My Unintentional Connections to Murderers and Serial Killers - Part 2 - Michael Taylor
Once upon a time I worked with someone that occasionally we would get into political conversations. We are pretty much on opposite ends and all that stuff. Occasionally the topic of the death penalty came up and they would get really defensive. I also knew that they would get groups together on the Plaza and protest the death penalty in Missouri. Fine. If that is what they believe and peacefully protest, then good for them. Not my opinion, but God Bless America.
Around 2006, there was quite a bit of publicity regarding some prisoners on Missouri's death row. It was the old tried and true "cruel and unusual punishment" line. Essentially putting him to sleep is cruel and unusual...as opposed to him and a friend kidnapping, raping, stabbing, and leaving a 15 year old girl to die in the trunk of a car. He was supposed to be executed, but the Supreme Court got involved, and all sorts of legal stuff was being sorted out.
So one night I go into work and while getting ready for my shift, was talking to a coworker and they made some mention of so-and-so's brother. I was like, "uh, okay???" Then they said, "You don't know who their brother is?", shocked that I didn't. After putting two and two together, I realized that the guy causing all this ruckus with the Supreme Court is this person's brother. Ahhh, it all comes together now. The protests, the defensiveness, the name on the caller ID that pops up...wow. I had no clue. I had one of those Sixth Sense or Fight Club moments where I was stunned. For you Kevin Smith fans, I was like Banky in Chasing Amy when he realizes he is in a lesbian bar.
Here is what happened back in March 1989. It was my Senior year of high school when this made the news. Two men in their early 20's, Michael Taylor and Roderick Nunley, after a night of smoking pot and doing coke, kidnapped 15-year-old Ann Harrison while she was waiting for the school bus. A few minutes later when the bus showed up, only her schoolbooks and other personal belongings were there.
In the meantime, the two had kidnapped her and taken her back to Nunley's house where they both raped her in the basement. They then tied her up and forced her into the trunk of a stolen Monte Carlo. According to them, because she had seen their faces, they had to kill her. They took turns stabbing her with butcher knives in the neck and chest a total of 10 times. She was still alive at the time of the attack and estimated she died of her wounds maybe 30 minutes later. They parked the stolen car with Ann's body still in the trunk in a nearby neighborhood and abandoned the car. She was found three days later.
Michael Taylor and Roderick Nunley pled guilty to the charges of first-degree murder, armed criminal action, kidnapping and forcible rape. They were sentenced to the death in 1991. After trying to weasel out of the death penalty claiming cruel and unusual punishment, they were eventually executed by lethal injection.
Looking back I can see why my coworker was a wee bit outspoken on the death penalty. I can understand that you don't want your brother to die...but he did do some extremely heinous things to a helpless teenage girl just waiting to catch the bus.
Ann Harrison on FindAGrave
Michael Taylor was executed on February 26, 2014
Roderick Nunley was executed on September 1, 2015
