Serial Killer Documentary - Billy Mansfield Jr.

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In 1981, a search at Billy Mansfield Jr. 's sprawling
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rural property in Florida turned up the bodies of four
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young women.
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He would drive and look for girls hitchhiking and abduct them.
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Or he'd hang out at malls.
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A serial killer by his early 20s, Mansfield Jr. 's
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abuse of women had begun in his teens.
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Mansfield Jr. is someone that was raised in the world
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of violence and wreaked havoc and violence on anyone he
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came into contact with.
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His sexual crimes escalated over time, both in terms of
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how violent they were to eventually resulting in murders.
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Convicted of killing five victims, no young woman who crossed
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paths with Billy Mansfield Jr. was safe.
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He sees women as evil. He doesn't value life at all.
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Mansfield could be approachable, charming, but that was the mask.
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over this much more malevolent, depraved human being.
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Billy Mansfield Jr. 's short but deadly spree was brought
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to an end in 1980 when he was exposed as
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one of the world's most evil killers. In 1980, when
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a woman was found dead the morning after leaving a
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bar in Watsonville, California, with 24-year-old drifter Billy Mansfield Jr.,
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detectives were shocked at how little the killer had done
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to cover his tracks.
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That kind of chutzpah, if you will, speaks to his
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feeling that he was more clever than anyone else and
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that he could do whatever he wanted to do. He
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acted with complete impunity. He just, he did not care.
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Sometimes he even boasted about his crimes and kind of
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derived joy out of being able to recollect his crimes
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and what he did, almost like these were accomplishments that
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he should be rewarded for.
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I don't believe he ever showed remorse, and I don't
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think he even feels remorse. I don't think he's capable
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of it.
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This killer's story begins in a shack on the edge
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of Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1956. He had.
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A troubled childhood. He was bullied and was bullied.
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Billy's parents were William Mansfield Sr. and Virginia Mansfield. He
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was their first child. They would have four more after him,
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three boys and a girl.
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You could say it was a completely dysfunctional family on
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the edge of the law at all times. The boys
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were encouraged to fight amongst.
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Each other by.
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their father.
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He was reared in a world of violence. At one point,
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the father was seen chasing some of the kids down
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the street with a gun.
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So this is the first instance that Billy is learning
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about the rules of life, and all of this is
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coming from his father, who was, this is a way
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that Billy is learning, even from a young age, that
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this is how you solve problems when people don't agree
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with you. And the family was actually very well known
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to the police because there were a number of different charges,
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both violent and nonviolent, between the men and the boys
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of the family.
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Bringing did not prepare Billy Mansfield Jr. for a successful
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school life.
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Mansfield Jr. attended school in Grand Rapids and was often
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described as a social misfit and often got into trouble
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in school. By the age of 14, Mansfield Jr. was
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already charged with larceny, which is stealing. In effect, it's
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an additional allegation against Mansfield Jr. was that he sexually
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assaulted a 14-year-old girl on her way home from school.
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His father, William Mansfield Sr., had been tried for a
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similar offense some 20 years earlier while still in his teens.
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He was acquitted, but it was the first of many
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such trials for the family patriarch.
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It served time for rape in both Michigan and in Nevada,
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and an armed robbery up in Michigan.
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His father had been charged with multiple nonviolent and violent crimes,
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including sexual molestation of multiple individuals who were underage. So
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perhaps even from that, just watching his father recognizing that
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this is something that people do, perhaps, or maybe even
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his father explained those incidences away as things that were
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OK to do. So this is the first instance that
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Billy is learning about the rules of life.
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Already on a dark path by the age of 14,
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Mansfield Jr., known to his family as Billy, decided that
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formal education wasn't for him.
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He dropped out of school when he was 14. He
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altered his birth certificate, which back in those days was
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much easier to do than it is now, and wound
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up joining the army.
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During his time in the Army, Mansfield Jr. was assigned
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to places such as Germany. But after about 14 months
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of service, they determined that he really was not of
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age and that he had lied about his age to enlist,
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and he was discharged.
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Mansfield maintained that that Army career is where he became
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an alcoholic and first experimented with drugs, which made him volatile,
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extremely volatile.
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Despite his troubles, at the age of 17, Mansfield settled
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down with his childhood sweetheart, Phyllis. The couple had first
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met at school in their early teens. By the time
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they married in 1973, they already had a child together,
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and five months later, a second baby followed.
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The marriage became very turbulent very quickly. Whenever his wife
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threatened to leave or when they would have a fight,
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He would threaten aggression on her and threaten that he
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would kill her. And at one point when she was
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holding their baby, he put a gun to her head.
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Phyllis would later tell investigators about her husband's sexual proclivities.
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She talked about how Billy was bisexual. He would pick
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up men in gay bars, bring them home, make her
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watch him have sexual encounters.
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In 1974, when Billy Mansfield Jr. was 18, he was
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brought to trial for sex offenses. In fact, forcing two
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women to perform sex acts on him. And at the
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same time, it goes to trial and the jury find
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it impossible to believe that one man coerce two women
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to act in ways they didn't want to act.
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It was around this time that the family took the
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opportunity to leave their legal difficulties in Michigan behind them.
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After a fire at the Mansfield property in Michigan, the
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Mansfield clan purchased a five-acre plot in Spring Hill, Florida.
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It was surrounded by dense grove. It was rural. It
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was rustic. And it had several trailers on the property
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in different places.
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Property was overgrown. It had junk cars. refrigerator parts, all
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kinds of things on it.
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Local Hernando County Prosecutor Jimmy Brown quickly became well acquainted
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with the family.
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During the course of my time knowing the Mansfields, I
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prosecuted the dad and Billy and his brother Gary and
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his brother Robbie and his brother Terry. Billy's family and
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another local family here, we refer to them as the
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Hernando County version of the Hatfields and the McCoys. They
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had an animosity toward each other. They feuded. They got
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into fights. They beat each other up. They stole things
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from each other.
