Wesley Ira Purkey

Wesley Purkey
Purkey shortly before his execution
Born	Wesley Ira Purkey (1952-01-06)January 6, 1952 Wichita, Kansas, U.S.
Died	July 16, 2020(2020-07-16) (aged 68) USP Terre Haute, Terre Haute, Indiana, U.S.
Cause of death	Execution by lethal injection
Other names	The claw hammer killer
Criminal status	Executed
Conviction(s)	Federal: Kidnapping a child resulting in death (18 U.S.C. § 1201) Kansas: First degree murder Aggravated robbery (3 counts) Aggravated battery Aggravated escape from custody Kidnapping Robbery (2 counts) Burglary (2 counts) Unlawful possession of firearms (2 counts) Theft
Criminal penalty	Federal: Death (January 23, 2004) Kansas: Life imprisonment (April 28, 2000)
Details
Victims	Jennifer Long, 16 Mary Ruth Bales, 80
Date	January 22, 1998 October 27, 1998
Country	United States
State(s)	Kansas and Missouri (one of the victims was kidnapped from Missouri, but murdered in Kansas)
Date apprehended	October 30, 1998

Wesley Ira Purkey (January 6, 1952 – July 16, 2020) was an American convicted murderer who was executed by the United States federal government for the January 1998 kidnapping, rape, and murder of 16-year-old Jennifer Long. Purkey confessed to the crime while serving a life sentence for another murder, that of 80-year-old polio sufferer Mary Ruth Bales, whom he beat to death with a claw hammer in October 1998.

In 2020, Purkey was one of several condemned men on federal death row selected to be executed by the federal government of the United States. He was executed via lethal injection on the morning of July 16, 2020, following a delay due to concerns that he suffered from Alzheimer's disease and did not understand why he was being executed. An autopsy later found he suffered a painful death during the execution procedure and would have felt like he was slowly drowning. A medical expert described the feeling as "among the most excruciating feelings known to man."

Early life[]

Wesley Ira Purkey was born on January 6, 1952, in Wichita, Kansas. As a child, he experienced repeated sexual abuse and molestation by those in charge of his care. At age 14, he was examined for possible brain damage. He reportedly suffered multiple traumatic brain injuries throughout his life, which began in 1968 at the age of 16 and again in 1972 and 1976, at the ages of 20 and 24, respectively. At age 18, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, as well as depression superimposed upon a preexisting antisocial personality.^[1]

Criminal history[]

Purkey was convicted in 1975 for burglary, for which he received his first parole. However, he broke his parole and was sent back to prison. He was paroled again in 1980. Following his release on parole, Purkey, accompanied by a friend, robbed a man in Wichita at gunpoint. Purkey then shot the man twice in the head before fleeing. The man survived the shooting, and Purkey was sentenced to fifteen years to life in prison for aggravated battery, aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated robbery.^[2] While in prison, records show he was violent and uncooperative. He was stabbed on two separate occasions by other inmates, one of which was over a drug deal.^[3]

In 1986, Purkey was reported to have changed and was staying out of trouble and working in a prison paint shop. He earned an associate's degree in literature from a community college, joined Alcoholics Anonymous, and took drug, alcohol, and mental health counseling. In 1992, counselors evaluated Purkey and found he was a classic psychopath; however, his education and intelligence seemed to moderate his antisocial tendencies. In 1996, a counselor concluded he had used his time in prison productively to help rebuild his life. The following year in 1997, Purkey's family and friends sent letters to the Kansas Parole Board asking for his release, arguing he had matured and was ready for freedom. Police, prosecutors, and Purkey's former victims objected to his release. The 1980 shooting victim, who was now partially disabled for life, told the parole board that Purkey should stay in prison for the remainder of his life. However, the board disagreed, citing that he had made good progress while incarcerated. In March 1997, after serving seventeen years behind bars, Purkey was released from prison.^[3]

Murders[]

Jennifer Long[]

On January 22, 1998, Purkey drove from his home in Lansing, Kansas to Kansas City, Missouri for a job interview with a plumbing company. Following the interview, Purkey smoked crack cocaine and patrolled the streets in his white Ford pickup truck. On one street, he spotted 16-year-old Jennifer Long walking along the sidewalk. He pulled over and began speaking with her, asking if she wanted to party. She agreed and got into his vehicle, with the two of them driving to a liquor store to purchase alcohol. After Purkey bought Long some gin, he told her he needed to return home. Not wanting to go with him, Long asked to be let out of the vehicle, causing Purkey to retrieve a booming knife from the glove compartment, which he threatened her with. The two drove back to Purkey's home from Missouri to Kansas. Once inside, Purkey took Long to the basement, forced her to undress, then raped her. After doing so, Long attempted to escape. Purkey grabbed her and stabbed her repeatedly to death in the chest, face, and neck.^[4][5]

After murdering Long, Purkey stuffed her body into a toolbox and then went to a local bar where he spent hours drinking alcohol. Before heading back home, he purchased an electric chainsaw. Over the next few days, he used the chainsaw to dismember Long's body. He divided her body parts into bags and then began burning them one by one in a fireplace. The bones, however, did not burn completely, so Purkey crushed them with his hands. After burning everything, he took the leftover remains and ashes from the fireplace and dumped them in a septic pond in Clearwater, Kansas. He then had his stepchildren help him clean up the basement with bleach.^[4][5] Long's mother called police, friends, and family when Long did not return home, but no one had any information to her whereabouts. The police eventually listed her as a runaway, which the family was not convinced of. The family put up flyers and posters, but no leads came.^[3]

Mary Ruth Bales[]

