Ex-girlfriend feared murderer Wickline

LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- A woman whose testimony put her former lover on death row says she feared him so much that she never would have talked to police had they not assured her they were trying to get the death penalty. William D. Wickline, 52, was executed by lethal injection Tuesday for strangling a woman after slitting her husband's throat over a $6,000 drug debt in 1982. Teresa Kemp testified at his trial that the former prison slaughterhouse worker coldly dismembered their bodies in his bathtub and had a friend help throw the remains in trash bins.
Wickline was the 11th inmate to die by injection since Ohio resumed executions in 1999. He was pronounced dead at 10:11 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.
"He paid for it, finally," said Kemp, 43, by telephone. "If I could have helped them back then, I would have. I'm lucky I survived myself."
Wickline was convicted in 1985 of killing the couple from Blendon Township north of Columbus and sentenced to life in prison for the death of Christopher Lerch, 28. He was sentenced to death for the slaying of Peggy Lerch, 24, because she was killed to hide another crime.