Murder on the Run

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Dispression on the sixth of November nineteen
fifty five. Alton Coleman was born in

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Illinois. Because his mother was working
three different jobs to support herself, Alton

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grew up in the care of his
grandmother. From an early age, he

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was antisocial and he did not get
along with others, and those traits only

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got worse as he grew older.
When Alton was eighteen years old, he

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was charged with his first sex crime. Over the next decade, he was

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charged with a total of five more
similar crimes. He pled guilty to two

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of them, was acquitted of two
more, and the final two were dismissed.

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One of the two cases that was
scheduled to go to court was the

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sexual assault of a fourteen year old
girl, But before the nineteen eighty four

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trial began, Alton decided to go
on the run. But Alton did not

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flee from the law all by himself. Deborah Brown, a woman with an

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intellectual disability, came with him.
Deborah and Alton had met the previous year

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when she was engaged to a different
man, but she quickly decided to leave

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her fiancee and move in with Alton. As well as her intellectual disability.

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Deborah suffered from dependent personality disorder,
giving her an irresistible urge to be looked

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after by other people. She relied
on Alton and was willing to do anything

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he asked, no matter the consequences. So when Alton told Deborah that he

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was going on the run, she
did not hesitate to come with him.

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Unlike Alton, Deborah didn't have any
criminal charges. In fact, she had

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never been in trouble with the law
ever. But when Alton started abducting,

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assaulting, and murdering young children,
Deborah didn't just stand back and watch.

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In fact, she was a willing
accomplice in the violence. The couple's first

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victim was a nine year old girl
named Vernita Wheat, whose mother Alton had

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become friends with before they kidnapped her
from Wisconsin on the twenty ninth of May

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nineteen eighty four, and her decomposed
remains were found in an abandoned building almost

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a month later. She had been
sexually assaulted before she was strangled to death.

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Shortly before Vernita's body was found,
Alton and Deborah abducted two more children

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in Indiana, Annie Turks, who
was nine, and Tamika Turks, who

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was seven. Both girls were sexually
assaulted. Tamika died during the attack,

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but Annie managed to survive. That
same day, Alton and Deborah kidnapped twenty

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five year old Donna Williams. Just
like Vernita Wheat, Donna was assaulted and

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strangled to death, and then her
body was dumped. After attacking Annie and

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Tamika and murdering Donna, Alton decided
that he needed a different vehicle to avoid

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being recognized. In Michigan, he
and Deborah broke into a house and attacked

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the owners, Mister and Missus Palmer
Jones. After beating the couple and then

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destroying their phone to delay them and
calling for help, Alton and Deborah stole

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the car and drove off to Ohio. During their short time staying in Toledo,

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Ohio, Alton made friends with a
single mother, Virginia Temple. After

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a few days, Virginia's loved ones
became concerned when she ceased all communication and

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arranged for a welfare check. When
authorities arrived at Virginia's house, they initially

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saw no signs of her or her
oldest daughter, nine year old Rochelle,

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but all of the younger children were
still in the house, uncared for and

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appearing traumatized. A search of the
home revealed that both Virginia and Rochelle had

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been strangled and their bodies hidden inside
a small cross space under the house.

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Straight after killing Virginia and Rochelle,
Alton and Deborah changed their car again.

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Once again, they broke into a
random house and robbed the owners, taking

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cash and their car, before eventually
making their way to Cincinnati. Three days

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after their arrival in Cincinnati, fifteen
year old Tony's story vanished. The following

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week, her body was found,
and it was lying on top of a

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bracelet that belonged to Virginia Temple.
Alton and Deborah weren't covering their tracks as

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well as they believed they were.
The string of interstate murders had begun shortly

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after Alton went on the run,
and authorities were able to link several of

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the crimes together. On the same
day that Tony was kidnapped, the FBI

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made an announcement they had added an
eleventh name to their ten most wanted list,

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including Alton Coleman as a special addition. On the thirteenth of July,

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Alton and Deborah decided to briefly change
their mode of transport, using bicycles to

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travel to Norwood, Ohio. They
quickly attacked a couple, Marlene and Harry

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Walters, sexually assaulting and fatally beating
Marlene, beating Harry to the point of

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unconsciousness, and then stealing the couple's
car. Alton's fingerprints had been left at

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the crime scene on a shattered glass
bottle, and both Alton and Deborah had

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left their footprints behind in blood.
Moving through Kentucky, Alton and Deborah kidnapped

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a college professor, Oleen Carmichael Junior. They stole Olean's car, but they

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kept the professor locked inside the trunk
while they did it, keeping him inside

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throughat their drive back to Ohio.
Once they got back, they ditched the

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car with him still in the trunk. Authorities located the abandoned car, and

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he was rescued and unharmed. Alton
and Deborah then stole another car and drove

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off to Illinois, trading their vehicle
on the way. After they killed an

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elderly man and took his car.
Three days after this final murder, Alton

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and Deborah were recognized by a motorists
who called the police and they were arrested.

