Harold Nichols was the 16th person Tennessee has executed in the modern era of capital punishment; he murdered a young woman in Chattanooga in 1988. He was born on the last day of 1960 and grew up in the town of Cleveland, in Bradley County in poverty. The Nichols family belonged to a Pentecostal sect known as the Church of God of Prophecy and his parents did not allow any guests over to the house outside of fellow church members. When Harry was six months old, his Aunt Betty and her husband drowned in a lake during a family outing; two of their children, Diana, and Royce, ages 12 and 13, were adopted into the household. Harry's father Mac subjected Diana to considerable mental and sexual abuse during the next few years.Diana and Royce had both turned 18 and left the house by 1968 and Harry's mother Nanny also died three weeks after his 10th birthday, leaving only his father and 13 year old sister Debbie in the house. Mac subjected both children to physical and sexual abuse until church leaders insisted he give them over to an orphanage in exchange for which the abuse would be kept quiet. Harry and Debbie then lived at Tomlinson Children's House for the next several years; the latter turned 18 in May 1976, got married, and moved out of Tennessee. Thirteen months later, Nichols went back to live with his father, who was now unemployed and living on disability, an alcoholic, and a user of prostitutes.
Nichols also began skipping school on a regular basis, but did manage to graduate. As jobs were scarce during the early 1980s economic recession, he enlisted in the Army in late 1981 and was stationed at Ft. Riley, Kansas. He began an affair with the wife of a fellow serviceman and they eventually moved in together and she bore him a daughter. Nichols was given a dishonorable discharge a week after her birth, abandoned his new family, and went home to Chattanooga at the start of 1984. He worked at a local convenience store and is thought to have moved back in with his father during this time.That August 30, he broke into an apartment with the intent of robbing it. Finding one of its two female occupants inside, he tried unsuccessfully to rape her and fled. Nichols was arrested five days later and pled guilty to assault and attempted rape. He was sentenced to five years in prison and was paroled June 1986, eighteen months into his sentence, after passing a psychiatric exam with flying colors. Nichols was put back in jail for a month for failing to report to his parole officer and was ordered to live with his father for the time being. He got married a second time, to a woman named Joanne, in November. They initially resided with Mac Nichols, but Joanne did not care for her father-in-law and they moved out after a short time. On June 29, 1987, Nichols was reported by a resident of East Ridge after she saw him stalking around her house with a knife. As he did not live in the neighborhood and could not provide any reason for being there, police arrested him for criminal trespass. He was sent back to jail for a year for parole violation.
After getting out, Nichols went back to live with his wife and worked as a pizza cook, eventually becoming restaurant manager. Joanne said he was a good husband who treated her well and their marriage was a happy one except for when Nichols's former Army girlfriend tried to sue him for child support payments. They were not able to have children of their own as Joanne had an obstructed fallopian tube, which she got a surgical procedure to correct.For four months starting in September 1988, Nichols committed a rape spree around Chattanooga. The first victim, and the one that ultimately landed him a spot on Tennessee's death row, was 20 year old Karen Pulley, whom he attacked September 30. Nichols broke into her home, beat her with a wooden board, and raped her. A friend of Pulley found her the next morning still alive, but she died soon afterwards. Autopsy found that her skull was crushed. Despite an extensive investigation, police had no suspects and no clue exactly what was used to inflict the injuries to Pulley's head. Nichols continued to attack women during the fall months. On october 20, he attacked a 23 year old woman in her home, raped her, and bludgeoned her with a candlestick.
On November 1, he attacked a woman in East Ridge at knifepoint. Nichols went to her closet, picked out some clothing items he liked, and ordered her to put them on. He then raped her, pulled out at the end, and ejaculated on her skirt. Nichols told the victim to shower as he watched. Reminding her he would kill her if she told anyone, he then departed and took the semen-stained skirt with him so it would not be left as evidence. On November 21, he broke into a home in Red Bank where a 35 year old woman and her son lived. Nichols made his way to her bedroom and woke her up, but she screamed and started fighting him. They were interrupted by her school-aged son, so Nichols told her to tell him everything was fine, which she did. The woman's dog then came into the room and she told him to attack the intruder. Nichols grabbed her purse and ran but this lady was a formidable one; she ran after him yelling. She grabbed a gun from her car and went to call police. The woman claimed she'd seen a car like Nichols's parked outside a few weeks ago and that it drove off as she approached. Some time later, she came home and found that her underwear drawer had been rooted through. It also appeared that the window he'd entered during the attack was left unlocked from a previous time he was in the house.
On December 21, Nichols broke into an East Ridge house after ascertaining that its female occupant was alone. The front door was unlocked, so he simply walked inside, got a kitchen knife, and found the woman asleep on the sofa. He woke her up, ordered her to the bedroom, cut off her clothes, and raped her at knifepoint. Nichols also tried to penetrate the victim anally but was unable to do so, so instead he simply ejaculated on her face and told her to wash herself up. He took the knife and her purse and left. The following day, Nichols broke into the home of a 35 year old woman in Tiftonia. She happened to be in the shower when he entered the house, so as soon as she came out of it he attacked her with a kitchen knife. The woman fought back; Nichols cut her a few times but she managed to poke him in the eye with the tip of the knife, so he fled. Nichols had apparently tried to break into the same house on December 8 as he was charged with attempted burglary, but court records don't have any further details. He may have aborted the break-in attempt that day.On December 27, Nichols broke into a house in Red Bank. The female occupant of the house had just come back from a movie theater and was carrying items out of her car. Nichols entered through a back window, surprised her, and wrapped an electrical cord around her neck. He dragged her inside and ordered her to undress. The woman didn't comply with his demands fast enough, so he punched her and forcibly removed her clothing. She protested that she was on her period, so her punched her again, told her to perform oral sex on him, and then vaginally raped her. The victim called police shortly after he left. A last attack on a woman in Tiftonia on December 31 was apparently unsuccessful and he was not charged in this incident.
