Morbid - Episode 297: James Rodney Hicks Part 2
Episode Date: February 5, 2022We know you have been waiting for the conclusion to this horrific tale, and here it is. James Rodney Hicks destroyed the lives of everyone he came in contact with, but unfortunately he was ...slipping through the cracks at every turn. Now, armed with decades worth of information and a thirst for justice, Detective Ricker joins forces with a new investigator to take Hicks down once and for all. But not before gruesome details are revealed that would disturb even the most seasoned of detectives. Check out this amazing book on the case: Tragedy In The North Woods by Trudy Irene Also, this is an amazing podcast series on this case, including a discussion with Detective Ricker. Murder She Told (Also this pod is just really great in general!) As always, thank you to our sponsors: Curology: Get a free 30-day trial at Curology.com/MORBID. Just pay $5 for shipping and handling. Daily Harvest: Go to DAILYHARVEST.com/morbid to get up to forty dollars off your first box! ThirdLove: Right now, you can get 20% off your first order at THIRDLOVE.com/MORBID BetterHelp: This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and Morbid listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com/morbid. Jordan Harbinger Show: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-jordan-harbinger-show/id1344999619 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Hey, Weirdo's, I'm Ash.
And I'm Alena and it's morbid.
I'm excited.
This is going to be like jumping right into it today. We're not going to do a
whole lot of like, we're not going to go into crime news. We're not going to like go,
blah, blah, blah, blah. How is your day? Because do we ever go, blah, blah, blah, blah, literally
all the time. Ask anybody. That's what we do. Okay. And you, we, I am looking at 14 pages of a part
two right now, which is like a pretty hefty part two.
Yeah.
So I figure why waste a lot of time.
I know people want to know.
I left you on a cliffhanger.
I apologize for that.
My apologies.
I just like, you know, I love to build up that anticipation.
You did.
Because on Twitter, people are losing their shit.
I love that.
I've seen so many people like, excuse me.
Don't need to bother you.
But when the fuck is part two coming
What is it? I felt the same. Well, you know, I wouldn't do it to you if I didn't think I had something to really like
Go live a boom in part two. Alright, so go booboo. Let's go. If I didn't have it, I wouldn't do it to you
So you know what I appreciate you. I love you. Here we are
I want to leave you last two left you we're talking about James Rodney Hicks.
douchebag extraordinaire. Yes, that is his given name. So that is the name on his birthday.
Not runway coach extraordinaire. No douchebag extraordinaire. So yeah, so James Rodney Hicks,
he's terrible. He's from Maine, what up New England. Hey, not a feather in our cap by any stretch of the imagination.
But when we left you, we had James being convicted in 1984 after nine hours of deliberation
for the death of his wife, Jenny Seer.
Now they convicted him on fourth degree murder, or fourth degree homicide, which is like
current manslaughter charge
kind of thing.
And they convicted him for the first time in main history without a body.
Nobody.
Big deal.
And that's a big deal because now he's been, you know, he's been convicted, he's going
to jail, but everybody lost their minds.
Because this, like a lot of people thought it was ridiculous
that he was convicted without a body
and to which I say, like, are you kidding me?
Like he was very clumped.
He did it, but people were really angry
and they were like, how can this happen?
How can he get that charge without even having a body
to say that she's dead?
Like you guys are determining she's dead
and you don't even know that.
Right.
Which I understand that it's like hard. It's hard for me to grasp. Like it's hard for
anybody to grasp. Like you don't have a body or a murder weapon or even a murder scene technically,
but we're declaring her dead. Right. Like that's tough because it's like are you gonna put out
a certificate of death then? Like are you really gonna, you have to legally declare her dead?
It feels, you know?
That is true, of course.
But, of course, his defense felt the exact same way.
They were like, this is ridiculous.
We're not gonna let this stand, we are appealing.
So they started the appeals process
on the day of sensing.
And one thing they harped on was those damn subjective
neighbor accounts of whether Jimmy and Jenny's fights were really all that bad
We talked about it in part one that one person's knockdown dragout fight is another person's every day argument with their spouse
So like
In vice versa, it's like they you can't I don't know if you really can rely on those that much especially
I feel like when it's a
I don't know if you really can rely on those that much, especially, I feel like when it's a consensus among neighbors,
like if all the neighbors said these fights were crazy,
they weren't normal, we all agree that this is one.
Yeah, but the varying accounts of like,
yeah, I didn't really hear him fight that often.
And when they did, it was just like normal arguing.
And then somebody else saying like, oh no, it's terrible.
And I thought something horrible was happening at the time. else saying like, oh no, it's terrible and I thought something horrible
was happening at the time.
When it's that varied, it's like,
I understand why they didn't really wanna take that
into account.
But they also of course said,
nobody, this is an easy way to appeal this.
So they were able to appeal on the basis of all that.
And they threw in the idea that they believe the state
did not really prove that Jenny's
sear-hicks was even dead.
So I mean, they did have a little bit of a leg to stand on here.
Now the final thing they took issue with, the defense, which I think is infuriating, and
makes you want to punch them on the face, they said the jury should not have been allowed
to hear testimony about Jenny's love for her children or how amazing of a mother she was.
Why?
They said that.
Why?
Because they were like,
well, you just made it seem like that part,
because they were using that,
the prosecution to be like,
she wouldn't leave her children.
She was an amazing mother
and she was a,
that was her main priority.
There's, this is the biggest thing that says
she would never have run away,
that this has to be foul play.
And they were like, you shouldn't have been allowed
to say that.
That's just ridiculous though,
because I feel like the first thing they usually do
is like try to attack the person's character.
Like, so it's like, okay, so you can attack it,
but you can't lift them up and actually say exactly
who they were.
Exactly.
No.
I'm like, I'm sorry.
No, that's who she was.
That was her character. If it made the jury
Feel sympathy for her and feel like yes, she would not have left. Then so be it. That's the truth. She wouldn't have left. Right.
These are people's opinions. This is literally fact. She was an amazing mother. Right. 100% of people said it. There was not
Not even James Hicks could say she was not an amazing mother like she was an an amazing mother. And then like she just woke up one day and was like,
never gonna abandon my children.
Fuck it. Sounds fine.
No, no.
So J. Hillary Billings was for the defense.
And Charles Ledbetter was for the state in the appeals process.
December 19th, 1984, Hicks was released on bail.
He couldn't speak to any of the witnesses.
He had to check in weekly for parole,
and he couldn't leave the state while the witnesses. He had to check in weekly for parole,
and he couldn't leave the state
while he was awaiting this appeals trial.
But still, I'm like, was he really?
Like we just let him wander off.
He may have murdered someone, but okay.
Now, he and Linda Marquis,
because remember, Linda Marquis is his girlfriend at the time.
Linda's the one that interrupted the police interview
with James Ricker, who he said,
if she hadn't walked in and kicked us
out of the house, I think he would have confessed.
So he and Linda Markey wanted to get married.
Okay.
Because while your man is on trial
for the murder of his previous wife
and mother of his first children,
that should be a priority for sure.
Yeah, romance.
Right.
Yeah, let's get married.
Sounds good.
Go on a honeymoon, fucking idiots.
So unfortunately for those two dimwits,
they couldn't get married until Jimmy admitted
that Jenny was dead.
Because you can't get married
when you're married to someone else.
Correct.
And she's not there to divorce him.
And so they were like, okay, Jimmy,
you wanna get married so bad?
It meant she's dead.
Right.
I thought she was off with some other dude.
Yeah.
Is that what it was?
Because you know, he's, that's what he said.
That's a story. Now, he is it's hilarious because he's still trying to run around saying Jenny
still lives. So they're like, you can't go back on this now. And if you do, you're admitting it.
So he had to deal with the fact that he was still married, couldn't marry his new girlfriend
and was now being pressured into saying that Jenny was dead to try to get him to admit it to further these charges.
What a situation at hand.
Exactly.
So the Boston Globe reported that Linda Marquis, by the way,
said that she would marry Jimmy Hicks even if he went to prison for the murder of his wife.
Wow.
What a stand up gal.
Now Linda luckily comes around at some point.
But at that time, I'm sure she regrets a lot of these statements.
Was she very young at the time? I think yes she was young but like I think he just he had a way man.
Said he was a charm. He had a way of there's a lot of women that we're going to come across that
stand by him for a little while and then eventually go what the fuck was I doing?
Right well then of course I'm she said like she would still be with him even if he went to
jail for the murder that means like she probably still didn't believe it exactly. She's like not like she was those to prison
I would say with them because I don't believe he did it. Yeah, she's not like I'd still date him if he murdered his wife
Exactly. She's saying if you went to prison for it now July 9th
1985 Jimmy's conviction was upheld by the appeals court
He was immediately transported to Maine State Prison
in Thomas Sten, Maine.
And right when this happened,
Jimi and Linda decided it was another great time
to get married.
They were like this, you know what?
So they can.
This is the time to get married.
So of course, they ran into the same issue.
Right.
Because the issue was not gone.
They had dropped it a little bit.
They were going through this whole thing.
When this happened, they were like,
no, now.
Now is the time to get married.
And they were like, okay, well, now is the time to get married.
And they were like, okay, well, same issue is still here.
Your wife is still presumably like,
I think what they thought was when this whole appeals process
was over, he was going to be going to prison
for the murder of Jenny.
So they were like, oh, well, you guys think she's dead.
So that issue is gone now.
He doesn't have to admit it.
It's just you think he is, but they're like, no, no, no.
We're doing this without a body.
We're not, we're saying that it is likely
that he committed this crime.
Right.
So of course, the deputy attorney general said
he wasn't going to issue a death certificate for Jenny.
And he said, that's actually the medical examiner's job.
So talk to him.
So the medical examiner, Henry Afriens, said, it was actually the office of vital records
who needed to do this.
So everybody's like, not me, I'm not doing it.
It's the old runaround.
Because he was like, we don't have a physical body.
I'm an in medical examiner.
I'm giving you any time.
I give death records for physical bodies
that I can look at.
And nobody wants everybody doesn't know what to do
because this doesn't happen a lot.
Well, it's very unprecedented.
So this was completely new territory to everybody.
And eventually, they were granted the death certificate
for Jenny Sear and allowed to get a marriage license
because they did have to eventually say,
she's dead, especially if he's in prison.
Exactly.
Now, Jimmy was pissed.
What?
Here goes Lindahl, excited to tell him about this in prison.
She runs to prison and is like,
they granted the death certificate. Like can get married like yippie
And he's like you idiot this ruins my case because it makes me look it makes it look like Jenny really is dead
You didn't realize that this whole time sir like what you just so when she was like but we have been working on this
Like what and he's like I thought they were just gonna issue some kind of waiver of some kind to like override the whole thing.
Like just to be like, maybe she's dead, but he doesn't admit it.
You should not think that like you should like research that first.
And she was like, no, they, they issued a real death certificate like they're saying she's dead.
My bad. And apparently they were in love. so whatever. Now after this whole debacle, Linda went on a real spree
of speaking to the press.
It seems like Jimmy's anger
about the state issuing Jenny's death certificate
may Linda try to pivot to police him
because he was pissed at her now.
