William Pierce (serial killer)

William Pierce, Jr. was born on October 11, 1931, in rural Midville, Georgia. As a result of the Great Depression, his family experienced great financial difficulties, due to which Junior spent his childhood in hunger and poverty. His mother adhered to the authoritarian style of raising her son, because of which she often engaged in conflict with his father. In 1945, his parents divorced, after which William's mother began to beat him, as a result of which he often suffered from intense mental stress during his teenage years. In his school years, Pierce underwent an IQ test, from which he was determined to have an IQ of 70. In 1948, he dropped out of school after graduating from the 9th grade and got a job as a road worker for the Department of Transport and Road Facilities. A year later, he quit and enlisted in the Army. Three months later, his mother submitted a number of medical reports and certificates from doctors to the administration of the base in which Pierce was serving, due to which he was discharged for health reasons, despite the fact that most of the documents were of dubious authenticity. After his dismissal, Junior returned home, where he found work in a local car rental service, where he was characterized positively. However, because of his inadequate communication skills, he appeared stiff and awkward, and was unpopular with the locals. In this period, he married, but divorced soon after, moving to neighboring Swainsboro, where he found work at a furniture factory. Over the next few years, owing to his lack of education, Pierce engaged in low-skilled labor. In the late 1950s, Pierce suffered a head injury from an industrial accident. He was diagnosed with a concussion, after which he began to exhibit deviant behavior towards others and showed signs of a personality disorder, characterized by a conviction for his own uniqueness, superiority over other people and an overestimated opinion of his talents and achievements. Soon after, he began to lead a criminal lifestyle and committed thefts. In early 1959, he was arrested for theft, convicted on July 27 and sentenced to five years' imprisonment. After serving 32 months from the appointed time, at the end of 1961, Pierce was paroled. A few weeks after his release, he was again arrested for robbery and arson of a store. His guilt was proven in court in 1962, and was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment with a possibility of parole after 10 years. During his detention, he showed signs of a mental illness, and after an examination, a psychologist's report stated that he "may be dangerous to himself and others."[2] Nonetheless, on account of his good behavior and lack of disciplinary action over the years, Pierce was granted parole and released in May 1970.[3][4]

In June 1970, Pierce surfaced in the city of North Augusta, South Carolina. On June 27, with the aim of robbery, he entered a home and came upon 18-year-old Ann Goodwin(a Winthrop College student), a baby sitter looking after the neighbor's children for the evening. He sexually assaulted and shot her after a struggle (she later died at a local hospital). He stole a number of valuables from the home as well. On December 18, thirteen-year-old Margaret 'Peg' Cuttino left her home in Sumter, South Carolina at about one o'clock in the afternoon to have lunch with her sister at school. When she did not show up after 45 minutes, her parents, state representative James Cuttino and his wife, reported her missing. Peg's body was found on December 30, ten miles away from where she was last seen. During the forensic autopsy, it was determined that she had been beaten and suffocated to death.

On December 20, two days after Cuttino's disappearance, Pierce drove to a service station in Vidalia, Georgia, where he shot 59-year-old employee Joe Fletcher, stealing $78 from the cash register. On January 12 the following year, he robbed a store in Soperton, and then, in order to get rid of any witnesses, Pierce shot 51-year-old Lacey Tigpen, the store's administrator. Ten days later, he abducted 32-year-old Helen Wilcox near a store in Hazlehurst. He took the woman to the woodlands outside the city, where he sexually assaulted and then shot Wilcox, burying her corpse in a shallow grave, where it was discovered a few days later. On January 28, Pierce committed another robbery at a store in Baxley, in which he killed the 60-year-old store owner Vivian Miles, and brutally beat her 5-year-old granddaughter, who suffered a severe head injury, but managed to survive. While fleeing the crime scene, he was spotted by a truck driver named Joe Overstreet. Pierce attempted to kill Overstreet by firing at him twice at close range, and then fled. Overstreet was unharmed, and would later give police a description of his attacker.

On the afternoon of March 8, 1971, Pierce was arrested soon after robbing a gas station in Baxley. He was taken to the police station, where he was interrogated for many hours, resulting in him confessing to the six murders, including that of Ann Goodwin (North Augusta, SC) and Peg Cuttino.[5] In addition, he confessed to three other homicides: the abduction and strangulation of 17-year-old Kathy Jo Anderson, who went missing on December 22, 1970, from Columbia, South Carolina and was later discovered in a wooded area on February 17, 1971; the August 21, 1970, handgun slaying of 20-year-old Virginia Carol Mains in Gastonia, North Carolina; and finally, on August 10, 1970, while robbing a service station in Beaufort, North Carolina, he hacked to death the 60-year-old employee James L. Sires with an axe, before stealing $970 and fleeing.[3][6]

Junior Pierce's trial began in September 1971. In addition to his confession, a number of items found in his apartment and in the passenger seat of Pierce's car, which were identified as belonging to the victims, were presented to the court as evidence that resulted in his conviction. The only witness, Joe Overstreet, also identified Junior as the man who had robbed Miles' store and then killed her, on the basis of which he was convicted for Miles' killing and received life imprisonment.[7] In March 1972, he was transferred to the Jeff Davis County Circuit Court, where he stood trial on charges of killing Helen Wilcox. During the trial, Pierce refuted his testimony, claiming that the interrogators had forced him to falsely confess while he was intoxicated and had not been read his Miranda rights.[8] Despite his claims, he was found guilty and received another life imprisonment term. In early 1973, Pierce was extradited to South Carolina, where during that year, he appeared before the courts in various counties on charges of the other murders, being convicted each time and receiving new life imprisonment terms.[4]

Following his convictions, Junior Pierce retracted his confession. In 1974, his lawyers appealed for the abolition of their client's murder convictions in South Carolina, and the appointment for a new trial, but they were rejected. In 1977, his lawyers attempted to appeal his sentences in Georgia, but again, they were rejected.

In April 1977, another serial killer, Donald Henry Gaskins, also confessed to the murder of Peg Cuttino, but later retracted his statements, stating that he was pressured by investigators during interrogation. Based on Gaskins' testimony, in 1985, Pierce's attorneys appealed for the vacation of the murder conviction. Despite the fact that his attorneys provided the Court of Appeals with a number of witnesses and their testimonies, according to which Gaskins was working in Sumter on the day the girl disappeared and was not far from where she had disappeared, while Pierce was in Georgia at the time, the appeal was rejected.[9]

William died in prison in May 2020.[10]

In 2019, Pierce appeared in the second season of the Netflix series Mindhunter, in which he was portrayed by Michael Filipowich.[11]

• Donald Henry Gaskins
• List of serial killers in the United States

• State v. Pierce, 1974 Appeal
• State v. Pierce, 1977 Appeal