FULL TEXT: Police said a 65-year-old woman who claimed she killed
three men likely will never be prosecuted for the deaths. Bessie M. Pierson,
65, Indianapolis, was charged with a second death after tests showed bullets
were fired from the same gun used to shoot Robert L. Welch, Indianapolis,
during the weekend. Mrs. Pierson was charged Monday with shooting of James
Stewart, 85, Indianapolis who was found dead Friday. The third man has not been
identified. Authorities said they doubted if Mrs. Pierson would stand trial for
the deaths because she has a history of mental illness.
[“65-year-old charged in shooting deaths,” The Daily Reporter
(Greenfield, In.), Oct. 26, 1982, p. 1]
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FULL TEXT: A 65-year-old woman, already under arrest for the
shooting of her elderly neighbor, was charged with a second killing Monday [Oct.
25, 1982] and claimed to have committed a third, police said.
But investigators expressed doubt that Bessie M. Pierson, who has
shuttled in and out of mental institutions for more than 15 years, ever would
be prosecuted for the slayings.
Mrs. Pierson was charged with the murder of 85-year old James
Stewart after ballistics tests showed he was killed by the same handgun that
fatally wounded 78-year-old Robert L. Welch.
She was being held in Wishard Memorial Hospital for mental
observation.
“Everybody realizes that this woman has a deep problem,” Homicide
Detective Jon W. Layton said.
In the opinion of a son, Mrs. Pierson’s mental problems were so
deep she should not have been living outside an institution when the two
slayings with which she is charged took place.
“We couldn’t force her to stay (in institutions) and we couldn’t
convince the doctors of the seriousness of her problems,” her son, John W. Sims
of Southfield, Mich. Said Monday. She should have been in a controlled
environment for years.”
Despite her mental history, which should bar her from receiving a
gun permit. Indiana State Police issued Mrs. Pierson a permit last January,
overriding a denial of her permit application by Indianapolis police.
Mrs. Pierson was described as very withdrawn and offered police
little information after her arrest. But detectives believe she may have
selected one murder victim at random because she wished to be apprehended for
the earlier crime.
Stewart was found dead Friday in his apartment at 1820 Mansfield
Street with a gunshot wound in her chest and bullet wounds in both feet. He is
believed to have been killed Thursday [Oct. 28, 1982].
Welch was shot once in the back Saturday [Oct. 30, 1982] outside
Mrs. Pierson’s apartment minutes after that incident. Of Welch, who is believed
to have been a stranger to her, she told police.
“Something came over me. I felt bad to shoot him.”
Layton surmised that Mrs. Pierson may have shot Welch as a way to
be captured for the Stewart shooting. Her family told police she has spoken of
having a friend named “Jimmy,” and Stewart was known as “Brother Jimmy” in his
near Westside neighborhood.
“In my opinion, she committed the second murder simply to get
caught for the first one,” Layton said. She did it in front of witnesses: she
did it in such a way that we would catch her and recover the gun.”
Homicide Detective Sgt. Louis J. Christ said he suspected a
connection between Mrs. Pierson and Stewart when a woman identifying herself as
“Bessie Tierson” called a police dispatcher Friday afternoon to ask about the
elderly man’s whereabouts. Even Stewart’s neighbors and relatives had not yet
inquired about him at that point, Christ said.
Mrs. Pierson reportedly has a slight lisp, which police say may
account for the “Tierson” pronunciation.
Police waited to charge the woman until ballistics tests,
completed Monday afternoon, concluded that her 22-caliber revolver had been
used to shoot both Stewart and Welch.
All that was known about the third alleged murder is that Mrs.
Person told Sims she had killed another man, whom she did not name.
“I still don’t understand it,” Christ said: “This is undoubtedly one
of the strangest cases I’ve ever worked.”
[George Stuteville, “Woman Claims She Murdered 3 men; Charged in 2
of the killings,” The Indianapolis Star (In.), Oct. 26, 1982, p. 1]
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More cases, see: Female Serial Killers of Africa & the African Diaspora
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[240-1/5/21]
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