Evil Eyes (24 page)

The following is a list of some of the more notorious African American serial killers and the atrocities that they have committed:

• Carlton Gary, the “Stocking Strangler,” was convicted of three strangulation murders of wealthy white elderly women in Columbus, Georgia, from 1977 to 1978. Gary was suspected of killing at least seven women. He would strangle his victims with a pair of their own panty hose.
  

• Alton Coleman and Debra Brown, this spree-killing couple, committed at least eight murders, seven rapes, three kidnappings, and fourteen armed robberies across the states of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio during the early 1980s. Coleman had accumulated death sentences in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Coleman was executed on April 26, 2002. Of the thirty-five hundred people on death row at the time, Coleman was the only
  

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  person with death sentences in three states. Brown was also sentenced to death, but her sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1991.
  

• Kendall Francois, the six-foot-four-inch, three-hundred-pound, twenty-seven-year-old middle-school hall monitor, was discovered to have buried eight dead women underneath his home in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1998. Nicknamed “Stinky,” Francois killed prostitutes because “they did not give him all the sex he paid for.”
  

• Vaughn Greenwood, aka the “Skid Row Slasher,” was alleged to have killed at least eleven homeless men on the streets of Los Angeles’s Skid Row. Greenwood would stab the men repeatedly and slit their throats. Sometimes he would take off the victims’ shoes and point them toward the victims. He also, inexplicably, poured salt around the bodies. Greenwood received a life-in-prison sentence after he attempted to decapitate a man near the Hollywood home of actor Burt Reynolds.
  

• Derrick Todd Lee, aka the “Baton Rouge Killer,” was responsible for the deaths of at least seven women in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, from 1998 to 2003. Lee received the death penalty in 2004.
  

• John Allen Muhammad, forty-one, and John Lee Malvo, seventeen, aka the “Beltway Snipers,” killed nine innocent bystanders during a three-week killing spree in and around Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC, during October 2002. Profilers incorrectly assumed that the killers were white males and loudly promulgated the information to the media for several days.
  

• Gerald Parker, aka the “Bedroom Basher,” terrorized women of Orange County, California,
  

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from 1978 to 1979. Parker would sneak into young women’s homes and bash them over the head with a mallet or some other piece of wood. According to Corey Mitchell’s
Hollywood Death Scenes
, Parker went undetected for seventeen years until DNA samples from a separate rape were used to match his semen to the victims from Orange County.

• Brandon Tholmer, a twenty-nine-year-old struggling musician from East Hollywood/Silverlake, California, stalked and murdered elderly women during the early 1980s. According to Corey Mitchell’s
  Hollywood Death Scenes
  , Tholmer was suspected in as many as thirty-four murders, but only charged with five. He was prosecuted by a young Los Angeles County district attorney by the name of Lance Ito, who later presided over the O. J. Simpson murder trial.
  

• Wayne Williams, aka the “Atlanta Child Murderer,” is possibly the most well-known African American serial killer. Williams was suspected of killing twenty-three of thirty young black boys in and around Atlanta, Georgia, from 1979 to 1981. Williams, however, was never convicted of murder-ing any children, but rather two adult convicts. The day after his conviction, the child murders task force disbanded and claimed their work was done. In 1985, an FBI confidential file was ordered unsealed. Inside was testimony from an agent of the Bureau who believed that the child killings were the work of the Ku Klux Klan. Allegedly, the Klan had wanted to instigate a race war by killing young blacks.
  

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Additionally, lesser-known African American serial killers also include Jake Bird, Terry A. Blair, Maurice Byrd, Andre Crawford, Paul Denyer, Paul Durousseau, Lorenzo Fayne, Conz Gianni, Lorenzo Gilyard, Harrison Graham, Calvin Jackson, Devine Jones, Edward James, Richard “Babyface” Jameswhite, Henry Lee Jones, Gregory Klep-per, Lamon J. McKoy, Eddie Lee Mosley, Craig Price, Cleophus Prince Jr., Robert Rozier, Troy Sampson, Maury Travis, Chester DeWayne Turner, Michael Vernon, Henry Louis Wallace, and the Zebra Killers. Their combined number of murder victims totaled more than 330.

