Killers in famous Memphis murder are up for parole
Two of Memphis’ more infamous killers are up for parole this summer after serving decades in prison for their part in the murder of Deborah Groseclose in 1977.
Phillip Britt, 61, and Ronald Rickman, 66, are currently serving life sentences for their part in the rape and murder of Deborah after her husband, William Groseclose, hired the two to kill her.
Britt’s parole hearing will take place on Aug. 12, at the Hardeman County Correctional Facility. Rickman’s hearing will take place sometime in September. No exact date has been set yet.
The August hearing will be the fifth parole hearing for Britt.
At the time of her death, Deborah Groseclose was 24 and worked as a receptionist at a neurological clinic in Memphis. Deborah Groseclose had one child with William Groseclose and another by a previous marriage.
Trial testimonies revealed that the couple had been having marital problems, and William Groseclose offered $1,000 to Britt and Rickman in exchange for killing Deborah.
William Groseclose, the trial revealed, also wanted the $32,000 from a life insurance policy on Deborah.
William Groseclose reported his wife missing on June 29, 1977. He told media at the time he tried searching for his wife to no avail, but was arrested a short time later after investigators linked him to Deborah’s death.
After being hired by William Groseclose, Rickman and Pitt abducted Deborah. They each raped her, beat her and strangled her.
The two men put Deborah’s body in the trunk of her convertible, and left the car in the parking lot of the former main library, once located at the corner of Peabody Avenue and Mclean Blvd.
Deborah’s body was found, badly decomposed, on July 4, 1977.
William Groseclose was convicted of his wife’s murder and originally sentenced to death. His sentence was later changed to life in prison.
Groseclose died in 2015 of natural causes at the Lois Deberry hospital prison in Nashville. He was 67.