The Jennings 8: Part 2

All witnesses purchase of interest, and suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Warning. This episode contains graphic crime scene details as well as talk of suicide. It may be sensitive for some listeners. Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now in true crime, and then together we are going to work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go Hey, guys, welcome to this week's episode of Primetime Crime. It is Kylie. We are going to go ahead and dive in to right now in true crime. I do want to start off by wishing everybody a very merry Christmas, Happy holidays. Whatever you choose to celebrate, I hope you enjoy it and have a fantastic holiday season. I cannot believe that it is already that time of year. I feel like December has flown by every year. I feel like it goes by quicker and quicker, and December is my favorite. So it makes me sad that it goes by so quick. But such as life, time flies when you're having fun, especially around this time of year. But I do know it is sometimes a hard time a year for some people. So whatever, you are choosing to do. I hope you enjoy it with your family and your friends. All right, we are now going to go ahead and dive into right now in true crime. So this story is a. Little convoluted, but the case itself is convoluted. So there is reports coming forward that there has been a new suspect named or not named, but a new suspect that has emerged in the John Bene Ramsey case. So this kind of goes back in time. So, after John Benay was murdered, John Ramsey got a series of phone calls from this individual who went by the alias David Cooper, and he said that he was hired by disgruntled employees of John Ramsey to murder his daughter. And John even went as far as to ask him specific questions about stuff in the house, and he got all of this information right. He said that he hid in a closet, and he entered the house through an unlocked door, and so on and so forth, and everything seems to pretty much match up, right. So, of course, when John got this phone call, he turned it over to the Boulder Police Department and they didn't do anything with it, which were not shocked by because the Boulder Police Department hasn't really done anything since John Bennett was killed except completely botch the case and point fingers and the blame to the Ramsey family. That is no secret. So recently this kind of resurfaced because the ex. Wife of this man, who goes by the alias David Cooper, wrote a letter to John Ramsey and said, I think my ex husband is the one responsible for killing your daughter. So it's kind of reinvigorated everything. There is lots of stuff on Reddit about this man that dates back to when he had been talked about previously in the case. They said that at the. Time of John Today's murder, he was allegedly incarcerated on a different crime. I have not vetted that. I have not researched that, but that is what was put out back in the day, and now it's kind of reservicing. So if nothing else, it is worth discussing. It's worth talking about. But my own personal theory on the John Benny Ramsey case, I have so gone back and forth. But what I realized that once I really started digging in and listening to like lou Smitt, who was such a smart individual, listening to his theory about it being an intruder versus somebody in side of the family home that lived there or was at the home already. It just made so much sense to me. Alarm bells went off, and it just made sense. We have been told for such a long time that the Ramsey family had something to do with their daughter's death. The media told us that Bolder Police pretty much told us that by not investigating any of these leads that came their way. It really astonishes me that everything that has transpired has transpired because this case is super solvable. They have DNA evidence that has been tested and it has ruled out anybody in the family from having anything to do with that. Yet there are still going to be people out there who think that the parents farmed their daughter. John Ramsey is at the forefront of trying to get the Bolder Police Department to release the DNA to the FBI so they can do the genealogical testing that has advanced so much in the recent years to hopefully figure out who is responsible. He's pushing for that. If he had anything to do with it, he would not be pushing for that. The issue is Boulder Police Department screwed up the case from the very get go. In their minds, they wanted to focus on the Ramsey family, so it took the pressure off of them and they didn't want to explore any further leads that pointed anyone away from the Ramsey family being responsible. And then the media in turn took that and we were fed for years that the Ramsey family had to have something to do with their daughter's death. Anyways, that is my TED talk for the day. Thank you guys so much for joining again. You do not have to agree with me. I am passionate about my thoughts and opinions, especially on this case, but we can agree to disagree. And I also used. To be in that same boat until I started really digging in and doing my research. So I'm a big research girly. I love to sit down and dig in and kind of for my own opinion. I don't trust the media, and I sure as hell don't trust Boulder Police Department. So I'm going to do my own research and figure it out for myself. And actually two of my friends, my podcast gals, a Trial by podcast, are in the process now of doing a series on the John Benet Ramsey murder and it is so good and so in depth one hundred percent of recommend you guys listen to them for a super in depth look into the case. All right, we are going to now switch gears. And they have charged Rex Huerman, the Long Island serial killer, with one more homicide, that of Valerie Mac. We have spoken of Valerie Mac in the past, and I think they really just had to get all of their ducks in a row before they could officially bring charges against him. But it is official. He has been charged with another homicide and it is all coming full circle. So his year is not ending great. All right, last thing I want to talk about real real quick, and then we're going to get into the episode because it's. A long one. Hannah Kobyashi has officially made her return home to her family in Hawaii and she is safe, and that's really all that is being said. She is not saying anything other than thinking people for being concerned about her and saying that, you know, she needs time and she needs to process everything. And obviously her dad died while she. Was quote unquote missing, so that has to be pretty traumatizing. I don't know if she's going to make a statement. I don't know what her intentions were. I don't know why the text messages were sent about like her life being taken over and then her going missing was really alarming to her family. I don't know what she was doing while she was gone. She said she had no idea that people were looking for her. I don't know about that. If I sent really cryptic messages and people weren't looking for me, I would be kind of pissed. So she has to assume that people were looking for her and were worried. Like, you just don't think you're going to go off and nobody in your family is going to worry about you. That just isn't right. Like if you decide that you want to voluntarily disappear into the abyss for a few just let. Somebody know that, Hey, I'm going to go off. I'm fine. I will be in contact with you when I'm ready. But this whole thing, they use so many resources to try to find her across the United States. We were going to California, to New York, to even over the border into Tijuana. Like it was messy, messy, messy. So don't disappear and use resources that really need to go towards actual missing people. Because you just want to get away for a few days, and she might have had legit reasons for wanting to get away, but literally everyone thought that this girl was in danger, including myself. I was worried about her, and it's going to be interesting to see what ends up coming out if she ends up making a statement. I mean, unfortunately, they really can't do much legally to her because she really didn't do anything wrong. Allegedly, she didn't do anything wrong. When it comes to a legal standpoint, she didn't do anything wrong. So it's going to be interesting to see if anything is said, what will happen. I don't even know what to think about it, other than I'm glad she's safe. Of course, I don't want a bad ending for this poor girl who obviously has a lot going on. But I also feel like a lot of resources were used and a lot of attention was gained to her case when we have so many others who are out there missing and their stories aren't getting any attention all. So it just we need to redirect our attention to those that matter, those that are really missing, those that are in danger, and the resources need to go to them. So with all of that being said, I'm going to stop rambling and we are going to go ahead and get into Jennings Part two. Okay, guys, we are jumping into part two of the Jennings eight. Throughout this you'll probably also hear me refer to them as the Jeff Davis. They are interchangeable. It's either the Jennings A or the Jeff Davis eate. I will say both at different times. So if you haven't listened to part one, please go back and listen so that everything I discuss in part two will make sense. We are in the midst of discussing the documentary Murder in the Bayou. This documentary was made after Ethan Brown, who is an investigative journalist and author, ended up digging into the Jennings eight case and wrote a book about it, also Murder in the Bayou, and then it turned into this series which is so interesting. So we are going to pick up going over episode three, So let's go ahead and dive in. Episode three starts with Britney's mom, Teresa, talking about how they have video footage of Brittany at the family Dollar and that pretty much captured the last moments of Britney's life and according to Teresa, she thinks that Brittany either saw something on her way there or on her way out that caused her to kind of be an easy and nervous, and then she just simply vanished into thin air. She went on to say that Jennings is a crooked ass town and she thinks that law enforcement knows everything. Teresa said that in her opinion, there is no serial killer in Jeff Davis Parrish. Ethan Brown then says that when he first started to investigate the case in twenty eleven, that the case was very quiet and the town had pretty much resigned themselves to the fact that this case would never be solved. So I really think that it did need a man like Ethan Brown to come in and start digging, and start investigating and really put together this whole nice little package of why the Jennings eighth should be solved. It never should have been cold to begin with. So they then talk about summer of two thousand and seven when the Jennings Daily News got a tip about a man who is named Warren Gary. I spoke about him at the end of part one. The tip was in regards to a truck that was purchased and then he ended up selling it. The tip said that the truck may have been the crime scene where Kristin Lopez was murdered. Ethan Brown said, numerous witnesses saw Kristen in that truck, and it was sold by Connie Siler, who I guess was in and out of jail, to Warren Gary on March thirtieth of two thousand and seven, and then it was resold by Warren on April twentieth of seven. So when this information ended up leaking and coming