To get sentenced to death row in the United States, someone usually must commit some particularly disturbing crimes. But even among the almost 3,000 condemned inmates in this country on death row, there is a subset of horrifying criminals who have gone way beyond what is considered typical criminal behavior.
Charles Manson, Richard ("The Night Stalker") Ramirez, and John Wayne Gacy are all well-known to most Americans. However, there are many horrifying death row inmates who, after the initial local attention paid to their crimes died down, remain unknown to most Americans. Here are some creepy death row inhabitants that are currently well under the radar.
12 Terrifying Criminals on Death Row You've Never Even Heard Of,
Joseph Edward Duncan III, a Child Killer Who Videotaped His Crimes
Joseph Duncan is a convicted murderer and sex offender who began committing violent sexual assaults on other children as a teenager. He confessed to a juvenile facility therapist that he had raped 13 younger boys by age 16. In 1980, Duncan was sentenced to 20 years in Washington State for the violent sexual assault of a 14-year-old boy. Though paroled in 1994, he was sent back to prison after violating his parole in 1997. While free, it was subsequently determined that he killed at least three other children after sexually assaulting them. He was released in 2000 and moved to the Midwest, but arrested again for child molestation in 2004.
Bailed out of jail by a long-time acquaintance and lover, Duncan fled to the Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, area where, on May 16, 2005, he stormed the remote house of Brenda Groene. He subdued all of the home's occupants and bludgeoned Brenda, her boyfriend, and her 13-year-old son, Slade, to death. He kidnapped her other children (Dylan, 9, and Shasta, 8) who were the true object of his home invasion.
Duncan drove the children in a stolen rental car deep into the Lolo National Forest in remote western Montana. There, he repeatedly molested both victims, filming himself on a camcorder. He focused his abuse on Dylan, tormenting and raping him in a such fashion that it elicited sobs from jury members who had to watch the videos during trial. The court offered therapy and counseling for the jurors after witnessing behavior that would haunt them for the rest of their lives.
Duncan finally shot and killed nine-year-old Dylan. He was arrested seven weeks after the initial murders when he and Shasta, the subject of an AMBER alert, were spotted in a Coeur D'Alene Denny's. Although state charges resulted in numerous life sentences, Duncan's transportation of a minor over state lines into Montana for the purposes of sexual exploitation and murder qualified him for a federal charge and a possible death sentence. Duncan pleaded guilty to everything: it was in the penalty phase of this legal proceeding that jurors were shown video of Duncan's behavior. They sentenced him to death after less than three hours of deliberation.
He is currently housed in the federal death row facility in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Shasta still lives in Southern Idaho.
Wesley Shermantine, a Lethal Member of a Serial Killing Duo
Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog grew up as childhood friends and are thought to have begun murdering victims together while they were still teenagers. However, it was not until 1999, when 25-year-old Cyndi Vanderheiden disappeared from a bar in the San Joaquin Valley region of California, that Shemantine and Herzog received any official scrutiny.
Vanderheiden's DNA was found in bloodstains in Shermantine's car, and the pair was arrested in March of 1999. Herzog confessed to four murders and was convicted and sent to prison for 78 years. In a separate trial, Shermantine was convicted of three murders and received the death penalty. However, an appeals court threw out Herzog's conviction, based on coerced confessions, and a controversial plea deal allowed him to serve a total of 11 years in prison, even though he admitted to being complicit in the murders of four people.
When he was paroled in 2010, not a single California county would accept him into their jurisdiction. He wound up in a trailer on the grounds of a California state prison. Shermantine became angry that he was looking at execution while Herzog was out of prison. He began writing letters to law enforcement officials implicating himself and Herzog in many more murders dating all the way back to 1985, in clear effort to place Herzog back in jeopardy. In 2012, Herzog hanged himself in his trailer.
By the time the FBI got through with Shermantine's new information, the pair's body count was up to 19 victims. Wesley Shermantine still faces a death sentence and is on death row at San Quentin.
George Emil Banks, Who Murdered His Girlfriends and Children to "Save" Them
In 1982, George Emil Banks was an ex-convict and Pennsylvania prison guard who told co-workers of an impending race war that would destroy the world. He was placed on leave and subjected to a mental health evaluation. On September 25, after an evening of heavy alcohol and prescription drug consumption, Banks used an assault rifle to kill eight people in his own home, including three women who were the mothers of his children, and five children, four of them his. He then went to another girlfriend's trailer and killed her, his son by her, his girlfriend's mother, and his girlfriend's niece. Leaving the trailer, he shot and killed a neighbor and seriously wounded another individual. After a standoff, Banks surrendered.
