The precautions he had previously taken to hide himself spacing out the murders, wiping off fingerprints, even bathing some of his victims were abandoned as he went on a joyride of killing. The elemental nature of each murder was repetitive in some respects, but diverse in others. The FBI failed to slot the strangulations as those of a serial killer, a call that would prove erroneous. Although the Bureau missed its mark in this instance, it cannot be judged harshly. According to a 1994 Associated Press article, the black man who was finally arrested for the crimes did not fit the niche at all.
Most serial killers are white men who kill strangers.
That the Strangler did indeed know each and every one of his victims would prove to be his undoing. In the meantime, Sergeant McFadden was making attempts to tie together loose ends. His men interrogated possible area suspects those with violent pasts who could move easily and unobserved among the black community where the crimes were being perpetrated. Detectives also reopened contact with families and friends of all the dead girls, hoping to find a continuous thread running throughout the case histories of the victims. Perhaps they hung out at a particular place where they might have come in contact with the killer.