When a gang of seven blacks kidnapped, gang raped and murdered Melissa "Missi" McLauchlin goes largely ignored. When a minor story in the AP in 2008 reported on the execution of one of the men, it played down the racial part of the murder. This crime predated the Shepard/Byrd killings but unlike them, the press has gone silent. The victim was white and this was clearly a racist attack.

She was murdered in 1992 and here in 2012 we need to remember a true victim of racial hate because the press never will. Extracts from The State (Columbia, SC) September 4, 1994 Page: B5

McLauchlin, 25, was shot in the face five times with a .25-caliber pistol and left to die on the side of U.S. 78 near Summerville Dec. 30, 1992.

Police said that before the slaying some of the defendants, all of whom are black, made a New Year's resolution to rape and kill a white woman as retribution for 400 years of oppression of black people...

In previous hearings some defendants said McLauchlin was willingly having sex with a half-dozen men she'd never met for the promise of drugs. They said that promise was a ruse to lure her into their car... (The facts don't add up.)

McLauchlin's body had a blood-alcohol level of more than 0.25 percent, but toxicology reports showed no trace of illegal drugs. Dorchester County sheriff's Lt. Butch Henerey said McLauchlin's only known drug connection was that she entered a drug rehabilitation program in the mid- to late 1980s.
Melissa Missi McLauchlin
Melissa "Missi" McLauchlin

The outcome of the case is as follows from http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/Pending/05/apr05.htm and I updated the rest.

Date of scheduled execution: April 5, 2005
State: South Carolina
Victim name: Melissa "Missi" McLauchlin, 25
Inmate name: Joseph Gardner
Status: December 05, 2008 Executed

Joseph M.L. Gardner was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. Friday in the state's death chamber in Columbia. He did not make a final statement, but did mouth the words "Thank you. I'm OK," to a relative who witnessed his death.

Gardner was convicted of the Dec. 30, 1992, killing of Melissa "Missi" McLauchlin, who was raped, tortured, shot five times in the face and left to die by the side of a road in Summerville. At the time of the shooting, police said Gardner and some other men made a New Year's resolution to rape and kill a white woman as retribution for 400 years of oppression of black people.

Gardner, who was later arrested in Philadelphia, was the trigger man. Gardner was sentenced to death in December 1995. Joseph Martin Luther Gardner was convicted of the Dec. 30, 1992, killing of Melissa Ann McLauchlin, who was raped, tortured, shot five times in the face and left to die by the side of a road in Summerville.

Missi McLauchlin, 25, was a native of Wixom, Michigan, living with her fiance's family in North Charleston, South Carolina. On the night she died, she had an argument with her fiance at a nightclub. She stormed out of the club and began to walk home. Police spotted her, obviously drunk, and gave her a ride home, but she apparently set out on foot for another club.

Three black men, Matthew Carl Mack, Matthew Williams, and Joseph Gardner pulled up alongside in a car and started a conversation. The men had spent most of the day drinking and watching pornographic videos of black men having sex with white women. At one point Mack had exploded in anger at his white girlfriend, saying he wanted to "stab her," but that "it ain't got to be her, any white would do." Williams said he wanted to have sex with a white woman.

Two hours later, the group watched a television news account of the biggest stories of 1992. When the videotaped beating and arrest of Rodney King came on the air, the third man, Gardner, spoke of "four hundred years of oppression," and made a "New Year's resolution" to "kill a white bitch." It was in this state of mind that they returned with Missi to the trailer where the men lived. The men soon began raping her. They put out the word within the trailer park that they had "captured a white woman," and three other black men arrived and raped her.

Two black women, girlfriends of some of the rapists, were present in another room of the trailer, but did nothing to stop the attack. After they had enough, the men decided to get rid of the evidence-including Missi McLauchlin. They soaked her in bleach and hydrogen peroxide, and scrubbed her under the shower with a nylon brush, in the hope of ridding her skin of sperm or other evidence that could be linked to them. They forced her to scrub out her vagina with the same chemicals. They also talked openly of killing her. The men handcuffed her, blindfolded her, and put a heavy coat over her head.

They then took her to a car, and forced her down onto the floorboards in the back. After they had driven for some time, she managed to get out of the handcuffs and began to struggle. Joseph Gardner, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, reached over the seat, held back her head, and shot her twice in the face.

The driver pulled over to the shoulder 14 miles outside Charleston, where Gardner shot her three more times in the face and once in the arm. The men dumped her on the side of the road, drove back to Charleston, and went nightclubbing. A passing driver found Missi McLauchlin, miraculously alive, and he left to get help but she died before the ambulance arrived.

Missi had a blood alcohol level of .25 at the time of her autopsy. There were no traces of drugs. It took police four days to identify the body, and a day later they located the trailer where Missi McLaughlin was raped. By January 9, 1993, police had arrested seven people including two of the ringleaders-Matthew Mack and Matthew Williams-and two women, Edna Williams and Indira Simmons, who were charged with being accessories to murder and sexual assault. Three of the rapists were sailors stationed at nearby Charleston Naval Base.

