MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Fan Favorite - "These People Actually Exist"

Episode Date: December 28, 2023

This story is a fan favorite that was previously published as Episode 8.On Christmas Eve in 1992, an 18-year-old woman named Danita Gullette stepped outside of her place of work into the freezing Dayton, Ohio night air, and began walking toward her mother's house. After a few minutes, Danita decided to call her mother to ask her something that couldn't wait until she arrived. So Danita stopped at a payphone, slipped a few coins into the phone's coin slot, then dialed the number she knew by heart. At her mother's house, the phone started to ring, but when Danita's sister picked up the receiver, the phone was silent. Around the same time, the Dayton police received a call about a disturbance at a payphone in town. This would be the start of one of the most incomprehensible crime sprees in American history.For 100s more stories like this one, check out my YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @MrBallenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Today's episode is a fan favorite. It's called These People Actually Exist. And it's actually one of our very first episodes from back when we started this podcast. The audio from this story has been remastered. The audio from this story has been remastered. There is a very particular type of criminal that's often portrayed in horror movies, but who rarely exists in real life. However, as rare as these people are, they do actually exist, and when they decide to wreak havoc, there's often very little anyone can do to stop them.

But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious Delivered in Story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please ask if you can borrow the Amazon Music Follow Button's phone just to make a quick call, but instead just log on to their Facebook and change their relationship status from married to it's complicated. Okay, let's get into today's story. Hello, I am Alice Levine and I am one of the hosts of Wondery's podcast British Scandal. On our latest series, The Race to Ruin, we tell the story of a British man

who took part in the first ever round the world sailing race. Good on him, I hear you say. But there is a problem, as there always is in this show. The man in question hadn't actually sailed before. Oh, and his boat wasn't seaworthy. Oh, and also tiny little detail, almost didn't mention it. He bet his family home on making it to the finish line. What ensued was one of the most complex cheating plots in British sporting history. To find out the full story, follow British Scandal wherever you listen to podcasts,

or listen early and ad-free on Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. Hello, I'm Emily and I'm one of the hosts of Terribly Famous, the show that takes you inside the lives of our biggest celebrities. And they don't get much bigger than the man who made badminton sexy. OK, maybe that's a stretch, but if I say pop star and shuttlecocks, you know who I'm talking about. No?

Short shorts? Free cocktails? Careless whispers? OK, last one. It's not Andrew Ridgely. Yep, that's right. It's Stone Cold icon George Michael. From teen pop sensation to one of the biggest solo artists on the planet, join us for our new series, George Michael's Fight for Freedom.

From the outside, it looks like he has it all. But behind the trademark dark sunglasses is a man in turmoil george is trapped in a lie of his own making with a secret he feels would ruin him if the truth ever came out follow terribly famous wherever you listen to your podcast or listen early and ad free on wandery plus on apple podcasts or the wandery app At around 9.30 p.m. on Christmas Eve 1992, 18-year-old Danita Gallet finished up her shift at Rally's, a fast food hamburger restaurant in her hometown of Dayton, Ohio. She hung up her apron, she said goodbye to her co-workers,

and then she stepped outside into the freezing 19-degree night air. her hometown of Dayton, Ohio. She hung up her apron, she said goodbye to her co-workers, and then she stepped outside into the freezing 19-degree night air. Danita had not driven a car to work that day, so she pulled her plaid flannel jacket tightly around her to keep warm, and then she began to briskly walk in the direction of her mother's house, which was only a couple of miles away. That night, like every other Christmas Eve night, Danita's family had all gathered up at her mother's house to celebrate. The Galettes were one of those big families that were very close and who always looked out for each other. When Danita had gotten pregnant when she was only 15 years old,

she had told her parents and seven siblings, all of whom were older than her, that she'd likely have to drop out of school and get a full-time job to provide for this child. But her family's reaction was, nonsense, we'll help you raise this baby so you can stay in school and get a good job and still have a great life.

And sure enough, from the moment Danita gave birth to her daughter, her entire family stepped up and made themselves available to provide childcare anytime she needed them to. Fast forward a couple of years back to that Christmas Eve night in 1992 and since Danita had to work that shift at rallies her daughter who was now two years old had been spending the night with her family at her mother's house and so as Danita walked she suddenly had this urge to call her family and just check in to make sure her daughter was okay, and also just to give them a heads up that she

would be there in the next 30 minutes or so. So at around 10 p.m., she stopped at a payphone on the side of the road that was only about a half mile from the Rally's restaurant. She fished some coins out of her pocket, she put them into the slot on the phone, and then she dialed her mother's phone number. As the phone rang, Danita likely was thinking about how much fun it was going to be to see everyone that night. She also likely was looking forward to eating some of her mother's famous chili and cornbread that she always made around this time of the year. At Danita's mother's house, her whole family was sitting around in the living room, chatting and having a nice time, just waiting for Danita to arrive.

At 10 p.m., when the phone rang in the house, immediately everyone in Danita's family assumed it had to be Danita calling to let them know that she was off work and that she would be home soon. So when the phone was ringing, one of Danita's siblings, Rhonda, she jumped up and she excitedly ran into the kitchen and she pulled the phone off the receiver and she said, hello, expecting to hear her sister's very happy voice on the other end of the line. But instead, she heard silence. Rhonda said hello a few more times, but when she was still met with silence, she shrugged and put the receiver back into its cradle,

and then she walked back into the living room, and she told her family that no, it was not Danita, it must have been a wrong number. Danita's family would stay up for a little while longer waiting for Danita, but she never showed up, and they never actually spoke to her on the phone. But she never showed up, and they never actually spoke to her on the phone. Eventually, the family was so tired, they decided to just go to bed for the night. They figured Danita must have gotten hung up at work, which was prone to happen, and so they would just have to wait until the next morning to celebrate the holidays with her.

Around the time Danita stepped outside of the Rally's restaurant and began making her walk to her mother's house, Dayton, Ohio, homicide detective Doyle Burke was finishing Christmas Eve dinner at his grandmother's house in the suburbs with his wife and their two young children. Like the Gallettes, the Burks also liked to get together with family on Christmas Eve at Grandma's. But much as Detective Burke enjoyed the holidays, he'd been a homicide cop long enough to know that just about every week, at least one person got murdered in Dayton. And so chances were good, at some point over the next couple of days, he'd be called into work. And sure enough, that Christmas Eve night, after they were done eating, his pager went off, and he looked at the incoming code, and it said, call work immediately.

When he looked up from his pager, he noticed his wife was staring at him. She knew the drill. She knew he would have to leave. When Detective Burke stepped away to call into work, he was told there had been a shooting on Neal Avenue. The victim had been found near a payphone, located about a half mile away from the Rally's restaurant. Detective Burke said goodbye to his family. He hopped in his car and he headed over to Neal Avenue. When he got there, he saw a ring of police cars and medical personnel all standing in a circle around this payphone. Burke parked his car on a side street, and then he walked over.

And when he pushed past the ring of people, he saw the victim on the sidewalk right underneath the payphone. It was a young woman lying in a pool of her own frozen blood. It was Danita Gallet. It was Danita Gallet. She had been shot five times at point-blank range, bullets striking her in the chest, the legs, and the hands. The pattern of wounds on her body suggested she'd tried to shield herself from the bullets, holding up her hands and turning her head away and crouching back like she was trying not to get hit. After she was lying on the ground, either dying or dead, whoever had attacked her ripped her plaid coat off, they took her sneakers off, and they took her backpack that

contained only 50 cents. Scattered around her body were 25 caliber aluminum shell casings, which immediately stood out to Burke. That type of ammunition was distinctive. It was generally only used for target shooting because it was not a very powerful ammunition. However, obviously, it was still lethal at close range. Witnesses in the area said they had heard the shots ring out and then saw two young men carrying pistols running away from the payphone. Shortly after Danita's family had decided to just go to bed

and see Danita in the morning, they heard a knock on the front door. It was Detective Burke telling them that their Danita had been murdered. They were beyond devastated. They couldn't understand why anyone would ever want to harm Danita. She was such a happy person who everyone seemed to love. They just couldn't understand who would do this. When Burke told the family that Danita had been killed near a payphone, and according to witnesses, her murder likely happened sometime around 10 p.m., as soon as the family heard this,

they all thought of that strange, silent phone call that Rhonda had answered around 10 p.m. As soon as the family heard this, they all thought of that strange, silent phone call that Rhonda had answered around 10 p.m. that night. Had that actually been Danita? Had that been her killer? They didn't know, but it just seemed like too much of a coincidence that they would get a call at the same time that she was killed. After leaving the Gallet's household and filing his report on Danita's murder, Detective Burke arrived back at his home just hours before dawn on December 25th. After catching a quick nap, he spent that morning with his family celebrating Christmas, but his heart just wasn't in it. He had been investigating homicides for years, and so over time he had become somewhat

desensitized to all of the violence. However, that morning he just kept thinking of Danita Gallet's grief-stricken family when he had told them the news. He also kept thinking about Danita herself, how scared she must have been when she was crouched down trying to shield herself from her attacker. Her family had shown Burke a picture of Danita when she was alive, and she looked like such a vibrant, happy young woman with this big, infectious smile. It just didn't make any sense that someone would kill her over some shoes and a jacket and a backpack with 50 cents in it. Was this actually a personal attack where they knew who Danita was and they were targeting

