[Lion-hearted Girl]

Michael YOWELL





Date of Execution: October 9, 2013

State: Texas

Classification: Murderer

Characteristics: Parricide (killing one's parents) - Arson

Number of victims: 3

Date of murders: May 9, 1998

Date of birth: January 25, 1970

Victims profile: John Yowell, 55, and Carol Yowell, 53 (his parents) and Viola Davis, 89 (his grandmother)

Method of murder: Shooting / Strangulation / Fire

Location: Lubbock County, Texas, USA

Status: Sentenced to death on November 23, 1999. Executed by lethal injection in Texas on October 9, 2013

Last Meal: Texas no longer offers a special "last meal" to condemned inmates. Instead, the inmate is offered the same meal served to the rest of the unit.

Last Words: “I love you. To Gerald, you’re a zero. I love you Mandy. Tiffany, I love you, too. Punch the button."

Summary: Yowell shot and killed his father, strangled his mother with a lamp cord, and opened a natural gas line in the kitchen. When his grandmother, who was living in his parents’ house at the time, opened her bedroom door, it caused the gas to combust, fatally injuring his grandmother and charring the remains of his parents. Two days later, Yowell confessed to shooting his father, who had caught Yowell trying to steal his wallet to buy drugs, and to struggling with his mother before bludgeoning her and strangling her. Yowell said that afterwards, in a panic, he ran to the kitchen and opened a gas jet.

Yowell tells executioner: 'Punch the button'

Lubbock man convicted of murdering his parents executed Wednesday in Huntsville

By Walt Nett - LubbickOnline.com

October 9, 2013

HUNTSVILLE — Michael Yowell, who killed his parents more than 15 years ago while trying to steal money from his father to buy drugs, died by lethal injection at 7:11 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 9.

He made a brief last statement: “I love you. To Gerald, you’re a zero. I love you Mandy; Tiffany, I love you, too.”

He paused for a moment, then said: “Punch the button. We are ready.”

Yowell, 43, was the 14th inmate the state of Texas has executed this year, and the second from Lubbock County.

Mandy and Tiffany referred to his daughters, who attended the execution.

Gerald may have been in reference to a witness, Gerald Harder, who attended the execution with the daughters and Yowell’s ex-wife, Amanda Weathers.

Yowell was taken from a holding cell at 6:42 p.m., shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected one final attempt to block the execution pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed last week challenging the state prison system’s use of the drug pentobarbital obtained from a compounding pharmacy.

Yowell and two other prisoners argued use of the sedative could cause unconstitutional pain and suffering because the drug, replacing a similar inventory that expired at the end of September, was made by a compounding pharmacy not subjected to strict federal scrutiny.

Texas, like other death penalty states, has turned to compounding pharmacies that custom-make drugs for customers after traditional suppliers declined to sell to prison agencies or bowed to pressure from execution opponents.

The lethal dose of pentobarbital, also known as Nembutal, was injected into the intravenous catheters at 6:52 p.m.

Shortly after that, Yowell appeared to struggle for breath several times before settling into sleep, inhaling and snoring eight times before his audible breathing stopped.

Yowell, 43, became pale.

A prison physician checked for pulse and breathing and made the pronouncement of death.

Yowell’s reaction to the drug was similar to the 23 other Texas inmates put to death since last year when the state began using pentobarbital as the lone lethal drug for executions.

Yowell’s lawyers said the execution was a disappointment and characterized the use of compounded drugs as “a dramatic change from prior practice — making the need for oversight, now and in the future — that much more important.”

“Surely this is not the way we want our government to carry out its most solemn duty,” Maurie Levin and Bobbie Stratton said in a statement.

Yowell was convicted in 1999 of killing his parents, John and Carol Yowell.

No witnesses attended on their behalf.

He told investigators he initially planned to take a few cigarettes when he entered his parents’ bedroom early on the morning of May 9, 1998 — the day before Mother’s Day. He shot his father in the head, then beat his mother before strangling her with a lamp cord.

Yowell already was on probation for burglary and drug convictions. He was arrested on federal firearms charges and charged with his parents’ slayings after authorities determined his mother had been beaten and strangled and his father was shot.

