Lawrence Horn

Lawrence Horn (1939 - February 2017) was a musician, former record producer and chief recording engineer for Motown Records in Detroit and Los Angeles. He later served a life sentence for hiring a hit man to commit a triple murder, that of his wife Mildred Horn, their disabled son Trevor, and nurse Janice Saunders. The case quickly gained national interest, and went on to prompt a lawsuit with Paladin Press, the publishers of a book called Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors which had been used as a how-to manual by the killer.[1]

Early life

Lawrence Thomas "L.T." Horn (1939 - Feb. 2017) began working with Motown Records' Hitsville U.S.A., in Detroit, during their heyday in the early 1960s as a sound engineer. He was the chief technician for artists such as The Temptations (My Girl) and Junior Walker and the All-stars (Shotgun).[2][3] After a brief 1-year marriage to Motown receptionist Juana Royster in the late 1960s, he moved to Los Angeles with Motown where, in 1972, he met his second wife, Mildred Maree, during a first-class flight en route to Los Angeles.[3][4] The couple married in Las Vegas in August 1973, but separated in 1979, and filed for divorce in 1981, although they continued a relationship afterwards via their daughter.[3] In 1984, despite the divorce proceedings, Millie learned she was pregnant with twins by Horn. Laid off by Motown in a 1990 sale and restructure, the once prosperous Horn slid into debt, particularly with $16,000 in overdue child support.[4]

On March 3, 1993, when the murders occurred, Horn's family consisted of:[3]

  • Mildred "Millie" Horn (born November 8, 1949[5]) - born in South Carolina in a family of 14 children; senior flight attendant with American Airlines; moved to Maryland in 1979.
  • Tiffani (born 1974) - freshman; was away at Howard University.
  • Tamielle - (born August 5, 1984) - twin; was staying nearby with her aunt, Millie's sister Vivian, on the night of the attack.
  • Trevor - (born August 5, 1984) - twin; severely disabled and required continual nursing care. He was being cared for by an emergency substitute nurse, Janice Saunders (aged 38).

Murder case

By late 1992, Horn had befriended James Perry, via his cousin Thomas Turner, and contracted him to kill his ex-wife, disabled 8-year-old son, and the family's overnight nurse in their Layhill, Silver Spring, Maryland, home.[6] The murders were carried out after 2:00am on March 3, 1993.[6] Both women (Horn and Saunders) had been shot multiple times in the head, and Trevor had been smothered by the killer placing one hand over the tracheostomy opening in Trevor's throat and the other hand over his nose and mouth.[6] Attempts had been made to portray the crime as a robbery gone wrong.[3] Millie's sister, Vivian (who lived half a block away) and another neighbor discovered the bodies around 7:30am on March 3, 1993.[7]

The motive for hiring Chicago-based Perry to commit the murders was that Horn stood to gain $1.7 million from his son's trust fund that was established after the settlement of a lawsuit resulting from a medical procedure on September 16, 1986, that left him with brain damage and as a quadriplegic.[6] The death of his ex-wife also meant that he would be the sole beneficiary of the fund.

Perry was sentenced to death in 1995 for the murders,[3] and in 1996 Lawrence Horn was found guilty on three counts of first-degree murder and one count of murder conspiracy[6] and sentenced to life imprisonment.[8] The case prompted a lawsuit in 1997 against Paladin Press, the publishers of Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors, which James Perry had used as a guide to execute the murders.[1] The lawsuit was settled in 1999 when the publishers agreed to stop selling the book and pay millions of dollars in compensation to the families of the victims.[9] Later, the conviction of the assassin, Perry, was overturned by an appeals court and a second trial sentenced him to three life terms in Maryland's prison system in 2001.[10] Perry died of an undisclosed illness in prison on December 30, 2009.[6] Horn died in prison in February 2017.[11]

Media

In October 1999, Discovery Channel's The FBI Files aired a season 2 episode on the case, with interviews by investigators and original crime footage, called "Hired Gun".[12] The same year, a book called Deliberate Intent: a lawyer tells the true story of murder by the book, and based on court case against Paladin Press, was released by lawyer, author, and First Amendment scholar, Rod Smolla.[13] In 2000, a television film called Deliberate Intent, directed by Andy Wolk, was made based on the book.[14][15] In September 2017, the case appeared in season 1 of a new TV series called Shattered in an episode called "Sins of the Father".[16][17] Horn's complicity in orchestrating the hit against his son for personal gain was also detailed by Casefile True Crime Podcast in September 2018.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 "Publisher's book aided in murders". The Deseret News. 22 December 1997. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  2. ↑ "Lawrence Horn". Discogs. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Case 94: Millie & Trevor Horn, Janice Saunders - Casefile: True Crime Podcast". Casefile: True Crime Podcast. 2018-09-01. Retrieved 2018-09-04.
  4. 1 2 "Hitsville U.S.A." Washington City Paper. October 20, 1995. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  5. ↑ "Mildred Elizabeth "Millie" Maree Horn (1949-1993)..." www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Vick, Karl (15 February 1998). "Horn Convicted for Three Murders". The Washington Post. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  7. ↑ Jennings, Veronica; Sullivan, Kevin (4 March 1993). "DISABLED BOY, 2 WOMEN FOUND SLAIN". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  8. ↑ "Horn gets life for ordering slayings of family, nurse". The Free Lance Star. 18 May 1996. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  9. ↑ "Publisher agrees to pull hit man manual". Reading Eagle. 22 May 1997. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  10. ↑ Duggan, Paul. "Crime Scene - Notorious Montgomery killer dies behind bars". The Washington Post. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  11. ↑ "Former Motown man Lawrence Horn hired hitman to kill his ex-wife and quadriplegic son". Monsters and Critics. 26 April 2018. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  12. ↑ IMDb Hired Gun, aired 12 October 1999, retrieved 4 September 2018
  13. ↑ Smolla, Rodney A. (1999). Deliberate intent : a lawyer tells the true story of murder by the book. Internet Archive. New York : Crown Publishers.
  14. ↑ Zahed, Ramin (2 August 2000). "Deliberate Intent". Variety. Retrieved 2018-09-04.
  15. ↑ "Deliberate Intent (TV 2000)". IMDB. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  16. ↑ IMDB, Shattered (2017), retrieved 2018-09-04
  17. ↑ "Lawrence Horn: Maryland Killer Of 'Deliberate Intent' True Story Movie Based On Book Dead--ID TV Series". TV Crime Sky. 30 September 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2018.


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