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Jesse ANDERSON
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Parricide
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder:
April 21,
1992
Date of arrest: 5 days after
Date of birth: 1957
Victim profile: His
wife
Method of murder: Stabbing
with knife
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Status:
Sentenced to
life in
prison.
Bludgeoned to death in prison on November
28, 1994
Jesse
Anderson was a
prisoner who was bludgeoned to death in the same incident as
serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Anderson died just days after
Dahmer after doctors at the University of Wisconsin Hospital in
Madison removed him from life support.
Anderson was
serving a life sentence for killing his wife, who was stabbed 21
times in August 1992. Anderson had blamed two Black men for
attacking him and his wife (both White) as they left a Milwaukee
restaurant.
Prison
officials held 25-year-old Christopher Scarver as the sole
suspect in the murders of Dahmer and Anderson. Scarver, who is
Black, was being reported as being hostile toward Whites, and
since both Dahmer's and Anderson's crimes affected Blacks,
officials did not rule out racial retaliation.
Man Convicted in Killing He
Accused Blacks of Committing
New York Times
August 16, 1992
A businessman accused of fatally stabbing his wife and blaming
the attack on two black men has been found guilty of murder.
The defendant, Jesse Anderson, who is white, had told the police
that two men assaulted him and his wife, Barbara, in a
restaurant parking lot on April 21. He said the men stabbed his
wife in the face and neck and stabbed him when he tried to
defend her.
But prosecutors argued that Mr. Anderson, a
35-year-old landscaping contractor from the well-to-do suburb of
Cedarburg, killed his wife with 21 stab wounds and stabbed
himself three times in the chest to divert suspicion.
Police
Were Skeptical
Mr. Anderson faces a mandatory life sentence
after the verdict on Thursday.
The slaying recalled the 1989 murder case in
Boston that involved another upper-middle-class white couple,
Charles and Carol Stuart. Mr. Stuart told the police that he and
his pregnant wife were shot by a black man. She died, and the
police eventually concluded that Mr. Stuart killed his wife to
collect $300,000 in life insurance. He plunged to his death from
a bridge apparently after learning he was a suspect.
In the Boston case, where Mr. Stuart's
assertions set off a citywide search that made virtually any
black man a possible suspect, whites were horrified, blacks were
resentful and the police and news organizations appeared
alarmist.
But in Milwaukee, as tensions and headlines
flared after the killing of Mrs. Anderson, the police were not
so quick to believe Mr. Anderson's account. There were no
roundups of black men on street corners or hurried arrests of
blacks with prior convictions. Instead, the police pieced
together inconsistencies in Mr. Anderson's testimony and
arrested him after his release from the hospital.
"The police did not fall for any racist or
easy definition," said Richard Knudten, professor of sociology
and criminology at Marquette University. "I think they learned a
lesson from the Boston case. They learned they have to assess
everything on the basis of fact, not on the basis of emotion."
The jury took nine hours to reach its verdict.
Judge Michael Guolee of Milwaukee County Circuit Court scheduled
formal sentencing for Aug. 26.
No motive was offered at the trial. Assistant
District Attorney Carol Lynn White said she was reluctant to
divert jurors' attention from what she considered strong
physical evidence.
Jesse Anderson
-- In April 1992, Jesse Anderson, a
white man, told the police that while
leaving a suburban Milwaukee restaurant
he and his wife were attacked by two
Black men. According to Anderson, the
men stabbed him and his wife. His wife
was stabbed multiple times in the face,
head, and upper body. She died following
the attack.
After a five-day
search for the fictional Black criminals,
Anderson was arrested and charged with
his wife's murder. Two factors led the
police to focus their investigation on
Anderson: lab results from blood samples,
and information that Anderson had called
his wife's insurance company one month
prior to her murder to determine whether
her $250,000 policy was in effect.
Anderson was
subsequently convicted of first-degree
intentional homicide.
Inmate attacked
with Dahmer dies from trauma - Jesse
Anderson, Jeffrey Dahmer
Dec. 19, 1994
Jesse Anderson, the
prisoner who was bludgeoned along with
serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer died just
days after Dahmer when doctors removed
him from life support in Madison, WI.
Anderson,
who was
sentenced to
life in
prison for
killing his
wife and
blaming two
Black men
for the
crime, died
at the
University
of Wisconsin
Hospital in
Madison,
hospital
spokesperson
Lisa
Brunette
said.
The 37-year-old
Anderson was
sentenced to
life in
prison for
killing his
wife,
Barbara. She
was stabbed
21 times in
August 1992.
The case
polarized
the area
because of
his claim
that two
Black men
attacked him
and his wife,
both White,
as they left
a Milwaukee
restaurant.
Prison
officials
are holding
25-year-old
Christopher
Scarver as
the sole
suspect in
the murders.
Scarver, who
is Black, is
being
reported as
being
hostile
toward
Whites. And
since both
Dahmer's and
Anderson's
crimes
affected
Blacks,
officials
have not
ruled out
racial
retaliation.
Mrs.
Anderson's
family
issued a
statement
saying their
deaths were
ironic.
"What (we)
said when
Barbara died
is as true
today as it
was then,"
said the
statement
read by her
brother
Kevin Lynch.
"No one
should have
to die such
a brutal
death."
