ISRAEL KEYES; THE KILL KIT TRAVELER

ISRAEL KEYES; THE KILL KIT TRAVELER

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INTRODUCTION

          Israel Keyes (January 7, 1978 – December 2, 2012) was an

 American serial killer, bank robber, burglar, arsonist, kidnapper,

 and sex offender. He murdered at least three people and 

committed dozens of other crimes across the United States from 

the late 1990s to February 2012. Keyes was arrested in March 

2012 and killed himself while awaiting trial. Evidence in his jail cell

 led the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to suspect that 

Keyes murdered eleven people.

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CHILDHOOD

         Israel Keyes was born in Richmond, Utah, on January 7, 

1978, the second of ten children of Heidi Keyes (née Hakansson) 

and John Jeffrey "Jeff" Keyes (October 4, 1952 – November 13, 

2002). His parents were members of the LDS Church from 

Torrance, California, and his father had been an LDS missionary in

 Germany.

         Keyes and his siblings were homeschooled until 1983. After 

leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Keyes's 

father moved the family to a remote plot of land north of Colville, 

Washington, in Stevens County when Keyes was 5. Isolated from

 society, the family lived in a one-room cabin without electricity or

 running water on Rocky Creek Road.

         In Colville, the family attended services at a church called the

 Ark, which subscribed to white supremacist Christian Identity

 ideology. Keyes later described the Ark as an Amish-like 

environment. During this period of attending the Ark, the Keyes 

family befriended the neighboring family of Chevie Kehoe, who 

was later convicted for a 1996 triple murder.

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ADOLESCENCE

          The family attended another church in Colville called the

 Christian Israel Covenant Church that taught British Israelism as

 doctrine, that miscegenation was abominable and deviant, and 

that Anglo-Saxons were to rule over the perceived inferior races.

 Keyes later alleged it to have been militia-like.For years, some of

 the Keyes children were forced to sleep in a tent due to their

 cabin's small size and made to hunt their food, chop firewood, and

 work on local farms to support the family. As a hobby, Keyes 

hunted "anything with a heartbeat"; he freely admitted to skinning

 a deer alive to his peers at the church. As a result, Keyes was 

ostracized by other children who attended the Christian Israel 

Covenant Church, with one girl recounting that Keyes's presence 

"made my skin crawl."

         As a youth, Keyes—who stood 6 ft 2 in tall by age 14—

admitted to shooting at neighbors' houses with his BB gun and 

starting fires in the woods. He also broke into houses with another 

youth, who subsequently avoided Keyes after witnessing him shoot

 an animal. On one occasion, Keyes stole several guns from his 

neighbor's residence and was forced to apologize by his parents 

after they discovered the cache. Keyes would also sell stolen guns

 to local adults.

          Around this time, Keyes's parents provided shelter to

 personal friends; in the presence of their son and daughter and 

Keyes's sister, Keyes tied a cat to a tree with a parachute cord and

 gored it with a .22 revolver. The cat then began circling the tree

 before crashing into it and vomiting; Keyes allegedly chuckled 

before noting that the boy—who later informed his father—had 

vomited in response to the incident. Keyes had an epiphany in 

which he felt that he was different from his peers, who ran away 

from him. Upon this realization, he kept his increasingly antisocial

 behavior to himself. In addition, Keyes's mother began to notice

 "some troubling signs" in Keyes during this period, when he 

began tuning into various "radio stations and different things.

        By his teenage years, Keyes had become a skilled carpenter, 

building his first wooden cabin for his family at age 16. He also 

worked for a Colville contractor from 1995 to 1997. Around this 

time, Keyes kept a journal including Biblical quotations, 

documenting daily sins for which he felt shame, such as lusting 

after his girlfriend. Later, the family relocated to Smyrna, Maine, 

where they collected sap for maple syrup production in a mostly 

Amish community. Due to their mother's religious zealousness, the Keyes 

children were forced to hide from their parents to watch movies with 

friends and were forbidden to learn musical instruments. Some time during

 this period, Keyes renounced his Christian faith.

        Keyes declared his atheism to his parents—both of whom he

 had previously made tireless and constant efforts to please—after

 an intense argument. This led them to evict Keyes for blasphemy;

 they then instructed his younger siblings, who looked up to Keyes,

 to never have contact with him again. Keyes then became 

interested in Satanism, and planned to commit a ritualistic murder.

