites, but in December of that year, thanks to dental analysis of the jaws, the victim was identified as 24-year-old Tonya Dunlap, who had been missing since July 18 of that year. Despite the claims that there were 10 victims in total, investigators were successful in identifying only seven of them.