| “ | It was a source of entertainment for me to create these tapes. That's why there was a disclaimer at the beginning of the tape stating that it was for adult entertainment only. | ” |
— Ray
| ||
David Parker Ray, a.k.a. "The Toy Box Killer", was a serial rapist, abductor, and suspected serial killer.
Background[]
Ray was born on November 6, 1939 in Belen, New Mexico. He was raised by his grandfather, though his father maintained an abusive relationship with him (and even exposed him to pornography). He had a younger sister, but they were split up when their grandmother died. In school, Ray did poorly and was teased for being unusually shy around girls. As a teenager, he abused alcohol and drugs. When he was an adult, he served in the U.S. Army and later became a mechanic. He also married four times, each of them ending in divorce. He had two daughters, one of whom he lived with for some time. At some point, he started abducting, raping and torturing women, presumably killing them as well. Exactly how many victims he claimed over the years is uncertain, though he may have started as early as in 1950 when he was still a kid. He spent $100 000 on a trailer, fitting it with sex toys and torture devices. He nicknamed it "the Toy Box".
Arrest and Death[]
Ray's killings are believed to have come to an end in March 1999, when he was 59 years old. On the 22nd, an intended victim, Cynthia Vigil, escaped in Elephant Butte, New Mexico after being held captive and tortured in the Toy Box for three days. She had waited for Ray to go to work and then taken the keys from his accomplice, his girlfriend Cindy Hendy. In an almost cinematic moment, Hendy struck her on the head with a lamp in an attempt to knock her out, but Vigil managed to unlock her chains, stab Hendy in the neck with an icepick from the floor and run away, wearing only an iron slave collar and the padlocked chains. She made it to a mobile home, the owner of which let her in, gave her a robe and called 911. Police officers were already on their way to Ray's address since a 911 call had been made from there but been interrupted. Both Ray and Hendy were arrested, claiming to have abducted Vigil in an attempt to help her get rid of her heroin addiction. When the officers looked inside the Toy Box and found, besides the torture devices and sex toys, the fake police badge Ray had used to abduct Vigil in Albuquerque and evidence of Vigil's struggle with Hendy, they arrested them both and charged them with 12 different criminal charges, including kidnapping and aggravated assault.
As the investigation continued, evidence of more victims emerged. A past victim, known as "Angelica M.", came forward, telling the authorities about how she was abducted by Ray a little over a month before Cynthia Vigil; she had reported her kidnapping, but for some reason, the police didn't investigate it. They also found photos of another victim in the trailer and animal bones buried in the nearby ground. Ray's trial began on March 28, 2000. Just after the jury selection was done, he suffered a heart attack and the trial was postponed. Cynthia Vigil and another surviving victim, Kelly Garrett (who Glenda met at a bar and drugged), testified against him. Garrett attested that after she fought with her husband and went to play billiards with her friends, her beer was drugged and she was knocked unconscious. She was raped and tortured for two days, to the point of numerous blackouts, before her throat was cut deeply and she was left to die on the side of a road. The police found her account too outlandish, and her husband, assuming she cheated on him, filed for divorce before she moved to Colorado.
For some reason, the judge postponed the trial further in order to try Ray for a 1996 murder in Colorado, even though the evidence wasn't very strong; a sheet listing routines for keeping prisoners was excluded along with the torture devices in the Toy Box since it couldn't be proven that they were in Ray's possession in 1996. On May 7, shortly before or during Ray's trial for the Colorado murder, Angelica M. died of a drug overdose, taking her testimony to the grave. On May 23, the jury selection for Ray's new trial was finally done and he was charged with 12 counts of kidnapping, sexual abuse, and conspiracy. In July, the judge declared a mistrial because the jury couldn't agree on a verdict; not all of them were persuaded that the testifying victims had been held against their will.
In November, a retrial began. A few days into it, the judge passed away. The proceedings couldn't resume until next year in April. This time, Ray was not as fortunate and was found guilty on all twelve charges. In June, his second trial began. He made a plea bargain to plead guilty in exchange for his daughter, who had been an accomplice in at least one murder, receiving five years of probation. Consequently, Ray faced at least 223 years in prison in 2001. Ray has allegedly admitted to having had an accomplice named Billy Bowers, a previous business partner, whom Ray also murdered.
On May 28, 2002, Ray was transported to the Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs, New Mexico, to be questioned by state police. He died of a heart attack before the scheduled interrogation took place,at the age of 62. With him dead, the case became a dead end; no bodies were found, no possible victims were identified and no old suspicious deaths related to Ray were ever officially linked to him. In November of 2002, the Toy Box was opened to the public with the hope that it would lead to more surviving victims coming forward. In October of 2011, the FBI performed a search of McRae Canyon near Elephant Butte Lake looking for potential victims but found none. In February of 2012, the Australian Federal Police contacted the FBI about a potential victim known only as Connie, who had been mentioned in a letter from a man named Mark that was postmarked in Sydney and was found in Ray's residence after his arrest.
Modus Operandi[]
An interior view of Ray's "Toy Box".
