Lowell Lee Andrews

Lowell Lee Andrews (born September 21, 1940 in Wolcott , Wyandotte County , Kansas , † November 30, 1962 in Lansing , Leavenworth County , Kansas) was an American student at the University of Kansas , who on November 28, 1958 his parents and murdered his sister. He was executed for this crime in 1962. He, his deed and his execution became known through the description in Truman Capote's factual novel in cold blood .

Background and deed

Andrews studied zoology and played bassoon in the college band. He was described in a newspaper in his hometown as "The Nicest Boy in Wolcott" (Eng. "The nicest boy in Wolcott"). In reality, the 18-year-old at the time of the crime had fantasies of how he could poison his family and go to Chicago after the murder to work as a gangster and professional killer.

Andrews gave up the idea of ​​poisoning because he feared that the autopsy of the corpses would prove it and discover it. He and his sister Jennie Marie, also a student, visited their parents, William L. and Opal Andrews , for Thanksgiving in 1958. Lowell Lee Andrews finished reading the Karamazov brothers on the first floor on the night of the murder , then dressed and went downstairs, where his family watched TV. He turned on the light and opened fire with a .22 caliber rifle. He shot Jennie Marie in the forehead, she was killed instantly. William, his father, was initially hit by two, Opal, his mother by three shots. The woman tried to escape, but Lowell Andrews fired three more shots at her. The shooter put the rifle down and fired a total of 17 projectiles with his revolver at his father, who was crawling on the ground.

After the fact, Lowell Andrews rigged the crime scene. He opened the window and ravaged the rooms to portray the triple murder as a robbery. The young man left the house and drove to Lawrence , his place of study, to his apartment to get an alibi. On the way he stopped on a bridge, dismantled the two weapons and threw the individual parts into the Kansas River . He told his landlady that he had come to get his typewriter and told her that the trip had taken him considerably longer than usual because of the bad weather. Then Andrews went to the cinema and saw the musical film Mardi Gras with Pat Boone in the lead role.

Eventually he returned to his parents' house and informed the police about the alleged robbery. Upon arrival, officers were puzzled by Lowell Andrew's calm, serene demeanor. It was only during interrogation that he confessed to the murder of his family.

Sentencing and execution

In his trial, Lowell Lee Andrews pleaded innocent of insanity at the time of the crime. An investigation by Dr. Joseph Satten at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka had led to the diagnosis that Andrews was schizophrenic but that he was responsible for his actions.

He was declared sane and sentenced to death . Despite the appeal, the verdict remained upright. He was on 30 November 1962 at the age of 22 by the strand executed. No last words have come down to us from him.

Andrews spent his time on death row in Lansing alongside Dick Hickock and Perry Smith , who were sentenced to death for the murder of the Clutter family in 1959 and executed in 1965.

Lowell Lee Andrews was buried in close proximity to his three victims.

literature

• Truman Capote : Cold-blooded. Truthful account of a multiple murder and its aftermath. Translation: Kurt Heinrich Hansen. Augsburg: Weltbild 2005, pp. 320-325

Individual evidence

1. ↑ So the information on the tombstone, which is shown on Findagrave.com .
2. ^ Mike Belt, A Crime for All Time , Nov. 28, 2005
3. ↑ Newspaper report on the conditions at the crime scene
4. ↑ NYDailyNews.com  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ There are different details about the place of burial; the cemetery is apparently either assigned to Jacksonville in Randolph County , Missouri - as in this post on Findagrave.com - or as Mount Salem Cemetery in Excello in Macon County , Missouri, as can be read here .