William Paul Thompson

Last updated • 7 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
William Paul Thompson
Born(1938-05-02)May 2, 1938
Wichita Falls, Texas, U.S.
DiedJune 19, 1989(1989-06-19) (aged 51)
Nevada State Prison, Carson City, Nevada, U.S.
Cause of death Execution by lethal injection
Other names"Bud"
Dale H. Brabson
Conviction(s) First degree murder x3
Attempted murder x2
Criminal penalty Death (Nevada)
25-years-to-life (California)
Details
Victims3–6
Span of crimes
March 25 –April 21, 1984 (known)
CountryUnited States
State(s) California, Nevada (convicted)
New York, Kansas, Oklahoma (confessed)
Date apprehended
April 21, 1984

William Paul "Bud" Thompson (May 2, 1938 – June 19, 1989) was an American criminal, spree killer, and self-described serial/contract killer. Convicted for three murders committed between March and April 1984 in California and Nevada, he later confessed to three additional murders (which remain unsubstantiated) in three other states. [1] Sentenced to death for a Nevada killing, he withdrew his appeals and was subsequently executed in 1989. [2]

Contents

Early life

William Paul Thompson was born on May 2, 1938, in Wichita Falls, Texas, but moved to New York with his family at an early age. His father, William Webb Thompson, was a violent alcoholic who beat his family during his drinking binges, causing his son to grow resentful of his father and start drinking and stealing at age 12, for which he was sent to reform school. [3] Throughout his life, Thompson was repeatedly incarcerated in both state and federal institutions for crimes including burglary, forgery, safecracking and counterfeiting. [3] He claimed to have criminal records in New York, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Kansas. When he was not behind bars, Thompson traveled around the county and found employment in various odd jobs such as boxing and working for Salvation Army. [1]

Thompson married sometime during the 1970s, but the marriage was short-lived as his wife passed away from cancer in 1982. [1] After this, he grew more violent, and claimed that he committed his first murders shortly after, but this has never been definitively confirmed. [1]

Murders

On March 25, 1984, Thompson and a fellow transient, 44-year-old Robert Herman Boyle, were drinking at the Murderer's Bar, located about 4 miles northeast of Auburn, California. In the bar, they met brothers Robert and John Pariset, 35 and 28 respectively, who were in the area for fishing and gold panning. [4] They befriended and drank alcohol with the pair, but unbeknownst to the brothers, Thompson informed Boyle was informed that he was getting annoyed with the two men due to their noisy motorcycles and Robert's drunkenness. Boyle took little notice of his friend's warning. [5] Later in the evening, the four men went to Thompson and Boyle's campsite to drink tequila and smoke marijuana. Boyle and John Pariset then went to the camper van to get some sleeping bags, leaving Robert and Thompson alone. [5] When they returned, they found Robert lying on the ground and incorrectly assumed that he had fallen asleep. When Boyle left again for additional blankets, he heard a gunshot. Returning to the campsite, Boyle discovered that Thompson had shot John in the head with a .22 revolver, and was rummaging through both brothers' pockets. [5]

After coming to an agreement not to turn each other over to the police, the pair travelled to Winnemucca, Nevada, where they parted ways. By that time, an arrest warrant had been issued for the two men, as a 15-year-old local had told the authorities that he had seen them leave the crime scene. [6] Boyle headed to Salt Lake City, Utah while Thompson continued towards Reno, committing multiple robberies along the way. On April 21, he was waiting to hop a train near the Sands Hotel at the camp of 28-year-old unemployed transient Randy Waldron. [7] Deciding that he needed cash and a false ID, Thompson pulled out his pistol and shot Waldron in the head four times. He then rifled through his pockets and fled. Half an hour later in the same area, he attempted to rob two women, Barbara Johnson and Susan Black, at gunpoint. [7] Much to his surprise, the pair fought back, with Johnson throwing a tire iron at him and Black hitting him with her handbag, causing him to flee. Not long after, Thompson was detained by the authorities for the attempted robberies as they had recognized the distinctive tattoos on his knuckles. [8]

Trials and imprisonment

Days after his capture, Thompson was positively identified as Waldron's killer through his gun, whose bullets were found to be a match to those found at the crime scene, as well as them finding some of Waldron's personal possessions on him. [8] [9] Since he was still in Nevada's jurisdiction, it was decided that he would first be tried for Waldron's murder, while Boyle (who had been arrested earlier in the week in Salt Lake City) had already been extradited to the Placer County Jail. [6] On April 25, Thompson was charged with murder, assault with a deadly weapon, attempted robbery and carrying a concealed weapon. [10]

