In August of 1969, the city of Memphis, Tennessee was living in fear due to a spree killer on the loose. For twenty-nine days a killer terrorized the citizen of Memphis. Listen to the story of George Howard Putt and learn how one man kept a city on edge never knowing where or when he would strike again.
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Our story mainly takes place in Memphis, Tennessee which is located along the Mississippi River. Today, Memphis is the second-largest city, outside of Nashville, in Tennessee. Originally it was home to the Chickasaw Native American Tribe. In the 16th century, French and Spanish explorers discovered the area. By 1819, Memphis was founded by Andrew Jackson, James Winchester, and John Overton. They named the burgeoning city after a city from ancient Egypt which had been located along the Nile River.
Famous citizens from Memphis include the actor Morgan Freeman, the iconic singer Aretha Franklin, singer/actor Justin Timberlake, actresses Kathy Bates, Lucy Hale, Shannon Doherty, and the daughter of one of Memphis’s most famous residents, Lisa Marie Presley.
Southern Son
Before we get to Memphis we are going to start in New Orleans, Louisiana. Specifically in 1946 when George Howard “Buster” Putt was born to petty criminals. George was one of seven children. None of the children attended school due to his parents being drifters and always being on the move. In 1947, George and his siblings were abandoned by their parents in Tupelo, Mississippi at the home of a family friend where they would remain for up to a year. By the time George turned eight, he had been placed with his grandparents in North Carolina. His parents had both been jailed on forgery charges.
Even with the stability of living with his grandparents, George couldn’t seem to stay out of trouble. When he was 11-years-old, George and his older brother, Clifford, were arrested after shooting out a neighbor’s windows after first stealing an air rifle. Fed up with the kid’s antics their grandparents sent them all off to a rural school for orphans. It was run by a fundamentalist religious organization In Richmond, Virginia. Once their George was subject to harsh discipline for even the slightest infraction. On two occasions, George and his brother Clifford ran away. It was after their second attempt that they were expelled and returned to their grandparent’s home.
Seriously Disturbed
However, George Howard Putt didn’t stay long before he was sent off to the Richmond Home for Boys. While there, George played on the football team. During a game, he was knocked unconscious and was out for several minutes. Over the next several months, George had several episodes of sleepwalking, blackouts, and violent seizure episodes. During some of his blackout episodes, George would often destroy school property. Afterward, he would claim he had no memory of doing so. One of his school counselors would note that George was “seriously disturbed.”
George’s violent incidents seemed to worsen the summer after his football injury. George Howard Putt was arrested that summer after attacking two young girls. He forced one of them to take off her clothes and perform a sex act on him. While in juvenile detention George was given a battery of psychological tests. They would end up showing him to have a morbid preoccupation with blood and gore. It was due to these psychological exams that George was scheduled to be transferred to a mental health institution.
On the Run
Not wanting to go to a mental institution George escaped from juvenile detention in only his underwear. He met up with his brother Clifford and they both were on the run for several days before they were recaptured. Upon his recapture, he was sent to the mental hospital. There he was diagnosed with a sociopathic personality created by what one psychiatrist deemed an “almost unbelievable physical and emotional deprivation.”
George once again escaped custody on December 21, 1961, when he was 15-years-old. It was during this escape that he abducted a 30-year-old Virginia woman at knifepoint. In the end, he robbed her of $35 and sexually assaulted her. A warrant was put out for his arrest. By then he had left Virginia and his plan was to go to Mexico and hook up with his father.
Lone Star Kidnapping
On January 13, 1962, George Howard Putt again kidnapped a woman from Laredo, Texas at gunpoint. He then forced her to drive him out of town. The woman ended up deliberately crashing her car resulting in George taking off on foot. Still eluding the police, George broke into the apartment of another woman two days later. He threatened to kill her children if she didn’t cooperate. After stealing the woman’s car he was spotted by the police. He ended up crashing the stolen car and taking off on foot once again. The next day, George was taken into custody after he was seen leaving a local movie theater.
