Making a Serial Killer - Season 1, Episode 6 - Willy Inmon, Vigilante Killer - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] He liked to party, and he liked to get in trouble. KAREN WARNICK: I don't think in the beginning,
the disappearance of Ricky, and the disappearance of Daniel Achten, or the death of Stoney, the murder of Stoney
was related. STEVE WEST: Did you like guns? WILLY INMON: Yes, I do. I've got a Walther P22, I've got an M14.
I've got three shotguns. STEVE WEST: I've worked tons of murder cases, that's all
I've done in my whole career. You've got to get this off your back and tell us what the hell happened.
[SHOT FIRED] [DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: 20th August, 2009. The tiny city of St. John's in Northeast Arizona.
Police Sergeant Lucas Rodriguez, gets a call. I was just coming from duty and I was called by dispatch,
asking me to meet [INAUDIBLE] Flores. And I knew who she was. Kind of knew what it was because I had previously
been briefed a little bit on the disappearance of Ricky Flores. Ricky Flores, I know, he is a good kid.
A little bit rebellious. He has been in trouble. Mostly I would say, a lot of it mostly,
that juvenile, only juveniles can get in trouble with. Curfews, smoking, and maybe a little drinking.
He has done a little bit of drugs. Plus some fighting with his mom verbally, and stuff like wanting to be his own man and stuff like that.
NICK FLORES: Oh, my brother just got out of juvenile. And instead of staying in there longer,
he decided to take one year probation for some minor drug charges and stuff. NARRATOR: Sergeant Rodriguez told a senior colleague
about the missing teen. He said not to put much attention to it, not to worry too much about it
because of Ricky's past. And that Ricky probably was doing drugs and was too high to come home.
And really didn't want to come home and stuff like that. A lot of the people in the police department
didn't want to believe my mom that he was missing and something bad was going on.
BRIAN HARRIS: He's a young father. He was in love. He had this young teenage girlfriend that he was in love
with and they had this child. And so Ricky wants to change his life. NICK FLORES: He wanted to do good
and he wanted to take care of his newborn baby. And he wanted to be a good example
to his three younger brothers. And so it was unusual for him to take off and not come home
after he said all of these things. And he told my mom he wasn't making promises anymore.
He just wanted to show her that he wanted to do better. [PIANO MUSIC] These two towns are like many towns across the United States.
9:00 to 5:00, working class, blue collar people. This whole mountain area, the white Mountains
of Arizona, St. John's, Springerville, Eagar, rural people, ranchers, construction workers,
forest workers. Friendly people, and we help each other. We've been through several large wildfires, the two largest
in state history. And the towns of Springerville, Eagar, and St. John's opened up their communities to the evacuees from
Pinetop-Lakeside and Show Low. But also in these two towns, they had crime, but small town crime, a theft here,
sure alcoholic here, some drugs. Just like any other small town in America. But the average American living in those towns, when they
lock their doors at night-- probably most didn't even feel that they had to lock their doors.
It was a safe town. They knew their neighbor. They would knew the police officers by name.
They would feel comfortable speaking to the police chief. LOUIS L'HEUREUX: I was selling real estate in St. John's,
and one of the things I had to explain to people when they said, well, we closed escrow.
Do we get the keys? Well, there aren't any keys to the house. Most people, they don't have a key to their home.
LUCAS RODRIGUEZ: It's a great place to raise a kid, great place for kids to go to school and stuff
like that. And everybody knows everybody. Children still walk to the stores. They still go to the movie theater by themselves.
The town is a typical small town in Arizona. NARRATOR: Ricky had last been seen with a 21-year-old
called Willy Inmon Willy Inmon picked up Ricky Flores, and they were friends. And he took them out to his property out East of St. John.
William Inmon was just another person that hung around my house, his friends, my brother.
My mom fed him, she gave him food. She gave him clothes if she needed him. She gave him money if he had needed some money.
