A Menace to People and Pets Gets Justice Texas-Style
(“Pure Evil,” Forensic Files)
Except for the mullet, Jason Eric Massey looks like a wholesome youth straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting.
But as Forensic Files has taught us, outward appearances mean nothing (John Schneeberger and Barbara Stager).
The button-nosed golden-haired youth left a trail of horrifying cruelty in his wake, and he’s one of the few criminals depicted on the show who has already been executed.
Gruesome find. For this week, I looked for some background on Jason — who killed two teenagers and did other awful things — that might explain how he grew into a monster.
So let’s get going on the recap of the episode, along with extra information from internet research.
On July 29, 1993, a work crew found the body of a girl in a brushy area near Telico, Texas.
A few hundred feet away, police found a dead boy.
A library card in his wallet identified the male victim as James Brian King, 14, who went by “Brian.” He died from two bullet wounds.
Unusually vicious. Brian’s body was intact, but the killer had cut off the girl’s head and hands and disfigured her in other depraved ways. She was ID’ed as Brian’s stepsister, Christina Benjamin, 13.
Medical Examiner Sheila Spotswood, who appeared on the episode, said Christina’s injuries were the worst case of mutilation that she’d ever seen.
Investigators found blond hair from two individuals — Christina and an unknown person — at the scene. They also recovered a distinctive tan fiber.
Christina and James had gone missing on July 26, 1993, from their home in Garrett, Texas, where they lived with common-law husband and wife James King and Donna Benjamin.
Frightening fetish. That night, James witnessed his son get in a car with a driver he seemed to know, but he didn’t get a look at his face. Although James didn’t see her, investigators believe Christina was in the car, too.
With few clues, local investigators turned to the FBI for help profiling the killer.
The feds believed that it wasn’t exactly a sex crime — Christina hadn’t been raped — and noted that it was probably committed by someone who started out by abusing animals and derived sexual pleasure from inflicting injuries.
Vehicle full of evidence. Meanwhile, an anonymous caller to the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office suggested looking into Jason Massey, a 20-year-old high school dropout.
Investigators questioned Jason and impounded his 1982 tan Subaru.
Inside, they found a receipt for some ammunition, a hunting knife, bloodstains, and tan carpeting with fibers matching the one from the crime scene.
Detectives emptied out a vacuum cleaner and garbage can at a car wash recently visited by Massey and found more of Christina’s hair and a card from Jason’s probation officer.
Firearm ID’ed. A lab determined the bloodstains in the Subaru were genetically similar to blood from Christina Benjamin’s relatives.
Jason’s cousin owned a .22 caliber pistol, which someone had borrowed without permission from his grandmother’s house. Investigators pegged it as the murder weapon.
Jason was arrested.
So who was this Howdy Doody-faced sadist?
Cruelty started at home. The man who would grow up to admire Ted Bundy and Charles Manson was born in Jan. 7, 1973, to a single mother who was more interested in partying than raising Jason and his younger sister.
Specific details were hard to come by in mainstream media, but British crime blog Shots reported that she used to beat him and leave him alone in the car while she drank at local watering holes.
Jason’s mother also liked to eat in front of him and his sister but deprive them of food, according to the Crime Library.
The family had a history of moving from one dilapidated residence to another. It’s not clear what role Jason’s father, also a substance abuser, had in Jason’s life.
Mother steps in. By the time Jason was in his early teens, his disturbing extracurricular interests became apparent.
A ninth-grade teacher named Edith Robinson recalled that Jason carried around an article about Charles Manson and seemed fascinated by swastikas. He also considered Ted Bundy one of his personal heroes.
Although neglectful, Jason’s mother cared enough to consult a psychological professional when she discovered notebooks he’d written about rape and other violent fantasies.
At 18, he wound up in the Dallas Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit, but he was released soon after, according to Crime Library.
As far as his occupation, multiple sources refer to Jason as a roofer, although it’s not clear whether he worked steadily.
Pulchritude problem. Before the homicides, his record included only one offense, a DWI conviction, but his luck would run out soon.
On, March 17, 1994, Texas indicted Jason on two counts of murder.
In the run-up to the trial, the DA said he was afraid that Jason’s good looks would sway the jury if he testified.
