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00:05On June the 27th, 1996, police in Pinellas County, Florida
00:11had to undertake one of the largest manhunts in the county's history.
00:18There were helicopters everywhere.
00:20There were people on my roof.
00:23The media was out front.
00:26Investigators were on the hunt for a man they suspected
00:29was responsible for the murders of four women.
00:34They were all women on the fringes of society.
00:38All four had been beaten and strangled, all within a very small radius.
00:44After weeks of surveillance, investigators were stunned to find out
00:48that their prime suspect was already a wanted fugitive,
00:5341-year-old convicted sex offender James Randall.
00:58He had been imprisoned up in Massachusetts,
01:02and when he got out, he failed to report to his probation officer
01:06and instead fled the state.
01:08I couldn't believe it.
01:09My brother-in-law, there was two people living in there.
01:12The James Michael Randall that we knew
01:16and the James Michael Randall that turned into a monster.
01:20With a trail of brutal, sadistic attacks on innocent women behind him,
01:26James Randall had been revealed as one of the world's most evil killers.
01:53On March 4th, 1997, residents of Pinellas County, Florida,
01:59woke up to the news that ex-con James Randall had been found guilty
02:04of strangling two women to death on the outskirts of Clearwater.
02:10It's a very intimate way to kill someone.
02:13I mean, you're not, you know, five feet away firing a gun.
02:15You're right there, and you can see their face,
02:18and you can see their eyes.
02:19You can see the look of fear as they're losing consciousness.
02:24That was the big turn-on for Randall.
02:28Randall's sentencing became a subject of widespread controversy
02:32following the decision to overturn his death penalty
02:35and instead sentence him to life imprisonment.
02:39Randall's defence team had argued the deaths were in fact accidental
02:43and a result of his fetish for sexual strangulation.
02:50What stands out most for me in this case is the injustice
02:56that he was able to say that he killed those women by accident
03:03and it was believed and he manipulated the entire system.
03:08Randall's ex-fiancée, Terry Jo Howard, was amongst the many affected
03:13and had her world turned upside down
03:16in the wake of the heartbreaking revelations.
03:21When Jimmy had the need to be violent with someone,
03:25he almost became a different person.
03:29Jimmy was a very cold, calculating man
03:35when he became that predator.
03:38He was evil.
03:41This killer's story begins on August the 28th, 1954, in Kentucky.
03:51James Michael Randall lived with his parents and sister.
03:56His father, eager for him to follow in his footsteps,
03:59was determined to see Randall join the high school football team.
04:04Randall appeared to be brought up in a household
04:07that was dominated by coercive control.
04:11He hated his father.
04:13He was held back a couple of years
04:15in order to be dominant on the football field.
04:19And so that hurt his schooling and hurt his education,
04:24all for the point of him being a star on the football field.
04:28And he resented that terribly.
04:31But it wasn't just Randall
04:33that his father would attempt to control.
04:36One of the stranger and more frightening aspects of his life
04:41was when he was young,
04:42he had actually seen his father rape and choke his mother.
04:47And apparently that excited him.
04:52The fact that he had witnessed his mother being strangled by his father
04:58will be significant,
05:00because if you got a fetish for something,
05:04you have to be introduced to that fetish first.
05:07You're not born with it.
05:09So undoubtedly witnessing those attacks
05:13started to shape who Randall was.
05:16And Randall had a fetish for strangulation,
05:19which started very young.
05:29By the mid-70s, Randall had left Kentucky
05:32to start his adult life in Gardner, Massachusetts,
05:36where he found a job as a construction worker.
05:40One evening in 1978,
05:43a 24-year-old crossed paths with two young women at his local bar.
05:49He meets two girls,
05:52one called Linda, another one called Holly.
05:54And he gets on incredibly well with them both,
05:58but specifically with Linda.
06:01And within a year, they're married.
06:03They become a proper family.
06:06And they go on to have two children, a boy and a girl.
06:14Nearly five years later, on March the 4th, 1984,
06:19Linda heard the news that her best friend Holly
06:22never made it home after a night out with friends.
06:27Linda's best friend, Holly Coat, worked at a bar.
06:30And on the night she vanished,
06:33she finished up her shift
06:34and then went to another bar, Mr. D's Lounge,
06:37for a celebration.
06:38And she was supposed to meet some people
06:41for a nightcap afterwards,
06:42but never showed up.
06:45The interesting thing was that Holly's car
06:48was still in the car park where she'd left it.
06:52She has simply disappeared.
06:56Holly Coat's family put up a $6,000 reward
06:59for information surrounding
07:01their beloved daughter's disappearance.
07:04And her distraught husband
07:06even took a month off work to look for her.
07:09But their searches turned up empty.
07:16Two months later, Memorial Day weekend in May,
07:20there'd been a lot of rain in Massachusetts at this point.
07:24A local lake, Birch Hill Dam, had grown,
07:29and a lot of things started to come to the surface.
07:33A couple of canoeists used the rising water levels
07:37to explore areas around the dam
07:39that were usually inaccessible by water,
07:42but nothing could have prepared them
07:45for what they would uncover.
07:48They discovered a body.
