00:00:00
foreign [Music] [Applause] foreign welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:00:43
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who still cannot believe that the Mets traded
00:00:50
Daryl strawberry he is the Captain Save the neck for me Clark it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for
00:00:59
listening thanks for telling a friend [Music] this week I am more than excited to be
00:01:09
featuring luau by the green Geniuses down at Terrapin beer company in Athens Georgia this here Captain is a true
00:01:17
beauty we have passion fruit orange and guava all paired with big Hops and smooth bitterness garage grade four out
00:01:26
of five bottle caps and this week we are drinking cold beer thanks to our good friends right here first up a cheers to
00:01:33
Jordan and Fort Payne ouch Alabama and a big special shout out to DJ and Abby next up we have Shannon
00:01:41
in Huntsville Alabama and we also have Phil in benfleet Essex United Kingdom and a big we like your jib too Patrick D
00:01:50
in Los Angeles California and last but certainly not least we want to give a huge very big well I guess it's all the
00:01:59
same thing right a huge thank you to our friend Anthony quintessenza in Bronxville New York Anthony and I traded
00:02:07
phone calls and emails last summer and he helped us with the Holly Brannigan case and I'm very proud to say that
00:02:13
while that case still is unsolved there has been an uptick in stories covering Holly's case on the internet and we even
00:02:20
appeared on the news in Pennsylvania so a big big cheers and thank you to longtime friend of the show Anthony Q in
00:02:28
Bronxville and everybody we just mentioned went to True Crime garage.com and they donated to this week's beer
00:02:34
fund and for that we want to thank you yes so thankful for you guys joining us here in the garage also joining us on
00:02:41
True Crime garage.com sign up on the mailing list give us a five-star review and check out our store Page the items
00:02:49
are going fast so get one today and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab
00:02:57
a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] Columbus Georgia
00:03:45
in the latter part of 1977 series of terrifying crimes started to occur in the Winton District
00:03:54
this is a small very specific area for these types of extremely violent crimes to be occurring
00:04:03
the area itself was fairly upscale compared to some of the surrounding areas the sudden outburst and uptick in thefts
00:04:12
and violence was highly unusual because these crimes remain unsolved the community was on
00:04:19
high alert the crimes were break-ins robberies auto theft but also a very specific type of crime
00:04:30
sexual assaults and the rapes and murders of six elderly women the six murder victims ranged from 60
00:04:42
years of age to 89. and the sexual assaults when the victims were lucky enough to survive the attacks
00:04:50
fit the same victimology these attacks and murders were occurring in such close proximity to one another
00:04:58
and with such rapid succession the Columbus PD believed that the thief the rapist and the killer were one and the
00:05:08
same it was as if something very evil moved into this area bringing death to town
00:05:18
the attacks which mostly took place in the middle of the night shared so many common elements
00:05:25
almost all of the victims were strangled to death with their stockings first a brutal attack with strikes to
00:05:32
the head and or chest and then the application of a stalking pulled from the victim's drawer and
00:05:40
wrapped two or three times around the neck twisted and pulled Tighter and Tighter
00:05:47
until the life left their eyes the murdered victims were all single elderly Caucasian women
00:05:55
forensic evidence collected at some of the murder scenes told the police the killer they sought was an
00:06:01
African-American male due to the manner of the strangulations the perpetrator was dubbed the stocking
00:06:10
Strangler the police were having no luck finding this killer of women despite an increase in Manpower and man
00:06:21
hours despite the heightened awareness and the additional patrolling and the surveillance of Winton
00:06:29
and good old-fashioned detective work just was not working this serial offender truly was a phantom
00:06:37
in the night the investigation yielded only obstacles and dead ends but then in 1978
00:06:46
a possible major break in the case the police chief received a letter from the chairman of an organization
00:06:55
comprised of seven white radical vigilantes this letter was a handwritten formal introduction
00:07:04
to a group that called themselves the forces of evil [Music] foreign 1977 a nude and lifeless body was
00:07:37
discovered near the women's Barracks at Fort Benning this is near Columbus Georgia later the victim was discovered
00:07:45
to be 24 year old army private Karen Hickman the victim had been beaten with a blunt object and then run over several
00:07:53
times with an automobile evidence that the scene told investigators that this woman was killed
00:07:59
elsewhere and then her body was transported and left at this location about a month later an anonymous call
00:08:07
LED authorities to her missing clothes police worked the case and had some leads early on however nothing was
00:08:15
panning out this murder at the time was considered to be a one-off unfortunately
00:08:20
just 10 days later the stalking Strangler claimed his first victim and very quickly the authorities found
00:08:28
themselves neck deep in a whole other set of homicide investigations I do want to take a quick moment here to
00:08:36
address the attack on this poor woman most reports state that she was beaten and then run over several times and she
00:08:44
was killed elsewhere and I know there are many great TCG Army armchair detectives out there thinking of the
00:08:52
obvious reasons that investigators would come to these conclusions but I want to
00:08:56
include my own Theory here plus a little more insight into the victim's injuries
00:09:01
and what was likely not found at the body dump site there is one rather gruesome report out
00:09:09
there that says that the victim was not necessarily run over I mean I guess she was technically but a
00:09:16
report suggests that that might not be the full intent of the Killer this report states that the evidence
00:09:23
showed that the victim was attacked this is the beating part she was knocked unconscious and then
00:09:31
propped up like in a sitting position against a tree and then the killer drove the car into her wedging her between the
00:09:41
vehicle and the tree my guess here is that this report is probably correct a portion of the body
00:09:49
may have been run over when the vehicle was then pulling away from the tree but I am guessing due to this type of
00:09:57
specific injury and likely the lack of what should have been a lot of blood at the scene the investigators were able to
00:10:04
very quickly discern that the victim had in fact been killed elsewhere and then moved and dumped in this location
00:10:13
I'm curious though was there evidence at the location of the missing close that determined that she may have been killed
00:10:21
at that location on Friday March 3rd 1978 Columbus Police Chief Curtis McClung received a letter
00:10:32
the letter read in part dear sir we are an organization composed of seven members
00:10:38
I'm writing this letter to inform you that we have one of your Columbus women captive her name is Gail Jackson
00:10:47
since the coroner said that the Strangler is black we decided to come here and try to catch
00:10:54
him or put more pressure on you I see now more pressure is needed at this point Gail Jackson is still living
00:11:05
if that Strangler is not caught by 1 June 1978 you find Gail Jackson's body on Winnington Road
00:11:14
if he is still not caught on one September 1978 the victims will double you have until Sunday for reply
00:11:24
don't think we are bluffing we are called the forces of evil the letter was written on stationary embolized with the
00:11:32
Great Seal of the United States and the paper had United States Army printed in one corner the handwritten letter
00:11:40
claimed to be from a group of seven people calling themselves the forces of evil as you can see this letter was in
00:11:48
direct response to the information released regarding the stalking Strangler of Columbus in the Winton
00:11:55
District more specifically right police announced that these stalking murders were committed by an African-American
00:12:01
offender in this group the forces of evil has spelled out their plans for retaliation in this letter and sent it
00:12:09
to police the group claimed to be made up of seven white men from Chicago as the Atlantic Constitution put it the
00:12:17
writer coyly suggested to authorities that anyone could come across such stationary and not to assume that he was
00:12:24
a serviceman surprisingly enough or maybe not the writer supplied a return address however it was quickly
00:12:32
determined that this address was a fake again this makes not much sense here right we have crimes
00:12:40
happening and now we have this group of Vigilantes that are going to come in and
00:12:45
they're going to commit other crimes until the police solve that crime of the Strangler yeah but this gives you a
00:12:54
little bit of a sense of what was going on in Georgia back in the late 70s remember when we watched mind hunter in
00:13:01
leading up to the Atlanta murder cases they talked about the the racial divide at the time in that area right and then
00:13:09
on top of that they were a little bit worried to there was a lot of Rumblings behind the scenes on whether to say that
00:13:15
they believed that the offender was white or black in the Atlanta case because they were worried what effect
00:13:21
that would have on the General Public and this case is really just Echoes all those fears that everybody had right and
00:13:30
this this is previous we know we have the coroner who says hey there's evidence we found evidence that a couple
00:13:35
murder scenes of the stalking Strangler and we believe our offender here is an African-American male
00:13:42
this letter claims to be seven white guys that are obviously full of hate and ignorance and they are going to
00:13:50
retaliate by killing African-American women while this other killer the stalking Strangler is killing Caucasian
00:13:58
women yeah and what's their group called again it's a forces of douchebags so the
00:14:03
letter writer claims to be the chairman of the forces of evil so while this letter provided a good
00:14:10
deal of information it did not provide any assistance toward the ongoing stalking Strangler investigation this
00:14:18
stocking Strangler investigation we're not going to get too much into it because it's a completely different
00:14:22
story just keep in mind this was a huge investigation this was a huge undertaking for the police department
00:14:30
right a second letter was received a little more than a week later this letter too
00:14:37
contained a fake return address this letter was a little different though it was the same in the sense that this
00:14:44
letter too would be from the forces of evil and again stated that a woman would be killed if police do not catch the
00:14:51
stalking Strangler but this time the letter included a ransom proposal ten thousand dollars in return for the
00:15:00
victim's safety this whole Gail Jackson the the named victim in the letter this whole Gail
00:15:07
Jackson thing is all sorts of bad right so first we have a rapist killer of single old ladies the stocking Strangler
00:15:16
who was terrorizing Columbus Georgia and now not connected if you believe the writer of these letters right not
00:15:23
connected to the Strangler we have a whole another series of murders that are going to
00:15:29
occur based off of these threats that are in the letters so we have what we refer to here in the garage is a double
00:15:36
whammy situation whammy whammy well no and then on top of that you have one Strangler but you have these seven
00:15:43
forces of evil guys from Chicago and as former FBI criminal profiler and I will say this
00:15:51
