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You are now listening to true Murder, the most shocking killers in true crime history and the authors that have written about them. Gasey, Bundy, Dahmer, The Nightstalker, DTK. Every week another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and infamous killers in true crime history. True Murder with your host, journalist and author Dan Zupanski.
Good eeting you want to know what happened? Ask ann serial killer William Devin Howell. A monster was on a killing spree. In just nine months, seven people went missing, all of their bodies eventually discovered in a wooded lot behind a suburban strip mall. But the investigation that led law enforcement to their suspect, William Devon Howell, is only part of the story behind his Garden Conversations with a
serial killer. A practicing attorney, author and k Howard first contacted Howell while he was serving a fifteen year sentence for the murder of one of his seven victims. He was about to be charged for the remaining six murders. A unique and disturbing friendship between the two began, comprised of written correspondents, face to face, prisoned visits, and recorded
phone calls. Howell, who had been unwilling to speak to any members of the media, came to trust Howard In the years that follow the suspect shared his troubled history with Howard, but refused to discuss the charges against him, promising only to tell her everything when the case was over. That time has come. His Garden probes the complicated and conflicted mind of William Devon Howell, Connecticut's most prolific serial killer.
Both sacred and profane in its narrative style, the story on these pages explores the eternal question of human evil and it's an impact on others, including the woman he chose to hear this horrific confession. The book they were featuring this evening is His Garden. Conversations with a Serial Killer with my special guest attorney and author and Kay Howard. Welcome to the program, and thank you very much for agreeing to this interview. And Kay Howard, thank you, Dan,
thanks for having me. Thank you so much. Very anxious to discuss this book with you. Very very interesting. You open this book in July twenty fifth, two thousand and three. We already alluded to that you had contacted William Devin Howell while he was in prison. Let's get to the person that he was in prison for for murdering, and as you do in the book, you introduce Nilsa Arismondy and angel Ace Sanchez and have a mispronounced her name
and maybe could correct that for me. And you take us to July fifth, two thousand and three, tell us where they are and describe, as you do in the book, the relationship that they have together and what they are doing at that time that puts them in the crosshairs of William Devin Howell.
Certainly well, Milsa Eira is Mendy. Unfortunately, as is the case with six out of the seven victims of William Devin, Howell, was addicted to heroin along with her boyfriend, her longtime high school sweetheart, Ace Sanchez. And so at the start of the book, the reader sees Nilsa Eras Mendy and a Sanchez. They're walking along the Berlin Turnpike also known as Gasoline Alley, and it was in Hartford and Weathersfield, Connecticut,
where they were walking along the highway. They had just had a busy night of scoring drugs, and Nilsa, in order to support their mutual drug habit, had been working the streets as a prostitute, and so they were walking back along the Berlin Turnpike in Connecticut, returning to their hotel where they had rented a room and a cheap motel along the highway. It was at that time that they bumped into an acquaintance, William Devin Howell. They actually
knew this killer. Unlike Howell's other victims, Nilsa Arismendi was the only one that Howell actually knew, and so she went over. I believe it was two or three in the morning and during July of two thousand and three, on a hot summer night, and she went over to Howell's van, parked in a grocery store parking lot, just to say hi. I think she also wanted to see if he could drive her to a location to cop some drugs, and she got into his van, which ultimately led to her demise.
You talk about a Sanchez. He's not her pimp. He's the longtime boyfriend. He knows the lifestyle. He's addicted. She's addicted. He sees her get into the van, it's the last time he sees her. What does he do the following day, Well.
He does return to the motel and wait for her for a time, and then he both and and consults with other people in the neighborhoods where they would frequent to find out if they have.
Seen his girlfriend.
It's highly unusual for her not to return to the motel within a matter of hours. Ace is naturally concerned. He does eventually talk to family members and voice that concern that his girlfriend has disappeared. He's worried that maybe she overdose, and so he does communicate that she is off the grid to family members and friends. Eventually, you know, within a matter of weeks, Ace is locked up for a drug possession and while in jail, he again communicates.
This time he gets a letter through the jail chaplain to be sent to the Hartford Police Department stating that he's very worried that his girlfriend is missing. And it was about a month after Nielsa Aras Mendy went missing that the Weathersfield Police Department got to work on the case and started to aggressively look for Nilsa Eras Mendy.
Now you introduced William Devin Howell born in February nineteen seventy and his mother's name Melissa and father John. Again, this is unusual when you have to talk about a serial killer and the very very normal his background. So tell us about this seemingly normal background that he grew up in.
Yes, it's true, you know in the book, I kind of compare it to the Andy Griffiths show the way that Bill Howell would describe to me his childhood in Hampton, Virginia, where you know he had a modest upbringing. His father was a machinist, a very strong work ethic in the family. His father went to work bright and early at dawn every day and predictably returned for dinner every night. His mother held a couple of jobs on the side, part time jobs to contribute to the family income. There were
always homemade meals on the table. He enjoyed fishing behind in the ditch behind his house, riding his dirt bikes. He had friends in the neighborhood. So by all accounts, based on what Bill Howell has shared with me over the course of our three and a half year author subject relationship, it was a relatively normal childhood. He was the last of four children, and there was a large gap in age between Bill Howell and two of his
older brothers. In fact, one of his brothers was serving in Vietnam when was born, and both of the older brothers had families of their own they were grown adults, so he was born to a mother who was forty and the father was forty five at the time. You know, I think it wasn't until the age of twelve, though, that things went downhill for Bill Howell and he was traumatized,
I believe, by the illness of his mother. Melissa Howell had very serious breast cancer diagnosed, and there were several years from the ages of twelve to fifteen when Bill Howell was observing his mother, who for most of that time was bedridden, whether it was from the chemo and radiation treatments or finally, in her final year, multiple strokes that led to her death when Howell was fifteen years old.
So it was during that early puberty that I think that that tragedy touched howells lives life, and not coincidentally, at the age of twelve, that's when he started to drink alcohol, and he said he would literally drink every day starting at.
The age of twelve.
At the age of fourteen, at the height of his mother's medical drama, he solicited his first prostitute in the red light district of Newport News, Virginia, which again it's very deviant behavior for someone of that age.
And thereafter he.
Became addicted to he had a sexual addiction to soliciting prostitutes that only grew over time. Often people say to me, ask me what he abused as a child, because we think serial killers were allays abused, which in fact is not true. Some are, some aren't. In house case, he was spanked quite a lot by his parents, especially his mother, who was a strict disciplinarian. But I don't think it was anything out of the ordinary for someone in that era growing up down South. And he does not believe
himself that he was abused. He thinks that the spankings were always warranted, and he certainly places absolutely no blame on his parents or his childhood for the ultimate heinous crimes that he committed.
He also include that his father died when he was nineteen, so five years later his father is out of his life as well.
