DRAFT Careful, This One Bites He didn''t look like a vampire. Wayne Clifford Boden was a charming, twenty-three-year-old Montrealer "with thick sideburns and an easy smile"1 when he went on a killing spree beginning in 1968[ 1969?] and ending with five[ four?] young women raped, murdered, and bitten. That''s right, Boden, a.k.a The Vampire Rapist, had the bizarre modus operandi of biting his victims on their breasts, leaving behind dental evidence which eventually lead to his arrest and conviction. You might be tempted to dismiss Boden as a pop culture fanatic, spurred on by the trend toward the vampiristic on TV and the silver screen and convinced by some inner madness to put his bloody impulses to use in real life. But remember, this was in the late 60s, long before Twilight, or The Vampire Diaries, or Interview With the Vampire. So, what was it that pushed Boden to not only murder, but deliver the dark kiss? Could it be that he was in fact a real life vampire? There is some debate as to which victim was Boden''s first.

In The Serial Killer Files, Harold Schechter asserts that schoolteacher Norma Vaillancourt was the first to go in July of 1968. The twenty-one-year-old had been raped and strangled to death in her apartment, and bite marks covered her breasts. The police found no sign of a struggle, either on the deceased''s body or in the apartment, implying that Vaillancourt had let her killer in. Murderpedia reports that oddly the dead girl was found with a smile on her face. Next to go, nearly a year later, was Shirley Audette whose body was dumped behind an apartment complex downtown. According to Murderpedia, though she had been raped, strangled and bitten on the breasts--exactly like Norma Vaillancourt--her body was fully clothed when found, and again there were no signs of a struggle. In November of 1969 it happened again. Marielle Archambault, a young employee at a downtown jewelry shop, was found dead (and raped, and bitten) in her apartment by her employer who''d gone to check on her when she didn''t show up for work.

This time, however, it seemed some kind of struggle had occurred, because the apartment was a mess, and Archambault''s clothes were ripped. Though such a fight might lead one to believe Archambault had been attacked by a stranger, Schechter claims the police were lead to believe otherwise when they found a crumpled photo of a good-looking young man at the scene. Archambault''s co-workers identified the man as Bill, a guy they''d seen the dead girl chatting with that very day. Jean Way was almost saved. The blog Serial Killer Central states that Way''s boyfriend came to pick her up for a date, but when she didn''t answer the door he left and returned an hour later, by which time the poor girl was dead. It''s believed Boden was in the apartment with Way when the boyfriend first came by and, alarmed by his knock on the door, fled the scene. This would explain the fact that Way''s body was left naked, unlike the other victims, and her breasts were unmolested. She had been raped and strangled, though.

Boden left before he could finish the job. One thing to note about Jean Way is that skin was found under her fingernails. She might not have won, but she fought back. Perhaps intuiting that he wasn''t going to get away with it much longer in Montreal, Boden trekked across country to Calgary to carry out his final murder on May 18, 1971. Elizabeth Porteous, a thirty-three year old teacher, met her end like the rest, leaving one final clue behind: a cufflink hidden underneath her body. Schechter reports that Porteous''s friends knew she was dating a man named Bill, and that he drove a blue Mercedes. It was this car, in the end, that lead to Boden''s apprehension, when the police spotted it near Porteous''s apartment and nabbed the killer as he was walking towards it the very next day. Boden, now in police custody, didn''t fess up right away.

Murderpedia explains that he admitted to going by the name Bill and taking Porteous on a date on the night of her murder, but insisted she had been perfectly fine when he''d left her. Yes, the cufflink was his, but he was no killer. But as he resembled the man in the photo found in Archambault''s apartment, the police held him anyway on suspicion of murder. It was the bite marks that did him in. At his trial for the murder of Elizabeth Porteous a local orthodontist was able to prove through bite mark evidence that the marks on Porteous''s body could not have been made by anyone but Boden. Wikipedia insists that Boden''s conviction was the first in North America to be made by forensic odontological evidence, the same method that would eventually take down Ted Bundy. For Porteous''s murder, Boden was sentenced to life in prison. Boden eventually confessed to the Montreal murders as well, save that of Vaillancourt, which he claimed to know nothing about, though hers was the death that started it all.

For the rapes and killings of Audette, Archambault, and Way, Boden was given an additional three life sentences. No explanation was ever given by Wayne Boden as to why he bit his victim''s breasts, nor did he ever claim to be a vampire--an interesting defence which would surely have turned his court case into a circus--but one cannot deny that a few of the characteristics of his murders, besides the bite marks, could support an argument of vampirism. Aren''t vampires known to be young, good-looking, and charming, able to use their charms to get the girl into their arms before baring their fangs? It would explain how he managed to get into his victim''s apartments--a vampire can''t force his way in. He has to be invited. Wild imagining aside, for all intents and purposes, Boden, who died in prison in 2006, was simply an evil man, a serial killer with a strange quirk, a murderer who eventually got what he deserved. A murderer who, it should be noted, died of skin cancer, perhaps after thirty-some years of enduring life in a cell with a single barred window, letting in the burning, torturous light of the sun which slowly, painfully, roasted his undead skin? Your guess is as good as ours. Either way, vampire or no, Wayne Boden was locked away until his death, and never killed again. Serves you right, Boden.

That''ll teach you to keep your fangs to yourself.