Asbury Respus (c. 1878 – January 8, 1932) was an American serial killer who confessed to at least eight murders throughout North Carolina and Virginia in the early 20th century.

[2] Respus claimed that in his youth, he fell off of a barn and injured his head, an incident that he seemed to blame for the violent behavior he exhibited in his adulthood.

Around 1910, Respus also murdered another black woman named Becky Storr in Boykins, Virginia, by beating her with a stick.

[4] In 1912, Respus shot and murdered a black man named Ed B. Wynne, a native of Severn, North Carolina.

[10] Respus was at one point a suspect in the murder of Robert G. Smith, a native of Sumner, a township in Guilford County, who lived alone.

Locals believed that the same person who murdered Smith may have also been responsible for the similar death of Nellie Jones Ballinger, whose body was discovered with a gunshot wound in her mother's Greensboro home on January 15, 1929.

[10][16] Approximately 10 minutes after the murder took place, passersby saw smoke arising from the Leonard household and approached to find the house in flames.

[10] Authorities quickly connected Respus to the murder when he repeatedly showed up near the scene of the crime and suspiciously stood around.

[17] He was arrested and brought into custody later on September 30,[18] and when police searched his house, they found bloodstained overalls and shoes that matched footprints discovered at the murder scene.

At the time of the murder, Respus went by the alias Will Moore, and he was employed as a farmhand in a field located next to the Leonard household.

[19] Respus admitted to beating Leonard to death with a stick, stating that he had consumed copious amounts of alcohol the previous day and that "the [devil] must have gotten hold of me.

Cruchfield and Headen were taken to a jail in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for their own protection from lynch mob violence, but after Respus's confession, the two were released.

[10] On Monday, October 26, 1931, Respus was arraigned on charges of murder, criminal assault, and arson, all three of which carried the death penalty in North Carolina at the time.

As mob violence was still a threat even with Respus's trial soon to begin, state officials ordered National Guardsmen to protect the courthouse.

Although he was arraigned on three charges carrying the death penalty, the prosecutor elected to try Respus only for the murder of Vera Leonard.

[6] The first time Respus was seriously considered a suspect in any murders prior to that of Vera Leonard was during his trial, while he underwent questioning by a group consisting of his attorneys, some psychiatrists, and some county officials.

The additional confessions were only reported in the news after Respus's trial for the murder of Vera Leonard concluded with his guilty verdict and death sentence.

Witnesses to his execution included Guilford County Deputy Sheriff Murray Benbow, and S.C. Deskins, the principal of the school that Vera Leonard had attended when she was murdered.