Nolan Ray George’s past
Convicted of killing:
Francis Brown, 23, in Lake Orion, Mich. Found strangled with her own underwear in 1968. George served 12 years in prison.
Cindy Garland Rose, 22, of Hamilton. Died of exposure after being left in a field following an attempt to suffocate her with her panty hose in 1982. George served 10 years in prison.
Charged with killing:
Gwendolyn Perry, 36, of Pontiac, Mich. Found dead in a parked car with stocking wrapped around her neck in 1968.
Suspected of killing:
Tammy King, 26, of Price Hill. Found strangled to death by the side of the road in a Reily Twp. in 1982.
Della Mae Miller, 24, of Covington, Ohio. Found strangled in 1967.
An unidentified woman in northern Ohio.
Sources: Butler County Sheriff’s Office, Associated Press and Detroit Free Press.
MONROE — Terrence Clark said Nolan Ray George was one of the least intimidating people who regularly came into the Speedway store where Clark worked on third shift.
Clark never would have guessed he’s a suspected serial killer.
George, 67, was arrested at the Parkside Inn up the street on Hamilton-Middletown Road on Friday afternoon, July 16, in connection with the 1968 murder of Gwendolyn Perry, 36, in Michigan.
If convicted, this would be the third strangling George would go to prison for. He was freed from jail in 1992 after serving roughly 22 years total behind bars. Neighbors say he most recently was working as a handyman in Hamilton.
“It’s just hard to believe since he’s so quiet,” said Rose Brinson, 61, who lives four doors down from room 205, where George was arrested.
Brinson said her 38-year-old daughter had grown close to George in the month he lived at Parkside. She recently learned of his former convictions, Brinson said, but George claimed he was framed.
“He didn’t seem like that type,” she said. “But you never know.”
Prosecutors in Oakland County, Mich., say George confessed to the Perry killing — the day after pleading to the murder of another woman the same year — on the promise from police he wouldn’t be prosecuted, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Prosecutors say police aren’t authorized to make such a deal., according to the Free Press.
Eleven months after his first release from jail in 1982, George killed Cindy Garland Rose, 26, of Butler County, suffocating her with her panty hose and leaving her in a Kentucky field, where she died of exposure.
That same year, Tammy King, 26, of Price Hill, was found strangled to death by the side of the road in Reily Twp. Police have said George is a suspect.
Authorities believe Nolan Ray George is responsible for a series of killings
Nolan Ray George moved into the Parkside Inn in Monroe in June after getting out of the Clermont County Jail for carrying a concealed weapon and menacing.
In recent weeks, neighbors — including a 38-year-old woman with six children who was becoming friends with George — began hearing rumors of his past. They Googled him, and found that he had twice pleaded guilty to strangling women with their underwear and killing them.
“I never thought I’d be 30 feet away from someone like that,” said a neighbor named Rick, who wouldn’t give his last name.
Rick said George spent much of his time on the landing of the hotel, which charges $160 a week for rooms. He said George was quiet.
He said George told him he was falling in love with the woman with kids.
Then on Friday, July 17, George was arrested in connection with the 1968 murder of Gwendolyn Perry, 36, in Michigan, who prosecutors say he confessed to killing.
The Butler County Sheriff’s Office was part of a multi-state task force investigating George for more than a year. Butler County Detective Frank Smith told the Detroit Free Press in May that he is also a suspect in the murder of a Covington, Ohio, waitress and another woman in northern Ohio.
“I believe he is responsible for at least seven deaths,” Smith told the newspaper.
George is currently in the Butler County Jail facing extradition to Michigan. The charges against him carry a mandatory life sentence as Michigan does not have a death penalty.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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