Prime Crime: Solved Murders - The Video Strangler Pt. 2

Episode Date: August 9, 2023

Like many serial killers, Maury Travis became over-confident. In the summer of 2002, after reading a story in the newspaper about one of his victims, he mailed a letter to the local newspaper offering them information on the location of another. He was careful not to leave any fingerprints or DNA evidence before mailing it, so how did they track him down? This episode originally aired on Serial Killers in July 2018.  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 discussions of murder and assault that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. Detective Marsha Corley had only been a detective for the Crimes Against Persons Unit of the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department for two weeks. She was assigned to a squad tasked with searching a vacant lot in West Dalton, Missouri. on May 25, 2002. On that summer morning, she and the other detectives were following a printed out map where X marked the spot.

But rather than hunting for buried treasure, the detectives were searching for a homicide victim. Potentially the 17th woman that serial killer Mori Travis had imprisoned in his basement, tortured, raped, and strangled to death. The police search for the serial killer had all but stalled, then Mori Travis sent the local newspaper a letter that would be his undoing. The anonymous note was accompanied by a map to the body of his alleged 17th victim. The existence of this body would show police whether they were dealing with a mere attention seeker or a bona fide serial killer.

Marcia Corley said, Arriving at that location on the sunny May morning, I was prepared for a long hot day as I walked the grassy area between the, the wood line along the former railroad tracks in St. Charles Street, I observed what I thought was a rather large mushroom lying in the grass. It was a bleached human skull. Hi, I'm Greg Polson, and this is serial killers. Today we're going to take a deep dive into the life of Mori Travis, the St. Louis Video Strangler. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. We'd like to ask a quick favor. Would you leave a five-star review

of serial killers on your favorite podcast directory. It seems so simple, but it really helps us out. And don't forget to subscribe while you're there, because a new episode comes out every Monday. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast and on Twitter at Parcast Network or on our website, parkast.com. Marie Travis, also known as the video strangler,

tortured, raped, and murdered as many as 20 women in the St. Louis, Missouri area from two 2000 to 2002. Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she's done a lot of research for this show. From the outside, Mory Travis had a seemingly normal childhood. He was born in St. Louis on October 25, 1965, and those who remember him said he was an incredibly quiet boy.

In part one, we discussed how Travis's callousness and unemotional behavior as a child could have been an early warning sign for psychopathic behaviors. As an adult, Travis became addicted to crack cocaine, which would mark the beginning of his troubles with the law. Travis would struggle with his addiction for the rest of his life and be in and out of prison four times for robberies and parole violations for possessing drugs.

In 2001, after Travis's third release from prison at age 35, he began to solicit sex workers along Broadway in the Baden neighborhood of St. Louis. Sometimes Travis would let us. the women leave after they had smoked crack and engaged in consensual sex. But many of these women would never be seen alive again. Travis would film his interactions with these women as he verbally berated them and tortured them with a stun gun. In part one, we discussed how Travis's videotape trophies allowed him to revisit his crimes in vivid detail whenever he wanted. Travis would imprison these women in his basement for days at a time. Ultimately, he would strangle his victim.

to death and leave their bodies in overgrown lots in East St. Louis on both the Missouri and Illinois side of the Mississippi River. In the summer of 2001, police were finding the bodies of these women once every five to six weeks, but their investigation stalled when Travis was sent to prison once more on November 29, 2001, for violating probation by possessing drugs. He was released in March 2002 at age 30. In May of 2002, Bill Smith, a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was still troubled by the unsolved murders. Police had recovered nine bodies in total, three of which were too badly decomposed to be identified. Smith couldn't shake the horrors that St. Louis sex workers had faced, and the risks they were taking every day.

Smith wrote an article for the newspaper about the nine-linked homicides and conducted an in-depth profile of Teresa Wilson, one of the risks. of the slain women. His article portrayed her as more than just a sex worker or murder victim. Smith talked to friends of Wilson, who told him about her loving relationship with her daughter and her struggles with drug addiction. He wrote, The women know about Wilson and the others who have been murdered. They know what could be waiting for them in the next car. It's not that they don't care, it's just that they won't stop or can't. The article ran on the front page of the post-dispatch on May 19th, 2002. Smith hoped to foster empathy and bring public attention to the risks that St. Louis's

sex workers faced every day. Instead, Smith's call for justice provoked a man who committed atrocious acts of torture, rape, and murder. On May 24, 2002, five days after the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published Bill Smith's profile of Teresa Wilson, the news office received an anonymous letter praising the story. The letter read, quote, Nice sob story about Teresa Wilson. Write one about Green Wade. Write a good one, and I'll tell you where many others are.

To prove I'm real, here's directions to number 17. Search in a 50-yard radius from the X. Put the story in the Sunday paper like the last, end quote. As referenced in the letter, Alyssa Greenwayd was the first body police recovered almost a year earlier on April 1st, 2000. Since then, police had found another eight bodies, and now they had instructions to find another. The letter included a printed out map of nearby West Alton, where two other victims had been found. The map was marked with an X. The fact that Mori Travis communicated with the press and led them to one of his victims

displays a staggering amount of recklessness and overconfidence. One of the traits of psychopaths is a grandiose sense of self-worth and narcissism. Travis was likely delighted by the media attention that his murders were getting and wanted more. In the 2009 study, crime, media, and culture, Kevin D. Haggerty writes, quote, there are few quicker routes to celebrity than committing a sensational crime. Rather than being shamed by their actions, serial killers often revel in their celebrity and actively seek out media attention, end quote. Bill Smith immediately contacted the police, who dispatched a judge. team the next day on May 25, 2002, to search for the alleged 17th victim of the serial killer

they had been tracking for over a year. The skull that Marcia Corley found had been left in the lot so long that its skin and hair had decomposed and the exposed bones had been bleached in the sun. Police found more skeletal remains near the skull. The torso was still partially clad in a woman's dress. This proved to the police that the letter the St. Louis Post-Dispatch received, received was genuine. They had received communication from the killer. In the letter, Travis claimed that this was his 17th victim, but the police had only recovered 10 bodies, including this one. If Travis was telling the truth, there were at least seven more murdered women unaccounted for. It's possible that Travis could have been lying about the number

of victims. A common trait among psychopaths is pathological lying. Travis also could have been trying to manipulate and control the investigation with false information. He likely would have enjoyed sending the police on a search for victims that didn't exist and create more hysteria and panic for the public. Claiming a large amount of unknown victims certainly would have created more pressure for the detectives on the case. Still, his map led them to one of his victims, as promised. The only way for the police to know for sure how many victims the killer had claimed was to catch him.

and the letter Mori Travis sent to the Post Dispatch was their best piece of evidence so far. The letter was postmarked May 21st, 2002, two days after Bill Smith's article ran in the paper. The American flag stamp was affixed neatly, but upside down. For the return address, Travis had written, I Throldham, with a New York City address, even though the postmark indicated the letter had been sent locally.

I Thaldum was the name of a website, that featured bondage and torture pornography. The owners of the website were investigated, but there was no link to the victims. FBI Special Agent Robert Morton stated the return address on the envelope indicated its author was informing the world that he held the victims and controlled them.

He kept them for bondage at its pleasure. The FBI also believed that placing the stamp upside down was done to attract attention. An upside-down flag is an officially recognized symbol of distress, and the FBI believed Travis was letting them know that lives were at stake. Travis seemingly enjoyed orchestrating bizarre theatrics where he was the center of attention. The peculiarities in his letter are similar in many ways to how he made his victim to dance for him and repeat mantras affirming his dominance.

Travis felt he was in control. A common trait among psychopaths is a need for dominance and power, which comes from a deep-seated fear of rejection and loss of control. Mari Travis's lifelong struggle with his addiction to crack cocaine was an endless losing battle for him. He was likely exerting an extreme amount of dominance with his victims to compensate for his physiological dependence on crack cocaine. This insatiable need for power and inflated sense of ego also dictated that he ought to make it clear to the post-dispatch and the police that he was in control of them as well. While sending a letter to the press was certainly a risky move, Mori Travis was careful to not leave any fingerprints or DNA on the note, map, or envelope.

