Linwood Earl Briley, James Dyral Briley Jr., and Anthony Ray Briley were a sibling trio of serial/spree killers, rapists, and robbers who were responsible for a murder and robbery spree that took place in Richmond, Virginia, in 1979.
Linwood murdered a woman in 1971 and served a year in a reformatory. In 1979, the three siblings (with help from an accomplice, Duncan Eric Meekins) went on a killing spree in their home city of Richmond, killing at least eleven people. Two would-be victims escaped unharmed. Linwood and James were sentenced to death. In 1984, the two elder brothers escaped death row with four other inmates but were recaptured within three weeks. Linwood and James were executed by electric chair in 1984 and 1985, respectively. Anthony Briley and Duncan Meekins are both still incarcerated.
Early lives
The three Briley brothers, Linwood Earl (March 26, 1954 – October 12, 1984), James Dyral Jr. (June 6, 1956 – April 18, 1985) and Anthony Ray (born February 17, 1958), were brought up by their parents, James Dyral Briley Sr. and Bertha, in Richmond's Highland Park neighborhood. Their oldest brother, Edward Jerome "Boot" (July 7, 1952 – November 19, 2020) left the home to live with relatives in North Carolina in his early teen years and was not involved with his younger brothers later criminal activities. With their younger brother Anthony, Linwood and James were regarded by older neighbors as young people who would help them repair cars or mow lawns. The brothers collected exotic pets, such as tarantulas, piranhas, and boa constrictors. When the brothers reached their teenage years, Bertha and James split up and she moved away. James Dyral Briley Sr., reportedly the only person the brothers respected, kept his bedroom door padlocked from the inside overnight.
First murder
On January 28, 1971, the first killing was committed by Linwood, at 16. While alone at home, Linwood fatally shot Orline Christian, a 57-year old neighbor, with a rifle from his bedroom window as she was hanging out some laundry on a clothesline. The crime almost went unidentified, but her relatives noticed a small bloody mark under her armpit at the viewing and asked a funeral director to re-examine the body. Upon a second examination, a small caliber bullet wound was discovered under her armpit.
Standing in Christian's back yard, a detective used a sheet of plywood to represent her body, with a hole cut out to represent the wound. He determined that the bullet came from the Briley residence. There, the murder weapon was found and Linwood admitted to the crime by saying, "I heard she had heart problems; she would have died soon anyway." After his lawyer convinced the judge that the shooting had been an accident, Linwood was sent to reform school to serve a one-year sentence for the killing. James followed in his path, and at a similar age was sentenced to time in juvenile hall for firing upon a police officer during a pursuit.
Murder spree
In 1979, the three Briley brothers and an accomplice, Duncan Eric Meekins, began the seven-month series of random killings that terrified the city and surrounding region.
Their first attack occurred on March 12, 1979, when Linwood knocked on the door of Henrico County couple William and Virginia Bucher. Claiming that he had car trouble and needed to use their telephone, Linwood eventually forced his way into their home. He held the couple at gunpoint and waved Anthony inside. The two Brileys tied up the couple and robbed the house, dousing each room with kerosene after stripping it of valuables. As they left, a lit match was tossed on the fuel. The two hurriedly packed their stolen loot – a television, CB radio, a .32 pistol, and jewelry – into their trunk and drove out of the area. William Bucher managed to free himself and his wife from their restraints, which Meekins apparently had not tied tightly enough, and escape just before the house became engulfed in flames. They would be the sole survivors of the rampage, although their cat perished in the blaze.
On March 21, Michael W. McDuffie, a vending machine serviceman, was assaulted, shot, and robbed in his suburban home by the Brileys.
Ten days later, on March 31, Linwood shot and killed 28-year old Edric Alvin Clark over a drug dispute involving Meekins.
On April 9, the brothers followed 76-year-old Mary Gowen across town from her babysitting job. They followed her into her house, beat, raped, robbed, and shot her. They escaped from the residence with many of her valuables.