Known as the "Stocking Strangler," Carlton is on Georgia's death row for a string of strangulation murders of elderly women between 1977 and 1978. Suspected in at least seven murders in Columbus, Georgia, Carlton was convicted in 1986 of only three. All seven killings happened within Columbus' Wynnton neighborhood, a comfortable neighborhood with towering trees, stately homes, and well manicured lawns. All victims were wealthy white elderly ladies between 59 to 89 years old. In most cases they were raped, strangled with their own stockings, and left lying on their backs covered with bed clothes.
Carlton -- one of the few black serial killers of the seventies -- was a ladies man who enjoyed expensive clothing and was a male model. An all-out renaissance-type, he played drums, the saxophone and was an amateur artist. Though he worked as a janitor, he was said to be highly intelligent and have a phenomenal memory. He was arrested May 3, 1984 -- six years after the killings -- in Albany, Georgia, after police to traced a stolen pistol from one of the "Strangler" killings to Gary.
Always in trouble with the law, Carlton's extensive criminal past can be traced all the way back to 1967 when he was arrested as a juvenile in Gainesville, Florida. In 1970 he was a suspect in the slaying of an 84 year old school teacher in Albany, NY. Gary drew a 10 year sentence after he agreed to testify against his accomplice. Subsequently he was jailed three more times in New York before escaping from prison. Later he confessed to five 1978 restaurant robberies in Columbus, while serving time in Greenville, S.C. for armed robbery. He was serving a 21 year sentence in SC when he escaped. Prior to his arrest in the "Stocking Strangler" case he was arrested and charged with obstruction of a police officer, possession of marijuana and was suspected in restaurant robberies in Phenix City, Alabama and Gainesville Fl.