Police said it looked like a professional hit. She was the first woman in the, Pete Lucas Moses Jr.: The Durham cult leader. Thorpe was the first of the Edgecombe County Serial Killer's victims to be found in this location, but not the last. She was born in North Carolina in 1933, one of seven children. Her body was discovered nearly two years later. Thirty-five-year-old Jackie Thorpe was the next victim reported missing, and she was quickly found on August 17th near the Seven Bridges Road. An investigation revealed that Stagers first husband had died in a very similar way, but Stager was only tried for the death of her second husband. "I came to feel that if the state could prove she actually wrote the chilling details in that letter, she had signed her own death warrant," Rabil wrote. In 1994, a TV movie based on Bitter Blood aired on CBS. Van Houten was convicted of assisting in the murder of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca and recently had a parole overturned by California Governor Jerry Brown. One of the world's most prolific serial killers might still be out there. NC climate expert weighs in. Officers arrived to find MacDonald on his bedroom floor next to his wifes body. This is our view on which of those make the most notorious serial killers in the world. Henry Louis Wallace is a convicted serial killer who was accused of killing 10 women in Charlotte during the early 1990s. Ten days later, she got a stay of execution pending an appeal. "In each case medical evidence suggests that multiple doses of arsenic were administered to the victim over a long period of time, as opposed to one large fatal dose. Over the next two years, Wallace's case was delayed over the choice of venue, DNA evidence from murdered victims, and jury selection. John Wayne Gacy, the Killer Clown Biography of Albert Fish, Serial Killer Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog The Green River Killer: Gary Ridgway Profile of Serial Killer Rodney Alcala Serial Killer Couple Ray and Faye Copeland Serial Killer Edward Gein Profile of Serial Killer Arthur Shawcross Profile of Serial Killer Debra Brown The Outcome: The entire family was buried in a mass grave in Germanton. During her time in prison, Barfield got off drugs, became a born-again Christian and received praise from Billy Graham for ministering to prisoners. By March 12, 1994, Charlotte police were onto Wallace and there was a citywide hunt for him. On June 22, Wallace raped and strangled his Taco Bell co-worker and manager, Audrey Spain, 24. His under-the-radar reign of terror is something residents of The Queen City will never forget. 11. Wallace attended her funeral. "That in and of itself should have run up the reasonable-doubt flag for the jury, but I'm afraid there was just too much poison and too many different people. Name: Date: Victims: Location : A: Sylvester Lewis ADAMS October 17, 1979: 1: South Carolina, USA: Quincy Javon ALLEN July-August 2002: 4: South Carolina, USA : John . So who is North Carolina's most notorious serial killer? On January 29, he was handed nine death sentences.[7]. Dahmer is perhaps best known for dismembering and consuming parts of his victims, many of which were found in his apartment at the time of his arrest. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department apologized to Charlotte citizens for not spotting a link between the murders sooner. By that time, his marriage to Maretta had fallen apart. The Insider compiled a list of the most notorious serial killer by state, and North Carolina's No. An ID Murder Mystery aired. Wallace raped Henderson while she held her baby and then strangled her. Though it's easy to think that nothing bad like that has happened in North Carolina, the Tar Heel State has seen plenty of heinous crimes through its history. But the end of his killing spree occurred in Florida, after he fled a Colorado prison ( for the . Alaska has the second-highest rate at 7 per 100,000; Louisiana comes in third with 6.5 serial killings per 100,000. He confessed to the victims that could be tied to him. Alien pod on Outer Banks tree looks and feels like hair, park says. The relationship deepened, and marriage was discussed. Both Pritchard and Henderson testified against Upchurch, who was found guilty of several charges, including first-degree murder. Jeffrey Dahmer Between 1988-91, Jeffrey Dahmer killed 17 men in Milwaukee, WI before the escape of his would-be 18th victim led to his capture. He'd been scheduled to appear in court the next day. The police increased their patrols in east Charlotte after two bodies of young black women were found at The Lake Apartments complex. Mack had two young daughters. In January 1988, Wallace was arrested for breaking into a hardware store. Her favorite source of the poison was said to be a brand of insect killer called Anti-Ant. [1], Henry Louis Wallace was born in Barnwell, South Carolina,[2] the son of Lottie Mae Wallace. She is the