Off-duty security guard Roxanne Ruddell was fishing alone at Point 6 near Norman when she was spotted by Gilbert and his 16 year old accomplice, Eric Elliott. They forced her to a nearby wooded area where she sat under a tree as they rummaged through her purse, took her keys and stole $2 or $3. Ruddell told the pair she wouldn’t call police if they didn’t hurt her, but Gilbert reportedly thought she was lying and grew angry. Elliot tied Ruddell’s hands and Gilbert shot her three times in the head and once in the back of the neck. Her truck was later found in New Mexico where Gilbert and Elliott were discovered sleeping three days after the murder

Although Gilbert’s trial was restricted to evidence surrounding Ruddell’s death, the killing was part of a cross-country crime spree that began in Ohio in August 1994, when an elderly Port Washington, Ohio, woman, Ruth Lucille Loader , was discovered missing from her home, along with her car. In police interviews after his arrest, Gilbert confessed to having killed Loader. Her body has not been found, and Gilbert was never tried for the crime. Loader’s car was found abandoned in a pasture near the farmhouse of William Brewer  and Flossie Mae Brewer near Kingdom City, Mo. Relatives of the Brewers found the couple in a basement wood room. Both had been shot in the head. Gilbert was convicted of murdering the Brewers and handed another death sentence in Missouri. In a separate Oklahoma trial, Elliott also was convicted of Ruddell’s murder and sentenced to life without parole.

One page handwritten letter. Letter is general content and is signed. Original matching handwritten envelope is included.