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[DRAMATIC TUNE] NARRATOR: In July 1977, a man walked into a Sheriff's department in Riverside County, California,
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and handed himself in. He was wanted for the murder of three hitchhikers across the region.
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But his confession to interrogators, would leave them stunned. I asked him, well, how many people have you killed?
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And he said, I don't know, but more than 30. NARRATOR: The serial murderer was an unassuming 37-year-old Aircraft
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Engineer named Patrick Kearney. He'd been killing young men and boys across Southern California
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for the past 15 years. TERESA ROONEY: I guess, the first word that comes to mind
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is evil. Just void of humanity. NARRATOR: After raping and killing his victims, the murderer would expertly dismember
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their lifeless bodies. GEOFFREY WANSELL: The victims' families never knew what happened to their loved one.
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The only person they had to rely on to find out, was the utterly revolting Patrick Kearney
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NARRATOR: Patrick Kearney, the man dubbed The Trash Bag Killer, had confessed to being one of the world's
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most evil killers. [MUSIC PLAYS] NARRATOR: By February 1978, 38-year-old Aircraft Engineer,
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Patrick Kearney, had pled guilty to murdering a total of 21 young men and boys. His youngest victim, just five years old.
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After his arrest, Kearney had confessed to a secret career of murder and necrophilia, that would make even
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the hardiest detective wince. Former Riverside County Deputy DA, Dan Bacalski, remembers when he first began the hunt for
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the notorious Trash Bag Killer. DAN BACALSKI: I think there were three murder cases at the time.
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Three bodies that were found. One of the bodies was found without a head, and without feet and hands.
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And so the first thing you need to do in trying to solve a crime, is to identify the victim.
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And identification in most of these cases was hard, if not impossible. NARRATOR: But a distinctive mark on one of the bodies,
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led investigators to the family of 17-year-old John LaMay, who'd been missing for four days.
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TERESA ROONEY: I remember, because I was out of school going with my mom, and dad, and my sister,
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driving all the way out to Riverside County. Where the purpose was to go to the police department there
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to give their blood test, and to identify a photo that had a birthmark that was John's.
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NARRATOR: The murder of John LaMay would finally unmask the elusive Trash Bag Killer.
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DAN BACALSKI: Once they identified him, they were able then of course, to ask questions about his whereabouts, where he had last been.
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And one of the leads led them to the house of a man named David Hill, and he shared that house
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with Patrick Kearney. DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Finally the pieces of the puzzle were coming together, and the police were getting
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closer to catching this killer. NARRATOR: This killer's story begins in Los Angeles, California, in 1939.
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Patrick Kearney was born on the 24th of September, the oldest of three brothers.
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As a child, Kearney was small and scrawny, which led to him becoming a target for the school bullies.
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DAN BACALSKI: He told me that he felt at times, as a youth, he was picked on. But he fantasized about striking back.
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GEOFFREY WANSELL: He remembered later, at the age of eight, that he'd fantasized about killing people.
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An extraordinary thing, when you consider it, for an eight-year-old to do. Horrifying.
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DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: I think this was probably a control mechanism, because Kearney lacked control.
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He lacked control over his childhood. He didn't have those good relationships with his peers.
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So those skills to negotiate conflict was something that just didn't happen, they didn't emerge.
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And in other children, you find that that does. So he's an outsider again, and this
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will come to have an impact throughout the rest of his life. NARRATOR: Kearney later recalled that his mother was caring,
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but his father, George, a Salesman, worked a lot, and seems somewhat disinterested in raising a family.
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Although he did teach his son how to shoot. DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: So at a very young age,
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he gets to learn how to send something from a living animated creature into a corpse
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that is quite easy to control. And I think the lesson from that, the feeling of power
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perhaps, that that gave him, was something that stayed with him. NARRATOR: Kearney's relationship with his father
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was a complex one. DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: I think the important thing for me is what his father represented.
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The stereotypical, masculine, American man. He's tough, he's stoic, he's resilient.
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And this is everything that Kearney is not. So there's that inadequacy there, in terms of his relationship with his father.
