Victims
Wendy Meyers, 29 [10/24/1996] (top 1)
Gina Barone, 29 [11/29/1996] (top 2)
Catherine Marsh, 31 [11/30/1996] (top 3)
Kathleen Hurley, 47 [1/15/1997] (top 4)
Mary Healey Giaccone, 29 [2/1997] (bottom 1)
Sandra Jean French, 51 [6/12/1998] (bottom 2)
Audrey Pugliese [8/12/1998] (no picture)
Catina Newmaster, 25 [8/25/1998] (bottom 3)
Christine Sal [survived] (no picture)
(Michelle Eason, 27 [9/1997]) – body never found; not sure if she is actually his victim or not (bottom 4)




Poughkeepsie serial killer Kendall Francois dies in prison at age 43


ALDEN, N.Y. - Kendall Francois, who killed eight prostitutes in Poughkeepsie in the 1990s, has died in prison, the state corrections department said Friday.

Francois, 43, died at 6:15 p.m. Thursday in the medical unit at Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, near Buffalo, according to the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

The department said Francois died of “apparent natural causes,” but it did not elaborate. In 2000, it was revealed in court that Francois had AIDS.

Retired Poughkeepsie Police Detective Skip Mannain, the lead detective in the case, said he had mixed feelings about Francois’ death.

“I would say that he died too soon and didn’t suffer long enough ... but the world’s a better place without people like him,” Mannain said by phone Friday. He called the case “one of the hardest ... of my career.”

The decomposing bodies of the eight women Francois strangled between 1996 and 1998 were found in September 1998 in the basement of the three-story home at 99 Fulton Ave. in Poughkeepsie, near Vassar College, that Francois shared with his parents and sister. Authorities found the bodies after a ninth woman, who managed to escape from Francois, told police of her encounter.

Francois pleaded guilty in August 2000 to eight counts of first-degree murder and eight counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.

Francois was serving his sentence at the Attica state prison in western New York before being transferred to Wende.

Dutchess County District Attorney William Grady originally sought the death penalty against Francois, but the suspect’s life was spared as part of the deal under which he agreed to plead guilty. (The state Court of Appeals later struck down New York’s death penalty law as unconstitutional.)

Mannain said the killer’s death “certainly puts a finality to the end of Kendall Francois’ existence and hopefully will heal the wounds for some of his victims’ [families].”

The retired detective said he knew several of Francois’ victims through his police work.

The eight women Francois killed were Wendy Meyers, Gina Barone, Catherine Marsh, Kathleen Hurley, Mary Healey Giaccone, Sandra Jean French, Audrey Pugliese and Catina Newmaster. All were white with brown hair and small builds.

Francois graduated from Arlington High School in 1989 and then joined the Army. He was stationed in Oklahoma and Hawaii.

http://www.dailyfreeman.com/general-...ison-at-age-43