#86 - Angelika Graswald †*

Female killers don’t usually get their own nicknames. You know, the Boston Strangler, the Green River Killer, Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac Killer, BTK …

Angelika Graswald, however, will forever be known as the “Kayak Killer.“ Here’s how it all came about … 

Angelika, who was born in Latvia, came to the US to work as a nanny. Here for 13 years, she married and divorced twice, then met Vince Viafore. She moved in with him a couple of weeks later and the two were engaged 5 months after their initial meeting.

One thing both shared was a love of the outdoors. So, one warm Spring weekend, they decided to go kayaking, on the Hudson, near where they lived in Poughkeepsie, NY. The weather turned, though, on their way back, and Vince’s kayak overturned.

The water temperature was 48 degrees, and Vince had no life vest and was lightly dressed. Angelika could not reach him, he floated away, and she called 911.

After the event, the police noted some suspicious behavior. For one, Angelika seemed to have flipped her own kayak just moments before the 911 crowd arrived. She also seemed oddly unemotional. Later, there was a raucous memorial night at a local bar, as well as bubbly FB posts (including her turning cartwheels, no less).

Meeting the cops at the site of the drowning, she was subsequently taken in for questioning. After an 11-hour interview, she admitted to pulling the plug on his kayak (though months before), taking a safety ring from his paddle, keeping his paddle from him, waiting 20 minutes to call 911, and stating, "I wanted him dead and now he's gone and I'm OK with it."

As for motive, she claimed he wanted sex all the time, and wanted her to engage in threesomes and BDSM, all of which she resisted. Oh, there was also a little matter of a half-a-million insurance policy.

Avoiding trial, Angelika pled guilty to 2nd degree manslaughter, getting a sentence of two and a half years. She would actually get out 6 weeks after the verdict, having spent the rest of the time awaiting trial. Upon release, she celebrated with a multi-hour steak and martini lunch.

Subsequently, Angelika became a born-again Christian, has been fighting to get some of the insurance settlement (she ended up getting half), and is living and working a church-sponsored camp for kids. There's a chance she'll face deportation after her parole is up this year. Stay tuned.