One Eyed Wolf

So how did George get wrapped up into this? Well, since they was young, they was beat into his head that he always had to take care of his little brother, no matter what. Can't let nobody heard his little brother always had to take his little brother's side, no matter what. And I think I'd had something to do with it. This is the Piketon Massacre. Returned to Pike County season three,

episode five, One Eyed Wolf. I'm Courtney Armstrong, a television producer at KATI Studios with Stephanie Ledeger and Jeff Shane. George Wagner is a waiting trial in Pike County for his involvement in the murders of the Roden family. He's pleaded not guilty after two seasons of reporting details of what allegedly went down on the night of April twenty first, twenty sixteen have slowly come into focus, but we still know little about the eldest son of the Wagner clan,

George Wagner. In this episode, we talked to the people who knew George the best and delve into why many are still trying to comprehend his potential involvement in the piked of Nassacre. In May of twenty seventeen, thirteen months after the murders, investigators sent a swat team to the Wagner's property to search for evidence. Around that time, George changed his social media profile picture and an online group picked it up immediately, screenshot at it and posted it.

Here's an anonymous Wagner and Roden family source. It's crazy. I don't know what all is out. It's not out. But when all this went down, he had posted what is it called your profile picture of a wolf that had a chart in one eye. And if you get on there and read that Angela is on there and tell him he needs to delete it, you know you shouldn't be doing that. And then everybody in this group that I'm in was like, oh, that's like pointing to him having shot Kenny, and Angela commented on it really

questioned you Mark. Everybody in his Facebook group was like, oh my gosh, he's the one who shot Kenny. Kenneth Roden, brother of patriarch Chris Roden Senior, was the eighth and final victim to be discovered. This was five hours after Bobby Joe Manley discovered the first bodies and called nine one one, I need it's been about to close to seven nine nine. Okay. This is family member Donald Stone calling from Kenneth's home, seven miles away from the other

crime scenes all this stuff. It's going to news. I just found just found Martezans was again shot and I don't know what his address is. Hanting out of the house. I'm out of the house right now. Is just winning or nighting Stone found Kenneth lying in his bed, face up, covered in blood. He had dollar bills strewn over the lower half of his body. He was the only victim killed with a single gunshot wound to the head, specifically

through his right eye. This is like the picture of the wolf and George's profile that piqued people's interest online.

Here's Stephanie and Jeff. It came to our attention that in October of twenty eighteen, about a month before the Wagners were arrested, George Wagner changed his profile picture to a cartoon wolf that has a scar over its right eye, and on that picture, his mother, Angela Wagner, commented, really, we can only assume this picture represents Kenneth Roden, who was shot in the right eye, and that George Wagner was somehow bragging or making a callback to the way

Kenneth Rodan was murdered. We do also know that Kenneth Roden was really the only victim who was shot just once in their right eye, and the significance of that might be tied to this photo. It feels like a stretch a little bit, to be honest. So he posted this on October fourth, twenty eighteen, and a few weeks prior to that, on September nineteenth, twenty eighteen, is when the autopsy notes were released and everyone found out that

Kenneth was shot in the right eye. And so it seems like a bit of a coincidence that we as the public, find out that Kenneth Roden was shot in the right eye, and then George Wagner posts this photo of a wolf scar over its right eye, and that maybe wouldn't be connected. But then if it wasn't, why would Angela make that comment? Because if it's just a picture of a wolf, like, what does his mom care what he posts on Facebook? And it doesn't have this

kind of deeper meaning. So much has been made about this online and in various different Facebook groups. It could really just be a complete coincidence. It could, but we can only assume what the Wagners did. I think it's fair to scrutinize all of their behavior prior to the arrests and following the murders. What would be the significance of that. Either he's bragging or is he giving a signal to someone else? What is the connective tissue there? The way I read into it is that he's bragging

about the murders. Why would he do that? We do know they get arrested one month later. Many people in the area were saying that the Wagoners were expecting to be arrested at any moment, And it really does make you wonder why they were so busy on social media in the first place. If you feared that you were going to be arrested, why would you possibly go on

social media? Period. The way it was presented to me was that it was more of a matter of fact that the police think we're tied up in this, we're going to get arrested, but we're going to get out because we're innocent. It's just a formality. And so the way I think, at least they were portraying themselves to their friends and family was that they were very confident about their innocence and all of this, and that they