The only suspect not in custody was the triggerman, Joseph Gardner, who had carried out his New Year's resolution. Gardner, who was AWOL from the Navy, eluded police for nearly two years, and might never have been caught had the FBI not put him on the "ten most wanted" list. He was living in Philadelphia when someone saw his picture in the post office and tipped off the police.

He was arrested on October 20, 1994. Police suspected a racial motivation from the start, since they found a "crudely written racial diatribe" in the trailer, complete with racial epithets about white oppression, which claimed blacks were "justified in seeking revenge."

Walter Bailey, the chief prosecutor in the case, said "It was the absolutely most brutal and senseless crime, one of the worst things I have ever seen. Totally unprovoked." Before his sentencing, Gardner told the jury, "Do what you think is best." Before that, Joe Gardner apologized to Missi's parents. "I hope it gives you some sense of closure so you can put this behind you and move on. Yesterday when I was listening to you talk, it really hurt me. I really hurt you."

The seven women and five men that found him guilty of kidnapping and murdering Missi thought about it for two hours and decided that the 25-year-old Detroit native should die in the electric chair or by lethal injection. "When it came down, the picture in my mind was my daughter's grave and roses starting to bloom and that she was finally resting in peace," said Missi's mother, Patricia McLauchlin.

Gardner was the only person sentenced to death in the case. Mack received a life sentence plus 30 years, which will allow parole eligibility after 30 years. Williams pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after 30 years. However, 1st Circuit Solicitor Walter Bailey agreed that if Williams would help prosecute Gardner, Williams could be sentenced again under circumstances that would cut parole eligibility to 20 years.

Another man involved, Roger Williams, served half of a five-year sentence for third-degree criminal sexual conduct and being present during the commission of a felony and not reporting it. He was scheduled to be released in December 1995. Danny Dwayne McCall was sentenced to nine years for the same charges as Roger Williams, suspended upon service of six years followed by five years of probation. He was denied parole in June 1995.

Edna Jenkins, who was dating Gardner at the time, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact of murder, illegally buying two handguns within 30 days and lying on a firearms application. She served 554 days in jail. Indira Simmons, who was living in the trailer with Matthew Williams, pleaded guilty to failing to report a felony. She served 572 days, partly in jail and the remainder under house arrest.

Man Will Die for 1992 Rape, Killing Motivated by Race

AP, November 18, 2008

Thirteen years ago, a South Carolina jury decided that Joseph Gardner should be executed for helping to rape, torture and kill a white woman in what prosecutors described as his revenge for centuries of oppression against blacks.

State officials said Monday that Mr. Gardner will be put to death Dec. 5 for his crimes. He can choose between lethal injection and electrocution.

Mr. Gardner was assigned to a Navy ship in Charleston in December 1992 when he and several friends began talking about the injustices done to blacks since they were brought to the country as slaves. The group decided to kill a white woman as retribution, said prosecutors, citing a letter found by investigators that contained passages aimed at justifying revenge against whites.

{snip}

The circumstances around Ms. McLauchlin’s death stirred racial fears in Charleston just nine months after riots in Los Angeles that followed the acquittal of four white police officers in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King.

{snip}

Here is the full write-up of the crimes from American Renaissance when they were first committed:
Missy McLauchlin, RIP

Last December marked the tenth anniversary of a vicious but virtually unknown racially-motivated murder. On the night of December 29/30, 1992, Melissa “Missy” McLauchlin was abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered just outside Charleston, South Carolina, simply because of who she was. This killing is not celebrated like the James Byrd and Matthew Shepard murders. “Anti-racist” groups do not include her name in fundraising letters. There is no hate crime legislation named in her memory. There were no MTV or PBS documentaries made about the attack, and ministers did not arrange protests or candlelight vigils. Missy McLauchlin is not a name that comes up in “sensitivity” courses or in lessons on bigotry and intolerance. Indeed, her murder was not even classified as a hate crime by the police. Though the case received much local attention in Charleston ten years ago, even there her name has faded from memory, leaving only family members and a fiancé to grieve. It is because Missy McLauchlin was killed for being white.

Police reports paint a clear picture of what happened. Missy McLauchlin, 25, was a native of Wixom, Michigan, living with her fiancé’s family in North Charleston, South Carolina. On the night she died she had an argument with her fiancé, John Owen, at a nightclub. She stormed out of the club and began to walk home. Police spotted her, obviously drunk, and gave her a ride home, but she quickly set out on foot for another club. Three black men, Matthew Mack, Matthew Williams, and Joseph Gardner pulled up alongside in a car and started a conversation. They offered her drugs if she would come back to their trailer and have sex with them. Miss McLauchlin, who had a history of drug problems, foolishly accepted their offer.

