All language subtitles for Butchers.of.the.Bayou.S01E04.WEBRip.x264-ION10

- We heard that Derrick
Todd Lee was caught.

It's like a weight had been
lifted off of all of us.

- This man who perpetrated
such horrific crimes was

behind bars where he belonged.

- And then other bodies
start to turn up of women.

[lightning crashing]

- It has happened again.

- Strangulation.

- [News Reporter] Both
were sexually mutilated.

- The scab hadn't even formed
over Baton Rouge after Lee

and here you have
another serial killer.

- Some of the things
that were done

to some of these victims made
Derek Todd Lee's murders look

like child's play.

- [Susan] He did not
particularly enjoy
killing a woman.

It was what he could do
after that mattered to him.

- She had her arm
severed at the elbow

and there was a four
by four inch square

that had been taken
from her thigh.

- I mean, there's only
one way to stop him

and that's to get him
as fast as you can.

- He did leave his DN behind.

- We knew that we were looking
for a Caucasian offender.

- We need to either include
or exclude the individual

who left this tire track
there at the crime scene.

[brooding guitar music]

♪ They call me the
butcher in the Bayou ♪

♪ They call me the
butcher in the Bayou ♪

♪ They call me the
butcher in the Bayou ♪

♪ The butcher in the Bayou

♪ The butcher in
the Bayou, yeah ♪

[brooding guitar
music continues]

- At the Donna Bennett
Johnston crime scene,

police found a very
significant piece of evidence.

It had been raining
the day before,

so when the killer drove up
to the canal through the mud,

he left a very good
impression of a tire tread.

The tire track led
police to multiple men

in the Baton Rouge
area who had bought

that particular brand of tire.

- Detectives were going
to each and every house

to find that person.

And eventually, they showed up

at the home of Sean
Vincent Gillis.

[high intensity music continues]

- We pulled up in the
driveway at the residence.

I heard something
in the backyard,

and I just immediately walked
to the back of the residence.

There, I find an
individual who is sitting

on the patio, listening to
the Rush Limbaugh radio show.

I introduced myself to him,

I told him that Jeff was at
the front of the residence.

- The first thing I
wanted to do is I wanted

to put him at ease.

So I referred to the tires
that we were looking for

as a red herring.

I wanted him to think that I
thought it was a very bad lead,

and we were wasting our
time following it up.

Once he was at ease,

I went through the
questionnaire and asked him,

was he at that location?

And he told me that he had
been the Friday or Saturday

before Miss Johnston's
body was found there.

Then I went through the
questionnaire with him,

as far as whether or not
he knew any of the victims.

He told me, in fact, he
did know Ms. Williams.

He told me that Ms. Williams
had kept house for him

and that he was
friends with her,

and that he was upset
when he had heard

that she had passed away.

After we had asked the
questions on the questionnaire,

and we had gotten the details

regarding the tire mark
impressions at the crime scene,

my partner asked him
for a oral DNA swab.

And he readily
agreed to do that.

[high intensity music continues]

- And so I said, "We'd like
for you to ride with us

to the Sheriff's Office."

I said, "You told Jeff that
you was at the crime scene

of Donna Bennett Johnston.

You say you know one of our
victims, Johnnie Mae Williams.

I think you can help us out.

You may be able to give
us some information

about Johnnie Mae.

You may have seen something
that might be beneficial

to the investigation and
you might just not know it.

So we'd just like to
talk to you more in depth

about how you know Johnnie Mae,

and then you being
at the crime scene

of Donna Bennett Johnston."

When I asked him to ride
down to the Sheriff's Office

with us, he says, "Okay, you
mind if I smoke a cigarette?"

We said, "Sure, go ahead."

We're just talking
with Sean casually.

He lights a cigarette, starts
smoking it for a little bit.

And about halfway through, he
just drops it on the pavement,

puts his foot on it and he says,

"Let's go get this
shit over with."

- When we get him back
to the task force office,

we read him his rights, and
he agrees to talk with us.

We interviewed him
for several hours,

trying to get him to make
some type of confession

regarding any of
the three crimes.

- [Jeff] The other thing
we wanted to talk about,

the site out there on Ben Hur.

Have you ever been
out to that site?

- Many times.

- [Jeff] Oh, you been to a-

- I mean, when I was younger,

it used to be a place we'd go
to get mushrooms and stuff.

[Sean and interrogator laughing]

- [Jeff] Okay.

- He did go into further detail

regarding his
vehicle being present

at the Johnston crime scene.

And in particular, how he
had backed the vehicle up.

- [Jeff] Did you pull all
the way in the gate or...?

- I pulled into the gate
and hung to the left

and parked behind.

They got some trees
and bushes there.

- [Jeff] So did you
go through the gate?

- Yeah.

- We suspected that the
vehicle that was backed up

to that canal held
Johnston's body,

and she was dumped out
of the back of the car.

And that matched the
map he was showing us

with regards to the tire mark
compressions at the scene.

- [Jeff] Okay, so you
actually pulled in

and turned towards
the canal then?

- No, actually, I
backed into the canal.

I pulled and then backed,
killed my headlights,

opened the door, hopped
out, did my business,

shook, looked around,
made sure no one saw me,

and hopped back in
the car, and took off.

- [Jeff] I hear you, man.

- I mean, it's one-

- Jeff interviews
him for a while,

getting some background
information, trying
to talk to him.

He lays out some scenarios,
talks about his past,

and talks about him, his car.

And then after they had some
conversations for a while,

and interview back
and forth, really,

we were just waiting
for the crime lab

to finish up the analysis
on his buccal swab,

which had been submitted
earlier that day.

- I'm trying to figure
out why you would go there

and not just go home.

- Basically, I
mean, like I said,

I did just did not
think of wanting to wait

for another light or anything.

There was some
traffic at the time,

and normally, you can
make a right turn there,

but if there's
traffic, you can't.

You gotta wait and wait.

- Do you know where
Donna's body was found

around right here?

- I just know it was
somewhere in a ditch.

- Would it surprise
you if I told you

she was found right here?

- No, it wouldn't, or
we wouldn't be talking.

- So why do you think it,
why, I don't understand.

Why do you think it
wouldn't surprise me?

- I mean, it
wouldn't surprise me

because that's only
why are we talking.

- Do you know why we're talking?

- We're talking because
you had some tire tracks

that possibly came
from my car there.

- We made a collective decision
that we didn't have enough

to hold him any longer.

So we agreed to
take him back home.

However, since we
had talked to him,

we felt that he
was a good suspect,

and we didn't want to
let him out of our sight.

So because of that, we put him
under constant surveillance,

very tight surveillance,
so that we would know

if he left his house or not.

[brooding music continues]

- We put our narcotics agents
all around his neighborhood

in covert positions so
that we have basically eyes

on his residence.

- We also had a conversation,
too, on the way back

from the Sheriff's Office
to his house that evening.

And we were discussing chess,

and I was a beginning
chess player.

And I had studied openings
and some of little bit

of the middle game
and the end game.

And he asked me, he said,

"What's your favorite
part of the game?"

And I told him that I found
openings very interesting

because there was a lot
to know in the openings

on how to respond to
your opponent's move.

And he told me that he
preferred the end game.

[high intensity music]

- We get that phone call from
Dr. Joni Baccata and she says,

"It's a match."

His buccal swab that
had been taken earlier

and that profile from Sean
matched to the three profiles

from the crime scenes
of Katherine Hall,

Johnnie Mae Williams, and
Donna Bennett Johnston.

- When I heard the news,
I felt very elated.

The Lee investigation
took 10 or 11 months.

This took a little over a month,

and I realized that we would
be able to put this to bed

as soon as possible.

- We're all excited,
and we said,

"Now we have scientific
evidence connecting Sean

to three crime scenes."

Of course, then we
transitioned immediately though

into being okay, we
need a search warrant
for the residence.

We need an arrest
warrant for Sean.

And we divided those tasks up
with the task force members

to start preparing
those documents,

to get 'em for the judges.

We contact the SWAT team,
put them on standby,

give them the
information, the address,

so they can devise a plan.

We'll have the SWAT
team execute the arrest

and search warrants for
us later that evening.

[playful guitar music continues]

- My name is Terri Lemoine,

and for nine years, I lived
with the serial killer,

Sean Vincent Gillis.

[brooding music continues]

I worked in a convenience store,

and I worked the night shift.

And a friend of mine showed
up at the store one night

with this little guy
with her and said,

"Terri, this is Sean.

Sean, this is Terri.

Y'all have to meet each other.

Y'all will get along just fine."

We had same likes and
dislikes and things like that,

and found out we
had a lot in common.

Mostly, Sean would show up
at the store every night

and usually just sit
there all night with me.

And we'd talk all night long.

And that went on
for quite a while.

I kept telling him he needed
to show me where he lived

and all that, but he never
did wanna show me his house.

Well, finally, the day
that I got off of work,

he was with me and I told him,

"No, you're not
gonna bring me home.

You're gonna bring
me to your house."

And he goes, "No, you
can't come to my house."

I said, "Yes, we're
going to your house."

And I understand why he didn't
wanna show it to me then,

because the house was
pretty much a wreck.

You could really tell that one
person, one guy, lived here

and it was a guy
who didn't know how

to take care of a house.

