True Crime Reporter

What is it about Waco, Texas? A whirlwind of bizarre events and violence seems to dump all sorts of strange creatures into Central Texas. Whether it is serial killers on the hunt for victims or the Branch Davidian Cult ending in a fiery inferno, it spins out true crime stories that are stranger than fiction. Investigative reporter Robert Riggs and former federal prosecutor Bill Johnston have been deeply involved in all of them.  In the previous episode called Murder, Mayhem, and Meth, they talked about violent meth kingpins who controlled the manufacture and distribution of “speed” during the 1980s in Texas. Now it’s about to get really weird with the story of devil lovers who set up a factory to make methamphetamines. In a weekly ritual, the devil lovers would prick their fingers and drip blood on the pages of an open Bible.  You won’t believe what happened next.  FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

If you were a Breaking Bad TV series fan, get ready to listen to the actual version in Texas. The TV series featured a fictional high school chemistry teacher named Walter White, diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor who manufactures high-grade meth to put away cash for his family’s future. It is not far from the truth.  During the 1980s, Central and East Texas were dotted with illicit meth labs set up in remote farmhouses. But these “Walter White”  meth kingpins typically became addicted to their own chemical product and turned super paranoid. Investigative reporter Robert Riggs and former federal prosecutor Bill Johnston flashback to the notorious trade and violence it brought to the badlands of Texas. FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

Texas Ranger Stan Guffey 1946 – 1987 Courtesy Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, Waco, Texas In the previous episode of True Crime Reporter™ Texas Ranger Files, we told the story of brave Rangers who kept up the pursuit of kidnappers while their car was being riddled with gunfire and was engulfed in flames. Thirteen-year-old Amy McNiel the daughter of the pioneer in the development of the first hand-held calculator, was kidnapped by five men on the way to school in January 1985 Retired Ranger Captain Bob Prince recalled the tension-filled 48-hour, 600-mile game of cat and mouse and a 100 mph running gun battle that ended in the safe rescue of the teen. During the pursuit of the kidnappers, Texas Ranger Stan Guffey maintained surveillance from an aircraft. Two years later, when a doped-crazed criminal out on parole kidnapped a two-year-old girl, Guffey did not want to stand by and watch as he had before. Guffey insisted on replacing another Ranger in a plan to surprise the kidnapper as the father of the victim delivered the ransom. He pulled a fellow Ranger out of his hiding place in the back seat of a Lincoln Continental that was being used in the rendezvous with the kidnapper and took his place. It was the day the last Ranger Died, January 22, 1987. Investigative reporter Robert Riggs and former U.S. prosecutor Bill Johnston reveal what happened in this exclusive edition of the Texas Ranger Files.  Bill tells the sad ending of this story that has waited years to be told. Note: You can read more about the history of the legendary Texas Rangers and see vintage photos on our blog at True Crime Reporter®. FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

The Texas Rangers constitute the oldest state law enforcement organization in North America, dating to 1823. You can read more about the Texas Rangers’ history and influence on popular culture on our blog at the True Crime Reporter®website. L to R Bill Johnston, Ret’d Ranger Captain Bob Prince, Robert Riggs True Crime Reporter™ Podcast Robert and Bill interview retired Ranger Captain Bob Prince, a legendary modern-day Texas Ranger, about his most memorable case. Our story begins with the rescue of 13-year-old Amy McNiel of Alvarado, Texas, from five kidnappers in mid-January of 1985. It captures the frontier spirit and courage of the officers who wear the distinctive 5-star badge of the Texas Rangers. The teenage daughter of Don McNiel, a pioneer in the development of the first hand-held calculator, was snatched at gunpoint on the way to school. Kidnappers ran a jeep driven by her 17-year-old brother off the road and put a sawed-off shotgun to his face as they grabbed his sister. They demanded a $100,000 ransom for the seventh grader’s safe return but had no intention of releasing the teenage girl alive. Throughout McNiel’s abduction, the five kidnappers snorted and injected drugs and talked about “driving” to Hawaii with the ransom money. The teen defiantly insisted that her captors feed a hungry dog in their backyard before she would cooperate. Their ringleader, 34-year James Wesley Foote, lived near the McNiel’s mansion and his son was her school classmate but unknown to her. Foote’s son had once stabbed a fellow student in the arm with a knife. Two weeks before McNiel’s abduction, Foote who was wanted for attempted murder had burst into the home of a prominent businessman in Arlington near Fort Worth, Texas to kidnap his two young children. The family’s housekeeper wrestled Foote’s gun away from him and fought him in a bloody 45-minute struggle.  The gun discharged near her head, and Foote fled. A few weeks later, Foote and his accomplices then abducted 13-year-old Amy McNiel In this episode of Texas Ranger Files, retired Ranger Captain Bob Prince remembers a tension-filled 48-hour, 600-mile game of cat and mouse and a 100-mph running gunbattle. FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

