SERIAL KILLER, MARCUS DELON WESSON

Marcus Delon Wesson was born on August 22,1946, in Kansas. He was the oldest of four children born to Benjamin and Carrie Wesson. Benjamin was an abusive alcoholic and sexual degenerate. Benjamin wouldn’t hold down a steady job, he would also “flirt” with his own children, according to the Fresno Bee. There was also an abundance of evidence that he had homosexual tendencies as well. An acquaintance of the family would later report that Benjamin had once paid him $50 as a boy to perform oral sex on him. Benjamin later abandoned his family running off with a teenage male relative to San Jose, only to return to his family a decade later. Carrie was a religious fanatic that raised the kids in the Seventh Day Adventist church. Carrie would force feed her kids daily bible lessons and would whip them with an extension cord, according to testimony from a relative. As a child Wesson’s favorite game was to play preacher, a pass time he would prefect over the coming decades. He would twist the scriptures to meet his own perverse end. In the early 1960’s the family relocated to San Bernardino, California. Wesson dropped out of school to join the military where he was stationed in Europe. Wesson was honorably discharged from the Vietnam War, where he was an army medic. Shortly after leaving the military and returning to the United States, Wesson became involved with Rosemary Solorio, a married woman. Rosemary ended her relationship with her husband then moved Wesson in with her and her children.

In 1971, Solorio gave birth to Wesson’s first son. At the same time Wesson was cultivating a relationship with one of Solorio’s daughters Elizabeth. Wesson told Elizabeth that “God had chosen her to be his bride.” When Elizabeth was 8 years old she became the child bride of 27 year old Wesson, in a home wedding. At 12 years old Wesson started to sexually abuse Elizabeth. At 15 years old Elizabeth officially became Wesson’s wife, four months after the wedding she gave birth to their first child. Elizabeth would give birth to 10 children fathered by Wesson. Although one of the children died in infancy. The couple had 5 boys and 4 girls. One of Elizabeth’s younger sister Rosemary left her seven children with Wesson, stating she wasn’t able to care for them. Rosemary’s drug addiction made her unable to care for her children. The total of children in the household rose to 16.

Wesson didn’t hold down a steady job, he lived off the system. The older children would work and hand over their entire paychecks to Wesson. The Wesson children were often reduced to digging through trash cans for food however Wesson always had money for burgers and other fast food. In 1989, Wesson was convicted of welfare fraud and perjury. The family often lived in run down shacks and vacant homes. Wesson was extremely abusive towards Elizabeth and the rest of the family. He didn’t allow Elizabeth to participate in the children upbringing, she took on a very subservient role in the family, they also weren’t allowed to attend public school. He home schooled the children from a hand written bible that focused on Jesus Christ being a Vampire. He told his kids that he was God and he was to be referred to as “Master” or “Lord.” He taught his kids that Armageddon was coming and all of the girls were destin to become his future wives. The boys were kept separate from the girls because Wesson feared they would develop sexual feeling for each other. The boys were kept in a shack in a heavily wooded area while the girls were kept on a house boat for several months. Wesson would keep the girls for his own personal harem, they would do his bidding which included washing his dreadlocks, scratching his armpits and belly, and anything else he beckoned. Wesson would sexually abuse two of his daughters and three of his nieces, “marrying” them in home ceremonies when they were 8 or 9 years old. Wesson would start the abuse by fondling their breasts and genitals, he then taught them oral sex, until he was having full on intercourse with them. He called these routine rapes “loving” and would tell the girls is was the “fatherly” way to show affection for daughters, Ruby Sanchez would later recall in court. Each of the five girls would become impregnated as a result of incest. The mothers would never disclose the paternity of the children, Wesson threated to injure them and the children if they did. Court records would later indicate that Wesson fathered up to 18 children by 7 different women, 5 of which are his child brides. Wesson would justify having multiple wives by reading passages from the bible where there was references to multiple wives. “God wanted him to have more than one wife” he would tell them. He would also encourage his child brides to compete for his affection, he wanted them to be jealous of private time he spent with their siblings.

