Carlton Gary was born on September 24, 1950, in Columbus, Georgia. His father was a construction worker who wanted nothing to do with him and refused to provide any financial support. Gary only met his biological father once, when he was 12 years old. Gary's mother was very poor, so they moved around a lot. Because of their poverty, he was often hungry and had to stay with his aunt or great-aunt, who worked as maids for rich, older women.

When he was in elementary school, Gary had a serious accident on the playground and suffered a head injury that knocked him unconscious. 

In his teenage years, he began using drugs heavily. Between the ages of 14 and 18, he was arrested many times for crimes like robbery, arson, and assault. During his teenage years, he got married to a woman named Sheila, and they had two children together. In 1970, Gary moved to Albany, New York, hoping to become a singer, but he continued to get involved in criminal activities.

On February 12, 1970, Marion Brewer, who was 62 years old, was found dead in her room at the Hampton Hotel in Albany. She had been strangled, raped, and there were marks on her throat. Her open pocketbook was found near her head, but no money was inside. A couple of months later, on April 14, 1970, Nellie M. Farmer, who was 85 years old, was found dead in her room at the Wellington Hotel, also in Albany. Her body was partially clothed and on the floor next to the bed, with a piece of fabric near her neck. She had been raped, and her cause of death was manual strangulation.

Gary was arrested after attempting to assault another elderly woman, and his fingerprints matched a print found at the scene of Nellie Farmer’s murder. Gary admitted to being involved in a robbery but claimed that his accomplice, John Lee Mitchell, was the one who committed the murder. Gary testified against Mitchell, who was charged despite the lack of evidence connecting him to the crime. Gary was charged only with robbery and served his sentence at the Onondaga County Correctional Institution in Jamesville, New York.

After being paroled in 1975, Gary moved to Syracuse, New York, where he attacked two more elderly women in their homes. One woman died, and the other survived. Both attacks happened within four days of each other. The survivors could not positively identify Gary because the crimes occurred in the dark, but one victim described her attacker as a mustachioed black man and said she was strangled with a scarf. Gary was never charged for these crimes but was sent back to prison for violating his parole and for robbery after trying to sell stolen coins.

On August 22, 1977, Gary escaped from his low-security prison by sawing through the bars of his cell and made his way back to Columbus, Georgia. About a month after his escape, on September 16, 1977, Gary raped, beat, and strangled 60-year-old Ferne Jackson to death with a nylon stocking at her home. He continued his killing spree, murdering 71-year-old Jean Dimenstein, 89-year-old Florence Scheible, 69-year-old Martha Thurmond, and 74-year-old Kathleen Woodruff in similar fashion, all in Columbus. 

On February 12, 1978, Gary attacked Ruth Schwob, but she triggered an alarm, causing him to flee. He then broke into another house nearby and raped and strangled 78-year-old Mildred Borom. His final known victim was 61-year-old Janet Cofer, whom he murdered on April 20, 1978. The police suspected an African-American man was responsible for the murders, but confusion arose when a man calling himself the "Chairman of the Forces of Evil" threatened to kill black women if the "Stocking Strangler" wasn't stopped. This turned out to be William Henry Hance, an African-American man covering up his own murders. 

In December 1978, after a robbery in Gaffney, South Carolina, Gary was arrested. He confessed and was sentenced to 21 years for armed robbery. He escaped custody on March 15, 1983, and remained at large for a year before being captured again. New evidence, including a gun and a fingerprint match, led police to believe Gary was the serial killer they had been looking for.

Gary was accused of raping nine and murdering seven elderly women in Columbus between 1977 and 1978. He was known as the Stocking Strangler. In three cases, he was convicted of beating, sexually assaulting, and strangling the victims with stockings. Two survivors testified that he strangled them unconscious before attempting to rape them. One survivor positively identified him in court, although she had previously identified three other men and said it was too dark to see her attacker. Gary's fingerprints were found at four crime scenes. He was indicted for the murders on May 5, 1984, convicted on August 26, 1986, and sentenced to death the next day.

Controversy surrounded Gary’s conviction. His lawyer was denied state funding for the defense, and Gary's fingerprints were not matched to the crime scene until seven years later. There were claims that his confession was not recorded and that the confession used as evidence was unsigned and undated. Other evidence, like semen antigen tests and bite-mark analysis, were either contaminated or withheld. Additionally, there were racial tensions involved, with prosecutors, judges, and police linked to a whites-only organization.

In 2007, DNA evidence linked Gary to the 1975 rape and murder of Marion Fisher in New York, but he was not charged since he was already on death row. Gary’s execution was delayed multiple times due to appeals and a review of DNA evidence. Finally, on March 15, 2018, Carlton Gary was executed by lethal injection. He declined to make a final statement and was pronounced dead at 10:33 p.m.