James Neil Tucker: Encyclopedia II - James Neil Tucker - Childhood and life before murders

James Neil Tucker - Childhood and life before murders

Tucker was born in Utah, the older of two children. After his mother divorced, she remarried to a man with three children of his own. A sixth child came from this marriage. Tucker claimed during his trial and appeals that his stepfather had punished him severely, and as a youth, Tucker had committed petty crimes in an attempt to be taken out of the home by the authorities.

At the age of 17 in 1974, Tucker was convicted of raping an 8-year-old girl and an 83-year-old nearly blind, elderly lady. He received a sentence of one- to 15-years from the Salt Lake County District Court. Four years later he was again before the courts, this time for escape and theft, receiving another one to 15 years sentence. He would spend most of his adult life in jail, escaping a total of three times. His longest time as a fugitive was five years in the 1980s.

While in prison, he became friends with a South Carolina man. The two went to Calhoun County, South Carolina, where in 1984 they worked at the Webb Carroll's Training Center, a horse farm east of St. Matthews. He went back into prison in Spartanburg County after being arrested for housebreaking and larceny. He was sentenced to a 10-year sentence, and after being released in 1988, he was sent back to Utah where he received another one- to 15-year sentence for escaping prison. On being released in March 1992, Tucker returned to South Carolina. He married his pregnant girlfriend, Marcia, in Sumter, South Carolina. After his sentencing to death, she divorced him.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Childhood and life before murders", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki