Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Killer con 'cooks heart' of gorgeous neighbor, serves with skillet potatoes

Episode Date: March 26, 2021

A hang-up 911 call leads police to find the bodies of two people and a third person injured. Lawrence Anderson has been arrested for the deaths of those two and the assault. It's now known that the victims were the convicted felon's family members. During his arrest, he confesses to another killing. Police find out that a neighbor was the first victim. Anderson broke into Andrea Lynn Blankenship's home, killed her, and cut out her heart. Anderson cooked the heart with potatoes, then tried to force-feed it to his family.Joining Nancy Grace today: Haylee Blankenship - Andrea's Daughter Tim Cain - Blankenship Family Attorney, Wilson, Cain & Acquaviva Dr. Shari Schwartz - Forensic Psychologist, Mitigation Expert, Trial Consultant  Jeff Cortese - Former FBI Special Agent Dr. Priya Banerjee, M.D.  [BANNER-JEE] - Board Certified Forensic Pathologist, Anchor Forensic Pathology Consulting, Assistant Medical Examiner, State of Rhode Island Levi Page - Crime Online Investigative Reporter, Host, "Crime and Scandal" True Crime Podcast, YouTube.com/LeviPageTV  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Cannibalism. When many people think of cannibalism, they think of some group of people far away on another continent that may still practice cannibalism. You may see it on a ride at Disney. But the reality is that cannibal killers are part of American history, going all the way back to the Gray Man, one of the most notorious cannibal killers right here in the U.S.

Sadly, it's not just about movies and books and rides at Disney or somewhere else. It's real. And there are real victims and real victims' families still reeling in shock. And that leads me to suspect Lawrence Anderson, modern-day cannibal killer. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Chickasha Police getting a 911 hang-up call from someone in this home of Minnesota Avenue after 8 last night.

When they got there, they tried to make contact with the people inside the home. And when they approached the front door, they heard someone calling for help. Brooke Arbightman with OSBI says authorities forced their way inside the home and found four people with stab wounds. 67-year-old Leon Pye and his four-year-old granddaughter found dead. The four-year-old was there visiting her grandparents, which were the pies. Leon's wife, Delcy, was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. What happened inside that home and how does cannibalism or cannibal killers fit into the scenario? With me, an all-star panel to break it down and put it back together again. Levi Page, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Dr. Priya Banerjee, assistant medical examiner, Rhode Island,

board certified forensic pathologist. And you can find her at anchorforensicpathology.com. Jeff Cortese, former FBI special agent at JeffCortese.com. Dr. Sherry Schwartz, forensic psychologist and boy, do we need a shrink who specializes in capital mitigation and victim outreach. And you can find her at PantherMitigation.com. Tim Cain, a renowned trial lawyer joining me out of Oklahoma City. He is the family lawyer for the Blankenship family and he practices with Wilson, Kane, and Aquaviva. Joining me also is a special guest, the daughter of one of the victims. Joining me is Haley Blankenship. I want to first go to Haley. Haley, I know at some point when you were a little girl or a teenager, you must have heard about cannibal killers. I remember going to the Georgia State Fair. It came every October at a certain time and we'd all go to the fair and there would be the

House of Horrors and it would, of course, always feature something about a cannibal killer. And that's the first time I had ever heard of a cannibal killer. Did you, in your wildest imagination, ever imagine this would somehow relate to you? No, I never thought that it would happen to me or anyone I know. It's just something that you think you see on like criminal minds or shows like that. But it is real and it's happened and it's terrible. It's beyond anything I could imagine. And I'm a crime victim.

But this goes beyond anything I think I could absorb. You know, I want to go to Dr. Sherry Schwartz, forensic psychologist joining us. Dr. Schwartz, I think we don't allow ourselves to consider that this is real and it's happening. It did happen. That's what we're reporting on. It happened a few days ago. That's what we're talking about right now. A modern day cannibal killer. I think that the human psyche finds it very difficult to absorb that kind of realization. Dr. Sherry. for the community to make sense of. Hence the reason we're all here talking about it. But imagine for the family who has to make sense of the fact that their loved ones are no longer with them, that they were brutally taken from them in such a brutal fashion. And Haley, I am so, so sorry for your loss. But trying to figure out what happened and how it can prevent it be prevented for families in the future is so important.

Well, you know, one thing I think is very difficult to Jeff Cortese, former FBI special agent at JeffCortese.com. The thing about cannibal killers is very typically nobody knows they're a cannibal killer until ultimately one of their victims and and typically there are many of them before the cannibal killer is uh uncovered they blend in i mean when you talk about the gray man that i first mentioned when you talk about um let's just say dommer people thought he may be a little peculiar in his neighborhood or people that knew him, but they had no idea he was the cannibal killer. So trying to figure out how to stop a cannibal killer. I understand where Dr. Sherry Schwartz is coming from, and I agree with her, but they blend in. Wouldn't you agree with all your years at the FBI?

Absolutely. Killers blend in. They blend in and they tend to be loners. So identifying them becomes even more challenging. But, you know, they look and sound for the most part like everybody else. And any deficiencies they do have, they try to keep from exposing it to other people. Another issue to Dr. Priya Banerjee joining us with the medical examiner there in Rhode Island. Dr. Priya Banerjee, again, thank you for being with us. Thank you for having me.

You know, there are a lot of murders. You know, I never, when I was growing up as a little girl, I certainly didn't think I would be talking about this one day. But there are a lot of murders where people are dismembered. But there are very few murders where people are dismembered, but there are very few murders where people are dismembered and you at the medical examiner's office realize you're missing a heart or you're missing a body apart. You know, just reviewing this case, you know, it hit me how sad it was, first of all, to Haley. I have almost 11 years of experience under my belt, over 130 homicides. I have handled dismembered bodies, but cannibalism is not something I've seen before. And it's still very shocking to me, you know, and I've seen quite the gamut of ways people are murdered.

Yeah, it takes it to a whole nother level of violence and derangement. You know, I think it's so extreme compared to, as you said, the more typical homicides that we see. You know, Dr. Priya Banerjee, I've got to say, and I very rarely get to say this, I've never handled a case like this. I've handled plenty of murder cases. I've worked on dismemberment cases. I've never worked on all the years I prosecuted nothing but violent felonies. Never handled a cannibal case just like you. never had a file like that come across my desk for me to investigate. Let's just start at the beginning. Let's go to Levi Page, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter and host of Crime and Scandal to True Crime podcast. Levi, you would never have suspect this guy, Lawrence Anderson, just 42 years old of being a cannibal killer. I just played sound from our friends at KOCO5 where the Chickasaw police get a 911 hang up call from someone in a home off Minnesota Avenue a little

after 8 p.m. They get there. They find dead bodies. Just take me that far, Levi. So they entered this home in Chickasha, Oklahoma, and they made a horrific discovery. They found the body of 67-year-old Leon Pye. They found the body of his four-year-old granddaughter, Kaos Yates, and they were pronounced dead in an ambulance at the scene. They were stabbed multiple times, and Delcie Pye, she's the woman that called 911. She was stabbed in the eye, but she survived. And also there at the scene in the home is 41-year-old Lawrence Paul Anderson. He was found in the home puking and he had inflicted injuries on himself and his aunt. Delce said that is the culprit and he was taken into custody. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Victims. Andrea Lynn Blankenship. This is Haley's mom. Leon Pye, Delcy Pye. Chaos Yates, just four years old. These are the victims in this case. And also it was very rare that you see a wide range of age in crime victims on one scene. For those of you just joining us, it's real. It's not a movie script with Jodie Foster. That was Silence of the Lambs, which seems so fantastical as to not even be true.

Cannibal killers here in the U.S. Who are these people joining us today? One of his victims, the daughter of one of his victims and her lawyer, veteran trial lawyer, Tim Cain. Take a listen to this. Chickasha Police Department received a call and went out to take a look at what was going on and exactly what the call was all about. When they arrived, two of the officers went in, secured the scene. They found two dead people, two bodies, and they also found Anderson where they put him in custody.

Anderson had a couple of superficial wounds to his chest area. He was admitted to Grady Memorial Hospital and later transferred to OU Medical Center where he received treatment. He's been released. He is housed in the Grady County Jail at this time. Upon an interview with this defendant, with Anderson, the OSBI came to the realization that there was a possibility of a third body. They made contact with the Chickasha Police Department. The Chickasha Police Department went to do a welfare check on Andrea Blankenship, and when they arrived there, they found Andrea dead inside her home,

and an investigation at that point ensued. You were just hearing the Grady County District Attorney Jason Hicks speaking to Tim Cain, veteran trial lawyer who is representing the Blankenship family. Tim, let me understand, how was Andrea's mother, excuse me, how was Haley's mother, Andrea, connected to all of this? She was a neighbor, correct? She was a neighbor, lived down the street from where the Pies lived, and she was not otherwise connected at all. She didn't know Lawrence Anderson, and he didn't know her. He just broke in and killed her. And he also killed her before he killed other people. She was killed before all of them. So she was, in fact, the

first victim, Haley. Is that right? Yes, ma'am. You know what, Haley? I am so sorry. I feel so bad for you. You know, my mom lives with us. The first thing I do every morning is go check on her, see how she's doing, if she's still asleep, if she made it through the night. She's one of the most prominent figures in my whole life with my mom. Me as well. Tell me about your mom. Tell me about Andrea. Well, like you said, she was one of the most prominent figures in my life, and she was full of light, and she spread it to everyone around her. Everyone she ever met, she spread her light, and she was full of love, and she taught me everything I am. Everything I am is because of her and she's a great person.

You're fading out on me. I know this much. She was not in any way connected to Lawrence Anderson. She happened to live down the street from the Pies and apparently based on what her daughter Haley's telling me, she was in fact, Andrea, the first murder victim. Back to Tim Kaine, the Blankenship family lawyer. You can find him online at wcalaw.com. Tim, again, thank you for being with us. So if there's no connection between the Blankenship victim, Andrea Lynn Blankenship, and the Pye family, what do you believe led Lawrence Anderson to break in on her first and kill her? Well, that's what we're trying to investigate, and I should say thank you for having me on the show, Nancy. It's nice to talk to you.

What we do know, and I've been hired by Haley and her brother Hayden, who are the two survivors of Andrea. We know that Lawrence Anderson had been in jail for a long time he'd been in and out of jail and that he had applied for commutation in January of 2019 and had been denied by the pardon and parole board and what is supposed to happen under their rules is he's not eligible to reapply for three years in that scenario. For some reason, he reapplies a month later in August of 2019. His case is again reviewed in October, and this time he's approved to have a commuted sentence. And that's in January of 2020. They let him out in January of 2021.

And he never should have been eligible. He never should have been out. And within weeks, he breaks in and murders Andrea. So there's a big investigation going on. The governor's ordered an investigation. The state is investigating this and has appointed someone to look into this. And that's what I'm trying to do is try to help them understand, learn what the facts are, what happened and why it happened. So this guy, a career criminal with plenty of felonies under his belt, gets out early. The parole board breaks their own rules. Three weeks later, he commits mass murder and he cooks the victim's heart and serves it with potatoes. Guys, take a listen to Austin Brissett, KFOR. Tuesday night, a horrific sequence of events about the murder being revealed

inside the Grady County Courthouse. It's stuff that you see all the time on TV and you never think it's going to happen or it doesn't affect you. Investigators alleging Anderson killed Andrea Blankenship first, forcing his way into her home through a back door and according to court documents, quote, removed her heart, taking it to his uncle Leon Pye's home where he, quote, cooked it and allegedly tried to make Leon and his wife Delcy eat it before attacking them along with their granddaughter, Chaos, who was only visiting for the day. Dropped off by her parents, Taranzo and Tasha, just hours before. Tell your kids you love them, do everything with them that you possibly can.

Delcy would survive the attack, but she suffered stab wounds in both eyes. Now, released from the hospital, wearing sunglasses in the courtroom. A little four-year-old girl also the victim of a cannibal killer. Nobody saw it coming. How did Ms. Blankenship, Angela Lynn Blankenship, get grabbed into this scenario? Take a listen again to our friends at KFOR News 4. We've lost a part of our heart. We'll never get back. A gruesome double murder growing worse. Investigators say it started with the murder of four-year-old Chaos and her grandfather, Leon Pye. The alleged killer, Pye's nephew, 42-year-old Lawrence Anderson. But the alleged spree didn't end there. Detectives now

believe Anderson also murdered a neighbor on the same street, 41-year-old Andrea Blankenship. We need some more answers. Blankenship's cousin, Burris Wofford saying the single mother of two lived alone and worked from home, adding that the family is unaware of any relationship between Blankenship and her alleged killer. We want to know why this monster who was dangerous was released. I want to know why he was released too. Take a listen to Jason Hicks, the county district attorney outlining this guy's criminal history before he turned cannibal killer. He was charged with robbery in Arkansas in approximately 1998. He was charged in 2005 in Grady County with a distribution case. He was charged around 2004, 2006 in Oklahoma County with pointing a firearm.

Again in 2010, he was charged with four counts of distribution here in Grady County. In that case, he received a sentence of 35 years. It was 15 years to serve and 20 years of probation. He wasn't in prison very long at all, and he was back on the streets. And in 2015, his sentence, the 20 years, was revoked, and he was sent on the streets and in 2015 his sentence the 20 years was revoked and he was sent back to prison he got out again in 2017 and in 2017 he picks up a felony in possession of a firearm charge a bringing contraband into jail charge molesting a motor vehicle and possession of cds charges those last two are misdemeanors. In that particular instance, all those cases were put together and he received a sentence of 20 years.

To Hilly Blankenship, this is Andrea Lynn Blankenship's daughter. It must just be pouring gas on the flame, just rubbing salt in the wound, that this guy, a 41-year-old cannibal killer who cut out his neighbor's heart and cooked it with potatoes, already had a long rap sheet and should have been behind bars. Yes, I feel like it definitely is rubbing salt in the wound to know that he shouldn't have been let out in the first place. I really don't understand why he was let out, but this just shows

what happens. It just shows what happens whenever they don't do their job right. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. crime stories with nancy grace guys we are talking about a modern day cannibal killer 41 year old lawrence anderson who literally cut the heart out of his victim and cooked it with potatoes he's not the first and god help us will likely not be the last cannibal killer on u.s soil to levi page crime online.com investigative reporter i understand that he has confessed to killing his neighbor angie lynn blankenship but how do we know how do we know what happened after the murders? How do we know the evidence regarding actually cooking the heart with potatoes? You're right, Nancy. He confessed to killing his neighbor two days after the bodies were discovered in his aunt and uncle's home.

And they got a search warrant and they seized the cooking pans. And that's how they found evidence of this. And his explanation, Lawrence Anderson's explanation, was that he was trying to release demons. To Dr. Sherry Schwartz, forensic psychologist, joining us. You can find her at PantherMitigation.com. Dr. Schwartz, I've noticed over and over and over, and it's anecdotal on my part. I don't have a statistic, but I've noticed when defendants give a confession or give a statement, witnesses do it too, they get right up to the most shocking part of what

happened. And then they kind of fade away. Or a witness will say, he pulled the gun in, and then I looked this way and I heard the gunshot. I didn't see what happened. The co-defendant. That happens so often. I think it's that they can't accept or much less repeat what they've done. I've seen many, many murderers admit to murder, but not admit to rape or child molestation that led up to the murder. What is that? That, Nancy, excuse me, that is minimization. And it could be for a number of reasons.

