**What Happened
On January 31, 2012, 73-year-old Carl Ericsson pulled up to Norman Johnson’s home in Madison, South Dakota. Johnson, also 73 and a retired teacher and track coach, answered the door. Ericsson calmly asked if he was the right person, then raised a gun and shot him twice in the face at point-blank range. Johnson died instantly.
Ericsson didn’t try to run or hide. He called the police himself and confessed on the spot. He told officers the murder was payback for something that happened when they were teenagers in the 1950s.
In the high school locker room, Johnson then a star athlete had yanked a jockstrap over Ericsson’s head in front of other students and laughed while the younger boy stood there humiliated and helpless.That single moment of public shame stayed with Ericsson every single day for more than 50 years.
What the Evidence Shows
Ericsson planned the shooting and drove straight to Johnson’s house.
- He admitted the motive was the 1950s locker room prank.
- No other witnesses ever confirmed the jockstrap incident happened.
- Ericsson lived a seemingly normal life for decades as an insurance salesman with a long marriage.
- He pleaded guilty but mentally ill to second-degree murder.
THE BIGGER QUESTION
How long can one moment of cruelty follow a person? This case forces us to ask whether some childhood humiliations leave scars so deep they never really heal or whether carrying hate for 50 years says more about the person holding it than the person who caused it. It also makes us wonder about the hidden cost of bullying that looks “harmless” at the time.The Other Side
THE OTHER SIDE
Ericsson’s defense attorney said after sentencing: “My client carried this pain with him every single day for over 50 years. While we don’t condone what he did, it shows how powerful and destructive untreated trauma can become.”
Forensic psychologist Dr. Michael Welner added: “This is an extreme example of how unresolved trauma and rumination can fester for decades. But violence is never an inevitable outcome it’s a choice that destroys everyone involved.”
WHAT HAPPENS NOW
Ericsson was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2012. He remains behind bars. Johnson’s family was left without their husband, father, and grandfather, and the small town of Madison still remembers the shocking crime.
Did anyone else witness the original locker room incident?
Was Ericsson ever diagnosed with a mental health condition before the murder?
Could better mental health support in the 1950s or 1960s have changed what happened?
SOURCE NOTE
All charges are allegations Carl Ericsson is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Details come from court records, police statements, and contemporary news reports from 2012.