Florida executes man convicted of abducting, killing eight women in 1984

By Brendan O'Brien

 

Florida death row inmate Bobby Joe Long, convicted of the 1984 murders of eight women, poses for a prison photo at Florida State Prison in Raiford, Florida, U.S. Florida Department of Corrections/Handout via REUTERS.

 

(Reuters) - A 65-year-old man known as one of Florida's most notorious serial killers who was convicted of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing eight women in 1984 was put to death on Thursday.

 

The execution of Robert Long was carried out "without incident" at 6:55 p.m. eastern time at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, said Michelle Glady, director of communications for the state Department of Corrections.

 

Long was put to death just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final bid for a stay of execution. It was not immediately clear if he made a final statement.

 

Investigators said Long's crime spree began in the early 1980s when he answered ads for household goods for sale in local newspapers placed by women, went to their homes and sexually assaulted them.

 

Authorities believe that Long, dubbed the "Classified Ad Rapist," used this tactic to rape dozens of women in California and Florida.

 

Long was arrested for kidnapping Lisa McVey, 17, as she biked home from her job at a donut shop in Tampa in September 1984. She was taken to an apartment at gunpoint where she was repeatedly sexually assaulted, court documents said. McVey escaped and gave police a description of the man who assaulted her and his car, according to the court records.

 

Police linked Long to several unsolved murders in the Tampa area by matching fibres that were found on victims with fibres from the carpet in his car. He confessed to killing nine women, according to court records.

 

In September 1985, Long pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to death for the May 27, 1984, homicide of Michelle Simms, 22, whom he picked up in Tampa, according to the death warrant signed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

 

During the same September 1985 court hearing, Long pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the abduction, rape and murder of seven additional women in the Tampa area in 1984, the death warrant said.

 

"I pull over, they get in, I drive a little ways, stop, pull a knife, a gun, whatever, tie them up, take them out. And that would be it," he said, according to court documents.

 

Long has unsuccessfully appealed his case in various state and federal courts.

 

Long was the eighth inmate to be put to death in the United States in 2019, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, an organisation that tracks executions.

 

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Leslie Adler and Grant McCool)

 

 -- © Copyright Reuters 2019-05-24

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Hmmm...

 

Good riddance. No risk of executing an innocent man here.

 

This guy seemed to be proud of his deeds.

Good but to swift and humane he should have suffered like those young women

What’s takes 35 years to execute somebody with evidence and a confession?

35 minutes ago, KMartinHandyman said:

What’s takes 35 years to execute somebody with evidence and a confession?

^{Really. Too many appeals probably.} 

yeah takes 20 years or so to exhaust all the appeals. 

5 hours ago, LazySlipper said:

Hmmm...

 

Good riddance. No risk of executing an innocent man here.

 

This guy seemed to be proud of his deeds.

A bit like the Yorkshire Ripper in the UK, no doubt at all that he did it.

He lived a life of leisure on the taxpayer's dime for far too long and died too quickly.

8 hours ago, KMartinHandyman said:

What’s takes 35 years to execute somebody with evidence and a confession?

USA has the highest number of lawyers per capita in the world.

They need to make a living, don't they?

8 hours ago, KMartinHandyman said:

What’s takes 35 years to execute somebody with evidence and a confession?

Privatisation of the "Justice system" 

Troll posts and replies removed.

 

14 hours ago, Tug said:

Good but to swift and humane he should have suffered like those young women

 

What a warped and unnecessary thing to say. Aren't we supposed to at least pretend we are better than that? 

Nope when proven 100% guilty I’d like the condemned to suffer just like the victim not to be coddled to death

4 minutes ago, Tug said:

Nope when proven 100% guilty I’d like the condemned to suffer just like the victim not to be coddled to death

 

That's a sad way to think. 

35 minutes ago, Tug said:

Nope when proven 100% guilty I’d like the condemned to suffer just like the victim not to be coddled to death

Yeah, all those people who waterboarded the innocents subsequently released without charge  from Guantanamo should be waterboarded and fed up the jacksie on Netflix. Dubya should know that he's the last one on season 18. Tell him now.

 

Please, please, please, respond 'they were only following orders.'

 

See? That's why America is drowning in it's own effluent.

5 hours ago, rgraham said:

He lived a life of leisure on the taxpayer's dime for far too long and died too quickly.

Death row is not a “life of leisure”  by any means, but yes, the appellate process is ludicrous. 

Justice delayed is justice denied.

 

In the old days when hanging was mandatory for murder in Britain three weeks was all that was needed for the condemned to appeal and for the Home Secretary to consider an appeal. Many sentences were commuted to life In prison. Otherwise the hanging took place promptly. Of course this type of appeal was basically an appeal for clemency against a mandatory death sentence based on the facts revealed at the trial, rather than a complete judicial process.

 

One gets the impression that leaving someone hanging around in prison for over 30 years before suddenly deciding to kill them probably is a cruel and unusual punishment. If there really is any deterrent effect in capital punishment, I imagine the old style of seeing that a murderer was put to death soon after conviction when the crime was still fresh in the public memory would be a lot more effective. How many people today with the exception of the victims’ surviving family can still vividly recall the reports of this guy’s grisly murders back in the 80s?