Criminology - The Jeff Davis 8

Episode Date: March 7, 2021

Between 2005 and 2009, 8 women were found murdered in Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana. There were eight women from Jennings, Louisiana who were murdered in those four years and they are referred to collectively as "The Jennings 8" or "The Jeff Davis 8." 14 agencies from the federal level down to the local level worked together to hunt a serial killer operating in Jefferson Davis Parish. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss this infamous unsolved series. Many thought that a serial killer was operating in Jennings and was responsible for these murders. But, as details began to emerge, it came to light that there were many connections between the victims and a number of persons of interest. Reports of corruption and malfeasance began to surface within the law enforcement of Jefferson Davis Parish. This has led many to speculate what involvement if any, the police played in the deaths of these 8 women. There remains a lot of unanswered questions in this series of murders. Did these women all know something that was so damning that someone felt they had to be silenced? And if so, who was it? You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, moms and mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for moms and mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true-crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to who-dun-it.

We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a Motherly Touch. Subscribe now to moms and mysteries wherever you get your podcast. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 149 of the Criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Mike Morford, what is going on?

Not a whole lot just down here enjoying the atmosphere and listening to some cool old episodes that we just re-released. That's awesome. and people are already talking about it. Yeah, it is pretty cool. I mean, it's something that you and I have been angling towards for quite a while. We tease people with it, but now, you know, as of the time that this comes out, all of our episodes of criminology are out on the regular feed.

So that's really cool. Yeah, we had a lot of people tell us how much they enjoyed the seasons that we did, the first four seasons before we started doing single episodes. And people seem to be chomping at the bit to listen to them. So we're glad that they're able to do that. All right. Let's give some Patreon shoutouts. We had Kayan, Donna Bashline, Callie Rojohn, Kieran, Kira Enright, Tiffany Crawford, Lillian, Nasi, and Kelly Honer.

So more if that's a lot of great new support, we really appreciate it. Yeah, we definitely have some great listeners and supporters that that helped the show out. And we can't thank you enough for that. if anyone would like to sign up to help us, they can go to patreon.com slash criminology. All right, buddy, it's time to jump into this case. And in this episode, we're covering a big case out of Louisiana from 2005 to 2009 in Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana. The bodies of several women began turning up. The discovery of these bodies caused several other women to become worried and paranoid that something was going to happen to them.

It was almost as if they knew what was going on or who was responsible. But their fear kept them from speaking out about who they were afraid of. And, you know, these fears were justified because some of these women were later found dead. Their bodies dumped along the roads or waterways eight women from Jennings, Louisiana, were murdered in those four years and they are referred to collectively as either the Jennings 8 or the Jeff Davis 8. What we will find as we move through this case is that there is an incredibly tangled web of events and connections that link some of these victims together long before their unfortunate and untimely deaths. In some cases, some of the victims knew each other

or were even questioned about some of the other murders before they two wound up dead. In other instances, suspects and persons of interest in one murder turned out to be relatives of other victims. There are also friendships between some of the victims or their family members. It all leads to the still unanswered questions, which are, were these victims targeted? and if so, by who and why? In December 2008, a federal task force was launched to investigate the then seven deaths. 14 agencies from the federal level down to the local level worked together to hunt what they thought was a serial killer, operating in Jefferson Davis Parish.

We should point out that in Louisiana, there are parishes rather than counties. If their killer was local, authorities only had to rule out about 34,000 people in the entire parish. A large task, but certainly not the largest that a task force ever had to handle. 20% of Jefferson Davis Parish's residents are below the poverty line, and that number slightly rises as you get closer to Jennings, a town of about 10,000 people, which itself is divided by class and to some extent race. South Jennings is home to poor and working class residents, while North Jennings houses the middle and upper class residents.

There is also a larger black community in South Jennings. Many murders are solved in cities with more than 10,000 residents every day. And in Jennings, the same few names regularly popped up during investigations. However, all eight murders are still unsolved. In recent years, it seems like the crime rate in Jennings has fallen below the country's average, but in 2006 and 2007, the incidents of violent crime there were particularly high. South Jennings was struggling a lot at the time. And drug abuse and sex work were pretty much a basic part of life for some of the residents there.

This was definitely the case for all eight of the Jennings victims. There is a huge drug trade in the Gulf Coast due to the ports and border. And Jennings sits along Interstate 10 connecting Houston, Texas to New Orleans, Louisiana, along interstates and especially in cities with multiple large highways, the rate of crimes like drug and sex trafficking generally goes up. Jennings was no exception, and residents there definitely felt the effects of the opioid epidemic, though crack and methamphetamine abuse were also rampant.

There have been about 20 unsolved murders in Jennings in the last 30 years for a town of about only 10,000, that's a pretty high murder rate, especially because this only includes the unsolved homicides. We've talked about in many episodes of how investigations into the murders of sex workers and drug addicted women seem to sometimes take a backseat to other cases. Sometimes you don't hear much at all about cases involving people from these walks of life. A lot of the information about the Jennings eight cases only came to light because an author named Ethan Brown decided to investigate. He filed Freedom of Information Act request and actually traveled to Louisiana to interview people in person. He published his findings in the book Murder in the Bayou.

