Briley Brothers

The three "Briley Brothers" (Anthony Ray Briley, James Dyral Briley, Jr. and Linwood Earl Briley) were responsible for a killing spree in Richmond, Virginia in 1979 that lasted seven months before their arrest. Early lives: The brothers were born to a stable home with two parents in Northeastern Richmond, Virginia. With their younger sibling Anthony, Linwood and James were regarded by older neighbors as people who would help neighbors repair cars or mow lawns. The three boys collected exotic pets, such as tarantulas, piranhas, and boa constrictors. It is also alleged that all three brothers engaged in zoosadism. Their father, James Briley, Sr., was unnerved enough by their behavior that he kept his bedroom door padlocked from the inside overnight. James Sr. was the only person the brothers feared. First murder: In 1971, the first killing was committed by (then) 16-year-old Linwood. While alone at home one day, he took aim with a rifle from his bedroom window and fatally shot Orline Christian, an elderly neighbor across the alley as she was hanging out some laundry on the line, The crime almost went undetected; however, her curious relatives noticed a small bloody mark under her armpit at the viewing and asked the funeral director to re-examine the body. Upon a second examination, the director found a small caliber bullet wound under her armpit. Police investigators were contacted and they sought to find the source of the gunshot. Standing in the back yard where Mrs. Christian had been shot a detective used a sheet of plywood to represent her body, with a hole cut out to represent the bullet wound. He soon determined that the bullet could only have come from the Briley home across the alley. There, the murder weapon was found and Linwood admitted to the crime with indifference: "I heard she had heart problems, she would have died soon anyway." Linwood was sent to reform school to serve a one-year sentence for the killing. His young brother, James or "J.B." followed in his path at the same age, having been sentenced to time in juvenile hall for having pulled a gun and fired upon a police officer during a pursuit. Murder spree: In 1979, the three Briley brothers and an accomplice, Duncan Meekins, began the seven-month series of random killings that terrified the city and the surrounding region. William and Virginia Bucher: Their first attack occurred on March 12, when Linwood knocked on the door of Henrico County couple William and Virginia Bucher. Claiming that he had car trouble and needed to use their telephone, Linwood eventually forced his way into their home. At this point, he held the couple at gun point and waved his brother Anthony inside. The two Brileys tied up the couple and robbed the house, dousing each room with kerosene after picking it clean of valuables. As they left, a lit match was tossed on the fuel. The two hurriedly packed their stolen loot – a television, CB radio, and jewelry into their trunk and drove out of the area. They were not around when Mr. Bucher managed to free himself and his wife from their restraints and escape just before the house became engulfed in flames. They would be the sole survivors of the rampage. Michael McDuffie: Michael McDuffie, a vending machine serviceman, was murdered by the brothers at his suburban home on March 21. The brothers first assaulted McDuffie, before shooting him dead and stealing his valuables. Mary Gowen: On April 9, the brothers followed 76-year-old Mary Gowen across town from her babysitting job. They followed her into her house to rape and murder her. The brothers escaped from the residence with many of her valuables. Christopher Philips: The gang saw seventeen-year-old Christopher Philips hanging around Linwood Briley's parked car on July 4. Suspecting that he might have been trying to steal the vehicle, the gang surrounded him and dragged him into a nearby backyard. There the three brothers wrestled him to the ground. When Philips screamed for help, Linwood murdered him by dropping a cinderblock onto his skull. John Gallaher: On September 14, disc jockey John "Johnny G." Gallaher was performing with his band at a South Richmond nightclub. Stepping outside between sets for a break, he inadvertently came right into the hands of the Briley brothers. Having been looking around town for a victim all night without success, they decided to lie in wait for whomever might happen to step outside. Gallaher was assaulted by Linwood and put into the trunk of his own Lincoln Continental. He was then driven out to Mayo Island in the middle of the James River, where the remnants of an abandoned paper mill stood. There he was removed from the trunk of his car and shot dead at point blank range in the head. His body was then dumped into the river. The remains were found two days later. When arrested months later, Linwood was still wearing a ring stolen from Gallaher's hand. Mary Wilfong: On September 30, 62-year-old private nurse Mary Wilfong was followed home to her Richmond apartment. The brothers surrounded her just outside the door and Linwood beat her to death with a baseball bat. The brothers then entered her apartment and robbed it of valuables. Blanche Page and Charles Garner: Five days later on October 5, just two blocks from the Briley home on 4th Avenue in Richmond, 79-year-old Blanche Page and her 59-year-old boarder Charles Garner were both brutally murdered by the brothers. Page was bludgeoned to death while Garner was fatally assaulted with a variety of weapons, which included a baseball bat, five knives, a pair of scissors, and a fork. The scissors and fork were left embedded in Garner's back. The Wilkerson