It could be because, like you said, that they just can't face up to the horror that they've done. But it could also very likely be because they know they're facing significant punishment. In this case, Mr. Anderson is likely going to face the death penalty unless the defense can prove pretty early on that he's seriously mentally ill. And so in order to escape significant consequences, we tend to minimize our bad behavior. In an interview, Anderson, when confronted with the evidence, reveals his, let me just say gruesome, final meal

after murdering Andrea Lynn Blankenship. Haley Blankenship, recall the moment you learned your mom had been murdered. Yes, ma'am. I stay in a dorm at OSU and my mom's sister came the night she found out she came to my dorm and I didn't expect her to be coming. And she came and she told me to sit down and she dropped the news and it did not feel real at all because I had just talked to my mom earlier that day. The day that she died, I had just talked to her. And before we didn't, we didn't know anything about her heart or anything like that until

about a week and a half later and it made it a lot harder i mean both both ways are definitely very hard but after i heard what happened to her body it was my world stopped to tim kane the blankenship family lawyer who practices with Wilson Cain Aquaviva. Tim, I've studied, well, I've prosecuted serial killers and spree killers, and I've studied them as well. Very often when you see a case like this, there is a sex component to it. And I am by no means suggesting that Anderson had a relationship with Ms. Blankenship at all, but he may have had an obsession. I mean, I don't know. I know you represent her family, her survivors, Hayden and Haley, but have you ever seen andrea lynn blankenship she's stunning those beautiful blue eyes i mean she's got peaches and cream skin she's gorgeous yes no unfortunately i never had

the pleasure to meet andrea so uh i don't know that we we know that there's no uh there's no evidence at all that they knew each other. Oh, no. I would never even suggest that. But if his relatives lived down the street, Tim Kaine, and he has been to that home before, could he have seen her and become obsessed with her? You know, we just don't know. He had been in jail, and then they let him out.

So I don't know how much time he'd actually been in Chickasha at or near the Pies residence. We don't know. I may find that out, but I don't know that. Don't know yet. And, you know, I'm patching things together because my knowledge of serial killers, very often when you see a case like this, I mean, let's talk about Dahmer for a moment, which was definitely sex-related The gray man, sex related. When you see many, many cannibalistic killers in the U.S., it has a volatile sex component in that the killer is obsessed with the victim. The victim may not even know that.

So I'm just wondering. And I also noticed in this guy, Lawrence Anderson's rap sheet, he attacked, he violently attacked his girlfriend back in 2006. That's how his whole criminal history as an adult started. What about that, Dr. Schwartz? Well, yeah, there's definitely a question as to how long was he, was Ms. Blankenship on his radar. It seems unlikely that he just happened upon her home that day, because from what I read, he forces his way in through the back door. So it seems to me that he was familiar with that area. I know he lived in the neighborhood, but it's likely that he saw her in passing, and I

agree. I saw photos of her, and she's absolutely stunning, and so there could be a sexual component. I wonder, Nancy, through reading through everything, because when they took him to jail, to prison this last time, when they violated his probation, he was found with a vial of PCP, angel dust, in his underwear. And this is a hallucinogen. And so if he was taking that and he was experiencing a state of psychosis because of that, that could lead to violent behavior. And so I'm, you know, I'm wondering about that, if that, if this is just sort of random in that way, drug-induced psychosis. He mentioned in one of the previous court hearings, a sentencing in 2017, that he was on bipolar medication. So that indicates that there might be some mental health history there. But if he was also taking a hallucinogenic drug that we know

is linked to violent behavior, then really anything is possible. And it is really unconscionable that with his history, which does have violence in it, that he was released. Yes, I'm very, if I may jump in. Nancy, in at least the 2017 parole officer report, and maybe in 2019, I'm not sure that yet. But back in 2017, the parole officer has that Anderson remains a threat to both society and himself. So that's in the record. And this guy just never should have been out. That's the bottom line.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. To you, Levi Page, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. We've seen other cases where the perp had been using, let's say, bath salts or methamphetamine. I know we all recall the case where the perp was on bath salts and actually ate the face off victims. Yeah, that was in Miami, I think. Yeah, you're right. Was that, I believe it was Austin Harroff. But was there any indication in this case that the perp Lawrence Anderson was high on anything?

We don't know that, Nancy. We know that his criminal record, just to run it down, in 2006, he served four years for attacking his girlfriend and putting a gun to her head. In 2012, he served time for dealing cocaine right near an elementary school. He was sentenced to 15 years behind bars and got 20 years probation, but he only served five years behind bars. And in 2017, he had not been out of prison very long and his aunt and uncle were nice enough to allow him to stay with them he violated his probation when oh wait a minute

wait a minute hold on right there is that i assume you're referring to the pies yes yes his murder victims uh his aunt so he had been in the home before, before this incident? Yes, he was staying there on probation. And he violated the probation by using drugs. And he was found in jail with PCP in his underwear. And he got out January 18th after the oklahoma pardon and parole board recommended commutation 31 so there's a long history with drug use and drug dealing yes he certainly does and i'm extremely interested in the fact that he was living with the pies and had the opportunity

to observe and become obsessed with the victim whose heart he took out, cut out, and ate, Andrea Lynn Blankenship. For those of you just joining us, modern-day cannibalism. We discover yet another case of it. But it's by far the first time. We were just talking about a very recent cannibal. I know you recall the frat boy who stabbed a couple dead, then literally ate their faces. He allegedly was high on a so-called Chinese zombie drug. That was in recent history.

Take a listen to our friends at WLKY. Oberhansley admitted to officers that he stabbed girlfriend Tammy Jo Blanton to death, then mutilated her body. After being a prosecutor for so long, you think you've seen everything. And this is one of those cases where I've never seen this. Police responded to a welfare check at Blanton's Locust Street home Thursday and found her dead in the bathtub, covered by a tarp. Detectives say Oberhansley had a knife with blood on it in his back pocket and confessed to cutting out parts of Blanton's brain, heart, and lung.

There was evidence in the kitchen he cooked the organs and ate them. The similarity in this case that the victim's heart was cut out and he actually cooked it with potatoes. To Dr. Priya Banerjee, medical examiner assistant there in Rhode Island, certified forensic pathologist, to Dr. Banerjee. I've often referred to the program Dexter. I don't know if you ever saw that or not. Dexter was a serial killer. He worked in a crime lab and he ended up being the hero in the series because he only killed bad guys that slipped through the cracks of justice but when he did it it seemed so sterile and easy and it was all said

and done in a one-hour program to dismember a body to perform an autopsy much less dismember a body is very difficult to do is that right dr banerjee yes i mean the violence uh employed in this case i mean there's the stab wounds which are incredibly physical they were numerous and then after that to have the energy and ability to then dismember a body it's it's a whole nother process it's you know very difficult to cut through human bones we use heavy mechanical saws to do it and then to then cut out the heart i mean that is to be gruesome i do that in an autopsy but in a very controlled setting which is not this case just the brute force it would take to let's say dismember a body um it's nothing like what you

would see on tv or in a movie to remove someone's heart in a non-clinical setting would be, I think, very difficult to do. Dr. Banerjee? I agree. I mean, you don't have the setting, the equipment, you know, you're cutting through heavy bones to access the internal organs. If you think about it, our whole chest is there to protect the heart, right? The heart and lungs, that's what keeps us alive. It's there to be a shield of protection and hard to get through. To Jeff Cortese, former FBI special agent. You can find him at JeffCortese.com. Jeff, give me your profile on this guy. I mean, nobody. Yes, he had a criminal history, but nobody saw this coming. Well, you know, maybe they didn't see this specifically coming, but there was certainly sufficient information in his history to say that something bad was going to happen. You know, he's got a rich history of violence, drug abuse, and you pepper in the hallucinogens

and the PCP and, you know, candidly, the sky's the limit as to what potential could come from that. You know, he's already has a very violent history coupled with a potentially long-term use of hallucinogen drugs creates, you know, nothing short of a potentially catastrophic situation. And I think this is the manifestation of that. A killing machine, Jeff. A killing machine. But, of course, Jeff Cortese, you and I both know, voluntary use of drugs or alcohol, whether it's PCP, methamphetamine, angel dust, that is not a defense under the law. So Tim Kaine, family lawyer, I can see them teeing up for an insanity defense right now. But what is this going to boil down to is voluntary use of drugs or alcohol.

