Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / Serial Killer Documentary - - Larry Dewayne Hall Documentary
Transcript
- 0:09Speaker 1: Here in the Midwest, several young girls went missing. Some
- 0:15Speaker 1: were found murdered, others were never found at all. Laurie
- 0:20Speaker 1: Depey's twenty in Appleton, Wisconsin, Rayna Rison sixteen from Laporte, Indiana,
- 0:28Speaker 1: Wendy Felton sixteen from Marion, Indiana. Michelle Dewey twenty in Indianapolis, Indiana.
- 0:36Speaker 1: All of these cases went unsolved. Officials believed only one
- 0:42Speaker 1: man knew what happened.
- 0:43Speaker 2: We knew he was responsible for several deaths, and.
- 0:46Speaker 1: To get answers it would take a risky, unusual plan
- 0:50Speaker 1: send a convicted drug dealer undercover into a dangerous prison
- 0:55Speaker 1: to befriend an alleged serial killer.
- 0:58Speaker 3: I'm not a serial killer hunter, I said, so, how
- 1:00Speaker 3: am I going to do this?
- 1:01Speaker 1: At stake answers.
- 1:03Speaker 4: Wondering where she is, wondering what happened.
- 1:05Speaker 1: He's for grieving families.
- 1:08Speaker 5: You want to find her, and you want to bring
- 1:09Speaker 5: her home, and you can't.
- 1:10Speaker 1: And one man's freedom.
- 1:12Speaker 3: They don't just turn around and give out candy and
- 1:14Speaker 3: say you're free to go.
- 1:15Speaker 1: I went through Helen.
- 1:16Speaker 6: Back early each day.
- 1:32Speaker 1: Donna Reittler greets her daughter Trisha.
- 1:35Speaker 5: I say hello to this picture every morning. I say
- 1:39Speaker 5: good morning. Every morning I look at that and I
- 1:44Speaker 5: can hear her say hi, mom.
- 1:47Speaker 4: Trisha was very kind hearted, very smart as.
- 1:50Speaker 1: A child, says father Gary. Tricia lit up the room.
- 1:54Speaker 5: Feel it.
- 1:55Speaker 4: Sometimes just bound into the room, you know, spread her
- 1:58Speaker 4: arms apart, and you'll say, tadah, you know that type
- 2:01Speaker 4: of thing.
- 2:02Speaker 1: Donna and Gary brought Tricia here to mary in Indiana
- 2:06Speaker 1: to attend this small Christian college. One spring evening in
- 2:10Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three, Tricia left her dorm room for a walk.
- 2:15Speaker 1: On March twenty ninth, around eight o'clock at night, Tricia
- 2:18Speaker 1: Wittler came here to this shopping center. She bought a
- 2:21Speaker 1: soda in a magazine and started walking back to campus,
- 2:25Speaker 1: but then she disappeared.
- 2:31Speaker 4: Phone call came a little bit after midnight, and the
- 2:33Speaker 4: voice on the other side of the phone said, do
- 2:36Speaker 4: you know where your daughter is?
- 2:39Speaker 2: Nineteen year old Tricia Lynn Wrytler was last seen about
- 2:41Speaker 2: eight o'clock Monday night.
- 2:43Speaker 6: She had just stop.
- 2:44Speaker 1: Tricia's disappearance rocked the community and devastated her parents.
- 2:48Speaker 5: Who is ever responsible?
- 2:49Speaker 7: We'll never know.
- 2:52Speaker 5: What they've taken away from us.
- 2:54Speaker 1: Trishia's mother made a desperate appeal to Tricia on the
- 2:57Speaker 1: Jerry Springer Show.
- 2:59Speaker 5: In there, I love you and we're doing everything we
- 3:02Speaker 5: can to find you.
- 3:04Speaker 1: Despite huge media coverage and they're pleas for answers, none
- 3:08Speaker 1: ever came.
- 3:09Speaker 5: It's like she just vanished in the thin air.
- 3:13Speaker 1: Tricia was never found. See on college students, they need
- 3:19Speaker 1: to be aware. Kristin Zeller was a junior at IWU
- 3:23Speaker 1: when Tricia disappeared. We were advised to stay in our
- 3:26Speaker 1: dorms if you were a girl. But a week after
- 3:29Speaker 1: Tricia's disappearance, Kristin and her roommate Heather needed to go
- 3:33Speaker 1: to Marsh grocery store. You thought you'd be safe. We
- 3:36Speaker 1: thought to be fine. Yeah, a couple of blocks away. Exactly,
- 3:39Speaker 1: it's not far at all. I can see the campus
- 3:41Speaker 1: from Marsh, so you know what's going to happen. He
- 3:44Speaker 1: was getting dark by the time they left the shopping center,
- 3:47Speaker 1: walking the same route Tricia would likely have taken. We
- 3:51Speaker 1: were maybe halfway up the road when Heather turned to
- 3:55Speaker 1: me and said, did you Did you happen to notice
- 3:58Speaker 1: that brown van?
- 3:59Speaker 5: And I said no.
- 4:02Speaker 1: Then the van passed again slowly. We still weren't alarmed.
- 4:07Speaker 1: He came by again a third time.
- 4:10Speaker 6: Yep, really slow this time looking at us.
- 4:14Speaker 1: The hair on the back of our neck started to
- 4:16Speaker 1: stand up. The van pulled right up beside them. How
- 4:20Speaker 1: close show me he was. I mean his wheels were
- 4:23Speaker 1: right on the side.
- 4:24Speaker 6: Of the curb.
- 4:24Speaker 1: And this was me, this was Heather, and he leaned
- 4:28Speaker 1: over started to say something, and at that point we're
- 4:31Speaker 1: both like, run, just run. The girls called security, describing
- 4:36Speaker 1: a two tone van driven by a man with mutton
- 4:39Speaker 1: chopped sideburns. Officers spotted the van and questioned the driver,
- 4:44Speaker 1: a man named Larry Hall. Hall said he'd been looking
- 4:49Speaker 1: for a friend's address, but the address he gave didn't exist,
- 4:53Speaker 1: so officers let Hall go. September twentieth, nineteen ninety three,
- 5:04Speaker 1: six months after Trisha's disappearance, now fifteen year old Jessica
- 5:09Speaker 1: Roach goes missing in Georgetown, Illinois. Investigator Gary Miller got
- 5:14Speaker 1: the call.
