Dale Grisco is a serial killer and copycat, and the hidden accomplice of fellow serial killer and accomplice Elvis Howell. Grisco went dormant when Howell was captured and sentence to death, then started killing again when Howell was executed.
Background[]
Grisco was a problematic foster child and frequent runaway at the Dolores House foster home. At large serial killer Elvis Howell worked as a life coach and steered Grisco into a better direction of his life, bonding with him over baseball games and horticulture. Howell, in turn, brought Grisco on as his accomplice in his murders, hoping to teach him how to kill. Although the six women Howell killed first were all women in sex work, the seventh woman, Courtney Gunderson, was a schoolteacher, who Howell picked specifically for Grisco when he was the age of 15 to break and dominate him into joining the spree. After raping Courtney, Howell tried to make Grisco beat her to death with his police baton, which was used in all the murders. When Courtney pleaded to God, Grisco relented, leading to Howell strangling her to death with the baton in a rage in front of Grisco's eyes. Instead of caring to sympathize with Courtney more than he did, Grisco was devastated when Howell shamed him for "failing", which warped him into a sort of undying loyalty and debt toward Howell.
Howell was eventually caught and arrested, Serena Stevens being the arresting officer for Courtney's murder, which was her first murder case. He was convicted and sentenced to death. Grisco, in the meantime, grew up into an adult who ran a landscaping and horticulture business, Elvis Nursery and Landscaping, with a drug addict and savant named Ernie as his subordinate and who lodged in the Grisco family's house. Grisco married and had a son with his wife Janine, living relatively normally with them. But secretly, Grisco was planning his own killing spree as Howell's execution date was approaching, with Ernie as his own accomplice to train. It's presumed Grisco already practiced by killing people beforehand, specifically women in sex work, then dismembering and burying their remains in isolated areas near the grounds where his business was located in Jackson Heights, using his own land equipment for the deeds. He also acquired a baton of his own and a handgun by unknown means to make sure he precisely emulated Howell's crimes best he could when he planned for his murders to become more publicly noticed, specifically the murder of Courtney he couldn't get out of his mind all the years that would pass by.
Disciple[]
In 2010, Howell was executed while professing his innocence and that the "real" murderer was still at large. Around that same time, Grisco stalked a married john, Diego Caldez, and a woman he solicited, Maricela Fernandez. Grisco shoots Caldez in the head at the construction site parking lot where he tool Maricela, then raped and strangled Maricela with his baton before she was moved to Hunter's Point, her high-heel being left behind at the parking lot. In the middle of the whole timeline of events, he called his wife to let her know he'd return home. The signature hickey Grisco left below Maricela's left lip confirmed he was alluding to Howell. However, the prints in the hickeys are of different measurements, proving Grisco's a copycat, but concerning similarities to Courtney's murder and Maricela's murder leaving Stevens questioning her own judgments when she was on Howell's case.
Grisco later solicits Rae Ann Farmer with money and drugs, before beating her to death and placing her remains in his freezer to butcher her later. With Ernie's assistance, utilizing his exemplary mathematics skills, they dismember Rae Ann, place her remains with remains in other people, and force them into a wood chipper to spray on their burial grounds, measuring with the baton itself. Later on a merry go round, when his wife says she found heroin at the house, Grisco says it belongs to Ernie; when she insists he move out, Grisco insists to give Ernie a chance he deserves. When the police arrive at the nursery, Ernie grabs the baton and runs, but drops it and is arrested when he's cornered. When Ernie hints at the combination on the freezer's lock, 6-12-24, it's opened to show blood, with Ernie saying the women's remains were already shredded. When Grisco arrives, he's arrested as well, saying to his wife he'd handle everything.
Grisco fully confessed to killing "whores and whore mongers" in his "cleanings". Stevens, who joined the investigation to know for sure if she was wrong that Howell killed Courtney and fearing that Grisco did, hears Nichols confront Grisco with pictures of Courtney, saying Howell didn't care and wanted power over Grisco, but Grisco did care, mentioning Courtney was a "clean" woman and Grisco grew up to start a family. Grisco insulted Courtney with hesitance, saying she was a "whore" and Grisco was independent in his murders. Stevens got up and started shouting at Grisco, asking if Courtney screamed, demanding he reveal details about Courtney's and his reactions. Grisco finally broke and said that yes, Courtney did cry and beg, admitting he couldn't kill Courtney when she cried to God. Grisco lamented Howell killing Courtney instead of Grisco was Grisco's one "failure", one Grisco swore he'd never do again and successfully avoided from then on.
Grisco was found guilty of numerous counts of murder, rape, desecration, tampering, and conspiracy and was imprisoned for life.
Known Victims[]
- Unknown dates: Numerous unnamed women (all presumably raped and bludgeoned to death with a baton; dismembered and buried postmortem)
- June 2010:
- The parking lot double murder:
- Diego Caldez (shot once in his left temple)
- Maricela Fernandez (raped and strangled with a baton; left her shoe at the parking lot)
- Rae Ann Farmer (raped and bludgeoned to death with a baton; dismembered and buried postmortem)
- The parking lot double murder: