To Kill Again

BLOODY ANGOLA PODCAST: TO KILL AGAIN

Jim: Hey, everyone, and welcome back to Bloody Angola, a podcast 142 years in the making the complete story of America's bloodiest prison. And I am Jim Chapman. And as you probably noticed, Woody Overton was not helping me with that intro. And I promise y'all, he's going to be back next week. Super-secret mission. 

Today, I thought it would be fun to talk a little bit with y'all about paroled, murderers and serial killers. And this is going to be kind of a companion podcast. We're not going to be talking specifically about Angola. There's just so much content out there, y'all, with all the presence, all these historic presence throughout the nation. And so today, I wanted to bring y’all something a little bit different. So first of all, just to discuss a little bit about parole. 

So parole is when you get released, but you're still in the charge of the prison system. So basically, they're letting you out back into society, but there are certain parameters you have to live up to. A lot of times, these folks that get paroled, they are under, what's called, supervised parole, where they have to report into a parole officer. Many times, you have to wear the little ankle bracelet that is basically like GPS and those sort of things. A lot of times, you can't leave a certain area. They've got to pretty much know where you are at all times, which is a great thing. But a lot of people think, when you get paroled, you're getting released from the system. You're not. 

Basically, they're saying you can serve out the rest of your sentence in society and you don't have to be, in Angola's case, behind the wire. But if you do anything wrong, you have to serve out the remainder of your sentence. And in some cases, a lot more than that, because then you're breaking another law. And that's a whole another case you just caught in many instances. So that's what parole is. 

Now, there's a lot of killers that you wouldn't believe were paroled nationally, and I'm going to give you a few of those today. We'll start with Kenneth Allen McDuff. So who is Kenneth Allen McDuff? Well, he was paroled not, so he could necessarily adjust a life, not to reduce recidivism, which is basically re-offense in all criminal justice systems, whether it's the United States or anywhere else. They track recidivism, which is, you get out of jail and then you continue to commit crime and you end up back in jail. Well, the United States has a high rate of recidivism. Many, many an extremely high percentage of prisoners that get released back into society do recommit, and end up back in prison. There's a lot of reasons for that. 

Sometimes they're just bad people and they're never going to quit doing what they do, and then sometimes they get released and really do try to change their life around. But for whatever reason, they end up recommitting like, maybe they couldn't get a job because they had a felony. So they resort back to the one thing they know. If they were someone that robbed people, they continue to rob because that's the only way they know to make money, and that's not making an excuse. But in some cases, some do try to change. And the way society is set up, in some ways, that's hard to do when you've got felonies on your record and you spend a long time in prison. So I would say the vast majority are just bad people and they just recommit, but not all of them are thrown into that bucket. 

So Kenneth Allen McDuff, well, he was paroled not because of any of those reasons and not because he no longer posed a threat to public society. He was paroled to reduce overcrowding, y’all. Big problem right now. Let's talk about that for a second. Overcrowding. So I would say the vast majority of the people in prison definitely deserve to be there. Do people go to prison that didn't do anything wrong and get wrongfully accused of a crime? Absolutely. It happens. As a matter of fact, I've seen stats as high as 5% to 6%, even higher than that in some cases. But if you find the average on those percentages, I've seen it's around 6% actually didn't commit the crime, they're in jail for a crime they didn't commit. And so it does happen. 

That contributes somewhat to overcrowding. A lot of it is the people that are in prison, there's a lot of people that aren't necessarily drug dealers, but they got caught with drugs, they're in prison. In a lot of cases, prison is not going to help rehabilitate a drug addict. And most drug addicts that have turned the corner and gotten on the good side of life, I guess you could say, they will tell you, prison a lot of times will make it worse. They need other types of help. But the prisons are full of drug addicts. And so that is probably the number one cause of overcrowding. 

