Stuart Alexander (murderer)
Stuart Charles "The Sausage King" Alexander was an American businessman and heir of the Santos Linguisa Sausage Factory, which was founded by a late great aunt, Pia Santos, and her husband, Antonio, in San Leandro, California in 1921. Alexander was convicted in 2004 of the murder of three state and USDA meat compliance officials in 2000.
Personal background
Early life and family
Born the middle child of three sons of Shirley Mae Parriott and the late Herman "Tweedy" Alexander. Alexander, whose paternal family roots could be traced back to Portugal, was a lifelong resident of San Leandro, California. He would inherit the family business, The Santos Linguica Factory and then would proclaim himself the "Sausage King," after the death of his father, who had successfully run the once thriving business for many years, in 1993. Alexander's father, Tweedy, had been well known in the local and national business circles as an astute businessman, and had been recognized and renowned for making arguably the finest linguica sausage in the Bay Area, if not nationwide. He had been grooming the young Stuart for years, particularly after the death of his eldest son, Stefen, who died at the age of eighteen in a motorcycle accident. Stefen was set to inherit the reins of the company, but after his passing, all that changed. Tweedy had no choice but to pass the reins to the next eldest son, Stuart. However, Tweedy had little faith that Stuart could run the company. Stuart's father was verbally abusive to his son, often telling him that he would "never amount to anything".Relations with others
By many accounts of acquaintances of the family, the relationship between the father Tweedy and the young Stuart was very rocky, at best. By the account of his mother Shirley, who divorced Tweedy when Stuart was ten, Tweedy could at times be very demanding with the son, and "yelled at him all the time", especially when, at times with him at the factory during the summers and weekends, young Stuart made a mistake. Coupled with this and the breakup of his parents marriage in 1971, this apparently had helped to cultivate a deep-seated anger and resentment that often manifested violently in relations with other people from a young age.Alexander, who was described by some who knew him closely to have a "short fuse", and to be at times "combative", was charged with beating Clifford Berg, 75, an elderly neighbor, after an argument in 1996. One person who owned a printing shop near the linguisa factory, Richard Miller, 38, said during the murder trial before the grand jury, that Alexander "didn't like the idea of people telling him what to do", with his business, and that he was "very anti-authority", at least from what he knew about the sausage maker.
Circumstances leading to murders
It was alleged by those that were close to him that Alexander would often keep and show-off e-mails and letters from the meat compliance officers he felt were harassing him. Perhaps partially inspired by the perceived harassment of the state and USDA inspection practices, Alexander made a bid for San Leandro Mayoral Office in 1998. The campaign failed when it was published that he had previously attacked an elderly neighbor.Alexander began a romantic relationship with Eve Elder, a 33-year-old insurance claims agent, around 1995. Over the course of the relationship Elder would see signs of resentment and a potential violent streak in Alexander, especially when commenting about the inspectors. In what had started out as a joke, the couple concocted a series of short stories; one, titled "Sausage Sniffers Found Sauced", painted a description of the inspectors drowning in vats of 'secret sauce'. As another former girlfriend, Charlotte Knapp, 38, who had been seeing Alexander off and on up until the time of the murders, would later testify during the murder trial, Alexander frequently used profanities to describe the inspectors and would become confrontational with them, or for anyone else whom he deemed as "trespassers" at his factory. On occasion wielding a gun, one of the several firearms that he kept in his office desk drawer.
Over time, Alexander also began to cultivate an increasingly antagonistic and contentious relationship with the four inspectors who were regularly assigned to routinely oversee his business operations in terms of "cooking temperature, cleanliness, and other health concerns". He felt that these inspectors were harassing him unnecessarily, and "interfering with the way his sausage was best made, and had always been made by his family" by demanding that his linguisa be smoked at 140 degrees Fahrenheit, which was a state and USDA requirement; Alexander, who usually smoked the linguisa at 144 degrees, would point that the decreased cooking temperature would shrink the sausage size, thereby reducing the cost at which he could sell them. There were also requirements about the type of smoker that could be used; his had been deemed antiquated and outdated, and at least two times the inspectors had the factory shut down, only for him to reopen against the state law. Taking out bank loans to re-open the factory caused the once-thriving, now-illegally operated factory to lose more and more money.
By the time of the murder trial proceedings began, Elder, as did Knapp sometime beforehand, had broken off their relationship.
Santos Linguisa Factory murders
At the time leading up to the murders, Alexander posted a sign at the front of the factory stating, "To all of our great customers, the USDA is coming into our plant harassing my employees and me, making it impossible to make our great product. Gee, if all meat plants could be in business for 79 years without one complaint, the meat inspectors would not have jobs. Therefore we are taking legal action against them."On June 21, 2000, the inspectors, who had expected there to be some difficulty in dealing with Alexander after several past clashes with him, had attempted to contact the San Leandro Police for possible backup after being met by Alexander at the entrance of the factory; the dispatch call had been treated as a routine police call. Still claiming that he was being harassed by the inspectors, Alexander, at the same time attempted to contact the police to report that the inspectors were trespassing. Like the call the inspectors made, it was also treated as low-priority. At the same time, he attempted to catch the inspectors overstepping their bounds by videotaping the visit on the survelliance video camera that he had installed in every room in the factory.
When the inspectors finally entered the premises for their daily inspection, an angered but calm-appearing Alexander would then proceed to retrieve one of his guns from his office drawer, re-enter the lobby room, then shot and killed the two USDA inspectors and a state inspector. U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors Jean Hillery, 56, and Thomas Quadros, 52, and state Department of Food and Agriculture Inspector William Shaline, 57, were killed. One California State Inspector, Earl Willis, 51, managed to escape into a nearby bank located there on Washington Avenue as a now fuming Alexander chased after him down the block, which was recorded on camcorder by the proprietor of one of the nearby businesses. After Alexander's failed attempt to shoot Willis, he immediately went back to his linguisa factory lobby and emptied three more shots into the heads of the victims, making sure that they were dead. The police would soon finally arrive upon the scene within a few minutes only after someone in the bank notified the police department; they would arrive to see a waiting Alexander standing in front of his factory, admitting to the murders and ready to be taken into custody.
Legal proceedings
Murder trial
Court proceedings for the trial of Alexander in the slayings of the compliance officers began on Monday, May 2, 2004. The prosecution team introduced forensic evidence as well as the video surveillance tape; it recorded the events from the time the meat inspectors were waiting in the office lobby for the police, who never came, to arrive, until the shooting of the officers at point-blank range. Alexander had unwittingly sealed his fate; he had the video system installed in all the rooms of the factory. The prosecutors also introduced the videotaped footage of the chase of Inspector Willis by Alexander down Washington Avenue. The prosecutors had aimed to show signs of premeditation in committing the murders; they also introduced the humorous joke "secret sauce" letter Alexander and his ex-girlfriend Eve Elder had written together several years before.The defense attorneys began preparing Alexander for at least an insanity plea, if not a second-degree murder defense, in order to stave off a possible death sentence if he were convicted; they introduced excerpts of the "harassing" e-mails and official letters made by the inspectors in hopes to show that his act of murder was out of "blind rage". Alexander, who had been held without bail since the time of the shootings, had pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges.