A murderer so savage his victims looked as if they’d been attacked by sharks terrorised the Eastern Coast of the USA during the 1960s, earning the nickname of the ‘American Jack the Ripper’.
In truth, his name was Antone ‘Tony’ Costa and he is believed to have murdered eight young women over a three year period between 1966 and 1969.
Costa earned notoriety for the brutality of his murders, leaving some victims dismembered, others bitten, and some decapitated.
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His moniker was earned after one victim was discovered with organs missing.
Many of his victims were also sexually abused after death.
At the time, Costa was a 24-year-old hippie, who even managed to earn himself the nickname of the ‘Cape Cod Casanova’.
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Whilst he was only ever convicted of two murders, he has been suspected of killing at least eight people, of which three have never been found.
Now, a new book called Hell Town: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer on Cape Cod has been released by true crime author Casey Sherman, shedding new light on Costa’s dark behaviour.
Sherman believes that Costa’s story is amongst the worst he’s ever heard during his career, and it piqued his interest as he is also from Massachusetts, where the killer lived.
Sherman told The US Sun: "I've covered upwards of 50 homicides in my career as an investigative journalist and I've never seen anything this bad.
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"I really do believe it and I'm not overplaying this, but, to me, Tony Costa is the most vicious serial killer since Jack the Ripper.
"These women weren't just murdered, they were brutalised in the crime scene photos and looked like they had been attacked by a great white shark - not a human killer.
"That's how vicious these wounds were ... pictures of their injuries still stick with me now as I'm talking."
Costa was known for being an attractive young man with considerable charm, and avoided suspicion initially when women started to go missing.
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However, he was the last person seen with 18-year-old Sydney Monzon before she disappeared, just one of 19 women to go missing from the town in 1968.
Eventually, Costa’s name started to come into the frame as more women linked to him started to go missing.
The disappearances of Patricia Walsh and Mary Anne Wysocki in January 1969 started to heap pressure on Costa, particularly when Wysocki’s head and torso were found in a forest, and another woman – Susan Perry – turned up decapitated with her genitals and breasts mutilated.
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In the book, Sherman goes into more detail about how he hung the women from trees, cut them with a blade he called a ‘pig stabber’ and dismembered them.
Eventually, he was brought to justice and arrested for four murders, although he was only ever tried for the killings of Walsh and Wysocki.
He was sentenced to life in prison, but was found dead in his cell four years later aged 29.
Whilst his death was ruled as a suicide officially, some have suggested that he may have been killed by fellow inmates.
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Topics: True crime, Crime, US News
Tom Wood