Ed Pierce

Meanwhile, Ed Pierce, the sadistic killer of Purity Knight, continued his career of mayhem. On September 20, 1997, Pierce escaped from custody along with Anthony Phelps. Phelps was suspected of being the Proud Larry's Attacker, the man responsible for several rapes connected with the downtown Oxford bar. The duo took off on a cross-country spree with Victoria Symons, then Pierce's girlfriend.

Phelps had been badly injured in the escape, which occurred when a sheriff's transport van skidded and overturned. Symons and Pierce, sensing that Phelps would become a burden in their flight, left him to die in a cheap motel room in Amite, Louisiana. On September 26, the motel manager found Phelps, his skin already cold to the touch.

Without Phelps, Symons and Pierce continued their headlong plunge across the United States. Sporadic sightings and reports marked their progress across the country. In Louisiana, Pierce called a local radio station to request dedication of a song to Purity Knight; in Texas, Symons called home to her mother.

On October 10, outside of San Antonio, Pierce was captured on video tape at a gas station where he allegedlyrobbed a couple of their van, accosting Mrs. Phyllis Sutterton and wresting the vehicle's keys from her while her husband was inside the shop buying breakfast snacks.

Victoria Symons

Based on that tape and other clues as to the couple's possible whereabouts, federal, state, and local authorities began to pinpoint potential destinations.

But it wasn't until the afternoon of October 17, 1997 when Symons contacted Las Vegas police and told them where to find Pierce that authorities were finally able to close in. When they raided the specified location, neither Pierce nor Symons was still there, but Symons was picked up 15 minutes later at a nearby 7-11 convenience store.

Meanwhile, 30 minutes after Symons' call, police received a 911 call from a Las Vegas store owner, describing a man firing at security personnel at the Horseshoe Casino on the "strip." That call marked the beginning of a gun battle and hostage standoff that ended with Pierce and casino security guard Bill Madsen dead, and a second hostage and over a dozen police officers wounded.

Victoria Symons was spared Pierce's grisly fate, and is now serving out a 5-year sentence in Mississippi. She has sold her version of the "box killer" story to NBC television, which is turning it into a made-for-TV mini-series, in which former Olympic skater Tonya Harding is slated to play the role of Symons. [ Continued --> ]