SC has executed 43 convicted murderers since 1985. Here’s who they are and who they killed

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SC has ********* 43 convicted murderers since 1985. Here’s who they are and who they *******

South Carolina’s first ********** after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the ****** penalty in 1976 was Joseph Carl Shaw, a former altar boy from Kentucky who enlisted in the Army and was stationed at Fort Jackson.

He ****** and murdered two women, Betty Swank and Carlotta Hartness in Richland County, and ordered an accomplice, James Terry ****** to ***** Hartness’ boyfriend in 1977.

The ********** was carried out at Central Correctional Institution by electric chair in 1985. ****** was the second to be ********* in 1986.

Since then, 41 men have been *********, 36 through lethal injection. Seven in the electric chair. In all, 25 were white, 25 ****** and one Native *********. ******, at 25, was the youngest.

Donald Henry “PeeWee” Gaskins was the oldest at 58 when he was ********* in 1991. Gaskins, known as the meanest man in America, was one of the South’s most prolific serial killers, including the ******* of his niece, a cannibal and ******* who escaped the ****** penalty once but was sentenced to **** later after ******** a fellow ****** Row inmate.

Here is a list of the other murderers who have been *********. The list was compiled using information from

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and news stories from the time of each **********.

Ronald Rusty Woomer, 35, ********* on April 27, 1990, murdered Della Louis Sellers after kidnapping her from a Pawleys Island convenience store in 1979. He was convicted of ******** and ******* Sellers but also accused of ******** John Turner, 67; Arnie Richardson, 27; and Earldean Wright, 35; and maimed the woman working with Sellers.

Sylvester Lewis Adams, 39, ********* on Aug. 18, 1995, strangled his 16-year old neighbor in 1979 after trying to rob him. Adams was the first to **** by lethal injection in South Carolina.

Robert South, 51, ********* on May 31, 1996, ******* West Columbia police Officer Daniel Cogburn in a drive by ********* in 1983. Cogburn had been on the job for four days.

Fred H. Kornahrens III, 47, ********* on July 19, 1996, ******* his ex-wife, Patti Jo Kornahrens; her stepson Jason Avant, and her father Harry Wilkerson in 1985 in Charleston County.

Michael Rian Torrence, 35, ********* on Sept. 6, 1996, murdered Dennis Lollis, Charles Bush, and Cynthia Williams in 1987 in Lexington County. He used various forms of strangulation, including a dog chain, stabbed and shot his victims.

Larry Gene Bell, 46, ********* on Oct. 4, 1996, ******* 17-year-old Sharon “Shari” Faye Smith and taunted her parents in phone calls and 9-year-old Debra May Helmick in Lexington County. Bell called Helmick’s parents to say where her body was. Both were believed to have been suffocated with duct tape.

Doyle Cecil Lucas, 41, ********* Nov. 15, 1996, robbed and ******* Bill Rayfield 65, and Mr. Rayfield’s 64-year-old wife, Evelyn, at their Rock Hill home in 1983.

Frank Middleton Jr., 33, ********* Nov. 22, 1996, escaped from prison work crew and ****** and murdered Shirley Mae Mack, a 49-year-old night-shift cook in 1984 and ******* another woman, Janell Garner, in Charleston County.

Michael Eugene Elkins, 41, ********* June 13, 1997, convicted of robbing and ******** Patricia Whitt, 59, of Largo, Florida, on July 9, 1990, after she stopped to help him along Interstate 95 near the Georgia border.

Earl Matthews Jr., 32, ********* Nov. 7, 1997, murdered 16-year-old Lucia Aimar during a botched robbery attempt in 1984 in Charleston County.

John David Arnold Jr., 43, ********* March 6, 1998, strangled Betty Gardner with a garden hose in Beaufort County in 1978. Arnold, who was white, carved **** into the body of Gardner who was ******.

John Herman Plath, 43, ********* July 10, 1998, an accomplice to John David Arnold in the strangulation of Betty Gardner.

Sammy Roberts, 40, ********* Sept. 25, 1998, robbed and murdered Bill Spain, Kenneth Krause, and Louis Cakley in Berkeley County in 1980.

Larry Gilbert, 43, and co-conspirator J.D. Gleaton, 53, were both ********* on Dec. 4, 1998, murdering gas station owner Ralph Stoudemire in Lexington County.

Louis Joe Truesdale Jr., 40, ********* Dec. 11, 1980, ******* 18-year-old Rebecca Ann Eudy after abducting her from a grocery store parking lot in Lancaster County.

Andrew Lavern Smith, 38, ********* Dec. 18, 1998, repeatedly stabbed husband and wife Christy Johnson, 86, and Corrie Johnson, 82, in Anderson County, where he rented a house from them. They were Smith’s cousins.

Ronnie Howard, 40, ********* Jan. 8, 1999, suffocated Chinh Thi Nguyen Le, a 34-year-old Vietnamese ******** and mother of three, and stole her car in Greenville County. He was on parole for bank robbery when the ******* took place.

Joseph Ernest Atkins, 51, ********* Jan. 22, 1999, murdered his father Benjamin Atkins, 75, and a 13-year-old neighbor girl, Karen Patterson, five years after being paroled for murdering his brother in North Charleston.

Leroy Joseph Drayton, 44, ********* Nov. 12, 1999, murdered 19-year-old Charleston County gas station clerk Rhonda Darlene Smith.

David Rocheville, 31, ********* Dec. 3, 1999, murdered movie theater workers Alex Hopps and James Todd Green in Spartanburg County in 1991.

Kevin Dean Young, 32, ********* Nov. 3, 2000, robbed and shot 35-year-old Dennis Ray Hepler, an elementary school principal in Anderson County on Aug. 31, 1988.

Richard Charles Johnson, 39, ********* May 3, 2002, shot state Highway Patrol Trooper Bruce Smalls during a 1985 traffic stop on I-95 in Jasper County and Daniel Swanson, who picked him up hitchhiking.

Anthony Green, 37, ********* Aug. 23, 2002, shot Susan Babich as she returned to her car after she shopped at Charles Towne Square Shopping Mall in Charleston in 1987. He then stole her pocketbook.

Michael Joseph Passaro, 40, ********* Sept. 13, 2002, doused the inside of his car with gasoline and set it on ***** with 2-year-old daughter, Maggie, strapped in her car seat outside his wife’s condo in Horry County.

David Clayton Hill, 39, ********* March 19, 2004, shot Georgetown Police Officer Spencer Guerry during a traffic stop.

Jerry Bridwell McWee, 51, ********* April 16, 2004, shot John Perry, an Aiken County convenience store employee, during a robbery. McWee got $350. Jason Scott Byram, 38, ********* April 23, 2004, broke in and stabbed special education teacher Julie Johnson in her Columbia home as her husband and children slept upstairs.

James Neil Tucker, 47, ********* May 28, 2004, ******* Rosa Lee Dolly Oakley and Shannon Mellon looking for money.

Richard Longworth, 36, co-conspirator to David Rocheville, ********* April 15, 2005 in the deaths of movie theater employees Alex Hopps and James Todd Green.

Hastings Arthur Wise, 51, ********* Nov. 4, 2005, ******* former coworkers David Moore, 30; Esther Sheryl Wood, 27; Charles Griffith, 50; and Ernest L. Filyaw, 31 at Aiken Lawn Mower Ignition Plant in 1997.

Shawn Paul Humphries, 33, ********* Dec. 2, 2005, shot Dickie Smith at Max-Saver convenience store in Greenville County.

William Ernest Downs Jr., 39, ********* July 14, 2006, strangled 6-year-old Keenan O’Mailia, who was riding his bicycle near Downs’ Aiken home. Calvin Alphonso Shuler, 40, ********* June 22, 2007, shot armored car driver James Brooks in 1997 in Dorchester County.

David Mark Hill, 48, ********* June 6, 2008, shot his family’s case worker and two other employees after losing custody of his children at the Aiken County Department of Social Services office in North Augusta. ******* were James Riddle, Josie Curry, and Michael Gregory.

James Earl Reed, 49, ********* June 20, 2008, shot his ex-girlfriend’s parents, Barbara Lafayette and Joseph Lafayette in Charleston County.

Joseph Martin Luther Gardner, 38, ********* Dec. 5, 2008, tortured and shot 25-year-old Melissa McLauchlin, a stranger picked up as she walked on a Dorchester County road.

Luke A. Williams, 56, ********* Feb. 20, 2009, beat, strangled and set on ***** his wife Linda Williams and 12-year-old son Shaun Williams in 1991 in Edgefield County to collect insurance money.

Thomas Treshawn Ivey, 34, ********* May 8, 2009, after escaping an Alabama jail, Ivey stole a truck and drove to Columbia where he and an accomplice kidnapped businessman Robert Montgomery. Ivey shot Montgomery in the head and chest, leaving his body to be discovered by hunters. Then two days later, in Orangeburg, Ivey shot Orangeburg Police Sergeant Tommy Harrison five times.

Jeffrey Brian Motts, 36, ********* May 6, 2011, strangled his Perry Correctional Institution cellmate Charles “Chuck” Martin in 2005. Motts was serving a life sentence for a 1995 double ******* of 79-year-old Clyde Camby and his 73-year-old great-aunt Etta Osteen.

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#********* #convicted #murderers #Heres #*******

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