Eddie James

Last updated

Eddie James
Edward James mugshot.jpg
Born
Edward Thomas James

(1961-08-04) August 4, 1961 (age 63)
Criminal statusIncarcerated at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Florida
Conviction(s) First-degree murder (x2)
Aggravated child abuse
Attempted sexual battery
Sexual battery of a minor under the age of 12 (x2)
Kidnapping
Grand theft
Grand theft auto
Criminal penalty Death (x2)
Life imprisonment (x3)
Details
Victims2
DateSeptember 20, 1993
Country United States
State(s) Florida
WeaponsStrangulation
Knife
Candlestick
Date apprehended
October 6, 1993

Edward Thomas James (born August 4, 1961) [1] is an American murderer and sex offender. His being featured on the national television show America's Most Wanted led to his capture and conviction for the September 1993 murders of an 8-year-old girl and her grandmother in Casselberry, Seminole County, Florida. He was convicted and sentenced to death.

Contents

Biography

James was born in Bristol, Pennsylvania. [2] He believed his last name was Matlack until the age of 10 when he discovered that the man raising him was his stepfather. At 11, James met and went to live with his biological father, who introduced him to drugs. Ironically, his father was a drug counselor. [3] In his mid-teens, James returned to live with his mother in Casselberry, Florida. His life now revolved around fighting and drugs, and he claimed to have blackouts. His mother sought assistance from a mental health counselor; however, his violence and anger continued. [4]

James dropped out of high school in his junior year and joined the U.S. Army when he was 17. He was stationed in Germany but was soon discharged for "failure to conform." [5] James returned to Casselberry, where he became friends with a man named Tim Dick. James was welcomed into Dick's extended family, and, in the summer of 1993, he rented a room from Dick's mother, Betty. [6] [7]

Murders

On September 20, 1993, James returned home from a party to find Betty Dick's four grandchildren sleeping in the living room. [8] He grabbed 8-year-old Toni Neuner by the neck and strangled her into unconsciousness. He then took her to his bedroom and, believing she was already dead, raped her, after which he put her between his bed and the wall. She later died as a result of the strangulation. [9] [10]

James proceeded to Dick's bedroom, where he hit her in the head with a candlestick and repeatedly stabbed her with a knife. Dick screamed, waking up Toni's sister, 9-year-old Wendi, who came to the bedroom. [11] James tied Wendi up and put her in the bathroom. [12] He got a butcher knife from the kitchen and returned to Dick's bedroom, sticking the knife in her back. After showering and taking jewelry from Dick's bedroom, James fled in her car. [10]

Apprehension and sentencing

On September 28, 1993, America's Most Wanted (AMW) broadcast information related to the case, resulting in hundreds of viewer phone calls. Several tips indicated that he was traveling west. On October 5, 1993, AMW rebroadcast the details of the case, including this updated information. The next day, a viewer spotted James at the California state unemployment office in Bakersfield and contacted authorities. [9] Once in police custody, he gave two taped statements. [13]

On April 5, 1995, James pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, and one count each of aggravated child abuse, attempted sexual battery, kidnapping, grand theft and grand theft auto. He also pleaded no contest to two counts of capital sexual battery charged by separate information. [14]

On August 18, 1995, James was sentenced to death for the murders of Toni Neuner and Betty Dick, as well sentences ranging from 15 years to life on the other charges. [15] He is incarcerated at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Florida.

See all

Footnotes

  1. "Inmate Population Information Detail - Edward T. James". Florida Department of Corrections . Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  2. Walsh, p. 4
  3. Walsh, pp. 4-5 "And here's the sick irony: Eddie's dad was a drug counselor. 'Eddie remembered that he made a joke out of how he was a drug counselor, and he did more drugs than the people he was counseling."
  4. Walsh, pp. 5-6
  5. Walsh, p. 6
  6. Walsh, p. 7
  7. Edward James vs. State of Florida, p. 3
  8. Edward James vs. State of Florida, pp. 4-5
  9. 1 2 Walsh
  10. 1 2 Edward James vs. State of Florida, p. 5
  11. Brooks, Mary (October 7, 1993). "'Most Wanted' Eddie James Jailed In California". tribunedigital-orlandosentinel. Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved April 21, 2017.
  12. Edward James vs. State of Florida, p. 5 "Appellant turned around and saw Wendi, at which point he grabbed her, tied her up, and placed her in the bathroom. Wendi asked Appellant if he was going to hurt her brothers, and Appellant told her, 'NO, I'm not going to hurt your brother, or I'm not going to hurt you. You've been through enough pain.'"
  13. Edward James vs. State of Florida, p. 6
  14. Edward James vs. State of Florida, p. 1
  15. Edward James vs. State of Florida, p. 2

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeffrey Dahmer</span> American serial killer (1960–1994)

Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer, also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee Monster, was an American serial killer and sex offender who killed and dismembered seventeen males between 1978 and 1991. Many of his later murders involved necrophilia, cannibalism, and the permanent preservation of body parts—typically all or part of the skeleton.

America's Most Wanted is an American television program whose first run was produced by 20th Television, and second run is under the Fox Alternative Entertainment division of Fox Corporation. At the time of its cancellation by the Fox television network in June 2011, it was the longest-running program in the network's history, a mark since surpassed by The Simpsons, although the program was revived ten years later. The show started off as a half-hour program on February 7, 1988. In 1990, the show's format was changed from 30 minutes to 60 minutes. The show's format was reverted to 30 minutes in 1995, and then back to 60 minutes in 1996. A short-lived syndicated spinoff titled America's Most Wanted: Final Justice aired during the 1995–96 season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Walsh (television host)</span> American television presenter (born 1945)

John Edward Walsh, Jr. is an American television presenter, criminologist, victims' rights activist, and the host/creator of America's Most Wanted. He is known for his anti-crime activism, with which he became involved following the murder of his son, Adam, in 1981; in 2008, deceased serial killer Ottis Toole was officially named as Adam's killer. Walsh was part-owner of the now defunct National Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington, D.C. He also anchored an investigative documentary series, The Hunt with John Walsh, which debuted on CNN in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danny Rolling</span> American serial killer (1954–2006)

Daniel "Danny" Harold Rolling, known as The Gainesville Ripper, was an American serial killer who murdered five college students in Gainesville, Florida over four days in August 1990.

<i>Nurse Betty</i> 2000 American black comedy film

Nurse Betty is a 2000 American black comedy film directed by Neil LaBute and starring Renée Zellweger as the title character, a small town, Kansas housewife-waitress who suffers a nervous breakdown after witnessing her husband's torture murder, and starts obsessively pursuing her favorite television soap opera character, while in a fugue state. Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock play the hitmen who killed her husband and subsequently pursue her to Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeffrey R. MacDonald</span> Military physician, convicted of murder

Jeffrey Robert MacDonald is an American former medical doctor and United States Army captain who was convicted in August 1979 of murdering his pregnant wife and two daughters in February 1970 while serving as an Army Special Forces physician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Bobby Kent</span> Murder of Iranian American man in Florida, U.S.

Bobby Kent was a 20-year-old American man who was murdered by seven people, including his best friend, Martin Joseph "Marty" Puccio Jr in Weston, Florida. The murder was adapted into the 2001 film Bully.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lewis Powell (conspirator)</span> American soldier and conspirator (1844–1865)

Lewis Thornton Powell was an American Confederate soldier who attempted to assassinate William Henry Seward as part of the Lincoln assassination plot. Wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg, he later served in Mosby's Rangers before working with the Confederate Secret Service in Maryland. John Wilkes Booth recruited him into a plot to kidnap Lincoln and turn the president over to the Confederacy, but then decided to assassinate Lincoln, Seward, and Vice President Andrew Johnson instead, and assigned Powell the task to kill Seward.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendi Richter</span> American professional wrestler

Victoria "Wendi" Richter is an American former professional wrestler. She began her professional wrestling career in companies such as the National Wrestling Alliance, where she teamed with Joyce Grable, with whom she held the NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship twice. In the 1980s, she joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). She held the WWF Women's Championship twice and feuded with The Fabulous Moolah over the title. She was also involved in a storyline with singer Cyndi Lauper called the "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection". Richter, however, left the WWF after losing the championship in controversial fashion. She then worked in the World Wrestling Council and American Wrestling Association, where she held both companies' women's titles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Erskine</span> American serial killer

Scott Thomas Erskine was an American serial killer on California's death row, convicted in 2003 for the 1993 murder of two California boys. He was incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison.

John Joseph Connolly Jr. is an American former FBI agent who was convicted of racketeering, obstruction of justice and murder charges stemming from his relationship with Boston mobsters James "Whitey" Bulger, Steve Flemmi and the Winter Hill Gang.

"Young Hunting" is a traditional folk song, Roud 47, catalogued by Francis James Child as Child Ballad number 68, and has its origin in Scotland. Like most traditional songs, numerous variants of the song exist worldwide, notably under the title of "Henry Lee" and "Love Henry" in the United States and "Earl Richard" and sometimes "The Proud Girl" in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brittany Holberg</span> American convicted murderer on death row

Brittany Marlowe Holberg is a woman on death row in the U.S. state of Texas. On Friday, March 27, 1998, Holberg was convicted of the November 1996 robbery and murder of 80-year-old A. B. Towery Sr. (1916–1996) in his southwest Amarillo home, and was sentenced to death by 251st state District Judge Patrick Pirtle. The victim had been stabbed nearly 60 times with such weapons as a paring knife, a butcher knife, a grapefruit knife and a fork. He also suffered blunt trauma to the head from a hammer, and a foot-long lamp pole had been shoved more than five inches (127 mm) down his throat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Markel</span> American lawyer, academic, and murder victim (1972–2014)

Daniel Eric Markel was a Canadian-born attorney and a law professor, who wrote various works on retribution in criminal law and sentencing, with a focus on the role of punishment in the criminal justice system. He earned a J.D. degree from Harvard University in 2001 and after working as a law clerk to a federal judge and as an associate at a law firm, joined the faculty of Florida State University in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drug Free America Foundation</span> Drug policy organization

The Drug Free America Foundation (DFAF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1976 by former US Ambassador Mel Sembler, his wife Betty Sembler (née Schlesinger), and Joseph Zappala as Straight, Inc., renamed The Straight Foundation, Inc. in 1985 and Drug Free America Foundation in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timothy Wilson Spencer</span> American serial killer (1962–1994)

Timothy Wilson Spencer, also known as The Southside Strangler, was an American serial killer who committed three rapes and murders in Richmond, Virginia, and one in Arlington, Virginia, in the fall of 1987. In addition, he is believed to have committed at least one previous murder, in 1984, for which a different man, David Vasquez, was wrongfully convicted. He was known to police as a prolific home burglar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Costa</span> American serial killer

Antone Charles "Tony" Costa, sometimes referred to as the Cape Cod Vampire or the Cape Cod Cannibal was an American serial killer who was active in and around the town of Truro, Massachusetts, during 1968–1969. The dismembered remains of four women were found in or near a forest clearing where Costa grew marijuana. His crimes gained international media attention when the district attorney falsely alluded to cannibalism.

Wendi Elizabeth Andriano is an American female prisoner on death row in Arizona. She was convicted of the 2000 murder of her terminally ill husband, Joe. She is incarcerated at the Lumley Unit in the Arizona State Prison Complex - Perryville. Her inmate number is #191593.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Ramirez</span> American serial killer and sex offender (1960–2013)

Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramirez, better known as Richard Ramirez, was an American serial killer and sex offender whose killing spree occurred in Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area in the state of California. From April 1984 to August 1985, Ramirez murdered at least fourteen people during various break-ins, with his crimes usually taking place in the afternoon, leading to him being dubbed the Night Stalker, the Walk-In Killer, and the Valley Intruder. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1989 and died while awaiting execution in 2013.

<i>After Midnight with Boston Blackie</i> 1943 film by Lew Landers

After Midnight with Boston Blackie is a 1943 crime film directed by Lew Landers. It is the fifth of a series of 14 Columbia Pictures films starring Chester Morris as Boston Blackie. When a recently paroled friend of Boston Blackie is killed, he finds himself once again the prime suspect of Police Inspector Farraday.

References