Dale Pierre and William Andrews

Dale Pierre Selby and William Andrews were a pair of robbers who perpetrated the so-called Hi-Fi murders (also known as the Hi-Fi Shop murders). On April 22, 1974, during the course of a robbery at an Ogden, Utah, home audio store, they killed three people and left two others permanently injured.

Though the authorities suspected the involvement of other individuals, only Pierre and Andrews were later convicted and executed, while one Keith Leon Roberts was sentenced to five years to life for participating as a getaway driver.

Dale Pierre
Pierre was born on the isle of Tobago, growing up on the island of Trinidad. From a young age, despite his parents' best efforts, he always got into trouble for one thing or the other. He was known as a short-tempered compulsive liar, who got enraged if he didn't get what he wanted, when he wanted it. In June 1970, he relocated to the United States, living in Brooklyn, New York City, until he joined the U.S. Air Force, in May 1973. He was assigned to the Hill Air Force Base, in Utah, as a helicopter mechanic. It didn't take long for him to be suspected of the stabbing murder of Sergeant Edward Jefferson, who had accused Pierre of duplicating his car keys. However, there wasn't enough evidence to arrest or convict Pierre, and the case remained unsolved until the latter and Andrews were tried for the Hi-Fi murders. According to Gary Kinder, Pierre was a psychopath, with both Andrews and Roberts being terrified of him. The fact that he brutally raped one of his victims while she was begging for her life, suggests he was also a sexual sadist.

William Andrews
Andrews was born in Jonesboro, Louisiana. He had a normal childhood, and, by all accounts, was a well-behaved child. Much like Pierre, he joined the U.S. Air Force in 1973, being assigned at Hill Base as a helicopter mechanic as well. The two men became friends, and eventually filed for separation from the Air Force in March 1973. Their commanding officer would later describe Pierre, with his uncontrollable rage, as the dominant one of the duo, while Andrews was basically a "follower".

Hi-Fi Murders
Both Pierre and Andrews were nineteen years of age at the time of the murders. On April 22, 1974, Pierre, Andrews, fellow airman Keith Leon Roberts, and at least three other men drove in two vans to the Hi-Fi Shop, a stereo shop in Ogden, just before closing time, at 6 P.M. Three of the group, including Pierre and Andrews, entered the store brandishing handguns, while Roberts and the other two remained with the vehicles. Two employees, twenty-year-old Stanley Walker and eighteen-year-old Sherry Ansley, were taken hostages, brought into the basement, and bound. Then, the trio began robbing the store. Shortly after, sixteen-year-old Cortney Naisbitt, who was running and errand nearby, entered the Hi-Fi Shop in order to thank Stanley for letting him park his car in the store's parking lot, and was consequently taken hostage, brought into the basement, and bound as well. The same occurred, later that evening, to Orren Walker, Stanley's father, and Carol Naisbitt, Cortney's mother, who had entered the shop looking for their respective sons.

Just before Carol stumbled upon the scene, Pierre, apparently agitated, fired two shots on the basement wall, to which Sherry began pleading for her life. Then, he commanded Andrews to bring him a bottle of Drano, a drain cleaner they specifically brought to poison the hostages, to whom they said it was Vodka laced with a German sleeping drug. At first, they requested that Orren administered the liquid to the other hostages, when he refused, they bound him and made it themselves, by propping them into sitting positions. They took the Drano idea from a movie, and hoped this would have caused an instant and silent death. Unfortunately, the hostages, once drinking, began screaming and having convulsions, with blisters forming on their lips. The cleaner also burned their tongue and throats, peeling away the flesh around their mouths. Orren, seeing the effects on the others, pretended to drink while, actually, he spit some cleaner out of his mouth and mimicked the symptoms.

At that point, Pierre became enraged at the deaths taking so long and being so loud and messy. They attempted to gag the hostages with duct tape, in order to silence their screams, but this failed because of the oozing blisters, which prevented the adhesive from sticking. At that point, Pierre shot Carol and Cortney in the back of their heads, severely wounding the two. He subsequently shot Orren, missing, and Stanley, killing him on impact. Again turning on Orren, this time he grazed the back of his head. Shortly thereafter, Pierre brought Sherry to the far corner of the basement, forced her to remove her clothes, and repeatedly and brutally raped her. When he was done, he allowed her to use the bathroom, then dragged her, still naked, back to the other hostages, and shot her dead as well (reportedly, her last words were "I am too young to die"). Finally, the captors noticed Orren was still alive, and Pierre unsuccessfully attempted to strangle him with a wire. In a last effort, he inserted a ballpoint pen in his ear, stomping on it with the heel of his combat boot, till it punctured his eardrum, broke, and exited the side of his throat. Orren fell unconscious, but nonetheless managed to survive, while Carol later died at the hospital. The victims were discovered hours later by the rest of the Walker family, who immediately contacted the authorities. Only Cortney and Orren survived, although both sustaining severe injuries and irreparable damages. Specifically, Cortney required 266 days of hospitalization.