And he had a way of making the women in his life
feel like they had to police him.
He was a manipulator.
Oh, 100%.
She started saying to anyone who would listen about how she
was sure that Jenny was alive.
She said she felt the members of the court would feel pretty
dumb when Jenny just walked back into everybody's lives.
She said, quote, I'm sure they'll feel a little awkward
when Jenny is found, a little embarrassed, maybe.
Hmm.
Yeah, I don't think anybody's gonna feel awkward or embarrassed
when a missing woman and mother of two children. I think they'll just feel a little relieved. I think anybody's going to feel awkward or embarrassed when a missing woman
and mother of two children. I think they'll just feel a little live. I think it's going to be
relief. Yeah, I don't know if they're going to really think about their own egos there. It's a
human being. So thank you for that. You might feel a little awkward being married to a woman's
that's going to be awkward. But she told the morning Sentinel, quote, deep down inside, I know that
he's innocent. I have no doubts whatsoever.
We've been waiting to marry for a long time.
He's my man.
Oh gosh.
It's my man.
I love the deep down part of this.
Like she's like, you know what?
On the surface, I think that motherfucker is guilty
to deep down somewhere.
I feel like, I feel like a innocent.
Like somewhere in there somewhere you did the
like deep like like that wasn't the
love flex that you thought it was
Linda it was not it rarely is it was
not a love flex that was literally
like somewhere somewhere in there I
feel like he's like really deep in
there I feel like you're here he's not
so very guilty but like in there no I feel like it's innocent. Out here? He's got so much. He's very guilty.
But like in there or no.
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But in August 1985 they were married in prison and Linda became legal parent of Holly and Rob who are the names I chose for Jenny's children. Yes. Now which is like it just and I'm not saying it about Jelinda
because I think Linda really was like swept away in this whole thing and I think
he had a way of convincing a lot of people of a lot of things so I'm not even
gonna say anything about her. But it's like they don't even really know this woman
necessarily. Look, that's it's like she's been taking care of them so I guess like I
hope it was a she was a good I can't say anything about it. Yeah, they were never
taken out of her care.
It's like a negative way.
But I'm not going to say anything about that
because only they know how that went.
But what bothers me is that they are now forced
to live with the woman that their person
who married their mother is now dating.
Yeah.
You know, like it's just like what a weird,
yeah, it's traumatic.
You're still being put in this weird place where like this guy murdered your mother.
Like we all know it.
Right.
And now your force still lived with this woman that is like backing him no matter what.
Yeah.
Even if she's doing it out of not like a malicious way.
It's just not a healthy situation.
Very unhealthy.
You know, their marriage shockingly did not thrive. Well, yeah, he's in prison,
remember? Yeah. And eventually it was just a shattered mess while he were made in prison,
like it was just nothing. So while married to Linda and while in prison, he started dating
another woman. Because that's also his MO. Of course. He dates multiple women. He marries multiple
women. He always has overlap. That's just what he thinks because as we'll see
He wants everybody to think he's like a real like a real dude. Mm-hmm. He's like real man real man's mom, but in reality
He's like a sniveling little coward weasel faced
Poo but like that's what he is. Yeah, that's exactly what the girls say
Like that's what he is. Yeah, that's exactly what the girls say.
He's a poop butt.
You're poop butt.
I love that.
Such an insult.
It's such a burn.
It's like this.
Poop butt.
Poop butt.
Oh, yeah.
What's a poop butt?
I'm not going to tell you.
Sometimes you get poop on a butt.
Yeah, poop on a butt.
That's, you know, that's toddler's for you guys.
That's kids.
But that's neither here nor there.
So their marriage fell apart.
He starts dating another woman while he's in prison.
Her name is Karen Gom.
They had met because her sister was married to his brother.
Mm-hmm.
Just keep it all in the family.
Yeah.
So he divorced Linda and immediately married Karen.
Cause let's go.
Why?
Let's go.
Yeah.
Remember Linda took custody of the children.
Right.
But Linda is the legal guardian now.
And he doesn't have to go to raising them.
Yeah, he doesn't have to go to raising them.
No, 1990, after six years in prison, six years,
that's not the full sentence.
Well, can you remember what it was to get at least 10?
Okay.
Jimmy Hicks was released early from prison
for murdering his wife Jenny Sear.
For why?
Apparently he was a model prisoner.
Ash.
They usually are, obviously.
And what's crazy about this is a lot of the police officers
on this case later talked about it.
And they were like, oh yeah, I'm sure he was a model prisoner.
They usually are when they're around other men.
And he was like, it's women that they're dangerous to.
Right.
So they had nobody to hurt in prison.
They had nobody to put their anger on in prison.
They get out of here.
They're just going to do the same damn thing to the women that they did it to before.
Of course.
That doesn't prove that they're not a threat to women.
It's called a pattern.
Come on, guys.
So right out of prison, he got a job at the brewer, the brewer, the brewer, the brewer,
twin city motel as a maintenance supervisor.
Okay.
There, he started a fair in 1990 with a coworker named Louise Robinson.
Robertson, excuse me.
Louise had a daughter during this time that was his.
Oh.
So he got a woman pregnant during this time.
Okay.
He had to be forced to take responsibility for that child, be a DNA test because he refused
to acknowledge that child, be a DNA test because you refused to acknowledge
that child. Nice of him. He told Louise what had happened to Jenny Seer was between him
and God. He wouldn't say anything else about it. And maybe her family. But everybody that
loved her. Yeah, you know, because of course, Louise was like, hey, like what happened
with that? And he was like, you know what,
it was blown out of proportion,
you know, those cops like that detective Ricker,
especially which he gets him.
A bug up his butt about James Ricker,
and it is hilarious.
Because James Ricker had his fucking number
from the jump.
Like from the jump.
But so he just told her, you know what?
What happened between us?
It's between me and God.
And it's like, okay, well, no.
So, and again, Louise later came out and said,
because at this time he's married to Karen.
So, and he's dating this person from his work now.
And Louise was like, he told me that he was separated
from his wife.
Like, I did not.
And she was like, I also didn't know he had kids.
Right.
And he had several kids at this point.
Is he still seeing like his original kids
like him and Jenny's kids?
Or no.
I don't think he's really see,
I don't think he really gave a shit about any of his kids.
Yeah.
I'm not sure how often he was seeing them
or what that whole thing was.
But I don't think he was a very present father
for anybody really.
Now they dated, Louise and him dated for four years on and off.
Literally.
I'll bet like that's I think that's the entire time you and droop and together.
Yeah.
And that's a good amount of time.
It's a long time.
And they and it was on and off.
It wasn't completely all the way through.
They'd have a long period of being broken up.
Like, wait a sec.
And they broke up when she found out
that he was actually already dating another woman.
Ooh.
Yeah.
And another woman working at the motel as well.
And she worked at the hotel too.
Yes.
Come on.
Exactly.
And he's married as well.
And this woman was 39-year-old Lynn Willett.
And this was in 1994.
Now Lynn Wollett was born to Jane and Vincent Hanks
on August 29th, 1955 in Bangor, Maine.
Now, I am telling you this because she is victim number three.
Yes, usually I, whenever we start to talk about,
like, so we just go really real back to it.
Yeah, okay.
She sounded like a really cool check. She was, she
served in the army, the United States Army for a while. She had medical experience.
She had worked as like a paramedic and taken classes for a while. I almost said
classes. I don't know where that would have come from, but she seemed like a
really cool like bohemian check. She had lots of tattoos. She loved how to
have adventures and travel. She had a lot of dogs and she adored her dogs, like treated them like kids.
She was way too good for him.
Yeah, I mean everybody was.
Like it's way too good for him.
They all were.
Like when you look at these women, you're like, you're so much better than him.
But this is what happens.
It's like these kind of people are able to manipulate their way into anyone's life.
Now like I said, she was a very kindhearted, very intelligent person.
In 1995, she was actually taking classes at the local college to continue that
paramedic path that she had taken prior years because she wanted to like
really further herself in the medical field, which like good for her.
Yeah.
And she was 39 and she was doing that, like get it, right?
Like good for her.
Now she met Jimmy Hicks when she applied for the position at the motel while she was
taking glasses and they started an affair pretty soon after.
And at this point, he was dating Louise, he was married to Karen.
He's literally dating like the payroll of the motel.
Literally.
Now Karen and Jimmy separated at least three times and then finally divorced around this time.
Yeah, I wonder why.
So at least one of them is being taken out of the picture here.
He was violent, he was aggressive,
he was arrogant according to Karen.
She later said that he would say to her
during their marriage, quote,
I'm not going to tell you if I did kill Jenny,
but I'm not gonna tell you if I didn't either.
Oh. He would say that when he would get mad at her.
Like, I'm not gonna tell you I did kill her,
but I'm not telling you I didn't.
Like, let me just use that as a threat against you.
Like, you could end up like my first wife did.
Yeah.
And Karen had two children by a different person
when they started dating.
And those two children were almost immediately taken away
from her when this relationship began because of him,
which like not worth it girl, not worth it at all.
Not worth it.
Never is.
You break up with the man, you do not, come on.
Now after Louise and him broke up
and he divorced his wife, he moved in with Lynn Willett.
Now during this time, essays and journal entries
from Lynn indicate that she was like
going through a little bit of like depression.
She would kind of have a moment.
She was very insecure with herself, which when you see her, you're like, man, I wish like
somebody would tell you.
I was just looking.
She was gorgeous.
You were gorgeous.
She just seemed so cool.
Yeah.
Very honest. Very kind, hard and hard.
And like how all these dogs that she took care of and like adopted, like, just like hopes
and dreams yeah her dog actually she was really
still grieving the loss of a dog that she had three years prior to this her name
was like I think it was Calla the dog and she had been hit by a car in front of
her oh and she just wasn't able to process it yet which you know you might know
and it's hard and she and Hicks had got a pit bull together
and they named it felon.
Felon.
And he often got out, which is kind of funny.
It was like, Fologna.
Yes, he was like, get out.
Felon is Fologna.
And police in the area, I guess,
would just like became like, they like loved felon.
And would just like pick him up
and like let him ride in the car with them.
I love this.
And like didn't bring him to the pounder.
Anything, they would just drop him. And they also liked Lynn. So with them. I love this. And didn't bring him to the pound or anything.
They would just drop him.
And they also liked Lynn.
So they brought, and they knew that it wasn't her who
was letting Felon out.
Right.
Because she took care of her dogs.
Right.
But so they would just bring Felon back
and be like, you got out again.
And I guess Lynn was, they all said that Lynn was super friendly,
super sweet.
Like clearly someone who took care of these animals.
So they appreciated that about her. And even now, all of these new officers that were on the force since Jimmy
had been like in his real legal trouble before, all the new ones were even like, Jimmy's
like a dick. Like they were slagging with him.
When he would answer the door, he would just be like a dick about it and they were like,
why? Like, she's so cool. Why? Right.
People like, what is this? Now meanwhile, through all this,
detectives are now focused on moving forward
the case of Jarlyn Towers, the missing woman
who they were still trying to find.
Right.
And they knew was connected to Jimmy Hicks.
Of course.
They knew he was still involved.
