Speaker 1: Nobodies had gone over to do a welfare check.
Speaker 2: What they walked into was a murder scene.
Speaker 3: They had found three bodies.
Speaker 2: And all roads led to one suspect.
Speaker 4: Who he knew who the killer was, but we didn't
Speaker 4: have any physical evidence.
Speaker 3: He was a hothead and you if you said the
Speaker 3: wrong thing, it pressed the button and the fuse was lit.
Speaker 3: I would tell these guys watch your back. I will
Speaker 3: get my venion when I get them out of here.
Speaker 5: That's all accounted, Okay.
Speaker 3: He knew the vehicles that we were driving, the detectives
Speaker 3: that were involved, so it brought some concern to us.
Speaker 3: And this is going to get bad.
Speaker 2: This is American Homicide, a show where we take you
Speaker 2: across the country to investigate some of America's deadliest crimes.
Speaker 2: We'll explore how these murders are shaped by their unique landscapes,
Speaker 2: and in turn, how these tragedies have shaped the fabric
Speaker 2: of these American communities forever. Today we're in Las Cruces,
Speaker 2: New Mexico. This is part one of Murder in the Desert.
Speaker 2: This podcast also contains subject matter which may not be
Speaker 2: suitable for all audiences. Discretion is advised. Just north of
Speaker 2: the Mexican border is Las Cruces.
Speaker 1: Las Crusis is on the far south end of New Mexico.
Speaker 2: It's a place Bob Senecal calls home.
Speaker 1: It's a very harmonious setting. People are very comfortable with
Speaker 1: each other and gracious to each other.
Speaker 2: It could have something to do with all that vitamin D.
Speaker 2: Las CRUs as sea sunshine three hundred and fifty days
Speaker 2: a year and consistently ranks on the list of best
Speaker 2: places to retire.
Speaker 1: Think about the moon with lots of sun. This is
Speaker 1: a desert landscape.
Speaker 2: And it's also rich in history.
Speaker 1: This is home to Billy the Kid and a lot
Speaker 1: of the desperadoes and characters.
Speaker 2: The notorious outlaw Billy the Kid is known for evading
Speaker 2: authorities in the late eighteen hundreds. He's the subject of
Speaker 2: several old Western TV shows and movies.
Speaker 1: Billy the Kid was sentenced to death here in the
Speaker 1: town of Messia, which is just to the south of us.
Speaker 2: Bob moved to Las Cruces in the early two thousands
Speaker 2: and had no idea there was an outlaw living among them.
Speaker 2: We'll get back to that in a minute. Bob's home
Speaker 2: sat in the hills of an affluent section of Las Cruses,
Speaker 2: It's a neighborhood where numerous seniors lived, including a couple
Speaker 2: named Jill and Helga Delile.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of commonality between us, especially myself
Speaker 1: and Jill. We were kind of brethren. I think you
Speaker 1: could say. Helga and Jill very educated. They both got
Speaker 1: their doctorates in language. Helga came out to New Mexico
Speaker 1: State University with the intent of taking over the language department,
Speaker 1: in which she did.
Speaker 2: She spoke four languages and was active in the local
Speaker 2: arts scene. She and her acrylic paintings were well known
Speaker 2: in the area. As for Jill, he was an inventor
Speaker 2: who created a device that dug up a Christmas tree
Speaker 2: without severing its roots, and in twenty ten he was
Speaker 2: about to sell another device that would extend gas mileage
Speaker 2: and he planned to donate the proceeds to charity. But
Speaker 2: he spent most of his time in real estate.
Speaker 1: He started developing real estate investment trusts and he and
Speaker 1: his partner did this on a regular basis.
Speaker 2: Without any children. Jill and Helgo were always traveling back
Speaker 2: and forth to Mexico, Costa Rica, and South Africa. Jill
Speaker 2: had heart issues that caused him to slow down, so
Speaker 2: he put his name on the waiting list for a transplant.
Speaker 2: His spock came up in nineteen ninety.
Speaker 1: Six, and he was very, very grateful to be alive,
Speaker 1: expressed itself.
Speaker 2: Jill adopted the expression carbe dim seized the day.
Speaker 1: He was French Canadian, impulsive and fun loving and daredevil
Speaker 1: if you will. He was a good man. He was
Speaker 1: a buddy.
Speaker 2: Jill was also a guy with a problem. He hired
Speaker 2: the contractor who built his palatial estate in Las Cruces
Speaker 2: to build some other properties, but the deal fell apart.
