Killer Comparisons: Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins and Heriberto Seda, the New York Zodiac

One manually strangled his victims and chose only a demographic that fit his own mother: drug-addicted females of color on the streets. The other shot his victims and was not too choosy -- any gender or ethnicity was fine. One was in Detroit, the other New York City. Between these two convicted serial  killers, there's no comparison, right? Well, let's dig into it a bit, shall we ...

While Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins (left) was spreading terror along Detroit's historic Woodward Avenue in 1991 and 1992, even beginning his assaults late in 1990, half a country away, Heriberto "Eddie" Seda (below) was stalking his own victims in the Big Apple. Ironically, both of these young men (in their 20s) operated in a place called Highland Park. They were both non-white. And they both adopted an alter ego on the street while committing their crimes -- Atkins using the nickname of Tony, which he claimed was an alternate personality that tormented him and egged him on to do his crimes, and Seda adopting the identity of the uncaught, still-never-identified Zodiac Killer of San Francisco. And whatever the circumstances or motives, both of these men operated in the same social landscape, the same time period in our American history, reflecting the sociological values and conditions then. How each was affected, and how each manifested this in his life, is quite different, however.

Seda was born in 1967 in New York City, close to Atkins' own birth in 1968. Also like Atkins, Seda grew up impoverished with his mom, his dad absent. He had one sibling, a younger half-sister he was quite protective of but also abusive toward, while Atkins had a brother who was one year older (and possibly other siblings who were not part of his life).

These two men varied a lot in their view on drugs: Atkins was deep in his addiction and chose victims who used, as well. Seda was anti-drugs and alcohol. He saw the drug and gang violence in his neighborhood and he hated it. He didn't want either himself or his sister to be an any way connected to it. Seda grew up rather reclusive. He was a good student in school. But like Atkins, he dropped out. Seda tried to enlist in the military but failed the entrance exam. And so began a calculated life of crime.

Seda read a lot about guns and serial killers. He even owned a set of serial killer playing cards. He looked up to these guys. Studied them. He watched a documentary on San Francisco's famous Zodiac Killer of the late 1960s and decided he wanted to adopt this persona. He taught himself how to build zip guns with crude materials, unable to purchase a real gun.

In the country's largest city, there were plenty of victims Seda could choose from. He did not know his victims -- he picked out strangers, and yes, demographics didn't matter -- but he did tend to target victims who were at a disadvantage, with psychiatric issues, disabilities or advanced age. In all, he assaulted nine people, three of which died. Atkins was known to have killed 11 women and assaulted at least two others who survived.

Unlike Atkins, Seda communicated with the police and the media, sending them handwritten letters with drawings that reflected quite a lot of thought and planning. He taunted law enforcement as he claimed to be the West Coast's Zodiac Killer back in action, and he taunted them that they would not capture him. Atkins had no use for such ego-fueled tricks as he wandered Woodward. In his drug-induced haze, he was trying to survive. You could argue that his criminal life was a tad inadvertent -- not calculated  like Seda's. Atkins hid his victims as well as he could and did no dialogue with the police, except for when he was apprehended a couple times for being in a building he should not have been. Then he clammed up, lied his way through the encounters so that police had no idea they had just spoken with the Woodward Corridor Killer they were hunting.

Seda tipped his hand with his handwriting, so to speak -- police realized the handwritten statement Seda made after shooting his sister matched those letters they had received from their Zodiac. If not for that, perhaps he would have eluded capture like the namesake he admired. In Atkins' case, one of his survivors was able to ID him on the street, and DNA evidence further did him in.

Seda continues to serve out his sentences totaling hundreds of years. Atkins died in 1997, just three years after his conviction of mandatory life without parole.

Above photos:

- Benjamin Atkins, from Detroit Police files, image obtained by FOIA. See this blog post for more on this photo and the confusion over photos of Atkins.
- Heriberto Seda photo from the Serial Killer Database / Grindhouse13. 

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To learn more about the Seda case, see the "World's Most Evil Killers" episode. For a deep-dive of the Atkins case, see "The Crack City Strangler: The Homicides of Serial Killer Benjamin Atkins."

BRBates.com
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Murders in the Motor City Series

And check out the other posts in this Killer Comparisons series by clicking on the label on the left or the links below:

John Eric Armstrong and Paul Stephani, the 'Weepy-Voiced Killer'
John Eric Armstrong and Charles Albright
John Eric Armstrong and Anthony Shore
John Eric Armstrong and Colin Campbell
Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins and John Cannan
Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins and Stewart Weldon
John Eric Armstrong and Wayne Adam Ford
John Eric Armstrong and Richard Paul White
John Eric Armstrong and Steven Dean Gordon
Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins and Leslie Allen Williams
Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins and Derrick Todd Lee
John Eric Armstrong and Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins
Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins and Anthony Sowell
Benjamin (“Tony”) Atkins and Douglas (Donna) Perry
John Eric Armstrong and William Devin Howell