In Portage, Wisconsin, on November 28, 1994, Jesse Anderson was murdered by Christopher Scarver while serving a life sentence for killing his wife. The gruesome incident occurred at Columbia Correctional Institution, where Anderson and notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer were cleaning prison toilets with Scarver. The shocking news of Dahmer’s murder overshadowed Anderson’s death, as the latter’s life came to a brutal end alongside the infamous killer.
Anderson, who was convicted of murdering his wife, suffered a fatal beating at the hands of Scarver, who later admitted to the murder. Scarver claimed that he killed Anderson because he believed he was racist. According to Scarver, Anderson had defaced a painting of Martin Luther King Jr. and had attempted to blame the murder of his wife on two Black men.
The murder of Jesse Anderson came two years after he was sentenced to life in prison for the brutal killing of his wife, Barbara Anderson. The couple, living in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, had appeared to have a normal life until the fateful day in 1992 when Barbara was found severely beaten and stabbed multiple times in a parking lot. Jesse initially claimed that two unidentified Black men had carried out the attack.
However, evidence against Jesse Anderson started to unravel, with a university student coming forward to identify Anderson as the person who bought a hat he had initially claimed belonged to one of the assailants. It was later revealed that Anderson had purchased the red-handled knife used in the murder and had self-inflicted wounds to divert suspicion.
Anderson was found guilty of premeditated murder and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 60 years. Despite maintaining his innocence, evidence against him painted a different picture. However, the true justice for his crime came when he was fatally beaten by Scarver inside the prison.
Christopher Scarver’s rage at Anderson was fueled by his own belief that Anderson was racist, stemming from Anderson’s attempt to frame Black men for his wife’s murder and defacing a painting of Martin Luther King Jr. Scarver’s disturbing attack ended Anderson’s life, bringing an ironic end to a murderer who had himself met a violent demise.
Despite the overshadowing coverage of Jeffrey Dahmer’s murder, the end of Jesse Anderson’s life served as a chilling reminder of the brutal crimes that led him to his ultimate fate.