Edward Lewis Lagrone (March 3, 1957 – February 11, 2004) was an American serial killer and rapist. He was convicted of fatally shooting three members of the Lloyd family in Fort Worth, Texas in May 1991, including a 10-year-old girl he had impregnated, approximately seven years after being released from prison for a previous murder. Lagrone was subsequently convicted, sentenced to death and executed for the latter crimes in 2004.
Early life and crimes
Edward Lewis Lagrone was born on March 3, 1957, in Fort Worth, Texas, one of several children born in a large family. He grew up in a housing project in the southeastern part of the city and studied up until the 10th grade, when he dropped out of school. On October 3, 1976, he got into an argument with an acquaintance, Michael Anthony Jones, outside the Lucky Lady Lounge, whereupon the two got into a fight. Eventually, Lagrone pulled out a .38 caliber revolver and shot Jones in the head before proceeding to fire the remaining shots into his body. He was arrested and charged with the murder shortly afterwards, but claimed that he was innocent.
Nevertheless, he waived his right to a jury trial and was subsequently convicted for the murder, for which he was given a 20-year prison sentence. Lagrone served only seven years and was released in 1984, but struggled with finding a job due to his criminal record. He eventually managed to find a job as a factory worker, and the year following his release, he became acquainted with a woman named Pamela Lloyd. They soon started a romantic relationship, with Lagrone frequently staying over at her apartment, where Lloyd lived with her children and several relatives. His new relationship did not cause Lagrone to cease his criminal behavior, however, as he would begin sexually assaulting teenage girls whenever the opportunity arose. Fearing that their attacker would kill them if they told anyone, the victims did not contact the authorities about the assaults. His only notable arrests in the following years were two arrests for possession of crack cocaine, in October 1990 and February 1991, respectively.
Triple murder
Beginning sometime in 1990, Lagrone started sexually assaulting one of Lloyd's daughters, 9-year-old Shakeisha. Like previous victims, he threatened to kill her if she told anyone, due to which she initially remained silent. However, the abuse was eventually discovered after she began complaining, "Something keeps moving inside me," and was brought for examination at the John Peter Smith Hospital, where doctors made the shocking discovery that she was 17 weeks pregnant. Upon learning this, Shakeisha revealed that Lagrone had repeatedly been raping her for the past year, whereupon all family members cut off contact with him and filed a complaint for sexual assault. To avoid prosecution, Lagrone attempted to bribe Pamela to drop the charges in exchange for $1,500, but she categorically refused. Despite this, police were unable to detain him at the time due to working on a backlog of unrelated crimes.
Angered by their lack of compliance, Lagrone began to threaten the family, saying that he would kill them if they did not drop the charges. When this failed to dissuade them, Lagrone sent his new girlfriend to the Winchester Gallery and Museum, a gun store on the east side of Fort Worth. There she purchased two Winchester Model 1300 12 gauge pump action shotguns with her ID card, as he could not legally acquire firearms on his own as a convicted felon. The two shotguns were sold back to Winchester Gallery by Largone's son a week after the murders. The next day, he traveled to Lloyds' apartment and knocked on the door. It was opened by a 48-year-old uncle, Dempsey, who was shot in both arms but survived. Lagrone then entered the house, and upon locating 10-year-old Shakeisha, he shot her in the head, mortally wounding her. He then proceeded to the adjacent rooms, where he shot to death her two great-aunts, 90-year-old Zenobia Anderson and 83-year-old Carola Lloyd, who was blind and deaf. In the meantime, Dempsey, Pamela, and the remaining children managed to escape the apartment and called the police. By their arrival, Lagrone had managed to flee but was soon arrested at his girlfriend's apartment in Arlington. He was then incarcerated at the Arlington County Jail on a combined bail of $3.45 million – one from his previous sexual assault charge and the other from the murder charges.
