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Judith Ann Neelley appears in a mugshot; Lisa Ann Millican appears in a photograph. (Alabama Department of Corrections; Screengrab via WFXG)
One of Alabama’s most notorious killers was denied parole after a hearing before the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles last week.
On Sept. 25, 1982, Lisa Ann Millican was abducted from the Riverbend Mall in Rome, Georgia, while on a trip with other neglected and abused girls and boys who stayed at the Ethel Harpst Home.
After being lured away from the arcade by Judith Ann Neelley and her husband, Alvin Neelley, the girl was taken to a motel in Scottsboro, Alabama. There, the couple repeatedly raped the girl for days.
On Sept. 28, 1982, Judith Neelley handcuffed the brutalized, captive girl to a tree in Little River Canyon in Fort Payne, Alabama. There, she injected bleach, Drano and occasionally, Liquid-Plumr into both sides of the victim’s neck, both arms, and both sides of her buttocks, in a failed attempt poison Millican to death. When it was clear the girl survived, Judith Neelley shot Millican in the back, murdering her execution-style. The couple then dumped the girl’s body over a nearby cliff and fled – continuing on a similar, vicious crime spree of sexual torture and violence.
A few days later, on Oct. 4, 1982, Janice Chatman, 23, and John Hancock, then 26 — an engaged couple from Rome — were abducted by the Neelleys. Chatman was subsequently raped and murdered while Hancock survived and identified his captors. Days later, they were both arrested. Each eventually blamed the other for master-minding the rapes and murders of over a dozen women. Alvin Neelley pleaded guilty to murder and aggravated assault in Georgia and received two life sentences. He died in prison in 2005.
Judith Neelley was tried for the murder of Millican and found guilty. She later pleaded guilty to Chatman’s death. A judge sentenced her to death but her sentence was commuted to life in 1999. She is now 59 years old.
Former District Attorney Mike O’Dell spoke at last week’s parole hearing, according to The Birmingham News, saying Neelley “killed for simple sport” and calling her “evil and depraved.”
According to the paper, the parole hearing lasted 23 minutes, and the board deliberated for three minutes before unanimously denying the murderer her bid at leaving her life behind bars.
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Neelley reportedly had no advocates or attorneys making a case on her behalf, while eight people testified against her. The killer herself was not allowed to be at the hearing, under Alabama law.
“She killed a child,” Tina Millican, the sister of the 13-year-old victim, testified. “Why keep going through this? Why keep putting families through this?”
Neelley was first denied parole in May 2018; her next parole hearing is currently slated for May 2028.
Deborah Callahan, Chatman’s daughter, also attended the parole hearing, the Times reports. She cried as she addressed the board, relaying the story of how her young mother screamed as she was shot to death by “this monster.”
“I hope Judith Ann Neelley hears that holler every day.” she said after the hearing.
The commutation of her sentence shocked Alabama when it occurred. In 2003, state legislators passed a law specifically aimed at keeping Neelley in prison, but the law was overturned as unconstitutional. In 2019, the state passed “Lisa’s Law,” which is named after Millican, in an effort to stop killers from profiting off their crimes. A companion law to that statute was passed as a state constitutional amendment in 2022.
“She should have been executed 20 years ago,” Clay Crenshaw, an attorney with the Attorney General’s office said. “She is pure evil.”
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