Posted on 02/25/2018 7:32:36 PM PST by nickcarraway
More than 40 years after three women were raped and murdered in the Wynnton area, convicted “Stocking Strangler” Carlton Michael Gary faces an execution date in the grisly slayings.
An order was filed Friday in Muscogee Superior Court, setting the seven-day window for the execution to begin at noon Thursday, March 15 and ending at noon a week later. Gary has concluded all his direct appeals, including state and federal habeas corpus proceedings.
District Attorney Julia Slater was unavailable for comment because of a death in the family. Senior Assistant District Attorney Don Kelly, who helped fight Gary's final appeals, said, "We are moving forward to make sure his sentence is fulfilled."
Gary was convicted in three 1977 rapes and stranglings: 89-year-old Florence Scheible, Martha Thurmond, 70, and Kathleen Woodruff , 74, though prosecutors used evidence from all seven murders and assaults that occurred in late 1977 and early 1978.
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Stockings were left around the victims’ necks. At his trial in 1986, Gary was implicated to show a pattern of a ritual serial killer and he was the sole perpetrator.
Gary, 67, moved closer to a date with death after the Georgia Supreme Court rejected an appeal for reconsideration in his case on Jan. 16 and sent it back to Muscogee Superior Court. The defense for Gary has argued that because prosecutors used all the cases to prove his guilt, any new evidence from them that does not match him could have led jurors in 1986 to acquit him or give him a sentence other than death.
Gary’s original execution date was set for Dec. 16, 2009. He was nine days away from death when he sought post-conviction DNA testing. The defense and prosecution agreed in February 2010 to test stranglings evidence deemed suitable. The tests yielded mixed results.
On Sept. 1, 2017, the judge ruled that it was not “material” enough to have led jurors to render a different verdict or sentencing. That decision was appealed to the Supreme Court but it was denied Dec. 1.
Here are relevant cases, starting when Gary lived in New York in the early 1970s:
On April 14, 1970, Nellie Farmer, 85, was raped and strangled and her body left covered in her home in the Wellington Hotel in Albany, N.Y. Gary’s fingerprint was found at the scene. He claimed another man killed Farmer. The defense maintains a shoe print on a mat in the bathroom where the killer washed off was too small to fit Gary, who wears a size 13½.
On Jan. 2, 1977, Jean Frost, 55, was raped and nearly choked to death in her home in Syracuse, N.Y. Gary had a watch taken from Frost’s home when police arrested him two days later. Again he blamed another man.
After Gary moved home to Columbus, Gertrude Miller, 64, was beaten with a board and raped here in her 2703 Hood St. home. Her assailant left behind knotted stockings he took from her dresser. She in 1986 identified Gary as her rapist, but a later DNA test on her clothing yielded a profile that did not match him.
On Sept. 16, 1977, Mary Willis “Fern” Jackson, 59, of 2505 17th St., was found brutally beaten, raped and strangled with a stocking and sash. Her body was left covered. She was considered the first of the seven “Stocking Strangler” victims. Gary was not convicted in her case.
On Sept. 24, 1977, Jean Dimenstein, 71, was found raped and strangled with a stocking in her home that then had the address 3027 21st St. (the street has since been renamed). Her body was left covered with sheets and a pillow. A later DNA test from her vaginal washings yielded a profile matching Gary, but he was not convicted in her case.
On Oct. 21, 1977, Florence Scheible, 89, was found raped and strangled with a stocking in her 1941 Dimon St. home, which today has a different address. Her body was left covered. Gary's right thumbprint was found on a door frame leading into Scheible's bedroom. He was convicted in her case.
On Oct. 25, 1977, Martha Thurmond, 70, was found raped and strangled with a stocking in her 2614 Marion St. home. Her body was covered by a pillow, blankets and sheets. Gary's fingerprint was found on the frame of a rear bedroom window. He was convicted in this case, from which police collected semen samples later thought suitable for DNA testing. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab accidentally tainted and destroyed that evidence.
On Dec. 28, 1977, Kathleen Woodruff, 74, was found raped and strangled in her 1811 Buena Vista Road home, which later was demolished during an Aflac expansion. Gary's right little fingerprint was found on the aluminum window screen where the intruder entered, and his palm print was found on the windowsill just inside. He was convicted in her case.
On Feb. 11, 1978, Ruth Schwob, 74, of 1800 Carter Ave., was nearly strangled to death by an intruder she fought off, pressing a panic alarm by her bed. Police found her with a stocking wrapped around her neck. The defense maintains a shoe print found on an air-conditioning unit the intruder stood upon to climb into her window was too small to match Gary.
On Feb. 12, 1978, Mildred Borom, 78, 1612 Forest Ave., about two blocks from Schwob’s home, was found raped and strangled with a cord cut from window blinds. Her body was covered with a garment. Gary was not convicted in her death.
On April 20, 1978, Janet Cofer, 61, of 3783 Steam Mill Road, was found raped and strangled with a stocking. A pillow covered her face. Investigators found a bite mark on her breast, and had a dentist create a mold from it. The indentations indicate the killer had dental flaws that Gary never had, the defense argues. Gary was not convicted in her case.
Good Bye Dude!
No swift justice when the lawyers are on the taxpayers tit.
More than 40 years...
I wonder how many relatives of the victims are still alive?
Let’s just get on with it.
So the main legal b.s. has been going on since 1984-86. UNREAL.
This POS should have been terminated 30+ years ago!!!
The Leftards who have wrecked our “justice” system truly are scum.
40 years, well that is some swift justice, eh?
Amazing no one wanted to ban stockings? Yet?
That’s the first thing I though of too. I’m guessing none of their siblings ever saw justice, and a bunch of their children didn’t either. 40 years!?
can you say SICKO !?!
Just watched an Unsolved Mysteries episode where a guy killed his girlfriend while staying at her mother’s house in Florida. He stuffed the body under the bed and took off (to Canada).
Mom thought they had left without saying goodbye but found the body after a few days. Guy was located and extradited back to Florida where he spent a whopping SIX years in prison before getting out on parole.
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