Jeffrey Dillingham

Executed November 1, 2000 by Lethal Injection in Texas


71st murderer executed in U.S. in 2000
669th murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
34th murderer executed in Texas in 2000
233rd murderer executed in Texas since 1976


Since 1976
Date of Execution
State
Method
Murderer
(Race/Sex/Age at Murder-Execution)
Date of
Birth
Victim(s)
(Race/Sex/Age at Murder)
Date of
Murder
Method of
Murder
Relationship
to Murderer
Date of
Sentence
669
11-01-00
TX
Lethal Injection
Jeffrey Dillingham

W / M / 19 - 27

03-06-73
Caren Courtney Koslow

W / F / 40

03-12-92
Steel Bar, Cut Throat
None
Received
at DOC
08-31-93

Summary:
In March 1992, Dillingham and his friend Brian Dennis Salter, both 19, were hired by 17 year old Kristi Koslow to murder her parents. Kristi did not get along with them after her father remarried. Dillingham and Salter entered the upscale Fort Worth residence of Jack and Karen Koslow, using a code provided them by their daughter Kristi. The alarm system was disarmed and they came in through a rear entrance. The Koslows were asleep. Following the floor plan given to them by Kristi, the intruders went into the master bedroom and began attacking the Koslows. Mr. Koslow ran to his closet to fetch a shotgun, but he didn't get it loaded in time to defend himself. Both were forced to lie on the floor. Dillingham then beat them with a steel pry bar and Salter slashed their throats with a hunting knife. They stole Mr. Koslow's wallet, $200 in cash and a wrist watch worth $1,600. Karen Koslow, 40, died at the scene. Jack Koslow was beaten into unconsciousness and left for dead, but later regained consciousness, staggered to a neighbor's house, and called police. At first, the police suspected Koslow of murdering his wife. Later, a tip was received from a friend of Dillingham, who assisted in disposing of the murder weapon. A confession from Dillingham followed. Dillingham wept nonstop throughout his trial. Kristi's boyfriend, Brian Salter, testified that they were offered $1,000,000 for the murders by Kristi, who told them she stood to inherit $12,000,000. Christi Koslow and Brian Salter both received life sentences and are eligible for parole in 27 years.

Citations:

Internet Sources:

Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Executed Offenders (Jeffery Dillingham)

Texas Department of Criminal Justice

Texas Attorney General Media Advisory

Monday, October 23, 2000 - MEDIA ADVISORY - Jeffrey Dillingham Scheduled To Be Executed.

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General John Cornyn offers the following information on Jeffery Dillingham who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. on Wednesday, November 1st.

Dillingham was convicted and sentenced to death for the March 1992 murder of Caren Koslow. Dillingham beat Mrs. Koslow to death with an iron pry bar. Jack Koslow, Caren Koslow's husband, was also severely beaten in the attack, but managed to survive.

Dillingham and his accomplice, Brian Salter, broke into the Koslow's home with the intention of robbing and killing them both. The plan was to murder the Koslows so that Kristi, Jack Koslow's daughter, would inherit their money. Both Dillingham and Salter were to get a share of the money after the murders. Dillingham's share was to be over $1 million. Dillingham was arrested after a friend of his, who helped Dillingham get rid of some of the evidence, confessed to police.

EVIDENCE

Dillingham confessed to police about the murder and the involvement of a friend who helped him dispose of evidence.

Brian Salter, Dillingham's co-defendant, also confessed to police, implicating Dillingham.

Dillingham told police that he tried to plan the killings the best he could because he did not "want to get caught."

The friend who helped Dillingham dispose of evidence told police about the murder and Dillingham's involvement.

APPEALS TIME-LINE

February 14, 1996 - Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Dillingham's conviction and death sentence.

October 7, 1996 - United States Supreme Court denied Dillingham's petition for writ of certiorari.

February 18, 1998 - Tarrant County trial court recommends that relief be denied based on a state habeas application Dillingham filed with the court.

April 18, 1998 - Court of Criminal Appeals denied relief based on the trial court's finding.

October 13, 1998 - Supreme Court denied relief based on action of Court of Criminal Appeals.

September 29, 1999 - Federal district court denied Dillingham's writ of habeas corpus.

