Andrew Pixley

Andrew Pixley (January 29, 1943 – December 10, 1965) was a convicted murderer from Dallas, Oregon. He was executed December 10, 1965, in Wyoming for the murder of two young girls in August 1964. He was the last person executed in Wyoming until 1992, and the first of only two after World War II. Born Andrew Armandoz Benavidez in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Pixley joined the U.S. Army after being charged with passing bad checks. His father Columbus Pixley said he had dropped out of high school and had never held a job. He served two years, mostly overseas. He was described as "slightly built" and "nervous" and as a transient and dishwasher. There was a previous warrant out for his arrest in his home town on a charge of larceny. He was accused and cleared of being in possession of a stolen car in Davenport, Washington, two weeks before the murders. He had been living in a trailer with two employees of the hotel where the murders took place, David Starling and Orval Edwards. Starling was described as having had prior knowledge of Pixley's violent tendencies. On the night of August 7, 1964, Pixley broke into a room of the Wort Motor Hotel in Jackson, Wyoming, occupied by the family of Illinois Circuit Court Judge Robert McAuliffe, who were on vacation. McAuliffe and his wife were elsewhere in the hotel taking in a show. When they returned to their room, they found Pixley lying on the floor. He appeared to be drunk, but may have been feigning; McAuliffe said at the trial he had not smelled alcohol. McAuliffe grabbed Pixley and pinned him to the floor. Police officer James Jensen heard Mrs. McAuliffe screaming and rushed to the scene, where McAuliffe shouted "My God, this man has killed my babies." Their older daughters, Debbie, 12, and Cindy, 8 lay dead in their beds. The girls had been sexually assaulted, Debbie had been bludgeoned with a rock, and Cindy beaten and strangled. The youngest child, six-year-old Susan, was unharmed. Initially described as asleep during the crime, she may actually have witnessed the assault on her sisters.