Walter Earl Ellis

Serial Killer

Walter Earl Ellis: The Milwaukee North Side Strangler

Overview

Walter Earl Ellis was an American serial killer whose crimes terrorized Milwaukee, Wisconsin, across a period of more than two decades. Known in the media as the "Milwaukee North Side Strangler" or "North Side Strangler," Ellis was convicted of murdering seven women between 1986 and 2007. DNA evidence also connected him to additional homicide investigations, making the complete extent of his violence difficult to determine with certainty. Ellis primarily targeted Black women living in economically troubled neighborhoods on Milwaukee's north side. Several of the women were involved in street-level sex work or struggled with drug addiction, circumstances that investigators later acknowledged made the murders more difficult to solve and contributed to the cases remaining disconnected for years. The victims were often strangled and left in vacant buildings, secluded spaces, or locations only a short distance from neighborhoods where Ellis lived or had family connections.

Early Life and Criminal History

Walter Earl Ellis was born on June 24, 1960, in Holmes County, Mississippi. His family moved to Milwaukee while he was young, and Ellis grew up on the city's north side. His encounters with law enforcement began during his youth and continued throughout most of his adult life. By his late teens and early twenties, he had accumulated arrests and convictions involving burglary, drugs, theft, and other offenses. Ellis repeatedly entered and left correctional institutions during the years in which the murders occurred. He was also accused on several occasions of serious violence against women. Court records described incidents in which girlfriends said Ellis assaulted, threatened, or choked them. In one later case, he was convicted after violently attacking a girlfriend and received a five-year prison sentence. These periods of incarceration help explain some of the lengthy gaps between his known murders. Ellis could disappear from the homicide timeline for years, only for another woman to be found murdered after he was once again living in the community. ...

Confirmed Victims: (7)

Deborah L. Harris Age: (31), Date of Death: 1986-10-10

Suspected Victims:

Carron D. Kilpatrick Age: (32), Date of Death: 1994-10-13

Jessica Payne Age: (16), Date of Death: 1995-08-30

Maryetta Griffin Age: (39), Date of Death: 1998-02-17

Walter E. Ellis - Wikipedia