Dangerous on the witness stand? By the time the court date rolled around, Jason had replaced his T-shirts with button downs and ties. And he had snipped away the party in the back from his hair.
He also had a polite manner while in custody, calling a reporter “Ma’am,” for example. Of course, the courteous behavior implied that he could present himself as normal enough to fool younger teens into liking him.
Jason decided not to testify.
Goal-oriented. At the trial, prosecutors contended that, after luring Christina and Brian into his car, Jason shot Brian King at close range, then chased Christina as she ran from the vehicle, shot her in the back, stabbed her, and mutilated her body after death.
But the forensic evidence wasn’t the star at the trial. Jason Massey’s journal and testimony from his friends were.
He had written about his desire to commit hundreds of homicides and become the most famous serial killer in the U.S.
More sick ideas. “I’m going to embark on a sacred journey. Yes, I’m going to start my campaign as a serial killer,” he wrote in his diary in 1981, the AP reported. He allegedly aspired to cannibalism as well.
Massey had said he wanted to decapitate a woman and have sex with her head, according to the Clark Prosecutors website.
Chris Nowlin, who was described as Christina’s boyfriend or friend, told investigators that Jason talked about his desire to kill women, but he didn’t take him seriously. Nowlin, an ex-convict who also knew Brian King, said Jason and Christina met through him and made plans to sneak off on a date together.
Nice try. Jason’s court-appointed lawyers tried to turn Nowlin’s words against him. “It doesn’t say much about the credibility of [Christina’s] boyfriend if he didn’t take those alleged threats seriously,” said Steve Kelly, the AP reported.
Another of Jason’s defense attorneys, Mike Hartley, argued that one or more of Jason’s disreputable associates — some of whom were helping the prosecution — could have committed the murders.
But the evidence against Jason just kept rolling in. A former school friend named Anita Mendoza testified that Jason sent her threatening letters and disturbing violent images and may have killed her dog.
Intervention relatively early. It was credible testimony. The investigations turned up a cooler Jason had used to collect mementos of dozens of animals he had killed.
On October 6, 1994, the jury found Jason Massey guilty of murder.
“It’s almost a miracle we caught him as quickly in his career as we did,” prosecutor Clay Strange told the Houston Chronicle. “I’ve met a lot of people meaner, but no one more evil.”
Indeed, law enforcement got him before his victims numbered anywhere near as many as those of Jeffrey Dahmer, another benign-looking but utterly deranged murderer.
At Jason’s sentencing hearing, the prosecution read numerous horrifying thoughts taken from Jason’s journals.
Disgruntled prisoner. The jury gave him a death sentence after deliberating for 15 minutes (“15 minute deliberation included a 14 minute bathroom break,” quipped YouTube commenter mrabrasive).
Over the years, Jason Massey’s appeals included such alleged factors as ineffective counsel, inadequate DNA testing, lack of investigations into other suspects, and a judge who looked bored. The Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty helped him file the legal actions.
Jason solicited pen pals while in prison and lamented that he never got a chance to marry or have kids and that his six brothers and sisters didn’t visit him.
Last hope gone. In 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Jason Massey’s final appeal.
He had his date with a gurney and syringe on April 3, 2001, in Huntsville, Texas.
For his last meal, Jason enjoyed “three fried chicken quarters, fried squash, fried egg plant, mashed potatoes, snap peas, boiled cabbage, three corn on the cob, spinach, broccoli with cheese, one pint of caramel pecan fudge or tin roof ice cream, and a pitcher of sweet tea,” according to Clarkprosecutor.org.
Contrition. In his final words, Massey apologized to Christina Benjamin and James King’s family and revealed that he had thrown Christina’s head and hands into the Trinity River. (They were never found.) He also proclaimed his newfound love for God, stating, “Tonight I dance on the streets of gold. Let those without sin cast the first stone.”
Christina Benjamin’s grandparents watched the execution. Jason looked at them and mouthed the words “I’m sorry” as the lethal injection began to take effect.
Jason Massey died without achieving his dream of becoming a world-renowned serial killer, but he snagged a Forensic Files episode that was broadcast just seven months after his death.
And he probably inspired a lot of Texans to pay more attention to who their kids were hanging around with.
That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR
Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube
