| Craig Price | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Craig Price |
| Also known as | The Warwick Slasher[1] |
| Born | August , 1974 |
| Killings | |
| Number of victims: | 4 |
| Span of killings | 1987–September 1, 1989 |
| Country | USA |
| State(s) | Warwick, Rhode Island |
| Date apprehended | 1989 |
Craig Price (also known as the Warwick Slasher,[1] born August 1974) is a serial killer from Warwick, Rhode Island. He was arrested in 1989 for four murders committed in his neighborhood: A woman and her two daughters that year, and the murder of another woman two years prior.[2] He had a previous criminal record for petty theft.[2]
After he was discovered, Price calmly confessed to his crimes.[2][3] Arrested a month before his 16th birthday,[4] he was tried and convicted as a minor. By law, this meant that he would be released and his criminal records sealed as soon as he turned 21.[2][5] Price bragged that he would "make history" when he was released.[2] The case led to changes in state law to allow juveniles to be tried as adults for serious crimes, but these could not be applied retroactively to Price.[3]
Due to the brutality of his crimes and the opinion of state psychologists that he was a poor candidate for rehabilitation, a group called Citizens Opposed to the Release of Craig Price[3] formed to lobby for his continued imprisonment. Price was charged with a variety of crimes, including criminal contempt for refusing a psychological evaluation,[5] extortion for threatening a corrections officer, assault, and violation of probation for fights while in prison.[2] He was sentenced to an additional 10–25 years, depending on his cooperation with treatment.
Price maintains that he has paid his debt to society, and that he is being kept in jail partially due to racism.
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On July 29, 2009, Price was involved in a prison fight with another inmate. While trying to break up the fight, one of the correctional officers was stabbed in the finger by a handmade shank in Price's possession.[6] In the wake of the prison fight, Price has been transferred to another facility.[1] An officer from the Rhode Island Department of Corrections said Price has been booked twice for fighting since leaving the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston. Price was denied parole in March 2009 and his current release date is in May 2020.[5]
It was the night of July 27, 1987 when 13-year-old Craig Price committed his murders.[7] In Warwick, Rhode Island, Price broke into a home that was only two houses away from his own.[4] He took a knife from the kitchen and stabbed 27-year-old Rebecca Spencer 58 times, killing her.
On September 1, 1989, Price was a 15-year-old freshmen in high school when he murdered three other neighbors. Price, high on marijuana and LSD,[8] stabbed 39-year-old Joan Heaton 11 times; her 10-year-old daughter Jennifer 62 times; and crushed the skull of her 8-year-old daughter Melissa. Their wounds were so deep that the knives actually broke off the handles into the bodies of the victims.[7] At the time, the brutality of the murders was mostly unknown due to his sealed records. According to law-enforcement officials, Price had no remorse when confessing to the crimes.[3]