Yes, I think there really was a tremendous void of loneliness and powerlessness in Howell at an early age that only grew over time through the deaths of his parents, you know, the mother of his children. He got a girl pregnant in high school, a longtime girlfriend at a very early age. I believe he was only sixteen, dropped out of school. And so I think all of those events did contribute to a sense of loneliness and powerlessness
in Howell's life. And certainly I see in my one on one prison visits, when I visit him to this day on a monthly basis, I still see that a desperate need for human interaction, for social attention, for kindness and French.
Yes, you talked about the worth ethic that was instilled by his parents, and they were you know, upstanding people, it seemed. And and in regards to his was he a drug user? And what was it with this work ethic? Was he employable? Was he gainfully employed all the time? And if so, what type of employment did he gravitate towards?
Mm hmm.
Well, you know you read in the book that he did dapple in drugs. You know, he he most certainly was not a drug addict. And he tells me he never tried heroin, but he did, you know, try crack cocaine on one or two occasions. He tells me he did not like it.
You know, he.
Certainly loved to smoke marijuana. He states that the marijuana actually had a calming effect on him, and that in contrast, it was the alcohol that that caused problems and ignited aggression within him and caused his aggression and anger to surface. And alcohol, to some extent was involved in most of his crimes. Certainly it was not a big contributing factor, but it did have a way of bringing out his anger.
So you know, he was not a big drug user.
Aside from you know, smoking marijuana. But with reference to his his work ethic, he like his parents, does have a very strong work ethic. He takes great pride in that he never took welfare. He he never was a lazy person who who went on on employment and sought an easy ride. But unfortunately, because he dropped out of school in I believe it was the tenth grade in high school, you know, he really had no skills to
speak of. While in school, he was in special education classes, and he did have a learning disability.
Certainly in the.
Letters, and you know, I've got hundreds of pages of letters that he's written to me over the course of the last three years. His letters do reflect someone with deficient writing skills. There are a lot of spelling errors. That said, I believe that Howell's level of intelligence, not that I have had access to any IQ testing. On getting to know him, I.
Believe he has an average.
If not slightly above average IQ. He has very good reasoning abilities, and so you know, talking to him, he's very sharp, he's very alert. Certainly in the three years that we conversed before he finally did confess to me his crimes in September of twenty seventeen, he was always very shrewd and very careful about not divulging any details of what he did until he was ready and legal resolution had taken place. So the only skills he really had were landscaping and mowing lawns.
And at the time of.
His killing spree in two thousand and three, during that nine month period, he was living out of his van. It was this ghastly nineteen eighty five Ford Equano line van that he had purchased from an ex girlfriend's parents for four hundred dollars, and to save money, he slept in that van at night and would shower at the
local YMCA. He worked during the day at the grocery store and the Delhi department, and he also worked as a roofer, and so at the time of the king spree he stopped doing those two minimum wage jobs and decided just to pursue his own long care business. And he had a busy long care schedule. He had shown me the journal that he kept with all of the dates and the customers he had in and around New Britain Connecticut, and I sadly that long care schedule did figure into the commission of his crime.
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Times because he had confided in me that if he did not have a lawn care schedule the following day, if there were no lawns tom, then he knew he would be free to find a victim the night before and engage in that twelve hour crime of holding that victim captive in the back of his van, repeatedly engaging in raping them and verbally berating them and ultimately strangling them. So it was entirely dependent on his long care schedule.
You talk about the customers that he encountered with his long care business, the people that he worked with, the bosses that he worked with, the acquaintances, and the friends. Based on his behavior, based on his disposition, this is going to be important later when they find out about this, But how is he regarded, How is he regarded in terms of temperament, How is he regarded in terms of socially.
Well, you know, after so many people about that, people came out of the woodwork while I was working on this book. People that he knew in Virginia growing up, people that he knew in Connecticut when he moved here in two thousand and one. People he worked with, friends, ex girlfriends in Connecticut, and they all consistently say that Howell was a very friendly guy.
A nice guy.
Some say, you know, he's the guy that will give you the shirt off his back. You know, there was one story our reference, I think I mentioned it in the book, where a woman had told me that she lost her purse with her wallet in it, and Howell showed up at her house the next day. They were acquaintances. He had found the purse and he had returned it, and all of the cash and credit cards were there untouched.
So they describe him as well as a very honest guy, a guy that you could trust now, and he certainly loved a good party. He was a very sociable guy, which again flies in the face of a lot of the myths that we have of these Hannibal Lecter type of or Jeffrey Dahmer type of serial killers who have no friends and our social recluse. That certainly was not
the case with Howell. He has told me that he prefers to be in the company of other people and he hates to be alone, which is one of the reasons why now being alone in his cell and a high max prison is just torture for him. Now, all that said, there is also a dark side, obviously to William Devin Howe, and there were times when friends and
acquaintances would see that dark side surface. With the mother of his children, along with the ex the former girlfriend who he was with at the time of the killing spree, who is now deceased, there were allegations of some domestic violence, you know, on the scale of one to ten, you know, in terms of the level of violence involved, you know, maybe a five or six. It was often with his last girlfriend at the time of the commission of the crimes,
more of a mutual pushing and shoving and fighting. So he did exhibit an anger in.
Some of his relationships.
But when I think about it, you know, being a practicing attorney, having you know, known many people who have been involved in domestic violent situations. While the behavior was deviant, it's certainly not out of the ordinary in terms of the domestic violence that some of my clients may share with me. And I don't think in any way it could have indicated to an observer that this man was going to wind up being a serial killer.
Right now, let's get back to Nilsa and her boyfriend Ace, because the police got a As we know all true crime listeners and readers know, the police have to concentrate on the most likely usual typical suspects, and that being A Sanchez. Yet the same thing is there. At the same time, there is some evidence from him. He says that he had thrown out a long care flyer from Howell from his long care business with his phone number
on it. And also that so tell us how it becomes that the police get an inkling that he has something to do with this. And also we haven't mentioned this New Britain avenue where really a lot of this, well most of this goes down originates.
Well, you know, A Sanchez was the last person to see Nilsa Eirismendi alive. And he watched from a distance
as Nilsa walked in to Howell's van. You know, if we did not have Ace Sanchez offering that witness testimony to law enforcement after Nilsa Arasmendi's disappearance, I think it's fair to say that William Devin Howe would possibly never have been connected with any of these seven murders because all of his other victims, he was very careful to choose strangers, to choose women who he had never met before, who did not know his name. He removed the license tag on his van at the time of the crimes.
So Sanchez and his observation was crucial in convicting Howell of the murder of Nilsa Arismendi at the trial that took place in January of two thousand and seven. Eight was initially a suspect, which of course would be very the traditional route that police would take to look to
the boyfriend first. And Ace and nils given their reckless lifestyle, were known to have one of those kind of pushing and shoving relationships, and so they thought, well, maybe maybe things got out of hand, and Ace was the one who did it, So he was initially a suspect. I think what changed things for the police in the investigation in the early months was that they gave Ace a polygraph.