service journalism editor and writes about TV and local media for The N&Os Happiness is a Warm TV blog. It's not likely Blanche Taylor Moore will meet that fate. Blanche Moore had maintained a detached demeanor during the trial, with a tight smile for the cameras tightly trained on her throughout. Henry Louis Wallace is considered the most infamous killer in the history of North Carolina after murdering nearly a dozen women around Charlotte who all shared some connection with the man. [8] Mecklenburg County public defender Isabel Day served as an official witness and photographer. State Government websites value user privacy. After Wallace murdered her, he took a considerable amount of valuables from the house, then left the apartment with her car. . She left Kroger on Oct. 17, 1985. The story of The Black Widow, Blanche Taylor Moore. The serial killer committed the crimes between May 1992 and March 1994. Pritchard was convicted of aiding and abetting in the assault against his mother and was sentenced to life in prison, but was paroled in 2007. "Everything we've been able to learn about her is a picture of a model person," one of her defense attorneys said after her conviction. Image credit: oxygen . Those drug traffickers were actually Susies parents and grandmother: Bob and Florence Newsom, and Bobs mother, Hattie. It is a fate she didn't leave to her suspected string of victims. That confession letter is one of the many bizarre facets of this grim saga. Algarad was reportedly found bleeding from a deep wound on one of his arms. On March 8, 1990, Wallace murdered 18-year-old Tashanda Bethea,[3] a Barnwell High School student. 8. The NC Supreme Court wrote that "the letter was offered into evidence by the State not as the dying declaration of Garvin Thomas but as evidence of defendant's "deceptive plan to throw suspicion away from herself.". He raped her and some time later strangled and stabbed her in front of her oldest son. 20/20 aired a special in 2016 called Love, Hope and Faith: The Faith Hedgepeth Murder. In 2018, the Investigation Discovery series Breaking Homicide looked into Hedgepeths murder. [2], Wallace went to several colleges before joining the U.S. Navy in 1985. There is no date set for his execution. The outcome: Starting in July 1970, the Army held Article 32 proceedings. fascination with real-life murders and mysteries is not new, Charles Lawson brutally murdered his wife and six of his seven children, 1990 book on the crime, White Christmas, Bloody Christmas,, Barfield, who became known as the Death Row Granny,, Death Sentence: The True Story of Velma Barfields Life, Crimes, and Execution. "I guess it brought back a lot of memories. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. His arsenic levels were 60 times higher than normal. These sisters hold the Guinness World Record for " Most Prolific Murder Partnership ," a dubious honor they earned due to their estimated 91 kills . Died: August 21, 2014. Victim of serial killer John Wayne Gacy identified as North Carolina man October 25, 2021 / 1:51 PM / CBS/AP A North Carolina man who moved to Chicago was one of the victims of John. In 2011, Moses was accused of killing a 5-year-old boy whose mother was one of his followers, and of directing members of his group to kill a woman who wanted to leave the fold. The synopsis is culled from Bledsoes news stories, which were the basis of his best-selling book. However, many in the area's black community criticized the police's conduct during the investigation, accusing them of neglecting the murders of black women. The prosecution also brought forth several witnesses to connect Blanche with Anti-Ant, an ant poison containing arsenic that was available for sale at the time. She's going to come back out and she's going to testify eventually, and her response to it is, 'you'll see. Her body and Jadons both were found buried in the backyard of a vacant rental house in June 2011. Former "Bewitched" star Elizabeth Montgomery played Moore in "Black Widow Murders: The Blanche Taylor Moore Story.". He detonated an explosive inside his vehicle, killing himself as well has his girlfriend, Susie Lynch, and her two sons. The following is a summary of other notable killers in South Carolina . Stinson was a college student and single mother of two small sons. "Mom never expected to spend the rest of her life by herself. The outcome: A military jury at his third trial found Hennis guilty of the murders and sentenced him to death. North Carolinas judicial history is filled with captivating true-crime tales, and many have drawn national attention and set legal precedent. This time he set the body on fire to cover up his crime. In 2008, Petersons neighbor, Larry Pollard, held a news conference announcing his theory that an owl attacked Kathleen Peterson and that she died as a result of those injuries. Over the past few centuries, arsenic poisoning has been a particularly popular way to kill someone. Though