New execution date set for Georgia's 'stocking strangler'

ATLANTA (AP) — A man known as the "stocking strangler," who was convicted of raping and choking to death three elderly women four decades ago in Georgia is set for execution next month.

Carlton Gary was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1977 slayings of 89-year-old Florence Scheible, 69-year-old Martha Thurmond and 74-year-old Kathleen Woodruff. Gary, 67, is scheduled to die March 15 at the state prison in Jackson, state Attorney General Chris Carr said Friday in a news release.

Gary's lawyers maintain that the wrong man was arrested, that their client didn't commit the attacks. But state and federal courts have repeatedly rejected their arguments over the years.

For eight months, from September 1977 to April 1978, a string of violent attacks on older women terrified the west Georgia city of Columbus. The women, ranging in age from 59 to 89, were beaten, raped and choked, often with their own stockings. Seven died and two were injured in the attacks.


Source: Yahoo News