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Speaker 1: The vicious murder of a Louisiana woman left detectives puzzled.

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Speaker 2: She'd been shot five times, stabbed deeply five times, and

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Speaker 2: vigorously beaten with an aluminum baseball back.

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Speaker 1: The police had a handful of suspects, but there was

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Speaker 1: a problem.

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Speaker 3: They just couldn't find enough evidence to really convict them.

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Speaker 3: You can't charge anybody without evidence. They will just drop

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Speaker 3: the case rather than press forward on what they consider

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Speaker 3: a weak case.

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Speaker 4: So that just terrified everybody.

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Speaker 1: Today, we're in Clinton, Louisiana for the conclusion of the Brotherhood.

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Speaker 1: I'm Slung Glass and this is American Homicide and Day.

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Speaker 5: Warning to our audience.

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Speaker 1: This episode contains graphic descriptions of racial violence. Please take

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Speaker 1: care while listening. In in early summer morning in two thousand,

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Speaker 1: police found Jenora Gillery, stabbed, shot, and beaten to death

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Speaker 1: in the bedroom of her Clinton, Louisiana farmhouse.

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Speaker 4: No, you have a woman who really had never done

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Speaker 4: anything to anybody.

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Speaker 1: Chuck Cusmeyer is a former federal agent turned journalist who

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Speaker 1: wrote about the murder.

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Speaker 4: She was just the nicest person by all accounts.

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Speaker 3: I mean, nobody ever said anything bad about her, And

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Speaker 3: to have somebody brutally murdered in her own bedroom and

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Speaker 3: no suspects. I mean, right there, you got kind of

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Speaker 3: the setup for a really bizarre case.

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Speaker 1: The forty two year old was a single career woman.

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Speaker 1: She lived alone in rural Clinton, Louisiana.

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Speaker 3: No one really had any idea who did it, and

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Speaker 3: there were some suspects.

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Speaker 1: One of those suspects was a bad end Rouge police officer.

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Speaker 1: He and Genora were old friends who had reconnected and dated,

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Speaker 1: but he kept hounding her to the point where her

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Speaker 1: colleague said he was stalking her.

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Speaker 3: I mean, he was the best candidate they could find,

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Speaker 3: and you know that's who they went after.

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Speaker 4: They even polygraphed him.

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Speaker 1: After he failed his test. The police got a search warrant,

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Speaker 1: but they couldn't find anything that linked the officer to

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Speaker 1: the murder.

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Speaker 3: The case sort of went cold after they exhausted all

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Speaker 3: their time on this particular police officer, but the detectives

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Speaker 3: kept working on it.

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Speaker 1: It was a real struggle to find anything that would

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Speaker 1: link a suspect to the crime, and it dragged on

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Speaker 1: for months.

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Speaker 5: About a year.

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Speaker 1: After the murder, detectives got a tip that led them

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Speaker 1: to the house across the street from Genora, where her

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Speaker 1: good friends and neighbors, the Skippers lived. Those were the

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Speaker 1: only two homes on that dead end street.

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Speaker 3: It's down at the end of this gravel road. It's

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Speaker 3: an isolated area and there are no street lights, and

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Speaker 3: the property directly across the street is where the Skippers

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Speaker 3: lived in their trailer.

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Speaker 1: The Skippers were the first people detectives had questioned because

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Speaker 1: they noticed some scratches on Philip and has steps on

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Speaker 1: John Balllyot's arms. The two passed a polygraph and were cleared.

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Speaker 1: A year later, they re emerged as suspects.

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Speaker 3: I don't believe they looked at the Skippers as suspects

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Speaker 3: for a long time.

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Speaker 4: I mean they were out at the crime scene.

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Speaker 3: In fact, once the crime scene the Sheriff's office released

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Speaker 3: the crime scene, it's really up to the family to

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Speaker 3: clean up the house.

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Speaker 4: They actually hired the Skippers.

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Speaker 3: And John Balllyo to clean up the crime scene, so

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Speaker 3: any evidence that might have still been there, anything the

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Speaker 3: police may have overlooked, got swept away.

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Speaker 5: Well, this is a first for me.

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Speaker 1: Potential suspects in the death of Genora were paid to

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Speaker 1: clean up the crime scene. In the last episode, we

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Speaker 1: learned how John Balllyo told detectives Philip Skipper and his

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Speaker 1: brother in law, Johnny Hoyt, belonged to a gang.

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Speaker 3: They had this sort of half assed gang they had

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Speaker 3: formed called the Brotherhood, and they all had tattoos and

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Speaker 3: the only way to earn it was to kill somebody.

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Speaker 1: John Balllyo said his initiation into that gang involved watching

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Speaker 1: Genora's murder.

