Born on July 26, 1955, in Buffalo, New York, Joseph Christopher was born. He was in a broken family; he was the only offspring of Therese and Nicholas but had two older sisters and one younger sister. His father taught him how to use and handle firearms because he was an outdoorsman.
After he graduated, Christopher went to an automotive mechanics program but dropped out early. He worked a variety of jobs until he became a maintenance man at Canisius College. Christopher worked the night shift and was caught sleeping at work, so he was fired in 1979 he moved back in with his parents. He was previously diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and felt his mental health deteriorating. In 1978 he tried to get help, but the center he went to told him that he wasn’t a danger to himself and society, so he could not be admitted. And guess what happened fourteen days later? He became a threat to society because he was murdering people.
On September 22, 1980, Christopher murdered four black men with a sawed-off rifle. This was within a thirty-six-hour period. This is how he gained the nickname .22-caliber killer because his gun was a .22 caliber gun.
He killed two more people on October 8th and 9th, but instead of using a gun, he bludgeoned them to death and cut their hearts out. A month later, he enlisted in the US Army and was stationed at Fort Benning. He was furloughed at Christmas, and on December 22, in Manhattan, four more victims were killed. These four were stabbed to death, and the media started calling him the Midtown Slasher. He came back to Buffalo on December 29 and stabbed another black man to death. He got one last kill in before returning to Fort Benning on December 30.
Christopher attacked a fellow soldier when he got back, which was considered unprovoked. He was put into solidarity and tried to kill himself with a razor blade. He later confessed, in a psychiatric session, to killing Black people in New York. The police were notified and searched his home, where they found evidence linking him to three of the murders. He was indicted for the murders and sent back to Buffalo.
In his trial, he pled not guilty to the murders. He decided to represent himself instead of getting a lawyer or having his mom do it. He was found guilty and sentenced to sixty years in prison, but this was later overturned because he was not tested as sane to stand trial. He was last tested and declared sane, so he was retried and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died from breast cancer in March of 1993 at the age of 37.
It’s so crazy to me that this man was allowed in the army but was already diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and believed himself that he was a danger to himself and others. It’s very upsetting to see how we overlook mental illness for our own personal benefit.
I wonder if his schizophrenia has any connection to the targets he choose for his murders. I’m relatively unfamiliar with schizophrenia, but I wonder if we could speak to him today and ask, if he would claim hallucinations or delusions made him target based off race or if he would say it was his own personal want.
If he wasn’t sane enough to stand trial, how did he get into the army? Especially if he was already diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. This is another sad example of how this country fails its people when it comes to mental health. So many deaths could’ve been prevented if the mental health center just admitted him.
However, mental health isn’t an excuse to go on a racist kill spree. Christopher could’ve tried other resources/centers but only tried one and when turned away, gave in to his impulses soon after. Currently, after mass shootings, there are always reports about the shooter’s mental health and how there were red flags, and it’s always conflicting thinking about how on one hand, these murders suffer from mental health disorders and need help, but on the other, does that excuse all the pain and death they brought?