James Randall | World’s Most Evil Killers | Forensic Files

[audio logo] narrator: On June 27, 1996, police in Pinellas County, Florida, had
to undertake one of the largest manhunts in the county's history. - There were helicopters everywhere.
There were people on my roof. The media was out front. narrator: Investigators were on the hunt
for a man they suspected was responsible for the murders of four women. [tense music]
Geoffrey Wansell: They were all women on the fringes of society. All four had been beaten and strangled, all
within a very small radius. narrator: After weeks of surveillance, investigators were stunned to find
out that their prime suspect was already a wanted fugitive-- 41-year-old convicted sex offender James Randall.
Craig Pittman: He had been imprisoned up in Massachusetts. And when he got out, he failed to report
to his probation officer and instead fled the state. Tamara Garcia: I couldn't believe it.
My brother-in-law. There was two people living in there, the James Michael Randall that we knew
and the James Michael Randall that turned into a monster. narrator: With a trail of brutal, sadistic attacks
on innocent women Behind him, James Randall had been revealed as one of the world's most evil killers.
[theme music] ♪ ♪ [intriguing music] On March the 4, 1997, residents of Pinellas County,
Florida, woke up to the news that ex-con James Randall had been found guilty of strangling
two women to death on the outskirts of Clearwater. Craig Pittman: It's a very intimate way to kill someone.
I mean, you're not 5 feet away firing a gun. You're right there. And you can see their face.
And you can see their eyes. You can see the look of fear as they're losing consciousness.
That was the big turn-on for Randall. narrator: Randall's sentencing became a subject
of widespread controversy, following the decision to overturn his death penalty and, instead, sentence
him to life imprisonment. Randall's defense team had argued the deaths were, in fact, accidental
and a result of his fetish for sexual strangulation. ♪ ♪ Jane Monckton-Smith: What stands out most for me
in this case is the injustice that he was able to say that he killed those women by accident,
and it was believed, and he manipulated the entire system. narrator: Randall's ex-fiancée, Terry Jo Howard,
was amongst the many affected and had her world turned upside down in the wake of the heartbreaking
revelations. Terry Jo Howard: When Jimmy had the need to be violent with someone, he almost
became a different person. Jimmy was a very cold, calculating man when he became that predator.
He was evil. narrator: This killer's story begins on August the 28, 1954, in Kentucky.
[tense music] James Michael Randall lived with his parents and sister. His father, eager for him to follow in his footsteps,
was determined to see Randall join the high school football team. - Randall appeared to be brought
up in a household that was dominated by coercive control. Craig Pittman: He hated his father.
He was held back a couple of years in order to be dominant on the football field.
And so that hurt his schooling and hurt his education, all for the point of him being a star on the football field.
And he resented that terribly. narrator: But it wasn't just Randall that his father
would attempt to control. Craig Pittman: One of the stranger and more frightening aspects of his life
was, when he was young, he had actually seen his father rape and-- and choke his mother,
and apparently that excited him. ♪ ♪ Jane Monckton-Smith: The fact that he had witnessed his mother being strangled by his father
will be significant because, if you've got a fetish for something, you have to be introduced
to that fetish first. You're not born with it. So undoubtedly, witnessing those attacks
started to shape who Randall was. And Randall had a fetish for strangulation, which started very young.
[ominous music] ♪ ♪ [intriguing music] narrator: By the mid-seventies, Randall
had left Kentucky to start his adult life in Gardner, Massachusetts where he found a job
as a construction worker. One evening in 1978, the 24-year-old crossed paths with two young women at his local bar.
Geoffrey Wansell: He meets two girls, one called Linda, another one called Holly and he gets
on incredibly well with them both, but specifically with Linda. And within a year they're married.
They become a proper family, and they go on to have two children, a boy and a girl.
♪ ♪ narrator: Nearly five years later, on March 4, 1984, Linda heard the news that her best
friend, Holly, never made it home after a night out with friends. Craig Pittman: Linda's best friend, Holly Cote,
worked at a bar. And on the night she vanished, she finished up her shift and then went to another bar, Mr. D's lounge,
for a celebration. And she was supposed to meet some people for a nightcap afterwards but never showed up.
- The interesting thing was that Holly's car was still in the car park where she'd left it.
She has simply disappeared. narrator: Holly Cote's family put up a $6,000 reward
for information surrounding their beloved daughter's disappearance. And her distraught husband even took a month
off work to look for her. But their searches turned up empty. [thunder rumbling]
- Two months later, the Memorial Day weekend in May, there had been a lot of rain in Massachusetts
at this point. A local lake, Birch Hill Dam, had grown, and a lot of things started to come to the surface.
narrator: A couple of canoeists use the rising water levels to explore areas around the dam that were
usually inaccessible by water. But nothing could have prepared them for what they would uncover.
Geoffrey Wansell: They discovered a body. It was a naked woman with her hands or arms tied in a purple sock.
Can you imagine the horror of that? [suspenseful music] narrator: A few days later, the body
was identified as that of missing 28-year-old Holly Cote. It appeared that she'd been strangled to death.
But finding her killer wasn't going to be easy. - The tragedy was there were no forensic details,
really, on Holly's body. It had been in the water for a very long time. Craig Pittman: Because of the deterioration of the body,
it was difficult to pinpoint exactly how she had been killed or how long she'd been dumped there
or find any evidence tying her to who might have killed her. [intriguing music] narrator: Police revisited Holly's last known movements.
They looked into who she was with at the bar before she went missing nearly three months earlier.
Her best friend's husband, James Randall. Geoffrey Wansell: There's no question that Holly
knew Linda and Randall well. I mean, they babysat her daughter. They were close friends.
Craig Pittman: Randall was the last person to be seen with her. ♪ ♪ There had been a party at a bar,
and they had left together, and then she disappeared. [tense music] ♪ ♪ narrator: The tragic death of Holly Cote
was the beginning of the end of Randall and Linda's relationship. With the 29-year-old becoming a prime suspect in the murder
of his wife's best friend, tensions between the couple began to rise. And James Randall would soon show his true colors.
[TENSE STING] ♪ ♪ [TENSE MUSIC] narrator: In May 1984, 29-year-old construction worker
James Randall was questioned by investigators after a pair of canoeists discovered the body of 28-year-old
Holly Cote in an overflowing dam near to a popular fishing area. ♪ ♪ Geoffrey Wansell: Two things made
Randall a suspect in Holly's murder, one, that he'd been with her the evening she disappeared and,
two, that where the body was discovered, was one of Randall's favorite fishing spots.
[ominous music] The police interviewed him as a person of interest. He didn't confess, and there was no reason
or evidence to charge him. narrator: The impact Holly's death had on her best friend Linda and Randall soon became clear.
Their relationship began to sour as Randall started demanding more sex and was more aggressive towards his wife.
Jane Monckton-Smith: His view of relationships with women was definitely skewed by what he
witnessed when he was younger. He was taught that women were objects rather than people.
So when he goes into a relationship, he's bringing all that baggage with him. And he is going to treat his partner
in the way he thinks they should be treated, which is abuse and control. Geoffrey Wansell: He certainly tried to strangle
her on a number of occasions. He got pleasure out of strangling women in the act of sex.
Linda's response was inevitably, I can't stand this. I'm taking the children and going, which,
of course, infuriated Randall. narrator: Two years later, in July 1986, the scorned Randall tracked Linda down and attacked her.
Craig Pittman: He actually pulled her out of the car and tied her up to a tree and beat and raped her
and, uh, made it clear that he was in charge, and he was her master. Then he could do what he wanted to with her.
And that was the point at which she knew that she had to get away from him for good.
[dramatic music] narrator: In 1987, after the brutal assault on Linda, Randall was sentenced to up to seven years for her kidnap and
sexual battery. Whilst he was locked away, Linda was able to finally divorce him.
