October 19, 2025 • 27 mins
Season 23 : No Theme
Brian Nichols was being tried a sexcond time for sexual assault when he attacked a gaurd and went on a killing spree. He claimed that he was seeking justice for racial inequality in the justice system, but it turned out he was just a selfish monster.
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Brian Nichols was being tried a sexcond time for sexual assault when he attacked a gaurd and went on a killing spree. He claimed that he was seeking justice for racial inequality in the justice system, but it turned out he was just a selfish monster.
Sinister Podcast : https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sinister--5428204
Sinister YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/@SomewhereSinister
Or search for "Somewhere Sinister" where ever you listen to podcasts.
Our Regular Merch Hosted by FourthWall! : https://thisismonsters.com/
GTFOH Doormats : https://this-is-monsters.printify.me/
Socials:
LinkTree : https://linktr.ee/thisismonsters
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/thisis_monsters/
Threads : https://www.threads.net/@thisis_monsters
My other shows:
This is Monsters YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/@thisisMONSTERS
Vlog : https://www.youtube.com/@jileswithaj
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Most of the time, once a criminal gets to court,
they're not able to hurt anyone else for the time being.
Courthouses have pretty tight security, and even many law enforcement
officers aren't allowed to have their weapons on them inside
the building. If the defendant is being tried for a
violent crime, they usually have a police escort, and depending
on the type of hearing their attending, they may even
(00:21):
still be in handcuffs or even in shackles. Still, a
person can commit violence once inside the courthouse if they
really want to. That was the case with Brian Nichols,
who was facing a second trial for sexual assault after
his first trial ended in a hung jury. Despite the
evidence against him being strong, he claimed that he was
(00:42):
innocent and that the system was set up against him.
He believed it was his duty to fight back. This
is monsters. Brian Jean Nichols was born on December tenth,
(01:19):
nineteen seventy one, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Jean and CLARITHA Nichols.
He had one older brother named Mark. The brothers attended
an all boys private Catholic school called Cardinal Gibbons School.
Despite being raised in a Baptist family, he said to
have had a pretty standard childhood, and though he started
out pretty shy in high school, he began lifting weights
(01:41):
and building more self confidence. After graduating, he attended Cuttstown
University of Pennsylvania, where he played football as a walk on.
Other players said that he was a good athlete, but
he had a knack for getting into trouble. Records show
that Brian was arrested at least three times while in Cuttstown.
(02:01):
In nineteen ninety, he was charged with terroristic threats, simple assault,
disorderly conduct, and harassment after an incident in the university
dining hall. He made a deal to plead guilty to
two lesser charges. He was arrested two more times in
nineteen ninety one for criminal trespass, misdemeanor, criminal mischief, and
(02:22):
disorderly conduct, but the charges were later dropped. After three semesters,
Brian dropped out of Cuttstown University and enrolled at Newberry
College in South Carolina, where he also played football. During
that time, he had a child in nineteen ninety two
with a woman named Stephanie J but was not interested
in being a father. It's not clear where the mother
(02:44):
and child lived, but Brian actively avoided them after the
baby was born, he got into more trouble while at
Newbury College and was caught breaking into a dorm room
to steal audio equipment. He was arrested and charged with
first degree burglary. Because of that, he was kicked off
of the football team and eventually left the school. It's
(03:04):
not clear how the burglary charge was resolved. In nineteen
ninety five, he moved to Atlanta and soon after was
arrested with a small amount of marijuana. He received three
years of probation in Atlanta, he worked as a Eunix
systems engineer at Hewlett Packard for eight years before taking
a job for Ups as a computer engineer. Brian's older brother,
(03:28):
Mark said that Brian was making a six figure income
at the time. He regularly attended church with his longtime girlfriend,
who is also said to have had a decent income.
They dated for about eight years before breaking up in
April of two thousand and four, but they got back
together that summer. When the girlfriend found out that Brian
(03:48):
had gotten another woman pregnant, she broke up with him
for good. It seemed as though Brian may have accepted
the breakup at first, but when he found out that
she had started dating a minister from their church. She
became jealous and angry. Two separate times in August, he
confronted the minister outside of his ex's apartment. Then, on
August nineteenth, Brian forced his way into her apartment, threatened
(04:12):
her with a gun, and sexually assaulted her. As soon
as he left, the victim called the police and reported
the assault. He was arrested and charged with rape, aggravated
assault with intent to rape, aggravated sodomy, burglary, false imprisonment,
and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.
(04:32):
He was held without bail due to the severity of
the attack and the violence involved. He had also threatened
the victim with retaliation if she reported him to the authorities.
After Brian testified that the sex had been consensual, the
trial ended in a hung jury, but the prosecutor filed
to retry the case. When Brian heard that, he stated
(04:54):
in the courthouse quote, I'm not going to go lying down.
The courthouse nightmare started on March eleventh, two thousand and five.
Brian arrived at the courthouse at around eight thirty am
on a transport bus and was placed into a basement
detention area. Soon after, Sheriff's Deputy Cynthia Hall escorted him
(05:15):
to a holding cell on the eighth floor of the
Fulton County Justice Tower. It was reported that on the
morning of the attack, Deputy Hall was urged three times
to get another deputy to go with her upstairs to
the holding cell, where Brian was going to change from
jail issued clothing into a suit. Hall reportedly responded, quote, no,
(05:35):
I got him. She had been the one assigned to
him over the course of both of his trials, so
it said that she seemed to trust him by then.
