S1: E18 – The Brotherhood, Part 1

Summary

American Homicide: The Brotherhood, Part 1 – Detailed Summary

Season 1, Episode 18 | Released February 13, 2025

Introduction

In the eighteenth episode of the first season of American Homicide, hosted by Sloan Glass, listeners are taken deep into the haunting and perplexing case of Jenora Guillory's brutal murder in the small town of Clinton, Louisiana. This episode, titled "The Brotherhood, Part 1," meticulously unpacks the events leading up to Jenora's untimely death, the initial investigation, and the emergence of suspicious suspects entwined with local gang activities.

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Setting the Scene: Clinton, Louisiana

Sloan Glass begins by painting a vivid picture of Clinton, a rural town located about 30 miles northeast of Baton Rouge. With a population of approximately 1,200 residents, Clinton is depicted as a close-knit community grappling with its racially charged history, symbolized by the persistent presence of a controversial Confederate soldier statue in downtown.

“Louisiana is not trite to say that it really is a melting pot, a mix of so many different ingredients that come together to create something really unique and beautiful,” Glass remarks at [02:21], highlighting the cultural richness of the area.

The Victim: Jenora Guillory

Jenora Guillory, affectionately known as Ms. G, was a single career woman deeply passionate about animals. She lived on a sprawling 10-acre property in Clinton, where she maintained a large kennel housing around twenty dogs, including her favorite, Cleo. Jenora's life was marked by generosity and community involvement, as her brother-in-law, Albert Guillory, explains:

“She loved the idea that she would be able to have her animals there in an undisturbed fashion,” at [06:33].

Discovery of the Murder

The tranquility of Clinton was shattered on Monday, June 26, 2000, when Jenora failed to appear at work, prompting her concerned colleagues to request a welfare check. Detective Joel Odom recounts the grim scene he encountered upon arriving at Jenora's home:

“The level of violence in this homicide was astonishing. She'd been shot five times, stabbed deeply five times, and vigorously beaten with an aluminum baseball bat,” at [01:44].

The graphic details were overwhelming, leaving Detective Odom physically ill:

“I believe when he exited the house, he actually threw up,” he shares at [10:40].

Initial Investigation and Primary Suspects

As Detective Don McKee joins the investigation, the detectives face the challenge of a scene with minimal immediate clues—nothing was stolen, and no clear murder weapon was found. The primary leads initially focus on Jenora's neighbors, Philip and Amy Skipper, and their stepson, John Ballio.

Albert Guillory provides context about the Skippers' relationship with Jenora:

“She was extremely generous to them. Whenever they would come ask her for anything, which they did a lot, she would give it to them,” at [33:03].

The Skippers' involvement becomes more suspicious when it is revealed that Jenora had recently updated her life insurance policy to include them as beneficiaries:

“Genora told them about it. So all of a sudden the attention shifted to the Skippers and John Ballio, who lived right across the street from Genoa Gillard,” at [35:21].

The Brotherhood: Makeshift Gang

A significant breakthrough came when Donnie Fisher, arrested for assault, claimed knowledge about Jenora's murder, leading investigators to a local gang known as the Brotherhood. Detective Odom elaborates on this group:

“The Brotherhood was, you know, three, four, maybe five guys with a tattoo. They stole the idea from a cheesy B action movie,” at [29:26].

The Brotherhood engaged in illicit activities, including meth sales, dog fighting, and even grave robbery, marked by a distinctive tattoo: GFB-D, standing for “God Forgives Brotherhood, Doesn't.” According to Fisher, members included Philip Skipper and Johnny Hoyt, Philip's brother-in-law, though no direct animosity towards Jenora was evident.

John Ballio, the Skippers' stepson, becomes a focal point as he admits to being present during the murder but shifts blame onto his stepfather and aunt:

“John Ballio said Lisa shot her a couple times. Philip hit her with a bat, and that's what killed her,” at [32:07].

