Worst of the Worst: The Victims of Edward Johnson

How do we determine who is the worst of the worst? Who should be locked up in our country's super max prisons, away from even our standard prison population? Do the crimes they commit make them the worst of the worst or is it the victims that they choose? 

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Welcome to the Midwest Crime Files. I'm your host, Gina. I'm here to tell you the stories of small towns and the heinous crimes that change them forever. I'm going to start this episode with a Patreon shout-out. So I'm going to give a shout-out to all our current Patreon members. And if you are just signing up and I miss you, I apologize. I will catch you on the next round. But if you'd like to join this list, head on over to our Patreon site and become a member today. Patreon shout out to Kimberly, Katherine, Kristen, Brittany, Nanisa, Carrie, Serena, Samantha, Maureen, Joyce, Katherine, Jeannie, Karen, Becca, Kayla, Sheila, and Brittany. Thank you guys so much for supporting the show. You guys, it's been a long, long journey to get the show back up and running. And I feel like we are finally here. We have made it. And I will say the Jade story episode is sort of my um what I hold as my I made it symbol, to be quite frank with you. That is the the episode that this, I believe this whole podcast was created for, um, was to tell Jade's story. And to have Jessica on the show and have that episode finally come to life, um has really just m meant everything to me. So a very special thank you to Jessica for being on the show and to everybody. I hope you guys really enjoyed um being able to hear her side of the story. Not that you enjoyed the story itself. Of course, it's a horrible story, but um being able to have her perspective. I hope you appreciated that, and that um that that that episode means as much to you, hopefully. Um, or at least you appreciated it as much as I do. Um, so I appreciate all of you supporting the show. Let's get on with this week's story. This is the worst of the worst, the victims of Edward Johnson. I gotta actually get a drink before I guess start with this one. Ah, a little sip of my Diet Coke. Okay, so worst of the worst, the victims of Edward Johnson. Edward Johnson is imprisoned at what we call the Alcatraz of the Rockies. Did you guys even know that existed? It's a federal prison in Colorado, a federal supermax prison, and this prison is reserved for prisoners who are considered the worst of the worst. Edward Johnson earned his title as the double murderer. His crimes stand out as particularly heinous and brutal because of his choice of victims. And so, like, let's tell his story now. Edward Johnson was born Edward Johnson Sr., or born to Edward Johnson Sr. and Selena Johnson on June 16th in 1976 in Chicago, Illinois. He and his younger sister were the parents of two Chicago police officers, ironically. But despite being the son of two Chicago police officers, Edward Johnson had a tumultuous childhood. His father was actually very abusive to his mother, and he was an alcoholic. And there was just this home full of domestic violence, just completely riddled with it. And on September 13th, 1988, it came to a head. You know, we always say in domestic violence cases, the most dangerous time is the time when the spouse chooses to leave. And that's exactly what happened. Serena um chose to leave Edward Johnson Sr. And Edward Johnson Sr. Um showed up and he beat Serena before shooting her to death and then attempted to escape. Um he then killed himself. And at the time, Edward Johnson Jr. witnessed all of this, and he was only 12 years old, and he watched his father beat and then murder his mother, and then his father then committed suicide. Um, he and his sister were then sent to Minneapolis, Minnesota to live with his aunt. So this is this kid's childhood. Um, as Edward grew into a young man, he committed several petty crimes. Um he was experimenting with substance abuse, and he just he wasn't on the right track. He was hanging out with the wrong kind of people. Um, he had the wrong ideas about relationships and power dynamics between men and women. He had a distorted up, um, his distorted upbringing had not been addressed properly. He wasn't getting the kind of psychological treatment that he needed. Um, but despite that, he was able to make friends and women liked him too. One of his friends was a girl named Brooke Thompson. In fact, Brooke Thompson had dated a friend of his and was wanting to break it off. And she actually looked to him to help. Um, Brooke Elizabeth Thompson was born on May 16th, 1980, in Bloomington, Minnesota. She had been dating mutual friend a mutual friend of Edward Johnson's and was trying to escape that relationship in 2002. She actually asked Edward for help and he agreed. He um allowed Brooke and her five-year-old daughter Taylor to move in with him temporarily. So he's finding himself on more of like the hero side now. Before too long, though, he began um like kind of trying to be controlling of Brooke and started to treat her more like a girlfriend than just a friend. Um, and this bothered Brooke because she didn't want to be in a relationship with Edward. She was wanted to now escape this as well. Um, and she shared this with her friends and her mother that she was going to escape this living situation with Edward because it was just like starting to become another relationship. On August, uh, on an August evening in 2002, she asked her mom if she if she could watch Taylor so she could talk to Edward, and her mom readily agreed. Only she never showed up to drop the little girl off, and that upset her mom. Um, so she knew something must be going on, but Brooke wasn't answering any of her phone calls, and that was very strange. And her friends noticed that too, and her friends couldn't get a hold of her. Uh, her mom couldn't get a hold of her, and the next day um they still couldn't get a hold of her, she still wasn't answering her phone calls. Um, but then the roommate, Edward Johnson, called one of her friends and said that she had an emergency uh and she had to leave, but she wanted to um him to call her friend to see if he could take her daughter Taylor. And so the friend was like, well, yeah, of course. And they agreed to meet up, but what Edward didn't know is the friend was also working with her parents