Hey weirdos, before we unleash today's macabre mystery, we were wondering, have you ever heard of Wondery Plus?
It's like a secret passage to an ad -free lair with early access to episodes.
You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
You're listening to a Morbid Network podcast. Listening on Audible helps your imagination soar.
Whether you listen to stories, motivation, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love.
You can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, and new ways of thinking.
Listening can lead to positive changes in your mood, your habits, and ultimately your overall well -being.
Audible has an incredible selection of over 1 million audiobooks, podcasts, and Audible Originals all in one easy app.
Find the genres you love and discover new ones, explore bestsellers, new releases, plus thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and originals that members can listen to all all they want, with more added all the time.
Right now, I am listening to The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, and I just cannot get enough of it.
I never want to pause it.
I'm literally like loading the dishwasher listening to it, on the treadmill listening to it constantly.
It's so awesome. I love being able to listen anytime, anywhere I want to.
And there's more to imagine when you listen.
Sign up for a free 30 -day Audible trial, and your first audiobook is free.
Visit audible .com slash morbid.
you guys i tried my mochi ice cream the other day and i was lifted off of this planet into just another galaxy entirely it is a cool creamy scoop of ice cream wrapped in a soft chewy dough it's literally like a little sweet ice cream dumpling it's pillowy soft d to the e to the l -i -c -i -o -u -s and it just feels very indulgent i loved it i tried the cookies and cream flavor and i still still have the mango flavor to try.
I'm so excited to try the mango because if it's half as good as the cookies and cream, I'll probably just like fall on the floor and start crying.
Tears of joy. My Mochi is only around 70 calories per piece.
My Mochi is gluten -free, and each box has six perfectly portioned mochi snacks.
And guess what? My Mochi is the original mochi ice cream.
The founder of My Mochi invented mochi ice cream.
That makes My Mochi the mochi OG.
Feel joyfully chill this summer with every bite of My Mochi ice cream.
Look for the purple box of My Mochi ice cream at Walmart or visit mymochi .com to find a store near you.
Hey, weirdos, I am Ash.
And I'm Helena. And this is Morbid.
bed she's got chocolate in her mouth sorry we were doing room silence first and I thought I had enough time to eat the kiss that was in my mouth but I was letting it melt in my mouth and then I tried to talk and it was just a whole thing so really just nor it's not my narration so i figured i could just sit here and eat some fucking fuchsia kisses she's like i can do whatever the fuck i want today it's wiley up in here today i don't know what they put in my jersey mic sub but i feel cryzy i've just been saying silly things she's been wiley my friends like wiley wiley reckless and straight up cuckoo
all of those things and i don't know we don't really you really have a whole it's i mean it's a holiday break for everyone else sorry if you can hear the deck they're making in our fucking yeah i apologize fucking neighbors my neighbors they're you know they're working so they got shit going on i don't know if it's them per se you never know well sure i don't know either way here we are right and we're here to To bring you some content.
Daddy made you your favorite open wide.
Here comes the content.
They're like, shut up and give it to me.
I know. I'm sorry. Okay.
So not you, just us.
No, I get it, man. I totally get it.
But this is a two -parter.
Ooh. I'm coming at you straight off of an old timey case with something from the 2000s.
Oh, shit. I didn't realize that.
We were like chatting earlier.
I didn't know that.
Look at me. me this is Elena I'm looking at you and I'm bringing you a case that is not in the 1800s or the early 1900s here's to looking at you kid so yeah that's where I usually am in a place of he's looking at you kid but I know it's now no I'm in a y2k place oh that's funny I'm in like the oldies for my case next switch actually I don't know if mine comes up before yours or after I don't know anything I don't know when anything comes out because either way this is a two -parter we're going to be talking about Ronald Dominique the Bayou Strangler i don't know this one and it's sad that you don't
because a lot of people don't oh and i think it's because of who he chose as victims oh no he the police didn't the police like everybody investigating this and the press did not put enough emphasis on finding this guy okay fast enough because the people that he chose as his victims, he knew that the investigators were going to look at and say, well, they're high risk in what they're doing.
Or, you know, it's probably their own fault because they did this.
The victims that people consider less dead, exactly.
They get blamed for their own just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Luckily, don't worry, he does eventually get caught.
But a lot of people lost their lives along the way, and a lot of them were not treated well in the the press.
So this case is not, a lot of people don't know about it.
And it just, it's not, it's not discussed.
It wasn't discussed in the press respectfully at all.
That's really frustrating.
And it sucks. So in the spring of 2005, law enforcement officials in Southern Louisiana had a growing, growing number of murder victims. And they had been, they had started to suspect back that they were connected they were thinking okay i think we do have either a serial killer or serial killers shit because the victims were all men mostly in their 20s they were all men and boys i should say because some were younger um mostly in their 20s and 30s but there was a couple that were lower than that not children per se and like you know under 10 or anything like that but there was like some 16 yeah
still young 19 boys um so they were all you know around that age and they were all vulnerable targets that the killer or killers were clearly actively preying on.
And they were thought to be on the fringes of society, a lot of them.
Some of them were known to be actively struggling with substance abuse or have a history of substance abuse struggles.
A lot of them were known to police as doing sex work either for their job or doing it sometimes just as a desperation thing.
And they had all been strangled and dumped in secondary locations oh wow and they were all locations like marshes bayous like a sugar cane field oh wow a few of them were and they would they were all those locations were used multiple times okay um so eventually ronald dominique would have would be connected to the murders and he his count at the end would be the deaths of at least 23 men and boys wow that's what what blows my mind that this is not more well known because yeah that's nuts large amount of victims and that's like at least 23 yeah that's what they know about wow and it was in a pretty
small span of time all things considered and what did you this was in the 2000s uh this was this so where we begin is um to in the spring of 2005 that's when they really started connecting everything i can't believe i don't know about this yes i know it's crazy now over the course course of a decade, Ronald Dominique developed into one of the worst and most prolific serial killers in American history.
But like I just said, his story and those of his victims remain largely unknown and kind of ignored by mainstream media.
That's so messed up.
And it's really wild.
So let's talk about Ronald Dominique.
Like, where the fuck did he come from?
Seriously. Because what?
So little is known about Ronald Dominique's life before his first run in with the law.
We know he was born January 9th, 1964.
He's the youngest of six children to working class parents in Thibodeau, Louisiana.
Into Capricorn. Yeah.
I know, I don't love it.
No. And Thibodeau is a small city about halfway between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
His family appears to have been pretty active and committed to their local church. And at a young age, we can at least point to something that was a very big trauma in his life.
At a very young age, Ronald told his parents that he had been sexually abused by a priest at the church. Oh, no. They reacted horrifically and didn't believe him.
I never understand that.
How do you not believe your child?
How do you believe somebody outside of your family?
You believe this random guy?
Who is said to be doing this?
And instead of your own child?
I don't get that. Like, no one's ever going to explain that to me, so don't even try.
I don't get it. I don't get it.
I do not understand that.
They just were like, yeah, I must be lying.
Like that's fucked up.
Oh my God. So that's a big trauma.
And Ronald entered Thibodeau High School in the fall of 1979.
He's saying in that span of time, that's the big trauma that happened.
Outside of that, there's really nothing of note.
Yeah, but that alone.
But that alone is like, whoa.
That alone and then compounded by the fact that his parents didn't believe him.
Exactly. And then if his parents didn't believe him, how much longer did that go on?
Because they didn't.
Exactly. And when you read a lot of sources about this, like books and such, and we'll obviously link all the books like we always do.
But a lot of them point to the fact that he struggled with his own sexual identity for most of his life.
Okay. And growing up in a religious home, obviously he was trying to hide that.
Yeah. And his parents were, people believed that they were probably catching on to that.
And they took him saying that about the priest as just an extension of that.
Because they probably believed that he was mentally ill for being gay.
They believe you're gay, so we're not going to believe you about this.
And who knows? And that's what really wraps all this into such an awful ball of trauma.
Because it's like there's so many layers to it for him as a kid.
Yeah, you definitely feel bad for the child.
And you feel bad for the child when you find out what an adult he is.
You're like, wow, you're a fucking monster.
It's just like, holy shit.
Right. But he, you know, in high school, he was involved in clubs.
He sang in the glee club.
He was in the chorus.
He enjoyed being a part of that.
But he was bullied and harassed pretty relentlessly at school by his peers, according to an old school kind of like acquaintance, just a fellow student.
They said they heard he was gay and they wanted him to admit it, and he didn't.
He was pretending that he wasn't, and he would not openly admit it.
Which, here's the thing.
I don't understand being like I just want you to say you're gay why the fuck do you care exactly never once have I been like I need to know this person's sexual preference well it's like you don't know their sexual preference better than they do maybe he wasn't maybe he hadn't discovered it yet maybe he doesn't want you to know also it's like as long as it's a consenting adult I don't give a shit who you are attracted to to like it's not my i don't why would i care and the only reason that these people wanted to know is probably so that they could bully him that's the thing and just have like
concrete shit to bully him on and that's what annoys me is it's like it comes out as like they just wanted to him to admit it and everybody acts like oh we just want to leave him alone it's like oh okay so if he admitted it that was gonna be like thank you oh we're good okay no it was so you could relentlessly torture him more and it's like what the fuck right like what is not just you know Ronald Dominique obviously it's like any kid that this happens to yeah I don't get that or like even adults when they're like this guy just needs to admit that he's gay why why what effect does that have on your
life what bearing were you forced to actively admit that you were straight no were you forced to actively admit anything like that like no no exactly nobody cares like it's just like what the fuck it's such a weird mindset society I don't get it wild it's just a a strange very alien mindset to me but either way he was also considered um he was he struggled with his weight a lot he was very overweight when he was younger and into adulthood okay which of course as a teen puts a target on your back oh yeah uh and the harassment from schoolmates definitely led to some like depression poor self -esteem
he definitely had underdeveloped social skills by that point and it kind of stuck with him for like decades at that point like not that not necessarily like the poor self -esteem and all that I'm sure like you know he's a serial killer I'm sure he he got something out of that but social skills he did not have right customizable website in just a few steps using basic information about your industry, your goals, and personality to generate premium quality content and personalized design recommendations.
Squarespace gives you everything you need to offer services and get paid all in one place.
From consultations, events, and experiences, showcase your offerings with a customizable website designed to attract clients and grow your business.
Get paid on time with professional on -brand invoices and online payments.
Plus, streamline your workflow with built -in appointment scheduling and email marketing tools.
Head to squarespace .com slash morbid for a free trial.
And when you're ready to launch, use offer code morbid to save 10 % off your first purchase of a website or domain.
Life doesn't happen bi -weekly, so why should Payday?
The money that you earn can be in your hands today with Earnin.
Earnin is an app that gives you access to your pay as you work, up to $150 per day with a max of $7 .50 between paydays.
Just download the Earnin app and verify your paycheck, then access up to $150 $50 a day as you work and leave an optional tip.
Any money you access plus tips are automatically repaid from your next paycheck.
I feel like you should have your money as you earn it, and Earnin makes that possible.
You want to go out for a little date night and spend your money.
You know, sometimes things pop up unexpectedly.
I would hate this for you, but you might have to go to the vet and drop some cash there.
You need the cash when you need the cash.
Download Earnin today, spelled E -A -R -N -I -N, in the Google Play or Apple App Store.
When you download the Earnin app, up.
Type in Morbid under podcast when you sign up.
It will really help the show.
Morbid under podcast. Earnin is a financial technology company, not a bank.
Cashouts are based on your available earnings.
Standard cashouts take one to two business days with no mandatory fees.
Option to expedite your transfer for free tips are voluntary and don't affect the service.
See the cashout user agreement for detailed services not available in all states.
now after graduating in 1983 he enrolled in nickel state university and he decided to major in computer science oh wow he dropped out after only a year or two so he didn't stick with it also wow now his criminal history began in the late spring of 1985 when he was arrested for for making sexually harassing phone calls to his neighbors.
Ew. Now, looking at this in hindsight, like back then in the 80s, I was like, oh my God, weird, silly, crazy.
And it's just like, now we look at it with all the knowledge we all have. It's like, what did that mean?
We know that this sexually deviant behavior is similar to many sexual predators who eventually escalate to sexual violence.
