American Homicide - S1: E19 – The Brotherhood, Part 2

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

Despite a list of suspects and significant efforts by detectives, the case of Genore Guillory went cold. As new evidence complicates matters, the quest for justice in Clinton takes unexpected twists and turns, leaving the community and victims’ families in turmoil.  Reach out to the American Homicide team by emailing us: [e-mail]. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My name is Kyle Tequila, host of the shocking new true crime podcast, Crook County. I got recruited into the mob when I was 17 years old. People are dying. Is he doing this every night? Kenny was a Chicago firefighter who lived a secret double life as a mafia hitman. I had a wife and I had two children. Nobody knew anything. He was a freaking crazy man. He was my father, and I had no idea about any of this until now. Crook County is available now.

Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremorchi. And I'm Holly Frey. Together we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime. Each season we explore a new theme from poisoners to art thieves. We uncover the secrets of history's most interesting figures from legal injustices to body snatching.

And tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in cocktails and mocktails inspired by each story. Listen to Criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. and the and girlfriend maintaining innocence, but charged with her murder. I am confident that Julie Beckley is guilty. They've never found a weapon. Never made sense. Still doesn't make sense. She found out she was pregnant in jail. The person who did it is still out there.

Listen to Murder on Songbird Road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The vicious murder of a Louisiana woman left detectives puzzled. She'd been shot five times, stabbed deeply five times, and vigorously beaten with an aluminum baseball bat. The police had a handful of suspects, but there was a problem.

They just couldn't find enough evidence to really convict them. You can't charge anybody without evidence. They will just drop the case rather than press forward on what they consider a weak case. So that just terrified everybody. Today we're in Clinton, Louisiana for the conclusion of the Brotherhood. I'm Sloane Glass and this is American Homicide. And a warning to our audience, this episode contains graphic descriptions of racial violence. Please take care while listening. In an early summer morning in 2000, police

found Genora Guillory stabbed, shot, and beaten to death in the bedroom of her Clinton, Louisiana farmhouse. You know, you have a woman who really had never done anything to anybody. Chuck Kussmeyer is a former federal agent turned journalist who wrote about the murder. She was just the nicest person by all accounts. I mean, nobody ever said anything bad about her. And to have somebody brutally murdered in her own bedroom, and no suspects, I mean, right there, you got kind of the setup for a really bizarre case. The 42-year-old was a single career woman.

She lived alone in rural Clinton, Louisiana. No one really had any idea who did it, and there were some suspects. One of those suspects was a Baton Rouge police officer. He and Genora were old friends who had reconnected and dated. But he kept hounding her to the point where her colleague said he was stalking her. I mean, he was the best candidate they could find. And, you know, that's who they went after. They even polygraphed him.

After he failed his polygraph test, the police got a search warrant. But they couldn't find anything that linked the officer to the murder. The case sort of went cold after they exhausted all their time on this particular police officer, but the detectives kept working on it. It was a real struggle to find anything that would link a suspect to the crime,

and it dragged on for months. About a year after the murder, detectives got a tip that led them to the house across the street from Genora, where her good friends and neighbors, the Skippers, lived. Those were the only two homes on that dead-end street. It's down at the end of this gravel road. It's an isolated area, and there are no streetlights. And the property directly across the street is where the Skippers lived in their trailer. The Skippers were the first people

detectives had questioned because they noticed some scratches on Philip and his steps on John Ballio's arms. The two passed a polygraph and were cleared. But a year later, they re-emerged as suspects. I don't believe they looked at the Skippers as suspects for a long time. I mean, they were out at the crime scene. In fact, once the crime scene, the Sheriff's Office released the crime scene, it's really up to the family to clean up the house. They actually hired the Skippers and John Ballio to clean up the crime scene. So

any evidence that might have still been there, anything the police may have overlooked, got swept away. Well, this is a first for me. Potential suspects in the death of Genora were paid to clean up the crime scene. In the last episode, we learned how John Ballio told detectives Philip Skipper and his brother-in-law, Johnny Hoyt, belonged to a gang. They had this sort of half-assed gang they had formed called the Brotherhood, and they all had tattoos, and the only way to earn it was to kill somebody. John Ballio said his initiation into that gang involved watching Genora's murder.

