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The infamous Railroad Killer who went about hunting for his victims by jumping on freight trains had had the nation by a chokehold for the terror he managed to spread in communities next to railway tracks. The Mexican drifter, Ángel Maturino Reséndiz, had been found to enter and exit the United States under multiple aliases.
He made use of the trains to look for farm work before he went on his killing spree. Reséndiz surrendered in 1999 and was executed with lethal injection in 2006. The People Magazine Investigates: Surviving a Serial Killer episode titled Surviving the Railroad Killer brings to viewers the chilling details caused by the rampage of the Mexican serial killer — the Railroad Killer.
It airs on May 12, 2024, at 9 pm EST on Investigation Discovery. The official synopsis reads:
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“A new romance between two college students derails when a sadist attacks them during a nighttime walk by the railroad tracks; only one of them lives, and she turns out to be the sole survivor of a serial murderer known as the Railroad Killer.”
Five details about The Railroad Killer's murders explored
1) Ángel Maturino Reséndiz made use of the extensive railroad network to look for his victims
Ángel Maturino Reséndiz had begun his spree of killings as early as 1986. The murders he committed were strategically placed along railroad tracks, which gave the authorities reason to believe that their suspect had been using the rail network to pick and hunt his victims.
Reséndiz illegally entered the United States and took the rail along the country to look for odd jobs for money. According to an Oxygen report, Reséndiz worked seasonally on farms and sent money back home to Mexico. He hopped freight trains looking for orange picking jobs in Florida or harvesting tobacco in Kentucky.
2) Reséndiz entered the United States under multiple aliases
Ángel Maturino Reséndiz was born in Izúcar de Matamoros, Puebla, Mexico, as Ángel Leoncio Reyes Recendiz on August 1, 1959, as per the United States Department of Justice. He crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally for the first time in 1976 and returned to Mexico 17 times in 20 years. He had been deported by the Immigration and Naturalisation Services four times in total.
The Los Angeles Times first identified the perpetrator behind the 23 murders in Texas, Georgia, Illinois, Florida, California, and Kentucky as Rafael Resendez Ramirez. He took various names including Jose Angel Reyes-Resendiz, Angel Cano Reyes-Recendez, Jose Angel, Antonio Martinez, Aerrjel Martinez, Carlos Cluthier Rodriguez, and Pedro Argel Jaramillo.
Reséndiz committed multiple serious felonies during his early years and went undetected due to his undocumented status, as per Oxygen.
3) The Railroad Killer had a unique modus operandi for his killings
The murders by the Railroad Killer were eventually linked by the investigating authorities as they discovered a pattern in the killings. Reséndiz's victims took a serious beating and were ultimately bludgeoned to death with items from their homes or the crime scene. In the case of the female victims, r*pe and sodomy served as secondary intents in some cases.
The FBI linked Reséndiz to at least 15 people whom he killed with weapons, including a .38-caliber gun, shotgun, brick, railcar air brake, plywood, rocks, fire iron, tire rim, statue, sledgehammer, and a pickaxe. He left his fingerprints and palmprints, which enabled the officers to trace the crimes to him.
His modus operandi involved spending time at the crime scenes where he often ate a meal, left the crumbs in the kitchen sink, and studied his victims as he left their identification out in the open.
Reséndiz often stole valuables and sent them to his mother and wife in Rodeo, Mexico.
4) Reséndiz's sister helped the Texas Rangers coordinate his surrender
Angel Maturino Reséndiz entered the list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives in 1999, which resulted in a nationwide manhunt. While he was being misidentified as Rafael Resendez-Ramirez, vigilantes had been keeping an eye out for the mysterious bogeyman.
However, the investigating officers eventually found out The Railroad Killer's real identity and started working with his family, who cooperated with the process. Reséndiz’s sister feared for his life and worked with Texas Ranger Drew Carter to ensure Reséndiz surrendered himself before he was killed or captured.
According to the Chicago Tribune, she was awarded $86,000 for her aid. His mother and wife returned most of the valuables he had stolen from the victims' homes, as per the Plainview Herald.
5) Ángel Maturino Reséndiz was sentenced to death in 2006
According to Oxygen, the Railroad Killer surrendered himself over a bridge to the U.S. Border Patrol at the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, on July 13, 1999. Reséndiz was accompanied by his sister, two brothers, and a pastor. The Los Angeles Times reported that he shook hands with Ranger Carter before he was arrested.
As reported by The Guardian, Reséndiz claimed that he had been sent by God to avenge the evil and thus, pleaded not guilty because of insanity during Claudia Benton's murder trial in 2000. He was found guilty of capital murder and was executed by lethal injection on June 27, 2006.
Watch the new episode of People Magazine Investigates: Surviving a Serial Killer on Investigation Discovery on Sunday.