until my dying day friend of the show John Douglas put it this development represented everyone's worst nightmare a
00:16:01
brutal killer stalking Columbus was horrible enough and organized and murderous vigilante reaction to it could
00:16:08
tear the community apart it's not that far of a stretch to think that possibly this forces of evil is somehow connected
00:16:15
with the KKK or white supremacy and so I think what law enforcement is scared of
00:16:21
is not only do we have the Strangler but now we have these white Vigilantes killing black women is this going to
00:16:28
create some kind of race riot now one big problem right from the start with this investigation they did not have a
00:16:35
missing person matching that of Gail Jackson as stated in the letter however what we do have is a woman named Brenda
00:16:43
Gail Faison who seems to have disappeared the car she was driving was discovered
00:16:50
on March 5th 1978 at the Sand Hill Bar and Grill in Columbus Georgia she was last seen on February 27th of
00:17:00
that same year just six days before her abandoned car was found her car was found abandoned probably
00:17:07
this probably did not raise a whole lot of red flags and soon it would be learned that Brenda Gail Faison went by
00:17:15
several names one being Gail Jackson so now we have our link to the threat in the letter
00:17:23
about a week or so later another letter was received repeating much of what was stated in the first letter however this
00:17:30
time they stated that a woman named Irene no last name given had been abducted as well and would be executed a
00:17:38
letter received on March 27 1978 stated that one of Mrs Jackson's arms would be broken and that there would be a sharp
00:17:48
blow to her head that caused death the author indicated that the authorities would receive a telephone call to detail
00:17:56
the location of the body meanwhile the FBI is going to get involved in this case keep in mind by this point they
00:18:04
have already been involved in the stalking Strangler investigation as said in the trailer the general plan
00:18:12
of attack in the stalking case is simple and makes a whole heck of a lot of sense
00:18:17
the break-ins rapes and murders are happening in such a confined stretch of land that if they increase Manpower and
00:18:26
increase hours you increase the police presence in that immediate area since the offender just
00:18:34
keeps returning right to that same spot the idea being that you catch him in the
00:18:40
act you catch him red-handed at some point once apprehended you can hold him for the breaking and entering charge for
00:18:47
which he was arrested and then from there any of the forensic material you have collected from the previous sexual
00:18:55
assaults and murders you can compare that to your guy and then charge him accordingly well this is actually very
00:19:02
similar to what they did with the Atlanta child murders where they go hey we know that the
00:19:08
perpetrator is returning to to the scene or using and Elena Child Murders using these Bridges to dump the body so less
00:19:18
stake out and we'll catch them in the ACT yeah let's be there so given the strategy by this point in
00:19:24
the investigation the FBI would still be offering up resources but pretty much reduced to more of a hands-off role in
00:19:32
the stocking Strangler case however they will be getting involved in the forces of evil case the hunt for the chairman
00:19:39
and his six disciples right yeah so Robert K Ressler was in town and he was having dinner with a friend who is
00:19:49
the deputy director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation gbi for short this is Tom McGreevy
00:19:59
side note El Capitan uh McGreevy passed away in 2012. if you need some inspiration anyone out
00:20:08
there look him up that's Thomas McGreevy McGreevy spelled m-c-g-r-e-e-v-y uh as Ted Theodore Logan would say he is
00:20:21
a most impressive dude wrestler says McGreevy asked him to review the letters that were sent along with some voice
00:20:29
recordings for some of the phone calls so some phone calls went to the MPS desk the military police desk at Fort Benning
00:20:38
Fort Benning is a United States Army Post straddling the Alabama Georgia border next to Columbus Georgia
00:20:47
Fort Banning supports more than a hundred and twenty thousand active duty military family members Reserve
00:20:54
component soldiers retirees and civilian employees on the Reg wrestler agreed to help now this all
00:21:03
came about because of another great man Judson Ray Judd Ray was a shift Commander for the Columbus Police
00:21:12
Department he suggested to the Columbus Police Chief that we should get the gbi involved
00:21:21
the chief prior to this was reluctant to do so after Judd convinces the chief gbi
00:21:27
gets involved and then through the McGreevy wrestler connection the FBI's Elite serial crimes unit gets involved
00:21:34
another side note El Capitan Judson Ray would go on to become FBI and working at
00:21:42
the Atlanta field office and eventually at Quantico while in Atlanta he worked the Atlanta child killer case with
00:21:50
Douglas Judson Ray is in my opinion the inspiration or real life version of the character Jim Barney mine hunter Series
00:22:00
2 played by Albert Jones right so wrestler and Douglas get to work on this case analyzing the communications
00:22:08
from the forces of evil wrestler the senior agent has the lead on this investigation
00:22:16
also you have to wonder if in some cases with this team if someone may take the lead just based
00:22:22
off of their personal life experiences or how they may have how they may be able to apply to a particular case or
00:22:31
the profile of the offender and some people don't like to take the lead in cases and just sit back and give their
00:22:37
opinions is a very good possibility here in this case this is an example of such
00:22:43
wrestler was former military he was a military police at one time so this might give him a little more insight
00:22:52
into this case or the offender knowing that Fort Benning is right there that's where one of the bodies has been found
00:22:58
we have calls going to the military police desk so given his background wrestler might
00:23:04
just be the right fit to be the lead on this case the first letter received contained the
00:23:11
Seal of the United States and had the U.S army printed in one corner the writer says anyone could have stolen the
00:23:18
station area but right from Jump Street wrestler and Douglas notice the choice of words in the communications
00:23:25
specifically noting the 1 June 1978 and one September 1978. this is more military lingo as most of
00:23:36
us would just say June 1st or September 1st next we have a phone call this call is going to tell police where
00:23:46
to find the body of one of the captives of the forces of evil as the police have
00:23:51
failed by this time to apprehend the Strangler or to pay the ransom on March 30th the Fort Benning military
00:24:00
police telephone operators received a call from a man identifying himself as the chairman of the forces of evil
00:24:08
the chairman described where Jackson's body was located 100 meters from Fort Benning this led MPS to the discovery of
00:24:17
a shallow grave the body was in fact found there that same day Jackson's entire face in the front
00:24:24
portion of her skull were smashed portions of her jaw bone teeth and Bone fragments were discovered at the scene
00:24:31
her left elbow was completely dislocated according to the medical examiner the cause of death was multiple blows to the
00:24:40
Head inflicted by a heavy metal object likely A Tire Tool or Jack handle simply put she died by way of savage beating
00:24:51
[Music] foreign [Music] you filthy animals cheers and safe travels on this holiday weekend today
00:25:20
it's like a Hawaiian party here in the garage with our luau beer so yes everybody out there have a great and
00:25:27
very happy and safe and wonderful Thanksgiving make sure you spend it with the ones you
00:25:33
care about the absolute most let's go through the basics of this offender profile or their theories and thoughts
00:25:41
as they analyze some of the stuff we need to keep in mind Robert Ressler and John Douglas of the
00:25:48
FBI's Behavioral Science unit it's had so many different names throughout the years I always stumble when it comes to
00:25:55
saying what unit they're in um at the time when they're analyzing the first series of letters there is no
00:26:04
victim yet they've not found anybody they've not found any bodies this is one of those rare situations where we have
00:26:11
communication from a soon-to-be offender or someone who has offended but based off of the information in the letters is
00:26:21
only threatening to kill and they don't actually have a body yet so some of that
00:26:25
stuff that they were able to deduce from those Communications rather interesting here and
00:26:33
again let's get into this a little more into this offender profile here so when the chairman described the location of
00:26:39
the body Now by this point we have a phone call that describes the location of where they're going to find the first
00:26:46
body he referenced meters to supply the appropriate distance multiple times the chairman referenced
00:26:55
Vehicles so what the FBI is working with here Captain is the choice of words the the
00:27:01
choosing of using the words meter as opposed to feet or yards right again this is military lingo writing one June
00:27:09
and one September instead of June 1st or September 1st the use of the word vehicle or Vehicles rather than
00:27:16
automobile car or truck wrestler and Douglas both thought this to be more military than citizen speak
00:27:26
wrestler concluded the following first he says there was no Group of Seven white racist radicals from Chicago
00:27:33
seeking retaliation for the stalking murders he felt that the sole purpose of the
00:27:40
letters and the creation of the forces of evil was to steer law enforcement in a completely opposite direction from the
00:27:49
actual killer because there was some connection between the Killer and the victim or
00:27:56
soon to be victims Jackson was killed before any of the communications this is wrestler's belief
00:28:03
she was not abducted and then held in wait for the police to catch the Strangler right she was already dead and
00:28:10
the killer came up with this whole thing post-murder simply to cover up the crimes
00:28:17
they believe that both Gail Jackson and Irene were already dead there was no opportunity to save either one of them
00:28:25
no matter what the letters said the opposite of seven white guys wrestler believed would be a single
00:28:33
black male operating alone and even though he is referencing the stalking Strangler
00:28:40
wrestler believed that the Strangler and the forces of evil were two completely different Killers operating
00:28:46
independently of one another his profile goes on to say that the offender is an enlisted man at Fort
00:28:54
Benning he would be between 25 to 30 years of age the Killer is possibly military police or an artillery man with
00:29:04
a rank no more than a E6 rank we are looking for a man with a modest education and a middle rank
00:29:13
the coroner also concluded that the body of Gail Jackson as the caller put it was
00:29:19
in fact Brenda Gail Faison and she was killed about five weeks prior to when they found her so wrestler
00:29:26
was right she was killed before any of the forces of Evil's letters started to arrive yeah before any of the
00:29:34
communication happened April 4th another call LED military police to an almost nude headless body
00:29:43
this was found behind a pile of logs at a firing Range located on the Fort Benning property
00:29:50
this woman too was beaten to death this is just this is just downright horrible but she was she was not decapitated in
00:29:59
the usual sense she was beaten in the face in the head so badly that the head came off
00:30:06
and a lot of brain tissue was exposed skull fragments were found in the area and there was evidence that the body was
00:30:16
dragged from the nearby access road and then concealed behind this pile of logs this turns out to be the body of Irene
00:30:25
thurkeield the the Irene named in the letters and in the calls right but we had no last
00:30:33
name provided in those Communications on Monday April 3rd 1978 the body of Irene third killed age 32 was found near
00:30:42
a remote Fort Benning rifle range authorities quickly learned that Irene was last seen at a local bar on March
00:30:50
13th in the company of an African-American Soldier Columbus ped and the Fort Benning CID
00:30:58
put out all known and suspected information when making their rounds questioning and looking for a possible
00:31:06
lead in this case the profile directly led to several eyewitnesses saying on separate
00:31:14
occasions and in one victim's case more than one location eyewitnesses placed Gail Jackson and Irene with a soldier
00:31:23
and because he frequented two of the local bars as did the two ladies these Witnesses could provide a name
00:31:31
the victims were seen either in the company of or leaving the bar with William Henry Hance
00:31:37
joined the Marines after graduating high school in 1971. then he joined the army in February of
00:31:45
76. he was assigned to Fort Benning in April of 76. before that he was stationed in
00:31:52
Indiana and Hance was recently divorced his former wife Wanda says she divorced him
00:31:59
in 1977 because he beat her at this time Hans is 26 years old and a specialist grade 4 with the 197th
00:32:09
infantry Brigade and one nice thing for law enforcement when your suspect lives at a U.S Army
00:32:18
Post they're generally pretty easy to find yeah right so think about this Captain this is all happening very
00:32:25
quickly we have the threat of there being murder victims then eventually a call comes in that leads military police
00:32:33
to the actual victims right and from that profile and from some of the information learned about the victims
00:32:41
we're able to very easily get a really big lead in this case because what that profile provides the
00:32:50
investigators when they go out and they start questioning people that may or may
00:32:54
not have seen something they're saying we have reason to believe that the suspect is 26 to 30 years old
00:33:01
and is a soldier that really jogs a lot of memories especially when you're talking about
00:33:07
somebody who's disappeared five weeks before right so this is going to lead them to this 26
00:33:13
year old William Henry Hance so police round up Mr Hance and they bring him in for questioning during this
00:33:25
time the FBI is Consulting with uh psycho-linguistics FBI consultant Dr Murray Myron now I know this is going to
00:33:33
sound strange but I can guarantee that this is not going to be the last time you hear the name of Dr Murray Myron on
00:33:41
the show so anyways the doctor Compares hance's voice with the recorded calls to
00:33:49
the military police desk and states he believes it's a match one of the witnesses told agent Richard
00:33:57
Fox of the United States Army Central Intelligence Division CID that Hance was the soldier seen with Irene and stated
00:34:06
that the two left Vice Mitchell's Tavern together tape recordings of the phone calls to
00:34:13
the Fort Benning police which indicated where the bodies could be found were taken by CID agent besser
00:34:20
to hans's company Commander and First Sergeant who they play these tapes and he goes yeah that's a match I think
00:34:28
that's hans's voice on those tapes so that's two of them yeah then agents Besson and fox told the commanding
00:34:35
officer that they wanted to interview hands Hance agreed to be taken to CID headquarters where he was advised of his
00:34:43
rights and informed that the interview concerned the murder of Irene thurkeield with whom he was the last person seen
00:34:53
Hance was advised of his fifth and sixth amendment rights and he signed a written
00:34:58
waiver waving those rights the interview was conducted from about 1pm until 10 20 P.M
00:35:07
Hance was then interviewed by the FBI and the Columbus Police for another hour during the interviews Hans admitted
00:35:14
writing the letters and making the telephone calls for the forces of evil but he says he was forced to do so by
00:35:23
the organization yeah the racist guys sounds about right yeah the next morning he was interviewed again and again Hance
00:35:33
was advised of his rights which he again waved it was in this interview when faced with all of the evidence you know
00:35:40
by this time they have had some time to collect more evidence make some comparisons and then present all of that
00:35:48
evidence to hands this is the handwriting comparisons voice recordings and they also found
00:35:55
footprints found at the dump sites he he when looking at all this evidence goes all right
00:36:03
I did it he confesses providing a signed written statement concerning each murder
00:36:09
now two days of interviews is stressful and maybe a bit over the top but CID and
00:36:18
the Columbus PD state that throughout the two days of interrogation and those are their words they chose to use the
00:36:24
word interrogation Hance was given restroom breaks food breaks coffee cigarettes and at no time did he request
00:36:31
a lawyer or at no time did he ask that the interview be terminated okay right now how much is the military involved
00:36:40
and these interrogations for the most part I believe they they were the lead on this because Irene thirkield's body
00:36:48
was found on their property so it is a military matter one I would think that the rules
00:36:56
yeah don't don't apply as much to them yeah I don't know but we have his his written statement of waiving those
00:37:04
rights so we know he's he's made aware of his rights and he was told of his rights and he chose to just go along
00:37:12
with the interview or interrogation however you choose to see it I went into that on purpose because there are some
00:37:19
people that believe that Hance was treated unfairly I can see I can see that argument yeah yes this thing called
00:37:26
waterboarding I don't know if you've heard of it but technically it would have been allowed during this time I
00:37:33