George would spend the next thirteen months in the Webb County Jail and the Terrace School in Loredo, Texas. George was at Terrace School for only eight months when he escaped. He was soon recaptured and sent to more secure placement of The Hilltop School where he stayed until he was 18-years-old.
Free Again
In June 1964, while still at The Hilltop School George planned on kidnapping the school’s librarian and using her car to escape. George’s plan was discovered and he was transferred once again to another center. From there he was transferred to a maximum-security juvenile lock-up at Gatesville. In 1965, a progress report deemed George to be psychotic and as one psychiatrist noted:
A Psychopath capable of committing almost any crime
That didn’t seem to delay his release from Gatesville on his 21st birthday in 1967.
Upon his release, George Howard Putt returned to Tupelo, Mississippi where his grandparents now resided. George got work as a hospital orderly, but only lasted a few days before he was fired for stealing $100.00 from a nurse’s purse. He was not charged with theft as he repaid all the money. George decided to leave Tupelo and moved to New Orleans. He was charged with theft soon after arriving when he stole a checkbook from a room at The Roosevelt Hotel.
In May 1967, George was picked up again after taking $46 from a register at a local cafe.
Married Life
In the fall of 1967, George Howard Putt married Mary Bulimore from Mississippi. She happened to be one of his brother’s pregnant ex-girlfriends that he had only known for a few weeks. According to news reports, George insisted on six to eight bouts of intercourse each night, although he rarely climaxed. While in public, it is said that George would often erupt into fits of jealousy resulting in violence whenever a man would talk to his wife and this included her coworkers.
George’s violence didn’t seem to wane as he got older. On October 16, 1968, when George was 22-years-old he was arrested again after forcing his way into a woman’s car and beating her with his fists. Soon after, George moved to Jackson, Mississippi with his brother Clifford and his wife. While in Jackson, George is said to have tried to rape his mother-in-law on at least three occasions in early 1969. On April 27, 1969, a socially prominent bachelor was murdered in Jackson. He was stabbed fifteen times in his home. This murder occurred after the third attack on his mother-in-law. George was a suspect in the murder as the man lived a short distance from the gas station where George worked at the time.
In May of 1969, George Howard Putt would be sentenced to six months on a Mississippi Penal Farm for burglary. He would only be there for about a month when he just walked away from the farm. He took off with his wife and newborn son, George Jr., to Memphis, Tennessee. The couple took odd jobs including selling their blood to get by.
Blame It on Memphis
It was in Memphis that George would go on one final killing spree after being fired from his latest job.
On August 14, 1969, Roy and Bernalyn Dumas were found by their son Michael bludgeoned to death in their apartment at 1133 South Cooper Street. Michael had stopped by to find out why his parents had failed to show for a birthday party he was hosting for his wife. The next part is graphic so be forewarned. Bernalyn was found spread-eagle on her bed. She was gagged with her wrists and her ankles were bound to the bedposts. She had been sodomized and her genitalia was mutilated with a pair of scissors. The mutilation occurred after her death. To add insult to injury a lamp was placed strategically so it shined down like a spotlight on Bernalyn. Saliva samples taken at the crime scene would show another blood type than those of the victims. In addition, a partial fingerprint was found on some of the silverware.
Roy Dumas was a disabled WWII veteran and Bernalyn worked as a nurse at Baptist Hospital at the time of their murders. Through their investigation, the Police would discover that somehow George had gained entry into the Dumas’s residence after which he had tied them up and gagged them. Initially, it was difficult for police to determine a cause of death due to the amount of blood. As the police commissioner would later tell reporters “it was the most atrocious and revolting crime he had seen in years.”
George and his wife watched the tv coverage of the Dumas murders that night.
A Really Bad Nut Is Loose!
Eleven days later on August 25th, 80-year-old Leila Jackson was found strangled in her home on North Summerville by her grandson. Leila had been strangled with a pair of nylon stockings that were found tied around her neck. Like Bernalyn, Leila’s genitals had been mutilated after her death with a butcher knife. Once again, a lamp was placed to illuminate her body.
Police knew they had the same killer on their hands. That evening George showed the afternoon newspaper to his wife asking her if she remembered the old lady that he had tried to rent a room from. Leila Jackson had rented rooms out in her home. George told his wife “somebody killed her just like the Dumas couple and there must be some kind of really bad nut loose in this town.”
