Serial Killers | Murder Database

Carroll Cole Executed Serial Killer

Carroll Cole was executed by the State of Nevada for a series of murders

According to court documents Carroll Cole was a serial killer who started really early. When he was eight years old he would murder another eight year old by pushing the boys head under the water and holding him there. The death would be ruled accidental drowning

Carroll Cole was in and out of mental hospitals throughout his teens for a variety of afflictions

He would marry a prostitute in his early twenties however the relationship ended when he would burn down a motel. For this he was sent to prison

Carroll Cole would be released and soon after would attempt to murder an eleven year old girl

Once released from prison again he would attempt to strangle two women

Carroll Cole would head to California after being released again from prison where he would murder two women in a matter of weeks

Carroll Cole would head to Las Vegas where he would murder another woman before taking off to Texas where he would murder three more women before being arrested

Cole would be sentenced to multiple life without parole sentences in Texas however for the Nevada murder he would be sentenced to death

Carrol would be executed by lethal injection on December 6 1985

Cole would confess to fifteen murders while on death row

Carrol Cole Photos

Carroll Cole FAQ

When was Carroll Cole executed

Carroll Cole was executed on December 6 1985

How was Carroll Cole executed

Carroll Cole was executed by lethal injection

Carroll Cole Case

Convicted killer Carroll Edward Cole, who insisted that prolonging his life would be a waste of tax dollars, died by lethal injection here early Friday, the first execution in the Far West since 1979.

Cole, convicted of killing five women, fulfilled his death wish shortly after 2 a.m., when officials at Nevada’s maximum-security prison sent powerful doses of three undisclosed drugs flowing though an intravenous needle in the condemned man’s arm.

Strapped to a padded table in a converted gas chamber, Cole, 47, blinked repeatedly but showed no emotion waiting for the lethal drugs to course through his veins. He had been sedated earlier to prevent any final resistance.

Seventeen reporters and eight designated witnesses–nearly all of them court or law enforcement officials–had gathered to watch the execution. But looking out from behind one of the chamber’s three large windows, Cole seemed to notice only two of the witnesses, Mike and Judy Newton, a Las Vegas couple writing his biography.

His last words were to them: “It’s all right,” he mouthed through the glass.

Took Five Minutes

Moments later, as the lethal drugs began to flow, Cole closed his eyes, coughed and appeared to convulse, gasping for breath. Over the next several seconds, his chest heaved mechanically and his head slowly arched back. His lips parted; his eyelids opened slightly.

Then, he lay still. It had taken Cole five minutes to die.

“He was ready to go; he wanted to go,” said his attorney, Edward G. (Ted) Marshall, one of the official witnesses.

The last execution west of Texas occurred Oct. 22, 1979, on the very spot where Cole died. On that day, Jesse Walter Bishop of Garden Grove, Calif., went to the gas chamber for gunning down a honeymooner in a Las Vegas casino robbery.

Cole’s execution–the 50th since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976–marked the first time that execution by lethal injection was used in this state, where the gas chamber was born in 1924.

Nevada lawmakers authorized the use of lethal injections last year after George W. Sumner, director of state prisons, complained that the old chamber had leaks. Supporters of the switch declared it a more humane means of executing Cole and the other 28 men and two women on Nevada’s Death Row.

A one-time San Diego resident who was raised in Richmond, Calif., the stubby, tattooed Cole was convicted in Texas of strangling three Dallas women in 1980. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Confessed to 13 Murders

In February, 1984, Cole was extradited to Nevada, where seven months later he received the death sentence for strangling two Las Vegas women in 1977 and 1979.

Cole confessed to 13 murders and once told a psychiatrist that he killed 35 people, all but one of them women whom he usually picked up in bars.

To the end, Carroll Cole rejected all legal efforts to save him.

“I just messed up my life so bad that I just don’t care to go on,” he told one interviewer last week.

Given Cole’s insistence that he be put to death, not even the American Civil Liberties Union attempted to intervene in his behalf.

But there was one last-minute effort to save his life.

On Thursday night, Nevada’s five Supreme Court justices met briefly to review a petition filed earlier in the day by three Death Row inmates anxious to delay Cole’s date with death.

