Casefile True Crime - Case 94: Millie & Trevor Horn, Janice Saunders

Episode Date: September 1, 2018

On the morning of March 3 1993, Vivian Rice pulled up outside the Silver Spring home of her sister, Millie Horn, and immediately noticed that something was wrong. The garage door was wide open and Millie’s minivan was nowhere to be seen. After cautiously entering the house, Vivian discovered the slain bodies of Millie, her eight-year-old quadriplegic son Trevor, and Trevor’s nurse Janice Saunders. ---  Episode narrated by the Anonymous Host Episode researched and written by Eileen Ormsby For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-94-millie-trevor-horn-janice-saunders

Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. Today's episode deals with a crime committed against a child that won't be suitable for all listeners. On the evening of March 2, 1993, 43-year-old Mildred Horne, known by friends as Millie, found herself in a predicament.

A senior flight attendant with American Airlines, Millie was rostered on Flight 731 to San Juan, departing the following morning at 8.07 from Baltimore, Washington International Airport. Due to her early start, the single mother needed others to look after her children. It wasn't an issue for her eldest daughter, 18-year-old Tiffany, a freshman living on campus at Howard University in Washington, D.C. It was Millie's eight-year-old twins, Tamiel and Trevor, who required a sitter. Millie was able to send Tamiel to spend the night at her mother's. However, Tamiel's twin brother, Trevor, was unable to stay elsewhere.

Severely physically and intellectually disabled, Trevor required around-the-clock care. He could barely see, hear, or speak, and was often bedridden. Suffering from underdeveloped lungs, he breathed through a tracheostomy tube, receiving oxygen and humidification via tubing that ran from a portable oxygen tank. When he went to school, Trevor was accompanied by a nurse who monitored his oxygen at all times. Described as a cheerful and happy youngster, Trevor was making exceptional progress in class.

He had mastered a few words in sign language and enjoyed his physical education class and playing games with friends. When it came to Trevor, Millie was described as a supermom, a formidable and extraordinary mother. She devoted herself to ensuring her son received the very best of care and showered him with unconditional love. The pair were often seen out and about, Millie gently pushing Trevor along in his wheelchair or driving him around in her specially modified Chevrolet Astro minivan.

During Halloween, Millie would help dress Trevor up as his favorite fictional character, the free-spirited and mischievous Peter Pan. Trevor loved visiting relatives who dubbed him Tricky Trev. His cheeky laughter carried throughout the house, bringing joy to all those who heard it. He inherited a love for music and clearly had his favorite tunes, reacting with delight when they were played. The devotion and dedication of his mother, siblings and extended family towards Trev

was to those who witnessed it, totally beautiful. Despite doctors believing such an achievement would be impossible, Trevor was able to vocalize some words and had developed his own special language. Elle referred to his twin sister, Tamielle, Lala meant I love you. During the night, Trevor relied on a life support machine to assist his breathing as he slept. A constant vigilance and monitoring of these machines was crucial as they were responsible for keeping Trevor alive.

The nurse rusted on to supervise Trevor the evening of March 2, 1993, called up unwell and was unable to stay over. Millie couldn't stay up watching over her son as she needed to rest in preparation for her flight the following morning. Heavenly sister Vivian was always more than happy to look after her nephew, however on this occasion Vivian reluctantly declined as she too had worked the following day. Millie contacted another one of Trevor's nurses, 38-year-old Janice Saunders. That night Janice was home with her husband Michael and their 5-year-old son.

When she received the call from Millie, Janice understood the mother's dilemma. Having worked for the horns for 5 years, Janice developed a strong fondness of young Trevor. She graciously agreed to step in at the last minute and watch Trevor over the night of March 2-3 to ensure both child and mother slept well. To help pass time throughout the late hours, Janice took with her some needlework. She recently started a cross-stitch pattern titled The Parade. The image was by artist P Buckley Moss whose work Janice discovered years earlier and instantly loved.

So much so that this was the 5th cross-stitch of her art Janice created. It showed a boy pulling a wagon carrying a girl and her collection of black kittens. Janice had only gotten so far as stitching the boy's hat and hoped to make significant progress on her project whilst watching over sleeping Trevor. It was around 7.15 the following morning of March 3 when Vivian drove to her sister's white two-story brick house on the leafy suburban Northgate Drive. It was only a short trip as Vivian lived only a few doors down from Millie. The pair resided in the well-to-do area of Silver Spring in the coastal state of Maryland

on America's east coast. As Millie would have already left for work, Vivian knew the only ones home would be her nephew Trevor and his nurse Janice Saunders. Janice was due to finish her 10-hour night shift at 8am. Grateful the nurse took the shift on such short notice, Vivian was keen to ensure Janice left on time and didn't have to stay longer than expected. Vivian pulled up out the front of her sister's house. She immediately noticed the garage door was wide open with nobody in sight.

Vivian's minivan was missing. Vivian had never known her sister to leave the garage open when she wasn't home. Upon entering the garage, something was clearly amiss. Sofa cushions were strewn across the floor. Vivian's attention was drawn to a sound coming from inside the house that was both familiar and out of place. It was the furious, high-pitched beeping of young Trevor's apnea monitor, the sound it made to alert the nurse, Trevor had stopped breathing.

Overcome with worry, Vivian rushed to her neighbour's property and beat the front door. She begged them to accompany her into her sister's house. After unlocking the front door, Vivian let the neighbour enter the house first. But the door would barely open. There was something heavy on the other side blocking their entry. Vivian peered through the gap to see what was in the way. Looking into the house, she saw a body on the floor against the door. Her sister Milly's fixed and unblinking gaze was staring up at her.

