Osa Marie Beck Gordon’s son, Jim Gordan, who was convicted of her murder died on Monday at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville. He was 77 and died of schizophrenia. 

His demise was confirmed by a publicist, Bob Merlis, who told Gordon died of natural causes “after a long incarceration and lifelong battle with mental illness.”

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Who was Osa Marie Beck Gordon?

Osa Marie Beck Gordon was 72 years old when her son, Jim Gordan, who was a drummer attacked her on June 3, 1983. He attacked her with a hammer before fatally stabbing her with a butcher knife. He later claimed that a voice told him to kill her.

He was arrested and after a proper diagnosis, he was confirmed suffering from schizophrenia. When his trials began, the court accepted that he had acute schizophrenia, but wasn’t allowed to get an insanity shield because of changes to California law due to the Insanity Defense Reform Act.

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The drummer was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison on July 10, 1984. Being eligible for parole in 1991, he appealed for the same but was denied multiple times because he never attended the hearing. He was denied parole until 2018 when he denied attending his hearing in 2014. 

The Los Angeles deputy district attorney that Gordon was still “seriously psychologically incapacitated” and “a danger when he is not taking his medication.” He was again diagnosed with schizophrenia in November 2017. His parole was denied for the tenth time in  March 2018 and was estimated to become eligible in March 2021. 

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He was serving his sentence at the California Medical Facility for murdering his mother, Osa Marie Beck Gordon when he died on March 13, 2023.