mean I'm not saying that there's any evidence of them doing that to him it would appear none of the tactic like
00:37:40
that was not used I mean their words are we gave them restroom breaks food breaks
00:37:44
coffee cigarettes he was he could have he could have asked for a lawyer he didn't want plenty of water yeah they
00:37:50
weren't they weren't torturing this guy right I think where people call this into question is the length of time that
00:37:57
he is being I don't I don't know if I even want to use the word held because it sounds to
00:38:04
me like he had every right to just walk out of there if he chose to do so well this is also where he lives I mean
00:38:12
they're questioning him on the base which he lives right yeah and in his confession hence he's going to give some
00:38:19
detailed information regarding these murders he stated that Jackson propositioned him at the Sandhill Bar
00:38:27
and Grill he said the two left and got in his vehicle they only drove a short distance and pulled over wait so he's
00:38:34
claiming that she's a sex worker correct okay she began to disrobe enhance said he flipped out he started yelling and
00:38:43
screaming at her and he grabbed her he said when she attempted to escape he struck her with a karate chop across the
00:38:51
head she fell across the door bleeding Hansen pulled her out of the car dislocating
00:38:58
her elbow in the process he returned to his car he got a jack handle from his car returning to her he
00:39:07
finds Jackson still breathing right this he says surprised him so he repeatedly struck the helpless victim in
00:39:15
the face with this Jack handle the beating was so severe that Gail's entire face was destroyed and Bone fragments
00:39:22
were scattered about the area this guy is beyond vicious some of her brain tissue was literally beaten from the
00:39:29
skull the force of the attack was so great It produced a depression in the ground
00:39:36
behind Gail's head Hance then buried Gail's body in a shallow grave he dug the grave with an
00:39:43
entrenching tool so anybody that knows military you know the little like uh I'm guessing that's one of those
00:39:49
the folding shovels that they put on in the backpacks Hance also admitted to killing Irene
00:39:56
thur killed but alleged that he had lost all sense of control and that his mind flipped he accepted
00:40:04
responsibility for the murder stating that he had begged God's forgiveness okay now in a very big surprise to
00:40:12
investigators Hance also admitted to the murder of 24 year old army private Karen Hickman
00:40:19
remember we mentioned her at the top of the show right her body was found September 6 1977.
00:40:26
they had some leads in that but it was considered to be a one-off at the time and then when the stocking Strangler
00:40:32
case took off they were all wrapped up in that and her unfortunately her murder in that investigation kind of got
00:40:40
lost in the shuffle so as I believe that that one happened first and then it seems like then he can control him
00:40:50
flipping out he can control himself flipping out um right and if you want my humble
00:40:58
garage opinion here I think that this probably all stemmed with it may have started from his divorce we
00:41:04
talk many times about uh the behavior of offenders before and after a series of murders and one thing that they always
00:41:12
point to is that there would be some kind of stressor something happened in this individual's life that they took it
00:41:19
something went from being a fantasy to being a reality they acted upon their their true thoughts and feelings right
00:41:27
and this could be someone who hated women who just hated women and he used to beat his wife
00:41:33
we have a divorce and now these murders start he's beating these women to death right and well look if his wife didn't
00:41:40
leave him she was going to be his first victim yeah so in a sense this isn't so much we talk so much about these type of
00:41:47
Serial offenders they're most always sexual nature this is just pure brutality yeah I mean like this is just
00:41:55
this is looking at someone and destroying them and physically destroying them well like you said I
00:42:01
mean he's pulling her arm out of the car and dislocating it in the process I mean
00:42:06
this is these attacks are vicious and you should have gave us a warning because I'm going
00:42:12
to be thinking about this when I asked mom can you pass the gravy well according to the newspapers for the
00:42:20
arrest as far as the papers are concerned gbi agent Bruce Pickett and Columbus detective James Jones were
00:42:27
credited with the legwork which led to the apprehension of William Henry Hance okay but question maybe you
00:42:36
know this maybe you don't did they get to the bottom of why he came up with this
00:42:41
ruse or tried to come up with this ruse to to cover up his crimes as dumb as it's
00:42:48
going to sound he thought it would work so it was exactly they're not going to get this straight up from him but he
00:42:59
does say that he made up the forces of evil eventually and he wrote the letters and I think what we can do here is truly
00:43:06
believe what Robert wrestler thought in his theory his theory was there's a connection between this killer
00:43:15
and the victims the Killer is afraid that somebody's going to make that connection he's going to be apprehended
00:43:21
right so to kind of cut that off at the pass I'm going to create this whole ruse
00:43:27
of the forces of evil or killing African-American women and it's going to be something so totally the opposite of
00:43:34
me is the forces of evil will be seven white supremacists right from Chicago from Chicago
00:43:41
I wonder what he had against Chicago [Laughter] that's a really good question why would
00:43:47
you just pick randomly Chicago so exactly that he he thought it would work he thought that it would put them off of
00:43:54
his Trail here's the crazy thing though it's uh sorry been pretty crazy yes why why does that phrase even come up
00:44:01
everything's been crazy yeah I'm not gonna be able to get out of my head that about the decapitation in a way