So behind the scenes here, he's dating Lynn.
He thinks he's in the clear.
They're still moving forward on this
because Detective Rer was like,
I'm not letting this go.
Like, I'm gonna getcha.
I'm getting justice for these women.
Good.
So October, 1996, Richard Reikle,
a detective from the main state police,
wrote that he recommended the file for Jarrell and Towers
be closed at least temporarily.
He said, quote,
although this case appears to be a homicide, the body of
Geraldine Towers has not been located. And he said, and they also wrote that they believed
that the investigation, quote, would lead one to believe that James Hicks is most certainly
responsible for Geraldine Towers' death. But he said, we have no evidence. Nothing that we can pin on him.
Literally nothing. Like everyone kind of just agrees that he probably did it, but we have nothing that we can say about it.
So we have to close it for now and we have to work on newer cases.
But they basically said unless new information comes out, it's got to be shelved. Okay, so but we will open it up.
Which is really sad that you can just like, yeah's gotta be shelved. Okay, so but we will open it up.
Which is really sad that you can just like,
yeah, I understand logistically
in like a very cold way,
like that like certain things need to be placed priority
for the time frames and stuff like that.
I understand like in the completely cold logistical way.
But in the human way, nobody should be shelved.
You know, like it doesn't matter.
And I understand, it's just sucks.
I think it's the terminology too.
It's like closing the case for now or like,
and it's because it's the case.
The case.
And it's like, that's a person who has a whole aslo
to people who love them and are just,
just wanna know what happened.
And like lived a whole life and would have continued to. Exactly. And not for one person. So it's just like it's tough because like you see
both sides of you understand there's like so many but you just gotta be a better way to to put more
focus on everybody. Yeah, absolutely. To be able to put focus on each and every one of these
people that are missing. Of course. But during this whole thing, Karen, the now ex-wife, and Louise, the girlfriend, they just
broke up and who has a child by him now.
Yeah.
They were both interviewed a ton during their times with Jimmy and after, because the police
were keeping really close tabs on all of his relationships.
That must have been so nerve-wracking for them to be interviewed.
Yeah. They were still dating him.
Because imagine if he found out he'd be his.
Absolutely.
And Detective Ricker, who was now the chief of police,
also didn't stop.
He was dead set on proving what he knew about Jimmy Hicks.
He searched his property.
He searched grave sites given to him by tipsters.
And he followed up on every single lead that came through that tip line himself
He would drive out to different parts of the state like he would dig himself
He was doing everything like all the legwork. That's why he became the chief of police. That's what I'm saying
This is the police work. We love to see this is the one because you love to see those
This is how it should be yeah, they should be doing this this. This should be, and oh, and before I get too much further
with this, there is a podcast called Murder, she told,
which is a great name for a podcast also.
I've come across.
It's such a well done podcast.
She's great, her voice is great.
She does a great job, great, great, great.
And she covered this case in a couple of episodes,
I wanna say. And she spoke
to Detective Ricker and has clips of it in her podcast episode. And I'm telling you got to go
listen to that because he, first of all, you can hear right from his voice. How much he gave a
shit about this. Like, sure, he still cares about this. It still affects him.
You can just hear it.
And he just talks about it.
Like he doesn't understand how this slipped through the cracks
and it just needs to not ever happen again.
But I highly recommend this,
her podcast that she does on this particular case.
But I recommend her podcast in general.
She just, she covers like main,
in like New Englandy kind of cases.
Which I know we love one of those.
And like cold cases missing persons.
Yeah, and I had never heard this podcast before.
So now I can't wait to listen to them because I love listening to like New England cases.
Oh, yeah.
And then cold cases. So like, she does a great job.
Yeah, I just wanted to show her out.
Kristen C.V. I think is how you say the last name.
She's great. I'm telling you.
You're awesome. So go listen to out. Kristen C.V. I think is how you say the last name. She's great, I'm telling you. You're awesome.
So go listen to Murder, she told.
But you'll get a lot, like when she listened to this episode, I think it'll give you some
more too because she does talk with James Ricker.
Yeah.
And I didn't want to like, you know, take from their conversations.
So, but it's fascinating to listen to.
So I really recommend it's a really good like, oh, you listen to us.
No, go listen to her. The cherry on top. really good like oh you listen to us no go listen
Erick the cherry on top just say it's the whipped cream so
So yeah, he James Riker was everywhere. He was not gonna stop on this and Linda Marquis the girlfriend that turned wife to that
Be divorced yes, there's a lot here to try to follow. So many women.
A lot of time, unfortunately.
Like, yeah, their lives were touched by this monster.
Yeah.
Well, she finally now had come around to the idea
that he was definitely a horrific murderer.
I'm sure.
Yeah.
So Jarell and Jenny's families were more convinced than ever
that he had something to do with their loved ones' deaths
completely convinced.
But again, he really didn't get any justice. than ever that he had something to do with their loved ones' deaths. Yeah. Completely convinced.
But again, he really didn't get any justice.
Even for Jenny, sure, he went to prison for six years.
For like a minute.
Like, that's not justice.
No, she knew what?
She knew what 23 when she died.
And he served six years for taking her life.
And he's still not telling anyone what happened.
Right.
So they still don't know if she's dead, how she died, where is she?
What is, they have nothing.
What happened?
Nothing.
Because he was literally released after he spit full of years.
Yeah.
And then they had to go through this whole harrowing appeals process, which they got to have
like where it got picked apart that, you know, whether they were allowed to say whether she was a good mom or not.
It's just ridiculous. So in 1991, Linda spoke with James Ricker, and she said, you know what?
You know what, Ricker?
I'm ready to tell the whole truth here.
What?
And he was like, excuse me?
Like what?
You weren't?
And she's like, okay.
So she said he forced her to lie for him
during the original investigation
into Jarlyn and Jenny's cases.
She said he told her to lie and say
that he had come home at 1 a.m.
on the evening of Jarlyn's disappearance.
But the truth was, she said,
he didn't come home until sometime after 4 a.m.
And she said, and I do not know where he was during those hours.
And at the time, I assumed he was drinking or with another woman.
Because that's just what he does.
Like he's just a terrible slimy pig.
So, she was like, I just didn't, she's like immediately.
I did not obviously think that he was out murdering someone.
That's not the first thing that you think of.
No, the person you're in a relationship with.
And she's like, I should have told the truth.
But she was like, I was terrified of him.
And he told me to lie, so I lied.
Which one, you're like, wow, that's really sad that you were in that position.
But the second one is, you're like, that is someone's child.
That's someone's sister.
That's someone's mother.
To the police. You lied. And to someone's mother to the police.
You lied and it's for something terrible, man.
Like this isn't you lying because you like stole a stick
of gum at the convenience store.
Like our speeding ticket or like one of them.
Like you're lying and somebody's dead here.
Like you got to feel bad about that, man.
Like that's not cool.
But she came clean.
So at least she came clean.
Now she also came clean and said,
by the way, he completely stripped the car.
He drove home the night of Jarrell and his disappearance.
And she said, it was a totally fine car
that worked completely well.
What?
She said, took it out, back,
took all the carpets out of it,
for absolutely no reason at all.
And you thought he was innocent, your friend?
Yep.
I was like, I feel like you knew,
but you just didn't want to admit it to yourself.
I think that's exactly what it was.
Now, she said that stripped car was still on the property.
So she was like, you know what?
She was like, if you want to come and you want to take that car,
you have complete permission to take that car
and do whatever you want to.
And it's on my property right now.
Yeah.
And so, Riker was like, great.
So in 1994, he attempted to do that,
but the forensics team was like, it's been years.
Right.
Like, in many years.
It's 1994.
He's like, don't have a lot.
And it's been sitting out in the elements.
It's like, yeah.
Yeah.
And unfortunately, he did strip a lot of it.
It sounds like, so it sounds like, what are we going to get?
Yeah, there was nothing to really attempt to even take at this point. Like, you know, good for Linda for being like lot of it. It sounds like what are we going to get? Yeah, there was nothing to really attempt to even take
at this point.
Like, good for Linda for being like take it and at least try.
They wouldn't even get.
But it really wasn't going to do anything.
So that same year in 1994, Vance Tibbets,
who is Jarlyn's brother, told the Newport Police Department
that he had been in the same prison as James Hicks at one point.
And he said he had requested by the, like the warden.
He said he wanted to speak to James Hicks
about his sister when he was in prison.
He was like, oh, he's in here.
Like, I want to talk to him.
That's crazy.
So he did so.
The warden set up a meeting because he was like,
you over I task.
Absolutely.
This is just a warden.
I know it was like, go for you.
It was like, I could have been like a big problem.
I could have been a scary thing, but like, I'm glad to happen.
And it was reported that when Vance asked what happened to his sister,
Jimmy said he had seen her leave with a truck driver
from the Gateway Lounge that night.
What does he have against truck drivers?
What is this truck driver thing?
And don't worry, he's not done with truck drivers
to all the truck drivers out there.
I'm sorry, because what did somebody do to you?
What the fuck do you have against truck drivers?
What truck driver pissed in your weedies?
Like, dude, they're just, just making a living.
They're just driving trucks.
They're just truck driving.
They're not picking up your wife.
And then, honestly, every truck driver I have ever met
is a great person.
Yeah, I've had nothing but great experiences
meeting truck.
We have a lot of listeners who are truck drivers.
We have a ton of listeners who are truck drivers.
And the fuck it also is, they're always the sweetest people.
So like, fuck you, James.
You only passed when I know of his Ben Rhodes.
I was just going to say the only we covered it.
And we even said in that episode we were like, this is not truck drivers.
It's not represent the truck driver.
No, it is not.
So I don't understand what his thing, a truck driver definitely likes stole his lady at some point in his life or something like, or his lady just like
dumped him for a truck driver and then he just had this thing against them forever. That's
actually a country song. Yeah, a truck driver stole my lady and I had something I got
at the forever. I also made a dog guide. And my dog died about truck dad. That truck. I
don't know. So yeah, so again, she left with a dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, I dug, were like, yeah, he refused. He was like, I'm not taking a lie detector.
Like a few, and that's shady.
Even the lie detectors are like hot dogs and trash dogs and trench coats.
When you flat out refuse to take one, it doesn't look good.
Because when you have to lose, really?
Yeah, the whole thing is kind of messy because it's like, yeah, I think you do have something
to lose.
Yeah, I'm gonna lose.
But when your James Hicks, like, fuck off.
When your James Hicks, like, nothing applies to him that applies to everyone else in my mind.
I'm like, you're dumb, I hate you.
Like, right.
Everyone else I'd be like, don't take that.
And we know he did all of this.
He did, right.
Now, when Vance Tibbett's got out of prison,
his he and his sister, Gene and Jenny's family started talking.
Oh wow.
And they started sharing their stories and information.
I was probably cathartic.
We are going to see these families of these missing women.
They come together in the most beautiful way
from these tragedies.
It's just like, I love that.
It's like a wonderful thing that came out of it.
Because it's like how many people share that same trauma
or a club.
Nobody wants to be a part of it.
