Pennsylvania 'Craigslist killer' says she slayed dozens more across U.S. as part of satanic cult:

A Pennsylvania newlywed accused of meeting a man on Craigslist and then stabbing him to death with her husband's help said she killed more than 20 more people as part of her involvement in a bloodthirsty satanic cult. "When I hit 22, I stopped counting," 19-year-old Miranda Barbour told the Sunbury, Pa., Daily Item newspaper in a chilling jailhouse interview Friday.

Pennsylvania 'Craigslist killer' says she slayed dozens more across U.S. as part of satanic cult: report

Wow. The couple finds a guy on Craigslist, set up a rendezvous on the pretense of sex with the wife and proceed to brutally murder him in their vehicle in a parking lot. Upon interviewing the wife, she claims she's killed more than 22 others beginning in Alaska when she was 13 as part of her involvement with a satanic cult.

"I would lure these people in. I studied them. I learned them and even became their friend," she said.

Chilling, it makes one wonder the depth of psychological horrors playing out in that woman's mind to murder more than 22 people in the span of 6 years, many of whom killed when she was merely a teenage girl.

More sources

Accused Craigslist Killer, 19, Admits to 22 More Slayings

FBI Talking To Pennsylvania Police Over Accused Craigslist Killer

The problem with psychopaths and sociopaths is that they practice so hard at appearing normal, it is hard to tell what they truly want, desire, and are doing.

reply to post by Kgdetroit


I actually don't believe it's true.
I'd need proof which certainly isn't available.

It does sound very much like something designed to manipulate folks though.
Think about it. Who would have a motive to exaggerate or fabricate that info?
And why?

reply to post by Kgdetroit


What a perfectly charming young lady.

(!)

reply to post by muzzleflash


Don't most killers want to be recognized for the deeds they did though? Not initially but at some point they want every one to know that it was him/her that was the killer right?

reply to post by muzzleflash


I am having a hard time believing what she's saying at this point as well. If true, it would make her the most prodigious female serial killer in American history at the tender age of 19. There have been others, mainly in the 19th century who are rumored to have killed more but in the modern era she would take the cake.

Without further information its hard to not think there is a large element of some kind of screwed up attention seeking behavior after her and her husband were caught "thrill killing" the poor guy lured from craigslist.

On the other hand, maybe she's just a special kind of psychopath. Time will tell.

reply to post by Sremmos80


They almost always want to be caught on some subconscious level, hence the leaving of clues or cryptic messages to the police or media. Its about the notoriety, serial killers are extremely narcissistic more often than not.

Female serial killers are a different breed though, there aren't many and what makes them tick is less understood as there are less instances available for case study.

There are probably others here with more knowledge, what I know is mostly gleaned from a criminal justice class on serial killers years ago.

reply to post by Kgdetroit


Could be true, or part of some plea bargain, or just to throw the word Satanism around to spook people and hope that a movie gets made and she can be played by Miley Cyrus (go for it Miley!). Have to do something to spend the time in jail, and she has her own motives for claiming those killings.

Yeah when I first read this I was thinking, what's the cults name? What do they call their god? Using the term "Satanic Cult" sounds more like a cheap excuse more then a point of reality.

It sounds like they did a thrill kill, got caught, and now are just making things up in hopes of a plea bargain to lessen their sentences.

They may have killed a couple of people, but I'd be surprised if it's really more then just a couple.

Kgdetroit
reply to post by Sremmos80

 

They almost always want to be caught on some subconscious level, hence the leaving of clues or cryptic messages to the police or media. Its about the notoriety, serial killers are extremely narcissistic more often than not.

Female serial killers are a different breed though, there aren't many and what makes them tick is less understood as there are less instances available for case study.

There are probably others here with more knowledge, what I know is mostly gleaned from a criminal justice class on serial killers years ago.

Ya so that is why her coming out to all the other killings make sense to me, she knows she is caught now so might as well get credit for the others
And she wasn't alone right? Her husband was part of it as well so can we apply what we know to him?
I as well am drawing from my serial killer section of my class as well. Forget who I wrote my report on, we had to find less known killers. But the traits were all the same across the board, narcissism being a big one as you pointed out

22 kills i think not. Unless bodily evidence can be proved, like where the bodies have been buried other wise she just lying.

