00:00:00
On Mind of a Monster, The Hollywood Ripper, uncover the life and crimes of serial killer Michael Gargiulo, who
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available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com. >> [music] [music]
00:01:33
[music] >> Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks
00:01:39
for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and with me as always, a man who eats green eggs and ham on St. Patrick's Day. Here
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he is, the [music] Captain. I will eat them in a box, I will eat them with the fox.
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It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.
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Today, we still got some Guinness. We are drinking Guinness Draught. This is like the world's very first craft beer
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and so darn good. I could tell you about it, but you should experience Guinness for yourself. Pro tip, get it from a tap
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or pour it in a glass. That's a bottle upside down, glass straight up pour. Garage grade five out of five bottle
00:02:31
caps. And let's give some thanks and praise to our good garage friends that helped us fill up the old garage fridge.
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First up, a cheers to Lee in Leicester, England. And here's a cheers to Linda G from San Bruno, California. And last,
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but certainly not least, a big cheers to Pam Brown, a true fighter down in York,
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we thank you. >> Yeah, b w e double [music] r u n, beer run. If you need more True Crime Garage
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gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer, let's talk some true crime. >> [music]
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[music] [music] >> Police want to talk to all the auto shop employees. They're in the process of
00:03:54
doing so, and as said, two that they decide to hone in on will be Ross Hellams and Billy Minkley.
00:04:03
Now, law enforcement will quickly learn that the person whose job title, he's he's basically, I don't know his job
00:04:12
title, but basically, Captain, he's the shop handyman. He's he's your fix-it guy, but he's not somebody fixing
00:04:18
vehicles. He's not a mechanic. The shop handyman, his name is Ross Hellams, he drove an SUV that the police describe as
00:04:29
not unlike the one captured on surveillance video. >> So, maybe he's the guy. And then he
00:04:35
would have access and probably knowledge of the surveillance footage. Well, and remember, they're at a disadvantage of
00:04:43
having to review surrounding surveillance footage rather than the actual auto shop's
00:04:49
surveillance footage. And so, at that distance, the best they can make out is not exactly what SUV pulled up there,
00:04:56
but as they said, his SUV was not unlike the one that they captured on that video
00:05:02
footage. So, obviously, interview this guy. During his interview, Ross Hellams said
00:05:08
that when Leah Martin disappeared, he had worked at the shop that day up until about 5:30 p.m. So, this is about the
00:05:16
same time that my man, Rafael, said that he was leaving. After this 5:30 marker leaving work, he says that he went off
00:05:25
to a friend's home. The intention was to hang out and drink until the early morning hours. The friend, his name is
00:05:32
Michael Brown. He tells police, he's like, "Yeah, I didn't see Ross that night."
00:05:38
>> Liar, liar, pants on fire. >> "I was with my wife and my kids, and not with Ross Hellams." Right. "So, I don't
00:05:45
know why he told you guys that." So, they sit old Rossy boy down. Our boy, George Olivo, would like this.
00:05:52
Ross Hellams fails a lie detector test. I don't know what questions he was asked, but the record states that he
00:05:58
failed the polygraph. >> Not a good sign. Yeah. Well, >> So, he's lying to the cops about his
00:06:05
whereabouts and his alibi. He fails the polygraph test. Not good. Mhm. Fails the
00:06:11
poly, so what do you got to do here? You go looking for the paper trail. So, let's go looking for that paper trail.
00:06:19
Phone records are great. The phone records showed Ross Hellams and his co-worker, Billy
00:06:26
Minkley, made several calls to one another on the night of Leah Martin's disappearance. Interesting, right?
00:06:33
>> Mhm. Fish sticks. Mhm. So, by the time that we get to our next event here, we
00:06:40
are about a month and a half into the ongoing searches for our missing mother here. Now, authorities are talking to
00:06:48
everyone they know, and they learned that Hellams' relative, so a hell a relative of Ross Hellams, her name is
00:06:59
Armonique Jefferson. And it looks like she can provide some information here for our
00:07:06
investigators. She told investigators that Ross paid her $20 to call Leah and make threats to her.
00:07:16
Armonique also said that she was at Ross's house on the Friday night that is in question. And then at some point that
00:07:26
night, she says late Friday night, Ross came out to the house with a friend who she later identified as Billy Minkley.