The Search for Evidence

Despite these revelations, concrete evidence linking the Skippers or the Brotherhood to Jenora's murder remains elusive. The detectives faced setbacks, including ineffective search warrants and the deterioration of potential evidence over time. John Ballio and Philip Skipper both passed polygraph tests, though Detective Odom reveals possible tampering:

“Both of them popped some pills before the test to bring their heart rate down,” at [33:03].

Furthermore, the early 2000s posed challenges for DNA analysis, delaying critical evidence processing. Albert Guillory reflects on the difficulties faced:

“There were some missteps and some broken leads, as there are in many investigations,” at [24:31].

Case Goes Cold and Unanswered Questions

With mounting circumstantial evidence but lacking definitive proof, prosecutors deemed the case too weak to pursue charges against the Skippers. This decision led to friction between the District Attorney's office and the sheriff's department, leaving the murder unsolved and the community of Clinton enveloped in fear.

“The unsolved murder left the town of Clinton terrified,” Glass summarizes at [36:53].

Conclusion and Teaser for Part 2

As the episode concludes, listeners are left with unresolved tensions and the unsettling reality that the true perpetrator remains unidentified. Sloan Glass hints at further developments in the next episode, promising to delve deeper into the Brotherhood's influence and the eventual breakthrough in the case.

“In the conclusion of the Brotherhood, the police learned the surprising answer to why they couldn't find more evidence,” Glass teases at [37:13].

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Notable Quotes

• Detective Joel Odom [01:44]: “The level of violence in this homicide was astonishing. She'd been shot five times, stabbed deeply five times, and vigorously beaten with an aluminum baseball bat.”

• Albert Guillory [03:26]: “We call ourselves gumbo people. A blend of French, French, Catholic, particularly African, and a lot of Native American.”

• Detective Don McKee [11:19]: “She was laying in the back corner of the bedroom. She had stabs in her hand, in her arms, so you could see that she was trying to fight back.”

• Journalist Chuck Hussmeier [29:06]: “He said he knew something about the Genora Guillory murder. He said he was talking to a guy and that guy was bragging about having killed this black woman in Clinton, Louisiana.”

• John Ballio [32:07]: “John Ballio said Lisa shot her a couple times. Philip hit her with a bat, and that's what killed her.”

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Key Takeaways

• The brutal murder of Jenora Guillory in Clinton, Louisiana remains shrouded in mystery, with initial suspects failing to provide concrete evidence.

• The emergence of the Brotherhood gang introduces a complex layer to the investigation, suggesting possible connections beyond Jenora's immediate circle.

• Societal and procedural challenges, including potential evidence tampering and limitations of early DNA technology, impeded the progress of the case.

• The episode sets the stage for further exploration of the Brotherhood's involvement and the eventual unraveling of the case in subsequent episodes.

Next Episode Preview

American Homicide continues in "The Brotherhood, Part 2," where Sloan Glass delves into the unexpected breakthrough in Jenora Guillory's case, uncovering deeper secrets within the Brotherhood and bringing new suspects into the spotlight. Listeners can anticipate a gripping continuation of this cold case saga, promising closure to a community left in anguish.

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Contact and Further Information

For more insights and episodes, listeners are encouraged to follow American Homicide on Apple Podcasts and other major platforms. Contributions, thoughts, or tips regarding the case can be directed to [e-mail].

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This summary is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of "The Brotherhood, Part 1" episode of American Homicide. For the full experience and detailed narrative, listening to the episode is highly recommended.

Transcript

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[Detective Joel Odom]

One of the deputies went out to the residence and when he went inside, he discovered the body. The level of violence in this homicide was astonishing. She'd been shot five times, stabbed deeply five times, and vigorously beaten with an aluminum baseball bat. When he exited the house, he actually threw up. It was kind of crazy.

[Sloan Glass]

The murder of Jenora Guillory sent shockwaves through her small Louisiana town.

[Detective Joel Odom]

Everybody was scared, especially if you were a woman, you know. It was the summer of fear.

[Sloan Glass]

Today we're in Clinton, Louisiana for the case of Jinora Guillory, whose unsolved murder became a talking point among local politicians. I'm Sloan Glass and this is American Homicide. Just a warning. This episode contains some graphic content. Please take care while listening. Before we go into the story of Genora, we have to talk about Louisiana. It's not trite to say that it really is a melting pot, a mix of so many different ingredients that come together to create something really unique and beautiful. The food, the music, the environment, the weather, it's thick in the air. It actually reminds me of the dish that they are best known for. Gumbo. Combination of different types of meat or seafood and celery, bell peppers, onions, all coming together for this hearty stew.

[Albert Guillory]

Gumbo being one of the spicy, fantastic dishes of south Louisiana Cajun land.

[Sloan Glass]

Albert Guillory is a lawyer and former state senator in Louisiana, where gumbo isn't just the official dish, it's a culture.

[Albert Guillory]

We call ourselves gumbo people. A blend of French, French, Catholic, particularly African, and a lot of Native American.

[Sloan Glass]

That blend of culture is what makes Louisiana so unique.

[Albert Guillory]

This is the most fascinating place in the world, the most fantastic food, the best music, and greatest dancing.

[Sloan Glass]

While cities like Baton Rouge and New Orleans get the spotlight, Albert believes it's the many small towns that make up the fabric of the state.

[Albert Guillory]

We call ourselves the real Louisiana. People are much warmer, much more open. Our food is better, our music is better. It's just a whole different world. It's a much more integrated world in the country than in the city.

[Sloan Glass]

One such integrated place is the town of Clinton. Clinton sits about 30 miles northeast of Baton Rouge. The rural community of about 1200 residents dates back to the early 1800s. Today, its population is nearly split equally among black and white residents, but is still working to overcome its racially fraught history. For years, residents argued over a giant 30 foot statue of a Confederate soldier that stands in downtown Clinton. It's been there since the early 1900s, and despite numerous efforts to remove the controversial monument, it remains there today.

[Albert Guillory]

This is America. There is racism in America, and that's just a part of life. We've come a long way during my lifetime and we still have a few more yards to go before we reach the finish line.

[Sloan Glass]

Back in 2000, Elbert's sister in law, Jinora Guillory, was living on a large 10 acre lot in Clinton.

[Albert Guillory]

She lived down a country road. There were only two residences on that country road. She liked the fact that it was far out in the country.

[Sloan Glass]

Jinora, or Ms. G, as her neighbors called her, was a single career woman whose love for the country was only surpassed by her affinity for animals.

[Albert Guillory]

She loved horses and had horses. She loved dogs and had some dogs, and particularly one. Cleo was her absolute favorite and lived in her home with her. They were very, very close.

[Sloan Glass]

Cleo was Jinora's Protector. She would bark at almost anyone who came near her. Jinora used to joke that none of her outfits were complete without Cleo's dog hair. Or hair of any of the 20 or so dogs she kept in a large kennel behind her home.

[Albert Guillory]

She loved the idea that she would be able to have her animals there in an undisturbed fashion.

[Sloan Glass]

It was undisturbed all right. Jinora's farmhouse style home sat on a huge parcel of land off a dead end road. In the distance were several tall trees and and a cemetery. It would be a scary place for anyone to live, especially a single woman. Jenora felt grateful to have neighbors living up the block.

[Albert Guillory]

There was a trailer about a half city block down across the little street and it was occupied by a family named Skipper, Mr. Skipper, his wife and their children.

[Sloan Glass]

The Skipper's trailer may have been an eyesore, but having Philip and his wife Amy Skipper as neighbors was a welcome sight for Jinora. She was a single career woman who lived alone. Her job in Baton Rouge kept her away most of the day. So she relied on the skippers for help.

[Albert Guillory]

Mr. Skipper assisted with the animals who made sure that they were fed and received water and those kinds of things. Mrs. Skipper was employed by Jinora as a housekeeper.

[Sloan Glass]

But it was more than a working relationship. The Skippers and Jinora were very close, especially because Jinora depended on them for so much. If she ever needed help at home, she knew she could rely on the Skippers. You see, Jinora was very successful. She worked for a major insurance company and would leave for work early in the morning and return late at night. But on the morning of Monday, June 26, 2000, the lights in Jinora's Baton Rouge office were off and her desk sat empty.

[Detective Joel Odom]

Her co workers got worried about her because she didn't show up for work.

[Sloan Glass]

Detective Joel Odom worked for the East Feliciana Sheriff's Department.

[Detective Joel Odom]

They called the Sheriff's office and asked to do a check on her house and a welfare check.

[Sloan Glass]

With no sign of Jenora and a constant busy signal on her landline phone, a patrol car was dispatched just after.

[Detective Joel Odom]

10Am Clinton is pretty quiet. It's a small community. Most everybody knows everybody. Not much goes on up there.

[Sloan Glass]

It took about 30 minutes for the squad car to make it to Genora's home in Clinton.

[Detective Joel Odom]

When he first arrived there, he saw that the door was open to the residents.

[Sloan Glass]

That's where Jinora's dog Cleo was found tied to a railing near the carport. Cleo was upset and barking. She even tried to bite the officer as he quickly squeezed past her.

[Detective Joel Odom]

And when he went inside, he could see blood, basically all over the living room, the phone, the kitchen.

[Sloan Glass]

Then they walked into the bedroom. A broken lamp lay on the floor next to an overturned end table. Blood spatter covered the walls, along with bullet holes above the bed. And the body of Jenora Guillory lay on the floor.

[Detective Joel Odom]

She'd been shot five times, stabbed deeply five times.

[Sloan Glass]

It was awful. This entire story gives me such a stomach ache. And this is where the details get really hard. Bruises covered her entire face. Jinora's skull almost looked flattened by whatever was used to hit her.

[Detective Joel Odom]

She took a blow to the spinal column that severed it straight from the back of her neck. You can imagine how much damage blow like that would do.

[Sloan Glass]

If what happened to Jenora Guillory wasn't already bad enough, There were also signs she was sexually assaulted. It was a horrifying scene For a small town police officer, or anyone for that matter.

[Detective Joel Odom]

This was a violent homicide, probably more brutal than most homicides you'll ever see. I believe when he exited the house, he actually threw up.

[Sloan Glass]

Think about that for a second. The scene was so bad that it sickened the deputy.

[Detective Joel Odom]

We have murders up in Clinton, but nothing that was the level of this. It's heartbreaking. Makes me feel sorry for the family to know their loved one had to go through something like that.

[Sloan Glass]

Detective Don McKee arrived a short time later and began to piece together what happened to Jenora Guillory.

[Detective Don McKee]

She was laying in the back corner of the bedroom. She had stabs in her hand, in her arms, so you could see that she was trying to fight back. It was just obvious that this was a homicide.

[Sloan Glass]

Detectives searched the house and they didn't find anything missing. They also didn't find any major clues.

[Detective Don McKee]

At that point, we secured the scene. We called for Louisiana state police, the crime lab, to come and process the scene. While we was there, waiting for that to occur, we talked to the skippers.

[Sloan Glass]

As Jinora's body was taken out in a body bag, her neighbors and good friends, Philip and Amy Skipper were standing outside. A very pregnant Amy stood on the edge of the driveway with her husband, crying.

[Detective Don McKee]

Amy was just really upset. She was hysterical and they were shook up. I mean, they just couldn't understand why this would have happened to her.

[Sloan Glass]

Amy and Philip were 2/20 somethings who lived in a mobile home with their children. They explained to detectives that Jenora, or Ms. G, as they called her, was the most generous person they had ever met.

[Detective Don McKee]

Everybody was taught about how big of a heart she had. She would pick up stray dogs and bring them to the vet and get them checked out and take care of them.

[Sloan Glass]

And the Skippers provided detectives with their first clue. They said Jinora's dogs never barked at nighttime. However, the previous morning they heard Jenora's dogs barking around 2am that's when we.

[Detective Don McKee]

Noticed scratches on both of their arms and then questioned them about it.

[Sloan Glass]

Philip Skipper's arms were all scratched up, but he had an explanation. He said that he and his stepson John Ballio had been horsing around in the yard.

[Detective Don McKee]

He said it was wrestling in the yard and so forth.

