This episode may contain content of a graphic nature, including descriptions of physical and
sexual violence against adults, children, and animals. Listener discretion is advised.
Hi everyone, I'm Tanya and I'm Talia and we are Crimes and Consequences,
a true crime podcast. Hi Taliah, Hi Tania. How are you doing
today? Great? Great, wonderful? Doing really great? Thanks for us.
Oh that's good to know you know how I'm fucking doing? Why are
we playing this? Really? You're not doing well? I'm doing fine.
Yeah, you're doing just fine. I have a new episode this week,
and before I get into it, I would just like to ask everyone to
hit this of scriber follow button on your favorite app that you're listening to us
on, and I'm just going to get into the story. Yeah, knock
it out. It was early September of nineteen eighty two in Rome, Georgia,
at the Regional Youth Development Center. What's that so? I'm going to
refer to this as the RYDC. It's a facility for troubled adolescent girls.
The phone rang one night and a staff member named Kenneth Dooley. He was
the one that answered the phone. On the other line was a woman who
claimed to know his wife. During their conversation, she asked for directions to
their personal home not like this home. Not thinking much of it, he
gave the information and the call ended shortly thereafter. However, his wife,
and they had only been married a few months, claimed she had no idea
who this woman was. In the end, they just shrugged it off and
they really didn't think about it again. That is until the night of September
tenth is though, right very weird. On September tenth, a young woman
called asking for Kenneth, but he was out. She called back a little
bit later, and this time she got him on the line. She waited
patiently for him to come to the phone, and when he picked up the
receiver, expecting to hear a woman's voice, he was unpleasantly caught off guard
because I'm the other lend was an angry mail voice, and the man told
him you're gonna pay Oh, So Kenneth was dumbfounded, like he just couldn't
understand what what do you mean. Later that night, four shots were fired
into his home, two of which penetrated his study. He managed to see
a car speeding way and he called the police and no one was hurt.
He wasn't sure exactly what he was reporting. Well, that's fucked up.
I know, like what, I've never had any shots fired into my No
me either, Oh right. He didn't know if the shots were intended for
him or someone in his family, but it definitely worried him. He had
a new wife, his two children were in the house with him, so
there was obvious cause for concern. Are these children wom a different marriage?
Yeah, like troom a different marriage. He ended up staying wide awake that
night. I know right, I wouldn't be able to sleep either. He
soon though, would find out he wasn't the only one being targeted. The
following night, another roy DC staff member it was her turn. A homemade
molotov cocktail thrown into the home of Kenneth's co worker, Linda A. Dare.
Apparently her husband was reported saying that Linda received several phone calls from a
young woman just prior to this incident, but when Linda had gone to the
phone to take the call, there was no one on the other end of
the line. Right after the fire bomb was tossed, a neighbor boy reported
seeing a brown car with cream colored stripes speedaway with a man and a woman
with long reddish hair inside. When the flames were extinguished, the police examined
the ba, which had been constructed with a simple bottle cloth and gasoline like
your typical I guess small to contain. Yeah, I mean, I've made
cocktails, but not that one. Right. At first, they thought that
Linda's arson inspector husband was the target, but they soon discovered that to be
untrue. While the police were still in Linda's home, another phone call came
into her home again. It was a young woman who this time told Linda
that both her and Kenneth Dooley were going to die that very night. Oh
wow, it was obvious both of these assaults on the RYDC staff members were
intentional and meant for them specifically. This call, along with another one made
later to police, proved that these two attacks were linked. The motive behind
it was anger and revenge from a woman who refused to give her name in
any other information except for the fact that she was a victim of sexual abuse
at the hands of the RYDC. Luckily, her call had been recorded,
so she called the police told them listen, I did this because I was
a victim of sexual abuse. They recorded these calls so that could be used
when they were looking into it. Police promptly had Linda take a listen,
and while she said the voice sounded similar to the woman who had called her
at home, she wasn't able to identify the voice as belonging to anyone she
knew from the RYDC, or anyone else that she knew for that matter.