Ethan Brown literally risked his life to get that information to help Jennings, the police, and the victims in their families. The eight victims, all female, range in age from 17 to 30. Most but not all were white, and almost all of them were mothers. It's the three. It's the thought that all but two were asphyxiated, but it's more of a guess than a determination due to decomposition. Two of the eight women were definitely stabbed. All had high levels of drugs in their system, and some had high levels of alcohol as well. Before it was clear that women were being murdered. Some of these deaths were simply thought to be drug overdoses. The first of the Jennings eight, 28-year-old Loretta Lynn Shashon Lewis was found on May 20th, 2005.

She had gone missing just three days earlier. Her brother Chad last saw her at a gas station, getting into a man named Frankie Richard's car. Her body was found floating in the Grand Murray Canal off Highway 1126, just outside of Jennings. Her cause of death remains undetermined due to the state of decomposition her body was in. But it's believed she was asphyxiated. High levels of drugs and alcohol were found in her system. Her blood alcohol content was almost twice the legal limit. The only physical injury noted was a small patch of blood under her scalp.

When Loretta was first found, authorities believed she may have overdosed on drugs and been dumped in the canal by people who didn't want to be investigated for her death. Her body was partially clothed, but barefoot. Loretta had two sons who were then sent. Nixon three years old. And her family said that she was very devoted to them. She and her husband Murphy Lewis were not together anymore, but it doesn't look like he was ever a suspect in her death. And it seems as though they stayed on good terms. In the years after Loretta's death, her roommate was furious. She had never once been interviewed. She wondered how good the investigation was if police didn't even talk to people that knew Loretta well.

The second victim, 30-year-old Ernestine Marie Daniels Patterson, was found on June 18, 2005. She had been missing for two days. Her body was in a canal off Highway 102, about five miles south of where Loretta was found. Her throat had been slit, and she had injuries to her wrist, suggesting she had fought with her killer. Ernestine also had high levels of drugs and alcohol in her system. But due to her injuries, it was clear that she had been murdered and not simply overdosed, and her case was quickly ruled a homicide. Although investigators didn't elaborate, they took fiber samples from the trunk of a car that they believe Ernestine may have been transported in. Authorities also removed an entire porch where they believed Ernestine may have been placed into trash bags before being dumped.

But over a year had passed by the time they did that. In 2006, two different men, Byron Chad Jones and Lawrence Nixon, were charged with second-degree murder in Ernestine's case. But the charges were dropped because there was no physical evidence tying them to her murder. Ernestine left behind two sons and two daughters. By the time there was a third victim, the first two cases had not been connected. 21-year-old Kristen Gary Lopez was found on March 18, 2007. Kristen was last seen on March 6th, almost two weeks before her body was found, but she wasn't reported missing for 10 days until March 16th. It was no secret around Jennings that Kristen

would engage in sex work and that she used drugs. That lifestyle led to her often losing contact with friends and family for days at a time. So, you know, people didn't immediately think that something was wrong. But after 10 days with no contact, people started to worry and reported her missing. Kristen's remains were found floating in the Petty Jean Canal off of Louisiana Highway 99. She was nude, except for one sock on her left foot. Kristen had high levels of drugs and alcohol in her system at the time of her death. Although officials believe Kristen was asphyxiated, her car. Her cause of death is still officially undetermined, due to the state of decomposition she was founded. In May 2007, a local man named Frankie Richard and his niece Hannah Connor were both

arrested during the investigation into Kristen's death, and they were also questioned about the deaths of Ernestine and Loretta. Tracy Shashon, who reported Kristen missing, was also arrested in charge as an accessory after the fact. Investigators believe that when she reported Kristen missing, Tracy knew exactly where her body was. The charges against all three were eventually dropped because there was no evidence and because witness statements didn't support each other. Shashon is a pretty common last name in Louisiana, and no reports have mentioned any relation between Tracy and Loretta, so the fact that they have the same last name may be a coincidence. Before she went missing, Kristen Lopez herself had been questioned in connection to Loretta's death,

but was never arrested or charged. of the Jennings 8 was really the first victim that made people realize something more was happening in Jennings. 26-year-old Whitney Dubois was found on May 12, 2007, around 7.30 in the morning. She hadn't been seen in days, but no one had reported her missing. Whitney was last seen at Frankie Richard's house. Very late at night, Whitney's body was found on the side of the road, about five miles outside of Jennings. She was nude and her cause of death is still undetermined. Though it's believed she was asphyxiated, Whitney had no visible injuries on her body and high levels of drugs in her system. Her body was identified using fingerprints, which were on file,

from an arrest for drug charges. Sheriff Ricky Edwards did state that he believed she was placed on the road days after she died. It was after Whitney's. It was after Whitney's Whitney was found that police acknowledged what they believed may have been a, quote, serial dumper in the area. Whitney had a five-year-old daughter who was told the grim news as she looked for her mother to give her a gift, a handmade Mother's Day card. Her family remembers Whitney as a vibrant young woman who loved her daughter more than anything in the world.

The fifth victim in Jennings, 23-year-old Laconia Shantelle. Muggy Brown was found on May 29, 2008. She had been missing for only two days. She was also found on the side of the road, not in the water. Like Ernestine, her throat had been slit. She also had seven cuts on her neck and three behind her right ear. She was not wearing any shoes, and bleach had been poured on her body. La Conea's death was immediately ruled a homicide. The road on which she was found leads to a firing range that had been approved for police use just two weeks earlier. And a police officer was the one who found her body that morning at around 2 a.m. Laconia left behind a three-year-old son. Lawrence Nixon, who was once charged with Ernestine Patterson's murder, was Laconia's cousin.