Speaker 2: The contractor blew through his budget and then took out
Speaker 2: a loan from Jill, but didn't pay him back. When
Speaker 2: his tab climbed over a million dollars, Jill sued him.
Speaker 1: They've been in court several times over the last three years.
Speaker 2: Their long legal battle was finally supposed to come to
Speaker 2: an end in April twenty ten, which thrilled Jill.
Speaker 1: We were at his out for dinner and Jill said,
Speaker 1: the judge is going to make a ruling on Thursday
Speaker 1: and declare him bankrupt and take his assets.
Speaker 2: That Thursday, Jill, Helga and their business partner Peter White
Speaker 2: never showed up to court. They're a lawyer called nine
Speaker 2: on one.
Speaker 5: I'm a lawyer here in town. We had a special
Speaker 5: master sales schedule for this morning and my client intended
Speaker 5: to be there. He his wife and their friend that
Speaker 5: was also my client. We can't get a hold of
Speaker 5: them on cell phones or on their house phone.
Speaker 4: Okay, if i'm we're sending someone out there to go
Speaker 4: ahead and check it out, and we'll get back to
Speaker 4: as soon as we find some information out. Okay.
Speaker 2: The Deliles home sits in a remote part of Las
Speaker 2: Cruces that's accessible by just two roads.
Speaker 3: It's to the west of the Rio Grande River and
Speaker 3: an a fairly affluent neighborhood.
Speaker 2: That morning, just after eleven am, Sergeant Joe Renault was
Speaker 2: one of the first responders.
Speaker 3: This house is kind of up on a hill. It's
Speaker 3: called a very long dirt driveway.
Speaker 2: Officers walked past a Cadillac parked on the driveway and
Speaker 2: approached the home. They knocked on a large class door,
Speaker 2: but no one answered.
Speaker 3: We had the fourth entry and to get into the house,
Speaker 3: so they broke the window and entered the house through
Speaker 3: that way, and there was shattered glass all over the floor,
Speaker 3: and I can remember my feet crunching the shards of
Speaker 3: glass on the floor. It opens up into a wide
Speaker 3: open living space and the kitchen was to the right,
Speaker 3: and I immediately saw a missus Delile lamb face down
Speaker 3: on the floor.
Speaker 2: I've got doll on the ground the kitchen A code
Speaker 2: thirty means homicide. Police found the body of seventy two
Speaker 2: year old Helga Delile lying on the kitchen floor. Next
Speaker 2: to her body was her purse and cell phone, along
Speaker 2: with a small plastic bag of groceries. A narrow pool
Speaker 2: of blood extended from her head to the edge of
Speaker 2: the kitchen, where the hardwood met the tile of the
Speaker 2: dining area.
Speaker 3: The sergeant of patrol then took me to the other
Speaker 3: side of the kitchen counter or I saw mister Delile.
Speaker 2: Sixty nine year old Jill Delile, was faced down on
Speaker 2: the floor. His entire body was soaked with blood.
Speaker 3: I just couldn't believe how brutal it was. That's what
Speaker 3: was going through my head, that this was just brutal.
Speaker 3: So upon seeing it scene like that, I always go
Speaker 3: through a lot of different scenarios of possibilities in my
Speaker 3: head and one by one kind of mentally check them off.
Speaker 3: As I'm walking through a scene, and to me it
Speaker 3: appeared to be an intentional homicide. Whoever did this just
Speaker 3: absolutely hated these people.
Speaker 2: With news of a double homicide, Prosecutor Amy Orlando joined
Speaker 2: the team of officers at the scene.
Speaker 4: When you then enter the front door, and you didn't
Speaker 4: see anything disturbed. The house was in pristine, like someone
Speaker 4: had just come and cleaned it. There wasn't anything turned over,
Speaker 4: nothing had been knocked on.
Speaker 2: The floor aside from the two bodies and some shellcases
Speaker 2: from a nine millimeter gun. The kitchen was relatively clean.
Speaker 4: You saw some somebody had tried to clean up some blood,
Speaker 4: and there was smears.
Speaker 2: The smears indicated that Helka's body may have been dragged
Speaker 2: into the kitchen next to her husband, who took multiple
Speaker 2: gunshots to the legs, chest, and.
Speaker 4: Head, so we believe that he tortured him to some
Speaker 4: degree before he finally killed him. Helgo was still holding
Speaker 4: her purse, her wallet was in there.
Speaker 2: So far, it looks like two victims were executed, but
Speaker 2: nothing appears to be taken from the victims or even
Speaker 2: the house.
