 I'm Darren Marlar and this is a Weird Darkness Bonus Bite. From all that's interesting.com, Billy Shimmermere, a serial killer accused of murdering more than 20 elderly women, was just killed in prison by Kalina Fraga. On September 19, the gruesome story of a Texas serial killer who prayed on the elderly came to an end when 50-year-old Billy Shimmermere was found dead in his jail cell. Shimmermere apparently killed by his cellmate at the Caulfield Unit in Tennessee, Colony, Texas, was serving a life sentence for the murder of two women, but police believe he killed at least 20 more. Between 2016 and 2018, Texas authorities alleged that the Kenyan-born Shimmermere murdered at least 22 women in their homes or at senior independent living centers in order to steal their jewelry. At first, many of the deaths were chalked up as natural causes, but then a 91-year-old surviving victim was able to deploy police in Shimmermere's direction. This is the chilling story of Billy Shimmermere, the Texas serial killer who prayed on the elderly. As the Dallas Morning News reports, Billy Shimmermere was born in 1972 and grew up on a farm in Kenya between Eldorette and Nakuru. Shimmermere's father had three wives and Shimmermere said that he had 28 siblings. I was brought up in a good family. I didn't have any problems all my life," Shimmermere told the Dallas Morning News in an interview. He claimed that he was well-liked and a good student and that he started working as a caregiver by a caring for his elderly father then 100 years old. In 2003, Shimmermere left Kenya and moved to the United States where he continued to work as a caregiver alongside another job selling cars. From there, however, Shimmermere began to act erratically. He married in 2004, his wife filed for divorce two years later because Shimmermere vanished. He was arrested for driving while intoxicated twice, once in 2010 and once in 2011, and then Billy Shimmermere started getting violent. In 2012, he got into a violent argument with his girlfriend after he came home drunk from a strip club. The Dallas Morning News reports that Shimmermere punched her, beat her with a pot and kicked her in the back. Then he grabbed a knife and repeatedly stabbed a nearby love seat. Just a few years later, he had escalated to murder. Billy Shimmermere's murder spree started in 2016. He targeted both women living at senior independent living centers and in private homes. Police believe that Shimmermere used his knowledge of the healthcare system to force his way into women's apartments at senior living communities and that he posed as a healthcare or maintenance worker to gain access to the women's homes. At first, many of the women's deaths were chalked up to natural causes, although some of them were active and in good health. In 2017, People reports 79-year-old Dianne de la Honte was found dead in her apartment just three days after having lunch with her adult children. Her daughter found her on the floor and the family assumed at first she had fallen out of bed, but then they noticed that her rings were missing. I was angry, her son told People magazine, she was in good health, I wanted to know why this happened. In March 2018, Shimmermere attacked 91-year-old Mary Bartell, smothering her with a pillow and stealing her jewelry. But Bartell survived and gave police a description of her attacker. The next day, police found Shimmermere in the parking lot in front of his apartment complex holding jewelry and cash. As if this smoking gun wasn't enough, they also then discovered that he had thrown away a jewelry box that contained documents which led them to the home of 81-year-old Lu Tai Harris. Harris was dead. In all, police believe that Billy Shimmermere killed 22 women. In 2022, he was found guilty of murdering two of them, Harris and 87-year-old Mary Brooks. But Shimmermere always maintained his innocence. I'm not a killer, he told the Dallas Morning News. I'm not at all what they're saying I am. I am a very innocent person. I was not brought up that way. Regardless of his protestations of innocence, Billy Shimmermere was sentenced to life in prison. He was serving his life sentence when on September 19, 2023, he was attacked by his cellmate, a fellow convicted murderer, and killed. According to the Associated Press, Texas authorities have not yet released the name of Shimmermere's cellmate, how he was killed or what may have led to his death. However, Texas prisons have been racked with violence lately and were even placed on lockdown a couple of weeks ago because of a rise in drug-related murders. For the almost two dozen families of Shimmermere's alleged victims, the news of his murder in jail comes as a bittersweet relief. My mother died in fear. Shannon Dion, whose mother, 92-year-old Doris Gleason, was one of Shimmermere's alleged victims. This man did not have a peaceful passing. There is some relief in feeling that he didn't get off easily. Find the link to the original story in the show notes, and find more strange, funny or disturbing news in the Weird News & Blog at WeirdDarkness.com