In January of 1980, one of the area's most heinous mass murders took place here in Evansville, IN. A mass murderer is different from a serial killer, in the fact that a mass murderer kills multiple people in one location and all at one time.

http://www.clarkprosecutor.org
http://www.clarkprosecutor.org
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Most notorious is the incident of the slaughter of the Patrick Gilligan family, by Donald Wallace.  I remember it well, as I was nearly 20 when is happened.

Evansville Police Department
Evansville Police Department
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Donald Ray Wallace set out to burglarize a few homes on the night of January 14, 1980.  After robbing the home of Ralph Hendricks on Aspen drive, Wallace got greedy, and decided to rob one more home: the Gilligan Family's dwelling next door.

However, when he did so, he was surprised to find the family inside. Patrick and Teresa Gilligan, along with their two children, aged 4 and 5, were confronted by Wallace with a gun. All four were tied up and shot in the head.

Wallace would say to friends later that he shot Mr. Gilligan because he was "giving him trouble".  Then, he shot Mrs. Gilligan because she was screaming and he "had to shut her up," and he murdered the children because he "could not let the children grow up with the trauma of not having parents."

Wallace then took a number of items from the home: guns, a CB, a scanner, and other property, all of which was later recovered from or traced to Wallace.

Wallace was found incompetent and confined in a mental hospital for almost two years prior to trial. His IQ was measured at 130. In the weeks before his execution, Wallace admitted that he had "faked" mental illness, and that he had in fact committed the murders.

After a number of trials and appeals, Wallace was one of five people in the U.S to be executed in 2005.

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