- 5:15Speaker 8: We all knew that we had something really bad here.
- 5:19Speaker 8: We had an abduction.
- 5:21Speaker 1: Jessica's badly decomposed body was found in an Indiana cornfield
- 5:25Speaker 1: weeks later, but then, like Tricia's, Jessica's case went cold.
- 5:31Speaker 8: There's a lot of times you wonder whether you'll ever
- 5:33Speaker 8: solve it, but you know that you're going to keep going.
- 5:35Speaker 8: You're gonna check everything out, You're going to recheck everything.
- 5:39Speaker 1: For over a year, Miller scoured local police reports and
- 5:43Speaker 1: then a break a vehicle reported in a county nearby.
- 5:49Speaker 1: The owner, Larry Hall, he had been.
- 5:53Speaker 8: Involved in stopping some girls. Those girls were scared they
- 5:58Speaker 8: ran from him.
- 5:59Speaker 1: In the last six months, Hall's van was spotted by
- 6:02Speaker 1: more than eleven girls in five different towns close by,
- 6:07Speaker 1: including those where Jessica lived and where her body was found. Now,
- 6:14Speaker 1: Miller contacted the police in Hall's hometown to arrange for
- 6:18Speaker 1: an interview.
- 6:19Speaker 8: He initially said, no, you know, he hadn't been over here.
- 6:22Speaker 1: Miller had to coax Hall to admit being near Jessica's house.
- 6:26Speaker 8: I said, well, would you remember if you know you
- 6:28Speaker 8: stopped and offered girls a ride or asked him to
- 6:33Speaker 8: get in your van. He's white. He stops and talks
- 6:35Speaker 8: to everybody.
- 6:36Speaker 1: After a few questions, Miller took a gamble and put
- 6:40Speaker 1: a photo of Jessica down in front of Hall.
- 6:43Speaker 8: He immediately flinched. He turned to his right and put
- 6:47Speaker 8: his hand up over his face like he didn't want
- 6:50Speaker 8: to see the picture, told me he didn't think he'd
- 6:52Speaker 8: ever seen that girl.
- 6:55Speaker 1: Later, a heartbreaking mystery.
- 6:58Speaker 5: There's so little that we can do. I just want
- 7:01Speaker 5: to bring her.
- 7:02Speaker 1: Home, and the dangerous plan to solve it. Larry Hall
- 7:26Speaker 1: and his brother Gary had always been a little different.
- 7:31Speaker 1: Look at you, two little boys, Well, which one are you?
- 7:34Speaker 1: And which one's Larry?
- 7:35Speaker 5: This would be me Gary and Larry.
- 7:41Speaker 1: In a rare recorded interview obtained by CNN, Larry Hall
- 7:45Speaker 1: recounts a tough start.
- 7:47Speaker 7: I know when I was born, my mother told me
- 7:50Speaker 7: that I was blue, that I had gotten a box
- 7:54Speaker 7: agent my or or something.
- 7:58Speaker 1: Identical. Twin sons rolling up hard in the whole home.
- 8:02Speaker 1: There was little money and lots of problems. Author hellel
- 8:06Speaker 1: Levin interviewed Larry Hall.
- 8:09Speaker 9: It was a very cluttered household. They're raised with dysfunction.
- 8:15Speaker 1: Neighbors say their mother was domineering. Their father drank and
- 8:19Speaker 1: sometimes turned violent. He worked at the local cemetery. What
- 8:24Speaker 1: was it like growing up next to cemetery? Was it creepy?
- 8:27Speaker 6: No, not at all, not for me.
- 8:33Speaker 5: You know.
- 8:33Speaker 10: At twelve years of age, Larry and I started working
- 8:36Speaker 10: at cemetery.
- 8:37Speaker 1: As he grew older, Larry had problems fitting in at school.
- 8:41Speaker 10: He was always the backward twin. I was the more dominant,
- 8:46Speaker 10: outgoing twin. He hung out with what my wife and
- 8:51Speaker 10: I and a lot of fellow classmates called the misfits
- 8:55Speaker 10: or the stinky crowd.
- 8:57Speaker 1: Still, the boys were best friends, and as you young men,
- 9:00Speaker 1: Gary and Larry developed an unusual new hobby as Civil
- 9:04Speaker 1: War reenactors.
- 9:06Speaker 7: I met a lot of new friends during that time period,
- 9:09Speaker 7: and I was able to travel around and meet him
- 9:13Speaker 7: at the battlefield to go on towards that. It was
- 9:17Speaker 7: a lot of fun.
- 9:20Speaker 1: Larry was hooked, even growing mutton chops from his hairline
- 9:24Speaker 1: to his jowl. Though the reenactments helped Larry make friends,
- 9:28Speaker 1: he still struggled with women. What was Larry like around
- 9:33Speaker 1: young women? Growing up?
- 9:35Speaker 10: Very awkward, quiet, backward.
- 9:38Speaker 1: Did he ever talk to you about these urges? He
- 9:41Speaker 1: reportedly says, he had urges about women.
- 9:45Speaker 10: Oh, my gosh, it was absolutely it was out of bounds.
- 9:51Speaker 10: I had no idea.
- 9:57Speaker 1: Jimmy Keane grew up one hundred and thirty five miles
- 9:59Speaker 1: away in Kankakee, Illinois. He didn't know Larry Hall, and
- 10:04Speaker 1: he had no idea that their worlds would someday collide.
- 10:17Speaker 9: It would be putted down in five.
- 10:20Speaker 1: For Jimmy Keane, life couldn't have been more different. While
- 10:28Speaker 1: Hall was an awkward outsider, Jimmy Keene was a star,
- 10:33Speaker 1: especially under the lights on Friday nights.
- 10:40Speaker 3: We would come out here, the lights would be on
- 10:42Speaker 3: this the whole stadium would just be completely full, and
- 10:45Speaker 3: the crowd would be roaring, and it was just a
- 10:48Speaker 3: very euphoric, unbelievable high already put about. The Friday night
- 10:53Speaker 3: games were the biggest rush I've ever had.