He likely used gloves when handing the letter and envelope and sealed it without using his saliva. The detectives contacted several local print shops, office supply stores, and specialty shops, trying to find a match for the floral stationary Travis had used, but came up short. On May 29, 2002, the FBI turned their investigation to the printed out. map showing the location of the alleged 17th victim that Travis had included with his letter. After a detailed search of online mapping websites, they concluded the map had been generated using the travel site Expedia.com. Law enforcement was still relatively new to online investigations. Most police departments did not yet have cybercrime divisions, and no one had yet used the

internet to capture a killer like this. The authorities took the map to Expedia, who informed them that all records of access to their website could be tracked through its then-parent company Microsoft. The FBI obtained a grand jury subpoena directing Microsoft Inc. to present all data, graphic files, log files, user account information, and session information associated with searching the West Alton area from May 18, 2002, the day before Bill Smith's article ran, through May 21, 2002, the day Mori Travis mailed the letter. Law enforcement hoped the information from Microsoft would help them compile a list of people who used the site to search for West Dalton and help them create a list of possible suspects.

Internet privacy is one of the most prominently debated issues in American politics today. But during the Mori Travis investigation, getting a subpoena for online search histories was seen as equivalent to getting approval for wiretapping a phone line. While the FBI worked on tracking the origins of the letter, Bill Smith got to work writing another article about Alyssa Greenwayde, the woman whose body was the first found over a year earlier on April 1, 2001. The FBI decided it was best to comply with the letter writer's demands. Bill Smith's article about Greenway would run on the front page of the Sunday paper just as Travis had wanted. They hoped that this harmless form of compliance with the killer's demands could lead to further communication, and thus more opportunities to catch him.

Smith wrote about Greenway's friendship with Reverend Inuka Mwanguzi, who was helping the 34-year-old mother of three combat her cocaine addiction. Like the article about Teresa Wilson, it was an empathetic portrayal of a woman whom society disregarded. As Travis insisted, the story ran on the front page of the Sunday paper on June 2, 2002. While the reporters at the post-dispatch waited to see if Travis would respond, The investigation was narrowing in on him through more advanced technology. The newspaper never got a second letter from Mori Travis.

He would be in police custody before ever having a chance to write back. On June 3, 2002, the day after Bill Smith ran his second article at Mori Travis's demand, Microsoft provided the FBI with a spreadsheet that showed only one person had accessed Expedia and searched the area of West Alton, Missouri during the dates the detectives provided. On the evening of May 20, 2002, Mori Travis zoomed in on the map of the West Alton area, approximately 10 times. The final time was an exact match of the map sent to the St. Louis Post dispatch. Microsoft gave the authorities the IP address that had accessed the site,

but couldn't provide a name. An IP address is a series of numbers assigned to your computer by your Internet service provider that allows your network to send information to your device. In the same sense that someone needs your mailing address to send you a letter, a remote computer or network needs your IP address to communicate with your computer. The series of numbers that make up an IP address are useless to most people. To translate the IP address, the FBI turned to WorldCom Inc, which provided local telephone numbers to connect internet services with their dial-up customers.

WorldCom assigned a temporary IP address to each customer for each internet session. The question wasn't just who used the 10-digit IP address, but who used it on the evening of May 20th. On June 4th, Worldcom's Internet Division, UUNet, identified the user on the evening of May 20th as MSN slash Mori Travis. This was one of the first murder investigations done through online sleuthing. It's easy to assume that Travis was being careless in his internet use. But at the time, people widely assumed their online browsing was as private as making a phone call or watching television. Many felt that deleting their browser history was enough to conceal their activities. Once investigators had the name, Mori Travis, the police and FBI easily tracked him to his address in Ferguson, Missouri,

and immediately put him under 24-hour surveillance while they prepared affidavits to obtain a search warrant. Three days later, on June 7, 2002, at 7 a.m., Maury Travis awoke to a knock on the door. He answered the door, groggy and still in his underwear, to find St. Louis homicide detectives, FBI agents, and an FBI recovery team with a search warrant for his house. Travis was seemingly unfazed. He asked the investigators why they were there so early.

They told him, you know why we're here. Travis got dressed and joined the police in the living room where they proceeded to interview him. Sergeant Tim Sacks, a 22-year-old veteran of the St. Louis Police Department, who had headed the investigation of the serial killings, said, quote, he wanted to control everything. He wanted to control where we sat. He tried to steer the conversation several times, end quote.