In December 2005, Nixon and Laconia were arrested together on rape and conspiracy charges. Leconia herself was questioned in Ernstein's murder investigation, and a witness claims that Laconia saw Loretta's body in the canal before someone else reported it. Leconia's sister, Gail, remembers Laconia stating that she was helping an officer look into a murder, and then she would receive 500 hours for her information. Another witness later told authorities that Laconia believed three police officers were going to kill her. The sixth victim in this series, 24-year-old Crystal Shea Benoit Zeno, was found on September 11th.

2008, she had been missing since August 29th after being last seen at the Sonic Drive-in in Lake Arthur, Louisiana. Crystal had worked at that sonic location until May 2008 when she moved from Lake Arthur to Jennings. Her body was discovered on the Lecour Road levee, a dry canal off Highway 1126, near a wooded area, after hunters reported a very bad smell. Due to the decomposition, her body was not identified until November 7th, and her cause of death remains undetermined. It's believed she was most likely asphyxated. Crystal left behind a daughter. Her husband, Stanley Benoit, often hung out with Kristen Lopez's husband. Local rumors are that Crystal was last seen at the Philip 66 gas station, trying to call a police officer directly, so this was not a 911 call.

and offer information about the other victims, but every news report we could find was about Sonic and made no mention of her trying to call police. The youngest victim in the series, the seventh, was 17-year-old Brittany Ann Gary, and she was found on November 15, 2008. She was last seen on November 2nd, purchasing minutes for her cell phone at a family dollar near her home.

This family dollar was across the street from the Phillips 66 station, that Crystal Zeno was rumored to have tried to call police at. Around 5.30 p.m. that evening, Brittany was captured by the store surveillance cameras leaving alone. Her mother, Teresa, reported her missing just over 24 hours later. Despite the six previous victims, police treated Brittany's disappearance as a simple missing person's case. They even theorized that she had run away. Her body was found in weeds off of a highway in Jennings by a search party that consisted of her own family and friends.

While her cause of death remains undetermined, as in some of the other cases, asphyxiation is a likely cause. Her body was identified by her known tattoos. Brittany had many connections to the rest of the victims. Brittany's mother had once worked with Ernestine Patterson's mother at Wendy's. Kristen Gary Lopez was Brittany's cousin. Brittany was also best friends with Laconia Brown, the fifth victim, and had once lived with Crystal Zeno. Brittany and her mother had returned to Jennings from Texas, where they'd be able to

once lived in late October. Soon after, Brittany told her mother that she was afraid due to the other girl's murders and didn't know who to trust. The final Jennings 8 victim and the only victim killed after the task force was formed was 26-year-old Nicole Guillory. She was found on August 19th, 2009. Her mother had last seen her three days earlier and Ernestine Patterson's father was one of the last people to see her. Unlike the seven previous women, Nicole was found in Acadia Parish, not Jefferson Davis Parish. She was found along Interstate 10 partially clothed just hours after being reported missing. She died from asphyxiation. Nicole was last seen getting into a vehicle on Doyle Street. Where Brittany Gary lived, Nicole had four children and shortly before her death, she

asked relatives to watch them. Her mother Barbara says that Nicole told her the police were responsible for the other dead women in Jennings, but she refused to name names, hoping that nothing would happen to her family if she stayed quiet. At the end of 2008, the task force was actually warned that Nicole Guillory might be next. Barbara recalls trying to prepare for Nicole's 27th birthday, with Nicole insisting that her efforts to celebrate wouldn't matter because she wouldn't be around to see 27. She was no stranger to violent altercations. Locals told author Ethan Brown, the story. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder which emergency. We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer.

For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, Blood and Water. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. The story of Nicole attacking a client with a sledgehammer handle. Nicole had at least six arrests that the district attorney's office refused to prosecute her for leading to the charges being dropped. We should consider that this is very common to see when someone has offered information about other crimes or people. So I think more if a lot of people wonder if Nicole may have provided info over time to authority. Police had eight dead women and no real patterns to be found.

They were of different ages. Their bodies were too decomposed for the cause of death to be definitely determined in most cases. and even in those cases where the cause of death was obvious, the police focused in on their drug use and lifestyles. You have to wonder if Nicole Guillory was dumped outside of Jefferson Davis Parish because the 14 agency task force had been formed and the murderer felt too much pressure to use their old dumping locations. Nicole was the only Jennings 8 victim to be killed after the task force was formed

and also the only victim not found in Jefferson Davis Parish. A lot of residents believe that the police haven't solved these cases because they are responsible in some way for the deaths of the Jennings 8. It's thought that either the killer was a law enforcement official or the police and Jennings knew who was killing the women and decided to either help or look the other way. Frankie Rishart, a name that we mentioned earlier, was a person seen with Loretta before her death, questioned about Ernestine and Loretta's death, and actually briefly, charged with Kristen's murder. His is the name that popped up during the investigation into every single death. He was a local in Jennings who had once owned a strip club before starting to conduct most of his business on the street. Frankie Richard knew all of the victims and more than one of them was seen with him days before their deaths or disappearances. He always insisted that he was

not a pimp. He would only introduce girls to men who wanted to spend money on them. Richard's reputation and his relationship with the women was no secret. And if you wanted to pin a crime on someone, you really couldn't pick a more likely suspect. While Richard was not a saint, he was actually bothered by the accusations. One thing that seems to clear him, at least in part, is that Richard was in rehab or jail. At the time, some of the disappearances and murders happened. So there's no doubt, Morph, he couldn't have been responsible for all eight of them if he acted alone. He claimed to have given five DNA samples and said that he took three different polygraph tests.

