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Early Sunday morning on August 7th, 1966, near the small
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town of Everman, Texas, just a few miles south of
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Fort Worth, a farmer spotted a car abandoned on the
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side of the road. The trunk had been left ajar.
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When he opened it, he saw the dead bodies of
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two young boys. This tragic discovery marked the beginning of
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a series of crimes and trials that would span nearly
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three decades and ultimately transform Texas law. On Monday, October 26, 1993,
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one of the most famous trials in the history of
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Texas would bring a defiant killer face to face with
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a team of small town prosecutors. It would be the
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biggest case of their lives.
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If all that was standing between this violent and dangerous
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man and society was my group of prosecutors and investigators,
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we had a big responsibility to make sure we got
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it done right.
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Almost three decades earlier, in 1966, the Everman, Texas Sheriff's
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Department responded to the scene of a terrible crime. A
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local farmer had discovered the bodies of two young boys
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in the trunk of an abandoned car. The local sheriff
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was baffled by the execution-style murders In this episode, some
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of the names have been changed to protect the identity
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of the victims and their families. The farmer who discovered
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the bodies said he knew the youngsters. Both boys, Richard
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Bond and his cousin Matthew Duncan, grew up in Everman.
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Authorities learned that the last time their parents saw them
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was Saturday night, heading off to meet Richard's girlfriend, 17-year-old
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Laura Smith. Investigators feared she was kidnapped or worse. News
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of the shooting traveled quickly. That same morning, 100 miles
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away in the small town of Rosebud, a distraught young
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man surrendered to the local sheriff. His name was Roy
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Dale Green, and he said he had to make a confession.
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Green told Rosebud Sheriff Brady Pamplin that all three youngsters
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had been kidnapped and tortured by a local bully named
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Kenneth McDuff. It was not the first time Sheriff Pamplin
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had heard McDuff's name. He had previously locked him up
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for burglary, robbery, and assault at the age of 17. Today,
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25 years later, Sheriff Brady Pamplin's son, Larry Pamplin, is
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the retired sheriff of Falls County. A young deputy at
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the time, he remembers the day Roy Dale Green walked
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into his father's office.
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My dad had been in law enforcement all of his life,
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and he said that Kenneth McDuff was probably the most vicious,
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violent individual that he had ever come into contact with.
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Green told the sheriff he and McDuff were cruising the
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small town of Everman, when they saw two boys and
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a girl standing by a car near a baseball field.
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McDuff told Green that he wanted to find a girl
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he could rape and kill. And he told Green if
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he told anyone, he'd kill him too. Green said when
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they approached the baseball field, McDuff got out of the
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car with a gun in his hand and walked up
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to the three teens. Green waited by the car. He
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said he didn't believe Macduff really planned to kill anyone.
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He thought he was just fooling around, trying to scare
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them a bit. But it was clear to the frightened
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teams that Macduff wasn't kidding. He held them at gunpoint
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and took their wallets.
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Come on back here.
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As Green watched, he ordered the three youngsters to get
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into the trunk of their car.
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Come on, man.
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Get in there.
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Hurry up.
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You're next.
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Come on. Come on. Here we go.
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Here we go.
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When McDuff told Green he'd have to kill the teens
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because they had gotten a good look at his face,
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Green said he still thought McDuff was joking.
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Yeah, we're going to kill him.
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Take the car, drop, follow me.
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All right.
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All right, where are we going?
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And he just went along with the game.
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All right.
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All right. Macduff drove the car with the three teens
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in the trunk and Roydale Green followed in Macduff's car.
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They didn't stop until they reached a secluded area on
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the far side of town. Finally, on a dark back road,
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Macduff pulled over. He opened the trunk, told the two
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boys to lay still, and ordered Laura out of the car.
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Green said Macduff told him to put Laura in the
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trunk of Macduff's car. That's right.
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What are you doing, man?
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Both boys were shot repeatedly in the face.
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My father just could not visualize any individual, you know,
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especially a person 21 years old being so hardcore and
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so violent and having no sign of a conscience. that
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they would repeatedly shoot the two little boys in the head.
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Green said McDuff told him to erase their tire tracks
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while he wiped the car clean of fingerprints.
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And then McDuff got into his own car along with
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Roydale Green, the little girl being in the trunk, drove
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on down the gravel road actually into Johnson County. And
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at that point in time, stopped the vehicle and raped
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the little girl. And Green raped the little girl. Macduff
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raped her again. and then choked her to death on
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the gravel road with Green holding her ankles.
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And then, according to Green, they threw the body over
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a fence and covered it with brush. Sheriff Pamplin launched
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a massive search to find the body of Laura Smith.
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Roy Dale Green tried to help, but the area was
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unfamiliar to him, and he couldn't remember where they'd left
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the body. At the same time, a manhunt was launched
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to find Kenneth McDuff. Investigators had information that McDuff would
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be out on a date that night with a girl
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from Bremen, Texas. They waited at the girl's house, hoping
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he would arrive.
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You know, it's been a number of years, but if
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I remember correctly, it was like 11.30 p.m. exactly when
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all hell broke loose.
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When McDuff saw the lawman, he tried to back out.
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But the sheriff's opened fire, shooting out his tires and radiator,
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crippling the car.
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McDuff was taken.
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Unhurt.
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It took days of searching before the body of Laura
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Smith was found and her family could bury her. Kenneth
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McDuff and Roy Dale Green went to trial in October
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of 1966. The first case to be tried was for
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the murder of Matthew Duncan. The prosecutors were confident they
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could get a capital conviction. They had a body, evidence
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linking McDuff to the victim, and an eyewitness. Former prosecutor
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Charlie Butts recalls that Roydale Green's cooperation alone would not
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be enough to convict McDuff of the murder.
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Then we had the problem in Texas of corroborating an accomplice.
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An accomplice witness, and certainly he was, needs to be
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corroborated with some evidence that tends to show that he's
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telling the truth or tends to connect the person he
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is saying is guilty.
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Key pieces of evidence enabled the prosecutors to corroborate Green's testimony.
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Two wallets belonging to the victims were found in a
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field and Kenneth McDuff's burned and bloody shirt were found
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buried on property belonging to his older brother. In return
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for his testimony, the prosecutors would not pursue the death
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penalty for Roy Dale Green's role in the murders. But
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McDuff would get no plea bargain, and he didn't want one.
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He denied any part of the crime. And his biggest
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supporter was.
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His mother, Addie McDuff.
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She had a long history of denying any of her
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son's troubles. And when she supported her son Kenneth in
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blaming Green for the murders, the prosecutors exploited what they
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considered to be the weakest element of McDuff's defense.
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Then he made a mistake of laying it all off
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on Green. He said that he had taken a nap
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or something and claimed that Green had gone off and
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done all these things and You could look at Grant
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and tell that kid couldn't even conceive of doing that,
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let alone carry it out by himself.
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Has the jury reached a verdict?
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But McDuff claimed he was innocent. The police were out
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to frame him. Now the jury would have to make
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the decision to convict Kenneth McDuff for murder or to
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set him free. In November 1966 in Fort Worth, Texas,
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21-year-old Kenneth Allen McDuff was convicted for the murder of
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15-year-old Matthew Duncan. The jury sentenced him to death in
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the electric chair for the execution-style slaying. McDuff showed little emotion.
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After the trial for the murder of Matthew Duncan, the
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prosecutors saw no cause to try McDuff for the murders
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of the other two teenagers. Kenneth McDuff had been sentenced
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to die in the electric chair. Texas author Gary LaVerne
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covered McDuff's murderous career for his book, Bad Boy from Rosebud.
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There was some security there because he had been convicted
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of one and had been sentenced to death. And at
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least there was a notion in Texas at the time
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that surely nothing could be more final than a death penalty.
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Huntsville Prison, Texas. Macduff was on death row, waiting. His
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first execution date was stayed, then his second. By April 1970,
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Macduff was still in his 20s. He was awaiting his
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third scheduled execution date, but he was confident that this date, too,
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would be canceled. Then in 1972, the Supreme Court made
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its landmark decision in the case of Furman versus Georgia.
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The court ruled that the death penalty as it was
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currently practiced was unconstitutional. Minorities and those with low incomes
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were not receiving equal treatment in the courts. As a
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result of the ruling, McDuff's sentence was reduced to life imprisonment.
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And under Texas law at that time, that meant eventually
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this triple murderer would have the right to apply for parole.
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Eight years later in 1980, McDuff came up for parole.
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At the time, three parole board members would hear an
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inmate's case and it would take two votes to pass.
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McDuff's good behavior in prison convinced one of the members,
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but the other two voted it down. By the late 80s,
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Texas prisons were getting dangerously overcrowded, while little money was
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being spent to build new ones. The parole review system
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was taking the heat.
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The people of Texas did not want to vote new
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taxes to expand government. And expanding a prison system is
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an expansion of state government. So political leaders at the
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time responded by instructing the Board of Pardons and Parole
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to literally release thousands of people every month. And as
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time went on, more and more violent criminals were being
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paroled under a perfectly legal process.
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By the time McDuff was up for parole once again
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in 1989, his application was just one file stacked on
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top of a mountain of others. After 15 denials for parole,
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Kenneth McDuff incredibly got his letter of release. It didn't
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take long for word to reach the sheriff's office in
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his hometown. Sheriff Brady Pamplin, who'd arrested McDuff in 1966
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for the shooting of the three teenagers, had retired. And
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his son Larry was now the new sheriff of Falls County.
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When I first found out that Kenneth Allen McDuff had
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been released from prison, the first thing I did was
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call Parnell McNamara in Waco, Texas, Deputy U.S. Marshal, Parnell
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and his brother Mike, both are marshals, and we've been
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friends ever since we were little bitty boys. And I
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called Parnell and told him, I said, Parnell, you're not
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going to believe this, but they've released Kenneth McDuff. And
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I don't know if it'll be three days, three weeks,
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three months, but sooner or later, the bodies of young girls,
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young ladies, or boys are going to start turning up.
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Now, a second generation of Texas lawmen feared they would
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be dealing with Kenneth McDuff. Parnell McNamara and his brother
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Mike are the sons of a lawman who helped put
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away McDuff in the 1960s. Today, they are investigators with
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the U.S. Marshal Service.
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And I remember just sitting there in total disbelief. I
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absolutely could not believe that anyone in their right mind
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would have ever paroled a serial killer, someone who had
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brutally murdered three young people like he had. A total disbelief.
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On October 11, 1989, Kenneth McDuff was escorted out of
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Ramsey Prison. Although he had been sentenced to die 23
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years earlier, he was now a free man. McDuff returned
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to the town of Rosebud, Texas, where he grew up.
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People in his hometown were terrified when they learned he
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had been released. The town began to shut down. Doors
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were locked, shades drawn. Attendance at the schools dropped.
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There were reports of families not letting their children out,
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of bus drivers being told to be careful because McDuff
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is out. And that's the sad irony of all of this.
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When he was in school, he caused school officials trouble,
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even as a young kid. Now, he's been in prison
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for 23 years, he's let out, and bus drivers have
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to be careful all over again. It was a very
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bizarre event in the history of Central Texas.
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The citizens of Rosebud were much relieved when Kenneth McDuff
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moved away from home. In the spring of 1991, McDuff
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enrolled in the Texas State Technical College at Waco and
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moved into a dormitory on campus. He received financial aid
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as part of his rehabilitation program, and for the next year,
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he regularly reported to his parole officer. But authorities would
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soon learn that McDuff was far from rehabilitated. On March 1st, 1992,
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00:19:32.509 --> 00:19:35.210
Waco police responded to a call that a clerk from
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00:19:35.250 --> 00:19:42.309
a convenience store had disappeared. 22-year-old Melissa Northrup was working
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00:19:42.390 --> 00:19:47.930
alone on the overnight shift at a Quickback. Her husband
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00:19:47.990 --> 00:19:49.789
told police that he had just been on the phone
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00:19:49.829 --> 00:19:54.200
with her when a customer walked in. He called back
250
00:19:54.240 --> 00:19:59.799
a few minutes later, but got no answer. Police found
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00:19:59.880 --> 00:20:03.480
Melissa's purse under the counter, and her car was missing
252
00:20:03.549 --> 00:20:08.579
from the parking lot. Waco police did a routine check
253
00:20:08.619 --> 00:20:13.079
of cars at a nearby motel. They found a car
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00:20:13.119 --> 00:20:15.680
that the manager confirmed did not belong to a guest.
255
00:20:17.920 --> 00:20:21.480
Investigators found a wallet in the car. It contained a
256
00:20:21.539 --> 00:20:26.619
social security card and a driver's license, both belonging to
257
00:20:26.680 --> 00:20:32.470
Kenneth McDuff. Investigators looked for McDuff at his college, but
258
00:20:32.549 --> 00:20:36.119
no one had seen him for several weeks. Students said
259
00:20:36.140 --> 00:20:41.039
he was a heavy drug user, and prostitutes visited his dorm.
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Room.