In our previous episode of the True Crime Reporter® podcast, we presented the murder case of Annie Laurie Williams.  Williams bludgeoned her 8 and 9-year-old sons to death and then dispassionately dismembered their bodies to dispose of them. Her acts are unthinkable. Robert Riggs and Bill Johnston contacted forensic psychiatrist Dr. Richard Taylor in the United Kingdom to gain perspective and understanding of such a crime. Dr. Taylor is the author of The Mind of a Murderer. He has worked on more than 100 murder cases. He explores the subject of Women Who Kill Children in his book. Dr. Taylor also works with a special unit called the Fixated Threat Assessment Center (FTAC), which investigates threats to the royal family and politicians. You can find a link to more information about the FTAC on our website. Murder is not just a crime; it is a significant public health problem. In 2017 alone, there were close to a half-million recorded victims of homicide around the globe. FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

The 1950s were called the “Happy Days.” The war was over, the economy was booming, and the American Dream was in full swing. In 1957, it was estimated that one baby was born every second. The Lone Ranger was a hit TV show. Little boys acted out their mythical western adventures on stick horses. But the dream became a nightmare for two brothers in Texas. Their murders at the hands of their knife-wielding mother shocked the nation. Annie Williams 1955 Mug Shot This is the story of how Annie Williams was supposed to spend the rest of her life in prison for dismembering her boys. Annie Williams Sentenced To Two Life Terms November 8, 1955 But contrary to what her sentencing jury was told, Williams was set free on parole. She then jumped parole and disappeared for sixteen years until fugitive hunter Louis Fawcett got on her trail. This is the 57-year-long account of a mother who murdered her sons with malice. Annie Williams Booking Photo After Her Fugitive Arrest In 1997 Until now, the tragedy of her two sons has been long forgotten. A pair of large ornate pink granite headstones mark their graves at the Oak Park Cemetery located in Alvin, Texas. Long-Forgotten Victims Of A Mother’s Murder With Malice 8-year old Conrad S. Williams. and 9-year Calvin H. Williams were laid to rest side by side. In 1955, the shocked and grief-stricken community took up a collection to bury the murdered brothers. Years later, green mold grows on Calvin’s headstone.   Vandals have tipped over Conrad’s headstone. It lies flat on the ground. Piles of scattered brown leaves and broken tree limbs cover the boy’s graves.  Few remember the terrible end to their short lives that made front-page headlines across the world. But veteran Texas lawman Louis Fawcett, the fugitive hunter who always got his man or woman, says it is the one case out of hundreds that will never fade from his memory.  FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

46 years after the abduction, torture, and murder of a 17-year-old girl, cold case detectives with the Fort Worth police department arrested a 78-year old Glen McCurley and charged him with capital murder. McCurley abducted Carla Walker from the parking lot of a bowling alley in 1974. Walker had been to a Valentine’s day dance with her 17-year old boyfriend. McCurley pistol-whipped Walker’s boyfriend and tried to shoot him in the head three times but the pistol’s magazine fell out. Walker’s lifeless body was later found dumped in a culvert. Fort Worth Police detectives Jeff Bennett and Leah Wagner were the primary investigators who reopened this case in 2019. New, advanced DNA testing matched McCurley’s DNA to stains found on Carla Walker’s clothing. The 46-year old unsolved case came to an end in August of 2021 when McCurley pleaded guilty during his murder trial. He was sentenced to life in prison. Retired Homicide Detective David Thornton helped start the cold case unit. At the outset, investigators faced 750 unsolved murders dating back to 1966. Thornton put into motion an effort that is still solving cold cases in which the original investigation failed to produce sufficient evidence to support murder charges. In this edition of our True Crime Reporter Confidential, Robert Riggs and Bill Johnston take listeners inside homicide investigations and cold cases. It is nothing like what is portrayed on popular TV shows. That’s Hollywood. This is real life.