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I think it would be fair to describe the household,
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the family, as utterly lawless. There's no doubt that that
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lawless atmosphere that they were living in would have shaped
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their relationship with the legal system on the outside of
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that house.
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Far from starting afresh in Florida, the Mansfield family continued
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their criminal pursuits. In fact, Billy Mansfield Jr. was about
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to escalate, with catastrophic consequences for any young woman who
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crossed his path. By 1975, the entire Mansfield clan had
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settled on the sprawling plot of land, including Billy Mansfield Jr.
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and his wife and children. That winter, at a campsite
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13 miles away in Brooksville, teenager Elaine Ziegler went missing.
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Elaine Ziegler was a 15-year-old girl on holiday with her
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mother and stepfather. They came from Ohio.
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Her family had been down here in 1975 for Christmas,
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staying at the KOA campground.
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Elaine had been looking forward to seeing in the new year,
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but around 10.30 that evening... evening, she was seen talking
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to a dark-haired man in his 20s with a beard
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and piercing eyes.
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She was seen getting into a blue, light blue Ford
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Fairlane with him with Florida plates, and that was the
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last that she was seen.
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On New Year's Day, 1976, her parents made a frantic
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phone call to the police telling them that Elaine is missing.
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The police respond by reaching out to the community and
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giving descriptions. There's a reward of $ 500 placed for information
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leading to her recovery.
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I remember her going missing. We did an extensive search,
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and we were concerned from the beginning that she had
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met with... Foul play.
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Jimmy Brown was, at this time, the deputy state attorney
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serving Anando County.
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The only thing that we had was a statement. He
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had very striking eyes, and they were described as mesmerizing.
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And so he had a very striking appearance.
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Police officers canvassing members of the public for information had
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come across a young man who matched the description in
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the vicinity of the campground.
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Showed him a picture and he said, oh yeah, I
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talked to that girl, she's from Ohio and I saw
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her New Year's Eve and she said she was leaving
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and heading back home to Ohio because she had people
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she needed to see and things she needed to do.
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Her parents swore she would not have left. She was happy,
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she wasn't having problems, she wasn't the type of person
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who would run away. They stuck around for, I think
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it was like six weeks before they finally went home.
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They stuck around for a long time.
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Elaine Ziegler's disappearance remained unsolved. In early 1976, Billy Mansfield Jr.
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moved with his family back to Michigan, where he spent
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the next four years in and out of prison.
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In 1976, Mansfield Jr. is arrested for being drunk and
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disorderly and he's put in jail. Upon being released from
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the drunken disorderly arrest in October of 1976, he's immediately
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re-arrested for the rape of a 16-year-old Michigan girl. He
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pled guilty to a lesser charge and he went back
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to jail. In 1978, Mansfield Jr. is accused of sexual
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assault and the attempted rape of two other women.
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Was sentenced to one year because he flipped on his
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cellmate who had committed murder.
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And at this point, his wife uses the opportunity to
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file for divorce while he's away from her so she
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can start the proceedings.
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He got out in 1980 and came back down to Florida.
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He and his dad and his brother Gary were working,
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doing refrigeration repair work and installation work, heating and air
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conditioning things.
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Now a single man, in March 1980, 24-year-old Billy Mansfield Jr.
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was back in the bosom of his dysfunctional family. Just
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a month later, a 21-year-old Tampa woman went missing.
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Sandy Graham was out drinking and playing pool at a
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local establishment that she frequented.
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She was known to be this very outgoing, recently divorced
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young adult who really was comfortable speaking to different people.
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She started playing pool with a guy who was not
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a regular at the bar. She took a break and
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started talking to another guy at the bar, at which
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time the guy she was playing pool with, who people
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didn't seem to know at the bar, got very upset.
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Observers described the man's eyes as being very scary looking
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and piercing.
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The stranger threw her car keys in the trash, but sadly, nevertheless,
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was seen leaving the bar with this stranger. Well, her
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friends who'd been there with her absolutely expected her to
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return because everything was there. Her glasses were there, everything.
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So what happened? Well, the answer was no one knew.
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She literally disappeared into thin air.
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A month later, a 16-year-old girl called Theresa Fillingham moved
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to Tampa.
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She had gone off the rail in her teens, had
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some difficult and complicated family relationships, but appeared to be
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starting over, trying to start fresh and clean slate.
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In May 1980, Teresa left her foster home in Washington
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state to move in with her older sister, Margaret.
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Somehow she convinced me to take her to Florida with me.
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And so I brought her back with me and we
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rented a place. It was going to be a temporary
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place for a while and she was going to get
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her GED and get a job.
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Teresa had only been in Tampa for a few days
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when she vanished.
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She told me that evening that she had a job
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interview at University Mall in Tampa. This girlfriend of hers
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was going to go after a job too and they
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were going to go together.
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I said, okay.
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So I went to work that night. I got home
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probably about 10 o'clock and she still wasn't home and
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she had never showed for the job interview.
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She didn't show up.
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And when Margaret told the law enforcement about it, because
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she had a history of running away, they thought maybe
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00:15:56.259 --> 00:15:57.480
she was just running away again.
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00:15:57.990 --> 00:16:00.090
In the course of things over the next few months,
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00:16:00.629 --> 00:16:03.210
she still didn't turn up. All of her belongings were
250
00:16:03.250 --> 00:16:10.220
left behind intact. Her suitcase, her clothing, any jewelry that
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00:16:10.269 --> 00:16:14.879
she had, she never came back for it. The Tampa
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00:16:14.899 --> 00:16:18.279
Police Department had me come out and identify some Jane Does.
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00:16:18.580 --> 00:16:20.500
So I had to go down and none of them
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00:16:20.759 --> 00:16:24.830
were her. And then the case just got colder and
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00:16:24.899 --> 00:16:27.190
colder and colder and colder.
