Carlton Gary - Murders

Murders

Soon after Carlton Gary moved to Albany, two elderly women were beaten, raped, and strangled. One died, the other survived. Carlton Gary was brought to police attention after he mugged an elderly woman in her home. Gary blamed a robbery accomplice for the rape and murder of the retired teacher after police lifted his fingerprints from her home. He then admitted robbing the apartment around the time of the rape and murder of an 85-year-old retired school teacher.

Gary admitted seeing the woman on the ground, but blamed it all on his accomplice, whom he testified against in court. He was never charged with rape and murder mainly because he told the police that he had left the building and that the rape and murder must have occurred while he was outside waiting for his accomplice. The Albany police department charged his accomplice with the crime. Later on, the accomplice was acquitted after further investigation.

Gary moved to Syracuse, New York after getting out of prison in 1975, two more elderly women were attacked, raped and strangled in their homes. One died, the other survived. Both attacks occurred within four days of each other. The two survivors were not able to identify Gary positively as the crimes occurred in the dark; at least one victim was sure that her attacker was a mustachioed black male, and she was strangled with a scarf.

Gary was never charged for any of these crimes but was instead sent back to prison for parole violation and robbery after he was caught trying to sell coins stolen from the same apartment building as one of the surviving Syracuse victims. In August 1977 Gary escaped from his low-security prison by sawing through the bars of his cell and made it back to Columbus, Georgia.

Gary is alleged to have raped and/or murdered seven elderly women between 1977 and 1978 in Columbus. Known there as the Stocking Strangler, in three of the cases he was convicted of beating, sexually assaulting and strangling the victims, mostly by using stockings. Two of the survivors testified that he strangled them into unconsciousness before raping or attempting to rape them. The one Georgia survivor positively identified him as her attacker in court. However, she had previously positively identified three other black men as the attacker, and in her initial statement had indicated that it was too dark to even distinguish the race of the attacker.

Sometimes Gary would simply attack and kill his victims, as is the case in his strangulation murder of the director of the Education Division of the Columbus Health Department. His standard modus operandi, however, was to rape and murder his victims. Gary's oldest known victim was 10 days from her 90th birthday; his youngest was 40 years old.

His fingerprints were found at four of the crime scenes. All of his victims were elderly white women who lived alone. He also robbed banks and restaurants in and around Georgia. When, during an attempted robbery of a South Carolina restaurant, a female employee stated that his gun wasn't loaded, he fled the restaurant and was apprehended stuck in a swamp behind it. Gary was indicted for the murders on May 5, 1984, convicted on August 26, 1986 and sentenced to death the following day. He is currently on Georgia's death row.