00:00:05
[Music]
00:00:10
he'll have no fury like a woman's goal
00:00:13
they'll start getting pissed off at him
00:00:15
so i emptied both guns into him
00:00:17
[Music]
00:00:18
they did really bad things
00:00:20
to get drugs
00:00:25
there were scuff marks shoe prints
00:00:28
a ball bean hammer a large puddle of
00:00:30
blood
00:00:32
i was young i was beautiful i had the
00:00:35
whole world in front of me i'm sitting
00:00:37
on death row
00:00:40
how do you
00:00:41
accept that
00:00:42
there was very little scientific
00:00:44
evidence they ran their mouths until
00:00:46
they convicted themselves
00:00:49
[Music]
00:00:50
on this episode
00:00:53
two criminals exclusively from maximum
00:00:56
security prisons so i'm like okay well
00:00:59
i'm just gonna shoot my way out of this
00:01:01
i could have had a hunting accident
00:01:03
happen at any time
00:01:04
two lady lovers dubbed the real thelma
00:01:07
and louise they had been picking up men
00:01:10
in strip joints engaging in sex with
00:01:12
them robbing them at gunpoint a gorgeous
00:01:15
model gone bad and her crooked gal pal
00:01:17
shot three men in 10 days and a
00:01:19
murderous mom makes her son a killer how
00:01:22
do you convince your kids to carry out a
00:01:24
murder plot i love my mom i freaked out
00:01:28
i killed a man i blew his face off
00:01:32
cannibalism is not my choice
00:01:35
[Music]
00:01:36
[Applause]
00:01:39
[Music]
00:01:53
i'm bernadette edie and i'm serving a
00:01:56
natural life sentence
00:01:58
for three counts of attempted murder
00:02:00
armed robbery and armed burglary
00:02:04
a hot violent wind raged whipping palm
00:02:08
trees and setting nerves on edge
00:02:11
somewhere in a no-tell motel a sudden
00:02:14
blast dotted the walls with blood at
00:02:16
four in the morning an employee coming
00:02:18
to work at the hotel
00:02:20
sees eddie in a pool of blood
00:02:22
crawling he's been shot
00:02:25
and from there
00:02:26
everything in the story is in dispute
00:02:29
[Music]
00:02:30
sirens pierced the night as neighbors
00:02:33
cops and paramedics raced to a crime
00:02:35
scene
00:02:37
the 41 year old victim was married
00:02:40
eddie kusa a popular car dealer clung to
00:02:43
life
00:02:43
he had been shot point blank in the head
00:02:50
just a few hours earlier eddie had been
00:02:52
partying with two ladies in boca raton
00:02:56
they had been picking up men in strip
00:02:59
joints talking them into going into
00:03:01
hotel rooms and after engaging in sex
00:03:03
with them robbing them
00:03:05
at gunpoint linda's wearing a black
00:03:07
halter top
00:03:08
and a
00:03:10
short skirt that's skin tight
00:03:12
bernadette's all in white he bought them
00:03:14
drinks
00:03:15
eddie's 300 pounds so you have to figure
00:03:19
that he knows he's being hustled but
00:03:21
maybe he kind of likes it the burglary
00:03:23
and attempted murder of eddie koosa made
00:03:26
tabloid headlines
00:03:27
linda goodmoat a 30 year old stripper
00:03:30
and her 23 year old lover bernadette
00:03:32
edie were infamous
00:03:34
the press dubbed them the real life
00:03:36
thelma and louise there were two girls
00:03:39
on a crime wave and they shot a couple
00:03:41
of guys like in the movie thelma louise
00:03:44
bernadette was the celebrity every time
00:03:46
she talks in the courtroom she's all
00:03:47
over the papers
00:03:52
bernadette was born on may 16 1967
00:03:56
to a drug addicted mother my mother was
00:03:59
young she had a lot of anger and was
00:04:00
very you know scared of my mother i talk
00:04:02
about abusive early years i'm talking
00:04:04
about six years and under
00:04:07
being tied to a bed with a bucket of
00:04:10
water while her mom works the streets
00:04:12
when bernadette was nine her mother
00:04:14
relinquished her to the state of florida
00:04:17
i was placed in group homes foster homes
00:04:20
i ran away all the time because a i
00:04:22
didn't wanted to be grown
00:04:24
b i felt like if my mother couldn't love
00:04:27
me they couldn't you know so nobody
00:04:29
loved me
00:04:30
between 1977 and 1981 bernadette lived
00:04:34
in 13 different foster homes
00:04:37
she was later institutionalized when
00:04:39
there were no more foster homes for her
00:04:42
then the state put her in a mental
00:04:43
institution i was very angry very
00:04:46
confused
00:04:47
i lashed out
00:04:49
i fought people there was no way this
00:04:51
girl is going to grow up and go to the
00:04:53
prom and be a soccer mom in the age of
00:04:55
35 it's not going to happen
00:04:57
and it didn't
00:04:59
at 14 bernadette was fostered by roscoe
00:05:02
and penny edie a couple who worked for
00:05:05
child services they offered to adopt her
00:05:07
and she refused
00:05:09
but she took their last name she didn't
00:05:10
know how to accept their offer of love
00:05:12
to her
00:05:13
despite the edie's efforts to help her
00:05:16
when bernadette wanted something she
00:05:18
didn't hesitate to steal it
00:05:20
they were just simple
00:05:23
thievery type faceless type crime
00:05:26
i wanted decent things
00:05:29
and to get those decent things
00:05:31
bernadette committed burglary
00:05:33
locked up before her 16th birthday
00:05:35
bernadette edie was well on her way to
00:05:37
becoming a career criminal so she turned
00:05:41
from petty crimes to major crimes and
00:05:43
that's when she turned to burglary i've
00:05:45
been in prison basically
00:05:47
all my life since i was a child
00:05:49
coming of age behind bars bernadette
00:05:52
navigated her budding sexuality through
00:05:54
relationships with older female inmates
00:05:57
i seeked out women but not so much
00:06:00
sexually but i guess
00:06:02
looking for that mother figure
00:06:04
after serving six years for petty crimes
00:06:07
bernadette was paroled
00:06:09
but it wasn't long before she was
00:06:10
arrested for theft again
00:06:13
i was convicted so you don't get much
00:06:16
opportunity for jobs so
00:06:18
my instinct was was you know burglary
00:06:22
but a sympathetic judge gave bernadette
00:06:24
a second chance
00:06:26
instead of sending her to prison for 26
00:06:28
years the judge surrendered 23 year old
00:06:30
bernadette to the custody of her foster
00:06:33
parents the punishment probation and two
00:06:36
years house arrest he said god forbid if
00:06:39
i rule in your favor and you go out and
00:06:41
hurt somebody else
00:06:42
if you fail us the first thing from the
00:06:44
lips of the prosecutor with great
00:06:46
justification will be
00:06:48
judge remember bernadette edie
00:06:50
she duped you
00:06:52
i was gonna
00:06:53
really try to make an effort to do
00:06:55
everything the correct way
00:06:58
except it turned out badly
00:07:00
very badly very quickly
00:07:03
[Music]
00:07:06
within days of receiving a get out of
00:07:08
jail free card bernadette met 30 year
00:07:10
old linda goodmode through a former
00:07:12
inmate and bernadette was spellbound i
00:07:15
was still searching for that mother
00:07:17
figure and then we fell into a
00:07:19
relationship
00:07:20
she's a beautiful sexy woman
00:07:23
and bernadette's in love
00:07:26
linda a local stripper moonlighted by
00:07:28
dancing at private parties
00:07:31
she she dazzled me she did well she
00:07:34
lived in a nice house we just really
00:07:36
developed you know a bond
00:07:39
powerless in the face of linda's allure
00:07:42
bernadette defied the judge's directive
00:07:44
by slinking out of the house after her
00:07:46
foster parents were asleep
00:07:48
then one night i just
00:07:50
more or less i snuck out of the house we
00:07:52
went to a club and it was
00:07:54
where linda worked
00:07:55
in love and out of control bernadette
00:07:58
partied with girlfriend linda till the
00:08:00
morning bernadette didn't stay at home
00:08:02
her foster parents called probation
00:08:04
and the judge issued an arrest warrant i
00:08:06
got paranoid and scared and i never
00:08:08
returned back to my foster parents
00:08:11
bernadette's infatuation with linda
00:08:13
would soon trigger a chain of events
00:08:15
that would put the 23 year old away for
00:08:18
life
00:08:20
coming up
00:08:23
from a lap dance to a brutal shooting
00:08:25
she had the gun and i heard a gunshot oh
00:08:28
man what the hell
00:08:30
but did they blame the wrong woman
00:08:32
she was sent to prison for life on a
00:08:34
line
00:08:35
i would sacrifice me for somebody
00:08:37
all for the name of love
00:08:40
and later a mother who turned her
00:08:42
children into killers
00:08:44
i love my mom
00:08:46
i don't feel like what i did was
00:08:49
astronomically
00:08:50
bad because it wasn't cold-blooded
00:08:53
murder
00:09:03
at 23 bernadette edie was a seasoned
00:09:06
criminal
00:09:07
while in prison for burglary a
00:09:09
compassionate judge hoping for
00:09:10
rehabilitation sentenced her to
00:09:12
probation and house arrest
00:09:14
but within days bernadette fell head
00:09:17
over heels for 30 year old linda
00:09:18
goodmode an attractive thrill-seeking
00:09:21
stripper before long the pair began a
00:09:23
10-day crime spree
00:09:26
and then we fell into a relationship a
00:09:28
companionship and understanding this was
00:09:32
an intelligent woman older than her
00:09:34
living the life that bernadette
00:09:37
respected
00:09:38
linda was a woman with expensive tastes
00:09:41
and to keep her interested bernadette
00:09:43
knew she needed cash
00:09:46
we need money to pay rent my only thing
00:09:48
that i know best is the steel
00:09:51
and i committed the burglary
00:09:56
on the afternoon of may 19 1991
00:10:00
bernadette broke into the carroll
00:10:01
residence
00:10:03
when teens jay and kevin carroll
00:10:05
interrupted the burglary in progress
00:10:07
they were confronted by a desperate
00:10:08
woman who had no intention of returning
00:10:11
to prison
00:10:13
i didn't want to hurt nobody i mean kill
00:10:15
nobody or nothing like that you know you
00:10:17
see people all day long on tv they get
00:10:19
shot and they are okay so i'm like okay
00:10:21
well i'm just gonna shoot my way out of
00:10:23
this so i pulled the gun out and the kid
00:10:25
behind me started to say something and
00:10:27
the young one was coming and i'm like
00:10:30
no and i just started shooting a gun
00:10:37
at that point i
00:10:38
ran out the door
00:10:40
bernadette fired all six rounds emptying
00:10:43
the gun as a result the carol boys
00:10:45
sustained critical wounds kevin was shot
00:10:48
in the chest and abdomen while a bullet
00:10:50
grazed jay's heart
00:10:52
it's remarkable the carol brothers
00:10:54
didn't die as many times as they were
00:10:56
shot
00:10:56
from their hospital beds the boys
00:10:58
described the attack they were
00:11:00
painstakingly accurate except when it
00:11:02
came to one minor detail
00:11:04
the gender of the assailant
00:11:08
they thought it was a guy
00:11:09
branded had broad shoulders and and her
00:11:12
hair was cropped short in the front and
00:11:14
the be on the lookout that was issued by
00:11:15
the police was for a male i called linda
00:11:18
i'm like
00:11:19
you know i'm in big trouble i shot
00:11:20
somebody
00:11:22
despite the close call bernadette once
00:11:24
again appeared to have skated on a
00:11:26
serious charge and girlfriend linda
00:11:29
barely batted an eyelash
00:11:31
linda actually handled it well she told
00:11:33
me to stop and get bullets for the gun
00:11:36
because i shot
00:11:37
whatever was in the clip it wasn't like
00:11:39
oh my god no
00:11:41
on with the daily routine we got to go
00:11:43
out tonight and go work
00:11:48
and by work linda meant a con job
00:11:51
according to bernadette the girls hit
00:11:53
the clubs that night packing heat and
00:11:56
trolling for an easy mark
00:11:58
she knows money and she's like
00:12:01
well i'll just you know go to the club
00:12:04
and i'll find somebody we'll pick them
00:12:06
up and we'll roll them i think if linda
00:12:08
told bernadette to jump on the railroad
00:12:09
tracks and stop that train brandon would
00:12:11
have done it
00:12:13
linda says i can spot guys with with
00:12:15
money and i can talk them out of their
00:12:17
wallets
00:12:18
that night linda spied a fat cat
00:12:21
and his name was eddie kusa
00:12:24
mr cousin caught her eye she caught his
00:12:27
you know i sat back and allowed her to
00:12:30
do her thing you know more that she
00:12:32
fished him in eddie cusa is a guy who
00:12:34
likes to be liked you drop 100 bucks a
00:12:36
night and buying people drinks he was
00:12:37
wearing his diamond rolex
00:12:39
and thick gold chains and he's got a
00:12:42
bankroll
00:12:43
so
00:12:44
kind of obvious after hours of flirting
00:12:46
and drinking eddie linda and bernadette
00:12:49
took the party to a nearby hotel for
00:12:51
some private lap dances
00:12:53
bernadette says she faded into the
00:12:55
background as linda worked her magic i'm
00:12:58
not real comfortable with men in a
00:12:59
sexual basis i turn on the radio find
00:13:02
little music and i'm gonna leave them to
00:13:05
their self linda would bring bernadette
00:13:07
along as a tag along when she had
00:13:09
stripping engagements he's laying on the
00:13:11
bed she's over him dancing a little it's
00:13:13
almost like bernadette was a play thing
00:13:15
to linda she toyed with the men that she
00:13:17
stripped for
00:13:19
what happened next depends on who is
00:13:21
telling the story
00:13:23
here's linda's story she was dancing for
00:13:25
eddie
00:13:26
and then
00:13:28
she doesn't know this is coming she
00:13:29
hears a pow
00:13:31
bernadette shot him
00:13:32
bernadette story
00:13:34
linda's dancing for eddie and then linda
00:13:37
pulls out a gun from her skirt
00:13:39
and to her total surprise
00:13:42
she shoots eddie he's like help me out
00:13:44
help me roll him over i helped roll him
00:13:46
over for her to get his wallet i'm like
00:13:48
thinking oh my god at four in the
00:13:50
morning an employee coming to work at
00:13:52
the hotel
00:13:54
sees eddie in a pool of blood
00:13:56
crawling he's been shot there's a trail
00:13:59
of blood
00:14:00
leading all the way up the stairs into
00:14:02
his room
00:14:03
in the room
00:14:04
there's
00:14:06
lamps tables chairs all knocked down
00:14:08
like he pinballed
00:14:10
somehow he found the strength to get the
00:14:12
hell out
00:14:14
while eddie coosa lingered in a coma
00:14:17
there was a break in the case
00:14:18
a witness overheard linda and bernadette
00:14:21
bragging about shooting a fat guy
00:14:23
linda was arrested within days
00:14:26
the police then went on the hunt for
00:14:28
bernadette
00:14:30
coming up
00:14:32
the final showdown they find bernadette
00:14:35
and they send a swat team
00:14:38
they just swarmed come get on the ground
00:14:40
and everything
00:14:42
and they arrest her and then
00:14:44
in her pants in her crotch
00:14:48
is the gun that was used to shoot eddie
00:14:49
cruz
00:14:50
ends in a final realization i got my
00:14:53
chance and i blew it
00:14:59
while out on parole lifetime petty
00:15:01
criminal bernadette edie hooked up with
00:15:03
linda goodmode a seductive stripper
00:15:05
before long the pair were robbing rich
00:15:07
men at gunpoint after shooting eddie
00:15:09
kusa a 41 year old car dealer in the
00:15:12
head the tabloids touted them as the
00:15:14
real life thelma and louise
00:15:16
this is another situation with gun and
00:15:19
violence with people i'm trying to keep
00:15:21
control but i'm very nervous at the same
00:15:23
time then i'm like i'm out of here linda
00:15:25
was immediately arrested
00:15:27
for two days bernadette was on the lam
00:15:29
hiding at a friend's home
00:15:31
she was ultimately caught when her
00:15:33
foster parents tipped off police they
00:15:35
find bernadette and they send a swat
00:15:38
team they just swarmed come get on the
00:15:40
ground and everything they arrest her
00:15:42
and then in her pants in her crotch
00:15:46
is the gun that was used to shoot eddie
00:15:48
cruz
00:15:49
[Music]
00:15:51
both women were charged with the
00:15:52
attempted murder of eddie cusa
00:15:55
bernadette's gun was also linked to the
00:15:57
shooting of jay and kevin carroll
00:16:00
at 23
00:16:02
bernadette had a rap sheet the sheriff
00:16:04
at his press conference lets the rap
00:16:06
sheet
00:16:07
dropped to the floor i mean it was long
00:16:09
the judge's worst fear had materialized
00:16:13
bernadette had nearly killed three
00:16:14
people
00:16:16
but this time the system would make her
00:16:18
pay
00:16:20
they made the decision that we cannot