Willy did hang out with Ricky a lot, and they would go out. Willy referred to [INAUDIBLE] as mom.
So hey, mom. I'm taking Ricky out to the ranch for a shoot or something, go shooting or something like that.
And Ricky said, hey, mom, I'll be back in a little while. [INAUDIBLE] Ricky and said, yeah, no problem, son.
And saw them jump in the Jeep and take off. NARRATOR: Officer Rodriguez interviewed Willy
who confirmed that he and Ricky, along with Willy's girlfriend Stormy Williams, had driven out to Willy's remote ranch,
15 miles from Springerville. LUCAS RODRIGUEZ: Willy told me that he had taken-- they indeed Ricky was at the ranch with him.
And that they had gone, talked about-- he talked to him about drugs, and to stay away from drugs and stuff
like that. WILLY INMON: I was born about [INAUDIBLE] pound. STEVE WEST: So you were born addicted?
WILLY INMON: Oh, yeah, I was jonesing hardcore when I came out, I was told. They destroyed almost half my family,
my aunt and uncle using that. I ended up telling my grandpa as a result. Because they were there--
his caretakers. They end up stealing money from his bank account. They were using his needle to shoot heroin.
Willy is somebody whose parents were virtually absent, into drugs and alcohol. I know that he claimed that he was
abused and molested as a child. And I know that his mom wasn't around for a lot of his life.
I know that his dad was with him from everything. You know his dad went through being broke poor with him
to having a little bit of change in his pocket and just living out east of the railroad tracks.
NARRATOR: Willy grew up surrounded by guns. His father introduced him to target shooting.
Guns became a passion. STEVE WEST: Do you like guns? WILLY INMON: Yes, I do. I've got a Walther P22, I got an M14.
I've got three shotguns. Just a little odd. Dresses mostly in camouflage, army fatigues, carries a knife.
Likes hunting, the army, likes his guns. That's pretty much Willy. That type of kid, mostly outdoors [INAUDIBLE]
type that you would see. STEVE WEST: [INAUDIBLE] 14 WILLY INMON: Yeah. There's little bit of little difference, not much.
STEVE WEST: For the M14, you know, government was, you know, it's pretty hefty weapons.
Yeah. WILLY INMON: I love that M14, it's almost like the one I had in service. [INAUDIBLE] But, yeah, I've got an anti-aircraft gun.
We do know that he had a fascination with the military. Inmon claims that he had served time in the military,
that he did a brief stint in the Middle East. That he saw action. STEVE WEST: When you were in the military,
were you ever dispatched overseas? WILLY INMON: Yes sir. STEVE WEST: Oh, is that right?
Where did you fight? WILLY INMON: Iraq. STEVE WEST: Oh, did ya? WILLY INMON: Yes, sir.
He had this affinity to talk about Nazism. And the way he did that, is he did the Nazism and the way
it came out was on his baseball cap. He had some Nazi insignias, some little medals on there.
He dressed in fatigues, he wore Nazi insignias. Was this discouraged? It doesn't appear to be.
And I started asking him about it. He said, that he had gotten those, that those were his grandfathers.
And that his grandfather was an SS officer. WILLY INMON: My grandpa was the greatest Luftwaffe pilot,
any pilot ever existed. Only one to receive over 1,200 kills. STEVE WEST: Good grief.
WILLY INMON: The most any pilot has ever done was an American pilot with 45 kills.
NARRATOR: Willy Inmon, the young man that the 16-year-old Ricky Flores had last been
seen with on August 13, 2009. LUCAS RODRIGUEZ: He said that was the last time he
saw Ricky and heard from Ricky. And he said he took him back into town, dropped him off on forth North and 13th West.
He said that Ricky had received a phone call and says, hey, just drop me off here, I got a bounce.
Says Ricky pulled the car over and Ricky jumped out and took off. And that was the end of that.
Well, I knew it wasn't good. He didn't hang out with the best crowd of people. NARRATOR: The disappearance of Ricky Flores
was the third troubling occurrence in two years in a town which had previously seen little violent crime.
