True Crime Reporter

In this “Best Of True Crime Reporter ®”, we take you back to the first episode in our series about serial killer Kenneth Allen McDuff. It was a Webby Award Honoree for Best True Crime Podcast in 2021. McDuff is the only criminal in Texas history to have received three death sentences. Serial Killer Kenneth Allen McDuff is being escorted to a holding cell in the Texas Death Chamber. McDuff was beli...

What is it about Waco, Texas ? A whirlwind of bizarre events and violence seems to dump all sorts of strange creatures into Central Texas. Whether it is serial killers on the hunt for victims or the Branch Davidian Cult ending in a fiery inferno, it spins out true crime stories that are stranger than fiction. Investigative reporter Robert Riggs and former federal prosecutor Bill Johnston have been...

If you were a Breaking Bad TV series fan, get ready to listen to the actual version in Texas. The TV series featured a fictional high school chemistry teacher named Walter White, diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor who manufactures high-grade meth to put away cash for his family’s future. It is not far from the truth.  During the 1980s, Central and East Texas were dotted with illicit meth lab...

Texas Ranger Stan Guffey 1946 – 1987 Courtesy Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, Waco, Texas In the previous episode of True Crime Reporter™ Texas Ranger Files , we told the story of brave Rangers who kept up the pursuit of kidnappers while their car was being riddled with gunfire and was engulfed in flames. Thirteen-year-old Amy McNiel the daughter of the pioneer in the development of th...

The Texas Rangers constitute the oldest state law enforcement organization in North America, dating to 1823. You can read more about the Texas Rangers’ history and influence on popular culture on our blog at the True Crime Reporter ®website . L to R Bill Johnston, Ret’d Ranger Captain Bob Prince, Robert Riggs True Crime Reporter™ Podcast Robert and Bill interview retired Ranger Captain...

In our previous episode of the True Crime Reporter® podcast, we presented the murder case of Annie Laurie Williams.  Williams bludgeoned her 8 and 9-year-old sons to death and then dispassionately dismembered their bodies to dispose of them. Her acts are unthinkable. Robert Riggs and Bill Johnston contacted forensic psychiatrist Dr. Richard Taylor in the United Kingdom to gain perspective and...

The 1950s were called the “Happy Days.” The war was over, the economy was booming, and the American Dream was in full swing. In 1957, it was estimated that one baby was born every second. The Lone Ranger was a hit TV show. Little boys acted out their mythical western adventures on stick horses . But the dream became a nightmare for two brothers in Texas. Their murders at the hands of their knife-w...

46 years after the abduction, torture, and murder of a 17-year-old girl, cold case detectives with the Fort Worth police department arrested a 78-year old Glen McCurley and charged him with capital murder. McCurley abducted Carla Walker from the parking lot of a bowling alley in 1974. Walker had been to a Valentine’s day dance with her 17-year old boyfriend. McCurley pistol-whipped Walker’s boyfri...

Serial killer Kenneth McDuff fixated on the female reporters who covered his capital murder trial. After a Texas jury sentenced McDuff to death by lethal injection, he sent off a letter to one of the reporters. Rebecca Rodriguez Reporting Live For CBS 11 News in 2000 The letter written behind bars sickened reporter Rebecca Rodriguez She had covered the abduction of Colleen Reed, a petite 29-year-o...

Husbands who murder their wives often go to great lengths to concoct stories about their disappearance or sudden death. They may give tearful appeals for help on television newscasts. They typically think that they are smarter than the police and can get away with murder. But there are no perfect crimes.   Murderers often slip up when they try to make the crime scene look like what they’...

The Texas Rangers are among the world’s most legendary law enforcement agencies and North America’s oldest state law enforcement agency. The Rangers have inspired scores of books, movies, radio, and television.  Their roots date to frontier Texas. In 1823, Stephen F. Austin, known as the Father of Texas, founded a group of ten men to protect new settlers.  Texas Rangers at the El Paso County...

Dennis Wayne Hope Willie Nelson sings about riding in the wide-open spaces with lyrics titled “Don’t Fence Me In” . “Don’t Fence Me In” was the ballad of Texas inmate Dennis Wayne Hope. Hope bragged that there wasn’t a prison in Texas that could hold him. The convicted armed robber even imitated the prisoner played by Paul Newman in Hollywood’s Cool Hank Luke . Hope purchased a Jaguar for his girl...

