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Serial Killer, Rapist, Mutilator - Serial Killer Documentary · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

0:01
Speaker 1: In the mid nineties, a decade of disturbing homicides would
0:05
Speaker 1: begin in the city of Baton Rouge.
0:08
Speaker 2: Every time that we heard of the corner being called out,
0:11
Speaker 2: it was a here we go again scenario.
0:14
Speaker 1: As the macabre discoveries accumulated, citizens were left scared to
0:18
Speaker 1: walk the streets.
0:20
Speaker 3: No one was safe, and Baton Rouge became paralyzed with fear.
0:24
Speaker 1: The hunt was on for a predator with a twisted
0:27
Speaker 1: desire for a grotesque brand of bloodshed.
0:31
Speaker 4: Both of her hands had been severed and removed at
0:33
Speaker 4: the wrist.
0:34
Speaker 1: But what was driving the mind of this most unlikely monster?
0:38
Speaker 5: They said, don't you know you're living with a serial killer?
0:42
Speaker 1: And was he born to kill mamma? Louisiana is a
1:18
Speaker 1: state celebrated for its southern hospitality, and the city of
1:23
Speaker 1: Baton Rouge is certainly no exception.
1:27
Speaker 2: Down here. You walk past somebody that you've never seen
1:30
Speaker 2: your life, and you'll say, hey, how you doing, how's
1:32
Speaker 2: it going. That's kind of out the way that we
1:35
Speaker 2: are in the South.
1:39
Speaker 1: However, a warm welcome does not await in every part
1:42
Speaker 1: of town.
1:45
Speaker 3: The difference between North Baton Rouge and downtown and South
1:50
Speaker 3: Baton Rouge are night and day.
1:53
Speaker 2: North Baton Rouge at that time and even now is
1:57
Speaker 2: a very dangerous place.
2:01
Speaker 3: Women who live high risk lifestyles walk up and down
2:04
Speaker 3: the streets freely. Drugs flow rampantly throughout that whole area,
2:10
Speaker 3: and murder is a common occurrence.
2:18
Speaker 1: One such woman was local mother of two, Donna Bennett Johnston.
2:24
Speaker 6: She was addicted to crack for the most part, wasn't
2:28
Speaker 6: really anything else that kept her out. That was the
2:31
Speaker 6: thing that kept her on the streets, looking for the
2:34
Speaker 6: next high and everything. She was a mother still, you know,
2:40
Speaker 6: she just had a problem. To me, she was just
2:44
Speaker 6: you know, great person, great woman. Like everything that she did,
2:49
Speaker 6: she just gave all her heart and soul to it.
2:52
Speaker 6: You know, she's one of them people that love deeply.
2:55
Speaker 7: You know.
2:55
Speaker 6: I'd remember calling me in the evening times, just out
2:59
Speaker 6: of the blue, just to say I love you.
3:04
Speaker 1: Justin had become accustomed to his mother's disappearances.
3:10
Speaker 6: Some days she would just pop out and leave and
3:12
Speaker 6: would wake up next morning she'd be gone. But all
3:16
Speaker 6: in all, we just you know, kept faith that she
3:19
Speaker 6: would be all right and one day she would, you know,
3:21
Speaker 6: get better.
3:29
Speaker 1: But in two thousand and four, a chilling discovery was made.
3:34
Speaker 8: Two residents were out looking for their lost dog on
3:37
Speaker 8: ben Hur Road between Nicholson and Burbank this morning when
3:39
Speaker 8: they spotted what looked like the body of a woman
3:42
Speaker 8: lying in the drainage ditch on the south side of
3:44
Speaker 8: the bridge. Cause of death strangulation.
3:49
Speaker 6: Well, I was I think it was a Friday, me
3:53
Speaker 6: and my little brother. It was about probably about two o'clock.
3:56
Speaker 6: We had just got to the basketball jump. We were
4:02
Speaker 6: in the middle of a game playing and I hear
4:05
Speaker 6: my phone ring. It was my father's ring tongue, and
4:13
Speaker 6: I knew something was wrong. That's when he told me
4:17
Speaker 6: they found your mama dead this morning. All the sound
4:23
Speaker 6: in the room disappeared. There's nothing that compares to hearing
4:32
Speaker 6: those words.
4:40
Speaker 1: Detective Todd Morris was cool to the disturbing scene.
4:48
Speaker 4: She was recovered here, faced down, displayed on the side
4:51
Speaker 4: of the canal bank. There was a jacket covering her
4:56
Speaker 4: right arm, and upon removing that, it was discovered then
4:59
Speaker 4: that the suspect had severed and taken her arm from
5:04
Speaker 4: the elbow down, which was not located here at the
5:07
Speaker 4: crime scene. There was also on her right by a
5:14
Speaker 4: approximately three by three inch square area that had been
5:17
Speaker 4: removed and had been taken by the suspect.
5:22
Speaker 1: Investigators believed the victim to be the latest work of
5:25
Speaker 1: a serial killer who was snatching women from the streets
5:28
Speaker 1: of North Baton Rouge.