Fearing that his willingness could hasten their own scheduled executions, the inmates contended that Cole was mentally unbalanced and entitled to better psychiatric evaluation than was available at the prison.

The high court disagreed, deliberating about half an hour before denying a stay of execution.

Carroll Cole spent his last day under constant watch in a special, third-story cell less than 20 paces from the death chamber.

He wore new prison denims and his old white sneakers. The laces of the shoes had been removed to prevent any possibility of his hanging himself.

Dines on Shrimp and Chowder

At 5:30 p.m., Cole was served his last meal. He was given what he had requested: tossed salad with French dressing, jumbo shrimp, French fries and Boston clam chowder. He also finished off what remained of the 25 pounds of cookies and candy sent him last week by the Newtons.

Then Carroll Cole, a Catholic, wiled away his final hours playing cards with the prison priest.

At 12:20 a.m., he received the first of two shots of Valium intended to calm him. He hardly seemed to need it.

“He wasn’t nervous at all,” said Harol L. Whitley, the prison warden.

Outside, on the parking lot of the sober, gray granite prison, about a dozen people gathered under a crescent moon to light candles in protest of Cole’s execution.

“It’s a time to witness against the whole concept of vengeance,” said a spokesman for the group, Reno community organizer Bob Fulkerson.

At 1:43 a.m., wearing leg irons and a chain attached to his waist and wrists, Cole was escorted into the death chamber and lifted onto the table by four corrections officers who had volunteered for the job. When the medical equipment was in place 23 minutes later, the execution began.

Positioned behind a wall so that he could not be identified, a volunteer from the prison staff inserted a syringe filled with lethal liquid into the intravenous needle.

In all, Cole was injected with three drugs to stop his heart and disrupt his breathing.

There was no noise, except for the whirring of a nearby wall fan. The witnesses–one or two of them dabbing moist eyes–watched quietly as Cole convulsed.

Carroll Cole was declared dead at 2:10 a.m.

Family Didn’t Attend

His body was taken to a Carson City mortuary, where a prominent Las Vegas neurologist planned to examine Cole’s brain for any biological evidence that might explain his life of violence.

Carroll Cole is survived by a brother and three sisters. None attended his execution, and his body was not claimed.

After an autopsy, his remains were to be cremated.

The cell blocks, steaming in the cold night air, were silent as Cole’s body was wheeled to a waiting station wagon for the three-mile ride to the mortuary.

The temperature by 2:35 a.m. had dipped to 26 degrees as the vehicle made its way past the prison gate.

The death penalty protesters keeping vigil on the parking lot had already gone home.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-12-07-mn-14259-story.html

Stephen Morin Executed Serial Killer

Stephen Morin was a serial killer who would be executed by the State of Texas for a series of murders

According to court documents Stephen Morin was responsible for the murders of 40 young girls and of seven men in the 1970’s and 1980’s

Stephen Morin would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Stephen Morin would be executed by lethal injection on March 13 1985

Stephen Morin Photos

Stephen Morin FAQ

When was Stephen Morin executed

Stephen Morin was executed on March 13 1985

How was Stephen Morin executed

Stephen Morin was executed by lethal injection

Stephen Morin Case

Stephen Peter Morin, a Christian convert three times condemned for murdering young women, accepted his death sentence without resistance and was executed early Wednesday, ending his life with a prayer.

Morin, 34, was pronounced dead at 12:55 a.m. CST, after medics spent nearly an hour trying to find a vein to accept the tube carrying a lethal cocktail of drugs.

Morin was executed for the Dec. 11, 1981, shooting death of Carrie Marie Scott, 21, outside a San Antonio restaurant.

He was also under death sentences for the Dec. 3, 1981, slaying of Janna Bruce, 21, in Corpus Christi, Texas, and for the November 1981 killing of Denver waitress Sheila Ann Whalen, 23.

Morin was strapped to a gurney at 12:03 a.m. CST, offering no resistance. Medics, who said his veins were ‘shot’ by drug use, probed for a vein until 12:44 a.m. CST, when a saline solution was injected into his arm, said Texas Department of Corrections spokesman Charles Brown.