her and then afterwards they kind of set it up to look like a robbery or was this really a robbery in which case again why are you killing someone over things that are worth so little Burke kept finding himself thinking in circles about her case he felt like there had to be more to this than met the eye. And he would be right. That night, just before 9pm on Christmas Day, Burke's pager went off again. There had been another murder. This one had taken place in the northern part of Dayton, roughly two and a half miles from where Donita had been found. The victim was 19-year-old Richmond Maddox. He was found slumped in the driver's seat of a blue Chevy Caprice

that had crashed into a tree on the side of the road. But the crash hadn't killed him. What had killed him was a gunshot wound to the right side of his head, fired from point-blank range. And they searched the car. There was no weapon inside of the car, so this was not a suicide. And they checked the exterior of the car, and there was no entry point into the car from a bullet, which means the gun that shot him had been fired from inside the car. Likely, whoever was sitting in the passenger seat or in the back seat had shot this guy in the head.

And considering the car had crashed into a tree, indicates that whoever did this, whoever pulled the trigger, had done it while Richmond was actively driving the car. And so in Burke's mind, this indicated that the person who did this had been forced to do this because it's extremely dangerous to shoot the driver of the vehicle when the car is still moving because you're going to crash. And so this person who shot Richmond must have been desperate. Maybe they had been kidnapped by Richmond and they were forced to do this. Burke didn't know, but that seemed like the most logical theory. When police spoke to witnesses in the area, they told the police that they heard the

crash, and then they looked outside, and they saw what looked like a short young woman, probably a teenager, get up from the ground near the car, and then start running away with a limp. Even though no shell casings were found in or around Richmond's car that could, in theory, link his murder to Donita's murder, Burke still had a hunch that these two murders had to be connected. They had occurred less than 24 hours apart, so back to back, and the bodies were found less than a couple miles apart. And in Burke's experience working in homicide, coincidences rarely occurred. Things happen for a reason.

And in Burke's mind, he's thinking, these murders are connected. I just got to figure out what the connection is. But Detective Burke's investigation into Richmond Maddox's death only seemed to further complicate things. Richmond's family, who were stunned at the news of his murder, had no idea who would want to kill him, or who the girl fleeing the scene

could possibly be. The only girl in Richmond's life that the family could think of that might have been in the car with him was his ex-girlfriend, 16-year-old Laura Taylor, who they described as being very sweet and polite. But when Burke went to Laura Taylor's house on the morning of December 26th to interview Laura, he was in for a shock. Laura had apparently not been home in several days, and her parents were very worried. Hearing that their daughter's ex-boyfriend had been killed, they feared the worst, that something terrible had also happened to Laura but before Detective Burke could even begin to process this new information that now in addition to two strange murders he also now had a missing juvenile who very well

could be the key to solving what was happening unbelievably while he's thinking about all these different things Burke felt his pager vibrate again. There had been another shooting, this time inside of a mini-market convenience store that was only three and a half miles south of where Richmond Maddox had been found. This time, there were two victims. Both were still alive, but they were in critical condition. 38-year-old Sarah Abraham was a classic American success story. After immigrating to the United States from war-torn Ethiopia,

she and her family worked hard and established businesses in the Dayton area that included a restaurant and a few convenience stores. The convenience store where the shooting took place was the location where Sarah spent the majority of her time. On the day after Christmas, while Detective Burke was speaking to Laura Taylor's family, Sarah Abraham said goodbye to her three young children and then headed out the door to go open the convenience store for the day. Once she arrived and she opened the store and went inside, a 71-year-old regular named Jimmy Thompson came in and he stood by the register to chat with her about the holidays.

And then at some point, a middle-aged man named Jones Pettis came inside as well, and he began browsing down one of the aisles. A few minutes later, a teenage girl came up to the register and tried to buy a pack of gum, but she was five cents short. Jimmy cheerfully reached into his pocket and gave her a nickel. She smiled, took the nickel, put it on the counter, and then she took the gum and walked out of the store. Then, a few minutes after the girl had left, two young men entered the store, each holding a pistol. Sarah and Jimmy immediately threw their hands up over their head, and Sarah told the gunman, you know, take anything you want. We'll give you all the money we have. Please just don't shoot us. One of the men barked at her to open the cash register and give them

all of her money. And so with shaking hands, Sarah reached down and she opened the register. She pulled all the money out. She gave it to them, and then she kept her hands up. She had given them everything they had wanted. But for some reason, the man who had taken the money out, she gave it to them, and then she kept her hands up. She had given them everything they had wanted. But for some reason, the man who had taken the money from her still raised his pistol up. He put it right in her face and he fired two shots. One went straight through her mouth and the other went through the top of her head. And then, after she collapsed to the ground, the men began shooting at Jimmy, but amazingly, they missed him despite being right in front of him,

and Jimmy, who was thinking on his feet, immediately threw himself kind of over the counter and acted like he had been mortally wounded. And so the gunmen, believing Jimmy was down as well, they turned around and they began walking out of the store, but as they were leaving, they noticed Jones Pettis, who was trying to hide at the end of one of the aisles, and so they just fired at him, striking him in the hand and in the stomach.