Sergeant Sacks recalled watching Travis's calico cat stroll through the room as they talked. Each time one of the investigators reached down to pet the animal, Travis stiffened and moved to the animal. the edge of his seat. Sacks said, quote, he didn't appreciate it at all, end quote. Finally, Travis picked up the cat and sat it next to him, out of reach of the investigators. We've discussed before on serial killers how animal abuse is a common early warning sign for people with psychopathic behaviors. It might seem strange that someone incapable of feeling love would keep a pet for companionship. In part one, we discussed how Travis had girlfriends

in order to keep up an outward appearance of a normal life. It's likely his cat was another form of his social camouflage. We've already discussed Travis's need for control and dominance, and because of this, he likely felt very possessive of his cat. He didn't enjoy something that he owned, exercising its own will and interacting with others. In fact, one theory suggests that psychopaths who own pets gravitate towards dogs, since they're more obedient, while cats are independent. although more studies need to be done on the subject.

Travis and the police sat in his living room for the next two hours while investigators tried to engage Travis in small talk. Travis deflected the questions one by one. Where did you grow up? they asked him. Travis responded by repeating the question back to them. What did you do as a child? they asked. Nothing, he said. Went to school. What did you do?

Sergeant Sachs said. He kept trying to redirect everything, every question. he wanted to be in control. At this point, with the police in his own living room, Travis had to understand that he was on very shaky ground. Feeling threatened, he continued to try to exert his dominance in a last-ditch effort to retain control of the situation. Travis never asked police why they had come

or why they were sitting in his house. He never admitted to any wrongdoing, but he also didn't deny anything either. At this point, Travis was likely trying to determine and how much the police knew and how much evidence they had against him. He seemed more interested in how the police had been able to find him. Finally, the investigators told him about the map. They said they knew it came from his computer

and that FBI agents were going to search his home for more evidence. At last, Travis exposed some of his pent-up anger. He cursed his computer and the Internet as two members of the FBI evidence recovery team began to search his basement. The detectives were surprised to find the basement in a state of disarray compared to how clean Travis kept the upstairs. FBI Special Agent Robert Morton said, of course, the downstairs had an entirely different purpose. The FBI recovery team found traces of blood on the floor and walls and began collecting samples while Sergeant Sachs and Agent Morton pushed Travis for more information. They showed Travis several pictures of the women they believed he had killed.

In the pictures, the women were smiling, unaware of the tragedy that would befall them. The detectives asked Travis if he knew any of them. He said he didn't. About 10 minutes later, Travis asked if he could see the pictures of those dead girls again. Sergeant Sachs said, Mori, we never told you these girls were murdered. We asked if you had ever known any of them. This is a common interrogation technique. Law enforcement withholds key pieces of information regarding the case.

and see if their suspect offers up additional knowledge they wouldn't have been privy to. As smart as Travis was, they had caught him off guard, and he was unable to stay ahead of the well-prepared FBI and police. Agent Morton and Sergeant Sachs were polite and non-accusatory toward Travis, going out of their way to make their interrogation feel more like a conversation. This is a strategy often used to put the suspect at ease. Travis was likely disarmed by their congeniality. The fact that he wasn't immediately apprehended

might have led Travis to believe that there was still a way out for him. Instead, the detectives were gathering as much information as possible to build a case against him. After Travis let it slip that he knew the women in the pictures were murdered, he fell silent and dropped his head, appearing vulnerable for the first time. Finally, Travis looked at the detectives and said, Come on, I'll take you.

When they asked where, he said, you know where I'm taking you. It's what you've been asking for the whole time, and I'll give you what you want. In the 1956 paper, the psychology of confession, Milton W. Horowitz writes, for the person to perceive confession as a path to freedom,

he must be aware of his vulnerability and weakness. The FBI and police had made it clear that the evidence was stacked against him, and Travis likely and rightfully believed them. Many criminals cooperate with the police, hoping that it might lead to a more lenient sentence or a plea bargain. It's possible that in his vulnerable moment, Travis was hoping for mercy. Sergeant Sachs and Agent Morton's interrogation had been strategically friendly and non-confrontational,

which Travis could have interpreted as willingness to negotiate. The investigators confirmed Travis was going to take them to the location of another victim. They got in the car and Travis told them to drive to East St. Louis. But as they came upon the bridge that crosses over the Mississippi River and left Missouri for Illinois, Travis had a change of heart. He suddenly told the detectives that he changed his mind and they should take him to jail. He started yelling at them, repeating, lock me up over and over. During the course of Travis' conversation with the investigators, he was likely trying to find ways to manipulate the situation and calculate his best possible outcome. He knew that they had traced the map of the victim back to his computer

and that they were searching his house for more evidence, which Travis understood they would almost certainly find. But as they crossed over the bridge into East St. Louis, Travis must have realized the full scale of the crimes he had committed. Capital punishment was and still is legal in Missouri. The state lists 17 aggravating factors that make first-degree murder punishable by death. Travis was easily on track for the death penalty. It's possible that Travis realized he had nothing to gain by helping Sergeant Sachs and Agent Morton.

Typically when criminals comply with law enforcement, it's after a lawyer has negotiated a plea bargain. In Travis' case, he had not yet been promised any compensation for his assistance. Whatever the reason that Travis changed his mind, Sergeant Sachs and Agent Morton rerouted their squad car and took Travis to police headquarters in downtown St. Louis. They likely assume there would be more chances later to get information on the whereabouts of Travis's additional victims. The detectives continued to interrogate Travis at police headquarters. They told him they needed his help to provide closure for the families of the victims. A sneer crept across Travis's face as he repeated the word, victim with disdain.

Sacks said, to him, these women were less than human. They questioned Travis for another three hours. At one point, Sacks tried to engage. Travis in a debate about whether the desire to kill was an inherent trait or learn behavior. Travis told Sacks that he would never understand and that he had been like this since he could remember. In several uncharacteristically nervous moments, Mori Travis did show concern for his mother. He repeatedly said, what am I going to tell my mom during his interrogation? It's difficult to make sense of a cold-blooded psychopath displaying signs of concern and affection.

While at first glance, Travis' relationship with his mother seemed normal and even positive, it was likely something much more flawed and complicated. The general consensus among psychiatric professionals is that psychopaths are incapable of empathy and love. Yet according to Willem H.J. Martin's 2002 paper, the hidden suffering of the psychopath, this doesn't mean that psychopaths don't want to receive the compassion they cannot give. He writes, quote, as with anyone else, psychopaths have a deep wish to be loved and cared for. This desire remains frequently unfulfilled, however, because it is obviously not easy for another

person to get close to someone with such repellent personality characteristics, end quote. Many serial killers we profiled have had turbulent and unfulfilling relationships with their mothers. Zelda K. Knight wrote in a 2006 study that the mothers of most serial killers are domineering, punitive and rejecting. Many of these women tend to be single mothers, so there are fewer studies on the effects of paternal influence on serial killers. Robbing their children of warmth and affection results in what Knight describes as a pathological lack of self-esteem.

While some people may dwell in feelings of self-loathing, others develop a natural defense of compensatory grandiosity. Their psyche is rooted in the idea that their critics must be wrong. This drive and desire for attention are emerging traits of a potential narcissist. Still, we don't know much about Travis' relationship with his mother, only that he cared greatly about her perception of him. It's also possible that some of the only positive attention Travis experienced throughout his life was from his mother. He described feeling lonely and isolated from his peers at a young age.

Wendy S. Gralnik details the intense bonds between parent and child in her book, the psychology of parental control, how well-meaning parenting can backfire. Children grow up naturally wanting to please their parents and generally develop the desire for autonomy in their adolescence as they start to socialize more outside their family. Without this socialization, that autonomy is diminished. If the only affection and socialization Travis received was from his mother, it's possible that he never outgrew his need to please her and his desire. for her love grew into an unhealthy fixation.

Sondra Travis has been very private about her son's alleged crimes. She's never done an interview or made a statement to the press about her relationship with her son. While Sergeant Sachs and Agent Morton continued their efforts to elicit a confession from Travis, the FBI recovery team was compiling evidence from his basement. Police seized his computer, ligatures, ropes, and belts splattered with what appeared to be blood. They found women's underwear and wigs. Travis also kept an extensive collection of written materials that dealt with bondage and sexual slavery. They gathered samples of Travis's DNA and noted that the tires on his beloved Mitsubishi eclipse matched treadmarks found on the leg of another victim.

