A callous monster who murdered a mother and her daughter has been executed by lethal injection after spending 16 years on death row.
Billy Crutsinger butchered Pearl Magouirk, 89, and Patricia Syren, 71, in their own home in a frenzied attack.
The women's bodies weren't found for two days after the stabbings and a DNA swab linked Crutsinger to the crime scene in Fort Worth, Texas.
The evil dad, now 64, who killed the pair in 2003, has become the fifth person executed in Texas this year and the 14th in the country.
In his last statement, Crutsinger said: "Hi ladies I wanted to tell ya'll how much I love you.
"Thank you for being here for me. You have brought pleasure inot my life in the short time I lived and known ya'll. Ya'll are very special not just to me but to the unit.
"There are so many lives that ya'll have touched over there that ya'll don't even know about that guys talk about in the back. I am at peace now with and going to be with Jesus and my family.
"I am going to miss those pancakes and those old time black and white shows. Where I am going everything will be in colour.
"There is a lot of this I don't understand but the system is not completely right. It's not completely wrong but it is something that has to be done until something better comes along.
"But I am at peace with that and I am ok and I can live with that. The 15 or 16 years that I have been on death row I have never had a case that doesn't mean that I am a good guy or nothing I have the lord in my heart and he has given me peace I will be honest with you.
"I am going to go tell your mother and David I am glad you made it and you didn't pass out on the line. Ok warden, I am ready."
Michele Hartmann, prosecuting, said the victims' deaths are "still felt deeply by their family and the Fort Worth community".
Crutsinger and his lawyers appealed repeatedly for the execution to be axed but the US Supreme Court denied a final petition on September 4.
Lydia Brandt, defending, argued her client has suffered alcohol addiction, head trauma and depression since the murders.
"The State of Texas denied Mr. Crutsinger his initial right to one full and fair opportunity to present his claims concerning violations of his fundamental constitutional rights," Ms Brandt wrote in a final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court last week.
She said Crutsinger had lost a newborn daughter, his toddler son to drowning, his teenage son to lymphoma, his brother from illness, his father, who was hit by a car, and his sister, who was killed in a car crash in which he was driving.
But the decision to kill Crutsinger was upheld.
Ms Magouirk and Ms Syren's murders made headlines across the US in 2003.
Crutsinger was eventually found hiding in a bar in Galveston, Texas.
A judge ruled police were not justified in arresting him on the spot there for credit card abuse because they didn’t have a warrant, and he didn’t commit the crime of failure to identify himself before his arrest.
But despite this, Crutsinger the judge found his confession and DNA sample were admissible evidence in court for the murders.
