Prime Crime: Solved Murders - The Dayton Christmas Killings Pt. 2

Episode Date: December 21, 2022

The spree continues into Christmas Day and beyond, during which the teen gang murders their third, fourth, fifth and sixth victims. After a tip, police catch the group wearing victims’ clothing, driving a victim’s stolen car, and in possession of the guns they used in their murders. A Parcast holiday special from Serial Killers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes depictions of murder and gun violence. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. It was the morning after Christmas, 1992, when Jimmy Thompson dropped by the shortstop minimar in Dayton. The 71-year-old came by a lot. Everyone knew Jimmy was a regular. Sometimes he even picked up shifts there to help out. The convenience store was splendidly decorated for the holiday.

season. But it was relatively empty that morning. There was just Jimmy and one other customer. And of course, Sarah Abraham, the 38-year-old owner. She and her family were originally from Ethiopia and had bought the store eight years earlier. At some point, a 16-year-old girl named Laura Taylor waltzed in. She asked Sarah how much the soft drinks cost. Turned out she was five cents short, so Jimmy gave her a nickel. And why not? It was the Christmas season. Laura took the money and walked around the store a little longer before leaving. A few minutes later, the door flew open again. Before anyone else could react, two young men barreled inside, brandishing guns at Sarah.

They demanded everything in the cash register. Whether or not they actually said it, the message was clear. If she didn't, they were going to shoot everyone. Hi, I'm Greg Paulson. This is serial killers, a Spotify original. from Parcast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today, we're wrapping up our story in a 1992 holiday weekend massacre, known as the Dayton Christmas Killings. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers

and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. Last time, we learned about four teenagers called The Downtown Posse, whose desire for money and control led them to kill for the first time. Today, we'll follow the teens to the violent climax of their Christmas murder spree, and we'll see how inevitably their crimes catch up with them. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. Own it all.

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Watch the new Hulu original series, The Testaments. Streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply. 19-year-old Marvellous Keen was having a midday Christmas meal at his buddy Nick Woodson's house. Nick's aunt had made the kids a feast before going to celebrate Christmas with family elsewhere. So Marvellous enjoyed his food with Heather Matthews,

Laura Taylor and Demarcus Smith. Nick and his girlfriend Melissa Gomez were there too. It might sound like a nice scene, a Christmas lunch for a group of misfits, coming together for the holiday as a chosen family. But the illusion was shattered when Heather allegedly told Melissa where DeMarcus got the feel of sneakers he was wearing. He stole them from a girl they had killed the previous night. Heather was referring to Danita Galette, an 18-year-old that Marvellous and DeMarcus shot down in a phone booth on Christmas Eve. We don't know exactly how Melissa reacted, but she had to have been shocked. It's not the kind of story one expects to hear at Christmas dinner.

But what she didn't know was that DeNita's murder was only the tip of the iceberg. The teens had also murdered a 34-year-old man named Joseph Wilkerson had attempted to kill one of their fellow downtown posse members, Jeffrey Wright. So no, these teens were not your average Christmas brunch guest. But after all the bloodshed so far, the foursum still hadn't gotten what they were after, money. So after the Christmas festivities, Marvellous, Heather, Laura, and DeMarcus returned to the home of the first man they'd shot, Joseph Wilkison. There, with Joseph lying dead in the other room, they raided his kitchen, stole more of his stuff,

and bounced around ideas who to rob next. Laura suggested her ex-boyfriend, Richard Maddox. She'd met him at a homecoming dance while in school. He only lived two blocks away from Joseph and just a few miles from where Marvellus and DeMarcus shot Danita Galette. If you remember, Laura had also been the one to suggest they robbed Joseph. So while Marvellous appeared to be the leader of the gang, Laura seemed to be something of a planner.

In fact, Nick Woodson later said that Laura was the group's recruiter. But of course, it wasn't all Laura, because if any of the other three had doubts about continuing their spree, they didn't seem to speak up or try to. stop it. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa's not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but we have done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. There's a term that explains why people might not express their doubts in a situation like this. It's called Group Think. Yale psychologist Ervin Janice coined this term in 1971 after researching decision-making in high-stress situations. Janice noted that Group Thin,

think sometimes encourages individuals to consider the group's cause more important than the consequences, and the feeling you get from belonging in a group overcomes someone's personal doubts about a decision. The phenomenon helps rationalize very negative behaviors. At least some members of the downtown posse could have been experiencing an extreme version of group think. Dangerous and violent actions were not only being tolerated but approved of because it was important to the group. And at that moment, the only thing that was important to the downtown posse seemed to be cash. So they came up with a scheme to rob Richard. Laura was going to get him alone by asking if he wanted to go to a motel room.

