Three Strikes And He's Finally Out

Here's a typical Louisiana crime story; this one out of Covington, just across the lake from New Orleans.

Spousal abuse, a lax criminal justice system and stupidity all rolled into one.

A 78-year-old man who died after setting a fire to hide the murders of his third wife and her brother had killed two previous wives, a sheriff says.

Everette Simpson had served a total of 20 years for the two killings.

He spent nine years in a California prison for second-degree murder of his first wife, who was hacked 16 times with a butcher knife in 1960, and 11 years in Louisiana for manslaughter of his second wife, attacked with knife and hatchet and then smothered with a pillow in 1983, authorities said.

He died of smoke inhalation April 3. Estelle Simpson, 69, and her brother, Allen Martin, 75, were bludgeoned in their sleep.

"This is incredibly frustrating for people who spend their careers chasing these monsters," St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain said Friday. "Everyone deserves a second chance, but when you start letting out cold-blooded murderers not once but twice, you've got to wonder what's going on."

Simpson was charged in 1960 with first-degree murder of Virginia Hudson, 35, in Los Angeles, and was convicted of second-degree murder, Strain said. He pleaded guilty in 1983 to manslaughter of Ruby Richardson in Shreveport, the sheriff said. ...

"Why in the world was he walking the streets as a free man? That's utterly unbelievable," said Earl Martin Sr., a cousin who lives in Lanham, Md. "It's absolutely beyond my comprehension."

It's a good question. And they say capital punishment isn't a deterrent. Well, it would have deterred him from another three murders. He finally had to stop himself (almost 50 years after his first homicide) when he set a fire from which he couldn't escape.

Apparently he's a better killer than he is an arsonist.