Ripple Effects Of Paul Williford's Confessions

Anguish over a recent murder confession as Tulsa Police detectives continue to unravel the facts. <br/><br/>The News on 6 broke the story of 64 year-old <b><a class="headlinelink" href="http://www.kotv.com/main/home/searchKOTV.asp?mainSearch=Paul

Wednesday, October 26th 2005, 10:00 am

By: News On 6

Anguish over a recent murder confession as Tulsa Police detectives continue to unravel the facts.

The News on 6 broke the story of 64 year-old Paul Williford, who told police he targeted his elderly victims through his newspaper delivery route.

As News on 6 anchor Tami Marler explains, the list of victims continues to grow.

The cleanup and refurbishing is almost complete at the home where 75 year-old Jerri Lawhorn once lived. "There's been people over here every day cleaning it out or whatever, and I just assumed that something had happened." Something happened, just after Larry Stokes and his family moved in across the street. Someone, he assumed was a loved one came to the door, clearly very concerned. "And he knocked on the door and nobody came to the door and he started going to the windows and knocking and nobody came, and then about 15 minutes later the Tulsa Police came and they knocked on the door and then they proceeded to go on in."

Tami Marler spoke with Lawhorn's sister. She was too distraught to go on camera, but told the News on 6, her sister was suffering from emphysema and an enlarged heart, and so while they were stunned by her sudden death, they didn't question it. After Paul Williford started talking to Tulsa Police, they have to suffer all of the pain like it's brand new, as Tulsa Police investigate.

"He just indicated that he wanted to go back to prison." Tulsa Police Captain Tracie Crocker says that's the reason Williford has given for confessing to killing Lawhorn and 73 year-old Donna Jo Stauffer, who lives just a few blocks away. "He started talking about these other two ladies that he supposedly killed and we're just having to check that out and see if that's true or not."

Someone else who's suffer in the wake of Williford's confession, the woman he's been living with since he was released from prison in 1996. Paul Williford's wife divorced him in 1994, but told Tami Marler, she allowed him to stay, because he was taking his medication for a bi-polar condition and seemed to be improving.

She said he recently stopped taking his medication and had started acting strange, so she tried to get him to move out several times. She also said, as she helped him fold his newspapers for his Tulsa World delivery route, she expressed regret about the elderly women who'd died in their neighborhood. She said his expression would "glass-over" and he'd say it was "just one of those things."

She said Paul Williford was a monster and she hardly recognized him, but she says he never physically harmed her and she had no idea he was capable of what he's telling police.