Forces of Evil ////// 354 | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] [Applause] foreign welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who still cannot believe that the Mets traded
Daryl strawberry he is the Captain Save the neck for me Clark it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for
listening thanks for telling a friend [Music] this week I am more than excited to be
featuring luau by the green Geniuses down at Terrapin beer company in Athens Georgia this here Captain is a true
beauty we have passion fruit orange and guava all paired with big Hops and smooth bitterness garage grade four out
of five bottle caps and this week we are drinking cold beer thanks to our good friends right here first up a cheers to
Jordan and Fort Payne ouch Alabama and a big special shout out to DJ and Abby next up we have Shannon
in Huntsville Alabama and we also have Phil in benfleet Essex United Kingdom and a big we like your jib too Patrick D
in Los Angeles California and last but certainly not least we want to give a huge very big well I guess it's all the
same thing right a huge thank you to our friend Anthony quintessenza in Bronxville New York Anthony and I traded
phone calls and emails last summer and he helped us with the Holly Brannigan case and I'm very proud to say that
while that case still is unsolved there has been an uptick in stories covering Holly's case on the internet and we even
appeared on the news in Pennsylvania so a big big cheers and thank you to longtime friend of the show Anthony Q in
Bronxville and everybody we just mentioned went to True Crime garage.com and they donated to this week's beer
fund and for that we want to thank you yes so thankful for you guys joining us here in the garage also joining us on
True Crime garage.com sign up on the mailing list give us a five-star review and check out our store Page the items
are going fast so get one today and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab
a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] Columbus Georgia
in the latter part of 1977 series of terrifying crimes started to occur in the Winton District
this is a small very specific area for these types of extremely violent crimes to be occurring
the area itself was fairly upscale compared to some of the surrounding areas the sudden outburst and uptick in thefts
and violence was highly unusual because these crimes remain unsolved the community was on
high alert the crimes were break-ins robberies auto theft but also a very specific type of crime
sexual assaults and the rapes and murders of six elderly women the six murder victims ranged from 60
years of age to 89. and the sexual assaults when the victims were lucky enough to survive the attacks
fit the same victimology these attacks and murders were occurring in such close proximity to one another
and with such rapid succession the Columbus PD believed that the thief the rapist and the killer were one and the
same it was as if something very evil moved into this area bringing death to town
the attacks which mostly took place in the middle of the night shared so many common elements
almost all of the victims were strangled to death with their stockings first a brutal attack with strikes to
the head and or chest and then the application of a stalking pulled from the victim's drawer and
wrapped two or three times around the neck twisted and pulled Tighter and Tighter
until the life left their eyes the murdered victims were all single elderly Caucasian women
forensic evidence collected at some of the murder scenes told the police the killer they sought was an
African-American male due to the manner of the strangulations the perpetrator was dubbed the stocking
Strangler the police were having no luck finding this killer of women despite an increase in Manpower and man
hours despite the heightened awareness and the additional patrolling and the surveillance of Winton
and good old-fashioned detective work just was not working this serial offender truly was a phantom
in the night the investigation yielded only obstacles and dead ends but then in 1978
a possible major break in the case the police chief received a letter from the chairman of an organization
comprised of seven white radical vigilantes this letter was a handwritten formal introduction
to a group that called themselves the forces of evil [Music] foreign 1977 a nude and lifeless body was
discovered near the women's Barracks at Fort Benning this is near Columbus Georgia later the victim was discovered
to be 24 year old army private Karen Hickman the victim had been beaten with a blunt object and then run over several
times with an automobile evidence that the scene told investigators that this woman was killed
elsewhere and then her body was transported and left at this location about a month later an anonymous call
LED authorities to her missing clothes police worked the case and had some leads early on however nothing was
panning out this murder at the time was considered to be a one-off unfortunately
just 10 days later the stalking Strangler claimed his first victim and very quickly the authorities found
themselves neck deep in a whole other set of homicide investigations I do want to take a quick moment here to
address the attack on this poor woman most reports state that she was beaten and then run over several times and she
was killed elsewhere and I know there are many great TCG Army armchair detectives out there thinking of the
obvious reasons that investigators would come to these conclusions but I want to
include my own Theory here plus a little more insight into the victim's injuries
and what was likely not found at the body dump site there is one rather gruesome report out
there that says that the victim was not necessarily run over I mean I guess she was technically but a
report suggests that that might not be the full intent of the Killer this report states that the evidence
showed that the victim was attacked this is the beating part she was knocked unconscious and then
propped up like in a sitting position against a tree and then the killer drove the car into her wedging her between the
vehicle and the tree my guess here is that this report is probably correct a portion of the body
may have been run over when the vehicle was then pulling away from the tree but I am guessing due to this type of
specific injury and likely the lack of what should have been a lot of blood at the scene the investigators were able to
very quickly discern that the victim had in fact been killed elsewhere and then moved and dumped in this location
I'm curious though was there evidence at the location of the missing close that determined that she may have been killed
at that location on Friday March 3rd 1978 Columbus Police Chief Curtis McClung received a letter
the letter read in part dear sir we are an organization composed of seven members
I'm writing this letter to inform you that we have one of your Columbus women captive her name is Gail Jackson
since the coroner said that the Strangler is black we decided to come here and try to catch
him or put more pressure on you I see now more pressure is needed at this point Gail Jackson is still living
if that Strangler is not caught by 1 June 1978 you find Gail Jackson's body on Winnington Road
if he is still not caught on one September 1978 the victims will double you have until Sunday for reply
don't think we are bluffing we are called the forces of evil the letter was written on stationary embolized with the
Great Seal of the United States and the paper had United States Army printed in one corner the handwritten letter
claimed to be from a group of seven people calling themselves the forces of evil as you can see this letter was in
direct response to the information released regarding the stalking Strangler of Columbus in the Winton
District more specifically right police announced that these stalking murders were committed by an African-American
offender in this group the forces of evil has spelled out their plans for retaliation in this letter and sent it
to police the group claimed to be made up of seven white men from Chicago as the Atlantic Constitution put it the
writer coyly suggested to authorities that anyone could come across such stationary and not to assume that he was
a serviceman surprisingly enough or maybe not the writer supplied a return address however it was quickly
determined that this address was a fake again this makes not much sense here right we have crimes
happening and now we have this group of Vigilantes that are going to come in and
they're going to commit other crimes until the police solve that crime of the Strangler yeah but this gives you a
little bit of a sense of what was going on in Georgia back in the late 70s remember when we watched mind hunter in
leading up to the Atlanta murder cases they talked about the the racial divide at the time in that area right and then
on top of that they were a little bit worried to there was a lot of Rumblings behind the scenes on whether to say that
they believed that the offender was white or black in the Atlanta case because they were worried what effect
that would have on the General Public and this case is really just Echoes all those fears that everybody had right and
this this is previous we know we have the coroner who says hey there's evidence we found evidence that a couple
murder scenes of the stalking Strangler and we believe our offender here is an African-American male
this letter claims to be seven white guys that are obviously full of hate and ignorance and they are going to
retaliate by killing African-American women while this other killer the stalking Strangler is killing Caucasian
women yeah and what's their group called again it's a forces of douchebags so the
letter writer claims to be the chairman of the forces of evil so while this letter provided a good
deal of information it did not provide any assistance toward the ongoing stalking Strangler investigation this
stocking Strangler investigation we're not going to get too much into it because it's a completely different
story just keep in mind this was a huge investigation this was a huge undertaking for the police department
right a second letter was received a little more than a week later this letter too
contained a fake return address this letter was a little different though it was the same in the sense that this
letter too would be from the forces of evil and again stated that a woman would be killed if police do not catch the
stalking Strangler but this time the letter included a ransom proposal ten thousand dollars in return for the
victim's safety this whole Gail Jackson the the named victim in the letter this whole Gail
Jackson thing is all sorts of bad right so first we have a rapist killer of single old ladies the stocking Strangler
who was terrorizing Columbus Georgia and now not connected if you believe the writer of these letters right not
connected to the Strangler we have a whole another series of murders that are going to
occur based off of these threats that are in the letters so we have what we refer to here in the garage is a double
whammy situation whammy whammy well no and then on top of that you have one Strangler but you have these seven
forces of evil guys from Chicago and as former FBI criminal profiler and I will say this
until my dying day friend of the show John Douglas put it this development represented everyone's worst nightmare a
brutal killer stalking Columbus was horrible enough and organized and murderous vigilante reaction to it could
tear the community apart it's not that far of a stretch to think that possibly this forces of evil is somehow connected
with the KKK or white supremacy and so I think what law enforcement is scared of
is not only do we have the Strangler but now we have these white Vigilantes killing black women is this going to
create some kind of race riot now one big problem right from the start with this investigation they did not have a
missing person matching that of Gail Jackson as stated in the letter however what we do have is a woman named Brenda
Gail Faison who seems to have disappeared the car she was driving was discovered
on March 5th 1978 at the Sand Hill Bar and Grill in Columbus Georgia she was last seen on February 27th of