- 10:55Speaker 6: In my life.
- 10:59Speaker 1: A gift athlete, he lettered in two sports, studied martial arts,
- 11:03Speaker 1: and inspired fear in everyone he faced. Do you like
- 11:09Speaker 1: having people terrified of you just a little bit.
- 11:11Speaker 3: Well, in that kind of sports, sure you have to. Well,
- 11:14Speaker 3: that's why they called me the Assassins.
- 11:16Speaker 1: You were the Assassin.
- 11:17Speaker 3: Yes, my nickname was the Assassin. And the reason my
- 11:20Speaker 3: name was the Assassins because I put somebody out of
- 11:22Speaker 3: every game I've ever played.
- 11:25Speaker 1: Keen wasn't just the hometown hero. He was his father's namesake.
- 11:30Speaker 3: My dad generally sat up here in the corner over here.
- 11:33Speaker 3: If I made a spectacular play, he would always give
- 11:35Speaker 3: me the you did good son.
- 11:37Speaker 1: You know how often was he sitting in the stands
- 11:39Speaker 1: every single.
- 11:40Speaker 3: Game in my life? Never ever missed a game. He
- 11:42Speaker 3: never even missed my practices.
- 11:44Speaker 1: That means a lot too.
- 11:45Speaker 3: Absolutely, my dad was he was my backbone.
- 11:50Speaker 1: Keen was as popular as he was athletic. You were legends.
- 11:54Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean there was no doubt. I mean they
- 11:56Speaker 3: had posters of me all over town. I mean everybody
- 11:59Speaker 3: knew who I was with my sports ability. So yeah,
- 12:02Speaker 3: I was the most popular guy around.
- 12:05Speaker 5: There's no question.
- 12:05Speaker 3: I was voted the most popular guy in school.
- 12:08Speaker 1: Jimmy seemed to have everything, accept enough money to keep
- 12:13Speaker 1: up with the rich kids at school, and he only
- 12:16Speaker 1: saw one way to get it. He started selling drugs
- 12:21Speaker 1: and quickly learned he was good at it.
- 12:25Speaker 3: You're making decent money. You don't think is this a
- 12:27Speaker 3: wrong thing that you're doing. So I kept growing into
- 12:32Speaker 3: it and growing into it. By the time I was
- 12:33Speaker 3: twenty years old, I mean I was sitting on top
- 12:35Speaker 3: of a empire.
- 12:38Speaker 1: My Keen's own account, he was pulling in around a
- 12:41Speaker 1: million dollars a year. He was addicted not to the drugs,
- 12:47Speaker 1: but the money.
- 12:48Speaker 3: It's hard to walk away from that ton of money,
- 12:49Speaker 3: especially a twenty year old.
- 12:51Speaker 1: So he didn't, and that single decision would change the
- 12:56Speaker 1: rest of Jimmy Keane's life and bring him to face
- 13:01Speaker 1: with an alleged serial killer. Wow their license plate.
- 13:17Speaker 6: Extra HP, extra HP.
- 13:28Speaker 1: By the early nineties, Jimmy Keane was on top of
- 13:31Speaker 1: the world. His booming business afforded him a lavish lifestyle
- 13:39Speaker 1: with large homes, souped up corvettes, and an endless supply
- 13:45Speaker 1: of women.
- 13:48Speaker 3: I would have thirty or forty k parties with volleyball nets,
- 13:51Speaker 3: live bands. We'd have literally a thousand people or more sometimes.
- 13:55Speaker 3: I mean these were gigantic, huge parties.
- 13:57Speaker 1: You were the guy women wanted to be with and
- 13:59Speaker 1: guys wanted to best friends with.
- 14:01Speaker 5: Something like that.
- 14:05Speaker 1: Back then, he owned this six thousand square foot home.
- 14:09Speaker 3: Right behind that as a golf course.
- 14:12Speaker 1: He says he didn't stash the drugs here.
- 14:14Speaker 9: This is a walking closet, but.
- 14:17Speaker 1: There was always a place to hide his fortunes.
- 14:20Speaker 3: This was a hidden trap door that you could open,
- 14:25Speaker 3: and when you would open it, you have another hidden
- 14:28Speaker 3: closet back in here. You can see my old safest
- 14:31Speaker 3: through here, and this was pretty much just my fort
- 14:35Speaker 3: Knox Room.
- 14:36Speaker 1: For fifteen years, Keene's empire remained hidden and growing, but
- 14:42Speaker 1: as he lived a high life, his father fell on
- 14:45Speaker 1: hard times, nearing the brink of financial ruin.
- 14:49Speaker 3: My dad, to me was superman and to see him
- 14:52Speaker 3: in such a hurt way really killed me.
- 14:55Speaker 1: So Jimmy used his drug fortune to bail his father
- 14:59Speaker 1: out then and continued to support him.
- 15:02Speaker 5: Even though it was coming from something wrong. I felt
- 15:04Speaker 5: I did something very right to make.
- 15:06Speaker 1: His world right, but the money never seemed to be enough,
- 15:11Speaker 1: and Keen couldn't stop watching his back. By the fall
- 15:15Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety six, the pressure of life in the
- 15:18Speaker 1: fast lane was catching up.
- 15:20Speaker 3: I had woke up in the middle of the night
- 15:22Speaker 3: and I was laying there, wide awake, and I said,
- 15:24Speaker 3: you know, I am tired of running like this, and
- 15:26Speaker 3: said I really just want this all to end.
- 15:29Speaker 1: And it was all about to end, but not the
- 15:32Speaker 1: way Keen had planned. Just two weeks later.
- 15:36Speaker 3: I heard the front door rattle, and I thought it
- 15:38Speaker 3: was just the wind because it was in November. And
- 15:41Speaker 3: next thing, you know, booming the whole door just blew
- 15:43Speaker 3: off the hinges and then they came flying in in
- 15:45Speaker 3: a straight file line with their guns drawn and there
- 15:48Speaker 3: are black uniforms.
- 15:50Speaker 1: Woo, we'll blow your head off.
- 15:51Speaker 5: We'll do this.