The police searched for clues and interviewed people at the RYDC, trying to figure
out who exactly might have been responsible for the incidents, and decided whether the
allegations of abuse had any substance. Unfortunately, since no one had been harmed
in the attacks, and since there were no clear leads, the case went
on the back burner. On Saturday, September twenty fifth, nineteen eighty two.
So this is a couple weeks later, two young girls were approached on
the western side of Rome, Georgia by a woman who wanted to know their
names. It turns out this woman, and spoiler alert, it's the woman
that made the original call. HERMO was to pretend she knew one of the
girls as she approached them, calling the girl by a wrong name intentionally.
This is her way like to get information. Okay, once the little name
mistake was set straight through naturally conversing, the girl had managed to learn one
of the girl's real name and where she lived. After this, the woman
would continue to pressure her about going with her to ride, like get in
my car, We're going to take a ride, which really sounded odd,
but both of these girls managed to avoid her. However, not all were
as lucky. Thirteen year old two escape, Yeah, these two escape.
Thirteen year old Lisa Anne Milliken was one of the unlucky ones. Lisa was
on and outing with five other girls from the Ethel Harps Home for Neglected Girls
in Cedartown. You know that really sounds like a sad place. They were
visiting the Riverbend Mall, which is the central shop area in Rome, Georgia.
At the time, it had a video game arcade for families and teenagers,
so the girls like to go there. Lisa wouldn't have known this,
but two years earlier, a woman had been robbed at gunpoint at that same
mall on the day before Halloween. Interesting enough, the very woman who had
been arrested for the robbery and spent a brief time at a juvenile facility.
The RYDC was now luring Lisa away from the mall and her friends toward a
brown car. One minute, she was with the other girls being told to
meet a certain spot, and by the time they were all back together again,
Lisa was gone. Three separate searches were made and then the police were
called, but Lisa. They didn't find her. The worried social worker who
had accompanied the girls on their mall trips said that Lisa had been wearing jeans
and a white and black patterned blouse. Several days went by and there still
was no sign of Lisa and no leads either. That is until the same
female caller made three anonymous phone calls to the police directing them to Alabama's Little
River Canyon, which was about thirty five miles away from where Lisa had disappeared
the well. These calls were initially received and recorded, but when they checked
out the area that the caller told him to go to, they didn't find
anything. Then police and Alabama took the next two calls. A call also
came into a roam radio station claiming that the police were covering up a murder
done by a female juvenile officer. The caller named Lisa Anne Milliken as a
victim, so the police thoroughly searched the area once more, following the concise
instructions given. The caller said, you know you're going to find her body.
Finally, just as dusk was coming on September twenty ninth, they spotted
the still figure of a child draped partially over a tree trunk, a child
yeah stone on the canyon floor. A pair of jeans hung from a branch
nearby. As they got closer, they could see a bullet hole in the
victim's back, showing her death wasn't an accident and instead she was murdered.
It appeared as though she'd been thrown down from the eighty foot height onto these
rocks. I know. As they carefully brought the body up to the top
in a basket, a woman who had known Lisa from one of the juvenile
facilities positively identified her as Lisa Anne Milliken. She had finally been found.
Lisa's autopsy revealed that she had been subjected to a series of brutal attacks and
she's only thirteen. If you remember, she had been raped. She was
injected in the neck with something that like boiled the fat under her skin,
I know, and the county corner described the like under the skin like her
flash or fat was consistency of anchovy paste. What. Crime scene investigators also
found three plastic syringes near her body, which were sent for fingerprints and further
substance analysis. The crime layoub came back stating that the substance found in the
syringes had the basic components of like liquid drain. Now, so she had
been injected. Oh, yes, she had been injected several times. The
jeans, I know, poor Lisa. The jeans that had been found hanging
from the tree had red splatches of blood on them, but they turned out
not to be Lisa's pants. It which is really strange, and police thought
maybe the pants belonged to the killer. Well, they don't know if they're
guy's pants, these guys pants, girls pants? Like, what are these
pants? I believe they were probably girls pants? Okay. Detective Sergeant Kenneth
Kines was assigned to had the investigation into Lisa's murder. The only thing that
they had to go on thus far were the call that had been made.
