Carlton Gary

Carlton Michael Gary (September 24, 1950 – March 15, 2018) was an American serial killer who murdered three elderly women in Columbus, Georgia, and one in Syracuse, New York, between 1975 and 1978, though he is suspected of at least four more killings.

Carlton Gary was born on September 24, 1950, in Columbus, Georgia.

His father was a construction worker who wanted nothing to do with him and would not accept any financial responsibility for him.

Gary met his biological father only once, when he was 12 years old.

Gary's mother was extremely poor and, as a result, they frequently relocated.

He was malnourished most of the time and was often left with his aunt or great-aunt, both maids for elderly, wealthy women.

In elementary school, Gary suffered serious head trauma when he was knocked unconscious in a playground accident.

In his teens, he was a heavy drug user.

Between the ages of 14 and 18, he was arrested numerous times for robbery, arson and assault.

During that time, he married a woman named Sheila, and had two children.

In 1970, he moved to Albany, New York, where he had plans to become a singer, but he continued with his criminal activities.

On February 12, 1970, Marion Brewer, 62, was found strangled in her room at the Hampton Hotel in Albany.

She was discovered face up on her bed, had been raped, and had visible marks on her throat.

Her pocketbook was found open near her head with no money inside.

Two months later, on April 14, 1970, Nellie M. Farmer, 85, was found dead in her room at the Wellington Hotel, also in Albany.

Her partially clothed body was on the floor, next to the bed, with a long piece of fabric near her neck.

She had been raped and her death was listed as "asphyxiation due to manual strangulation."

After Gary attempted an assault on a third elderly woman, he was arrested and his fingerprints matched one left at the scene of the Farmer murder.

Gary admitted having taken part in a robbery, but he claimed that an accomplice, John Lee Mitchell, was responsible for the actual murder.

Gary testified against Mitchell in court, and Mitchell was charged, despite no material evidence connecting him to the crime.

Gary was charged only with robbery, a sentence he served in the Onondaga County Correctional Institution in Jamesville, New York.

He was paroled in 1975 and moved to Syracuse, New York.

Here, he attacked, raped and strangled two more elderly women in their homes; one died, but the other survived.

The attacks occurred within four days of each other.

The two survivors were not able to identify Gary positively, as the crimes occurred in the dark; at least one victim was sure that her attacker was a mustachioed black male, and she was strangled with a scarf.

Gary was never charged for any of these crimes, but was instead sent back to prison for parole violation and robbery after he was caught trying to sell coins stolen from the same apartment building as one of the surviving Syracuse victims.

On August 22, 1977, Gary escaped from his low-security prison by sawing through the bars of his cell and made it back to Columbus, Georgia.

One month after his escape, on September 16, 1977, he raped, beat and strangled 60-year-old Ferne Jackson to death with a nylon stocking at her home in the Wynnton district of Columbus.

Nine days later, he killed 71-year-old Jean Dimenstein in a similar fashion, followed by 89 year-old Florence Scheible on October 21 and 69 year-old Martha Thurmond on October 25.

On December 28, Gary struck again, raping and killing 74-year-old Kathleen Woodruff.

This time, there was no stocking left at the scene.

Gary was arrested in December 1978 for an armed robbery and sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Two months later on February 12, 1978, Gary attacked Ruth Schwob, but fled after she triggered a bedside alarm.

He went just two blocks down the road before breaking into another house and raping and strangling 78-year-old Mildred Borom.

His final victim was 61-year-old Janet Cofer, whom he murdered on April 20, 1978.

Police announced that they suspected an African-American man of the murders.

Things became more complicated when a man calling himself the "Chairman of the Forces of Evil" threatened to murder selected black women if the Stocking Strangler was not stopped.

He escaped from custody in 1983 and was caught a year later.

Evidence was found linking him to the earlier murders and he was convicted and sentenced to death in August 1986.

He was executed by lethal injection on March 15, 2018.