00:07:36
Remember, we know from phone records, they were on the phone with each other several times that night. Now, we have a
00:07:41
person who's saying, "I saw the two together that night at Ross's home, and oh, by the way, he paid me 20 bucks to
00:07:49
call a couple times and make these threatening calls to this person that I don't know." Leah's aunt, somehow this
00:07:55
information makes its way to her aunt, Renee Martin. She takes it upon herself to do a little snooping,
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and she visits Ross Hellams' property. So, her and a friend walked the property,
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and then they report back telling police what they found. They say that they saw
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evidence of a fresh dig Mhm. >> and the smell of decomposition. Not good. Now, authorities acted
00:08:26
swiftly, leading to the grim discovery, the unfortunate, sad, grim discovery of Leah's body buried
00:08:36
on Ross Hellams' property. So, this is August 2015 when they recovered the body. She was
00:08:43
bound and concealed in a blanket. This is August 5th, 2015 when authorities exhumed the body of
00:08:50
Leah Martin. She was found covered in a blanket and bound with duct tape with a plastic bag wrapped around her head.
00:08:58
Quote, she had a rock stuck in her mouth. The rock that was stuck in her mouth was to keep her from biting the
00:09:04
plastic bag that had been put on her head, end quote. That quote came from her aunt, Renee Martin. She said that
00:09:15
while she was very very sad, crying about this discovery. Leah Martin's remains were
00:09:20
found and recovered from 5656 FM 209. The property belongs, as I said, to Ross Hellams
00:09:29
him and his wife, Ross and Krista Hellams. It's a property just off of Farm Road
00:09:37
209, just outside of Graham, Texas. But this changes everything because we go from
00:09:43
she's missing, what happened? We've covered a lot of missing person cases. You start speculating. Did she run away
00:09:51
with another guy? Did she run away to start a new life? Did did something bad happen to her? Did she get hurt and
00:09:57
doesn't know who she who she is or where she's at? But because of this surveillance footage at
00:10:04
the car shop, I think you go, well, it looks like there's a good possibility that there's foul play. Now we have all
00:10:11
those answers by finding the body. And then obviously now this is narrowing down our suspect pool. So we're going to
00:10:20
at least be able to and and not always, but it's it's hard to bring a no body case to trial. Yes, it doesn't happen
00:10:30
very often. And in fact, you you don't want to we've talked about double jeopardy over the years. You don't want
00:10:36
to bring something to trial until you feel like you've you've tapped into everything that you
00:10:43
could put in your arsenal to get a conviction. And that is a difficult hurdle to clear. Now here what you have
00:10:51
is you have enough to charge this guy with murder. I you know, he you have a an SUV
00:10:59
that isn't unlike the one you saw on the surveillance footage, pulls up, person gets out of that SUV, goes into the
00:11:05
shop. This man works at the shop, Ross Earl Hellams. And you see the vehicle you believe belonging to
00:11:14
Leah, you believe Leah getting out of that vehicle going into the same garage bay. Later you see the person leaving,
00:11:22
getting in that SUV and you never really see Leah leaving. And now you have found her
00:11:29
remains and in the state that they're found, buried, concealed, wrapped, bound, in the ground on Ross Earl Hellams'
00:11:40
property. And then you also have uh Armonique telling him or telling police about, well,
00:11:48
I was paid to make these threatening phone calls. I also saw This is your kink in the hose here. I
00:11:54
also saw Billy Minkley out here or a person that she later identifies as Billy Minkley
00:12:00
at the house on the night in question, where the body's later found. So we got to tap everything we can here on this
00:12:07
Minkley situation. So law enforcement here they catch another break. We learned this
00:12:15
from the arrest warrant affidavits cuz I [snorts] couldn't this wasn't found outwardly in in any one particular news
00:12:24
source, but if you dig for the arrest warrant affidavits here, you get some more of the
00:12:30
information nuggets. So this shows that the investigators got their break in the Leah Martin case
00:12:37
after a man told them that Ross Earl Hellams had come to his house the day after Leah Martin vanished
00:12:47
and he goes to the house carrying a paper bag that contained clothing and a sawed-off shotgun. Hellams
00:12:57
told the man he intended to throw these items away, to trash them. He wanted to put them in a random trash bin. This
00:13:04
man, look, I'm not I'm not going to befriend him because he was friends with Ross
00:13:08
Hellams, but God bless him for doing this because he says he talked Ross out of getting
00:13:15
rid of the shotgun. He says he persuades Ross Hellams to give him the gun because he says, look, if you
00:13:23
just put it in some random trash bin, some kid could find it. Right. And we we don't want to deal with the outcome or
00:13:30
result of what could be a horrific accident here based off of just throwing a firearm in a random trash bin. Well,
00:13:36
and it has value. So give me the gun and I'll either take care of it or I will sell it myself. He just wanted to secure
00:13:46
it. And he still has the gun when he comes after he after the finding of the body, he now realizes that his friend
00:13:52
Ross Hellams is not is no friend at all. He goes to police and says, hey, this happened the
00:13:59
day after this Leah person went missing and oh, by the way, here's a gun that I talked him into giving me. And so he
00:14:05
gives this gun to the police. They're talking to Ross Hellams, of course. Hellams claims he got the gun
00:14:14
from Billy Minkley. Surprise, surprise. You're working to buy some time here if you're the police,
00:14:22
if you're the investigators. You're working to buy some time. This is to collect more answers.