Genora and the Skippers had had a good relationship for a while. I mean, they had ups and downs. Detective Don McKee learned one of those downs happened a few weeks before Genora's death. That's when the two sides had an argument over a dog getting loose and attacking the skipper's goat. They had had a falling out. Janora told them to quit coming over to her place,

return the house keys, stay off her land. She was gonna stay on hers and it wouldn't be no more contact. We covered this previously, but with the new information given by John Ballio, this falling out holds a different weight. On top of that, the Skippers were beneficiaries of one of Genora's life insurance policies. Prosecutors believe that money was part of their motive. And so did a grand jury. In 2001, that grand jury indicted John Ballio and Philip Skipper, along with Lisa and Johnny

Hoyt for the murder of Genora Guillory. I think that it was an easy target for them right across the road. I hate to say it because she was a black lady. I really believe this was a fine example and just a hate crime. They wanted to kill a black person. Genora was black. The suspects were white, and all of that played into what journalist Chuck Hussmeyer learned. Philip Skipper and Lisa and Johnny Hoyt hated black people, absolutely hated them. That

they were raised in this sort of post-Clan culture and they hated black people. So you have all these white skinhead type guys, they befriend their next door neighbor who's this black lady who's just ridiculously generous to them. And then they turn around and kill her. You know, and I know just kill her. I mean they slaughter her. And part of the reason that I think they found it so easy to kill Jenora Guillory was that she was black. The crime was absolutely shocking. And prosecutors were seeking the death penalty against all four suspects. But with no fingerprints, no murder weapon, no DNA, really nothing that

connected the suspects to the murder. The district attorney got nervous. The district attorney, he initially charged Johnny, Philip, Lisa, and John Ballio with first degree murder. But I don't think he thought he could win the case. You know, and as a cop and all the cops I know, you know, you always want them to just bring it to the jury, let the jury decide, you know, but most DAs don't do that. Prosecutors asked the judge to break the cases into four separate trials, one for each suspect.

The judge granted this request. In the weeks leading up to the first trial, DA Charles Shropshire asked the judge for more time to collect evidence, but got denied. He just didn't feel like he had enough, I guess, so he dropped the charges against all of them. And despite what the grand jury decided, without the proverbial smoking gun, the district attorney refused to move forward. In my experience in law enforcement, most prosecutors are extremely risk averse.

They will just drop the case rather than press forward on what they consider a weak case. The decision left the people of Clinton on edge. Four suspected murderers were suddenly back on the streets. As for the Guillory family, devastated. Genora's brother-in-law, Albert, couldn't believe it. My daughter said, Daddy, do something. So that kept me pestering the law enforcement officers, the deputies, to see what was going on and how it was proceeding. That's when things got political. The Guillory case became a talking point

when the district attorney Charles Shropshire ran for reelection. His challenger, a man named Sam DeQuilla, made a campaign promise to bring justice to Genora. Fortunately, the voters recognized that they had a gutless district attorney and they threw him out and a real district attorney came in. In 2002, Sam DeQuilla beat incumbent Tarle Shropshire by nearly 20 percentage points.

Sam DeQuilla was elected and just, he was everything that we could have prayed for. Sam DeQuilla delivered on his promise and got a grand jury to again indict Philip Skipper, Johnny and Lisa Hoyt, and John Ballio. All were charged with first degree murder and faced the death penalty. We were very happy.

There was a lot of relief on the part of the family. That relief would be short-lived. You may remember from the last episode that trace amounts of DNA were found under Genoris fingernails. That DNA was sent off to a forensic lab. And since it was the early days of DNA testing, it took forever to compare to the DNA of the four suspects.

When the results finally came back, prosecutors took another gut punch. East Feliciana District Attorney Sam DeQuilla says, DNA gathered from one of the fingernails of murder victim Janor Gillory does not match any of the suspects in the case. Without a positive match, the case against all four suspects got exponentially weaker.

