The Sick Ripper - New Britain, Connecticut

Summary

Small Town Murder: The Sick Ripper - New Britain, Connecticut

Release Date: July 17, 2025 | Hosts: James Pietragallo & Jimmy Whisman

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Introduction

In this gripping episode of Small Town Murder, hosts James Pietragallo and Jimmy Whisman delve into the haunting case of William Devin Howell, dubbed "The Sick Ripper," who terrorized New Britain, Connecticut. Combining meticulous research with their signature comedic flair, James and Jimmy navigate through the complexities of the investigation, shedding light on one of the state's most infamous serial killer cases.

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New Britain, Connecticut: A Brief Overview

New Britain, located in Hartford County, is a diverse suburb approximately an hour and a half from both New York City and Westport. With a population of 74,022, the city boasts a rich industrial history, earning the nickname "Hardware City" due to its association with major manufacturing firms like Stanley Works and the American Hardware Corporation. Notably, New Britain is the birthplace of the wire coat hanger and has a significant Hispanic population (40.9%) alongside other racial groups.

Notable Insights:

• Demographics: 52.5% female, median age of 33.2, influenced by a substantial college student population.
• Economy: Median household income stands at $50,379, with housing costs relatively affordable.
• Community: Hosts events like the Little Poland Festival, which highlights the city's Polish heritage but has origins rooted in strategic marketing to combat rising crime in the 90s and 2000s.

Quote:
James Pietragallo [07:11]: "By 1913, the American Hardware Corporation was the largest employer in Connecticut, making New Britain the hardware capital of the world."

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The Disappearance of Nilsa Arizmendi

Nilsa Arizmendi, a 33-year-old mother of four struggling with heroin addiction, was last seen on July 25, 2003. Living in a tumultuous relationship with her boyfriend, Angel Sanchez—a convicted drug dealer—their lives were spiraling due to rampant drug abuse and prostitution.

Key Events:

• On a hot July night, Nilsa and Angel encountered Devin Howell, a landscaper offering rides to individuals in need.
• Nilsa, referred to as "Maria" on the streets, accepted a ride from Howell, expecting a brief interaction.
• Promised transportation to a motel, Nilsa never returned, leading to her disappearance.

Quote:
James Pietragallo [21:16]: "On July 25, 2003, they're having a long night, man. Real long night."

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William Devin Howell: The Suspect

William Devin Howell, born on February 11, 1970, hails from Hampton, Virginia. With a troubled past marked by substance abuse, criminal convictions, and a history of relationship turmoil, Howell emerges as the primary suspect in Nilsa's disappearance.

Background:

• Howell's upbringing was marred by his parents' late-in-life marriage and his father's demanding blue-collar job.
• Developed early addictions, beginning with alcohol in his early teens and escalating to heroin and crack cocaine.
• Multiple arrests for drug-related offenses and driving violations, culminating in a reputation as a habitual offender.

Criminal Profile:

• Howell's lifestyle involved constant movement, sleeping in his van ("Murder Mobile"), and engaging in frequent sexual encounters with prostitutes.
• Exhibited a fascination with true crime, particularly forensic investigations, which influenced his methods of committing and concealing murders.

Quote:
Jimmy Wissman [119:00]: "This guy's just. I just liked raping."

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The Investigation and Discovery of Bodies

As Nilsa's disappearance remained unresolved, a hunter stumbled upon decomposed remains near the Stop and Shop parking lot, leading authorities to uncover a grisly pattern of murders attributed to Howell.

Findings:

• Blood Evidence: Blood belonging to Nilsa was found in Howell's van, alongside blood from other unidentified victims.
• Confessions: Howell's cellmate, Jonathan Mills, revealed Howell's alter ego, "The Sick Ripper," and detailed his modus operandi, including sexual assaults and mutilations to hinder identification.
• Further Victims: Bodies of women like Joy Martinez, Mary Jane Menard, and Marilyn Gonzalez were discovered between 2003 and 2007, all exhibiting signs of brutal violence and post-mortem mutilation.

Quote:
Jimmy Wissman [130:41]: "She disappeared. They never found her body or anything?"

James Pietragallo [91:19]: "And they find more blood. It has nothing to do with Nilsa or this other woman or him."

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The Trial and Conviction

In 2005, Howell stood trial for first-degree manslaughter in Nilsa Arizmendi's case, which later expanded to include six additional murders. Despite his initial denials, DNA evidence and confessions from his cellmate solidified the prosecution's case.

Trial Highlights:

• Evidence: Bloodstains matching Nilsa and other victims were linked to Howell's van.
• Plea Deal: Howell entered an Alford plea, acknowledging sufficient evidence for conviction without admitting guilt.
• Sentencing: Received six consecutive life sentences (totaling 360 years) with no possibility of parole, ensuring his incarceration until 2377.

Quote:
James Pietragallo [156:03]: "In Connecticut, a life sentence is defined as 60 years. So that is 360 years in prison."

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Aftermath and Further Revelations

Following his conviction, additional bodies were unearthed, reigniting investigations into Howell's involvement in colder cases dating back to the early 1990s. An author and lawyer, Ann K. Howard, took a keen interest in the case, engaging Howell through correspondence to uncover more about his motivations and crimes.

Additional Insights:

• Secret Garden: Howell referred to the burial sites as his "garden," where he meticulously concealed his victims.
• Psychological Profile: Howell exhibited signs of deep-seated psychological issues, exacerbated by his mother's prolonged illness and death during his formative years.
• Public Impact: The case shook the New Britain community, highlighting flaws in the initial police response and the challenges in identifying and capturing a serial killer without a body.

Quote:
Jimmy Wissman [152:24]: "Has there ever been a serial killer that says it was about the rapes."

James Pietragallo [166:54]: "My headaches."

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Conclusion

"The Sick Ripper" episode of Small Town Murder offers a harrowing exploration of William Devin Howell's reign of terror in New Britain, Connecticut. Through detailed storytelling, the hosts illuminate the tragic circumstances that allowed Howell to evade scrutiny for years, ultimately leading to a harrowing trial and conviction. This case underscores the intricate interplay between community vulnerability, law enforcement challenges, and the dark depths of human depravity.

Quote:
James Pietragallo [167:49]: "You know, you're a serial killer. You don't need $2,200."

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Notable Quotes

• James Pietragallo [07:11]: "By 1913, the American Hardware Corporation was the largest employer in Connecticut, making New Britain the hardware capital of the world."

• Jimmy Wissman [119:00]: "This guy's just. I just liked raping."

• James Pietragallo [156:03]: "In Connecticut, a life sentence is defined as 60 years. So that is 360 years in prison."

• Jimmy Wissman [152:24]: "Has there ever been a serial killer that says it was about the rapes."

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Closing Remarks

James and Jimmy wrap up the episode by acknowledging the severity of Howell's crimes and the lasting impact on the New Britain community. They encourage listeners to reflect on the case's complexities and the importance of vigilant community and law enforcement cooperation in preventing such tragedies.

Quote:
James Pietragallo [167:34]: "You're a serial killer. You don't need $2,200."

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Stay Tuned:
For more in-depth discussions on true crime cases, subscribe to Small Town Murder and follow the hosts on their social media platforms. New episodes air every Thursday, bringing you closer to the heart of small-town mysteries.

Transcript

[James Petregallo]

This week in New Britain, Connecticut, what starts out as a simple missing person case unfolds into a massive investigation of the worst serial killer in the history of the state. Welcome to Small Town Murder. Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yay.

[James Petregallo]

Oh yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petregallo. I'm here with my co host.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm Jimmy Wissman.

[James Petregallo]

Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another absolutely insane edition of Small Town Murder. We have a serial killing bad guy today. Just absolute monster, worst it's ever been in Connecticut. So here we go. It's some crazy stuff for you. Before we get to that, head over to shut upandgivememurder.com get your merchandise, get your tickets for live shows. They are coming back in the fall. We have, I think there's a few left in San Diego because we released our holds. We have, I think Philly, D.C. and Seattle are your tickets. So get your tickets right now and come see us. We are excited for that. Shut up and give me murder.com. you definitely also should listen to our other two shows, Crime in Sports which right now we are doing a long form multi part series on the i5 killer. So if you want a deep dive on a serial killer, that's where to go. There's no sports involved in it at all. So check that out and also your stupid opinions. Find out why people complain so much or what they complain about. Then get yourself patreon. Patreon.com crimeinsports just like the name of our other show there. This that anybody $5 a month or above. You are going to get massive amounts of stuff here. First of all, hundreds of bonus episodes you've never heard before that will be available upon subscription. You can binge those out. New ones every other week. One Crime in Sports, one Small Town Murder. And what do they get out of that Jimmy? Everything. Damn thing. This week we're going to talk about Jeff Alma, football player with a wild ending to his life. And then for Small Town Murder by popular demand, we have to talk about the poop cruise because we've been requested to several hundred times. So definitely the poop cruise. And we'll talk a little Titan submersible in there while we're out in the ocean. Anyway, let's do that. That is patreon.com crimeinsports and now you also, in addition to all of that we just said, you're gonna get all the shows, crime and sports, your stupid opinions and both episodes of Small Town Murder all ad free at the same time. It's all we can give you other than coming over and cleaning your gutters. This is all we got. This is everything. So do that sign up, man. We're giving you all we can here. So thank you for everyone who has done that. And you get a shout out at the end of the show as well, too. Jimmy will mess up your name all bad there. I almost said miss up. He'll miss up your name. So that said, disclaimer time. This is a comedy show, everybody. We are comedians, but the stories are unfortunately and terrifyingly real. Every last detail is real. They are meticulously researched. And then we put jokes in there, too. But what we do is we never make fun of the victims or the victim's families.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Why is that, James?

[James Petregallo]

Because we're assholes.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yes, but.

[James Petregallo]

But we're not scumbags. See how that works? It's real easy to do that. I don't understand how some people, you know, would not understand how that works. But I mean, it happens. So if that sounds good to you, man, do we have a wild story for you. If you think true crime and comedy should never, ever, ever go together, we might not be for you then. But I think you should check it out and give it a shot because you never know. That said, I think it's time, everybody, all right, to sit back. What do you say? Let's all clear the lungs here, arms to the sky, and let's all shout, shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Let's do it.

[James Petregallo]

Let's go on a trip, shall we? We are going to Connecticut this week.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's a lovely place.

[James Petregallo]

They have nice roads there. That's what I always say about Connecticut. They. They pave the roads very well.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Food, It's a great place.

[James Petregallo]

This is.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Their diners suck dicks, though. I'll be honest, I drove through there. I've stopped at 2. 0 for 2. Swing and a miss both times.

[James Petregallo]

Diners are very hit and miss. It's either a great diner or a crappy diner. You never know.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I guess that's probably partially on me for hitting rural middle of the road. Connecticut diners, they're probably not the best.

[James Petregallo]

And the ones in the middle of nowhere, also, they're not really a neighborhood joint, so they're just counting on people passing through. Those are usually the crappy ones.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Somebody will stop. It's all right. Just make the bullshit.

[James Petregallo]

The ones where, like, local people go, that'll be a decent diner because they figured that Out. This is New Britain, New Britain, Connecticut. At least we don't have to figure too much out of where that name came from. I think we can all understand that one. This is in north central Connecticut. It's about 15 minutes outside of Hartford, so that's a suburb of that. It's about an hour 50 to New York City and about an hour to Westport, Connecticut. Our last episode in Connecticut, which was episode 570, 12 scary hours was the name of that. That was wild. It was another one of those. Someone's kidnapped and someone's murdered and is that person kidnapped alive? It was crazy. It was a stressful one. This is in Hartford county, area code 860. Now they have several nicknames, some of which are absolutely ridiculous too, which is excellent. They have New Britsky. I don't know who calls it that, but hard hitting New Britain. That's my favorite because that's hilarious. That is very funny. Hardware City, which is the one that actually makes sense. We'll get into that. And their motto is Industria implet. Whoa. In plet alvire et mele frutier. Yeah, some Latin shit industry fills the hive and enjoys the honey.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, it sure does.

[James Petregallo]

Oh boy. History. Settled in 1687. Old, quite old here. Incorporated in 1871. So they had to wait about, think about it for about 200 years whether they really want to have a town or not. That is very interesting here. It was once known as the Great Swamp. Yeah, that's not great here. But then that was when it was part of a different town. But then in 1754, the colony approved the area as a new parish and named it New Britain B I T O N. Which is not how it is now.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh yeah.

[James Petregallo]

It was nicknamed Hardware City because it was home to the Stanley Works, which.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They made the Stanley Cup.

[James Petregallo]

No, I think Stanley. Don't they make like fixtures and like plumbing things and stuff.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, that's Stanley.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, that's Stanley. And the American Hardware Corporation.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And other big manufacturing companies. There's a lot of like manufacturing factory jobs here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Shops and shit.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, yeah. By 1913, the American hardware Corporation was the largest employer in Connecticut.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is that right?

[James Petregallo]

And it was known as the hardware capital of the world. Also New Britain is the home of the wire coat hanger. It was invented here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, how about that?

[James Petregallo]

Feels like that should have been invented like what, 3,000 years ago? Like as soon as they've learned to work with metal, they should have went, hey, what if I don't keep our clothes on the Floor. So, yeah, these. That's what they're doing here. And 2010, Stanley Works purchased Black and Decker and it remains headquartered in this city. So there you go. Yeah. It really feels like the wire hanger should have been come up with a long time ago. Hey, maybe we should.

[Jimmy Wissman]

As soon as they got wire that thick, that gauge of a wire, we could probably use this to hang clothes.

[James Petregallo]

We should probably not let like a yak sleep on our shirt. Right? That's. That would be bad. Let's hang it up. Yeah, Yeah. A couple of famous people here from here. Annie Leibowitz, the photographer. Steve Delkowski, who was a Major League baseball bust, who was known as at the time, the fastest baseball pitcher in history.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay, my question is accurate.

[James Petregallo]

There you go. And Charles Goodyear, also, who invented tiles, vulcanized rubber. So there you go. He lived and worked here. Reviews of this town. Here we go. Five stars. I've lived in New Britain my whole life. My community is amazing and everyone is friendly. I like being able to go outside and feel safe doing so. I do know there are the wrong there, by the way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Fantastic.

[James Petregallo]

There are worse parts in New Britain. I would like to see some improvements in the city.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

But five stars.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Five stars.

[James Petregallo]

Not bad. Three stars. Better. Yeah. Could be better, but not perfect. Five stars.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Three stars. My experience with New Britain is a very mutual understanding.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What is that?

[James Petregallo]

What? What kind of a narcissist thinks they have a mutual understanding with a city?

[Jimmy Wissman]

My grievances, they're well aware of.

[James Petregallo]

They know they know and I know them and we are all.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I know they know the city is.

[James Petregallo]

Not great, but it's also not bad. Perfect star rating then. 3 stars. You nail it right in the middle. Yeah, they have a very local. They have very local stores and everything in New Britain is close. New Britain is also very close to surrounding towns like Berlin, Southington and Plainville. It was when it was called the Great Swamp. That's when it was part of Berlin, by the way. One star. This is funny. Dirty, dirty, dirty.

[Jimmy Wissman]

All right.

[James Petregallo]

Dirty, dirty, dirty. Lots of drinkers and irresponsible dog owners. Just drunk people stepping in dog shit. That's this whole town.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I just want to stumble home without slipping in all this dog shit.

[James Petregallo]

Lots of liter and glass on the sidewalks. I don't know what liter is. L, I T E R. Litter. Litter. Litter. Ah, litter.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Not safe for dog owners. Okay. Big stray cat problem. Well, it seems like the dogs would be in heaven then.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Not sure. They shit anywhere they want and chase cats all around. It's dog's life, man. One star. Finally. Awful place to live. The criminals are everywhere and destroy everything.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Always, every day.

[James Petregallo]

Not even the cockroaches and rats want to be there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, come on.

[James Petregallo]

How come there's no roaches here? Well, they don't even want to be here. It's so bad, they backed up and left. I know people that would rather be homeless in any other place than have a roof over their head in New Britain.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No, you don't. You don't know a soul.

[James Petregallo]

Nobody says that, that they'd rather actually say, okay, I'm going to take you to an overpass. You're going to sleep under it for a while. I'm going to live in your house in New Britain. You go ahead and sleep under an overpass, and we'll talk about it under.

[Jimmy Wissman]

An overpass in Tulsa. We'll see how you like it.

[James Petregallo]

We'll see how that goes for you. See if that's any good. People in this town, it's a little bigger than we normally do, but it's worth it. 74,022 here, a lot more women than men. It's about 52 and a half percent women, which is way above the national average for especially a big town. It's weird. Median age here is 33.2, mainly because a lot of this population is college kids, by the way. Yeah, yeah, there's a college here, so that's a big deal here. I think it's Connecticut Central State University or some shit like that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't remember.

[James Petregallo]

It doesn't really matter. Completely irrelevant to our story, but about 36% of the people here are married, which is well below the national average and kind of in line with a city that's half college kids. But 30% are single with children. So these college kids are putting out. That's one thing we do know, race in this town. 42.3% white, 11.5% black, 3% Asian, 40.9% Hispanic. So there you go, the religious breakdown. It's about 50, 50, just like the rest of the country, but as usual in the Northeast, Catholicism takes the crown here by far. 31.7% Catholic, as we know, Catholics are the Baptists of the North. They're there. If they're in the Northeast, they're going to be the highest religion. They have a high unemployment rate here, which, again, is kind of normal in college towns type of deal. Median household income here is $50,379 a year.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's not great.

[James Petregallo]

Not great at all. It's normally almost 70,000 in the rest of the country. So a lot of that too is college kids driving it down as well. But I mean, the cost of living, when you break that down, 100 is average. Here, it's about 105 in the cost of living. But the housing is the lowest thing really, so maybe that's good. Median home cost here, 228,900 bucks.

[Jimmy Wissman]

In Connecticut.

[James Petregallo]

In Connecticut, yeah. There's shitty parts of Connecticut though. Evidently there's some really nice parts and some really dumpy parts of Connecticut.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So that's crazy.

[James Petregallo]

Here we go. Maybe you've convinced yourself. Damn it. I'd like to be. I'd like to be inspired by the same place that inspired someone to invent a coat hanger. I'm going.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And a galvanized rubber tire.

[James Petregallo]

God damn it. We have for you the New Britain Connecticut real estate report. Average two bedroom rental here goes for about $1,350. So expensive above the national average. Whereas to buy a house, it's lower, which makes sense. Again, college, more rentals than buyers. Here. Our first house is a two bedroom, one bath, 912 square foot house. And I'll show you a picture. I've never seen a house that could use a power washing quite as bad as this.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow. Is it mossy? What's going on?

[James Petregallo]

I don't have any. There is just shit on the side here. And it's like, you know, vinyl siding covered in shit. So it's crazy. This is a foreclosure. There are no pictures of the inside, but it looks like a box and has a little tiny backyard with a. Like a low chain link fence that your dog could jump over. Yeah. Any athleticism at all to it? 199,000 bucks for that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

And there isn't any land either to it. It's the sun. Basically. A small lot houses right there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Here is a three bedroom, two bath, 21, 22 square foot house. It's nice. Here, I'll show you. It's quaint. You know, nice little Connecticut. Yeah. Nice little family house. Little trees growing up there. You get your fireplace. Lots of greenery inside too. It's nice. There's a fireplace. Like I said, the. You know, the stairs. Right. When you walk in, it's a. It's a smaller. Not smaller, but it's. It looks bigger. It looks smaller from the outside than it is actually.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Does it have. It's got a basement then, right?

[James Petregallo]

Yes, it does, absolutely. This half acre lot, $350,000.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's not bad.

[James Petregallo]

And the price, it was apparently listed for 3 for 250 because it had a price increase of $100,000 like two weeks ago. I don't know, they might have listed it for too little and then put it up. And then finally here, a four bedroom, three bath, 4,348 square foot house.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Feels like you could have got another bathroom out of that.

[James Petregallo]

God, it is extremely snot green. Yeah, it's like horrible, like olive green. It's real weird.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Fuck is wrong with you?

[James Petregallo]

It doesn't look great from the outside. Honestly. It looks kind of dilapidated, but inside is pretty nice. It's on a half acre lot. 439,000 bucks for that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's not bad for that much. For that much house.

[James Petregallo]

You just need to do a lot. Yeah, it's a lot of house. It doesn't. And it's one of those houses again, that doesn't look like it from the outside. Looks like a 1500 square foot house. And it's sure, you know, three times that inside.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So a little bit of paint, maybe it's a good house, huh?

[James Petregallo]

Not bad, maybe. And finally, things to do. The Little Poland Festival.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Little Poland.

[James Petregallo]

Little Poland. There is a Little Poland in this town. And very much. That's why it's new, Britsky, because it's. There's a lot of Polish people here. So the Little Poland festival started out in a parking lot and now it's a huge event, they say. Oh, man. One of the organizers here said that the neighborhood known as Little Poland wasn't always a destination point for people interested in Polish shit. He said it fell on hard times in the 90s and 2000s. There was crime increasing and shit was going bad. That's when business owners approached the city and asked them to have Broad street designated as Little Poland. So this wasn't like a natural thing, like, oh, that's been little Poland for 100 years. Literally. Business owners were like, can we name this? So then it's a destination for people to come to. So it's literally just marketing horseshit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Light bulb screwing contests and all that.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, you know it. Yeah. The team with the least amount of people screwing in a light bulb wins. I think that's how that works, right? Oh, man. So they started doing that now. The Little Poland Festival or whatever the hell it is here. The. Yeah, Little Poland Festival. The schedule starts out at 9:30am with DJ Tomas Burek. T O M A S Z Burek DJ he sounds. Sounds like he's spinning all the hot shit, doesn't he? He's going to play some fucking polka music for you, I think out there. Then he comes. Yeah. Then there's an announcement, a sponsor announcement at 10 o'. Clock. And then DJ Tomas comes back again at 10:10 back in here, Tomas, he's back at 11:20. The Yusef Taekwondo School, which sounds very Polish, they're gonna do some sort of presentation. The academic choir of the Lublin Polytechnical Institute will be there. The pious Polish folk dancers from Webster, Massachusetts. Oh, okay. Flying them in Polish Scouting Organization of Connecticut will be there doing quote, mixed performances. Scouting, Scouting, Polish scouting. Write your own jokes, folks. There's plenty to be written there. Everybody fill it in. That's the fun part. We just say it and we don't even have to make a joke because it's. Everyone's doing it themselves. At 3:40 they're going to bring back DJ Tomas Burek again.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Dang, this guy is working.

[James Petregallo]

You'd think he'd be done, but no. At 4:00'. Clock. P, A C Z K I Paski Packski. Yeah, I don't know. I know what pierogies are. I don't know what the hell that is. There's an eating contest of those fucking things, whatever they are.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, it's food.

[James Petregallo]

Food, yeah, you got it. Well, maybe it's not, but either way, if there's an eating contest, I'm not sure if it's edible or not. Yeah, you never know. Daniel, Band us. I don't even know what that is. That'll be at 4:30, then at 5:10. Live music.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Now we're doing live music.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Otherwise we just had the dj. And then there's a small stage also. And there will be two bands going back and forth on the small stage. The RBO Polka band.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sure.

[James Petregallo]

And the Vadamecum Band. V A D E M E Q U M. It is fascinating.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We have done so many shows and so many festivals and so many bands and they still keep making them.

[James Petregallo]

They still keep happy. They still keep.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We got plenty of bands. I think.

[James Petregallo]

I think we're good. Yeah. There's not even any names left for bands. I don't even know what you'd call yourself anymore. Band, you know, AQ647 36 at this point.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Combining letters and numbers.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Like. Like a science fiction movie. Just.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Or a default screen name on Instagram.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. So here we go. Crime rate in this town. What we're interested in property crime. What those people are saying. Criminals everywhere. Even the roaches won't live here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petregallo]

Slightly above average.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Barely above average.

[James Petregallo]

Which in a college town it's usually even worse because included in property crime is some 21 year old kid pissing on somebody's tire or something. You know, violent crime, murder, rape, robbery, and of course, assault. The Mount Rushmore of crime is slightly below average.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The dangerous stuff.

[James Petregallo]

Horrifying. Yeah. So I mean, it doesn't seem that bad. That said, let's talk about some murder because this is horrifying. Let's start out with Nilsa Arizmendi. Okay. A R I Z M E N D I Arismandi. Now, she was born in 1970 and by 2003 she's living a hard life. Uh oh, Nilsa is living a hard life. Nilsa is N I L S A By the way, she's a mother of four, in her 30s and a heroin addict.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh boy.

[James Petregallo]

Those two things both rough.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What year is that?

[James Petregallo]

This is 2003.

[Jimmy Wissman]

2003.

[James Petregallo]

She's living in a motel with her boyfriend who's a convicted drug dealer. Well, things are going one way to get it great. She doesn't have her kids, thankfully. You know, she's living in a. In a motel room with a drug dealer and doing heroin. It's probably. Probably better if. Yeah, it's better if they're staying with somebody else at that point. But she. Apparently her boyfriend's name is Angel Sanchez and this guy, the two of them together basically just wander around. She turns tricks and then they buy cracked and heroin.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, the old trope.

[James Petregallo]

If you've ever seen Dope Sick Love, they could have been on Dope Sick Love.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Basically doing the whole life. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Yep. The whole couple. She's going into a van, he's waiting over on the side, keeping an eye out, and she hops out and then they go buy their fix.

[Jimmy Wissman]

30 bucks and we get a rock.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, that's right. So it's crack to go, crack to get the energy to go look for the heroin and then heroin to come down from the crack. And it's a vicious cycle. So on July 25, 2003, they're having a long night, man. Real long night. Nielsen and her boyfriend are walking around. It's real hot out. And July. Yeah, Basically nobody wants to pay normal price for sexual activity this night. Normally she charged $30 for a half hour, which seems very reasonable. It's a dollar a minute.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Which that seems extremely reasonable. But everybody's trying to talk her down tonight. I'll give you 20.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, no.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Shit.

[James Petregallo]

Some people said I'll give you ten bucks for a blowjob. So he's. Yeah. Which is, you know, I don't know if they could tell she's desperate or what, but it's a rough night. It's a rough night. So.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Got no confidence in its showing?

[James Petregallo]

No. And the problem is too, they're getting desperate because their habit is really out of control between the two of them, when you have two people together, that's two giant habits. At this time in July of 2003, they were each smoking. Now, I don't even know. This is a strange amount of crack to put. Normally with crack, you'd say this dollar amount or this weight.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This many grams. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

This many grams. Yeah. It's stuff like that. This is much like the dresser of Cheez. Its a very odd, strange. So there's a book here. We'll get to the title and all that later. But the way they sum up the couple's crack smoking and heroin abuse is in a much, very different measurement. They say they were each smoking about 20 to 30 pieces of crack per day, which is very descriptive.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

How big is it? A $5 rock? A $10 rock. What are we talking about?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Like an author that didn't do much investigation into.

[James Petregallo]

On drug use addiction. Yeah. And also shooting about 10 to 15 bags of heroin between the two of them a day.

[Jimmy Wissman]

To 10 to 15?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. And I'm assuming these are like a quarter gram hit or something like that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But still, that seems like an awful lot of heroin.

[James Petregallo]

That seems like a lot of heroin.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is it 10 to 15 shots a day that they're doing or are they doing bags?

[James Petregallo]

The bags will be a shot, basically, if they're going to be.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right. So it's 10 to 15 shots a day.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Pretty much each that they're doing as well.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Holy shit.

[James Petregallo]

They said sometimes Nielsen would use up to three bundles of heroin a day, which is 30 bags. Think about that. Number one, that's so much heroin to do. And number two, if you're getting. The only way of getting money for that is prostitution. You're doing a lot of prostitution that day for that. If you charge 30 bucks a half hour she's spending, there's about $300 in heroin a day she's spending.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So she's doing 10 blowjobs a day. She is buried in this addiction.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. This is horrifying. Yeah. And he's just as bad too. It's really bad. She would do that. Basically, depending on the amount of crack smoked, there'd be more heroin or Less heroin is how they would do it. So now, according to Sanchez, the boyfriend, the drug dealing boyfriend here, which at this point is not really dealing much, he's just doing so it's not going well. He claims that they got to the parking lot of the Stop and Shop in Wethersfield and they. He says that as they approach this parking lot, he had convinced her to start a new life in the walk from their motel along. And this is the middle of the night, by the way, it's two o' clock in the morning and all this, they're having some weird, he said, some moment of clarity where they've decided in the middle of the night, this isn't the life for us. We need to fix ourselves. And he said that he persuaded her to agree to this.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I mean, she's got to be on a fix at the moment because as soon as she sobers up for a second, she's gonna go, fuck that, I'm gonna be sick.

[James Petregallo]

But as a matter of fact, at this point, we're not sure their exact level of highness. They've been on and off all day, so who knows here? But he convinced her. This is all according to him. He said he convinced her that she should have a long and healthy life. And I need you. Your kids need you. You have four kids.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Turn it all around today.

[James Petregallo]

Let's turn it around. And she said, according to him, she claimed as they approached the Stop and shop parking lot, where all revelations of the brain happen at that point, that's usually moments of clarity all happen as you approach a Stop and Shop parking lot. That's a grocery store, by the way, if you're not in the northeast. So she said she's never going to turn another trick again or inject any more heroin.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sucks my last dick.

[James Petregallo]

Last dick and shot my last fucking dose. Done. So she said, fuck it, it's been too much. I'm 33, I gotta get my shit together. Then when they get into the parking lot, they see a one van parked there in the parking lot, parked in the far corner of the lot. And she said, that's Devin's van. Oh, this is according to the boyfriend. And he said, let's just go back to the motel. Let's go. Let's go back to the motel. We don't want to see Devin. And she said, I'm just gonna say hi, okay? Okay. So she approaches this van, according to Sanchez, where Devin is in there. Devin Howell is what she knows him as. Sure, Devin Howell. Now, they had met, they knew Devin here. He wasn't even like a drug guy with them. He was just like a hangout guy. Hangout guy? Yeah. They met him a few months before. He was pumping gas at the Exxon station on the corner. Not as a job. He was just putting gas in his van. And it was raining and Sanchez and Nilsa were soaking wet. So they approach Howell while he's pumping gas, even though he's a stranger, and asked him for a ride to their motel because, yeah, we're soaking wet and we'll give you five bucks. The guy said Sanchez had told him. So Howell said, well, he was going that direction anyway. He was going to Lowe's to price out some supplies for a job because he's a landscaper.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sure.

[James Petregallo]

And he has his own. On the van, it says on the side, you know, Devin Howell. Devin's landscaping. Call Devin or whatever the hell.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Good for him.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, well, it's more like I don't know if anyone's really gonna hire him to do anything. So he's like, let me get a shitty van and just put my phone number on the side and hopefully someone will let me cut lawn. That's kind of what he's got going on.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's a little more professional than just showing up with a rake.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Just dragging a mower down the street from house to house like a 12 year old. Can I cut your lawn for 20 bucks? So he said, fuck it, he's driving that direction anyway. And he said, yeah, sure. Doors unlocked. So he said, they got in. Now, Ace here, Sanchez claims that he and Nielsis both squeezed into the seat on the passenger side. Oh, they both got in there in the front because his back has all sorts of equipment back there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's where the fucking mowers at.

[James Petregallo]

Yes. Now, Nielsen introduced herself as Maria, which is kind of what she goes by on the street. Nielsen goes by Maria, street name. So they drove to the Al Mar Motel. Very classy. I'm sure it is, Howell told them. And they noticed that Devin had a southern accent, which you don't really come across very much in northern Connecticut. So they were like, okay, that's something that sticks out. He had a lawn care business and all that. Sanchez said he glanced over his shoulder, looked at the van. Big empty van space here. They said it had a long bench sofa in it, a big sofa, but it had lawn service shit all over. It had. His clothes were back there. It had weed whackers and shit. And they said the stench of body odor was strong in the vehicle. Like he lived in it, they said, smelled like he lived in it. That sort of shit, which is always what you want. When people open the door to your car. You want to go, ooh, what, are you living in here?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, what is that? Is that french fries or your body?

[James Petregallo]

Yes, that's great. So they got to the motel and they invited Devin Howell into the room to hang out. You want to come hang?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Come on in. Bring your armpits.

[James Petregallo]

Well, yeah, come on. And bring your stank with you. And a weed whacker. So he brought some beer and some weed that he had.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's nice.

[James Petregallo]

Now, the two of them, Nielsen, Sanchez offered him a little bit of crack. Would you like some of our crack? Which is very hospitable.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I mean, if we're all sharing.

[James Petregallo]

I mean, that's. You don't even know this guy. You're already offering him some of your crack. I think that's extremely hospitable. So that's not bad. But he said, no, no, no, no. He's a weed and booze guy. I'm not a crack guy. No, thanks. So the three of them, you know, did their shit. They smoked crack, he smoked weed, they hung out. Classy hotel, by the way, he said. He tells them. Devin Howell tells them he's living in his van, and he often parked it in the stop and shop parking lot. Yeah, that's where he hung out.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

He left the motel in less than an hour, drove back to stop and shop to sleep for the night. And he. And Devin later said, as he looked down at the ashtray in his truck, he had a $20 bill in there and it was gone. And he said, motherfuckers. They fucking stole. Ripped me off for 20 bucks. But they didn't stop contact with Devin, and the few months later after this, they had contact with him here and there. They lived in different motels, and they would walk from their motel to a section of New Britain where she could turn some tricks. So, you know, that's how. How that kind of goes. So they would rely on people to spot them and give them rides a lot. And since he was always driving around with his business, on five, six occasions, he spotted them and pick them up. So not too bad for them especially. They stole from him, for Christ's sake. So now. But Sanchez claims at 245 that morning, that's when he watched Nilsa walk across the empty parking lot and get into the van. She's going to go say hi, by the way. She's very skinny now. And she had lost A shitload of weight. She had been in federal prison the year before. Oh, and gained about 60 pounds because it's all starchy shit food. And when you get out, though, and you just smoke crack and do heroin, you lose weight real fast. Yeah. That's the diet they're not telling you about right there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sure.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, that's it. Fucking keto and all this bullshit. Yeah, your ass.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Meth and heroin.

[James Petregallo]

Meth. Heroin. Don't sleep. And also walked like 12, 15 miles a day. That'll do it. That lifestyle.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That'll get you. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And also your. Your. Your quads are going to be strong, glutes kicking. Yeah, you're going to be really doing well.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Amazing.

[James Petregallo]

So he said. Sanchez said that it appeared that Nilsa stopped at the van and talked to Howell, who was in the driver's seat. Then she walked around the van and got into the passenger seat. Now, Sanchez said that he heard the engine turn on and watched the van slowly drive away. He waited for a while. He waited for a while. She never came back. Van never came back. So he went back to the hotel, at the Al Mar Hotel, and she never came back. Hours later, still gone. And this is not like her. She normally comes back because they'll do drugs together, turn the trick, get the money, buy some shit, go back to the hotel and do it. And rinse and repeat.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You told her to turn her life around.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. So about 6am Here, Sanchez gets up and walks back to the Stop and Shop parking lot and doesn't see Devin Howell, Owl's van at all. Now Sanchez is pissed off because at one point he had a flyer that Devin Howell had given him for his lawn care service just to show him it. And he said he'd thrown it out. So now he had. Doesn't have his phone number. Even though the phone number's on the side of the van. He doesn't remember it, you know, obviously. So he's like, fuck. He can't get a hold. He doesn't know how to contact the guy. He knows that his van's at the Stop and Shop and if it's not there, who knows?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sure.

[James Petregallo]

So days pass, okay. And Nielsen doesn't come back.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No answer from her. She's gone.

[James Petregallo]

No. And it's not like. Because you might think, well, I mean, their lifestyle. Maybe she found somebody else to hook up with or she took. That's not the way this works. They've been together since they were in like the seventh grade, these two. They have been partners in crime.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Home.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. They've Been stealing horses for decades, these two. And they're that kind of people here. And for the last seven years, they didn't separate at all. That was 20 years was on and off. You know, a year here, they'd be with somebody else, they'd come back to each other. But for the last seven years, they've been hooked up. You know, not a great relationship. They're crackheads, so they fight and, you know, he hit her, she'd hit him back. Fucking kind of the way it worked here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So he knew that she's tough and can take care of herself, too. I mean, you kind of have to in that lifestyle, or else you're not going to last very long.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yes. You're not going to get.

[James Petregallo]

No. So he had 30s. No. So he ends up. And this is a big move for a crackhead with a long criminal record. He called the Hartford Police Department.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No shit.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. To report her missing. He wasn't even put through to detectives, though, because they gave the contact information for Nielse's mother. And they told him to wait three or four more days and she'll probably show up.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Give her 72 hours.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Because they looked up who she was and they said, oh, she's a drug addict, so give her fucking. Yeah. And this was after he said, I haven't. It's been days since she's been gone. And they were like, give her a few more days. Which is not exactly, you know, great police work. Let's just say that's bad. So she still doesn't come back. And on July 31, her sister filed a missing persons report. Now, they also might take that a little more seriously from the sister than from this crackhead Angel. Yeah. Yeah. They note that she's been involved in drugs and prostitution, but emphasizing that she always. She doesn't disappear like this. This is a brand new thing that's never happened before. She's got four kids. She always makes her way back to them eventually. This is crazy. So, yeah, he's. And Sanchez here, he's just sitting around waiting and waiting. And the police are very suspicious of him at this point. Sure. Nielsen mother and older sister went up and down these areas that she frequents to look for, driving back and forth, asking people. Then on August 8, 2003, 14 days after the disappearance, Sanchez gets arrested. Oh, not for the disappearance. For possession of narcotics.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

So he'd been in and out of prison for 20 years, this guy. I mean, it's. Yeah. In 97, he had a long sentence for possession of narcotics. And conspiracy to distribute heroin. Nielsen was the co defendant in that case.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

They were caught selling. They had 470 bags of heroin.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's a lot of heroin.

