AWOL and Unhinged

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George York and James Latham were born
in the early nineteen forties, and from

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the get go they were troublemakers.
York grew up in a broken home in

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Ohio, and by the age of
fourteen, he was already in trouble with

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the law. Latham, on the
other hand, was born in Texas and

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had more of a stable upbringing,
but he still had a taste for mischief.

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York met Latham towards the end of
nineteen fifty nine. Both of the

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teenagers were serving as privates in the
US Army, stationed at Fort Hood in

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Texas. They quickly became close over
the following few years until May of nineteen

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sixty one, when they went missing. George and James decided to leave the

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army and drive to Jacksonville, Florida. On the twenty sixth of May nineteen

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sixty one, they committed their very
first crime together in mix, Louisiana.

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After encountering a man by the name
of Edward J. Guidrows, George and

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James decided to beat him up so
that they could steal his truck. Edward

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was severely injured, but he did
survive the ordeal. Only three days later,

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George and James met two women,
friends, Patricia Hewitts and Althea Ottavio.

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Patricia and Althea were out of towns
from Georgia who were just visiting Jacksonville

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for a few days. They had
planned to spend their day shopping. Instead,

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they were robbed by George and James, who removed their stockings and used

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them to strangle both women to death. After the murder, the killers disposed

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of the car the women had been
driving, leaving it in a ditch on

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the side of the road. By
now, there was no going back.

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George and James were on a spree
of quickly escalating crime. They'd made the

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leap from assault and robbery to murder. To them, it seemed as if

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they might as well keep going.
Armed with a gun, the duo carried

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out a third robbery in South Carolina
on June sixth. Their intended victim was

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sitting in a Cadillac nearby, which
George and James wanted for themselves. However,

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despite their military background, their aim
wasn't as good as it could have

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been. None of the bullets they
fired hit the mark, and the unnamed

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man was able to escape to safety. The following day, they made another

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attempt at a murder, this time
in Tennessee, and unlike the previous attempts,

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this one was a success. They
shot and killed John Whittaker, dumping

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his body and stealing his vehicle.
The previous stolen truck that they'd been driving

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was abandoned nearby. George and James
drove John's car for the next two days

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until they decided that it was too
risky to keep driving it. They left

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that car in Illinois and then posed
as hitchhikers so that they could find another

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victim. Albert Reid was driving down
the road when he saw the two men

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attempting to hitch a ride. He
pulled over and allowed them into his car,

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but he was quickly overpowered and then
killed once again. George and James

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dumped the body, leaving it in
a shallow creek close to the road.

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Then they continued on their journey behind
the wheel of Albert's car, and it

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wasn't just vehicles that the two needed
to steal. By now, they were

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sorely in need of both money and
gas so that they could continue their cross

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country crime spree. They stopped at
a gas station just outside of Edwardsville,

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Illinois, and approached the owner,
a man named Martin Drenovac. After attacking

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and killing Martin, they filled up
Albert's car with stolen gas and pocketed all

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of the money that they could find
behind the counter. The next stop in

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their spree was in Wallace, Kansas. On the ninth of June nineteen sixty

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two, Kansas man Otto Ziegler was
shot and killed and his wallet was taken.

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James and George kept driving on into
the night until they reached Craig,

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Colorado, where they decided to stop
in a motel to get some rest.

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It was in this motel that they
came across Rachel Moyer, a teenage girl

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who worked there as a maid.
At only eighteen years of age. She

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became their next victim. After they
had murdered Rachel together, George and James

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disposed of the body at the bottom
of a ravine. Her belongings were left

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with her body. They hadn't even
stolen anything from her. They killed Rachel

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just because. It was the tenth
of June when George and James's killing spree

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was finally brought to an end.
After trying to drive one of their stolen

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vehicles across Utah state lines. The
car was recognized and they were arrested.

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When in police custody, the duo
took a strange approach to the situation,

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proudly informing investigators, who at this
stage only suspected them of car theft,

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that they had murdered nine people together. Despite their bracking, it turned out

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that they were wrong. They'd only
killed seven people, as two of their

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intended victims, Edward J. Guidrows
and the unnamed man who they had tried

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to shoot in South Carolina, had
been able to survive the attack. Regardless

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of the accuracy of their claims,
the fact that two men with no criminal

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history that had left the army had
killed seven people in one month and that

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was extremely alarming. So what was
the motive for two US Army privates to

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go a wall and dive headfirst into
a life of violent crime. According to

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George and James, their killing spree
had been triggered in part by being put

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into a mixed race army unit.
Both men disagreed with serving with soldiers of

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other races, and this is whine
they had decided to desert from. Then,

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the sudden dose of freedom and the
sense of injustice they felt spiraled into

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violence. According to them, George
and James had been on the move,

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constantly crossing from state to state and
rarely staying in one place for very long.

