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William Pierce Jr.: The Serial Killer Who Killed for a Dollar · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Sometimes just a small act of kindness could open the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: door to an unimaginable horror. When a man extended a
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: helping hand to a stranger, he never thought it would
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: be the same person who'd later destroy his world. In
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: this story, we rewind the clock to trace the disturbing
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: path of William Pierce Junior, a troubled man whose life
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: of crime and brutality wreaked havoc across multiple states. From
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: a heartbreaking confession to a string of ruthless murders, the
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: story will leave you questioning the terrifying ripple effect of
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: a single moment in time. Welcome to ten Minute Murder.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: I told him to stop back when he got out
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: if he needed anything. He stopped back. That heart wrenching
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: line came from a husband who never imagined that a
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: small act of kindness to a stranger would end in devastation.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Now he's left feeling like that one moment changed everything
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: for his family. To really get how this all went
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: so wrong, we've got to rewind and start from the beginning.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: His name was William Pierce Junior, or Junior, as he
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: liked to go by. He was born October eleventh, nineteen
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: thirty one in Midville, Georgia. Those of you that know
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: your American history will know that the date that William
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: came into the world, it was right in the middle
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: of the Great Depression. He, like many other people during
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: this challenging period of time, grew up hungry and in deep,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: deep poverty. Times were difficult and many people suffered. Among
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: those were William's parents, who often fought with each other.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: The loudest and most digressive of witch being his mother.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: She was a strict, opinionated woman, and after she divorced
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: William's father, she took her frustrations out solely on her son.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: His mother ruled the household with an iron fist, and
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: whenever she deemed that William was misbehaving, she would beat
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: him without mercy. William grew into a severely psychologically damaged child,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: and that also reflected in his school life. He did
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: poorly in his classes, and later a test discovered that
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: he had an IQ of only seventy. This would categorize
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: him as mentally challenged by today's standards. William stayed in
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: school until the ninth grade, and he dropped out and
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: got a job as a road worker. He didn't last
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: very long, however, and quickly quit to join the army.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: That also only lasted a few months before William's mother
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: submitted several presumably fraudulent doctor's certificates that claimed he was
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: medically unfit for service. William was then discharged and sent
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: right back to live with his dominating mother. By then,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: William was a bit older and had seen a tiny
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: bit more of the world. He was still afraid of
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: his mother and her beatings, but mixed in with that
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: fear was also a hatred and disdain. William now believed
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: that he was smarter than the woman who was dominating
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: his life, although he wasn't quite brave enough to stand
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: up to her just yet. To keep himself busy, William
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: found work in a local car rental service. His colleagues
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: seemed to like him well enough, but they also found
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: him stiff and awkward, especially with the customers. Today, you
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: might say that William was probably on the spectrum somewhere.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Despite this social awkwardness, William did, however, find love, if
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: only briefly. He got married and moved to Swainsborough, but
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: his marriage only lasted three months before he and his
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: wife divorced. He may not have been successful in romance,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: but the move did at least separate him from his mother.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Now with a fresh start, William found work at a
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  Speaker 1: furniture factory and began building a new life for himself.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: He did relatively well, but but his new success unfortunately
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: wasn't to last. Sometime when he was in his late twenties,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: William was involved in an accident at work that left
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: him with a concussion, as we often see with severe
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: head traumas. The accident changed him, and not for the better.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: William became more arrogant and outwardly aggressive towards others. Later
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: in his life. There were people who believed that this
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: change in behavior were the early warning signs of him
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: developing a personality disorder of sorts. Now, with some sort
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: of inflated ego and sense of self worth, William was
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: about to take his life in an entirely different direction.
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  Speaker 1: He began stealing and was caught a short time later.
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  Speaker 1: He was then sentenced to five years in prison. He
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: managed to get out on parole early after serving nearly
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: three years of his sentence, but only a few weeks
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  Speaker 1: after and he was charged again. While out on parole,
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  Speaker 1: William robbed and then burned down a store. This time
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  Speaker 1: he was sentenced to twenty years in prison, with a
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  Speaker 1: possible ability of parole after ten. It was during a
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: panel review for his parole that William's future hung in
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  Speaker 1: the balance. Before him laid a few more years in
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  Speaker 1: prison and down a different path awaited freedom. Between them
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  Speaker 1: stood the parole board. He had years of good behavior
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  Speaker 1: and being a model inmate strengthening his case, but on
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  Speaker 1: the other hand, he had some pretty hefty opposition. The
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  Speaker 1: prison psychologist was there, arguing that William should stay in custody.
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  Speaker 1: He warned the board that William quote may be dangerous
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  Speaker 1: to himself and others, and that he was showing clear
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  Speaker 1: signs of mental illness. The board didn't listen, and a
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  Speaker 1: paroled William only eight years into his twenty year sentence.
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  Speaker 1: This decision was one that they would soon regret. Later
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  Speaker 1: that year, in June nineteen seventy, William broke into a
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  Speaker 1: home in North Augusta, South Carolina. There he came upon
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  Speaker 1: eighteen year old Anne Goodwin, who was there babysitting her
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  Speaker 1: neighbor's children. William sexually assaulted Anne and then shot her.
