On this date, May 13, 2010, William
Beuke was executed by lethal injection in Ohio. He was put to death for the
murder of Robert Craig on June 1, 1983. Let us not forget the victim and hear from
his surviving family members.
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Joan
Wahoff and Susan Craig
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INTERNET
SOURCE: http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/beuke1205.htm
On May 14, 1983, Gregory Wahoff
offered a ride to Michael Beuke who was walking along the side of the road.
Once inside Wahoff’s car, Beuke produced a .38 caliber revolver and demanded
that Wahoff drive to a rural area in Hamilton County, Ohio. When they reached a
sufficiently secluded area, Beuke led Wahoff into the woods; Wahoff eventually
charged towards Beuke, attempting to wrestle the gun away from him. After this
effort was unsuccessful, Wahoff began to run away, but Beuke shot him in the
back, lodging a bullet in his spine and paralyzing him. Beuke then placed the
gun against Wahoff’s face and fired a second shot, which passed through Wahoff’s
cheek and lodged in the ground. Wahoff was fully conscious at this point, but
he pretended to be dead and apparently succeeded in fooling Beuke, who returned
to the car and drove off.
Later that day, the police found
Wahoff and took him to the hospital for emergency treatment; Wahoff survived
Beuke’s brutal attack but he was permanently paralyzed, confined to a
wheelchair and eventually died. A few weeks after the attempted murder of
Gregory Wahoff, on June 1, 1983, the police discovered Robert Craig’s body in a
ditch on the side of a rural road in Clermont County, Ohio. Craig worked as a
deliveryman supplying fresh fish to local restaurants, and during these
travels, he would often offer rides to hitchhikers in the area. Beuke allegedly
told Michael J. Cahill, a man with whom Beuke worked, that he killed Craig
after Craig picked him up along the side of the highway. An autopsy on Craig’s
body revealed that he was shot twice in the head and once in the chest, and the
police found his abandoned car in the parking lot of a local shopping mall.
Two days later, on June 3, 1983, Bruce
Graham saw Beuke walking down the highway with a red gas can in hand. In an
effort to help the apparently stranded traveler, Graham offered Beuke a ride to
the nearest gas station. As he had done with Wahoff, Beuke brandished a
short-barreled revolver and instructed Graham to drive to a rural area. When
they arrived at the secluded destination, Beuke immediately fired at Graham.
The bullet grazed Graham’s forehead, inflicting a minor but bloody wound. After
an unsuccessful effort to wrestle the gun from Beuke, Graham sought refuge in a
nearby farmhouse. As Graham fled, Beuke fired several shots, one of which
struck Graham in the shoulder. After Beuke realized that Graham had escaped to
safety, he got into the car and left the scene of the shooting. Sometime
thereafter, Beuke’s co-worker, Cahill, told the police what he knew of Beuke’s
involvement in the “mad hitchhiker” shootings.
The police obtained a warrant and
searched the car that Beuke had been driving, which he had borrowed from
Cahill. The police discovered a cup that had been removed from Wahoff’s car, a
red gas can, and a blood-stained football jersey. The officers arrested Beuke
who, at the time of his arrest, was in possession of a .38 caliber revolver —
the same type of weapon he used to shoot Wahoff in the back.
In July 1983, an Ohio grand jury
returned a ten-count indictment against Beuke, charging him with one count of
aggravated murder, two counts of attempted aggravated murder, three counts of
aggravated robbery, three counts of kidnapping, and one count of carrying a
concealed weapon. The aggravated murder charge included two specifications,
either of which, if proven beyond a reasonable doubt, would make Beuke eligible
for the death penalty under Ohio law: (1) committing aggravated murder as part
of a course of conduct involving the purposeful attempt to kill two or more
persons, and (2) committing aggravated murder in the course of an aggravated
robbery.