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So that is something that would stay with him, and I think that is a factor that fueled his offending.
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NARRATOR: By the age of 20, Kearney had joined the US Air Force as an engineer and was living in Texas.
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It was there he fell in love with a man named David Hill. GEOFFREY WANSELL: The affair develops, and Hill
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leaves his wife for Kearney. Now, perhaps for the first time, Kearney felt truly loved.
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The love that he'd never had during his childhood. NARRATOR: By 1977, 37-year-old Patrick Kearney was living back
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in California with David Hill. Kearney had found a job as an engineer at Hughes Aircraft,
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and the couple were sharing a home together in Redondo Beach. Around the same time, 70 miles away in Riverside County,
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Deputy District Attorney, Dan Bacalski, was given a new assignment. DAN BACALSKI: I was in the office,
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and the Sheriff's department out there came in with some evidence they wanted me to look
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at regarding some bodies they had found over the last year or so. These bodies were found dismembered expertly
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in industrial plastic trash bags. And wanted me to look at the evidence. NARRATOR: The bodies of three young men
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had been found across Riverside County in Southern California. The murders bore all the hallmarks
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of a twisted serial killer. DAN BACALSKI: In these cases, the dismemberment was done expertly.
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And the pathologist opined that the individual who had done this had lots of practice.
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There were no hesitation marks. It was as if someone had trained on how to dismember the human body.
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So he's like a professional butcher in a butcher shop. He's an expert. Of course, that leads law enforcement
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to focus in on what they believe to be a serious serial perpetrator. NARRATOR: In March 1977, 17-year-old John LaMay
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went missing. His sister, Teresa, was just nine years old when her big brother vanished.
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TERESA ROONEY: I remember my mom and dad talking to each other a lot, and going, well, have you seen--
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wondering where John was, because John apparently did not come home the night before.
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NARRATOR: John hadn't returned home from school on the 13th of March. His family immediately reported him missing.
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TERESA ROONEY: All I remember my dad saying is-- to my mom after he got off the phone-- well,
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he's either missing, or he's dead. And I remember that just floored me, when I heard the word dead.
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You know, just, what? I'm 9 years old. That rings in my ears. Because at that moment, I just thought, he's dead.
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That's all I heard. NARRATOR: And Teresa's fears were soon realized. TERESA ROONEY: They found body parts and dismemberment
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in a trash can in Corona. They think it might be John, but they weren't quite sure.
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And they just have to confirm. NARRATOR: Identified by a birthmark on his remains,
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John LaMay had become the victim of the murderer the press had dubbed The Trash Bag Killer.
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A callous and perverse sexual predator. DAN BACALSKI: We don't know his cause of death.
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If it followed the normal pattern, he would have been shot in the head with a 22 Derringer.
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And he would have been then sexually assaulted in either a semiconscious or dead state.
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And then he was disarticulated, dismembered, put in a plastic bag and dumped. The cause of death could not be conclusively
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proven, because we never found his head, his hands, or his feet. NARRATOR: The news of 17-year-old John's death,
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brought heartache to the LaMay home. TERESA ROONEY: The atmosphere in the house with my siblings,
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it was very somber. No one wanted to talk about it, I kind of remember that. Because we were a family that, you know, you do life,
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but as far as sharing your feelings or thoughts or what's going on, it was more everybody just closed up.
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NARRATOR: But information from John LaMay's mother, Patricia, would bring detectives a much needed clue.
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DAN BACALSKI: When the police spoke to her and interviewed her, she said that the last person she knew
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that he was going to meet was an individual by the name of David Hill. NARRATOR: 34-year-old David Hill immediately
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became a person of interest. When investigators arrived at his Redondo Beach home,
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they were greeted by his partner, 37-year-old aircraft engineer, Patrick Kearney.
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DAN BACALSKI: He was a very mild mannered person that didn't express emotions or feelings that
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caused the officers to believe he was guilty. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Given Kearney's character,
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and his extraordinary conceit, he was going to make absolutely sure not to complain when the police arrived at his front door.
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As far as they were concerned, he was a model citizen. Upright, hardworking, and ordinary.
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There was nothing that he was going to do to contradict that impression. NARRATOR: With Kearney watching on,
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the detectives were looking for specific forensic evidence during their search of the house.
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DAN BACALSKI: There was a dog that had white hair. And the Sheriff's department officers
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knew that some of the trash bags had contained white animal hair. And in addition, the carpet color was the same as some
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of the fibers found on some of the bags. So obviously, they want to follow that up.
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NARRATOR: The white dog hair and blue carpet fibers led to the first breakthrough in the case.
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DAN BACALSKI: They took those back to the lab to have them further analyzed, more than just visually.
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And of course, there was a match with the carpet fibers, and a match with the dog hair, on I
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think two of the trash bags that were found with the bodies. NARRATOR: When detectives returned on the 19th of May,
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Dan Bacalski came along too. He was looking for evidence that could link the three bodies he'd been investigating
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to Kearney and Hill. But the couple weren't going to be as compliant this time around.
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DAN BACALSKI: We went to the house to execute the search warrant. And when we got to the house, no one was home.
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It was obvious that both Patrick Kearney and David Hill had fled. I believe that they felt the police officers were onto them.
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DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: When this kind of individual is faced with a choice between fight or flight, stay or go,
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they are always going to go. They will always flight, because they want to avoid confrontation at all costs,
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because they simply do not have the skills to deal with that. So I'm not surprised that Kearney
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run at this point in time. I think he was actually quite afraid. NARRATOR: As this search of Kearney and Hill's house
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began in earnest, Dan was certain that he was in the home of a serial killer. DAN BACALSKI: When you're in that situation,
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there is a-- this sounds a little bit funny-- but there is some sort of atmosphere feeling
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when you walk in a house like that. I felt it. And I don't know whether that was my imagination,
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but we're looking at somebody that's pretty evil, pretty matter of fact about it.
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And when you believe that that house was probably the scene of a lot of crimes--
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cruel, heartless crimes-- it does give you a little bit of a buzz feeling when you go into that residence.
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It did, me. NARRATOR: Evidence collected in a vacuum cleaner during the search, link Kearney, who worked as an engineer
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at nearby Hughes Aircraft, to the discarded and dismembered bodies. DAN BACALSKI: In the vacuum cleaner bag,
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there were found round plastic circles, thick plastic circles. Those matched the punch outs from the commercial grade
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garbage bag liners. The brand name was Mipro, and it was a industrial bag, and it was used at Hughes Aircraft.
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Those plastic bags are unusual, and there was a supply of those plastic bags in the attic
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at Patrick Kearney's house. NARRATOR: And it wasn't just circumstantial evidence
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that was discovered in Kearney and Hill's Redondo Beach home. DAN BACALSKI: In addition, there was a hacksaw blade.
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Looking normal and clean. But when it was taken apart, and the nut and bolt were loosened,
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there was blood and human hair wedged in the part between the blade and the bolt.
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The bathroom was sprayed with luminol, and showed the presence of a lot of blood in the bathtub
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and on the walls around the bathtub. So it appeared pretty quickly that at least one body, maybe
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more, were dismembered, disarticulated in the bathtub in the home of Patrick Kearney and David Hill.
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NARRATOR: Whether Kearney or Hill were involved or not, their home was clearly a hotbed of evidence that linked
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them to the three murdered men. DAN BACALSKI: It was obvious that there was physical evidence in that house that linked
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the house with these bodies. There was nothing specifically that linked Patrick Kearney
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himself, or David Hill, but the house they lived in was definitely linked to all of these murders.
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NARRATOR: A box of Manila envelopes discovered at the house, specifically linked Hill and Kearney
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to another Trash Bag Killer victim, Arturo Marquez, whose body had been discovered in Riverside
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County in March 1977. Bizarrely, the killer had sent mail to his victims home. DAN BACALSKI: The criminalist was
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able to opine that that thick, yellow, cardboard envelope likely came from this box, which was found
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in Patrick Kearney's house. That envelope had been used to mail car keys back to the Marquez family.