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It meant that they'd killed people in
multiple states, and although it was

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quickly decided that they deserved to face
the death penalty, each of the states

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followed different procedures for executing criminals.
The state of Colorado was still gassing prisoners

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to death, while Tennessee, Illinois, and Florida all carried out executions using

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the electric chair. In the end, it was decided that George and James

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would go to trial in Kansas.
That meant if they were found guilty at

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their trial, they would both face
execution by hanging. With their poorly concealed

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crimes and the fact that they had
openly bragged to the police officers about their

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murders showing no signs of remorse,
the decision was easy for the jury to

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make. November eighth, nineteen sixty
one, George York and James Latham were

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both sentenced to death. George and
James spent just under four years on death

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row. While incarcerated, they met
two other prisoners Perry Smith and Richard Hiccock,

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who had committed a quadruple murder together
in nineteen fifty nine. Later,

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Perry and Richard would become infamous in
American society after the author Truman Capode wrote

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a best selling non fiction novel In
Cold Blood about their crimes. The success

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of In Cold Blood made many people
consider Perry and Richard, who had been

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relatively unknown in the years after they
committed the murder, to be two of

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the most famous murderers in history by
their association with Perry and Richard. George

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and James ended up being featured in
the novel as well, even though both

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men had been executed by the time
it was published, and if you've read

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In Cold Blood, you know that
it goes into almost a many novel within

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a novel. Talking about George and
James, they were described as being completely

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unremorseful, dismissive of the harm that
they had caused, and being generally unpleasant

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to others. On the twenty second
of June nineteen sixty five, George York

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and James Latham were executed by hanging
at Kansas State Penitentiary. Both executions went

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off without a hitch, and the
public consensus was that the world would be

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a better place without two unremorseful killers
roaming free. Since that day, nobody

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else has been executed in the state
of Kansas, even though several criminals have

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received a death sentence. James Latham
died first, and even in his final

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moments, when most people would take
an opportunity to say that they're sorry or

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profess their innocence, he didn't appear
to regret what he had done at all.

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His last words were a quote,
I'm not mad at anybody. He

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did, not, however, address
how many people might be mad at him

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for his violent, petty crimes.
Somehow he viewed himself as a victim.

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George York's last words were also fairly
unusual for a murderer. He stepped up

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to the noose and confidently stated,
there was nothing to say but that I'm

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going to heaven. That's ten minute
murder for today, brief and bingeible True

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Crime. I'm Joe the host,
and I really appreciate you listening today,

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and this is one of those very
very rare episodes that wasn't requested by anyone.

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As far as I know, I
don't think anybody requested this one.

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I requested this one. This is
one of those episodes that I usually don't

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do because I found in the past
that the ones that I most want to

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talk about, you guys don't really
want to hear them. I think my

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ideas are not quite as good as
your ideas. But the reason why this

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was added to the list of episodes
that I would do a story on,

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it's because I read In cold Blood
last summer. If you were an OG

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listener, you remember that I was
away on a work trip for was it

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like ten days, two weeks something
like that. I was in Florida and

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it was during the summertime. I
was in a hotel resort, thing on

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the beach, had a lot of
free time on my hands because not to

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go into detail about what I'd do
for an actual living, but we were

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waiting on some stuff to happen,
and during that time, I was reading

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In Cold Blood. So I was
sitting at the pool reading this book.

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I was sitting on the beach reading
this book, and it consumed my world

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for the like three or four days. And this story was, like I

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said in the episode a minute ago, it was like a mini novel within

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a novel. They talked a lot
about this story, but it was super

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interesting the way Truman Campode wrote it, and I thought, hey, this

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would be something I can talk about. And if, by the way,

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if you have not read In Cold
Blood still holds up, it's very interesting.

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It's very good. So that's why
this story was done. It was

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one of the rare ones that I
decide to do. Ninety nine point nine

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percent of the ones that I talk
about are the episodes, are the story

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ideas that you submit, And if
you'd like to make a suggestion of a

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story that I could talk about,
Joe at ten minute murder dot com.

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That's the quickest and easiest way to
get it in front of my eyeballs.

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That's my email address, Joe at
ten minute murder dot com. And if

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this is your first time listening to
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episode, please leave a rating and
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