Thomas Eugene Creech

Thomas Eugene Creech (born September 9, 1950) is an American serial killer who was convicted of two murders committed in 1974 and sentenced to death in Idaho.

The sentence was reduced two years later on appeal to life imprisonment.

Creech was born on September 9, 1950, in Hamilton, Ohio.

He grew up in an unstable household where his parents frequently argued with one another, eventually leading to a divorce.

Creech was left to live with his father, who years later would die from unclear causes right in front of him.

At that time, he claimed to have attacked the nurse who had tended to his father.

The next few years of Creech's life are difficult to verify, as they are interwoven with hearsay and his own uncorroborated claims.

From what little can be definitively confirmed, he ran away from his hometown and became a Drifter, travelling frequently cross-country.

On December 11, 1969, he was sentenced to a 2-to-50-year prison term for unarmed robbery.

He was paroled in 1971.

In 1973, he married 17-year-old Thomasine Loren White of Boise, Idaho, who allegedly became a participant in at least one of his murders.

She was eventually moved to a psychiatric hospital in Salem, Oregon, where she subsequently committed suicide.

In a letter that Creech sent to KIVI-TV decades after the fact, he claimed that his wife had been raped by a gang of men and then thrown out a window, causing her debilitating physical and mental injuries that were the primary contributors for her decision to end her life.

On August 22, 1973, he broke the conditions of his parole by allegedly stealing 13 cartons of cigarettes in Portland.

The charges were dropped after he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for a mental evaluation.

Creech was housed in an open ward and was described as a model patient during his short stay, being released only a week later after it was determined that he did not suffer from any mental illnesses.

He then moved back to Portland, where he found a job as a sexton for the St. Marks Episcopal Church.

He later quit his job after the body of a man was found in his living quarters.

Shortly thereafter, he and his new girlfriend, 17-year-old Carol Spaulding, would move to Idaho.

On November 6, 1974, Creech and Spaulding were hitchhiking in Idaho from Lewiston south to Donnelly when a 1956-model Buick Century, operated by two house painters, 34-year-old Edward Thomas Arnold and 40-year-old John Wayne Bradford, picked them up.

Along the way, Creech pulled out a rifle and shot both of them in the head, then buried their bodies along Highway 55 in Valley County near Donnelly, north of Cascade.

Their bodies and blood-spattered car were found the next day.

In the meantime, Creech had befriended a 26-year-old named Gene Alvin Hilby, who later agreed to bury the rifle at his behest, unaware that it was a murder weapon.

Two days after the murders, after Creech was proposed as a suspect in two additional murders in Oregon and for supposedly sending death threats to the newly elected Colorado senator Gary Hart, he and Spaulding were arrested in Glenns Ferry (in Elmore County) by police officer Bill Hill, who had been notified that they were fugitives wanted for murder.

While both of them were arraigned on murder charges, Creech was cleared of his supposed involvement with the death threats, as it was determined that it was just rumors that spread from a police officer, one of Hart's campaign managers and a prosecutor.

Briefly held at the Valley County jail in Cascade, Creech was transferred 90 mi south to the more secure Ada County jail in Boise.

About a week after his arrest, Creech attempted to commit suicide by slashing his wrists with a broken piece of mirror, but managed only a minor injury before being restrained by prison guards and moved to another cell.

Hilby, the man who had buried the supposed murder weapon and had originally also been charged with participating in the murder, was later released on probation after pleading guilty to hindering a murder case.

In January 1975, it was decided that the now-18-year-old Spaulding would be tried as an adult for the two counts of first-degree murder.

Creech continued to cause trouble even after his arrest; on June 16, he attacked and injured his cellmate William O. Fischer during an altercation.

Fischer had to be driven to hospital to treat his facial injuries, but no further information is available about the incident itself due to a gag order being placed on the case.

A month later, Creech attempted to sue the Idaho Statesman for supposedly violating his right to a fair trial by publishing information on other crimes he was either convicted or suspected of, thus possibly prejudicing the public against him.

In August, shortly after a change of venue from Cascade to Wallace (in Shoshone County) was accepted, Creech was sent to the hospital for stitches after suffering injuries caused from falling out of his bunk bed in his cell and hitting his head.

He was sent back to Idaho's death row for a 1981 murder committed while imprisoned.

Creech personally confessed to a total of 42 murders in various states, some of which allegedly involved the Hells Angels and the Church of Satan.

Most of his additional confessions are uncorroborated, but police believe strong evidence links Creech to seven additional murder victims (in two of which he was convicted).

In January 2024, an investigation by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department concluded that Creech murdered Daniel A. Walker (in what was a cold case).

As of 2024, Creech was the longest-serving death row inmate in the state.

His execution, scheduled for February 28, 2024, resulted in a failed attempt and was cancelled.

He remains on death row.