The Storyville Slayer

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
I walk straight line shackle change, Oh someome gird, it's
calling my name. There is no mercy and it's been
a tentery juice as the huge stream game Wrangle three.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Come in by me to die.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Inside these walls, inside the wild.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
And when the girl as I s Hey everyone, and

(01:32):
welcome back to Bloody Angola, A podcast one hundred and
forty two years in the making, the complete story of
America's bloodiest prison. I'm Jim Chapman, and today I have
got one hell of a story to tell you that
took place in New Orleans, Louisiana, primarily between nineteen ninety

(01:52):
one and nineteen ninety six, and the crimes of who
became known as the Storyville slagh. And before we get
into it, I want to give you a little history
on why this part of New Orleans is called Storyville. So,
from eighteen ninety seven to nineteen seventeen, New Orleans established

(02:13):
what was known as a centralized prostitution district believe it
or not, known as Storyville. It was named after the
city Alderman Sidney Story who sponsored the creation of the district,
and Storyville is bordered by Ibberville Basin Saint Louis and
North Robertson Streets in New Orleans. So, on July twenty

(02:39):
second of nineteen ninety one, a known prostitute in the
Algiers area of New Orleans, a young black woman known
only as Brenda. She goes into the police station and
she reports an assault. She tells police that a man
picked her up after having a show conversation with her.

(03:01):
He strangled her to the point that she actually lost consciousness. Now,
when she awoke, she was half naked under a pile
of tires near Memorial Park Drive in Nevada Streets in
New Orleans. She was able to give police a description
which was used to create a composite sketch, and she

(03:23):
described this man as a muscular, well dressed, middle aged
black male who drove a dark colored vehicle similar to
a Buick Regal or Monte Carlo. So police get this information,
but honestly, not a whole lot is done at this point.
It's New Orleans, and unfortunately, in the lifestyle that Brendo

(03:46):
was living, these things happened more often than you may think,
and to police, I'm sure it was one of hundreds
of assaults going on at that particular time in New Orleans,
nothing really stood out about it. Then on August fourth
of nineteen ninety one, just twelve days later, the body

(04:08):
of a seventeen year old girl by the name of
Danielle Britton is found in a ditch, and it wasn't
far from where Brenda had been assaulted and strangled. Her
body was covered with garbage, and an autopsy determined that
the teen had been beaten and strangled to death. Just
shortly before her murder, Britain had dropped out of school,

(04:30):
and just shortly before her body was discovered, she was
seen in a New Orleans bar next to an unknown man.
And it's important to note there was nothing found in
Danielle Bretton's background that indicated she was involved in any
kind of prostitution, so a little bit different than the
first murder, but some simularities were surfacing between these two females. First,

(04:56):
they were left obviously in very close proximity to each other,
They were both strangled, they were both placed under piles
of trash or tires in Brenda's case, and the crimes
took place just twelve days a part. So we move
on to September third of nineteen ninety one, About a

(05:18):
month later, and twenty one year old Tyra Tassam was
found strangled to death. Now she had a criminal record
for drug possession and she was a mother of three.
Here again more similarities a high risk lifestyle. The body
was found in the same general area, the timing less

(05:39):
than a month from the Britain murder and just over
a month from the Brenda assault, and the method of
killing was the same. So at this point you would
think police may realize they have a problem. But again,
these are not ladies from a wealthy area of New Orleans,

(06:00):
and sadly, the attention is just not the same. The
sense of urgency is not there, not from the media
or the police by this time. Then, on November twenty
first of nineteen ninety one, the body of thirty seven
year old Regina Ono is discovered, also a mother of

(06:21):
three with multiple prostitution arrest. Her autopsy was performed and
again the cause of death was strangulation. It was also
noted in the autopsy that just prior to the death
she had taken a large dose of cocaine. We move
on this time to December fourteenth of nineteen ninety one,

(06:44):
and skeletal remains are found in a ditch near a highway. Now,
this is just three weeks after the body of Regina
Ono is discovered. The autopsy established that the remains belonged
to that of a twenty year old young black girl
who at the time was in her early twenties and
she was approximately five feet one inch tall. Now, despite

(07:08):
having some characteristics that stood out, such as she had
strongly protruding front teeth, she went unidentified. The victim is
referred to as Jane Doe number one and presumably was
strangled and just found a short distance from Danielle Britton's body.