would not be roped into it too much. Jake was the one that literally said he shot five people or killed five people in shot six and I don't know, I mean, who was the other person? Well anything, I think Billy, you know, would have been the crazy one to do something, because Billy has always come up with these crazy schemes. Billy I would not put past to do anything. I feel like he would be at a gas station and shoot somebody. I probably George would throw

up if he shot somebody, but I don't know. I don't know. Last season, it seems like the only thing we heard about George Wagner was that he was an abusive husband and all around a pretty bad guy. But as the court proceedings have kind of continued, we've talked to more and more people who were close with George Wagner and have kind of told us the opposite of

what we've always heard. Everyone we've spoken to as of late has said nothing but nice things about him, basically that he was this great guy and they are shocked that he was involved in this murder. No one seems to have a hard time imagining that Billy, Jake, or even Angela could have planned, murdered and covered up crime.

But people have a really hard time wrapping their head around George Wagner being involved, which is surprising to me because we did hear about how terribly he treated his wife when they all lived with his mother, Angela Wagner, and the whole accused family mistreated her. This season, yeah,

we've heard quite the opposite. All we really have so far is Jake's plea deal, where he has testified that that George was only their last minute and really was only there to protect Jake from their father, which you know, we're still trying to unpack what that actually means. So

let's play that out really quickly. Just this scenario, as we maybe know it right now, according to all of these plea agreements, Jake, who has admitted to five killings, and Dad Billy Wagner they were the ones that were going to go out and do all of the killings. So that's five that Jake was going to do or has admitted to, leaving the remaining three maybe done by Billy.

Yet at the very last minute, George, the oldest brother, to protect his younger brother, decides to go along with them, even though he's been a part of the planning, he wasn't intending ongoing And now, according to Angela Wagner, she stayed behind to babysit. So now George tags along. What does that mean? Is he equally responsible? Is he not responsible at all? He was a part of all the planning,

so maybe he wasn't one of the trigger pullers. But it also speaks to the larger question of why would George Wagner think their father was going to kill or

harm Jake Wagner. It's certainly a good question, and I wonder if George's defense will bring that up, because I think in the eyes of the law, if you plan a murder and you're at the murder, you're pretty culpable in the crime, and so whether you're there to protect someone else or not, we'll see if that matters and how much that will play out in his upcoming trial.

If we're just going to play along with this version of a tale, if George Wagner was just tagging along to protect Jake Wagner from their father, Billy Wagner, go with me here for one quick second, that would imply that Billy Wagner dad was allegedly going to kill or harm Jake Wagner. Why would he do that? Like, why would George have to protect Jake from their dad? And I guess the only thing that would sort of make sense is because maybe Billy Wagner was going to kill

Jake Wagner just so there was nobody left to tournament. Yeah, there would have been one less witness. And as we know the kind of how the dynamics of the family were, Jake and Angela Wagner were very close, and Billy and George Wagner were very close. So perhaps George felt that if he went he could maybe talk some sense for lack of a better term, into his dad and protect

Jake at the same time. It's certainly complicated. It's important to note that both George and Billy Wagner have pleaded not guilty on all counts and have not yet had their day in court. So everything we're talking about is just Jake and Angela Wagner's version of events. Otherwise the prosecution would not allow their version of events to be, frankly, the foundation of their upcoming trials. Yeah, certainly the prosecution believes Jake and Angela's version of how things went down

that night. But it's just important to note that Billy and George are disputing all this, and it's not just us stuff who are trying to unpack this. The people who were close with the Wagner family are still kind of wrapping their head around all of this, particularly Chris Newcome, who, as we know as Angela Wagner's half brother, was very close with George and in talking to him numerous times.

He's still really grappling with this whole situation and still trying to come to terms with George Wagner's possible involvement. And it's been six years since this whole thing happened. Chris was born when his older half sister, Angela was twenty the age gap kept the two from growing close, but Chris was drawn to her boys, specifically to George. I mean, help me in my nephews. We grew up more like brothers than we did in huncle and nephews. I'm two and a half years older than Jake, in

a year and a half older than George. I was always closer to George than I was with Jake. Man George, we'd always go hunting, fishing, camping. He always wanted to have his own hunting show. Do you know you wanted to go on TV Hunti's monster deer and turkey and elk and stuff like it. I mean he loved hunting that much. Sammy Joe spoke with us earlier in the

season about both the Rodin and Wagner families. She dated Frankie Rodin from seventh to ninth grade and was involved with Jake Wagner at times, but she also had a crush on George. I probably shouldn't say this, but Jake we pretty much stopped talking because I think Angela thought I was trying to get Jake to break up with Hannah, and that's not what it was. Because I didn't want Jake. I wanted George. What did you like A bad George?

