Daniel Lee Siebert

Other details

Daniel Lee Siebert (53) was an American serial killer on Alabama's death row. Daniel Lee Siebert died at Holman Prison near Atmore, Alabama on April 22, 2008, apparently from complications from cancer. During questioning he indicated that he was responsible for at least 12 deaths.

Timeline

• 1972 — Siebert joined the Marines under the name of Daniel Marlow.
• 1979 — Siebert was convicted of manslaughter in Las Vegas.
• 1985 — Siebert was paroled.
• February 19, 1986 — Sherri Weathers, her son Chad, and her son Joseph were strangled in Talladega, Alabama.
• February 20, 1986 — “Spence” was missing from class since this date.
• February 24, 1986 — Sherri Weathers had missed a week of classes; her guidance counselor called the manager of her apartment building; the manager used a pass key and found Sherri dead in her room with her two small sons.
• March 3, 1986 — Highway patrol officers found Linda Odum’s car abandoned near Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
• March 21, 1987 — Siebert was convicted of Linda Jarman’s murder in Talladega and received a sentence of death.
• October 25, 2007 — Siebert’s execution date was set.
• December 2007 — Siebert was investigated in relation to a recent pornography case.
• April 22, 2008 — Siebert was pronounced dead at 1:35 p.m. at Holman Correctional Facility near Atmore.

Background

Siebert was born in Mattoon, Illinois. He joined the Marines in 1972 under the name of Daniel Marlow and early on left with a dishonorable discharge. Between 1973 and 1975 he sired two children, a girl and a boy. His criminal history included a conviction of manslaughter in Las Vegas in 1979, and he was paroled in 1985.

The offence

Siebert was awaiting execution for 21 years for strangling four people. The case involved the deaths of:

• Sherri Weathers
• Chad Weathers, 5
• Joseph Weathers, 4
• Linda Odom, 32
• Linda Jarman, 33
• Gidget Castro, 28
• Nesia McElrath, 23
• Beatrice McDougall, 57

Siebert confessed to five murders in Alabama and said there were at least a dozen murders in total, stating, “Maybe a dozen,” and “Maybe more. I try to put those things out of my mind.” He killed for purposes of sex and robbery, being careful to murder his victims after a San Francisco hooker survived a throttling and filed charges against him.

Investigation

Sherri Weathers was a hearing-impaired student at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind in Talladega. She missed a week of classes without explanation, and her guidance counselor contacted the manager of her apartment building for help on February 24, 1986. The manager used her pass key and found Sherri dead in her room, along with her two small sons—Chad, 5, and Joseph, 4. The bodies were piled together on Sherri’s bed and loosely covered with a blanket.

When police arrived, the manager directed them to another apartment occupied by 33-year-old Linda Jarman, another student lately missing from the Institute. Inside, patrolmen found her nude and lifeless on the bed. A television set and Linda Jarman’s car were apparently stolen by her assailant. Police also found Linda Jarman’s naked body on her bed.

Investigation revealed that an Institute art teacher, one “Daniel Spence,” had expressed a romantic interest in Sherri Weathers. Missing from class since February 20, “Spence” had turned up at the school several months earlier offering to teach for free in hopes of gaining a permanent job later on. Fingerprints from the Talladega murder scenes identified “Spence” as Daniel Siebert, convicted of a Las Vegas manslaughter in 1979, and presently sought in San Francisco on charges of first-degree assault.

Detectives learned that Siebert had been dating Linda Odum, a 32-year-old cocktail waitress reported missing on February 24, 1986. Her naked, decomposed remains were found outside of Talladega on March 30. Highway patrol officers found Linda Odum’s car abandoned near Elizabethtown, Kentucky, on March 3, 1986, and Siebert’s fingerprints were lifted from the vehicle. Siebert was also linked to the strangulation of a prostitute in Calhoun County, found around the time he disappeared from Talladega. Independent evidence linked Siebert with that Calhoun County strangulation.

Over the next six months, sightings of the fugitive were reported from Ohio, New Jersey, Nevada, Southern California, and Montreal, Canada.

The first solid lead was delivered on September 3, when a Las Vegas friend of Siebert reported a telephone call from the fugitive. Police were ready when the next call came, and it was traced to a pay phone in Nashville, Tennessee. Employees at a nearby restaurant identified Siebert’s mug shots.

Arrest

Siebert was arrested the next morning when he arrived to complete some work on the restaurant’s sign, after a call was traced to a pay phone in Nashville, Tennessee. In custody, Siebert readily confessed to five murders in Alabama and various others spanning the continent.

Trial

On March 21, 1987, Siebert was convicted of Linda Jarman’s murder in Talladega, receiving a sentence of death. Prosecution in other cases was held in abeyance pending the outcome of his automatic appeal on the capital verdict.

Sentencing

Siebert received a sentence of death in Alabama on March 21, 1987. He was also sentenced to death in two separate cases involving four murders.

Siebert was sentenced to death for the February 19, 1986, strangulation deaths of Sherri Weathers and her two sons, Chad, 5, and Joseph, 4. He was convicted of capital murder in the death of Linda Jarman, who was described as a neighbor of Weathers, and who was killed the same night.

Appeals

Siebert filed papers asking federal and state courts to block his execution in part because of the possible drug reaction. Documents showed he had pancreatic cancer for months. He challenged lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment. He also challenged the lethal injection method even without the alleged pain from the drug mix.

Assistant Attorney General Clay Crenshaw said Siebert had exhausted all of his appeals for the killing of Weathers and her children.

Outcome

Siebert was condemned in Alabama in 1987 and awaited execution.

His execution was delayed hours before it was to occur. In December 2007, Siebert was investigated in relation to a recent pornography case. While no action was taken against him or charges filed, a personal correspondent of Daniel’s was charged for multiple sex crimes due to the investigation’s findings.

Aftermath

Siebert’s death occurred less than a week after the U.S. Supreme Court approved the most widely used method of lethal injection, prompting states to move forward with executions after a nearly seven-month halt. Siebert died at Holman Prison near Atmore, Alabama on April 22, 2008.

Prison system spokesman Brian Corbett said Siebert was pronounced dead at 1:35 p.m. at Holman Correctional Facility near Atmore, where he had been awaiting execution for more than 21 years.

Quotes

• Siebert said, “Maybe a dozen.”
• Siebert said, “Maybe more. I try to put those things out of my mind.”
• Assistant Attorney General Clay Crenshaw said, “This guy has a lot of murders all across the country that he has not been prosecuted for but that he has confessed to.”
• Governor Bob Riley said, “I would in essence be commuting his sentence to life in prison, and that is not the sentence he was given by the jury. His crimes were monstrous, brutal and ghastly.”
• Esther Brown, executive director of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty, said, “I find it unbelievable that Alabama justice demands we strap a dying man to the gurney.”