He had gathered materials and plans for constructing a concrete block cell in his basement to serve as his personal torture chamber. He had written out explicit instructions for dealing with his captives and marked off locations where he could pick up victims as well as locations for disposal. While searching his basement, detectives located a secret wall. Behind it, they found one of Travis' VHS tapes, labeled Wedding tape. After an hour and 26 minutes of wedding footage as a cover, the remainder of the tape contained video Travis took of him torturing and strangling a young unknown woman until she died. The tape continued with a series of scenes of Travis torturing other

women, some of whom the police were able to identify. The tape was so disturbing that the police department offered free counseling to those who viewed it. The detectives told Travis about the tape asking him, you know what we found in your basement? Travis simply replied, yeah, I knew you'd find it. Several times during Travis's conversations with the FBI and police, He seemed to understand the full gravity of what was happening to him. He would drop his head and say, I'm toast over and over and tell the detectives, I'm not going back to prison. We know that Travis was shocked by the conditions of prison during his first incarceration.

In part one, we discussed the letter Travis sent to the judge after his first sentencing to prison. Travis described the horror he felt by the violence and sexual assault he witnessed while he was behind bars. It's not clear if he was ever victim to such abuse. However, the anxiety Travis had toward prison wasn't enough to overcome his addiction to crack. He returned to prison three times for violating parole by drug possession. After eight hours of interrogation, Sergeant Sachs handed the questioning over to Illinois State Police Special Agent James Walker and St. Louis homicide detective Roy Douglas. Because many of Travis's victims were found on the other side of the Mr. Mississippi River in Illinois. The investigation had expanded to a multi-state effort. Agent Walker and

Detective Douglas proceeded with a more confrontational line of questioning. Nineteen minutes into their interview, Travis asked for a lawyer and the interrogation ended. Travis was relocated to a maximum security one-man cell on the eighth floor of the St. Louis County Justice Center. On the day of his arrest, Travis was charged with two counts of federal kidnapping for allegedly transporting victims Alyssa Greenway and Betty James across state lines. Law enforcement planned additional charges awaiting the results of his DNA test, but Mori Travis had one final hand to play. Ultimately, he would rob the victims of the justice they deserved

and leave as many as 10 women to rot in unmarked graves. This is my chicken sandwich from 7-Eleven. People always call me loud. And I'm like, yeah, I know. I'm crispy. Did you expect me to whisper? If you want quiet, go eat some soup and reflect. Like, I know I'm a handful. I'm bold, I'm juicy.

Throw some pickles and barbecue sauce on me, and baby, I'm a whole meal. And with seven rewards, I'm just $4. Quiet. No. Crispy, saucy, and $4? Very. Only at 711. Valley through 62326,

participating stores only while supplies lastly out for full terms. Law enforcement had gotten a big win in arresting Mory Travis. They had spent more than a year investigating his high. homicides. The case went cold while Travis was in prison, and they weren't sure they'd ever find their killer. It's not often that investigators get a second chance. The evidence against Travis was mounting, and it looked as though it would be an easy trial. But on the evening of July 10, 2002, just three days after his arrest, Mori Travis hanged himself in his cell. Police were stunned. Mental health workers had examined Travis just two days earlier and established a plan to

prevent him from committing suicide. A security officer was required to check Travis every 15 minutes. A fellow inmate serving the duty of suicide prevention monitor was posted outside Travis's cell door to watch him continuously. While it might seem strange to trust another inmate with observing an alleged serial killer, it's more common than you would initially expect. A 2005 study by the Federal Bureau of Prisons found that trained inmate observers could reduce the amount of time suicidal prisoners remained on watch. Incarcerated individuals lack the support structure of friends, family, hobbies, and jobs that can give one purpose in life and increases the risk of suicide. These peer-watch systems create a sense of both community and responsibility for inmates.

