George Russell Jr. was once a friendly individual, but as he aged, he transformed into a heinous serial killer by age 31.
He would target women, mistreating both the living and the dead in his quest for s*xual gratification. As his feelings of isolation intensified, so did the frequency and severity of his crimes.
He would go on the streets at night, dressed in black clothing and breaking into homes while people were sleeping. He stole cash, jewelry, and personal items, often standing beside sleeping women’s beds in silence.
The authorities believed that irrational s*xual desires fueled his nocturnal burglary activities. Throughout his youth and early adulthood, Russell wreaked havoc in the suburbs of Seattle, becoming a notorious criminal.
In his 20s, he became a regular at wild nightclubs in Bellevue, just east of Mercer Island, where he maintained a friendly demeanor.
Victims of George Russell
In the summer of 1990, the discovery of three murdered club-goers in Bellevue within a two-month period sparked a wave of accusations, with several people pointing fingers at George Russell Jr.
The first victim, Mary Ann Pohlreich, was found naked and staged near a McDonald’s dumpster. An autopsy revealed that she had suffered brutal assaults, suffocation, and kicking, and had been subjected to post-mortem rape by a sadistic necrophile.
Seven weeks later, Carol Marie Bleethe’s beaten body was found in her East Bellevue home. Her assailant had displayed creativity, intelligence, and improvisation, striking her repeatedly on the head with a blunt object and leaving 13 distinct Y-shaped wounds on her body.
She had two broken ribs that had punctured her chest cavity, a plastic dry-cleaning sack around her head, and was naked except for a pair of red high heels. Her favorite diamond ring was missing.
Russell was known to have clipped images of the first two victims from newspapers and tacked them to his wall, boasting to friends that the murderer would never be caught. He referred to the victims as “skanky sl*ts.”
On September 3, 1990, the third victim, Andrea “Randi” Levine, was found brutally beaten with an aluminum baseball bat, her room drenched in blood.
Her spread-legged torso was covered in 231 small knife wounds, and her favorite amethyst jewelry was missing.
The police believed that the assailant had attacked Levine with a kitchen knife and then taken her belongings to conceal the weapon used in the murder.
The string of murders in Bellevue shook the community, and the quick succession of the crimes fueled speculation about the killer’s identity.
While Russell was immediately accused by several people, including an ex-girlfriend he had previously assaulted, it was not until several years later that he was officially linked to the crimes.
The evidence against him was overwhelming, and he was eventually brought to justice for his heinous acts.
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