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  Speaker 1: He raided the home, stealing several valuables before fleeing the
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  Speaker 1: scene and leaving Anne to her fate. She had survived
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  Speaker 1: the initial shooting, but would later unfortunately to come to
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  Speaker 1: the wounds in the hospital. A few months later, thirteen
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  Speaker 1: year old Peg Coutino left her family home in Sumter,
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  Speaker 1: South Carolina, to have lunch with her sister. Forty five
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: minutes passed. When she didn't return home, her parents knew
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  Speaker 1: something must be wrong. A statewide search ensued, fueled by
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  Speaker 1: the fact that PEG's father was a South Carolina state representative.
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  Speaker 1: Her body was recovered almost two weeks later, and in
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  Speaker 1: all times he revealed that she had been sexually assaulted, beaten,
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  Speaker 1: and then suffocated to death. Just two days after PEG's disappearance,
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  Speaker 1: William appeared in a service station in Vy Delia, Georgia,
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  Speaker 1: about three and a half hours away from Sumter by car.
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  Speaker 1: There he shot and killed fifty nine year old station
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  Speaker 1: attendant Joe Fletcher. William then i tole about seventy nine
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: dollars from the cash register before fleeing the scene. He
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: did the same thing again only a few weeks later,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: where he shot and killed a store manager, Lacy Tigpin,
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  Speaker 1: and then he returned to a familiar place while previously
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: working on a prison road crew. Only two months before
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  Speaker 1: his parole, William went into a store in Appling County.
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  Speaker 1: The store belonged to Helen Wilcox, but her husband was
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: there that day, and Homer Wilcox was feeling compassionate. Quote.
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  Speaker 1: He wanted some cigarettes, and I gave them to him.
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  Speaker 1: I wouldn't take his money. I said, no, sir, I
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  Speaker 1: want to give this to you. I gave him a
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  Speaker 1: dollar out of the cash register and I told him,
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  Speaker 1: I know it ain't much. I told him to stop
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  Speaker 1: back when he got out if he needed anything. He
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  Speaker 1: stopped back. This time he was met by Helen Wilcox,
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  Speaker 1: and Helen would have a very different experience with William
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  Speaker 1: than her husband had previously. William kidnapped her and took
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  Speaker 1: her out to the woods rounding the city. There, he
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: sexually assaulted her before shooting and killing the thirty two
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  Speaker 1: year old woman. He then buried her in a shallow
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  Speaker 1: grave and fled. Six days later, William was robbing another
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  Speaker 1: store in Baxley. This time he killed sixty year old
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  Speaker 1: Vivian Miles and attacked her five year old granddaughter. The
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: child managed to survive the incident with a severe head injury,
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  Speaker 1: but it turned out that she wasn't the only witness
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: to Vivian's murder. While fleeing the scene, William was interrupted
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  Speaker 1: by a truck driver named Joe Overstreet. William shot at Joe,
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  Speaker 1: but somehow missed, leaving behind a man who would later
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  Speaker 1: be able to define William Pierce's fate. Finally, two months
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  Speaker 1: after killing Vivian, William was arrested after robbing another gas
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  Speaker 1: station in Baxley. In police custody, he confessed to a
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  Speaker 1: total of nine murders, including the kidnapping of thirteen year
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  Speaker 1: old Peg Catino. A world wind stream of events would follow.
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  Speaker 1: Joe Overstreet was brought in and identified William as the
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  Speaker 1: man he had seen fleeing the scene of Helen Wilcox's murder.
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  Speaker 1: This corroborated William's earlier confession, and law enforcement had many
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  Speaker 1: reasons for waiting to prove that William had initially been
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: telling them the truth. By then, he had recanted his confession,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: claiming that he'd been drunk during his interview with the
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  Speaker 1: police and he hadn't been read his miranda rights. Authorities
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: had an irate state representative breathing down their necks, and
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  Speaker 1: he wanted justice for the murder of his daughter. William
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: would also retract his confession about killing Peg. He claimed
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: that the detectives had coerced him into making it by
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  Speaker 1: beating and torturing him, the claim that was somewhat substantiated
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: by report that mentioned bruises and burns across William's body.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: There also seemed to be a cluster of burnmarks near
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  Speaker 1: his genitals. Others would believe his claims and question the
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  Speaker 1: legitimacy of his initial confession, but the courts disagreed. He
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: traveled around America, following the path of destruction and the
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  Speaker 1: life of crime that he had led since his early
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  Speaker 1: parole in nineteen seventy, only this time he would be
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  Speaker 1: there to face the music for every judge and jury
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  Speaker 1: in front of him. William was hit with another life sentence,
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  Speaker 1: officially sealing his fate. He would remain behind bars for
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  Speaker 1: the rest of his life. He died in prison and Jackson, Georgia,
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  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty at the age of eighty eight, after
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  Speaker 1: serving nearly fifty years in prison. That is ten minute
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