Joshua Julius Anderson: Tulsa Serial Killer
Joshua Julius Anderson is an American serial killer responsible for at least four murders committed in Tulsa, Oklahoma, during a violent period lasting from November 2006 through February 2007. Police initially linked him to five killings, although he was ultimately prosecuted and convicted for four murders. The fifth victim, David Gilbert, remained a killing authorities associated with Anderson but did not prosecute because investigators concluded that the available evidence was insufficient to support a murder charge.
Anderson was only 19 years old during the murders. His victims varied considerably in age and circumstances, and investigators did not identify a single consistent victim profile. What connected the crimes was geography: the killings occurred within a relatively small section of north Tulsa, near the neighborhood where Anderson was living. Several of the murders also involved robbery, drugs, personal disputes, or attempts to eliminate witnesses.
Early Criminal History
Anderson had come to the attention of law enforcement years before the Tulsa murders. As a teenager in Muskogee, Oklahoma, he was accused of shooting with intent to kill, although that case did not result in a lasting prosecution. By 2005, he had accumulated additional allegations involving violent behavior, including domestic assault. Another shooting case was later dismissed after problems developed with witness testimony.
This history became significant after Anderson's arrest in 2007 because investigators discovered that the young murder suspect already had repeated contacts with the criminal justice system involving violence. By the time Tulsa detectives began examining the homicide cases together, Anderson had emerged as the common figure linking a remarkable concentration of killings in the same part of the city.
Murder of Evaristo Tovias Jr.
The first murder for which Anderson was eventually convicted occurred on November 5, 2006. Evaristo Tovias Jr., age 34, encountered Anderson and Anderson's brother, A.C. Anderson, in north Tulsa. According to testimony and Anderson's later admissions, the encounter involved a confrontation in which Tovias was carrying a knife.
During the altercation, Joshua Anderson obtained a double-barreled shotgun and shot Tovias. Anderson later admitted his involvement in the killing. Accounts of the case stated that he removed Tovias's knife after the shooting and left the area with the shotgun. Tovias was killed in the vicinity of the 700 block of North Madison Avenue in Tulsa.
The November murder initially stood apart from the killings that followed. It was only after Anderson became a suspect in the February 2007 double homicide that detectives began connecting him to Tovias's death and other unsolved shootings in the surrounding neighborhood.
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