Jesse Anderson
Born
Jesse Michael Anderson

(1957-05-03)May 3, 1957[1]
Alton, Illinois, U.S.
DiedNovember 30, 1994(1994-11-30) (aged 37)
Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.
Cause of deathHomicide (severe head trauma)
OccupationLandscaping contractor
Criminal statusDead
Spouses
  • Debra Ann Eickert
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1981; div. 1985)​
    [1]
  • Barbara E. Lynch
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1985; died 1992)​
    [1]
Children3
Conviction(s)First degree intentional homicide
Criminal penaltyLife imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 60 years
Details
VictimsBarbara Anderson
DateApril 21, 1992
Location(s)Milwaukee, Wisconsin
WeaponKnife
Date apprehended
April 29, 1992

Jesse Michael Anderson (May 3, 1957 – November 30, 1994) was an American convicted murderer. He was murdered alongside the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, by fellow inmate and convicted murderer Christopher Scarver at the Columbia Correctional Institution in 1994.

Early life

Anderson was raised in Alton, Illinois. When he was a teenager, his father died of a heart attack and his mother remarried.[2] He attended Alton High School and graduated in 1975. In 1980, Anderson married Debra Ann Eickert and divorced in 1984. Also in 1984, he graduated with a degree in Business Administration from Elmhurst College.[3] On March 30, 1985, he married Barbara E. Lynch in Chicago, Illinois.[1]

Prior to his arrest for murder, the Andersons lived in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, with their three young children.[4] He was treasurer of the Lions Club and did volunteer work at the Divine Word Catholic Church.[3]

Murder of Barbara Anderson

On April 21, 1992, the Anderson couple went to a movie and dinner at a TGI Fridays outside the Northridge Mall in northwest Milwaukee.[3] After dinner, Jesse stabbed Barbara five times in the face and head, and then stabbed himself four times in the chest, though most of his wounds were superficial.[3] Barbara went into a coma and died from her wounds two days later.

Anderson blamed two black men for attacking him and his wife. He presented police with a Los Angeles Clippers basketball cap he claimed to have knocked off the head of one of the assailants. When details of the crime were made public, a university student told police Anderson had purchased the hat from him a few days earlier. According to employees at a military surplus store, the red-handled fishing knife that was used to murder Barbara was sold to Anderson a few weeks earlier. Police stated that the store was the only one in Milwaukee that sold that type of knife.[3] On April 29, Anderson was charged with murder. On August 13, he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 60 years.

Death

On the morning of November 28, 1994, while imprisoned at Columbia Correctional Institution, Anderson and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer were left unattended while cleaning a restroom at the prison gymnasium with fellow inmate Christopher Scarver. Scarver reported that he was "disgusted" by a newspaper report detailing Dahmer's crimes against black people, and had previously pleaded an insanity defense at his 1992 trial; when asked by a psychiatrist whether he thought his sentence was just, he replied, "Nothing white people do is just".[5][6] In a 2015 blog post, Scarver disputed some of these statements.[7] After a confrontation with Dahmer and Anderson, Scarver retrieved a steel bar from the weight room, followed Dahmer to the locker room, and struck him on the head.[6] He then tracked down Anderson and bludgeoned him as well.[6] Dahmer was declared dead about one hour after the attack, and Anderson died two days later when doctors at the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison removed him from life support.[5][8]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Husband: Friends Know Him As A Family Man Archived April 13, 2016, at the Wayback Machine The Milwaukee Journal
  2. ↑ Bob Heling, Husband: Friends know him as a family man . Milwaukee Journal, April 27, 1992, at A6.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Worthington, Rogers (April 28, 1992). "Once A Victim, Now A Suspect". Chicago Tribune.
  4. ↑ "Handcuffed suspect views open casket." Archived April 20, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Milwaukee Sentinel, April 28, 1992, at A1.
  5. 1 2 "Inmate Bludgeoned With Jeffrey Dahmer on Work Detail Dies". The New York Times. Associated Press. December 1, 1994. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  6. 1 2 3 staff (May 1, 2015). "Inmate goes public with why he killed serial murderer Jeffrey Dahmer". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved May 4, 2015.
  7. ↑ Scarver, Christopher J. (May 11, 2015). "New York Post's False Reporting". Retrieved March 21, 2020.
  8. ↑ Don Terry (November 29, 1994). "Jeffrey Dahmer, Multiple Killer, Is Bludgeoned to Death in Prison..." The New York Times. Retrieved April 29, 2020.

Further reading

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