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The Killer Next Door: Unmasking Thomas Whisenhant · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Thomas Warren Wistnat came into the world on January twenty ninth,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: nineteen forty seven, in Pritchard, Alabama. He was the last
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: and final child born to Willie and Emma Wisnat, but
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Thomas's childhood wasn't anything like the one of his three
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: older siblings. When Thomas was born, Emma Wisnatt mother made
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: an announcement and told her husband Willie that she would
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: no longer be sleeping with him. Willie more than likely
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: didn't take this statement seriously or at the very least
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: believed that he could change Emma's mind about it. But
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the truth is that Willie wasn't very good at convincing
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: anyone to do anything. He was described as a timid
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: and physically weak man. Where Emma was strong willed and opinionated,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Willie was kind of a pushover. He usually ended up
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: being bullied into doing all the chores at home, but
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: that was only when he wasn't drinking. The truth was
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: that Willie was also an alcoholic who rarely worked, and
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: when he did, he usually ended up spending most of
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: his earnings on alcohol. The children spoke of the times
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: that Emma would go through Willy's wallet as soon as
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: he got home from work and compare what was left
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: to his pay slip. Whenever there was money missing, the
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: house would burst into a furious argument. Quote. She would
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: fuss on him, saying, you stole it. Thomas's older sister, Evelyn,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: later recounted one of these fights between her parents, and
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: he would tell her that he had to pay so
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: and so like union dues. My daddy really had to
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: steal his own money to get anything. Willie also found
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: an extra bit of courage when he drank, and that
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: was when he believed that he could turn things around
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: with his wife, Emma. Quote Willie go back to bed.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Emma would begin shouting, waking everyone up in the house
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the night. Leave me alone, I
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: told you to leave me alone. She would then begin
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: beating her husband with anything she could find on hand
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: and encourage the children to join in and do the same,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: until Willy had given up and left the room. Quote.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: I can remember a lot of times when my daddy
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: was all bruised up. I can remember many times I
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: would tell her. I would say, Mama, please just leave
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: him alone, come on back and leave him alone. But
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: you know she always told us, your daddy keeps you
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: having anything because he drinks all the time. And I
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: was convinced that that was the case, and I always
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: defended her. Essentially, Willie wasn't allowed anywhere near his wife,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: but there was one person in the household who wasn't
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: allowed out of Emma's sight, her youngest child, Thomas. Thomas
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: was the apple of Emma's eye. She forced him to
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: share a bed with her until he was seven years old,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: but even then, when he finally did get a bed
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: of his own, it was still in his mother's bedroom.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: He grew up getting anything he wanted despite the poor
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: circumstances and lack of income that the family had, and
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: this made Thomas quite a happy child at first. But
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: it all changed when he became a teenager Overnight. His
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: siblings remember Thomas going from a care free, if not
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: somewhat spoiled child to a moody and physically violent teenager.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: If Emma noticed the change herself, it didn't encourage her
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: to take a step back and give her son some
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: space to grow. Quite the contrary, Emma began watching Thomas
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: like a hawk. She just wouldn't let him out of
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: her sight. Even if he needed to go run an
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: errand like go get some gas, she went too. Never
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: a moment left alone, and never a moment to himself.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: But there was a reason behind the escalation in Emma's
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: cautious and overprotective behavior. On May sixth, nineteen sixty three,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: when Thomas was sixteen years old, their neighbor was murdered.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: The seventy two year old neighbor had been found shot
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: to death with a gun that was later found in
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: the empty lot right next to the Weisnat household. That
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: was suspicious, but it was certainly not enough evidence to
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: tie the weapon to anyone in the Wistnot household. The
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: investigators dug a little deeper, but their sites were firmly
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: fixed on one family member in particular, Thomas. You see,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Thomas was already known to local law enforcement. He had
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: just recently gotten in trouble for robbing a blind woman,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: and that incident had been the last in a very
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: long line of suspected robberies and minor assaults on young girls.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Thomas had so far managed to escape justice through legal
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: technicalities or lack of a witness, But after talking to
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: some of his friends, the investigators believed that they had him.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: This time, rumors were going around that Thomas and some
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: of his friends had been playing with a stolen revolver.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: A witness later came forward to say that Thomas had
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: taken one of the bullets out of that gun, held
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: it up in the air, and then proclaimed that it
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: would be used to kill someone in the near future.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Upon hearing this, another person allegedly approached the boys and
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: confronted Thomas about his behavior. That person had been none
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: other than Lexi Haynes, his now dead neighbor. After the
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: discovery of Lexi's body and the recovery of a stolen