- 15:52Speaker 9: Just move one time, rubber up.
- 15:54Speaker 1: For Jimmy Keen, it was over.
- 15:57Speaker 3: Everything stops and goes in slow motion. They don't even
- 15:59Speaker 3: feel like it's real.
- 16:01Speaker 1: Keen was ultimately dragged to jail. He pleaded guilty, hoping
- 16:05Speaker 1: to minimize his sentence, and at first federal prosecutor Larry
- 16:10Speaker 1: Beaumont was willing to negotiate.
- 16:13Speaker 2: Initially, we tried what we called flip him to see
- 16:16Speaker 2: if he would give us other drug dealers at the time,
- 16:20Speaker 2: and I think he refused, so our reaction was to
- 16:23Speaker 2: make sure he gets to maximum penalty.
- 16:26Speaker 1: Beaumont got his way and Keen got ten years. It
- 16:31Speaker 1: knocked the life out of him and broke his father's heart.
- 16:35Speaker 3: Any hopes and dreams he had had for me at.
- 16:38Speaker 5: That point in life were gone. He was crush. He
- 16:41Speaker 5: was very crushed.
- 16:42Speaker 1: Jimmy Kean could not imagine a way out, nor guess
- 16:47Speaker 1: that a man he never met might someday provide him.
- 16:51Speaker 1: One November nineteen ninety four, Wabash, Indiana, it had been
- 17:03Speaker 1: two weeks since Larry Hall recoiled from a photo of
- 17:07Speaker 1: Jessica Roach. An investigator Gary Miller, had a gut instinct.
- 17:12Speaker 8: I really think we're onto some here. This guy portrays
- 17:14Speaker 8: this weak, timid person, but you know, I don't think
- 17:19Speaker 8: he truly is.
- 17:20Speaker 1: Miller thought Hall was vicious and is the investigation unfolded.
- 17:25Speaker 1: Miller also thought he knew how Hall abducted Jessica Roach.
- 17:29Speaker 8: When he first seen her. She was riding from toward
- 17:33Speaker 8: the house, going down this way.
- 17:38Speaker 1: Hall followed and stopped to talk. Jessica got scared and
- 17:42Speaker 1: backed away.
- 17:44Speaker 8: That's when he opens the door grabs her. There's a
- 17:47Speaker 8: physical confrontation where he overpowers her, put her in his
- 17:52Speaker 8: van and left, probably going up this road right past
- 17:58Speaker 8: her house.
- 18:01Speaker 1: In an interview in the Wabash Police station, Hall surprised
- 18:05Speaker 1: investigators by explaining what happened next. I tied her up,
- 18:11Speaker 1: but I can't remember with what. I took her pants off.
- 18:15Speaker 1: Hall said he raped her and led her off through
- 18:18Speaker 1: the woods. I laid her up against a tree and
- 18:21Speaker 1: put a belt around her neck and she stopped breathing.
- 18:25Speaker 1: Paul said he strangled Jessica from behind so he didn't
- 18:29Speaker 1: have to see her face as she died, and that
- 18:33Speaker 1: wasn't all all of the girls looked alike. Paul said,
- 18:37Speaker 1: I cannot remember all of them. I picked up several
- 18:40Speaker 1: girls in other areas, but I can't remember which ones.
- 18:44Speaker 1: I hurt several girls in other areas. There were more
- 18:51Speaker 1: victims than just Jessica Roach. Haul said he'd also been
- 18:57Speaker 1: near the campus of Indiana Wesleyan University er Tricia Reiitler
- 19:01Speaker 1: had disappeared. I was over there because I needed to
- 19:05Speaker 1: be with somebody. There was a small shopping center I
- 19:09Speaker 1: had a van. Hall said he raped and strangled a
- 19:13Speaker 1: girl here too. Then he identified his victim by pointing
- 19:18Speaker 1: to Tricia's picture. Tricia's disappearance had remained a mystery for
- 19:24Speaker 1: eighteen months.
- 19:25Speaker 4: We were just kind of sitting on the sidelines, waiting
- 19:27Speaker 4: for information to come in.
- 19:29Speaker 1: With little evidence and local police insisting on another suspect,
- 19:33Speaker 1: Tricia's parents, Gary and Donna still suffered.
- 19:37Speaker 5: I know what's each thing that came in. The urgency
- 19:41Speaker 5: was great, and the heartache was great too, and the
- 19:44Speaker 5: anticipation in the whole.
- 19:47Speaker 1: Hall's confession meant the Writlers might at last find their daughter,
- 19:51Speaker 1: and Gary Miller had found the killer of Jessica Roach,
- 19:56Speaker 1: but The next day, Hall changed his story.
- 20:00Speaker 8: Because I was talking to him. He said, well, I
- 20:01Speaker 8: was just telling you about my dreams and that didn't
- 20:04Speaker 8: really happen. He said, it was just my dreams. And
- 20:07Speaker 8: I said, well, Larry, that's not what you said. You
- 20:09Speaker 8: said this had happened, and you know you didn't like
- 20:11Speaker 8: talking about it because you didn't like the things that
- 20:13Speaker 8: you'd done, but you never mentioned it being a dream.
- 20:16Speaker 1: But he stuck to his news story. Larry Hall was
- 20:20Speaker 1: recanting everything. Larry Hall had confessed to killing Jessica Roach,
- 20:39Speaker 1: Trisha Reiitler, and two other women, and then he took
- 20:44Speaker 1: it all back, claiming it was just his imagination.
- 20:49Speaker 7: I did plea that I had dreamed that I didn't think.
- 20:58Speaker 1: But investigator Gary Miller had other evidence, like the witness
- 21:02Speaker 1: who drove by this cornfield the night of Jessica's murder.
- 21:07Speaker 8: That person testified he was absolutely sure that when he
- 21:10Speaker 8: went by here that night there was a van, there
- 21:12Speaker 8: was a guy coming from the cornfield to get in his.
- 21:14Speaker 1: Van, and a search of Hall's house and van revealed
- 21:20Speaker 1: he'd been casing out small college towns and keeping suspicious notes.