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ADULTHOOD

       In the summer of 1997 or 1998, Keyes sexually assaulted a 

teenage girl who had been tubing with her friends down the 

Deschutes River in Maupin, Oregon. Keyes admitted that he stalked

 her from a tree line before "very violently sexually assaulting" the

 girl—whom he estimated to be between 14 and 18—at knifepoint. 

Originally planning to murder her as part of a Satanic ritual, Keyes 

let her go in the river tube he had abducted her from. "I was 

too timid. I wasn't violent enough," he told investigators. "I made

 up my mind I was never going to let that happen again."

MILITARY SERVICE

        On July 9, 1998, Keyes relocated and enlisted in the United 

States Army in the state of New York, where he served as a 

Specialist in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry, 25th 

Infantry Division. He passed a month-long preliminary course for 

United States Army Rangers training. He was stationed at Fort

 Lewis and Fort Hood, also spending some time abroad. While

 stationed in Sinai, Egypt, Keyes befriended several soldiers,

 informing one of them that he would "like to kill" him.

        While at Fort Lewis, Keyes served on a mortar team. Former

 Army friends of Keyes have noted his quiet demeanor and habit of

 keeping to himself. On weekends, he was reported to drink 

heavily, consuming entire bottles of his favorite drink, Wild Turkey

 bourbon; in February 2001, Keyes was arrested in Thurston

 County for driving under the influence. Pursuant to a plea 

agreement, he was fined $350.Keyes was also a fan of the hip

 hop duo Insane Clown Posse and displayed posters of the musical

 act in the barracks.

         Keyes was awarded an Army Achievement Medal for his 

service as a gunner and assistant gunner from December 1998 to

 July 2001. He was then honorably discharged and relocated to 

Neah Bay, Washington.

PERSONAL LIFE

         For a period, Keyes had lived in the Makah Reservation 

community of Neah Bay, on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington 

state. He had a Native American girlfriend, who he had met online

 and subsequently had a daughter with.[ Keyes and this girlfriend

 broke up, and at the time of his arrest he was dating a woman

 who worked as a nurse.

        In 2007, Keyes started a construction business in Alaska, as a

 contractor, and construction worker. He was generally regarded 

as a skilled and trustworthy worker, but several female customers 

reported Keyes exhibited brief facial expressions or dark moods 

that made them uncomfortable.

       Keyes also had ties to New York; he owned 10 acres (4.0 

hectares) and a dilapidated cabin in the town of Constable.

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CRIMINAL HISTORY

        Keyes targeted random people all across the United States to 

avoid detection, planning for months before he committed a 

particular crime. He specifically frequented campgrounds and 

isolated locations. He claimed to only use guns when he had to and

 preferred strangulation; this was due to the pleasure he derived

 from witnessing victims lose consciousness in the struggle. He

 claimed to not kill children or parents of children, primarily 

because of his daughter, whom he feared finding out about him 

and his crimes. However, police and FBI investigators were 

skeptical of this claim and suspected Keyes of killing several 

teenagers and children.

       Keyes did not admit to any murders during his three years in 

the United States Army, but he did admit attempting to rape a sex

 worker while on leave in Egypt and a college student he met while

 on leave in Israel. He confessed to committing bank robberies in

 New York and Texas. The FBI later confirmed that Keyes robbed

 the Community Bank branch in Tupper Lake, New York, in April

 2009. He also told authorities that he burglarized a Texas home

 and set it on fire. An FBI report stated that Keyes burglarized 

twenty to thirty homes across the United States and robbed 

several banks between 2001 and 2012.

        Keyes is believed to have begun killing in 2001 following his

 discharge from the Army. He is believed to have been responsible

 for as many as eleven deaths in the United States. He planned 

murders long ahead of time and took action to avoid detection. 

Unlike most serial killers, he did not have a victim profile, stating 

that he chose victims randomly.On his murder trips, he kept his

 mobile phone turned off and paid for items with cash. For the 

Currier murders, Keyes flew to Chicago, where he rented a car to

 drive 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) to Vermont. He then used a 

"murder kit" he had hidden two years earlier to execute the 

murders.