07:51It was a naked woman with her hands or arms
07:57tied in a purple sock.
07:59Can you imagine the horror of that?
08:03A few days later, the body was identified
08:07as that of missing 28-year-old Holly Coat.
08:10It appeared that she'd been strangled to death,
08:13but finding her killer wasn't going to be easy.
08:18The tragedy was there were no forensic details,
08:22really, on Holly's body.
08:25It had been in the water for a very long time.
08:29Because of the deterioration of the body,
08:31it was difficult to pinpoint exactly
08:33how she'd been killed
08:34or how long she'd been dumped there,
08:35or find any evidence tying her
08:38to who might have killed her.
08:42Police revisited Holly's last known movements.
08:45They looked into who she was with at the bar
08:48before she went missing nearly three months earlier,
08:52her best friend's husband, James Randall.
08:56There's no question that Holly knew Linda and Randall well.
09:00I mean, they'd babysat her daughter.
09:03They were close friends.
09:07Randall was the last person to be seen with her.
09:12There had been a party at a bar,
09:14and they had left together,
09:16and then she disappeared.
09:21The tragic death of Holly Coat
09:24was the beginning of the end
09:25of Randall and Linda's relationship.
09:28With the 29-year-old becoming a prime suspect
09:31in the murder of his wife's best friend,
09:34tensions between the couple began to rise,
09:37and James Randall would soon show
09:39his true colours.
09:51In May 1984,
09:5429-year-old construction worker James Randall
09:57was questioned by investigators
09:59after a pair of canoeists
10:01discovered the body of 28-year-old Holly Coat
10:05in an overflowing dam
10:07near to a popular fishing area.
10:11Two things made Randall a suspect
10:13in Holly's murder.
10:15One, that he'd been with her
10:16the evening she disappeared,
10:18and two,
10:19that where the body was discovered
10:21was one of Randall's favourite fishing spots.
10:25The police interviewed him
10:27as a person of interest.
10:29He didn't confess,
10:30and there was no reason
10:32or evidence to charge him.
10:35The impact Holly's death had
10:37on her best friend Linda
10:39and Randall soon became clear.
10:42Their relationship began to sour
10:44as Randall started demanding more sex
10:47and was more aggressive towards his wife.
10:51His view of relationships with women
10:54was definitely skewed
10:57by what he witnessed when he was younger.
11:01He was taught that women were objects
11:06rather than people.
11:09So when he goes into a relationship,
11:12he's bringing all that baggage with him,
11:14and he is going to treat his partner
11:17in the way he thinks they should be treated,
11:20which is abuse and control.
11:24He certainly tried to strangle her
11:27on a number of occasions.
11:28He got pleasure out of strangling women
11:31in the act of sex.
11:33Linda's response was inevitably,
11:35I can't stand this,
11:36I'm taking the children and going,
11:38which, of course, infuriated Randall.
11:42Two years later, in July 1986,
11:46the scorned Randall tracked Linda down
11:49and attacked her.
11:51He actually pulled her out of the car
11:53and tied her up to a tree
11:55and beat and raped her
11:58and made it clear that he was in charge
12:00and he was her master.
12:02Then he could do what he wanted to with her.
12:04And that was the point at which she knew
12:06that she had to get away from him for good.
12:11In 1987, after the brutal assault on Linda,
12:16Randall was sentenced to up to seven years
12:18for her kidnap and sexual battery.
12:21Whilst he was locked away,
12:23Linda was able to finally divorce him.
12:27He served five years in prison in Massachusetts.
12:31When he got out, he was supposed to be on probation,
12:33but he failed to report to his probation officer
12:36and instead fled the state.
12:39He goes to Florida.
12:41A new life, a new start.
12:44Now, in Florida, at that point in 1992,
12:47there had been a nasty hurricane
12:48and a lot of rebuilding was going to be necessary.
12:52So he moves to the Tampa Bay area
12:55to reconstruct houses.
12:58Two years into his new life in Dunedin, Florida,
13:0339-year-old Randall moved on from Linda
13:05and started roaming the streets of Clearwater
13:08in the Tampa Bay area.
13:11It was on one of these streets
13:13that he met 36-year-old Terry Joe Howard.
13:19I ran away from home when I was 14 years old.
13:22I ended up with some Italians out of New York
13:25in Cali, Colombia.
13:27And we were bringing drugs in.
13:30Then I became addicted to the drugs
13:32and things got progressively worse,
13:35resulting in me ending up on the street
13:38getting money from men.
13:41It's something I'm deeply ashamed of,
13:43but men were always pursuing me,
13:47everything about life, making money,
13:49even before I became a prostitute.
13:52Making money was all about drugs,
13:55especially here in South Florida.
13:57One evening in February 1994,
14:01Terry Joe crossed paths
14:03with 39-year-old James Randall.
14:06I was walking down the street
14:09and he turned the corner
14:11and was like,
14:12come on, hurry up.
14:14We take off
14:15and he wants to pay me extra
14:17to come to his house in Dunedin,
14:19which is about 20 miles away.
14:22Once the deed was done,
14:24he takes me back.
14:25The whole way back,
14:26all I talked about was getting clean,
14:28how sick I was of this life.
