SUNNYVILLE KILLER STILL INCARCERATED

BY DANIEL HESS, Sunnyville Post <Archive> 2001

Mike Strauber, the notorious Florida serial killer that went on a rampage over a decade and a half ago, remains in Sunnyville Mental Institution with no chance of release. Back in the 1980’s, he caught his wife with another man and his mind snapped. He entered into a hallucinatory world, playing the childhood game “truth or dare” in a violent new way, chopping off his ownbody parts. Treated at Sunnyville Mental Institution by Doctor Burt Thorne very early on, Strauber was eventually treated and “cured” and he set out to kill his wife and her lover. He only managed to murder Jerry Powers, his wife’s lover, as Sharon Strauber held her own with him and stabbed him with a cuting knife.

After medical recovery, Mike ended up back in the asylum. Within the safe confines of the institution, but with murder charges now pending, Strauber ended up in isolation and once again played self-destructive games of truth or dare with himself, this time mutilating his face with either a piece of glass or a shimmy knife that he constructed himself and hid from orderlies.

Thirteen months later, Strauber appeared to be on the road to recovery, and Doctor Burt Thorne and Emma Evans allowed the therapy to continue in a highly supervised shop area where Strauber eventually made a crude mask out of copper to hide his facial scars and reflect his doomsday mood. Eventually covering his face with the mask, he didn’t allow it to come off. The longer Strauber stayed in the Institution, the less of a threat he seemed to be, so authorities let their guard down on security, and the maniac ended up stabbing an ordery, crushing another, and knocking another off a high platform during an incredible escape. At the time, I was working my way through college and was one of the Orderlies that Strauber got through. He bolted past me and through a locked door that I didn’t have the key for. If I had been a little quicker…anyway, he got out, stole a car that happened to have a lot of weapons in it and went on a subsequent killing spree on his way to his wife’s house to try finishing her off.

The list of victims is stunning, even today, in a world inundated and oversaturated with serial killers and their hideous accomplishments. Strauber ran down baby carriages, shot people on a bench waiting for a bus, chainsawed an innocent baseball playing kid, and even smashed a battle mace into the face of an eledery woman who confronted him for knocking over her trash cans in front of his old home, where Sharon still resided.

(Innocent Victim From Previous Strauber Crime Spree)

The police were hot on Strauber’s trail, but like in a cliché movie script, they were always one step behind. In the confusing search for Strauber, one Deputy (Pournelle) thought he had Strauber cornered in an old shed and took it upon himself to burn said shed up- not normal police procedures at all. Sadly, Sunnyville homeless man Drake Tanner was in the shed at the time and said officer actually killed an innocent man in his bloodlust fury to apprehend the killer. Chief Detective Rosenberg had his hands full at the time, trying to keep his men at bay and figure out what was going on as the shed blew up on one side of town and Strauber annihilated some road rage drivers on the other side of the town concurrently. At least five more victims were killed during this incident, including a family of four who had run out of gas at the wrong place…wrong time. The driver of the other car was on fire and running to try to get the flames out when Strauber shot him down as he ran and prepared to roll.

Doctor Thorne and Chief Detective Rosenberg finally figured that Strauber was headed to his old home to do a final confronation bit with his wife, so they set up a trap there, with Thorne arriving first. Incredulously, Strauber beat the armed shrink there and somehow managed to take his gun and shoot him in the head, also slashing his wife’s throat. It’s unknown whether Sharon Strauber was killed of if she actually made it through the incident and then went into hiding or a witness protection program because she was scared Mike would once again escape after he was incarcerated again.

Strauber was incarcerated again and this time under complete lock and key, but that didn’t stop a host of copycat killers, including his cousin Gary Bloch from entering into the madness of killing former lovers with a copper mask. Even one of Sunnyville’s own shrinks, a David Siedow, decided to get in on the Coppermasked action by killing off some prostitutes while wearing Mike’s mask. He was trying to marry one of them and tame her lady red light inclinations but she would have none of it. And a Dectective at the time, one Daniel Hess, was having girlfriend problems at the time and surely entered into a pact with the Coppermasked Evil, killing several of his former girlfriends very violently, allegedly wearing a Copper mask. All this occurred as Mike Strauber sat comfortably in Sunnyville Mental Institution, strung out on thorazine and shock treatments, never taking off his new copper mask.

(To the left we see the car crash explosion where Strauber got into a scuffle with some “road rage” punks, ran them off the road into a family’s car that had run out of gas, and then shot up the driver of the punk’s car when he ran out on fire, struggling to extinguish the flames in the “roll” smothering position.) Of course, this would not end the madness, as some teens in Arizona found a diary written by a writer who was obsessed with Mike Strauber and his rampage, and once again, the game of ‘truth or dare’ was taken to deadly levels and consequences as everyone became embroiled in the unending curse of TRUTH OR DARE that never seemed to end. Cashing in on it all was Strauber’s lawyer, one Otis Shapiro, who eventually wrote a best-selling book on his client called THE TRUTH OR DARE SYNDROME. This whole situation set off a new wave of violence in Sunnyville, Florida, as the father of the baby in the carriage, who had been undergoing treatments at the facility, was finally let out and deemed “cured” from his demons. Of course, when he got out, he saw what Shapiro had done, and others, like Ken Kregg, who was selling Strauber memorabilia on the burgenoning Internet sites like Ebay for a profit. He also handled tons of other serial killer merchandise, like knives and clothes used in murders. Then there were the groupies, like Tina Bates, who tried to “marry” serial killers they were obsessed with and this set off Clive Stanley (the father of the baby) into an unbridled rage that even his doctors couldn’t contain. Once again donning a homemade copper mask, Stanley set out to wrong the rights and of course, went after folks like Ken Kregg, Tina Bates, and anyone that got in his way. Complicating things further was another shrink from Sunnyville that got involved and another family member who wanted revenge since Shane Stanley was murdered pushing the stroller. All in all, more murders than you could shake a stick at happened once again, culminating with Clive Stanley shooting himself in the dead when his “work” was done.

Gary Bloch from entering into the madness of killing former lovers with a copper mask. Even one of Sunnyville’s own shrinks, a David Siedow, decided to get in on the Coppermasked action by killing off some prostitutes while wearing Mike’s mask. He was trying to marry one of them and tame her lady red light inclinations but she would have none of it. And a Dectective at the time, one Daniel Hess, was having girlfriend problems at the time and surely entered into a pact with the Coppermasked Evil, killing several of his former girlfriends very violently, allegedly wearing a Copper mask. All this occurred as Mike Strauber sat comfortably in Sunnyville Mental Institution, strung out on thorazine and shock treatments, never taking off his new copper mask.

He went after folks like Ken Kregg, Tina Bates, and anyone that got in his way. Complicating things further was another shrink from Sunnyville that got involved and another family member who wanted revenge since Shane Stanley was murdered pushing the stroller. All in all, more murders than you could shake a stick at happened once again, culminating with Clive Stanley shooting himself in the dead when his “work” was done.