Carroll Cole

Carroll Cole killed at least 15 women and one boy by strangulation between 1948 and 1980. Cole was convicted of the murders in 1981 and sentenced to life in prison. He was executed by lethal injection in 1985 after being found guilty of 15 counts of first-degree murder.

About Carroll Cole in brief

Summary Carroll ColeCarroll Cole was executed in 1985 for killing at least fifteen women and one boy by strangulation between 1948 and 1980. Cole’s first victim as an adult was Essie L. Buck, whom he’d picked up in a San Diego tavern on May 7, 1971. He strangled her to death in his car and drove around with her body in the trunk before eventually dumping it. Two weeks later, he killed an unidentified woman and buried her in a wooded area. He later claimed that they had proven themselves unfaithful to their husbands, and so reminded him of his adulterous mother. In 1979, Cole was a suspect in the second of these killings and was also found on the scene of the third murder.

He confessed to all of the other killings, all of which he claimed he had murdered. Cole was convicted of the murders in 1981 and sentenced to life in prison. He was executed by lethal injection in 1985 after being found guilty of 15 counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree. The execution was followed by a public execution for the murders of two other women and a man who had been involved in one of the killings. The victims were found to have died of natural causes, and Cole was ruled out as a suspect.