Leo Lancing Boatman

**Leo Lancing Boatman** is an American serial killer convicted of murdering two campers in 2006, and later killed two inmates in prison.

## Criminal information

### Murder Method

ShootingBeating
Stabbing

## Overview

### Childhood

From ages 4 to 6, Boatman lived with his aunt and uncle. While he lived there, an older cousin forced him to perform sexual acts with an older relative while the cousin watched. When the police became aware of this, Leo Boatman was sent back to live with his grandmother.

Leo Boatman's grandmother favored his sister, rosie, over him. Boatman was hard to control, and he didn't listen to anyone. His grandmother began to verbally abuse him. She also admitted to hitting him with a broom. His sister bullied him too, calling him "stupid" every chance she had.

Leo's grandmother didn't want him anymore. Since none of his other relatives wanted him, and his mother was dead, his grandmother took him to a group home for juvenile delinquents. He was sent to several foster homes, some of which were abusive, so he ran away multiple times.

Boatman was returned to his grandmother in 1998, when he was 12. He began to act out at home, and his grandmother despised him for it. When Boatman told his grandmother he was getting good grades at school, his grandmother refused to believe him, and screamed at him. This prompted Leo Boatman to call the state's abuse hotline.

A social worker interviewed the grandmother, who began to scream at Leo Boatman during the interview. Child Protective Services determined that Boatman's grandmother was not fit to parent him due to her illness and verbal abuse. This caused Boatman to be placed back into foster care.

He was then placed into another abusive foster home in St. Petersburg. The foster father, an alcoholic, would punish their foster children in cruel ways. Some of the punishments included: withholding meals, making them do 5,000 squat jumps at a time, and forcing them to sit at a desk chair for hours on end, naked in some instances. Many foster children ran away. Some of them committed crimes so they could go to jail instead of being returned to the foster home.

By that time, the 12-year-old Leo Boatman had been in and out of juvenile detention centers for 3 years. His criminal record was mostly made up of arson charges.

In 2000, when he was 13, he met Steve Schick, a guardian ad litem. Schick described Leo Boatman as "a warm soul." During an interview. he stated,

> *"He's been tremendously abused. You've got to feel sorry for what he went through up through age 10 or 12 with mom and grandma."* In reference to Leo Boatman.
>
>

Steve Schick described an experience he and boatman had. While the two of them drove on the highway, they drove past a car accident. Leo saw paramedics tending to a man on the pavement. He told Schick, "*I hope he's not suffering.*"

One day, Leo asked Steve Schick to adopt him, and he said yes. Schick told Leo, "*You don't have to go anywhere. You can stay here. I know you can't erase* *what happened to you, but we can try.*" But the state wouldn't let Schick adopt Boatman, because Boatman kept breaking the law and running away from foster homes.

## Victims

 John Parker
 Rick A. Morris
 William L. Chapman

## References

1. ↑ The Crossover Killer: Excerpt from “Raised by the Courts”
2. ↑  A DEADLY PATH TO A HIDDEN POND