Statement by Robert Vickers. Footage of a prison cell; outside of a prison; electric chair. Stand-up in Arizona State Prison: Vickers is kept separately from other inmates. Vickers interview: he does not care if he gets executed or not. He feels no remorse for his crime.
Reporter: Trasoff, Nina (ABC).
Robert Wayne Vickers
Vickers entered Arizona's prison system as a teenager in 1977 after committing 12 burglaries in 13 days in Tempe. He later admitted to 33 more burglaries in California.
His first murder was of inmate Frank Ponciano, whom Vickers sought out as his cellmate because Ponciano had a TV. Angered that Ponciano did not wake him up for lunch and drank his Kool-Aid, Vickers strangled him and stabbed him multiple times with a sharpened toothbrush. He then carved - and misspelled - the Japanese war cry "Bonzai" in Ponciano's back. "Banzai Bob" had been Vickers' nickname in prison.
Vickers burned a cigarette on Ponciano's foot to show a guard he was dead, then said, "'Get this stinking (expletive) out of my cell."
Vickers later told prison psychologist Kent Spillman that he regretted only one thing about the attack: that he didn't have enough time to carve a swastika to dot the 'i' on Ponciano's body.
Vickers had a knack for creating makeshift knives and bombs, which he used to attack more than 11 prison guards.
Vickers also once escaped from death row and climbed atop the roof of Cellblock 6 through a shaft with another inmate. Vickers had managed to short-circuit the electronic locking mechanism on his cell door and left a dummy in his bed.
Once atop the compound, however, the two realized they had no place to go. The outside fence was too far away, and it was too high to jump to the ground below.
The two then did a striptease for a female tower guard before they were caught by other officers rushing to the roof, corrections Officer Jim Robideau said.
On March 4, 1982, Vickers was on death row at the Arizona State Penitentiary in Florence as a result of killing Ponciano. At around 6:30 p.m., he was out of his cell, allegedly doing clean-up chores. Instead, he paid a visit to Wilmar "Buster" Holsinger, another death row inmate. Vickers was upset over an earlier remark Holsinger had made about Vickers' niece.
He had built a firebomb from hair gel and an ice-cream carton, and he used it to torch Holsinger in his cell.
When a guard asked Vickers if Holsinger was dead, Vickers responded, "He should be. He's on fire." Holsinger died as a result of tracheobronchial bums suffered in the resulting flash fire. The attack also nearly killed a half-dozen other inmates from smoke inhalation and forced officials to evacuate death row.
Afterward, Vickers asked investigators, "Did I do a good job? {ellipsis} I told them they should have gassed me in December when they had a chance."
It was not the first time Vickers had demanded death. In a letter the previous year to then-Gov. Bruce Babbitt, he'd written, "So what's the hold up fella?
"If ya don't do it soon, I'm gonna draw more blood than your cheap mops can absorb. I'm a very impatient person, I never did like waiting. I've got a date with the devil's wife."
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Vickers' conviction for the murder of Ponciano, but Vickers remained on death row for the murder of Holsinger.
His violence, ingenuity and flair for the dramatic became known even beyond Arizona when he appeared in a HBO special to show how one can escape from cuffs and chains.
Vickers' defense argued that his violent personality was a construct of the Arizona prison system, which failed to provide him with the psychiatric help he needed as a teen and raised him in a culture of violence. Vickers had a history of epileptic seizures, and psychiatrists said he had a brain disorder that resulted in violent outbursts.
He spent 17 years on death row before his execution.
A.K.A.: "Bonzai Bob"
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Revenge
Number of victims: 2
Date of murders: 1978 / 1982
Date of birth: April 29, 1958
Victim profile: Frank Ponciano (inmate) / Buster Holsinger (death row inmate)
Method of murder: Strangulation / Fire
Location: Pinal County, Arizona, USA
Status: Executed by lethal injection in Arizona on May 4, 1999
On March 4, 1982, Vickers was an inmate on death row at the Arizona State in Florence as a result of killing Frank Ponciano.
At around 6:30 p.m., Vickers was out of his cell, allegedly doing clean-up chores. Instead, he went to the cell of Buster Holsinger, another death row inmate. Vickers was upset over an earlier remark Holsinger had made about Vickers' niece. Vickers doused Holsinger and his cell with some Vitalis he had been saving and then threw burning toilet paper on Holsinger, setting him ablaze. Holsinger died as a result of tracheobronchial bums suffered in the resulting flash fire.
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