Then the two gunmen left, they hopped in a car, and they fled. Paramedics would rush Sarah Abraham and Jones Pettis to the hospital. Jones would survive, but Sarah would die from her injuries five days later. When Detective Burke arrived at the convenience store that morning, the other officers who were already on scene told him that Jimmy and Jones had not gotten a good look at the shooters. They just said that they were two young men

and that they didn't recognize them. After being told this information, Burke stepped inside of the convenience store to have a look around. He was already operating on the idea that this attack had to be linked to Richmond Maddox and to Danita Gallet, because again, the proximity and time to the other murders was just too much to overlook. That couldn't be a coincidence. And sure enough, right as Burke stepped into the store, this hunch of his seemed to be confirmed, because on the blood-stained ground near the counter were several.25 caliber aluminum shell casings, the same distinctive ammunition type that was used in Donita's murder.

distinctive ammunition type that was used in Danita's murder. At this point, Burke was fully convinced these murders had to be linked. But the victims didn't make sense. It would turn out none of the victims' families had ever heard of the other victims or their families. None of the victims worked together or went to school together or had any interaction at all. It just seemed like the victims were kind of random. But as Burke and his partners were discussing how these crimes could be linked, Burke got yet another call. There had just been an attempted shooting at a Dayton gas station. When Burke arrived, they found this hysterical woman named Kathy Henderson, who earlier had been putting air in the tires of her black 1989 Dodge Shadow,

when two young men pull into the parking lot, they hop out of the car and they walk right up to her, they raise their guns at her, and then one of them says, you're gonna die today. And then the two men just started shooting at her. And amazingly, she managed to not get shot shot and she was able to run to safety. But the two men stole her car. The bullet casings that were found at the scene of this crime were unsurprisingly the same distinctive aluminum variety.

Clearly, whoever was behind all of these shootings was not showing any signs of slowing down. And so by now, the shootings in Dayton had attracted so much attention that it was not only all over the local media, but it was all over the national media. This was all anybody in the country was talking about. That there was just these rogue people running around Dayton shooting random people and the police apparently couldn't stop them. And so panic was spreading like a wave amongst Dayton residents and surrounding areas. It didn't seem to matter who you were or what you were doing. Suddenly, everyone felt like they could be next. I'm Peter Frankopan. And I'm Afua Hirsch.

And we're here to tell you about our new season of Legacy, covering the iconic, troubled musical genius that was Nina Simone. Full disclosure, this is a big one for me. Nina Simone, one of my favourite artists of all time, somebody who's had a huge impact on me,

who I think objectively stands apart for the level of her talent, the audacity of her message. If I was a first year at university, the first time I sat down and really listened to her and engaged with her message, it totally floored me. And the truth and pain and messiness of her struggle, that's all captured in unforgettable music that has stood the test of time. Think that's fair, Peter? I mean, the way in which her music comes across is so powerful, no matter what song it is. So join us on Legacy for Nina Simone. your Prime membership? That's right. All your favorite Mr. Ballin episodes can be heard on Amazon Music ad-free, and you'll always be the first one to catch our new episodes.

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or download the free Amazon Music app. It's just that easy. On the evening of December 26th, shortly after Kathy Henderson's carjacking was reported, Dayton Police Sergeant John Huber was in his patrol car cruising the northwest neighborhood of Dayton when an all points bulletin came across his radio. The dispatcher said to be on the lookout for the 1989 Dodge Shadow that Kathy Henderson had stolen and that if they found it be advised because the

occupants were likely the same people perpetrating all of these shootings all over town, and so they were likely armed and dangerous. Huber had developed a knack for finding stolen cars in Dayton. He knew where all the little cutouts were and back alleys were where people like to stash their stolen cars, and so he decided he would just go looking for the Dodge Shadow. And after only being on the hunt for about 20 minutes, he looked down a dark, quiet street just a mile away from where Donita had been killed, and he saw a black Dodge Shadow parked on the side of the road. When he drove up behind it, he saw it was empty, so he called the police station and asked them to run the license plates. And when they called him back, they told him that the plates did not belong

to a black Dodge Shadow. They belonged to a blue Pontiac Grand Am, and that the Grand Am was registered to a 34-year-old man named Joseph Wilkerson. Sergeant Huber was confused and thought maybe he had given them the wrong plates, but then he noticed parked a little ways down the road ahead of the Dodge Shadow was a blue Pontiac Grand Am. And so on a hunch, Huber drove forward and he took down the Grand Am's license plates and he called back into the police station and he asked them to run those and they would come back and they would say, well, it turns out the plates on the Grand Am are the plates that should be on Kathy Henderson's Dodge Shadow. Meaning, clearly, in an effort to cover their trail, the suspects had