and the cops, and they had it set up where whenever they set up to get Taylor, once they were sure they Taylor was safe, they were going to arrest him and bring him in under suspicion of something happening um to Brooke. So once in custody, and we knew and they knew Taylor was safe, and Taylor was safe, um, they took him into custody. Uh once in custody, Edward Johnson was upfront about what happened. He had killed her at the apartment. Brooke Thompson's body was found. Her five-year-old recalled hearing her mom scream the night before and beg for her life. Per the medical examiner, Brooke had died of multiple stab wounds to the head and chest. While in custody, Edward Johnson proved how dangerous he could be by punching a deputy in the eye. He was charged with second degree murder in the case of Brooke Thompson's murder. In the courtroom, he showed no remorse. He would often smirk, smile, and even laugh at her family as they cried and mourned the tragic loss of Brooke Thompson. The horror and dismay of the Brooke of Brooke's family, the DA offered Edward Johnson a plea deal for 29 years in prison for the murder, and he accepted the plea deal. And her family was livid. And so Edward Johnson was transferred to Stillwater Prison in Minnesota, one of the oldest built in 1914, and certainly one of the largest housing 1,600 inmates. It's medium security. Many guards have expressed safety concerns about the number of inmates versus the number of guards in this prison. And during her incarceration, sorry, Edwards was not an ideal prisoner and remained quite violent. In fact, he spent over 1,700 days in segregation, which is like the jail within the jail. You're in your cell for 23 hours a day for various infractions. These infractions included being in unauthorized areas of the prison, having contraband, assaults, threats, and being in fights. During one fight in particular, one that Edwards started, the other prisoner got the best of him and caused him to lose his right eye. Although he is the one who started the fight, Edwards blamed correctional officer for opening the cell door, which allowed the inmate contact with him and for him losing his eye. So he blames the correctional officers now for him losing his eye, even though he started the fight. But it's the correctional officer's fault because that gave him contact with the person that he lost his eye to. So from that point on, he wore an eye patch over his right eye, plotted his revenge on correctional officers. He made open threats to correctional officers. He wrote to his family about seeking revenge on correctional officers. Due to his history of violence and propensity to follow through on threats, many of the officers recommended he be moved to the highest security facility. But instead of moving him, he was put into the industrial program, which provides hopes of rehabilitation. The industry program is typically reserved, though, for trusted prisoners as it gives access to tools like hammers and screwdrivers. So this is like the building program or the electrical program. Um, if you watch Orange is the new black, like you know, where Piper were uh was and you know, they had the screwdrivers and stuff, that kind of thing. So that's where they put him. Can't see any possibility that that could go wrong, right? On July 18th, 2018, officer Joseph Grom was overseeing the industry program on his own, as was common in the crowded Stillwater prison, when Edward Johnson attacked him with a hammer and a knife-like tool that he had made himself. He bludgeoned Grom so badly he was unrecognizable. This was alleged revenge for him losing his right eye in 2004. Although Grom had nothing to do with that event, I don't even think he worked at the prison at that time. Joseph Grom was his first uh was just the first correction officer um that came along for him to kill. It was just he was just the one there. Um, he was the first correctional officer ever killed in the state of Minnesota. Once the scene was secured, Edward Johnson um was moved to the higher security prison. The Stillwater prison went on a three-week lockdown, which is typical after such a violent event. Edward Johnson pled guilty and was given life in prison without the possibility of parole for the death of Joseph Grom. Um Joseph Grom, from what I know, uh had a girlfriend or possibly fiance, um, but was uh no children, did not have any children, I don't believe. Uh I don't really know much else about him except for the that his um co-workers and friends thought up the world of him. He was um on the other hand, Edward Johnson was moved to the federal prison known as the Alcatraz of the Rockies. Uh he is one of the most evil prisoners in the world. He has no remorse whatsoever, and he will not hesitate to kill again if he's ever given a chance, and I believe that completely. He attacked Officer Grom just because he was the first correctional officer he saw when he it was the first opportunity that he got. He blamed correctional officers for him losing a fight, essentially. Um he blamed Brooke Thompson because she didn't want to be his girlfriend, and he so he just killed her because she didn't want to be his girlfriend. Like he's just if you don't if I don't get what I want, I'm just gonna turn to violence. Like he has no respect for human life whatsoever. Um so he is the worst of the worst. I I do really believe that. Um so I think it's nice I take comfort in knowing we have Alcatraz like prisons in our country. Um I don't take comfort in knowing that our correction officers can be attacked like that in any prisons, even medium security prisons. So hopefully the death led to changes that were for the positive and that the prisons are safer for the people that are trying to keep them safe. So hopefully positive change at least came from his death and the loss of of an officer. Um, if you guys want to see my references um or the pictures of Officer Grum and Brooke Thompson, head on over to w.midwestcrimefile.com. Again, if you would like to be on our Patreon shout out, um become a gold uh gold, silver, or bronze Patreon member and get access to special features um as well as shout-outs and giveaways, uh things like that, special content. Uh, you can join on our Patreon website. Um, there's links to that on the web uh on the regular website as well as on our Facebook. So thank you, and we will see you next week.