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Speaker 2: Jenoa and the Skippers had had a good relationship for

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Speaker 2: a while. I mean they had ups and dieausend.

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Speaker 1: Detective Don McKee learned one of those downs happened a

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Speaker 1: few weeks before Genora's death. That's when the two sides

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Speaker 1: had an argument over a dog getting loose and attacking

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Speaker 1: the Skipper's goat.

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Speaker 2: They had had a falling out. Genoora told him to

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Speaker 2: quit coming old her place, return the house keys, stay

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Speaker 2: off her land. She was going to stay on hers

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Speaker 2: and it wouldn't be no more contact.

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Speaker 1: We covered this previously, but with the new information given

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Speaker 1: by John Ballio, this falling out holds a different weight.

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Speaker 1: On top of that, the Skippers were beneficiaries of one

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Speaker 1: of Genora's life insurance policies. Prosecutors believed that money was

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Speaker 1: part of their motive and so did a grand jury.

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Speaker 1: In two thousand and one, that grand jury indicted John

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Speaker 1: Balliot and Phillips Go, along with Lisa and Johnny Hoyt,

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Speaker 1: for the murder of Genora Gillery.

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Speaker 2: I think that it was an easy target, farmed right

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Speaker 2: across the road. I hate to say it, because she

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Speaker 2: was a black lady. I really believe this was a

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Speaker 2: fine example and just a hate crime. I mean, they

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Speaker 2: they wanted to kill a black person.

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Speaker 1: Genora was black, the suspects were white, and all of

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Speaker 1: that played into what journalist Chuck Husmeyer learned.

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Speaker 3: Philip Skipper and Lisa and Johnny Hoyt hated black people,

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Speaker 3: absolutely hated him. That they're raised in this sort of

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Speaker 3: post clan culture and they hated black people. So you

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Speaker 3: have all these white skinhead type guys. They befriend their

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Speaker 3: next door neighbor, who's this black lady who's just ridiculously

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Speaker 3: generous to them, and then they turn around kill her,

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Speaker 3: you know, and I know, just killer. I mean, they

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Speaker 3: slaughter her. And part of the reason that I think

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Speaker 3: they found it so easy to kill jano Or Gillery

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Speaker 3: was that she was black.

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Speaker 1: The crime was absolutely shocking, and prosecutors were seeking the

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Speaker 1: death penalty against all four suspects, but with no fingerprints,

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Speaker 1: no murder weapon, no DNA, really nothing that connected the

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Speaker 1: suspects to the murder. The district attorney got nervous.

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Speaker 3: The district attorney he initially charged Johnny, Philip Lisa, and

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Speaker 3: John Balllyo with first degree murder. But I don't think

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Speaker 3: he thought he could win the case, you know. And

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Speaker 3: as a cop and all the cops I know, you know,

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Speaker 3: you always want him to just bring it to the jury,

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Speaker 3: let the jury decide, you know. But most das don't

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Speaker 3: do that.

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Speaker 1: Prosecutors asked the judge to break the cases into four

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Speaker 1: separate trials, one for each suspect. The judge granted this request.

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Speaker 1: In the weeks leading up to the first trial, d

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Speaker 1: Shropshire asked the judge for more time to collect evidence,

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Speaker 1: but got denied.

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Speaker 3: He just didn't feel like he had enough, I guess,

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Speaker 3: so he dropped the charges against all of them.

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Speaker 1: And despite what the grand jury decided without the proverbial

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Speaker 1: smoking gun, the district attorney refused to move forward.

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Speaker 3: In my experience in law enforcement, most prosecutors are extremely

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Speaker 3: risk avert. They will just drop the case rather than

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Speaker 3: press forward on what they consider a weak case.

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Speaker 1: The decision left the people of Clinton on edge. Four

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Speaker 1: suspected murderers were suddenly back on the streets.

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Speaker 5: As for the Guillery family.

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Speaker 1: Devastated, Genora's brother in law, Albert, couldn't believe it.

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Speaker 6: My daughter said, Daddy do something. So that kept me

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Speaker 6: pestering the law enforcement offices, the deputies to see what

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Speaker 6: was going on and how it was proceeded.

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Speaker 1: That's when things got political. The Guillery case became a

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Speaker 1: talking point when the district Attorney, Charles Shropshire, ran for reelection.

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Speaker 1: His challenger, a man named Sam Daquilla, made a campaign

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Speaker 1: promise to bring justice to Genora.

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Speaker 6: Fortunately, the voters recognized that they had a gutlass district

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Speaker 6: attorney and they threw him out and a real district

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Speaker 6: attorney came in.

