WEBVTT - The Death March 0:00:00.960 --> 0:00:04.040 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.320 those of the authors and participants and do not necessarily 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:11.320 represent those of iHeart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:16.440 This series contains discussions of violence and sexual violence. Listener 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:24.400 discretion is advised. Previously an Algorithm journalist Thomas Hargrove warned 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:27.440 police in northwest Indiana that they might have a serial 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:31.120 killer and the loose. Starting in the nineteen nineties, we've 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:34.040 seen several women who were found strangled in or near 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:38.040 abandoned buildings, and four years later, after the murder of 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:42.760 Africa Hardy, police arrested Darren Vaughan and Detective Shaan Ford 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:46.040 began interrogating him. In your own words, what would you say? 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:48.519 Has brought you here today? Why do you think you 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:54.120 were arrested? Will say a hard Vaughn confessed to strangling 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:58.000 Africa Hardy, and he told Ford and Captain Hinojosa that 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:01.440 he had killed many more. How many people are you 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:08.360 responsible for killing? His lifetime or couldn't even two? Vaughan 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:11.160 took police to the body of one of his victims 0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:14.520 to provide evidence for his murders, but he wanted to 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:17.480 make a deal. What are you trying to get out 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:25.520 of this? Before? On a birthday? From iHeart Radio and 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:32.880 Tenderfoot TV. This is algorithm. I'm ben Kee Brick. At 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:39.640 one am on Sunday, October, Vaughan had just led investigators 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:43.200 to the body of Anneth Jones, and just as Vaughan 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:46.640 had described, they'd found her buried under a pile of 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:51.600 stuft animals in the basement of an abandoned building. It 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:55.600 appeared that Vaughan was a serial killer and his m 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:59.000 O was the same one that Hargrove's algorithm had identified 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:04.720 a hiller strangling women in Gary. But how many murders 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:07.880 was her responsible for and were any of them on 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:14.560 Hargrove's list. After police found anne jones body, they knew 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:17.560 the investigation was going to get big and they wanted 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:22.720 to keep Vaughan cooperating as long as they could. Detective 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:26.679 Seawan Ford and Kelly Mickey convinced Vaughan to take them 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:30.480 to another body, and Vaughan guided them ten minutes north 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:34.960 to afforded up building on nineteen Avenue. Eerily, it was 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:38.360 next door to a house that had a banner advertising 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:44.760 Miss Deed's Hugs and Kisses Daycare. Here, Vaughan told detectives 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:49.080 they'd find another body lying in the garage covered in plywood. 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:53.200 He warned them to announce their presence before entering the 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:58.440 building in case someone was quote using the house, and 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:01.800 once again, detective found the body just where Von said 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:05.000 it would be, in the building's garage, under a pile 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:10.959 of plywood boards. This victim, later identified as Tiara Baby, 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.400 appeared to have been dead for months. She was wearing 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:18.120 a sweatshirt and jeans, and her body looked sunken in 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:23.840 because her flesh had putrified inside her clothes. Detective Mickey 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:26.919 tried to keep Von talking while she recorded on her 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:30.480 cell phone. The audio quality is rough, but you can 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:33.960 hear Detective Forward returning to the car and asking Van 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:41.000 to take them to one more body complete jagg Off. 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:43.560 I have a partner I worked with on regular basis 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:47.200 and he dreams of stuff like this. He asked Vaughan 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:50.440 to do it as a favor for his coworker. He 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:54.280 just got into path. Do you have another one? I 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:56.920 know it's dumb to ask, that's ins ridiculous. You're going 0:03:56.960 --> 0:03:59.480 to take the stone? I one th right. I won't 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:04.560 point on all somebody. I hope you're prosecuted. Well, let 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:07.440 me tell you this. You do, you do one more 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:10.680 and you're definitely I'm a prosecutor's attention to why you 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:14.480 can't be we're supposed to. Vaughn said he'd been back 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:17.159 to the site where he left this body, and that 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:20.479 he thought a worker that was demolishing abandoned buildings in 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:24.200 the area might have come across this victim. So Ford 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:27.080 called the Gary Police Department to ask them if they 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:30.039 had found any bodies and the area of van was describing. 