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The Lancaster Devil · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

• 0:08
  Dispressions. He has the serpent tongue, the cloven tongue. A victim's brother
• 0:43
  addressed a South Carolina courts in twenty fifteen before turning to his brother's killer,
• 0:49
  You are a devil man, I rates. Heartbroken and shaken with anger,
• 0:54
  Antoine James then stormed out of the courtroom, leaving behind the man who'd just
• 0:59
  been found guilty of murdering one of the closest and most important people in Antoine's
• 1:03
  life. This was the climactic again to a case that started all the way
• 1:07
  back in November of two thousand thirteen, when a man went missing. A
• 1:11
  group of children playing in the woods in Lancaster, South Carolina, about a
• 1:15
  month after the man's disappearance made a disturbing and grotesque discovery. Partially hidden by
• 1:23
  brush and leaves, was the decomposing remains of a man in his thirties.
• 1:26
  His head had been nearly hacked away from his body. Scared, the children
• 1:32
  ran home to tell the parents what they'd found, and the police were called
• 1:36
  to the scene shortly after. The investigators then discovered what was left of thirty
• 1:41
  three year old Ricky James, the very same man who'd gone missing about a
• 1:45
  month prior, Rickie had most definitely been murdered. He'd been bound with rope
• 1:51
  wrapped around him all the way from his neck to his ankles, his neck
• 1:55
  slashed, and his body then left exposed to the mercy of the elements.
• 2:00
  His death had been the result of thirty nine stab wounds that had come from
• 2:02
  a butcher knife. The area of the woods that he was found in showed
• 2:07
  no signs of a struggle or looked like Ricky had been taken there against his
• 2:10
  will, but that was the fact of the case that was maybe the only
• 2:15
  unsurprising part of the story for Ricky's family and friends. Ricky was known to
• 2:20
  drink, and when he drank, he became more trusting and open to the
• 2:23
  people around him, no matter who they were or appeared to be. It
• 2:28
  looked like, unfortunately for everyone involved, that Ricky had put his faith in
• 2:32
  the wrong people. While the investigators waited on forensic evidence to back up their
• 2:38
  suspicions, they turned their attention to their main suspect. Usually, in a
• 2:42
  case like this, where Ricky was known to talk to almost anyone, the
• 2:46
  list of suspects would be quite extensive, But this time around, the investigators
• 2:52
  had only one potential name in mind. Within sight of the body was a
• 2:55
  house, and in that house lived twenty four years year rolled David Adam Pate.
• 3:01
  Even at twenty four, David had an extensive rap sheet and a long
• 3:06
  history with the system, but he also had ties to local gangs and prison
• 3:09
  hate groups. With a black man now turning up murdered just yards from David's
• 3:15
  home, the investigators couldn't help but wonder just how much he was involved.
• 3:20
  Talking to David looked like the next logical step for the investigators to take,
• 3:24
  but they took their time in approaching him. Ricky's story turned into one of
• 3:29
  those rare cases where the authorities had eyes and ears on their main suspect right
• 3:34
  from the get go, and everyone could sleep at night safe in the knowledge
• 3:38
  that David wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. David was already in jail. He'd
• 3:44
  been picked up only two weeks before the gruesome discovery in the woods for disorderly
• 3:49
  conduct, and jail was where he was going to remain for the time being.
• 3:53
  All the investigators had to do was wait for the forensic evidence to pin
• 3:57
  down their culprit, and they would have their man. And that's exactly what
• 4:01
  they got. DNA evidence collected from the scene and from the victim's body placed
• 4:06
  David at the murder. But this open and shutcase when from grotesque to downright
• 4:13
  wretched. Almost as soon as David was brought in for questioning, without hesitation,
• 4:17
  David confessed to killing Ricky, and then he dove into the chilling and
• 4:21
  disturbingly calculated details. Beaming full of pride, David told the investigators that he'd
• 4:28
  used a butcher knife like the one Michael Myers uses in Halloween to kill his
• 4:31
  victims. It looked like taking a life had been all a game to David.
• 4:38
  According to David himself, he approached Ricky that night and sensed an opportunity
• 4:43
  to put the over twenty knives he kept stashed away at home to the test.
