Florida executes William Frederick Happ

Sun-Sentinel - Rick Halperin

STARKE— William Frederick Happ was put to death Tuesday evening for the 1986 rape and strangulation of a Lauderdale Lakes woman.

The 51-year-old painter formerly of Gilroy, Calif. was the 80th person executed in Florida since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
On Tuesday, Happ, 51, confessed to the 1986 murder of Angela Crowley, 21, before receiving a lethal dose of chemicals. He was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 6:16 p.m. 

"The terrible murder of Angela Crowley has been clouded by circumstantial evidence and uncertainty," he said. "To my agonizing shame I must confess to the crime.

"I wish to offer my most sincere, heartfelt apology," he said. "I have prayed to the good Lord to forgive me for my sins but I understand why those here cannot."

He ended with: "Lord grant peace to all. Amen."
In May 1986, Happ abducted, raped, beat and strangled Angela Crowley, 21, and dumped her body in a Citrus County canal.

She had been making a six-hour solo drive from her home in Lauderdale Lakes to visit a former college roommate in Yankeetown on the Gulf Coast when she crossed paths at a telephone booth with Happ, a rogue handyman with a lengthy criminal past.

Two of Crowley's brothers, two sisters, a nephew and an aunt traveled from Missouri, Illinois, Texas and California to witness the execution at Florida State Prison, located nine miles north of the small northern Florida town of Starke.

Happ's only visitors Tuesday were two Catholic spiritual advisers. One, a priest, administered his last rites. He took his final meal at 10 a.m. At his request, Happ had a 12-ounce box of assorted chocolates and 1-1/2 quarts of German chocolate ice cream.

Hours before he was executed, his demeanor was "calm," a prison spokeswoman said.

Happ becomes the 6th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Florida and the 80th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1979. Only Texas (506), Virginia (110), and Oklahoma (106) have executed more inmates since the death penalty was re-legalized in the USA on July 2, 1976. 

Happy becomes the 31st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1351st overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.