The Creepy Last Words A Man Who Murdered His Two Young Daughters Said To Their Mother Before He Was Executed
John David Battaglia, 62, was executed on Thursday.
A Texas man was executed Thursday for the murder of his two young daughters in 2001.
John David Battaglia was separated from his wife, Mary Jean Pearle, when he went to pick up their daughters, 9-year-old Faith and 6-year-old Liberty from a shopping center for his court-ordered visit.
Pearle went to dinner and returned a call from one of their daughters. On the other end, she heard Faith pleading with her father, who had put the call on speakerphone.
"No, daddy, please don't," Pearle said she heard Faith say. "Don't do it!"
The mother yelled for her children to run, and then heard gunshots.
Battaglia took the phone and told Pearle "Merry (explicit) Christmas." More gunshots were heard and Pearle called the police.
The Christmas message was apparently a reference to an attack Battaglia made on Pearle on Christmas in 1999 that he was on probation for during the murders.
Faith was shot three times. Liberty was shot five times. Battaglia was arrested hours later outside a tattoo shop where he had just gotten two large red roses on his left arm to commemorate his daughters.
Battaglia, who put on death row in 2002, said in 2014 that his daughters were his "best friends."
'I don't feel like I killed them. I am a little bit in the blank about what happened,' he said. Prosecutor's argued that he was angry with Pearle because she told police that he was harassing her.
He took that anger out on his children.
Just moments before he died, Battaglia smiled at Pearle and said: "Well, hi, Mary Jean."
"I'll see y'all later," he said, still smiling. "Bye."
He also asked if he was still alive, and said "Oh, I feel it," when the sedative began to take effect.
"I've seen enough of him," Pearle said before she left the execution.
Emily Blackwood is an editor at YourTango who covers pop culture, true crime, dating, relationships and everything in between. Every Wednesday at 10:20 p.m. you can ask her any and all questions about self-love, dating, and relationships LIVE on YourTango’s Facebook page. You can follow her on Instagram (@blackw00d) and Twitter (@emztweetz).