In the meantime, Boyle, who had been charged in the Auburn homicides, pleaded not guilty to the murder charges, with his first court hearing set to take place on May 2. [11] The hearings were later delayed, as the judge ruled it would be appropriate to first see the outcome of Thompson's trial in Nevada before they take action. [12] The trial officially began on September 17, 1984, with the prosecutors announcing from get-go that they would seek the death penalty against Thompson. [13] During the proceedings, prosecutor Jerry Mowbray described the defendant as a "[...] psychopathic killer, a man who likes to kill", while Thompson's attorney, Richard Campbell, tried to portray Randy Waldron, a convicted felon, as the aggressor, claiming that he had attacked his client during a sudden rage induced by inhaling paint fumes, and the killing was done in self-defense. [14] The latter's claims were found to be implausible by the jury, who, after a week-long trial, returned a verdict of guilty on all charges for Thompson. [7] On September 27, he was sentenced to death, which Thompson appeared to receive rather calmly, as he was seen patting his attorney on the back and thanking him for the hard work until he was led out of the room. [15] His execution date was set for December of that year, but as per procedure, it was automatically appealed to the court system. [16]

In early December, Thompson was extradited to California and detained at Folsom State Prison to await trial for the murders of the Parisets. [17] By that time, it was determined that Boyle had little to no actual involvement in the killings, and as part of a deal struck with the prosecutor, he would testify against Thompson in exchange for immunity. [5] At the trial, Boyle recounted the whole events as he had experienced, indicating that Thompson killed both men to get rid of them as well as to rob them. [6] Throughout the proceedings, Thompson appeared disinterested, reading a paperback book and discussing how good the food on Nevada's death row was, before entering a guilty plea for the double murder at the end of the trial. [18] Before the sentence could be applied, his lawyer requested that Thompson undergo medical tests to determine whether he had brain lesions that might have affected his judgment at the time of the crimes, which was accepted. [19] No such lesions were found, and Thompson was subsequently sentenced to a 25-year-to-life term, before being returned to Nevada's death row. [20]

Execution

In the following years, Thompson dropped all of his appeals, both state and federal, stating he wished to die with dignity. [1] For the remainder of his years on death row, he became religious and received a formal education in law. On the day before his execution, he granted his first and only interview to a reporter for the Associated Press via telephone, in which he explained his reasons for dropping his appeals and retelling his life story. [1] In that interview, he also confessed to carrying out three contract murders in New York, Kansas and Oklahoma, with the last one being of a federal prosecutor who had convicted his prison acquaintances. However, he did not name the victims or the people who hired him, claiming that the bodies will never be found. [1] Oklahoma State Attorney Tony Graham later said that he was not aware of any prosecutor going missing in the state, stating that he found the confession to be "preposterous". [21]

On June 19, 1989, Thompson was executed via lethal injection at the Nevada State Prison. [2] He spent the last hours of his life talking to the prison chaplain and another death row inmate, and just before entering the chamber, guards reported that his last words were "Thank you for letting me die with dignity." [2]

See also

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darren Mack</span> American murderer

Darren Roy Mack is the convicted killer of his 39-year-old estranged wife, Charla Mack, and of attempted murder of Family Court Judge Chuck Weller, who was handling the couple’s divorce. Mack pleaded guilty to his wife's murder and took an Alford plea on the attempted murder charges of the judge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Morin</span> American serial killer

Stephen Peter Morin was an American serial killer who was suspected of being responsible for at least forty murders of young girls and women and 7 men in the period from 1969 to 1981. Since Morin led a transient lifestyle and constantly moved around the country, the exact number of his victims is uncertain, but he is suspected of a total 48 violent crimes across the United States. In the early 1980s, he was pursued by the federal authorities. Morin had created multiple aliases. These names included Rich Clark, Robert Fred Generoso, Thomas David Hones, Ray Constantino, and Constatine. The court found Morin sane and sentenced him to death by lethal injection. In 1985, he was executed by Texas after waiving his appeals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William G. Zuern Jr.</span> American murderer (1958–2004)

William Gerald Zuern Jr. was an American convicted murderer who was executed by the state of Ohio for the murder of a Hamilton County sheriff's deputy working as a corrections officer in the county jail. Zuern spent 19 years and 7 months on death row, with lawyers fighting his death sentence. His execution occurred on the day before the 20th anniversary of the crime for which he was condemned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jay D. Scott</span> American murderer (1952–2001)

Jay D. Scott was an American convicted murderer who was executed by the state of Ohio for the 1983 murder of a delicatessen owner in Cleveland. He was the second man put to death by Ohio since it reinstated capital punishment in 1981 and the first to be executed involuntarily. Scott's execution generated attention as he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, with his lawyers arguing he was too mentally ill to be executed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesse Bishop</span> American murderer (1933–1979)

