Kenneth McDuff

Kenneth Allen McDuff (born March 21, 1946 in Paris , Texas , † November 17, 1998 in Huntsville , Texas) was an American serial killer who went down in criminal history as a broomstick killer . McDuff murdered three teenagers in 1966 and was sentenced to death, but was released early in 1989 due to prison reform and bribery. By May 1992, he murdered at least six other people, was sentenced to death again, and ultimately executed.

Youth and triple murder

McDuff was born to John and Addi McDuff and grew up in Rosebud , ( Falls County ), Texas. Even as a child and adolescent, he was feared in the neighborhood as a thug and petty criminal, who also handled his parents' weapons and used them to shoot live animals.

McDuff was found guilty of 12 counts of robbery and theft on January 22, 1965, and sentenced to four years 'imprisonment for each of the offenses, which would have been a total of 48 years' imprisonment. However, since the judge ordered that these sentences be served at the same time, he would only have had to serve four years in prison, but was released on parole on December 27 of the same year.

On August 6, 1966, he drove to Fort Worth with his friend Roy Green to visit a mutual acquaintance. After that, it was late in the evening, for some unknown reason, McDuff stopped near a car in Tarrant County . In this vehicle were 17-year-old Robert Brand, his 16-year-old girlfriend Edna Sullivan and Brand's 15-year-old cousin Marcus Dunman, who had recently attended a performance in a drive-in theater. McDuff stepped out of his car and forced the three occupants at gunpoint into the trunk of their own car. Then he drove the car and the three people in the trunk to a remote field, while Green followed him in his vehicle. Once there, McDuff forced young Edna Sullivan to get into his car and killed the two young men while they were still in the trunk with six shots. They then drove to another remote location, where they raped Sullivan several times, and McDuff eventually suffocated her with a broomstick. They threw the body into nearby bushes and drove home.

After two days, however, Green voluntarily surrendered to the police and made a full confession, after which McDuff was arrested. November 15, 1966 McDuff was for triple murder to death by electric chair convicted and the death row of the Ellis Unit transferred. His executions in the Huntsville Unit were called off at the last minute twice before the death penalty was declared unconstitutional in the United States in 1972 and all death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment .

Release and new murders

Due to massive overcrowding in Texas prisons, Governor Bill Clements ordered the release of 750 prisoners a week. Only "low risk" prisoners, ie people who represent a low security risk, should be released. The wave of layoffs was later extended to former death row inmates and murderers, e.g. B. due to their age or state of health no longer pose a threat to public safety. Addi McDuff took this opportunity to get her son out of jail and bribed a member of the parole board with $ 25,000, after which McDuff was paroled on October 11, 1989. From then on he worked at a gas station and attended the Texas State Technical College in Waco .

Only three days after his release in Temple , the naked body of the murdered prostitute Sarafia Parker was found in a field .

He was arrested again for threatening death against a youth, but was released on December 18, 1990.

On October 10, 1991, he kidnapped the prostitute Brenda Thompson in Waco. She was last seen alive at a police traffic control post when she was handcuffed and tried to escape from McDuff's truck. Although officers immediately followed up, McDuff escaped in the dark in a wooded area. The body of the murdered Brenda Thompson was only found on October 3, 1998, about nine miles from Waco.

On the evening of October 15, 1991, prostitute Regenia Moore was seen getting into a McDuff vehicle in Waco. She was found murdered on September 30, 1993 on a river near Waco.

On December 29, 1991, he and an accomplice kidnapped Colleen Reed from a car wash in Austin . Her body was found on the banks of the Brazos River near Marlin .

Valencia Joshua was last seen alive with McDuff on February 24, 1992. Her body was found near the State Technical College in Waco on March 15 .

On March 1, 1992, he abducted pregnant Melissa Northrup from her Waco job. Her body was found by an angler on April 26, 1992.

Sentencing and execution

After the first woman's corpses were found, the investigators immediately targeted McDuff. Since some of the women who were now reported missing or found dead were last seen with McDuff and his accomplice in the murder of Colleen Reed testified against him, an arrest warrant was issued against him, but he escaped by escaping. On May 4, 1992, McDuff was arrested in Kansas City , where he had worked as a garbage collector under a new name. His picture had been broadcast on America's Most Wanted TV, whereupon a passerby recognized him.

On February 18, 1993, he was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of Melissa Northrup. On March 2, 1994, he was also convicted of the rape and murder of Colleen Reed. His death sentence was upheld by an appeals court on April 28, 1998. After several unsuccessful clemency requests he was finally in on 17 November 1998 Huntsville Unit with the lethal injection executed . His last words: “I'm ready to be released. Release me "(Eng .:" I am ready to be released. Release me ").

Since there was no relative or acquaintance who wanted to take over the body, he was buried in the prison's "Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery" of the Huntsville Unit.

Trivia

McDuff is one of the most famous criminals in the state of Texas. He is the only person in Texan history to be sentenced to death, released, sentenced to death again for another crime, and ultimately executed. What is also unique is that he was sentenced to two different types of execution (electric chair, lethal injection).

The unusual murder of one of his victims with a broomstick earned him the name Broomstick-Killer. Even more unusual, however, was the fact that McDuff was paroled again after 23 years, despite a particularly brutal triple homicide. Prison reform that released more than 60,000 prisoners and bribed a parole board official made this possible. After McDuff's re-imprisonment in 1992, new laws were passed to ensure stricter scrutiny of releases and increased surveillance of released prisoners by probation officers. These laws are colloquially known in Texas as the "McDuff Laws".

How many people McDuff actually murdered is uncertain. Nine murders are considered certain, five of which he was convicted of. The investigators assume, however, that at least 14 murder cases should go to his account. McDuff himself never commented on other crimes.

Web links

• Kenneth McDuff biography according to Radford University
• Kenneth McDuff at Find a Grave
• McDuff likely to take grisly secrets to grave at Associated Press
• McDuff on Execution of the Day