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Killer Comparisons: John Eric Armstrong and Steven Dean Gordon

Steven Dean Gordon
A convicted pedophile working a deadly rampage on the West Coast with another pedophile, targeting adult female prostitutes. Sounds like a pretty chilling story. This was the life of Steven Dean Gordon, born in California in 1969 and in and out of incarceration for most of his life. Hearing his story, I can't help but think of some of the facets of the life of another convicted serial killer, John Eric Armstrong.

Born in a very close timeframe (Armstrong in 1973), both of these white men targeted sex workers of whatever ethnicity was convenient. Both had five known victims (though Armstrong could have had many more, if his confessions are to be believed).  Armstrong was raised in North Carolina, Gordon in California. They both seemed to have relatively normal upbringings, though Gordon was sickly as a child and even missed a year of school due to illness. But both graduated from high school then got very normal jobs, Armstrong working at a local retail store then enlisting in the U.S. Navy, and Gordon working as a handyman at a local amusement park. So both were right under the noses of the residents of their towns, not at all seeming sinister or evoking suspicion.

John Eric Armstrong
One marked difference in their lives of crime is the pedophilia, which was not part of Armstrong's background. Gordon, however, actually targeted his own sister's child -- and served time for it. After he was released, he married his girlfriend, and Armstrong also spent a few years married and carrying on that seemingly normal life. But there was trouble in Gordon's marriage, as he reportedly had anger issues. His wife filed for divorce. Armstrong's own wife did not divorce him until he was convicted of murder.

Gordon abducted his ex-wife and daughter, and he was arrested and charged with kidnapping. He served several years in prison and was released in 2010. After this release, he worked at an auto body shop in Anaheim then moved to Santa Ana. This is where things escalated for him. He teamed up with a younger man named Frank Cano, another convicted pedophile who had molested his sibling's child, a crime for which he served more than a year in prison. Like Gordon, Cano suffered from childhood illnesses. The two had a camaraderie, a certain kinship. Armstrong never buddied up -- he kept his crimes only to himself on the seedy Michigan Avenue in Detroit.

Gordon and Cano lived in a car together in 2010, then cut off their parolee monitor bracelets and headed toward Alabama, where they were apprehended and brought back to do a few more months of time. In 2012, they repeated the move, cutting off their ankle bracelets and taking off to Vegas. They got several more months' time behind bars. 

Released in early 2013, they spent a lot more time together as they were monitored by different law enforcement agencies in their parole. At this point, they targeted adult women, texting back and forth to each other, referring to their targets as "cats." Police got on to them, and Gordon again removed his ankle monitor and fled (he must have gotten pretty good at that). Again, he was apprehended.

The duo killed five prostitutes over a span of five months in 2013-2014, one of which police didn't even know about until Gordon's arrest. Gordon would pick up a woman in his car, with Cano hiding in the back seat. Cano would then overpower the female, and they would take her to a spot behind the auto body shop where Gordon worked. They would then assault and kill her. Cano would strangle the woman, then Gordon would punch her in the stomach to expel the air more quickly (that is a detail similar to another serial, Benjamin Atkins). So Gordon's M.O. differed slightly from Armstrong's in that way -- Armstrong strangled his victims himself.

These two serials vary a lot in what happened after their convictions. When Gordon was found guilty in 2017, he admitted his guilt, even saying he deserved the death penalty he received, and calling his actions evil. Armstrong, though he had confessed to his crimes in Detroit freely upon his April 2000 arrest, approached his trial as not guilty, and maintained that stance through the conviction and sentencing. When given a chance to speak at his sentencing, there was no remorse or apology for the victim families. And to this day, serving out his life sentences in Jackson, Michigan (where there is no death penalty), he does not wish to discuss his case. Gordon also remains behind bars as of this writing -- on death row at San Quentin.

To learn more about the Gordon (and Cano) case, see the World's Most Evil Killers episode.

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