By Robert A. Waters
Ralph Menzies looks like anyone's grandpa. Slightly overweight, maybe a little sickly, but probably nice enough. If you saw him in Walmart, you might nod.
You wouldn't know that from his youth Menzies could never stay out of prison for more than a few days at any given time. For his final crime, he kidnapped, tortured, robbed and murdered a completely innocent woman.
So now this kindly-looking old man faces a firing squad.
A lot of people say he's too old to be shot to death. Not only that, he had a crappy childhood. And he might have mental issues. And, even worse, he may have dementia.
Others say it's been a long time coming, that 40 years is too long for a family to have to wait for justice to be served.
On February 23, 1986, Maurine Hunsaker, 26, went to work at the Gas a Mat service station in Kearns, Utah. As a clerk, her job was to see that customers got gas in their vehicles and bought candy and cold drinks and beer if they wanted to. She may never have even realized that working in such a business is one of the most dangerous jobs in America.
The Salt Lake City Tribune reported that "Menzies is accused of killing Mrs. Hunsaker the morning after she disappeared from her job at a Kearns area self-service gas station February 23. A hiker found her body February 25 near a picnic area on Storm Mountain in Big Cottonwood Canyon."
Menzies had been out of prison for just three days. Instead of trying to find work, he decided to rob a store to get a few bucks for drugs. It was just the luck of the draw that he chose the place where Maurine worked.
A staff writer for the Tribune wrote that "convicted killer Ralph LeRoy Menzies is an incurable psychopath who should die not just for the murder of Maurine Hunsaker but for his life of crime, prosecutors say."
As a juvenile, Menzies had a rap sheet five pages long. In 1976, just hours after being released from custody for other crimes he robbed a 7-11 convenience store. Two years later, he shot-gunned a cab driver. Had he been jailed for the rest of his life for either of those crimes, Maurine Hunsaker would likely have been able to live her life.
Instead, Menzies played the system. After he kidnapped Maurine, he allowed her to call her husband and tell him that she would be released later. Then Menzies used a long-bladed knife to stab her to death.
Menzies is scheduled to die September 5.
Maurine's son Matt, who was just ten-years-old when his mother was killed, has long complained about the length of time it takes for an execution to take place. Betty Sudweeks, Hunsaker's mother, recently stated that she is bitter at the system for the dozens and dozens of delays. "Maurine had a very lovely family," Sudweeks said, "and a husband she adored. She had everything to live for."
Ralph Menzies got $116.00 for the robbery.
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