But the strategy hit a snag immediately, because when Laura went to Richard's house, he wasn't interested in leaving with her. It's not clear if he was uninterested or just busy, but it was Christmas Day after all. And his family was apparently home too, because the sister recalled Laura coming to the door more than once. After two failed attempts at luring Richard to a motel, Marvellus and Laura decided to stake out an ATM on Germantown Street on their own. It's not clear where DeMarcus and Heather were during this time. By that point, it was getting late in the day, and since it was winter, the sunlight was fading fast. Still, most would consider it a pretty brazen time to rob an ATM.

Marvellus and Laura apparently weren't scared, though. Their inhibitions seemed about as low as they could be. Allegedly, a customer did come to the ATM, but the couple missed it because they were busy having sex. The encounter may have been fueled by teenage hormones, but there's also a physiological explanation. Adrenaline and excitement can increase one's libido. According to Dr. Cindy Meston, a renowned Canadian-American sexual psychology researcher, physical excitement does the same thing to a body that sexual arousal does, like raising our heart rate and activating our nervous system. What's more, according to a 2015 study by a group of psychologists, disgust reduces sexual arousal in women. It seems like Laura and Marvellis weren't feeling too concerned about the

lives they'd taken. It's more likely that they were invigorated by the violence and what was to come. But the missed opportunity at the ATM meant that after 24 plus hours and two people dead, the group still hadn't been able to score any real money. That might be why they decided to try Richard Maddox house one last time. Marvellis and Laura met back up with Heather and DeMarcus. At some point that evening, Laura was dropped off at Richard's house. The others waited in a car around the corner, ready to trail Richard and Laura if they left. Laura may have convinced him to go to a hotel with her, and by this time she might have had another excuse up her sleeve. Whatever she said worked this time. Richard and Laura got into his car and drove away. Except there was one thing Richard

forgot to bring with him, his wallet. Once again, the downtown posse was about to rob someone who didn't have any money. There are a few theories as to what happened next. Some sources suggest that Laura was angry when she realized he didn't have any cash. It's also possible that Richard saw something that alerted him to trouble, Marvellus, Demarchus and Heather, following him in another car. Whatever the reason, the end result was the same. Laura took the Derringer they'd found at Joseph's house and shot Richard in the head. She didn't seem to have fought the move through because the car was still moving, and Richard, now fatally wounded, was still behind the wheel. Laura leapt out of the car just before it smashed into a tree. Then she ran, sprinting two

blocks until she got to a shopping center. She was covered in blood. It was a loud, messy, chaotic crime, and it still didn't result in a payday. Maybe that's why Marvellis and DeMarcus tried to yank Richard out of the driver's seat and steal the car, even after Laura fled. But they ended up running as well. According to Heather, when the group met up with Laura, she kept saying, I shot him in the head, I shot him. It's impossible to know exactly how the teens were feeling at these moments. But by Laura's account, it seemed to be a mixture of shock and thrill.

And based on their later actions, it's clear that at least some of them were feeling pride as well. In the aftermath of the shooting, they met up with their friend Nick Woodson, and bragged about the kill. He later recalled seeing Laura during this time. She was limping and had a cut on her hand. Nick seemed worried about the situation for obvious reasons. He was having regrets, but his friends didn't heed his warnings, not in the slightest. Instead, they laughed.

Coming up, Christmas Day ends, but the downtown posse is just getting started. All right, everyone. Welcome to Arco Rewards Orientation. I'm Hannah. Whoa. Is everything okay? That's a code green. Someone just earned at least five cents a gallon in rewards. Wow. Another one? Well, that one's a code gold. The customer just redeemed savings of up to a dollar a gallon.