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Speaker 1: In two thousand and two, Sam d'quilla beat incumbent Charles

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Speaker 1: Shropshire by nearly twenty percentage points.

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Speaker 6: Sam d'quilla was elected and just he was everything that

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Speaker 6: we could have prayed for.

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Speaker 1: Sam Daquilla delivered on his promise and got a grand

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Speaker 1: jury to again indict Philip Skipper, Johnny and Lisa Hoyt,

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Speaker 1: and John Balliot all were charged with first degree murder

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Speaker 1: and faced the death penalty.

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Speaker 6: We we very happy. There was a lot of relief

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Speaker 6: on the part of the famil.

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Speaker 1: That relief would be short lived. You may remember from

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Speaker 1: the last episode that trace amounts of DNA were found

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Speaker 1: under Genor's fingernails. That DNA was sent off to a

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Speaker 1: forensic lap and since it was the early days of

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Speaker 1: DNA testing, it took forever to compare it to the

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Speaker 1: DNA of the four suspects. When the results finally came back,

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Speaker 1: prosecutors took another gut punch.

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Speaker 7: East Feliciana District Attorney Sam Dquilla says DNA gathered from

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Speaker 7: one of the fingernails of murder victim Jenoor Gillery does

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Speaker 7: not match any of the suspects in the case.

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Speaker 1: Without a positive match, the case against all four suspects

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Speaker 1: got exponentially weaker.

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Speaker 7: Nonetheless, prosecutors say right now they're proceeding with a capital

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Speaker 7: murder trial sometime in June.

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Speaker 1: When you think about murder trials, especially trials involving the

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Speaker 1: death penalty, you probably don't ever think about the costs involved.

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Speaker 1: But for the small town of Clinton, Louisiana, the price

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Speaker 1: tag for trying for defendants with capital murder was astronomical.

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Speaker 3: There were some budget constraints with first degree murder trials.

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Speaker 1: Former federal agent and journalist Chuck Hussmeyer covered the Genora

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Speaker 1: Gillery murder trials.

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Speaker 4: It involves a lot of extra steps.

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Speaker 3: You have to bring in a psychologist, You've got to

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Speaker 3: make sure that examine the defendants. There's just a lot

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Speaker 3: of expense to a first degree murder case.

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Speaker 5: Here's something fascinating.

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Speaker 1: Capital punishment cases in Louisiana require the defense to put

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Speaker 1: together a mitigation team, usually composed of a psychiatrist, a psychologist,

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Speaker 1: and a social worker who analyzed the defendant before, during,

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Speaker 1: and after a crime. If a defense and can't afford

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Speaker 1: that mitigation team, the state has to pay for it.

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Speaker 1: There are also the cost involved with jurors. Louisiana state

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Speaker 1: law requires jurors to be sequestered for the duration of

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Speaker 1: the trial. That means twelve hotel rooms, three meals a day,

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Speaker 1: and around the clock security. And when you're dealing with

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Speaker 1: four separate trials, you have to multiply that by four.

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Speaker 1: When it's all said and done, these cases would cost

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Speaker 1: the state of Louisiana, hundreds of millions of dollars. All

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Speaker 1: of that played into wide District Attorney Samtaquilla lowered the

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Speaker 1: charges against all four defendants.

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Speaker 4: They were all charged with second degree murder.

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Speaker 3: And it's an easier and less expensive series of trials

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Speaker 3: he would have to go through. It wouldn't bankrupt the parish.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I know it seems silly to talk about that,

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Speaker 3: but I guess budget constraints are a real problem.

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Speaker 1: So instead of the death penalty, each defendant now faced

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Speaker 1: life in prison. But the DA wasn't done wheeling and dealing.

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Speaker 1: His next move would be one of the most controversial.

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Speaker 3: You make a deal with one of them, and in

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Speaker 3: this case, the weak link was John Balllyo. He did

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Speaker 3: seem as though he may have been one of the

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Speaker 3: least culpable of the four, So that seemed like a

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Speaker 3: good place to start here, you know, trying to make

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Speaker 3: a deal, And that's exactly what the new district attorney did.

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Speaker 1: I don't blame the DA. He was relying on the

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Speaker 1: DNA under Jennora's fingertips to be his smoking gun. Cutting

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Speaker 1: a deal with one of the four suspects was one

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Speaker 1: of DA Sandiquilla's final moves if he was going to

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Speaker 1: bring justice for the guileries with the blessing of Jennora's family,

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Speaker 1: the DA made a deal that came at a cost.

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Speaker 1: In exchange for his testimony against the other three suspects,

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Speaker 1: the DA offered to charge John Balliot as a juvenile,

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Speaker 1: meaning he'd only be incarcerated until his twenty first birthday.

