Manuel Babbitt was a veteran of the Vietnam War. He wasn't exactly right before taking two tours of duty which included fighting in the Battle of Khe Sahn, but when he got back to America things took a turn for the worse. Family members noticed he was suffering psychologically and soon he was arrested for the bizarre murder of an elderly woman named Leah Schendel. He was executed the day after his fiftieth birthday at San Quinten State Prison by lethal injection, in front of Leah's loved ones, among others.