“At some point he’s looking his mom in the face, beating her and wrapping a lamp cord around her neck,” Lubbock County District Attorney Matt Powell, who prosecuted the case, recalled Tuesday. “I think always there are some unanswered questions. You want to know how somebody is capable of doing that to their parents.”

Evidence showed Yowell had a $200-a-day drug habit he supported by stealing. Evidence also showed he burned some of his bloody clothes and hid a blood-stained jacket and the murder weapon in the crawl space of a friend’s house. Defense attorneys unsuccessfully tried to show Yowell was insane.

After murdering his parents, Yowell then shut his grandmother, Viola Davis, in her bedroom before going to the kitchen and opening a gas jet. The house later exploded, and Davis was fatally injured, dying 12 days later of burns and complications from smoke inhalation.

The execution drew national attention because of the lawsuit over buying pentobarbital from a compounding pharmacy.

Compounding pharmacies are not regulated by the federal Food and Drug Administration, a situation that has prompted concerns about the possibility the drugs might be less effective.

Texas and other states that use pentobarbital as the execution drug have looked for other sources after the drug’s Danish manufacturer ceased selling it to U.S. prisons for use as an execution drug.

According to a death watch timetable distributed by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Yowell spent his final days talking with friends, his ex-wife and his daughters.

His breakfast, served shortly after 3 a.m., was fried eggs, country gravy, cereal and applesauce. He took photographs with his daughters and friends who visited in the morning.

[Lion-hearted Girl]

William HAPP



Date of Execution: October 15, 2013

State: Florida

Classification: Murderer

Characteristics: Rape - Kidnapping

Number of victims: 1

Date of murder: May 24, 1986

Date of birth: January 19, 1962

Victim profile: Angela Crowley, 21

Method of murder: Strangulation

Location: Citrus County, Florida, USA

Status: Sentenced to death on July 31, 1989. Executed by lethal injection in Florida on October 15, 2013

Last meal: A 12-ounce box of assorted chocolates and 1 1/2 quarts of German chocolate ice cream.

Last Words: "For 27 years, the horrible murder of Angela Crowley has been clouded by circumstantial evidence and uncertainty. For the sake of her family, loved ones and all concerned, it is to my agonizing shame that I must confess to this terrible crime."

Summary: A fisherman found the partially clad body of 21 year old Angie Crowley on the bank of a Canal in northwest Citrus County. The woman's shoulders were covered by a tee shirt that was pulled up to her underarms, and a pair of stretch pants were tied tightly around her neck.

The medical examiner testified that her face and skull were badly bruised and hemorrhaged, that she had multiple scrapes on her back and right heel, that she had suffered ten to twenty hard blows to the head, and that she had been anally raped before death. The cause of death was found to be strangulation.

Crawley had recently moved from Illinois to Ft. Lauderdale and worked as a travel agent. She had driven to Yankeetown to visit a friend. Her car was found on U.S. Highway 19, near a store where she was to call her friend for directions. But she never made it to the pay phone, and she was never seen alive again.

Three months later, fingerprints and footprints found in or near her car linked Happ to the crime. Happ had a long criminal history in California, where he was charged with an armed robbery in his hometown.

Murderer who raped and killed a woman in 1986 finally confesses moments before being executed

Moments before his death Happ told his victim's family: 'It is to my agonising shame that I must confess to this terrible crime'

Angie's brother replied: 'You need to ask somebody a lot more important than me for forgiveness'

By Lizzie Perry - DailyMail.co.uk

October 18, 2013

A Florida man convicted of raping and murdering a 21-year-old woman in 1986 made a shock confession moments before he was executed by lethal injection of a controversial, never-before used drug.

Facing 17 members of his victim's family, William Happ, 51 - the first death row inmate to be injected with the drug midazolam hydrochloride - told those gathered to watch his death: 'For 27 years, the horrible murder of Angela Crowley has been clouded by circumstantial evidence and uncertainty.

'For the sake of her family, loved ones and all concerned, it is to my agonising shame that I must confess to this terrible crime.'

Chris Cowley, the victim's brother, said the confession had come as a shock to his family.

'You need to ask somebody a lot more important than me for forgiveness,' he told Happ.

Minutes later Happ blinked repeatedly and shook his head back and forth as he was executed.

The drug was used despite concerns it might not work as promised and could inflict cruel and unusual punishment on the death row inmate.

The execution began at 6.02pm at Florida State Prison in Starke. Happ's eyes opened and he blinked several times.

He closed them and opened them again two minutes later. He then yawned and his jaw dropped open.

At 6.08pm, the official overseeing the execution tugged at Happ's eyelids and grasped his shoulder to check for a response. There was none.

Happ appeared to remain conscious for a greater length of time and made more body movements after losing consciousness than people executed by the old formula which usually kills the prisoner within seven minutes.

Midazolam, typically used by doctors for sedation, was the first of three drugs pumped into Happ as part of a lethal injection cocktail designed to induce unconsciousness, paralysis and death by cardiac arrest.

The first of the drugs administered as part of the lethal injection 'protocol' in Florida has long been the barbiturate pentobarbital.

But Florida and other death penalty states that use a trio of drugs as part of their injection procedures have been running out of pentobarbital since its manufacturer clamped a ban on its use in future executions.

'This is somewhat of an experiment on a living human being,' Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, said Monday.

'The three-drug process depends on the first drug rendering the inmate unconscious and, if he is only partially unconscious, the inmate could be experiencing extreme pain,' he added. 'Because the second drug paralyzes him, he would be unable to cry out or show that he's in pain.'

The 51-year-old Happ, who had abandoned his appeals and said he was ready to die, was condemned for the 1986 abduction, rape and murder of Angie Crowley, whose body was found on a canal bank near Crystal River in central Florida.

Happ was calm when he met with two spiritual advisers, including a Roman Catholic priest who administered last rites, according to Department of Corrections spokeswoman Jessica Cary.

For his last meal, Happ had a 12-ounce box of assorted chocolates and 1 1/2 quarts of German chocolate ice-cream.

'To my agonizing shame, I must confess to the crime,' he said in a slow, deliberate voice before the injection was given. 'I wish to offer my most sincere, heartfelt apology. I have prayed for the good Lord to forgive me for my sins. But I understand why those here cannot.'

Crowley's mother and two siblings died before they could see the sentence carried out, but Crowley's surviving sisters and brothers traveled to Starke to watch as Happ was executed.

Happ's lawyer, Eric Pinkard of St Petersburg, said there were no late motions to stay the execution. Happ told a circuit judge in Inverness, Florida, last month that he did not want to continue the court appeals that have kept him on Florida's death row for nearly a quarter-century.

Another condemned Florida prisoner, Etheria Jackson, has a hearing set for a November 6 in Jacksonville's federal court, challenging the use of midazolam.

Jackson's appeal contends that there is 'substantial risk' of midazolam not working completely, violating the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of 'cruel and unusual punishment' by subjecting the condemned to a painful paralysis and fatal heart seizure over several minutes.

Angie Crowley was making her first long trip through Florida on Memorial Day weekend in 1986 but she never arrived at her destination.

She prearranged with her friend to meet at a convenience store in Crystal River so she could be guided the last few miles of the trip. Crowley found the store, but before she could get to the pay phone, William Happ smashed her car window, kidnapped her. He beat her, raped her and strangled her with her pants before throwing her body into a canal.

Crowley's brother Chris has pushed for years through an online petition and an email campaign to ensure Happ was executed for what he did to his sister.

'He killed my sister, he took her life. But when he took that life, he created so many other victims,' Crowley said. 'What he did affected everybody. It ate my mother up. I changed jobs and moved all within three months.'

The murder shook Oregon, a small town about 40 miles southwest of Rockford, Illinois. Angie Crowley was a popular student at Oregon High School. After graduating, she attended Northern Illinois University before moving to Fort Lauderdale in December 1985. She worked as a travel agent to help pursue her dreams to travel the world.

'He took away the potential. There were seven kids in that family and she had the greatest potential of everybody. She had the personality, she had the looks, she had the smarts and she had the attitude. She really, really accomplished things and he took that,' Crowley said. 'We were never able to see it.'

And the praise is not just because he's a loving brother. Angie Crowley's friends said she had a magnetic personality. She was a talented musician, honor student and a cheerleader with tons of friends. Always smiling, she never said anything bad about anybody.

