If you haven’t heard of Alfredo Prieto, he is one of those individuals who is your worst nightmare, certainly he is the worst nightmare of the grieving parents of his victims. In December 1988, he murdered young lovers Warren Fulton and Rachael Raver; both victims were shot, and Miss Raver was also raped, possibly after death. Earlier the same year, Veronica Jefferson was kidnapped from a car park; she was likewise raped and murdered.
Because of the nature of the crimes, the police had good forensic evidence against the killer, the only problem was they didn’t know his name. It was only when the California prison system began collecting DNA from inmates that a match was obtained. Prieto was on death row, having been convicted – in 1992 – of the capital murder of a 15 year old girl.
In due course he was extradited to Virginia, and in 2008 a Fairfax jury convicted him of the double murder. Although he was not tried for the murder of Veronica Jefferson, evidence was introduced at the sentencing phase of this and his other crimes, including two more rapes.
Prieto was back in the news late last year when the ACLU took up his case; apparently the poor bloke is lonely in solitary confinement. The question any rational person will ask though is not why isn’t he allowed to associate with other inmates, but why is he still alive? Apart from the extraordinarily tardigrade American judicial system as far as capital punishment is concerned, it is because serious consideration has been given and apparently is still being given to Prieto being intellectually retarded or mentally disabled.
This is one of the most ludicrous non-issues ever raised by anti-death penalty activists; apparently it is okay (maybe) to execute an intelligent serial killer like Ted Bundy, but not to execute a moron. As though morons were more important, more decent or more valued by society than intelligent people. Heck, intelligence comes at a premium, but stupidity is found everywhere. Even if this were a real issue, Prieto knows how to drive and use a gun. While any able-bodied person can pull a trigger, a man who is intelligent enough to pass a driving test is culpable enough to pay the ultimate penalty for some of the most heinous crimes ever committed. Murder is a crime committed by ordinary people, and there can at times be mitigation for some murders, but what mitigation can there be for kidnapping a total stranger, raping her and then murdering her, not once but multiple times?
One person who is unimpressed with this latest attempt to delay Prieto’s date with the Grim Reaper is Washington Post blogger Tom Jackman who has been following Prieto for nearly a decade. And clearly he has no sympathy for these delaying tactics.
Here is a reasonable timetable taken from a notorious case here in the UK that is not entirely dissimilar to the Raver/Fulton double murder.
August 22, 1961: James Hanratty kidnaps government scientist Michael Gregsten and his lover Valerie Storie at gunpoint. After forcing Gregsten to drive for several hours he shoots him dead, rapes Miss Storie, shoots her and leaving her for dead, takes Gregsten’s car.
August 23: Valerie Storie is found alive and rushed to hospital. The manhunt for the A6 Murderer begins.
October 11: Hanratty is arrested.
October 14: Hanratty is identified by Valerie Storie.
January 22, 1962: Hanratty’s murder trial opens at Bedford Assizes.
February 17: At 9.10pm, after deliberating for nearly ten hours, the jury finds Hanratty guilty of murder; he is sentenced to death. March 13: Hanratty’s appeal is dismissed.
April 4: Hanratty is hanged at Bedford Prison.
Less than 8 months from crime to execution, including appeal. Now add a year to that. Okay, two years. In a case with such rock solid evidence as the Raver/Fulton and Jefferson murders, what legitimate reason can there be for extending due process beyond two or three years? And bear in mind that Prieto had already been on death row for a decade and a half in California.
Other people appear to think the same way; on June 12, a documentary about the Prieto case was uploaded to YouTube. Check it out, * and see if you don’t feel the same way after watching it.
[The above article was first published June 15, 2014. * The linked YouTube video has since been deleted because the associated account has been terminated, but at the time of writing – April 2022 – there are a number of shorter videos about this piece of human filth on the site. Prieto was executed October 1, 2015.]
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