Gary James Lewingdon

Serial Killer

Gary James Lewingdon: The .22-Caliber Killer

Early Life and Background

Gary James Lewingdon was born on February 14, 1940, in Ohio. After graduating from high school in 1958, he entered the United States Air Force and served for approximately four years before leaving the military in 1962. During the years that followed, Lewingdon struggled to maintain stable employment and accumulated a record of relatively minor offenses, including theft and weapons-related violations. Nothing in his early criminal history suggested that he would eventually become responsible for one of the most frightening murder sprees in central Ohio. Gary had an older brother, Thaddeus Charles Lewingdon, who appeared to have lived a more conventional life. Thaddeus was trained in electronics, held a technical or maintenance position, married, and became the father of three children. By 1977, however, his marriage had ended, and he was experiencing personal and emotional difficulties. During the same period, Gary was facing financial problems. The brothers began committing robberies together, selecting victims who had no obvious connection to them and operating away from their own homes. What began as a plan to obtain money through robbery quickly developed into a series of exceptionally violent killings. The brothers carried .22-caliber handguns and repeatedly shot their victims, often continuing to fire long after a single wound would have been sufficient to incapacitate them. The use of these weapons led investigators and the press to identify the unknown offenders as the ".22-Caliber Killers." Between December 1977 and December 1978, Gary participated in the murders of ten people. Thaddeus was implicated in nine of those killings, while Gary committed the final murder alone.

The Newark Double Murder

The first known killings occurred during the early morning hours of December 10, 1977, at Forkers Cafe in Newark, Ohio. Joyce Vermillion and Karen Dodrill were working at or associated with the establishment when they were attacked. Their bodies were discovered near the rear of the building after they had been shot multiple times. The absence of witnesses and the lack of an immediately identifiable suspect left investigators with little more than the physical evidence recovered from the scene. The ammunition evidence would later become critically important. Investigators collected .22-caliber cartridge cases and bullets, but at that stage they did not know that the killings marked the beginning of a much larger series. The two women appeared to have been selected because they were isolated and vulnerable rather than because of any personal grievance. Karen Dodrill died on what was reported to have been her thirty-fourth birthday. ...

Confirmed Victims: (9)

Joyce Vermillion Age: (37), Date of Death: 1977-12-10

Gary and Thaddeus Lewingdon - Wikipedia