Morbid - Episode 537: Ronald Dominique: The Bayou Strangler (Part 1)

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

In the spring of 2005, law enforcement officials in southern Louisiana had a growing number of murder victims they had begun to suspect were connected to an unidentified serial killer operating in the area. The victims were all men, mostly in their twenties and thirties, many had histories of drug and alcohol abuse or were known to police as sex-workers, and all had been strangled and dumped in secondary locations.Over the course of a decade, Ronald Dominique developed into one of the worst and most prolific serial killers in American history; yet his story and those of his victims remains largely unknown and ignored by the mainstream media. Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe & 99 Cent Renal Podcasts for research!ReferencesAlford, Jeremy. 2005. New information coming soon in local murders. August 24. Accessed March 29, 2023. https://www.houmatoday.com/story/news/2005/08/24/new-information-coming-soon-in-local-murders/27020266007/.Armstrong, Shell. 2007. Dominique pleads not guilty to 9 murders. January 17. Accessed March 29, 2023. https://www.houmatimes.com/news/dominique-pleads-not-guilty-to-9-murders/.Associated Press. 2005. "Man found in Lafource Parish was from Houma area." Abberville Meridional, May 3: 2.—. 2005. "Deaths od five south Lousiana men may be linked, police say." Shreveport Times, April 25: 12.—. 1999. "La. deaths may be work of serial killer." Shreveport Times, June 23: 5B.—. 2006. "Police look for links between serial suspect, priest's death." Shreveport Times, December 9: 22.—. 2006. "Arrest made in serial-killer investigation." Town Talk, December 2: 17.—. 2006. "Serial murder suspect was average Joe, says shelter residents." Town Talk, December 3: 8.DeSantis, John. 2006. Accused lived on the fringe of two worlds. December 4. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20210128012212/https://www.houmatoday.com/article/DA/20061204/News/608089983/HC.Hunter, Michelle. 2006. "Serial-killer suspect confesses; Trysts led to rapes, strangling, cops told." Times-Picatune, December 6.L'observateur. 1999. Beaten teen’s body discovered in Kenner. October 26. Accessed March 27, 2023. https://www.lobservateur.com/1998/10/26/beaten-teens-body-discovered-in-kenner/.—. 1999. Two deaths reclassified as murders in St. Charles Parish. Fdebruary 6. Accessed March 27, 2023. https://www.lobservateur.com/1999/02/06/two-deaths-reclassified-as-murders-in-st-charles-parish/.Morris, Robert. 2006. Mother protests dead son’s link to serial killer. June 19. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20210131004921/https://www.houmatoday.com/article/DA/20060619/News/608089995/HC.Ramage, James. 2005. "Serial killer theory floats around cases." Shreveport Times, May 15: 1.Rosen, Fred. 2017. The Bayou Strangler. New York, NY: Open Road Media.—. 2018. Uncovering the Truth Behind One of the Bayou Strangler’s Victims. April 10. Accessed March 27, 2023. https://the-line-up.com/uncovering-the-truth-behind-one-of-the-bayou-stranglers-victims.St. Charles Heral-Guide. 2006. Mother’s tears for son killed by serial madman Dominique. 12 06. Accessed March 27, 2023. https://www.heraldguide.com/tragedy/mothers-tears-for-son-killed-by-serial-madman-dominique/.The Daily Review. 2002. "Houma man's body found." Daily Review, October 17: 6.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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by subscribing to Wendry Plus in the Wendry app or on Apple podcasts. Hey, weirdos, I am Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is Morbid. She's got chocolate in her mouth. Sorry, we were doing room silence first and I thought I had enough time to eat the where she kissed that was in my mouth but I was letting it melt in my mouth and then I tried to talk and it was just a whole thing.

So really just nor? It's not my narration, so I figured I could just sit here and eat some fucking Hershey kisses. She's like, I can do whatever the fuck I want today. It's Wiley up in here today. I don't know what they put in my Jersey Mike sub, but I feel crazy. I've just been saying silly things.

She's been Wily, my friends. Like wily. Wily, reckless, and straight up cuckoo. All of those things. And I don't know, we don't really have a whole lights, I mean, it's a holiday break for everyone else. For Christmas, it was yesterday. Sorry if you can hear the deck they're making

in our fucking- Yeah, I apologize. Fucking neighbors. My neighbors, they're making in our fucking... Yeah, I apologize. Fucking neighbors. Oh, my neighbors. They're, you know, they're working. So they got you going off. I don't know if it's them. You never know.

Well, true, I don't know. Either way, here we are. Right. And we're here to bring you some content. Daddy made you your favorite open wide. Here comes the content. They're like shut up and give it to me. I know, I'm sorry, okay.

No, not you, just us. No, I got it, man. I totally get it, but... This is a two-part here. I'm coming at you straight off of an old timey case with something from the 2000s. Oh, shit. I didn't realize that. We were chatting earlier. So look at me. This, so. I didn't realize that. We were chatting earlier.

So look at me. This is Elena. I'm looking at you. And I'm bringing you a case that is not in the 1800s or the early 1900s. First to looking at you kid. So, yeah. That's where I usually am in a place of,

he was looking at you kid, but now. I know it's true. No, I'm in a Y2K place. Oh, that's funny. I'm in the oldies for my case. Next switch. Actually, I don't know if mine comes out before years are after.

I don't know anything. I don't know when anything comes out because either way, this is a two-parter. We're going to be talking about Ronald Dominique the Bayou Strangler. I don't know this one. And it's sad that you don't because a lot of people don't. Oh. And I think it's

because of who he chose as victims. Oh, no. He, the police didn't, the police, like everybody investigating this and the press did not put enough emphasis on finding this guy. Okay. That's enough because the people that he chose as victims, he knew that the investigators were going to look at and say, well, they're high risk in what they're doing. Or, you know, it's probably their own fault because they did this. You know what I mean? Like it's totally less dead.

The victims that people consider less dead, exactly. They get blamed for their own just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Luckily, don't worry, he does eventually get caught. But a lot of people lost their lives along the way, and a lot of them were not treated well in the press. So this case is not, a lot of people don't know about it. And it just, it's not discussed,

it wasn't discussed in the press, respectfully at all. That's really frustrating. And it sucks. So in the spring of 2005, law enforcement officials in southern Louisiana had a growing, growing number of murder victims. And they had been, they had started to suspect that they were connected. They were thinking, okay, I think we do have either a serial killer or serial killers. Because the victims were all men, mostly in their 20s, they were all men and boys, I should say,

because some were younger, mostly in their 20s and 30s, but there was a couple that were lower than that, not children per se and like, you know, under 10 or anything like that, but there was like some 16, 18, 19 boys. So they were all, you know, around that age and they were all vulnerable targets that the killer or killers were clearly actively praying on

and they were thought to be on the fringes of society. A lot of them. Some of them were known to be actively struggling with substance abuse or have a history of substance abuse struggles. They were known, a lot of them were known to police as doing sex work, either for their job or doing it sometimes

just as a desperation thing. And they had all been strangled and dumped in secondary locations. And they were all locations like marshes, bayous, like sugarcane fields. A few of them were, and they were all those locations were used multiple times. Okay.

So eventually Ronald Dominique would be connected to the murders and his count at the end would be the deaths of at least 23 men and boys. Wow. That's what blows my mind that this is not more well known because. Yeah, that's nuts. That's a large amount of victims.

And that's like at least 23? Yeah, that's what they know about. Wow. And it was in a pretty small span of time, all things considered. And this was in the 2000s? This was where we began in the spring of 2005. That's when they really started connecting everything. I can't believe I don't know about this.

Yes, I know. It's crazy. Now, over the course of a decade, Ronald Dominique developed into one of the worst and most prolific serial killers in American history. But like I just said, his story and those of his victims remain largely unknown and kind of ignored

by mainstream media. That's so much stuff. And it's really wild. So let's talk about Ronald Dominic. Like where the fuck did he come from? Seriously. Because what? So little is known about Ronald Dominic's life

before his first run in with the law. We know he was born January 9th, 1964. He's the youngest of six children to working class parents in Tibido, Louisiana. And to Capricorn. Yeah. I know, I don't love it. No.

And Tibido is a small city about halfway between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. His family appears to have been pretty active and committed to their local church. And at a young age, we can at least point to something that was a very big trauma in his life. At a very young age, Ronald told his parents that he had been sexually abused by a priest at the church.

Oh no. They reacted horrifically and didn't believe him. I never understand that. How do you not believe your child? How do you believe somebody outside of your family? You believe this random guy? Who is said to be doing this. And instead of your own child, I don't get it.

Like you're no one's ever gonna explain that to me so don't even try. I don't get it. No, I do not understand that. They just were like, yeah, must be lying. Like that's fucked up. Oh my God. So that's a big trauma. And Ronald entered Tibido High School in the fall of 1979. He sang in the, in that span of time, that's the big trauma that happened. Outside of that, there's really nothing of note. You know, it is pretty. But that alone is like, whoa. That alone and then compounded by the fact

that his parents didn't believe him. Exactly. And then if his parents didn't believe him, how much longer did that go on? Because they didn't. Exactly. And when you read a lot of sources about this, like books and such, and we'll obviously link all the books like we always do, but a lot of sources about this, like books and such, and we'll

obviously link all the books like we always do, but a lot of them point to the fact that he struggled with his own sexual identity for most of his life. Okay. And growing up in a religious home, obviously he was trying to hide that. Yeah. And his parents were, people believed that they were probably catching on to that. Okay. people believe that they were probably catching on to that. And they took him saying that about the priest

as just an extension of that. Because they probably believed, and probably believed that he was like mentally ill for being gay. They believe you're gay, so we're not gonna believe you about this. And who knows? It's just, and that's what really wraps all this

into such like an awful ball of trauma because it's like there's so many layers to it for him as a kid. Yeah, you definitely feel bad for the child. And you feel bad for the child when you find out what an adult he is, you're like, wow, you're a fucking monster. Yeah, like it's just like, holy shit.

Right. But he, you know, in high school, he was involved in clubs. He's saying in the Glee Club, he was involved in clubs. He sang in the Glee Club. He was in the chorus. He enjoyed being a part of that. But he was bullied and harassed pretty relentlessly at school by his peers,

according to an old school kind of like acquaintance, just a fellow student. They said they heard he was gay and they wanted him to admit it and he didn't. He was pretending that he wasn't and he would not openly admit it. Which, here's the thing. I don't understand being like, I just want you to say you're gay. Like, why?

Why the fuck do you care? Exactly. Never once have I been like, I need to know this person's, you know, sexual preference. Well, it's like you don't know their sexual preference better than they do. Maybe, maybe he wasn't. It's also not my fucking business. Maybe he hasn't discovered it yet.

Maybe he doesn't want you to know. That's also, it's like, as long as it's a consenting adult, I don't give a shit who are attracted to it. Like, it's not my, I don't, why would I care? And the only reason that these people wanted to know is probably because they could bully him for it. So they could bully him, that's the thing. And just have like concrete shit to bully him on.

And that's what a noise means. It's like it comes out as like they just wanted him to admit it. And everybody acts like, oh, oh, do you want to be to admit it? And it's like, oh, okay. So if he admitted it, that was going to be like, thank you. Oh, we're good. No, it was so you could relentlessly torture him more. And it's like, what the fuck?

Right, like what is wrong with you? And it's not just, you know, Ronald Dominique, obviously. It's like any kid that this happens to. Yeah. I don't get that. Or like even adults when they're like, this guy just needs to admit that he's gay. Why?

Why? What effect does that have on your life? What bearing? Were you forced to actively admit that you were straight? No. Were you forced to actively admit anything like that? No. No. Exactly. Nobody cares. Like it's just like, anything like that? No. No.

Exactly. Nobody cares. Like, it's just like, what the fuck? It's such a weird mindset for me. Society. I don't get it. Wild. It's just a strange, very alien mindset to me.

Mm-hmm. But either way, he was also considered, he struggled with his weight a lot. He was very overweight when he was younger and into adulthood. Okay. Which, of course, as a teen, puts a target on your back. Oh yeah. In the harassment from schoolmates definitely led to some like depression, poor self-esteem. He definitely had underdeveloped social skills by that point. And it kind of stuck with him for like decades at that point.

Like not necessarily like the poor self-esteem and all that I'm sure like you know He's a serial killer. I'm sure he he got figured out about that, but social skills. He did not have right We put a lot of love into our merch and we absolutely love seeing you guys get it in the mail. But have you ever thought of everything it takes to get it into your hands? It can be kind of horrifying. I remember way back when when we were like a little baby podcast and we were doing it out of the dining room table, it was crazy.

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slash morbid today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash morbid. Now, after graduating in 1983, he enrolled in Nichols State University and he decided a major in computer science. Oh, wow. But he dropped out after only a year or two. Also well. So he didn't stick with it.

Also well. Now, his criminal history began in the late spring of 1985 when he was arrested for making sexually harassing phone calls to his neighbors. Ew. Now, looking at this in hindsight, like back then in the 80s, I was like, oh my God, you have some weird, silly, crazy. And it's just like, and now we look at it

with all the knowledge we all have. What did that mean? We know that this sexually deviant behavior is similar to many sexual predators who eventually escalate to sexual violence. It is very much a precursor to that There is study after study after a peeping Tom is not just a peeping Tom. No, that is the first Foray into if it is not stopped becoming violent, right? That is just how it goes

But at the time it was seen like a nice call silly of weird a criss-call. Like that silly, a weird new since. He paid a $75 fine. Wow. And that was a, no jail. That's wild. Now, by the time he reached his early 20s, he was working odd jobs, really didn't have a lot of connections to people, not a lot of friends, not like a social group. And according to a former roommate with whom he shared an apartment in 1985, Ronald quote, didn't have many friends and he didn't keep friends.

Okay. So it doesn't look like he was able to like maintain a relationship either, which is like, that's like a typical and we'll see there is an FBI profile that comes out later. That is always typical on an FBI profile of a serial killer where it's like, he's not going to have a lot of connections. Yeah. And it, it checks. I was going to say a lot of the time it checked, not all the time we've seen anti-social behavior. Yeah. Um, but he also never fully felt comfortable like we mentioned with his own sexuality and

often felt that he was kind of an outsider in all communities. So he was just kind of like, he was convinced himself that he didn't belong anywhere. It wasn't, when he became an adult, it wasn't necessarily people treating him poorly. Like obviously he went through high school and he dealt with all that, that's rough. But a lot of people come out of that. But a lot of many, many, many, many, many, many people

come out of there and they find their own thing. You find your group, you find your people. And it's like he had convinced himself that the world was against him. And it's like, wasn't people actively doing it? He was just creating that for himself. And back in those days, no one really recalled Ronald's like, dating anyone, having any romantic relationships.

His former roommate didn't even remember him bringing anyone to the apartment. No guests, nothing. Like no friends, nothing. Wow. Basically, whether it was his poor social skills or what we now know, he was like very unkempt, like he was not put together at all. Ronald's night at the, he spent a lot of nights at bars and in and around Houma, which we'll

talk about Houma more because he moves there in Louisiana. He spent a lot of time in bars around there and he wasn't there like drinking and dancing and like meeting people. He was just kind of playing pool and kind of for lack of a better term like lurking on the fringes of everything. And he kind of found himself like wanting to step

into Louisiana's gay scene at the time, like kind of get involved, meet some people, but he didn't have pure intentions with it. It wasn't like he was looking to involve himself to find friends, like get into relationships, like, you know, form connections. Right. After his arrest, we find out that his presence in the like, which at the time it was a very small, openly gay community in southern Louisiana in the 80s. It was a much more menacing implication that he had where he was trying to get involved in it. That makes sense.

That's where he was basically creeping among the most vulnerable and at risk in the community to find his first victims. That's what he was doing. And like building some kind of courage is not the right word, but you know what I mean? Like building the gumption to do it. Yeah, I used to actually do it. Yeah. Which is really when you look back on it.

So creepy. It's got so many, it's so spooky. I don't like it. Yeah, I don't, it's like you just think of him like just creeping around in those bars, like trying to make connections, but like for the most horrific of purposes. Yeah, it reminds me of Jeffrey Dahmer,

the way he would like just lurk at bars. Exactly. In 1994, Dominique popped up on police radar again because he was arrested for drunk driving. But it was two years later that we finally got a little look into the violent part of him. At this time, police were called to his apartment after neighbors saw a man climbing down from Dominique's apartment window. And this reminds me of Jeffrey Dahmer too.

Yeah. This man was screaming, he's trying to kill me. Oh my God. When Sheriff's deputies arrived, the quote, partially clad young man, told the officers that Ronald had raped him and would have killed him if he had not escaped out the window. Oh my god. Now this man is partially closed climbing out a window screaming, he's trying to kill me. Said he was raped and he would have been killed if he didn't escape.

Ronald was arrested for sexual assault and held on a hundred thousand dollar bond, which he definitely couldn't pay. Mm-hmm. So he sat in the county jail luckily for three months pending a trial. Now, a conviction for sexual assault and attempted murder would have put Ronald in a federal prison for a long time. Yeah, absolutely. Like we said, goodbye. See you later. Fortunately for him and unfortunately for the rest of society, when the trial date finally arrived, the accused complaint didn't show up. Oh, no, they couldn't locate him And that's so sad because it think about the time period and think about the time period and just what had happened in general Horrific like a lot of people wouldn't show up to yeah face somebody that had done that to them. That's

Horrifying yeah in every way that can be horrifying right and. And they couldn't find him, which also you're like, what happens? Like, where'd he go? I know, he's okay. And in November of 1996, the judge in the case continued the case indefinitely and the district attorney dropped the charges. That is awful. So he had those charges just dropped. Wow. He raped and tried to kill a man who had to escape out of his window

and he got away with it. That's why the justice system is so broken. And you would think if this person, if the victim had been treated with a lot of respect and compassion and felt like they had a support system, then maybe they would have shown up and it makes me sad that I don't think they,

we don't know for sure, but I don't know if they felt that way. They probably didn't because they didn't have like the victim advocacy programs that they do now. Yeah, because it was like the early 90s at this point. It's like, the early 90s in Louisiana, it's like there was not a lot,

like you said, in the way of advocacy. So after that close call, Ronald did manage to avoid police for several years actually. It was in 2000 that he got arrested again for disturbing the peace. And that makes you wonder, in between, like during those years, what happened? What was going, was he just being more subtle about it? Right. During those years, what happened? What was going, was he just being more subtle about it? Right.

It's like, yeah. He very clearly would have killed that man, had he not escaped. Which makes me question one, how'd he done that before? And two, was he doing it in the meantime and somehow was just able to get away with it? That's what I wonder. But then you look at and we'll mention him at some point,

you look at like Dennis Rader. Who stopped for a long time. All shit flower there. Like you like Dennis Rader who stopped for a long time. Old shit flower there. Yeah. Like you look at him, he stopped for a long time. Years and years and years. And just went on with his life before. It is strange.

But either way, he paid the fine for disturbing the peace and managed to avoid going before a judge, but he was arrested again two years later after slapping a woman at a Mardi Gras parade. The fuck? In lieu of jail time or a fine, he was offered the opportunity to participate in an alternative sentencing program. This required people to meet and maintain certain expectations, basically, for the program. He had to maintain a job, display good behavior, and it was all in order to avoid the harsher

penalties that honestly should have come. Yeah. get a job and don't slap women anymore and we'll excuse the one time you did. It's totally fine. The fuck. And so he managed to meet the requirements of the program and six months later, the offense was completely discharged from his record. Broken justice system.

We see this like so many times. It's bad. Now following this whole thing and successfully getting that taken off of his record, Ronald Dominique appeared to be somewhat getting his life together a little bit for a minute, like, or at least trying to. During the day, he got a job at a produce company in Homa,

but the job wasn't enough to really make ends meet. So he found a second job as an evening delivery driver for Domino's Pizza. No. Yep. And when he wasn't working, he was like, he told people that he knew that he really wanted to be a productive member of society. So he became a full member of the local Lions Club, which also reminds me, this reminds me a little bit of John Wayne Gacy with the like, I need to be involved in the community, pretend that everything's fine. When you see how he does it, he lures people into his clutches,

only to kind of surprise them by binding them and killing them. Wow. It's very John Wayne Gacy. Those guys are very. And also Jeffrey Dahmer and also Dennis Rader. And also like, he's a big combination of many. Yeah.

But in the Lions Club, he became a popular figure at regular bingo nights. Much like Gacy. Yeah, exactly. Oh, he obviously not bingo nights. Yeah, but he seemed determined to be kind of like a positive member of society at this point. He was at least, he at least was putting on the facade.

Imagine knowing you played bingo with that man. That's fucked. Oh my goodness. And what police and community members didn't know at this time because again, like I said, he was putting on the facade. Clearly it wasn't real. An active and positive community number. But police in the community would soon find out that by 2002, the man who was now that popular bingo caller and pizza delivery driver around town had already raped and murdered at least 11 men. Wow. And he would go on to rape and murder 12 more by the time he was finally caught.

Oh my God. 11 men and boys he had already raped and murdered at this time. And the fact that you can just do that at whatever point in your life. And then go pull numbers for bingo. Exactly. And deliver somebody's pizza. Yeah. Like what the fuck?

Yeah. So we're gonna start talking about this case. We're gonna back up now. Okay. 1997, 1998. Okay. That's when the murders at st. Charles parish happened so on July 12th 1997 19 year old David Mitchell jr. Attended a birthday party with his mother Latrice Mitchel and his aunt Rita Aubrey At some point there was an argument that broke out between David and another guest

So his aunt dropped him off at his grandmother's house in Hanville, Louisiana Where he was gonna wait for his uncle to come pick him up and drive him the five miles back grandmother's house in Hanville, Louisiana, where he was gonna wait for his uncle to come pick him up and drive him the five miles back to his house in Lulling. Okay. His aunt later said, quote, "'My brother didn't show up, "'so I guess he decided to try to hitchhike back to his mom's.'"

Now, when the family hadn't heard from Mitchell the following day, they assumed he'd maybe stopped off at a friend's house, stayed the night. Like there was no real cause for alarm at first. Yeah, and probably like trying to cool off after whatever fight this was. And the following day,

David Mitchell didn't report for work. And when his mother checked his bedroom, his ID badge and wore clothes were still on the bed untouched and that was not like him. He would go to work. And it also wasn't like, it wasn't like David to miss work and it wasn't like David to stay out all night. Not check-in.

They were trying to think in their heads like, okay, maybe we missed him mentioning that he was going to a friend's house or something. They were already a little on edge because he wasn't one to just do that. Right. So Latrice Mitchell did call the police's mother to report her son missing.

While waiting for an update, she, Latrice Mitchell, his mother, got her update unexpectedly because her son's photo flashed across the television screen in a local news segment about a drowned body of a young black man found in an industrial area of Louisiana Highway 3160. So they had already found him most likely at the time that she reported him missing? They had already, they didn't notice him. That's the thing. They had only found an unidentified young black man.

And when she called, they didn't know that they had already found him. Oh my God. Yeah, but that's how she found out. That's horrible. Horrific. So now it begins. This whole authority shrugging these families off.

Now the authorities were just, they were like, please immediately classified, David Mitchell is leading a high risk lifestyle. And despite being found with his pants around his ankles, having no drugs or alcohol in his system and being known as a good swimmer, his death was labeled an accident and the case was closed. And what are they talking about high risk lifestyle in his case?

That's what kills me here is that high risk is like a legitimate term. It's an actual term that can be used for things like you grew up in an abusive household, something that's totally beyond your own, you know, control of your own circumstances, just something that is happening to you. Like innocuous shit. Exactly. But here, it was totally weaponized by so many people involved in this case to make it seem like these people were doing things that led to their own murder. Like they did something that they deserved

to this almost. They weren't saying that, but they were saying it by implying that. Yeah, they were saying the quiet part out loud. Exactly. They were implying that somehow this was their own fault. That's bullshit. He still got killed. Right. Like why are we pretending that they're still a person? Yeah, they're still killer out there.

They saw people who give a shit about them. Like that's such a weird callous way to look at it, like when the investigators look at it this way. It's like, it doesn't matter what that, like, this is a person. Right, this is someone's family. And you need to investigate what the fuck happened. It's your whole job.

Now, tragic as it was, the death of David Mitchell didn't strike law enforcement as anything more than an unfortunate accident. Wow. Pants around his ankles and it was an accident. No. But within a year his death would get a second look because it was in the wake of two more deaths of a similar nature, neither of which were accidental and really couldn't be explained. Your term does accidental. In mid-December of 1997, 20-year-old Gary Pierre's body was discovered in a wooded area of Monts, which is an unincorporated area of St. Charles Parish. Unlike Mitchell, Pierre had been sexually assaulted, confirmed. His body showed signs of having been bound at some point

prior to his death, and he died by asphyxiation due to neck compression. Oh, wow. Now, according to the investigators, Pierre, of course they had to say Pierre was, quote, heavily involved with drugs. Like, so despite having been tied up, raped, and strangled, his death at first was initially classified, not as murder, but as unclassified. How is that unclassified? What more do you need to classify that as a murder?

When you think about that this really happened and this really happens, that a person can be raped, tied up, raped, and strangled, confirmed. And you sit there and say it's unclassified? And the investigators can say we don't know what happened here because he had a drug problem at one point. What?

Like that's wild. That's unreal. And just what a slap in the face to his entire family and anyone that ever loved him. Cause all you want is to, like I don't give a shit what. Who cares? What was going on in his life. Like I want to know what happened here.

Right. What happened here? Like what the fuck? So like David Mitchell, Gary Pierre's death had been largely forgotten about until the end of July 1998 when Charles Parrish investigators discovered another body. That of 38 year old Larry Ranson in a remote area

off Louisiana Highway 3160. I don't know if it's 3160 or 3160. I don't know. Sorry. I looked up every pronunciation for everything and I just didn't look up that. But it was not far from where David Mitchell's body was discovered, almost exactly one year earlier.

And Ranson's body was fully clothed. And aside from having been, quote, kicked in the groin, the only trauma was the asphyxiation that had caused his death. As in the case of Gary Pierre, Larry Ranson was believed to have struggled with drugs, which police believed was somehow linked to his death. They could not.

You guys gotta stop just sitting on that. So they labeled it unclassified. Oh my God. Come on. It's like, what are you investigating right now? It's also like, okay, so if you're gonna, if you're concentrating on that part of it, that's a link. Yeah. Between all three of these. Between all three of these. Something going on here. Yeah, that's exactly. If I asked you how many subscriptions you have, would you be able to list all of them and exactly how much you're paying for each of those? Honestly, if you would have asked me this question before I started using Rocket Money, I would have been like, oh my god, totally.

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but their demographic profiles are significant, and they'll become more significant as these murders continue. All three are black men of lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Two of them, Pierre and Ranson, are known to be either gay or bisexual and at least two Pierre and Ranson have some history allegedly of substance abuse or addiction. Again, these pieces of personal information are only important in the sense of showing that there is a pattern, right, a victim profile that will continue. Right. It also shows that the investigation was heavily biased against them because of prejudices of some kind or another at multiple times during the investigation. It sounds like multiple

prejudices. Yeah. Because initially, St. Charles parish investigators assumed the quote unquote high risk lifestyles of these men were at least partially related to their deaths. And really little effort was put into solving these deaths. Yeah, that's what it sounds like. But in February 1999, the Pierre and Ransom cases were finally reclassified as murders and investigated as such.

Unfortunately, by that time, Ronald Dominique had already killed three more times. Wow. Now, we're gonna move into the murders that happened in the New Orleans suburbs from 1998 to 1999. The afternoon of October 3rd, 1998,

was unseasonably hot even for Louisiana. So Ronald Dominique drove the half hour or so from Hanville to the French Quarter. He was hoping that like, you know, the excitement, the activity of the French Quarter, that whole neighborhood would be enough to blow off some of his steam. He was basically looking to pay for sex that night.

Okay. In New Orleans, New Orleans, in New Orleans French Quarter, especially at this time, sex or anything else for that matter was relatively easy to find down there. It was like a big party out. I was gonna say big party scene. That afternoon, Ronald made his way to Rawhide, which was a well-known bar in the quarter.

And he took a seat at the bar next to 27-year-old Oliver LeBanks. Oliver had come to the bar with his brother and a couple of friends, but he didn't really like Rahid and he wasn't really into this whole thing. So while they were dancing and mingling and doing whatever, he just took a seat at the bar and had a beer. It was like I'm just hanging out. Yeah. Now after making some small talk, it was apparent what Dominique was looking for. So they worked

out the specifics of a transactional sexual experience between the two of them. The two men left the bar in the direction of Ronald's car. Okay. Now, it was dark by the time they reached the car and it was in the parking lot of the Jack's brewery. It was mostly an empty parking lot because it was closed at that point. In the backseat of Dominique's Chevy Malibu, you know, they began the transaction, but suddenly without warning, Ronald flipped him over and despite him protesting and fighting to defend himself,

he began raping Oliver LeBanks. Oh no. Now, when he finished, Dominic grabbed the tire iron from the floor and bashed Oliver LeBanks twice in the head with it, causing a concussion immediately. Then he wrapped his hands around his throat and began strangling it. Oh my God. At some point, the force required to manually strangle someone became unsustainable. And so he wrapped a belt around Oliver LeBanks neck

and pulled it so tightly that the clasps cut into his neck. Jesus. And he choked him for several minutes until he was sure he was dead. That is terrifying because when you see a picture of this man, he's a big guy. Very intimidating. Like, and I'm not saying that in like the sense of weight, I'm saying like, just like build, he's a big build.

And it would be so easy for him to overpower someone. Yes, that's the thing. It's so scary. And, and just what, what he's capable of, anyway, is just ruthless. I mean, that is brutal what he did. And it just sounds like everything happened so fast. That's the thing. It sounds like it was just within an instant.

Right. Everything turned. Like, these people had no chance to even defend themselves. Now, Dominique drove Oliver LeBanks' body to a remote stretch of road near Zephyr Fields, which was home to the AAA minor league New Orleans Zephyrs. My God. And dumped his body under a dark overpass.

