James Osgood executed in Alabama for murder 'inspired by a Hollywood torture scene'

USA Today

25-04-2025

James Osgood executed in Alabama for murder 'inspired by a Hollywood torture scene' Osgood was convicted of raping and killing Tracy Lynn Wilemon, a 44-year-old mother who was starting fresh following a divorce. Wilemon's family say she was taken far too soon and has missed too much.
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Alabama man facing execution for 'twisted fantasy' murder
James Osgood, 55, and his girlfriend were found guilty of murder following the brutal attack and rape of Tracy Lynn Wilemon.
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Alabama executed death row inmate James Osgood on Thursday for the brutal rape and murder of his girlfriend's cousin in what one prosecutor called a "twisted fantasy" carried out by the couple.
Alabama executed the 55-year-old by lethal injection, making him the second inmate put to death in the state this year and the 14th in the nation. He was pronounced dead at 6:35 p.m. CT after the execution team tried five times to insert his IV, said Commissioner John Hamm of the Alabama Department of Corrections, according to the Montgomery Advertiser, part of the USA TODAY Network.
In the months and years leading up to his execution, Osgood dropped all his appeals, fired his attorney and told a judge that he was ready to die for his crime: the 2010 rape and murder of Tracy Lynn Wilemon, a 44-year-old who was rebuilding her life following a divorce.
"Tracy, I apologize," Osgood said just before he was executed, according to media witnesses, including the Associated Press, which reported that Osgood also was crying as he lost consciousness.
Osgood's most recent attorney, Alison Mollman, said in a statement on X that those who loved Osgood "will remember him as a man who was more than his worst actions."
"We will not make excuses for the harm he caused," she said. "But we will remember the good we saw in him ... We will remember that actions may be evil or bad but people are not. People are redeemable."
Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement that Wilemon's murder "was premeditated, gruesome and disturbing."
"Both Mr. Osgood and his accomplice − who will never see the light of day − from the moment they were inspired by a Hollywood torture scene, set out to commit this heinous crime against Ms. Wilemon and are now paying the price," she said after the execution. "And let's be clear: At the end of all of this, Mr. Osgood robbed Ms. Wilemon of her life, something that can never be reversed for her or her family. I pray that her loved ones can feel some sense of closure today.'
Here's what you need to know about Osgood's execution and why Wilemon's family chose to witness it.
What did James Osgood do?
On Oct. 13, 2010, James Osgood and his girlfriend Tonya Vandyke attacked Tracy Lynn Wilemon in her bedroom, he confessed to police.
Vandyke and Wilemon were cousins who grew up together in Southern California, Wilemon's stepsister, Trisha Jackson, told USA TODAY, saying the crime shocked their entire family and caused a rift that would never be repaired.
Both Osgood and Vandyke raped Wilemon and forced her to perform sex acts on them, according to Osgood's confession. Osgood slashed Wilemon's throat a number of times before stabbing her in the back.
"I remember seeing the fear in her eyes and seeing her shaking," Osgood said during his confession to investigators with the Chilton County Sheriff's Department. "I know there was a lot of cutting involved but it wasn't a crime of violence. There was no anger involved. I was scared. She wasn't dying, so I kept cutting her throat and neck."
During the horrific last moments of Wilemon's life, Osgood said he apologized.
"I told her I was sorry," he said. "It was nothing against her. She just needed to quit fighting and go."
Chief Assistant District Attorney C.J. Robinson told jurors that "a life was taken because James Osgood decided he wanted to fulfill some twisted fantasy to kill someone."
"He enjoyed it," Robinson said during his closing statement, according to the Montgomery Advertiser. "The same things you heard ... that turned your stomach, turned him on."
Osgood later told a judge that he deserved the death penalty.
"I've always been a firm believer in an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, life for a life," Osgood said during a 2018 resentencing hearing. "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime. I screwed up. I deserve what I was given."
Osgood was sentenced to death while Vandyke is serving life in federal prison.
Who was Tracy Lynn Wilemon?
Family members describe 44-year-old Tracy Lynn Wilemon as a spunky, hard-working mother who was thriving in Clanton, Alabama. She was going through a divorce and saving money from her job at a nursing home to visit her daughter in Lake Havasu, Arizona.
"She was getting on her feet again ... She totally restructured her life, started from scratch," her stepsister, Trish Jackson, told USA TODAY. "Working at the nursing home, that's part of who she was. She cared a lot about taking care of others and helping."
Jackson added: "She was thriving and happy."
Jackson said that she and her stepsister were more like real sisters and spent much of their childhood growing up in the Los Angeles suburb of Riverside along with cousin Tonya Vandyke, who would later help Osgood rape and kill Wilemon (whose legal last name was Brown when she was killed but her family prefers her maiden name to be used in print).
"We were very close," Jackson said, adding that the girls would do each other's hair, dress up, and go horseback-riding and roller-skating. As they became adults and mothers, the women remained close and were always going to the beach and throwing family barbecues, she said.
Jackson said that Wilemon had a lot of life left to live, missed the birth of a grandson and a granddaughter, and deserved so much more than the horrific ending she got.
"She was very loved," Jackson said. "She would have made an amazing grandmother."
Tracy Wilemon: Alabama mom rebuilding life was killed in 'twisted fantasy'
Who is James Osgood?
Osgood had a childhood riddled with pain and abuse, and never knew his biological mother, who was a drug-addicted sex worker murdered when Osgood was a baby, according to court records.
Osgood was malnourished as an infant, sexually abused by a man at a bar as a child, had sexual encounters with other children at the age of 9, fathered a child with a 24-year-old woman when he was 14, and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital as a teen, court records say.
During that time, Osgood was passed from foster family to foster family. He attempted suicide at least once and was diagnosed with an antisocial personality disorder, records say.
During his trial, his sister testified that about the neglect and abuse they both experienced as children. Osgood wiped away tears as she spoke, the only emotion Osgood showed throughout his trial, the Advertiser reported.
Tracy Wilemon's witnessed execution
Tracy Wilemon's stepsister and stepmother, who both attended every moment of Osgood's trial, told USA TODAY that they were traveling to Alabama from Southern California to witness the execution.
Both women said they've forgiven Osgood and hoped that he had found God. But that didn't mean they disagree with his sentence.
"He's deserving of this," Jackson said. "I struggled with whether I believe in the death penalty or do not but I've come to the conclusion that it's God's will. Proper due process was held and this is all God's doing."
Contributing: Nick Penzenstadler, USA TODAY
(This story was updated to include video.)