Arrests
After news of the crime began to spread, an Air Force officer called the Ogden police and told them that William Andrews had confided him months earlier, "One of these days I'm going to rob that Hi-Fi shop, and if anybody gets in the way, I'm going to kill them". Later on, two teenage boys who were dumpster-diving near the Hill Base found discovered the victims' wallets and purses, and, recognizing the pictures on the drivers' licenses, contacted the police. A crowd of airmen formed, including Pierre and Andrews. The latters were eventually arrested thanks to the detective responding to the scene employing proactive techniques (of the kind profilers like John Douglas teach at the FBI Academy. The detective was eventually awarded by the Utah branch of the Justice Department for his use of these techniques, which he indeed had learned from Quantico): every single piece of evidence was displayed to the crowd by waving it in the air with tongs, while the detective spoke dramatically. Pierre and Andrews were the only ones, amidst the other people, to act suspiciously, speaking loudly and making frantic gestures with their hands. This, together with the earlier tip from the officer, brought to their arrests.

A search warrant was issued for their barracks. Police found several Hi-Fi Shop fliers, and a rental contract for a unit at a public storage facility. Inside the unit, not only the stolen stereo equipment was recovered, but also the half-empty bottle of drain cleaner used to poison the hostages. Based on these findings, Pierre, Andrews, and eventually Roberts were all formally charged.

Trial, Appeals, and Executions
Pierre, Andrews, and Roberts' trial began on October 15, 1974. They were jointly prosecuted for first-degree murder and robbery. Of the three, only Pierre and Andrews were convicted of all charges and sentenced to death, on November 16, 1974. Roberts was sentenced to five years to life imprisonment and eventually paroled out, as he claimed he wasn't aware of his partners in crime's murderous intentions. During the course of the trial, it was definitively ascertained that the murders were planned along with the robbery, while Pierre, in one instance, claimed of having found the Drano inside the store's bathroom. Also, both Cortney and Orren testified against the two. While incarcerated, Pierre and Andrews became notoriously hated prisoners, even amongst the black population. Gary Gilmore, a convicted double murderer himself, while being escorted to face the firing squad, allegedly laughed at them and said: "I'll see you in Hell, Pierre and Andrews!" (another source states the exact words were: "Adios, Pierre and Andrews. I'll be seeing you directly").

Following the issuing of the death sentences, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People protested that Pierre and Andrews had been unfairly convicted for being blacks, while both the victims and the jury were whites. The NAACP thus requested their sentences to be reduced to life without parole. Andrews seized the opportunity to accuse the judicial system of racism, claiming he didn't have any intentions of killing anyone (a statement that was contradicted by his earlier claiming of having been the one who, the night before the murders, bought the drain cleaner later employed in the robbery). Despite appeals from both the NAACP and Amnesty International, Pierre and Andrews were eventually executed, in 1987 and 1992 respectively.

Aftermath
The Hi-Fi murders are still considered among of the worst crimes ever committed in the state of Utah. Perhaps because of the successful use of proactive techniques, and because of its heinous nature, the case is taught at FBI trainees at Quantico, and was included as a case sample inside the Crime Classification Manual.

Cortney Naisbitt's story became the basis for a 1981 book by Gary Kinder, Victim: The Other Side of Murder, which was pioneering in its focusing on the victims rather than on the criminals. The case as a whole inspired a 1991 film, Aftermath: A Test of Love. Cortney suffered chronic pain for the rest of his life, was forced to drop out of college due to his brain damage, and entrusted himself to social security assistance. He died on June 4, 2002, at the age of 44. Orren Walker died on February 13, 2000.

Modus Operandi
Pierre, Andrews, and at least another man employed handguns to force the hostages, one by one, into the shop's basement. The latters were then bound and forced to drink Drano drain cleaner. They took the idea from a Henry Callahan film: Magnum Force, expecting the victims to die silently and instantly. Unfortunately, real life turned out to be different from the movie scene, and when Pierre noticed the deaths were taking too long, and were too loud and messy, he began to shoot each hostage in the back of their heads. A medical examiner's report stated that the victims would have eventually died from ingestion within twelve hours.

As Orren, despite having been shot, was still alive, Pierre attempted to strangle him with a wire. When this also failed, he inserted a ball-point pen in his ear, which broke and exited the side of his throat. Orren, nonetheless, survived his injuries.

Known Victims

 * Unspecified dates and locations: several unspecified car thefts committed by Pierre
 * October 4-5, 1973: Hill Air Force Base, Utah: Sergeant Edward Jefferson
 * 1974:
 * Unspecified date in Salt Lake City, Utah: an unspecified car theft from a dealer committed by Pierre
 * April 22: 2323 Washington Boulevard, Ogden, Utah: The Hi-Fi Shop:
 * Carol Elaine Naisbitt (née Peterson), 52
 * Byron Cortney Naisbitt, 16
 * Orren William Walker, 43
 * Stanley Orren Walker, 20
 * Sherry Michelle Ansley, 18

On Criminal Minds

 * Season Eleven:
 * "Outlaw" - While yet to be directly referenced in the show, they may have provided some inspiration for the episode's unsubs: William Duke Mason, Benjamin Wade, and Lester Turner - Both were groups of robbers whose modus operandi included binding and gagging their hostages, raping at least one of the females (though in Pierre and Andrews' case, only one of the latters raped a female hostage), and then shooting each hostage in the head with revolvers. Also, both groups were finally caught thanks to profiling (specifically, proactive techniques in the case of Pierre and Andrews).