Serial Killer Ted Bundy Kenneth Allen McDuff ranks among the most heartless and sadistic serial killers in American history. But what creates the McDuff’s and Ted Bundy’s of this world? Two former FBI profilers, who were among the founders of the Behavioral Science Unit based at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, gave me invaluable insight.  I met profilers John Douglas and Roy Hazelwood after...

Colleen Reed You are about to hear how the murder of Colleen Reed on December 29th, 1991, by serial killer Kenneth McDuff impacted the life of her then-ten-year-old niece. Ms. Reed was abducted from an Austin car wash shortly after Christmas by McDuff and his accomplice, Alva Hank Worley. You can hear Worley’s confession about the grizzly details of the young accountant’s brutal murder...

The scandalous release of serial killer Kenneth McDuff and corruption inside the parole system triggered the passage of numerous legislative reforms dubbed “The McDuff Law.” But mysteries remain. How many violent inmates bought their way out of prison and were free to kill again? How many women did McDuff abduct and murder? McDuff always liked to have an accomplice to witness his evil acts. Did ot...

Investigative reporter Robert Riggs traced serial killer Kenneth McDuff’s footsteps from Texas’ Death Row to its Death Chamber at the Walls Unit in Huntsville, Texas.  The day before McDuff’s execution, the prison system gave Riggs and his camera crew access to the Texas death chamber. Riggs fills in precise details about how the lethal injection was administered down to McDuff’s last w...

Serial killer Kenneth McDuff held back on revealing where he buried Colleen Reed’s body. McDuff and his accomplice Hank Worley abducted Ms. Reed from an Austin car wash in 1991. Seven years have passed, and the clock is ticking down toward McDuff’s execution for her murder and that of Melissa Northrup. Prison investigator John Moriarty, federal prosecutor Bill Johnston, and U.S. Marsha...

Kenneth Allen McDuff is being escorted into the Death House. McDuff was believed to be the only condemned inmate in the nation ever paroled and then returned to death row for another murder. He went to death row in 1968 for killing two teenage boys, was paroled after the death penalty was overturned, and returned to death row in 1991 for killing two women. 11/17/1998 Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff m...

Kenneth McDuff’s first death sentence for the broomstick murders was commuted to life when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in 1972.  Now, McDuff faces two more capital murder charges. Prosecutors want to make sure that McDuff keeps his date with the executioner. After being sentenced to die by lethal injection, Riggs asked McDuff, “What now, Kenneth?” McDuff l...

James Granberry Pleads the 5th In Senate Hearing Texas inmates and their families started receiving business cards and letters from the ex-parole board chairman, promising early release for a price. Former parole board chairman James Granberry, who played the key role in setting serial killer Kenneth McDuff free, set up a business as a parole consultant. He solicited money from inmate’s fami...

Kenneth McDuff’s confidential prison and parole records contained plenty of warning signs that he was a psychopathic killer who should never be released. Investigative Reporter Robert Riggs obtains McDuff’s records. Riggs exposes the lies the Texas Parole Board Chairman has been telling about his role in freeing McDuff. Along the way, Riggs discovers a secret process that released a hate crime kil...

Investigative Reporter Robert Riggs was investigating how serial killer Kenneth McDuff and dozens of other former death row inmates in Texas got out of prison when Riggs crossed paths with U.S. Marshals. The Marshal’s nationwide manhunt captured McDuff working on a garbage truck in Kansas City.  But the question remained.  Who in their right mind on the Texas parole board would let...

The confession to the abduction and murder of a young accountant in Austin by Kenneth McDuff’s accomplice gives U.S. Marshals the evidence they need to launch a nationwide dragnet for the serial killer. After combing every corner of Central Texas for weeks, the Texas posse realizes that McDuff has fled the state. In Kansas City, a garbage truck worker recognizes McDuff’s mug shot in a...

Alva Hank Worley – McDuff Accomplice The U.S. Marshals Service Task Force locates one of McDuff’s prison pals. Every night, Deputy U.S. Marshals Parnell and Mike McNamara, along with U.S. federal prosecutor Bill Johnston, roll through the underbelly of Central Texas rousting parolees. Unlike the horse-bound Texas’s posses of the past, the Marshals drive an SUV bristling with weapons. I...

Addie McDuff – Mother of Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff The case of Kenneth Allen McDuff raises the age-old question about serial killers. Was McDuff the product of nature or nurture? Did genetics create this violent, uncaring monster, or did McDuff’s home life rob him of every ounce of compassion? The U.S. Marshal’s posse converges on McDuff’s mother, Addie, who was known as the “pistol-packi...