Will prosecutors give you a better plea bargain if you just say your crime was worse then it actually was? Wouldn't they have to prove that you did all the killings before factoring it into the deal you will receive?

reply to post by Kgdetroit


My personal view is that as generally 'normal' people, we try to rationalise what these people do, and the long and the short of it is that there is really, ultimately only one reason why they do these terrible things...they're criminally insane.

That's it.

Nuts, out to lunch, ga-ga.

It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that, but we try to reason out their actions against the litmus paper of what most of us recognise as normality...it doesn't work of course, because they are not of a normal, sane mind. We just have a hard time working out why, because most of us are not insane and can't comprehend it.

reply to post by Sremmos80


As far as I understand it, the majority if the killings she did alone. This was the first her and her husband did together, hence the "thrill kill" aspect. What bothers me if her claims are true is the apparent drastic change of MO. She goes from being the ultimate black widow and killing possibly dozens of men across the country undetected for years and suddenly switches it up her style to commit a sloppy murder in a public parking lot? With a partner?

Serial killers are usually pretty glued to their methodologies as there's a ritualistic catharsis associated. Again, females are different though so I'm at a loss. Extremely interested to see where this goes though.

She needs to name names of other people in the "satanic cult" or else it's just BS. Sounds like she must have been an ATS member; making up fantastic stories for the authorities. Just buying time....

reply to post by MysterX


They are absolutely insane. Dont confuse insanity with a lack of intelligence though, serial killers are usually incredibly intelligent, hence they are able to attain the "serial" status before being caught.

While their thought processes are not the same as an average person, there is absolutely a well documented cognitive pattern associated with these maniacs that is common to most.

From the OP's first link:

Speaking through a jailhouse phone, Barbour told the newspaper LaFerrara was just the latest victim in a multistate killing spree that began at 13 when she joined a satanic cult in Alaska. The cult's leader let her tag along on a hit on someone who owed him money, she said. The unnamed leader shot the man and then handed her the gun to finish him off, she claimed. "I couldn't do it, so he came behind me and he took his hands and put them on top of mine and we pulled the trigger," Barbour said.

Unnamed leader?
Why unnamed? Because he doesn't exist?
A hit over money (which would then never be collected from a dead man), or satanic cult killing?

"And then from there I just continued to kill." The deranged young mom, who has a daughter from a past lover, claimed to have bodies stashed in California, North Carolina and Texas, as well as Alaska, where most of the murders took place. Her victims, she told the Daily Item, "did bad things and didn't deserve to be here anymore." "I would lure these people in. I studied them. I learned them and even became their friend," she said.

Who is she? Dexter with a code for killing just "bad people", or satanic cult killer?

Sounds like IMO she got caught for one murder then threw in the satanic element and reluctance to do the first kill to gain notoriety and help her current case by holding these "buried bodies" as leverage.
But, again IMO, it just sounds like conflicting accounts from the same person.

She got caught for her only murder, then BS'd.

"I remember everything. It is like watching a movie."

^^ This tells me its bull#. Ask any violent criminal about their crimes/murders they usually have a fragmented recollection of events, not because they are lying, but because their mind trys to suppress serious violence/injury.

"Miranda then stabbed him 20 times. LeFerrara's body was found in an alley the next day."

Someone who has killed previously would probably have better knife skills. Just hacking at someone till they stop moving is a pretty amateurish and messy way to end someone.

I think she is just talking tough, a young girl in prison facing life/death would be one scared kitty...

Also, the digital footprint if she used Craplist before to solicit vic's would give the police a good idea of where these vic's might be. The fact they have found none, may only just be a matter of time, but to me seems unlikley that there is any.

muzzleflash
reply to post by Kgdetroit

 

I actually don't believe it's true.
I'd need proof which certainly isn't available.

It does sound very much like something designed to manipulate folks though.
Think about it. Who would have a motive to exaggerate or fabricate that info?
And why?

Sick. Sick. Sick....

I'm sure some of it's true. But it does sound weirdly almost like she wants to be in jail, or executed:

"If I were to be released, I would do this again," she told the newspaper.

I am generally pretty strongly against capital punishment. But it's people like this, that make me question my position.


The satanic cult bit is pretty interesting. Wonder if there's any truth to that...

reply to post by Kgdetroit


Ya ok fair enough, I read some more and her story ins't exactly iron clad.
I just don't see how making up crimes will help you get a lesser sentence, that is what I am stuck on.
Also for all saying she needs to name names.... If this is true and its is all part of a cult, why would you snitch on them? Snitches get stitches,and if she is telling the truth seems like those stitches would be the Y incision form her autopsy