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Speaker 1: It was a gutsy decision that could backfire if the

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Speaker 1: DA failed to secure convictions of the other three defendants.

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Speaker 3: But I understand why the district attorney did it because

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Speaker 3: without John Balllyo's testimony, there's just no evidence. So you know,

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Speaker 3: he had to make a deal with the devil to

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Speaker 3: get some justice for Janore.

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Speaker 1: The first to go on trial was Philip Skipper. His

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Speaker 1: trial took place in historic downtown Clinton.

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Speaker 3: Clinton's kind of centered on a square, the town Square.

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Speaker 1: Clinton's Courthouse sits in the middle of that square, and

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Speaker 1: the whole area looks like it's frozen in time.

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Speaker 3: I think the courthouse is the oldest still functioning courthouse

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Speaker 3: in America.

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Speaker 1: Built before the Civil War in eighteen forty, the large

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Speaker 1: white brick building with Florida ceiling columns takes up a

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Speaker 1: city block and looks like something you'd find in Athens, Greece.

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Speaker 4: Last time I was there, they didn't have an elevator.

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Speaker 3: There was a lady with a handicap and she couldn't

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Speaker 3: go up the stairs, so somebody had to literally carry

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Speaker 3: her up and down the old flight of wooden steps.

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Speaker 3: So it's sort of like stepping back in time when

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Speaker 3: you go into Clinton.

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Speaker 1: That's why the town is so popular with Hollywood. Its

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Speaker 1: downtown looks like an old movie set. The vampire drama

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Speaker 1: True Blood as well as The Dukes of Hazzard are

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Speaker 1: just two projects that were filmed there, and Hollywood also

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Speaker 1: played a role in these cases. At the time and

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Speaker 1: even today. Having the most advanced forensics was something many

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Speaker 1: jurors came to expect in trials because of what they

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Speaker 1: saw on TV shows like CSI.

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Speaker 5: They call it the CSI effect.

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Speaker 1: As Philip Skipper's trial grew closer, prosecutors were still falling short.

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Speaker 3: They weren't able to really find any evidence that linked

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Speaker 3: Philip Skipper to the murder.

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Speaker 1: Maybe because the Skippers were paid to clean up the

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Speaker 1: crime scene. Prosecutors lacked DNA, so they had to rely

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Speaker 1: on what they did have that twenty five thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: payout from Genora's Life Insure It's policy.

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Speaker 3: And in two thousand it was an enormous amount of money.

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Speaker 3: But you're talking about two people who had to bum

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Speaker 3: money from their neighbor just to buy diapers for their

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Speaker 3: baby and were living in an old mobile home, so

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Speaker 3: to them it was quite a windfall profit.

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Speaker 1: The prosecution also had video evidence of the crime scene

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Speaker 1: that detectives took after discovering her body. The footage contained

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Speaker 1: no sound, but the gory images spoke volumes.

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Speaker 3: It was so horrendous and I was just stunned, really

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Speaker 3: and how violent these people were.

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Speaker 1: Most importantly, prosecutors had the testimony of John Balliot. His

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Speaker 1: eyewitness account was crucial for securing a conviction. John began

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Speaker 1: by showing the jury the tattoo located on his back

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Speaker 1: that made him part of the brotherhood. Then, in graphic detail,

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Speaker 1: he explained how he earned that tattoo. It was testimony

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Speaker 1: that Chuck Husmeyer will never forget, and neither did I

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Speaker 1: after listening, this is very hard to hear.

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Speaker 3: Philip Skipper, Johnny Hoyt, John Balllyo, and Lisa Skipper Hoyt.

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Speaker 3: We're all sitting around the trailer getting stoned. About two

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Speaker 3: thirty in the morning. Johnny Hoyt asked Baally o, Hey,

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Speaker 3: do you want to go kill Jennore Gillery. That's how

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Speaker 3: you'll get your tattoo. They walked across the street, mostly barefoot.

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Speaker 3: They didn't want to leave shoe impressions.

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Speaker 1: Johnny Hoyt's wife, Lisa, knocked on Jenora's door while the

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Speaker 1: men hit off to the side.

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Speaker 4: Jenore came to the door in her nightgown.

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Speaker 3: She has been sound asleep and Lisa asked her for

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Speaker 3: some money to buy the baby, meaning Amy and Phillip's

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Speaker 3: baby diapers and truder in nature.

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Speaker 4: Jennire turned around to.

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Speaker 3: Go get them some money, and that's when they pounced

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Speaker 3: on her, and John Balllyo said.

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Speaker 4: That she didn't go down easily. I mean she was really.

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Speaker 3: Fighting them and it's four on one, you know, three

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Speaker 3: men and one Johnny Hoick punched in the face first.

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Speaker 3: She turned and ran to the phone. There's blood on

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Speaker 3: the phone. She tried to pick it up to use it.

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Speaker 4: She couldn't.

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Speaker 3: She had enough time to hit her again. She reached

302
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Speaker 3: in a drawer to get some kind of a knife.

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Speaker 3: They kept attacking her. I mean, they're like rabid dogs,

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Speaker 3: all right, they're attacking her. She's running. She went back

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Speaker 3: into the house farther. She got into her bedroom, tried

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Speaker 3: to lock the door. Naturally, they forced it open. One

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Speaker 3: of them picked up a pretty heavy lamp off of

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Speaker 3: a nightstand and just cracked it across her head, and

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Speaker 3: that's what killed her.

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Speaker 1: It's almost unbelievable to think her neighbors and good friends,

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Speaker 1: her employees carried out these violent acts. Over the course

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Speaker 1: of John Balllyo's testimony, he only admitted to tying up

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Speaker 1: Janora's dog, Cleo.

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Speaker 3: I've heard a good bit of confessions. I've never heard

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Speaker 3: one like that. That was that brugal. I mean, that's

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Speaker 3: one of the most brutal crimes I've ever covered in

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Speaker 3: my post law enforcement career as a journalist.

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Speaker 1: But Philip Skipper's defense attorney promised the jury that he

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Speaker 1: would unmask the real killer and pointed the blame at

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Speaker 1: the original suspect, the Baton Rouge police officer named Steve.

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Speaker 5: Remember him.

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Speaker 1: Officer Steve was one of the original suspects who was

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Speaker 1: said to be stalking Genora. Steve took the stand and

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Speaker 1: immediately denied stalking her. He said he stopped cooperating in

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Speaker 1: the investigation because he felt like he was being framed.

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Speaker 1: He claimed his polygraph was administered improperly.

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Speaker 5: And that's why he failed.

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Speaker 1: In a bizarre moment during closing arguments, Philip Skipper's lawyer

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Speaker 1: suggested a riddle that pointed to Genera Guillery's real killer.

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Speaker 1: There's no way to say this that doesn't sound ridiculous.

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Speaker 5: He said.

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Speaker 1: Genora took five shots, five blows, and five stab wounds

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Speaker 1: five five five. He then casually added that Steve was

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Speaker 1: born in May of nineteen fifty five.

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Speaker 5: In other words, five five five.

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Speaker 4: So that's a bit odd. Yeah, you don't see that

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Speaker 4: every day.

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Speaker 1: It was a ridiculous argument, and the jury knew it.

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Speaker 1: They deliberated for less than an hour and found Philip

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Speaker 1: Skipper guilty of second degree murder.

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Speaker 4: Philip Skipper got life in prison.

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Speaker 1: The judge called Genora's murder brutal, senseless, and gruesome. He

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Speaker 1: sentenced Philip to life in prison and said he wished

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Speaker 1: he could give him even more than that. At the

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Speaker 1: time Johnny Hoyt stood trial, Louisiana law required only ten

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Speaker 1: of twelve jurors to find the defendant guilty to secure

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Speaker 1: a conviction. That law, by the way, has since been eliminated,

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Speaker 1: but at the time, prosecutors played the odds and once again,

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Speaker 1: John Ballio's testimony was central to their case.

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Speaker 3: Accord to John Ballio, Johnny Hoyt came into town the

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Speaker 3: knight that they killed Jenore and was instrumental and participating

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Speaker 3: in the murder.

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Speaker 1: But Johnny Hoyd's lawyer worked to pin the blame back

354
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Speaker 1: on John Ballo. He argued that years of abuse from

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Speaker 1: Philip Skipper turned John into a murderer.

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Speaker 3: Philip Skipper sexually abused him for years. You know, he

357
00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:14,040
Speaker 3: burned the kid a lot with cigarettes and you know,

358
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Speaker 3: beat him, sexually abuse him.

359
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Speaker 1: Johnny Hooight's lawyer called John Ballio's testimony a rodden, worm

360
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Speaker 1: infested apple. He told the jurors that you don't eat

361
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Speaker 1: around the rotten part, you throw it all away. Well,

362
00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:32,720
Speaker 1: the jurors threw that argument to way. They needed about

363
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Speaker 1: two hours to find Johnny Hoit guilty of second degree murder.

364
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Speaker 1: What's interesting about that is only ten jurors voted for guilty,

365
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Speaker 1: but it was enough to convict and have Johnny Hoyight

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Speaker 1: spend the rest of his life in prison. That meant

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Speaker 1: Johnny's wife, Lisa Hoyt would be next to go on trial,

368
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Speaker 1: But after seeing her husband and brother get put away

369
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Speaker 1: for life, she decided not to test her luck.

