A Pennsylvania auto mechanic has been charged with attempting to murder three New Jersey women is now a suspect in the strangulation of 10 suspected prostitutes in three states. James D. Gunning, 28, was being held on $1 million bail as police throughout the region used DNA and other evidence in investigations that could link him to a string of unsolved murders.
"Gunning is being observed as a potential suspect in 10 murders," said Angelo J. Onofri, assistant prosecutor in Mercer County, N.J. Howard Barman, Gunning's lawyer, dismissed the statements of law enforcement officials who characterized Gunning as a possible serial killer. Authorities said they were looking at Gunning in several cases because of similarities in the cases, including strangulation of the victims, who were white and blond, and were thought to be prostitutes.
Gunning was arrested on May 2, 1999, in Hamilton Township, N.J., when a woman in her underwear jumped out of his parked truck and ran toward police crying that "he tried to strangle me." Police said clothesline was found in Gunning's vehicle. He was charged with aggravated assault and released after posting $10,000 bail. On June 9, the charge was upgraded to attempted murder, and Gunning was rearrested at his home.
Gunning is a suspect in three killings in New York, two in Philadelphia, and five in New Jersey. Gunning, who was born in Korea and adopted by American parents and raised in Feasterville, had lived in an Oakwood Drive apartment with his wife for the last six months.