00:44:10
he injected himself into the investigation Hance wasn't somebody that they were considering for any of these
00:44:17
murders hell at the time they didn't they weren't even aware that there were murders that there were victims until he
00:44:24
starts writing letters he injects himself and is through this profile through the the profilers that they come
00:44:32
up with this dude so they link him to this in a way you have to wonder had he never started writing those letters
00:44:39
would they have ever caught up to him right well in the first murder they believe is a one-off right
00:44:45
but that was somebody that it's thought that they may have dated at one point or
00:44:51
had some type of makes sense some kind of relation some kind of friendship I don't want to use the word relationship
00:44:57
because people's minds wonder when you say that I they they were acquaintances or had hung out on occasions something
00:45:03
like that is what is believed right but the next two they believe were sex workers these would have also been
00:45:10
regulars at bars where he was a regular so yes they according to him and according to some of the other people
00:45:17
eyewitnesses and such they were sex workers but my point being is that the first
00:45:24
crime most people thought this is a one-off we don't have many leads now we're not really looking into it because
00:45:30
we have this serial murderer and serial rapist on the loose attacking older women that's right and now so we're not
00:45:40
focused on that first case and and without drawing attention to it I how many times have we seen when there's
00:45:48
rumors that somebody is a sex worker that their their crime just does not get uh the attention and doesn't and doesn't
00:45:57
get the effort put in to solving the case as as somebody else's case would well and when people live a high risk
00:46:06
lifestyle or what can be viewed as a high-risk lifestyle it makes it difficult to hone in on a particular
00:46:15
suspect right because because the suspect pool could be so much larger one look if you're spending a lot of time at
00:46:23
a local bar whether you're a sex worker or not you're coming in contact with a lot of people throughout your week
00:46:30
you know I mean like if I if I come up missing the suspect's pull is really small
00:46:37
but if you're going to a bar that has a decent amount of regulars now it's a lot
00:46:44
harder to investigate but like I said when there's rumors that these women are sex workers their cases are just not
00:46:51
taken as serious and so if he would have never brought attention to these cases look
00:46:58
these investigators are on high alert and there is a small possibility even though their profile is sane
00:47:05
that this this is this guy is different this killer is different than the the Strangler but there's a possibility that
00:47:12
they're connected there's a small slim chance so when he's given us these leads saying hey we got there's this body and
00:47:20
you're gonna find it they they took those cases way more serious because of the letters the
00:47:28
letter shot himself in the foot it was the letters that made it possible for them to identify the suspect right so if
00:47:35
I'm at a bar and I'm interviewing people that are regulars and say hey did you know Gail Jackson
00:47:43
uh describe her and then say she's been missing we found her dead but she's been
00:47:48
missing for five weeks or so you might get you might not get any answers but when you have this profile
00:47:55
and you say oh you didn't see Gail Jackson with a a 26 to 30 year old Soldier you know it's a different line of
00:48:05
questioning and it's a different response that it's going to conjure up I laugh kind of because the effort is made
00:48:14
to cover up his Crimes by creating this forces of evil and I kind of believe he may not have been apprehended or at
00:48:21
least not identified so quickly had he not wrote the letters right but to top all of that off man
00:48:27
he was on orders to be assigned to Korea this guy's a military man he was going to be sent to Korea in September of
00:48:36
1978. so not only would he may not have been become a suspect so quickly he had a he had a
00:48:44
plan there was a way for him to be out of the area shipped far far away right and look chances are law enforcement and
00:48:53
Military get along pretty well law enforcement could have said okay well we we have reason to believe that this is
00:49:00
our suspect military reaches out questions him at the Korean base he says I don't know what you're talking about
00:49:08
they relay that to the police and now he's off the suspect list never caught I think I think had he been shipped out in
00:49:15
September I don't think they would ever linked it to him if he would have never wrote
00:49:19
those letters but here is this monster that smashes oh he would have somebody he would have resumed killing as soon as
00:49:26
he came back right right but here's what's interesting to me here here's this guy that well I mean just [ __ ]
00:49:33
okay yank somebody's arm so hard that it dislocates it you can't stop beating these individuals to
00:49:42
the point like you said it's not a decapitation it's just a it's a smash call but still
00:49:50
has something inside him saying this is wrong there's something inside him that he
00:49:58
says he begged God for forgiveness so let's go into that and we're kind of skipping ahead here but I think this is
00:50:05
appropriate because this is kind of where it's leading anyway there are a lot of people you know last
00:50:11
week we discussed a very controversial case that that the result was death sentence and the appearance now is the
00:50:20
an innocent man may have been killed not a good man a horrible man but one that may have been innocent for the crimes
00:50:27
that he was specifically executed for yeah real [ __ ] princess so here is another death penalty case that is it's
00:50:37
not without controversy there are people that believe that the way that Hance was
00:50:42
treated is completely unfair there are many out there that say he was mentally ill and mentally incompetent to stand
