Kenneth McDuff

Kenneth Allen McDuff (March 21, 1946 – November 17, 1998) was an American serial killer.

His father ran a successful concrete business during the Texas construction boom of the 1960s.

McDuff was indulged by his family, particularly his mother Addie, nicknamed the "pistol packing mama" because she threatened a school bus driver with a gun after the driver kicked McDuff's twin brother Lonnie off the bus.

At Rosebud High School, McDuff earned the reputation of being a bully.

He was careful to pick on weaker individuals after the large but not strong McDuff lost a fight he had picked with an athletic and popular boy named Tommy Sammons.

As a result, he quit school and worked for his father's business doing manual labor.

McDuff would often brag in later interviews that old ladies loved the way he mowed their lawns, making others jealous.

McDuff was convicted of a series of burglaries and put in prison.

McDuff's criminal record began two years before his first murder conviction.

In 1964, at age 18, McDuff was convicted of 12 counts of burglary and attempted burglary in three Texas counties: Bell, Milam, and Falls.

He was sentenced to 12 four-year prison terms to be served concurrently.

He made parole in December 1965.

McDuff briefly returned to prison after becoming involved in a fight, but was soon released.

He was convicted in 1966 of murdering 16-year-old Edna Sullivan, her boyfriend, 17-year-old Robert Brand, and Brand's cousin, 15-year-old Mark Dunnam, who was visiting from California.

They were all strangers whom McDuff abducted after noticing Sullivan.

McDuff repeatedly raped her before breaking her neck with a broomstick.

While he had not been convicted of any murders at this time, his accomplice in the 1966 triple murder, Roy Dale Green, said that McDuff bragged openly about his criminal record and claimed to have raped and killed two young women.

On August 6, 1966, McDuff and Green, whom he had met around a month earlier through a mutual acquaintance, spent the day pouring concrete for McDuff's father.

They then drove around, as McDuff said he was looking for a girl.

At 10 pm, Robert Brand (aged 17), his girlfriend Edna Louise Sullivan (aged 16), and Brand's 15-year-old cousin Mark Dunman were standing beside their parked car on a baseball field in Everman, Texas.

While cruising around, McDuff noticed Sullivan and parked around 150 yards away from the soon-to-be victims.

He threatened the trio with his .38 Colt revolver and ordered them to get into the trunk of their car.

With Green following in McDuff's car, McDuff drove the victims' Ford along a highway and then into a field, where he ordered Sullivan out of the trunk of the Ford and instructed Green to put her into the trunk of his Dodge Coronet.

At this point, according to Green's statement, McDuff said he would have to "knock 'em off"; he proceeded to fire six shots into the trunk of the Ford in spite of Dunman and Brand's pleas not to.

McDuff then instructed Green to wipe the fingerprints off the Ford.

After driving to another location, McDuff and Green, the latter allegedly under duress, raped Sullivan.

After she was raped repeatedly, McDuff asked Green for something with which to strangle her.

Green gave him his belt.

However, in the end, McDuff opted to use a 3 ft piece of broomstick from his car.

He choked Sullivan, and then Green and he dumped her body in some bushes.

They purchased Coca-Cola from a Hillsboro gas station before driving to Green's house to spend the night.

The following day, McDuff buried his revolver beside Green's garage, and their mutual acquaintance Richard Boyd allowed McDuff to wash his car at his house.

The next day, Green confessed to Boyd's parents, who told Green's mother, who convinced him to turn himself in.

McDuff was arrested by Falls County Sheriff Albert Brady Pamplin (who served with Texas Rangers before serving in World War II with United States Army Air Corps) and Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Parnell “T.P.” McNamara, Sr.

McDuff was given three death sentences that were reduced to life imprisonment consequently to the 1972 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Furman v. Georgia.

McDuff received a death sentence in Texas' electric chair; Green received a 25-year sentence and was released in 1979.

McDuff's death sentence was commuted to a life sentence, and he hired a lawyer, who amassed a dossier of various evidence that claimed to show that Green was the real killer.

He was paroled in 1989 and went on to kill again.

He was executed in 1998, and is suspected to have been responsible for many other killings.

Kenneth Allen McDuff was born at 201 Linden Street in the central Texas town of Rosebud, the fifth of six children born to John Allen "JA" and Addie McDuff.