0:00

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast

0:02

are solely those of the authors and participants

0:05

and do not necessarily represent those

0:07

of iHeart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or

0:09

their employees. This series contains

0:12

discussions of violence and sexual

0:14

violence. Listener discretion is

0:16

advised. Previously

0:20

on Algorithm, I looked

0:23

at two cases from Hargar's list

0:25

that, upon closer inspection, looked

0:27

unlikely to be the work of Darren Vaughan. The

0:30

next day is when his girlfriend was found in about

0:32

it big, So, I don't think it has

0:34

anything to do with in the serial killer was

0:36

once in a lifetime thing. And I explored

0:38

Darren Vaughan's confessions with regard to Chicago.

0:42

Probably had a whole while they

0:45

have they

0:48

have way more. But Bond

0:50

later contradicted himself and didn't

0:52

give any specifics that could link him to

0:54

the crimes Hargrove had identified, and

0:57

the interrogation ended abruptly after

1:00

Vaughan informed detectives that he'd spoken

1:02

with a lawyer. You said you thought lawyer

1:04

day James Giving Day, he gave me a

1:06

lawyer. You're going have told us that in the beginning.

1:09

I'm not I'm not worried of me because I might have to fire

1:13

from my heart radio and Tenderfoot TV.

1:16

This is algorithm.

1:21

When Vaughn was arrested for

1:23

the murder of Africa Hardy, he told

1:25

police he didn't want to confess to murders

1:27

that took place out of state because

1:29

he didn't want to involve other jurisdictions.

1:32

He wanted a speedy trial and a quick

1:34

execution. But somewhere down

1:36

the line he changed his mind about wanting

1:38

to receive the death penalty. So I

1:40

wondered what happened there and if he might

1:43

now be open to talking about additional

1:45

crimes. I asked Vaughn's lawyer,

1:47

Guiko Kosach, to walk me through Von's

1:49

trial and why Vaughan had changed

1:52

his mind. At the very beginning, he

1:54

just wanted to plead guilty

1:56

before he even met his lawyer, and

1:58

he wanted the death penalty, and

2:01

of course they wouldn't allow that, so he

2:03

was not very cooperative. The

2:06

way we do things in Lake County is

2:08

if you're ever appointed public defender to a

2:10

human being, you are married to that human

2:13

being for the rest of your natural lives.

2:15

So Darren had had a previous

2:18

felony early eighties, something like that.

2:20

I can't remember the exact date. And

2:22

uh he had been appointed to a certain

2:24

public defender who he was very happy with because

2:27

he got the case this Mr resolved quite favorably.

2:30

So now when Darren comes back on this, they

2:33

appoint the guy who replaced that public

2:35

defender, Matt Fetch, to represent Darren.

2:37

Now, in Indiana, we have a criminal

2:40

rule especially deals with death penalties,

2:43

and for you to be a first chair in

2:45

a death penalty case, you have to have been involved

2:47

in a previous death penalty case. So

2:50

the powers that be decided to appoint

2:54

a first chair, qualified death

2:56

penalty lawyer, TERSA. Hollins Worth

2:58

to start out. In

3:00

his first appearance in court, Vaughn refused

3:03

to answer questions and he was warned

3:05

that he could be held in contempt of court. At

3:08

his next hearing, he complied with the judge

3:10

and a preliminary non guilty plea was

3:12

entered on his behalf. But a month

3:15

later, Von didn't want to come into court at

3:17

all. They ended up stripping him

3:19

down naked and putting him in a restraint

3:22

chair and they put some kind

3:24

of vest on him, wheeled him

3:26

in the court and Teresa just went absolutely

3:28

ape shit, and Judge Boswell

3:31

agreed that you know, you're not going to have

3:33

court with him naked with that restraint vest,

3:36

so they ended up taking him back to the jail.

3:38

After that incident, Vaughan ended up bonding

3:41

with Teresa Hollandsworth, but he still

3:43

wanted the death penalty and he still didn't

3:45

want to participate in court. At

3:47

the next hearing, Vaughn communicated

3:49

through Teresa, whispering into her

3:51

ear. She announced that Vaughn

3:54

was waving his right to appear at all future

3:56

court proceedings unless the court required

3:59

him to appear. The prosecution

4:01

worried that this could open them up to an appeal

4:03

down the line, but the judge ruled

4:05

that it was Vaughan's right to not appear in court.