[James Petregallo]

It's a lot of heroin. 45 bundles of heroin, or three days for them. Yeah, I was gonna say that's not a lot of. Not gonna last a long time. So. Wow. Yeah. For them, they can actually claim personal use on that, which is crazy. So the detectives finally get involved. Now there's a Detective Durone here, and he's gonna kind of be on this till the end. He visits the. The mom's house, Nielsen's mom's house, and asked the mother and sister questions about Sanchez.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Okay. On October 2nd, he requested. This detective requested to monitor Sanchez's phone calls and written correspondence during the length of his incarceration because he really thinks that he had something to do with Nielsen disappearing.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

He marked in a police report that Sanchez had been released from prison on November 10, and went on to say, as of this write up, he's not made an effort to contact the Weathersfield police Department. Which isn't true, actually.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No.

[James Petregallo]

He actually wrote them a letter from jail explaining that you need to look at this Devin Howell guy. He's got a van and a landscaping company, and that's the last person I saw her with. So that's what they're saying. So they get the letter, and it says that this detective is notified that she was last seen getting into a 1985 blue Ford Econoline van. That is the ultimate molester van. Sure enough, every kid knows not to get in that van.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Like, oh, boy.

[James Petregallo]

A blue 85. It's beat up. Yeah, he's not taking care of this thing. They also learn that they figure out this van and who it's registered to, that it is actually registered to a woman, not this Devin Howell guy. So, yeah, Sanchez sent a letter to the police detailing the van encounter and the way in his. His claims and identifying Devin as Devin Howell. And so who the fuck is Devin Howell, first of all?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Tell me about him.

[James Petregallo]

Well, William. Devin Howell here seems to go by William to people that he works with. Landscaping people, things like that. Or Will or Bill. Yeah, but goes by Devin on the street. Everybody on the street calls him Devin. So we'll just call him Devin because we started calling him Devin.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Double life.

[James Petregallo]

Double life. He is born February 11, 1970. Same age as Nielse. He's from Hampton, Virginia. His mother's name was Melissa. His father's name was John. They were older when he was born, his mom was 40 when he was born, which in 1970 was considered a miracle. You know what I mean? Now every actress doesn't even start having kids till they're 44.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No, they adopt until 44.

[James Petregallo]

Think about like how like easily things come to people now. Especially if you have a lot of money where you, you sit around and then you're at like 45, you're like, I think I'll start having kids now.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I've done some pretty amazing things. I think I'm going to settle down now.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, I mean like me going, what am I? I'm in my mid-40s, I think I'd like to play in the NBA now. I'm going to work on now it's time. It's over, I think for that probably. But these like actresses, they don't give a fuck. They start spitting them out crazy late. So for 1970, very much a different deal. John his dad was a hard working blue collar guy. He was a machinist. Left for work at 5 in the morning and was home by 5:30 every night. Work 12 hour shifts half the time, all day. He has three brothers. Devin does his two older brothers and they're adults and gone and out of the house by the time he's born.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, yeah, I guess they will be. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

They were born before his mom was 20, so they're over 20. That's Rocky and Randy are his two older brothers there. And then he has another brother named Kevin. Kevin's a few years older than him. By the time Devin was born, Rocky had already been to Vietnam and back.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Imagine being a mom and having a newborn baby and a son coming home from Nam at the same time.

[Jimmy Wissman]

My God.

[James Petregallo]

Way different needs for these people.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So depending might, it might have the same needs.

[James Petregallo]

Shit, who knows. So William said his parents were old school with old school family values. This is Devin. They never did drugs or anything like that. Now his father used to drink but stopped drinking and that was it. Like he, Devin never saw his dad drink. His dad quit before he was ever born. He says it this way, as the story was told to me. There was a Christmas party and my two oldest brothers were teenagers and they got drunk. One was streaking through the neighborhood. God, the 60s are hilarious.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh man.

[James Petregallo]

One took his dick out and ran down the street.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

The other fucking was puking his guts out in the bathroom. As my dad told it to you. To me, my dad was too drunk to help either one of them. That was the last time he took a Drink. And the last alcohol fueled Christmas party they ever threw, I believe it was back in the mid-60s and I wasn't born until 1970.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Hilariously, they've got two kids that drank and they both reacted the two different ways that you can react.

[James Petregallo]

One's like, woo, woo.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No. Who wants to see my butthole? Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And then the other one's just fucking hacking.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Dear God, make me feel better. I'll never do it again.

[James Petregallo]

My guess is Rocky was the one with his dick out. I don't know why. Although Randy, his name is Randy, but I think Randy's the puker and Rocky's the streaker.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Randy's the one that's like, it'll get good to him later. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Well, it was Randy's idea to go streaking, but he just couldn't make it because he was too sick. Rocky went out and got it done. So he says he had a nice childhood. His earliest memories are catching tadpoles and crawfished in the ditch behind the family's three bedroom bungalow. In the ditch? Not in the creek. In the ditch. At age 5, he attended a boys club on Wednesday nights and every other Saturday they would shoot pool and do other activities and play bingo and make model airplanes and have magic classes and all boys club shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Child thing to do.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, yeah. He also. They learned how to box and play dodgeball and all that kind of shit there. So he said, my mom was always active in my life. She knew of all the supervisors at the boys club on a first name basis and actively participated in fundraisers, etc. All through elementary school. She was always a room mother to my class. She attended PTA meetings and all that stuff. So mob sounds a little overly involved.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sure does.

[James Petregallo]

And it's nice to be involved.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Protective. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

If you're always the kid's room mother, he's never separating from you and learning to be as their own person. You have to leave them alone at some point and let them interact without you. I think, I don't think that's healthy to always be the room mother, you know.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. But she's also at that age where it's like that's.

[James Petregallo]

She's what she does.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

She's an older mother and that's what she's going to concentrate on is his baby now, which is very interesting here. He said, quote, the ditch that, that ditch that runs behind my house. About a mile downstream it empties into a creek. I used to ride my bicycle to that creek and go fishing all day. I'd Catch. All I'd catch were carp, which were no good to eat, but they got pretty big, two to three feet long. Yeah, those fuckers could be huge.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You could fight that motherfucker.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, yeah, they're fun.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right back.

[James Petregallo]

You're definitely not eating it, he said. So they were fun to catch and let go. Especially when you're 8, 9, 10 years old, he said. I was raised by a good family and a good home. I was never abused. I was never molested, really. That's. That's what Devin says here now. Mom. Her, Kevin, his hero, his older brother. That was an unexpected one. And so is this one, really. She thought she was done at 20, but she had a house and husband's got a job, and she's got two older sons, and so she works. While she's pregnant, she works. She's working a night job at Whataburger to make extra money for family birthdays, which I didn't know they had Whataburger in Connecticut.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That far east. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

I've never seen a Whataburger in the Northeast ever. I don't know if that was. Maybe back then they tried a national expansion. Now they kind of went back. Whataburger.

[Jimmy Wissman]

People that heard of them and then named them. Named it, you know, I mean, like, Lotaburger. I've seen those all over the fucking place.

[James Petregallo]

Like, Whataburger is one of these weird places that. I've probably had Whataburger 20 times in my life. And 10 times it was inedible. And 10 times it was amazing.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

That's the type. Yeah. 10 times it's like, wow, this is the best fast food. And then the other time, I get it again and be like, this is inedible. This is disgusting. I don't understand. You go to the same location, same time of day. It makes no fucking sense. I don't understand it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But I've had it maybe 10 times in my life. And all. 10 times I was like, what's the fucking hype? I don't care.

[James Petregallo]

I've had good Whataburger. Yeah. I've had decent Whataburger. Yeah. The one.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I didn't know that they only put mustard on it until.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, I love it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

I put ketchup, too. I put ketchup, too. I like both. Yeah, that's all. It came with the Whataburger on Bell Road in Phoenix there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Like, by 32nd street, that one had. There was a stoner kid that worked there all by himself at, like, 2 in the morning. And if you caught him at the right time, just stoned enough, you pull up to the window and watch him meticulously placing onion rings in and, like, making the burger like it was a science project. And it was amazing. Like, you get it, you go. It looks like a commercial. This kid was just stoned and taking his time because no one else is there at 2 in the morning. Just you with the drive throughs. It was awesome. So if you got that kid, you were in luck. Otherwise it's just shit in a bag. People from Texas will want to murder us.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Now the one on i10. Don't do that.

[James Petregallo]

No, fuck that. No. Yeah, you got to stick to the rivers and the streams that you're used to. Jimmy, what are you doing?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Waterfalls.

[James Petregallo]

Jen, what do you want? So you're out there chasing Whataburger Falls, and that's a problem.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What a falls.

[James Petregallo]

What a falls. So then mom, while pregnant with Kevin, working the night shift at Whataburger, broke her leg while working, and instead of getting some kind of settlement, just crutched around Whataburger in the middle of the night while eight months pregnant. Kept going, Kept going. So mom's tough.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, shit.

[James Petregallo]

Moron. Mom here. According to Devin, his parents came from hard times, basically. And basically they're. I mean, they were born. Mom was born in like 1930, so we're talking Depression. Depression era is where they came from. Pre World War II depression era. So he said both of his parents were raised poor. They had no electricity or indoor plumbing in their childhoods ever.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's why she's got fragile bones in her 40s.

[James Petregallo]

Well, her mother died. Her mother's parents. His mother's parents died when she was young.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, no.

[James Petregallo]

So that's. And she and her brothers were given to families on different farms in North Carolina. Given, Given. That's what they used to do in farm country. If there was an orphan, somebody would take them, but they'd be your farm worker.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They're working.

[James Petregallo]

They're working. Yeah. Melissa, that's. Mom told young Devin that when she was young, she had to heat a brick in the fireplace and wrap it in a blanket to carry it to bed to stay warm. That was heat.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, my God, a hot rock.

[James Petregallo]

His father told him that indoor plumbing meant there was a hand powered water pump at the kitchen sink. That was indoor plumbing. He says, quote, this is Devin. My mom had a little bit of Indian in her blood, and you could see a little of it in her features. I think one of her grandparents was Indian. I Know, she told me one time that I'm like 1 16th Indian or something like that. My. So is a lot of everybody. Yeah, my mom had black hair. Especially in the 70s, that was. Yeah, yeah. My mom had black hair and brown eyes and was on the heavy side. My mom was old school and raised me as such. Maybe she was just around too much whataburger. I mean, that's all. She could have been thin before. She was also 40 by the time. 40 and on her fourth kid by the time he was born. So quit judging mom so harshly. Here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Mustard burger, french fries and root beer ain't gonna do much good.

[James Petregallo]

No, when I did wrong, I got spanked. She'd spank me with fly swatters, the old wooden paddles that came with the rubber ball attached to it. Jesus. Okay, the paddle ball, where you go? Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The game.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Take the ball off and it's a yank.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That rubber band ball off and it.

[James Petregallo]

Balsa woodle.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Beat the shit out of kids and attached to it with a rubber band. I remember hiding those under the couch cushions. Or she'd make me get. Or she'd make me go get a switch and don't bring back any rinky dink stuff, either, she'd say, or she'd go get a bigger switch.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, boy.

[James Petregallo]

She told the neighbors that if I were at their house playing and got out of line, they had permission to spank me and send me home. None ever did. But the message was sent for me to be on point. That was so normal back then. Like I said, I told the story a hundred times. As a kid in the 80s, my grandfather told my fucking first grade teacher, you can go ahead and smack them around. They were horrified. But this was in the 70s in North Carolina. It was a little, you know, if I was really. If I was really bad, mom would tell dad and he'd spank me with the belt when he got home. But with all that said, I don't feel I was ever abused in any way. My parents never hit me with their fists and never beat me just for shits and giggles or because they had a bad day. I never got a spanking I didn't earn and I have no marks or scars from them. My mom was old school. That's what he said. Yeah. He said that his life growing up was better than his parents. He said there was always food on the table, clothes on our back, heat in the winter and AC in the summer.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay, that's nice. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Solidly blue collar, you know, Middle Class. We never received welfare or food stamps, and I paid full price in the lunch line. We were far from rich, but we weren't poor either. My father was tight with money, but we always had what we needed. A responsible, middle class family he comes from.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's what it is. Yep.

[James Petregallo]

He said that a lot of the meals in their house came from the garden. So in addition to Whataburger, she had time to have a garden throwing.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Shit.

[James Petregallo]

Jesus. Pickled beets, butter beans and squash, and also jams and jellies. God, that is some Southern shit. Wow. That his mother made from her annual summer venture at a place that let people pick their own strawberries for very cheap. He said mom knew how to do all that stuff. And there was always dinner on the table when Pops got home. And I'm talking a home cooked meal, not no throw in a box, throw a box in the microwave type stuff. Back then, we. There were no microwaves. Well, there were microwaves in 1980. Yeah, there were microwaves. Plenty of them. So Melissa, she still kept working at Whataburger in addition to her day job, too. Two jobs, man. She got sick when Devin was about 11 years old. He said, my mom worked part time at a little burger joint called Whataburger. She worked that job for over 20 years. I remember on Saturday night, she'd bring home cheeseburgers and French fries when she came home. So those were some good burgers. My mom also worked as a school lunch lady during the day. Oh, man. See, she's even at school at lunch. But she didn't start that job till I was in the third or fourth grade, man. So she's like the classroom mom and then goes to lunch lady. Jesus, man. When she was in her early 50s, she ended up getting a mastectomy and radiation and chemo from cancer. And she was out of work for a little while, according to Devin. And then she tried to go back to work, but after a few weeks, she had a stroke while working.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, dang.

[James Petregallo]

Jesus. Well, imagine that. Slopping out like instant school mashed potatoes and stroking out and falling on the floor. That's a horrible way to go.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And going through chemo, too. The chemo's probably what brought the stroke on.

[James Petregallo]

Weakened her, definitely. So she had. Then she had a bunch of additional strokes that left her paralyzed on the left side of her body. They had to set up a hospital bed in the living room in front of the window so she could just. Basically, she had three more years where she just basically sat in that bed. And stared out the window. And then she died. So he said dad was busy trying to get to work and take care of mom and didn't really have the time or energy to deal with and control a defiant teen. So I pretty much did what I wanted. And back then it seemed all I wanted to do was drink and spend time with Mandy. Now Mandy's on and off girlfriend for years and years here. All right, he said while I was at my girlfriend's getting laid and trying to forget my problems, my mother died. I was 15.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh my God. He was over banging Mandy when mom died.

[James Petregallo]

He's over with a moist dick fucking talking about, I'm sad now. So he said it was a relief to me when she passed away because I knew she was no longer suffering. I couldn't stand to see her like that. She asked me on more than one occasion to get her my father's pistol and go outside and play. Get me the pistol and leave the room is not a good request. Jesus Christ.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Give me a pistol, go get a stick and dig a hole.

[James Petregallo]

Wow, that's crazy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Keep digging. I'm gonna need it.

[James Petregallo]

Holy shit. Dig deep, like six feet, six wide. Fuck. He said, I couldn't stand to see her suffer, nor could I give her my father's gun. And it really fucked me up inside not being able to help her. It still stirs up a lot of memories and a lot of emotions just remembering those times. My father passed away five years later after I turned 20. I've been pretty much on my own since then. I got an inheritance in bits and pieces that I rapidly pissed away following a short, followed shortly by a jail sentence.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petregallo]

So he basically started drinking when his mom was sick. Sick. And this is, you know, when he's 14, 13 years old, he's drinking. And that's when he said during the height of all this, when he was at the most stress. This is when he first engaged the services of a prostitute.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Yes. At the age of 14. 14. He grabbed his dad's car at one o' clock in the morning. Imagine getting caught. Okay. Imagine getting caught stealing your dad's car. Number one. That's a beating. Imagine getting caught stealing your dad's car because you went to get a prostitute when you're in the ninth grade.

[Jimmy Wissman]

At one in the morning.

[James Petregallo]

At one in the morning. He wrote that. He said later he was sneaky when he took his father's car out at night. He said he did it a lot in his teenage years. His dad worked real hard and slept real hard. So he wasn't getting up in the middle of the night. He said, even down to disconnecting the speedometer cable as to not put miles on the car.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is that right?

[James Petregallo]

And unlocking the steering wheel and rolling the window down and placing it in neutral and pushing it out of the driveway before starting it and then ghost riding it back into the driveway. Lights out, engine off on the ride home. Oh, my God. He would fill up the gas. Exactly how much it had.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

He said usually he took Mandy out for a drive and he said a lot of times we'd go to Yorktown or to that little nature park across the James river bridge. Yeah, he said that that night, though, the night he first engaged the services of a lady, he said he went cruising to the red light district. He said, quote, I picked up a prostitute and got my first blowjob from a prostitute. I was 14 at the time. After that I was hooked and picked up prostitutes for blowjobs whenever I had the chance. And the means. He goes, wow, I could just get a blowjob whenever I want. My goodness, that was easy. It was my secret addiction. I mean, it's blow jobs. I like blow jobs. It's not a. It's not a bridge that far, you know what I mean? It's.

[Jimmy Wissman]

My crazy addiction. That's not you sitting around eating your pubic hair. This is. It's normal having somebody else eat your pubic hair.

[James Petregallo]

You're not drinking, fucking all the stain lifter over here, you're fucking. This is normal. If I had the money, God, if I had the money and was by myself and passed a whore on the street, I picked her up. Going rate was 20 bucks. And I probably picked up hundreds over the years. Hundreds.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Thousands of dollars. Pissed away.

[James Petregallo]

He's later asked, what's the best concert you've ever been to?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And he said, I haven't gone to many concerts, but mostly did when I was a teenager. Ronnie James Dio was good. He's one of my favorites. And Metallica. He likes metallica. Yeah, early 80s. That metal shit would have been huge when he was a teenager. So he ended up, he said that one moment that really fucked him up was going to jail in Virginia.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How old?

[James Petregallo]

I think he's about 18 at this point. He served his time in jail in Virginia for driving without a license. And we'll find out how he actually got into jail, because he would do this all the time. He got busted like dozens of times for that. So eventually they put him in jail. Yeah, eventually they just put him in jail. So. And it wasn't a long time. But he said during this period he got very angry and he started having fantasies. Oh, fantasies. His fantasies were mainly about rape. Those were his fantasies? Yeah. Don't know how. He said somehow being in jail and making him angry. He was in jail triggered these rape fantasies of his perpetrate.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Very odd reaction to that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Made.

[James Petregallo]

That was not where I would go.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'll rape anything.