Each one had been recorded, so Detective Kinds started their first investigators listened to
each of the calls made to the various places regarding Lisa, and some of
the investigators agreed that the same woman. It sounded like she'd made all four,
especially when the transcripts were typed out. Once everything was in front of
them, they realized the clues were and how she talked, like the phrases
and in her accent. She sounded fairly young, and many things she said
indicated she was familiar with the juvenile justice system. Investigators checked whether Lisa had
any enemies. Who's an enemy of this thirteen year right right? While it
turned out that she was not popular, there seemed to be no specific grudges
that might make someone wish to kill her. The police figured that Lisa's abductor
was probably from the Rome area rather than Alabama, since the first calls had
been made there, and they interviewed everyone they could think of, from the
girls at the home where she had been face, to farmer neighbors, to
her destitute father who had allegedly molested her. He interviewed her mother, who
had a boyfriend fresh out of prison. Many people were given light detector tests,
and some looked pretty good as suspects, but no one emerged as a
viable person to continue to investigate. It seemed at Leasta either had friends that
no one had known about, or she had been abducted by a stranger.
Even as the police were busy with this crime, another one was taking place
on the streets of Rome, with another victim targeted for similar treatment. I
know, I'm October third cemetery worker John Hancock, which I think is kind
of funny. But John Hancock and his fiance Janice K. Chapman accepted an
invitation from a complete stranger to go riding around. What like, wow,
Like what do you mean? Yeah, We're just hanging out the cemetery and
someone's like, hey, you want to go? They're just on the street
somewhere, and a young woman in a car who was a complete strangers to
them commit them somehow't have some fun. She lurned them into her car by
giving them a pitiful story about how she was lonely and she just wanted some
company for a while. So I'd be like what the fuck. I know,
I'd be like what, I'm busy, I had got shit to do.
I'm not happing in the car with you. But this couple got in
and as a Christian. John later said he felt obligated to do what he
could for her, so he and Janice got in. During the ride,
they talked with the woman who showed them her Cobra CB radio and she got
into a conversation with someone on the other end called the night Rider stop.
I know. The The woman went by Lady's sondown and she acted like she
didn't know night Rider. But this would soon prove to be untrue. John
and Janice had cbe handles of their own. Oh so, when John noticed
the weakness of the frequency that the driver was using to chat with night Rider,
he wondered what was going on. After all, this night Rider character
seemed to be quite close rather than where he said he was. He communicated
with Lady Sundown in a code that was foreign to John. Yeah, I
know. So John just relaxed and went along for the ride. But then,
to john surprise, the woman took them outside of town. She came
to a stop where a rather large man was apparently waiting for them in a
red Granada. This man was the mysterious night night Rider. John introduced himself
and Janie to night Rider, and night Rider said he wanted to find some
alcohol. Then they all drove her way together in two cars to get another
spot that was miles away from where they had all come from. Night Rider
pretended he was looking for a place to get liquor, but really he was
just trying to get them lost, and John lost all sense of directions,
so he had no idea where they were to John surprise, he was allowed
to get out of the car to pee, but when he did, Lady
Sundown walked up to him with a handgun and ordered him into the woods.
Well shit, She walked him down a narrow road and then he heard night
Rider yelled her like, get it over with, She told John, don't
worry about your girlfriend. Night Rider yelled again at her, and then John
felt a shot go through his right shoulder and he fell to the ground.
Fortunately for him, Lady Sundown was in a hurry and she didn't check to
make sure he was alive or not. John was shocked and dazed by what
had just happened, but yeah, he was still alive. He knew he
needed to act fast, but he had to wait and make sure that the
coast was clear before he could get up. After laying there for a bit,
he managed to regain his strength, and he ran to the road and
he flagged down a truck driver. His girlfriend. She's nowhere near them.
I guess it couldn't have done munch to save her anyway, he probably couldn't.
