Carlton Michael Gary

Carlton Michael Gary was born on September 24, 1950, in Columbus, Georgia, into severe poverty and instability. His father, a construction worker, rejected him outright and refused to provide financial or emotional support. Gary met his biological father only once during childhood, an encounter that did nothing to establish a relationship. His mother struggled to survive financially, forcing frequent relocations throughout Gary’s early life. As a result, he was often malnourished and left in the care of relatives, most commonly an aunt and great‑aunt who worked as domestic servants for elderly women.

During elementary school, Gary suffered a significant head injury after being knocked unconscious in a playground accident. In later years, this injury was cited by defense attorneys as a possible contributing factor to his behavioral issues. By his teenage years, Gary had developed a pattern of heavy drug use and escalating criminal activity. Between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, he was arrested multiple times for robbery, arson, and assault.

Despite this instability, Gary married a woman named Sheila and fathered two children while still young. In 1970, he relocated to Albany, New York, claiming aspirations of becoming a professional singer. Instead, he continued committing crimes and began targeting elderly women.

On February 12, 1970, 62‑year‑old Marion Brewer was found raped and strangled in her room at the Hampton Hotel in Albany, New York. She was discovered face‑up on her bed with visible marks on her neck, and her purse had been emptied. Two months later, on April 14, 1970, 85‑year‑old Nellie M. Farmer was found dead at the Wellington Hotel. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled with fabric, her death officially ruled as asphyxiation by manual strangulation.

Following an attempted assault on another elderly woman, Gary was arrested. His fingerprints matched those recovered from Farmer’s crime scene. Gary admitted involvement in a robbery but blamed an accomplice, John Lee Mitchell, for the murder. He testified against Mitchell, who was charged despite a lack of physical evidence. Gary himself was convicted only of robbery and served time in the Onondaga County Correctional Institution.

Paroled in 1975, Gary moved to Syracuse, New York, where he attacked and raped two elderly women in their homes. One survived; the other died. Both assaults occurred in darkness, and the victims were unable to identify their attacker conclusively. Gary was never charged with these crimes but was returned to prison for parole violations after being caught selling stolen property.

On August 22, 1977, Gary escaped custody by sawing through prison bars and fled to Columbus, Georgia. Within weeks, a series of brutal murders began. On September 16, 1977, 60‑year‑old Ferne Jackson was raped, beaten, and strangled with a nylon stocking. Over the next several months, Gary murdered Jean Dimenstein, Florence Scheible, Martha Thurmond, Kathleen Woodruff, Mildred Borom, and Janet Cofer. Most victims were elderly women living alone, strangled with stockings or fabric, and sexually assaulted.

Public panic intensified when a separate killer, William Henry Hance, falsely claimed responsibility in threatening letters, complicating the investigation. Hance was later arrested for unrelated murders, but the killings continued, confirming a separate offender.

Gary was arrested in December 1978 following an armed robbery in South Carolina and sentenced to 21 years in prison. He escaped again in 1983 but was recaptured a year later. New forensic evidence, including fingerprint matches and later DNA testing, linked him to multiple murders. He was indicted on May 5, 1984, convicted on August 26, 1986, and sentenced to death the following day.

The case became highly controversial. Defense advocates raised serious concerns regarding withheld evidence, flawed forensic practices, unreliable witness testimony, and racial bias within the justice system. DNA testing later conclusively linked Gary to the 1975 rape and murder of Marion Fisher in New York, though prosecutors declined to pursue charges due to his death sentence in Georgia.

After decades on death row and multiple appeals, Carlton Gary was executed by lethal injection on March 15, 2018. He declined to make a final statement and was pronounced dead at 10:33 p.m.