He was charged with 13 murders and one attempted murder. His said he did not want his children and his girlfriends, all white, to be victimized in the coming race war. Banks incoherently testified at his own trial and claimed that the police killed his victims during the spree - he had only wounded them. This despite the fact that he shot at least some of his children in the head at point-blank range.
Despite his attorney's insanity defense, Banks was convicted. He avoided two separate execution dates through federal appeals concerning his sanity and was ultimately declared not mentally competent for execution in 2010. However, despite his age, Banks is still considered dangerous enough to be housed in Pennsylvania's death penalty unit.
Blanche Moore, the Black Widow
Blanche Taylor Moore was a former prostitute who married a North Carolina laborer in 1952. Twelve years later, her husband died, supposedly of a heart attack. In 1985, she began dating another man who also abruptly died, allegedly from natural causes. In 1989, Moore married a minister, Reverend Dwight Moore, who quickly had to be hospitalized with symptoms that baffled his doctors. When they got the results of a toxicology screen, they found the minister to have 20 times the expected level of arsenic in his system.
North Carolina state police investigated Blanche Moore and determined that high levels of arsenic existed in the exhumed bodies of her father, first husband, and boyfriend. She was put on trial for the death of this longtime boyfriend, Raymond Reid, because the state considered this homicide the easiest to prove. She denied ever giving him food while he was hospitalized, but 53 different people testified that she fed him in the hospital every day, supplying the fatal dose of arsenic that killed him.
Moore was the executor of Reid's estate; she had also tried to get Reverend Moore to make her the beneficiary of his pension in the event of his death. She was convicted of Reid's death and received the death penalty in 1991. Subsequently, she was suspected of killing her in-laws during her first marriage, but North Carolina declined to prosecute her.
She has claimed her innocence throughout her prosecution and incarceration and is currently appealing her conviction. At 83, this black widow is the oldest female on North Carolina's death row.
Scott Louis Panetti, a Possibly Deranged Killer Who Tried to Subpoena Christ and the Pope
On September 8, 1992, Scott Panetti shaved his head, donned military garb, and drove to his in-laws' South Texas home where his estranged wife lived with their baby daughter. He broke into the house and shot his father and mother-in-law to death in front of his spouse and child. He took the woman and baby hostage, but ultimately released them.
Panetti's wife had left him over alcoholism and abuse that occurred throughout the 1980s, as well as other strange behavior. For example, he buried his home's furniture because "the devil was in it," and he bound the window shades so that neighbors couldn't film him. Panetti had an extensive history of psychiatric hospitalization and medication, but eventually he refused all treatment and insisted on representing himself.
In the Bell County, TX, courtroom where he was prosecuted, he dressed in flamboyant purple cowboy pants and cowboy shirts, bandannas, and a large cowboy hat. Offering long, rambling incoherent legal arguments, he attempted to subpoena everyone from Anne Bancroft to the Pope. Ultimately, he was sentenced to death on September 22, 1995.
Needless to say, litigation over Panetti's competence to represent himself and his competency to be executed have pinballed throughout the court system. As late as 2008, a federal judge ruled that Panetti is competent and that despite his deep neurosis, he is exaggerating his mental illness. He came within 12 hours of execution in 2014 but received a stay over competency issues.
He remains on death row in the Polunsky Unit, Livingston, TX, as litigation continues.
John Edward Robinson, the Slavemaster
John Robinson has a lengthy record of criminal behavior dating back to an embezzlement conviction in 1969 for stealing from a doctor while employed fraudulently as an experienced X-ray technician. Throughout the '70s, he continued to engage in white collar crime in Kansas City while also attempting to create the image of a solid community and family-oriented person by becoming a scoutmaster and involving himself in organized charity. Despite numerous prosecutions, he was usually given brief sentences or probation, and his swindles involving shell corporations became even more sophisticated.
In the early '80s, Robinson also became interested in more deviant behaviors, involving himself in sado-masochism cults and the sexual torture of others. In 1984, he hired a 19-year-old girl, supposedly as a sales rep, who told her family that she would be sent out of town by Robinson for training. She disappeared without a trace, and Robinson told police he knew nothing about her whereabouts. Her parents received a typewritten, signed letter stating that she was fine but did not want to see her family. The investigation was dropped.
In 1985, Robinson befriended homeless Lisa Stasi in a charity scam, promising her a job and child care for her four-month-old daughter. Within weeks, he told his brother and his wife that he knew of a child they could adopt without a lot of red tape because her mother had "committed suicide." Lisa Stasi's daughter, Tiffany, was shipped to Robinson's brother with some official-looking adoption documents for a fee of $5,500.
Robinson employed and disappeared another woman in 1987, shortly before being sent back to prison for six years on fraud charges and parole violations. While in jail, he conned the prison librarian, Beverly Bonner, who moved to Kansas to work for him upon his release. Once Robinson got her mother to start sending the woman's alimony checks to a post office box, Bonner disappeared, but the checks were still cashed.
By the early 1990s, Robinson had discovered the Internet, participating in sado-masochism chat rooms using the handle "The Slavemaster." He lured several women into his orbit, and they all subsequently disappeared, including a 21-year-old Polish immigrant who signed a 115-item slave contract that gave Robinson complete control of both her and her finances.
In June of 2000, Robinson was charged with sexual battery and theft. Police got search warrants for his farm, where they discovered two bodies inside metal drums. A search of several storage facilities rented by Robinson turned up three more bodies in Missouri - all of these victims died by blunt force trauma to the head. In 2002, Robinson was convicted and sentenced to death in Kansas; a complex plea deal in Missouri got him five life sentences. Officially, he is tied to eight deaths; unofficially, law enforcement believes he has murdered many other victims.
Robinson awaits execution in Kansas and may be the first person executed since that state's reinstatement of the death penalty in 1994.
John Famalaro, the Ice Box Killer
On June 2, 1991, 23-year-old Denise Huber attended a Morrissey concert in Los Angeles. She was last seen by friends when she left a Long Beach bar in the early morning, intent on driving to her parents' home, where she also lived. The next morning, her parents discovered that she had not come home and they notified police. A friend found Denise's disabled car on a nearby Orange County freeway, the battery drained by emergency flashers that were activated the night before. For three years, police and her parents had no idea what happened to Denise.
On July 13, 1994, a couple went to a residence in Prescott, AZ, to purchase paint from an man named John Famalaro whom they'd met at a swap meet. While picking up the paint, they noticed a Ryder rental truck parked in the rear of the driveway that clearly had been there for some time. They took down the license plate number and passed it along to a friend who worked for the local sheriff's department. The plate came back as stolen from Orange County, CA.
When a deputy knocked on Famalaro's front door and got no answer, he also noticed an electrical cord running from an outdoor socket into the truck. Thinking that he had stumbled on a mobile drug lab, the deputy got a locksmith to open the back of the truck, inside of which he discovered a large freezer. When he lifted the lid, he found, inside, the frozen body of a young female adult, naked, handcuffed, and wrapped in garbage bags. It turned out to be Denise Huber.
A further search in Famalaro's house found a box with high heels, Denise's driver's license, purse, key chain, and even the dress and underwear she was wearing the night she disappeared. Famalaro was arrested when he returned to his home.
Famalaro had passed Denise as she walked from her car, offered her a ride, knocked her unconscious, and then took her to his deserted warehouse business location where he killed her. Denise's skull was so battered, it had to be reconstructed by three forensic anthropologists, who also determined that she had been raped. This qualified Famalaro for the death penalty. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1997.
Jurors were deeply impacted by a video cassette recording of a news program, found in a bookcase in Famalaro's home, of Denise's parents begging for information about the whereabouts of their daughter.
John Famalaro currently resides on death row at San Quentin, CA.
Richard Farley, the Stalker Who Wouldn't Take No for an Answer
From the moment that Richard Farley met his co-worker Laura Black, an attractive 22-year-old brunette, in 1984, he became immediately obsessed with her. They both worked for a large Silicon Valley software development company. Farley began to pester her for dates; she politely refused. He started to leave gifts, letters, and cookies in her office and started showing up at her aerobics class. He tricked HR into giving him Black's home phone and address, and he befriended the janitors so that he could copy keys to her office and desk. When he discovered she would be visiting her parents in across the country on vacation, Farley obtained that address and sent letters to her there.
On the numerous times that he would "coincidentally" bump into Black, he would again ask to see her socially. She would always politely but firmly refuse. He called her at home at all hours and continued to send her letters telling her that he loved her. When he left messages asking for a date and receive no answer, he would take that as an affirmative and show up at her front door. Laura Black moved homes, only to have Farley immediately discover her new address and begin the pattern again. Farley dated others, lived with another woman, and even got engaged during this process, but the stalking continued.
