In the spring of 1946, a shadow fell over the town of Aiken, South Carolina, with a series of brutal crimes that would remain a mystery for over a decade. On April 28th, a male shopkeeper, Edward Bennett, and his wife Mary were found slain in their grocery store. The couple had been shot, and the perpetrator had vanished, leaving the small community gripped by fear. In the initial investigation, law enforcement arrested a man named L.D. Harris for the murders of Edward and Mary Bennett.
After a trial, Harris was convicted of the double homicide and sentenced to death. He maintained his innocence, and his appeals continued for years, a legal battle that would eventually see his conviction overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, though he remained imprisoned.
For eleven years, the true killer of the Bennetts remained at large, his identity a secret locked away. The case grew cold, a lingering injustice in the town's history. Then, in August of 1957, a man named Monroe Hickson was arrested for a violent assault on another local woman. During his interrogation, Hickson unexpectedly confessed to a string of unsolved murders from 1946, including the killings of Edward and Mary Bennett. His detailed confession provided information that only the perpetrator could have known, finally bringing clarity to a long-unsolved case.
Hickson's confession revealed a chilling tale of violence. He admitted to killing a storekeeper named David Garrett with an axe just eleven days before the Bennett murders, stealing a pistol in the process. He then used that stolen gun to kill Edward and Mary Bennett. His confession also solved the murder of Annie Wiseberg, who he beat to death with a piece of firewood later that year, and the near-fatal assault of Christine Cholakis. Hickson's confession led to the exoneration of L.D. Harris, who had spent years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Monroe Hickson was subsequently convicted of four counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison. He would later escape from prison in 1966 and die as a fugitive.