switched the license plates between these two cars. And so, naturally, Sergeant Huber picked up his radio and he asked if Joseph Wilkerson had reported his car as stolen. And after a few moments, the radio crackled back from headquarters that, no, Joseph Wilkerson had not reported this car stolen. So Huber immediately became very suspicious of this Joseph Wilkerson person and told headquarters they should really send someone over to Joseph's property to talk to him since most likely he was either one of the shooters or was involved in some way with all of these shootings. Huber said he would stay put on this road and he would stake

out these two vehicles and wait to see if anyone came back to claim them. Detective Burke and his team were the ones dispatched to go check out the Wilkerson property. It was a small, single-floor White House that was located only about two and a half miles from where Donita had been killed. Burke opened the front gate that surrounded the property, and he walked along the pathway up onto the front porch, and he knocked on the front door, but there was no answer. Burke called out that, you know, hey, it's police, you got to open up, but there was silence in the house. Burke left the porch and walked around to the back of the house and knocked on the back door, but still no one came to the door. However, as Burke and his team stood around the back of the house, they all started to smell

something awful. It was this putrid smell that was definitely coming from inside the house. They didn't know what the smell was, but given the circumstances and frankly the urgency to figure out who is behind all these shootings, they decided this smell constituted potential foul play, and so they kicked in the back door and they made entry into the house. Immediately, the smell picked up tenfold. It smelled absolutely horrible inside this house. And just from a quick glance around the inside, it was very obvious this house had been ransacked. Somebody had robbed this house. All the drawers and cabinets had been opened. There was trash and clothing and random

pieces of electronics all over the ground. And so the police, they have their guns out, they're scanning around the room and they're yelling out, police, if you're here, show yourself, we're coming in. But no one showed themselves. It was all silent in the house. And so the police began carefully stepping through the house and they eventually turned right and began walking down this one central hallway that seemed to lead to kind of a back room that looked like maybe a bedroom at the end of the hall. And as they're walking down this hallway, the smell is getting

stronger and stronger. And then finally, they get to the end of this hallway and they look into this room and they can see what is causing the smell. There on the bed in this room was 34 year old Joseph Wilkerson. His wrists and his ankles had been tied to the four posters of the bed with electrical wire, kind of putting him in a spread eagle position on his back. He had no clothes on, but he had a pillow over his chest and his head, and on the outside on the top of the pillow were two obvious scorch marks. Someone had clearly pressed a gun into that pillow and then fired two shots through it into Joseph's chest and his head, killing him. And from the look of his body and

the smell, Wilkerson had likely been dead for at least several days. Also on the ground was another aluminum shell casing, meaning almost certainly this murder was connected to all the others. But the police still had no clue who their attackers were. Who were these mysterious two young men? Who was this young girl who jumped out of that car? Was that Laura Taylor? Was that the ex-girlfriend? Was she kidnapped?

They didn't know. None of it made any sense. Who were the victims? They don't know each other. Why are they being chosen? What is the connection? And so because the police were kind of at a dead end and they really didn't know where to take this case, they set up a tip line that night for people in Dayton and outside of Dayton to call in with any information about any of these shooting victims. And over the first couple of hours that this tip line was established, the callers that were calling in were providing nothing of value. But late that night on the 26th, a call came through from an 18-year-old named Nicholas Woodson.

And based on the tone of his voice, it was obvious he was genuinely scared for his life. He told police that he thought he was going to be the next Dayton murder victim. When police asked him why, he said, Because I know who the killers are. There's four of them, and I think they're planning to kill me next to keep me from talking to you. to keep me from talking to you. While the police spoke with Nicholas, Sergeant Huber was still hiding out in his patrol car, watching the Dodge Shadow and the Pontiac Grand Am from a distance.

He was kind of hidden behind some trees. And at some point, he saw movement in an apartment building situated just opposite where these two vehicles were parked. Three young people walked out of the building, they walked down the front steps out onto the road, and as they crossed over the road towards the two vehicles, they were illuminated by the streetlight, and Huber could clearly see there were two young men and a small young woman. One of the men climbed into the driver's seat of the Dodge Shadow,

while the other two climbed into the passenger and backseat of the men climbed into the driver's seat of the Dodge Shadow, while the other two climbed into the passenger and backseat of the Shadow. As the driver turned the Shadow on and pulled away from the curb, Huber radioed into headquarters that the vehicle was on the move and he needed backup right away, and then he too pulled away from the curb and began following them. After just two blocks, the Shadow stopped, and at that moment, Sergeant Huber sped up behind them with his lights on, and immediately the passenger door of the shadow flew open, and one of the two men took off running. But the other man and the woman stayed in the vehicle. Huber's backup had not arrived yet, so he couldn't worry about the runner. Instead, he stepped

