Thomas Wisenhunt: Serial killer who murdered three mobile women is executed

WARNING: This article discusses the topic of sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.

Mobile, Alabama (WKRGMore) — The gas station clerk disappeared out of nowhere in Mobile in the mid-’70s. Little did everyone know that they would never be seen alive again.this is the story Thomas Wysenhunt.

WKRG News 5 looks back at the crimes that rocked the Gulf Coast. The story of Thomas Whisenhant is his twelfth in the series.

Even in my teens Thomas Wisenhunt was known as a troublemakerWhen Wisenhunt was 16, he was charged with robbing a blind woman. A few months later, he was accused of shooting his 72-year-old widow, Lexi Haynes, in Pritchard.

Retired Police Chief Pritchard said the robbery charges were dropped for technical reasons. Officers questioned Wisenhunt about Haynes’ murder, but his family gave him an alibi. Before Haynes died, Wisenhunt was said to have played with a stolen gun in front of his friends.

After the Hayes Wisenhunt shooting, he decided to enlist in the United States Air Force. On this day, Wisenhunt attacked his 22-year-old boy named Covington, who was in his WAF of the United States Air Force Rose. Covington was so badly beaten that he was hospitalized for two months after the attack. She suffered serious injuries to her head and face.

When it came time for the trial, Covington testified against Whisenhunt, saying he had never met Whisenhunt and had no idea what he looked like. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for hard labour. In 1970, Wisenhunt’s prison term was reduced to his ten years, and he was granted parole on November 28, 1973.

Two years later, on November 21, 1975, Whisenhant returned to mobile and was ready to attack. On November 21, Wisenhunt attacked her 28-year-old Patricia Hitt and a gas station clerk. Wisenhunt beat Hit and shot him dead. Two other men were initially arrested for murder.

On April 16, 1976, Wisenhunt kidnapped another gas station clerk. Venora Hyatt, 44, was taken from the gas station where she works and taken to her old home. Wisenhunt killed Hyatt and dumped her body near her abandoned cabin. He returned to the crime scene the next day and “dismembered” her body. He removed her Hyatt watch from her body and presented it to her wife after her.

The last murder known to law enforcement occurred on October 16, 1976. Cheryl Lynn Peyton, 23, also worked as a clerk at a Mobil gas station. Wisenhunt kidnapped Peyton at her gunpoint and took her to a wooded area where she was raped before shooting her dead in the head. He threw her corpse into the woods.

On October 17, Wisenhunt returned to the scene and mutilated the body, cutting off most of the chest. He was seen near the scene of the crime, so the police chased him before they could catch him. After his arrest, Wisenhunt made a “detailed confession” of all his crimes.

In August 1977, the trial for Peyton’s murder began, and Wisenhunt pleaded not guilty on the grounds of insanity. A jury found Wisenhunt guilty anyway, and on September 7 he was sentenced to death.

On May 27, 2010, Wisenhunt died of a lethal injection at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.