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Because when Patrick Kearney killed him, he had possession of the car and the keys.
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And being a good citizen, he mailed the keys back. DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Now this would appear
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to be a really bizarre thing to do, but this is a killer who likes order. He likes to know exactly where things are,
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and what's going on with them. So he's not the kind of person who could just throw these keys
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away in a bin somewhere. NARRATOR: Investigators were sure they had found the killer.
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But Patrick Kearney and his partner, David Hill, were nowhere to be found. They'd fled over 800 miles away to Texas,
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but they wouldn't be gone for long. DAN BACALSKI: After the all points bulletin was issued,
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I believe he was on the FBI's 10 most wanted list. There was a lot of publicity, and these pictures
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of David Hill and Patrick Kearney were published everywhere. Within months, they both walked into the Riverside County
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Sheriff's Department and turned themselves into the watch Sergeant. NARRATOR: Kearney and Hill's returned to California was
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an unexpected turn of events. DAN BACALSKI: Well, I was surprised. I was in my office, and I got a phone call from the Sheriff's
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department and say, well, Patrick Kearney walked in, come on over you need to interview him.
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So I went over to the Sheriff's department, got a tape recorder, and interviewed him.
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NARRATOR: On the 1st of July 1977, Kearney was arrested. He told police that his partner, David Hill,
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was completely innocent of any crimes. DAN BACALSKI: We don't know what he's going to say,
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or whether he's going to blame it on someone else or deny it. So I was focusing my interview on going to his background.
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Finding out about him, what caused him to do it, why he turned himself in. NARRATOR: But Dan in the Riverside County detectives
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had no idea just how prolific a killer they had arrested. Patrick Kearney's next statement would stun them all.
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DAN BACALSKI: I asked him, well, how many people have you killed? And he said, I don't know, but more than 30.
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NARRATOR: Patrick Kearney told the investigators that he'd been killing for over a decade, since 1962.
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The twisted killer detailed each of the murders, including taking the life of 17-year-old
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John LaMay in March 1977. TERESA ROONEY: What I know, that Patrick Kearney picked up John from my house in El Segundo,
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and drove him to his own home in Redondo Beach. Where apparently, he was watching TV,
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and apparently John had changed the channel, Patrick Kearney didn't like that, so he shot him in the back of the head.
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NARRATOR: Kearney told detectives how his father had taught him to shoot as a child.
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So accustomed to using a gun, an execution style method of killing had become his trademark.
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TERESA ROONEY: From there proceeded to-- like every other victim-- dismember him in the bathtub.
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All but his hands and his head. Because Patrick Kearney, very smart, knew that's how they could identify this body
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when he would dump it. And so he put the body parts in bags, apparently drove them out to Corona.
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And then they were placed, I believe, in a trash can in some park. This victim was only 17 years old,
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and he was one of seven children. So this is going to have a really devastating impact on this family dynamic.
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This is a very significant point in somebody's life. So to have this individual taken out of your family picture
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by this sadistic serial killer, is something that is going to affect all members of that family.
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NARRATOR: News of Kearney's arrest brought some semblance of peace to the LaMay family.
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TERESA ROONEY: When I heard that-- Again, from all the fears of a little girl, feeling like,
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OK, they're going to come get us. They got him, so they know where we live. That brought peace.
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That OK. We're safe. NARRATOR: Detectives were only just beginning to learn about the sadistic life
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of Patrick Kearney. And the killer's confessions would shock them to the core. DAN BACALSKI: Interviewing people like that,
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you look right into the eye of someone who can talk like that, knowing what they did.
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It's a sobering experience. NARRATOR: After handing himself in, Kearney had stunned the interrogators
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by confessing to at least 30 murders across the previous 15 years. But was the 37-year-old engineer telling the truth?
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DAN BACALSKI: You want to make sure that you are focusing in on hard facts and not just fantasy,
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maybe he's seeking attention or something. NARRATOR: Kearney confessed to killing
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a man in his apartment in 1968. Dan pressed for more details. DAN BACALSKI: And he said, I don't remember his name.
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How did you kill him? I shot him in the head with a 22. What did you do with the body?
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Well, I cut it up into small pieces and I put it in a box, and I put it underneath the apartment building I lived in.
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NARRATOR: Kearney continued to describe gruesome details of how he'd remove the evidence
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from his poor victim's head. GEOFFREY WANSELL: He was sufficiently aware, ballistically, that he knew that if he left the bullet,
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someone might find it and trace it back to the gun. And so Kearney took a hacksaw to the dead man's
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head to retrieve the bullet. NARRATOR: Kearney drew a map of exactly where he'd left the remains over a decade before.
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While the interview continued, Dan instructed the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department to search
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underneath the garage. DAN BACALSKI: And they go to that apartment complex, and they're there within an hour.
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And they retrieve a box with a bunch of bones in it, a human skeleton that's been cut up.
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And the skull has a hole in it consistent with a 22 caliber bullet. And you can see the hacksaw blade marks in the skull.
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So before we finish the interview, we had confirmation that this guy is telling the truth.
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NARRATOR: The unidentified skeleton in the box was just one of Kearney's many victims.
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The vicious killer had been active for 15 years. He told investigators how he targeted
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hitchhikers along the Southern California road network. DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: The victims were alone,
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they were hitchhiking. They were quite easy to prey on. Kearney had access, he had opportunity.
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And I think there were some echoes of his own victimization as a child and as a young man here.
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So it's almost like he's trying to rewrite his own history here. He's putting himself in the role of the aggressor.
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I think, perhaps, to step into the shoes of those who bullied and victimized him.
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So that's quite interesting for me. NARRATOR: By the 15th of July 1977, Patrick Kearney had confessed to killing 32 young men and boys.
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One of his many revelations included the story of 21-year-old, Larry Walters, a mechanic who
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was living in the town of Hawthorne, just North of Redondo Beach, in 1975. KAREN FRYER: Although Larry was our older brother,
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we were really his older sisters, because he was mentally slow. So at the age of 21, Larry had the mentality of maybe an 8
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to 10-year-old child. He was not very streetwise. NARRATOR: Larry was at his most content, when
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he was surrounded by family. KAREN FRYER: Larry was a very, very happy person. But we were very protective over him, because he
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believed anything you told him. He trusted everybody. We had to watch over him to make sure that people
00:26:02
didn't take advantage of him. NARRATOR: Karen vividly remembers the week Larry went
00:26:07
missing in late October 1975. KAREN FRYER: He just worked down at the end of the block
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from where I lived. And he had been coming to my house every day at noon on his lunch hour, because he was waiting
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for some checks that were being mailed to him, money owed to him. He had just wrecked his car two weeks before.
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And I said to him, instead of going home tonight after work, why don't you just stay at my house tonight,
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get up in the morning and go to work, and that way you don't have to hitchhike. NARRATOR: As Karen headed out to a Halloween party,
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she had no idea it would be the last time she would see her brother. KAREN FRYER: The last day that I saw Larry, he was upbeat,
00:26:54
nothing out of the norm. Said he'd see me the next day. And we went to the party.
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And when we got home at like 3:00 in the morning, my lights were on, my TV was on.
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My house was in a little disarray, and Larry was very neat and clean. And so I thought, well, he just ran out for a minute,
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he'll be back. So we just went to bed thinking everything was fine. NARRATOR: The following morning when Karen woke,
00:27:23
it seemed that Larry had already left for work. KAREN FRYER: Later on that morning,
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the mail came, and his checks came. And so he didn't come at lunchtime, and he had come every day that week at lunch.
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And so I went down to his work at the end of the corner, and his boss told me he didn't show up for work.
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And so we knew something was up. But I thought, did he go out with some friends,
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and just didn't sleep and didn't go to work. NARRATOR: The following morning however, there
00:27:55
was still no word from Larry. KAREN FRYER: The next morning, my mother called me and said,
00:28:00
Larry was supposed to have come today, and he didn't. And then we knew something was wrong.
