Episode 537: Ronald Dominique: The Bayou Strangler (Part 1)
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Hey, weird. I M F, and and this is more bad.

She's got chocolate in her. sorry. We were doing verbal silence first, and I thought I had enough time to eat the, I was in my mouth, but I was letting at melt in my mouth.

And then I tried to talk and I was just the whole thing, so really just nor, it's not my narration. So I figured I could here, like I could do whatever the fuck I want today, widely up in here today. I don't know what they put in my jersey, my sub, but I feel prized.

Just been saying silly thing. She's been wide. My friends like Willy Willy reckless and straight up google all of those things.

And I don't know, we don't really have a whole light imminence of the holiday break if you can hear the deck they're making in our I apologize cked neighbors, my neighbors, you know, they're in so they got to go and other to them say, you know sure, I don't know either way, here we are and we're here to bring you some content. I'm sorry. Okay, so not you like I got I told where this is the two party.

I'm coming out straight off of an old timing case with with something from the two thousands. shit. I realized that we were like chatting earlier, something at me.

This is elena, a look at you. And i'm bringing you a case that is not in the eighteen hundred ds of the early nineteen hundred. Here's to look at U.

K. So yes, that's that's where I usually have been a place of. He was looking at A U.

K, but I don't know. No, I an y two k play. Oh, that's funny. I'm unlike the old days for my so actually I don't know if that comes up before here or after and I don't know anything comes out because either way, this is a two party we're going to be talking about ronal dominic, the biu stranger. I don't know this one and it's that you don't because a lot of people don't. Oh, and I think it's because of who he chose as victims.

Oh no, he the police didn't the police, like everybody investigating this and the press did not put enough emphasis on finding this guy, okay, enough because the people that he choses victims, he knew that the investigators were going to look at and say, well, they're high risk and what they're doing or you know, it's probably their own fault because they did this. The people are less, less dead. exactly.

They get blamed for their own just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Luckily, don't worry, he does eventually go cut. But a lot of people lost their lives along the way and a lot of them we're not treated well in the press.

So this cases, not a lot of people don't know about IT and I just it's not it's not discussed that IT wasn't discussing the press respectively at all. That's really first. thanks. Um so in the spring of two thousand and five law enforcement officials in southern lousie, I had a growing, growing number of murder victims and we've been they had started to suspect that they were connected.

They were thinking, okay, I think we do have either a serial killer or serial killers because the victims were all men, mostly in their twenty there all men and boys, I should say, a summer Younger, mostly in there twenty and thirties. But there was a couple that were lower than that, not children percent like you know under ten or anything like that, but there was like some sixteen, sixteen, nineteen boys um so they were all you know around that age and they were all vulnerable targets that the killer or killers were clearly actively print, praying on. And they were thought to be on the fringes of society of them.

Some of them were known to be actively struggling with substance and abuse, or have a history of substance to be struggles. Uh, they were known. A lot of them were known to police as uh doing sex work either for their job or doing IT sometimes just as as a desperation thing um and they had all been strangled and dumped in secondary look oh wow.

And there were all locations like marshes by use, like a sugar cane field. Oh wow, a few of them were Better and they there were all those locations were used multiple times. okay.

Um so eventually ronal dominic would would be connected to the murder and he his count at the end would be the depth of at least twenty three men and boys wow, that's what blows my mind that this is not moral known because yeah not large amount of victims and that's like at least twenty three yeah that's what they know about. And he was in a pretty small span of time, all things considered. And this was in the two thousand.

This where we begin is to in the spring of two thousand five. That's when they really connecting everything. I can't believe I don't know about that.

Yes, I know it's crazy now over the course of a decade, ronal dominic developed into one of the worst and most prolific serial killers in american history. But like I just said, his story and those of his victims remain largely unknown and kind of ignored by mainstream media. Not so much, and it's really wild.

So let's talk about ronal dominic, like where the fucking you come from? What so little is known about running dominance life before his first run in with the law, we know he was born january in one thousand nine hundred and sixty four. He is the Youngest of six children to working class parents in tibet.

Lousianner and a cap corn, yeah, I know I don't love IT no. And tibet is a small city about halfway between s and baton rouge family appears to have been pretty active and committed to their local church. And at a Young age, we can at least point to something that was a very big man in his life um at a very Young age.

Rono told his parents that he had been sexually abused by a priest at the time. No um they reacted horrifically and didn't believe him. I never understand that.

How do you know, how do you believe somebody outside of your family, you believe this random guy who is said to be doing this and instead of your own child, I don't is like you. No one's ever going explain that to me. I don't even try.

I don't. I don't. I do not. I like, must be lying like that. Fuck up, my god. So that's a big trauma. And Ronald entered tivo high school in the fall of one thousand nine hundred seventy nine. He saying, in that span of time, that's the big trauma that happened.

Outside of that, there's really nothing of note alone alone is like wo that alone and compounded by the fact that his parents didn't believe him. And if his parents didn't believe him, how much longer does that go on because they didn't? exactly. And when you read a lot of sources about this, like books in such an will, obviously link all the books like we always do but a lot of them point to the fact to that um he struggled with his own sexual identity for most of his life okay, and growing up in a religious home, obviously he was trying to hide that yeah and his parents were a people believe that they were probably catching on.

Okay, so that and they took him saying that about the priest as just an extension of that because they probably believed, probably believed that he was like mentally ill here and they believe, do you know, being gay you know they believe your your gay so you know, we're going to believe you about this. And who knows, it's just and that's what really wrap saw this into such like an awful ball of trauma because it's like there's so many layers to IT for him as a kid you definitely feel bad for the child and you feel bad for the child when you find out what adult is. You're like you fucking monster that is just like holy shit.

Um but he they know in high school he was involved in clubs. He in the glee club, he was in the course. He enjoyed being a part of that. But he was bullied in her ass, pretty rowens lessons at school by his peers, according to an old school, kind of like a queens. Just so one who knew him, fellow student, they said they heard he was gay and they wanted him to admit and he didn't.

He was pretending that he wasn't and he would not openly admit which here's the thing I don't understand being like I just want you to say your gay like why why the fuck do you care? I never have. I've been like, I need to know this persons you know sexual preference.

You don't know there's sexual preferences Better than they do. Maybe maybe he wasn't. I discovered IT maybe doesn't want you to know that. I also, it's like as long as it's a consenting adult, I don't give a shit who are attracted to you like it's not my I don't.

Why would I care? And those really that these people wanted to know probably like that's the thing, just crete shit to build him on. And that's what annoys me. Like that comes out as like they just wanted to him to admit IT and everybody acts like me.

O okay, so if he admitted that was going to be like, thank you oh okay no, I was so you could relate lesly torture him and it's I don't get that or like even adult. So when they like this guy just needs to admit that he's gay. why? why? What effect does that have on your life?

D bearing, were you forced to actively admit that you are straight? no. Were you forced to actively admit anything like that? No, no, I nobody cares like she's like one of the it's such a weird mindset. I don't get a wild it's just a strange, very alien mindset to me. But either way, he was also considered um he was he struggled with this weight a lot.

He was very overweight when he was Younger and into adult hood, which of course as a teen puts a target on your back oh yeah ah in the harassment from school mates definitely LED to some like depression for self a steam. He definitely had underdeveloped social skills by that point in a cana, stuck with them for like decades at that point. Like not that not necessarily like the post of steam and all that. I'm sure like you know, he's a serial killer. I'm sure he he got figured that but social skills he did not have right.

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What if death is only the beginning? In one thousand nine hundred and fifty, england, a milk band's daughters lives are tragically cut short. When his wife later becomes pregnant, he makes a claim that is, Frankly ery.

He says that his newborn e twins are his dead daughters reincarnated. Andy says he has proof a true story. Hosted by writer, director and amy nominated actor will sharp. This is extra sensory and apple original podcast produced by blenched house. Apple TV plus subscribers get special early access to the entire season, follow and listen on .

apple podcasts. Now after graduating in one thousand and eighty three, he enrolled a nichole state university and he decided to major in computer science. He dropped out after all the year two also well um now his criminal history began in the late spring of one thousand and eighty five when he was arrested for making sexually harassing phone calls to his neighbors.

Now looking at this in high sight, like back down in the eighties, was, I H my god sweir d silly crazy. And it's just like now we look at IT with all the knowledge we all have, we know that this sexually deviant behavior is similar to many sexual predators who eventually escalate to sexual violence. Yeah, he is very much precor to that.

There is study after study after a peeping tom is not just at a people bingo. No, that is the first four ray into if IT is not stopped becoming violent, right? That is just how IT goes.

But at the time, I was seem like a nuisance, like that silly, weird nuisance. He paid a seventy five dollar fine. wow. And that was that. That's no jailed. Now by the time he reached his early twenty years he was working odd jobs, really didn't have a lot of connections to people, not a lot of friends, not like a social group um and according to a former roommate with whom shared an apartment in one thousand and eighty five runs, quote, didn't have many friends and he didn't keep friends. okay.

So IT doesn't look look like he was able to like maintain a relationship there, which is like that's like a typical it'll see there is an FBI profile that comes out later that is always typical on a bi profile of a serial killer words like he's not connection yeah IT check check I was going to say a lot of the time I chat, not all the time we see in high social behavior yeah um but he also never fully felt comfortable like we mentioned with his own sexuality and often felt that he was kind of an outsider in all communities. So he was just kind of like he was convinced himself that he didn't bell on anywhere. IT wasn't when he became an adult or wasn't necessarily people treating him poorly like obviously went through high school and he doubt with all yeah, but a lot of people come out of but a lot, many, many, many, many, many people come out there and they find their own things.

You find your group, you find your people. And it's like he had convinced himself that the world was against him and it's like wasn't people actively doing IT, he was just creating that for himself. Um and back in those days, no one really recalled durn ald like you know dating anyone having any romantic relationships.

His former roommate didn't even remember him bringing anyone to the apartment. No guests, nothing like, no friends, nothing um basically whether he was his poor social skills or what we now know what he was like, very unable like he was not put together at all, runs night at that. He had spent a lot of nights at bars and around hoa, which you will talk about homework because he moves there.

Okay, in the visit a, he spent a lot of time in bars around there and he wasn't there like drinking and dancing and like meeting people. He was just kind of playing pool and kind of for a lack of a Better term, like working on the frenches of everything. And he kind of found himself like wanting to step into lousie, as gazing at the time, like gone to get involved, meet some people.

But he didn't have pure intentions with IT. IT wasn't like he was looking to involve themselves to find friends, like get into relationships, like you know form connection. Right after his arrest, we find out that his presence in these in the lake, which at the time was a very small openly gay community in southern lousianner in the yeah um there there was a much more meaning ing implication that he had where he was trying to get involved in IT um that makes sense.

That's where he was basically creeping among the most vulnerable and at risk in the community to find his first of that's what he was doing and like building some kind of courage is not the right word but you know what I mean like the gunman to a do IT ah which is really when you look back on it's got so many it's so sort I don't like yeah I don't it's like you just think of him like just creeping around in those bars like trying to make connections but like for the most hrihor of purposes like reds me jeff rey domer the waking like just lurk bars exactly in one hundred and ninety four dominic popped up on police rate again because he was arrested for drunk driving. But he was two years later that we finally got a little look into the violent part of him at this time, police were called to his apartment after neighbors saw a man climbing down from dominic apartment window. And this reminds me of their free doma.

two. Yeah, this man was screaming ing. He's trying to kill me. Oh my god. When sheriff deputies arrived to the quote, partially clad Young man told the officers that ronal had wrapped him and would have killed him if he had not escaped out the way.

Oh, g, this man is partially closed, climbing out a window, screaming ing he's trying to kill me, said he was raped and he would have been killed if he didn't escape. Rond was arrested for sexual assault and held on one hundred thousand dollar bond, which he had definitely couldn't pay. So he SAT in the county dale jail, Lucy, for three months, spending a trial. Now, a conviction for sexual assault and attempted murder would have put ronn ald in a federal prison for a long time. Yeah, like I was.

Look, I see later, fortunately for him, and unfortunately for the rest of society, when the trial date finally arrived, the accused the complaint and didn't show up on and they couldn't locate him and that so sad because think about the peria and think about the time you d just what had happened in general, horrific, like a lot of people wouldn't show up to yeah, face somebody that had done that to them. That's horrifying yeah, in every way that can be horrifying, right? And they couldn't find them which also you like what happens? Like where do you go in november of nineteen ninety six, the judge in the case continue the case indefinitely in the district atterley drop the charges is so simple.

Had those charges just dropped? wow. He raped and tried to kill a man who had to escape out of his window. And he got away with that. That's why the justice system is so broken.

And you would think if this, if this person of the victim had been treated with a lot of intercepting compassion and felt like they added, like had a support system right, then maybe they could, they would have shown up and IT makes me sad that think we don't know for sure. But I don't know if they felt that they probably didn't because they didn't have like the victim advocacy programs that they do now know the early nineties at this point. It's like in the early nineties and in lousianner, like there, not a lot is, like you said, in the way of advocacy.

So after that close call, ronal did manage to avoid police for several years actually. Wow, IT was in two thousand that he got arrested again for disturbing the peace. And that makes you wonder in between, like during those years, what happened? What was going? Was he just being more subtle LED about that, right? Yes, he, like he very clearly would have killed that man had he not a scap.

Which makes me question one, had he done that before? And two, was he doing IT in the meantime and somehow was just stable to get away? That's what I wonder. But then you look at and we'll mention him at some point you know you you look at like denis reader who still for long time all ship flower yeah like you think you look at him, he stopped her all time of his life before IT is strange, but either way, he paid the fine for disturbing the piece and managed to avoid going before a judge.

But he was arrested again two years later after slapping a woman at a martire parade, folk in love, jail time or a fine, he was offered the opportunity to participate. An alternative sentencing program is required to people to meet and maintain certain expectation. Basically, for the program, he had to maintained a job, display good behavior, and IT was all in order to avoid the harsher penalties that honestly should have come, yeah, get a job and don't slap women anymore and will will excuse the one time you did find.

And so he managed to meet the requirements of the program. And six month later, the offence was completely discharged from his record broken justice. Yeah, we see this like so many times. It's bad.

Now following following this whole thing and successfully getting that taken off in this record, ro dominic appear to be someone getting his life together a little bit for a minute, like, or at least trying to during the day, he got a job at a produced company and homa. But the job wasn't enough to really make ends meet. So we found a second job as an evening delivery driver for domino pizza.

No, yeah. And when he was a working, he was like, he told people that he knew that he really wanted to be a productive member of society. So he became a full member of the local lions club, which also reminds me, this reminds me a little bit of joan win jacey with, I need to be involved in the community.

We pretend that everything's fine when you see what how he doesn't. He lures people to into his clutches. Yeah, only to kind of surprise them by binding them and killing them. Wow, very genuine guys.

I very and also jeffrey domer, and also denigrate or and also like that he's he's a big combination of many yeah um but in the lines club he became a popular figure at regular bingo night, much like gacy yeah exactly not bingo night yeah but he seemed determined to be kind of like A A member a positive member of society at this point he was at least he least was putting on the facade. Imagine knowing you played bingo with that man. That's for my goodness.

And what police and community members didn't know at this time because again, like I said, he was putting on the face sad, an active and positive community number. But police in the community would soon find out that by two thousand and two, the man who was now that popular bingo collar and pizza delivery driver around town had already raped in murder at least a eleven men. wow.

And he would go on to rape and murder twelve more by the time he was finally caught eleven men and boys he had already raped and murdered time that you can just do that at whatever point of four members for bingo. exactly. And deliver somebody y's pizza.

yeah. What the five yeah so we're going to start talking about this case were going to back up now nineteen ninety seven and ninety ninety eight OK that's when the murder that same chard's parish and so on july twelve, one thousand ninety seven nineteen neural. David mitchill junior attended a birthday party with his mother literary Mitchell and his aunt redoubt. At some point there was an argument that broke out between David and another guest. So he's aunt dropped him off at his grandmother's house in han ville lousianner, where he was going to wait for his uncle to come pick him up and drive him the five miles back to his house and loving, okay.

His aunt later said, quote, my brother didn't show up so I guess he decided to try to hit hike back to his moms now, when the family hadn't heard from Mitchell the following day, they assumed head maybe stopped off at a friend's house state the night like there was no real cause for alarm ment at first yeah and probably and trying to cool off after one of us like this was in the following day, David mital didn't report for work. And when his mother checked his bedroom, his ID badge and work cloth were still on the bed on touch and that was not like him OK he would go to work and and and I will also wasn't like IT wasn't like David to miss work, and IT wasn't like David to stay out all night. They were trying to think in their heads like OK.

Maybe we missed him mentioning that he was going to a friends house or something. They were already a little on age because he wasn't want to just do that right? Solitary Mitchell did call the police's mother to report her sun missing while waiting for an update.

He literally mitchill his mother got got her update unexpectedly because her son's photo flashed across the television screen in a local new segment about a drowned body of a Young black man found in an industrial area of Louisiana highway three one six o so they had already found him. Most likely at at the time that you reported missing, they had already, they didn't note him. That's the thing.

They only found an uni dense, fied Young black man. And when he called, they didn't know that they had already found him go. But that's how SHE.

That's horrible, horrific. So now IT begins. This whole authorities struggling. These families of now, the authorities were just, they were like police immediately classify David Mitchell is leading a high risk lifestyle, and despite ping found with his pants around his ankles, having no drugs or alcohol in his system and being known as a good swimmer, his death was labeled an accident and the case was closed.

And what are they talking about high risk lifestyle in his case, like that's what kills me here, is that high risk is like a legitimate term. It's an actual term that can be used like for things like you grew up in an abusive households, something that's totally beyond your control of your own circumstances, just something that is happening to you like a actuation. exactly. But here, IT was totally weapon zed by so many people involved in this case, to make IT seem like these people were doing things that LED to their own murder, like they did something that they deserved to this. So most they weren't saying that, but they were saying IT by by implying .

that yeah they were saying the .

quiet part outline exactly. They were implying that somehow this was their own fault but still got killed. Why are we pretending that they're still a person? There still are people who give a shit about them like that.

Such a weird, careless way to look at like them. When the investigators look at this way, it's like, he does not matter what that like. This is a person, right? This is sometimes.

And you need to investigate what the fuck happened to whole job. Now, tragic as IT was, the death of David mitchill didn't strike le enforcement as anything more than an unfortunate wow pants around his angles. And IT was an accident? no. But within a year his death would get a second look, because that was in the wake of two more deaths of a similar nature neither of which were accidental and really couldn't be your term is accidental um in the december of one thousand nine ninety seven twenty year old gary pieris body was discovered in a wooded area of months which is an unincorporated area of saint Charles parish. Um unlike Mitchell peer had been sexually assaulted confirmed his body showed signs of having been bound at some point priority his death and he died by as fixation due a neck compression oh wow.

Now according to the investigators P, R of course they had to say P, R, was found heavily involved to a drugs like, so despite having been tied up, raped and strangled, his death at first was initially classified, not as murder, but as unclassified. I was that unclassified? What, lord do you need to classify that is a murder. Think about that, this really happened, and this really happens that a person can be raped. I tied up, raped and strangled, confirmed to you that, and say its unclasp investigators can say, we don't know what happened here because he had a drug problem at one point.

Why like that? Wild, unreal and just what is slap in the face to his entire family and anyone that ever loved him? Because all you wanted, I don't give a sheet, what was going on? And I want to know what here? What happened here? right? Like, what the fuck? So like David Mitchell, gary pearce death had been largely forgotten about until the end of july one hundred and ninety eight one six, Charles s.

Parish investigators discovered another, oh god, thirty eight year old Larry ranson, in a remote area of highway, a glue sian highway three one six O I don't know if it's thirty one sixty three one six O I don't know. sorry. Um I looked up every pronunciation for everything and I just didn't look up that um but I was not far from where.

David Mitchell body was discovered almost exactly one year earlier and randon's body was fully closed. And aside from having been quote, kicked in the groin, the only trauma was the ethic xian that IT costs his death um IT as in the case of garip, er larrian son was believed to have struggled with drugs which police believed was somehow linked to his stuff. They could not go come on.

It's what investing something like, okay. So if you're going to if you're concentrating on that part of IT, that's a link. And between something going on here, yeah, that's exactly.

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Now unfortunately, there is a limited um amount of information about dominic first three victims that we just mentioned, but their demographic profiles are significant. They'll become more significant as these murder continue. All three are black men of lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Two of them peer and ranson, are known to be either gay or bisexual, and at least two pear and ranson have some history, allegedly, of substance abuse or addiction OK.

Again, these pieces of personal information are only important in the sense of showing that there is a pattern, right victim profile, that will continue, right? IT also shows that the investigation was heavily biased against them because of prejudices of some kinder another at multiple times during the investigation. Sounds like multiple prejudice yeah.

Because initially child's parish investigators assume the high risk lifesize of these, or at least partially related to their deaths. And really little effort was put into solving these deaths. That sounds.

But in february ninety ninety nine, the P. R. In ranking cases were finally replay sized as murder and investigated as such. Unfortunately, by that time, ronal domini katari killed three more times. wow.

Now we're going to move into the murders that happened in the newer and suburbs from one thousand nine hundred ninety eight to one hundred ninety nine. The afternoon of october third, nineteen ninety eight was unseasonably hot even for lousianner. So ronal dominic, through the half hour.

So from hn ville to the french quarter, he was hoping that like you know, the excitement, the activity of the french quarter, that whole would be enough to blow off some of his team. He was basically looking to pay for sex that night. Okay, in new newer leans in new orleans french quarter at especially at this time, sex or anything else for that matter was relatively easy to fined down there.

I was like a big party up. I was good party um that afternoon Ronald mayed his weight raw hide, which was a well known bar in the quarter and he took a seat the bar next to twenty seven year old Oliver libbers. Oliver had come to the bar with his brother and a couple of friends but he didn't really like raha and he wasn't a really end of this whole thing.

So while they were dancing and mingling and doing whatever, he just took a seat at the bar and have a beer. Because now, yeah, now, after making some small talk, IT was a parent, what dominic was looking for. So they worked out the specifics of the transaction, national sexual experience between the two of them and the two men left the bar in the direction of Ronald car.

Okay, now IT was dark by the time they reached the car. And I was in the parking lot of the jack barry and I was mostly an empty parking lot because I was close at that point in the back seat of dominoes. Chevy mala abo.

The banks, you know, they begin the transaction. But suddenly, without warning, runned flipped him over, and despite him protesting in fighting to defend himself, he began raping Oliver banks. No, no, no.

When he finished dominy grab the tire iron from the floor and dashed Oliver, the banks, twice in the head with him, causing a concussion immediately. Then he wrapped his hands around his throat and began struggling. god.

At some point, the force required to manually strangle someone became unsustainable. And so he wrapped a belt around all of the livings sneck and pulled IT so tightly that the classes cut into his neck. And he choked him for several minutes until he was sure he was dead.

That is terrifying, because when you see a picture of this man, he's a big, he's guy, very intimidate, like I M in. And IT would be so easy for him over powers. Yes, that's thing.

It's so scary. And just what he's capable of anyways, just ruthless. I mean, that is brutal. Oh, yes, he did and I did.

That sounds like everything happened so far that anything that sounds like IT was just within an instant everything turned. These people had no chance. Steven defend themselves.

no. Domine drove all of a little banks, his body, to a remote stretch of road near zpa fields, which was home to the triple a minor league. Near as these efforts, my god, and dumped his body under a dark overpass. And then I drove back trailler in homa. And Oliver's body was discovered the next morning by a passerby who reported to police.

Now to show again that this pattern is that that ronal dominic was establishing for his chosen victims all over the banks was black, like obviously he is choosing a very specific victim, had a history of substance of his struggles in the past, and was known to engage in sex work from time to time just to get money for things he needed. And now these facts, again, I would just want to make sure everybody knows these facts do not define all of our banks says, but they give insight into dont ronal. Dominic fucked up word view in the way he is choosing his victim, victim profile.

He had a victim type now, definitely where we're at that point, right? But even with all these patterns and similarities between victims and methods of murder, the press picked up on the fact that there was substance abuse history in the fact that he engaged in sex work sometimes. And so they're reporting on olives murder focus largely on his being.

And I quote a gay prostitute te, that's what they just called. And quote an uneducated and unvalued transient kitchen employee in some mindless job. That was an actual quote used to describe the victim who that just made my heart like, oh my god.

D so shameful. IT is wild. Who wrote that in? Luckily, in the years since his murder, the banks, friends and family have attempted to correct the narrative, which is growth.

They even have to do that, that their jobs s that should be the job of these of journalists that are writing these things they should be at something that calls according to a friend um in former employer mark paul lin, he said he was not a bad as in any way all he had five children he had responsibility lit E S. In a good future in front of him. But he had one weakness while he'd been cleaned for some time, a long time.

All he was a recovering drug addict, which are good for him. He got clean like he was getting. He had a job right. He was working towards a Better future.

In other, it's so sad that these people even have to come out to try to defend the person that was violently ripped away. What was that headline? IT was they literally said, let me go back to find IT, an uneducated and unvalued transient kitchen employee in some mindless job unvalued.

He has five children. He clearly has friends. He has a long tell me as family, and these family and friends have to come forward and be like the assets of the world. He's more than his demand. He's very value they to actually to die like that horrifically and then just to be chalked up to nothing yeah in the paper whoever wrote that can go fuck them well, I like the thing is too, I don't see anyone coming.

I didn't find anything about anybody that wrote kind of like shit like this or some shit like this about IT coming on being like ww was wrong, like that was not a real person and I should I do. Why do you load out? How do you write something like that handed into your boss and go home your family for your family? And it's like, what the fuck? Yeah it's in hearing someone who cared about him referred to him as ali yeah like I don't even know what the word is just like get humanized as the situation so much one thing like he wasn't an all banks was like my time.

He was all I like someone in five kids father and that's that's the thing to think that he had five children that's awful lost their dad like that. So for detectives there was there was very little evidence at the scene um according to the autopsy, Oliver had been found at the risk and raped before being murdered well but the killer left no fingerprints and had worn a condom so they didn't have anything left um so detectives didn't have a lot to work with here. What they did have was a single hair from a White man left on the body, but until they had a suspect to match to, I just kind of set their useless and evidence they did know that was from a White man that's all marking to N D.

A ally. But detectives on the Oliver the banks case wouldn't have to wait long for their killer to strike again. Unfortunately, IT would be another jurisdiction, and a long time would pass before the connection between the victims was made.

That was the other thing that runnel dominic did was he went to different jurisdictions and parish es, knowingly knowing that there was gonna take a while for them to connect these because if connecting different cases like that in different counties and parishes and jurisdictions can get reckless because you can really do really case. It's like you really have to have solid evidence to make sure you know that these are connected, right? And he knew that so just two weeks after Oliver libs, his body was discovered under the overpass.

The partially closed body of sixteen year old Joseph Brown was discovered on october thousand nine hundred and one thousand nine hundred ninety eight. He was found on the western end of veterans memorial of art in kenner, which is a suburban community. About ten or fifteen minutes outside new baLance, uh, to investigators at the scene, IT looked like Brown's body had been, quote, pretty much dump ed out of a car by the side of the road.

Wow, like trash. Yeah, he'd suffered. And this is really sad. Like this one really got me. He'd suffered several severe lacerations and wounds to his head, and a bloody plastic bag was discover near his body, which investigators suspect that the bag had been placed over his head as he was beaten to death.

My god, yes, these guys are flocking monster IT is nowhere like beyond Joseph Brown had grown up in, and I looked up the pronunciation of this place in luis ana. And IT is pronounced buta oci. About fifteen minutes from kenner, of course, the press labeled him a trouble teenager, not just um a child who was brutally murdered right on the night of his murdered. Joseph had been with some friends in buti and no one seemed to know how he'd gotten to canner or what he was doing there. The coroner ruled Browns death of homicide by strangulation.

Um he had also been beaten over the head but I think he actually died by election um which obviously a teenage boy dying by regulation is like pretty unusual yeah one might say but otherwise there weren't really clues to who were the how like other like where he was killed but again, they were just kind of like, well, he was a trouble kin and it's like, well, trouble kids don't always get strongly so I think we should look into that like you what the fuck. IT says this is a really, really fruit name and it's a take out troubled. He's a kid.

He's a kid and that's all you should be a that's Young, that is Young. And plenty of people are troubled kids that grow until like amazing adults. And he beaten and struggled the day I so jeffson paris detectives who are working the Oliver lebanon's case got called in november when the body of eighteen year old Bruce Williams was discovered in an industrial park in jeffson parish, just outside new orleans.

Like all over the banks, Williams was known to police as a sometimes sex worker who primarily worked in orleans proper on the evening of november's twenty seventh. Williams was seen by friends in the french quarter. And also, like the banks, he had been raped and strangled.

So he's got a very much n mo here. Now this is an unusual number of Young male rape sash murder victims being discovered in the greater new orleans area. Um at one point one of the detectives was like, this is more murder than we have for an entire year.

This is a lot like the and there is a lot of murder in new. And I like it's not that it's not like known to, but these were happening so quickly. He was like at the end of like the whole thing.

He was like that stretch is more than we can sometimes have in a year, and that happened within like this period of time. So detectives on the other banks and Williams cases called actually the FBI s behavioral science unit, which i'm glad they finally to. That's great because they wanted to create a profile of what was clearly a serial killer in the area.

Unfortunately, the profile created by the FBI people were IT was pretty generic and I was a little useless. I wasn't completely useless, but I was like kind of was IT in the early days of profiling. I don't really know that even started.

Yeah it's like, and this was just like, I mean, IT wasn't useless in the end. You look at that in the end and you was actually exactly dead on. But IT just just so many people that been in this that it's really hard.

They said their killer was a White bell, mid thirties, difficulty with social skills, probably did never with friends. So almost like every serious that we have called in a number of other VGA characteristics that were just, just not unique enough to really help. But there was one aspect of the profile that would help investigate, arrow down their search, according to F, I profile filer tom koby, lebanon and Williams killer, he believed to live near the airport.

So like bring your, bring your net in closer to the airport. I wonder what made him think that, especially because I was all spread out. Well, they thought this because the locations of the string of body dumping sites, they were all near the airport like they were in in a certain area that made sense um and while detectives in and around new orleans worked with federal agents to develop a profile of what they were now believing was a serial killer, ronal dominic was back out on the hint for a new victim on thirty ninety nine.

The partially clothed body of twenty one year old manual read was discovered in the dumpster behind a business in a kenner reed had grown up in our lands unlike the other victims he did have a history of struggling with substances buse and was known to police as a sometimes sex worker um but also like the other victims read had been raped and shrinkage now the scene repeated itself exactly one month later when the body of twenty one year old Angel may he was discovered by a dumpster in an industrial area of area of canner detectives at the scene immediately noticed that my hair fat fit what was by now seen as their serial killer's preferred victim profile right? And so as a black man, he was already a member of a marginalized community, but he was also living on the streets at the time of his death. He didn't have any set address which put him at greater risk of an exploitation by man or monsters like running dominic.

He had also been raped and strangled, but this time dominic had broken his pattern a little because he left him in a relatively well let area in front of a very regularly used business dumpster. Do you think he was just getting bolder because he wasn't getting caught? They thought he was just getting sloppy, sloppy.

They really thought he was just getting sloppy. Um although they didn't know IT at the time. The fbs profile, like we said, generic as I was, was pretty accurate because ronal dominic was a White man in his thirties of this time with very well poor social skills.

And what they found out was that he was actually living about ten miles from the new orleans international airport. So they were actually dead on. That's wild. Isn't that a profiling? Is really wild.

Kd, and out here, right? Like many serial killers, he hunted for his victims in and around the place he was most familiar with and where he felt most comfortable. But again, with the murder of Angel mahia, dominic had apparently been going out of his way to either.

They were IT looked initially. They were like, I going out of his way to to have his victim be discovered that quick. Or is he sloppy? They couldn't figure that one out because initially, like you said, they thought he was just being like bold me. But then later they like, I think he was just being sloppy, probably got sloppy because he said what he wasn't getting called is the same as the same way to get player yeah.

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So since the discovery of all of our banks in october, ninety and ninety eight detectives in and around new orleans had worked very quietly on the case that would eventually be linked back to dominic. For one thing, the murder had been committed in, like I said before, different restrictions. So connecting them, they needed more evidence for IT.

Uh, IT was also important to investigators that while the cases were open and ongoing, the permanent information be kept close to the chest they wanted to keep from the press, the public. They didn't want to create panic or create situation where misinformation was running rampant that could harm or hinder the investigation, because now they are finally doing IT. Unfortunately, these attempts at keeping a quiet and working behind the scenes became much harder.

Late june hundred and ninety nine, when Operating on misunderstood leaked information, the press began speculating on a possible serial killer Operating in new orleans or no. It's unclear where journalists in the new orleans area got the information, but by the end of june, reports started circulating about a potential serial killer who already claimed three Young men whose shoeless bodies were dumped in isolated areas around new Lance international airport. The article linked the murders of Angel mahia, Joseph Brown and manual read, who is uni dense fied in the article.

They don't even use their name. They link him to them to a single killer. And they claimed that all three of these victims were all, quote, dark skinned men.

And they claimed, falsely, that they have all had cocaine in their systems at the time of their death. And the article also makes a lot about them being show less when they were found, despite the fact that IT is neither relevant nor true. good.

Before a long television, new stations had picked up the stories, internet detectives, or like a booming thing at the time, they were not just started. They were all focusing very heavily on the removal of the shoes as the killer signature. But IT wasn't true.

They weren't all missing their shoes. So this was bullshit. So now the entire internet is shooting their pants over this false thing, and the entire press shooting their pants over this false thing. And everybody's wondering what that means.

IT doesn't mean anything because it's not true and you're not focused on cus on the fact that they are Young black men in marginalized like a high risk of areas, high risk lifestyles like dealing with like basically the most vulnerable and essentially, yeah and it's like you're not about something on in million of them were part of the gay community like you're not tell the right people the information to keep them safe like you're just being like woerth show what could this mean and it's like, no right. You need a big community of people to be looking behind their back. Now if you need these people to be thinking, you know, that they could be next and even the press really didn't give.

It's like that shows you and it's like they weren't focusing on what's important, keeping actual people safe. Now the decision to release or withhold information about public safety, like we've talked about before, I mean, it's based on a lot of factors that aren't always obvious or understandable to those outside of the investigation, is just a part of life. And we've learned that time after time in many different cases.

So yeah, and it's generally true, I will say that an informed public will be Better, you know, equip, to protect themselves in the event of an emergency. I bly believe that, you know. But when attention isn't paid to the kind of information that the public is being given, mistakes can be made that can jeopardize the case and actually put more people at risk. And that's what happened here.

I was worry that you are just going to say they're not it's just you're not telling the right people what they need to hear and you you're missing out on entire communities of people that need to know that they are the ones that targeted and like you said, like watch each others back yeah in the emphasis on the victims as black male drug dealers or users wasn't telling a complete story or an entirely accurate one, right? In fact, IT misrepresented who at rest specifically, like I said, marginalized men and boys of color who either were out as gay or were sex workers for their job at times. So like those, like the people that you are like, really think about what you are doing at nigh so you can be prepared to protect yourself.

yeah. Overlooking or misrepresenting the reality of dominic's preferred victims by, among other things, playing up these unfounded facts of the case meant that those that are most at risk were being given bad information, right? And this became apparent in August of that year when police discovered the body of thirty four year old Michelle son under the very same overpass where Oliver, the banks, had been discovered a year earlier.

Oh wow. At the time of his death, mitchill Johnson was living on the streets in kenner, where he was last seen by friends. On the night of his murder, johns's friends told police that they'd seen, quote, a suspicious guy cruising around neighbourhood.

Around the time Johnson went missing, they describe the man as a White male, mid thirties, receding airline and puffy cheeks. That's exactly what running dominy bot IT wasn't much so much else of distinction to separate the suspect from hundreds of other puppy White dudes in their thirties living around the world. And at the time, meanwhile, the coroner confirmed what police, adding more or less knew that Michelle Johnson had been raped and strangled before being dumped just feet from where all of our banks had been dumped.

wow. Now the murder of michel Johnson seemed to support the belief among the press that there was indeed a serial killer Operating in the suburbs of new baLance and hoping to use the press of their advantage. Finally, police released a sketch of the man scene in the area that night that Johnson disappeared, and in their statement to the press, the suspect was described as, quote, a serial killer targeting men in the area, rather than a serial killer targeting black in gay men, which investigators feared would negatively influence the policies.

Desire to help that's so fuck that. They even had to consider that we got to do Better every yeah to say the regardless of how they raced the picture in the articles didn't produce any new leads. But they had to worry that if they mentioned black men and boys and gay man and boys and sex workers, that the public will be like, what I really care that's so messed up.

So it's like in that sense, this whole thing, they were trying to do the right thing by like making sure the public would give a ship by not mentioning the details. But still, but when you think of the actual ramifications of that whole thing, right? IT just makes you sick.

Sure does. IT really does. Now it's unknown whether ronal dominic even saw the article or the police sketch, but just after ran an early november, he quit his job with the county and moved his trailer and further into hoa, which is that small city on the biu, about sixty miles from norlands.

okay? He practices trailer on some property next to his sister's house on biu blue road, and was happy to learn that the police sketch in various articles about a serial killer hadn't yet made their way southwest of new orleans. So know about IT.

Within a few weeks, runned found work as a labor at Carol produce company. genuine. This man was just handle ing people's produce too. Like, yeah, so, so disturbing about that. Now, in january first two thousand, a driver called police in the fush perish to report that they've seen a man lying motionless by a barb wire fence on the right side of highway seven. When police arrived at the site, they discovered the body of twenty three year old Michael vince ent.

Michael Vincent had a record that included some drug charges just to put him in that pattern, and he also had an unsettled way of living that again made him fit perfectly into Ronalds vulnerable victim profile the autopsy showed that he'd been bound at the risk and suffered several liberations but the cause of death was most certainly quote homine fixation. Um the murder was not connected to the other murders of gaming and sex workers and the ah other parishes which is kind of wild um I think it's because he was found further out from newland okay maybe I guess but the investigation into Vincent death would be rather complicated by the fact that wild ronal dominic may have ended the twenty of century with yet another murder two years would pass before he killed anyone again. Interest he took some time between them yeah and that's where we're going to leave you here.

We're going to leave you with two years between killings and it's gonna even I mean, I just keeps getting bad and bad and bad. I just good, but I think we can all rest there yeah a moment. There's a lot of just tragedy in part two we are going to talk about the two thousand and two murders in the bayou.

Um we are eventually going to in on in by u blue as well as murders there between two thousand and three and two thousand and five. We're going to talk about each of the victims OK um and we're going to talk about his arrest in the court case that followed and eventually him going byebye into prison for a you that look forward but I think will leave off there so we can all think about what the fuck we just listen to holy shit. And when we pick up its two years later, all right. Well, with that being said, we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep IT where but not so we are that any of this because, oh, my god.

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