Mark Ford Brady was a convicted prolific serial killer, rapist, and the biological father of Detective Robert Goren, though he did not reveal this to his son until shortly before his execution.
Background[]
Brady's childhood, according to Goren, was exactly what someone expected of a serial killer's, with a single mother and absent father. Later in life, Brady served in the United States Army in the 1950s, and was for a time stationed in West Germany. He was discharged without incident in 1965, later finding work as a handyman.
In 1960, while on leave from the Army, he had a relationship with Frances Goren. Around the time John F. Kennedy was elected President, the two conceived Robert while Frances' husband was away from home. Brady was habitually violent and misogynistic even to Frances, who was permanently scarred from being beaten and raped by Brady in at least one attack. His older brother Frank knew Brady as "Uncle Mark". While neither Frank nor Frances' husband William knew about Bobby's parentage, Brady and Frances knew though neither revealed it until shortly before each of them died.
Brady eventually started working as a modeling photographer, which would be used in Brady's escalating crimes of violence against women. He'd snap photos of numerous women and make scrapbooks based on the decades in which he'd keep the photos as souvenirs. The photos were of Brady's clients, as well as his victims. Certain women were raped, others were raped and murdered. Brady hid the photos in locations where he worked as a handyman and kept the books there for years. He was eventually arrested and convicted of seven murders in total, the only murdered women who were connected to Brady. Brady struck a relationship with another serial killer, Wally Stevens, who transferred to his prison. When Brady found out his relationship with Goren out of sympathy, Brady was eager for meeting his son and getting revenge, ready to taunt him with revealing more of his murders and rapes.
Endgame[]
Brady started by pretending he was senile, then "suddenly remembering" his additional murders and rapes, leading detectives to his 80s scrapbook. A woman Brady raped, Elizabeth Trudy, was tracked, and she accounted the rape Brady put her through. Another woman was found from the pictures, and she said Brady never harmed her. Goren and Eames by that point realized Brady was trying to play cat-and-mouse and had an ulterior motive.
When Brady revealed himself to Bobby, driven by a wish to die on his own terms, his son was disgusted and shocked, then began to choke his father as he struggled to deny it. However, Bobby, realizing what he was up to, did release him from the hold. Bobby spoke to Frances about it, while she was then afflicted with schizophrenia, and she confirmed Brady beating and raping her and being Bobby's father when she had a flashback and started to cry.
Because of this, Brady, driven by a desire of revenge on his son for not having given him what he wanted, wrote out a full confession, complete with sketches of the women's faces as a "birthday gift" for Goren and asked his attorney to hand deliver it to Goren, which the attorney tried to do, but Goren was with his mother at the time and so Eames and the captain received it.
Brady was executed by the State of Pennsylvania for the murders he was convicted of, and Goren did not attend his execution. Frances died around the same time, with Goren by her side, which left him in mourning well after the case was over.
Known Victims[]
- Numerous unnamed women (all raped and sometimes murdered)
- 1960s:
- At least one unnamed woman in Germany (raped and murdered)
- Frances Goren (his ex-girlfriend; beaten and raped)
- 1980s
- 1981: Jane Flynn (raped and murdered)
- 1985: Elizabeth Trudy (raped)
- 1988:
- Madelyn Strauss (raped and murdered)
- Unnamed woman (raped and murdered)
- 1989: Anna Dukay (raped and murdered)
- Unknown dates:
- Gail Thompson (raped and murdered)
- Amy Babcock (raped and murdered)
- Nancy Statz (raped and murdered)
- Sara Utowkow (raped and murdered)
- Allison Keele (raped and murdered in Atlantic City)
- Vicki Silt (raped and murdered)
- Two unnamed women (presumably raped and murdered)
- 1991: Two unnamed women (raped and murdered)