Nathaniel White: Six Victims, Capture, and Conviction

Nathaniel White is a serial killer from New York’s Hudson Valley who murdered six women and girls between March 1991 and July 1992, confessed to all six killings after his August 1992 arrest, and is serving six consecutive sentences of 25 years to life at the Elmira Correctional Facility.¹ He became widely known as the “Robocop Killer” after telling a television interviewer that a scene from the film RoboCop 2 inspired his first murder.²

A Record That Preceded the Killings

White had been through the New York criminal justice system more than once before his first murder. He served two years in state prison for robbing three convenience stores and was paroled in November 1989.³

On April 17, 1991, less than a month after his first killing, he was arrested for abducting a woman at knifepoint. Under a plea bargain he pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment and received a nine-month prison sentence, with parole officials adding three months for a parole violation.³ He was paroled again in April 1992. Five of his six victims were killed in the weeks that followed.

The Six Victims

White’s first victim was 29-year-old Juliana Frank, a Middletown woman who was four months pregnant. Her body was found on March 26, 1991, along an abandoned railroad track in Middletown. She had been stabbed more than 40 times, and the fetus had been cut from her body.¹ White later confessed to slitting her throat and chest.⁴

After his April 1992 parole, the killings resumed in Orange County. The victims ranged in age from 14 to 34.

Christine Klebbe, 14, an eighth-grade student and the niece of White’s girlfriend Jill Garrison, was reported missing on July 1, 1992. Her body was later found buried in a field near Echo Lake Road in Goshen.⁴
Laurette Huggins Reviere, 34, a friend of White’s girlfriend, was found dead in her Middletown home on July 10, 1992.¹
Angelina Hopkins, 23, and Brenda Whiteside, 20, cousins, met White at the Blue Note Tavern in Poughkeepsie on July 20, 1992 and were reported missing the same day. Their bodies were found on August 4 at an abandoned farmhouse in Goshen.⁴
Adriane Hunter, 27, was stabbed to death on July 30, 1992. Her body was discovered in a field in the village of Goshen on August 6, 1992, near the Hillcrest Manor Restaurant.⁴

Several of the killings were preceded by sexual encounters. White told investigators he became enraged when victims asked for money, and he described that moment as the trigger for his violence.¹

How Police Caught Him

The break came partly from the family of Angelina Hopkins. Her mother and sister questioned patrons at the Blue Note Tavern themselves, and their work pointed investigators toward White.¹ On August 3, 1992, an anonymous caller also told Poughkeepsie police to “check out” Nathaniel White.²

When detectives arrived at his home, White tried to drive away with his girlfriend. Police stopped him on the pretext of a license plate violation and brought him in. He was calm during the initial questioning and admitted nothing. Around 1:30 a.m. on August 4, 1992, he was told he would be given a polygraph focused on the murder of Laurette Huggins Reviere, and he denied guilt throughout. He broke only when confronted with a paper coat hanger from the Huggins Reviere crime scene that carried a bloody fingerprint.¹

White then confessed to all six killings and led officers and search dogs to the remains of Whiteside, Hopkins, and Klebbe.¹ He was charged with six counts of second-degree murder.²

What White Said About Why

White gave several explanations. In a jailhouse interview he described what he called a “thirst for blood” and said he heard voices telling him his victims deserved to die, and that he enjoyed killing while it was happening.¹ Speaking to WNBC-TV, he blamed alcohol and violent media, saying violence from television and movies would “seep” into him and that when he was drunk he would “snap.”²

His most repeated claim concerned RoboCop 2. White said he had watched a scene in which a character’s throat was cut and the blade drawn down the chest, then did the same to Juliana Frank. “The first person that I killed, I did exactly like I seen in the movie,” he told WNBC-TV.² He also said he had posed Laurette Huggins Reviere’s body after seeing similar staging in a vampire movie.¹

Conviction and Where He Is Now

White was convicted in May 1993 and received six consecutive sentences of 25 years to life, meaning he must serve a minimum of 150 years before any possibility of parole. He is held at the Elmira Correctional Facility in New York.¹

1
Oxygen. Why Nathaniel White Murdered 6 Women in New York
2
UPI. Serial Killer Blames Violent Movies, Alcohol and Voices
3
Los Angeles Times. Drifter Charged With Killing 6 Women in New York
4
Los Angeles Times. New York Drifter Leads Police to Bodies of 3 Victims