David Michael Krueger | |
|---|---|
 Krueger (then Woodcock) in 1957. | |
| Born | Peter Woodcock March 5, 1939 |
| Died | March 5, 2010 (aged 71) |
| Criminal status | Deceased |
| Details | |
| Victims | 4 |
Span of crimes | 1956 – 1957, 1991 |
| Country | Canada |
Date apprehended | January 21, 1957 |
David Michael Krueger (March 5, 1939 – March 5, 2010), best known by his birth name, Peter Woodcock, was a Canadian serial killer, child rapist and diagnosed psychopath. He gained notoriety for the murders of three young children in Toronto in the late 1950s, as well as for a murder in 1991 on his first day of unsupervised release from the psychiatric institution in which he had been incarcerated for his earlier crimes.
An adopted child, Krueger lived in numerous foster homes as an infant, and showed signs of severe emotional trauma when he found a permanent foster home at the age of 3. Unable to adjust to social situations, he was bullied by his peers. He would often wander from his home by foot, bicycle or train to parts of Toronto, where he would molest dozens of children, and ultimately murder three. Found not guilty by reason of insanity for his crimes, he was sent to a psychiatric facility. Psychiatrists placed him in experimental treatment programs for psychopathy, but those treatments proved ineffective when he murdered a fellow psychiatric patient in 1991; after his death in 2010, he was described in the Toronto Star as "the serial killer they couldn't cure."[1]
- ^ Bourrie, Mark (March 9, 2010). "The serial killer they couldn't cure dies behind bars". Toronto Star. Retrieved July 22, 2010.