[James Petregallo]

Not in jail. I'm not like looking to rape other inmates to show I'm boss. When I get out, boy, I'm going to show those ladies I'm gonna go raping. Yeah. Even though I got pulled over for driving without a license, which has nothing to do with that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So don't connect. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

It's really, really weird. Now at. In 1991, by age 21, he's living in a trailer in Castleberry, Florida, near Orlando.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

With Mandy and their now infant son.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Well, at least he's got Mandy.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, God. Jesus, this is a mess. Now he's got a kid. This guy's got a kid.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This is a young man.

[James Petregallo]

He's 21 at this point. 1991, he said. As far as how my mom liked Mandy, I don't even know if they ever met. None of my friends ever came to the house. I was always trying to stay away from home, not bring people home. It was very rare that my friends came to my house. That makes sense as a teenager because from the time he's 12 to 15, his mom is posted up in the living room in a hospital bed, half dead, asking anyone who walks by to bring her back a pistol. When you fucking return, you don't want your friends really probably get involved in that. But he still, years later, was just pining for Mandy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

He said, mandy is a good girl. She doesn't drink or use drugs. She was one of the best things that ever happened to me. And I wish that back then I would have had enough sense to be more responsible and do what I needed to do to keep her in my life. I took her for granted and didn't treat her as good as I should have. And I don't blame her for leaving me because I was a wreck.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There you go.

[James Petregallo]

That's it. So like we said, he's plowing away over here. I don't think he's probably doing it very responsibly. They have a child. When they broke up, Mandy at that point, they had two children, by the way. Oh, and Mandy took the kids, married somebody else and moved out of state. And he never saw the kids. He had nothing to do with them. Didn't know a fucking thing about them. They were just gone. Gone. Like her. Yeah, so he said. And he said he deserved it. He said, just not showing her how much I loved her and taking her love for me for granted. I'd get drunk and pick fights or start arguments with her when she'd done nothing wrong. There was definitely times when I was just an asshole toward her, but at the end of the day, she knew she was the boss and I would do anything, she says, I don't know why I was this way, but I learned from it. After I lost her, I never treated anyone like that again. You know, kindly, he said, but I wasn't a drunk that constantly beat her like she portrayed me to the cops. I slapped her one time, and that's because she kicked me in the nads.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right in the nads.

[James Petregallo]

I just pictured that scene. Kick, pop, ow, slap. Like that's a horrifying. Right Then break up, never go, never be with each other again, he said. And we got in a bad fight in Florida, and I picked her up by the arms and threw her onto the bed. I threw her onto the bed because I knew it wouldn't hurt her. But the honest truth, that's the extent of me ever putting my hands on her.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Never. So never hit Mandy.

[James Petregallo]

That's what he says. He said one time while they were in the middle of splitting up, she had started liking another dude. Yeah, he didn't like that. He said it was in the parking lot of a 711 and Mandy's new flame and Devin got in a fight with each other.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, boy.

[James Petregallo]

In the 711 parking lot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Fantastic.

[James Petregallo]

So we got Florida trailer parks and 711 parking lot fights. This is. I am so happy Mandy took those kids and got the fuck away from this guy. Devin ended up grabbing a tire iron from his car and went to hit the guy with it, but Mandy got in the way and he ended up hitting her by accident and injuring her. Oh, so she jumped in front. He said it was an accident. He said, I was trying to knock the shit out of Seth. You know how that is when you're trying to knock the shit out of someone with a tire iron? You get tunnel vision. It happens. How many times that happened to you, Jimmy? I mean, Jesus Christ, I can't count that high. Wow. I was trying to make his. I was trying to take his fucking head off. So he said, you know, I hurt Mandy with that tire iron, but it only left her with a little bruise on her leg. That's all she got from it, he said. Later on, when I watched a video of Mandy being interviewed, she looked so sad. He said the transformation of Mandy's demeanor from that shy and sweet spirited girl to this sad middle aged woman freaked him out basically later on. But he said even he was happy. His kids don't know him and we'll find out why. Now at this time, he has more legal troubles once Mandy leaves. His criminal record includes convictions for larceny and burglary in Virginia, as well as arrests in Georgia and New Jersey.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's really running it.

[James Petregallo]

He is getting around Tri state area. Fuck. I mean, by the time he was 19, before Mandy even left, he had two DUIs already and was driving with his license suspended. So yeah, Virginia courts ended up using the combination of those offenses to declare him a habitual offender, which resulted in him having his license taken away for 10 years. Right now he's not going to stop driving.

[Jimmy Wissman]

10 years of no driving. How do you get around?

[James Petregallo]

Well, any charges after that will be labeled as habitual offenses and as felonies and would carry one to five year sentences anytime you drove. So this is wild. And this is what he did. He would be in and out of jail because he'd always be driving.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Has to.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, yeah. I guess he came to live with some of his family in Virginia in the early 90s after Mandy took off. That's during this time when he keeps getting arrested for driving, but I guess it was his aunt, his aunt's house. But his aunt kicked him out after a few weeks because he kept getting in trouble. So he said that he couldn't resist the urge to drive. He would buy cheap cars for 300 bucks and would license them with out of state tags that he would steal off of cars in motel parking lots. Yeah, the need for speed, James, that seems real sustainable.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Who's got the urge to drive that bad?

[James Petregallo]

I need to drive, man.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I got $300 and I'll get a $300 car.

[James Petregallo]

Ted Bundy, Randy Woodfield. Yeah, guys like that need to drive. They love it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The urge to find different surroundings and different people.

[James Petregallo]

He comes from that time and he really feels like that. He said he tried to find Florida tags because Florida drivers weren't required to have an inspection, city tax or emission stickers on their windshields. You just have a car and just drive it. So he wanted that, but he said he always got busted anyway and he'd end up going to jail for a while and getting Out. He said this about his whole kind of up until his early 20s. I screwed up my life at an early age. I've pondered many hours at what point it was that my life went wrong. And after all of that, I've concluded that my life went wrong when I started drinking. I always thought that losing my license for 10 years at the age of 18 is where my life went wrong. But it goes back further than that. 18, you're already. The cement is dry in your brain. You're already fucked up. No, if you're fine by 18, you'll probably be okay. You know what I mean? It's one of those things. He said it goes back further. If it hadn't been for my drinking, I'd have never lost my license. He said, don't get me wrong, I'm not an asshole who does stupid shit every time I drink. But most of the trouble I've been in happened while drinking. And I wasn't the type who went out looking for trouble when I drank. For the most part, I was a happy drunk. But drinking did make me less likely to avoid or walk away from trouble that came my way. Well, yeah. He said, shit, I was likely to let it go if I was sober and was less likely to let it go if I'd been drinking. So it's not that I went out looking for trouble when I drank. I was just less likely to run away from it. I should have stuck to smoking pot and left alcohol alone. Yes. Imagine if everybody who just had that revelation and did it much better place telling you right now. He also has something that he calls his dick, his ding dong, which I find hilarious for some reason in his adult age. In his adult life. And he said that he, quote, loved getting his ding dong sucked off, which I never heard that term before. My ding dong sucked off.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sucked off.

[James Petregallo]

You've been. Between the two of us, we've been friends with a lot of guys and, like, high school guys and immature guys, and none of them have ever said, she sucked off my ding dong. I've never heard it once. Ever got my ding dong sucked off.

[Jimmy Wissman]

My ding dong sucked off. We would all laugh at him.

[James Petregallo]

You'd be like, your ding dong sucked off. Even as teenagers, even if you're getting a blowjob, we'd still laugh at you. She's sucking your ding dong.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is that right? She got any friends to come over and kiss my pee pee? You weirdo.

[James Petregallo]

You go up to that girl and you could be like, you want a guy with a dick and not a Ding dong, my friend. Let's go, honey. So he would also pay prostitutes for more than blowjobs Sometimes. Yeah. One time in 94, he hired a prostitute in Newport News, Virginia, and he says he, quote, shacked up with her for three days in a motel room.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Girlfriend experience for three days.

[James Petregallo]

Three days. This was following his father's death. When he had money because he got a few bucks, he got $300 worth of crack.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Jesus Christ. And quote, this chick fucked my brains out for three days straight.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Jesus.

[James Petregallo]

She took a hit or two here or there, but the crack was mainly for her. Oh, he took a hit or two here or there. Here or there. You know, if you're gonna fuck for three days amongst friends. But the crack was mainly for her. I remember it would make me sick, throwing up every time I'd smoke it. But it also had me hard as a rock and going and going like the Energizer Bunny. He said that that particular woman stands out to him because she gave the best top sex, meaning girl on top that I've ever had in my life. I mean, the best. He said we were just grinding and found an unbelievable rhythm. It's like I was trying to break it off inside her and she was doing the exact same. It's Ding Dong he's talking about there. In case you were wondering, it in this case is his Ding Dong.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's a fascinating thing to say.

[James Petregallo]

This guy says a lot of fascinating shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We found a great rhythm and it was like she was trying to break it off inside her and I was.

[James Petregallo]

Trying to do the same.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I was trying to do the same.

[James Petregallo]

Break it off inside her. Really.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's the best.

[James Petregallo]

That's a grind. That's a hard grind. That's the best. Boy, I don't know. I don't get like, I want to do a bunch of coke and fuck for three days without coming. Makes no sense to me. Also, what are we doing here? That's why I don't like coke. I told her I was trying to put her out of business for a few days, but I think she got the better of me. I know when we parted ways, my pelvic bone was sore and bruised for.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Days she ground him into.

[James Petregallo]

So she probably had to take a day off too. I don't know. 2003, actually, 2001 to 2003, kind of does a half ass move to Connecticut. He ends up in New Britain where he's running a small landscaping business. And I mean so small it's out of his van that he Also lives.

[Jimmy Wissman]

In, so that he's not allowed to own or drive.

[James Petregallo]

No, it's definitely running it, like, out of his house, which it doesn't exist. So he got the van, the 85 Ford Econoline, and it had a sign on the side saying quality Lawn Service. Call Devin with his phone number now. Bill, when he first came up in 2001, he does not like the climate here. He grew up in, you know, down south, and he doesn't like the climate. So the first couple years, he would leave New England in the late fall and go down to Virginia or North Carolina and try to get more work down there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sure.

[James Petregallo]

There's no landscaping work in Connecticut in January.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No, it's zero blowing.

[James Petregallo]

It's just zero. So at this point, he's got a girlfriend also in New Britain. We'll talk about that. But she didn't mind him going away for four or five months at a time and then coming back.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's kind of the best.

[James Petregallo]

She was fine with that. Yeah, that's a mature relationship. That's an older. That's a lady over 30. And she's just like, I get enough of you when you're here. That's good.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You'll be gone a while. All right, see you around.

[James Petregallo]

I'll catch up on my reading and I'll see you then. Have a good one. So now at one point in one of his back and forths to Virginia, because he does this all the time in North Carolina, during a visit down there, he asked a friend of his to help clean out his van that he had parked in the driveway. Now, this guy, he said upon entering through the sliding glass door or through the glass door of the van, seeing, looking in and then sliding it open, he said the first thing he noticed was how much it fucking stunk. He said it just stunk in there. He assumed it was body odor. He said if a guy works landscaping all day in the heat, then sleeps in his van, it's not going to smell good in there, basically, which makes sense. And he said there's also grass, oil, gasoline smells mixed in. So they emptied the van out, which included weed, whackers, lawnmowers, bags of clothes and all this type of shit here. The. They said the. The blue bench near the van sliding door was intact with both a bottom cushion and a matching back cushion at that time. This is important for later. According to those reports, this guy, the friend, watched as Devin removed the stained cushion that line the bottom bench, rolled it up and put it in a large plastic bag.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh.

[James Petregallo]

Then he walked it to the curb and left it there for trash pickup.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

So interesting. He doesn't need the bottom cushion, the.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Part that you sit on.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. The friend didn't think anything of it. He thought maybe he spilled something. Who knows? And then this guy ended up, you know, he took off a couple days later, and that was that. Now, his new girlfriend, we'll call her Dorothy, here she is with him. And on November 12, 2003, after Sanchez there had been telling the cops about.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Find Devin.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, you got to find Devin. You got to find Devin. They finally say, well, maybe we should look at this Devin guy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sure.

[James Petregallo]

Basically. So they attempt to go, just talk to him. The van is registered to his girlfriend, Dorothy. Dorothy. So they go to her house, because if it's registered to her and he's driving it, he probably lives there, is the way they're looking at it. So they were turned away. Dorothy said, not here. Don't know what you're talking about. But then they saw a guy through the window by the sink. So they were like, we don't know what this guy looks like, but that's a guy in there. And she's saying she's alone. So that's interesting. So they left and then they came back at another point. By the way, when they came back, he was about to plow his girlfriend here. Oh, yeah. They were about to fuck. And apparently they had some wild sex, too. She's talking about. She liked. She had, like, an array of sex toys she liked him to use. And they did crazy positions. They were having fun here. They had sex at least two or three times a day.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Dang.

[James Petregallo]

Jesus. And at the same time, he's picking up several prostitutes a week as well.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. This guy has a lot of jizz. Just a lot of jizz, man.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How can he be so unsatisfied?

[James Petregallo]

I am way too lazy to go out and seek that kind of sex out. I'm just too lazy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Favorite thing. And I can do it maybe once.

[James Petregallo]

I'm too lazy. I'm just not going out so much. I'm not going to go out and look for it, especially if I'm getting it. That's crazy. So I don't understand that at all. So anyway, she said she told him that he's the best lover she ever had and all this type of shit, too.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, it doesn't stop well.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. And she said, you take your time. That's because he came five times already today. Of course he takes his time.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's trying to get this thing hard again.

[James Petregallo]

No shit. So anyway, they were about to get into it when they saw a cop car pull in the driveway.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So they're outside, which is interesting here. So he had. They're looking for it. They knock on the front door. No one answered. All the lights are off. They walk to the side door and they see a dim figure of a white male with longish blond hair standing over the sink in the kitchen. So the cops went to the rear door and knocked. Here comes Dorothy. She's described as a stout middle aged woman, by the way. Oh, she opened the door and she said, what do you want? And so they said, well, we want to know about this van. Whose van is this? What's going on? So she says, I'll show you the fucking van. Let's go. So they go out to the van and I think she's just trying to get them away from the house however she can. So V said, the windows on each side were broken and covered by dark blue painted plywood. All class.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Patches of rust on the bottom of the doors and tire. The tires were bald. This is not good. Very safe vehicle on the side though. Quality Lawn Service called Evan with the phone number. They said, who drives that van other than you? She said, why do you want to know? And they said, because we need to know. So she said, okay. A friend of mine named Thomas sometimes drive the. Drives the van, but I don't even know where he lives, so. Oh, I don't know what to tell you. So the cop says, this is deroan, by the way, that detective. He said, I think the operator of the van lives with you. I think he's in the home right now calling her out. She says, I don't know what you're talking about. I only live with my two kids. Gross. And then this guy's coming over and plowing her multiple times a day. I don't know anything about stolen lawn because basically this guy lied and said. The cop lied and said, we're investigating some stolen lawn equipment. That's what this is about. She said that I don't know anything about stolen lawn care equipment. Are you saying someone told you I know about it? When did it get stolen? Who said they saw my van? So she's asking reasonable questions. They wouldn't give any details because they made it up. So they didn't have any details to give. So she got real pissed off. Dorothy ran back in the house and called the police department on the cops.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

Which is an Interesting move.

[Jimmy Wissman]

911. I've got some guys here.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, I got some guys here. Come get them. And then they call back and go, yeah, they're already there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So we got the guys there to get the guys.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, she said. Yeah, she said that she was all pissed off and any of this type of shit. So the detectives just left. Basically, they found the van. They know where it is. They're good. They want a polygraph. The first polygraph they gave to Sanchez, he failed.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh.

[James Petregallo]

So they get back in touch with him in December and ask him to take another polygraph. He's excited to do that. This time it's inconclusive. We're getting better. Anyway, so the inconclusiveness, the fact that he didn't fail it outright. This detective said, I don't think he's the guy. Even though it all. He. It seems like he's the guy. He's made up some story about her disappearing. I'm looking at this William Devin Howell asshole. Let's find out more about him. So they did a National Criminal Information Center NCIC check on Devin. Found out that the New Britain Police Department had an outstanding warrant on him for a charge of assault in the third degree for hitting his girlfriend Dorothy, who's now protecting him. So they were like, okay. They recently had a fight. According to the police report, he ripped the telephone from the wall to prevent her from calling the police. She tried to run upstairs, but he physically restrained her and punched her in the stomach and then punched her in the back of the head and her left eye. Holy shit. So they print out his picture. And the one cop says to the other, recognize this fucking guy? And he says, that's the guy who was standing in her kitchen by the sink. Son of a bitch. He was there the whole fucking time. They were like, fuck. They probably. She knew her boyfriend's got a record, and he said, don't let him talk to me. And it's for landscaping things. And, you know, he might have stole a goddamn fucking rake from somebody who cares.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I didn't steal any of that. Let him fucking look around.

[James Petregallo]

Let him do it. So. But then again, she could also be afraid of him because he beat the crap out of her. Now, he says he didn't beat her up. He says that this was all Dory's fault, actually is what he calls her. He says, all I can say is that Dory was the aggressor. She punched me in the face with her fist, and I slapped her back. So that's twice now he's admitted to domestic violence, but Both times it's the woman's fault.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And he's said he's never hit a woman.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, but both times she hit me first. Yeah, that's his bullshit. I didn't punch her and I didn't slap her hard in trying to hurt her, but I did slap her upside her noggin. Weird way to put that to let her know that she just can't punch me in the face and me not do anything. She knew I couldn't call the cops because I had an outstanding warrant for a probation violation for driving on suspension. And I knew that if I did something, if I did nothing at all, that the next time she got mad, I was going to get hit again. She called the cops and I left before they got there. And they took out a warrant for assault on me based on her statements. It got thrown out and she never hit me again. Nor I her. Okay, interesting. This was on Monday, I guess. There's a police report for March 4, 2004, noting the domestic violence incident, which occurred on January 25, 2003, which, by the way, was. We'll find out. But there's a week before something happened. Basically, he said, though it was 14 months old and there had been no violence since. And the report said the victim would like the matter closed. And that's when they dismissed the case. So November 28, 2003, they finally catch up with Devin and his van down in North Carolina, of all places. He's down there. They checked and found out that the van was in North Carolina because he had been pulled over down there. So it was in the report. So he'd been arrested for motor vehicle violations by a sheriff's deputy the day after Thanksgiving at 11:46pm he provided false photo ID with the name of a nephew in a false date of birth as March 17, 1971. He posted bond and was scheduled to appear at the courthouse on January 30, 2004. So the cops from Connecticut, they go down and he shows up for court that day, Devin does. They said that it took some work, but the detectives from Connecticut were able to convince North Carolina authorities to detain Bill at the correctional center to await extradition to Connecticut because they wanted to talk to him about the murder or the missing woman at this point. So he's extradited on February 19, 2004, to Connecticut on a probation violation, charges from a prior conviction, and he's interviewed now. Okay. About the Arizmendi woman. Okay. So on the way back to Connecticut, they're driving him there this daron, this detective, he sat next to Devin in the back seat. And about three hours into the drive, fucking Devin, turns to the detective and said, why'd you travel 800 miles one way for a misdemeanor warrant?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, what the hell?

