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Detail of beadwork from an Ojibwe medicine pouch
Monday, April 20, 2009
A Real Spokane Serial Killer: Robert Lee Yates
I was watching a show over break about a real Indian Killer in Spokane, Washington from 1975-1999. This killer mainly killed street walkers, unlike the Indian Killer. He killed 16 people during his spree, and was apprehended in April 1999. Robert Lee Yates is currently on death row at Washington State Penitentiary. His execution was set for September 19, 2008, but a judge postponed it only 8 days before.
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11 comments:
I wonder if Sherman Alexie was inspired any way by that killer and incorporated traits into the Indian Killer
it depends on the date that the book was written, and the date of this trial..
Thats scary that there are actually people like that in the real world as oppose to in fiction. I would think that Yates killing spree would be a good inspiration to the story we are reading now.
I agree with marianna. Did they end up executing him or is it still postponed?
if Sherman Alexie was inspired by this maybe the killer is a white man so that means we can narrow down all the indians...
Indian Killer was published in 1996, which was during Yates' killing spree.
Ele, the execution is still postponed.
I found a link to a site with info about serial killers in Washington State. check this out
It sounded possible, but Alexie would have had to written Indian Killer really quickly to actually been inspired by this guy.
I bet if we could look at the way all 16 people were murdered, we could find some resemblances to the murders in Indian Killer.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Doubt it
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