The truck driver took him to the hospital, and that's when a nurse
called the police. Although John had been shot in the right shoulder, he
would recover. He gave police his version of the story, but the police
weren't completely convinced. For a few reasons. They initially suspected maybe it was
a drug deal gone bad hood since John was saying that a woman had shot
him, and he didn't seem to put up any kind of fight. Okay,
wasn't making a drug deal? I don't know. And then they just
didn't like his mannerisms. I guess. While he talked to them, he
was like easygoing, and even though they didn't think he was lying, he
seemed oddly unconcerned about his fiance or even about his own attack. It seemed
to be a rather strange story anyway, like it is a fu getting into
the car with a strange woman you don't know. Even so, there had
been a number of reports over the past few days of people being approached by
a woman driving around in a brown dodge with white stripes, So at least
that lent some credibility to a story. John was able to supply a description
of lady Sundown and night riders stop. They gave police a break in all
of these recent puzzling cases. However, it didn't come out, and during
his interrogation instead, when they were going to give him a polygraph, he
overheard Detective Kinds playing the tape of the female caller. He recognized the voice.
Yeah, absolutely, He was like, that's the woman who shot me.
So he told his story again to Detective Kinds and he offered physical details
so that they could do a composite sketch for Detective Kinds. This was a
real break in the case. John wanted to help in any way that he
could. He even agreed to submit to hypnosis his way to refresh his memory,
like maybe there was something but he's missing, that's your subconscious. He
was taken to Atlanta to have the sun and he was able to remember one
thing, and it was that there was a bumper sticker on one of the
cars that he hadn't previously mentioned. He also rode around town with Detective Kinds
and an effort to see if anything he saw could jog his memory where he
was. Yeah, because he said he was lost. Yeah, he was
lost. After Detective Kinds was certain that all of the anonymous calls were made
by the same woman, he went back to Linda Adair and Kenneth Dooley,
and remember they were the one at the beginning of the story that had their
home attacked. So Detective Kinds decided to bring them both in together and he
wanted to know from them whether something had occurred at the RYDC to a girl
who might now be to yeah exactly. The two both denied that there had
been any kind of sexual abuse occurring at the facility, and they said that
they didn't even know each other outside of being coworkers. Detective Kinds went over
all of the files of the girls who had been sent to the RYDC due
to crimes they had committed and narrowed his list of suspects down to five with
prior records. Among them was Judith Anne Neelie and chief of the description given
by some of the witnesses. In addition, she had been involved with an
armed robbery, so they knew she was comfortable using the gun, and they
can give her mushot to John. Right. So, after doing some digging
and investigating, Detective Kinds discovered that Judith was married to a man named Alvin,
and they both had police records. He then placed their photos in a
lineup to show John. Absolutely, John hesitantly picked out the Kneelies as his
attackers, but he said he'd want to see them in person, Like,
but I don't know, he said, you know, it was a long
night and the guy, Yeah, it was a long night, John,
Yeah, he said. In the guy in the photo, you know,
night rider, he had a beard, so it was hard to tell.
Ye, I didn't see that. As it turned out, luck was in
the police's favor, seeing as Alvin and Judith had been arrested for other crimes,
so they were conveniently in custody in Tennessee. Oh so they're literally arrested
at that point. Yeah, they arrested at that point. So this is
right after what happened to John. Yes, yes, let me tell you
a little bit about Judith and Alvin, these two winners. I can't wait.
Judith and Neelie was born a loser who was also known by her Cebee
handles which were Lady Sundown or Lady Goodyear. And she was went by the
bride of Frankenstein. Oh that's love ye. Judith was born in mumps free
Borough, Tennessee, in nineteen sixty four. Her father died in a motorcycle
accident when she was nine, and after he died, Judith's home life went
from bandor's I bet Her mother was arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a
teenage boy. And I'm not sure exactly what that doesn't sound good. No.
When Judith was fifteen, she met Alvin Neely, who was twelve years
her senior. Oh gross, I know, very gross. Although he was
larger than most football players, so he's a big dude. He had a
face most people thought was sweet to stop it. Born born in Georgia,
I don't know, born in Georgia. He was car thief with a friendly
demeanor, who was more than car thief with a friendly demeanor. He was
more than happy to give Judith a way out of her taxic situation at home.
Their chemistry was instantaneous and undeniable. Neither could imagine life without the other.
However, Alvin was married at the time, No problem. Yeah,
he decided to get a divorce so it could be with his fifteen year old
girlfriend basically, and his wife really wasn't all that upset to see him go.
And then Alvin and Judith eloped in Georgia in nineteen eighty. Judith so
she's like sixteen. Judith fit in easily with Alvin into his life of petty
crimes. They were constantly on the move, robbing convenience stores and gas stations
from Georgia to Texas in order to finance their on the go lifestyle. As
they came into the Riverbend Mall parking lot in Rome, Georgia, they finally
made a mistake in nineteen eighty They robbed a woman at gunpoint and were eventually
caught trying to cash stolen checks, which led to their arrest. Since Alvin
had outstanding warrens in several states, he was sentenced to five years in prison.
Judith, on the other hand, ended up at the Ryds. Oh
there we go, Ding Ding Ding ding Ding. She was pregnant at the
time and gave birth to twins. She's pregnant in twins. She was then
transferred to another facility in making Georgia. Judith spent much of her time writing
to Alvin, telling him how much she despised the staff at the r y
DC, and she claimed that they had sexually abused her. That's just it.
Though all of her allegations have been denied by the staff there and police
found no evidence to support them, so I can't confirm or deny whether they
were true or not. Even so, she managed to get Alvin feeling like
he needed some revenge due to these incidents. She got them all riled up,
so now they are on this war path. For how long did he
do? Uh? It had been less and five, Yeah, it was
less than five. It was definitely like a year and a half. Judith
was released towards the end of nineteen eighty one, and since she had nowhere
else to go, she ended up moving in with Alvin's parents in Tennessee until
he was released from prison. But her stint away didn't help much, as
she returned right back to her old crime freeways. Surprised, she was arrested
again after robbing another convenience store, and I don't know what punishment she got,
if any, but Alvin's parents took care of the twins. I wouldn't
even know how to rob a convenience store. I don't know. Excuse me?
Can you just give me all your money? Yeah? Stick them up,
I don't know, stick them up, stick them up. Within six
months, Alvin had been granted an early release, so he did all of
like a year and a half. So the two picked up where they had
left off, leaving their kids behind. They needed money, so they learned
how to steal checks from post offices and use their signatures to forge money orders,
which became their primary means of supporting their lifestyle. I don't know how
you forge money orders, but I don't know. I know this is back
in nineteen eighty two, so who knows. To keep track of one another,
they installed CBE radios in their respective cars, and Alvin became the night
rider in Judith Lady Sundown. Just so cool. They even gave themselves the
nicknames of Bony and Claude as a joke about their resemblance to the bank robbing
Bonnie and Clyde. It's so stupid, that's so clever, so hysterical clever.
Yes. In September nineteen eighty two, they found themselves in Rome,
Georgia again and decided to launch an all out attack, which ended up being
much of what I've told you earlier about the attacks on Kenneth Dooley and Linda
Adair's residences, as well as the kidnapping of Lisa Millican. In this account,
I'm gonna tell you about all these crimes came mostly from Judith. Judith
described that they abducted Lisa Millican from an arcade and said she looked like Jonie
Cunningham from Happy Days. They kept her. This was really sad what they
did to her, so buckle up, all right. They kept her captive
in two different hotel rooms in Georgia and Alabama for three days. Judith and
Alvin had sex with Lisa and kept her handcuffed to a bed, which forced
her to sleep on the floor. Then, at alvin distraction, Judith took
Lisa to a remote canyon in Alabama and tried to inject her with drink cleaner
products they had purchased for this very purpose. Horrible time. I know,
I can't even imagine. If it touches your skin, it burns, yes,
And but Lisa didn't die like Judith hoped or expected. Lisa was moaning
on the ground and complained of being in pain. I mean, obviously,
Judith kept shoving the needle into her six times in the neck for more than
a half an hour before she accepted the fact that these injections weren't working.
Lisa was burning and she was cold, but she wouldn't die. The girl
begged Judith to take her back to the Harp's home. That's that girl's home
that she was at, but that obviously wasn't going to happen. In the
end, Judith decided just to kill the girl quickly, and she used a
thirty eight pistol to shoot her three times. One bullet went through Lisa's back
and out her left breast, which was the shot that ended up killing her.
When Judith was certain she was dead, she shoved her over the edge
of the canyon. Judith would later say that Alvin had masturbated as he looked
now you know, at the battered corpse grows, but Judith's description of this
incident to the police indicated she'd been alone. Alvin too, denied ever being
there, so I don't know if this really happened, But Alvin also denied
raping Lisa before he finally said that he had indeed had sex with her,
but only once. Only once. It was difficult to know what the true
story was. He had even tried claiming that Judith had masturbated him into ejaculation
and then put the sperm into Lisa stop. Only when the police refused to
buy that did he admit to sexual contact with Lisa. And before I tell
you more, we're going to take a break. Five days later, Judith
went searching for another victim. This is five days after they murdered Lisa.
She saw a woman at a pay phone that appeared to be by herself,
but Judith was unable to get her into the car like to go riding around
with her. That woman would remember later for the police the strange feeling she
had when Judith approached her. Fortunately for her, she had called her husband
to come get her and therefore didn't need a ride. Soon afterward, Judith
spotted twenty two year old Janice Chapman, who was John Hancock's fiance and even
though she was with a man, Judith thought, with Alvin's help, they
would be able to manage this. After all, they could get rid of
the guy and take the girl with them. Judith pulled over invited the couple
to go with her. I told you everything that happened the CB and blah
blah blah. So remember Janice. I never told you what happened to her
after Judith shot John and left him. Yeah, I don't know anything about
what happened to Janis. She and Alvin took Janice, who was mentally disabled.
I'm not sure how. So they took her to a cheap motel nearby.
They raped her repeatedly and then shot her. They drove her body to
a wooded area near a creek in Dumpter, and that's what happened I know.
So it seems now that they've gotten away with murder twice, you know
Lisa and now Janice. So they were ready for another. But they needed
money first, so they went into Murfreesborough and probably saying that wrong to pass
some of their forged money orders. Thankfully, someone recognized them from a police
flyer and they were arrested. So that's why they're sitting in jail in Tennessee.
Once in police custody, each began to point the finger at each other
at exactly it seemed to be every man for himself. Alvin was quick to
lawyer up, effectively shutting down the interrogation, but his attorney urged him to
tell police what he knew. Alvin claimed that Judith had instigated the crimes and
was responsible for eight murders, and then, oh yeah, he had just
gone along with her. Oh wow, that's true. Love hed eight.
He said she liked to have power over others, and in that moment he
didn't know what else to do. He even went as far as say he
was afraid that his wife might kill him. He's like this big dude,
right. He made sure to emphasize how dangerous Judith, very dangerous really was.
I was scared from my life. Yeah, suck off by the way
he raped Yeah, teenagers right. Alvin apparently believed her tales about sexual abuse
at the ROYDC and thought she had a good reason to be angry, but
he also gave the distinct impression that he didn't want to commit I didn't want
to the rape and murders. I absolutely didn't, right, but really this
wasn't quite Why don't you just walk away? It's all bullshit. Alvin also
claimed that the weapons oblong to Judith and that she had killed the two girls
because of some rage that she carried around with her. At first, he
do to stop nothing, right In fact one, I'm Almo was in a
hotel. Yeah, days exactly with them and they were raped. Yes,
yes, absolutely he participated. At first. Judith did accept the blame,
exonerating Alvin every step of the way. In her own confession, she described
her final moments with Lisa and Janice, and she admitted to the fire bombing
and the shooting into Kenneth's house, but she said she did that because Kenneth
Duley had raped her and that Linda Adair had set it up. But it
didn't matter what either of them said or told police, because the wait,
those are the people from the RYDC. Yeah, okay, that's why she
was angry with them. It didn't matter what either of them said or told
the police, because they would both change their minds and their stories several times.
