Richard Beasley (serial killer)
American convicted serial killer on death row in Ohio
Richard James Beasley (born June 15, 1959), dubbed the Craigslist Killer, is an American convicted serial killer who was sentenced to death for the murders of three men in Ohio. From August to November 2011, Beasley and his teenage accomplice Brogan Rafferty conspired with each other to lure victims with fake promises of job offers advertised online in Craigslist, which led to the deaths of three men: David Pauley, Timothy Kern and Ralph Geiger. A fourth victim was wounded but managed to escape, which brought the murders to light.
Beasley, who was deemed the mastermind of the murders, was found guilty of three counts of aggravated murder and one count of attempted murder, and was sentenced to death on April 4, 2013. Rafferty, who was 16 at the time of the killings, was spared the death sentence and instead sentenced to life in prison in November 2012. Beasley is currently on death row awaiting execution at the Ross Correctional Institution.
Early life
Richard James Beasley was born in Washington, D.C. on June 15, 1959. Several weeks after he was born, Beasley's family relocated to Akron, Ohio, where Beasley grew up. Beasley's parents divorced when he was young, and his mother, a secretary working at a local high school, remarried to a truck driver in 1963. According to his mother, Beasley's stepfather was an alcoholic who often physically abused his stepson, and sometimes, Beasley and his two half-sisters (fathered by his stepfather) were sent to live with relatives to avoid the abuse.
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