Ray (and also his occasional accomplices) targeted prostitutes, luring them with some kind of ruse such as soliciting them or pretending to be a police officer. He would then take them to his homemade torture chamber, the "Toy Box", which was filled with sex toys, surgical instruments, chains, pulleys, straps, clamps, spreader bars, syringes and diagrams of the human body. There was also a gynecology table that the victims would be restrained in, a mirror mounted on the ceiling so that they would be able to see themselves be raped and tortured, and a device for electric torture. Ray would record the torture, either by audio or with a video camera, and take trophies such as clothing and jewelry. At least some of the victims were let go after a few days. Ray claimed to have drugged them to make them forget about what happened. According to Cindy Hendy, the fatal victims were dismembered and buried, dumped in the Elephant Butte Lake or dumped in ravines.
Known Accomplices[]
Accomplice Cynthia Lee Hendy.
- Cynthia "Cindy" Lee Hendy
- Ray's girlfriend
- Had three children from a prior relationship
- Moved to New Mexico to avoid being prosecuted for forgery, theft and drug possession
- Sentenced to 36 years in prison for her involvement in the abductions and tortures
- Glenda Jean "Jesse" Ray
- Ray's daughter
- Drugged Kelly Garrett's beer as part of her kidnapping
- Aided Ray in killing Marie Parker together with Yancy (see below)
- Sentenced to five years of probation for a second-degree kidnapping
- Dennis Roy Yancy
- Aided Ray and Glenda Ray in killing Marie Parker
- Sentenced to two consecutive 15-year sentences for kidnapping and second-degree murder
Known Victims[]
- 1950-1999: Supposedly committed up to 60-100 murders. Known victims:
- 1999:
- February 21: Angelica Montano (abducted and held captive; was released)
- March 19: Cynthia Vigil (abducted and held captive; she escaped)
- Unspecified dates:
- Billy Bowers (alleged; an accomplice; killed by Ray)
- Marie Parker (tortured by Ray, then fatally strangled by Yancy)
- Kelly Garrett (abducted by Glenda, held captive, slashed her throat, and left her for dead; was rescued)
- 1999:
On Criminal Minds[]
- Season Two
- While not directly mentioned or referenced in Season Two, Ray may have been an inspiration for Frank Breitkopf ("No Way Out" and "No Way Out II: The Evilution of Frank") - Both were abductors and (possibly in Ray's case) prolific serial killers who lost a female relative (Breitkopf's mother and Ray's grandmother, respectively), developed sexual sadism due to exposure from a relative (Ray's father showed him pornography, while Breitkopf witnessed his mother engage in prostitution), they lived in trailers, targeted prostitutes (though Breitkopf targeted others too), sedated them with drugs (though Ray's accomplices did this), brought them to their trailers which were modified into soundproof torture chambers, strapped them to a table with a mirror placed above it so they could view their own torture (which included the use of bladed instruments), took things from them (jewelry or clothing in Ray's case, rib bones in Breitkopf's), both posed as a member of law enforcement, operated in numerous states (including Arizona), and (allegedly in Ray's case) dismembered their bodies. Also, Breitkopft's twisted romance with Jane Hanratty could be a slight nod to Ray having female accomplices. In the Season Two Making-Of documentary, Simon Mirren states that the inspiration for Breitkopf came from the story of an unnamed man who had created a makeshift torture chamber complete with torture instruments, video cameras, and a gynecology chair. The above-mentioned story by Mirren is very similar in concept is similar to Ray, though he isn't officially named as the inspiration.
- Season Seven
- "Proof" - While not directly mentioned or referenced in this episode, Ray appears to have been an inspiration for the episode's unsub, Ben Bradstone - Both were serial rapists and (alleged in Ray's case) killers with poor social skills, were bullied in school, targeted Caucasian women (at least some of whom were prostitutes), lured them with ruses before abducting them, would rape and torture them in personal torture chambers fitted with implements and a seat with straps, and recorded videos of their crimes (even with disclaimers in the beginnings of the tapes).
- "True Genius" - Ray was mentioned by Prentiss in response to a question after a seminar.
- "Unknown Subject" - While not directly mentioned or referenced in this episode, Ray appears to have been an inspiration for Hamilton Bartholomew - Both were serial rapists and abductors who targeted women, their attacks were so brutal the women were left with horrible physical scars from the implements both rapists used, at least one victim wasn't originally believed and lost much of their personal lives as a result of the brutality and the rejection and denial from the people around them, and also killed one woman by strangulation (by proxy in Ray's case) before leaving her to be found on a public route.
- "Profiling 101" - Ray was again mentioned by Morgan along with Efren Saldivar and John Edward Robinson, as an example of serial killers whose names have long been mostly forgotten due to the new serial killer cases that keep emerging.
- Season Twelve
- "The Crimson King" - While not directly mentioned or referenced, Ray was confirmed to have been the inspiration for Daniel Cullen - Both were serial offenders who operated in Arizona and tortured their victims. While Ray wasn't known to have forcibly engaged in BDSM with his victims, his homemade torture chamber was found to have a number of BDSM items, including spreader bars; this may have been referenced in The Crimson King through an aspect of Cullen's M.O., in which he chained his victims to arm stretchers.