April 18, 2000 - Fifth Circuit's affirmed district dourt's denial of Dillingham's habeas relief.

October 2, 2000 - United States Supreme Court denied writ of certiorari.

CRIMINAL HISTORY

Dillingham had no prior criminal history.

ProDeathPenalty.Com

Jeffery Dillingham is one of 3 people convicted in the attack on Jack and Caren Koslow as the Fort Worth couple slept on March 12, 1992, in a murder-for-hire scheme hatched by Koslow's 17-year-old daughter, Kristi. An accomplice, Brian Salter, Kristi's boyfriend, later testified that she offered the men $1 million to kill her multimillionaire parents. Testimony showed she wanted them dead because she didn't get along with them after her father remarried. Kristi believed she would inherit as much as $12 million.

In the early hours of March 12, 1992, according to testimony, the men dressed in black and arrived with a drawing of the 4,000-square-foot house and codes to disable an alarm system - both provided by Kristi Koslow. They broke through a door, went to an upstairs bedroom and ordered the couple to the floor. Jack Koslow tried to load a shotgun he kept in a nearby closet. Jurors heard how the man and woman were attacked and how the intruders left with $120 and Jack Koslow's wallet. Blows to Caren Koslow broke her skull and jaw. Then Salter straddled Caren Koslow and slashed her throat. The slashing of her neck nearly decapitated her.

Dillingham calmly told police: "I hit Mr. Koslow in the back of the head, on the neck. ... Then I hit Mrs. Koslow, and I hit Mr. Koslow some more. And Mrs. Koslow started screaming, and then I hit Mrs. Koslow again... ." Jack Koslow testified at his daughter's trial, "I remember the whole world turning black. I remember him beating me and beating me until I didn't remember any more." He emerged from unconsciousness to stumble to a neighbor's home to get help. His throat slashed and head beaten, he suffered blind spots for months. "He still bears a huge scar on his throat," says Robert Mayfield, one of the Tarrant County prosecutors who worked to convict Dillingham, now a judge in Johnson County. "A doctor said he could not imagine how the carotid was not slit. The crime scene was a veritable blood bath."

Mayfield described Dillingham, who refused requests for an interview in the weeks preceding his execution, as a regular individual from all outward appearances. "But if you heard his confession, which was audio taped, it would just chill you to the bone because it was so unemotional," he said. "He described the death of this poor woman by saying, as I recall, 'She was screaming and I hit her with the pry bar and she continued to scream and I hit her in the throat and then she laid down and let it pass.' Not a lick of emotion," Mayfield said. "Dillingham did not even know the victim. But it didn't matter to him. He was going to get a million dollars. That was the key point. What I argued to the jury is that he did a cost-effective analysis, and stepping over 2 bodies was nothing." Caren Koslow suffered 29 wounds, mostly blows to her neck from the pry bar, and died at the scene. Dillingham gave his bloody clothing and the weapon to a friend who cracked under the pressure of knowing about the slaying and told police, said Mayfield.

At his trial, Dillingham wept nonstop. "I believe the jury interpreted that as 'poor pitiful me' rather than any compassion for his victim," Mayfield said. The Koslows were active in Fort Worth society and the arts. Jack Koslow is remarried and still lives in Fort Worth, where he is involved in the business community and plays golf. Besides a scar across his throat, he has no lingering injuries from the attack, according to some of his friends. He has since sold the 2-story brick house with large shutters, trimmed hedges and a brick sidewalk.

Salter and Kristi Koslow are both serving life sentences. Salter was offered a life sentence in return for his testimony. Kristi Koslow's jury chose a life sentence instead of the death penalty. At her trial, jurors decided Kristi Koslow would not be a future danger and gave her a life sentence. Outside their presence, her father testified he favored giving her the death sentence. Both she and Salter become eligible for parole in about 27 years. Dillingham, a video store clerk and former honor student, confessed but chose not to make a plea bargain similar to Salter's. "There can't be any satisfaction," Mayfield said of the execution. "It's just the fact that some crimes are so heinous that the ultimate punishment is required. It's a waste of life. Not only did he destroy his life, Caren Koslow's life, he destroyed his family, Caren's family. It's like the pebble dropping in the pond."