00:28:05
So my mother went and filed a missing persons in that area. And then we waited. DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: This poor family suffered for two years,
00:28:19
not knowing what had happened to Larry. And it was only when Kearney confessed in 1977, that they
00:28:26
actually knew what happened. KAREN FRYER: The day that the police contacted my mother
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and said they needed to speak to me, because I was the last one to see him. They wanted to get my story and corroborate it with what
00:28:41
Kearney had told them. NARRATOR: Kearney had told the investigators exactly what had happened to Larry Walters
00:28:49
on that fateful Halloween night. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Larry is used to hitchhiking, and so
00:28:55
perfectly prepared to accept a lift from this mild mannered, ordinary looking little man.
00:29:01
Kearney drives him back to his house in Redondo Beach. But Larry has underestimated the man who's picked him up.
00:29:12
Tragically, Kearney shoots him in the head and kills him. KAREN FRYER: I remember the police, after all
00:29:23
of the questions they asked me, asking me, do you have any questions? And I said, yes, I have just one.
00:29:30
And my mom knew what it was going to be, and she left the room. Begging me not ask it.
00:29:40
And the officer told me, I know what you want to know. Did he suffer? And I said, yes.
00:29:47
And he said, no, Larry never knew anything from start to finish. And I have to believe that.
00:29:57
It wasn't like he was in a car accident or that he was in the hospital, we could say our goodbyes
00:30:07
When I saw him on Friday, I didn't know it was the last time. NARRATOR: The body of 21-year-old Larry Walters
00:30:18
has never been found. DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: The family haven't been able to say goodbye because they don't have a body.
00:30:25
And this is really significant for me, because Kearney is an offender who is incredibly organized.
00:30:30
He knows exactly where this body is. But I think he's not going to reveal the location of it,
00:30:35
because bodies tell stories. They tell us what happened in regards to a particular murder.
00:30:41
And there is something about this story that Kearney does not want out in the open.
00:30:45
And that's really significant for me. But it's really significant for the family
00:30:49
as well, because they will continue to suffer whilst he still retains this information.
00:30:55
NARRATOR: During the police interview, Kearney unashamedly detailed his perverse necrophilia.
00:31:02
DAN BACALSKI: After he shot them in the head, he would cut a hole in them and have
00:31:07
sexual intercourse with their bodies, because he felt empowered by it. DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: This is a killer who is a lot more
00:31:14
comfortable with the dead than he is with the living, because the dead are easier to control.
00:31:19
They cannot insult you, they can't reject you, they can't make you feel bad about yourself.
00:31:24
NARRATOR: The nefarious killer appeared to display no shame during his confessions.
00:31:31
DAN BACALSKI: You would be able to have a conversation with him sitting here and talk about a lot of things,
00:31:36
and never have an inkling that there's something bizarre about this guy, there's something weird about this guy.
00:31:42
You would not get that feeling with this man. GEOFFREY WANSELL: There were no tears running down his cheeks.
00:31:49
There was no remorse. There was no empathy for the victims. There was absolutely no understanding of the pain
00:31:59
he'd caused their families. Absolutely blank. And I think that's how he got away with hiding in plain sight
00:32:08
for all those years. NARRATOR: Once Kearney's confession was done, investigators had to try and link the killer's confessions
00:32:18
to actual missing persons. DAN BACALSKI: Well it took a long time to interview him and get all of his stories correct.
00:32:27
And then the law enforcement contacted other jurisdictions, in other words, to try to match up
00:32:36
his stories with actual bodies or missing persons. That work went on for some length of time.
00:32:43
NARRATOR: In December 1977, Patrick Kearney pleaded guilty to the murder of the three men
00:32:50
whose bodies have been found in Riverside County. Arturo Marquez, John LaMay, and 21-year-old Albert Rivera.
00:33:00
Despite sharing a home with his partner for nine years, a house where human blood had been found,
00:33:07
it was Kearney, and Kearney alone who was charged with the murders. When we took the case and presented
00:33:14
this physical evidence, the confession, and the testimony to the grand jury, they did not indict David Hill,
00:33:20
and he was let free. NARRATOR: Kearney was sentenced to life in prison, but investigators hadn't finished with him yet.
00:33:28
In February 1978, he was charged with a further 18 killings in neighboring Los Angeles County.
00:33:36
Deputy DA, John Breault, led the prosecution against the so-called Trash Bag Killer.
00:33:44
JOHN BREAULT: When I took over the case, Mr Kearney had already been arrested. And it was just tying all the loose ends together,
00:33:52
and assimilating all the information so that we had a fileable case. NARRATOR: Kearney had already confessed to the murders,
00:34:00
and the evidence against him was strong. Investigators had found a link between the killer,
00:34:06
and the number of his victims. A very specific item that was readily available to the 38-year-old engineer.
00:34:14
The police officers tied Patrick to these cases, because of the type of tape he used to wrap these victims in.
00:34:21
After he killed the victims, he cut them up, wrapped them in plastic bags, and then wrapped those bags
00:34:27
with a very distinctive tape that's only used in one place in Southern California,
00:34:33
and that's at Hughes Aircraft. NARRATOR: Kearney had taken the distinctive tape and trash bags
00:34:39
he used to dispose of his victim's bodies, from his place of work. It was also where he'd spotted one of his youngest victims.
00:34:48
For a seasoned prosecutor like John, the heartbreaking story of the eight-year-old boy
00:34:53
who lost his life at the hands of Patrick Kearney, was the one that stood out. JOHN BREAULT: The case I remember most,
00:35:00
it was a little different than the other cases, it's Merle Hondo Chance. Chance was riding his bicycle in the parking lot at Hughes
00:35:09
Aircraft, and had a problem. Patrick Wayne Kerney came out and saw, and tried to help him.
00:35:14
Eventually, put the bicycle in the back of the pickup truck they used in the other murders, drove him to a bike shop
00:35:21
at the corner of Washington and Sepulveda Boulevard. Got the bike fixed. Took him down for a hamburger and a shake at the hamburger
00:35:29
stand next to Tito's Tacos, at the corner of Washington and Sepulveda. GEOFFREY WANSELL: And Kearney, as a little extra penchant
00:35:40
something to the invitation, he tells the boy, I tell you what, one day I'll take you to Disneyland.
00:35:47
The boy must have been thrilled. NARRATOR: But Kearney had no intention of taking
00:35:54
Merle to a theme park. Unlike his other victims, Kearney didn't kill the eight-year-old for sexual gratification,
00:36:02
he killed Merle Hondo Chance because he was worried about getting caught. JOHN BREAULT: He was with him for a period of time,
00:36:09
for a couple of hours. And in Patrick Wayne Kearney's mind, he had said or intimated enough information to Hondo Chance,
00:36:21
that if Merle Hondo Chance spoke to anyone about that, the police officers would find out and know that Patrick
00:36:29
Wayne Kearney was the killer. And that's why he killed Merle Hondo Chance. NARRATOR: As the prosecution were processing the paperwork
00:36:39
for 18 murders, including that of Merle Hondo Chance, Patrick Kearney, just as he had in Riverside County,
00:36:47
decided not to contest any of the charges. GEOFFREY WANSELL: At the preliminary hearing
00:36:54
in Los Angeles, the municipal judge asked him why he'd done it. The families of the victims want to know why.
00:37:03
Can you tell us why? And Kearney said, and I quote precisely, "I'd prefer not to."
00:37:12
DAN BACALSKI: I don't think he was ashamed. I don't think he was embarrassed by this.
00:37:17
It was just matter of fact. You might as well have been talking about living on a farm
00:37:22
and killing your cows, and steers, and pigs for food. It just had no emotion about it.
00:37:34
NARRATOR: It soon became clear that Patrick Kearney pleaded guilty to protect his partner David Hill.
00:37:42
JOHN BREAULT: Patrick Wayne Kearney did not go to trial, because he made a deal that the DA's office would not
00:37:48
seek the death penalty if we did not go after his roommate on any of these charges.
00:37:56
Patrick pled guilty to 21 counts of first degree murder with youths. That also would merge with the three counts from Riverside.