00:14:29
You've just recovered the body. You are going to be seeking more answers from the autopsy that's going to take place.
00:14:36
You're also working to build a case as everything is coming nicely into the purview here. Yeah, but with every step
00:14:43
you're turning up the heat, right? Okay, you lied to me about where you're at. Now I got you lying on a polygraph. Now
00:14:50
we find the body. Now we can do a autopsy. Every little step. Oh, now we got this friend of yours that has one of
00:14:59
your guns. Every little step in this investigation starts turning up the heat. And that's just the information
00:15:07
that these two suspects know about. They don't know about some of the details that the cops and law enforcement are
00:15:14
working behind the scenes or what else is coming out, who else is talking to law enforcement.
00:15:21
>> Well, and you can arrest a person, you can hold them, but you can only hold them for a certain period of time before
00:15:26
you actually put charges to that hold. So >> Right. Ross Hellams, we talked about
00:15:33
trying to buy buy some time here to get those autopsy results and some more information. Ross Hellams
00:15:41
and Billy Minkley, they are arrested on gun charges, but it's stated very clearly and publicly this is not
00:15:50
connected to Leah Martin's disappearance or her her death. So you're holding these guys
00:15:58
here. Billy Ray Minkley Jr. is arrested and charged with tampering with physical
00:16:03
evidence, possession of a firearm by a felon. So he's already a felon before any of this happens. And possession of a
00:16:10
prohibited weapon. Ross Hellams also arrested and booked on similar charges. These men, even though they're arrested,
00:16:21
they're being peppered with questions about Leah Martin's disappearance, how did she die, why is she on your
00:16:26
property, so on and so forth. These men say very little, very little until Billy Minkley Jr. And this is presented
00:16:36
to him by law enforcement. They say, you know what? Since you won't talk about Leah Martin, Minkley, you are our number
00:16:43
you have just become our number one suspect in an unrelated 2014 triple homicide. This is a strange turn
00:16:52
of events. Yeah, I was going to say. How does that happen? >> So here we go, Captain. This is from a
00:16:58
Fort Worth, Texas triple homicide, a case that truly truly [clears throat] was starting to go cold.
00:17:06
The details, I'll summarize everything cuz we we're going to run through it, not crawl through it. On June 2nd, 2014,
00:17:13
the bodies of Ronnie Jackson, age 57, his common-law wife Elizabeth Bernard Sessums, age 47, and their friend,
00:17:22
a visiting friend to their home, David Adams, age 50, they were discovered inside Jackson's
00:17:29
Fort Worth home located in the 200 block on Sunset Lane. Each of these three victims had been
00:17:38
shot once. Okay, uh two of them had been shot in the head, found in one room, and I believe it was
00:17:46
Ronnie Jackson who was found shot in the chest dead in a bedroom lying on a bed.
00:17:53
This discovery of these three dead individuals at the home of Jackson and Sessums
00:18:01
came about because a neighbor was concerned. So a neighbor a concerned neighbor, Jackson and Sessums,
00:18:09
they couldn't say no to a stray cat. Stray cat shows up, they feed it, they keep it, they care for it.
00:18:17
So they had like I don't know, a dozen stray cats, let's say. And this neighbor said that like
00:18:23
clockwork every day at 7:30 a.m., Ronnie Jackson and most times Elizabeth would join him, he would be seen outside of
00:18:33
the home in the early morning feeding all of the cats. And this neighbor had noticed several
00:18:41
days had gone by and these cats hadn't been fed. She hadn't seen Ronnie. She hadn't seen Elizabeth.
00:18:48
Now Ronnie Jackson's father actually owns the home. So this neighbor calls Ronnie's father.
00:18:57
And Ronnie's father's 80 years old in 2014. And she tells him, hey, I've not seen
00:19:04
your son, these cats haven't been fed in several days. I've not seen Elizabeth. I've not seen anybody come and go from
00:19:10
the house. So she contacts this this the father, Elton Jackson is his name. He says he goes out there
00:19:18
to the home and he didn't he didn't go inside. He approaches the house, he looks in a
00:19:24
window when nobody responds. He said immediately he really felt like something terrible had happened. He
00:19:32
looks through the window and he says that he saw a person who appeared to be dead on the couch
00:19:39
and a person who appeared to be dead on the living room floor. Jesus. Yeah. He calls police, of course,
00:19:47
there and they're going to they're going to dig through this this crime scene. Homicide detectives believe that the
00:19:53
murders occurred on the evening of May 28th. So, this is several days before they're
00:20:00
found. So, nearly a week before the bodies were found. Detective Kyle Sullivan is the one that catches this
00:20:06
case. He stated to the media that Ronnie Jackson and Elizabeth Sessums, who lived
00:20:14
there, they they were renting the home, they were known drug users. And he believed because they
00:20:20
were the occupants of the home and known drug users, they were likely the intended targets here.