Craig Pittman: He served five years in prison in Massachusetts. When he got out, he was supposed to be on probation.
But he failed to report to his probation officer and, instead, fled the state. Geoffrey Wansell: He goes to Florida.
A new life, a new start. Now, in Florida, at that point in 1992, there had been a nasty hurricane.
And a lot of rebuilding was going to be necessary. So he moved to Tampa Bay Area to reconstruct houses.
[intriguing music] narrator: Two years into his new life in Dunedin, Florida, 39-year-old Randall moved on from Linda and
started roaming the streets of Clearwater in the Tampa Bay Area. It was on one of these streets that he met
36-year-old Terry Jo Howard. ♪ ♪ Terry Jo Howard: I ran away from home when I was 14 years old.
I ended up with some Italians out of New York in Cali, Colombia. And we were bringing drugs in.
Then I became addicted to the drugs. And things got progressively worse, resulting in me ending up on the street
getting money from men. [somber music] It's something I'm deeply ashamed of. But men were always pursuing me.
Everything about the life, making money, even before I became a prostitute. Making-- making money was all about
drugs, especially here in South Florida. narrator: One evening in February 1994,
Terry Jo crossed paths with 39-year-old James Randall. Terry Jo Howard: I was walking down the street.
And he turned the corner and was like, come on, hurry up. We take off. And he wants to pay me extra to come to his house
in Dunedin, which is about 20 miles away. Once the deed was done, he takes me back.
The whole way back, all I talked about was getting clean, how sick I was of this life.
A couple of days later, Jimmy came back. He said, are you serious about getting clean?
I said, yeah, I am. I grabbed a couple of clothes, put them in a bag, and off we went to Dunedin, Florida.
I squirmed around on his very uncomfortable couch for three or four days. And then, I got up, and I started feeling better.
He was kind to me, and he gave me room and space to-- to grow and to experiment with who I wanted to be
and who I was inside. narrator: It didn't take long for the couple to make it official.
After a month of dating, Terry Jo brought Randall to meet the family, including her sister, a serving police officer, Tamara Garcia.
[intriguing music] Tamara Garcia: She had told mom that she had met somebody and wanted to come introduce him to us.
It was the first time she had ever brought somebody to meet us. ♪ ♪ I found Jimmy to be articulate, intelligent,
interesting, and interested. I was very surprised, but happy. I was happy that she had found somebody.
narrator: And it wasn't just Terry Jo's mother and sister who were fond of Randall.
Tamara Garcia: My mom had a pug. Her name was Princess Penny Pickles. When my mother got sick and moved in with us,
Terry and Jimmy took Penny. Terry Jo Howard: Jimmy loved the dog, and the dog loved Jimmy.
We spoiled that dog. narrator: Randall, Terry Jo, and their beloved pug, Princess Penny Pickles, moved to an apartment
just Northeast of Clearwater in 1994. Craig Pittman: Clearwater was sort of an old Florida sailing
town, but had been lately rocked by a lot of growth as a result of suburban sprawl.
Crack cocaine was big. There were a lot of addicts who were willing to do anything
to get their hands on the drug, including debasing themselves through prostitution.
[tense music] narrator: In July 1994, Pinellas County Police were called to the discovery of a body on a vacant lot
in downtown Clearwater. Fingerprint records reveal the body to be that of 35-year-old waitress
and dancer La Donna Stella. Geoffrey Wansell: La Donna Stella was working as a sex worker, partly to sustain a drug habit.
She liked disco dancing. She was a mother of three. ♪ ♪ The police were not in any doubt
that she died from strangulation. Craig Pittman: Police were trying to work the case as just a regular murder,
but they couldn't even find what had become of her clothes and her purse. And eventually, it faded from view as they
went on to other cases. [suspenseful music] narrator: On October 20, 1995, a year after the death of La
Donna Stella, Pinellas County Police found the body of 42-year-old Wendy Evans.
Craig Pittman: She was last seen hitchhiking along North Fort Harrison Avenue in downtown Clearwater.
