View source for Carroll Cole

{{Short description|American serial killer (1938–1985)}}
{{other uses|Carole Cole (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox serial killer
| name              = Carroll Cole
| image             = Carroll Cole.jpg
| caption           = Cole on November 14, 1984
| birth_name        = Carroll Edward Cole
| alias             = 
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1938|5|9}}
| birth_place       = [[Sioux City, Iowa]], U.S.
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1985|12|6|1938|5|9}}
| death_place       = [[Nevada State Prison]], [[Carson City, Nevada]], U.S.
| cause             = [[Execution by lethal injection]]
| conviction        = [[First degree murder]]
| penalty           = [[Capital punishment in Nevada|Death]] (October 12, 1984)
| victims           = 5 convicted, claimed 13–35
| country           = United States
| states            = [[California]], [[Nevada]], [[Texas]]
| beginyear         = 1947
| endyear           = 1980
| apprehended       = November 30, 1980
}}
'''Carroll Edward "Eddie" Cole'''<ref name=":0">Myers, Laura (December 6, 1985). "Last-minute stay rejected; silent protest outside prison". ''Reno Gazette-Journal''. pp. 1A, 9A.</ref> (May 9, 1938 – December 6, 1985) was an American [[serial killer]] who was [[Capital punishment in Nevada|executed in Nevada]] in 1985 for killing two women by [[strangulation]]. He was also convicted of murdering three other women in [[Texas]] and is believed to have murdered up to thirty other people between 1947 and 1980.<ref>{{Cite web|date=1985-12-07|title=Nevada Executes Killer of Five : 25 View Death of Carroll E. Cole by Lethal Injection|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-12-07-mn-14259-story.html|access-date=2021-12-22|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}</ref>

==Early life==
Carroll Edward Cole was born in [[Sioux City, Iowa|Sioux City]], [[Iowa]], the second son of LaVerne Cole (May 25, 1900 – February 5, 1975)  and Vesta Cole (September 4, 1904 – January 27, 1984). His younger sister was born in 1939 and soon afterward, his family moved to [[California]], where LaVerne found work in a shipyard. Not long after that, LaVerne went to fight in [[World War II]].<ref name="auto">{{cite book|last=Greig|first=Charlotte|title=Evil Serial Killers: In the Minds of Monsters|year=2005|publisher=Barnes & Noble|location=New York|isbn=0760775664|page=[https://archive.org/details/evilserialkiller00char/page/189 189]|url=https://archive.org/details/evilserialkiller00char/page/189}}</ref> While his father was away, his mother had several affairs and sometimes took Cole along to her rendezvous, threatening to beat him if he told his father. Vesta was [[emotional abuse|emotionally abusive]] to Cole and dressed him as a girl. At school, he was teased about his "girly name" by his peers.<ref name="auto"/>

===First murder===
At age 8, he retaliated against one of his classmates, a boy of the same age named Duane, by drowning him in a lake in [[Richmond, California]]. The death was regarded an accident by authorities until Cole confessed to it many years later in an [[autobiography]] he wrote in prison. During a press interview, Cole said of this event, "I was primed, I had made the mental commitment I was going to get even with my mother, and things just built up and built up and became an obsession."<ref name="auto"/><ref name="L.A. Times 1"/>

As a teen, Cole committed several [[petty crime]]s and was frequently arrested for drunkenness and minor thefts. After high school, he joined the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]], but was given a [[Military discharge#Bad Conduct Discharge (BCD)|bad-conduct discharge]] in 1958 for stealing pistols.<ref name="auto"/><ref name="L.A. Times 1">{{cite news |title=Claims He Killed 3 S.D. Women, Many Others: Death Row Inmate Won't Appeal Dec. 6 Execution |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-11-28-me-9130-story.html |access-date=17 August 2018 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=28 November 1985 |language=en |quote=He was given a bad-conduct discharge in 1958}}</ref> In 1960, Cole attacked two couples parked in cars on a [[lover's lane]]. Soon afterward, he called the police in Richmond, California, where he was living, and told them that he was plagued by violent fantasies involving [[strangulation|strangling]] women.<ref name="auto"/>