More recently, prisons have introduced programs that train and and pay inmates to become peer counselors. In the case of monitoring Mori Travis, the inmate monitor followed protocol exactly. The suicide prevention monitor watched Travis through the window in his cell door until 7 p.m. when Travis's cell automatically unlocked for an hour. During this hour, Travis was allowed to stretch his legs in a vestibule just outside his cell. The monitor was required to step outside the vestibule in order to keep the two inmates separated.

At his post outside the vestibule, the monitor could watch through a window as Travis took a shower. He then saw Travis step back into a cell at about 7.15 p.m. From the outside vantage point, the monitor could not see to the back of the cell. Travis's cell remained unlocked for another 45 minutes during his hour of exercise, so the monitor remained at his proper station outside. During this 45-minute span, Travis penned a suicide note. he pulled a noose made from bed sheets through tiny holes in his cell's mesh air vents above his toilet. He stuffed toilet paper in his nostrils and put a washcloth gag in his mouth.

He pulled a pillowcase over his head and bound his own hands behind his back. When Travis's cell door automatically locked at 8 p.m., the monitor found Travis hanging from the vent. A security guard failed to make two scheduled checks at 7.30 and 7.45 p.m. that moment. Monday night, giving Travis the window he needed to end his life. It was the first suicide in the facility since it opened four years earlier. Police never revealed the name of the officer who failed to follow protocol or explain why he did not complete his routine checks, but did say they were investigating the situation and the officer could face discipline. The results of the investigation were not released.

Despite the fact that his wrists were bound behind his back, police and medical examiners had no doubt that Travis committed suicide. There were no additional signs of trauma other than the ligatures around his neck and wrists. It's likely that Travis took this additional measure to ensure his suicide worked, like stuffing his nostrils and mouth. He was trying to prevent his body from performing its natural instinct to fight for survival. Tom Byrne, the interim police chief in Clayton County, where Travis was held, said, We're not going to speculate on how he did it.

He had knowledge of bondage. Apparently, very extensive knowledge of it. Travis's suicide note was addressed to his mother. He tells her that she was the best mother a man could have and apologizes for being, quote, sick in the head. He said he never felt normal or happy at any time in his life. He wrote, quote, I think about the life I led and what's ahead of me.

This seems to be the best solution for all involved, especially me, because I won't spend the rest of my life locked up. Or worse, let them kill me with the needle." Again, this indicates that Mori Travis feared execution by the death penalty, and rightfully so, given the extent of his crimes, it's very likely that the prosecution would have sought the most drastic punishment available. In Thomas Joyner's book, Why People Die by Suicide, he describes a feeling of entrapment as a cause of suicidal behavior.

He writes, quote, suboptimal coping abilities lead to an individual feeling that he or she has no options and no way to escape from painful situations. To escape these feelings of entrapment, the individual resorts to suicidal behavior. End quote. Travis felt that death was inevitable for him. And rather than endure months of trials, he escaped his feeling of entrapment by hanging himself. In his suicide note, Travis asks his mother to tell his family that he loved them dearly and wrote, quote, I love you most, but you know that, end quote.

While there was no question for the police or medical examiners that Travis's death was a suicide, Travis's federal public defender, Lee Lawless, pointed out that if Travis were on suicide prevention watch, as jail officials claimed, it's unusual that he was permitted to have sheets. Additionally, three of Travis's cousins said they did not believe the official account of his death. Travis's cousin, Stephanie Talley, said, It just doesn't add up. I really in my heart do not believe that his death was a suicide. I do not.

Talley said Travis was a sweet person, though she was likely fooled by Travis's ability to present himself as a normal person. She also said that it was suspicious that he killed himself while under suicide watch and maintained that if he had wanted to kill himself, he would have done it when police first took him into custody. Talley also said that police did not notify Travis's mother, Sandra, about his death before it was broadcast by television stations Monday night.

While likely in oversight, this was certainly disrespectful to Travis' family. Because those with psychopathic traits are skilled manipulators and have acquired social cues that allow them to mask their true behaviors, friends and family can have a difficult time understanding how they'd be capable of rape and murder. While Travis's custody was clearly mishandled, it's very unlikely there was any foul play. Investigators could not provide any alternate plausible cause of death other than suicide. St. Louis Police Captain Harry Hager said police were disappointed that Travis took his own life before trial. He said, quote, eventually we were hoping to sit down and talk to him to learn more about what's in the mind of a serial killer. Police had every reason to see Travis's case through to trial.

