Alvin Lee King

Case record

Identification

Alvin Lee King

Status

Alvin Lee King hanged himself in the Morris County Jail with strips of a towel January 19, 1982.

Timeline

• June 22, 1980 — Alvin Lee King kicked open the doors of the First Baptist Church in Daingerfield, Texas, shouted "This is war," and sprayed the congregation with gunfire.
• Two years later — He hanged himself in the Morris County Jail with strips of a towel.
• January 19, 1982 — He hanged himself in the Morris County Jail with strips of a towel.
• October 1979 — Alvin Lee King was indicted in a 1977 incest incident involving his daughter.
• 1973 — King resigned his teaching job.
• 1966 — King accidentally killed his father with a shotgun blast while examining a 12-gauge shotgun.
• Summer of 1980 — The Sunday before his incest trial was scheduled to open, he tied his wife to a kitchen table, dressed up in military drag, and went to the First Baptist Church.

Background

Alvin Lee King was described as a former school teacher and as having a Ph.D. in Psychology with a taste for crime. He was described as an atheist eccentric. King was considered brilliant but an oddball at Daingerfield High School. He refused to sign an oath required of all local teachers, acknowledging God.

King resigned his teaching job in 1973 and since had acquired a Ph.D. and worked for a trucking firm. Police said recently he had lived fairly reclusively on a farm near Hughes Springs. He was also described as having taught at Daingerfield High School and later becoming a truck driver. He practiced judo. He raised peas and cucumbers on a 100-acre farm after his house burned down under mysterious circumstances. He collected guns.

King was raised in Corpus Christi by parents who owned a liquor store, pawnshop and jukebox leasing company. King came to Daingerfield in 1966 with his wife, Gretchen, and his children Cynthia and Alvin Lee King IV to teach high school math.

In 1966, while visiting his parents in Corpus Christi, King was examining a 12-gauge shotgun when it somehow discharged, killing his father. The coroner ruled the death accidental.

King’s teaching methods included a practice where students whose marks fell between Bs and Cs cut a deck of cards to determine their final grade. In 1972, King quit rather than teach retarded students, then became a truck driver.

Church officials had no explanation for King's actions. Dan Gilmore, a minister and music education director at the church, said church officials had no explanation for King's actions.

The offence

Church attack (First Baptist Church, Daingerfield)

On June 22, 1980, Alvin Lee King kicked open the doors of the Baptist church in Daingerfield, Texas. He shouted, "This is war," and opened fire with an AR-15 rifle.

King brought "war" to the First Baptist Church where he had unsuccessfully sought character witnesses for his incest trial. He was described as dressed in combat gear and armed with four guns. He was wearing Army fatigues, a helmet and a bulletproof vest when he showed up at the church. He announced "This is war" as he opened fire with an AR-15 rifle.

The congregation was singing "More About Jesus" when the attack began. King fired an AR-15 rifle with a bayonet and also had additional firearms. One account listed an AR-15 rifle with a bayonet, an M-1 rifle, a pearl-handled .22-cal. pistol and a .38-cal. pistol, with a pack stuffed with 250 rounds of ammunition.

He killed five people and wounded eleven in less than a minute. In one account, five church members died and 10 were injured. In another account, a 78-year-old woman and a 7-year-old girl were killed before King could be wrestled out of the building. In that account, once on the front lawn, King pulled a .22-caliber pistol and killed two men who had tried to subdue him.

Two victims were specifically identified as:

• Jennifer Linam, 7, of Lone Star — died at the church after being shot in the head.
• Thelma Richardson, 78 — died of head and back wounds.

The shots and commotion was audible on the church's tape recording of the sermon broadcast live on station KEGG, including the phrase "This Is War!"

Actions at a fire station and attempted suicide

After fleeing to a fire station, King tried and failed to commit suicide. He then went across the street to a fire station and shot himself in the head.

He was sent in stable condition to a Tyler hospital where his wound, a slight graze, did not require immediate surgery. Facing four murder complaints, King was transferred to John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, which police said had a more suitable criminal detention center.

Investigation

Investigators were unable to explain what King had planned. Deputy Sheriff Emit Kennedy said: "He definitely had something planned."

A note was found on a table at the place where King’s wife was tied: "Jeremiah says the King is the King of Kings."

Police later discovered additional materials after going to King's isolated farmhouse. In the basement, officers found a letter from the Soviet embassy in Washington informing King that he could not become a Soviet citizen. Officers also found records of about $300 deposited this spring in a Swiss bank and passports for King and his wife.

When King was arrested after the attack, police said the earlier church members refused to testify in his behalf at his incest trial scheduled the next day.

Arrest and custody

After King shot himself in the head and was treated and transferred to John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, he was later held in jail. He hanged himself in the Morris County Jail with strips of a towel two years later, with the specific date given as January 19, 1982.

Family and related offences

Incest trial context

Alvin Lee King faced allegations relating to incest involving his daughter. He was indicted in October 1979 in a 1977 incest incident involving his daughter, who was then 18.

King asked several townspeople who happened to be members of the First Baptist Church to testify as character witnesses; all refused. Morris County Attorney Bill Porter said King had asked several members of the church to testify in his behalf at his incest trial, scheduled to begin that day in nearby Sulphur Springs. Porter said: "I had heard that he had approached several members of the congregation and asked them to testify," and "I know of one incident specifically where the person said they wouldn't (testify). I don't know if anyone had agreed to be a witness or not."

Dr. William Carr on the staff at Hospital of the Pines supported Porter's theory.

Wife and prior actions before the church attack

On Sunday, the day before the trial was to open, King rose early, ate breakfast and then overpowered his wife and tied her to a chair. King said: "I love you and I don't want to hurt you." He scribbled the cryptic passage on a scrap of paper, armed himself and sallied forth in his white Ford Fiesta to make "war" on the parishioners.

In one account, King tied his wife to a kitchen table, dressed up in military drag, and set off to the First Baptist Church in Daingerfield, Texas. In another account, King’s wife, Gretchen, said he tied her up and left the house about 9 a.m. without hurting her.

Police discovered Gretchen bound to a kitchen chair with rope and telephone cord when policemen went to King's isolated farmhouse eight miles from Daingerfield.

Trial and court proceedings

King was scheduled to go to trial for incest. His murder trial followed his church attack. At the time of his death, he died just hours before he was to have returned to a courtroom where a district judge was considering whether to relocate a court hearing to determine if he was competent to aid in his defense at his murder trial.

There was speculation King might have been affected by testimony Monday in the change of venue hearing. In that change of venue hearing, his wife and son, with whom he had not had contact since the shootings, testified in favor of moving the competency hearing.

Sentencing and outcome

The legal outcome included that Alvin Lee King hanged himself in the Morris County Jail with strips of a towel on January 19, 1982. No verdicts or sentencing dispositions were provided in the case record text.

Other details

Minister Jim Powell used uniformed men with blank cartridges to dramatize his sermon against Communism last year, so most of the 350 worshipers in the church the week before the attack thought the intrusion was play-acting.

A former student described King as an atheist.

King was described as having a taste for crime and as an atheist eccentric with a Ph.D. in Psychology.

In 1966, the coroner ruled the death of King’s father accidental.

King’s wife was Gretchen. King’s daughter was Cynthia in the list of family when King came to Daingerfield in 1966. King’s daughter Jennifer Linam, 7, is identified as one of the victims in the church attack. King’s wife and son testified at a change of venue hearing.