Anyone know anything else about this?  Anyone have his military background?  Nothing really came up on google.

Killer's Remains Buried at Arlington
After Death in Prison, Vet Gets Full Military Honors

 
HAGERSTOWN, Md. (Aug. 4) - The remains of an Army veteran convicted of stabbing an elderly couple to death were interred at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.

Russell W. Wagner, 52, died Feb. 2 in prison, where he was serving two consecutive life sentences for the Valentine's Day 1994 killings of Daniel Davis, 84, and Wilda Davis, 80. Both were bound and repeatedly stabbed.

Wagner's cremated remains were inurned July 27 at the request of Wagner's sister, Karen Anderson, Arlington spokeswoman Lori Calvillo said.

When told by the (Hagerstown) Herald-Mail that Wagner had been convicted of killing two people, Calvillo said, "That would usually prevent you, to tell you the truth," from having a service at Arlington.

She added that if the cemetery received confirmation of Wagner's conviction, the records would be forwarded to the Army General Counsel, which reviews rules for the cemetery.

Vernon Davis, the son of the couple Wagner killed, is himself an Army veteran and was disturbed to hear that his parents' convicted killer was given military honors.

"It disturbed me when I heard it," he said. "I thought it was completely wrong."

The sister, Anderson, could not immediately reached for comment. There was no listing under her name in Silver Spring, where her brother's obituary said she lived.

Prosecutors said Wagner killed the Davises to settle a debt of back rent he owed to their son-in-law. He was tried on murder charges in 1996, but a mistrial was declared when jurors could not reach a verdict.

He was arrested again in 2001 after FBI scientists obtained DNA from a single strand of hair found on a glove recovered from a neighbor's back porch. He was convicted in 2002.


08/04/05 12:08 EDT

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Wagner was an Army Private 1st Class who served from Sept. 13, 1969, to Sept. 1, 1972, and was discharged honorably.

That's all I can find.

He may not be in Arlington long now that this has been exposed. Not with that conviction.

Probably will stay, then again what are full military honors for a Pvt's cremated remains?  Based on what I saw for two sets of cremated remains at Riverside it's a handing of the flag to any relatives present and push a button for a recording of Taps.  The urn gets placed in the Columbarium later. (Columbarium is a fancy word for wall with lots of drawers for urns.)

Any honorably discharged Vet can get inurned at Arlington.  Do they have the time to check out everybody's record after they get discharged.  Will they change the law?  probably not.  He got there for what he did in the service not after.

Although I will concede that this might be enough to get some changes.  There were some changes made to ERISA after one of the guys retired from Hughes was found to have been a Russian spy.  And was jailed for the rest of his life or damn close.  He gets full retirement.  Now he wouldn't, there are provisions made for forfeiting certain things after qualifying for them