Billy Sunday Birt was convicted of three murders in Georgia: two in Wrens in December 1973 and one in Winder in 1972. The Wrens case ended in death sentences at a Jefferson County trial in 1975, which the Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed in April 1976 and which were later set aside in habeas proceedings. The Winder case ended in February 1980 with a jury verdict of guilty of murder and a sentence of life imprisonment. He remained in custody until he died in 2017.
Beyond those three convictions sit much larger claims. Estimates of the number of people he killed run from more than 50 to 56, and he has been linked to a 1971 case in Marietta and a 1972 case in North Carolina. None of those deaths produced a conviction.
Birt was named after the evangelist Billy Sunday. His date of birth and birthplace are not on record. He began as a hauler of illegal liquor in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. By the late 1960s and early 1970s he moved among a group of men based in Winder and Barrow County, and he was also convicted over a bank robbery in Loganville, in Walton County. The date and sentence in that case are not on record.
Reid Oliver Fleming Sr., 75, and his wife Lois, 73, lived in Wrens, in Jefferson County. They died there on December 22, 1973.
Birt was tried in Jefferson County in 1975. The jury found him guilty of one count of burglary, two counts of robbery and two counts of murder. It found him not guilty of a separate burglary alleged for the day before. The sentences were 20 years for the burglary, life imprisonment on each robbery count, to run concurrently, and death on each murder count.
Billy Wayne Davis, who was later convicted of a separate murder in Georgia, testified for the State together with two other witnesses. Birt's lawyer argued that this testimony should not have been admitted. On April 20, 1976, the Supreme Court of Georgia, in an opinion by Justice Hill, held that the rule on conspirators bars hearsay statements and not a conspirator's own account of facts within his knowledge. It held that Davis's evidence was supported by independent evidence of Birt's identity and part in the events, and that the evidence was sufficient. Justice Gunter dissented.
The court rejected a challenge to Georgia's death penalty statute. Reviewing the sentences, it found that they had not been imposed under passion, prejudice or any other arbitrary factor, and that the jury had found three statutory aggravating circumstances on each murder count: that the murders were committed during a robbery, that they were committed for money, and that they were outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhumane. It affirmed the death sentences. Because the State could not show from which victim the money had been taken, it directed that one of the two robbery convictions be set aside on remand.
Birt filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in 1978. The habeas court denied his claims about the trial but ordered a new sentencing hearing, because the jury had not been told that it could impose life imprisonment even if it found aggravating circumstances. The State did not appeal that ruling.
Birt appealed the denials. On February 6, 1980, the Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the refusal of relief on the guilt-phase claims. It held that he had not been denied his right to counsel, that his challenge to the make-up of the jury had been waived and no ineffective assistance of counsel was shown, and that heavy courtroom security had not denied him a fair trial. Rehearing was denied on February 26, 1980. The opinion did not reinstate the death sentences.
The resentencing in Jefferson County was contested for years. On November 25, 1986, the Supreme Court of Georgia held that a defense motion to recuse the resentencing judge had been timely and that its allegations, if proved, could support recusal, so Birt was entitled to an evidentiary hearing. In 1990 the court ruled on counsel for the resentencing: his long-time lawyer, Millard Farmer, had acted without pay, and the trial court had refused to let him withdraw or to appoint and compensate him. The court reversed and held that appointed counsel in a capital case must be paid. The resentencing was then still pending. Birt served life terms until his death.
Donald Chancey, a Winder man, died in 1972. Birt was tried for his murder in the Superior Court in Winder, and on February 19, 1980, a jury of four women and eight men found him guilty of murder after nearly four hours of deliberation. Judge James L. Brooks sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Warren and Rosina Matthews, a married couple, died in Marietta on May 7, 1971. In 1975 Birt told Cobb County authorities that he had taken part in the killings. Seven other men had been convicted of the deaths at earlier trials, and the charges against them were dropped in September 1975. Birt was never convicted in the case.
Bryce Durham, 51, his wife Virginia, 44, and their son Bobby, 18, died in Boone, in Watauga County, North Carolina, on February 3, 1972. In February 2022, after Birt's death, the Watauga County Sheriff's Office announced that it considered him among those responsible. No one was charged, and no court has made a finding against him in the case.
Birt spent 43 years in custody on life terms. In 1992 a court order allowed him to leave custody to be baptized in Winder and then to be returned. He died in Georgia in 2017.
Under the statute applied to Birt, a Georgia jury was asked to find statutory aggravating circumstances before a death sentence could stand, and the Supreme Court of Georgia reviewed each death sentence for passion, prejudice, any other arbitrary factor, excess and disproportion. The 1976 opinion in his case applied that review. The habeas ruling that required a new sentencing hearing turned on a separate point: the jury had not been told that it could recommend life even when aggravating circumstances were found.
The number of his victims is unsettled. Figures of more than 50 have been given. None of them rests on convictions. The only deaths for which he was convicted are the three described above.
The Marietta deaths: a confession in 1975, followed by no conviction. The North Carolina deaths: an attribution by a sheriff's office in 2022, made after Birt's death, with no charge and no court finding.
1971, May 7: Warren and Rosina Matthews die in Marietta.
1972, February 3: Bryce, Virginia and Bobby Durham die in Boone, North Carolina.
1972: Donald Chancey dies in Winder.
1973, December 22: Reid Oliver and Lois Fleming die in Wrens.
1975: Birt tried in Jefferson County; death sentences on the murder counts. He confesses to the Marietta deaths.
1976, April 20: Supreme Court of Georgia affirms the death sentences.
1978: Birt files for habeas corpus.
1980, February 6: Supreme Court of Georgia affirms the denial of guilt-phase relief; the new sentencing hearing stands.
1980, February 19: Jury verdict of guilty of murder in the Winder case; life imprisonment.
1986, November 25: Supreme Court of Georgia rules a recusal motion entitles Birt to a hearing.
1990, February 7: Supreme Court of Georgia rules on counsel and compensation for the resentencing.
1992: Court-ordered baptism in Winder.
2017: Birt dies in Georgia.
2022, February 8: Watauga County Sheriff's Office attributes the 1972 Durham deaths in part to Birt; no charge.