Police last week filed a sworn complaint against a Florida prisoner in the three-decades-old cold case stabbing death of a prominent East Gainesville man. The murder charge stems from a confession made to Gainesville Police and State Attorneys Office investigators.
In late 2019, GPD Det. David Blizzard and State Attorney Investigator Bennie Smith were summoned to Liberty Correctional Institution after an assistant warden told them an inmate had information concerning a 1990 Gainesville murder. During the interview, 57-year-old Terry Lee Mack confessed to repeatedly stabbing 84-year-old Essie Camps on Feb. 28, 1990.
Mack was sentenced to life in prison in 1993 after being found guilty of killing 67-year-old Jeffrey Jones in Gainesville in 1991.
Mack was a longtime suspect in Camps’ murder. Gainesville Sun news reports from 1991 said police were eying Mack in Camps’ murder due to similarities in the Camps and Jones cases. Like Camps, Jones was stabbed in the chest multiple times. Camps and his family knew Mack and often let him into their homes, according to the affidavit.
Essie Camps, born in 1905 in nearby Jonesville, owned a landscaping business and was an active member and choir leader at Mount Olive Primitive Baptist Church.
During his 2019 confession, Mack told investigators that on the morning of the murder, he went to Camps’ home to borrow money for drugs. Mack returned to Camps’ Northeast Fourth Avenue home the same day seeking additional funds. Mack told investigators he went into the kitchen to pour Camps a glass of water. He said he returned with a knife and repeatedly stabbed Camps. Mack said he then rifled through Camps’ wallet and fled on a bicycle. During the investigation, Mack’s fingerprints were found on a drinking glass.
At the time, the Gainesville Sun reported one of Camps’ grandsons discovered his body later in the day. Thinking Camps had suffered a heart attack, family members rushed to the home. Upon their arrival, they discovered the stab wounds. Mack also returned to the scene of the crime and mixed in with a crowd of friends and family.
Mack told police he didn’t intend to murder or rob Camps prior to his arrival at the home.
Mack and his later victim, Jones, were part of the same church group at Newnan’s Lake Church of God by Faith. Rev. Joseph Camps — one of Essie’s five sons — led the group. Rev. Camps himself was murdered in 1999.
Willie Mayberry, Camps’ nephew, said his family is no stranger to tragedies.
In addition to the murders of Essie and his son Joseph, Mayberry said Jesse Camps, another of Essie’s sons, was killed in 1967 by a neighbor during an argument between Jesse, his girlfriend and the neighbor. According to an inscription on his headstone, Jesse, who was 39 years old at the time of his death, was a World War II veteran and served with the U.S. Army’s 24th Infantry Division, which saw action in the Pacific theater.
News of the confession was a surprise to Mayberry. He said it was long-rumored that someone in the family was responsible.
When reached by phone Sunday evening, Janie Sanford, 81, of Gainesville recalled weekend trips to the Jacksonville farmer’s market with her father. Kids in the neighborhood were fond of him as he’d often load them into his Cadillac and treat them to ice cream, she said.
Three of Essie’s nine children—all girls—are still living.
When informed that Terry Lee Mack claimed responsibility for the death of her father, she said she had no recollection of anyone with that name. Jeff Jones, Mack’s other victim, was a good friend of her brother Joseph, Sanford said.