Wichita Massacre

The Wichita Massacre, also known as The Wichita Horror [ [http://www.cnsnews.com/Nation/archive/200210/NAT20021010c.html Prosecutors Downplay Racial Element in Kansas Murder Trial] by Jim Burns, CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer, October 10, 2002] , was a murder/assault/rape/robbery spree perpetrated by brothers Reginald and Jonathan Carr in the city of Wichita, Kansas in the winter of 2000. The crimes shocked Wichitans, and purchases of guns, locks, and home security systems subsequently skyrocketed in the city. [http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/classics/carr_brothers/5.html The Wichita Horror, the brutal murders by Jonathan and Reginald Carr: The Heartbreak of a City] by Denise Noe, Court TV's Crime Library] The brothers were tried, convicted and sentenced to death in October 2002. [http://www.cjonline.com/stories/110502/kan_carrbros.shtml ] However, in 2004 the Kansas Supreme court ruled that the states death penalty law was unconstitutional and as a result the brothers will not be executed and their sentence was reduced to life in prison. [http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2004/dec/17/kansas_supreme_court2/ ]

Crime spree

The Carr brothers, 22-year-old Reginald and 20-year-old Jonathan, already had serious criminal records when they began their spree. On December 8, 2000, having recently arrived in Wichita, they committed armed robbery against 23-year-old assistant baseball coach Andrew Schreiber. Three days later, they shot and mortally wounded 55-year-old cellist and librarian Ann Walenta as she tried to escape from them in her car.

Their crime spree culminated on December 14, when they invaded a home and subjected five young men and women to robbery, sexual abuse, and murder. The brothers broke into a house chosen nearly at random where Brad Heyka, Heather Muller, Aaron Sander, Jason Befort and a young woman identified as H.G. , all in their twenties, were spending the night. Initially scouring the house for valuables, they forced their hostages to strip naked, bound and detained them, and subjected them to various forms of sexual humiliation, including rape and sodomy. They also forced the men to engage in sexual acts with the women, and the women with each other. They then drove the victims to ATMs to empty their bank accounts, before finally bringing them to a snowy deserted soccer complex on the outskirts of town and shooting them execution-style in the backs of their heads, leaving them for dead. The Carr brothers then drove Befort's truck over the bodies. Muller was a pre-school teacher at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School. Every year the school awards a deserving 8th grade student the Heather Muller Love of Mary Award.

They returned to the house to ransack it for more valuables. It was then they claimed their final victim, Nikki, H.G.'s muzzled dog who was beaten and stabbed to death.

H.G. survived (thanks to her plastic hairpin having deflected the bullet), after running naked for more than a mile in freezing weather to report the attack and seek medical attention. In a much-remarked point of tragedy, she had seen her boyfriend Befort shot, after having learned of his intention to propose marriage when the Carrs, by chance, discovered the engagement ring hidden in a can of popcorn.

The Carr brothers, who took few precautions, were captured by the police the next day, and Reginald was identified by Schreiber and the dying Walenta. Law enforcement officials ultimately decided that the Carrs' motive was robbery, despite the other aspects of the crime.

Controversy

The case gained notoriety among conservatives and others concerned about urban crime because the perpetrators were black and all seven victims were white. [ [http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=1908 The Wichita Massacre] by Stephen Webster, American Renaissance, July 16, 2002] Since there was no evidence of racial motivation, besides the fact that all the victims were white, Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston decided not to treat the incident as a hate crime. David Horowitz, Michelle Malkin, and Thomas Sowell stated that the crime did not garner much airtime or space in the national mainstream media due to political correctness. [ [http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=1912 Black Racism: The Hate Crime That Dare Not Speak Its Name] By David Horowitz, FrontPage Magazine, July 16, 2002] [ [http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichelleMalkin/2002/11/08/winona_and_the_wichita_massacre Winona and the Wichita massacre] By Michelle Malkin, Townhall.com, Friday, November 8, 2002]

Political activists such as Jared Taylor who campaign against interracial violence have highlighted the races of the perpetrators (black) and those of the victims (white) to draw attention to black-on-white crime. [ [http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/classics/carr_brothers/5.html The Wichita Horror, the brutal murders by Jonathan and Reginald Carr: The Heartbreak of a City] by Denise Noe, Court TV's Crime Library]

References in popular culture

In an episode of "Criminal Minds" titled "Children of the Dark" aired on October 17, 2007, in reference to a suspected pair of brothers engaged in serial murder, Dr. Spencer Reid refers to the Carr brothers as having perpetrated the Wichita Massacre.

The episode of "" "Dominance" is based on this case. Brothers Charlie and Billy Baker terrorize, sexually humiliate, sexually assault, and murder a group of strangers during a dinner party.

References

ee also

* Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom murder
* Media blackout

External links

* [http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/classics/carr_brothers/index.html Extensive account of the crimes by Court TV's Crime Library]
* [http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/11/15/190420.shtml 'Wichita Massacre' Brothers Sentenced to Death]
* [http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/04-1170.ZO.html Kansas v. Marsh decision by United States Supreme Court]
* [http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/970421.html KAKE-TV news story on Wichita Horror survivors engagement to be married]
* " [http://archives.cnn.com/2002/LAW/10/04/ctv.carr/index.html Was this Kansas killing spree a brotherly affair?] ," CNN and CourtTV