Season 4 of I Am a Killer is streaming on Netflix now, with six new cases for true-crime enthusiasts to get their teeth into.
Episode 5, titled “The Bogeyman,” focuses on the crimes of the murderer Gary Black, also known as the “Joplin Missouri Killer.”
Black tells his life story as well as spilling gruesome details about his crimes and his time in prison. The episode also features interviews with the family of Black’s victim, Jason Oscar Johnson, and the detectives who worked on the case.
Newsweek has everything you need to know about Gary Black and where he is now.
Who Is I Am a Killer’s Gary Black?
Gary Black is a convicted murderer from McDonald County, Missouri.
Throughout his life, Black was in and out of trouble with the law. The Cinemaholic details that Black was convicted of a near-fatal attack on a woman in 1976 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Black was released on parole after serving 12 years, and as heard in Netflix’s I Am A Killer, Black returned to work as a pimp, where he met prostitute, Tammy Lawson.
Jason O. Johnson’s Murder
On October 2, 1998, Black fatally stabbed 28-year-old Jason O. Johnson to death outside of a convenience store in Joplin, Missouri.
Johnson and his two friends, Andrew Martin and Mark Wolfe, had stopped at the store on their way to a downtown nightclub, to purchase some beer and chewing tobacco.
Johnson, who entered the store on his own, was captured on CCTV waiting in line to purchase his items. In front of him was Tammy S. Lawson, Black’s girlfriend.
As heard in I Am A Killer, Lawson alleged Johnson had tried to make a move on her and pointed him out to Black as she returned to his car.
Black and Lawson followed Johnson and Martin’s car and when Martin stopped at a spotlight, Black pulled up alongside him.
Moments later, Black exited his car and reached through the passenger window of Martin’s car, and stabbed Johnson multiple times in the neck.
As Black drove away, he discarded the weapon out of the car window and according to prosecutors, made a derogatory racist remark.
Johnson died from his injuries three days later in the hospital.
Arrest and Trial
Black fled to Oklahoma, but he was soon arrested on suspicion of murder. Based on Lawson’s statement, police had also uncovered an empty knife sheath in his car and the murder weapon from a cemetery near where Johnson was attacked.
Investigators also learned that Lawson’s claims Johnson had tried to inappropriately engage with her, were false.
According to court documents, at trial, prosecutors argued Johnson’s murder was the result of Black’s “race-based reaction” after hearing Johnson made a pass at Lawson. Black and Lawson are white and Johnson was Black.
The defense argued Black sought to injure Johnson, not kill him. Therefore, making him guilty of second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter.
Black was convicted of first-degree murder in two separate trials. He eventually avoided the death penalty.
Where Is Gary Black Today?
Gary Black is currently serving his prison sentence at the Potosi Correctional Center in Missouri.
When Black was initially convicted of first-degree murder in 1999, he received the death penalty. However, in 2004, his guilty conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court of Missouri. The court agreed with the defense counsel’s failure to call four eyewitnesses who allegedly provided “inconsistent statements.”
In 2006, he was convicted a second time of first-degree murder and received the death penalty.
However, in 2010, his death sentence was overturned. Black accepted a plea bargain offered by prosecutors that sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
He entered an Alford Plea, meaning Black was able to maintain his innocence, but he admitted if the case were to go to trial, it would likely result in a guilty verdict.
Speaking in Season 4 of I Am A Killer, Black shared that he had no regrets about killing Johnson and admitted to being a racist.
He said: “I wanted to kill him the moment that truck came to a stop and I knew he couldn’t get away from me,” adding: “Right at that moment, I knew he was dead. And he died.”
When asked if he was a racist, Black remarked: “Definitely. I am definitely a racist. I grew up in the Klan, I grew up around it.”
Black also gives audiences an insight into what his time in prison has been like.
He shared: “These guards will tell you, I live in an administrative segregation unit. Until just six months ago I was in isolation in a one-man cell for almost two years. They don’t know what to do with me here, that’s right they don’t know what to do with me here. And I don’t care.”
Reflecting on his sentence, Black said: “If this was a second-degree murder like it was supposed to be. I’d probably be in a halfway house somewhere right now, on my way to a nursing home.”
“I sit here and cost the state of Missouri money. That’s what I do with myself. I sit right here and cost the whole state of Missouri every penny I can get for the rest of my life. Even dying, you people are going to pay for me.”
I Am A Killer Season 4 is streaming on Netflix now.
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