But they found themselves a part of it
and they did something good with it good
So they also connected together with Linda Markey and other ex-wife Karen and tried to share as much information as possible
So now Karen and Linda started sharing their stuff with the families
So they were working with those Hicks must die. It's true. It's a job talker must die. Truly. Then the whole gang got together with James Ricker
and helped narrow down some facts and straighten up some facts.
Yes.
So all the families are now coming together
being like, OK, we're going to straighten,
we're going to separate fact from fiction for you.
We're going to narrow down these stories.
We're going to try to get some witnesses together.
We're going to tell you who you should talk to,
who you shouldn't, and Ricker was like, cool.
He was like, let's do this.
Let's go.
And like where we should search.
I should look at what's going on.
I wish you guys could see Ash's face when she does.
Let's go.
It's like, because I just picture like an older detective
just being like, let's go.
You gotta like headbop to this. So perfect.
But I love it, because they just all got together
and were like, fuck this guy.
Honestly.
Let's all get them together.
And I was like, hell yeah.
Now, in 1995, Jimmy, who was still dating Lin-Willette
at this time and living with her, actually filed a complaint
with the Brewer police department against
advanced Tibbets. Jimmy did. Yeah, Jimmy did.
Jarlins brother. Yeah, yeah, saying he was stalking him.
He's a lot to it. It's like, honey, you definitely killed his sister.
Like you are, that's not stalking. That's just catching you.
Like that's just being a brother. Yeah, that's just a battle.
That's what that is actually.
Now people came forward to say that they were scared to talk.
All of a sudden people are coming forward and being like, yeah.
He like intimidates witnesses.
Of course.
Like we were scared to talk.
And he had three people threaten us and shit.
So people are now coming forward being like, well, I know this.
And I know that more and more women
started talking to law enforcement
and sharing what they could about their relationships
with Hicks.
He's a monster.
Of course.
Multiple women said he sexually abused them
during their time together.
A lot of them said he was unnecessarily aggressive during sex.
And they were like, it was said before.
Which many people had said before.
So this is a very clear pattern with him. And they were like, this isn before. Which many people had said before. So this is a very clear pattern with him.
And they were like, this isn't like, like a kink we have.
Like this wasn't like, consensual, like rough sex.
This is like, he was abusive.
He was hurting me.
Yeah.
And he was abusive to almost every child
he came across and killed and abused animals.
Like, all of them said this.
Now, so the Brewer Police Department
Detective Joseph W. Zamboni of the Main State Police, he's going to become a big part in this. Now, so the Brewer Police Department, Detective Joseph W. Zamboni of the main state police,
he's going to become a big part in this.
It's like Zamboni and Rick are like the two guys.
So the Brewer Police talked to him and they were like, hey, like this is getting kind of
crazy.
And when he talked to Vance Tibbets, he told him that he would, Vance was like, I'm not
going to stop harassing Jimmy Hicks.
Like he was just like,
oh my God, that's so nice that you think
that I'm ever gonna stop.
He was like, you're not gonna do anything
to make me stop.
He killed my sister and I know it.
And he was like, not until the day I die
or he dies, am I gonna stop this?
Sorry, not sorry.
Like, brother shit right there.
On some brother shit.
Now, so now Zimboni is into this.
They've now got the state police involved.
So, February 1996, Zimboni interviewed Jimmy Hicks
at his place of work, the motel.
He asked him to take a polygraph.
He was like, just take a polygraph and prove your innocence
if you're so innocent.
And Hicks was like, no, I don't have to.
Like, I don't, there's nothing to prove.
And he was like, well, if there's nothing to prove,
then just take the polygraph and it will prove
that there's nothing to prove. Right. And he was like, well, if there's nothing to prove, then just take the polygraph, and it will prove that there's nothing to prove.
Right.
And he was like, no.
He refused, and after several more interviews
with police about Geraldine's disappearance,
Lynn, his girlfriend, had had enough.
She told her friends, this is getting to be too much.
Like, I think some weird shit is going,
like he's being interviewed by police
for killing women.
And she was like, you know what, he's possessive as well. He's an asshole, like he's being interviewed by police, killing women. And she was like, you know, what? He's possessive as well. He's an asshole. Like, he's not nice to the dogs. I don't
like him. Oh, so she dumped him. And she moved into with her parents at her parents home.
And she was in the process of it. She was taking her stuff out of the apartment, bring
her to parents time, the most dangerous time. So May 26, 1996, Jimmy Hicks reported Lynn
Willett as a missing person. She had not come to a family barbecue and was
unable to be contacted according to him. The previous day was Saturday the
25th and Jimmy said, you know, we did spend the day together. So now he's being
like, I am the last person to be seen with her, which wow, that never happens. He said they were together. He said, yes, we slept together because sometimes in the midst of a breakup, that happens.
Yeah.
But he said, you know, we ate some food at this place called the Big Apple store.
We went shopping to several places together and then we went for a drive together and we ended up at the apartment.
When we got to the apartment, she got in her car to go back to her parents' house.
That's the last time I saw her.
Doubt it.
And her car was missing with her.
They didn't know what the car was.
So shocking three women have gone missing
after last being seen with Jimmy Hicks.
Totally normal.
He was able to give a very detailed description
of her tattoos and distinguishing marks,
which they were dating, so okay, but like
He was very descriptive about the tattoos. Yeah, and they were like, I don't know like seems a little like he's focusing on them a little bit
And we'll remember that. Oh, no and apparently she had
She had a few tattoos that were green like cut the color green. Yeah one was a heart on her shoulder
She had a thistle on her left wrist and like a flower that was green in pink. She had
I think it was like a green necklace almost thing that went from her shoulder
to her chest. Oh cool. Yeah. Now weirdly too, he's giving you a very
detailed and very here's my alibi of what I was doing that day which always
should be suspicious when someone's going
Well, we ate here and then we went to several stores and we're seen by several people and then we went here
We're several people probably saw us right. Okay. It's like a buddy. Melignato over there. Exactly. It's it's it reeks of
I'm trying to set this up because I watch a lot of law and order. Mm-hmm kind of thing
set this up because I watch a lot of Law and Order. Mm-hmm.
Kind of thing.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Now, unfortunately, for Jimmy, he was a really shitty liar, and police just checked this
overly detailed alibi and the sequence of events, and it really didn't add up.
Of course not.
Because again, it rarely does.
He's one of those guys who just thinks he's above it all.
He got away with it the first time around when the police came to look for Jenny, and
he said, oh, she ran off with a truck driver. I saw it and they were like, well, case closed, I guess.
Like, he got away with it then. So why would he think that now he could just give some overly
detailed? Because remember with Jenny, he was like, well, I went to the bar that night and I had
this to drink and then I saw her outside in a car. The car was this. She was in the passenger seat.
There was a man in the passenger seat. He was a truck driver. I just know it. And then she looked
at me and she said, how's the kids? I'm not coming home and going to Florida with this truck driver.
Here he is. Have you met him? Yeah. And then they left. And sometimes she sends
her like he went on this big detail thing and no one bothered to look it up. So he's trying it
again. Right. Might as well. Didn't work this time because this new police officer is that
actually give a shit. And because now at this point, this is the third woman who's gone missing and
you come on. And like come on. But how overly like the cojones on this man to try this,
the cojones like come on in general. Just to give this one a shot again, it's like come
on. But luckily, luckily, we have some good police work here and they went and checked on everything and they said no
Nothing is matching for them the big Apple store said no they never came in and had food and they didn't have a receipt to match
You would also think that like you would take into account that most stores have surveillance of some kind
Well at this point, what is it? Like the 90s?
I think it wasn't like it was now.
That's true.
So that's a little different.
But you would think like people are gonna...
But again, remember, he got away with it the first time.
He does not think that he thinks this police department
is the same police department in the 70s.
Who didn't look up shit and wasn't worried about it
and just took him out his word and was like
growing out with him.
Can you imagine thinking that you can just like kill all the women you want
for as long as you want.
And that people are just going to let you do it.
It's never going to catch up to you.
It almost didn't with him to be honest.
So nuts.
But so the big Apple store said, nope, didn't come in.
They didn't have a seat or any kind of like order that matched what he said that
they had.
They went to some of the stores.
He had claimed they went to
all those stores were like, no, never saw that.
Nope, definitely didn't, neighbors said they saw Jimmy arrive,
but they never saw Lynn that day.
And they were like, she didn't, I didn't see your car,
I didn't see her.
No, didn't happen.
When questioned again, Jimmy said he had seen Lynn
with another man the day before,
that before the she wouldn't missing.
And he said he was pissed about it.
And had talked about her,
about it the next day with her.
And also was sure to throw in the fact
that Lin had struggled with depression in the past.
Oh, of course.
Police were not buying it.
They were like, no,
because now he's trying to throw in,
well, she was cheating on me,
so she probably just ran off with that guy.
Yeah, just like Jimmy.
And we gotta set it up
Between his bullshit version of how the day with Lynn when when she went missing and his past with Jenny and Jarlyn
They knew he was a fucking serial killer, but they just needed the evidence right now Friday May 31st
Lynn's car was found
Not so not too long after she went missing. It was parked in a parking lot at
the at a truck stop in Herman. I wonder why it was at a truck stop. And that's just off of I-95
if you're in New England. So Zamboni and Rickers just decided they were going to fuck with them,
which is really funny. What they did was I guess you also make sure you read that book,
Tragedy in the North Woods that I recommend in the first part
It's just like really good. I just have like a lot of detailed stuff about this. So I really recommend it
I'll definitely source it in here, but in that book they talk about how
Like Ricker's really went for like the hard I don't give shit. You're an asshole. I know you're an asshole
I know you're a murderer.
Kind of thing. Good cop bad cop. Like he didn't put on any heirs of like, where friends or anything,
or I think you're innocent. It was like, you're a murderer. I'm going to prove it. Right. And then
Zamboni decided to counteract that by doing the buddy thing where he was like, listen, bud,
I'm on your side. I'm just trying to get this, you know, just trying to make it go away, but like,
you're not helping me out. Like kind of thing. Right, right.
And they worked really well together that way
because it was a perfect,
because then it made Hicks hate Ricker.
Yup.
And like, like, Zamboone.
So he started giving up a little more to Zamboone
and he would be angry at Ricker
so he'd be bitching about Ricker
and things would slip out.
Yeah.
So it really worked out genius.
So when they found the car,
Zamboone was like,
well, we just showed up at his door at 1 a.m.
Like banging on his door and they were like,
Jimmy, we found the car, aren't you so happy?
And he's like, he had parked the fucking car there.
Of course.
I knew he thought we would never find it.
And we knew that when we told him,
we found it only days later.
He was gonna shut it up.
He was gonna shit his pants. And it was a funny, he was going to shit his pants and it was
a lot of water on himself. They were like and he was like it was even funnier to act like we're
bros like we're friends and we're helping you out. What's up bro? We found the car. Now it's and
remember Jimmy is only good when he has time to think about stuff before he does it and what he
thinks are backups and
alibis to help him out. When he's caught off guard or when he's bested in a
situation like this, like I'm just out of the blue, he shits his pants. Like he
can't, it's like when he was on the stand. Yep. He was cool, common
collecting. What was going to happen? But when he was interviewed out of the blue
by Rick or he should his pants. Right. He's lame.