It is believed that he spent hours with a garage door opener trying various codes until he discovered the correct combination to Laura's garage. When it was clear that Laura would not submit, he became more menacing, taping the key to her home to her car windshield to let her know he had the means to enter at any time. After Laura finally went to HR, they first demanded that Farley seek psychiatric help and then terminated him from staff. He still stalked her until she got a temporary restraining order.
On February 16, 1988, facing foreclosure, on the day before a hearing to make the order permanent, Farley loaded up a rented motor home with 100 pounds of weaponry, drove the vehicle onto his ex-firm's property, and entered the building, indiscriminately killing anyone he encountered with a 12-gauge shot gun. When he got to Laura Black's office, she slammed the door in his face. He blew it off its hinges and fired twice, hitting her once in the neck and shoulder in a manner that looked fatal. Moving on, he left her behind, and she managed to escape into the parking lot. Seven less fortunate fellow employees died on the scene.
A standoff ensued, ending only when Farley complained that he was hungry. Police offered him a sandwich on the condition that he surrender. The utterly remorseless Farley went on trial for seven murders and four attempted murders of those injured in the rampage. He was convicted and sentenced to death on January 17, 1992.
He is still on death row at San Quentin, California.
Skylar Deleon, a Ruthless Murderer and Thief
In November of 2004, Tom and Jackie Hawks were spending their retirement cruising the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean in their 55-foot cabin cruiser. After the birth of their first grandchild, they decided to permanently relocate near their family in Prescott, AZ. To begin this transition, they docked their boat at Newport Beach, CA, and placed an advertisement in a local boating magazine offering the vessel for sale at a cost of $440,000.
The ad was answered by 24-year-old Skylar Deleon, who falsely claimed to be a former child actor-turned-real estate investor. The Hawks were skeptical that such a young person would have the assets to buy their boat, but when Deleon returned for a second meeting and brought along his pregnant wife and infant daughter, they reasoned that his intentions were at least sincere.
The couple agreed to a test run to Catalina Island off the Southern California coast with Deleon, along with his "accountant" and his "business partner" on the evening of the November 15. Offshore, the accountant complained of seasickness and went below, and Tom Hawks went with him to ensure his well-being.
The accountant was actually John Kennedy, a powerfully built enforcer for a Long Beach street gang who sucker punched Hawks and subdued him with a stun gun. Deleon and his third accomplice, Alonso Machain, stun gunned Jackie Hawks, and within minutes, the couple were handcuffed, blindfolded, and gagged. They were separated and told that if they signed documents of sale of the cabin cruiser, their lives would be spared.
After they signed, Deleon and Kennedy bound them together and secured a 60-foot anchor to their feet. The couple were then dragged to the stern of the boat, and Deleon blithely tossed the anchor into the water, dragging the couple overboard into the darkness of the Pacific Ocean.
Deleon got a notary to criminally backdate the "sale" and denied any knowledge of the whereabouts of the Hawks. However, when confronted by police, the plot soon unraveled. Alonso Machain quickly cut a deal and gave specific information implicating Deleon, his wife, and John Kennedy. All three were convicted of first-degree murder in separate trials: Deleon and Kennedy were sentenced to death, and the now-divorced Jennifer (Deleon) Henderson got life without parole, avoiding the death row fate of her ex-husband and Kennedy.
Andre Thomas, the Murderer Who Blinded Himself
In 2005, in rural northeastern Texas, Andre Thomas was convicted of the murder of his estranged wife and two young children and was sentenced to death. Killing his victims with separate knives, he claimed he did not want to contaminate their blood and "allow the demons inside of them to live." While his behavior was horrific and bizarre, what distinguishes Thomas is what he did next.
Five days after being taken into custody, he removed one of his own eyes. Despite this self-mutilation, he was ruled to be sane enough to stand trial, the act considered the result of substance abuse, not mental illness. He was convicted and sentenced to death on November 3, 2005. Three years later, in 2008, after failing to commit suicide, he removed his other eye, inducing total blindness. He also ate his second eye after removing it. His appeals currently ride on the concept of Thomas's mental fitness to be executed.
Technically, he is not on death row - he has been relocated to the criminal psychiatric ward of the Texas prison system - but he still faces a death sentence which is being appealed.