September 17, 2008
Killer of 93-year-old woman executed in Texas
Michael GraczykTexas has executed a man who raped and strangled a 93-year-old woman during a burglary of her Dallas-area home more than a decade ago.
William Murray was executed Wednesday night.
He was the ninth Texas prisoner put to death this year. The total is the highest in the nation.
Murray said drug problems led him to commit at least a dozen burglaries, including the one in February 1998 where Rena Ratcliff was awakened while he rummaged through her bedroom. The widow hit him with her cane or walker, surprising him, and he said after that he "went crazy."
He took about $10 in change from a jar and a knife he later traded for drugs.
The Associated Press