Marcus Wesson

Wesson was convicted of nine counts of first-degree murder on June 17, 2005, and also found guilty on 14 counts of forcible rape and the sexual molestation of seven of his daughters and nieces. Wesson was sentenced to death on June 27, 2005, and is currently in San Quentin State Prison.

Before March 12, 2004, Wesson had declared his intention to relocate his daughters and their children to Washington state, where Wesson's parents lived. On March 12, 2004, several members of Wesson's extended family, along with two nieces who rebelled against him, converged on his family compound demanding the release of their children. Fresno police were summoned to what was described as a child custody issue, and a standoff ensued. Wesson told the police to wait at the door and disappeared into the home. When he came back to the door, his clothes were bloodied.

One of Elizabeth's younger sisters left her own seven children with them, claiming to be unable to care for them due to a drug problem. Wesson never held a steady job; he lived off welfare and had his working adult children give him all their earnings. In 1989, Wesson was convicted of welfare fraud and perjury. The family often lived in run-down shacks, boats, and vacant houses.

After dropping out of high school, Wesson joined the Army, serving from 1966 to 1968 as an ambulance driver. Shortly after leaving the military, Wesson moved in with an older woman, Rosemary Solorio and her eight children in San Jose, California. In 1971, Solorio gave birth to Wesson's son. In 1974, Wesson began sexually abusing Solorio's eight-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. Wesson married Elizabeth Solorio when she turned 14, and he was 27. Four months later, she gave birth to her first child. Eventually the couple had 10 children together, including one infant who died.

Marcus Wesson was born in Kansas, the eldest of four children of Benjamin and Carrie Wesson. He was raised as a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Wesson claimed that his mother was a religious fanatic. His father was an alcoholic and child abuser who abandoned the family when Wesson was a child. By the early 1960s, the family had moved to San Bernardino, California.

Marcus Delon Wesson (born August 22, 1946) is an American criminal convicted of nine counts of first-degree murder and 14 sex crimes, including the rape and molestation of his underage daughters. His victims were his children, fathered by incestuous relationships with his daughters and nieces, as well as his wife's children. He has been described as the worst mass murderer of Fresno, California.