Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 9 Disturbing Details From Richard Allen Confessions In Delphi Murder Trial

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Jurors in Richard Allen's double murder trial hear witness after witness recall how he told them he killed Libby German and Abby Williams. I'll take you inside the courtroom with the testimony about Allen's alleged admissions. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. I killed Abby and Libby. That's just one of the admissions jurors heard from a witness in Richard Allen's double murder trial in Delphi, Indiana.

Starting point is 00:00:36 Prosecutors have claimed that Richard Allen made 60 incriminating statements about the murders of Libby German and Abby Williams after his arrest. Lauren Mathias with the Hidden True Crime YouTube channel will join me soon to talk about the testimony from the courtroom. Before his arrest, Allen was adamant in interviews with law enforcement that he did not kill Abby and Libby and even said to Jerry Holman, one of the investigators on the case, quote, I don't care what you do to me. I'm not going to ever confess to something I didn't do. Now you could take that one of two ways. Prosecutors will say it shows Richard Allen's confessions are true, that he told you he would never confess to something he didn't do. But the defense has argued that Allen was in solitary confinement in a prison and that it was

Starting point is 00:01:23 impacting his mental health and that he was ranting and saying things that simply weren't true. The testimony about Allen's admissions to the crime began with the warden of the prison. His name is John Gallipo, and there were also prison guards who testified. Gallipo said in March of 2023, Allen wrote that he wanted to confess to the murders. I am ready to officially confess to killing Abby and Libby. I hope I get the opportunity to tell the families I'm sorry. That is what Gallipo said that Allen wrote. Gallipo also said Allen admitted to throwing a box cutter out in a dumpster at the CVS

Starting point is 00:01:57 store where he worked in Delphi, Indiana. The warden testified that Allen was quiet for his first month at the Westville prison, but then started acting erratically after receiving mail from his lawyers. That behavior included drinking out of a toilet, eating his own feces, and eating paper. Corrections officers also testified about Allen confessing to killing Abby and Libby while on suicide watch. The corrections officers acted as suicide companions sitting outside of his cell. Officer Michael Clemens documented Allen saying, quote, I'm so glad no one gave up on me after I killed Abby and Libby.

Starting point is 00:02:33 And I, Richard Matthew Allen, killed Abby and Libby by myself. No one helped me. Clemens also said that Allen would yell to other inmates, quote, I'm not crazy. I'm only acting like I'm crazy. On cross-examination, Allen's attorney, Brad Rosey, asked Clemens whether prison can get to a man. And Clemens admitted that it certainly can. Another corrections officer said that Allen confessed to him in April of 2023. And Allen actually said he believed coming to prison cured him of his depression and anxiety. The jury also heard from Allen's prison psychologist, Dr. Monica Walla. Dr. Walla is a somewhat controversial

Starting point is 00:03:10 witness because she admitted to following the case in her personal time. Dr. Walla said that Allen said that the morning of the murders, Allen left his mother's home, bought a six-pack of beer, drank three of those beers, and then went to the trail. Dr. Wallace said Allen said that he saw Abby and Libby on the trail and then followed them, and he did something to his gun, and that's when the bullet fell out. Dr. Wallace said that Allen told her he planned to rape the girls, but got spooked by a van and made them walk across the creek and then slit their throats, covering their bodies with branches, and then he left. Dr. Walla also told the jury she believed Richard Allen was exaggerating the symptoms of severe mental

Starting point is 00:03:51 illness like eating feces. And there's much more, much, much more. I want to bring in Lauren Matthias. She is the host of Hidden True Crime along with her husband. So Lauren, you've been in the courtroom for the duration. Let's start with kind of the beginning of the incriminating statements. And they start with Richard Allen apparently telling the warden at the prison, making an incriminating statement that he committed these murders. He said that he killed Abby and Libby. He did it with a box cutter that he stole from CVS and that he later threw the box cutter away and that he claimed he did this because he wanted to sexually assault the girls. He got scared. He panicked. And then he murdered them. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:04:40 And that was just the first of many alleged confessions that we heard that he gave to correction officers at the Westville Correction Facility while he stayed there. It was actually we heard these these confessions one by one coming in, starting with the warden, just boom, boom, boom, boom. All were different, but all had these similar similar details to them. Paul Bergeron was the lawyer who could get you out of any sticky situation. Caught selling pirated videos like Queen Latifah? Caught stabbing your spouse nine times with a steak knife? Better call Paul. We see lawyers like this in The Sopranos or Breaking Bad,