370
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Speaker 4: She never went to trial on this case.

371
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Speaker 3: She pled guilty to a manslaughter count and she got

372
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Speaker 3: the twenty five year max for manslaughter.

373
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Speaker 5: She should feel lucky, that's all she got. All these

374
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Speaker 5: people are evil.

375
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Speaker 1: But there is something about a woman using a baby

376
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Speaker 1: to trick another woman that feels really evil. Shortly after

377
00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:37,760
Speaker 1: all of Jenora and Guillery's killers were sentenced, tragedy struck

378
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Speaker 1: the Gillery family once again.

379
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Speaker 6: Genora's dad, just a few weeks after the last trial,

380
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Speaker 6: died really of a broken heart.

381
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Speaker 1: Jenora's father was seventy years old. He passed away in

382
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Speaker 1: July two thousand and five.

383
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Speaker 6: He loved this child, he loved his family, and so

384
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Speaker 6: it had a very negative effect on him.

385
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Speaker 1: Genora's dad was buried next to her in their hometown

386
00:22:04,640 --> 00:22:09,280
Speaker 1: of Eunice, Louisiana. In a nod to Genora's love of animals,

387
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Speaker 1: her tombstone features a drawing of a dog and a horse.

388
00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:17,440
Speaker 1: If Genora was still alive today, her brother in law

389
00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:20,760
Speaker 1: imagines those animals would still be a big part of

390
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Speaker 1: her life.

391
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Speaker 6: She'd still be living in Clinton. It would probably have

392
00:22:24,920 --> 00:22:28,280
Speaker 6: had to buy more land to house the dogs and

393
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Speaker 6: horses and other assorted animals that she would have come across.

394
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Speaker 1: Another wrinkle in this whole story is that long before

395
00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:41,960
Speaker 1: the Skippers were suspects, they reached out to Albert for

396
00:22:42,040 --> 00:22:45,119
Speaker 1: help collecting Genora's life insurance policy.

397
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Speaker 6: Within a couple of days of her death, the Skippers

398
00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:53,879
Speaker 6: contacted me with the policy and I assisted them in

399
00:22:54,080 --> 00:22:55,639
Speaker 6: getting it paid.

400
00:22:56,200 --> 00:23:00,640
Speaker 1: Albert never found it unusual because he was aware of policy.

401
00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:06,320
Speaker 6: Actually, Genora had told the family that in case anything

402
00:23:06,359 --> 00:23:11,200
Speaker 6: happens would happen to her, these Skippers would be provided for.

403
00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:15,080
Speaker 1: And so helping the Skippers collect that money didn't raise

404
00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:16,360
Speaker 1: any red flags.

405
00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:18,640
Speaker 6: It did not seem out of the ordinary at all.

406
00:23:19,359 --> 00:23:23,640
Speaker 6: They were in the cessator circumstances. It was purely her

407
00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:28,680
Speaker 6: love for that family, her concern for that family's well being,

408
00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:34,320
Speaker 6: and her insistence on participating in their future in a

409
00:23:34,359 --> 00:23:35,080
Speaker 6: positive way.

410
00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:40,199
Speaker 1: No one, including Albert, saw the Skippers as anything but

411
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Speaker 1: helpful and friendly neighbors.

412
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Speaker 6: Skipper family was right there with us. They behaved just

413
00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:49,960
Speaker 6: as one would expect close friends to behave.

414
00:23:50,800 --> 00:23:54,400
Speaker 1: Obviously, Albert's feelings about Philip and the Skippers have done

415
00:23:54,400 --> 00:23:55,000
Speaker 1: a one eighty.

416
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Speaker 6: I would not sit here and tell you that I

417
00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:03,160
Speaker 6: did not consider a number of ways that I could

418
00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:12,400
Speaker 6: have gotten some time with Philip Skipper or reached out

419
00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:15,560
Speaker 6: and touched him in some way. And when I say

420
00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:19,000
Speaker 6: reached out and touched him, I didn't mean a gentle

421
00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:25,640
Speaker 6: pet on his bag. But the court system, the criminal

422
00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:28,720
Speaker 6: justice system, is something that I've chosen to live by,

423
00:24:28,760 --> 00:24:29,680
Speaker 6: and so I lived by.

424
00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:34,480
Speaker 1: Some including one of the detectives who worked this case,

425
00:24:34,560 --> 00:24:37,359
Speaker 1: have labeled the murder of Genera Guillery a hate crime,

426
00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:39,360
Speaker 1: but Albert disagrees.