4:08

So things were kind of rolling along and they

4:10

were doing their things for a good year

4:13

or so, and Teresa

4:16

got a job opportunity to work in the

4:18

juvenile court for more money,

4:20

so she took that position. Nobody

4:22

can blame her, so

4:25

at that time they had to replace

4:27

Teresa. We don't have a lot of people anymore

4:29

in the unequalified and death been with cases

4:31

because they're just not filing them anymore. At

4:33

used to file thirty fifty a year. Now

4:35

if it's for they're lucky. So um,

4:39

Teresa referred me and the powers

4:41

that be agreed and I got involved

4:43

in the case. And the proverbial should

4:46

hit the fan right from the beginning, because

4:49

Darren had established quite a close

4:51

relationship with Teresa. Uh,

4:53

let's just say she was his perfect type

4:56

and he really liked her. Throughout

4:58

his life, women have abandoned him his mother

5:01

wife, and when she

5:04

left, here's it another time,

5:06

or a woman that he had some trust

5:08

in he felt abandoned

5:11

him. So I was locked

5:13

out. He wouldn't even talk, and

5:15

he wanted to go pro se, which means represent

5:18

himself. So I kept banging

5:20

my head against the door. I kept sending him letters.

5:22

I kept going up to see him. He would

5:24

refuse to see me, but I told him in my letters,

5:26

I'm gonna come to see you every week. I'm

5:29

proven to you that I'm in this for the long haul. And

5:31

at some point he just indicated, well, I

5:33

just need thirty more days to myself,

5:36

and then he says, okay, come see me, and

5:39

uh we kissed and made up, and

5:42

uh, I think developed a pretty good relationship

5:44

and I would have deep conversations

5:47

with Darren. I would meet with Darren almost every

5:49

week at least for a couple of hours because

5:51

he needed the time with human beings. So

5:54

newspapers, you know, would often go ahead

5:56

and make fun of this

5:58

being the Gyko costage

6:01

for a one K plan, that I was just

6:03

going over there needlessly to go ahead

6:05

and pad my bill. But with

6:08

death penalty cases, you you have to earn

6:10

trust, and part of that is going over

6:12

there. But you know, we would talk about

6:14

things, and one of those things would be this plan

6:16

of his. And uh, from

6:19

the very beginning, Darren wanted

6:21

the death penalty. He did

6:23

not want to go back to prison. He had done prison

6:25

time in Texas for a sexual

6:28

assault case and he

6:30

did not want to go back to prison.

6:33

So he says, hey, if I give you six

6:35

more bodies, can you promise me

6:37

you're gonna kill me? And he says

6:39

they said yeah. They say no, we were never

6:42

promising that, you know, And at some

6:44

point then Darren eventually

6:46

decides he doesn't with the death penalty or

6:48

what happened with that. There's not easy

6:50

answer to your question, Ben, I mean, it's from

6:53

the very beginnings, and one death and want

6:55

death. I want death. And then all of a sudden, about

6:57

three days four days before we cut

6:59

the a, he changed his mind.

7:02

There's probably several things that played a factor

7:04

in it. Cossage says that he

7:06

wanted Von to take a plea deal, and

7:08

the first thing that really helped was getting

7:10

Bond to see his stepsister Regina and

7:12

half brother Reginald. And after

7:15

that his attitude changed. Someone

7:18

We kept telling Darren, Darren, you

7:20

know, you go to trial, you got you get convicted.

7:22

They might not whack you for eighteen

7:25

years with LWOP life

7:27

without parole, he would be in the general population

7:30

with death penalty. He's in a cage

7:33

twenty three hours of day.

7:35

The key then after that was Keisha.

7:38

We had a fabulous and she still

7:40

works with those. Keisha Evans I grew

7:42

up in the Etna section of Gary and that she

7:44

lives there now, so that's kind of my et noboddy. But

7:47

Keisha's black. She's like a sister to him,

7:49

and they just hit it off. Cossage

7:52

says that they're close to making a breakthrough

7:54

it Von and getting him to consider

7:56

a plea deal that would avoid the death penalty.

