Hollandsburg mastermind Roger Drollinger dies in prison

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

CARLISLE -- The man convicted as the mastermind of the 1977 Hollandsburg murders died Wednesday in his prison cell at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in Carlisle.

Roger Clay Drollinger, 61, was found unresponsive in his cell as breakfast was being delivered by prison staff around 6:45 a.m.

Prison photo of Roger Drollinger

Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful and no foul play is suspected, prison officials said.

Drollinger following arrest in 1977 murders

Drollinger was housed in a single-cell restrictive status housing unit at the maximum-security facility.

An autopsy will be performed to determine cause of death for the man responsible for the Feb. 14, 1977 shotgun slaying deaths of four Parke County young men in their Hollandsburg modular home.

Drollinger was serving four life sentences for the slayings of Ralph, 14, Reeve, 16, and Raymond Spencer, 17, and their stepbrother, Gregory Brooks, 22, during an early morning home invasion that also severely wounded the boys' mother, Betty Jane Spencer, the only survivor of the so-called Hollandsburg Valentine's Day Massacre.

The victims were lined up, face down on the floor of the mobile home, and the killers took turns firing 11 shotgun blasts at them as Drollinger reportedly ordered each of the four assailants to take part in the shootings.

Spencer, who died in 2004, survived by playing dead after a shotgun blast at close range blew off her wig, leading the assailants to believe she had been killed.

She lived to provide the key testimony against Drollinger and his three accomplices -- Daniel Stonebraker, then 20, Michael Wright, then 21, and David Smith, then 17 -- fingering Drollinger, who was 23 at the time, as the ringleader.

Stonebraker, Wright and Smith continue to serve life sentences at the Pendleton Correctional Facility for their roles in the execution-style homicides at the Spencers' rural Parke County home.

Comments
View 6 comments
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
  • Well, he died much quieter than his victims. Not a fair trade off at all. Should have been executed decades ago.

    -- Posted by donantonioelsabio on Wed, Jan 29, 2014, at 4:10 PM
  • What was the motive behind the crime?

    -- Posted by Zmejess on Wed, Jan 29, 2014, at 6:23 PM
  • GOOD RIDDANCE TO BAD RUBBISH. HE SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN THE DEATH PENALTY FOR HIS CRIMES. I THINK HE THOUGHT OF HIMSELF AS A SMALL TOWN "CHARLES MANSON." JUST A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SCUM...

    -- Posted by lhmh on Wed, Jan 29, 2014, at 6:36 PM
  • Lived in a concrete box, and died in a concrete box. Dump his remains in Afghanistan for all I care.

    -- Posted by conffool on Wed, Jan 29, 2014, at 8:14 PM
  • FOR Zmejess, THERE WAS REALLY NO MOTIVE FOR THE CRIME....DURING THE TRIAL IT WAS BROUGHT OUT THAT THEY WERE JUST DRIVING AROUND IN THE COUNTRY AND DROLLINGER WANTED TO "KILL SOMEBODY" JUST TO SEE WHAT IT FELT LIKE.

    -- Posted by lhmh on Thu, Jan 30, 2014, at 6:22 PM
  • How about you take the money WASTED by incarcerating this guy the past 37 years and dole it out to the families of the victims?

    Don't bother with an autopsy .. no one cares how he died, just THAT he died.

    -- Posted by Emmes on Wed, Feb 5, 2014, at 11:26 AM
Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: