Charles Wilburn Garner, a 59-year-old Black man, lived a quiet life as a boarder in Richmond, Virginia. That life was stolen from him on October 5, 1979, in an act of unimaginable brutality that was part of a seven-month reign of terror that paralyzed the city. The violence that befell Mr. Garner and his landlord that autumn evening was the work of one of the most infamous criminal gangs in Virginia's history: the Briley brothers.
That day, brothers Linwood, James "J.B.", and Anthony Briley, along with their teenage accomplice Duncan Meekins, forced their way into the Fifth Avenue home of 75-year-old Blanche Page, where Mr. Garner rented a room. The house was just two blocks from the Brileys' own family home. Inside, the gang unleashed a horrific assault. Mrs. Page, who was partially paralyzed, was bludgeoned to death in her bed. The attack on Mr. Garner was even more savage. He was beaten with a baseball bat and stabbed repeatedly with five knives, a pair of scissors, and a fork. When police discovered the nightmarish scene, the scissors and fork had been left embedded in his back, and his body had been set on fire.
The murders of Mr. Garner and Mrs. Page were part of a crime spree that began in March 1979 and included at least eleven murders, as well as numerous rapes, robberies, and assaults across Richmond and surrounding Henrico County. The Briley gang targeted victims seemingly at random—men and women, Black and white, young and old—creating a climate of intense fear throughout the community. Their campaign of violence was marked by extreme brutality, with victims often killed to eliminate witnesses to their robberies.
The city's terror finally ended with the arrests of the Briley brothers and Meekins in late October 1979, following their most horrific crime: the murder of Harvey Wilkerson, his girlfriend Judy Barton, who was eight months pregnant, and her 5-year-old son. A police task force that had the gang under surveillance was able to connect them to the crime. A radio stolen from Blanche Page's home was later found in Linwood Briley's possession.
Faced with overwhelming evidence, Duncan Meekins accepted a plea deal to testify against the brothers. His detailed testimony was crucial in securing their convictions and finally bringing their rampage to an end. For his cooperation, Meekins avoided the death penalty and received a life sentence. Anthony Briley, the youngest brother whose direct participation in the actual killings could not be proven, also received multiple life sentences.
Linwood and James Briley, the leaders of the gang, were sentenced to death for their numerous crimes. In 1984, in a stunning and terrifying event, the two brothers masterminded the largest death-row escape in American history, breaking out of Mecklenburg Correctional Center with four other inmates. They were recaptured in Philadelphia three weeks later. Linwood Briley was executed by electric chair on October 12, 1984. His brother, James, followed him to the electric chair on April 18, 1985.
As of September 2019, both Anthony Briley and Duncan Meekins remained incarcerated, with their repeated applications for parole having been denied. The case of Charles Garner remains a chilling chapter in Richmond's history, a stark reminder of the random, senseless violence that took his life and terrorized a city.