Now, from 1966 to 1992, Kenneth McDuff, get this, committed between 9 and 22 murders in Texas. 9 to 22 murders, and they released him free into society on parole. McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara described McDuff as a “cold-blooded psychopathic killer who was more evil than the devil himself. Going as far to say McDuff never should have been released,” and I didn't have to read you that quote to figure that out. 9 to 22 murders, damn right he should have never been released. So he was on death row for actually murdering three teenagers in 1966. This dude was on death row, but his sentence got reduced to life with the possibility of parole in 1972. And that happens in a lot of cases. There's many, many lifers in Angola and in all kinds of prisons throughout the country that actually got their sentences reduced and changed to life in prison. So no different for McDuff. 

In 1972, his sentence was reduced to life. But get this, he was released in 1989 due to prison overcrowding. Absolutely crazy. Now, in 1990, the parole board actually had a chance to send him back to prison after McDuff was arrested for chasing and threatening black teenagers. That was enough. Remember what I told you? They let him out of prison, but he is still under all those prison parameters. Meaning, if he commits any crime, he has to serve out the remainder of his sentence, which in McDuff's case was life. 

So he chased down and he made a bunch of threats to these black teenagers. But neither of his actions nor the racial incentive he expressed at his parole hearing returned him to his prison cell. He just didn't go back to prison for it. I guess they figured it was just threatening. He didn't actually do anything. They regretted it because he killed at least three women between his release on parole and his return to prison finally in 1992. And he actually went to prison at that point for abducting and murdering a convenience-store clerk named Melissa Northrup and an accountant named Colleen Reed. He never expressed any remorse for his crimes. And he was finally executed by lethal injection in 1998. 

So this dude actually got released from prison. Well, first, he got his sentence changed from the death sentence to life in prison, then he gets released, then he kills at least three more people that they know of. He gets convicted of two of those, goes back on death row, and gets executed by lethal injection in 1998. So if you want to learn more about this asshole, you can definitely-- I invite you to go to google and just google Kenneth Allen McDuff. It's a pretty crazy story that one day we're going to bring to you. 

So I'm going to tell you about another one. His name is Loren Herzog, spelled L-O-R-E-N. So it may be Loren, but we're going with Loren, just because I'm not quite sure exactly how it's pronounced. But he was known as the California Speed Freak Killer. His last victim appeared to have been himself. Now, after committing a number of murders with Wesley Shermantine, who was a friend of his since childhood, he was sentenced to 78 years to life for murdering and raping Cyndi Vanderheiden. In 2004, an appeals court found that his confession may have been coerced, and a new trial was ordered for him. 

Now, when offered a plea deal, he agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter in exchange for a 14-year sentence, and he was actually paroled in 2010. Can you imagine? That sentence is 78 years to life. And over what was basically a technicality, his sentence gets reduced to manslaughter and he gets out of prison in 2010. So two years later, the parole agent who was monitoring him using GPS technology, just like I told you about at the beginning, those ankle bracelets and such, found that the tracking bracelet had a low battery. When Herzog failed to answer his telephone, the agent notified police and they found Herzog dead inside the trailer he inhabited on a fenced off property outside of the prison. So police basically investigated his death as a possible suicide. So the motive for a suicide was basically thought to have been his knowledge that Shermantine intended to tell police where the bodies of their victims were located. So he wasn't doing none of this alone. Sacramento bounty hunter, Leonard Padilla, relayed this information to Herzog shortly before Herzog killed himself. 

It's possible, he and Shermantine might have faced charges for additional homicides depending on the number of identities of the body's authorities recovered based on Shermantine's information. So, there's another one for you that was released and continued to murder. Again, you want to check him out, learn more about him? He's definitely our piece of shit number two for today. But you can google Loren, L-O-R-E-N Herzog, H-E-R-Z-O-G, and it'll tell you more information on him. 