It is very much a precursor to that.
that there is study after study after a peeping Tom is not just a peeping Tom no that is the first foray into if it is not stopped becoming violent right that is just how it goes but at the time it was seen like it was a crank call like that's silly a weird nuisance he paid a $75 fine wow and that was it that's no jailed now by the time he reached his early 20s he was working odd jobs really didn't have a lot of connections to people not a lot of friends not like a social group and according to her former roommate with whom he shared an apartment in 1985 Ronald quote didn't have many friends and he
didn't keep friends okay so it doesn't look like he was able to like maintain a relationship either which is like that's like a typical and we'll see there is an FBI profile that comes out later that is always typical on an FBI profile of a serial killer where it's like he's not gonna have a lot of connections yeah and it it checks i was gonna say a lot of the time it chat not all the time we've seen anti -social behavior yeah um but he also never fully felt comfortable like we mentioned with his own sexuality and often felt that he was kind of an outsider in all communities so he was just kind
of like he was convinced himself that he didn't belong anywhere it wasn't when he became an adult it wasn't necessarily people people treating him poorly.
Like, obviously, he went through high school and he dealt with all that.
That's rough. But a lot of people come out of that.
But a lot of, many, many, many, many, many, many people come out of there and they find their own thing.
You find your group.
You find your group, you find your people.
And it's like he had convinced himself that the world was against him.
And it's like, wasn't people actively doing it?
He was just creating that for himself.
self. And back in those days, no one really recalled Ronald dating anyone, having any romantic relationships.
His former roommate didn't even remember him bringing anyone to the apartment, no guests, nothing, like no friends, nothing.
Basically, whether it was his poor social skills or what we now know, he was like very unkempt, so like he was not put together at all.
um ronald's night at the he spent a lot of nights at bars in and around homa which we'll talk about homa more because he moves there okay louisiana um he spent a lot of time in bars around there and he wasn't there like drinking and dancing and like meeting people he was just kind of playing pool and kind of for lack of a better term like lurking on the fringes of everything and he kind kind of found himself, like, wanting to step into Louisiana's gay scene at the time.
Like, kind of get involved, meet some people.
But he didn't have pure intentions with it.
It wasn't like he was looking to involve himself to find friends, like, get into relationships, like, you know, form connections.
Right. After his arrest, we find out that his presence in these, in the, like, which at the time, it was a very small, openly gay community in southern Louisiana in the 80s.
Yeah. It was a much more menacing implication that he had where he was trying to get involved in it.
That makes sense. That's where he was basically creeping among the most vulnerable and at risk in the community to find his first victims. That's what he was doing.
And like building some kind of, courage is not the right word, but you know what I mean?
Like building the gumption to do it.
To actually do it, yeah.
Which is really when you look back on it.
So creepy. Creepy. It's got so many, it's so spooky.
It's menacing. Yeah, I don't, it's like you just think of him, like, just creeping around in those bars, like, trying to make connections, but, like, for the most horrific of purposes.
Yeah, it reminds me of Jeffrey Dahmer, the way he would, like, just lurk at bars.
Exactly. In 1994, Dominique popped up on police radar again because he was arrested for drunk driving.
But it was two years later that we finally got a little look into the violent part of him.
At this time, police were called to his apartment after neighbors saw a man climbing down from Dominique's apartment window.
And this reminds me of Jeffrey Dahmer, too.
This man was screaming, he's trying to kill me.
Oh, my God. When sheriff's deputies arrived, the, quote, partially clad young man told the officers that Ronald had raped him and would have killed him if he had not escaped out the window.
Oh, my God. now this man is partially closed climbing out a window screaming he's trying to kill me said he was raped and he would have been killed if he didn't escape ronald was arrested for sexual assault and held on a hundred thousand dollar bond which he definitely couldn't pay so he sat in the county dale luck jail luckily for three months pending a trial now a conviction for sexual assault and attempted murder would have put ronald in a federal prison for a long time yeah like we said goodbye see you later fortunately for him and unfortunately for the rest of society when the trial date
finally arrived the accused the complainant didn't show up oh no and they couldn't locate him and that's so sad because think about the time period and think about the time period and just what had happened in general horrific like a lot of people wouldn't show up to yeah face somebody that had done that to them that's horrifying yeah in every way that can be horrifying and they couldn't find him, which also you're like, what happened?
Like, where did he go?
I know. I hope he's okay.
In November of 1996, the judge in the case continued the case indefinitely and the district attorney dropped the charges.
That is awful. So he had those charges just dropped.
Wow. He raped and tried to kill a man who had to escape out of his window and he got away with it.
That's why the justice system is so broken.
And you would think if this person, if the victim had been treated with a lot of respect and compassion and felt like they had a support system, then maybe they would have shown up.
And it makes me sad that we don't know for sure, but I don't know if they felt that way.
They probably didn't because they didn't have like the victim advocacy programs that they do now.
Because this is like the early 90s at this point.
It's like in the early 90s in Louisiana.
It's like there was not a lot, like you said, in the way of advocacy.
So after that close call, Ronald did manage to avoid police for several years, actually.
Wow. It was in 2000 that he got arrested again for disturbing the peace.
And that makes you wonder, in between, like during those years, what happened?
What was going, was he just being more subtle about it?
Right. Right. It's like, yeah.
He very clearly would have killed that man had he not escaped.
Which makes me question, one, had he done that before?
And two, was he doing it in the meantime and somehow was just able to get away with it?
That's what I wonder.
But then you look at, and we'll mention him at some point, you know, you look at like Dennis Rader.
Who stopped for a long time.
Old shit flower there.
Yeah. Like, you look at him.
He stopped for a long time.
Years and years and years.
And just went on with his life before.
It is strange. But either way, he paid the fine for disturbing the peace and managed to avoid going before a judge.
But he was arrested again two years later after slapping a woman at a Mardi Gras parade.
The fuck? In lieu of jail time or a fine, he was offered the opportunity to participate in an alternative sentencing program.
Okay. This required people to meet and maintain certain expectations basically for the program.
he had to maintain a job display good behavior and it was all in order to avoid the harsher penalties that honestly should have come yeah get a job and don't slap women anymore and we'll excuse the one time you did it's totally fine the fuck and so he managed to meet the requirements of the program and six months later the offense was completely discharged from his record broken justice system we see this like so many times it's bad now falling following this whole thing and successfully getting that taken off of his record uh ronald dominique appeared to be somewhat getting his life together
a little bit for a minute like or at least trying to uh during the day he got a job at a produce company in homa but the job wasn't enough to really make ends meet so he found a second job as an evening delivery driver for domino's pizza no yep and when he wasn't working he was like he told people that he knew that he really wanted to to be a productive member of society so he became a full member of the local lions club which also reminds me this reminds me a little bit of john wayne gacy with yeah i need to be involved in the community right pretend that everything's fine when you see what how
he does it he lures people to into his clutches yeah only to kind of surprise them by binding them and killing them wow it's very john wayne those guys are very um and also jeffrey dammer and also Dennis Rader and also like he's a he's a big combination of many.
Yeah. But in the Lions Club he became a popular figure at regular bingo nights.
Much like Gacy. Yeah exactly.
Obviously not bingo nights.
Yeah but he seemed determined to be kind of like a member a positive member of society at this point.
He was at least he at least was putting on the facade.
Imagine knowing you played bingo with that man.
That's fucked. Oh my goodness.
And what police and community members didn't know at this time, because again, like I said, he was putting on the facade of being an active and positive community member.
But police in the community would soon find out that by 2002, the man who was now that popular bingo caller and pizza delivery driver around town had already raped and murdered at least 11 men.
Wow. And he would go on to rape and murder 12 more by the time he was finally caught 11 men and boys he had already raped and murdered and the fact that you can just do that at whatever point in your life numbers for bingo exactly and deliver somebody's pizza yeah like what the fuck yeah so we're gonna start talking about this case we're gonna back up now 1997 1998 okay that's when the murders at That St. Charles Parish happened.
So on July 12th, 1997, 19 -year -old David Mitchell Jr. attended a birthday party with his mother, Latrice Mitchell, and his aunt, Rita Aubrey.
At some point, there was an argument that broke out between David and another guest, so his aunt dropped him off at his grandmother's house in Honville, Louisiana, where he was going to wait for his uncle to come pick him up and drive him the five miles back to his house in Lulling.
Okay. His aunt later said, quote, my brother didn't show up.
So I guess he decided to try to hitchhike back to his mom's.
Now, when the family hadn't heard from Mitchell the following day, they assumed he'd maybe stopped off at a friend's house, stayed the night.
Like there was no real cause for alarm at first. Yeah, and probably trying to cool off after whatever fight this was.
And the following day, David Mitchell didn't report for work.
And when his mother checked his bedroom, his ID badge and work clothes were still on the bed untouched.
and that was not like him okay he would go to work and and it also wasn't like it wasn't like David to miss work and it wasn't like David to stay out all night not check in they were trying to think in their heads like okay maybe we missed him mentioning that he was going to a friend's house or something they were already a little on edge because he wasn't one to just do that right um so Latrice Mitchell did call the police his mother to report her son missing while waiting for an update she Latrice Mitchell his mother got got her update unexpectedly because her son's photo flashed across the television screen
in a local news segment about a drowned body of a young Black man found in an industrial area of Louisiana Highway 3160.
So they had already found him, most likely, at the time that she reported him missing?
They didn't know it was him.
That's the thing. They had only found an unidentified young black man and when she called they didn't know that they had already found him oh my god but that's how she found out that's horrible horrific so now it begins this whole authority shrugging these families off now the authorities were just they were like police immediately classified david mitchell as leading a high -risk lifestyle and despite being found with his pants around his ankles, having no drugs or alcohol in his system, and being known as a good swimmer, his death was labeled an accident and the case was closed.
And what are they talking about high -risk lifestyle in his case?
That's what kills me here is that high risk is like a legitimate term.
It's an actual term that can be used for things like you grew up in an abusive household, something that's It's totally beyond your own, you know, control of your own circumstances, just something that is happening to you.
Like innocuous shit.
Exactly. But here it was totally weaponized by so many people involved in this case to make it seem like these people were doing things that led to their own murder.
Like they did something that they deserved this almost. They weren't saying that, but they were saying it by implying that.
Yeah, they were saying the quiet part out loud.
Exactly. They were implying that somehow this was their own fault.
That's bullshit. He still got killed.
Right. Why are we pretending that it's like, there's still a person.
Yeah, there's still a killer out there.
They still have people who give a shit about them.
Like, that's such a weird, callous way to look at, like when the investigators look at it this way.
It's like, it doesn't matter what that, like, this is a person.
Right. This is someone's person.
And you need to investigate what the fuck happened.
It's your whole job.
Now, tragic as it was, the death of David Mitchell didn't strike law enforcement as anything more than an unfortunate accident.
Pants around his ankles, and it was an accident.
No. But within a year, his death would get a second look because it was in the wake of two more deaths of a similar nature, neither of which were accidental and really couldn't be termed as accidental.
In mid -December of 1997, 20 -year -old Gary Pierre's body was discovered in a wooded area of Mons, which is an unincorporated area of st charles parish unlike mitchell pierre had been sexually assaulted confirmed his body showed signs of having been bound at some point prior to his death and he died by asphyxiation due to neck compression oh wow now according to the investigators pierre of course they had to say pierre was quote heavily involved with drugs like so despite having having been tied up raped and strangled his death at first was initially classified not as murder but as unclassified
how is that unclassified what more do you need to classify that as a murder think about that this really happened and this really happens that a person person can be raped tied up raped and strangled confirmed and you sit there and say it's unclassified investigators can say we don't know what happened here because he had a drug problem at one point what like that's wild it's unreal and just what a slap in the face to his entire family and anyone that ever loved him because all you want is to like i don't give a shit what who cares what was going on in his life like i want to know what happened here
what happened Right.
Like, what the fuck?
So like David Mitchell, Gary Pierre's death had been largely forgotten about until the end of July 1998 when St. Charles Parish investigators discovered another body.
Oh, my God. That of 38 -year -old Larry Ranson in a remote area off Louisiana Highway 3160.
I don't know if it's 3160 or 3160.
I'm just— I don't know.
I looked up every pronunciation for everything, and I just didn't look up that.
But it was not far from where David Mitchell's body was discovered, almost exactly one year earlier.
And Ransom's body was fully clothed, and aside from having been, quote, kicked in the groin, the only trauma was the asphyxiation that had caused his death.
As in the case of Gary Pierre, Larry Ransom was believed to have struggled with drugs.
which police believed was somehow linked to his death.
They could not. You guys got to stop just sitting on that.
So they labeled it unclassified.
Oh my God. Come on.
It's like, what are you investigating right now?
And it's also like, okay, so if you're going to, if you're concentrating on that part of it, that's a link between them.
Between all three of these.
So why are we not looking at something going on here?
Yeah, that's exactly.
summer is in full swing whether you're traveling taking kids to summer camp or heading to the pool we are all looking for ways to stay healthy and save money this summer with go to rex you can save up to 80 on prescriptions for you and your family pets too check go to rex before every single trip to the pharmacy for big savings on both brand and generic medications go to rex is free and it's easy to use just search for your prescription on the website site or the app, compare prices, and get a free coupon to show your pharmacist. Use GoodRx to save at over 70 ,000 local pharmacies nationwide, including
Walmart, Walgreens, CBS, Publix, Kroger, and many more.
And now you can enroll in GoodRx Rewards and earn points every time that you use a coupon at the pharmacy.
Remember, GoodRx is not insurance, but it works whether you have insurance or not, and it could even beat your insurance copay price.
Today, I saved $5 on a prescription from my grandpa because I pulled up the GoodRx app and I said, look at this.
So you could save too.
Save at the pharmacy this summer with GoodRx.
Go to GoodRx .com slash morbid.
That's GoodRx .com slash morbid.
In 1920, a broke immigrant in Boston became one of America's richest, most infamous men practically overnight.
He swindled the modern equivalent of a quarter billion dollars and etched his name into history as the mastermind behind one of the most notorious Scams Ever, The Ponzi Scheme, hosted by Maya Lau and featuring award -winning comedian and actor Sebastian Maniscalco.
This is Easy Money, The Charles Ponzi Story, an Apple original podcast produced by Atwill Media.
Follow and listen on Apple Podcasts.
Now, unfortunately, there is a limited amount of information about Dominique's first three victims that we just mentioned, but their demographic profiles are significant, and they'll become more significant as these murders continue.
All three are Black men of lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
Two of them, Pierre and Ranson, are known to be either gay or bisexual, and at least two, Pierre and Ranson, have some history, allegedly, of substance abuse or addiction.
Okay. Again, these pieces of personal information are only important in the sense of showing that there there is a pattern and a victim profile that will continue.
It also shows that the investigation was heavily biased against them because of prejudices of some kind or another at multiple times during the investigation.
It sounds like multiple prejudices.
Yeah, because initially, St. Charles Parish investigators assumed the quote -unquote high -risk lifestyles of these men were at least partially related to their deaths.
And really, little effort was put into solving these deaths.
Yeah, that's what it sounds like.
But in February 1999, the Pierre and Ransom cases were finally reclassified as murders and investigated as such. Unfortunately, by that time, Ronald Dominique had already killed three more times.
Now, we're going to move into the murders that happened in the New Orleans suburbs from 1998 to 1999.
The afternoon of October 3rd, 1998 was unseasonably hot, even for Louisiana.
Louisiana so Ronald Dominique drove the half hour or so from Honville to the French Quarter he was hoping that like you know the excitement the activity of the French Quarter that whole neighborhood would be enough to blow off some of his steam he was basically looking to pay for sex that night okay um in New Orleans New Orleans uh in New Orleans French Quarter at especially at this time um sex or anything else for that matter was relatively easy to find down there it was like big party out I was going to say lots going on um that afternoon Ronald made his way to rawhide which was a well -known
bar in the quarter and he took a seat at the bar next to 27 year old Oliver LaBanks Oliver had come to the bar with his brother and a couple of friends but he didn't really like rawhide and he wasn't really into this whole thing so while they were dancing and mingling and doing whatever he just took a seat at the bar and had a beer he was like I'm just hanging out.
Yeah. Now, after making some small talk, it was apparent what Dominique was looking for.
So they worked out the specifics of a transactional sexual experience between the two of them.
And the two men left the bar in the direction of Ronald's car.
Okay. Now, it was dark by the time they reached the car, and it was in the parking lot of the Jack's Brewery.
And it was mostly an empty parking lot because it was closed at that point.
In the backseat of Dominique's Chevy Malibu.
LeBanks, you know, they began the transaction, but suddenly, without warning, Ronald flipped him over, and despite him protesting and fighting to defend himself, he began raping Oliver LeBanks.
Oh, no. Now, when he finished, Dominique grabbed the tire iron from the floor and bashed Oliver LeBanks twice in the head with it, causing a concussion immediately.
Then he wrapped his hands around his throat and began strangling him.
Oh, my God. At some point, the force required to manually strangle someone became unsustainable.
And so he wrapped a belt around Oliver LeBanc's neck and pulled it so tightly that the clasps cut into his neck.
Jesus. And he choked him for several minutes until he was sure he was dead.
That is terrifying because when you see a picture of this man, he's a big guy.
Very intimidating. And I'm not saying that in the sense of weight, I'm saying he's a big build and it would be so easy for him to overpower someone.
Yes, that's the thing.
That's so scary. And just what he's capable of anyways.
How just ruthless. I mean, that is brutal what he did.
And it just sounds like everything happened so fast. That's the thing.
It sounds like it was just within an instant.
Right. Everything turned.
These people had no chance to even defend themselves.
Now, Dominique drove Oliver LeBanks' body to a remote stretch of road near Zephyr Fields, which was home to the AAA Minor League New Orleans Zephyrs, and dumped his body under a dark overpass.
And then he drove back to his trailer in Houma, and Oliver's body was discovered the next morning by a passerby who reported it to police.
Now, to show again that this pattern is that Ronald Dominique was establishing for his chosen victims, Oliver LeBanks was Black.
Like, obviously, he is choosing a very specific victim.
Yep. Had a history of substance abuse struggles in the past and was known to engage in sex work from time to time just to get money for things he needed or wanted.
