Earl Richmond

Earl Richmond Jr. (November 6, 1961 – May 6, 2005) was an American serial killer who committed at least four murders, including those of two children, in New Jersey and North Carolina between April and November 1991. Prior to the murders, Richmond served in the United States Army as a drill sergeant at Fort Dix in New Jersey, where he committed multiple rapes. Following his arrest for murder, he was sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection in 2005.

Richmond is also the prime suspect in the murder of 65-year-old Ann Sessoms Shanholtz in 1990. He was discharged in the fall of 1990 for misconduct.

Crimes Military crimes During his service in the army, multiple women were sexually assaulted in the immediate area. The first of which occurred on April 15, 1989, when a female Air Force trainee was sexually assaulted at gunpoint at a bus stop. Days later, a 17-year-old girl was raped in her motel room just outside of Fort Dix. A man named Richard Stevens was arrested and convicted of the first assault by a federal court, but his conviction was overturned three years later after it was proven that Stevens was most likely innocent.

On April 5, 1991, Richmond entered the home of 24-year-old Lisa Ann Nadeau, an Army Specialist based out of Fort Dix, as well as a payroll clerk, from Plainfield, Connecticut. Richmond tied up, strangled, stabbed, and beat Nadeau to death with a hammer. DNA testing connected Richmond to the assault as well as linking him to the murder of Nadeau. Richmond confessed to each of the murders and told officers he intentionally left behind evidence because he wanted to get caught. Richmond was tried in federal court for Nadeau's murder since it occurred on a military base. He was convicted in May 1993 and sentenced to life imprisonment. In May 1995, Richmond was convicted of the Hayes' murders and sentenced to death.

Execution On May 6, 2005, Richmond was executed by lethal injection at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina. He declined a last meal. Richmond's last words were "I'd like to extend my deepest apologies to all the victims' families and their loved ones. I'd like to say that I'm not a man that shies away from his responsibilities. I'd like to say that I hope that now, through my death, that y'all can move forward with your lives. Thank you and God bless you."