Richard swore he wouldn't kill anyone unless it was in self-defense. and he also called each of the girls his friend. He admitted to sleeping with almost all of them. Now, he denied sleeping with Brittany Gary, calling her just a child. She was the youngest of the victims at just 17 years old. Richard was very vocal, like other residents. But he said that he didn't think there was a serial killer in Jennings, though many people thought that there was and that Richard himself might be involved.

Remember, Richard had an alibi apparently for some of the marks. murders. But he was charged with rape and also the second-degree murder of Kristen Gary Lopez, but a witness recanted and claimed that police had coached her a lie. Not lying after those charges were dismissed, Richard and his friend, Eugene Dogg Ivory, also beat rape charges in a different case. Ivory was a task force suspect in Crystal Zeno's murder. The victim in the dropped rape case was allegedly threatened by Richard that if she didn't keep quiet about what happened, she would quote, end up like the others. Much like Richard was a central figure in the Jennings murders and in the lives of many of the victims.

So was a place called the Boudreau Inn. Now closed, the inn was notorious in the area for its criminal activity. And it was situated on a prime location just off Interstate 10 for all different types of illegal activity. The motel was especially notorious for drug activity and sex work, and many of the victims spent time at or around this establishment. Law enforcement was often there to make easy bus or because of the trouble reported there on a regular basis. Some authorities believe that Loretta Shashon was actually killed at the Boudreau Inn by Jermaine Stimey Washington after they snorted cocaine. together, and they also believed that Laconia and Nicole were witnesses that night. If not on the night she died, Loretta was definitely a frequent patron of the Boudreau

end, as evidenced by multiple complaints called in against her on the property. The end grew even more infamous when it was alleged that a congressman or one of his staffers were patrons of the motel and that some of the Jennings eight were his clients at one time. Obviously, this has been denied by their spokespeople, and nothing has come of that information. Investigators had their work cut out for them, trying to solve this string of murders. Not many people were willing to talk to them, but when people did talk, over and over, they mentioned the name Danny Barry. Police knew this man well, because he was one of their own. In November 2008, Danny Barry, a sheriff's deputy, was named as a suspect by at least three

different witnesses. One stated that he had a secret room in his trailer that you couldn't see into or out of that had chains hanging from the ceiling. Another witness stated that Barry would drive around South Jennings with Natalie his wife, and she would pick out girls, and together they would drug them and take them back to their home. Deputy Barry was interviewed by the task force once on February 25, 2009. During this interview, he wasn't even asked about the allegations against him. He died in 2010, age 63. Frankie Richard himself pointed out that all the girls were found within three miles of Barry's house. And that following Barry's death, the murder stopped.

Residents of Jennings aren't the only ones who suspect the police had something to do with the murders of the Jennings Eight. Sergeant Jesse Ewing had a gut feeling that something was off and he followed his instinct even though he feared retribution. In December 2007, he spoke to two female inmates who had information about the then four murders. Both of the women implicated high-ranking officers in cover-ups. He taped his interviews with the women and sent the tapes to private investigator Kirk Monart, fearing that his fellow officers would conveniently lose the important evidence, just like they would lose drugs and cash they confiscated. Menard immediately sent copies to the FBI, who sent them directly to the Jennings Task Force,

which included many members of local law enforcement. Ewing was attempting to circumvent by contacting Menard. Ewing was soon charged by the Jefferson Davis District Attorney with malfeasance in office and sexual misconduct after one inmate claimed he was inappropriate with her during the interview. The charges were eventually dropped, but they only proved Ewing's fears of retaliation to be quite accurate. One of the inmates who spoke to Ewing told him that Tracy Shechon had witnessed Frankie Richard and his niece, Hannah Connor, kill Whitney. Apparently, sometime after getting high together, Dubois rejected Richard sexually and he got angry. They fought and he was on top of her, punching her, while Hannah held her head and drowned her in the canal. Tracy was the only one who reported Kristen Lopez missing, and she told detectives a similar story about Kristen's murder, which is what led to her being charged as an accessory after the fact.

According to Tracy, she, Richard, Hannah, and Kristen were parting near a levee by the Pedigion Canal, and after Richard got angry, he beat Kristen and drowned her. Kristen thought of Richard as a father figure and called him Uncle Frankie. Richard admits that he spent a majority of Kristen's last two weeks with her and Tracy partying. But he states they were in a motel room he rented, and then he kicked them out because they stole from him. This was the first story Tracy told before she claimed that Richard and Hannah Connor beat and drowned Kristen. Her changing stories are just part of what led to Richard's charges in that case being dropped. Richard insists that if he had been there when Kristen was murdered, it never would have happened because he would have protected her.

