Murders of Gerald and Vera Woodman

Last updated

The murders of Gerald and Vera Woodman, also referred to by the press as the ninja murders and the Yom Kippur murders, [1] took place on September 25, 1985, in West Los Angeles. The couple was killed by gunfire in the garage of their condominium as they arrived home from a festive meal at the conclusion of the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. Their sons, Neil and Stewart Woodman, were convicted of hiring Steve and Robert Homick to carry out the crime. All were convicted and sentenced.

Contents

Killings

On September 25, 1985, the elder Woodmans were shot to death as they returned home from breaking the fast for Yom Kippur, held at Vera's sister's home. The killer was described by a witness as wearing a black ninja costume.[ citation needed ]

Large amounts of cash and jewelry remained on the Woodmans. A chain link fence bordering the property had been cut with a bolt cutter, and a bolt cutter later found in Homick's home was matched microscopically to cut-marks on the fence. A nearby hardware store owner remembered seeing Steve Homick purchase the tool.[ citation needed ]

Suspects and motive

Neil and Stewart Woodman became suspects early on based on family accounts. The two sons of the victims had been estranged from their parents as a result of their handling of the family business. They had allegedly wrested control of the business away from their parents, leading to this animosity. Their rift was so strong that Neil hired security guards to keep his parents away from his son's bar mitzvah. Those guards mentioned to police Neil's conversations with Steve Homick, a former police officer, about him not wanting his parents present, and had suggested killing them.[ citation needed ]

The killings were motivated by a life insurance policy held by Vera Woodman that paid $500,000 to the company. At the time of the murders, the company had been millions of dollars in debt. The payment would not have been enough to resolve the debts of the company, but would provide the Woodman sons with funds.[ citation needed ]

Trials and aftermath

Stewart Woodman was convicted in 1990. [2] According to family members, Stewart Woodman succumbed to diabetes while still in prison on October 5, 2014, just after Yom Kippur (29 years after the murders). [3] Neil Woodman was convicted in 1996. [4] [5]

Robert Homick was sentenced to life without parole.[ citation needed ] Steven Homick, who also had another murder conviction in Nevada, was sentenced to death in January 1995. He remained on death row at San Quentin State Prison in California for almost twenty years. On November 5, 2014, he died of natural causes in a nearby hospital. [6] [7]

The story of the murders and the investigation was featured on The New Detectives (Season 4, Episode 7: "Deadly Dealings"), LA Forensics, and Nothing Personal as well as the two-part made-for-TV movie Bloodlines: Murder in the Family.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Folsom State Prison</span> Prison in Folsom, California, United States

Folsom California State Prison is a California State Prison in Folsom, California, United States, approximately 20 miles (32 km) northeast of the state capital of Sacramento. It is one of 34 adult institutions operated by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment in California</span>

Capital punishment is not allowed to be carried out in the U.S. state of California, due to both a standing 2006 federal court order against the practice and a 2019 moratorium on executions ordered by Governor Gavin Newsom. The litigation resulting in the court order has been on hold since the promulgation of the moratorium. Should the moratorium end and the freeze concluded, executions could resume under the current state law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Quentin Rehabilitation Center</span> Mens prison in California, US

San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (SQ), formerly known as San Quentin State Prison, is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California State Prison, Corcoran</span> Prison in California

California State Prison, Corcoran (COR) is a male-only state prison located in the city of Corcoran, in Kings County, California. It is also known as Corcoran State Prison, CSP-C, CSP-COR, CSP-Corcoran, and Corcoran I. The facility is just north of the newer California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Corcoran.

<i>Alpha Dog</i> 2006 crime drama film by Nick Cassavetes

Alpha Dog is a 2006 American crime drama film written and directed by Nick Cassavetes. It is based on the true story of the kidnapping and murder of Nicholas Markowitz in 2000. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Ben Foster, Shawn Hatosy, Emile Hirsch, Christopher Marquette, Sharon Stone, Justin Timberlake, Anton Yelchin, and Bruce Willis.

Eddie Nash was an American nightclub owner and restaurateur in Los Angeles, as well as a convicted money launderer and drug dealer. Nash was allegedly the mastermind behind the Wonderland murders, but was never convicted, despite multiple arrests and trials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Mesereau</span> American attorney (born 1950)

Thomas Arthur Mesereau Jr. is an American attorney known for defending Michael Jackson in his 2005 child molestation trial, as well as Mike Tyson, Bill Cosby and, in 2023, Danny Masterson, a case in which Mesereau was sanctioned by the judge.

