Benjamin Herbert Boyle

Benjamin Herbert Boyle

• Classification: Murderer · Rape
• Number of victims: 2
• Date of murders: 1979 / 1985
• Date of arrest: October 17, 1985
• Date of birth: July 22, 1943
• Victims profile: "Jane Doe" victim / Gail Lenore Smith (female, 20)
• Method of murder: Beating / Strangulation with a necktie
• Location: California / Texas, USA
• Status: Executed by lethal injection in Texas on April 21, 1997

Summary

At the time of his arrest, Boyle was 42-years-old.

August 12, 1960 — Married to Elneta Fay "Neta" Packard at Wheeler, TX.

August 1963 — Boyle completed three years military service and then moved to Colorado.

1969 to February 1980 — Boyle ran an auto body shop in Colorado.

November 20, 1979 — Attempted to abduct a 28-year-old woman in Colorado Springs, but she produced a knife and stabbed him several times in self-defense. Boyle's guilty plea to an attempted kidnap charge earned him five years on probation.

March 1980 to October 1981 — Moved to Las Vegas, employed at a Las Vegas body shop.

November 1981 — Returned to his native Oklahoma. Began driving long-distance truck hauling jobs. At the time of his arrest in Texas, Boyle was also being sought for rape in Canyon City, Colorado, where the victim had identified his photograph.

June 21, 1985 — Review of Boyle's extensive travels linked him with a second homicide, near Truckee, California, where a "Jane Doe" victim was discovered. Her naked body had been stuffed inside a cardboard box, her hands and feet bound with bandages and several kinds of tape. FBI reports said fibers taken from the body matched a blanket found inside Boyle's Oklahoma residence.

October 14–18, 1985 — Death of Gail Lenore Smith, arrest of Boyle and transport back to Potter County.

April 28, 1987 — Benjamin and Neta were divorced in Potter County, Texas.

1987 — After his Amarillo conviction, Boyle was named in warrants issued out of Missouri after a lengthy investigation into the rape and stabbing of a 19-year-old St. Louis woman. The victim traveled to Huntsville and identified Boyle as her attacker.

April 21, 1997 — Executed by the State of Texas.