Asbury Respus

Asbury Respus (c. 1878 – January 8, 1932) was an American serial killer who confessed to at least eight murders throughout North Carolina and Virginia in the early 20th century. Respus was not a suspect in most of the murders he committed until he gave a lengthy confession during his trial for the murder of 9-year-old Vera Leonard, the murder for which he would be executed. Respus's victim profile was particularly unique in that his victims were not of a particular age or racial group, as four were white, four were black, two were children, and one was over 80 years old. Respus was executed in the electric chair at the Central Prison in Raleigh in 1932.

Early life Asbury Respus was born in approximately 1878 to Miles and Ellen Respus. In the region of eastern North Carolina from which Respus hailed, the surname Respass was an alternate but far more commonly found spelling of Respus's last name, leading some local newspapers to speculate that his real name may have been Asbury Respass instead.

Respus claimed that in his youth, he fell off of a barn and injured his head, an incident that he seemed to blame for the violent behavior he exhibited in his adulthood. The incident left him with an indentation in his skull, as well as lifelong mental issues. On June 28, 1900, he married Ophelia Harrell, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Harrell, in Northampton County, North Carolina. Like Respus, she was 22 years old at the time of the marriage.

The first murders Respus could recall committing were those of two black women, Lizzie Banks and Zenie Britt; Respus shot Banks and beat Britt to death prior to 1912. Around 1910, Respus also murdered another black woman named Becky Storr in Boykins, Virginia, by beating her with a stick. In February 1913, approximately six months into his sentence, officials declared Respus 'criminally insane' and sent him to a state mental hospital.

The fate of the other escapees is unknown, but Respus was not apprehended or arrested again between his 1916 escape and his 1931 arrest for the murder that would lead to his execution.

On July 21, 1920, Respus drowned a 4-year-old boy named Robert Neal Osborn. While Osborn's death was also originally believed to be an accident (with his death certificate labeling his death "accidental"), Respus confessed shortly before his execution that he threw Osborn into a stream and "held his head under water," stating, "I held it there with both my feet." Like the murder of Osborn, Respus was only considered a suspect in the murders of Gilbreath and Stevenson after his arrest for Vera Leonard's murder years later.

Murder of Vera Leonard On September 30, 1931, at approximately 8:00 in the morning, 9-year-old Vera Leonard left her house to catch her school bus when Asbury Respus approached and waylaid her shortly before the bus arrived. While authorities initially believed that Respus's motive was sexual assault, Respus later denied having a sexual motive, claiming instead that he had gotten intoxicated on alcohol and drugs and that the drugs had sent him into a violent frenzy. Respus proceeded to beat Leonard to death. After murdering Leonard, Respus wrapped her body in a blanket and set the family house on fire. At the time of the fire, neither Vera's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Leonard, nor Vera's 4-year-old brother, were home.

Approximately 10 minutes after the murder took place, passersby saw smoke arising from the Leonard household and approached to find the house in flames. The passersby attempted to rescue possessions from inside of the burning house when they noticed pools of blood, shortly after which Vera's father, Thomas Leonard, arrived at the house. After authorities put out the fire, they searched the house and found Vera Leonard's body under a bed. Her skull had been crushed. He was arrested and brought into custody later on September 30, and when police searched his house, they found bloodstained overalls and shoes that matched footprints discovered at the murder scene. At the time of the murder, Respus went by the alias Will Moore, and he was employed as a farmhand in a field located next to the Leonard household. Respus admitted to beating Leonard to death with a stick, stating that he had consumed copious amounts of alcohol the previous day and that "the [devil] must have gotten hold of me."

A lynch mob of approximately 1,000 vigilantes formed on the Guilford County courthouse lawn, but early on the morning of October 2, authorities moved Respus to the Central Prison in Raleigh for safeguarding from mob violence. Between the time of his arraignment and the time his trial began, Respus was held in an undisclosed location for his safekeeping.

Respus's trial was slated for October 28, 1931. Although he was arraigned on three capital charges, the prosecutor elected to try Respus only for the murder of Vera Leonard. During the trial, approximately 60 National Guardsmen stood duty outside of the courthouse. Two of Respus's coworkers undermined his insanity defense by stating that they had never witnessed Respus having a mental health episode or acting strangely in the decade in which they had known him; additionally, a mental health expert who had examined Respus's mental state four times since his arrest stated that he believed Respus to be sane. Respus's trial lasted for one day, and the jury took less than one hour to deliberate before convicting him of murder. Judge Thomas J. Shaw sentenced Respus to death in the electric chair and scheduled the execution for January 8, 1932. Respus expressed satisfaction with his fate, however, telling guards as they delivered his last meal of sardines and crackers, "If Governor Gardner was to free me today, I would tell him I would rather die in the electric chair."

On January 8, 1932, at 10:30 a.m., Respus was executed by electric chair at the Central Prison in Raleigh. Witnesses to his execution included Guilford County Deputy Sheriff Murray Benbow, and S.C. Deskins, the principal of the school that Vera Leonard had attended when she was murdered. Respus was reported to have been singing a hymn shortly before his execution was carried out. Following his execution, nobody stepped forward to claim his body, and his body lay in a local morgue.

Victim profile and analysis Respus's victim profile was unusual for a serial killer, as his victims were of no particular age or racial group. He confessed to the murders of four black people and four white people; two of the white people (Robert Neal Osborn and Vera Leonard) were children, while at least one of the white victims (Eunice Stevenson) was in her 80s at the time of her death. In addition, Respus's first four murder victims (Lizzie Banks, Zenie Britt, Becky Storr, and Ed Wynn) were all black; his subsequent four victims (Osborn, Leonard, Stevenson, and Jennie Gilbreath) were white. During the interview on the eve of his execution, Respus stated that he committed seven of the murders – all but that of Vera Leonard – while he was "in a spell." He further explained, "When I had them spells, I went funny in the head. I wanted to kill somebody. I wouldn't know why. I just wanted to kill. I'd run. If you ever [saw] a dog with running fits, that's like me when I was in a spell. I'd kill and run." He blamed the murder of Vera Leonard on him having been heavily intoxicated on drugs.

The author of an opinion piece for the Statesville Record & Landmark published after Respus's execution posited that Respus may have inflated the amount of murders he confessed to having committed and that Respus had mental impairments: "Frankly we believe the story was much exaggerated. It is also the opinion, whether the story is or is not true, that [Respus] was probably a mental defective."