On
this date, 30 July 1992, an African American Killer, William Andrews was
executed by lethal injection in Utah. He was convicted with two accomplices of
the Hi-Fi murders on 22 April 1974. The Hi-Fi murders were a reminiscence of
the murders of Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian. I will post information
about this killer from Wikipedia and Murderpedia.
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William
Andrews
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A.K.A.: "THe Hi-Fi Murders"
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Classification: Murderer
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Characteristics: Robbery - Rape
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Number of victims: 1
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Date of murder: April 22, 1974
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Date of arrest: Next day
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Date of birth: 1954
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Victims profile: Carol Naisbitt, 52; Michelle Ansley, 19, and
Stanley Walker, 20
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Method of murder: Shooting
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Location: Weber County, Utah, USA
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Status: Executed by lethal injection in Utah on July 30, 1992
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The so-called Hi-Fi
Murders was an infamous criminal case involving murder, rape and robbery which
occurred in the Hi-Fi Shop in Ogden, Utah on April 22, 1974.
The crimes
were committed by two 19-year-old United States Air Force airmen, Pierre Dale
Selby and William Andrews. Selby and Andrews took five people hostage, killed
three of them, and left the two who survived with horrific injuries.
Following a
trial, both men were found guilty and sentenced to death. The NAACP campaigned
to commute Selby and Andrews' death sentences, despite overwhelming physical
evidence and witness accounts that identified them as the killers beyond a
reasonable doubt.
The robbery,
rape, and murders
Selby and
Andrews entered the Hi-Fi store in Ogden just before closing time, brandishing
handguns. Two employees, Stanley
Walker, age 20, and Michelle Ansley, age 19, were in the store at
the time and taken hostage. Selby and Andrews took the two into the basement of
the store, bound them, and then began robbing the store.
Later, a
16-year-old boy named Cortney
Naisbitt entered the store to thank Walker for helping him with
an errand and was also taken hostage and tied up in the basement with Walker
and Ansley. Later that evening, Orren
Walker, Stanley's 43-year-old father, became worried that his son
had not returned home. Orren arrived at the store and was also taken hostage;
at this point, Ansley began begging and crying.
After Orren
was taken to the basement, Selby ordered Andrews to go out to their van and
bring him back something. Andrews returned with a bottle in a brown paper bag,
from which Selby poured a cup of blue liquid. Selby ordered Orren to administer
the liquid to the other hostages, but he refused, and was bound, gagged and
left face-down on the basement floor. Just then, Carol Naisbitt, Courtney's 52-year-old
mother, entered the store looking for her son. Carol was taken to the basement,
bound, and placed next to her son.
Selby and
Andrews then propped each of the victims into sitting positions and forced them
to drink the liquid, telling them it was vodka laced with sleeping pills.
Rather, it was an industrial drain cleaner whose active ingredient was sodium
hydroxide. The moment it touched the hostages' lips, enormous blisters rose,
and it began to burn their tongues and throats and peel away the flesh around
their mouths. Ansley, still begging for her life, was not forced to drink the
drain cleaner.
Pierre and
Andrews tried to duct-tape the hostages' mouths shut to hold quantities of
drain cleaner in and to silence their screams, but pus oozing from the blisters
prevented the adhesive from sticking. Orren Walker was the last to be given the
drain cleaner, but seeing what was happening to the other hostages, he allowed
it to pour out of his mouth and then faked the convulsions and screams of his
son and fellow hostages.
Selby became
angry because the deaths were taking too long and were too loud and messy, so
he shot both Carol and Cortney Naisbitt in the backs of their heads. Selby then
shot at Orren Walker but missed. He then fatally shot Stan Walker before again
shooting at Orren, this time striking him in the back of the head.
Selby then
took Ansley to the far corner of the basement, forced her at gunpoint to remove
her clothes, then repeatedly and brutally raped her while Andrews watched. When
he was done, he dragged her, still naked, back to the other hostages, threw her
on her face, and fatally shot her in the back of the head.
