Daniel Lee SIEBERT
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Serial rapist - Robberies
Number of victims: 9 - 12
Date of murders: 1979 / 1985 - 1986
Date of arrest: September 4, 1986
Date of birth: June 17, 1954
Victims profile: A gay man / Gidget Castro, 28, and Nesia McElrath, 23 / His girlfriend Sherri Weathers, 24, and her two sons, Chad, 5, and Joseph, 4 / Linda Jarman, 33 / Linda Faye Odum, 32 / Beatrice McDougall, 57
Method of murder: Stabbing with knife / Strangulation
Location: California/New Jersey/Alabama, USA
Status: Convicted of manslaughter in 1979. Paroled 1985. Sentenced to death in Alabama on March 21, 1987 en Alabama. Died at Holman Prison near Atmore, Alabama on April 22, 2008
Daniel Siebert (53) death row inmate, awaiting execution for 21 years for strangling four people. Siebert was challenging Alabama's method of lethal injection on the grounds that his cancer medication would counteract with the lethal injection drugs and inflict unnecessary pain.
His death from pancreatic cancer came less than a week after the US Supreme Court approved the most widely used method of lethal injection, prompting states to move forward with executions after a nearly seven-month halt. Siebert died at Holman Prison near Atmore, Alabama on April 22, 2008.
Daniel Lee Siebert
Sherri Weathers, a hearing-impaired student at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind, in Talladega, had missed a week of classes without explanation when her counselor phoned the manager of her apartment building for help on February 24, 1986.
Weathers did not answer her phone, and the school was concerned that something might be wrong. The manager used her pass key and found Sherri dead in her room, along with her two small sons - five-year-old Chad and four-year-old Joseph.
The bodies were piled together on Sherri's bed and loosely covered with a blanket. When police arrived, the manager directed them to another apartment, occupied by 33-year-old Linda Jarman, another student lately missing from the Institute. Inside, patrolmen found her nude and lifeless on the bed, a television set and the woman's car apparently stolen by her assailant.
Investigation revealed that an Institute art teacher, one "Daniel Spence," had expressed a romantic interest in Sherri Weathers. Missing from class since February 20, "Spence" had turned up at the school several months earlier, offering to teach for free in hopes of gaining a permanent job later on.
Fingerprints from the Talladega murder scenes identified "Spence" as Daniel Siebert, convicted of a Las Vegas manslaughter in 1979, presently sought in San Francisco on charges of first-degree assault.
Detectives also learned that Siebert had been dating Linda Odum, a 32-year-old cocktail waitress reported missing on February 24. (Her naked, decomposed remains were found outside of Talladega on March 30.)
Independent evidence also linked Siebert with the strangulation of a prostitute in Calhoun County, found around the time he disappeared from Talladega. Highway patrol officers found Linda Odum's car abandoned near Elizabethtown, Kentucky, on March 3, 1986, and Siebert's fingerprints were lifted from the vehicle.
Over the next six months, sightings of the fugitive were reported from Ohio, New Jersey, Nevada, Southern California, and Montreal, Canada. The first solid lead was delivered on September 3, when a Las Vegas friend of Siebert's reported a telephone call from the fugitive.
Police were ready when the next call came, and it was traced to a pay phone in Nashville, Tennessee. Employees at a nearby restaurant identified Siebert's mug shots, and he was arrested next morning, when he arrived to complete some work on the restaurant's sign.
In custody, Siebert readily confessed to five murders in Alabama and various others spanning the continent. How many? "Maybe a dozen," he said. "Maybe more. I try to put those things out of my mind." He killed for purposes of sex and robbery, being careful to murder his victims after a San Francisco hooker survived a throttling and filed charges against him.
In addition to the Alabama cases, Siebert was charged with the 1985 murders of 28-year-old Gidget Castro and 23-year-old Nesia McElrath in Los Angeles, both previously attributed to the elusive "South Side Slayer."