Criminologist and assistant professor Scott Thornsley, Mansfield University in Pennsylvania, Criminal Justice Department, has spoken about the image of a serial killer. “Blacks have been ignored as serial killers in the past,” said Thornsley to the
Detroit Metro Times,
speaking in regard to the “Beltway Snipers” case. “Actually it’s a matter of perceived political correctness. Blacks can deal with the murder of individuals, but not this. And then you have to look at the entertainment medium,” Thornsley continued. “The general public is a white audience, and blacks are less likely to appeal to a mass audience. Whites are simply not interested in black victims or black murderers.”

This same mentality also has been displayed by publishing houses that release books on true crimes. Most publishers have believed that books on African American killers would not appeal to a wide-enough audience.

Coral Watts’s confession of the attack on Patty Johnson left one person very happy. Howard Mosley, who had been behind bars since before his conviction on July 15, 1982, was relieved to know that he was going to be a free man finally. Unfortunately, freedom did not come march-ing in immediately for Mosley.

Officials were not quite ready to believe that Mosley was
not
their man. Mosley’s attorney and family friend Robert Hoskins, on the other hand, had no doubt of his client’s innocence. Promptly after Watts confessed, Hoskins suggested to Galveston County district attorney James Hury that Mosley take a lie detector test. Hury acquiesced; however, the results of Mosley’s test were inconclusive.

“Some people just don’t react too well to polygraph exams,” Hoskins tried to explain, “and we just felt he wasn’t going to do well on any polygraph exam.”

Hoskins also believed his client because he felt that Watts had given the authorities important holdback information, or information that only the attacker would have known. In the case of Patty Johnson, the weapon Watts claimed to have used seemed to match the type of knife

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used to stab the young lady. “He said it was a small knife that could have been a wood-carving knife,” the attorney recalled. “The knife was never found, but his version of the weapon used seems to fit this case.”

Hoskins believed Watts’s confession was more than enough to release his client from guilt. “I think investigators gathered enough additional facts and this should enable them to make a determination to join with me in a motion for a new trial that would lead to dismissing the indictment against my client.”

On August 16, 1982, Mosley was offered the chance for a second polygraph test. He declined. He claimed that he “doesn’t have much faith in the polygraph test.” He did, however, offer to undergo hypnosis. He even indicated that he would be willing to be injected with a truth serum, just to have the opportunity to prove his innocence.

On the following day, Hoskins moved for a new trial for Howard Mosley. The motion was granted but immediately rescinded by DA Hury. Instead, Hury agreed to dismiss the charge against Mosley.

Mosley’s ordeal, however, was not over. Despite having the January 30, 1982, assault charge dropped, Hury informed the court that Mosley would not be released from incarceration. According to Hury, Mosley violated his parole for the aggravated robbery he committed back in 1987. The reason why Mosley did not walk was because he did commit a different misdemeanor assault on a woman in February 1982. Hury was miffed at the overly sympathetic news coverage Mosley had received for his ordeal.

“He is not a saint,” the prosecutor blasted. “If he was not on parole, he could leave right now.”

In fact, seven days earlier, Mosley had been allowed to

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partake in a jailhouse wedding to Linda Sanchez, twenty-three. Linda, along with many of Mosley’s friends, waited for Mosley to be released. They were all distraught when news came down that Mosley would not see daylight.

Furthermore, even though Hury granted Mosley a dismissal in the Patty Johnson assault, he was not so quick to dismiss Mosley completely. He speculated that Watts may not have acted alone and that Mosley was his accomplice. Assistant District Attorney Richard Crowther, the prosecutor in Mosley’s case, stated that Johnson has consistently insisted that it was definitely Mosley who attacked her. Hury conceded that Watts’s confession would make it near impossible to convict Mosley.

As Hury had stated, had Mosley kept his nose clean, he would have been officially paroled on August 5, 1983, from the original robbery sentence. Mosley was eventually held over by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles for the February 1982 attack. His revocation hearing took place on Friday, August 27, 1982.

