William Henry Hance - Investigation

Investigation

In 1978, Columbus, Georgia was undergoing a wave of murders of women. Several elderly white women had been killed by a perpetrator nicknamed the Stocking Strangler. In addition, the bodies of two young black prostitutes had been found outside of Fort Benning nearby.

The disparate groups of victims were linked by a letter to the local police chief written on United States Army stationery. The handwritten note purported to be from a gang of seven white men who were holding a black woman hostage and would kill her if the Stocking Strangler were not apprehended. The Stocking Strangler was believed to be a black man, and this had been widely reported at the time.

The seven white vigilantes wished to be known as the "Forces of Evil," and wanted the police chief to communicate with them via messages on radio or television. The first letter was followed by others; eventually, a ransom demand of $10,000 was also made to keep the alleged hostage, Gail Jackson, alive. (Jackson was also known as Brenda Gail Faison and other aliases.) The letters were followed by phone calls.

The letters and calls were a hoax intended to divert attention from the real killer. Gail Jackson, the supposed hostage, had been murdered five weeks before she was found, and before the first letter was sent. Her body was discovered in early April, 1978. She was 21 years old. Soon afterward, following instructions in yet another call from the "Forces of Evil," a second black woman's corpse was found at a rifle range at Fort Benning. Her name was Irene Thirkield. She was 32.

FBI profiler Robert K. Ressler created a profile which asserted that the killer was one man, not seven; black, not white; single, not well-educated, and probably a low-ranking military man at the fort in his late twenties.

Using the profile and aware that both Jackson and Thirkield were prostitutes, Georgia Bureau of Investigation officers searched near the fort for bars which had generally black patrons. They were quickly able to identify William Hance and arrest him. He was a Specialist Four attached to an artillery unit at the fort as a truck driver. Hance had begun his military career as a Marine before joining the Army.

When confronted with evidence including his handwriting, voice recordings, and shoe prints from the crime scenes, Hance confessed to killing both women and to the killing of a third woman at Fort Benning in September 1977. Karen Hickman, 24, was a white Army private known to date black soldiers and socialize in black pubs. Hance was not charged with Hickman's murder in the civilian system, but was tried, charged, and convicted by a court martial for her death.

Eventually, Hance was also identified as the killer of a young black woman at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana. Hance was not charged with this murder.

However, despite his four known femicides, he was innocent of the Stocking Strangler murders, eventually attributed to another black man, Carlton Gary.