Morin’s final statement was a prayer for forgiveness.

‘Father forgive these people,’ he said, ‘for they know not what they do. Forgive them as you have forgiven me and I have forgiven them.’

His last words were: ‘Lord Jesus, I commit my soul to you.’

Morin then blew a kiss to a woman witness. As the poison flowed into his veins, Morin drew one deep breath, his last.

State District Judge David Berchelmann in San Antonio and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin had earlier denied motions by Gerald Goldstein, general counsel for the Texas Civil Liberties Union, to stay the execution.

Morin is the 40th convict executed in the United States and the sixth in Texas since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on capital punishment in 1976.

Morin, who began a fast out of religious motivation Tuesday, requested bread without yeast for his last meal.

The former cocaine addict and drifter from Providence, R.I., said he was converted to Christianity by his last kidnap victim who played tapes by the Rev. Kenneth Copeland, a Texas evangelist.

Morin had asked that no appeals be made to stop his death but Goldstein questioned his mental competence.

‘I am not asking for a stay. If one is granted, I will take it,’ prison spokesman Phil Guthrie told Goldstein Tuesday night.

On a 36-minute trip Tuesday morning from death row to the downtown Huntsville prison where the execution chamber is located, Morin ‘appeared to be in good spirits,’ Guthrie said.

‘At one point he jokingly asked the group if they’d like to stop and go fishing,’ Guthrie said.

Prison Warden Jack Pursley quoted Morin as saying his fate was ‘in the hands of the Lord.’

Morin claimed he was converted to Christianity by kidnap victim Margaret Mayfield Palm. She testified that after Morin abducted her at gunpoint to escape police hunting him for Scott’s murder, they drove around for 10 hours reading from her handwritten journal of Bible verses and listening to tapes by Copeland.

Morin was arrested at bus station after he freed Palm and she told police he planned to take a bus to Fort Worth to surrender to Copeland, an evangelist the prisoner asked to witness the execution.

Morin was on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list when he was arrested. A federal fugitive warrant charged him with the 1976 kidnapping and rape of a 14-year-old San Francisco girl. He also was a suspect in several rapes, abductions and murders of young women in Las Vegas, Utah, Indiana, California and New York.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/03/13/Stephen-Peter-Morin-a-Christian-convert-three-times-condemned/8207479538000/

Ronald Gray Military Serial Killer

Ronald Gray was sentenced to death by the US Military for four murders

According to court documents Ronald Gray is both a serial killer and a serial rapist

Ronald Gray would murder Linda Jean Coats, on April 27, 1986

Gray would sexually assault and murder Tammy Cofer Wilson on December 11, 1986.

Ronald would sexually assault and murder Private Laura Lee Vickery-Clay on December 15, 1986

Ronald Gray would sexually assault and murder Kimberly Ann Ruggle

Gray would sexually assault another victim and attempted to murder her but she was able thankfully escape

Ronald would be tried in civilian court where he would be found guilty and sentenced to eight life terms for the murders of Coats and Wilson

Ronald Gray would then be tried in military court where he was found guilty of the murders of Ruggles and Vickery-Clay and sentenced to death

Ronald Gray Photos

Ronald Gray FAQ

Where is Ronald Gray now

Ronald Gray is currently incarcerated at U.S. Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

When is Ronald Gray execution

Ronald Gray execution has yet to be scheduled

Ronald Gray Case

The Supreme Court has denied a request to consider the case of former soldier Ronald Gray, who was convicted of rapes and murders in the 1980s at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Gray’s petition was denied June 28 by the Supreme Court, according to court documents online, which did not detail a reason for the decision.

Gray and his attorneys have submitted numerous appeals as part of a 30-year process since he was convicted.

In 1988, a military court at Fort Bragg convicted Gray of the rape and murder of two women and rape and attempted murder of a third at Fort Bragg and the nearby area. At the time, he was a specialist working as a cook. He was sentenced to death.

He pleaded guilty in a civilian court to two other killings and five rapes, and he was given eight life sentences.