She had had some drug problems. She was trying to get clean. Geoffrey Wansell: The body had been dumped
like garbage by the roadside. She'd been strangled and beaten to death. narrator: In addition to the La Donna Stella case,
Pinellas County Police also started investigating Wendy's murder. And it would be just weeks before a third body was
discovered in the same county. Geoffrey Wansell: Peggy Darnell was a woman in her 40s.
She was working as a sex worker. She, too, suffered at the hands of someone who seemed to be targeting women in the Tampa Bay Area.
narrator: Peggy was last seen on the same street as La Donna Stella and Wendy Evans.
She was also a drug user, and her body was found in almost identical circumstances.
Craig Pittman: Her body had been lying in this industrial area for so long that some decomposition had occurred.
So it was difficult to tell much about how she had died. She had apparently been beaten and strangled.
But it was difficult to tell much of anything else about her. [somber music] narrator: Determining when Peggy died
required an entomologist. Judging by the development of insect activity, they concluded she was killed between October 30 and
November 4, 1995. Given the similarities between the three murders, sex workers in the Clearwater area
were concerned that they might be next. Craig Pittman: After Peggy's body turned up,
there was a shock that ran through the rest of the sex workers, who were usually working
the North Fort Harrison Avenue area, and they actually stopped working. They abandoned that strip of pavement out of fear
because they figured, you know, this is a bad sign for anybody. [tense music] narrator: Detectives were becoming increasingly concerned
that an active serial killer was stalking the streets of Clearwater. Investigators had little evidence to work with,
but they knew that somehow they needed to stop the killer before he struck again.
[tense sting] ♪ ♪ [tense music] narrator: By January 1996, Pinellas County Police
were inundated with information about three murdered women whose bodies had been found in and
around Clearwater in Florida. ♪ ♪ News of the murders quickly spread throughout
the community, reaching the newly engaged Terry Jo Howard and her partner, 41-year-old, construction
worker James Randall. [emotional music] Terry Jo Howard: It was in the newspaper.
Jimmy would read the articles to me every time one came out, and I'm like, Jimmy, I feel sorry for them.
They're still somebody's child. And there's still possibility that they could get clean and do great things.
narrator: On January 1996, three weeks after Peggy Darnell's body was uncovered,
Pinellas County Police received some more heartbreaking news, the body of a fourth woman had been found.
Craig Pittman: Her nude body was found behind a store in Palm Harbor, which is well north of Clearwater.
But she had died in a similar fashion to the previous victim. She was strangled to death.
narrator: The woman was identified as 27-year-old Cynthia Pugh. Geoffrey Wansell: Cynthia Pugh was another sex worker, but
slightly different from the other sex workers in that, yes, she was funding a drug habit, but she
was living with her parents. When Cynthia disappeared, the parents reported that night,
which was very significant. narrator: Police knew Cynthia from previous encounters
and were swiftly able to link her body to the missing persons report. There were striking similarities in the lifestyles
and deposition sites of Cynthia Pugh, La Donna Stella, Wendy Evans, and Peggy Darnell.
[suspenseful music] Geoffrey Wansell: They were all white women. All four had been beaten and strangled, all
within a very small radius. They were all on the fringes of society. narrator: Pinellas County Police
suspected they were no longer working on four separate homicides, but rather dealing
with an active serial killer. The cases were combined into one investigation. - Serial killers very often target sex workers because they
can get easy access to them. It's really, really difficult to abduct a woman from the street without drawing attention to yourself.
The safest, safest person to kill is going to be a sex worker who's going to go to an isolated area with you on their own,
with you. narrator: The case finally started to gain traction when investigators
got a crucial lead on some physical evidence they'd found at the crime scene of Wendy Evans back in October.
Craig Pittman: There were pink carpet fibers and dog hair, but there had been a rain, and the rain
turned the area into mud. And in the mud they found a tire track. narrator: It would be months later
before police were able to identify the unique imprint on the tire track. Geoffrey Wansell: The very distinctive set
of tire tracks belonging to a very particular kind of tire, which had only recently been on sale.
narrator: Investigators discovered that only one set of these specific tires had been sold in the Pinellas County area.