Half of her face was missing. Police arrived to the horned family house within minutes. Upon entry, they immediately found Milly's horns body by the front door. Wearing her night clothes, it appeared she had been shot in the face at close range by a high-powered weapon. During the sound of the beeping, the officers headed upstairs. It led them to eight-year-old Trevor Horn's bedroom. The inside of the room was clean and orderly, much like a hospital room, except for the

blood surrounding the body of nurse Janice Saunders on the floor. She too had been shot dead. Two small abrasions above Janice's right eyebrow looked to have been caused by a tiny debris from a silencer. The officers approached the specially-built crib-like bed by the beeping machine. Each beep signalled for each breath that was missed. Laying inside, surrounded by his beloved stuffed animals, was Trevor. His body showed no external signs of trauma.

The boy's left eye was speckled with pinpoint bleeding, suggesting he had made violent attempts to breathe prior to death. It appeared as though Trevor's killer plugged the child's tracheostomy tube with their finger and perhaps held their other hand over the boy's mouth and nose, suffocating him to death. A few areas of the horn house were obviously disturbed. Some drawers were tossed about. A cocktail table in the living room had been moved.

Cushions were on the floor and a rug kicked to the side. Scattered on a bathroom floor were the contents of Millie's purse. A bookcase was toppled over and a hallway closet was open. Its contents dumped haphazardly on the floor. In the basement, the mesh screen of a window was pulled away and there were pry marks on the frame. Police summarised the intruder broke in this way. From the messy state of the house and the markings on the basement window, all signs

pointed to a burglary gone horribly wrong. If it was a burglary, it was a particularly incompetent one. Despite nearly every room having been slightly ransacked, little of value appeared to be missing. None of Millie Horn's substantial collection of jewellery, including a five-carat diamond bracelet lying in plain sight on a bathroom counter, was taken. Janice Saunders' purse and jewellery were undisturbed. First, televisions, music and electronic equipment, usually prime targets for burglars

because of the ease with which they could be quickly sold, all remained untouched. All that was missing were some credit and check cashing cards taken from Millie's purse. Seasoned detectives suspected the scene was staged to look like a burglary gone wrong, to mask what actually appeared to be a planned and professional murder. The victims were killed with ruthless efficiency, Millie with three gunshots to the head, and Janice with two. Young Trevor's death was senseless. The child had no way of identifying the intruder or telling anyone what happened, yet the killer

took no chances. Forensics went over the horn house with a fine-toothed comb, but no foreign fibres or hairs or any shoe, palm or fingerprints had been left at the scene. Fragments of one 22-caliber bullet was found lodged in a wall in Trevor's bedroom. 22-caliber bullets are liable to the stored upon firing, making it hard to match the bullet to a gun. Only two things were left behind by the killer at the scene. A small file with tape around the handle was found near the garage door.

He tested positive for gunshot residue. The second item was flecks of grass on Trevor Horn's face. Neither item provided investigators any further insight into the perpetrator. The time of the murder was accurately pinpointed thanks to the meticulous logs kept by Janice Saunders of Trevor's vital signs. Every hour without fail, Janice wrote her medical observations down in a notebook. When they stopped at 2am, police knew the killer arrived a short time later. Millie's minivan was located around midday, found abandoned in the parking lot of a townhouse

development in the suburb of Lay Hill, less than a mile from the horn house. The vehicle was locked and the keys left in the ignition. Investigators believed the killer parked their car at the construction site and walked the one mile to the horn house. After committing the murders, they then drove Millie's van back to their own car before fleeing. Later that same afternoon, Millie's credit cards were handed in to police. A jogger running along Route 28 in Montgomery County found the cards scattered on the side

of the road, less than 20 miles west of the horn house. As the area in and around the crime scene was being carefully searched, investigators went to Howard University to pick up Tiffany Horn. Upon hearing her mother and brother had been killed, the 18-year-old blurted out, my father had something to do with this, didn't he? Lawrence Thomas Horn, better known as LT, was Motown Music Royalty. He joined the iconic record production company as a young man in the 1960s, taking a low-paying job as a favor to his friend and Motown Records founder, Barry Gordy Jr.

A talented sound engineer, before long, Lawrence was running the control room at Hitsville, USA, Motown's original Detroit headquarters. The Motown sound was a mixture of soul, funk, and pop. During the 50s and 60s, Motown signed up unknown artists who later became megastars, Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five, The Supremes, Frankie Valli in the Four Seasons, and Diana Ross amongst many others. Soon, Motown's artists were rocketing to the top of the charts. Lawrence was a pioneer and an innovator, responsible for overseeing most of the mixes

for Motown singles from 1964 to 1967. He was the chief technician on the Temptations hit, My Girl, which debuted at the top of the charts in 1965 and stayed there for 13 weeks. Shotgun by Junior Walker and the All-Stars was Lawrence's proudest achievement. He was credited as the song's producer, and peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965. As Motown's fame and fortune soared, so did Lawrence Horne. He gained a reputation as a gifted engineer, not afraid to experiment to create new sounds.

Although never in the limelight, those in the music industry considered Lawrence to be the man behind the Motown sound. He introduced himself as LT, your man with a plan. Popular with the ladies, he had one short-lived marriage to a Motown receptionist, which lasted just a year in the late 60s. Motown moved from Detroit to LA, where it expanded into television and film production. As to be expected, Lawrence went with it. Motown Records was a phenomenal success story for a small family-run business.

As its chief recording engineer, Lawrence Horne was rolling in the money. In 1972, Lawrence crashed his Porsche, completely riding it off. He should have been killed or at least severely injured, but he escaped without a scratch. Rather than convincing him of his invincibility, the accident caused Lawrence to take stock of his life. Shortly after, he was sitting in his first-class seat on an American Airlines flight. When he met an angel, he believed was sent by God to save him. Mildred Marie dreamed of being a flight attendant since she was a little girl.

