Harvey Glatman: Snuff Photographer of the 1950s

Harvey Murray Glatman appeared to be a professional photographer who took photos for magazine covers in the 1950s. Appearances were deceiving, as he turned out to be a snuff photographer. Snuff photography is essentially photographing a real crime rather than a staged one.

Glatman's unusual sexual tendencies presented themselves early. His mother Ophelia was always bothered by her son's behavior, but couldn't quite put her finger on a reason. He would giggle or cry for no apparent reason, had no attention span, and would often wander away. He seldom showed any interest in anything. When he got older, he avoided social contact.

At the age of four, Glatman gave his parents a clear indication something was wrong with him. Ophelia walked into her son's bedroom to find he had tied one end of a string around his penis and put the other end in a drawer, and was leaning backward, pulling the string taught. Their son was becoming a sado-masochist.

His favorite activity in adolescence was autoerotic asphyxiation (nearly hanging himself while performing certain activities). His mother was assured by the family physician he would outgrow his fixation on strangulation and bondage. He didn't.

Now living in Denver with his family, his teenage years involved burglary. Sometimes break ins were random, sometimes not. Glatman would often steal something just for thrill. His prized possession was a .26 caliber handgun. He would spot a desirable woman, follow them home, bind them and fondle them (no rape, however).

At 29 years old, Harvey Glatman began posing as a photographer. He told girls they were posing for pictures for detective magazine covers. The popular detective magazine covers of the day often showed girls tied up, so the models thought nothing was wrong when he tied them up for the photo shoot.

Once the model was bound, Glatman's true colors began to show and it was too late. The models were stripped, photographed, raped at gunpoint, and photographed again. The poor model would then be strangled and dumped in the desert.

Harvey Glatman managed to kill three models this way. He almost had a fourth victim, but she managed to wrestle his gun from him and held him captive until police came.

Glatman confessed everything in custody. His 1958 trial lasted a mere three days; he received the death sentence. Upon hearing his sentence, he only said "It's better this way."

Sources:
The A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers; Schechter, Harold and Everitt, David; Pocket Books, 2006.
http://www.courttv.com/archive/hannibal/glatman1.html