Serial Killer of the Month: Judy Buenoano
Archived
A portion of the CNN transcript of the event:
“Van Susteren: Now tell me, Gene, how many volts of electricity go through or went through her body, and what was the physical reaction to the volts of electricity?
Morris: There were 2300 volts, 9.5 amps for eight seconds to begin the process. It then dipped to 1,000 volts, eight amps for 22 seconds before it then increased again at 2300 volts, 9 ½ amps for the final eight seconds. That is the entire process, which amounts to 38 seconds. As the electricity was activated and surged through her body…her fingers clenched into a fist and her body sort of lurched as she was hit with the jolt of electricity. Both of those movements were entirely normal and natural, as I have seen, as I said, with the other 13 executions I have witnessed here at Florida state prison.”
In June of 1971, James E. Goodyear, Judy Buenoano’s husband, returned to Orlando, Florida from a tour of duty in South Vietnam. Soon he began experiencing weakness, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Judy hesitated to have her husband hospitalized. His condition worsened and he reported to Dr. R.C. Auchenbach, his attending physician, that he had been suffering from these symptoms for two weeks.
Dr. Auchenbach was unable to determine the cause of Goodyear’s condition, which continued to deteriorate. Despite Dr. Auchenbach’s efforts to stop Goodyear’s condition, Goodyear died on September 16, 1971. The causes of death were cardiovascular collapse and renal failure.
Debra Sims, who lived with Judy Buenoano and Goodyear shortly before Goodyear’s death, said that Goodyear grew ill following his return from Vietnam and that she witnessed him hallucinating.
Two of Buenoano’s acquaintances, Constance Lang and Mary Beverly Owens, later testified at her trial that Buenoano discussed with each of them on separate occasions the subject of killing a person by adding arsenic to his food.
Lang testified that Buenoano had joked on several occasions about lacing her husband’s food with arsenic. Owens testified that after hearing an upsetting phone call between Owens and her husband, Buenoano suggested that Owens take out more life insurance on her husband and then poison him with arsenic. Following Goodyear’s death, Buenoano collected $33,000 in life insurance proceeds and $62,000 in indemnity compensation from the Veterans Administration. And Judy Buenoano was not only free; she wasn’t even suspected of any foul play.
After Goodyear’s death, Buenoano lived with Bobby Joe Morris, who became ill and died after exhibiting the same symptoms that Goodyear had exhibited. When Morris’s remains were exhumed in 1984, the tissue analysis revealed acute arsenic poisoning. Buenoano collected approximately $23,000 in life insurance proceeds following Morris’s death.
Later Buenano pushed her paraplegic son from a raft on a rafting trip. His death also brought her a hefty sum of insurance money. At the time of the murder, it was ruled an accident. But in 1984 her son’s body was autopsied and discovered to have been also in the early stages of arsenic poisoning.
After Morris died, Buenoano lived with John Gentry. In November of 1982, Gentry contracted a cold, and Buenoano began giving him the vitamin C capsules to treat it. Gentry began to suffer from convulsions, nausea, and vomiting. He checked into a hospital and soon recovered. Upon returning home, Buenoano gave Gentry Vicon-C again, and the nausea and vomiting returned. Buenoano held a $510,000 life insurance policy on Gentry.
When the capsules didn’t kill Gentry, Buenoano planted a bomb in his car. He survived the blast, and turned some of the vitamins over to the police for analysis when it looked like the bomber was Buenoano. The analysis revealed that the capsules contained paraformaldehyde, a class III poison.
Now a suspect in the bombing and poisoning of Gentry, the police looked back into the large number of deaths that surrounded Judy Buenoano. And they discovered her evil murders. And they got very cross.
A jury found Buenoano guilty of the first degree murder of Goodyear. During the penalty phase of the trial, the state presented further evidence against Buenoano. Gentry testified that after he refused to take the Vicon-C, which he had discovered to be poisoned, Buenoano was responsible for having his car bombed. Buenoano had been convicted of attempted murder for her role in the car bombing. The jury also was told that Buenoano had been convicted of murder in the drowning death of her disabled son, Michael. Buenoano collected life insurance proceeds following Michael’s death.
The jury recommended a sentence of death. The judge applied it. And just a few days ago, the 30th of March, the state of Florida put Judy Buenoano to death in Old Sparky, the local electric chair.
Yours truly,
—St. Feltcher
