I am from Saratoga Springs New York. I have lived here all of my life. So has my mom. She was born in February 1973. About five months later, a killer went wild on his victims for eighteen days straight on a killing spree.
Before last week, I had never heard of this serial killer, and he is from my home state! My local drive in was playing a special one night premiere of The Garrow, which I saw a preview for and had to see when I found out it was about a New York killer. Robert Garrow was a thirty seven year old killer, who stabbed four strangers to death on his eighteen day killing spree before he was caught.
Essentially, the movie acted out Robert Garrow’s childhood and then portrayed his killing spree, as well as his prison break (wait until you hear that one). He had an abusive father and no mention of a mother in the movie. His father “sold” him to a farming neighbor when he was nine years old. He would go and live on the farm Mondays through Saturdays and do all of the work he was assigned, and the farmer paid his father for it. Though Garrow had no say in the matter, it was mentioned that he preferred living at the neighbors because they did not abuse him like his father did, though they were aware of his beatings. One day his neighbor found him doing sexual things to the cows, and after being made aware, the movie reenacted his father nearly strangle him to death, which it is implied that this happened often. I believe the abuse he went through contributed to what he became.
As an adult, Garrow was married and had a son. He had a previous conviction of sexual assault, and July 11th through July 29th, he went about committing murder, often of couples he found. He would kill the men first, because they reminded him of his father, and then rape the girls. He would keep them alive for multiple days sometimes, often convincing himself they were in love with him. Only when the girls tried to escape, or betrayed him in his eyes, would he stab them to death. He was eventually caught and sent to prison after sexually assaulting two young girls, around the ages of nine and eleven. He was shot in the leg when he was caught, and appeared to have lost use of it as he was in a wheelchair in prison.
One day, his son came to visit him, and the guards allowed him to bring Garrow a huge bucket of unmonitored Kentucky Fried Chicken. In the bottom of the bucket was a gun, and with this, (and by also miraculously regaining use of his legs), Garrow prison broke.
Within a couple of days Garrow was found in a nearby woods. He wouldn’t come peacefully, and shot an officer. This sealed his fate. Robert Garrow was shot to death in 1978.
What a horrifying and interesting story, like most of your posts. I’m interested in psychology, so analyzing his childhood experiences as a way of forecasting what he would become is definitely a worthwhile and interesting practice.
This is a crazy story! I think the most interesting thing is his son helped him to escape even after committing such horrible acts. This makes me want to watch this movie.
I really want to watch this movie now, although it sounds gruesome. I wonder how he regained movement and control in his legs, maybe it was something he was secretly planning all along. I’m honestly surprised that his son continued to support him, and I also wonder how Garrow treated his own son, citing his dad’s abuse.
I am always so shocked when I read your posts and all of the horrific things people have done. It is interesting that they made his story a movie because it does seem so unbelievable and if I didn’t know it was real, I would’ve thought it was made up with a crazy plot.