On May 25, 1985, Janet Scott, age 85, was found dead in her New York hotel room. An autopsy determined that death was caused by repeated blows to the head with a heavy, sharp instrument similar to an ax or hatchet. Following the murder, splintered pieces of the victim's skull and scalp were removed and placed near the body, in a pattern bearing some apparent significance to the killer. Five days later, friends of 58-year-old Ruth Potdevin became concerned when she failed to arrive at a business luncheon convened in another downtown hotel. A friend was sent to check her room and found the door ajar. Inside, Potdevin lay dead on the floor, her skull crushed by more than forty blows with an axelike instrument. Once more, selected fragments of the skull and scalp had been arranged to form a cryptic pattern on the floor. The day after Potdevin's murder, two blacks were arrested for trying to purchase a radio with one of her stolen credit cards, but police were unable to link them with the actual murder. On June 10, 1985, authorities announced there were sufficient similarities between the recent homicides to link them with a single murderer -- and there the matter rests. Thus far, there have apparently been no new murders in the series, and the case remains unsolved.