James Aubry Bennatt, 62, was one of six people killed on October 11, 1983, during a multi-location killing spree in Southeast Texas. The sequence began in College Station with the murders of Juan Garza and his wife Esther, then continued when Texas Department of Public Safety trooper Russell Lynn Boyd, 25, was fatally shot after stopping the suspect for a traffic violation near Hempstead. The attacker then went to Hempstead and shot Ann Bennatt, 70, her sister Allie Wilkins, 79, and James Aubry Bennatt.

The suspect was identified as Eliseo Hernandez Moreno, a lawn-mower repairman from Donna, Texas. Reported motivation centered on estrangement from his wife, Blanca, and investigators described the killings as part of a five-hour, roughly 130-mile rampage. Moreno was arrested the same day.

Moreno was later sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection on March 4, 1987. Does anyone have memories of the Hempstead area in October 1983 or additional information about the Bennatt family that could help shed light on James Aubry Bennatt’s life?