The men had spent most of the day drinking and watching pornographic videos of black men having sex with white women. At one point Mr. Mack exploded in anger at his white girlfriend, saying he wanted to “stab her,” but that “it ain’t got to be her, any white” would do. Mr. Williams said he wanted to have sex with a white woman. Two hours later, the group watched a television news account of the biggest stories of 1992. When the videotaped beating and arrest of Rodney King came on the air, the third man, Mr. Gardner, spoke of “four hundred years of oppression,” and made a “New Year’s resolution” to “kill a white bitch.”

It was in this state of mind that the four returned to the trailer where the three blacks lived. The men offered Miss McLaughlin no drugs, but she willingly had sex with them—at first. She began to resist, especially when the men wanted to sodomize her, and soon the men were raping her.

They put out the word within the trailer park that they had “captured a white woman,” and three other blacks arrived and raped her. Two black women, girlfriends of some of the rapists, were present in another room of the trailer, but did nothing to stop the attack.

After they had enough, the men decided to get rid of the evidence—including Miss McLauchlin. They soaked her in bleach and hydrogen peroxide, and scrubbed her under the shower with a nylon brush, in the hope of ridding her skin of sperm or other evidence that could be linked to them. They forced her to scrub out her vagina with the same chemicals. They also talked openly of killing her.

The men handcuffed her, blindfolded her, and put a heavy coat over her head. They then took her to a car, and forced her down onto the floorboards in the back. After they had driven for some time, she managed to get out of the handcuffs and began to struggle. Joseph Gardner, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, reached over the seat, held back her head, and shot her twice in the face. The driver pulled over 14 miles outside Charleston, where Mr. Garnder shot her three more times in the face and once in the arm. The men dumped her on the side of the road, drove back to Charleston, and went nightclubbing. A passing driver found Miss McLauchlin, miraculously alive, but she died before the ambulance arrived.

It took police four days to identify the body, and a day later they located the trailer where Miss McLaughlin was raped. By January 9, 1993, police had arrested seven people including two of the ringleaders—Matthew Mack and Matthew Williams—and two women, Edna Williams and Indira Simmons, who were charged with being accessories to murder and sexual assault. Three of the rapists were sailors stationed at nearby Charleston Naval Base. The only suspect not in custody was the triggerman, Joseph Gardner, who had carried out his New Year’s resolution. Mr. Gardner, who was AWOL from the Navy, eluded police for nearly two years, and might never have been caught had the FBI not put him on the “ten most wanted” list. He was living in Philadelphia when someone saw his picture in the post office and tipped off the police. He was arrested on October 20, 1994, and is now on death row.

Police suspected a racial motivation from the start, since they found a “crudely written racial diatribe” in the trailer, complete with racial epithets about white oppression, which claimed blacks were “justified in seeking revenge.” However, and as is common with black-on-white violence, police and the media tried to hide the racial angle. “I think we have to be responsible to the community and the people we protect,” explained North Charleston police captain Charles Caldwell. “I didn’t want to believe this was a racial crime. And we tried to look for other motivations.”

Writer G. J. Krupey wrote what is perhaps the only detailed account of the Missy McLauchlin murder. It appeared in the now-defunct publication Heterodoxy, and later in a collection edited by David Horowitz called The Race Card. Of Captain Caldwell’s remarks, he writes:

“It seems unlikely that such cautious sifting of theories would be tolerated in a case involving, say, the burning of a black man by two white youths, to cite an actual case that happened in the same week as McLauchlin’s murder only a few hundred miles south in Tallahassee. Nationwide, the press showcased that murder as a typical hate crime: one perpetrated by vicious white racists against an innocent black. President Clinton mentioned the Tallahassee burning in his State of the Union address as an example of the sort of violent racism that still needs to be expunged from the American character. Neither the national press nor the president mentioned Melissa McLauchlin.”

Local black leaders did not ignore the crime. They went on a full attack against the police and the white community, with state senator Robert Ford leading the effort with help from the NAACP. Not only did Senator Ford claim the killing was not motivated by race, he said the police should be investigated for inventing a racist plot in the McLauchlin case. He chided “decent white people” for remaining silent against white racism and claimed the police would not have looked so hard for the killers if the victim had been a black woman.

Letters to the editor of Charleston’s biggest newspaper, the Post and Courier, voiced complaints from whites who were angry about the crime and the obvious double standard. Letter after letter noted that if the races had been reversed the murder would have been national news, complete with protests, vigils and civil rights marches. One reader wondered why there was so little interest from the federal government: “Where are the U.S. Justice Department and the Attorney General’s office to look into violations of her civil rights? When this tragic event is compared to some of the petty events in which there have been questions of civil rights and racial prejudice in the Charleston area in the past six months, there is no comparison in their harshness.”

Inevitably, there were whites who denied the obvious. A 31-year-old former teacher urged whites to “get a grip,” and reminded them of the “many contributions” blacks have made to Charleston. She wrote that all the serial killers she had ever heard of were white, and that most murder victims are killed by people of the same race. Still another white woman claimed the killings were as much about anti-female bias as anti-white bias. According to her, “sensationalizing the rape/murder as 100 percent racially motivated adds to the already serious racial tensions and downplays the importance of rape as a crime of hate against women.”