Impressive. What does that one mean? Oh, that's just piggy. He gets excited when we talk about rewards. Savings of up to $1 per gallon redeemable with $20 rewards dollars in your loyalty account. At participating locations, terms and conditions apply. Now back to the story. year old Marvellous Keane and his teenage friends had murdered three people over Christmas weekend in 1992. They supposedly sought out each victim with intentions to rob them, but after the first kill, murder seemed to be their new answer for everything. It was their desire for quick cash

fueled by bloodlust that drove the foursome to stock Dayton, Ohio in the early morning hours of December 26th. They settled on a green machine ATM on Salem Avenue as their next hit. They'd tried staking one out before without any success. The second time wasn't the charm either. No one showed up. It was early in the morning on the day after Christmas. Not many people were out and about, which meant that teens were going to have to find another way to make some money. With Heather as the group's chauffeur, they drove around Dayton looking for other opportunities. They found their next victim at a BP gas station. She was filling up the tires of her black Dodge Shadow. Marvellus and DeMarcus rushed up to her guns drawn.

According to one source, they told her, You will die today. Well, they were wrong. The woman booked it. Marvellous and DeMarcus fired after her, but she got away. She left them alone with her shadow, though. Getting another car wasn't so bad, so the teens took it. But they still hadn't made any money.

And a stolen car isn't the easiest thing to sell without raising alarm bells. Barvales suggested going to Detroit to hawk it, but that never happened. They needed a sure thing, somewhere with a cash register. So Heather drove them all three miles down the road to the shortstop mini market on West Fifth Street. The mark was apparently chosen by the group's planner, Laura. She agreed to go in first to scope out the scene. It was just before 8 a.m. and 38-year-old Sarah Abraham was working behind the counter when Laura entered. There were two other customers in the store.

Jimmy Thompson and Jones Pettis. Jimmy loaned Laura a nickel to buy a soda, and after wandering around the store a moment longer, she left. Outside, Laura told the others that there were just two people inside. Since there were actually three inside, it's not clear if she miscounted, lied, or misspoke. Heather gave Demarchus the Derringer, and Marvellous kept his own 25 caliber.

The two burst into the store and ran up to the counter with their guns raised. They ordered Sarah to give them whatever. was in the register. She did as they asked, but there wasn't much to give. The drawer had less than $50 in it. Still, she handed it over. She'd co-operated. Now she hoped these kids would leave.

Unfortunately, they didn't. DeMarcus fired first, hitting one of the customers, Jones. Marvellis shot Sarah directly in the face. One or both of them then fired at Jimmy, who slumped over the counter. With blood on their hands and their pitiful loot secured, the teenagers ran. But unbeknownst to them, their bullets had actually missed Jimmy. The 71-year-old was playing dead, slumped over the register. While the group fled, Jimmy or another bystander, was able to call the police and tell them what happened. Sarah and Jones were rushed to the

hospital with life-threatening injuries. Jones pulled through, but Sarah eventually passed away. Authorities arrived at the mini-mart, including Detective Doyle Burke. He described the place as horrific. Christmas decorations and candy were scattered all around, soaked in blood. But aside from the carnage, there was something else that drew Burke's eye. Blazer aluminum shell casings lay in the floor of the store, under the counter, and next to a bag of chips. These were the same shell casings police had found at the murder scene of 18-year-old Danita Gillette just two nights earlier. Again, these were unusual. According to Burke, they were typically used for target practice.

Authorities speculated that these deaths were tied to the other recent criminal activity in the area. Danita was killed at a phone booth, Richard Maddox was murdered in his car, and just before the mini-march shooting, a woman was held at gunpoint while salents stole her dodged shadow. Of course, police didn't even know about Joseph Wilkerson yet, the man that Marvellous and Laura shot on Christmas Eve. To the Dayton authorities, the crimes had seemed random at first, but the bullet casings were tangible evidence suggesting the incidents were related. And that wasn't all.

Jimmy's description of the assailants at the minymart matched the carjacking victims. The theft of the Dodge Shadow was now the most important lead authorities had. The missing car was the key. And just as police began to suspect some kind of spree, the media got a hold of the story. They called the massacre the Christmas killings. The citizens of Dayton were horrified. Part of what made the crime so scary was that the victim seemed to be chosen at random. A young mom was making a phone call.

A woman was filling up her tires. An elderly man was shopping at the corner store, and the killers were still out there, driving around, searching for more prey. By that point, Marvellis, Laura, DeMarcus, and Heather might have been feeling some pressure. As far as they knew, they'd just robbed a store in broad daylight and killed everyone inside. It wasn't going to be easy to fly under the radar. It's possible they finally realized... They could actually be caught for this.

The foursome decided to switch license plates on their stolen cars. They put Joseph's Grand Am plates on the Dodge and the Dodge plates on the Grand Am. But was that enough? Only a day ago they'd brag to their buddies about their deeds. Now, the foursome might have wondered... Were their friends, allies, or liabilities? DeMarcus told Marvellous. that he thought two of their Yuma Place comrades were going to rat on them.

16-year-old runaway Wendy Contrell and her boyfriend, 18-year-old Marvin Washington. Now, a lot of other people also knew about the group's crimes. To name a few, their friend Nick Woodson, his girlfriend, Melissa, and of course Jeffrey Wright, the man Demarcus shot at Yuma Place on Christmas Eve. But Wendy and Marvin seemed to be the priorities. They'd supposedly seen Joseph Wilkerson's dead body, and they were at Yuma Place when Jeffrey Wright was shot. They'd heard the posse talking about it. So on Saturday morning, shortly after violently shooting up a Dayton Corner Store, the gang of young killers set out to

take care of the loose ends. 19-year-old Marvellous Keane was wearing a plaid jacket, one he'd taken from a second victim, Danita Galette. His co-conspirator, 17-year-old DeMarcus Smith, was wearing Danita's expensive feel-s sneakers. Also in the car was 16-year-old Laura Taylor and 20-year-old Heather Matthews. A little after 9 a.m. on December 26th, the foursome picked up Wendy and Marvin. Nick Woodson, another friend, was with them as well, but Nick overheard the group's intentions about killing any of their friends who knew too much. He smartly asked to be let out of the car, and Marvellis allowed it. The group was drinking while driving around, and Marvellous

decided to stop and visit his brother's grave. As we learned in part one, Maris had been shot during a robbery attempt about a year earlier. He was only 19 when he died. The fact that Marvellus wanted to see Maurice at this point suggests that the weekend's bloodshed was connected to his anger over his brother's death. But it's also possible that Marvellus didn't care what happened to him anymore. His own mother has said, quote, I don't know if he was determined to get killed at 192 or what. Maybe so. But if he wasn't determined to get killed, he was certainly willing to be the one doing the killing. Coming up, the downtown posse claims their final victims.

Now back to the story. After the visit to the cemetery, the teens drove until Marvellous told the others he had to go to the bathroom. The car pulled into an isolated gravel yard owned by the city. That's when he and DeMarcus told Wendy and Marvin to get out of the vehicle. Marvellis and DeMarcus drew their guns and forced Wendy and Marvin to go over to a gravel pit behind some rocks. Marvellus put his gun in Wendy's mouth. All the while she swore she hadn't told anyone. It didn't matter what she said. Demarchus shot Marvin first, then Marvellus shot Wendy. Both were hit in the head. Apparently the two killers then

returned to their car where DeMarcus reloaded and went back to shoot them some more. Marvin was shot a total of ten times and Wendy three. Meanwhile, the friend they'd let out of the car, Nick, had returned to his aunt's house on Comler Avenue to seek refuge. Unfortunately for him, at least one source said the posse found him there shortly after they killed Marvin and Wendy, but they weren't there to murder Nick. Instead, they wanted him to kill his girlfriend, Melissa. You might remember that on Christmas Day, Heather allegedly told Melissa all about where they got

their new, expensive feel of sneakers. So now, the group seemed concerned that Melissa was going to run to the authorities. She had to go. What the group didn't know was that Nick had already called the police tip line. He was their rat. So now the Dayton cops had details about the entire murderous crew. They knew their names and all about the downtown posse. Dayton police officers got an alert to be on the lookout for the Dodge Shadow as well as the 14s. They were homicide suspects. Around 140 p.m., Sergeant Huber was patrolling the west side of the the Miami River. He'd heard the radio broadcast, so he focused on areas where he'd been able to locate

