Motive Monday: Steven Peter Morin "The Chameleon"
What kind of predator slips through America’s seams, living under countless names and identities, leaving bodies in deserts, motels, and culverts? Meet Stephen Peter Morin, “The Chameleon”, an American drifter born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1951, who stalked young women across state lines until his capture in December 1981.
The Ghost in the Machine
Morin grew up in poverty, abandoned to drugs and petty crime before he could vote. By his teens he was stealing cars, cycling through juvenile detention in Florida, and slipping out of reform schools like they were revolving doors.
The pattern hardened: escape, vanish, reappear under another false name. In 1976, his escalation was undeniable; he lured a 14-year-old girl under the guise of needing help, bound her to the ceiling, and tortured her for hours before dumping her alive in a shopping center. From then on, his life became a blur of aliases, Rich Clark, Robert Generoso, Ray Constantino, Thomas Hones, while he drifted through motels, odd jobs, and cities where violence followed close behind.
Trail of Shadows
Morin’s violence stretched across multiple states, but investigators separated what could be proven from what remained in the shadows.
Confirmed Victims
Sheila Griffith (22) – found in the Mojave Desert, 1979
Susan Jane Belote (18) – discovered near Bloomington, California, 1980
Cheryl Ann Daniel (20) – abducted in Las Vegas, body recovered in Utah, 1980
Sheila Whalen (23) – murdered in Colorado, 1981
Janna Bruce (21) – strangled in Corpus Christi, Texas, 1981
Carrie Marie Scott (21) – fatally shot during a San Antonio carjacking, 1981
Suspected Victims
Investigators across at least six states linked Morin to dozens of additional murders, some estimates reached into the forties, but without convictions or forensic proof, most remain unresolved. His drifting lifestyle, fake IDs, and lack of a single hunting ground made it nearly impossible to confirm the full toll.
Survivors
Pamela Jackson – abducted for 11 days, forced to dye her hair, and eventually abandoned
Margy Palm – kidnapped at gunpoint in San Antonio, forced to drive him across Texas until his capture
Michael Reed and Pearl Lutz – both shot but survived an attempted abduction
His methods shifted (bindings, strangulation, shootings) but the through-line was disguise. Unlike killers who hoarded trophies, Morin’s only keepsakes were the false identities he wore like armor.
When the Net Tightened
December 11, 1981: after fatally shooting Carrie Scott in a carjacking, Morin holed up in a San Antonio motel. A SWAT raid freed Pamela Jackson, but Morin slipped out a bathroom window. The following day he abducted 30-year-old Margy Palm, forcing her to drive him west while ranting about her “sheltered” life. Hours later, he was cornered at a Kerrville bus station and finally taken into custody. Fingerprints later tied him to Janna Bruce’s car, cementing his guilt.
Judgment Rendered
Morin waived appeals and pled guilty. In 1984, he was sentenced to death in Texas for the murders of Scott and Bruce, and in Colorado for Whalen and Daniel. Utah never prosecuted him. In prison he claimed a religious conversion, embracing Christianity while offering little cooperation with prosecutors. On March 13, 1985, his history of drug abuse made the execution chaotic, prison staff searched for 45 minutes to find a usable vein. His last meal was steak, baked potato, peas, banana pudding, and coffee.
Why the Mask Slipped
Morin’s motive resists neat boxes. Opportunism fueled by addiction? Certainly. Resentment born of deprivation? Absolutely. When he kidnapped Margy Palm, he fixated on her “sheltered” upbringing, sneering at her as a “shielded princess” while contrasting it with his own neglect and abuse.
His violence reads less like a plan and more like projection: destroying the security he could never possess. His supposed spiritual rebirth was either the last mask in his collection, or the only moment he truly admitted his sins and asked for forgiveness.
What Remains
While Morin never reached the cultural infamy of Bundy or Dahmer, his crimes and capture haven’t been ignored. He’s resurfaced in documentaries, dramatizations, and podcasts, though usually framed through his disguises and supposed conversion rather than the full weight of his violence.
Survivors like Margy Palm refused to commercialize their trauma, rejecting dramatizations that would package her ordeal into tidy entertainment. His legacy lingers not in headlines but in the forensic files, a warning of how easy it was for a man with a stack of fake IDs to drift, kill, and vanish.
“True Crime, True Faith: The Stephen Morin Story” (2006) – a Christian docudrama based on Margy Palm’s account of her abduction and his supposed conversion.
Oxygen’s Mark of a Killer – featured his case in an episode covering serial killers with unusual calling cards.
Several podcasts (including Sword and Scale and True Crime All The Time) have covered him under the nickname The Chameleon.
The Chameleon- 2015 movie dramatization
He’s mentioned in broader serial killer roundups and occasionally compared to Bundy because of his disguises and drifting lifestyle.
What do you think?
When the mask finally falls, do we see a man, or just another disguise?
Was his religious conversion a last-minute confession, or the ultimate con?
Was resentment his true motive, or just the excuse he gave himself?
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