Edward Surratt

Edward Arthur Surratt (born August 8, 1941) is an American murderer, rapist and suspected serial killer. Convicted of a single murder and several rapes in 1978, he remains the prime suspect in a series of murders in Pennsylvania, Ohio and South Carolina between 1977 and 1978. In 2007, after serving 29 years in prison, Surratt confessed to six murders, but no charges were brought against him, despite credible circumstantial evidence indicating that he was indeed the perpetrator. In 2021, he confessed to six more murders.

Edward Surratt was born on August 8, 1941, in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, the son of successful entrepreneur Arthur Surratt. He spent his childhood and adolescence in an abusive environment.^{[citation needed]}

Edward attended Aliquippa High School, where he studied up to eighth grade, graduating with honors and most of his friends having a positive opinion of him. However, starting in the ninth grade, he lost interest in studying and began to spend more time on the street, which led him to engaging in crime in the late 1950s. In 1959, he was arrested for disturbing the peace, but escaped with a fine. That same year, due to chronic absenteeism and poor performance, he was kicked out of school, but after being persuaded by his parents, he returned the following year and graduated. After leaving school, Surratt was arrested a second time for disturbing the peace, hitting the arresting officer in the face. He was convicted of assault and sentenced to 14 months imprisonment at SCI Camp Hill Range in Cumberland County.

After his release, and with the financial support of his parents, Edward entered Youngstown University in Ohio, subsequently moving to the state. However, he quickly lost interest in studying, and in 1963, he was expelled and returned to his parents' home. Over the next year, he did odd jobs and engaged in low-skilled labour before being drafted in the Army in March 1964. He served at Fort Dix, New Jersey, where he was disciplined at least twice: for injuring a colleague with a pipe during a fight; and abandoning his post, later being arrested by local police for dangerous driving and illegal weapons possession. Surratt was dismissed from the Army in August 1965 and returned to Aliquippa, where he inherited the business of his late father, who had died in June of that year due to complications from throat cancer. Due to his inexperience and various other circumstances, he went bankrupt, and to escape his monetary difficulties, he enlisted in the Marine Corps in October 1966.

In the spring of 1967, after completing his training, he was sent to Vietnam. As part of a tank battalion, he fought during the Tet Offensive against the Viet Cong. In 1969, during one of the skirmishes, he was wounded in the chest and severely concussed following an explosion, which ruptured his eardrum. Over the next several months, he received treatment at a military hospital, from which he was released in the summer of 1970. In September, Edward was demobilized and returned to the USA. In total, between 1967 and 1970, he took part in a total of 11 military operations, for which he was later awarded the Gallantry Cross and the Purple Heart.

After returning from the war, Surratt married and moved to North Carolina, where he soon found a job as a truck driver. During this period, he began to exhibit antisocial behavior and signs of PTSD. In 1973, he was arrested in Virginia Beach, Virginia on charges of attempting to rape a 13-year-old boy. In March 1974, he was found guilty and convicted. After serving less than four years in prison, Surratt was paroled and released in January 1977, after which he returned to Aliquippa.

Edward Surratt came under police suspicion in April 1978. At the time, he was working as a truck driver for a company based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and during his professional career, from 1977 to 1978, he visited cities in both Ohio and Pennsylvania, where a series of at least 27 unsolved murders stirred a moral panic among the population.

He was eventually arrested and interrogated, but denied any responsibility for all the crimes, and since there was no evidence linking Surratt to them, he was released. On June 6, 1978, he was seen in his hometown of Aliquippa in a car that belonged to 66-year-old Luther Langford, who had been killed at his home in western Columbia, South Carolina on June 1 with several blows to the head with a baseball bat. His wife had also been beaten, but she managed to survive. While being arrested, Surratt, in spite of several warning shots, fiercely resisted seven officers and managed to escape, hiding in a nearby metallurgical plant on the Ohio River.