The second female inmate who spoke to Ewing claimed that Richard then put Kristen's body in a barrel and put the barrel in a truck. She also told Ewing that an officer known only as Mr. Warren had purchased the truck to help get rid of the evidence. This Mr. Warren was found to be Warren Gary of the Jennings Police Department. The first inmate's story lined up with this information as well. Mr. Warren took the truck to raise laundry and fixtures directly across the street from the task force office and had it washed. These two accounts have never been proven. While the task force had to sort through all of these possible leads and suspects, the creation of the task force itself didn't help the relationship between law enforcement and the victim's family members, as intended.

When it was created, it was hoped that the task force would make the victim's family, feel that the cases were finally being looked into and taken seriously by unbiased and completely uninvolved authorities. But multiple members of the task force were fired or reprimanded for some sort of impropriety. One of the task force members, officer Warren Gary, Jefferson Davis Parish's chief criminal investigator, was fined $10,000 by the Louisiana Board of Ethics. after it was discovered, he bought a Chevy Silverado that was very important in one of the cases. This is the truck that the inmates told Sergeant Ewing about. The truck was allegedly involved in the last sighting of Kristen Lopez.

Officer Gary bought the truck in May 2007 from an inmate named Connie Seiler. He paid just over $8,500 and one month later sold it for over $15,000. $1,000. Nicole Guillory's boyfriend Michael Prudome, who was also the father of one of her children, told the task force that someone asked him to help clean out the Silverado that Warren bought. Frankie Richard backs up this claim, stating that Prudome told him where blood in the truck was located. It's believed that Terry Guillory, the warden at the parish jail, set the truck sale up. Paula Guillory, the wife of Warden Terry Guillory, was also on the task force. She was fired in 2009.

After evidence, she was responsible for collecting and logging went missing. Menard, the private investigator, believes that Paula Guillory was the one who got each of the Jennings 8 to become informants, but Guillory claims that none of her informants were ever female. Terry Guillory was Nicole Guillory's cousin, adding another threat to the web of connections and relationships in this case. While the task force faced backlash for some of their improprieties, the Jennings Police Department itself was no stranger to scandal. In March 1990, the sheriff's office was burglarized and 300 pounds of marijuana was stolen. One of the men responsible for the crime hinted that they had help from someone inside the department, and also listed Frankie Richard and Ted Gary as accomplices.

At the time, Ted Gary was Chief Deputy Sheriff. Richard and Gary were never charged in that burglary. In 1993, Sheriff Dallas-Cormier was federally charged with obstruction of justice after being investigated for multiple crimes, including using public funds for himself. In 1996, Sheriff Ricky Edwards was sued for conducting traffic stops without probable cause. And in 1997, the TV show Dateline exposed Jefferson Davis Parish for conducting illegal traffic stops, targeting out-of-state drivers. Some people interviewed, said that they would drive completely around the state of Louisiana to avoid

driving through Jefferson Davis Parish. Another act that stained the department's reputation happened in 2000, when Officer Phil Karim shot and killed colleague Kenneth Guidry and his wife, Christine Guidry, in their home, and subsequently wounded two responding officers, killing one. A civil rights lawsuit was filed in federal court in October 2003. The plaintiffs were eight female Jennings cops, an odd coincidence of a different Jennings eight. They sued Chief DeLuch, the city of Jennings, Mayor Greg Mercantale. an officer Shelton Bro, Thomas DeShotel, Derek Hout, and Charlotte Lambert for sexual harassment and sexual violence. Allegations include a captain forcing oral sex on a female officer, lewd comments about sexual acts,

a female officer being forced to film her nipples being pierced, a lieutenant threatening female officers with knives, and in the case of Charlotte Lambert, trying to convince other female officers to engage in sexual acts with the male officers. It was rumored that one of the officers called Charlotte, quote, a female pimp because of her encouragement. The blemishes on this department continued. Johnny Lasseter was Jennings Police Chief from 2006 until he resigned from the position in 2010, stepping down but staying on the fours. In early 2013, he was arrested in connection with items missing from the evidence room. The Louisiana State Police audited the Jennings Police.

and found almost $5,000. Over 1,500 pills, more than 350 grams of cocaine, and multiple pounds of marijuana missing. He was charged with theft, malfeasance in office, obstruction of justice, and injuring public records. In November 2013, Lasseter pleaded guilty to malfeasance in office. Many people believe that due to all the distractions coming from within law enforcement, that the investigation into the Jennings 8 was flawed.

Some even believe that the Jennings 8 should really be the Jennings 9, and include the death of Sheila Cuomo. Sheila was attacked in 1998, and it's believed she was working as a police informant trying to help them with a drug bust at the time. She was found badly beaten in an abandoned building on Valentine's Day, 1998, and according to her daughter, Lakeisha, Sheila only survived because it was so cold outside

that her blood clotted, preventing her from bleeding to death. It was reported that she was injured so badly her brain was actually exposed. Because of this, Sheila was hospitalized for over a year, and she died on March 19, 1999. Unfortunately, Sheila was never able to name her attacker. She did try to talk about her attack

and where she remembered being. But according to family, whenever she tried, one member of the Jennings Police Department would show up to question her. Each time she saw this officer, Sheila refused to talk. If Sheila is one of the Jennings victims, it almost certainly points to involvement as a police informant, being what ultimately led to her death, and possibly the deaths of the Jennings Eight. You could say that the circumstances of Sheila's death would rule her out as a ninth victim,

because she was beaten when all the Jennings Eight were suffocated or stabbed, and she was found in an old building, not on the side of the road or on a canal. But there was a common thread. All the murdered women were informants for the police. Loretta Shashon Lewis told her family that the Jennings police had asked her to inform them about a drug deal. Laconia's family said she lived her last days in fear, knowing something awful was waiting for her. The location that Laconia was found off of Racker Road leading to a police shooting range is worth a second look. If you believe the police are responsible for these murders,

