According to court documents Thomas Beavers would break into the home of his neighbor Marguerite Lowery who would be sexually assaulted before Beavers proceed to smother her to death with a pillow before robbing the home
Thomas Beavers would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Thomas Beavers would be executed by lethal injection on December 11 1997
Thomas Beavers Photos
Thomas Beavers Case
“God forgive me!”
With that wail, Thomas Beavers Jr. slumped down onto his execution gurney as a lethal cocktail of chemicals coursed through his body.
By 9:07 p.m. Thursday, Beavers, 26, was declared dead.
State officials executed him for the rape and murder of Marguerite E. Lowery, 61, a retired school cafeteria manager, on May 1, 1990, in Hampton.
Beavers chatted briefly with a prison clergyman after he was strapped onto the gurney in the execution room at the Greensville Correctional Center. He then lifted his head, staring for several moments at the witnesses.
In another room were four members of Lowery’s family. They declined to speak to reporters after the execution. Prison officials would not identify them, but Lowery’s daughter, Velma Britt, and Lowery’s brother, Kenneth Barbour, had indicated earlier they would see Beavers die.
The heavily muscled Beavers declined to see visitors from his family on his final day. He declined a special final meal, so he was offered fried fish, baked tomatoes, sliced bread, fried rice, sliced pineapple and a beverage.
As he walked into the execution room, Beavers’ hair tumbled well below his shoulders.
Beavers then made a brief statement:
“To my family and friends, I love them. God bless them,” he said, according to David Botkins, state Department of Corrections spokesman. “I’m sorry for what I did.
“God bless them all.”
He then clenched his eyes together, shed a few tears, and, wailed, “God forgive me!” as the first chemical dripping in his IV entered his body. That chemical knocked him unconscious.
The second chemical stopped his breathing, and the third chemical stopped his heart.
Earlier Thursday, Gov. George Allen denied a request for clemency, and the U.S. Supreme Court turned down two appeals, corrections officials said.
Lowery was a widow who lived alone on Teach Street in Hampton. Beavers lived in the same neighborhood.
After Lowery’s husband, Pompey, died in 1978, she liked to travel frequently, family members said.
“She was on the go,” said Louella Johnson, 89, Lowery’s mother.
Beavers, a shipyard worker, was the ninth person executed in Virginia this year.
The state executed Michael Charles Satcher, who raped and murdered a Washington paralegal in 1990, the night before.
Thursday’s execution ended Beavers’ troubled life. When he was a baby, his mother tried to kill him. At age 5, he started sniffing gasoline. In elementary school, he twice had to repeat a grade because of learning disabilities. In the ninth grade, he dropped out. He abused alcohol and drugs. Twice, he tried to kill himself.
Prosecutors said Lowery was asleep when Beavers, then 18, broke into her home. When she woke up to find out about the noise, Beavers grabbed her and forced her back into the bedroom. She fought and screamed.
Beavers tore her clothing off, raped her and smothered her to death with a pillow from the bed. He took jewelry from her dresser, vandalized the house, stole her car and set fire to it.
It was two years before law enforcement officials caught him. By then, he had raped two other neighbors, who weren’t killed. But when he was arrested for the last rape, police found Lowery’s jewelry in his bedroom.
When he was caught, Thomas Beavers told authorities that he’d probably rape again if set free.
The jury that sentenced him to death based its decision on his “demonstrated dangerousness,” according to the state attorney general’s office
According to court documents Michael Satcher would attack Anne Elizabeth Borghesani who was riding her bike along a trail. Anne Elizabeth Borghesani would be sexually assaulted and murdered. Earlier the same day Sacher would attack another woman
Michael Satcher would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Michael Satcher would be executed by lethal injection on December 9 1997
Michael Satcher Photos
Michael Satcher Case
Michael Charles Satcher, whose rape and murder of a Washington paralegal on an Arlington bicycle trail became a symbol of sexual violence against women, was executed tonight at the Greensville Correctional Center here.
Satcher, 29, a Southeast Washington furniture mover, was pronounced dead at 9:08 p.m., six minutes after an injection of drugs halted his heart and lungs.
He was executed for the slaying of Anne Elizabeth Borghesani, whom he stalked as she headed to a Metro station on the way to her 23rd birthday party on March 31, 1990. Friends found the body of the recent Tufts University graduate stabbed 21 times and naked from the waist down in an office building stairwell.
The incident horrified residents and mobilized police and users of jogging trails and exercise paths across the Washington area.
Satcher said in a written statement released by one of his attorneys after his death: “To my family I want to say, Thanks for being the best family a person could ever have. I love you all.’
