Kenneth McDuff

Infobox Serial Killer
name=Kenneth McDuff


caption=
birthname=Kenneth Allen McDuff
alias=Broomstick Murderer
birth=March 21, 1946
location=Rosebud, Texas
death=death date and age|1998|11|17|1946|3|21
cause=Lethal injection
victims=14+
country=U.S.
states=Texas
beginyear=August 6, 1966
endyear=March 1, 1992
apprehended=for the final time on May 2, 1992
penalty=Death

Kenneth Allen McDuff (March 21, 1946 – November 17, 1998) was an American serial killer suspected of at least 14 murders. He had previously been on death row from 1968 to 1972.

Crimes

McDuff was first convicted for raping and murdering three teenagers on August 6, 1966 — Robert Brand, Mark Dunman, and Edna Louis Sullivan — a crime that became popularly known as the Broomstick Murders. His partner, 17-year-old Roy Dale Green, was sentenced to four months house arrest and five years probation. Although McDuff was sentenced to death, the sentence was overturned when the U.S. Supreme Court abolished capital punishment in 1972. He served life with the possibility of parole.

Due to extremely crowded Texas prisons, [ [http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/exandc2p.html Table of Contents and Excerpt, Anderson, Crime in Texas ] ] McDuff was paroled in 1989. Upon release McDuff was arrested on a series of parole violations, but he was never locked up for any substantial length of time until he was arrested for the murder of a 22-year-old Texan woman, Melissa Ann Northrup, in 1992. He was implicated in at least three other murders, including the abduction and murder of Colleen Reed from an Austin carwash in December 1991. After being released, he got a job at a gas station making $4 an hour and took a class, at Texas State Technical College in Waco. [cite news|first=Mike|last=Cochran|title=McDuff likely to take grisly secrets to grave|url=http://www.lubbockonline.com/news/112496/mcduff.htm|publisher=Associated Press|accessdate=2007-07-26] One year after he left his job at a gas station and dropped out of TSTC, he began killing again.

As a wanted fugitive, he fled to Kansas City, but was eventually captured due to a tip from a profile on the television show "America's Most Wanted". McDuff was eventually sent to death row and executed on November 17, 1998 at Huntsville Unit. According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice death row section McDuff's final words were: "I’m ready to be released. Release me".cite web | title=Texas Department of Criminal Justice| work="Last Statement - Kenneth McDuff" | url=http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/mcduffkennethlast.htm | accessdate=March 23 | accessyear=2007] McDuff's body was never claimed by his family. He is buried in the cemetery of the prison where he was executed. His grave marker is adorned only with his death row number: X999055.

Effect on the Texas penal system

After McDuff's second arrest for murder in 1992, Texas launched a massive overhaul of its prison system to prevent violent criminals from winning early parole. The tightened parole rules, extensive prison building projects and improved monitoring of violent parolees are collectively known in Texas as the McDuff Laws.

ee also

* List of individuals executed in Texas
* Capital punishment in the United States

References

* [http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/statistics/deathrow/executed/mcduff.jpgOffender Information] . "Texas Department of Criminal Justice". Retrieved on 2007-11-17.
* [http://www.cnn.com/US/9811/17/texas.execution/ Man blamed for 14 murders executed in Texas] . "CNN" (1998-11-17). Retrieved on 2007-11-17.
* "Bad Boy" by Gary M. Lavergne
* "No Remorse" by Bob Stewart
* "Talking With Serial Killers" (2003), C. Berry-Dee, John Blake Publishing, London
* [http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/usexecute.htm U.S. Executions Since 1976]

External links

* [http://www.cnn.com/US/9811/17/texas.execution Article on McDuff's execution] at CNN.com
* [http://www.garylavergne.com/mcduffmugs.htm Photos of McDuff] at Author Gary Lavergne's Page
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSsr=201&GSvcid=1266&GRid=6614480& Kenneth Allen McDuff] . "Find A Grave". Retrieved on 2007-11-21.