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00:20:44.539 --> 00:20:48.180
Waco police could not locate McDuff, but investigators were soon
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00:20:48.259 --> 00:20:53.859
called back to the college. A student had found a naked,
263
00:20:54.039 --> 00:20:57.240
decomposed body in a shallow grave in a wooded area
264
00:20:57.279 --> 00:21:01.480
behind McDuff's dormitory. But this would not be the body
265
00:21:01.539 --> 00:21:07.880
of Melissa Northwood. It was yet another victim. With McDuff
266
00:21:07.960 --> 00:21:11.940
on the loose, local investigators had to act fast. They
267
00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:16.799
feared that after 23 years, Kenneth McDuff was once again
268
00:21:17.259 --> 00:21:25.250
on a killing spree. On March 25th, 1992, a woman's
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00:21:25.309 --> 00:21:28.190
body was found buried in a shallow grave behind the
270
00:21:28.250 --> 00:21:33.450
Texas State Technical College at Waco. This victim would turn
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00:21:33.509 --> 00:21:38.569
out to be Valencia K. Joshua, According to a student witness,
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00:21:38.990 --> 00:21:41.990
she was last seen on campus looking for Kenneth McDuff.
273
00:21:44.150 --> 00:21:47.480
Weeks earlier, Kenneth McDuff's car was found abandoned near the
274
00:21:47.539 --> 00:21:51.599
Clickbank store where another missing woman, Melissa Northrup, was last seen.
275
00:21:53.940 --> 00:21:57.240
But in both cases, the investigation had produced only the
276
00:21:57.289 --> 00:22:02.109
most circumstantial evidence. And with McDuff on the run, local
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00:22:02.150 --> 00:22:05.190
investigators sought the help of U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston.
278
00:22:07.210 --> 00:22:11.210
Our concern was, now, but who's he killing now? Who's
279
00:22:11.250 --> 00:22:13.630
he going to kill tonight? And we really felt strongly
280
00:22:13.670 --> 00:22:14.890
that he was on a spree.
281
00:22:16.390 --> 00:22:18.640
Johnston knew that if he could charge McDuff with a
282
00:22:18.740 --> 00:22:23.460
federal violation, he could coordinate a statewide effort to apprehend McDuff.
283
00:22:24.480 --> 00:22:27.500
And he could bring in the full investigative talents of U.S.
284
00:22:27.559 --> 00:22:30.259
Marshals Parnell and Mike McNamara.
285
00:22:33.470 --> 00:22:35.319
I wanted to find a way for Mike and Parnell
286
00:22:35.359 --> 00:22:37.759
McNamara to get involved in this thing. I'd seen them
287
00:22:37.819 --> 00:22:38.819
on many manhunts.
288
00:22:38.859 --> 00:22:39.700
I knew how good they were.
289
00:22:40.359 --> 00:22:43.440
And I just wanted some hook to drag them in with.
290
00:22:46.140 --> 00:22:48.900
It was McDuff's well-known drug use that opened the door.
291
00:22:50.859 --> 00:22:53.799
The federal investigators found a young man who said McDuff
292
00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:57.740
had given him LSD. This was enough to write a
293
00:22:57.779 --> 00:23:00.619
federal drug warrant, and a task force was formed.
294
00:23:02.630 --> 00:23:02.869
U.S.
295
00:23:02.890 --> 00:23:04.130
Marshal Mike McNamara.
296
00:23:05.839 --> 00:23:10.119
We contacted every agency that we possibly could. And in
297
00:23:10.160 --> 00:23:13.200
a very short period of time, every law enforcement agency
298
00:23:13.240 --> 00:23:17.400
in the central Texas area was involved in this manhunt.
299
00:23:20.609 --> 00:23:25.029
The McNamara brothers began interviewing anyone who ever associated with McDuff.
300
00:23:26.490 --> 00:23:28.750
And when they tracked down a man named Alva Hank
301
00:23:28.809 --> 00:23:32.130
Worley to a Temple Motel... They knew they were on
302
00:23:32.150 --> 00:23:36.440
to something. Worley said he didn't know anything about the
303
00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:40.180
Melissa Northrup abduction or the Valencia K. Joshua killing.
304
00:23:42.119 --> 00:23:45.960
Worley did not respond like a normal person would to
305
00:23:46.039 --> 00:23:51.599
our interviews. When we explained to him what McDuff had
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00:23:51.640 --> 00:23:56.769
done in 1966, Worley seemed oblivious to it. It didn't
307
00:23:56.950 --> 00:23:59.529
seem to either register with him or bother him in
308
00:23:59.569 --> 00:24:03.880
the least. So when we left the motel where Worley
309
00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:09.559
was living, everyone in the car agreed that something was
310
00:24:09.619 --> 00:24:11.680
wrong with Worley, that he wasn't acting right.
311
00:24:15.700 --> 00:24:18.500
Over a period of weeks, the McNamaras returned to the
312
00:24:18.539 --> 00:24:26.190
motel to talk to Worley, trying to break him down. Eventually,
313
00:24:26.210 --> 00:24:29.150
Worley agreed to come into the Bell County Sheriff's Department
314
00:24:29.569 --> 00:24:33.690
and give a complete statement. He claimed he knew nothing
315
00:24:33.769 --> 00:24:37.569
about Northrop or Joshua, but Worley said he had information
316
00:24:37.630 --> 00:24:41.769
about a missing persons case currently under investigation by Austin police.
317
00:24:43.349 --> 00:24:48.589
Hank Worley told us that on the night of December 29, 1991,
318
00:24:48.589 --> 00:24:53.130
that he and McDuff were in Austin, and they passed
319
00:24:53.170 --> 00:24:54.049
by a car wash.
320
00:24:59.480 --> 00:25:01.859
Macduff pulled into one of the car wash bays and
321
00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:07.799
told Worley to stay with the car. According to Worley,
322
00:25:08.200 --> 00:25:10.549
Macduff went to the next bay where a young woman
323
00:25:10.609 --> 00:25:21.769
was washing her car. Worley said Macduff returned to his vehicle,
324
00:25:21.890 --> 00:25:36.539
holding her by the throat. He said McDuff raped and
325
00:25:36.599 --> 00:25:40.319
killed her, but he claimed he didn't participate in the murder.
326
00:25:43.869 --> 00:25:47.109
In the abandoned car, Austin police found a purse and
327
00:25:47.150 --> 00:25:53.589
identification belonging to the victim, Colleen Reed. A surveillance photo
328
00:25:53.630 --> 00:25:56.730
at a nearby ATM machine helped narrow the time of
329
00:25:56.769 --> 00:26:03.730
her disappearance to sometime after 9.15 p.m., Worley claimed he
330
00:26:03.769 --> 00:26:06.950
could not remember where McDuff had disposed of her body.
331
00:26:10.430 --> 00:26:15.119
Now investigators finally had an eyewitness, the same kind of weak,
332
00:26:15.359 --> 00:26:19.309
suggestible accomplice that helped put McDuff away 30 years earlier
333
00:26:19.480 --> 00:26:23.109
in the murder of the three teenagers. But they still
334
00:26:23.190 --> 00:26:31.859
had to find McDuff. Over 12 state and federal agencies
335
00:26:31.960 --> 00:26:33.000
participated in the.
336
00:26:32.980 --> 00:26:36.920
Hunt for him. And when there seemed to be no
337
00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:42.940
trace of McDuff in Texas, the search went nationwide. All
338
00:26:43.019 --> 00:26:46.500
the major networks and news organizations ran stories on the fugitive.
339
00:26:49.220 --> 00:26:53.440
A hotline was set up. And on May 3rd, they
340
00:26:53.480 --> 00:26:54.269
received a tip.
341
00:26:56.440 --> 00:26:59.700
And the call was that a fellow that drives A
342
00:26:59.779 --> 00:27:03.680
trash truck, a garbage truck in Kansas City thinks McDuff
343
00:27:03.740 --> 00:27:05.920
might be up there with him. Of course, we thought,
344
00:27:05.940 --> 00:27:07.980
you've got to be kidding. I mean, Kansas City, he
345
00:27:08.019 --> 00:27:10.019
might as well have said the moon to us because
346
00:27:10.059 --> 00:27:11.900
we were convinced he would probably stay in areas he
347
00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:12.579
was familiar with.
348
00:27:15.400 --> 00:27:18.259
The tipster said another driver going by the name of
349
00:27:18.359 --> 00:27:23.660
Richard Fowler looked like McDuff. Luckily, this Mr. Fowler had
350
00:27:23.680 --> 00:27:27.269
been arrested for soliciting in Kansas City. and Kansas City
351
00:27:27.309 --> 00:27:35.049
police had a sole index fingerprint on file. That one
352
00:27:35.130 --> 00:27:41.849
fingerprint belonged to Kenneth McDuff. At 1.30 in the afternoon
353
00:27:41.970 --> 00:27:45.410
on Monday, May 4th, McDuff, now on the run as
354
00:27:45.470 --> 00:27:48.910
Richard Fowler, was driving his garbage truck to the Kansas
355
00:27:48.930 --> 00:27:49.420
City dump.
356
00:27:53.839 --> 00:27:54.880
How you doing?
357
00:27:54.900 --> 00:27:55.539
Step out of the truck for me.
358
00:27:58.609 --> 00:28:02.049
Police, posing as truck inspectors, waved him down for what
359
00:28:02.089 --> 00:28:08.349
he thought was a routine check. McDuff came out of
360
00:28:08.390 --> 00:28:14.119
his truck with his log and was too surprised to
361
00:28:14.160 --> 00:28:26.990
run when they cuffed him. Kenneth McDuff was flown back
362
00:28:27.029 --> 00:28:53.539
to Texas under heavy guard. The burden was now on
363
00:28:53.559 --> 00:28:57.079
the prosecutors to make sure McDuff never again walked the
364
00:28:57.099 --> 00:29:04.420
streets of Central Texas. The body of Melissa Northrup, the
365
00:29:04.440 --> 00:29:07.750
Quick-Pack store clerk, had recently been found in an abandoned
366
00:29:07.849 --> 00:29:13.380
quarry in Dallas County. her car stuck in the woods nearby.
367
00:29:16.619 --> 00:29:19.309
The body of Colleen Reed, the woman abducted from the
368
00:29:19.369 --> 00:29:24.750
car wash, was still missing. Prosecutors had an eyewitness, but
369
00:29:24.809 --> 00:29:29.509
without a body, murder would be difficult to prove. For
370
00:29:29.549 --> 00:29:33.349
the homicide of Valencia Joshua, there was no eyewitness and
371
00:29:33.430 --> 00:29:40.500
no physical evidence pointing to McDuff. Of the three cases,
372
00:29:41.180 --> 00:29:45.619
elected prosecutor of McLennan County, John Segrist, decided to first
373
00:29:45.700 --> 00:29:48.140
try McDuff for the murder of Melissa Northrup.
374
00:29:50.200 --> 00:29:54.430
Our strategy was to tie him as many times as
375
00:29:54.509 --> 00:29:58.049
we could to the victim, to the scene of the crimes,
376
00:29:58.670 --> 00:30:01.589
to the scene where the body was found, to the
377
00:30:01.710 --> 00:30:09.289
motive for murder, to anything we could possibly find to
378
00:30:09.329 --> 00:30:13.109
make those ties and reinforce the ties as many times
379
00:30:13.190 --> 00:30:18.059
as you possibly could. Because hopefully we could build a
380
00:30:18.140 --> 00:30:21.640
case that was strong enough and the circumstances were such
381
00:30:21.700 --> 00:30:24.519
that this jury could say that beyond a reasonable doubt,
382
00:30:24.599 --> 00:30:26.019
this was the man responsible.
383
00:30:27.269 --> 00:30:31.279
First Assistant Crawford Long, a forensic expert, would present what
384
00:30:31.380 --> 00:30:34.849
little physical evidence they had and concentrate on trying to
385
00:30:34.930 --> 00:30:37.430
prove McDuff's pattern of behavior to the jury.
386
00:30:39.210 --> 00:30:43.150
When you're presenting a case of circumstantial evidence, the problem
387
00:30:43.329 --> 00:30:46.549
is the jury likes to hear a person come in
388
00:30:46.630 --> 00:30:49.650
and say, I saw that person do the crime. I
389
00:30:49.720 --> 00:30:53.819
saw the defendant kill the person. In a circumstantial case,
390
00:30:53.859 --> 00:30:56.359
you're not going to have that. You're going to have
391
00:30:56.460 --> 00:30:59.779
small bits and pieces of evidence when taken all together
392
00:30:59.819 --> 00:31:02.480
will point out the defendant as the killer.
393
00:31:03.660 --> 00:31:07.059
First Assistant Freeman would bring McDuff's associates to the stand
394
00:31:07.500 --> 00:31:10.099
to provide testimony about his movements on the day of
395
00:31:10.140 --> 00:31:13.019
the murder and the violent nature of his behavior.
396
00:31:14.400 --> 00:31:20.119
Generally, a person's character is not admissible to prove their conduct. However,
397
00:31:20.160 --> 00:31:23.420
the law in Texas provides it can be used to
398
00:31:23.500 --> 00:31:26.940
prove motive and to prove identity. We had a case
399
00:31:26.980 --> 00:31:28.940
that was built like a domino house.