[James Petregallo]

And the detective said, do you really want to know why?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And he nodded. And this guy, the detective pulled out a folder, pulled out a picture of Nielse.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And then Bill's eyes widened and he said, detective Durone, why don't you leave me alone? Yeah, this is the worst trip I've ever been on. I don't want to be here, basically. And he moved away from the detective in the car and leaned back in the seat and gazed out the window and said, I will not speak to you without my attorney present. They gave him lunch and dinner on the road, dropped him off, and he's there on $100,000 bond. Okay. Now that's how this goes, by the way, he's briefly released in May 2004.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really.

[James Petregallo]

And then they ended up getting him back again because they were like, why'd you do that? Get him back. Now, at the time when they got him, he was living out of his van, sleeping in it, and using it as his base of operations. They see, get a warrant to seize the van. Oh, what they found was a blood stain on the back cushion of the middle seat. Like the up and down, the vertical cushion, they said. They also discovered that several of the seat cushions had been removed, but blood from two people was found soaked into the floor of the van underneath some carpet.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

Very interesting. They find out also that he has been calling his van the murder mobile for quite some time now.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Why?

[James Petregallo]

That's an interesting question. I guess he owned a black car in Virginia he called the Batmobile.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And they started. He started calling the van the murder mobile in about 2002, which is just fucking strange. The murder mobile. So detectives for North Carolina had seized the vehicle and they knew they didn't touch it, they didn't do anything in it. They just looked in it and, you know, they didn't even open the door here. So they let them do that here. They said all they could see was a beat up old vehicle and hedge trimmers, a set of jumper cables on the floorboard, an orange extension cord reel between the driver and passenger seat. Plastic jugs littered the back. Those are pee jugs. Think those would contain piss at some point. So included in the inventory were items of long lawn equipment, bins of clothing, work tools, business books, and of course, Porn tapes?

[Jimmy Wissman]

You bet.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, he had some VHS's going on.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Tuggables. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Oh yeah, I gotta have that. I mean, he's only getting laid three times a day at home, couple times with a prostitute. You gotta whack off in the middle somewhere then.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, nobody's there. What are you gonna do?

[James Petregallo]

Gotta jerk it. Yeah, that's all it is here. So they said that they saw the blue seat back with the stains on it visible to the eye. They also noticed a stain on the blue upholstered seat back. They said that a presumptive test using chemical shit showed that it was positive for blood. Although the back portion of the bench had not been itemized on the search warrant. Blood was itemized, so they had reason to seize the seat back. So they removed two non matching seat cushions in plain view because they were not specifically listed in the search warrant. Once cleared, the van was dusted for prints, palm prints, hairs, fibers, all that shit. They collected front and rear carpet samples and everything else. They said there was remnants of original seating material on the portion of the metal frame where there was, you know, that other part of the seat once went. So they said the cushions were enclosed in a pillowcase made of a lighter fabric, though they appeared to have come from a sofa from someone's living room. Oh, he got some house cushions and brought them out to his van, which is creative. So they said unlike the seat back, the cushions were not bolted to the bench. So they said that they were looked at for blood stains. Ultimately they seized this hairs and fibels fibers. Fibels? What the fuck is that? Fibels from the rearmost portion of the vehicle. It's exactly what I thought too. A rock containing stains and attached hair and hair like fibers from the rearmost portion of the van.

[Jimmy Wissman]

God dang.

[James Petregallo]

A1 blue in color carpet sample from the floor of the rearmost portion of the van. One light blue in color carpet sample from the passenger side vertical wall of the rear cargo area of the van. One light in blue color carpet sample from the driver's side vertical wall of the rear cargo area of the van. A red in color blood like flakes from the carpet of the driver's side interior rear wheel well of the van. One steak type knife with black in color plastic handle and with red in color blood like stains on the cutting portion from behind the floor, from the floor behind the driver's side front seat of the van. Hairs and fibers from the middle section, the floor and seat of the van. 1 pink in color Carpet sample from the floor 1 blue in color fabric covered seatback portion containing red in color. Blood like stains from the rear seating area. Hairs and fibers from the front most section on the floor and seats of the van. So in the search warrant they were included there looking for any items that may have been worn by Nielsen on the day she went missing. A tie, dye T shirt, jean shorts, black sneakers and a woman's blue rock watch with a blue band. The search did not produce any of those items.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

They also reported that they found one pornographic title. They had a bunch of tapes in there, but one title called Score Fantasy Girls and five other videos. Score Fantasy. I don't know if it's an instructional video on how to score fantasy girls or these are the girls from Scores. I don't know what's going on. Yeah, but it's Score Fantasy Girls. They later found other videotapes that Bill Devin was in.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

With different women.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, he's making his own.

[James Petregallo]

None of which. The women's faces are ever visible.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, that's weird.

[James Petregallo]

It's real fucking creepy. There's a couple, they said they had grainy images very quickly of two women on the videotapes that they could get a picture of and maybe somebody could see. But otherwise none of the women on the tapes are identified.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

So yeah, they found. It's a 6 VHXS tapes. Now, besides the Fantasy Score Girls or whatever it is, they're Score Fantasy Girls. All the others pictured Howell in what were described as bizarre sexual acts with women. And their faces were either barely or not visible at all. And so they're like, who the fuck are these ladies? What's going on here? So they sent the blood to the state crime lab for DNA testing. When the results came back, they had a match. The blood they found belonged to Nilsa with 99% certainty.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh no.

[James Petregallo]

And there's blood from another unidentified woman in there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh no.

[James Petregallo]

And they find more blood. It has nothing to do with Nielse or this other woman or him. So now he's sitting in jail in June of 2004 awaiting what the fuck's going to happen. His fate Here he tells another inmate that I'm not worried about it because the cops can't get a murder conviction without what, Jimmy?

[Jimmy Wissman]

A body.

[James Petregallo]

No body, no crime.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No crime.

[James Petregallo]

Crime. That's right. He sang it all. He broke out the Marley. So that's what he said. He goes, I don't give a. So they asked. They asked his girlfriend about the. You know what the basically is going on with this guy. And she said, the only trouble I know getting into is driving without a license. So she said, he just needs to stop driving and everything's fine. Leave him alone.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Interesting. On July 14, 2004, Detective Durone met with Sanchez again.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh.

[James Petregallo]

Nielsen's boyfriend, who identified the man he knew to be Devin from a photo ID lineup.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So they were like, okay, I like that. I like that. So they said, a. They have DNA. They have a lot going on here. But there was plenty of other blood in the van, as we find out with. Yeah, he's charged with first degree manslaughter and Nielsen's death. So they charge him because they don't have a body. So they don't know. Yeah, they don't really know anything other than her blood's in his van and she's missing a lot of blood. So. Yeah. So they. He at that point, too. He's also charged with witness tampering after threatening a fellow inmate who had reported his conversations about assaulting Nielsa, including he had told a couple inmates that he broke her nose and threw her out of the van.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh.

[James Petregallo]

So then he threatens this guy who told on him, basically. So he gets extra charges for that of witness tampering. Can't do that. So now they're starting to think, is this the first woman he's killed?

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's a good question.

[James Petregallo]

Then in early 2005, a hunter is making his way through the woods behind that strip mall that he hangs out at.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, he was looking for bodies, so whatever.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, that's what you get, man. Well, he's looking for shit to hunt, and he stumbles upon some stuff. And that's a skull is what he finds.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, no.

[James Petregallo]

A human skull. So he calls the cops. The cops arrive on the scene, they realize that this isn't just a skull. There are many bodies buried here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, boy.

[James Petregallo]

Many bodies. They said that the bodies are very badly decomposed and have been mutilated in ways that suggest that the killer is trying to prevent identification. Oh, fingerprint.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Teeth pulled out, fingers lopped off, heads taken off, shit like that. Yeah. Any identifiable shit, so. And they said that they're trying to dig these bodies up and find them. The ground here is wooded and it's a marshy area, and you can't get to it by car. So it takes a long time to figure out how to get in here and get these people, basically. So this is right near where he often parked the murder mobile his van, and slept literally right there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right there?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Like you could Carry it from the van to the woods and come back to your van. That's what he would do. He would sleep there, which is so fucking weird. We find out later that he called this area his garden. Oh, he's a landscaper, you know.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. That's interesting. That's what he called it. My garden was all these, these shallow graves. Now they're like, holy shit. We think this guy's a serial killer. Yeah, Wild.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They have growing.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, he's, he's got crops arising. Now. There hasn't been a serial killer in the area since a guy named Michael Ross, the roadside strangler, was around. Yeah. Ross was a Cornell University graduate who grew up on a chicken farm in Brooklyn, Connecticut. None of those things go together. He murdered eight girls and women between ages 14 and 25 in Connecticut and New York between 81 and 84. This guy raped seven of his eight murder victims and was known for abducting women who were hitchhiking or walking alone. So rather than prostitutes, he just went for vulnerable. That's all he was after. Now, according to multiple psychiatrists and forensic people here, serial killers seem to have a real connection with their vehicles. Yeah, and it's true, they really do. I mean, you look over time, I mean, Bundy, Woodfield, all these guys, they had, I don't keep bringing them up, but even Gacy had his thing. They all, they're very, very into their car, very attached to their car. They love a civic car. Yeah, yeah. A very specific thing. And I mean, it's obviously a lot of times they pick victims up or dispose of them. So, you know, it's their thing. So this same year that Michael Ross is executed, by the way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, the roadside strangler.

[James Petregallo]

The roadside strangler. There was a psychiatrist there who argued that he wasn't competent. And his last words were to the psychiatrist, he said, check in, mate. You never had a chance. They're always going to execute me. Yep. So 2007 comes along and this is the trial for manslaughter of Nilsa. By the way, there's so much more crazy shit coming in this episode.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I believe it.

[James Petregallo]

Fucking buckle up here. So they go into court. Eight witnesses were called to testify over the course of a five day trial, Angel Sanchez, Nielsen's boyfriend, took the stand. They really try to knock his testimony down by his multiple convictions and drug dealings and all that. And they try to say that basically, number one, explain your relationship to Bill. So that means Devin. So that means that you're going to talk about smoking crack. Which is going to make you look bad. And also they're going to bring up all of his past discrepancies. And weren't you in jail when this was going on? Didn't they think you were the one who killed her at first, actually, all of that kind of shit. So they had a photo of the back interior of the van. And Sanchez said that it was the same van interior he saw in 2003, except it depicted a back couch with a bottom cushions different in fabric and color. So he said that according to him, three weeks before Nielsen disappeared, that couch had matching seat cushions. And now it doesn't. Oh, that's the difference. The defense challenged that, pointing out on cross that there was a lot of equipment in the back of the van, including a lawnmower and a weed whacker. So how the fuck did you see all that? So in depth. And he says he was able to see the bench with matching cushions from his position in the passenger seat. He said that we had. The three of us had a real easy arrangement. Me, you know, Neil said, and Bill, when we needed a ride and, you know, we'd give him some gas money, he'd give us a ride. If we want to cop drugs, he'd take us somewhere. He wouldn't ask any questions. And he said that all the interactions he had with Howell were actually, quote, pleasant.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Pleasant.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, pleasant. So the defense definitely tries to smear him up good, though. Yeah, yeah. They stay go back into his background. The only they had to rule on in court how much of his background they could bring up, really. They said that a 1984 conviction in Hartford was outside of the scope too far back. But three separate convictions from 97 to 2003 could be referenced for the jury. No problem here. They have Nielsen's mother talk about her disappearance here. And, you know, saying that she's. It wasn't here for Christmas and Easter and Thanksgiving and, you know, all that kind of thing here. So this all goes on. They say that they talk about whether the family thought that Sanchez was the one who killed her in the early days.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petregallo]

But the mom said that she told the detective that he'd heard from others that Sanchez had cut his long hair, but she didn't. No way. Suggested that this was a purposeful attempt to hide his identity. Because they're like, didn't he cut his hair in the days? And she's like, yeah, but I never suspected him.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And it was hot out. What do you want?

[James Petregallo]

And it's also hot as fuck. Yeah, so. And sometimes if you're just feeling awful about everything, maybe you just got to cut your hair off. So the detective testifies Jerome, and he says it was basically that. The look of shock on Howell's face when he showed him that photograph in the car as they drove back, that made him sure that he knew it was him.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He knew.

[James Petregallo]

He knew right then. This is my fucking guy. He said he invoked his right to remain silent and all that kind of thing so he couldn't talk to him. But he said any statements that he may have made were suppressed under Miranda as well. So it doesn't matter. The judge determined that the blood that they had taken from Bill was inadmissible because Bill had not been charged with the crime also, and he didn't have legal representation. He hadn't been charged with the murder yet. So they say that they can't introduce this blood sample that he took from him in jail. So the defense tries to act like the cops were just very bumbling. They said, you guys fucked everything up. Your missing posters, you showed pictures of her in a much heavier state when she's a lot thinner now. So you guys are total idiots. You reported her as last seen on the Berlin Turnpike, not on New Britain Avenue, as her sister reported to the police. And they also said that you were playing God and checking off the box at the DSS form, wrongly indicating that the purpose of the inquiry was because Dorothy was fleeing to avoid prosecution. So you're dumb, you're corrupt, inept. Inept, all those things. Basically, yeah. He said, though the detective had answers. He said the poster was created by his office and said that she was 140 pounds. He knew from her sister that she was only about £90 by July of 2003. The sister said that she was only £90, so must be. He also said that, yes, he failed to put her street name of Maria on the poster and that he did not do any forensic testing at the Al Mar Hotel, even though there was a possibility that blood may have been detected at the scene. So that. Meaning, did you investigate Ace over there? What about him? You didn't check the motel room? So they said. Also checking the box on the DSS form indicating his inquiry was for the purposes of preventing a suspect from fleeing prosecution. They said he took it to mean it was referencing Howell, not Holcomb, not Dorothy. So basically, he's like, it was just a paperwork error, but the defense is trying to say that that means that he didn't do it here. Now, they asked him whether he lied to Dorothy when Telling her the purpose of the visit to her home was in relation to a connection of lawn equipment thefts. And he said that yes, police lie to suspects from time to time. It's totally allowed, totally legal. So yeah. He also, he's a homicide detective. He's pretty good at testifying, so that helps. And basically he though his strategy was concede small errors in the course of that happen in every investigation. Nobody's perfect but maintain integrity and authority on the stuff that really matters.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

So that's his strategy on the stand here. They described the process of processing Bill's van here. And he described it as being flawless. And there's not going to the way they described it was very good forensically. No OJ shit going on here. That's good. So yeah, he steps down. The fourth witness that comes up is Chris Suduck, a detective. And he takes the jury through step by step search for Bill's van, finding blood stains on the different bench frame and back portion and all that kind of thing. That's how it's entered into evidence. The detective comes up said they found this and that's how it's entered and that's how it works. So they said a second blood sample from an unknown potential victim that was found in the van carpeting was not entered into evidence, although it'll come up later. They also have the forensics person describe how they fucking do all that kind of bullshit. So the judge excuses the jury for the weekend and the defense says that they have a request. Howell needs a warmer cell and a writing utensil.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's chilly.

[James Petregallo]

He's chilly and he's got a lot to say.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

He'd been residing in a punitive segregation due to being found in possess a small amount of tobacco.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh.

[James Petregallo]

Though allowed to shave from time to time. There's no hot water, water or mirror to look at. He's not allowed to receive visitors, use the phone or write and send out letters. They said also the temperature resulted in him not being able to sleep. And he can't participate in his trial if he's not sleeping.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I got some fucking rest.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. He asked the judge if the court could do anything to help solve this as it was having an impact on his mental acuity and he's not helping me a lot. So he said he couldn't stay awake in court because it's warm in here. The judge said, I don't give a shit, don't care. That's it. He said he will get a pencil and paper to write that he's allowed to do, but nothing else. That's it. He wrote a poem about it. Howell did.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Can I hear it?

[James Petregallo]

You can. Would you really like to?

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'd love to, yeah.

[James Petregallo]

An innocent man I sit in jail an innocent man I can't make bail they take my freedom Try to make me submit. That's the whole poem. There's two rhymes in there. He rhymed man with man and then jail and bail. And then he just gave up.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And then he gave up. And he's like, I'm out. He's like, will Smith.

[James Petregallo]

That's it. So this trial is going all the way. The prosecution sets their case out and I don't know if they're not confident or I don't know if he's not confident or nobody's confident. But he continues to deny responsibility for the killing. He denies that, but he agrees to enter an Alford plea and end this thing.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

Yes. Doesn't want to go to the jury. He said he's not admitting guilt, but he's acknowledging there's enough evidence for conviction. He denies any responsibility, claiming the blood in his van was from a fight. Then he tried to withdraw his guilty plea at the last minute. And they were like, you can't do that. Stupid. You're guilty. We already processed it all. I signed shit. During sentencing, he told the judge, I offer my sincerest condolences. I know they feel I murdered their daughter. I didn't murder Nilsa.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I didn't do it.

[James Petregallo]

Didn't do it. The judge says, well, you're certainly going to prison like you did it. You, sir. They fuck off. 15 years in prison.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Dang.

[James Petregallo]

Because it's manslaughter murder. So that's not a lot at all. That's scary, but it's.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's a steep fucking penalty for a guy that's just.

[James Petregallo]

I mean, that'll keep him in while they figure out other shit. But that's terrifying. The Wethersfield police chief said, I can't even imagine how many people didn't get hurt because he was convicted of manslaughter.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petregallo]

Then things start happening. Once that happens, this is 2007. That's finally all over. Then bodies start being found.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Here we go.

[James Petregallo]

Three bodies are found in 2007, later identified as we'll find out. But on August 20, 2007, that's when the hunter finds more. Hunter finds remains at the strip mall. They believe they may be of Diane Cusack, a 53 year old woman from New Britain. They also said they found blood in the van that matched the blood of other victims. And now they want to know also the videotapes. Who's on there having sex?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petregallo]

This Diane Cusack was 53, drug addict. Had substance abuse problems. Was out of contact with her family for years. Was turning tricks. And wasn't reported missing for months and months and months. And no one had any clue where she'd gone, who she'd gone with. No one knew. It's at this point when they start finding bodies. William Devin, whatever the fuck you want to call him. Bill Devin, by the way, in prison they call him Hillbilly. That's his name. Nice, because his name's Bill. He's got a Southern accent. So you're Hillbilly now.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Hillbilly, yeah.

[James Petregallo]

His cellmate here is a guy named Mills. Is his last name also. A horrible murderer, this guy. Well, Jonathan Mills. We'll talk about what he did in a little bit. But just a terrible fucking man. But this guy comes forward to the cop saying, Howell's been talking to me and saying some crazy shit. Number one, he said if he hadn't been caught. He planned to go cross country and kill others he was working on. More he told him about. He said he has an alter ego named the Sick Ripper.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The Sick Ripper?

[James Petregallo]

The Sick Ripper. Wow. Better than the Rick Sipper. That would be a totally different guy. That's a guy. That's a guy that really blows a lot of guys. Yeah, the Rips. The Rick Sipper is much different. And he said he would pick women up in his murder mobile and kill them and rape them and bury them in the woods behind a mall. That's what he told this guy. He detailed methods that he used. He said he used a hammer to kill at least two of them. Strangulation for others. He admitted to keeping one body in his van for weeks and sleeping next to it. Why? You may ask why? Because of cold weather.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What does that mean?

[James Petregallo]

Couldn't bury it. So he just had to hold it for a while.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, boy.

[James Petregallo]

In his van. So I wonder why it's stunk in there. He's keeping corpses for weeks.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. Can't get through the grail. Yeah, you gotta keep it in the house.

[James Petregallo]

Gotta keep it till it warms up a little.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, boy.

[James Petregallo]

Wow. And he slept next to it in the van. So he drove around, did all this shit with a corpse in it for weeks.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That makes body odor people.

[James Petregallo]

Wow.

[Jimmy Wissman]

People can't determine the difference between fucking corpse and body odor.

[James Petregallo]

Imagine what this man smells like. Decomp. They go that's comparable to him.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I mean, it's. It's certainly a body odor, but it's not.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Jesus.

[James Petregallo]

He said that he'd also raped all of his victims and that he disposed of them behind the mall, but he disposed of other body parts down in Virginia, meaning all the identifiable ones. He said that he killed seven women and that he planned to kill more. So. Wow, this is wild shit. So this is him telling his. His cellmate, I'm the sick Ripper. Want to hear more?

[Jimmy Wissman]

I can't wait.

[James Petregallo]

He said he would cut off the tips of the fingers, dismantle the bottom jaw and dispose of the body parts in Virginia. That's how he'd do it. This is two horrible killers sharing a cell and one of them's freaked out by the other. That says a lot. Um, that's crazy. So this guy Mills, he goes to the cops with detailed information about the burial site, including a map that he drew based on what Howell told him of where the bodies would be buried.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, boy.

[James Petregallo]

This turns out to be on the button. Fucking adult dead on balls accurate. So this is crazy. He said that he. Mills, the roommate, said Howell told him that the case with Nielsen was circumstantial and that the state didn't have a body and he didn't want the body to show up because it would do him in. By the way, this is why he pled, because they had this guy on ready. Yeah, he was ready to go. He also revealed other things. He told Mills that he hated prostitutes. Seems like he likes them a lot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Seems like you love them.

[James Petregallo]

He said that they should have known they were going to die because of the lifestyles they led. No, no, that's not how it works. So they find more bodies and they start going over cold cases trying to figure out who these people are. They find four sets of remains in the same little area. They find Nilsa, so they know where she is. Finally, they find a woman named Marilyn Gonzalez, Melanie Ruth Camilini, and one other that we'll talk about as well here. So this is a lot. Yeah, let's talk about. Yeah. So that's what they find in 2007. They stick to this and for years they're poking around this area. And then in 2003, 13 in September, they find more bodies. They find Joyfulne. Joy Martinez. She goes by Joy, a 23 year old, was a week away from her 24th birthday. She was going to school to be a dental assistant. So I don't know what the hell. How he ended up with this one, that just doesn't make any sense. But she must have had some problems because she disappeared on October 10, 2003, but wasn't reported missing until March 29, 2004. Okay, so she had to have gone, you know, nobody who. Yeah, she had to go. There's nobody that, you know, your kid comes home from dental assistant school every day and then doesn't come home for five months and you don't call the cops. That's. That isn't how that works. September 2014, they identify the remains of Mary Jane Menard, a 40 year old of New Britain as well. She worked as a substance abuse counselor, which those people were are 99% of the time former abusers that sometimes have a relapse. I'm not saying she did. I'm just saying, you know, there. She dedicated her life to helping people, but, you know, who knows? He would. She would have talked to anybody. This person. So makes her vulnerable. She went missing in October 2003 as well. Same as Joy Martinez. Mary Jane Menard was 40 years old. That's the substance abuse counselor. April 2015, they're searching for more bodies. They bring in a FBI cadaver sniffing dog, which seems like they should have had that years ago.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So they identify more people here. They identify Melanie Ruth Camillini, who's the one they were looking for. She disappeared in January of 2003.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Marilyn Gonzalez was 26 years old, mother of two children. She went missing in 2003 after she left her home on Hillside Avenue in Waterbury. Her body found behind the shopping plaza as well. She was one of the last ones to be discovered in all seven women found in this. In the garden back there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Jesus.

[James Petregallo]

This is insane. So now they go, okay, this is definitely one guy doing this. It's obvious it can't be the work of more than one person here. So they search his cell, by the way, they think he might have some shit in his cell. How so? Yeah, they thought also they wanted to get him paranoid and kind of shake his. Rattle his cage a little bit type of deal. So during a search of his cell, they found a notebook containing references to the website darkvomit.com.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Nice.

[James Petregallo]

Which I don't know if it still exists, but it was a site that sells memorabilia belonging to serial killers. Oh, now there's a bunch of those. As we know. Also the notebook included handwritten notes referencing items like, quote, a watercolor painting done by Gary Gilmore and a John Dillinger death mask that were lifted for listed for sale. They also seized an old cell phone bill with a date in 2003 circled and then handwritten next to it. This shows the day after I killed. That's not good. No, that is not good. So, yeah, they have all sorts of details on his crimes from his roommate there. And they also in his cell, they get a newspaper article about the death penalty in Florida. A notebook with handwritten entries that reference dark vomit. We said that. And a cell phone bill with those words on it. So the article. The newspaper article talked about the death penalty in Florida. That prompted authorities to look into whether Howell was behind an unsolved murder down there of a 21 year old girl named April Marie Stone, who went missing on January 14, 1991, after she was seen walking along the state highway in South Apopka, Florida. Her body was found two days later beside a dirt road. She'd been stabbed to death and wrapped in a blanket. She'd been living about 15. That was when he was living about 15 miles away from there in this trailer in Castleberry with Mandy and their infant son. A few months after they found her, Howell was charged with soliciting a prostitute in the next town over. He had approached the undercover officer in a blue Ford pickup truck and offered her $15 for oral sex. He entered a plea of guilty and avoided jail time. But it wasn't until 2015, after he was charged with all these murders, and now they're looking into all these murders that they said, holy shit, could he have killed her down in Florida? But they could find no evidence linking him to it. They just know that he was interested in the death penalty in Florida for a fucking reason. And he probably did something.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Got to. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

You don't just start on a spree like that in your mid-30s without doing this before. Especially if you've been with that many prostitutes.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And why is he still cured?

[James Petregallo]

Yep. So he got so rattled by the searches of his cell and all this type of shit, he tried to kill himself by swallowing 27 pills.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What pills?

[James Petregallo]

Don't know, 27, probably whatever antipsych meds he had on him or whatever the fuck. And he's a little chunky guy, too. He's like 5, 9, 2, 20, a little chunkster. Yeah. Tried to take a bunch of pills. Also in 2015, the Supreme Court of Connecticut abolished their death penalty.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

So this is before he's charged with six more murders? He's going to. Oh, shit. Yeah. Now, DNA analysis is what they're looking at here. But they said he'd removed fingertips, extracted teeth and dismembered the bodies. This guy knew what the fuck he was doing and trying to cover his tracks. It was pretty clear there. So they used advanced DNA testing methods, anthropological analysis of skeletal remains, and cross referenced that with missing person databases. They're very good at figuring out who people are nowadays.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What the hell happened?

[James Petregallo]

That's the crazy part. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Did this.

[James Petregallo]

Why? I think that's what. I mean, we don't. Sometime along the time when his mom got sick, his brain went fucking kooky. And I don't know if he. I don't know what it is. I'm not a psychiatrist. But there's something really bad in there. It's not just booze.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is it watching mom die?

[James Petregallo]

I don't know. Having no control over that. Maybe that'll make you want to have some control over something.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But it can't be. Being arrested for driving when you shouldn't be. That's not it.

[James Petregallo]

That's crazy. That's how. That's. You get Al Capone for tax evasion. You get a serial killer with expired tags. That's just the way it is.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But, I mean, that's not the reason that. That wasn't his catalyst. He can say it all he wants. No fucking way. That's the catalyst.

[James Petregallo]

No, it's. It's complete bullshit now that they really get into the DNA. And DNA technology has gone a long way in over 10 years since the last time they went through the van. Now they say they have DNA samples from six of the seven women they found out in his van.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

Six DNA samples.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's a lot.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. So he's gonna be charged with three counts each of felony capital, felony capital, felony murder, felony murder and murder. Three counts each. That is a lot. DNA links, body identifications and cellmate confessions with the roadmap and everything. Help a lot. He's held on a $10 million bond.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is that right?

[James Petregallo]

He lives in a van. That's a lot. Let's be honest. Yeah. It could be a $10,000 bond. He's not going to be.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It could be $10.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. The police chief said, let's remember each of these victims and their families. Each victim was loved and cherished. They were people from our communities and in no way deserve the violence that ended their lives. Enter Ann K. Howard.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

Okay. Ann Howard. She's a lawyer and a writer, and she was fascinated by this case and started a blog about it called Serial Murders in Connecticut.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

She started researching cold cases and unsolved murders, but this was the one that got her Attention. So she decided to try to contact Howell.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, she said, fuck it, why not? And she said that also knowing that he was so interested in true crime stuff, she might be able to get him to talk because he's interested in this whole world. Yeah, she said that he said, or I'm sorry, she said this. This is Anne Howard, the author slash lawyer. I was researching online about some cold case murders not far from where I lived. And every time I researched, this story kept coming up about bodies being found behind a strip mall in New Britain, Connecticut on my newsfeed. And I couldn't help but wonder, who is this monster who's yet to be arrested for the murders of these people being found behind a suburban strip mall on a busy roadway not far from where I live? So she wrote to Howell and told him she was interested in writing a book about her, about him. In her first letter, she said that she talked to the daughter of his ex girlfriend, Dorothy. By the way, Dorothy died from killing herself the year after he was arrested for this.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, she was so embarrassed.

[James Petregallo]

She's fucking embarrassed. Yeah, so she says. When I first contacted William Devin Howell In July 2015, he was serving the 15 year sentence for the murder of Nilsa Arizmendi. Howell had yet to be charged with the murders of six other victims whose bodies would be found in the same wooded area. Nonetheless, the tone of his first letter to me indicated that he knew that the remaining charges were about to slam down upon him with the force of a sledgehammer. Two months earlier, Howell's image had been smeared across local and national news channels when Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane named him as the suspect in the New Britain serial killings. The announcement was a long time coming, they said, and Howell told me two years earlier he refused to speak with police officers about the accusations without a lawyer present. His refusal to speak resulted in him being stripped of his industry job in prison. Oh, he wouldn't be interviewed. So they kicked him off his job.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sure.

[James Petregallo]

Which was a high paying job. And it pissed him off. Yeah, they said this is a big fucking deal. You know, he paid an hour. He got paid a dollar an hour. Most of the jobs get 75 cents an hour. Or, sorry, 75 cents a day. Most of the other jobs he got a dollar an hour. So he was living high on the hog and off commissary. I mean, fucking ramen as far as the eye can see.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Guys making 60 bucks a week.

[James Petregallo]

Yep, she said. From the start, Howell's letters revealed an unbelievably Lonesome and depressed man. Good. He should be.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Who gives a fuck?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, fuck him. I spoke at length on the phone with a former acquaintance of Howells from Virginia, and she described an adolescent Howell as being starved for love. I could not have said it better. Howell was not just looking for love from me in his letters he was begging for it. Being isolated from the opposite sex for several years gave him that craving, a somewhat sexual component.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh yeah, he loves pussy and he's locked away from it.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, and you're now some lady's writing him letters. He's like, hey, bring that pussy on over here. She said, for all I knew he was. Or for all he knew, I was a blue haired elderly woman. Nevertheless, he wrote me these words in his first letter. This may sound creepy, but I'd like a hug.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Whoa, can I finger you while I hug you?

[James Petregallo]

Not. Well, nothing creepy and not trying to cop a feel, but I haven't had a hug in almost 10 years and I'd just like a simple hug if you don't mind. A hug from you may be the only hug I get for the rest of my life. Like I said, nothing creepy, just a simple hug. I promised I'll be on my best behavior.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'll beat off to the memory of it later.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, I will definitely beat off to the smell you leave on my fucking. On my orange jumpsuit, but that's fine. So fellow inmates at this point call him Hillbilly. Other people call him Wild Bill. He used to be called just Billy by his friends on the outside, but now he's going by Bill. So you can call me Bill, he tells her. So then he wrote more regarding his request for a hug. He said, this is 829 2015, so August of 2015, but I would like you, I would like to meet with you. And there's a legal basis for your visit. And if you truly do want to get a feel for who I am, that's the best way to do it. And the hug can be optional. Smiley face. I see where that may have come across a little creepy in my first letter. But it wasn't meant to be. It's just that it's been so long years since I've had something as innocent as a friendly hug. And I feel like I had nothing to lose by asking. In fact, it could be my last chance to ever have a hug again for the rest of my life. So I had to ask and I apologize if I creeped you out in any way. Apologies.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And then he asked for $30 and she sent it to him. I'm not kidding. Yeah, for a commissary, you know. So he just spills his fucking guts to this woman.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He got the hug.

[James Petregallo]

He absolutely spills his fucking guts to her. Tells her everything. He said that he called the burial site his garden and the victims should have known what was going to happen to them. He then said this, and this is the name of her book, which is interesting. They were talking about the murders and he said, quote, every killer has a garden.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, they all have somewhere they put the bodies. That's just his garden.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Everybody's got a garden.

[James Petregallo]

Every killer has a garden, which I found real fucking interesting.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Some have several, I guess.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. But most of them have places. They many? Yeah, they got many. He called his victims seeds in his garden. He was planting them like a new woman would grow. You know what I mean? That's fucking wild. He said, I know I'm accused of monstrous crimes and because of those charges I must be some evil spirited monster that thinks of nothing but evil, malicious acts or intent. But that's just not the case. I wasn't a con artist or a scammer or a thief. If I could help someone, I would. I didn't. And don't plot or scheme against anyone. I was raised with good morals and values and in spite of my charges, I try to live by those dudes. A fucking narcissist, man. But he said he would target vulnerable women. Women who are alone, who might be struggling with addiction or other issues. Women who might not be immediately missed or they might not be reported missing right away. Drugs are the common threat. Drugs. He said I'd approach him with my van off for rides once they were inside. He said he would sexually assault them all throughout the night. Because you remember, he's once isn't enough for this guy. And then he said he would. Jesus Christ. This is what he would do before he would kill them. This is fucked up. This is fucked up. Don't worry, it's not sexual. It's almost creepier though. He said I'd go through the Mickey D's, drive through with a half naked, tied up victim in the back. And I'd tell them if they make a sound, it would be their last. And none of them did. He would get them a meal. Oh, he'd give them a last meal. This is what he did. He'd go to McDonald's and then they'd eat together. And then he'd murder them with a.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Belly full of chicken nugs with.

[James Petregallo]

Yep, with a Belly full of Big Mac.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's how he did it.

[James Petregallo]

So that's what he did. He said that he was basically parading his victims in public. You know, that was the.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

That showed that to him. Showed how much control he was in the fact that there's a person you're talking to and you got a tied up victim and nobody's gonna see shit. That gave him a rush.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yep.

[James Petregallo]

His mutilation tactics just showed that he had an understanding of how police identify victims. Because he's a huge true crime buff.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Huge. Loves it. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Favorite TV show, Forensic Files.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Samesies.

[James Petregallo]

There you go. We're all fans. I just use the knowledge I get for this show. Rather than to murder women, I just.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Lay in hotel beds and go, oh my God.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Holy shit. It's the only time I watch it is from a hotel because that's what's on loop. They play it all night long.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That channel.

[James Petregallo]

Just put it in the background, show it the bummer, Wake up to it. Yeah, well, yeah, that's.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That sucks. But that drives me nuts. But it's great.

[James Petregallo]

Fuck, yeah. So he said that he gave up on. He was trying to prevent identification originally. You know, fingertips and cutting stuff off and doing that. But then he said fuck it, you know. He said he gave up on those. He said. Initially he said, I realized that if they found her, it would probably be. Probably would have been moot anyway. She was the only one I did that to is what he said. So. His later omission, though, about removing the Camelini woman's jaw shows that his attempts at concealment were more extensive. So at first he said, oh, it was just one person. I don't know. And then he started letting more out. So In January of 2003, he found Melanie Ruth Camalini, who's 29 years old. She went missing January 1, 2003. She'd been living in Waterbury and was last seen in the area with two men. She was known for having a substance abuse problem and would regularly disappear for long periods of time, which delayed the investigation into her disappearance. Yeah, which is the other thing. You know, that's a big deal when they choose victims. Choosing a victim that will not be immediately missed is a big deal.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sure.

[James Petregallo]

If you kidnap some 8 year old kid, that kid, if he's not home in 10 minutes, the cops are going to be looking everywhere. These women, they can disappear and they'll go, well, wait another three, four days and call us back. They don't even care.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wait several days until it's Useless to us.

[James Petregallo]

So, yeah, her body was discovered in 2007 behind the shopping plaza. Wasn't identified until 2015.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow. Eight years.

[James Petregallo]

Eight years. When Anne Howard asked about Melanie Camalini specifically, he said this. Okay. He said he picked her up in Waterbury in February 2003. The last time anybody saw her was January 1st, meaning her family. But she was just out on the street for a month. And then he got her. He drove her to Torrington and killed her there in his van. Once she was in the van, he said he duct taped her hands together, then drove her to Torrington and parked where he raped and killed her. How did he kill her? Well, he's going to describe it. It's disturbing. Quote. Yeah, I first tried to kill Camalini by hitting her in the head with a hammer. Just weird to call your murder victim by their last name like that. Like. Like they're a guy on your football team or something. This is weird. She didn't see it coming. That's another thing Mills, meaning his cellmate got wrong when he talked to the cops. He said, I tried to strangle Camalini, but she wouldn't die. So I beat her in the head with a hammer. That's backwards. I hit her with the hammer first pretty hard, and it didn't even knock her out.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So he had to strangle her.

[James Petregallo]

She said, please don't kill me. Don't hit me with the hammer again. I didn't have the heart to hit her again, if that makes sense. So I strangled her. Good Lord, Please don't hit me with the hammer again. You know what? You're right. That's mean. Strangle, strangle, strangle. Okay? He said he was living in his van at the time, and he slept beside her body for two whole weeks.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What?

[James Petregallo]

Two weeks? Now, granted, it's so cold, the ground is too frozen to bury her. And I don't see this van having a real cranking heating system in it, probably. So that's probably why he was able to do that. But he basically made it like his co pilot and nicknamed the corpse baby. Yeah, he said, I slept beside her because I have never. I had no choice. And later on, he said, I never called her my baby.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Not my baby.

[James Petregallo]

He said that before? Yeah. During this, he was continued to landscape. So he's going to people's homes and doing all this shit while the body is literally wrapped up in the van. That is fucking wild. June 18, 2003. Janice Roberts was 44 years old. Janice Roberts was a trans person originally named Danny Lee Wisnot. Whist not. Whist not. And was 44 years old and working as a prostitute as well. Janice was seen on June 18, 2003, when she was observed getting into a blue van outside the Stop and Shop.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, God.

[James Petregallo]

Familiar.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

She was reported missing on June 24th. And this was absolute. Just a rage killing. And find out later that he was fooled. That's what pissed him off on this one. He said yes. He said he raped everybody else except Janice Roberts felt mad because he was tricked. That's what he felt. Real weird. Fucking. Did you see that? You saw the new season of the rehearsal, right?

[Jimmy Wissman]

A lot of it. Not all.

[James Petregallo]

Okay.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The one pilot fucked me up.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Well, yeah. I hate fucking air travel, but it's fucking hilarious. Anyway. It's very well done.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's incredible. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

He's talking to that one pilot and the pilots like, yeah, I can't find any ladies. You know, he got kicked off of every site there is.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And he goes, it's because I was saying this and that and this. He goes, oh, he's a scumbag. He said, these trans women. He goes, you know how many times I've been tricked? I'm like, how many times have you been tricked? How many times did you not. Are you kidding me, bro?

[Jimmy Wissman]

You know how many times you've been attracted to a trans person? That's what happened, you fuck.

[James Petregallo]

Yes. And then later on, you felt weird about it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's what we're talking about, you dummy.

[James Petregallo]

That's it. So, yeah, he said that he killed her in a rage when he discovered that she was transgender. So January 9, 2003. Diane Cusack, 53. Police last had contact with her on July 9 during a landlord tenant dispute.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

I assume she's the tenant. She struggled with substance abuse, had been out of contact with her family, like we said. So she wasn't reported missing forever. Nielsen. He explains what happened with Nielsen. Our original. He said that they agreed to. That she would have sex with him for money.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And first of all, this was a big change from across the parking lot where this was all over with. She said, you're taking too long. I'm done. While she was having oral sex with him. You're taking too long. I'm done. Probably because he's had. He's already just eight times today, right?

[Jimmy Wissman]

This guy cannot stop coming.

[James Petregallo]

He said. He pressed her head back down and said, you're done when I say you're done. She said, no and forced herself out of his grip. She stared him in the eyes and said, that's all I'm doing for you, Devin. This is done. Done. So, right? So he sat there and didn't know what this was in the back of the van. And he said in his brain, his interior monster was saying, rape the whore. Rape the whore. That's what he was thinking. So, yeah, she had offered to give him a blowjob for $30. He had talked her down to $20. He said she refused to finish the job. So he got angry and tried to rape her. He said, do you know, do what I say or I'm gonna hit you with this wrench. She kept on fighting and fucking didn't, just ignored him. She wasn't going down. So he said, shut up. And she wouldn't shut up. So he said he whacked her on the side of the head, just above the ear. He said it didn't knock her out, but it sure as hell got her to stop fighting so he could tie her to the back bench of his van. She slowly came to her senses as he drove back to the parking lot behind the Stop and Shop where he raped her. Then he refastened his ropes and zip ties and secured her to the back bench of the van, making sure her mouth was covered in duct. Tate drove to the back of an empty business along Farmington Avenue and raped her three more times. Fucking unreal. Then the morning came and he was getting kind of sleepy, you know. So he rested beneath her. Kind of had a nap. At dawn, he drove her down to the parking lot of the motel 6. Removed the duct tape from her mouth, ordered her to perform oral sex again because he wanted to rape her again. So he did, multiple more times. What I don't understand. Then, all satisfied and depleted of any semen anywhere in his body, he finally strangled her in the backlot of the Motel 6 later that morning. Holy shit. He said, she wanted a ride into Hartford. I grabbed her, raped her all through the night and into the day. I killed her and threw her down a hill. He dug a shallow grave, and he wanted to dig deeper, but he said the water was so high and the earth was swampy. So, you know, he said he went just below about a foot and a half and there was mud and all that kind of thing. So he dug just low enough for the body to fit and lowered it in. He removed the black plastic trash bags and duct tape that he bound them in. Bound her in just like all the other girls. Covered the grave with a loose layer of soil, leaves and sticks Stripped her of her love, her clothing and personal effects he already had done. In the back of the van, he's going to dispose of those in random garbage cans located at gas stations and public parks, ones that get emptied a lot. He duct taped the body into a fetal position, wrapped it in three large plastic trash bags, two at the top, one at the bottom, covered it with a tarp in the back of the van, mowed a few lawns later that afternoon.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Then drove to the edge of the strip mall's back parking lot about 5pm opened the side door of the van and threw the body over the side of a sloping embankment. He watched it tumble down into the ravine and said, great. It landed in a pile of hedge trimmings and barrels. And he said, perfect, I'll come back the next day. And that's when he. He did it. He said, though he had trouble falling asleep that night because Nielsen was the only person he actually knew before killing them. He knew her, they were friends. So he didn't plan to rape and strangle her as he did with the others. He just, you know, he didn't plan it. So he said he had hadn't taken the usual precaution of changing the license tag on his van. Oh, that's what he usually does before he knows he's going to rape and kill somebody, he said. And at the same time, too, he said, this other guy knows me and knows my van, and he knows that I was going there. So he was like, fuck. He was all. He couldn't sleep. So early the next morning, he returned to the strip mall, drove around back, making sure the door of the subway sandwich shop was closed, make sure there's nobody taking their smoke break out there or anything. So he said everybody was gone. So he went to the guardrail that lined the steep wooded embankment and tucked a small shovel into the brush, circled the van into the parking lot of the McDonald's located just down the road there from the woods. He quickly left the vehicle, walked across the narrow cut through that was inaccessible to cars, went to the ravine. So he didn't know would somebody see him entering the parking lot or what's going on here. But he said the ravine where the body was was visible to other areas. So he said he rushed up the hill at record speed, retrieved the spade, and nearly nervously carried her back to the ravine. He dragged the body about 100 yards into the woods. It was a little more concealed than the bottom of the ravine, but there was still the risk of being discovered by a hunter as we find out. So people used to do it all the time. And also there's a Piper Cub. Planes fly above it. Also want to be seen by the air. So he did it. He said. He looked over and he said, man, she's stronger than she looked. And that's that. He dumped her in the hole, put shit on there. He said she fought back like a warrior. Yeah, she was tough. He said he couldn't understand why she fought so hard. No, he said it wasn't like her life was worth it. Wow. So what the fuck? Basically, she mentioned she had children, three or four. But he thought, what kind of mother leaves her babies for the needle?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Dude, it's your business.

[James Petregallo]

After he was done, he ordered a beef and cheddar from Arby's and some fries and brought them over to his girlfriend's house.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

He ate beef and cheddar after that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

Then they watched an episode of Forensic Files. Yeah, wow. A scientist was talking about how they identified the charred remains of a woman trapped inside her car. And he started thinking about, oh, man, did I put enough soil on her? Is she gonna be found? Wow.

[Jimmy Wissman]

October 10th, after Beef and cheddar, that's when you do your most regret.

[James Petregallo]

Well, you're regretful of everything.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's when it really sets in.

[James Petregallo]

All life decisions get really brought into focus. With a beef and cheddar, that'll do it to you right away. Especially like three, four of them. Oh, God, they were like two for three bucks back in the day.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They're five for five. You are going to suffer.

[James Petregallo]

Did they do five for five on those, or was it just regular roast beef?

[Jimmy Wissman]

They did both. It was either or. Mix and match, babe.

[James Petregallo]

Cheddar for free. What are we talking about here now? October 10, 2003, was Joy Martinez, 24 years old, is when she disappeared. Mary Jane Menard disappeared in October of 2003, also at 40 years old. So this is what Anne Howard got out of this. She said this man had a sexual addiction. And he was trying at an early age to numb himself from very real psychological pain he was going through. And his addiction served as a source of escape. It evolved into a sadistic sexual addiction that gave him an outlet for his rage. She said, he's telling me everything I want to know. And sometimes, frankly, it's almost too much for me to hear. I guess. So a little much for me to hear. Another, he's got some petty shit here. He's wants to sue somebody.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Who?

[James Petregallo]

Trudy Hackler. Who is his girlfriend's that killed Herself.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sister wrongful death for the suicide.

[James Petregallo]

No. Bill saved up $2,242 working at the prison and sent the money to Dorothy's sister with the agreement that she would put the funds into a savings account for him to use upon his release, because at that point, he was only in for 15 years. Instead, he said, she used the money for her own use and went on a cruise. Oh, they said. It does appear, the author, Anne Howard, said it appears that Trudy did take most, if not all, the money and spent it. Still, the small claims judge ruled in her favor, having no desire to side with a serial killer. Basically, I don't really care what the facts of the case are. You're a serial killer. You don't need $2,200.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't care how right you are. If there's a class action lawsuit and you sign in, we're gonna divvy up your share to everybody else.

[James Petregallo]

Just other people, leaving it out to people. So anyway, he said he liked heavy metal and all that kind of shit. This was his concert thing when he was talking to her. So this is fucking weird. They talk about. She says, you miss Virginia, don't you? And he said, yeah, yeah, I do. Ever wish you had ever never came to Connecticut in the first place? And he said, hell yeah, all the time.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So you would have just killed anywhere else.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, that's so. She said, so tell me about your life in high max, meaning that area of the jail. He said that a protective custody unit was housed. Six other inmates who were assigned that unit due to high profile crimes. His neighbor, who he referred to as a kid, jumped off a bridge holding his baby, but claimed it was an accident. The baby died and he survived. He recently rejected a plea deal for a 50 year sentence, which was life. The jury gave him 65 years. Yeah, I said, there's former cops, former cops in the unit. He says, it's real boring, 90 minutes every morning. You can watch TV in the day room and play cards and you get another 90 minutes before dinner and you could step outside into a small cage affixed to a concrete slab. Also, he said, if the weather was right. He said, be careful. She said to him, be careful what you say to those men because you know you've already blown your whole shit with all this snitching. He said, oh, yeah, I'm careful. Yeah, right, man. He says that people have already determined that I'm guilty. It's not just what you say, it's. But what you don't say. You ask for a lawyer. And they say you're guilty because you've asked you answer one of their questions and they twisted around against you, maybe. Wow. They said, do you think it's worth it then to go through the stress of a long trial? He said, I don't know. My attorneys say it'll take two or three years. I just don't know. And he said he is relieved about there's no death penalty, but he says he'd like to die. He goes, I just wish I could close my eyes and never wake up. He said, that would be better than having to sit in prison and rot to death someday of a disease like cancer. By the way, he's a diabetic, too, in prison.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, really?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. He's gonna have a much worse life. That was that. Now he says he was good to women as well.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, boy.

[James Petregallo]

He says that Dorie's behavior in the fighting with Dorothy was stemming from her untreated bipolar disorder and that she would provoke him to lose his temper. And he said, you know, they said, well, the author said, is there ever a valid reason to hit a woman upside or noggin, as you said.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right, right.

[James Petregallo]

And, you know, he said, no. And she said, there he. She didn't have a black eye. That was a lie. In the police report and all that kind of thing, he describes himself as a gentleman, saying, quote, have you ever noticed that there are no ex girlfriends coming out of the woodwork claiming any abuse or violence toward them? I dated three women in Connecticut alone, and no one has ever come forward to say he used to abuse me or I always thought he was strange or weird or could be capable of the things they're saying about me. I was always a happy person and made others happy that were around me. Hell, I was even invited to my first ex's wedding, and I attended. And her husband got a little jealous because she got a little too drunk at the reception and spent a lot of time talking to me and another guy friend she invited to the wedding as well. Sounds like a prize. He and I attended her wedding together so neither of us would feel awkward. We all smoked weed. And the guy I went to her wedding with was her, was her and mine when I lived in Torrington's weed dealer. Jesus Christ. Yeah. Now, Mandy, according to Mandy here, basically, she feared that if she didn't leave Bill soon, she feared he would kill her.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Mandy said, quote, devin is crazy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yes.

[James Petregallo]

Based on all this shit. Based on when he got hurt. He said, that hurt her, that hurt him. He said, it really hurt me when I read the statement she made to the cops about me. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't know what to tell you, man.

[James Petregallo]

He said that, you know, I got drunk and pick fights or arguments with her. That thing from before. He said, but I wasn't drunk. That constant that I wasn't a drunk. That constantly beat her like she portrayed to the cops. I slapped her one time and that's because she kicked me in the nads. It's that whole speech. And then he said, you know, the thing with her ex boyfriend. What would you do? You know, I had to fight him in a 711 parking lot. So the one thing he said, she asked him directly after a while. Why did you kill them, Bill?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Great question. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Because that's what we all want to know.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Say it.

[James Petregallo]

And he said it this way, quote. And I believe him because this is probably the grossest thing, the least advantageous to you thing you could say. So I believe him. He said, quote, wow, it wasn't about killing Ann. It was about raping.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh my God.

[James Petregallo]

That's a. I believe that 100%. The prosecutors don't know this, but I didn't just rape three of them. They based that on what Mills had told them. How would he know? I just raped three. The bodies were nothing but bones when they dug them up. I raped all of them except Danny Whistnot. Because that was why he was mad. Yeah, he did it, of course. So when they pressed him, when pressed about the motivations, he said, I never. It was never about the killing and I just killed them to conceal the evidence. I knew that once I raped them, they'd go to the cops and I'd end up back in jail. So I had to keep that from happening. I definitely didn't enjoy killing them. As I choked him out, I was thinking, just hurry up and die. Zingo. Rate more September of 2017. Here we go. William Devin Howell decides he doesn't really want to go to trial for six more murders. No, he'd rather not.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Please.

[James Petregallo]

Said he's prepared to plead guilty to all charges.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

He continued his phone correspondence with the author Anne Howard, and she then shared some of the phone calls with the media. On one Howell told her, quote, I want to. This is once he wanted to be. Yeah, you know, this is one he released. Just before his sentencing, he him saying to her, I want to first apologize to my victims families for the grief and pain I have caused them. I hear the pain in their sobs at every court appearance. And I'm truly Sorry that, that I am the cause of this pain. The author Howard said he's dreading the sentencing hearing on November 17th because he doesn't want to hear what the victims families are obviously going to say because he feels so awful about it. He's mostly remorseful for what he put the families through. He's very ashamed. That's what it is. He's ashamed. Not remorseful in my opinion.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't know everything, but he's ashamed he got caught. He's ashamed of what? A lot of different things, I think, but I don't think that. Well, I don't think he's really ashamed.

[James Petregallo]

I don't think he's ashamed, but I think he is a little ashamed because his family was a decent family that had pride in not being a piece of shit. The way they all worked so hard and all that. They had pride in that. So he, I think, feels he knows his mom would fucking kick him.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She'd be so destroyed over this.

[James Petregallo]

That's what I mean, it's that kind of thing. He knows that his parents would not approve of this and he wasn't brought up this way. So, you know, I think that's what he feels like though, more than anything.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Has there ever been a serial killer that. That says it was about the rapes.

[James Petregallo]

It was about the rape.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Nobody's ever said that. Right. I mean, never heard that before. That. That's what it was with Bundy and, and. Yeah, and with Gacy. But Bundy.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, but Bundy enjoyed.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He liked to kill too.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, he liked the kill. He liked. After the kill. He liked to play with the bodies. This guy once body was dead. He just wanted to get rid of it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

BTK loved the. Loved the kill.

[James Petregallo]

Loved it. Loved the kill was in the name.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This guy's just. I just liked raping.

[James Petregallo]

He brought. He made the moment last longer. BTK really, this guy was like, get this out of the way so I can. I just wanted to get rape on. Wow. Howell also said I pleaded guilty to spare the victim's families further pain and torment that would have been brought by a lengthy trial. My guilty plea also saves the taxpayers of the state nearly a million dollars in anticipated trial costs and then $20 million in appeals probably.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I mean, I want to know why so much with coburger, but this guy just gives it to us and I don't know that I. I don't want that. Why?

[James Petregallo]

I mean I want to know, but I. Jesus. I guess it fucking explains it though. That's what I want is what explains it? Well, Coburger, it's. Coburger's a huge. Why? Yeah, he didn't even rape why? What are you doing? That's what I mean. He just wanted to be a serial killer? I think so. He said that the author said he wanted it to be done. He wanted to fess up and just have this nightmare resolved. He told her, quote, my case contains an ounce of truth bolstered by a pound of lies. But at the end of the day, I feel that ounce of truth alone would have been enough to convict me. He's like, yeah, there's blood of six of seven dead people in your van that you all buried in the same place with a woman that they proved and you pleaded guilty to fucking burying.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There in your garden.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Anybody near her that's yours? Yeah, probably. So he does plead guilty to the murders of Diane Cusack, Joy Martinez, Melanie Ruth Camillini, Marilyn Gonzalez, Mary Jane Menard, and what? I don't remember what Danny Lee was not other the name Janice, Janice, Janice, Janice. And acknowledged burying them all in his secret garden, as he called it. December of 2017 is sentencing all but.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Ruins the Bruce Springsteen song Fuck, man.

[James Petregallo]

Sentencing victim impact. This is Mary Jane Menards daughter said mom was the rock of the family. He said, words cannot express all the pain and anguish so many of us have had to endure since their murders. With every ounce of blood that runs through my veins, I want to hate you. Saying you stripped away the youth from us and made me and my brother orphans. She tried also said she tried to kill herself twice since the time her mother went missing. He speaks. He apologizes to the victims. He says that his acts were monstrous, cowardly and selfish. He said, I know everyone wants to know why I committed these crimes. I don't have an answer. I don't know myself. He says he has diabetes and that's going to take a toll. He said, I'm a diabetic and my numbers are through the roof, so I know that my future awaits organ failure and amputations. I'll probably die a slow, miserable death in prison. I hope that gives you all some comfort. So he said, there you go. So the judge says, you, sir, may fuck off. Six life sentences, consecutive.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

That means, by the way, in Connecticut, a life sentence is defined as 60 years. So that is 360 years in prison. And before he'd be eligible for parole, he has to serve 150 years mandatory.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't think he's gonna get out.

[James Petregallo]

He's currently date of out is 2377. Yeah, 2377. That's his release date. There won't be an Earth in 2377. We'll have all incinerated. Yeah, we'll all be firing nuclear weapons at each other. It wouldn't be crazy by that. He did TV interviews, by the way, and they asked him why, and he said, I'm still not real excited to talk to y', all, and I'd rather not be doing it, But I did this as a favor to Ann, the author and the lawyer there. Yeah. He said that he was a happy kid. He goes, does all of that. He says that the drinking and his time in jail in Virginia instilled a lot of bitterness in me. I was angry. And then he also said something. He said it was something that I had fantasized about for a few years. The fantasy wasn't about killing someone. I just killed them to try to cover up my crime. The fantasy was just about raping.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What the fuck, man?

