July 25, 2025 • 12 mins
Season 22 : Family Annihilators Part 2
Manling Williams felt she was pressured into marriage and wanted to be free to have a relationship with someone else. The only problme was that she didn't want a divorce.
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
Somewhere Sinister Podcast :
Somewhere Sinister YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/@SomewhereSinister
Manling Williams felt she was pressured into marriage and wanted to be free to have a relationship with someone else. The only problme was that she didn't want a divorce.
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
Somewhere Sinister Podcast :
Somewhere Sinister YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/@SomewhereSinister
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
When Manling Williams ran from her home screaming for help.
Neighbors came to her aid and called nine one one.
When authorities arrived on the scene, they found Manling's husband
and children inside the home dead, and the distraught woman
claimed she had just come home and found them that way.
It didn't take investigators long to realize that nothing Manling
(00:22):
was telling them was true. This is monsters. Manling Seng
(00:53):
was born in nineteen seventy nine in southern California to
parents of Chinese descent. The specifics her childhood aren't well documented,
but it's known that she was physically abused growing up.
It's been reported that she was the result of an
unwonted pregnancy, and when she was determined to have a
learning disability that compounded her parents resentment of her, they
(01:15):
would openly, verbally and physically abuse her in front of others,
which resulted in social services becoming involved. Of course, the
case didn't seem to go anywhere, and eventually it was closed.
After high school, Manling started working at a local subway restaurant,
where she met a coworker named Neil Williams. Neil was
(01:36):
born on May nineteenth, nineteen eighty and also grew up
in southern California. His family said that he was friendly
and well liked. He liked a wide variety of topics
and could spend hours in thoughtful conversation with people. He
started dating Manling, and Neil told his mother that he
enjoyed the conversations they had. He wasn't long before Manling
(01:59):
was pregnant and their first son, Devin, was born in
July of two thousand. Having a child out of wedlock
only added to the strain on her relationship with her parents.
They kicked her out of the house, and Manling spent
time living with either a friend or with Neil's mother.
Neil and Manling eventually got married at the courthouse, but
(02:20):
ended up having a ceremony at a Taiwanese church. Soon after,
Neil started working in sales and Manling was a server
at a Marie Callender's restaurant. They moved into a condo
and Rowling Heights, just east of Los Angeles. Their second son, Ian,
was born in the fall of two thousand and three,
and to everyone on the outside, they seemed like a
(02:42):
happy family. Of course, southside appearances can be deceiving. Manling
wasn't really happy in the relationship, and she used the
social networking site my Space to reconnect with a man
she had dated in high school named John Gregorie. They
began an affair, with them going away for a weekend together,
(03:02):
but it seemed that John had reservations about being with
a married woman. He told her that she needed to
get a divorce if she wanted to be with him,
but it seemed that Manling wasn't willing to live with
the stigma of divorce. It seems like in the twenty
first century, divorce is not something that's very frowned upon,
but there are still people who believe it's bad enough
(03:23):
to justify an alternative, even if that alternative is murder.
It's believe that Manling started planning the murder in June
of two thousand and seven because she started telling friends
that she was having dreams that Neil smothered their children
and then killed himself. Obviously, her friends were horrified by
such a nightmare, but they surely didn't think that it
(03:44):
was some sort of prophecy. On the morning of August eighth,
two thousand and seven, a man named James Brown. No,
not that James Brown called nine to one one to
report an incident. He said he had been awakened by
a neighbor screen and when he went to help, she
said she had found her husband dead. Deputies from the
(04:05):
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department arrived on the scene, where
they found Neil Williams on the floor of the condo
with multiple stab in slash wounds. In one bedroom, they
found both Devin and Ean dead as well. Authorities placed
Manling in the back of a patrol car, not as
a suspect, but as a witness. Being questioned about what
had happened, Manling explained that she had gone out to
(04:28):
the grocery store and when she arrived back home, she
found her husband dead. The deputy who first interviewed her
noted that Manling was wearing boxer shorts, a T shirt,
and no shoes, something that they thought was odd if
the woman had just gone out to the store. It's
also non noted anywhere if groceries were found on the scene.
Her neighbors also reported that they hadn't seen her leave
(04:51):
immediately before finding the bodies. She later told a detective
that she had gone out to a gas station, where
she got gas, a pack of sins, cigarettes, and a
red Bull. There's another account where she supposedly told an
investigator that she and Neil got into a fight and
she went out for an all night drive. The medical
examiner determined that Neil had suffered ninety seven stab and
(05:15):
slash wounds. His hands were mangled from defending himself from
the attack. The tips of two of his fingers had
been severed. One of the stab wounds went through his heart,
which was what killed him. Both boys had been smothered.
Investigators did not believe Manling, and when they found Neil's
blood on her pack of cigarettes, they arrested her on
(05:37):
suspicion of murder. Her stories pretty quickly fell apart, and
she confessed to killing her family. She said that evening,
the family ordered pizza and watch television. When everyone else
was asleep, Mantling snuck into her son's room and first
smothered three year old Ian with a pillow. She then
climbed onto the top bunk and smothered seven year old
(05:58):
Devin the same way. She did not immediately attack her husband,
though computer records showed that she then got online and
looked at what is reported as her boyfriend's MySpace page.
It's possible that they were referring to John Gregory, but
it was also later revealed that Manly had another affair
with a coworker not long before the murderers. She had
(06:21):
told people she was going to Hawaii with a friend,
but it turned out that she went with the coworker,
and after the murders, Neil's mother found an undeveloped role
of film in the condo, which ended up being pictures
of the two during that trip. After checking the my
Space page, Manlin contacted some friends and they went out
to eat at TGI Fridays. Her friends would later say
(06:42):
that she seemed perfectly normal while they were together. Meanwhile,
Neil was asleep in the condo with his two sons
dead in their bunk bed. She told investigators during her
confession that Neil was passed out drunk, but a toxicology
report showed that he had a blood alcohol level of
point to, which wouldn't be enough to cause unconsciousness. People
(07:04):
who knew Neil all had good things to say about him.
James Brown, the neighbor who called nine one one, said
that Neil was really fun, like a big kid. Part
of that personality came from a love of things that
regularly get labeled as nerdy Star Wars star Trek Monty Python.
He also collected swords, something that would ultimately come back
(07:26):
to bite him. When Manling returned from hanging out with
her friends, she picked up a very sharp twenty inch
or fifty centimeter katana and began hitting Neil with it
across his chest as he was asleep in bed. Neil
obviously fought back, even getting out of bed and running
down the hallway. Unfortunately, he wouldn't make it far before
(07:47):
he fell to the floor and was fatally stabbed by
his wife. It seemed it was at that point that
Manling believed she would be able to pretend to stumble
across her dead family and get away with the authorities
believing that it had been a random homicide. Obviously, looking
at the case now, it's hard to understand how she
thought she would get away with the murders. But if
(08:09):
criminals were smart, then they never get caught and I'd
have nothing to talk about. I would only have unsolved
cases to cover. Detectives said that Manling was arrogant during
her confession and made jokes about the television show CSI.
Her trial was pretty cut and dry. She had confessed
and was easily found guilty of three counts of murder
(08:30):
with special circumstances that made her eligible for the death penalty.
Her defense argued that the murders were a sudden act
and not pre planned, but that didn't seem to be
the case. She not only killed her husband and children
over a prolonged period, with a point in the middle
where she went out with friends, but she also put
on latex gloves before picking up the sword she used
(08:53):
to kill her husband, showing that she very much did
not snap and kill in a sudden moment of rage.
She also mentioned the exact way that children would be
killed to friends, previously claiming it was a dream, showing
that she had thought about the murders long before she
committed them. Then there was the fact that the medical
examiner testified that it would have taken five to ten
(09:15):
minutes to smother one of the children to death, a
very long time to consider your actions, and she didn't
stop smothering Ian, but went on to spend another five
to ten minutes smothering Devin. The defense also claimed that
her abuse of upbringing caused her to be mentally unstable
and murder her family in a state of extreme emotional
(09:35):
and mental disturbance. They claimed that she was normally extremely
loving to her family, but most people who knew them disagreed.
People testified that she was rarely friendly and that she
screamed and swore at her family all the time. Friends
said she claimed she was unhappy with Neil and that
she felt forced into marriage because she was pregnant. The
(09:56):
jury was unable to come to a unanimous decision on sentence, saying,
so the prosecutor went through the sentencing portion again with
a new jury. Manling Williams was sentenced to death on
January eighth, twenty twelve. During the sentencing, the judge called
Manley's actions quote narcissistic, selfish, and adolescent. Manling is currently
(10:18):
on death row at the Central California Women's Prison, and
it's unlikely that she'll be executed. California rarely executes convicts
who are on death row, but she definitely will never
see the outside of a prison. Her desire to get
rid of her family so she could start over with
someone else was a selfish act, and she will fortunately
never have the freedom she was willing to kill four. Unfortunately,
(10:42):
she was able to carry out the first part of
that plan for freedom, which saw her smother her own
children and butcher her husband, actions that could only be
carried out by a true monster. If you're the victim
of domestic abuse, please reach out to someone for her help.
