Latest / 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories / The Serial Killer Who Begged for Help and Got Ignored
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- 1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,260 What happens when a young man writes a letter from prison begging for psychological help 2 00:00:06,260 --> 00:00:09,240 and the system decides he's lying? 3 00:00:09,240 --> 00:00:13,460 Today we're talking about Charles Ray Hatcher, a man who practically gave authorities a 4 00:00:13,460 --> 00:00:17,160 road map to stop him, but nobody was listening. 5 00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:21,120 By the time they finally paid attention, 16 people were dead. 6 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:43,120 [Music] 7 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:45,520 So here's the thing about serial killers. 8 00:00:45,520 --> 00:00:50,240 We all want them to be these mysterious, uncrackable enigmas. 9 00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:55,920 But sometimes the scariest part is how predictable their origin story actually is. 10 00:00:55,920 --> 00:01:03,400 Take Charles Ray Hatcher, born July 16th, 1929 in the tiny town of Mount City, Missouri. 11 00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:08,080 His father, Jesse James Hatcher, had a name that sounded like an outlaw legend, but he was 12 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:11,160 really more like a small town nightmare. 13 00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:16,080 Jesse James was an ex-con, a bootleger, and an alcoholic who had perfected the art of 14 00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:18,840 making everyone around him miserable. 15 00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:22,680 When you're dealing with someone who can find money for booze, but struggles to put food 16 00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:26,760 on the table, you know the priorities are seriously warped. 17 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:31,880 Jesse took his frustrations out on his wife and kids, turning their home into a war zone 18 00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:35,320 where Charles never knew when the next blow was coming. 19 00:01:35,320 --> 00:01:37,680 School wasn't any better for Charles. 20 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:43,120 While other kids were learning their ABCs, Charles was getting a different kind of education. 21 00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:44,960 One taught with fists. 22 00:01:44,960 --> 00:01:49,600 The bullying was relentless, but here's where things get interesting from a psychological 23 00:01:49,600 --> 00:01:51,120 standpoint. 24 00:01:51,120 --> 00:01:57,000 Instead of breaking completely, Charles eventually grew bigger, big enough to flip the script. 25 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:02,000 The victim became the perpetrator, and he started dishing out the beatings himself. 26 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:05,440 The transformation is textbook cycle of violence stuff. 27 00:02:05,440 --> 00:02:11,040 But what happened next turned a bad situation into an absolute tragedy that would haunt the 28 00:02:11,040 --> 00:02:13,400 Hatcher family forever. 29 00:02:13,400 --> 00:02:17,280 When Charles was about six years old, he and his brothers were doing something completely 30 00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:20,960 normal, flying a homemade kite around their neighborhood. 31 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:24,040 They'd attached it though to a copper wire. 32 00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:28,720 Taking turns to fly the kite like kids do, his older brother Albert Allen had finished his 33 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:33,240 turn and was passing the kite off the Charles when disaster struck. 34 00:02:33,240 --> 00:02:36,760 That copper wire hit a nearby electrical line. 35 00:02:36,760 --> 00:02:41,880 Albert was electrocuted in front of his younger brothers and died instantly. 36 00:02:41,880 --> 00:02:46,400 Look about a traumatic core memory, watching your sibling die in a freak accident that could 37 00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:48,360 have easily been you. 38 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:53,520 The Hatcher family never recovered from this loss, and honestly, who could? 39 00:02:53,520 --> 00:02:58,000 Within a few years, Jesse had divorced his wife and moved on because apparently abandoning 40 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:02,360 your traumatized kids is easier than dealing with grief. 41 00:03:02,360 --> 00:03:06,440 Charles watched his mother cycle through failed marriages until she settled down with her 42 00:03:06,440 --> 00:03:09,320 third husband and St. Joseph. 43 00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:15,280 For brief moment, Charles found some stability there, but stability wasn't really in his DNA 44 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:16,920 at this point. 45 00:03:16,920 --> 00:03:22,040 At 18, Charles landed a job driving trucks for a local logging company. 46 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:25,120 Seems like he might actually turn things around, right? 47 00:03:25,120 --> 00:03:26,320 Wrong. 48 00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:28,680 That job lasted exactly two weeks. 49 00:03:28,680 --> 00:03:33,360 One night, and what can only be described as peak bad decision making, Charles got drunk 50 00:03:33,360 --> 00:03:36,640 and decided to borrow one of the company trucks. 51 00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:41,600 He disappeared into the night, probably thinking he'd return it before anyone noticed. 52 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:44,960 He did bring it back the next morning, but the damage was done. 53 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:50,120 The company had already reported it stolen, and Charles officially became a criminal. 54 00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:54,320 He got convicted of auto theft and received a two-year suspended sentence. 55 00:03:54,320 --> 00:03:58,600 At this point, he could have learned his lesson and moved on with his life, but Charles Ray 56 00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:02,920 Hatcher wasn't interested in making things easy for himself. 57 00:04:02,920 --> 00:04:07,240 Within months, he was back to his old tricks, stealing another car. 58 00:04:07,240 --> 00:04:10,440 This time, he got two years in the Missouri State Penitentiary. 59 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:14,480 He served about half of his sentence, but prison didn't rehabilitate him. 60 00:04:14,480 --> 00:04:18,720 It just taught him new skills and introduced him to new kinds of violence. 61 00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:23,920 Shortly after his release, Charles committed his first documented violent crime. 62 00:04:23,920 --> 00:04:29,240 He targeted a 16-year-old newspaper boy, chasing him down with a butcher knife and attempting 63 00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:30,760 to abduct him. 64 00:04:30,760 --> 00:04:34,600 Thankfully, the teenager escaped and reported Charles to the police. 65 00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:37,840 This incident marked a crucial escalation. 66 00:04:37,840 --> 00:04:42,520 Charles had crossed the line from property crimes to predatory violence. 67 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:46,800 When police arrested him, he was driving yet another stolen vehicle, which landed him 68 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:48,600 with a five-year sentence. 69 00:04:48,600 --> 00:04:52,840 It was during this prison stay that things got really dark. 70 00:04:52,840 --> 00:04:58,560 While Charles was doing time, a fellow inmate named Jerry Therrington was found raped and 71 00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:01,400 stabbed to death in the prison kitchen. 72 00:05:01,400 --> 00:05:05,520 Charles was the only kitchen worker missing during the following inspection, but there wasn't 73 00:05:05,520 --> 00:05:09,040 enough physical evidence to prove that he was the killer. 74 00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:12,040 Still, prison authorities weren't taking any chances. 75 00:05:12,040 --> 00:05:14,920 They put Charles in solitary confinement. 76 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:21,400 From his cell, he wrote a letter to the Penitentiary Major, claiming he desperately needed psychological 77 00:05:21,400 --> 00:05:22,400 help. 78 00:05:22,400 --> 00:05:23,440 And here's the thing. 79 00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:28,400 Many experts believe this was the last real chance to prevent what came next. 80 00:05:28,400 --> 00:05:33,400 If Charles had received proper treatment when he asked for it, some argue that 16 people 81 00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:35,280 might still be alive today. 82 00:05:35,280 --> 00:05:40,200 But the prison staff thought Charles was faking it, trying to get out of solitary. 83 00:05:40,200 --> 00:05:43,960 So he went untreated and was eventually released early. 84 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:45,360 For some reason. 85 00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:46,960 Huge mistake. 86 00:05:46,960 --> 00:05:52,160 Once free, Charles headed to California and committed his first confirmed murder. 87 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:57,440 At Antioch, he spotted a young boy riding his bicycle, lured him to a quiet creek, and 88 00:05:57,440 --> 00:05:59,720 strangled him with his bare hands. 89 00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:04,800 The first victim, 12-year-old William Freeman, had disappeared from Antioch, California, and 90 00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:06,760 August of that year. 91 00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:11,360 With no connection between Charles and the victim, he remained free to strike again. 92 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:15,200 He started using aliases and constantly moved around. 93 00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:19,160 Classic serial killer behavior that made him nearly impossible to track. 