14:31A couple days later,
14:33Jimmy came back.
14:34He said,
14:34you serious about getting clean?
14:36I said, yeah, I am.
14:37I grabbed a couple of clothes,
14:40put them in a bag,
14:41and off we went to Dunedin, Florida.
14:44I squirmed around on his
14:46very uncomfortable couch
14:48for three or four days.
14:50And then I got up
14:51and I started feeling better.
14:53He was kind to me
14:54and he gave me room and space
14:56to grow and to experiment
14:59with who I wanted to be
15:01and who I was inside.
15:04It didn't take long
15:05for the couple
15:06to make it official.
15:09After a month of dating,
15:11Terry Jo brought Randall
15:12to meet the family,
15:14including her sister,
15:15serving police officer,
15:17Tamara Garcia.
15:20She had told Mom
15:22that she had met somebody
15:23and wanted to come
15:26and do some to us.
15:28It was the first time
15:29she'd ever brought somebody
15:30to meet us.
15:34I found Jimmy
15:35to be articulate,
15:37intelligent,
15:38interesting,
15:39and interested.
15:40I was very surprised,
15:42but happy.
15:44I was happy
15:44that she had found somebody.
15:47And it wasn't just
15:49Terry Jo's mother and sister
15:51who were fond of Randall.
15:53My mom had a pug.
15:55Her name was
15:56Princess Penny Pickles.
15:59When my mother got sick
16:00and moved in with us,
16:02Terry and Jimmy took Penny.
16:05Jimmy loved the dog.
16:07The dog loved Jimmy.
16:09We spoiled that dog.
16:13Randall, Terry Jo
16:14and their beloved pug,
16:16Princess Penny Pickles,
16:18moved to an apartment
16:19just northeast of Clearwater
16:21in 1994.
16:24Clearwater was sort of
16:25an old Florida sailing town,
16:28but had been lately
16:29rocked by a lot of growth
16:31as a result of suburban sprawl.
16:35Crack cocaine was big.
16:37There were a lot of addicts
16:39who were willing to do anything
16:40to get their hands on the drug,
16:41including debasing themselves
16:43through prostitution.
16:49In July 1994,
16:52Pinellas County police
16:53were called to the discovery
16:55of a body
16:55on a vacant lot
16:57in downtown Clearwater.
17:01Fingerprint records
17:02reveal the body
17:03to be that of 35-year-old
17:05waitress and dancer
17:06La Donna Stella.
17:09La Donna Stella
17:10was working as a sex worker,
17:12partly to stay in a drug habit.
17:15She liked disco dancing.
17:17She was a mother of three.
17:21The police were not
17:23in any doubt
17:23that she died
17:25from strangulation.
17:29Police were trying
17:30to work the case
17:31as just a regular murder,
17:32but they couldn't even find
17:34what had become
17:34of her clothes
17:35and her purse,
17:35and eventually it faded
17:37from view
17:38as they went on
17:39to other cases.
17:43On October 20, 1995,
17:46a year after the death
17:48of La Donna Stella,
17:49Pinellas County police
17:51found the body
17:52of 42-year-old Wendy Evans.
17:56She was last seen hitchhiking
17:58along North Fort Harrison Avenue
18:00in downtown Clearwater.
18:01She had had some drug problems.
18:03She was trying to get clean.
18:06The body had been dumped
18:07like garbage
18:08by the roadside.
18:10She'd been strangled
18:12and beaten
18:12to death.
18:15In addition
18:16to the La Donna Stella case,
18:18Pinellas County police
18:19also started investigating
18:21Wendy's murder,
18:23and it would be just weeks
18:24before a third body
18:25was discovered
18:26in the same county.
18:29Peggy Darnell
18:30was a woman
18:31in her 40s.
18:32She was working
18:33as a sex worker.
18:35She, too,
18:37suffered
18:37at the hands
18:38of someone
18:40who seemed
18:41to be targeting women
18:42in the Tampa Bay area.
18:45Peggy was last seen
18:46on the same street
18:48as La Donna Stella
18:49and Wendy Evans.
18:50She was also
18:51a drug user,
18:53and her body
18:54was found
18:54in almost identical
18:56circumstances.
18:58Her body
18:59had been lying
18:59in this industrial
19:01area for so long
19:02that some decomposition
19:03had occurred,
19:04so it was difficult
19:05to tell much
19:06about how she had died.
19:07She had apparently
19:08been beaten
19:09and strangled,
19:10but it was difficult
19:11to tell much
19:11of anything else
19:12about her.
19:15Determining
19:15when Peggy died
19:17required an entomologist.
19:19Judging by the development
19:20of insect activity,
19:22they concluded
19:23she was killed
19:24between October 30
19:25and November 4, 1995.
19:29Given the similarities
19:30between the three murders,
19:32sex workers
19:33in the Clearwater area
19:34were concerned
19:35that they might be next.
19:39After Peggy's body
19:40turned up,
19:41there was a shock
19:42that ran through
19:42the rest of the sex workers
19:44who were usually working
19:46in the North Fort Harrison
19:46Avenue area,
19:47and they actually
19:49stopped working.
19:50They abandoned
19:51that strip of pavement
19:52out of fear
19:53because they figured,
19:55you know,
19:55this is a bad sign
19:57for anybody.
20:01Detectives
20:02were becoming
20:02increasingly concerned
20:04that an active serial killer
20:06was stalking the streets
20:07of Clearwater.
20:09Investigators
20:10had little evidence
20:11to work with,
20:12but they knew
20:12that somehow
20:13they needed
20:14to stop the killer
20:17before he struck again.
20:29By January 1996,
20:32Pinellas County Police
20:34were inundated
20:35with information
20:36about three murdered women
20:38whose bodies
20:39had been found
20:39in and around Clearwater
20:41in Florida.
20:44News of the murders
20:46quickly spread
20:47throughout the community,
20:49reaching the newly engaged
20:51Terry Jo Howard
20:52and her partner,
20:5441-year-old construction worker
20:56James Randall.
20:59It was in the newspaper.
21:01Jimmy would read
21:02the articles to me
21:03every time one came out,
21:05and I'm like,
21:06Jimmy,
21:07I feel sorry for them.
21:09They're still somebody's child,
21:12and there's still possibility
21:14that they could get clean
21:15and do great things.
21:18On January the 18th, 1996,
21:21three weeks after
21:22Peggy Darnell's body
21:24was uncovered,
21:25Pinellas County Police
21:26received some more
21:28heartbreaking news.
21:29The body of a fourth woman
21:31had been found.
21:33Her nude body
21:35was found behind a store
21:36in Palm Harbor,
21:37which is well north
21:38of Clearwater,
21:39but she had died
21:41in a similar fashion
21:42to the previous victim.
21:44She was strangled to death.
21:47The woman was identified
21:49as 27-year-old Cynthia Pugh.
21:53Cynthia Pugh was another sex worker,
21:56but slightly different
21:58from the other sex workers
21:59in that, yes,
22:01she was funding a drug habit,
22:04but she was living with her parents.
22:07When Cynthia disappeared,
22:09the parents reported that night,
22:12which was very significant.
22:15Police knew Cynthia
22:17from previous encounters
22:19and were swiftly able
22:21to link her body
22:22to the missing persons report.
22:24There were striking similarities
22:26in the lifestyles
22:28and deposition sites
22:29of Cynthia Pugh,
22:31LaDonna Stella,
22:32Wendy Evans,
22:33and Peggy Darnell.
22:36They were all white women.
22:38All four had been beaten
22:41and strangled,
22:42all within a very small radius.
22:44They were all
22:46on the fringes of society.
22:48Pinellas County Police
22:51suspected they were
22:52no longer working
22:53on four separate homicides,
22:55but rather dealing
22:57with an active serial killer.
22:59The cases were combined
23:01into one investigation.
23:04Serial killers
23:05very often target sex workers
23:08because they can get
23:11easy access to them.
23:12It's really, really difficult
23:13to abduct a woman
23:14from the street
23:15without drawing attention
23:16to yourself.
23:17The safest, safest person
23:19to kill
23:20is going to be a sex worker
23:22who's going to go
23:23to an isolated area with you
23:26on their own with you.
23:31The case finally started
23:33to gain traction
23:34when investigators
23:35got a crucial lead
23:36on some physical evidence
23:38they'd found
23:38at the crime scene
23:39of Wendy Evans
23:40back in October.
23:43There were pink carpet fibers
23:45and dog hair,
23:47but there had been a rain
23:48and the rain
23:49turned the area into mud
23:51and in the mud
23:52they found a tire track.
23:55It would be months later
23:57before police were able
23:58to identify the unique imprint
24:01on the tire track.
24:02A very distinctive set
24:04of tire tracks
24:05belonging to a very particular
24:08kind of tire
24:08which had only recently
24:10been on sale.
24:12Investigators discovered
24:13that only one set
24:15of these specific tires
24:16had been sold
24:17in the Pinellas County area.
24:20They were able
24:21to track down
24:22the owner of the vehicle,
24:24the one vehicle
24:25in the area
24:26who had gotten
24:27that set of tires on them
24:28and that turned out
24:29to be Terry Jo Howard.
24:33Although this was
24:34a significant lead,
24:36police still needed
24:38concrete evidence
24:39that it was the tires
24:40on Terry Jo's truck
24:42that made the prints
24:43at Wendy Evans' crime scene.
24:47On May the 6th, 1996,
24:50detectives set up a sting.
24:52They asked the manager
24:53of the tire dealer
24:54to call Terry Jo
24:56and claimed there was
24:57something wrong
24:58with her tires.
24:59The manager calls me
25:00and says,
25:01I sold you recalls.
25:03If I don't get those tires
25:05back in here tomorrow,
25:06I'm going to lose my job.
25:08I said,
25:09oh, no, buddy.
25:09I'll be in there.
25:11When she brought
25:11the truck in,
25:12they were able
25:13to grab the tires
25:14off the truck
25:15without her knowing it
25:16and match them
25:17to the tire print
25:18that was left
25:19where the body was found.
