Donald Beardslee

 

As I stated at the beginning of my last entry, this case too involves an execution. It is only by coincidence really that they both took place in California. I will warn you that this case is a bit confusing and while the case in which sent Donald Beardslee to his execution involved several people. As usual I tried to find information on each of the participants of the crime and I found a little but when an execution is involved it is difficult to find anything beyond that a lot of the time. The strange thing here however is that I did not come across an appeal by Beardslee but I did find one from one of the other participant and those help in giving more information about the crime itself and was very informational.

Donald Beardslee was born in 1944 and when he was of age he joined the Air Force and became an aircraft mechanic. In 1965 he and another airman were caught trying to steal a car. He was sentenced (although I do not know for how long) to a work farm in Minnesota. I can only assume this “work farm” is akin to those they had in that time period, where for instance a lot of 1930's gangsters would have spent time early in their criminal career. I am unsure that they really have anything like these around anymore to be fair. At any rate, while he was there Beardslee was hit in the head by a “falling tree” and suffered a skull fracture and “a days-long coma.” He was twenty-one years old.

By 1969 he was out of the Air Force, the work farm and obviously the hospital. I cannot give you a date but sometime that year he met a fifty-two year old woman named Laura Griffen at a bar in St. Louis Missouri. The two went back to her home where Beardslee proceeded to stab her in the throat with a knife and left her in the bathtub to bleed to death. He readily confessed when law enforcement caught with him. And by “readily” I mean he openly admitted it right away. He was sentenced to eighteen years in prison. He would serve seven before being released on parole. He then moved to California to be near his mother.

Once in California it seems he had his own place and presumably a job, but it also appears that he also was likely involved with drugs. At some point he met a “drug addict prostitute” named Rickie Soria and she became his roommate. Rickie Soria had once dated a man named Bill Forrester. Soria and Forrester had also been friends with a man named Cleo “Frank” Rutherford and a couple by the name of Ed and Paula “Patty” Geddling. It was said that Soria had actually lived with the Geddlings at some point.

By 1981 the Geddling marriage had apparently failed and Patty had moved out of the home and began a relationship with a woman named Stacy (I have seen her name spelled Stacey and Stacie also) Benjamin. Stacy was apparently a drug dealer and the two women were living in Stacy's van. It was said that she had a reputation of “ripping” people off mainly by taking their money and not supplying drugs. Ed Geddling was not at all happy that his wife had left him, especially for a woman and it was said that he wanted some revenge. In addition to that Forrester claimed that Stacy had ripped him off for $185.

Soria would later tell the courts that she had a conversation with Ed Geddling. This conversation allegedly took place with Frank Rutherford and possibly also Bill Forrester. She claimed that Ed wanted Patty beaten up “and wanted the privilege of killing Stacy. Soria claims that Rutherford agreed to help Ed get his revenge and Forrester, who was also upset with at least Stacy was all for helping them. Soria offered to help them by setting up a meeting with the women because they knew they would never meet with any of the men.

Apparently at some point Beardslee was also brought in on the plan. Beardslee sent Soria out on April 24, 1981 to get duct tape and wire. Soria set up a meeting with the women to come to her and Beardslee's home the following day. When they got there Beardslee let the women in the house while Rutherford was standing by with a shotgun and Forrester had a knife. As they were moving the women to the couch to apparently tie them up it was said that the gun Rutherford was holding went off and wounded Patty in the shoulder. They had learned that the women had not come alone and that another couple was with them outside in Stacy's van. Soria went outside to see if they had heard the gunshot and then she took them to a nearby hotel in San Mateo. A little while later Soria claims that Ed Geddling showed up and the women were tied up and gagged. Soria then took Ed Geddling somewhere else so that he could “have an alibi.”

At some point Beardslee, Soria and Forrester drove Patty Geddling to a remote area in San Mateo County. It was here that Beardslee shot her twice in the head with Rutherford's sawed off shotgun. Rutherford had stayed at the home with Stacy at that time. After spending the evening and some of the next day using cocaine they all drove Stacy Benjamin about one hundred miles north of San Francisco to another remote area. There was an attempt to strangle her with a homemade wire garrote but they failed so Beardslee slit her throat with Rutherford's knife. Before leaving her body in the area they pulled down her pants so that it would appear that she was sexually assaulted.

Patty Geddling's body was found, although I cannot say for certain when, or even how. Beardslee's phone number was found near her body and when law enforcement called the number once again he quickly confessed. He then led them to Stacy Benjamin's body.

Because of the fact that he was still considered to be on parole from his 1969 murder case, this case made Beardslee eligible for the death penalty. To be fair I do not have a lot of information about his trial or even when it was conducted, but I can obviously tell you that he was sentenced to death and was executed at San Quentin prison on January 19, 2005. It does appear that there was discussions by his defense about the head injury he suffered in 1965 but obviously it did not help his case.

As far as the other people involved I can tell you that Frank Rutherford was portrayed as “the leader” and he was convicted of first degree murder for Stacy Benjamin, kidnapping, conspiracy, robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. He received a sentence of life without parole plus ten and a half years. He appealed his case in 1988 and it failed, but it was that appeal that helped me get more information in the case. He died in prison in sometime around 2003.

Rickie Soria got a short sentence but I was not completely able to tell how long she got. Bill Forrester was acquitted at trial. As far as Ed Geddling I found nothing that indicated that he was charged with anything.