out of his car and stood behind his open car door to kind of use it as a shield, and he aimed his pistol at the driver and he yelled for them not to move. Inside the Dodge, the interior light was now on, and it showed the man was still sitting in the driver's seat, not really doing anything, and the young woman who was in the car, who was in the back seat, she was becoming hysterical and she was screaming at the driver to shoot him now, shoot him now. But the driver didn't do anything. And then moments later, backup arrived and they were able to pull the man and the woman out of the Dodge without a fight and they arrested them both. They were 19-year-old Marvalis Keene, and the young woman was none other than 16-year-old Laura Taylor,

the ex-girlfriend of Richmond Maddox, whose family had reported her missing. The police searched the nearby buildings for the man who had run, and they quickly found him. He had gone back inside the apartment building that Sergeant Huber had originally seen the trio come out of before they got into the Dodge Shadow. The runner was 17-year-old DeMarcus Smith, and with him in the building he was attempting to hide inside of was 20-year-old Heather Matthews, and she was actively trying to hide DeMarcus. And so both of them were arrested as well. Demarcus, and so both of them were arrested as well. When all four of them were brought back to the station, the police noticed that Marvalis was wearing Danita's flannel jacket and Demarcus was wearing Danita's sneakers. Additionally, while these four were being processed at the police

station, a call came in from a team of police investigators who were searching the Dodge Shadow, and they would say that they recovered two guns, a.32 caliber Derringer pistol and a.25 caliber pistol that contained the same distinctive aluminum ammunition that was used in almost all of the murders. The police had just caught their killers, and they would soon find out they had done a lot more damage than the public was aware of. The police would interrogate all four of them that night, starting with Laura Taylor, who they thought would be the easiest to get information from because she was 16, so she was the youngest, and she was considered to be very kind and thoughtful. the youngest and she was considered to be very kind and thoughtful but laura would remain silent for the entire long interrogation and when she was asked at some point if she wanted to take a break

to go use the restroom she just stood up and urinated directly onto the floor and then sat back down again in silence but laura was the only one who acted tough. The other three talked. And before long, the police heard the whole awful story of what they had done. It all started back on the night of December 24th, Christmas Eve. Laura, Heather, and Marvalis were sitting around together talking about how they needed money. And at some point, Laura suggested they rob a guy she knew, Joseph Wilkerson. She said he probably had lots of nice things in his house, and I know he has a car, so we can take all of that. The other two liked the idea, and so Laura called Joseph and asked him if he wanted to be a part of an orgy with them.

And Joseph said yes. So the trio walked over to Joseph's house, he let them in, and then the two girls and Joseph walked back into that back bedroom while Marvellous sat on the couch in the living room. In the bedroom, Joseph laid on the bed and he took his clothes off and Heather and Laura pretended to start taking their clothes off when suddenly Marvellous, as planned, came bursting into the room with his pistol held out in front of him. He aimed it at Joseph and told him not to move and then he ordered Heather and Laura to tie Joseph's hands and ankles to the four posters of the bed. Joseph immediately begins to beg for his life and tells them they can take anything they want in the house. Anything in this house, it's yours,

just please don't shoot me. Marvalis instructed the girls to go search his house for valuables. And so while Marvalis is standing there with the gun aimed at Joseph, Joseph, perhaps in an attempt to kind of bargain his way out of this, says to Marvellous, hey, you know, I have a really amazing gun, a 32 caliber Derringer that I have hidden in the garage. If you want it, I can tell you where it is. And so Marvellous was totally interested. And he said, yeah, tell me where it is. And so Joseph explained where to go in the garage. And so Marvellous left the room, he went into the garage and he would eventually find this little gun this 32 caliber gun and then when marvellous walked back into the

bedroom with joseph he promptly walked over to joseph grabbed a pillow he put it over joseph's chest joseph is just looking up at him wondering what he's doing and then marvellous took this new gun this 32 caliber derringer, and he pushed it into the pillow. So it was aiming straight down at Joseph's body. Joseph pleaded with him not to shoot him, but Marvellous pulled the trigger and he fired a shot through the pillow into Joseph's chest. Joseph began screaming and then he made this guttural sound that his whole body began to shake. And so the other two girls, they heard the sound of the shot.

So they came running back into the bedroom and when they saw what was happening, they just stood there. And then Laura looked over at Marvalis and said, hey, can I shoot him too? And Marvalis says, sure. And he hands her the.32 caliber Derringer, the one they had taken from the garage.

