Steven Hayes from Connecticut, who is convicted of killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters in a deadly home invasion, spoke about how he killed 17 others and raped dozens of women in leaked letters revealed yesterday.
Steven Hayes, 48, described in detail how in two of the attacks he had tied up, tortured and killed women – and even made a 16-hour video of him murdering one of his victims.
The serial killer, who is on death row for his role in the 2007 home invasion, boasted to a female companion about how he had collected the sneakers of all of his victims as trophies, but said “the 17 kill trophies” meant the most to him.
In 2010, Steven Hayes was convicted of raping and strangling Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, before tying her daughters, Hayley, 17 and Michaela, 11, to their beds and setting the house on fire.
Steven Hayes is currently appealing the conviction.
Steven Hayes’ accomplice was Joshua Komisarjevsky, who was also convicted for his role in the killings earlier this month and is due to be sentenced on Tuesday.
In the four letters revealed yesterday, which were written in August and September, Steven Hayes wrote that he would have killed Joshua Komisarjevsky if he had not been jailed because while he had the same “capacity for evil”, the accomplice was not committed enough.
Steven Hayes told a female in North Carolina, only identified as “Lynn”, that he wanted to share his “dark secret” as “someone else really should know the truth about” him.
In the letters which were obtained by the New Haven Register, Steven Hayes wrote:
“Yes, I’ve killed before.”
“I have 17 kills throughout the Northeast United States. Perfect victims and well executed, controlled endeavors.”
There are 17 pages of handwritten letters, which were confiscated by prison authorities.
Steven Hayes also recounted the rape and murder of his first victim in 1982 and the eighth. The killer wrote that all of his victims were aged between 14 and 25.
According to the New Haven Register, which has not detailed how it acquired the letters, they read “like a twisted pornographic fantasy”.
Steven Hayes wrote that he spotted his first victim, a girl who was hitchhiking, as he was driving home from a bar, describing her as “short, hot and the perfect victim”.
“Like any great hunter, timing is critical,” Steven Hayes wrote about how he chose his victims.
The serial killer told how he picked up the girl and drove her to a secluded location where he tied her up and threw her in the trunk before taking her to a cheap motel, which he said became his “location of choice” for his attacks.
He described in detail how he sexually assaulted the woman and then pinched her nose and suffocated her.
“A monster was born,” Steven Hayes wrote.
“This carried on with my top 17 sexual conquests and kills.”
“The trophies, the signature kill, the thrill of the hunt and the disposal of my adventure buddies.”
He said that he picked up his eighth victim, who he found drunk walking along a road, and told her he would take her back to his house to smoke crack cocaine and drink beer.
Steven Hayes claimed that he tied her to his bed for an entire weekend and tortured her before killing her.
“The more pain and emotional abuse she went through, the better I liked it.”
“And believe me, I was in heaven.”
The serial killer also claimed that he recorded the assault and killing on a 16-hour video, which he described as “by far the best snuff film ever created”.
Steven Hayes said that he kept hold of the tape for six months before it “found a home” in Portland, Oregon.
He described Joshua Komisarjevsky, who could also face the death penalty for his part in the attacks, as being a disappointment to him in the letters.
“I’ve searched my whole life for someone who could embrace and had the capacity for evil as I possess,” Steven Hayes wrote, according to the newspaper. “I thought I finally found it in Josh.”
“But events show Josh, while [he] had the proper evil intent, lacked in the most serious aspects, commitment and control.”
Steven Hayes asked the recipient to hold on to the details of the letters until after his execution because the information “could be worth millions to the right people”.
Michael Dearington, State Attorney and FBI spokesman have declined to say whether Steven Hayes’ purported crimes are being investigated or whether authorities are aware of 17 unsolved homicides matching details in his letters.