that same year just six days before her abandoned car was found her car was found abandoned probably
this probably did not raise a whole lot of red flags and soon it would be learned that Brenda Gail Faison went by
several names one being Gail Jackson so now we have our link to the threat in the letter
about a week or so later another letter was received repeating much of what was stated in the first letter however this
time they stated that a woman named Irene no last name given had been abducted as well and would be executed a
letter received on March 27 1978 stated that one of Mrs Jackson's arms would be broken and that there would be a sharp
blow to her head that caused death the author indicated that the authorities would receive a telephone call to detail
the location of the body meanwhile the FBI is going to get involved in this case keep in mind by this point they
have already been involved in the stalking Strangler investigation as said in the trailer the general plan
of attack in the stalking case is simple and makes a whole heck of a lot of sense
the break-ins rapes and murders are happening in such a confined stretch of land that if they increase Manpower and
increase hours you increase the police presence in that immediate area since the offender just
keeps returning right to that same spot the idea being that you catch him in the
act you catch him red-handed at some point once apprehended you can hold him for the breaking and entering charge for
which he was arrested and then from there any of the forensic material you have collected from the previous sexual
assaults and murders you can compare that to your guy and then charge him accordingly well this is actually very
similar to what they did with the Atlanta child murders where they go hey we know that the
perpetrator is returning to to the scene or using and Elena Child Murders using these Bridges to dump the body so less
stake out and we'll catch them in the ACT yeah let's be there so given the strategy by this point in
the investigation the FBI would still be offering up resources but pretty much reduced to more of a hands-off role in
the stocking Strangler case however they will be getting involved in the forces of evil case the hunt for the chairman
and his six disciples right yeah so Robert K Ressler was in town and he was having dinner with a friend who is
the deputy director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation gbi for short this is Tom McGreevy
side note El Capitan uh McGreevy passed away in 2012. if you need some inspiration anyone out
there look him up that's Thomas McGreevy McGreevy spelled m-c-g-r-e-e-v-y uh as Ted Theodore Logan would say he is
a most impressive dude wrestler says McGreevy asked him to review the letters that were sent along with some voice
recordings for some of the phone calls so some phone calls went to the MPS desk the military police desk at Fort Benning
Fort Benning is a United States Army Post straddling the Alabama Georgia border next to Columbus Georgia
Fort Banning supports more than a hundred and twenty thousand active duty military family members Reserve
component soldiers retirees and civilian employees on the Reg wrestler agreed to help now this all
came about because of another great man Judson Ray Judd Ray was a shift Commander for the Columbus Police
Department he suggested to the Columbus Police Chief that we should get the gbi involved
the chief prior to this was reluctant to do so after Judd convinces the chief gbi
gets involved and then through the McGreevy wrestler connection the FBI's Elite serial crimes unit gets involved
another side note El Capitan Judson Ray would go on to become FBI and working at
the Atlanta field office and eventually at Quantico while in Atlanta he worked the Atlanta child killer case with
Douglas Judson Ray is in my opinion the inspiration or real life version of the character Jim Barney mine hunter Series
2 played by Albert Jones right so wrestler and Douglas get to work on this case analyzing the communications
from the forces of evil wrestler the senior agent has the lead on this investigation
also you have to wonder if in some cases with this team if someone may take the lead just based
off of their personal life experiences or how they may have how they may be able to apply to a particular case or
the profile of the offender and some people don't like to take the lead in cases and just sit back and give their
opinions is a very good possibility here in this case this is an example of such
wrestler was former military he was a military police at one time so this might give him a little more insight
into this case or the offender knowing that Fort Benning is right there that's where one of the bodies has been found
we have calls going to the military police desk so given his background wrestler might
just be the right fit to be the lead on this case the first letter received contained the
Seal of the United States and had the U.S army printed in one corner the writer says anyone could have stolen the
station area but right from Jump Street wrestler and Douglas notice the choice of words in the communications
specifically noting the 1 June 1978 and one September 1978. this is more military lingo as most of
us would just say June 1st or September 1st next we have a phone call this call is going to tell police where
to find the body of one of the captives of the forces of evil as the police have
failed by this time to apprehend the Strangler or to pay the ransom on March 30th the Fort Benning military
police telephone operators received a call from a man identifying himself as the chairman of the forces of evil
the chairman described where Jackson's body was located 100 meters from Fort Benning this led MPS to the discovery of
a shallow grave the body was in fact found there that same day Jackson's entire face in the front
portion of her skull were smashed portions of her jaw bone teeth and Bone fragments were discovered at the scene
her left elbow was completely dislocated according to the medical examiner the cause of death was multiple blows to the
Head inflicted by a heavy metal object likely A Tire Tool or Jack handle simply put she died by way of savage beating
[Music] foreign [Music] you filthy animals cheers and safe travels on this holiday weekend today
it's like a Hawaiian party here in the garage with our luau beer so yes everybody out there have a great and
very happy and safe and wonderful Thanksgiving make sure you spend it with the ones you
care about the absolute most let's go through the basics of this offender profile or their theories and thoughts
as they analyze some of the stuff we need to keep in mind Robert Ressler and John Douglas of the
FBI's Behavioral Science unit it's had so many different names throughout the years I always stumble when it comes to
saying what unit they're in um at the time when they're analyzing the first series of letters there is no
victim yet they've not found anybody they've not found any bodies this is one of those rare situations where we have
communication from a soon-to-be offender or someone who has offended but based off of the information in the letters is
only threatening to kill and they don't actually have a body yet so some of that
stuff that they were able to deduce from those Communications rather interesting here and
again let's get into this a little more into this offender profile here so when the chairman described the location of
the body Now by this point we have a phone call that describes the location of where they're going to find the first
body he referenced meters to supply the appropriate distance multiple times the chairman referenced
Vehicles so what the FBI is working with here Captain is the choice of words the the
choosing of using the words meter as opposed to feet or yards right again this is military lingo writing one June
and one September instead of June 1st or September 1st the use of the word vehicle or Vehicles rather than
automobile car or truck wrestler and Douglas both thought this to be more military than citizen speak
wrestler concluded the following first he says there was no Group of Seven white racist radicals from Chicago
seeking retaliation for the stalking murders he felt that the sole purpose of the
letters and the creation of the forces of evil was to steer law enforcement in a completely opposite direction from the
actual killer because there was some connection between the Killer and the victim or
soon to be victims Jackson was killed before any of the communications this is wrestler's belief
she was not abducted and then held in wait for the police to catch the Strangler right she was already dead and
the killer came up with this whole thing post-murder simply to cover up the crimes
they believe that both Gail Jackson and Irene were already dead there was no opportunity to save either one of them
no matter what the letters said the opposite of seven white guys wrestler believed would be a single
black male operating alone and even though he is referencing the stalking Strangler
wrestler believed that the Strangler and the forces of evil were two completely different Killers operating
independently of one another his profile goes on to say that the offender is an enlisted man at Fort
Benning he would be between 25 to 30 years of age the Killer is possibly military police or an artillery man with
a rank no more than a E6 rank we are looking for a man with a modest education and a middle rank
the coroner also concluded that the body of Gail Jackson as the caller put it was
in fact Brenda Gail Faison and she was killed about five weeks prior to when they found her so wrestler
was right she was killed before any of the forces of Evil's letters started to arrive yeah before any of the
communication happened April 4th another call LED military police to an almost nude headless body
this was found behind a pile of logs at a firing Range located on the Fort Benning property
this woman too was beaten to death this is just this is just downright horrible but she was she was not decapitated in
the usual sense she was beaten in the face in the head so badly that the head came off
and a lot of brain tissue was exposed skull fragments were found in the area and there was evidence that the body was
dragged from the nearby access road and then concealed behind this pile of logs this turns out to be the body of Irene
thurkeield the the Irene named in the letters and in the calls right but we had no last
name provided in those Communications on Monday April 3rd 1978 the body of Irene third killed age 32 was found near
a remote Fort Benning rifle range authorities quickly learned that Irene was last seen at a local bar on March
13th in the company of an African-American Soldier Columbus ped and the Fort Benning CID
put out all known and suspected information when making their rounds questioning and looking for a possible
lead in this case the profile directly led to several eyewitnesses saying on separate
occasions and in one victim's case more than one location eyewitnesses placed Gail Jackson and Irene with a soldier
and because he frequented two of the local bars as did the two ladies these Witnesses could provide a name
the victims were seen either in the company of or leaving the bar with William Henry Hance
joined the Marines after graduating high school in 1971. then he joined the army in February of
76. he was assigned to Fort Benning in April of 76. before that he was stationed in
Indiana and Hance was recently divorced his former wife Wanda says she divorced him
in 1977 because he beat her at this time Hans is 26 years old and a specialist grade 4 with the 197th
infantry Brigade and one nice thing for law enforcement when your suspect lives at a U.S Army
Post they're generally pretty easy to find yeah right so think about this Captain this is all happening very
quickly we have the threat of there being murder victims then eventually a call comes in that leads military police
to the actual victims right and from that profile and from some of the information learned about the victims
we're able to very easily get a really big lead in this case because what that profile provides the
investigators when they go out and they start questioning people that may or may
not have seen something they're saying we have reason to believe that the suspect is 26 to 30 years old
and is a soldier that really jogs a lot of memories especially when you're talking about
somebody who's disappeared five weeks before right so this is going to lead them to this 26
year old William Henry Hance so police round up Mr Hance and they bring him in for questioning during this
time the FBI is Consulting with uh psycho-linguistics FBI consultant Dr Murray Myron now I know this is going to
sound strange but I can guarantee that this is not going to be the last time you hear the name of Dr Murray Myron on
the show so anyways the doctor Compares hance's voice with the recorded calls to
the military police desk and states he believes it's a match one of the witnesses told agent Richard
Fox of the United States Army Central Intelligence Division CID that Hance was the soldier seen with Irene and stated
that the two left Vice Mitchell's Tavern together tape recordings of the phone calls to
the Fort Benning police which indicated where the bodies could be found were taken by CID agent besser
to hans's company Commander and First Sergeant who they play these tapes and he goes yeah that's a match I think
that's hans's voice on those tapes so that's two of them yeah then agents Besson and fox told the commanding
officer that they wanted to interview hands Hance agreed to be taken to CID headquarters where he was advised of his
rights and informed that the interview concerned the murder of Irene thurkeield with whom he was the last person seen
Hance was advised of his fifth and sixth amendment rights and he signed a written
waiver waving those rights the interview was conducted from about 1pm until 10 20 P.M
Hance was then interviewed by the FBI and the Columbus Police for another hour during the interviews Hans admitted
writing the letters and making the telephone calls for the forces of evil but he says he was forced to do so by
the organization yeah the racist guys sounds about right yeah the next morning he was interviewed again and again Hance
was advised of his rights which he again waved it was in this interview when faced with all of the evidence you know
by this time they have had some time to collect more evidence make some comparisons and then present all of that
evidence to hands this is the handwriting comparisons voice recordings and they also found
footprints found at the dump sites he he when looking at all this evidence goes all right
I did it he confesses providing a signed written statement concerning each murder
now two days of interviews is stressful and maybe a bit over the top but CID and
the Columbus PD state that throughout the two days of interrogation and those are their words they chose to use the
word interrogation Hance was given restroom breaks food breaks coffee cigarettes and at no time did he request
a lawyer or at no time did he ask that the interview be terminated okay right now how much is the military involved
and these interrogations for the most part I believe they they were the lead on this because Irene thirkield's body
was found on their property so it is a military matter one I would think that the rules
yeah don't don't apply as much to them yeah I don't know but we have his his written statement of waiving those
rights so we know he's he's made aware of his rights and he was told of his rights and he chose to just go along
with the interview or interrogation however you choose to see it I went into that on purpose because there are some
people that believe that Hance was treated unfairly I can see I can see that argument yeah yes this thing called
waterboarding I don't know if you've heard of it but technically it would have been allowed during this time I
mean I'm not saying that there's any evidence of them doing that to him it would appear none of the tactic like
that was not used I mean their words are we gave them restroom breaks food breaks
coffee cigarettes he was he could have he could have asked for a lawyer he didn't want plenty of water yeah they
weren't they weren't torturing this guy right I think where people call this into question is the length of time that
he is being I don't I don't know if I even want to use the word held because it sounds to
me like he had every right to just walk out of there if he chose to do so well this is also where he lives I mean
they're questioning him on the base which he lives right yeah and in his confession hence he's going to give some
detailed information regarding these murders he stated that Jackson propositioned him at the Sandhill Bar
and Grill he said the two left and got in his vehicle they only drove a short distance and pulled over wait so he's
claiming that she's a sex worker correct okay she began to disrobe enhance said he flipped out he started yelling and
screaming at her and he grabbed her he said when she attempted to escape he struck her with a karate chop across the
head she fell across the door bleeding Hansen pulled her out of the car dislocating
her elbow in the process he returned to his car he got a jack handle from his car returning to her he
finds Jackson still breathing right this he says surprised him so he repeatedly struck the helpless victim in
the face with this Jack handle the beating was so severe that Gail's entire face was destroyed and Bone fragments
were scattered about the area this guy is beyond vicious some of her brain tissue was literally beaten from the
skull the force of the attack was so great It produced a depression in the ground
behind Gail's head Hance then buried Gail's body in a shallow grave he dug the grave with an
entrenching tool so anybody that knows military you know the little like uh I'm guessing that's one of those
the folding shovels that they put on in the backpacks Hance also admitted to killing Irene
thur killed but alleged that he had lost all sense of control and that his mind flipped he accepted
responsibility for the murder stating that he had begged God's forgiveness okay now in a very big surprise to
investigators Hance also admitted to the murder of 24 year old army private Karen Hickman
remember we mentioned her at the top of the show right her body was found September 6 1977.