00:16:22
afford to lose this case
00:16:24
while awaiting trial behind bars
00:16:26
linda and bernadette exchanged love
00:16:28
letters
00:16:29
filled with pledges of eternal loyalty
00:16:32
and some seasoned jailhouse advice
00:16:35
just don't say anything like just be
00:16:37
quiet don't give them any more
00:16:38
information and we were in agreement
00:16:40
with that they're on separate floors of
00:16:42
the broward county jail
00:16:44
and they're sending each other these
00:16:46
mushy love letters we can
00:16:48
stand together and we'll get out of this
00:16:51
with the victim eddie cusa on life
00:16:54
support the prosecution was faced with
00:16:56
the dilemma that the defendants might
00:16:58
create reasonable doubt by blaming one
00:17:00
another
00:17:01
they met with linda goodmode and made
00:17:03
her an offer
00:17:04
here was the deal the state attorney
00:17:06
made with linda
00:17:08
five years prison
00:17:10
in exchange for testimony against
00:17:11
bernadette if she passes a polygraph
00:17:15
and she does
00:17:17
the love affair between bernadette and
00:17:19
linda came to an abrupt end when linda
00:17:22
accepted the da's deal
00:17:24
five years in prison in exchange for
00:17:26
testifying against the woman she claimed
00:17:29
to love
00:17:30
linda sends a letter to bernadette and
00:17:32
says this is a new start for me
00:17:35
so
00:17:36
sorry babe but
00:17:38
check me
00:17:39
and then
00:17:40
bernadette
00:17:41
writes back and says i'm gonna kill you
00:17:44
it crushed bernadette when linda
00:17:46
turned and she didn't just turn evidence
00:17:49
she turned hard she wrote nasty messages
00:17:51
on the wall of you know rotten prison
00:17:54
[ __ ] and
00:17:55
stuff like that and it was an emotional
00:17:58
uh disappointment of
00:18:02
betrayal
00:18:03
loss of love
00:18:05
then a medical miracle
00:18:08
eddie cusa despite being shot point
00:18:10
blank in the temple woke up
00:18:12
he was adamant that it was linda
00:18:14
goodmode who shot him not bernadette
00:18:17
now i'll always remember the way that
00:18:19
eddie told this to me at that moment
00:18:21
he's on the bed
00:18:23
and that
00:18:24
it's the cute one who shoots him
00:18:27
it's linda
00:18:28
mr kuza had actually said it wasn't me
00:18:31
that shot him that it was linda
00:18:33
and i was like that was a big relief
00:18:36
but eddie coos's story didn't match the
00:18:38
da's theory of the case
00:18:40
eddie's wife ann tells the cops what
00:18:42
eddie said
00:18:43
but the state attorney is already in the
00:18:45
process of making a deal with linda
00:18:48
it's a complete mess
00:18:50
they interview eddie's brain surgeon
00:18:52
he's been shot in the head they ask you
00:18:54
know is this memory reliable and the
00:18:56
brain surgeon says probably not mr
00:18:59
kusa's brain
00:19:00
prevented him from remembering specific
00:19:02
details of what happened so they had a
00:19:05
choice of either linda or bernadette
00:19:06
bernadette was the star villain the
00:19:09
trial like the crime was sensational
00:19:12
everyone wanted a glimpse of the sexy
00:19:14
stripper the bad girl shooter and the
00:19:17
man who returned from the dead
00:19:21
[Music]
00:19:32
despite kusa's riveting testimony
00:19:34
identifying linda goodmode as the
00:19:36
shooter the jury cited with the
00:19:38
prosecution that it was bernadette who
00:19:41
actually pulled the trigger
00:19:43
bernadette edie was found guilty of the
00:19:45
attempted murder of eddie coosa and the
00:19:47
carol boys the judge
00:19:49
sentences bernadette to five life
00:19:52
sentences
00:19:54
i never forget he said if i could i
00:19:56
would send you to death to the death
00:19:58
penalty you don't deserve to be around
00:20:00
anybody you're a piece of dirt you're
00:20:02
lower than dirt i cried i just cried i
00:20:05
cried my life was over
00:20:07
although still culpable linda goodmode's
00:20:10
plea deal required her to serve five
00:20:12
years in state prison she served only
00:20:14
two and was released
00:20:17
disappointed that she just walked away
00:20:20
from it smooth
00:20:22
back in boca raton eddie coosa was still
00:20:25
mad as hell that no one believed his
00:20:27
story
00:20:29
everybody in that courtroom from linda
00:20:31
goodmore to bernardi to the prosecutor
00:20:34
to myself
00:20:35
knew this is not the truth
00:20:37
it's not
00:20:38
bernadette edie is serving five life
00:20:40
sentences in a maximum security prison
00:20:42
in florida
00:20:44
she sees her life as a cautionary tale
00:20:46
and hopes that young people can learn
00:20:48
from her mistakes
00:20:50
life is
00:20:51
it's long but it's very short
00:20:54
and to try to
00:20:56
just make the best person that you can
00:20:59
be
00:20:59
i've always let my emotions rule me
00:21:02
and you gotta let your better mind move
00:21:04
you
00:21:05
bernadette has had no contact with her
00:21:07
former lover linda goodmode
00:21:09
she will spend the rest of her life
00:21:11
thinking about how she threw away her
00:21:13
freedom on a woman who she feels stabbed
00:21:16
her in the back all i can do is live
00:21:18
each day as it is and
00:21:20
try to make it better i got my chance
00:21:22
and i blew it
00:21:24
coming up
00:21:27
a family that slays together how do you
00:21:29
convince your kids to carry out a murder
00:21:32
plot
00:21:32
stays together i went to live with her
00:21:35
she's my biological mother
00:21:40
she threatened junior mills saying that
00:21:43
