Billy Richard Glaze was born on July 13, 1943, in the United States. Very little is publicly documented about his early life, childhood, or upbringing. However, what is known paints the picture of a man who lived a transient lifestyle, moving across various states. At some point in his life, he adopted the alias “Jesse Sitting Crow,” a name with Native American connotations, though there is no verified documentation of his Indigenous ancestry.

Glaze had a criminal background prior to the Minnesota murders, including a conviction for rape in Texas in 1974, for which he had been paroled. His life was marked by instability, alcohol abuse, and trouble with the law. At the time of his arrest in 1987, he was living in New Mexico, where he was located after a tip-off from an ex-girlfriend.

Billy Richard Glaze was suspected of being responsible for at least 50 murders of women across various states. He allegedly claimed to have killed over 20 women, but he also maintained his innocence during interviews. In 1986 and 1987, three Native American women were murdered in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area, which brought Glaze to the attention of the authorities when a waitress reported him. Investigators began looking for him after receiving information from a girlfriend.

On August 31, 1987, Glaze was arrested for driving under the influence and for violating his parole from a previous rape conviction. During the arrest, police found a bloody shirt, a crowbar, and a nightstick in his vehicle. Hair samples taken from the crowbar were used in his conviction for the murders. Glaze was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to a long prison term.

In 2009, new DNA testing was carried out by the Innocence Project. This testing showed that semen from one of the victim's rape kits did not match Glaze but instead matched another man, a convicted rapist from Minnesota. Further testing in 2014 identified a cigarette butt found near another victim's body as belonging to the same man. None of the evidence from the crime scenes linked Glaze to the murders.

Due to the new DNA evidence and concerns about the reliability of eyewitness testimonies from the original trial, Glaze's attorneys filed for a new trial. One eyewitness later recanted their statement, while another claimed to have witnessed many murders in prison. As a result, the Minneapolis Police Department and the Hennepin County Attorney's Office began re-investigating Glaze's case.

Billy Glaze died on December 22, 2015, at the age of 72. He had been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer shortly before his death and passed away in prison after serving more than 25 years for the murders.