00:20:27
On on what they were saying was no sign of forced entry, so they theorized that the killer was someone that they had
00:20:36
that they knew. Right. >> And knew enough that they were willing to let this person into their home. Now, quickly, I
00:20:44
don't I don't want to create a whole two other episodes on this particular case, but I went into
00:20:51
the investigation in this case and found it fascinating. One thing they were able to to figure
00:20:57
out was while neighbors reported that a lot of people came would come and go from this
00:21:02
house, maybe a little more activity than you would want to see, all the neighbors said that these they
00:21:08
were very I hesitate to use the word street smart because it just seems like too vague of a statement here, but they
00:21:14
they were very particular about who they let into their home. And so, that's interesting for your investigation
00:21:21
because this is saying this isn't somebody that they just knew, this is somebody that they knew well and for
00:21:26
whatever reason felt comfortable letting them into the home. And and it's possible that they have drugs. It's
00:21:32
possible that they owe somebody money. It's possible that they have money for drugs. It's possible that
00:21:39
because they are drug users that maybe they felt like well, maybe we should sell some drugs.
00:21:44
So, there's a lot of motivation or there'd be a lot of motives here that you could look at if you're law
00:21:51
enforcement, but it's all revolving around that drug lifestyle. And police knew this
00:21:58
the detectives knew this very early on. I would say almost immediately, but what
00:22:03
they purposely kept from the the media was it was about 3 days before they announced that this wasn't a
00:22:11
murder-suicide situation. They kind of let that linger for a little bit, probably to see what would shake loose
00:22:18
in the meantime. Now, they would go on to say that this wasn't a murder-suicide, that it was Jackson and
00:22:24
Sessum were the likely targets, that Adams appears to have just been an unintended victim, simply in the wrong
00:22:32
place at the wrong time. And they would later report that there were items that were missing from the
00:22:37
house, no signs of a struggle, no signs of forced entry. They never reported what those items were that were missing
00:22:44
from the home. And in all likelihood, they probably didn't fully understand every item that was missing
00:22:51
from the home. But it's interesting that they knew stuff was missing from the home. The
00:22:57
victims family members described these victims as kind-hearted individuals who struggled with addiction. Ronnie Jackson
00:23:05
was remembered by his father as a giving man, almost to a fault, he says, uh who battled addiction for years.
00:23:12
Elizabeth Sessum was described by her sister Donna Lott as very beautiful and outgoing before her lifelong struggle
00:23:21
with drugs began in her later years. Yeah, it's one of the saddest things to see is somebody
00:23:29
that seems like they have a good life and a lot of things together and then they
00:23:34
get sucked in and and their their life seems to be controlled by this this dark drug entity. Yeah, and Elizabeth had a
00:23:42
lot of uh personal tragedies that I think may have led to her addiction. >> Yeah, self-medication that turns into
00:23:50
addiction. David Adams was a 10-year Navy veteran and former city water department employee. He was
00:23:59
described by his brother Joe Adams as a very smart individual. In fact, I I read
00:24:05
uh some statements where Joe was saying David was always the really smart one and he he wished he had David's brains,
00:24:12
his intelligence, but he said, you know, and at some point he falls into addiction as well, but he he still
00:24:20
kept up with his family, kept in contact with his family. He was still working odd jobs as a handyman. And very sad, he
00:24:28
was he was still caring for their elderly mother at the time when he was killed. He was
00:24:36
actually reported missing by his family the day before Well, this would have been 3 days before [music] he was found
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>> [music] [music] >> So, when Billy Minkley is presented with this information, Yeah, if you're the
00:28:06
detective, you're going got him. >> in this interrogation, and there's clips of video of this. Uh
00:28:13
this is actually later obtained and released by the TV show Buried in the Backyard. Right. Billy Minkley is
00:28:21
yelling and crying, and he's confessing to this triple homicide shooting. Okay, but let me just
00:28:27
see if I'm following you. They they basically know that this individual is connected some way, somehow, so then
00:28:34
when they present it to him, he's like, ah, [ __ ] Time to spill the beans. Well,
00:28:43
the remember the break in the case? What was not so clear as to why was that a big break in the Leah Martin case?
