In the spring of 1959, Annie E. Phillips, a devoted mother of five children, was building a life for her family in Honolulu, Hawaii. Having recently divorced, she was navigating the challenges of single motherhood. For a time, she was in a relationship with a house painter named Eugene Walter Barrett. However, Barrett’s excessive drinking and inability to hold a steady job became a serious problem, and for the well-being of her family, Annie made the difficult decision to end their
relationship. Tragically, this decision to protect her children would lead to her death at Barrett's hands.
On the evening of March 7, 1959, a 27-year-old Barrett, enraged by the rejection, took a bus to Annie's apartment in the Mayor Wright Homes complex. Armed with a gun, he forced his way inside the home. Two of Annie’s children were watching television in the living room as Barrett stormed past them and went straight into the bedroom where their mother was tending to her youngest child. Without a chance to react, Annie was shot multiple times and died instantly.
The gunshots alerted neighbors, who rushed to the scene. They managed to subdue Barrett, holding him down until police arrived to arrest him. At his trial, Barrett claimed he had been so drunk that he had no memory of the shooting, a defense often referred to as an alcoholic blackout. However, witnesses contradicted his claim, testifying that they heard him say Annie "deserved it." The evidence was overwhelming, and he was initially charged with first-degree murder.
Eugene Walter Barrett was ultimately convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. In a turn of events that would have devastating future consequences, this sentence was later reduced to 15-to-50 years. Then, in 1967, Governor John A. Burns commuted his sentence, and Barrett was paroled after serving only eight years for Annie's murder. He was a free man, and the system that was meant to provide justice for Annie had failed.
Freed from prison, Barrett’s pattern of violence against women continued. In 1972, he murdered his ex-wife, Roberta Ululani Aveiro, stabbing her with a kitchen knife. For this crime, he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter and was sentenced to just ten years, serving only three before being paroled again in 1976. For years he lived free, his history of violence seemingly forgotten by the justice system.
It wasn't until 1995 that his violent spree was brought to a permanent end. At age 65, Barrett shot and killed his neighbor and lover, 41-year-old Roxanne Kastner. This time, the court recognized the danger he posed. Convicted of her murder, he was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 40 years to be served before any possibility of parole. This final conviction ensured that Eugene Walter Barrett, one of Hawaii's few known serial killers, would never again be free to harm another woman. He died in a medical center in Waimalu, Hawaii, on November 8, 2003, while still serving his sentence.