Hold it. Guys, not the first, not the last time this has happened on U.S. soil. Take a listen to our friends at KLFY. A federal grand jury in Lafayette has indicted a 19-year-old who allegedly tortured a gay teenager on six counts. Chase Seneca is also facing charges of kidnapping and obstruction after his alleged attempted murder of a gay man and his scheme to kidnap and murder gay men whom he met online. An indictment alleges Seneca attempted to murder one of these men

because of his gender and sexual orientation, and then he intended to dismember and keep parts of the victim's body as trophies, mementos, and even food. Keeping the body parts as food, and of course, here in the U.S., one of the first known cannibal killers is the Gray Man. Listen. In November 1934, the still grieving parents of Grace Budd

received an excruciatingly gruesome letter, which police later confirmed was from Albert Fish. It read in part, I grabbed her and she said she would tell her mama. First I stricken it, how she did kick, bite and scratch. I choked her to death, then cut her in small pieces so I could take my meat to my rooms, cook and eat it. How sweet and tender her little ass was roasted in the oven. It took me nine days to eat her entire body.

The fact that that was dramatically read and there was music about to be played in the background just exemplifies the way that cannibal killers are viewed. Haley Blankenship, this is Andrea Lynn Blankenship's daughter. You know, I remember when Silence of the Lambs came out, and it was a huge hit. But in ways, it glamorized cannibal killers. They're anything but glamorous, Haley. A lot of people have made light of the situation and comments on the news articles and stuff like that. But I just realized that they don't take it personally because it hasn't happened to them personally.

And it probably never will. But for me, it is very personal and very real. And it feels like a living nightmare. To Dr. Sherry Schwartz, forensic pathologist, Dr. Sherry, I mean, when you look at these cannibal killers walking amongst us, they seem so normal. The guy I just told you about, the frat boy, Harroff, his dad was a dentist. He was in a college fraternity. He seemed like every other typical college student walking around campus, but he turned cannibal killer. I don't see that there's really a way to identify these people because you don't know what they are until it's too late. You're absolutely right, Nancy. It's nearly impossible to identify in advance this level of brutality. It doesn't happen very often, as Haley pointed out, as you've

pointed out. But when it does, it's so shocking that it gets a lot of attention. But you're right, there's really no way to look at somebody walking down the street and know that they have the potential to be somebody who's going to perpetrate homicide and especially a cannibal killing. But there are usually indicators in someone's behavior that there's a potential for violence. Not always, but in this particular case, there were indicators in Mr. Anderson's history that showed that he had a potential for violence. If somebody is using hallucinogenic drugs, even if they are not normally, they could be the most mild-mannered person on the planet, but if they are using hallucinogenic drugs, this raises risk their risk for violence to perpetrate violence against themselves against other people and that's just the point here that tim kaine was making uh dr sherry schwartz that this guy had a huge rap sheet yet he kept getting out now of course the

name most common on the tip of most people's tongues is Jeffrey Dahmer. Listen to our friends at Inside Edition. Jeffrey Dahmer, an unassuming chocolate factory worker, would eventually confess that he had seduced, murdered, and dismembered 17 young men. He even ate some of his victim's body parts. To Haley Blankenship, has the district attorney spoken to your family about the death penalty? Honestly, I'm not sure, but I know that my family doesn't support the death penalty, especially for this man. Not just your mom, but this four-year-old little girl, dad, the aunt, the uncle. We wait as justice unfolds for an American cannibal killer, Lawrence Anderson. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off.

Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.