William Thompson was executed by the State of Nevada for three murders
According to court documents William Thompson would murder a pair of brothers in California and then made his way to Nevada where he would kill another man
William Thompson would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the double murder in California and for the murder in the Nevada was sentenced to death
William Thompson would be executed by lethal injection on June 19 1989
William Thompson would confess to three additional murders however they were never proven
William Thompson FAQ
When was William Thompson executed
William Thompson was executed on June 19 1989
How was William Thompson executed
William Thompson was executed by lethal injection
William Thompson Case
A killer who led a life of crime that culminated with his murder of a hobo for a wallet, a watch and some wine five years ago was executed by lethal injection Monday, authorities said.
William P. Thompson, 51, was given the lethal drug at 2:06 a.m. local time and pronounced dead by a local coroner at 2:14 a.m., Nevada State Prison officials said.
Thompson did not acknowledge the presence of witnesses and went quietly to his death. After being given the lethal injection, he lay still on a padded table, occasionally opening his eyes and staring at the ceiling, then closing them.
An hour before the execution, he was given a depressant to ensure he would not resist. He was escorted handcuffed by five prison guards to the former gas chamber, where the ‘death needle’ was inserted into his arm and the lethal drug readied for the intravenous injection.
The portly Thompson, who weighed 300 pounds, was given an extra dosage of the lethal drug because of his weight.
With his death, Thompson became the 112th person executed in the United States and the third in Nevada since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Seven other men were executed earlier this year. The last execution in Nevada was in 1985.
State assemblymen Courtney Swain, D-Reno, and Matthew Callister, D-Las Vegas, were among the 11 witnesses and 14 members of the news media allowed to watch the execution of the Wichita Falls, Texas, native.
Several hours before Thompson was executed, State Prisons Director Ron Angelone reported the killer was in a ‘very happy mood.’
Thompson was baptized, read the Bible and wrote letters in his final hours before he served his sentence for the 1984 robbery-murder of a man at a Reno hobo camp. Thompson’s last visitor was the chaplain who performed the baptism.
His mother resides in another state and did not visit her son.
The rotund Thompson, a career criminal who has admitted killings in New York, Kansas and California, ate a final meal of four double bacon cheeseburgers, two orders of fries and a large Coke. Angelone quoted Thompson as saying the meal was ‘excellent,’ and the inmate thanked the staff.
He refused any further appeals on his behalf and had said his execution by lethal injection would be a ‘privilege, not punishment’ to atone for crimes that kept him in reform schools and prisons for more than three decades.
Even though he had earlier declined to appeal his case further, government public defenders stood ready until the end to file a last minute petition to stay the execution if he changed his mind.
Thompson shot itinerant Randy Waldron in the head four times and took his wallet, watch and wine bottle where the two had been drinking at a camp near the railroad tracks in 1984. At the time, Thompson was on the run after killing two brothers, Robert and John Pariset, near Auburn, Calif.
Thompson’s death marked the first of two executions scheduled for this week in Nevada. Sean Patrick Flanagan is scheduled to die Friday for killing two men in Las Vegas. Like Thompson, Flanagan also said he wants no further appeals in his behalf.
Thompson occasionally talked with Flanagan in the next cell in his last hours, a prison official said.
There were no demonstrations outside the prison on the eve of the execution and there appeared to be no unrest among other inmates. But as Thompson was being executed, a Reno woman, Beverly Sloan, sat outside the prison grounds holding a solitary prayer vigil for him.
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/06/19/Killer-of-hobo-executed-by-lethal-injection/4012614232000/