James Raymond Balderson was 24 when he was murdered while working as a convenience store clerk in Fort Collins, Colorado, on October 16, 1981. His killing was one of several committed that day by Marion Albert Pruett, who also killed convenience store clerk Anthony Taitt in nearby Loveland. Those attacks were part of a multi-state crime spree that included earlier murders in Arkansas and a kidnapping and murder during a bank robbery in Mississippi.

Pruett was later identified as the perpetrator and was tried and convicted for Balderson’s murder among others. In Colorado he received two life sentences; he was sentenced to death for murders in other states and was executed by lethal injection on April 12, 1999. Balderson’s death remains part of that wider pattern of violence that impacted several communities.

If anyone knew James Balderson or has information about his life or the events that day, please share what you know.