Bio 

Allen Wayne Janecka was born on November 3, 1949. In the mid-1970s, Janecka became connected to Waldhauser, who served as a middleman in a series of inheritance-related murder plots arranged by Duff-Smith. Duff-Smith wanted to collect money from family estates, and prosecutors later said he used Waldhauser to help arrange the killings.

In 1975, Janecka was hired to kill Gertrude Duff-Smith Zabolio, Duff-Smith’s adoptive mother. Janecka entered her Houston home and strangled her with nylon stockings. Her death was initially ruled a suicide, delaying the discovery of the murder plot.

By 1979, Janecka was again involved in a contract killing connected to Duff-Smith’s family inheritance. This time, the victims were John Wanstrath, Diana Wanstrath, and their 14-month-old son, Kevin.

Murder Story

On July 5, 1979, Allen Wayne Janecka and Walter Waldhauser went to the Houston home of John and Diana Wanstrath. They entered the home by pretending to be architects who wanted to discuss a building project. Once inside, Waldhauser sprayed Diana Wanstrath with mace, and Janecka shot both John and Diana with a .22-caliber revolver.

Janecka then went into the nursery, where 14-month-old Kevin Wanstrath was in his crib. He shot the child in the head. The bodies were discovered the next day, July 6, 1979. Despite the absence of a gun inside the home, the medical examiner initially ruled that Diana had killed her husband and son before killing herself.

Houston police officer Johnny Bonds rejected the murder-suicide theory and continued investigating. His work eventually exposed the inheritance plot involving Markham Duff-Smith, Walter Waldhauser, and Allen Wayne Janecka.

In November 1980, police recovered the murder weapon and a can of mace from Janecka’s girlfriend in Georgia. Janecka was arrested on November 23, 1980, on unrelated warrants. After learning that detectives had found the gun, he confessed to the Wanstrath murders.

Janecka was first convicted of capital murder on April 8, 1981, and sentenced to death. His conviction was later reversed because of an error in the indictment. He was reindicted in 1992, retried, and again convicted on October 28, 1993. On November 4, 1993, he was sentenced to death again.

Markham Duff-Smith was executed in 1993 for arranging the murder of Gertrude Zabolio and later admitted responsibility for both the 1975 and 1979 cases. Walter Waldhauser pleaded guilty to three murders and received a prison sentence.

Allen Wayne Janecka was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas, on July 24, 2003. He was 53 years old.