‘Keep for hiding the bodies’… chilling words of Amazon Review Killer Todd Kohlhepp who RATED his murder weapons online
SERIAL killers often keep ‘trophies’ from their crimes but arrogant murderer Todd Kohlhepp went one step further – leaving Amazon reviews for the weapons used to butcher his victims.
The depraved South Carolina businessman carried out seven sadistic killings over 13 years before he was eventually caught and given a life sentence in 2016.
Now a new Channel 4 documentary, The Amazon Review Killer: Chilling Confession, explores his horrendous crimes.
It reveals that Kohlhepp left chilling Amazon reviews about lethal weapons – including a chainsaw, padlock and knife – while carrying out a brutal murder spree over several years.
In 2014 a user named ‘me’ with a wish list linked to Todd Kohlhepp started to post sinister comments.
One of his audacious reviews for an entrenching tool read: “Keep in your car for when you have to hide the bodies and you left the full size shovel at home.”
While another shocking review for a knife read: “Haven’t stabbed anyone yet…..yet…but I am keeping the dream alive and when I do it will be a quality tool like this.”
Another for a chainsaw said: “Works excellent -getting the neighbour to stand still while you chase him with it is hard enough without an easy to use chainsaw.”
To outsiders Kohlepp, now 53, appeared to be living the American dream with a successful career in real estate, he won awards for his contributions in the area, and was described as a ‘good boss’.
However, those who knew him personally were often left disturbed by his inappropriate behaviour – watching pornographic videos at work, making macabre jokes and openly discussing his conviction for sex offences.
But his murderous crimes only came to light when when investigators rescued a woman, Kala Brown, who had been chained up and raped in a 30ft-long storage container on his property in August 2016.
Two years earlier, one of his warped Amazon reviews for a padlock read: “solid locks…..have five on a shipping container…won’t stop them…but sure will slow them down til they are too old to care.”
In 2016, Kohlhepp pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder for the killings that took place for well over a decade.
The new documentary explores warning signs about what was to come dating back to KohlHepp’s childhood, including mental health problems that began at just nine years old.
Six years later in 1986, the future serial killer, aged just 15, kidnapped and sexually assaulted a girl.
A sentencing report claimed Kohlhepp lured the girl outside by telling her an ex-boyfriend wanted to talk to her.
He then pointed a ‘small blue steel handgun at her head’ and ‘told her to walk down the alley towards his house.’
Documents claimed that once they got into his bedroom Kohlhepp duct taped her mouth, and ‘removed her clothes, then his clothes and forced the victim to have sexual intercourse with him.’
Kohlhepp pleaded guilty to kidnapping in the case, was jailed and added to the sex offender register in Arizona. He remained behind bars from 1987 to 2001.
Killing spree
Two years after his release Kohlhepp murdered four people in Chesnee, South Carolina.
Scott Ponder, his mother Beverly Guy, service manager Brian Lucas, and mechanic Chris Sherbert were found fatally shot at the Superbike Motorsports shop on November 6, 2003.
But these killings remained unsolved for years and Kohlhepp carried on his life, building up his successful real estate business.
It was only when police found Kala Brown chained up by her neck on his property in 2016 that the extent of his depravity became known.
The rescued woman then told investigators that she witnessed Kohlhepp shoot and kill her 32-year-old boyfriend Charlie Carver.
He then kept her captive and raped her for two months before police were alerted to her mobile phone signal.
Police arrested Kohlhepp and found two more bodies buried in shallow graves on his land.
Husband and wife Meagan and Johnny Coxie had been missing since December 2015, after Mrs Coxie called her mother to bail her out of jail so she could work a job.
That was the last time either of them were heard from. The couple were gunned down and buried on Kohlhepp’s farmland, close to the metal container where he was accused of keeping Brown captive for two months.
Meagan was shot once in the head and her husband suffered several bullet wounds to the torso.
Kohlhepp also confessed to the motorbike shop murders in 2003. As part of a 2016 plea deal he pleaded guilty to 14 charges, including seven counts of murder.
In exchange, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty. He received seven consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
More than 50 family members and friends of the seven victims filled the courtroom.
About a dozen of them spoke, standing just feet from Kohlhepp. He didn’t look at them, and many ignored him as well.
Johnny Coxie’s mother said his seven-year-old son held out hope that his father was alive for months after he disappeared.
Cindy Coxie said the worst day of her life came when she had to tell the boy that his father was dead.
“He hates you with his little heart,” she told Kohlhepp.
But that wasn’t the end of Kohlhepp’s sick reign. In 2018 he wrote a shocking letter to a local newspaper claiming to have killed more victims.
He wrote: “Yes there is more than seven. I tried to tell investigators and I did tell the FBI, but it was blown off. It’s not an addition problem, it’s a multiplication problem. Leaves the state and leaves the country. Thank you private pilot’s license.”
A search of the site where he claimed the new victims were buried revealed nothing.
The new Channel 4 series’ director, Billy Arthur, said of the serial killer: “Todd Kohlhepp lived out his twisted impulses in plain sight, and the Amazon reviews he left are a horrifying example of how someone can hide behind the mask of normalcy – until the mask cracks.
“It was a privilege to bring this shocking story to light in a way that honours the victims and highlights the resilience of those who survived.”
The serial killer remains incarcerated at the Broad River Correctional Institution in South Carolina.
The Amazon Review Killer: Chilling Confession airs on Channel 4 tonight at 10pm, and will also be available on Channel 4’s streaming service
Who are the UK's worst serial killers?
THE UK's most prolific serial killer was actually a doctor.
Here’s a rundown of the worst offenders in the UK.
- British GP Harold Shipman is one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history. He was found guilty of murdering 15 patients in 2000, but the Shipman Inquiry examined his crimes and identified 218 victims, 80 per cent of whom were elderly women.
- After his death Jonathan Balls was accused of poisoning at least 22 people between 1824 and 1845.
- Mary Ann Cotton is suspected of murdering up to 21 people, including husbands, lovers and children. She is Britain’s most prolific female serial killer. Her crimes were committed between 1852 and 1872, and she was hanged in March 1873.
- Amelia Sach and Annie Walters became known as the Finchley Baby Farmers after killing at least 20 babies between 1900 and 1902. The pair became the first women to be hanged at Holloway Prison on February 3, 1903.
- William Burke and William Hare killed 16 people and sold their bodies.
- Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was found guilty in 1981 of murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven others between 1975 and 1980.
- Dennis Nilsen was caged for life in 1983 after murdering up to 15 men when he picked them up from the streets. He was found guilty of six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to life in jail.
- Fred West was found guilty of killing 12 but it’s believed he was responsible for many more deaths.