Andrews and
Selby noted that Orren was still alive, so Selby mounted him, wrapped a wire
around his throat, and tried to strangle him. When this failed, Selby and
Andrews inserted a ballpoint pen into Orren's ear, and Selby stomped it until
it punctured his eardrum, broke, and exited the side of his throat. Selby and
Andrews then went upstairs, finished loading equipment into their van, and
departed.
Investigation
The victims
were discovered four hours later when Orren's wife and other son came to the
store looking for them. Orren's son heard noises coming from the basement and broke
down the back door while Mrs. Walker called 9-1-1. Stan Walker and Ansley were
already dead; Carol Naisbitt lived long enough to be loaded into an ambulance,
but was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.
Although
Cortney was not expected to live, he did survive, albeit with severe and
irreparable brain damage, and required hospitalization for 266 days before
being released. Despite his severe injuries, Orren Walker survived, although
with extensive burns to his stomach and esophagus.
Hours after
news of the crime broke, an Air Force officer called the Ogden police and told
them that Andrews had confided in him months earlier, "One of these days
I'm going to rob that hi-fi shop, and if anybody gets in the way, I'm going to
kill them."
Hours after
that call was received, two teenage boys Dumpster diving near Hill Air Force
Base where Selby and Andrews were stationed discovered the victims' wallets and
purses, and, recognizing the pictures on the drivers' licenses, called the
police. A crowd of airmen quickly formed, including Selby and Andrews.
The detective
who responded to the scene, believing that the killers might be in the crowd,
put on a show, speaking dramatically and waving each piece of evidence in the
air with tongs as he removed them from the Dumpster.
He later noted
in his report that out of all the airmen gathered around the dumpster, most of
whom stood still and watched in relative silence, two in particular paced
around the crowd, spoke loudly, and made frantic gestures with their hands. The
detective later identified these two airmen as Selby and Andrews. The detective
later received an award from the Utah branch of the Justice Department for his
use of proactive techniques.
Based on
Selby's and Andrews's reactions to the evidence being removed from the trash
bin, and the officer's implication of Andrews, Andrews and Selby were taken
into custody and a search warrant was issued for their barracks. Police found
fliers for the hi-fi shop and a rental contract for a unit at a public storage facility.
Police
obtained a warrant for the storage unit, where they discovered several pieces
of stereo equipment which were later identified from serial numbers as having
been taken from the hi-fi store. During the course of removing the equipment
from the storage unit, detectives discovered the half-empty bottle of
industrial drain cleaner that had been used on the hostages. Based on this
evidence Selby and Andrews were formally charged with the crimes.
A third
person, Keith Roberts, was also charged.
Trial
Selby, Andrews
and Roberts were tried and jointly for first-degree murder and robbbery. Selby
and Andrews were convicted of all charges and sentenced to death. Roberts was
convicted only of robbery and was sentenced to imprisonment.
During the
trial it was revealed that Selby and Andrews had robbed the store with the
intention of killing anyone they came across, and in the months prior to the
robbery had been looking for a way to commit the murders quietly and cleanly.
The two then
saw the film Magnum Force, in which a prostitute is forced to drink
Drano and is then shown immediately dropping dead. Selby and Andrews decided
that this would be an efficient method of murder and decided to use it in their
crime. Orren Walker and Cortney Naisbitt were the star witnesses for the
prosecution; both testified on the stand, in spite of Naisbitt's brain damage
and Walker's mutilated throat.
Aftermath
Following the
issuing of death sentences, the NAACP demanded that Selby and Andrews'
sentences be reduced to life with the possibility of parole, claiming that
Pierre and Andrews had been unfairly convicted since they were both black, and
the victims and jury were all white.
Andrews was
quick to accuse the judicial system of racism following the NAACP's request for
reduced sentences, and in an interview with USA Today, he claimed that he had
never intended to kill anyone; this was later rebutted when detectives cited a
statement by Andrews in which he admitted being the one to purchase the drain
cleaner and bring it to the store on the night of the killings.
Selby and
Andrews became notoriously hated prisoners, even amongst the black population.
They were particularly reviled on death row, especially by Gary Gilmore (also
facing capital punishment and imprisoned at the same facility), whose final
words to his fellow inmates before being taken to face the firing squad were,
"I'll see you in Hell, Pierre and Andrews!" Gilmore is reported to
have laughed at Selby and Andrews as he passed by their cells.
