Arthur Frederick Goode III

For his last meal, Goode had steak, corn, broccoli and cookies. He also reportedly requested to have intercourse with a little boy for the last time. Arthur Goode was killed by electrocution on April 5, 1984. His last words were, "I have remorse for the two boys I murdered. But it's hard for me to show it."

A jury in Maryland found him sane and guilty of murder and gave him a life sentence. Hereafter, he also received a trial in Florida for the murder of Jason VerDow. He was permitted to conduct his own defense and was sentenced to death on March 21, 1977.

On March 5, 1976, Goode committed the murder for which he was to be executed. In Cape Coral, he happened upon 9-year-old Jason VerDow, lured him into the woods, abused and then strangled him. Afterwards, he traveled back to Baltimore, where he abducted 10-year-old Billy Arthes and took him to Washington, D.C.. There he met 11-year-old Kenneth Dawson and took both boys with him on a bus trip to Falls Church, Virginia, where he murdered Dawson with Arthes being present. Goode was apprehended by the police after a woman recognized Billy Arthes (who had since been reported as kidnapped but was physically unharmed on Goode's arrest). On being arrested, Goode told the officers: "You can't do nothing to me. I'm sick."

Goode, who was borderline mentally retarded, began to show the behavior of a pedophile in his teenage years and got into trouble with the law early, but was always released when his parents deposited bail. In mid-1975, after several reprobations of child abuse (among those the molestation of a boy of 9 years and one of 11 years), Goode was sentenced to five years of probation under the condition of psychological treatment at Spring Grove Hospital Center in Baltimore. Goode admitted himself to the treatment for several days but then left the institution and journeyed to Cape Coral, Florida, where his parents had moved.

Arthur Frederick Goode, III (March 28, 1954, Hyattsville, Maryland – April 5, 1984, Starke, Florida) was a convicted child murderer who was electrocuted in Florida in 1984.