Rocky Beamon: No Remorse | World’s Most Evil Prisoners | Forensic Files

[ominous music] NARRATOR: The United States is home to some of the world's most dangerous killers.
Individuals responsible for such heinous crimes. Other inmates fear them. One of these killers was Rocky Beamon.
- There's a lot of evidence that clearly Beamon is not psychiatrically stable. - That kind of depravity, that kind of hatred, that kind
of malice. Why are you evil? Are you born evil? NARRATOR: To feed a severe drug habit, Rocky Beamon,
along with his girlfriend, killed and then robbed an innocent woman. - They wanted her money and they wanted her car.
He tied her hands. He gagged her and for a couple minutes, holds her underneath the water.
CHARLIE KEENE: It was heinous. It was cruel. An absolute animal. NARRATOR: Once incarcerated, Beamon's behavior
reached a new level of depravity. - All of his attacks are extremely rage-filled,
and they're all premeditated. These aren't impulsive homicides. PAUL LOPEZ: There's no prestige in attacking
a man who has no clothes on in the shower, in the back. NARRATOR: A threat to anyone who crossed his path.
Rocky Beamon received the ultimate punishment. DOUGLAS COVINGTON: I have no doubt he would have
tried to kill somebody else. The death penalty was the only option, I believe. - I personally have never known anybody
to get two death sentences. Usually one just does the trick. [theme music] NARRATOR: The state of Florida has the third largest prison
system in the USA, incarcerating around 89,000 prisoners across 134 prisons. One of these institutions houses inmates
deemed the worst of the worst. [dramatic music] PAUL LOPEZ: Santa Rosa Correctional Facility
is located in Milton, Florida. It houses approximately 3,000 inmates. It sits on 54 acres and is surrounded by woodland.
THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: Santa Rosa has always had something of a reputation as being one
of the violent penitentiaries. - Has housed some of the state's most violent and
notorious criminals. NARRATOR: One of the most callous individuals to have ever been held there was Rocky Beamon.
DR. LINA HAJI: If you look at the traits of psychopaths, Beamon hit almost every single one of them.
He made a decision from a very early age that he was going to go against the grain.
He was going to be anti-authority, antisocial, anti-society. And he went with that all the way.
CHARLIE KEENE: Rocky appeared to be a very fit guy, but you could tell that his use of crack cocaine
had clearly taken a physical effect on him. NARRATOR: His insatiable drug addiction led him to rob and
murder a woman for her car. CHARLIE KEENE: To bounce somebody and actually throw them away like trash into a pond
and leave them like that. Whoever did this was just pure evil. - What affected me in this case was the horror that she went
through until she was dead. NARRATOR: Once in prison for murder, Beamon's calculating nature was revealed through letters
he wrote. PAUL LOPEZ: He said he would kill again. And then his next victim, he would
carve the name of the judge in the victim's back, metaphorically saying, this blood is on your hands.
DR. LINA HAJI: Beamon loves being in control. He loves controlling women. He loves controlling his victims.
This is feeding that narcissistic quality that psychopaths tend to have, where, you know,
he's the judge, the jury and the executioner. [intriguing music] NARRATOR: Rocky Ali Beamon was born in 1977.
THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: He was born in Naples, Florida, and moved at a young age to Lake Placid with his mother and
his stepfather. NARRATOR: Rocky's biological father was an alcoholic and never met his baby son.
DR. LINA HAJI: He made Beamon a low priority and opted instead to make alcohol a high priority, which has got to be
really hurtful to a child. It could have sent a message to Beamon that he was not loved or not wanted.
THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: Rocky Beamon always claimed that he'd been sexually assaulted as a child,
but he never specified who had abused him, whether it was a biological parent or a step-parent
or someone off the street. DR. LINA HAJI: The only source of information that points to him having been sexually abused came from him.
You never want to be dismissive. However, I'd be remiss to say that there aren't individuals out there who falsely report abuse.
NARRATOR: By the age of 12, Rocky Beamon, like his father, had become heavily dependent on alcohol.
