Cold Case Chronicles: 2007 arrest and conviction of serial killer allowed Tulsa neighborhood to catch collective breath

 Joshua Julius Anderson

On a cold winter evening in 2007 , police in Tulsa arrested 19-year-old Joshua Julius Anderson, ending a terrifying string of murders that gripped a small neighborhood just north of downtown.

Between November 2006 and February 2007, Anderson shot and killed four people—maybe five—in a drug-riddled area where he lived with his brother. Known as a bully who scared everyone around, he turned a quiet community into a place of fear.

Today, locked away with four life sentences plus 35 more years, Anderson’s story is a chilling reminder of how fast violence can take over.

Joshua Anderson was born on June 17, 1987, somewhere in Oklahom--details about his early life are fuzzy. By his teens, he was already in trouble.

At 15, cops in Muskogee accused him of shooting at someone, but the case fell apart fast. In June 2005, at 18, he got caught for kidnapping, hiding stolen stuff, and beating up his girlfriend. He took a deal, pleading guilty to kidnapping and assault, and served 90 days in jail.

A month later, he faced another shooting charge, but weak witnesses let him walk. Free again by late 2006, Anderson moved to north Tulsa, ready to unleash chaos.

His killing spree started on November 5, 2006. That night, 34-year-old Evaristo Tovias Jr. came looking for drugs, carrying a knife. Anderson and his brother, A.C., jumped him.

After a fight, Joshua grabbed a double-barreled shotgun and blasted Tovias, hitting him twice. He snatched the knife off Tovias’s body because he liked it, then ran off. Two months later, on January 23, 2007, Anderson struck again.

He and A.C. walked 30-year-old Christopher Moderow to a drug dealer.

When an argument broke out and Moderow pulled an ice pick, Anderson shot him dead with a .22-caliber revolver, stealing $3 from his pocket before speeding away in his brother’s car.

That same day, some say Anderson gunned down 26-year-old David Gilbert after a fight earlier at a store. Witnesses saw it, but police couldn’t prove it, so no charges stuck.

Then, on February 2, 2007, Anderson’s crimes hit their peak. His brother told him 52-year-old Herbert Hobbs had cash. Anderson went to Herbert’s house with a revolver, tied up Herbert and his 69-year-old mom, Rosemary, and stole $300. Worried they’d seen his face, he came back, forced them into awful acts at gunpoint, and shot them both.

He even ate part of Rosemary’s brain--a detail so gross it made his brother puke--then set the house on fire to hide the bodies.

That same day, Tulsa police nabbed Anderson for a rape charge he’d been dodging since November. Locked up, he confessed to all four murders after cops played a tape of A.C. blaming him.

He spilled details only the killer would know, like where the bodies were. His trial for the Hobbs murders kicked off on October 22, 2008. His public defender argued there was no hard proof—no fingerprints or arson evidence—but after two days and two hours of jury talk, he was guilty.

Two life sentences came for the murders, plus 25 years for the fire. On December 8, 2008, he pleaded guilty to killing Tovias and Moderow, adding two more life terms and 10 years for assault.

Anderson’s rampage wasn’t picky--his victims were young, old, men, women, any race. Living near the crime scenes, he ruled the streets like a terror.

By his arrest, he’d caused a third of Tulsa’s murders that year. Now 37, he’s serving time at the Lexington Assessment & Reception Center in Lexington, Oklahoma, never getting out.

For Tulsa, especially that northside neighborhood, Joshua Anderson’s name still brings shivers—a local kid who went from troublemaker to one of Oklahoma’s worst killers.