November 14, 2024 • 26 mins
The suspected Domino Beach Killer stands trial for the murders that have plagued the coastal community since 1992. Courtney herself testifies as a witness for the prosecution, playing a key role in convicting the suspected murderer. And now, 30 years later, Courtney reveals that she believes she may have helped put the wrong person in prison.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The following podcast contains explicit descriptions of violence, including sexual violence,
that some listeners may find upsetting. Continue at your own risk.
It was in August nineteen ninety six, writing between the
bombing of Centennial Park during the Atlanta Olympics in July
(00:22):
and the September shooting of Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas,
when Connord Langford went on trial for murder. My name
is Courtney Barnes, and I'm an author and a journalist
who was living in Domino Beach, California during the nineteen
nineties when a serial killer was preying on our quiet
little beach communities, residents and visitors. In September nineteen ninety two,
(00:44):
I wrote the very first article about the killer's very
first victim, nineteen year old Via Kendrick, which, by the way,
was my very first professionally published article. Lots of firsts there.
A little over two years later, in November of nineteen
ninety I interviewed and wrote the story of Angela Bowers,
as far as we know, the first and only person
(01:06):
to ever escape from the killer with her life. Not
long after that, I received two letters from someone claiming
to be the killer and In both he threatened to
turn me into one of his victims, and in nineteen
ninety six, Connor Langford went on trial charged with the
murders of Vera Kendrick, twenty eight year old singer songwriter
(01:26):
Trudy Masterson, and eighteen year old Juan Costas, three of
the seven people who had been murdered in Domino Beach
over the past four years. It seemed that finally, finally,
our year's long nightmare was coming to an end. This
(02:00):
is the Murder Years, Episode seven. Who will Save your soul?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So you want to talk about the trial? Now?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
That's Connor Langford, the man now known as the Domino Beachkiller.
In August nineteen ninety six, Connor was twenty eight years old.
Just a few short years earlier, he had been Domino
Beach's favorite son, a handsome, laid back surfer and musician,
son to the rich and powerful city councilman Greg Langford.
Everyone in town loved him, but by the beginning of
(02:38):
nineteen ninety six, his Golden Boys status had decidedly tarnished.
He had become a washed up drug addict who was
sitting in jail charged with three murders and suspected of
four others, as well as the attempted kidnapping of Angela Bowers.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
What's the point. The trial was a goddamn farce.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
I was pretty much convicted before I even set foot
in the courtroom.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
You don't think you got a fair trial.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
How could it have been fair? I'm here rotting in
prison for some shit I didn't do.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
It's been twenty eight years since Connor Langford was sentenced.
He's been in prison for half his life. Let's back
up a bit and talk about how he got there.
Here's retired Delsoul County Sheriff Damon Stokes.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
As I remember, it went down more or less like this.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
California Highway Patrol located the van belonging to Connor Langford
just off the Pacific Coast Highway, roughly one hundred and
fifty miles north of Domino Beach. This is about thirty
hours after the body of Trudy Masterson was seen by
Henrietta Jones. The homeless woman being pulled out of the
van by an adult white male. Some of Trudy's hair
(03:51):
and blood were found in the back of the vehicle,
and Henrietta confirmed that the van they found was indeed
the van she saw the night in question.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
What about Langford? Was she able to identify him?
Speaker 4 (04:02):
She was not.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
It was dark, he was wearing a hooded sweatshirt or
something similar, and she really only saw him from the back,
but she did see the way he lifted Trudy's body
out of the van and said that, you know, he
moved like someone who was very fit, reasonably young.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
The fuck does that even mean?
Speaker 3 (04:21):
How the hell would some ancient homeless woman even though
how someone who was very fit and reasonably young move Besides,
I was far from what you'd call fit, and I
arguably wasn't reasonably young either.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Connor, you were twenty eight, and I.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Always looked on heroin, I looked and moved like I
was older than I am now, for Christ's sake.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Yes, I remember. That was part of your lawyer's argument that.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Guy was a goddamn moron.
Speaker 6 (04:48):
My fucking father hired him, should have taken the public defender.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
At that point, we had no choice but to arrest Connor,
and I went to his father first before I did anything,
really any public statement.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
And how did that go? Better than I thought it would?
Speaker 5 (05:04):
Sure, he made a stink, but it felt pretty obligatory
to me, like he was just going through the motions
on it. Remember, Connor had been making the councilman's life
hell for at least the past six or seven months,
probably going back.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Even before that.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
I think on some level the councilman was happy to
have his son quieted down and out of the way,
which I know sounds crazy, But.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Do you think the councilman thought Connor was guilty?
Speaker 7 (05:30):
No?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Well, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
Look, I have kids of my own, and it would
be pretty hard to believe them capable of such terrible
things unless I saw it with my own eyes, and
maybe not even then. Greg and Connor Langford, they had
their differences, I mean, lord knows, but as long as
Connor maintained his innocence, his father did the same thing.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
My dad knew I wasn't guilty. I mean, he wasn't
my biggest van, but he knew I wasn't a killer.
And you know what, with all the influence he had
in that town, all the times he'd gotten the cops
or the press or whoever to do whatever the fuck
he wanted, he could have gotten the sheriff to release
me into his custody while I waited for my trial.
I know he could have, but he didn't let me
(06:15):
sit in a goddamn jail cell for months, fucking months.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Man, are you sure about that? That your father could
have had you released? The evidence against you was pretty damning,
wasn't it.
Speaker 6 (06:26):
Your van was stolen?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
You know this.
Speaker 6 (06:29):
It had been missing for like, I don't know, two
weeks three.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Yet you never reported it stolen.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
You're talking about a time when I was so messed
up on drugs I barely even knew what day it was.
And I sure as hell wasn't trying to invite the
cops into my life. I mean, I did illegal drugs
every day, multiple times every day. Why would I ask
the cops to come sniffing around. Besides, it wasn't like
(06:58):
that van was my primary mode transportation. You know, I
used it a lot when Brodie and I were still playing,
you know, to houl my guitar and Brodie's drum kid
back and forth from gigs, and I carried our surfboards
in it when we go to the beach. Ben I
wasn't playing music or surfing by fall of ninety five,
I mean, I get it. Those are the true things
I was known for. But at that time, the only
(07:20):
thing I cared about was scoring drugs. I couldn't have
given two shits about that van.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
But you understand how it looked, right, Your van was
used to commit a murder, and your excuse is that
you forgot to report it stolen.
Speaker 6 (07:35):
I didn't forget. I just didn't care.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Anyone who knew me back then would tell you, Okay,
I didn't give a fuck about anything.
Speaker 8 (07:43):
No, that's not true at all. He cared about a
lot even then.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
That's Maya Morales Connor Langford's former girlfriend.
Speaker 8 (07:50):
I mean, yeah, he was going through a rough time
even before he was accused of murder. But I know
he cared about me one thing. No matter what he
and I have been through, no matter what he did
to me, or why we broke up or anything, We've
never stopped caring for each other.
Speaker 6 (08:10):
Never.
Speaker 8 (08:11):
No, Connor cared, not about that van, but not about
nothing either.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
I remember his excuse about the van. It was awfully convenient.
But even if anyone believed him, and I don't think
anybody did. I mean, not the judge, the jury, not me,
not you. Right, Am I wrong about that?
Speaker 1 (08:32):
No? You're not wrong. I didn't believe him either.
Speaker 5 (08:35):
Yeah, you know, it wasn't like that was the only
evidence we had against him.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
The trial took place at the Del Soul County Courthouse,
about five miles inland from downtown Domino Beach, right next
door to city Hall, where Connor's father, the councilman, had
an office. It lasted five days. The prosecution began by
focusing on Vera Kendrick Garrick.
Speaker 8 (09:08):
Hendrick was a pretty lovable free spirit.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
The Domino Beach Killer's first victim back in September nineteen
ninety two. She was painted as a fun, pretty lovable
free spirit, which she was, and it was refreshing to
hear her spoken about in that way instead of as
a homeless hippie who probably had it coming due to
her unconventional lifestyle. As counselman, Langford preferred, the fact that
(09:31):
Connor had had a sexual relationship with her and the
fact that Connor found her body was called too coincidental
to be coincidence.
Speaker 8 (09:38):
Connor having a sexual relationship with Vera and finding her
body is just too coincidental to be coincidence.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
And you could tell the jury agreed even that early
on in the trial. It seemed Connor's defense attorney had
his work cut out for him. Although there wasn't enough
evidence to charge him with the murders of the three
asust udents from April of nineteen ninety four, the prosecution
did manage to get a witness to testify that Connor
was partying at the girl's house the night they were murdered.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
I did see Connor Langford at the party that night.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
This was met with an objection by the defense and
an admonishment by the judge. But the jury heard what
they heard, and to be honest, by that point, I
think they already decided he was the killer, and not
just the killer of the victims he was charged with
the jury and probably anyone else following the trial, believed
he was the killer of all seven victims, and they
(10:33):
were just waiting for the opportunity to go back into
that little room, address the formality of deliberations, and then
come back and deliver a guilty verdict. Connor's lawyer tried
to get the judge to declare a mistrial, but the
motion was denied and it would later be considered not
strong enough grounds to warrant an appeal.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
That was when I knew for sure the deck was
stacked against me.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Anytime I called the jury looking at me, I felt
like I was something they scraped off their shoes, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I mean. I hadn't give it up, I hope yet.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
But the prosecution was a little more elegant when they
tried to tie the murder of Billy Boy Reeves to Connor,
mainly by focusing on his drug problem. They managed to
get Connor's dealer to take the stand in exchange, of course,
for all sorts of immunity. During the dealer's let's call
it colorful testimony.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
He sold all sorts of drugs to Connor.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
The prosecutor asked him if he had ever seen Connor
and Billy boyd together. It was very slick and definitely
a dirty trick, and the judge was quick to shut
it down before the witness could answer.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
And how the fuck was that guy?
Speaker 3 (11:41):
A credible source of information Oliver had was skunk weed
and heroin that had been stepped on so many times
you had a double or triple dose to get off.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
They had enough on him to put him away for years.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
He would have said anything they wanted him to say.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
They went pretty hard trying to pin the murder of
Juan Costas on Connor, but that was the weakest of
the charges he was facing. The prosecution's theory was that
Connor murdered one in a misguided effort to get his
ex girlfriend, Maya Morales to come back to him.
Speaker 8 (12:10):
It was just so stupid. If Connor really wanted to
be with me, there are a million ways he could
have gone about it.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Because Maya had been something of a surrogate sister to Juan,
the prosecutor argued, Connor knew his death would upset her
enough that in her grief he might somehow find a
way to weasel himself back into her good graces.
Speaker 8 (12:31):
Oh yeah, he did try to contact me after Hauan's
body was found, but I didn't return its calls, and
then after a couple of days he stopped calling. Don't
you think that's a lot of trouble to go through
to just give up like that.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
This theory pretty much fell apart when the defense started
calling witnesses. Maya was one of the first witnesses called,
and in spite of the fact that she and Connor
had been broken up for a year and a half,
she was adamant that she didn't believe he killed one
or anyone else.
Speaker 8 (13:03):
In some ways, I still loved him. In some ways
I still do even now.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Do you ever regret breaking up with him or not
giving him a second chance?
Speaker 8 (13:15):
I had given him a second chance, third orth and
fifth two. It wasn't my cheating on me with that
girl was the first thing he'd ever done wrong. It
was the last, and I deserved better. But even so,
if he really wanted to be back with me again,
I think he probably could have convinced me to come back.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
You don't think he wanted to be with you anymore.
Speaker 6 (13:39):
I think.
Speaker 8 (13:41):
I think by the time that happened, by the time
I caught him without wanna be groupie, he was, he
was already lost. And I think he knew. He knew
if he and I were together. He just dragged me down.
I'm not saying it was like a deliberate choice if
he made or anything, but I think on some level
(14:03):
he was trying to set me free. He was giving
me the reason I needed to cut him loose forever,
because he knew he wasn't good for me. He released me,
He let me go.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Since the one cost discharge was falling flat in front
of the jury. The prosecutor moved on to the strongest
case they had, with the rape and murder of Trudy Masterson.
The prosecutor discussed how Connor worked as a bar back
at Triple B's, the bar where Trudy played her final gig.
He was one of the last people to see her alive,
and he left the bar minutes after she did. A
(14:43):
theory was presented about how Connor caught up with Trudy
and offered to walk her back to her motel, and
on the way suggested they go to the beach to
have a beer and maybe smoke a joint. They got
to his van, he slipped to a roofee then raped
and strangled her. Henrietta Jones identified Connor's van in her testimony,
(15:06):
and although she admitted she couldn't say for sure Connor
was the man she saw that night, at that point
it didn't really matter. The prosecution was presenting a strong case,
but so far it probably wouldn't have been strong enough
to convict him. That's where I came in.
Speaker 5 (15:24):
The letters The killer sent you with the strongest evidence
we had, stronger than his van. Even maybe if Henrietta
had been able to id him, I mean that would
have been enough. But those letters, he might as well
have signed his name to the murders. I mean, without them,
I don't think we ever could have put him away.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
So the reason I wasn't given the assignment of covering
Connor Langford's trial for the so Cal Journal wasn't because
of my issues with Connor's father, the Councilman. You know,
those issues were many. No, the reason I wasn't given
the trial is because I was a witness for the
prosecution because of those letters and what was in them.
(16:05):
When I got up on the witness stand, I had
to testify about my entire history researching and writing about
the Domino Killer, beginning with my very first assignment covering
the murder of Vera Hendrick. I talked about the lyrics
from the Nirvana song Polly that were found at the
crime scene and the fact that the song is sung
from the point of view of a rapist. And because
(16:27):
the author of those letters referred to the two songs
associated with Billy Boy Reeves and the ASU students, Pretend
We're Dead and Cornflake Girl, I talked about them too.
I talked about the murder of Jan Costas, which I
had covered for the paper and happened right before I
got the killer's second letter, the one that quoted a
lyric from Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun, and I talked about
(16:51):
Connor singing a cover of that song a few weeks later.
The defense tried to clean that up, bringing in a
member of the cover band. Connor briefly fronted Or, who
said they'd been working on Black Hole Sun for weeks
and it was far from the first time they'd played
it in public. It was a popular song, after all,
but it didn't seem to help. It was another piece
(17:11):
of Connor's everything is a coincidence defense that was clearly
not resonating with the jury. Before I left the witness stand,
I talked about how the author of those letters wrote
about how much he wanted to rape and kill me,
and although I didn't like admitting it, I was under oath,
so I had to. I had to admit how much
that scared me. I know that's something I haven't been
(17:37):
completely honest about during this whole thing. When I look
back at this time in my life, I mean, I
was just a kid. I was twenty five years old,
when I testified at Connor Langford's trial, twenty five, barely
old enough to rent a car, and there I am
being asked to help a jury decide the fate of
a guy just a few years older than me, a
(17:59):
guy who once upon a time I had a massive
crush on. But that wasn't even the hardest part. I
had been threatened. Someone had expressed their desire to rape
and murder me, someone who had already raped and murdered
other women. I was terrified, but I don't know. I
(18:19):
had to pretend I wasn't. I had to pretend it
didn't FaZe me. Why Why did I feel that way?
I was too scared to let it show how scared
I was.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
A few years.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Later, when I was promoting my book and making the
rounds on all the talk shows, I was asked over
and over again, weren't you scared? And I would say
something along the lines of I was too focused to
be scared, or the fact that I was covering all
these stories gave me distance. All I wanted to say was,
of course, I was fucking scared. A serial killer had
(18:54):
targeted me. It was over a year between when I
received that first letter and when Connor was a rest
one year. One year feeling like I could be attacked
any second of any day. One year sleeping with the
lights on in a baseball bat under my bed, as
if that would have done me any good. One year
(19:15):
without going on so much as a date with a guy,
because there was always that chance that I was wrong
about Connor, and any guy allowed myself to be alone
with just might end my life. So was I scared, Yes, very,
(19:38):
I'm sorry. I just I needed to get that off
my chest. It's been weighing me down for a long time.
Oh okay, So after I left the stand, I learned
that my testimony, as hard and painful as it was,
was just setting the stage.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
So the faulty watermark.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
You may remember from previous episodes that there was a
unique watermark on the paper the killer's letters were written on.
There was a misspelling of the paper company's name, and
as a result, most of it was recalled. There were
not that many reams of that paper that had made
it into circulation.
Speaker 8 (20:18):
So after your testimony, the prosecution introduced a new piece
of evidence of the court. It was a flyer I
had made for Connor's band, slapping bones back in like
early summer in nineteen ninety four, and it had the
same watermark that was on your letters.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
As it turned out. Back in happier times, when Connor
and his friend Brody were in a band together and
he and Maya were still dating, Maya would design flyers
promoting the band's gigs and post them around town or
pass them out at the record shop where she worked.
Speaker 8 (20:52):
I one of the greatest artists in the world, but
I wasn't body either. Sometimes I'd hang out while they practiced,
and to be hot it with you, it could get
a little boring, So I killed the time by drawing pictures,
and sometimes I turned those drawings into flyers for the bands.
I remember buying that paper too, because it was half price.
It was at this little office supply store just passed downtown.
(21:14):
I got I don't know, four or five reams. Maybe
it was a really good deal. I didn't care that
it was copy paper, not you know, proper sketching paper
or whatever. And I didn't know a thing about watermarks
back then.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
So this paper you bought, where did you keep it?
Speaker 8 (21:33):
At the band's rehearsal space, it was a warehouse heading
out towards Riverside where you could rent a little room.
It wasn't exactly sound proof, but it was good enough.
I guess there were maybe three or four bands practicing
on the property at any moment. And there was this
copy machine in the office there and they didn't mind
you using it, but you had to bring your own.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Paper, so Connor had access to it.
Speaker 8 (21:58):
Yeah, I mean, it's just paper. It wasn't like it
was locked up or anything.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
And even with that evidence, even with that same watermark
that was on your flyers and the letters that the
killer sent me, you never thought it was Connor.
Speaker 8 (22:13):
No, And I still don't.
Speaker 6 (22:16):
Look.
Speaker 8 (22:17):
I know it looked bad. Okay, I'm not stupid and
I'm not naive, and I just I do not believe
for one second that Connor had it in him to
kill anyone. Yeah, he could get angry and yees, he
was messed up on drugs for a little while, but
he was He is a gentle person. He is not
(22:39):
a killer.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
The jury disagreed and Connor was found guilty for the
murders of Vera Hendrick and Trudy Masterson after just four
hours of deliberations.
Speaker 8 (22:52):
Connor Langford guilty for the murders of Vera Kendrick and
Truty Masters.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
He wasn't tried for the murders of Billy boy Rieves
or the three ASU students, but the Court of Public
Opinions certainly found him guilty. The same thing went for
Juan Costas, even though the state failed to prove its
case there and he received a reluctant not guilty verdict
from the jury.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
Look, we felt like justice had been served. I closed
all the cases from Vera Kendrick to Trudy Masterson, and
I felt good about doing that.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Likely because of Councilman Langford's urging the state was not
seeking the death penalty. But practically all of Domino Beach
and every member of the press in southern California showed
up on the day the judge was going to hand
down his sentence.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
So before sentencing, they brought me into this little room
on the side of the courthouse, and I could.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Hear all the people outside. Sounded like a party. You know.
One thing I remember is hearing this woman playing guitar
and singing.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
I found out later it was a friend of a
friend of Trudy Masterson's. Anyway, she was out there singing
that song by Jewel, and I realize I'm kind of
singing along under my breath, and then she goes into
the chorus where she says.
Speaker 6 (24:09):
Like, who is save your soul?
Speaker 3 (24:16):
I kind of laughed at myself and thought, no one,
No one's going to save my soul if I even
had one left to save.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Minutes later, Connor was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences
without the possibility of rule.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
And I've been here ever since.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
So, for the record, do you still.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Maintain my innocence one hundred percent? If you're serious about
re examining this whole thing, and if you really think
there's even the slightest chance I might be innocent, please
do something, because I've already done everything I can.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
It's hard to hear that. I don't know if I
think Connor might be innocent. All I do know is
that something happened very recently that inspired me to do
this podcast and revisit this time in my life. Okay,
so here it is. I received a third letter from
someone claiming to be the Domino Beach Killer, and it
(25:27):
sounds exactly like the person who wrote the first two
nearly thirty years ago.
Speaker 7 (25:37):
Maybe my did court me, We're not done after all.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
The Murder Years is a production of AYR Media and iHeartMedia.
Executive producer Elisa Rosen for AYR Media. Written by Tim Huddleston,
directed by Alisa Rosen, Editing and sound designed by Tristan Bankston,
Consulting producer Jean Chandil coordinator Olive Goldberg. Audio engineering and
(26:19):
mastering by Justin Longerbeing studio engineer Josh Hook. Original concept
developed in partnership with Anne Margaret Johns and Greg Spring,
Executive producer for iHeartMedia. Maya Howard. Performances for this episode
by Erica Leniac as Courtney Barnes, Tom Virtue as Sheriff,
(26:43):
Damon Stokes, Alex Salem as Connor Langford, Melon Faxus as
Maya Morales
The following podcast contains explicit descriptions of violence, including sexual violence,
that some listeners may find upsetting. Continue at your own risk.
It was in August nineteen ninety six, writing between the
bombing of Centennial Park during the Atlanta Olympics in July
(00:22):
and the September shooting of Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas,
when Connord Langford went on trial for murder. My name
is Courtney Barnes, and I'm an author and a journalist
who was living in Domino Beach, California during the nineteen
nineties when a serial killer was preying on our quiet
little beach communities, residents and visitors. In September nineteen ninety two,
(00:44):
I wrote the very first article about the killer's very
first victim, nineteen year old Via Kendrick, which, by the way,
was my very first professionally published article. Lots of firsts there.
A little over two years later, in November of nineteen
ninety I interviewed and wrote the story of Angela Bowers,
as far as we know, the first and only person
(01:06):
to ever escape from the killer with her life. Not
long after that, I received two letters from someone claiming
to be the killer and In both he threatened to
turn me into one of his victims, and in nineteen
ninety six, Connor Langford went on trial charged with the
murders of Vera Kendrick, twenty eight year old singer songwriter
(01:26):
Trudy Masterson, and eighteen year old Juan Costas, three of
the seven people who had been murdered in Domino Beach
over the past four years. It seemed that finally, finally,
our year's long nightmare was coming to an end. This
(02:00):
is the Murder Years, Episode seven. Who will Save your soul?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So you want to talk about the trial? Now?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
That's Connor Langford, the man now known as the Domino Beachkiller.
In August nineteen ninety six, Connor was twenty eight years old.
Just a few short years earlier, he had been Domino
Beach's favorite son, a handsome, laid back surfer and musician,
son to the rich and powerful city councilman Greg Langford.
Everyone in town loved him, but by the beginning of
(02:38):
nineteen ninety six, his Golden Boys status had decidedly tarnished.
He had become a washed up drug addict who was
sitting in jail charged with three murders and suspected of
four others, as well as the attempted kidnapping of Angela Bowers.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
What's the point. The trial was a goddamn farce.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
I was pretty much convicted before I even set foot
in the courtroom.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
You don't think you got a fair trial.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
How could it have been fair? I'm here rotting in
prison for some shit I didn't do.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
It's been twenty eight years since Connor Langford was sentenced.
He's been in prison for half his life. Let's back
up a bit and talk about how he got there.
Here's retired Delsoul County Sheriff Damon Stokes.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
As I remember, it went down more or less like this.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
California Highway Patrol located the van belonging to Connor Langford
just off the Pacific Coast Highway, roughly one hundred and
fifty miles north of Domino Beach. This is about thirty
hours after the body of Trudy Masterson was seen by
Henrietta Jones. The homeless woman being pulled out of the
van by an adult white male. Some of Trudy's hair
(03:51):
and blood were found in the back of the vehicle,
and Henrietta confirmed that the van they found was indeed
the van she saw the night in question.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
What about Langford? Was she able to identify him?
Speaker 4 (04:02):
She was not.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
It was dark, he was wearing a hooded sweatshirt or
something similar, and she really only saw him from the back,
but she did see the way he lifted Trudy's body
out of the van and said that, you know, he
moved like someone who was very fit, reasonably young.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
The fuck does that even mean?
Speaker 3 (04:21):
How the hell would some ancient homeless woman even though
how someone who was very fit and reasonably young move Besides,
I was far from what you'd call fit, and I
arguably wasn't reasonably young either.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Connor, you were twenty eight, and I.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Always looked on heroin, I looked and moved like I
was older than I am now, for Christ's sake.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Yes, I remember. That was part of your lawyer's argument that.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Guy was a goddamn moron.
Speaker 6 (04:48):
My fucking father hired him, should have taken the public defender.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
At that point, we had no choice but to arrest Connor,
and I went to his father first before I did anything,
really any public statement.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
And how did that go? Better than I thought it would?
Speaker 5 (05:04):
Sure, he made a stink, but it felt pretty obligatory
to me, like he was just going through the motions
on it. Remember, Connor had been making the councilman's life
hell for at least the past six or seven months,
probably going back.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Even before that.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
I think on some level the councilman was happy to
have his son quieted down and out of the way,
which I know sounds crazy, But.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Do you think the councilman thought Connor was guilty?
Speaker 7 (05:30):
No?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Well, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
Look, I have kids of my own, and it would
be pretty hard to believe them capable of such terrible
things unless I saw it with my own eyes, and
maybe not even then. Greg and Connor Langford, they had
their differences, I mean, lord knows, but as long as
Connor maintained his innocence, his father did the same thing.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
My dad knew I wasn't guilty. I mean, he wasn't
my biggest van, but he knew I wasn't a killer.
And you know what, with all the influence he had
in that town, all the times he'd gotten the cops
or the press or whoever to do whatever the fuck
he wanted, he could have gotten the sheriff to release
me into his custody while I waited for my trial.
I know he could have, but he didn't let me
(06:15):
sit in a goddamn jail cell for months, fucking months.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Man, are you sure about that? That your father could
have had you released? The evidence against you was pretty damning,
wasn't it.
Speaker 6 (06:26):
Your van was stolen?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
You know this.
Speaker 6 (06:29):
It had been missing for like, I don't know, two
weeks three.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Yet you never reported it stolen.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
You're talking about a time when I was so messed
up on drugs I barely even knew what day it was.
And I sure as hell wasn't trying to invite the
cops into my life. I mean, I did illegal drugs
every day, multiple times every day. Why would I ask
the cops to come sniffing around. Besides, it wasn't like
(06:58):
that van was my primary mode transportation. You know, I
used it a lot when Brodie and I were still playing,
you know, to houl my guitar and Brodie's drum kid
back and forth from gigs, and I carried our surfboards
in it when we go to the beach. Ben I
wasn't playing music or surfing by fall of ninety five,
I mean, I get it. Those are the true things
I was known for. But at that time, the only
(07:20):
thing I cared about was scoring drugs. I couldn't have
given two shits about that van.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
But you understand how it looked, right, Your van was
used to commit a murder, and your excuse is that
you forgot to report it stolen.
Speaker 6 (07:35):
I didn't forget. I just didn't care.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Anyone who knew me back then would tell you, Okay,
I didn't give a fuck about anything.
Speaker 8 (07:43):
No, that's not true at all. He cared about a
lot even then.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
That's Maya Morales Connor Langford's former girlfriend.
Speaker 8 (07:50):
I mean, yeah, he was going through a rough time
even before he was accused of murder. But I know
he cared about me one thing. No matter what he
and I have been through, no matter what he did
to me, or why we broke up or anything, We've
never stopped caring for each other.
Speaker 6 (08:10):
Never.
Speaker 8 (08:11):
No, Connor cared, not about that van, but not about
nothing either.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
I remember his excuse about the van. It was awfully convenient.
But even if anyone believed him, and I don't think
anybody did. I mean, not the judge, the jury, not me,
not you. Right, Am I wrong about that?
Speaker 1 (08:32):
No? You're not wrong. I didn't believe him either.
Speaker 5 (08:35):
Yeah, you know, it wasn't like that was the only
evidence we had against him.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
The trial took place at the Del Soul County Courthouse,
about five miles inland from downtown Domino Beach, right next
door to city Hall, where Connor's father, the councilman, had
an office. It lasted five days. The prosecution began by
focusing on Vera Kendrick Garrick.
Speaker 8 (09:08):
Hendrick was a pretty lovable free spirit.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
The Domino Beach Killer's first victim back in September nineteen
ninety two. She was painted as a fun, pretty lovable
free spirit, which she was, and it was refreshing to
hear her spoken about in that way instead of as
a homeless hippie who probably had it coming due to
her unconventional lifestyle. As counselman, Langford preferred, the fact that
(09:31):
Connor had had a sexual relationship with her and the
fact that Connor found her body was called too coincidental
to be coincidence.
Speaker 8 (09:38):
Connor having a sexual relationship with Vera and finding her
body is just too coincidental to be coincidence.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
And you could tell the jury agreed even that early
on in the trial. It seemed Connor's defense attorney had
his work cut out for him. Although there wasn't enough
evidence to charge him with the murders of the three
asust udents from April of nineteen ninety four, the prosecution
did manage to get a witness to testify that Connor
was partying at the girl's house the night they were murdered.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
I did see Connor Langford at the party that night.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
This was met with an objection by the defense and
an admonishment by the judge. But the jury heard what
they heard, and to be honest, by that point, I
think they already decided he was the killer, and not
just the killer of the victims he was charged with
the jury and probably anyone else following the trial, believed
he was the killer of all seven victims, and they
(10:33):
were just waiting for the opportunity to go back into
that little room, address the formality of deliberations, and then
come back and deliver a guilty verdict. Connor's lawyer tried
to get the judge to declare a mistrial, but the
motion was denied and it would later be considered not
strong enough grounds to warrant an appeal.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
That was when I knew for sure the deck was
stacked against me.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Anytime I called the jury looking at me, I felt
like I was something they scraped off their shoes, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I mean. I hadn't give it up, I hope yet.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
But the prosecution was a little more elegant when they
tried to tie the murder of Billy Boy Reeves to Connor,
mainly by focusing on his drug problem. They managed to
get Connor's dealer to take the stand in exchange, of course,
for all sorts of immunity. During the dealer's let's call
it colorful testimony.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
He sold all sorts of drugs to Connor.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
The prosecutor asked him if he had ever seen Connor
and Billy boyd together. It was very slick and definitely
a dirty trick, and the judge was quick to shut
it down before the witness could answer.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
And how the fuck was that guy?
Speaker 3 (11:41):
A credible source of information Oliver had was skunk weed
and heroin that had been stepped on so many times
you had a double or triple dose to get off.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
They had enough on him to put him away for years.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
He would have said anything they wanted him to say.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
They went pretty hard trying to pin the murder of
Juan Costas on Connor, but that was the weakest of
the charges he was facing. The prosecution's theory was that
Connor murdered one in a misguided effort to get his
ex girlfriend, Maya Morales to come back to him.
Speaker 8 (12:10):
It was just so stupid. If Connor really wanted to
be with me, there are a million ways he could
have gone about it.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Because Maya had been something of a surrogate sister to Juan,
the prosecutor argued, Connor knew his death would upset her
enough that in her grief he might somehow find a
way to weasel himself back into her good graces.
Speaker 8 (12:31):
Oh yeah, he did try to contact me after Hauan's
body was found, but I didn't return its calls, and
then after a couple of days he stopped calling. Don't
you think that's a lot of trouble to go through
to just give up like that.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
This theory pretty much fell apart when the defense started
calling witnesses. Maya was one of the first witnesses called,
and in spite of the fact that she and Connor
had been broken up for a year and a half,
she was adamant that she didn't believe he killed one
or anyone else.
Speaker 8 (13:03):
In some ways, I still loved him. In some ways
I still do even now.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Do you ever regret breaking up with him or not
giving him a second chance?
Speaker 8 (13:15):
I had given him a second chance, third orth and
fifth two. It wasn't my cheating on me with that
girl was the first thing he'd ever done wrong. It
was the last, and I deserved better. But even so,
if he really wanted to be back with me again,
I think he probably could have convinced me to come back.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
You don't think he wanted to be with you anymore.
Speaker 6 (13:39):
I think.
Speaker 8 (13:41):
I think by the time that happened, by the time
I caught him without wanna be groupie, he was, he
was already lost. And I think he knew. He knew
if he and I were together. He just dragged me down.
I'm not saying it was like a deliberate choice if
he made or anything, but I think on some level
(14:03):
he was trying to set me free. He was giving
me the reason I needed to cut him loose forever,
because he knew he wasn't good for me. He released me,
He let me go.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Since the one cost discharge was falling flat in front
of the jury. The prosecutor moved on to the strongest
case they had, with the rape and murder of Trudy Masterson.
The prosecutor discussed how Connor worked as a bar back
at Triple B's, the bar where Trudy played her final gig.
He was one of the last people to see her alive,
and he left the bar minutes after she did. A
(14:43):
theory was presented about how Connor caught up with Trudy
and offered to walk her back to her motel, and
on the way suggested they go to the beach to
have a beer and maybe smoke a joint. They got
to his van, he slipped to a roofee then raped
and strangled her. Henrietta Jones identified Connor's van in her testimony,
(15:06):
and although she admitted she couldn't say for sure Connor
was the man she saw that night, at that point
it didn't really matter. The prosecution was presenting a strong case,
but so far it probably wouldn't have been strong enough
to convict him. That's where I came in.
Speaker 5 (15:24):
The letters The killer sent you with the strongest evidence
we had, stronger than his van. Even maybe if Henrietta
had been able to id him, I mean that would
have been enough. But those letters, he might as well
have signed his name to the murders. I mean, without them,
I don't think we ever could have put him away.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
So the reason I wasn't given the assignment of covering
Connor Langford's trial for the so Cal Journal wasn't because
of my issues with Connor's father, the Councilman. You know,
those issues were many. No, the reason I wasn't given
the trial is because I was a witness for the
prosecution because of those letters and what was in them.
(16:05):
When I got up on the witness stand, I had
to testify about my entire history researching and writing about
the Domino Killer, beginning with my very first assignment covering
the murder of Vera Hendrick. I talked about the lyrics
from the Nirvana song Polly that were found at the
crime scene and the fact that the song is sung
from the point of view of a rapist. And because
(16:27):
the author of those letters referred to the two songs
associated with Billy Boy Reeves and the ASU students, Pretend
We're Dead and Cornflake Girl, I talked about them too.
I talked about the murder of Jan Costas, which I
had covered for the paper and happened right before I
got the killer's second letter, the one that quoted a
lyric from Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun, and I talked about
(16:51):
Connor singing a cover of that song a few weeks later.
The defense tried to clean that up, bringing in a
member of the cover band. Connor briefly fronted Or, who
said they'd been working on Black Hole Sun for weeks
and it was far from the first time they'd played
it in public. It was a popular song, after all,
but it didn't seem to help. It was another piece
(17:11):
of Connor's everything is a coincidence defense that was clearly
not resonating with the jury. Before I left the witness stand,
I talked about how the author of those letters wrote
about how much he wanted to rape and kill me,
and although I didn't like admitting it, I was under oath,
so I had to. I had to admit how much
that scared me. I know that's something I haven't been
(17:37):
completely honest about during this whole thing. When I look
back at this time in my life, I mean, I
was just a kid. I was twenty five years old,
when I testified at Connor Langford's trial, twenty five, barely
old enough to rent a car, and there I am
being asked to help a jury decide the fate of
a guy just a few years older than me, a
(17:59):
guy who once upon a time I had a massive
crush on. But that wasn't even the hardest part. I
had been threatened. Someone had expressed their desire to rape
and murder me, someone who had already raped and murdered
other women. I was terrified, but I don't know. I
(18:19):
had to pretend I wasn't. I had to pretend it
didn't FaZe me. Why Why did I feel that way?
I was too scared to let it show how scared
I was.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
A few years.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Later, when I was promoting my book and making the
rounds on all the talk shows, I was asked over
and over again, weren't you scared? And I would say
something along the lines of I was too focused to
be scared, or the fact that I was covering all
these stories gave me distance. All I wanted to say was,
of course, I was fucking scared. A serial killer had
(18:54):
targeted me. It was over a year between when I
received that first letter and when Connor was a rest
one year. One year feeling like I could be attacked
any second of any day. One year sleeping with the
lights on in a baseball bat under my bed, as
if that would have done me any good. One year
(19:15):
without going on so much as a date with a guy,
because there was always that chance that I was wrong
about Connor, and any guy allowed myself to be alone
with just might end my life. So was I scared, Yes, very,
(19:38):
I'm sorry. I just I needed to get that off
my chest. It's been weighing me down for a long time.
Oh okay, So after I left the stand, I learned
that my testimony, as hard and painful as it was,
was just setting the stage.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
So the faulty watermark.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
You may remember from previous episodes that there was a
unique watermark on the paper the killer's letters were written on.
There was a misspelling of the paper company's name, and
as a result, most of it was recalled. There were
not that many reams of that paper that had made
it into circulation.
Speaker 8 (20:18):
So after your testimony, the prosecution introduced a new piece
of evidence of the court. It was a flyer I
had made for Connor's band, slapping bones back in like
early summer in nineteen ninety four, and it had the
same watermark that was on your letters.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
As it turned out. Back in happier times, when Connor
and his friend Brody were in a band together and
he and Maya were still dating, Maya would design flyers
promoting the band's gigs and post them around town or
pass them out at the record shop where she worked.
Speaker 8 (20:52):
I one of the greatest artists in the world, but
I wasn't body either. Sometimes I'd hang out while they practiced,
and to be hot it with you, it could get
a little boring, So I killed the time by drawing pictures,
and sometimes I turned those drawings into flyers for the bands.
I remember buying that paper too, because it was half price.
It was at this little office supply store just passed downtown.
(21:14):
I got I don't know, four or five reams. Maybe
it was a really good deal. I didn't care that
it was copy paper, not you know, proper sketching paper
or whatever. And I didn't know a thing about watermarks
back then.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
So this paper you bought, where did you keep it?
Speaker 8 (21:33):
At the band's rehearsal space, it was a warehouse heading
out towards Riverside where you could rent a little room.
It wasn't exactly sound proof, but it was good enough.
I guess there were maybe three or four bands practicing
on the property at any moment. And there was this
copy machine in the office there and they didn't mind
you using it, but you had to bring your own.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Paper, so Connor had access to it.
Speaker 8 (21:58):
Yeah, I mean, it's just paper. It wasn't like it
was locked up or anything.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
And even with that evidence, even with that same watermark
that was on your flyers and the letters that the
killer sent me, you never thought it was Connor.
Speaker 8 (22:13):
No, And I still don't.
Speaker 6 (22:16):
Look.
Speaker 8 (22:17):
I know it looked bad. Okay, I'm not stupid and
I'm not naive, and I just I do not believe
for one second that Connor had it in him to
kill anyone. Yeah, he could get angry and yees, he
was messed up on drugs for a little while, but
he was He is a gentle person. He is not
(22:39):
a killer.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
The jury disagreed and Connor was found guilty for the
murders of Vera Hendrick and Trudy Masterson after just four
hours of deliberations.
Speaker 8 (22:52):
Connor Langford guilty for the murders of Vera Kendrick and
Truty Masters.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
He wasn't tried for the murders of Billy boy Rieves
or the three ASU students, but the Court of Public
Opinions certainly found him guilty. The same thing went for
Juan Costas, even though the state failed to prove its
case there and he received a reluctant not guilty verdict
from the jury.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
Look, we felt like justice had been served. I closed
all the cases from Vera Kendrick to Trudy Masterson, and
I felt good about doing that.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Likely because of Councilman Langford's urging the state was not
seeking the death penalty. But practically all of Domino Beach
and every member of the press in southern California showed
up on the day the judge was going to hand
down his sentence.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
So before sentencing, they brought me into this little room
on the side of the courthouse, and I could.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Hear all the people outside. Sounded like a party. You know.
One thing I remember is hearing this woman playing guitar
and singing.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
I found out later it was a friend of a
friend of Trudy Masterson's. Anyway, she was out there singing
that song by Jewel, and I realize I'm kind of
singing along under my breath, and then she goes into
the chorus where she says.
Speaker 6 (24:09):
Like, who is save your soul?
Speaker 3 (24:16):
I kind of laughed at myself and thought, no one,
No one's going to save my soul if I even
had one left to save.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Minutes later, Connor was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences
without the possibility of rule.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
And I've been here ever since.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
So, for the record, do you still.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Maintain my innocence one hundred percent? If you're serious about
re examining this whole thing, and if you really think
there's even the slightest chance I might be innocent, please
do something, because I've already done everything I can.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
It's hard to hear that. I don't know if I
think Connor might be innocent. All I do know is
that something happened very recently that inspired me to do
this podcast and revisit this time in my life. Okay,
so here it is. I received a third letter from
someone claiming to be the Domino Beach Killer, and it
(25:27):
sounds exactly like the person who wrote the first two
nearly thirty years ago.
Speaker 7 (25:37):
Maybe my did court me, We're not done after all.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
The Murder Years is a production of AYR Media and iHeartMedia.
Executive producer Elisa Rosen for AYR Media. Written by Tim Huddleston,
directed by Alisa Rosen, Editing and sound designed by Tristan Bankston,
Consulting producer Jean Chandil coordinator Olive Goldberg. Audio engineering and
(26:19):
mastering by Justin Longerbeing studio engineer Josh Hook. Original concept
developed in partnership with Anne Margaret Johns and Greg Spring,
Executive producer for iHeartMedia. Maya Howard. Performances for this episode
by Erica Leniac as Courtney Barnes, Tom Virtue as Sheriff,
(26:43):
Damon Stokes, Alex Salem as Connor Langford, Melon Faxus as
Maya Morales
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