Danny Paul Bible: The Ice Pick Killer
Danny Paul Bible was an American serial killer, serial rapist and repeat violent offender whose criminal history stretched across several states and nearly two decades. Born on August 28, 1951, in Angleton, Texas, Bible became associated with four killings in Texas as well as kidnappings and numerous sexual assaults. His murder victims included three women and a four-month-old infant. The crime for which he eventually received a death sentence was the 1979 rape and murder of 20-year-old Inez Deaton in Houston.
Bible's known murders occurred during two separate periods, first in the Houston area in 1979 and again in North Texas in 1983. He was convicted of two of the killings during separate prosecutions and later confessed to responsibility for the other two. His record also included aggravated kidnapping and sexual offenses in Montana, repeated sexual abuse after his release from prison, and the 1998 sexual assault of a woman in Louisiana that ultimately led investigators back to the decades-old Deaton murder.
The Murder of Inez Deaton
In May 1979, 20-year-old Inez Deaton, a young mother who knew members of Bible's family, went to Bible's Houston-area residence to use a telephone. A neighbor later reported seeing her enter the home. She was never seen alive again.
Bible later confessed that he was watching television when Deaton arrived. According to his statements to investigators, he grabbed her after she entered the residence and sexually assaulted her as she resisted him. Bible remembered strangling her and using a sharp weapon against her, although portions of his later account were clouded by claims that he could not remember every detail of the killing.
Deaton suffered an exceptionally violent attack. Her body contained eleven ice-pick stab wounds, including wounds to the chest and back, as well as injuries consistent with strangulation and sexual assault. Her throat had also been cut. After killing her, Bible placed her body in a vehicle, drove to a bayou in Houston and abandoned her there.
Deaton's body was discovered along the slope of the bayou on May 27, 1979. Evidence at the scene indicated that her body had been moved and deliberately positioned after her death. Because Deaton had last been seen entering Bible's residence several days before the discovery, the precise day on which she was killed was not firmly established in later court summaries. May 27 became the official offense date commonly associated with the case because that was the day her body was found.
Bible was not arrested for Deaton's murder at the time. He disappeared from the Houston area around the period of her funeral and subsequently spent time in Wyoming and Montana. The killing remained unresolved for almost twenty years.
Violence in Montana and the Return to Texas
After leaving Texas, Bible continued displaying violent behavior. Court records described an abusive relationship in which he assaulted a woman and engaged in increasingly dangerous acts. His criminal activity also included theft and aggravated kidnapping.
By 1983, Bible had returned to Texas and was living in the area west of Fort Worth. On May 16, 1983, three people connected to him disappeared from the Weatherford area: Pamela Kay Hudgins, Tracy Zan Harrison Powers and Powers' four-month-old son, Justin Powers. All three were eventually determined to have been killed.
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