Frederick Charles Wood
Overview
Frederick Charles Wood was an American serial killer from Elmira, New York, whose known and confessed crimes stretched from the 1920s to 1960. He was born on October 10, 1911, in Elmira, and developed a long criminal record before he was finally executed at Sing Sing Prison on March 21, 1963. Wood was convicted of three murders, but he confessed to five killings. His crimes were concentrated in New York State, with early violence connected to Hornell and Elmira, and his final double murder occurring in Astoria, Queens.
Wood's case is especially disturbing because his violence appeared across several different periods of his life. He claimed to have killed as a teenager, later served prison time for murder, was paroled, and then killed again soon after his release. His final crimes caused public anger because officials had been warned that he remained dangerous before his parole in 1960.
Victims
- Cynthia Mary Longo Died December 31, 1926, in Hornell, New York. Wood later claimed he poisoned her with arsenic-laced cream puffs when he was about 14 years old. Her death was not prosecuted as murder at the time, and early reports treated it as a medical death, but Wood later confessed to causing it.
- Pearl D. Robinson Killed July 5, 1933, in Elmira, New York. Robinson was 33 years old. Wood later confessed that he attacked and killed her in Elmira. The crime was extremely violent, and reports describe her as having suffered numerous stab wounds and a crushed skull.
- John Albert Lowman Killed October 10, 1942, in Elmira, New York. Lowman was about 42 years old. Wood was convicted of second-degree murder for this killing and sentenced to 20 years to life.
- John Rescigno Killed July 3, 1960, in Astoria, Queens, New York. Rescigno was 62 years old. He was one of Wood's final two victims and was found dead on July 4, 1960, in the home he shared with Frederick Sess.
- Frederick Sess Killed July 3, 1960, in Astoria, Queens, New York. Sess was 78 years old, though some court records described him as about 77. He was killed in the same home as John Rescigno and was discovered on July 4, 1960.
The Death of Cynthia Mary Longo
Wood later claimed that his first murder happened in 1926, when he was still a teenager. The victim was Cynthia Mary Longo, a young woman living in Hornell, New York. According to Wood's later confession, he believed Longo had been seeing someone else. He said he obtained arsenic, placed it in cream puffs, and gave them to Longo and others. Longo died after becoming violently ill, while the others survived.
At the time, authorities did not treat the case as a proven murder. Her death was attributed to medical causes, and Wood was not charged. Because the case depended heavily on Wood's later confession, it remains one of the less firmly documented murders connected to him. Still, it is commonly included in accounts of his confessed victim count because Wood gave details years later while being questioned after his final crimes.
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