she was going to shoot him and sink him
00:21:45
junior he was screaming and yelling and
00:21:47
testing and grabbing a hold of me i
00:21:49
killed a man but i did it while
00:21:51
protecting my family as a whole
00:21:53
my name is leilani mills and i am
00:21:56
serving a 27 and a half years sentence
00:21:59
for aiding and abetting my husband's
00:22:01
murder
00:22:11
it was a cold november morning
00:22:14
the day trippers who fished this
00:22:15
pristine expanse of indiana's patoka
00:22:18
lake were long gone
00:22:22
we're located on state road 145 we're
00:22:26
right near the crawford orange county
00:22:29
lines here's where the case began
00:22:32
a motorist spotted something that
00:22:33
resembled garbage bobbing eerily along
00:22:36
the graying bank
00:22:38
when the body decomposes it's basically
00:22:40
just like a balloon inflating gases will
00:22:43
build up inside that's what causes the
00:22:45
body to float to the surface
00:22:48
with flies still swirling police fished
00:22:51
out the corpse of
00:22:53
year old forrest mills jr
00:22:56
he had been in the water at least
00:22:58
12
00:23:00
days
00:23:01
the body was fully clothed when he was
00:23:03
recovered
00:23:04
still had boots on
00:23:06
the victim forrest mills jr known to
00:23:08
everyone as junior had been shot in the
00:23:11
face and was missing most of his jaw
00:23:14
whoever put him in the lake weighed him
00:23:16
down with cement blocks but not very
00:23:18
well
00:23:19
apparently one of the
00:23:20
cinder blocks had broken off he had some
00:23:23
massive injuries to his facial area
00:23:25
which appeared to be from some type of
00:23:27
shotgun blast
00:23:29
he'd been dead for almost two weeks but
00:23:31
no one had reported him missing
00:23:34
forest mills jr was already a ghost
00:23:37
it's not like his co-workers missed him
00:23:40
he didn't work the family that he did
00:23:42
have was
00:23:43
strung out in different states so no one
00:23:45
knew when he when he came up missing
00:23:48
almost immediately the investigation
00:23:50
focused on his family
00:23:52
police uncovered a complex web where
00:23:54
junior mills was murdered in a twisted
00:23:57
show of maternal loyalty
00:23:58
masterminded by his wife leilani and
00:24:01
executed by her son dallas mayberry
00:24:04
she was the ringleader of young
00:24:07
troubled kids she took advantage of that
00:24:09
it was odd dynamic he had odd characters
00:24:15
[Music]
00:24:20
just an unpaved road or two from the
00:24:22
lush farmland of southern indiana
00:24:25
are vacant fields littered with
00:24:27
condemned homes and rusty trailers
00:24:31
this is the seedier side of the
00:24:32
heartland where meth is king
00:24:35
poverty is epidemic
00:24:37
and four out of ten girls get pregnant
00:24:39
before they're 18.
00:24:41
this is a real very close-knit community
00:24:44
family abuse it has always been around
00:24:47
but this isn't an area that has a lot of
00:24:49
homicide
00:24:50
but a homicide did take place just up
00:24:53
the road where the family of leilani and
00:24:55
junior mills was living with her three
00:24:57
sons and two roommates seven to a
00:24:59
trailer it was an old trailer and it had
00:25:03
been repainted and had different
00:25:06
materials used as underpinnings to try
00:25:08
to keep some of the weather out
00:25:10
it was dilapidated didn't have a phone
00:25:12
of its own we never went hungry and they
00:25:15
always had clothes and stuff we were
00:25:17
able to pay our bills
00:25:18
but according to police that's not how
00:25:21
one of their neighbors remembered it
00:25:23
she saw the boys dragging this rotting
00:25:25
pig carcass across the yard and that
00:25:27
they said they were going to eat it
00:25:29
and she she told them that they would
00:25:31
get sick and leilani was just like what
00:25:33
it'll be fine we'll eat it
00:25:34
[Music]
00:25:38
leilani mills was born poor in the tiny
00:25:41
town of maunie illinois
00:25:43
i always felt like i was nothing and was
00:25:46
always going to be just nothing
00:25:48
my grandparents
00:25:50
raised me
00:25:51
my mother was mentally ill
00:25:53
and my
00:25:55
dad he really didn't care much either
00:25:57
way
00:25:58
pregnant and penniless at 20 leilani
00:26:01
gave up her son dallas for adoption soon
00:26:04
after he was born i wasn't ready to
00:26:06
raise a child
00:26:08
two more marriages resulted in sons adam
00:26:11
and daniel
00:26:12
hoping that the fourth time would be the
00:26:14
charm leilani met and married forest
00:26:17
mills jr in 1997
00:26:20
then she and her teenage sons moved into
00:26:22
junior's double wide
00:26:24
things seemed good
00:26:26
for a while
00:26:27
she seemed like someone that would have
00:26:29
been nice for my brother she wanted
00:26:32
junior to adopt her boys
00:26:34
daniel and adam because
00:26:36
he loved them and they loved him
00:26:39
and she thought that he was a wonderful
00:26:41
man
00:26:43
junior never did adopt the kids still he
00:26:46
supported the family with his disability
00:26:48
check
00:26:49
he wasn't able to do a whole lot
00:26:51
physically and i think mentally he was
00:26:55
slower than most nevertheless leilani
00:26:58
claimed she loved her husband despite
00:27:00
his challenges
00:27:02
but junior's family doubted her
00:27:03
sincerity leilani was
00:27:07
a lot smarter than my brother
00:27:09
even though she was telling my mom that
00:27:11
she was going to take care of junior she
00:27:13
was controlling and bossing
00:27:17
