William Andrews
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William Andrews (1955 - July 30, 1992) was an American airman and one of the main perpetrators of the 1974 Hi-Fi murders in Ogden, Utah. Andrews and five other men broke into the Hi-Fi store in Ogden with the intention of robbing it and took five people hostage in the basement. Andrews and Dale Pierre then forced the hostages to drink drain cleaner and killed three of them, leaving the two survivors with life-changing injuries. Andrews was executed on July 30, 1992.
Biography edit
Andrews was born in Jonesboro, Louisiana, in 1955. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and was stationed at Hill Air Force Base near Ogden, Utah. Andrews shared a barracks with Dale Pierre and Keith Roberts, two of his accomplices in the Hi-Fi murders.
On April 22, 1974, a group of six African-American men who included Pierre, Andrews and Roberts drove to the Hi-Fi store at 2323 Washington Boulevard, Ogden, in two vans. Four of them entered the store brandishing handguns while Roberts and the driver of the other van remained in the vehicles. Two employees, 20-year-old Stanley Walker and 18-year-old Michelle Ansley, were inside at the time. Pierre and Andrews took the two hostage and forced them into the basement, where they tied them up. The four men then began robbing the store. During the robbery, 16-year-old Cortney Naisbitt entered the store to thank Stanley Walker for allowing him to park his car outside the store and was also taken hostage. Later that evening, Stanley Walker's father Orren and Cortney Naisbitt's mother Carol both arrived to search for their respective sons and were also taken hostage.
With five hostages in the basement, Andrews went back to the van and retrieved a bottle of Drano. After Orren refused to administer it to the others, Pierre and Andrews propped the hostages into sitting positions and forced them to drink the Drano, claiming it was vodka laced with sleeping pills. They then attempted to duct-tape the victim's mouths shut to stop them screaming but the blisters forming as a result of the Drano stopped the tape from sticking. Orren Walker was the last to be given the Drano, but spat it out when Pierre and Andrews weren't looking and mimicked the screaming and convulsing of the other hostages.
Pierre, frustrated that the victims were taking too long to die, shot Carol and Cortney Naisbitt in the head, killing Carol. He then shot at both Walkers, missing Orren and only grazing the back of his head but killing Stanley. Afterwards Andrews left for 30 minutes at Pierre's request while he raped and killed Ansley. When Andrews re-entered, he noticed that Orren was still alive and told Pierre to finish him off. Pierre attempted to strangle him with a garrotte wire, but this failed to kill him. Andrews then placed a ballpoint pen in Orren's ear and Pierre stomped on it until it punctured his eardrum and stabbed through his throat. Believing him to be dead, Pierre and Andrews left the basement and helped their accomplices to load the vans before the group left.
Three hours later, Orren Walker's wife and other son came looking for him and found the victims. Orren Walker and Cortney Naisbitt survived upon being admitted to hospital, although Cortney Naisbitt suffered amnesia from being shot by Pierre, but the other three victims were dead. Police were attracted to the Hill Air Force Base after another soldier reported that Andrews had told him "One of these days I'm going to rob that Hi-Fi store, and if anyone gets in my way I'm going to kill them". Later that day, the victim's wallets were found by two teenagers in a dumpster near the base. A police detective responding to the scene assembled all the airmen at the base to put on a scene for them, suspecting the killers were among them. Speaking dramatically, he waved each piece of evidence in the air as he removed it with tongs. Noticing the panicked reactions of Pierre, Andrews and Roberts, the detective gained their identities from the other soldiers and arrested all three. The three men's barracks were searched, revealing fliers for the Hi-Fi store and a rental contract in Andrews's name for a storage unit. The storage unit was searched, revealing items taken from the Hi-Fi store and a half-empty bottle of Drano.
Pierre, Andrews and Roberts were charged with murder and aggravated robbery. Roberts testified against Pierre and Andrews, telling the court that they had been planning the crime for several months, intending to kill anyone they found at the store, and had repeatedly watched the film Magnum Force, getting the idea to use Drano on the hostages from a scene in which a pimp uses it to kill a prostitute. Orren Walker also testified, identifying Pierre and Andrews as the killers; while Andrews did not kill anyone, Orren testified that he had helped Pierre to pour Drano down the victim's throats and he had made a statement where he admitted bringing the Drano to the store knowing what it would be used for. Pierre and Andrews were convicted of murder and sentenced to death, whilst Roberts was only convicted of robbery.
While awaiting execution, Andrews filed a petition for clemency claiming that he was under the influence of drugs and citing that he was 19 at the time of the crime. This petition was rejected. He also appealed for a new trial with the support of the NAACP and Amnesty International arguing racial bias; all jurors at the trial had been white and the one African-American in the juror pool had been excluded. However, it was later proved that the juror in question was a police officer who personally knew several of the victims and the appeal was rejected. In denying the appeal, the state also pointed out that Ogden was majority white so the jury makeup made sense. Andrews filed another appeal because a handwritten note reading "Hang the niggers" was allegedly found in the jury room, but this too was rejected. Andrews was executed by lethal injection on July 30, 1992.