stolen cars in the past. One of these was Cumler Avenue, where the Woodson House was. It was also where the teens had parked the Dodge, along with the other stolen car, Joseph Wilkerson's Pontiac Grand Am. Huber saw the shadow when he passed the street, but when he got a closer look, he was confused. The plates didn't match the car he was looking for. When he ran them, he realized. He realized the rear plate shouldn't be on a Dodge shadow at all. He soon found the Grand M parked nearby. It had the same plate number as the stolen Dodge. Huber called it in, certain he was on to something. Then he hid in an alley within view of the cars, determined to keep watch. While he staked out, the downtown posse were panicking. They'd spotted Huber's police cruiser

circling the block. Their safe space wasn't so safe anymore. Once the cruiser was out of sight, the foursome decided they needed to flee. They scurried out of the home and piled into the Dodge shadow. With Marvellous and the others gone, Nick remained in his aunt's house, likely terrified out of his mind. His so-called pals had murdered six people, two of which were his friends. And now they wanted Nick to kill his own girlfriend. He couldn't just stay there like a sitting duck.

It had probably occurred to him that if the posse came back, they could kill him too. They were like cornered animals by that point. So Nick called the police again. After he spoke with officers, units across the city got an urgent radio transmission. Okay, Cruz, we just got the call at 729 Cumler. Got information that says a black Dodge shadow parked in front. Supposed to be guns in the car. At the same time, Sergeant Huber saw the Dodge take off and frantically called it in.

He probably needed backup, but if he waited too long, the teens could get away. so he followed the car. With Huber trailing behind them, the Dodge stopped. Then a door flew open. DeMarcus jumped out and took off. Huber couldn't exactly chase after him without letting the others run. So he stayed with the shadow. Aside from DeMarcus's supposed getaway,

no one else made a move to flee. The Dodge remained stopped. From Huber's point of view outside the car, the teens seemed to be cooperating, but inside the vehicle, Laura wasn't so compliant. She told Marvellus to shoot the officer. We'll never know if Marvellis was going to listen to her or not because backup arrived.

Seeing that they were so outnumbered, Marvellous and the others stopped resisting. It was over. In the car, officers found two guns. One was loaded with the blazer aluminum casings they'd picked up at a few of the crime scenes. The other was the Derringer, the same weapon used to kill Richard Maddox. They also realized that Marvellus was wearing Danita Galette's coat. Police went back to the Woodson House, where they found a Marcus. He was also decked out in a dead woman's clothes.

He still wore Danita's feelist sneakers. The downtown posse had been captured, and the horrific Christmas weekend had finally come to a close. But investigators still didn't know just how bad the spree had been. That is, until they decided to talk to Joseph Wilkerson, The Pontiac Grand Am the teen stole was registered to him. When investigators arrived at Wilkerson's, no one answered the door, and Detective Burke recalled an odor coming from the house. They went inside to find the place was a mess, clearly ransacked.

A deceased Joseph Wilkerson was bound to the headboard of his bed by electrical cords, right where the teenagers had left him. The same blazer aluminum casings were found on the ground. The teenagers were now officially linked to four different, murders. There was a lot of solid evidence that tied them to the crimes, but Dayton police wanted to get a confession. They interviewed Laura first. At 16, Laura was the youngest of the group. They likely thought her age would make her more susceptible to an interrogation. They were very wrong. Laura was an iron trap. She didn't say a word. And when she was asked if she needed to use the bathroom, she urinated

on the floor. Barvalis was taken to an interrogation room and held for three hours. Once detectives arrived, he proceeded to talk to them for 45 minutes. He was interviewed again the next day. According to police, and as seen in a recording of the confession, Marvellis was clearly alert. Despite his claims that he was severely intoxicated that day, authorities said that he was, quote, in full command of his senses. Heather and DeMarcus talked almost immediately. They each went over what they'd done and what they were going to do. Apparently, at one point, they told the police, they were on their way to kill three more people. At least one friend of Heather Matthews supported this. She came forward to say the group was on their way to kill her because she knew too

much. She said, they told me about the killings, and they told me they were going to kill Marvin and Wendy, and I didn't believe them. They just scared me to death. The demeanor of the teens seemed to unnerved some authorities, too. According to the Dayton Daily News, one investigator on the case said, they weren't remorseful at all. just mad we stopped them before they could kill the others. A study published by Princeton University in 2002 found that kids who are exposed to gun violence early on can have a multitude of psychological effects. The obvious one being anger, but also a desensitization to violence is common.