00:38:05
They are all-- after he was sentenced-- merged by law, into one count of murder.
00:38:11
GEOFFREY WANSELL: We will never know for certain how many people Kearney killed.
00:38:16
What we can say, with some degree of certainty, is that there were probably more than 21 victims.
00:38:23
Chillingly, even the killer couldn't remember how many people he'd killed. NARRATOR: Kearney's admission of sole responsibility
00:38:32
for the death of 21 people, meant that his victims' families may never truly know what really
00:38:39
happened to their loved ones. GEOFFREY WANSELL: I would like to have seen Kearney
00:38:44
pilloried in court, not least for the benefit of the victims' families. They were airbrushed out of the story.
00:38:53
Yes, I know there were a lot of them. But many of them felt they had been denied,
00:39:00
cheated out of their day in court. As ever, Kearney was manipulative, deceitful,
00:39:09
and denied them their right. It was truly despicable. NARRATOR: But the fact that Kearney was behind bars,
00:39:17
was a sweet relief for Patricia, the mother of John LaMay. TERESA ROONEY: I remember her saying,
00:39:23
that the greatest comfort that she takes from John's death, is that John is the one that caught Patrick Kearney,
00:39:33
and that he could do it no more. And it seemed like that was what really gave her peace of mind and heart,
00:39:40
that she came to grips with that. That if it meant for no one else to be killed,
00:39:47
almost like a sacrifice, then so be it. NARRATOR: It had been a tough journey for the family members
00:39:54
of many of the other victims. LAURA MASTRO: When he was spoken of as one of the victims,
00:40:01
they would say, John LaMay and 20 others. And our brother was never really mentioned.
00:40:06
And we felt like he fell under the radar, and he mattered. Larry was sweet, and kind, and innocent.
00:40:14
And he fell victim to somebody that we consider evil. And we don't want to be here, but we
00:40:24
think it's important for everybody to know who these people were that we lost. So it's difficult, but it's important.
00:40:39
DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: I think having to rely on your loved ones killer for the narrative for the story of a murder,
00:40:46
is really devastating, because they have control over that narrative. The victim has been silenced, they can't
00:40:53
tell their side of the story. This is something I come across in a lot of cases,
00:40:57
where there's a nobody murder, you are completely reliant on the testimony of the serial killer.
00:41:03
And as we know they are wholly unreliable. NARRATOR: Patrick Kearney robbed the Walter's family
00:41:11
of a lifetime of memories. KAREN FRYER: My fondest memory-- Probably one of the last pictures I have with him,
00:41:21
is holding my daughter on Easter of the year he died, with her Easter basket. She was a year old.
00:41:29
And him just smiling. LAURA MASTRO: We want people to hear, Larry Gene Walters. And we want them to know he was important.
00:41:47
NARRATOR: Patrick Kearney is currently serving life at Mule Creek State Prison in California.
00:41:53
The killer confessed to 32 murders during his initial interrogation in July 1977.
00:42:01
So investigators are certain that he is guilty of more than just the 21 killings
00:42:07
he was convicted of. GEOFFREY WANSELL: If Kearney hadn't been caught, he would have gone on, and on, and on.
00:42:15
Serial killers never stop, they escalate. And Kearney was a perfect example of that.
00:42:25
JOHN BREAULT: I remember a lot of my cases, but obviously, this was the most number of dead bodies
00:42:33
that I ever handled. And that's probably the reason I remember it. DAN BACALSKI: His lack of emotion, his matter
00:42:42
of fact attitude, and kind of a shrug of the shoulder accepting it. To me, that's real evil.
00:42:53
I can still see him. If I think about him in my mind's eye, I can still picture him as he appeared then.
00:43:00
You won't forget something like that. NARRATOR: Kearney was a callous killer who terminated the life
00:43:09
of his innocent victims for nothing more than his own perverse sexual pleasure. We may never know how many young men he picked up and murdered.
00:43:19
But his cold hearted confession proves that he had no remorse for them whatsoever, which makes Patrick
00:43:26
Kearney, one of the world's most evil killers. [MUSIC PLAYS]