His DNA ultimately matched that found on two of the victims. It was going to be an easy case and a big win for law enforcement and the prosecutor. Authorities also hoped that Travis would provide more information that could help them solve more murder cases. Remember, Travis had claimed to have had at least 17 victims, and the police had only accounted for 10. It's possible that part of the reason Travis committed suicide was to prevent the police from finding these bodies. Once Travis was reduced to his lowest moment, the only power he still had over the police was the locations of his other victims. By killing himself, he was able to preserve that small amount of dominance. It's also entirely possible that Travis was trying to preserve a lie regarding the number of women he had killed.

We know that he craved media attention, and the revelation that he had fewer victims than he claimed could ruin his grandiose reputation. By killing himself, Travis possibly hoped to mythologize himself and his crimes. Friends and family of Travis' victims were stunned at the news of Travis' death, feeling robbed of closure they felt they deserved. Melinda Greenwayd, the sister of Travis' victim, Alyssa Greenway, said, I wanted to talk to him. I wanted to ask him why. Unfortunately, we will never have the full story of why Mori Travis committed his murders. We'll never know exactly how many women he lured into his home and held captive in his basement,

though some estimates are as high as 20 women. And yet, we should be thankful for the answers we do have. The timing on Travis's investigation was nothing short of astounding. Exactly four months after Travis printed the map from Expedia.com, the Tor project was released to the public. Tor is free software that conceals its user's IP address from anyone conduct. networking surveillance or traffic analysis. While Tor is certainly used for illicit activity,

the tour project states that its users include normal people who wish to keep their internet activities private from websites and advertisers. Their users include people concerned about cyber spying and people who are evading censorship, including activists, journalists, and military professionals. It's very likely that if Travis had access to this technology when he created his map, the police would not have been able to track him down in the same way. Had Bill Smith written his article just four months later,

or if the Tor project had released their software four months earlier, it's possible that Travis would not have been caught and more women would have been tortured and strangled to death. Even though Travis's suicide marked the end of the homicide investigation, the effects of his crimes have lingered and reemerged in unexpected ways. In the summer of 2014, Katrina McGaugh found herself living in a real-life horror film when she discovered that she was living in Moray Travis's Ferguson Home. She was watching a documentary on serial killers that a family member had recommended to her

when she recognized the ranch-style house she had moved into just a few months earlier. Katrina was horrified to learn that as many as 17 women were tortured, raped, and killed in her basement. Katrina immediately called her landlord, begging to be let out of the lease, but was dismayed to find out her landlord was Sandra Travis. Even 12 years after Mori Travis's death, Sandra remained quiet about her son's crimes. Though Missouri doesn't require landlords to disclose murders, suicides, and violent crimes that have happened on their properties, the St. Louis Housing Authority successfully negotiated the dissolution of Katrina's lease. Who knows what other ways Travis's crimes will continue to reverberate. Perhaps the most tragic aspect of a story is that many of Mori Travis's victims were never identified.

The friends and families of these women will never know for sure what happened to them when they disappeared 17 years ago. When a story is incomplete, it becomes even more important to seek out its missing pages. Bill Smith wasn't afraid of the unanswered questions surrounding the deaths of St. Louis's sex workers. He ventured to tell a more complete story, and without his quest for justice, the authorities may have never caught the St. Louis video strangler. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. If you want to listen to any previous episodes of serial killers, you can find them on Apple Podcasts, Tune-in, Google Play, Stitcher, and Spotify, or in our website, harcast.com, spelled P-A-R-C-C-A-S-D-com. If you like what you hear, please leave a five-star review or tell us what you think on social media. We're on Facebook and Instagram as at Parcast and Twitter as At Parcast Network.

It seems simple, but it really helps our show. Have a killer week. Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler, is a production of Cutler media and is part of the Parcast Network. It is produced by Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Russell Nash, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro. and Paul Mahler. Additional production assistance by Carly Madden and Maggie Admeyer. Serial Killers is written by Carolyn Clarecky and stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson.