So, whatever became of "Clay the Serial Killer"? Between the years of 1974 and 1991, serial killer Dennis "BTK Killer" Rader was at large. [2] On the following day, the body of 39-year-old Sandra Warner was found in St. John the Baptist Parish. He was born on June 24, 1962, in Baton Rouge, Louisianna. While he was only convicted of 1 murder (Cheryl Lewis), he is believed to killed upwards of 20 prostitutes during the 1990's. Of course, this also leaves the door open for the possibility of Clay taking a few moments to craft the next portion of his fake story, but lets listen more before we jump to any further conclusions. How A Serial Killer Was Caught By A Plumber's Gruesome - YouTube Numerous articles from several national publications name Ganta black police officeras a suspect in the New Orleans serial murders a full two years before Clays phone call, and television news segments chronicling Gants activities were aired on CBS and ABC in late 1995. Lewis' murder began a series of killings of at least 26 prostitutes spanning from 1991 to 1996 that authorities believe Ellwood is responsible for. Original music created by Micheal Whelan through Amper Music, Theme music created and composed by Ailsa Traves, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/new-orlea-murders-cold-case_n_581730c2e4b0390e69d1070c, https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/New_Orleans_Serial_Killer, https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/la-new-orleans-serial-killer-storyville-slayer-1991-1995.320712/, https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/article_7c5a64cc-64ca-5f46-9491-074bc8f7de68.html, https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/dial-911-and-speak-to-the-prime-suspect-1581988.html, https://govsalaries.com/gant-victor-5361263, https://ultimateunexplained.com/clay-the-serial-killer/, https://www.reddit.com/r/howardstern/comments/c73ydc/sternthology_recently_had_on_clay_the_serial/, http://murderpedia.org/male.E/e/ellwood-russell.htm, https://criminalminds.fandom.com/wiki/Russell_Ellwood, https://criminalminds.fandom.com/wiki/Victor_Gant, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUE1yiMditE, https://www.newspapers.com/image/470203793/, Kimberly Riley & Jeremy Britt-Bayinthavong, Paul Skiba, Sarah Skiba, and Lorenzo Chivers, June & Jennifer Gibbons (The Silent Twins). In a manner strikingly wise for a shock-jock morning radio host, Stern begins asking a series of seemingly mundane questions regarding Clays modus operandi. The call has never been conclusively confirmed as legitimate but many suspect the caller is Russell Ellwood. Judging by what I can find, Victor Gant was never charged with any of the murders and not much is known about him today. [2], On March 24, police found more skeletal remains under an overpass in Tangipahoa Parish. This further shows a pattern of narcissism inherent in many serial killers like the Zodiac obsessively following your own press. [5] Like the previous victims, Lewis was an impoverished mother of four and known prostitute with several arrests, and had been strangled to death. On August 4, 1997, just days after the interrogations were completed, Ellwood was arrested for buying cocaine from an undercover police officer at his home in Sebring. In 1997 "Clay the Serial Killer" told The Howard Stern Show that the NOPD's main suspect in serial killings was "a black police officer". He boasted to other prisoners about his murders in Louisiana during this period. [5] A partially undressed Ellwood was forced out of his car and told to show his driver's license. Do you think "Clay the Serial Killer" is Russell Ellwood? Ellwood hoped that the second murder charge would also be dropped, but the government stood by its position. Read full article on original website. This caller, who identified himself as "Clay," claimed to be an unidentified serial killer from the New Orleans area The case against Victor Gant was now at a virtual standstill. One year later, on August 26, 1996, Gant was fired from the police force as result of the four internal investigations opened against him, with his beating of Sharon Robinson in the months before her murder being a major contributing cause. Rader was a pillar of his community and even worked at a security system company. You can read the details Ellwood's trial over at lobservateur.com. Other true crime sleuths who have heard recordings of Ellwoods voice insist there are no sonic similarities between him and Clay. In 1998, Russell Ellwood stood trial for the 1993 murders of Cheryl Lewis, 30, of Bridge City, and Deloras Mack, 40, of Metairie. As a result, he was convicted and sentenced to spend 85 days in the county jail. According to some online reports, the FBI paid Stern a visit at his studio the following day to obtain copies of the recorded call, and Stern never publicly mentioned the incident again. While the accusations had some meritthe FBI having actually ended their involvement with the task force so that they could investigate Rushings misconductthe jury was unconvinced, and in August 1999, Ellwood was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Cheryl Lewis. He then decided to become a cab driver because he couldn't afford a house and was living in his car. [3] As a young man, he was a boxer and regularly went to the gym and did weightlifting, and closely matched the 1991 suspect sketch based on "Brenda"'s testimony. [4], On September 3, the body of 21-year-old Tyra Tassin was found. The next day Howard says they were contacted by the FBI. V C. Facebook 0 Twitter Pinterest 0 0 Likes. Three months later, in November 1996, Gant was arrested for battery after choking and threatening his new girlfriend, Karen