Breaking Bad – Execution

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Dustin Honken is to be executed tomorrow, July 17, 2020 in Terra Haute IN. Dustin was convicted of murdering two of his drug business partners who were scheduled to testify against him, and unfortunately the girl friend and her two children of one of those men. All of this took place in or near Mason City IA and became a major news story during the 1990’s and early 2000’s. The Des Moines Register published a good timeline. Murderpedia also has a synopsis of Honken’s crimes. Honken will be the third person executed this week as the Trump Administration lifted a long-standing ban.

Angela Johnson was Honken’s girlfriend and, as explained in the article above, assisted in the murders. She became the first female sentenced to death by a Federal jury since the 1950’s. Her sentence was overturned in 2012. She is now serving a life sentence.

So why am I posting this information? There are some twists in this case that I find particularly interesting. First, the bodies of Greg Nicholson, Lori Ann Duncan, and Amber and Candice Duncan were found on a county road between Clear Lake and Mason City in 2000. The new Cerro Gordo County Law Enforcement Center was built in 2007 across the street from where those bodies were found – go figure.

Second, scrolling through the TV channels in early 2017, I stumbled upon an episode of Gangsters: America’s Most Evil retelling the story of Dustin Honken and those involved. I was surprised to find that they suggested that the main character, Walter White in AMC’s Breaking Bad (though the IMDB description does not mention Honken), was the inspiration for the character. I haven’t watched the episode in quite a while, but I remember that he moved from the Midwest to Arizona where he set up a meth lab for distribution to the West Coast and to ship east to Iowa for further distribution.

Walter White, like Honken, created a new super meth concoction that was sought after throughout the drug user community. Though Honken was not a teacher, he was a Chemistry “whiz.“

I am always intrigued by stories of people who, for whatever reason, deviate from social norms and cross the line into devious and violent behavior. I’m no doctor, but I’ve always contended that the line between normal and seriously abnormal behavior is a thin one. What makes a Richard Speck or Ted Bundy do what they do? What about Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, or the BTK Killer? And don’t even get me started on doomsday cult leaders!

I understand that many had various types of trauma during their youth. But some also exhibit sociopathic symptoms early in life that surface independently from those traumas (such as mutilating animals). Let’s face it. We all experienced trauma of one sort or another when we were young.

I don’t have answers. I’m just fascinated and watch documentaries about these people, similar to watching documentaries about the Holocaust. One thing I’ve learned by watching and reading is that there are probably dozens, if not hundreds of serial killers and crime-related (hush up) murders than we are even aware.

So tomorrow will end the story of a very bad man who impacted my life by brutally executing an innocent family (the Duncans) and some not-so-innocent other bad guys who didn’t deserve to die. I’ll leave it to others to determine if capital punishment is moral, ethical, and/or serves as a deterrent to crime. I will continue with my fascination.