Amarillo Globe-News

Apologetic Hired Killer Put to Death

HUNTSVILLE (AP) - Jeffrey Dillingham, smiling, winking and blowing kisses at relatives, went to his death Wednesday for fatally beating a Fort Worth woman in a murder-for-hire scheme he thought would get him $1 million from the victim's stepdaughter. "I would just like to apologize to the victims of the family for what I did," he said in his final statement. "I take full responsibility for that poor woman's death and for the pain and suffering I inflicted on Mr. Koslow."

Dillingham, 27, confessed to police as the murder plot unraveled some two weeks after Caren Koslow was slashed and beaten to death with a metal pry bar in an attack at her home. Her husband, Jack, was beaten and left for dead but survived. Dillingham, in his last comments, recited a prayer in which he thanked God and his parents. "Thank you heavenly father for getting me off of death row and for bringing me home out of prison," he said. Looking toward family members, he repeatedly mouthed, "I love you all, you all take care." Then he smiled and winked before grunting and gasping as the drugs took effect. He died at 6:28 p.m., eight minutes after the lethal dose was administered. Dillingham's father, his father's fiancee and his stepfather were led in prayer during the execution by two spiritual advisers. No one was present from the victim's family. Outside, about a dozen demonstrators held candles during a steady downpour.

The bloodshed occurred six days after Dillingham, who worked in a video store, turned 19. An accomplice, Brian Salter, and his girlfriend, Kristi Koslow, the murder victim's stepdaughter, both received life prison terms. Dillingham rejected a plea bargain and a jury sentenced him to death.

On Tuesday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected requests for commutation, a pardon and a reprieve. Dillingham's lawyers had argued it was unfair that his two accomplices received life terms and he got death. Dillingham was the 34th convicted killer to receive lethal injection in Texas this year, three short of the record 37 executed in 1997 in the nation's most active death penalty state. He was the first of six set to die over the next 16 days. Salter, also 19 at the time, testified against Kristi Koslow, who then was 17. They both are eligible for parole in about 27 years. Testimony showed she wanted her father and stepmother dead because she didn't get along with them after her father remarried. She also believed she would inherit as much as $12 million and she had promised $1 million to Dillingham.

"Dillingham did not even know the victim," recalled Robert Mayfield, one of the prosecutors in the case. "But it didn't matter to him. He was going to get a million dollars. That was the key point. What I argued to the jury is that he did a cost-effective analysis, and stepping over two bodies was nothing." In the early hours of March 12, 1992, according to testimony, the men arrived with a drawing of the 4,000-square-foot house and codes to disable an alarm system - both provided by Kristi Koslow. They broke through a door, went to an upstairs bedroom and ordered the couple to the floor. Jack Koslow tried to load a shotgun he kept in a nearby closet. Jurors heard how the man and woman were attacked and how the intruders left with $120 and Jack Koslow's wallet. Blows to Caren Koslow broke her skull and jaw. The slashing of her neck nearly decapitated her.

Amarillo Globe-News

Execution Set for Hired Killer

HUNTSVILLE (AP) - Six days after his 19th birthday, video store clerk Jeffrey Dillingham figured he was on his way to a cool $1 million when he and an accomplice broke into a luxury home in Fort Worth. All they had to do was kill the couple who lived there.But the scheme unraveled. Although the woman in the house was killed, her husband survived a savage attack. Some two weeks later, Dillingham confessed to police. Then he rejected a plea bargain that would have given him a life sentence. After convicting him of capital murder, a jury sent him to death row.

More than 8 1/2 years after Fort Worth socialite Caren Koslow was beaten and slashed with an 18-inch steel pry bar, Dillingham was set for lethal injection Wednesday evening. "There can't be any satisfaction," Robert Mayfield, one of the Tarrant County prosecutors who worked to convict Dillingham, said of the execution. "It's just the fact that some crimes are so heinous that the ultimate punishment is required. It's a waste of life. Not only did he destroy his life, Caren Koslow's life, he destroyed his family, Caren's family. It's like the pebble dropping in the pond." Dillingham, 27, would be the 34th convicted killer to be executed in Texas this year, three short of the record 37 executed in the nation's most active death penalty state in 1997. He's the first of six set to die over the next 16 days. Another three are set to die on consecutive days in early December.