- 21:26Speaker 1: Seen joggers and bikers, many alone check colleges, parks, seen
- 21:33Speaker 1: some prospects. Hall also made lists for the hardware store.
- 21:38Speaker 1: Buy two more plastic tarps cover all floor in size
- 21:43Speaker 1: of van, and Hall wrote himself troubling instructions, no body
- 21:49Speaker 1: contact by condoms. Buy two more leather belts, find one now.
- 21:57Speaker 1: Amongst Hall's things, investigators found news paper clippings about Roach
- 22:01Speaker 1: and Wrightler, possessions from other missing girls, and pornographic pictures
- 22:07Speaker 1: Hall had altered.
- 22:09Speaker 8: In those pictures, he had drawn what looked like a
- 22:11Speaker 8: rope or a belt around the neck of one of
- 22:13Speaker 8: the people. On the left side of the map, he
- 22:16Speaker 8: had drawn blood.
- 22:18Speaker 1: Hall insisted it was all just staged to make a
- 22:21Speaker 1: play for attention, to feel important to police.
- 22:26Speaker 7: I've set a bunch of stuff than that van that
- 22:28Speaker 7: I drove around with because I knew that eventually starched
- 22:33Speaker 7: my van and find him.
- 22:36Speaker 1: During Larry's trial, his twin brother Gary, tried to provide
- 22:40Speaker 1: him in alibi. Still, federal prosecutor Larry Beaumont got Hall
- 22:45Speaker 1: convicted of kidnapping Jessica Roach.
- 22:48Speaker 2: In the federal system, if you're guilty of kidnapping, if
- 22:51Speaker 2: that kidnapping resulted in the death, then under the sensing
- 22:55Speaker 2: guidelines' manatory life term.
- 22:57Speaker 1: The Jessica Roach case was over, but the disappearance of
- 23:01Speaker 1: Tricia Reiitler remained unsolved, and her parents, Gary and Donna
- 23:06Speaker 1: could not stop looking.
- 23:09Speaker 4: We walked the sides of the roads, We walked the
- 23:11Speaker 4: river beds, you know, we looked under the calverts.
- 23:14Speaker 2: You know.
- 23:15Speaker 4: We ended up going to crack houses because somebody had
- 23:19Speaker 4: a lead.
- 23:21Speaker 5: If you see something on the side of the road,
- 23:23Speaker 5: a garbage bag, whatever it's like, could that be heard.
- 23:28Speaker 2: It was just a horrendous crime to lose your daughter,
- 23:30Speaker 2: never find out what that happened to her.
- 23:33Speaker 1: Larry Beaumont kept looking too well.
- 23:35Speaker 2: I actually made arrangements on a couple occasions to go
- 23:38Speaker 2: out and look for the body.
- 23:40Speaker 1: Beaumont called in specialized military and law enforcement units to search, but.
- 23:45Speaker 2: We weren't able to find it. So rather than give up,
- 23:49Speaker 2: it occurred to me that obviously.
- 23:51Speaker 1: Larry all knew Beaumont needed answers and turned to an
- 23:55Speaker 1: unlikely source to get them. He needed someone to befriend
- 23:59Speaker 1: Larry Hall, someone charismatic, someone on the inside. Larry Beaumont
- 24:07Speaker 1: needed Jimmy Keen. Beaumont had sent both Keen and Hall
- 24:12Speaker 1: to prison. Now he hatched a risky plan that would
- 24:16Speaker 1: bring them together. Keen was ten months into his sentence
- 24:22Speaker 1: when Beaumont brought him in to talk.
- 24:24Speaker 5: Scared me.
- 24:25Speaker 3: I thought this was some trick.
- 24:26Speaker 1: Keen watched nervously as Beaumont pushed a folder across the
- 24:30Speaker 1: table and I opened it.
- 24:32Speaker 3: Up and the first thing I seen was a picture
- 24:34Speaker 3: of a mutilated dead girl. And I flipped the next
- 24:37Speaker 3: page and there was a different mutilated.
- 24:40Speaker 1: Dead girl, and there was a portrait of Trisha Wiitler.
- 24:44Speaker 3: At that moment, I looked up at Beaumont and he says, Jimmy,
- 24:46Speaker 3: we need you to help us with this case.
- 24:48Speaker 1: Beaumont wanted Keen to go undercover, to transfer from his
- 24:52Speaker 1: low security lock up to a dangerous prison, and to
- 24:57Speaker 1: befriended alleged serial killer Hall.
- 25:01Speaker 3: He says, if you can get solid confessions from him,
- 25:03Speaker 3: and if you can help us locate the bodies that
- 25:06Speaker 3: are still missing, we're willing to completely wash your record.
- 25:11Speaker 1: Keene's mission to learn where Trisha Reiitler was buried.
- 25:15Speaker 2: Purpose of this operation was to find that body.
- 25:18Speaker 1: Beaumont made it clear no body, no early release. Keen
- 25:23Speaker 1: would have to serve the rest of his ten year sentence.
- 25:27Speaker 1: Beaumont believed Keen could do it.
- 25:30Speaker 2: He's smart, he's articulate, he's not afraid, and I knew
- 25:33Speaker 2: he wanted to get out.
- 25:34Speaker 1: For Keen, it was a chance for redemption, to restore
- 25:38Speaker 1: his family name, and, says author hillel Levin, to get
- 25:42Speaker 1: his life back on track.
- 25:44Speaker 9: This deal was a way for him to get home,
- 25:46Speaker 9: and it was also a way for him to do good,
- 25:49Speaker 9: to kind of take this bad thing he had done
- 25:52Speaker 9: and to somehow turn it inside out and make it
- 25:55Speaker 9: something that would solve a crime.
- 25:59Speaker 1: But it wouldn't be easy. Fair to say he was
- 26:02Speaker 1: risking his life. He could have been killed.
- 26:04Speaker 2: It was dangerous, absolutely, it was highly risky.
- 26:08Speaker 3: These people in those type of places haven't got anything
- 26:10Speaker 3: better to do but try to hurt you and kill
- 26:12Speaker 3: you too.
- 26:15Speaker 1: Keen was unsure, but a phone call home put his
- 26:18Speaker 1: doubts to rest. Keen's stepmother said his father had suffered
- 26:23Speaker 1: a stroke.