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:35.159 This is a girl. It's a girl. They're all girls. 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:38.719 They're all the guys. I can't give you all the 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:43.080 guys are jobs. I can't. You'll probably figure out you 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:47.000 guys who hired you know what. At this point, I 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:52.960 don't think anybody's interested in the hiring. Well, I know 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:57.200 one of them pass FBI ramifications. Believe the things will 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:01.039 be very interesting. They want to know how we got 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:04.280 to one of the federal faras. I don't know if 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:07.240 he's a federal Winds or fay it my dear cop. 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:10.800 I think he was an undercover cop. Yeah, I think 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:15.360 he's on the cover cop. You killed him? Yeah? And 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:17.520 then it's more than one person of all, so I 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:23.400 can't give you that boblem So how many women do 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:28.359 you thinkers throughout the area? Here? Me or that I 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:33.279 know personally either or okay, and that I know personally, 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:39.800 maybe thirties me, maybe Quail, thirteen or year and none 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:42.440 of them, no, mine don't get found. So I don't know. 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:47.279 Some of these bodies should have been found. In fact, 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:51.160 I know Gary found three, but since no DNA, no sex, 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:53.880 none of head, they'll never know who killed him. Person 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:59.240 to recap, Vaughn was now claiming he was responsible for 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:02.880 killing thirty teen women and Gary in just the last year. 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:07.159 Ford returns to the car and says Gary hadn't found 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:11.320 anybodies recently in the area of Vaughan had mentioned, Did 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:14.560 they say found me he hadn't heard of. Well, at 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:17.840 least we're not far from all right. That's now you're 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:20.559 going a brawl away. As they drive to the next 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:23.120 crime scene. It's hard to tell Ford is trying to 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:26.799 apply Vaughan for information, where if he's just making small talk. 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:30.560 Do you got any good drug robbery guys in the 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:34.120 streets that you must specialty? They don't have that specialty, 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:38.840 written no more, no best I know they don't report it. 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:41.360 Of course they don't. That's why it's the best crime. 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:46.520 Maybe he is just making conversation figuring it will pay 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:51.080 dividends later in the investigation. Now, I don't want to 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:54.080 be putting all this in your head. But I've already done. 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:57.760 I know. I've been all of Florida and sex since 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:01.440 that's Florida. That's where it really and it jumped off 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:06.200 big down there California. All I say, only stuff Indiana 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:09.840 or we'll be tied up for a long time. You 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:14.840 can take me on vacation, man, no on, stop my 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:20.440 wrist me and you will be my ties. So what 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:23.200 is the worst part about Like when you kill somebody, 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:27.240 like you're like part no. But I mean, like like 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:29.400 you said, you're moving that one girl down in the 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:32.280 basement and like she started leaking. What is it that 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:37.520 you're like, dad? But bless it she leaking? We take 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:40.560 them away from the murder site. I really don't care 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:43.440 if they leak, because you're not gonna find no evidence 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:47.560 on the murder site. It's all I'm saying. Oh yeah, 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:50.960 I hear you. On So is that why you move him? Right? 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:53.560 And how long did it take you before you started 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:57.840 moving them? I'll always move him tough to move right? 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:01.160 And at what age did somebody start teaching me the 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:04.760 first person should? Oh, you didn't do that alone. No, 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:07.040 somebody had to teach me. You know you don't. But 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:09.520 I didn't know if it was like, you know, something happened, 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:13.480 you know what I mean, just happened. They arrived at 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:17.360 a third abandoned house. This one was a two story building. 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.200 At the top of the stairs, in a closet, police 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:25.360 found another body, and this time the body was skeletal 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:31.920 as it be for bo. Yeah, her bones are showing, 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:35.640 her skull is showing, saying, son of the other ones. 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:37.640 I couldn't bring you too, because y'all wouldn't be at 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:40.920 the tail. How what kills and does invation? You really 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:44.040 be for cold? Yeah, but at least the families could 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:47.040 have some peace, right. I gotta take you too once. 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:51.080 I know, like I'd like to say, mama's stays, I'm 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:53.520 taking all the MoMA's, These all mama's stakes, and these 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:58.920 keeping one's supposed to be killed. Okay, get other people 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:01.360 that are causing it? Said, they were pretty don exist 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:04.520 in the wrongs. Fie Long time. How many just between 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:08.560 me and you know? How many people you think keeps killing? Yeah? 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:12.160 Do you keep track? No? I know, I know. I 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:14.480 was upset when I found out there was a guy 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:19.640 who mixed I killed over five hundred. That upset because 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:23.599 you haven't because I hadn't. Oh so you wanted to 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:26.200 kill five time? I want to kill five hundred. I 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:28.400 was just used to being in Geary. I was known 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:32.240 at one time the best it was a year. And 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:34.800 then when he was looking at history and started reading 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.600 that hundred for my reason murder stuff, that people a 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:42.200 whole lot of more murders, so how many things? Told him, Yeah, 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:46.080 I'm under the hundred. I know that under a hundreds. 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:50.880 Since you were nine, I'm right over a hundred. I've 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:55.800 had to be years. What thirteen this year? I have 0:09:55.920 --> 0:10:04.320 way more than thirteen this year month. Wow. At first, 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:07.120 when I heard Vaughn's claim of three murders a month, 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:11.280 I thought Vaughan was again contradicting himself, because earlier he 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:13.960 said he'd only killed thirteen women in Gary that year. 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:17.000 But then I remembered he also said he'd killed men 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:20.040 as well, and people out of state, so he's not 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:24.360 necessarily being inconsistent here. Still, there's something about his tone 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:28.920 that makes me think he's embellishing his story. The investigation 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:34.160 was just beginning, though. The next day, officers continued their interrogation, 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:38.680 and the next night Vaughn led them to even more victims. 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:57.640 On October twenty, two, days after Vaughan's arrest and the 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:02.600 discovery of bodies and abandoned home, two press conferences were held. 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:05.920 My name is Karen Freeman Wilson. I'm Mayor of the 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:10.400 City of Gary, Indiana. We are here to discuss the 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:13.800 apprehension of a suspect who was in the custom of 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:18.480 the Hammond Police Department. This initially started with a murder 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:21.720 in the city of Hammond at Motel six. The Hammond 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:26.520 Police Department began an investigation which led them to a suspect. 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:33.719 They began questioning him and learned that there were additional victims, 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:37.240 and he led them to the bodies of those victims. 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:41.000 Has there been any indication on how many victims may 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:43.840 be out there at this point, we are unsure of 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:47.400 the number. As of last night, he was continuing to 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:51.080 lead police to the bodies of victims as he made 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:54.040 any statements that they're all here. In GARYA I mean, 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:57.240 I know the one. We believe there may be people 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:00.480 in other parts of Northwest Indian to be a little 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:05.360 bit lord. The second press conference was held by the 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:10.960 Hammond Police Chief good afternoon. As a result of our investigation, 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:13.680 it is believed that the suspect is a registered sex 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:16.319 offender in the state of Texas, a forty three year 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:19.559 old resident of Gary by the name of Darren Van. 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:24.440 The investigations of at least six are ongoing. It is 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:29.280 possible that investigation will lead to more victims, so we 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:31.079 have to be careful about what we say at this point. 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:35.240 So I'll take at least a couple of time. We're 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:39.440 dealing with police. It could go back as far as 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:42.600 twenty years based on some statements we have and that's 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:48.080 yet to be coaberative. Ham And Police had found exactly 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:52.719 what Hardgrive described in this letter as serial killer, strangling 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:57.400 women and Gary crimes going back to the nineties and 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:03.040 women's bodies left in abandoned billldings. A television production company 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:06.000 called me and they said, had you heard about Gary? 