Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck

Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck

The Chilling Story of the couple who lured single woman with personal ads -- Then Brutally murdered them 

In 1947, a single mother from Florida named Martha Beck placed a personal ad that got the attention of Raymond Fernandez, a Spanish-American con man who believed he held supernatural powers over women. Fernandez had never made an honest dime in his life and abandoned his wife and four children at a young age.

 And when he took a boat from Spain to the United States in 1945, a piece of steel rigging fell and hit him on the head — and reportedly turned him into a sex-addicted predator.

Fernandez then spent a year in a Tallahassee prison for robbery in 1946, and was taught the ways of Voodoo and black magic by a cellmate, soon convincing him that he could control women's minds. ⁠

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Once he was free, he relentlessly trawled so-called "lonely hearts" ads placed by single women in romance magazines and newspapers — with plans to bilk the women he wooed out of their life savings. However, when Fernandez met Beck, he found not only a willing accomplice in his schemes but an equally disturbed partner who joined him in upping the ante from theft to murder. By the time they were caught two years later, they'd already killed up to 17 women.

 Learn the full story of the "Lonely Hearts Killers" 

Raymond Martinez Fernandez (December 17, 1914 – March 8, 1951) and Martha Jule Beck (May 6, 1920 – March 8, 1951) were an American serial killer couple. They were convicted of one murder, are known to have committed two more, and were suspected of having killed up to twenty victims during a spree between 1947 and 1949.

After their arrest and trial for serial murder in 1949, Fernandez and Beck became known as the Lonely Hearts Killers for meeting their unsuspecting victims through personal ads, posted in newspaper lonely hearts columns. A number of films and television shows are based on this case.

Fernandez visited Beck and stayed for a short time; she told everyone they were to be married. He returned to New York City while she made preparations in Florida. When she was abruptly fired from her job, Beck packed her belongings and arrived on Fernandez' doorstep in New York. Fernandez enjoyed the way she catered to his every whim, and when he learned she had left her children for him, he thought it was a sign of an unconditional love. He confessed his criminal enterprises to Beck, who quickly sent her children to the Salvation Army in order to devote herself to Fernandez without any distractions.

Beck posed as Fernandez's sister, giving him an air of respectability. Their victims, feeling more secure knowing there was another woman in the house, often agreed to stay with the pair. Beck also convinced some victims that she lived alone and that her "brother" was only a guest. She was extremely jealous and went to great lengths to make sure Fernandez and his "intended" never consummated their relationship. When he did have sex with a woman, Beck subjected both to her violent temper.

In 1949, the pair committed the three murders for which they later were convicted. Janet Fay, 66, became engaged to Fernandez and went to stay at his Long Island apartment. When Beck caught her in bed with Fernandez, she brutally struck Fay's head with a hammer in a murderous rage. Fernandez then strangled Fay. Her family became suspicious when she disappeared, and Fernandez and Beck fled.

Beck and Fernandez traveled to Byron Center Road in Wyoming Township, Michigan, a suburb of Grand Rapids, where they met and stayed with Delphine Downing, a 28-year-old widow with a two-year-old daughter. On February 28, Downing became agitated and Fernandez gave her sleeping pills to calm her. The daughter witnessed Downing's resulting stupor and began to cry, which enraged Beck. Panicked, Beck choked the child but didn't kill her. Fernandez thought Downing would become suspicious if she saw her bruised daughter, so he shot the unconscious woman. The couple then stayed for several days in Downing's house. Again enraged by the daughter's crying, Beck drowned her in a basin of water. They buried the bodies in the basement, but suspicious neighbors reported the Downings' disappearances, leading the police to arrive at the door on March 1, 1949, and arrest Beck and Fernandez. 

Fernandez quickly confessed. The pair vehemently denied committing seventeen murders that were attributed to them, and Fernandez tried to retract his confession, saying he made it only to protect Beck. They were extradited to New York, which still instituted the death penalty. Fay's murder was the only one for which the couple were tried, and they were both sentenced to death. They were executed at Sing Sing prison on March 8, 1951.

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