And Laura takes the gun. She walks over to the still shaking Wilkerson. She repositions the pillow on his face. She pushes the Derringer into the pillow, aiming right at Joseph's face, and then she pulls the trigger, but it doesn't fire. And so frustrated, she turns away from Wilkerson, who's still making all sorts of noise. He's still shaking, and she walks over to Marvalis and says, let me use your gun. And so Marvalis pulls out a.25 caliber gun, it was his gun, it was the gun that used aluminum shell casing rounds, and he hands it to Laura, and so Laura hands him the Derringer, she takes the.25 caliber, and then she walks right next to Joseph again, she grabs the

pillow and makes sure it's flushed to his face. She puts the.25 caliber gun up against the pillow, aiming it right at Joseph's face, and then she pulls the trigger. This time the gun would fire, and as soon as it did, Joseph's body stopped shaking and he went limp. As the trio stood there staring at Joseph Wilkerson's lifeless body, they all realized something. Killing was actually quite fun. The trio left the bedroom and began eating Wilkerson's food and watching his TV and looking for things to steal,

all the while happily talking about how amazing the killing experience had just been. amazing the killing experience had just been. Eventually though, their killing high had worn off and they realized that Wilkerson did not have any cash in the house and really, he didn't have nice stuff in his house. So they couldn't really even sell very much of it for very much money. And so they decided they needed to go rob somebody else to get the money they needed. But first, they recruited another friend of theirs, Demarcus Smith, to come over and join them. When Demarcus arrived, he, along with Laura and Marvalis, left Wilkerson's house, leaving Heather behind to watch over the place. The trio walked away from the house towards town, keeping an eye out for anyone who was out alone and could potentially be an easy target to mug. And eventually, around 10

p.m., they spotted a young woman they didn't know standing near a payphone. It was Danita, and she was fishing coins out of her pocket to put into the phone. By the time Danita had finished dialing the number of her mother's house, she heard the sound of Marvalis and Demarcus come running up behind her, and when she turned around, she saw they had guns pointing at her, so she dropped the phone. Then the two men demanded she give them her shoes, which she instantly did, but then, simply because he thought it would be fun, Marvalis still just started shooting her. So he shot Danita four times, and then Demarcus, who had not been a part of the Wilkerson killing,

just immediately joined in, and he shot her a fifth time. After she was laying on the ground, dead or dying, the two men yanked her plaid jacket and her backpack off, and then they ran back to Laura on the other side of the road, and the trio retreated back to the Wilkerson house. road and the trio retreated back to the Wilkerson house. When Danita's sister, Rhonda, picked up that phone call around 10 p.m. and was met with silence, that really had been her sister Danita calling. But Danita had died literally seconds before the line had connected. Even though, once again, their robbery target did not yield them very much in terms of monetary value, the friends felt like this second murder was still a really good thing. It was a turning point for them.

They felt invincible. Killing was the best high that any of them had ever experienced. So, in some ways, it didn't matter that they weren't making any money out of these robberies. It was the killing part they liked. So in some ways, it didn't matter that they weren't making any money out of these robberies. It was the killing part they liked. To celebrate their murders, the four friends threw a party that night at Wilkerson's house. So Wilkerson's dead body is just literally decomposing in the bedroom. They just shut the door during this party.

One of the people who showed up to this party was Jeffrey Wright, one of Heather's former boyfriends. And at some point in the night, Heather and Jeffrey got into this huge argument, and Jeffrey grabbed Heather by the hair and started dragging her into a back room. And so drawn by the commotion of this, Marvallis burst into the room after them and chased Jeffrey, who leapt out of a window. Marvalis jumped out of the window after him and then began shooting at him, hitting Jeffrey four times in the legs as he ran away. Miraculously, Jeffrey would make it to a hospital and he would survive, though he would not go to police and tell them what happened.

Seeing Heather's ex-boyfriend get shot excited Laura, and she decided she wanted to shoot her ex-boyfriend too. So the next day on Christmas, Laura called up Richmond Maddox and asked him if he wanted to have sex with her at a nearby motel. When he said yes, she told him he would have to pay for the motel, so bring cash.

Richmond agreed, and when he arrived at the designated meeting place that day, Laura climbed into the front passenger seat next to him, knowing full well she was going to kill him and steal the money out of his wallet first chance she got. But after they took off, Richmond looked in his rearview mirror and he saw Marvellous and DeMarcus following them in a car. Sensing this was a setup, Richmond hit the gas

and without any hesitation, Laura pulled out the.32 caliber Derringer pistol they had stolen from Wilkerson. She placed it against Richmond's right temple and she fired. Then she threw herself out of the moving car right before it crashed into the tree. Marvalis and DeMarcus would swing by and pick her up a little ways down the road, and then the trio would head back to their base of operations, the Wilkerson house. At this point, the foursome had killed three people and nearly

killed a fourth. But while they were very pleased with this, they still hadn't managed to take anything of real value from any of their victims. And realistically, even though the killing was fun, they did need cash. They had no money. So the next morning on December 26th, Laura, Marvalis, Demarcus, and Heather decided they would rob a convenience store. So they pulled up in front of Sarah Abraham's store, and while Heather, Demarcus, and Marvalis waited outside in the car, Laura went in to scope the place out. After going inside and counting how many people were in there, although she counted wrong,

