Crime show looks at Columbus’ ‘Stocking Stranglings’ with ‘Big Eddy Club’ author

Welcome to Columbus, Ga., home of the “Stocking Strangler,” and perhaps a plot to pin the serial killings on an innocent man.

That may be what viewers will see Monday in an episode of “Vanity Fair Confidential,” which airs at 9 p.m. EST on the cable crime channel Investigation Discovery.

A film crew visiting Columbus interviewed journalists and others familiar with the series of rapes and stranglings that terrorized the city from September 1977 to April 1978.

In 1986, Carlton Gary was convicted in three of the seven murders, though prosecutors maintained he committed them all, as well as other rapes and assaults.

The show is based on work by David Rose, author of “The Big Eddy Club,” which casts doubt on Gary’s guilt and alleges prosecutors hid evidence of his innocence.

Rose is a British freelance writer.

Here is the online pitch for this episode:

“Seeds of Doubt by David Rose: For six months, a serial killer terrorizes the city of Columbus, Georgia, raping and strangling seven elderly women with their stockings. Dubbed the ‘Stocking Strangler,’ the killer strikes at will and police seem powerless to stop him. Years pass before Carton Gary, a small-time criminal, is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. It all seems open and shut – until Vanity Fair writer David Rose takes a closer look at the investigation. Rose and Gary’s legal team uncover shocking facts that leave them wondering if Carlton Gary is actually an innocent man. What will it take to stop Gary’s impending execution?”

Gary’s pending execution stopped in December 2009 when the Georgia Supreme Court issued a stay and sent the case back to Columbus for a Superior Court judge to consider DNA testing any suitable evidence.

In February 2010, defense attorneys and prosecutors agreed to test the most suitable evidence. One test tied Gary to a murder he was not convicted of. The state crime lab tainted other evidence, ruining it.

A DNA test on evidence from a rape, beating and choking case considered a precursor to the serial killings yielded a profile that did not match Gary.

Gary’s defense team still is fighting to get Gary either a new trial or a new sentence. After a series of court hearings, the decision now rests with Superior Court Judge Frank Jordan Jr., who has yet to rule.

Contacted via email last week, Rose wrote that a film crew came to his home last summer and interviewed him for a whole day.

“I’m looking forward to seeing their work,” he wrote. “I’m also pleased that after so many years, the many injustices that characterized the case of Carlton Gary and the stranglings are getting more attention. It’s almost 20 years since I first began to investigate the case, and I’m hopeful that at long last, there will be a positive outcome.”

Gary has been on death row for three decades now, Rose noted: “At the same time, I’m deeply aware that by denying justice to him, the system has also denied justice to the families of the stranglers’ victims. Those responsible for hiding inconvenient evidence from Gary’s trial wronged them, as well as him.”

Prosecutors from former District Attorney Bill Smith, now a retired Superior Court judge, to current District Attorney Julia Slater have maintained investigators found ample evidence to justify Gary’s convictions, including fingerprints and Gary’s statements to police, which included details detectives probing the stranglings did not know and later confirmed.

This story was originally published February 12, 2017 at 3:01 PM with the headline "Crime show looks at Columbus’ ‘Stocking Stranglings’ with ‘Big Eddy Club’ author."