5:31
Speaker 4: So a city's worst nightmare is an investigator's worst nightmare
5:34
Speaker 4: to know that you have a person that's going around
5:36
Speaker 4: doing these type of horrendous acts to innocent female victims
5:40
Speaker 4: and what he's capable of. This sick individual is praying
5:45
Speaker 4: in our community, praying on innocent females. So you're thinking, Okay,
5:48
Speaker 4: when's the next victim.
5:49
Speaker 5: Going to happen?
5:50
Speaker 1: Yet few would have dared imagine that this sadistic murderer
5:54
Speaker 1: had been claiming victims for a decade. In two thousand
6:05
Speaker 1: and four, the Louisiana city of Baton Rouge was overwhelmed
6:10
Speaker 1: by a succession of sadistic murders. Yet this most unusual
6:15
Speaker 1: story had begun ten years prior, in seemingly insignificant circumstances.
6:24
Speaker 1: In March of nineteen ninety four, Terry Lemoyne, a Baton
6:28
Speaker 1: Rouge native, would be introduced to a man who would
6:31
Speaker 1: change her life.
6:33
Speaker 5: I was a manager at a convenience store and I
6:37
Speaker 5: liked working the night shift. One of my best friends
6:41
Speaker 5: comes in one night and tells me, I've met this
6:45
Speaker 5: person that you just have to meet, and she introduced
6:48
Speaker 5: me to Jehan. The feeling I got from him was
6:56
Speaker 5: more like a nerdy little guy and safe, because he
7:03
Speaker 5: just had the look of someone who had just walked
7:05
Speaker 5: off of a college campus, you know, somebody who would
7:11
Speaker 5: be playing with the neighbor's kids. After my first meeting
7:21
Speaker 5: with Sean, he seemed like somebody I wouldn't mind seeing again.
7:29
Speaker 5: Then he started meeting me at my house and it
7:34
Speaker 5: went on from there.
7:38
Speaker 1: As the pair's relationship progressed, Terry and Sean began to
7:42
Speaker 1: learn more about one another.
7:45
Speaker 5: He lived in a very nice house. Mostly things were
7:48
Speaker 5: all over the place. You know, dishes were not washed,
7:51
Speaker 5: and you know, things were here and there. Nothing was
7:55
Speaker 5: in its place. So to say, we were getting along
8:01
Speaker 5: so well together that there was just only one more
8:05
Speaker 5: test that he had to pass as far as I
8:07
Speaker 5: was concerned, and that was was he safe enough to
8:13
Speaker 5: live the rest of my life with. I started a
8:18
Speaker 5: fight one night and slapped him on purpose to see
8:23
Speaker 5: what his reaction would be, and he stomped his foot
8:27
Speaker 5: and said boys aren't supposed to hit girls, and girls
8:29
Speaker 5: aren't supposed to hit boys. That's just the way it's
8:32
Speaker 5: supposed to be, and so I figured I'm safe.
8:38
Speaker 1: However, Terry had not learned everything there was to know
8:41
Speaker 1: about Sean. Located just across the street from the convenience
8:46
Speaker 1: store was Saint James's Place, a retirement home for the elderly.
8:52
Speaker 1: One of the residents was eighty two year old and Brian.
8:59
Speaker 3: She was a sweet, sweet lady. She had a loving family.
9:04
Speaker 3: She had spent her life being respected by those who
9:08
Speaker 3: knew her.
9:10
Speaker 1: On the evening of the twentieth of March, Anne was
9:13
Speaker 1: due to be visited by her nurse for a regular checkup.
9:17
Speaker 3: The exterior door that led to her apartment had been
9:22
Speaker 3: left unlocked, and Anne had left her door slightly ajar
9:28
Speaker 3: so that the nurses could give her her medication.
9:32
Speaker 1: Upon arriving at Anne's room in the early hours of
9:35
Speaker 1: the next morning, the nurses were to encounter an atrocious scene.
9:41
Speaker 3: Her body was discovered the next morning by some workers
9:45
Speaker 3: at the retirement home. This was an eighty two year
9:49
Speaker 3: old woman who had been brutally, brutally attacked, and the
9:54
Speaker 3: things that had been done to her were unbelievable.
10:02
Speaker 2: Police had no clue as to what a motive would
10:06
Speaker 2: be or why anybody would want her dead. It was
10:08
Speaker 2: a mystery at that time, even for a seasoned police
10:15
Speaker 2: officer to see a crime of that sort of violence
10:18
Speaker 2: in that heinous You could look at those guys and
10:21
Speaker 2: know something really bad happened here.
10:24
Speaker 3: Just the thought of who would do something like this
10:26
Speaker 3: to a woman like Anne Bryan had police mystified.
10:37
Speaker 1: Terry LeMoyne's new love interest, Sean Vincent Gillis, was a
10:41
Speaker 1: man with a troubling family history. His difficulties began with
10:47
Speaker 1: a traumatic incident involving his father, Norman and his mother, Yvonne.
10:52
Speaker 3: Norman got drunk and Yvonne came into the house and
10:57
Speaker 3: Norman had a gun to her young son's head and
11:00
Speaker 3: threatened to kill Yvan and to kill Sean. Norman was
11:07
Speaker 3: taken away from the family and put into a mental institution.
