1793: Ezra Mead, “in one of these fits of insanity” 1810: Leatherlips, tomahawked

1936: Arnold Sodeman, Schoolgirl Strangler

June 1st, 2013 Meaghan








His law-abiding life, however, didn’t last.



















  • His grandfather died in a mental hospital.
  • So did his father.


According to author Ivan Chapman, at Sodeman’s trial,


The verdict was, inevitably, sane and guilty as charged.






But it was too late to do anything about it.

On this day..


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5 thoughts on “1936: Arnold Sodeman, Schoolgirl Strangler”

  1. Kevin M. Sullivan says:

    I don’t think Bundy had a head injury.

    Millions and millions of people have had concussions and they didn’t turn out to be killers. I’ve had several myself. So I’m not sold on the idea that a brain injury contributes to homicidal tendencies.

    Here’s the problem I have with the medical and psychiatric community: They believe there are physical or mental aspects that exist in every killer that would, if they can just find it, explain why these people do what they do. As such, they totally dismiss the fact that’s it’s possible that some people are just evil. They don’t know what to do with the concept of evil.

    If you sit and listen to many of these killers you’ll quickly ascertain that there’s no detectable mental illness in play. They are fully functioning mentally. They all know what is right and what is wrong, they just don’t care. No brain injury for many of these folks, and they are lucid and can be friendly. Why, just your normal folks. What can’t be seen is the evil beneath the surface.

    So I just don’t buy into the chemical imbalance for those suffering psychopathy’; the brain injury excuse, or just about any of the unproven theories. I believe evil is real and some people have turned themselves over to it.

  2. Meaghan says:

    I certainly understand your POV, Kevin.

    I do think it’s worth studying the brains of SKs (as well as their minds) because so many of them seem to have suffered brain damage. I’ve read that more of them than not suffered concussions, etc., before their murders began. I don’t know if Bundy did; I suppose you would know.

    I find myself wondering about Anton Probst, whose horrific mass murder I wrote about on Executed Today last year. His brain turned out to be a pound smaller than average — and the average adult male brain is only three pounds to begin with, so his was only 66% its normal size. It seems like brain damage must have contributed to his crimes, but we’ll never know now. I’m not even sure neurology was a thing back in the 1860s.

  3. Kevin M. Sullivan says:

    Inflamed brain or not! That’s what I was typing on my phone, LOL!

  4. Kevin M Sullivan says:

    Hi Meaghan,

    He still knew what he was doing, and he understood the need to keep his deeds secret. Inflamed bed in or not, he showed classic signs of psychopathy. Notice after he sobered up he could “wipe it all away”. Ah, the life if the homicidal psychopath. As such, his execution was just . Forgive any typos as I’m on my iPhone

  5. Meaghan says:

    Hey, Kevin Sullivan (or anyone else who might want to venture an opinion) I was wondering what you think of this case. Given Sodeman’s obviously diminished capacity, would you still believe he deserved to be executed?

    My boyfriend had a sensible take on it: Sodeman clearly didn’t know he had a brain disease, but he knew he was a mean drunk, that he turned into a homicidal monster when he was drunk, and he continued to drink anyway. So he deserved his fate.

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