Stuart Alexander

In June 2010, a memorial service event was held at the U.S. Federal Food Safety and Inspection Service building located in Alameda, California commemorating the service of the four inspectors, the memory of the three who were slain in the gun attack, and Earl Willis, who had died in 2008 of cancer . The FSIS also held several related special ceremonies commemorating the lives and service of all of the inspectors in Washington D.C., which was a two-day event held on the corner of NW 14th and Jefferson Streets, where decorations with memorial service ribbons were given to the families of the inspectors; the FSIS also held ceremonies in Beltsville, Maryland, and Alameda. The agency also maintains a memorial page to remind employees and the public of the sacrifice made by the inspectors.

While awaiting execution on California's death row at San Quentin State Prison, Alexander, who had gained some eighty pounds during the four years in custody until his stay of execution, began to experience health problems; he would die of a pulmonary embolism on December 27, 2005. The factory was closed finally and the factory building on 1745 Washington Avenue was sold and then converted into a nightclub by the new owners,. The story was reported nationally and was documented on the A&E Channel's City Confidential program in a 2005 episode "The Sausage King, Episode #133".; the case was also spotlighted (focusing specifically on the interactions between Alexander and Jean Hillery) in a similarly titled 2011 episode of the Investigation Discovery program Fatal Encounters.

Court proceedings for the trial of Alexander in the slayings of the compliance officers began on Monday, May 2, 2004. The prosecution team introduced forensic evidence as well as the video surveillance tape; it recorded the events from the time the meat inspectors were waiting in the office lobby for the police, who never came, to arrive, until the shooting of the officers at point-blank range. Alexander had unwittingly sealed his fate; he had the video system installed in all the rooms of the factory. The prosecutors also introduced the videotaped footage of the chase of Inspector Willis by Alexander down Washington Street. The prosecutors had aimed to show signs of premeditation in committing the murders; they also introduced the humorous joke "secret sauce" letter Alexander and his ex-girlfriend Eve Elder had written together several years before.

On October 19, 2004, Alexander was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder, making him eligible to receive the death penalty. On December 14, 2004, a jury condemned Alexander to death by lethal injection. He was convicted of the murders and sentenced to death on February 15, 2005.

On June 21, 2000, the inspectors, who had expected there to be some difficulty in dealing with Alexander after several past clashes with him, had attempted to contact the San Leandro Police for possible backup after being met by Alexander at the entrance of the factory; the dispatch call had been treated as a routine police call. Still claiming that he was being harassed by the inspectors, Alexander, at the same time attempted to contact the police to report that the inspectors were trespassing. Like the call the inspectors made, it was also treated as low-priority. At the same time, he attempted to catch the inspectors overstepping their bounds by videotaping the visit on the survelliance video camera that he had installed in every room in the factory.

It was alleged by those that were close to him that Alexander would often keep and show-off e-mails and letters from the meat compliance officers he felt were harassing him. Perhaps partially inspired by the perceived harassment of the state and USDA inspection practices, Alexander made a bid for San Leandro Mayoral Office in 1998. The campaign failed when it was published that he had previously attacked an elderly neighbor.

Alexander, who was described by some who knew him closely to have a "short fuse", and to be at times "combative", was charged with beating Clifford Berg, 75, an elderly neighbor, after an argument in 1996. One person who owned a printing shop near the linguisa factory, Richard Miller, 38, said during the murder trial before the grand jury, that Alexander "didn't like the idea of people telling him what to do", with his business, and that he was "very anti-authority", at least from what he knew about the sausage maker.

Alexander began a romantic relationship with Eve Elder, a 33-year-old insurance claims agent, around 1995. Over the course of the relationship Elder would see signs of resentment and a potential violent streak in Alexander, especially when commenting about the inspectors. In what had started out as a joke, the couple concocted a series of short stories; one, titled "Sausage Sniffers Found Sauced", painted a description of the inspectors drowning in vats of 'secret sauce'. As another former girlfriend, Charlotte Knapp, 38, who had been seeing Alexander off and on up until the time of the murders, would later testify during the murder trial, Alexander frequently used profanities to describe the inspectors and would become confrontational with them, or for anyone else whom he deemed as "trespassers" at his factory. On occasion wielding a gun, one of the several firearms that he kept in his office desk drawer.

By many accounts of acquaintances of the family, the relationship between the father Tweedy and the young Stuart was very rocky, at best. By the account of his mother Shirley, who divorced Tweedy when Stuart was ten, Tweedy could at times be very demanding with the son, and "yelled at him all the time", especially when, at times with him at the factory during the summers and weekends, young Stuart made a mistake. Coupled with this and the breakup of his parents marriage in 1971, this apparently had helped to cultivate a deep-seated anger and resentment that often manifested violently in relations with other people from a young age.

Stuart Charles "The Sausage King" Alexander (March 22, 1961 – December 27, 2005) was an American businessman and heir of the Santos Linguisa Sausage Factory, which was founded by a late great aunt, Pia Santos, and her husband, Antonio, in San Leandro, California in 1921. Alexander was convicted in 2004 of the murder of three state and USDA meat compliance officials in 2000.

Born the middle child of three sons of Shirley Mae Parriott (born January 18, 1934) and the late Herman "Tweedy" Alexander (b. January 1, 1934 - d. May 31, 1993). Alexander, whose paternal family roots could be traced back to Portugal, was a lifelong resident of San Leandro, California. He would inherit the family business, The Santos Linguica Factory and then would proclaim himself the "Sausage King," after the death of his father, who had successfully run the once thriving business for many years, (apparently without complaints from state and federal inspectors) in 1993. Alexander's father, Tweedy, had been well known in the local and national business circles as an astute businessman, and had been recognized and renowned for making arguably the finest linguica sausage in the Bay Area, if not nationwide. He had been grooming the young Stuart for years, particularly after the death of his eldest son, Stefen (August 8, 1958 – May 25, 1977), who died at the age of eighteen in a motorcycle accident. Stefen was set to inherit the reins of the company, but after his passing, all that changed. Tweedy had no choice but to pass the reins to the next eldest son, Stuart. However, Tweedy had little faith that Stuart could run the company. Stuart's father was verbally abusive to his son, often telling him that he would "never amount to anything".