PAUL LOPEZ: At 14, he had moved on to crack cocaine, and he started using methamphetamine in combination
with alcohol and marijuana. [suspenseful music] DR. LINA HAJI: He progressed to full blown addiction very,
very quickly. Is it because he was indeed sexually abused and went on to self-medicate?
On the flip side, he could have just turned to drugs and alcohol experimentally decided that he enjoyed it.
His brain is not fully developed, and he's already introduced all of these mind altering illicit substances into his system.
NARRATOR: Throughout his teenage years, Beamon's addiction to substances was matched by a growing addiction to crime.
- In 1995, Beamon was arrested and convicted for two counts of criminal mischief,
three counts of grand larceny, as well as armed burglary. As a result of those convictions,
he spent much of his younger years either on probation or incarcerated in the Juvenile Justice Center.
DR. LINA HAJI: His goals are now to be antisocial and to engage in criminal behavior.
He's a slave to his addiction, and he's going to need money to facilitate that addiction.
And so he's getting himself in a tangled web that he's not going to be able to escape easily.
NARRATOR: Beamon went on to make a full-time career out of crime. [tense music] THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: Between 1997 and 2004,
Rocky Beamon was convicted of alligator poaching, battery larcenies, driving on suspended licenses.
- Beamon really is the classic escalating offender. He went from nonviolent crimes.
And now you start to see, by the time he's in early adulthood, he already has three
charges of domestic violence. He's angry. He's misogynistic. He's hating women. [suspenseful music]
NARRATOR: By age 27, Beamon's life had mostly been centered around taking drugs, committing crimes and doing time in county jails.
Now living in Seffner, a suburb of the city of Tampa, he got himself a new girlfriend.
- He even met a girl named Karen Wilkins. She was a good person that was led astray by Rocky Beamon,
and they did a lot of drugs together. [intriguing music] NARRATOR: Beamon and his 39-year-old
girlfriend Karen were sitting out the front of their home. They spotted a lady slowly driving down their street.
The driver was 47-year-old Deborah Lacey. CHARLIE KEENE: Deborah worked for the post office.
From all accounts, she was a great lady. NARRATOR: Deborah Lacey had a 16-year-old daughter and
shared a close bond with her large circle of family and friends. - She had some issues and, um, ended up
with a drug addiction, which kind of led her down this path, where she ended up meeting Mr. Beamon at that point.
Initially, Ms. Lacey, she sees Mr. Beamon standing outside of his house. She stops to have a conversation with him.
THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: Deborah said, do you have anything I could drink to swallow my pills?
And that led Rocky to offering to take her to his house, where he gave her a beer.
[tense music] DOUGLAS COVINGTON: There was no suggestion that Mr. Beamon and miss Wilkins knew Ms. Lacey.
Ms. Lacey Bordeaux, unfortunately, had indicated that she had a lot of money and all Ms. Wilkins and Mr. Beamon
could see was money for drugs. NARRATOR: Beamon, motivated by his unrelenting addiction,
decided he was going to rob Deborah Lacey. When Deborah told him that she wanted
to consume some crack cocaine, Beamon saw his opportunity. DOUGLAS COVINGTON: They got in her car.
They went to one of Mr. Beamon's suppliers and got cocaine. Mr. Beamon and Ms. Wilkins indicated where they wanted
to smoke the crack cocaine. It was an isolated area because it was a wooded area,
and in the middle of it there's a pond or a lake. [ominous music] NARRATOR: Unbeknown to Deborah, she was walking into a trap.
THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: Deborah is in the woods with Rocky and Karen, and they're doing this crack cocaine.
At that point, Rocky decided that he would rob and kill Deborah Lacey. Rocky hit Deborah with a stick and
tied her hands with a drawstring from his shorts. He then stuffed a rag in her mouth
to keep her from screaming, and duct taped that over her mouth. PAUL LOPEZ: He and Karen then walked Ms. Lacey approximately
150 yards to a nearby pond. That is a long way. That is an American football field and a half.
Once they arrived at the pond, Mr. Beamon forced Lacey's head under the water and held her there until she was dead.
DR. LINA HAJI: That is a long, torturous, sadistic way to commit a homicide. He let Lacey know that she needed to be absolutely
terrified prior to her death. He's filled with rage. And on top of that, he's a serious drug
addict, which is easily disinhibiting his impulsive nature. DOUGLAS COVINGTON: That must have
been terrifying for Ms. Lacey, realizing that she's underwater, not being able to breathe,
and that she's never going to get out of that situation. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: After the murder,
Rocky and Karen took $30 out of Deborah's purse. They stole her Lincoln Continental
and traded it for $200 to $400 worth of crack cocaine. DR. LINA HAJI: You can rob someone in order to gain money.
You can even assault somebody in order to gain money. But did you really need to murder
her to get money for drugs? It seems unnecessary. NARRATOR: Following the murder, Beamon and
Wilkins unashamedly carried on living their lives as normal. Seven days later, Deborah Lacey's sister
had not heard from her sibling for over a week. She called the police to report her missing.
DOUGLAS COVINGTON: My name is Douglas Covington. I was a Felony Division chief, and
this case landed on my desk. Ms. Lacey had been reported as a missing person. A sergeant with the sheriff's department
had indicated to his squad to be on the lookout for Ms. Lacey and to start looking for her.
NARRATOR: With officers dispatched to drive around the neighborhood, the sergeant noticed
a suspicious looking vehicle. DOUGLAS COVINGTON: That same sergeant was driving down the road and noticed a car
with its back window out. He stopped the car. The driver jumped out and said he didn't
have a driver's license. NARRATOR: The man was arrested for failing to provide valid documentation.
- There were two other individuals in the car. They brought them all down to the station
and they started questioning them. NARRATOR: The detective in charge of the questioning for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's
Office was Charlie Keene. - 2005 I was assigned to the homicide section with the Sheriff's Office.
Myself and my partner conduct an interview with the two young men in possession of the car.
We learned that they actually traded crack cocaine for the car to an individual known as Rocky Beamon.
NARRATOR: Officers quickly discovered that Beamon did not own the car. It was, in fact, registered to the missing Deborah Lacey.
The police urgently wanted to talk to Beamon. As they attempted to track him down, a call came in.
CHARLIE KEENE: I was in the office, we received a call of a body being found in a small pond.
Deputies arrived. They confirmed, in fact, there was a deceased female victim there that had been taped up.
NARRATOR: Detective Keene immediately left for the crime scene. CHARLIE KEENE: As I entered the scene,
it's been marked off with crime scene tape. And I can see there's a female victim in the water.
Her hands and her feet were tied together, and then her mouth was also taped up.
It was heartbreaking to know that any human would be treated like that. We knew that whoever had committed
this crime was just violent. NARRATOR: Police confirmed the body was that of Deborah Lacey.
Forensics had identified her through her fingerprints. They also calculated that her body had been in the pond
for 10 days. CHARLIE KEENE: So when we notified miss Lacey's family that she had been found and that she was deceased,
it was heartbreaking. No family wants to hear that their daughter had been murdered.
NARRATOR: The same afternoon Deborah's body was found, police had managed to track down where Beamon lived.
[intriguing music] - They began doing some surveillance on his house, and then they went and knocked on the door.
Ms. Wilkins answered the door and they asked her if anybody else was in the residence.
She said Rocky was. They arrested him for an outstanding warrant and brought him down to their station.
NARRATOR: Beamon and Wilkins were questioned together that very same evening. Officers cut straight to the chase
and ask them how they knew Deborah Lacey and why they had her car. - Both of them initially completely
denied knowing Ms. Lacey. They all lied as to where the car came from. But when they started talking to these individuals separately
and said the owner of that car had been found murdered, then they decided to tell the truth.
CHARLIE KEENE: Once he confessed to committing the homicide, his demeanor completely changed.
It's kind of like it was a lighter version of him at that point. I've never had somebody confess the way that he did.
We asked questions and he gave us a direct and pointed answers. He was just, this is what I did.
Most of these interviews go on for three, four, five, six hours, sometimes. With him, you know, he knew he was caught and he owned it.
NARRATOR: Beamon went on to admit his desperate motivation behind the horrific murder.
DR. LINA HAJI: I don't think the drugs had anything to do with this murder, because this wasn't a huge drug dealer
that he robbed and shot. This was an innocent 47-year-old woman who also happened to struggle with addiction
that he took advantage of. He killed for the kill. He did not kill for the drugs.
[ominous music] CHARLIE KEENE: I think he was so strung out on crack cocaine that I don't think he really gave it a whole lot of thought.
It seems like it was just a normal day of doing business for him. NARRATOR: Beamon's girlfriend, Karen Wilkins,
confessed to her role in Debra Lacey's murder. CHARLIE KEENE: She certainly took part in the homicide,
but I don't think she planned it. And she wasn't the one who did the-- the binding of Ms. Lacey.
Mr. Beeman hit her and pushed her in the water. DOUGLAS COVINGTON: Them trading that car for crack cocaine
solved this crime. After their confession, the Sheriff's Department got a search warrant to go into Mrs. Wilkins
and Mr. Beamon's residence. And they actually found a pair of swim trunks that did not have a tie string in it,
and related back to the tie string that had tied Mrs. Lacey's hands. NARRATOR: The next day, 28-year-old
Rocky Beamon was charged with first-degree premeditated murder. Karen Wilkins, who is seen as an accomplice,
was charged with second-degree murder. They were both held in a local jail. DOUGLAS COVINGTON: I was a prosecutor
in the case of state of Florida versus rocky Beamon and Karen Wilkins. I read the police report.
It became very obvious to me that this had the aggravating factors that could lead to a death penalty case.
The confessions were the biggest piece of evidence I had. NARRATOR: The weight of Beamon's confession
made a death penalty trial seem inevitable. But he was able to cut a deal. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: He negotiated a plea
where he would plead guilty and spend his life in prison, if the prosecutors would take the death
penalty off the table. DOUGLAS COVINGTON: When he offered to plead to life in avoidance of the death penalty,
I had no problem with it whatsoever. As long as he was not out on the streets for the rest of his life, I was good with that.
[intriguing music] NARRATOR: Five months later, Beamon's plea hearing took place at the 13th Judicial Circuit
Court in Hillsborough County. DOUGLAS COVINGTON: Mr. Beamon comes into the courtroom
with his attorney. He was in a Sheriff's Office jail jumpsuit. Mr. Beamon pled guilty, and at that point in time,
the victim's family has an opportunity to indicate how this has affected them. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: Deborah's family obviously
took the murder very hard. The daughter had a letter read on her behalf in which she
said, my mother will never get to see the milestones in my life. She'll never get to meet my children.
You have taken that from me. NARRATOR: For first-degree murder, kidnapping, and robbery, Rocky Beamon was sentenced to life in prison
without the possibility of parole. CHARLIE KEENE: During that sentencing, Mr. Beamon did something that I've never
seen anybody do in any trial. Once he pled guilty, he looked at me and he gave me a head nod.
And that head nod, I took it as him saying, look, I did the right thing. I accept the responsibility.
It was very strange. NARRATOR: Beamon's girlfriend, Karen Wilkins, was tried separately and pled guilty to second-degree murder.
She received a sentence of 30 years in prison, followed by 10 years probation. For the next seven years, Beamon
was moved between various institutions within the Florida prison system. In March 2012, Beamon, now aged 34, ended up as an inmate
at Apalachee Correctional Institute. HECTOR BRAVO: Apalachee Correctional Institute
is a correctional institute located in the panhandle of Florida. The institution opened in 1949.
It houses approximately 1,300 inmates and it's mixed custody of close, medium, and minimum security inmates.
[dramatic music] NARRATOR: His cellmate was 44-year-old Bruce Hunsicker. PAUL LOPEZ: Mr. Hunsicker was in prison,
serving a sentence of six life sentences for raping a 10-year-old girl at knifepoint.
At that point, Mr. Beamon was unaware of it. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: The first couple
of months that they shared a cell together was somewhat cordial. The relationship seems to have started going downhill
when Hunsicker borrowed some coffee from Rocky and wouldn't return it. Then Rocky learned that Hunsicker
had been convicted of raping a 10-year-old girl at knifepoint. NARRATOR: As someone who since adolescence claimed
he held a particular hatred for child molesters, Beamon was enraged. He decided he was going to kill his cellmate in cold blood.
[suspenseful music] PAUL LOPEZ: Beamon at that point began stalking Mr. Hunsicker and essentially
analyzing his daily patterns. And what he learned is that Hunsicker took a shower every
day precisely at 4:00 PM. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: The whole stalking thing kind of goes to his preparation to kill this man.
NARRATOR: Beamon decided to murder Hunsicker in the shower during his daily visit.
PAUL LOPEZ: He then fashioned a 14-inch shank, or a jammed weapon out of a piece of fence that he was able
to become in possession of. HECTOR BRAVO: Murders of an inmate in the shower is an area of opportunity because these inmates
are unsuspecting of being attacked while they're showering. They have their guard down.
NARRATOR: Five days after learning about Hunsicker's crime, Beamon made his move.
- The attack started with Beamon coming up from behind Hunsicker and putting his left arm around his neck
and choking him to keep him quiet, while with his right arm stabbing him in the abdomen and other areas of his body.
[tense music] He would ultimately end up stabbing him 80 times and left him for dead on the bathroom floor.
- Stabbing somebody 80 times is what we refer to as overkill. It did not require 80 stabbings to kill his cellmate.
That tells me that Beamon was enjoying what he's doing. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: After the attack,
Rocky, covered in blood, takes a shower, cleans himself up, and then he takes the evidence being his shorts and the weapon
and flushes them down the toilet, and then he leaves. NARRATOR: Beamon left Hunsicker's body where he lay.
THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: Hunsicker's body wasn't found for a couple of hours during a security check.
PAUL LOPEZ: Mr. Hunsicker suffered a punctured heart, a punctured kidney, a punctured right
lung, a punctured diaphragm, and injuries to other organs. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: Authorities did eventually find the weapon,
and unfortunately, there was so much DNA in the prison system, sewer lines. They couldn't confirm that it was the weapon
that Rocky had used. NARRATOR: But the authorities did not need to prove who had killed Hunsicker,
as Beamon once again took responsibility for his actions. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: Beamon confessed to the crime
and told authorities that it was his hatred of child molesters that had driven him to do what he did.
Beamon did not show any remorse for the killing, and, in fact, probably seemed almost proud of it.
- Beamon starts to show these kind of narcissistic traits, which are typical in psychopaths, where he is almost
beaming with pride that he's taken out a child molester, like he's done this kind of vigilante justice,
that he should be admired and revered. He's not thinking, I took a life that I had no right to take.
He's now again in control. NARRATOR: Beamon was moved into close management or solitary confinement, locked in a single cell
for 23 hours a day. He was there for the next five years. DR. LINA HAJI: When you're in solitary confinement,
you're having a loss of sensory stimulation. You're not interacting with other humans.
You're not seeing light as much as you should be. We see psychosis. We see depression.
We see anxiety. We see loss of social skills. [intriguing music] NARRATOR: In 2017, 39-year-old Beamon was transferred to Santa
Rosa Correctional Facility. HECTOR BRAVO: Santa Rosa Correctional Institution is a men's prison located in Milton, Florida.
The prison opened up in 1996 and houses over 3,000 inmates of custody levels, clothes, minimum and medium.
[tense music] THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: Beamon was downgraded from close management one to close
management two, which entitled him to have a cellmate. PAUL LOPEZ: Nicholas Ryan Anderson
was a 27-year-old inmate and was the cellmate for Mr. Beamon. Mr. Anderson was serving a 20-year sentence
for child molestation. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: The rationale behind putting Rocky Beamon in a cell with a child molester
is beyond my comprehension. I don't know why it was done. Beamon had not found this out and did not find it out
until he was notified by members of a prison gang of what he'd been convicted for,
and the gang members actually told him that they were going to take him out if Rocky
didn't take him out himself. PAUL LOPEZ: Beamon asked if Anderson would provide him
with his commitment papers to show him in writing why he was in custody. Of course, Mr. Anderson refused to do that.
At that point, Mr. Beamon felt that Mr. Anderson was lying to him. NARRATOR: Now aware of Anderson's crime,
Beamon carefully put together plan to kill his 27-year-old cellmate. [suspenseful music]
THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: Part of Beamon's preparation was watching the guards and timing their movements,
so that he ultimately determined that they came by about every 25 minutes. PAUL LOPEZ: To prepare for the killing, he was able to somehow
to get his hands on a double A battery. He ground it down on the cell floor to create a fixed point blade.
NARRATOR: Just over a week after being placed in a cell with Anderson, Beamon made his move.
He waited until just after the midnight check. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: Beamon told Anderson
to get out up out of his bunk. He told him, you got to go. And Anderson said, I'm not going anywhere.
[tense music] At which point Rocky punched him in the eye and pulled him to the ground and tied his arms and his legs,
and then tied another bed sheet to hog-tie him. NARRATOR: Beamon then began to strangle Anderson.
- At some point he determined that he was dead, so he released him. But Anderson started breathing again,
and that's when Rocky started kicking him and stabbing him with the battery shank that he created.
[ominous music] [alarm blaring] NARRATOR: At 12:14 AM, an inmate in a neighboring cell called out to officers
who rushed to the crime scene. They were met with Anderson's hog-tied body on the floor,
with Beamon standing over him. Beamon was restrained and moved to another cell. Despite the nurse's best efforts,
they were unable to revive Nicholas Anderson, who was pronounced dead at 1:53 AM.
THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: When Beamon was interviewed after the fact, he did not show any remorse for what he'd done.
And if another inmate hadn't sounded an alarm, he would have continued to torture him.
His reason was that he hates child molesters, and that he intended to kill as many as he could.
DR. LINA HAJI: The fact that Beamon's cellmates were sex offenders were an easy excuse for him.
I really believe had his cellmates been drug dealers or bank robbers, they likely would
have suffered the same fate. Beamon wanted to kill. That's it. - He was committing his second murder of someone
accused of molesting a child. What were you thinking putting this man into a jail
cell with this man? NARRATOR: Just over a year later, Beamon was charged with the murder of his first cellmate,
Bruce Hunsicker, who he'd killed almost six years earlier. [ominous music] THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: He was charged
with first-degree murder in the Hunsicker case, and the death penalty was definitely on the table.
Beamon responded to the call for the death sentence by writing a judges and prosecutors
and saying you better go ahead and kill me, because if you don't, I'm going to continue
to kill child molesters until either I die, all of them die, or you put me on death row.
DR. LINA HAJI: I think Beamon really has is embraced who he is as a serial killer at this point.
He's enjoying having other people read exactly how sadistic his mind is. Beamon has a desire to be in control at all times.
Why not have some more bravado? Why not feed the narcissistic component of psychopathy?
He's reveling in this now. This is who he is. This is what he does. And he's now proud of it.
- I don't know that I've ever heard of a convicted felon asking for the death penalty and basically saying,
kill me or I'll kill more. Beamon said that he had no regrets in either case. He says, it was the best feeling I've ever had,
better than any drug I've ever had or an orgasm. [intriguing music] NARRATOR: The following year, 41-year-old Beamon,
frustrated by the slow judicial process, tried to speed up receiving a death penalty sentence by waiving his rights to an attorney.
He penned another letter directly for the judge. HECTOR BRAVO: Beamon threatened the judge
by telling the judge he was going to carve the judge's name into his next victim, and that he was going to dedicate
the next victim to the judge. - This is the highest level of attempt at control and manipulation that you can really ever see.
These letters reveal who he truly is, which is an extremely manipulative, sadistic, violent offender.
NARRATOR: Beamon got his wish. Later that month, he was found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder
and received the death sentence for the killing of Bruce Hunsicker. In November 2019, Beamon was given a second death
penalty sentence for the murder of his other cellmate, Nicholas Anderson. CHARLIE KEENE: He's committed three
murders at that point in time. I mean, odds are to me he's going to commit a fourth if you continue
to let him have open interaction with other inmates. So I don't know that there was another option.
NARRATOR: Rocky Beamon was sent to death row at Union Correctional Facility in Raiford, Florida.
HECTOR BRAVO: Beamon was ultimately housed single cell status, meaning he was alone in the cell and the department
separated him from general population due to all the criminal and vicious acts that he did.
While he was housed on death row in 2020, he committed the act of suicide. NARRATOR: The Florida Department of Corrections
didn't elaborate on the circumstances of the 42-year-old's suicide. PAUL LOPEZ: He begged to be on death row.
However, I think what he probably didn't take under consideration is how slow the wheels
of justice can move. You can be on death row for decades. I think he just got tired of waiting for the state to do it,
so he did it himself. DOUGLAS COVINGTON: I can't say I'm sorry, especially after what he had done after my case.
And I'm sure those prisoners that he killed had families. Mr. Beamon probably did not need
to have a place on this Earth. DR. LINA HAJI: He caused so much chaos and turbulence
in everybody else's life, but he still had to remain in control. And he ultimately got his way and was sent to death row.
But he was going to say, I'm the last in control. You're not going to kill me. I'm going to kill myself.
That's why he committed suicide. NARRATOR: The question of why Rocky Beamon decided to choose a path of murder
is one that remains unanswered. [dramatic music] DR. LINA HAJI: In spite of a horrific childhood, substance
abuse, mental illness, none of that is the reason why Beamon was so horribly evil.
Beamon never had a positive effect on anyone that he came across his entire life, including himself.
- Beamon probably sees himself as some sort of vigilante to provide justice for children that were harmed by adults.
Killing Bruce Hunsicker, a man serving six life sentences, posed no additional threat to any children going forward,
and sure as hell 47-year-old Deborah Lacey was not a child sex offender. A vigilante?
No. A predator looking for some level of justification? That's more likely to me.
[theme music]

Rocky Beamon lures a woman into the woods and drowns her. Once in prison, he brutally kills two fellow inmates — and vows to kill again.

World’s Most Evil Prisoners is a chilling exploration of the terrifying offenders sentenced to a lifetime behind bars. Locked away, yet still driven by their twisted desires, these inmates delve into acts of torture, abduction, and homicide. Prepare to confront the criminals from the darkest facets of humanity.

For More FilmRise Check Out Our Other Channels: FilmRise Television: https://www.youtube.com/@FilmRiseTelevision FilmRise Movies: https://www.youtube.com/⁨@FilmRiseMovies⁩ Highway to Heaven - Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@HighwaytoHeavenFullEpisodes

Brief Summary

Rocky Beamon's violent history includes two murders, drug addiction, and a death penalty sentence, ending in his suicide on death row.

Key points

Rocky Beamon's Depravity. Rocky Beamon's violent behavior escalated in prison, revealing his true nature.
The Murder of Deborah Lacey. Beamon and his girlfriend murdered Deborah Lacey in a brutal robbery.
Beamon's Confession. Rocky Beamon confessed to the murder, showing no remorse for his actions.
Life Sentence for Beamon. Rocky Beamon was sentenced to life in prison without parole for his crimes.
Overkill in Prison. Rocky Beamon stabbed his cellmate 80 times, showcasing extreme violence and a lack of remorse.
Confession and Justification. Beamon confessed to his actions, claiming hatred of child molesters drove him to kill.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He was going to be anti-authority, antisocial, anti-society.

3:32WatchJan 19, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.