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:08.800 And I said what? And they told me all about 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:10.800 the arrest of Mr Van. He said he had been 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:14.120 active going back to the nineties and took them to 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:19.200 the scenes of abandoned buildings in Gary, Indiana, where they 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:24.640 recovered six previously unknown murder victims. So something I think 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:28.480 about sometimes is was there something I could have done better? 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:33.000 Because they weren't even looking and seven women died after 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.319 two thousand ten, I at least knew that there was 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:40.640 a serial killer active in Gary. Eventually, Vaughan was charged 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:45.839 with murdering seven women and Jones, Christine Williams, Suna Billingsley, 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:51.480 Tanya Gatwin, Tracy Martin, Tiera Beatty, and Africa Hardy. But 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:54.880 none of these seven victims were in hargross list. Hard 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:58.520 group had generated his list back in and the seven 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:01.840 murders that von had confess us too weren't cold cases. 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:05.280 They were all recent murders committed in the last year. 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:09.280 Some of the victims hadn't even been reported missing. This 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:11.760 was one of the aspects of the case that confused 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:14.680 me when I first learned about it. Vaughan had only 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:17.400 been charged for these recent murders, but according to the 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:21.560 press conference held shortly after Vaughan's arrest, Vaughan had alluded 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:25.000 to crimes going back twenty years and also In a 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:28.960 since deleted Facebook post, Hammond's mayor wrote that Vaughan had 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:32.440 admitted to quote a couple of homicides in Hammond back 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:37.560 in ninety four, and based on those statements, Hargrove became 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:40.440 convinced that Vaughan is responsible for at least some of 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:44.480 the murders his algorithm identified. How convinced are you that 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:47.520 this is the work of Van or another serial killer? 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:51.920 And kind of what what makes you think that? Well, 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:55.000 first of all, that's what he told Hammond police, that 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:57.400 he had been active going back to the mid nineties, 0:14:57.840 --> 0:14:59.840 and I would take him out his word that he 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:02.960 was responsible for some of these women who were found 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:07.560 in abandoned buildings. I think that's his them all, but 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:11.560 I don't have proof. When I started researching the case 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:15.240 and speaking to Hargrove, only a tiny trickle of information 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:18.680 had leaked out about Von's crimes. To try to avoid 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:21.280 biasing a jury, the judge put a gag order on 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:25.800 the case, preventing the lawyers involved, law enforcement or politicians 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:30.680 from discussing it publicly, and the trial faced delay after delay. 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:33.880 So for years, no one in the public, not even Hargrove, 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:37.480 knew the extent of Vaughan's crimes, or even what exactly 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:42.280 Vaughan had confessed to. Vaughan pled guilty to the seven murders, 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:46.280 but in a highly unusual move, the judge kept the 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:49.280 gag order in place after the trial ended, even though 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:53.120 Vaughan didn't seem interested in appealing the case. I'd never 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:55.920 heard of this happening before, and I began to wonder 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:58.840 if there was more to the story, something Lake County 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:01.760 was trying to cover up, but I also didn't want 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:05.520 to jump to conclusions. Yeah, it's interesting, So, yeah, there 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:09.000 there's a couple of statements in this press conference with 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:11.800 the police chief where it alludes to crimes that could 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:14.480 go back as far as twenty years. Then they kind 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:18.440 of put a gang order during the trial that then 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:23.480 justified not releasing information about his confession, even though the 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:26.960 case is now closed. So I'm still kind of in 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:28.880 the in the process of trying to get some of 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:32.960 that information. But you know, it almost feels like maybe 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:35.960 they did find some stuff and want to just sweep 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:39.720 it under the rug. I think that they were very 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:44.760 paranoid about making a reversible error. I couldn't tell you 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:47.320 more than that, I really don't know. What does that mean, 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:50.880 fear of reversible error, that maybe something about the way 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:55.480 les confession was obtained would be improper, yeah, or um 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:59.880 speculation that he's responsible for other murders beyond the step 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:03.040 for which he was convicted. I don't know. I don't understand. 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:05.439 Why do you have any theories as to why no 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:08.080 attempt has been made to link than to any of 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:10.879 these other murders, at least not to my knowledge. My 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:14.480 working theory is because you warned them about it, and 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:18.480 if it came out that indeed he was responsible for them, 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:23.040 that that could politically embarrassing that. I mean, that's that's 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:24.679 kind of just what in my head. But I have 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:29.159 no idea how people actually make these kinds of decisions. No, 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:34.040 that was the conversation I had with hard Grow before 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:37.560 I got my hands on Vond's confessions. So after him 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:41.080 and sent me the interrogations and police reports, I started 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:44.160 combing through the hours of audio and hundreds of pages 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:47.720 of documents. I was looking for any evidence that Vaughan 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:51.240 might be responsible for the crimes on Hargrow's list, But 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:54.000 also as I read and listened, I was trying to 0:17:54.040 --> 0:18:19.159 figure out whether Von's confessions were even credible. The Hammond 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:22.800 Police Department had sent me twelve hours if Darren Vaughn's 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:27.000 recorded confessions, as well as dozens of interviews with Vaughn's 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:31.920 relatives and the friends and family of Vaughn's victims. As 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:35.000 I listened through them, I was especially curious to find 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:38.120 out what the Hammond Mayor had been referring to when 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:41.240 he said Vaughn had confessed to quote a couple of 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:48.040 homicides and Hammond in But I also wanted to know 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:50.640 how much I should trust Vaughan in the first place. 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.000 And as I kept listening through his interrogation, some of 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:59.439 his claims just sounded bizarre or grandiose. To try to 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:02.639 put vaughn story into context, I went back and re 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:05.600 listened to an interview I've done a couple of months earlier. 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:10.120 We created Darren. Darren at age six, was taken from 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:13.800 his mother put in even a worse situation. This is 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:17.480 Goeko Cossage, one of the public defenders who was assigned 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:21.720 to Vaughan's case. And then my name is pronounced Goeko Cossage. 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:27.760 It's like crotch itch, but it's costage um. When I 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:30.280 got your email. You know, you told me that the 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:32.879 gag order was still in place. So I'm curious kind 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:35.359 of like, what can you talk about? What can't you 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:39.440 talk about? Well, I think specifically I can certainly talk 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:41.879 about anything from the public record, and I can also 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:44.960 probably just kind of generically tell you a little bit 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:48.280 about Darren's background without getting into too many specifics. To 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:52.040 say the least Costage doesn't mince words. You have to 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:56.040 understand Darren Van was the product of his fourteen year 0:19:56.080 --> 0:20:00.560 old mother being raped by the landlord. Cost It said 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:03.480 that when Von's mother gave birth to him in nineteen 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:07.680 seventy one, she was just fourteen years old. She had 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:12.159 three more daughters after that in very short order. So 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:16.919 this woman who was completely unequipped to probably have a pet, 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:21.760 had four children. When Vaughan was six, the Department of 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:25.240 Family and Children put him into foster care. For good 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:28.479 five six years. He was passed around through foster homes. 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:31.760 Almost in every foster home he was mistreated, and then 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:34.680 an eight two, he got placed at Thelma Marshall. The 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:39.560 Thelma Marshall Children's Home was a residential institution for foster kids. 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:44.000 They had I think it was sixteen boys, sixteen girls. 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:46.359 Eight of the boys were small and the girls were small. 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:48.880 Eight to the boys were teenagers, eight of the girls 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:52.200 were teenagers. They would go to neighborhood schools. They would 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:56.080 just stay at the home. The basketball court there, and 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:57.840 he had stuff down in the basement as far as 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:00.359 a ping pong table or in a pool table. In 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:03.880 the bedrooms were upstairs, in the kitchen was upstairs. According 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:06.800 to Vaughan, things might have looked fine if you visited 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:10.520 during the day, but after dark it turned into a nightmare. 