Nobody had been murdered in St. John's in decades and decades. I had been out of town during that day.
I'd been up in Pinetop. And a couple of people had contacted me and say, hey, we've been needing to get a hold of Stoney,
he's not responding, he's not getting back with us. We're concerned about him. And so had been talking about committing suicide.
He'd had some traumatic things happen and he was just ready to die at that point.
He was trying to drink himself to death. He'd had a stroke. And I went into Stoney's bedroom to see what was going on.
To see if he was just sound asleep, or he passed out because he'd been drinking an extremely
large amount of alcohol. So I went in there and I found him. He was laying on his right side, like he always
slept with his arm up above the blanket. And then, when I got over to him, he was-- he was kind of gray color and cold and stiff.
I realized he was dead. I didn't suspect any foul play or anything. There was a little bit of blood that was outside of his mouth.
And some blood pooled up in his left ear. I went outside where I could get a signal on my cell phone.
And then called the Sheriff's Department and said, you know, I want to report a dead body, and who it was,
and where it was. And all of a sudden one thing started leading to another. And there was dozens of cars, and here and there.
And all the other stuff. And that's when I found out he'd been murdered. Stoney McCarragher was shot in his bed while he was sleeping.
They Cut holes into the blinds on the screen at Stoney McCarragher's house, while he was sleeping.
Now, the use of a weapon with a scope is reminiscent of hunting. But it's also reminiscent of that sort
of sniper style assassination. NARRATOR: Stoney's friends, like the local police,
searched for motives in his murder. LOUIS L'HEUREUX: Stoney irritated a lot of people.
If he told you be here at 8 o'clock and you were there at 8:02, he was gone. He made sure that he left at 8, and this and that.
He was real pushy, and really required people to perform to what they said they were going to do.
And I'd say, he was not shy about his response. NARRATOR: Stoney who had moved to Northeast Arizona
around the turn of the new Millennium, hired local teens to do odd jobs around his ranch.
He was reported to have molested or messed with some of the boys in town. He had been murdered, had been shot.
And this homicide had gone unsolved since 2007. Everybody feels safe in these communities.
And, I think, that sense of safeness evaporated. Yes, that somebody killed Stoney was
probably on everybody's mind. We have a killer loose in the community. NARRATOR: Two years later, Steve West,
chief of police in neighboring Springerville, wondered what one of Stoney's former ranch hands,
Willy Inmon, might know about the murder. WILLY INMON: I had no idea on that at all.
I do not I knew Daniel, as best as anybody did. But Daniel was a nice guy. He was pleasant.
He used to like to come down to a restaurant that was in St. John's at that time called Joe's Good To Go.
Daniel was totally deaf. Once in a while, he'd hear a word, but he read lips. He's the guy that everybody knew.
He's the man who rode his Harley into town with a loud muffler and everybody knew it was Daniel.
LOUIS L'HEUREUX: His appearance was-- he was older, he was retired. He was always nice and people who
liked to interact with him because of his Harley and his Corvette. I knew that he had not been around
and people were asking about him and things. I hadn't seen him. WOMAN: I don't think it was connected.
I don't think in the beginning, the disappearance of Ricky and the disappearance of Daniel Achten, or the death of Stoney,
the murder of Stoney was related. NARRATOR: Sergeant Rodriguez investigating the disappearance
of Ricky Flores remembered a motoring offense that occurred around March 2009. Willy had been stopped in a Camaro, a really nice Camaro.
Him and Roberts, Joseph Roberts had been stopped in a Camaro. No plates and the car had been impounded.
I believe the car was still in impound and nobody-- nobody had taken it out. That had been months prior to this,
prior to Ricky being missing. I remember deputy Morales says, yeah, you know it's been a while.
I used to see this guy. And I think, his name is Daniel, used to drive it all the time
and I haven't seen him in a while. NARRATOR: Two men missing, a third shot dead in his bed,
all known in one way or another to Willy Inmon. What did he know? St. John's police department wanted answers
but Willy refused to offer any. WILLY INMON: I should not talk to St. John's PD anymore without getting really violent.
NARRATOR: Missing for over two weeks with no trace, St. John's PD set up the investigation into Ricky
Flores's whereabouts. LUCAS RODRIGUEZ: During this I got in contact with Willy again, and asked him if he would meet me in the Springerville
police station so we can talk. Willy said yeah, absolutely. Detective [INAUDIBLE] and I drove up to the Springerville
police department. Willy came in. I spend about two hours talking, interviewing Willy.
During that time I asked him-- I questioned him again on the story. Willy stuck to his gun saying that he had dropped Ricky off.
I kind of pressured him a little bit more and asking him what's going on, Willy, come on,
tell me where Ricky is. As the interview progressed I can see a lot of deception signs on Willy.
His carotid artery, never seen, but his carotid artery was literally bouncing. He started sweating and he started getting hot, fidgeting.
He actually took his shirt off saying it was too hot in there. I just could not get him to tell me what had happened to Ricky.
I remember asking him if I was going to find Ricky alive and Willy said, he hoped so.
Deputy Morales and I left. And on our way back into town, me and him were talking
and we both had the same feeling that Ricky was hurt, or that he was dead. We secured a search warrant based on the interview
and stuff like that. We went to Springerville and executed a search warrant. So they go to Willy's house, and Willy's living
with a 44-year-old woman named Stormy. This 44-year-old woman, she's functional.
She can provide for herself. But in layman's terms, she's probably not the sharpest tack in the box.
And they knock on the door, and they're knocking, and they're knocking. And Willy's panicking, why are the police back.
And so Stormy calls the Springerville police chief. You got to get these police off of our porch.
What are they doing in this town? STEVE WEST: The way that I met Mr. Inmon was through a telephone call.
That telephone call was from his girlfriend who stated that the cops were watching the place
because Mr. Inmon was there. I asked them why were they watching him, she said she didn't know.
But that, you know, they were afraid to come out of their house. And the police chief very cleverly
and skillfully convinces Willy through Stormy, come on down. STEVE WEST: So what I did is, I called up this young lady,
his girlfriend. And I told her that they needed to let these guys, you know, come over.
And Mr. Inmon had threatened that he had a gun. So I asked them if they'd feel safer,
you know, leaving the house and coming up to the police department. And she said, Yes.
And I said, well, then you leave your house and come straight up to the police department.
BRIAN HARRIS: I can't really control what St. John's does, but perhaps if I can tell them,
you're going to come on down and speak to me, why don't we try to work this out amongst friends,
amongst us as well. Remember, it's a small town, everybody knows everyone. And so Willy takes the bait.
WILLY INMON: I can not talk to St. John's PD anymore without getting really violent.
So they walked up to the police department and came in. I separated them. And I set Mr. Inmon in a room by himself.
STEVE WEST: What St. John's PD is asking you, is they're asking you if you know the whereabouts of Ricky--
and what's Ricky's last name? WILLY INMON: Flores. STEVE WEST: Flores. OK, so they're asking you if you know the whereabouts
of Ricky Flores. They're saying what, that you were the last one to see him. WILLY INMON: Correct.
And that's-- I didn't know something. And they keep pressuring me like I do know something, which
if I did, I would tell them. Because I want them off my back, I'm tired of being harassed.
They have no right to come into my girl's house, no right whatsoever. And the last time they came here,
they came here without a Sheriff escort. They came in their St. John's police car
without jurisdiction. NARRATOR: Inmon expects Springerville Police to protect him from St. John's PD.
He tells them Ricky was involved in dealing drugs. BRIAN FREDERICK: Oh, those pesky police are, you
know-- and might have thought that the Sheriff would have defended him, protected
him from those evil outsiders. And so he goes to the Sheriff to, you know, to get the police off his back.
STEVE WEST: Basically, you think if anything's happened here, it's a drug deal gone bad.
WILLY INMON: I'm thinking so. I really am. But I'm just really tired of being harassed because if I knew any more, I would be telling them.
Because I don't want to be around them anymore, I really don't. STEVE WEST: So you mean around--
WILLY INMON: St. John's police. Willy did not want to have anything to do with me.
He did not want to see me, he did not want me to interview him. WILLY INMON: I used to have respect, my wife did,
Officer Rodriguez. And I'm getting to a point where I'm about ready-- STEVE WEST: [INAUDIBLE] though, he's a good guy.
Since he's already struck a rapport with Willy, we allowed to continue-- Steve to continue talking to Willy.
As Willy is in the interview room and he's speaking to this police chief, the chief very skillfully listens.
Doesn't have to say much. Willy's building up the Springerville police department.
But then the police chief, instead of talking about the case at hand asks Willy a simple question.
Tell me a little bit about who you are, where-- who is this Willy? Who are you Willy?
And Willy starts to talk. And he starts to describe his childhood. And how he's overcome parents who
shunned their responsibilities of parents. He described how his only companion was his dog.
STEVE WEST: He talked a lot about, he didn't like drugs. And that he was more than willing to take drugs
off the street, whatever it took. He was more than willing to do what was necessary to make sure that the kids on the street
didn't receive drugs. He describes how he views himself as a hero, almost. But he describes how he looks at the dredges of society,
the drug users, criminals. He is trying to convince the police chief that they're mano a mano.
That they're brothers. That they both are crime fighters. That they both view the world in the same way and that
they are like one. And Willy just keeps talking. And the police chief skillfully keeps saying,
and then, what else. Tell me more. And so Willy is just spilling his guts. His disgust at anybody who would be
involved in any kind of crime. His love for soldiers and war and fascination with that.
And sometimes perhaps, even a disgust with other races. NARRATOR: Inmon was beginning to paint a picture of himself
as a vigilante. The kind of man who might kill someone for being the wrong kind of person.
West decided to try something new and it involved Inmon's girlfriend, Stormy Williams.
We decided that a female detective Debbie Nicole to talk to Stormy. They're going to play each other against one another.
It was decided for Detective [INAUDIBLE] to tell Stormy that Willy had confessed to homicide.
They're going to lie, ultimately lie to Stormy. And they're going to say that Willy has
already confessed to the crime. Stormy actually started talking and said, yes, they had killed Ricky.
And went into detail and how they killed him, and how they had taken him back to town.
And how they had buried him. When you have multiple people involved in a crime, it's easy to pit them against each other.
He said, she said, kind of routine. So they go in there and they reveal to Willy what Stormy said.
We finally got him to admit that he indeed did shoot this kid. STEVE WEST: Just tell us what happened, Willy.
That's the biggest thing. I mean stuff happens, we know this. WILLY INMON: And I'm telling you,
I did not want to kill the kid. It was just-- it was not murder, I can tell you that much.
STEVE WEST: OK. WILLY INMON: I can't believe-- STEVE WEST: Yeah, just tell us the story.
NARRATOR: According to Inmon something had gone very wrong the day that Willy, Stormy, and Ricky had gone to the ranch for target practice.
WILLY INMON: This ended up as self-defense, something happened. Now, the way he said he shot him was this.
He said they were both out at the site, East of St. John's. And that they're out there and they were target practicing.
And they started shooting cans and whatnot. And Ricky wanted to shoot the rifle.
And so he let him shoot the rifle. And Mr. Inmon said that he was standing by his car
and a bullet hit the window next to him. He said that he took that as an aggressive move.
And he got his rifle and started firing at Ricky. WILLY INMON: He shot at me and hit my dad's truck.
And I fired back. I didn't want to hit him. He shot at me, I shot back. Willy did disclose that the homicide had
actually occurred at his ranch. And that he had shot Willy at the ranch. I believe he shot him in the head.
By then he was in tears, you know, he was-- he was acting semi remorseful. And the way that we got that interview out of him,
was basically saying, hey, you know, people do bad things. You know, please, you know, we know that you know if you've
done something bad, the worst thing in the world is for you to have to carry it the rest of your life.
You know, you need to come clean on that so that your conscience will be clear. And we went on and on and on.
And finally, that's when he admitted that. STEVE WEST: Willy, you need to settle down.
We need to get all the facts so that we can determine what's happened here, OK? We need you to stay together for us.
We're not your enemies. WILLY INMON: I need to [INAUDIBLE] please. STEVE WEST: Well, that's OK.
I mean, you know, the big thing here is. DETECTIVE: We need to settle it. STEVE WEST: Yeah, we need to figure it out.
NARRATOR: At first, Inmon stuck to his story of self-defense. STEVE WEST: Is there's somebody else involved?
WILLY INMON: There is nobody involved, sir. Nobody. STEVE WEST: The responsibility would be with that person
as well. [INTERPOSING VOICES] STEVE WEST: --all on you. WILLY INMON: There's no other responsibility, it's all on me.
NARRATOR: As the detectives kept digging, it became clear there was more to the story than the death
of a 16-year-old boy. Ricky had just become a father, and the mother of his child
had an interesting father herself. It would not look good to Mr. Johnson that since he's a white supremacist that his daughter
had a kid from an Hispanic kid. NARRATOR: As Willy opened up in the interrogation room,
the riddle of what had been happening in this corner of Arizona was getting more complex.
WILLY INMON: We'd drive over now find a spot and I say it looks good enough. STEVE WEST: And what happened?
WILLY INMON: We dug the hole, we buried him. Burned them. NARRATOR: Willy Inmon, describing
how he and his girlfriend had buried Ricky Flores after a shooting. Though Inmon was still insisting was self-defense.
Took the body and they drove down to the blue. And at the blue, they had dug a shallow grave,
and had placed the body in it, and covered it up. And there was still parts of the body
showing from outside the ground cover that they had put on it. And they went ahead and stacked wood on it
and tried to burn the body at that point. LUCAS RODRIGUEZ: Willy did a drawing as to where
they had buried the body. And how they had taken the body into town. And then taking him to the blue, or, I think,
that's what it's called, up in-- almost by the mountains, by pass Alpine, and stuff like that.
NARRATOR: Inmon appeared to be cooperating. But there was a detail that didn't make sense to detectives.
Why had he brought Ricky's body into St. John's before driving it 52 miles South to the remote Hamlet
of blue Arizona. BRIAN HARRIS: He had to move the body to St. John's because that is where he was going to get paid.
That was where the payoff was. You see, Ricky's girlfriend, her parents loved her,
they hated Ricky. And so they hired Willy. It would not look good to Mr. Johnson
that since he's a white supremacist, that his daughter had a kid from a Hispanic kid.
And basically, he wanted Ricky gone and had offered to pay money for that. STEVE WEST: I understand the white supremacist
[INAUDIBLE],, swastikas, and the tattoo on the guy's body. I know about this guy right now.
And I've known about him for a long time. Quit taking care of him and take care of yourself.
He knew you were going to murder and he was supposed to pay you, I know that. Tell me the truth, please.
Please, tell me the truth-- WILLY INMON: Listen, he wanted me to beat his ass, yes.
He didn't want no death, no killing. And I thought about it, but, no. He drove his body through the town of St. John's
to Jeffrey Johnson's house. LUCAS RODRIGUEZ: The whole reason for Willy bringing
the body over into town, in the beginning of just-- instead of just going through the back roads and going away from town,
was that he came over and showed proof to Mr. Johnson that he had actually taken care of the job and killed Ricky.
My niece was probably sitting there, you know, just a couple of months old. And, you know, her dad's bodies in the back of a Suzuki
samurai, and her biological grandfather is going out there to look at it, to go pay the guy for killing my brother.
STEVE WEST: Why did you take the body to Jeff's house? WILLY INMON: Because I was scared.
I wanted to know-- STEVE WEST: Tell me exactly what you told Jeff, when you got to his house.
WILLY INMON: I told Jeff, dude, I-- in my car, you want to come look. Dude, I need some help, what the hell am I going [BLEEP] do?
His words were exactly, get the [BLEEP] out of here, and I don't want to see you again.
That was his words. William said that Mr. Johnson gave him a bunch of-- got mad at him for bringing the body.
And that-- got $20 from him for gas. And that was all and he took off. NARRATOR: Inmon left Johnson's place
and drove the body over an hour South to blue, where he dug a shallow grave in a deserted spot,
and set Ricky's body alight. Stormy Williams tipped off detectives about where they would find the remains.
His body was burned so bad, and his head was blown off from the 12 gauge shotgun.
So there wasn't too much to be looking at. So they had to identify him by a crappy homemade
tattoo he had on his ankle. And he also had broken his arm pretty severely. And got some pins and plates in it.
So that's how they identified his body because there wasn't too much to say that this person was
who he was. STEVE WEST: Why are you so afraid of Jeff? What do you know about him that scares you so bad, Willy?
WILLY INMON: I know the Aryan Brotherhood. There are so many out there. He gives one message through to anybody, I will be dead.
That's guaranteed, I know how they roll. If he goes down, I will go down. STEVE WEST: So you have to admit that you are covering his ass
because you're afraid of death? Tell me that and I-- WILLY INMON: I'm afraid of death, period.
So I think his charges were correct because he had knowledge and he did nothing to try to slow that down.
But also I think that by sheer virtue of taking place, I think, that was a shock to him also.
NICK FLORES: She wasn't a person who could think on her own. That she-- she would make a decision to do something.
And if she felt like it, you know, made Willy happy, or Willy wanted her to do it, she'd do it.
You know, she wasn't a crazy person, she was just really gullible and would do anything
to make William Inmon happy. And, you know, she proved that by helping him burn a body
and bury it. NARRATOR: The case of 16-year-old Ricky Flores had been solved. But two mysteries remained.
The death two years earlier of Stony McCarragher, and the disappearance of Daniel Achten,
the man whose car Inmon had been caught driving five months earlier. Both men were Inmon's neighbors.
Was Inmon a serial killer? Those two victims lived right next to him and just across from him there at that ranch.
Need to still get Stony, and we still have-- you still guys have a missing person that
the car is still in impound. And that needs to be solved and we need to find out where the person is,
that they were driving the car. I tell him, well, that's where you got to go and that's kind of where this needs to be.
He did give up his rights to an attorney in order for us to talk to him the second time.
And it was almost like something you'd see in prison and the fact that he was willing to give up information for stuff
on the second interview. If we got him cigarettes he would talk to us. If we got him a hamburger he would talk to us.
So during that discussion it was like, well, yeah, you know, lunchtime is coming up,
we'll get you a hamburger. We'll talk to you about it, you know, yada, yada, yada,
and he did. So what does Willy tell the police? He reveals to them, yes, I'm the one responsible,
who killed Ricky Flores. And he goes on with the story, again, his superhero story.
He doesn't like people who uses drugs. He was trying to help out the town, he was ridding society of somebody
who wasn't worth anything. And he just-- that was his whole motivating purpose. He said that, you know, he was selling dope in the community.
As the detectives interview is coming to a close, Willy likes this attention. He doesn't want it to end.
So he throws it out there. And he tells the police officers, I'm a serial killer.
William Inmon told the police department that he killed my brother, and Stoney McCarragher,
and Daniel Achten. STEVE WEST: He Wasn't remorseful at all. He stood his ground.
He had a defense for every one of them. He cuts a hole in the screen. He has his rifle.
He readies the rifle and sticks the barrel through the hole in the screen. Bam, one time.
Bam, two times. 12 times he pulls the trigger. You talk about a coward, Stoney is asleep
and he shoots him in the darkness of the night on the outside, shooting inside the house.
NARRATOR: Willy then ransacked the property and stole money that he knew McCarragher kept hidden.
Why? Because claimed Inmon, Stoney was a pervert and an abuser. The guy in the trailer, he said was a child molester.
He actually said that they deserve to die. And he talks about Daniel, and why he had to kill Daniel.
And all the reasons why. And that Daniel, society was better off without somebody
like Daniel. He says Daniel's a drug user, he's another drag on his society, another one
that society won't miss. He's cleaning up the town. He didn't like Daniel because he was a drug user.
So he shot him. He didn't like Daniel because he was humming, humming Dan. Got tired of the humming.
But as he kept talking, he then reveals the real reason why he killed humming Dan.
You see in Willy's mind, he truly believed that humming Dan killed his beloved dog.
The one thing that loved him. BRIAN FREDERICK: He used drugs, which is not uncommon for Vietnam vets.
But you imagine that Inmon had this fascination with order, with discipline. And maybe saw that as being--
not keeping up with the ideal image of a soldier, right. This was unbecoming of a soldier.
Went over to settle the dispute, this ends up in the death of Achten. LUCAS RODRIGUEZ: Willy ended up taking us--
I remember going with Willy. He agreed that it was OK for me to go, and follow him as he took us to the ranch
where he had killed Ricky. He took us to the place where Daniel Achten had been killed,
and then he took us to where Stoney had been killed, and how he killed Stoney. He was branded a serial killer, a vigilante killer.
The youngest serial killer in the country. He did this with malice. He knew where he was going, he knew what he was doing.
He knew how he was going to do it. He planned it, staged it, and completed it. So if that isn't vigilantism, nothing is.
And he's doing it for a cause that he thinks is right. LUCAS RODRIGUEZ: I think he would just do it again.
He was nonchalant about the whole thing and how he went around and-- almost with a smile.
NARRATOR: When Inmon was finally sentenced in September 2011, the community was shocked.
Some had expected the death sentence. Others life without parole. In fact, he was given 24 years for all three murders
to be served without parole. To Ricky's younger brother Nick, Willy Inmon would be a tragic case, a figure of pity,
if it weren't for the heartbreak his actions had caused. NICK FLORES: He wanted to feel some sort of power.
There's some messed up part in his head that, you know, said, if I can kill these people
and, you know, people can't figure out about it. Then I'm obviously doing something right.
You know, I'm taking bad people off the street. That's what he claimed his thought process was.
But really, you know, he was just a skinny frail boy who lived out East to St. John's Arizona
that everyone, you know, just knew as the skinny poor boy. That it's kind of hard to make your name for yourself
when you start there. [SAD MUSIC]

A young man complains to police about investigating him for three murder cases. What they don’t realize at first is they’re speaking with one of America’s youngest serial killers.

A true crime series that focuses on what makes killers do what they do, taking insights from scientific experts, detectives and survivors.

Brief Summary

Willy Inmon confesses to murdering Ricky Flores and two others in a shocking case of vigilante justice in St. John's, Arizona.

Key points

The Disappearance of Ricky Flores. Ricky Flores, a rebellious teen, goes missing, raising concerns in a previously safe town.
Willy Inmon's Dark Past. Willy Inmon's troubled upbringing and obsession with guns come to light during investigations.
Murder in a Safe Town. The murder of Stoney McCarragher shocks the community, revealing hidden tensions.
Willy Inmon's Confession. Willy admits to killing Ricky Flores, claiming it was self-defense.
The Shocking Sentence. Willy Inmon receives 24 years for three murders, shocking the community.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He liked to party, and he liked to get in trouble.

0:22WatchJul 29, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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