True Crime
The Brutal Patricide of Terry King
A struggling father bludgeoned in his sleep by his two young sons
Cantonment, a suburb situated on the north side of Pensacola, sits about 30 miles south of the Alabama line in the Florida Panhandle. On November 26, 2001, the otherwise quiet community was shattered by news of the barbaric murder of a resident — 40-year-old Terry King.
On the night of his murder, the fire department was called to the scene of the King family home by neighbors. After getting the blaze under control, they were shocked to find a macabre scene inside. Terry King sat in his recliner with a cup of coffee still beside him on the table. His head had been bashed in with such brutal force that blood was splattered twelve feet across the room.
While the crime was horrific enough on its own, the fact that the killers turned out to be his young sons, 13-year-old Derek and 12-year-old son Alex, made it all the more shocking.
The King Family
To understand what may have driven the two boys to commit patricide, let’s start with a bit of family history.
Terry King met Janet French in 1985. He was an air conditioner repairman and she was a stripper/waitress. They spent eight years together, though they were…
