John Peter Malveaux

As of September 2022, Malveaux remains incarcerated at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in West Feliciana Parish.

In July 1997, Malveaux raped and strangled two additional victims: 26-year-old Carolyn Breaux Nichols, a resident of Opelousas, and Tamika Blake Wilson, who was visiting from Baltimore, Maryland. Both women's bodies were later found abandoned near the St. Landry Parish Airport by a passer-by. On October 19, he met a woman at a nightclub in Opelousas and took her to a storage shed behind Lincoln Street, where he proceeded to rape and attempt to strangle her. Due to the overwhelming force she was being strangled with, the victim's eyes started bleeding and she lost consciousness, leading her attacker to believe that she was dead. Unbeknownst to Malveaux, she came to her senses a few hours later and ran to the nearest house to search for help, informing authorities that she had just been assaulted.

Malveaux's first suspected victim was Melissa Thomas, whom he allegedly strangled at the Little Zion Cemetery in the northern parts of Opelousas on January 31, 1996. On February 20, he sexually assaulted and strangled 38-year-old Diane Sam after she refused to have sex with him, and then dumped her partially unclothed body at an apartment complex in Opelousas, where it was found later that same day. At first, her death was erroneously attributed to natural causes, and was not linked to the murders until after Malveaux's arrest.

Two days after his arrest, Malveaux confessed to killing Sam, revealing details about her death that only the killer could know. Due to this, authorities considered exhuming Sam's body in a bid to gather potential additional evidence against Malveaux. In the meantime, he was jailed at the Evangeline Parish Jail to await second-degree murder charges, with bond set at $1 million. Investigators from both parishes started coordinating with one another to make clear up how the murders were carried out and what to do in future court proceedings. As a result of this, another woman came forward and accused Malveaux of raping her in 1995, but no charges were brought forward in this case.

John Peter Malveaux (born 1964) is an American serial killer and rapist who committed between four and five murders around Opelousas, Louisiana from January to October 1997. Following his arrest and confession to the crimes, Malveaux pleaded guilty on all counts and was given four life terms without parole.

Little is known of Malveaux's personal life. Born in 1964 in Opelousas, Louisiana, he was an altar boy as a child and later moved to a trailer park in Lafayette, where he married a woman and had six boys. According to neighbors and acquaintances, Malveaux was considered a friendly and respected man who was beloved by most people in his social circle, but was also known to have drinking problems and a strained relationship with the local Apostolic Church.