“To my friends on death row,” he added, naming 10 inmates, “I would like to say, See all of you on the other side. My family will be praying for all of you.’ “
Four hours before the execution, Gov. George Allen (R) rejected a final clemency petition by Satcher’s attorneys, who pleaded with the governor to allow new DNA testing on crime scene evidence. They argued that the 1995 testing of Satcher’s blood using new technology produced some results that conflicted with evidence used by the state at trial.
In a 12-paragraph statement, Allen called the claim “utterly inconsequential.” Satcher also was identified by two witnesses who said he sexually assaulted one of them the night Borghesani was killed, Allen wrote, near where her body was found
“There is absolutely nothing in the record of this case that causes me to question the accuracy of the DNA tests introduced at trial,” said Allen, who has commuted two death sentences and permitted 24 executions. “I find no reason to overturn the judgment and sentence rendered by the jury in Satcher’s trial.”
A three-judge federal appeals court ruled in September that neither the DNA claim nor the fact that prosecutors wrongly permitted the surviving victim to identify Satcher in his original 1991 trial in Arlington warranted a retrial, reversing a lower U.S. District Court’s finding.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Satcher’s final appeal last week on a 7 to 2 vote.
After Satcher’s trial, the Borghesani family, of Lexington, Mass., spoke out against violence that at the time seemed to be increasing in urban areas. The family compared Borghesani’s slaying to an incident the year before in which a jogger in New York’s Central Park who was left near death by youths who told police they were out “wilding.
“We are feeling overwhelmed by Anne’s death and by the amount of senseless violence in our country,” her parents, Elizabeth and Roger Borghesani, wrote in an editorial. “Something must be done; we must not simply watch it continue to escalate.”
Arthur L. Karp, a deputy commonwealth’s attorney who tried Satcher with Helen F. Fahey — the former Arlington prosecutor who now is U.S. attorney for Eastern Virginia — said that even now, he tries “not to think about” the emotional case.
“If I had the slightest doubt about Satcher’s guilt, I’d be on the same side as the defense attorneys asking that the case be reopened,” said Karp, recalling how many people in the courtroom were in tears as witnesses testified about finding Borghesani’s body.
Tonight, Satcher’s parents, three sisters, wife and two sons spent final tearful hours with the condemned man in the isolation cellblock adjacent to Virginia’s death chamber here, about 60 miles south of Richmond, one of Satcher’s attorneys said.
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Upon Allen’s decision, they released a statement calling Satcher’s execution a tragedy.
“Our father, son and brother will die tonight without having had a chance to prove his innocence,” said Satcher’s parents, George and Vashti Satcher, custodial workers living in Prince George’s County; Gloria Williams, mother of Satcher’s 7- and 9-year-old sons; and his sisters, all of Southeast Washington. “The governor has taken that away from Michael.”
Satcher’s attorneys, Lee Ann Anderson McCall and John L. Hardiman, added, “The people of the Commonwealth of Virginia should be concerned that prosecutorial zealousness will hide the truth.”
In a statement with a headline that said, “Innocent man, Michael Satcher, to be executed tonight,” they called for legislation to give death row inmates wider access to retest evidence after conviction when new, more accurate DNA technology is available at minimal delay
Henley Gabeau, executive director of the Road Runners Club of America in Alexandria, created in 1989 to combat rising assaults on women, recalled the case as “particularly horrific” and “scary,” remembering how friends last spoke to Borghesani by telephone as Borghesani ironed her party dress.
Michael Satcher, who maintained that he was innocent, was arrested in August 1991 after trying to attack three women on another Arlington trail with a knife wrapped in a shirt. He also faced three life terms and an 11-year sentence for the other March 31 assault.
Michael Satcher’s execution was the eighth in Virginia this year, matching 1996 for the most executions in one year in the state. Another execution is scheduled for Thursday
According to court documents Michael Lockhart would fatally shoot Officer Paul Hulsey Jr when the Officer attempted to arrest him for a stolen vehicle
Michael Lockhart was also convicted in Indiana for the murder of 16-year-old Windy Gallagher. As well as the murder of 14-year-old Jennifer Colhouer in Florida. Lockhart was also suspected in the murder of 16-year old Kathy Hobbs in Nevada
Michael Lockhart would be executed by lethal injection on December 9 1997
Michael Lockhart Photos
Michael Lockhart Case
Thirty years ago today, Beaumont Police Department officer Paul Douglas Hulsey, Jr. was shot and killed while investigating a vehicle with stolen plates parked outside a motel.
Hulsey, 30, found which room the suspect was in and approached the man, not knowing he was a serial killer wanted in connection with the brutal slayings of two teenage girls.
Michael Lee Lockhart, 27, of Toledo, Ohio, was charged with capital murder in the fatal shooting of Hulsey, whom authorities said was killed while trying to arrest Lockhart at the Beaumont motel.
The case was moved from Beaumont to San Antonio in August 1988 because of extensive publicity.
