William Pierce Jr.: The Serial Killer Who Killed for a Dollar

That heart-wrenching line came from a husband who never imagined that a small act of kindness to a stranger would end in devastation. Now, he’s left feeling like that one moment changed everything for his family.
To really get how this all went so wrong, we’ve got to rewind and start from the beginning.

William Pierce Jr.'s Early Life: A Troubled Beginning

His name was William Pierce Jr, or Junior as he liked to go by. He was born on October 11th, 1931, in Midville, Georgia. Those of you who know your American history will know by the date that William came into the world right in the middle of the Great Depression. He, like many other people during this challenging period of time, grew up going hungry and in deep, deep poverty.

Times were difficult, and many suffered. Among those were William’s parents, who often fought—the loudest and most aggressive of which being his mother. She was a strict, opinionated woman, and after she divorced William’s father, she took her frustrations out solely on her son. His mother ruled the household with an iron fist, and whenever she deemed that William was misbehaving, she would beat him without mercy.

William grew into a severely psychologically damaged child, and that also reflected in his school life. He did poorly in his classes, and a later test discovered that he had an IQ of only 70. This would categorize him as mentally challenged by today’s standards.

A Criminal Life Begins: The Turning Point

William stayed in school until the ninth grade and then dropped out to get a job as a road worker. He didn’t last very long, however, and quickly quit to join the army. That also only lasted a few months before William’s mother submitted several, presumably fraudulent, doctor’s certificates claiming he was medically unfit for service. William was discharged and sent right back to live with his domineering mother.

By then, William was a bit older and had seen a tiny bit more of the world. He was still afraid of his mother and her beatings, but mixed in with that fear was also hatred and disdain. William now believed that he was smarter than the woman who dominated his life, although he wasn’t quite brave enough to stand up to her just yet.

To keep himself busy, William found work in a local car rental service. His colleagues seemed to like him well enough, but they also found him stiff and awkward, especially with the customers. Despite this social awkwardness, William did, however, manage to find love, if only briefly. He married and moved to Swainsboro, but his marriage only lasted three months before he and his wife divorced.

William may not have been successful in romance, but the move did, at least, separate him from his mother. Now with a fresh start, William found work at a furniture factory and began building a new life for himself.
He did relatively well, but his new success, unfortunately, wasn’t to last. Sometime in his late twenties, William was involved in an accident at work that left him with a concussion. As we often see with severe head traumas, the accident changed him, and not for the better.

William became more arrogant and outwardly aggressive toward others. Later in his life, people would believe that this change in behavior was the early sign of a developing personality disorder. With a now-inflated ego and sense of self-worth, William was about to take his life in an entirely different direction.

A Killer on the Loose: The Murder Spree

William began stealing and was caught a short time later. He was sentenced to five years in prison. He managed to parole out early after serving nearly three years, but only a few weeks later, he was charged again. While out on parole, William robbed and then burned down a store. This time, he was sentenced to twenty years in prison with the possibility of parole after ten.

It was during a panel review for his parole that William’s future hung in the balance. Before him laid a good few more years in prison, and down a different path awaited freedom. Between him stood the parole board. He had years of good behavior and being a model inmate strengthening his case, but on the other hand, he had some pretty hefty opposition. The prison psychologist was there, arguing that William should stay in custody. He warned the board that William “may be dangerous to himself and others,” and that he was showing clear signs of mental illness.

The board listened and then paroled William only eight years into his twenty-year sentence.
This was a decision they would come to regret.

Later that year, in June 1970, William broke into a home in North Augusta, South Carolina. There he came upon 18-year-old Ann Goodwin, who was babysitting her neighbor’s children. William sexually assaulted Ann and then shot her. He then raided the home, stealing several valuables before fleeing the scene and leaving Ann to her fate. She had survived the initial shooting but would later, unfortunately, succumb to her wounds in the hospital.

A few months later, 13-year-old Peg Cuttino left her family home in Sumter, South Carolina, to have lunch with her sister. Forty-five minutes passed, and when she didn’t return home, her parents knew something was wrong. A statewide search ensued, fueled by the fact that Peg’s father was South Carolina’s State Representative. Her body was recovered almost two weeks later, and an autopsy revealed that she had been sexually assaulted, beaten, and suffocated.

Just two days after Peg’s disappearance, William appeared at a service station in Vidalia, Georgia, about a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Sumter by car. There, he shot and killed 59-year-old station attendant Joe Fletcher. William then stole about $79 from the cash register before fleeing the scene.

He did the same thing again only a few weeks later, shooting and killing store manager Lacey Tigpin, and then he returned to a familiar place.
While previously working on a prison road crew only two months before his parole, William went into a store in Appling County. The store belonged to Helen Wilcox, but her husband was there that day, and Homer Wilcox was feeling compassionate.

“He wanted some cigarettes,” Homer later testified. “And I gave them to him. I wouldn’t take his money. I said, ‘No sir, I want to give this to you.’ I gave him a dollar out of the cash register and told him, ‘I know it ain’t much.’ I told him to stop back when he got out if he needed anything… He stopped back…”

This time he was met by Helen Wilcox, and Helen would have a very different experience with William than her husband had previously had. William kidnapped her and took her out to the woods surrounding the city. There, he sexually assaulted her before shooting and killing the 32-year-old woman. He then buried her in a shallow grave and fled.

Six days later, William was robbing another store in Baxley. This time, he killed 60-year-old Vivian Miles and attacked her five-year-old granddaughter. The child survived the incident with a severe head injury, but she wasn’t the only witness to Vivian’s murder.
While fleeing the scene, William was interrupted by a truck driver named Joe Overstreet. William shot at Joe but missed, leaving behind a man who would later help seal William Pierce’s fate.

Facing the Consequences: Life Behind Bars

Finally, two months after killing Vivian, William was arrested after robbing another gas station in Baxley. In police custody, he confessed to nine murders, including the kidnapping and murder of 13-year-old Peg Cuttino.
A whirlwind of events followed.

Joe Overstreet identified William as the man fleeing the scene of Helen Wilcox’s murder, corroborating William’s earlier confession. Law enforcement had many reasons for wanting to prove that William had been telling the truth. By then, he had recanted his confession, claiming that he’d been drunk during his police interview and that he hadn’t been read his Miranda rights.

Authorities had an irate State Representative breathing down their necks, demanding justice for the murder of his daughter. William also retracted his confession about killing Peg Cuttino. He claimed detectives had coerced him by beating and torturing him—a claim that was somewhat substantiated by a report mentioning bruises and burns on William’s body, particularly near his genitals.

Some people believed his claims and questioned the legitimacy of his initial confession, but the courts disagreed. He traveled around the country, following the path of destruction he had left since his early parole in 1970, but this time, he faced the music. For every judge and jury in front of him, William was hit with another life sentence, officially sealing his fate.

William Pierce Jr. would remain behind bars for the rest of his life. He died in a prison in Jackson, Georgia, in 2020 at the age of 88 after serving nearly 50 years.