In the quiet city of Colonial Heights, Virginia, a community that had grown from a Revolutionary War outpost to a chartered city, the tranquility was shattered on January 15, 1958. On that winter day, Virginia Maclin Stevens, a 74-year-old woman, was brutally killed in the place she should have been safest: her own home. Her death marked another tragic chapter in a violent crime spree that had instilled fear across four states.
The person responsible for this senseless act was Jeremiah
McCray, a 23-year-old itinerant farm laborer with a history of burglary and violence. Known as "The Itinerant Killer," McCray's path of terror stretched from 1956 to 1958, during which he was proven to have killed at least five people. His victims were often elderly women, attacked in their homes during robberies. McCray’s method was brutal, typically involving savage beatings and stabbings.
On that January day, McCray broke into Virginia Stevens' residence with the intent to burglarize it. When Virginia confronted the intruder, he responded with vicious force, stabbing and beating her to death. After the murder, McCray fled, hitching a ride to Richmond and then to Fredericksburg. The initial investigation into the homicide took a painful turn when suspicion fell upon Virginia's own son, Walter, who was detained as the primary suspect. He remained in custody until January 22, when all charges against him were finally dropped.
McCray was soon arrested in Fredericksburg, but for the minor offense of loitering. Investigators questioned him about the Stevens murder, but he managed to deceive them, passing two polygraph tests and denying any involvement. He was cleared and inexplicably released on parole for a prior burglary conviction in Pennsylvania just weeks earlier. Free once more, McCray’s violence did not cease.
In February 1958, less than a month after killing Virginia, McCray moved to Ladysmith, Virginia. There, he and an accomplice, Rush Reager, planned and carried out the robbery, rape, and murder of a 49-year-old widow named Jeanette M. Griffin. It was the investigation into this heinous crime that finally led to McCray’s downfall. When apprehended for the Griffin murder, the full scope of his murderous journey began to unravel.
During intense questioning, McCray confessed to the murder of Jeanette Griffin and then admitted to four other killings, including that of Virginia Maclin Stevens. He recounted his two-year rampage, which also included the murders of 73-year-old Daisy F. Gilbert in Alabama, 86-year-old Sarah DeWitt in Ohio, and 53-year-old Robert Hanbury in Georgia. His confession brought a grim resolution to a series of brutal, seemingly unconnected crimes.
Though he faced charges in multiple states, it was decided that Jeremiah McCray would first stand trial in Virginia. Psychiatric evaluations determined that despite having a low IQ, he was sane and competent to distinguish right from wrong. After initially pleading guilty, he changed his plea, leading to a jury trial. The evidence against him, including bloodstained clothing and stolen items, was overwhelming. The jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, burglary, and larceny.
On April 18, 1958, just three months after he had taken Virginia Stevens' life, Jeremiah McCray was executed in the electric chair at the Virginia State Penitentiary. His plea for clemency had been denied, and his execution brought an end to the reign of "The Itinerant Killer." For the families of his victims, the swift justice offered a stark conclusion to a period of immense pain and loss.
