EP185: Killer Couple: Alvin and Judith Neelley - podcast episode cover

EP185: Killer Couple: Alvin and Judith Neelley

May 17, 202340 min
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Episode description

Killer couples have always fascinated us. How do you get another human being to go along with heinous crimes such as rape and murder? You can decide about our story this week about Alvin and Judith Neelley. Was Judith groomed by Alvin, who was 12 years her senior? Was Judith the sick one? Regardless of the reason, these two are responsible for the deaths of two young women and the attempted murder of a man who was engaged to one of the women. At only 18 years old when she was convicted of her crimes, Judith became the youngest person on death row at the time of her sentencing. Listen to this week's episode to hear more about this killer couple.

Join us on Facebook and IG: @HARDCORETRUECRIME Web: www.crimesandconsequences.com--------------->Get ad-free early releases of each episode, plus over 170 exclusive Members Only episodes by going to Patreon.com/tntcrimes or joining our Apple Channel on the Apple Podcast App.

SOURCES:
1) Early Graves by Thomas H. Cook
2) Murderpedia
3) Google Scholar
4) https://www.northwestgeorgianews.com/rome/news/local/parole-hearing-for-judith-ann-neelley-convicted-of-1982-murder-of-lisa-ann-millican-scheduled/article_b73f8c4c-b45f-11ed-9162-63408179054f.html
5) https://the-line-up.com/teen-bride-turned-serial-killer-judith-neelley-case
6) https://www.crimelibrary.org/notorious_murders/women/neelley/10.html
7) https://www.al.com/news/2018/05/judith_ann_neelleys_parole_hea.html

Transcript

This episode may contain content of a graphic nature, including descriptions of physical and sexual violence against adults, children, and animals. Listener discretion is advised. Hi everyone, I'm Tanya and I'm Talia and we are Crimes and Consequences, a true crime podcast. Hi Taliah, Hi Tania. How are you doing today? Great? Great, wonderful? Doing really great? Thanks for us. Oh that's good to know you know how I'm fucking doing? Why are

we playing this? Really? You're not doing well? I'm doing fine. Yeah, you're doing just fine. I have a new episode this week, and before I get into it, I would just like to ask everyone to hit this of scriber follow button on your favorite app that you're listening to us on, and I'm just going to get into the story. Yeah, knock it out. It was early September of nineteen eighty two in Rome, Georgia, at the Regional Youth Development Center. What's that so? I'm going to

refer to this as the RYDC. It's a facility for troubled adolescent girls. The phone rang one night and a staff member named Kenneth Dooley. He was the one that answered the phone. On the other line was a woman who claimed to know his wife. During their conversation, she asked for directions to their personal home not like this home. Not thinking much of it, he

gave the information and the call ended shortly thereafter. However, his wife, and they had only been married a few months, claimed she had no idea who this woman was. In the end, they just shrugged it off and they really didn't think about it again. That is until the night of September tenth is though, right very weird. On September tenth, a young woman called asking for Kenneth, but he was out. She called back a little

bit later, and this time she got him on the line. She waited patiently for him to come to the phone, and when he picked up the receiver, expecting to hear a woman's voice, he was unpleasantly caught off guard because I'm the other lend was an angry mail voice, and the man told him you're gonna pay Oh, So Kenneth was dumbfounded, like he just couldn't understand what what do you mean. Later that night, four shots were fired

into his home, two of which penetrated his study. He managed to see a car speeding way and he called the police and no one was hurt. He wasn't sure exactly what he was reporting. Well, that's fucked up. I know, like what, I've never had any shots fired into my No me either, Oh right. He didn't know if the shots were intended for him or someone in his family, but it definitely worried him. He had a new wife, his two children were in the house with him, so

there was obvious cause for concern. Are these children wom a different marriage? Yeah, like troom a different marriage. He ended up staying wide awake that night. I know right, I wouldn't be able to sleep either. He soon though, would find out he wasn't the only one being targeted. The following night, another roy DC staff member it was her turn. A homemade molotov cocktail thrown into the home of Kenneth's co worker, Linda A. Dare.

Apparently her husband was reported saying that Linda received several phone calls from a young woman just prior to this incident, but when Linda had gone to the phone to take the call, there was no one on the other end of the line. Right after the fire bomb was tossed, a neighbor boy reported seeing a brown car with cream colored stripes speedaway with a man and a woman

with long reddish hair inside. When the flames were extinguished, the police examined the ba, which had been constructed with a simple bottle cloth and gasoline like your typical I guess small to contain. Yeah, I mean, I've made cocktails, but not that one. Right. At first, they thought that Linda's arson inspector husband was the target, but they soon discovered that to be untrue. While the police were still in Linda's home, another phone call came

into her home again. It was a young woman who this time told Linda that both her and Kenneth Dooley were going to die that very night. Oh wow, it was obvious both of these assaults on the RYDC staff members were intentional and meant for them specifically. This call, along with another one made

later to police, proved that these two attacks were linked. The motive behind it was anger and revenge from a woman who refused to give her name in any other information except for the fact that she was a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of the RYDC. Luckily, her call had been recorded, so she called the police told them listen, I did this because I was

a victim of sexual abuse. They recorded these calls so that could be used when they were looking into it. Police promptly had Linda take a listen, and while she said the voice sounded similar to the woman who had called her at home, she wasn't able to identify the voice as belonging to anyone she knew from the RYDC, or anyone else that she knew for that matter.

The police searched for clues and interviewed people at the RYDC, trying to figure out who exactly might have been responsible for the incidents, and decided whether the allegations of abuse had any substance. Unfortunately, since no one had been harmed in the attacks, and since there were no clear leads, the case went on the back burner. On Saturday, September twenty fifth, nineteen eighty two.

So this is a couple weeks later, two young girls were approached on the western side of Rome, Georgia by a woman who wanted to know their names. It turns out this woman, and spoiler alert, it's the woman that made the original call. HERMO was to pretend she knew one of the girls as she approached them, calling the girl by a wrong name intentionally.

This is her way like to get information. Okay, once the little name mistake was set straight through naturally conversing, the girl had managed to learn one of the girl's real name and where she lived. After this, the woman would continue to pressure her about going with her to ride, like get in my car, We're going to take a ride, which really sounded odd, but both of these girls managed to avoid her. However, not all were as lucky. Thirteen year old two escape, Yeah, these two escape.

Thirteen year old Lisa Anne Milliken was one of the unlucky ones. Lisa was on and outing with five other girls from the Ethel Harps Home for Neglected Girls in Cedartown. You know that really sounds like a sad place. They were visiting the Riverbend Mall, which is the central shop area in Rome, Georgia. At the time, it had a video game arcade for families and teenagers,

so the girls like to go there. Lisa wouldn't have known this, but two years earlier, a woman had been robbed at gunpoint at that same mall on the day before Halloween. Interesting enough, the very woman who had been arrested for the robbery and spent a brief time at a juvenile facility. The RYDC was now luring Lisa away from the mall and her friends toward a brown car. One minute, she was with the other girls being told to meet a certain spot, and by the time they were all back together again,

Lisa was gone. Three separate searches were made and then the police were called, but Lisa. They didn't find her. The worried social worker who had accompanied the girls on their mall trips said that Lisa had been wearing jeans and a white and black patterned blouse. Several days went by and there still

was no sign of Lisa and no leads either. That is until the same female caller made three anonymous phone calls to the police directing them to Alabama's Little River Canyon, which was about thirty five miles away from where Lisa had disappeared the well. These calls were initially received and recorded, but when they checked out the area that the caller told him to go to, they didn't find

anything. Then police and Alabama took the next two calls. A call also came into a roam radio station claiming that the police were covering up a murder done by a female juvenile officer. The caller named Lisa Anne Milliken as a victim, so the police thoroughly searched the area once more, following the concise instructions given. The caller said, you know you're going to find her body.

Finally, just as dusk was coming on September twenty ninth, they spotted the still figure of a child draped partially over a tree trunk, a child yeah stone on the canyon floor. A pair of jeans hung from a branch nearby. As they got closer, they could see a bullet hole in the victim's back, showing her death wasn't an accident and instead she was murdered. It appeared as though she'd been thrown down from the eighty foot height onto these

rocks. I know. As they carefully brought the body up to the top in a basket, a woman who had known Lisa from one of the juvenile facilities positively identified her as Lisa Anne Milliken. She had finally been found. Lisa's autopsy revealed that she had been subjected to a series of brutal attacks and

she's only thirteen. If you remember, she had been raped. She was injected in the neck with something that like boiled the fat under her skin, I know, and the county corner described the like under the skin like her flash or fat was consistency of anchovy paste. What. Crime scene investigators also found three plastic syringes near her body, which were sent for fingerprints and further substance analysis. The crime layoub came back stating that the substance found in the

syringes had the basic components of like liquid drain. Now, so she had been injected. Oh, yes, she had been injected several times. The jeans, I know, poor Lisa. The jeans that had been found hanging from the tree had red splatches of blood on them, but they turned out not to be Lisa's pants. It which is really strange, and police thought maybe the pants belonged to the killer. Well, they don't know if they're guy's pants, these guys pants, girls pants? Like, what are these

pants? I believe they were probably girls pants? Okay. Detective Sergeant Kenneth Kines was assigned to had the investigation into Lisa's murder. The only thing that they had to go on thus far were the call that had been made. Each one had been recorded, so Detective Kinds started their first investigators listened to each of the calls made to the various places regarding Lisa, and some of the investigators agreed that the same woman. It sounded like she'd made all four,

especially when the transcripts were typed out. Once everything was in front of them, they realized the clues were and how she talked, like the phrases and in her accent. She sounded fairly young, and many things she said indicated she was familiar with the juvenile justice system. Investigators checked whether Lisa had any enemies. Who's an enemy of this thirteen year right right? While it turned out that she was not popular, there seemed to be no specific grudges

that might make someone wish to kill her. The police figured that Lisa's abductor was probably from the Rome area rather than Alabama, since the first calls had been made there, and they interviewed everyone they could think of, from the girls at the home where she had been face, to farmer neighbors, to her destitute father who had allegedly molested her. He interviewed her mother, who

had a boyfriend fresh out of prison. Many people were given light detector tests, and some looked pretty good as suspects, but no one emerged as a viable person to continue to investigate. It seemed at Leasta either had friends that no one had known about, or she had been abducted by a stranger. Even as the police were busy with this crime, another one was taking place

on the streets of Rome, with another victim targeted for similar treatment. I know, I'm October third cemetery worker John Hancock, which I think is kind of funny. But John Hancock and his fiance Janice K. Chapman accepted an invitation from a complete stranger to go riding around. What like, wow, Like what do you mean? Yeah, We're just hanging out the cemetery and

someone's like, hey, you want to go? They're just on the street somewhere, and a young woman in a car who was a complete strangers to them commit them somehow't have some fun. She lurned them into her car by giving them a pitiful story about how she was lonely and she just wanted some company for a while. So I'd be like what the fuck. I know, I'd be like what, I'm busy, I had got shit to do. I'm not happing in the car with you. But this couple got in

and as a Christian. John later said he felt obligated to do what he could for her, so he and Janice got in. During the ride, they talked with the woman who showed them her Cobra CB radio and she got into a conversation with someone on the other end called the night Rider stop. I know. The The woman went by Lady's sondown and she acted like she didn't know night Rider. But this would soon prove to be untrue. John

and Janice had cbe handles of their own. Oh so, when John noticed the weakness of the frequency that the driver was using to chat with night Rider, he wondered what was going on. After all, this night Rider character seemed to be quite close rather than where he said he was. He communicated with Lady Sundown in a code that was foreign to John. Yeah, I know. So John just relaxed and went along for the ride. But then,

to john surprise, the woman took them outside of town. She came to a stop where a rather large man was apparently waiting for them in a red Granada. This man was the mysterious night night Rider. John introduced himself and Janie to night Rider, and night Rider said he wanted to find some alcohol. Then they all drove her way together in two cars to get another

spot that was miles away from where they had all come from. Night Rider pretended he was looking for a place to get liquor, but really he was just trying to get them lost, and John lost all sense of directions, so he had no idea where they were to John surprise, he was allowed to get out of the car to pee, but when he did, Lady Sundown walked up to him with a handgun and ordered him into the woods.

