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‘Sex slave killer’ dies of cancer in prison

Friday, July 19, 2002 | 10:44 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Gerald A. Gallego, sentenced to death for the slayings of two 17-year-old girls in the Nevada desert, which became known as the "sex slave killings," died Thursday night of cancer at the state prison in Carson City.

He died one day after his 56th birthday.

Prison officials said today Gallego had been transferred from death row at the state prison in Ely to the Regional Medical Center here in March for treatment of his cancer.

Gallego was sentenced to death for killing Karen Twiggs and Stacey Redican, who were kidnapped from a Sacramento shopping center in April 1980.

Gallego drove them to an isolated area near Lovelock in a van. In testimony at the trial, his former wife, Charlene, said Gallego was looking for the perfect sex slaves.

The bodies were found in a shallow grave in the desert near Lovelock in July 1980. They died from multiple blows to the head with a hammer.

Gallego launched numerous appeals to try to escape his conviction. He was granted a new penalty hearing before a jury in Lovelock, but the jury imposed the death penalty a second time.

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