out, Sheriff FRICKI Edwards said, quote, I am disappointed in the lack of good judgment, but I am confident that Gary did nothing illegal. End quote. Warren Gary was placed in front of Louisiana Board of Ethics and he ended up being fined ten thousand dollars, but was cleared of any criminal charges, and instead of getting penalized at his job, he was actually promoted to the quote unquote head of evidence room for the Jeff Davis Sheriff's Department. So this is a prime example of when there's a person at work who does not so great things and they get rewarded for it. This is exactly what happened in this situation. So that is a big, big yikes. So Ethan Brown took it upon himself to dig into the Warren Gary truck sales saga, and he ended up going into the district attorney's file and he ended up actually finding a lot of contradictions between what was being said and what was in the actual files. It was just pure and utter lies. And Ethan said that it wasn't about just the truck, but about Warren Gary's alleged relationship to Frankie Richard. In March of two thousand and seven, there were two female inmate witnesses who approached a sergeant named Jesse Ewing with statements in regards to this vehicle. And we're going to hear the recording from one of those girls now, so prepare yourself for an audio clip. In three two and one, Nacona's accompos Boston. And his daughter Hanna was in there. She was smoking to it's what evidence you talked about it? So are you saying that this officer about. Saying that you, sir, did he know? Well, he don't, killy. Frankie Rishaul this She means, okay, Ch'll give a gow. So they then go to an interview with Hannah Connor, and she said that none of what that gal said on the recording is true, and she doesn't even know who that person is, and why would she tell a random stranger who she doesn't know about any of that? That doesn't make any sense, That's what That's what Hannah is saying. So Sergeant jesse Ewing ends up taking the statements that these girls made, and they're obviously recorded, and he takes them to a private investigator, who then took them to THEBI because nobody felt comfortable going to anyone within the sheriff's department, not even the higher ups. So what happened with this turn of events? Once jesse Ewing turned this infro over to the FBI, he was arrested and was accused of obstruction of justice and malfeas in some office. He ended up being terminated. Now, the public didn't really know the contents of why jesse Ewing was charged or why he was in trouble because they didn't know about the tapes. The public knew he was in trouble for basically breaking the chain of custody when it came to evidence. He then essentially pled out to a Malfeasan's in office charge, and nothing else ever came of anything with those tapes. So this is a huge, too huge, hot mess of a case. I honestly had zero clue what I was getting into when I started researching this story. I thought it was going to be a very cut and dry, one episode kind of deal. And we are now talking a multipe harder like two parts. For sure, there might be a third part because there is so much information. And all of that is because Ethan Brown dug his heels in and decided that there was so much more here than met the eye, and he decided to do all of this research, and he found a rap ton that was hiding, and we're going to talk about all of it, but you can see why I'm overwhelmed. So Ethan then goes on to talk about the serial killer theory, and he said in serial killer cases, the victims often wouldn't know each other. Seven of the eight in the Jettings eight are connected to Frankie Richard, and they knew each other. Ethan said. There were some other credible suspects. However, the single killer theory was very much pushed by law enforcement and share Frinki Edwards now if you do remember when I talked about Ernestine Patterson and her death in part one, two men were arrested for her murder, but charges were dropped when the case against them basically fell apart. So Ernestine's mom does think that those two men are the two that killed her daughter, but of course the case was dropped and they still don't have closure to this day. Ethan then talks about Ernestine's case and said that hers was very frustrating because of the way the investigation was conducted. And she's also a little bit different because she wasn't in the click of women who hung around Frankie Richard, so it didn't really fit with the other She was kind of the outlier. There were some connections there, don't get me wrong, but she wasn't in that drug ring prostitution ring that the other gals were involved in with Frankie Richard. So witness statements that were given in regards to Ernestine were described as follows. She was out the night of her murder and she ended up engaging in sex work and hooked up with two men at an abandoned house. These two guys were named Byron Chad Jones and Lawrence Nixon. They were the ones who would later be charged with her murder and then set free, so they allegedly held her. Down and stabbed her to death. Laurence Nixon's girlfriend said that that night both men came to her home and Lawrence had a large, industrial sized garbage bag and there was blood coming out of it so much that it got on her floor. It seems like it was the front porch of her home, so kind of like the wooden floorboards that are on the front porch, and she hosed the floor down. I don't know why she did that, but she did. And then they ended up taking the bag and driving off with it. There was another witness that had told law enforcement that there was a hunting knife that had been left in an abandoned home. Now Ethan said it's unclear whether or not law enforcement actually followed up on that tip or not, but that easily