Bio

Don Wilson Hawkins Jr. was born on August 29, 1959, in the United States. Oklahoma Department of Corrections records listed him as a white male with blond hair and blue eyes, born on August 29, 1959. By 1985, Hawkins was living in Oklahoma and was associated with several people who later became connected to the kidnapping and murder of Linda Ann Thompson. These included his cousin, Dale Austin Shelton; his girlfriend, Shirley Pitts; and Pitts’s teenage nephew, Chris Lovell. Court records state that Hawkins had been living with Pitts for several months before the Thompson abduction.

Before Linda Thompson was murdered, Hawkins was linked to the robbery and hanging death of David Coupez in Denver, Colorado. Later reports state that Hawkins pleaded guilty to that crime. Court records also describe additional violent crimes after Thompson’s murder. After Hawkins and Shelton fled Oklahoma, Hawkins kidnapped, raped, and sodomized two teenage girls in San Diego, California. The following day, he kidnapped and robbed two women, one of whom was sexually assaulted by an accomplice. The State later used this evidence during the sentencing phase of the Thompson murder trial to argue that Hawkins remained a continuing threat.

Before his execution, Hawkins became known on death row as a writer and artist. He wrote about prison life, capital punishment, and executions. He also described himself as a religious Christian during his years in prison. These later prison activities did not change his legal status or conviction.

Murder Story

On August 19, 1985, Don Wilson Hawkins Jr. began carrying out a plan to kidnap a woman for ransom. According to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, he bought handcuffs and .38-caliber bullets from a pawn shop in Oklahoma City. He then went with Dale Austin Shelton to the Shepherd Mall postal station in Oklahoma City.

At the postal station, Hawkins first considered abducting another woman, but mall security passed by and she escaped without knowing she had been targeted. Soon afterward, Linda Ann Thompson arrived at the self-service postal station to buy stamps. Her two daughters, Lori, age four, and Katie, age eighteen months, were in the car with her.

Hawkins forced his way into Thompson’s car, handcuffed her, and drove away with Thompson and her two children. Shelton followed in Hawkins’s vehicle. Hawkins took Thompson and the children to the house where he had been staying with Shirley Pitts. At the house, Pitts and Chris Lovell watched the children while Hawkins and Shelton kept Thompson upstairs.

Hawkins claimed that his original purpose was to hold Thompson for ransom. During the first hours of captivity, he discussed possible ransom sources with her. Later, Thompson was taken to a barn several hundred yards from the house. She was chained by the ankle in the barn loft with a dog chain and padlock. Her daughters were kept locked in a bedroom in the house.

During the night, Thompson was sexually assaulted by Dale Shelton and Chris Lovell. Court records state that Shelton raped and sodomized Thompson, and Lovell also raped her. Hawkins was not convicted of sexually assaulting Thompson, but he was the person who carried out the kidnapping and later drowned her.

During the night, Thompson was allowed to see her children. The next morning, she was briefly allowed to say goodbye to them. Hawkins and Shelton then drove her toward Sportsman’s Lake near Seminole, Oklahoma. Hawkins later stated that he had considered releasing her, but realized she could identify them.

At the lake, Hawkins hog-tied Thompson and took her to the water. While Shelton stood lookout, Hawkins pushed Thompson into the lake and held her underwater until she drowned. Afterward, Hawkins and Shelton dragged her body into a ravine and covered it with brush.

Hawkins and Shelton then fled Oklahoma. Meanwhile, Pitts and Lovell left Thompson’s daughters in the neighborhood of their babysitter. The children were recovered alive. Police arrested Pitts and Lovell later that day. Thompson’s car was found abandoned in Oklahoma City, and her purse was found near the house where she had been held.

Hawkins and Shelton were arrested about two months later in Sacramento, California. Hawkins was caught while attempting to steal a car battery. At the time of his arrest, he had a sawed-off shotgun, false identification, and stolen credit cards. Shelton was arrested at a nearby motel. Both men later gave statements to police. Shelton directed investigators to the location of Thompson’s body.

Hawkins and Shelton were tried together in Oklahoma County. Hawkins was convicted of first-degree felony murder and two counts of kidnapping for the purpose of extortion. The jury sentenced him to life imprisonment on each kidnapping count and sentenced him to death for the murder of Linda Ann Thompson. Shelton was convicted of murder, kidnapping, rape, and forcible oral sodomy, and received life sentences.

During the sentencing phase of Hawkins’s trial, the State presented evidence of additional violent conduct. This included the murder of David Coupez in Denver, Colorado, the kidnapping and sexual assault of two teenage girls in California, the kidnapping and robbery of two women, violence against Shirley Pitts, and a shooting at a former employer’s car. The jury found four aggravating circumstances: that Hawkins killed Thompson to avoid arrest, that the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel, that he was a continuing threat, and that he had previously been convicted of a violent felony.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Hawkins’s conviction and death sentence. His later federal habeas appeal was denied by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2002. The United States Supreme Court denied further relief shortly before his execution.

Don Wilson Hawkins Jr. was executed by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester on April 8, 2003. He was pronounced dead at 6:07 p.m. His final legal status was executed.