Tennessee is set to execute a serial rapist, dubbed the "red-headed stranger," for the brutal murder of one of his victims, a promising young college student attacked in her bed.
Harold Wayne Nichols, 64, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday, Dec. 11, for the 1988 rape and murder of 20-year-old Karen Pulley, who was bludgeoned, raped, and left for dead.
Nichols was living a double life in Chattanooga at the time of his capture. By all appearances, he was a loving husband whose wife adored and doted on him by day. By night, he was a serial predator who ruthlessly attacked women at their most vulnerable, including on his own wedding anniversary.
Nichols confessed to his crimes, saying that he got a "strange energized feeling" when he attacked women, according to an archived Associated Press story.
One of his surviving victims says the execution is a long time coming − almost 40 years after his crimes terrorized a community, devastated Pulley's family and left at least a dozen women traumatized for life.