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Starting point is 00:05:56 free right now by joining Wondery Plus. So it starts with the warden and it just seems so odd. And just to set the stage for this too, he is in, Richard Allen is in solitary confinement. They called it safekeeping for his own protection because he's a high profile inmate, but he's in some pretty horrible conditions. I mean, solitary confinement is not fun. And so, I mean, he just tells this to the warden, which seems so bizarre. Did the warden explain how that came about? Yeah, he did.

Starting point is 00:06:29 And the warden also explained that one reason that he came to the facility was because he was on suicide watch and there were concerns about self-harm. Thus, he was monitored daily. And at intervals, every 15-minute intervals, there were companions that would assess him. But going back to the warden and what the warden stated, he said that he started confessing actually when he said that the discovery came to him, the legal papers is what he referred to them at first. And then we got into understanding that what he meant by the legal papers were the discovery. And after that was received, confessions started and they continued for alleged months after those legal papers arrived. What are some of the other incriminating statements that he made? Because obviously he's saying, you know, he's saying what the murder weapon would have been,

Starting point is 00:07:23 which is he's claiming it was a box cutter. They had said they found a box cutter at his home. But he's saying, I guess, in this confession that he threw this thing out at the CVS. But what what more did he say? What other detail did he offer about the crime detail that only the killer would know? That's what the prosecutor has said. Yeah. You know, one thing that came down today actually was from his psychologist. His psychologist, Dr. Walla testified on the stand for the majority of the day today. And she shared that he told her that almost what you said verbatim, that he, that he followed them. He, he, this is actually

Starting point is 00:08:07 exactly what he said. He said that he, uh, was at with his mom and dad and they wanted to go to lunch. His sister was coming over. They wanted to go to lunch. He didn't want to go to lunch that day. It was an unusually warm February day that February 13th. So he went and he got himself a six pack instead. He said that he drank three beers and then he bundled up and he went to the trail that he parked in a discreet area and walked into the trail, saw the girls, followed them onto the bridge, and then, uh, asked them to told them essentially to go down the hill. He mentioned to Dr. Walla that that's when he believes he may have lost the bullet. That's actually not where the bullet was found, but this is what was stated on the stand today.

Starting point is 00:08:54 And that he took the girls down the hill and his plan was, as you mentioned, to sexually assault them. And then he realized their age, which was allegedly younger than he had thought. And that he saw at that moment, a van. And at that moment, he says that he got scared and he killed them and said, he also said in one confession that he took their lives to save his, because he was selfish and that he covered them with sticks. And then he left without going back on the trail where no one could see him. Now, what was interesting about that statement is this is the first time today's statement. It was the first time that we heard about a van. And so what happened after we heard from Dr. Wallace state this, we then had a new witness

Starting point is 00:09:43 come on the stand today and his name was Brad Weber. Brad Weber states that he was coming home from work at that time. What did he drive? A white van. So we're learning that there may have been a van and this was a part of the crime or this was a part, this was a witness that nobody had heard of and that nobody knew that was written in this testimony. I think they're really going to try to emphasize that there was a white van driving by that Richard Allen may have seen. Of course, that's the prosecution's theory. We'll see if the jury takes that. One thing that's interesting is I was sitting next to a woman, public, that

Starting point is 00:10:26 was there just as someone that was public and local. And I, I asked her, I said, what are you thinking? Because there's certainly a lot of theories out there and not everyone is sold. You know, some people think Richard Allen is innocent. Some people think he is guilty. And I said, where are you after hearing all of these interviews? And she said, you know, I think that this, this van for me, she goes, it just sealed it for me. Oddly, on the other side, I asked another woman to my left, and I said, what are you thinking? And she said, I'm not sold until I hear audio. I just don't believe any of these confessions. Yeah. Yeah. The audio, you can really tell a lot by somebody's

Starting point is 00:10:58 inflection, how they sound, that type of thing. And you know what I think is interesting as well, the prosecution is going to point to the van and say, that is a corroborating detail. You know, we have a witness that nobody knew about who's saying, yeah, I was coming home in this van. And they're going to say, Richard Allen, you know, that's something only the killer would know. Also, the thing about the sticks, and you described the sticks to us the last time you were here as being these ginormous, huge sticks. And you know, that they were huge and that he put them on them. Another thing that I thought was interesting in this testimony as well was the fact that he's, he's admitting he has this, I guess he has, or Dr. Wallace said he has major depressive disorder. He has anxiety.