His appeals exhausted, Dillingham's attorneys asked the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to spare his life. Attorneys said it was unfair he was the only one of the three charged in the case to receive the death penalty. But in twin 18-0 votes, the board denied requests for a reprieve and a pardon and 16-2 against a commutation.

Dillingham's partner, Brian Salter, also 19 at the time, testified against a third member of the plot, Kristi Koslow, his 17-year-old girlfriend and the murder victim's stepdaughter, and received a life prison term. Kristi Koslow, identified as the mastermind of the scheme to kill her father, former banker Jack Koslow, and stepmother, was convicted and is serving a life sentence. Testimony showed she wanted them dead because she didn't get along with them after her father remarried and because she believed she would inherit as much as $12 million and promised $1 million to Dillingham.

Texas Execution Information Center

Jeffrey Dillingham, 27, was executed by lethal injection on 1 November in Huntsville, Texas for the murder-for-hire of a 40-year-old woman.

In March 1992, Dillingham and his friend Brian Dennis Salter, both 19, entered the upscale Fort Worth residence of Jack and Karen Koslow. Using a code provided them by the couple's 17-year-old daughter, Kristi, they disarmed the house's alarm system and came in through a rear entrance. The Koslows were asleep. Following the floor plan given to them by Kristi, the intruders went into the master bedroom and began attacking the Koslows. Mr. Koslow ran to his closet to fetch a shotgun, but he didn't get it loaded in time to defend himself. The man and woman were forced to lie on the floor. Dillingham then beat them with a steel pry bar and Salter slashed their throats with a hunting knife. They stole Mr. Koslow's wallet, $200 in cash and a wrist watch worth $1,600. Karen Koslow, 40, died at the scene. Jack Koslow was beaten into unconsciousness and left for dead, but after awhile, he regained consciousness, staggered to a neighbor's house, and called police.

At first, police suspected Jack Koslow of murdering his wife, but then they received a tip from a friend of Dillingham's, who helped him get rid of the pry bar and bloodstained clothing. Two weeks after the murder, Dillingham was arrested, and in confessing, he implicated Salter and Kristi Koslow, who were dating at the time. Dillingham and Salter told police that Kristi promised to pay them $1 million each for murdering her father and stepmother. Court testimony showed that Kristi wanted them dead because she didn't get along with them after her father remarried, and that she planned to gain a $12 million inheritance. Jeffrey Dillingham was the first to go to trial. He was offered a life sentence to testify against Kristi Koslow, but turned it down. He was found guilty of capital murder and was given the death sentence. Salter was then offered the same deal as Dillingham. He accepted it. Kristi Koslow was convicted of capital murder but was spared the death sentence by the jury. Jack Koslow testified that his daughter should be condemned, but the jury did not hear that testimony.

While on death row, Dillingham declined interviews with the media. His father, Ray Dillingham, said that Jeffrey did not discuss the crime with him or with his mother in their visits on death row, but that he did express sorrow for Mrs. Koslow's death.
Dillingham's trial and appeals were not characterized by any of the issues that death penalty opponents have frequently raised during Governor Bush's campaign for the presidency. All of the victims and defendants were white. Dillingham was an adult with full mental competence at the time of his crime. Although he was represented by a court-appointed attorney, the quality of his legal counsel was never questioned. His chief appeal strategy was to protest the fact that he received the death penalty while the other defendants did not. Each of his eight appeals to state and federal courts were rejected. The last denial came from the U.S. Supreme Court in October. Two members of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted to reduce his sentence to life in prison, but they were outvoted by the other 16 members.

In his final statement, Dillingham said, "I would just like to apologize to the victims of the family for what I did. I take full responsibility for that poor woman's death and for the pain and suffering I inflicted on Mr. Koslow." He then offered a prayer in which he thanked the Heavenly Father for his parents, for softening his heart, and for loving him. He then smiled and winked at his parents while the lethal dose was administered. He grunted as gasped as the drugs took effect and was pronounced dead at 6:28 p.m.

Brian Salter and Kristi Koslow become eligible for parole in 2027.

Jack Koslow sold the house where his wife was killed. He still bears a scar on his throat from the night he was attacked. He has remarried and still lives in Fort Worth. He did not attend the execution.