7:59

When Keisha asked to speak to Van one

8:01

on one. Keisha went in there. Actually

8:03

we all went in there. Keisha threw us out. Keisha

8:06

talk to him for about forty minutes.

8:08

She came out crying. We went back in.

8:11

He was crying, and at that point in time,

8:13

he agreed to take the police to life without for

8:15

all. You get to this point, and

8:17

you've got to get it done in the the next couple of days because

8:20

when they're starting to think about it, you've

8:22

gotta keep hammering and keep hammering and

8:24

keep hammering and get it done, because

8:26

if you give them too much time to think about

8:29

it, they'll change their minds. So

8:31

again, this is an ongoing process that we're

8:33

going on for years and years, and all of a sudden

8:35

the last few days, boom, everything

8:38

came together. On May fourth,

8:42

almost four years after his arrest, Von

8:44

pled guilty to seven murders, the

8:47

murders of Africa Hardy and the six

8:49

victims he led police to on the death

8:52

March weeks later, Von

8:54

was given seven life sentences, one

8:56

for each victim. Marvin

8:59

Clinton was the only person to make

9:01

a victim impact statement. He

9:03

read the names of the victims out loud. Africa

9:06

Hardy, nineteen of Chicago,

9:09

Anne Jones of

9:11

Maryville, Tracy Martin

9:13

forty one of Gary,

9:16

Christine Williams thirty six

9:18

of Gary, Sonia Billingsley

9:21

fifty two of Gary, Tanya

9:24

Gatlin of Highland,

9:27

and Tierra Baty

9:29

of Gary. Clinton said

9:32

that Vaughan didn't have a heart or a soul,

9:35

that he had anger for Vaughan, but that

9:37

Tierra wouldn't want him to hold on to that

9:39

anger. But Vaughan never

9:41

heard what Clinton said because

9:43

he'd opted not to show up to his own sentencing

9:46

and the court allowed it. Clinton

9:49

also said that while he knew the defense

9:51

counsel had a job to do, he

9:53

was frustrated with all of the time and money

9:56

being spent assisting Vaughan. Cossage

9:59

expressed him that they to all of the families in

10:01

the courtroom and apologized. I

10:03

was curious why Cossage in Lake County

10:06

has spent so much time and effort to convince

10:08

von that he didn't want the death penalty.

10:11

Are you philosophically opposed

10:13

to the death penalty or what motivates

10:15

you to go to to all these lengths

10:17

for your client? You know I waver

10:20

back and forth. You know I was

10:22

very much o death penalty before. Now

10:25

I cannot say that I'm against

10:27

the death penalty in every single

10:29

case, but you

10:32

know, dollars are dollars,

10:34

and you do the calculation that it

10:37

probably costs ten times more money

10:39

to execute someone in the given life

10:41

without parole. You know, the delay that

10:44

was one of the selling points I think to Darren.

10:47

Ultimately, is Darren, if they ordered the death

10:49

penalty today, you're gonna be sixty two years old

10:51

before you get executed. So

10:53

you know, aren't you better off living eighteen years

10:56

or whatever in g POP and

10:58

die a natural death out of general population

11:01

and sitting in a cage for eighteen years with

11:04

a cat because I let him have

11:06

cats on death row. It's one of the

11:08

person death row. Um. We've

11:10

been talking forever, and I probably

11:12

would just keep talking forever. Um,

11:14

I need to run to the bathroom really quick.

11:17

If you don't mine, that's funny because I ran

11:19

with my laptops. You

11:21

did it while you were talking to me. No, you

11:24

didn't have me on camera. Ultimately,

11:39

I'm glad that Von decided to take the plea

11:42

because I hope now that he's accepted

11:45

his fate of life without parole I

11:47

hope that there's a chance that he might confess

11:50

to more murders. And after

11:52

looking into the scarce information that

11:54

there is out there about many of the murderers

11:57

that her GROW's algorithm identified, I

11:59

think it can feeshion from Vaughan might be one

12:01

of the only ways that we can figure out

12:03

some of these old cold cases. Do

12:06

you have any advice to me. I don't know if the

12:08

system in Indiana very well. If

12:10

I wanted to reach out to Darren Vaughan and

12:13

try to talk to him directly,

12:16

Um, he's not gonna talk to you, okay.