427
00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:46,680
Speaker 6: I've never related this to Louisiana or conditions in Louisiana.

428
00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:53,280
Speaker 6: The skinheads exist in America, and that's just a part

429
00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:57,600
Speaker 6: of life. I don't believe that their attack on General

430
00:24:58,520 --> 00:25:04,720
Speaker 6: was as much racial as it was financial, although I

431
00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:09,359
Speaker 6: recognized that there are certainly some serious racial implications in this.

432
00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:16,160
Speaker 6: Philip's Coharts had to be really upset and angry at

433
00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:21,320
Speaker 6: the fact that in this world Genora could be so

434
00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:26,760
Speaker 6: successful while they were so unsuccessful, and so I'm sure

435
00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:29,280
Speaker 6: that that inflamed their racial passions.

436
00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:34,480
Speaker 1: In twenty twelve, Philip Skipper underwent surgery in prison and died.

437
00:25:35,119 --> 00:25:38,199
Speaker 1: There's no indication of what happened, but given that he

438
00:25:38,280 --> 00:25:42,240
Speaker 1: was just thirty four years old, perhaps some prison.

439
00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:43,680
Speaker 5: Justice was done.

440
00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:48,159
Speaker 1: Philip was survived by his wife, Amy Skipper, who is

441
00:25:48,200 --> 00:25:52,040
Speaker 1: one person we haven't talked much about. Amy Skipper was

442
00:25:52,080 --> 00:25:54,879
Speaker 1: never charged in the case. She was pregnant at the

443
00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:58,359
Speaker 1: time of Genora's murder and testified that she was asleep

444
00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:00,200
Speaker 1: when the others carried out the crime.

445
00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:03,200
Speaker 3: And as far as I know, she hasn't been charged

446
00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:05,159
Speaker 3: with anything. She wasn't really involved in it.

447
00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:07,480
Speaker 5: Tuckhusmeyer has his opinion on this.

448
00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:11,800
Speaker 3: Philip Skipper and Johnny Hoyt, they're from Livingston Parish. When

449
00:26:11,800 --> 00:26:13,320
Speaker 3: I was young, and even when I was first in

450
00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:16,439
Speaker 3: law enforcement, a Livingston Parish was like known as the

451
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:18,520
Speaker 3: home of the Klan. My first partner at the DA's

452
00:26:18,560 --> 00:26:20,960
Speaker 3: office was a black investigator and we had to go

453
00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:22,800
Speaker 3: over there to serve a warrener or subpoena or something.

454
00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:24,359
Speaker 3: And he's like, I ain't going to be over here

455
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:26,880
Speaker 3: after dark, Like why he goes because you just can't

456
00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:27,480
Speaker 3: if you're black.

457
00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:31,080
Speaker 4: That's the reputation that lives in Parish had. So not

458
00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:32,680
Speaker 4: surprising that these guys.

459
00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:35,440
Speaker 1: Grew up like that, and that's how a man working

460
00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:39,399
Speaker 1: in the DA's office felt. Imagine being a woman living

461
00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:45,320
Speaker 1: in an unpopulated road. That was Genora's reality every day. Still,

462
00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:48,520
Speaker 1: she believed she had friends watching her back.

463
00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:50,719
Speaker 3: There's no doubt that they were nice to her at

464
00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:52,760
Speaker 3: the time, but that all turned out to be a

465
00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:55,879
Speaker 3: you know, a mask. John Balyo said they were always

466
00:26:55,920 --> 00:27:01,040
Speaker 3: call her names behind her back and sort of belittle

467
00:27:01,080 --> 00:27:03,280
Speaker 3: her and talk about how they had fooled her. I mean,

468
00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:07,000
Speaker 3: I wish she had had a more skeptical bone in

469
00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:10,399
Speaker 3: her body somewhere, because we wouldn't be having this conversation.

470
00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:12,800
Speaker 4: It should be living out there with the dogs right now.

471
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:17,119
Speaker 5: So then there's Johnny Hoyt. Today.

472
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:20,680
Speaker 1: Johnny Hoyt is serving out a life sentence. In two

473
00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:24,080
Speaker 1: thousand and eight, Johnny was doing court on an unrelated

474
00:27:24,200 --> 00:27:28,440
Speaker 1: murder charge. According to the warden, that's when he planned

475
00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:33,600
Speaker 1: to escape using a makeshift handcuff key. Unfortunately for Johnny,

476
00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:37,080
Speaker 1: prison officials caught wind of his plan. He was put

477
00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:41,080
Speaker 1: into solitary confinement in twenty ten and remained there for

478
00:27:41,119 --> 00:27:46,399
Speaker 1: the next decade. Then in twenty twenty, Johnny sued the prison,

479
00:27:46,520 --> 00:27:51,160
Speaker 1: claiming his rights were violated. A judge dismissed the suit

480
00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:55,679
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three. As for Johnny's wife, Lisa Hoyt,

481
00:27:56,119 --> 00:27:59,879
Speaker 1: she took a plea deal and served just over twenty years.