Despite
movements by the NAACP and Amnesty International, Selby and Andrews were both
put to death by lethal injection, Selby on August 28, 1987, Andrews five years
later in 1992.
The Hi-Fi
Murders are still seen as among the worst crimes ever committed in the state of
Utah. The case is now taught to FBI trainees at the FBI Academy at Quantico,
Virginia, and it was included as a sample case in the FBI's Crime
Classification Manual.
Cortney
Naisbitt's story became the basis for the book Victim: The Other Side of Murder by Gary Kinder. This book
was viewed by many as pioneering because it was one of the first true crime
books that focused on the victims of a violent crime rather than the criminals.
Cortney suffered chronic pain for the rest of his life, until his death on June 4, 2002 at the
age of 44. Due to his brain damage, he was forced to drop out of college, and
because he could not hold down a job, had to apply for social security
assistance.
Orren Walker,
the other victim who survived the brutal attack, died on February 13, 2000.
The
incident was also the basis for a 1991 CBS Television movie called Aftermath:
A Test of Love, starring Richard Chamberlain and Michael Learned.
William
Andrews
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Born
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1955
Jonesboro, Louisiana
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Died
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July 30, 1992 (aged 37)
Utah State Prison, Draper, Utah
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Conviction(s)
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First-degree murder
Aggravated robbery
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Penalty
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Death Sentence
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Conviction status
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Executed by Lethal Injection
July 30, 1992
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Occupation
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United States Air Force
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The
official police report stated that six black men driving two vans committed the
robbery. Roberts and another man remained with the cars and two others loaded
the vans, while Pierre and Andrews tortured and killed the victims. However,
detectives only had enough evidence to convict Pierre, Andrews and Roberts.
Ogden Police Department Officer Delroy White, who was a detective when he
worked the case, observed: "Andrews was the brains behind the whole deal,
the one who organized it [...] Pierre was the enforcer."
- Dale Selby
Pierre (January
21, 1953 – August 28, 1987): Pierre was 21 years old at the time of the
crime. He was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, until moving to Brooklyn,
New York, at the age of 17. In May 1973, Pierre entered active service
with the United States Air Force, and was transferred to Hill Air Force
Base in September 1973 as a helicopter mechanic. Almost on arrival, Pierre
became the prime suspect in the October 5, 1973 murder of Edward
Jefferson, an Air Force Sergeant at Hill Air Force Base, though police
lacked enough evidence to file charges. At the time of the Hi-Fi murders,
Pierre was out on bail for car theft from a Salt Lake City car dealer. On
November 16, 1974, Pierre was convicted of three counts of first-degree
murder and two counts of aggravated robbery for the Hi-Fi crimes. On
November 20, 1974, he was given three death sentences, one for each of the
murder victims. While in prison, Pierre changed his name 27 times,
reportedly to protect his family name from notoriety, finally settling on
"Pierre Dale Selby" (simply transposing his first, middle, and
last names from birth) as his legal name. After exhaustion of appeals,
Pierre was executed by lethal injection on August 28, 1987, at the age of
34. At the time of his death, Pierre bequeathed all of his money ($29) to
Andrews.
- William
Andrews: Andrews
was 19 years old at the time of the crimes. During the trial it was
revealed that he and Selby had the intention of killing anyone they came
across while robbing the store. Andrews was executed by lethal injection
on July 30, 1992.
- Keith
Roberts: The
court found that Keith Roberts had no role in, or knowledge of, the
murders. He was, however, convicted of armed robbery. Roberts was paroled
in 1987.
Pierre
and Andrews became notoriously hated prisoners at Utah State Prison, and were
particularly reviled on death row. In 1977, convicted murderer Gary Gilmore (also
facing capital punishment) was reported to have said, "I'll see you in
Hell, Pierre and Andrews!", as he passed their cells on the way to his execution
by firing squad. However the The Deseret News reports that Gilmore's
parting words to the Hi-Fi killers, moments before his execution were:
"Adios, Pierre and Andrews. I'll be seeing you directly."
