Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This Man Went Insane Over a Stripper - The Larry Bill Elliott story

Episode Date: July 5, 2025

Former Army counterintelligence officer Larry Bill Elliott of Hanover, Maryland, carried out a brutal double homicide at a Woodbridge townhouse—fatally shooting 30-year-old Robert Finch and 25-year-old Dana Thrall, the latter capital-murdered after being pistol-whipped—with police and prosecutors asserting that Elliott’s obsessive jealousy over Finch’s ex-girlfriend, Rebecca Gragg, drove the crime.

An all-new season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus. Mom Talk has just been blowing up. Whitney and Jen are dancing with the stars. Taylor is a bachelorette. Saying that out loud is crazy. That is huge. But all the cool opportunities could close apart. It's causing issues in everyone's marriage.

My whole world is falling apart right now. It's chaos. Watch the Hulu original series. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for Bumno subscribers. Terms apply. So this guy murders someone hoping that it will convince this woman to sleep with him. Now the guy's name is Bill and Bill's 51 years old during this time living in Maryland

and Bill has a problem. He's married but there's no passion in his marriage anymore. And so one day in 1999 he decides to cheat on his wife. So he secretly goes on his computer to this adult website to see if he can find a random woman to smash with. So Bill is browsing through profiles on this site for a while and he comes across this woman, Bunny 469. And Bunny 469 is a former stripper and she's a little younger than Bill. She's 33 and Bill is looking at her pictures and he thinks she's kind of fine. And so he sends her a little message like, so.

Now here's the thing about Bunny 469. She isn't just an average lonely woman who's looking for a casual hookup. She is on a mission. She specifically wants a sugar daddy. She's broke and she needs someone to pay her bills. And so she returns Bill's message and they message back and forth for a while and they chat and they hit it off. And eventually they meet up in person at a local restaurant and they get along and stuff, but she makes it very clear to him that she is not looking to smash with him.

She specifically wants money so that she can turn her life around, but that she will give him companionship. I'm not sure what companionship means in this, but she's not going to hook up with him. And by the way, this sounds like a terrible one-sided deal to me. Like he found someone on a hookup website and he's getting everything but the hookup. But whatever, he agrees to this deal. He'll help her pay her bills and stuff and she'll provide non-physical companionship in return. And so Bill starts sending her money on the regular.

Anytime she asks, he pays her phone bill, he pays her car payments and her house payments, he gives her own credit card that he pays for, he pays for her two kids to go to private Catholic school, he even eventually pays for her to get a new set of boobs. And over the course of 18 months, he finances her life by giving her an estimated $450,000, which is almost 900 grand in today's money. And remember, he's married. So this whole time, he's somehow doing all this without his wife finding out. Now, obviously, he's taking this huge risk and he's paying all this money for all of Bunny 469 stuff

because in the back of his mind, he's still hopeful that eventually she will change her mind and let him smash. Like one day she's going to realize, oh, what a handsome alpha stud you are, and she'll be like, oh, I was wrong. May I please see your wiener? Meanwhile, Bunny has no incentive to change her mind.

I mean, the longer she can keep this relationship up, the more of her lifestyle he'll finance. Now, even though her bills and stuff are being paid for, the truth of the matter is, her personal life isn't really going all that well. I mean, she's actually in a long legal battle with her ex-boyfriend, this guy, who will just call X, and she and X are suing each other over custody of their two kids. And so, Bunny just happens to be talking to Bill one night. And this beef with her ex is bothering her so she mentions it to him. And of course, Bill, he's, you know, he's been trying to impress her.

He wants to be a white knight and he's all like, I'll take care of this. Let me dig up some dirt on this guy. Here's the thing, though. It's around the year 2000 now. And social media doesn't exist yet. And the internet back then isn't what it is now. So when Bill says he's going to dig up dirt on this guy, what he means is that he's going to physically show up to where ex lives

and spy on him old school style. Basically, he's going to start stalking him. And that's what he does. He starts driving from Maryland all the way down to Virginia to X's neighborhood, hanging out outside his place. He's taking candid photos of him. He's creeping around seeing if there's anything he can find that will help Bunny with her custody battle. And so now Bill is not only paying for all her stuff, but he's stalking her ex-boyfriend.

And he's doing a lot for this woman, who he is. isn't even romantically involved with. But whatever, he seems to be fine with it because he just keeps doing it. Until. Months pass. And Bill starts to get a bit frustrated. All this has gone on for a while.

And I guess one day, Bill looks at himself in the mirror and he's like, I do a lot for this woman. The least she can do is let me like smash a little, you know, like just the tip or something. And so Bill starts pushing harder for her to sleep with him, more aggressive in his approach. Essentially he's becoming a sex pest. He's like, ah, you change your mind yet? But Bunny, she's just not going to let that happen. She keeps turning him down saying, nah, bro. And so over time, he gets more and more frustrated. But instead of moving on, maybe blaming himself,

or just realizing that some people just aren't attracted to you and they're never going to be, instead of all that, he finds someone else to blame. He decides that the reason Bunny isn't into him must be that she's still in love with her ex, and that if X weren't around, maybe then she'd notice what a great guy he is and reward him with smashing. And this is where he secretly comes up with a plan. He's going to murder X. And so one night, he puts this plan into motion. He drives from Maryland down to Virginia to X's house. And he gets there and it's around 4 a.m. So X is inside asleep. And so Bill goes up to the door and he knocks. Moments later, X answers it.

And that is when Bill pulls out a revolver, points it at him, and blam, blam, he unalives him right there. Then X's girlfriend, who lives with him, I guess she hears all this and she comes to check it out, and pow, Bill beats her up with the revolver, and then blam, he shoots her too. Then he flees the scene. Now eventually, police show up. And they investigate all of this. And they don't have much to go on, except when Bill first arrived to the house at 4 a.m.

He was standing outside his truck, holding a flashlight, probably looking like a suspicious creep. And a newspaper delivery driver just happened to be driving by, and she saw him. And there had apparently been a lot of vehicle break-ins in the area recently, and she thought maybe this is what Bill was up to. And so she called the police, and she was able to describe him a bit and his pickup truck.

Also, police investigate Bunny, because she was involved with X, and they were in an intense legal battle. And so immediately, Bunny tells police, maybe Bill's weird ass had something to do with it. And so they go to interview Bill at his house. And when they pull up, police spot Bill's pickup truck parked outside. And his truck just happens to match the description of the pickup truck the newspaper delivery driver described the night of the murders. And so police start checking out this truck and Bill comes out and he's like, hey, that's my truck. And he starts talking to police without a lawyer present,

which means he's probably about to implicate himself. And so then they bring him down to the station, they question the hell out of him, and he admits that he does have a sugar daddy type relationship with Bunny, but he denies shooting anyone. Regardless, eventually police gather up enough evidence against him And so... Bam! They finally arrest him. Here's his mugshot. And he goes to trial more than once, actually,

and he's ultimately found guilty of both murders, and he's sentenced to death. And in 2009, they ended up giving him the electric chair.