The first polygraph was showed deception, so they were still interested in Ace, but then the second polygraph showed that it was not deceptive, and so it was based on that polygraph result that they started to look closer at William Devin Howell and go to his house or to his girlfriend's house where his van was stored in the garage,
to see if he may be the likely culprit. New Britain Avenue though that is in the heart of Hartford, Connecticut, and you know, as with the landscape of this entire story, because this I really believe Connecticut is a character in this story just as much as any of the other main characters.
William Devin Howell's.
Radius, his demographic of where he picked up his victims and ultimately where he buried them, was really within a thirty to forty mile range. It was pretty narrowly defined. And so we're talking about in the case of New Britain Avenue, you know, the Cedy district of Hartford, which is right next to a t the University of an upscale University, and you're going to find that when when you read the book. Throughout the book is that there
is this juxtaposition of these. For example, the Upscal shopping mall directly across the street from the burial ground where William Devin Howe left his bodies. I mean, this is a shopping mall where if you look at the parking lot, you're going to see a lot of Mercedes Benzes and
you know, nice sports SUVs and whatnot. And so Connecticut in the region I talk about, you know, you can drive through a few neighborhoods and see these beautiful colonial and brick homes and nicely landscaped, lots of money, lots of wealth in Connecticut, it's a higher income state. And then within you know, a few blocks, everything can dramatically change, and you're in an area where you know, people are
pushing drugs and women are walking the streets. And I think that in large part reflects probably two things that are going on all over our country right now, but especially in my part of Connecticut, which is that Connecticut has lost its manufacturing based base. You know, back in the sixties and seventies, it was the capital of plastics and brass manufacturing, so all those factory jobs have gone away, resulting in a devastating loss to the blue collar people
of our state. And also it's a reflection of the opioid epidemic and crisis, which ultimately leads people often to doing heroin. So you've got these two big socio economic things going on that are a backdrop to the story that I write about.
You introduce characters Detective de Royan and Davis, especially the detective de rouyin is quite important. And while Ace is still a suspect and we say he's been incarcerated on some other charges, they monitor his phone calls and letters as you write. But by September thirteen, you write in your book that Howell became a potential suspect and they found out who this van was registered, and it was
Howell's girlfriend, Dorothy Holcombe. So tell us how they proceed with finding out and narrowing their focus on Devin Howell as a suspect.
Yeah, Detective de rone he absolutely fascinates me, and I really wish I had the opportunity to meet him. I tried many times to reach out and talk to him. I would love to have had an interview with him, but he's an extremely private man. He did read the manuscript, which was interesting and did not have any problems with
the contents of the book. But Detective Drone was was really, if there's a guy wearing a white hat in this book, a cowboy with the white hat, it's going to be Detective d'erne, because he was very tenacious and he really treated this case as though this missing woman were one of his family members. I really, I really believe he deserves tremendous credit, and he doesn't want that credit. He wants the team of officers in the New Britain Serial Task Force to take the credit for.
That.
But I think truthfully, he's in large part what broke all of this. So what happened was Dorone, I believe, and this is based on discussions with other detectives who are friends with that Drone followed his gut instincts as a detective. I mean, he'd been on the force for decades and I think there was just something in this man's gut that said, Howel's my man. And so he went to Dorothy Holcombe Howel's Girlfriend's house and found the van there. He lied, which is allowed detectives do it
all the time. He lied and said, you know, we're here for some long care thefts that have been reported in the area, and we'd like to know if William Devin Howell lives here, and how at that time, was visiting his girlfriend and he was hiding in the shadows of the kitchen of Dorry Holcombe's house and Detective Davis peeked through the window and saw Howell hiding away in the kitchen, and Dorry Holcombe was furious, standing in her doorway saying, no, you're you know you're not coming in
and Howell doesn't live here, and I don't know what you're talking about. That's my van. I'm the only one who drives it. And and so the detective knew that she was covering for him, while Hulcolm, I believe, never knew what William Devin Howell was up to during that nine month killing spree. I think she knew that, you know, they were suspecting him of something, and so she was trying to protect her boyfriend. Thereafter, in the weeks that followed,
Howell jumped ship. He drove down to his hometown of Hampton, Virginia to visit some friends in November of two thousand and three, and he and a friend cleaned out his
van at the friend's house. And while they were cleaning out the van, this friend of his later told police that he saw Howel remove blood stained cushions from the back bench of that van and throw them away way and that the van had a foul smelling odor, So that also was used would have been used against Howell at Nilsa eras Mendi's trial if the trial went on. As it turned out, Howell took an Alfred plea where he worked out a plea deal so that evidence didn't
get entered. But that's what happened, was that the friend observed this. Now, it wasn't until a few months later, in February two thousand and four, that Detective de Rone made the eight hundred mile trip down to Hampton Well in this case, North Carolina. By then Bill Howell had moved to be with a friend in North Carolina, and he made that trek down from Connecticut to North Carolina to arrest Howell and extradite him back to Connecticut just
based on some minor probation violations. But it was what d Rone needed to do to at least get this guy locked up and safely stowed away from the community at large lest he kill anymore, and also to have some time to pursue the investigation on an even deeper level and get the evidence that he needed against Howell, which would ultimately lead to his conviction at that murder trial in two thousand and seven.
You also include the because it's as you write Ashley Martin's story, the guy that cleans out of the vent, it changes and he becomes a hostile witness later. He's not very not cooperative at all, but they fool him how into giving up the information about cleaning the vent.
Yeah.
Well, if I that they that they said that they were actually watching from the driveway, that they watched him clean out that van, and I think Ashley did feel pressured to divulge that information. It was a long interrogation, uh. He the public defender for William Devin how Howell at trial subsequently tried to argue that Ashley was under police coercion at the time, but he was free to leave
at any time. And and they they told him that they were aware that he had helped clean out this van and that they had watched him do it.
Now. When Drone finally talks to Bill, Bill realizes again he's not a stupid person. He says, why would you travel eight hundred miles for a misdemeanor warrant? And so dron you know, doesn't lie at this point, what does he tell him and what does he do and what is his reaction?
Yeah, and they're driving back from North Carolina where Drone arrested Howell back in February two thousand and four, to Connecticut. The first few hours of the drive were going fine. Drone and Howell are in the backseat of the of the car and just chatting about Howel's you know, childhood, the weather. Howell is feeling very relaxed and being a
smart man. No, he does ask Dorone a few hours into that drive, why on earth are you guys wasting all your time coming eight hundred miles just to arrest me on these misdemeanor charges? And d rohn And says, do you really want to know? And and Howell looks at him, yes, and Doerome pulls out an envelope and from that envelope he pulls out a picture of Nilsa Era's Mendy and Dorone reported in a subsequent Affid David that when he did that, Howell's face went just chalk white.
