His name was Edward Davidson, but the world will remember him as the notorious “Spam King” who was convicted and sent to prison, only to escape, kill his wife and child, and then turn a gun on himself.
Colorado’s “Spam King” drama came to its conclusion on Thursday when the bodies of Davidson, his wife and three-year-old daughter were discovered in an SUV parked in a farmhouse driveway in a rural area east of Denver.
“What a nightmare, and such a coward,” said U.S. Attorney Troy Eid. “Davidson imposed the ‘death penalty’ on family members for his own crime.”
Retracing Davidson’s Footsteps
On July 20, Davidson walked away from a federal prison camp in Florence, Colorado — a minimum-security facility that features dorm-style housing, a low staff-to-inmate ratio and a program-oriented work environment.
Davidson, who was sentenced to serve 21 months in federal prison for illegally sending spam e-mail messages, left the Florence prison complex in a car with his wife, who probably never suspected his escape would lead to her death.
Davidson drove the car to Lakewood, a Denver suburb, where he got a change of clothes and cash. He then left. Davidson was next seen with a fatal, self-inflicted gunshot wound. In addition to shooting his wife and child, Davidson shot a fourth person in the neck. A one-year-old boy was found unharmed.
History of the Spam King
On April 28, 2008, Davidson was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Marcia S. Krieger to serve just under two years in federal prison. Judge Krieger also ordered him to pay $714,139 in restitution to the IRS. Davidson seemed amenable, having pled guilty before Judge Krieger on December 3, 2007.
As part of the restitution, Davidson had agreed to forfeit property he purchased, including gold coins, which were the ill-gotten proceeds of his offense. At the…