So yeah, not to mention things would change after getting lawyers. In
preparing for trial, of course, Alvin told authorities how Judith had killed Janis
Chapman and gave directions to where they could find the body. He even drew
a map, implicating himself at least as an accomplice it wasn't long before they
recovered Janice's decomposing corpse. She had been raped, shot to death, and
dumped in a wilderness area, just as he described. So now they had
two murders and two suspects. It would seem to be cut and dry,
but it wasn't. After all, these crimes, the murder, rape,
and assault had all been committed in different counties and in some cases different states.
Not to mention, the evidence against Alvin was kind of weak except for
the rape. I know they could get him for Janice's murder, but not
Lisa's. Okay, well that's one. Yeah. Alvin remained in Tennessee and
pled guilty to his part in the kidnap murder of Janis Chapman in exchange for
life in prison. Jabith, on the other hand, faced first degree murder
charges in Alabama for the murder of Lisa Milliken, and with her confession,
they had a good case against her. She was extradited there for trial with
possible death penalty hanging over her. Had it. Yeah. Judge Randall Cole
presided over the proceedings. Alabama had a three count indictment against her murder,
abduction with the intent to harm and abduction with the intent to terrorize. Her
defense relied heavily on the insanity plea based on battered woman. I knew it.
I knew it. She's not going to say that she went through psychiatric
examinations but proved to be competent enough to stand trial. Which there's a difference
between being influenced, yes, and being battered, right exactly. Even so,
her defense put their bast foot forward and claiming that Judith was a pawn
for Alvin and that he had beat her into doing the things he wanted,
like capturing and raping young girls. The tree beater, not that I've ever
heard. No. The trial began two months later after these arrests in the
extradition, and Judith's defense put everything into the fact that Alvin controlled Judith and
made her do his dirty. They even brought in Alvin's ex wife to describe
her years of alleged abuse in Alvin's hands, and she claimed to have many
scars from those days. And that might be true, maybe, but I'm
not gonna kidnap some girl, I know, right, I mean I don't
know for days and kill her and kill a guy. Yeah, And so
now it's Judith's turn to take this. I'd rather just die than do those
things. I mean some people, I guess, I don't know, Okay.
She was grilled for four days. She went into extravagant detail about being
a victim and being definitely afraid of her husband, Alvin. She claimed that
if she hadn't done what he wanted, then he would have killed her.
It would be true. Maybe. According to her, everything from assault to
murder had been done completely under his direction. Apparently he was the master mind
behind everything. However, everything Judith was saying contradicted everything she had written to
Alvin. And you know what, she's still fucking them like they were still
together, making the sweet love right and all that come on. When the
prosecution presented their case, John Hancock testified as well as three different girls that
Judith tried to pick up but she was unsuccessful in doing so. And all
three of these girls said there was no sign of a man anywhere when these
incident took place, But that doesn't mean to them control over maybe not to
mention. A psychiatrist came on the scene and talked about how Judith had known
the difference between right and wrong at the time of the offense, and she
had consciously decided to commit murder. Even if she was brainwashed, she still
hit a choice, and the psychiatrist stood firm on that statement. It's true,
so now both sides closer cases. And the judge gave the instructions to
the jury. The jury received the case on March twenty first, nineteen eighty
three, fairly late in the afternoon, and by the next morning they had
reached a verdict. They found Judith and Neely guilty of the kidnap and murder
of Lisa Milliken, and they recommended that she be sentenced to life in prison.
I can see that rather than giving her the death penalty right eighteen.
