Joe Metheny: Baltimore’s Real-Life Boogeyman

I would think the ingredients for a demented killer are a base of troubled childhood with a dash of parental negligence. Throw in a pinch of alcohol and drug abuse and stir in a heap of rage. Let it simmer and when done, you get Joseph Metheny, a killer that found—for a lack of a better term—a unique way of disposing of his victims’ bodies.

Joe Metheny had always been rough. He endured a childhood of neglect with absent parents. His father was an alcoholic who was killed in a car accident when Joe was only 6 years old. His mother, trying to support a family of six children alone, couldn’t fully care for them while working double shifts. Not many other details are known about his younger years.

Joe Metheny’s mother said he was a good student—polite and never mean as a child. When Joe turned 19, he joined the U.S. Army. His mother said he served in Germany, but Joseph claimed he served a tour in Vietnam and became addicted to heroin there. However, U.S. involvement in Vietnam had ended before he enlisted—clearly a lie.

Fast forward to 1994. Metheny was living with his girlfriend and their six-year-old son in South Baltimore. As a truck driver, he spent long periods on the road. One day he came home to discover that his girlfriend and child were gone. This was the event that pushed the 6'1", 450-lb man—already struggling with rage—across a line he would never return from.

He spent days searching for them, checking halfway houses and the underpass where he knew she bought drugs. Under that bridge, he didn’t find her—but he did find two homeless men he believed knew her. When they offered no help, he exploded in rage and killed them both with an axe he had brought with him.

Immediately after hacking them to death, he noticed a fisherman nearby who might have witnessed the crime—so he killed him too. Panicking, Joseph dumped the bodies into the river to hide the evidence.

Police eventually arrested Metheny for the murders of the two homeless men, and he spent a year and a half in county jail awaiting trial. During questioning, he claimed to have killed three more people that same day. Police did nothing with the confession—either they didn’t believe him or lacked evidence. Metheny was eventually acquitted for the murders due to lack of evidence.

Shortly after his release, Metheny claimed he had murdered a sex worker named Kathy Ann Magaziner a year earlier. He buried her body in a shallow grave near the pallet factory where he worked. Six months later, he returned, dug up her body, removed the head, placed it in a box, and threw it into the trash.

In 1996, Metheny killed Kimberly Lynn Spicer by stabbing her through the chest. Her murder would eventually be his downfall.

Less than a month later, Metheny was in his trailer sharing drugs with a woman named Rita Kemper. When she refused sex and tried to flee, he chased her, beat her, dragged her back, and attempted to assault her. She later told police he shouted: “I’m going to kill you and bury you in the woods with the other girls.”

Now, back to Kimberly Spicer—the victim who ultimately exposed him. After killing her, Metheny dumped her body at his workplace. Fearing someone would discover it, he asked a coworker to help him bury the body. The coworker immediately told police, and Metheny was arrested that same day.

Despite his size and temper, he surrendered peacefully and told officers, “I’m a very sick person.” That was an understatement.

While in custody, Metheny confessed to killing as many as 10 people—mostly young female sex workers. He gave detailed accounts, including the earlier fisherman murder. Police still couldn’t find evidence. That is, until Metheny told them where to look.

He admitted he brought bodies to his home, dismembered them, stored parts in Tupperware containers in his freezer—and what didn’t fit, he buried in a company-owned lot.

What he did next shocked even seasoned investigators. Metheny mixed human flesh with beef and pork to make hamburger patties. He sold them at a roadside BBQ stand he operated. His customers unknowingly helped him dispose of evidence—by eating it.

He claimed no one ever complained about the taste and that human flesh tastes very similar to pork when blended.

Eventually, a jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death. But in 2000, a judge overturned the sentence and replaced it with two consecutive life terms.

At sentencing, Metheny said: “The words ‘I’m sorry’ will never come out—for they would be a lie. I am more than willing to give up my life. I just enjoyed it.”

He added: “The only thing I feel bad about is I didn’t get to murder the two motherf***ers I was really after—my ex-old lady and the bastard she got hooked up with.”

In 2017, guards found Metheny unresponsive in his cell. He was pronounced dead shortly after.

One final note: Metheny once told journalists, “Next time you're riding down the road and see an open pit beef stand you’ve never seen before—think about this story before you take a bite.”

And that is the story of Joe Metheny—the Butcher of Baltimore.

Thank you for listening to Tales of the Twisted.