Bio

Charles William Yukl was born in 1935 in Baltimore, Maryland. His parents were talented Czech musicians. They wanted their son to become a musical prodigy. They placed a lot of pressure on him to succeed. By the age of four, Charles could read music very well. However, his mother was never satisfied with his progress. She often played better than him, which made Charles feel inadequate.

When he was seven years old, his parents divorced. After the divorce, his mother moved to New York City, where she would have a career as a composer. Charles moved to Los Angeles with his father, a trumpet player. Their relationship was distant. To gain his father's attention, Charles acted out and even set several fires when he was nine.

He was a bright student but did not care much for school. He excelled in typing and music but struggled in other subjects. At seventeen, he decided to drop out of North Hollywood High School and joined the Navy. His time in the military was marked by frequent absences, and he eventually left the service.

In 1956, Charles moved to New York City to reunite with his mother after 14 years. Their relationship did not improve. To support himself, he worked as a typist during the day and played piano at night, performing as a ragtime musician under the name Yogi Freitag.

Charles also pursued photography and met a Danish woman named Enken. They got married in 1961. However, their marriage faced many difficulties, including a lack of intimacy. By 1966, Charles had started teaching piano lessons and began working with a student named Suzanne Reynolds, who was an aspiring singer.

Charles Yukl's early life was marked by pressures from his family, a troubled upbringing, and difficulties in forming healthy relationships. These experiences would shape his later actions as an adult.

Murder Story

Charles Yukl murdered two women during the 1960s and 1970s in New York City. His first victim was Suzanne Reynolds, a 25-year-old student of his. On October 24, 1966, Yukl killed her in his apartment. He strangled her with a necktie and then stabbed her body multiple times. After the murder, he moved her body to a vacant apartment in the building where he lived. He attempted to hide evidence of the crime before reporting it to the police.

Following his arrest, Yukl confessed to the murder but initially pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. He later struck a plea deal, reducing the murder charge to manslaughter. In February 1968, he was sentenced to seven to fifteen years in prison. Yukl was released on parole in June 1973 after serving just under seven years.

Fourteen months later, on August 20, 1974, Yukl killed his second victim, Karen Schlegel, a 23-year-old aspiring actress. He lured her to his apartment under the pretense of offering her acting lessons. Once there, he strangled her with a necktie, stripped, and mutilated her body. Schlegel's body was discovered later that day on the rooftop of the apartment building where Yukl lived.

Yukl was arrested again shortly after the discovery of Karen Schlegel’s body. He confessed to the murder, admitting to the police that he had invited her over and killed her. In June 1976, he pleaded guilty to murder and received a sentence of fifteen years to life.

While in prison, Yukl struggled with mental health issues and was deemed competent for trial during his later proceedings. He hanged himself on August 22, 1982, using a shredded mattress cover, in what was ruled a suicide.