25:21With a possible link
25:23between Terry Jo
25:24and the murder victim,
25:25Wendy Evans,
25:27detectives began
25:28conducting surveillance
25:29at her apartment
25:30to keep a better eye
25:32on their new suspect.
25:34As they set up
25:35surveillance on Terry Jo,
25:37they discovered
25:38that she was actually
25:39living with a man
25:40and the man
25:41was the one
25:41driving the truck.
25:42And as they
25:44plumbed his background,
25:46they discovered
25:46it was Jimmy Randall.
25:49With confirmation
25:50that the truck
25:51had been
25:52in downtown Clearwater
25:54when Wendy
25:54was murdered,
25:56police started
25:56taking witness statements
25:58from sex workers
25:59in the area.
26:01They took a picture
26:03of the car
26:03and showed that
26:05to a number
26:05of sex workers.
26:06And they recognized
26:07the car
26:08and they remembered
26:09that the guy
26:10driving it,
26:11that there had been
26:12a warning
26:12that had gone around
26:13to the various women
26:14to say,
26:15don't mess with this guy,
26:16he's a bad ride,
26:18meaning he will hurt you.
26:20And so they knew
26:21to avoid
26:22that particular truck
26:23when they saw it coming.
26:25As detectives
26:26began plotting
26:27their next move,
26:28they took a closer look
26:30at some evidence
26:31they'd unearthed
26:32at Cynthia Pugh's
26:33crime scene
26:33back in January.
26:36There were bits
26:37of forensic evidence
26:38present on her nude body.
26:39There were pink carpet fibers,
26:42dog hair,
26:43and a little tiny piece
26:45of paper,
26:45although at the time
26:46the evidence text
26:48didn't know quite
26:49what to make of it.
26:51Investigators sent
26:52the carpet fibers
26:53and the dog hair
26:54to a specialist laboratory
26:56at the FBI headquarters
26:58in Washington, D.C.
27:00for examination.
27:02Assigned to the case
27:03was supervisory special agent
27:06Christopher Hopkins.
27:08In this investigation,
27:10Pinellas County
27:11submitted evidence
27:13to the FBI laboratory.
27:16In the submission
27:18were envelopes
27:20that contained trace evidence,
27:22hairs and some fibers,
27:24and then I examined them
27:25with a comparison microscope.
27:28Christopher's findings
27:30gave the detectives
27:31a very precise list
27:33of what to look out for.
27:34After examining the trace evidence,
27:38I reported to the detectives
27:41that when you're standing
27:42on a pink carpet
27:44and there's a little dog
27:45running around
27:46barking at you,
27:47you'll know you're
27:48in the right spot.
27:49With this in mind,
27:51the undercover detectives
27:53patrolling outside
27:54Terry, Joe, and Randall's home
27:56devised a rather
27:58unorthodox method
27:59of obtaining
28:00comparison samples.
28:03Two female detectives
28:05went and knocked on
28:06the door
28:07and met Terry, Joe,
28:09and told her
28:10we're running
28:11a dog washing service.
28:14And in order to promote
28:15the idea
28:16so that people
28:17will start coming to us,
28:18we're giving away
28:19a free dog grooming
28:21to people we meet today.
28:23When the detectives
28:25walked in
28:25and saw a small dog
28:27and a pink carpet,
28:29Christopher's analysis
28:30was ringing
28:31in their ears.
28:33We want to practice
28:34washing on your dog.
28:35Can we give your dog a bath?
28:37And I go,
28:37yeah, let's go.
28:39The one girl
28:40takes Penny Pickles
28:42into the tub
28:43and starts washing her.
28:44And the other girl,
28:46I think she has
28:47a nervous dick.
28:48She's going like this
28:49to the carpet.
28:50And then I hear
28:51the dog yell.
28:53So I'm like,
28:54what's going on?
28:54Did you hurt my baby?
28:56Oh, no, no,
28:57we're all done.
28:57We're all done.
28:58And they got out
28:59of there rather quickly.
29:01Later on,
29:02I find out
29:04those were two detectives.
29:07She was pulling
29:08the hair out of the dog.
29:10The other one
29:11with the nervous dick
29:12was gathering carpet fibers.
29:15The comparison samples
29:17were sent
29:18to the FBI laboratory.
29:21The conclusion
29:22I can reach,
29:23I can say,
29:24the dog hairs
29:25are consistent
29:26with coming
29:26from that dog
29:27and those carpet fibers
29:29are consistent
29:30with coming
29:30from that carpet.
29:32That was exceptionally
29:33important
29:35because those dog hairs
29:37and those carpet fibers
29:38are evidence
29:39of recent contact,
29:41meaning those victims
29:42had recent contact
29:44in his residence.
29:48Armed with this evidence,
29:50detectives were finally ready
29:52to make their next move.
29:55On June the 27th, 1996,
29:58they questioned Randall
30:00at the home he shared
30:01with Terry Jo
30:02while she was out of town,
30:04but he denied
30:05any knowledge
30:06of the murders.
30:08The reason
30:09they didn't arrest him
30:10at that moment
30:12when they met him
30:13at the apartment
30:13is they wanted the truck.
30:15They wanted an excuse
30:15to take the truck
30:17into custody
30:17and search it
30:18for further evidence.