It's easy to place an officer dumping a body and heading to work. If you believe the police were not involved in the murders or cover-ups, it's easy to view her body as a message to the police. Perhaps someone was taunting them or maybe even warning them. One important event related to the Jennings 8, but before the murder started was a different murder. On April 20th, 2005, police acting on a tip shot and killed Leonard Cruy. Crochet, a drug dealer, during a raid in Jennings.

The officer who opened fire claimed that he thought Crochet was holding a gun, though no gun was found at the scene. Frankie Richard connects this murder of Crochet to the Jennings Eight, stating that almost all the Jennings Eight victims were present when Crochet was shot and killed by police. But the official witness statements only include Kristen's name as being present when Crochet was killed. Crochet's sister Beverly also noticed that the murder started just after. after her brother was killed by police. It would be exactly one month later that Loretta was found dead.

Kristen Gary Lopez, Harvey Birddog Burley, and Alvin Bootsie Lewis, who was Loretta Lewis's brother-in-law and also was dating Whitney Dubois, were all said to be present during the raid and witnessed this police shooting. No one in the home would corroborate the officer's account that Crochet was reaching for a weapon. and nothing that could even been construed as a weapon was found, according to reports. Bird Dog told Whitney's older brother that he was close to figuring out who killed her. And shortly after that, he was stabbed to death.

His murder has not been solved. But it's been reported that someone going by the name of Viper killed Bird Dog and later killed himself in Texas after fleeing. Due to all of this, many theories that perhaps the murders, of the Jennings 8 and some people associated with them were the result of someone trying to eliminate witnesses to Leonard Crochet's death. It certainly seems like there's a pattern in Jefferson Davis Parish of witnesses disappearing permanently. After Crystal Zeno was found in September 2008, the Jefferson Davis Parish District Attorney's Office received a tip from Russell Carrier, who claimed to have seen three men leaving the wooded area near where she was found.

These men were identified as Frankie Richard's friend, Eugene Ivory, Irvin Mouton, who was a suspect in Kristen's murder, and Ricardo Tiger Williams. In October 2010, this witness Russell Carrier apparently laid down on train tracks and was killed by a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train. And more of I think a lot of people point to this death of Russell Carrier as being very suspicious. You know, is it impossible that someone would take their life by laying down on the train tracks in front of a train? No, it's not impossible. But it is a very strange way for a suicide to occur. I mean, I think you'd have to say that. And the fact that it's not too long after he's providing this crucial information, the timing just seems suspicious.

And to me, it backs up or reinforces perhaps why people in these kinds of cases don't talk or don't come forward with information because they're afraid they're going to wind up dead. Well, and that fear seems to be pretty justified. I mean, you know, if you look at all the things that we've talked about so far, all these kind of interconnections, this web of people and the deaths of some of these people. people occurring when they did. You could see why so many people were fearful. And there's sort of that Kevin Bacon, six degrees of Kevin Bacon, there's just these odd connections to all of these people in some way or another. And I think it's why there has been a lot of speculation in this case, right? Yeah, we have a lot of women murdered over what is roughly what a, a, a four year period of time, a lot of connections between the women, but then a lot of these other connections. Are they ancillary? Are they not? I mean, a lot of that is what leads to and

fuels the speculation in this case. I think it's also what helps provide some of the mystery and what draws people to really look into and study this case. In 2009, Witnesses, is claimed to see a lot of activity, possibly connected to the Jennings 8 case, Warren Gary was seen at Hannah Conner's house. Teresa Gary was spotted talking to task force member Paula Guillory, wife of Warden Terry Guillory, and entering a known drug den through the back door with Jennings police. Teresa Gary was also seen at the known drug den multiple times without police. Paula Guillory visited Frankie Richard's house.

that same year, Paula Guillory was part of a police raid at Frankie Richard's home. The police were investigating a crime ring involved in drug running and theft, including stealing guns from homes. And they believe that Richard, his mother, and Teresa Gary ran the crime ring. It was in this case that almost $4,000 went missing after Paul Gillary submitted it into evidence. Warren Gary, former chief investigator, helped Guillory cataloged that evidence. The case couldn't be prosecuted due to law enforcement misconduct. By the end of 2009, Jennings residents were angry that law enforcement was at best preventing these cases from being solved due to misconduct, and at worst, may have even been responsible

for them. Sheriff Ricky Edwards ordered every single task force investigator and every office or working the Jennings Eight cases to be DNA tested. This was meant to reassure the public that no officer was involved in any of the murders. But the results of the DNA swabs were never released, and the Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff's Office refuses to give any comment regarding that DNA testing or the results. In November 2010, Tracy Shashon, who reported Kristen missing, was arrested after a 14-year-old girl was reported missing by her grandmother. who had seen her leave her house with Tracy. She was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

