On a January morning in 1971, 57-year-old Orline Christian was in her Richmond, Virginia, backyard, tending to the simple task of hanging laundry. A recent widow, she was going about her daily routine when her life was abruptly ended. Initially, her collapse was thought to be the result of a heart attack, a plausible conclusion given the recent strain of her husband's passing.
This belief, however, would soon be shattered by an astute observation.
During the preparations at the funeral home, an employee noticed a small, seemingly insignificant hole in the dress Mrs. Christian had been wearing, accompanied by the subtle stain of dried blood. This keen eye prompted a re-examination of her body, which revealed the shocking truth: Orline Christian had not died of natural causes but from a small caliber bullet wound under her armpit. The investigation that followed led detectives to reconstruct the scene in her backyard. Using a piece of plywood to simulate her position, they determined the trajectory of the fatal shot. The path pointed directly to a window in the neighboring house, the home of the Briley family.
The rifle that fired the shot was found in the Briley home, and 16-year-old Linwood Earl Briley confessed to the shooting. At first, he claimed it was a tragic accident, stating he had been shooting at squirrels or pigeons from his bedroom window. However, during a later psychological evaluation, a far more chilling motive emerged. Linwood admitted he had shot his neighbor deliberately, callously remarking that he had heard she had heart problems and would have died soon anyway. For this senseless act, he was sent to a reform school for just one year.
The murder of Orline Christian marked the grim beginning of a violent criminal saga. Linwood, along with his brothers James and Anthony, would later embark on a terrifying crime spree in 1979 that terrorized the city of Richmond. This spree involved a series of brutal murders, rapes, and robberies, often carried out with an accomplice named Duncan Eric Meekins. The brothers' reign of terror ultimately led to at least eleven more deaths. Eventually brought to justice, Linwood and James Briley were sentenced to death and were executed in 1984 and 1985, respectively. Anthony Briley received a life sentence for his involvement. The tragic and seemingly random death of Orline Christian in her own backyard was the first chilling prelude to the horror the Briley brothers would later inflict upon the community.
