A psychiatric social worker with the Federal Correctional Institute in Ypsilanti, Michigan, Nuss was justly famous for his rehabilitation programs, aimed at helping prisoners "go straight" upon release. Unknown to his associates, Nuss led a double life as "Donald Russell," well known in the local gay community that offered him at least two victims in October 1966. The homicides began October 16, when the strangled, violated corpse of Arland Withrow, 17, was fished out of a creek near Ypisilanti. Eight days later, Robert Pugh, a teacher, was dragged from a river at Toledo, Ohio, some forty miles away. Like Withrow, Pugh had been molested after death. Investigation led detectives to a youth who knew "Don Russell," while a second spoke of "Ralph," alleged to hold a prison job in Ypsilanti. Under questioning, Nuss readily confessed the Withrow slaying, while denying that he murdered Robert Pugh. Ironically, he did confess to killing Thomas Brown, an 18-year-old trucker who had lately vanished in the city. Nuss stood weeping in the courtroom as a judge decreed a term of imprisonment.