Bio

Henry Curtis Jackson Jr. was born on October 17, 1964. By 1990, he was living in Mississippi and was part of a large extended family in the Greenwood area of Leflore County. Jackson’s mother, Martha Jackson, kept a safe in her home. Jackson knew about the safe and believed it contained money. This knowledge became the motive for the crime. On the night of the murders, he went to his mother’s home expecting her to be away at church and intending to take the safe.

The crime involved several members of his own family. His sister Regina Jackson was at the home with children from the family, including Jackson’s nieces and nephews. Jackson later admitted that he went there with the goal of taking the safe because he needed money to pay bills.

Murder Story

On November 1, 1990, Martha Jackson left her home near Greenwood, Mississippi, to attend church with four of her older grandchildren. Her daughter, Regina Jackson, stayed behind with several younger children. The children in the home included Regina’s daughters Dominique and Shunterica, as well as Antonio, Andrew, Sarah, and Andrea.

That evening, Henry Curtis Jackson Jr. arrived at the house. When Regina asked why he was there, he said he had come for the safe kept in their mother’s bedroom closet. He also told her that he had come to kill everyone in the home.

Jackson attacked Regina first, stabbing her in the neck. He then turned on the children. Dominique, age 5; Antonio, age 3; Shunterica, age 2; and Andrew, age 2, were stabbed to death. Sarah, age 11, was also stabbed but survived. One-year-old Andrea survived as well.

After the attacks, Jackson tried to move the safe and searched for another safe he believed might be in the home. When he noticed lights at a nearby house, he fled through a bathroom window and escaped to his car, which he had parked about two blocks away.

Jackson surrendered four days later and admitted the stabbings to police. He told investigators that he had gone to the house to steal the safe while his mother was at church. He also said he brought a kitchen knife with him and cut the telephone line before entering the home.

Jackson was convicted in 1991 of four counts of capital murder and two counts of aggravated assault. On September 14, 1991, he was sentenced to death for the murders. His conviction and death sentence were upheld through years of state and federal appeals.

Henry Curtis Jackson Jr. was executed by lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman on June 5, 2012.