Carlton Gary

Carlton Michael Gary (September 24, 1950 – March 15, 2018) was an American serial killer who murdered three elderly women in Columbus, Georgia, and one in Syracuse, New York, between 1975 and 1978, though he is suspected of at least four more killings. Gary was arrested in December 1978 for an armed robbery and sentenced to 21 years in prison. He escaped from custody in 1983 and was caught a year later. Evidence was found linking him to the earlier murders and he was convicted and sentenced to death in August 1986. He was executed by lethal injection on March 15, 2018.

Background Carlton Gary was born on September 24, 1950, in Columbus, Georgia. His father was a construction worker who wanted nothing to do with him and would not accept any financial responsibility for him. Gary met his biological father only once, when he was 12 years old. Gary's mother was extremely poor and, as a result, they frequently relocated. He was malnourished most of the time and was often left with his aunt or great-aunt, both maids for elderly, wealthy women.

In elementary school, Gary suffered serious head trauma when he was knocked unconscious in a playground accident. In his teens, he was a heavy drug user. Between the ages of 14 and 18, he was arrested numerous times for robbery, arson and assault.

During that time, he married a woman named Sheila, and had two children. In 1970, he moved to Albany, New York, where he had plans to become a singer, but he continued with his criminal activities.

After Gary attempted an assault on a third elderly woman, he was arrested and his fingerprints matched one left at the scene of the Farmer murder. Gary admitted having taken part in a robbery, but he claimed that an accomplice, John Lee Mitchell, was responsible for the actual murder.

Gary testified against Mitchell in court, and Mitchell was charged, despite no material evidence connecting him to the crime.

Two months later on February 12, 1978, Gary attacked Ruth Schwob, but fled after she triggered a bedside alarm. He went just two blocks down the road before breaking into another house and raping and strangling 78-year-old Mildred Borom. His final victim was 61-year-old Janet Cofer, whom he murdered on April 20, 1978. Known there as the Stocking Strangler, in three of the cases he was convicted of beating, sexually assaulting and strangling the victims, mostly by using stockings. Two of the survivors testified that he strangled them into unconsciousness before raping or attempting to rape them. The one Georgia survivor positively identified him as her attacker in court. However, she had previously positively identified three other black men as the attacker and, in her initial statement, had indicated that it was too dark to even distinguish the race of the attacker. convicted on August 26, 1986, for three of the murders, and sentenced to death the following day.

Controversy Questions have been raised over the propriety of Gary's conviction. According to a group of supporters and a book by investigative journalist David Rose, Gary's lawyer was refused state funding to carry out a defense. There is also evidence that Gary's fingerprints were not held to match the crime scene prints until seven years after, when the case was re-examined, despite Gary having been printed just one year after the murder, at a time when all prints in the U.S. were being compared to prints found at the crime sites. They also claim Gary's interview at which he supposedly confessed was not recorded, nor were notes taken, and Gary's confession was written by a police officer in the days following the interview, from his own recollection. When submitted as evidence, the confession was unsigned and undated, and Gary denied having made it. They allege Gary's semen antigen secretion did not match the perpetrator's. DNA testing on evidence from some of the crime scenes linked Gary to the murder of Jean Dimenstein, but not the murder of Martha Thurmond or the rape of Gertrude Miller. Furthermore, a cast made from a bite wound on a victim allegedly did not match Gary's bite-mark pattern although it was noted that he had had dental work in prison subsequent to the victims' deaths. His supporters claimed that the prosecution withheld this evidence at trial. A key witness for the Gertrude Miller, a woman who testified that Gary had raped had initially told prosecutors that she had been asleep and her bedroom had been dark at the time of the assault and she could not describe nor identify her attacker. This was not divulged to the defence. Prosecutors withheld shoe print evidence from the defence from the scene until 20 years after his trial. This evidence was that a size 10 print found at one of the crime scenes could not have been left by Gary, because he wore size 13½ shoes.

Execution On December 1, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Gary's latest appeal, clearing the way for an execution date to be set. On December 4, a court set a December 16 execution date for Gary. On December 15, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles denied a request to stay his execution. On December 16, only hours before the execution, the Georgia Supreme Court halted the execution to hold a hearing and determine whether DNA tests should be conducted to determine Gary's guilt or innocence. On February 23, 2018, a new execution date was set for March 15, 2018.

On March 15, 2018, Carlton Gary was executed by lethal injection. He declined to make a final statement and died at 10:33 p.m.