12:19

Um he has to put you on

12:21

his list of people who correspond

12:23

with He won't do that. A b

12:26

uh. During the time that I represented him,

12:29

he got many many letters from women,

12:31

the gallows brides that are out there.

12:34

He got letters from this husband and wife

12:36

couple that claimed that they do interviews

12:38

with serial killers and they wanted to talk to him.

12:41

He had no real interest in being

12:43

involved with any of that. He didn't

12:45

want any more notorieting, and he already had

12:48

and I don't think he's changed he will

12:50

ever change in that regard. Do you

12:52

know if he heard about the whole Hardgrove story.

12:55

Yeah, I talked him about Yeah,

12:58

he laughed. Are you

13:00

able to talk to him? Are you able to reach out to him

13:02

at this point? Or is he no?

13:05

We stay we stay in touch. I mean,

13:07

I guess if you would just mention

13:09

that there's this guy out there doing this thing and

13:12

um, you know, just that I'd love to talk to

13:14

him. Despite

13:16

costage his insistence that Vaughan wouldn't

13:18

speak to me, I wrote him a letter anyways.

13:21

I told him that I'd listened through his interrogations

13:24

and read articles about him, but most

13:27

of the articles hadn't mentioned his traumatic

13:29

childhood or the abuse that he'd suffered

13:31

at the film of Marshall Children's Home. I

13:34

didn't ask him specifically about the cold

13:36

cases or previous murders. I

13:39

just wanted to get him on the phone and see

13:41

what happened. And

13:43

honestly, I almost forgot I sent it

13:46

until a few months later. I went to

13:48

my overflowing mailbox and I found

13:50

an envelope from the Indiana Department

13:52

of Corrections. Just

13:55

checked my mail. I was looking

13:57

for a wedding invitation

14:00

and instead I found a piece

14:02

of mail from Darren Vonn and

14:05

uh, yeah, open

14:08

this up. Never gotten

14:10

a piece of mail from a serial killer

14:12

before U It's

14:16

handwritten well, so he says

14:18

to ben Keybrick, Date time

14:22

seven eighteen pm,

14:25

I, Darren Devon would like to offer

14:27

you a deal. You would have to contact

14:29

my lawyer to work out an arrangement

14:32

where he would have to agree beforehand.

14:35

You would have to write a report of the

14:37

corruption that's ongoing at the Wabash

14:40

Valley Correctional Facility, from

14:42

guards beating on inmates of

14:44

rassin bullysh it, from

14:46

fed founds, from shower not having

14:48

hot water, from playing with legal

14:50

mail, from filing false report,

14:53

from threatening inmates with physical violence,

14:56

to reckless behavior that

14:58

but inmate life danger or I

15:01

also believe that they're a law against

15:03

family and friend work at the same

15:05

time, and you that

15:08

to stop we're cover up for ceo

15:10

s and counselor that are doing wrong.

15:13

For appointment to be set up, must

15:15

contact my lawyer, Goko

15:17

Cassach at two one nine. All

15:22

right, Well, I'm not sure

15:24

what to make of a lot of that, but maybe we'll

15:27

be talking to Darren Vaughan. I

15:30

reached back out to Cossage to see about

15:32

setting up the interview Cossage

15:36

was less than enthusiastic about getting

15:38

involved. He said he was busy

15:40

working on a murder trial and said, quote,

15:42

I'm really not excited about driving to

15:45

his correctional facility to meet him.

15:47

He told me to talk to the Department of

15:49

Corrections and try to set it up with them,

15:52

and I was less than enthusiastic about

15:54

that, since Vaughn wanted to talk about

15:56

allegations of corruption at the prison.

15:59

But I emailed the chief communications officer

16:01

at the Department of Corrections in Indiana.

16:04

She told me, quote, in order to get the

16:06

process started, I will need you to submit

16:09

the topic of your story slash project

16:11

and the list of questions you plan to ask the

16:13

offender. I sent her a fairly

16:15

generic list of biographical questions.

16:18

I didn't feel comfortable putting anything on the list

16:20

about the cold cases because I figured

16:22

Cossage might object, and I was also

16:25

afraid that if I put any questions about

16:27

prison conditions in there, the Department

16:29

of Corrections might shut down the interview.

16:32

I tried to hedge things and leave open the possibility

16:35

to ask other questions by writing

16:37

underneath my list, do you need a

16:39

list of all the questions I would ask or just a

16:41

representative list of questions. The

16:44

officer emailed back and told me my

16:46

list should suffice. The

16:49

very next day, she sent another short

16:51

email. It read quote, facility

16:54

staff checked with the offender, Darren Vaughan,

16:56

and he declined to be interviewed. I

16:59

were responded. I appreciate

17:02

you checking with him. I wonder if there's some

17:04

sort of miscommunication, because I

17:06

already have a letter from him where he's agreed

17:08

to be interviewed. I'm c seeing his

17:10

lawyer, Guiko Cossage. Is

17:12

there a way you could ask him again and say

17:14

I was the journalist who sent him the letter? She

17:17

wrote back. Since he has declined the

17:19

interview, we will respect his decision and

17:22

not ask him again. You're welcome

17:24

to write him a letter where if you're on his

17:26

contact list, use email or phone

17:28

to further communicate with him.

17:31

I was frustrated months had passed

17:33

between when I had originally sent Vaughn the letter

17:36

and when I had finally heard back from him,

17:38

and especially since he had complained about corruption

17:40

in the prison, I worried that the Department

17:42

of Corrections might not handle my request

17:45

properly. I wrote back to

17:47

Darren Vaughan asking him to add

17:49

me to his email and phone contact list,

17:51

but I've yet to hear back. I'll

17:54

definitely let you know if I do, but

17:57

I'm unsure of how much we can trust fund

17:59

anyway. Is we'd really need an airtight

18:01

confession to take it seriously. We're

18:04

some sort of other evidence to verify what he

18:06

said, because he lied and

18:08

changed his stories throughout the interrogation

18:11

and towards the end, claimed that strangling

18:13

women and leaving them in abandoned buildings

18:15

was new for him. Disc is a new

18:18

thing. It's some more my anger tour, like I gonna

18:20

lock up for profits to drop. He

18:22

claimed that these murders were due to his anger

18:25

at getting locked up in Texas, but

18:27

I think his pattern of behavior says otherwise,

18:29

and I want to explore that a little bit. I

18:32

don't think he was seeking revenge on the women of

18:34

Gary because of the Texas sex worker

18:37

who got him arrested. I

18:39

think his murders were displaced aggression

18:41

towards someone else. And I'm not the

18:43

only one who thinks. So let me

18:45

go ahead and consent to your record. But

18:48

there's anything that I'm not comfortable but being

18:50

recorded. The house, saying that it's off the record.

18:53

A woman from Gary contacted me telling

18:55

me she had met Von sometime in the middle

18:58

of his killing spree, that

19:00

he was a serial killer. A

19:20

woman from Gary contacted me telling

19:23

me she had met Vaughan sometime in the middle

19:25

of his killing spree. She wanted to speak

19:27

anonymously and asked me to disguise

19:29

her voice. The color said she

19:32

met Vaughan through her cousin who struggled

19:34

with addiction. She was telling

19:36

me about this guy because quite often

19:39

I would have to be the one to rescue her

19:41

from the drug house. So she

19:43

used to tell me about the guys that's coming

19:45

in or whatever. But on this particular

19:47

to day, I was there able to transaction and

19:50

the guy that she had been telling me a few

19:52

stories about he came in, which

19:55

happened to be Garon. She

19:57

was telling me about his rules. So

20:00

this is his rules. Once he got

20:02

high, he would started taking out

20:04

all his money, so all the girls

20:06

that would be in the house would see his money. And

20:09

you know, when they see the money, they're trying to leave

20:11

with you, especially if they know you get

20:13

high, they think you discombobulated.

20:16

And he played real stupid, But

20:19

she was telling me that one day she tried

20:21

to get some money out of his pocket and

20:24

he sobered up so quick. She knew

20:26

he was playing the game right. So

20:29

another girl left with him. This

20:31

is what a long term. It was one

20:33

girl that she hustled with, who

20:35

would not have gone off without

20:38

telling her she wasn't coming back or what happened.

20:40

You know, there was good like that. The

20:43

girl left with Darren did not

20:45

come back. The color said that her

20:47

cousin's friend was never seen

20:49

again. They were a team. There

20:52

was no way she's not coming back, and

20:54

she knew that Darren had done something to

20:57

turn her. Four

20:59

months later, another girl left

21:01

with him and she didn't come back

21:03

either. That's when we knew that

21:06

he was a serial killer. Do

21:08

you remember what either of these girls

21:10

names were or like what they went by? Uh?

21:13

It was two of them that they found in the band

21:16

and building close to the forty third

21:18

property that was closest

21:20

to forty third Avenue. Four

21:22

of the victims were found on forty third Avenue.

21:25

We're just off of forty three, and

21:27

I knew from police interrogations

21:29

that there was a drug house on forty three that

21:31

some of the victims would frequent was

21:34

the drug house? Was that like the corner of Massachusetts

21:37

And yeah, yeah,

21:39

yeah. There were a lot of parts of this story

21:42

that were hard to verify, but this part

21:44

seemed to check out. Now,

21:46

this is why this man probably went back

21:48

on to check it, or the lawn didn't

21:51

go out on an average

21:53

every day Monday through Friday. This

21:55

is the normal dude. He's a peculiar

21:57

dude, but he's a he's just

21:59

a normal man in his own business kind

22:01

of die when he get his paycheck.

22:05

Is drugs are us? And then Nika

22:07

taps in it with Satan at that point,

22:09

what do you mean when you say that? Okay,

22:12

this is what I mean. You know some

22:14

people that do drugs, they

22:16

turned into a whole another person as

22:18

soon as those drugs hip like it's

22:21

jackal and hide. You understand

22:23

what I'm saying. And if you already

22:25

had a proclivity towards the

22:27

violent sex sado masochism,

22:29

so he was already known for being

22:32

procurliar. He likes to get

22:34

high, beat and rape his girls,

22:37

but he played the game so that they

22:39

would think he wasn't alert. Did

22:41

you see what I'm saying? I heard some people

22:44

like they interviewed his son in law and

22:46

that dude said he was really creepy. That you

22:49

would see him kind of like talking to himself,

22:51

or he would like look like he was deep in

22:53

thought. Was

22:55

that stuff that you ever saw around him?

22:58

I wasn't close enough to observed him

23:00

that way. He stayed two streets

23:03

behind us. We would see him at the forty

23:05

ninth gas station and

23:07

he would say something like, what's up. You

23:09

know what I'm saying. He'd get out the car just as cool

23:12

as anybody else, what's up, what's

23:14

up? His hands were clean, his

23:17

clothes were clean, he smelled

23:20

clean. But when

23:22

he got on drugs, he

23:24

tapped into satan. The

23:28

day that he came over to the house, and

23:30

she pointed out to me that this is the guy who

23:32

she was talking about. My observation

23:35

of him was watching what she told

23:38

me he did. So that's what I

23:40

paid attention to. I watched

23:42

him get high, I watched

23:44

him take out his money.

23:46

I watched him try to play like he was

23:48

out of his mind off the drugs and

23:51

started inviting people to ride

23:53

to the liquor store with him. Yeah,

23:56

so that day that you were there, didn't

23:58

even take him up on it. I didn't. I didn't

24:00

stick around for you know how you

24:03

look at somebody, you already know that

24:05

it's something you guys discussed. It is going down,

24:07

and y'all get a look. Yeah,

24:09

you guys gave each other the look. And she's

24:11

like, I was telling you right,

24:14

right exactly. The color

24:16

said that her and her cousin's suspicions

24:18

about Darren were confirmed after

24:20

a woman named Ebony left the Drughouse

24:23

with Darren. It was a chick named Ebony,

24:25

and she was mixed. She

24:27

was mexicanan black. She was

24:30

the hottest ticket. So Ebony

24:33

see his bank roll one day and

24:35

my cousin told, how don't go with him because

24:38

such and such stuff up for him. And she didn't

24:40

come back. So she tell

24:42

her don't go, but she goes anyway.