things soured when a few months after
00:27:18
they married 18 year old dallas mayberry
00:27:21
the son leilani had given up for
00:27:23
adoption as a baby came for a stay
00:27:26
and never left
00:27:27
when i went to live with her it was
00:27:29
basically because
00:27:30
i wanted to get to know her better she's
00:27:32
my biological mother he's a very
00:27:34
precious young man i thought it'd be
00:27:36
wonderful just to get to know him
00:27:39
the double wide was home to junior
00:27:41
leilani and leilani's three boys despite
00:27:45
the cramped quarters she invited her
00:27:47
son's friends albert apple and his
00:27:49
girlfriend tiffany stahl to move in too
00:27:52
the culture of poverty where people
00:27:55
get very close very quickly they're like
00:27:57
fast friends
00:27:59
and they develop this
00:28:00
extreme loyalty very quickly
00:28:03
with money tied and the living situation
00:28:05
even tighter the tension in the
00:28:07
household was thick
00:28:09
some of the neighbors told the police
00:28:11
that leilani was violent with junior
00:28:14
mills that she was verbally abusive
00:28:17
saying that she was just gonna shoot him
00:28:19
and sink him
00:28:21
but leilani's son dallas argues that it
00:28:23
was junior who bullied his mom
00:28:26
they was arguing over something
00:28:28
and junior backhanded her really hard
00:28:31
and i snapped
00:28:33
i jumped up i punched him and we went to
00:28:35
fight i mean because it all happened so
00:28:37
quick
00:28:38
that was my first
00:28:40
in inclination that this this dude is
00:28:43
really insane
00:28:44
[Music]
00:28:46
according to junior's family when
00:28:48
leilani's oldest son dallas assumed the
00:28:50
dominant male role leilani's clan
00:28:52
followed their mother's lead and junior
00:28:55
became the odd man out
00:28:57
when junior would call my mother he
00:29:00
would tell them that they were doing
00:29:02
illegal things with his money
00:29:05
and that he had threatened to report
00:29:07
them
00:29:08
and that they
00:29:10
had
00:29:11
in turn threatened to kill him if he did
00:29:15
i think she just wanted him out of the
00:29:16
picture her weird sense of morality and
00:29:20
the way she saw life was different
00:29:22
but leilani argues that if she had
00:29:24
wanted junior dead she could have staged
00:29:26
an accident
00:29:28
i like to go hunting i could have had a
00:29:30
hunting accident happen at any time
00:29:33
but that didn't happen
00:29:37
coming up
00:29:38
a son's deadly confrontation i love my
00:29:41
mom i freaked out i killed a man i blew
00:29:45
his face off it was never supposed to go
00:29:48
that far
00:29:49
and later
00:29:50
she had been kissing on the jawbone and
00:29:53
had been sucking on it at the sentencing
00:29:56
hearing she even exclaimed i'm not a
00:29:58
cannibal i'm not a cannibal
00:30:11
less than a year after leilani and
00:30:13
junior mills were married leilani her
00:30:15
three sons and two roommates all moved
00:30:18
into a dilapidated double wide in the
00:30:20
woods
00:30:21
but this was not one big happy family
00:30:24
junior had a lot of people fooled
00:30:26
one minute junior could be a fantastic
00:30:28
guy
00:30:29
the next minute he'd be going off
00:30:31
she was scared to leave him he
00:30:33
threatened to kill her if she ever left
00:30:34
him they were living in poverty they had
00:30:36
mental health issues it's just a bad
00:30:39
recipe
00:30:40
in fact it was a recipe for murder
00:30:43
prosecutors believe the plan was cooked
00:30:45
up by none other than junior's wife
00:30:47
leilani and carried out by dallas
00:30:49
mayberry the son she'd given up for
00:30:52
adoption
00:30:53
this was leilani's fourth marriage she
00:30:56
didn't have any real problems getting
00:30:57
into and out of marriage she was just
00:30:59
tired of junior in her mind he needed to
00:31:02
be eliminated so she gathered her family
00:31:06
and her young children and assigned them
00:31:08
this task and they dutifully responded
00:31:11
the only
00:31:12
talk we had
00:31:14
was about his abuse and his abusive
00:31:16
behavior
00:31:17
we never
00:31:18
did killing him never even
00:31:21
crossed our mind and then we had
00:31:23
discussed turning him over to the law
00:31:25
but then i was like yeah what are they
00:31:26
going to do give him a piece of paper
00:31:28
saying stay away from her
00:31:37
on the evening of october 28 1998
00:31:41
leilani and her teenage brood were
00:31:43
driving back from running errands in
00:31:44
jasper indiana
00:31:46
they had her eldest son dallas mayberry
00:31:50
they had her two younger sons and their
00:31:52
roommates albert apple and his
00:31:54
girlfriend tiffany stoll
00:31:56
police say that it was there in the
00:31:58
packed van with all the children present
00:32:00
that leilani decided to kill her husband
00:32:02
forrest mills jr
00:32:04
they talked up this whole plan
00:32:07
about killing junior mills
00:32:09
for whatever reason we don't know the
00:32:11
plan was that
00:32:13
everyone would go in the trailer except
00:32:15
for albert
00:32:16
that he would wait um outside for a
00:32:19
period of time and then make some noises
00:32:22
and act like a prowler was out there
00:32:24
force mills was lured out of the house
00:32:27
to that garage albert apple knocked on
00:32:29
the trailer acting like a prowler to get
00:32:32
him to come out dallas mayberry came out
00:32:35
with lulani mills gunshots were fired by
00:32:38
dallas mayberry he was struck in the
00:32:40
