In the spring of 1927, a shadow of terror fell over Tampa, Florida, culminating in the brutal annihilation of a family and the death of its youngest member, five-week-old Lester Merrell, a male infant. The tragedy was the final act in a string of savage killings that had haunted the city for over a year, all orchestrated by one man: Benjamin Franklin Levins.
The slayings left a permanent scar on the community and brought a violent end to a period of fear.
The Merrell family had only recently moved into their home at the corner of 1st Avenue and 31st Street, having lived there for just six weeks. Herman Merrell, a carpenter sometimes known as "Looney," and his wife Nettie, who operated a drink stand, were raising their children in the bustling city. On the night of May 27, 1927, their lives were extinguished in a horrific home invasion. When 15-year-old Kenneth Merrell returned home from an evening out, he discovered an unimaginable scene of carnage.
Inside the house lay his parents, Herman and Nettie, and three of his younger siblings: 11-year-old Ralph, five-year-old Mildred, and baby Lester. All had been bludgeoned to death. The weapon, a railroad spike maul, was found at the scene, suggesting the killer might have been a railroad worker. Miraculously, another brother, eight-year-old Hugh, survived the slaughter by hiding under a bed, unseen by the perpetrator. Another older brother, Gilbert, was away at work at the time of the attack.
The discovery launched an intense investigation that quickly focused on Benjamin Franklin Levins, a 38-year-old itinerant worker. The day after the murders, a police lieutenant discovered a makeshift campsite in a lumber yard half a mile from the Merrell home. A newspaper detailing the murders was laid out with scraps of food, and distinctively broken matchsticks found at the site matched those discovered at the crime scene. Officers staked out the location and soon arrested Levins.
Levins's story shifted multiple times under interrogation. He initially implicated a friend, Leonard Thompson, but also confessed to the crime himself. At one point, he claimed he had killed Herman Merrell in self-defense after being caught breaking into the house, and that Thompson had killed the rest of the family. He later confessed to the murders, explaining that he had made a terrible mistake. He had intended to attack another family, the Ryles, who had previously lived in the house, and only realized he had killed the wrong people after reading about it in the newspaper.
The Merrell family massacre was the bloody conclusion to a killing spree that included at least five other victims in Tampa between 1926 and 1927. As news of Levins's confession spread, public outrage boiled over. An angry mob of thousands stormed the county jail, attempting to lynch him. The ensuing riots lasted for days, resulting in multiple deaths and injuries before the National Guard could restore order. To ensure a fair trial, Levins was moved to Orlando.
In July 1927, Benjamin Franklin Levins was tried for the five murders of the Merrell family. Despite his defense attorneys arguing that his confessions were coerced, he was found guilty and sentenced to death. His associate, Leonard Thompson, was tried separately and acquitted. On November 22, 1927, Levins was executed in the electric chair at the state prison in Raiford, bringing the official case of Tampa's "axe murderer" to a close. He maintained his innocence to the end and was buried in an unmarked grave on the prison grounds.
