A Maryland handyman, Jackson was convicted of murdering his infant stepson in 1972. Sentenced to ten years in prison, he served only twenty-three months before his parole to a half-way house in Riverdale. In July 1977, he was charged with the beating and strangulation of an elderly female victim , pleading innocent by reason of insanity . A psychiatric report suggested that the murder occurred while "the defendant was, in all likelihood, suffering from an acute psychotic state, characterized by agitation, paranoia and suicidal ideas, which was partly due to acute alcoholic intoxication but also due to his basic paranoid personality." Jurors, distressed at the news of his early release in a prior murder case, rejected the psychiatric evidence , finding Jackson sane and guilty as charged.