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Jury hears more police interviews with serial killer Anthony Kirkland

1,198 views · Published 2 August 2018 · 3:14 · Indexed 21 September 2026

Channel: LOCAL 12 · 2018 · News & Politics

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CINCINNATI (WKRC) - Serial killer Anthony Kirkland said in his confession that things “got out of hand” and “went crazy” when he killed two women and two teenage girls in 2006 and 2009.

The remaining six hours of Kirkland’s 2009 confession to the murders of Mary Jo Newton, Cassonya “Sharee” Crawford, Kimya Rolison and Esme Kenney was played for the jury in his resentencing Monday. Detective Bill Hilbert was the third detective to interview Kirkland the day after Kenney went missing while running around a reservoir across the street from her home.

“We had Mr. Kirkland on our radar for over two years. We had believed he was responsible for Cassonya and Mary Jo Newton,” Hilbert testified.

Detective Hilbert got Kirkland to tell him about the four murders in graphic detail. At times during the interrogation, Kirkland sobbed. He said all he ever wanted was a family. Hilbert urged him to think about his legacy and to tell his story so his young son would one day hear it from him and no one else.

“I can’t control me. I can’t control me,” Kirkland said. Kirkland said he was prone to acting impulsively and often felt anger that he could not contain.

“You’re a person that women do not understand, but you’re also a person that women fall head over heels for,” Hilbert said in an attempt to flatter Kirkland into confessing.

Hilbert first got Kirkland to tell him about choking Mary Jo Newton, a prostitute who he met outside of the Hamilton County Justice Center. Kirkland said he and Newton had a sexual relationship and used drugs together. One night in 2006, he picked her up and took her to Eden Park in his van. The two argued and Kirkland strangled her. Then he took her to Avondale and doused her body in gasoline. Her remains were still smoldering when police found them the next morning.

Anthony Kirkland: Mary didn’t fight.

Detective Hilbert: That don’t sound like her.

Anthony Kirkland: She didn’t fight.

Kirkland then confessed to choking 14-year-old Sharee Crawford. Kirkland said he offered to pay her $20 and then $60 for sex. He claimed he just wanted to talk. He said he became angry when she threw the money at him. He also burned her body in Avondale and said he went back to the crime scene after her body was discovered. Kirkland claimed he didn’t burn the bodies to destroy evidence but as a burial rite similar to the Vikings.

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