Authorites did not relize that they had a serial murderer in their midst when Mack Ray Edwards walked to the front desk of a Los Angeles police station on March 5, 1970, handed the suprised duty officer a loaded handgun, and confessed to the triple-kidnapping of three young girls that had occurred on the previous day. Two had already escaped and the other was recovered safely when Edwards directed officers to the Angeles National Forest where she awaited.

Edwards was not finished confessing. He immediately detailed his six previous mureders of children. Edwards told authorities he killed Stell Nolan, 8, in 1953, and had committed the double-murder of Don Baker, 13, and Brenda Howell, 11, in 1956. Edwards insisted that he had not killed again until his slaying of 16-year-old Gary Rochet in November of 1968. The child-killers last two victims were Roger Madison, 16, just three weeks after Rochet, and Donald Todd, 13, on May 16, 1969. Edwards led detectives to Nolan's remains, but was unsuccessful in locating where he had disposed of the bodies of his other five victims.

Though detectives scoffed at Edward's suppoised twelve year hiatus from killing, the murderer insisted there were no more victims and demanded immediate execution after being sentenced to death for three of the murders. Unable to wait his turn, Edwards took his own life on his third attempt on October 30, 1971.