On October 26, 1952, Chattanooga police held 15-year-old Virgil Le May on a $12,000 bond for his role in a multi-state crime spree that included car theft and kidnapping. But the real mastermind behind the chaos was James F. Hill, a 29-year-old from Massachusetts, who would soon earn the chilling nickname \u201cThree-Gun Maniac.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hill, alongside Le May and 19-year-old Charles E. Hopkins, began their crime wave in Valdosta, Georgia. The trio stole four cars, and in a bizarre act of destruction, Hill riddled one of them\u2014a green Ford sedan\u2014with bullets before hacking it to pieces with an axe.
\nTheir violent spree terrorized at least 20 victims. One 19-year-old squirrel hunter was locked in a trunk, only to be rescued by passing hunters. Another victim, a 20-year-old man, was forced to drive the criminals from Spencer, Tennessee, to Atlanta.
\nLe May claimed he was coerced into participating. Hopkins, too, said Hill had forced him into the crimes. But Hill himself had a different story\u2014he fancied himself a modern-day Robin Hood, robbing the rich to give to the poor.<\/p>\n
Authorities didn\u2019t buy it. He was captured in Chattanooga, deemed criminally insane, and committed to a mental institution. However, by April 1954, Hill was declared sane and faced trial for kidnapping in Knoxville. He was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.<\/p>\n
As for his accomplices, Le May received a six-year sentence, while Hopkins got 17 years. The saga of the \u201cThree-Gun Maniac\u201d was over, but the terror he spread still lingers in the shadows of true crime history.<\/p>\n