This arrest brought up rumors of Tracy and Laconia Brown being not just sex workers, but pimps themselves. This belief is linked to Laconia's 2005 arrest for conspiracy in the rape of Kirkmanard's 16-year-old daughter with Lawrence Nixon, who was once charged with Ernestine's murder. If you recall, Kirk Menard is the private investigator who Sergeant Ewing trusted with his interview tapes. Menard believes that Laconia may have wanted out of that life. It's rumored that not all of the girls that were offered for sex by Laconia, Tracy's, or others consented, and that her expressing that she was done led to her being silenced. Kirk Menard claims that May 2012 two female witnesses went to give a tip to the task force about Frankie Richard, only to be told that he works for the very high-ranking investigator they were talking to.

High-ranking law enforcement officials allowing criminal activity is not in itself unheard of. In 2011, it was found that the FBI allowed its informants to break the law over 5,000 times that year, but letting an informant get away with murder. That seems way over the line, if that's the case. Gary and Sheriff Ricky Edwards left the sheriff's office in 2012. Every time there is a new set of eyes on the case, locals and family of the victims hope that there will be a break. Some fear that the killer or killers haven't stopped and may strike again.

In January 2014, 27-year-old Lacey Fontno was found in a ditch in Lake Arthur, Louisiana. The coroner's report states that, she drowned at the location where she was found and that she had high levels of methamphetamine and cocaine in her system when she died. Locals say the story goes that she was so intoxicated that she passed out and landed with her head under the water. But drowning in a ditch after doing drug sounds eerily reminiscent of Kristen Lopez. Lacey had one young daughter and was rumored.

to be active in the local drug scene. On November 15, 2016, former officer Warren Gary was shot and killed by his own 17-year-old grandson during a robbery. His grandson, Parker, also shot and killed another man and left his body in a canal. Well, it was probably a coincidence

that Parker dumped the body in the canal. It brings the term Cyril Dumpur to mind again. It seemed that the Jennings eight murders took a back seat to all the misconduct of the police investigating the deaths. While they were not making progress, author Ethan Brown thought he could make a difference. Ethan Brown did a deep investigative dive of his own into the Jennings 8.

He used his research to write the book Murder in the Bayou, which now has a Showtime Network miniseries based on it. Local drug dealer David Bowlegs DeShattel spoke with Ethan on July 7, 2011, and the next day, David was found. Ed. Ethan was undeterred and continued his investigation. He noticed that the Jennings police didn't seal David's crime scene off with tape and no one even bothered stopping people from coming and going. Some even took items right off the property. No one felt the need to log what civilians were doing around the crime scene that day. Brown knew that the police work going on

left something to be desired. Ethan Brown's murder in the bayou was published in September 2016. When the book made headlines and won awards, the Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff's Department warned online that Ethan Brown was a, quote, fiction author, and later told Dr. Oz in a statement that Richard was never arrested in connection with Kristen's death, as widely reported to, quote, bad information from the fiction novel by Ethan Brown. But police have always maintained that Richard is a suspect in the deaths. In September 2019, three years after the book was published, interest in the Jennings 8 was renewed once again due to Showtime's five-episode series, also called Murder in the Bayou. The very week that Showtime premiered the first episode, Richard was arrested on narcotics and soliciting charges after authorities received the call that he had gone into convulsions after using heroin.

Police arrived only to find methamphetamine, crack cocaine, oxycodone, Xanax, and drug paraphernalia. A woman at the home told police that Richard was her pimp and traded her drugs for her services. On March 22nd, 2020, Frankie Richard passed away at the age of 64, still a free man. Before he died, he was apparently working on a tell-all book about his life in Jennings. It's reported that he passed away in his sleep from tainted heroin. Richard had talked about sobriety in interviews, but of course, anyone can relapse. If Richard played any role in the Jennings eight case or knew the killer or killers, he took his secrets to the grave.

And I think that's true unless, and this is always the case, right? he confided in someone else or other people, and they are now holding his secrets. What remains are a lot of unanswered questions? Why were the girls who were found clothed not wearing any shoes? Are they simply wearing sandals due to the heat in the bayou? And they fell off? Or could someone have removed them? If so, does this implicate one person in all the deaths, or at least in the body disposals?

Are the shoes out there somewhere in a serial killer's collection as some sort of trophy? Other questions involved the remains of the victims. How were their body so badly decomposed so quickly? None of the girls were missing for even two weeks before they were found. And it's unlikely that those who were missing the longest were even killed immediately after being last seen. In some cases, we're talking about victims being found within just a couple of days of being reported missing. Now, I mean, you definitely have the heat of Louisiana that definitely plays a factor in decomposition more if we know that.

