40 years later and still unrepentant

[Tigermike 3,055]

Tell me again why the death penalty so bad.

Do any of you remember this? Were you at Auburn when this happened?

Killer details triple slaying on eve of parole hearing

By Alvin Benn

Montgomery Advertiser

ELMORE -- It's been nearly four decades since Edward Albert Seibold broke into a modest split-level house in Auburn, where he used a shotgun to kill two small girls and a hatchet to slice the throat of a teenage girl.

He remembers every detail of that night and admits he hasn't lost sleep over what he did Sept. 6, 1967.

"This was a surprise attack ... get in quick and get out quick," he said Monday afternoon during an exclusive interview with the Montgomery Advertiser at Staton Correctional Facility. "It was a premeditated surprise attack to do permanent damage."

He did just that, and the damage continues. Three who survived the attack still live in fear of Seibold being pardoned one day and coming to "finish the job."

Rejected for parole eight times, Seibold, now 61, said he doesn't expect to be set free today when the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles meets to decide if he should be released.

"What are my chances?" Seibold said in the first interview he's given about the night of the murders in his 39 years in custody. "Zero."

Seibold does not deny what he did. He openly admits his guilt. At one point he extended an apology he knows will never be accepted.

"I'm guilty of first-degree murder," he said. "It's black and white, open and shut. This place is filled up to the brim with people who say they are not guilty. You've got a bad apple here. I'm the bad apple."

He was thorough and, at times dispassionate, as he recalled events surrounding the murders of Sarah Elizabeth "Libba" Sinclair, 18, her sister, Mary Lynn Sinclair, 9 and Mary Lynn's best friend, Mary "MayMay" Durrant, 8.

He murdered the children first, blasting them with a round from his 12-gauge, bolt-action shotgun in the bed they were sharing.

"I put my hands on MayMay's shoulder and used her as a prop," he said. "She was already dead. I leaned across her and I struck at Lynn. She was dead, too, but I didn't know that. You can't miss. It wasn't point blank. She was about 10 feet away."

To describe how he did it, he fashioned his arms into the position he said he used to fire the shotgun at the girls.

Seibold, whose lawyer used an insanity defense during his trial, said by that time he had slipped into a "murderous rage," then came out of the darkness and into a "red haze."

"Now this is the Stephen King stuff," he continued, speeding up his narration as he moved on to the next murder. He was animated as he discussed how he found Libba in her bedroom and forced her into the hallway, while her 17-year-old sister, Faye, managed to force herself under the bed.

"The wall above the head of Faye's bed opens up and a hurricane comes out and blows me at Libba who is standing in the hallway with her hand up to her throat," he said. "I was totally out of control. It was full-blown hysteria. Hysteria is no defense to murder, but that was what happened."

Libba begged for her life as Seibold walked her up and down the hallway, asking her where her sister Cathey was. She said she did not know, and he believed her. Then he slit her throat with the hatchet.

Seibold claims before he killed Libba, he gave her the opportunity to kill him, leaving her with weapons he'd brought, including his shotgun "with a live round in the chamber."

"It didn't make any sense to kill Libba," he said during the interview. "She was a substitute target. If I couldn't locate Cathey, I'd take down Libba or Faye. I didn't know if Cathey would be there or not."

Seibold's murderous "raid" began several minutes earlier when he entered the house and confronted Libba and Cathey's mother, Juanita Sinclair, shooting her in the arm. He said he had not intended to kill the widow because he "loved" her.

"I sent her nine love letters one weekend, and she spread them out on her bed," he said. "She said they exceeded her wildest dreams. She said she loved me, but was not in love with me. I spelled it out very graphically that I wanted to have an affair with her."

The object of Seibold's affections had been Cathey Sinclair. The two had dated a few times, but the then 21-year-old said he was happy when she left for college so he could pursue her 46-year-old mother.

Juanita Sinclair obtained a warrant to keep Seibold away from her house. He said that only infuriated him and led to his late night murderous assault on the six innocent women and children inside.

Seibold never saw Cathey that night. She managed to hide in a den closet and crawled out a window where she met her mother outside. They ran to a neighbor's house to get help. Faye also escaped unharmed.

When investigators began examining the bloody scene, Seibold was on his way to Florida in a van with $1.58 in his pocket. He worked as a caretaker for an invalid before he was captured 10 days after the murders that had launched a nationwide search.

He was convicted and sentenced to death, but after the death penalty was overturned, he was allowed to plead guilty to murder in exchange for three life sentences.

Seibold, a voracious reader who currently is devouring the late Molly Ivins' "Bushwacked," said he has not been a discipline problem in prison and spends his time growing flowers. He loves to work in the Staton garden.

He said he also worries about fellow prisoners who are "sleep-deprived" and have high cholesterol readings because of "all the transfats" in their diets.

"They're not going to live to see 60," he said. "I even get it in my vegetables."

The man, who once was an Eagle Scout, described his family, including his parents and three siblings, as "dysfunctional."

"My father and mother believed in biological determinism," he said. "This crime happened because of a bad combination of genes. My mother's goal was to have me institutionalized for life. When my mother died, she said I was a bad memory."

Seibold said he has made several attempts to apologize to Cathey Sinclair and her mother, but never has received a response on whether they had received it.

"I apologize for taking the lives of Lynn, Libba and MayMay," he said. "I'm sorry for the effect it had on people who are permanently hurt by my selfish and arrogant acts almost 40 years ago."

He said he has mellowed through the years and, if ever released, would like to be sent to a U.S. territory where he would wear an electronic monitoring device so those he has hurt will know where he is.

"I don't have an anger problem, but I sure as hell did in 1967," he said.

link

'COLD-BLOODED MURDER'

Family fears release of man who killed three Auburn girls

link

Parole hearing today for Seibold

Law enforcers make plea for board to keep triple-murderer behind bars

link

Opportunity for Seibold's parole an injustice

link

Revulsion lingers 40 years after murders

link

Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles’ web site

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[CCTAU 3,350]

They SHOULD release him...

IN A PINE BOX. Why should he even get to breath air while the people he killed are in the ground.

[Bottomfeeder 244]

How long do you think he'll last if he is paroled?

I say six weeks max.

[AFTiger 282]

I know quite a bit about this. He was actually given the death penalty but when the US Supreme Court ruled against the death penalty his sentence was converted to life.

[AURaptor 1,126]

That makes for another case where only the insane and utterly spineless would deny this man what he deserves the most - the death penalty. There's absolutely no excuse for this guy to be alive. Maybe if we had done experiments with him, x-rayed his brain a few thousand times. But eventually he should have been killed, and his brain examined - after the disection.

[GalensGhost 0]

That makes for another case where only the insane and utterly spineless would deny this man what he deserves the most - the death penalty. There's absolutely no excuse for this guy to be alive. Maybe if we had done experiments with him, x-rayed his brain a few thousand times. But eventually he should have been killed, and his brain examined - after the disection.

Death penalty is too good. Daily torture.