Craig Pittman: They were able to track down the owner of the vehicle, the one vehicle in the area who
had gotten that set of tires on them, and that turned out to be Terry Jo Howard.
narrator: Although this was a significant lead, police still needed concrete evidence
that it was the tires on Terry Jo's truck that made the prints at Wendy Evans' crime scene.
[intriguing music] On May 6, 1996, detectives set up a sting. They asked the manager of the tire dealer to call Terry Jo
and claim there was something wrong with her tires. Terry Jo Howard: The manager calls me and says,
I sold you recalls. If I don't get those tires back in here tomorrow, I'm going to lose my job.
I said, oh, no, buddy, I'll be in there. Craig Pittman: When she brought the truck in,
they were able to grab the tires off the truck without her knowing it and match them to the tire print that was left where the body was found.
narrator: With a possible link between Terry Jo and the murder victim, Wendy Evans,
detectives began conducting surveillance at her apartment to keep a better eye on their new suspect.
Craig Pittman: As they set up surveillance on Terry Jo, they discovered that she was actually living with a man.
And the man was the one driving the truck. And as they plumbed his background, they discovered it was Jimmy Randall.
narrator: With confirmation that the truck had been in downtown Clearwater when Wendy was murdered,
police started taking witness statements from sex workers in the area. Craig Pittman: They took a picture of the car
and showed that to a number of sex workers. And they recognized the car, and they remembered that the guy driving it,
that there had been a warning that had gone around to the various women to say, don't mess with this guy.
He's a bad ride, meaning, he will hurt you. And so they knew to avoid that particular truck
when they saw it coming. narrator: As detectives began plotting their next move,
they took a closer look at some evidence they'd unearthed at Cynthia Pugh's crime
scene back in January. Craig Pittman: There were bits of forensic evidence present on her nude body.
There were pink carpet fibers, dog hair, and a little tiny piece of paper. Although, at the time, the evidence techs
didn't know quite what to make of it. narrator: Investigators sent the carpet fibers and the dog
hair to a specialist laboratory at the FBI headquarters in Washington, DC for examination.
Assigned to the case was supervisory special agent Christopher Hopkins. Christopher Hopkins: In this investigation,
Pinellas County submitted evidence to the FBI laboratory. In the submission were envelopes
that contained trace evidence, hairs and some fibers. And then I examined them with a comparison microscope.
narrator: Christopher's findings gave the detectives a very precise list of what to look out for.
Christopher Hopkins: After examining the trace evidence, I reported to the detectives that, when
you're standing on a pink carpet and there's a little dog running around barking at you,
you'll know you're in the right spot. narrator: With this in mind, the undercover detectives
patrolling outside Terry Jo and Randall's home devised a rather unorthodox method of obtaining
comparison samples. Craig Pittman: Two female detectives went and knocked on the door and met Terry Jo and told her,
we're running a dog washing service. And in order to promote the idea so that people will start
coming to us, we're giving away a free dog grooming to people we meet today. narrator: When the detectives walked in and
saw a small dog and a pink carpet, Christopher's analysis was ringing in their ears.
Terry Jo Howard: We want to practice washing on your dog. Can we give your dog a bath?
I'm, like, oh, yeah, let's go. The one girl takes Penny Pickles into the tub and starts washing her.
And the other girl, I think she has a nervous tic. She's going like this to the carpet.
And then I hear the dog yelp. So I'm, like, what's going on? Did you hurt my baby?
Oh, no, no. We're all done. We're all done. And they got out of there rather quickly.
Later on, I find out those were two detectives. She was pulling the hair out of the dog.
The other one with the nervous tic, was gathering carpet fibers. narrator: The comparison samples were
sent to the FBI laboratory. Christopher Hopkins: The conclusion I can reach-- I can say, the dog hairs are consistent with coming
from that dog. And those carpet fibers are consistent with coming from that carpet.
That was exceptionally important because those dog hairs and those carpet fibers
are evidence of recent contact, meaning those victims had recent contact in his residence.
narrator: Armed with this evidence, detectives were finally ready to make their next move.
On June 27, 1996, they questioned Randall at the home he shared with Terry Jo while she was out of town, but he denied
any knowledge of the murders. Craig Pittman: The reason they didn't arrest him at that moment when they met him at the apartment,
as they wanted the truck, they wanted an excuse to take the truck into custody and search
it for further evidence. narrator: Detectives needed to arrest Randall while he was driving the truck in order
to conduct a warrantless search of the vehicle. As they got back to their car, they saw Randall drive off.
They knew Randall already had a warrant out for his arrest for violating his parole in Massachusetts
back in 1992 after serving five years for an attack on his ex-wife. Police had been waiting for the opportune moment
to apprehend him. Now was that time. [siren wailing] Geoffrey Wansell: Randall sees blue lights
in his rear view mirror and decides that he's got to take off. narrator: Randall led police on a reckless high-speed chase,
until a wrong turn into a cul-de-sac brought it all to a screeching halt. Craig Pittman: He bailed out of the truck and took off on foot.
And that's what led to the largest manhunt in Pinellas County history. narrator: After scaling a 10-foot fence and running
into the cover of woodland, potential serial killer James Randall had evaded police capture.
Over 100 officers were brought in to try and locate the man suspected of killing four women, and they needed to find him fast.
[dramatic sting] ♪ ♪ [suspenseful music] narrator: On June 27, 1996, Pinellas County Police were
on the hunt for 41-year-old construction worker James Randall. He'd gone on the run after police suspected
he was responsible for the murders of four women in Clearwater. Craig Pittman: He'd stolen a pair of screens off windows
and fashioned a form of camouflage out of that using the bushes around him in order to stay
screened from all the airplanes and helicopters that were flying around looking for him.
He would sleep during the day and only move around at night. And that made him very elusive.
narrator: Whilst officers were scouring acres of woodland for their prime suspect,
detectives began questioning Randall's fiancée, Terry Jo Howard. Terry Jo Howard: I'm sitting at the table.
The detectives are asking me questions. I'm literally in physical shock. Everything sounds kind of like it's outside of a bubble.
[intriguing music] I'm just lost in my own thoughts, trying to answer the questions.
Scared to death. Never been scared of anything, until then. The cops had moved into my house.
They told me I couldn't use the phone, couldn't go anywhere. ♪ ♪ There were helicopters everywhere.
There were people on my roof. The media was out front. About the third night, I think it
was just starting to get dark. I started to go to sleep. And all of a sudden, every hair on my arm stood up.
I had goosebumps. I had a fear in the pit of my stomach that was so intense. And I knew Jimmy was here.
♪ ♪ I told the cops to turn the lights off. They told me I was out of my mind. They said, you're just scared.
It's just catching up with you. I said, no, he's here. narrator: Terry Jo's instincts were correct.
With nowhere left to go and famished after four days in the woods, Randall had returned to the apartment in search of food.
Craig Pittman: He went back to his apartment and knocked on the door. When a police detective answered,
he actually hit her in the head with a stick and tried to run again. Terry Jo Howard: All of a sudden, everybody bolts.
Helicopters are flying, sirens are going, and I'm there alone. They left me there.
Do they have him? Don't they have him? Craig Pittman: Police dog grabbed him and brought him down.
And at that point, he made his one and only statement to the cops. Geoffrey Wansell: Randall simply says to the police,
oh, I've been bitten by mosquitoes. I wish you'd caught me earlier. No remorse or sympathy for anyone except himself.
narrator: Investigators were certain they had their man. But before they could interview Randall,
they needed to remand him in custody. In order to keep him off the streets, they initially charged Randall for fleeing authorities,
aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, and the Massachusetts probation violation warrant.
Randall's fiancee, Terry Jo, was given further details about his alleged crimes.
Terry Jo Howard: Police got me in the office. They're slapping pictures of dead women in front of me
with bruised throats. Everything's rushing through my head. And I'm just kind of backing up, screaming, going,
no, no, no, no. It's true. It's true. And I knew then that the life I was working so hard to build
had just come crumbling down. [somber music] narrator: Whilst Randall was in custody
at the Pinellas County jail, police encouraged Terry Jo to speak with him. Terry Jo Howard: They wanted me to visit him,
to convince him I was on his side. One day I asked him. I said, hey, Jimmy, I know you killed those women.
I know you killed those women. So why didn't you kill me? Why not me, huh? Why not me?
And he looked at me. It looked like he wanted to cry. But I could tell his little mind was thinking and
manipulating the whole time. The only way to communicate with somebody on the other pod
is to write backwards on the glass so that they could read it. Jimmy then wrote backwards on the glass, "I hurt others
so I would not hurt you." [ominous music] He barely got the last out and I was up and cussing.
And you are never going to blame this on me. You did not do this because of me. narrator: Randall denied any involvement in the murders
to detectives. On September 17, 1996, nearly 80 days after the arrest, police had enough evidence to indict
42-year-old Randall for the murders of Wendy Evans and Cynthia Pugh. Despite original suspicions, there was insufficient evidence
to charge him with the murders of La Donna Stella and Peggy Darnell. La Donna and Peggy's murders remain unsolved.
No other suspects have ever been named in relation to their deaths. Craig Pittman: They charged him with not four murders.
They charged him with just two. And I believe he said something like. Is that all you're charging me with?
And that was the last thing he said to the cops. narrator: With a trial on the horizon,
the search for evidence continued. And the forensic team made a breakthrough. They'd been trying to identify the mysterious piece of paper
that was found at the deposition site of Cynthia Pugh, who was murdered back in January 1996.
Craig Pittman: They were puzzled about what it was. It was a little fleck of cigarette paper.
And Terry Jo was a smoker. [intriguing music] Eventually, detectives were able to collect a DNA sample
from Terry Jo Howard and matched it to the saliva in the piece of paper. narrator: With one suspect in custody,
detectives needed to determine if Terry Jo was also involved in the murders. Tamara Garcia: After Jimmy was arrested,
Terry was being processed. Meaning, they had to take her DNA. So they needed to get samples of her pubic hair,
of her saliva, of her facial hair, of her hair of her head, of her fingernails. And they needed that to rule out the fact that she
was involved in any way. narrator: Thankfully, Tamara was also a serving police
officer, and her meticulous detective skills meant Terry Jo was able to be eliminated
from the police inquiries. Terry Jo Howard: Thank God my sister kept records. Being a police officer, she's used to writing everything that
happens to her down every day. Well, that came in handy because, every time I was out
of town was when they found another murdered body. narrator: And it wasn't just Terry Jo's DNA
they found on the paper from the cigarette butt. Terry Jo Howard: One detective looks at me and says,
we found your DNA on a cigarette butt, but we found something else, and it's not human.
Tamara Garcia: When Terry smoked, Princess Penny Pickles would get her cigarette butts
and chew on them. Craig Pittman: That was the one piece of evidence absolutely proving that Cynthia had
been in Randall's apartment. [somber music] narrator: Five months later, in February 1997, Randall
was put on trial at the Pinellas County Courthouse for the murders of Wendy Evans and Cynthia Pugh.
As Randall continued to plead his innocence, prosecutors were keen to establish
the extent of Randall's violence in past relationships. Amongst those to testify were his ex-wife Linda
and now ex-fiancée, Terry Jo. Terry Jo Howard: The day I testified was the day I got free of any feelings, of any emotions,
of any guilt. narrator: Terry Jo recounted a past incident to the court which took place in October 1995,
the same month Wendy Evans was murdered. Terry Jo Howard: One day, at work, my boss comes up behind me and starts grinding me.
I told Jimmy what happened. And he picked me up by the throat and pinned me against the wall and started screaming at me.
Don't you ever, ever, ever let anybody take advantage of you like that again. [ominous music]
That's all I remember. When I woke up, he was having sex with what I think he thought was my dead body.
When I opened my eyes, Jimmy was shocked. narrator: When Randall's ex-wife, Linda, testified and
recalled strikingly similar scenarios from her relationship with him, it became clear to the jury
that Randall had a deep-rooted desire for sexual strangulation. Jane Monckton-Smith: Manual strangulation
was the part of the assault that he seemed to be most interested in. It was the one that gave him the most pleasure.
He would get a high from that, from watching somebody struggle to breathe, watch them face to face,
watch the life go out of them. It's a very, very personal thing to strangle somebody.
narrator: FBI agent Christopher Hopkins also testified about his findings in court.
Christopher Hopkins: I testified to the work that I'd done and the reports that I
had written about matching the dog hairs recovered from the victims, matching the known dog hair samples collected from his dog.
Without the trace evidence, it would have been very difficult to tie the victims into that residence
and to the defendant. Craig Pittman: In a way, you argue that Princess Penny Pickles is the one
who nailed Jimmy Randall. [ominous music] ♪ ♪ narrator: On March 3, 1997, the jury found 42-year-old James
Randall guilty on two counts of first-degree murder for the killings of Wendy Evans and Cynthia Pugh.
On April 4, he was back in court to be sentenced. Craig Pittman: Judge Shaffer, an expert
on the death penalty-- her position was, this is the law. I've sworn to carry out the law.
Therefore, if that's what's called for in this case, I'm going to sentence this guy to die.
narrator: However, Randall appealed this decision, and in April 2000, the Florida Supreme Court overturned
his original convictions. The defense claimed that, due to his established fetish
for strangling women during sex, there was not enough evidence that he intended to kill his victims.
Randall's convictions were reduced to two counts of second-degree murder and a life sentence behind bars.
The decision wasn't welcomed by those who knew him best. Tamara Garcia: It takes incredible credible strength
to choke somebody to the point where they pass out, let alone to kill them. He intentionally kept his upper body super strong to be
able to do these things. This is not accidental. I do believe this was premeditated.
Terry Jo Howard: I came home from work that day. And my tape recorder was full of messages
from the state attorney's office, from detectives. They said Jimmy's coming off of death row.
What does that mean? Does that mean he's going to be in a regular prison where he can escape?
He did not kill those women by accident. You might kill one in that way by accident but not two.
I felt like Jimmy deserved the death penalty. narrator: It took the ingenious genius actions
of Pinellas County detectives to put an end to Randall's reign of terror across Clearwater.
He was a dangerous man who would stop at nothing to fulfill his sexual yearning for strangulation,
claiming the lives of at least two innocent women. This undoubtedly makes James Randall one of the world's
most evil killers. [theme music] ♪ ♪

Convicted sex offender James Randall was responsible for the murders of two women in Clearwater, Florida in the mid-1990s and suspected of many more. He was finally apprehended after a sting operation.

An in-depth look at the lives and crimes of some of the world's most evil killers, including Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Ramirez, Cary Stayner, Leonard Lake, Dorothea Puente and more.

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Brief Summary

James Randall, a convicted sex offender, murdered four women in Clearwater, Florida, leading to a controversial trial and reduced sentence.

Key points

The Manhunt Begins. On June 27, 1996, police launched one of the largest manhunts in Pinellas County history.
James Randall Unmasked. Investigators discover their prime suspect, James Randall, is a wanted fugitive.
The Death of Holly Cote. Holly Cote's body is discovered, leading to a chilling investigation.
The Serial Killer Emerges. Police connect the murders of several women, suspecting an active serial killer.
Terry Jo's Connection. Terry Jo Howard's relationship with Randall complicates the investigation into the murders.
The Chase Begins. Randall leads police on a high-speed chase before evading capture in the woods.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He was evil.

Terry Jo Howard describes James Randall's transformation into a predator.

3:37WatchJun 26, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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