Billy Chemirmir was a 50-year-old immigrant from Kenya who was labeled North Texas’s deadliest serial killer, as he is accused of murdering 24 elderly women, and convicted of two of those murders, was just killed in prison by his cellmate in a Texas prison.
Such was confirmed by the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, which said that Mr. Chemirmir was found dead in his cell in the Coffield Unit of Tennessee Colony on Tuesday morning, with his cellmate being identified as the suspected assailant in the prison cell slaying.
Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot told WFAA that Chemirmir was killed after apparently making inappropriate comments sexual in nature towards his cellmate’s children. According to Creuzot, the cellmate allegedly beat Chemirmir, dragged him out of his cell and killed him while other inmates watched. No one intervened and Chemirmir may have been stabbed with a pen, Creuzot said.
“Even though they are on lockdown, apparently [the cellmate] somehow opened the door and dragged [Chemirmir] into the hallway and there were other prisoners who saw it and not one intervened and no one called for help. He was basically there for 15 to 20 minutes before anybody with authority could figure out what happened. When they got there, they tried to revive him, but he died,” he said.
Family members of those killed by Mr. Chemirmir spoke about the cellblock slaying in a Tuesday press conference, saying that though they don’t necessarily condone murder, they are glad the saga is finally over and that he faced some degree of real justice for the horrific murders he committed.
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One family member said, “Perhaps this is a form of justice. My mother died in fear. This man did not have a peaceful passing. There’s some relief in feeling that he didn’t get off easily.” Another said, “We certainly don’t condone murder, but one of the things that we said was, ‘Ah, it’s over.'”
Watch them here:
One of the elderly women Mr. Chemermir attempted to kill described his attempt on her life, saying, “He said, ‘Don’t fight me. Lie on the bed.’ I did as he said because I knew I couldn’t overpower him, physically. He just smashed a pillow down hard over my face and my chest, and I just couldn’t breathe. I tried to move my left hand under the pillow to get to my medical alert button. … It was totally impossible for me to even because the pillow was slammed over me so hard over my head and chest.”
Fortunately, she survived and was able to help identify him before he slayed any other elderly women in the community, thus bringing his reign of terror to an end.