00:00Hello and welcome to the Dark Mystery Lounge. Today we will be looking at what has been dubbed the Blue Moon Killer. I swear, here we go again. We looked at the Alex and Derek King case, which was in cantonment, but today we are going to visit Pensacola this time.
00:18Pensacola is never on the news for anything good. It's always a murder here, or they caught Ted Bundy there, or the EPA doesn't have enough funds to finish the cleanup of Mt. Dioxin. But Pensacola does have a lot of good things too, don't get me wrong. The most beautiful beach, tons of history, nice restaurants, plenty of things to do. Pensacola is a larger city with a small town feel to it.
00:44But getting into this case, I feel like this is history repeating itself. If anyone remembers the West Memphis 3 case, a triple homicide blamed on witchcraft back in 1993, well, this one is similar to it. Well, let's go ahead and dive right into this one.
01:01It's July 31st, 2015, on a hot summer's day when a call came into the Pensacola Police Department asking to conduct a welfare check on the Smith residence.
01:17The caller explained that Richard Smith, who worked in the IT department for the Department of Homeland Security at the Naval Air Station, hasn't shown up for work in a few days, and wanted to make sure everything is okay.
01:31So police go to the Smith residence on Deerfield Drive, knocked a few times, no answer. So with the permission of another family member, they searched the house.
01:41It was in disarray, looking like a hoarder's house at first glance, couldn't find anyone, until someone spotted a foot sticking out of a pile of clothes, then in another room, found a woman's hand sticking out of a pile of blankets.
01:55Police found three adults in the house total. It's Richard Smith, age 47, his brother, John Smith, age 49, and his elderly mother, Vonsal Smith, age 77.
02:07Both Vonsal and John sustained injuries to the head and stab wounds to the neck, and Richard was shot in the head, and his throat was cut.
02:17John was sitting in a chair when he was killed. It appeared that there was no forced entry, so whoever did this was someone they knew.
02:25But who would want to kill these people, and why?
02:27Vonsal Smith was described by relatives as being a very sweet and loving woman, always traveling, visiting family, and was very active.
02:40But when her husband passed away, she became a recluse, never leaving the home and was known to buy a lot of stuff from QVC.
02:49John was described as very sweet and never quite grew up, because he was mentally handicapped.
02:55He had a job at Walmart to keep himself busy.
02:58Richard worked at the Naval Air Station in the IT department for the Department of Homeland Security.
03:04He remained at home, taking care of his brother and mother.
03:08He knew he was going to have to take care of his brother the rest of his life.
03:12So when relatives found out about the murders, one of the questions that arose was,
03:17Why hasn't Wayne called yet?
03:19The man who gave permission to enter the home was none other than Donald Wayne Hartung Sr., age 58, the third brother.
03:32He was a security guard at a local hospital and only lived three miles away from his mother's house.
03:38But while the search was happening, Donald was acting very strange.
03:42Now the reason why he hasn't called anyone is because he was down at the police department being questioned by investigators.
03:49When he was told that his family was killed, he was unemotional.
03:53No tears, no yelling, nothing.
03:56He admits to being the last one to see them alive because he came over every Tuesday to cook dinner.
04:01So Donald was there on Tuesday, July 28, that afternoon.
04:06So police got permission to search Donald's house and they found some rather strange things.
04:11There was an altar set up, lots of books on Wicca, statues, and candles.
04:16Now the police had an assumed motive for the murders.
04:20Witchcraft.
04:20Sheriff Morgan had a press conference about this case and saying that this was motivated by Wicca, witchcraft, and because there was a blue moon.
04:29People were outraged, especially in the Wiccan community, saying that this goes against their core beliefs, which is the Wiccan read and the Law of Three.
04:37Even one woman, who is a high priestess, demanded for the sheriff to retract his statement.
04:43Honestly, I think he did this to make it more sensational and in turn would help with his re-election campaign.
04:50Now police did find a lot of DNA evidence that points in Donald's direction.
04:54Cigarette butts in the garbage can on top of some bloody towels with his DNA on it.
05:01Also, Richard's checkbook on the inside of Richard's belt on the zipper of Richard's notebook case.