[James Petregallo]

That's all he wants. He said it repeatedly. He said, I just. I just decided to act on my impulses. I'd been out drinking a little bit, and I was pissed off at my girlfriend at the time and just decided, tonight, I'm going to cross the line. He said, it's not like it was a beast that was driving me to commit these crimes. They may make me even more sinister, but it was something that I liked to do.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

So I wasn't. I didn't need to. I liked it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Don't read the lyrics to Bruce Springsteen's song. It is, what, dollars to donuts? He says Secret Garden and listens to this song twistedly well.

[James Petregallo]

Also Stone Temple Pilots. Secret Garden was this wicked garden, not Secret Garden. Never mind.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But I don't know that there's another song that's Secret Garden that sounds that sinister. I don't even have any idea the lyrics. Jesus Christ.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Are you looking up lyrics?

[Jimmy Wissman]

No, I just was thinking about them.

[James Petregallo]

What are you doing?

[Jimmy Wissman]

I know that he says there's dirty things in that song. They're dirty.

[James Petregallo]

Are you talking about I'm on Fire?

[Jimmy Wissman]

No.

[James Petregallo]

What are we talking about? What song?

[Jimmy Wissman]

You don't know? Secret.

[James Petregallo]

What are we talking about?

[Jimmy Wissman]

James, that's the song.

[James Petregallo]

Okay. We're almost done. I don't care about Bruce. Don't care about Bruce Springsteen that much. Really don't. He's fine and all. I just not. I'm not like a. We're too young to be that into Bruce Springsteen like our dads would like.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Bruce Springsteen so much. Are you serious? You don't like Bruce Springsteen that much?

[James Petregallo]

No, it's fine. He's fine. But it's old man music. It's like music for our dads. It's like music for my dad.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's why. I mean, because I listened to it a lot in the garage.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Just. I don't know, growing up as a kid, it was like, oh, yeah, that's old people music. But it's fine. But it was like, you don't have.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Any songs with your dad that you like, think about your dad.

[James Petregallo]

With my dad when.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Think any song, anytime you ever. Never mind. No, I just lost it.

[James Petregallo]

You know what my family's like. What are you talking about? You think we sat around fucking making song memories together?

[Jimmy Wissman]

No, it's just doing something and a song. You hear it and you go, oh, yeah, I did this with my grandpa that time. That was a nice time.

[James Petregallo]

No, I don't have a lot of that for my childhood. I really don't. I have a lot of. Oh, yeah. I remember waiting for a long time. Nobody showed up to pick me up. But that. When that song was playing, sitting there with the.

[Jimmy Wissman]

With the bus stop and the Secret Garden playing on this fucking.

[James Petregallo]

Maybe that's why I don't know it. Because I blocked it. I just blocked it from my memory of Secret Garden. I thought you were talking about something totally different. It's like, what are you talking about now?

[Jimmy Wissman]

I never want to hear it again based on this.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, man. I think that's where he's going with this. It's gotta be just about raping.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's gross. What a terrible man.

[James Petregallo]

He then said, I chose to do what I did. I chose not to care.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

December 2017. There's some rewards that are expected to be doled out. There's going to be three $50,000 rewards for providing information that led to the conviction of him. Claimants must submit an application here. They said, I would think there'd be several claims made. If more than one person puts in a claim, then it would be up to the judge to make the determination who gets the reward. You know who really wants Jonathan Mills?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. Oh, the guy in prison? Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Fuck, yeah. He, by the way, is in prison for killing two women and two children in the year 2000.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I think that gets him no money. Yes, that's.

[James Petregallo]

What are we talking about here? But he did draw a detailed map and all that kind of shit. Mills killed Katherine. Kitty Kleinkopf, her nephew Kyle, who was 4 years old, and a niece who was 6.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Maybe we let him get a McDonald's meal and tell him to go fuck himself.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Put him in the back of a van here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You gotta eat it back there.

[James Petregallo]

You gotta eat it back there while you're in a tarp. And he also killed a woman a few days before. But his maps led to the remaining victim. So they're thinking they might give it to him. Yeah, they said in state law, limits rewards to $50,000. A total of $150,000 is on the table in reward money, but you can only get $50,000 each.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The guy that was missing his wife, the first one that he went for 15 years for her. Fucking God damn.

[James Petregallo]

Nielsen.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, Nielsen. That guy's. That guy, the drug dealer. He should get it.

[James Petregallo]

They're talking about him too. Yeah. He then said, by the way, he claimed to feel remorse later on in psychological interviews. He said, I would give my life to bring theirs back if I could.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I wish you could.

[James Petregallo]

But then he. But then he got more evasive.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

He said then they were asking specifics about, like, Mary Jane Menard, and he became uncomfortable and ended the interview.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's too many.

[James Petregallo]

So December 2018, he's in prison getting called hillbilly. Several family members of. Because you notice he got six life sentences. Now, they never charged him for Joy Valine Martinez's death.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

Apparently. And I guess her sisters. I'm not sure. Her sisters were saying that they're gonna. I plan to be at every one of Howell's court appearances. And that's a promise. Oh, yeah. Cause they did charge her then. Okay. They hadn't charged him for so long. Then he gets in trouble for assaulting another inmate, Robert King Jr. Who is the leader of a human trafficking ring. Let's say we let them fight to the death, right? Whoever fucking who gets hurt, whoever wins, we shoot him in the head. It's perfect. Don't care. So they said that, yeah, he broke this guy's nose and orbital socket during an assault. This was in protective custody. He did this.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He got to this guy and beat him with his fist.

[James Petregallo]

They're both in protective custody, so they get released together. So now the New Britain Police Department now maintains dedicated resources for cold case investigations. And based on all of this and K. Howard's book, His Garden Conversations with a Serial Killer is the name of it. Jesus Christ. By the way, she made a decision to close her law office in 2018 to focus on writing true crime books, of which I think she has two at this point. I saw Two audiobooks on audible there she written extensively about unsolved crimes along Route 8 where since the 80s four murders have gone unsolved. One murder that they think hillbilly here is involved in. She does. Is Jessica Muskus is her name. M U S K U S. You can look this up. She very similar circumstances to the other girls in the area. She went out one day in 2004 to visit a friend. The next morning she wasn't there and that was that. Now her daughter had said she had a fight with a man about a month before she disappeared. She believes that her daughter had pulled a knife to protect herself and she was afraid that the man would try to retaliate but she didn't remember his name.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh.

[James Petregallo]

So yeah, the daughter, her daughter said she looks a lot. This daughter said, yeah, she looks a lot like her mom. Hopefully she won't have the hard life. So Jessica was found in 2006. They said she unfortunately was disposed of in a very vacant, hard to locate area. It took two years for the police to even find the remains. Her remains were skeletal. She was also a victim, resident of Waterbury, like one of the New Britain victims. She was also a drug user. So yeah, she just went out, never came back one day. And it could be him, who knows? She had a real hard life. She was taken away from her parents. Her parents were fucking hardcore drug abusers and she grew up in a bad, bad, bad town.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She disappeared. They never found her body or anything?

[James Petregallo]

No, they found her body. Oh they did, in 2006 in a vacant lot they said out there. So yeah, it's, it's really rough. Now today, Howell, serving his time at the Cheshire Correctional Institution in Connecticut. Oh, this place is such a shithole that a lot of the incarcerates there have been on hunger strikes there as of 2025, saying they have excessive lockdowns, low quality food and poor health care. So yeah, yeah, so they said we're going to keep our hunger strike up. We have no intention of stopping. Well, this guy cannot eat forever and I really want to give two fucking shits. So there you go, everybody that is New Britain, Connecticut and a very bad man killed at least seven women, at least horrifying. At least 20.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petregallo]

There's more. Yeah, he wouldn't have had that article about Florida unless he had something going on in Florida. There's more. There's no reason for him to talk about the ones that there's no motivation. So. So if you like this episode, if you like the show in general, get on whatever app you're listening on. Give us five stars. It really, really helps to review those episodes. Helps drive us up the charts, which gets more listeners and helps us a lot. So if you like us, that's the way you can help out. Also, head over to shut upandgivemerder.com you will find all the merchandise you could possibly want there. In addition to tickets to live shows we just released and there's a few left in San Diego. I'm talking like 10. When I say a few, not 100. We got DC, we got Philly, and we got Seattle. I think Philly is like 95% sold out. So if you want to go to Philly, get the hell in there. D.C. too. So do that up and see us. Shut up and give me murder.com follow on social media. Small Town Murder on Instagram, at Smalltown Pod on Facebook. Get yourself Patreon. Do yourself a favor. Patreon.com p a t r e o n.com crimeinsports just like our other podcast that you should be listening to. Now that anybody $5 a month or above, you're gonna get a giant catalog of back episodes, hundreds of episodes you've never heard immediately upon subscription. New ones every other week. This week for Crime and Sports, which you'll have, of course, we're gonna talk about Jeff Alm and his crazy end to his life. Then for Small Town Murder, it's poop cruise time.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Here we go.

[James Petregallo]

We're going poop cruising, everybody. And we're gonna dip into Titan submersible a little bit too, because it's all the water. Fuck it. Let's get into that. And if you subscribe from now on, you also get all of the shows we make. Crime and Sports. Your stupid opinions both Small Town Murders ad free with your Patreon subscription. We couldn't give you any more if we tried.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How else am I going to do it?

[James Petregallo]

What else can we give you? So get in there and do that. Patreon.com crimeinsports and when you do that, then you're going to get this. Jimmy, hit me with the names of the most wonderful people in the world. Who for them, it's never about rape. Jimmy, hit me with them right fucking now.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Executive producers this week are Gary Howard, Dr. Gary Dr. Elizabeth Minton. Congrats, Amanda Barry. Thank you.

[James Petregallo]

Thank you.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That was very, very kind of you.

[James Petregallo]

Thank you. That was really cool of you. Appreciate you.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't have to tell much more, you know? You know what I mean? Deadpan whore faced Not Amanda Barry, but whoever wrote that. Lisa Gentile. Gently. I don't know. Happy hour. Checking in. And Boardman, Oregon. He is probably a bored man up there that he travels so much for work and he checks in every other week or every week or so with bucks and then just where he's at. It's great. Maria Thompson. Jimmy P. Felter. Snatch. I'll bet you that's not a real person.

[James Petregallo]

How dare you. You don't know anything about my who snatches.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm feeling Koozie carrying Mark. Such. Happy birthday.

[James Petregallo]

Happy birthday.

[Jimmy Wissman]

May. May a beer appear that you may sheath with that Koozie. Other producers this week. Peyton Meadows, Janice Hill, Melissa Black, Brad Thompson, Shelby Seal, Katie Derivan, Augie Beamborn, Beam Bomb, Bean Borm Beam Bainborn.

[James Petregallo]

All right, sounds like an alien name. This is Beanbourn. He's from Planet.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Mary Albadraz. Gunter Drywall. Find them if you're in your area. Jennifer with one N. Nicholas Roberts. Savannah with no last name. Juan J. Melendez Jr. Dylan with no last name. Thomas Gonzalez. Tomas Gonzalez, Casey Hankerson, Veronica Zukova, Hope Devoid. What? Yep, Devoid. Devold Devoid. Jennifer Schauss. Mama Kel, Vincent Trollia. Daniel Mathis. Jack. Jacqueline Fenton, Laura with no last name. Lindsay Frappier, Jordan Heck. Lori Kessler, Jack Cunningham, Jessica Hansel, Mike Gretel, Rachel Hammond. Jeremiah. Jeremiah McMillan. Sheila Hubbard Allen with no last name. Todd with no last name. Marcus with no last name. Toe Mama. 2789. Juck. Juck. No, that's Chuck. Jester. Jaster, Elizabeth. Nope, that's Alexis Gallagher. Emily with no last name. Claire Cameron, Jasmine Jones, Jacqueline Hazel, Vanessa Apriliano, cg CG Starner. See, he maybe Ben Cook. Boner Yoke. Yogurt. Disgusting. You've. How dare you. Julie Phillips. Bell Coon. Eric Milo. Aaron Shipley, Barbara with no last name. Leanne Nickel. Maybe it's Nickel. Christie with no last name. Dylan with no last name. Brittany Chestnut. Chestnut Robinson. Kevin with no last name. Julie Brooks, Dylan Usher, Chandler Lowe, Jacqueline Mitchell, Danny Lee Tedder, Andrew King, Ashley with no last name. Shelley Pfeiffer, Tyler with no last name. Ashley Vickery. Chuck Nelson, Ernest Rower. Row Her. Kate with no last name. Tori Willis, Tamasina Ursich. That's nice. Poopy Pants Pat. You wish. How about you wish? Tony Wilson, Kaylee Ranikius, Renicius Reinakus. It sounds like something that the guy Willy Wonka would say. John Reagan. Stephanie with no last name. Katie o'. Brien, Timothy Blonsky, George. Nope, that's Gregory Red A Penning. Retta Penning. Jesse Happy. All right. Kristen with no last name. Dairy Bunch. Krista Croyle.

[James Petregallo]

I gave it the old college try. Moving on.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What is Nehemiah? Is that is Nehemia Guerrero. I got that one time.

[James Petregallo]

I got that on my skin one time.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It was really rough. They got a cream or shot.

[James Petregallo]

You know, I had to rub a cream on it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You got to let it peel. Ashley Hogan. Rhett McWrite. James Perkins. JS. The letters J&S. Hippie. Kate. Julie O'. Leary. Helena Brooks. Lance Coyle. Mike Hansen. Jenny Kunwald. Sean Heavey. Mack with no last name. Blue Loon. Anthony C. Katie Bell, Stephanie H. Rebecca Simons. Joshua Young. Madeline Leader. Kelly Witterburn. Cox. Stephanie Lemay. Deborah Morales. Carrie Camp. Maddie with no last name. Kendra Lang. Hippie chick. Abby Galentine. Aiden d'. Agostino. Susan with no last name. Katie Cook. Rachel Shaw. Rebecca Trimble. Glenn Webster. Ina Zudelina. Leandra Davis. Catherine Bins. Stephanie mafia. That's two Fs. That's not mafia. Eric Lundberg. Charlie with no last name. Kevin Hudson. Hudson. What is this? Kralis. Crayles Borden. Nick and Sarah Ludlow. Chelsea Marshall. Robin Weaver. Joe Crosby. Oh, that is Cosby. Joe. Jesus. Brianna Fitzgerald. Megan Andrews. Corey with no last name. Russell Belcher, also not a good one. Danny Belusi. Kerry Wheeler. Mandy Burley. Or Burl. That might be Milton's kid. Uh, Becks with no last names. That's huge. Stefan Lipinski. Stephen perhaps Max. Fancy Monster. Monsters. Up. Plural. Jesus. Uh, Nancy Gear, spelled like Richard. Tammy. Grand Prix. Grand Prix. Toby Larone. Laron. Jackie Babcock. Aaron Louise. What is this? Javens. Javez. Javinsky. Hey. Oh, it's Yevensky. That's what that is.

[James Petregallo]

Okay.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. Anna. It's got to be pronounced with the Espanol, right? Havinsky or Givens. Anyway, Melissa Thompson. Anna Arceo. Fred Dameron. Apple. Apple Collapse. I don't fucking know. Patrice Littleton. White chocolate. Captain Morgan. Probably two people that don't exist. Joseph Guerra, Phil Kandel. Laura Maffay. John Callis. Callous. That's a weird way of spelling Callous, Mr. Blakey. Okay. Probably. Okay. Taylor, Brandon, Ryan, Brown, John and Jimmy. Joyce. Reggie with no E. Sam with no last name. S and B. S.B. margaret Lidl, Lytle. Veronica Bailey. Patrick Galloway. Charles Blasner. Norma Macias. Ellen Forte. Elisa with no last name. Daddy Warbucks. Nice. You spent some of it on us. Thank you. Haley E. Justin with no last name. Melissa Kendrick. Matt Heyer. Melissa with no last name. Mary McNeely. Nakia Stuart. Big Bar. Brittany. Brittany. What is that? Brit? The T and the Wire next to each other. It's got to be Brittany Farley. John. It's not Britant, right? John Michael Kelly with no last name. Jack B. Jersey, Daler, Lenae. Oh, fuck this. Beach.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, that's a weird last name.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Beach. Bachelish, Bishowish. Lena. There's no fucking way I'm getting that right. Shannon Greig. Or yeah, Greek. Greg. Maybe Frog priest. Tina Bean, 61. Paige with no last name. Emo dad. Jay Bode. Vicki McGill, Corey Jenkins, Andrew Cunningham, Amy Dye. Don't. Christy with no last name. Becca Newberry. J.D. parma. Parma. Sean. Emily Tilton, Teresa Nine. Joe Parker. C. Break. Steph Carter. Spider Bell, C. Don Granenko. Jack. Jackie McCabe. Virgin. Virginie. Virginie Borgi. Virginia. Virginie. Is that.

[James Petregallo]

Get on over here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Come here. Virginie.

[James Petregallo]

Virginia. Dinner gonna be ready soon.

[Jimmy Wissman]

My lapse warm. Laura back in Jones Will with no last name. Whitney Weis, Gerber, Emily Osman, turtle. Angel 94. Samantha Orbacher or Baker. Cheryl with no last name. Patricia Hensley, Tyler Winslet. Rowan with no last name. Flower Girl. JC Kristen Ray Curry, Badger. Emily Struthers, Deborah Blandon, Sarah Bartchman, Carissa Van Zant. I hope that's little Stevie's daughter. Something. Jamie Lynch.

[James Petregallo]

Street. Bad money.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Anybody. Jeff Gascon, James Hall, Jay Stoddard, Brian Rockwell. Chimetals. Chimetals. Tanya Radcliffe, Hunter Peterson, Sierra Slatter. Slater Slatter. Who would do that? Azula with no last name. Anna Stout. Oh, boy. Cheryl Heyman. Cheryl Man Riley, Josephine. Amanda Rowe, Tabby o', Connell, Joe Case, Joshua Heron, Catherine Burch, Trisha Waltz, Jesse Sargent, Samantha Von Godin, Von Gunden, Michael Wiebosch. Wiebush. We do Kelsey Peterson, Ryan Brown, Amanda P. Angela McCauley, Jiffy. With no last name. Daija or Daisy. Oh, it's Daisy Paulino, Natasha Murray. Holler and hollery. Hollering Holly. God damn it. At the very end are you fucking hollering Holly. And all of our patrons. You're the best. Thank you.

[James Petregallo]

Thank you so much, everybody. You glorious, glorious, wonderful people out there. We appreciate the fuck out of what you do for us. You want to follow us on social media, shut up and givememurder.com has drop down menus. Take you anywhere you want to go. Keep coming back and seeing us. And until next week, everybody, it's been our pleasure. Sa.