Edward Wayne Edwards (June 14, 1933 – April 7, 2011) was an American serial killer. Edwards escaped from jail in

Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city pro ...

, in 1955 and fled across the country, holding up gas stations. By 1961, he was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Edwards was captured and arrested in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

on January 20, 1962. After he was granted

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

in 1967, Edwards murdered at least five people between 1977 and 1996, and he is suspected of several additional killings.

Background

Edwards was born in

in 1933. In his autobiography Edwards wrote that he grew up in an orphanage, and that he was abused both physically and emotionally by nuns there. Edwards was allowed out of juvenile detention to join the

U.S. Marines The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through co ...

, but he eventually went and was dishonorably discharged. He traveled frequently during his 20s and 30s, working assorted jobs such as working as a ship docker,

vacuum cleaner A vacuum cleaner, also known simply as a vacuum or a hoover, is a device that causes suction in order to remove dirt from floors, upholstery, draperies, and other surfaces. It is generally electrically driven. The dirt is collected by either a d ...

retailer and

handyman A handyman, also known as a fixer, handyperson or handyworker, is a person skilled at a wide range of repairs, typically around the home. These tasks include trade skills, repair work, maintenance work, are both interior and exterior, and are so ...

. In 1955, Edwards escaped from a jail in Akron and drifted around the country robbing

gas station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasolin ...

s. He wrote that he never disguised himself during these crimes because he wanted to be famous. He was placed on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list in 1961. After his 1962 capture, he was imprisoned in Leavenworth, from which he was paroled in 1967. Edwards claimed that the influence of a benevolent guard at Leavenworth reformed him. He married and became a

motivational speaker A motivational speaker is a speaker who makes speeches intended to motivate or inspire an audience. Such speakers may attempt to challenge or transform their audiences. The speech itself is popularly known as a pep talk. Motivational speakers ...

. Edwards appeared on two television shows, '' To Tell the Truth'' (1972) and ''

What's My Line? ''What's My Line?'' is a Panel show, panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebr ...

'' He wrote an autobiography, ''The Metamorphosis of a Criminal: The True Life Story of Ed Edwards'', in 1972. By 1982 he had returned to crime, and was imprisoned in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Mary ...

for two years for

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

. Between 1974 and 2009, Edwards lived in more than a dozen different states when not incarcerated, according to his daughter April, using many false names. In a 1993 letter to the FBI found in his papers, Edwards requested his criminal and history records for cities in 19 states, claimed that

J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation ...

"more or less gave me permission to proceed" with his 1972 autobiography "after I assured him there was nothing in it bad about the FBI" and he was writing a new book about criminals he met while incarcerated, such as Tony Provenzano,

Charles Manson Charles Milles Manson (; November 12, 1934November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California, in the late 1960s. Some of the members committed a series of nine murders at four loca ...

and

Jimmy Hoffa James Riddle Hoffa (born February 14, 1913 – disappeared July 30, 1975; declared dead July 30, 1982) was an American labor union leader who served as the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) from 1957 until 1971. F ...

Arrest and conviction

In 2009, Edwards was arrested for murder in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

. Neighbors described him as pleasant and neighborly. In 2010, he pleaded guilty to the murders of Billy Lavaco, 21, of Doylestown, Ohio; Judith Straub, 18, of Sterling, Ohio; and Tim Hack, 19, and Kelly Drew, 19, both of Jefferson, Wisconsin. Soon after, in a jailhouse interview, Edwards confessed to killing his foster son, Dannie Law Gloeckner, 25. In 2011, he was sentenced to death for that killing.

Known murders

The first murders for which Edwards was convicted, took place in Ohio in 1977. William ″Billy″ Lavaco, 21, of Doylestown, Ohio and his girlfriend Judith Straub, 18, of Sterling, Ohio, had been dating eight months when Straub’s car was found in the parking lot of Silver Creek Metro Park on Aug. 7, 1977, her purse and shoes inside. Family members gathered in the lot the next day as Norton police, aided by a National Guard helicopter, searched the high weeds. There, they found Lavaco and Straub, lying on the ground, shot at point-blank range with a 20-gauge shotgun. He received

life sentence Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

s for these crimes in 2010. The second pair of murders, another double homicide, occurred in Concord, Wisconsin in 1980 when Tim Hack and Kelly Drew were stabbed and strangled. These were referred to as the "Sweetheart Murders." Edwards had been questioned at the time, but there was no basis to hold him. Almost 29 years later, his connection to the crime was established by means of

DNA testing Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...

. Edwards' own child, April Balascio, tipped off police about his possible involvement. Edwards confessed to the 1996 murder of his foster son, 25-year-old Dannie Boy Edwards in

Burton, Ohio Burton is a village in Geauga County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,452 at the 2010 census. Burton is the location of Century Village, run by the Geauga Historical Society. The museum village is composed of 19th-century buildings mov ...

. The victim had lived with Edwards and his family for several years. Dannie's original name was Dannie Law Gloeckner. Edwards murdered Gloeckner in a scheme to collect $250,000

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

money. Dannie Boy, a soldier in the U.S. Army, was persuaded by Edwards to go AWOL from the Army and taken by him to the woods near his house in Burton, Ohio. There, Edwards shot him twice in the face, killing him, and left his body in a shallow grave, where it was later discovered by a hunter. Edwards was sentenced to death for this crime in March 2011. He died in prison of natural causes a month later.

Other possible murders

According to Phil Stanford in his book ''The Peyton-Allan Files,'' Edwards may have been responsible for the murders of Beverly Allan and Larry Peyton in

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. ...

, in 1960. Two men were arrested and imprisoned for these murders, but released from prison early. Authorities maintain that the correct persons were prosecuted. In March 2017, Detective Chad Garcia of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office who was in charge of the "Sweetheart Murders" case described how the murders of Hack and Drew were solved following a tip off from Edwards' daughter. Garcia said he was "pretty confident" there are at least five to seven more murders Edwards committed and "who knows beyond that." He gave a list of 15 confirmed and suspected victims, adding that he was less sure Edwards was involved in the Zodiac killings. Retired homicide detective John Cameron speculated that Edwards was responsible for several high-profile cases, including the Zodiac killings in the Bay Area of California and the murder of JonBenét Ramsey. However, his claims have proven highly controversial.

Death

Edwards died of natural causes at the Corrections Medical Center in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and ...

on April 7, 2011, avoiding execution by lethal injection set for August 31.

In media

In October 1972, Edwards appeared on the television game show '' To Tell The Truth,'' claiming to be reformed and denying having committed any murders. A former police detective and

cold case A cold case is a crime, or a suspected crime, that has not yet been fully resolved and is not the subject of a current criminal investigation, but for which new information could emerge from new witness testimony, re-examined archives, new or r ...

investigator, J.A. Cameron published a

true crime True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events. The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 per ...

book ''It's Me – Edward Wayne Edwards, the serial killer you never heard of'', in 2014, claiming that along with other murders Edwards hadn't confessed to, that Edwards was the

Zodiac Killer The Zodiac Killer is the pseudonym of an unidentified serial killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s. The case has been described as the most famous unsolved murder case in American history. It became a fixture of popular ...

. The book and Cameron's claims were "met with almost universal disdain, especially from law enforcement". In 2017, A&E broadcast a program describing the murders of Tim Hack and Kelly Drew. In 2018

Investigation Discovery Investigation Discovery (stylized and branded on-air as ID since 2008) is an American multinational pay television network dedicated to true crime documentaries owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. As of February 2015, approximately 86 million Amer ...

broadcast an episode titled ''My Father, the Serial Killer'' which tells the story of how Edwards' daughter realized her father had committed the so-called "Sweetheart Murders" and tipped off authorities, leading to his arrest and conviction. The daughter told ''People'' that Edwards had a dark side, verbally and physically abusing her mother Kay, and making the children watch videos about the

while screaming, "that's not how it happened!" In the episode she affirmed that she thought her father was also the Zodiac Killer. In April 2018, A&E aired a six part series, ''It Was Him: The many murders of Ed Edwards''. According to an article in ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its cov ...

'' by Amelia Mcdonell-Parry, Larry Harnish, who had also researched the

Black Dahlia Elizabeth Short (July 29, 1924 – January 14–15, 1947), known posthumously as the Black Dahlia, was an American woman found murdered in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles on January 15, 1947. Her case became highly publicized ow ...

case, ridiculed Cameron's use of a website which Cameron believes was authored by Edwards; Cameron's efforts to reach out to Kathleen Zellner, attorney for

Steven Avery Steven Allan Avery (born July 9, 1962) is an American convicted murderer from Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, who had previously been wrongfully convicted in 1985 of sexual assault and attempted murder. After serving eighteen years of a thirty-two ...

, were unsuccessful, but in an e‑mail Zellner doubted that Edwards could have murdered Teresa Halbach, while citing no evidence which definitively excluded him; Mcdonell-Parry claimed that Cameron embellished his theories in the A&E documentary, citing a lack of evidence that the Zodiac Killer's hood was made of leather, but also noted that Detective Chad Garcia agreed that Edwards had committed more than the five murders for which he was convicted. A 2019 "

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

Edward Wayne Edwards. The podcast story starts with the moment Edwards' daughter April Balascio realises her father might be involved in the 'Sweetheart Murders' and includes what came after, as well as delves into Edwards' past by way of Balascio's memories.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Edward 1933 births 1977 murders in the United States 2011 deaths 20th-century American criminals American escapees American male criminals American people convicted of arson American people convicted of murder American people who died in prison custody American prisoners sentenced to death American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment American serial killers Contestants on American game shows Criminals from Kentucky Criminals from Ohio FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives Fugitives Male serial killers Murderers for life insurance money People convicted of murder by Ohio People convicted of murder by Wisconsin People from Akron, Ohio People from Louisville, Kentucky Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Ohio Prisoners who died in Ohio detention Serial killers who died in prison custody