On June 22, 1981, a robbery at Boatright’s handyman store near Bristol in Pierce County, Georgia, left 58-year-old Morris Highsmith and the store owner, 64-year-old Alfred Boatright, dead. The shooting occurred about 4:00 p.m.; the assailant took ninety dollars from the business before leaving the scene.

Investigators identified 25-year-old Willie James Wilson Jr., a soldier who had gone AWOL from Fort Stewart, as the shooter. Wilson and an accomplice, Darris Miller, had driven around looking for a place to rob and targeted the handyman store after abandoning another attempt. Wilson was arrested in Hinesville, Georgia, and admitted to shooting Highsmith and Boatright and to the robbery, later claiming the killings were a misunderstanding.

Wilson was tried and convicted on two counts of murder and one count of armed robbery and received death sentences for the murders plus life for the robbery. Does anyone have memories of the store or the victims that could add detail to this case?