Meet Minnesota’s Infamous Serial Killer: The Weepy-Voiced Killer
Paul Michael Stephani was a serial killer in Minnesota in the early 1980's killing three women in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and attempted to kill two others. Nicknamed "The Weepy-Voiced Killer", Stephani anonymously reported his crimes over the phone to the police in a remorseful and high-pitched voice after every killing.
His first victim was Karen Potack in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The night of December 31st 1980, he inflicted severe wounds and brain injury. Stephani called police at 3 a.m. to report the attack, directing police to a location where "there is a girl hurt there." Luckily Karen survived.
His next victim came six months later on June 3rd 1981. Kimberly Compton was an 18-year-old student from Wisconsin.
After killing her, he again contacted police pleading: "God damn, will you find me? I just stabbed somebody with an ice pick. I can't stop myself. I keep killing somebody." Two days later he called police to say he was sorry for stabbing Compton and would turn himself in, but did not. On June 6 he called to say newspaper accounts of some of the murders were inaccurate. His next call came June 11. In a whimpering, barely coherent voice he cried: "I'm sorry for what I did to Compton."
Stephani's third victim was Kathleen Greening, who was found dead at her home just outside St. Paul. Stephani later admitted to drowning her in her own bathtub in her Roseville home. There was no phone call after her death.
His fourth victim was Barbara Simmons. Stephani met her at the Hexagon Bar, after Simons gave Stephani an extra cigarette. After chatting at the bar, Stephani gave Simmons a ride home, and she was found stabbed to death the next day. Stephani called the police and said, "Please don't talk, just listen... I'm sorry I killed that girl. I stabbed her 40 times."
His last attempt at killing was the evening of August 20, 1982. Stephani picked up Denise Williams, a 19-year-old prostitute, and in the process of driving her back to Hennepin Ave in Minneapolis, stabbed her in the stomach with a Phillips screwdriver.
Williams' screams were heard by Douglas Panning, a young man who lived nearby. Panning ran over to the parking lot and saw blood on the pavement and on Stephani and Williams. Panning observed Stephani on top of Williams stabbing her with the screwdriver at least five or six times. Panning heard the screwdriver make a "thud" when it hit bone. He saw Williams had the neck of a broken bottle in her hand.
Douglas Panning was the one to call police and get Denise Williams the medical attention she needed. Her surviving the attack, and Panning being a witness helped put Stephani behind bars.
In 1997 Stephani was diagnosed with skin cancer and had less than a year to live. He then decided to confess to the murders of Kim Compton, Barbara Simons, and Kathy Greening.
He died June 12th, 1988 in Oak Park Heights Prison in Oak Park Heights Minnesota.
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