Bra murders

Between 1967 and 1971, five women were killed in Stamford, Connecticut, in a series that became known as the "Bra murders" because several victims were strangled with their own bras. Most of the victims were African American or in active addiction, and their bodies were all found within about 400 meters of the Merritt Parkway. The victims were Rose Ellen Pazda (known as "Sissi Rush"), reported missing in August 1967 and found skeletonized in April 1969; Donna Roberts, reported missing and found dead in May 1968; Gloria Conn, found in September 1968 near where Roberts was killed; Gail Thompson, found strangled in an abandoned house in July 1971; and Alma T. Henry, found in a trash can in August 1971. Henry differed from the other victims in that she was not known to be a sex worker or in active addiction, and lived with her husband and children in a Stamford housing project. Investigators concluded the killings stopped after her death.

The investigation drew criticism from Stamford's African-American community, whose members accused police of negligence because the victims were poor Black women, and called for scrutiny of the police department. In 1972, investigators focused on Benjamin Franklin Miller, a self-styled street preacher and postal clerk with a documented history of mental illness dating to his teenage years. Miller admitted to having sex with victim Gail Thompson but denied killing her. After a psychiatric evaluation diagnosed him with schizophrenia during hospitalization at Fairfield Hills Hospital, Miller confessed to a psychiatrist to killing seven women, later described crime details to investigators, and helped recreate crime scenes. He was arrested and charged in March 1972, then recanted his confession, with his father testifying at trial that police used coercive tactics, including threats, to obtain it. Two of the five murder charges were dropped by prosecutors in February 1973, and Miller was acquitted by reason of insanity on the remaining three, receiving a 25-year commitment to a psychiatric facility.

After the trial, Miller's relatives' attorneys discovered that prosecutors had not disclosed information about an alternative suspect, Robert Lupinacci, a Stamford resident who was arrested in July 1972 while attempting to strangle a sex worker in the same area. Evidence connecting Lupinacci to the case included his known presence near crime scenes, his acquaintance with sex workers in the area, hair found in his car trunk, and items linking him to victim Gail Thompson. In 1988, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals granted Miller a new trial, ruling that his confession was likely obtained through police coercion and constituted a miscarriage of justice. Considering his mental health, the low credibility of his confession, and evidence pointing to Lupinacci, all charges against Miller were dropped and he was formally acquitted. Miller lived in a homeless shelter for the mentally ill until his death in 2010. Lupinacci was never charged in the murders, denied responsibility in a 2011 interview, and died in 2013. The lead investigator on the case maintained until his own death in 2013 that Miller was responsible. The killings remain officially unsolved.