The father of a murdered daughter could no longer contain his grief and rage on Thursday as he attacked his daughter’s murderer in an Ohio courtroom. Van Terry was approaching the podium and facing the judge to give a victim’s reply when he began hearing convicted serial murderer Michael Madison taunting him from behind.
When Madison was given the death penalty by the judge for the murder of three women, he just smiled. It is rare to capture a pure sociopath and serial murderer so early on in their careers. After Terry made his opening remarks, he glanced back at Madison in is orange prison jumpsuit. Madison was just grinning at him.
That was when Terry snapped. He launched himself across the defense table and had his hands around Madison’s throat and began to throttle him. Sheriff’s deputies raced over to try and pull Terry from Madison. As deputies pulled Terry off and tried to calm him down, Madison kept right on smiling. It seemed as if he was feeding off the violent energy.
Terry’s 18 year old daughter was last seen returning home from work in the summer of 2013. Madison was convicted of three murders when all three of the bodies were located within sight of Madison’s second floor apartment in Glenville, Ohio. Madison, at the time, was a registered sex offender having been convicted of an attempted rape.
When the police arrested him he admitted to two of the murders but told the police he couldn’t remember murdering Terry’s daughter. Madison’s lawyers claimed that the murders were not premeditated and happened due to “spontaneous outbursts of rage”. While no one seemed to admit it, or even know it, Madison seems the prototypical sociopath who claimed that his hero and mentor was a man named Anthony Sowell who is a convicted serial killer with 11 murders to his credit.
All of the women that Madison murdered had been tortured and then strangled. At least one that authorities know of was raped. One of his victim’s had been stuffed in a trash bag while another was tied up with electric cords with a belt tied tightly around her neck.
The county prosecutor said of the attack by Terry that, “The man reached a breaking point and the defendant was taunting him. He killed his daughter. This is the kind of thing that Madison finds amusing.”
PHOTO CREDITS: The Associated Press