Lawrence Lingle Brittain

Robert Wesley Knighton (February 5, 1941 – May 27, 2003) was an American spree killer who, after serving time for kidnapping and manslaughter in Missouri embarked on a four-day, two-state killing spree along with Lawrence Lingle Brittain (born September 11, 1972) and Ruth Renee Williams (born February 1967).

Brittain and Williams both pleaded guilty and testified against Knighton in exchange for leniency, and have since been released from prison.

In 1968, Knighton was convicted of armed robbery in Oklahoma and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Brittain was born in Clinton, Missouri, and dropped out of school in 8th grade.

At the time of the murders, he was on probation for auto theft.

On September 15, 1973, Knighton, who had been released from prison days ago and was now wanted on assault charges for an incident in which a man was stabbed and a woman was non-fatally strangled with a telephone cord, shot Claude Day, 53, and his son, 32-year-old Coffier Day, with a pistol after Knighton and Coffier had an argument.

Claude was shot in the neck and survived, but Coffier was fatally wounded.

Immediately following the shootings, Knighton went to the home of a young couple and kidnapped them and their 6-year-old daughter, threatening to kill the girl if they did not comply.

During the kidnapping, the man was forced to drink beer and vodka.

The kidnapping, which lasted 11 hours, came to an end after Knighton stopped at a café to buy the family food.

The woman, fearing her family would be killed, attacked Knighton with a steak knife, cutting his face.

Knighton was arrested shortly afterward, and the woman would later testify at the sentencing phase of Knighton's murder trial.

Knighton was convicted of three counts of kidnapping and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

He was charged with first degree murder for killing Coffier Day, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter and had 10 years added to his sentence.

Knighton also pleaded guilty to first degree robbery and received a concurrent 10-year sentence.

He was sent to the Missouri State Penitentiary.

While in prison, he joined a white supremacist gang and got several Swastika tattoos as well as a "White Power" tattoo.

In 1989, Knighton was sent to a halfway house in Kansas City, Missouri.

While he was there, he started a romantic relationship with a 22-year-old woman named Ruth Renee Williams, who was in a program for drug addicts, and a 17-year-old boy named Lawrence Lingle Brittain.

In 1990, after learning that Brittain would be moved to a more restrictive jail setting, they and Williams decided to flee the city.

Knighton told Brittain, according to testimony, that they would be committing robberies and possibly murders.

Knighton stole a van in which the trio made their getaway.

The three intended to flee to either California or Florida.

The day after their escape, the three drove to the home of Knighton's mother, who gave them money.

The following day, they drove to the home of Frank Merrifield, a friend of Brittain's father, in Clinton, Missouri.

Merrifield was inside with his stepson, Ray Donahue.

Merrifield showed Knighton a pistol and invited him to test it.

Knighton then fatally shot Merrifield and Donahue and stole their guns and money.

After the murders, the trio drove south to Oklahoma.

After Knighton became concerned that they had driven the stolen van too long, the two tried to steal another vehicle, but failed.

Knighton was convicted of two murders in Oklahoma and executed in 2003.

Knighton, who was nicknamed "Bobby" as a child, did not like to talk about his upbringing, but some details are known.

He was born in Springfield, Missouri, to a woman who had eight husbands and many boyfriends.

Knighton said he could not recall wanting to be anything in life.

He said he idolized Elvis Presley and dreamed of becoming a singer at one point.

Knighton was emotionally and physically abused as a child.

When he was about 6 years old, he was forced to sit outside during a Thanksgiving dinner at his grandparents' house for looking too much like his father.

One of Knighton's mother's boyfriends hit him hard enough that he was sent to the hospital.

Another destroyed his favorite toy.

Knighton, who only stayed in school through the fourth grade, ended up in a boy's reformatory when he was 12, where he said that boys were punished for misbehavior with beatings and were placed in a cellar for days at a time.