Apparently, Hury tossed out the second assault charge while the hearing was taking place. During the hearing, the February assault victim testified that Mosley had beaten and raped her after he offered her a ride home from a party they both had attended. While the victim testified, word filtered up to Pardons and Parole Board hearing officer Alan Wilson that Hury had dropped the charges. Wilson called a halt to the proceedings and declared that the Board would reconvene at a later date to discuss Mosley’s plight.

There would be a lot at stake. The Board either could let Mosley go or could force him to complete the remainder of his ten-year burglary sentence for failure to meet his parole requirements. That would mean five more years for Mosley.

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District Attorney Hury claimed that he dropped the charges against Mosley after the prosecutor spoke with the alleged assault victim. He was not convinced that a jury would be completely convinced of Mosley’s guilt, so he decided it would be best to drop the charges. Hury added that Mosley was not out of the woods. Just because he had dropped the charges did not mean that the Board would not revoke his parole.

Mosley waited anxiously.

He would only have to wait a few more days.

On Thursday, September 2, 1982, Mosley was called back before the Board for the final word on his parole status. Again he sat before Hearing Officer Alan Wilson. This time, Mosley’s wife, Linda, and his mother, Bertha Ware, were there to support him. Not just by their presence, but by their testimony. Both women strongly affirmed that Mosley was with them at the time of the February attack.

After two hours of testimony, Wilson addressed Mosley, the skinny man, who stood six feet seven inches, was dressed in his custodial-looking jail whites. Wilson was clear cut and direct. He found that Mosley had not committed the assault and, therefore, had not violated his parole. He informed the stunned Mosley that he was a free man. After spending several months behind bars for a crime he did not commit, Howard Mosley was allowed to reenter society.

“Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!” Mosley uttered upon the proclamation. Mosley, who led the prison choir as a director, stated that he “prayed and I prayed and I prayed. My prayers finally have paid off.” Mosley squeezed his pocket-sized Bible as he rejoiced.

Mosley’s mother also sang God’s praises on behalf of her

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son. “We came this far,” the forty-two-year-old school-cafeteria cashier exclaimed. “I knew the Lord wouldn’t let us down now. Let’s open the doors of this church and sing.”

Mosley held out hopes that divine intervention would carry him through this long ordeal. “I’m going to let the Lord direct [me] in trying to find a job. I want to get to know my wife a little better.” He smiled as he clutched Linda with one hand while squeezing his Bible in the other. “I’m going to devote my life to the Lord.”

Less than two years later, on March 13, 1984, Mosley was arrested for felony aggravated assault for an alleged attack on a Galveston police officer. He was no-billed on the felony charge by a grand jury. He was, however, charged with two misdemeanor charges for possession of marijuana and resisting arrest.

Mosley was unemployed at the time of the arrest.

After being sentenced, Coral Watts was sent to a holding cell in the Harris County Jail. He stayed there until Monday, September 27, 1982, when he was sent to the Diagnostic Center of the Texas Department of Corrections at the Coffield Unit in Huntsville, Texas. There was no additional security provided for Watts to complete the transfer to the Coffield Unit.

It appeared as if the good-time credits issue quickly became a moot point. On February 20, 1983, Watts tried to escape from prison. Watts walked into the cell block recreation room just before 10:00
P
.
M
. He was carrying a pillowcase stuffed with food, leather gloves attached to his belt, and a rolled-up blanket, also attached to his belt. In addition, he had a plastic bottle of hair lotion for his Jheri curl.

Somehow Watts had convinced several of his fellow inmates to form a human shield for him. Their main objective was to prevent the prison guards from seeing Watts as he attempted to make his getaway. Once safely hidden by the convicts, Watts scooted over to the recreation-room window and kicked out the windowpane with his foot. He then removed the activator bottle for his Jheri curl and

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poured it all over his body. The five-foot-eleven-inch, 165-pound Watts geared up to seek his freedom. He attempted to squeeze through the narrow opening. Despite being greased up like a 7-Eleven rotisserie hot dog, Watts was unable to propel himself through the escape route. He slithered down onto the recreation-room floor, defeated. But he was ready to try again, so desperate was he to escape. This time, however, he was spotted by one of the prison guards.