On August 29th (five days later), Glenda Sue Harden, age twenty-one, was abducted after leaving her job at the Jackson Life Insurance Company. She was found a day later murdered in Riverside Park. She had been stabbed fourteen times in her back, chest, neck, and head. Her hands were bound behind her back with her own pantyhose. Officials at the time would not comment if her body had been mutilated in any way.
This fourth killing would touch off a panic in the city as news of a killer on the loose spread. Memphis residents started to fortify their homes and the streets were deserted at night.
Needle in a Haystack
A task force of over a hundred and thirty officers continued to work down their list of suspects. This was the largest manhunt in the city’s history. A $20,000 reward (in 2021 a little less than $150,000) was offered for any information as to the killer’s identity.
While the police were trying to track down leads on September 11, 1969, fifty-nine-year-old Mary Pickens was returning home from work. George Howard Putt attacked her when she entered her apartment at 41 North Bellevue. Hee had tried and failed to get another resident, Grace Oldman, to open her door when Mary came home. George proceeded to stab her nineteen times. Mary would die from her injuries.
Mary’s screams alerted the apartment janitor, Henry Currie. He ran into George as he was fleeting Mary’s apartment with Mary’s purse. Henry and Mary’s neighbor, Wayne Armstrong, gave chase. Another neighbor called the police giving them details of the young man they had seen running from her apartment. Wayne had a gun on him and fired off six rounds at George, but none of them were on target as he had left his glasses behind in his apartment.
The Chase
The chase was soon joined by two officers, Glenn Noblin and Phil Scruggs. They caught up to George Howard Putt on Pasadena Avenue. When he was taken into custody he had Mary’s blood all over her clothing. Before the day was over George Howard Putt would confess to all five homicides. He claimed that the motive for the killings was robbery and he didn’t want to leave any witnesses alive. He feared they would send him back to prison. George would show little if any remorse for the murders at the time and this sentiment still rang true 20-years-later when he was interviewed on the anniversary of the killings.
His wife Mary found out what her husband had done when she saw it on the evening news.
Convicted for Life
On October 27, 1970, George was convicted of Mary Picken’s murder. He had recanted his confession but ended up being sentenced to death. His sentence was changed to ninety-nine years after the US Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in 1972. In April 1973, George was convicted of the Dumas murders which added 398 years to his sentence for a total of 497 years which would make him eligible for parole on December 20, 2432.
Life & Death Behind Bars
While behind bars, George worked various prison jobs for 34 cents an hour. His most recent job was as a commercial cleaner at the Turney Center. George was 23-years-old when he went on his 29-day killing spree. Under Tennesse law, George was entitled to four parole hearings since 1993. Each time George was up for parole he indicated that he had no interest in attending or even wanting parole. Even though he signed a waiver each time a hearing had to take place and parole was denied.
I mentioned previously the interview that took place on the 20th anniversary of the murders in which George didn’t seem to show any remorse for what he had done. George said, “I think where I’m at now is where I’m supposed to be. If it meant me understanding…to get where I’m at (mentally/spiritually) I’d do it all again.”
Former homicide detective, Bob Cochran, described the atmosphere in Memphis during the 29 days of George’s killing spree as a “period of hell.”
What’s A Spree Killer
George Putt is classified as a spree killer. So what is the difference between a spree killer and a serial killer? Both seem to fit the dictionary definition of “a person who kills more than one victim in more than one location.” The difference lies in the amount of time that takes place between the killings. There is not a long cooling-off period between murders when dealing with a spree killer whereas a serial killer can go weeks, months sometimes even years in rare instances between killings.
A more recent example of a spree killer would be the D.C. Sniper killings that took place in 2002 where ten people were killed over a twenty-three-day period.
Resources
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Famous People From Memphis, Tennessee & Celebs Born In Memphis
- George Putt
- What is the difference between a serial killer, spree killer and mass murderer?
- memphis-serial-killer-george-howard-putt-dies-in-prison
- Killer of five waives parole board hearing