The 1996 Hollywood Video Massacre: A Grisly Crime That Rocked Albuquerque
On March 3, 1996, a serene Sunday morning in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was shattered by a scene of unimaginable horror. Inside the Hollywood Video store, the silence was broken by a blood-curdling scream around 9:30 a.m., signaling the start of a crime spree that would leave five people dead and a community in shock.
A Scene of Carnage Unfolds
Employees arriving for work were met with a macabre sight: three of their colleagues lay dead on the ground, each shot three times in the back of the head in an execution-style killing. The victims were identified as 19-year-old Zachary Blacklock, 30-year-old Mylinh Daothi, and 18-year-old Jowanda Castillo. Detectives initially suspected a robbery, but the killers could not have gotten away with much money, making the brutality of the act even more senseless. The crime scene was described as having the angry crimson hue of an abattoir, a grim testament to the violence that had occurred.
The horror did not end there. The following day, police discovered the bodies of Pauline and George McDougall in the Sandia Mountains east of Albuquerque, near their car. The elderly couple, who were Zachary Blacklock's grandparents, had also been killed by multiple gunshot wounds, expanding the death toll to five.
The Killers: Shane Harrison and Esther Beckley
At the center of this tragedy were 28-year-old Shane Harrison and his girlfriend, Esther Beckley, both from Las Cruces, near the Mexican border. Harrison, described by prosecutors as a loser with a thirst for blood, was out on early release at the time. Beckley, also on an early release program, participated in the heist. According to court testimonies, the pair went to the video store just after 2 a.m., with Beckley forcing Mylinh Daothi into the office at gunpoint using a BB gun that resembled a Colt .45. Daothi was ordered to retrieve the security tape, and when Zachary Blacklock and Jowanda Castillo arrived, they were similarly held captive.
The situation escalated when Zachary's grandparents, Pauline and George McDougall, pulled into the parking lot to give him a lift. Harrison spotted them and ordered Beckley outside to distract the couple. After gunshots rang out inside the store—nine in total—the elderly couple was forced at gunpoint to drive to the mountains, where they were executed with shotgun blasts and a 9 mm handgun.
The Aftermath and Legal Proceedings
Beckley, in a state of distress, returned home to her on-again, off-again boyfriend John Lausell and confessed to the murders, even claiming responsibility for killing the McDougalls in an attempt to impress him. Lausell, however, turned both Beckley and Harrison into the police, collecting a $35,000 reward. Facing the death penalty or decades in prison, Beckley made a deal with prosecutors, agreeing to testify against Harrison in exchange for a reduced sentence.
The trial, moved from Albuquerque to Las Cruces due to sensational news coverage, began on December 1, 1998. Harrison's lawyers argued he was set up by Beckley and Lausell, but prosecutors countered, stating, Shane Harrison did this—no one else. The jury was unconvinced by the defense, and Harrison was sentenced to 258 years in prison, which he is serving at the Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility in Las Cruces. Beckley received a sentence of 95-and-a-half years behind bars.
Prosecutor's Summary: A Killer's Fantasy
During the trial, prosecutor Mary Altwies painted a vivid picture of Harrison, describing him as self-centered, self-absorbed, and basically a loser. She alleged that Harrison was thrilled by his own executions and had a perverse goal to do an armed robbery and kill the witnesses. When his fantasies spun out of control in the early morning hours of March 3, 1996, he took a whole community with him, Altwies told the jury.
Beckley testified that Harrison fired the shotgun as fast as he could cock the gun during the murders of the McDougalls, and when she pleaded with him to stop, he remarked, They're still making noises, to which she responded, Leave them alone, they're dead. They're dead. This chilling testimony underscored the brutality of the crimes and the cold-blooded nature of the perpetrators.
The 1996 Hollywood Video massacre remains a dark chapter in Albuquerque's history, a reminder of how a robbery gone wrong can escalate into a mass murder, leaving lasting scars on a community and the families of the victims.