face was shot at at least twice more he
00:32:43
still didn't die right away so
00:32:46
apparently leilani and dallas got a rope
00:32:49
and tried to strangle him to get him to
00:32:51
die quicker
00:32:53
i'm sure those last five or ten minutes
00:32:55
were probably
00:32:56
just horrific for him
00:33:02
statements from the roommates albert
00:33:03
apple and tiffany stahl corroborate the
00:33:06
police's theory of events
00:33:08
but leilani and dallas maintain that
00:33:10
they killed junior in self-defense
00:33:13
what really happened that night
00:33:15
was my husband junior he was very angry
00:33:18
he was screaming and yelling and testing
00:33:20
and grabbing a hold of me he really flew
00:33:22
off the handle and said
00:33:24
i will kill every one of you and he flew
00:33:26
out the door i instinctively knew
00:33:29
exactly where he was going and i
00:33:30
followed him and my mom followed me when
00:33:33
we got out to the garage he had got one
00:33:35
of the rifles i know he had the gun
00:33:38
pointed at me i grabbed the shotgun and
00:33:40
blacked out
00:33:42
i know i shot him
00:33:44
i know i shot him because he's dead
00:33:46
my life totally changed and everything
00:33:48
just went
00:33:50
completely numb i love my mom i freaked
00:33:53
out i killed a man
00:33:55
i blew his face off i don't feel like
00:33:58
what i did
00:33:59
was
00:34:02
astronomically
00:34:03
bad because it wasn't cold-blooded
00:34:06
murder that's not what this was
00:34:09
police believe that leilani then ordered
00:34:11
her 13 and 15 year old sons adam and
00:34:14
daniel and roommate tiffany to clean up
00:34:17
the crime scene and get rid of whatever
00:34:19
pieces of forest mills junior they could
00:34:21
find
00:34:22
the
00:34:23
shotgun blast blew away part of forest's
00:34:26
jaw
00:34:28
and there were teeth and bits of flesh
00:34:31
around the yard she was directing these
00:34:33
young children
00:34:34
to help in a cover-up of a murder
00:34:38
while tiffany and the mills children lit
00:34:40
bonfires around the trailer and burned
00:34:42
the evidence leilani dallas and albert
00:34:45
drove forest mills junior's body to the
00:34:48
patoka reservoir
00:34:49
the body was loaded it was brought to
00:34:52
the bridge that you see in the
00:34:53
background there were two
00:34:56
cinder blocks that were attached to the
00:34:58
body i was guilty at dumping his body in
00:35:01
the lake he was already dead before they
00:35:04
got there though one of the ropes broke
00:35:06
off on the cinder blocks and they're all
00:35:09
like screw it so they throw him in the
00:35:11
potoka reservoir
00:35:13
failure to secure the cinder block would
00:35:15
be the difference between getting caught
00:35:17
and getting away with murder
00:35:21
coming up
00:35:23
a paranoid ringleader puts her trailer
00:35:26
on lockdown tiffany stahl and albert
00:35:28
apple were pretty much prisoners they're
00:35:30
in the trailer they were fearful for
00:35:31
their own lives tiffany's on the phone
00:35:33
to the sheriff's department and they're
00:35:35
putting all the pieces together
00:35:46
according to police reports on october
00:35:49
28 1998
00:35:51
leilani mills and her son dallas
00:35:53
mayberry lured her husband forest mills
00:35:55
jr to his death
00:35:57
while they disposed of the body in a
00:35:59
nearby reservoir
00:36:00
the younger boys and their two live-in
00:36:02
friends were ordered to destroy evidence
00:36:05
at the crime scene
00:36:07
after dumping the body dallas too joined
00:36:09
in the cover-up so i'm gonna get rid of
00:36:11
as much evidence as i can
00:36:13
and hope to god that no one finds out
00:36:16
fear of getting caught gave rise to
00:36:18
pervasive paranoia roommate tiffany
00:36:21
would later testify that leilani
00:36:23
threatened to kill her and albert if
00:36:25
they ever told anyone about the murder
00:36:27
albert apple said they watched him
00:36:29
night and day he was literally scared to
00:36:32
death of them and every time they get
00:36:33
alone tiffany would talk to him about
00:36:35
let's get out of here and he kept saying
00:36:37
i'm afraid i'm afraid what we're going
00:36:38
to do what are we going to do
00:36:40
afraid for her life tiffany found an
00:36:42
opportunity and escaped she then called
00:36:45
police
00:36:46
tiffany finally gets away from leilani
00:36:49
long enough to place a phone call to the
00:36:51
orange county sheriff's department
00:36:53
about the same time as a passing
00:36:55
motorist sees junior mill's body
00:36:57
floating in particular reservoir a
00:36:59
single cinder block would not hold down
00:37:01
junior's decomposing body for long and
00:37:04
it eventually surfaced
00:37:06
the patocco reservoir is a huge place be
00:37:09
easy to hide a body there
00:37:11
if you were smart enough to tie it down
00:37:13
really good
00:37:14
when tiffany's tip-off connected
00:37:16
junior's body to the mills clan
00:37:19
detectives drove to leilani's trailer to
00:37:21
investigate
00:37:22
i had almost two weeks
00:37:24
to clean up the crime scene before the
00:37:26
body was discovered in patoka lake
00:37:29
there was obvious burn piles in front of
00:37:31
the garage beside it and also near the
00:37:33
house
00:37:34
the yard was freshly raked
00:37:37
police staked out the area and when the
00:37:39
family pulled in they made their move
00:37:42
as soon as we pulled off the road we got
00:37:44
surrounded by swat team they ambushed us
00:37:47
they told me to get out
00:37:49