(07:29):
So let's talk about this for a second. In six
months time, you have four dead women in one who
was nearly killed, all found in the same general area,
as it relates to the manner and death, all the
same strangulation. So what are the police doing and what

(07:50):
was the public reaction? Like, surely everyone has to be
talking about this in the New Orleans area, right, Well, No,
as a matter of fact, it's not really anything that
anyone at this point is discussing. And this is really
pre Internet. So while in today's world, Facebook would be

(08:12):
absolutely lit up with all of these martyrs taking place,
it seemed that no one was talking about this in
the early nineties, and guess what, a new year didn't
change much. On January fourth of nineteen ninety two, the

(08:33):
body of twenty nine year old Lydia Madison is found
in a ditch under a highway overpass. Lydia also had
several convictions for drug related charges, and like the other women,
strangulation was deemed the cause of death. Then there was
a little bit of a break but on June tewod

(08:55):
of nineteen ninety two, twenty five year old George William's
body was found in the Labranch Wetlands area of Saint
Charles Parish. Now, again the autopes he showed he had
been strangled. Now this would not have matched the killers
mo completely. George was a man, right however, he was

(09:19):
a transgender and without going into too much detail on this,
he looked like a female and had some female features,
so it's likely that the Storyville slayer, whoever it is,
may not have realized this was a man. George also
lived a very high risk lifestyle. He had prior rests
for drugs and robbery, and was employed as an exotic

(09:42):
dancer at in New Orleans strip club, and the killer
did not wait long to strike again a month later.
As a matter of fact, on July twenty fifth of
nineteen ninety two, the body of Noah Filson is found
in the waters of a canal near I fifty five,
and in this case there were a lot of commonalties

(10:04):
to the death of George Williams the prior month. Noah
was also a transgender and also worked at a New
Orleans strip club under the name Brenda Bewitched. Then two
months later, on September twenty first of nineteen ninety two,
the remains of twenty nine year old Regretta Martin are

(10:27):
discovered in the waters of yet another canal near a
highway in the New Orleans area, this time in the
town of Boutet. Regretta was a mother of three who
had previous arrest and again high risk lifestyle with prostitution,
and her autopsy showed her cause of death as a
drug overdose. And incidentally, many of the victims that we've

(10:52):
discussed so far had high levels of drugs in their
system at the time of death. But yet again, any
similarities in the way these victims were killed and in
the manner in which these bodies were dumped. So here
we are nearing the end of nineteen ninety two, and
you have at this point seven people dead and one

(11:16):
nearly killed in the New Orleans area, all living similar lifestyles,
and something at this point absolutely crazy happens. Remember the
first victim that actually survived I told you about at
the beginning, Brenda, Well, she actually runs into her attacker

(11:41):
in a grocery store nearly two years after her attack.
This was on October twenty fourth of nineteen ninety two.
An article came out in the New Orleans paper, and
here's the highlights from that article. It reads, an unidentified man,
believed to be a possible the serial killer of at
least four New Orleans women, was spotted in Algiers recently

(12:05):
by a woman who survived an attack. The young woman
left for dead on July twenty second, nineteen ninety one,
known as Brenda, saw her attacker in a grocery store
parking lot last week. When he saw that she recognized him,
he fled. Police said, can you imagine that? And what

(12:28):
are the chances? It goes on to read. Crime Stoppers
announced rewards of up to five thousand dollars for the
arrest and indictment of the alleged killer. Police said they
are investigating whether the same man may have murdered yet
another woman, Regretta Martin, who was found dead in Saint
Charles Parish. Her decomposed body was found September twenty first

(12:50):
Police said of nineteen ninety two. Decomposition has prevented the
authorities from determining how she died or if she was
a victim of foul play. Assistant Police Superintendent and Twine
Sacks said investigators are not sure if the deaths are related,
but similarities include the ages of the women, their hangouts,

(13:10):
the fact that their bodies were found dumped almost nude,
and that the women were either strangled or suffocated. Police
are circulating a composite sketch of the suspect, who is
described as black, broad shouldered, in his thirties, about five
feet eight inches tall. Police said he has been seen
in an old model brown Chevrolet Nova or blue Buick Regal,

(13:34):
or a green car. All of the victims have been poor,
black women with slim to medium builds in the New
Orleans area, and some have frequented the same bars. Two
of the victims were found to have cocaine in their systems,
and Sacks believes the suspect is targeting young women he
believes to be either prostitutes, drug users, or both. Police

(13:56):
did not provide any evidence to show that the victims
were prostitutes or drug users, however, So that's how that
article read. And at this point you would think, Okay,
the police are on it, right, I mean, I guess
they were. I guess they were doing what they could.
But considering the body count here, to me, it just

(14:17):
didn't seem to have a whole lot of a sense
of urgency that you would think it would have. Yes,
the composite sketches they were being circulated, but this is
still the early nineties. DNA was just starting to be understood,
really in its infancy at this point, and police just
didn't have a ton to go on. So a few

(14:40):
months pass, and then on February twentieth of nineteen ninety three,
the skeletal remains of thirty year old Sheryl Lewis are
discovered yet again in the waters of a canal, this
time off a highway near Hanville, which is on the
outskirts of New Orleans. Now. While when investigating her death,

(15:01):
police learned that she was seen alive on February second
of nineteen ninety three, so just three weeks earlier, getting
into the car of an unidentified white male. Cheryl's autopsy
did not report a cause of death. Her body was
very badly decomposed, it had been in a canal for

(15:23):
nearly a month before she was found, but it was
discovered that she was very drugged up with both cocaine
and meth amphetamine. Then the very next day, on February
twenty first of nineteen ninety three, the body of forty
two year old Delores Matt was found in the waters

(15:45):
off of a canal near a highway not far from
where Cheryl Lewis was murdered. She had been strangled, and
although she had no prior history of drugs, a large
amount of cocaine was found in her system. Her body
had only been in the water for twelve hours when
she was found. And that's an important movement in this case,

(16:09):
if you will. This tells me that this serial killer,
by this point, he's doing what all serial killers do.
He's getting cocky, he's getting very arrogant. Think of the
arrogance it takes when just twenty four hours prior twelve hours.
In fact, after an investigation is started into a body

(16:30):
found in a neighboring canal is taking place, you dump
another body close by. Guaranteed that serial killer knew that
body had been found just twenty four hours before. It
was almost like he was laughing at the police. By
this time, this guy is begging for attention. So let's

(16:52):
jump to February fourth of nineteen ninety four too. Off
duty Saint Charles Perry deputies they stumble upon a guy
on the same stretch of road where Sheryl Lewis remains
had been discovered. It was late at night, it was
dark in the car, which was a cab, just seemed suspicious.

(17:17):
So the two off duty policemen they want to get
a closer look see what's going on, and they get
out of their vehicle. They look inside of that cab
and they see a man sitting in the driver's seat masturbating.
So the deputies they get the driver, who was partially undressed,
to exit the vehicle. The driver he produces a valid

(17:40):
Louisiana driver's license that identified him as Russell Elwood, and
Elwood tells the deputies that he was there to change
the oil and breaks in his car, and they said, well,
can we search your car? He says, sure. The deputies
search the car. However they don't find motor oil, don't
find oil changing supplies, they don't find oil filters, all

(18:04):
the things you need. And then he also said he
was working on his brakes and don't find brake pads,
none of that in his vehicle. Obviously he was lying.
He also didn't contain any flashlight or anything like that
that he would have had to have to make those
necessary repairs to his vehicle in an unlit area at night.

(18:26):
So if you don't have a flashlight, you're not going
to park in the pitch dark to do this work.
That much is obvious. Now I bring up this guy
because this situation right here that I just mentioned is
going to play a big part in the story later on.
So for now, I want you to put this particular

(18:49):
discovery in your back pocket, just kind of in the
back of your mind somewhere, And we're going to get
a February fifth of nineteen ninety four, and we're going
to get a Saint John the Baptist parish, another parish
just on the outskirts of New Orleans, and the skeletal
remains that were found and later determined to be that

(19:11):
of a twenty five to thirty five year old female
who was determined to have been strangled to death. Unfortunately,
due to decomposition, she was never identified and she is
listed as Jane Doe number two. Then, on February tenth,
just five days later of nineteen ninety four, more skeletal

(19:34):
remains are found, this time determined to be a fifteen
year old girl. Again, However, due to extreme decomposition, she
remained unidentified and is listed as Jane Doe number three.
Two days later, on February thirteenth of nineteen ninety four,
the body of a twenty five year old by the

(19:57):
name of Stephanie Murray is found in a SMA i'm
all pond near the Bonna Carey Spillway in New Orleans.
Then two days after that, on February fifteenth of nineteen
ninety four, the skeletal remains of another young girl are found.
Her identity was never ascertained and she became known as

(20:20):
Jane Doe number four. So in February of nineteen ninety
four alone, four more dead women are found, and to
tell you how underreported and little known all of this was.
In February of nineteen ninety four, I was nineteen years old,

(20:43):
very in touch with the news, et cetera, and like
most nineteen year olds at that time, I probably went
to New Orleans with friends to party on Bourbon Street
at least once a month, and knew nothing about any
of this, not one word of it. And also, incidentally,

(21:05):
if you're keeping count, by this time, I have read
you off twelve victims that died and one victim that
barely lived, and no one is talking about it that
I was aware of. But it didn't stop there. On
April second of nineteen ninety four, two sets of skeletal

(21:31):
remains are found in canals on the very same day,
later determined as one set belonging to a young female
and another set belonging to that of a young male. Now,
due to the extreme composition from being left in those canals,
neither could be identified, and they are referred to as

(21:52):
Jane Doe number five in John Doe number one. And
let's talk about that for a second. As these deaths
became more and more frequent, if you notice, the killer
starts putting these victims in canals. Why do you think
that is well, I would submit to you just my

(22:14):
opinion that he's realizing they're struggling to identify these victims
when they find them in canals. He's figured out the
decomposition speeds up when they're in canals, and in a
lot of cases they were finding just bones. So obviously
it's harder to find victims when you dump them in

(22:35):
the middle of nowhere in the swamps of South Louisiana.
But we'll move on. On July third of nineteen ninety four,
the body of thirty two year old Michelle Foster was
found after she was reported missing from New Orleans just
a few days prior. And then on October nineteenth of

(22:57):
nineteen ninety four, the skeletal remains of yet another woman
is found in a wooded area near a highway within
the limits of Bridge City, Louisiana, which is just outside
the New Orleans area. Those remains were later found to
be that of twenty eight year old Stephanie Lewis, who,

(23:19):
unlike the prior victims, had no criminal record at all.
So we're going to move forward a couple of months,
and I'm going to bring you to December ninth of
nineteen ninety four, and I'm gonna mention another name for
you to keep in the back of your mind, and
that is of NOPD officer Victor Gant. Now, on this day,

(23:47):
a woman by the name of Sharon Robinson, who was
Gant's girlfriend, she goes into the NPD and she reports
that Gant beat her. Now remember this, this is a
police officer forth had department. According to the statement, Gant
punched her in the face and broke her nose. Now Gant,

(24:10):
of course, he denies this allegation, and he said he
just pushed her during an argument in that she fell
and hit her nose on a chair. But Gant had
a problem because her children actually witnessed the entire thing
and they cooborated their mother's story in an interview with police.

(24:31):
Even the er doctor who treated miss Robinson said that
this type of break was a direct result of a
beating and not her nose hitting a chair. In early
nineteen ninety five, because Gant was a police officer and NOPD,
he has to go in front of a disciplinary committee
on these accusations. And it's during that time that they

(24:54):
scheduled testimony for later on in the year from several
key witnesses, including Sharon Robinson. In the meantime, on January
twenty second of nineteen ninety five, the body of twenty
nine year old Wanda Ford is found in a swamp
outside of New Orleans near I fifty five. Now, like

(25:18):
nearly all of the murders so far that I've told
you about, she had a lengthy criminal record and a
long history of drug abuse. Then the very next day,
January twenty third of nineteen ninety five, the body of
twenty nine year old Sandra Warner is found in Saint
John the Baptist Parish. Two days later, on January twenty

(25:43):
fifth of nineteen ninety five, the remains of Henry Calvin,
who had gone missing months earlier in New Orleans, is found. Then,
on March twenty fourth of nineteen ninety five, more skeletal
remains found under an overpass in Tangipahoa Parish, which is

(26:03):
about thirty minutes from New Orleans. Those remains are identified
as those of Linda Debetedetto. So the next few months
are quiet until a major break occurs in this case,
on April thirtieth of nineteen ninety five, two local fishermen

(26:29):
find the body of a woman in a swampy area
off I fifty five, just twenty minutes from New Orleans.
When officers arrive on the scene, they discover a footprint
from a woman's training shoe next to the body, and
they see a wad of chewing tobacco nearby. Rigor mortis,

(26:50):
which typically occurs Approximpately twelve hours after death, was still
in its early stages, and that told detectives the victim
had not been in the area long. The lead detective stated,
at the time, we had no trace of who she was.
We later found out that she was Karing Ivister, white female,

(27:13):
thirty years of age, and the cause of death was
asphyxia due to suffocation. You could see in the autopsy report.
They had made notes of some abrasions on her neck
where she had been grabbed by someone and choked. But
get ready for this. Roughly three hours after Ivester's body

(27:35):
was found, detectives were notified another body had been discovered
about a mile south of Ivesters. The body was face
down in a shallow body of water next to an
I fifty five off ramp. The victim, a twenty eight
year old woman was fully dressed, which was kind of

(27:59):
rare in these murder cases that were occurring in New
Orleans at that time. Usually they were nude or partially nude.
But this victim was fully dressed, clad in a uniform
from Harris New Orleans Casino in a hotel, and she
was wearing an ID badge that said her name was

(28:20):
Sharon Robinson. That's right, the same Sharon Robinson that filed
that abuse complaint against her then boyfriend NOPD police officer
Victor Gant in nineteen ninety four. Now, Robinson's cause of
death was listed as a drowning, and police theorized her

(28:44):
killer stood behind her and held her head underwater. And
if you have any thoughts of the killings being coincidental, don't.
Detectives discovered Robinson was wearing woman's training shoes with trail
had the match that footprint I told you about next
to Ivester's body, meaning Robinson was still alive in standing

(29:11):
when Ivester was killed. And incidentally, Ivester and Robinson were
good friends. So at this point, Gant, considering his history
with Robinson, and especially considering she has yet to testify
against him in that NPB hearing couple that with the

(29:32):
fact that he not only personally knew Ivest, but according
to family and friends' statements, had a personal grudge against Syvester.
And well, Victor Gant has a major problem. So to
give you a little more detail regarding these two killings
in the manner in which they were killed. Karen Ivester's

(29:53):
boyfriend he had reported that he last saw Karen on
April twenty ninth at ten o'clock PM, when she was
going to work in a booth. Now, Detective A. Wayne Schaeffer,
when he was asked about this, he stated, the boyfriend,
nor anyone else investigating the case knew what kind of
booth she was talking about, specifically, only that she told

(30:16):
her boyfriend, I can make fifty dollars if I work
the booth. Now. Karen's body was also found nude in
that swampy canal, and an autopsy showed, as I told
you that the cause of death was suffocation due to
asphixia strangulation. Notes of some of the abrasions around her

(30:36):
neck indicated that she was grabbed and choked, And as
I mentioned that what of chewing tobacco? And I keep
bringing that up for a reason. It was found near
her body. Now, in regards to Sharon Robinson and her
autopsy listed drowning as her death, and of course police
they question Gant about this and they request his DNA

(31:00):
and the hope was that chewing tobacco still had the
DNA on it and they can match that to Gan.
That would place him at the actual scene where the
bodies were found and subsequently make the case just about bulletproof.
But again, this is nineteen ninety five. DNA is not

(31:25):
what it is today. In the processing of DNA, definitely
not what it is today, even working hours on end
every single day, it could take many months to get
a full profile and then match that to Gan. So
on May one of nineteen ninety five, after some twenty

(31:48):
two bodies are found and one nearly killed woman are discovered,
the NOPD finally forms a task force to find and
bring to justice what will become known as the Storyville Slayer.

(32:10):
But the Storyville Slayer ain't done yet. Just six days
after that task force is formed, on May sixth of
nineteen ninety five, the body of thirty nine year old
Sandra Williams is found on a boulevard in New Orleans,

(32:31):
cause of death strangulation. So they are still continuing to
stack up. And if you think this story is unbelievable already,
you ain't heard nothing yet. Next week we wrap it up,
so look for that. Thank you so much for lestening

(32:55):
and supporting. If you enjoy the podcast, please write it
wherever you listen and check out the Patreon page Patreon
dot com slash Bloody Angola Podcast for commercial, free early
release episodes and other benefits. And until next time, I'm
Jim Chapman for Bloody Angola, a podcast one forty two

(33:18):
years and making the complete story of America's bloodiest present.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
Peace a wall Street line, shackle Chaine, who's gourd? It's

(33:51):
calling my name? There is no mercy and this being
a tentery juice says the huge string game Rango three.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
I'm here behind.

Speaker 1 (34:11):
By me to die inside these walls, inside the wild
and when the walks, I'm no, it's ould bloody anglelder,

(34:36):
ohbody angle

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