Compiled by Robert A. Waters
NOTE: Details of rapes and murders are graphic
"On September 24, 1992, Sarah Grogan, age sixty-nine, woke up to find that someone had broken into her home in the Vine City area of Atlanta. Ms. Grogan left her bedroom and found a man in her kitchen. As the man chased her back to her bedroom, Ms. Grogan slammed the bedroom door in the man’s face. Ms. Grogan got her gun and shot through the door, but the man wasn’t there when she opened it to see if her shot had hit him. As she left the bedroom, the man 'took a shot at [her], but she ran to the front door and got out.' Police discovered that the burglar had broken into Ms. Grogan’s house through a rear kitchen window where the screen had been ripped from its frame. Investigators took fingerprints from the rear window and from other items that the man touched."
NOTE: The above paragraph comes from a court document that runs over 100 pages. The record describes four similar accounts in which elderly women were raped and murdered by a serial killer. Other court documents about the serial killer and his victims stretch into thousands of pages.
The reason I emphasize this is because I could find no other place on the internet where the case is mentioned. Just in passing, this small paragraph tells the story of a woman who survived a serial rapist/killer because she had a gun.
Here is a verbatim description of what the court says about Lyndon Fitzgerald Pace's other victims.
"In seven months, Lyndon Pace (pictured) raped and strangled to death four women, three of whom were more than seventy-eight years old. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
"On August 28, 1988, Lula Bell McAfee, age eighty-six, was found dead in her home in Atlanta. She was naked and lying face down on her bed, with a pillow underneath her stomach that pushed her pelvis up, exposing her vaginal and rectal areas. Blood was pouring out of her mouth and her bra and a strip of cloth were tangled around her neck. Her bathroom window was open and the window screen had been removed and left lying on the ground. Her bedroom was 'completely ransacked' and a briefcase, car keys, and money were missing. Ms. McAfee’s autopsy established that she had been strangled to death. The presence of lubricant on her vaginal and rectal areas suggested that she had been sexually assaulted. Swabs from her breasts revealed the presence of saliva, and vaginal and rectal swabs revealed the presence of sperm. Ms. McAfee had known Pace 'since he was a baby.'
"On September 10, 1988, Mattie Mae McClendon, age seventy-eight, was found dead in her home in the Vine City area (pictured) of Atlanta. She was lying in her bed with bloodstained sheets pulled over her body. Her bathroom window was open, the window screen had been torn apart from the outside, and a tree limb just outside the window was broken. Ms. McClendon’s autopsy showed that she had been strangled to death and suffered 'a very large' vaginal laceration 'with a large amount of hemorrhage coming from it.' Rectal swabs taken from her body revealed the presence of sperm.
"On February 4, 1989, Johnnie Mae Martin, age seventy-nine, was found dead in her home in the Vine City area of Atlanta. She was lying on her bed with a pillow over her head. Her bloodstained nightgown was pulled up around her breasts, a shoelace was wrapped around her neck, and the rest of her body was naked with her legs spread open. A side window was open, the window screen had been pushed back, and a ladder was just under the window on the outside of the house. The house was 'ransacked.' Ms. Martin’s autopsy established that she had been strangled to death and suffered a vaginal laceration and other injuries in her vaginal area. Rectal swabs taken from her body revealed the presence of sperm.
On March 4, 1989, Annie Kate Britt, age forty-two, was found dead in her home in Atlanta. Ms. Britt was lying naked in her bed with a sock knotted tightly around her neck. Someone had pried open a back window, the window screen was lying on the ground, and a pipe underneath the outside of the window was loose and detached from the wall. The house was 'ransacked.' Ms. Britt’s autopsy established that she had been strangled to death, and a broken fingernail, bruises, and scrapes on her body were 'consistent with her fighting with her attacker at the time that she was strangled.' Her autopsy revealed multiple tears in her anus that appeared as if they had occurred after she died, and rectal and vaginal swabs revealed the presence of sperm."
The document describes many other cases in which elderly women had been victimized (but not murdered) by Pace. It took several years, but DNA and fingerprints eventually placed him at all the crime scenes, including that of Sarah Grogan.
I wish to emphasize that if Sarah did not have a gun, she would likely have ended up being a murder victim. I also wish to emphasize that, as far as I can tell, this case never made the news cycle.
Pace was sentenced to death and has been on Georgia's death row for 29 years.
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