256
00:16:28.110 --> 00:16:29.250
And she never came back.
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00:16:36.570 --> 00:16:41.320
In June 1980, 40 miles north of Tampa in Hernando County,
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William Mansfield Sr. fell foul of the law once again,
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00:16:45.960 --> 00:16:48.960
and this time on even more serious charges.
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00:16:49.240 --> 00:16:53.120
Our Mansfield Jr. 's father was charged with over 40
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00:16:53.120 --> 00:16:54.940
counts of sexual abuse of children.
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00:16:55.269 --> 00:17:00.029
We sent him away for 56 years for sexually molesting
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00:17:00.210 --> 00:17:04.910
children from age 3 to age 15, multiple times.
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00:17:05.789 --> 00:17:12.930
Billy's father was a serious and prolific sexual offender of
265
00:17:13.029 --> 00:17:19.079
the worst kind. He was a very manipulative individual as well.
266
00:17:19.539 --> 00:17:24.670
and he would manipulate women, as some sex offenders do,
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00:17:25.170 --> 00:17:31.250
to facilitate access to children. This is a lawless.
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00:17:30.779 --> 00:17:33.680
Man with not a moral.
269
00:17:33.420 --> 00:17:35.440
Molecule in his body.
270
00:17:36.849 --> 00:17:41.039
Five days after William Mansfield Sr. 's arrest, a young
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00:17:41.119 --> 00:17:44.680
woman was attacked in Brooksville, not far from the camping
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00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:48.740
ground where Elaine Ziegler had gone missing five years before.
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00:17:48.759 --> 00:17:53.539
18-year-old Pamela Sherrill was walking home along a road in Brooksville, Florida,
274
00:17:53.940 --> 00:17:56.240
when a man pulled up next to her in a car,
275
00:17:56.529 --> 00:17:58.710
dragged her into the car, drove her to a nearby
276
00:17:58.750 --> 00:17:59.269
mobile home.
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00:18:00.089 --> 00:18:02.430
Tried to force sex on her, and when she refused,
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00:18:02.869 --> 00:18:04.930
he dragged her around the trailer by her hair.
279
00:18:06.890 --> 00:18:10.470
And she fought back in a most remarkable way. She
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00:18:10.509 --> 00:18:14.220
attacked him with a knife from the kitchen. And as
281
00:18:14.279 --> 00:18:17.059
she left the mobile home, she threw the knife at him.
282
00:18:18.380 --> 00:18:24.289
She ran immediately to the sheriff's department, called and reported
283
00:18:24.369 --> 00:18:27.849
what had happened and gave absolutely perfect descriptions.
284
00:18:28.720 --> 00:18:33.559
The local law enforcement officers immediately recognized Pamner's description of
285
00:18:33.619 --> 00:18:36.829
a man they'd had plenty of dealings with before, and
286
00:18:36.890 --> 00:18:40.029
a warrant was issued for Billy Mansfield Jr. 's arrest.
287
00:18:41.089 --> 00:18:44.210
He found out that the warrant was in existence, and
288
00:18:44.230 --> 00:18:46.369
he and his brother Gary took off in a van,
289
00:18:47.230 --> 00:18:51.490
headed north, went up toward Ohio, through Illinois, down through Texas,
290
00:18:52.450 --> 00:18:55.599
and Nevada, and wound up in Santa Cruz, California.
291
00:18:56.940 --> 00:18:58.450
Appears that he was trying to start a new life
292
00:18:58.509 --> 00:19:01.109
to try to evade the police, was using a new alias,
293
00:19:01.150 --> 00:19:04.230
was trying to make himself look different, and try to
294
00:19:04.289 --> 00:19:06.289
leave no trace of his crimes behind.
295
00:19:06.309 --> 00:19:11.799
The Mansfield family members settled at a campground in the Watsonville,
296
00:19:11.819 --> 00:19:16.160
California area where Mansfield Jr. got a job as a
297
00:19:16.200 --> 00:19:19.319
maintenance man at a local mushroom farm. He took the
298
00:19:19.359 --> 00:19:22.559
persona of a man named Tom. The local people there
299
00:19:22.599 --> 00:19:24.119
described him as creepy.
300
00:19:25.250 --> 00:19:29.349
Despite using an alias, the local sheriff's department got wind
301
00:19:29.410 --> 00:19:34.019
of Mansfield Junior and discovered the Hernando County arrest warrant
302
00:19:34.240 --> 00:19:34.559
on him.
303
00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:42.000
And yet again, that charm comes into play. He's arrested formally,
304
00:19:42.480 --> 00:19:45.990
charged with the attack on Pamela, but he gets bail.
305
00:19:48.630 --> 00:19:53.829
In November 1980, Billy Mansfield Jr. was released and continued
306
00:19:53.890 --> 00:19:58.349
living at the campground in Watsonville along with his younger brother, Gary.
307
00:19:59.589 --> 00:20:03.609
Two weeks later, another woman, Renee Sailing, had the grave
308
00:20:03.670 --> 00:20:06.619
misfortune to cross paths with the Mansfields.
309
00:20:07.299 --> 00:20:10.539
On 6th December 1980, Renee showed up at a bar
310
00:20:10.599 --> 00:20:12.799
in Watsonville, California, looking for her husband.
311
00:20:14.609 --> 00:20:17.089
Billy and his brother Gary happened to be there at
312
00:20:17.109 --> 00:20:22.750
the time. It was observed that Mansfield Jr. came on very,
313
00:20:22.829 --> 00:20:25.049
very strongly to another woman that was at the bar
314
00:20:25.109 --> 00:20:25.349
and worked.
315
00:20:26.380 --> 00:20:30.890
Finding no success with a woman he'd been harassing, Mansfield Jr.
316
00:20:30.990 --> 00:20:35.170
turned his attentions to 29-year-old mother of three, Renee.
317
00:20:35.430 --> 00:20:41.140
Eventually, Renee was seen walking towards the parking lot with
318
00:20:41.259 --> 00:20:41.740
Mansfield Jr.
319
00:20:45.940 --> 00:20:48.519
A short time later, Mansfield Jr. comes back in the
320
00:20:48.559 --> 00:20:51.680
bar and talks to one of his associates, asks him
321
00:20:51.720 --> 00:20:53.740
if he wants to meet the chick. He gives him
322
00:20:53.779 --> 00:20:56.000
the keys to his car and tells him she's out
323
00:20:56.019 --> 00:20:58.420
in the car, at which point he tells him, don't
324
00:20:58.559 --> 00:21:00.220
let her go, keep her locked up.
325
00:21:02.380 --> 00:21:05.680
This acquaintance did go to the car and look in,
326
00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:09.859
but because he couldn't understand Renee and she was intoxicated,
327
00:21:09.880 --> 00:21:10.720
he then left.
328
00:21:11.579 --> 00:21:13.440
Just hours later, on the 7th of December, 1980, she
329
00:21:13.480 --> 00:21:13.980
was found dead.
330
00:21:18.309 --> 00:21:21.670
Renee's sailing was found face down in a drainage ditch
331
00:21:21.730 --> 00:21:24.650
at the side of Buena Vista Drive, a road that
332
00:21:24.710 --> 00:21:27.950
ran from the bar in Watsonville to the campground where
333
00:21:28.009 --> 00:21:29.509
Mansfield had been staying.
334
00:21:30.650 --> 00:21:34.289
Her pants had been pulled down to around her ankles.
335
00:21:34.369 --> 00:21:36.410
Her shirt was up over the top of her head.
336
00:21:37.690 --> 00:21:40.039
When a member of the public found her, they noticed
337
00:21:40.079 --> 00:21:42.599
a black cord wrapped so tightly around her neck that
338
00:21:42.619 --> 00:21:45.680
it was embedded in her flesh. She had obviously been strangled.
339
00:21:47.170 --> 00:21:50.049
There were many features of the crime scene that police
340
00:21:50.089 --> 00:21:54.700
would see repeated again and again, not least the calls
341
00:21:54.759 --> 00:21:55.160
of death.
342
00:21:55.799 --> 00:21:56.599
Mansfield Jr.
343
00:21:56.599 --> 00:22:01.180
's preferred method of killing was strangulation, and this involves...
344
00:22:01.269 --> 00:22:03.490
The person being very up close to you, your victim,
345
00:22:03.829 --> 00:22:07.029
basically having their last breath being choked out of them
346
00:22:07.069 --> 00:22:10.710
by your bare hands. And individuals who kill in this way,
347
00:22:11.019 --> 00:22:14.319
there's a sense of wanting to overpower their victims and
348
00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:18.559
maybe deriving some sense of pleasure from that and feeling
349
00:22:18.740 --> 00:22:21.119
more powerful than ever that you're taking a human life.
350
00:22:22.670 --> 00:22:27.069
A number of witnesses identified Billy Mansfield Jr. as being
351
00:22:27.109 --> 00:22:30.569
the man Renee Saling had left the bar with. But
352
00:22:30.630 --> 00:22:35.690
when police arrived to arrest the 24-year-old, Mansfield was long gone.
353
00:22:36.170 --> 00:22:36.890
Mansfield Jr.
354
00:22:36.970 --> 00:22:39.970
And his brother, Gary, they fled the campsite that they
355
00:22:39.990 --> 00:22:42.150
were at, and they eventually found their way to Las
356
00:22:42.170 --> 00:22:44.069
Vegas to try to evade charges.
357
00:22:46.329 --> 00:22:48.390
I think it was four days later, he got caught
358
00:22:48.430 --> 00:22:53.009
in a place called Winnemucca, Nevada. Winnemucca is not a
359
00:22:53.029 --> 00:22:58.369
very large place, and Billy and Gary were distinctive. Billy
360
00:22:58.410 --> 00:23:01.390
had a beard, Gary had a beard, had long hair.
361
00:23:01.450 --> 00:23:05.460
Billy's was parted in the middle, and the police in
362
00:23:05.480 --> 00:23:11.980
Winnemucca got lucky and saw them. Billy was charged with
363
00:23:12.019 --> 00:23:14.519
murder in the first degree, and Gary was charged with
364
00:23:14.539 --> 00:23:16.599
being an accessory to the murder.
365
00:23:16.980 --> 00:23:22.680
It appears that he did nothing really to hide his
366
00:23:22.740 --> 00:23:28.230
crimes or protect himself from being caught. I'm not sure
367
00:23:28.289 --> 00:23:30.690
that he was taught that you try to get away
368
00:23:30.710 --> 00:23:32.079
with your crimes, you just do them.
369
00:23:33.450 --> 00:23:37.329
Extradited back to California, the brothers were sent to jail
370
00:23:37.390 --> 00:23:40.549
in Santa Cruz to await trial for the murder of
371
00:23:40.609 --> 00:23:45.519
Renee Saling. Then Mansfield Jr. 's former wife Phyllis told
372
00:23:45.579 --> 00:23:50.519
Hernando County law enforcement an extraordinary story, one that had
373
00:23:50.640 --> 00:23:52.380
nothing to do with Renee.
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00:23:54.559 --> 00:23:58.160
Once Billy was safely behind bars, Phyllis came forward and
375
00:23:58.240 --> 00:24:03.660
contacted us down here. with information that she thought could
376
00:24:03.700 --> 00:24:04.779
be relevant.
377
00:24:05.759 --> 00:24:08.970
So in early 1976, while they were back in Michigan
378
00:24:09.089 --> 00:24:12.289
for a short time, Mansfield Jr. told his wife that
379
00:24:12.309 --> 00:24:16.769
he had killed a woman. Now, the wife actually didn't
380
00:24:16.789 --> 00:24:18.730
believe this. She took it as a threat to her
381
00:24:18.750 --> 00:24:21.450
that he could be a killer if she ever left him.
382
00:24:23.410 --> 00:24:26.349
We then got some corroborating information, found out that Billy
383
00:24:26.410 --> 00:24:30.640
frequented the KOA campground here. He partied quite a bit,
384
00:24:30.779 --> 00:24:33.309
and he liked the younger women.
385
00:24:34.970 --> 00:24:39.250
The campsite in Brooksville, Florida, was the very place that
386
00:24:39.269 --> 00:24:45.519
15-year-old Elaine Ziegler had vanished from on New Year's Eve 1975.
387
00:24:45.519 --> 00:24:48.180
There was hope at last that the mystery of the
388
00:24:48.220 --> 00:24:55.579
teenager's disappearance might be solved. In March 1981, investigators finally
389
00:24:55.640 --> 00:24:59.240
had the go-ahead to act on the information Mansfield Jr.
390
00:24:59.240 --> 00:25:01.109
's ex-wife had given them.
391
00:25:02.460 --> 00:25:07.069
March 16th of 1981 got the search warrant. Somewhat different
392
00:25:07.109 --> 00:25:09.269
from an ordinary search warrant because of the nature of
393
00:25:09.289 --> 00:25:13.349
the property with the abandoned cars and the refrigerator parts
394
00:25:13.390 --> 00:25:15.710
and the air conditioning parts and all the junk that
395
00:25:15.750 --> 00:25:19.569
was there and just general trash. It was, a lot
396
00:25:19.609 --> 00:25:22.119
of the ground was covered and there was a lot
397
00:25:22.130 --> 00:25:25.940
of vegetation on it too. So we commandeered units from
398
00:25:25.960 --> 00:25:29.059
the city of Brooksville Public Works Department, the Hernando County
399
00:25:29.240 --> 00:25:31.799
Public Works Department. We had bulldozers, we.
400
00:25:31.680 --> 00:25:38.119
Had Excavating the five-acre site looks set to be a
401
00:25:38.200 --> 00:25:44.440
daunting task. But within 24 hours, the first grisly discovery
402
00:25:44.799 --> 00:25:45.319
was made.
403
00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:54.009
On March 17th, we found the first bones. Once they
404
00:25:54.049 --> 00:25:56.150
found the bones, then we had a team, a forensic
405
00:25:56.269 --> 00:26:00.019
archaeology team from the University of South Florida that came
406
00:26:00.130 --> 00:26:05.450
up and helped with the excavation. She had multiple blunt
407
00:26:05.490 --> 00:26:10.099
force trauma to the head. There was also wire, electrical wire,
408
00:26:10.230 --> 00:26:13.079
which was found in the vicinity of her neck and
409
00:26:13.339 --> 00:26:16.779
also her hands. She was found in a fetal position
410
00:26:17.759 --> 00:26:21.900
and the cause of death was strangulation and the immediate
411
00:26:21.940 --> 00:26:25.809
cause of death, the blunt force, multiple blunt force trauma.
412
00:26:26.900 --> 00:26:30.240
The discovery of a female body was not a surprise
413
00:26:30.279 --> 00:26:34.960
to the search team, but the forensic archaeologists soon realized
414
00:26:35.220 --> 00:26:38.220
this was not 15-year-old Elaine Ziegler.
415
00:26:39.700 --> 00:26:44.019
Ultimately, they recovered the skeleton, full skeleton, of a 22-year-old,
416
00:26:44.059 --> 00:26:45.480
estimate 22-year-old, white female.
417
00:26:49.240 --> 00:26:52.519
Detectives got to work on identifying the remains of the
418
00:26:52.579 --> 00:26:56.940
body uncovered at Billy Mansfield Jr. 's Florida home, while
419
00:26:56.960 --> 00:27:03.180
the 24-year-old remained in custody 2,800 miles away in California
420
00:27:03.539 --> 00:27:05.480
for the murder of Renee Saling.
421
00:27:06.119 --> 00:27:10.049
We had a facial reconstruction expert take the skull, ultimately,
422
00:27:10.789 --> 00:27:13.890
and rebuild a face and then publish the face throughout
423
00:27:13.930 --> 00:27:14.410
the country.
424
00:27:15.480 --> 00:27:17.960
While they waited to find out if a match would
425
00:27:18.019 --> 00:27:21.460
come back for their Jane Doe, detectives tried to find
426
00:27:21.579 --> 00:27:25.779
out where else their suspected serial killer may have struck.
427
00:27:27.539 --> 00:27:33.119
The investigators in Florida circulate a picture of Billy Mansfield Jr.
428
00:27:33.940 --> 00:27:42.329
to other police forces, and the police in Tampa recognize
429
00:27:42.430 --> 00:27:45.440
the picture and suggests that he looks very like the
430
00:27:45.480 --> 00:27:49.660
man they're searching for in the disappearance of Sandy Graham.
431
00:27:50.720 --> 00:27:54.650
Mansfield Jr. was officially named as the main suspect in
432
00:27:54.730 --> 00:27:58.730
Sandy's disappearance, but the body found at his property on
433
00:27:58.789 --> 00:28:04.029
March 17th was not hers, and investigators were only beginning
434
00:28:04.089 --> 00:28:08.140
to scratch the surface of Billy Mansfield Jr. 's career
435
00:28:08.200 --> 00:28:13.809
of murder. Nine days into their search, detectives made another discovery.
436
00:28:14.470 --> 00:28:17.970
Fairly close to the location of the first body and
437
00:28:18.119 --> 00:28:26.160
also shallow. And she was a white female, age 15.
438
00:28:26.160 --> 00:28:30.000
This one is naked with a cord wrapped tightly around
439
00:28:30.059 --> 00:28:31.180
its neck in a fetal position.
440
00:28:33.079 --> 00:28:35.660
She had multiple blunt force trauma to the head and
441
00:28:35.720 --> 00:28:41.210
had electrical wire. near her head and her neck and
442
00:28:41.269 --> 00:28:46.809
her hands. She was ultimately identified by dental charts and
443
00:28:47.269 --> 00:28:51.819
by the jewelry that she was wearing. She was identified
444
00:28:51.859 --> 00:28:52.740
as Elaine Ziegler.
445
00:28:53.200 --> 00:28:57.220
The 15-year-old Ohioan girl had been missing from the nearby
446
00:28:57.299 --> 00:28:59.660
campground for over five years.
447
00:29:00.319 --> 00:29:03.480
Her parents were told and they had waited six years
448
00:29:04.089 --> 00:29:09.180
to find out what had happened to their daughter. And
449
00:29:09.200 --> 00:29:11.339
I think the really sad thing is that when they
450
00:29:11.420 --> 00:29:13.940
found out what did happen to her, it was that
451
00:29:13.960 --> 00:29:18.049
worst case scenario. It was the thing of their nightmares.
452
00:29:28.589 --> 00:29:32.359
The third victim we found was shortly after that. It
453
00:29:32.380 --> 00:29:36.140
was April 3rd, as I recall. She was about 75
454
00:29:36.140 --> 00:29:40.390
feet from the back door. of the mass field house.
455
00:29:43.359 --> 00:29:46.039
The body looked to be that of a white female
456
00:29:46.440 --> 00:29:47.559
in her late teens.
457
00:29:48.960 --> 00:29:52.359
She had multiple blunt force trauma to the head and
458
00:29:52.559 --> 00:29:56.559
also had electrical, heavy electrical wire around her neck and
459
00:29:56.619 --> 00:30:01.089
around one of her wrists. did a facial reconstruction on
460
00:30:01.150 --> 00:30:06.430
her and published her newspaper and photograph and no one
461
00:30:06.529 --> 00:30:07.569
came forward.
462
00:30:10.849 --> 00:30:14.089
The bodies of three young women had now been found
463
00:30:14.190 --> 00:30:18.839
on Billy Mansfield Jr. 's property. All had suffered violent deaths.
464
00:30:19.819 --> 00:30:23.720
While Mansfield Jr. remained in jail thousands of miles away
465
00:30:23.759 --> 00:30:29.430
in California, the search continued. And on April 7th, 1981,
466
00:30:29.430 --> 00:30:33.750
a fourth and final set of remains was recovered from
467
00:30:33.809 --> 00:30:35.750
the Mansfields' Florida property.
468
00:30:37.509 --> 00:30:42.390
She likewise was found strangled with wire and with a cord.
469
00:30:43.349 --> 00:30:46.410
She had her pants pulled down to around the ankle
470
00:30:46.849 --> 00:30:49.410
area and her shirt pulled up over her head.
471
00:30:50.650 --> 00:30:54.170
The woman had dark hair and was still wearing jewellery
472
00:30:54.279 --> 00:30:57.940
similar to that of missing 21-year-old Sandy Graham.
473
00:30:59.579 --> 00:31:04.079
The detective from Tampa goes to look at the remains
474
00:31:04.960 --> 00:31:09.230
and notices, for example, that Sandy Graham was wearing a
475
00:31:09.269 --> 00:31:15.769
very distinctive serpent bracelet. But he also notices that the remains,
476
00:31:15.930 --> 00:31:20.839
the teeth, are perfect. And Sandy Graham's teeth were perfect.
477
00:31:22.380 --> 00:31:24.500
She had last been seen at a bar down in
478
00:31:24.539 --> 00:31:30.019
Tampa with someone matching Billy's description. Just like Renee Saling
479
00:31:30.039 --> 00:31:33.140
was last seen alive leaving a bar in Santa Cruz
480
00:31:33.509 --> 00:31:35.630
with someone matching Billy's description.
481
00:31:40.130 --> 00:31:45.670
The search of the property concluded on April the 17th, 1981,
482
00:31:45.670 --> 00:31:49.200
and investigators were able to tell two families what had
483
00:31:49.259 --> 00:31:50.900
happened to their loved ones.
484
00:31:52.799 --> 00:31:55.180
I've always felt that the worst thing in the world
485
00:31:55.779 --> 00:32:00.119
is not knowing. It is, at the same time, a
486
00:32:00.400 --> 00:32:04.819
horrific experience because you're telling someone that someone that was
487
00:32:05.599 --> 00:32:08.740
their family, someone they loved and had spent their lives with,
488
00:32:09.980 --> 00:32:14.190
has been murdered, but it does give a chance for closure.
489
00:32:15.589 --> 00:32:19.250
Two of the bodies found at the Mansfield family property
490
00:32:19.569 --> 00:32:27.559
remained unidentified. In July 1981, 25-year-old Billy Mansfield Jr. stood
491
00:32:27.630 --> 00:32:32.240
trial in Santa Cruz, California, for the murder of Renee Salink.
492
00:32:35.200 --> 00:32:37.539
But that trial ended with jurors not being able to
493
00:32:37.660 --> 00:32:40.220
determine whether he was guilty or not because there was
494
00:32:40.259 --> 00:32:46.539
not enough evidence. But later that year, Mansfield Jr. 's brother,
495
00:32:47.059 --> 00:32:49.220
who was also facing charges in the murder as an
496
00:32:49.289 --> 00:32:52.829
accessory after the fact, agreed to testify against his brother
497
00:32:52.910 --> 00:32:53.430
in the murder.
498
00:32:54.490 --> 00:32:58.170
So we cut a two-state deal with Gary that he
499
00:32:58.250 --> 00:33:02.890
would cooperate both in California and in Florida against his brother.