==Later life==
Cole spent time in various [[Psychiatric hospital|mental hospitals]] over the next three years. At the last of them, [[Stockton State Hospital]], a Dr. Weiss wrote: "He seems to be afraid of the female figure and cannot have intercourse with her first but must [[Necrophilia|kill her before he can do it]]."<ref name="auto"/> Weiss approved his release in April 1963, despite hospital staff having diagnosed Cole with [[antisocial personality disorder]].<ref name=TLS>{{cite web|last=Richmond|first=Jessica|title=Cole, Carroll|url=http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Cole,%20Carroll%20-%202005.pdf|work=Department of Psychology|publisher=Radford University|accessdate=27 December 2016}}</ref>

Upon his release, Cole moved to [[Dallas]], [[Texas]], where his brother Richard was living. There, he met and married an [[alcoholism|alcoholic]] [[stripper]] named Billie Whitworth, but this did not change his perspective towards women. After two years, the marriage ended when Cole burned down a motel after convincing himself that Whitworth was having sex with men there. As a result, he was arrested for [[arson]]. Upon his release from prison, Cole attempted to strangle an 11-year-old girl in [[Missouri]]. He was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison.<ref name="auto1">{{cite book|last=Greig|first=Charlotte|title=Evil Serial Killers: In the Minds of Monsters|year=2005|publisher=Barnes & Noble|location=New York|isbn=0760775664|page=[https://archive.org/details/evilserialkiller00char/page/190 190]|url=https://archive.org/details/evilserialkiller00char/page/190}}</ref>

After the sentence was up, Cole ended up in [[Nevada]], where he attempted to strangle two more women. Once again, he checked himself into a mental hospital. The doctors there noted his murderous fantasies but still elected not to detain him and he was given a ticket back to [[San Diego]].

===Serial murders===
Cole's first victim as an adult was Essie Louise Buck, whom he had picked up in a San Diego [[tavern]] on May 7, 1971. He strangled her to death in his car and drove around with her body in the trunk before eventually dumping it. Just two weeks later, he killed an unidentified woman and buried her in a wooded area. He later claimed that they had proven themselves unfaithful to their husbands, and so reminded him of his adulterous mother.<ref name="auto1"/>

In July 1973, Cole married barmaid Diana Faye Younglove Pashal, who was also an alcoholic. They argued and fought frequently, and Cole regularly went off on his own for days at a time. He would commit murders while he was away, including one woman he allegedly [[Human cannibalism|cannibalized]] to a degree. In September 1979, Cole strangled Pashal to death. A suspicious neighbor called the police eight days later, but although they found Pashal's body wrapped in a blanket and stuffed in a closet, they decided that she had died because of her heavy drinking, and Cole was released without charge after questioning.

Cole left San Diego and started moving around again. In 1979, Cole met Marie Cushman at a bar in [[Las Vegas]]. That same evening, the two went to a motel where they had sex; he then killed her by strangulation.<ref name="UPI December 1985">{{cite news |last1=RYAN |first1=CY |title=Carroll Cole, who romanced at least 10 women before... |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/12/05/Carroll-Cole-who-romanced-at-least-10-women-before/5705502606800/ |accessdate=17 August 2018 |work=UPI |publisher=United Press International, Inc. |date=5 December 1985 |location=CARSON CITY, Nevada |language=en}}</ref>

Following the Las Vegas killing, he returned to Dallas, where he fatally strangled three more women in November 1980. Cole was a suspect in the second of these killings and was also found on the scene of the third murder.<ref name="auto1"/> He was arrested and held in custody. The police then came to the conclusion that the victim had probably died of [[natural causes]], and Cole was about to be ruled out as a suspect before he confessed to, along with this murder, all of the other killings. Cole claimed that he had murdered at least fourteen women over the previous nine years, although he added that there may have been more and he couldn't remember exactly, as he was usually drunk when he committed his crimes.

==Conviction and death==
On April 9, 1981, Cole was convicted of three of the murders committed in Texas. He was sentenced to [[life in prison|life]] at the [[Huntsville Prison]]. In 1984, Cole's mother died and his attitude was reported to have changed. He agreed to face further murder charges filed in Nevada, even though it could possibly mean the [[death penalty]].<ref name="auto1"/>