The blood drained from his face instantly, and Howells said, at that point in the time, well he claimed his Miranda rights, he said, I'm not going to talk about anything from this point forward without a lawyer. At first he did before saying that, he did say I don't even know.
Who that is?
Who is that?
He lied?
And Dorone said this woman is Nilsa Eira's Mendy. How said, I I don't know any Nilsa Eras Mendy. Now that was not entirely a fib because us Howel knew her as Maria, which was the name that Nilsa used when she was working the streets. Nonetheless, the bigger point being Howell knew at that point that he was in trouble.
He was wise to.
Demand a lawyer from that point forward. And de Rone finally got the confirmation he needed that this man was responsible for the crime, based solely on the reaction that he had to seeing that picture.
April two thousand and four, again that this is not how the book is written. It's revealed differently, But you introduced a character very important character, Jonathan Mills. How is it that Mills tell us who he is and what he finds out speaking with with him?
Yeah, Mills. Jonathan Mills is himself a serial killer by definition. Jonathan Mills is a quadruple murderer who back in two thousand in Connecticut, in Guildford, Connecticut, he went into a woman's house and killed this single mother. A few months later, he went into his aunt's house, and in this home invasion, he was hungry for drugs and wanted drug money. He
brutally stabbed his aunt and her two young children. His aunt he stabbed to death over forty times, and each young child who was sleeping in bed with this woman he stabbed six times each. So he is a very violent man. And he was the cellmate with William Devon Howell back in two thousand and four, and I believe again in two thousand and seven that they were cellmates
together at various prisons in Connecticut. Now I believe it was not until however, two thousand and fourteen, when again Mills and Bill Howell were locked up again together, that Bill Howell devised the plan that he was going to commit suicide because he had heard through the.
Grapevine that maybe.
He was a suspect in these serial murders, that with the bodies being found behind the Strip Mall in New Britain, Connecticut, and so Bill Howell in twenty fourteen asked Jonathan Mills if he could get him a bag of heroin because he planned on ingesting it and committing suicide. And Howell had also saved up his anti anxiety the medications that were prescribed in the prison, and he planned to simultaneously take those with the heroine and hang it all up.
But before doing so, his plan was to get these crimes off of his chest.
He tells me. The motive was that.
He wanted the victims' families to finally know about it and have closure. So he planned to commit suicide, but first to confess to Jonathan Mills what he had done. And that's just what happened. They were playing with a cold case criminal card deck that we have in the
prisons in Connecticut. This is a deck of cards that has pictures of individual missing persons or murdered persons in hopes that prisoners get a loose tongue and start shooting the breeze while they're playing cards and someone might say I'm responsible for this, And so that is what happened. In the early stages with Mills. He saw a picture of one of his victims, Javelin Martinez. She was his last victim, very beautiful young woman, and he said, you
see this girl, I'm the one who killed her. And he went on to tell Mills about his other six victims, not.
Just you know.
How he did it, but where he put the bodies. And he even went so far as to draw a diagram for Jonathan Mills of the location of those bodies behind the Strip Mall.
Now, the suicide.
Attempt failed, obviously, and Mills went on to report those confessions to authorities. And if you look at the whole case against Bill Howell, the prosecutions, by far their strongest piece of evidence was the affidavit from Jonathan Mills, which outlined where the bodies were buried, because in twenty fourteen, when he shared that information with the authorities, only three of the bodies had been found at that point of time.
So Mills was the first to tell authorities. Howell told me, it's not just three people back there, it's seven.
And not only that.
Here's how he buried the bodies. Here's where they are placed. Sure enough, authorities took that diagram out to the back of the Strip mall and in those swampy woods they found the bodies just where Jonathan Mills told them that Howell said they were placed.
Incredible. Now, while he is in custody and they're investigating further and they're making their case, you become decide to correspond with William Devinhowell. When we come back from this break, we will talk about how and why and everything included in your correspondence with William Devinhowell. It's hard to find qualified candidates and it takes a long time, and now
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Devin Howell. How did you do that? What is the strategy you used to be able to ensure in your mind that you would be able to correspond with this serial killer, this killer that you wanted to correspond with. How did you ensure that you would make sure that happened?
Well, you know, it started off in a traditional way of my simply writing to him in the Himax prison facility where he resided in Suffield, Connecticut, back in July of twenty fifteen. Now at that time. You know, I had a blog, a true crime blog entitled serial Murders in Connecticut, where I was writing about various solved and unsolved murders in Connecticut. And so, you know, I was seeing on the news that this man was the main person of interest in the seven murders of the people
found behind the Strip Mall. So I thought this would be a great true crime book if it ever came to fruition that this man was charged with these crimes and went on trial, and I could write the story. But of course I have to get to know him. So I simply wrote him a letter of introduction a few months after he was named as the person of interest in these crimes. He had not yet been charged for six of the seven murders. The charges were on
the horizon. They happened a few months after that, but I reached out to him and told him right off the bat, I wanted full disclosure right from the get go. You know, I'm always kind of cognizant of the nightmare that happened with author Joe McGinnis when he wrote about Jeffrey McDonald, the doctor who killed his wife and children. That you know, when when dealing with you know, the subject of a few your book. It's always best to be as straightforward as possible and not hide your motives
or intentions. And so I did tell William Devin Howe my first letter that I my sole interest was not as a practicing attorney in any legal capacity, certainly, but it was to write a book about him. And uh, and I you know, I threw in a few friendly lines that he seemed based on what I'd read online, like, uh, you know, apart from the charges that that were pending, that that he people had reported that he was a nice and friendly man, a good boyfriend.
Uh.
So, you know, to my surprise, within a matter of weeks, he wrote right back to me. He said he had struggled with whether or not he would write.
Uh.
Certainly, his his lawyers were strongly opposed to him having any interaction with a journalist pending trial. Uh and rightly so that you know, it's it's not a wise thing for for someone to do. But I think in the in in the early months and even the early years of our of our author's subject relationship, I think what secured it for me in terms of how well continuing
to write me prolifically actually, you know, he writes. He would write every week long, you know, letters back in front, and he often would you know, stay up at night because he couldn't sleep, and he'd write me his thoughts as if I was kind of a personal journal to him, and really open up to me about his his childhood and his his feelings about his present day incarceration. But I think what secured.
The trust was that when when we did.
Initially write and that evolved into phone calls and in person visits, I was in no rush, and I don't think he felt pressured from me in any way that perhaps an ordinary reporter for a TV show or an online newspaper would would put that kind of pressure on how to try to get the next day's frontage scoop, you know. So I think what he sensed for me was that I genuinely wanted to get this get to know this man as intimately as possible. I wanted to
get to know the inner workings of his mind. And so while of course at some point down the line, I was extremely interested in knowing what he did, how he did it, when he did it, and of course why he did it. In our first two years together. What I really wanted to know was who he was, because I don't think you can do an actuate and substantive true crime profile, you know, by projecting what you think someone is, or by giving questions that try to
elicit some you know, grizzly details or salacious information. Rather, I wanted to approach him as I would an ordinary person in my life who I eagerly wanted to get to know on every level, And strangely, I think given his state of loneliness, he was more than a receptive to to.
Play that game.
He I think on many levels he greatly enjoyed that someone was asking him about, you know, his likes, his dislikes, his hobbies, his his past girlfriends growing up. I think he in many ways really enjoyed the process of being paid attention to apart from the focus of these rhymes.
You talk about. Literally, in the very first correspondence, he talks about, Hey, it sounds kind of creepy, but I just really really need a hug.
Yeah.
Right.
That gave me a little bit of pause. I have to admit, I thought, oh, what am I getting myself into? And actually, when I think about it, I think that's the only time. There were a couple other times in our early months of correspondence. I think after he met me for a prison visit, there were a couple references to, you know, I really love our visits and it's so nice to see your pretty face, or something like that.
But for the most part, though, you know, my interactions with Howell have actually been extremely above board on his part in terms of the courtesy and the respect that he shows me. When when he wrote to me in that first letter, I'd really just like a hug. I don't I don't want to creep you out, and in his words he said, this made me laugh. I promise not to cop a feel. Uh you know, but I
just I haven't been hugged in years. And you know, that did give me insight that that I think he he he genuinely is a man who who who craves human affection and attention. And you know, at that point he didn't know if I was a little old lady wanting to write a book about him. So I don't
think that initial remark was was overtly sexual. But as as the years went by, though, you know, he he continually, uh would show me a level of respect I never felt uncomfortable like he was being lewde or making flirtatious into nations and.
What he was saying.
He really never did that. In fact, as time went on, you know, because I'm in my thirtieth year of marriage, you know, so you know, he Howelan, I would speak frequently about me and my husband, my adult children, what we did on the weekend.
You know.
In the book, I reference that my husband, out of the blue, while I was writing the book, had a cancer diagnosis, which fortunately we've we've resolved now he's clear of that. But you know, Howlan, I spoke at lengths about about that personal crisis in my life. So he's he's always been quite respectful of my marriage, which, ironically, I think that goes towards this kind of twisted moral coat that William Devin Howe has that I discussed, you know,
in the Commission of his crimes. One of the reasons I believe that he lacked such empathy towards the suffering of his victims was was that he had this polarity and how he sees people. So I was in the group of Anne's an upstanding person who's not a heroin addict working the streets, because if you're in that category, then then to Bill Howe, you you are a worthless object.
So he you know, he always he always gave me that respect that ironically couldn't be further than what he showed to you know, the victims whose lives he destroyed.
You talk about the relationship that you develop with him, and the trusts, and him being lonely and feeling that he doesn't have any really friends or family in the world to speak to. He got to the point where he in a will, in the Last Will and Testament or a will as agreed to send you all of his material all the discovery tell us about this agreement and his wish that you would have this material and why.
Yeah, well, you know, in September of twenty sixteen, he had yet to decide whether or not he was going to plead guilty, and he had been transferred to Bridgeport Correctional, which is a really you know, a prison in Connecticut that made the previous prison that he was at look
like a country club. He was at Bridgeport Correctional, there was no air conditioning, and we were at the height of a heat wave, and the you know, one hundred degrees every day, and the cells didn't even have electricity, so he had no he couldn't put a fan in the outlet, he had no radio, no tight TV. He
was deeply depressed and suicidal in September of twenty sixteen. Actually, there have been a handful of times in the last three and a half years where he has been suicidal and had to be put into segregation at a mental health facility with you know, wearing a Ferguson gown and with all of the preventions in place. So in September of twenty sixteen, the depression really escalated and he decided
that he was going to kill himself. But before doing so, he was going to write out a will and have it witnessed by some of the higher ups at the institution. And he was going to give to me all of the legal discovery in the boxes in his cell that his defense counsel had provided to him, as they are constitutionally required to do pending trial, to show him all of the prosecution's evidence against him. And so he willed all of those items, plus the items in.
His cell, to me.
So that I could complete this book in the event that he died. And also uh so that I could inform any of his family members that he had died. And uh, part of this was a living will where uh, you know, he assigned me as the one to give the order not to resuscitate him if if that event came about. And I think that that shows uh the level of trust that he had in me at that point in time, that he continues to have in me.
But but also the sad fact that because of the you know, terrible things that he has done, uh, he is a reviled man and he has appolutely no family members and no friends coming to visit him or even to write him. And so I am, with the exception of his defense counsel, and that's their job. I am the only person who is in contact with him and who you know, for the last few years has shown him any kind of human compassion or sympathy.
That's not to say.
I don't see he is a monster, and I haven't been absolutely disgusted and traumatized myself by the terror that he's inflicted in this world, but it is to say that, you know, he sees me in that role as his one two true friend at this point in time, and has come to rely on that.
Yeah. In May two thousand and five, you introduce another character in the book, this Thomas Rodriguez aka Mason Marconi, a thirty five year old he's a say, he has a lengthy felony conviction record as well in Massachusetts and Connecticut. And he met Bill at Chesshire Correctional Institute in May two thousand and five. What does he do immediately and
what does Bill say to him? And tell us a little more of this story that again doesn't end with Thomas Rodriguez, but ties in some other characters as well.
Right, Tommy Rodriguez was I guess what inmates call a
jailhouse snitch. And you know, that's something I bring out in the book, that there is this underground, pervasive system in the prison system in America that a lot of people aren't aware of, but certainly prosecutors and detectives rely heavily upon other inmates, other jail house snitches to relate to them information about unsolved crimes in exchange, often for lesser sentences or perks from the Department of Corrections, you know, maybe a transfer to a nicer facility.
So in the case of.
Tommy Rodriguez, He had a long history of engaging in this kind of snitching where he would listen in on what other inmates were saying about the crimes that they committed, and he would go to authorities and relay that information with some kind of transactional benefit coming his way. And in Howell's case, he sat down with Howell and I think it was just at wrec time where they were shooting the breeze watching TV in the prison, and he started to ask Howell, you know, why are you in
prison with such a long sentence. Why have you been charged with the crime of this woman when they don't really have anything on you. And Howell did gradually start to open up to Tommy Rodriguez and say, you know I at one point he said, yes, I pushed her out of my vehicle. I punched her in the face and pushed her out of my vehicle. And uh. And with that information, and Tommy Rodriguez did go to Detective Dorone right away, he called him from his cell that
day to relay that information to Dorone. That Howell did say that he was somehow involved with the disappearance of Milsa Arasmendi and that there was blood that Milsa aras Mendy did shed in his van. That was the result of him punching her, beating her up, and pushing.
Her out of his van.