One of 14 children, Milly grew up in South Carolina in a close and loving family, where chasing one's dreams was encouraged. Bubbly, happy and popular, Milly was a head-turner, always bellowed the ball. As soon as she was able, she entered Stuarter's school and excelled in every aspect, easily making it through the gruelling training regime. Even though her work took her all around the country, Milly always remained deeply woven within her family roots. It didn't take long for American Airlines to promote Milly to the position of senior

flight attendant. Tasked with looking after the more demanding first-class passengers, Milly's patience and optimism saw her settle well into the new role. One day, as she worked the Los Angeles flight route, fate had Milly serving drinks to a handsome, confident music executive. Lawrence Horn was immediately drawn to the beautiful 21-year-old. Milly accepted Lawrence's invitation to dinner, and he set about courting her with his elite lifestyle of fine dining, good wine, jet-setting and celebrities.

Lawrence and Milly became a celebrated couple in Hollywood's music scene. The pair turned heads at all the glamorous parties. Yet, outside the spotlight and behind closed doors, theirs was a stormy relationship from the beginning. Follatility, drama and fiery fights were followed by passionate reconciliations. Eventually, the pair married in Las Vegas in August 1973. The birth of their first child, Tiffany in 1974, only served to highlight the issues in their marriage.

Lawrence put his job, Motown and partying ahead of his parental responsibilities. Milly still loved the extravagant lifestyle Lawrence provided, but prioritized family above all wells. Relations between the couple became more frequent and reconciliations less satisfying. Until in 1979, after five years of marriage, they went their separate ways. Milly moved with Tiffany to Maryland to be near her family whom she could always rely on. Lawrence stayed in Los Angeles, where he could be close to his beloved Motown.

During her childhood, Tiffany's visits with her father were relegated to summer holidays, but they were always exciting. Lawrence took her to Hollywood Get-Togethers attended by famous singers and musicians. She especially looked forward to the annual Motown picnic, where the elite of the US music scene would bring their families to meet the people they worked with. At one of these events, her father introduced her to Stevie Wonder. Milly, seemingly moving forward with an independent life, filed for divorce from Lawrence in 1981. Yet, despite their differences, Lawrence and Milly found it difficult to stay away from

each other. They would often find themselves together after meeting to drop off or pick up Tiffany, or when Milly's work took her to Los Angeles. A bombshell dropped in 1984. Milly was pregnant, and Lawrence was the father. And came as a shock to her family who were under the impression the couple ended things years ago. It was immediately clear to Milly's network of support that Lawrence held no interest

in providing her any assistance or comfort during her pregnancy. Her family rallied around her as they always did, especially when they discovered she was carrying twins. Milly went into premature labor at seven months. Twins Tamiel and Trevor were born on August 5, 1984. There were immediate complications at birth. Doctors told Milly Tamiel was small but in good health, but Trevor only had a 50-50 chance at survival.

During the birth of her twin siblings, Tiffany was on one of her summer visits with her father in Los Angeles. Her aunt Vivian called asking Lawrence to rush Tiffany to Maryland so she would have the opportunity to meet her newborn brother in case Trevor didn't pull through. Lawrence told Vivian that Tiffany was looking forward to the Motown picnic on the weekend, and he didn't have time to bring her home beforehand. As had become the custom, Lawrence put his job and celebrity lifestyle above his family, even as his firstborn son's life hung in the balance.

As it turned out, both Lawrence and Tiffany would get to meet Trevor. Despite suffering a multitude of health problems, Trevor was a fighter and survived. Eventually he was allowed home, but required constant care and frequent hospitalization. Trevor's frail peal and ill health took on nightmare proportions on September 16, 1986. During one of his many visits to Children's Hospital National Medical Center, Trevor's tracheostomy tube was accidentally disconnected. In an interview with WRC-TV after the event, Millie Horn explained, quote,

They were trying to get an IV in to give Trevor his blood transfusion. His tracheostomy tube came out, and they could not get it back in. He went into an arrest. He was coded for an hour and 20 minutes, and as a result of that, Trevor experienced brain damage. They told me Trevor probably would not be any more than a vegetable. I was just totally crushed. It was like darkness in a tunnel.

There was not going to be any light. And at that point, I almost considered taking Trevor off all life support and just letting nature do its will. But I just couldn't do it. It's been a struggle, but because of Trevor's tremendous will to live, I have had the will to hang in there with him and give him the best support that I can. The best life that I can. It was in these times when Millie entered super mum mode.

Lawrence, on the other hand, held little interest in raising or supporting Trevor. In a conversation with his daughter Tiffany, Lawrence stated that an intellectually disabled quadriplegic could never be a real son to him. Millie and Lawrence's divorce was finalized in 1987. Lawrence was ordered to pay $650 per month child support. Although they technically had joint custody, Millie took on full-time parenting of the children while Lawrence returned to Los Angeles. The following year, the horns sued the hospital for negligence, resulting in Trevor's extensive

injuries. A long, drawn-out court battle ensued, taking the better part of two years. The relationship between Millie and Lawrence became increasingly bitter, especially when Lawrence's career took a spectacular nosedive. As it was prone to doing, the music industry changed. Crooning soul music and disco fell out of fashion, with dance, new wave, and rock stylings emerging as the mainstream. As a result, Motown's owners sold out to a multinational organization.

Lawrence Horne would soon discover there was no place or use for him in the company's new phase. By 1990, Lawrence was fired from his very last job at Motown, a low-paying, no-status job as a tape librarian. Assuming the money would always be rolling in, Lawrence had no savings and was rapidly falling behind in his child support payments. The settlement of Trevor's court case in March 1990 could not have come at a better time for Lawrence.

Trevor was awarded an annuity of $4,835 per month for life, indexed for inflation, with a lump sum payment of $1.1 million when he turned 18 years old. The lump sum was to be held in trust, with Millie Horne as trustee. In addition, Millie was awarded $322,000. During negotiations in a showy display of arrogance, Lawrence scribbled a million-dollar figure on a sheet of paper and slid it across the table to the hospital's attorney. Once the settlement was reached, Lawrence was only given about $150,000. Lawrence was vocal about his unhappiness with his share of the windfall.