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. FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

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. FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

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. FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

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. FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

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. FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT that you want to hear more about

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. FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

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. FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

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.  FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

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. FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

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. FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

Kenneth McDuff’s first death sentence for the broomstick murders was commuted to life when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in 1972.  Now, McDuff faces two more capital murder charges. Prosecutors want to make sure that McDuff keeps his date with the executioner. After being sentenced to die by lethal injection, Riggs asked McDuff, “What now, Kenneth?” McDuff looked Riggs in the eye and smugly said, “I guess I’m going to die. We all have to sometimes. You know.” FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

James Granberry Pleads the 5th In Senate Hearing Texas inmates and their families started receiving business cards and letters from the ex-parole board chairman, promising early release for a price. Former parole board chairman James Granberry, who played the key role in setting serial killer Kenneth McDuff free, set up a business as a parole consultant. He solicited money from inmate’s families to get his old cronies on the parole board to release his clients from prison early. In Episode 10, Investigative Reporter Robert Riggs exposes the secret underworld of parole consultants and the release of Kenneth McDuff’s prison pal.  FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

Kenneth McDuff’s confidential prison and parole records contained plenty of warning signs that he was a psychopathic killer who should never be released. Investigative Reporter Robert Riggs obtains McDuff’s records. Riggs exposes the lies the Texas Parole Board Chairman has been telling about his role in freeing McDuff. Along the way, Riggs discovers a secret process that released a hate crime killer in exchange for giving the parole board chairman a new car for himself and his mistress at the parole board. FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

Investigative Reporter Robert Riggs was investigating how serial killer Kenneth McDuff and dozens of other former death row inmates in Texas got out of prison when Riggs crossed paths with U.S. Marshals. The Marshal’s nationwide manhunt captured McDuff working on a garbage truck in Kansas City.  But the question remained.  Who in their right mind on the Texas parole board would let this diabolical killer walk out of prison? McDuff’s abduction and murder spree started shortly after he returned to Waco, Texas in 1989. Deputy Marshall Parnell McNamara had compared McDuff to “Jack The Ripper.” After McNamara locked McDuff in a holding cell, the stern lawman looked Riggs in the eye and told the journalist, “We caught him. Our job is done. Now it’s your job to find out how this monster got out of prison.” Riggs was already on the trail. Just a few days after McDuff’s capture, the daughter of one of McDuff’s rape victims from when he was a high school student in his hometown of Rosebud comes forward. The biological daughter that McDuff called “My Little Gangster” tells Riggs that she overheard the serial killer’s family discussing a $25,000 bribe to grease his way to freedom. Her allegations take Riggs deep into the corrupt underbelly of Texas parole and prison systems. FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

The confession to the abduction and murder of a young accountant in Austin by Kenneth McDuff’s accomplice gives U.S. Marshals the evidence they need to launch a nationwide dragnet for the serial killer. After combing every corner of Central Texas for weeks, the Texas posse realizes that McDuff has fled the state. In Kansas City, a garbage truck worker recognizes McDuff’s mug shot in a TV crime show featuring the U.S. Marshals’ search. The Marshals capture McDuff, but when they return the serial killer to Waco, Texas an angry mob wants to tear him limb from limb. FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

Alva Hank Worley – McDuff Accomplice The U.S. Marshals Service Task Force locates one of McDuff’s prison pals. Every night, Deputy U.S. Marshals Parnell and Mike McNamara, along with U.S. federal prosecutor Bill Johnston, roll through the underbelly of Central Texas rousting parolees. Unlike the horse-bound Texas’s posses of the past, the Marshals drive an SUV bristling with weapons. It’s called “Big Foot”. They use a technique called “driving them up” to break down one of McDuff’s prison pals, who is also out on parole. It pays off when the parolee admits that he was McDuff’s accomplice in the abduction and murder of Colleen Reed from an Austin carwash. You will hear the masterful confession extracted by Tim Steglich. At that time, he was a criminal investigator for the Bell County Sheriff’s Department and a crack interrogator. Steglich extracts a confession that breaks the case wide open. It is a blood-chilling “Journey Into Darkness.” FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

