Judy Buenoano
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Judias "Judy" Buenoano (born Judias Welty, also known as Judias Goodyear, also known as Judias Morris) (April 4, 1943 - March 30, 1998), was a convicted murderer who was executed for the 1971 murder of her husband James Goodyear, the 1980 murder of her son Michael Goodyear, and of the 1983 attempted murder of her fiancée John Gentry. As well, she is acknowledged to have been responsible for the 1978 death of her boyfriend Bobby Joe Morris in Colorado. However, by the time authorities made the connection between Buenoano and Morris, she had already been sentenced to death in the state of Florida. She was also believed to have been involved in a 1974 murder in Alabama; on his deathbed, Morris confessed to having participated in that murder, but police were unable to find enough evidence to press charges. As well, she was suspected in the 1980 death of her boyfriend Gerald Dossett. After her arrest, Dossett's body was exhumed and analysed for signs of arsenic poisoning. No charges were laid in that case.
Buenoano was the first woman to be executed in Florida since 1848 (when a slave named Celia was hanged for killing her master), and was only the third woman to be executed in America since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976. As well, she was the first woman executed in the electric chair since the late 1950s, when Rhonda Belle Martin was electrocuted in Alabama.
[edit] Crimes
In 1971, she was married to James Goodyear (1934-1971), a sergeant in the USAF. According to prosecutors, she was motivated by insurance money when she poisoned him with lethal doses of arsenic. However, his death was initially believed to be due to natural causes.
In 1973, she moved in with Bobby Joe Morris (?-1978); in January of 1978, he succumbed to arsenic poisoning. Later that year, she legally changed her name to "Buenoano" (Spanish for "good year").
Buenoano's son Michael Goodyear (1961-1980) became severely ill in 1979, his symptoms including paraplegia; post-mortem examination indicated that he had been the victim of severe arsenic poisoning, which caused his disability. In 1980, Buenoano took Michael out in a canoe; the canoe rolled, and Michael, weighed down by his arm and leg braces, drowned.
In 1983, Buenoano was engaged to John Gentry. Gentry was severely injured when his car exploded. While he was recovering from his injuries, police began to find several discrepancies in Buenoano's background; further investigation revealed that, in November of 1982, she had begun telling her friends that Gentry was suffering from a terminal illness. Upon learning this, Gentry provided police with the "vitamin pills" which Buenoano had been giving him; these were found to contain arsenic and formaldehyde. This led to the exhumations of Michael Goodyear, James Goodyear, and Bobby Joe Morris, and to the discovery that each man had been the victim of arsenic poisoning.
In 1984, Buenoano was convicted for the murders of Michael and James Goodyear, and in 1985 she was convicted for the attempted murder of John Gentry. She received a twelve-year sentence for the Gentry case, a life sentence for the Michael Goodyear case, and a death sentence for the James Goodyear case. As well, she was convicted of multiple counts of grand theft (for insurance fraud), and is thought to have committed multiple acts of arson (again, for purposes of insurance fraud).
[edit] Further reading
- Anderson, Chris; Sharon McGehee (1992). Bodies of Evidence: The Shocking True Story of America's Most Chilling Serial Murderess... From Crime Scene to Courtroom to Electric Chair. St. Martin's True Crime. ISBN 0-312-92806-8.