Thomas and Jackie Hawks were a couple from Prescott, Arizona, United States, who were murdered in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chester Turner</span> American serial killer (born 1966)

Chester Dewayne Turner is an American serial killer and sex offender who was sentenced to death for sexually assaulting and murdering fourteen women and an unborn baby in Los Angeles between 1987 and 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Bradford (murderer)</span> American serial killer

William Richard Bradford was an American convicted murderer and suspected serial killer and serial rapist who was incarcerated in San Quentin State Prison for the 1984 murders of his 15-year-old neighbor Tracey Campbell and barmaid Shari Miller. In July 2006, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department released a compilation of photos found in Bradford's apartment in the 1980s, depicting 54 different women in modelling poses. As Bradford had used the promise of a modelling career to lure his known victims, and taken pictures of Miller before murdering her, police believe many of the photos depict Bradford's other victims in the moments before their deaths. Bradford died at the Vacaville prison medical facility on March 10, 2008, of natural causes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rafael Pérez (police officer)</span> Former Los Angeles Police officer and convicted criminal

Ray Lopez is an American former police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the central figure in the LAPD Rampart scandal. An officer with the Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) task force, Pérez was involved in numerous crimes and corruption, notably the shooting and framing of Javier Ovando, in addition to the theft and resale of at least $800,000 of cocaine from LAPD evidence lockers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryan Hoyt</span> American murderer on death row

Ryan James Hoyt is a former associate of Jesse James Hollywood who was convicted of the murder of Nicholas Markowitz on August 9, 2000. He reportedly owed Hollywood money for drugs and was offered the opportunity to kill Markowitz as a way of erasing his debt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cleophus Prince Jr.</span> American serial killer

Cleophus Prince Jr. is an American serial killer who was convicted and sentenced to death in 1993 for the rape and murder of six women in San Diego County, California. The killings occurred between January and September 1990 and became known as the Clairemont serial killings as most of the murders took place there. Before these crimes and while serving in the United States Navy, Prince was court-martialed in 1989 due to larceny. Upon being convicted, he was recommended to be discharged after serving his sentence. Multiple books have been written on Prince and his crimes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wineville Chicken Coop murders</span> Series of abductions and murders of young boys

The Wineville Chicken Coop murders, also known as the Wineville Chicken murders, were a series of abductions and murders of young boys that occurred in the city of Los Angeles and in Riverside County, California, United States between 1926 and 1928. The murders were perpetrated by Gordon Stewart Northcott, a 19-year-old farmer who had moved to the U.S. from Canada two years earlier, as well as his mother, Sarah Louise Northcott, and his nephew, Sanford Clark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Hughes (serial killer)</span> American serial killer

Michael Hubert Hughes is a convicted American serial killer on death row in San Quentin. Hughes was initially sentenced to life without parole for the murders of four women and girls in California. Later, he was convicted of committing three further murders of women, linked to the crimes via DNA profiling. At the second trial, he was sentenced to the death penalty.

Catherine Louise "Gypsy" Share is an American criminal who is known as a former member of the Manson Family; she was convicted of witness intimidation in relation to the 1970 trial of the Tate-LaBianca murders. In 1971 she was convicted of armed robbery and served five years. Share was not directly involved in the Tate-LaBianca murders, for which Charles Manson and some of his followers were convicted and originally sentenced to death. She served 90 days for witness intimidation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon Stewart Northcott</span> Canadian serial killer (1906–1930)

Gordon Stewart Northcott was a Canadian serial killer, child rapist, and child abductor who was convicted of the murders of three young boys in California, U.S., and confessed to the murders of nine in total. Sentenced to death, he was executed on October 2, 1930.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glen Edward Rogers</span> American serial killer on death row

Glen Edward Rogers, is an American convicted serial killer. He was also convicted of related crimes in Florida and California, such as armed robbery, grand theft auto, and arson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfredo Prieto</span> Executed Salvadoran-American serial killer

Alfredo Rolando Prieto was a Salvadoran-American serial killer. After being initially convicted for a single murder, he was later connected to eight other murders committed in Virginia and California between May 1988 and September 1990 via DNA profiling. Sentenced to death in both states, Prieto was executed by lethal injection in Virginia in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Urdiales</span> American serial killer (1964–2018)

Andrew Urdiales was an American serial killer who was convicted in Illinois in 2002 of killing three women and convicted in California in 2018 of killing five women. He was sentenced to death in California and died by suicide a few months later in California's San Quentin Prison.

References

  1. ↑ Wolf, Marvin J.; Attebery, Larry (1993). Family Blood: The True Story of the Yom Kippur Murders . New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN   9780060165697.
  2. ↑ Lois Timnick (March 8, 1990). "Son Convicted in the 'Ninja Murders'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 12, 2014. Retrieved December 3, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Stewart S. 'Stu' Woodman, 65". Coeur d'Alene Press. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
  4. ↑ Paul H. Johnson (April 23, 1996). "Man Sentenced in 1985 Slaying of Parents". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 12, 2014. Retrieved December 3, 2012.
  5. ↑ Alan Abrahamson (January 23, 1996). "2nd Son Convicted of Parents' Murder for Hire". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 12, 2014. Retrieved December 3, 2012.
  6. ↑ Williams, Kale (5 November 2014). "San Quentin Death Row inmate in 'Yom Kippur murders' dies". San Francisco Chronicle . Archived from the original on 6 November 2014. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  7. ↑ Flores, Adolfo (5 November 2014). "Hit man in 'Yom Kippur murders' dies of natural causes on death row". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on 6 November 2014. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.