After a heated argument about money with Millie, he stormed out of the house, declaring he was done with the whole family. True to his word, he cut off communication with all of them, including daughter Tiffany. Millie used the entirety of her lump sum to buy a family home in the upscale Layhill section of Silver Spring, just a few doors down from her sister Vivian. Lawrence quickly blew through his settlement check, and consequently, he stopped paying child support for his three children. As such, Millie had to keep working to provide for her family.

By 1992, Lawrence was behind in payments to the tune of almost $20,000. Millie knew she would have to go to court to get the money out of him, which she was willing to do for the sake of her children. His former wife's persistence on getting what little money he had angered Lawrence. Always prone to violent outbursts, he would scream at Millie down the phone, threatening to come after her if she went through with recovering child support. Confiding in her colleagues, Millie told of how Lawrence bragged about shoving a sailor off a ship's deck during his naval service, making it look like an accident.

Millie warned them if she were ever killed, Lawrence would be responsible. Fear compelled Millie to install a burglar alarm in her home, and she warned Trevor's nurses not to open the door to strangers while she was away. She forbade Lawrence from coming to or entering her house. In the spring of 1992, Lawrence contacted his eldest daughter Tiffany. It had been near two years since Tiffany last spoke to her father, and deep down she missed him. Lawrence seemed to have had a change of heart, saying he missed her, Lawrence wanted to be

part of his children's life again. When Lawrence asked about Trevor, Tiffany was pleased he was finally showing interest in her baby brother. Lawrence asked many questions, wanting to hear all about Trevor's health and care. Tiffany filled him in, detailing what was required nowadays to ensure Trevor was well, showing what the nurses did for him every day. On June 17, 1992, Lawrence arrived to Millie's house with a video camera. Millie wasn't home at the time, allowing Lawrence to set up a tripod in her driveway

without issue. Placing a camera on the tripod, he pointed at a Millie's house and asked Tiffany to point out which windows led to who's rooms. Seeing he wanted to see Trevor, Lawrence then asked if he could go inside. Respecting her mother's demands, Tiffany refused her father access to the house. But not wanting to keep him from seeing his son, Tiffany agreed to take the camera inside and film Trevor so Lawrence could in some way see his little boy. It was an odd situation, but Tiffany was glad her father was taking steps to being a part

of their lives again. On the day of the triple homicide, Tiffany Horne poured out all of this information to the police. Lawrence Horne became prime suspect in the murders. Motive was clear. Lawrence was unemployed, broke and indebted to Millie for child support and legal fees. He was prone to violence, and Millie held a genuine fear of her former husband. Furthermore, Tiffany informed police of a call she received a couple of nights prior to the

murders. Lawrence was on the line bombarding her with questions about where she and Tamiel would be over the following days. The evening before the murders, Lawrence found his former sister-in-law Vivian, checking up where his daughters were staying the night, finding out they were not at Millie's place. He tracked Lawrence to his mother's house. Rather than expressing shock and grief over news of the murders, he queried if he was being viewed as a suspect.

When it was clear investigators were looking at him with suspicion, Lawrence handed them a videotape. The footage showed Lawrence in his living room, standing in front of his television. The local news flashed across the screen. The date and time the footage was taken was displayed in the bottom right-hand corner, 11.45pm Los Angeles time, which was 2.45am Maryland time, the exact time of the murders. The footage proved Lawrence Horn could not have been the killer, and she was on the other side of the country during the slayings.

But the convenient video recording only served to fuel investigators' suspicions. It was incredibly bizarre Lawrence just happened to be videotaping his quiet night at home, whilst his former wife, their son, and a nurse were being executed. Investigators dubbed the video recording, the alibi tape. Over the following week, detectives interviewed everyone close to or associated with Millie and Lawrence. They heard many stories of the couple's stormy marriage, and how Millie had grown to be afraid of their ex-husband.

Millie's sister Vivian told police straight up she was certain Lawrence was responsible for the murders. Other family members also provided information pointing to Lawrence. Sniffer dogs scoured the crime scene and beyond. On Route 28, where Millie's credit cards were found, the dogs uncovered a piece of metal. It was the trigger mechanism from an AR-7, a semi-automatic rifle. The weapon took 22 caliber bullets, the same type found at the crime scene. The serial number on the metal piece had been carefully drilled out, erasing it for good,

making the weapon untraceable. Expert analysis determined the metal's corrosion was consistent with having been exposed to the elements for only a matter of weeks, and that the weapon was intentionally fractured and disassembled. Investigators were certain they had found part of the murder weapon. Nine days after the murders, police executed a search warrant of Lawrence Horn's Los Angeles residence. In a testament to the hard times Lawrence had fallen on since his high roller days, the

apartment was as small as it was cheap. Police confiscated three computers, computer disks, hard drives, back-up drives, telephone and bank records, videotapes, cassette tapes, micro-cassette tapes, and a telephone answering machine, along with several files worth of papers. Four investigators were assigned full-time to sift through the massive amounts of evidence taken. Among the thousands of documents, detectives found a few items of interest. A hand-drawn map of Northgate Drive featured an ex where Millie's house was located.

A piece of paper contained the number and departure time of the flight Millie was scheduled to work the morning she died. There was a homemade video of Lawrence making the long drive from Washington, D.C. to Millie's house. Upon arrival, he pointed the camera at the house and zoomed in on each window, announcing what rooms were behind them. Most intriguing was a 22-second recording from Lawrence's answering machine. The voice on the other end belonged to an unknown male.

He spoke rapidly and his words were cryptic. He mentioned not being able to finish something because of, quote, the noise. You understand what I'm saying. We've subpoenaed telephone records for all calls made to and from Lawrence's apartment one week either side of the date of the murders. Of the long list of calls made, four long-distance calls stood out. Lawrence received two phone calls to his apartment from Numbers in Detroit, where the man once had his roots in the music industry.

The other two calls were from Maryland. All of them were traced back to pay phones. One call came through at 5.12 a.m. on March 3, 1993, the morning of the murders. The 22-second call was made from a pay phone outside of a Denny's restaurant in Gaithersburg, Maryland, approximately 10 miles or around a 10-minute drive west from Millie's house. Police suspected this was the same 22-second call recorded on Lawrence's answering machine, featuring the unidentified caller speaking cryptically. Strangely, Millie's credit cards and the AR-7 trigger mechanism appeared to have been

dropped, like breadcrumbs, along the road leading to one of the phone booths from which a call had been made to Lawrence Horn. Police visited hotels in the area of this pay phone. On Shady Grove Road in Rockville was a non-descript, cheap highway motel called Days Inn, that was approximately five miles west of Millie's house and close to the pay phone used to call Lawrence's apartment in Los Angeles. The motel's manager allowed investigators to examine guest logbooks. On the night of the triple homicide, a man from Detroit checked in a little after midnight

and was gone by 6.30 the following morning. This man paid for his stay in cash. In normal circumstances, by paying in cash, he would not have been required to show ID. However, Days Inn had a policy requiring all guests show ID, no matter how payment was made. The motel receptionist insisted on seeing the man's ID. He displayed a Michigan driver's license, addressed listed as Detroit, and the name printed above was James Perry.

James Edward Perry had his finger in many pies. Depending on who you asked, he was a minister, businessman, or hustler. His business card covered all possibilities. Inblazoned with a moon and star emblem and the design of a walking cane, the card read, The House of Wisdom, Dr. J Perry, Cold Reader, Case Buster, Spiritual Advisor, by Appointment Only. The self-proclaimed doctor thought of himself as a learned man. His shelves were stacked with an abundance of how-to books.

Known as a fixer, James Perry held the reputation of being able to fix any problem for the right price. Generally, the things people wanted him to fix fell foul of the law. Legitimate employment prospects were scarce for the street hustler, who had done two stints in prison for armed robberies. The second, a botched bank robbery, culminated in the non-fatal shooting of a Michigan state trooper. As a result, James Perry was incarcerated for 10 years during the 1970s.

On release, Perry styled himself into a minister of religion. As a street preacher, he referred to himself as a possible James and claimed to have psychic abilities. Standing barely over five feet tall, others dubbed him the midget minister, but not to his face. He conducted business affairs in Detroit from a seedy dive bar called Fransles and a shady storefront called Mr. Money. Why the 44-year-old Detroit-based career criminal visited Maryland for just six hours on the

night of March 2 and 3 remained to be seen. Five weeks later, Lawrence Horne participated in an interview with a local newspaper, appearing the grieving father and denying any involvement in the murders. Regarding the odd videotapes he took of Millie's house and of Trevor, Lawrence confidently brushed them off as innocent mementos to show his mother back in California because she missed her grandchildren. It was a claim his mother readily backed up. Lawrence insisted he had nothing to gain financially from his son's death, adding he thought Trevor's

medical bills drained the trust fund. So disinterested in any money, Lawrence claimed he wasn't even sure if he kept a copy of the 1990 court settlement. Yet, among Lawrence's personal effects were handwritten notes on documents relating to Trevor's trust fund and annuity. They showed Lawrence was well-versed in the legalities of the settlement. In the event of Trevor's death, the documents revealed his trust money, now worth $1.7 million, was to be distributed tax-free to Lawrence and Millie Horne.

Although with Millie also out of the picture, Lawrence was the sole heir to the entire $1.7 million. With this revelation, a new horror dawned on investigators. Eight-year-old Trevor was likely the primary target. When asked by reporters how we felt about being treated as a suspect, Lawrence stated, quote, months of investigation dragged on, with police trawling through evidence determined to make an arrest.

This was in the days before information could simply be run through a computer, so every piece of evidence needed to be manually and thoroughly examined. These went line by line through Lawrence Horne's phone records, making inquiries to telephone companies to determine to whom each number belonged and where each call originated from. They worked backwards from the day of the murder, checking thousands of phone calls over hundreds of days, nearly all of which led nowhere. Until finally, they uncovered a promising piece of evidence.

Incoming calls to Lawrence's apartment were made from several telephone boxes in Detroit, using a calling card registered to the name Camilla McKinney. A calling card is used to pay for telephone services, often international or long-distance calls. A fixed amount of credit is stored on the card, and when the credit runs out, the card can be discarded. It's not necessary to have the physical card when making calls. Only knowledge of the associated PIN linked to the card is required.

When searching for Camilla, the calling card's owner, police instead found a woman named Marsha Webb. Marsha admitted to falsifying her identity in order to obtain telephone service from Pacific Bell, who had cut off service under her real name due to unpaid bills. So Marsha opened a new account under the false name of Camilla McKinney and purchased the calling card. Marsha told investigators she obtained the card at the suggestion of her cousin, who happened to be Lawrence Horn.

Lawrence told Marsha he wanted the calling card to use whilst travelling. As he didn't want the bills to go to his home address, they were sent to Marsha's place and Lawrence covered them. The calling card was used to make 66 calls from Los Angeles payphones to career criminal James Perry's residence in Detroit, starting almost a year before the murders. Nearly all these payphones were within walking distance of Lawrence Horn's apartment. The card was also used to make 70 calls from Detroit payphones to Lawrence's Los Angeles home.

These Detroit payphones were close to where James Perry lived and carried out his business. Evidence gathered so far was enough to allow authorities to place a discreet wiretap on Lawrence's home phone. However, Lawrence was keenly aware he was being viewed as a suspect and had never said anything over the phone to incriminate himself. Teams of investigators were sent to watch the payphones in both Detroit and Los Angeles used to call the homes of James Perry and Lawrence Horn, but neither men were spotted using them.

Then on July 20, 1993, Marsha Webb's calling card was used again. The call was made from a payphone at the Calvitan Shopping Center in Beltsville, Maryland. It went to France's bar in Detroit, the local horn of James Perry. Unbeknownst to Lawrence Horn, he was photographed by police using that exact payphone at that precise time. Detectives were confident Lawrence Horn and James Perry were in contact and suspected it was over the murders. Lawrence was still waiting to obtain his payout from his son's insurance settlement.

The process was being held up by Millie's sister Vivian, who filed a civil suit against Lawrence to keep him from claiming Trevor's estate. She was invoking an obscure Maryland law known as the Slayer Rule. Vivian claimed Lawrence Horn should not be entitled to the proceeds of the trust because she was certain he caused the death of Trevor Horn. As Lawrence navigated bureaucracy to get his hands on the money, detectives stepped up their surveillance of suspected trigger man, James Perry. Perry had a few people with whom he spent a lot of time with.

One was a man named Thomas Turner. A trucker by trade, Thomas Turner had a side hustle driving a cab. Turner and Perry were close friends, having met whilst in prison some 13 years earlier. Both from Detroit, they kept in touch after release. Turner helped promote Perry's business, handing out business cards to his taxi passengers. Flyers for Perry's House of Wisdom were stored in Turner's home, which he distributed to those who required the kind of help James Perry could provide. There was something more important about Thomas Turner than his friendship with James Perry.

Thomas Turner was another of Lawrence Horn's cousins. Investigators finally had a definitive connection between James Perry and Lawrence Horn. Thomas Turner. They paid James Perry a visit at his home in Detroit. Answering their questions on his doorstep, Perry admitted to being in Maryland on the night of March 3, but claimed it was for business. Perry insisted he never heard of Millie, Trevor, or Lawrence Horn, and had no knowledge of any murders.

Investigators didn't expect Perry to reveal anything to them. They just hoped their visit might spook him into contacting Lawrence Horn. However, the two suspects made no direct contact. Investigators suspected the pair were communicating via mutual associate Thomas Turner. As such, they received permission to wiretap Turner's phone. Investigators discovered both James Perry and Lawrence Horn called and spoke to Thomas Turner often, but the three men were careful in the language they used, and none said anything damning.

It was obvious to detectives Turner was passing coded messages between the men, but they couldn't prove it. Around Thanksgiving 1993, authorities got wind that James Perry was preparing to move out of his apartment. Worried the disruption could disturb or destroy evidence, they obtained a warrant to search the residence. Knowing Perry's history of violence against police and believing he was in possession of high-powered firearms, a heavily armed SWAT team was sent to storm the property.

The raid was anticlimactic, James Perry was in bed and offered no resistance. The search turned up little in the way of evidence, although detectives found some of Perry's possessions to be odd for a man who professed to be a minister. The apartment was littered with voodoo relics and soldier of fortune magazines. There was an abundance of how-to books on every nefarious topic imaginable, including the science behind criminal investigations, police procedures, crime scene and blood spatter analysis, managing gunshot wounds, and interpreting evidence in a court of law. Police bagged items within the terms of their warrant, such as videocassettes and bank statements,

but left without arresting James Perry. Things that struck detectives as strange were the dozens of how-to books James Perry owned. Many came from the same source, a small publisher called Paladin Press. Paladin Press did most of its advertising in the back pages of Soldier of Fortune, a magazine favored by would-be mercenaries and conspiracy theorists. The publisher bragged it was the most dangerous press in America, offering books and films on controversial subjects such as anarchy, survivalism, homemade arsenals, exotic weapons,

combat, explosives, knives, block smithing, martial arts, military and police science, new identities, espionage, murder and body disposal. The books were cheap, short and easily digestible reads aimed at survivalists, anarchists, thriller and crime writers, and aspiring criminals. One of their avid readers was Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, who owned a copy of Paladin Press's how-to book, Homemade C4, a recipe for survival. Investigators contacted Paladin Press to find out whether they had a record of books James Perry ordered.

They did, and two books stood out, delivered to Perry's home in January 1992. Detectives ordered their own copies of these books, one titled How to Make Disposable Silences, and another titled Hitman, a technical manual for independent contractors. The Hitman manual was authored by Rex Ferrell, who claimed to be a veteran of the Hitman business. The 130 page guide detailed how to carry out professional murder for hire, full of helpful hints, tips and steps. Everything from preparation, place of hit, renting a car with stolen plates from out

of state, choosing a motel and travelling to the scene of the crime. The manual recommended any would-be assassin use an AR-7 rifle due to the advantage of it being lightweight and easy to conceal when disassembled. It suggested drilling out the weapon's serial number to avoid it being traced. In explicit detail, using photographs, it instructed readers how to construct a homemade, whisper quiet silencer from material available in any hardware store. The book recommended shooting victims three times and to aim for eye sockets to ensure death.

It also advised the grinding a file inside the gun barrel while still at the crime scene to change ballistic markings. According to the book, assassins should mess up the crime scene and steal concealable items of value to make it look like a burglary. It urged the reader to dispose of the stolen items along with the weapon parts at various different locations as soon as possible. readers immediately saw the striking parallels of every instruction in the Hitman manual to the Maryland triple homicide crime scene.

It was likely James Perry used the Hitman manual as a blueprint and carefully followed its instructions when soliciting, preparing for, and committing the murders of Millie, Trevor, and Janice. However, he made one mistake. The book advised the reader to pay cash and use a fake name when arranging accommodation near the murder site. James Perry didn't account for the days in motel receptionist to request to see his ID when paying for the room.

There was no instruction in the Hitman manual to guide him out of such an unforeseeable predicament. With no other options, James Perry foolishly showed his own driver's license. Investigators turned up the heat around James Perry. Their spotlight encompassed not just Perry, but all his associates. In January 1994, Perry's close friend Thomas Turner was brought in for questioning. Under intense pressure and the threat of prison time, Turner agreed to talk in return for complete immunity. Turner took investigators back to the spring of 1992.

