Montie Ralph Rissell was born on November 28, 1958, in Wellington, Kansas. He lived in this town for the first seven years of his life with his mother and two older siblings, a brother named Harold and a sister. His family life was troubled. By the time he was twelve, his mother had married and divorced twice. When Rissell was seven, his biological father left the family.

By the age of fourteen, he had committed his first rape. He was charged with several petty crimes. In 1973, he was sent to an institution for his behavior. He was released in 1975 but soon found himself in trouble again. He was arrested for attempted robbery after trying to rob a woman with a knife in an elevator. Because of this, he received a five-year suspended sentence. At seventeen, Rissell dropped out of T. C. Williams High School.

On August 4, 1976, Montie Rissell committed his first murder. He became angry with 26-year-old Aura Marina Gabor, a woman he encountered in his apartment complex. Rissell claimed that after having sex with her, he felt betrayed and chose to drown her in a nearby ravine.

The second murder happened in March 1977. Rissell attacked Ursula Miltenberger, a 22-year-old trainee manager at McDonald's, near the Hamlet Apartments. Her body was discovered in a wooded area in Fairfax on March 6, 1977.

In April 1977, Rissell killed his third victim, 27-year-old Gladys Ross Bradley. He waited outside her house with a steak knife and assaulted her. After the attack, he dragged her to a creek where he drowned her. Her body was found on April 29, 1977.

The fourth victim was 34-year-old Aletha Byrd. She had been missing since April 10, 1977. On May 17, her body was found with multiple stab wounds in a wooded area.

Rissell’s final murder occurred on May 5, 1977. He killed 24-year-old Jeanette McClelland, who worked as a graphics design proofreader. Her body was found in a culvert, having been raped and stabbed 100 times. On May 18, police searched Rissell's car while under surveillance and discovered personal items belonging to Byrd. They also found fingerprints linking him to Miltenberger's car.

Rissell later confessed to the murders of the five women. He was charged with their abduction, rape, and murder. Rissell pleaded guilty to the murder charges, and the other charges were dropped. On October 11, 1977, he was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences. At the time of sentencing, he was only 18 years old.

While in prison, Rissell wrote a 461-page manuscript about his crimes. He became eligible for parole in 1995, but each year, community members and families of the victims protested. Rissell has been denied parole every time he applied. He has been incarcerated in several facilities and is currently held at Pocahontas State Correctional Center.