Now, his idea?
Well, then definitely ran off with a truck driver,
just like Jarelin and Jenny.
Isn't it crazy how everybody just always does that to me?
All three women, according to Jimmy Rodney Hicks,
ran off with truck drivers.
Like, does that happen a lot?
That's all he had.
That's how dumb this man is.
He can't even come up with a different excuse. For another woman. Does that happen a lot? That's all he had. That's how dumb this man is.
He can't even come up with a different excuse.
For another woman, for an entirely different human.
You couldn't even say he, like, sure.
Like you're even staying with the she ran off with,
they don't all run off with, they're just gonna break up
with your dumb ass and leave you.
That's right.
Like, in fact, Jenny left you.
She was having you move out of the place.
Like, it wasn't running off with anybody.
She was picking you out.
Exactly.
And so did Lynn.
Lynn was leaving.
Jarellyn didn't even know you're asked.
And then it's like, and Lynn was dumping you.
So it's like, you were being, you were a loser.
And the only thing you can come up with is something negative.
Like these women like ran off with someone.
So stupid.
Behind your back, like, no, you're the loser, not them.
Oh, it's just so insane.
So it's so irritating.
And of course, that was bullshit
because they just checked on Lin's bank account
and all her cards and none of them had been used.
No.
It's very obvious that she's not around.
It's like, come on.
But just so sad.
And her family knew it, which is even sadder.
It was just another cycle like Jenny and Jenner
Gerlens families.
They knew it,
and you all miss listening to them.
Luckily this time, they had some cops that were on it.
But her mother Jane actually said,
and this breaks my heart.
Her mother Jane said, quote,
she was my baby, you know, she's gone.
I'm her mother, I can feel it.
About Lynn.
That's horrible.
Yeah.
So she was literally like, I know she's gone.
Like she's not alive. And it's like, mother's now. Absolutely. Now, this was a whole
operation. So Zamboni was working tirelessly to pin this on him. He had no
tangible evidence, but everyone knew this was the guy. He worked along with
Rick or on the Jarlin case now as well. So now they're both working on the
Lynn case and their Zamboni went back and was like, now I'm
going to help you with the Jaira Lynn one two. Because they
figured if they could get one, then the other one might just
fall into place. And if they could get him to confess to one or
nail him on it, he might just confess to all of them. Yeah. So
the Jackass was already moved on within four months of Lynn
going missing. He was already moving on to another woman. So
far in September 1996, he moved in with an 18 year old, within four months of Lynn going missing. He was already moving on to another woman. So far so far.
In September 1996, he moved in with an 18 year old,
named Brandi Mayo.
He was 45.
God, what do you do, dude?
When cops found this out,
they immediately spoke to Brandi's parents and her mother
because remember, they're very clear,
like they are focused on monitoring his release.
Yeah.
Because they know he's very dangerous to women.
So her mother Anne said that Brandi had met Jimmy working
when she was working as a chamber maid at the motel.
Of course, and they said she's a good kid,
but she had a lot of insecurities
and they said Jimmy seemed to be grooming her
and just praying on that.
And they were like, we don't like him because one,
of course not.
We're not comfortable with her dating a 45 year old man
No, who has been involved with a lot of weird shit in the past and also
The mom was like she gets he yells at her on the phone like we can hear her like him like verbally abusing her
And she's been not allowed to leave the house unless she's going to work all like he's starting his whole possessive thing over again
So fucked up now soon friends of Brandy's came forward and told Zamboni and Ricker
that Jimmy was physically abusing Brandy as well.
Of course.
And he had also taken her to locations, like certain locations,
and told her that this is where he had taken the other missing women,
and she was next.
What?
Yeah.
And the thing was Brandy didn't, wasn't told any details.
She wasn't hiding anything.
Yeah.
He was basically just, she thought he was doing this as like a threat, tech, tech, like just
to be like, well, you know that in my past, like people have accused me of this, like,
this is where I took him in your next.
Right.
Like, she didn't actually like know that that's where the bodies were.
Of course.
Or anything like that, because I don't want to put that on her.
No.
Like he was an abusive prick and she figured this was just another
18 year old girl.
Exactly.
Now the couple actually had a daughter the following year and that
daughter was immediately taken away by the main department of human
services in placed in foster care.
That's horrible.
So in 1998 they got married.
Yep. This is when the this is when the files in the
case on Hicks were actually brought in front of the FBI. Oh, so during all of this, they've been
gathering all this, you know, all the families are involved, all the ex-girlfriends and the ex-wives
are involved. The people he has dated, the people he has worked with, they've all come together
with Rick or with Zimboni, they write, just got this huge file. And now they feel like we've got
enough, we got to bring this to the FBI and see what they say. We do.
So after review, the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime,
which is part of the FBI, determined that they said, quote,
James Hicks is likely responsible for the disappearance of both
Jarelin Towers and Lynn Willett. And they said, quote, James Hicks is likely responsible for the disappearance of both Jarrellyn Towers and Lynne Wollett.
And they said, quote, James Hicks has been involved in at least three incidences in which
females who were he was associated with at the time of their mysterious disappearances
have never been seen nor heard from since.
They ended the report by saying, quote, James Hicks will continue to pose a genuine threat to a variety of female acquaintances
until he is stopped by law enforcement or otherwise.
Yup, that's pretty clear.
So while this is happening, Jimmy and Brandy
decided to move to Texas,
because he wanted to get the fuck out of Maine.
And they had another baby.
Oh no.
Oh boy, who was immediately removed from them as well
and placed in foster care?
Now are these kids being immediately removed
because Jimmy's like under,
because like Jimmy is very clearly not fit for parent.
These women are not leaving him.
So he began working for a contractor while he was out there
named Danny Hines.
And he was doing painting and like other contract work
Just on homes and stuff and the FBI and C.A.V.C. that
National what is it national center for the analysis of violent crime?
They told main state police and new port police who they were working with that they said you guys need to put him under surveillance
And you need to gather as much intel as possible.
And they said, you know, we're going to aid with like you guys and working with the Texas
authorities in order for you to do that so that everybody can be connected.
And they literally said he should be classified as a serial killer who is on the loose even
though we don't have bodies.
Okay.
Like this is wild.
This is crazy.
And also the main authorities were which this doesn't have bodies. Okay. Like, this is wild. The fact that they're... This is crazy. And also, the main authorities were...
Which, this doesn't happen all the time.
Like, the main authorities were very willing
to share everything they had with the Texas authorities.
Yeah, that, like, that definitely...
Because sometimes egos come into play here
and nobody wants to share shit
and that's when stuff happens.
Mm-hmm.
And so, they were...
Ricker, well, they were like,
we'll give you everything.
Like, and you give us whatever you can, it worked.
So James Ricker actually wrote a long letter
to the level in Texas police chief where they were staying.
His name is Ted Holder.
This was on June 20th, 1999.
And James Ricker wrote that he was apologizing
for sending his worst citizen to them.
Oh my god.
That's how we begin.
He said like a very sorry that that made us sending our worst citizen over to you.
That's hilarious.
And then he said quote, and it was a big long thing where he outlined all three of the
disappearances, how what they had against him, what had happened.
And he wrote quote, we sincerely feel that Mr. Hicks will kill again
in almost any female confol victim.
So in April 2000, some real shit happened.
You think real shit has already happened?
I do.
Yes, I do.
This is when it gets wild.
It's so wild.
It's gonna just get wilder.
It's gonna get even more wild.
Now April 2000, a woman who was 68 years old named Jun Elizabeth Moss called Danny Hines to do some work for her on her house
Okay, Jimmy Hicks was one of the workers. They'll be doing this and he offered to do some side work for her outside of the contractor job
Jimmy Hicks did again. No, thank you
He was going to do some indoor
painting and tile work for her. They like talked about a price, all that fun stuff.
On April 8th, he went to get paint for the job for her. Okay. And she'd given him a check.
And then he brought it back to the house. And she said when he arrived, he was like, he
was drinking beer. And she told them like, you can drink it outside,
but you can't drink it in my house.
Yeah, that's rude.
You're on a job.
And so she went inside, and she's like,
I just went inside to sit down.
Suddenly he walked into the house,
stuck a gun in her face.
Oh God.
The 68 year old woman, and said, this is real,
and I'm not fucking working for you anymore.
What?
And she was like, what? She said, and she was quoted as saying,
quote, Jim's whole personality had changed.
He was red in the face and angry.
Jim made me give him my glasses.
Jim was talking very loud, and usually he's very soft spoken.
I tried to stand up and Jim pushed me back down in the chair.
After this, he went on a whole tie raid
about the world being against him. And,
you know, the Department of Social Services was taking his son away. They had taken his daughter away.
He was so angry. He's like, they're trying to pin me with all this shit and like, blah, blah, blah,
blah. He just went on this whole rampage. He then shot the gun at the wall and then ripped the
phone out of the wall when she tried to grab it to call for help.
Oh, literally whipped it out of her hand
and ripped the wires out of the wall.
And then he ripped every other phone wire out of the wall.
Oh, but this is every other one.
And then locked all the doors.
And she's just sitting there like, what the fuck?
She's literally like, I told you,
couldn't drink a beer in my house.
Like, he then admitted to her, he said, I killed my wife.
And then he told her he didn't want to kill her because he liked her.
He was like, I really don't want to kill you because I actually kind of like you.
I'd be like, I love you so much.
And then he said, and we're in Texas and they'll put me to death.
So he's literally telling her like, the only reason I'm not, I don't want to kill you right now is because they'll give me the death penalty if they's literally telling her like the only reason I'm not, I don't wanna kill you right now
is cause they'll give me the death penalty
if they catch me.
And I kind of like you.
He then grabbed her arm and tried to force her
into the bedroom, but she didn't wanna go obviously.
No.
And she said quote, she finally just like gave in
cause she was like, I don't know what to do here.
So she said quote, we walked to the bedroom
and he told me to sit down.
So I sat down on the side of the bed.
Jim wanted to know if I had any money and I told him I didn't have very much money. Then he
asked me about my jewelry and I told him he could have whatever he wanted. Just please
don't kill me. Oh, that's so sad. So then he made her go back into the living room and
he asked her, do you have any guns? And she figured he would find them anyways. So she just
wanted to comply to live. Yeah. So she told them she had rifles in the closet.
So he left to get them. He took them out.
Then he made her go back into the living room and demanded
she write a check for him after asking how much money was in her account.
Yeah. She had told them she had 1500 in her checking
and he said for her to write him a check for Jim Hicks for
$1,250 and he said,
I don't want to take everything that's in your account.
Oh yeah, let me just leave you in the couple hundred.
Thanks so much.
That's, you know, that's Jimmy.
I'm going to rob you, but I'm going to be like pretty nice about it.
That's Jimmy.
Cool.
Good old Jimmy.
Just so nice.
So yeah, he's like, yeah, so I don't want to take everything, so write me that.
Then he stole $200 in cash from her purse.
Then he told her he wanted the title of her car.
What?
So she was nervous, but she said she just went with it.
She's like, cool, take my car and get the car out of here.
She led him to where the title is.
And, you know, he took the title.
