HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) – A man who murdered his mother and three other people in a bloody 1995 spree at a mobile home was executed Thursday.

Dennis Wayne Bagwell did not acknowledge the four relatives of his victims who watched from a window, but he thanked a spiritual adviser for being there. “I love you all,” he told the handful of people he had invited to watch him die by injection.

Bagwell, 41, denied involvement in the slayings of his mother, Leona McBee, 47; her niece, Libby Best, 24; Best’s daughter, Reba, 4; and Tassy Boone, 14, the granddaughter of McBee’s common-law husband. All were slain at a mobile home in a rural area near Stockdale, about 35 miles southeast of San Antonio.

“I’m just glad it’s all over with,” said Tassy Boone’s mother, Monica Boone, who witnessed the execution. “Everybody that’s been touched by this madman can rest in peace.”

Bagwell’s girlfriend testified at his trial that she and Bagwell had smoked crack in San Antonio, then drove to his mother’s place so he could borrow some money. The witness, Victoria Wolford, said Bagwell became enraged when his mother gave him only $20.

A pathologist testified at Bagwell’s trial it appeared the victims had been beaten with a claw hammer, the neck of a guitar, a spring from an exercise machine and a broken .22-caliber rifle. At least one had been stomped on. One was shot twice in the head. Two of the victims were strangled so violently their necks were broken.

Prosecutors described Bagwell at his trial as a “natural-born killer.” He received a life sentence for a murder committed two weeks before the quadruple slayings in which he stomped a janitor to death at a bar.

At the time of the slayings, Bagwell was on parole for attempted capital murder for slitting the throat of an illegal immigrant.

Bagwell’s lawyers had argued that he was improperly denied his right to testify at his capital murder trial, but the Supreme Court refused to grant a stay.

Copy the Story Link