GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Before his death, convicted killer Garry Artman made two unusual requests, which ultimately led to him confessing to murdering nearly a dozen women in the Grand Rapids area three decades ago, according to sources familiar with the case. The 66-year-old demand his own prison cell and a ham sandwich from Subway with double meat before dying from lung cancer on Dec. 28.
The Kent County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that investigators met with Artman three times after he contacted prison administrators saying he wanted to talk about “bodies.”
In his confession, Artman reportedly claimed to have killed a total of eleven women, including Sharon Hammack in 1996 and Dusty Shuck in Maryland in 2006. Investigators are also confident he killed Cathleen Dennis in Grand Rapids in 1995. Hammack and Dennis were among 17 women who were murdered or went missing from the Grand Rapids area from late 1993 to late 1996.
Retired FBI profiler Julia Cowley noted how Artman described his victims as “the bodies,” which she found very impersonal. According to Cowley, who worked on high profile cases like that of Golden State Killer Joseph DeAngelo, Artman’s choice of words was striking and impersonal.
Cowley also pointed out that Artman’s deathbed confession is an unusual, yet not unheard of, occurrence, shedding light on potential motivations behind them and how serial killers select their victims.