30:20detectives needed
30:21to arrest Randall
30:22while he was driving
30:23the truck
30:24in order to conduct
30:25a warrantless search
30:26of the vehicle.
30:27As they got back
30:29to their car,
30:29they saw Randall
30:31drive off.
30:32They knew Randall
30:34already had a warrant
30:35out for his arrest
30:36for violating his parole
30:38in Massachusetts
30:39back in 1992
30:40after serving five years
30:42for an attack
30:43on his ex-wife.
30:45Police had been waiting
30:46for the opportune moment
30:47to apprehend him.
30:49Now was that time.
30:52Randall sees blue lights
30:54in his rearview mirror
30:55and decides
30:56that he's got to take off.
30:59Randall led police
31:00on a reckless
31:01high-speed chase
31:03until a wrong turn
31:04into a cul-de-sac
31:05brought it all
31:06to a screeching halt.
31:09He bailed out
31:10of the truck
31:11and took off on foot
31:12and that's what led
31:14to the largest manhunt
31:15in Pinellas County history.
31:18After scaling a 10-foot fence
31:20and running into
31:21the cover of woodland,
31:23potential serial killer
31:24James Randall
31:25had evaded police capture.
31:27Over 100 officers
31:29were brought in
31:30to try and locate
31:31the man suspected
31:33of killing four women
31:34and they needed
31:35to find him
31:37fast.
31:48On June the 27th, 1996,
31:52Pinellas County police
31:53were on the hunt
31:54for 41-year-old construction worker
31:57James Randall.
31:58He'd gone on the run
32:00after police suspected
32:01he was responsible
32:02for the murders
32:03of four women
32:04in Clearwater.
32:07He'd stolen a pair
32:08of screens off windows
32:09and fashioned
32:11a form of camouflage
32:12out of that
32:12using the bushes
32:13around him
32:14in order to stay screened
32:15from all the airplanes
32:17and helicopters
32:18who were flying around
32:18looking for him.
32:21He would sleep
32:22during the day
32:22and only move around
32:24at night
32:24and that made him
32:26very elusive.
32:28Whilst officers
32:29were scouring
32:30acres of woodland
32:31for their prime suspect,
32:33detectives began
32:34questioning
32:35Randall's fiancée,
32:36Terry Jo Howard.
32:38I'm sitting
32:39at the table
32:40and the detectives
32:41are asking me questions.
32:42I'm literally
32:43in physical shock.
32:46Everything sounds
32:47kind of like
32:48it's outside
32:49of a bubble.
32:52I'm just
32:53lost in my own thoughts
32:54trying to answer
32:55the questions.
32:57Scared to death.
32:58Never been scared
32:59of anything
32:59until then.
33:02The cops
33:02had moved
33:03into my house.
33:04They told me
33:05I couldn't use
33:05the phone,
33:06couldn't go anywhere.
33:09There were
33:09helicopters everywhere.
33:11There were people
33:12on my roof.
33:13The media
33:14was out front.
33:17About the third night,
33:19I think it was
33:19just starting
33:20to get dark,
33:21I started
33:22to go to sleep
33:23and all of a sudden
33:26every hair
33:27on my arm
33:27stood up.
33:29I had goosebumps.
33:31I had
33:32a fear
33:34in the pit
33:35of my stomach
33:35that was so intense
33:37and I knew
33:39Jimmy was here.
33:43I told the cops
33:44to turn the lights off.
33:45They told me
33:46I was out of my mind.
33:47They said,
33:48you're just scared.
33:49It's just catching up
33:50with him.
33:52I said,
33:53no,
33:53he's here.
33:56Terry Jo's
33:57instincts were correct.
33:58With nowhere
33:59left to go
34:00and famished
34:01after four days
34:02in the woods,
34:03Randall had returned
34:04to the apartment
34:05in search of food.
34:08He went back
34:09to his apartment
34:10and knocked on the door.
34:11When a police detective
34:12answered,
34:12he actually hit her
34:13in the head
34:13with a stick
34:14and tried to run again.
34:16All of a sudden,
34:17everybody bolts.
34:19Helicopters are flying.
34:21Sirens are going.
34:24And I'm there alone.
34:26They left me there.
34:29Do they have them?
34:30Don't they have them?
34:33Police dog grabbed him
34:34and brought him down.
34:35And at that point,
34:36he made his one and only
34:37statement of the cops.
34:40Randall simply says
34:41to the police,
34:42oh,
34:43I've been bitten
34:44by mosquitoes.
34:44I wish you'd caught me earlier.
34:47No remorse
34:48or sympathy
34:48for anyone
34:49except himself.
34:52Investigators
34:52were certain
34:53they had their man,
34:55but before they
34:56could interview Randall,
34:57they needed
34:58to remand him
34:59in custody.
35:00In order to keep
35:01him off the streets,
35:02they initially charged
35:03Randall
35:04for fleeing authorities,
35:06aggravated battery
35:07on a law enforcement officer
35:09and the Massachusetts
35:10probation violation warrant.
35:14Randall's fiancee,
35:15Terry Jo,
35:16was given further details
35:17about his alleged crimes.
35:20Police got me
35:21in the office.
35:22They're slapping pictures
35:23of dead women
35:24in front of me
35:26with bruised throats.
35:29Everything's rushing
35:30through my head
35:30and I'm just kind of
35:32backing up,
35:33screaming,
35:33going,
35:34no, no, no, no.
35:37It's true.
35:40It's true.
35:42And I knew
35:43then
35:44that the life
35:46I was working
35:48so hard to build
35:50had just come
35:52crumbling down.
35:56Whilst Randall
35:58was in custody
35:59at the Pinellas
36:00County Jail,
36:01police encouraged
36:02Terry Jo
36:03to speak with him.
36:05They wanted me
36:06to visit him,
36:07to convince him
36:08I was on his side.
36:11One day I asked him,
36:12I said,
36:13hey Jimmy,
36:15I know you killed
36:16those women.
36:17I know you killed
36:19those women.
36:20So why didn't you
36:20kill me?
36:21Why not me, huh?
36:23Why not me?
36:25And he looked at me.
36:27It looked like
36:28he wanted to cry.
36:29But I could tell
36:30his little mind
36:30was thinking
36:31and manipulating
36:32the whole time.
36:34The only way
36:35to communicate
36:36with somebody
36:36in the other pod
36:37is to write
36:38backwards on the glass
36:39so that they
36:39could read it.
36:41Jimmy then wrote
36:42backwards on the glass.
36:44I hurt others
36:46so I would not
36:47hurt you.
36:49He barely got
36:50the last out
36:50and I was up
36:51and cussing
36:52and you are
36:54never going to
36:54blame this on me.
36:56You did not
36:57do this because of me.
37:00Randall denied
37:01any involvement
37:03in the murders
37:04to detectives.
37:05On September
37:06the 17th,
37:071996,
37:09nearly 80 days
37:10after the arrest,
37:11police had
37:12enough evidence
37:13to indict
37:1442-year-old Randall
37:15for the murders
37:16of Wendy Evans
37:17and Cynthia Pugh.
37:19Despite
37:20original suspicions,
37:22there was
37:22insufficient evidence
37:24to charge him
37:24with the murders
37:25of LaDonna Stella
37:26and Peggy Darnell.
37:29LaDonna and Peggy's
37:31murders remain
37:32unsolved.
37:33No other suspects
37:34have ever been named
37:36in relation
37:37to their deaths.
37:39They charged him
37:40with not four murders,
37:42they charged him
37:43with just two
37:44and I believe
37:45he said something like,
37:46is that all
37:47you're charging me with?
37:48And that was
37:48the last thing
37:49he said to the cops.
37:51With a trial
37:52on the horizon,
37:53the search for evidence
37:54continued
37:55and the forensic team
37:57made a breakthrough.
37:58They'd been trying
37:59to identify
38:00the mysterious
38:01piece of paper
38:02that was found
38:03at the deposition
38:04site of Cynthia Pugh
38:06who was murdered
38:07back in January,
38:081996.
38:10They were puzzled
38:12about what it was.
38:12It was a little
38:13fleck of cigarette paper
38:15and Terry Joe
38:16was a smoker.
38:18Eventually,
38:19detectives
38:20were able to collect
38:21a DNA sample
38:22from Terry Joe Howard
38:24and matched it
38:24to the saliva
38:25in the piece of paper.
38:27With one suspect
38:29in custody,
38:30detectives needed
38:31to determine
38:32if Terry Joe
38:33was also involved
38:35in the murders.
38:37After Jimmy was arrested,
38:39Terry was being processed,
38:41meaning they had
38:42to take her DNA.
38:43So they needed
38:45to get samples
38:46of her pubic hair,
38:47of her saliva,
38:49of her facial hair,
38:50of her hair,
38:52of her head,
38:52of her fingernails.
38:53And they needed
38:54that to rule out
38:56the fact
38:57that she was involved
38:58in any way.
39:00Thankfully,
39:01Tamara was also
39:02a serving police officer
39:03and her meticulous
39:05detective skills
39:06meant Terry Joe
39:07was able to be eliminated
39:09from the police inquiries.
39:12Thank God
39:13my sister kept records.
39:15Being a police officer,
39:16she's used to writing
39:17everything that happens
39:18to her down every day.
39:20Well, that came in handy
39:21because every time
39:23I was out of town
39:25was when they found
39:28another murdered body.
39:29And it wasn't just
39:31Terry Joe's DNA
39:32they found on the paper
39:33from the cigarette butt.
39:35One detective looks at me
39:37and he says,
39:38we found your DNA
39:40on a cigarette butt,
39:41but we found something else
39:42and it's not human.
39:44When Terry smoked,
39:46Princess Penny Pickles
39:48would get her cigarette buds
39:50and chew on them.
39:53That was the one piece
39:54of evidence
39:55absolutely proving
39:57that Cynthia had been
39:58in Randall's apartment.
40:03five months later
40:05in February 1997,
40:07Randall was put on trial
40:08at the Pinellas County Courthouse
40:10for the murders
40:11of Wendy Evans
40:12and Cynthia Pugh.
