David Elliott Penton (born February 9, 1958) was an American child molester and serial killer. Penton, an Ohio native and mechanic, was convicted of manslaughter in the child abuse death of his own infant son in 1984; during an appeal of his sentence, he fled and remained a fugitive until 1987, when he was charged and convicted with the murder of a friend's 9-year-old niece in Ohio. Penton was extradited to Texas in 2003 and charged with the deaths of three young Dallas-area girls in the mid-1980s. Penton signed a plea agreement admitting to the murders. Officials in Texas and several other states are investigating the possibility Penton may be involved with other unsolved cases and suspect that he could be the most prolific child killer in American history.
Early life and military service
David Penton was born an only child on February 9, 1958, in Columbus, Ohio and was raised by his mother after his father abandoned both David and his mother when he was a child. After graduating high school he joined the U.S. Army in 1977 working as a track vehicle mechanic until 1984. Penton was an expert marksman and soldier with an excellent record, who his commanding officer called “highly motivated.” In 1980, Penton was charged with storing alcohol in his foot locker and several months later he was charged with lying about his marital status to obtain military benefits which resulted in him being demoted from a sergeant to a specialist.
When he was stationed in Korea during his service, Penton frequently solicited many prostitutes, some of whom were underage, and abused illegal narcotics, such as LSD and cocaine. “I'm not going to lie. I was with a lot of prostitutes and some of them could have been underage,” he said. “But I didn't fancy little kids like the cops say. It wasn't so much that I fancied the age as it was about the cleanliness. I mean there were a lot of diseases out there.”