00:28:50
Right. The the big break was that shotgun. She wasn't killed with a shotgun, so it
00:28:55
seems strange to go, well, that's a big break in the case when this guy comes forward with this random shotgun saying
00:29:00
that I got it from Ross Hellums, who says he it was given to him by Billy Minkley,
00:29:07
but then you have three dead people all killed by gunshots a year prior in another city, Fort Worth. That gun was
00:29:16
the gun that killed those three people. Right. So, why does he have this? Got him, but also, okay, if he killed
00:29:25
these three individuals, he's capable of killing Oh, yeah. Yes, in fact, that goes goes with the very quote that I was
00:29:35
going to cite right We're we're all on the same page here, my friend, because >> want to hear the quote, though. Quote,
00:29:41
"The Fort Worth triple homicide made us realize that Billy Minkley is a person that could have no problem killing Leah,
00:29:48
said Lieutenant Smith. Bingo bongo. So, Billy Minkley agreed to discuss Leah Martin's murder, the details of her
00:29:57
murder, because he now needs to avoid facing the death penalty in the triple homicide case. This triple homicide case
00:30:05
is going to be pretty easy for them, okay? As far as investigators go to taking it from finding the guy,
00:30:10
arresting the guy, and and getting a conviction. Why? Because well, Billy Minkley actually confessed to a
00:30:18
couple people during that time period. So, keep in mind, it's almost a year between the time that between the two
00:30:26
the two crimes, right? And over a year before Leah is found. During that time period, he had confessed. Not a full-on
00:30:35
confession, but I'll give you the first one, the second one's better as far as getting a conviction. The first one
00:30:42
comes from his father. His father says, Billy told me that he killed those three people, but he told
00:30:49
me it was in self-defense, that one of them pulled the gun on him, he took the gun, and he shot him. Right. Minkley's
00:30:56
girlfriend, who lived with him, This is why you should never have a girlfriend. She was sitting in the car when he shot
00:31:03
and killed those three people. Oh. Not only that, she went into the home after they were killed. He told her the
00:31:11
He told her the same story. Right. He told her the same story, that he did it in self-defense, that he In fact, he
00:31:17
says Ronnie pulled a gun on him, he shot Ronnie, and then was forced to shoot the
00:31:21
other two. I don't really believe that, but she goes into the home, she says that she witnessed the three of them
00:31:27
dead, and the two of them collected items. So, Billy lived at that home, not at the
00:31:33
time of the murders, but months and months prior. Right. And there was some kind of property dispute between Billy
00:31:41
and Ronnie. Well, also, like Billy had gone there, according to the girlfriend, to collect
00:31:46
this property, and he collected He was going to take it whether Ronnie was going to turn it over to him or not, and
00:31:52
that's what I think happened here. The result is three people dead, and then Billy and his girlfriend were moving
00:31:59
items from that home. Yeah, it's one thing if you show up and you're wearing a Colt .45, right? You
00:32:07
it's Texas, everybody's carrying, but your story is that this guy pulled a gun on me, and then I pulled a shotgun on
00:32:14
him. Right? >> that's the part that's unclear, that I couldn't sort out. There was not enough information
00:32:22
available to Yeah. >> clearly decide Did Did he arrive at the home with this gun and just shoot three
00:32:28
unarmed people out of anger? Or was portions of his story true? Now, But either way, you killed three people.
00:32:38
Yeah, I glean that he showed up with a gun, but then throwing that into the equation, you'd
00:32:44
have to charge the girlfriend, and I was unclear as to whether they charged his girlfriend with with anything
00:32:50
substantial, anyway. So, but now he's he's scared. He's got to sing like a bird, because
00:33:00
they're threatening him with the death penalty for killing three people. And so,
00:33:05
this is what they figure out. And this is according to statements released by the prosecutor. Remember, they've
00:33:10
already They're charging these two with crimes unrelated to Leah's case, but very soon
00:33:16
going to be charging them with with Leah's murder. So, according to this prosecutor, he says, what we learned
00:33:22
from Billy Minkley Jr. was that E.C. Blair was at the center of all this. The shop owner, the Leah Martin's
00:33:31
employer, Billy Minkley's employer, Ross Helms' employer. The grandfather to her child.
00:33:38
Billy Minkley tells investigators that E.C. Blair was not happy with Leah and the difficulties that it was causing
00:33:44
with his marriage, and that E.C. Blair wanted something done with Leah. In fact,
00:33:51
um there was some report out there, but I couldn't absolutely confirm it, where there was a statement
00:33:57
by Billy Minkley, I believe, that he says that that E.C. believed that Leah Martin wanted to get back with Aaron
00:34:06
Blair, his adopted son, the the father of their child. Right. >> Um and that had a big had a big issue with that as
00:34:15
well. Now, I I don't I Again, I couldn't back that up other than that one statement. But the the prosecutor
00:34:21
believes that E.C. Blair lured Leah Martin to the office on the night of her murder. And this would make some sense.
