The first time the phrase serial killer was used in connection with women killed in the Frankfurt section of Philadelphia

was in January 1989 after the death of 30-year-old Teresa Sirtino.

At least that was the first time I could find the phrase serial killer used publicly about

a man who was called the Frankfurt slasher.

That was a little over three years after the first victim, Helen Patton was murdered in 1985.

Including Helen, five women were murdered before Theresa, and she wasn't the slasher's last victim.

Two more women lost their lives at the hands of a man who brutally, violently murdered women.

Between August 1985 and September 1990, the Frankfurt-Slasher killed eight or nine women between the ages of 28 and 74.

In May 1990, someone was arrested, tried, and convicted for one murder attributed to the slasher.

But I struggle to believe beyond a reasonable doubt that man was at all connected to these murders.

Frankfurt has a long, rich history in the city of Philadelphia.

It was founded in 1682 by the Quakers

soon after William Penn set foot on these shores.

What we know today is Frankfurt Avenue

was called Frankfurt Pike a few hundred years ago. It was a trail

cut by William Penn himself between Philadelphia and New York which passed his

homestead in Bucks County. Frankfurt is home to an elevated train which opened almost 100 years ago in

1922. This train made it easy for travelers to get from Upper Darby a suburb just

outside West Philadelphia to Northeast Philly.

It was a bit of a marvel 100 years ago,

but today the Frankfurtel is associated with crime,

not necessarily on the train,

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