By the way, Despite this recommendation, sentencing was up to Judge Cole,
and he had written two opinions. Ultimately, he decided that while Judith was
young, she was also brazen and cruel. He thought the crimes had been
heinous and atrocious beyond which is common to most capital cases, and sentenced turned
to death. Holy shit. Yeah. When Judith heard this, she began
to cry Wow. He usurped jury that she's going I'm gonna put her in
death row, not wanting a second death sentence in another state. Judith ended
up leading guilty to the kidnap and murder of Janis Chapman in Tennessee, and
she received a life sentence for that crime. Then she got ten years for
the shooting of John Hancock. It was her deal with Tennessee that spurred Alvin
to finalize his own plea deal. Judith became the youngest woman to have been
sentenced to death in Alabama. In a nineteen eighty three prison interview, she
reportedly quote, I pray for strength. I don't ask God for me not
to be electrocuted. I just asked that if I'm going to be electrocuted,
to give me strength to go through it. End quote. Its kind of
not going to have a choice, I know. Judith appealed to get a
new trial, but in March nineteen eighty seven, the US Supreme Court rejected
the appeal. Less than two years later, they let her death sentence stand.
She converted to Christianity. While she was in prison. She apparently developed
a relationship with another woman who, on May twenty first, nineteen ninety four,
was found dead at her home. She had shot herself. What she
did this relationship with this other woman and she was found dead. She had
shot herself, leaving photographs and a cassette recording of her end Judith's fatal plan.
Judith was found in her cell, her wrists slashed with a disposable razor,
but she survived. So it's going to be murder suicide or suicide suicide
kind of thing. Then there was more news. Alabama Governor Fob James decided
that Judith didn't deserve to die for her crimes. Before he left office,
he signed an order to commute her sentence to life in prison without the possibility
of parole. This decision caused an outcry, so he defended his decision,
stating he had given it long consideration and went through many documents, including letters
pleading with him to reconsider Judath's case. The jury, he noted, had
given her a life sentence, and it was the judge that had held for
the death sentence. Governor James said that since the jury who had seen all
the evidence, had decided on leniency and they had been chosen as Judith's peers,
their recommendation was the proper one to follow. In response to the governor
commuting Judith's sentence, lawmakers in two thousand and three passed the law that death
row inmates who had their sentences commuted shall not be eligible for parole. Judaths
attorney filed the lawsuit challenging the statute in its retroactive application to her case.
The law was ruled institutional in March of twenty eighteen, leading to her first
parole hearing in May of twenty eighteen, where the Alabama Board of Pardons took
only fifty five seconds to deny her parole. However, even if Judith is
granted parole, she would likely be arrested by Georgia authorities to serve a time
for a consecutive life sentence in the rape and murder of Janis Chapman. All
of them. What the fuck? What's the point? I know? She
is set to see the parole board again this month May of twenty twenty three.
Currently, she is the second longest serving female death row inmate in the
country. That sucks in cause you're wondering what happened to Alvin. I would
like to know he died in prison in two thousand and five. Oh,
how I don't know. He just died. He just died. He wasn't
old. No, well, he's twelve years older than her. No,
he wasn't the old because at home, Karma's a bitch. Yeah, Kara's
a bitch, and so is he. He is a bitch. So that
is my awful story of Alvin and Judith Neely. I never heard that.
I knew that she was the youngest person to be sentenced to death row.
Maybe if i'd like saw our picture, maybe I would know. But I
would just like to do what Neely and neal e L L E Y.
I would like to ask everyone to hit the subscriber follow button if you haven't.
I don't like her, No, I'm just thinking at the pictures.
I don't like her. And if you would like to hear more episodes that
we have not released to the public, please check out Patreon dot com,
slash t n T crimes, or go to our website and there's information there
YEP Crimes and Consequences dot com and you would not only get additional episodes,
but you would also get our weekly free episodes early release and and free YEP.
Absolutely. If you don't want to go there and you are listening on
your Apple podcast app iPhone, I mean, you've got so many options.
You can just subscribe through the Apple podcast app and you would get the same
episodes. Why not just do it? We are on Facebook and Instagram at
hardcore true crime, and I think that's probably It's good enough. That's good
enough. We have shout outs and I even write them now. No,
so we have to do it next time, all right, all right until
our next episode, don't kill each other. Bye bye,