Podcast Summary: Criminal – “The Manual”

Host: Phoebe Judge
Air Date: November 28, 2025
Theme:
A riveting investigation of the 1993 contract killing of Mildred Horn, her disabled son Trevor, and his nurse, and the subsequent discovery that the killer used a published “hitman manual” as a step-by-step guide. The episode explores the ethical, legal, and constitutional debates surrounding whether a book encouraging crime can be held responsible, the astonishing backstory of the manual’s creation, and its resulting legal aftershocks.

Main Story Overview

• The Central Crime: In 1993, Mildred Horn, her young son Trevor (who had suffered brain damage due to hospital negligence), and his nurse, Janice Saunders, were murdered in Maryland. The crime scene suggested a methodical hit.
• Seguing from Personal Tragedy to Legal Precedent: The story traces the lawsuit that followed and the landmark civil case targeting the publishers of a book “Hitman: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors,” which functioned as a literal how-to for murder.

Detailed Episode Breakdown

1. The Lawsuit and the Family

• [01:25 - 02:11]:
  Lawyer Howard Siegel is introduced, having represented Mildred Horn’s son Trevor after his catastrophic injury during a hospital procedure.

  • The Horne family wins a nearly $2 million settlement for Trevor’s long-term care.
  • Quote (Howard Siegel at 02:37):
    “This family was just totally committed to making this child’s life as comfortable and as loving as was possible.”

• [03:06 - 03:36]:
  Lawrence Horn, Trevor’s father and an LA-based Motown sound engineer, appears at the trial, seemingly more interested in the settlement than the child’s welfare.

  • Quote (Howard Siegel at 03:36):
    “He wrote down a million dollars times 10%, which is $100,000 a year. He said, ‘I came here looking for this amount of money for me.’ … ‘Trevor lives through me.’”

2. The Murders and Initial Suspicion

• [04:41 - 05:41]:
  In March 1993, Mildred, Trevor, and their nurse are found murdered.

  • Siegel and the family “immediately” suspect Lawrence Horn, but he has a seemingly solid alibi—he’s in Los Angeles with his girlfriend.
  • Police can’t connect him to the scene.

• [06:45 - 07:41]:
  Lawrence Horn is publicly upset, claiming his innocence in a Washington Post interview, saying:

  • Quote (Lawrence Horn quoting himself at 06:56):
    “For me to do that, I would be dead now… I’d be a monster.”

3. Breakthrough: The Hitman Manual

• [07:41 - 08:24]:
  Police trace phone calls from Horn to James Perry in Detroit.

  • They find “A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors” in Perry’s home—essentially a DIY hitman manual.

• [09:07 - 09:38]:
  When investigators compare the manual to the crime, they find Perry followed 27 exact steps from the book to commit the murder.

  • Quote (Howard Siegel at 09:38):
    “These weren’t instructions like ‘run and hide’ or ‘be careful.’ These were very specific instructions.”

• [10:08 - 10:57]:
  Paladin Press, the manual’s publisher, specialized in extreme how-to books—flamethrower construction, body disposal, etc.—with “Hitman” one of its bestsellers.

  • Quote (Howard Siegel at 10:30):
    “[They] published How to Dispose of a Dead Body… How to Make a Homemade Flamethrower…”

4. Payment and Arrests

• [13:20 - 13:53]:
  Police suspect Horn was planning to pay Perry with money from Trevor’s settlement, but Mildred’s sisters block Horn’s inheritance via civil lawsuit.

  • This dispute, and Perry’s angry calls to Horn, ultimately lead to their indictment.

• [15:23 - 16:09]:
  Siegel testifies in court about Horn’s intentions and lack of remorse.

  • Quote (Howard Siegel at 15:31):
    “Any father that would come to a trial like that concerned with how much money he was going to get when his son was… profoundly disabled… is just evil incarnate.”

5. The Legal Battle Over the Book

• [16:34 - 17:47]:
  Outraged that such a “murder manual” exists, Siegel sues Paladin Press on behalf of the Horn family, challenging the book’s First Amendment protection.

• [18:13 - 20:10]:
  Siegel distinguishes between expressive fiction and literal criminal instruction:

  • Quote (Howard Siegel at 18:13):
    “When someone takes a Tom Clancy book … to perpetrate a criminal act, he is misusing Tom Clancy’s book… With Hitman... [it] was being used exactly the way the author and publisher intended.”

• [20:16 - 22:31]:
  Paladin Press’s lawyer, Tom Kelly, asserts the book is no more culpable than a movie or a crime novel, calling Perry’s implementation “preposterous” and “window dressing”.

  • Quote (Tom Kelly at 20:50):
    “Some of the techniques described were fascinating. Some were preposterous… in terms of true cold blooded psychology, it didn’t impress me as very realistic.”

• [22:31 - 25:32]:
  The first court rules that the book is protected as speech. On appeal, the 4th Circuit reverses.

  • Quote (Howard Siegel at 24:51):
    “When speech is used as the vehicle to commit the crime, it is not protected by the First Amendment.”

• [25:32 - 26:11]:
  Paladin Press settles, paying the Horn family and pulling “Hitman” from publication, though digital copies live on.

  • Quote (Phoebe Judge at 26:11):
    “I have a PDF of it sitting right in front of me.”
  • Quote (Howard Siegel at 26:14):
    “Yeah, you can’t put the genie back in the bottle.”

6. Aftermath and Legacy

• [26:18 - 26:33]:
  Publisher Peter Lund has died; Paladin Press is defunct; and Siegel, now retired, reflects on the case’s enduring legacy.
  • Quote (Howard Siegel at 26:33):
    “I think it left a good mark. A mark that says common sense will prevail over ideology and over strict construction of the constitution.”

7. The Manual’s True Author Revealed

• [27:25 - 28:09]:
  Vanity Fair reporter Abbott Kaler tracks down the real “Rex Farrell”—not a contract killer, but a divorced mom of two in Florida living in a trailer park.
  • Quote (Abbott Kaler at 28:09):
    “The person who wrote Hitman actually wasn’t a hitman at all… a divorced mother of two living in a trailer park in Florida.”

Notable Quotes

• “Trevor lives through me.” – Lawrence Horn, via Howard Siegel (03:36)
• “He [Horn] had not the slightest feeling of guilt for what he did.” – Howard Siegel (16:09)
• “This shit can’t be covered by the First Amendment. It just can’t be.” – Howard Siegel (17:34)
• “With Hitman… the people who were buying it and using it were using it exactly, precisely the way the author and the publisher intended.” – Howard Siegel (18:13)
• “It cannot be said that this book caused these murders to occur. They were with a momentum of their own. And the book, if anything, was merely window dressing.” – Tom Kelly (21:52)

Key Timestamps

• 01:25 – Introduction of Lawyer Howard Siegel and the malpractice case
• 03:36 – Lawrence Horn’s reaction to settlement and money
• 04:41 – Discovery of the murder
• 07:41 – Police trail phone calls to James Perry
• 08:24 – Discovery of the “hitman manual”
• 09:38 – Comparison of book’s steps to real murders
• 13:20 – Perry’s payment dispute exposes the murder conspiracy
• 15:31 – Siegel’s moral reflection on Horn’s motives
• 16:34 – Initiation of lawsuit against Paladin Press
• 18:13 – Distinguishing the “hitman manual” from fiction
• 22:31 – First Amendment argument; initial legal ruling protects book
• 24:51 – Appellate court reverses, lawsuit allowed to proceed
• 26:10 – Book lives on as a PDF, despite withdrawal from print
• 27:25 – Author of the manual revealed to Vanity Fair reporter

Tone and Language

• Phoebe Judge maintains her signature calmly probing, empathetic style.
• Howard Siegel is direct and impassioned, expressing both legal argument and personal outrage.
• Tom Kelly is measured and somewhat skeptical, making the First Amendment case for the defense.
• Abbott Kaler (final segment) brings a sense of journalist’s curiosity and reveals a fundamentally unexpected truth behind the infamous manual.

Episode Impact and Final Reflection

This episode traces a journey from a family’s medical tragedy to a sensational murder, and from there to a groundbreaking legal confrontation over free speech and real-world harm. It demonstrates that the boundaries between speech and action—especially in the age of information—are far from settled, and that “common sense,” as Howard Siegel puts it, sometimes presses up against the strictest interpretations of foundational rights. The supposedly “technical” writer of a notorious hitman manual, ultimately revealed as a suburban Florida mom, becomes the final twist in a story where nothing is as it first appears.

Additional Resources

To hear Phoebe’s full conversation with Abbott Kaler and deeper details about the hitman manual’s author, listeners are directed to Criminal Plus.