GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Convicted killer Garry Artman had two specific requests before his deathbed confession in which he admitted to murdering nearly a dozen women in Grand Rapids three decades ago, sources familiar with the case confirmed.
Artman, who died from lung cancer on Dec. 28, demanded his own prison cell and a ham sandwich from Subway with double meat before confessing to the murders.
Detectives are currently working to corroborate details of Artman’s confession, as they are not publicly commenting on the case at this time.
The Kent County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that investigators met with Artman three times after he had reached out to prison administrators, expressing a desire to discuss “bodies.”
He had served three months of his life sentence for the murder of Sharon Hammack, who was 29, pregnant and a mother of two when Artman raped, strangled and bound her in October 1996.
During his confession, Artman reportedly claimed to have killed eleven women in total, including Hammack in ’96 and Dusty Shuck, 24, in 2006 in Maryland.
Hammack and Dennis were two of 17 women who were murdered or went missing from the Grand Rapids area from late 1993 to late 1996.
Retired FBI profiler Julia Cowley, in an interview with Target 8, noted how Artman described the victims as ‘the bodies,’ finding it impersonal. Cowley was a member of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit and has worked on high profile cases including that of Golden State Killer Joseph DeAngelo.
She discussed deathbed confessions, the potential motivations behind them, and how serial killers select their victims, among other topics.