94 00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:23,960 The authorities had no idea who they were dealing with when they arrested him in San Francisco. 95 00:06:23,960 --> 00:06:28,920 A six-year-old girl had watched her friend get approached by an older man offering ice cream. 96 00:06:28,920 --> 00:06:32,080 The boy accepted and walked away with the stranger. 97 00:06:32,080 --> 00:06:37,040 Later, a man walking his dog found Charles in the act of beating and raping the child. 98 00:06:37,040 --> 00:06:39,720 The intervention probably saved the boy's life. 99 00:06:39,720 --> 00:06:42,640 Charles told police his name was Albert Ralph. 100 00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:44,960 But his idea said, "Hobbert Prader." 101 00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:48,720 This guy was collecting fake identities like baseball carts. 102 00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:53,920 The courts ordered psychological evaluations, but Charles had learned how to game the system. 103 00:06:53,920 --> 00:07:00,120 He claimed to hear voices, see things that weren't there, and even made fake suicide attempts. 104 00:07:00,120 --> 00:07:02,200 The doctors weren't buying it though. 105 00:07:02,200 --> 00:07:06,280 Five times, they sent him back to the courts, saying that he was mentally competent to 106 00:07:06,280 --> 00:07:07,800 stand trial. 107 00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:12,360 When he was caught trying to escape from the hospital, the authorities had enough. 108 00:07:12,360 --> 00:07:16,720 Charles was transferred to St. Quentin Prison and eventually stood trial over three years 109 00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:18,200 after his arrest. 110 00:07:18,200 --> 00:07:22,560 He was found guilty and recommended for transfer to maximum security. 111 00:07:22,560 --> 00:07:26,160 But Charles wasn't done manipulating the system just yet. 112 00:07:26,160 --> 00:07:30,000 He slashed his own wrists and got sent to a prison hospital instead. 113 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:34,680 Eventually, he was released to a halfway house in San Francisco with orders to report 114 00:07:34,680 --> 00:07:37,040 nightly for medication. 115 00:07:37,040 --> 00:07:39,520 Five days later, he vanished. 116 00:07:39,520 --> 00:07:44,640 Over the following years, Charles used different aliases and committed numerous attacks, mostly 117 00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:46,960 targeting young boys. 118 00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:52,120 But it was his attack on 11-year-old Michelle Steele that finally brought him down. 119 00:07:52,120 --> 00:07:58,040 On July 29, 1982, 11-year-old Michelle was reported missing from St. Joseph. 120 00:07:58,040 --> 00:08:03,360 The day after, her uncle found her nude, ravaged body on the bank of the Missouri River. 121 00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:06,080 She had been beaten, raped, and killed. 122 00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:10,600 The signature violence that had marked Charles' crimes for years. 123 00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:14,660 Shortly after Michelle's murder, Charles voluntarily checked himself into the St. 124 00:08:14,660 --> 00:08:20,960 Joseph State Hospital under the alias Richard Clark, claiming again to hear voices. 125 00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:25,040 When hospital staff realized their new patient matched the description of the last person 126 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:28,200 seen with Michelle, they called authorities. 127 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:31,000 The evidence against Charles was overwhelming. 128 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:35,120 The nylon cords on his person matched those found on Michelle's body. 129 00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:40,320 His shoes matched the prints found at the scene, and his teeth matched bite marks on Michelle's 130 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:41,360 skin. 131 00:08:41,360 --> 00:08:46,200 After years of evading justice, Charles Ray Hatcher was finally caught. 132 00:08:46,200 --> 00:08:47,440 Again. 133 00:08:47,440 --> 00:08:52,200 While awaiting trial for Michelle's murder, Charles slipped a note to a deputy that read, 134 00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:55,720 "Please call the FBI and tell them I would like to see them today." 135 00:08:55,720 --> 00:08:57,720 Very important case. 136 00:08:57,720 --> 00:09:01,640 When FBI agents arrived, Charles dropped a bombshell. 137 00:09:01,640 --> 00:09:08,360 He confessed to having murdered a total of 16 people between 1969 and 1982. 138 00:09:08,360 --> 00:09:13,120 Even more shocking, he revealed that an innocent man named Melvin Lee Reynolds had already 139 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:18,560 been convicted and was serving life in prison for one of his victims, Eric Kriskin. 140 00:09:18,560 --> 00:09:22,760 Four years later, Reynolds was released when Charles Hatcher confessed to the murders to 141 00:09:22,760 --> 00:09:25,000 an FBI agent. 