She didn't require that he wear the customary leg shackles,
even though the day before his attack he had been
previously caught with makeshift weapons. She escorted Brian too the
holding area, where she was to remove his handcuffs so
(05:57):
that he could change for court. Released one cuff and
turned Brian around to unhook the remaining cuff, which was
dangling from his wrist. That's when the man brutally attacked
the deputy, pushing her into another open cell. The video
surveillance camera recorded as he overpowered the deputy, hitting her
so hard in the face her feet left the ground.
(06:20):
He emerged from the cell with her gun belt, which
included her radio and magazines for her service weapon. Brian
retrieved Hall's keys from the floor and locked her in
the cell. The fugitive entered another cell and changed into
his street clothes and was seen about four and a
half minutes later. Leaving the holding cell area. He used
(06:40):
the deputy's keys to open a lock box where law
enforcement is required to store their gun. Upon entering the courthouse,
he armed himself with her Baretta forty caliber semi automatic pistol.
From there, he made his way to Judge Roland Barnes
private chambers, where he disabled phone lines and took several
people hostage. One deputy entered the room and tried to
(07:03):
disarm Brian, but was overpowered. At that point, Brian ordered
him to handcuff the hostages. Before he did that, the
deputy was able to activate an alarm on his radio,
and Brian grabbed the radio and tried to claim it
was a false alarm. The other security officers didn't recognize
his voice, so they knew something was wrong and continued
(07:24):
to pursue the situation. That's when Brian entered the courtroom
from behind the bench. As soon as he saw Judge
Barnes sitting behind the bench presiding over another case, he
shot him in the head, killing him. He wanted to
shoot the Assistant District Attorney, but didn't see him in
the courtroom, so he turned the gun on court reporter
(07:44):
Julianne Brandau and killed her with a gunshot to the head.
Brian then fled down a stair well through an emergency exit.
He encountered Deputy Hoy Teasley on Martin Luther King Junior
Drive and shot him multiple times in the abdomen. Deputy
t Easley would end up dying from his wounds. The
next hour saw the fugitive steel at least five vehicles
(08:06):
in quick succession, starting with a mosed Suv at nine
oh five am. He moved on to hijack a tow truck,
a Mercury Sable, and a Zuzu Trooper, and finally a
green Honda Cord. Most of them were carjackings at gunpoint.
Atlanta Journal Constitution reporter Don O'Brien became another victim when
(08:27):
Brian tried to force him into a trunk and pistol
whipped him for refusing. Brian managed to slip away through
crowds gathered for a college basketball tournament. Investigators later determined
he boarded a Marta subway train to the Lenox area.
The city of Atlanta plunged into darkness while Brian remained
(08:49):
free despite an intense city wide search. He tried to
kidnap a young woman who was walking home from the
gym that evening, but her boyfriend stepped in and she
called nine to one one, which made run away. Then
he attempted to rob a couple at their Lennox Road
apartment around ten forty PM. A brief struggle ensued before
he escaped on foot. He then came upon US Immigration
(09:13):
and Customs Enforcement agent David G. Wilhelm at his Buckhead home,
which was under construction. Brian shot and killed the agent
and took his badge gun and blue Chevy pickup truck.
The fugitive made his way to Duluth, about twenty miles
or thirty two kilometers northeast of Atlanta, and forced himself
into Ashley Smith's apartment in the early hours of the
(09:34):
following morning. He held her at gunpoint and tight her
hands and feet. They talked for hours about religion and family,
which led him to relax and untie her. Law enforcement
agencies had put Atlanta under virtual lockdown during that time.
They announced a reward of sixty five thousand dollars to
anyone who could help catch him. The authorities continued their
(09:58):
search while Brian appeared on America Most Wanted. The manhunt
lasted nearly twenty six hours. Construction workers found Agent Wilhelm's
body at six thirty am on the twelfth. Ashley Smith
called nine one one around nine fifty am, and Brian
finally surrendered to the swat team at eleven twenty four am.
(10:18):
That same day, Ashley Smith's unexpected active courage became the
turning point in the manhunt for Brian. She had run
to the store for cigarettes and was just arriving back
to the parking lot of her apartment complex, the Bridgewater Apartments,
at about two thirty am, when Brian grabbed her. The
twenty six year old managed to keep her composure during
(10:40):
a terrifying seven hour ordeal after the fugitive forced his
way into her Duluth apartment and held her hostage. At first,
Brian tied her up and made her sit in the
bathroom with a towel over her head while he took
a shower. While sitting there, she opened up about her
daughter and late husband story. He had been stabbed to
death in August of two thousand and one, and because
(11:03):
of that, her life had spiraled out of control. She
had been using drugs, and her five year old daughter
had to go live with relatives. She explained that she
was going to school and trying to straighten her life out.
At that time. She told him that she was supposed
to go visit her daughter that day and was afraid
she would never see her again. Brian eventually untied Ashley,
(11:25):
and she continued to try to help him accept his fate.
He asked her for marijuana, but she told him she
only had meth. He asked her to smoke it with him,
but she refused. She would later say that the last
time she had done drugs was a few days before
this incident, and it helped push her to a place
where she really took her recovery seriously. She read passages
(11:47):
from the book The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.
Their conversations deepened as Ashley made pancakes for breakfast and
slowly built a connection with the fugitive. She told him
quote believe God brought you to my door. Her peaceful
presence and spiritual conversations deeply affected Brian, and he eventually
(12:08):
let her leave the apartment to see her daughter. She
called the authorities right after she got free. Police surrounded
the apartment complex, and Brian saw that he had limited options.
He decided to surrender without resistance and walked out with
his hands up while waving a white T shirt. Ashley's
remarkable bravery brought her widespread recognition. She received the reward
(12:32):
for Brian Nichols capture. Her life changed completely after this incident,
as she overcame her previous struggle with methamphetamine addiction. She
went on to write a book called Unlikely Angel, The
Untold Story of the Atlanta hostage Hero. Unfortunately, warnings of
Brian's possible escape attempt had been ignored. A friend of
(12:55):
Brian's told the District Attorney's office that Brian was going
to try to escape. He told them that Brian had
asked for a credit card to be hidden in the
pocket of the suit he was going to wear to court.
Brian's mother had emailed the Fulton County Sheriff's office and
told them she believed her son would try to take
a deputy's weapon. By then, Brian's parents had relocated to Tanzania,
(13:18):
so it's unknown what gave his mother the idea that
he would take a weapon from law enforcement, but she
was ultimately correct. After the second trial had begun, two
shanks were found in Brian's shoe, and despite the judge
ordering the defendant to have additional deputies guard him, that
didn't happen. On the day of the attack, he was
(13:39):
still only guarded by a single deputy. Additionally, though the
area where the deputy was attacked was monitored by surveillance,
nobody was watching the footage. According to hospital sources, Deputy
Cynthia Hall sustained significant brain injury, facial fractures, in a
large laceration to her forehead after the attack, Her condition
(14:01):
was reported as critical, but she survived. Deputy Hall's injuries
were so severe that doctor's a Grady Memorial Hospital initially
believed that she had sustained a gunshot wound to the face.
After his capture, Brian was transferred to the Atlanta Police station,
where he made a full confession to his crimes. The
(14:21):
spree killer claimed his rage focused on what he saw
as an unfair system. Brian wrote letters after his arrest
that stated, quote, no black man has ever made such
a stand as mine, and claimed the shootings carried a message.
He drew parallels between his pretrial detention without bond and
Judge Barnes's decision to let white NHL player Danny heat
(14:44):
Lea stay free despite vehicular homicide charges. Of course, those
two cases had quite obvious differences outside of the defendant's races.
Danny Heaty had lost control of his car and crashed
something that ultimately caught the death of his passenger, but
it was an accident, despite him being responsible by speeding
(15:06):
on a curved road, he didn't intend to cause anyone harm.
That's contrasted by Brian having unlawfully entered someone's home, restrained
her with duct tape, held her at gunpoint, sexually assaulted her,
and threatened to cover her in lighter fluid and set
her on fire to burn to death, and the assault
was backed up by severe injuries to that victim. Those
(15:30):
two situations do not call for equal bail treatment. I
will never say that white and black people are treated
equally in US courts, but this was not an example
of someone being treated harshly because of their race, at
least not in relation to the case they're comparing themselves to.
It's also important to point out that Brian went on
(15:50):
to prove exactly why he was held without bail. He
was a violent man who was a danger to society
if that wasn't proof. While awaiting his new trial, it
was discovered that Brian was plotting a second escape attempt.
The Attorney General was asked to appoint an outside prosecutor
to investigate the defendant's security at the Fulton County Jail.
(16:14):
The independent investigation discovered that Brian allegedly got direct and
indirect help from his girlfriend, a paralegal who worked for
his lawyers, and his own brother. He also received help
from two deputies who were reportedly paid cash for favors.
It was revealed that Brian had asked his long distance girlfriend,
Lisa Meneguzo, to go to a home depot home improvement
(16:37):
store and make a purchase of construction tools, including a
masonry saw, a circular saw, and a jack. Brian is
said to have plotted an escape by sawing his way
out of a cement block wall. The reported plot did
not get past the planning stages, and Brian was moved
into Calb County Jail in October of two thousand and six,
where he was kept in lockdown until his try. Brian
(17:02):
was charged with fifty four counts, including murderer, kidnapping, an
armed robbery. His case ended up becoming Georgia's most expensive,
with prosecution and defense costs reaching over three million dollars.
Brian pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. The
prosecution played an audio tape of the gunshots that killed
(17:23):
Judge Barnes and court reporter Julie Brandau, whose tape recorder
left running preserved her last moments of life. The tape
at first began with what the prosecutor called a moment
of regular court room tranquility of a lawyer's argument to
the court, until the first gunshot rang out, then the
apparent confusion of stunned civil lawyers, and a second shot.
(17:45):
Four seconds later. A woman's voice was heard saying, quote,
don't hurt me, Please, don't hurt me, Please, don't hurt me.
The screams of Barnes's staff attorney were recorded as Julie
fell across her fatally shot through the head. Witnesses also
testified that it was Brian who fired the shots, but
Deputy Cynthia Hall was not able to testify because her
(18:07):
brain injury left her with no memory of the attack. Fortunately,
there was surveillance footage of Brian attacking the deputy. Other
officers testify the deputy Hall had become too comfortable around
the defendant. The prosecution also played the recorded confession that
Brian had given after he was taken into custody on
March twelfth, two thousand and five. Brian tried to claim
(18:30):
that Agent David Wilhelm had pointed a gun at him,
so he only shot him in self defense, but forensics
experts proved that to be a lie. The angle of
the gun shots showed that David was kneeling when he
was shot, and a bullet wound to his thumb showed
that he was not holding a gun. While Agent Wilhelm
was bleeding out on the floor, Brian had gone through
(18:51):
his pockets and stolen his wallet, his badge, and his keys.
He was in no way an act of self defense.
