Jeremiah McCray

Jeremiah McCray (1935 – April 18, 1958) was an American serial killer, rapist, and burglar who committed five murders across four states from 1956 to 1958, with most of his victims being elderly women whom he killed during robberies. Convicted and sentenced to death for his final murder in Virginia, McCray was subsequently executed a few months later.

On April 10, 1958, McCray's plea for clemency was denied by Governor J. Lindsay Almond, setting his execution date for April 18. On the aforementioned date, he was executed at the Virginia State Penitentiary's electric chair. Two months later, Reager was convicted for rape for his role in the Griffin case and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

After Gilbert's murder, McCray is not known to have committed any further violent crimes until July 1, 1957, when he and another acquaintance broke into a small home in Washington Court House, Ohio, where they killed 86-year-old Sarah DeWitt. Afterwards, the pair stole $250 and left. McCray then celebrated Independence Day at his home in Alabama, and three days later, he traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, where he was hired to do some work for 79-year-old Carrie B. Hanbury. Upon arriving, McCray grabbed a shovel and beat to death her 53-year-old son, Robert, on the porch. He then entered into the house and proceeded to attack Carrie with a flashlight and a screwdriver, beating and stabbing her into unconsciousness. Believing she was dead, McCray stole $90, an electric and safety razor, and two men's shirts from the house before fleeing. Robert's body was later found by a newspaper delivery boy, and after authorities searched the house, they located the still-unconscious Carrie inside. She was then driven to hospital and had her injuries treated for the next few weeks - in the end, she managed to survive, but was left physically disabled and mentally scarred from the attack.

In July 1957, McCray broke into a home in Freedom Township, Pennsylvania, stealing several watches and a constable's badge, which he then attempted to sell on the street. To his surprise, the homeowner, Roscoe Shindledecker, managed to track him down and arrest him. Soon afterwards, McCray, who falsely listed his age as 28, was charged with one count of burglary and one count of larceny. He would later be convicted of both and sentenced to a year in prison, but would be paroled in early January 1958 for unknown reasons.

In early 1956, McCray was working on a farm in Talladega, Alabama, when he was approached by an acquaintance who claimed that he knew a place from where they could steal some cash. Deciding to accompany him, the pair traveled to Anniston on February 27, where they broke into the home of 73-year-old Daisy F. Gilbert. Upon encountering her, the two men savagely beat her to death with sticks before looting $80 and a pistol from the house and fleeing. Gilbert's body was later discovered by her daughter-in-law, Ezmi Clifford, who immediately notified the authorities. A few days later, Gilbert's adopted son Kenneth, who worked at a Standard Oil plantation in Venezuela, went back to Alabama to accompany his wife, who was considered the prime suspect in the case. Up until McCray's arrest, Ezmi was repeatedly called in for questioning by authorities and was regarded with suspicion by the locals, which greatly impacted her and her family's social life and led to friends and acquaintances severing ties with her.

During this interrogation, McCray shocked investigators by suddenly admitting to four other murders, including the Stevens murder which he had previously been cleared of. While he did not provide an abundant amount of detail and refused to name the accomplices in the earlier slayings, the police eventually managed to connect him with the respective murders. Due to his modus operandi, McCray was investigated for possible additional crimes committed around the Atlanta area from 1955 to 1957, but no further accusations were leveled against him due to lack of evidence.

Little is known about McCray's life. Born in 1935 in Buchanan, Georgia, he was the son of black sharecroppers and supposedly had up to nineteen or twenty brothers. According to his own claims later on, he studied in school for about three years, but never learned to read or write. Eventually, he dropped out altogether and started working as an itinerant farm laborer, but would occasionally turn to thefts and burglaries if he desperately needed money.