Wesson was fascinated with David Koresh, the Waco, Texas cult leader that took multiple wives. The family was glued to the TV during the federal siege of the Wacko compound in 1993. In the siege Koresh and 80 of his followers died. Wesson told his family “this is how the world is attacking gods people. This man is just like me. He is making children for the lord. That’s what we should be doing is making children for the lord.” According to the Fresno Bee. The young women saw themselves as surrogates for Elizabeth since she was no longer able to bear children. The girls had normal teenage inclinations, Ruby once got caught flirting with boys, Wesson became enraged he severely beat her. Ruby would run away three times but always returned until she finally left for good at 22 years old and got married. Her sister Sofina Solorio would also leave. After leaving the Wesson household they realized that the life they had lead wasn’t normal. This enraged them, they became concerned for the younger children in the household.

Wesson had declared his desire to move the girls and their children to Washington state, where Wesson’s parents lived. This may have been due to zoning issues he was having with the city. The house didn’t meet zoning standards and they couldn’t park their school bus outside of the house. They had until March 12, 2004 to rectify these violations. It was late afternoon on March 12, 2004 several of Wesson’s family members including 2 of his nieces, Ruby and Sofina, rebelled against Wesson, they converged on the compound demanding that the release of their children. The sisters knew they were facing an uphill battle, since Wesson had told them if any of them ever left they had to leave their children behind. Wesson also gave the family chilling instructions in the event that child services ever tried to remove the child from his home. The mothers were to kill their children then themselves. Wesson would remain alive so that he could explain their decisions to the public. Wesson would hold monthly meetings to discuss their suicide pack, which included how to shoot to kill.

Fresno police were called to a small blue home at 761 W. Hammond Ave. to settle the custody dispute that had turned violent. Two women where accompanied by a large group of supporters, demanding the return of their small children, however the occupants in the house were refusing to hand them over. The sisters were being called “whores” and “bitches” by the family. Sebhrenah Wesson pointed to her father and told Ruby to “bow down to her master” before running into the house to the back bedroom, with the children. In the middle of the conflict a 300 pound man with graying dreadlocks trailing to his knees. The two sides screamed insults at each other while Wesson stood calmly in the doorway helping the officers tease out the situation. Wesson wouldn’t allow the officers into the house without a warrant. When both sides came to blows the man told the officers he wanted to say good by to the children at which point he disappeared inside the house and closing the door behind him. The two mothers were shouting that he was going to hurt the children. One of Wesson’s sons stated he owned a .22 caliber pistol, the officers called for a SWAT team. During the standoff several witnesses reported hearing gunshots. However the police didn’t move to stop the massacre once it began, they denied hearing gunshots and were supported by the chief of police. Wesson would emerge from the house 80 minutes later with blood stained clothes. The officers rushed inside the home calling for the children, telling them it was safe to come out. Wesson would be arrest by the police. Officer Eloy Escareno was sickened by what he would find inside the house. In the living room he found mahogany caskets stacked up against the wall in the living room. Escareno would continue down the hallway to the back of the house while the rest of the officers checked the other rooms. He opened the closed door, entering the darkened room with his flashlight in one hand and his gun in the other. As he panned the room the weak flashlight beam he saw an indistinct mass on the floor. He felt along the wall for the light switch to turn on the overhead lights.

The scene in front of him looked like something out of a horror movie. There was a pile of bodies on the floor, babies, kids, young women. Each victim was shot in the eye, and they were stacked from youngest to oldest, Sebhrenah was on top of the pile with the .22 caliber lodged under her arm. There were nine bodies in total. The blood pooled around the bodies on the ground. The bodies were still warm, Escareno called for an ambulance, while he checked the bodies for a pulse. Unfortunately he found none. He howled in frustration at the senseless loss of life, his colleagues rushed to remove him from the room. Escareno a veteran officer with the Fresno Police Department had stumbled on to the largest mass murder in the city’s history. This tangled case will get more gruesome as more information about the abuse that took place in the Wesson house. In the months following Wesson’s arrest the darkness would be fully exposed as evidence emerged of child abuse, an obsession with vampires, and a deranged father who perverted the bible to create a harem out of his own children.