Nonetheless, prosecutors say right now they're proceeding with a capital murder trial sometime in June. It takes one guy out there to say, who's that f***ing Kyle who thinks he can just get on a f***ing microphone on a podcast and start publicizing this s***? From iHeart Podcasts and Tenderfoot TV comes a new true crime podcast, Crook County. I got recruited into the mob when I was 17 years old. Meet Kenny, an enforcer for the legendary Chicago outfit.

And that was my mission, to snuff the f*** life out of this guy. He lived a secret double life as a firefighter paramedic for the Chicago Fire Department. I had a wife and I had two children. Nobody knew anything. People are dying. Is he doing this every night? Torn between two worlds. I'm covering up murders that these cops are doing. He was a frickin' crazy man. We don't know who he is, really.

He is my father. And I had no idea about any of this until now. Welcome to Crook County. Series premiere February 11th. Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey y'all, I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz. My podcast, When You're Invisible, is my love letter to

the working class people and immigrants who shaped my life. I get to talk to a lot of people who form the backbone of our society, but who have never been interviewed before. Season two is all about community, organizing, and being underestimated. All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, this sucks, let's do something about it. I can't have more than $2,000 in my bank account or else I can't get disability benefits. They won't let you succeed.

I know we get paid to serve you guys, but like, be respectful. We're made out of the same things. Bone, body, blood. It's rare to have black male teachers. Sometimes I am the lesson and I'm also the testament. Listen to When You're Invisible as part of the MyCultura podcast network. Available on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. To have a murder as gruesome as Jade Beasley's doesn't happen very often down here. In Marion, Illinois, an 11-year-old girl brutally stabbed to death. Her father's longtime live-in girlfriend maintaining innocence, but charged with her murder. I am confident that Julie Beth Lee is guilty. This case, the more I learned about it, the more I'm scratching my head. Something's not right. I'm Lauren Bright-Pacheco.

Murder on Songbird Road dives into the conviction of a mother of four who remains behind bars and the investigation that put her there. I have not seen this level of corruption anywhere. It's sickening. If you stab somebody that many times, you have blood splatter, where's the change? Close. She found out she was pregnant in jail.

She wasn't treated like she was an innocent being at all, which is just horrific. Nobody has gotten justice yet, and that's what I wish people would understand. Listen to Murder on Songbird Road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. When you think about murder trials, especially trials involving the death penalty, you probably don't ever think about the cost involved.

But for the small town of Clinton, Louisiana, the price tag for trying four defendants with capital murder was astronomical. There were some budget constraints with first degree murder trials. Former federal agent and journalist Chuck Husmeyer covered the Genora-Gilory murder trials. It involves a lot of extra steps. You have to bring in a psychologist. You've got to make sure to examine the defendants.

There's just a lot of expense to a first-degree murder case. Here's something fascinating. Capital punishment cases in Louisiana require the defense to put together a mitigation team, usually composed of a psychiatrist, a psychologist, and a social worker, who analyze the defendant before, during, and after a crime. If a defendant can't afford that mitigation team, the state has to pay for it.

There are also the costs involved with jurors. Louisiana state law requires jurors to be sequestered for the duration of the trial. That means 12 hotel rooms, three meals a day, and around-the-clock security. And when you're dealing with four separate trials, you have to multiply that by four. When it's all said and done, these cases would cost the state of Louisiana hundreds of millions of dollars. All of that played into why district attorney Sam DeQuilla lowered the charges against all four defendants. They were all charged with second-degree murder. And it's an easier and less expensive series of trials he would have to go through, and

it wouldn't bankrupt the parish. I mean, I know it seems silly to talk about that, but I guess budget constraints are a real problem. So instead of the death penalty, each defendant now faced life in prison. But the DA wasn't done wheeling and dealing. His next move would be one of the most controversial. You make a deal with one of them.

And in this case, the weak link was John Ballio. He did seem as though he may have been one of the least culpable John Ballio. He did seem as though he may have been one of the least culpable of the four. So that seemed like a good place to start your, you know, trying to make a deal. And that's exactly what the new district attorney did." I don't blame the DA. He was relying on the DNA under Genora's fingertips to be his smoking gun. Cutting a deal with one of the four suspects was one of DA Sam DeQuilla's final moves if he was going to bring justice for the Guillories.