Well shit, She walked him down a narrow road and then he heard night Rider yelled her like, get it over with, She told John, don't worry about your girlfriend. Night Rider yelled again at her, and then John felt a shot go through his right shoulder and he fell to the ground. Fortunately for him, Lady Sundown was in a hurry and she didn't check to make sure he was alive or not. John was shocked and dazed by what

had just happened, but yeah, he was still alive. He knew he needed to act fast, but he had to wait and make sure that the coast was clear before he could get up. After laying there for a bit, he managed to regain his strength, and he ran to the road and he flagged down a truck driver. His girlfriend. She's nowhere near them. I guess it couldn't have done munch to save her anyway, he probably couldn't. The truck driver took him to the hospital, and that's when a nurse

called the police. Although John had been shot in the right shoulder, he would recover. He gave police his version of the story, but the police weren't completely convinced. For a few reasons. They initially suspected maybe it was a drug deal gone bad hood since John was saying that a woman had shot him, and he didn't seem to put up any kind of fight. Okay, wasn't making a drug deal? I don't know. And then they just

didn't like his mannerisms. I guess. While he talked to them, he was like easygoing, and even though they didn't think he was lying, he seemed oddly unconcerned about his fiance or even about his own attack. It seemed to be a rather strange story anyway, like it is a fu getting into the car with a strange woman you don't know. Even so, there had been a number of reports over the past few days of people being approached by a woman driving around in a brown dodge with white stripes, So at least

that lent some credibility to a story. John was able to supply a description of lady Sundown and night riders stop. They gave police a break in all of these recent puzzling cases. However, it didn't come out, and during his interrogation instead, when they were going to give him a polygraph, he overheard Detective Kinds playing the tape of the female caller. He recognized the voice. Yeah, absolutely, He was like, that's the woman who shot me.

So he told his story again to Detective Kinds and he offered physical details so that they could do a composite sketch for Detective Kinds. This was a real break in the case. John wanted to help in any way that he could. He even agreed to submit to hypnosis his way to refresh his memory, like maybe there was something but he's missing, that's your subconscious. He was taken to Atlanta to have the sun and he was able to remember one thing, and it was that there was a bumper sticker on one of the

cars that he hadn't previously mentioned. He also rode around town with Detective Kinds and an effort to see if anything he saw could jog his memory where he was. Yeah, because he said he was lost. Yeah, he was lost. After Detective Kinds was certain that all of the anonymous calls were made by the same woman, he went back to Linda Adair and Kenneth Dooley, and remember they were the one at the beginning of the story that had their

home attacked. So Detective Kinds decided to bring them both in together and he wanted to know from them whether something had occurred at the RYDC to a girl who might now be to yeah exactly. The two both denied that there had been any kind of sexual abuse occurring at the facility, and they said that

they didn't even know each other outside of being coworkers. Detective Kinds went over all of the files of the girls who had been sent to the RYDC due to crimes they had committed and narrowed his list of suspects down to five with prior records. Among them was Judith Anne Neelie and chief of the description given by some of the witnesses. In addition, she had been involved with an armed robbery, so they knew she was comfortable using the gun, and they

can give her mushot to John. Right. So, after doing some digging and investigating, Detective Kinds discovered that Judith was married to a man named Alvin, and they both had police records. He then placed their photos in a lineup to show John. Absolutely, John hesitantly picked out the Kneelies as his attackers, but he said he'd want to see them in person, Like, but I don't know, he said, you know, it was a long night and the guy, Yeah, it was a long night, John,

