About the Wichita Massacre

Perhaps the most illustrious aspect of the Wichita Massacre was the lack of publicity it received when the gruesome crimes were first committed in 2000. The all-out crime spree was perpetrated by two brothers, Jonathan Carr and Reginald Carr.

Identification

The Carr brothers' crimes were not the most shocking, or even the most twisted, in the annals of serial murder, but it was an offense the likes of which the cozy town of Wichita had never endured. The victims of this random bout of violence included Andrew Schreiber, an assistant baseball coach, Ann Walenta, a concert cellist, and three male roommates and their friends. The roommates were Jason Befort, a high school teacher, Brad Heyka, an employee at Koch Industries, and Aaron Sander, a former Koch Industries employee who quit after deciding he wanted to join the priesthood. Another victim was a woman identified only as H.G. She was dating Befort, whose intention to propose to her was tragically revealed when the Carr brothers found the engagement ring and flaunted it in front of her. Heather Muller, a preschool teacher and graduate student, had recently broken up with Aaron Sander over their mutual belief that each of them had a higher calling within the Catholic church. Nonetheless, the two remained close friends. H.G.'s dog, Nikki, would be the final victim of the Carr brothers.

Time Frame

Stretching over almost a week, the transgressions of Jonathan and Reginald Carr began on the night of December 8, 2000, after they preyed on Andrew Schreiber. While exiting a convenience store, Schreiber was threatened at gunpoint by the brothers. They instructed him to drive to a number of ATMs, eventually withdrawing a total of $800. When it was over, they left Schreiber in a field and shot out the tires of his car.
The next crime happened three days later, and this time the Carrs were not nearly as merciful. This random victim was a 55-year-old cellist/librarian. She had just returned home after practicing for a performance with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. Out of nowhere, she heard a voice cry out for help. Before she could react, a gun was removed and she was told not to move the car. She tried to drive away, but one of the brothers shot at her front window, shattering all the glass and sending the shards flying into her body. The wounds would soon prove fatal.
December 14 proved to be the final night of the Carrs' rampage. They invaded the home of Befort, Heyka and Sander. The three men and their two female visitors were sexually molested. Afterward, each victim was taken separately to an ATM so that the Carr brothers could withdraw funds from the accounts.
Once this was done, the male victims were shoved into the trunk of the Carr brothers' car, and the female victims were told to get into the backseat. They were taken to a soccer field and shot in the back of the head. H.G.'s life was spared by the hair clip she was wearing, which miraculously deflected the bullet. Unfortunately, she was still conscious when the brothers ran over the five bodies with their truck and then drove away into the night, at last ending the brutality they had sought to commit in that second week of December.

Significance

The cruelty and happenstance that defined the murder of Heyka, Sander, Befort, Muller, and Walenta awakened much of Wichita to the horrors of the world around them. Crime of such a carnal nature was no longer confined to the screens of their TVs, but lived and breathed in their own city.

Effects

The Wichita Horror, as it would also come to be known, had torn the city in two. Many people believed that, had the skin colors of the victims and robbers been reversed, it would be classified as a hate crime. Others were disturbed by how random and primeval the rampage had been. The murders were also used for political positioning when, in 2001, David Adkins, the attorney general, was maligned by Rep. Tony Powell for supporting a bill that cut the amount of time required for convicts to be monitored through parole. Latent feelings of racism rose to the surface when a resident of Wichita hung two black "dummies" from a tree in his front yard after the Carr brothers had been found guilty, and the decision of whether to give them the death penalty was yet to be reached.

Considerations

When the Carrs were convicted, the most glaring question on everyone's mind was whether they would be sentenced to death. In Kansas, the death penalty had been reinstituted in 1994 but not put to use. It was another point of racial and political contention. There were citizens of Wichita who thought the punishment would not be so severe if the perpetrators were white, and there were those who thought that race was irrelevant; a genuinely vile crime had been committed and the consequences needed to send a message.
In the end, the brothers were sentenced to death in 2002 by Judge Paul Clark, who had presided over the case when it first went to trial in early 2001. The minimalist media attention given to the case has been deemed by both black and white commentators as a form of grotesque political correctness, but there are multiple factors to take into account when assessing the claim.
Ken Hamblin, a black talk show radio host, believed that the brothers should have been charged with a hate crime. Even Akbar Shabazz of a conservative black coalition called Project 21 stated, "It's another perfect example of the double standard brought about by the media. It's not very popular to portray black on white crimes in the national media today because it's politically incorrect." Another component to consider is that, at the time, much of the United States' attention continued to focus on the presidential election that had only recently been resolved in favor of George W. Bush. There was not quite enough of a lull in current events to elicit national coverage of the murder of five Wichita citizens. Moreover, the Carr brothers' motives were, from the very start, perceived as being motivated primarily by robbery, not racism.