Jesse Walter Bishop was an American criminal convicted of the December 1977 murder of David Ballard during a robbery at a Las Vegas Strip casino. Bishop was executed in 1979 by the state of Nevada via gas chamber, becoming the first person to be executed in Nevada since 1961. He was also the first person to be executed in Nevada since the reinstatement of capital punishment, and the first person to be executed in the gas chamber since then. Overall, he was the third person in the U.S. to be executed since the reinstatement, after Gary Gilmore and John Spenkelink. Bishop had spent twenty years of his life incarcerated for various felony offenses and bragged about having committed an estimated eighteen homicides.

The Gypsy Hill killings were a group of five homicides of young women and girls in San Mateo County, California, during early 1976. The killer became known in the media as the "San Mateo Slasher." It was later proven that there were at least two different perpetrators with Rodney Halbower convicted of the murders of Baxter, Cascio and Michelle Mitchell and Leon Seymour being convicted in the sole murder of Lampe. It is believed Blackwell and Booth were killed by Halbower, but there's no evidence yet to tie him to those cases and Friedman's murder is also unsolved with these killings being partially unresolved.

The 2019 Nevada killing spree was a series of murders in January 2019 in which an assailant broke into three homes in Douglas and Washoe Counties in northwestern Nevada, murdered the elderly inhabitants, and made off with valuables. Reports of the crimes terrified area residents for several days until a police manhunt identified and apprehended Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman. The sheriff's report states that Martinez-Guzman later confessed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Getreu</span> American serial killer (1944–2023)

John Arthur Getreu was an American serial killer who was convicted of one murder during 1963 in West Germany and convicted of two more that took place in 1973 and 1974 in the United States. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the latter murders, and died at the California Health Care Facility while serving his sentence. He was identified through genetic genealogy by CeCe Moore in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daryl Mack</span> American murderer (1958–2006)

Daryl Linnie Mack was an American man who was executed in Nevada for murder. Mack was sentenced to death for the October 1988 rape and murder of Betty Jane May in Reno. The murder went unsolved for twelve years until DNA evidence linked him to the crime. He was already in jail at the time, having been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the April 1994 murder of Kim Parks. He was sentenced to death, waived his appeals and asked to be put to death. Mack was executed via lethal injection at Nevada State Prison on April 26, 2006. He remains the most recent person executed in Nevada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lloyd Gomez</span> Executed American serial killer

Lloyd Gomez, known as The Phantom Hobo Killer, was an American serial killer who robbed and murdered nine vagrant men across California from 1950 to 1951. The murders were only linked to Gomez after he was arrested for a different crime and confessed to them. He was subsequently tried, convicted, and formally sentenced to death for the murder of Warren Cunningham, his second victim. He was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin State Prison in 1953.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Ezra Rhoades</span> Executed American spree killer

Paul Ezra Rhoades was an American spree killer and suspected serial killer convicted of three murders committed in Idaho during a three-week crime spree in 1987. He is the prime suspect in at least four additional killings in Utah and Wyoming dating back to 1984, however, he was never conclusively linked to these murders. He was executed for two of his confirmed murders in 2011, becoming the first person to be executed in Idaho in over seventeen years.

Thomas Eugene Creech is an American serial killer who was convicted of two murders committed in 1974 and sentenced to death in Idaho. The sentence was reduced two years later on appeal to life imprisonment. He was sent back to Idaho's death row for a 1981 murder committed while imprisoned. Creech personally confessed to a total of 42 murders in various states, some of which allegedly involved the Hells Angels and the Church of Satan. Most of his additional confessions are uncorroborated, but police believe strong evidence links Creech to seven additional murder victims. In January 2024, an investigation by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department concluded that Creech murdered Daniel A. Walker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Whisenhant</span> American serial killer executed in Alabama (1947–2010)

Thomas Warren Whisenhant was an American serial killer who murdered at least four women between 1963 and 1976 in Mobile County, Alabama. After being arrested for the October 1976 murder of Cheryl Payton, Whisenhant confessed to killing three other women. He was sentenced to death in Alabama in September 1977, and was executed in May 2010 at Holman Correctional Facility via lethal injection. At the time of his execution, Whisenhant was Alabama's longest serving death row inmate, spending thirty-two years, eight months and twenty days on death row.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Torrence</span> Executed American serial killer

Michael Rian Torrence was an American serial killer responsible for the murders of three people in South Carolina from February to March 1987, two of which were committed with the help of his brother and his brother's wife, Donna. Sentenced to death for one murder and two life terms, Torrence successfully volunteered for his execution, dropping all appeals against the wishes of his public defender, and was executed in 1996.

Alvin Andrew Kelly was an East Texas man who committed four drug-related murders in Longview and Lake Cherokee, Texas from May to June 1984, killing two reserve marshals, their infant son, and later his roommate. Convicted and sentenced to death for the infant's murder, he was executed in 2008.

Edward Lewis Lagrone was an American serial killer and rapist. He was convicted of fatally shooting three members of the Lloyd family in Fort Worth, Texas in May 1991, including a 10-year-old girl he had impregnated, approximately seven years after being released from prison for a previous murder. Lagrone was subsequently convicted, sentenced to death and executed for the latter crimes in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mauricio Silva (serial killer)</span> American serial killer on death row

Mauricio Rodriguez Silva, known as The Monster, is an American serial killer who killed three people, including his half-sister, during a May 1984 crime spree that spread across California, shortly after being paroled from serving a manslaughter conviction. He was convicted of the latter crimes and sentenced to death and is currently awaiting execution.

David Stephen Middleton, known as The Cable Guy, is an American former police officer, kidnapper, murderer, and suspected serial killer. Convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of two women in Nevada committed in 1994 and 1995, he is also the prime suspect in at least one additional murder in Colorado and rapes committed while serving in the Miami-Dade Police Department.

Dennis James Skillicorn was an American criminal and murderer. Originally sentenced to 35 years imprisonment for a 1979 second degree murder charge, he was later paroled and, with the help of two accomplices, embarked on a crime spree that resulted in the deaths of at least four more people. Convicted and sentenced to death for one of these murders, he and one of his accomplices were executed in 2009 and 2013, respectively.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Riley, Brendan (June 18, 1989). "Condemned killer who wants to die admits six killings in interview". San Bernardino Sun – via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 3 "Murderer Is Executed In Nevada". The New York Times . June 20, 1989. Archived from the original on November 26, 2021.
  3. 1 2 Phillis, Michael (September 28, 1984). "Thompson sentenced to death". Reno Gazette-Journal . p. 32 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ Crocker, Scot (September 30, 1984). "Reno jury finds Thompson guilty". Auburn Journal – via Newspapers.com.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Brewer, Boni (December 28, 1984). "Double slaying suspect ordered to stand trial". Auburn Journal – via Newspapers.com.
  6. 1 2 3 Jobe, Janielle (December 30, 1984). "DA drops murder charges in exchange for testimony". Auburn Journal – via Newspapers.com.
  7. 1 2 3 Phillis, Michael (September 26, 1984). "Thompson found guilty of murder". Reno Gazette-Journal . p. 25 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. 1 2 "Reno slaying tied to Placer suspect". Auburn Journal . April 24, 1984 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ Fujii, Reed (April 25, 1984). "Homicide suspect faces Reno charges". Auburn Journal . p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ Fujii, Reed (April 25, 1984). "Homicide suspect faces Reno charges". Auburn Journal . p. 11 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ "Suspect pleads innocent". Auburn Journal . April 26, 1984 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ "Reno slaying trial set for September". Auburn Journal . August 16, 1984 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "Murder trial jury chosen". Reno Gazette-Journal . September 18, 1984 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ Phillis, Michael (September 26, 1984). "Thompson found guilty of murder". Reno Gazette-Journal . p. 26 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ Phillis, Michael (September 28, 1984). "Thompson sentenced to death". Reno Gazette-Journal . p. 31 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "Death sentence". The Sacramento Bee . October 4, 1984 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ "Convicted murderer extradited to Placer". Auburn Journal . December 6, 1984 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ↑ Wilson, Bill (April 7, 1986). "Murderer talks of food before his guilty plea". Auburn Journal – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ↑ Makabe, R. G. (April 9, 1986). "Thompson pleads guilty to murder". Auburn Journal – via newspapers.com.
  20. ↑ Trumbo, John (April 29, 1986). "Thompson sentenced for slaying". Auburn Journal – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ↑ "Nevada executes multiple killer". The Salinas Californian . June 19, 1989 – via Newspapers.com.
Executions carried out in Nevada
Preceded by
Carroll Cole
December 6, 1985
 William Paul Thompson
June 19, 1989		Succeeded by
Sean Flanagan
June 23, 1989
Executions carried out in the United States
Preceded by
Michael Lindsey – Alabama
May 26, 1989
 William Paul Thompson – Nevada
June 19, 1989		Succeeded by
Leo Edwards – Mississippi
June 21, 1989
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.