Killer Comparisons: Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins and Mark Goudeau

October 07, 2026

Killer Comparisons: Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins and Mark Goudeau

Two decades ago, a string of unsolved murders was terrorizing the residents of Phoenix. But it was not the work of a single serial killer -- it was three killers, actually. It was a lone gunman, and it was also a pair of gunmen working together, dubbed the Serial Shooters. How odd that was. Added up, though, it was a time of great fear in Arizona. A perfect storm of not only the serial shootings, but also elevated gang violence, street shoot-outs and even excessive heat for this southwestern state.

The single serial in this mess was Mark Goudeau, aka the Baseline Killer, so-named because he assaulted women around the city's Baseline Road. But who was Mark Goudeau? As I look more closely at the details of his case, I can't help but think of another convicted serial I am very familiar with, Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins.

Both of these men operated in a large city. Both had monikers for the thoroughfare where they hunted. Both were men of color born in the 1960s. But perhaps that's where the similarities end? Goudeau was born in Phoenix in 1964, youngest of 11 siblings. Atkins, born in 1968, had just one sibling -- a brother one year older -- as he grew up in Detroit. He reportedly had other siblings, but no info is known on them. Goudeau's mother died when he was 11, while Atkins' mother lived throughout his life but was largely absent as she did heroin and worked the streets. There was alcohol abuse in Goudeau's family -- perhaps there's some overlap there. But how else do these serials compare?

Well, demeanor and social status are two areas where they diverge. Atkins was largely homeless and sleeping in abandoned buildings in Detroit and its enclave, Highland Park, catching a job maybe now and then, looking very much the homeless, drug-addicted wanderer much of the time. Goudeau was employed. He worked as a valet in his young 20s, seeming like an ordinary guy, living a double life as he painted himself as the model citizen. Later, when he was 40, he was a construction worker and seen as a good guy by his neighbors.

But in-between ... Goudeau was in prison. In 1989 and 1990, just as Atkins was beginning to assault women a country away, Goudeau was committing crimes like robbery and assault. One day, a woman escaped from his apartment, telling police her horrific story of assault. Goudeau was arrested with blood evidence on him. He was charged for the attack but let out on bail. He continued to commit crimes until his trial. He assaulted another woman who survived. He was finally imprisoned in 1990. He married his girlfriend at the time while in prison. He served 13 years and was released in 2004.

Then came the horrifying summer of 2005. Phoenix's crime rate doubled. Police began to log numerous rapes in the area of Baseline Road, realizing they could have a serial rapist on the loose. In September, two young sisters were sexually assaulted while walking home. Around the same time, a 19-year-old exotic dancer turned up dead. The Baseline Rapist, as police were calling him, had just become the Baseline Killer. The bodies of two female food truck workers turned up a few months later, amid more sexual assaults of females who survived.

This was not a cut-and-dried investigation, though. Added to the confusion in the city's mess of crime was the randomness of Goudeau's victims and their locations. Unlike Atkins, who targeted one particular demographic that matched his mother, Goudeau chose any ethnicity, any age, any life status. Any female. He was known to kill one man among his nine murders, but that was just because this man was in the way -- accompanying a woman he had decided to kill.

Both of these serials committed their crimes on foot, as opposed to driving around trying to pick up females in a car. So police in each case knew their perp "had a door" in the area, so to speak. These killers were familiar with the landscape. They were likely from there. In Goudeau's case, police felt their guy was somebody's neighbor, seen around a lot. Indeed, he was. Atkins was, as well, you could say, when he was sleeping on his brother's couch at times. At least a couple of those neighbors in the apartment house spoke with the media about him after his arrest, expressing the kind of surprise you would expect ("he seemed like a nice guy ...").

As Goudeau's killings progressed between August 2005 and June 2006, he became bolder. He was escalating. He killed a woman he knew in spring 2006. By May 2006 police had identified 18 crimes they believed were committed by the Baseline Killer. The killer's M.O. was shooting his victims, whereas Atkins was a manual strangler. Goudeau's case also had a kidnapping element -- he didn't just kill them on the spot and leave them there as Atkins did.

For both of these men, the final kill was in June. For Goudeau, it was June 2006, while Atkins finally stopped in the early hours of June 1, 1992, then was arrested two and a half months later. In September 2006, Goudeau was arrested and his house searched. Police gathered more physical evidence against him. He had taken a souvenir from at least one victim, for one thing (Atkins was not known to take souvenirs). But survivor testimonies helped convict both killers: The son of one of Goudeau's victims also recognized him as his mom's "friend," and another person ID'd him from a crime. For Atkins, his one known survivor at the time came forward and helped law enforcement find him on the streets of Detroit.

Though the sketch of the unnamed perp led to the pinning of Goudeau, DNA evidence helped convict both of these killers. Goudeau was well-aware of DNA and tried to cover up his own in the assault of the two sisters in particular, leading to a weak sample when the police investigated, but an advanced lab helped police link him to the scene. Atkins left DNA in a couple different ways at his crime scenes, plus he left his handprint at one scene.

It's interesting to note that when Atkins was apprehended he was being referred to as the nation's fastest-moving serial killer. He killed 11 people in as little as six months, though it was seen as more like eight or nine months at the time when being reported in the media. We know his last murder was on the last day of May 1992 (as noted, the early morning hours of June 1). We don't know when his first murder was, though. It could have been November; it could have been December. But I had to wonder, as I looked at Goudeau's own run, how closely he compared, in terms of speed, with his own nine homicides. His last was in June 2006, but at the end of the month, and his first was in September, so he had at least an extra month on each side, so he would not rival the "claim to fame" attached to Atkins.

Goudeau's trial was separated into 13 separate crime scenes. He was found guilty of 76 of 93 crimes, including all nine murder charges. He was given nine death sentences in 2011 and remains on death row as of this writing. Michigan doesn't have the death penalty, but for Atkins it didn't matter. He died three years into his mandatory life sentence.

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.
- Mark Goudeau photo from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, Phoenix, Arizona.

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To learn more about the Goudeau 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."

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Killer Comparisons: Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins and Mark Goudeau

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