A sexual sadist, obsessed with the desire to bite female breasts, Canadian Wayne Boden became infamous as the "Vampire Rapist," after his distinctive modus operandi. Stalking his victims in the neighborhood of Montreal, he sparked a two-year reign of terror with attacks that drew particular attention for their brute ferocity.

On July 23, 1968, Norma Villancourt, a 21-year-old teacher, was found dead in her Montreal apartment. She had been raped and strangled, her breasts savaged with bite marks, but police reported no evident signs of a struggle. In fact, a pathologist noted the victim had died with a passive, faint smile on her face.

The best part of a year elapsed before the killer struck again, in 1969, strangling Shirley Audette and dumping her corpse at the rear of an apartment complex in West Montreal. Though fully clothed when found, she had been raped, and their were bite marks on her breasts. A conversation with the victim's former boyfriend brought to light her fears that she was "getting into something dangerous" with someone she had started dating, but the suspect's name had not been mentioned.

On November 23, Marielle Archambault left her job at a Montreal jewelry store, departing with a young man she addressed as "Bill." When she did not appear for work the next morning, Marielle's employer went to see if she was ill. He found her on the floor of her apartment living room, the victim of a strangler who had raped her, ripping off her bra to gnaw her breasts. A crumpled photograph discovered in the wreckage of her flat was readily identified as that of her companion, "Bill," but homicide detectives still could not connect the smiling face with any real-life suspect.

On January 16, 1970, the killer struck again, picking off Jean Wray, 24, in her Montreal apartment. On arrival for a scheduled date, Wray's boyfriend found her door unlocked, her naked body on the sofa, bloody bite marks on her breasts. Despite the clear-cut evidence of violence, officers could find no sign of a protracted struggle; once again, the victim looked serene in death.

The fear in Montreal was little more than an unpleasant memory by 1971, when the Vampire Rapist made his next appearance some 2,500 miles away, in Calgary. His victim was Elizabeth Pourteous, a teacher, reported missing from work on May 18. Her apartment manager was called, and found her body on the bedroom floor, surrounded by wreckage of a struggle. Raped and strangled, she had also suffered the familiar bite marks on her breasts. A broken cufflink was discovered near the body.

Two colleagues at her school recalled that Pourteous had been seen with a young man, in a blue Mercedes, on the night she died. The car had featured a bull-shaped decal, advertising beef, in one window. A friend of the victim also informed police that Pourteous had recently started dating a new acquaintance -- named "Bill" -- who fit descriptions of the Vampire Rapist.

On May 19, patrolmen found the suspect car parked near the murder scene. Wayne Boden was arrested half an hour later, moving toward the car on foot. He told police that he had moved from Montreal a year earlier, admitted seeing Elizabeth Pourteous on the night she died, and identified the cufflink as his own. The final confirmation was delivered by an orthodontist, who compared a cast of Boden's teeth with bite marks on the victim, earning Wayne a term of life imprisonment.

Returned to Montreal for trial, he openly confessed to three of the related murders, oddly balking in the case of Norma Villancourt. It was enough, regardless, and his four life sentences appeared to guarantee that Boden would be permanently out of circulation.