BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- A Web site that featured the gruesome writings of an Alabama death row inmate has been shut down.
Neil O'Connor, who ran the Web site that posted the writings of double murderer and self-proclaimed serial killer Jack Trawick, took the Web site down over the weekend, attaching a statement.
"I was never out to harm the families of Trawick's victims or anyone else," O'Connor wrote. "I realize that some of them think that I was and for that reason, also, I have decided to end (the site)."
"Well, good -- good," said Brian Corbett, spokesman for the Alabama Department of Corrections. "That's good news."
The decision to shut the Web site down was contrary to several things O'Connor had said to critics of the site. As recently as two weeks ago, O'Connor said he would continue to post Trawick's writings.
"There's more to Jack than just murder and rape and hopefully in the future I'll be able to present a more well-rounded view of Trawick to the world," O'Connor wrote in a Dec. 30 e-mail.
Efforts to reach O'Connor were unsuccessful.
In his note on the Web site, O'Connor said the site helped carry out its chief purpose, to attract attention to claims Trawick had killed more women than he had been convicted of killing.
Trawick told O'Connor that he had killed 14 women. He was convicted of killing two women, and prosecutors say they believed his confession of killing a third. But he was never tried for that crime because he'd already been sentenced to death, prosecutors said.
"I had always hoped Trawick's crimes would be investigated fully. I feel that I've accomplished that ... almost," O'Connor's message said.
He did not explain what he meant by "almost" in the note.
The Birmingham Police Department said they would question Trawick about the claims he made on the Web site.
The site, filled with Trawick's correspondence to O'Connor, was exceptionally graphic and filled with talk of murder and rape.
Trawick was sentenced to death for the killing of Stephanie Gach in 1994. He also was convicted of killing Aileen Pruitt in 1995.
"Yes, it was horribly graphic and sexually violent, but that's what drew people in," O'Connor wrote. "If (the site) wasn't what it was, no one would have taken notice."
Shelly Linderman, who works with Victims Against Crime and Leniency, a victim's advocacy group in Montgomery, said she was happy with O'Connor's decision to close the site.
"I'm just glad it's gone," Linderman said. "It was like murdering the victims again."
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