So let's talk about Michael Keith Moon. Now, Michael Keith Moon was a career criminal who had numerous, y'all, numerous chances to reform. In 1981, he was convicted of stabbing a woman to death in Reno, Nevada. After his release from prison, in 1991, he was convicted of attempted murder for stabbing a man in a bar in Woodstock, Illinois. He was released again in 2005, and three years later was convicted of a second-degree murder after killing a 24-year-old man in California. So he goes back to prison. And guess what? In 2014, he was again granted parole and began living in a halfway house in downtown San Diego. Now, a detective by the name of Chuck Gaylor believes he committed even more murders between his time in Reno and his latest arrest and says that, “Chuck Gaylor is most likely a serial killer.” I don't even know what to say about that. You've even got detectives telling you this guy is a serial killer, and you're letting him out, just totally blows my mind. 

So let's go on to the next one, and that's Louis van Schoor, and that's spelled S-C-H-O-O-R. Now, in 1992, this serial killer, who was of South African descent, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for committing seven murders and attempting two others. So he was sentenced for those seven murders and the two he attempted. That's 9 total, 20 years in prison. That's all he was sentenced to. I couldn't believe that when I was researching this. Now, in 2004, he got released, and after serving 12 years, walking straight into the arms of his fiancé. So this guy actually was living a happy life after he committed all these murders. It was only 12 years after his conviction in 1992. 

Now, responding to silent alarms and businesses, van Schoor, who was a member of the police canine unit and security guard at the time of the murder, said he shot as many as 100 people between 1986 and 1989. And you just heard me right. I was saving that as a surprise. van Schoor was a cop. van Schoor said he was glad to be back in society and he hoped people would judge him by his future rather than his past crimes. Initially, he had nothing to say to his victims' families, but later conceded he'd appreciate their forgiveness. Absolutely freaking crazy. That's just nuts, y'all.

Now, let's talk about William Huff. So calling himself The Phantom. Serial killer, William Huff murdered seven-year-old Cindy Clelland and six-year-old Jenelle Haines and targeted a third girl before he was arrested. The murders took place in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Now, on April 30th, 1967, Cindy had been collecting bottles in exchange for candy at her neighborhood store. Following the discovery of Cindy's naked body on May 2nd, the police received a handwritten note. The note basically said, “I am The Phantom. You have found my first victim. My next victim lives on Steffan Street. Nine years old,” and in the parentheses he put (Fools!!!) and three explanation points. Now when police provided the targeted girl with 24 hours protection, Huff apparently decided to kill Jennelle instead, which was a military colonel's daughter. She was playing by a pond near the Lakeside Officers Club on June 22nd when Huff abducted her. Later that day, Janelle's body, just like Cindy's, was found naked. Six-year-old girl, y'all. 

Now police had already suspected Huff a neighborhood teenager at the time, and following Jennelle’s murder, the police chief saw Huff leaving the army post at which the Officer's Club was located. A handwriting sample obtained from Huff matched the note from The Phantom. 

Now, upon conviction for the girl's murder, he was sentenced to 15 years for one homicide and 40 for the other. And in 2005, the parole board voted unanimously to grant him parole. In 2006, he began living under house arrest in a halfway house in Tucson, Arizona. Ellen Kirschbaum, who chaired the parole board said she couldn't predict whether Huff might murder someone else. Absolutely fucking bananas, y'all. Crazy. This dude killed a six-year-old girl in addition to two others and was walking free. 

Let me tell you about Vernon Tatum. In 2017, after serving 13 years for raping and murdering several elderly women, serial killer Vernon Tatum was paroled for good behavior while incarcerated. After living in a halfway house downtown, Tatum planned to return to the Kansas City neighborhood in which he committed the crimes. Local police were disturbed at the thought a killer would soon be back among them. “He's one of the most dangerous individuals I've ever dealt with,” police detective Lester Scott said. 13 years for raping and murdering several elderly women considered a serial killer, not considered he was. And he's walking free. 

