Part Three | The Executions Commence: Larry Roy

0:05 M I Wall Street line. Shackle change, Oh gesome girdie, it's calling my name. There is no mercy and it's been a tentery juice as the huge stream game Wrangle three. I'm here be by mere to die inside these walls, inside the wild and when the girls.

0:59 I Hey everyone, and welcome back to Bloody Angola, a podcast one forty two years in the making, the complete story of America's bloodiest person. I'm Jim Chapman, and we are back with this third installment in the Executions Commenced series, and this one is all about the death warrant signed for Larry Roy, known as the Cheneyville Slasher. So, as I've been doing with prior episodes in this series, I'm going to bring you into the crime, the conviction, all the way up to present day, and with this one, we're going to start in Cheneyville, Louisiana, and y'all, Cheneyville is in what is known as Rapids Parish, located kind of in the center of the state of Louisiana. And Cheneyville is an extremely small town, less than five hundred residents,

2:30 the type of place where everybody knows everybody right and when the crime I'm about to tell you about occurred. It shocked the entire community. It just did not happen in Cheneyville. And we're going to go back to the early morning hours of May Sewi of nineteen ninety three, and a call comes in to a nine to one one call center. This is at one thirty am. The caller stated that her neighbor, thirty one year old Sally Ann Reeshard, had stumbled over to her house bleeding from a gash in her throat, with her hands bound behind her back, and that the woman needed medical assistance right away.

3:16 So the police chief, a guy by the name of Archie Blue, he was on patrol, and yep, in a town this size, the chief of police was patrolling just like everyone else. They didn't exactly have a large police department. So the chief takes the call and he heads towards the address, and what he saw when he pulled up to that home was shocking. When Chief Blue pulled up to the house, his lights caught an eight year old named Frederick Reeschard outside lying in his own blood near a lightpole in the front yard, and he was near death and unable to speak. Blue recalled saying to himself quote, oh my god, that boy is cut to death. Unquote.

4:09 He could see that the boy was extremely weak. He also noticed the family dog who was tied up near where little Frederick's body lay in that front yard, and the dog appeared unalarmed. So although this eight year old was in dire straits, he was still alive and Chief Blue he turns around to rush back to his patrol car. He was going to make a plea for the ambulances to kind of double time it to the scene, and as he did, he hears ten year old David Reshard fall down near what turned out to be his mother's vehicle, which was also parked in the front yard. Now David, much like his brother, was also too weak to speak, but after a second officer who had arrived on the scene, unbound his hands, the boy was able to hold up two fingers and motion them towards the house, which indicated to these officers that two more people were inside that home.

5:14 So quickly, at this point, you already have thirty one year old Sally Reshord Throat slashed clinging to life, eight year old Frederick Throat slashed clinging to life, and ten year old David also slashed clinging to life. So the officers they approached the home very cautiously, they didn't know if this monster was still inside. Once inside the home, they see what can only be described as an absolutely horrific site. Sitting on the edge of the bed in a bedroom was thirty three year old Freddie Reeshard Junior, who was the two boys father in the ex husband of Sally m Reshoard. His upper body was slumped forward between his legs and he had been stabbed seven times, at least that the officers could clearly see. One stab womb was wide across his throat from ear to ear.

6:20 As they canvassed the house, they came across another bedroom and found Sally in reshards On seventy five year old Rosetta Silas deceased. She was lying face down in her bed in her night clothes, with her throat slept from ear to ear. So police at this point they have two dead inside the house and three seriously injured outside of the house, with two of them being children, and they moved quick to get all of these victims that were still alive to the hospital. Now miss Sallyenne she was able to tell police who was responsible for this and what happened, and the responsible party was none other than Larry Roy. Now let me tell you a little bit about Larry Roy and his relationship to this family.

7:17 Larry was the ex boyfriend of Sally m. Reshard. Sally started dating Larry after her and her husband, Freddie Reeschard Junior, had divorced, and Larry moved in with Sally and her kids and her aunt in the family home in Cheneyville. But they had a rocky relationship and that eventually led to them breaking things off. And this was in January of nineteen ninety three. Now, at that point, Sally and her ex husband they kind of started rekindling their relationship. They started a reconciliation and Freddie Reshard Junior moved back in to that family home. Well, Larry did not like that at all. He starts threatening Sally Anne with guns to the point that she even filed a complaint with police.

8:11 And over the next few months prior to this incident, his harassment would worsen. Shortly before the attacks of May third, nineteen ninety three, Sally awoke to go to work one morning and her tires were slashed. She files yet another complaint with police, but there was just no evidence to link Larry Roy to that tire slashing. So it was on May second of nineteen ninety three that, by chance, while at a local convenience store, the entire family encounters Larry Roy, and it was at that point that he walks by Sally Ann and says, quote, things are going to go down tonight. Later that evening, the ree shards they retire, and as they always did, they slept in the same room, Mom and Dad in the bed and the two young boys in sleeping bags on the floor of that bedroom. On Monday, May third, at approximately one thirty am, Larry Roy barges into the bedroom and he awakes the family out of a dead sleep. Larry Roy jumps on top of Freddy Rieshard Junior in a fight ensues.

9:27 During this time, Sally in she grabs the bedside telephone to call nine to one one. However, as she picks up the phone, Roy informs her that he cut the phone wires and this yaw was well before cell phones. It's also at this time that Sally Anne realizes that Freddy Reshard Junior has been stabbed to death as he's perched on the front of the bed. Miss Reeshard jumps up and attempts to flee with the children, but Roy stops her, and he's still armed with that knife, and he forces the two children to lay down on the floor in the hallway. Then at knife point, he forces sally Anne to go into her aunt's bedroom. They awaken seventy five year old Miss Silas and he demands money.

10:22 Miss Silas gives him fifty dollars that she kept hidden under her mattress. And typically elderly people, especially back then, they would hide cash in their house and usually it's under that mattress. Right, Roy counts the money and he starts questioning Miss Silas as to if any more money was hidden anywhere else in the house, to which Miss Silas tells him no. Next, Larry Roy brings Sally Anne into the kitchen of that home and he starts asking her why she reported to police that he slashed her tires. He then brings her into the living room where he places her face down on the floor beside the sofa, and using a telephone cord that he brought with him, he ties her hands behind her back. He pulls her head back and slits her throat, telling her in her ear while he's doing that quote. By the time the police get here, y'all are all going to be dead.

11:30 Larry Roy then goes into the hallway and he ties eight year old Frederick's hands behind his back and he slits his throat. He then takes a pillow case and he places it over ten year old David's head, ties David's hands behind his back, pulls David's head back, and slits his throat. Then he heads again into seventy five year old Miss Silas's bedroom. Now during the time that he's going in that bedroom, both Sally Anne and her two sons struggled, but made their way outside the home, hands still tied behind their backs. Sally Amne would later say that as she got out of the front door, she could hear seventy five year old Miss Rosetta Silas screaming after Roy began stabbing her to death. So, after learning this information, police had a problem. They had no idea where Larry Roy was. By the time they arrived on the scene, he was nowhere to be found. And when all of this hit the paper that Tuesday May,

13:00 Larry Roy was already dubbed the Cheneyville slasher and police started a massive manhunt for this guy, who was wanted for the murder of two in the attempted murder of three, including two children. They knew Larry Roy had a lot of family and was very familiar with a Boyle's Parish, which was a neighboring parish to Rapids, and they focused the search there. Now, A Boyle's Parish created somewhat of a challenge for police boils at that time was very rural, very wooded part of Louisiana, and there are a lot of places in which to hide. But luck would strike when a relative of Larry Roy's who lived in a wooded area near a highway in the parish, reported Roy was hanging out around her home. Police started searching the area until about lunchtime on May fourth, realizing that Roy likely was only going to be moving at night and was probably hidden out of sight, so at sundown police began that extensive search again, and they incorporated the use of bloodhounds helicopters. Several agencies took place in this search, knowing the sheer horror of the crime that Larry Roy committed. Now, this was before drones, unfortunately, so no drones were out

14:35 Roy was described in local papers as wearing a white jumpsuit with black tennis shoes. For people to be on the lookout for this obviously dangerous individual, and it was two days later, on the fifth of May twenty twenty three, that Larry Roy was caught. He was spotted by a sheriff's deputy in a small town called Bunkie, Louisiana. So when the officer spotted him, Larry Roy actually jumped into a parked car at an intersection. The detective a guy by the name of Byron Juno. He was a four year veteran of Thevoyl's Parish Sheriff's office and he was working overtime that night like everybody else, hunting for Larry Roy.

15:22 When at twelve thirty am he was patrolling the streets of Bunkie looking specifically for a man fitting Roy's description. A group of males flags him down and said they just saw the Chameyville slasher walk by. Now. As soon as they said that, there was Roy running across the intersection away from him, Larry Roy pulls on the car handle of basically the first car he sees and slides into the passenger seat and behind the wheel by sheer coincidence, is Larry Roy's cousin. So the officer approaches and Roy tries to slump down in the car to hide, but it was way too late for that. The officer pulls him out and asks his name, to which Larry Roy replied Lawrence Smith. But everyone around the scene started telling the officer that was bullshit, that that was in fact Larry Roy. So the officer turns to the man and says, I'm going to ask you one more time, what's your name?

16:32 And Larry Roy is quoted as saying, you got me. I'm Larry Roy. Now, at the time that he was caught, Roy was unarmed and he did not resist, so he is arrested and eventually this case goes to trial. It took quite a while to even get to the trial point, and Roy in the trial, he attempts to use what's done as an intoxication defense. He actually testifies on his own behalf and he said that at approximately five o'clock PM on May second of nineteen ninety three, he consumed several beers and a half pint of gin. He then said, at some time during that evening, he purchases one hundred and forty dollars worth of crack cocaine, which he smoked prior to the attacks. According to his account, he claimed that because he was intoxicated and also in a drug state, he could not remember his whereabouts or his activities that entire evening. Nonetheless, he denied killing or harming anyone. Now, of course, that was total bs. In the jury, they weren't buying it, and they find Larry Roy guilty of two counts of first degree murder in the deaths of Miss Silas in the death of Freddy Reeschard Junior, and

18:08 on August thirtieth of nineteen ninety four, Larry Roy is sentenced to death by a unanimous jury. And it's at this point that, as you already know, the appeals start and Roy goes through years and years of appealing this with every fiber of his being. Eventually he exhausts all of those appeals, and because of the Death Rose situation in Louisiana, in the fact that it went on a hiatus for like fifteen years, just all these things I've told you about in other episodes, he would sit on death row for the next thirty one years before getting an official signed death warrant in February of this year. Now, in the meantime he even sought pardons, and in November of twenty twenty three, two of the surviving members of this terrible event, they even testified at a Board of Pardon hearing against Larry Roy getting off death row, and he was denied clemency in that hearing. So, as I mentioned, on February tenth of twenty twenty five, the Rapides Parish District attorney, guy by the name of Philip Tarrell, he

19:40 obtained that death warrant for Larry Roy. And I have a copy of that and I'll just read it to you quickly, and it's dated February tenth, twenty twenty five, and the cover letter says today Governor Jeff Landry announced that the Louisiana Department of Corrections has implicated a protocol for carrying out sentences for defendants on death row. The promises made by jurys and the justice system to the victims of the most heinous of crimes has been withheld for too long. Consequently, my office has prepared and filed a death warrant in the matter of the State of Louisiana versus Larry Roy and its signed Philip Terrell, District Attorney, and it goes on to say motion to cause the issuance of execution. Warrant says now into the court through the undersigned Assistant District Attorney comes to State of Louisiana, moving the court as follows. The defendant was indicted for two counts of first degree murder on July second, nineteen ninety three. Roy was tried by jury for those crimes in nineteen ninety four, and the jury returned a verdict of guiltiest charge on both counts on July nineteenth of nineteen ninety four, and returned to death sentence on July twenty first of nineteen ninety one. This court accepted the recommendation and imposed the sentence. On August thirtieth of nineteen ninety four. The defendant filed an appeal with the Louisiana Supreme Court. The state responded and the convictions and sentences

