Andrews at Left and Pierre
Utah’s Hi-Fi Killings
By James Donahue
There were only five victims and three of them died, but the way the two convicted killers went about their gruesome deed that day in 1974 marked them forever as members of America’s most evil people.
It was late in the afternoon on April 22 that year that two young Air Force officers, Dale Selby Pierre, 22, and William Andrews, 19, entered the Hi-Fi Store on Washington Boulevard, Ogden, Utah. They produced handguns and took the two store clerks, Stanley Walker, 20, and Michelle Ansley, 19, hostage. Walker and Ansley were ordered into the store basement where they were tied up.
Authorities said Pierre and Andrews then began robbing the store of thousands of dollars in costly electronic devices, loading them in a van parked just outside the store. In the van waiting, with the motor running, was a third accomplice, Keith Roberts, another Air Force officer, who was apparently playing the role of get-away-driver.
The robbery might have been all that happened that day if the three young men had just taken what they could grab and then flee the scene. But people who knew Dale Pierre said he had been bragging about his plan to rob that store and to “kill anybody that got in his way.” Apparently he had murder on his mind.
Not only did he expect to murder somebody during the robbery, Pierre had the murder weapons with him. He was carrying a handgun, but he also had a can of Drano in the van. He had watched a television drama in which killers had murdered a female victim by forcing her to drink Drano. In the film, the victim died instantly after drinking the poison.
Thus it was that the two men began collecting customers that entered the store and forcing them into the basement. The first victim was Cortney Naisbitt, 16. Then Stanley Walker’s father, Orren, 43, came to find out why his son was late getting home that evening. Then Cortney Naisbitt’s mother, Carol, 52, came looking for her son. All five found themselves bound and sitting on the basement floor.
This was when the killing began. Pierre produced the can of Drano and forced everybody to drink it. He said it was vodka mixed with sleeping pills. But the effect of the liquid drain cleaner was terrible. As the tied-up captives drank it the stuff immediately burned their lips, tongues and throats. Michelle Ansley begged the men not to make her drink it. Orren Walker took the Drano but let it dribble out of the edges of his mouth and faked the convulsions and screams of the others.
Pierre soon realized that the Drano was not causing quick deaths, as he had seen in the television show, but causing slow and painful reactions. So he pulled out his gun and began shooting his victims in the back of their heads.
He then forced Michelle Ansley to remove her clothes and raped her at gunpoint. When he was finished he shot her in the back of the head.
Before he left he realized Orren Walker was still alive so he wrapped a wire around his throat and attempted to strangle him. When that didn’t work, he jammed a ballpoint pen in Walker’s ear. It punctured Walker’s ear drum and exited through the side of his throat.
When authorities arrived at the scene they found Cortney Naisbitt and Orren Walker seriously injured but still alive. The others, Michelle Ansley, Carol Naisbitt and Stanley Walker were dead.
It didn’t take the police long to track down the killers. Pierre and Andrews were found guilty of multiple murders and armed robbery and sentenced to death. Pierre was executed by lethal injection in 1987 and Andrews was executed five years later at Utah State Prison.
Keith Roberts was convicted of robbery and sent to prison. He said he had no knowledge of the murders and was released in 1987.
By James Donahue
There were only five victims and three of them died, but the way the two convicted killers went about their gruesome deed that day in 1974 marked them forever as members of America’s most evil people.
It was late in the afternoon on April 22 that year that two young Air Force officers, Dale Selby Pierre, 22, and William Andrews, 19, entered the Hi-Fi Store on Washington Boulevard, Ogden, Utah. They produced handguns and took the two store clerks, Stanley Walker, 20, and Michelle Ansley, 19, hostage. Walker and Ansley were ordered into the store basement where they were tied up.
Authorities said Pierre and Andrews then began robbing the store of thousands of dollars in costly electronic devices, loading them in a van parked just outside the store. In the van waiting, with the motor running, was a third accomplice, Keith Roberts, another Air Force officer, who was apparently playing the role of get-away-driver.
The robbery might have been all that happened that day if the three young men had just taken what they could grab and then flee the scene. But people who knew Dale Pierre said he had been bragging about his plan to rob that store and to “kill anybody that got in his way.” Apparently he had murder on his mind.
Not only did he expect to murder somebody during the robbery, Pierre had the murder weapons with him. He was carrying a handgun, but he also had a can of Drano in the van. He had watched a television drama in which killers had murdered a female victim by forcing her to drink Drano. In the film, the victim died instantly after drinking the poison.
Thus it was that the two men began collecting customers that entered the store and forcing them into the basement. The first victim was Cortney Naisbitt, 16. Then Stanley Walker’s father, Orren, 43, came to find out why his son was late getting home that evening. Then Cortney Naisbitt’s mother, Carol, 52, came looking for her son. All five found themselves bound and sitting on the basement floor.
This was when the killing began. Pierre produced the can of Drano and forced everybody to drink it. He said it was vodka mixed with sleeping pills. But the effect of the liquid drain cleaner was terrible. As the tied-up captives drank it the stuff immediately burned their lips, tongues and throats. Michelle Ansley begged the men not to make her drink it. Orren Walker took the Drano but let it dribble out of the edges of his mouth and faked the convulsions and screams of the others.
Pierre soon realized that the Drano was not causing quick deaths, as he had seen in the television show, but causing slow and painful reactions. So he pulled out his gun and began shooting his victims in the back of their heads.
He then forced Michelle Ansley to remove her clothes and raped her at gunpoint. When he was finished he shot her in the back of the head.
Before he left he realized Orren Walker was still alive so he wrapped a wire around his throat and attempted to strangle him. When that didn’t work, he jammed a ballpoint pen in Walker’s ear. It punctured Walker’s ear drum and exited through the side of his throat.
When authorities arrived at the scene they found Cortney Naisbitt and Orren Walker seriously injured but still alive. The others, Michelle Ansley, Carol Naisbitt and Stanley Walker were dead.
It didn’t take the police long to track down the killers. Pierre and Andrews were found guilty of multiple murders and armed robbery and sentenced to death. Pierre was executed by lethal injection in 1987 and Andrews was executed five years later at Utah State Prison.
Keith Roberts was convicted of robbery and sent to prison. He said he had no knowledge of the murders and was released in 1987.