Murder of Betty Gardner

Betty Gardner Betty Jean Atkins Gardner, a black American woman, was from Frogmore, South Carolina and was a single mother of two. She was a farmworker who picked tomatoes on her father's land on St. Helena Island. Both had lengthy rap sheets for prior offenses. Prior to Gardner's murder, Arnold had been arrested nineteen times, while Plath had been arrested eleven times. Arnold had been arrested for assault, burglary, false imprisonment, and parole violations. Plath had been arrested for attempted robbery, auto theft, harassment by communication, receiving stolen goods, and theft. Both men had also been involved in unrelated shootings in separate cases, in which they were both charged, however, the charges were later dropped. Arnold was accused of shooting a former girlfriend with a rifle, but the charge was dropped when she refused to testify against him. Plath was charged in the 1973 fatal shooting of his friend, 18-year-old Frank Winchnarz. While police suspected that Winchnarz's death was intentional, there was only enough evidence for an involuntary manslaughter charge. The charge was later dismissed entirely due to insufficient evidence. ==Murder==

On April 12, 1978, Gardner was hitchhiking near Beaufort, South Carolina, heading to St. Helena Island to work on her father's farm. As she waited for a ride, a green Pontiac with South Carolina plates stopped by the side of the road. Inside the vehicle was John Arnold, John Plath, Cindy Sheets, and Carol Ullman. Sheets was Plath's 17-year-old girlfriend and Ullman was an 11-year-old runaway; Arnold was later charged with her statutory rape. Plath then ordered Sheets to cut Gardner's throat with a broken soda bottle. When that failed, Arnold, with the help of Carol Ullman, strangled Gardner some more, before she eventually died. Sheets later claimed that she had been pressured into participating in the murder. She testified that Plath had told her, "If you ever open your mouth about what's going to happen, I'm going to get you. If I don't get you, I'll get your family." ==Aftermath==

After the murder, Arnold carved the letters "KKK" into Gardner's body, supposedly to mislead investigators. Members of the group also urinated and defecated on her corpse. After the group left the area, they split up. Arnold and Ullman remained in Beaufort, while Plath and Sheets returned to their native city of York, Pennsylvania. When Gardner failed to show up at work, her family filed a missing person's report. The last person to see her alive, other than those in the car, was her brother, who had seen her get into the green Pontiac near his home when she was hitchhiking. Gardner's sister was left to raise her children. No leads came in the case for over a month, until a detective from the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office spotted the Pontiac by chance. The owners of the car, the United States Marine and his wife, told the detective that Arnold and Plath had borrowed the vehicle. Arnold and Ullman were then quickly arrested in Beaufort. Plath and Sheets were captured back in York by police, who caught Plath hiding under the porch of his mother's home. Lawyers for Sheets negotiated her immunity in exchange for testifying against Arnold and Plath, as well as cooperating with South Carolina investigators. When she was returned to Beaufort, she led police to Gardner's body, which by now was badly decomposed. The body was not found until nearly eleven weeks after Gardner's murder. Dental records confirmed her identity. Arnold and Plath were placed in the Beaufort County Jail, where they were described as problematic inmates. During their time in this jail, they attempted to escape twice and constructed a fake gun. As a result, the sheriff personally asked the governor to move both inmates to a state penitentiary in Columbia. Both men proclaimed their innocence in the crime. ==Trials==

In February 1979, Arnold and Plath were tried for the murder of Gardner in Beaufort County. State prosecutors announced they intended to seek the death penalty against both Arnold and Plath. The veteran prosecutor, Randolph Murdaugh Jr., called the crime, "the most terrible, inhuman, degrading and nauseating case" he had ever seen. Ullman testified that Arnold said he hated black people. A forensic pathologist determined the cause of death was stabbing and a blow to the head. Due to the decomposition of the body at the time of its discovery, further conclusions could not be established, and strangulation could not be ruled out as a possible cause of death. On February 9, both men were sentenced to death. Arnold reacted to the sentence without any emotion, while Plath slammed a pencil into a table. Afterwards, Plath said he had been "falsely accused" and was a "victim of prejudice." Arnold was also charged with the statutory rape of Ullman. Both men continued to proclaim their innocence in the crime and argued that Sheets was the actual killer. Sheets was released one month after the sentencing of Arnold and Plath; she returned to York. ==Executions==

On March 6, 1998, Arnold, 42, was executed via lethal injection at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. He was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. Arnold proclaimed his innocence to the very end and issued a final statement saying, "The judicial system has had my neck under its heel. I leave this world with my identity fully intact, my dignity untouched, my spirit sound and whole." He was buried in Pennsylvania by his aunt, Betty Zeigler. Zeigler was reluctant to talk about the case, but said Arnold and Plath should both be released from prison, despite neither of them having ever taken responsibility for Gardner's murder. On July 10, 1998, Plath, 43, was also executed via lethal injection at Broad River Correctional Institution. He was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m. In his final handwritten statement, he denied killing Gardner. Plath became a Christian while in prison and quoted Bible verses in the execution chamber. While on death row, Plath was adopted by a 70-year-old woman. Following Plath's execution, the family of Gardner released a statement saying, "This murder has left a void in our lives that we will never fill... Now with the death of Betty's murderers, we can continue to move forward." At the time of Arnold's execution, The Herald pointed out that since 1976, when the death penalty was restored, 113 black defendants had been executed for murdering a white victim, compared to just 6 white defendants for murdering a black victim. After Arnold's execution, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union for South Carolina, Steve Bates, commented on the disparity in executions by the race of defendants and victims, as well as his belief in racism in the judicial system. Bates stated that Arnold's execution was an exception to the rule. Since then, the state of South Carolina has executed another five white people, including Arnold, for the murders of black victims. ==See also==