could have been the murder weapon. And despite the tip coming in about the floorboards having blood on them, they ended up not being actually tested for blood until sixteen months after Ernestine's murder, and of course when they tested them, there was no blood that had been detected on them, but it obviously was too late because the evidence was. Gone by then. Both men denied any involvement in Ernstine's murder, and like I said earlier, the charges were dropped by the district attorney. So this is a prime example of evidence not being properly tested or looked into. Especially if law enforcement thought that this was one sole serial killer, why didn't they follow up on the evidence that was brought to them. Ernestine was the second girl to be killed after Loretta, so at that point you only had two bodies. And I say only because we're dealing with eight victims here, But if if they had followed up on evidence in regards to Ernestine's case, we may not be here talking about the Jennings eight. Why didn't they test the floorboards for DNA? It just doesn't make any sense. Ethan then goes on to say that the women of the Jennings eight did have long criminal histories, things like petty theft, drug charges, writing bad checks, but because of the fact that they were in and out of jail, they were in constant contact with the men in jeff Davish Parish law enforcement. So once Ethan went through the report, certain names of law enforcement officers came up time and time and time again. When the women were arrested, they would often be held at the jail until they could be processed and all of the things that goes into what happens when you're arrested. So from the early to mid two thousands, one of the main jailers at the jail was a man who was named Danny Berry. So Danny is described as quote unquote taking care of the inmates and if he knew you, especially if you are from the south side of Jennings, he would treat you pretty poorly. Chad Richard, who we spoke about in part one, describes Danny Berry coming up to a jail cell and just macing the whole cell quote unquote, just to be an ass. So Chad was in and out of jail, but he said when he was out of jail, he would often see Danny Berry riding the roads of Jennings, just cruising around. And they then interview a woman who was a friend of the victims. She said she owned a house that kind of became a safe space for the girls and Danny would often come there and he was there looking for his wife. I don't really know what his wife has anything to do with this, but he would come there looking for his wife and this woman who was a friend of the victim, she said everything was about drugs and sex and Danny was involved in all of this. He was seen by several people over the span of several years picking up sex workers and bringing them back to his trailer. Teresa Gary, who is Berney's mom, then talks about how Danny's trailer, walls, ceiling, and floors were all lined with this queen plastic. So, this queen is used for a lot of different purposes. It can be used. For drop cloths when painting, to cover concrete as it sets, to line decorative ponds. So why is your trailer, walls, ceiling and floor covered in plastic? What is going on in Jennings, Louisiana. So they said that Danny's trailer was well known to sex workers in Jennings and it was almost described as a dungeon. So on November two of two thousand and eight, Brittany Gary was at a drug house where many of the women would go and pick men up at Brittany ended up leaving here and walked to the family dollar. She purchased minutes for her cell phone made a four second call to a man named Otis Brown, who was the cousin of Laconia Brown, who was one of victims as well, and Brittany had asked Otis to pick her up and Otis ended up refusing. I'm unsure of why he ended up refusing, and that was a last known communication from Britney. A witness later said that they saw Brittany getting into a car with none other than Danny Barry. They described it as a Pontiac or Oldsmobile two door light blue in color car. So here we have a guy who works in the jail, who's basically in charge of inmates when they are first brought in, and he's at the dead center of all of this. Y'all know, I don't believe in coincidences, and this is exactly why. So Danny Berry ended up being interviewed by the task Force, but the interview was only twenty minutes in total. Twenty minutes. What in the actual hell is going on? The interview also didn't really go into any of the tips that had been received in regards to Danny Berry. So the interview VI really didn't make sense at all. It was all very vague, Danny Barry passed away in twenty ten before any of this information was uncovered by Ethan Brown and the documentary was made, so whatever secrets he knew, he took to his grave with him. So in going through the documents, Danny Berry's name, like I said, came up a lot, but he wasn't the only person from the Jeff's Davis Sheriff's office who was mentioned by numerous witnesses numerous times. Next man up probably the one that is going. To haunt my nightmares for the rest of time. He was the warden of the parish jail who is named Terry Gillory. He was well known around town and everyone says he was always pretty helpful and he looked out for people. And he was the warden during the Jennings eight murders, and his ex wife also worked at the Sheriff's office as an investigator. Terry knew all of the victims and was even blood related to the last victim, Nicole Gillery. They were cousins. I don't know if they are just in cousins or first cousins, but regardless their cousins. Nicole's mom said that one time. Nicole had said that Terry had commented that if he and Nicole weren't related, that he would sleep with her. And I have to say, when I wrote out the script going through the episodes of Murdering the Bayou and I'm typing this stuff out, I couldn't help myself but to put a vomit emoji after that comment, because that is gross. That is so utterly disgusting. What is wrong with you? Nicole's mom then goes on to say that Nicole spent a lot of time in jail. It was kind of her home away from home, and Nicole's mom knew that Terry could be mean to some of the inmates, and he definitely had the power to make their lives miserable. But he was all so the go to person for help, and a lot of the girls would go to him, and then he would engage in trades. So if you gave him info about a drug dealer, he may let a charge slide or a ticket go. So this was kind of a vicious cycle that these women were in. And since they were in and out of jail a lot, they were very familiar with Terry and the relationship he had with the residents in the South side of Jennings, Louisiana, so there was a lot of insider trading, so to say, going on in this whole situation. They then interview a woman who said that Terry had a thing for Loretta, who is the first victim and the last time that Loretto was released from jail. Terry is the one who actually brought her home from jail, gave her a ride home from jail, and dropped her off. Loretta's brother said the relationship between her and Terry was a lot of rumor and speculation, but he did know for a fact that they did have a sexual relationship. And he said one particular time, he remembers that Terry picked he and Loretta up. He was around twelve, so Loretta was between fourteen and fifteen years old, and they ended up spending the night at his house, and Loretta told her brother that her and Terry had been intimate. So Loretta was young and underage and Terry. Was of the age that. That ain't freaking right no matter how you look at it, especially when you work in law enforcement. There's other allegations of Terry getting sexual favors from Loretta while she was in jail. While Terry was at work, like actively performing. Sex acts while Terry was at work. Now, of course, I do have to say this is all alleged, and Terry Gillory has never been charged with any crimes or in connection to anything regarding Loretta or any of the other victims. So, right before Loretta was found. Terry had come to a family member's house looking for Loretta to check on her, and she ended up being found shortly thereafter, which kind of is odd that Terry was looking for her at the house where she was staying. It's like, how did he know that anything was wrong with Loretta? Why would he be checking on her? Loretta's brother said, it's really hard to let his thoughts go there, but he can't help it with the way that things look as far as Terry's involvement with Loretta. So I don't even know. Of course, all of that is alleged. Terry has maintained his innocence. He hasn't spoken on any of this, so that is all I have about that. Now we're going to semi switch gears and talk about Crystal Zeno. Now, she also had connections to Terry. She had babysat for his kids, at one point, and Crystal had connections, of course, to Frankie Richard and his family. She knew Billy Connor and would often stay at the Restard home. On the day of her murder, she walked to a gas station where she ended up phoning Terry Gilliery. The context of this call isn't exactly clear, but there are numerous witnesses that said that they saw her getting into a white truck with a group of men who had connections to Frankie Richard who were known as his quote unquote hands on men who are described as men who did his dirty work for him. Her body was then found two weeks later. Now, if you remember in part one, I talked about how people in law enforcement found her body, and even though the body was heavily decomposed, her body was almost identified before it was identified because her family heard rumblings of her being found and they didn't really understand why people were saying that because she wasn't even listed as a missing person. She hadn't been reported as a missing person. So where this came from is Terry Gilliory ended up showing up to the family's home and basically said Crystal is dead. But I didn't kill her. And the reason that he said that he knew that that was Crystal's body because there was a tattoo on her back, But they said her body was so decomposed that there wouldn't have been any type of way to actually see that tattoo. So none of that makes sense. And why would you, as a person who works in law enforcement, show up to the family and say, Crystal's dead, but I didn't kill her. What. I'm so confused. This whole thing just makes me question everything about everything, about everything. I have no idea what is going on in Jennings. Okay, so now we're going to get into a witness that came forward that basically saw something in regards to Crystal's murder. And his name is Russell Carrier, and he was. An addict, as many people in Jennings were, and he would often go into the woods to smoke crack. He said that he saw three black men exiting the woods from where Crystal's body was found. And these three men are described as Frankie Richard's three hands on men quote unquote. Frankie of course denies having hands on men and denies any involvement in Crystal Zeno's death. Russell knew of these men from the drug world. He was familiar with them, so he ended up giving this info to the Jeff Davis Parrish Die's office, and then, in a surprising turn of events, on October tenth of twenty ten, Russell Carrier was found dead. He had allegedly laid down for some unknown reason on the train tracks and was struck by a train. His death was not ruled a homicide. They basically said that he had committed suicide. His sister then comes on to talk and she said, there's no way he