With the blessing of Genora's family, the DA made a deal that came at a cost. In exchange for his testimony against the other three suspects, the DA offered to charge John Ballio as a juvenile, meaning he'd only be incarcerated until his 21st birthday. It was a gutsy decision that could backfire if the DA failed to secure convictions of the other three defendants. But I understand why the district attorney did it because without John Ballio's testimony, there's just no evidence. So, you know, he had to make a deal with the devil to get some justice for Genore. The first to go on trial was Philip Skipper. His trial took place in historic downtown Clinton.

Clinton's kind of centered on a square, the town square. Clinton's courthouse sits in the middle of that square, and the whole area looks like it's frozen in time. I think the courthouse is the oldest still functioning courthouse in America. Built before the Civil War in 1840, the large white brick building with floor-to-ceiling columns takes up a city block and looks like something you'd find in Athens, Greece. Last time I was there, they didn't have an elevator. There was a lady with a handicap, and she couldn't go up the stairs,

so somebody had to literally carry her up and down the old flight of wooden steps. So it's sort of like stepping back in time when you go into Clinton. That's why the town is so popular with Hollywood. Its downtown looks like an old movie set. The vampire drama, True Blood, as well as The Dukes of Hazzard, are just two projects that were filmed there. And Hollywood also played a role in these cases.

At the time, and even today, having the most advanced forensics was something many jurors came to expect in trials, because of what they saw on TV shows like CSI. They call it the CSI effect. As Philip Skipper's trial grew closer, prosecutors were still falling short. They weren't able to really find any evidence that linked Philip Skipper to the murder. Maybe because the Skippers were paid to clean up the crime scene. Prosecutors lacked DNA, so they had to rely on what they did have, that $25,000 payout from Genora's life insurance policy. And in 2000, it wasn't an enormous amount of money,

but you're talking about two people who had to bum money from their neighbor just to buy diapers for their baby and were living in an old mobile home. So to them, it was quite a windfall profit. The prosecution also had video evidence of the crime scene that detectives took after discovering her body. The footage contained no sound,

but the gory images spoke volumes. It was so horrendous, and I was just stunned, really, at how violent these people were. Most importantly, prosecutors had the testimony of John Ballio. His eyewitness account was crucial for securing a conviction. John began by showing the jury the tattoo located on his back that made him part of the Brotherhood. Then, in graphic detail, he explained how he earned that tattoo.

It was testimony that Chuck Husmeyer will never forget. And neither did I after listening. This is very hard to hear. Philip Skipper, Johnny Hoyt, John Ballio, and Lisa Skipper Hoyt were all sitting around the trailer getting stoned. About 2, 2.30 in the morning, Johnny Hoyt asked Ballio, hey, do you want to go kill Genora Guillory? That's how you'll get your tattoo. They walked across the street, mostly barefoot.

They didn't want to leave shoe impressions. Johnny Hoyt's wife, Lisa, knocked on Genora's door while the men hit off to the side. Genora came to the door men hit off to the side. Genora came to the door in her nightgown. She had been sound asleep. And Lisa asked her for some money to buy the baby, meaning Amy and Phillip's baby, diapers. And true to her nature, Genora turned around to go get them some money.

And that's when they pounced on her. And John Valio said that she didn't go down easily I mean she was really fighting him and this four on one you know three men and a woman Johnny Hort punched her in the face first she turned and ran to the phone there's blood on the phone she tried to pick it up to use it she couldn't she didn't have time to hit her again she reached in a drawer to get some kind of a knife they kept kept attacking her. I mean, they're like rabid dogs, all right? They're attacking her. She's running. She went back into the house farther. She got into her bedroom, tried to lock the door.

Naturally, they forced it open. One of them picked up a pretty heavy lamp off of a nightstand and just cracked it across her head, and that's what killed her. just cracked it across her head. And that's what killed her. It's almost unbelievable to think her neighbors and good friends, her employees, carried out these violent acts. Over the course of John Ballio's testimony, he only admitted to tying up Genora's dog, Cleo. I've heard a good bit of confessions.