Speaker 4: There's a long hallway going down the house and then
Speaker 4: at the very end of the house where there's nothing
Speaker 4: else left is a walk in shower.
Speaker 2: This is where they make another gruesome discovery. There was
Speaker 2: another victim, a male, who was slumped against the shower.
Speaker 4: The third victim had clearly ran down there. He was
Speaker 4: still holding his grocery bag and was clutching it and
Speaker 4: had literally ran to the end of the house where
Speaker 4: he could run no more. And I just think of
Speaker 4: how terrifying that fear must have been, to know that
Speaker 4: there was nothing else you could do.
Speaker 2: The third victim was identified as Peter, wife, the Delials
Speaker 2: business partner. He was the owner of the Cadillac part
Speaker 2: in the driveway. Investigators found an important clue inside Peter's
Speaker 2: grocery bag, a receipt that, along with the receipt inside
Speaker 2: Helga's grocery bag, helped the detectives piece together in an
Speaker 2: approximate timeline. They believed the killer was inside the Delials
Speaker 2: home between four thirty and six thirty PM.
Speaker 4: It had to be someone that at least knew him
Speaker 4: or was familiar with the place, because when you have
Speaker 4: three people that have been killed, it would not be
Speaker 4: in a pristine condition as if it had literally just
Speaker 4: been cleaned by a professional. There would be blood droplets
Speaker 4: someplace there wasn't other than the blood smears, there was
Speaker 4: no blood. We found one blood droplet on the garage door.
Speaker 2: In their garage. Police noticed that one of the Delial's
Speaker 2: vehicles was missing, so a bolo alert went out to
Speaker 2: be on the lookout for their white niece on Pathfinder.
Speaker 2: But a key piece of evidence came from the delios
Speaker 2: landline telephone. Keep in mind it was twenty ten and
Speaker 2: landlines were still common.
Speaker 4: The police officers investigators had looked and had seen some
Speaker 4: call IDs that would have come about during the timeframe
Speaker 4: that the murders happened.
Speaker 2: The caller idea on the Delio's phone showed a series
Speaker 2: of calls from pay phones. Detectives wanted to know more
Speaker 2: about these calls, but getting answers wouldn't be easy.
Speaker 4: It was a landline, and because they live in kind
Speaker 4: of an outskirts area, it was a phone company that
Speaker 4: wasn't real cooperative with us. But we were trying to
Speaker 4: track down those calls.
Speaker 2: But there was something else on that phone, A mysterious
Speaker 2: and angry voicemail.
Speaker 5: A little spoiled to keep down call.
Speaker 2: Detectives listened as this person rattled off a series of
Speaker 2: threats to Jill, but just before the thirty second message
Speaker 2: abruptly ended, there was one final threat.
Speaker 5: He can understand that.
Speaker 3: Fuck it.
Speaker 2: It's not easy to hear all of what was said,
Speaker 2: but the caller threadned to murder Jill Delile. So the
Speaker 2: question for police was whose voice was on the other
Speaker 2: end of that call. The answer would lead detectives directly
Speaker 2: into harm's way. On the afternoon of April fourteenth, twenty ten,
Speaker 2: Jill and Helga Delile and their business partner, Peter Wythe
Speaker 2: were murdered in the Delile's home. Sergeant Joe Renault investigated.
Speaker 3: I could tell that it wasn't a robbery immediately. It
Speaker 3: didn't appear that the house was ransacked, it didn't appear
Speaker 3: that the bodies had been rummaged through, and for a
Speaker 3: husband and a wife fal being elderly, it puts an
Speaker 3: exclamation point on on what that killer wanted to do.
Speaker 2: This was a triple murder inside of a home. But
Speaker 2: the crime scene was surprisingly clean.
Speaker 3: So what we had was the three bodies and evidence
Speaker 3: on the bodies, nine milimeter case things, and a missing
Speaker 3: vehicle that belonged to mister Delile.
Speaker 2: There was also a series of phone calls to the
Speaker 2: Delile's landline. These calls originated from payphones around the time
Speaker 2: of the murders. Plus there was the mysterious voicemailstand.
Speaker 3: He was very angry. He was leaving a message in
Speaker 3: a very threatening voice, and ALTI stated, I will put
Speaker 3: a bullet in your head.
Speaker 2: Detectives learned that the person who left that message was
Speaker 2: the same contractor the Delios had sued, Yes, the same
Speaker 2: contractor who they were to square off against in court
Speaker 2: the day after they were killed.
Speaker 4: He was a business associate, if you will, and his
Speaker 4: name was Geno Ferri.
