GUILTY OK - Geraldine Lawhorn, 75, & Donna Stauffer, 73, Tulsa, 2005

A newspaper carrier for the daily Tulsa World, who was arrested last week for assaulting a customer in her home, has reportedly confessed to killing at least two other woman on his delivery route, the paper confirmed Wednesday.

"They were along his routes and we are trying to establish whether they were customers, but I am 98% sure they were," Tulsa World Managing Editor Susan Ellerbach told E&P Wednesday, referring to the dead women.

Ellerbach said Paul Williford, 64, had been a contracted carrier for the paper since November 2003, working two different routes. She said he is one of 650 independent contractors who deliver for the daily.

Police are still investigating how Williford may have committed the murders. But Ellerbach said police had determined Williford gained access to the assault victim's home last week by purposely not delivering her paper so that she would call him to ask for it.

"When she called, he could deliver the paper in person and gain entry," Ellerbach said. When asked if there was any evidence that he may have committed other crimes against his customers, she said, "I don't know, we are looking into it and helping the police."

Tulsa Police identified the victims as Geraldine Lawhorn, 75, and Donna Stauffer, 73.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001390391

A Tulsa, Okla., detective investigating a newspaper carrier's confessed murder of two of his elderly customers says more victims could be found. Police are conducting a detailed review of the 220 homes along his delivery route.

When asked if more victims are likely in the case of Tulsa World carrier Paul Williford, Tulsa Police Division Commander Steve Steele said, "We think so."

"We are looking at deaths in that area and his paper route, which is a pretty big route," Steele told E&P, adding that it would be unlikely that a suspect such as Williford would just begin killing people on a route he has had for two years. "We can't believe that in the last four weeks, he just made three attacks. They don't just bubble up like this."

World editors also were looking into reports that Williford , 64, was a contracted carrier for nearby Good News Distribution, the local distributor of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Representatives of Good News declined to comment on whether Williford delivered for them.

The confessions, relating to the deaths of two women in their 70s, were surprising in that both women's deaths had not been deemed murders, prompting a new review by the coroner. In addition, police have begun researching all deaths along Williford's route, which he has had since November 2003.

Steele stressed that no links to other deaths have been confirmed, but said Williford may have had a pattern of purposely failing to deliver papers so that customers would call him to complain and he would bring a paper, thus gaining entry to their homes. "That was his M.O.," Steele said. "He didn't throw the paper to old ladies' houses so that he could call to get in."
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001391943

How bizarre! No one can be trusted these days.

Were you aware that violent crime is down in the USA....according to the government...I just read that the other day...all except for rape the article said....do you believe we are being told the truth???? :furious: :furious: :liar:

Bobbisangel said:

Were you aware that violent crime is down in the USA....according to the government...I just read that the other day...all except for rape the article said....do you believe we are being told the truth???? :furious: :furious: :liar:

Click to expand...

The article I read said that all violent crime is down except domestic violence

Wow! Looks like LE has their hands full. If the two murders he's confessed to were originally deemed 'natural' or say heart attack, they're going to have to check every single death along his routes with this paper and the other two papers mentioned. Then they're going to have to look for anywhere else he's lived or worked through the years and see if there's any possibility he's been doing this for awhile (as LE alluded to in the article).

It seems like some seriel killers kind of go in a frenzy, several murders in a row, then they can take time off until the next time. .....This guy is 61, he's had a lot of years to leave death and destruction.

News paper delivery person. Who would have thought? What a cover story to gain entrance into a private home, rather than having to bother with B & E. Also a good cover to case his mark.

Good grief
fran

A hearing is being held to determine if Geraldine Ruth Lawhorn, 75 should be exhumed and her body examined. Paul Eugene Williford has confessed to murdering her. He was her newspaper carrier. No autopsy was done at the time of death, due to her age and they thought she died of natural causes.
http://www.newsok.com/article/1674790/

Williford Says Boredom Drove Him To Kill


Tulsa - A former newspaper carrier says he killed elderly women because he wanted to do something exciting. Paul Williford says if he hadn't been caught, he would have killed again. The confessed killer spoke exclusively with NewsChannel 8's Bill Mitchell.

Williford says he probably would have killed one more time so that he could be called a serial killer. That way, he was sure to get the death penalty.

"I just didn't care anymore about life, period," Williford said.

The 64-year-old says he chose his victims because they were elderly and he thought they lived alone. He says the elderly women were each 75, and in his words, on a good day they had six to seven years left to live.

"It wasn't just to see somebody die," Williford said. "It just feels good to squeeze a neck. That just sounds like a monster, don't it?"

Williford claims his first victim was Geraldine Lawhorn. He says he first tried choking her.

"She never would go completely out," he says. "I went and got a pillow and tried to do it that way. I took her in the bathroom, got her in there, you could tell she had been drowned."

He says he stole money to make it look like a robbery.

The second victim was Donna Jo Stauffer.

"That one surprised me too," Williford says. "Saturday morning. I did her, like a robbery, and her husband was laying in bed. I said, holy cow, man you'd better get out of here. And I did."

The victim's husband was asleep and told police he didn't hear anything.

Williford adds his victims didn't deserve to die.

"Nobody has the right to play God. No man, no woman. That's why I'm glad I got caught. I knew I was going to get caught," he said. "I was just bored, something to do, something exciting. That's crazy. I've been thinking about a month now what caused me to do that? It was strictly boredom."

"Would you have kept going if you hadn't got caught?"

"I'm not going to lie, yes."

http://www.ktul.com/news/stories/1105/278523.html

Police plan to do a timeline on Paul Williford to see if the confessed killer can be connected to a 24-year-old murder case.

When Williford confessed, he said he strangled one elderly victim, then drowned her in a bath tub. Those words sparked the interest of Patricia Palmer's family. Palmer was died November 17, 1981 after she was drowned in the bath tub. She was just 19 years old.

Detective Majors says they do have DNA evidence from the Palmer murder. There is no word yet on who long it would take to process that. Police also have a 1981 composite sketch of the suspect, who was seen going into the house.
http://www.ktul.com/news/stories/1105/279728.html

Like I said a few weeks ago, they need to take a look at where this guy has been for the past 20 or 40 years and check out any unsolved murders. He's too much of a monster for this to be all there is to the story. Maybe they better think of forming a little task force just for him, just as they did for John Regan on the east coast. He's had lots of years to cruise under the spotlight of LE.

JMHO
fran

From February 2008:

http://www.da.tulsacounty.org/forms/newsletter/v1_1_newsletter_feb2008.pdf

Paul Williford was sentenced to life without parole for the murder of Geraldine Lawhorn, 75, a customer on his Tulsa World delivery route. Lawhorn was choked and drowned in her bathtub in September 2005. The same jury acquitted Williford of strangling Donna Jo Stauffer, 73, in her home in October 2005. Williford admitted to police that he killed both women, then later said he made up the story.

Lawhorn’s body was exhumed and medical examiners ruled the death a homicide. No autopsy was performed on Stauffer because she had been cremated. Williford pleaded guilty to attacking another female customer who survived the attack.

Judge Tom Gillert sentenced Williford to four consecutive life sentences for First-Degree Burglary, Sexual Battery, Assault & Battery with Intent to Kill and First-Degree Robbery in that attack.

Click to expand...