11:12
Speaker 9: Sean's father was a troubled man. He certainly drank a lot,
11:16
Speaker 9: He experimented with some medication and stuff, and had created
11:21
Speaker 9: a lot of difficulties in his life.
11:26
Speaker 1: At high school, the young Sean would be mentored by
11:29
Speaker 1: his teacher Robert Bumm.
11:34
Speaker 10: I started here in the seventies and I taught here
11:37
Speaker 10: for thirty years. I met Sean, basically liked him. He
11:44
Speaker 10: wasn't super popular. He probably was a fringe kid a
11:48
Speaker 10: little bit because he didn't play sports and wasn't elected
11:52
Speaker 10: to any offices. But he was a good kid to
11:55
Speaker 10: have in class because he did his work and didn't
11:57
Speaker 10: cause in trouble at all.
11:58
Speaker 1: Never despite outward appearances, Robert believed that Sean was far
12:06
Speaker 1: from a happy child.
12:09
Speaker 10: Most of the kids who went to that school their
12:11
Speaker 10: parents showed up for everything, and his parents never came.
12:17
Speaker 10: He absolutely had to take care of himself because I
12:19
Speaker 10: don't remember never have anybody at home that he mentioned
12:23
Speaker 10: that was waiting for him. I think you know when
12:27
Speaker 10: a kid is kind of as a family like he had,
12:31
Speaker 10: because they brought out a lot of anger and low
12:35
Speaker 10: self worth. Wasn't he question about it?
12:40
Speaker 1: In meeting Terry Lemoyne later in his life, Sean had
12:44
Speaker 1: finally found someone with whom he could share his insecurities.
12:49
Speaker 9: What they saw in each other was someone who could
12:53
Speaker 9: provide what they each needed, and so they fit very
12:56
Speaker 9: perfectly like that.
13:00
Speaker 1: Yet Sean still had vices that he would try to
13:03
Speaker 1: hide from.
13:04
Speaker 11: Terry.
13:06
Speaker 5: Sean was an avid pornography person. He he I would
13:14
Speaker 5: catch him now and then. That had a pretty big
13:20
Speaker 5: impact on our relationship.
13:27
Speaker 3: The fact that Terry worked at night enabled Sean to
13:30
Speaker 3: live out his fantasies. She had no idea what he
13:34
Speaker 3: was doing, and he would spend a lot of nights
13:37
Speaker 3: out just driving around and looking for women.
13:41
Speaker 1: One woman walking those very same streets was Catherine Hall.
13:48
Speaker 2: Catherine Hall had a what we call a high risk
13:51
Speaker 2: lifestyle and she was known to be involved in prostitution
13:55
Speaker 2: from time to time.
13:57
Speaker 3: For women who make their living through sex in North
14:02
Speaker 3: Baton Rouge, it's a very dangerous occupation. You become an
14:06
Speaker 3: easy mark for anybody who is looking to harm a woman.
14:15
Speaker 1: On the night of the fourth of January nineteen ninety nine,
14:19
Speaker 1: the risks associated with Catherine Hall's lifestyle would prove too
14:23
Speaker 1: great to overcome.
14:26
Speaker 12: Miss Hall was found at the end of a dead
14:29
Speaker 12: end street and she had a severe post mortal mutilation
14:32
Speaker 12: of her body, and she was placed under a sign
14:37
Speaker 12: that said dead end.
14:40
Speaker 3: It was obvious to police that this was an o
14:42
Speaker 3: typical murder. The number of stab wounds, the viciousness with
14:46
Speaker 3: which she was attacked all indicated that the person who
14:49
Speaker 3: had done this was full of rage toward women.
14:55
Speaker 1: As investigators began working the case, they were deeply troubled
14:59
Speaker 1: by the same circumstances of Catherine Holl's discovery.
15:03
Speaker 4: Her body was displayed, you know, in a manner which
15:06
Speaker 4: to be found. It wasn't discreetly hidden, and she had,
15:10
Speaker 4: you know, a substantial amount of post mortem cuttings to
15:13
Speaker 4: her body, as well as ligature marks.
15:19
Speaker 1: The only evidence authorities were able to recover was found
15:23
Speaker 1: across town, but offered little encouragement.
15:27
Speaker 3: The only real clues police hide were her jacket and
15:30
Speaker 3: her personal items, but there were no fingerprints found. There
15:34
Speaker 3: were no forensics to indicate at that time who had
15:38
Speaker 3: killed this woman.
15:41
Speaker 1: Detectives were well aware that the signs being left by
15:44
Speaker 1: this killer were ominous.
15:49
Speaker 12: Crime scene would indicate to me that it would not
15:52
Speaker 12: be the person's most likely first homicide, and it probably wouldn't.
15:56
Speaker 5: Be the last.
15:59
Speaker 1: As authorities began to chase down leads in the Hall case,
16:02
Speaker 1: they soon found themselves at a dead end.
16:07
Speaker 4: We really didn't have about many leads at all.
16:09
Speaker 12: After a Catherine Hall.
16:11
Speaker 4: We continue to you know to try to follow up
16:13
Speaker 4: on that information that we had, trying to backtrack her
16:17
Speaker 4: whereabouts and who she might have come in contact with.