Tommy Rodriguez had previous he worked with Detective Dorone on on other cases, helping to snitch on those cases. So it was by sheer coincidence that Detective do Rone was involved in Howell's case, and so that that greatly assisted Detective Drone's investigation. Of course, at that point in time, once Tommy Rodriguez notified Dorone of that information, he became an agent of the state, and so legally Dorone was required to tell Tommy Rodriguez any more specifically about that
particular missing person's case of Nilsa Eiris Mendi. You can ask him now about any other cases, any anything else he may have done. But as soon as a jail house snitch interacts with law enforcement to say I'm helping you on this case about this particular missing person, they be become an agent of the state, and any further information gleaned from those conversations that Tommy would have with how regarding Arismendi would not be admitted in a court of law. So at least he was able to tell
Drone before he became an agent of the state. I got this information for you. Howell said Arismeny was in his van. He did beat her up and throw her out of the van. He did indicate that he may he may have killed her as well. And he also indicated to me that he hates prostitutes. He hates drug addicted prostitutes.
Yeah, in this as well, when you talk about that he could talk and question him about other victims. That there was a Mary Jane Minard. And again, this is very very disturbing, the dialogue, the conversation he has with this snitch. So what does he say regarding that, you talk about a shock absorber?
So this, ah, yes, that was actually with Jonathan Mills, the quadruple murderer, who heard all of his confessions in twenty fourteen. You know, Howell told him some of the details about how these women suffered what he did to torture them. And that was actually a perfect example of
something that happened quite a lot. That I relay in the book is that the confessions that Howell gave to Jonathan Mills, that Mills shared with authorities were not entirely accurately conveyed to authorities, because it happened months after Howell told Mills these confessions that Mills then reluctantly spoke to authorities.
So some of them are a mish mash of details that got confused with the wrong victim or the wrong time, as often happens like in a game of telephone, where the you know, the further the time goes, the more the information gets diluted or confused. And so what Mills told authorities was that this victim, Mary Jane Menard, was
raped with a shock absorber by Bill Howell. That when Howell provided his confessions to me and wrote them down over the course of the few months following as guilty plea, he cleared up all of the inaccuracies in Jonathan mills confessions that were shared with police, and one minor inaccuracy is that one of the women was indeed raped with a shock absorber. It was not Mary Jane Lenard, as Jonathan Mills had told authorities. Rather it was Howell's to
last victim, another prostitute named Diane Cusack. So and you know, sadly, when I talked to some of the victims' family members, the ones who wanted to know what happened to their loved ones. You know, it's sad to me that, you know, the daughter of Mary Jane Menard was able to say, was that true about my mother? And I could say that was not true. That did not happen to your mother.
The testimony of Mills was inaccurate. It was another woman that happened to, not your mother, but this poor woman, Diane Cusack Howell. You know, in addition to doing what he did with all of his victims, holding them captive, you know, repeatedly raping them and then finally strangling them after twelve hour duration of time, he did rape her
with a shock absorber. And when he described that to me in a letter, it really did show to me just how disassociated he is from the heinous nature of his crimes, because he completely understated it, made it sound like it wasn't a big deal. She seemed to be enjoying it. He said he saw it as some kind of a sex toy. Meanwhile, you know, I was in
possession of all the crimes. He'd seen photos that he gave me that included pictures of that large, rusty old shock absorber and of course, it's just it's awful to think about, and it must have resulted in an excruciating pain to this woman. So yeah, that is, sadly a reflection of his paraphilia, of his sexual sadism.
He called himself the sick ripper. I thought that was quite interesting. He even had a little nickname for himself.
That's according to Jonathan Mills. He said that Bill called himself a sick ripper, And frankly, I think Mills was telling the truth about that. Bill claims to me, I never called myself a sick ripper, but you know, I haven't gotten a no Bill over a few years. It's just the kind of thing that he would say, so I think he probably did tell Mills that he called
himself the sick ripper. He also told Mills, allegedly, according to Mills, that he had a name for the burial ground, which he called his garden, which is why I called the book his garden, And that he had a name for that nineteen eighty five forty Conoline van where all of his victims were raped and killed, which was the murder Mobile.
Yeah, it took a while to identify these victims, and there was one male found was Danny Lee Wisnett, forty year old cross stressor and you incredible book that you have here. He has conversations pretty well about all of the victims and his total disregard for these people. You know, he's a real tough guy in his conversations about murder. What is it? What are the reasons you as you
included in the book. What are some of the reasons for problems with identification of some of the victims even though they were found years before the other victims in two thousand and.
Fifteen in reference to the DNA problems, is this Yeah, Well, the Connecticut crime Lab was in a state of total dysfunction at the time that these crimes took place. So when the first fifty bones of three unidentified victims were found behind that mall back in August of two thousand and seven, uh, they were sent to the crime lab and ordinarily, UH the DNA found within these bones could be easily matched to a national database.
Within within months, uh, if.
Not, if not days or weeks, And unfortunately, in some of these cases, it took years before the identity identification of those three victims took place because, uh, the database had some kind of there was an algorithm misconfiguration, something was wrong with the computers and the database back in two thousand and seven, where when when they were inputting the DNA information to line it up with missing persons nationally,
it was not linking to the national database at all. Basically, it was going into a big black hole and nothing was being done about the identification of these victims. And so as a result, the victims families, you know, they had an inkling that it may have been one of their loved ones behind them all because their loved one was missing. Also, there were you know, sketches provided to the families of the torso of one of the victims,
of the head of one of the victims. So the victims families were left in the dark, sometimes for years, until somebody came in to take over that Connecticut crime lab. And this man took over and the other two men who were involved with the crime lab, who according to some newspaper reports, these these men were busying themselves with testifying for significant amounts of money at other high profile trials, so they're making money on the side.
So the crime lab in.
Connecticut just continued to be in this state of dysfunction until those ten two men were let go, and in fact, the crime lab had lost its license, had lost its crediting because of the mess ups of these people who.
Were running it. When the new man came in.
Ghee was his first name, and I forget the last bit, you can read it in the book, when he took over that crime lab instantly, he instantly transformed it into a working, functional, highly productive crime lab, so that when the next four bodies were found in April of twenty fifteen, they were identified within a matter of weeks, which sadly could have been done with the first three bodies were found when the first three bodies were found, but for the mistakes of the crime lab at that time.
Police did bring in assistance at that time in terms of the form of police dogs cadaver dogs. So that's how they found the other four bodies in an area they'd already searched. I thought, that was again amazing.
Yeah, you know, these bodies over time, when you're when you're leaving these bodies out in in a terrain like that, the animals and the elements will just wreak havoc on the crime site. And so I think, what happened. I mean to some extent. I there may have been some incompetence in the actual search process of by the local authorities early on, and maybe they weren't searching intensively, you know, I don't know, but they did go back every year.
But it wasn't until though the FBI cadaver dogs came in to assist, and also of course until they had the map given to them by Jonathan Mills that showed the exact location that they were able to unearth the remaining for bodies, the bones that I've seen in the crime scene pictures. You know, there was only one body that was still intact for the most part, that was
laying down. You could see the entire body, which just gave chills up my spine because it just brought home the reality to me of what this man that I've gotten to know actually did to see a human skeleton lying face down in a shallow grave. But you know, you can see how the animals stole off with a
lot of the bone. They were found in different locations apart from the graves, and the first item that was discovered back in two thousand and seven was a skull of a woman's head and you know that was found by someone who was just wandering the ground looking for a place to hunt, even though he wasn't supposed to be there. So even though they were buried in shallow graves by Bill Howell because the earth was so swampy, if he dug any deeper the water would come up.
You know, it was still a pretty remote location. And I think authorities really did have a hard time of it trying to locate all of those bodies.
It took till twenty fifteen, right May NBC. He was considered a main suspect in the New Britain serial murders at that time, how do police proceed and tell us about and his rule?
Well, by then Derone had been was a secondary player. His main role was in the first murder of Nilsa Eiras Mendy and making sure that Howell was convicted of that crime. At the time Howe was convicted of the Nilsa Eiras Mendy murder, her body had not been unearthed.
It had only it hadn't even been unearthed until April of twenty fifteen, which secured for police the fact that Howell is the man that is therefore responsible for the remaining murders, because he's in prison for Eras Mendy's murder and now here we find her body along with the
six others. But so Drone at that point was merely part of the New Britain Serial Killer task Force that was formed a few years earlier, offering a one hundred and fifty thousand dollars reward to anyone who could give any information surround these at the time unsolved New Britain serial murders. Ironically, I mentioned in my book, Uh, guess who got that one hundred and fifty thousand dollars award,
quadruple murderer Jonathan Mills. He may have not gotten all of it, but he certainly got a large portion of that award. But you know, really, by the time Howell.
Was named as a suspect.
On on PV in May of twenty fifteen, the police did that because they were extremely confident that he was the man. And the reason was not only because they had just found Nilsa Aras Mendy's remains behind the other six remains, but also because by then, through several different searches of Howell's murder mobile, they had found six of
the seven DNA samples of Howell's victims. So they had extremely strong forensic evidence through blood droppings that were found in his van and some hair, some hair that was attached to the roots with the skin that was in Howell's van. So those items alone the DNA really gave them the confidence to arrest him in September of twenty fifteen.
What does he say to you regarding these developments at that time.
Well, he did a very good job of keeping everything close to the vest and not sharing with me any of his thoughts about the pending charges. The six DNA samples found in his van, he did not share any of it with me. The only crime that he would speak about in our first years together before he ultimately pled guilty in September of two thoy and seventeen was the crime involving Nilsa Arismendi, which he argued he did
not commit. So for a full two and a half to almost three years, I met with a man knowing full well that he committed the seven murders of these people, knowing that the forensics that that was damning against him, and that he would go down at trial and he was locked up for life. I was certain of it. Nonetheless, he would not share with me any information about those pending charges. And actually I did not ask because I was in close relations with the with his defense counsel
in the last three years. Early on, they asked me to uh to meet with them.
UH.
They had strongly advised Howel not to have anything to do with me. When he overrode their advice. UH, they knew they had a problem on their hands, and so they decided to to to sit me down and see if we could work an arrangement, knowing that I was
writing a book about their client. UH. And we did agree in our preliminary meetings on some strict parameters that I would follow UH with respect to, you know, not inquiring of Bill Howell about the crimes that that he had been alleged to have committed, and not in any way interfering with any future litigation in her proceedings. I know, I certainly didn't want to be subpoena to the stand by the prosecution someday at trial as the woman who
brought Howell down. So I was only too happy to promise them that I would not ask Bill Howell anything about these crimes until he was ready to talk about it and legal resolution had taken place. Because you know, as an attorney as well, I'm passionate about the Constitution, and no matter how heinous the crimes, I believed it was important as an attorney that this man get a fair trial and that I not interfere in any way whatsoever.
When did you get the go ahead to be able to write this book, at least in terms of permission from him, Not that that's what you needed.
But Howell had always, right from the first letter he wrote me, understood that I was writing a book and that I.
Was free to relay to the readers.
Anything that he shared with me in his letters or in our face to face visits or phone calls. So I got to go ahead from him right away. I knew that I wouldn't have a good book unless he either confessed to me eventually or went to trial and the truth came out at trial. So I knew I had a weight on my hands, and so did he. But at all times he understood that everything he told me I could disclose publicly at a future date in
my book. I did not. I always suspected, based on little things he would say that he was headed in the direction of pleading guilty. Right from the first few months we would talk, he would reference the possibility of just being done with this by pleading guilty. Not that he was guilty, he would say, but just wanting this
to be over with. It wasn't until the spring of twenty and seventeen, in about April, during our jailhouse visits, where he started to talk to me about the fact that he and his attorneys were headed towards the plea deal with the prosecution, which wasn't much of a plea deal at all. It was he would get three hundred and sixty years the maximum sentence for sixty years for each of his remaining six victims.
So I knew in.
April twenty seventeen he would plead guilty. He promised me that once he pled guilty, he would tell me everything. I did not know if he was going to lie to me and let me down and just say, well, I just took the plea deal, but actually I'm innocent. Well, that would be awful if he did that. But in fact, he was true to his word and he did tell me everything. So as soon as he confessed everything to me during the months of September through December of twenty seventeen.
I furiously wrote it down.
I wrote one third of the book in just really like three months. I wrote that final confession section as quickly as possible and then sent it off to the publisher, but not before sending him the manuscript for his review.
And what was his review?
He hated it.
He hated it.
He felt betrayed. He felt absolutely betrayed. He felt, and I state this in the book, and I stayed a lot about this in the footnotes of the book where I give his response to parts of the book, that he felt like I stabbed him in the back, he felt like I duped him, I conned him, that he was naive that when we met, he was meeting a friendly, smiling woman who was very nice to him, and when he read the final manuscript, I don't. I mean, I'm to this day, I'm still baffled about what did he
expect me to write. You know, he's a serial killer, He's done despicable things, He's caused enormous suffering. How on earth did he think I was going to portray portray him? But you know, and and I think, in fact, a lot of the criticism you know I get from people who have yet to read the book, is why you be nice to this guy? So, you know, if anything, you know, I thought, I thought I was kind of nice to him over the course of the last three years and in how I handled him in the book
and my portrayal of him. But he felt very differently. He felt like I depicted him as a monster, that I was afraid of.
That you know.
That that I was phony in our interactions. And I think he felt betrayed by my narrative voice, because when we talk it is in a very friendly way, and my narrative voice in the book, especially in the last
confession section, is is rather stern. And and and I'm disgusted by what he did, and I'm I'm heartbroken by what I what I see he's put the victims' family through because I've met with these people, I've looked at them, I've you know, I've seen their pain, and and so that contributes to my my stern kind of tone of voice in the last section of the book. And I think he he did not expect that I would do that.