He had opened his front door to find his cousin Lawrence Horne on his doorstep. It had been about a decade since the relatives had contact. Despite this, Lawrence poured out his personal troubles to his cousin, stating how he wanted to see his children, but his vindictive ex-wife was refusing him visitation rights, as well as withholding money rightfully years. In a desire to both help his cousin and drum up business for his best friend, Turner gave Lawrence a business card and said, Give Mr Perry a call, because he helps people.

Turner claimed he made no inquiries as to what sort of help his friend provided his cousin. But nine months later, when newspapers detailed the murders of Millie and Trevor Horne, Turner felt uneasy. This feeling amplified when several months after the murders, both Lawrence and Perry expressed paranoia about wiretaps and enlisted his help as they go between, delivering messages and arranging meetings for them to avoid police detection. Turner told police, I got to thinking I was brought into something and I didn't know exactly what.

I had my suspicions. It had been a year since the murders of his wife and son. Lawrence Horne decided it was time to push the insurance company for his inheritance from Trevor's malpractice suit, which meant facing Millie's sisters in court. The case dragged on, but depositions in the civil suit were finally scheduled on July 6 and 7, 1994. Civil cases have different rules to criminal cases. A criminal case involves the state against the defendant. The state has the burden to prove the defendant guilty beyond reasonable

doubt. The defendant has the right to stay silent on any question and neither a judge or jury can draw adverse inferences from their choice not to answer. It's one's basic right not to incriminate yourself. A civil case, however, is between citizens and the burden of proof is much lower. A judge or jury will find in favor of one party based on evidence given. There's no pleading the fifth in a civil trial. Refusal to answer questions reflects badly on the person doing the refusing and can be treated unfavorably by a judge. As such, it was in Lawrence's best interest to cut his losses and never set foot in that courtroom. However, blinded by greed, he failed to notice the workings around him. He did not suspect

questions asked of him during his civil trial were carefully supplied to lawyers by the FBI. Questions based on evidence amassed over the previous 15 months implicating Lawrence in the murders of his wife, son and visiting nurse were tossed at him. To have any hope of receiving a windfall from the estate, Lawrence had to answer every question. In his deposition, Lawrence admitted having the pin of Marsha Webb's long-distance telephone calling card but denied using the card after January 1993. According to Lawrence, he didn't allow anyone else to use the card. He also denied speaking to James Perry on the phone or having any contact with the man on March 2 or 3 1993. All of this was contradictory to the evidence detectives had so far gathered.

The point for investigators was not to get Lawrence to admit to anything. The reason for the questions was so Lawrence Horn was on record in a court of law having answered them. Prosecutors could then reference these answers in a future criminal case where he would most likely remain silent. After his testimony in civil court, investigators had solid evidence Lawrence had lied under oath and were finally ready to put out arrest warrants. A week later, a Montgomery County grand jury handed down indictments charging Lawrence Horn and James Perry with murder and conspiracy in relation to the brutal murders of Millie Horn, Trevor Horn and the selfless woman who had the misfortune of getting caught up in the plot,

Janice Saunders. On July 19, 1994, after 16 months of intense, often frustrating investigation, Lawrence Horn was arrested in his apartment in Los Angeles. Hours later, James Perry entered a police station in Detroit. He wished to file a complaint against two FBI officers who had been openly following and taunting him for the past few days. He demanded to know if the FBI was going to arrest him or Millie harass him. Perry arrived to the station just as police received final word on his arrest warrant. They happily answered his question, placing him under arrest on three counts of first-degree murder. James Perry was first to stand trial in mid-1995. The paper trial investigators meticulously

compiled showed a complex web of telephone calls and records, Western Union payments, and meeting arrangements organized by Lawrence Horn, enlisting James Perry's services as a hitman. The jury was shown proof Perry ordered the hitman manual and methodically followed its instructions to carry out his crime. They heard the recording on Lawrence Horn's answering machine where Perry spoke about not being able to finish something because of, quote, the noise you understand what I'm saying. It was likely Perry was referring to the beeping noise made by Trevor's apnea alarm. Taped phone conversations and the testimony of Thomas Turner sealed his fate. On October 12, after just five hours of deliberation, the jury returned

to court with a verdict. They found James Perry guilty on each of the three counts of first-degree murder. Judge D. Warren Donahue imposed three death sentences and an additional sentence of life in prison for conspiring to commit murder. Six months later, in April 1996, it was finally time for Lawrence Horn to face trial for masterminding the murders. As was carefully planned by investigators, testimony Lawrence gave in the civil suit was presented in court, proving he was a liar. Despite what Lawrence claimed, hundreds of pieces of evidence linked him directly to James Perry. His cousin, Thomas Turner, was called to give evidence in the trial. Turner told of introducing Lawrence and Perry and later acting as their go-between when they

wanted to speak to one another, clear of police surveillance. The jury watched the videotapes Lawrence made of himself driving to Millie's house and the footage taken once he got there. Tiffany Horn testified against her father. She spoke of her devastation of being an unwitting accomplice in his murder plot. Believing her father's good intentions, Tiffany filmed the interior of her mother's house, including Trevor's bedroom, believing her father just wanted to see his estranged son. She could never have suspected her father would provide the footage to a hitman so he could acquaint himself with the layout of the house. Lawrence's alibi tape was also shown in court. Members of the jury watched as the camera zoomed

in on the television so the time and date were clearly visible. A cruel act Lawrence did purposefully, knowing at that exact moment, near 3,000 miles away, his helpless son was being suffocated to death for his own financial gain. On May 3, after seven and a half hours of deliberation, Lawrence Horn was found guilty on three counts of first-degree murder and on one of conspiracy to commit murder. Two weeks later, when the court reconvened Tahiri's sentence, the families of Millie, Trevor and Janice were there to make sure justice was served. Janice Saunders husband Michael spoke to the court of being haunted by the image of the

fun-loving sparkle in his wife's eyes being blown away. Millie's siblings revealed their devastating loss from losing their loving, caring sister and their little nephew, Triggy Trev. To the dismay of victims' families, Lawrence Horn escaped the death penalty. Instead, it was given three life sentences without the possibility of parole. Tiffany Horn looked at her father and said, I hate you. I hate you so much. You killed my family. Lawrence showed no emotion as it was led away. Although Lawrence Horn and James Perry were in prison, their victims' families believed there

was one more culprit in the deaths of their loved ones. They took the unprecedented step of taking Paladin Press, the publishers of Hitman, a technical manual for independent contractors, to court for their role in instructing James Perry in the yard of committing murder. The book was deliberately marketed as a serious instruction manual by a professional in the trade named Rex Ferrell. The promotional text for the book in Paladin's catalogue said, learn how to get in, do the job and get out without getting caught. In total, Perry followed at least 22 instructions detailed in the book to the letter when carrying out his crime. A federal judge initially threw the case out on summary judgment. They ruled the

book was protected by the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech. But even the publication itself boasted of pushing such boundaries, selling works that left, quote, even diehard advocates of free speech second guessing their opposition to censorship. In November 1997, the U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the decision, permitting the victims' families to sue Paladin Press. The president and founder of Paladin Press, Petta Lund, claimed to feel compassion and sympathy for the victims' families, but added, quote, I feel no moral or ethical responsibility for publishing information. I am not responsible for the misuse of information of whatever type. Any information obtained from Paladin had nothing to do with Perry's predisposition to violence.

Lund accused the victims' families of being money hungry and declared the lawsuit a war on the bill of rights. His lawyers contended any decision finding liability on behalf of the publisher would have far-reaching effects on the rights to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Lund pointed out that in 10 years of publishing, 13,000 books were sold, and only one person actually used one as a guide for committing homicide. Yet Paladin Press conceded that by publishing, distributing, and selling Hitman to James Perry, they assisted him in the subsequent perpetration of the murders, but they maintained they should not be held liable. In a decision that stunned the legal world, the Supreme Court contended a jury could reasonably

find Paladin aided and abetted in the murders through the, quote, quintessential act of providing step-by-step instructions for murder, so comprehensive and detailed as if the instructor were literally present with the would-be murderer. The case was set for trial on May 25, 1999. Meanwhile, journalists sought to unmask the mysterious author of the book, Rex Ferrell. In the opening of the book, Ferrell wrote, quote, It is my opinion that the professional Hitman feels a need in society and is at times the only alternative for personal justice. Moreover, if my advice

and the proven methods in this book are followed, certainly no one will ever know. People surmised that perhaps Ferrell could be linked to unsolved murders. No doubt when the trial went ahead, Ferrell would be subpoenaed to give evidence. But then, on May 21, 1999, a few days before the trial was set to begin, Paladin's insurance company deemed the case to be an unacceptable risk. They decided to settle, paying several million dollars' compensation to both the horn and saunders' families. The settlement went against the wishes of Paladin Press, who were certain they would win the court case. The publisher also had to agree to cease publishing the book

and pulp the remaining stock of 700 copies. According to Paladin, those copies sold out before they could withdraw them from stores. In 2001, James Perry's death sentence was commuted to three life sentences. Eight years later, in December 2009, Perry died in a hospital from illness at the age of 61. Janice Saunders' 84-year-old mother told a reporter she was happy he was dead, adding, quote, I was hoping somebody killed him. I was hoping it was something awful and lingering. In memory of his wife, Janice's husband, Michael, started a nursing scholarship in her name, contributing the first two and a half thousand dollars of a fifty thousand dollar goal. The sum would pay a year's worth of tuition, books and fees for a chosen student at Montgomery

College, where Janice herself graduated in 1983. Most of the remaining scholarship money was donated by local businesses, but the biggest contribution came from P. Buckley Moss, Janice's favorite artist. Moss made a special print in memory of Janice, titled Stitching Nurse. It depicted a civil war era nurse doing needlework. The pattern in her lap was clearly the parade, the same pattern Janice was working on at the time of her death. The Civil War nurse sat before a window showing the crisp bleakness of winter outside. The season Janice was killed. Michael Saunders, quote, it's actually given my son and I a ray of hope to see so much good is out there in the world. In February 2017, Lawrence Horn died from cancer in prison. Visiting her father on his deathbed,

Tiffany was left devastated when even at death's door, Lawrence never apologized or took responsibility for his actions. Peter Lund, the founder and publisher of Palladium Press, died suddenly on June 3, 2017. His death was the catalyst for Palladium Press closing after 47 years in business. And what of the author of the hitman manual of whom Palladium Press once wrote, Rex Ferrell kills for hire. Some consider him a criminal. Others think him a hero. In truth, he is a lethal weapon aimed at those he hunts. He is the last resource in these times when laws are so twisted that justice goes unserved. He is a man who controls his destiny through his private code of ethics, who feels no twinge of guilt at doing his job. He is a professional

killer. News publication The Washington Post uncovered the truth of Rex Ferrell. Ferrell was actually the pseudonym of a divorced mother of two who lived in Florida. She originally wrote Hitman as a novel, but Palladium Press was the only publisher to express any interest. They would only publish it if she refashioned the manuscript to fit Palladium's catalogue of how-to books. In a letter the author sent to Palladium Press, she claims to have gotten her ideas from books, television, movies, newspapers, police officers, karate instructor, and a good friend who is an attorney. The author agreed to rework the manuscript into a how-to guide by a fictitious criminal named Rex Ferrell in return for a book advance of a couple thousand dollars.

She admitted, No, I am not a Hitman. I don't even own a gun. But don't tell anybody. The Hitman manual can be freely found online, and an edited version is sold through Amazon. In one part the book says, The kill is the easiest part of the job. People kill one another every day. It takes no great effort to pull a trigger or plunge a knife. It is being able to do so in a manner that will not link yourself to the crime that makes you a professional.