In the tight-knit coastal community of Mayport, Florida, the McMains family became the center of an unimaginable tragedy in May 2003. John S. McMains, a 32-year-old Male, was known and loved by many. His life, along with those of his sister and father, was brutally cut short in a shocking wave of violence that began inside a double-wide mobile home on Ocean Street.
The man responsible was his own brother-in-law, William Edward Wells III, who would later be dubbed "The Monster of Mayport."
The horror began on May 14, 2003. Wells, then 27, got into an argument with his estranged wife, 30-year-old Irene "Tootie" McMains Wells. During the dispute, as she told him she planned to leave him, he shot and killed her. Later that same day, John McMains went to the home his sister shared with Wells. There, he made a devastating discovery: his sister's body. When John confronted Wells and flew into a rage, Wells shot him three times, killing him. John became the second victim in a killing spree that would ultimately claim five lives in the span of nine days.
For days, Wells lived inside the home with the bodies of his wife and brother-in-law, keeping his and Irene's young son with him. On May 17, the patriarch of the family, 60-year-old Bill McMains, arrived at the house, worried about his children. Upon discovering the bodies of both Irene and John, he too was shot and killed by Wells. Wells then covered the bodies of the three family members with dirty laundry and sealed the bedroom door with duct tape. He would go on to kill two other men, Richard L. Reese, 39, and James Lee Young, 30, in the same house.
The gruesome scene was finally uncovered on May 24, after a missing persons report was filed for Bill McMains. A friend who had briefly entered the home noticed a foul odor and alerted authorities. When police arrived, Wells held his 4-year-old son hostage for 12 hours before finally surrendering shortly after midnight on May 25. Inside the home, investigators found the decomposing bodies of the five victims.
In the aftermath, Wells confessed to the killings in a call to a newspaper from jail, claiming his wife's death was an accident that triggered the subsequent murders. He initially wished to plead guilty and be executed. On September 30, 2004, William Edward Wells III pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree murder. A judge sentenced him to five consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. The McMains family laid John, Irene, and Bill to rest at Beaches Memorial Park. At the service, Bill's brother, Jack McMains, remembered him as someone who "lived life, he was always fun and that's how I'd like my brother to be remembered."
Wells's violence did not end with his incarceration. His rampage continued behind bars, where he was convicted of an attempted murder in 2008 and the murders of two fellow inmates, one in 2011 and another in 2019. For the 2019 murder of inmate William Chapman, which Wells admitted he planned in hopes of receiving a death sentence, he was finally given what he had once asked for. William Edward Wells III, responsible for a total of seven murders, was sentenced to death and is currently on death row.