'She was a sweetheart. Everybody just loved her, she had a great personality. She was prom queen, she was homecoming queen. She was just a gorgeous, gorgeous girl,' said Jim Kaufman, a classmate who visited Crowley in Florida just before her slaying. 'All of her classmates were devastated. Everybody in the whole town was. The whole town from young to older people knew her very well. She was very, very outgoing.'

She was also a thoughtful friend who made great efforts to stay connected, said Sharon McBreen, who moved from Illinois to Florida in 10th grade.

Not only did Crowley write long letters, but she mailed McBreen a senior yearbook signed by all her former classmates. Crowley's note in the book was two-pages long.

'She was just one of those really good friends who never missed your birthday. The card was always on time. She would write me six-page letters,' McBreen said. 'She would just write, front and back. She filled these letters with everything that was going on in town, and what she was thinking and what she wanted to do.'

[Lion-hearted Girl]

Robert Glen JONES



Date of Execution: October 23, 2013

State: Arizona

Classification: Murderer

Characteristics: Robberies

Number of victims: 7

Date of murders: May-August 1996

Date of birth: December 25, 1969

Victims profile: Clarence Odell III, 47; and Thomas Hardman, 26 / Arthur “Taco” Bell, 54; Judy Bell, 46; Maribeth Munn, 53; and Carol Lynn Noel, 50 / Richard Roels

Method of murder: Shooting

Location: Pima County, Arizona, USA

Status: Sentenced to death on February 17, 2000. Executed by lethal injection in Arizona on October 23, 2013

Last Words: "Love and respect my friends and family, and hope my friends are never here."

Last Meal: Jones declined a special last meal so he was given the same meal provided to the other inmates at the prison, which consisted of a beef patty, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, a serving of carrots, two slices of wheat bread, a slice of glazed cake and a powdered juice drink. The meal was served to him Tuesday night.

Summary: Jones and accomplices David and Scott Nordstrom drove to the Moon Smoke Shop intent on committing a Robbery. David waited in the truck while Jones and Scott Nordstrom armed themselves and went inside. They followed a customer, Chip O'Dell, into the store and shot him in the head without saying a word, killing him.

There were 4 employees inside. Unprovoked, they immediately started shooting at the other employees. Thinking the others were dead, employee Mark Naiman ran out of the store and called 9-1-1 at a payphone. One of the men followed employee Tom Hardman into a back room and shot him fatally in the head as he lay on the floor.

Another employee was shot in the face and arm, but survived. Minutes later, the two men jumped in the waiting truck and took off. According to the testimony of David Nordstrom, when they got into the vehicle Jones said he had shot two people, and Scott Nordstrom responded that "I shot one."

Two weeks later, the Fire Fighters Union Hall was robbed. Inside, four bodies were found, all shot dead: Union member Maribeth Munn, the bartender Carol Lynn Noel, and a couple, Judy and Arthur Bell. $1300 had been taken from the open cash register. The coroner concluded that the bartender had been shot twice, and that the other three victims were shot through the head at close range as their heads lay on the bar.

David Nordstrom testified at trial that that evening Jones entered David's father's house and told him that he and Scott Nordstrom had robbed the Union Hall. He stated that because the bartender could not open the safe, Scott kicked her and shot her. Jones said he then shot the three other witnesses in the back of the head.

A month later, Richard Roels was bound with duct tape and shot in the head at his phoenix home. Police traced purchases with Roels credit card to Jones, who upon arrest was wearing the watch that Roels received upon his retirement.

Jones pled guilty and was sentenced to Life Without Parole. Accomplice Scott Nordstrom was also convicted of Murder, was sentenced to death, and is awaiting execution.

Robert Jones executed for six murders

By Patrick McNamara - Arizona Daily Star

October 24, 2013

The man convicted of gunning down six people in cold blood in a pair of 1996 robberies died quietly Wednesday in Housing Unit 9 at the Arizona Department of Corrections prison in Florence.

In stark contrast to the violent and bloody deaths Robert Glen Jones’ inflicted upon his victims, Jones appeared to fall peacefully asleep after prison officials administered the lethal dose of phenobarbital.

