Man Confesses To Attacks Eight-Day String Of Killings, Beatings Horrified Nyc

Police said Thursday that an emotionally disturbed man has confessed to a series of vicious attacks on women - including the daylight beating of a piano teacher in Central Park.

Along with the park beating, John Royster, 22, of the Bronx, will be charged in the killing of the owner of a dry cleaner on Park Avenue and the beating of a woman in Yonkers, officials said.

Royster also is a suspect in a less-publicized June 5 attack in which he allegedly bashed a woman’s head against the pavement on the East Side of Manhattan. That woman wasn’t seriously injured.

Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said the list of charges from the eight-day spree includes first-degree murder, which carries the death penalty. Royster was to be arraigned today.

Fingerprints from the Park Avenue killing matched those on record from Royster’s arrest in December for subway fare evasion, leading detectives to his Bronx address, police said.

A police source said that after detectives picked the suspect up Wednesday night, he recalled details about all four crimes that “only we would know.”

The motive for the attacks was unclear, although the suspect appeared to be “extremely emotionally disturbed,” the source said.

Investigators have been under immense pressure to solve the Central Park and Park Avenue cases, both of which horrified the city while damaging its recent reputation for dwindling crime.

Evelyn Alvarez, 62, known as the “Lollipop Lady” for the sweets she doled out to children, was the most recent victim. She was beaten to death before dawn Tuesday.

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