00:34:31
She tells Dad, I'm going there to pick up some items, but remember, her parents don't know that
00:34:36
she had any kind of relationship with E.C. Blair, so she might just tell Dad that I got to stop by work. Oh, why? Oh,
00:34:43
I got to pick some things up. For whatever reason, the prosecutor seems to have information suggesting to them that
00:34:49
E.C. Blair lured her to the office that night that she was killed. She Once she's at the office, according to Billy
00:34:57
Minkley, Leah is sitting on a couch in the office, looking at her phone, so she's not completely paying attention
00:35:06
to the room, and Billy Minkley comes up from behind her and violently strikes her in the head with a crowbar. Or a
00:35:13
tire iron. Pry bar, crowbar, tire iron. Big, heavy metal object. Ouch. In a different news article, it is stated
00:35:22
that according to Billy Minkley, he struck Leah with a crowbar at E.C. Blair's request.
00:35:28
Describing a chilling sequence of events, Minkley and Helms then placed a bag over her head to, quote, keep the
00:35:35
blood from dripping everywhere, end quote. Right. Billy said that he saw she was still alive when the bag began to
00:35:43
fill up with air, so he hit her one more time, and then the men put her body in Ross Helms' Chevy Tahoe. The following
00:35:51
day, Billy Minkley rented a backhoe, and he and Ross Helms buried Leah on Helms'
00:35:58
property. The rental came from Westside Rental in Graham, Texas. And here's a quote from the show. It
00:36:06
says, quote, I went back there and I dug the nicest hole I could, end [clears throat] quote. That was a quote
00:36:12
by Billy Minkley, said in an interrogation video obtained by the TV show Buried in the Backyard. So, he
00:36:20
says, I went back there to bury a nice hole. I dug the nicest hole I could. Wow. Minkley and Helms were charged with
00:36:28
murder and tampering with physical evidence of a corpse, to which Minkley pled guilty to
00:36:34
the first charge, and Helms to both. Right. Okay, so now, Graham police Graham City Police promptly arrested
00:36:45
E.C. Blair, owner of E.C.'s Auto Repair. Blair was arrested and charged with murder after a search warrant was
00:36:54
executed at the body shop. And Graham Police sent out a press release. This is on Tuesday, September
00:37:02
22nd, 2015. Right. The press release is as follows. It says, Graham Police and Texas Rangers
00:37:09
conducted a third search of Blair's Auto Repair, and are formally charging three
00:37:16
individuals in the murder of Leah Martin. On September 8th, 2015, investigators interviewed Billy Minkley
00:37:24
Jr., and during that interview, he implicated himself and others in the murder of Leah Martin.
00:37:30
And also confessed to participation in a homicide that occurred in Fort Worth in
00:37:34
2014. That case is still being pursued by the Fort Worth Police Department. Because of
00:37:41
the facts that came to light during the interview of Minkley, a search of the premises where Leah Martin worked was
00:37:47
conducted to search for evidence that was unknown to investigators at the time of the previous search warrant. Suspects
00:37:56
being charged with capital murder in the death of Leah Martin are identified as Billy Ray Minkley Jr., age 42, of
00:38:05
Graham, Texas. Ross Earl Helms, age 42, of Graham, Texas. And Elton Carroll Blair, age 43,
00:38:13
of Graham. Blair and Helms will also be charged with tampering with evidence and a human
00:38:19
corpse. Oh, we got three pieces of [ __ ] right here. So, we got these guys a confession, plus
00:38:26
guilty pleas to the charges. And that's what >> like he has to probably testify on on
00:38:33
some level Oh, yeah. against the other two. Yeah, so he's going to he's going to testify. And and then I mean, of
00:38:39
course, they got Ross Earl Helms dead to rights, right? I mean, they found the body on his property, and and
00:38:46
other people pointing the finger at Helms as well, not just this Billy Minkley Jr. But what's left
00:38:54
hanging out there? Yeah. As Jerry would say, that's a big matzo ball. Excuse me,
00:38:59
sir, but your balls are showing. 18th, 2017, E.C. Blair. Old E.C. Blair. He doesn't
00:39:07
admit to anything. Of course, he doesn't. So, he's going to face a capital murder trial, and that trial
00:39:13
began on said date. And again, at this trial, everything we've already discussed, everything that we've already
00:39:20
uncovered, everything that Billy Minkley Jr. was saying is all presented at trial. Right.