Now, these facts, again, I would just want to make sure everybody knows, these facts do not define Oliver LeBanks as a person.
person but they give insight into donald ronald dominique's fucked up worldview and the way he is choosing his victim's victim profile he had a victim type now definitely we're we're at that point right but even with all these patterns and similarities between victims and methods of murder the press picked up on the fact that there was substance abuse history and the fact that he engaged in sex work sometimes and so they have reporting on oliver's murder focused largely on as being, and I quote, a gay prostitute.
That's what they just called him.
And quote, an uneducated and unvalued transient kitchen employee in some mindless job.
Oh my God. That was an actual quote used to describe the victim.
Oh, that just made my heart like, oh my God.
It's so shameful, it is wild.
It's like, who wrote that?
And luckily, in the years since his murder, murder le banks's friends and family have attempted to correct this narrative which it's gross that they even have to do that that shouldn't be their position job that should be the job of these of journalists that are writing these things they should be write something that callous according to a friend um and former employer mar paulson he said he was not a badass in any way ollie had five children he had responsibilities and a good future in front of him, but he had one weakness.
While he'd been clean for some time, a long time, Ollie was a recovering drug addict.
Which, like, good for him for recovering.
So he's telling him he's got clean, like he was getting, he had a job.
Right. He was working towards a better future.
He's a father. It's so sad that these people even have to come out to try to defend the person that was like violently ripped away from them.
Right. What was that headline?
line it was they literally said let me go back to find it an uneducated and unvalued transient kitchen employee in some mindless job unvalued he has five children he clearly has friends he has a mom he has family and these family and friends have to come forward and be like the assholes of the world he's more than his demons he's very valued like they have to actually be the ones to to say it it's like that's so shitty oh that makes my heart hurt for him and to die like that horrifically and then just to be chalked up to nothing yeah in the paper like whoever wrote that can go fuck themselves
like the thing is too i don't see anyone coming i didn't find anything about anybody that wrote kind of like shit like this or said shit like this about it coming out and being like wow i was wrong like that was that's a real person and i should have yeah i should have realized that behind their shitty headlines why why do you let that float out How do you write something like that, hand it in to your boss, and then go home with your family for the night?
With your family, and it's like, what the fuck?
And hearing someone who cared about him refer to him as Ollie...
Yeah, that... Like, kills me.
I don't even know what the word is.
Just like it humanizes the situation so much. It's just that one thing, like he wasn't Oliver LeBanc's victim of Ronald Dominique.
My friend Ollie. He was Ollie.
Like someone, and five kids' father.
And that's the thing to think that he had five children.
Yeah. That's awful.
It's really sad. They lost their dad like that.
So for detectives, there was very little evidence at the scene.
According to the autopsy, Oliver had been bound at the wrists and raped before being murdered.
Wow. But the killer left no fingerprints and had worn a condom, so they didn't have anything left. So detectives didn't have a lot to work with here.
What they did have was a single hair from a white man left on the body.
But until they had a suspect to match it to, it just kind of sat there useless in evidence.
They didn't know it was from a white man.
That's all they could tell.
And this is like mid to late 90s at this point, so DNA hadn't even really come that far.
So it's like this is just kind of sitting here until we have a comparison essentially.
But detectives on the Oliver LeBanc's case wouldn't have to wait long for their killer to strike again.
Unfortunately, it would be in another jurisdiction and a long time would pass before the connection between the victims was made.
That was the other thing that Ronald Dominique did, was he went to different jurisdictions and parishes.
Knowingly. Knowing that it was going to take a while for them to connect these.
Because connecting different cases like that in different counties and parishes and jurisdictions can get reckless.
Because it can really derail a case.
It's like you really have to have solid evidence to make sure you know that these are connected.
Right. And he knew that.
So just two weeks after Oliver LeBanks' body was discovered under the overpass, the partially closed body of 16 year old Joseph Brown was discovered on October 19th 1998 he was found on the western end of Veterans Memorial Boulevard in Kenner which is a suburban community about 10 or 15 minutes outside New Orleans to investigators at the scene it looked like Brown's body had been quote pretty much dumped out of a car by the side of the road wow like trash yeah he'd suffered and and this is really sad, like this one really got me, he'd suffered several severe lacerations and wounds to his head,
and a bloody plastic bag was discovered near his body, which investigators suspect that the bag had been placed over his head as he was beaten to death.
My God. Yes. This guy's a fucking monster.
There's no words. Like, beyond.
Joseph Brown had grown up in, and I looked up the pronunciation of this place in Louisiana, and it is pronounced Bouty, Louisiana about 15 minutes from Kenner Of course, the press labeled him a troubled teenager not just a child who was brutally murdered Right On the night of his murder Joseph had been out with some friends in Bouty and no one seemed to know how he'd gotten to Kenner or what he was doing there The coroner ruled Brown's death a homicide by strangulation He had also been beaten over the head but I think he actually died by strangulation.
Which obviously, a teenage boy dying by strangulation is pretty unusual.
Yeah, one might say.
But otherwise, there weren't really clues to who or where he was killed.
But again, they were just kind of like, well, he was a troubled kid.
And it's like, well, troubled kids don't always get strangled, so I think we should look into that.
Like, what the fuck?
fuck it's just this is a really really frustrating case in this sense but it's like take out troubled he's a kid he's a kid and that's all you should be focused on right now he's a dead child 16 16 i mean that's that's young that is young and plenty of people are troubled kids that grow into like amazing adults and he doesn't mean they deserve to get beaten and strangled to death exactly so jefferson paris detectives who were working the oliver lebanque's case got called in November when the body of 18 -year -old Bruce Williams was discovered in an industrial park in Jefferson Parish, just outside
New Orleans. Like Oliver LeBanks, Williams was known to police as a sometimes sex worker who primarily worked in New Orleans proper.
On the evening of November 27th, Williams was seen by friends in the French Quarter, and also like LeBanks, he had been raped and strangled.
So he's got a very much a, an MO here.
Now this is an unusual number of young male rape slash murder victims being discovered in the greater New Orleans area.
Um, at one point, one of the detectives was like, this is more murders than we have for an entire year.
This is a lot like that.
And there's a lot of murders in New Orleans.
Like it's not, that's, it's not like they have unknown to them, but these were happening so quickly.
He was like like at the end of like the whole thing, he was like, that stretch is more than we can sometimes have in a year, and it happened within like this small span of time.