committed suicide. He didn't have that in him. Someone beat him to death and put him on the tracks to let the train run over him and hide the truth. Now, when I tell you, when I was watching the documentary and they were talking about Russell and then they said that he was dead, my jaw hit the damn floor, especially when they said he was run over by a train, because that is a really if you are going to harm yourself, that is a really horrific way to do so. And his sister saying he didn't have that in him, I believe her. So that is a whole interesting little can of worms with Russell's death and him coming forward with information into Crystal's death, what is going on in Jennings So in two thousand and nine, there are many different people around town that claim to have seen Terry Guillery and his wife associating with Frankie Richard. Frankie said that he did know Terry for a long time and he did think of him as a friend. But Frankie said that anytime Terry came to a house where he was it was only to conduct police business. It was never anything other than that. They then go on to talk about the task force that was formed and how they were all hopeful that Terry's involvement with the Jennings eight would be thoroughly investigated, but these hopes were quickly dashed when his ex wife Paula was placed in the task force. Front and center. There were two witnesses who went to the task Force with info about Frankie Richard and they were told not to worry about him, and they were basically told Frankie Richard works for us, and that is the end of the third episode. They of course ended by saying Frankie Richard denies any involvement in any of the Jennings eight murders. Ricky Edwards denied request to be interviewed for the documentary, as well as Harry Gillary. And yeah, that is episode three and if your jaws and on the floor. I don't even know what to think about what is going on in Jennings. There is just so much info here. I know, I'm giving you guys a lot of information. We are kind of going back and forth more or less just because I'm following the documentary talking about each episode. But I do highly encourage you guys to go in and watch the documentary for yourself because it is so intriguing and to actually see the people that we're talking about is also just so interesting. All Right, So we are now going in to episode four, and it starts with a friend of the victims who said it was basically a vicious cycle of drugs and prostitution and it definitely took its toll on the girls, but they were all very young, and they were kind of in that lifestyle and they just thought it was what they had to do. And I think this is so important to recognize when it comes to addiction, that so many people will do whatever it takes to feed that addiction, not realizing that they're in a dangerous situation with dangerous people who can harm them. Most of these girls were extremely young and they had been living this lifestyle for a while, So once you're in those situations, you're in so deep you don't even realize how deep you are in it. And it is awful and incredibly sad. None of them deserved to lose. Their lives because of what they were involved in. The people that took their lives are the ones that are responsible, not the girls. Ethan Brown then takes us into the area of town that is commonly known for drug use. He said, you'd often hear oh, so and so is out running the roads, and that basically meant you were out looking for and doing drugs. It was an area that you really only knew if you were involved in that lifestyle. That a Frankie Rischard had a trailer during the height of the homicides in two thousand and seven and would go out there with women to party and do drugs. They ended up questioning Frankie about that time in his life in the documentary and what type of drugs he was on, and he basically said he did anything he could get his hands on. He was doing and dealing drugs. The girls who were there were using constantly all day, every single day, and sometimes they would have sex with men to not have to. Pay for their drugs. It was a true vicious cycle. There was a lot of drug trafficking as well that ran through Jennings because Jennings was right by I ten, which traveled from Texas to Louisiana. Residents said that the town is infested and you can get drugs. From anyone, even young kids. You would see news reports about drug seizures and there was a lot of speculation that law enforcement was involved in this as well. The former Jennings chief of police, who was named Johnny Lasso, was indicted for filtering the evidence rooms for drugs, cash, and other items. The town residents say that the corruption goes back years and years, so this is very interesting. In nineteen ninety seven, Dateline came to town to do an undercover expose on the Jeff Davis Parish Department. Dateline received tips over the years and complaints about people getting pulled over on a stretch of IT ten and essentially getting robbed by the Sheriff's office of their personal items, so it is called civil asset forfeiture. So basically this means that law enforcement can take assets of those who are suspected of a crime before they are actually. Charged with the crime. And this very much increased when Ricky Edwards became sheriff. So Dateline had basically this undercover car that was programmed not to go above sixty five miles per hour and it was pretty much which instantly pulled over for speeding on the stretch of IEN. So when they approached Ricky Edwards after they ran the story, he said, if the car was pulled over for speeding, then it must have been speeding. He said that there was no financial incentive for officers to pull over random cars. So basically the public is saying that we are noticing that this is happening. This is happening an awful lot in Jennings along the stretch of I ten. Dateline goes out there, they set up a sting so to say they get pulled over, and it's basically to prove that there is something going on in Jennings with the law enforcement officers and kind. Of the business that they are conducting. So once everything airs, the police department. Is very much trying to do damage control. Ricky Edwards said that the Dateline episode showed the negative side to everything and no positive side, but that's kind of what happens when you're doing shady thing. So they showed kind of what happened in the town, what was happening in the town, which I think is an important part of the story. They then go on to ask Frankie Richard what his relationship was like with the police, and he said it wasn't worth anything, and that he didn't like them and he didn't trust them. The number of charges that Frankie Richard had are super numerous. He was arrested and Jeff Davis Parrish twenty three times with zero convictions, which is very very interesting. Frankie has cooperated numerous time with the Task Force, and we do hear a portion of an audio clip of the convo between Frankie and the Task Force, and it really does make you question what the relationship is like between the two of them. So in two thousand and. Nine, the Sheriff's office had learned of an alleged theft ring that was going on in the town of Jennings. Homes were being burglarized. There were weapons that were being stolen, and then they were essentially being pawned off at a pawn shot. And there was a raid that happened at Frankie's mom's home and they ended up finding coins and weapons, and with this, they ended up arresting Frankie and his mom for their connection to part of this theft ring. So it was then that evidence started to disappear in regards to this, and it was none other than Paula Gillory, who was at the time married to Terry Gillory, who was an important part of the task force, who had allegedly mishandled the evidence and the evidence was essentially lost and because of this, she ended up being terminated. There was four thousand dollars that ended up going missing from evidence. Now, Paula says she doesn't know what happened to the evidence, but she wasn't guilty of anything. But who was the evidence custodian at the time who was in charge of keeping this evidence safe. None other than our friend Warren Gary, who I talked about in part one and at the beginning of this episode. Now, he was the guy that was the chief. Investigator that got promoted to the head of the evidence room. So this is a true full circle moment, and how convenient that they essentially kind of blamed Paula Gillery for this and she ended up losing her job. So Ethan had a phone conversation with Paula Gilliery and asked her her thoughts of why everything against Frankie Richard fell apart and he was basically walking around as a free man. And she said she had submitted half of the evidence and case file against Frankie, so she's unsure why it was never followed through on she had submitted that to the. District attorney's office. They then asked about the. Rumors of Terry Gilliery, who is now her ex husband, and his alleged prostitution at the jail, and she said she had heard the same rumors, and she even talks about how she's heard rumors about her and her ex husband being involved in the murders, but she said she had no idea why people would think that, besides that everyone. Knew Terry and he was very well known in the town. So in part one I talked about how a lot of these women were police informants, so Terry was the one who used a lot of the women who were victims as informants, and essentially he would offer them a trade. So in order to get out of a ticket or a charge, you. Give me info on what's going on in the town as far as drugs go. So this is another connection. We then hear from a woman who was a confidential informant for a man named Danny Simms. He was the chief of police for the Jennings Police Department, and she said she was in for selling an ounce of weed and Danny gave her the option to help him and bust some drug dealers in town, and this helped her get out of trouble. These women who are our victims would provide a steady flow of info to law enforcement. So this very much puts them between the police officers and the drug dealers, which is a very dangerous place to be. Loretta's brother then talks about the last time that he saw Loretta alive, and he said it was Mother's Day weekend and they had a family gathering and Loretta had just gotten out of jail, but she was supposed to be in there for about a year. So at this family gathering, her aunt was asking her why she got out early, and she said she was going to be a witness against a drug dealer, but she wasn't really supposed to tell anybody, so keep it on the DL. And then Loretta was killed three weeks later. There was also other murders linked to police informants that date back to years before the Jennings eight murders begun. So could this be a trend. Obviously, when you're a police informant, you are in a very dangerous spot. We then learn about a woman named Sheila Como and her daughter thinks that her mom's case is related to the Jennings eight cases. Sheila was killed in nineteen ninety eight. Her daughter said it's very much related and that her mom lived a very similar lifestyles to all of the victims. She was in the process of buying drugs when she was attacked. Now, she did survive the attack. She was alive, but she was in really, really bad shape and was hospitalized for a year following the attack. So every single time she would try to start talking about the attack and what happened, they would try to bring law enforcement in to get her statements, but she