they had some leads in that but it was considered to be a one-off at the time and then when the stocking Strangler
case took off they were all wrapped up in that and her unfortunately her murder in that investigation kind of got
lost in the shuffle so as I believe that that one happened first and then it seems like then he can control him
flipping out he can control himself flipping out um right and if you want my humble
garage opinion here I think that this probably all stemmed with it may have started from his divorce we
talk many times about uh the behavior of offenders before and after a series of murders and one thing that they always
point to is that there would be some kind of stressor something happened in this individual's life that they took it
something went from being a fantasy to being a reality they acted upon their their true thoughts and feelings right
and this could be someone who hated women who just hated women and he used to beat his wife
we have a divorce and now these murders start he's beating these women to death right and well look if his wife didn't
leave him she was going to be his first victim yeah so in a sense this isn't so much we talk so much about these type of
Serial offenders they're most always sexual nature this is just pure brutality yeah I mean like this is just
this is looking at someone and destroying them and physically destroying them well like you said I
mean he's pulling her arm out of the car and dislocating it in the process I mean
this is these attacks are vicious and you should have gave us a warning because I'm going
to be thinking about this when I asked mom can you pass the gravy well according to the newspapers for the
arrest as far as the papers are concerned gbi agent Bruce Pickett and Columbus detective James Jones were
credited with the legwork which led to the apprehension of William Henry Hance okay but question maybe you
know this maybe you don't did they get to the bottom of why he came up with this
ruse or tried to come up with this ruse to to cover up his crimes as dumb as it's
going to sound he thought it would work so it was exactly they're not going to get this straight up from him but he
does say that he made up the forces of evil eventually and he wrote the letters and I think what we can do here is truly
believe what Robert wrestler thought in his theory his theory was there's a connection between this killer
and the victims the Killer is afraid that somebody's going to make that connection he's going to be apprehended
right so to kind of cut that off at the pass I'm going to create this whole ruse
of the forces of evil or killing African-American women and it's going to be something so totally the opposite of
me is the forces of evil will be seven white supremacists right from Chicago from Chicago
I wonder what he had against Chicago [Laughter] that's a really good question why would
you just pick randomly Chicago so exactly that he he thought it would work he thought that it would put them off of
his Trail here's the crazy thing though it's uh sorry been pretty crazy yes why why does that phrase even come up
everything's been crazy yeah I'm not gonna be able to get out of my head that about the decapitation in a way
he injected himself into the investigation Hance wasn't somebody that they were considering for any of these
murders hell at the time they didn't they weren't even aware that there were murders that there were victims until he
starts writing letters he injects himself and is through this profile through the the profilers that they come
up with this dude so they link him to this in a way you have to wonder had he never started writing those letters
would they have ever caught up to him right well in the first murder they believe is a one-off right
but that was somebody that it's thought that they may have dated at one point or
had some type of makes sense some kind of relation some kind of friendship I don't want to use the word relationship
because people's minds wonder when you say that I they they were acquaintances or had hung out on occasions something
like that is what is believed right but the next two they believe were sex workers these would have also been
regulars at bars where he was a regular so yes they according to him and according to some of the other people
eyewitnesses and such they were sex workers but my point being is that the first
crime most people thought this is a one-off we don't have many leads now we're not really looking into it because
we have this serial murderer and serial rapist on the loose attacking older women that's right and now so we're not
focused on that first case and and without drawing attention to it I how many times have we seen when there's
rumors that somebody is a sex worker that their their crime just does not get uh the attention and doesn't and doesn't
get the effort put in to solving the case as as somebody else's case would well and when people live a high risk
lifestyle or what can be viewed as a high-risk lifestyle it makes it difficult to hone in on a particular
suspect right because because the suspect pool could be so much larger one look if you're spending a lot of time at
a local bar whether you're a sex worker or not you're coming in contact with a lot of people throughout your week
you know I mean like if I if I come up missing the suspect's pull is really small
but if you're going to a bar that has a decent amount of regulars now it's a lot
harder to investigate but like I said when there's rumors that these women are sex workers their cases are just not
taken as serious and so if he would have never brought attention to these cases look
these investigators are on high alert and there is a small possibility even though their profile is sane
that this this is this guy is different this killer is different than the the Strangler but there's a possibility that
they're connected there's a small slim chance so when he's given us these leads saying hey we got there's this body and
you're gonna find it they they took those cases way more serious because of the letters the
letter shot himself in the foot it was the letters that made it possible for them to identify the suspect right so if
I'm at a bar and I'm interviewing people that are regulars and say hey did you know Gail Jackson
uh describe her and then say she's been missing we found her dead but she's been
missing for five weeks or so you might get you might not get any answers but when you have this profile
and you say oh you didn't see Gail Jackson with a a 26 to 30 year old Soldier you know it's a different line of
questioning and it's a different response that it's going to conjure up I laugh kind of because the effort is made
to cover up his Crimes by creating this forces of evil and I kind of believe he may not have been apprehended or at
least not identified so quickly had he not wrote the letters right but to top all of that off man
he was on orders to be assigned to Korea this guy's a military man he was going to be sent to Korea in September of
1978. so not only would he may not have been become a suspect so quickly he had a he had a
plan there was a way for him to be out of the area shipped far far away right and look chances are law enforcement and
Military get along pretty well law enforcement could have said okay well we we have reason to believe that this is
our suspect military reaches out questions him at the Korean base he says I don't know what you're talking about
they relay that to the police and now he's off the suspect list never caught I think I think had he been shipped out in
September I don't think they would ever linked it to him if he would have never wrote
those letters but here is this monster that smashes oh he would have somebody he would have resumed killing as soon as
he came back right right but here's what's interesting to me here here's this guy that well I mean just [ __ ]
okay yank somebody's arm so hard that it dislocates it you can't stop beating these individuals to
the point like you said it's not a decapitation it's just a it's a smash call but still
has something inside him saying this is wrong there's something inside him that he
says he begged God for forgiveness so let's go into that and we're kind of skipping ahead here but I think this is
appropriate because this is kind of where it's leading anyway there are a lot of people you know last
week we discussed a very controversial case that that the result was death sentence and the appearance now is the
an innocent man may have been killed not a good man a horrible man but one that may have been innocent for the crimes
that he was specifically executed for yeah real [ __ ] princess so here is another death penalty case that is it's
not without controversy there are people that believe that the way that Hance was
treated is completely unfair there are many out there that say he was mentally ill and mentally incompetent to stand
trial or at least be executed for the charges right here here's a couple problems I have with those thoughts and
those feelings first off let me just get this out of the way the death penalty is
always a touchy subject for anybody regardless of what side of the fence you are on I am firmly straddled right in
the middle but the the issue here is mentally ill and mentally incompetent to the point that he didn't know what he
was doing was wrong he says his own words I begged God for forgiveness also the thing about being
incompetent I've never believed that when we have clear-cut evidence that somebody did something wrong and then
they went out of their way to try to cover it up right he obviously knew it was wrong if he's trying to cover it up
and he went to Such Great Lengths and efforts to do so it was just a bad dumb idea yeah didn't
work out there was also some talk of his IQ there was some statement there are statements
out there that his IQ was 70 and then he was tested again at a later time and the
number was 91. so I either he got much smarter uh at some point or the the first test
one of the tests has to be wrong they both can't be right yeah he got more smartest more smartest yeah yeah so it's
not without controversy but the problem the problem that I want to keep going back to on hans's case is
he killed three people that has never been in question that has never been part of the question of was he
wrongfully executed he absolutely killed these three people we know that to be fat and if not more he is suspected of
killing somebody in Indiana and this may have happened before this would have had
to have happened before he was uh shipped down to Fort Benning we're talking about an incredibly dangerous
man he's beating people to death yeah the the tricky thing here uh in in response to the people that have bad
feelings about his execution or if he was treated fairly I I can see and empathize with some of those
arguments and some points of those arguments but I think they got this one right meaning that
he was guilty he was found guilty of these three murders other people sentenced him to be executed and They
carried out that that penalty okay I'm not clear on something it's he sentenced well okay by the state of uh Georgia or
is he is this military uh well good to call that into question I was going to kind of Breeze through that and and
gloss over it but where his case gets a little more complicated is for two of the murders he was charged in military
Court court-martialed or whatever they call that right one of the murders he was
charged in our normal Court our civilian Court did he work for Colonel Jessup I I don't know
um I don't know what that means I'm sorry as a Few Good Men reference Colonel Jessop oh I actually watched
that a week ago yeah you should have got the reference then the thing here though
is Captain he was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor in the military courts and he was sentenced to
execution in Georgia so a bit of a conflict there um it's just really truly in the sense
that two of the bodies were found on the Fort Benning property so it is their jurisdiction one of them being one of
the victims being an army private herself right but yeah that that's how that whole thing went down now he did
receive a ton of appeals one of the appeals I believe went all the way to the Supreme Court in Georgia at no time
was any of this overturned I think he may have I think something may have got commuted to a life sentence at some
point but basically I mean are they just arguing mental illness because look listen if you are beating somebody to
death there is something wrong with you mentally and but that should not change the
punishment I don't know that that would fall under the classification of true mental illness in the sense that he is
not to be held accountable for his actions or his crimes right so William Henry Hance was convicted by a jury in
the superior court of Muskogee County Georgia he was convicted of the murder of Brenda
Gail Faison AKA Gail Jackson and also convicted of attempt attempted theft by extortion because remember he asked for
a ransom during the guilt phase of the trial the prosecutor lived up to his promise to portray the crime and Vivid
detail after presenting numerous photographs of Gail Jackson's mutilated and largely decomposed body the
prosecutor introduced fragments of her corpse during closing arguments he reminded the jury that near the place of
the murder were found pieces of Jawbone with the teeth attached fragments of human skull no larger than a dime
individual teeth and he said you'll have that with you to take out an Evidence the jury sentenced him to death for the
murder under Georgia Code section 2725 34.1 and he was sentenced to five years imprisonment for the attempted extortion
right April 3rd 1994. you mean three April three three April 1994 William Henry Hance was
electrocuted in Jackson Georgia a few minutes after 10 pm just minutes before they
flipped the switch Hance maintained his innocence and a seven minute statement he said in part why are you executing an
innocent man he asked why why why the stocking Strangler would eventually be caught and apprehended for the
murders but that is another story [Music] you know what I'm thankful for Captain
for me that's right I am thankful that everybody got together and joined us in the garage this week and I'm hopeful
that everybody comes back and joins us again next week yeah gobble gobble ghee you filthy animals I'm thankful for you
be kind to one another until next week be good be kind and don't litter [Music] thank you
[Music]

Forces of Evil ////// 354

Part 1 of 1

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

What is worse than a serial killer on the loose? Two of them! Join us in the Garage as we tell the story of the Forces of Evil. Happy Thanksgiving Everybody! Beer of the Week - Luau by Terrapin Beer Company Garage Grade - 4 out of 5 bottle caps

The full archive of True Crime Garage is available on the Stitcher listening app - for FREE. Our show “Off the Record” is only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Brief Summary

The episode details the Stocking Strangler case and vigilante threats in Columbus, Georgia, focusing on killer William Henry Hance's brutal murders and eventual capture.

Key points

The Stalking Strangler Emerges. In 1977, Columbus, Georgia, faced a terrifying wave of violent crimes targeting elderly women.
The Forces of Evil Letter. A letter from a vigilante group threatens to kill if the Strangler isn't caught.
Gail Jackson's Fate. A call reveals the location of Gail Jackson's body, leading to a grim discovery.
Profile of a Killer. Wrestler's analysis leads to a shocking conclusion about the offender's identity.
Confession and Evidence. Hance confesses to multiple murders after being confronted with evidence.
The Forces of Evil. Hance creates a fictitious group to divert attention from his crimes.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's good to be seen and it's good to see you.

Nick's warm welcome to listeners.

0:54WatchNov 19, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.