16:21
Speaker 1: Although the investigation was going nowhere fast, fears that the
16:25
Speaker 1: killer might soon strike again were munting.
16:29
Speaker 4: If he is doing these chapter backs now, is he
16:32
Speaker 4: going to stop or is he going to continue on?
16:43
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, the cracks that had begun to appear in the
16:46
Speaker 1: relationship between Terry Lemoyne and Sean Vincent Gillis were beginning
16:52
Speaker 1: to widen.
16:54
Speaker 5: He would come home at five in the evening and
16:56
Speaker 5: I would be just going to sleep to go to
17:00
Speaker 5: work at eleven at night, because I worked from eleven
17:02
Speaker 5: to six in the morning, so we didn't see each
17:07
Speaker 5: other too much. I would go to bed, and there
17:12
Speaker 5: were times when I would get up and find him
17:16
Speaker 5: gone and ask where he had been, and he couldn't
17:19
Speaker 5: give me an answer. Naturally, you think the worst. I'm thinking,
17:24
Speaker 5: who's the other woman you're going to see?
17:28
Speaker 1: Sean's behavior would continue to arouse suspicion.
17:32
Speaker 5: One morning, when he picked me up, there was a
17:37
Speaker 5: horrible smell in the car, and I asked him what
17:41
Speaker 5: on earth was that odor? And he told me he
17:46
Speaker 5: had hit an animal on the way to picking me up,
17:51
Speaker 5: and there was still blood on the car, and that's
17:55
Speaker 5: what the bad smell was. So I didn't think twice
17:58
Speaker 5: about it, and I said, well, please wash the car,
18:00
Speaker 5: and I got out of the car, came into the
18:02
Speaker 5: house and went to bed, and he told me he
18:05
Speaker 5: was leaving to go wash the car, and nothing else
18:08
Speaker 5: was ever spoken about it.
18:11
Speaker 1: Sean also began to develop a fascination with computers, exploring
18:16
Speaker 1: the darkest corners of the Internet.
18:19
Speaker 5: This is when Internet was just beginning and he was
18:25
Speaker 5: just mesmerized with a computer.
18:29
Speaker 3: What got him interested was his obsession with going to
18:33
Speaker 3: websites that featured the bodies of dead women. He became
18:37
Speaker 3: obsessed with these bodies. He saw them on a daily basis.
18:43
Speaker 5: One time he told me, come see these pictures. He said,
18:47
Speaker 5: this happened in Baton Rouge, and he showed me a
18:50
Speaker 5: write up about a woman that had been found in
18:53
Speaker 5: a ditch, and that shocked me so much. I just
18:58
Speaker 5: told him I don't want to see. Don't want to
19:00
Speaker 5: see anymore.
19:05
Speaker 1: Outside of his online interests, Sean kept a small group
19:08
Speaker 1: of friends with whom he would fall in and out
19:11
Speaker 1: of touch. One such acquaintance was Johnny May Williams.
19:17
Speaker 3: He met her in the store where he worked. She
19:20
Speaker 3: would occasionally come over and clean his house. They got
19:24
Speaker 3: high together. They enjoyed each other's company. Johnny May was
19:29
Speaker 3: a very special person. She was known to all as
19:32
Speaker 3: a great cook. She would do her friends and neighbor's hair.
19:37
Speaker 3: She was a loved woman.
19:39
Speaker 1: Johnny May's decision to go out onto the streets of
19:42
Speaker 1: north Baton Rouge in January of two thousand and three
19:46
Speaker 1: left her family anxious for her safety. That night, she
19:50
Speaker 1: did not return home, as a predatory killer continued to
19:55
Speaker 1: stalk the streets. In the nineteen nineties, a killer had
20:07
Speaker 1: begun snatching women from the Louisiana capital of Baton Rouge.
20:12
Speaker 1: In two thousand and three, forty five year old Johnny
20:15
Speaker 1: May Williams had disappeared from the streets. It will be
20:19
Speaker 1: nine months before the mystery of her whereabouts was answered.
20:27
Speaker 4: Our recieve de Fancall, who had another victim in remote
20:29
Speaker 4: Corporate Parish. This was in October of two thousand and three.
20:35
Speaker 3: A young boy who was out riding in the woods
20:38
Speaker 3: near his home and his dog disappeared, so he went
20:41
Speaker 3: looking for his dog and instead, this young boy found
20:45
Speaker 3: about it.
20:49
Speaker 1: Upon examining the body, Detective Morris was confronted by a
20:53
Speaker 1: morbid revelation.
20:57
Speaker 4: Her remains were not covered up, she had been there
20:59
Speaker 4: for some time. There was a jacket one near her
21:03
Speaker 4: right hand, and once you get up close and start
21:06
Speaker 4: examining her remains, you can see that both of her
21:09
Speaker 4: hands had been severed and removed at the wrist.
21:15
Speaker 1: The apparent similarities to the whole case were ominous.
21:20
Speaker 4: The manner of death, which we've identified as a strangulation.
21:24
Speaker 4: Ligature marks were identified and now you're thinking back to you,
21:27
Speaker 4: Catherine Hall victim where the post mortem cutting, as I
21:30
Speaker 4: just remember it took place.