24:45

When they see Ebony is maybe

24:47

a week or two later, she got cut,

24:49

scratches everything, She

24:52

showed all the bruises she had.

24:54

Hey, yeah, he was a

24:56

statistic, brutal motherfucker. Ebany,

25:00

you let me explain something that she said.

25:02

This is something that I do feel like

25:04

you should know. She says

25:07

that his strength was extraordinary.

25:10

He handled hut with one hand, like

25:13

he could like pick her up by the neck

25:15

with one hand or something like that. Yes,

25:18

he would shut her up in the window

25:20

and have her watching out

25:22

the window. He was telling her

25:25

to look at all the people out there living

25:27

Dade life. I bet that you wish

25:29

that you was at home right now. You

25:31

should have been at home with your children. His

25:34

mom had to be a prostitute. I don't know anything

25:37

about his mom because I don't know him like

25:39

that, but his mom had to be everything

25:42

about what he went out and killed. He

25:44

had to have the spies time what

25:46

a person on drugs will

25:48

do as far as the property for their

25:51

children, the situations, they'll leave

25:53

them me in to go and get some drugs.

25:55

You'll leave them with other drug addings.

25:58

And if ain't nobody around but the key, what

26:00

you think they're gonna do? And he

26:02

killing these prostitutes because he knows

26:05

the kid is going through the same thing he went

26:07

through. Yeah, I

26:09

don't know, No, that's what he

26:11

He know the ancoul then he went through with his

26:13

mom. He know that's what the kids

26:15

is going through. So why is he

26:18

not gonna kill you when you know what you're drawing

26:20

to your children, you probably left

26:22

him somebody to be out getting drugs or

26:24

whatever. And I'm sure this is what

26:26

he was saying to them before shade that you

26:29

don't think that he had a conversation with them.

26:32

To be very clear, the color is speculating

26:35

here, but the colors

26:37

intuition is correct about his mother. She

26:40

was a drug addict and a sex worker herself,

26:43

at least in her younger years. And

26:45

it's also true that Van hated

26:47

his mother. That was something that

26:49

came up again and again and police documents,

26:52

interrogations and interviews. His

26:55

stepsister told police that if she were

26:57

to have imagined him killing anyone, it

26:59

would have been his mother. UNS

27:02

Lawyer Cossa mentioned this as well, how

27:04

sometimes defense lawyers used a client's

27:06

mother to humanize them. One

27:08

guy had nothing going for him,

27:11

absolutely nothing, and

27:13

he put his mom on the standard mitigation

27:16

and she fainted and

27:18

he jumped over the table and ran

27:21

to her and hugged her and was crying,

27:23

Mama, are you okay? Mama, are you okay?

27:26

And the jury decided that was a

27:28

redeeming factor, and

27:30

based upon that, they

27:33

spared his life. And

27:36

we thought, gee, wouldn't it be great? And then we paused

27:38

and said, well, if Darren's mom

27:41

fainted during trial, Darren would

27:43

probably jump over the table and try to

27:45

help her pass on to the next world. So

27:47

it's kind of a little running joke that we had that

27:49

we couldn't even use. That he

27:53

didn't like his mom, No, he did not. That

27:56

goes all the way back to the abandonment

27:59

of women in his life, which caused

28:01

him to have such a difficult time with all of

28:03

these women, except for his wife,

28:05

who basically was his mother because

28:07

she was that much older and she treated him kindly,

28:10

so she was kind of like the mom he never had. Although

28:13

Von made a little mention of his mother during

28:16

the interrogation, it seemed important

28:18

to him to repeatedly make the point

28:20

that he only killed adults, never children,

28:23

and he said that he regretted killing Africa

28:25

because she was so young. She feel

28:29

sorry for his however, really

28:32

because he was an age friend about you that

28:35

just too young to me, so

28:38

to you her a kid almost

28:40

here because he had a chance to be

28:45

was said in any way, she

28:47

had a chance to be unil the

28:51

color story about Von targeting

28:53

women who reminded him of his mother supported

28:56

my own suspicions, And I want

28:58

to be clear that I'm not trying to cast

29:00

blame on Von's mother or imply

29:02

that his crimes are somehow her fault.

