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Inmate’s murder claims convince authoritiesST. PETERSBURG (AP) — Police say evidence supports an inmate’s claims of murder, including information supplied in the unsolved killing of a woman whose bullet-riddled skull was found 18 years ago in a river.Authorities admit they are trying to separate fact from fiction in the claims of James Winkles, who has said he kidnapped and murdered 26 people between 1967 and 1982.So far, in at least two unsolved slayings, Winkles likely is telling the truth, said Pinellas County Sheriff’s Detective Marty Hart.Elizabeth Graham, 19, a dog groomer from St. Petersburg, disappeared on Sept. 9, 1980. A year later, Clearwater real estate saleswoman Margo Delimon, 39, vanished.Winkles, now 58, was a suspect in the cases years ago, but there was no direct evidence and no charges were filed.Winkles was arrested Jan. 7, 1982, in Orlando after kidnapping a Sanford real estate saleswoman. He pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, armed robbery, kidnapping and grand theft auto.He has been in prison ever since and is not eligible for parole until2013.Now, he has decided to talk.In extensive interviews with authorities as well as WFLA television reporters, Winkles has offered new information about the two slayings.He told Pinellas detectives a skull found in 1981 was that of Graham. Recent DNA tests confirmed his story, detectives said.Winkles said he came forward after years of silence because he fears he won’t survive his time at the Polk Correctional Institute inPolk City.He says he has high blood pressure and heart disease.Winkles claims to have abducted dozens of women in the Tampa Bay area for his sexual pleasure and killed some of them.Detectives said many of his claims were unsubstantiated during months of investigation years ago.“The investigation is still open, but so far we have only verified two murders,” said Sgt. Mike Ring. “We believe he’s done others, but not as many as he claims.”Winkles gave this account of the Graham’s murder:Graham went to customers’ homes.Winkles made an appointment by phone and put a gun to her head when she arrived.“I handcuffed her hands behind her back,” he told WFLA in a recent interview. “I blindfolded her. I put her in the back floorboard of .my vehicle.”Graham wasn’t his intended victim, Winkles said. '“The actual abduction was supposed to be somebody I’d seen a couple of weeks before and really took a shine to,” Winkles said.“But she got sick or something the day I was supposed to get her and Graham showed up. Graham was actually a victim of circumstance.”iWinkles took Graham to a home he shared with his grandmother and held her hostage and repeatedly raped her.Eventually, he gave her a heavy dose of sleeping pills, then shot her in the head three times, he said. He buried the body, then later removed the head and dumped it in the ' Steinhatchee River.Divers found it a year later.
Newspaper Details
Northwest Florida Daily News
Fort Walton Beach, Florida, US
Sun, Nov 22, 1998
Page 39
Full Page
Clipped by
Michael R.
FL, USA 28 Apr 2023
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