Speaker 2: Prosecutor Amy Orlando quickly learned that Gino had been a
Speaker 2: thorn in the Delio side for years.
Speaker 4: These people had been through just a nightmare of trying
Speaker 4: to protect their business from Gino. He had taken assets,
Speaker 4: he had mismanaged their property.
Speaker 2: Gino owed them money. By the time his tab climbed
Speaker 2: over one million dollars. Ji'll suit him. But Gino filed
Speaker 2: for bankruptcy.
Speaker 4: He had filed bankruptcy fraudulently. And so that morning that
Speaker 4: hearing was going to solve it all. It was going
Speaker 4: to end that relationationship once and for all, to the
Speaker 4: detriment of Geno.
Speaker 2: But instead of collecting that money from Gino, the three
Speaker 2: never meet it to court that Thursday because they were
Speaker 2: murdered that previous afternoon. Police found the bodies in the
Speaker 2: Deliles Las Crusis home.
Speaker 4: And so it was shocking to everybody. We never had
Speaker 4: a case where three people had been killed, all in
Speaker 4: one home and all at one time.
Speaker 2: When investigators returned to the initial nine on one call,
Speaker 2: the Delials lawyer even mentioned Gino by.
Speaker 5: Name, subjects that they're afraid of a guy named Ferry Fbrri.
Speaker 5: The first name is Geno.
Speaker 1: Okay, another they ever expressed any.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, all the time. Yeah, we were concerned. We
Speaker 5: talked about it a number time.
Speaker 4: He tended to act like a bully. Gino fancied himself
Speaker 4: what we believed to be kind of a big, scary person.
Speaker 2: So it's pretty obvious what's going on here. Gino was
Speaker 2: behind these more and he wasn't afraid. On top of that,
Speaker 2: no one was really sure what Gino did for a
Speaker 2: living other than run his mouth.
Speaker 4: He just seemed to be one of those people that
Speaker 4: tried to have his fingers in a lot of different
Speaker 4: people's business. He never really owned anything or really did
Speaker 4: anything successful in his own right. He just always was
Speaker 4: like trying to make the next dollar, in other words,
Speaker 4: a scam artist, a connartist.
Speaker 2: Sergeant Joe Renault took a closer look into Gino Ferry's
Speaker 2: past and found numerous front charges.
Speaker 3: We started to piece together as modus opera, and I
Speaker 3: of how he got investors to give him money. He
Speaker 3: would ask for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars from
Speaker 3: this guy to buy this apartment complex, and then I promise,
Speaker 3: I'll remodel it and it'll be a fifty percent additional
Speaker 3: return on your investments. And then when this guy that
Speaker 3: loaned on the money started yelling, then he'd go out
Speaker 3: and find another investor to do the same thing, but
Speaker 3: he'd take that investor's money to pay back that investor.
Speaker 3: If the investors struck a chord with Gino, as far
Speaker 3: as them threatening to sue him, you don't want to me,
Speaker 3: you don't want to screw with me. And he had
Speaker 3: a very threatening demeanor, and investors were convinced that he
Speaker 3: might do something to them and they would back off.
Speaker 3: So there were very few people who risked any civil
Speaker 3: action against Gina.
Speaker 2: So we know that Gino threatened the Delios, but could
Speaker 2: detectives prove Gino was responsible for their murders.
Speaker 3: We had what I would classify as very little evidence.
Speaker 3: It was circumstantial pointing to Gino.
Speaker 2: When Sergeant Renault questioned Gino at his home, a few
Speaker 2: things stood out.
Speaker 3: He portrayed himself as being a soprano, He was Italian,
Speaker 3: he wore a gold necklace, he wore a gold medallion,
Speaker 3: and his shorts were always unbuttoned down to mid chest,
Speaker 3: and he had a hairy chest. He just he tried
Speaker 3: to portray himself as as you know, don't screws me.
Speaker 3: And his cell phone even had a ring back tone
Speaker 3: which was the Sopranos theme song.
Speaker 2: And all of this would be laughable for a lot
Speaker 2: of people, but but Gino, it was terrifying.
Speaker 3: He wasn't your typical suspect. I don't care. Do it
Speaker 3: come to my house? I don't care.
Speaker 2: Sergeant Renaut asked him if he had anything to do
Speaker 2: with Jill Delio's murder.
Speaker 3: Basically says, yeah, I didn't like Musker, but I wasn't there.