Just his goofiness. Honestly, George, he's a big teddy bear. Really. I remember a time I got a hold of George and I told him I was like, I can't afford Christmas. I don't know what to do. And he goes meet me at the gas station. He gave me money to pay my electric bill and bought my daughter present. Wow, so he was like your Santa Claus. Yeah, Like you broke my heart when I found out he was married the first time. And did you ever confess to George

that you kind of liked him? Nope, Now he'll never know. He was just a nice guy, good to be around, you know, didn't really talk too much, but he was definitely a nice person. Howard grew up with the Wagners and lived near them in both Ohio and Alaska. I just remember my sister. I'll keep her name out of him, but she kind of had a crush on George and she would always talking to him on Facebook and things

like that. It's very funny because you're the second person today who has made mention of a family member, specifically his sister who kind of loved George. From a distance and still have the nicest, kindest things to say of him. If I had a daughter and he were hurried, that's who I would want my daughter nating. He was just a great guy. He was super nice, like very friendly. Jake cab the other hair was kind of secluded, kind of recluse, but George was just nice, like all around

a nice guy. We've been able to speak with a whole host of new family members and friends this season. Patricia, you may recall, is one of them. I think God was no longer with them. Patricia is the mother of George's ex wife, Tabitha. Tabitha was bullied into relinquishing control of her child with George by Angela Wagner. The situation was eerily similar to the custody battle between Hanname Rodin

and Jake Wagner that was happening before the massacre. I think the only reason that save taps Us from going through this same thing was the fact that she didn't fight for custody of honor. They had him already, so cause him harm to Dabby with them done him any good. Patricia claims Angela pulled all the strings within the Wagner clan I know the demeanor of Angelis. She tries to

be the loving, cheering mother. But if you've seen the side of Angelis that I've seen, and the way she holds your demeanor around me, you could tell that she was all fake. Dabby wasn't afraid of George, Danna wasn't afraid of Jake. They were only afraid of Angelas Sammy Joe saw firsthand how Angela exerted control over her. She

was just really intimidating. Normally growing up, I was always with Jake, and then as I got older, the contact changed from Jake to George because Jake became a struck up. I'm trying to think of nice, not so hateful words, but he became Angela. Angela took over Tabitha's life as well. For two years, she lived with them and was not allowed to have any contact with me once whoever, because Angela didn't want her to. They even went as far as taken tabtha cell phone from her because she was

texting me. Angela knows that Tabeth has always been close to every one of her sisters, and every one of them could have talked to her out it. Every one of them could have talked Tabbie out of there, and Angela knew that we're going to take a break. We'll be back in a moment. Six years after the murderers, Chris Nukeam still finds George's potential involvement in the piked and massacre very hard to grasp. I mean, I'd have trusted Georgia was my life and that's the guy's down

the streets on the matter. So how do you wrap your head around that feeling like someone who you trust your life with is allegedly being a part of something where eight people are dad. So you ask me how I deal with it? I guess yeah, I get up, I do my Chorge, I'll do the work I gotta do. I spend time with my family, and I go to bed. I get up the next day and do it again.

I mean I fought for him. I would have never in a million years believe they'd ever done anything like it, And when it came out, I mean I just they made me look like the biggest damn fool were ever up there. I kid you not, I don't see him doing anything of the sort like, but of course I was not there. I don't know what happened. Sammy Joe spent time with George after the murders. I asked him. I was like, I can't believe this happened. But George like shut me out, like he goes, how could we

do it? There's just something wrong, like he tully shut me out, Like I knew sometime was wrong that day when we were talking about it, like our Frision trip was going good and it got wrong real fuck. We spoke to a close friend of George's, who, after the interview was done, decided it hit a little too close to home and requested their voice not be used at all.

Here's Stephanie and Jeff recounting the conversation. This young woman, who was very close with the Wagner family, recounted to us that the morning of November twenty eighteen, the day all of the Wagners were arrested, she had actually been communicating with both George and Angela, and to her, the conversations were rather mundane. They were talking about how their days were going, what kind of errands they were running.