400
00:31:30.619 --> 00:31:33.690
A domino house built around a man who knew how
401
00:31:33.730 --> 00:31:38.859
to cover his tracks. Even his friends said he understood
402
00:31:38.880 --> 00:31:43.240
a single hair could send him to prison. He took
403
00:31:43.380 --> 00:31:49.049
great care wiping off fingerprints. But ultimately, no crime scene
404
00:31:49.130 --> 00:31:54.170
can be left perfectly clean. And there were some foreign
405
00:31:54.190 --> 00:32:00.940
hairs found in Melissa Northrup's abandoned car. Though DNA tests
406
00:32:00.980 --> 00:32:03.710
were ordered on the hair, A portion of the test
407
00:32:03.789 --> 00:32:07.529
became contaminated by the lab contracted to perform the analysis,
408
00:32:08.089 --> 00:32:11.670
and the prosecutors couldn't present any of the DNA evidence
409
00:32:11.809 --> 00:32:16.880
in court. The small-town prosecutors would have to prove to
410
00:32:16.920 --> 00:32:20.920
the Houston jury it was McDuff and only McDuff who
411
00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:26.039
killed Melissa Northrup. But without an eyewitness and no conclusive
412
00:32:26.079 --> 00:32:30.880
forensic evidence, McDuff's attorneys could make a convincing argument that
413
00:32:30.920 --> 00:32:36.609
their client was innocent. The prosecution had no direct evidence
414
00:32:36.869 --> 00:32:44.160
linking Kenneth McDuff to the murder of Melissa Northrup. Kenneth
415
00:32:44.200 --> 00:32:47.380
McDuff's trial for the murder of Melissa Northrup began in
416
00:32:47.460 --> 00:32:50.940
Houston in February of 1993.
417
00:32:51.640 --> 00:32:52.339
All rise.
418
00:32:54.960 --> 00:32:57.259
Court of the Honorable Judge Hagedorn is now in session.
419
00:32:57.279 --> 00:33:03.970
Thank you. the prosecutor made his opening statement to the
420
00:33:03.990 --> 00:33:09.059
12-member jury. He began with a detailed account of the
421
00:33:09.130 --> 00:33:14.019
events leading up to Melissa Northrup's kidnapping and murder. He
422
00:33:14.039 --> 00:33:17.700
described how Macduff's car broke down near Highway 35 and
423
00:33:17.740 --> 00:33:21.240
New Road in Waco, that Macduff had spent the day
424
00:33:21.349 --> 00:33:24.829
trying to raise money to smoke crack, and, as Macduff
425
00:33:24.869 --> 00:33:26.849
had said to a friend, get a woman.
426
00:33:27.009 --> 00:33:28.609
Of that convenience store in Texas.
427
00:33:30.589 --> 00:33:33.509
Just before four in the morning, the prosecutor told the jury,
428
00:33:33.529 --> 00:33:36.470
Macduff left the car in the parking lot of the
429
00:33:36.519 --> 00:33:41.759
New Road Inn. At this point, there are no eyewitnesses,
430
00:33:42.319 --> 00:33:45.519
but the prosecution sets the scenario that Macduff walked to
431
00:33:45.579 --> 00:33:51.380
the nearby QuickPak convenience store. A prosecution would show that
432
00:33:51.420 --> 00:33:54.200
Macduff had worked briefly at a different QuickPak store and
433
00:33:54.240 --> 00:33:59.059
he knew how it operated. He knew it had no
434
00:33:59.119 --> 00:34:03.309
security cameras. He knew the night clerk was alone. He
435
00:34:03.329 --> 00:34:07.250
knew there was cash in the register. Sir, come on around.
436
00:34:10.750 --> 00:34:13.900
And he left no evidence, not a single fingerprint.
437
00:34:20.960 --> 00:34:21.460
The End.
438
00:34:28.900 --> 00:34:31.789
The prosecutor told the jury that Melissa Northrup's car was
439
00:34:31.849 --> 00:34:34.809
found near Dallas a few days after she had disappeared.
440
00:34:37.030 --> 00:34:39.849
A short while later, her body was found floating in
441
00:34:39.869 --> 00:34:43.900
a gravel pit by a couple of fishermen. Her hands
442
00:34:43.940 --> 00:34:49.280
and feet had been tied with shoestrings. There were no fingerprints,
443
00:34:49.840 --> 00:34:54.090
no confessions, nothing personal left at the crime scene except
444
00:34:54.130 --> 00:35:00.710
a few hairs. The prosecution's strategy was twofold. To build
445
00:35:00.769 --> 00:35:04.670
their circumstantial case, they needed to track Kenneth McDuff's every
446
00:35:04.730 --> 00:35:11.190
move on the day and night Northrup disappeared. Secondly, they
447
00:35:11.230 --> 00:35:15.570
needed to prove a pattern of violence. Nothing but the truth,
448
00:35:15.590 --> 00:35:16.230
so help you God?
449
00:35:16.449 --> 00:35:16.750
I do.
450
00:35:17.210 --> 00:35:22.690
Hoping to establish McDuff's violent, unpredictable behavior, the prosecution questioned
451
00:35:22.750 --> 00:35:25.409
his associates on the stand. My name is Stephen Dowdy.
452
00:35:25.780 --> 00:35:31.579
The problem was these witnesses had criminal records of drug use, prostitution,
453
00:35:31.800 --> 00:35:35.079
and other crimes, and the prosecutors had to convince the
454
00:35:35.119 --> 00:35:41.039
jury their testimony was truthful. And before the prosecution's key
455
00:35:41.099 --> 00:35:44.280
witness could take the stand, the prosecutors would have to
456
00:35:44.320 --> 00:35:50.050
convince the judge to allow his testimony. The judge asked
457
00:35:50.090 --> 00:35:52.309
the jury to step out of the courtroom before he
458
00:35:52.329 --> 00:35:55.289
would hear the state's argument for calling Alva Hank Worley
459
00:35:58.610 --> 00:36:01.230
Worley was a witness to the abduction and murder of
460
00:36:01.329 --> 00:36:06.329
Colleen Reed. The prosecutors needed Worley's testimony to show a
461
00:36:06.409 --> 00:36:10.699
pattern between the Reed and the Northrop case. The pattern
462
00:36:10.780 --> 00:36:14.420
of the hunt, the capture, the torture, and the hiding
463
00:36:14.460 --> 00:36:15.280
of the two bodies.
464
00:36:16.219 --> 00:36:19.579
We were able to show the judge what we believe
465
00:36:19.639 --> 00:36:24.480
was 22 characteristics that were consistent with the Melissa Northrop case.
466
00:36:25.550 --> 00:36:29.250
The judge agreed that there were at least 15 consistencies
467
00:36:29.309 --> 00:36:33.250
between those two cases. For example, both were young, white,
468
00:36:33.630 --> 00:36:40.269
Caucasian females. Both were short and weighed approximately 100 pounds.
469
00:36:41.090 --> 00:36:44.610
Both had their purses left behind. Both took place along
470
00:36:44.719 --> 00:36:46.539
Interstate 35 corridor.
471
00:36:48.980 --> 00:36:51.739
Although the Colleen Reed case had not yet come to trial,
472
00:36:52.380 --> 00:36:55.929
the judge ruled that Hank Worley The eyewitness to Reed's
473
00:36:55.969 --> 00:36:59.920
alleged abduction from the car wash and her murder could
474
00:36:59.940 --> 00:37:07.000
tell the court what he had seen. According to Texas law,
475
00:37:07.579 --> 00:37:11.219
a witness could provide testimony to show the modus operandi
476
00:37:11.300 --> 00:37:20.409
of the accused. Now the prosecutors could show the jury
477
00:37:20.550 --> 00:37:26.489
how McDuff kidnapped and murdered his victims. What in particular
478
00:37:26.530 --> 00:37:27.800
did Mr. McDuff say?
479
00:37:32.380 --> 00:37:34.360
He said he was going to take himself a girl
480
00:37:34.400 --> 00:37:34.840
that night.
481
00:37:38.909 --> 00:37:44.730
McDuff's friends were generally slow-witted people that McDuff felt he
482
00:37:44.769 --> 00:37:49.929
needed to have around him to reinforce his superiority complex.
483
00:37:50.489 --> 00:37:53.460
What he didn't figure on was that these people would
484
00:37:53.500 --> 00:37:55.670
have a conscience and would break down.
485
00:37:55.750 --> 00:37:57.170
Please tell us what else happened.
486
00:37:57.269 --> 00:38:00.750
Worley said McDuff liked to talk about snatching women and
487
00:38:00.789 --> 00:38:02.909
he saw him do it to Colleen Reed at the
488
00:38:03.010 --> 00:38:05.980
Austin car wash. He got out of the car.
489
00:38:07.579 --> 00:38:11.519
And he walked around the wall and he grabbed the
490
00:38:11.559 --> 00:38:14.480
girl by the throat and then he brought her back
491
00:38:14.579 --> 00:38:15.260
over to the car.
492
00:38:18.579 --> 00:38:21.460
What did he intend to do with her? Well, he
493
00:38:21.599 --> 00:38:24.510
said that he was gonna get rid of her Use
494
00:38:24.530 --> 00:38:28.380
her up or get rid of her. Worley said McDuff
495
00:38:28.500 --> 00:38:31.840
tied her feet and hands with shoelaces, just like the
496
00:38:31.880 --> 00:38:34.239
shoelaces found on the body of Melissa Northrup.
497
00:38:35.320 --> 00:38:35.780
Yes, sir.
498
00:38:36.449 --> 00:38:39.909
Having failed to prevent Worley's damaging testimony from being heard
499
00:38:39.949 --> 00:38:43.369
by the jury, the defense now had only one recourse,
500
00:38:44.230 --> 00:38:50.059
to discredit the witness. McDuff's attorney vehemently attacked Worley as
501
00:38:50.119 --> 00:38:51.639
a liar and a rapist. Isn't that true?
502
00:38:52.050 --> 00:38:55.849
In fact, you stated at one time, I tried to
503
00:38:55.969 --> 00:38:56.630
untie her.
504
00:38:57.849 --> 00:38:59.590
I told her I would try.
505
00:38:59.349 --> 00:38:59.909
To help her.
506
00:39:00.110 --> 00:39:02.630
She wanted me to stay back there with her because
507
00:39:02.730 --> 00:39:06.429
she knew I would not hurt her. That's right.
508
00:39:08.269 --> 00:39:13.380
And you helped her by raping her. Isn't that correct?
509
00:39:13.840 --> 00:39:20.000
I did not rape her. Are you telling the jury
510
00:39:21.239 --> 00:39:25.489
that she voluntarily had sex with you? She knew that
511
00:39:25.570 --> 00:39:26.710
I wasn't going to hurt her.
512
00:39:27.050 --> 00:39:29.710
So long as I was back there with her, I
513
00:39:29.769 --> 00:39:31.059
wasn't going to hurt her.
514
00:39:34.550 --> 00:39:38.030
The defense's attack on Worley was a blow to the prosecution,
515
00:39:38.789 --> 00:39:43.739
and there was still another weakness in the case. There
516
00:39:43.780 --> 00:39:48.250
was no eyewitness placing McDuff at the gravel pits in Combine, Texas,
517
00:39:48.550 --> 00:39:53.150
where Melissa Northrup's body was found. But then, a surprise
518
00:39:53.190 --> 00:39:54.269
witness came forward.
519
00:39:55.670 --> 00:39:58.769
I got a note from my investigator that there was,
520
00:39:58.789 --> 00:40:03.309
they received a phone call from a young lady in
521
00:40:03.329 --> 00:40:06.449
Dallas County, who lived very near the gravel pits where
522
00:40:06.489 --> 00:40:09.530
Melissa Northrup's body was found, and she wanted to talk
523
00:40:09.570 --> 00:40:09.809
to us.
524
00:40:11.280 --> 00:40:15.599
Sherry Robinson testified that on March 2nd, 36 hours after
525
00:40:15.659 --> 00:40:19.500
Melissa Northrup was abducted from the Quick-Pack store, a dirty
526
00:40:19.579 --> 00:40:23.070
and disheveled McDuff came to her door late at night
527
00:40:23.610 --> 00:40:24.429
asking for food.
528
00:40:24.570 --> 00:40:27.269
I heard a light tap at the door and I
529
00:40:27.369 --> 00:40:29.190
opened the door and I stood there.
530
00:40:30.469 --> 00:40:32.510
And he said he was hungry.
531
00:40:33.409 --> 00:40:35.800
And him and his old lady had just gotten into
532
00:40:35.820 --> 00:40:36.360
an argument.
533
00:40:37.800 --> 00:40:39.900
And you know, he asked me if I had a sandwich.
534
00:40:42.210 --> 00:40:43.349
I don't have a sandwich.
535
00:40:43.489 --> 00:40:44.489
I have a bowl of beans.
536
00:40:45.050 --> 00:40:45.929
That'd be fine.
537
00:40:45.989 --> 00:40:47.570
That'd be fine.
538
00:40:48.110 --> 00:40:49.699
Okay.
539
00:40:49.880 --> 00:40:52.420
Well, I got the bowl of beans, and I gave
540
00:40:52.500 --> 00:40:52.960
it to him.
541
00:40:53.480 --> 00:40:54.539
And he went on his way.
542
00:40:54.980 --> 00:40:58.440
Robinson had placed McDuff within two miles of the location
543
00:40:58.500 --> 00:41:06.139
where Northrop's body was found. Stunned by Robinson's testimony, McDuff
544
00:41:06.199 --> 00:41:09.539
demanded to tell his side of the story. Though his
545
00:41:09.559 --> 00:41:13.139
defense lawyers argued against it, McDuff was confident he could
546
00:41:13.179 --> 00:41:17.590
convince the jury of his innocence. His attorney was so upset,
547
00:41:17.989 --> 00:41:19.969
he asked the judge to be taken off the case.
548
00:41:21.030 --> 00:41:22.650
But the judge denied his request.
549
00:41:24.750 --> 00:41:28.690
We had hoped that McDuff would take the witness stand.
550
00:41:29.989 --> 00:41:33.369
Even the judge took him back into chambers and told him,
551
00:41:33.670 --> 00:41:36.230
you're making a bad move.
552
00:41:37.269 --> 00:41:41.019
McDuff took the stand. He believed he only needed the
553
00:41:41.059 --> 00:41:43.960
chance to tell his side of the story. And once
554
00:41:43.980 --> 00:41:46.360
he did, the jury would see that he was an
555
00:41:46.519 --> 00:41:53.079
innocent man. I do. Against the advice of his lawyers
556
00:41:53.139 --> 00:41:56.199
and the judge, Kenneth McDuff took the stand and professed
557
00:41:56.219 --> 00:41:56.780
his innocence.
558
00:41:57.500 --> 00:41:57.739
Mr.
559
00:41:57.760 --> 00:42:01.949
McDuff, did you on March 1st, 1992, abduct and murder Ms.
560
00:42:01.989 --> 00:42:02.909
Melissa Ann Northrup?
561
00:42:03.409 --> 00:42:07.079
No, I had nothing to do with that. On Saturday,
562
00:42:07.219 --> 00:42:08.800
I went out and I bought some beer and I
563
00:42:08.820 --> 00:42:09.340
was already.
564
00:42:09.440 --> 00:42:12.500
McDuff began to recount a long and winding journey on
565
00:42:12.539 --> 00:42:13.300
the day of the murder.
566
00:42:13.320 --> 00:42:13.900
Saturday night.
567
00:42:13.920 --> 00:42:15.199
He.
568
00:42:14.599 --> 00:42:16.760
Barely let his lawyer get a word in edgewise.
569
00:42:16.909 --> 00:42:18.989
I was already starting to drink... Before we get into that.
570
00:42:19.010 --> 00:42:19.130
Why.
571
00:42:19.090 --> 00:42:21.170
Don't you let me finish this again?
572
00:42:21.210 --> 00:42:22.769
No, I want to ask you another question.
573
00:42:22.969 --> 00:42:26.469
It was Saturday night, I bought the beer and I was.
574
00:42:26.670 --> 00:42:28.929
McDuff claimed his car trouble at the New Road Inn
575
00:42:29.150 --> 00:42:30.260
was just a coincidence.
576
00:42:30.280 --> 00:42:30.639
And, uh.
577
00:42:31.769 --> 00:42:34.469
He said he spent the early morning pushing his car
578
00:42:34.530 --> 00:42:38.860
with another car up to the motel. He testified that
579
00:42:38.900 --> 00:42:41.880
at about 5 a.m., he went back to the dorm
580
00:42:41.940 --> 00:42:45.300
of the Texas State Technical College and went to sleep.
581
00:42:46.780 --> 00:42:49.320
He said he took off the next day, afraid of
582
00:42:49.400 --> 00:42:52.329
trouble from his parole officer because he was doing drugs.
583
00:42:55.130 --> 00:43:00.300
Now the prosecutor had his chance to question McDuff. He
584
00:43:00.360 --> 00:43:02.849
asked him if he had abducted Northrup from the quick pack.
585
00:43:02.989 --> 00:43:03.710
Would you state your name?
586
00:43:03.829 --> 00:43:06.170
Used her car to drive her to a remote area
587
00:43:06.289 --> 00:43:10.530
about 100 miles north of Waco and eventually abandoned the
588
00:43:10.570 --> 00:43:12.889
car near a quarry where her body was found.
589
00:43:13.429 --> 00:43:16.929
Well, if it would have been me, I wouldn't have
590
00:43:16.949 --> 00:43:19.730
drove that car that far if I was going to commit.
591
00:43:20.070 --> 00:43:21.610
I mean, it just don't make sense to me.
592
00:43:22.269 --> 00:43:27.260
So what you're telling the jury, it's your tough luck
593
00:43:27.739 --> 00:43:32.030
that you happen to be at The very place where
594
00:43:32.489 --> 00:43:34.599
Melissa Northrup was kidnapped.
595
00:43:35.519 --> 00:43:37.699
At the time she was kidnapped.
596
00:43:39.559 --> 00:43:42.579
Look, I think the facts show that I was there
597
00:43:43.019 --> 00:43:45.800
after that event. I had to push that car for
598
00:43:45.800 --> 00:43:49.050
45 minutes, okay? If I had walked from where my
599
00:43:49.090 --> 00:43:51.369
car broke down to the quick pack and then walked
600
00:43:51.409 --> 00:43:54.469
back again. I mean, we're talking about a whole lot
601
00:43:54.510 --> 00:43:55.110
of time here.
602
00:43:56.369 --> 00:44:00.269
The prosecutor had no more questions. For the first time,
603
00:44:00.869 --> 00:44:07.239
McDuff admitted having been at the Quickback store. He seemed
604
00:44:07.300 --> 00:44:11.239
to have become entangled in his own incredible story and
605
00:44:11.440 --> 00:44:18.320
inadvertently blurted out the truth. The defense attorney told the
606
00:44:18.340 --> 00:44:20.880
jury that the case had little to do with law
607
00:44:20.980 --> 00:44:26.599
or evidence. It depended on fear, hatred, and a willingness
608
00:44:26.639 --> 00:44:33.030
to despise the defendant. In the state's closing, the prosecutors
609
00:44:33.130 --> 00:44:38.239
argued the pattern was clear, that the evidence shows the
610
00:44:38.260 --> 00:44:42.480
defendant was every person's nightmare. The evidence shows that he's
611
00:44:42.519 --> 00:44:45.480
a monster that comes out of the dark and snatches
612
00:44:45.559 --> 00:44:51.039
innocent people. The jury was out for just over three hours.
613
00:44:57.059 --> 00:45:05.860
Will the defendant rise? mcduff fit the definition that most
614
00:45:05.920 --> 00:45:09.820
people would have of a true sociopath in that he
615
00:45:09.920 --> 00:45:14.090
showed no emotion whatsoever except anger.
616
00:45:14.409 --> 00:45:19.050
Kenneth mcduff this court finds you guilty of the kidnapping
617
00:45:19.260 --> 00:45:23.579
and murder of melissa northrup this court is adjourned.
618
00:45:24.530 --> 00:45:28.289
He showed no emotion whatsoever. One of the prosecutors of
619
00:45:28.329 --> 00:45:33.969
the 1966 trial described his eyes as dead eyes, that
620
00:45:34.030 --> 00:45:36.250
they were black and like a shark.
621
00:45:37.309 --> 00:45:40.599
With the kidnapping and murder of Melissa Northrup, McDuff would
622
00:45:40.619 --> 00:45:46.280
get the death sentence. Confident they could win again, the
623
00:45:46.320 --> 00:45:49.940
prosecutors indicted McDuff for the murder of Colleen Reed. And
624
00:45:50.039 --> 00:45:53.639
once again, the verdict was guilty and the sentence, death.
625
00:45:57.039 --> 00:46:00.030
Certainly the citizens of Texas were in an outrage that
626
00:46:00.070 --> 00:46:03.010
their parole board ever released McDuff in the first place
627
00:46:03.210 --> 00:46:05.690
while serving a life sentence for the 1966 murder. It
628
00:46:10.210 --> 00:46:13.900
inspired Texas voters to fund a $ 2 billion building program
629
00:46:13.960 --> 00:46:18.260
for new prisons. The governor at the time, Ann Richards,
630
00:46:18.480 --> 00:46:21.440
was able to spearhead a number of reforms that became
631
00:46:21.500 --> 00:46:26.150
known as the McDuff Laws. including a new definition of
632
00:46:26.309 --> 00:46:31.230
life in prison, as 45 years behind bars before coming
633
00:46:31.309 --> 00:46:37.360
up for parole. Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston moved on
634
00:46:37.420 --> 00:46:40.659
to other cases, but kept his eye on some unfinished
635
00:46:40.699 --> 00:46:44.260
business in the McDuff case. The body of Colleen Reed
636
00:46:44.340 --> 00:46:46.530
and two other victims had not been found.
637
00:46:47.829 --> 00:46:50.289
His time for execution was like a month or two
638
00:46:50.329 --> 00:46:52.869
away when we felt like.
639
00:46:54.199 --> 00:46:54.739
Let's try.
640
00:46:54.780 --> 00:46:55.849
Let's make a push here.
641
00:46:57.570 --> 00:47:00.210
McDuff had admitted to a regular visitor that he had
642
00:47:00.269 --> 00:47:03.289
killed two other women in addition to Colleen Reed and
643
00:47:03.329 --> 00:47:06.650
Melissa Northrup. He told the visitor where he had buried
644
00:47:06.690 --> 00:47:10.409
their bodies. But for some reason, McDuff refused to talk
645
00:47:10.449 --> 00:47:11.650
about Colleen Reed.
646
00:47:14.260 --> 00:47:17.159
He didn't want to. And what he said was, they
647
00:47:17.199 --> 00:47:19.860
won't need me anymore. Well, I mean, this is a
648
00:47:19.860 --> 00:47:21.880
guy that's going to be executed in three weeks. I
649
00:47:22.380 --> 00:47:24.860
wasn't sure quite what he thought anybody needed him for.
650
00:47:27.179 --> 00:47:31.000
Then prison officials promised McDuff whatever he said, he would
651
00:47:31.019 --> 00:47:35.500
be treated no differently, no better, but no worse. And
652
00:47:35.860 --> 00:47:38.309
McDuff revealed a remote location by.
653
00:47:38.239 --> 00:47:40.210
The Brazos River.
654
00:47:45.309 --> 00:47:49.429
Where even after following McDuff's directions, investigators were having no luck.
655
00:47:54.070 --> 00:47:58.630
In a last-minute decision, prison officials brought McDuff, chained and shackled,
656
00:47:58.650 --> 00:48:01.639
to the Brazos River site.
657
00:48:03.179 --> 00:48:06.539
I didn't like him being so personally involved. I didn't
658
00:48:06.559 --> 00:48:09.340
want him to have that satisfaction. But it turned out
659
00:48:09.380 --> 00:48:11.400
that it had to be. There was just no way
660
00:48:11.420 --> 00:48:11.980
to do it without him.
661
00:48:14.860 --> 00:48:18.389
Once he arrived at the site, McDuff told investigators where
662
00:48:18.429 --> 00:48:20.210
to look for the grave of Colleen Reed.
663
00:48:21.409 --> 00:48:21.650
Whoa!
664
00:48:21.969 --> 00:48:22.250
Stop!
665
00:48:22.650 --> 00:48:22.849
Stop!
666
00:48:25.079 --> 00:48:33.980
Finally, Colleen's remains were revealed. Kenneth McDuff's appeals finally ran
667
00:48:34.099 --> 00:48:39.860
out on November 17, 1998. On that day, he was
668
00:48:39.920 --> 00:48:41.679
administered a lethal injection.
669
00:48:45.780 --> 00:48:51.650
His last words were, release me. And that summarizes the
670
00:48:51.690 --> 00:48:56.449
murderous life of Kenneth Allen Macduff. To the very end,
671
00:48:56.570 --> 00:49:03.269
he considered himself the victim. He considered himself the object
672
00:49:03.369 --> 00:49:04.210
of oppression.
673
00:49:05.610 --> 00:49:09.530
Kenneth Allen Macduff murdered and disposed of his victims with
674
00:49:09.610 --> 00:49:15.719
deadly precision and chilling premeditation. When investigators found the shallow
675
00:49:15.760 --> 00:49:19.710
grave of Valencia K. Joshua, They also found a second
676
00:49:19.750 --> 00:49:27.119
grave nearby, but this one was empty. Fortunately, McDuff was
677
00:49:27.179 --> 00:49:30.929
arrested before he had the chance to find his next victim.
678
00:49:59.489 --> 00:49:59.679
Thank you.
1
00:00:01.639 --> 00:00:05.809
Early Sunday morning on August 7th, 1966, near the small
2
00:00:05.870 --> 00:00:09.050
town of Everman, Texas, just a few miles south of
3
00:00:09.089 --> 00:00:13.710
Fort Worth, a farmer spotted a car abandoned on the
4
00:00:13.750 --> 00:00:18.920
side of the road. The trunk had been left ajar.
5
00:00:20.120 --> 00:00:23.539
When he opened it, he saw the dead bodies of
6
00:00:23.640 --> 00:00:31.390
two young boys. This tragic discovery marked the beginning of
7
00:00:31.469 --> 00:00:34.310
a series of crimes and trials that would span nearly
8
00:00:34.350 --> 00:01:04.510
three decades and ultimately transform Texas law. On Monday, October 26, 1993,
9
00:01:04.510 --> 00:01:07.469
one of the most famous trials in the history of
10
00:01:07.549 --> 00:01:10.829
Texas would bring a defiant killer face to face with
11
00:01:10.909 --> 00:01:14.790
a team of small town prosecutors. It would be the
12
00:01:14.829 --> 00:01:16.409
biggest case of their lives.
13
00:01:17.849 --> 00:01:21.489
If all that was standing between this violent and dangerous
14
00:01:21.569 --> 00:01:27.030
man and society was my group of prosecutors and investigators,
15
00:01:28.629 --> 00:01:31.480
we had a big responsibility to make sure we got
16
00:01:31.519 --> 00:01:32.319
it done right.
17
00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:42.439
Almost three decades earlier, in 1966, the Everman, Texas Sheriff's
18
00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:47.200
Department responded to the scene of a terrible crime. A
19
00:01:47.260 --> 00:01:50.219
local farmer had discovered the bodies of two young boys
20
00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:54.780
in the trunk of an abandoned car. The local sheriff
21
00:01:54.799 --> 00:02:00.560
was baffled by the execution-style murders In this episode, some
22
00:02:00.599 --> 00:02:03.280
of the names have been changed to protect the identity
23
00:02:03.319 --> 00:02:14.810
of the victims and their families. The farmer who discovered
24
00:02:14.830 --> 00:02:19.250
the bodies said he knew the youngsters. Both boys, Richard
25
00:02:19.310 --> 00:02:22.699
Bond and his cousin Matthew Duncan, grew up in Everman.
26
00:02:24.580 --> 00:02:27.219
Authorities learned that the last time their parents saw them
27
00:02:27.300 --> 00:02:31.689
was Saturday night, heading off to meet Richard's girlfriend, 17-year-old
28
00:02:31.870 --> 00:02:40.629
Laura Smith. Investigators feared she was kidnapped or worse. News
29
00:02:40.689 --> 00:02:45.159
of the shooting traveled quickly. That same morning, 100 miles
30
00:02:45.240 --> 00:02:48.539
away in the small town of Rosebud, a distraught young
31
00:02:48.599 --> 00:02:53.039
man surrendered to the local sheriff. His name was Roy
32
00:02:53.080 --> 00:02:56.430
Dale Green, and he said he had to make a confession.
33
00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:04.979
Green told Rosebud Sheriff Brady Pamplin that all three youngsters
34
00:03:05.039 --> 00:03:07.840
had been kidnapped and tortured by a local bully named
35
00:03:08.020 --> 00:03:12.000
Kenneth McDuff. It was not the first time Sheriff Pamplin
36
00:03:12.060 --> 00:03:16.789
had heard McDuff's name. He had previously locked him up
37
00:03:16.849 --> 00:03:24.189
for burglary, robbery, and assault at the age of 17. Today,
38
00:03:24.189 --> 00:03:29.270
25 years later, Sheriff Brady Pamplin's son, Larry Pamplin, is
39
00:03:29.289 --> 00:03:33.340
the retired sheriff of Falls County. A young deputy at
40
00:03:33.379 --> 00:03:36.780
the time, he remembers the day Roy Dale Green walked
41
00:03:36.819 --> 00:03:37.979
into his father's office.
42
00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:43.699
My dad had been in law enforcement all of his life,
43
00:03:43.939 --> 00:03:47.710
and he said that Kenneth McDuff was probably the most vicious,
44
00:03:47.849 --> 00:03:51.729
violent individual that he had ever come into contact with.
45
00:03:53.729 --> 00:03:56.509
Green told the sheriff he and McDuff were cruising the
46
00:03:56.530 --> 00:03:59.310
small town of Everman, when they saw two boys and
47
00:03:59.330 --> 00:04:02.169
a girl standing by a car near a baseball field.
48
00:04:06.830 --> 00:04:09.509
McDuff told Green that he wanted to find a girl
49
00:04:09.590 --> 00:04:14.469
he could rape and kill. And he told Green if
50
00:04:14.509 --> 00:04:20.779
he told anyone, he'd kill him too. Green said when
51
00:04:20.800 --> 00:04:23.480
they approached the baseball field, McDuff got out of the
52
00:04:23.519 --> 00:04:25.759
car with a gun in his hand and walked up
53
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to the three teens. Green waited by the car. He
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00:04:31.459 --> 00:04:34.100
said he didn't believe Macduff really planned to kill anyone.
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He thought he was just fooling around, trying to scare
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them a bit. But it was clear to the frightened
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teams that Macduff wasn't kidding. He held them at gunpoint
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and took their wallets.
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Come on back here.
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As Green watched, he ordered the three youngsters to get
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into the trunk of their car.
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Come on, man.
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Get in there.
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Hurry up.
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You're next.
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Come on. Come on. Here we go.
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Here we go.
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When McDuff told Green he'd have to kill the teens
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because they had gotten a good look at his face,
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Green said he still thought McDuff was joking.
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Yeah, we're going to kill him.
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Take the car, drop, follow me.
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All right.
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All right, where are we going?
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And he just went along with the game.
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All right.
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All right. Macduff drove the car with the three teens
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in the trunk and Roydale Green followed in Macduff's car.
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They didn't stop until they reached a secluded area on
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00:05:45.800 --> 00:05:52.819
the far side of town. Finally, on a dark back road,
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Macduff pulled over. He opened the trunk, told the two
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boys to lay still, and ordered Laura out of the car.
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Green said Macduff told him to put Laura in the
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trunk of Macduff's car. That's right.
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What are you doing, man?
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Both boys were shot repeatedly in the face.
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My father just could not visualize any individual, you know,
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especially a person 21 years old being so hardcore and
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00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:51.480
so violent and having no sign of a conscience. that
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00:06:51.540 --> 00:06:55.920
they would repeatedly shoot the two little boys in the head.
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Green said McDuff told him to erase their tire tracks
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00:07:03.740 --> 00:07:06.079
while he wiped the car clean of fingerprints.
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And then McDuff got into his own car along with
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Roydale Green, the little girl being in the trunk, drove
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00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:37.490
on down the gravel road actually into Johnson County. And
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00:07:37.529 --> 00:07:41.759
at that point in time, stopped the vehicle and raped
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the little girl. And Green raped the little girl. Macduff
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raped her again. and then choked her to death on
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the gravel road with Green holding her ankles.
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And then, according to Green, they threw the body over
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a fence and covered it with brush. Sheriff Pamplin launched
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a massive search to find the body of Laura Smith.
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Roy Dale Green tried to help, but the area was
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unfamiliar to him, and he couldn't remember where they'd left
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the body. At the same time, a manhunt was launched
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to find Kenneth McDuff. Investigators had information that McDuff would
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be out on a date that night with a girl
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from Bremen, Texas. They waited at the girl's house, hoping
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he would arrive.
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You know, it's been a number of years, but if
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I remember correctly, it was like 11.30 p.m. exactly when
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all hell broke loose.
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When McDuff saw the lawman, he tried to back out.
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But the sheriff's opened fire, shooting out his tires and radiator,
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crippling the car.
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McDuff was taken.
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Unhurt.
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It took days of searching before the body of Laura
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Smith was found and her family could bury her. Kenneth
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McDuff and Roy Dale Green went to trial in October
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of 1966. The first case to be tried was for
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the murder of Matthew Duncan. The prosecutors were confident they
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could get a capital conviction. They had a body, evidence
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linking McDuff to the victim, and an eyewitness. Former prosecutor
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Charlie Butts recalls that Roydale Green's cooperation alone would not
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be enough to convict McDuff of the murder.
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Then we had the problem in Texas of corroborating an accomplice.
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An accomplice witness, and certainly he was, needs to be
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corroborated with some evidence that tends to show that he's
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telling the truth or tends to connect the person he
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is saying is guilty.
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Key pieces of evidence enabled the prosecutors to corroborate Green's testimony.
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Two wallets belonging to the victims were found in a
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field and Kenneth McDuff's burned and bloody shirt were found
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buried on property belonging to his older brother. In return
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for his testimony, the prosecutors would not pursue the death
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penalty for Roy Dale Green's role in the murders. But
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McDuff would get no plea bargain, and he didn't want one.
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He denied any part of the crime. And his biggest
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supporter was.
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His mother, Addie McDuff.
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She had a long history of denying any of her
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son's troubles. And when she supported her son Kenneth in
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00:11:25.570 --> 00:11:30.090
blaming Green for the murders, the prosecutors exploited what they
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considered to be the weakest element of McDuff's defense.
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Then he made a mistake of laying it all off
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on Green. He said that he had taken a nap
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or something and claimed that Green had gone off and
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done all these things and You could look at Grant
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and tell that kid couldn't even conceive of doing that,
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let alone carry it out by himself.
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Has the jury reached a verdict?
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But McDuff claimed he was innocent. The police were out
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to frame him. Now the jury would have to make
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the decision to convict Kenneth McDuff for murder or to
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set him free. In November 1966 in Fort Worth, Texas,
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21-year-old Kenneth Allen McDuff was convicted for the murder of
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15-year-old Matthew Duncan. The jury sentenced him to death in
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the electric chair for the execution-style slaying. McDuff showed little emotion.
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After the trial for the murder of Matthew Duncan, the
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prosecutors saw no cause to try McDuff for the murders
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of the other two teenagers. Kenneth McDuff had been sentenced
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to die in the electric chair. Texas author Gary LaVerne
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covered McDuff's murderous career for his book, Bad Boy from Rosebud.
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There was some security there because he had been convicted
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of one and had been sentenced to death. And at
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least there was a notion in Texas at the time
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that surely nothing could be more final than a death penalty.
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Huntsville Prison, Texas. Macduff was on death row, waiting. His
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first execution date was stayed, then his second. By April 1970,
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Macduff was still in his 20s. He was awaiting his
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third scheduled execution date, but he was confident that this date, too,
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would be canceled. Then in 1972, the Supreme Court made
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its landmark decision in the case of Furman versus Georgia.
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The court ruled that the death penalty as it was
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currently practiced was unconstitutional. Minorities and those with low incomes
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were not receiving equal treatment in the courts. As a
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result of the ruling, McDuff's sentence was reduced to life imprisonment.
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And under Texas law at that time, that meant eventually
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this triple murderer would have the right to apply for parole.
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Eight years later in 1980, McDuff came up for parole.
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At the time, three parole board members would hear an
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inmate's case and it would take two votes to pass.
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McDuff's good behavior in prison convinced one of the members,
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but the other two voted it down. By the late 80s,
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Texas prisons were getting dangerously overcrowded, while little money was
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being spent to build new ones. The parole review system
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was taking the heat.
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The people of Texas did not want to vote new
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taxes to expand government. And expanding a prison system is
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an expansion of state government. So political leaders at the
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time responded by instructing the Board of Pardons and Parole
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to literally release thousands of people every month. And as
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time went on, more and more violent criminals were being
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paroled under a perfectly legal process.
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By the time McDuff was up for parole once again
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in 1989, his application was just one file stacked on
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top of a mountain of others. After 15 denials for parole,
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Kenneth McDuff incredibly got his letter of release. It didn't
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take long for word to reach the sheriff's office in
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his hometown. Sheriff Brady Pamplin, who'd arrested McDuff in 1966
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for the shooting of the three teenagers, had retired. And
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his son Larry was now the new sheriff of Falls County.
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When I first found out that Kenneth Allen McDuff had
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been released from prison, the first thing I did was
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call Parnell McNamara in Waco, Texas, Deputy U.S. Marshal, Parnell
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and his brother Mike, both are marshals, and we've been
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friends ever since we were little bitty boys. And I
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called Parnell and told him, I said, Parnell, you're not
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going to believe this, but they've released Kenneth McDuff. And
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I don't know if it'll be three days, three weeks,
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three months, but sooner or later, the bodies of young girls,
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young ladies, or boys are going to start turning up.
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Now, a second generation of Texas lawmen feared they would
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be dealing with Kenneth McDuff. Parnell McNamara and his brother
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Mike are the sons of a lawman who helped put
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away McDuff in the 1960s. Today, they are investigators with
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the U.S. Marshal Service.
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And I remember just sitting there in total disbelief. I
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absolutely could not believe that anyone in their right mind
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would have ever paroled a serial killer, someone who had
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brutally murdered three young people like he had. A total disbelief.
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On October 11, 1989, Kenneth McDuff was escorted out of
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Ramsey Prison. Although he had been sentenced to die 23
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years earlier, he was now a free man. McDuff returned
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to the town of Rosebud, Texas, where he grew up.
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People in his hometown were terrified when they learned he
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had been released. The town began to shut down. Doors
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were locked, shades drawn. Attendance at the schools dropped.
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There were reports of families not letting their children out,
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of bus drivers being told to be careful because McDuff
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is out. And that's the sad irony of all of this.
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When he was in school, he caused school officials trouble,
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even as a young kid. Now, he's been in prison
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for 23 years, he's let out, and bus drivers have
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to be careful all over again. It was a very
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bizarre event in the history of Central Texas.
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The citizens of Rosebud were much relieved when Kenneth McDuff
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moved away from home. In the spring of 1991, McDuff
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enrolled in the Texas State Technical College at Waco and
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moved into a dormitory on campus. He received financial aid
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as part of his rehabilitation program, and for the next year,
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he regularly reported to his parole officer. But authorities would
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soon learn that McDuff was far from rehabilitated. On March 1st, 1992,
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Waco police responded to a call that a clerk from
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a convenience store had disappeared. 22-year-old Melissa Northrup was working
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alone on the overnight shift at a Quickback. Her husband
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told police that he had just been on the phone
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with her when a customer walked in. He called back
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a few minutes later, but got no answer. Police found
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Melissa's purse under the counter, and her car was missing
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from the parking lot. Waco police did a routine check
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of cars at a nearby motel. They found a car
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that the manager confirmed did not belong to a guest.
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Investigators found a wallet in the car. It contained a
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social security card and a driver's license, both belonging to
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Kenneth McDuff. Investigators looked for McDuff at his college, but
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no one had seen him for several weeks. Students said
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he was a heavy drug user, and prostitutes visited his dorm.
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Room.
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Waco police could not locate McDuff, but investigators were soon
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called back to the college. A student had found a naked,
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decomposed body in a shallow grave in a wooded area
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behind McDuff's dormitory. But this would not be the body
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of Melissa Northwood. It was yet another victim. With McDuff
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on the loose, local investigators had to act fast. They
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feared that after 23 years, Kenneth McDuff was once again
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on a killing spree. On March 25th, 1992, a woman's
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body was found buried in a shallow grave behind the
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Texas State Technical College at Waco. This victim would turn
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out to be Valencia K. Joshua, According to a student witness,
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she was last seen on campus looking for Kenneth McDuff.
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Weeks earlier, Kenneth McDuff's car was found abandoned near the
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Clickbank store where another missing woman, Melissa Northrup, was last seen.
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But in both cases, the investigation had produced only the
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most circumstantial evidence. And with McDuff on the run, local
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investigators sought the help of U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston.
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Our concern was, now, but who's he killing now? Who's
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he going to kill tonight? And we really felt strongly
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that he was on a spree.
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Johnston knew that if he could charge McDuff with a
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federal violation, he could coordinate a statewide effort to apprehend McDuff.
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And he could bring in the full investigative talents of U.S.
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Marshals Parnell and Mike McNamara.
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I wanted to find a way for Mike and Parnell
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McNamara to get involved in this thing. I'd seen them
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on many manhunts.
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I knew how good they were.
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And I just wanted some hook to drag them in with.
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It was McDuff's well-known drug use that opened the door.
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The federal investigators found a young man who said McDuff
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had given him LSD. This was enough to write a
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federal drug warrant, and a task force was formed.
294
00:23:02.630 --> 00:23:02.869
U.S.
295
00:23:02.890 --> 00:23:04.130
Marshal Mike McNamara.
296
00:23:05.839 --> 00:23:10.119
We contacted every agency that we possibly could. And in
297
00:23:10.160 --> 00:23:13.200
a very short period of time, every law enforcement agency
298
00:23:13.240 --> 00:23:17.400
in the central Texas area was involved in this manhunt.
299
00:23:20.609 --> 00:23:25.029
The McNamara brothers began interviewing anyone who ever associated with McDuff.
300
00:23:26.490 --> 00:23:28.750
And when they tracked down a man named Alva Hank
301
00:23:28.809 --> 00:23:32.130
Worley to a Temple Motel... They knew they were on
302
00:23:32.150 --> 00:23:36.440
to something. Worley said he didn't know anything about the
303
00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:40.180
Melissa Northrup abduction or the Valencia K. Joshua killing.
304
00:23:42.119 --> 00:23:45.960
Worley did not respond like a normal person would to
305
00:23:46.039 --> 00:23:51.599
our interviews. When we explained to him what McDuff had
306
00:23:51.640 --> 00:23:56.769
done in 1966, Worley seemed oblivious to it. It didn't
307
00:23:56.950 --> 00:23:59.529
seem to either register with him or bother him in
308
00:23:59.569 --> 00:24:03.880
the least. So when we left the motel where Worley
309
00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:09.559
was living, everyone in the car agreed that something was
310
00:24:09.619 --> 00:24:11.680
wrong with Worley, that he wasn't acting right.
311
00:24:15.700 --> 00:24:18.500
Over a period of weeks, the McNamaras returned to the
312
00:24:18.539 --> 00:24:26.190
motel to talk to Worley, trying to break him down. Eventually,
313
00:24:26.210 --> 00:24:29.150
Worley agreed to come into the Bell County Sheriff's Department
314
00:24:29.569 --> 00:24:33.690
and give a complete statement. He claimed he knew nothing
315
00:24:33.769 --> 00:24:37.569
about Northrop or Joshua, but Worley said he had information
316
00:24:37.630 --> 00:24:41.769
about a missing persons case currently under investigation by Austin police.
317
00:24:43.349 --> 00:24:48.589
Hank Worley told us that on the night of December 29, 1991,
318
00:24:48.589 --> 00:24:53.130
that he and McDuff were in Austin, and they passed
319
00:24:53.170 --> 00:24:54.049
by a car wash.
320
00:24:59.480 --> 00:25:01.859
Macduff pulled into one of the car wash bays and
321
00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:07.799
told Worley to stay with the car. According to Worley,
322
00:25:08.200 --> 00:25:10.549
Macduff went to the next bay where a young woman
323
00:25:10.609 --> 00:25:21.769
was washing her car. Worley said Macduff returned to his vehicle,
324
00:25:21.890 --> 00:25:36.539
holding her by the throat. He said McDuff raped and
325
00:25:36.599 --> 00:25:40.319
killed her, but he claimed he didn't participate in the murder.
326
00:25:43.869 --> 00:25:47.109
In the abandoned car, Austin police found a purse and
327
00:25:47.150 --> 00:25:53.589
identification belonging to the victim, Colleen Reed. A surveillance photo
328
00:25:53.630 --> 00:25:56.730
at a nearby ATM machine helped narrow the time of
329
00:25:56.769 --> 00:26:03.730
her disappearance to sometime after 9.15 p.m., Worley claimed he
330
00:26:03.769 --> 00:26:06.950
could not remember where McDuff had disposed of her body.
331
00:26:10.430 --> 00:26:15.119
Now investigators finally had an eyewitness, the same kind of weak,
332
00:26:15.359 --> 00:26:19.309
suggestible accomplice that helped put McDuff away 30 years earlier
333
00:26:19.480 --> 00:26:23.109
in the murder of the three teenagers. But they still
334
00:26:23.190 --> 00:26:31.859
had to find McDuff. Over 12 state and federal agencies
335
00:26:31.960 --> 00:26:33.000
participated in the.
336
00:26:32.980 --> 00:26:36.920
Hunt for him. And when there seemed to be no
337
00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:42.940
trace of McDuff in Texas, the search went nationwide. All
338
00:26:43.019 --> 00:26:46.500
the major networks and news organizations ran stories on the fugitive.
339
00:26:49.220 --> 00:26:53.440
A hotline was set up. And on May 3rd, they
340
00:26:53.480 --> 00:26:54.269
received a tip.
341
00:26:56.440 --> 00:26:59.700
And the call was that a fellow that drives A
342
00:26:59.779 --> 00:27:03.680
trash truck, a garbage truck in Kansas City thinks McDuff
343
00:27:03.740 --> 00:27:05.920
might be up there with him. Of course, we thought,
344
00:27:05.940 --> 00:27:07.980
you've got to be kidding. I mean, Kansas City, he
345
00:27:08.019 --> 00:27:10.019
might as well have said the moon to us because
346
00:27:10.059 --> 00:27:11.900
we were convinced he would probably stay in areas he
347
00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:12.579
was familiar with.
348
00:27:15.400 --> 00:27:18.259
The tipster said another driver going by the name of
349
00:27:18.359 --> 00:27:23.660
Richard Fowler looked like McDuff. Luckily, this Mr. Fowler had
350
00:27:23.680 --> 00:27:27.269
been arrested for soliciting in Kansas City. and Kansas City
351
00:27:27.309 --> 00:27:35.049
police had a sole index fingerprint on file. That one
352
00:27:35.130 --> 00:27:41.849
fingerprint belonged to Kenneth McDuff. At 1.30 in the afternoon
353
00:27:41.970 --> 00:27:45.410
on Monday, May 4th, McDuff, now on the run as
354
00:27:45.470 --> 00:27:48.910
Richard Fowler, was driving his garbage truck to the Kansas
355
00:27:48.930 --> 00:27:49.420
City dump.
356
00:27:53.839 --> 00:27:54.880
How you doing?
357
00:27:54.900 --> 00:27:55.539
Step out of the truck for me.
358
00:27:58.609 --> 00:28:02.049
Police, posing as truck inspectors, waved him down for what
359
00:28:02.089 --> 00:28:08.349
he thought was a routine check. McDuff came out of
360
00:28:08.390 --> 00:28:14.119
his truck with his log and was too surprised to
361
00:28:14.160 --> 00:28:26.990
run when they cuffed him. Kenneth McDuff was flown back
362
00:28:27.029 --> 00:28:53.539
to Texas under heavy guard. The burden was now on
363
00:28:53.559 --> 00:28:57.079
the prosecutors to make sure McDuff never again walked the
364
00:28:57.099 --> 00:29:04.420
streets of Central Texas. The body of Melissa Northrup, the
365
00:29:04.440 --> 00:29:07.750
Quick-Pack store clerk, had recently been found in an abandoned
366
00:29:07.849 --> 00:29:13.380
quarry in Dallas County. her car stuck in the woods nearby.
367
00:29:16.619 --> 00:29:19.309
The body of Colleen Reed, the woman abducted from the
368
00:29:19.369 --> 00:29:24.750
car wash, was still missing. Prosecutors had an eyewitness, but
369
00:29:24.809 --> 00:29:29.509
without a body, murder would be difficult to prove. For
370
00:29:29.549 --> 00:29:33.349
the homicide of Valencia Joshua, there was no eyewitness and
371
00:29:33.430 --> 00:29:40.500
no physical evidence pointing to McDuff. Of the three cases,
372
00:29:41.180 --> 00:29:45.619
elected prosecutor of McLennan County, John Segrist, decided to first
373
00:29:45.700 --> 00:29:48.140
try McDuff for the murder of Melissa Northrup.
374
00:29:50.200 --> 00:29:54.430
Our strategy was to tie him as many times as
375
00:29:54.509 --> 00:29:58.049
we could to the victim, to the scene of the crimes,
376
00:29:58.670 --> 00:30:01.589
to the scene where the body was found, to the
377
00:30:01.710 --> 00:30:09.289
motive for murder, to anything we could possibly find to
378
00:30:09.329 --> 00:30:13.109
make those ties and reinforce the ties as many times
379
00:30:13.190 --> 00:30:18.059
as you possibly could. Because hopefully we could build a
380
00:30:18.140 --> 00:30:21.640
case that was strong enough and the circumstances were such
381
00:30:21.700 --> 00:30:24.519
that this jury could say that beyond a reasonable doubt,
382
00:30:24.599 --> 00:30:26.019
this was the man responsible.
383
00:30:27.269 --> 00:30:31.279
First Assistant Crawford Long, a forensic expert, would present what
384
00:30:31.380 --> 00:30:34.849
little physical evidence they had and concentrate on trying to
385
00:30:34.930 --> 00:30:37.430
prove McDuff's pattern of behavior to the jury.
386
00:30:39.210 --> 00:30:43.150
When you're presenting a case of circumstantial evidence, the problem
387
00:30:43.329 --> 00:30:46.549
is the jury likes to hear a person come in
388
00:30:46.630 --> 00:30:49.650
and say, I saw that person do the crime. I
389
00:30:49.720 --> 00:30:53.819
saw the defendant kill the person. In a circumstantial case,
390
00:30:53.859 --> 00:30:56.359
you're not going to have that. You're going to have
391
00:30:56.460 --> 00:30:59.779
small bits and pieces of evidence when taken all together
392
00:30:59.819 --> 00:31:02.480
will point out the defendant as the killer.
393
00:31:03.660 --> 00:31:07.059
First Assistant Freeman would bring McDuff's associates to the stand
394
00:31:07.500 --> 00:31:10.099
to provide testimony about his movements on the day of
395
00:31:10.140 --> 00:31:13.019
the murder and the violent nature of his behavior.