21:14 were affirmed. The defendant filed an application for a rehearing, which was denied on November fifteenth of nineteen ninety six. The rulings of the Louisiana Supreme Court were reviewed by the United States Supreme Court, and the US Supreme Court declined to review the rulings, effectively affirming the decisions based on the Louisiana Supreme Court. On August seventeenth, nineteen ninety seven, a death warrant issued with an execution day. October twenty second, nineteen ninety seven. That death warrant was recalled and reissued on September sixteenth of nineteen ninety seven. All post conviction pleadings have been resolved in favor of the state. The defendant made an application for clemency to the Louisiana Bord of Pardon, which was denied on November eighth of twenty twenty three. At present time, no warrant of execution has been signed setting the date of the defendant's execution. There are no other outstanding applications for relief or stays of execution in this matter. So that was the motion. And then you have what's known as a warrant of execution.

22:22 And if you never heard how these read, it just says it is hereby ordered that, in accordance with provisions and at lists those in the manner provided by law, said condemned person to be put to death on nineteenth day of March twenty twenty five, between six pm and nine pm. It is further ordered that the Clerk of Court shall forward to the Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections of the State of Louisiana a certified copy of the indictment, verdict sentence, as well as the decision of the Louisiana Supreme Court affirming the sentence of death for Larry Roy. It is further ordered that upon receipt of this warrant of execution, the Secretary of Public Safety and Corrections of the State of Louisiana shall provide a copy of the warrant and deliver it to the condemned person, Larry Roy. It is further ordered that a certified copy of this warrant of execution shall be transmitted by the Clerk of this Court to the Honorable Jeff Landry, Governor of the State of Louisiana, and the former manner directed by Alyssa's Statute, Philip Arrell, ninth Judicial District Attorney, and to Blithe Talping, Council of Record for Larry Roy. So that is the official warrant of execution.

23:41 So that's right on March nineteenth, of twenty twenty five. Larry Roy is going to be executed. But wait, not so fast. March nineteenth has already passed, and I'm not told you anything about the actual execution. Why because it didn't happen. On March eleventh, a Judicial Court district judge by the name of Chris Hazel pushed back Larry Roy's execution, denying the motion until a hearing can take place. And this is scheduled for April fourteenth of twenty twenty five in the ninth JBC. And this comes on the heels of Jesse Hoffman's execution being blocked by US Chief District Judge Shelley Dick. And I brought you his case in part one of this series. That judge found the method of execution to be inhumane. But you know what's inhumane to me? And I get it if you don't like it, but it's how I personally feel. And that's the fact that the victims of these crimes that get these guys sentenced to the ultimate penalty are always the last peep to be considered. You're sentenced to death by jury of your peers, unanimously, and yet judges seem to consistently block the will of the people, and this, in my opinion,

25:15 has to stop. And guess what, we just got an update on Jesse Hoffman. Now, look, as soon as I recorded this series, of course, I record these. A couple of days early, I get a text from WAFB dot com and it appears that Jesse Hoffman's execution is now on as scheduled. I'm gonna read you this quick article. Dis or. Judge dissolves restraining order tied to Hoffman's execution. At this point, the execution is back on schedule unless another court, including the US Supreme Court, decides to intervene. Teteenth JDC Judge Richard Chipmore issued the restraining order Monday until he could preside over the hearing Tuesday morning. Regarding whether the method of execution being planned violates Hoffman's religious freedoms under the Preservation of Religious Freedom Act, Moore cited with the Louisiana Department of Corrections. The state says it will execute Hoffman using nitrogen hypoxia, which is the deprivation of oxygen through the inhalation of nitrogen. Hoffman claims that nitrogen hypoxia would interfere with his religious right for him to do meditative breathing as he is being put to death. Hoffman was sentenced to death by lethal injection in nineteen ninety eight for the murder of Mary Molly Elliott in Saint Tammany

26:48 Parish that happened in nineteen ninety six, and of course that was the first episode in this series. Hoffman kidnapped Elliott as she was leaving her New Orleans home to give to meet her husband for dinner. She was then raped and killed. The planned execution of Hoffman would be Louisiana's first in fifteen years in the state's first time to carry out an execution using nitrogen. So as of now, apparently it's back on. Of course, the last seventy two hours of this stuff, things change left and right, so I'll keep you posted. But because my Patreon members get these episodes early, I won't be able to edit this anymore than it has been done now, so I'll give you an update next week on what occurred with that execution, and now I guess back to our scheduled programming. Now.

27:41 Since I started this series, many people have messaged me and they've wanted me to provide more details on the method of execution, specifically nitrogen hypoxia, which I can tell you one hundred percent the death row inmates here are scared shitless about and I ain't mad about that. I'm glad they're a little bit scared. Honestly. When I was researching this method, I came across a very well written article from CBS News that explains it. And I'm gonna read that article for you now because it really gives you what I feel is the best account of explaining this method. And the headline reads, what is nitrogen hypoxia?

28:28 Alabama's Kenneth Smith execution proceeds with unprecedented controversial method. A death row inmate in Alabama, Kenneth Eugene Smith, was executed Thursday night by nitrogen hypoxia, and this was written a couple of months ago, a controversial and untested method that has prompted legal pushback and public scrutiny from critics within the United States and abroad. Smith became the first inmate to die this way. He was convicted in the nineteen eighty eight killing of a pastor's wife as part of a murder for higher scheme, and has been imprisoned for decades. In Alabama. He already survived a botched lethal injection in November of twenty twenty two, one of four in Alabama since twenty eighteen, which was the same year the state authorized the use of nitrogen hypoxia in the death chamber.

29:20 It is among three states, along with Oklahoma and Mississippi, that technically permit the method as an alternative in the death chamber, since lethal injections in recent years have been come harder to get, and of course you can add Louisiana to that list now. Before Thursday, no execution had ever been carried out in the United States using this method, and experts have repeatedly warned that nitrogen toxicity may cause the condemned person to suffer unnecessarily, while at the same time threatening the health of others in the room. In a news briefing following the execution, Alabama Department of Corressionist Commissioner John Hamm said the the execution began at seven fifty three pm and Smith was pronounced dead at eight twenty five pm. The nitrogenmask was kept on Smith for about five minutes after a flat line, ham said. According to the media report, Smith's last words were tonight Alabama caused humanity to take a step backward. I'm leaving with love, peace and light. Thank you for supporting me, Love all of you. He also made an I Love you sign with sign language, reporter said. A reporter also stated that Smith appeared to shake and writhe on the gurney for at least two minutes at the start of the execution, asking him whether that was expected or an indication of suffering, it appeared that one Smith was holding his breath for as long as he could him, responded, and then there's also information out there that he struggled against his restraints

30:51 a little bit, but there's some involuntary movement in some angled breathing. So that was all expected and as in the side effects that we've seen researched with nitrogen hypoxia. Smith and his spiritual advisor, the Reverend Jeff Hoods, said in a statement prior to the execution that the eyes of the world are on this impending moral apocalypse. Quote. Our prayer is that people will not turn their head. We simply cannot normalize the suffocation of each other. They said, So what is nitrogen hypoxia, Well, that's a process where pure nitrogen gas or nitrogen gas at concentrations high enough to be lethal are inhaled to the point of causing asphyxiation.

31:35 It is a relatively new alternative to more common forms of capital punishment like lethal injection and electrocution, which are two methods used most prevalently across the United States. The nonprofit organization Death Penalty Information Center noted that lethal gas is authorized broadly as an execution method in seven states, including Alabama, Mississippi, Oakland, although those are the only three that have specified the use of nitrogen for this purpose, and only Alabama has released a formal execution protocol for nitrogen hypoxia. The protocol was issued late last August, and the version made available to the public is heavily redacted.