family: The victims of the final murders were a long-time neighborhood friend of the brothers, Harvey Wilkerson, and his family. On the morning of October 19, having promised a judge earlier that day that he would stay out of trouble while out on parole for a 1973 robbery and malicious wounding conviction, J.B. led his brothers on the prowl that night for yet another victim. Upon seeing the brothers down the street, Wilkerson, who lived with his 23-year-old wife Judy Barton (who was five months pregnant at the time) and her 5-year-old son Harvey, instinctively closed and locked his door. This action was noticed by the brothers, who then walked over to Wilkerson's front door. Terrified by their response if he refused them entry, Wilkerson allowed them in. The brothers preyed on people who were scared and/or intimidated by them. Both adults in the home were overpowered, bound and gagged with duct tape. Linwood Briley then assaulted Judy Barton in the kitchen, where she was raped within hearing distance of the others. Fellow gang member Duncan Meekins (their next door neighbor who was 13 years old at the time) continued the sexual assault, after which Linwood dragged Barton back into the living room, briefly rummaged in the premises for valuables, and then left the house. The three remaining gang members covered their victims with sheets. J.B. told Meekins, "you've got to get one", upon which Meekins took a pistol and fatally shot Harvey Wilkerson in the head. J.B. then shot Barton to death. Police happened to be in the general vicinity of the neighborhood, and later saw the gang members running down the street at high speed. They did not know where the shots had been fired. The bodies were not discovered until three days following the crime, but the brothers were all arrested soon afterwards. Capture and incarceration: During interrogation by police, Duncan Meekins was offered a plea agreement in return for turning state's evidence against the Brileys. He took the offer and provided a full detailing of the crime spree; as a result, he escaped the death penalty and was incarcerated at a Virginia prison away from all of the Briley brothers.The plea agreement gave him a sentence of life plus 80 years, which at the time of conviction would make him eligible for parole after serving 12–15 years. Duncan Meekins is still in prison awaiting parole; both the (former) case prosecutors and the detective who arrested him are publicly advocating his release to the parole board. A single life sentence with parole eligibility was handed down to Anthony Briley, youngest brother of the trio, due to his limited involvement in the killings. Because of Virginia's "triggerman statute," both J.B. and Linwood received numerous life sentences for murders committed during the spree, but faced capital charges only in cases where they had physically committed the actual killing of the victim. Linwood was sentenced to death for the abduction and murder of John Gallaher, while J.B. received two death sentences, one for each of the murders of Judy Barton and her son Harvey. A Richmond judge presiding at one of the trials summed up the case following the verdict, "This was the vilest rampage of rape, murder and robbery that the court has seen in thirty years." Both were sent to death row at Mecklenburg Correctional Center near Boydton in early 1980. While there, they were disruptive inmates who used their guile and physical prowess to threaten both fellow inmates and officers. A flourishing drug and weapon trade operated in the prison under their leadership. Escape: Linwood and J.B. Briley were the ringleaders in the six inmate escape from Virginia's death row at Mecklenburg Correctional Center on May 31, 1984. During the early moments of the escape, in which a co-ordinated effort resulted in inmates taking over the death row unit, both Brileys expressed strong interest in killing the captured guards by dousing them with rubbing alcohol and tossing a lit match. Willie Lloyd Turner, another death row inmate, stepped in the way of James Briley and forbade him to do so. Meanwhile, cop killer Wilbert Lee Evans prevented Linwood Briley from raping a female nurse who had been taken hostage while en route to delivering medication to inmates in the unit. The group's initial plan was to escape into Canada. Two inmates, Lem Tuggle and Willie Jones, almost succeeded, making it as far as Vermont before capture at gunpoint by police. The group was held at Marble Valley Correctional Facility in Rutland, pending their extradition back to Virginia. Splitting off from their two remaining co-escapers at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Brileys went to live near their uncle in the north of the city. They were captured on June 19 by a heavily armed group of FBI agents and police, who had determined their location by placing wiretaps on their uncle's phone line. Following their return to Richmond, Virginia, few sought to plead for the Brileys lives to be spared. Executions: In short order, the remaining appeals ran out for both brothers. They were executed in the electric chair at the Virginia State Penitentiary in Richmond; Linwood on October 12, 1984, and James April 18, 1985. Linwood is survived by one son, Norman Laquan Ampy, currently serving time in prison for bank robbery. James is survived by three daughters, who live in Richmond. The brothers are buried at the Council cemetery in Bethel, North Carolina. Their younger brother Anthony remains incarcerated in Virginia's corrections system and comes up for parole consideration every few years. To date, all his applications for parole have been denied by the state parole board.