Four Murders & A Getaway

this part of the story is covered for now In 1974 a Tampa newspaper recorded the couple filing for divorce, though they stayed together, and in the late 1970s his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. details of the account remain covered until revealed Six months later his father married Geraldine Patterson, who already had a three-year-old son, Joel, known as JJ; a second son, Donny, was born to the couple in late 1979.

Douglas Jr's childhood was unhappy. He resented his stepmother, argued constantly with his father about his dead mother, and relatives said he was kept from seeing his maternal family. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The tension with his father did not ease.

On 14 September 1987 Douglas Jr took a .22 rifle, drove to his parents' house and lost his nerve. He talked with them, argued, and left the gun in the truck. this part of the story is covered for now He left his pregnant wife in the car, took the rifle and a pair of rubber gloves, and came out of the woods behind the house. He told his father he had been squirrel hunting. The two men went inside and began arguing. Douglas Sr spoke about his own wife's infidelity and then about Douglas Jr's dead mother, calling her unfaithful too. He then invited his son outside to look at a car he had bought to restore with JJ.

As his father turned away, Douglas Jr shot him in the back of the head, then rolled him over and shot him between the eyes. He dragged the body into the master bedroom, took a .22 pistol from under the mattress and waited fifteen minutes. Donny, ten, came home first and was shot in the back of the head and then in the temple. JJ, thirteen, ran, and Douglas Jr shot him twice outside, helped him back into the house and shot him in the forehead. He later stabbed JJ nine times with a kitchen knife. When Geraldine came home he put a gun to her head; it jammed, then the next shot grazed her. He stabbed her four times in the chest and cut her throat so deeply that she was nearly decapitated. details of the account remain covered until revealed

Police found the bodies on 17 September. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The couple disappeared before Douglas Jr could be tested. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed He said they had never treated him like a son and that there was no single thing that set him off.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now On 31 December 1987 she gave birth to a baby boy in police custody; the child was given up for adoption. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

this part of the story is covered for now The prosecution sought death on the aggravating factor that the murders were outrageously vile, and conceded his troubled childhood while arguing it did not excuse four killings. A psychiatrist for the defence said he was under extreme emotional distress caused by his mother's death nine years earlier; two prosecution experts disagreed. Douglas Jr testified that he had not intended to kill anyone and had only gone to talk. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now Habeas petitions failed in 1992 and 1996.

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now His last meal was kept confidential, and his last words were, 'Get the ride started, I'm ready to go.' details of the account remain covered until revealed The couple's son was adopted and, as far as the episode says, grew up with no knowledge of what had happened.