Carroll Cole
Carroll Edward Cole (May 9, 1938 – December 6, 1985), was an American serial killer who was executed in 1985.
Biography
Early life
Carroll Cole was born in Sioux City, Iowa, the second son of LaVerne and Vesta Cole. His younger sister was born in 1939 and soon afterwards, his family moved to California, where LaVerne found work in a shipyard. Not long after that, LaVern went to fight in World War II. While his father was away, his mother would have affairs and sometimes take Cole with her and threaten and beat him afterwards to ensure he wouldn't tell his father. Vesta was cruel to her son and dressed him as a girl and made fun of him. And at school, Cole was teased about his "girl's name" by his peers. He once retaliated against one of his classmates, a boy his age named Duane. Cole drowned him in a lake and it was regarded an accident until Cole confessed to it many years later in an autobiography he wrote in prison.
As a teen, Cole committed petty crimes. He was often arrested for drunkenness and minor thefts. After high school, he joined the army but was discharged soon after for stealing pistols. In 1960, he attacked two couples parked in cars on a lover's lane. Soon afterwards, he called the police in Richmond, California, where he was living, and told them that he was plagued by violent fantasies involving strangling women.
