Thomas Wayne Crump

Serial Killer

Thomas Wayne Crump: A Violent Criminal Career Across New Mexico and Nevada

Early Criminal History

Thomas Wayne Crump was an American murderer and serial killer whose long record of violent crime stretched across several states and eventually included multiple murders, attempted murders, robberies, assaults and an escape from custody. Long before the killings for which he became notorious, Crump had already demonstrated a willingness to use extreme violence. His criminal history included robbery and attempted murder, and by the late 1960s he was moving between states while committing serious offenses. On July 13, 1967, Crump committed a robbery and attempted murder in New Mexico. He fled the state afterward and was apprehended in Michigan on August 2, 1967 in connection with another crime. The New Mexico prosecution eventually resulted in convictions for robbery and attempted murder. Although a kidnapping conviction from the same case was later reversed on appeal, the case established an early pattern that would continue throughout Crump's life: robbery accompanied by potentially lethal violence, flight from authorities and repeated attacks after earlier periods of incarceration.

Marriage to Rhonda Higdon Crump

By the 1970s, Crump was living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He became involved with Rhonda Higdon, whom he had met when she was a teenager. The two eventually married and had a child. By the summer of 1980, however, their relationship had deteriorated, and Rhonda sought a divorce. According to accounts of the case, Rhonda filed for divorce on July 13, 1980. Crump subsequently arranged to meet with her. During that encounter, he drove her to an area near the Rio Grande and shot her repeatedly with a 9mm firearm before abandoning her body. The homicide immediately placed Crump under suspicion. At his later murder trial, ballistics evidence became especially important: an expert compared bullets recovered from Rhonda's body with bullets test-fired from a firearm in Crump's possession when he was apprehended. The evidence supported the prosecution's case that Crump had murdered his wife. There is a one-day discrepancy in surviving records concerning Rhonda's death. Accounts of the crime generally place the shooting on July 13, 1980, while cemetery records for Rhonda Lynn Crump record her death as July 14, 1980. She was 20 years old. Because of that discrepancy, her death is most accurately described as occurring on July 13-14, 1980 rather than assigning a false certainty to one of the two dates. ...

Confirmed Victims: (4)

Jodie Jameson Age: (26), Date of Death: 1980-10-04

Thomas Wayne Crump - Wikipedia