“I think it was too easy,” said Carson Noel, whose mother was one of the people Jones and accomplice Scott Nordstrom shot and killed.

Noel said Jones wasn’t made to suffer the way his victims were.

Jones, 43, and Nordstrom were found guilty of the Moon Smoke Shop and Firefighter’s Union Hall murders in 1998 and sentenced to die for the crimes. Nordstrom remains on death row.

Arthur “Taco” Bell, 54; Judy Bell, 46; Maribeth Munn, 53; and Carol Lynn Noel, 50, were shot and killed during a robbery at the Firefighter’s Union Hall.

Clarence Odell III, 47; and Thomas Hardman, 26, were killed in the Moon Smoke Shop.

“All I could think of was my mom and dad,” said Christopher Bell, son of Arthur and Judy Bell.

Bell said the 17 years since his parents were slain was too long to wait for the death sentence to be carried out.

Even with one of the killers of his parents dead, Bell said his family would always bear the scars left by their deaths.

“It’s never going to heal — it never will,” Bell said.

Following the murders, Bell said he moved to Texas to escape some of the memories and make a new start.

Jones steadfastly maintained his innocence over the years. Prior to the execution, however, he declined to attend his clemency board hearing, where an attorney represented him in a plea for a stay.

He also refused a special meal the day before the death sentence was carried out, eating instead the same meal other death-row inmates had: beef patties, mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots, two slices of wheat bread, glazed cake and a powdered-juice drink.

Before the administration of the lethal dose, Jones offered no apologies and expressed no remorse.

“Love and respect my family and friends and I hope my friends are never here,” were the last words Jones spoke.

At times he even joked with prison staffers as they struggled to find viable veins to insert the IVs, suggesting with his years of experience shooting “dope” he could find the vein himself if they freed his hand.

Witnesses watched on television monitors as prison and medical staff worked for nearly an hour around Jones before opting to administer the lethal injection drugs into the femoral artery of his right leg.

When the curtains that block out the glass between the observation room and death chamber were opened, the death warrant was read to Jones.

The drugs were administered at 10:35 a.m.

Jones lay nearly motionless with his eyes closed moving only his right hand periodically.

His chest made one upward heave before he stopped moving completely. As the drug worked its way through his system, the muscles in his face relaxed and his mouth fell slightly slack.

Soon the color began to run from his face, taking on a pale gray shade.

After nearly 10 minutes of silence, a medical technician checked Jones’ vital signs and pronounced him “officially sedated.”

A few minutes later, Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles L. Ryan stepped into the chamber and pronounced Jones officially dead at 10:52 a.m.

For Noel, attending the execution was a difficult decision.

“This is probably the second-hardest thing I’ve had to do,” he said. “The first was laying my mom to rest.”

It was Arizona’s 36th execution since 1992.

Wednesday’s execution was the second in Arizona this month. Edward Schad, 71, was executed Oct. 9 for killing a Bisbee man in 1978.

No execution date has been set for Nordstrom.

[Lion-hearted Girl]

Darius Mark KIMBROUGH



Date of execution: November 12, 2013

State: Florida

Classification: Murderer

Characteristics: Rape - Robbery

Number of victims: 1

Date of murder: October 3, 1991

Date of arrest: 5 months later

Date of birth: December 4, 1972

Victim profile: Denise Collins, 28

Method of murder: Beating

Location: Orange County, Florida, USA

Status: Sentenced to death on December 9, 1994. Executed by lethal injection on November 12, 2013

Last Meal: Two slices of pizza, fried green tomatoes, fried chicken, chicken gizzards, chocolate-chip ice cream and fruit punch.

Last Words: None.

Summary: Denise Collins was discovered in her bathroom by paramedics. She was nude, semiconscious, and covered in blood. The sliding glass door on her second-floor apartment was partially open, and there were ladder impressions on the ground under the balcony.

Collins was rushed to the hospital but died shortly thereafter. DNA evidence showed that the semen taken from the bed sheets matched Kimbrough, and some of the pubic hairs matched his. However, additional pubic hairs from another unidentified black male and a Caucasian male were also found.

The DNA evidence indicated that the blood samples taken from the bed matched Kimbrough. A workman at the apartment complex identified Kimbrough as the man who had watched him put away a ladder in the complex at the time of the murder.