So detectives on the LeBanks and Williams cases called actually the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, which I'm glad they finally took that step.
That's great. Because they wanted to create a profile of what was clearly a serial killer in the area.
Unfortunately, the profile created by the FBI people were, it was pretty generic, and it was a little useless.
It wasn't completely useless, but it was like kind of like, okay, thank you for that.
Was it in the early days of profiling?
Yeah. I don't really know when that even started, to be honest. And it's like, and this was just like, I mean, it wasn't useless in the end.
You look at it in the end and you're like, yeah, that was actually exactly dead on.
But it, it's just, there's so many people that fit in this that it's really hard. They said their killer was a white male, mid -30s, difficulty with social skills, probably didn't have a lot of friends.
So almost like every serial killer that we have ever covered.
And a number of other vague characteristics that were just not unique enough to really help.
But there was one aspect of the profile that would help investigators narrow down their search. According to FBI profiler Tom Colby, LeBanks and Williams' killer, he believed, lived near the airport.
So he was like, bring your net in closer to the airport.
I wonder what made him think that, especially because it was all spread out.
Well, they thought this because the locations of the string of body dumping sites, they were all near the airport.
Like on the way back.
They were in a certain area that made sense.
And while detectives in and around New Orleans worked with federal agents to develop a profile of what they were now believing was a serial killer, Ronald Dominique was back out on the hunt for a new victim.
He just goes and goes and goes.
On May 30th, 1999, the partially clothed body of 21 -year -old Manuel Reed was discovered in the dumpster behind a business in Kenner.
Reed had grown up in New Orleans and like the other victims, he did have a history of struggling with substance abuse and was known to police as a sometimes sex worker.
But also like the other victims, Reed had been raped and strangled.
Now, the scene repeated itself exactly one month later, when the body of 21 -year -old Angel Mejia was discovered by a dumpster in an industrial area of Kenner.
Detectives at the scene immediately noticed that Mejia fit what was by now seen as their serial killer's preferred victim profile.
Right. And so, as a black man, he was already a member of a marginalized community, but he was also living on the streets at the time of his death.
He didn't have any set address.
That's awful. Which put him at greater risk of exploitation by men or monsters like Ronald Dominique.
He had also been raped and strangled.
But this time, Dominique had broken his pattern a little because he left him in a relatively well -lit area in front of a very regularly used business dumpster.
Do you think he was just getting bolder because he wasn't getting caught?
They thought he was just getting sloppy.
Sloppy. Got it. They really thought he was just getting sloppy.
Although they didn't know it at the time, the FBI's profile, like we said, generic as it was, was pretty accurate because Ronald Dominique was a white man in his 30s at this time with very poor social skills.
And what they found out was that he was actually living about 10 miles from the New Orleans International Airport.
Wow. So they were actually dead on.
That's wild. Isn't it?
Profiling is really wild.
Gideon out here. right like many serial killers he'd hunted for his victims in and around the place he was most familiar with and where he felt most comfortable but again with the murder of angel mejia dominique had apparently been going out of his way to either they were it looked initially they were like is he going out of his way to to have his victim be discovered that quick right or is he sloppy right like they couldn't figure that one out because initially like you said they thought I thought he was just being like bold.
Like, you're not getting me.
But then later, they're like, I think he was just being sloppy.
Which he probably got sloppy because he wasn't getting caught.
It was probably the same way to get there.
It's kind of the same thought process, yeah.
You know what time it is?
It's time for a fresh approach to dog food.
And that's where the Farmer's Dog comes in.
developed by board certified nutritionists, which is pretty impressive.
The farmer's dog is human -grade dog food that's made with real meat and veggies and gently cooked to preserve those nutrients.
Traditional pet food is highly processed and difficult to portion correctly, but the farmer's dog?
It's changed that with their freshly made food.
They take the guesswork out of serving sizes by precisely portioning your dog's food based on their very unique nutritional needs.
Sydney and Blanche are eating the Farmer's Dog right now and we absolutely love it.
What's really fun is each packet has their name on it.
So it says Blanche's food, Sydney's food, which is just fun.
They love it. They can't read, but I kind of pretend that they do.
Maybe they can. Who am I to say?
Get 50 % off your first box of fresh, healthy food at thefarmersdog .com slash morbid.
Plus you get free shipping.
Just go to thefarmersdog .com slash morbid to get 50 % off.
That's thefarmersdog .com slash morbid.
So since the discovery of Oliver Banks in October 1998, detectives in and around New Orleans had worked very quietly on the case that would eventually be linked back to Dominique.
For one thing, the murders had been committed in, like I said before, different jurisdictions, so connecting them, they needed more evidence for it.
It was also important to investigators that while the cases were open and ongoing, the pertinent information be kept close to the chest. They wanted it kept from the press, the public.
They didn't want to create panic or create a situation where misinformation was running rampant that could harm or hinder the investigation because now they're finally doing it.
Unfortunately, these attempts at keeping it quiet and working behind the scenes became much harder in late june 1999 when operating on misunderstood leaked information the press began speculating on a possible serial killer operating in new orleans now it's unclear where journalists in the new orleans area got this information but by the end of june reports started circulating about a potential serial killer who already claimed three young men whose shoeless bodies were dumped in isolated areas around new orleans international airport the article linked the murders of angel mejia joseph brown
and manuel reed who is unidentified in the article they don't even use their name um they link him to them to a single killer and they claim that all three of these victims were all quote dark -skinned men and they claimed falsely that they all had cocaine in their systems at the time of their death and the article also makes a lot about them being shoeless when they were found despite the fact that it is neither relevant nor true oh good before long television news stations had picked up the stories internet detectives were like a booming thing at the time they were not just started they were all
focusing very heavily on this removal of the shoes as the killer's signature right it wasn't true they weren't all missing their shoes so this was bullshit so now the entire internet is shitting their pants over this false thing and the entire press is shitting their pants over this false thing and everybody's wondering what it means it doesn't mean anything because it's not true and you're not focused on the right you're not focused on the fact that they are young black men in marginalized like a high risk you know areas high risk lifestyles like dealing with um like basically the most vulnerable
yeah essentially yeah and it's like Like you're not, you're not focusing on, and many of them were part of the gay community.