You also talk about the include when we're speaking about that, that he had a very viewed. Pardon me a skewed viewpoint about certain things, like he would complain about you talk about, complain about small things, and yet not seem to be cognizant of the bigger picture where he's a killer of seven people. Maybe you can explain.
Exactly exactly I think he is in profound denial to this day about what he's done. You know, in one exchange, you know, he said, you know, it's just I feel like you see me as a monster. And I said, Bill, what you did was monstrous, and how could I not see this way? How could I not see you as a beast? And he said to me, you know, I guess the strange thing is that you, along with others, see me as a monster, whereas I still can't get
my mind around that I'm a monster. I still can't get my mind around that I'm.
A serial killer.
And I think he still refuses to accept the level of mental sickness that he has that brought about these crimes.
When he told me.
That when he was engaged in these twelve hour periods of rape and torture, that he felt like he was in a movie and he was the bad guy acting out a part I think that was really telling that. I think he had told me that he started fantasizing about raping prostitutes in his early twenties while in prison in Virginia, and I think while he was doing it, he was in a fantasy state of mind, highly disassociated
from reality. And to this day, I almost think like he has not embraced the reality of that he actually did these things. It's still almost like something compartmentalized in his mind. He tells me that he never dreams about the victims. He doesn't think about the victims. He doesn't dream about them, which is so strange to me because I have dreamt about the victims and had nightmares about what he's done, and yet he's the killer and he hasn't had any nightmares or dreams about it. So I
think he shut it out of his head. And he tells me that he still can't believe that he's a serial killer. He almost has a victim mentality, like how did this come upon me?
Yes? Incredible, And I want to name these victims, and I'm missing one victim here, but Nilsa Aris Mendy, Melanie Ruth Camalini, Marilyn Gonzales, Diane Cusack, Danny Wistnett, Joe Ellen Martinez, and one more victim.
M hmm. So we have Melanie Cammerini, Marilyn Gonzalez, Danni Wissnet, Nielsa Eiris Mendy, Uh, Mary Jane Menard? Is that the one? Diane Cusack and and uh Jobling Martinez And you know, the two that really strike.
In my mind would be Melanie Cammerini.
The first because her sister. For the Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer show on Netflix that's going to air next season, we had Melanie Cammerini's sister interviewed for that show, and she shared on that show information about her sister, one of Howell's victims, and and she's a strikingly beautiful woman. She looked like Natalie Wood, you know.
And and then the other victim that really touches me in terms of I've gotten to know so much of her backstory was Mary Jane Menard, who was herself a substance abuse counselor before she engaged in heroin.
Right with this as well, what is the what do you think? I mean we talk about the motive for this, what do you think overall? His motive was for murder?
I think his motive.
Was a desperate need for power, that he had no power in his life. I remember about a year and a half into getting to know him, when I was still just absolutely at a loss for why this kind, friendly, southern guy I was getting to know would do such
terrible things. I were sitting out on my screened in porch for an entire afternoon, and by then I had around two hundred pages of letters from him, and just reading letter after a letter, and when I put it down because and I was looking for what was written in between.
The lines, why did he do this?
And I closed it, and I remember that's when it came to me the overall theme in all of his letters up until then was powerlessness. That whether it was as a high school dropout with no skills, as a man whose both parents died, he had no money, he had no social status. The mother of his children, who he loved, his high school sweetheart, took the two little babies out of state and married another man, and he could never see them again because he was always in
trouble with the law. So if he went to see them, she would report him to the probation office. So he couldn't see his children, and then he was chronically incarcerated, starting at the age of sixteen through his entire twenties and early thirties simply for driving without a license. That's the only reason for those incarcerations. It's hard to believe, but he had no violent offenses or felonies. It was
just as an habitual offender. All of that incarceration. I think that state of powerlessness built a rage within him, and he channeled all of that in those twelve hour periods. Because he told me that during those twelve hour periods, he felt this incredible adrenaline buzz, this rush of chemicals and excitement during the commission of his crimes. It was as if he was on crack cocaine. That's how it was affecting his reign to have that power over his victims.
And one person, I believe it was one of his defense attorneys, asked me, you know.
How do you think he.
Oh a detect? Do you think he killed them alone? Because some of these women were pretty big, healthy women. Neil Fayre's many, for example, was a very strong, muscular woman. Or Danny Wisner, he was a man, and he was a tall, lanky man. But these were not weak people. So how did he overcome them and strangle them? Because he's about five ten and he's a big, hefty guy. Now he's put on a lot of weight since he's been in prison. But you know, I've thought about it.
It was that rush of power. I think it also gave him a kind of inhuman strength when he overcame them in the final moments of their life.
Yeah, very very interesting. I want to thank you very much and Kay Howard for coming on and talking about his garden Conversations with a serial Killer. It's been fascinating. Could you also remind us of the Netflix upcoming Netflix special that you're talking about and also your blog sure Kinetics.
Yeah.
Well, a production company, first Look Productions, came to Connecticut in May and we filmed for two shows that air on Netflix. The first that will air will be a new show that this production company has coming out called twenty first Century Serial Killers that's going to air at the end of twenty eighteen. The producer is going to give me the link to that show.
I've actually already watched it, he sent me by email. The show the rough draft.
It's really quite good. So he's agreed that when the draft is all polished, and hopefully in a few months from now, I will be able to post that link on my Serial Murders in Connecticut Facebook page if your listeners were to go to my blog, which is entitled Serial Murders in Connecticut, So if you just search that with Ian K. Howard, you're going to find my blog. And then with the blog, there's a little icon for Facebook.
So if they were to press the Facebook icon and like the Serial Murders Facebook page, then when that twenty first century show comes out, I will provide that link for previewing months before the show airs on Netflix, just
for my Serial Murders and Connecticut Facebook followers. But what fascinates me about that show, of course, is that it's about what is it about this killer that makes his crimes unique to our era, and of course with how it's the heroin epidemic, it allowed these women to become prey, made them vulnerable to a serial killer. And the second show is the second show would be Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer for season two, so some of that footage will be used for the Inside the Mind
show to air later in twenty nineteen. Also, if your listeners were interested in going to the Crime Watch Daily TV show website, they featured interviews with me and I worked with producers for the content of that show that aired about this new Brent serial killer back on January fifth, twenty eighteen.
So I think they could still find that Crime Watch.
Daily Show easily at the on their website or online as well. Well.
That's great. I want to thank you very much and Kay Howard for this. It's been polarly fascinating and it's sent out take news that people can get to hear even more information surrounding this and other serial killers in Connecticut. I want to thank you very much. You have a great evening, and thank.
You to talk again. Okay, take care, great evening, go bye bye.