DNA tests would quickly reveal the households dirtiest secret; Wesson was the father of all nine victims, seven of them were spawned from sexual relationships with his own daughters and nieces. The list of the victims included Jeva St. Vladensvspry, 1; Seldona Vadra, 1 ½; Marshey St. Christopher, 1 ½; Ethan St. Laurent, 4; Jonathon St. Charles, 7; Aviv Dominique, 7; Illsbelle Carrie, 8; Elizabeth Breani Kina, 17; and Sebhrenah April, 25. The oldest two were born from his wife however the remaining seven were the product of incest.

Wesson was held at the Fresno County jail on a $9 million bail and charged with 9 counts of murder. The DNA results gave the courts foolproof evidence of his sexual abuse he was charged with 14 counts of sexual abuse. His wife Elizabeth, daughter Kiani, and niece Rosa Solorio would continue to voice their support for Wesson. Denying he did anything wrong and proclaiming him a good father and husband. Wesson’s mother Carrie was more ambivalent. “If Marcus is guilty, I would really feel disappointed in my country if it didn’t make him face the penalty,” Carrie Wesson told Los Angeles Times. “But I’m a biblical person too, and I don’t believe in capital punishment… what I would like for Marcus to do is sit in prison and think about what he’s done and read the bible.” He would plead guilty to all charges. By the time Wesson would go to trial in June 2005, the media held the nation’s attention with another accused pedophile; Michael Jackson. Wesson’s trial would take three months with over 50 witnesses taking the stand. Wesson’s lawyer would argue that Sebrenah was actually the one that killed the children and then herself. He would state that she was fond of guns and would carry “army” paint in her purse. Although neither Wesson or Sebrenah’s fingerprints were found on the pistol but Sebrenah’s DNA was found. Prosecutors would argue that Wesson was ultimately responsible for the massacre, because he primed his children to kill and be killed. “In this family, he was Christ himself, the ultimate authority figure who determined life and death,” prosecutor Lisa Gamoian told the court. “But for his suicide pact, for his teachings, none of this would have happened.”

Rosa Solorio whose children Ethan and Seldona were among the dead, wore the gold wedding ring that Wesson gave her on the witness stand. She said she loved him and considered herself his wife. Her stanch support differed from a taped interview with Fresno Police shortly after the slayings, when she admitted she had conflicted feelings for Wesson. She also told the courts that Wesson bought the caskets found in the home for the mahogany wood for a renovation project. Elizabeth Wesson would deny knowledge of her husband’s sexual relations with her daughters and nieces. When she was asked why she didn’t ask who the father was when their belly’s started to swell she stated she thought it would be rude and mean. Elizabeth would look to Wesson before responding to Gamoian’s questions. Elizabeth started to cry from the rapid fire questions while on the stand. She said the trial tore her family apart and made her the object of ridicule. She was often forced to sleep in her car. Gamoian depicted Wesson as a master manipulator who brainwashed his daughters and nieces into thinking that his behavior was normal. By limiting their education and their contact with the outside world he had complete control over them. The women’s brothers were segregated from them so they had left home long before the massacre took place. Marcus Wesson Jr.,22, stated he was surprised when his sisters and couldn’t who weren’t allowed to date started showing. They told him they got pregnant through artificial insemination, he thought the whole thing was “weird”. When he learned that his father had sired the children from the DNA results, he told the courts ‘that’s not right. I don’t want that happening.”

After two days of deliberation, the jury found Wesson guilty of nine counts of first-degree murder, and 14 counts of raping and molesting his underage nieces and daughters. As the clerk read the verdicts, many of Wesson’s surviving family stifled sobs while Wesson remained quiet. He wore the same black shirt he wore throughout the trial, and appeared to have shrunk to 150 pounds from the 300 pounds he was at the time of his arrest. A month later, Fresno County Superior Court Judge R.L Punam accepted the jury’s recommendation for the death penalty. The judge also sentenced Wesson to 102 years in prison for sexually abusing his daughters and nieces. Wesson currently sits on death row in Fresno, California but it’s unlikely that he was ever face execution.