James Antonio Barnes

James Antonio Barnes (born April 27, 1944) is an American serial killer who attacked five prostitutes around Memphis, Tennessee from August to November 1988, killing three and wounding two others in what he claimed to be orders from his other personalities. Although considered a suspect in a total of seven killings, he was only convicted of his confirmed crimes and sentenced to 40 years imprisonment.

Early life Little is known about Barnes' early life. Born on April 27, 1944, in Detroit, Michigan, he was regularly mistreated by his alcoholic parents, with Barnes claiming that his mother had attempted to miscarry by ingesting a quantity of drugs. In another instance, he had been put in a sack and lowered into a well as punishment for misbehaving. He started exhibiting signs of mental illness early in his life, and had to be treated for depression, hallucinations, and drug abuse in various institutions around Michigan, Tennessee, and Missouri. In between these treatments, Barnes committed a variety of petty crimes, with his most notable conviction being for a bank robbery committed in Detroit.

After being released from prison, Barnes found employment as a factory worker for a General Motors plant, but was laid off after company sales went down. Left without a home or any close living relatives, he decided to move to Memphis, Tennessee, settling in the Knightwoods neighborhood of Parkway Village.

His first confirmed victim was 25-year-old Sharon Denise Moore, who was found shot to death on Weakley Street on August 15. On October 7, police charged 39-year-old Larry Eugene Ward with second-degree murder in this case, as he had recently been arrested for assault with intent to commit first-degree murder in an unrelated incident. Ward had fired at a patrolman with a shotgun when the officer tried to stop him for driving without headlights and was arrested after crashing his pickup truck, and due to his proximity to where Moore's body was found, he was considered the prime suspect in the case. Several officers were then tasked with keeping watch of Barnes, and on November 10, he was arrested after a short car chase. The arresting officers saw him throw out a pistol during the chase, and when ballistic tests were performed on it, it was established that it was the same .32 pistol used in all five attacks. This led some to believe that he suffered from multiple personality disorder, which had only recently been accepted as an illness and there was ongoing debate about its validity, prompted from the prosecution of Sedley Alley for the 1985 murder of Suzanne Marie Collins.

After an initial psychiatric evaluation ruled him competent to stand trial, Barnes' defense attorneys hired Dr. George B. Greaves to examine him. Greaves, an Atlanta-based psychiatrist who specialized in cases with multiple personality disorder, proceeded to review all of his medical records, videotapes of conversations held with his attorneys and personally interviewed Barnes on two separate occasions. From his observations, he concluded that Barnes did indeed suffer from the disease, claiming that he had identified 12 distinct personalities with separate body language, mannerisms and facial expressions. During a court hearing, he described how Barnes was very cooperative, but at one point began acting unusually happy and stated that he would be rescued by a flying saucer that would beam him up and fly off with him.

Trial, imprisonment, and status With his trial scheduled for September 1997, Barnes unexpectedly made guilty pleas on all three counts. As part of a plea deal with prosecutors, the death penalty was dropped, the charges were reduced to second degree murder and he was instead sentenced to 40 years imprisonment with a chance of parole after serving 16 years. Barnes was then transferred to the Lois M. DeBerry Special Needs Facility in Nashville, where he would remain under treatment until he served out his sentence. According to the Tennessee Department of Correction, Barnes was released from prison on April 10, 2016.