I've never heard one like that, that was that brutal. I mean, that's one of the most brutal crimes I've heard a good bit of confessions. I've never heard one like that, that was that brutal. I mean, that's one of the most brutal crimes I've ever covered in my post-law enforcement career as a journalist. But Philip Skipper's defense attorney promised the jury that he would unmask the real killer and pointed the blame at the original suspect, the Baton Rouge police officer named Steve. Remember him?

Officer Steve was one of the original suspects who was said to be stalking Genora. Steve took the stand and immediately denied stalking her. He said he stopped cooperating in the investigation because he felt like he was being framed. He claimed his polygraph was administered improperly, and that's why he failed. In a bizarre moment during closing arguments, Philip Skipper's lawyer suggested a riddle that pointed to Genora Guillory's real killer. There's no way to say this that doesn't sound ridiculous.

He said Genora took five shots, five blows, and five stab wounds, five, five, five. He then casually added that Steve was born in May of 1955. In other words, five five five. So that's a bit odd, yeah. You don't see that every day. It was a ridiculous argument and the jury knew it. They deliberated for less than an hour and found Philip Skipper guilty of second degree murder. Philip Skipper guilty of second-degree murder. Philip Skipper got life in prison.

The judge called Genora's murder brutal, senseless, and gruesome. He sentenced Philip to life in prison and said he wished he could give him even more than that. At the time Johnny Hoyt stood trial, Louisiana law required only 10 of 12 jurors to find the defendant guilty to secure a conviction. That law, by the way, has since been eliminated. But at the time, prosecutors played the odds. And once again, John Ballio's testimony was central to their case. According to John Ballio, Johnny Hoyt came into town the night that they killed Janor and was instrumental in participating in the murder.

But Johnny Hoyt's lawyer worked to pin the blame back on John Ballio. He argued that years of abuse from Philip Skipper turned John into a murderer. Philip Skipper sexually abused him for years. You know, he burned the kid a lot with cigarettes and, you know, beat him, sexually abused him for years. You know, he burned the kid a lot with cigarettes and, you know, beat him, sexually abused him. Johnny Hoyt's lawyer called John Ballio's testimony a rotten, worm-infested apple. He told the jurors that,

"'You don't eat around the rotten part. You throw it all away.'" Well, the jurors threw that argument away. They needed about two hours to find Johnny Hoyt guilty of second-degree murder. What's interesting about that is only ten jurors voted for guilty, but it was enough to convict and have Johnny Hoyt spend the rest of his life in prison. That meant Johnny's wife, Lisa Hoyt, would be next to go on trial. But after seeing her husband and brother get put away for life, she decided not to test her luck.

She never went to trial on this case. She pled guilty to a manslaughter count, and she got the 25-year max for manslaughter. She should feel lucky that's all she got. All these people are evil. But there is something about a woman using a baby to trick another woman that feels really evil. It takes one guy out there to say,

who's that f***ing Kyle who thinks he can just get on a f***ing microphone on a podcast and start publicizing this s***? From iHeart Podcasts and Tenderfoot TV comes a new true crime podcast, Crook County. I got recruited into the mob when I was 17 years old. Meet Kenny, an enforcer for the legendary Chicago outfit. And that was my mission, to snuff the life out of this guy. He lived a secret double life as a firefighter paramedic

for the Chicago Fire Department. I had a wife and I had two children. Nobody knew anything. People are dying. Is he doing this every night? Torn between two worlds. I'm covering up murders that these cops are doing. He was a freaking crazy man.

We don't know who he is, really. He is my father. And I had no idea about any of this until now. Welcome to Crook County series premiere, February 11th. Listen for free on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all, I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz. My podcast, When You're Invisible, is my love letter to the working class people and immigrants who shaped my life. I get to talk to a lot of people who form the backbone of our society, but who have

never been interviewed before. Season two is all about community, organizing, and being underestimated. All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, this sucks, let's do something about it. I can't have more than $2,000 in my bank account or else I can't get disability benefits. They won't let you succeed. I know we get paid to serve you guys,

but like, be respectful. We're made out of the same things. Bone, body, blood. It's rare to have black male teachers. Sometimes I am the lesson and I'm also the testament. Listen to When You're Invisible as part of the MyCultura podcast network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. or wherever you get your podcasts. To have a murder as gruesome as Jade Beasley's doesn't happen very often down here.