Addie McDuff – Mother of Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff The case of Kenneth Allen McDuff raises the age-old question about serial killers. Was McDuff the product of nature or nurture? Did genetics create this violent, uncaring monster, or did McDuff’s home life rob him of every ounce of compassion? The U.S. Marshal’s posse converges on McDuff’s mother, Addie, who was known as the “pistol-packing mama.” Addie McDuff’s pure hate and meanness shock all of the hard-nosed lawmen hunting for McDuff. One thing becomes clear to them. Addie McDuff enabled a violent, sadistic psychopath.  FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

When Falls County, Texas Sheriff Larry Pamplin heard Kenneth McDuff was out on parole, he prophetically stated, “I don’t know if will be a few days, a few weeks, or a few weeks, but bodies will start turning up.”  Indeed, a string of abductions started happening up and down the Interstate 35 corridor between Dallas and Austin. McDuff started a murderous crime spree that would span two and a half years. The paroled triple killer and an accomplice circled an Austin car wash, stalking a victim. In the words of McDuff, “They were on the hunt for a woman to use up.” It was just a few days after Christmas in 1991.  They spotted Colleen Reed, a petite Austin accountant,  washing her new sports car.  Neighbors hear her shrill scream. In a split second, Colleen disappeared, never to be seen alive again. FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

A pair of Deputy U.S. Marshals and a young, aggressive federal prosecutor suspects that triple killer and former death row inmate Kenneth McDuff is behind the abduction of a convenience store clerk in Waco, Texas.  When no other law enforcement organizations are willing to pursue a hot lead, the trio organizes an old-style Texas posse. The U.S. Marshals Service’s top fugitive hunters join the posse. They recruit an Irish cop from New York City who works undercover in the Texas prison system. You can follow their trail as they track McDuff through a filthy underworld of ex-cons with a vengeance FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

A Texas Sheriff and a U.S. Marshal describe the violent criminal history of Kenneth Allen McDuff — AKA  “The Broomstick Killer.” They and their fathers helped capture McDuff for the abduction and murder of three Fort Worth teenagers in 1966. The brutality and rape of a teenage girl with a jagged broomstick handle were seared into their memories. Twenty-five years later, they discover that McDuff is the modern-day  “Jack The Ripper” of Central Texas.  Two days after the former death row inmate walked out of prison on parole, women’s bodies started showing up. And women started getting snatched in plain sight, never to be seen alive again. FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

A violent crime wave swept across Texas in the late 1980s and early 1990s. You could pick up the newspaper any day or turn on the television anywhere, Houston, Dallas, particularly Houston, and the lead story was a stranger on stranger crime, horrific violence. A Houston mother was pulled out of her car by her hair women at a busy intersection by ex-cons looking for a full tank of gas.  They executed her and ran over her body as they drove away in her car with a full tank of gas. Stories like this always start and end with, “The killers were out on parole.”  Little did the public or members of the Texas Legislature know, but the Texas Governor had secretly swung open the doors to relieve prison overcrowding.  Thousands of violent criminals, including former death row inmates, flooded back into Texas communities. In their wake, murder and mayhem spread like a plague across Texas. Among the inmates released was Kenneth Allen McDuff, a sadistic sexual serial killer known as the “Broom Stick Killer.” McDuff had been sentenced to die in Texas’ electric chair for the brutal murder of three teenagers in a farming community outside Fort Worth.  Women’s bodies started showing up a few days after McDuff walked out of prison on parole in 1989. This is the story of the dedicated law enforcement officers who worked tirelessly to stop McDuff’s killing spree and to bring him to justice. It is the story of how Peabody Award-winning investigative reporter Robert Riggs uncovered widespread corruption in the Texas Parole and Prison systems that led to the wholesale release of thousands of violent criminals. FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about