Let me tell you about Arthur Shawcross. Now, he began his career as a serial killer at the age of 27. In 1972, when he killed a 10-year-old boy, he had lured into the woods on the pretext of going fishing with him. The same year, he sexually assaulted and murdered an eight-year-old girl, who he led to a deserted area and showed her a new bicycle. He was arrested after eyewitnesses identified him as the man they had seen with their children, and he confessed to both murders. Confessed to him. But in a plea deal, he was charged with only one count. It wasn't even a murder, it was a manslaughter, which is a slap on the wrist in comparison. Now, because he was a model prisoner, he was paroled after serving 14 years only of a 25-year sentence. His criminal records were sealed. 

He settled in New York. And in 1988, guess what? No surprise. He starts killing people again. He would get prostitutes, he would kill them by asphyxiation, choke them to death, and then he'd mutilate them. A helicopter pilot happened to spot him near a murder scene, and he was arrested. He admitted to committing 10 murders, y'all. 10 murders. And he was sentenced to 250 years in prison. But I want you to think about this. Had they just kept him in prison the first time, 10 people may have been alive today that are not because he got out. Absolutely crazy. 

Let me tell you about Louise Peete. Yep, that's a female, Louise Peete. And I swear she looks like just your regular, everyday lady. Now, after serving 18 years for the murder of Jacob Charles Denton in 1920, Louise Peete was paroled. She was arrested again in 1944 after the decomposing body of Margaret Logan, who was 60, was found in a grave in the victim's California backyard. Peete admitted to burying her body but refused to say anymore. Now, in a written statement, Peete later claimed that Margaret's husband, Arthur, had shot his wife to death after first attacking Margaret. Peete said she waited for Arthur to retire for the night before burying the dead woman in Logan's backyard, afraid she'd be convicted of the murder and return to prison if the body was discovered. So her story essentially was, “I didn't kill her. Arthur did. But I went ahead and buried the body because I knew y'all would think I killed her because I'd already been in jail for murder.” So she was tried for Margaret's homicide, and Peete was found guilty of murder in the first degree, and at this time, they sentenced her to death. 

Prosecutors proved Arthur couldn't have killed his wife at the time, because he was already dead, having passed away in an insane asylum prior to the discovery of Margaret's body. So they were able to basically date even back then. Way back in 1944, they were able to date that body back to a particular time period, and they were like, “Wait a minute, he was already dead, so he couldn't have killed this lady.” And so Peete gets executed at San Quentin state prison’s gas chamber. They had the gas chamber in 1947. The motives for her crime were monetary, basically. She just wanted money. By shooting her victim, she hoped to gain their property and their estates. And as she was about to be executed, she told the prison's warden, who was Clinton Duffy at San Quentin that, “I've been ready for a long time.” And then she inhaled that gas. I hope she took the deepest breath she ever took in her life and just choked and burned. When you suck in that gas from the gas chamber, it's going to burn your throat, and I hope she suffered. 

So let me tell you about Gerald Gallego and Charlene Williams. Gerald was twice paroled before committing multiple sexual assaults and 10 murders. He was paroled in July 1961 after serving less than a year, y'all, in a boy school for committing lewd and lascivious acts with a six-year-old girl. So he rapes this six year old girl and serves less than a year in a boys school for it. And then in 1963, he gets arrested again and serves two years for armed robbery. Now, after five marriages in which he abused his wives, he meets Charlene Williams at a poker club in Sacramento, California. And together, in 1978, they began abducting girls in California and Nevada to serve as sex slaves. 

The first two victims were 17-year-old Rhonda Scheffler and 16-year-old Kippi Vaught, both of whom he shot dead following an apparent trust with them in a secluded wooded area. In all, by November 1980, the couple had racked up 10 victims, all teenagers, most of which they kept as sex slaves before murdering them. A friend of the last two victims, Craig Miller and his fiancé, Mary Sowers, saw the couple get into Gallego’s vehicle and wrote down its license plate number. At a remote location, Gallego shot Miller killing him before he and Williams drove to another location, where he sexually assaulted and murdered Sowers. 

Now, when Miller and Sowers didn't return home, the witness gave Gallego’s license number to the police. Convicted of the murders of Miller and Sowers, Gallego was sentenced to death in 1984. For testifying against him, Williams received a short 16-year, 8 months sentence and was paroled in 1997. And definitely google these. Not a bad looking couple. Definitely not a couple you'd look at and think they were having sex slaves and killing them and all this sort of stuff. Williams is still around, I mean, running free. So paroled for testifying against her husband or her boyfriend rather. 

Now, let's talk about Richard Marquette. Richard Marquette was a cannibal serial killer who chopped up and froze his victims. He'd save them to eat later. And his fellow inmates believed he'd kill again. But he was found fit for parole after serving only 12 years of his sentence. This is a dude that would kill people, freeze them, freeze their body parts, chop them up, freeze them, and eat them later on. And after 12 years, he was found fit for parole. Now, shortly after his release, as you would assume, he committed more murders. 

His first victim was Joan Caudle. She was 23. He said he met her in a Portland, Oregon bar on June of 1961. He strangled her when they argued after having consensual sex. Chops up her body to make it easier to dispose of her remains. He was arrested on June 30th of that year and got convicted in December of 1961 and sentenced to life in prison. Now paroled after serving 12 years, he killed again, but this time, the murder went undetected. He wasn't as lucky when he murdered and dissected Betty Wilson, however, in Salem, Washington. And guess what? He was sentenced to life in prison yet again. Crazy. Crazy. 

So that's just some of the probably hundreds of people that have been released after being serial killers or murders. They walk amongst you every day in some cases. You just never know who you're dealing with. And I thought that all of you, Patreon supporters, would appreciate hearing about several different parolees that sure as hell don't deserve to be walking amongst the free. I do want to say, and I know I speak for Woody when I say how much we love and appreciate all of you. Next time that we bring you something, I promise you, Woody will be with me. I hope y'all enjoyed my little solo stuff here. I don't do the solo stuff as much as Woody does. Typically, I'm more interview style. So with my podcast, which is Local Leaders: The Podcast, I interview business owners and with Real Life Real Crime Daily. Obviously, it's a three man deal with me, Woody and Mike Agovino. And so I've rather enjoyed talking to y'all. 

I'm not really talking by myself or talking to myself, because I'm talking to y’all, but I'm in here by myself and I've rather enjoyed it. This may be something that I consider doing more often at some point. But much love, I appreciate all of you. Please, please, please, very important before we get out of here. Obviously, if you're a supporter of Bloody Angola. You like the content and you definitely appreciate what we do. I would ask that just two requests. Number one, if you haven't reviewed us yet, I'm sure the majority of you have, please do so. Go to Apple podcast, if that's the app that you would get podcasts. Normally if you weren't listening on Patreon, go there and give us a review. If you're a Spotify person, please do that. Reviews are so important to our rankings. And the higher we rank, the more that they share our podcast with the world. So it's just so important. 

Also, please, if you could share us on Facebook, you can share the link from your Patreon and just say, “Hey, I love supporting Bloody Angola podcast.” If you'd like to join their patron, here's the link. If not, we understand, we totally get it. Times aren't great right now, financially for a lot of people, and we totally get it if someone can't do that. But they could sure join, they could listen on for free with ads included on iTunes and all that sort of stuff. So we're just trying to build this and make it as successful as we possibly can. Until next time, I'm Jim Chapman, your cohost of Bloody Angola, a podcast 142 years in the making a complete story of America's bloodiest prison. Peace. 

Bloody Angola is an Envision Podcast Production in partnership with Workhouse Connect. Music produced and composed by Alfe DeRouen in Studio 433, with vocals by Thomas Cain, created and hosted by Jim Chapman and Woody. 

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