HILLSBORO, Ore. -- Death row inmate Cesar Barone died on Christmas Eve 2009 at 12:20 p.m. in Oregon State Penitentiary due to
natural causes, according to the state s Department of Corrections.
The families of Margaret Schmidt, Martha Bryant and Chantee Woodman and Betty Williams, four women who Barone killed between 1991 and 1993, might consider his death a Christmas wish fulfilled.
Barone, 49, was nearing his 15th anniversary on death row, having been admitted Jan. 31, 1995 on six counts of aggravated murder,
two counts of murder, five sex abuse and rape charges and eight counts of burglary, for killing the four women.
Schmidt, 61, was found strangled. The 41-year-old Bryant was shot to death. Woodman, who was only 23, also was found shot to death.
It was the death of 51-year-old Betty Williams, though, that helped Washington County prosecutors hunt down the serial killer.
Williams died of a heart attack while Barone was raping her, according to the state. He left his gun in her apartment, which investigators found and concluded he had used it to kill Woodman just eight days earlier.
Barone s former girlfriend, a neighbor to Woodman, tipped off investigators, too, later saying she d had no idea that he was a killer.
Cause of death
The Department of Corrections would not disclose how Barone died, citing state law that protects the private medical information of
state inmates.
Michelle Dodson, a spokesperson for Corrections, said his death had been expected and that he had been hospitalized for some time with medical issues.
At the time he died, Barone was nearing the halfway point in the post-conviction appeals process for death row inmates, according
to Dodson.
A look at Barone s arrest record indicates a long history of violence.
In 1969, when he was only 19 years old, Barone was arrested for robbing his 70-year-old grandmother and then trying to strangle her to death.
He was acquitted of the assault and strangulation charges but did serve prison time for the burglaries. Barone escaped from a full security prison within a year.
Once recaptured, Barone was placed in the same high security prison as serial killer Ted Bundy.
Barone found a legal outlet for his violence after his parole and enlisted in the U.S. Army, ultimately making his way onto the elite Ranger force, which executed the 1989 U.S. military overthrow of Manuel Noriega, the Panamanian dictator.
The following year, in 1990, Barone moved to Hillsboro, Oregon, and one year later he began killing women here. He received three capital punishment convictions for the deaths of the four women.
In Oregon, the death sentence can only be sought for aggravated murder charges.