05:07As for old Donald, the investigators grilled him in a late night interrogation, asking if he had ever touched anything his brother had owned.
05:17He denied it and said he hasn't seen Richard in a few weeks.
05:21Police finally arrested Donald three months later, just a few days shy of Halloween.
05:30Four and a half years later, the trial begins.
05:34This trial was being labeled as a ritualistic killing and linked to witchcraft.
05:39But both sides were trying to steer clear of that theory.
05:43Because that's all it was, a theory.
05:45The prosecution in their opening statement revealed the real reason why Donald killed his family.
05:52Money!
05:53Donald found out that he was excluded from the will, and in order to see any of that money, everyone would have to die.
06:02Then there was the inmate that testified that Donald confessed to him as to why he committed the murders.
06:07It was because his mother wrote him and his son out of her will, and that he cut his mother's pinky finger to torture her to give him the code to the safe.
06:19And indeed, the safe was open and money was removed.
06:23He also claims that Donald said the Ouija board told him to do it, and that the other inmates were scared of him because he's a witch.
06:30There were questions about the time of death.
06:33Investigators say it was no later than Tuesday the 28th.
06:37A neighbor testified that he saw Donald there at the house and stayed later than normal.
06:43Normally, Donald would leave before Richard came home.
06:47Plus, surveillance footage of Richard leaving work shows that he was wearing the same outfit that he was murdered in.
06:53The defense claims that because there was no gun found, no blood, or DNA at his house, only his mother's house, that Donald couldn't have possibly committed those murders.
07:05They questioned the crime scene technician that collected the evidence because she was fired for taking drugs out of the evidence lockers.
07:13They also questioned the medical examiner that resigned because of allegations of misuse of state money.
07:20The defense's medical expert claims that, due to the body's heat and rigor mortis level, they couldn't have died any sooner than Wednesday the 29th.
07:30Defense also questioned the interrogation methods used by the investigators and why they played the clip about the debunked blue moon theory.
07:40It was to play with their emotions, to scare them a bit.
07:43The jury was out for deliberation for four hours, and on January 29th, 2020, Donald Wayne Hartung Sr. was found guilty of premeditated first-degree murder.
08:00At his sentencing hearing, Hartung demands a mistrial.
08:05He blames his attorneys for ineffectively defending his case.
08:09The judge wasn't buying it, so he denied the motion.
08:11Donald knew he was facing the death penalty, so I guess this was just a desperate attempt to save his life, by throwing everyone else under the bus to save his own skin.
08:21After an hour of deliberation, the jury gave him three consecutive life sentences.
08:27I guess because of his age and his health, they figured he wouldn't live long enough to see an execution date.
08:33As of this video, Donald is still alive and serving out his sentence.
08:37After all this sensationalism and drumming up of fear of witches and witchcraft, it seems all this was boiled down to is a single man's greed and his failed attempt to get away with murder.
08:50Wow. Well, this case was one that was way overblown in the news media.
09:00When I first saw this case in the newspaper, I thought, oh god, here we go again.
09:05Another case is being tied to witchcraft.
09:08It seems everyone wants to believe that Wicca and Satanism are one and the same, when in fact they're not.
09:14People who practice Wicca believe that you are responsible for your actions and it comes back to you threefold, whether it's good or bad.
09:22It doesn't matter.
09:23Satanism is more about indulgence and doing what you want, despite whether it's evil or not.
09:29Shoot, Wiccans don't even believe in Satan or the devil because that's a Christian deity.
09:34To be quite honest, I'm glad Sheriff Morgan is gone.
09:37He made this city look ridiculous with the words that were coming out of his mouth.
09:41A little education would have gone a long way with him.
09:45Granted, our current Sheriff is no saint, but he's not running around blaming murders on Wiccans.
09:51Anyways, what did you think of this case? Let me know in the comments down below.
09:55Next episode, I will be talking about one more Pensacola case, then move on to some other crazy Florida case.
10:02If you made it this far into the video, thank you.
10:05And if you enjoyed this video, don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe and tickle that little bell icon so you don't miss the next episode.
10:13Thank you for hanging out with me in the Dark Mystery Lounge.
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