- 26:25Speaker 3: She said, he's in really bad shape.
- 26:28Speaker 5: We wish you were here.
- 26:29Speaker 3: This is terrible that you're in a spot where you're
- 26:31Speaker 3: in right now, because we could lose him.
- 26:33Speaker 1: Keene needed to get home to Kankakeee fast, and there
- 26:36Speaker 1: was only one way to make that happen. He had
- 26:40Speaker 1: to face an alleged serial killer. First, I just.
- 26:44Speaker 3: Thought, you know what, however bizarre or how far out
- 26:48Speaker 3: or whatever this mission that Beaumont wants me to go on,
- 26:51Speaker 3: I'm gonna do it.
- 27:08Speaker 1: Driving up to the prison in Springfield, Missouri, Jimmy Kean
- 27:11Speaker 1: didn't know if he'd made the best or worst decision
- 27:15Speaker 1: of his life.
- 27:17Speaker 3: I started to get cold feet, and I looked at
- 27:20Speaker 3: the US Marshall and I said, listen, I said, you know,
- 27:22Speaker 3: how do we know Beaumont's get to live up to
- 27:23Speaker 3: his word? They all assured me he would, and I said, well,
- 27:26Speaker 3: you know, I'm not really sure if I can do this.
- 27:29Speaker 1: But there was no turning back, and he needed to prepare.
- 27:33Speaker 1: Agents had warned him to be careful.
- 27:38Speaker 3: We don't want you to approach him for at least
- 27:40Speaker 3: six months because he's a very cagy individual. If he
- 27:44Speaker 3: senses one thing wrong, he goes into his shell like
- 27:46Speaker 3: a turtle and you'll never get him back out once
- 27:48Speaker 3: he's in.
- 27:50Speaker 1: But Keen didn't have time to wait. He needed to
- 27:53Speaker 1: get home to his ailing father. Two hours after becoming
- 27:57Speaker 1: a Springfield inmate. He spotted Larry and made his first move.
- 28:03Speaker 3: I made it a point for us to bump shoulders together,
- 28:06Speaker 3: and as we gently bumped shoulders together, I turned around
- 28:08Speaker 3: and said, oh, excuse me, I said, Listen, I said,
- 28:11Speaker 3: I'm new here. I said, you wouldn't happen to know
- 28:13Speaker 3: where the library is.
- 28:13Speaker 5: Would you.
- 28:14Speaker 1: Haull offered to show Keen the.
- 28:16Speaker 3: Way, and I just reached over and I kind of
- 28:18Speaker 3: slapped him on the shoulder and I said, thanks a lot.
- 28:20Speaker 3: I appreciate that from a cool guy like you.
- 28:24Speaker 1: Over the next week, Keen watched halls every move from
- 28:27Speaker 1: his cell across the hall, and I.
- 28:30Speaker 3: Walked up to him and I says, hey, this is
- 28:32Speaker 3: where I'm at. I said, are you in this area here?
- 28:34Speaker 3: And he goes, yeah, I'm right there, you know, and
- 28:37Speaker 3: he bugs his eyes out of his head. I said,
- 28:38Speaker 3: well that's great. I said, you're right by men. I said,
- 28:40Speaker 3: you know what I told you, were a cool guy,
- 28:42Speaker 3: and I'm glad that you're buying me and all this
- 28:44Speaker 3: and that. And that's when he basically offered some time
- 28:47Speaker 3: if I had ever want to have breakfast with him
- 28:49Speaker 3: and his friends.
- 28:51Speaker 1: Keen was making progress slowly gaining Hole's trust, but life
- 28:56Speaker 1: at Springfield was complicated and dangerous, so Keen figured out
- 29:01Speaker 1: a way to use violence to his advantage. It was
- 29:04Speaker 1: a Saturday night and Hall was in the TV room,
- 29:07Speaker 1: mesmerized by an episode of America's Most Wanted About serial Killers.
- 29:13Speaker 1: Suddenly another inmate approached the TV.
- 29:17Speaker 3: And you could tell this guy had been in for
- 29:19Speaker 3: a long time.
- 29:19Speaker 5: He was a real big, buff guy.
- 29:21Speaker 3: And he just walked up to the TV, looked at
- 29:23Speaker 3: everybody in there, and he decided he's going to turn
- 29:25Speaker 3: the TV channel and he turned it. And I found
- 29:28Speaker 3: this very interesting. Larry looked at me and very quietly
- 29:32Speaker 3: mumbled under his breath, he goes, hey, I was watching
- 29:35Speaker 3: that show.
- 29:38Speaker 1: Keen leaped into action and knocked the guy out, and
- 29:42Speaker 1: I nail.
- 29:42Speaker 3: Him with an uppercut, and then I kicked him through
- 29:44Speaker 3: three rows of chairs.
- 29:46Speaker 9: He was beat up.
- 29:46Speaker 3: Real bad, and he had to go to the hospital
- 29:48Speaker 3: and they took me and threw me in the hole.
- 29:52Speaker 1: It was worth it, and it was a breakthrough with Hall.
- 29:56Speaker 3: He not only now looked at me as a guy
- 29:58Speaker 3: that he could look at and say, Wow, he's thinks
- 30:01Speaker 3: I'm cool. Coming from him, that's a compliment, and now
- 30:05Speaker 3: he's also able to protect me.
- 30:07Speaker 1: Now, Keen had Hall's trust and had him talking one
- 30:13Speaker 1: night in hall cell. He told King the truth about
- 30:16Speaker 1: what happened to Tricia Writler. But what Hall told Keene
- 30:30Speaker 1: was different from what some investigators believed. It was his story,
- 30:34Speaker 1: along with some evidence. It created a road map I
- 30:37Speaker 1: wanted to follow to try to figure out what happened
- 30:40Speaker 1: to Tricia Writler. Tricia would have left this supermarket parking
- 30:49Speaker 1: lot walking just a couple of blocks back to campus
- 30:56Speaker 1: somewhere along this road. Hall told Keen he got Tricia
- 31:00Speaker 1: into his van when she fought off his advances. He
- 31:03Speaker 1: says he choked her to keep her quiet. Hall told
- 31:08Speaker 1: Keen he blacked out, and when he woke up, Tricia
- 31:11Speaker 1: was naked and lifeless. Days after her disappearance, investigators found
- 31:19Speaker 1: her blood soaked clothes here, just one block from the supermarket.