The crime went unsolved until Kimbrough was arrested for raping a 22-year-old woman in March 1992. He was sentenced to 10 1/2 years for burglary and sexual battery. DNA from that attack was then used to connect him to the Collins assault.

Darius Kimbrough, who killed Orange County woman, is executed

OrlandoSentinel.com

November 12, 2013

STARKE — Rapist and killer Darius Kimbrough, who spent nearly 19 years on death row for the murder of an Orange County woman, died by lethal injection Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison as relatives of victim Denise Collins watched.

Kimbrough answered, "No, sir," when asked whether he wanted to make a statement.

The 40-year-old killer blinked as he lay on a gurney just before the deadly chemicals began to flow through his body at 6:01 p.m.

For 17 minutes, he lay motionless. A doctor then shined a light in his eyes, placed a stethoscope to his chest and pronounced him dead at 6:18.

Kimbrough was covered with a white sheet, his feet to the witnesses, who watched through a long, horizontal pane.

Aside from an occasional cough, no one made a sound.

Orange-Osceola State Attorney Jeff Ashton was among the witnesses. He was one of two prosecutors on the case early in his career. On his left sat his co-counsel, Ted Culhan. To his right was Riggs Gay, the Orange County sheriff's detective who investigated the killing.

Annette Collins, the victim's only sibling, thanked the investigators and prosecutors in a news conference after the execution. Collins said she and her mother were grateful that justice had been served.

Her mom, Diane Stewart, described the execution as very peaceful and quiet — "not at all what he deserved."

Stewart, with tears in her eyes, said Kimbrough "went out a lot cleaner and neater" than her daughter. Stewart and Collins traveled from New Jersey to watch Kimbrough die.

Hours before the execution, the condemned prisoner ate his last meal and visited with a chaplain and family members. Kimbrough requested a final meal of two slices of pizza, fried green tomatoes, fried chicken, chicken gizzards, chocolate-chip ice cream and fruit punch.

He ate most of it about 9:45 a.m., Department of Corrections spokeswoman Jessica Cary said.

Kimbrough was visited by a chaplain and by his mother, three aunts, a cousin and a friend, Cary said. She described his demeanor as calm.

He was convicted in July 1994 of first-degree murder, sexual battery and burglary. A judge sentenced him to death in December of that year after a jury recommended, 11-1, that he die for killing Collins, 28.

Kimbrough was two months shy of his 19th birthday in October 1991 when he climbed a ladder to Collins' second-floor balcony at Carousel Club Apartments on Rio Grande Avenue south of Orlando, broke in through a sliding-glass door and attacked her in her bedroom.

He broke Collins' jaw and skull during the struggle. She died the next day in a hospital after life support was disconnected.

An aspiring graphic artist and fashion designer, Collins had moved to the complex about two months before she was killed because it was affordable and allowed her two cats.

The crime went unsolved until Kimbrough was arrested for raping a 22-year-old woman in March 1992 in the Conway neighborhood. He was sentenced to 101/2 years for burglary and sexual battery.

DNA from that attack connected him to the Collins assault.

Two weeks before her murder, Collins complained to management at her apartment complex that someone was following her, making lewd comments and threatening to hurt her if she called police.

[Lion-hearted Girl]

Jamie Bruce MCCOSKEY



Date of execution: November 12, 2013

State: Texas

Classification: Murderer

Characteristics: Kidnapping - Rape - Robbery

Number of victims: 1

Date of murder: November 13, 1991

Date of arrest: 2 days after

Date of birth: October 5, 1964

Victim profile: Michael Keith Dwyer, 20

Method of murder: Stabbing with knife

Location: Harris County, Texas, USA

Status: Sentenced to death on March 5, 1993. Executed by lethal injection on November 12, 2013

Last Meal:
Texas no longer offers a special "last meal" to condemned inmates. Instead, the inmate is offered the same meal served to the rest of the unit.

Last Words: "The best time in my life is during this period. If I had to do [it] again, I would not change a thing. I have been touched by an angel's wings. If I had it to do again, I would change Dwyer's parents suffering," he said with a tear rolling down his face, "because I know they are. I know that is not going to eliminate the pain, because I have a child" McCoskey then thanked the people who supported him during his 21-year stay on Texas' death row. "And if this takes the pain away, so be it. I love you. I'm ready to go. There better not be a mix-up here," McCoskey then said with a loud laugh. "I don't want no stay."

