Serial Killer Charlie Chop Off #truecrime

Charlie Chop Off

Over just over a year 4 children were murdered by a sadistic killer in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City during the early 1970s. The community was in an absolute panic as their rooftops became the killing ground for a vicious monster. He stabbed his victims repeatedly, then chopped off a certain part of their body sometimes taking it away with him. While a man confessed to 1 of the murders, he was found to be insane and institutionalized without being tried in court, leaving the remaining murders unsolved and doubt regarding the confession. With no one to blame for the deaths of the 4 boys, the world will remember the creature by the name used to refer to him in the papers:

Charlie Chop Off

The 1970’s were a time of culture and creativity in Harlem. But there was a shadowy undercurrent of drugs and crime as in all cities. In this case, heroin was being sold to the area by a crime syndicate known as the council, and led by Nicky Barnes. There was also Frank Lucas, subject of American Gangster, selling the poison.

Despite the issues, most families in Harlem were working hard to make ends meet, with many households making less than $10,000 a year, the equivalent of a little over $70000 in todays dollars. On March 9th of 1972 these families began a new nightmare that left parents in an absolute panic.

On that day, a boy was found murdered on a rooftop just blocks from his home. Douglas Owens was only 8 years old when he was killed. He had been assaulted and stabbed over 3 dozen times in the neck, chest and back. His shoes had been taken, but horrifyingly the killer had slashed at the boys genitals, nearly severing his member.

It is possible that the police could have stopped the killing after the first victim. On March 26 1972, a tip came in pointing the finger at a man named Erno Soto. It was speculated that his motivation was his wife leaving him and having a child with an African American man. This led him to became deranged and to lash out at those who blamed for his problems. However, profilers describe him as a lust killer indicating he in fact was attracted to his victims and the violence achieved some sick sort of gratification.

Despite the call, police did not investigate Soto, and on April 20th the monster struck again. An anonymous 10 year old boy was found on another rooftop 2 miles from where Owens had been found. He had been abused and ravaged with a knife like the first victim, but this time the removal of his manhood had been successful.

Luckily the boy survived the attack. His body part was found discarded in a park. When police were able to interview him, the boy told them that his attacker had been either an Italian or Hispanic man in his late 30s. He had a pockmarked face with a mole on the left side and black marks on his chin.

Perhaps due to the attention the second attack had gotten, the killer did not strike again until October 23rd. Wendell Hubbard was only 9 years old when he was murdered on the roof of the building his family lived in. He had been stabbed 17 times in the neck, chest, and stomach. Once again the killer chopped off his genitals and took them with him.

There was not another attack until 2 days prior to the anniversary of the murder of Douglas Owens. On March 7 1973, a 9 year old boy named Luis Ortiz was found dead in a basement. Breaking the past pattern, Luis was Puerto Rican while the past victims had been African American.

Despite the difference in race and location, it was clear that Ortiz had been murdered by the same killer as Owens and Hubbard. He had been stabbed 38 times and had his genitals cut off and taken away. Ortiz had been running an errand when he disappeared close to his home.

The vicious attacks outraged the community. They felt that the police were not doing enough to catch the killer. Protests and community meetings were held and children were instructed on the danger in their midst and to avoid any interaction with strangers.

In response the police formed a task force to find the killer, with 50 detectives working on the case. They received 300 tips, investigated 150 individuals, and conducted house to house searches in the area where the bodies were found. The records of thousands of offenders were reviewed to find a connection to the murders. The children of Harlem began referring to the killer as Charlie Chop Off and the press adopted the term for the elusive psychopath.

At one point, a suspect was brought to the police station and exonerated, but a mob formed and demanded he be turned over to them. The police had to put up barricades as a riot seemed imminent and eventually the man had to be disguised as a police officer and smuggled to safety. Another man was pursued through the streets and had to jump in the Harlem River to escape.

In May of 1973, Erno Soto was arrested for abusing a child, yet he was not incarcerated long enough to prevent another murder that year. On August 17 an 8 year old named Steven Cropper was found dead on a rooftop. Varying from the past methods, the killer slashed him with a razor in an X pattern instead of stabbing the boy. He also did not chop off his genitals. However his shoes were taken like prior victims and he was posed in a suggestive position.

There were so many razor slashes that his body resembled ground meat. Cropper was last seen around 4:30 and his body was found an hour later so the killer moved quickly. A limping man was seen fleeing the area matching previous sightings of the killer. This murder also took place in a different part of New York City but it was connected to Charlie Chop Off due to the body being found on a rooftop and the suspect bystanders witnessed.

There was a break in the case on May 15 1974 when Erno Soto was apprehended by members of the community after attempting to abduct a young boy. It was discovered that he had spent over a decade in prison and had been in the area where the murders occurred. Soto confessed to the murder of Steven Cropper.

However, he did not confess to the entire Charlie Chop Off murder series. Further dashing the hopes of the community and police of closing the other cases, the surviving victim did not identify Soto as his attacker, saying only that he was similar looking. This combined with the differences between the Cropper murder and the prior attacks, made it hard to definitively identify Soto as the killer they sought.

Soto was charged with the murder of Cropper and in 1976, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity and permanently placed in a mental hospital. While he was not charged with the other murders or named as the killer, there were no additional attacks after his arrest. He had been hospitalized for psychosis soon after the murder of Owens, but slipped away prior to the attack on the surviving victim.

He had also been in a mental hospital at the time of the Cropper murder, but authorities say he was easily able to come and go from the facility. The case is still officially unsolved but it seems police were confident that Soto was their killer. But we will never know for sure whether he was in fact Charlie Chop Off or whether the serial killer simply moved to a different area to continue his brutal reign of terror on a new community or began using different methods.

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