Beuke’s jury trial began on September
19, 1983. The prosecution introduced extensive evidence implicating Beuke in
the “mad hitchhiker” shootings, including Wahoff’s and Graham’s testimony of
their nearly fatal encounters with Beuke, evidence linking the bullets
extracted from Wahoff and Craig to Beuke’s gun, Beuke’s fingerprints on
Wahoff’s and Craig’s automobiles, and Cahill’s testimony about Beuke’s
confession. On October 5, 1983, the jury returned a guilty verdict on all ten
counts and the two specifications, making Beuke eligible for capital
punishment. Defense counsel moved for a continuance of the penalty hearing, but
the trial court granted only a short, one-day continuance and set the hearing
for October 7, 1983. At the penalty hearing, Beuke introduced a presentence
report and mitigation testimony from his parents. Unpersuaded by the defense’s
evidence, the jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that the aggravating factors
outweighed the mitigating evidence and recommended that Beuke be sentenced to
death. The trial court adopted the jury’s recommendation and imposed the death
penalty. In April 2010, 27 years after imposing a sentence of death in this
case, the trial court judge wrote a letter to the parole board opposing
clemency for Beuke.
UPDATE: Michael Beuke, known as the
"homicidal hitchhiker" was executed for a murder he committed nearly
27 years ago. Beuke also was found guilty of the attempted murders of Gregory
Wahoff and Bruce Graham. Among those who witnessed Beuke's execution were Susan
Craig, the widow of murder victim Robert Craig, 27, and Dawn and Paul Wahoff,
the children of Greg Wahoff, 28, another of Beuke's victims. Greg Wahoff was
paralyzed and wheelchair bound after he was shot in the face and back by Beuke,
to whom he had given a ride. He apologized to the widows of his victims.
As Beuke said, “Mrs. Wahoff, I am
sorry. Mrs. Craig, I am sorry. Mr. Graham, I am sorry," Wahoff’s daughter,
Dawn, clasped hands with her brother, Paul, and Susan Craig, who sat
side-by-side as witnesses. Beuke then launched into a 17-minute recitation of
the Roman Catholic rosary, the Lord’s Prayer and other prayers. The 6-foot
4-inch Beuke occasionally whimpered while repeating the Hail Mary dozens of
times, clasping rosary beads in his right hand. Dawn later reflected: “I was
thinking, ‘You’re stalling the inevitable." But it’s his last minutes of
his life. . . There’s nothing that is going to bring my dad back” Susan Craig
said afterward, "June first, Bob will be dead as long as he was alive, how
sad is that? It's been a really long time. I was pregnant at the time he was
murdered. Now we can talk about Bob and have happy memories and not talk about
Michael Beuke." Gregory Wahoff’s wife, JoAnn, of Bright, Ind., gave up her
witness chair to her children. “I was content with watching the body brought
out," she said afterward. “I’m just outraged," Mrs. Wahoff said of
the decades of legal appeals. “It should not have gone on this long."
Beuke’s eyes remained closed
throughout the prayers. He then became still, looking upwards. Once the drugs
started flowing, Beuke became completely still within three minutes, and was
pronounced dead seven or eight minutes later. Beuke, 48, succumbed to the
lethal injection drug at 10:53 a.m. “I didn’t take it lightly that a person
died today," Susan Craig said during a news conference following the
execution. “This is his debt to my family and JoAnn (Wahoff’s) family and today
he paid it.” Mrs. Craig called Beuke’s apology unsatisfying: “Don’t you think
it’s time you man up and be honest? Don’t you dare tell me you’re sorry."
Robert Craig Jr., named after his slain father, accompanied his mother to
Lucasville but did not witness the execution. A grown man now, he never knew
his father, killed before he was born. "It's pretty much surreal,"
said Bobby Craig. "It's like we went full circle, we closed the circle
today," said Susan Craig.
QUOTE
1:
Among those who witnessed Beuke's execution were Susan Craig, the widow of
murder victim Robert Craig, 27, and Dawn and Paul Wahoff, the children of Greg
Wahoff, 28, another of Beuke's victims. Greg Wahoff was paralyzed and
wheelchair bound after he was shot in the face and back by Beuke, to whom he
had given a ride. Susan Craig said afterward, "It's
been a really long time. I was pregnant at the time he was murdered. Now we can
talk about Bob and have happy memories and not talk about Michael Beuke."
QUOTE
2:
“I didn’t take it lightly that a person died
today," Susan Craig said during a news conference following the
execution. “This is his debt to my family and Joann
(Wahoff’s) family and today he paid it.”
"It's
pretty much surreal," said Bobby Craig. "It's
like we went full circle, we closed the circle today," said Susan
Craig.
AUTHOR:
Susan
Craig is the widow of Robert Craig who was murdered by William Beuke on May 14,
1983. He was executed by the state of Ohio on May 13, 2010.
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William
Beuke
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William
Beuke
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