396
00:31:14.400 --> 00:31:20.119
Generally, a person's character is not admissible to prove their conduct. However,
397
00:31:20.160 --> 00:31:23.420
the law in Texas provides it can be used to
398
00:31:23.500 --> 00:31:26.940
prove motive and to prove identity. We had a case
399
00:31:26.980 --> 00:31:28.940
that was built like a domino house.
400
00:31:30.619 --> 00:31:33.690
A domino house built around a man who knew how
401
00:31:33.730 --> 00:31:38.859
to cover his tracks. Even his friends said he understood
402
00:31:38.880 --> 00:31:43.240
a single hair could send him to prison. He took
403
00:31:43.380 --> 00:31:49.049
great care wiping off fingerprints. But ultimately, no crime scene
404
00:31:49.130 --> 00:31:54.170
can be left perfectly clean. And there were some foreign
405
00:31:54.190 --> 00:32:00.940
hairs found in Melissa Northrup's abandoned car. Though DNA tests
406
00:32:00.980 --> 00:32:03.710
were ordered on the hair, A portion of the test
407
00:32:03.789 --> 00:32:07.529
became contaminated by the lab contracted to perform the analysis,
408
00:32:08.089 --> 00:32:11.670
and the prosecutors couldn't present any of the DNA evidence
409
00:32:11.809 --> 00:32:16.880
in court. The small-town prosecutors would have to prove to
410
00:32:16.920 --> 00:32:20.920
the Houston jury it was McDuff and only McDuff who
411
00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:26.039
killed Melissa Northrup. But without an eyewitness and no conclusive
412
00:32:26.079 --> 00:32:30.880
forensic evidence, McDuff's attorneys could make a convincing argument that
413
00:32:30.920 --> 00:32:36.609
their client was innocent. The prosecution had no direct evidence
414
00:32:36.869 --> 00:32:44.160
linking Kenneth McDuff to the murder of Melissa Northrup. Kenneth
415
00:32:44.200 --> 00:32:47.380
McDuff's trial for the murder of Melissa Northrup began in
416
00:32:47.460 --> 00:32:50.940
Houston in February of 1993.
417
00:32:51.640 --> 00:32:52.339
All rise.
418
00:32:54.960 --> 00:32:57.259
Court of the Honorable Judge Hagedorn is now in session.
419
00:32:57.279 --> 00:33:03.970
Thank you. the prosecutor made his opening statement to the
420
00:33:03.990 --> 00:33:09.059
12-member jury. He began with a detailed account of the
421
00:33:09.130 --> 00:33:14.019
events leading up to Melissa Northrup's kidnapping and murder. He
422
00:33:14.039 --> 00:33:17.700
described how Macduff's car broke down near Highway 35 and
423
00:33:17.740 --> 00:33:21.240
New Road in Waco, that Macduff had spent the day
424
00:33:21.349 --> 00:33:24.829
trying to raise money to smoke crack, and, as Macduff
425
00:33:24.869 --> 00:33:26.849
had said to a friend, get a woman.
426
00:33:27.009 --> 00:33:28.609
Of that convenience store in Texas.
427
00:33:30.589 --> 00:33:33.509
Just before four in the morning, the prosecutor told the jury,
428
00:33:33.529 --> 00:33:36.470
Macduff left the car in the parking lot of the
429
00:33:36.519 --> 00:33:41.759
New Road Inn. At this point, there are no eyewitnesses,
430
00:33:42.319 --> 00:33:45.519
but the prosecution sets the scenario that Macduff walked to
431
00:33:45.579 --> 00:33:51.380
the nearby QuickPak convenience store. A prosecution would show that
432
00:33:51.420 --> 00:33:54.200
Macduff had worked briefly at a different QuickPak store and
433
00:33:54.240 --> 00:33:59.059
he knew how it operated. He knew it had no
434
00:33:59.119 --> 00:34:03.309
security cameras. He knew the night clerk was alone. He
435
00:34:03.329 --> 00:34:07.250
knew there was cash in the register. Sir, come on around.
436
00:34:10.750 --> 00:34:13.900
And he left no evidence, not a single fingerprint.
437
00:34:20.960 --> 00:34:21.460
The End.
438
00:34:28.900 --> 00:34:31.789
The prosecutor told the jury that Melissa Northrup's car was
439
00:34:31.849 --> 00:34:34.809
found near Dallas a few days after she had disappeared.
440
00:34:37.030 --> 00:34:39.849
A short while later, her body was found floating in
441
00:34:39.869 --> 00:34:43.900
a gravel pit by a couple of fishermen. Her hands
442
00:34:43.940 --> 00:34:49.280
and feet had been tied with shoestrings. There were no fingerprints,
443
00:34:49.840 --> 00:34:54.090
no confessions, nothing personal left at the crime scene except
444
00:34:54.130 --> 00:35:00.710
a few hairs. The prosecution's strategy was twofold. To build
445
00:35:00.769 --> 00:35:04.670
their circumstantial case, they needed to track Kenneth McDuff's every
446
00:35:04.730 --> 00:35:11.190
move on the day and night Northrup disappeared. Secondly, they
447
00:35:11.230 --> 00:35:15.570
needed to prove a pattern of violence. Nothing but the truth,
448
00:35:15.590 --> 00:35:16.230
so help you God?
449
00:35:16.449 --> 00:35:16.750
I do.
450
00:35:17.210 --> 00:35:22.690
Hoping to establish McDuff's violent, unpredictable behavior, the prosecution questioned
451
00:35:22.750 --> 00:35:25.409
his associates on the stand. My name is Stephen Dowdy.
452
00:35:25.780 --> 00:35:31.579
The problem was these witnesses had criminal records of drug use, prostitution,
453
00:35:31.800 --> 00:35:35.079
and other crimes, and the prosecutors had to convince the
454
00:35:35.119 --> 00:35:41.039
jury their testimony was truthful. And before the prosecution's key
455
00:35:41.099 --> 00:35:44.280
witness could take the stand, the prosecutors would have to
456
00:35:44.320 --> 00:35:50.050
convince the judge to allow his testimony. The judge asked
457
00:35:50.090 --> 00:35:52.309
the jury to step out of the courtroom before he
458
00:35:52.329 --> 00:35:55.289
would hear the state's argument for calling Alva Hank Worley
459
00:35:58.610 --> 00:36:01.230
Worley was a witness to the abduction and murder of
460
00:36:01.329 --> 00:36:06.329
Colleen Reed. The prosecutors needed Worley's testimony to show a
461
00:36:06.409 --> 00:36:10.699
pattern between the Reed and the Northrop case. The pattern
462
00:36:10.780 --> 00:36:14.420
of the hunt, the capture, the torture, and the hiding
463
00:36:14.460 --> 00:36:15.280
of the two bodies.
464
00:36:16.219 --> 00:36:19.579
We were able to show the judge what we believe
465
00:36:19.639 --> 00:36:24.480
was 22 characteristics that were consistent with the Melissa Northrop case.
466
00:36:25.550 --> 00:36:29.250
The judge agreed that there were at least 15 consistencies
467
00:36:29.309 --> 00:36:33.250
between those two cases. For example, both were young, white,
468
00:36:33.630 --> 00:36:40.269
Caucasian females. Both were short and weighed approximately 100 pounds.
469
00:36:41.090 --> 00:36:44.610
Both had their purses left behind. Both took place along
470
00:36:44.719 --> 00:36:46.539
Interstate 35 corridor.
471
00:36:48.980 --> 00:36:51.739
Although the Colleen Reed case had not yet come to trial,
472
00:36:52.380 --> 00:36:55.929
the judge ruled that Hank Worley The eyewitness to Reed's
473
00:36:55.969 --> 00:36:59.920
alleged abduction from the car wash and her murder could
474
00:36:59.940 --> 00:37:07.000
tell the court what he had seen. According to Texas law,
475
00:37:07.579 --> 00:37:11.219
a witness could provide testimony to show the modus operandi
476
00:37:11.300 --> 00:37:20.409
of the accused. Now the prosecutors could show the jury
477
00:37:20.550 --> 00:37:26.489
how McDuff kidnapped and murdered his victims. What in particular
478
00:37:26.530 --> 00:37:27.800
did Mr. McDuff say?
479
00:37:32.380 --> 00:37:34.360
He said he was going to take himself a girl
480
00:37:34.400 --> 00:37:34.840
that night.
481
00:37:38.909 --> 00:37:44.730
McDuff's friends were generally slow-witted people that McDuff felt he
482
00:37:44.769 --> 00:37:49.929
needed to have around him to reinforce his superiority complex.
483
00:37:50.489 --> 00:37:53.460
What he didn't figure on was that these people would
484
00:37:53.500 --> 00:37:55.670
have a conscience and would break down.
485
00:37:55.750 --> 00:37:57.170
Please tell us what else happened.
486
00:37:57.269 --> 00:38:00.750
Worley said McDuff liked to talk about snatching women and
487
00:38:00.789 --> 00:38:02.909
he saw him do it to Colleen Reed at the
488
00:38:03.010 --> 00:38:05.980
Austin car wash. He got out of the car.
489
00:38:07.579 --> 00:38:11.519
And he walked around the wall and he grabbed the
490
00:38:11.559 --> 00:38:14.480
girl by the throat and then he brought her back
491
00:38:14.579 --> 00:38:15.260
over to the car.
492
00:38:18.579 --> 00:38:21.460
What did he intend to do with her? Well, he
493
00:38:21.599 --> 00:38:24.510
said that he was gonna get rid of her Use
494
00:38:24.530 --> 00:38:28.380
her up or get rid of her. Worley said McDuff
495
00:38:28.500 --> 00:38:31.840
tied her feet and hands with shoelaces, just like the
496
00:38:31.880 --> 00:38:34.239
shoelaces found on the body of Melissa Northrup.
497
00:38:35.320 --> 00:38:35.780
Yes, sir.
498
00:38:36.449 --> 00:38:39.909
Having failed to prevent Worley's damaging testimony from being heard
499
00:38:39.949 --> 00:38:43.369
by the jury, the defense now had only one recourse,
500
00:38:44.230 --> 00:38:50.059
to discredit the witness. McDuff's attorney vehemently attacked Worley as
501
00:38:50.119 --> 00:38:51.639
a liar and a rapist. Isn't that true?
502
00:38:52.050 --> 00:38:55.849
In fact, you stated at one time, I tried to
503
00:38:55.969 --> 00:38:56.630
untie her.
504
00:38:57.849 --> 00:38:59.590
I told her I would try.
505
00:38:59.349 --> 00:38:59.909
To help her.
506
00:39:00.110 --> 00:39:02.630
She wanted me to stay back there with her because
507
00:39:02.730 --> 00:39:06.429
she knew I would not hurt her. That's right.
508
00:39:08.269 --> 00:39:13.380
And you helped her by raping her. Isn't that correct?
509
00:39:13.840 --> 00:39:20.000
I did not rape her. Are you telling the jury
510
00:39:21.239 --> 00:39:25.489
that she voluntarily had sex with you? She knew that
511
00:39:25.570 --> 00:39:26.710
I wasn't going to hurt her.
512
00:39:27.050 --> 00:39:29.710
So long as I was back there with her, I
513
00:39:29.769 --> 00:39:31.059
wasn't going to hurt her.
514
00:39:34.550 --> 00:39:38.030
The defense's attack on Worley was a blow to the prosecution,
515
00:39:38.789 --> 00:39:43.739
and there was still another weakness in the case. There
516
00:39:43.780 --> 00:39:48.250
was no eyewitness placing McDuff at the gravel pits in Combine, Texas,
517
00:39:48.550 --> 00:39:53.150
where Melissa Northrup's body was found. But then, a surprise
518
00:39:53.190 --> 00:39:54.269
witness came forward.
519
00:39:55.670 --> 00:39:58.769
I got a note from my investigator that there was,
520
00:39:58.789 --> 00:40:03.309
they received a phone call from a young lady in
521
00:40:03.329 --> 00:40:06.449
Dallas County, who lived very near the gravel pits where
522
00:40:06.489 --> 00:40:09.530
Melissa Northrup's body was found, and she wanted to talk
523
00:40:09.570 --> 00:40:09.809
to us.
524
00:40:11.280 --> 00:40:15.599
Sherry Robinson testified that on March 2nd, 36 hours after
525
00:40:15.659 --> 00:40:19.500
Melissa Northrup was abducted from the Quick-Pack store, a dirty
526
00:40:19.579 --> 00:40:23.070
and disheveled McDuff came to her door late at night
527
00:40:23.610 --> 00:40:24.429
asking for food.
528
00:40:24.570 --> 00:40:27.269
I heard a light tap at the door and I
529
00:40:27.369 --> 00:40:29.190
opened the door and I stood there.
530
00:40:30.469 --> 00:40:32.510
And he said he was hungry.
531
00:40:33.409 --> 00:40:35.800
And him and his old lady had just gotten into
532
00:40:35.820 --> 00:40:36.360
an argument.
533
00:40:37.800 --> 00:40:39.900
And you know, he asked me if I had a sandwich.
534
00:40:42.210 --> 00:40:43.349
I don't have a sandwich.