In Marion, Illinois, an 11-year-old girl brutally stabbed to death, her father's longtime live-in girlfriend maintaining innocence, but charged with her murder. I am confident that Julie Begley is guilty. This case, the more I learned about it, the more I'm scratching my head. Something's not right. I'm Lauren Bright-Pacheco.

Murder on Songbird Road dives into the conviction of a mother of four who remains behind bars and the investigation that put her there. I have not seen this level of corruption anywhere. It's sickening. A few steps and we eat. That many times you have blood splatter, where's the change? Close. She found out she was pregnant in jail.

She wasn't treated like she was an innocent human being at all. Which is just horrific. Nobody has gotten justice yet. And that's what I wish people would understand. Listen to Murder on Songbird Road on on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Shortly after all of Genora and Guillory's killers were sentenced, tragedy struck the Guillory family once again. Genora's dad, just a few weeks after the last trial,

died really of a broken heart. Genora's father was 70 years old. He passed away in July 2005. He loved this child. He loved his family. And so it had a very negative effect on him. Genora's dad was buried next to her in their hometown of Eunice, Louisiana. In a nod to Genora's love of animals, her tombstone features a drawing of a dog and a horse.

If Genora was still alive today, her brother-in-law imagines those animals would still be a big part of her life. She'd still be living in Clinton. We would probably have had to buy more land to house the dogs and horses and other assorted animals that she would have come across. Another wrinkle in this whole story is that long before the Skippers were suspects, they reached out to Albert for help

collecting Genora's life insurance policy. Within a couple of days of her death, the skippers contacted me with the policy and I assisted them in getting it paid. Elbert never found it unusual because he was aware of the policy. Actually, Janora had told the family that in case anything happens, what would happen to her, the skippers would be provided for. And so helping the skippers collect that money didn't raise any red flags.

It did not seem out of the ordinary at all. They were in necessitous circumstances. It was purely her love for that family, her concern for that family's well-being, and her insistence on participating in their future in a positive way. No one, including Albert, saw the Skippers as anything but helpful and friendly neighbors. The Skipper family was right there with us. They behaved just as one would expect

close friends to behave. Obviously, Albert's feelings about Philip and the Skippers have done a 180. I would not sit here and tell you that I did not consider a number of ways that I could have gotten some time with Philip Skipper or reached out and touched him in some way. And when I say reached out and touched him, I didn't mean a gentle pat on his back.

But the court system, the criminal justice system, is something that I've chosen to live by, and so I live by. Some, including one of the detectives who worked this case, have labeled the murder of Genora Guillory a hate crime. But Albert disagrees. degrees. I've never related this to Louisiana or conditions in Louisiana. The skinheads exist in America and that's just a part of life. I don't believe that their attack on Genoro was as much racial as it was financial, although I recognize that there are certainly some serious racial implications in this.

Phillips cohorts had to be really upset and angry at the fact that in this world, Genora could be so successful while they were so unsuccessful. And so I'm sure that that inflamed their racial passions. In 2012, Philip Skipper underwent surgery in prison and died. There's no indication of what happened, but given that he was just 34 years old, perhaps some prison justice was done.

Philip was survived by his wife Amy Skipper, who is one person we haven't talked much about. Amy Skipper was never charged in the case. She was pregnant at the time of Genora's murder and testified that she was asleep when the others carried out the crime. And as far as I know she hasn't been charged with anything. She wasn't really involved in it. Tuck Husmeyer has his opinions on this. Philip Skipper and Johnny Hoyt, they're from Livingston Parish. When I was young, and even when I was first in law enforcement, Livingston Parish was like known as the home of the Klan.

My first partner at the DA's office was a black investigator, and we had to go over there to serve a warrant or a subpoena or something. He's like, I ain't't gonna be over here after dark. I'm like, why? He goes, because you just can't if you're black. That's the reputation the Levis and Parrish had. So not surprising that these guys grew up like that. And that's how a man working in the DA's office felt.

Imagine being a woman living in an unpopulated road. That was Genora's reality every day. Still, she believed she had friends watching her back. There's no doubt that they were nice to her at the time, but that all turned out to be a mask. John Ballio said they would always call her names behind her back and sort of belittle her and talk about how they had fooled her.

I mean, I wish she had had a more skeptical bone in her body somewhere because we wouldn't be having this conversation. It should be living out there with her dogs right now. So then there's Johnny Hoyt. Today, Johnny Hoyt is serving out a life sentence. In 2008, Johnny was due in court on an unrelated murder charge. According to the warden, that's when he planned to escape using a makeshift handcuff key. Unfortunately for Johnny, prison officials caught wind of his plan. He was put into solitary confinement in 2010

and remained there for the next decade. Then in 2020, Johnny sued the prison claiming his rights were violated. A judge dismissed the suit in 2023. As for Johnny's wife, Lisa Hoyt, she took a plea deal and served just over 20 years. Today she is a free woman. That leaves us with John Ballio, whose confession and cooperation helped to bring justice for Genora Guillory. By the time this case was sort of solved and they charged everybody, he was 19, maybe 20. So he was, you know, facing a possibility of juvenile life, which is not but like a year. You know, he a possibility of juvenile life, which is not but like a year.

You know, he's already almost 20 years old. Including time served, John Ballio ended up spending about four and a half years in jail. The DA really had a choice. Let all these killers go or get three of them. And he chose to get three of them. And, you know, he had to make a deal with the fourth. I think it's a total miscarriage of justice to have to cut a deal with a guy like John Ballio and give him, you know, one year in jail for murdering somebody like Jean-Claude

Guillory. I mean, but I understand why the district attorney did it because without John Ballio's testimony he wouldn't have gotten convictions on the other three. I mean, he did what he could do to get himself the best deal possible. John Ballio was released from prison on his 21st birthday, but he'd quickly find his way back. He's been in and out of jail since he was released on the Genoa Guillory case.

You know, he's been arrested a few times. He's just part of that group of people. They're, you know, in and out of prison all the time. Next time on American Homicide, a friend's night out ends up in murder and exposes a bizarre love triangle. I'm Sloane Glass. We'll head to Covington, Louisiana

for the story of Thomas Talley. That's next time on American Homicide. I'm Sloane Glass. We'll head to Covington, Louisiana for the story of Thomas Talley. That's next time on American Homicide team by emailing us at americanhomicidepod.gmail.com. That's americanhomicidepod.gmail.com. American Homicide is hosted and written by me, Sloane Glass, and is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Todd Gans. The series is also written and produced by Todd Gans,

with additional writing by Ben Federman and Andrea Gunning. Our associate producer is Kristen Malkuri. Our iHeart team is Allie Perry and Jessica Kreinchak. Audio editing, mixing, and mastering by Nico Oruka. American Homicide's theme song was composed by Oliver Baines of Noiser, music library provided by MyMusic. Follow American Homicide on Apple Podcasts,

and please rate and review American Homicide. Your five-star review goes a long way towards helping others find this show. For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Kyle Tequila, host of the shocking new true crime podcast, Crook County.

I got recruited into the mob when I was 17 years old. People are dying. Is he doing this the mob when I was 17 years old. People are dying. Is he doing this every night? Kenny was a Chicago firefighter who lived a secret double life as a mafia hitman. I had a wife and I had two children. Nobody knew anything.

He was a frickin' crazy man. He was my father. And I had no idea about any of this until now. Crook County is available now. Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremorchi. And I'm Holly Frey. Together, we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true

crime. Each season, we explore a new theme from poisoners to art thieves. We uncover the secrets of history's most interesting figures from legal injustices to body snatching. And tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in cocktails and mocktails inspired by each story. Listen to Criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. To have a murder as gruesome as Jade Beasley's doesn't happen very often down here. In Marion, Illinois, an 11-year-old girl brutally stabbed to death. Her father's longtime live-in girlfriend maintaining innocence but charged with her

murder. I am confident that Julie Begley is guilty. They've never found a weapon. Never made sense. Still doesn't make sense. She found out she was pregnant in jail. The person who did it is still out there. Listen to Murder on Songbird Road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.