There's also been a lot of speculation that many of these victims may have been dumped days after being killed. And then I think, you know, a lot of the other questions surrounding this case, they have to do with the theories. One of the popular theories is that these murders were all about eliminating witnesses. But if that is true, why was Frankie Richard allowed to live for so long? He seemed to have been at the center of a lot of what was going on. And that list includes other witnesses like the boyfriends, close friends, and family members that the Jennings 8 confided in. But then you also have these female inmates who live to tell their stories. It seems as though there were a number of people who had information, who lived to tell

that information to authors and, you know, interview crews. So what was different about the Jennings-Aid? What did they see? What did they know that was so different from some of these other people that they had to be killed? to silence them. As of 2019, articles still advertised a reward of up to $85,000

for any information that helps solve the eight cases, and the information is still up on the FBI's website. If you have information about any of the cases, the FBI's New Orleans office can be reached at 504-8163,000. The Jefferson Davis

parish sheriff's office numbers 337, 8212106. You can also also submit anonymous tips online by visiting tips.fbi.gov. And if you don't trust the authorities in this case, and I wouldn't blame someone if they didn't, Kirk Menard's private investigation agency, Advanced Investigative Technologies LLC, can be emailed at info at aIT-lai.com or reached by calling 337-483-0440. And you said it morph right there. Right. If you don't trust the authorities in this case, I don't feel as though many people do.

I mean, you know, when you lay out all the different things that are known, proven to have occurred on the part of police and task force and all these different entities, it's pretty scary, right? it's staggering that so much malfeasance and corruption was going on. You know, like I said, this is a case that fuels a lot of speculation online. We asked the question, right? What was it that these women knew or had seen that required them to be killed by whoever was involved, right? Because a lot of people lived, a lot of people told their stories. what was so different about these eight women?

Now, that's a question to be answered if you believe that they were all killed because they knew something and had to be silenced. But what if that's not the case? I think there are some people that believe, okay, there could have been a serial killer operating over those years in the Jennings area. And there's no doubt that that's a possibility. I think what makes this different from so many other cases involving a serial killer is the connection of all the people, the connection with police and all the strange things that were going on there. It's what leads many people to believe that, you know, there's a huge conspiracy here and these women were killed to silence them.

Yeah, I'm not usually a big fan of conspiracy theories, but here, this is a case where it seems just overwhelming that there's just too many connections and signs going towards that direction that maybe law enforcement is involved on some level. And that's, I think I said it earlier, that's one of the reasons why people don't talk or won't talk in this case maybe because they're afraid of what will happen to them. and they have good reason to be because, you know, all these people who've talked about in this episode that turned up dead, I'd be afraid to talk if I was in their shoes, too. In a lot of cases, you and I are kind of wondering who knows something. There's always somebody that knows something, right, about what happened. And we're asking the question, okay, will they ever come forward? Will they give a deathbed confession or something like that?

This case, to me, is so different because, of the tainted police work, the corruption, and those aren't even theories. There are some of those are theories, but a lot of that has been proven. And so I think you're absolutely right. Even if you had information, who would you feel comfortable bringing it forward to? I don't think it would be anyone closely connected to the Jennings area. Let's, you know, let's put it that way. One of the things morph that I thought of as we were researching this case and we were going through it was it really reminded me quite a bit of that very first season of True Detective.

I know you watched that show, right? Yeah, it was a great show. Yeah, I really thought that first season was outstanding. Obviously, you have the setting of Louisiana. So there are parallels there. You had women and girls being murdered. There was sex work and drugs. I'm not saying that, you know, it was a one-to-one type situation.

It really reminded me of that first season. I think because of the way that they were able to really develop a lot of mystery around, you know, this entire case with the police interviews and the, the charges of possible police corruption and all that. I don't know. It just, for some reason, that kept popping up in my head as we were going through this case. Well, to your point, as far as the show goes, I think one thing that we saw in the Jennings 8 case, every time detectives on that show went down a rabbit hole, there was a clue connecting to another part of the case or another element that they had to go down to the next rabbit hole.

And that's sort of what we see in this case, these little connections all the way around. Yeah. no, that's a great point. Maybe that's another reason why it popped into my head, the kind of interconnectivity between some of the victims and some of the leads and all of that. But there's no doubt that, you know, this is an infamous unsolved series of murders, especially in that area, it's very well known. And it's, it's a case that, like we've mentioned, is heavily scrutinized by people online. There are a lot of people that have tried to put these dots together.

One thing I just wanted to touch on that, we didn't talk a whole lot about, was what they might have as far as DNA evidence goes. We know that at one point, the police department, the people connected to this case were asked to give their DNA. So that tells me they may have some kind of DNA evidence in this case to work with. So that on one hand, that seems hopeful. But on the other hand, how mismanage and how trustworthy is what any kind of evidence they have in this case after we've seen several times how they mishandled stuff, move stuff, lost stuff. You know, is that DNA trustworthy if they have it?

Yeah, I think that is something that could be tremendously problematic if they were to ever develop a real viable. suspect in the murders when it came time to go to trial. I mean, you know, you look at all of the things that police have been charged with. You know a defense attorney is going to use every bit of that and more. So I don't know that it would be the easiest prosecution in the world. Thanks goes out to Sunny Landon for writing and research assistants in this episode. As always, if you love the show, go out. give us a five-star rating.

You can leave a review as well. But keep telling your friends. That word of mouth about criminology really goes a long way. If you want to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Criminology Podcast or by joining our Facebook discussion group, Criminology Podcasts, Discussion and Fans. So that's it for our episode on the Jennings 8 or the Jefferson Davis 8, the Jeff

Davis 8. I mean, this is a case that is known by a number of different monikers, but we'll be back with you next Saturday night with an all new episode. So for Mike and more of we'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.