would immediately stop talking when they arrived, almost like she was afraid to say anything else in fear that she was going to be harmed again or killed, or whatever. The case may be. Her family could be in danger, and her family says that she was an informant and was wired up by the Juddings Police Department when she was attacked. So this makes the question could Sheila also be a victim of this horrific line of murders. I think it sounds like it. It just sounds too coincidental. And this is just one example of the informant culture and how it makes this group of women very, very susceptible. We then learn of a man named Steve Gunter who was good friends with Terry Gillory. Steve was an informant and would basically set up busts for Terry and any wrongdoings or arrest that Steve would have would be taken away and would disappear. So this is a crazy story. Steve and his girlfriend had been fighting over the span of a couple of days, so this particular. Event, the fight had kind of spilled over. They were outside they were fighting, so the Lake Arthur Police Department was called and when they arrived, Steve and his girlfriend had said that everything was okay, we don't need anything, We're fine, and they ended up shutting the door. So somehow the incident escalated and more officers ended up being called to the scene, including Terry Gillory, who Steve was an informant for. So Terry basically tried to take control of the scene. His girlfriend was told that if she didn't get away from what was going on, she was going to be arrested, so she essentially removed herself from the situation. Steve was inside of the house just telling officers. To leave, please leave. I am fine, I just want to be left alone. But they wouldn't leave, so they started shooting tear gas into the home, and Terry thought that he could d s late the situations just so he also entered the home. Terry said that at that point Steve had raised a weapon at him and at that point they had no choice but to fire at him. So Steve ended up dying that day. He was shot by law enforcement and they basically drug his body out of the home and just laid it on the front lawn of the home and it lay there. For hours and hours and hours. So Steve's girlfriend said that she had told officers that there was a rifle in the home, but that Steve didn't know where it was because she had taken it upon herself when everything first started with them to hide the rifle because she didn't want him to have access to it. So they actually did do an autopsy on Steve and there were multiple gunshot wounds to Steve's hands wrists, and his girlfriend said that she thinks his hands were up when they started shooting, meaning that he was not shooting actively at them. There was no gunshot residue found. On Steve's hands, and this was told to Steve's sister, and then as quickly as she was given that info, it was kind of taken back and said, we didn't even test for gunshot residue on Steve because of course he would have it on him because he was in a shootout with police. So that doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever. They told her one thing, and then they said, just kidding, we didn't even test for that. Why would you tell her two completely different things. So the family had hired an investigator, and this investigator wanted to analyze the gun that they said was used in this and when they requested it no shock there. It was lost from the evidence locker. So Steve's sister said that this was extremely suspicious and it just doesn't make any sense. And Steve's girlfriend, who he was arguing with that day, also thinks that there are some highly suspicious things about the whole thing. So Steve knew all of the girls, he would party with them, he was familiar with all of them, and his sister thought that he possibly knew too much due to his close relationship with Terry Gillery. The Louisiana State Police did a investigation into the death of Steve and they found that Terry's use of force was reasonable and justified, and it was also looked at by the grand jury, but they declined to bring an indictment against Terry Gilliery. Steve's family ended up bringing a civil suit against law enforcement in Lake Arthur and jeff Davis Parish, but they ended up being unsuccessful. Steve's sister said that she wants justice for her brother and for the girls. And I don't want to make this a three parter, but I have so much more info and I'm trying not to overwhelm myself. So we are going to stop there for now. We are in the middle of episode four, so we still have the rest of episode four to go and episode five. And when I tell you the rest of episode four takes a really creepy turn, I mean it. And I want to say that for part three because I still have a lot more to talk about, and then I have to give my thoughts because this whole thing is such a wild, convoluted story and there is just so much information here, and part of me, as I was watching it, was thinking, there's no way that all of this stuff can be real. There's no way all of this stuff can be true. But sure enough it is. They did a documentary on it, there's a book about it. This is all true, alleged, allegedly true. And we just have a heck of a lot more to go. So I'm trying not to overwhelm the episodes with too much information because I do feel like it is a very difficult case to follow, and that's why I'm trying to break it down like I am. So thank you guys so much for listen. I appreciate you. I hope you enjoyed Part two and will tune in for Part three because we have a heck of a ride left, and I will see you next week for Part three of the Jennings eight and that will be the final part. I promise, I promise, I promise. So I will see you guys then and have a fantastic weekend and stay safe. Bye.