Yeah, he said. In the guy in the photo, you know, night rider, he had a beard, so it was hard to tell. Ye, I didn't see that. As it turned out, luck was in the police's favor, seeing as Alvin and Judith had been arrested for other crimes, so they were conveniently in custody in Tennessee. Oh so they're literally arrested at that point. Yeah, they arrested at that point. So this is right after what happened to John. Yes, yes, let me tell you

a little bit about Judith and Alvin, these two winners. I can't wait. Judith and Neelie was born a loser who was also known by her Cebee handles which were Lady Sundown or Lady Goodyear. And she was went by the bride of Frankenstein. Oh that's love ye. Judith was born in mumps free

Borough, Tennessee, in nineteen sixty four. Her father died in a motorcycle accident when she was nine, and after he died, Judith's home life went from bandor's I bet Her mother was arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a teenage boy. And I'm not sure exactly what that doesn't sound good. No. When Judith was fifteen, she met Alvin Neely, who was twelve years her senior. Oh gross, I know, very gross. Although he was larger than most football players, so he's a big dude. He had a

face most people thought was sweet to stop it. Born born in Georgia, I don't know, born in Georgia. He was car thief with a friendly demeanor, who was more than car thief with a friendly demeanor. He was more than happy to give Judith a way out of her taxic situation at home. Their chemistry was instantaneous and undeniable. Neither could imagine life without the other.

However, Alvin was married at the time, No problem. Yeah, he decided to get a divorce so it could be with his fifteen year old girlfriend basically, and his wife really wasn't all that upset to see him go. And then Alvin and Judith eloped in Georgia in nineteen eighty. Judith so she's like sixteen. Judith fit in easily with Alvin into his life of petty crimes. They were constantly on the move, robbing convenience stores and gas stations

from Georgia to Texas in order to finance their on the go lifestyle. As they came into the Riverbend Mall parking lot in Rome, Georgia, they finally made a mistake in nineteen eighty They robbed a woman at gunpoint and were eventually caught trying to cash stolen checks, which led to their arrest. Since Alvin had outstanding warrens in several states, he was sentenced to five years in prison. Judith, on the other hand, ended up at the Ryds. Oh

there we go, Ding Ding Ding ding Ding. She was pregnant at the time and gave birth to twins. She's pregnant in twins. She was then transferred to another facility in making Georgia. Judith spent much of her time writing to Alvin, telling him how much she despised the staff at the r y DC, and she claimed that they had sexually abused her. That's just it.

Though all of her allegations have been denied by the staff there and police found no evidence to support them, so I can't confirm or deny whether they were true or not. Even so, she managed to get Alvin feeling like he needed some revenge due to these incidents. She got them all riled up, so now they are on this war path. For how long did he do? Uh? It had been less and five, Yeah, it was

less than five. It was definitely like a year and a half. Judith was released towards the end of nineteen eighty one, and since she had nowhere else to go, she ended up moving in with Alvin's parents in Tennessee until he was released from prison. But her stint away didn't help much, as she returned right back to her old crime freeways. Surprised, she was arrested again after robbing another convenience store, and I don't know what punishment she got,

if any, but Alvin's parents took care of the twins. I wouldn't even know how to rob a convenience store. I don't know. Excuse me? Can you just give me all your money? Yeah? Stick them up, I don't know, stick them up, stick them up. Within six months, Alvin had been granted an early release, so he did all of like a year and a half. So the two picked up where they had

left off, leaving their kids behind. They needed money, so they learned how to steal checks from post offices and use their signatures to forge money orders, which became their primary means of supporting their lifestyle. I don't know how you forge money orders, but I don't know. I know this is back in nineteen eighty two, so who knows. To keep track of one another, they installed CBE radios in their respective cars, and Alvin became the night

rider in Judith Lady Sundown. Just so cool. They even gave themselves the nicknames of Bony and Claude as a joke about their resemblance to the bank robbing Bonnie and Clyde. It's so stupid, that's so clever, so hysterical clever. Yes. In September nineteen eighty two, they found themselves in Rome, Georgia again and decided to launch an all out attack, which ended up being much of what I've told you earlier about the attacks on Kenneth Dooley and Linda