• 4:47
  The plan was to lure Ricky back to his house with the promise of
• 4:50
  more drinks and kill him there, But as the two men approached each other,
• 4:55
  David had a change of heart, fearing that the already drunk Ricky would
• 5:00
  malla trap if David invited him back to his home when they had just only
• 5:02
  met. David then suggested that they should head into the woods to drink more
• 5:06
  wine. Instead, Ricky, being a good time agreed. David would later
• 5:13
  say that everything that happened rested solely on Ricky's shoulders. Quote, it was
• 5:18
  his fault. Why would anyone go drinking and go into the woods with someone
• 5:21
  that looks like me? David was referring to the many facial tattoos he had
• 5:27
  at the time of the murder, one which reads Satan and his above his
• 5:31
  eyebrow. But he also had a split tongue that David would later proudly display
• 5:36
  in his mugshot. Out in the woods, Ricky and David continued to drink
• 5:42
  for a while, but a few drinks later and David got down to the
• 5:46
  real reason he'd invited Ricky out there. After inflicting thirty nine wounds and killing
• 5:50
  Ricky, David then turned to his attention to Ricky's neck he slashed and cut,
• 5:56
  wanting to decapitate his victim quote, I wanted to cut his dad gum
• 6:00
  head off. I just couldn't get through the bone. Wanting to decapitate Ricky
• 6:06
  was the closest that David ever came to giving a motive to his killing and
• 6:11
  why he chose Ricky in the first place, and it was a motive that
• 6:15
  everyone found more than lacking. Once David realized he wouldn't actually be able to
• 6:20
  follow through with his plans, he then changed tracks and tried to cover up
• 6:25
  his crime. He bound Ricky in ropes from neck to ankles to make dragging
• 6:30
  his remains around the forest easier, but even then he had a hard time
• 6:33
  of it. He first tried to take Ricky down to a nearby creek to
• 6:38
  dispose of him, but found that David was too drunk and had smoked too
• 6:42
  much dope to actually get the job done. The intoxicated David was then left
• 6:46
  trying to piece together some sort of plan because he wanted to keep that spot
• 6:50
  where they were in the woods available. He liked that patch of the woods,
• 6:55
  especially because he could see it from his own home, but he had
• 6:58
  a chilling reason to explain to the investigators why he was so protective of that
• 7:02
  particular spot. It turned out that David liked that bit of the woods so
• 7:06
  much because he knew that he wanted to kill there again. But if he
• 7:11
  ever wanted to achieve that gruesome goal, he knew he had to cover his
• 7:15
  tracks and get rid of the evidence first. He then came up with the
• 7:18
  idea of simply covering Ricky's remains with brush and leaves, despite claiming to the
• 7:24
  investigators that he'd been too intoxicated to think straight. Ricky later was recorded talking
• 7:30
  to his mother from prison. In the call, he claims to remember every
• 7:33
  single detail of the killing because he never wanted to forget it. Realizing that
• 7:39
  this was his moment to go down in infamy, David Pate stole an opportunity
• 7:44
  to create a viral sensation during his new mugshot. With his face already covered
• 7:48
  in gang related and satanic tattoos, he stuck his snakelike tongue out at the
• 7:54
  moment the picture was taken. Investigators would later say that it was one of
• 7:58
  the creepiest mugshots they'd ever seen. David His crimes and his confession shocked the
• 8:05
  world, but not those closest to him. His brothers described him as the
• 8:09
  devil and claimed that he deserved everything that was coming to him in court and
• 8:13
  in prison. Two years later, when David finally had his day in front
• 8:18
  of the judge, he took to the stand and pled guilty. All that
• 8:22
  was left for the judge to do was determined David's sentence. To try to
• 8:26
  push the judge toward giving a harsher sentence, the prosecution played the chilling footage
• 8:30
  of David's confession, footage that the judge cut off before finishing, saying that
• 8:35
  he and the court had seen enough. Smiling to the judge and the cameras,
• 8:41
  David seemed to enjoy hearing that he would be spending the rest of his
• 8:45
  life in jail. He even kept smiling when Ricky's brother Antoine James began yelling
• 8:50
  and berating him in court. David refused to turn around and face Antoine,
• 8:56
  so Antoine delivered his message to the back of David's head for leaving the courtroom
• 9:01
  quote, I hope he suffers. I hate him. He is the definition
• 9:05
  of the devil nobody. That's ten minute Murder for today Brief and Bingeable True
• 9:20
  Crime. I'm Joe, that's my name. I'm the host, and thank
• 9:24
  you for taking the time to listen to ten Minute Murder. And if you're
• 9:28
  wondering, this episode came out on Friday, Today's Friday. If you're just
• 9:33
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• 9:37
  But if you're listening to this on the day that it's out, it's
• 9:39
  Friday. Usually I release on Thursday, and the reason you can probably tell
• 9:43
  why it was delayed allergies have got me. I'm on the struggle bus.
• 9:48
  Yeah, yesterday and the day before I was I was just leaking from my
• 9:54
  face and I couldn't see the words on the screen to read my notes.
• 9:58
  My eyes were so and they kept where they were watery, and you know
• 10:01
  all the things that come along with allergies. I have allergies, and I've
• 10:05
  talked about it before, but the last few days have been like super duper
• 10:07
  worse than normal. I don't know why, but they were. Anyway,
• 10:11
  I appreciate your patience and this being released on Friday instead of a Thursday.
• 10:16
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• 10:18
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• 10:24
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• 10:41
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• 10:45
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• 10:48
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