Nathaniel Code

Nathaniel Robert Code Jr. was born on March 12, 1956. Six months after his birth, his parents divorced, and so his great aunt Josephine Code and his grandfather William T. Code raised him.[5] As a child, Code, who was nicknamed Junior, was considered off by family members, noted for his tendencies to stop in the middle of a sentence and stare blankly into space for a while before continuing.[6] He was also alleged to have set fire to animals.[7] After failing ninth-grade, Code dropped out of high school.[4] He began living with his uncle shortly after.[8]

In July 1975, Code was charged with aggravated rape and burglary in connection with the assault of a 20-year-old woman on June 30.[9] He pled guilty to the crime in November and was sentenced to 15-years in prison.[4] While still incarcerated, in 1983, his birth mother died.[5] Code was released on good behavior in January 1984, and afterwards Code got a job at Fitzgerald's Contractors, but after a 1985 incident where he attacked a co-worker over what radio-station they would listen to, Code was fired.[4] On February 3, 1986, he married 27-year-old Vera Code.[10]

Code's first known murder was committed in 1984, when he was 28 years old. Sometime between midnight on August 31, 1984, Code gained entry to the home of 25-year-old Debra Ann Ford by pulling open a screen on the bathroom window.[11] After a confrontation in the living room, Code bound Ford's hands and placed a gag on her mouth, then stabbed her multiple times and slit her throat, and Ford died as a result of her injuries.[11] Code then fled through the front door. During the time after the murder, Code was not on a suspect list, and with little evidence to pinpoint the perpetrator, a reward of $1,000 was put forward for information leading to an arrest.[11]

Code is also suspected, but not confirmed, to have been the killer in the murders of Wes Burks, 48, and Monica Barnum, 20; Burks was killed on June 24, 1985, while Barnum was killed just under a month later on July 18.[4] A day after Barnum's murder, Code killed four people on the same day; Vivian Chaney, 34, Billy Joe Harris, 28, Carlitha Culbert, 15, and Jerry Culbert, 25. The murders were all committed in extremely brutal fashion; Code had allegedly forced Vivian Chaney to watch him as he slit her daughter Carlitha's throat, then afterwards forced her head under the bathtub water until she drowned.[12] According to retired FBI profiler John E. Douglas, the murders of Debra Ann Ford and Carlitha Culbert showed striking similarities, in his words "manipulation, domination, and control of the victims — a calling card. If one occurred in Shreveport and one in Baton Rouge, I wouldn't hesitate. There's no doubt that the same person was responsible for both sets of murders."[3]

Code is also suspected in the 1986 murders of Johnny Jenkins, 54, and Jake Mills, 60; Jenkins' body was found at 4115 Miles St. on February 21, 1986, while Mills' body was found at 1549 Poland Ave on December 12, 1986.[10] Code was never officially linked to these killings, and none of his known murders occurred in 1986, the year he was married.[10]

On August 5, 1987, Code beat and stabbed his grandfather, 73-year-old William Code, to death. He had stabbed him 13 times, and had bound and gagged him.[6] Code also killed two children that were present in the home, 12-year-old Joe Robinson Jr. and 8-year-old Eric Williams.[6] Police noted that the brutality of the attack had made them speculate if the attack was personal.[6]

Following the last murders, an investigative team interviewed Code at the police station. At the time, he was only a routine suspect because of his relations to one of the victims.[13] Code's fingerprints were collected and were matched to evidence found at the scene, and he was arrested. Following his arrest, another fingerprint sample matched a sample collected at the 1985 murders on Cedar Grove, proving his guilt in those killings beyond a reasonable doubt. Finally, with John Douglas' information that modus operandi was the exact same to Debra Ford's murder, Code fingerprints were compared and they matched as well.[14]

Following his arrest, family members and acquaintances of Code came forward with their disbelief that Code was a serial killer. L.C. Thomas, the co-worker whom Code had attacked in 1985, described Code as quick-tempered,[4] while his wife described him as a good, caring man who would never hurt anyone, and insisted on his innocence.[15] In total, Code faced eight-counts of first degree murder, but in the end, in 1990, he went to trial only for the murders of Vivian Chaney, Billy Joe Harris, Carlitha Culbert, and Jerry Culbert. The trial began in September 1990. According to prosecutors, Code had stalked each of his victims at night while riding on his bike.[16] 106 witnesses took the stand, and more than 450 pieces of evidence were presented through the course of the trial.[17]

An acquaintance of Code, Oscar Washington, took the stand in late September, and testified that between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on July 19, 1985, he saw Code with blood on his arms. He also claimed that Code had told him he had gotten into a fight, and had "came out on top".[18] Although on trial for four murders, the prosecution brought up the coroner, who described all of Code's murders, saying that they were all "methodical, controlling, and brutal."[19] Code chose not to take the stand, but his defense presented evidence that Code could not have committed the murders, due to the fact it would take more than one person to kill four people at the same time.[19] They also argued that, if he were to be found guilty, Code should not be sentenced to death due to him having several mental problems, including Borderline personality disorder.[19] The five men and seven women jury took only one hour to find Code guilty of four first-degree murder charges. [7] He was sentenced to death.[20]

The following year in July 1991, Code filed an appeal, in which he alleged that he had been overwhelmed during the course of trial, causing him to make bad legal decisions.[21] He also continually denied committing the murders, contesting that he could not have murdered four people at the same time.[21] His death sentence was upheld by the Louisiana Supreme Court. In August 1994, a Shreveport judge scheduled Code to be executed by lethal injection on September 29 that year.[22] However, due to Code planning to appeal to a federal court, the execution had to be postponed.[23] A new execution date was set for May 15, 1995, but it was delayed once again by a District Judge, who agreed to review documents in the case.[24]

In 2013, Code was one of three inmates at Louisiana State Penitentiary to file lawsuits against the extreme hot temperatures in the prison. According to them, they would suffer extreme heat, as high as 195-degree with the heat index in the summer, and said it was a risk to serious harm or death.[25] Family members of Code's victims expressed their extreme rejections toward the request, bringing up what he did to put himself on death row. According to Albert Culbert Jr., the brother of Carlitha Culbert, "He lost all those privileges that you and I have. He lost that air conditioning privilege. He lost that. The Culberts, we didn't put him on death row. He did that when he decided to take my sister's life, and my brother, my niece, Billy Joe Harris, Deborah Ford, Mr. William, the other two little boys. He did that. And now he's got nerve enough …"[2]

• John E. Douglas
• List of death row inmates in the United States
• List of serial killers in the United States

• Robert Keppel (November 6, 2007). Signature Killers. ISBN 1416585796.

• State v. Code