He even led her outside to make sure the mileage was correct.
Yeah.
And then brought her back inside.
The title was officially written over to him by her.
And then he told her she had to write a note
for her children saying he had turned the title over,
she'd turned the title over to Jimmy.
Yeah.
She'd given him all the money and whatever else
he wanted to take and she had done it
out of her own prerogative.
Okay.
It was essentially a suicide note.
Yeah.
What he had at her right.
Yeah. And it's so fucking scary. Yeah, and he had her right. Yeah, that's so fucking scary
Yeah, and he dictated it to her and then forced her to sign it
But she's smart as a mother fucking whip what she do and she was like well, he's an idiot
So I'm gonna try this so she signed it June e Moss and not mom
So it would be obvious that it wasn't her doing it out of her own volition
She did that to be like this is this is me not doing this of her own volition. She did that to be like, this is me not doing this.
I'm my own volition.
He didn't catch it.
Like, are you that's good?
I didn't have fucking.
You made it right.
You straight into her kids.
He also made her write a second identical note so that they could be compared.
What?
Now, we will find out later, Jimmy likes crime shows.
And he gets a lot of his things from crime shows.
And this is a perfect example of something stupid,
you would see on a fucking crime show.
And he also compared her signature with her driver's license,
so he really wanted to make sure it looked real.
He was like anxious, like yelling,
like she said, he was red and spitting and just crazy.
And he was scaring the shit out of June.
And he then brought her into or he brought her into the room, this bag that he had like shown up
with when he arrived earlier. And he pulled out a beer. He were a couple of beers out of there.
And then a 33 ounce bottle of Coca-Cola. And he gave her the bottle of Coke and said drink the entire
thing. What? And she kept asking him if it was poison. And he insisted it the bottle of Coke and said drink the entire thing. What?
And she kept asking him if it was poison.
And he insisted it was, he said it wasn't.
And he took a sip of it and was like, it's not.
She's like, why are you making me do this?
And then he started, he just kept screaming at her to drink the entire thing while she was like
gagging on it and like spitting it out.
And he's chugging beers while she, she's doing this by the way.
What the fuck? And he's screaming drink at her every now and then. He told her and then finally
he tells her, which I'm like, what is going on? So she says, Jim gave me the bottle and said,
drink. I asked him again if it was poison. Jim said no. It's cherry cough syrup and I put a bottle of regular in it.
I asked him again if it was poison and he said no, I got it at the dollar store.
So he gave her a bottle of cough syrup and is telling you to drink the entire thing.
Right.
So he left her in the room drinking cough syrup and started running the bath.
What?
So this is cough syrup mixed with Coca-Cola.
Okay.
So now what he's doing is he's running the bath
and like he's gonna fuck around her.
Like he's gonna fuck around her.
What he's going to do is drown her
and make it look like a suicide.
What?
Yup.
And he keeps coming back and forth into the room
and like forcing her to drink, threatening her with the gun,
going back to check the water level, like going back in.
And one of the times he went in the bathroom, June just got the fuck up out of there.
Good.
She was like, you idiot.
Like he left her alone and she was like, buy bitch.
Like she just like ran out the front door and she ran to a neighbor's house for help.
And he just saw that she was gone and escaped in his van.
Well, two neighbors saw him leave and seeing June run out of there. They jumped in their car and followed him.
This is just so random.
So random.
One of them called police.
Yeah.
And one of them called police and an ambulance for June because she had just been drinking
cough syrup.
Yeah.
Of course, she was brought to the hospital.
The neighbors chasing him saw him throw shit in a dumpster on the way.
So they told police, police later came and found that he had thrown in a dumpster on the way. So they told police, police later came and found
that he had thrown in the dumpster. They found the car title ripped up. Why is he trying
to get rid of the evidence? Yep. Yep. A photo of her daughter, June's daughter, and a
BB gun. Okay. So then they go back to June's house and they find that all the doors are
locked. He locked her in there. He had shot a bullet into the wall,
and the bath was filled almost all the way up.
So he was definitely gonna drown.
He was definitely gonna drown here.
They immediately went to Jimmy Hicks' house,
where he was sitting in his van in front of his house,
immediately arrested him in front of his house.
You're arrested for the strangest fucking crime.
The most fucked up, weird crime.
Yeah.
So he was charged with aggravated assaults of an elderly person, for the strangest fucking crime. The most fucked up weird crime. Yeah.
So he was charged with aggravated assault
of an elderly person.
And he was facing life in prison for it
because he was already a convicted felon
and he had used a gun in this whole thing.
Yeah.
So like, okay.
What?
And what's weird is this isn't him wanting to be caught
because he did not want to go to prison in Texas.
As we all see, he did not want to be in prison in Texas.
Right.
So like, what are you doing?
So he's now facing life in a Texas prison.
He didn't want to do that.
So he contacted press outlets in Maine
and basically said if they paid him enough,
they could get, he'll give him a story,
like the whole story.
But all these press outlets are like,
yeah, we don't pay felons for stories.
So like, no.
And you're in prison, like you're not going to get the money.
And they immediately contacted Zamboni in the police department.
And we're like, this is what he really say.
Hey, what's up?
Hello.
So Zamboni got in contact with Steve Hicks.
Steve Hicks is Jimmy's brother.
How many brothers does Jimmy have?
He has a lot.
He's like one of the like six or seven kids.
But Steve Hicks was like, all right, we can, we can cut a deal here.
Like, I'll talk through Jimmy.
I'll tell, I'll try to make this happen for you.
Okay.
So he said, you know, Jimmy will give you some information
as long as he is brought to Maine to serve prison time
and does not serve prison time.
I hate how they get to like, like,
swindle these little fucking deals.
Like, I'm like, oh, you want to be comfy in prison
for murder and assaults?
It's their last little slice roll.
The power and control that they have.
But it's so fucking irritating.
Which sucks.
So he finally, so they were like, all right,
we'll do what we can do.
But he began communicating through Steve with Zamboni,
and also he started finally contacting Zamboni directly
So finally Zamboni and Jimmy are speaking directly again from prison. Yeah, and Zamboni was dead set on getting everything out of him
He could he's like this is it this is my time to shine. This is the leverage we needed. We got to nail this now
So Hicks complained to him about James Ricker and was saying he stalked him.
It was his fault that he never talked all these years. I would have told you this story a long time
ago. Like start making sure James Ricker's fault. Like okay for doing his job. Exactly. Basically,
James Ricker had done a bang up job as a cop on this case and it pissed Hicks off because he
didn't act like his friend. Right. So Zimboni was still playing that I'm on your side, Angle.
And at this point, Brandy had finally come to terms with the idea that her husband
was very clearly a serial killer.
Yeah.
She also found herself pregnant with her third child.
And she knew it was going to be taken away immediately.
Oh, God.
Especially if she kept backing the scary mother fuckers.
So April 13th, the same day that he was taken in, she filed for divorce and she filed for
protection order against him.
Okay.
Because she was like, you know, she got to keep her child.
She did get and she actually gained custody of the son too.
I think the daughter might have gone to a family as well, but I think she was able to get control a little bit more of that whole situation
Now August that's the thing he didn't just
Kill three women and destroy their lives and all the lives of everyone who cared about those women
He also destroyed countless other lives just from the shit he did and all these children
That he destroyed their lives just by being their father
That's so sad.
It sucks.
Now, August of that year, he wrote a letter to Zamboanie telling him again,
I will give you everything, just bring me to Maine and Zamboanie's like, I'm fucking trying.
You had trust me.
But Zamboanie also wanted to act a little stupid here and he was like,
he was like, yeah, I don't know, like, I don't know if I can even pull this off because like,
I don't even know what you have to tell I can even pull this off because I don't
even know what you have to tell me.
What do you even have to tell me?
That's like really gonna get something like that.
That's a big ask.
I just don't feel like you have anything to tell me.
And Hicks answered, you know exactly what I'm gonna tell you.
So he was like, okay, so that tells me exactly what I was gonna tell him.
He was like, if he had answered me like, well you know, I don't know.
Maybe I don't have anything.
He was like, I know that would have sucked, well, you know, I don't know. I don't think, maybe I don't have anything. Like, you know, like cool.
I know that would have sucked
and I would have left him there for a while,
but he needs to know what's gonna happen.
So in September 28th, Zimboni flew to Texas
and interviewed Jimmy Hicks.
He confessed.
But he only confessed to a little bit.
Okay.
Of course, he's gonna mention here.
So this is how part of the interview went.
James Hicks said,
all I'm going to say is that I'll admit to a crime in Maine,
the missing person case on Lin-Walette,
that I do know where she is and stuff like that.
But as for giving physical or any evidence at all,
or anything at this time, I'm not giving any.
So now he's just saying, I know where she is. Okay. So Zimboanie says, okay, so I take it to mean from what you just told me that you are responsible for the death of Lynn Willett. Yeah.
And Jimmy said, do I have to use the word death? And Zimboanie said yes. What? Now, Zamboni said, you're not doing this
because of the goodness of your heart. You're doing this because you want to go to Maine to do your time.
Hicks said, yeah, I want to do my, be sentenced in Maine and do my whole, do my time in Maine.
Not come back to Texas at all.
And when I get to Maine, I'll cooperate and show you evidence and everything to give you closure
on the cases that we talked about or you know about. So he's like, so you graced. No, I'm not doing
this out of the good of my heart. I don't give a fuck. I just don't want to do my time in this Texas
prison. Yeah, this is all about me. So right away, he's like, oh, I'm literally the biggest piece of
shit you can imagine. Yeah, like straight up
Narcensis. Yes.
Now Zimboni tried to get more, but he wouldn't give anything else, but that's they like they got what they need it for.
I saw all the way out here. And when he was like, at least I got that.
So he said, listen, Maine isn't going to agree to bring you back unless you give me a little more here." And he responded, quote, well, why don't I just say that she's dead? And he said,
he would cop now to causing the death. So he's like, I will say I
caused to the death. And he said, I also dumped her car at the truck
stop. I'll admit to all that. Yeah, we know. And he said, you know what,
I'll bring everyone to the remains. If I'm brought back to mean, okay. And he said, quote, what? I'll bring everyone to the remains if I'm brought back to Maine.
Okay.
And he said, quote, I can show you anything and everything that I know about the cases.
You've investigated some of these cases for over 20 years on no evidence.
I've learned by watching television and reading detective magazines while I was a kid and
talking to people.
If you're going to do a crime, you do it alone.
That's what he told the detective.
So scary.
Then Zamboni did an amazing piece of detective work.
He was like, okay, thank you for giving me that information.
I appreciate it.
And he was like, but the thing is here, like aside from Lin-Walette,
we have four other missing women in Maine
that we need you to give information about. Four.
Four.
And Hicks goes, wait, no, there was only three.
I only did three.
He literally said it.
No, there's only three on me.
Boom.
Confession.
And he was like three.
You mean, Jarelin and Jenny as well.
That's what you're talking about, right?
Because you just like, oh my God.
I thought, I thought, totally casual.