00:39:26
>> And the prosecutor's suspicions, all presented at trial, including the prosecutor pointing out and highlighting
00:39:34
for the jury his belief, not only was E.C. Blair involved, but he was at the center of
00:39:40
this. That he was the mastermind of In fact, you look at it, when you look at the story, he's the only one he may have
00:39:47
ordered the murder, he may have brought all the the the players together to the same venue to watch it play out. But
00:39:54
when you review the information, he's got evil in his heart and on his soul, but he don't have no blood on his
00:40:00
hands, according to the story that I've just reviewed. Billy Minkley did the killing, Ross Hellams helped him, and
00:40:05
then the two of them were the ones that took care of the body afterwards. They're the only two that were charged
00:40:10
with tampering with evidence. And for what? For I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.
00:40:15
>> I I've no idea how this worked out. I have no idea why these people Now, Billy Minkley Jr., it's not it's only a
00:40:22
hop, skip, and a quick jump to get from triple murder to killing somebody a year
00:40:25
later. Right. It may mean nothing to him. They The cops never liked this Ross Hellams either. I couldn't quite put my
00:40:33
finger on it uh why they wanted to look at him. It's also a little unclear as to
00:40:40
who became important first, right? Chicken or the egg? Ross Hellams or Billy Minkley? But at some point they
00:40:46
know based off of records that Well, with Ross Hellams, it's actually clear as day now that I
00:40:53
think about it. His alibi for the night doesn't check out. Right. And then you figure out that he's talking to Billy
00:40:58
Minkley Jr. who has a record. Yeah. So, the prosecutor's saying at this trial, you have Leah on the
00:41:05
night that she goes missing talking on the phone and texting with E.C. Blair. According to the prosecutor, that's
00:41:13
fact. It's his shop. She got there somehow. She was lured there somehow. The defense theory [snorts]
00:41:21
for E.C. Blair was Oh, no, no, no. He didn't have anything to do with it. He just happened to be the shop owner who
00:41:27
at one time had some affair with this girl, and she went there as said to collect her belongings like she told her
00:41:35
father, and you got these two losers, these two criminals in there at the shop at the time, and she
00:41:43
Their defense was E.C. Blair had nothing to do with it. Leah Martin walked in on
00:41:49
some sort of felonious behavior. She witnessed something that she shouldn't have witnessed. Maybe a drug deal was
00:41:55
going on. We know that Billy Minkley had drug ties, methamphetamine. We can base
00:42:00
that back to the the triple homicide in 2014 in Fort Worth. Yeah, or you also maybe wonder like because it's a
00:42:08
car shop or or or >> They doing a chop shop after hours. Yeah. But but but whatever you surmise,
00:42:16
whatever you are hypothesizing, you have to kind of Well, you don't have to kind of you you
00:42:22
need to show some proof that that was happening and that you weren't involved. And then you have
00:42:28
these other two individuals that I guarantee you they're making the statements of, "Well, we wouldn't have
00:42:33
done any of this if it wasn't for E.C. Blair." True. I mean, yes, that's a fair statement, but it's also the you know,
00:42:41
the way that it should work is that you that they have to prove your guilt more than you have to prove your innocence.
00:42:48
And in this case, it was too big of a hurdle for the jury to get over, unfortunately. The defense
00:42:57
idea and positioning of these two We know these two guys did this. Was Leah Martin
00:43:04
just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Did she walk in on something? Did she witness some type of felonious
00:43:10
behavior? Did she witness something where they where Billy Minkley Jr. and Ross Hellams just needed to kill her so
00:43:17
she couldn't talk? However, the defense packaged that, they packaged it in a way
00:43:23
that the jury could not find beyond a reasonable doubt that E.C. Blair was involved with the murder,
00:43:31
and therefore he he was acquitted despite the prosecution's best efforts, despite law
00:43:37
enforcement and detectives' best efforts and work. Yeah. >> He was acquitted. And we already know
00:43:44
that he's a piece of [ __ ] but he gets acquitted of this. He can't be charged again unless
00:43:51
they can find some kind of other angle, right? To But then it would be different
00:43:57
charges, and so this guy just goes back to Graham, Texas, and he or close to Graham, Texas. I I guess he
00:44:05
lives just outside >> move away, but >> [laughter] >> Yeah, I don't think he goes out much. I
00:44:11
don't >> Yeah. You know, again, like I said, this this because it's such a small community and
00:44:17
such a small population, these shops were big deals, right? And so this this shop is then This is a reminder of the
00:44:26
the bad parts of of humans. It's a constant reminder. Yeah, the the shop didn't was no longer in operation
00:44:35
after 2015. That's um Yeah. I guess some form of punishment for this E.C. Blair.
