Bio

Stressla Lynn Johnson was born on April 9, 1957, By 1987, Johnson was living in Portland, Oregon, including periods spent at his mother's residence in North Portland. It was during this period that he became acquainted with one of his eventual victims, Beverly Gail Wilder. According to testimony presented during court proceedings, Johnson met Wilder through a mutual acquaintance and occasionally visited her apartment. Witnesses later testified that Johnson expressed a romantic and sexual interest in Wilder before her death.

Murder Story

In 1987, Stressla Lynn Johnson committed two murders in Multnomah County, Oregon, involving women who were sexually assaulted and killed by ligature strangulation using telephone cords.

The first victim was Beverly Gail Wilder, a 34-year-old woman living in a one-bedroom apartment in North Portland with her 18-month-old son. On the evening of October 8, 1987, Wilder spent time socializing with neighbors and drinking alcohol before returning home with her child. Witnesses testified that Johnson accompanied Wilder to a nearby market that night and later returned with her to her apartment. Another resident of the apartment complex reported seeing Johnson inside Wilder's apartment during the early morning hours, where both Johnson and Wilder appeared to be drinking beer.

The following morning, October 9, 1987, Wilder's body was discovered in her bedroom. She was found partially covered by bedding, with a telephone cord wrapped tightly around her neck multiple times. The cord had been removed from a telephone in the apartment's living room. The apartment showed signs of being ransacked, although investigators found no evidence of forced entry and nothing appeared to have been stolen.

An autopsy determined that Wilder died from asphyxiation caused by ligature strangulation. Medical examiners also documented injuries to her face and head, as well as evidence suggesting sexual assault, including the presence of sperm and tears to both the vaginal and anal areas. Investigators later recovered Johnson's fingerprints from items inside the apartment, including a glass, a beer can, and the telephone connected to the cord used in the killing.

Johnson was also linked to the murder of Bobbie Jean Johnson, a 51-year-old woman who was sexually assaulted and strangled with a telephone cord approximately seven months apart from Wilder's killing. Despite sharing the same surname, the two were not related. Prosecutors introduced evidence of Bobbie Jean Johnson's murder during the proceedings involving Wilder's death in an effort to establish a pattern of conduct.

On March 28, 1989, Johnson was sentenced to death after being convicted in connection with Beverly Wilder's murder. However, in 1992, the Oregon Supreme Court overturned his conviction and death sentence, ruling that evidence related to Bobbie Jean Johnson's murder had been improperly admitted during the trial. The court concluded that the admission of that evidence unfairly prejudiced the proceedings.

Johnson was later retried, and the death sentence was ultimately replaced with a sentence of life imprisonment. Although the available records confirm that he remains incarcerated, publicly accessible sources do not consistently specify the exact terms of his life sentence.

In 1991, while incarcerated, Johnson filed a civil lawsuit seeking $10,000 in damages against Multnomah County, alleging that a jail guard violated his civil rights by slamming his head against a wall. A United States magistrate judge dismissed the lawsuit in 1993.

Stressla Lynn Johnson remains imprisoned, serving a life sentence for his convictions.