 HOUSTON -- Train-hopping serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz, linked to at least 15 indiscriminate murders near railroad tracks around the country, was headed for the Texas death chamber Tuesday. The Mexican drifter known as the "Railroad Killer" was set to be executed for the slaying of physician Claudia Benton 7Å“ years ago. She was killed during a deadly spree in 1998 and 1999, which earned Resendiz a spot on the FBI's Most Wanted list as authorities searched for a murderer who slipped across the U.S. border and roamed the country by freight train.
Benton, 39, who was stabbed with a kitchen knife, struck 19 times with a 2-foot-tall bronze statue and raped in her home eight days before Christmas in 1998 in the Houston enclave of West University Place, just down the street from a railroad track. Her husband, George Benton, no longer lives in the state but planned to witness Resendiz's lethal injection Tuesday. "The main reason I came to Texas for this is to make the statement that people have to understand what evil really is," he told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "And the death penalty, this sort of conclusion to heinous killers, is the appropriate solution."
| I'm sure there will be somebody standing around out in front of the big house holding a candle and looking doleful. The nice thing about the death penalty is that it cuts the recidivism rate so nicely. |
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