00:44:41
I I hope his wife kicked him out of the house. To kind of put a bow on this here,
00:44:46
August of 2018, Ross Earl Hellams, 45, one of the three men accused. So, this is after the trial, right? After
00:44:54
the trial where they don't get the conviction on E.C. Blair. Ross Hellams' body found on his
00:45:01
property, one of the three men accused in the murder of Leah Martin. He accepted a plea deal. He pled guilty to
00:45:07
three counts, murder, a first-degree felony, tampering with and fabricating evidence with the intent
00:45:15
to impair a human corpse, a second-degree felony, and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, a
00:45:22
third-degree felony. He was sentenced to 20 years, 20 years, and 10 years, respectively.
00:45:30
Hellams is credited with 3 years for time served from August when he was when he was arrested in 2015 up until the
00:45:38
time of accepting the plea deal in 2018. So, uh his time on that 50 years starts
00:45:48
in 2015 rather than in 18. So, he's serving 20 years for the murder conviction, another 20 years for
00:45:55
tampering. He's at the Allred Unit in Iowa Park, Texas. He's still there being held there.
00:46:05
And then we have Billy Ray Later learned that his nickname was Tank, but judging by his picture,
00:46:12
dumbass would have been a better nickname. Billy Ray Minkley continues to serve life without the possibility of
00:46:20
parole at Telford at the Telford Unit in New Boston, Texas. Minkley was accused of digging Martin's grave. As we said,
00:46:28
Martin's body was found 10 miles west of Graham, and he pled guilty to Martin's murder in exchange for life in prison to
00:46:36
avoid that death penalty. And unfortunately, that E.C. Blair he got lucky. He got lucky, and they
00:46:43
couldn't get a conviction. Here, as said, that the case is featured on that show titled Buried in the
00:46:52
Backyard. That's season 6, episode 2 from the folks over at the Oxygen network. And then what's left here,
00:47:01
Captain, is you have all these people without these four. Unfortunately, we stepped into this thinking we were going
00:47:07
to have to carry with our hearts one victim. We leave carrying carrying four victims, excuse me, with
00:47:12
our hearts here, and one of them very sad that she was a mother to a little girl, Avery, who was only 2 years old at
00:47:20
the time that her mother was was so brutally and and coldheartedly killed at her place of work, and she at the age
00:47:30
of 12, she went online to her mother to her mother's obituary, online obituary, and left a very nice message for her
00:47:40
mother there, and it sounds like as of 2024, that she was was doing well, living with
00:47:48
still living with her father, and her they're doing their very best to move on and carry on.
00:47:53
She has a stepmom, stepbrothers, and pets that she loves, and had some very nice, thoughtful things to say about her
00:48:02
mother that she misses misses [music] very dearly. >> [music] >> All right, I want to thank everybody for
00:48:19
joining us here in the garage each and every week. Thanks for telling your mother. Thanks for telling your brother.
00:48:24
Hey, try telling your sister this week as well. Colonel, do you have any >> listen. Probably not.
00:48:31
Do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners? Oh, I'll tell you what. This one
00:48:36
>> I tell you something. was a delight. So, I had a road trip. I didn't read this
00:48:42
one, I listened to this one. Shout out to the good folks over at Audible, and I had told you prior cuz I had a bit of a
00:48:48
road trip coming up, so I knew I was going to be facing 9 hours-ish in the car, and so I
00:48:53
listened to this one, and it was a delight. Might not be for everybody, but it was for me, Captain. You'll remember
00:48:59
this one. Hannibal Lecter: A Life by Brian Rafferty. Yeah. And really interesting, he he he basically creates
00:49:09
a biography about a fictional character. And I'll give you the summary here, and
00:49:15
it says a portion of it, anyway. "Drawing from exclusive interviews and previously
00:49:20
unseen archived materials, this is a one-of-its-kind biography of Hannibal Lecter
00:49:27
that documents the cannibal's journey from terrifying villain to unexpectedly adored antihero." This one was really
00:49:36
interesting to me because it was as much about the fictional character of Hannibal Lecter. I learned a lot about
00:49:44
the author who who gave birth really and brought into this world Hannibal Lecter,
00:49:50
Thomas Harris, who is a been a rather reclusive celebrity if you will or a a well-known
00:49:58
individual. So, you learn a lot about Thomas Harris. You learn a good deal about the makings of some of those
00:50:04
Hannibal Lecter films and the TV series as well as the actors and actresses that
00:50:10
were involved in the making of those films. And as said, of course, you you learn a whole lot about Hannibal Lecter.
00:50:19
It was a fun read for me and it's it feels a little true crime without having having
00:50:25
the heaviness of real life true crime. So, that's Hannibal Lecter a life by Brian Rafferty. You don't have to write
00:50:32
that title down right now because we will have it listed for you on our website on our
00:50:38
recommended page. And our website, of course, is truecrimegarage.com. Hey, and while you're there, sign up on
00:50:45
the mailing list. And until next week, be good, be kind, and don't litter. >> [music]
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