Defense team argued that he suffered from delusional disorder with
peculiar thinking and feelings of grandiosity and persecution. They called
his ex girlfriend to the stand, yes, the one he
(19:11):
had sexually assaulted, where she told the jury that Brian
had called her after their breakup and claimed he was
going to kill himself, though that was likely an act
of manipulation, not mental illness. The defense called psychiatrist Mark
Cunningham to the stand, who said Brian began to show
extreme beliefs in college. He presented college essays that Brian
(19:33):
had written in nineteen ninety two. They showed that Brian
had allegedly believed that there was an organized and deliberate
attempt by whites to eradicate the black race by imprisoning
black men and keeping them from having children. One of
the essays read quote, if violence can be used to
murder defenseless women and children in South Africa and Vietnam,
(19:54):
then surely it can be used to defend the human
rights of dark skinned people all over the world. The
psychiatrist claimed that those were seeds that later grew into
a delusional disorder. He said that Brian related his confinement
in jail to slavery, and that the judge in his case,
Roland Barnes, was the slave master. Of course, the only
(20:15):
reason Brian was in jail was because he committed a crime,
and that crime had a victim who reported it with
injuries that backed up her claim. If he hadn't committed
that crime, he wouldn't be in a cage. He had
spent the previous eight years with a good job, in
a relationship with a woman, and an active member of
his local church, with all the freedom afforded to him
(20:38):
as any other person had. Nobody had treated him like
a slaver persecuted him during that time. It wasn't until
he broke the law and became an obvious danger to
society that his freedom was taken away. That is not
comparable to slavery in any way. To think that you
need to be a completely remorseless individual who refuses to
(20:59):
take her responsibility for your actions. In an effort to
show that the defendant did not have any history of
mental illness, the prosecution called Gaie Abramson Chahy to testify.
She was the former Fulton County prosecutor who tried Brian
Nichols twice in two thousand and five for the sexual
assault of his former girlfriend. She testified that she never
(21:21):
saw any signs of mental illness in the defendant when
she met with him in his attorney At those times,
she said, Brian's attorney never mentioned his client's a legend
mental illness either. When asked to describe the defendant, she said,
quote confident. I hate to use a cliche, but cool, calm,
and collected. Brian's defense attorney cross examined her until she
(21:43):
finally lost her cool during an aggressive series of questions,
she snapped, quote, I'm an attorney, and I know what
your defense is, and it is BS. It seems that
the jurors also saw through the defense's arguments and rejected
claims of mental illness. They spent twelve hours over two
days deliberating before finding Brian guilty on all fifty four
(22:06):
counts on November seventh, two thousand and eight. The jury
was not able to come to a unanimous decision on
the death penalty, which was a requirement for that sentence,
Superior Court Judge James Bodeford had no choice but to
give Brian Nichols multiple life sentences without parole, plus hundreds
more years in prison. During sentencing, the judge said, quote,
(22:29):
if there was any more I could give you, I
would Brian Nichols killed four innocent people, Judge Roland Barnes,
court reporter Julie Brandau, Deputy Hoyt Teasley, and federal agent
David Wilhelm. He also left Deputy Cynthia Hall with permanent
brain damage. A security review of the court was ordered
(22:50):
and found that the court was understaffed and that security
protocols were not sufficient. In twenty sixteen, Brian Nichols gave
an exclusive of interview to WSB TV in Atlanta, where
he continued to claim he was mentally ill on the
day he committed his spree killings.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Why did you shoot Julie Brandall?
Speaker 3 (23:11):
I can't even began to try to take quint or
answer questions about why I did something that was, you know, wrong, and.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Why kill Deputy hoy Teaesley.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
No, we're talking about the mental health as the food
and after either irrationalize or blame why I did something
irrational at a time when it was obviously something eventually
not right. That's the only thing I can do, is
(23:49):
all right.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
So I'm reading from one of our scripts. They heard
Nicol say he was fighting a noble war against slavery.
Is that true? Or were you gaming the detectives.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Well know that that was a part of the delusion.
I've got a lot of things to justify.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Do you think that people see you as a monster.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
It doesn't matter. I'm concerned about how with my family,
how my family feed, concern about how how my children
do you like? Because you know, I can't do anything
about the big, terrible things I've done in the past.
The only thing I could do is try to try
to be a better person going forward.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Do you see yourself on those two days as a monster?
Speaker 3 (24:35):
I see my film as being delusional on that day,
and that yet that that delusional person was. Unfortunately, I'm
a monster by anything.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Would you ask was justice done to Brian Nichols?
Speaker 3 (24:52):
No, it doesn't matter. Things are as they are. If
I could go back and do things differently, of course
I was. I can't play the hand, and I wish
I would do. I have to play the hand in
a hand.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
He claimed that he couldn't play the hand he wished
he was dealt. He could only play the hand that
he had. But what hand did he wish he was dealt?
Like I said, before he had gotten an education, he
had gotten a good job, he had been in a
stable relationship he had been dealt that hand. It seems
that he chose to fold with a winning hand and
(25:28):
drew new cards that made him a monster. If you're
the victim of domestic abuse, please reach out to someone
for help. Please talk to your local shelter. Call the
National Domestic Abuse Hotline at one eight hundred seven nine
nine safe. That's one eight hundred seven nine nine seven
two three three, or you can go to the hotline
dot org to chat with someone online. If you're having
(25:52):
feelings of harming yourself or someone else, or even just
need someone to talk to, please contact your local mental
health facility call nine one one, or call the National
Suicide Prevention Hotline by simply dialing nine to eight eight
in the United States. They're available twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week, and we'll talk to you about
any mental health issue you might be facing. If you're
(26:12):
a member of the LGBTQ plus community and suffering from discrimination, depression,
or are in need of any support, please contact the
LGBT National Hotline at one eight eight eight eight four
three four five six four, or go to LGBT Hotline
dot org. Thanks so much for letting me tell you
this story. If you're a fan of true crime, you
(26:33):
can subscribe to this show so you don't miss an episode.
My other show, Somewhere Sinister is no longer getting new episodes,
but you can check it out if you like interesting
stories from history that aren't necessarily true crime, but true
crime adjacent. It's available anywhere that you listen to podcasts.
You can also check out my personal vlog, Giles with
a Jay, which is sporadically updated with stuff about my
(26:55):
personal life, travel and music. It's available on YouTube. If
you'd like to support the show, check out our merchandise
at this ismonsters dot com. A link is in the description.
Thanks again and be safe.
Most of the time, once a criminal gets to court,
they're not able to hurt anyone else for the time being.
Courthouses have pretty tight security, and even many law enforcement
officers aren't allowed to have their weapons on them inside
the building. If the defendant is being tried for a
violent crime, they usually have a police escort, and depending
on the type of hearing their attending, they may even
(00:21):
still be in handcuffs or even in shackles. Still, a
person can commit violence once inside the courthouse if they
really want to. That was the case with Brian Nichols,
who was facing a second trial for sexual assault after
his first trial ended in a hung jury. Despite the
evidence against him being strong, he claimed that he was
(00:42):
innocent and that the system was set up against him.
He believed it was his duty to fight back. This
is monsters. Brian Jean Nichols was born on December tenth,
(01:19):
nineteen seventy one, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Jean and CLARITHA Nichols.
He had one older brother named Mark. The brothers attended
an all boys private Catholic school called Cardinal Gibbons School.
Despite being raised in a Baptist family, he said to
have had a pretty standard childhood, and though he started
out pretty shy in high school, he began lifting weights
(01:41):
and building more self confidence. After graduating, he attended Cuttstown
University of Pennsylvania, where he played football as a walk on.
Other players said that he was a good athlete, but
he had a knack for getting into trouble. Records show
that Brian was arrested at least three times while in Cuttstown.
(02:01):
In nineteen ninety, he was charged with terroristic threats, simple assault,
disorderly conduct, and harassment after an incident in the university
dining hall. He made a deal to plead guilty to
two lesser charges. He was arrested two more times in
nineteen ninety one for criminal trespass, misdemeanor, criminal mischief, and
(02:22):
disorderly conduct, but the charges were later dropped. After three semesters,
Brian dropped out of Cuttstown University and enrolled at Newberry
College in South Carolina, where he also played football. During
that time, he had a child in nineteen ninety two
with a woman named Stephanie J but was not interested
in being a father. It's not clear where the mother
(02:44):
and child lived, but Brian actively avoided them after the
baby was born, he got into more trouble while at
Newbury College and was caught breaking into a dorm room
to steal audio equipment. He was arrested and charged with
first degree burglary. Because of that, he was kicked off
of the football team and eventually left the school. It's
(03:04):
not clear how the burglary charge was resolved. In nineteen
ninety five, he moved to Atlanta and soon after was
arrested with a small amount of marijuana. He received three
years of probation in Atlanta, he worked as a Eunix
systems engineer at Hewlett Packard for eight years before taking
a job for Ups as a computer engineer. Brian's older brother,
(03:28):
Mark said that Brian was making a six figure income
at the time. He regularly attended church with his longtime girlfriend,
who is also said to have had a decent income.
They dated for about eight years before breaking up in
April of two thousand and four, but they got back
together that summer. When the girlfriend found out that Brian
(03:48):
had gotten another woman pregnant, she broke up with him
for good. It seemed as though Brian may have accepted
the breakup at first, but when he found out that
she had started dating a minister from their church. She
became jealous and angry. Two separate times in August, he
confronted the minister outside of his ex's apartment. Then, on
August nineteenth, Brian forced his way into her apartment, threatened
(04:12):
her with a gun, and sexually assaulted her. As soon
as he left, the victim called the police and reported
the assault. He was arrested and charged with rape, aggravated
assault with intent to rape, aggravated sodomy, burglary, false imprisonment,
and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.
(04:32):
He was held without bail due to the severity of
the attack and the violence involved. He had also threatened
the victim with retaliation if she reported him to the authorities.
After Brian testified that the sex had been consensual, the
trial ended in a hung jury, but the prosecutor filed
to retry the case. When Brian heard that, he stated
(04:54):
in the courthouse quote, I'm not going to go lying down.
The courthouse nightmare started on March eleventh, two thousand and five.
Brian arrived at the courthouse at around eight thirty am
on a transport bus and was placed into a basement
detention area. Soon after, Sheriff's Deputy Cynthia Hall escorted him
(05:15):
to a holding cell on the eighth floor of the
Fulton County Justice Tower. It was reported that on the
morning of the attack, Deputy Hall was urged three times
to get another deputy to go with her upstairs to
the holding cell, where Brian was going to change from
jail issued clothing into a suit. Hall reportedly responded, quote, no,
(05:35):
I got him. She had been the one assigned to
him over the course of both of his trials, so
it said that she seemed to trust him by then.
She didn't require that he wear the customary leg shackles,
even though the day before his attack he had been
previously caught with makeshift weapons. She escorted Brian too the
holding area, where she was to remove his handcuffs so
(05:57):
that he could change for court. Released one cuff and
turned Brian around to unhook the remaining cuff, which was
dangling from his wrist. That's when the man brutally attacked
the deputy, pushing her into another open cell. The video
surveillance camera recorded as he overpowered the deputy, hitting her
so hard in the face her feet left the ground.
(06:20):
He emerged from the cell with her gun belt, which
included her radio and magazines for her service weapon. Brian
retrieved Hall's keys from the floor and locked her in
the cell. The fugitive entered another cell and changed into
his street clothes and was seen about four and a
half minutes later. Leaving the holding cell area. He used
(06:40):
the deputy's keys to open a lock box where law
enforcement is required to store their gun. Upon entering the courthouse,
he armed himself with her Baretta forty caliber semi automatic pistol.
From there, he made his way to Judge Roland Barnes
private chambers, where he disabled phone lines and took several
people hostage. One deputy entered the room and tried to
(07:03):
disarm Brian, but was overpowered. At that point, Brian ordered
him to handcuff the hostages. Before he did that, the
deputy was able to activate an alarm on his radio,
and Brian grabbed the radio and tried to claim it
was a false alarm. The other security officers didn't recognize
his voice, so they knew something was wrong and continued
(07:24):
to pursue the situation. That's when Brian entered the courtroom
from behind the bench. As soon as he saw Judge
Barnes sitting behind the bench presiding over another case, he
shot him in the head, killing him. He wanted to
shoot the Assistant District Attorney, but didn't see him in
the courtroom, so he turned the gun on court reporter
(07:44):
Julianne Brandau and killed her with a gunshot to the head.
Brian then fled down a stair well through an emergency exit.
He encountered Deputy Hoy Teasley on Martin Luther King Junior
Drive and shot him multiple times in the abdomen. Deputy
t Easley would end up dying from his wounds. The
next hour saw the fugitive steel at least five vehicles
(08:06):
in quick succession, starting with a mosed Suv at nine
oh five am. He moved on to hijack a tow truck,
a Mercury Sable, and a Zuzu Trooper, and finally a
green Honda Cord. Most of them were carjackings at gunpoint.
Atlanta Journal Constitution reporter Don O'Brien became another victim when
(08:27):
Brian tried to force him into a trunk and pistol
whipped him for refusing. Brian managed to slip away through
crowds gathered for a college basketball tournament. Investigators later determined
he boarded a Marta subway train to the Lenox area.
The city of Atlanta plunged into darkness while Brian remained
(08:49):
free despite an intense city wide search. He tried to
kidnap a young woman who was walking home from the
gym that evening, but her boyfriend stepped in and she
called nine to one one, which made run away. Then
he attempted to rob a couple at their Lennox Road
apartment around ten forty PM. A brief struggle ensued before
he escaped on foot. He then came upon US Immigration
(09:13):
and Customs Enforcement agent David G. Wilhelm at his Buckhead home,
which was under construction. Brian shot and killed the agent
and took his badge gun and blue Chevy pickup truck.
The fugitive made his way to Duluth, about twenty miles
or thirty two kilometers northeast of Atlanta, and forced himself
into Ashley Smith's apartment in the early hours of the
(09:34):
following morning. He held her at gunpoint and tight her
hands and feet. They talked for hours about religion and family,
which led him to relax and untie her. Law enforcement
agencies had put Atlanta under virtual lockdown during that time.
They announced a reward of sixty five thousand dollars to
anyone who could help catch him. The authorities continued their
(09:58):
search while Brian appeared on America Most Wanted. The manhunt
lasted nearly twenty six hours. Construction workers found Agent Wilhelm's
body at six thirty am on the twelfth. Ashley Smith
called nine one one around nine fifty am, and Brian
finally surrendered to the swat team at eleven twenty four am.
(10:18):
That same day, Ashley Smith's unexpected active courage became the
turning point in the manhunt for Brian. She had run
to the store for cigarettes and was just arriving back
to the parking lot of her apartment complex, the Bridgewater Apartments,
at about two thirty am, when Brian grabbed her. The
twenty six year old managed to keep her composure during
(10:40):
a terrifying seven hour ordeal after the fugitive forced his
way into her Duluth apartment and held her hostage. At first,
Brian tied her up and made her sit in the
bathroom with a towel over her head while he took
a shower. While sitting there, she opened up about her
daughter and late husband story. He had been stabbed to
death in August of two thousand and one, and because
(11:03):
of that, her life had spiraled out of control. She
had been using drugs, and her five year old daughter
had to go live with relatives. She explained that she
was going to school and trying to straighten her life out.
At that time. She told him that she was supposed
to go visit her daughter that day and was afraid
she would never see her again. Brian eventually untied Ashley,
(11:25):
and she continued to try to help him accept his fate.
He asked her for marijuana, but she told him she
only had meth. He asked her to smoke it with him,
but she refused. She would later say that the last
time she had done drugs was a few days before
this incident, and it helped push her to a place
where she really took her recovery seriously. She read passages
(11:47):
from the book The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.
Their conversations deepened as Ashley made pancakes for breakfast and
slowly built a connection with the fugitive. She told him
quote believe God brought you to my door. Her peaceful
presence and spiritual conversations deeply affected Brian, and he eventually
(12:08):
let her leave the apartment to see her daughter. She
called the authorities right after she got free. Police surrounded
the apartment complex, and Brian saw that he had limited options.
He decided to surrender without resistance and walked out with
his hands up while waving a white T shirt. Ashley's
remarkable bravery brought her widespread recognition. She received the reward
(12:32):
for Brian Nichols capture. Her life changed completely after this incident,
as she overcame her previous struggle with methamphetamine addiction. She
went on to write a book called Unlikely Angel, The
Untold Story of the Atlanta hostage Hero. Unfortunately, warnings of
Brian's possible escape attempt had been ignored. A friend of
(12:55):
Brian's told the District Attorney's office that Brian was going
to try to escape. He told them that Brian had
asked for a credit card to be hidden in the
pocket of the suit he was going to wear to court.
Brian's mother had emailed the Fulton County Sheriff's office and
told them she believed her son would try to take
a deputy's weapon. By then, Brian's parents had relocated to Tanzania,
(13:18):
so it's unknown what gave his mother the idea that
he would take a weapon from law enforcement, but she
was ultimately correct. After the second trial had begun, two
shanks were found in Brian's shoe, and despite the judge
ordering the defendant to have additional deputies guard him, that
didn't happen. On the day of the attack, he was
(13:39):
still only guarded by a single deputy. Additionally, though the
area where the deputy was attacked was monitored by surveillance,
nobody was watching the footage. According to hospital sources, Deputy
Cynthia Hall sustained significant brain injury, facial fractures, in a
large laceration to her forehead after the attack, Her condition
(14:01):
was reported as critical, but she survived. Deputy Hall's injuries
were so severe that doctor's a Grady Memorial Hospital initially
believed that she had sustained a gunshot wound to the face.
After his capture, Brian was transferred to the Atlanta Police station,
where he made a full confession to his crimes. The
(14:21):
spree killer claimed his rage focused on what he saw
as an unfair system. Brian wrote letters after his arrest
that stated, quote, no black man has ever made such
a stand as mine, and claimed the shootings carried a message.
He drew parallels between his pretrial detention without bond and
Judge Barnes's decision to let white NHL player Danny heat
(14:44):
Lea stay free despite vehicular homicide charges. Of course, those
two cases had quite obvious differences outside of the defendant's races.
Danny Heaty had lost control of his car and crashed
something that ultimately caught the death of his passenger, but
it was an accident, despite him being responsible by speeding
(15:06):
on a curved road, he didn't intend to cause anyone harm.
That's contrasted by Brian having unlawfully entered someone's home, restrained
her with duct tape, held her at gunpoint, sexually assaulted her,
and threatened to cover her in lighter fluid and set
her on fire to burn to death, and the assault
was backed up by severe injuries to that victim. Those
(15:30):
two situations do not call for equal bail treatment. I
will never say that white and black people are treated
equally in US courts, but this was not an example
of someone being treated harshly because of their race, at
least not in relation to the case they're comparing themselves to.
It's also important to point out that Brian went on
(15:50):
to prove exactly why he was held without bail. He
was a violent man who was a danger to society
if that wasn't proof. While awaiting his new trial, it
was discovered that Brian was plotting a second escape attempt.
The Attorney General was asked to appoint an outside prosecutor
to investigate the defendant's security at the Fulton County Jail.
(16:14):
The independent investigation discovered that Brian allegedly got direct and
indirect help from his girlfriend, a paralegal who worked for
his lawyers, and his own brother. He also received help
from two deputies who were reportedly paid cash for favors.
It was revealed that Brian had asked his long distance girlfriend,
Lisa Meneguzo, to go to a home depot home improvement
(16:37):
store and make a purchase of construction tools, including a
masonry saw, a circular saw, and a jack. Brian is
said to have plotted an escape by sawing his way
out of a cement block wall. The reported plot did
not get past the planning stages, and Brian was moved
into Calb County Jail in October of two thousand and six,
where he was kept in lockdown until his try. Brian
(17:02):
was charged with fifty four counts, including murderer, kidnapping, an
armed robbery. His case ended up becoming Georgia's most expensive,
with prosecution and defense costs reaching over three million dollars.
Brian pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. The
prosecution played an audio tape of the gunshots that killed
(17:23):
Judge Barnes and court reporter Julie Brandau, whose tape recorder
left running preserved her last moments of life. The tape
at first began with what the prosecutor called a moment
of regular court room tranquility of a lawyer's argument to
the court, until the first gunshot rang out, then the
apparent confusion of stunned civil lawyers, and a second shot.
(17:45):
Four seconds later. A woman's voice was heard saying, quote,
don't hurt me, Please, don't hurt me, Please, don't hurt me.
The screams of Barnes's staff attorney were recorded as Julie
fell across her fatally shot through the head. Witnesses also
testified that it was Brian who fired the shots, but
Deputy Cynthia Hall was not able to testify because her
(18:07):
brain injury left her with no memory of the attack. Fortunately,
there was surveillance footage of Brian attacking the deputy. Other
officers testify the deputy Hall had become too comfortable around
the defendant. The prosecution also played the recorded confession that
Brian had given after he was taken into custody on
March twelfth, two thousand and five. Brian tried to claim
(18:30):
that Agent David Wilhelm had pointed a gun at him,
so he only shot him in self defense, but forensics
experts proved that to be a lie. The angle of
the gun shots showed that David was kneeling when he
was shot, and a bullet wound to his thumb showed
that he was not holding a gun. While Agent Wilhelm
was bleeding out on the floor, Brian had gone through
(18:51):
his pockets and stolen his wallet, his badge, and his keys.
He was in no way an act of self defense.
Defense team argued that he suffered from delusional disorder with
peculiar thinking and feelings of grandiosity and persecution. They called
his ex girlfriend to the stand, yes, the one he
(19:11):
had sexually assaulted, where she told the jury that Brian
had called her after their breakup and claimed he was
going to kill himself, though that was likely an act
of manipulation, not mental illness. The defense called psychiatrist Mark
Cunningham to the stand, who said Brian began to show
extreme beliefs in college. He presented college essays that Brian
(19:33):
had written in nineteen ninety two. They showed that Brian
had allegedly believed that there was an organized and deliberate
attempt by whites to eradicate the black race by imprisoning
black men and keeping them from having children. One of
the essays read quote, if violence can be used to
murder defenseless women and children in South Africa and Vietnam,
(19:54):
then surely it can be used to defend the human
rights of dark skinned people all over the world. The
psychiatrist claimed that those were seeds that later grew into
a delusional disorder. He said that Brian related his confinement
in jail to slavery, and that the judge in his case,
Roland Barnes, was the slave master. Of course, the only
(20:15):
reason Brian was in jail was because he committed a crime,
and that crime had a victim who reported it with
injuries that backed up her claim. If he hadn't committed
that crime, he wouldn't be in a cage. He had
spent the previous eight years with a good job, in
a relationship with a woman, and an active member of
his local church, with all the freedom afforded to him
(20:38):
as any other person had. Nobody had treated him like
a slaver persecuted him during that time. It wasn't until
he broke the law and became an obvious danger to
society that his freedom was taken away. That is not
comparable to slavery in any way. To think that you
need to be a completely remorseless individual who refuses to
(20:59):
take her responsibility for your actions. In an effort to
show that the defendant did not have any history of
mental illness, the prosecution called Gaie Abramson Chahy to testify.
She was the former Fulton County prosecutor who tried Brian
Nichols twice in two thousand and five for the sexual
assault of his former girlfriend. She testified that she never
(21:21):
saw any signs of mental illness in the defendant when
she met with him in his attorney At those times,
she said, Brian's attorney never mentioned his client's a legend
mental illness either. When asked to describe the defendant, she said,
quote confident. I hate to use a cliche, but cool, calm,
and collected. Brian's defense attorney cross examined her until she
(21:43):
finally lost her cool during an aggressive series of questions,
she snapped, quote, I'm an attorney, and I know what
your defense is, and it is BS. It seems that
the jurors also saw through the defense's arguments and rejected
claims of mental illness. They spent twelve hours over two
days deliberating before finding Brian guilty on all fifty four
(22:06):
counts on November seventh, two thousand and eight. The jury
was not able to come to a unanimous decision on
the death penalty, which was a requirement for that sentence,
Superior Court Judge James Bodeford had no choice but to
give Brian Nichols multiple life sentences without parole, plus hundreds
more years in prison. During sentencing, the judge said, quote,
(22:29):
if there was any more I could give you, I
would Brian Nichols killed four innocent people, Judge Roland Barnes,
court reporter Julie Brandau, Deputy Hoyt Teasley, and federal agent
David Wilhelm. He also left Deputy Cynthia Hall with permanent
brain damage. A security review of the court was ordered
(22:50):
and found that the court was understaffed and that security
protocols were not sufficient. In twenty sixteen, Brian Nichols gave
an exclusive of interview to WSB TV in Atlanta, where
he continued to claim he was mentally ill on the
day he committed his spree killings.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Why did you shoot Julie Brandall?
Speaker 3 (23:11):
I can't even began to try to take quint or
answer questions about why I did something that was, you know, wrong, and.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Why kill Deputy hoy Teaesley.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
No, we're talking about the mental health as the food
and after either irrationalize or blame why I did something
irrational at a time when it was obviously something eventually
not right. That's the only thing I can do, is
(23:49):
all right.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
So I'm reading from one of our scripts. They heard
Nicol say he was fighting a noble war against slavery.
Is that true? Or were you gaming the detectives.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Well know that that was a part of the delusion.
I've got a lot of things to justify.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Do you think that people see you as a monster.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
It doesn't matter. I'm concerned about how with my family,
how my family feed, concern about how how my children
do you like? Because you know, I can't do anything
about the big, terrible things I've done in the past.
The only thing I could do is try to try
to be a better person going forward.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Do you see yourself on those two days as a monster?
Speaker 3 (24:35):
I see my film as being delusional on that day,
and that yet that that delusional person was. Unfortunately, I'm
a monster by anything.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Would you ask was justice done to Brian Nichols?
Speaker 3 (24:52):
No, it doesn't matter. Things are as they are. If
I could go back and do things differently, of course
I was. I can't play the hand, and I wish
I would do. I have to play the hand in
a hand.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
He claimed that he couldn't play the hand he wished
he was dealt. He could only play the hand that
he had. But what hand did he wish he was dealt?
Like I said, before he had gotten an education, he
had gotten a good job, he had been in a
stable relationship he had been dealt that hand. It seems
that he chose to fold with a winning hand and
(25:28):
drew new cards that made him a monster. If you're
the victim of domestic abuse, please reach out to someone
for help. Please talk to your local shelter. Call the
National Domestic Abuse Hotline at one eight hundred seven nine
nine safe. That's one eight hundred seven nine nine seven
two three three, or you can go to the hotline
dot org to chat with someone online. If you're having
(25:52):
feelings of harming yourself or someone else, or even just
need someone to talk to, please contact your local mental
health facility call nine one one, or call the National
Suicide Prevention Hotline by simply dialing nine to eight eight
in the United States. They're available twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week, and we'll talk to you about
any mental health issue you might be facing. If you're
(26:12):
a member of the LGBTQ plus community and suffering from discrimination, depression,
or are in need of any support, please contact the
LGBT National Hotline at one eight eight eight eight four
three four five six four, or go to LGBT Hotline
dot org. Thanks so much for letting me tell you
this story. If you're a fan of true crime, you
(26:33):
can subscribe to this show so you don't miss an episode.
My other show, Somewhere Sinister is no longer getting new episodes,
but you can check it out if you like interesting
stories from history that aren't necessarily true crime, but true
crime adjacent. It's available anywhere that you listen to podcasts.
You can also check out my personal vlog, Giles with
a Jay, which is sporadically updated with stuff about my
(26:55):
personal life, travel and music. It's available on YouTube. If
you'd like to support the show, check out our merchandise
at this ismonsters dot com. A link is in the description.
Thanks again and be safe.
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