[Sloan Glass]

The Skippers were the only ones who lived nearby and those scratches were something detectives couldn't ignore. So in order to rule them out as suspects, they had Philip Skipper and his stepson John Ballio take a polygraph test.

[Detective Don McKee]

They submitted to a polygraph test and both of them passed that.

[Sloan Glass]

After they passed with flying colors, the detectives were back to square one.

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[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

Jinorah lived in a nice house out in the middle of nowhere. I mean, it's down at, you know, the end of this gravel road.

[Sloan Glass]

Journalist Chuck Hussmeier covered the story.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

Well, the door was open to the house. It wasn't forced, which, you know, is a clue right there that she likely knew the killer.

[Sloan Glass]

Based on her autopsy, the police determined Jeannora died sometime in the very early hours of Sunday morning. And given the severity of her injuries and the fact that nothing was taken from her home, they wondered if Jinorah's killer may have held some sort of grudge towards her.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

Typically, in a murder case, you start with the closest circle of people to the victim. You know, husbands, wives, boyfriends, any kind of lovers, friends, things like that. And in this case, Gennor had had a boyfriend, a long term boyfriend, but.

[Sloan Glass]

He had died two years earlier. Her boyfriend fell asleep at the wheel and got into a fatal car accident that left Jinora devastated and alone.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

But after that, it's really digging into the history of the victim. You know, who was she, who did she know, who was mad at her?

[Sloan Glass]

At the time, Jinorah was 42 years old. She worked in human resources for an insurance company in Baton Rouge. Since she handled the hiring and firing, detectives questioned her co workers to see if there were any former disgruntled employees.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

You know, people like that are who you want to check out first.

[Sloan Glass]

Her colleagues couldn't think of any disgruntled ex employees, but they did tell detectives about a suspicious male friend of Jinora's.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

She had complained to her co workers that he was harassing her. And he was very persistent. He would stake out her car sometimes in the parking lot, catch her after work so he could, because she wasn't answering his phone call. So he would go and, you know, visit her, so to speak, in person, although she didn't want it. So he was a very viable candidate as a suspect.

[Sloan Glass]

That man was an old friend of Jinora's named Steve.

[Detective Joel Odom]

They went on a date one time and he made her really uncomfortable.

[Sloan Glass]

Detective Joel Odom investigated and learned Genora Met Steve in the 80s, but the two had lost touch. They'd recently reconnected, and just before her murder, they went out on a date. But things quickly soured. Jinora wasn't interested in seeing him again. But Steve wouldn't take no for an answer. Jenora said Steve wouldn't stop touching her.

[Detective Joel Odom]

She thought that was going to be the end of it. But actually, that was just the beginning. He would call her at work multiple times, and they'd even heard him argue on the phone. And she had told him, quit calling me. It worked.

[Sloan Glass]

In the month before her murder, Steve's phone number turned up on Jenora's home phone 11 times, including Saturday, June 24, hours before Jenora was murdered. And then there was this. The previous Friday, Jinorah told her colleague that she hoped Steve wouldn't show up at her house that weekend. That was the last time any of Jinorah's colleagues saw her alive.

[Detective Joel Odom]

So we started looking to him and found out he, at the time, was a Baton Rouge city police officer. Everybody was just shocked.

[Sloan Glass]

Although he was 45 years old at the time, Steve was a rookie cop. He had just graduated from the academy. He spent the prior 20 plus years working as a corrections officer. All of this, combined with his repeated unwanted advances, made detectives suspicious.

[Detective Joel Odom]

So we felt he was a good suspect at the time. But it's hard.

[Sloan Glass]

As you can imagine, questioning one of their own requires a delicate dance.

[Detective Joel Odom]

There's no correct way to do it. And I was a young detective back then. I was kind of gullible, I believe, with the people that were supposed to take care of the people. And the public wouldn't lie to you or would not lie to the public, no matter what.

[Sloan Glass]

One cop investigating another cop means you're gonna step on some toes and potentially cross some unspoken lines. But that didn't stop them.

[Detective Joel Odom]

At the time, we didn't have anything. Basically, we had a crime scene. No murder weapon, Just phone records and other stuff that we could develop.

[Sloan Glass]

Detectives continue to look into Steve. He cooperated with their investigation.

[Detective Joel Odom]

We pulled him in for questioning, and we offered him a polygraph.

[Sloan Glass]

At the time, Steve agreed, and the results shocked everyone in the room.

[Detective Joel Odom]

He failed the polygraph, and he said, I don't want to talk to you. I want my lawyer. And that was the end of the interview.

[Sloan Glass]

Okay, so things weren't looking good for officer Steve. And detectives continued to look for anything that would connect him to the crime. Journalist Chuck Hussmeier covered the story.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

He left a message on her answering machine right before she died, that he was going to be in the area. And of course, you're really not in that area unless you're going out there on purpose. But he claimed he was going to be in the area and he would stop by.

[Sloan Glass]

That's something important to remember. Jinora lived in the middle of nowhere, so you really had to go out of your way to get to her house. But Officer Steve had an alibi. He said that on the weekend of Jinorah's murder, he was at his mother's house. And this part's surprising. He was married at the time and even had a son who he dropped off at a nearby camp. He did admit to calling Jinora that Saturday, but she told him she couldn't talk. He called again the following day, but he said the line was busy.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

It made Jinora nervous to the point where she wouldn't take his phone calls.

[Sloan Glass]

Detectives learned Steve sometimes stopped by Jenora's house and office unannounced, which obviously scared Jenora. And get this, he even called Jenora's colleague a couple days after her death and asked for Jinora's parents phone number.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

There's just a lot of weird stuff going on with this guy.

[Sloan Glass]

Things got even more unsettling when they visited the police academy Officer Steve attended. There was a payphone there where fellow cadets said they always saw Steve making calls. Detectives got a phone log from that payphone and found 35 phone calls placed from that phone to Genora's Baton Rouge office. Who do you call when the police are the ones harassing you?

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

They interviewed people that he knew, including another woman who was in the police academy with him, who said he kind of harassed her. So, you know, this guy's got kind of a history of harassing women that don't return his affections.

[Sloan Glass]

Even after Steve lawyered up and stopped cooperating, detectives continued to turn up the heat.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

And they really went after him hard. They executed a search warrant on his house, on his car, and they didn't find anything. They couldn't link him to the crime.

[Sloan Glass]

So this had to be frustrating for detectives. They now had plenty of circumstantial evidence, but nothing concrete. Officer Steve failed his polygraph. He admitted to phoning Genora multiple times a day, and he admitted to even showing up at Genora's office unannounced. But all of that wasn't enough to press charges.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

Can't charge anybody without evidence. So they just have to either dig up another lead or. Or wait for some kind of a.

[Sloan Glass]

Break to come your way while Detectives continued their investigation. Genora's brother in law, Albert, struggled to stay positive. Here's Albert.

[Albert Guillory]

That was not an easy time. Not at all.

[Sloan Glass]

At the time of Jinora's murder, the police had lifted some DNA from under her fingernails. But keep in mind it was still the early days of DNA testing. And the testing was not only expensive, but slow. It was the year 2000. It took months for the labs to process it.

[Albert Guillory]

There were some missteps and some broken leads, as there are in many investigations. But it would be difficult for all of us.

[Sloan Glass]

It required a good deal of patience on all sides.

[Albert Guillory]

We did everything that we could to be helpful to law enforcement. Families under these emotional devastating circumstances can sometimes get underfoot. They want to try the case in the press and all of that. That was not something that we would do and we did not do.

[Sloan Glass]

Albert and Genora's family weren't the only ones losing patience. Law enforcement was also disappointed with how long it took the labs to process that DNA. But one arrest one year later would change everything.

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[Sloan Glass]

Detectives in the quiet town of Clinton, Louisiana, spent over a year trying to solve the murder of Jenora Guillory.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

Normally, there isn't a lot of crime in that area. I mean, it's a very small town, small population, and a very rural area.

[Sloan Glass]

Chuck Hussmeier authored the book Unspeakable Violence about Genora's murder.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

I've been around a lot of crime, you know, but this one was just particularly bad.

[Sloan Glass]

The police investigated a rookie cop out of Baton Rouge who some said was stalking Genora, but they just didn't have enough evidence to charge him.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

They polygraphed him and he seemed a little shady on the polygraph, but nothing definitive and there's just no evidence. So the case went cold.

[Sloan Glass]

Cold. Something family and friends never want to hear when describing the case of a loved one. For Elbert and Jinora's community, it felt like an answer to her murder would never come. And then a year later, the investigators got a break when a man named Donnie Fisher was arrested. Donnie was brought in for beating up his girlfriend. Detectives had no connection to him and Jinora, but Donnie was hoping to trade some information to get himself off the hook.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

He said he knew something about the Genora Guillory murder. He said he was talking to a guy and that guy was bragging about having killed this black woman in Clinton, Louisiana. So they started digging into his story.

[Sloan Glass]

That's when detectives learned about a local makeshift gang called the Brotherhood.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

The Brotherhood was, you know, three, four, maybe five guys with a tattoo. They stole the idea from a cheesy B action movie.

[Sloan Glass]

If you've seen the 90s movie Stone Cold, and not too many people have, you may have heard of the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood was a biker gang that was featured in the movie. But the Brotherhood and Clinton operated a bit differently.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

They were selling meth, they were fighting pit bulls, they were committing grave robbery. They were literally pull gold teeth out of people's mouths that they dug up from graves. I mean, you gotta have something really wrong in your head to decide that the best way you can earn some money is to go dig up graves and steal their Teeth and jewelry. I mean, that's something really screwy in your head there.

[Sloan Glass]

And members of this dog fighting, meth selling and grave robbing gang sported tattoos with the letters G, F, B, D, gfbd.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

God forgives Brotherhood. Doesn't.

[Sloan Glass]

That tattoo was a sort of membership badge, but you had to earn it.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

And the only way to earn it was to kill somebody.

[Sloan Glass]

So who was part of this gang? Well, according to Donnie Fisher, the brotherhood consisted of Philip Skipper, Jinora's neighbor, and his brother in law, Johnny Hoyt.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

But there's no evidence of animosity between the Skippers and Gennoir.

[Sloan Glass]

The person who fed this information to Donnie Fisher was his friend. John Balliol, you may remember, lived with the Skippers.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

John Balliol was sort of an orphaned kid. His mother just sort of left him with Philip Skipper and Amy Skipper. They referred to him as their stepson, but he really wasn't any kind of relation to them.

[Sloan Glass]

John Balliol would have just been 15 years old at the time of the murder. Early on in their investigation, detectives noticed that John Balliol and his stepfather, Philip Skipper, had a bunch of scratches on their arms and face. But both of them passed a polygraph test. So the detectives went back to question the teenager about the Brotherhood's connection to Jenora's murder.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

And you know, of course, John Balio denied that he participated in it, but he was there.

[Sloan Glass]

John Balio said he was there the night Genora was murdered. But he pinned the blame on his stepfather, Philip Skipper, along with Philip's sister Lisa and her husband, Johnny Hoyt.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

John Ballio said Lisa shot her a couple times. Philip hit her with a bat, and that's what killed her.

[Sloan Glass]

John Ballio said all he did that night was control Genora's dog, Cleo.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

John Ballio's job was to get a rope around the dog's neck. The dog was a chow, and it was sort of vicious. And Genora let that dog sleep in the house with it because it was her protector.

[Sloan Glass]

Ballio said it was all part of his initiation into the brotherhood. Okay, so there's a lot to unpack here. Philip Skipper and John Balio passed a polygraph test right after Genora's murder, which originally eliminated them as suspects. Here's how they did it. Both of them popped some pills before the test to bring their heart rate down. But still, none of this added up. Why would Philip Skipper want to hurt Jinora?

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

She was extremely generous to them. Whenever they would come ask her for anything, which they did a lot, she would give it to them. She threw a birthday party at a local restaurant for their baby. She actually gave them enough money to help them buy a newer mobile home. Not a new one, but newer and nicer.

