If Kenneth McDuff's death penalty from his murders in the 1960's had been carried out, he wouldn't have been able to kill at least six more young women decades later:
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McDuff received three death sentences and Green received a 25-year prison sentence. However, McDuff's death sentences were commuted to a life sentence. At that time, a life sentence in Texas meant serving a minimum of 10 years in prison before being paroled.
Ultimately Green served 13 years before being paroled. While incarcerated, McDuff was twice sent to the electric chair, but both times received last minute stays of execution.
[ edit] Post-release crimes As a result of overcrowding in Texas prisons, [1] McDuff was paroled on 11 October 1989 to Milam County Texas.
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The Texas parole board began releasing inmates hastily. McDuff was one of 20 former death row inmates and 127 murderers to be paroled.
After being released, he got a job at a gas station making $4 an hour and took a class at Texas State Technical College in Waco. [2]
Within three days of his release, he began killing again. He killed 31-year-old Sarafia Parker, whose body was discovered on 14 October 1989, in Temple, a town around 48 miles from Waco. However, he was soon returned to prison on a parole violation for making death threats to a black youth in Rosebud.
Addie McDuff paid $1,500 to two Huntsville attorneys, plus an additional $700 for expenses, to two Huntsville attorneys in return for them 'evaluating' her son's prospect of release. On December 18, 1990, McDuff was again released from prison.
On October 10, 1991, McDuff picked up a prostitute and drug addict named Brenda Thompson in Waco. He tied her up, but his vehicle was stopped at Waco Police Department checkpoint. McDuff stopped approximately 50 ft in before the checkpoint. This led to one policeman walking toward McDuff's vehicle. On seeing the police officer, Thompson repeatedly kicked at the windshield of McDuff's truck, cracking it several times. McDuff accelerated very quickly and drove at the officers. According to a statement filed by the officers later, three of them had to jump to avoid being hit.
The policemen gave chase but it was nighttime and McDuff eluded them by turning off his lights and traveling the wrong way down one-way streets, ultimately he parked his truck in a wooded area near to US 84. He inflicted a torturous death upon Thompson. Her body was not discovered until 1998.
Five days later, on October 15, 1991, McDuff and a 17-year-old prostitute named Regenia DeAnne Moore were witnessed having an argument at a Waco motel. Shortly thereafter, the pair drove in McDuff's pickup truck to a remote area beside Highway 6, near Waco. McDuff tied her arms and legs with stockings before killing her. She had been missing from home for seven years by the time her body was discovered on September 29, 1993.
He killed again on December 29, 1991. His victim was Colleen Reed, a Louisiana native. He and an accomplice, Alva Hank Worley, drove to a car-wash where Reed was. McDuff kidnapped her in plain sight of eyewitnesses, and he and Worley drove her away. Worley admitted in an April 1992 interview with Bell County Sheriff's Dept. that he had raped Reed, but stated that he did not participate in her murder.
His next victim was Valencia Joshua, a prostitute and fellow student at Texas State Technical College in Waco. Crucially she (Valencia) was last seen alive knocking on McDuff's door. While a student, McDuff had taken up drug dealing, selling crack cocaine, LSD, methamphetamine and marijuana to fellow students to supplement his student grant.
McDuff strangled Valencia Joshua on February 24, 1992. Her body was discovered on March 15 at a golf course near to their college.
McDuff's next victim was Melissa Northrup, a 22-year-old store clerk at a Waco Quik-pak. She was pregnant at the time of her death on March 1. He had also taken $250 from the cash register. During the investigation into Northrup's disappearance (her body was found by a fisherman on April 26, 1992) a college friend of McDuff's told police officers that McDuff, who was already a suspect due to having been seen in the vicinity of the Quik-pak at the time of Northrup's disappearance, had attempted to enlist his help in robbing the store.
A major problem for investigators was that McDuff's post release victims were spread out across several Texas counties. This made a single coordinated investigation into him difficult. However, the police had learned that McDuff was peddling drugs and had an illegal firearm, both federal offenses. Consequently on March 6, 1992, a local State Attorney issued a warrant for McDuff's arrest.
In April 1992 the police made a major breakthrough. Bell County Sheriff's Department investigators had brought in Alva Hank Worley for questioning, on the basis that he was a known acquaintance of McDuff. Worley admitted to his involvement in the kidnapping of Colleen Reed. He was held in a Travis County jail while the police continued their search for McDuff.
McDuff had moved to Kansas City, where he was working at a refuse collection company and living under the assumed name of Richard Fowler. On May 1, 1992, a co-worker of his named Gary Smithee, watched an American television program entitled America's Most Wanted. Smithee noticed how similar McDuff, who was featured on the program, was to his new co-worker Richard Fowler. After discussing the matter with another co-worker, Smithee telephoned the Kansas City Police.
The Kansas City Police searched Fowler's name and found he had been arrested, and fingerprinted, for soliciting prostitutes. Comparing the fingerprints taken from Fowler to those from McDuff it was found they were the same.
On May 4, 1992, a surveillance team of six officers arrested McDuff as he drove to a landfill south of Kansas City.
Trial and execution
McDuff was indicted on one count of capital murder for the death of Melissa Northrup in McLennan County, Texas on June 26, 1992. He was found guilty. In Texas, juries determine whether or not an individual convicted of capital murder receives life imprisonment or the death penalty.
On February 18, 1993, the jury, in a special punishment hearing, opted to sentence him to death. His case was automatically taken to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which affirmed the sentence on April 28, 1997.
McDuff filed a writ of certiorari to the US Supreme Court, but this was rejected on January 12, 1998. A state writ of habeas corpus was also rejected on April 15, 1998.
On April 29, 1998, the original court of sentencing in McLennan County set the execution date as October 21, 1998. However on July 8, McDuff filed a federal writ of habeas corpus. This had the effect of delaying his execution as his case was considered again.
Finally, on October 15, 1998, the Western District Court denied habeas corpus relief and re-scheduled the execution date for November 17, 1998. He filed a Notice of Appeal on October 23 but on October 26 his request for a certificate of appealability was denied by the Western District Court, and he was duly executed on November 17. He gave up Colleen Reed's burial location a couple of weeks before his execution.
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