In February 1984, Cole was extradited to Nevada, where he was tried and convicted for the strangulation deaths of two women in 1977 and 1979. In October 1984, Cole was sentenced to death in Nevada.<ref name="L.A. Times 2">{{cite news |last1=FREED |first1=DAVID |title=Nevada Executes Killer of Five: 25 View Death of Carroll E. Cole by Lethal Injection |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-12-07-mn-14259-story.html |access-date=17 August 2018 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=7 December 1985 |location=Carson City, Nevada}}</ref> When his sentencing was passed he said, "Thanks, Judge."<ref name="auto1"/> Sometime before his execution he reportedly converted to [[Catholicism]]. The victims in which Cole was convicted of killing were Kathlyn Blum, Marie Cushman, Sally Thompson, Dorothy King and Wanda Roberts, the latter three of whom were killed in Texas.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://law.justia.com/cases/nevada/supreme-court/1985/16070-1.html|title=Cole v. State|website=Justia}}</ref>

On the day of his execution, anti-death penalty campaigners, including the [[American Civil Liberties Union]] (ACLU), the [[United Methodist Church]] of Reno, and fellow death row inmates tried to have his sentence commuted, but Cole protested. For his [[last meal]], Cole ordered jumbo fried shrimp, french fries, salad with French dressing, and Boston clam chowder. The night before he requested [[KFC|Kentucky Fried Chicken]], but guards could only give him chicken nuggets, as he was not allowed to have food with bones.<ref name=":0" /> Cole was executed by [[lethal injection]] at [[Nevada State Prison]] on December 6, 1985, at 2:10 am.<ref>{{cite news |title=CONFESSED MURDERER OF 13 IS EXECUTED IN NEVADA |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/07/us/confessed-murderer-of-13-is-executed-in-nevada.html |accessdate=16 August 2018 |agency=Associated Press |work=The New York Times |date=7 December 1985 |language=en |quote=Mr. Cole was the first person executed by injection in Nevada}}</ref><ref name="Las Vegas Sun">{{cite news |title=Eleven men executed in Nevada since 1979 |url=https://lasvegassun.com/news/2005/jun/02/eleven-men-executed-in-nevada-since-1979/ |accessdate=16 August 2018 |agency=Associated Press |publisher=LasVegasSun.com |date=2 June 2005 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> His brain was removed hours after his execution and studied for abnormalities at the [[University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine|University of Nevada-Reno medical school]].<ref name=":0" />

==See also==
* [[List of people executed in Nevada]]
* [[List of serial killers by number of victims]]
* [[List of serial killers in the United States]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041118164509/http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/edward_cole/1.html?sect=2 Carroll Cole at the Crime Library]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWJg6nVGDSk Carroll Cole interview – 1985]

{{s-start}}
! colspan="3" | [[Capital punishment in Nevada|Executions carried out in Nevada]]
{{s-bef|before=[[Jesse Bishop]]|before2=<div style="font-weight: normal">October 22, 1979</div>}}
{{s-ttl|title=Carroll Cole|years=December 6, 1985}}
{{s-aft|after=[[William Paul Thompson]]|after2=<div style="font-weight: normal">June 19, 1989</div>}}
|-
! colspan="3" | [[Capital punishment in the United States|Executions carried out in the United States]]
{{s-bef|before=William Vandiver – [[Capital punishment in Indiana|Indiana]]|before2=<div style="font-weight: normal">October 16, 1985</div>}}
{{s-ttl|title=Carroll Cole – [[Capital punishment in Nevada|Nevada]]|years=December 6, 1985}}
{{s-aft|after=[[James Terry Roach]] – [[Capital punishment in South Carolina|South Carolina]]|after2=<div style="font-weight: normal">January 10, 1986</div>}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Carroll}}
[[Category:1938 births]]
[[Category:1985 deaths]]
[[Category:1947 murders in the United States]]
[[Category:1977 murders in the United States]]
[[Category:1979 murders in the United States]]
[[Category:1980 murders in the United States]]
[[Category:20th-century executions by Nevada]]
[[Category:20th-century executions of American people]]
[[Category:American arsonists]]
[[Category:American cannibals]]
[[Category:American male criminals]]
[[Category:American people convicted of burglary]]
[[Category:American people convicted of theft]]
[[Category:Executed American serial killers]]
[[Category:Executed people from Iowa]]
[[Category:Juvenile murderers]]
[[Category:Necrophiles]]
[[Category:People convicted of murder by Nevada]]
[[Category:People executed by Nevada by lethal injection]]
[[Category:People from Sioux City, Iowa]]
[[Category:People with antisocial personality disorder]]
[[Category:Serial killers from California]]
[[Category:Serial killers from Nevada]]
[[Category:Serial killers from Texas]]
[[Category:Uxoricides]]