Virginia Russell Exits Prison and Meets a Sociopath
(“Trouble Brewing,” Forensic Files)
If Roy Gene Beck Jr. had any redeeming qualities, they didn’t come across on Forensic Files or any other sources of intelligence about him. The young man from Columbia, South Carolina, financed his crack cocaine habit by robbing women. He raped at least one and killed another.
Once the law caught up with Roy, he tried to blame his crimes on a friend — a nice guy who had helped him.
Speedy read. Fortunately, the criminal justice system sorted out the truth and convicted Roy.
For this week, I looked into where Roy Beck is today. This will be a quick update (which for my blog means 1,200 words) because the case didn’t get a huge amount of press coverage, although a tantalizing tidbit about Roy bubbled up.
So let’s get going on the recap of “Trouble Brewing,” along with extra information drawn from internet research. Because Virginia Russell is the murder victim in this episode, let’s start with her story:
Boyfriend killed. Virginia Russell had long struggled with a drinking problem, which played a role in a horrible accident.
While the South Carolina resident was driving her boyfriend home after a party, her car veered out of its lane, did somersaults, and ejected both of them.
He died.
Virginia, whose blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit, got a six-year sentence for vehicular homicide.
Final page. In an effort to get back on her feet financially after she served her time, Virginia began working for an escort service, although she told her family it was a house-cleaning company that paged her when jobs came in.
On Nov. 12, 1996, her beeper went off at 8:54 p.m. and she left for what she called a cleaning job.
While Forensic Files portrays Virginia as at home with family when she got the page, the New Detectives reported that she was at a hospital visiting a cousin’s sick baby.
Scattered evidence. Whatever the scenario, the next day, a man walking his dog found the body of a woman lying face down near Owens Field Park in Rosewood, South Carolina. Her hair was soaked with blood, her stockings had runs in them, and she was missing a shoe.
At the scene, investigators found two Michelob Light bottles, shell casings, a small purse with $2 in coins, and a handbag with no money inside.
Fingerprints identified the victim as Virginia Russell, age 30.
Ruse bought. Inside her car, which was abandoned in a parking lot in Olympia, police discovered Virginia’s blood, a bullet casing, the missing shoe, and a Michelob Light carton with one full bottle inside.
They theorized Virginia and the killer drank beer in the car before he shot her, dragged her to the soccer field, fired two more bullets into her, and stole the bills from her bag.
The victim’s aunt, who still believed the nighttime cleaning job story, mentioned to investigators that Virginia always had a lot of cash. They believed the murderer robbed her of hundreds of dollars.
Charitable pal. Police traced the pager call to an apartment occupied by a young man called Justin Bullard on Forensic Files (he’s referred to as Richard Bullard in court papers — it’s not clear what his real name is, so we’ll keep it at Justin for now).
Justin owned an aquarium-cleaning business and lived with a roommate, Trevett Foster. Lately, Justin had allowed his hard-up friend Roy Beck Jr. to stay there, too.
Although Justin insisted he himself had no involvement in the murder, the forensics and circumstantial evidence suggested otherwise.
Yeah, right. First of all, Justin had no way of proving his alibi that he was home alone when the homicide occurred. He owned a Makarov semiautomatic 380-caliber, which ballistic tests showed was used to execute Virginia. At his apartment, police found a phone book with pages advertising escort services ripped out. And Justin’s black military-style boots had high-impact splatter of Virginia’s blood.
Police officers must have rolled their eyes out of their sockets upon hearing Justin’s explanation — that someone else must have used his stuff in the murder and then returned it to his apartment to frame him.
But tests on a hair found at the murder scene showed it more likely came from Roy than Justin.
Prior felony. And it turned out that a crime against another professional escort had taken place at Roy Beck’s former residence on Whitney Street in Olympia.
Inside, the call girl found the place was lit by candles, but it wasn’t because Roy was a romantic: His electricity had been turned off due to lack of payment.
Roy, who had used the name David Davis when requesting the date, held a knife to the woman’s throat, raped her, and robbed her of about $300, according to court papers. He told her to run away and not look back.
That guy. The escort, age 20, identified Roy Beck from a photo lineup. Cops found Michelob bottles in Roy’s place and confirmed they came from the same factory and batch as the ones from Virginia’s murder scene.
haircut was more
appropriate for
court but it couldn’t save his case
And Richland County South Carolina’s law officers already knew Roy Beck Jr. He had started committing burglaries to finance his crack cocaine addiction in his teens.
Under police questioning, Roy insisted that Justin Bullard — the kind-hearted friend whom Roy was freeloading off of — committed the murder.
Premeditated. But prosecutors had little trouble proving Roy did it.
An associate named Larry Barlow testified that Roy told him about a plan to rob and rape prostitutes and invited him to participate, but he declined.
Investigators believed that Roy and Virginia already knew each other before the night he robbed her, so she would have been able to ID him. After they enjoyed Michelob Lites together, he shot her, took her money, then abandoned the car and quietly returned the boots and gun to Justin’s apartment to transfer the blame to him.
Disobedient con. Prosecutors won a conviction against Roy, and in November 1997, Circuit Court Judge Thomas Cooper handed him a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
Roy lost an appeal three years later.
Today, he’s still in prison and making his share of trouble on the inside.
Don’t Be My Guest. According to South Carolina’s Department of Corrections, Roy has committed 21 infractions involving possession of a cell phone or narcotics, plus one violation for possession of a negotiable instrument, which apparently means he got hold of a forbidden form of payment.