in my van put my hands up my life
00:37:52
everything flashed before my eyes and
00:37:55
you know i knew my life was over
00:37:58
investigators combed the crime scene for
00:38:00
evidence that linked the mills clan to
00:38:03
junior's murder
00:38:04
there was approximately 50 separate
00:38:07
pieces of evidence collected in this
00:38:09
case dna material there was a firearm
00:38:11
there was actual blood and tissue found
00:38:14
in the back of the van
00:38:16
although never recovered one piece of
00:38:18
evidence continued to make headlines
00:38:21
junior mill's jawbone it's actually just
00:38:24
a very small piece of bone and a tooth
00:38:26
lalani according to one witness kept it
00:38:29
as a sort of a keepsake before later on
00:38:32
flushing it down the toilet there are
00:38:34
different allegations that she may have
00:38:37
even
00:38:38
eaten part of it i mean there's
00:38:40
cannibalism also that was just a bunch
00:38:42
of publicity for the newspapers or
00:38:44
something none of that's true
00:38:46
cannibalism is not
00:38:49
my choice
00:38:50
of living
00:38:52
leilani would soon find that accusations
00:38:55
of cannibalism were the least of her
00:38:57
problems
00:38:59
by november of 1998 prosecutors were
00:39:02
certain that they had enough evidence
00:39:04
and eyewitness testimony to convict
00:39:06
leilani mills and her son dallas
00:39:08
mayberry for the murder of her husband
00:39:11
forrest mills jr
00:39:13
we had forensic evidence then we had all
00:39:15
the admissions by various individuals
00:39:18
involved that made it a very strong case
00:39:20
i think defense realized that
00:39:22
soon after finding the body as the
00:39:24
prosecution was building a case
00:39:27
officers informed junior's family of the
00:39:29
murder
00:39:30
their worst fears about his marriage to
00:39:31
leilani had come true
00:39:35
shortly before he was murdered he
00:39:38
contacted my mother and also my brother
00:39:42
and expressed fear for his life but we
00:39:45
never realized that
00:39:47
it was to a point to where anything of
00:39:50
that magnitude was gonna happen it was
00:39:53
overwhelming
00:39:54
it was
00:39:57
beyond anything you can imagine
00:39:59
leilani and her sons were interrogated
00:40:01
multiple times by police but the boys
00:40:04
remained loyal to their mom
00:40:06
lalani and her sons were fairly close
00:40:09
they were painstakingly careful to
00:40:11
implicate their mother as little as
00:40:13
possible in this homicide to make mom
00:40:16
happy dallas had to pull a trigger and
00:40:18
kill a man to make his mom proud
00:40:25
me
00:40:28
[Music]
00:40:40
dallas mayberry faced the death penalty
00:40:43
while leilani mills was looking at a
00:40:44
life sentence
00:40:46
when the prosecution offered them plea
00:40:48
bargains they reluctantly accepted
00:40:53
i had people that was willing to come in
00:40:55
as witnesses
00:40:57
to the fact that junior was abusive and
00:41:00
the attorney said oh there wouldn't be
00:41:02
no need for that
00:41:04
after a few months went by i eventually
00:41:07
broke down
00:41:08
i said you know what
00:41:11
the death penalty
00:41:13
frightens the crap out of me
00:41:15
so
00:41:17
i'll take the plea
00:41:18
bargain in 2000 leilani mills and dallas
00:41:22
mayberry were sentenced to 55 years in
00:41:25
state prison for their respective roles
00:41:27
in the murder of forrest mills jr
00:41:30
even though they both pled guilty
00:41:32
they'll only serve half of their
00:41:34
sentences
00:41:36
for murder the presumptive sentence is
00:41:39
55 years but in indiana you only have to
00:41:42
serve half of that sentence
00:41:44
she's not the one that actually pulled
00:41:45
the trigger but she certainly
00:41:47
was the person responsible for this
00:41:50
crime occurring i am extremely confident
00:41:52
the right people were arrested for this
00:41:55
and they did receive appropriate
00:41:57
sentences in my opinion as well
00:41:59
deeply offended over what she perceived
00:42:01
as biased reporting in the news media
00:42:03
leilani took the opportunity to set the
00:42:05
record straight at her sentencing she
00:42:08
did make a very vehement denial that she
00:42:10
was not a cannibal she's totally ruined
00:42:13
her her son's lives induced her children
00:42:16
to commit crimes she killed her husband
00:42:19
but she stopped short of
00:42:21
being a cannibal she knows she's not
00:42:23
going to cop to that i would just hope
00:42:25
and pray that people
00:42:27
would not believe everything they hear
00:42:29
about me
00:42:31
never once
00:42:33
never once did we look into her eyes in
00:42:35
the courtroom and make any eye contact
00:42:38
with her that indicated she was
00:42:40
genuinely sorry
00:42:42
for anything that she had done
00:42:45
junior's family remains bitter about the
00:42:47
plea agreements
00:42:48
it's very disturbing to know that dallas
00:42:52
and leilani could possibly be released
00:42:56
and resume
00:42:57
their life together when my mother will
00:43:00
never ever be able to have another day
00:43:03
with her son i'm going to take full
00:43:04
responsibility for what i did because i
00:43:06
killed him
00:43:07
you know but it wasn't in cold blood
00:43:11
i used to let the guilt and everything
00:43:14
eat me up but
00:43:16
um
00:43:18
i can't think like that anymore i'm very
00:43:20
sorry
00:43:21
that his life ended the way it did
00:43:25
i really don't know if it would have
00:43:26
ever happened any different
00:43:28
than that
