Joseph G. Christopher was an American serial killer, active from September 22, 1980 until his arrest on May 10, 1981. He was known as the "Midtown Slasher". It is believed that he killed at least twelve individuals and wounded numerous others, almost all African Americans, with one Hispanic male. His homicidal rampage began on September 22, 1980, when he was 25 years old. He started his crimes by shooting African American men with a sawn-off .22 rifle while they went about their daily duties, striking in the middle of the day and into the night with sometimes more than five murders in one day. However, Christopher changed his method of killing midway through his onslaught of terror by choosing a knife as his new weapon, stabbing his victims to death and cutting the heart out of two of his victims, who were cab drivers.