Speaker 3: It wasn't me. I can prove where I was. I
Speaker 3: was an Alpasso and I was at the gym. I
Speaker 3: have receipts. He said he was at the gym at
Speaker 3: nine o'clock in the morning, and that turned out to
Speaker 3: be false because he had to use a key card
Speaker 3: to check in and they had no record of him
Speaker 3: checking in.
Speaker 2: Gino also claimed that he took his girlfriend's shopping at
Speaker 2: an outlet mall in El Paso.
Speaker 3: We confirmed that he was an Alpasso, but he was
Speaker 3: back in town at about four o'clock four fifteen, the
Speaker 3: four thirty eighth.
Speaker 2: Keep in mind the police leave. The murders took place
Speaker 2: that afternoon between four thirty and six thirty pm.
Speaker 3: He said, Yeah, I got back into town after some
Speaker 3: shopping with my girlfriend and my shoulder was hurting, and
Speaker 3: I took a biket and I laid down for a
Speaker 3: couple hours, and to me, that was a red flag.
Speaker 3: To me, that was okay. He just gave us the
Speaker 3: time span in which we believe the homicides could have occurred.
Speaker 2: That evening. Gino said he went to a friend's house
Speaker 2: that got gas, dinner, and groceries before heading back to
Speaker 2: his mother's house.
Speaker 3: Whenever suspect gives me an alibi of a certain time
Speaker 3: period that is impossible to confirm. In other words, I
Speaker 3: was by myself and I was asleep, or I was
Speaker 3: driving in the middle of the desert for two hours
Speaker 3: and it can't be confirmed. That's that's a red flag
Speaker 3: to me. And I put my pen down, and I
Speaker 3: looked and straight in the eye, and I said, did
Speaker 3: you kill those three people? For a guy who always
Speaker 3: had an immediate response, he did not. This time took
Speaker 3: come about ten seconds.
Speaker 1: No, I didn't have anything do with that.
Speaker 3: You know that you're wasting your time.
Speaker 2: Detectives question family, friends and anyone with a motive. But
Speaker 2: all Rhodes kept leading back to Gino Ferry, who seemed
Speaker 2: to almost dare investigators to prove he did it.
Speaker 3: He was cocky. He was extremely cocky.
Speaker 2: On the tenth day after the murders, things took a
Speaker 2: strange turn when the Delia stolen vehicle turned up right
Speaker 2: in front of their eyes.
Speaker 3: The missing car was recovered across the street from the
Speaker 3: Sheriff's department. And that was kind of odd.
Speaker 2: Jill's missing me, some half finder sat in a parking
Speaker 2: lot across the street from the Sheriff's department. It was empty,
Speaker 2: and it had been wipe clean of any fingerprints, leaving
Speaker 2: Prosecutor Amy Orlando to wonder if someone was trying to
Speaker 2: send a message.
Speaker 4: It was as if the car was left as like
Speaker 4: to mock law enforcement. Literally you could walk from the
Speaker 4: sheriff's department to where the car was.
Speaker 2: Investigators believed Gino was playing a dangerous game of catch
Speaker 2: me if you can. Jill and how Thea Delia were
Speaker 2: found murdered in their Los Cruces, New Mexico home in
Speaker 2: April twenty ten. Their business associate, Peter Wythe, was also executed.
Speaker 1: I'd lost a good friend friends, so I'm sad about that.
Speaker 2: The loss affected their neighbor, Bob Senecal.
Speaker 1: We had a service forum at the Farm and Ranch Museum.
Speaker 1: Heavily attended because they had a lot of friends. But
Speaker 1: one of the tragic parts of that service was that
Speaker 1: Jill's heart was donated by the mother of a girl
Speaker 1: that died in a motorcycle accident, and she was at
Speaker 1: the services and it felt like she had lost her
Speaker 1: daughter twice.
Speaker 2: That mother must have been absolutely devastated. As weeks turned
Speaker 2: into months without an arrest, Bob, like many others, lost
Speaker 2: patience with the investigation.
Speaker 1: And I was disturbed because almost a year had passed
Speaker 1: and we've had no results. Nothing has happened. Obviously, the
Speaker 1: Sheriff's department doesn't know what they're doing, and I think
Speaker 1: it's time to turn this over to the federal authorities.
Speaker 2: Bob put his frustration into words and sent a letter
Speaker 2: to the editor of the local loss Crusis newspaper.
Speaker 1: I don't want to sound macho. I just I've seen
Speaker 1: too much in the way of death. This was another
Speaker 1: person we were laying to rest, and it was sad.
Speaker 1: Police very quickly said this is not a random event.
Speaker 1: This was a plan killing.
Speaker 2: For Bob, it was a no brainer who the killer was.
