Jennie Morman

On January 4, 1981, 43-year-old Jennie Morman, a Black woman, was found murdered in her apartment in Cleveland, Ohio. The discovery marked another tragedy in a series of violent crimes that terrorized the city and would take decades to fully unravel. At the time of her death, Ms. Morman’s daughter was in a relationship with a man named Reginald Perkins, with whom she had a child. It was this connection that immediately drew the attention of investigators to Perkins, a man whose violent history was just beginning to surface.

Police found Jennie Morman strangled with a scarf, her face covered by two pillows. The Cleveland police questioned Perkins about the homicide, but there was not enough evidence to file charges against him. Morman’s murder was chillingly similar to the October 1980 strangulation of 21-year-old Paula Nelson and occurred just weeks before the January 23, 1981, strangling of Jerry Dean Thomas. Authorities suspected Perkins in all three slayings but could not build a strong enough case to take to court. While the investigation into Morman's death stalled, Perkins’s other crimes did not.

Later in 1981, Perkins was convicted for the rape of one 12-year-old girl and the attempted rape of another in Cleveland and was sentenced to life in prison. However, he was granted parole in the late 1980s and moved to Fort Worth, Texas. There, his pattern of violence continued. In 1991, Shirley Douglas, 44, and her 79-year-old aunt, Hattie Wilson, were found strangled. Years later, DNA evidence would conclusively link Perkins to their murders. After a parole violation sent him back to an Ohio prison, he was released again in 2000 and returned to Fort Worth.

The crime that finally led to Perkins's downfall occurred in December 2000, when he murdered his 64-year-old stepmother, Gertie Mae Perkins. He strangled her, stole her wedding ring and checks, and stuffed her body in the trunk of her car. After his arrest for his stepmother's murder, Perkins led his father and police to the vehicle. He was charged with capital murder, and Tarrant County prosecutors sought the death penalty, citing his extensive and violent criminal history.

During the sentencing phase of his Texas trial, prosecutors presented evidence of his suspected crimes in Ohio, painting a portrait of a serial predator who had evaded justice for years. Witnesses testified about the unsolved strangulations of Jennie Morman, Paula Nelson, and Jerry Dean Thomas, identifying Perkins as the likely killer. A jury found him guilty of capital murder and, on March 22, 2002, sentenced him to death. From death row, Perkins maintained his innocence in all the killings, telling The Associated Press, "I didn't have nothing to do with none of those killings. I have never taken an individual's life. They're just trying to pin them on me."

Kevin Rousseau, the Tarrant County district attorney who prosecuted him, described Perkins as a "consummate liar and a con artist," adding, "He's a serial killer. People look for more complicated rationale. But the bottom line is, he's a killer."

Reginald Perkins was executed by lethal injection in Texas on January 22, 2009. While he was never formally tried or convicted for the murder of Jennie Morman, law enforcement agencies in both Ohio and Texas considered him responsible for her death. The case is now considered closed, as the primary suspect is deceased.