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:14.320 The adults would leave at five o'clock and at night 0:21:14.400 --> 0:21:18.600 they would be left with the counselors who were and 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:20.920 they would go down in his hellhole of the basement 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:24.159 and they would have gladiator games where they would have 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:26.720 the kids square off and have to fight each other. 0:21:28.119 --> 0:21:31.040 Darren told us when he was being disciplined, they would 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:34.639 put him in a completely dark room with the dog 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:37.280 that he would have to climb on the pool table 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:40.199 and be up on the pool table pretty much all 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:42.600 night long, with his dog running around the outside of 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:49.400 the pool table barking at him to get at him. 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:53.240 When Von described his childhood to Detective Ford, he didn't 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:56.240 mention the years he'd spent living with the foster families 0:21:56.280 --> 0:21:59.399 at all, but Vaughan said his time at the Thelma 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:03.439 marshal Um was formative. Where did you live as a 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:07.360 kid that you remember besides the boy's homes? That's all 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:10.280 that you know? That's all I remember that somebody had 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:12.280 to tell me family history when I came home because 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:16.359 I didn't like nobody to okay. I was hitting people 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:18.320 with objects, so they had to come over with some 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:22.960 reason for Okay, So you were, you were violent even 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:28.399 as a young young kid. What you're saying put to 0:22:28.400 --> 0:22:32.400 be an environment where I had to be valid. So okay, 0:22:32.440 --> 0:22:36.320 So due to this is that way you were originally taken? No, 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:39.200 I was. I was a kid. I had a violent 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:42.600 streeting me as a young young kid. But when you 0:22:42.640 --> 0:22:44.399 go to the homes you deal with people. Is in 0:22:44.520 --> 0:22:47.160 there for a criminal activity? What year do you think 0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:49.159 you've got? How old do you think you are when 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:53.160 you went to the homes? I can tell you that's 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:55.640 the only place I remember is being home. Like when 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:58.119 I get depressed, I go there. I sit outside of 0:22:58.200 --> 0:23:00.760 it really still today because my home it's not only 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:05.040 home I've ever known. That's insane. Well, what did you 0:23:05.119 --> 0:23:10.160 go when? I understand what you're saying, but like it's 0:23:10.200 --> 0:23:14.520 where I was made. Vaughn said that shortly after coming 0:23:14.520 --> 0:23:17.240 to film and Marshall, one of the teenagers at the 0:23:17.320 --> 0:23:21.440 home started targeting him. What did he do to mess 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:24.960 with you? You know, I'm trying to turn him into 0:23:25.000 --> 0:23:28.040 a girl. Okay, So he was actually a predator. He's 0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:31.359 trying to break and we don't really call them predators. 0:23:31.480 --> 0:23:34.400 Y'all call them predators. We don't call them predators. What 0:23:34.400 --> 0:23:37.240 would you call him? He's just what he is. That's 0:23:37.240 --> 0:23:40.560 why terror. Everybody is what they is. Everybody has some 0:23:40.680 --> 0:23:44.520 kind of busing thing. But Vaughan says, one of the 0:23:44.560 --> 0:23:47.679 other kids, an eighteen year old, he went by big Ee, 0:23:48.240 --> 0:23:50.840 found out about the team that was messing with. Vaughn 0:23:51.640 --> 0:23:54.119 wanted to older kids older than you go to Obhi 0:23:54.200 --> 0:23:58.679 and being his homeies. Gentleman, I remember it's Timo missing. 0:23:58.960 --> 0:24:02.080 So the nailed him in home? Yeah? Are we always 0:24:02.119 --> 0:24:05.080 asked jumping going on? There's always something going on in 0:24:05.080 --> 0:24:09.120 the home. And then he came up missing later right, 0:24:10.960 --> 0:24:12.800 it was ever found? When you say he's missing, when 0:24:12.800 --> 0:24:14.800 I mean was he killed? Ya? Oh? Yeah? He was killed. 0:24:15.560 --> 0:24:19.000 It was coming, It was coming. Fawn says that Big 0:24:19.040 --> 0:24:23.280 E was a gangster disciple at g D, a member 0:24:23.320 --> 0:24:26.199 of the nationwide gang that had its nerve center in 0:24:26.320 --> 0:24:31.480 nearby Chicago, and after saving Vaughan, BIGI recruited him to 0:24:31.600 --> 0:24:36.159 join the gang. Remember Drew Elementary School. Biggie's hit Massy. 0:24:36.200 --> 0:24:38.800 It's like, make sure you looked after because you're always 0:24:38.840 --> 0:24:42.880 gonna be going somewhere doing something for somebody. You might 0:24:42.920 --> 0:24:46.680 be the best guy right now, really best guy. How 0:24:46.720 --> 0:24:49.760 come he had one of the best codes of honor. 0:24:51.600 --> 0:24:54.480 I've never seeing him break a g D rule. He's 0:24:54.480 --> 0:24:56.920 a really good guy. As long as you do funk 0:24:56.960 --> 0:25:00.639 around where he believed in, he was perfectly safe. I 0:25:00.760 --> 0:25:03.480 remember he was a star on the Roosevelt basketball squad. 0:25:03.640 --> 0:25:10.080 But you quit, guess some kind of trouble, okay. Joining 0:25:10.119 --> 0:25:14.399 the Gangster Disciples was a multi step process. The first step, 0:25:14.520 --> 0:25:17.760 getting jumped in meant getting beat up by the other 0:25:17.840 --> 0:25:20.800 members of the gang. And I got jumped and for 0:25:20.920 --> 0:25:24.800 real elementary schools, do you remember you're jumping for reading? 0:25:25.600 --> 0:25:31.440 Really busted arm messed up? Remember all that. Yeah. Vaughn 0:25:31.600 --> 0:25:34.439 says that before long he was spending more time with 0:25:34.520 --> 0:25:37.000 the gang than he did in school, and his new 0:25:37.040 --> 0:25:40.520 recruits got further initiated into the gang. They would be 0:25:40.520 --> 0:25:45.360 asked to commit crimes, crimes that grew more and more violent. Now, 0:25:45.400 --> 0:25:47.760 you said when you first became a g D that stuff. 0:25:48.200 --> 0:25:49.960