Serial killer and rapist John Getreu, who strangled two women with connections to Stanford in the 1970s, has died in prison at age 79, KGO-TV reports.
He died Friday (Sept. 22) in the state prison hospital in Stockton.
Getreu was convicted of three murders, the rape and killing of a high school girl in Germany on a U.S. Army Base in 1963, and the strangulations of two local women, Leslie Perlov in 1973 and Janet Taylor in 1974.
The killer spent just six years in prison in Germany for the death of the high school student. He was released in 1969 and moved to California where he committed the Perlov and Taylor murders.
Law enforcement, using DNA techniques, located and arrested Getreu at his home in Hayward in 2018. His DNA was taken from a coffee cup and matched with Taylor’s torn green pants.
Taylor, 21, was killed on March 25, 1974, as she was leaving the Stanford campus. Her body was dumped on Sand Hill Road near Woodside in San Mateo County.
Taylor was the daughter of former Stanford athletic director Chuck Taylor. Her death was one of five murders on or near the Stanford campus between 1972 and 1976.
Getreu was a Stanford employee at the time.
Getreu pleaded guilty in January to the 1973 strangulation murder of Perlov in the hills west of campus.
Perlov, 21, was found strangled by a scarf near the intersection of Stanford Avenue and Junipero Serra Boulevard. She was a graduate of Stanford and lived in Los Altos Hills after graduating. She had been missing for two days before her body was discovered. Her orange Chevrolet Nova was found parked at an old quarry near the intersection of Page Mill and Old Page Mill roads.
Good riddance. He should’ve gotten the death penalty a long time ago.
Crazy how he only spent 6 years in prison in Germany for killing some one. Wonder if it had to do with his status as an American in Germany, then again he killed an American citizen so I thought his punishment would be far more severe.
Justice system in usa is pretty wacky and inconsistent. Actor Danny Materson recently got a life sentence? For rape. While there are murderers serving less time.
Correction, i reread the article and missed some details. Looks like he killed a high school girl in Germany (likely a local?) on an American ARMY BASE. Was he a service member in the USA army? That might explain why he got an easy sentence for a murder. American imperialism and exceptionalism along with its military war crimes… when will those responsible be bought to justice.