Buddy Earl Justus was born on December 25, 1952, in Niagara Falls, New York. Raised in a violent and abusive household, he spent his formative years exposed to dysfunction and trauma. This troubled upbringing eventually led him into the foster system, where he was placed in a Virginia orphanage. Despite this early attempt at intervention, Justus continued to struggle emotionally and behaviorally throughout his youth.

By adulthood, he was already known to law enforcement and was on a path of violence and self-destruction. He had no stable career or meaningful family ties and was reportedly aimless and angry by the time he committed his string of brutal murders in October 1978. Justus’s short yet deadly killing spree would span three states and leave behind unimaginable grief for the families of his victims.

Buddy Earl Justus began his killing spree on October 3, 1978, in Ironto, Virginia. He broke into the home of 21-year-old Ida Mae Moses, a pregnant nurse just two weeks away from giving birth. After raping her, he stabbed and mutilated her, ending not only her life but also the life of her unborn son. The violence of the crime shocked investigators, and the community reeled from the brutality.

After fleeing Virginia, Justus traveled south and picked up 18-year-old hitchhiker Dale Goins, who would become his accomplice. The two continued the spree in Atlanta, Georgia, where they kidnapped 32-year-old Rosemary Jackson as she left a store. Jackson, a housewife, was raped and murdered. Days later, in Florida, the pair repeated the crime, abducting Stephanie Hawkins while she was preparing for her son’s birthday party. She, too, was raped and murdered.

Justus was arrested on October 11, 1978, in Grundy, Virginia. He and Goins were soon charged in all three murders. Justus was tried and convicted separately in Virginia, Georgia, and Florida, receiving a death sentence in each state. Goins was convicted for his role in the killings of Jackson and Hawkins and received life sentences in Georgia and Florida.

Justus initially stated in 1983 that he would waive his appeals, hoping to hasten his execution, but later reversed his decision. He remained on death row in Virginia for over a decade. On December 13, 1990, he was executed in the electric chair at the Virginia State Penitentiary. He offered no last words during the execution itself, but in a radio interview that morning, he expressed remorse, saying, “I want it to be over with, not for me, but for the victims’ families... I’ve asked for forgiveness.” He criticized capital punishment as “barbaric” and hoped he would be “the last person” executed.

Buddy Earl Justus was the final person executed at the Virginia State Penitentiary before all executions in the state were moved to Greensville Correctional Center.