On February 21, 1992, Melvin Richards, a 52-year-old white male, was murdered near Bakersfield, California. Richards, who was living a transient lifestyle, encountered Andrew David Edwards, another white male drifter, while riding freight trains. The two men began drinking together, a pattern common in Edwards' interactions with his victims. During their drinking session, Edwards became enraged and brutally beat Richards to death.
He then disposed of Richards' body by throwing it off the train near Bakersfield.
Edwards' violent behavior was part of a series of murders he committed between 1987 and 1992, targeting fellow transients during alcohol-fueled rages. Following the murder of Richards, Edwards continued his killing spree, murdering 48-year-old Bud Griffith in Pueblo, Colorado, in April or May 1992. Griffith, like Richards, was a white male transient who had been drinking with Edwards before being beaten to death.
Edwards was apprehended on January 26, 1993, in Oroville, California, after seeking medical treatment for an injured hand sustained during an attempted murder of another transient, 42-year-old Lynn Ellis Delong. Delong survived the attack, which involved Edwards striking him with a wrench. Upon arrest, Edwards confessed to the murders of Richards, Griffith, and two other transients: 38-year-old John Harold Schiermeister and 24-year-old Anthony Keith Thurman. All of his victims were white males leading transient lifestyles.
Despite confessing to four murders, Edwards was only charged and convicted for the killings of Schiermeister and Thurman in Oregon, due to jurisdictional limitations. He received a life sentence and is currently incarcerated at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton, Oregon. As of June 2021, Edwards remained in prison, with his earliest possible release date set for February 14, 2052, when he would be 93 years old.
