1. Early lives
    Alvin Neelley  Judith Ann Neelley 

2. Youth Development Center crimes

3. Lisa Ann Millican

4. Janice Chatman and John Hancock

5. Arrests and trial

6. Aftermath

7. In the media

8. References

}}Alvin Howard Neelley, Jr. (July 15, 1953 – October 21, 2005) and Judith Ann Adams Neelley (born June 7, 1964) are an American couple who committed the kidnappings and torture murders of Lisa Ann Millican and Janice Kay Chatman; they also attempted a third abduction. Judith was sentenced to death in 1983, but her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1999.^[1] She is serving her sentence at the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama.^[2] Alvin was serving a life sentence at the Bostick State Prison in Hardwick, Georgia at the time of his death in 2005.^[1]

Early lives

Alvin Neelley

Alvin Howard Neelley, Jr., was born in 1953 in Georgia, where he was a car thief during his teenage years. He met his second wife, Judith Ann Adams, when he was 26 years old and she was 15. Alvin divorced his first wife shortly before eloping with Judith in 1980.^[3]

Judith Ann Neelley

Judith Ann Adams was born in Murfeesboro, Tennessee, on June 7, 1964. Her father, an alcoholic, died in a motorcycle accident when she was nine. After meeting Neelley, she began her life of crime, committing armed robbery across the country (even when heavily pregnant) for which she was later caught. She gave birth to twins while incarcerated at Rome, Georgia's Youth Development Center.^[3]

Youth Development Center crimes

On September 11, 1982, Ken Dooley, a Youth Development Center employee, was shot at four times. The following day, fellow employee Linda Adair's home was firebombed with a Molotov cocktail. Phone calls were made to the victims following the attacks by a female who claimed to have been sexually abused at the YDC, but neither victim could identify the caller's voice.^[4][5]

Lisa Ann Millican

Janice Chatman and John Hancock

Janice Chatman and John Hancock were a young engaged couple from Rome. On October 4, 1982, they were abducted by Judith.^[4] Hancock was shot while Chatman was abducted and brought back to the Neelleys' motel room, where she was tortured and murdered. Hancock, however, survived the shooting and was able to identify the Neelleys as his assailants.^[6]

Arrests and trial

Judith was arrested on October 9, 1982, and Alvin was taken into custody a few days later.^[4] Judith was deduced as being the perpetrator in the YDC attacks.^[6] To avoid the death penalty, Alvin pleaded guilty to murder and aggravated assault in Georgia. He was not tried for the Millican murder.^[6]

Judith's trial began on March 7, 1983, in Fort Payne. Before her trial, however, she gave birth to a third child behind bars.^[4] Judith was ultimately convicted of the torture murder of Lisa Ann Millican. Despite a jury's recommendation to sentence Judith to life in prison, Judge Randall Cole sentenced the 18-year-old mother of three to death in Alabama's electric chair.^[7] After her conviction, Judith pleaded guilty to Chatman's murder.

Aftermath

Alvin was incarcerated at the Bostick State Prison from 1983 until his death in October 2005.^[1]

At 18-years-old, Judith became the youngest woman sentenced to death in the U.S. She was placed on Alabama's death row, at the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women. Judith appealed for a new trial, but it was denied in March 1987. In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed her death sentence. On January 15, 1999, Judith was days from her execution date when Governor Fob James commuted her sentence to life in prison with a possibility of parole in another 15 years (thus, a minimum of 31 years in prison).^[7][8] The decision was met with controversy, but Gov. James – long known for his "tough" position on crime – cited the jury's recommendation for Judith's sentencing. Judith would have been eligible for parole in January 2014, at age 49, but the Alabama legislature passed a law in 2003 that made her ineligible.^[7][8]

In the media

On February 28, 2008, the Neelleys' case was profiled on the Investigation Discovery (ID) program Most Evil. On a scale developed by forensic psychiatrist Michael Stone, Judith was ranked as a category 22 killer, the "most evil" level deemed for serial torture murderers.^[9] The Neelleys were later featured on the ID programs Wicked Attraction^[10] and Deadly Women.^[11]

References

• Speaking in Tongues (TV show)
• Speaking in tounges
• Speaking of dreams
• Speaking of Now
• Speaking Parts
• Speaking sequence
• Speaking Terms / Tooth and Nail
• Speaking Terms/Tooth and Nail
• Speaking trumpet
• Speaking tube
• Speaking tubes and voice pipes
• Speaking with the angel
• Speaking with the Angel
• Speaking With the Angel
• Speaking with the Angel: Original Stories
• Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department
• Speak Love
• Speak & Maths
• Speak, Memory
• Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited
• Speak, Mnemosyne
• Speak My Mind (Beyonce Album)
• Speak My Mind (unreleased)
• Speak network
• SPEAK Network