Speaker 1: Gino was the culprit, no question, because Gino hated him,
Speaker 1: didn't hate Helga, and I don't think he hated Peter
Speaker 1: that much, but he hated Shield because Jill foiled him
Speaker 1: every time he tried to do something, and I think
Speaker 1: that's what got him killed.
Speaker 2: Prosecutor Amy Orlando didn't publicly name Geno Ferry as their
Speaker 2: main suspect, but that's who they were building their case against.
Speaker 4: It's like we knew who the killer was, but to
Speaker 4: prove it, we didn't have any physical evidence.
Speaker 2: Gino claimed to have an alibi, but the police were
Speaker 2: slowly chipping away at it. Their biggest obstacle was the
Speaker 2: local phone company. Police knew three calls came from payphones
Speaker 2: to the Delials house on the day they were murdered,
Speaker 2: but investigators had been waiting for weeks for the phone
Speaker 2: company to turn over information about the location of these payphones.
Speaker 2: It wasn't until the spring of twenty eleven that they
Speaker 2: finally got their answer. The payphones were at a gas
Speaker 2: station about two miles from the Deliles House.
Speaker 4: House, and we went in and asked him if they
Speaker 4: had cameras.
Speaker 2: But Prosecutor Andy Orlando's team did so under the radar.
Speaker 4: They tried to do it very inconspicuous because we also
Speaker 4: believed that Gino was watching a lot of the police work.
Speaker 2: Think about that the police were the ones looking over
Speaker 2: their shoulders.
Speaker 4: My personal opinion was he was getting like some satisfaction
Speaker 4: after watching us kind of chase our tails.
Speaker 2: When officers showed up at the gas station, they were
Speaker 2: thrilled to find surveillance cameras pointed right at the payphones.
Speaker 4: And so then I get a call later that afternoon
Speaker 4: and they're like we found it, and I'm like what.
Speaker 2: Detectives managed to retrieve footage from the day of the murders,
Speaker 2: which occurred nearly eleven months earlier.
Speaker 4: Luckily we got the cameras before they were raised.
Speaker 2: After reviewing hours of footage, the police finally found Geno's vehicle.
Speaker 2: The video showed Gino's silver Lincoln Navigator enter the gas
Speaker 2: station around the same time the phone calls were placed
Speaker 2: to the Delia's house.
Speaker 4: A car pulls up. It has two people in it.
Speaker 4: They make a call. They get back in the car,
Speaker 4: and it kind of looks like it fits the description
Speaker 4: of Gino.
Speaker 2: There's also someone else driving the car, but that person
Speaker 2: never exited the vehicle.
Speaker 4: The car leaves and heads towards the direction of the victims.
Speaker 2: But there's a problem. The video was grainy and the
Speaker 2: car is parked in the distance where shadows make it
Speaker 2: difficult to see who the two men are. Police kept
Speaker 2: searching the footage and discovered that a little while later,
Speaker 2: another car pulled up and parts near the same payphone,
Speaker 2: but again the phone is far off in the distance,
Speaker 2: making it difficult for police to tell who it was.
Speaker 4: The building sits here and it's a ways on the
Speaker 4: whole other side of the parking lot.
Speaker 2: This time there's just one person in the vehicle. He
Speaker 2: got out of the car, made a phone call, and
Speaker 2: then walked towards the convenience store attached to the gas station.
Speaker 4: Comes into the store Buyasa soda we believe to get changed.
Speaker 2: The video from the camera inside the store is much clearer,
Speaker 2: but there's still a problem.
Speaker 4: You can't really make him out completely because he has
Speaker 4: a baseball cap on.
Speaker 2: The white male appears heavyset. He wore blue shorts with
Speaker 2: a red and blue striped shirt. This person wasn't Geno.
Speaker 2: The video shows this unknown man by a soft drink
Speaker 2: and then exit the store. He used the change from
Speaker 2: his purchase to make another phone call from the payphone.
Speaker 2: Seconds later, he hung up, got in his car, and
Speaker 2: drove away.
Speaker 4: So now we know that those two calls in the
Speaker 4: timeframe from the video matchup to the calls that came
Speaker 4: in on the victim's home. Now we have to find
Speaker 4: out who that person is.
Speaker 2: Using Geno Faeri's phone records, the police learned the man
Speaker 2: from the gas station is named Ricky Huckabee. Ricky was
Speaker 2: a convicted felon who served ten years in prison for
Speaker 2: armed robbery. He was in his mid fifties, did odd
Speaker 2: jobs for Gino and even lived in a building that
Speaker 2: Gino's mom wants to owned. When the police searched Ricky's home,
Speaker 2: they found that red and blue striped shirt he wore
Speaker 2: at the gas station, But they also found a gun.