Just like, well, there's four. No, there's only three. That's hilarious, because even I was like four just like well there's four no there's only three that's hilarious
Because even I was like four like four this up for three. Yeah
So immediately Zimboni was like so let's talk about what you have just admitted to me
Like to think on your feet like that also the fucking noise that my mouth just made I just went
Well, and so he was like okay, so like that like cool. Why don't we talk about what you just
Three murders and Hicks was like I don't know what you're talking about like three like no
I don't you just you know what I don't know what numbers are like it's three a town in Maine. What is three?
I don't know what three is like it's three a town in Maine. What is three? I don't know what three is Oh, okay. Excuse me
And he's like okay, so let me ask you this he said you know after you start cooperating
Is it likely that the remains of the other two will also be found?
He's like let me put it to you that way yeah and
Jimmy said what other two I don't even know what you're talking about what do you mean? What do you mean what other two? I don't even know what you're talking about. What do you mean?
What do you mean the other two?
Oh, you son of a bitch.
So, Zamboni said, when you come to Maine,
we expect that you're going to cooperate
on everything you've done.
And Hicks said, yeah.
And so Zamboni said, not just the Lynn Willett case.
And Hicks said, yeah.
I'd be like, I'll send your ass back to Texas.
And Zamboni said, you're gonna cooperate on Jenny and Towers. And he said, yeah, I'd be like, I'll send your ass back to Texas. And Zamboni said, you're gonna cooperate on Jenny and towers.
And he said, yeah, and then he said, once you get to Maine, he said, yeah, I'll cooperate
on all three of them.
So like, Zamboni just saying they're being like, you're gonna cooperate.
He was just like, at first, she's like, I don't know what do you mean?
What are the other two?
And he's like, you're gonna come to Maine and cooperate with me.
And he was like, okay, if you want to go to Maine.
So Zimboni said, the question is, is it likely there would be remains left on the other two cases?
Right.
And Hick said, now see, that's where you're losing me, right there.
What a fucking. That's what he said.
Asshole. Yep.
So Zimboni said he talked through a lot of the day with him and asked at the end of the
interview, how did Lynn die?
And Hicks said, supplication.
Oh.
Yeah.
Now, they were able to get an arrest warrant from Maine for James Hicks for the murder of
Lynn Willett.
He was extradited back.
And remember, by this time, Lynnollette had been dead for four years.
Jaryl and Towers had been dead for 18 years,
and Jenny Sierra was dead for 23 years.
And these poor families.
These four families have gone through that loss of nothing.
Like that's almost my entire life.
Yeah, some of those.
Now October 10th, he was charged with murder
and agreed to share whatever he could and lead detectives to remains.
With the condition that he, again, that he was able to serve all main sentences before ever
having to serve a Texas sentence because he assumed he was going to get life-a-main.
So they drove him to where he said he discarded Lin-Wilette's remains.
He had taken her body parts to Haynesville Woods in Hulten, Maine,
right off Route 2 and I-95. Her body parts to Haynesville Woods in Hulton, Maine, right off Route 2 and I-95.
Her body parts?
Yep.
So while trying to describe to these law enforcement officers where he had dumped the
body parts of the woman that he had told people he loved, by the way, he said, quote,
where I figured the town or he took her, where I figured the town or somebody has took
and made a place where they made a dump For salt and everything you know dirt from winter. It's a place where they dump the stuff and like that
That's where he took her. That's where you took the people you were supposed to love and he said when you get there
He said quote you'll find a five gallon bucket with cement in it and it should have her two hands and her head in it
Oh my God.
They asked where the rest of her was, and he said he scattered the mother places, and would
try to take her, then to find the rest.
The detectives were horrified, rightfully.
Of course.
And when they asked what the hell he had done to her, he said that he had indeed cut her
into pieces, and he said, quote, well, her legs cut at the joint at the torso.
What do you call it?
He was basically saying that he cut off her arms and legs
at the joints of her hips and her shoulders.
Oh my God.
He said this torso and her arms and legs
would be near Jenkins Beach on Green Lake.
He told them he actually didn't even bury them there.
He had put them in parts,
her parts in garbage bags
and then dropped them between rocks on the beach.
What the fuck is wrong with him?
Yep.
And so, Zamboanie said,
you had a confrontation with her and strangled her?
Correct?
And he said, yeah.
And then he said, with your hands.
And he said, no, I used, what did I use?
Huh.
You got me on that one.
Oh my god, just so cavalier.
And so, Zamboanie said, you don't remember,
but you did strangle her? And so Zamboni said, you don't remember, but you did strangle her.
And Hicks said, yeah, yeah.
I think it was something in my pocket, I'm not sure.
What?
And Zamboni said, something like what?
A cord, a rope?
Like, what are you talking about?
And he said rope or something like that.
Because I was always playing with ropes and stuff.
Oh, okay.
Cool.
After he had murdered her, he stuffed her into a closet in the apartment
they shared wrapped in a blanket for two days. He just lived with her in the closet. Oh my
God. They obviously had to keep him talking on this car ride and not show how absolutely
horrified they were and how cavalierly he was admitting to this shit. Right. So he went
on and said she was dead three to four days before she was dismembered.
And he said, he said something like her blood hadn't even dried up yet.
No.
What?
What are you talking about?
You fucking idiot.
Blood starts coagulating very quickly after deaths.
In fact, even in rapida topsy's, we would get done within like two hours of death.
We sometimes couldn't get a blood sample out of the heart or anywhere else
because it would just turn to gelatinous slop
like you couldn't get it out.
He said he had kept her dead body in the wall
in the maintenance office of the motel he worked at for a day
and then dismembered her in the maintenance office.
What?
Yep.
Yep.
Dismembred her in the maintenance office. Yes. And like nobody walked
in. Apparently no one walked in. He did it out. I don't know if he didn't in the middle of the night
or what. What? So now they started asking about Jarrell and Towers. And he admitted that he bought
her some drinks the night she went missing and that he offered her ride at closing time, but she said
she was going to walk. That doesn't sound right, because remember her stepfather was waiting up for her to call, because he was going to give her
ride home, so she was not going to walk. So he said he drove away. Then he realized you need a gas,
so he had to turn around and go back again, and he saw her at the gas station. And that's when she
said, sure, I'll take that ride. Don't believe this for a second. No. Apparently, he drove her to the new port area and they
parked out like near like a lake or something. And then he said they just chatted for a bit.
And somehow he said, quote, the next thing I remembered, well, I knew that she was strangled,
that she was dead. I don't remember doing it. Classic. Yeah, like I don't remember. The classic,
I blacked out and somebody just ended up dead next to me.
It's so weird.
And he was asked again if it was hands or something else that was used.
And he said, quote, I think it was a piece of cloth or rag or something.
Don't know exactly.
It wasn't done with a rope or anything like that.
But then he said, Oh, you know what?
No, it wasn't, it wasn't no cloth must have been with my hands like that.
Because there wasn't no cloth or nothing. Okay. hands like that because there wasn't no cloth or nothing
Okay sounds like you're a bullshedder sir. Yeah now
He said the then said when I realized what happened I just like froze for a few minutes and just like that
And I don't know how long it was and then I got back in the front seat because he did it from the back seat
Which when they asked him like why you were in the back seat? he was like, oh, I jumped into the back seat to get something. Yeah. And he said, he made sure she was
dead and like that, and I drove, actually drove through Newport and got on the Ridge Road. Well,
I stopped there because I thought she was making a noise or something like gurgling or something.
Thought she might have been alive. So I checked to see if she was alive and I couldn't find any pulse,
pulse or nothing like that. So I put her in the back seat then later down in the back seat and I just
drove from there. And then all of a sudden he said, no wait a minute, I got a backup here.
After the night it happened on the road there in Newport, I put her in the back in the trunk
and drove her home and left the next morning and went to work down in peasant's island or Seabrook. Can't remember which one I was working at. And I
go through the security guard gate and come back again without them checking me.
And she was in there in the trunk. Then when I got home that night, that's when I
took her down to the field and left her. So what was the driving into her, the exhaust and everything?
He never explained that.
What?
He never explained it.
They don't believe that the way he says most of these happened are how they happen.
I don't really think so either.
Because as you will see, he changes the story a lot, he conflicts stories a lot.
He has a lot of information that goes against each other.
Well, it seems like he, like, he, I don't even know.
He removes himself from it.
Yeah.
He did it.
And he says he did it, but he says I don't remember doing it.
And then later he'll say, we weren't even fighting.
None of these women, we weren't fighting nothing.
I don't remember when it happened.
It's like something took over me and I just,
I don't remember any of it.
So it's him bullshitting.
Yeah.
So I'm sure there was a lot more to this,
but he just wasn't
gonna. Yeah. I'm so bummed that that is like not something you remember. I was thinking that
I really want to know what happened there too. It's just such a strange detail. I don't know
what he was planning to do. I don't know what it was. You wonder if she was still alive
when that happened. If he was trying to be like, well, look, I'm driving you home. Yeah.
And then like fuck with her. And he might have, I mean, he's evil.
So you haven't even heard the most.
To say it.
To say it.
The least.
Now, when he got home that night, that night that he had killed
Geraldine, remember he was dating Linda Markey at the time.
So when he got home, Linda, his girlfriend was awake.
And he was like, oops, I got to grab something else outside.
And she was like, what the fuck?
Yeah, she's like, it's four AMR? Yeah, she's like, it's for Amber.
Yeah, she's like, it's for Amber.
Yeah, she's like, it's for Amber.
So he went out and said he took Jarelin out of the back seat of his car.
And he said, quote, so I laid her body down on the ground beside the woods and laid a bunch of
cardboard and wood and stuff like that over her. He left her there for like a week before
dismembering her. He put the different parts of her body in grain bags,
like each in a separate grain bag,
and buried her in a field on his property.
And he didn't just bury her in like an open field
on his property, he buried her in an abandoned pig shed
on his property.
Now finally, he admitted about Jenny Sear as well.
Okay. But like the other
ones, he completely removed himself from being an active participant, and instead he was just a
passive entity that happened to be there and happened to cause these women's deaths. But he
would never use active forms of speech to this effect. He just said the night Jenny died,
quote, Jenny was standing. I'm going to say probably three feet away from me,
like at the foot of the bed or the side of the bed. And I was standing on the other side of the
or the foot of it. And she was standing back to me like that, like with her back to him.
Yeah. And then we he was she said he said and then we was talking. Like I said, we was talking like
that. And the next thing I know she was lying on the bed. She was strangled
No, I don't believe that you don't remember yeah, she was strangled
So he'll never say I strangled her. Yeah, just he happened to look down and Jenny found herself strangled
I don't know and then I love that it's always the next thing I know. Yeah, the famous that should be chiseled on his
Fucking tombstone the next thing I knew right thing I knew, that's all it is.
You just black out.
No.
He did say that he believed it was a belt
that he had been wearing that he used to strangle Jenny,
and he just took it off and did it.
What the fuck?
He said he had wrapped Jenny's body in a blanket
and drove to work with her in the trunk.
He had worked all day with her body in the trunk of his car.
And then what's wild is he said he stopped on the way home and
opened the trunk off the side of the road and just sat and
stared at her body and tried to figure out what to do.
What?
And he said he was stumped on what to do so he just left her in the trunk.
