Alton Coleman, a black man, thought other blacks were forcing him to kill members of his race, and he was happy to comply. He was diagnosed by a prison psychiatrist as having pansexual propensities, that is, willingness "to have intercourse with any object, women, men, children, whatever." In the summer of 1984, he teamed up with twenty-one year old Debra Brown for a brutal 54-day rampage across the Midwest.
The two went on a six-state spree of murders, rapes and kidnappings in which every day they committed a new act of violence. By the time of their arrests, they left eight dead in their wake. Coleman was sentenced to death for the July 13, 1984, beating 44-year-old Marlene Walters to death in her Norwood, Ohio, home. Walters, 44, had just served lemonade to Coleman and Brown when she was attacked. He and Brown had said they wanted to buy the Walters camper. Coleman and Brown also were sentenced to die for the torture and slaying of Tonnie Storey, 15, of Cincinnati two days before the Walters attack.
In Illinois, Coleman received the death penalty for strangling Vernita Wheat, 9, whose body was found in his hometown of Waukegan, Ill. In Indiana, Coleman and Brown were sentenced to death for stomping and strangling 7-year-old Tamika Turks of Gary, Indiana. Tamika's 9-year-old aunt was also attacked but survived.
Debra Brown, who was 21 at the time of the rampage, was sent to Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, and sentenced to death for the Tonnie Storey murder. In 1991 the sentence was commuted to life without parole. Currently she is trying to overturn her second death sentence in Indiana, where she is the only female among 51 people under active death sentences. As of this writing, Indiana but that state has not sought her extradition.
Coleman was the third of five children of a Waukegan prostitute and was raised by his maternal grandmother. He was nicknamed "Pissy" by playmates because he was a bedwetter. In court his lawyer claimed he was abused as a child and his brain was affected by his mother use of drugs and alcohol while pregnant. Police and prosecutors, though, saw Coleman as a charismatic man who charmed his way into his victims' lives.
On April 26, 2002, Coleman was put to death by lethal injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. The Waukegan, Illinois, native received an injection of sodium thiopental, which sent him into deep sleep, pancuronium bromide to relax his muscles, followed by a final dose of potassium chloride to stop his heart. He was declared dead at 10:13 a.m. Because of the number of victims, Ohio prison officials decided to broadcast an execution via closed circuit to another prison room to accommodate additional witnesses.
Coleman spent his last hours watching religious tapes of Dallas-based evangelist T.D. Jakes and listening to music after a special meal of filet mignon and fried chicken breasts. When asked if he had a final statement, he began to recite the 23rd Psalm, saying, "The Lord is my shepard, I shall not want. He leadeth me to green pastures." As he repeated it, the warden pulled the microphone away from him and Coleman could be seen speaking until he lost consciousness.