Speaker 2: The problem for Ricky is that federal law prohibits convicted
Speaker 2: felons from possessing a gun.
Speaker 4: We bring him in and the investigators talk to him
Speaker 4: about how he knows Gino, what's going on with Gino.
Speaker 2: We would like to hear your side of the story.
Speaker 4: Okay, okay.
Speaker 6: The way those surveillance videos work, their time stamped.
Speaker 2: You're there. You stopped out there at the.
Speaker 6: Phone move and made a phone call. It was made
Speaker 6: to the Delao's residence, and you're standing there at the
Speaker 6: payphone making it. You don't remember calling over there, don't.
Speaker 2: Oh well you did.
Speaker 4: That's the thing.
Speaker 2: At first, Ricky was on offered it and said he
Speaker 2: didn't remember much. The detectives kept pushing. They pulled out
Speaker 2: copies of Geno's phone records to refresh Ricky's memory.
Speaker 6: You know, Gino talked throughout the day. There's about a
Speaker 6: two hour or something, that window that he doesn't call anybody,
Speaker 6: and there's about a three hour window that you don't
Speaker 6: call anybody, but you're there at that pay phone making
Speaker 6: a phone call the victim's residence after all this happened.
Speaker 6: So I don't know if you helped him out.
Speaker 2: If you got has planned it, and you guys are
Speaker 2: trying to implicate me in something I had nothing to
Speaker 2: do with.
Speaker 4: And I would have no part for something like that.
Speaker 4: That's a factor. Well, no blood on my hand.
Speaker 2: Ricky Huckabee denied having anything to do with the murderers,
Speaker 2: but police wondered was he holding back because he was
Speaker 2: afraid of Gino?
Speaker 4: He likes the people to have the fear of him.
Speaker 4: It's just too ego, you know.
Speaker 2: After some back and forth and some assurance from law
Speaker 2: enforcement that they protect Ricky and his family, Ricky did
Speaker 2: a one eighty and shared what happened the night of
Speaker 2: the murders.
Speaker 4: So his version was that he got a call from Geno.
Speaker 4: Gino tells him I need you to meet me at
Speaker 4: the Rio Grande River. Don't bring a cell phone, and
Speaker 4: I need you to meet me here at a certain time.
Speaker 4: Mister Huckaby thinks it's a little bit odd, but he
Speaker 4: goes and meets him there.
Speaker 2: Gino gets into Ricky's car and asked Ricky to drive
Speaker 2: him to the Delaios house. Gino then said he wanted
Speaker 2: to try to negotiate with them one more time before
Speaker 2: they went to court.
Speaker 4: This is my last meeting time with them, so I
Speaker 4: need you to take me there.
Speaker 2: On the way there, Gino had Ricky stop at a
Speaker 2: gas station to make a phone call. This was captured
Speaker 2: in the surveillance footage. Gino told Ricky he wanted to
Speaker 2: be sure Jill was home, but police believe Gino called
Speaker 2: to make sure that no one was home. There was
Speaker 2: no answer, so Gino hung up the phone and got
Speaker 2: back in the car.
Speaker 4: So mister Huckabe drives him there, drops him off. He's
Speaker 4: carrying a devil bag and he gets out and he's like,
Speaker 4: well you need me, and he goes, no, no, I'll
Speaker 4: get a ride back. Don't worry about it. I'm just
Speaker 4: going to meet him here. This way, they have to
Speaker 4: talk to me, he says, meet me back at the river.
Speaker 4: Mister Tugaby goes back to the river and sits. After
Speaker 4: about an hour, he starts to get nervous, and he
Speaker 4: kind of is thinking, well, how is Gino going to
Speaker 4: come here? Maybe I should call.
Speaker 2: So Ricky Huckabee drives back to the gas station, where
Speaker 2: surveillance cameras captured Ricky calling the Deliles house again. There's
Speaker 2: no answer, so Ricky drove back to the river and
Speaker 2: waited for Gino. Thirty to forty five minutes past before
Speaker 2: Gino showed up in the Deliles Nissan Pathfiner.
Speaker 4: Mister Hugaby doesn't ask any questions. You know, something probably
Speaker 4: isn't great that happened, but he doesn't know that they
Speaker 4: were killed.
Speaker 2: Gino explained that he had to get rid of the
Speaker 2: car and instructed Ricky to follow him. Gino then parked
Speaker 2: the Nissan across the street from the Sheriff's office and
Speaker 2: had rick him back to get his vehicle.
