Strip membership assassin executed in Texas as he mentioned ‘this is not the tip; that is solely the start’
In the second US execution of the night, killer Richard Lee Tabler was put to death via lethal injection in Texas after he killed four people in a fit of rage in 2004
A man found guilty of the 2004 ambush and murders of a strip club manager and his friend has been executed in Texas.
Richard Lee Tabler, 46, was put to death using lethal injection on Thursday February 13 in Texas after he fatally shot four people in what he described as a fit of rage.
Tabler was sentenced to death for the Thanksgiving 2004 shooting deaths of strip club manager Mohammed-Amine Rahmouni, 28, and his friend Haitham Zayed, 25, in a remote area in Central Texas. Police said both men were killed in a late-night meeting under the guise of buying stolen stereo equipment, which was actually a planned ambush.
Before his execution, Tabler addressed his victims families and said: “There is not a day that goes by that I don’t regret my actions. I had no right to take your loved ones from you … I am deeply sorry.”
Tabler spoke of how he found God and mellowed out during his time in jail. The murderer had his mother and sister there as witnesses, and they both said that he turned into a loving and selfless man who didn’t deserve to die.
Tabler also confessed to the murders of two teenage girls who worked at the club, Tiffany Dotson, 18, and Amanda Benefield, 16. He was indicted for the killings but never tried.
A troublemaker in prison, he also caused a mass lockdown of the state prison system after he used a smuggled mobile phone to threaten state Sen. John Whitmire, who is now the mayor of Houston. Some were confined to their cells for weeks while officers swept more than 100 prisons to seize hundreds of items of contraband, including mobile phones.
In a lengthy statement before the injection, he said: “If you feel that this is what you need to get you closure, I pray it helps you have that closure,” he said. “I just hope that one day you find that forgiveness to forgive me for taking your loved ones from you.”
He thanked several prison staff members by name for “your love and support and your compassion and allowing me the opportunity to show you that I can change and become a better man and rehabilitate.”
He told his loved ones, lawyers and supporters that “This isn’t the end; this is only the beginning.”
“I thank God for allowing me to seek him out and finding him and show that this isn’t about me,” he said. “We are all here today because of my actions, but in the end, it comes down to God, praising him and giving honor to him … I know when this happens, and this goes through it’s going to be the end of this life, but it will be the beginning of my ultimate life in heaven.”
Tabler is the second person to be executed tonight and the fifth in 2025.
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