Slayer’s Book of Death

Jason Massey grew up in Ellis County, Texas, south of Dallas. By his late teens he had killed dozens of animals and filled journals with violent fantasies, including a goal of becoming a serial killer. A psychiatrist had him committed in 1991, and in June 1993 he was convicted of drunk driving. He was 20 years old.

On July 27, 1993, less than two months after that conviction, Massey picked up 13-year-old Christina Benjamin and her 14-year-old stepbrother, James Brian King, early in the morning. Both were shot with a .22-caliber pistol, and Christina’s body was mutilated. A road worker found the two by a rural bridge near Telico two days later. A store clerk remembered selling Massey bullets and handcuffs, a car wash owner reported seeing him dump items in a trash bin, and Christina’s blood was found in his car.

In 1994 an Ellis County jury convicted Massey of capital murder and took about 15 minutes to sentence him to death. Texas executed him by lethal injection in Huntsville on April 3, 2001, when he was 28. In his final statement he admitted the killings, apologized to the families and said he had put Christina’s head and hands in the Trinity River.