Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder and assault. Reader discretion is advised.
An episode of People Magazine Investigates: Surviving a Serial Killer, “Surviving the Railroad Killer,” will air on ID on Sunday, May 12, 2024, at 9 p.m. ET. The synopsis of the episode reads, “A new romance between two college students derails when a sadist attacks them during a nighttime walk by the railroad tracks; only one of them lives and she turns out to be the sole survivor of the serial murderer known as the Railroad Killer.”
Angel Maturino Resendiz came to be known as the Railroad Killer after he killed a series of victims alongside the railroad in the late 1990s. When he was announced to be a wanted person in the murders in Texas, Illinois, and Kentucky, he went by the name of Rafael Resendez Ramirez. The FBI named him to the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. CBS News reported that a massive search for Resendiz included intensive checking of train cars.
Among the Railroad Killer’s many victims were a kindergarten teacher, a grandmother, a doctor, a pastor, and his wife. Holly Dunn was Angel Maturino Resendiz’s only surviving victim and was out with her then-boyfriend, Christopher Maier, on a night in August 1997. The couple had just been walking near railway tracks when Resendiz attacked the couple. He killed Maier and raped Dunn before leaving her. He allegedly assumed she also died, as per a report by ABC 13.
People Magazine reported that the Railroad Killer took trains and traveled across the country. He also attacked and murdered victims in several railroad towns. Resendiz began taunting police, repeating murders in places where he was being looked for. In July 1999, Resendiz turned himself into the police.
How many people did the Railroad Killer murder?
The Railroad Killer was linked to at least 15 murders. However, according to The New York Times, he was only convicted of one murder. He did confess to nine murders and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The defense argued that Resendiz believed he was an avenging angel sent by God to kill evil people. He reportedly also had hatred for homosexuals and abortionists, as per a CNN report. The murder he was convicted for was that of the Houston physician Claudia Benton, who died in 1998.
On October 2, 1998, the Railroad Killer allegedly bludgeoned 87-year-old Leafie Mason using an antique iron in her house in Texas. Claudia Benton, a physician, was found sexually assaulted, stabbed, and beaten to death in her Houston home on December 17 of the same year. The house was located near the railroad tracks.
Then, Norman Sirnic, a pastor at the United Church of Christ, was found bludgeoned to death along with his wife, Karen Sirnic. They were killed using a sledgehammer in May 1999. The fingerprints found at the crime scene matched those at Benton’s house. Noemi Dominguez was also bludgeoned using a pickax in her Houston home on June 4, 1999. On the same day when Dominguez was killed, Resendiz also allegedly killed Josephine Konvicka using the same pickax.
George Morber, 79, and his daughter, Carolyn Frederick, 51, were killed in their Illinois home on June 15, 1999. The Railroad Killer allegedly shot Morber with a shotgun and used the same weapon to then bludgeon Frederick. He turned himself in less than a month after that.
The episode of People Magazine Investigates: Surviving a Serial Killer that features the crimes of the Railroad Killer will air on ID on Sunday, May 13, 2024, at 9 p.m. ET.