He was also charged in the 1986 strangulation of 57-year-old Beatrice McDougall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and authorities announced that they were checking other unsolved homicides in Arizona, California, Nevada and Florida.
On March 21, 1987, Siebert was convicted of Linda Jarman's murder in Talladega, receiving a sentence of death.
Prosecution in other cases was held in abeyance, pending the outcome of his automatic appeal on the capital verdict.
Michael Newton - An Encyclopedia of Modern Serial Killers - Hunting Humans
Daniel Siebert
Sherri Weathers was a hearing-impaired student at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind and had not shown up for classes for a full week.
Her guidance counselor called the manager of her apartments and asked her to check on Sherri's welfare. Using a passkey, the manager found Sherri and her two small children, Chad, 5 and Joseph, 4, dead in the apartment.
Their bodies had all been placed on Sherri's bed and covered with a blanket. When police arrived, the manager asked them to check another apartment which was occupied by another student of the Institute who had also been missing.
Police found the naked body of Linda Jarman, 33, on her bed. Daniel Siebert had been teaching art at the Institute under the assumed name of Daniel Spence and investigators soon learned that he had expressed a romantic interest in Sherri Weathers.
A fingerprint match from the murder scenes led to the discover that Spence was instead Daniel Siebert, who had been convicted of manslaughter in Las Vegas in 1979.
Police also discovered that Siebert had been dating another woman who had been missing since around the same time as the other women. Linda Odom, a cocktail waitress, was found dead outside of Talladega a short time later. Siebert was finally arrested in Nashville Tennessee several months later.
Siebert confessed to the five murders in Alabama and said there were at least a dozen murders in total, "maybe more."
Victim name:
Sherri Weathers
Chad Weathers, 5
Joseph Weathers, 4
Linda Odom, 32
Linda Jarman, 33
Gidget Castro, 28
Nesia McElrath, 23
Beatrice McDougall, 57
unnamed victim
unnamed woman
Daniel Lee Siebert (17 June 1954 - 22 April 2008) was an American serial killer on Alabama's death row. He was convicted of three murders and confessed to at least five. During questioning he indicated that he is responsible for at least 12 deaths. Siebert died on in Holman Prison near Atmore of complications from cancer.
Early life
Siebert was born in Mattoon, Illinois. He joined the Marines in 1972 under the name of Daniel Marlow, and early on left with a dishonorable discharge. Between 1973 and 1975 he sired two children, a girl and a boy.
Murders
His crimes were first noticed in 1986, when he murdered a student at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind in Talladega. Sherri Weathers had missed classes for over a week, and the school had worried that she had not contacted them with an explanation. A search of her apartment found her dead body, along with her two children. All three had in fact been murdered. Investigation also revealed another student who was missing from the institute. Linda Jarman was found dead in her apartment, also murdered.
Found out
An art teacher using the name "Daniel Spence" was questioned in the crime after police were notified that he had an interest in Sherri Weathers. A check of Spence's fingerprints revealed that he was in fact Daniel Siebert, who had a previous conviction of manslaughter in 1979 and was wanted on assault charges in San Francisco, California.
He was linked to Linda Odum, a waitress who he had been dating and was reported missing the previous February. Her remains were found the following month; it was later found that she had been murdered. Fingerprints linked Siebert to her stolen car.
Siebert spent the next six months on the run. He was apprehended in Nashville, Tennessee, after placing a phone call to a friend who reported him to the police. His next call was traced to a phone booth near a restaurant he was working at, and he was arrested the following day when he showed up for work.
Confessions
Siebert has confessed to five murders in Alabama, and several others across the country. He confesses that his list of victims is at least a dozen. He was convicted of murdering Linda Jarman, and was sentenced to death in Alabama.
Imprisonment
Seibert's execution date was set for October 25, 2007 for the murders of Weathers and her children. Assistant Attorney General Clay Crenshaw said Siebert had exhausted all of his appeals for the killing of Weathers and her children. Siebert had been undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer. Siebert's execution was delayed hours before it was to occur.
In December 2007, Siebert was investigated in relation to a recent pornography case. While no action was taken against him or charges filed, a personal correspondent of Daniel's was charged for multiple sex crimes due to the investigation's findings.
Seibert died Tuesday, April 22, 2008, apparently of complications from cancer. Prison system spokesman Brian Corbett said Siebert was pronounced dead at 1:35 p.m. at Holman Correctional Facility near Atmore, where he had been awaiting execution for more than 21 years.
Wikipedia.org
Alabama set to execute Daniel Siebert, 10/25/
Oct 18, 2007
MONTOMGERY, Ala. (AP) - Officials say Gov. Bob Riley is undecided on whether to grant a stay of execution for a condemned inmate who is dying of cancer.
Daniel Lee Siebert has filed papers asking federal and state courts to block his execution in part because of the possible drug reaction. Documents show he has had pancreatic cancer for months.
He also is challenging lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment even without the alleged pain from the chemical mix.
A federal judge gave the state until today to reveal whether it plans to go through with the execution of Siebert, who is set to die on Oct. 25.
But Riley's staff told the attorney general's office to inform the court he was undecided on whether to grant a stay.
The 53-year-old Siebert was sentenced to death in two separate cases involving four murders.
Sherri Weathers, a 24-year-old student at the state's school for the deaf in Talladega, was strangled along with her two sons in 1986.
Siebert was also convicted of capital murder in the death of Linda Jarman, a neighbor of Weathers.
Alabama set to execute Daniel Siebert, 10/25/
Oct 22, 2007
MONTGOMERY, Alabama: Governor Bob Riley said Monday the crimes of a confessed serial killer were so brutal that the state of Alabama will not delay his scheduled execution Thursday, even though he is months away from dying of pancreatic cancer.
The decision comes as other states have slowed or halted execution proceedings while awaiting a U.S. Supreme Court hearing to determine the constitutionality of lethal injection.
Alabama officials keep secret the details of how they carry out executions, but Riley said the Alabama Department of Corrections has completed changes in its lethal injection procedures to include new safeguards to ensure inmates are unconscious when they receive the drugs that stop their lungs and heart.
He said the state is preparing to execute Daniel Lee Siebert, 53, at 6 p.m. (2300 GMT) Thursday.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule in a challenge by two death row inmates to the lethal injection procedures used by the state of Kentucky. The inmates say Kentucky's method creates the risk of pain severe enough to constitute cruel and unusual punishment, banned by the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Similar procedures are used by Texas, the far-and-away leader in lethal injections, and the 16 other states that have executed prisoners in the past two years.
Death penalty opponents have urged Riley to spare Siebert because he has terminal cancer and would die in a few months if not executed.
"I would in essence be commuting his sentence to life in prison, and that is not the sentence he was given by the jury. His crimes were monstrous, brutal and ghastly," Riley said in a statement.
Esther Brown, executive director of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty, said she was shocked the governor would go ahead with the execution of an inmate who has already lost lots of weight and turned yellow from the pancreatic cancer.
"I find it unbelievable that Alabama justice demands we strap a dying man to the gurney," she said Monday.
Siebert's attorneys have asked federal and state courts to block his execution on grounds the drugs used to kill him could interact with his medication and cause undue pain. They are also challenging lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment even without the alleged pain from the drug mix.
Siebert was sentenced to death for the Feb. 19, 1986, strangulation deaths of Sherri Weathers, 24, and her two sons, 5-year-old Chad and 4-year-old Joey. Weathers was a student at the Alabama School for the Deaf in Talladega, Alabma, and had been dating Siebert. The bodies were found in her apartment several days after the three were killed.
Siebert was also convicted of capital murder in the death of Linda Jarman, a neighbor of Weathers, who was killed the same night.
Siebert was linked to other crimes inside and outside Alabama.
"This guy has a lot of murders all across the country that he has not been prosecuted for but that he has confessed to," Crenshaw said.
Attorneys for Siebert did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.
