Bio

Patrick Mahon McGee was born on May 3, 1907, in Wilburton, Oklahoma. He completed education through the eighth grade and later worked as a fruit picker and laborer. McGee was married, though by 1959 he was traveling with a woman named Millie Fain, with whom he had been living for several months. He was also a heavy drinker. 

Murder Story

On July 31, 1959, Patrick Mahon McGee was traveling through Arizona with Millie Fain on their way to California. Their vehicle became disabled in Coconino County, and they received help from Ary J. Best. Best assisted the pair near U.S. Highway 66 east of Flagstaff. Prosecutors later stated that McGee attacked the victim during a robbery. He stabbed Best multiple times in the chest and back with a large hunting knife. While Best lay mortally wounded, McGee forced Millie Fain to stab the victim in the throat area.

After the killing, McGee and Fain searched the victim’s pockets, stole his money, automobile, and personal belongings, then left the scene without reporting the crime. They spent the stolen money in Flagstaff and Williams before boarding a train toward California.

The following day, August 1, 1959, authorities arrested the pair in Los Angeles. McGee initially denied robbery and claimed he had acted while defending Fain from an attempted sexual assault. Prosecutors rejected that account, and Fain testified that the killing had been unprovoked and motivated by robbery.

McGee was tried in Coconino County later that year. After a nine-day trial, a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder on December 16, 1959, and imposed the death penalty. He pursued appeals through the Arizona courts and federal courts, but his conviction and sentence were upheld. On March 8, 1963, Patrick Mahon McGee was executed by lethal gas at Arizona State Prison.