Gray’s appeals have become more frequent in the last two years since 2016, when a federal judge removed the stay of execution that had been in effect for eight years, The Fayetteville Observer reported. He is running out of appeals to avoid execution

He also appealed in 2001 to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case. In October 2016, the Supreme Court said it would not hear challenges to the death penalty for members of the military and rejected an appeal from a former soldier sentenced to death for killing two other soldiers in Kuwait in 2003.

Gray has been detained at the U.S. Army Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/07/06/convicted-murderer-rapist-ronald-gray-loses-bid-to-bring-case-to-supreme-court/

Gary Sampson Murders 3

Gary Sampson was sentenced to death by the Federal Government for three murders

According to court documents Gary Sampson was a convicted bank robber who would murder three people in two different States

Gary Sampson would be picked up hitchhiking by Philip McCloskey who Sampson would later beat to death

Gary Sampson would again be picked up hitchhiking by Jonathan Rizzo who Sampson would tie to a tree and stab to death

Gary Sampson would murder Robert Whitney by strangulation

Gary Sampson would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Gary Sampson would die on Federal death row on December 21 2021 by liver disease

Gary Sampson Photos

Gary Sampson FAQ

When did Gary Sampson die

Gary Sampson died on December 21, 2021 by end stage liver disease

Gary Sampson Case

It was a day not so much of emotion, but of exhaustion.

Sixteen years after the killings, 13 years after the first jury sentenced him to death and six years after a judge overturned that verdict on account of juror misconduct and ordered a new trial, the latest trial of admitted killer Gary Lee Sampson also ended in a death penalty verdict.

A federal jury decided Monday afternoon that Sampson shall be executed for the 2001 carjacking and slaying of college student Jonathan Rizzo.

“Gary Lee Sampson will pay for his life for all the heinous crimes he committed,” said Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz. “And he received the maximum sentence that the law provides.”

The verdict against Sampson marks the second time in two years (the other was Dzhokhar Tsarnaev) that a federal jury has imposed the death penalty in Massachusetts, a state that has no death penalty and has not executed a defendant since 1947.

For the killing of grandfather Philip McCloskey, Sampson, however, escaped the death penalty and was sentenced by the jury Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

There was an economy of tears and dramatics from those who had endured the ordeal, bearing witness to twice-told testimony and twice-shown photos of the corpses of their loved ones.

“It’s a very somber and sobering day for us, but we know justice has prevailed,” said Michael Rizzo, the father of 19-year-old Jonathan.

Seven men and five women filed into the courtroom — the forewoman holding the large verdict form to her chest — after 16 hours of deliberations. In his first trial, Sampson had wiped tears from his eyes upon hearing the verdict. Second trial was a dry one.

This time around, after imposing the death penalty for the death of Jonathan Rizzo, the jurors failed to reach unanimity on the verdict regarding victim McCloskey, age 69.

“We are disappointed in the verdict in the way it was split,” Ortiz said Monday.

The juror’s decision, which spares Sampson from a second death penalty for taking McCloskey’s life, seemed puzzling. Jurors had heard Sampson’s graphic, unremorseful confession to police about stabbing the older man over and over again, in a frenzy that nearly decapitated him.

Philip McCloskey’s son, Scott McCloskey, however, took comfort in knowing death by execution for killing someone else, namely Rizzo, would still be Sampson’s fate.

And practically speaking, one execution of Sampson is as good as two.

“It all ended up with the verdict of death so I’m happy with the results,” said Scott McCloskey. “It’s done, and hopefully, we’ll never have to go through this again. God bless my father. May he rest in peace. That’s all I got.

In filling out a 29-page verdict form, the jury had shown some consideration for Sampson. One or more of them agreed that he was mentally ill and suffered a mild traumatic brain injury as a child, that he had been the victim of physical and sexual violence in prison.

But not one juror agreed that traumatic brain injury explained his “lifetime struggles to control his behavior” or that he demonstrated any acceptance of responsibility for killing his victims.

One of the mitigating factors the defense submitted for the jurors was this: “Gary Sampson wants to love and be loved.” To that, every juror voted “no,” a devastating rejection of the defense’s call for mercy.

“This is what we wanted, this is what we fought for and this is what we’ve been here for for the last 15 years,” Michael Rizzo said, giving thanks.