21:34
Speaker 1: The results of the autopsy would identify the body as
21:38
Speaker 1: that of Johnny may Williams. The thought that they were
21:49
Speaker 1: dealing with a deeply depraved killer had Todd Morris on edge.
21:54
Speaker 4: This type of signature raises grave concern for us. And
21:57
Speaker 4: obviously he is progressing what he may be doing with
22:02
Speaker 4: the body and taking the body parts with him. So
22:07
Speaker 4: we knew we had a very unique individual who were
22:09
Speaker 4: trying to identify.
22:17
Speaker 1: Sean Vincent Gillis was a man whose life often strayed
22:20
Speaker 1: beyond the bounds of the ordinary.
22:24
Speaker 9: Well, he certainly had a very close bond with his mother.
22:29
Speaker 9: She was a woman who wound up in a very
22:32
Speaker 9: difficult situation, and she worked very very hard to try
22:36
Speaker 9: and do everything she could to provide for Sean in
22:40
Speaker 9: a way that was best for Sean.
22:43
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety two, Yvonne Gillis would leave town to
22:46
Speaker 1: pursue her career, leaving the house to her now twenty
22:50
Speaker 1: nine year old son.
22:52
Speaker 3: At the time, he was very angry that his mother
22:54
Speaker 3: had left him. He felt abandoned and he really did
23:00
Speaker 3: not have the coping skills to deal with life on
23:03
Speaker 3: his own. Neighbors reported hearing him outside banging on garbage
23:08
Speaker 3: cans in the middle of the night, howling at the moon.
23:12
Speaker 3: So he had a difficult time when she left, but
23:14
Speaker 3: it also presented him an opportunity to do what he wanted.
23:18
Speaker 3: That's when he began to really spend a lot of
23:21
Speaker 3: time on his computer, delving into the darker side of
23:24
Speaker 3: life that fascinated him so much.
23:31
Speaker 1: Twelve years on from Sean's mother's departure, Baton Rouge was
23:35
Speaker 1: in the midst of a string of horrific murders. The
23:39
Speaker 1: latest body discovered just a few blocks from the Gillis House.
23:45
Speaker 1: The recovery of the remains of Donna Bennett Johnston, found
23:48
Speaker 1: missing an arm and dumped in a drainage ditch, plunged
23:52
Speaker 1: the city into a state of shock.
23:55
Speaker 2: Donna Bennett Johnson was a brutal crime scene, tell that
24:00
Speaker 2: whoever had committed this crime had done it in fury.
24:05
Speaker 3: People began locking their doors, locking their windows, women began
24:08
Speaker 3: taking self defense classes. There was such a range between
24:13
Speaker 3: the types of women that were killed that no one
24:15
Speaker 3: was safe, and Baton Rouge became paralyzed with fear.
24:20
Speaker 1: While the Catherine Hall and Johnny may Williams cases had
24:23
Speaker 1: gone cold, investigators were encouraged by the evidence available at
24:28
Speaker 1: the Johnston crime scene.
24:30
Speaker 12: It looks like a vehicle had backed up to that
24:34
Speaker 12: location and perhaps backed into the area, and maybe she
24:38
Speaker 12: was in the vehicle and then dragged and thrown into
24:41
Speaker 12: the canal, and that vehicle left tire mark impressions on
24:44
Speaker 12: the ground. We attained the list of the people who
24:47
Speaker 12: had purchased that particular attire.
24:53
Speaker 1: More encouraging still, DNA evidence retrieved from the body of
24:57
Speaker 1: Donna Johnstone was matched to that and on the other victims.
25:02
Speaker 4: We had his DNA profile and three of our victims,
25:06
Speaker 4: and now we have a tire track that we've identified
25:09
Speaker 4: that's left at a crime.
25:10
Speaker 1: SAYN detectives now believed it was merely a matter of
25:14
Speaker 1: time before they would get their man.
25:18
Speaker 4: There's an excitement about the task force members knowing that
25:21
Speaker 4: we were linking these crimes together, so you know, we
25:24
Speaker 4: knew we're hitting in the right direction.
25:31
Speaker 1: As the investigation gathered, pace Agent Jeff Methvin from the
25:35
Speaker 1: FBI began to narrow down a list of potential suspects.
25:41
Speaker 12: The tire mark impression leads were encouraging because we knew
25:45
Speaker 12: that this tire had been at our crime saying, and
25:48
Speaker 12: we knew we had a list of people who had
25:49
Speaker 12: purchased this tire in our area, and the number one
25:52
Speaker 12: on there was mister Gillis.
26:00
Speaker 5: Morning after I'd gotten home from work, two detectives showed
26:04
Speaker 5: up at the door and wanted to speak with Sean,
26:08
Speaker 5: and he walked outside with them, which I thought was
26:13
Speaker 5: rather odd. Why didn't why couldn't they talk to him
26:15
Speaker 5: in here in front of me? And then he came
26:18
Speaker 5: in and said, they want me to go downtown.
26:24
Speaker 4: And so we walked outside and we were standing the driveway,
26:26
Speaker 4: walking toward our vehicles, and Sean asked, I smoke a
26:29
Speaker 4: cigarette before we got and of course we said sure.
