Mad Dog Kokaine Killer
Marion Pruett was a sadistic cocaine fiend that supported his habit by any means necessary. Consequences be damned.
—
From Crimes In Progress editorial: Outlaws are a foundational element of the American identity. No matter the charge, whether treason or murder or bank robbery, criminal acts have often been redemptive. What makes a criminal worthy of idolatry and others scorn?
—
In the late 1990s, the FOX Network attempted their take on the 1980s cult classic Quantum Leap. The result was Sliders, a fantasy/sci-fi hybrid that managed five seasons while regularly flirting with mediocrity. Still, I watched it because, what else was I supposed to do? Interact with people?
Sliders differentiated itself by focusing on alternate versions of Earth while seeking their version in random order. (Quantum Leap, they jumped time so it was completely different.) One episode involved a visit to a world where the American Revolution failed. History remembered the Founding Fathers as traitors that were executed for their crimes. Though the episode took the “history is written by the victors” concept a little too seriously, it raised a few interesting questions. Of those that committed crimes, how do you decide history’s heroes and villains?
—
5
- Number of people killed by Marion “Mad Dog” Pruett. Officially known as a spree killer, Pruett initially started his life as a bank robber. Nothing about the life of Marion Albert Pruett was redemptive.
—
Charles “Sonny” Pearson moved to New Mexico with his wife in 1979. Some of the locals took to Sonny, others not so much. Pearson had gotten involved in a trucking business where he was liked by his employees. One area business person had their misgivings.
“Sonny could talk people into almost anything,” said Judy Crawley. “He just had that personality and that gift. He made me real uneasy.”
Sonny’s wife Michelle Pearson, had arrived with Sonny and helped managed his businesses. The grisly discovery of her body in 1981 shocked Sandoval County. Sonny himself arrived at the county sheriff’s office, demanding to see his wife and stating he had filed a police report in a neighboring county. After three hours of interviews, Sandoval sheriff’s didn’t believe Sonny and started investigating him. They soon found something strange. Sonny Pearson didn’t really exist.
—
“I’ve become a mad dog killer, I’ve done so much cocaine.”
- Marion Pruett in an interview with journalists in Jackson, Mississippi
—
Creating a new identity is something of an art. In March 2016, authorities in Thailand arrested Hamid Reza Jafary and five associates for creating high quality passport forgeries. Known as “The Doctor”, Jafary was wanted by police in more than six countries, including Britain, France, and Australia. His primary market was Syrians, Iraqis, and others from war torn regions looking for better lives in Europe. Of course, he didn’t ask why his customers wanted his products.
After receiving a 23 year sentence for bank robbery, Marion Pruett was looking for a way to be a new person. But getting out of a federal prison in Georgia would be hard enough. He certainly didn’t know a high quality passport forger.
Then one day in March 1978, fortune smiled on Pruett, perhaps for the first time in his difficult life. He got a new cellmate that others in the same jail wanted dead. While not luck in the traditional sense, it was more than enough for a tried and true criminal.
A North Carolina native born in 1949, Pruett was a reckless child with a disposition that often got him in trouble but occasionally made him a hero. He once reportedly stopped an out of control school bus by jumping into the front seat. By his early twenties, his record was long and distinguished. Pruett soon graduated to bank robbery but was caught and quickly saw the rest of his life dripping away.
William Zambito had fallen into his own trouble with a Florida drug running operation. Facing decades of imprisonment, he turned federal witness and testified against his boss, “Big” Al Benton. Before Zambito could be moved to a more secure facility, the feds needed someplace to stash their witness. For some reason, they chose Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, home to Pruett and Big Al.
Pruett and Zambito ended up as cellmates and one night Big Al finally made his move. Pruett claimed to pretend to be sleeping when he witnessed Big Al stab Zamito to death. In exchange for his testimony, Pruett was released from jail and entered the newly created Witness Protection Program. They also gave him an $800 a month stipend and a new name, Charles Pearson.
—
Pamela Sue Barker aka Michelle Pearson
Bobbie Jean Robertson
Peggy Lowe
James R. Balderson
Anthony Taitt
- List of victims of Marion Pruett
—
A week after the murders, Sandoval County investigators were finally ready to arrest Sonny Pearson but he had fled. Now on the run and in the throes of a $4,000 a week cocaine habit, Pearson began a string of robberies that spanned Colorado, Arkansas, and Mississippi.
It was just after he fled that federal authorities finally began cooperating and revealed that Pearson was in fact Pruett. His first killings after the murder of his wife were in Colorado. James Balderson and Anthony Taitt were murdered during separate robberies committed on the same day.
Pruett quickly fled and found himself in Mississippi where he abducted and murdered Peggy Lowe in a robbery of a savings and loan. His last murder occurred in Arkansas when he kidnapped Bobbie Jean Robertson as she worked the graveyard shift at a convenience store. He shot her in the head in some isolate woods just outside of Hot Springs. Pruett was finally captured in Texas during a routine traffic stop and returned to Mississippi.
—
“There’s been eleven hardback books on me, thirty-one paperbacks, two screenplays, one movie, one off-Broadway play, five songs, and over five thousand articles. What can I say about it? I have no ego for any of this garbage.”
- John Wayne Gacy, offering a strangely accurate account of something he claims not to care about.
—
It’s difficult to define America’s founders as criminals. While their actions at the time were criminal, they served a greater good that society ultimately accepted and forgave. Such forgiveness is rarely extended to killers unless they’re somehow proven innocent later. Still, anyone that frequents true crime forums or subreddits know that a strange admiration exists for a certain kind of criminal. Bank robbers and serial killers tend to be the most frequent due to their brazenness, viciousness, and creativity.
Marion “Mad Dog” Pruett was a one-eyed bank robber that callously murdered five people in a five month span. Though more accurately described as a spree killer and robber, he is often called a serial killer. All things considered, it’s a little surprising more hasn’t been written about Pruett, if only for the Witness Protection angle.
Then there’s a dubious claim he made shortly after his capture that is stunning if true. Pruett claimed that he actually killed Zambito at Big Al’s request then used the incident to get himself out of jail. If this is true, then Pruett was a damn good criminal. He was also impulsive, heartless, sadistic, and much, much worse. One writer that interviewed him work, “He was scum, a selfish, simple-minded cold-blooded bastard who killed people to support a drug habit. And the world is better off without him.”
Judgement may or may not await us after death and the state of Arkansas wanted Pruett to find out as soon as possible. He was executed in 1999 after a meal consisting of two large cheeseburgers, one small supreme pizza, fried green tomatoes, onion rings, french fries, buttermilk and pecan pie.
-30-
Andrew Egan is writer and editor of Crimes In Progress. His work has appeared in Forbes Magazine, ABC News, Atlas Obscura, Tedium, and more. You can read his article, “Any Which Way but Down or A Fair Amount of Male Nudity in the American West” in the December 2016 issue of Blue Skies Magazine. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. His novel, Nothing Too Original, is available now for Kindle and paperback.
Donate to Crimes In Progress and help support great content!