00:50:51
trial or at least be executed for the charges right here here's a couple problems I have with those thoughts and
00:51:00
those feelings first off let me just get this out of the way the death penalty is
00:51:03
always a touchy subject for anybody regardless of what side of the fence you are on I am firmly straddled right in
00:51:10
the middle but the the issue here is mentally ill and mentally incompetent to the point that he didn't know what he
00:51:21
was doing was wrong he says his own words I begged God for forgiveness also the thing about being
00:51:29
incompetent I've never believed that when we have clear-cut evidence that somebody did something wrong and then
00:51:36
they went out of their way to try to cover it up right he obviously knew it was wrong if he's trying to cover it up
00:51:43
and he went to Such Great Lengths and efforts to do so it was just a bad dumb idea yeah didn't
00:51:50
work out there was also some talk of his IQ there was some statement there are statements
00:51:57
out there that his IQ was 70 and then he was tested again at a later time and the
00:52:01
number was 91. so I either he got much smarter uh at some point or the the first test
00:52:11
one of the tests has to be wrong they both can't be right yeah he got more smartest more smartest yeah yeah so it's
00:52:19
not without controversy but the problem the problem that I want to keep going back to on hans's case is
00:52:27
he killed three people that has never been in question that has never been part of the question of was he
00:52:33
wrongfully executed he absolutely killed these three people we know that to be fat and if not more he is suspected of
00:52:41
killing somebody in Indiana and this may have happened before this would have had
00:52:46
to have happened before he was uh shipped down to Fort Benning we're talking about an incredibly dangerous
00:52:52
man he's beating people to death yeah the the tricky thing here uh in in response to the people that have bad
00:52:59
feelings about his execution or if he was treated fairly I I can see and empathize with some of those
00:53:08
arguments and some points of those arguments but I think they got this one right meaning that
00:53:14
he was guilty he was found guilty of these three murders other people sentenced him to be executed and They
00:53:20
carried out that that penalty okay I'm not clear on something it's he sentenced well okay by the state of uh Georgia or
00:53:29
is he is this military uh well good to call that into question I was going to kind of Breeze through that and and
00:53:37
gloss over it but where his case gets a little more complicated is for two of the murders he was charged in military
00:53:45
Court court-martialed or whatever they call that right one of the murders he was
00:53:51
charged in our normal Court our civilian Court did he work for Colonel Jessup I I don't know
00:54:03
um I don't know what that means I'm sorry as a Few Good Men reference Colonel Jessop oh I actually watched
00:54:09
that a week ago yeah you should have got the reference then the thing here though
00:54:14
is Captain he was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor in the military courts and he was sentenced to
00:54:22
execution in Georgia so a bit of a conflict there um it's just really truly in the sense
00:54:30
that two of the bodies were found on the Fort Benning property so it is their jurisdiction one of them being one of
00:54:37
the victims being an army private herself right but yeah that that's how that whole thing went down now he did
00:54:44
receive a ton of appeals one of the appeals I believe went all the way to the Supreme Court in Georgia at no time
00:54:51
was any of this overturned I think he may have I think something may have got commuted to a life sentence at some
00:54:57
point but basically I mean are they just arguing mental illness because look listen if you are beating somebody to
00:55:06
death there is something wrong with you mentally and but that should not change the
00:55:13
punishment I don't know that that would fall under the classification of true mental illness in the sense that he is
00:55:19
not to be held accountable for his actions or his crimes right so William Henry Hance was convicted by a jury in
00:55:28
the superior court of Muskogee County Georgia he was convicted of the murder of Brenda
00:55:34
Gail Faison AKA Gail Jackson and also convicted of attempt attempted theft by extortion because remember he asked for
00:55:45
a ransom during the guilt phase of the trial the prosecutor lived up to his promise to portray the crime and Vivid
00:55:52
detail after presenting numerous photographs of Gail Jackson's mutilated and largely decomposed body the
00:56:00
prosecutor introduced fragments of her corpse during closing arguments he reminded the jury that near the place of
00:56:09
the murder were found pieces of Jawbone with the teeth attached fragments of human skull no larger than a dime
00:56:16
individual teeth and he said you'll have that with you to take out an Evidence the jury sentenced him to death for the
00:56:24
murder under Georgia Code section 2725 34.1 and he was sentenced to five years imprisonment for the attempted extortion
00:56:35
right April 3rd 1994. you mean three April three three April 1994 William Henry Hance was
00:56:45
electrocuted in Jackson Georgia a few minutes after 10 pm just minutes before they
00:56:52
flipped the switch Hance maintained his innocence and a seven minute statement he said in part why are you executing an
00:57:02
innocent man he asked why why why the stocking Strangler would eventually be caught and apprehended for the
00:57:10
murders but that is another story [Music] you know what I'm thankful for Captain
00:57:22
for me that's right I am thankful that everybody got together and joined us in the garage this week and I'm hopeful
00:57:30
that everybody comes back and joins us again next week yeah gobble gobble ghee you filthy animals I'm thankful for you
00:57:38
be kind to one another until next week be good be kind and don't litter [Music] thank you
00:58:07
[Music]