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Inside The Police Beat Covering Texas Worst Serial Killer Oct 26, 2021

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Serial killer Kenneth McDuff fixated on the female reporters who covered his capital murder trial. After a Texas jury sentenced McDuff to death by lethal injection, he sent off a letter to one of the reporters. Rebecca Rodriguez Reporting Live For CBS 11 News in 2000 The letter written behind bars sickened reporter Rebecca Rodriguez She had covered the abduction of Colleen Reed, a petite 29-year-old accountant, from an Austin, Texas, self-service car wash shortly after Christmas in 1991. Colleen Reed The accountant was one of the dozens of young women who had mysteriously disappeared up and down interstate 35 through the heart of Texas. Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff McDuff was a sadistic, sexual serial killer. His biggest pleasure came from inflicting pain on his victims and controlling their moment of death. Alva Hank Worley Accomplice of Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff A grisly confession by McDuff’s accomplice detailed a chamber of horrors in explicit detail of how he tortured his victims. Rodriguez could hardly process this horrible story when McDuff’s mother called her in February of 1993. The phone call followed her son being sentenced to die by lethal injection in the Texas Death Chamber for the capital murder of Melissa Northrup. Addy McDuff claimed her son was innocent and pleaded with Rodriguez to tell his story. But Addy was known as a manipulative, crass creature who was the stereotypical mother of a serial killer. The residents of Rosebud, a small town in Central Texas, knew Addy as the “pistol-packing mama”. Her son had ridden roughshod over its residents for years. When a school bus driver scolded Kenneth for bullying fellow students, Addy threatened him with her pistol. In this episode how McDuff’s case has haunted reporters and law officers for thirty years.

The Minister Who Almost Got Away With Murder Oct 19, 2021

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Husbands who murder their wives often go to great lengths to concoct stories about their disappearance or sudden death. They may give tearful appeals for help on television newscasts. They typically think that they are smarter than the police and can get away with murder. But there are no perfect crimes. Murderers often slip up when they try to make the crime scene look like what they’ve seen on television shows. Eagle-eyed investigators can see right through it. This episode goes inside two cases from the career of former federal prosecutor Bill Johnston. In the first case, a charismatic Baptist preacher in Waco initially fools the police into believing that his wife committed suicide.

The Day The Last Texas Ranger Died Oct 18, 2021

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The Texas Rangers are among the world’s most legendary law enforcement agencies and North America's oldest state law enforcement agency. The Rangers have inspired scores of books, movies, radio, and television. Their roots date to frontier Texas. In 1823, Stephen F. Austin, known as the Father of Texas, founded a group of ten men to protect new settlers. Texas Rangers at the El Paso County Courthouse 1896 They are deeply embedded in Texas lore. As former Ranger Capt. Bob Crowder once said, "A Ranger is an officer who can handle any situation without definite instructions from his commanding officer or higher authority. This ability must be proven before a man becomes a Ranger." Frank Hammer on horseback Frank Hammer, a veteran Ranger captain, was recruited to hunt down Bonnie and Clyde in 1934 after he had left the Rangers. Hammer and his posse ambushed the couple, riddling them with more than 130 rounds. Modern-day Rangers assist local law enforcement in investigating murders and other crimes. They also investigate organized criminal activities and protect the Governor of Texas. Texas Rangers typically wear western attire, including a white cowboy hat, a white shirt and tie, a “ranger belt”, a gun belt, and cowboy boots. Texas Rangers’ badges are cut from Mexican five-peso coins. The Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum located in Waco, Texas, estimates that fewer than 1%of the individuals who have served as Texas Ranger were killed or died in the line of duty. Texas Ranger Stan Guffey Stan Guffey was the last Ranger to die in the line of duty while saving a little girl from her kidnapper in 1987. This episode is about the Day The Last Texas Ranger Died.

Don’t Fence Me In — No Texas Prison Could Hold Dennis Wayne Hope Oct 15, 2021

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Dennis Wayne Hope Willie Nelson sings about riding in the wide-open spaces with lyrics titled “Don’t Fence Me In”. “Don’t Fence Me In” was the ballad of Texas inmate Dennis Wayne Hope. Hope bragged that there wasn’t a prison in Texas that could hold him. The convicted armed robber even imitated the prisoner played by Paul Newman in Hollywood’s Cool Hank Luke. Hope purchased a Jaguar for his girlfriend with money stolen during robberies in Dallas, Texas. While on the run, Hope sent imprisoned convicts letters about life on the outside. Hope impersonated armored car guards with fake ID cards and uniforms. He picked up tens of thousands of dollars in cash deposits. During one getaway, Hope calmly strolled past a police officer parked in a patrol car at the entrance to the grocery store he had just robbed. During a television interview with investigative reporter Robert Riggs, Hope demonstrated how he could use the plastic refill of a ballpoint pen to unlock handcuffs. This episode, “Don’t Fence Me In,” chronicles Hope’s prison escapes and the fugitive hunters who get on this trail.

Inside The Minds Of America’s 2 Worst Serial Killers: Kenneth McDuff & Ted Bundy Episode 17 Season 1 Jan 04, 2021

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Serial Killer Ted Bundy Kenneth Allen McDuff ranks among the most heartless and sadistic serial killers in American history. But what creates the McDuff’s and Ted Bundy’s of this world? Two former FBI profilers, who were among the founders of the Behavioral Science Unit based at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, gave me invaluable insight. I met profilers John Douglas and Roy Hazelwood after they had retired from the bureau. At that time, they were not widely known outside of law enforcement circles. Today, the Netflix crime drama Mindhunter is loosely based on John Douglas’s role in pioneering profiling at the FBI. His fellow profiler Roy Hazelwood became the world’s leading expert on the strangest, most dangerous of all aberrant offenders, the sexual criminal. Hazelwood is now deceased. He coauthored landmark books about the minds of sexual predators with Stephen Michaud. Michaud is a friend and fellow investigative reporter who used to be based here in Dallas. Stephen Michaud is the expert on Ted Bundy. He tape-recorded 150 hours of audio with the serial killer when Bundy was imprisoned in a Florida State Prison. In 1983, Michaud and another giant of investigative reporting, Hugh Aynesworth wrote the book, The Only Living Witness; The True Story of Serial Killer Ted Bundy. In 2019, NetFlix premiered a four-episode docuseries based on Michaud’s tapes titled Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes. Michaud and I discuss what goes on inside the minds of serial killers.

“Freed To Kill” These Wounds Don’t Heal. The Living Hurt Forever by Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff Episode 16 Season 1 Dec 29, 2020

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Colleen Reed You are about to hear how the murder of Colleen Reed on December 29th, 1991, by serial killer Kenneth McDuff impacted the life of her then-ten-year-old niece. Ms. Reed was abducted from an Austin car wash shortly after Christmas by McDuff and his accomplice, Alva Hank Worley. You can hear Worley's confession about the grizzly details of the young accountant's brutal murder in episode 6. At the time of this recording in December 2020, Ms. Reed’s niece had spent 29 years suffering from guilt. It is a story that none of us who worked on the case were aware of until now. Bill Johnston, the federal prosecutor who launched the manhunt for McDuff, and I talk with Ms. Reed’s niece to give you insight into how the trauma of violent crime affects the victim’s families forever. We also explain why society should lock up violent offenders and throw away the key.

“Freed To Kill” Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff Is Six Feet Under But What Mysteries Remain? Episode 15 Season 1 Dec 21, 2020

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The scandalous release of serial killer Kenneth McDuff and corruption inside the parole system triggered the passage of numerous legislative reforms dubbed “The McDuff Law.” But mysteries remain. How many violent inmates bought their way out of prison and were free to kill again? How many women did McDuff abduct and murder? McDuff always liked to have an accomplice to witness his evil acts. Did other accomplices get away with murder? Investigators sit down with investigative reporter Robert Riggs to discuss their theories.

“Freed To Kill” Dead Man Walking Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff Enters The Texas Death Chamber Episode 14 Season 1 Dec 14, 2020

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Investigative reporter Robert Riggs traced serial killer Kenneth McDuff’s footsteps from Texas’ Death Row to its Death Chamber at the Walls Unit in Huntsville, Texas. The day before McDuff's execution, the prison system gave Riggs and his camera crew access to the Texas death chamber. Riggs fills in precise details about how the lethal injection was administered down to McDuff’s last words. It's a step-by-step account that most people have never heard before. McDuff’s body went unclaimed by family members, and his home community protested any attempt to bury him there. Riggs follows McDuff’s pine box coffin to its burial in an anonymous grave in the prison cemetery.

“Freed To Kill” How A Throbbing Toothache Made Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff Talk Episode 13 Season 1 Dec 07, 2020

Show notes

Serial killer Kenneth McDuff held back on revealing where he buried Colleen Reed's body. McDuff and his accomplice Hank Worley abducted Ms. Reed from an Austin car wash in 1991. Seven years have passed, and the clock is ticking down toward McDuff's execution for her murder and that of Melissa Northrup. Prison investigator John Moriarty, federal prosecutor Bill Johnston, and U.S. Marshal Mike McNamara spent hours on Texas death row trying to get McDuff to reveal the location of his victims' bodies. The big break comes when Moriarty hears McDuff complaining about a painful toothache.

“Freed To Kill” Face-To-Face With Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff On Texas Death Row Episode 12 Season 1 Nov 30, 2020

Show notes

Kenneth Allen McDuff is being escorted into the Death House. McDuff was believed to be the only condemned inmate in the nation ever paroled and then returned to death row for another murder. He went to death row in 1968 for killing two teenage boys, was paroled after the death penalty was overturned, and returned to death row in 1991 for killing two women. 11/17/1998 Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff matter-of-factly described the last moments of his victims' lives as "using them up" to his accomplices in murder. Afterward, he would dispose of the young women's bodies in unmarked burial sites at remote locations. With time ticking down toward his execution, author Gary Lavergne met with McDuff on Texas Death Row to try to find out where the serial killer buried countless bodies. His victim's families just wanted to give their loved ones a proper funeral.

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