500
00:33:03.809 --> 00:33:07.380
in exchange for immunity from prosecution in Florida and in
501
00:33:07.440 --> 00:33:11.180
exchange for charges being dismissed in Santa Cruz.
502
00:33:13.819 --> 00:33:16.480
This is a family that would bond together when it
503
00:33:16.529 --> 00:33:19.109
was convenient, but when it came time for self-preservation, they
504
00:33:19.250 --> 00:33:24.150
also did not have any reluctance in abandoning one another
505
00:33:24.170 --> 00:33:25.769
just so that they could save themselves.
506
00:33:26.960 --> 00:33:31.539
In February 1982, Billy Mansfield Jr. was back in front
507
00:33:31.599 --> 00:33:35.869
of judge and jury, this time in Marin County, California.
508
00:33:37.329 --> 00:33:39.849
The retrial takes place, and this time it only takes
509
00:33:39.910 --> 00:33:40.369
two weeks.
510
00:33:41.769 --> 00:33:45.630
Mansfield Jr. was sentenced to 25 years to life for
511
00:33:45.789 --> 00:33:47.390
the murder of Renee Saling.
512
00:33:48.410 --> 00:33:52.990
In May 1982, Jimmy Brown brought Mansfield Jr. back to
513
00:33:53.049 --> 00:33:57.430
Florida to face charges there. The six-hour flight was the
514
00:33:57.490 --> 00:34:02.069
first time the prosecutor had properly chatted to the convicted killer.
515
00:34:03.490 --> 00:34:06.470
He came across as friendly. He was able to strike
516
00:34:06.529 --> 00:34:10.869
up conversations with people. It just struck me that he'd
517
00:34:10.989 --> 00:34:14.010
already been sentenced to life in prison for murder on
518
00:34:14.090 --> 00:34:18.860
Rene Saling. He was indicted for four murders. here in
519
00:34:18.880 --> 00:34:22.409
Hernando County, and it was like none of it was real.
520
00:34:22.510 --> 00:34:24.949
None of it bothered him at all.
521
00:34:25.949 --> 00:34:31.489
Through the summer of 1982, prosecutors in Hernando County prepared
522
00:34:31.530 --> 00:34:35.210
to put Billy Mansfield Jr. on trial for the murders
523
00:34:35.269 --> 00:34:39.969
of Elaine Ziegler, Sandy Graham, and the two unidentified women
524
00:34:40.269 --> 00:34:44.210
whose remains had been found on his property. The killer
525
00:34:44.269 --> 00:34:47.670
faced the stiffest of penalties if found guilty.
526
00:34:49.559 --> 00:34:53.619
Florida's statute for first-degree murder provided for two penalties, either
527
00:34:53.699 --> 00:34:58.070
death by electrocution or life in prison but eligible for
528
00:34:58.130 --> 00:35:02.630
parole after serving 25 years of the sentence. My feeling was,
529
00:35:02.909 --> 00:35:05.530
at that point in time, with everything we knew about Billy,
530
00:35:06.150 --> 00:35:08.809
that he should never be in a position where he
531
00:35:08.849 --> 00:35:13.699
could be released, ever. And Billy was still quite young
532
00:35:14.380 --> 00:35:23.409
at the time, 26, I think. Billy getting out of
533
00:35:23.489 --> 00:35:28.170
prison and being able to go back and hurt other
534
00:35:28.269 --> 00:35:31.500
people was just something I could not bear thought of.
535
00:35:35.300 --> 00:35:39.440
In August 1982, on the eve of trial, Mansfield Jr.,
536
00:35:39.340 --> 00:35:41.900
in order to avoid the death penalty in Florida, decided
537
00:35:41.940 --> 00:35:45.110
to plead guilty to the murder of the four victims
538
00:35:45.170 --> 00:35:46.750
found on the Mansfield property.
539
00:35:48.030 --> 00:35:52.989
Mansfield also pleaded guilty to snatching and attacking Pamela Sherrill,
540
00:35:53.269 --> 00:35:56.679
the teen he'd taken to his mobile home near Brooksville
541
00:35:56.840 --> 00:35:57.719
in 1980.
542
00:35:57.719 --> 00:36:01.099
Based on his plea, Mansfield Jr. was sentenced to four
543
00:36:01.159 --> 00:36:05.340
life sentences plus five years for the kidnap and attempted
544
00:36:05.400 --> 00:36:09.940
rape of Pamela Sherrill. Mansfield Jr. was then returned to
545
00:36:09.980 --> 00:36:13.699
California to serve out his remaining sentence in the murder
546
00:36:13.780 --> 00:36:14.119
of Renee.
547
00:36:17.449 --> 00:36:23.150
Billy Mansfield Jr. remains incarcerated at the California Healthcare Facility
548
00:36:23.530 --> 00:36:28.960
in Stockton. He became eligible for parole there in 1997,
549
00:36:28.960 --> 00:36:31.800
but has not yet met the conditions that would allow
550
00:36:31.860 --> 00:36:36.260
him to be released, and is perhaps unlikely ever to
551
00:36:36.320 --> 00:36:36.659
do so.
552
00:36:38.539 --> 00:36:42.070
This is somebody who you can't say is likely to
553
00:36:42.110 --> 00:36:45.809
be rehabilitated because it doesn't really seem like he even
554
00:36:45.889 --> 00:36:47.590
cares that he took the lives of these people.
555
00:36:49.949 --> 00:36:55.880
He was cold and relentless and could have at any
556
00:36:55.960 --> 00:36:57.840
minute committed another murder.
557
00:36:58.780 --> 00:37:02.559
It is believed that Mansfield's killing spree did not begin
558
00:37:02.800 --> 00:37:05.840
or end with the five women whose murders he'd been
559
00:37:05.900 --> 00:37:12.019
convicted of. After his sentencing in 1982, Mansfield Jr. approached
560
00:37:12.079 --> 00:37:13.980
prosecutors with a deal.
561
00:37:14.559 --> 00:37:17.039
He didn't like the idea that his father was in
562
00:37:17.400 --> 00:37:20.980
prison for 56 years, and he offered that if we
563
00:37:21.019 --> 00:37:23.780
would let his dad out of prison and if we
564
00:37:23.800 --> 00:37:27.289
would give him immunity in each of the states involved,
565
00:37:27.909 --> 00:37:31.809
that he would provide details so the families of about
566
00:37:31.809 --> 00:37:37.889
80 victims would have closure. which of course we couldn't do,
567
00:37:38.199 --> 00:37:41.119
so we still don't know. We do know that they
568
00:37:41.159 --> 00:37:45.300
stopped in KOA campgrounds all the way from here to
569
00:37:45.340 --> 00:37:50.269
Santa Cruz, and KOA campgrounds were Billy's favorite.
570
00:37:51.530 --> 00:37:54.019
Hunting ground, if you will, for victims.
571
00:38:02.579 --> 00:38:08.159
In 2020, 38 years after Mansfield's Florida convictions, there was
572
00:38:08.219 --> 00:38:12.440
a major breakthrough in identifying one of the two unnamed
573
00:38:12.519 --> 00:38:15.619
bodies found buried on the Mansfield property.
574
00:38:15.639 --> 00:38:19.210
Advances in DNA technology meant that they could extract DNA
575
00:38:19.250 --> 00:38:22.929
from the remains they discovered. And then they gave that
576
00:38:23.409 --> 00:38:27.969
DNA to a forensic genealogist who constructed a family tree.
577
00:38:29.289 --> 00:38:33.960
The forensic genealogist found someone on an online database whose
578
00:38:34.039 --> 00:38:38.880
DNA profile suggested they were related to the unnamed teenager.
579
00:38:39.719 --> 00:38:42.989
The expert then used this to start building the family
580
00:38:43.090 --> 00:38:47.369
tree of this individual, which led to the realization there
581
00:38:47.389 --> 00:38:50.809
was a young woman in the family whose birth was registered,
582
00:38:51.150 --> 00:38:56.110
but no further records existed for her. The information was
583
00:38:56.170 --> 00:39:00.210
handed to a cold case detective in Hernando County, Florida,
584
00:39:00.690 --> 00:39:03.519
who called Margaret Johns with a question.
585
00:39:04.420 --> 00:39:07.239
Do you have a sister that went missing in 1980?
586
00:39:07.239 --> 00:39:09.559
And I was speechless.
587
00:39:09.800 --> 00:39:12.719
I couldn't, I could hardly answer him.
588
00:39:12.760 --> 00:39:16.170
I said, he said, yeah, I think that we have
589
00:39:16.269 --> 00:39:23.570
identified your sister who went missing in Tampa in 1980.
590
00:39:23.650 --> 00:39:27.400
Margaret gave a DNA sample and six weeks later, the
591
00:39:27.460 --> 00:39:31.929
remains were positively identified as belonging to her younger sister,
592
00:39:32.329 --> 00:39:38.710
Teresa Fillingham. 16-year-old Teresa had disappeared in Tampa some 41
593
00:39:38.710 --> 00:39:42.199
years earlier, just after moving in with Margaret.
594
00:39:43.429 --> 00:39:44.239
I felt guilty.
595
00:39:44.659 --> 00:39:47.239
I took her away from where she was safe and sound.
596
00:39:47.900 --> 00:39:52.119
into Florida with me, I failed to protect her or
597
00:39:52.579 --> 00:39:55.179
take care of her or watch over her. And so
598
00:39:55.300 --> 00:40:03.929
over the years, I just blamed myself. And nothing ever
599
00:40:03.989 --> 00:40:07.969
happened until the day I got the phone call saying
600
00:40:08.030 --> 00:40:09.610
that they may have identified her.
601
00:40:13.670 --> 00:40:16.190
So it took a year just to get the.
602
00:40:18.010 --> 00:40:22.840
Once the positive identification happened, just to get her remains back.
603
00:40:23.840 --> 00:40:26.780
And that was it. That was the end of it.
604
00:40:27.820 --> 00:40:28.739
So now I have it.
605
00:40:34.570 --> 00:40:38.369
Knowing is something you can then process and deal with.
606
00:40:39.030 --> 00:40:44.780
Not knowing is an emptiness, a chasm, a black hole.
607
00:40:45.429 --> 00:40:50.099
inside you of just worrying about all of the different scenarios.
608
00:40:50.659 --> 00:40:54.199
Not knowing, I think, for people is much worse than
609
00:40:54.300 --> 00:40:56.619
anything they might come to know.
610
00:40:59.989 --> 00:41:04.530
The identification of Teresa Fillingham offers hope the remains of
611
00:41:04.590 --> 00:41:09.449
Billy Mansfield Jr. 's final unidentified victim may one day
612
00:41:09.510 --> 00:41:11.130
be returned to her family.
613
00:41:11.429 --> 00:41:14.860
My message to people who do have loved ones still
614
00:41:14.900 --> 00:41:19.300
missing maybe is don't give up. Anything's possible.
615
00:41:23.230 --> 00:41:26.690
As with so many serial killers, the question of whether
616
00:41:26.750 --> 00:41:30.690
Billy Mansfield Jr. was born evil or was the product
617
00:41:30.750 --> 00:41:35.050
of his violent, dysfunctional upbringing may never be fully answered.
618
00:41:35.730 --> 00:41:39.840
But few would disagree with investigators who described him as
619
00:41:39.880 --> 00:41:44.739
a man without a soul, a remorseless, calculating killer who
620
00:41:44.800 --> 00:41:48.599
placed no value on the lives he took. And as
621
00:41:48.679 --> 00:41:53.289
revelations about his crimes continue to this day, Mansfield will
622
00:41:53.349 --> 00:41:57.579
forever be remembered as one of the world's most evil killers.