she walked up to the counter to buy gum, but she was a nickel short. However, 71-year-old Jimmy Thompson gave her the nickel she needed, and so she bought the gum, she smiled, and she made her way out. When she walked back outside, she hopped into the car, and she told DeMarcus and Marvalis that it was just two people inside, a cashier and the man who had given her a nickel. She had not seen Jones Pettis, who was at the end of one of the aisles. So DeMarcus and Marvalis go inside the shop,

and they hold Sarah and Jimmy at gunpoint, and after getting all the cash out of the cash register, which was only $40, the urge to kill became too much for Marvalis to control. And so he raised his gun, he aimed it at Sarah, and he shot her in the face. DeMarcus would attempt to shoot Jimmy, but he would miss. And then the pair, on their way out, would notice Jones at the end of the aisle. And even though he posed absolutely no threat to them, they shot at him anyways.

posed absolutely no threat to them, they shot at him anyways. After Heather drove them away from the convenience store, they stopped at a gas station for reasons we don't really know, at which point DeMarcus and Marvellous, they see this woman, Kathy Henderson, who's just completely minding her own business. She's putting air in her Dodge Shadows tires, and they decide they're going to kill her too. So they hop out of the car, they walk over to her, and Marvalis literally says to her, you're going to die today. And then he raises his gun and he begins shooting at her, as does DeMarcus. But amazingly, they miss her, and so she gets away. She does not get shot, and then they just steal her car. And so she gets away, she does not get shot, and then they just steal her car. Even though, by now, the foursome had left behind an astounding amount of evidence that 100% was going to get them caught eventually.

Despite that, their only fear at this time was that two of their friends, 18-year-old Marvin Washington and 16-year-old Wendy Cattrill, might snitch and turn them in. Marvin and Wendy had been present at that big party at the Wilkerson's house and had overheard the foursome talking about the murders. And the foursome knew they had overheard. But strangely, Wendy and Marvin were not the only people at that party who had overheard them. 18-year-old Nicholas Woodson was also at this party, and he overheard, and they knew he overheard.

But for some reason, the foursome had identified Marvin and Wendy as the most likely to snitch. And so Marvallis confronted the pair about this, and he told them they would have to come along for the next murder to prove their loyalty and trustworthiness. And Wendy and Marvin agreed. And so that night on December 26th, Marvalis and DeMarcus drove Marvin and Wendy out to the edge of town to this gravel pit. And when they got there and parked the car, Wendy and Marvin realized they were the next murder victims. They pleaded with Marvellous

to let them go, that they wouldn't say anything they promised, but he wasn't having it. Marvin eventually got out of the car, and DeMarcus followed, and DeMarcus told Marvin to get on his knees, which he did, and then Demarcus shot him in the back of the head, execution style. And so Wendy has seen this happen, so she knows she's next, and she begins screaming and begging for her life, and she grabs onto the inside of the car so as not to get pulled out, but Demarcus comes back over to the car, he grabs her and starts pulling on her. And then Marvalis as well comes around and he grabs onto her too. And between the two of them, they're able to pull Wendy out of the car.

At which point Marvalis told her to open her mouth. And eventually she would. And Marvalis put the pistol, the.25 caliber pistol, into her mouth. And he told her to bite the barrel. And then when she was biting the barrel, he pulled the trigger. The killers left the bodies where they fell and just hopped back in their car and headed back into town. Nicholas Woodson likely knew that Marvin and Wendy had just been killed for snitching. And so he's thinking to himself, you know, I overheard them talking about the murders.

What's stopping Marvellous and DeMarcus from killing me next? I know about the murders and they know that. And so that was the point at which Nicholas would call the tip line. And he would say, I know who the killers are. It's these four people. call the tip line and he would say, I know who the killers are. It's these four people. And literally, practically at the exact same time that Nicholas was giving this tip, Sergeant Huber had spotted Marvalis and DeMarcus and Laura getting into the Dodge shadow, which would lead to their arrest as well as Heather Matthews' arrest. After going to trial a year later,

Laura Taylor, Heather Matthews, and DeMarcus Smith would all receive life sentences. As for Marvellous Keene, who was effectively the ringleader of the foursome, he would be sentenced to death. His execution was carried out on July 21, 2009. He died by lethal injection. enjoyed today's story and you're looking for more bone-chilling content, be sure to check out the rest of our studio's podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, and Run Full.

Just search for Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts. If you want to watch hundreds more stories just like the one you heard today, head to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time. See ya. Hey, Prime members. I'm going to go. at wondery.com slash survey. If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good you are a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious. And if that's the case, then I've got some good news. We just launched a brand new

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