Melvin Rees

Melvin David Rees (1933 – 1995) was an American serial killer who committed five murders in Virginia and Maryland between 1957 and 1959. He murdered and sexually assaulted Margaret Harold, the girlfriend of US Army soldier Sgt. Roy D. Hudson, during a highway encounter near Annapolis; two years later, he murdered the four members of the Jackson family near Fredericksburg, Virginia. After his conviction for the killings, Rees confessed to two other murders, and authorities believed he was involved in two more. Prior to his arrest and imprisonment, Rees was known as a jazz musician in the Washington, D.C. area.

oon after the Jacksons' disappearance, a local couple came forward to report that they had had a frightening experience with a tall, darked-haired man that same afternoon. The man had driven behind and around them in a blue, older-model Chevrolet, flashing his headlights and forcing them off the road. The man later got out of his car and menacingly approached the couple; sensing danger, they reversed and managed to flee the scene.

After Mildred and Susan Jackson's bodies were found, detectives discovered an abandoned building near their dump site—reportedly the same cinderblock structure that had been searched after Margaret Harold's killing. Inside, they found a red button missing from Mildred's dress, indicating that she had been taken there after being kidnapped. Near the building were fresh tire marks. After finding points of comparison between the Harold and Jackson cases—mainly the general area of the murders and the sadistic nature of the crimes—investigators determined that both homicides were committed by the same culprit.

Rees was convicted by the state of Maryland of Harold's murder and sentenced to life in prison. Virginia added a death sentence for the other four murders, though it was eventually changed to life in 1972. Melvin Rees died in prison in 1995.