And we know that Jake and George were together at the time of their arrests, and they were in their truck running errands and that Angela Wagner was dropping her grandkids off at school. They also talked about things like Thanksgiving, which was coming up in a couple of weeks, and within minutes on ending the conversations, this young woman saw the news of the arrests, and after the shock of the news, her first thoughts were, it had to have been Billy and Jake. Angela and George must have been

covering for them. And again that doesn't make it a matter of fact, but she was incredibly surprised and steadfast that George and Angela must have been covering for Billy and Jake. Yeah, it paints a picture of what that day was like, which is very bizarre because you see the news footage of Billy getting caught and the bodycam footage minutes before that. They were just living their lives,

helping to get away with murder. Or they were just expecting to go through the formality of being arrested, being booked, being released on bail, and that this would all go away. I think that's what they really believed at this point. It doesn't explain why they came back though, So they came back to care for Billy, Wagner's ailing father. But they didn't really move back. They just came back and we're staying in that small house that we ultimately saw recently.

But they weren't settled in. Were they just coming back with the understanding that they were going to get arrested and that would blow over really quickly and then they could pick up life and go back to normal. According to everyone who knew them, that seemed to be their frame of mind. Court just wrapped up in Pike County. Michelle was there as George Wagner the fourth made an appearance. He's been covering the Pike County massacres since it happened

in twenty sixteen. This spring, George Wagner appeared in court as part of his pre child hearings. He walked into the courtroom unrestrained and dressed in civilian clothes. He's tall, so he had to bow his head to hear the hush direction of his lawyers before he's at for the hearing. So like what happened in court today, Chris, this was

a revealing day here in the Pike County Courthouse. Captain Seth Hegeman, now with the Westchester Police Department, was a special agent with the Bureau of Criminal Investigations back in twenty sixteen, and he was one of the lead investigators on the Pike County murders. Now Hegeman spent about two and a half hours on the stand testifying. Here's the police captain's interpretation of a tattoo that George Wagner got

just a few months after the murders. Obviously, a skulls often used to be associated with death immortality, and then eight balls is sometimes thought it a symbol of chance. But there also should be noted there were eight victims in the Roden homicides, and then he had tattoos of aces and eights that are commonly considered the dead man's hand and represent death and murder. Here again is Stephanie

and Jeff. So let's break this down a bit. And it's a bit confusing because we were not able to obtain the entire hearing courtroom footage and instead have to fall back on reporting. And different sources have said different things about when George Wagner got this tattoo. Some news sources have said it was before the murders and some have said after, So it's not totally clear to us, which is true. What we do know is that at some point George Wagner got a tattoo of a dead

man's hand. And for those of you who are not familiar with poker, a dead man's hand is composed of eights and aces. It's called the dead man's hand because it's rumored to be the hand of a man named wild Bill Hickcock who was holding it when he was shot in the back by arrival and because of that the hand is now cursed forever. Which again we don't

know the link. But if we're going to analyze all of the behavior of the Wagner's pre and post murder, it certainly seems like it's possible that George Wagner knows this folklore story and decided to get a tattoo because he himself shot the Rodents. Much has been made online about their various tattoos and Facebook postings, and yes, you can read into them for sure. For example, it's speculated that the eight ball connects the eight members of the

Rodent family. That's possible, it also could be a big stretch. George Wagner's trial is tentatively set to begin two months from now, based on a recent hearing, the prosecution's case is pushing forward with the fundamental argument that the murders were a family affair, with George being complicit in the crimes. They functioned as one unit at all times. Like I said,

they worked together, they homeschooled together. This is demonstrated by factors, including that limited two that are residing together in a varying, insular manner in their entire lives, even while married as adults. It establishes this conspiracy, It establishes the enterprise. The all of this information goes together to show the they were again that group think, the group action. Not one of them turned back from these crimes. They all knew what

was going to happen that night. They all had their own roles. The possible depths of George's allegiance to his family was on full display. On April twenty eight, twenty sixteen, on a warm day in South Shore, Kentucky. We received a picture from a listener that was used in the Cincinnati Enquirer, and while we can't be a hundred percent cer, it appears to have Billy, George and Jake Wagner in it.

It was taken at the funeral of Gary Rowden. Also, I think it's worth noting, Jeff that we actually were tipped off to this photograph by a listener. We hadn't seen it before, And when you look at it, it's pretty staggering because it's all three Wagner accused men, and you can't really see their expressions too too closely, but you can just see they're clearly speaking to somebody, and it just makes you wonder what could they possibly be

talking about, what could possibly be going on in their heads. Collectively, they also have to look the people in the eye, and the family members in the eye of the people that they allegedly murdered. You know, everyone is there grieving. The whole town is there grieving, and you know full well that you're at the exact same place that you

caused all of that pain for everyone. Yeah. What's so striking to me that is, if indeed these are the Wagner men attending Gary Roden's funeral, just how performative the whole thing must have been. They went there as this grieving family supporting their friends and sort of in laws. I mean, the Wagners and the Rodents were sort of in laws to one another, and so to have to go there and put on this show of a grieving family is pretty hard to wrap your head around. Kind

of relevant here too. George Wagner's whole defense is that he had nothing to do with this. Yet here we see the family as they stand together at the funeral of a man that was allegedly murdered by at least some of them. So George was in the mix, and we've heard some very checkered things about him, certainly how he handled his own ex wife and the custody of their child. But this season we also started to hear

things that are also quite different. That he was really loving and kind, and that he could never pull this off. And then you look at a picture like this, and it does make you wonder. My sister always kept him on a short lease. I mean she wouldn't let him do anything, wouldn't let him get away from anybody, you know. I mean that she just kept him on a short lease. They had to stay there, had to take care of the family. George wanted to leave. He wanted his own place,

but never got it. If you're raised your entire life a certain way, it's hard to change. If you've had something pounding like they was homeschooled all their life. I think it was just the fact that he was, like I said, had a pounding in his head that you always have to take care of the family, always help the family, whatever they do. You got to be a

part of the help or whatever. And I think it just pounded in his head so much that he started believing it because I know that he was raised up to always take care of Jake always, no matter what, he has to protect Jack. Don't matter if Jake does wrong to somebody else and they want to pay back on it, don't matter. You've got to take care of your brother. And so what Angela is like this Hannah a girl in his trouble, she's trying to take away

Jake's daughter. What's he gonna do protect his brother? Yeah, that's the way he was raised up. After Jake confessed it or whatever he did, he I just said, Hey, I ain't got metham for him anymore. I defended him tooth and nail to everybody that had anything bad to say about him. I defended because I had thought to myself there said, there's no way my family could have had anything doing this. I said, I've known George and Jake. You know all their life. I said, there's no way

possible that they could have done this. I've always been so curious to know more about life behind bars. For the individual Wagner family members, we know that they've been separated and haven't seen each other since their arrests. We've been in contact with one of Angela Wagner's cell mates. We know that George Wagner requested solitary confinement in the Bible, and that he was originally in Ross County Jail but is currently in the Montgomery County Jail in Ohio. And

that's for angel and Billy Wagner. They have both been in the same jails since they were arrested. Billy is in Hamilton, Ohio, and Angela Wagner is in Delaware County. The youngest Wagner's son, Jake, is currently being held in the Franklin County Jail in Columbus, Ohio. And all of these jails aren't about one hundred and seventy five mile

radius of each other. In a little under three hours, but for a family who will probably never see each other again except for when they're testifying against each other in court, those three hours probably feel like a lifetime and stuff. You know a little bit more about Jake's time in jail, right. Somebody who has access to Jake Wagner on a daily basis came and saw us at a work event and said that Jake is very busy

working on a manifesto. So whether that's something he's putting together as a book or as a final statement, don't know. You hear the term manifesto a lot when it comes to shooters. Often people who go and shoot public places write these manifestos prior to their murders. I hate to say this out loud, but what a shake up that would be to the remaining trials. Let's stop here for another break. George's ties to his family will be put

to the test at this trial. In light of Jake's admission of guilt and Angela's plea, the eldest son of the Wagner clan is in a tight spot. Was George's a legend involvement in the murders as a passive participant or could he be a cold blooded killer? Here again, Sammy Joe, the family for the Romans cannot have closure until they know the truth. They'll never know the truth. If we keep doing a pre trial trial, we're going

to move it, so on, so forth. The way I feel, if you have all the evidence to say you have move on, move on so people can have closure and move on with their life. But again they're just going to drag their feet and eventually the truth will come out and then the people that's the way it's so long to find the truth is no longer going to be here, and then they never had closure in our life.

More on that next time. If you're enjoying The Pikes and Massacre, listen to our other hit series, Crazy and Love. New episodes there every Tuesday. Wherever you get your podcasts. For more information and case photos, follow us on Instagram at Katie Underscore Studios. The Pikes and Massacre is produced by Stephanie Lydecker, Jeff Shane, Chris Graves and me Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound designed by Jeff Tis, Music by Jared Aston. The Piked and Massacre is a production of Kati Studios

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