Richard Laurence Marquette (also known as Dick Marquette; born December 12, 1934) is an American convicted murderer. Marquette was a serial killer

Serial killer

A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...

 who killed three women, drained their blood, mutilated and dismembered their bodies and scattered their remains. He was the first person ever to be added as an eleventh name on the FBI Ten Most Wanted List, in connection with the 1961 murder of Joan Caudle in Salem, Oregon

Salem, Oregon

Salem is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river forms the boundary between Marion and Polk counties, and the city neighborhood...

. He has been incarcerated at the Oregon State Penitentiary

Oregon State Penitentiary

Oregon State Penitentiary , the first state prison in Oregon, United States, was originally located in Portland in 1851. In 1866 it was moved to a site in Salem and enclosed by a reinforced concrete wall averaging in height...

 since June 1975.

Personal background

Richard Laurence (Lawrence) Marquette was born on December 12, 1934 in Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

. He was first arrested in June 1956 on a charge of attempted rape, but his alleged victim dropped the charge. He was arrested for disorderly conduct

Disorderly conduct

Disorderly conduct is a criminal charge in most jurisdictions in the United States. Typically, disorderly conduct makes it a crime to be drunk in public, to "disturb the peace", or to loiter in certain areas. Many types of unruly conduct may fit the definition of disorderly conduct, as such...

 a few months later. He attempted to rob a Portland service station in August 1957, and was sentenced to eighteen months in jail. He was released in twelve months for good behavior.

Joan Caudle

On June 8, 1961 Portland Police received a phone call from a woman whose dog had brought home a human foot in a paper bag. While detectives were at the woman's house investigating the dog returned again, this time with a hand. The area was then subject to a thorough search which uncovered several more body parts, all fresh and bled dry, with no attempt to bury them. After cross referencing with missing persons reports investigators determined the remains were that of Joan Caudle, recently reported missing by her husband. A witness was found who saw Caudle leaving a local bar with a man named Dick. Further investigation led detectives to the home of Dick Marquette. Marquette had fled the area, but further remains of Joan Caudle were found in his refrigerator, butchered and wrapped in the manner of any normal meat. An arrest warrant was issued and a manhunt began. Oregon Governor Mark Hatfield

Mark Hatfield

Mark Odom Hatfield was an American politician and educator from the state of Oregon. A Republican, he served for 30 years as a United States Senator from Oregon, and also as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee...

 appealed to the FBI for help and the agency took the unusual step of expanding their most wanted list to eleven names, the first time it had ever done so. The tactic worked, Marquette was arrested in California the day after being added to the list. Marquette's defense for the grisly nature of his crime was that he was drunk when he strangled Caudle and when he regained his senses he realized he had no vehicle to transport the remains and he panicked. Marquette was found guilty of first degree murder but the jury recommended leniency. Marquette was sentenced to life in prison. After serving 11 years for the crime Marquette was released in January, 1973.

Betty Wilson

In April 1975 a fisherman discovered mutilated human remains floating in a shallow slough in Marion County, Oregon

Marion County, Oregon

Marion County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oregon. It was originally named the Champooick District, after Champoeg, a meeting place on the Willamette River. On September 3, 1849, the territorial legislature renamed it in honor of Francis Marion, a Continental Army general of the...

. Once again, the corpse had been bled dry, savagely mutilated, and dismembered before being dumped with only a minimal effort at concealment. Detectives determined the remains were those of Betty Wilson, who had recently fled an abusive relationship in Fayetteville, North Carolina

Fayetteville, North Carolina

Fayetteville is a city located in Cumberland County, North Carolina, United States. It is the county seat of Cumberland County, and is best known as the home of Fort Bragg, a U.S. Army post located northwest of the city....

 and had been living with relatives in Salem. She had last been seen alive at a crowded nightclub. After determining that Wilson's husband had been in North Carolina at the time of the murder, detectives, some of whom had worked the Caudle case fourteen years earlier, began to suspect Marquette may have killed again. Detectives began a stakeout

Stakeout

Stakeout is a 1987 film directed by John Badham and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Emilio Estevez, Madeleine Stowe, Aidan Quinn, and Forest Whitaker...

 of his home and obtained a search warrant

Search warrant

A search warrant is a court order issued by a Magistrate, judge or Supreme Court Official that authorizes law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person or location for evidence of a crime and to confiscate evidence if it is found....

. They searched both inside and outside the mobile home

Mobile home

Mobile homes or static caravans are prefabricated homes built in factories, rather than on site, and then taken to the place where they will be occupied...

where Marquette was living and uncovered several small but damning pieces of physical evidence that tied Marquette to the murder of Betty Wilson. Fifty-five hours after the first remains were found, Marquette was once again arrested for murder. Given the overwhelming physical evidence and the close similarity to the Caudle murder, Marquette pleaded guilty to the Wilson murder and in May 1975 was again sentenced to life in prison, this time without the possibility of parole. He has been incarcerated at the Oregon State Penitentiary since June 1975.

Jane Doe

While confessing to the murder of Betty Wilson, Marquette also confessed to another murder in the same style in 1974. He picked up a woman at a bar, convinced her to come to his home, and proceeded to choke her to death and mutilate and dismember her corpse. Marquette led detectives to two shallow graves where he had disposed of the bulk of the remains, but the head was never located and there was no evidence that could aid investigators in determining who the victim was. Her identity remains unknown.