142 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:29,160 Charles provided details about the killings that had never been made public and drew maps 143 00:09:29,160 --> 00:09:32,160 leading to burial locations of several victims. 144 00:09:32,160 --> 00:09:37,320 In exchange for information, Charles wanted only one thing to be put to death. 145 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:41,640 When court proceedings dragged on longer than expected, Charles decided to take matters 146 00:09:41,640 --> 00:09:43,240 into his own hands. 147 00:09:43,240 --> 00:09:49,680 On December 7, 1984, officers found Charles hanging from electrical wire in his cell. 148 00:09:49,680 --> 00:09:54,640 In the end, Charles Hatcher got what he wanted, but his death left behind a trail of devastation 149 00:09:54,640 --> 00:10:00,360 that included 16 murdered victims, countless traumatized families, and hard questions 150 00:10:00,360 --> 00:10:06,960 about how many times the system failed to stop a killer who practically announced his intentions. 151 00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:11,320 The most haunting part of this story isn't the violence itself, although that is extremely 152 00:10:11,320 --> 00:10:15,200 disturbing, but it's how preventable so much of it was. 153 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:20,640 From that first cry for help in the prison to multiple chances for proper intervention, 154 00:10:20,640 --> 00:10:25,560 Charles Hatcher's killing spree represents a catastrophic failure of the very systems designed 155 00:10:25,560 --> 00:10:29,480 to protect society from people just like him. 156 00:10:29,480 --> 00:10:34,160 Sometimes the most terrifying monsters are the ones we create through neglect. 157 00:10:34,160 --> 00:10:38,920 And Charles Ray Hatcher is the perfect example of what happens when society looks the other 158 00:10:38,920 --> 00:10:52,840 way at exactly the wrong moment. 159 00:10:52,840 --> 00:10:57,360 Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, Bingeable True Crime Stories. 160 00:10:57,360 --> 00:11:02,240 My name is Joe, hi, I'm the host and if you're a brand new listener welcome. 161 00:11:02,240 --> 00:11:05,880 Super pumped that you're here, make sure you hit subscribe before you move on to the next 162 00:11:05,880 --> 00:11:11,160 episode and when you become a subscriber that helps you also catch up on all the back episodes 163 00:11:11,160 --> 00:11:12,640 of 10 Minute Murder. 164 00:11:12,640 --> 00:11:17,040 Go to the website 10minutemerder.com, you'll find all kinds of things there including a way 165 00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:19,840 to send me an email like this one. 166 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:21,880 Subject podcast inception. 167 00:11:21,880 --> 00:11:28,360 Hey Joe, if someone made a podcast about you making a podcast about murder, would you listen? 168 00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:30,600 Or would that be too weird even for you? 169 00:11:30,600 --> 00:11:31,920 And that's from Becca in Toronto. 170 00:11:31,920 --> 00:11:34,920 And let me tell you Becca, I had to sit there and think about that for a second because 171 00:11:34,920 --> 00:11:38,440 I didn't I wasn't sure exactly what you were asking me. 172 00:11:38,440 --> 00:11:42,720 But yeah, I think I would listen to that and there's already kind of a show that is that 173 00:11:42,720 --> 00:11:47,280 thing, not necessarily a real life thing, but only murders in the building on Hulu. 174 00:11:47,280 --> 00:11:50,560 I've watched a couple of season of that, that's not too bad. 175 00:11:50,560 --> 00:11:53,560 But yeah, I think I would listen to that, it'd be interesting. 176 00:11:53,560 --> 00:11:59,080 But mostly how people would interpret my process of doing this, how if people would think 177 00:11:59,080 --> 00:12:00,080 oh, that guy's crazy. 178 00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:01,800 Why is he doing things like that? 179 00:12:01,800 --> 00:12:02,800 That's nuts. 180 00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:04,880 I listen to a lot of standup comedy. 181 00:12:04,880 --> 00:12:06,400 It would be weird things like that. 182 00:12:06,400 --> 00:12:08,840 Why is this guy drinking so much diet Pepsi? 183 00:12:08,840 --> 00:12:10,400 That can't be healthy for him. 184 00:12:10,400 --> 00:12:11,920 But yes, I think I would check it out. 185 00:12:11,920 --> 00:12:16,160 Anyway, if you've got an email you'd like to send me Joe at 10minuteMurder.com. 186 00:12:16,160 --> 00:12:19,920 Go to the website if you don't want to remember that, you can go to the website and it's right 187 00:12:19,920 --> 00:12:20,920 there in your face. 188 00:12:20,920 --> 00:12:21,920 10minuteMurder.com. 189 00:12:21,920 --> 00:12:24,280 Alright, I'm going to stop rambling. 190 00:12:24,280 --> 00:12:25,800 You have a nice day. 191 00:12:25,800 --> 00:12:28,200 And if you're off to binge more episodes, don't let me stop you. 192 00:12:28,200 --> 00:12:29,480 You keep right on doing that. 193 00:12:29,480 --> 00:12:32,240 No matter what you're doing, I hope you have a fantastic time. 194 00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:32,960 Thanks for listening. 195 00:12:32,960 --> 00:12:42,960 [Music]