- 31:25Speaker 1: Pull's own notes indicate what might have happened next. Exactly
- 31:30Speaker 1: one week after Tricia's disappearance, Hall wrote, cut out, staying carpet,
- 31:36Speaker 1: vacuumed van, thoroughly, buy new hacksaw blades, clean all tools.
- 31:45Speaker 1: Along with his notes was this address seven hundred west Slocum.
- 31:50Speaker 1: We're in the woods, halfway between Marion and Wabash, and
- 31:54Speaker 1: it is possible it's somewhere out here Tricia Wriitler is buried.
- 32:03Speaker 4: He said.
- 32:04Speaker 3: So he got some line together, he got a shovel,
- 32:06Speaker 3: and he got a lantern, and he drove her way
- 32:08Speaker 3: out into the woods, and he buried her out.
- 32:09Speaker 6: In the woods.
- 32:10Speaker 1: He admitted to you he buried her in the woods
- 32:13Speaker 1: several times.
- 32:14Speaker 3: He's admitted that.
- 32:15Speaker 6: Yes.
- 32:15Speaker 3: I basically made him feel like it was okay to
- 32:18Speaker 3: tell me his secret.
- 32:21Speaker 1: But Keen still needed the secret that would set him
- 32:23Speaker 1: free the exact location of Trisha's body. Weeks later, he
- 32:29Speaker 1: thought he nailed it when he found Hall hovered over
- 32:32Speaker 1: a map in the prison workshop.
- 32:34Speaker 3: It was a map with red dots over Indiana, Illinois,
- 32:38Speaker 3: and Wisconsin, and he covered it up really fast.
- 32:42Speaker 1: Lined up at the edge of the map were a
- 32:44Speaker 1: dozen wooden falcons.
- 32:46Speaker 3: And I said, wow, this is pretty cool.
- 32:48Speaker 9: Do you make these?
- 32:49Speaker 3: He says, yeah, I make them, And he goes, it's
- 32:51Speaker 3: really cool, isn't it, Jim?
- 32:52Speaker 5: He goes, they watched over the dead.
- 32:57Speaker 1: Falcons to watch over the dead, and a map marked
- 33:01Speaker 1: with dots It was the information Keen thought would surely
- 33:05Speaker 1: lead to the exact location of Trisha's body. In that moment,
- 33:09Speaker 1: what did you think this is my ticket to freedom?
- 33:12Speaker 3: I did because I thought this is it. I've got
- 33:15Speaker 3: solid confessions out of him. We know specific details, we
- 33:18Speaker 3: know how he's done it.
- 33:19Speaker 1: Now Keen believed he had his answer, that he'd soon
- 33:23Speaker 1: be free, that he was done forever with Larry Hall.
- 33:28Speaker 1: So that night at lockdown, Keen decided to tell Hall
- 33:32Speaker 1: what he really thought.
- 33:35Speaker 3: I told him that he was a consicko. I told
- 33:37Speaker 3: him that he was insane. I said that you are
- 33:40Speaker 3: one of the most despicable forms of human life on
- 33:42Speaker 3: this planet. He at that point slid away from me
- 33:45Speaker 3: and was like really terrified to me all of a sudden,
- 33:48Speaker 3: and he says, Beaumont sent you, didn't He Beaumont sent you?
- 33:52Speaker 1: Didn'ty Keen had blown his cover and his outbursts landed
- 33:57Speaker 1: him in solitary confinement.
- 33:59Speaker 2: Took some time before we found out that they put
- 34:01Speaker 2: Jimmy in the hole, and so he was not able
- 34:04Speaker 2: to communicate with him on the any outside.
- 34:07Speaker 1: By then, Hall's map and the Falcons had disappeared. Worst
- 34:13Speaker 1: of all, as Keene was let out of Springfield prison
- 34:15Speaker 1: to face Larry Beaumont. He didn't know if what he'd
- 34:19Speaker 1: learned was enough to set him free. During his months
- 34:41Speaker 1: in Springfield, Jimmy Keen got Larry Hall to provide details
- 34:45Speaker 1: about several murders Hall was suspected of committing, including Tricia Wrightler's.
- 34:51Speaker 1: But Keen hadn't met the original requirements of Larry Beaumont's deal, and.
- 34:56Speaker 2: I told him this myself, made it clear to him
- 34:58Speaker 2: that if we didn't find a body, nobody no credit.
- 35:03Speaker 1: Sitting in his prison cell, Jimmy Keen desperately hoped he
- 35:07Speaker 1: had done enough.
- 35:08Speaker 3: Are they going to be fair and give me what's
- 35:11Speaker 3: justifiably right on this or are they just going to
- 35:13Speaker 3: say here's six months it was a craft.
- 35:16Speaker 1: Shoot without a location for Wrightler's body. Beaumont had a decision.
- 35:21Speaker 2: To make I may and ranges him to take a
- 35:24Speaker 2: polygraph test just to verify what he was telling us.
- 35:27Speaker 2: It wasn't truth, which he passed, and he didn't make
- 35:30Speaker 2: a legitimate effort to do what we sent him down
- 35:32Speaker 2: here to do.
- 35:33Speaker 1: So, Beaumont urged a federal judge to give Keen credit
- 35:37Speaker 1: for time served Jimmy. Keen became a freeman and returned
- 35:42Speaker 1: home to his aging father. What did you feel like
- 35:46Speaker 1: when you were finally released?
- 35:49Speaker 5: I was happy it could be.
- 35:50Speaker 3: It was a very bizarre rollercoaster that I went on.
- 35:54Speaker 3: It was, I mean, a redemption at its best.
- 35:58Speaker 1: Keen had five more good years to be with his
- 36:01Speaker 1: father before Big Jim passed away.
- 36:04Speaker 3: We both realized once I got out, that there is
- 36:09Speaker 3: a better world than just always in a constant dash
- 36:12Speaker 3: to make money.
