Billy Ray Irick
William Ray Irick (August 26th, 1958 – August 9th, 2018) was an American convicted murderer from Tennessee who was sentenced to death and executed for the 1985 rape and murder of 7-year-old Paula Dyer in Knoxville. Irick, then aged 26, had been living with Dyer's family for over a year, and was babysitting five of the family's children (including Paula Kay) on the night of the girl's murder.
Background edit
Irick was born on August 26, 1958, in Knoxville, Tennessee. He allegedly suffered extensive abuse from his family from a young age, including one incident where a neighbor witnessed Irick's father clubbing him with a piece of lumber. His mental health was reportedly first questioned in March 1965, when he was 6. A psychological evaluation was subsequently performed at the request of his school's principal, owing to his "extreme behavioral problems".
Nina Braswell Lunn, a clinical social worker performed the subsequent evaluation of Irick, when he was in the first grade. Lunn noted that he had shared stories with her about being tied up and beaten at home because his parents could not control him. Lunn later testified that Irick may have been suffering from mild organic brain damage since birth.
Irick was briefly institutionalized before being sent to an orphanage for emotionally disturbed children. During an arranged visit to his parents' home in 1972, Irick (then aged 13) reportedly hit the household's TV set with an axe of some description, destroyed flower beds, and cut up the pajamas his sister was wearing with a razor blade.