Andrew Pixley

Case details

Andrew Pixley (January 29, 1943 - December 10, 1965) was a convicted murderer from Dallas, Oregon.

Timeline

• August 5/6, 1964 — Andrew Pixley broke into a room of the Wort Motor Hotel in Jackson, Wyoming, occupied by the family of Illinois Circuit Court Judge Robert McAuliffe, holidaying elsewhere in the hotel.
• December 10, 1965 — Pixley was executed in the Wyoming gas chamber.

The offence

On the night of August 5/6, 1964, Andrew Pixley broke into a room of the Wort Motor Hotel in Jackson, Wyoming, occupied by the family of Illinois Circuit Court Judge Robert McAuliffe, who were holidaying. McAuliffe and his wife were elsewhere in the hotel taking in a show. When they returned to their room, they found Pixley lying on the floor.

The McAuliffe family’s older daughters, Debbie, 12, and Cindy, 8, lay dead in their beds. The girls had been sexually assaulted; Debbie had been bludgeoned with a rock, and Cindy had been beaten and strangled. The youngest child, six-year-old Susan, was unharmed. Initially, she had been described as asleep during the crime, but she may have actually witnessed the assault on her sisters.

Pixley had apparently climbed a stack of wood and scaled the rear wall of the hotel, removing a screen to get in at the window.

Investigation

When McAuliffe returned to the room, Pixley appeared to be drunk, though he may have been feigning. McAuliffe grabbed Pixley and pinned him to the floor.

Police officer James Jensen heard Mrs. McAuliffe screaming and rushed to the scene. McAuliffe shouted: "My God, this man has killed my babies."

As Pixley was taken by police from the hotel, a crowd outside called for him to be lynched.

Hotel employee Richard Souther testified that Pixley cited his Native American heritage in explaining why he "couldn't" have done such a thing.

Initially, Pixley only told police: "I didn't do it."

Later, Pixley asked to make a statement and was examined using sodium pentothal interviews. He said he remembered drinking earlier in the evening, but could not remember entering the hotel or killing the girls.

Court-appointed attorney Robert Hufsmith added that Pixley remembered being in the company of another person earlier that evening, but that his mind was "blank since he left that person."

Pixley was examined by Dr. William Karn, Jr. of the Wyoming State Hospital, who pronounced him sane, but an "incurable sociopath" at trial, adding: "it meant a lot more to Pixley to kill the girls while they were awake."

At this, Judge McAuliffe got up from his seat and attempted to assault Pixley before being restrained.

Arrest and custody

Pixley was taken to a jail in another town and then to the Wyoming State Penitentiary for better security.

Trial

Pixley was tried and sentenced to death.

When the execution date was announced, Pixley was reported as laughing.

Sentencing

Pixley was sentenced to death.

Although an appeal was filed to change his sentence to life imprisonment, he said he did not want an appeal.

Outcome

Pixley was executed in the Wyoming gas chamber on December 10, 1965 by asphyxiation-gas. He took the longest time to die than any other executed person in the Wyoming gas chamber.

Other details

Pixley was born Andrew Armandoz Benavidez in Las Cruces, NM.

He joined the U.S. Army after being charged with passing bad checks. His father, Columbus Pixley, said Pixley had dropped out of high school and had never held a job. He served two years, mostly overseas.

He was described as "slightly built" and "nervous" and as a transient and dishwasher.

A previous warrant out for his arrest existed in his home town on a charge of larceny.

He had been accused and cleared of being in possession of a stolen car in Davenport, Washington, two weeks before the murders.

He had been living in a trailer with two employees of the hotel where the murders took place: David Starling and Orval Edwards. Starling was described as having had prior knowledge of Pixley’s violent tendencies.

The McAuliffe sisters were buried together in a single casket.

Their parents later filed suit against the hotel in order to pay for the surviving child's psychiatric treatment.

According to genealogical research, Robert and Betty McAuliffe divorced sometime after the murders. Robert McAuliffe remarried and had a son; Robert McAuliffe died April 1, 1998 of a heart attack. Betty McAuliffe died November 28, 2010.

Susan McAuliffe married and had five children.