Thomas Stewart Reed, an 18-year-old white male from Forsyth County, North Carolina, was murdered on July 15, 1982. His death was later linked to George Kent Wallace, a man with a long and disturbing history of impersonating law enforcement officers and targeting adolescent boys. Wallace, who had previously served multiple prison sentences for crimes involving false imprisonment and assault, had developed a pattern of luring young males under the guise of authority before subjecting them to
physical abuse and, in some cases, murder.
On the day of the murder, Wallace approached Thomas Stewart Reed in a shopping center parking lot in Winston-Salem, posing as a police officer. He ordered the teenager into his vehicle and drove him to a remote area he had previously scouted. When Reed, an 18-year-old white male, resisted Wallace’s demand to move to the back seat, Wallace struck him across the legs with a paddle and then hit him repeatedly in the head with a BB pistol. After a brief struggle, Wallace fatally stabbed Reed and left his body at the scene.
This killing bore similarities to another murder Wallace committed in 1976, involving a 14-year-old male victim. Both cases followed a chilling pattern: Wallace would abduct the boys, paddle them, and then murder them in secluded locations. Despite strong suspicions from investigators at the time, Wallace was not immediately charged due to a lack of physical evidence. It wasn’t until years later that his involvement in both murders was confirmed.
Wallace’s crimes spanned decades and included multiple arrests for impersonating officers and assaulting minors. His behavior was described by investigators as a disturbing duality—polite and articulate in interviews, yet capable of extreme violence when alone with his victims. Ultimately, Wallace was convicted and executed by the State of Oklahoma on August 10, 2000, for unrelated crimes, but his legacy of violence left a lasting impact on law enforcement in North Carolina and beyond.
