Bustamante was a highly disturbed teen with an interest in violence and killing. She told a friend, “I just wonder what it would be like just to kill someone, see the life just drain out of someone. I wonder what it would feel like, that type of power, to take that away from someone.” To satisfy her desire to kill, Bustamante devised and carried out a brutal plan to lure her nine-year-old neighbor to a pre-dug grave in the woods and murder her. Bustamante stabbed and strangled young Elizabeth and buried her in the grave. The killer pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life with parole.
Victims: Captain Gerald Halloran, 57, Captain James Kilventon Jr., 54, Luther Hurd, 31, Michael Oldham, 32, Robert McKarnin, 42, & Thomas Fry, 41
Age at time of murders: 17
Crime date: November 29, 1988
Crime location: Kansas City, MO
Partners in crime: George Sheppard, Earl Sheppard, Darlene Edwards, & Richard Brown
Crimes: Arson & mass murder
Weapon: Fire & explosives
Murder method: Explosion
Murder motivation: Diversion
Sentence: Life without parole (LWOP) later reduced to 20 years
Incarceration status: Released
Sheppard
Summary
On a late fall day in 1988, an explosion claimed the lives of six firefighters. The offenders were accused of setting fire to a tractor trailer containing 25,000 pounds of low-grade construction explosives so that they could steal tools to sell for drug money. A decade after the deadly explosion, they were convicted. Questions about the defendants’ guilt has been raised over the years. Sheppard has maintained his innocence. After Miller v. Alabama, Sheppard was released.
Allen committed an armed robbery at the service station office that Phillip was working at, taking money from the cash register. As the robber left the station, he shot Phillip, killing him. The killer pleaded guilty and has been paroled several times only to return to prison for parole violations.
Weapon: Duct tape, purse strap, & electric wire for restraining
Murder method: Drowning
Murder motivation: Thrill & entertainment
Sentence: Benjamin-life without parole (LWOP); Simmons-death, later reduced to life in prison
Incarceration status:Simmons-Southeast Correctional Center; Benjamin-Eastern Reception Diagnostic Correctional Center
Shirley
Simmons
Benjamin
Summary
When Simmons was 17, he decided that he “wanted to murder someone.” He joined up with Benjamin, 15, to plan and carry out the vicious thrill-killing. The victim was 46-year-old Shirley Crook. The murderers broke into her home and abducted her, taking her to a state park. At the park, they hogtied her, covered her face with duct tape, and threw her into a river, causing her to drown. Benjamin was sentenced to LWOP while Simmons was sentenced to death. Simmons appealed his death sentence and his case went before the US Supreme Court. The Court ruled that the juvenile death penalty was unconstitutional and his sentence was reduced.
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". . . some persons will shun crime even if we do nothing to deter them, while others will seek it out even if we do everything to reform them. Wicked people exist. Nothing avails except to set them apart from innocent people. And many people, neither wicked nor innocent, but watchful, dissembling, and calculating of their opportunities, ponder our reaction to wickedness as a cue to what they might profitably do. We have trifled with the wicked, made sport of the innocent, and encouraged the calculators. Justice suffers, and so do we all."
