Raymond Martinez Fernandez (December 17, 1914 – March 8, 1951) and Martha Jule Beck (May 6, 1920 – March 8, 1951) were an American serial killer couple. They were convicted of one murder, are known to have committed two more, and were suspected of having killed up to twenty victims during a spree between 1947 and 1949. After their arrest and trial for serial murder in 1949, Fernandez and Beck became known as the Lonely Hearts Killers for meeting their unsuspecting victims through personal ads, posted in newspaper lonely hearts columns. A number of films and television shows are based on this case. Before the murders Raymond Fernandez Raymond Martinez Fernandez was born in the Territory of Hawaii to Spanish parents on December 17, 1914. Shortly thereafter, the family moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut. As a teenager, Fernandez went to work on his uncle’s farm in Spain, married a young local woman named Encarnación Robles and had four children, all of whom he abandoned later in life. After serving in the Spanish merchant navy and with British intelligence services during World War II, Fernandez decided to seek work. Shortly after boarding a ship bound for the U.S., a steel hatch fell on him, fracturing his skull and injuring his frontal lobe. The damage caused by this injury may well have affected his social and sexual behavior. Upon his release from a hospital, Fernandez stole some clothing and was subsequently imprisoned for a year, during which time his cellmate converted him to a belief in voodoo and black magic. Fernandez later claimed black magic gave him irresistible power and charm over women. Martha Beck Martha Beck was born Martha Jule Seabrook on May 6, 1920 in Milton, Florida. Allegedly due to a glandular problem (then a common explanation for obesity), Beck was overweight and underwent puberty prematurely. At her trial, she claimed to have been raped by her brother and subsequently beaten by her mother, blaming Beck for the incident. As a teen, Beck ran away from home to join a traveling circus; writer Truman Capote later claimed to have briefly toured with Beck when he was ten years old. After finishing school, Beck studied nursing but had trouble finding a job due to her weight. She initially became an undertaker's assistant and prepared female bodies for burial. She soon quit that job and moved to California, where she worked in a