Toni Lynn Ingrassia, Kimberly Lynn Spicer, Randall Brewer, Randy Piker, and Cathy A. Magaziner and more...

Who is Joe Metheny?

Joseph Metheny was born on March 2, 1953, in Baltimore, Maryland. There is little detail surrounding his childhood, and Metheny’s accounts of it have been contradicted by Jean Metheny, his mother. Both follow the same beginning: Joe’s father died when he was six years old, and Jean Metheny struggled to raise her six children alone. Jean later that, “It was very hard on me. I had to work to support the family, and I did everything I could to keep my kids together,” and claimed described Joe as a smart, kind boy with a good childhood. “If he was neglected, it was his own fault. It was a pretty good home.”

Joe would claim that his parents were dead, and claimed that his childhood was difficult. He contended that he was neglected, abused, and he was sent to “foster-like” homes by his parents throughout his childhood due to their poverty. Jean claims that this never happened, and there have been no records found to corroborate that story.

Jean Metheny believes all of Joe’s problems began with drugs. Military records show that Joe joined the Army at 18, and he claimed he became addicted to Heroin in the Vietnam war, which was a common occurrence among those stationed there. However, records do show that, at the time he entered, no more soldiers from the US were stationed in Vietnam, and his mother had no recollection of him going there.

Records do indicate that he was stationed in Germany for a time. Over the years, he and Jean Metheny grew more distant and by the time Joe was arrested, they hadn’t spoken for over a decade. By then, he was spending all of his money on drugs and alcohol.

Murders

Joe’s first known murder was in 1994 when he murdered a 39-year-old woman named Catherine Ann Magaziner, who worked as a prostitute. He buried her body near the factory where he worked at the time, but later dug her up, removed her head, put it in a box, and threw the box away.

A year after that, he was suspected of killing two homeless men named Randall Brewer and Randy Piker, both of whom live in homeless camps under a bridge in Baltimore. It was reported that they were killed with an axe, which was later used in a separate homicide unrelated to Methany. Due to the lack of evidence, he was not convicted of these crimes but later admitted to them.

A year later, after acquiring his own trailer, he lured 23-year-old Kimberly Lynn Spicer in with the promise of drugs and then stabbed her to death. He hid her body near the pallet company factory where he worked as a forklift driver, just as he’d done with Magaziner in 1994.

On December 8, 1996, Joe lured Rita Kemper to the same trailer with the promise of drugs. However, she refused to have sex with him and attempted to leave. Joe chased her, dragged her back to the trailer, beat her, and attempted to rape her. During this, he told her he would kill her and dump her body in the forest with ‘the rest of the girls.’

Kemper managed to escape again through an open window. Joe chased her, but Kemper climbed a stacked tower of tires to get over the fence and went straight to the police.

Joe Metheny then attempted to get a friend to help him bury Kimberly Spicer’s body, but that friend turned him in to the police instead. That same day, December 15, 1996, Joe Methany was arrested. He claims a body count of over ten victims and would claim that his first murders were a result of the revenge he wished to take on his girlfriend, who he says abandoned their child because she was a drug addict. However, the worst of his crimes were about to be revealed.

Human-Meat Stand

Joe Methany claimed that during the years that he was committing murders, he opened a small one-man, open-pit beef stand. There, he ground up the bodies of the women he killed and mixed them with animal meat, and then sold it to unsuspecting customers. He was quoted as saying, “They were very good. The human body taste was very similar to pork. If you mix it together, no one can tell the difference.”

Conviction

Though Joe Metheny’s lawyers would claim that their client was remorseful for his crimes and that heavy drugs had dulled and changed him and made him apathetic, the Jury didn’t buy it. For his gruesome crimes, Metheny received the death sentence on November 13, 1998. However, this sentence was later changed to life in prison in 2000. The court found insufficient evidence on a conviction that had allowed the death penalty in the first place: aggravated robbery.

Metheny begged to be allowed to die. He was quoted as saying, “The words ‘ I’m sorry ‘  will never come out, for they would be a lie. I am more than willing to give up my life for what I have done, to have God judge me and send [me] to hell for eternity.”

In one of his final letters, Joe Metheny wrote, “So the next time you’re riding down the road and you happen to see an open pit beef stand, …make sure you think about this story before you take a bite of that sandwich. Sometimes you never know who you may be eating. Ha! Ha!”

Joe Metheny was found dead in his city jail cell on Aug. 5, 2017, at the age of 62.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How was Joe Metheny caught?

A: Would-be victim Rita Kemper escaped and informed police, while another former friend told police that Joe Metheny had asked him to help bury a dead body. Metheny was arrested on December 15, 1996, and gave a full confession.

Q: Did Joe Metheny have kids?

A: Joe Metheny had one known child who ended up in the State’s care.

Q: Who survived Joe Metheny?

A: Rita Kemper was the woman who survived Joe Metheny’s attack and lead police to him.