For those misdeeds, he’s received losses of visitation privileges for as many as 720 days (nonetheless he’s kept himself trim and presentable with just 124 pounds on his 5-foot-6-inch frame), plus revocations of canteen, TV, and telephone privileges.
Over the years, the state has moved Roy around to a number of prisons. Since 2017, he has resided in Perry Correctional Institution in Pelzer.
Obscure fact. The DOC website lists Roy, who was born on Jan. 19, 1972, as ineligible for furlough, parole, or release.
There his story pretty much ends, but as mentioned, an interesting piece of trivia did pop up via a message board on the Columbia Closings website.
A commenter said that Roy is the son of Roy Beck Sr., who owned a gentlemen’s club called ChippenDolls that riled up some Columbia residents in 1990 by switching from topless entertainers to completely naked ones.
In December 2021, an email from a reader who worked at the (now-defunct) club as a cocktail waitress confirmed that the two Roys were indeed father and son — and Jr. was one scary dude.
That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR
Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube
Thanks, Rebecca. What a slimeball – then trying to throw a friend under the bus. LWOP is entirely fitting for premed murder AND the attempt to frame. If only this were the default sentence for all first-degree murderers (‘teens aside)…
HAPPY NEW YEAR! May this be better than the last…
—
PS Apart from the obvious sorrow accompanying anyone’s murder, and notwithstanding the victim’s unintentional but reckless taking of a life (DUI), I feel sorry for her that having served her time she may have been unable to get a ‘respectable’ job so turned to terribly risky prostitution. I’m conflicted about prostitution: do women really need to resort to it – or is it an ‘easy’ – if very risky – (sometimes) decent buck? Regardless, that can never remotely justify violence towards prostitutes (let alone murder), of course – but it does explain in the sense that low-life ‘work’ begets low-life customers. No prostitute can be unaware that Becks lurk in the shadows.
Was Virginia simply reckless (DUI; prostitution)? Regardless, this was dreadful.
The woman Roy Beck raped but didn’t kill was dropped off at the driveway of his house by either a pimp or some other thug she paid off for protection. Maybe if he actually saw Roy face to face, Roy would have nixed the robbery and rape plan. Likewise if Virginia had a someone paid to protect her.
Thank u always for the updates.
You bet — glad you’re enjoying the blog!
This was the scariest FF I’ve seen. Truly devious behavior can be inconceivable till it happens. They say you can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep, but one doesn’t always know what their ‘friends’ are capable of. It can come as a shock. Be careful who you help.
So true. As they say, if you take a dog in from the cold, feed it, and give it a place to sleep, it’ll never betray you. People, not so much.
5’6, 124lbs? Who the hell did this guy rape, Rhea Perlman?
I’m thinking he was wiry.
Big fan of FF.
I was his upstairs neighbor on Whitney St, worked for the local magistrate, and had been telling Investigator Strange about the guy living below me acting stranger than usual. They parked unmarked cars in my/our yard a few nights. I think that’s why Roy started staying elsewhere the last couple weeks before his arrest. Investigator Strange brought in a warrant worksheet he needed typed up for Murder. When I saw the defendant’s name, I said this is my downstairs neighbor I told you about – Beck Jr/Beck Sr from Chippendolls son. Beck Jr had a little girl with a then acquaintance of mine, their daughter was about 5 at the time. Those 2 were no contact. I was the criminal law clerk and thus typed up said arrest warrant and my initials are on it. My best friend was a bouncer at Chippendolls and Beck Jr stayed with him briefly before pulling a gun on several of the guys at the house one night after work ‘jokingly’. They kicked him out and that’s when he moved into the apt below me. After arrest, deputies discovered Roy Jr had tapped into the phone line of the other downstairs apt, as he didn’t have electric either. He was using her apt’s phone for calls generally. Roy Jr shot Virginia execution style in the field, and yes, a beer bottle and shell tied it all together. A couple years after conviction I was sitting at my friends house on lunch break one day and the phone rings. Landlines days. Friend answers the phone, “What up, killa” and then hung up. I’ve checked SCDC through these past near 30 yrs as that’s considered life in SC, but Beck Jr had prior felonies and hit 3 strikes with his other crimes as well during that time. Before the rape of the first call girl, I came home from the office in Olympia a lil after 5pm, and Roy Jr was sitting on my porch upstairs in the corner – my apt was the only upstairs in the tri-plex. He was depressed and wanted to talk. He knew I was always armed, bc I’d stated that months before when he was living with my childhood friends, and had multiple sources in my apt. He’d never crossed me, and had made unrequited advances several times. I had the respect of that friend group, and was not involved in the girlie club stuff, though I had several friends who were dancers, and was the girl-friend in this group I’d known my entire life til then. They were like brothers to me. I also at that time worked for the Olympia magistrate and with law enforcement, Richland County. That night on the porch he mentioned his mom briefly. We’d never heard about her. But that conversation and then talking him downstairs (I said my Dad would be there shortly), is what triggered me to alert Investigator Croxton to have someone sit in my yard as a police presence. Two weeks later, Roy Beck Jr was arrested.
Thanks so much for writing in with your firsthand experience — I’m so glad you came away unscathed from your acquaintance with him, such a scary guy!
My (then) fiancé was an investigator on this case. I knew Roy Sr. well, and went to school with Jr’s brother Michael (he died from cancer when we were in high-school. I think he was 15) I knew Jr. but just as an acquaintance, but even that was too close for comfort. I knew a lot about this case back then. If I remember correctly, I might be wrong, the police thought he may be involved in some prostitute murders between Columbia and Charleston.
How sad about the brother dying so young! Too bad Roy was spared and went on to cause tragedy and trauma.