[Sloan Glass]

As the police investigated, they learned that a month before Jenora's murder, the two neighbors had an argument.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

The relationship between Genoa Guillory and the Skippers started to deteriorate over this incident involving a goat. Now, it's a weird story, but the Skippers had a pet goat. Why? I have no idea. Somehow the goat got loose and Amy Skipper said that one of Genora's dogs attacked a goat. Amy Skipper called Genoa at work, just cussing at her and, you know, just angry, furious about the goat. You know, it turned out it wasn't really one of Genoir's dogs. It was a dog, I think, that the Skippers had and gave to Gennor that got loose.

[Sloan Glass]

So in other words, the Skipper's own dog attacked their goat, but they blame Jinora. The Skipper said the two sides had reconciled. But again, would an incident with a goat be enough of a motive to kill? It seems a little ridiculous.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

They did get a search warrant based on what he told them, and they executed the warrant at the trailer across from Jinnorah's house.

[Sloan Glass]

Now, keep in mind, this search happened well over a year after Genora's murder.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

They weren't really able to find anything in the house. They couldn't find the. The gun, you know, the.22 gun that she was shot with several times. And they did find a bat. John Ballio had told him about a bat, but the bat had been sitting outside their trailer for like, two years in the rain. So they weren't able to get any evidence, DNA evidence, particularly.

[Sloan Glass]

One other notable find at the Skippers was some life insurance documents. It was a life policy that named the as the beneficiary in the event of Jinora's death.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

Her boyfriend was the beneficiary on the life insurance policy on Genora's life. And when he passed away, she didn't cancel the policy. She saw her neighbors were in, you know, financial straits, so she just named Philip and Amy Skipper as beneficiaries of the same $25,000 insurance policy. And she figured, you know, if something happened to her, they would have some extra money to help take care of their baby.

[Sloan Glass]

Well, that's certainly curious, but it wasn't a secret. Albert Guillory knew about the life insurance policy and no one had objected.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

Philip and Amy definitely knew about the insurance policy. Genora told them about it. So all of a sudden the attention shifted to the Skippers and John Ballio, who lived right across the street from Genoa Gillard.

[Sloan Glass]

Even with these suspects and a confession, the police still did not think they had enough evidence to charge them. Just like with their other suspect, the cop from Baton Rouge.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

Most prosecutors are extremely risk averse. They won't tee it up and see what the jury says. They will just drop the case rather than press forward on what they consider a weak case.

[Sloan Glass]

The decision not to press charges created a war between the DA and sheriff's office.

[Detective Don McKee]

So we just kind of had to sit back and look at everybody again.

[Sloan Glass]

And the unsolved murder left the town of Clinton terrified.

[Detective Joel Odom]

It was the summer of fear. Everybody was buying Mace off the shelf as fast as they could get it. Here, handgun sales were through the roof.

[Sloan Glass]

I'm Sloan Glass. In the conclusion of the Brotherhood, the police learned the surprising answer to why they couldn't find more evidence.

[Journalist Chuck Hussmeier]

You never have that happen and you know that's something I would be embarrassed to try to write in fiction. But in this case, it really happened.

[Sloan Glass]

That's next time on American Homicide. You can contact the American Homicide team by emailing [e-mail] that's AmericanHomicidePodmail.com American Homicide is hosted and written by me, Sloan Glass and is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart podcast. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Todd Ganz. The series is also written and produced by Todd Ganz with additional writing by.

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Ben Fetterman and Andrea Gunning.

[Sloan Glass]

Our Associate producer is Kristen Melchuri. Our I Heart team is Ally Perry and Jessica Krynczak. Audio editing, mixing and mastering by Nico Aruka American Homicide's theme song was composed.

[Henry Meds Representative]

By Oliver Baines of Noiser Music Library, provided by MyMusic.

[Sloan Glass]

Follow American Homicide on Apple Podcasts and please rate and review American Homicide. Your five star review goes a long way towards helping others find this show. For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the.

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[Sloan Glass]

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