A death row inmate who as a teenager killed five people and terrorized a community has been executed.
Frank Athen Walls, 58, was executed by lethal injection on Thursday, Dec. 18, for the 1987 murder of Ann Louise Peterson in Fort Walton Beach along Florida's Panhandle. Walls, who was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. ET, was either convicted of or confessed to four other killings between 1985 and 1987 as part of a case that police called "the Tuesday murders."
"I am sorry for all the pain and suffering I caused over the years," Walls said in his last words, reported Tom McLaughlin, who witnessed the execution for the Pensacola News Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Walls' other victims include a 19-year-old junior college student who was sunbathing when she was attacked, a new grandmother and Peterson's 22-year-old boyfriend, an Air Force Airman who died trying to protect her,
Though many family members of the victims have died waiting for justice, those who are living hope that Walls' death eases some of their pain.
