Carroll Edward Cole

Carroll Edward Cole was born on May 9, 1938, in Sioux City, Iowa, to LaVerne and Vesta Cole. He was the second of three children. After the birth of his younger sister in 1939, the family moved to California, where his father worked in a shipyard. During World War II, LaVerne went to serve overseas. While he was away, Vesta engaged in extramarital affairs and frequently took young Carroll along, threatening him with beatings if he told anyone. Vesta was emotionally abusive, dressing her son as a girl and berating him. His peers bullied him over his name, calling it effeminate.

At age 8, Cole drowned a classmate, Duane Eugene Owen, in a lake in Richmond, California. The death was deemed accidental at the time and went uninvestigated until Cole later confessed in prison. He would later say this first act of violence stemmed from resentment toward his mother.

During adolescence, Cole became involved in petty crime and was frequently arrested for drunkenness and theft. After finishing high school, he joined the U.S. Army but was dishonorably discharged in 1958 for stealing firearms. In 1960, he attacked couples parked in cars and shortly thereafter turned himself in to police, expressing violent fantasies involving strangling women. This led to a series of stays in psychiatric hospitals, where doctors noted his intense fear of and hostility toward women. Diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, Cole was nonetheless released in 1963.

He moved to Dallas, Texas, where he married an alcoholic stripper named Billie Whitworth. The marriage ended after Cole burned down a motel he believed she used to meet other men. He served time for arson and, after release, attempted to strangle an 11-year-old girl in Missouri. He received a five-year prison sentence.

Following that sentence, Cole attempted two more strangulations in Nevada and voluntarily committed himself to a mental hospital. Although he expressed homicidal fantasies, he was released and relocated to San Diego, California.

Carroll Cole's adult killing spree began on May 7, 1971, in San Diego, when he strangled Essie Louise Buck in his car after meeting her at a tavern. He drove around with her body in the trunk before dumping it. Two weeks later, he killed another woman, whose identity remains unknown. He later claimed that these women, like his mother, had been unfaithful and that this fueled his rage.

In July 1973, Cole married Diana Faye Younglove Pashal, another alcoholic. Their marriage was abusive, and Cole continued traveling alone, during which he murdered additional women. In September 1979, he strangled Pashal to death and concealed her body in a closet. Although police found her body eight days later, they attributed her death to alcoholism and released Cole without charge.

After leaving San Diego, Cole moved around again. In 1979, he met Marie Cushman in Las Vegas and strangled her after sex in a motel. Later, he returned to Dallas, where he strangled three more women in November 1980. He was arrested after being found at the scene of one murder and confessed not only to that killing but also to several others.

Cole admitted to killing at least 14 women between 1971 and 1980, although he said there may have been more. He often murdered while intoxicated and could not recall the total count. His known victims include Kathlyn Blum, Marie Cushman, Sally Thompson, Dorothy King, and Wanda Roberts.

On April 9, 1981, he was convicted in Texas for three murders and sentenced to life at Huntsville Prison. After his mother’s death in 1984, Cole consented to extradition to Nevada to face murder charges that could result in the death penalty. He was convicted for two additional killings and sentenced to death in October 1984. In court, upon hearing the sentence, he said, “Thanks, Judge.”

Cole was executed by lethal injection at Nevada State Prison on December 6, 1985, at 2:10 a.m. He declined to delay the process, despite appeals from activists and inmates. His brain was later removed for study at the University of Nevada-Reno. He was 47 years old.