32:19 Breathing nitrogen through a mass could, in theory, cause a person to lose consciousness before oxygen deprivation leads to death, and Alabama officials insisted that this is most likely how the scheduled execution happened. But Smith's legal team, while seeking an injunction to halt the execution plans that was ultimately rejected, accuse the state of using him as a test subject for a lethal experiment. A group of ewing consultants raised concerns about the execution, saying that nitrogen hypoxia would result in painful and humiliating deaths. A spokesman said that execution by nitrogen asphyxiation could amount to the torture or or other cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment under international human rights law? So what do we know about inhaling nitrogen gas? During the execution, Smith was strapped to a gurney chamber and forced to breathe nitrogen through the gas mask, although it had never been used inside the death chamber.

33:19 The consequences of too much nitrogen inhalation, usually accidentally in industrial settings, are well documented. Nitrogen exists organically in the atmosphere and actually composes around seventy five percent of the air that humans and animals breathe every day, but the colorless and utterless gas is only safe to inhale when it's mixed with the appropriate concentration of oxygen. Otherwise, breathing it is toxic that narians have refused to use nitrogen asphyxiation to ethanize animals because of its distressing effects and potential risk to people around commercially and industrially. Pure nitrogen is used in products like fertilizer, nylon, and various dyes, as well as explosives. Because nitrogen displaces oxygen, it's often used at chemical plants and manufacturing facilities to shield certain equipment from contaminants including oxygen, which could damage the equipment or in some cases even pose fire hazards or cause explosions.

34:20 Liquid nitrogen is also used in laboratories and in medical settings for flash freezing in other purposes. The US Chemical Safety Board issued a series of bulletins in the early two thousands that review cases of nitrogen asphyxiation over the previous decade, with the aim of raising awareness and relaying proper safety protocols to prevent such situations from happening. In one bulletin, the references information from the Compressed Gas Association. The Board notes that when enough nitrogen is introduced to deplete oxygen in the air to less than ten percent, effects on the human body can be lethal, potentially causing in ality to move, loss of consciousness, convulsions, and death.

35:04 Even partial oxygen displacement can have serious consequences. Research has shown that when oxygen levels in the air down to around twelve point five percent. Humans can experience impaired respiration that may cause permanent heart damage along with nausea, vomiting, and very poor judgment and coordination. So how does the actual executions work well. The mass of the state placed over Smith's face was a NIOSH approved Type C full face mass supplied air respirator, which is a type of mass used by industrial workers to get life saving oxygen. After nitrogen gas is introduced, it will be administered for fifteen minutes or two five minute intervals following a flatline indication on an EKG, whichever is longer. Most redactive portions of the protocol or those involving how the gas system is stored, tested and set up. Some of the sections acknowledge the potential risk associated with having nitrogen takes in the workplace, et cetera. Alabama's protocol does not allow for a spiritual advisor in the chamber unless they review and sign a nitrogen hypoxia acknowledgment form ahead of time. That restriction formed the basis for a lawsuit filed by Reverend Hood, who is a spiritual advisor to death row inmates in Alabama, challenging the use of nitrogen hypoxia and executions in Hood told CBS News that the method prevents him from doing his job properly because agreeing to support a condemned person

36:38 through this type of execution could potentially put his own health in danger. He also said the rule in and of itself goes against the Supreme Court decision in March twenty twenty two that required states to allow spiritual advisors to be present with condemned inmates in their final moments. And there you have it, barring some breaking news, I'm going to be covering a brand new series next week, and please consider the Patreon if you would like to support what we do here at Bloody Angola. Commercial free, early releases and more can be found there. Without it, we don't exist, so please consider joining, and until next time, I'm Jim Chapman for Bloody Angola, a podcast one and forty two years in the making, the complete story of America's bloodiest present Peace.

37:47 A wall Street line, shackle chain, It's calling my name. There is no mercy and it's been a century. Juice as the huge stream game Rango the three. I'm in bed by Me to die inside these walls. Inside the wild, and when.

38:29 The crowds, I'm no, it's solbody angle. Ohbody angle.