{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2023}} {{other people}} {{Short description|American murderer (1957–1994)}} {{Infobox murderer | name = Jesse Anderson | image = Jesse Anderson.png | image_upright = 0.85 | birth_name = Jesse Michael Anderson | birth_date = {{Birth date|1957|5|3}}<ref name="TMJ">[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19920427&id=iTEqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=fCwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6897,3952118 Husband: Friends Know Him As A Family Man] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413054758/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19920427&id=iTEqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=fCwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6897,3952118 |date=April 13, 2016 }} The Milwaukee Journal</ref> | birth_place = Alton, Illinois, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1994|11|30|1957|5|3}} | death_place = UW Health University Hospital, Madison, Wisconsin, U.S. | cause = Homicide (severe head trauma) | conviction = First degree intentional homicide | victims = Barbara Anderson, 33 | conviction_penalty = Life imprisonment (minimum of 60 years) | weapon = Knife | date = April 21, 1992 | apprehended = April 29, 1992 | locations = Milwaukee, Wisconsin | occupation = Landscaping contractor | spouse = {{ubl|{{marriage|Debra Ann Eickert|1981|1985|end=div}}<ref name="TMJ"/>|{{marriage|Barbara E. Lynch|1985|1992|end=died}}<ref name="TMJ"/>}} | children = 3 }}
'''Jesse Michael Anderson''' (May 3, 1957 – November 30, 1994) was an American criminal. Anderson was convicted of the murder of his wife, Barbara Anderson, and in attempting to escape blame for the murder, he wounded himself and claimed to police that the couple had been attacked by two black men.
While incarcerated at Columbia Correctional Institution in Wisconsin, Anderson was murdered in 1994 by fellow inmate and convicted murderer Christopher Scarver. Jeffrey Dahmer, a convicted serial killer and cannibal, was also fatally attacked by Scarver after a confrontation when the three were on a work detail together.
==Early life== Anderson was raised in Alton, Illinois. When he was a teenager, his father died of a heart attack and his mother remarried.<ref>Bob Heling, [https://scalar.usc.edu/works/theyre-moving-north/milwaukee-journal-april-27-1992-p-a6-part-1 Husband: Friends know him as a family man] . ''Milwaukee Journal'', April 24 1989 at A6.</ref> He attended Alton High School and graduated in 1975.
In 1980, Anderson married Debra Ann Eickert. They divorced in 1984. That year, Anderson also graduated with a degree in Business Administration from Elmhurst College.<ref name="Chicago"/> On March 30, 1985, he married Barbara E. Lynch in Chicago, Illinois.<ref name="TMJ"/>
The Andersons later lived in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, with their three young children.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19920428&id=9JYWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1RIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5729,7188646 "Handcuffed suspect views open casket."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420205856/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19920428&id=9JYWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1RIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5729,7188646 |date=April 20, 2016 }} ''Milwaukee Sentinel'', April 28, 1992, at A1.</ref> Anderson was treasurer of the Lions Club and did volunteer work at the Divine Word Catholic Church.<ref name="Chicago"/>
==Murder of Barbara Anderson== {{moresources|section|date=September 2024}} On April 21, 1992, the Anderson couple went to a movie and dinner at a TGI Fridays outside the Northridge Mall in northwest Milwaukee.<ref name="Chicago">{{cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1992/04/28/once-a-victim-now-a-suspect/ |title=Once A Victim, Now A Suspect |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=April 28, 1992 |first=Rogers |last=Worthington}}</ref>
After dinner, Anderson stabbed Barbara five times in the face and head, and then stabbed himself four times in the chest. Most of his wounds were superficial.<ref name="Chicago"/> Barbara went into a coma and died from her wounds two days later.
Anderson claimed that two Black men had attacked him and his wife. He gave police a Los Angeles Clippers basketball cap he said he had knocked off the head of one of the assailants. When details of the crime were made public, a university student told police Anderson had purchased the hat from him a few days earlier. Police investigation found that, according to employees at a military surplus store, the red-handled fishing knife that was used to kill Barbara was sold to Anderson a few weeks earlier. Police stated that the store was the only one in Milwaukee that sold that type of knife.<ref name="Chicago"/>
On April 29, Anderson was charged with murder. On August 13, he was convicted in a jury trial. He was sentenced to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 60 years.