Thibodeaux, inside her home. Little is known about Ellwood's early life other than the fact that he might have been born in Massillon, Ohio, and that he served time for drug offenses and probation violations in Florida and Ohio. [2] Her name has never been disclosed, and she is referred to as "Brenda" in case files. He revealed he had sex with his victims beforehand, then killed them primarily with a hammer and strangled one. Less than a year after being hired by Collins to patrol the school, Turner exposed his penis to three more women while on duty. He reportedly submitted blood and tissue samples for the investigation, but nothing more is really known. The call remained virtually absent from public discourseand even the internetuntil 2019, when fans of Stern began posting about the segment on Reddit, reigniting interest in the incident. [2], On February 20, 1993, the skeletal remains of 30-year-old Cheryl Lewis were discovered in the waters of a canal near Hahnville. Serial murder is distinguished from mass murder, in which several victims are . After all, my listeners who took drama club classes in high school will remember that the first rule of improv is to always say yes. 33rd Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony - Show. [5], Once located, Ellwood was informed of his rights, and within three days gave several statements recorded on tape. Collins himself had been previously fired by two separate police departments before working at Carver, and had once been put on probation for an entire year by the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council. Howard asked Lee what he used to cut the head off. As a direct consequence of this, he was found guilty of the crime and given a prison term of eighty-five days in the county jail. She had been beaten and strangled. [10] Gilliam stated that she woke up to find herself in a pool of blood in an unfamiliar, wooded area, where a passing motorist found her by chance and sheltered her at the motel he was staying at. Sometime in the early 2000s, Gant left Louisiana and moved to Georgia. In addition to the two murders that have already been reported, Ellwood is thought to be responsible for at least even more deaths. .zklaml-syj27z{font-family:adobe-garamond-pro,serif;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant-numeric:lining-nums;line-height:1.45;overflow-wrap:break-word;color:black;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:inline-block;cursor:pointer;color:white!important;font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12px;}.zklaml-syj27z:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}.zklaml-syj27z:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | twi.news@washingtonindependent.com | dmca@washingtonindependent.com. During the test, Rushing was unable to answer a series of questions regarding the missing receipts, but the result was inconclusive, casting doubt on Ellwood's guilt. The bodies of Lewis and Mack were discovered on February 21 and 22, 1993 respectively. 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EDIT: Glad to see this post has stirred interest in possibly unraveling a case or debunking one! Here, Clay makes reference to Jimmy Swaggart, the famous Pentecostal Televangelist. While the remains were determined to be female, authorities were unable to identify the victim, and she is listed as "Jane Doe No. She testified that in 1992, during a date, Ellwood, while under the influence of drugs, assaulted, beat and strangled her into unconsciousness. [2] Autopsies determined that Ivester had been strangled, while Robinson had been beaten and strangled, but the presence of water in her lungs indicated that the cause of death had been drowning. [8] No recording of this confession was taken, and Ellwood later denied ever confessing to such a murder to Camden. and our [2] Due to the isolated locations of the dumping sites, the victims' bodies were left in water spanning from several weeks to several years, resulting in extreme decomposition and destruction of incriminating evidence. Obviously,one of the biggest questions here iscould this actually be real, or is "Clay" playing some sort of very sick joke? [2], On January 4, 1992, the body of 29-year-old Lydia Madison, who had several arrests on charges of prostitution and drug possession, was found in a ditch under a highway overpass. Louisiana Serial Killer Confesses Live on The Howard Stern Show - 97.3 COPYRIGHT_WI: Published on https://washingtonindependent.com/russell-ellwood/ by Jaya Mckeown on 2022-07-18T05:09:07.471Z. In early 1995, a disciplinary panel and hearing to determine Gant's punishment began. Camden later testified that Ellwood also confessed to him that he had killed a black girl, whose corpse he had dumped in the canal. Investigators determined that she was a transsexual, had feminine features and worked as an exotic dancer at a New Orleans nightclub. They say some of the details the caller talked about were things that only the killer would know. Wesley Brownlee is suspected of killing six men and wounding a woman in the string of shootings. Allegedly the day after this aired on B97 during the station's brief stint as a "Hot Talk" radio format, the FBIshowed up at Stern's studios and collected the audio as evidence. Most present-day articles about Clay insist the caller was actually convicted killer Russell Ellwood, who was arrested in March 1998 for the murder of Cheryl Lewis, whose nude body was found in February 1993 floating face-down in a Hahnville swamp, about 25 miles away from where the bodies Sharon Robinson and Karen Ivester were later found. Was the FBI able to get enough information from The Howard Stern Show phone call to make an arrest? After the task force was formed, Col. Walter T. Gorman of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office and other task force members travelled to Sebring, Florida on July 23, 1997, so they could question Ellwood, who was living with his elderly father. This off-hand remark would later become one of the most interesting and controversial aspects of this story. The Zodiac vanished into quiet oblivion sometime in the mid-1970s and Weill committed suicide in 2006. His attorneys argued that Ellwood was not in New Orleans at the time of the murders, claiming that he had been in Ohio with some relatives. This policy was apparently the work of Carver College PD's first chief, Joseph L. Woods, who had been fired from five different police departments before finding work at the school in 2006. How These Sneaky Serial Killers Finally Got Caught - YouTube Once the call ended, the saga of Clay the Serial Killer faded into relative obscurity. I never said my name was Ed" almost as if to say "How dare you get my name wrong". Russell Ellwood went on trial in 1998 for the murders that he committed in 1993 of Cheryl Lewis, age 30, from Bridge City, and Deloras Mack, age 40, from Metairie. She was later identified as 39-year-old Lola Porter, who had gone missing from New Orleans in 1992. Keep discussing! Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. [1] [2] Murders [ edit] Dennis Rader, also known as the BTK killer, murdered 10 people during his 16-year killing spree. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBRAY3N3FXw. Unresolved: "Clay the Serial Killer" on Apple Podcasts Despite the fact that his attorneys said he was in Ohio at the time of both killings, Ellwood was detained and charged with two counts of second-degree murder. Russell Ellwood was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, probation, or a sentence suspension on August 17, 1999. Assuming this wasnt some radio prank, how else would Clay know that some of his victims were never found, unless he took special notice of their identities and the locations where he left their bodies so that he could scour media reports for their discovery later? Next to the print matching Sharons shoe was a spit out wad of chewing tobacco. [2] Most of them were strangled to death, while a number of others were beaten and drowned in canals and rivers, and then dumped in swamps, rivers or canals near highways bordering the western shores of Lake Pontchartrain. In 1997, a man who called himself Clay called into the Howard Stern show. Dead End Baton Rouge Serial Killer | True Crime - Medium He speaks very nonchalantly, something seems genuine about him. Below is the infamous phone call to the Howard Stern Show. #crime #crimetok #true911calls #911calls #911dispatcher. Several of Russell Ellwood's other potential victims were clients of a black Nola cop who was a suspect in their disappearance. In addition to Gant, another resident of New Orleans, Russell Ellwood, soon came under police suspicion. Or was something even stranger going on? Could Baton Rouge be the Jimmy Swaggart Town mentioned by Clay? How A Serial Killer Was Caught By A Plumber's Gruesome Discovery | Memories of a Murderer 26,602 views Aug 18, 2021 Dennis Nilsen's crimes were first exposed by a clogged drain. The entire call is unnerving, but there are parts of the call that are absolutely terrifyingand this guy was stalking and killing people right down I-10 only a couple of hours away. On one hand, Clays hesitation before correcting Stern seems to hint at him telling the truth. Copyright 2023 washingtonindependent.com. [7] In the following years, the credibility of this incident was questioned, as the program regularly received numerous call from people who claimed to have done terrible things, with some alleging that Stern himself faked the call to boost his ratings. V C March 04, 2020. Robinson's boyfriend was a police officer called Victor Grant, who has denied any wrongdoing. On April 30, the bodies of two women were found in a swampy area near the I-55. According to multiple reports, what grabbed the FBI's attention during the phone call on The Howard Stern Show was that the caller revealed information about his murders that authorities say they never made public. (1:00 mark in audio) You might notice a pattern emerging here. 5 Disturbing Serial Killers Caught on Camera - YouTube was usually a hammer strike to the head, but one time via strangulation. Some modern articles about Clay the Serial Killer claim that his comment about a black police officer being the main suspect is what piqued the interest of the FBI, as this information was supposedly not released to the public, but this isnt the case. "Clay" The Serial Killer The Shocking Details She said that she did not report the incident, due to being a prostitute with a criminal record. During interrogation, Ellwood initially denied making any such statements to the inmates, but after an audio tape of Hill's testimony was played, he admitted that he had indeed boasted to Hill. Gant complied, and the samples were sent to a police lab for testing against the wad of chewing tobacco found near Karen Ivesters body. It was revealed that these phone calls were coming from Napa State Hospital and had been made by a young man named Eric Philips Weill. Victor Gant, however, did not stop himself from getting into trouble. In 1998, RussellEllwood stood trial for the 1993 murders of Cheryl Lewis, 30, of Bridge City, and Deloras Mack, 40, of Metairie. There was one that rang in to radio a while back, I think it was the 'Weepy Voiced Killer' and he confessed. She was later identified as 28-year-old Stephanie Brown, who had no prior criminal record.
clay the serial killer caught