Robert Lee Willie
Overview
Robert Lee Willie was a Louisiana murderer and serial offender whose crimes became widely known because of the 1980 rape and murder of Faith Hathaway and because his death-row case was later connected to the book
Dead Man Walking. Willie was born on January 2, 1958, in Louisiana. By his early twenties, he had already been involved in robbery, violence, drug-related crime, kidnapping, rape, attempted murder, and multiple killings. His known crimes took place mainly in southeast Louisiana between 1978 and 1980.
Willie often acted with accomplices. In the 1978 killing of Dennis Buford Hemby, he acted with his cousin Perry Wayne Taylor. In the 1980 crimes against Faith Hathaway, Debbie Cuevas, and Mark Allen Brewster, he acted with Joseph Jesse Vaccaro. Willie was eventually convicted of the murder of Faith Hathaway and sentenced to death. He was executed by electrocution at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola on December 28, 1984.
Known and Reported Victims
- Dennis Buford Hemby Died May 23, 1978, near Covington, Louisiana. Hemby was 19 years old. Willie and his cousin Perry Wayne Taylor beat and drowned him during a robbery connected to marijuana.
- Sergeant Louis Henry Wagner II Died June 3, 1978, in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. Wagner was a 25-year-old St. Tammany Parish sheriff's deputy. Willie confessed to involvement in the shooting death, later recanted, and the case became complicated by conflicting claims. Willie nevertheless received a life sentence connected to the killing.
- Faith Hathaway Died May 28, 1980, near Franklinton, Louisiana, after being abducted from Mandeville, Louisiana. Hathaway was 18 years old. Willie and Joseph Jesse Vaccaro offered her a ride, took her to a remote area, raped her, stabbed her, and left her body near Frickes Cave, a borrow pit south of Franklinton near Highway 25 and the Bogue Chitto River.
- Mark Allen Brewster Attacked May 31, 1980, after being kidnapped from Madisonville, Louisiana, with Debbie Cuevas. Brewster was 20 years old. He was taken across state lines into Alabama, tied to a tree, shot, and cut. He survived but was left severely injured and paralyzed.
- Debbie Cuevas Kidnapped May 31, 1980, from Madisonville, Louisiana, with Mark Allen Brewster. Cuevas was 16 years old. She was repeatedly raped during the kidnapping and later released alive after a third man, Tommy Holden, discouraged Willie and Vaccaro from killing her.
- Unidentified possible victims Willie claimed responsibility for other killings, including an unidentified hitchhiker and an unidentified male truck driver in St. Tammany Parish. These claims were not fully verified in the same way as the Hathaway and Hemby cases.
The Killing of Dennis Buford Hemby
On May 23, 1978, Willie and his cousin Perry Wayne Taylor attacked 19-year-old Dennis Buford Hemby near Covington, Louisiana. The killing was tied to robbery and drugs. Hemby was beaten and drowned, and Willie later admitted involvement. The motive was reported as the theft of marijuana. After his later conviction for Faith Hathaway's murder, Willie pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Hemby's death and received a life sentence. Taylor pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received a 21-year sentence.
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