40:14As Randall continued
40:16to plead his innocence,
40:18prosecutors were keen
40:19to establish the extent
40:21of Randall's violence
40:22in past relationships.
40:24Amongst those to testify
40:26were his ex-wife, Linda,
40:28and now ex-fiancée,
40:30Terry Joe.
40:32The day I testified
40:34was the day I got free
40:37of any feelings,
40:39of any emotions,
40:40of any guilt.
40:42Terry Joe recounted
40:44a past incident
40:45to the court
40:46which took place
40:47in October 1995,
40:50the same month
40:51Wendy Evans was murdered.
40:54one day at work
40:56my boss
40:59comes up behind me
41:00and starts grinding at me.
41:03I told you
41:04what happened
41:04and he picked me up
41:06by the throat
41:07and pinned me
41:08against the wall
41:09and started screaming
41:11at me,
41:11don't you ever,
41:13ever,
41:14ever let anybody
41:15take advantage of you
41:16like that again.
41:20That's all I remember.
41:23When I woke up,
41:25he was having sex
41:27with what I think
41:28he thought
41:29was my dead body.
41:31When I opened my eyes,
41:35Jimmy was shocked.
41:38When Randall's ex-wife
41:41Linda testified
41:42and recalled
41:43strikingly similar scenarios
41:45from her relationship
41:46with him,
41:47it became clear
41:48to the jury
41:49that Randall
41:50had a deep-rooted desire
41:51for sexual strangulation.
41:55Manual strangulation
41:56was the part
41:57of the assault
41:58that he seemed
41:59to be most interested in.
42:00It was the one
42:01that gave him
42:02the most pleasure.
42:03He would get a high
42:05from that,
42:06from watching somebody
42:07struggle to breathe,
42:08watch them face-to-face,
42:11watch the life
42:11go out of them.
42:13It's a very,
42:14very personal thing
42:15to strangle somebody.
42:19FBI agent
42:20Christopher Hopkins
42:21also testified
42:22about his findings
42:24in court.
42:26I testified
42:27to the work
42:28that I'd done
42:29and the reports
42:30that I had written
42:31about matching
42:33the dog hairs
42:34recovered
42:35from the victims
42:36matching
42:36the known dog hair
42:38samples collected
42:39from his dog.
42:41Without the trace
42:42evidence,
42:44it would have been
42:45very difficult
42:46to tie the victims
42:49into that residence
42:51and to the defendant.
42:55In a way,
42:56you could argue
42:57that Princess Penny Pickles
42:58is the one
42:58who nailed Jimmy Randall.
43:04on March 3rd, 1997,
43:08the jury found
43:0942-year-old James Randall
43:11guilty on two counts
43:12of first-degree murder
43:14for the killings
43:15of Wendy Evans
43:16and Cynthia Pugh.
43:17On April 4th,
43:19he was back in court
43:20to be sentenced.
43:22Judge Schaefer,
43:24an expert on the death penalty,
43:25her position was,
43:26this is the law,
43:27I've sworn to carry out
43:28the law,
43:29therefore,
43:30if that's what's called
43:30for in this case,
43:31I'm going to sentence
43:32this guy to die.
43:34However,
43:35Randall appealed
43:36this decision
43:36and in April 2000,
43:39the Florida Supreme Court
43:40overturned
43:41his original convictions.
43:43The defense claimed
43:44that due to his
43:45established fetish
43:47for strangling women
43:48during sex,
43:49there was not enough
43:50evidence that he intended
43:52to kill his victims.
43:54Randall's convictions
43:56were reduced
43:57to two counts
43:58of second-degree murder
43:59and a life sentence
44:01behind bars.
44:03The decision
44:04wasn't welcomed
44:06by those who knew him best.
44:09It takes incredible strength
44:11to choke somebody
44:13to the point
44:14where they pass out,
44:15let alone to kill them.
44:16He intentionally
44:19kept his upper body
44:21super strong
44:22to be able
44:24to do these things.
44:26This is not accidental.
44:29I do believe
44:31this was premeditated.
44:33I came home
44:34from work that day
44:35and my tape recorder
44:37was full of messages
44:38from the state attorney's office,
44:41from detectives.
44:42They said,
44:43Jimmy's coming off
44:45death row.
44:46What does that mean?
44:48Does that mean
44:49he's going to be
44:49in a regular prison
44:50where he can escape?
44:53He did not kill
44:55those women by accident.
44:56You might kill
44:57one in that way
44:58by accident,
45:00but not two.
45:03I felt like Jimmy
45:04deserved the death penalty.
45:08It took the ingenious actions
45:10of Pinellas County detectives
45:12to put an end
45:13to Randall's reign of terror
45:15across Clearwater.
45:17He was a dangerous man
45:19who would stop at nothing
45:20to fulfil his sexual yearning
45:22for strangulation,
45:24claiming the lives
45:25of at least two innocent women.
45:27This undoubtedly
45:29makes James Randall
45:30one of the world's
45:32most evil killers.
45:34Unless it hurts.
45:37Like...
45:50Like...
45:51Like...
45:51For...
46:02Like...
46:03Like...
46:03Like...
46:03You
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