Please talk to your local shelter. Call the National Domestic
(11:03):
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 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
(11:26):
by simply dialing nine 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 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
(11:48):
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 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
(12:09):
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
personal life, travel and music. It's available on YouTube. If
you'd like to support the show, check out our merchandise
at thisismonsters dot com. A link is in the description.
(12:29):
Thanks again, and be safe.
When Manling Williams ran from her home screaming for help.
Neighbors came to her aid and called nine one one.
When authorities arrived on the scene, they found Manling's husband
and children inside the home dead, and the distraught woman
claimed she had just come home and found them that way.
It didn't take investigators long to realize that nothing Manling
(00:22):
was telling them was true. This is monsters. Manling Seng
(00:53):
was born in nineteen seventy nine in southern California to
parents of Chinese descent. The specifics her childhood aren't well documented,
but it's known that she was physically abused growing up.
It's been reported that she was the result of an
unwonted pregnancy, and when she was determined to have a
learning disability that compounded her parents resentment of her, they
(01:15):
would openly, verbally and physically abuse her in front of others,
which resulted in social services becoming involved. Of course, the
case didn't seem to go anywhere, and eventually it was closed.
After high school, Manling started working at a local subway restaurant,
where she met a coworker named Neil Williams. Neil was
(01:36):
born on May nineteenth, nineteen eighty and also grew up
in southern California. His family said that he was friendly
and well liked. He liked a wide variety of topics
and could spend hours in thoughtful conversation with people. He
started dating Manling, and Neil told his mother that he
enjoyed the conversations they had. He wasn't long before Manling
(01:59):
was pregnant and their first son, Devin, was born in
July of two thousand. Having a child out of wedlock
only added to the strain on her relationship with her parents.
They kicked her out of the house, and Manling spent
time living with either a friend or with Neil's mother.
Neil and Manling eventually got married at the courthouse, but
(02:20):
ended up having a ceremony at a Taiwanese church. Soon after,
Neil started working in sales and Manling was a server
at a Marie Callender's restaurant. They moved into a condo
and Rowling Heights, just east of Los Angeles. Their second son, Ian,
was born in the fall of two thousand and three,
and to everyone on the outside, they seemed like a
(02:42):
happy family. Of course, southside appearances can be deceiving. Manling
wasn't really happy in the relationship, and she used the
social networking site my Space to reconnect with a man
she had dated in high school named John Gregorie. They
began an affair, with them going away for a weekend together,
(03:02):
but it seemed that John had reservations about being with
a married woman. He told her that she needed to
get a divorce if she wanted to be with him,
but it seemed that Manling wasn't willing to live with
the stigma of divorce. It seems like in the twenty
first century, divorce is not something that's very frowned upon,
but there are still people who believe it's bad enough
(03:23):
to justify an alternative, even if that alternative is murder.
It's believe that Manling started planning the murder in June
of two thousand and seven because she started telling friends
that she was having dreams that Neil smothered their children
and then killed himself. Obviously, her friends were horrified by
such a nightmare, but they surely didn't think that it
(03:44):
was some sort of prophecy. On the morning of August eighth,
two thousand and seven, a man named James Brown. No,
not that James Brown called nine to one one to
report an incident. He said he had been awakened by
a neighbor screen and when he went to help, she
said she had found her husband dead. Deputies from the
(04:05):
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department arrived on the scene, where
they found Neil Williams on the floor of the condo
with multiple stab in slash wounds. In one bedroom, they
found both Devin and Ean dead as well. Authorities placed
Manling in the back of a patrol car, not as
a suspect, but as a witness. Being questioned about what
had happened, Manling explained that she had gone out to
(04:28):
the grocery store and when she arrived back home, she
found her husband dead. The deputy who first interviewed her
noted that Manling was wearing boxer shorts, a T shirt,
and no shoes, something that they thought was odd if
the woman had just gone out to the store. It's
also non noted anywhere if groceries were found on the scene.
Her neighbors also reported that they hadn't seen her leave
(04:51):
immediately before finding the bodies. She later told a detective
that she had gone out to a gas station, where
she got gas, a pack of sins, cigarettes, and a
red Bull. There's another account where she supposedly told an
investigator that she and Neil got into a fight and
she went out for an all night drive. The medical
examiner determined that Neil had suffered ninety seven stab and
(05:15):
slash wounds. His hands were mangled from defending himself from
the attack. The tips of two of his fingers had
been severed. One of the stab wounds went through his heart,
which was what killed him. Both boys had been smothered.
Investigators did not believe Manling, and when they found Neil's
blood on her pack of cigarettes, they arrested her on
(05:37):
suspicion of murder. Her stories pretty quickly fell apart, and
she confessed to killing her family. She said that evening,
the family ordered pizza and watch television. When everyone else
was asleep, Mantling snuck into her son's room and first
smothered three year old Ian with a pillow. She then
climbed onto the top bunk and smothered seven year old
(05:58):
Devin the same way. She did not immediately attack her husband,
though computer records showed that she then got online and
looked at what is reported as her boyfriend's MySpace page.
It's possible that they were referring to John Gregory, but
it was also later revealed that Manly had another affair
with a coworker not long before the murderers. She had
(06:21):
told people she was going to Hawaii with a friend,
but it turned out that she went with the coworker,
and after the murders, Neil's mother found an undeveloped role
of film in the condo, which ended up being pictures
of the two during that trip. After checking the my
Space page, Manlin contacted some friends and they went out
to eat at TGI Fridays. Her friends would later say
(06:42):
that she seemed perfectly normal while they were together. Meanwhile,
Neil was asleep in the condo with his two sons
dead in their bunk bed. She told investigators during her
confession that Neil was passed out drunk, but a toxicology
report showed that he had a blood alcohol level of
point to, which wouldn't be enough to cause unconsciousness. People
(07:04):
who knew Neil all had good things to say about him.
James Brown, the neighbor who called nine one one, said
that Neil was really fun, like a big kid. Part
of that personality came from a love of things that
regularly get labeled as nerdy Star Wars star Trek Monty Python.
He also collected swords, something that would ultimately come back
(07:26):
to bite him. When Manling returned from hanging out with
her friends, she picked up a very sharp twenty inch
or fifty centimeter katana and began hitting Neil with it
across his chest as he was asleep in bed. Neil
obviously fought back, even getting out of bed and running
down the hallway. Unfortunately, he wouldn't make it far before
(07:47):
he fell to the floor and was fatally stabbed by
his wife. It seemed it was at that point that
Manling believed she would be able to pretend to stumble
across her dead family and get away with the authorities
believing that it had been a random homicide. Obviously, looking
at the case now, it's hard to understand how she
thought she would get away with the murders. But if
(08:09):
criminals were smart, then they never get caught and I'd
have nothing to talk about. I would only have unsolved
cases to cover. Detectives said that Manling was arrogant during
her confession and made jokes about the television show CSI.
Her trial was pretty cut and dry. She had confessed
and was easily found guilty of three counts of murder
(08:30):
with special circumstances that made her eligible for the death penalty.
Her defense argued that the murders were a sudden act
and not pre planned, but that didn't seem to be
the case. She not only killed her husband and children
over a prolonged period, with a point in the middle
where she went out with friends, but she also put
on latex gloves before picking up the sword she used
(08:53):
to kill her husband, showing that she very much did
not snap and kill in a sudden moment of rage.
She also mentioned the exact way that children would be
killed to friends, previously claiming it was a dream, showing
that she had thought about the murders long before she
committed them. Then there was the fact that the medical
examiner testified that it would have taken five to ten
(09:15):
minutes to smother one of the children to death, a
very long time to consider your actions, and she didn't
stop smothering Ian, but went on to spend another five
to ten minutes smothering Devin. The defense also claimed that
her abuse of upbringing caused her to be mentally unstable
and murder her family in a state of extreme emotional
(09:35):
and mental disturbance. They claimed that she was normally extremely
loving to her family, but most people who knew them disagreed.
People testified that she was rarely friendly and that she
screamed and swore at her family all the time. Friends
said she claimed she was unhappy with Neil and that
she felt forced into marriage because she was pregnant. The
(09:56):
jury was unable to come to a unanimous decision on sentence, saying,
so the prosecutor went through the sentencing portion again with
a new jury. Manling Williams was sentenced to death on
January eighth, twenty twelve. During the sentencing, the judge called
Manley's actions quote narcissistic, selfish, and adolescent. Manling is currently
(10:18):
on death row at the Central California Women's Prison, and
it's unlikely that she'll be executed. California rarely executes convicts
who are on death row, but she definitely will never
see the outside of a prison. Her desire to get
rid of her family so she could start over with
someone else was a selfish act, and she will fortunately
never have the freedom she was willing to kill four. Unfortunately,
(10:42):
she was able to carry out the first part of
that plan for freedom, which saw her smother her own
children and butcher her husband, actions that could only be
carried out by a true monster. If you're the victim
of domestic abuse, please reach out to someone for her help.
Please talk to your local shelter. Call the National Domestic
(11:03):
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 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
(11:26):
by simply dialing nine 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 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
(11:48):
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 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
(12:09):
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
personal life, travel and music. It's available on YouTube. If
you'd like to support the show, check out our merchandise
at thisismonsters dot com. A link is in the description.
(12:29):
Thanks again, and be safe.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.