Evil Lives Here on ID: Who was John White and what did he do?

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John White murdered two women and nearly killed one individual between the years 1981 and 2012 before receiving a prison sentence in early 2013.

White committed his first crime at the age of 22 in 1980 when he invited his 17-year-old neighbor Theresa Etherton to his house and stabbed her. Etherton survived and her attacker got away with probation. Then in July 1994, he murdered Vicky Sue Wall, his mistress. Years later, in 2012, he killed his fiance’s 24-year-old daughter Rebekah Gay.

According to CBS News, White also served as the minister of a small Michigan congregation despite church members knowing about his criminal background. He was convicted in 2013 and sentenced to a minimum of 56 years in prison, where he ended his life in August of that same year.

Evil Lives Here on ID is slated to revisit the crimes of John White in an upcoming episode titled My Brother Let the Evil In. The official synopsis reads:

“Christina Thomas believes her brother, John, the first time he nearly kills a woman; she forgives him when he murders another, but when it happens again, she wonders why she trusted him and how she missed the signs he was really a devil in disguise.”

The all-new episode will air on the channel at 9:00 pm ET on August 20, 2023.

John White killed his final victim in 2012

According to Murderpedia, John White’s series of crimes first started in 1980 at the age of 22 when he lured his 17-year-old neighbor Theresa Etherton to the basement of his Battle Creek house to look at his race track. White was married at the time and stabbed Etherton as he kept smiling.

Etherton survived the attack and White was convicted of attempted murder. However, he later appealed his conviction and got a deal on the grounds of an insanity defense. As part of the deal, he was given two years of probation and no prison time as long as he received treatment for his mental health issues.

In July 1994 surveillance footage captured White with 26-year-old Vicky Sue Wall, his mistress who went missing. At the time, he was working as a maintenance worker in Oshtemo Township. Wall was last seen in his truck, and six weeks after she disappeared, her naked body was discovered.

John White eventually pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in connection with Wall’s murder and was sentenced to eight to 15 years in prison. He was released in 2007 after serving 13 years.

White’s final victim was his fiance’s 24-year-old daughter Rebekah Gay. He struck Gay in the head with a mallet before strangling her with a zip tie in her trailer home on Halloween in 2012. The victim’s three-year-old son was inside the house at the time. The ex-convict later confessed to murdering the young mother to fulfill his necrophiliac fantasy, as per Oxygen.

White pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in March 2013 and was sentenced to 56 to 85 years in prison. However, in August 2013, the convicted murderer ended his life in his prison cell while serving his lengthy sentence. The 56-year-old was reportedly housed in the Michigan Reformatory correctional facility in Ionia when he died by suicide.

Learn more about John White’s crimes on ID’s Evil Lives Here this Sunday.