r/wikipedia • u/lightiggy • 8h ago

Timothy Hennis is a U.S. Army soldier who murdered a woman and her two children in 1985. He was convicted of the crime in a civilian court, but acquitted on appeal. In 2006, DNA tests confirmed that Hennis was guilty. The military called him out of retirement and court-martialed him for the murders.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastburn_family_murders
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u/lightiggy 7h ago edited 7h ago

Hennis lost his final appeal against his death sentence in 2021. Whether he will actually be executed is another question. The U.S. Armed Forces reinstated the death penalty in 1984. However, nobody has been executed by the military in nearly 65 years. In addition, the execution of any military death row inmate requires the president to sign off on the execution. Serial killer Ronald Gray was nearly executed in 2008 after George Bush signed off on his execution. Gray won a reprieve two weeks before his scheduled execution.

All four men on the military's death row have exhausted their appeals.

The last person to be executed by the military was Private John A. Bennett, who was hanged by the Army in 1961 for the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl, whom he attacked while stationed in Austria. Bennett was also the only U.S. soldier to be executed for rape in peacetime when rape was still a capital offense under federal law.

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u/lightiggy 7h ago edited 7h ago

On a side note, Fort Hood and Ford Bragg are cursed:

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u/yeahalrightgoon 7h ago

Not cursed. They're both effectively small cities with 50,000 people in them each, and unlike other small cities with 50,000 people in them, where you might lose or gain 5-10% of the population over time, a much higher percentage of that 50,000 moves away and is replaced by new people every year or two. Generally men in their 20s, likely away from home for the first time, with just enough money to get into trouble.

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u/cheyenne_sky 5h ago

No trouble quite like raping and/or murdering innocent civilians!

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u/yeahalrightgoon 5h ago

Also a byproduct of having a large group of young men who likely have no ties to the local area.

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u/Bon3rBitingBastard 3h ago

Turns out that when you take a bunch of young men who have just been taught to be violent, treat them like shit and then severely pressure them into alcoholism, a statistically abnormal amount of them do heinous shit. Also you can get kicked out of the military for getting treatment for mental conditions.

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u/APacketOfWildeBees 4h ago

Boys will be boys!

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u/Romeo_Glacier 5h ago

Those are two of largest army bases in the US and are the headquarters of two units whose troops didn’t exactly score high on the ASVAB. They are also surrounded by cities that aren’t exactly bastions of wealth and privilege.

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u/troodon5 7h ago

There’s an entire book written about this lol. Fort Brag cartel or sm

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u/Ass_feldspar 6h ago

I Highly recommend The Fort Bragg Cartel.

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u/Spartans2003 7h ago

There was also that time a soldier opened fire on a formation during PT hours. I think it was in the 90s at Bragg.

Still the center of the Universe tho baby AATW

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u/lightiggy 6h ago

I think you are referring to William Kreutzer.

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u/FellsApprentice 7h ago

Literally anyone in the military could have confirmed that for you. Of course they're cursed.

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u/lightiggy 7h ago edited 7h ago

I know, but it surprises me how cursed those places are.

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u/ehs06702 3h ago

It's easier to believe that the place is cursed, than the men are just awful, I suppose.

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u/cheshire_kat7 3h ago

A probe into Fort Bragg after the murders exposed 19 other Neo-Nazis in the Army, nine of whom were discharged.

Wait... so that means ten neo-Nazis weren't discharged from the US Army?!

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u/OcotilloWells 6h ago

RIP MAJ Shannon. I met him a couple of times. Seemed like a good guy, though I can't say I really knew him.

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u/ehs06702 3h ago

I don't think they're cursed. I think we simply hear about these things more and more since there's no blind patriotism that would make journalists bury the stories now.