26:33
Speaker 4: He smokes about half of a cigarette, drops on the driveway,
26:38
Speaker 4: places his fin on it to extinguish it, and he said,
26:42
Speaker 4: let's go get this over with.
26:47
Speaker 1: Have the Sheriff's Department agent methvin would question Sean Vincent
26:52
Speaker 1: Gillis on his connection to the Donna Bennett Johnston crime scene.
26:56
Speaker 13: Do you know while we're talking, we're talking because you
27:03
Speaker 13: had some tire tracks that possibly.
27:06
Speaker 7: Came from my car there, and from those tracks, it
27:12
Speaker 7: appears she was unloaded from that vehicle and thrown into
27:16
Speaker 7: that canal.
27:19
Speaker 13: She was not unloaded from my vehicle.
27:24
Speaker 1: After the initial interview and Gillis's denials, detectives were forced
27:29
Speaker 1: to release him while they continued to build their case.
27:32
Speaker 1: Having taken a sample of his DNA.
27:36
Speaker 5: He came home and he cooked, We sat down together.
27:42
Speaker 5: He didn't even turn the computer on, and we watched
27:45
Speaker 5: a movie together, and we spent the evening together. And
27:49
Speaker 5: about the end of the evening, I said, okay, I said,
27:53
Speaker 5: I said, what happened? I said, who'd you kill and
27:57
Speaker 5: he said nothing. He said, I just wanted to spend
28:00
Speaker 5: evening with you.
28:04
Speaker 1: Later that same night, the authorities finally got the news
28:08
Speaker 1: they'd been waiting for.
28:11
Speaker 12: We received word from the Louisiana State Police Prime Lab
28:14
Speaker 12: that the nuclear DNA profile we had obtained from Gillis
28:18
Speaker 12: actually matched the DNA profile from the Catherine Hall and
28:23
Speaker 12: Donovan and Johnson crime say.
28:27
Speaker 1: The couple's romantic night in was to be interrupted by
28:30
Speaker 1: a visit from the task Force.
28:34
Speaker 5: They burst through the door, kicked the doors in in
28:38
Speaker 5: every room in the house, through a smoke bomb in here,
28:42
Speaker 5: and a bunch of police officers came in and arrested John.
28:48
Speaker 5: I demanded to know what was going on immediately, and
28:52
Speaker 5: then that's when they said, don't you know you're living
28:55
Speaker 5: with a serial killer.
29:00
Speaker 1: For Terry, the accusations were impossible to comprehend.
29:06
Speaker 5: I laughed at him and told him, boy, do you
29:09
Speaker 5: have the wrong house.
29:12
Speaker 1: Yet it would not be long before Terry finally saw
29:15
Speaker 1: the true face of the man she had shared her
29:18
Speaker 1: life with.
29:21
Speaker 5: I went downtown to the station and I looked at
29:24
Speaker 5: him through the little window, and I said, tell me,
29:29
Speaker 5: did you do what they said you did? And Sean
29:35
Speaker 5: was a goofy looking guy, and he just snarted his
29:37
Speaker 5: head and he said, I'm sorry, honey, Bonnie, but yeah,
29:46
Speaker 5: and my whole world just ended, I see, to a
29:54
Speaker 5: rich alo.
29:57
Speaker 1: Under questioning, Gillis began to divulge the chilling details of
30:01
Speaker 1: his crimes and offer an insight into his twisted mind.
30:06
Speaker 14: How does the word monster come to mind?
30:15
Speaker 1: The ligature marks found on his victims would also be explained.
30:20
Speaker 15: Don't I had some type of or a neck or sign?
30:24
Speaker 5: What?
30:25
Speaker 14: I want to bring my own tie lock demonstration? Okay,
30:35
Speaker 14: that's simple.
30:37
Speaker 12: Mister Gillis told us that he had a name for
30:40
Speaker 12: the zip ties that he used to commit his homicide.
30:43
Speaker 11: Conjectrification is exactly how I look at it.
30:46
Speaker 13: I called my weapon that sometimes the objective ire because
30:50
Speaker 13: it would cond them from a woman to the object
30:53
Speaker 13: that I would then deal with.
30:56
Speaker 12: His primary goal was to kill the victim as soon
31:00
Speaker 12: as possible, because it was not the act of killing
31:03
Speaker 12: that he was interested in.
31:04
Speaker 15: I'm talking about manipulating dead bodies. It's interesting term he used.
31:10
Speaker 15: That's exactly the way I looked at it. And would
31:14
Speaker 15: it surprised you that the control of another being's limbs.
31:22
Speaker 2: Is a part of it.
31:25
Speaker 16: In almost every case where the sexual murderer engaged in necrophilia,
31:30
Speaker 16: they also had a partner. Necrophilia is basically just another
31:34
Speaker 16: deviant sexual arousal pattern. This was arousing to him, This
31:40
Speaker 16: was really erotic to him, and if he wasn't apprehended,
31:43
Speaker 16: it would have continued.
31:46
Speaker 1: Shockingly, the true depths of Gillis's depravity would be revealed
31:50
Speaker 1: when he confessed to further murders, including that of Anne Bryan.
31:55
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety four.
