Serial killer suspect charged in 1968 case

PONTIAC, Mich., July 17 (UPI) -- A suspected serial killer who spent 22 years in prison for strangling two women has been charged with strangling a third in 1968 in Michigan.

Investigators say Nolan Ray George, now 67, of Hamilton, Ohio, actually had confessed to killing Gwendolyn Perry, 22, after getting a promise from police in Pontiac, Mich., he would not be charged, the Detroit Free Press reported. But Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper said Friday exhaustive searches of the files turned up no formal immunity agreement and he is now charged with first-degree murder.

George is alleged to have admitted killing Perry after agreeing to plead guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Frances Brown, 22, in Lake Orion, Mich., for which he was sentenced to 40 to 60 years in prison. After two trials and winning appeals, he pleaded guilty again in 1977 and served another five years.

George then was convicted of manslaughter in the death of Cindy Rose, who was strangled in Hamilton, Ohio, within a year after his release and spent another 10 years behind bars.

A task force of investigators from Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio have been investigating cold cases. They believe George committed a string of similar killings in the Midwest in the 1960s.

George had been living in Hamilton, Ohio, and working as a handyman since 1992.