Wayne Henry Garrison was born on August 26, 1959, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. From a young age, Garrison showed signs of violence. A little after he received a pet rabbit as a gift, he killed it by breaking its neck. This act was a troubling start to his life.

When he was 13 years old, Garrison was at his uncle's house on Halloween in 1972. In the middle of the night, he took his 4-year-old cousin, Dana Dyane Dean, into the crawlspace under the house. There, he tied a felt headband around her neck and asphyxiated her until she was unresponsive. When Dana’s father realized she was missing, he reported her disappearance around 7 a.m. The police found her body in the crawlspace not long after. Garrison was quickly arrested and confessed to the crime.

After this incident, a judge sent Garrison to Griffin Memorial Hospital in Norman, Oklahoma, for treatment. In 1974, during a 10-day leave from the hospital, Garrison kidnapped a 3-year-old boy named Craig Neal on May 29. He suffocated Craig and hid his body under an abandoned house. Craig’s remains were discovered a few days later. Garrison was arrested again and charged with murder. However, he later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree manslaughter. He received a four-year prison sentence and was released when he turned 17 in March 1977.

On June 20, 1989, Wayne Henry Garrison abducted 13-year-old Justin Delbert Wiles, who lived close to him in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After taking Wiles, Garrison molested and ultimately killed him. He dismembered Wiles' body and disposed of the remains in Lake Bixhoma. Four days later, a fisherman discovered the remains.

Garrison became the main suspect in the case due to several witnesses who identified him and his vehicle during the abduction. However, the police lacked sufficient evidence to charge him at that time. Garrison provided an alibi claiming he was fishing, although he gave conflicting accounts about the locations. In an unrelated matter, he faced charges for insurance fraud.

On February 9, 1996, Garrison was arrested for giving powerful narcotics to an 11-year-old boy. He pleaded guilty in 1997 and was sent to prison. As his release date approached in 1999, Oklahoma investigators intensified their efforts to gather evidence for the murder of Justin Wiles. During his time in prison, a bite mark found on Garrison's body became significant evidence. Shortly before his release, dental records from Wiles' body matched the bite mark.

Garrison was released from prison on October 22, 1999, but was arrested just minutes later for the first-degree murder of Justin Wiles. He insisted on his innocence and was extradited back to Oklahoma for formal charges. His lawyers named another suspect in the case, but the investigations had never linked this man to Wiles' murder.

In November 2001, after a trial, a jury found Garrison guilty of murder after deliberating for six hours. His sentencing was initially postponed due to a suicide attempt while in prison. In January 2002, he received a death sentence, but this was later overturned on appeal. In 2007, Garrison accepted a deal that allowed him to have his death sentence replaced with a life sentence without parole.