William Dean Wickline Jr. was born on March 15, 1952, in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, into what was later described as a stable and loving family. During his early years, Wickline was a good student and an active member of his high school wrestling team, showing potential for a bright future. However, by the late 1960s, his behavior began to shift. His grades declined, and he started engaging in minor delinquency, including vandalizing his principal’s car.

Wickline’s first arrest came at age 19, in 1971, and over the next decade, he would be arrested at least nine more times. His offenses ranged from burglary and drug trafficking to operating a prostitution ring. He spent time in multiple Ohio prisons, where he reportedly became fascinated with psychology, lifted weights, and integrated into the prison social structure.

Upon his release in November 1979, Wickline was increasingly volatile. He displayed a fascination with knives, and his relationships became shorter and more aggressive. One associate claimed Wickline participated in ritualistic activities involving animal sacrifice, although this allegation was never substantiated.

Wickline’s first known murder occurred on November 11, 1979, in Parkersburg, West Virginia. The victim, Charles Morgan Marsh, a 34-year-old construction worker from South Carolina, was found brutally murdered in a hotel room. Marsh’s body was staged grotesquely, handcuffed behind the back, strangled with a phone cord, and decapitated with surgical precision. His severed head was placed beside the bed on a nightstand, its hair combed post-mortem. The brutality led investigators to believe it was a contract killing, though no suspects were immediately charged.

Wickline’s most gruesome and confirmed killings happened nearly three years later. On August 14, 1982, he and his girlfriend Teresa Kemp visited the home of Christopher and Peggy Lerch, a couple involved in drug trafficking, over a $6,000 drug debt. An argument broke out. Under the guise of needing help with a clogged bathroom drain, Wickline lured Christopher upstairs and slit his throat. Fearing that Peggy would identify him, he returned downstairs and strangled her as she slept. He then dismembered both victims in their bathtub, placing their remains in plastic garbage bags and disposing of them across various dumpsters around Franklin County, Ohio. To mark the act, he kept Peggy’s wedding ring as a souvenir.

Shortly after the murders, Wickline was arrested on unrelated charges for breaking into a Nelsonville drug store and sentenced to 1.5 years at Pickaway Correctional. His crimes may have remained hidden had Teresa Kemp not come forward and confessed in December 1984.

Wickline was soon indicted for the Lerch murders, and his trial began on July 30, 1985. Evidence included Kemp’s testimony, details of the crime scene, and Wickline’s criminal history. He was convicted of both murders, receiving a death sentence for Peggy’s and life imprisonment for Christopher’s. Charges for the Marsh murder were eventually dropped once the Ohio death sentence was confirmed.

Despite numerous appeals over the years, courts upheld the ruling. Wickline was considered a highly dangerous offender, with multiple suspicions of other murders tied to him.

On March 30, 2004, after nearly 20 years on death row, Wickline was executed by lethal injection. His final meal reflected indulgence including filet mignon, potato salad, strawberries, butter pecan ice cream, and shortcake. He reportedly gave two thumbs up to his brothers watching from behind the glass and delivered parting words critical of the justice system: “May tomorrow see the courts shaped by more wisdom and less politics.”