- 36:13Speaker 5: You know, it was more like, look.
- 36:15Speaker 3: Let's just enjoy each other while we're alive here. You know.
- 36:20Speaker 1: It was closure for Keen, but not for the families
- 36:23Speaker 1: of the alleged victims of Larry Hall. For years, there
- 36:27Speaker 1: was no progress and no relief for people like Donna
- 36:31Speaker 1: and Gary Reitler.
- 36:32Speaker 5: There's a parent. There's the part that you've fled her
- 36:35Speaker 5: down and that you want to find her and you
- 36:38Speaker 5: want to bring her home and you can't. I mean,
- 36:40Speaker 5: we've done pretty much physically everything that we can to
- 36:44Speaker 5: find her, and there's somebody out there that holds that
- 36:48Speaker 5: one answer for us.
- 36:50Speaker 1: Beaumont too, felt he'd done all he could and that
- 36:53Speaker 1: the pursuit of Larry Hall was over.
- 36:56Speaker 2: There wasn't gonna be no further prosecution from the federal perspective.
- 37:01Speaker 2: He's already serving life in prison and he wasn't going
- 37:03Speaker 2: to You know, he was done.
- 37:06Speaker 1: Once again. Larry Hall had slipped off the radar, and
- 37:09Speaker 1: it easily could have remained that way except for Jimmy Keen. First,
- 37:16Speaker 1: keen story of Strange Redemption was featured in a Playboy
- 37:19Speaker 1: article and then a book written by Keen and hillel Levin.
- 37:23Speaker 9: Once we were able to write about what Jimmy went through,
- 37:28Speaker 9: then things happened.
- 37:31Speaker 1: Keen's story refocused attention on Larry Hall, helped reopen cold
- 37:36Speaker 1: cases and put pressure on his twin brother Gary. Now,
- 37:41Speaker 1: Gary stopped defending Larry and started talking Larry just.
- 37:46Speaker 10: Like Jimmy Kean calls him, and he is he's a
- 37:50Speaker 10: baby killer.
- 37:52Speaker 1: You think your brother is a baby killer?
- 37:54Speaker 6: I don't have no doubt my mind.
- 37:56Speaker 1: Do you think your brother killed more than Jessica wrote?
- 38:00Speaker 2: Yes?
- 38:01Speaker 1: Do you think your brother killed Tricia Wrightler, Yes, Branda Rison,
- 38:08Speaker 1: Michelle Dewey Yes. As Gary started talking more openly, detectives
- 38:14Speaker 1: approached him asking for help.
- 38:19Speaker 10: I went with the Indianapolis detectives down.
- 38:22Speaker 5: To try to get my brother to.
- 38:24Speaker 6: Confess he made me leave the room.
- 38:27Speaker 10: He did, in fact, and fast santape to fifteen serial murders.
- 38:33Speaker 1: Larry later retracted again, and while he can't ever seem
- 38:37Speaker 1: to stick to one story, he does sometimes seem to
- 38:40Speaker 1: have regrets.
- 38:42Speaker 7: I didn't want to keep living my life the way
- 38:45Speaker 7: I was living, and I wanted to say he's different,
- 38:48Speaker 7: you know, but yess I didn't really see the right
- 38:52Speaker 7: thing to change the way my life was going.
- 38:57Speaker 1: Larry Hall refused our requests for interview. He has never
- 39:01Speaker 1: been charged with crimes against anyone other than Jessica Roach,
- 39:06Speaker 1: but Keene's story has caused officials across the country to
- 39:10Speaker 1: take another look at Hall.
- 39:12Speaker 8: In November twenty ten, investigators from the town of Nashi
- 39:15Speaker 8: police department interviewed mister Hall at a federal prison in
- 39:17Speaker 8: North Carolina.
- 39:20Speaker 1: In that interview, Hall admitted murdering Lorie Depeas and provided
- 39:24Speaker 1: clues about where to find her body.
- 39:27Speaker 9: There's multiple agencies that are looking into him.
- 39:29Speaker 3: Reference there on solid disappearances.
- 39:32Speaker 1: Larry Hall may have had more victims than ever imagined.
- 39:36Speaker 9: We understand it's even more extensive than we ever thought.
- 39:41Speaker 9: Not twenty but maybe thirty to forty in terms of
- 39:45Speaker 9: the victims.
- 39:48Speaker 1: That leaves thirty or forty families still awaiting answers, which
- 39:53Speaker 1: is why, says Levin, it is critical that serial investigations
- 39:57Speaker 1: do not stop. Two decades after Trisha Reiitler vanished, her
- 40:03Speaker 1: father Gary now believes Larry Hall knows where to find her.
- 40:09Speaker 4: I think if Larry knew what we go through on
- 40:12Speaker 4: a daily basis, you know, wondering where she is, wondering
- 40:15Speaker 4: what happened, I don't think he would have any choice
- 40:19Speaker 4: to confess and let us know where she's buried.
- 40:23Speaker 1: Donna Reitler is not as sure.
- 40:25Speaker 5: Yeah, he confessed, he we can't did he confessed? Hey,
- 40:28Speaker 5: we can't did without a body. It's just another possibility.
- 40:36Speaker 1: More than anything else, they just want their daughter back.
- 40:40Speaker 5: To have a place to lay, her to rest, just
- 40:44Speaker 5: to be able to sit and just.
- 40:45Speaker 6: Talk to her.
- 40:54Speaker 1: As for Jimmy Keane, his truth is stranger than fiction.
- 40:58Speaker 1: He's gone from football stand up out to drug dealer,
- 41:02Speaker 1: to undercover operative and now to screenstar with his story
- 41:08Speaker 1: in development as a Hollywood film. Still, says Keen, he
- 41:13Speaker 1: thinks of the victims' families and hopes they'll find their answers.
- 41:18Speaker 5: That's all they can do is keep hoping.
- 41:20Speaker 3: There was a glimmer of hope when Jimmy Kim was
- 41:22Speaker 3: involved here. Maybe something else will still evolve out of this.
- 41:26Speaker 3: Maybe the things I've done and am still doing will
- 41:28Speaker 3: still shine a light and give them hope at some
- 41:31Speaker 3: point