Richard Edwin Fox (February 3, 1956 – February 12, 2003) was an American murderer who was executed by the state of

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

for the

kidnapping In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...

and

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

of an 18-year-old college student whom he lured to her death with the fake promise of a

job interview A job interview is an interview consisting of a conversation between a job applicant and a representative of an employer which is conducted to assess whether the applicant should be hired. Interviews are one of the most popularly used devices for ...

. He was also suspected of killing his wife in Oregon in 1983. A three-judge panel convicted Fox of aggravated murder and kidnapping and sentenced him to death on June 27, 1990. He spent 12 years, 7 months, and 16 days on

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...

as his case was appealed through the state and federal court systems.

Wife's death

In 1983, Fox's estranged wife, Kim Swinehart Fox, was found dead in Oregon. Shortly before their final divorce hearing, she was found with her arms and head over the side of a bathtub in her apartment. Her wrists had been slit. However, the coroner determined that she died from asphyxiation as a result of neck compression, not blood loss.

The crime

The crime for which Fox paid with his life was his first criminal conviction, but Fox had been increasingly aggressive toward women in the months before the murder of 18-year-old Leslie Renae Keckler, testimony at his trial revealed. The victim of a previous encounter with Fox helped police break the case. On September 14, 1989, Leslie Keckler applied for a waitress job at a

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep on ...

restaurant where Fox worked as a grill cook. As Keckler was filling out her job application, Fox pointed out Keckler to a coworker and said, "I'd like to have some of that," the coworker testified later. Fox gleaned Keckler's telephone number from the application and asked her to meet him for an interview for a restaurant supply sales job. On September 26, Keckler went to a local motel where Fox had arranged the job interview. Keckler's boyfriend saw her just before she left, and Keckler told him she might be gone for two or three hours. When Keckler did not return that night, her boyfriend and mother filed a missing persons report with the police. Police found the car Keckler had been driving abandoned at a local mall. Two boys riding bicycles found Keckler's body in a rural drainage ditch four days later. Keckler was still wearing her new black dress and leather jacket. However, a clasp on her brassiere was broken, her belt was unbuckled, two dress buttons were missing, and her pantyhose was torn in the crotch. Aside from a nearby shoe, police found no other evidence at the scene.

Wounds

The

autopsy An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any di ...

revealed that Keckler had died as a result of asphyxia from ligature strangulation and multiple stab wounds. She had been stabbed six times in the back; three stab wounds penetrated her lungs. Her right wrist had a deep

defensive wound A defense wound or self-defense wound is an injury received by the victim of an attack while trying to defend against the assailant. Defensive wounds are often found on the hands and forearms, where the victim has raised them to protect the head an ...

gash, and her face had bruises on her left eye, upper lip, and nose consistent with blunt force injury. The coroner found no signs of sexual assault.

Previous attack

When Keckler's murder was publicized, another Bowling Green woman came forward with a similar story. She had applied for work at a restaurant and received an invitation for an interview for a different position from a man referred to as "Jeff Bennett" but who was later positively identified as Fox. He asked her to come to a local motel—the same one that Keckler was headed—to discuss the job opportunity. After meeting Fox, she agreed to accompany him in his car that evening to discuss the job. They drove for a while and then parked. Fox began making suggestive comments and told the woman he thought her dress was too long. She realized she had been duped and told Fox she was uninterested in any job. In response, Fox asked what the woman would do if someone "pulled a knife" on her and asked her for money or "to do other things." At that moment, the woman jumped out of the car as Fox tried to grab her and said, "come back," and that he "wasn't finished with eryet." She made a safe getaway but did not report the incident to police until after Keckler disappeared. The woman provided police with a sketch of her assailant.

Investigation

A check of the employees at the restaurants where the two women applied for jobs revealed an interesting coincidence: Fox was employed at both places. Other

circumstantial evidence Circumstantial evidence is evidence that relies on an inference to connect it to a conclusion of fact—such as a fingerprint at the scene of a crime. By contrast, direct evidence supports the truth of an assertion directly—i.e., without need ...

made Fox their prime suspect. On October 2, an acquaintance of Fox told police that the composite sketch resembled Richard Fox of Tontogany. Police confirmed that Fox matched the description of "Bennett" and Fox's car also matched the description of "Bennett's" car. That same day, police secured a

search warrant A search warrant is a court order that a magistrate or judge issues to authorize law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person, location, or vehicle for evidence of a crime and to confiscate any evidence they find. In most countries, ...

for Fox's car and found some "suspicious items". They asked Fox to come to the station to answer a few questions and he voluntarily accompanied them. Before Fox was placed under arrest, he admitted that in early May he had worked at a restaurant where his first intended victim had applied for a job, that he met her at the motel, and that he took her for a drive and discussed her skirt length.

Arrest and admissions

After his arrest and after being advised of his

Miranda rights In the United States, the ''Miranda'' warning is a type of notification customarily given by police to criminal suspects in police custody (or in a custodial interrogation) advising them of their right to silence and, in effect, protection fr ...

, Fox admitted he knew Keckler and claimed they had met and spoke at the restaurant where he worked and met again a couple of days later. He described his encounter with Keckler at the motel on September 26 as a date. Later, at the mall, "he saw Leslie and they talked and ended up taking a drive in his car". Fox said that he and Keckler parked, and "things were getting warmed up". However, "then Leslie did not want to participate". She called him "an asshole" and started to get out of the car. Fox told detectives, "no one calls me an asshole". Fox grabbed the woman by the coat as she was standing up to get out of the car and pulled her back in, then he pulled the coat up over her head. Fox told police he got a knife out of the glove compartment and stabbed Keckler in the back, after which he got a rope out of the trunk "just to make sure she was dead" and strangled her. He took police to a rural location outside Bowling Green where he dumped Keckler's purse and other property.

Clemency hearing and execution

At Fox's clemency hearing where the parole board listens to arguments why it should or should not recommend that the governor commute a death sentence, it was revealed that Fox had written a letter apologizing to the Keckler family for his actions: : "If I could, I would sit down with my victim's family and try and share how sorry I am, how I have changed and how I wish I could change what happened. I am sorry, and I must pay for my actions, if it be with a life in prison or if it be by my life, I will do what is required as I know I must pay for my mistakes!" Neither that letter nor his teenage daughter's tearful plea not to be made an orphan (her mother had earlier committed suicide) swayed the

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 ...

board. Fox was sentenced to death, and spent the next 12 years, 7 months, and 16 days on death row at the

Southern Ohio Correctional Facility The Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (commonly referred to as Lucasville) is a maximum security prison located just outside Lucasville in Scioto County, Ohio. The prison was constructed in 1972. As of 2022, the warden is Donald Redwood. The ...

in Lucasville. On Wednesday, February 12, 2003, Fox was executed by lethal injection. Fox made no statement before he was injected with the deadly chemicals. The execution took a total of 13 minutes from the time the first chemical was started until Fox was pronounced dead.

General references

Richard Edwin Fox
''The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney''. Accessed on 2007-11-05.
2006 Capital Crimes Annual Report
(

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

). ''Ohio Attorney General's Office'' (2007-04-01). Accessed on 2007-11-05. * "Death row inmate apologizes to victim's family in letter". ''

The Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

'' (2003-01-08). * "Man about to be executed had pattern of luring young women". ''The Associated Press State & Local Wire'' (2003-02-07). * "Ohio performs 4th execution in year". ''United Press International'' (2003-02-12). * ''State v. Fox,'' 69 Ohio St. 3d 183

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Richard Edwin 1956 births 2003 deaths 21st-century executions by Ohio American kidnappers American people executed for murder 21st-century executions of American people People executed by Ohio by lethal injection People convicted of murder by Ohio Place of birth missing People from Bowling Green, Ohio Executed people from Ohio