The desensitization in particular can help explain why Laura, Marvellis, and DeMarcus didn't necessarily show or feel remorse for the people they killed. It's possible that the bloodshed. shed just wasn't that shocking to them. Even though three out of the four teens had confessed, authorities still seemed eager to get Laura to talk. According to one source, a minister who knew Laura called the police and offered to speak with her. It seemed like a little holy intervention was just what she needed to open up. On Sunday, a day after the gang was captured, Laura told the minister that there were two more

bodies the police hadn't found yet. But before you go thinking she was showing some semblance of regret, the minister told law enforcement that Laura wasn't just confessing. She seemed to be bragging. At this point, the police didn't know that Wendy and Marvin were dead, so the information was a surprise. Authorities went to that isolated stretch of gravel where the teenagers had been killed and found their bodies. In the aftermath, each of the teenagers were slapped with a slew of charges.

In the summer of 1993, all four of them had to answer for their crimes. There was a lot of evidence connecting them to the murders, the matching bullets, the stolen cars and items from their victims, and the witness reports, including first-hand accounts from Nick Woodson, not to mention a confession from three out of four of the perpetrators. Heather became yet another witness when she agreed to testify against the others. Even with her cooperation, she received two consecutive life terms, 182 years in prison. Laura and DeMarcus were minors, but were tried as adults. DeMarcus ended up pleading guilty to multiple felonies and was sentenced to 186 years in prison. Laura got the lightest sentence of them all, 133 years. At 19, Marvellis was legally an adult, and the death penalty was on the table. Not to mention news outlets pegged him as the ringleader.

His subsequent 26 appeals, including one on the basis of racial discrimination, were all overruled. Ultimately, he was convicted in five of the six murders by a panel of three judges, having waived his right to a trial by jury. In the summer of 2009, Marvellous Keene was executed by lethal injection. He had no last words. There's a lot of debate about what drove these four teens to kill with such callous ease. The sentiment in the Dayton Police Department seems to be that these crimes were motivated by greed. But even they're confused about how an initial robbery turned into a weekend murder spree.

A fellow downtown posse gang member thinks we don't have to look so hard for a reason. She said they did it just because they wanted to kill. Their actions might seem like they came out of nowhere, but people like the downtown posse are not created overnight. We can't ignore the circumstances that drove them there. Each of them grew up on the forgotten side of a crumbling city. full of violence and trauma. Others, like Marvellis, saw a sudden, brutal death turn his world upside down.

It seemed to make him realize just how much was out of his control. This sentiment seems to be common in American teenagers. Parents and teachers are always telling kids what to do, how to feel, how to act. Add in that these teens were struggling to survive,

and that desire, that need for control, might have become more powerful. Even the court seemed to recognize, some of these mitigating factors. According to an analysis of Marvellis' case by the state of Ohio, these included his, quote, youth, clean record, mental disorders, his remorse and confession, and the repeated traumatic loss of father figures from his life. But the court also pointed out that he was raised by a hardworking religious family. Ultimately, Marvellis knew the difference between right and wrong, and he chose wrong. Of course, no one really knows what we're going to

why the downtown posse did what they did. But whether it was a need for control or for money, the fact is that they took six innocent lives. They turned a small city's Christmas wonderland into a Christmas nightmare. Thanks again for tuning into serial killers. We'll be back soon with a new episode. For more information on the Dayton Christmas killings, amongst the many sources we used, we found The Christmas Killings, 40 Hours to Justice, by Stephen C. Grismor, Judith M. Mansour, and Dennis A. Murphy, extremely helpful to our research. You can find all episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify.

We'll see you next time. Stay safe out there. Cereal Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive produced by Max Cutler, our head of programming is Julian Boreau. Our supervising sound designer is Russell Nash, with Nick Johnson as our head of production, and quality control by Spencer Howard. Ben Bishop is our supervising editor, and Derek Jennings is our writing lead. This episode of serial killers was written by Kate Murdoch, edited by Greg Castro and Terrell Wells, fact-checked by Mary Mathis, researched by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood, produced by

Bruce Kitovich, and sound design by Carrie Murphy. Our hosts are Greg Polaro. and me, Vanessa Richardson.