SERIOUSLY SERIAL KILLERS OF COLROADO
Colorado’s headlines are no stranger to murderous rampage. From the 1800s to today, dozens of documented killers have roamed the Wild West. With a rich history of outlaws, it’s no surprise that a few make an appearance every decade or so. Here are some you should know about.
Vincent Groves
Vincent Groves is probably the most prolific serial killer in Colorado history, making his mark between 1979 and 1988. At a hulking 6 foot 5 inches tall, he was a former member of Wheat Ridge High School’s star basketball team and student council. Groves’ focus was on strangulation of young women; some prostitutes who worked on Colfax Ave, others just acquaintances. Though he was only convicted of four murders, Groves had been linked to 24 homicides. He died in prison on Halloween in 1996.
Felipe Espinosa
Possibly the first serial killer in Colorado, Felipe Espinosa killed around 32 residents within a year during the mid-1800s. A Mexican immigrant described as intensely religious with a grin like a jack-o-lantern, Espinosa took out his rage with the US government alongside his brothers until his assassination by Thomas Tobin in 1863. Tobin brought the heads of Felipe and his cousin Jose to back Fort Garland. It’s said that Felipe’s head was kept in a jar on a newspaper editor’s desk and eventually made its way to the Rocky Mountain News.
Scott Lee Kimball
Scott Lee Kimball, also known as Joe Snitch, is currently serving a 70-year sentence for confessing to the murders of four victims — three women and his uncle. Convicted in 2009, Kimball committed the murders while on a supervised leave serving as an FBI informant between early 2003 to late 2004. The Boulder County resident was also one of several suspects tied to a mass murder of 11 women (one pregnant) discovered in a grave in West Mesa, NM in 2009, but Kimball denied involvement. The women all disappeared around the same time as Kimball’s killing spree.
Luis Jose Monge
The last recorded execution in the US, Luis Jose Monge’s story reads a bit like The Amityville Horror. The Puerto Rico native who grew up in New York was living as a salesman in Denver with his pregnant wife and their 10 children in the 1960s. Monge beat his wife to death with a steel bar as she slept and stabbed his 11-month-old daughter Teresa before he turned on two of his sons, choking Vincent (4) and bludgeoning Alan (6) with a steel bar. Immediately after the incident, he turned himself in. The murders were apparently done to cover sex crimes he committed with his own children. In 1967, he requested to be hanged in front of the Denver City and County building at high noon and was denied. He was executed a few months later at his own request in a gas chamber.
