Robert E. Williams was born on October 14, 1936, in East Chicago, Indiana. Raised in a dysfunctional and violent household with five brothers and one sister, Williams endured physical abuse from his alcoholic father. His mother eventually abandoned the family, and he was placed in foster care at age 14, bouncing between multiple homes.

Williams served in the U.S. Army and was discharged honorably as a corporal in 1958. In the early 1970s, he moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, and in 1972 married a white woman named Merrily. Their relationship deteriorated, and by 1977 they were separated. Williams worked in factories and the railroad industry.

On August 3, 1977, his divorce from Merrily was finalized. Enraged and unstable, he allegedly kidnapped and sexually assaulted her shortly after. Though arrested, he was released on bond by August 10.

Williams' spree began shortly after his release from jail in August 1977. On August 11, he murdered two single mothers who are a 25-year-old Patricia McGarry and 25-year-old Catherine Brooks, in their Lincoln, Nebraska duplex. Both were shot three times with a .22-caliber handgun. Brooks was also raped. McGarry’s two young children were found alive, her son had been hiding under a bed for hours.

Later that day, he raped and held another woman hostage in Lincoln for six hours.

The following day, Williams traveled to Sioux Rapids, Iowa, where he broke into a farmhouse and raped and fatally shot 51-year-old Virginia Rowe in the chest with a shotgun. Her body was found by her husband later that day.

On August 13, he robbed and kidnapped 55-year-old Walter Behun in Minnesota, tied him up in a railroad caboose, and stole his car. He then abducted 20-year-old Katherine Billings in Saint Paul, raped her, shot her twice, and left her to die in a remote field. Miraculously, Billings survived and managed to escape.

After nearly a week on the run, Williams was captured back in Lincoln on August 18 while trying to jump on a freight train. He surrendered without resistance and was found carrying a tire iron.

Williams was investigated in other murders during this time, including the killing of Shirleen Howard and Patricia Webb, but no links were established.

Williams was sentenced to death in 1978 for the murder and rape of Catherine Brooks. Though his conviction in the murder of McGarry was overturned, his sentence for Brooks stood.

On December 2, 1997, Williams was executed by electric chair who is the last to die by this method in Nebraska. He smiled during the execution, blew kisses to witnesses, and even apologized to Wayne Rowe, husband of Virginia Rowe, who accepted the apology.