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They were carrying an enormous bag full
of different shirts and caps, which

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they had been using to change their
appearance several times throughout the day, hoping

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that it would prevent them from being
noticed. When Alton was being strip searched

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at the police station, officers discovered
that he was wearing two thick pairs of

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socks and had hidden a stake knife
in between them. The following week,

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a group of more than fifty different
investigators and law enforcement officers from throughout the

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United States met up trying to plan
the most successful stretchrategy for prosecuting Alton and

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Deborah. The group agreed on seeking
the death penalty and decided that the best

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way to achieve this result was to
prosecute the duo in Ohio. First US

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Attorney Dan Webb summarized the decision,
saying, quote, we are convinced that

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prosecution in Ohio can most quickly and
most likely result in the swiftest in position

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of the death penalty against Alton Coleman
and Deborah Brown. Sure Enough, the

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couple were convicted in Ohio, found
guilty of assaulting and murdering Tony's story and

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Marlene Walters and sentenced to death.
Another twenty year sentence was added on for

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kidnapping because Alton and Deborah locked olding
Carmichael in the trunk of his own car

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and then had driven him across state
lines. Alton repeatedly claimed that his sentence

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was unconstitutional, but every time the
case was sent before the Supreme Court,

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the sentence was upheld. When the
time for Alton's execution came along the Ohio

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Supreme the Court was aware that many
people who had survived outon in Deborah's crimes

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wanted to be there to witness his
death. Alton's lawyers claimed that allowing so

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many people to be present would turn
his death sentence into a spectator sport,

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but instead of reducing the number of
witnesses to the execution, the court created

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a separate viewing venue to accommodate them
all. Shortly before his death, Alton

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wrote a letter in which he apologized
for the crimes he committed. He had

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a lavish last meal, which included
filet mignon, fried chicken, french fries,

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onion rings, salad and corn bread, and a cherry coke to drink.

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He was executed via lethal injection on
the twenty sixth of April two thousand

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and two. At the time he
died, he was the only person in

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the US to be sentenced to death
in three different states, Ohio, Illinois,

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and Indiana. While Alton's attempts to
fight against his death sentence were unsuccessful,

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Deborah was luck Here. Governor Richard
Celeste agreed to sentence Deborah to life

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imprisonment instead, stating that he was
doing so because Deborah had been in a

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master slave relationship where she would do
anything that Alton asked, and because she

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had consistently low IQ scores, showing
a lack of critical thinking and understanding of

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the consequences of her actions. Although
Deborah had no history of criminal activity before

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going on the run with Alton,
she didn't show any remorse for her crimes

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during the early days of her imprisonment. In fact, while being sentenced during

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one of her trials, she wrote
a note for the judge which said,

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quote, I killed the bee and
I don't give a damn. I had

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fun out of it. That's ten
minute murder for today. Brief and bingeable

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true crime. I'm Joe, I'm
the host, and I appreciate you listening.

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If your new subscribe to Ten Minute
Murder and that way you'll more easily

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catch up on all the back episodes, never miss any of the new ones.

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Connect on social media, see the
pictures, what we talk about.

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It's never a gross and graphic stuff
though. And speaking of social media,

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I guess TikTok that's considered social media. I don't know, but I posted

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a TikTok some time ago talking about
how wife and baby killer Scott Peterson has

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now a ponytail in jail. That
video seemed to get a little bit of

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tension and in the comments. Rule
number one if you're a content creator,

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you don't read the comments, and
I usually tried not to when it gets

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crazy, but I couldn't help but
wade into some of the things that people

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were saying in the comments of that
TikTok video. Way more people than I

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thought believed that Scott Peterson is innocent, that has nothing to do with his

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ponytail, which looks ridiculous. But
I was kind of shocked. I knew

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that there was a certain group of
people out there that thought Scott Peterson could

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be innocent, probably might be innocent, because they watched the documentary that his

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side put out. I get that. I mean it was a pretty persuasive

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documentary if you ignore the fact that
his side put it out and it's not

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completely vetted. However, I don't
know. Like I said in the video,

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I don't know if he's guilty or
innocent. I do believe that he

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is guilty. He was convicted by
a jury of his peers with the evidence

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presented in court. I do believe
he's guilty. However, Wow, there's

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a lot of people that believe he's
innocent. Anyway, I have a ten

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minute Murder TikTok account in case you
were wondering. You can go and follow

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00:11:39.759 --> 00:11:43.519
it there. Thank you for listening
to another ten minute Murder Podcast episode.

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I will see you on the next
one. Bye.