Meanwhile, Lockhart was charged in Indiana and Florida with murder in connection with the fatal stabbings of a 16-year-old girl in Griffith, Ind., and a 14-year-old girl in Land O’ Lakes, Fla.
At trial in San Antonio, prosecutors said Lockhart was a suspect in 21 crimes in Texas, Indiana, Florida, Louisiana, Ohio and Georgia.
During his capital murder trial, Lockhart dove out a third-floor window at the Bexar County Courthouse as part of an escape attempt. He was injured in the 15-foot fall onto a paved roof and taken away in an ambulance.
A Bexar County jury convicted Lockhart of capital murder for Hulsey’s death.
Lockhart, 37, died in the Huntsville execution chamber on Dec. 9, 1997.
According to court documents during a three day period Robert Williams would murder three women and attempted to murder a fourth. Williams would murder Catherine Brooks and Patricia McGarry in Nebraska and Virginia Rowe in Iowa. The fourth women was sexually assaulted and shot in Minnesota
Robert Williams would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Robert Williams would be executed by way of the electric chair on December 2 1997
Robert Williams Photos
Robert Williams Case
In the late afternoon of August 11, 1977, the bodies of Patricia A. McGarry and Catherine M. Brooks were found in the McGarry apartment in Lincoln, Nebraska, after a search was instituted when neighbors found the 5-year-old daughter of Catherine Brooks wandering in the neighborhood looking for her mother.
The naked body of Catherine Brooks was found lying face down in the center of the living room floor. A pool of blood surrounded her head. There was a nonfatal bullet wound in her back and two bullet wounds behind her left ear. Later medical examination revealed spermatozoa in the vagina and in the rectal tract. The pathologist testified that the spermatozoa would have had to be deposited within an hour of her death.
The body of Patricia McGarry was lying in the dining room, face up, clad in a blue housecoat. She had also been shot three times, once under her right ear and twice in the neck. There was a bloody trail on the carpet from the living room into the dining room to the spot where Patricia’s body lay.
The police found an empty beer bottle with latent fingerprints on a chair. Later examination established the fingerprints as those of the defendant. The police also found a full box of .22 caliber long rifle shells on the coffee table in the living room and another unfired .22 caliber shell on the sofa. The casing of a .22 caliber shell was found on the floor of the living room. There was a bullet hole in the wall between the living and dining rooms, and a spent bullet was found in the entryway between the two rooms. Later investigation established that on August 10, 1977, at approximately 7:15 p. m., a model K-22 Smith & Wesson .22 caliber revolver and five boxes of .22 caliber long rifle shells were purchased by the defendant at a store in Lincoln.
Evidence at trial established that on August 11, 1977, at approximately 9:30 a. m., the defendant appeared at the apartment of another young woman in Lincoln, Nebraska. She had been acquainted with the defendant for approximately 6 months and he had been a babysitter for her 2-year-old daughter on occasion. The defendant told the woman that his car was broken down and asked to use her telephone. She admitted him and he then told her he needed to stay in her apartment for a while. She suggested that he stay in the storage room area of the apartment complex instead. The defendant then drew a revolver and demanded that she have sexual relations with him. She tried to lock herself in the bathroom but the defendant forced the door open and broke off the lock. He struck her in the chest and on the side of the head with the gun and threatened to blow her head off, and then raped her. The defendant remained in the apartment for several hours and raped the woman repeatedly.
At approximately 4 p. m., the defendant ordered the woman to bring her 2-year-old child and go to his car with him. As they approached the curb he told her she was free to go. She immediately went to a neighbor’s home and called the police.
The woman testified that during the time the defendant had been with her, he drank one beer and smoked a joint of marijuana but appeared normal and did not appear to be intoxicated. Other witnesses who had been with the defendant on August 10, and one as late as 1:30 a. m., on August 11, 1977, testified that on those occasions the defendant *22 appeared normal in speech and actions and did not appear to be intoxicated, although he had been drinking.
The evidence at trial established that defendant left the woman’s apartment in Lincoln about 4 p. m., August 11, 1977, and about an hour later was seen at a service station in Fremont, Nebraska, some 50 miles away, where he stopped and purchased gasoline. The station attendant testified that the defendant’s speech and coordination appeared to be normal, although he smelled alcohol on the defendant’s breath.
At approximately 10:15 p. m., on August 11, 1977, a deputy sheriff observed and checked the defendant’s car at a park and rest area in Cherokee County, Iowa, and checked it periodically thereafter through the night. At 6:15 a. m., the deputy had the car towed away. Upon examination of the car, the deputies discovered a packaging box for a Smith & Wesson K-22 revolver; a box of .22 caliber long rifle cartridges from which six cartridges had been removed; a bag of marijuana; and some gas cans with negroid hairs on them.
