Donald Miller (robert Maxie)

Serial Killer

Donald Miller: The Los Angeles Serial Killer Known as Robert Maxie

Background

Donald Miller was an American serial killer and attempted murderer who attacked men and women in Los Angeles County, California. He was born in Los Angeles in 1941 and grew up in Compton. Miller was sometimes known by the name Robert Maxie, and several people who encountered him in the bars and streets of Los Angeles remembered that he introduced himself simply as "Robert." Miller later worked as a welder for the Southern Pacific Railroad. Although relatives and coworkers described him as quiet and capable of behaving normally, his criminal record and documented violence stretched back years before his known murder series. His attacks eventually followed a recognizable pattern involving isolated streets, a dark Datsun sports car and a heavy blunt instrument, usually described as a steel pipe or club. Between 1980 and 1981, Miller repeatedly approached gay men in and around West Hollywood. Several of the victims had recently left bars along Santa Monica Boulevard when they accepted rides or encountered their attacker. Miller would take the men to dark side streets or secluded areas and suddenly strike them in the head. Four men died, while four others survived attacks for which Miller was later convicted. Miller was also connected through DNA evidence to the 1977 murder of Camilla "Cammi" Stasse in Long Beach. That discovery was made after Miller had died and decades after Stasse's murder. The DNA connection increased his known victim count to five and revealed that his homicidal violence began several years earlier than investigators originally understood.

The Murder of Camilla "Cammi" Stasse

Camilla Stasse was a 20-year-old college student, musician and labor activist living in Long Beach. On January 17, 1977, she was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death inside her apartment. Stasse had reportedly been moving between her apartment and a laundry area before the attack. Her killing remained unsolved for nearly three decades. At the time, investigators had little evidence capable of identifying her killer. Miller was not connected to the case during his lifetime, and the murder appeared different from the later series for which he would be convicted. Stasse was a young woman who had been stabbed, while Miller's later known victims were men who were beaten with a blunt object. In 2006, approximately one year after Miller's death, investigators linked him to Stasse's murder through DNA evidence. Because Miller had already died on death row, he could not be prosecuted. The identification nevertheless provided an answer in a case that had remained unresolved since 1977 and established Stasse as his earliest known murder victim. ...

Confirmed Victims: (5)

Camilla "Cammi" Stasse Age: (20), Date of Death: 1977-01-17

Donald Miller (serial killer) - Wikipedia