One death penalty was enough to be shared by three families, said Mary Rizzo, Jonathan’s mother. Sampson was also sentenced to a separate life sentence for the 2001 killing of Robert ‘Eli’ Whitney in New Hampshire.

“Philip, Eli and Jonathan all are in my heart and in my pictures in my wallet every single day. This has been brutal,” she said. “I am so glad it is over.”

What is not over, however, as the history of the federal death penalty demonstrates, are the years of likely appeals should the 57-year-old Sampson live that long.

Until then, the other sentence, the one imposed with regard to McCloskey will suffice: life in prison without the possibility of parole, until Sampson is cleared for his execution.

https://www.wbur.org/morningedition/2017/01/10/gary-lee-sampson-death-penalty-sentence

Joseph Duncan Serial Killer Murders 7

Joseph Duncan was sentenced to death by the Federal Government for seven murders

According to court documents Joseph Duncan was a serial killer who was responsible for at least seven murders

In Idaho Joseph Duncan would murder Brenda Groene, 40; her boyfriend, Mark McKenzie, 37; and her son, Slade Groene, 13. Two children would be taken during the murder spree and weeks later one of the children was rescued by police however officers would later find the body of Dylan Groene would be found in Montana months later

Joseph Duncan was also responsible for the murders of ten year old Anthony Martinez and Sammiejo White, 11, and her half-sister, Carmen Cubias, 9.

Joseph Duncan would finally be arrested, convicted of seven murders and sentenced to death

Joseph Duncan would die from brain cancer on death row in March 2021

Joseph Duncan Photos

Joseph Duncan FAQ

When did Joseph Duncan die

Joseph Duncan would die from brain cancer on March 28, 2021

Joseph Duncan Death

Nearly 16 years after he terrorized North Idaho and murdered several members of a Coeur d’Alene family, convicted killer Joseph Duncan is dead.

Duncan’s attorneys disclosed late last year that he had terminal brain cancer and did not have much longer to live.

He died at just after 2:30 am pacific time at a hospital in Indiana. He was on federal death row at a prison in Terre Haute.

He was convicted of killing Brenda Groene, Slade Groene, Dylan Groene and Mark McKenzie; he murdered the family in order to kidnap Dylan and his sister Shasta. He held the children captive for several weeks in Montana before returning Shasta to a Coeur d’Alene Denny’s.

After his arrest, DNA linked him to the murder of 10-year old Anthony Martinez in California. Martinez was murdered in 1997 while Duncan was on parole for a rape charge in Washington. He was kidnapped while playing outside of his home, his body was found 15 days later. It wasn’t until after Duncan’s arrest in Idaho that he was linked to the crime.

He’s also been linked to the murders of two young girls in Seattle in the 1990s.

After his release from prison, he moved to Fargo and was attending college. Shortly before graduating in 2005, he was accused of molesting a young boy on a playground in Minnesota. He posted a low bail and skipped town. He was driving to Washington where his family lived when he said he spotted the Groene children playing outside their home along Interstate 90. He hatched a scheme then to kidnap the children, buying night vision goggles and stalking the family.

He videotaped many of his horrific crimes against the Groene children. One veteran investigator said the video “shook him to his core.”

Duncan said early on that he would not appeal his death sentence, but an appeal in his case has been going forward.

“The sun is a little brighter today,” said Anthony Martinez’s mother, Diana. “My soul is lighter. The world is a more beautiful place without the evil that is Joseph Duncan. God chose to make his end a long suffering and I believe that is fitting. The horror of his thoughts consumed him.”

Anthony would have been 34.

Anthony’s father Ernesto said “While I would’ve liked to witness his execution, knowing he is now standing before God being held accountable for what he has done, what he did to my son, and the horrible crimes he committed to others, that is the real justice.”

“God has brought pure justice for all those Joseph Duncan has hurt,” said Anthony’s younger brother Marcos. “There is less evil in the world. Nothing can bring my brother back, but now Duncan can never hurt anyone again. Because of him, I will spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to fight against any evil left in the world.”

https://www.kxly.com/the-sun-is-a-little-brighter-today-serial-killer-joseph-duncan-is-dead/