Robert Earl O'Neal Jr. (September 25, 1961 – December 6, 1995) was an American white supremacist and convicted murderer who was executed by the state of Missouri for the February 1984 murder of Arthur Dade, a 33-year-old black American man. O'Neal, who was serving a life sentence for the robbery and murder of 78-year-old Ralph Roscoe Sharick, stabbed Dade to death at the

Missouri State Penitentiary The Missouri State Penitentiary was a prison in Jefferson City, Missouri, that operated from 1836 to 2004. Part of the Missouri Department of Corrections, it served as the state of Missouri's primary maximum security institution.Lombardi, George, ...

. For the latter murder, O'Neal was sentenced to death and executed in 1995 at the

Potosi Correctional Center Potosi Correctional Center (PCC) is a Missouri Department of Corrections prison located in unincorporated Washington County, Missouri, near Mineral Point. The facility currently houses 800 death row, maximum security and high-risk male inmate ...

via

lethal injection Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium solution) for the express purpose of causing rapid death. The main application for this procedure is capital puni ...

. O'Neal is notable for being the only white person to be executed for killing a black person in the history of modern Missouri.

Murders

Ralph Roscoe Sharick

On July 6, 1979, O'Neal and his accomplice, John E. Boggs, broke into the home of Doctor J. Larry Dowell in

Strafford, Missouri Strafford is a city in eastern Greene County, Missouri, United States. It is part of the Springfield, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's population was 2,561 at the 2020 census. History Strafford was laid out in 1870 when the ra ...

. While burglarizing the home, Dowell's father-in-law, 78-year-old Ralph Roscoe Sharick, who lived in a trailer home behind the house, entered the property after hearing a disturbance. After confronting O'Neal and Boggs, Sharick was bound and placed into a chair in a closet. After stealing a saxophone, a guitar, and a couple of guns, O'Neal fired four shots with a .22 caliber gun into the closet, one of which fatally struck Sharick in the chest. His body was found later that night by Dowell when he returned home. Boggs was captured and arrested two days later in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

. O'Neal remained a fugitive and became the subject of a multi-state manhunt. On August 25, 1979, he was captured in

Enid, Oklahoma Enid ( ) is the ninth-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is the county seat of Garfield County. As of the 2020 census, the population was 51,308. Enid was founded during the opening of the Cherokee Outlet in the Land Run of 1893, a ...

, after police received a tip from an area truck stop operator. He was found sleeping in a stolen truck and had been working in the Enid area. O'Neal was held without bail in the Greene County Jail. He was charged with capital murder, first-degree burglary, stealing, and armed criminal action. On August 27, O'Neal waived extradition and was returned to

Springfield, Missouri Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. The city's population was 169,176 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Springfield metropolitan area, which had an estimat ...

. O'Neal and Boggs both pleaded innocent to all charges. Each accused the other of pulling the trigger. On January 24, 1980, O'Neal was convicted of first-degree murder. On February 22, 1980, he was sentenced to life in prison by Circuit Judge James H. Keet. O'Neal was then transported to the

to serve his sentence. For his role in the crime, Boggs also received a life sentence. He was eventually granted parole but was barred from ever returning to Greene County.

Arthur Dade

While serving life in prison, O'Neal became a member of the white supremacist group, the

Aryan Brotherhood The Aryan Brotherhood, also known as the Brand or the AB, is a neo-Nazi prison gang and an organized crime syndicate which is based in the United States and has an estimated 15,000–20,000 members both inside and outside prisons. The Southern ...

, and was affiliated with Aryan Nations. On February 3, 1984, at noon, 33-year-old Arthur Dade, a black American man serving a twenty-two-year sentence at the Missouri State Penitentiary for two armed robbery convictions in 1979, was attacked by three white inmates. O'Neal, accompanied by fellow inmates Lloyd Schlup and Rodnie Stewart, attacked Dade in a prison hallway outside the prison dining hall. Dade had been released from his cell to eat his noon meal. Schlup allegedly held Dade's arms, while Stewart threw hot liquid in Dade's face to distract him. O'Neal then stabbed Dade to death with a homemade ice pick. Dade was stabbed four or five times in the chest and once in his right arm. He was pronounced dead by prison physicians twenty minutes later. Both Dade and O'Neal were residents of the Special Management Unit, which was a special prison inside the Missouri State Penitentiary. The unit was used for the confinement of 400 of the most troublesome inmates. O'Neal, Schlup, and Stewart were each charged with capital murder in the killing of Dade. Prosecutors called the killing a well-planned "Aryan hit." O'Neal claimed that he killed Dade in self-defense. Ultimately, all three suspects were found guilty. O'Neal and Schlup were sentenced to death, while Stewart was sentenced to life in prison. Schlup's death sentence was overturned in 1999 following '' Schlup v. Delo'', in which he was retried, and pleaded guilty to second degree murder to avoid being sentenced to death.

Execution

On December 6, 1995, O'Neal was executed at the

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. He was pronounced dead at 12:17 a.m. His final statement was, "Praise the Lord and the name of Jesus. I forgive everybody involved in this. Jesus is my Lord." He clutched a bible to his chest during the execution. He declined a

last meal A condemned prisoner's last meal is a customary ritual preceding execution. In many countries, the prisoner may, within reason, select what the last meal will be. Contemporary restrictions in the United States In the United States, most states gi ...

and instead fasted all day on the day before his execution. O'Neal's execution marked the rare occasion of a white person being executed for killing a black person. He remains the only white person to have been executed for killing a black person in the history of modern Missouri. Since the reinstatement of capital punishment in the United States in 1976, only 21 white people have been executed for murdering a black victim (less than 1.4 percent of all executions).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:ONeal, Robert 1961 births 1995 deaths 20th-century American criminals 20th-century executions by Missouri 20th-century executions of American people American male criminals American neo-Nazis American people executed for murder Criminals from Missouri People convicted of murder by Missouri People executed by Missouri by lethal injection People from Joplin, Missouri

Murders

Ralph Roscoe Sharick

Arthur Dade

Execution

See also

References