Speaker 4: He goes into the little restroom there, it's an outhouse
Speaker 4: kind of restroom, and he is still carrying Duffel bag.
Speaker 4: And when he comes back out, duffel bag is gone
Speaker 4: and his clothes were changed.
Speaker 2: Ricky later met Gino at a frozen yogurt stand where
Speaker 2: he shared some shocking details.
Speaker 4: He just convided and it means that he had the
Speaker 4: triple home side?
Speaker 2: When did he do that same meeting the same evening?
Speaker 1: Meaning and just.
Speaker 6: Did the man first.
Speaker 4: The other guy in the woman?
Speaker 2: Since Gino built the house, he had a key and
Speaker 2: knew the layout, he let himself in, wore a mask
Speaker 2: and gloves and waited for the Delias to arrive, but
Speaker 2: he wasn't expecting Peter Worthe to show up. When Peter arrived,
Speaker 2: Gino chased and shot him in the bathroom.
Speaker 1: What did you shoot him with?
Speaker 2: I think no leader ROUSI or something something like that.
Speaker 1: I know Vader RUSI, I think soon.
Speaker 2: Okay, what made Ricky Huckabee go from saying he didn't
Speaker 2: know anything to writing out Gino?
Speaker 4: We have to tread lightly on trusting him, so we said, well,
Speaker 4: you wear a wire, and he says he will.
Speaker 2: The hope was that Ricky would record Geno confessing to
Speaker 2: the triple murder, but things got off to a rocky start.
Speaker 4: Well every time it just seemed odd to us because
Speaker 4: it wouldn't turn on, it would stop, So again we
Speaker 4: were a little suspicious of him, like why is it
Speaker 4: not working?
Speaker 2: When the wire finally started working, detectives heard something startling.
Speaker 3: Gino kept telling Ricky Huckaby, I think there's somebody snitching
Speaker 3: me out. He knew somebody was giving us information, and
Speaker 3: he told Ricky, I'm gonna kill whoever it is. I'm
Speaker 3: just gonna kill.
Speaker 2: Was Gino sending a message to the police or to Ricky.
Speaker 3: We were getting worried because we were thinking that he
Speaker 3: might be catching on and how's he finding out this information?
Speaker 3: And this is going.
Speaker 2: To get bad With Ricky Huckabee potentially in danger. Detectives
Speaker 2: had to work over time to put Geno Faerry away.
Speaker 3: Gina was just hoted. If you said the wrong thing,
Speaker 3: it pressed a button and the fuse was lit, and
Speaker 3: so we had to commence the DA We've got chargist guy.
Speaker 3: He's too dangerous.
Speaker 2: But Gina wasn't going down without a fight.
Speaker 5: He was going to make us pay.
Speaker 4: He's going to make our families pay.
Speaker 2: And the battle turned into a full out war.
Speaker 4: We had to have the bomb dogs come. We had
Speaker 4: snipers on the roof. In my career, I've never seen
Speaker 4: anything like it.
Speaker 2: All of which would push the people of Las Cruces
Speaker 2: to their limits.
Speaker 3: Nerve wrecking, very nerve wrecking.
Speaker 2: This was not your typical game of canon Mouse. Keep
Speaker 2: in mind police were contending with a cold hearted, cold
Speaker 2: blooded murderer. Here are the links law enforcement had to
Speaker 2: go to in order to put Geno Ferry behind bars.
Speaker 2: That's next time on American Homicide. You can contact the
Speaker 2: American Homicide Team by emailing us at American Homicide Pod
Speaker 2: at gmail dot com. That's American Homicide Pod at gmail
Speaker 2: dot com. American Homicide is hosted and written by me
Speaker 2: Sloane Glass and is a production of Glass Podcasts, a
Speaker 2: division of Glass Entertainment Group, in partnership with iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2: The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Todd Gans.
Speaker 2: The series is also written and produced by Todd Gans,
Speaker 2: with additional writing by Ben Fetterman and Andrea Gunning. Our
Speaker 2: associate producer is Kristin Mlcurry. Our iHeart team is Ali
Speaker 2: Perry and Jessica Crimecheck. Audio editing and mixing by Matt Delvecchio,
Speaker 2: additional editing support from Nico Ruka, Tanor Robbins, Britt Robashow,
Speaker 2: and Patrick Walsh. American Homicides theme song was composed by
Speaker 2: Oliver Baines of Noiser Music Library provided by my Music.
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