Maury Travis
filed in 2000's, Lesser Known Serial Killers, Missouri on May.12, 2009
I had a request to try and put a post together about Maury Travis. He’s an African-American serial killer who targeted prostitutes between 2000 and 2002 in Missouri. He killed atleast 12 but has claimed 17. Travis, a 36-year-old hotel waiter, hanged himself in jail before admitting to any of the murders.
He was known to videotape his victims as he tortured them in his home. He even called one tape “Your Wedding Day.” The tapes were so graphic that the Police Chief ordered psychological counseling for the officers who viewed them.
It was hard to find information on him for some reason. I did manage to find a few websites though. You can find more information at francesfarmersrevenge.com and SerialKillerDataBase.Net.
Sometimes I wonder why some killers have pages and pages of information while others have barely a page at all. Does it have to do with race? Does it have to do with location? Is it because he killed himself before he confessed? There aren’t many black serial killers, that we know of anyway, so you’d think that when one is caught, there’d be all kinds of information on them. It’s almost the opposite.
Why do you think that some serial killers are more well known or have more information available then others?
May 14th, 2009 on 1:08 am
Hey this is good stuff. So glad you posted. I like reading blogs like this. Sandy
May 14th, 2009 on 1:36 am
Cool blog, like what I read. Will be back to read more. Adding to RSS feeder. Bob
July 31st, 2009 on 8:45 pm
“there aren’t many black serial killers….”
you sure about that? Negro males commit more violent acts than any other group in our society; I’m pretty darn sure that more than a few of them were serial killers
August 25th, 2009 on 6:24 am
think a third time ….. “violent acts” covers a wide spectrum! with serial murder being the most extreme form of repeated violent behaviour. i’m not sure your claim that “negro males commit more violent acts than any other group in our society” is true – there is a BIG difference between perception and fact! just as there is a big difference between mugging some one in the street (an example of a violent act) and serial murder!!!!!
in the case of Maury Troy Travis – there are probably several reasons why this case did not seem to attract much publicity – there was no trial as Travis committed suicide in prison, he had been in prison before – so could not be portrayed as a “fine upstanding member of the community – what a shock!” in the media. It is awful to say but the fact that his victims were drug addicted prostitutes also plays a part – the media like to have victims that are attractive (preferably with available photos) and can be portrayed as being “innocent” and easy for the general public to identify and sympathise with.
However it is true that for some reason black american SK’s attract (in general) less publicity than their white counterparts – possible exceptions being Wayne Williams (Atlanta, convicted child killer), George Russell (Seattle, murdered 3 “respectable” women in Bellevue) and more recently Derek Todd Lee (Baton Rouge,again murdered “respectable” photo-genic women). when it comes to publicity – it may be more about who victims are than who the killer is.
December 14th, 2009 on 10:16 pm
I think the reason there is more info is because the white serial killers like to brag and boast about thier crimes and if the black ones would brag like the white ones then maybe there would be more info
January 29th, 2010 on 1:05 am
Do you think being a waiter and also being so ugly have anything to do with developing this complex of hatred and revenge in him…anyway he was hungry for power and controlling people and to be famous…and the same forced him to taunt the authorities and send them letters …so thanks God his own sickness caused his own downfall and capture…the moment he found out , he cussed the computer in front of the investigators…God bless those smart investigators
April 1st, 2010 on 8:07 am
where did you read this?
November 24th, 2010 on 12:28 pm
POLITICS… There is a lot going on behind the scenes on these serial killer cases. 1) The press wants every thing they can get on the story. 2) The Mayor and city Government want to keep it quiet because its bad for publicity and business. 3) Investigative agencies want to control most if not all the information so they can solve the case, and most of all no one wants their town known for breeding serial killers. Behind the secnes there are battles being fought, and some locations are better at controlling the information than others.
Independence Missouri is a good example. The police there started hitting any and all meth labs they could find, making arrests and putting them in jail. The result was Independence Missouri became the Meth capital of the Nation, not because it was, but because other cities were not enforcing the laws and making known the number of meth labs they had in their jurisdictions.
April 12th, 2011 on 5:07 pm
As a lifelong resident of St. Louis & someone who followed these horrible murders (I also have a background in Criminology), I’ll tell you what went down: the victims were primarily black prostitutes, so their deaths received little attention by the media. Also, their corpses were found not in St. Louis, but nearby East St. Louis. Although just minutes from downtown, St. Louisans recoil from the thought of anything related to its economically downtrodden sister city across the Mississippi River. It’s a “them” vs. “us” mentality. St. Louisans believe if they steer clear of East St. Louis, the drugs, crime, unemployment, etc., won’t touch “them,” i.e., the white suburbanites who fled the city years ago to avoid all that nasty biz across the river (which is ridiculous, because St. Louis and St. Louis County have very high crime rates – and the metropolitan area is racially diverse – so their rationalization is nonsense). Anyways…
It wasn’t until a reporter from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote about one of the victims that attention was finally brought to this case. It had to be obvious to many that there was a serial killer at large (time after time remains were found in East St. Louis but the Metro P.D. kept a tight lid on it). No fuss was made about these missing women – mothers, daughters, wives, children – prostitutes, yes, drug addicts, possibly, – but all living, breathing human beings until this monster destroyed them.
Enter cocky serial killer, who couldn’t help but mock the reporter’s story and the authorities lack of progress in the case. So said killer sends the reporter a computer printout of a map where victim #17 is buried as an eff you to all involved. Thank the powers that be for the stupidity of criminals and the advancement of technology because law enforcement was able to trace the IP address on the printout and just like that, they had a name and street address for Maury Travis, who turned out to be the sorry bastard who killed at least 12 women, possibly 20. He never confessed before committing suicide, but the videotapes he left behind of his crimes were testament to his brutality.
May 25th, 2011 on 9:15 pm
Does anyone know where we can find a decent photo of Maury Travis and/or his crime scenes for a Power Point Presentation? The only one we can find of him is about 6kb in size. Most of the photos are terrible quality. Thanks.
December 4th, 2011 on 12:06 pm
African American? He’s a worthless black serial killer that’s dead and it’s a good thing..
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