CARLTON GARY

In Columbus, Georgia 1977-1978 they had what people were calling the "Stocking Stranglings" which put fear in the city of Columbus. Seven well-respected women were assaulted and strangled in there own homes. This put the whole city on edge for months after. The stangler made no attempt to hide his crimes and, indeed, he seemed to flaunt them before the police and public. Also during this time The news media started getting letters from a person who refered to himself as the chairman of the "Forces of Evil". In these letters he threatened to kill a black woman every time the "stocking strangler" killed a white woman. He also claimed to be holding a black woman captive and said that he would kill her if he was not paid a ransom of $10,000. The letters were written on army stationary and the Forces of Evil killer was quickly identified as Pvt. William Hance,a Fort Benning soldier.Hance, a black man, was arrested and eventually tied to the murder of three prostitutes, one of whom he had first knocked unconcious, then propped up against a tree and crushed her by driving a car into her. Hance was convicted of murder and sentence to death. It was 1984 before police made ana rrest on the stocking stangler case. Columbus Police Department traced a handgun stolen from one of the victim's home to Michigan and back to Phenix City, Alabama, just across the state line from Columbus to a man named Jim Gary. Jim Gary told police that he had bought the gun from his nephew, Calton Gary. Carlton Gary was arrested on May 3, 1984 in Albany, Georgia. He turned out to be a Columbus native and had a long criminal history. In 1986 Gary was tried and convicted of three of the stocking stranglings and sentenced to death.Despit the heavy weight of the evidence against Gary, which included a partial confession and an eye-witness identification of Gary by an elderly woman that survived one of his attacks, there are still people in Columbus who insist he is not the Stocking Strangler. Part of this has to do with Gary's personality and looks. With a better than average I.Q. (115), he has what a number of his friends and aquaintenances call "star quality" which is not uncommon in characteristics of certain types of serial killers.

OTHER GEORGIA SERIAL KILLERS

John Williams and Clyde Manning, "The Murder Farm killings"
Lendell Hunter
Junior Pierce
Wayne Williams, "The Atlanta Child Murders"
R.L. Hunter
James Samuel Walraven, "The Bathtub Murderer"
John Latham and George York
Paul John Knowles
Henry Lucas and Ottis Toole
Janie Lou Gibbs
Terri Rachals
Anjette Lyles
Billy Sunday Birt