==Death== On the morning of November 28, 1994 while imprisoned at Columbia Correctional Institution, Anderson and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer were left unattended while cleaning a restroom at the prison gymnasium with fellow inmate Christopher Scarver. After a confrontation with Dahmer and Anderson on the cleaning detail, Scarver retrieved a steel bar from the weight room, followed Dahmer to the locker room, and fatally struck him on the head.<ref name="ct010"/> He tracked down Anderson and bludgeoned him as well.<ref name="ct010">{{cite news|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-inmate-goes-public-with-why-he-killed-serial-murderer-jeffrey-dahmer-20150501-story.html|title=Inmate goes public with why he killed serial murderer Jeffrey Dahmer|last=staff|date=May 1, 2015|work=Chicago Tribune|access-date=May 4, 2015}}</ref> Dahmer was declared dead about one hour after the attack. Anderson died two days later after doctors at the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison removed him from life support.<ref name="AP1"/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/29/us/jeffrey-dahmer-multiple-killer-is-bludgeoned-to-death-in-prison.html |title=Jeffrey Dahmer, Multiple Killer, Is Bludgeoned to Death in Prison.... |work=The New York Times |author=Don Terry |date=November 29, 1994 |access-date=April 29, 2020}}</ref>
Scarver said later that he was "disgusted" by a newspaper report detailing Dahmer's crimes against Black people. Scarver had pleaded an insanity defense at his own 1992 trial. When asked by a psychiatrist whether Scarver thought his sentence was just, he replied, "Nothing white people do is just".<ref name="AP1">{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/01/us/inmate-bludgeoned-with-jeffrey-dahmer-on-work-detail-dies.html |title=Inmate Bludgeoned With Jeffrey Dahmer on Work Detail Dies |work=The New York Times |agency=Associated Press |date=December 1, 1994 |access-date=April 29, 2020}}</ref><ref name="ct010"/> In a 2015 blog post, Scarver disputed some of these statements.<ref>{{cite web|author=Scarver, Christopher J.|date=May 11, 2015|title= New York Post's False Reporting |url= https://414scarversolutions.wordpress.com/2015/05/11/new-york-posts-false-reporting/ |access-date= March 21, 2020}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * Davis, Donald A. [https://books.google.com/books?id=hSXCEA7LpjsC ''The Jeffrey Dahmer Story: An American Nightmare'']. * Mayo, Mike. [https://books.google.com/books?id=L1uj6s-d44UC&pg=PA96 ''American Murder: Criminals, Crimes and the Media'']. p. 96. * Schultz, Ben. [https://scalar.usc.edu/works/theyre-moving-north/index ''"They're Moving North": Milwaukee, the Media, and the Murder of Barbara Anderson''].
== External links == * [https://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/01/us/inmate-bludgeoned-with-jeffrey-dahmer-on-work-detail-dies.html "Inmate Bludgeoned with Jeffrey Dahmer on Work Detail Dies"] - ''The New York Times'' * [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19941128&id=3nYfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=8iwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5716,8208538 "Dahmer Slain in Prison. Anderson Seriously Hurt in Same Attack"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160404161208/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19941128&id=3nYfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=8iwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5716,8208538 |date=April 4, 2016 }} - ''The Milwaukee Journal''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Jesse}} Category:1957 births Category:1994 deaths Category:1992 murders in the United States Category:1994 murders in the United States Category:20th-century American murderers Category:American male criminals Category:American people convicted of murder Category:American people who died in prison custody Category:American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Category:Crime in Milwaukee Category:Criminals from Illinois Category:Criminals from Wisconsin Category:Deaths by beating in the United States Category:Elmhurst University alumni Category:Jeffrey Dahmer Category:Murdered American criminals Category:People convicted of murder by Wisconsin Category:People from Alton, Illinois Category:People from Cedarburg, Wisconsin Category:People murdered in Wisconsin Category:Prisoners murdered in custody Category:Prisoners who died in Wisconsin detention Category:Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Wisconsin Category:Racial hoaxes Category:Uxoricides in the United States Category:Violence against women in Wisconsin Category:Perpetrators of uxoricide