The Chilling Story Of Michael Bruce Ross: Connecticut's Last Execution
Discover the life and crimes of Michael Bruce Ross, known as The Roadside Strangler. Learn how this Ivy League graduate became the last person executed in Connecticut.
Jul 21, 202538.8K Shares518.2K Views
A chilling chapter in Connecticut’s criminal history centers on Michael Bruce Ross, known as The Roadside Strangler. Between 1981 and 1984, Ross confessed to killing eight young women, aged roughly 14 to 25, in Connecticut and New York. He often targeted his victims along quiet roads and ended their lives by strangling them after sexual assault. An Ivy League graduate from Cornell University, he appeared educated and normal while hiding a dark truth. In May 2005, Ross was executed by lethal injection, becoming the first person put to death in New England in 45 years and the last in Connecticut before the state ended capital punishment.
Early Life
Michael Bruce Ross was born on July 26, 1959, in Putnam, Connecticut. He was the oldest of four siblings and grew up with two younger sisters and a brother on a chicken farm in nearby Brooklyn, Connecticut. His home life was troubled; his mother struggled with mental health issues and often left the family, and reports indicate she physically disciplined her children, especially Ross. Some accounts also suggest that Ross endured sexual abuse by a teenage uncle who later died by suicide when Ross was around six years old. Despite this instability, Ross was intellectually gifted and did very well at school. He graduated from Killingly High School in 1977, then went on to Cornell University, where he studied agricultural economics and finished in May 1981. These early years, marked by hardship at home and strong academic achievement, shaped Ross’s life in ways that deeply affected his later path.
Criminal History
Michael Bruce Ross began his crimes in May 1981. He first killed Dzung Ngoc Tu, a 25‑year‑old graduate student at Cornell University. Her body was found in a creek, and her death was originally thought to be suicide. Ross later confessed to her murder.
Between 1982 and mid‑1984, Ross killed at least seven more young women. These included Tammy Williams (17) in January 1982, Paula Perrera (16) in March 1982, Debra Smith Taylor (23) in June 1982, Robin Stavinsky (19) in November 1983, April Brunais and Leslie Shelley (both 14) on the same day in April 1984, and Wendy Baribeault (17) in June 1984.
Ross attacked his victims by stalking them on or near roads, often when they were hitchhiking or walking alone. In most cases, he raped them and then strangled them. The bodies were left in isolated areas in Connecticut or nearby New York.
Police connected his crimes after evidence linked him to the last known victim, Wendy Baribeault. Officers questioned many local drivers in a blue Toyota vehicle, and Ross happened to own a matching car. He was arrested on June 29, 1984, and soon admitted to the murders of eight women.
Ross was convicted in Connecticut on four counts of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1987. He also faced charges in New York, where he received a prison sentence of 8⅓ to 25 years for a manslaughter count. He remained on death row for many years, at times representing himself in court and even seeking to waive his appeals.
In January 1994, a court paused his execution because there were questions about a missing psychiatric report. He later insisted that he wanted to die and did not wish to delay his execution for further appeals.
Ross was executed by lethal injection at Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers, Connecticut, on May 13, 2005. His death was the first execution in New England since 1960, and the only one ever carried out by lethal injection in Connecticut. He remains the last person executed in that state before it abolished capital punishment.
Execution
Michael Bruce Ross was executed on May 13, 2005, at Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers, Connecticut. He was 45 years old at the time.
In the months leading up to his execution, Ross had clearly asked to end his appeals and accept his punishment. There was concern from some that he might not have been fully mentally able to make that choice, due to the harsh conditions on death row. He had tried to end his own life several times, and experts thought he might suffer from what is called “death row syndrome,” a condition of deep despair from long confinement in isolation.
Ross’s execution was carried out by lethal injection, making him the first person executed by that method in Connecticut and the first person executed in New England since 1960. At the time, he had no special last meal request and, when offered a final chance to speak, quietly said, “No, thank you” before his execution.
Latest Articles
Popular Articles