SEX OFFENDER THREESOME

At first it reads like a straightforward news story: Man finds out ex-wife's boy toy is a sex offender and kills him.

But it's so much richer than the usual rage killing.

Willie Tarpley Jr., 48, stabbed Lee Alexander, 25, with a samurai sword on Saturday night. Police say Tarpley went to his old house, found the sword and threatened to cut off Alexander's head.

Being fond of his head, Alexander fled. Or tried to. But he crashed into Tarpley's Corvette in the driveway. Cops say that's when Tarpley plunged the 42-inch katana blade into Alexander's armpit.

It's true, Alexander was a registered sex offender. In 2000, when he was 18, he was convicted of lewd and lascivious behavior with a minor.

But Tarpley and his ex-wife have a past, too. According to the Tampa Tribune:

Tarpley himself is a registered sex offender, as is his wife.

In 1988, Tarpley and his wife were convicted in a high-profile case concerning a woman who once worked for Willie Tarpley as a nude dancer. The Tarpleys were accused of kidnapping the woman, beating her, gluing her eyelids and genitalia shut and tattooing a four-letter word on her forehead, according to Tampa Tribune archives.

The couple, along with two other people, pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, battery and sexual battery charges. Each was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The Tarpleys did about six years in prison; they were released around 1994.

Willie Tarpley Jr. is now charged with second-degree murder. He's being held without bond.