And she was like that all fucking weekend.
Well, her whole family and he were driving around looking for her.
She was in the trunk of his car.
That's so I wouldn't even want to know that when he was pulling into her family's house,
saying where's Jenny? She was in the trunk of his fucking car.
That's so just sick.
And how did you even, this isn't even the worst of it?
When is it going to be like I want to tell you that we hit the worst of it,
we have not hit the fucking worst of it.
It gets worse.
He kept the keys to the car,
so he wouldn't let anyone drive it that weekend.
And he said, he finally just figured
that he had to cut her into pieces
and dump her to get rid of the evidence.
The mother of his children.
Unreal.
So he said, quote, she was the first one,
and I done the same thing anyway. Cut off
her legs and her arms off and her hands and her head. After that, her hands and head was in a cement
container. It's like a chest, like a cooler. Now, when asked where he cut her up because it definitely
wasn't in the trailer, they determined he said he brought her to a gravel pit and cut her up outside.
determined, he said he brought her to a gravel pit and cut her up outside. And then he said,
and now backing up, like the gravel pit thing, when the police interviewed all of Hicks' former girlfriends and like, you know, flings and all that, many of them talked about how aggressive
abusive he was and the whole like rough sex thing, several of them, not one or two, but several of them said they found it really weird,
but he liked to have sex at gravel pits. What? He had dismembered the mother of his children,
at a gravel pit, and then later liked to bring his new girlfriends and wives to have sex at the gravel pits. That's like, that's beyond.
He is next level.
Tell me that's the worst of it.
Nope. What?
Nope. So he buried every piece of Jenny in different areas.
Her arm, another arm, a leg, another like every single one.
He said about the head.
So Zamboni said now the head.
What'd you do with the head and hands?
And he said, put it in a kind of ice box with cement in it. And he said, what do you mean ice box?
And he said ice box like a cooler you lug around.
Uh-huh. And Zamboni said, Coleman cooler? And he said, yeah, big one, chess cooler.
So, he put her head in a cooler. The mother of his children in his high school sweetheart, he put her fucking head in a cooler.
Now you think this is bad, but it gets fucking worse. He told the police he definitely could take them to where the head was buried,
because he buried it under rocks, and he said,
I can definitely take you to where it is, because I only did it recently.
And they were like, what? And he's like, I only buried it recently.
She died 23 years before this.
He kept her head in the fucking cooler
in his possession and in his houses for years.
He kept her head in a cooler where her children
would brush against it to get ice cream out of the freezer.
He would move it into places where her family was near it
and be around it.
His new girlfriends, his new wives, all of his children were around this cooler at one time or another.
He placed it on the ground as a seat where his children would sit on it to eat their dinner.
His children would sit on the head of their murdered mother to eat their fucking dinner.
That's how bad this gets.
I don't even like, what?
For decades, he kept Jenny sears head
in a fucking cooler in his possession
around his children.
And like did anybody take note of the,
like where they like, yeah,
like that cooler was always there.
I think it's just like, that's a cooler.
Like some people just, you know,
have that cooler, use it as a seat, use it as this,
like whatever.
I just think no one could have ever even questioned it
because why would you ever think something?
And did they say like, why did you keep it so long?
Obviously he was getting like shits and giggles out of it
because he had no answer for it.
No answer for it.
And when Detective Ricker was talked to
on that murder she told podcast,
which again, go listen to it, I'm telling you,
he said, can you imagine how traumatic that is
to these now adult children who know that?
Oh, no.
And then he said, when I think about what he did
to these women and these children,
hell isn't deep enough for this guy.
No.
And I got to agree.
Yeah, something deeper, please.
Like, that when I got to that part,
I was like, what?
He placed it as a seat for them to eat their dinner on.
Like, it's, my brain like literally doesn't even know unreal.
Absolutely.
This guy's a fucking monster.
And he showed them where the cooler was buried under an apple tree on his property in
Etna.
And he also showed them where Jarlins remains or buried in the old pig shed on his property.
Her complete skeleton was found there just in pieces and different green bags, but they did find her complete body there.
So she was able to be like, we just completely.
Now Jenny's head was found in the cement block where he said it was.
So they had parts of Jenny and all of Jerrolyn, but still no Lynn.
They used excavators in the area where he said he thought she was, and they were looking for buckets because he described that her parts were in buckets.
And according to the book, the tragedy in the North Woods, they said, quote, the police
were there for a couple of days.
And I believe it was the attorney general that said this.
And they said there was a neighbor there, a local just watching.
He never said anything.
After everyone left, he wandered over, found two buckets and called the police and said,
I think I found what you were looking for.
So he like stumbled upon them.
It was like, I think they're right here.
Dr. Edward David from the Medical Examiner's Office
found in those buckets,
in cement according to the book,
a head, two hands, two feet,
and a tattoo on an excised piece of skin.
That's so fun.
So when I said he was very familiar with those tattoos,
he had cut the tattoos off of her.
That's so sad.
After he was brought in for a formal interview
and to really get his confession like recorded,
he was smiling and laughing,
showing absolutely no remorse for what he had done,
and admitted to dude, a three innocent woman.
He also admitted he had strangled all three women
with different things,
accord, a rope, a belt, his hands.
You know, it had done all three of these strangulations
when their backs were turned to him.
Of course, because he's a coward.
Exactly, a coward.
And he said he had no real motive.
He said there really wasn't really a massive fight that preceded any of the murders.
And he said he really just, you know, whatever. And he said, and actually at one point, he was quoted as saying, it's like I did it
for no reason. Yeah, usually murder doesn't have a reason. Which I think he did that just a further
fuck with the family. Just like, I don't even think there was a reason in my mind. Yeah, like,
just felt like it. I think I just did it for no reason. Like such a dick. He then admitted to
the detective Zamboni that when he came to the motel, so when detectives
Zamboni had interviewed him at the motel in the beginning of
this whole thing, he said, you came into the maintenance area,
this speak to me during the investigation. And he said, I had
placed Lins remains in one of the buckets that was there in
front of you. And he said it was lined up with other buckets
with them. And he was like, you were right there with them. So you literally told them like you were standing there.
Sting them names. With Lins remains right behind me in a bucket. And you didn't know. And he's just
like, ha ha. Yeah. I'm just, and then when they tried to see, because they were like, we're going
to talk to you about some more missing women in the area, because who the fuck knows what you've done.
He answered them with quote, I've done three. I've made my quota. I'm not gonna do anymore. I've made my quota. Nobody gave
you a quota, sir. Like a quota for murder, for like taking the lives of these women.
And see, Zamboni, like I said, like they don't believe that he was telling the truth about really
any of the way that our name these occurred. No. He thinks like he he gave definitely gave a little bit of truth,
but he intertwined it with a lot of false shishmin. And and delt embellishment and also a lot of like
underplaying what probably happened. I'm sure. And Zamboni said and he said it from the beginning
that he when he got into that maintenance room, he goes, I know that he killed her here, Lynn.
He was like, I just have a feeling.
And he said he felt the second he was there
that it happened, he still believes he did it there.
He just, they just really couldn't prove it.
Wow.
But each of the three women's families
were able to provide victim impact statements.
Good.
Even Jennies who initially were really not going to be able to
because they had already been connected
of that. But December 4th, Superior Court Chief Justice Andrew Mead decided not to allow impact
statements from the Seer family in court. They were able to release them to the press,
but that's still bullshit in my opinion. But also, Geraldine's daughter, Tammy, who still had the penny from Geraldine's shoe that she used to keep in it.
She brought Jenny's sister to stand next to her in court when she read hers,
so that the Sear family could be seen in court. Good. And like, and he would have to look at her.
I loved that they like, I hate that they were all had to all be brought together that way,
but I love that they had each other that they support each other so intensely.
I love that.
And Denise said, I wanted to look him in the eye and say that finally, finally, everyone
will know the truth.
Yeah.
And these families seriously, like separated by years of tragedy, like 23 years, 18 years,
four years, like unanswered questions, just decades of trauma. And still unanswered questions.
And they, but this like, like amazing
testaments to them as people that they were able to like
support each other.
They really come together that way.
It really is.
They spoke that day about how he had deprived them of their
daughters, children's mothers, their sisters, their
friends, Jenny's family release statement talking about he
had even taken their grandchildren away from him and that he had taken everything.
He was sentenced to two life sentences for the murders of Lynn Willett and Jarrelland Towers
in Maine.
He also had to pay restitution to Jarrelland's and Lynn's families for the funeral expenses.
Good.
January 5th, 2001, he went back to Texas for sentencing
in the June Moss case.
Yup.
And in court, she said, quote,
for over 20 years, you murdered, molested,
and terrorized innocent people in their families.
You committed your crimes without shame
and now face the consequences without remorse.
And she said, people will no longer hide from you and fear.
But for you, there is no hiding place. And then she said, God will judge your soul.
I love it.
I love that June was like bitch, literally excited off of them.
Like fuck.
Good for you.
He got 55 years in a Texas prison for for the aggravated assault on an elderly person,
but unfortunately he won't serve.
He won't serve there.
He's going to serve it after he serves his two life sentences.
Yeah.
But all three families were finally able to lay their loved ones to rest with private ceremonies.
James Hicks is still serving time at Main State Prison in Tomiston, Maine.
Good. And he will remain there. No parole. Nothing. He's gonna die there.
Rotten right.
Rotten right.
Can't wait.
We'll throw a party on that day for real.
But that is the horrific and almost unbelievable story of James Rodney Hicks.
That's just, I mean, the fact that you had her head in a cooler for all those years.
Jenny's head is just, no, and that really rocked me.
Because you kept saying it's gonna get worse and I was like, how?
How does it get worse?
How does it get worse? And I was like, oh, that's how I could get worse and I was like, how? How does it get worse? How does it get worse?
And I was like, oh, that's how.
I could not just, I was like, I don't even know how to like,
how to say that.
How to, like, I just, I can't, I don't even know how to prepare you.
No, you can't, you can never prepare anybody
for receiving that information.
And for Jenny Sears family to have to away from 1977,
all the way to 2001 to really see it happen.
I mean, these people waited forever.
Jeraldyn's family, like they waited so long for justice.
Yeah, it's just so sad.
Thank goodness these new police officers
like really did the damn thing.
Like James Ricker, Joseph Shamboni,
were like, hell yeah.
Yeah, they stayed committed.
They did it.
They really did.
They did the damn thing.
Wow that was unbelievable. I would love to talk to James Riker. I really want to talk to him.
Manifest it. Maybe we should just try to talk to James Riker and do like a little update
episode because he was fascinating to me. I would love that. I just like seeing when like detectives
really care, do everything they can. Yeah, you know. But yeah, that there's part two guys. There it is.
Wow, wow, wow, wow. And I hope that all three of these women's families are thriving.
They're children. I hope they're thriving. I hope everybody, I know closure is not never a thing that
can really happen, but I hope his kids are like all doing okay. I think they're doing fucking awesome. Yeah. Yeah.
And we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird.
I feel like I don't have to tell you not to keep it that weird at all. So definitely don't keep it this weird ever.
Don't at all. Bye. Set all light. Hey, Prime Members!
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