Adair's residences, as well as the kidnapping of Lisa Millican. In this account, I'm gonna tell you about all these crimes came mostly from Judith. Judith described that they abducted Lisa Millican from an arcade and said she looked like Jonie Cunningham from Happy Days. They kept her. This was really sad what they did to her, so buckle up, all right. They kept her captive

in two different hotel rooms in Georgia and Alabama for three days. Judith and Alvin had sex with Lisa and kept her handcuffed to a bed, which forced her to sleep on the floor. Then, at alvin distraction, Judith took Lisa to a remote canyon in Alabama and tried to inject her with drink cleaner products they had purchased for this very purpose. Horrible time. I know, I can't even imagine. If it touches your skin, it burns, yes,

And but Lisa didn't die like Judith hoped or expected. Lisa was moaning on the ground and complained of being in pain. I mean, obviously, Judith kept shoving the needle into her six times in the neck for more than a half an hour before she accepted the fact that these injections weren't working. Lisa was burning and she was cold, but she wouldn't die. The girl begged Judith to take her back to the Harp's home. That's that girl's home

that she was at, but that obviously wasn't going to happen. In the end, Judith decided just to kill the girl quickly, and she used a thirty eight pistol to shoot her three times. One bullet went through Lisa's back and out her left breast, which was the shot that ended up killing her. When Judith was certain she was dead, she shoved her over the edge

of the canyon. Judith would later say that Alvin had masturbated as he looked now you know, at the battered corpse grows, but Judith's description of this incident to the police indicated she'd been alone. Alvin too, denied ever being there, so I don't know if this really happened, But Alvin also denied raping Lisa before he finally said that he had indeed had sex with her, but only once. Only once. It was difficult to know what the true

story was. He had even tried claiming that Judith had masturbated him into ejaculation and then put the sperm into Lisa stop. Only when the police refused to buy that did he admit to sexual contact with Lisa. And before I tell you more, we're going to take a break. Five days later, Judith went searching for another victim. This is five days after they murdered Lisa.

She saw a woman at a pay phone that appeared to be by herself, but Judith was unable to get her into the car like to go riding around with her. That woman would remember later for the police the strange feeling she had when Judith approached her. Fortunately for her, she had called her husband

to come get her and therefore didn't need a ride. Soon afterward, Judith spotted twenty two year old Janice Chapman, who was John Hancock's fiance and even though she was with a man, Judith thought, with Alvin's help, they would be able to manage this. After all, they could get rid of the guy and take the girl with them. Judith pulled over invited the couple to go with her. I told you everything that happened the CB and blah blah blah. So remember Janice. I never told you what happened to her

after Judith shot John and left him. Yeah, I don't know anything about what happened to Janis. She and Alvin took Janice, who was mentally disabled. I'm not sure how. So they took her to a cheap motel nearby. They raped her repeatedly and then shot her. They drove her body to a wooded area near a creek in Dumpter, and that's what happened I know. So it seems now that they've gotten away with murder twice, you know

Lisa and now Janice. So they were ready for another. But they needed money first, so they went into Murfreesborough and probably saying that wrong to pass some of their forged money orders. Thankfully, someone recognized them from a police flyer and they were arrested. So that's why they're sitting in jail in Tennessee. Once in police custody, each began to point the finger at each other

at exactly it seemed to be every man for himself. Alvin was quick to lawyer up, effectively shutting down the interrogation, but his attorney urged him to tell police what he knew. Alvin claimed that Judith had instigated the crimes and was responsible for eight murders, and then, oh yeah, he had just gone along with her. Oh wow, that's true. Love hed eight. He said she liked to have power over others, and in that moment he didn't know what else to do. He even went as far as say he

was afraid that his wife might kill him. He's like this big dude, right. He made sure to emphasize how dangerous Judith, very dangerous really was. I was scared from my life. Yeah, suck off by the way he raped Yeah, teenagers right. Alvin apparently believed her tales about sexual abuse at the ROYDC and thought she had a good reason to be angry, but he also gave the distinct impression that he didn't want to commit I didn't want

to the rape and murders. I absolutely didn't, right, but really this wasn't quite Why don't you just walk away? It's all bullshit. Alvin also claimed that the weapons oblong to Judith and that she had killed the two girls because of some rage that she carried around with her. At first, he do to stop nothing, right In fact one, I'm Almo was in a hotel. Yeah, days exactly with them and they were raped. Yes, yes, absolutely he participated. At first. Judith did accept the blame,

exonerating Alvin every step of the way. In her own confession, she described her final moments with Lisa and Janice, and she admitted to the fire bombing and the shooting into Kenneth's house, but she said she did that because Kenneth Duley had raped her and that Linda Adair had set it up. But it didn't matter what either of them said or told police, because the wait, those are the people from the RYDC. Yeah, okay, that's why she

was angry with them. It didn't matter what either of them said or told the police, because they would both change their minds and their stories several times. So yeah, not to mention things would change after getting lawyers. In preparing for trial, of course, Alvin told authorities how Judith had killed Janis Chapman and gave directions to where they could find the body. He even drew a map, implicating himself at least as an accomplice it wasn't long before they

recovered Janice's decomposing corpse. She had been raped, shot to death, and dumped in a wilderness area, just as he described. So now they had two murders and two suspects. It would seem to be cut and dry, but it wasn't. After all, these crimes, the murder, rape, and assault had all been committed in different counties and in some cases different states. Not to mention, the evidence against Alvin was kind of weak except for the rape. I know they could get him for Janice's murder, but not

Lisa's. Okay, well that's one. Yeah. Alvin remained in Tennessee and pled guilty to his part in the kidnap murder of Janis Chapman in exchange for life in prison. Jabith, on the other hand, faced first degree murder charges in Alabama for the murder of Lisa Milliken, and with her confession, they had a good case against her. She was extradited there for trial with possible death penalty hanging over her. Had it. Yeah. Judge Randall Cole

presided over the proceedings. Alabama had a three count indictment against her murder, abduction with the intent to harm and abduction with the intent to terrorize. Her defense relied heavily on the insanity plea based on battered woman. I knew it. I knew it. She's not going to say that she went through psychiatric examinations but proved to be competent enough to stand trial. Which there's a difference

between being influenced, yes, and being battered, right exactly. Even so, her defense put their bast foot forward and claiming that Judith was a pawn for Alvin and that he had beat her into doing the things he wanted, like capturing and raping young girls. The tree beater, not that I've ever heard. No. The trial began two months later after these arrests in the extradition, and Judith's defense put everything into the fact that Alvin controlled Judith and

made her do his dirty. They even brought in Alvin's ex wife to describe her years of alleged abuse in Alvin's hands, and she claimed to have many scars from those days. And that might be true, maybe, but I'm not gonna kidnap some girl, I know, right, I mean I don't know for days and kill her and kill a guy. Yeah, And so now it's Judith's turn to take this. I'd rather just die than do those things. I mean some people, I guess, I don't know, Okay.

She was grilled for four days. She went into extravagant detail about being a victim and being definitely afraid of her husband, Alvin. She claimed that if she hadn't done what he wanted, then he would have killed her. It would be true. Maybe. According to her, everything from assault to murder had been done completely under his direction. Apparently he was the master mind behind everything. However, everything Judith was saying contradicted everything she had written to

Alvin. And you know what, she's still fucking them like they were still together, making the sweet love right and all that come on. When the prosecution presented their case, John Hancock testified as well as three different girls that Judith tried to pick up but she was unsuccessful in doing so. And all three of these girls said there was no sign of a man anywhere when these incident took place, But that doesn't mean to them control over maybe not to

mention. A psychiatrist came on the scene and talked about how Judith had known the difference between right and wrong at the time of the offense, and she had consciously decided to commit murder. Even if she was brainwashed, she still hit a choice, and the psychiatrist stood firm on that statement. It's true, so now both sides closer cases. And the judge gave the instructions to

the jury. The jury received the case on March twenty first, nineteen eighty three, fairly late in the afternoon, and by the next morning they had reached a verdict. They found Judith and Neely guilty of the kidnap and murder of Lisa Milliken, and they recommended that she be sentenced to life in prison. I can see that rather than giving her the death penalty right eighteen. By the way, Despite this recommendation, sentencing was up to Judge Cole,

and he had written two opinions. Ultimately, he decided that while Judith was young, she was also brazen and cruel. He thought the crimes had been heinous and atrocious beyond which is common to most capital cases, and sentenced turned to death. Holy shit. Yeah. When Judith heard this, she began to cry Wow. He usurped jury that she's going I'm gonna put her in

death row, not wanting a second death sentence in another state. Judith ended up leading guilty to the kidnap and murder of Janis Chapman in Tennessee, and she received a life sentence for that crime. Then she got ten years for the shooting of John Hancock. It was her deal with Tennessee that spurred Alvin to finalize his own plea deal. Judith became the youngest woman to have been sentenced to death in Alabama. In a nineteen eighty three prison interview, she

reportedly quote, I pray for strength. I don't ask God for me not to be electrocuted. I just asked that if I'm going to be electrocuted, to give me strength to go through it. End quote. Its kind of not going to have a choice, I know. Judith appealed to get a new trial, but in March nineteen eighty seven, the US Supreme Court rejected the appeal. Less than two years later, they let her death sentence stand.

She converted to Christianity. While she was in prison. She apparently developed a relationship with another woman who, on May twenty first, nineteen ninety four, was found dead at her home. She had shot herself. What she did this relationship with this other woman and she was found dead. She had shot herself, leaving photographs and a cassette recording of her end Judith's fatal plan. Judith was found in her cell, her wrists slashed with a disposable razor,

but she survived. So it's going to be murder suicide or suicide suicide kind of thing. Then there was more news. Alabama Governor Fob James decided that Judith didn't deserve to die for her crimes. Before he left office, he signed an order to commute her sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. This decision caused an outcry, so he defended his decision, stating he had given it long consideration and went through many documents, including letters

pleading with him to reconsider Judath's case. The jury, he noted, had given her a life sentence, and it was the judge that had held for the death sentence. Governor James said that since the jury who had seen all the evidence, had decided on leniency and they had been chosen as Judith's peers, their recommendation was the proper one to follow. In response to the governor commuting Judith's sentence, lawmakers in two thousand and three passed the law that death

row inmates who had their sentences commuted shall not be eligible for parole. Judaths attorney filed the lawsuit challenging the statute in its retroactive application to her case. The law was ruled institutional in March of twenty eighteen, leading to her first parole hearing in May of twenty eighteen, where the Alabama Board of Pardons took only fifty five seconds to deny her parole. However, even if Judith is granted parole, she would likely be arrested by Georgia authorities to serve a time

for a consecutive life sentence in the rape and murder of Janis Chapman. All of them. What the fuck? What's the point? I know? She is set to see the parole board again this month May of twenty twenty three. Currently, she is the second longest serving female death row inmate in the country. That sucks in cause you're wondering what happened to Alvin. I would like to know he died in prison in two thousand and five. Oh, how I don't know. He just died. He just died. He wasn't

old. No, well, he's twelve years older than her. No, he wasn't the old because at home, Karma's a bitch. Yeah, Kara's a bitch, and so is he. He is a bitch. So that is my awful story of Alvin and Judith Neely. I never heard that. I knew that she was the youngest person to be sentenced to death row. Maybe if i'd like saw our picture, maybe I would know. But I would just like to do what Neely and neal e L L E Y. I would like to ask everyone to hit the subscriber follow button if you haven't.

I don't like her, No, I'm just thinking at the pictures. I don't like her. And if you would like to hear more episodes that we have not released to the public, please check out Patreon dot com, slash t n T crimes, or go to our website and there's information there YEP Crimes and Consequences dot com and you would not only get additional episodes, but you would also get our weekly free episodes early release and and free YEP.

Absolutely. If you don't want to go there and you are listening on your Apple podcast app iPhone, I mean, you've got so many options. You can just subscribe through the Apple podcast app and you would get the same episodes. Why not just do it? We are on Facebook and Instagram at hardcore true crime, and I think that's probably It's good enough. That's good enough. We have shout outs and I even write them now. No, so we have to do it next time, all right, all right until

our next episode, don't kill each other. Bye bye,

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