Summary: Michael Dwyer and his 19-year-old fiancee returned to their Houston apartment from the grocery store. As they were entering, they were confronted by the knife-wielding McCoskey, who directed them at knifepoint to their car, where he later handcuffed Dwyer, and drove to a deserted location.

He put Dwyer in the trunk and forced his fiancée inside an abandoned house, where he raped and sexually assaulted her. He then returned her to the car and took the man into the house. She fled to a nearby home to seek help when she realized the sounds she was hearing were of Dwyer being stabbed repeatedly.

Police were called and McCoskey fled the scene. The body of Michael Dwyer was found inside with at least two dozen stab wounds. Their car was later found at an apartment complex where McCoskey once lived.

Based on a description of the attacker, residents there identified McCoskey, whose 6-foot-7-inch height and square facial features had earned him the nickname "Lurch." McCoskey had a prior conviction for kidnapping in Austin. In 1983 he was given a 10-year sentence, but he was later released on "shock probation."

Texas Executes Inmate for Abduction, Slaying

By Michael Graczyk - Associated Press

November 13, 2013

A Texas man convicted of abducting a young Houston couple, raping the woman and fatally stabbing the man in 1991 was put to death Tuesday evening.

Jamie McCoskey, 49, already was on a form of probation when he was arrested for the slaying of 21-year-old Michael Dwyer, who had been stabbed nearly two dozen times, and the rape of Dwyer's pregnant fiance. The couple had been abducted from their apartment.

Asked if he had any final statement, McCoskey replied: "The best time in my life is during this period. ... I have been touched by an angel's wings."

He said that if he could, he would "change Dwyer's parents' suffering, because I know they are."

During his brief comments, and as a tear ran down the side of his face just above a tattoo teardrop and below his right eye, McCoskey said he wanted "to say some things so bad."

He said he appreciated people who had helped him, then turned his gaze toward Dwyer's mother and stepfather, saying, "And if this takes the pain away, so be it."

After telling the warden he was "ready to go," McCoskey turned his head back toward the warden in the seconds before the lethal dose of pentobarbital began taking effect and said loudly: "Better not be no mix-up here. I don't want no stay."

McCoskey let out a loud laugh, then began taking deep breaths that became several snores.

He was pronounced dead at 6:44 p.m. CST, 19 minutes after the lethal drug began to be administered.

Dwyer's mother and stepfather declined to speak with reporters afterward.

McCoskey became the 15th convicted killer executed this year in Texas, which carries out the death penalty more than any other state.

The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year refused to review McCoskey's case, and his attorneys filed no last-day appeals in the courts.

Evidence showed the couple had left the door of their apartment open while they were bringing home groceries and were confronted by the knife-wielding McCoskey exactly 22 years ago Wednesday.

He ordered them to their car, handcuffed Dwyer, drove around Houston and stopped at an abandoned ramshackle house where he raped the woman. She fled to a nearby home to seek help when she realized sounds she was hearing were of Dwyer being stabbed repeatedly.

Their car was found at an apartment complex where McCoskey once lived. Based on a description of the attacker, residents there identified McCoskey, whose 6-foot-7-inch height and square facial features had earned him the nickname "Lurch," after the hulking Frankenstein-like servant to the fictional "Addams Family" television comedy of the 1960s.

His mother testified at his trial that McCoskey had an abusive childhood that led to behavioral problems. After stints in juvenile facilities, his offenses escalated as he reached adulthood.

Before reaching death row, he had a kidnapping conviction in Austin, assaults while in prison, marijuana possession busts and a jail term where records show he used a chisel to crack the skull of a fellow Harris County inmate.

He also was remembered for walking into the Houston courtroom the day after his capital murder conviction in 1992, grabbing a heavy oak chair and heaving it about 10 feet. It hit one prosecutor in the arm and grazed another before crashing into the jury box rail.

"That's for lying in court!" McCoskey shouted at the prosecutors.

