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

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let's talk some true crime [Music] Columbus Georgia in the latter part of 1977 a 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 and 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 Andor 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 that the killer they sought was an African-American male due to the manner of the
strangulations the perpetrator was dubbed the stalking 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 oldfashioned 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 [Music] evil
on September 6th 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 at 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 oneoff 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 sight 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 on conscious 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 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
clothes that determined that she may have been killed at that location on Friday March 3rd
1978 Columbus Police Chief Curtis m 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 one June
1978 you find Gail Jackson's body on Winnington road if he is still not caught on 1
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 winon
district more specifically right police announced that the stalking murders were
committed by an African-American offender and 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 coily 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 implied a return
address however it was quickly determined that this address was a fake again this it 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 and 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 watch mind Hunter and 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 belied 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 at 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 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 $10,000 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 stalking 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 as 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 stalk in Columbus was horrible enough an 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 vigiles 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 fison who seems to have disappeared the car she was driving was
discovered on March 5th 1978 at the Sand Hill Bar in Grill in Columbus Georgia she was last seen on February AR 27th of
that same year just 6 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 fison 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 27th 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 stocking 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 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 God
and then charge him accordingly well this is actually very similar to what they did with the Elena Child Murders
where they go hey we know that the perpetrator is returning to to the scene or using in in the Lan of child murders
using these Bridges to dump the body so let's 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 PR 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 wrestler 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 capiton uh McGreevy passed away in 2012 if you need some inspiration anyone
out there look him up that's Thomas McGreevy uh McGreevy spelled MCG re 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 MP's
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 Benning supports more than 120,000 active duty military family
members Reserve component soldiers retirees and civilian employees on the rag wrestler agreed to help now this all
came about because of another great man Judson Ray Jud 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 Jud 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 capiton Judson Ray
would go on to become FBI and working at the Atlanta field office and eventually
at quanico 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 M 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 yeah 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 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 US 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 1 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 m from
Fort Benning this led mpce to the discovery of a shallow grave the body was in fact found there that same day
Jackson's entire face and the front portion of her skull were smashed portions of her Jawbone 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 [Music] beating this show is sponsored by better
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[Music] that gobble gobble gobble you filthy animals cheers and safe travels on this
holiday weekend today it's like a Hawaiian party here in the garage with our luow beer so yes everybody out there
have a great and very happy and safe and wonderful Thanksgiving I 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 wrestler and 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 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 Tobe 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 meters 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 citizens
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 westler believed that the Strangler and the forces of evil were
two completely different Killers operating inde dependently 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 fison 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 and 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 thi 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 theld 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 PD 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 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 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 Hance is 26 years old and a specialist grade four with the
197th infantry Brigade and one nice thing for law enforcement when your suspect lives at a
US 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 mhm 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 H so police round up Mr H and they bring
him in for questioning during this time the FBI is Consulting with uh psycholinguistics FBI consultant Dr
Murray myON 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 myON on the show MH so anyways the doctor comp comps hance's voice with the recorded
calls to the military police desk and states he believes it's a match m one of the witnesses told agent Richard Fox of
the United States Army Central Intelligence Division C 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 body IES could be found were taken by C 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 hance'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
Hance Hance agreed to be taken to C headquarters where he was advised of his rights and informed that the interview
concerned the murder of Irene theld 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 100 p.m. until 10:20 p.m. Hance was then interviewed by the FBI in the Columbus Police for another hour during
the interviews Hance admitted writing the letters in 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
comparison and then present all of that evidence to hats this is the handwriting comparisons
voice recordings and they also found footprints found at the dump sites 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 mhm but C 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 in these
interrogations for the most part I believe they they were the lead on this because Irene thel's body was found on
their property so it is a military matter what I would think that the rules you don't don't apply as much to
them yeah I don't know but we have his his written statement of waving 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 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 there's this thing called water boarding I don't know if
you 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 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 plenty of water yeah they they weren't they weren't torturing this guy 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 Hance he's going to give some detailed information regarding these murders he stated that Jackson
propositioned him at the Sand Hill 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 and Hance 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 hansin 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 has 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 thi 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 6th 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 and that investigation kind of got lost in the shuffle so is it
believe that that that one happened first and then it seems like then he could control him flipping out he could
control himself flipping out um right and 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 stress
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 in nature this is just pure brutality yeah I mean like you said this is just Destro this is looking
at someone and 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
picket and Columbus detective James Jones were credited with the leg work which led to the apprehension of William
Henry H 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 that 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 are killing African-American women and it's going to be something so totally the opposite of
me the forces of evil will be seven white supremists right from Chicago from Chicago yeah I wonder what he had
against Chicago that's 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 it's already
been pretty crazy guess why why does that phrase even come up everything's been crazy yeah I'm not going to be able
to get out of my head that about the decapitation in a waym 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 it's 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 oneoff right
and but that was somebody that it's thought that they may have dated at one point or had some type of Mak 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 occasion 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 or beli to be so 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 to it 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 into solving the case as as somebody else's case would well and when people live a highrisk
lifestyle or what can be uh viewed as a high-risk lifestyle it makes it difficult to hone in on a particular
suspect because the suspect pool could be so much larger well 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
what I mean like if I if I come up missing the suspect's pool 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 invest 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 the these investigators are on high alert and there is a small possibility even though their profile is saying that
this this is this guy is different this killer is different than the the Strangler mhm 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 going to find it they they took those cases way more serious because of the letters it the letter
shot himself in the foot it 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 5 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 30y 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 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 re lay
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 if he would have never wrote those letters but here is
this monster that smashes oh he would have 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 I mean just look You 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 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 the the result was death sentence and the appearance
now is that 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 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 fact 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 as 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 is he sentenced well by the state of uh Georgia or is he is this
military 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
marshal or whatever they call that right one of the murders he was charged in our
normal court or civilian Court did he work for Colonel Jessup I I don't know um I don't know what that means I'm
sorry there a Few Good Men reference Colonel Jessup 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 list 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 Mogi County Georgia uh 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 in 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 in evidence the jury sentenced
him to death for the murder under Georgia Code section 2725 34.1 and he was sentenced to 5 years
imprisonment for the attempted extortion right April 3rd 1994 you mean 3 April 3 April 1994
William Henry Hance was electrocuted in Jackson Georgia a few minutes after 1 p.m. just minutes before they flipped
the switch Hance maintained his innocence in a seven-minute statement he said in part why are you
executing an innocent man he asked why why why the stalking Strangler would eventually be caught and apprehended for
the murders but that is another story 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] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] you can live out your master Che
dreams when you find a professional on Angie to tackle your dream kitchen remodel connect with skilled
professionals to get all your home projects done well visit angie.com you can do this when you Angie that

Forces of Evil ////// 354

Part 1 of 1

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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

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Brief Summary

The episode details the Stalking Strangler case and William Henry Hance's brutal murders in Columbus, Georgia, including his confession and execution.

Key points

The Stalking Strangler. A series of violent crimes terrorizes Columbus, Georgia, targeting elderly women.
A Gruesome Discovery. The body of Army private Karen Hickman is found, leading to further investigations.
The Forces of Evil. A radical group threatens police, claiming to have a captive woman.
Brutal Discovery. A shallow grave reveals the body of a victim, leading to a grim investigation.
Confession of a Killer. William Henry Hance admits to multiple murders during intense interrogations.
Profile of a Predator. FBI profilers analyze the behavior and background of the suspect, Hance.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

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

Nick's welcoming remarks on the show.

1:55WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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