Nine months later, on the evening of October 26, 1998, Purkey, who was now working as a plumber, was called to the home of 80-year-old Mary Ruth Bales, a widow suffering from polio. The job was to fix a kitchen faucet at her home in Kansas City, Kansas. Purkey spoke with Bales and offered to do the job if she paid him immediately. She agreed and handed him some cash. Purkey left and used the money to hire a prostitute and purchase several rocks of crack cocaine. He and the prostitute went to a motel where they had sex and smoked for several hours. The following morning, the two of them drove to Bale's home. Purkey entered the house with a toolbox from his company van. He then attacked Bales and bludgeoned her to death with a claw hammer in her bedroom.^[5] Her cause of death was later determined to be blunt force trauma resulting from several strikes to her skull. After beating Bales to death, Purkey and the prostitute remained at the house for several hours, where they smoked more crack cocaine and ate food in the fridge.^[3][4]

The following day, he returned to the home equipped with gasoline, intending to burn the house down to cover up the crime. Suspicious neighbors spotted him and alerted police; however, Purkey fled the area before the police arrived. Upon arrival, police entered the home and found the body of Bales. Neighbors reported seeing the plumbing company van outside the house, and police could piece together what had happened. On October 29, Purkey was identified as a suspect and was charged with first degree murder.^[6] He was captured the following morning on October 30, as he left a house in Leavenworth.^[7]

Trial and revelation[]

KDOC mugshot of Purkey in 2000

In March 2000, Purkey confessed to murdering Bales and pleaded guilty to first degree murder in Wyandotte County District Court. On April 28, 2000, he was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 32 years. Purkey was incarcerated in a Kansas state penitentiary, but soon made enemies in multiple Kansas prisons and did not want to be locked up inside one. He believed life would be more comfortable and pleasant for him inside a federal penitentiary over a state prison.^[8][9]

In October 2001, Purkey contacted the FBI and hoped to cut a deal. As he had kidnapped Long in Missouri and taken her across state lines to Kansas, where he murdered her, the murder was classed as a federal crime rather than a state crime. He agreed to confess to the kidnap, rape, and murder of Long if he could be transferred to a federal penitentiary. By this time, Long's disappearance was still unsolved. Purkey knew details about Long that only people close to her would have known, causing police to take his confession seriously. Purkey confessed to murdering Long and gave details about how he carried out the crime and disposed of her remains. On October 10, 2001, federal prosecutors charged Purkey with murdering Long. However, because Purkey's deal had no stipulations regarding sentencing, they announced they would pursue a death sentence for him.^[3]

In November 2003, a federal jury convicted Purkey of the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Long. They determined that Purkey should receive the death penalty.^[10] On November 5, 2003, the jury found Purkey guilty of kidnapping a child resulting in death.^[11] On January 23, 2004, Purkey was sentenced to death.^[12] He was transferred to the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana and was placed on federal death row.^[13]

Execution[]

In July 2019, the United States federal government announced that federal executions would return after a nearly two-decade gap since the previous execution of Louis Jones Jr. in 2003. Purkey was one of five condemned men on federal death row selected to be executed, with his execution scheduled for December 13, 2019.^[14][15] On November 20, 2019, U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan issued a preliminary injunction preventing the resumption of federal executions. Purkey and the other three plaintiffs in the case argued that the use of pentobarbital might violate the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994.^[16] In April 2020, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated District Judge Chutkan's injunction in a per curiam decision.^[17]

The execution date for Purkey was rescheduled for July 15, 2020. However, on that same morning, a judge halted the execution due to claims Purkey was suffering from dementia.^[18] The justice department filed an immediate appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. Purkey’s lawyers argued he suffered from Alzheimer's disease and was not mentally fit enough to be executed.^[19] The night before his execution, Purkey had supposedly seen Bill Clinton on television and claimed he would be voting for him in the upcoming presidential election.^[20] He had also requested a last meal of pecan pie but had asked to eat it later, supposedly not realizing that there would not be a later.^[21][22]

In the early hours of July 16, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in a 5–4 decision that the federal government could proceed with executing Purkey and cleared the way for the execution to take place.^[23] Hours later, Purkey was executed via lethal injection at USP Terre Haute.^[24] In his final statement he apologized to both Long's family and his own.^[25] He was pronounced dead at 8.19 a.m.^[26][27]

Autopsy[]

Following Purkey's execution, an autopsy was carried out, which was authorized by Purkey’s next-of-kin. It was conducted by forensic pathologist Dr. Joyce L. deJong at Western Michigan University. DeJong found that Purkey suffered "severe bilateral acute pulmonary edema" during the execution. Dr. Gail Van Norman, who reviewed the autopsy, stated Purkey experienced "flash pulmonary edema," a condition that can only occur when a person is still alive. According to Van Norman, the results affirmed the opinion that premortem flash pulmonary edema is a virtual medical certainty in any execution carried out by the federal government of the United States using pentobarbital.^[28] Van Norman said that any prisoner executed in this manner would experience a sensation of near-drowning or suffocation. She stated, "these are among the most excruciating feelings known to man." Any prisoner executed under the same method as Purkey would supposedly experience extreme pain and suffering.^[29]

DeJong’s autopsy showed evidence that fluid had built up in Purkey's lungs and spilled into his airways up to his trachea, which would cause a near-drowning sensation during the execution. The autopsy results also showed that Purkey’s lungs had increased in weight due to the fluid build-up.^[30] Federal prosecutors responded to the claims by saying that the execution was humane and that there were no pentobarbital-related complications.^[31]

See also[]

• List of people executed by the United States federal government
• List of people executed in the United States in 2020

References[]