482
00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:05,119
Speaker 1: Today she is a free woman. That leaves us with

483
00:28:05,240 --> 00:28:09,719
Speaker 1: John Ballio, whose confession and cooperation helped to bring justice

484
00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:11,000
Speaker 1: for genera guillery.

485
00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:14,320
Speaker 3: By the time this case was sort of solved and

486
00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:19,439
Speaker 3: they charged everybody, he was nineteen maybe twenty, so he was,

487
00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:22,800
Speaker 3: you know, facing the possibility of juvenile life, which is

488
00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:25,119
Speaker 3: not but like a year, you know, he's already almost

489
00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:26,160
Speaker 3: twenty years old.

490
00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:30,160
Speaker 1: Including time served. John Ballio ended up spending about four

491
00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:31,439
Speaker 1: and a half years in jail.

492
00:28:31,720 --> 00:28:34,120
Speaker 3: The DA really had a choice, let all these killers

493
00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:36,919
Speaker 3: go or get three of them, and he chose to

494
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:39,440
Speaker 3: get three of them, and you know, you had to

495
00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:40,600
Speaker 3: make a deal with the fourth.

496
00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:42,040
Speaker 4: I think it's a.

497
00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:45,480
Speaker 3: Total miscarriage of justice to have to cut a deal

498
00:28:45,520 --> 00:28:48,719
Speaker 3: with a guy like John Balllyo and give him, you know,

499
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:52,600
Speaker 3: one year in jail for murdering somebody like Janora Guillery.

500
00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:55,200
Speaker 3: I mean, but I understand why the district attorney did it,

501
00:28:55,200 --> 00:28:59,600
Speaker 3: because without John Ballio's testimony, he wouldn't have gotten convictions.

502
00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:00,320
Speaker 4: On the other three.

503
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:02,680
Speaker 3: I mean, he did what he could do to get

504
00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:04,520
Speaker 3: himself the best deal possible.

505
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:09,560
Speaker 1: John Balllyo was released from prison on his twenty first birthday,

506
00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:12,480
Speaker 1: but he'd quickly find his way back.

507
00:29:12,920 --> 00:29:15,400
Speaker 3: He's been in and out of jail since he was

508
00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:18,600
Speaker 3: released on the Janoor Gillery case. You know, he's been

509
00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:22,640
Speaker 3: arrested a few times. He's just part of that group

510
00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:24,240
Speaker 3: of people. They are, you know, in and out of

511
00:29:24,280 --> 00:29:25,320
Speaker 3: prison all the time.

512
00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:34,880
Speaker 1: Next time on American Homicide, a friend's night out ends

513
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:39,720
Speaker 1: up in murder and exposes a bizarre love triangle. I'm

514
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:43,479
Speaker 1: slow Glass. We'll head to Covington, Louisiana for the story

515
00:29:43,480 --> 00:30:00,400
Speaker 1: of Thomas Tally. That's next time on American Homicide. Contact

516
00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:04,480
Speaker 1: the American Homicide Team by emailing us at American Homicide

517
00:30:04,520 --> 00:30:09,120
Speaker 1: Pod at gmail dot com. That's American Homicide Pod at

518
00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:13,120
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. American Homicide is hosted and written by

519
00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:17,600
Speaker 1: me Sloane Glass and is a production of Glass Podcasts,

520
00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:22,160
Speaker 1: a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts.

521
00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:26,520
Speaker 1: The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Todd Gans.

522
00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:30,080
Speaker 1: The series is also written and produced by Todd Gans,

523
00:30:30,440 --> 00:30:34,200
Speaker 1: with additional writing by Ben Fetterman and Andrea Gunning. Our

524
00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:38,280
Speaker 1: associate producer is Kristin Melcurrie. Our iHeart team is Ali

525
00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:43,560
Speaker 1: Perry and Jessica Crimecheck. Audio editing, mixing and mastering by

526
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:48,280
Speaker 1: Nico Aaruka. American Homicides' theme song was composed by Oliver

527
00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:53,120
Speaker 1: Baines of Noisier Music Library provided by my Music. Follow

528
00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:57,360
Speaker 1: American Homicide on Apple Podcasts, and please rate and review

529
00:30:57,400 --> 00:31:01,280
Speaker 1: American Homicide. Your five star review a long way towards

530
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531
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Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get

532
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Speaker 1: your podcasts,