29:05

But I think Von's rage and hatred of

29:07

women go back much further than

29:09

his Austin arrest or even

29:11

the incident with Sharifa, and

29:14

I suspect his murders do as well.

29:18

But I wanted to see if I could talk to Ebony

29:21

or someone else to verify the story. What

29:23

about Ebony? Do you know how to get in contact

29:25

with her? No, this is years

29:27

ago. She wouldn't have been in my running circle.

29:30

No way. I just called her hanging

29:32

out with my cousin and got the story from

29:34

her. Yeah. See, I had

29:36

custody of my cousin's son for

29:39

his senior year so that he

29:41

could complete school and everything. M

29:44

So he used to walk home with a group of

29:46

friends, and you know, would

29:48

have to act like that wasn't his mother standing

29:51

on the corner forty third and Broadway.

29:53

M walk home with a group of

29:55

friends and walk past his mother. Yeah

30:00

yeah, and she has since

30:02

been murdered in Indianapolish.

30:05

Yeah right, you know, I mean, this ship gets real

30:07

out here, you'd be doing drugs with them

30:09

folks. They they get

30:11

in your house and hit them drugs and realizes

30:13

that they don't want to split no drugs with

30:16

you. Shit, he's

30:18

spokes to turn into the absolute ex They

30:21

had spent around and they'd be spending green

30:23

ship the next time you see him.

30:25

See when the Avenue is telling this, like, did

30:27

ever know that story? Like all the people hanging

30:29

out in these places? Yes, yes,

30:32

yes, yes, yes, yes see it got

30:34

to a point where he couldn't get anybody

30:36

from forty three anymore. This is

30:38

why is that started calling on Craiglist

30:41

mm hmmm, because the cat was

30:43

out of the bag. I am curious.

30:45

Did you ever go to the police or talk

30:48

to someone like that about it? This is

30:50

why I brought that up to you. They had

30:52

a sanitation meeting at City

30:54

Hall and I told them, you guys

30:57

have a serial killer. Now

30:59

this meeting is recorded. If I

31:01

say all open TV something

31:04

that obserd, don't you think the

31:06

police should come to me? Like? Why

31:08

did you say that? What would make you say that

31:11

to the police? Never came to you? No,

31:13

Never. Look at how

31:15

many people are missing, look

31:18

at how many victims there

31:20

are before the serial killers

31:22

are called, and look at how they get caught. They

31:24

don't get caught by investigations. They

31:27

get caught once they can't control themselves.

31:31

He only got caught because he

31:33

couldn't help himself. He

31:35

publicly killed his first victim

31:38

in a public hotel. That's the only

31:40

reason why they called you. There's

31:42

still some old women missing. They didn't tell

31:45

you that though different. There's still

31:47

some more women missing that they've

31:49

never located him.

31:51

They got a serial killer running around

31:53

right now, they posted. Next

32:02

week is the final episode in this season

32:04

of Algorithm. We'll look into

32:06

what I think is the most likely way we can connect

32:08

Darren von to additional crimes, and

32:11

we'll also talk about the future of the

32:13

Algorithm and how algorithms

32:15

might help catch serial killers across

32:18

the country. If you haven't

32:20

yet subscribed to the feed, you're

32:22

not gonna want to miss this one. This

32:32

episode was written and produced by me ben

32:34

Key Brick. Algorithm is executive

32:36

produced by Alex Williams, Donald Albright,

32:39

and Matt Frederick. Production assistance

32:41

in mixing by Eric Quintana. The

32:44

music is by Makeup and Vanity Set

32:47

and Blue Dot Sessions. Thanks

32:49

to Christina Dana, Miranda Hawkins,

32:52

Jamie Albright, Rima l Kali,

32:54

Trevor Young, and Josh Thane for

32:57

their help and notes. For

32:59

more podcast from My Heart Radio, visit

33:01

the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

33:04

or wherever you get your podcasts.