William Wickline: The Butcher of Ohio
Overview
William Dean Wickline Jr., known as "The Butcher," was a career criminal whose violent path culminated in a series of brutal murders in West Virginia and Ohio between 1979 and 1982. Wickline, who honed butchery skills while working in a prison slaughterhouse, used this knowledge to dismember his victims, a gruesome signature that terrified the communities he prowled. His confirmed victims were involved in the drug trade, and their deaths were characterized by extreme violence, including decapitation. The case against him was built largely on the testimony of his former girlfriend, who witnessed and was forced to participate in one of the murders. Though convicted of two murders, the bodies of his victims were never found. Wickline was executed by the state of Ohio in 2004, leaving behind a legacy of fear and unanswered questions about the full extent of his crimes.
Early Life and Criminal History
William Dean Wickline Jr. was born on March 15, 1952, in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, to Irma and William Wickline Sr. Accounts of his childhood vary. Some sources describe a loving family and a promising youth, noting Wickline was a good student and a member of his high school's wrestling team. Other accounts suggest a difficult upbringing marked by his parents' constant fighting, which led him to spend much of his time on the streets.
Regardless of his home life, Wickline's academic performance declined, and he turned to delinquency. His first arrest came in 1971 at age 19, marking the beginning of a long criminal career. Over the next decade, he was arrested at least nine more times for a range of offenses including burglary, grand theft, drug dealing, and running a prostitution ring. During his frequent stints in prison, Wickline studied psychology, lifted weights, and worked in a prison slaughterhouse, where he learned the butchery skills he would later use in his murders. Upon his release in November 1979, he reportedly developed an obsession with knives and displayed increasingly violent tendencies.
The Murder of Charles Morgan Marsh
On November 20, 1979, the body of Charles Morgan Marsh, a 34-year-old construction worker and alleged drug dealer, was discovered in his Parkersburg, West Virginia, residence. The scene was exceptionally gruesome. Marsh had been handcuffed, bound with a telephone cord, and strangled before being decapitated. His severed head was placed on a nightstand. The killer had written "I came. You weren't home. I love you," on a wall. The coroner noted the head was severed with one or two clean cuts, indicating the killer was skilled with a knife. Investigators initially suspected a contract killing due to Marsh's involvement in the drug trade, but no suspects were immediately identified. Years later, informants and Wickline's girlfriend, Teresa Kemp, would implicate him in the murder. He was indicted for Marsh's murder in April 1985, but the charges were ultimately dropped after he was sentenced to death for other crimes.
The Murders of Christopher and Peggy Lerch
On August 14, 1982, Wickline and his girlfriend, Teresa Kemp, were at his Columbus, Ohio, apartment with Christopher and Peggy Lerch, a couple from Blendon Township also involved in drug trafficking. The group spent the weekend drinking heavily and using cocaine. An argument erupted over a $6,000 drug debt that Christopher Lerch owed Wickline.
According to Kemp's later testimony, the argument seemed to subside before Wickline called Christopher upstairs to the bathroom, claiming he needed help with a clogged drain. As Lerch looked into the bathtub, Wickline slit his throat. Wickline then came downstairs and, deciding Peggy was a potential witness, forced Kemp to participate in her murder. He ordered Kemp to hold down the sleeping woman's legs while he strangled her to death with a rope.
Afterward, Wickline took both bodies to the bathtub, where he dismembered and decapitated them. He placed the body parts in plastic garbage bags, and with Kemp's help, disposed of them in various dumpsters around Franklin County. As a souvenir, Wickline kept Peggy's wedding ring. The remains of Christopher and Peggy Lerch have never been found.
The Victims
- Charles Morgan Marsh, 34 — Found on November 20, 1979, in Parkersburg, West Virginia. A construction worker and Vietnam veteran, he was brutally murdered in his home.
- Christopher Lerch, age unknown — Killed on August 14, 1982, in Columbus, Ohio. He and his wife, Peggy, were murdered over a drug debt.
- Peggy Ann Lerch, age unknown — Killed on August 14, 1982, in Columbus, Ohio. She was strangled in her sleep to prevent her from being a witness to her husband's murder.
Investigation and Capture
The Lerches were reported missing on August 25, 1982, about two weeks after they were last seen. The case went cold for two years. Shortly after the murders, Wickline was arrested for an unrelated burglary of a drug store and sentenced to a year and a half in prison. The breakthrough came in December 1984 when police, acting on tips from informants, contacted Teresa Kemp. Initially denying any knowledge, Kemp eventually confessed, providing a detailed account of the murders of Christopher and Peggy Lerch.
Kemp's testimony was the cornerstone of the state's case. She described the drug-fueled weekend, the argument over money, and the horrific details of how Wickline killed and dismembered the couple. Her account matched information police had received from other informants who did not testify. Based on her confession, Wickline was indicted for the Lerch murders while still in prison for burglary. He was also linked to the murder of Charles Marsh in West Virginia. Kemp was never charged for her role in the crimes, as prosecutors determined she had acted under duress and her cooperation was essential for securing a conviction against Wickline.
Trial and Sentence
William Wickline waived his right to a jury, and his trial for the murders of the Lerches began on July 30, 1985, before a three-judge panel in Franklin County, Ohio. On August 7, 1985, the panel found him guilty of two counts of aggravated murder. Wickline maintained his innocence, claiming Kemp had fabricated the story.
On September 20, 1985, the judges sentenced him to life in prison for the murder of Christopher Lerch. For the murder of Peggy Lerch, he was sentenced to death. The death sentence was imposed because the court ruled she was killed to cover up another crime—the murder of her husband. Wickline reportedly showed no emotion as the sentences were read. He spent the next 19 years on death row, exhausting numerous state and federal appeals. His final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied the day before his execution. Governor Bob Taft also denied his request for clemency, stating that Wickline had never accepted responsibility or shown remorse for his "brutal murder and dismemberment" of the victims.
Execution and Final Words
On March 30, 2004, William Dean Wickline Jr., aged 52, was executed by lethal injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. He was the 11th inmate put to death since Ohio resumed executions in 1999. For his last meal, he requested an eight-ounce filet mignon (medium rare), potato salad, six rolls with butter, fresh strawberries over shortcake, and butter pecan ice cream. In the execution chamber, he gave a thumbs-up to his brothers who were present as witnesses. His final statement was, "May tomorrow see the courts shaped by more wisdom and less politics." He was pronounced dead at 10:11 a.m.
Aftermath and Suspected Murders
The brutality of Wickline's crimes, particularly the dismemberment and the fact that the Lerches' bodies were never found, left a lasting scar on the community and the victims' families. For years, Wickline was a suspect in several other unsolved murders involving dismemberment, earning him a reputation as a serial killer of "nonpareil savagery," as one detective put it.
He was considered a suspect in the 1978 disappearance of gambler Tory Gainer from Fairfield County and the 1983 murder of an unidentified man whose remains were found in a Miami, Florida, canal. However, investigations later cleared him in other cases. In 2020, authorities identified Daniel Alan Anderson as the killer of 15-year-old John Muncy, whose dismembered body was found in 1983. Wickline was also briefly considered a suspect in the 1982 murders of Annette Cooper and Todd Schultz, but two other men were convicted of those crimes in 2008. The full number of William Wickline's victims remains unknown, but law enforcement officials firmly believe he was responsible for more than the three murders attributed to him.