Starting point is 00:11:41 He talks about the fact that he had had alcohol before he went out on the trail, which can loosen your inhibitions. I don't know if that'll be a piece of this or not, but he also said, apparently he revealed to her that he had been the victim of molestation and he had molested, I think a sibling. So that's kind of an interesting piece of this puzzle as well. Yes. He has now mentioned, he says what he calls a sex addiction, that he believes he has one of those, that it happened when he was younger. He gave many reasons why he believes it happened when he was younger, but he also referred to, yes, being molested by a family member himself. He mentioned a babysitter when he was 11. He mentioned possibly being raped as a child.

Starting point is 00:12:29 And then he mentioned himself molesting, as you point out, a sibling. And then apologized not just for killing Abby and Libby, but allegedly molesting other people. And he named about three other names that nobody knows who they are. Okay. Now there's also been testimony about Richard Allen doing things that were just kind of, you know, really gross. I mean, he was drinking out of the toilet. He was eating his own feces. He was doing all of these things that the prison guards testified to. Dr. Waller though, I think was also saying she thought he was feigning some symptoms of mental illness as well.

Starting point is 00:13:10 So tell me a little bit about that. Yes, that was a question they asked every corrections officer that came in and testified, whether they felt that it was real, that he was, you know, if he was experiencing psychosis, they asked Dr. Waller that too. And really, all of them stated that at some point they felt that he was experiencing psychosis, they asked Dr. Wall of that too. And really, all of them stated that at some point, they felt that he was acting up a little bit that he was feigning. And another word that we might know as a layperson is faking it or trying to get attention. There were times actually, though, where she did diagnose him perhaps with some

Starting point is 00:13:42 reoccurring psychosis, but, but many correction officers, as well as Dr. Wall explained that, you know, when you don't have a lot to do in, in the prison system and you want attention, that this is a way to get attention. What, what happens when you smear feces on your face? Well, you get to take a shower, right? Um, you get someone called in a mental health person. So there are reasons that a prisoner or an inmate, I should say, because an inmate there would possibly sort of exaggerate their symptoms. But of course, they also explained that he did have mental illness. And we learned that from Richard Allen himself

Starting point is 00:14:26 in interrogation interviews that we saw yesterday. He explains from the very beginning, I have depression, I have anxiety. He came to the prison with these diagnoses. And so we know that he is suffering. We also know that there was a time he was actually put into a facility years ago after the murder and before he was brought to the Westville Corrections facility as well. So what's going on? We don't know. But clearly there seems to be mental illness, but also prison officials who believe that he also may be over-exaggerating his symptoms. Was there any talk about him finding God? Because we had heard that he found God and he wanted to make things right by confessing. Yes, he had a Bible in his cell.

Starting point is 00:15:19 Before he went to prison, he actually said in the interrogation video that he wasn't religious. Then he has extreme religiosity that actually Dr. Walla brought up, that he becomes very concerned with God, that he hopes to go to prison, that he's afraid he's not going to go to prison, that at one point or heaven, excuse me, that he hopes to go to heaven. And at one point, he's afraid he's not going to go to heaven. Another time, he says that he wishes that or hopes that he'll burn in hell. He deserves to, he says that he would kill himself, but he's too big of a coward and is always sort of referencing God, finding God, finding peace that he didn't know how to get rid of his anxiety or depression until prison. That's a point too, where he says, you know what? I've actually found peace here. Who knew? Uh, and that? And that's after an alleged confession again.

Starting point is 00:16:06 But Dr. Wallace stated that this new found religious viewpoint of Richard Allen's is actually really important when it comes to the psychology of inmates. And it can be a reason that some people behind bars do confess. Very interesting. Lauren Mathias, thank you so much. Thanks, Anjanette. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.

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Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 9 Disturbing Details From Richard Allen Confessions In Delphi Murder Trial

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Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 9 Disturbing Details From Richard Allen Confessions In Delphi Murder Trial

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