Jurors weren't present yet and didn't see the incident. Days later, they rejected defense arguments McCoskey was insane and mentally ill and decided he should be put to death. Prosecutors presented testimony McCoskey had an anti-social personality disorder but did know right from wrong.

"My only wish for Jamie is godspeed," Jim Peacock, his lead defense lawyer, said. "And I hope whatever there is for him after this point is kinder to him than his past has been."

At least seven other Texas prisoners are set to die in the coming months, including one next month.

[MrCorpse]

Originally Posted by Lion-hearted Girl ↗

Joseph Paul FRANKLIN aka James Clayton Vaughn Jr. aka "The Racist Killer"





Date of execution: November 20, 2013

State: Missouri

Classification: Serial killer

Characteristics: Former Klansman and neo-Nazi - Racially-motivated serial killer

Number of victims: 15 +

Date of murders: 1977 - 1980

Date of arrest: September 25, 1980

Date of birth: April 13, 1950

Victims profile: Men and women (most of them Jews or interracial couples)

Method of murder: Shooting

Location: Wisconsin, Missouri, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Utah, USA

Status: Sentenced to death in Missouri on February 27, 1997. Executed by lethal injection in Missouri on November 20, 2013

Last Meal: Franklin did not eat a final meal before his death, preferring to fast.

Last Words: None.

Summary: Believing that Jews were “enemies of the white race,” Franklin drove to Dallas, Texas after robbing a bank in Little Rock, Arkansas. In Dallas, Franklin bought a 30-06 rifle with a telescopic sight. He then drove to St. Louis, Missouri, checked into a hotel, scouted the city for synagogues, and finally chose Brith Shalom Kneseth Israel Congregation in Richmond Heights.

When people emerged from the synagouge, Franklin began firing from 100 yards away, shooting five times. Gerald Gordon was killed and Steven Goldman and William Ash were wounded. He rode a bicycle from the scene to a parking lot, where he drove away.

Franklin was convicted of killing eight people in the late 1970s and 1980s in racially motivated attacks around the country. He finally stumbled after the Utah murders in August 1980. He was arrested a month later in Kentucky, briefly escaped, and was recaptured later in Florida. The crimes remained unsolved for seventeen years.

While serving a life sentence for the murders in Utah, in 1994, Franklin confessed to the 1977 St. Louis synagogue shootings. Franklin gave the FBI agent and local police a detailed account of his preparation for and execution of the shootings.

Franklin faced a marathon series of state and federal trials, with mixed results. In 1982, he was acquitted of federal civil rights charges in the May 1980 shooting that left civil rights leader Vernon Jordan critically injured in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Utah juries found him guilty of murder and civil rights violations; Franklin was serving life on those counts in 1983 when he confessed the 1978 sniping that crippled Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flint in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Franklin was indicted for that crime but never tried. More convictions followed: for the Chattanooga bombing; for the double murder in Wisconsin, for the murder of Gerald Gordon, killed leaving a Clayton, Missouri synagogue in 1977; for the June 1980 double murder in Cincinnati; for the 1978 murder of William Tatum, shot while talking to a white woman outside a Chattanooga restaurant.

Other crimes confessed by Franklin without further convictions include the 1980 murder of teenager Nancy Santomero at a peace retreat in West Virginia; the 1980 murders of an interracial couple in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the 1980 murders of an interracial couple in Johnstown, Ohio; and the separate 1979 murders of a white woman and a black man in Decatur, Georgia.

Overall, investigators believe Franklin is responsible for at least 18 murders and five nonfatal shootings in 11 states, plus two bombings and 16 bank robberies.



See also: http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014...-paul-franklin

Still haven't finished.

[Lion-hearted Girl]

Originally Posted by MrCorpse ↗

Still haven't finished.

I'm getting there

[MrCorpse]

Originally Posted by Lion-hearted Girl ↗

I'm getting there

Doesn't look like it

[Lion-hearted Girl]

[junglistmillz]

Originally Posted by Flaka ↗

Because that myth about rapists and child killers getting what they deserve in prison is just that... A myth...

Not particularly, They are often segregated but sometimes guards get "forgetful" lol I hate to admit it but I went inside for something petty and the abuse towards the "Nonces" is something that happens in every prison around the world x.