Hilton was already on Death Row in Florida for those murders, he pleaded guilty in 2012 to killing the North Carolina couple and received an additional four life sentences, to be held consecutively. Less than five months later, Reid died at Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem. Kimberly was found dead in her bed. [2] He pawned everything except the car, which he left at a local shopping center. In fact, she denied ever seeing him "have any food at all during that time" or having ever taken food to him in the hospital. A glass dome was placed over the cake and it sat on display in the home for years. In a chilling scene, she crawled onto the bed and reenacted the shooting for the detective (you can see it on a Forensic Files episode). But the dramatically increased interest in the genre is evidenced by and likely fueled by our increased access to the stories. A lock icon or https:// means you've safely connected to the official website. 3. He is currently awaiting execution at Central Prison in Raleigh. But several hospital workers, family members, and visitors testified that they did recall Blanche bringing Reid milkshakes from McDonald's while he was hospitalized in Greensboro. He killed her and dumped her body in a lake, where it was discovered weeks later. Just before her execution, it is reported that Barfield told her son Ronnie Burke that she probably killed him because she left a lit cigarette at the foot of the bed where he lay drunk. Kristen lay dead in her bed, stabbed 48 times with a knife and an ice pick. Rosario told police that she left the door unlocked. He was convicted and sentenced to death and is currently awaiting his execution on death row. I'm not guilty. Reid's son Steven Reid testified that he visited his father on Oct. 4 and found him eating breakfast prepared by Blanche. In 2012, filmmaker Errol Morris set about proving MacDonald was innocent and published A Wilderness of Error: The Trials of Jeffrey MacDonald.. Daniel Printz pleaded guilty Tuesday to the kidnapping and murder of 80-year-old Edna Suttles . Wallace returned to the same apartment complex on March 8, 1994, knowing that Berness Woods would be at work so he could murder his girlfriend, Brandi June Henderson, an 18-year-old high school student, homemaker, and mother of Woods child. Though modern DNA testing in 2006 linked him conclusively to the crime scene, he could not be tried again in state court. Copyright 2023 WTVD-TV. Because they struggled financially, the family lived a very no-frills lifestyle. ", During the capital sentencing phase, the jury found as aggravating circumstances that Blanche Moore was motivated to kill for financial gain and that Reid's murder was "especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.". The FBI is seeking the public's help in identifying some of the victims of Samuel Little, who has been confirmed as the nation's most prolific serial killer after confessing to 93 murders . Kiser Sr., her mother-in-law, Isla Taylor, her first husband, James N. Taylor, and a former co-worker, Joseph Mitchell. The revelation of Michaels bisexuality (and the question of whether Kathleen knew) and his multiple affairs. Dr. Harold Shipman, nicknamed "Dr. Death" after his horrific killing spree came to light, was sentenced to life in prison after . The shootings came days before Tom was supposed to take John and Jim to Kentucky to visit their grandmother. The late-case courtroom surprise discovery of the missing blow poke, a suspected murder weapon. Rodney Alcala was an American serial killer whose good looks and high IQ helped him lure victims. He is currently awaiting execution at Central Prison in Raleigh. Daniel Glen Printz, 59, of Bostic,. Steven Reid testified that when he arrived on the evening of Oct. 6, he hardly recognized his father. Dwight Moore became violently ill after eating a chicken sandwich his new wife offered him. Remarkably, Reid again improved. But the jury disagreed, unanimously finding "the defendant, Blanche K. Taylor Moore, guilty of first-degree murder.". Perhaps it's the larger populations that lure serial killers to these states. Other killers are so famous they are known all over the country, like Ted Bundy, the BTK Killer, and John Wayne Gacy. Historical records do not agree with all of the legend, but Fisher was hanged for her crimes in the end. Henry Louis Wallace was convicted of the murders of 10 young black women in Charlotte, North Carolina. His trial began in September 1996. The story even spawned an FX docuseries in 2020 called A Wilderness of Error. The Greensboro News & Record, where Bledsoe worked at the time of the killing spree, revisited the case in 2015 on its 30th anniversary, with an excellent synopsis of the case and a look at where survivors are now. 1. While Arthur was gone, Lawson killed the entire remaining family by shooting and bludgeoning them to death. Here's what Insider had to say: That June, he pled guilty to second-degree burglary. ", "I think if there's any doubt about the tie-in between Blanche Moore and these three individuals and their arsenic poisoning, it comes from the actual confession letter itself, your honor.". In 2013, Hill, 50, of Jennings, pleaded guilty to strangling Janice Mayhew in 2008 and Sierra Sullivan in 2009. A neighbor called police on Mothers Day after noticing that newspapers had piled up in the driveway though Katies car was parked at the house. 