John Battaglia

John David Battaglia Jr. (August 2, 1955 – February 1, 2018) was an American convicted murderer who was executed by the state of Texas for filicide.

His father left the military in 1970.

He attended high school in Oregon and Dumont, New Jersey, ultimately graduating from Dumont High School.

He attended Fairleigh Dickinson University, being an accounting major after initially being a pre-med major, but dropped out in 1976 at the urging of a friend.

After getting into trouble with the law for using illegal drugs, he joined the Marines.

He became a sergeant and left the Marines to become an accountant.

He moved to Dallas because his father lived there, and he took night classes to become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and did modeling.

He ultimately became an accountant.

He had a daughter, Christie, from a previous marriage to Michelle Ghetti (née LaBorde) in Dallas.

At one point Ghetti, an attorney, filed a request for Battaglia to be arrested on grounds of harassment.

He had committed domestic violence against Ghetti; on one occasion he assaulted her outside of the school Christie attended, on another, he caused her a broken nose, and in another, he assaulted her at a bus stop in retaliation for the arrest request, causing her to be admitted to a hospital.

In 1987 Battaglia admitted guilt to a misdemeanor charge and was punished with probation for a two-year period.

The woman who would become his second wife, Mary Jean Pearle, resided in Highland Park, Texas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

They married on April 6, 1991.

His two daughters with Pearle, Mary Faith and Liberty Mae Battaglia, were students at John S. Bradfield Elementary School in Highland Park.

In January 1999, Pearle separated from Battaglia after verbal abuse, and he was not permitted to live with her.

At Christmas 1999, Battaglia was on a visit to see Faith and Liberty when he attacked Pearle in a domestic violence incident.

As a result, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor-level assault charge and was given two years' probation.

Pearle filed for divorce immediately after the incident, and the divorce was finalized in August 2000.

Pearle was attempting to have Battaglia's parole revoked because he had harassed her over the telephone.

He was not supposed to send messages to her, and she contended that he should be incarcerated because of his history of domestic violence.

He also used marijuana, which violated the terms of his probation.

Up to that point, he had not hit either of his daughters.

Pearle stated that he previously doted upon them, and until he killed the girls, she did not believe he was willing to harm them despite his earlier domestic violence towards adult women.

He was allowed to have periodic visits with them.

To his acquaintances, he made negative statements about his ex-wives while making positive statements about his daughters.

Jacquielynn Floyd, a columnist for The Dallas Morning News, stated that "He fooled people into believing he was a devoted father."

He was convicted of killing his two young daughters in May 2001 in an act of "ultimate revenge" against his estranged ex-wife, Mary Jeane Pearle, who had separated from him after his numerous instances of assault and violence.

On May 2, 2001, Pearle left her daughters with Battaglia for a planned dinner at the mall, but he instead took them into his apartment in the Adam Hats Lofts in Deep Ellum in Dallas.

Battaglia called Pearle from the apartment.

With Pearle on the phone he shot and killed his daughters, ages 6 and 9.

During the phone call, he asked Faith to ask Pearle, "Why do you want Daddy to go to jail?"

Before her death, she cried, "No, Daddy!"

"Please don't!"

"Don't do it!"

Pearle then told the girls to run, but, it was too late.

Jon grabbed his gun and shot Faith three times and shot Liberty five times with his gun.

Battaglia was executed for the murders on February 1, 2018.

Battaglia was of Italian ancestry and was born on a military base in Enterprise, Alabama.

As a child, he moved across the country and to Germany.