Like you're not telling the right people the information to keep them safe.
Like you're just being like, well, they're all shoeless.
What could this mean?
And it's like, no, you need a big community of people to be looking behind their back now.
Exactly. You need these people to be thinking, you know, that they could be next.
But even then the press really didn't give a shit.
No, and it's like that shows you that it's like they weren't focusing on what's important.
keeping actual people safe.
Now, the decision to release or withhold information about public safety, like we've talked about before, I mean, it's based on a lot of factors that aren't always obvious or understandable to those outside of the investigation.
It's just a fact of life.
And we've learned that time after time in many different cases.
Oh, yeah. And it's generally true, I will say, that an informed public will be better, you know, equipped to protect themselves selves in the event of an emergency.
I fully believe that.
Yeah. But when attention isn't paid to the kind of information that the public is being given, mistakes can be made that can jeopardize the case and actually put more people at risk.
And that's what happened here.
I was worried that you were just going to say that.
They're not, it's just, you're not telling the right people what they need to hear.
And you're missing out on entire communities of people that need to know that they are the ones that are being targeted.
And like you said, like watch each other's backs.
Yeah. And the emphasis on the victims as black male drug dealers or users wasn't telling a complete story or an entirely accurate one.
Right. In fact, it misrepresented who was at risk.
Specifically, like I said, marginalized men and boys of color who either were out as gay or were sex workers for their job at times.
Like those were the people that you were like really – Watch out for yourself.
Think about what you're doing at night so you can be prepared to protect yourself.
Yeah. Overlooking or misrepresenting the reality of Dominique's preferred victims by, among other things, playing up these unfounded facts of the case meant that those that were most at risk were being given bad information.
Right. Right. And this became apparent in August of that year when police discovered the body of 34 -year -old Mitchell Johnson under the very same overpass where Oliver LaBanks had been discovered a year earlier.
Oh, wow. At the time of his death, Mitchell Johnson was living on the streets in Kenner, where he was last seen by friends on the night of his murder.
Johnson's friends told police that they'd seen, quote, a suspicious guy cruising around the neighborhood around the time Johnson went missing.
They described the man as a white male, mid -30s, receding hairline and puffy cheeks.
That's exactly what Ronald Dominique was like.
So that's spot on. It wasn't much else of distinction to separate the suspect from hundreds of other puffy white dudes in their 30s living around New Orleans at the time.
Meanwhile, the coroner confirmed what police already more or less knew, that Mitchell Johnson had been raped and strangled before being dumped, just feet from from where Oliver LeBanks had been dumped.
Wow. Now, the murder of Mitchell Johnson seemed to support the belief among the press that there was indeed a serial killer operating in the suburbs of New Orleans.
In hoping to use the press to their advantage, finally, police released a sketch of the man seen in the area that night that Johnson disappeared.
And in their statement to the press, the suspect was described as, quote, a serial killer targeting men in the area.
rather than a serial killer targeting Black and gay men, which investigators feared would negatively influence the public's desire to help.
That's so fucked that they even had to consider that.
We got to do better, everyone.
Yeah, to say the least. Regardless of how they phrased it, the picture and the articles didn't produce any new leads, but they had to worry that if they mentioned Black men and boys and gay men and boys and sex workers, that the public would be like, well, I don't really care.
That's so messed up.
So it's like, in that sense, this whole thing, they were trying to do the right thing by, like, making sure the public would give a shit by not mentioning the details.
But still, it's... But when you think of the actual ramifications of that whole thing...
Right. It just makes you sick.
Sure does. It really does.
does now it's unknown whether ronald dominique even saw the article or the police sketch but just after it ran in early november he quit his job with the county and moved his trailer further into homa which is that small city on the bayou about 60 miles from new orleans okay he parked his trailer on some property next to his sister's house on bayou blue road and was happy to learn that the police sketch in various articles about a serial killer hadn't yet made their way southwest of new orleans so they didn't know about it uh within a few weeks ronald found work as a laborer at caro produce company
on january this man was just handling people's produce too like yeah this is so something so disturbing about that now on january 1st 2000 a driver called police in lafourche parish to report that they'd seen a man lying motionless by a barbed wire fence on the side of Highway 7.
When police arrived at the site, they discovered the body of 23 -year -old Michael Vincent.
Michael Vincent had a record that included some drug charges, just to put him in that pattern, and he also had an unsettled way of living that, again, made him fit perfectly into Ronald's vulnerable victim profile.
The autopsy showed that he'd been bound at the wrists and suffered several abrasions, but the cause of death was most certainly, quote, homicidal asphyxiation.
the murder was not connected to the other murders of gay men and sex workers in the other parishes which is kind of wild um i think it's because he was found further out from new orleans okay maybe i guess but the investigation into vincent's death would be further complicated by the fact that while ronald dominique may have ended the 20th century with yet another murder murder two years would pass before he killed anyone again interesting he took some time between them yeah and that's where we're gonna leave you here we're gonna leave you with two years between killings and it's gonna get even
i mean it just keeps getting bad and bad and bad i just but i think we can all rest there yeah for a moment yeah that was a lot of just tragedy In part two, we are going to talk about the 2002 murders in the Bayou.
We are eventually going to, and in Bayou Blue as well, there's murders there between 2003 and 2005.
We're going to talk about each of the victims. Okay.
And we're going to talk about his arrest and the court case that followed and eventually him going bye -bye into prison forever.
Good, I'm excited for that part.
You have that to look forward to, but I think we'll leave off there.
so we can all think about what the fuck we just listened to holy shit and when we pick up it's two years later alright well with that being said we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird but not so weird that any of this because oh my god yeah If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad -free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
Prime members can listen ad -free on Amazon Music.
Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery .com slash survey.
energy is being brought straight from the end zone to the breakfast aisle with three cereal -loving wide receivers, Justin Jefferson, Amon Ross St. Brown, and Jamar Chase.
You can find these football stars on limited edition cereal boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms, Honey Nut Cheerios, and Reese's Puffs cereal starting in August. And don't miss out on Justin Jefferson's Jetta's Mix, a fruity fusion of Frosted Lemon Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast crunched strawberry for a limited time only.
Be sure to score them all, where every bite tastes like a touchdown.
