Anthony LaRette

With his appeals exhausted, LaRette was scheduled to be executed on November 29, 1995; at the time, he was Missouri's longest-serving death row inmate after serving almost 15 years. The day before his scheduled execution date, he was granted a stay of execution by District Court Justice Catherine D. Perry, on the grounds that the claims of ineffective counsel and supposed mental illness be taken under consideration. The stay of execution was lifted on the very next day, with the orders that the execution move forward.

The Kansas Attorney General's Office continued to fight for his extradition to their state, succeeding in securing the proceedings in June 1989. However, the proceedings were dropped three months later. Attorney General Robert Stephan said he had done so due to high costs and out of respect for Tracey Miller's family, who did not want to go through with a trial.

About a week after LaRette's execution, the Montgomery Advertiser published an interview with Sheriff's Detective Patricia Juhl, who had conducted multiple interviews with LaRette since 1989. Thanks to her interviews, detectives across several states closed the books on approximately 15 murders, and Juhl was later named "Deputy of the Year" for her achievements.

By late November 1988, LaRette contacted investigators from Florida and Missouri and gave detailed, tape recorded confessions to the Wade and Wortmann killings. He provided accurate descriptions of both crimes: in the Wade case, he said that he had used the "Mike Watson" alias while in the state and had used a fillet knife to break into the woman's home, which he then threw under a bridge. As for the Wortmann case, LaRette recalled his movements, the placement of the surrounding buildings and the layout of the victim's apartment, as well as how he had threatened her at gunpoint and stabbed her to death. When quizzed as to what he did with the knife, he claimed that he threw it in a sewer in Topeka.

In April 1981, LaRette conspired with his father, Anthony Sr., to hire men to kill the guards who would take Anthony Jr. to the hospital after he feigned illness. The plan was thwarted when Anthony Sr. offered $400 to a police informant, who then relayed the escape plan to the police department. Both father and son were charged with conspiracy to murder.

On July 25, 1980, LaRette had arrived in St. Charles, Missouri, when he happened upon 18-year-old Mary Fleming, who was returning to her parents' apartment from grocery shopping at the nearby Hedges & Hafer supermarket. After following her to the apartment and making sure she was alone, he crept inside and attacked Fleming, ripping off her clothes in an attempted rape. LaRette stabbed her twice in the chest and slashed her throat before fleeing through the front door. Fleming, clad only in a bikini top, ran to the home of a neighbor before collapsing. An ambulance was called and she was taken to the St. Joseph Hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries.

Three days later, now in St. Petersburg, he noticed 52-year-old Betty H. Brunton, an employee at the Memorial Park Cemetery who was returning home to get her lunch. LaRette stalked her to her house, went inside and stabbed her to death with a knife, leaving the weapon stuck in her stomach. The body was later discovered by co-workers who had become concerned that she had not gone to lunch with them and called the ambulance, initially believing that she had fallen ill with some sort of sickness. An ambulance was dispatched to the house and went in, but the attendants pronounced that she was dead at the scene. Officials noted there were no apparent signs of a break-in or struggle. In 1979, The Tampa Tribune published an article in which they speculated that Brunton’s murder could have been the doing of John Benjamin Kennedy, an inmate serving a life sentence for an unrelated murder in Oklahoma, but no definitive connection was established.

On May 20, 1978, 60-year-old Helen Alderson Hall, whose family was prominent in Greyhound racing, was found murdered in her St. Petersburg home by her son, Richard. Upon examining the crime scene, the authorities concluded that she had been bludgeoned to death with an unknown object in her bedroom by her assailant. However, they were unable to determine a concrete motive, as there was no sign of forced entry. Her 1971 light-green Lincoln Continental was missing, and it was supposed that it was stolen by her killer. At the time, while the sheriffs continued to investigate her murder, they were unable to find any potential suspects.

On November 2, 1978, a secretary for a law firm based in Manhattan, Kansas went to the home of 26-year-old Tracey Gladys Miller to check on her as she had not attended lunch with her colleagues. She found Miller's body on the stairway. After notifying her neighbor, both women called an ambulance. At the hospital, it was determined that the victim had been stabbed multiple times and her throat had been slashed. As part of their investigation, police combed the wooded area around the house, but were unable to find any substantial clues to point towards the killer. A secret witness program was established by police in an attempt to gather clues, but this proved to be futile, as none led to any arrests.

On December 7, 1977, LaRette was in Kansas City, Missouri when he came across 24-year-old Beverly Wortmann, a reporter and photographer who was returning to her apartment after going out to buy cigarettes. After stalking her to the apartment, he went inside and stabbed her 19 times before finally slashing her throat and leaving afterwards. Upon discovery of the crime, a 24-year-old man, who had been reading the Bible in front of Wortmann's apartment, was arrested and queried in her death, as well two other recent ones that had occurred in the city. The unnamed man vehemently denied any involvement in any of the crimes, and as nothing connected him to the killings, he was subsequently released without charges.

In August 1976, LaRette, posing as one "Mike Watson", registered in two separate motels while staying in Marathon, Florida. On August 20, he broke into the home of 26-year-old Jeanette "Mickey" Wade, who had just returned from work. After realizing she had come back, he confronted the woman in the kitchen and stabbed her multiple times before finally cutting her throat. LaRette then left the scene and hitchhiked out of the city, and despite a witness providing a description of the supposed assailant, he was not caught.

After waiving extradition to Missouri, LaRette was returned to St. Charles and lodged in the county jail, where authorities planned to question him about a series of rapes that occurred around the time of Fleming's murder. He was held on $500,000 bond. Detectives discovered that LaRette had a previous conviction for raping a woman in Lawrence, Kansas in 1974. On August 12, the St. Charles prosecutor announced that he had upgraded the initial charge of first-degree murder to capital murder.

Anthony Joe LaRette Jr. (October 1, 1951 – November 29, 1995) was an American serial killer and rapist. Convicted of one murder in St. Charles, Missouri in 1980, he later confessed to thirty-one murders in eleven states dating back to the late 1960s, fifteen of which were closed based on information provided by him. Sentenced to death for his sole conviction, LaRette was executed in 1995.