31:58
Speaker 12: Mister Gillis had started confessing to the crimes that we
32:00
Speaker 12: were looking at him for, and throughout the following week
32:03
Speaker 12: or so, he started confessing to other crimes.
32:06
Speaker 15: Tell me an approximate number five, six, seven.
32:19
Speaker 12: It was not surprising to me. I anticipate there would
32:22
Speaker 12: probably be more than what he told us about.
32:25
Speaker 14: I honestly don't count. I don't count who I don't.
32:32
Speaker 5: Sean.
32:33
Speaker 1: Vincent Gillis would go on to admit to the unsold
32:36
Speaker 1: slayings of four more women, shockingly, bringing his total number
32:42
Speaker 1: of victims to eight. Gillis's confession would also explain the
32:50
Speaker 1: truth behind the smell that overwhelmed his car when he
32:54
Speaker 1: collected Terry from work one morning.
32:58
Speaker 5: It wasn't until he was arrested that I found out
33:02
Speaker 5: that one of his victims was in the trunk of
33:05
Speaker 5: the car. That car still sits in my yard. I
33:15
Speaker 5: don't drive, so it still just sits there.
33:21
Speaker 13: Yes, that's one of the few times Terry did get
33:22
Speaker 13: to ride with a body in the car without knowing it.
33:26
Speaker 13: I mean, because I mean she was wanting had just
33:28
Speaker 13: been dead, you know, a few hours earlier.
33:33
Speaker 1: The acts that Gillis confessed to engaging in prior to
33:36
Speaker 1: disposing of her body were more shocking.
33:39
Speaker 14: Still, she had beautiful legs.
33:43
Speaker 13: It's one thing that I recalled about her, and I
33:47
Speaker 13: wanted to keep those along on the legs, huh, And
33:51
Speaker 13: used a sharp knife to cut and I remember trying
33:55
Speaker 13: to get her arm off as well. I remember of
33:59
Speaker 13: my unfortunately did.
34:00
Speaker 14: Occur in the else on my kitchen floor.
34:04
Speaker 13: Don't know how much bloodsh're found, but I clean and
34:06
Speaker 13: clean and clean their place.
34:10
Speaker 1: Although Shawn Vincent Gillis had finally been apprehended, the question
34:14
Speaker 1: of what might have driven him to such unspeakable violence
34:18
Speaker 1: still loomed large. In two thousand and four, the arrest
34:28
Speaker 1: of Shawn Vincent Gillis brought to a close his ten
34:31
Speaker 1: year reign of terror. With Gillis having confessed to the
34:38
Speaker 1: murders of eight women, investigators and associates alike began looking
34:43
Speaker 1: for an insight into the mind of a man capable
34:46
Speaker 1: of the truly monstrous. Defense attorney Kerricacheer recalls his client
34:54
Speaker 1: as someone seemingly at odds with himself.
34:57
Speaker 9: The certainly or two different Shawn Gillis's, and two different
35:02
Speaker 9: Shawn Gillises will reveal through the course of our investigation.
35:07
Speaker 9: I think that's the nature of the great story of
35:10
Speaker 9: doctor Jackeline mister Hide. You know, how could the wonderful
35:13
Speaker 9: doctor jackyal become the horrendous mister Hide.
35:19
Speaker 1: Terry Lemoyne was forced to reflect on a man she
35:21
Speaker 1: realized she never truly knew.
35:24
Speaker 5: I had somebody that was going to be there. Someone saved,
35:29
Speaker 5: someone lovable and they turned into someone yee, I didn't know.
35:44
Speaker 5: Never think you know everything about anybody, ever.
35:55
Speaker 17: Never.
36:00
Speaker 1: The question of what might have compelled Shawn Vincent Gillis
36:03
Speaker 1: to commit such crimes was one that fascinated those who
36:06
Speaker 1: searched for an explanation.
36:10
Speaker 12: He had a great interest in a particular website that
36:13
Speaker 12: he would go to and it had crime scenes from
36:15
Speaker 12: all different crimes. Bodies would be laying there and the
36:20
Speaker 12: police tape would be up and things like that. So
36:22
Speaker 12: in retrospect, I don't think he was more enjoying it
36:27
Speaker 12: just to do it, as he was feeding some type
36:29
Speaker 12: of desire that he had to have his own crime scene.
36:34
Speaker 16: One other thing about Gillis's he photographed a number of
36:38
Speaker 16: his victims, and he did this because he was creating
36:41
Speaker 16: his own pornography. What he would do is take a
36:44
Speaker 16: look at those pictures and use that as a stimulant
36:48
Speaker 16: to fantasize about what had happened.
36:53
Speaker 1: Gillis himself would claim his twisted and violent perversions had
36:57
Speaker 1: been evident for some time.
37:00
Speaker 15: I tried to kill my cousin wants to field her birth.
37:02
Speaker 15: So how were you, Oh, we're about twelve thirteen. What
37:14
Speaker 15: about funeral homes?
37:16
Speaker 14: Funeral homes?
37:17
Speaker 15: This will go back to the childhood.
37:19
Speaker 13: I spent a lot of time and my grandmother the
37:21
Speaker 13: funeral home across the street, and now my cousin. I mean,
37:23
Speaker 13: we would do morbid things like sleep in the golfers.
37:26
Speaker 13: A lot of people can't.
37:27
Speaker 14: Belete that, but we do it.
37:29
Speaker 16: The number of individuals that harbor these very perverse, sadistic
37:34
Speaker 16: fantasies is much much larger than the small number of
37:37
Speaker 16: people who actually act them out. The individual who acts
37:42
Speaker 16: out and begins a series of murders has harbored these
37:45
Speaker 16: fantasies for fifteen twenty years, and unfortunately, once they get
37:50
Speaker 16: away with it with one individual, they become then emboldened.
37:56
Speaker 17: Anyone who has these extreme inclin nations typically figures out
38:02
Speaker 17: a way to compartmentalize. Typically people who are driven by
38:07
Speaker 17: sexual compulsion or there's a sexual element to their murders
38:12
Speaker 17: that becomes addictive.
38:14
Speaker 13: Yeah, I know right from wrong as well as you do.
38:16
Speaker 14: I know you do, but there.
38:18
Speaker 13: Are certain times when it fuzzes out, and it's really
38:24
Speaker 13: not that I don't know it anymore. It's like it
38:28
Speaker 13: doesn't matter anymore. This is on my universe.
38:31
Speaker 5: I'm God.
38:31
Speaker 13: There, I am God.
38:37
Speaker 1: At the trial, the question of Gillis's mental health was
38:40
Speaker 1: much discussed.
38:42
Speaker 9: There are forms of mental illness that are genetic and
38:47
Speaker 9: can be inherited, and there are indications a boy chawans
38:51
Speaker 9: for the having a lot of mental health treatment.
38:57
Speaker 17: So I think he would inevitably think about what he's
39:01
Speaker 17: seen in his father, and then think about what have
39:04
Speaker 17: I inherited? What is this why I'm like I am?
39:08
Speaker 1: That's where it is ultimately Sewn Vincent Gillis would be
39:12
Speaker 1: convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life without
39:17
Speaker 1: the benefit of parole. So was Shawn Vincent Gillis simply
39:23
Speaker 1: a man acting out his darkest fantasies or was his
39:27
Speaker 1: compulsion to kill hardwired.
39:32
Speaker 3: I don't believe that Seawn Gillis was a natural born killer.
39:35
Speaker 3: I believe that he had some kind of psychosis inherited
39:40
Speaker 3: from his father, and I believe that that, combined later
39:44
Speaker 3: in life with the obsession that he developed for the
39:48
Speaker 3: bodies of dead women, compelled him to find some of
39:52
Speaker 3: his own. That makes him pretty unique as far as
39:56
Speaker 3: serial killers go.
39:59
Speaker 16: I don't think was a born killer, but in my view,
40:02
Speaker 16: there's a very strong neurobiological component. He probably doesn't understand
40:07
Speaker 16: why he did it at every level, but he knows
40:11
Speaker 16: very well that he did it because it was sexually stimulating.
40:15
Speaker 9: I don't think you can find any one thing that
40:19
Speaker 9: brought about the events of Sean Gillis's life. I know
40:24
Speaker 9: that through the course of our investigation, we found that
40:28
Speaker 9: he had brain dysfunction that would make it hard for
40:32
Speaker 9: him to resist impulses.
40:36
Speaker 17: Nothing about him indicates he was necessarily born to kill.
40:40
Speaker 17: I think he conditioned himself into becoming a killer, developing
40:45
Speaker 17: a arousal to extreme types of treatment of women that involve
40:53
Speaker 17: violations and death.
41:00
Speaker 12: Kids all the time, you know, as they're growing up
41:02
Speaker 12: and they're learning about life, that there are dragons to slay,
41:07
Speaker 12: and mister Gillis is an example of that. Whether or
41:10
Speaker 12: not he was made or nurtured to be what he is,
41:16
Speaker 12: the end result is he was a dragon and we
41:18
Speaker 12: needed to stop him.
41:26
Speaker 1: During his interrogation, Giddess would offer his own opinion on
41:30
Speaker 1: the nature or nurture debate.
41:33
Speaker 11: At one point I could control it. It's beyond my
41:39
Speaker 11: control at the moment. I'm amostle maniac. I don't mean
41:45
Speaker 11: to be.
41:51
Speaker 1: Although Justin Bennett lost his mother in the worst possible circumstances,
41:57
Speaker 1: he has found peace of mind.
42:01
Speaker 6: The way I feel now, I honestly have forgiven what
42:05
Speaker 6: he's done. That's his life, his burden, and I can't
42:09
Speaker 6: let it eat me up and inside forever.
42:15
Speaker 1: In spite of the damage done by the years she
42:18
Speaker 1: shared with Sean Vincent Gillis. Terry Lemoyden has rebuilt her life,
42:24
Speaker 1: closing the book on a story far stranger than fiction.
42:30
Speaker 5: Never in my life would I have thought that that
42:32
Speaker 5: geeky looking person that came to that store that night
42:37
Speaker 5: would turn out to be the person that he turned
42:39
Speaker 5: out to be. But it's a chapter of my life
42:49
Speaker 5: that's given me quite an education.