Eddie Lee Mosley (March 31, 1947 – May 28, 2020) was an American serial killer and rapist who murdered at least eight women in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, between 1973 and 1987.

In addition, from an early age he began to show signs of an intellectual disability and mental instability, had problems learning and experiencing anterograde amnesia, because of which he repeated his second year of elementary school several times.

Owing to lack of formal education, he was forced to engage in low-skilled labor, but soon, due to financial difficulties, he turned towards crime.

Since 1965, he had been arrested 9 times on varying charges, including indecent behavior, robbery, assault, attempted rape and murder, for which he spent 5+1⁄2 years in prison and almost 6 in various psychiatric wards.

In all cases, the perpetrator was described as a young, tall black man with an athletic build and a scar on his left cheek, who, under the threat of physical violence, lured them to wastelands and other isolated areas, where he choked and sexually abused the victims.

[citation needed] On July 23, 1973, three rape victims identified Mosley as their assailant, who, due to his physique and tall stature, well matched the composite of the rapist.

During this period, Mosley was also the prime suspect in the rape-murders of two black girls in Fort Lauderdale, killed in early 1973, but since there was not enough evidence, he was only charged with the assaults and subsequent rape.

Not long after, he became the prime suspect in the disappearances of two girls, Ida Eagles and Letha Mae Williams, who went missing shortly after his arrival.

While incarcerated at the Broward County Jail, Mosley exhibited very aggressive behavior, often physically and sexually harassing other prisoners, and on one occasion, even confronting the guards and threatening to set the place ablaze.

[3] In January 1984, Mosley came under police suspicion again after the bodies of 36-year-old Geraldine Barfield [4] and 54-year-old Emma Cook were found in northwestern Fort Lauderdale, raped and subsequently killed by suffocation.

[6] After committing two more murders in the vicinity of Fort Lauderdale, the Broward County Sheriff's Office contacted the FBI, which, based on provided data, compiled an offender profile which was very consistent with Eddie Mosley's.

His trial began on July 22, 1987, with a number of sex workers working at the Fort Lauderdale red-light districts testifying that Mosley had repeatedly demonstrated aggressive behavior towards women in front of crowds of witnesses.

In April 1985, Smith was arrested and charged with killing Shandra, after the girl's mother wrongfully identified him as the killer, based solely on photographs she had been shown.

As a result of this, in the late 1990s, he was transferred to the low-risk unit and was allowed to leave the hospital under supervision of staff, so he could make purchases in a nearby Walmart.