Shortly after 6 a. m., on August 12, 1977, Mrs. Jack Montgomery, who lived 1½ miles west of the park and rest area in which defendant’s car had been found, discovered that her car was missing from the garage. There was a blanket in the car and another blanket was also missing. She also found a checkbook with the name of the defendant imprinted on the checks lying in the driveway in front of the garage. At approximately 10 o’clock the same morning the Montgomery car was found abandoned in a ditch about 20 miles northeast of the Montgomery farm.
A little after 7 a. m., on the same morning, Elbert Bredvick was standing in his farmyard approximately 5 miles southwest of the point at which the Montgomery car had been abandoned. Bredvick observed the defendant approaching carrying two blankets draped over his shoulder. The defendant asked for directions to the nearest town. Bredvick gave the defendant directions which led defendant past the Wayne Rowe farmhouse one-half mile to the west, and the defendant departed in that direction.
On the morning of August 12, 1977, Mrs. Wayne Rowe left the farm home at 7:45 a. m., for an appointment at her hairdresser. Wayne Rowe left the house about 8:15 a. m., and returned shortly after noon, expecting his wife to be home. He observed that his wife’s car was gone and when he entered the house he saw his wife’s purse on the chair and the morning mail on the table. About that time an Iowa state trooper arrived and Rowe and the trooper went upstairs and found Mrs. Rowe’s naked body on the bed. There was a shotgun wound in her side and another in her back, and there was a wound in her neck from a .22 caliber bullet. Later examination established that she had also been sexually assaulted.
Negroid hairs were found in her hand and on the bedspread which compared favorably in diameter, coloration, pigment distribution, scale patterns, and medullation to samples taken from the defendant and the hairs found on the gas cans in his car. A .22 caliber bullet was found in the fibers of the bedspread which matched the bullets recovered from the bodies of Catherine Brooks and Patricia McGarry. A shotgun which had been kept in the Rowe home was missing and the telephone line had been cut.
In the bushes behind the Rowe garage officers found the blankets which were identified by Bredvick as the blankets that had been draped over the defendant’s shoulder earlier that morning. The Rowe car was found later in St. Paul, Minnesota. Inside the car was a live round of .22 caliber ammunition and a misfired cartridge with a firing pin impression which matched a casing found at the murder scene.
On August 13, 1977, at approximately 1:30 p. m., in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota, the defendant confronted Walter Behun at gunpoint in the Behun yard and ordered Behun to drive him to St. Paul. They drove around for some time, ending at a railroad freight yard, where the defendant tied Behun up with belts and a sweat shirt, gagged him, and left him in a caboose. Behun *23 testified that the defendant did not appear to be intoxicated.
About 3 p. m., on August 13, 1977, a young woman was returning to her car in a parking lot in St. Paul, Minnesota. She opened the car door and placed her purchase on the floor. The defendant came up behind her and ordered her to get into the car or he would shoot her. Before she had time to do so, he shot her once in the arm and again later behind her left ear. The defendant pushed her into the car, demanded the keys, and drove to a remote country area where he raped her. After the assault, the defendant tied her hands and legs and drove off in her car. She managed to untie herself, got to a farmhouse and was taken to the hospital, where she ultimately recovered.
The evidence indicates that after August 13, 1977, the defendant went to Chicago, Illinois, and then back to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he was arrested in the railroad yards on the early morning of August 18, 1977.
According to court documents Charlie Livingston would watch Janet Caldwell go into a grocery store and would wait underneath her vehicle. When Janet Caldwell returned to her vehicle Livingston would jump out armed with a gun and demanded her purse. When Caldwell resisted Livingston would fatally shoot her
Charlie Livingston would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Charlie Livingston would be executed by lethal injection on November 21 1997
Charlie Livingston Photos
Charlie Livingston Case
Texas prison officials have executed the 36th convicted killer of the year, putting Charlie Livingston to death by injection for the murder of a Houston woman during a 1983 robbery. Livingston was condemned for gunning down Janet Caldwell in the parking lot of a grocery store.
The 35-year-old was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m. after a brief final statement. Livingston said, ‘Ya’ll brought me here to be executed, not to make a speech. Let’s get on with it.’
Four of Livingston’s family members attended the execution and responded in unison with a thumbs up signal after his statement. Livingston gasped three times and fell silent as the drugs took effect.
The victim’s husband, James Caldwell, traveled from Brisbane, Australia, to witness the execution. All of the witnesses declined to speak with reporters after the execution.
Livingston is the 143rd Texas inmate put to death since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982. According to trial evidence, Caldwell walked out of a grocery store on Aug. 10, 1983 and was robbed by Livingston in the parking lot. Several witnesses saw Caldwell and Livingston struggle before hearing shots. Police arrested Livingston near the scene. He was identified by a number of witnesses. An autopsy determined that Caldwell had been shot in the neck at close range.