2. On October 28, 2015, prison guards reportedly discovered self-proclaimed "Satanist" and accused murderer Pazuzu Illah Algarad dead in his cell. Wallace described in detail the women's appearances, as well as how he raped, robbed, and killed the women.[2][5]. It was at the grocery store that Blanche Taylor, who was married in 1952 and widowed in 1973, met and later began dating Reid, a divorced store manager. A Supreme Court justice posed the question to state attorneys: "How do you tie the defendant into these similar poisoning incidents? Wallace would sexually assault, beat, and strangle his victims, including once in front of the woman's son. We'll take a look at the crimes of: Donald Gaskins Lee Roy Martin Todd Kohlhepp Patrick Tracy Burris Susan Smith ( Source) Donald Gaskins Donald Gaskins was born in 1933 in Southern Florence County, South Carolina. He received nine death sentences. It would be almost two years (March 1994) before her body was discovered in a wooded area in Charlotte. He is the only U.S. citizen so far to have been sent to death row by a civilian court, exonerated, then sent back to death row via military court. The victims: Barfield was convicted in 1978 of poisoning and killing fiance Rowland Stuart Taylor by mixing Singletary Rat Killer or Terro Ant and Roach Killer into his beer and tea. There is now a Faith Hedgepeth Memorial Scholarship fund, which helps Native American women from a North Carolina tribe earn a higher education. Here are some of the other most famous serial killers from the area. After being treated for his injuries, all the while claiming they were attacked by three men, he was charged for his family's murder. She rose to head cashier, the highest position a woman could hold at the time and was said to be a good employee. Antoinetta McKoy, 28, wrote in a diary that she feared Moses would kill her after she found out she could not have children. In June 1992, Wallace raped and strangled Caroline Love, 20, at her apartment,[2] then dumped her body in a wooded area. Donald Harry "Pee Wee" Gaskins Jr. The victims: Wallaces last nine victims all had a seemingly obvious connection (the Taco Bell where Wallace worked and the Bojangles where his girlfriend worked), but the clues were somehow ignored. She was beaten by Moses and the others and then shot. Despite the damning and disturbing evidence, the defense seemed optimistic. #wildernessoferror, an @fxdocs original series reexamining the infamous jeffrey macdonald murder case, premieres september 25 on fx & next day #FXonHulu. Hawk had worked at Taco Bell where Wallace was her supervisor.[2]. So he did, from Honeysuckle Rose to Lets Talk Dirty in Hawaiian.. The outcome: On June 3, 1985, unmarked police cars from various agencies Forsyth County deputies, Greensboro Police, SBI agents and Kentucky State Police followed Fritz Klenner to Susies Greensboro apartment. Prosecutors said that while Raymond Reid was in the hospital suffering from what would later be identified as arsenic poisoning, Moore was bringing him food laced with more arsenic. Several weeks later, he was at North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill. Serial killer Henry Louis Wallace killing spree began in 1990 with the murder of Tashonda Bethea in his hometown of Barnwell, South Carolina. For decades, the Jeffrey MacDonald case was North Carolinas most famous crime, but the notoriety surrounding the mysterious death of Durhams Kathleen Peterson and the murder trial of her husband, Michael Peterson, may have changed that. Upchurch will be eligible for parole in 2022. FCI Butner, just north of Durham, is comprised of medium and low security camps as well as a federal medical center, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Prosecutor Janet Branch ripped into Blanche Moore time and again, making dramatic and emotionally wrought statements to the jury. ", When Reid's body was exhumed from Pine Hill Cemetery in Burlington, an autopsy performed in Chapel Hill revealed "clearly recognizable" Mees lines across the fingernails of both hands, and the toxicology report showed arsenic in Reid's liver "30 times higher than one might see in an average individual.". Investigation Discovery shows are usually available to stream on discovery+. I have no doubt that I was poisoned," the Rev. In 1985, U.S. Army soldier Timothy Hennis quickly became a suspect in the murder of a Fayetteville woman and two of her young daughters. 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