An act of kindness on a winter day in 1987 cost Austin Carter Scott his life. The 57-year-old Ocala, Florida resident gave a ride to a man he had just met at a local bar, unaware that his passenger had chosen him as the target for a brutal murder, planned solely to steal his car. This chance encounter on January 14, 1987, ended a life and marked the final act in a short but vicious crime spree by serial killer Edward Castro.
Austin Carter Scott, a Male resident of Ocala, became the third
and final proven victim of Castro, a drifter from California who had been in Florida for only a few months. On that Wednesday, Scott met the 36-year-old Castro and agreed to give him a ride. Some accounts suggest Castro lured Scott to his small efficiency apartment with the promise of a beer. Whatever the pretense, Castro’s motive was singular and cold-blooded: he wanted to kill Scott and take his Ford Maverick.
Inside the apartment, the friendly gesture turned into a horrific ordeal. Castro, who had already decided to "take this guy out," began to choke Scott. As Scott struggled for his life, Castro taunted him, saying, "Hey man, you've lost. Dig it?" He then retrieved a steak knife and stabbed him repeatedly in the chest. An autopsy would later reveal eight stab wounds to the chest and three defensive wounds on his arms, a testament to the fight he put up against his attacker. The medical examiner determined that the knife thrusts penetrated his lungs, and he died within minutes.
After the murder, Castro’s depravity continued. He invited an upstairs neighbor, Robert McKnight, into the apartment and forced him to also stab Scott's body, threatening that he would be next if he refused. The two then wiped down the apartment and stole Scott’s wallet, watch, rings, and loose change before fleeing Ocala in his car.
The escape was short-lived. Castro was arrested in Columbia County after a sheriff's deputy noticed his blood-spattered clothes and intoxicated state during a traffic stop. While in a holding cell, Castro became hostile and then began to confess, not only to the murder of Austin Scott but to two others as well. Still covered in Scott's blood, he led detectives to the body in the Ocala apartment. His confession also solved the recent murder of George Hill in St. Petersburg and the 1986 killing of Claude J. Henderson in Polk County. Castro admitted to preying on older men to steal their money and cars.
Edward Castro was tried and convicted for the first-degree murder of Austin Scott and robbery with a deadly weapon. In 1988, a jury recommended the death penalty. Though the sentence was twice overturned on appeal due to trial errors, a new jury again recommended death in 1993, a sentence that was ultimately upheld. For the murder of George Hill, Castro received a life sentence. He was never tried for the murder of Claude Henderson.
After years of legal battles, Castro fired his lawyers and asked for all appeals to be dropped, stating he did not want to fight for his life any longer. On December 7, 2000, Edward Castro was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison. Before his execution, he issued a final statement, apologizing to the families of his victims. The execution closed the final chapter on a series of senseless and brutal murders that cut short the lives of three men, including a man in Ocala who simply offered a stranger a ride.