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: weapon near the Wistnout household, the investigators paid the family
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: a visit. They knocked on the door, and who should
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: open it but the notoriously weak willed and feeble Willie wisnat.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: They came to the door and ask how long had
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Tommy been there? Evelyn recalled, and my daddy said that
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: he'd been there all night. I went along with Mama
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: and Daddy and said that he was there. For whatever reason,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Willie found it in himself to lie to law enforcement
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: that day, maybe because he'd been too deep in his
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: alcohol to realize that his son could actually be capable
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: of taking a life, maybe because he was more frightened
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: of Emma than he had been of the law enforcement.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: The alibi that Thomas's family provided for him kept him
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: out of the courts and out of jail, but it
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: did have Emma watching him even more closely. In order
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: to escape his mother and any suspicions that would follow
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: him after the murder of his neighbor, Thomas then joined
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: the US Air Force. He was stationed at a base
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: near Colorado Springs until he committed another crime that would
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: finally catch up with him. On October twenty fifth, nineteen
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: sixty five, Thomas was alone with twenty two year old
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Rose Covington in the finance office of the base when
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: out of nowhere, Thomas attacked. He grabbed a metal ash
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: tray from the table and began beating Rose around the
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: face and head until she lost consciousness. The attack came
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: as a total and complete shock to everyone on the base,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: including Rose herself, who later claimed that she didn't even
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: know who Thomas was at the time. The beating left
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Rose with severe injuries, and she was hospitalized for a
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: full two months before she recovered enough to be released.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: The beating also wiped any memory Rose had of her attacker,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: and she was unable to tell the investigators who had
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: done this to her. They did, however, find a shoeprint
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: at the scene, one that was traced back to Thomas Wissnat.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Of course, Thomas denied attacking Rose, but he was convicted
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: of assault with the intent to commit murder and sentenced
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: to twenty years in prison with ten years of hard labor.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Within four years, his sentence had been reduced to ten years,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: and he was out within seven. From the outside looking in,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: it seemed that Thomas's time behind bars had reformed him.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: He came out of prison, got a job, a wife,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: and had children, but the real Thomas was just hiding
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: beneath the surface. About a year after he'd been released,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: a twenty eight year old mother of two named Patricia
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Hitt was attacked at the convenience store where she worked
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: in Mobile County, Alabama. She was approached by a man
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: who first beat her and then shot her in the head.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: She died at the scene of the crime. About half
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: a year after that, forty four year old Venora Hyatt,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: another convenience store worker in Mobile County, was also attacked.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: She was kidnapped and taken to an abandoned house, where
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: she was murdered. Her killer hid the body in a shack,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: only to return the following day and mutilate her remains.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Her watch was later found around another woman's wrist, who
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: claimed that her husband had given it to her as
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: a present. About another six months or so after that,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Thomas was driving his mother home after his daughter's birthday party.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: It's unclear what it was, but something about this interaction
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: with his mother had Thomas out on the streets. Within
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: hours of dropping Emma off at home, he approached the
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: twenty three year old Cheryl Lynn Payton at the convenience
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: store in Mobile County where she worked and kidnapped her.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: He drove her out in his pick up to a
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: secluded forested area where they would not be disturbed. There,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: he raped her in the front seat of his truck
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: before shooting her in the head and killing her. Thomas
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: then dumped her body in the woods near by and
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: fled the scene, But just like what had happened with
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Verona Hyatt, he was back the very next day. Thomas
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: then mutilated Cheryl's body. He sliced off a piece of
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: her breast and slashed her stomach open, But this time
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Thomas was caught red handed. Police who'd been out patrolling
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: the area found Thomas near the scene of the crime
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: and gave chase. When Thomas was finally caught, he confessed
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: to everything, including the very first murder of Lexi Haines
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: that had started all this decades ago. Despite initially confessing,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Thomas then tried to escape punishment by pleading not guilty
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: by reason of insanity, but the jury believed that he
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: was sane. He was sentenced to death for the murder
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: of Sheryl Payne. This ruling was later overturned by the
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals and he went to court again.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: A snide remark from the prosecution then led to Thomas's
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: original sentence being reduced from death to life in prison,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: but when Thomas went to court again, his death sentence
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: was reinstated. Three decades of trials and appeals kept Thomas
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: alive on death row until the spring of twenty ten,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: when he was finally led to the execution chamber. He
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: died of lethal injection after refusing his right to make
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: a final statement. That is ten minute murder for today,
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