535
00:40:43.489 --> 00:40:44.489
I have a bowl of beans.
536
00:40:45.050 --> 00:40:45.929
That'd be fine.
537
00:40:45.989 --> 00:40:47.570
That'd be fine.
538
00:40:48.110 --> 00:40:49.699
Okay.
539
00:40:49.880 --> 00:40:52.420
Well, I got the bowl of beans, and I gave
540
00:40:52.500 --> 00:40:52.960
it to him.
541
00:40:53.480 --> 00:40:54.539
And he went on his way.
542
00:40:54.980 --> 00:40:58.440
Robinson had placed McDuff within two miles of the location
543
00:40:58.500 --> 00:41:06.139
where Northrop's body was found. Stunned by Robinson's testimony, McDuff
544
00:41:06.199 --> 00:41:09.539
demanded to tell his side of the story. Though his
545
00:41:09.559 --> 00:41:13.139
defense lawyers argued against it, McDuff was confident he could
546
00:41:13.179 --> 00:41:17.590
convince the jury of his innocence. His attorney was so upset,
547
00:41:17.989 --> 00:41:19.969
he asked the judge to be taken off the case.
548
00:41:21.030 --> 00:41:22.650
But the judge denied his request.
549
00:41:24.750 --> 00:41:28.690
We had hoped that McDuff would take the witness stand.
550
00:41:29.989 --> 00:41:33.369
Even the judge took him back into chambers and told him,
551
00:41:33.670 --> 00:41:36.230
you're making a bad move.
552
00:41:37.269 --> 00:41:41.019
McDuff took the stand. He believed he only needed the
553
00:41:41.059 --> 00:41:43.960
chance to tell his side of the story. And once
554
00:41:43.980 --> 00:41:46.360
he did, the jury would see that he was an
555
00:41:46.519 --> 00:41:53.079
innocent man. I do. Against the advice of his lawyers
556
00:41:53.139 --> 00:41:56.199
and the judge, Kenneth McDuff took the stand and professed
557
00:41:56.219 --> 00:41:56.780
his innocence.
558
00:41:57.500 --> 00:41:57.739
Mr.
559
00:41:57.760 --> 00:42:01.949
McDuff, did you on March 1st, 1992, abduct and murder Ms.
560
00:42:01.989 --> 00:42:02.909
Melissa Ann Northrup?
561
00:42:03.409 --> 00:42:07.079
No, I had nothing to do with that. On Saturday,
562
00:42:07.219 --> 00:42:08.800
I went out and I bought some beer and I
563
00:42:08.820 --> 00:42:09.340
was already.
564
00:42:09.440 --> 00:42:12.500
McDuff began to recount a long and winding journey on
565
00:42:12.539 --> 00:42:13.300
the day of the murder.
566
00:42:13.320 --> 00:42:13.900
Saturday night.
567
00:42:13.920 --> 00:42:15.199
He.
568
00:42:14.599 --> 00:42:16.760
Barely let his lawyer get a word in edgewise.
569
00:42:16.909 --> 00:42:18.989
I was already starting to drink... Before we get into that.
570
00:42:19.010 --> 00:42:19.130
Why.
571
00:42:19.090 --> 00:42:21.170
Don't you let me finish this again?
572
00:42:21.210 --> 00:42:22.769
No, I want to ask you another question.
573
00:42:22.969 --> 00:42:26.469
It was Saturday night, I bought the beer and I was.
574
00:42:26.670 --> 00:42:28.929
McDuff claimed his car trouble at the New Road Inn
575
00:42:29.150 --> 00:42:30.260
was just a coincidence.
576
00:42:30.280 --> 00:42:30.639
And, uh.
577
00:42:31.769 --> 00:42:34.469
He said he spent the early morning pushing his car
578
00:42:34.530 --> 00:42:38.860
with another car up to the motel. He testified that
579
00:42:38.900 --> 00:42:41.880
at about 5 a.m., he went back to the dorm
580
00:42:41.940 --> 00:42:45.300
of the Texas State Technical College and went to sleep.
581
00:42:46.780 --> 00:42:49.320
He said he took off the next day, afraid of
582
00:42:49.400 --> 00:42:52.329
trouble from his parole officer because he was doing drugs.
583
00:42:55.130 --> 00:43:00.300
Now the prosecutor had his chance to question McDuff. He
584
00:43:00.360 --> 00:43:02.849
asked him if he had abducted Northrup from the quick pack.
585
00:43:02.989 --> 00:43:03.710
Would you state your name?
586
00:43:03.829 --> 00:43:06.170
Used her car to drive her to a remote area
587
00:43:06.289 --> 00:43:10.530
about 100 miles north of Waco and eventually abandoned the
588
00:43:10.570 --> 00:43:12.889
car near a quarry where her body was found.
589
00:43:13.429 --> 00:43:16.929
Well, if it would have been me, I wouldn't have
590
00:43:16.949 --> 00:43:19.730
drove that car that far if I was going to commit.
591
00:43:20.070 --> 00:43:21.610
I mean, it just don't make sense to me.
592
00:43:22.269 --> 00:43:27.260
So what you're telling the jury, it's your tough luck
593
00:43:27.739 --> 00:43:32.030
that you happen to be at The very place where
594
00:43:32.489 --> 00:43:34.599
Melissa Northrup was kidnapped.
595
00:43:35.519 --> 00:43:37.699
At the time she was kidnapped.
596
00:43:39.559 --> 00:43:42.579
Look, I think the facts show that I was there
597
00:43:43.019 --> 00:43:45.800
after that event. I had to push that car for
598
00:43:45.800 --> 00:43:49.050
45 minutes, okay? If I had walked from where my
599
00:43:49.090 --> 00:43:51.369
car broke down to the quick pack and then walked
600
00:43:51.409 --> 00:43:54.469
back again. I mean, we're talking about a whole lot
601
00:43:54.510 --> 00:43:55.110
of time here.
602
00:43:56.369 --> 00:44:00.269
The prosecutor had no more questions. For the first time,
603
00:44:00.869 --> 00:44:07.239
McDuff admitted having been at the Quickback store. He seemed
604
00:44:07.300 --> 00:44:11.239
to have become entangled in his own incredible story and
605
00:44:11.440 --> 00:44:18.320
inadvertently blurted out the truth. The defense attorney told the
606
00:44:18.340 --> 00:44:20.880
jury that the case had little to do with law
607
00:44:20.980 --> 00:44:26.599
or evidence. It depended on fear, hatred, and a willingness
608
00:44:26.639 --> 00:44:33.030
to despise the defendant. In the state's closing, the prosecutors
609
00:44:33.130 --> 00:44:38.239
argued the pattern was clear, that the evidence shows the
610
00:44:38.260 --> 00:44:42.480
defendant was every person's nightmare. The evidence shows that he's
611
00:44:42.519 --> 00:44:45.480
a monster that comes out of the dark and snatches
612
00:44:45.559 --> 00:44:51.039
innocent people. The jury was out for just over three hours.
613
00:44:57.059 --> 00:45:05.860
Will the defendant rise? mcduff fit the definition that most
614
00:45:05.920 --> 00:45:09.820
people would have of a true sociopath in that he
615
00:45:09.920 --> 00:45:14.090
showed no emotion whatsoever except anger.
616
00:45:14.409 --> 00:45:19.050
Kenneth mcduff this court finds you guilty of the kidnapping
617
00:45:19.260 --> 00:45:23.579
and murder of melissa northrup this court is adjourned.
618
00:45:24.530 --> 00:45:28.289
He showed no emotion whatsoever. One of the prosecutors of
619
00:45:28.329 --> 00:45:33.969
the 1966 trial described his eyes as dead eyes, that
620
00:45:34.030 --> 00:45:36.250
they were black and like a shark.
621
00:45:37.309 --> 00:45:40.599
With the kidnapping and murder of Melissa Northrup, McDuff would
622
00:45:40.619 --> 00:45:46.280
get the death sentence. Confident they could win again, the
623
00:45:46.320 --> 00:45:49.940
prosecutors indicted McDuff for the murder of Colleen Reed. And
624
00:45:50.039 --> 00:45:53.639
once again, the verdict was guilty and the sentence, death.
625
00:45:57.039 --> 00:46:00.030
Certainly the citizens of Texas were in an outrage that
626
00:46:00.070 --> 00:46:03.010
their parole board ever released McDuff in the first place
627
00:46:03.210 --> 00:46:05.690
while serving a life sentence for the 1966 murder. It
628
00:46:10.210 --> 00:46:13.900
inspired Texas voters to fund a $ 2 billion building program
629
00:46:13.960 --> 00:46:18.260
for new prisons. The governor at the time, Ann Richards,
630
00:46:18.480 --> 00:46:21.440
was able to spearhead a number of reforms that became
631
00:46:21.500 --> 00:46:26.150
known as the McDuff Laws. including a new definition of
632
00:46:26.309 --> 00:46:31.230
life in prison, as 45 years behind bars before coming
633
00:46:31.309 --> 00:46:37.360
up for parole. Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston moved on
634
00:46:37.420 --> 00:46:40.659
to other cases, but kept his eye on some unfinished
635
00:46:40.699 --> 00:46:44.260
business in the McDuff case. The body of Colleen Reed
636
00:46:44.340 --> 00:46:46.530
and two other victims had not been found.
637
00:46:47.829 --> 00:46:50.289
His time for execution was like a month or two
638
00:46:50.329 --> 00:46:52.869
away when we felt like.
639
00:46:54.199 --> 00:46:54.739
Let's try.
640
00:46:54.780 --> 00:46:55.849
Let's make a push here.
641
00:46:57.570 --> 00:47:00.210
McDuff had admitted to a regular visitor that he had
642
00:47:00.269 --> 00:47:03.289
killed two other women in addition to Colleen Reed and
643
00:47:03.329 --> 00:47:06.650
Melissa Northrup. He told the visitor where he had buried
644
00:47:06.690 --> 00:47:10.409
their bodies. But for some reason, McDuff refused to talk
645
00:47:10.449 --> 00:47:11.650
about Colleen Reed.
646
00:47:14.260 --> 00:47:17.159
He didn't want to. And what he said was, they
647
00:47:17.199 --> 00:47:19.860
won't need me anymore. Well, I mean, this is a
648
00:47:19.860 --> 00:47:21.880
guy that's going to be executed in three weeks. I
649
00:47:22.380 --> 00:47:24.860
wasn't sure quite what he thought anybody needed him for.
650
00:47:27.179 --> 00:47:31.000
Then prison officials promised McDuff whatever he said, he would
651
00:47:31.019 --> 00:47:35.500
be treated no differently, no better, but no worse. And
652
00:47:35.860 --> 00:47:38.309
McDuff revealed a remote location by.
653
00:47:38.239 --> 00:47:40.210
The Brazos River.
654
00:47:45.309 --> 00:47:49.429
Where even after following McDuff's directions, investigators were having no luck.
655
00:47:54.070 --> 00:47:58.630
In a last-minute decision, prison officials brought McDuff, chained and shackled,
656
00:47:58.650 --> 00:48:01.639
to the Brazos River site.
657
00:48:03.179 --> 00:48:06.539
I didn't like him being so personally involved. I didn't
658
00:48:06.559 --> 00:48:09.340
want him to have that satisfaction. But it turned out
659
00:48:09.380 --> 00:48:11.400
that it had to be. There was just no way
660
00:48:11.420 --> 00:48:11.980
to do it without him.
661
00:48:14.860 --> 00:48:18.389
Once he arrived at the site, McDuff told investigators where
662
00:48:18.429 --> 00:48:20.210
to look for the grave of Colleen Reed.
663
00:48:21.409 --> 00:48:21.650
Whoa!
664
00:48:21.969 --> 00:48:22.250
Stop!
665
00:48:22.650 --> 00:48:22.849
Stop!
666
00:48:25.079 --> 00:48:33.980
Finally, Colleen's remains were revealed. Kenneth McDuff's appeals finally ran
667
00:48:34.099 --> 00:48:39.860
out on November 17, 1998. On that day, he was
668
00:48:39.920 --> 00:48:41.679
administered a lethal injection.
669
00:48:45.780 --> 00:48:51.650
His last words were, release me. And that summarizes the
670
00:48:51.690 --> 00:48:56.449
murderous life of Kenneth Allen Macduff. To the very end,
671
00:48:56.570 --> 00:49:03.269
he considered himself the victim. He considered himself the object
672
00:49:03.369 --> 00:49:04.210
of oppression.
673
00:49:05.610 --> 00:49:09.530
Kenneth Allen Macduff murdered and disposed of his victims with
674
00:49:09.610 --> 00:49:15.719
deadly precision and chilling premeditation. When investigators found the shallow
675
00:49:15.760 --> 00:49:19.710
grave of Valencia K. Joshua, They also found a second
676
00:49:19.750 --> 00:49:27.119
grave nearby, but this one was empty. Fortunately, McDuff was
677
00:49:27.179 --> 00:49:30.929
arrested before he had the chance to find his next victim.
678
00:49:59.489 --> 00:49:59.679
Thank you.