On January 3, 1989, Nichols entered an apartment in East Ridge where a 31 year old woman and her 4 year old daughter were asleep in the main bedroom. He told her to obey his commands or the daughter would be killed. The woman assured her everything would be fine and had her watch a VHS movie while she went with Nichols to the living room. He made her undress and lay on the sofa where he raped her, telling her if she called police he'd come back and kill her daughter. The woman waited about 24 hours before reporting him. Nichols had evidently cased the apartment for a while; on Thanksgiving, she had found her doors and windows unlocked, some items in the house disarrayed, and lights turned on that were off when she left. A few hours after the attack, Nichols tried unsuccessfully to break into an East Ridge apartment. Police found cut window screens and attempts to pry the doors open; the occupant of the apartment was asleep the whole time and did not know about it until being told later.Nichols tried the adjacent apartment. Inside was a 28 year old single mother. He broke in by prying open a window; the noise awoke the woman, who saw him and ran to call police but Nichols caught her and hung up the phone. He told her he would kill her children if she didn't comply. Nichols forcibly undressed her; when she protested, he punched her. Despite attempts at oral, vaginal, and anal penetration, he was unable to achieve an erection and finally gave up. He told her to stay put until he was gone. The woman instead went to get dressed just as police arrived. They spotted him fleeing but he got away.
His final attack happened a few hours after that when he arrived at the home of a 26 year old woman in East Ridge. She came back around 1:00 AM and immediately passed out on the sofa. The woman was awoken by two blows to the head and face. Nichols held a knife to her throat and told her to obey his commands or die. He forcibly undressed her, tried to anally pentrate her, and failed, after which the woman claimed to be feeling nauseated. Nichols got her a washcloth to vomit in, whereupon she tried to grab a .38 handgun she had in the nightstand. He spotted her and managed to wrestle the gun from her hands, beat her, raped her anally a second time, and then pointed the gun at her and told her to wash up. He left and she called police afterward.He was finally caught January 5 when a man named Chris Mull gave police a tip. Mull, who was gay, was upset that his partner Larry Gilgore was friends with Nichols and didn't spend enough time with him instead. A background check on Nichols revealed his earlier prison sentence for attacking a woman in her home. Taken into custody, he confessed all of his crimes and he was charged with first degree murder and rape with a deadly weapon. In regards to the December 27 attack involving the menstruating woman, Nichols remarked that the whole episode was "extremely funny." When a detective asked exactly what was funny about it, he shrugged and said "I dunno, guess it was the whole way it all went down." That victim had intact semen on her clothes, but forensic testing in 1988 was not advanced enough to link it to Nichols. He also confessed to two further rapes in Red Hill, but was not charged in either of these and court records have few details about them. Investigators believed Nichols doubtlessly committed further rapes that the victims never reported.
Nichols indicated that he was sorry for his actions, but would have kept doing it if he wasn't caught. His trial began May 7, 1990; character witnesses for the defense included his wife and his reverend, who claimed he was possessed by an evil spirit when he committed his crimes. Following an argument between the defense and prosecution over his videotaped confession to police (the defense believed it should not be admitted as evidence) he decided to forgoe the trial and simply plead guilty to first degree murder, rape, and burglary. He was sentenced to death May 12. Nichols claimed a wooden 2x4 board was used to beat Karen Pulley, but although this board was recovered from his apartment by police, they found no blood or tissue on it.Nichols appealed his conviction numerous times over the years; seven different appeals filed during the 1990s were all rejected. A psychiatrist diagnosed him with intermittent explosive disorder and other issues relating to his childhood. In 2005, semen recovered from Karen Pulley's nightgown was DNA matched to Nichols so his defense retracted their claim of innocence despite the fact that he had earlier confessed to the attack.Governor Bill Lee granted him a stay of execution in July 2020 due to the COVID-19 lockdown and his date of execution moved to June 9, 2022 but it was moved again due to a review of Tennessee's lethal injection protocols. He was executed December 11, 2025. Karen Pulley's sister supported the execution while religious leaders called on his sentence to be commuted to life in prison, arguing he had shown remorse for his actions.
>>18239727>>18239731>>18239723wtf man. why were boomers like this?
>>18239739>semen recovered from Karen Pulley's nightgown was DNA matched to Nichols so his defense retracted their claim of innocence despite the fact that he had earlier confessed to the attack.He was smart enough to make off with the one other chick's skirt that had his jizz on it but maybe it didn't occur to him at first.
>>18239715Wow, what a twisted man. Thanks for doing these OP
>>18239771the defense could have attacked the credibility of the 17 year old and probably now degraded DNA evidence but he'd already confessed so that was a no go
>>18239715Always whites.
>>18240358^This. If he was black this thread would get 95 replies by now.
>>18239759Boomers were barely contained psychopaths.
>>18240367either zoomlennials are not as psychotic or we just have more/better outlets for our rage than boomers did
