Melvin Rees: Piano Salesman, Jazz Musician, Serial Killer

           Melvin Rees after his arrest

On this day in 1957, Margaret Harold and her boyfriend were forced off by the road by a green Chrysler, while out for a drive outside of Annapolis, Maryland. The Chrysler's driver proceeded to exit his car and after demanding cash and cigarettes from the couple, he shot Harold point-blank in the face. Harold's boyfriend managed to escape to a nearby farmhouse where he was able to call the police. When officers arrived at the crime scene they discovered that Harold's killer had also sexually assaulted her corpse. While searching for the assailant in the area, they also discovered an abandoned building with a broken basement window. Inside the basement, they found a stash of violent pornography, along with a University of Maryland yearbook photo of a woman named Wanda Tipton. When police contacted Tipton, she denied knowing anyone matching the description of Margaret Harold's killer. With no additional leads to follow and virtually no forensic techniques, the case soon went cold.

On January 10, 1959, Carroll Jackson, his wife Mildred and their infant daughters Janet and Susan were reported missing after a relative found their abandoned car on the side of the road near Apple Grove, Virginia. Two months later the bodies of Carroll and Janet were found in a ditch in Fredericksburg. The bodies of Mildred and Susan, showing signs of torture and pre-mortem sexual assault, were found in a forest near Annapolis. After talking to witnesses who said they had a frightening encounter with a tall, dark-haired man near the location of the Jacksons' disappearance and comparing the crime scenes, police determined that the Harold and Jackson murders were connected. The murders soon became a media sensation and Fredricksburg authorities received an anonymous letter suggesting that they investigate a man by the name of Melvin Rees. The writer of the letter claimed that they had several conversations with Rees about the morality of murder. Rees believed that is wasn't right or wrong but just another part of "human experience".

In 1960, Glenn Moser, of Norfolk, Virginia, came forward as the letter-writer. Rees had contacted him and was working at a music store in West Memphis, Arkansas. After Rees was arrested, police found notes in his home describing the Jackson family murders and Margaret Harold's boyfriend positively identified him as her killer. The state of Maryland sentenced Melvin Rees to life in prison, with the state Virginia tacking on a death sentence that was changed to life in 1972. Rees died in prison from heart failure in 1995.

Investigators believe that Rees was responsible for at least four more homicides in addition to the murders that he went to prison for. Teenagers Mary Shomette, Michael Ann ("Mikie") Ryan, Mary Fellers, and Shelby Venable were found raped and murdered in the University of Maryland area. Rees had attended UMD in the early 1950s, where his fellow students remembered him as a talented jazz musician who left school early in order to pursue a music career. In 1955, he had been arrested after trying to force a woman into his car but the charges were dropped and the incident was dismissed until the world learned of his killing spree.