And then he drove back to his trailer in Houma, and Oliver's body was discovered the next morning by a passerby who reported it to police. Now, to show again that this pattern is that Ronald Dominique was establishing for his chosen victims, Oliver LeBanks was black. Like obviously he is choosing a very specific victim. Had a history of substance abuse struggles in the past

and was known to engage in sex work from time to time just to get money for things he needed or wanted. Now these facts, again, I would just wanna to make sure everybody knows, these facts do not define Oliver LeBanks as a person, but they give insight into Donald, Ronald Dominique's fucked up worldview and the way he is choosing his victim. His victim profile. He had a victim type now, definitely, where we're at that point. But even with all these patterns and similarities

between victims and methods of murder, the press picked up on the fact that there was substance abuse history and the fact that he engaged in sex work sometimes. And so they're reporting on Oliver's murder, focused largely on his being, and I quote, a gay prostitute. That's what they used to call Christ.

And quote, an uneducated and unvalued transient kitchen employee in some mindless job. Oh my God. That was an actual quote used to describe the victim. Oh, that just made my heart like, oh my God. It's so shameful, it is wild. It's like, who wrote that? And luckily in the years since his murder,

LeBanks's friends and family have attempted to correct this narrative, which is gross that they even have to do that. That they're even in that position. That should be their fucking job. That should be the job of journalists that are writing these things. They should be the ones. How do you write something that callous? According to a friend and former employer, Mar Paulson,

he said, he was not a badass in any way. Ollie had five children. He had responsibilities and a good future in front of him, but he had one weakness. While he'd been clean for some time, a long time, Ollie was a recovering drug addict. Which like good for him for recovering. So he's got clean, like he was getting, he had a job.

Right. He was working towards a better future. And it's like- And it's like, it's so sad that these people even have to come out to try to defend the person that was like violently ripped away from them. Right, what was that headline? It was, they literally said, let me go back to find it,

an uneducated and unvalued transient kitchen employee in some mindless job. Unvalued, he has five children, he clearly has friends, he has a mom, he has family. And these family and friends have to come forward and be like, he assholes of the world, he's more than his demons. He's very valued.

Like they have to actually be the ones to say it. It's like, that's so shitty. Oh, that makes my heart hurt for him. He's very valued. Like they have to actually be the ones to say it. It's like that's so shitty. Oh, that makes my heart hurt for him and for X. To die like that horrifically and then just to be chalked up to nothing. Yeah. In the paper. Whoever wrote that can go fuck themselves. Well, it's like the thing is too, I don't see anyone coming.

I didn't find anything about anybody that wrote kind of like shit like this or said shit like this about it. Coming on being like, wow, I was wrong. Like that was, that's a real person and I should have, I should have. Yeah. I should have. Because they're all hiding behind their shitty headlines. You know what I mean?

It's like, why, why do you let that float out there? How do you write something like that? Hand it into your boss and then go home. Yeah. With your family for the night. With your family. And it's like, what the fuck? And yeah, it's, and hearing someone who cared about him refer to him as Ollie.

Yeah, like that. Like kills me. I don't even know what the word is. Just like it humanizes the situation so much. Cause it's just that one thing, like he wasn't Oliver LeBanks. He was my friend Ollie. He was Ollie. Like someone, and five kids father.

And that's the thing to think that he had five children. That's awful. It's really sad. They lost their dad like that. So for detectives, there was very little evidence at the scene. According to the autopsy, Oliver had been bound at the wrists and raped before being murdered.

Wow. But the killer left no fingerprints and had worn a condom, so they didn't have anything left. So detectives didn't have a lot to work with here. What they did have was a single hair from a white man left on the body. But until they had a suspect to match it to, it just kind of sat there useless in evidence.

They didn't know it was from a white man, that's all they could tell. And this is like mid to late 90s at this point. So DNA hadn't even really come that far. So it's like this is just kind of sitting here until we have a comparison essentially. But detectives on the Oliver LeBanks case wouldn't have to wait long for their killer to strike again.

Unfortunately, it would be in another jurisdiction and a long time would pass before the connection between the victims was made. That was the other thing that Ronald Dominique did was he went to different jurisdictions and parishes knowingly that they was going to take a while for them to connect these because they even connecting different cases like that in different counties and parishes and jurisdictions can get reckless because it can really derail a case. It's like you really have to have solid evidence to make sure you know that these are connected. Right. And he knew that. So just two weeks after Oliver LeBanks' body was discovered under the overpass,

the partially-closed body of 16-year-old Joseph Brown was discovered on October 19, 1998. He was found on the western end of Veterans Memorial Boulevard in Kenner, which is a suburban community about 10 or 15 minutes outside New Orleans. To investigators at the scene, it looked like Brown's body had been, quote, pretty much dumped out of a car by the side of the road. Wow, like trash. Yeah, he'd suffered, and this is really sad,

like this one really got me, he'd suffered several severe lacerations and wounds to his head and a bloody plastic bag was discovered near his body, which investigators suspect that the bag had been placed over his head as he was beaten to death. My God. Yes. This guy's a fucking monster. There's no words. Like beyond. Joseph Brown had grown up in,

and I looked up the pronunciation of this place in Louisiana and it is pronounced Boutyie, Louisiana, about 15 minutes from Kenner. Of course, the press labeled him a troubled teenager, not just a child who was brutally murdered. On the night of his murder, Joseph had been out with some friends in Boutie and no one seemed to know how he'd gotten to Kenner

or what he was doing there. The coroner ruled Brown's death a homicide by strangulation. He had also been beaten over the head, but I think he actually died by strangulation. Which obviously a teenage boy dying by strangulation is like pretty unusual. Yeah, one might say. But otherwise there weren't really clues to who were like other like where he was killed. But again, they were just kind of like, well, he was a troubled kid.

And it's like, well, troubled kids don't always get strangled. So I think we should look into that. Like, what the fuck? It's just, this is a really, really frustrating case in a sense. But it's like take out troubled. He's a kid. He's a kid. And that's all you should's like take out troubled. He's a kid.

He's a kid. And that's all you should be focused on right now. He's a dead child. 16, 16. I mean, that's young. That is young. And plenty of people are troubled kids that grow into like amazing adults

and he didn't get that chance. Doesn't mean they deserve to get beaten and strangled to death. Exactly. So Jefferson Parris detectives who were working the Oliver LeBanks case got called in November when the body of 18-year-old Bruce Williams was discovered in an industrial park in Jefferson Parish just outside New Orleans.

Like Oliver LeBanks, Williams was known to police as a sometimes sex worker who primarily worked in New Orleans proper. On the evening of November 27th, Williams was seen by friends in the French Quarter and also like Le Banks, he had been raped and strangled. So he's got a very much an MO here. Now, this is an unusual number of young male rape slash murder victims being discovered in the greater New Orleans area.

At one point, one of the detectives was like, this is more murders than we have for an entire year. Like this is a lot. And there's a lot of murders in New Orleans. I was gonna say. That's it's not like they have. It's not unknown to them. But these were happening so quickly.

He was like at the end of like the whole thing. He was like that stretch is more than we can sometimes have in a year and it happened within like this small period of time. So detectives on the LeBanks and Williams cases called actually the FBI's behavioral science unit, which I'm glad they finally took that script. Cause they wanted to create a profile of what was clearly a serial killer in the area. Unfortunately, the profile created by the FBI people were, it was pretty generic and it was

a little useless. It wasn't completely useless, but it was like kind of like, okay, thank you. Was it in the early days of profiling? I don't really know when that even started, to be honest. And it's like, and this was just like, I mean, it wasn't useless in the end. You look at it in the end and you're like, yeah, that was actually exactly dead on. But it, it's just, there's so many people that fit in this that it's really hard. They said their killer was a white male mid 30s difficulty with social skills, probably didn't have a lot of friends. So almost like every serial killer that we have ever covered. Yeah, and a number of other vague characteristics that were just not unique enough to really help,

but there was one aspect of the profile that would help investigators narrow down their search. According to FBI profiler Tom Colby, LeBanks and Williams Killer, he believed lived near the airport. So he was like, bring your net in closer to the airport. I wonder what made him think that, especially because it was all spread out. Well, they thought this because the locations of the string of body dumping sites, they were all near the airport. Like all the way back.

In a certain area that made sense. And while detectives in and around New Orleans worked with federal agents to develop a profile of what they were now believing was a serial killer, Ronald Dominique was back out on the hunt for a new victim. He just goes and goes and goes. On May 30th, 1999, the partially clothed body of 21 year old manual Reed was discovered

in the dumpster behind a business in Kenner. Reed had grown up in New Orleans and like the other victims, he did have a history of struggling with substance abuse and was known to police as a sometimes sex worker. But also like the other victims, Reed had been raped and strangled. Now, the scene repeated itself exactly one month later when the body of 21-year-old

angel Mejia was discovered by a dumpster in an industrial area of Kenner. Detectives at the scene immediately noticed that Mejia fit what was by now seen as their serial killers preferred victim profile. Right. And so as a black man, he was already a member of a marginalized community, but he was also living on the streets at the time of his death. He didn't have any like set address. That's awful. Which put him at greater risk of exploitation by men or monsters like Ronald Dominique.

He had also been raped and strangled. But this time Dominique had broken his pattern a little because he left him in a relatively well lit area in front of a very regularly used business dumpster. Do you think he was just getting bolder because he wasn't getting caught? They thought he was just getting sloppy. Slappy, got it.

They really thought he was just getting sloppy. Slappy. Got it. They really thought he was just getting sloppy. Although they didn't know it at the time, the FBI's profile, like we said, generic as it was, was pretty accurate because Ronald Dominique was a white man in his 30s at this time with very slow or poor social skills. And what they found out was that he was actually living about 10 miles from the New Orleans International Airport. Wow.

So they were actually dead on. That's wild. Isn't it? Profiling is really wild. Giddy and out here. Right? Like many serial killers, he'd hunted for his victims in and around the place he was most familiar with and where he felt most comfortable.

But again, with the murder of Angel Mejia, Dominique had apparently been going out of his way to either, they were, it looked initially, they, Dominique had apparently been going out of his way to either, they were, it looked initially, they were like, is he going out of his way to have his victim be discovered that quick or is he sloppy? Like they couldn't figure that one out. Because initially, like you said, they thought he was just being like bold to be like that.

But then later they're like, I think he was just being sloppy. Which he probably got sloppy because he still, he wasn't getting caught. It's probably the same way to get there. Exactly. It's kind of the same thought process, yeah. Yeah.

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So connecting them, they needed more evidence for it. It was also important to investigators that while the cases were open and ongoing, the pertinent information be kept close to the chest. They wanted it kept from the press, the public. They didn't want to create panic or create a situation where misinformation was running rampant that could harm or hinder the investigation because now they're finally doing it. Unfortunately, these attempts at keeping it quiet and working behind the scenes became much harder than late June 1999, when operating on misunderstood leaked information,

the press began speculating on a possible serial killer operating in New Orleans. Now, it's unclear where journalists in the New Orleans area got this information, but by the end of June, reports started circulating about a potential serial killer who already claimed three young men whose shoeless bodies were dumped

in isolated areas around New Orleans International Airport. The article linked the murders of Angel Mejia, Joseph Brown, and Manuel Reed, who is unidentified in the article. They don't even use their name. Wow. They linked them to a single killer and they claim that all three of these victims

were all quote dark-skinned men. And they claimed falsely that they all had cocaine in their systems at the time of their death. And the article also makes a lot about them being shoeless when they were found. Despite the fact that it is neither relevant nor true. Good. Before long television news stations

had picked up the stories, internet detectives were like a booming thing at the time they were not just started. They were all focusing very heavily on this removal of the shoes as the killer's signature. It wasn't true. They weren't all missing their shoes, so this was bullshit. So now the entire internet is shitting their pants

over this false thing, and the entire press is shitting their pants over this false thing, and everybody's wondering what it means. It doesn't mean anything because it's not true. And you're not focused on the right shit here. You're not focused on the fact that they are young black men in marginalized, like a high risk, you know, areas,

high risk lifestyles, like dealing with, like basically the most vulnerable, essentially. And it's like, you're not, you're not focusing on, and many of them were part of the gay community. Like you're not telling the right people the information to keep them safe.

Like you're just being like, well, they're all shoeless. What could this mean? And it's like, no, right, you need a big community of people to be looking behind their back now. Exactly. You need these people to be thinking, you know, that they could be next. But even then the press really didn't give a shit. No, it's like that shows you that it's like they weren't focusing on what's important, keeping

actual people safe. Now, the decision to release or withhold information about public safety, like we've talked about important, keeping actual people safe. Now, the decision to release or withhold information about public safety, like we've talked about before, I mean, it's based on a lot of factors that aren't always obvious or understandable to those outside of the investigation. It's just a fact of life. And we've learned that time after time in many different cases. Oh, yeah. And it's generally true, I will say that an informed public will be better equipped to protect themselves in the inventive of an emergency.

I fully believe that. Yeah. But when attention isn't paid to the kind of information that the public is being given, mistakes can be made that can jeopardize the case and actually put more people at risk. And that's what happened here. I was worried that you were just going to say that.

They're not, it's just, you're not telling the right people what they need to hear. You're missing out on entire communities of people that need to know that they are the ones that are being targeted. Like you said, like watch each other's backs. Yeah. And the emphasis on the victims as black male drug dealers or users wasn't telling a complete story or an entirely accurate one. Right. In fact, it misrepresented who was at risk, specifically, like I said, marginalized men and boys of color who either were out as gay or were sex workers for their job at times.

Those are the people that you were like really watch out for yourself. Think about what you're doing at night so you can be prepared to protect yourself. Overlooking or misrepresenting the reality of Dominique's preferred victims by among other things, playing up these unfounded facts of the case meant that those that were most at risk

were being given bad information. And this became apparent in August of that year when police discovered the body of 34 year old Mitchell Johnson under the very same overpass where all of Earl Banks had been discovered a year earlier. Oh, wow. At the time of his death, Mitchell Johnson was living on the streets in Kenner

where he was last seen by friends on the night of his murder. Johnson's friends told police that they'd seen, quote, a suspicious guy cruising around the neighborhood around the time Johnson went missing. They described the man as a white male, mid-30s receding hairline and puffy cheeks. That's exactly what Ronald Dominic was like.

It was a spot on. It wasn't much else of distinction to separate the suspect from hundreds of other puffy white dudes in their 30s living around New Orleans at the time. Meanwhile, the coroner confirmed what police already more or less knew that Mitchell Johnson had been raped and strangled before being dumped. Just feet from where all of her banks had been dumped. Now the murder of Mitchell Johnson seemed to support the belief among the press that there was indeed a serial killer operating in the suburbs of New Orleans.

In hoping to use the press to their advantage finally, police released a sketch of the man seen in the area that night that Johnson disappeared. And in their statement to the press, the suspect was described as, quote, a serial killer targeting men in the area. Rather than a serial killer targeting black and gay men, which investigators feared would negatively influence the public's desire to help. That's so fucked that they even had to consider that. We gotta do better, everyone.

Yeah, to say the least. Regardless of how they phrased it, the picture and the articles didn't produce any new leads. But they had to worry that if they mentioned black men and boys and gay men and boys and sex workers that the public would be like, well, I don't really care. That's so messed up. So it's like, in that sense, this whole thing, they were trying to do the right thing by like making sure the public would give a shit by not mentioning the details.

But still it's... But when you think of the actual ramifications of that whole thing, it just makes you sick. Sure does. It really does. Now, it's unknown whether Ronald Dominic even saw the article or the police sketch, but just after it ran in early November, he quit his job with the county and moved his trailer further into Homa, which is that small city on the Bayou,

about 60 miles from New Orleans. Okay. He parked his trailer on some property next to his sister's house on Bayou Blue Road and was happy to learn that the police sketch in various articles about a serial killer hadn't yet made their way southwest of New Orleans, so they didn't know about it. Within a few weeks, Ronald found work as a laborer at Carrow Produce Company. On January-

The fact that this man was just handling people's produce too, like- Yeah. It was so, something so disturbing about that. Now, on January 1st, 2000, a driver called police in Lafouche Parish to report that they'd seen a man lying motionless by a barbed wire fence on the side of Highway 7. When police arrived at the site, they discovered the body of 23-year-old Michael Vincent. Michael Vincent had a record that included some drug charges, just to put him in that pattern. And he also had an unsettled way of living that again made him fit perfectly into Ronald's vulnerable victim profile.

The autopsy showed that he'd been bound at the wrists and suffered several abrasions, but the cause of death was most certainly quote, homicidal asphyxiation. The murder was not connected to the other murders of gay men and sex workers and the other parishes, which is kind of wild. I think it's because he was found further out from New Orleans. Okay. Maybe, I guess. But the investigation into Vincent's death would be further complicated by the fact that while Ronald Dominique may have ended the 20th century with yet another murder, two years would pass before he killed anyone again.

Interesting. He took some time between them. Yeah. And that's where we're going to leave you here. We're going to leave you with two years between killings and it's going to get even, I mean, it just keeps getting bad and bad and bad. But I think we can all rest there for a moment. Yeah, that was a lot of just tragedy.

In part two, we are going to talk about the 2002 murders in the Bayou. We are eventually going to, and Bayou blue as well, there's murders there between 2003 and 2005. We're gonna talk about each of the victims. Okay. And we're gonna talk about his arrest and the court case that followed

and eventually him going bye-bye into prison forever. Good, I'm excited for that part. And have that to look forward to, but I think we'll leave off there so we can all think about what the fuck we just listened to. Holy shit. And when we pick up, it's two years later. All right, well, with that being said, we hope you keep listening.

And we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that any of this because oh my god. Yeah. Music Follow Morbid on the Wondery app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, host of Wondery's Podcast American Scandal.

We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history, presidential lies, corruption in sports, corporate fraud. In our newest series, we go to Baltimore, where in the spring of 2017, a police corruption scandal shocked the city. At the heart of it was an elite plainclothes unit called the Gun Trace Task Force. It was supposed to be the Baltimore Police Department's best of the best, a group of highly decorated detectives who excelled at getting drugs and guns off the streets. But they operated with little oversight, creating an environment where criminal cops could flourish

by falsifying evidence and robbing suspects. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. and robbing suspects.