I pretty much told him I'm going

to clean your house for you.

I'm going to make
it a home again.

And that's pretty
much what I did.

I moved in and redid
the whole house.

- Terri was quite formidable
and a strong personality

in her own right.

She had been involved in
an incident at a strip club

in which she had beaten
a man with a pool cue

because that man was
attacking one of her friends,

and that man later died.

So I don't think Sean would
consider going against someone

who had that much power.

[brooding music continues]

- Sean was affectionate.

He was good to Terri's children.

He didn't really
work a whole lot.

Terri worked for the most part.

- At first, he wasn't
doing anything.

He would just have his
mother send him money.

And I told him that he was too
old for that to be going on,

that he needed to get a job.

I got him a job working at the
same store that I was working

at for a while, but
he couldn't keep that.

And he ended up
going to a DVD store

and working there for a while.

But he never could keep a job

for any amount,
any amount of time.

It was basically a
friendly relationship.

It wasn't a very much
of a love relationship.

It was more like a
brother and sister.

We never had an
intimate relationship,

actually brought it
up to him one time.

And he said that
my mother told me

that that was not
a nice thing to do,

that it was a nasty thing to do,

so I don't do that.

And far be it for me to say
something about his mother, so

I just let it go as that.

That night, I was
watching a movie.

I couldn't tell you what it was,

but Sean actually
turned his computer off,

and came and sat
down next to me,

and watched the movie with me.

And I looked at him and I said,

"Did your machine
break or something?"

I said, "You usually don't
spend time with me like this,

just watching a
movie, you know?"

And he said, "No, I just
wanted to spend some time

with my honey bunny,"

which was a name that
he used to call me.

And so we sat and we watched
the movie that evening.

And then, I got up to go to bed

and he actually came to
bed at the same time I did,

which was another thing
he had never done.

It was odd.

- I was running
emergency services for
the Sheriff's Office,

which included the
SWAT team function.

So I was there when
that house was hit.

We had, at that time,
an excellent SWAT team.

They did a good job
entering the house

and securing the house.

And then the detectives
come in behind them

and they seized the evidence,

and anybody they
want to talk to,

they take them into custody.

- I heard a big bang in
the front of the house

and policeman had
burst through the door,

[police siren blaring]

and came and gotten
us, and arrested Sean.

And I wanted to know what
was going on, immediately.

And one of them looked at me
and he said, "You didn't know?

You're living with
a serial killer."

And I just laughed at the man.

I laughed out loud.

I said, "Boy, have you
got the wrong house."

You know, because there's no way

that Sean could kill anybody.

- Sean is brought back
to the Sheriff's Office,

along with Terri Lemoine.

And of course now, the
focus has transitioned

to trying to obtain a
confession from Sean.

- If we asked you
some questions,

would you be willing to
answer those questions?

- Do you understand yes and no?

- Pardon?

- Yes and no.

- Is that the only things
you would want to answer?

- No, I'm just saying
do you understand,

yes, I would, and
no, I wouldn't.

- Absolutely.

- Sean finally, you know,

come around and started
talking about his involvement.

Once we explained
that we had his DNA

from our three victims,
he couldn't refute that.

So now, he just needed
to explain his actions.

Of course, we wanna know
how he chose his victims,

what led to all the postmortem
cutting and dismemberment.

[TV static hissing]

- And it's not as simple as
he was explaining earlier

about, it's like you're looking

and it's someone else doing it,

kind of a out of body
experience thing.

It wasn't, it was,
but it wasn't...

I've done out of
body stuff before.

I mean, I've played with that,

- Right.

- to where it just, you
know, and lucid dreaming,

things like that.

This wasn't that,

but this was like that
brought to another level.

Okay, it's like I could
direct what was going on.

I fully know what's going on.

But at the time, you had no
emotion whatsoever about it.

[suspenseful music]

- When asking Sean,

"How do you bring a victim
back to your residence?

Where is Terri at?"

And we learned that that
Terri was the night clerk

at a local convenience store.

And she always worked nights.

Terri had seizures,

which prohibited her
from being able to drive.

So Sean would always
bring her to work,

and then he would pick her
up after her shift was over.

So Sean knew that he
could bring a victim back

to the residence there, was
not gonna be interrupted

because Terri was working
and she relied upon Sean

to pick her up and bring her
home after each of her shifts.

- Someone told me that he
had been killing people

all over town and that he
had killed a bunch of women.

And I told them I
need to talk to him

'cause I'm not gonna believe
this unless he tells me that.

They did let me talk to him.

And I asked him,

I very seriously

looked at him and asked,

"Did you do all the things that
they're telling me you did?"

And he just looked
at me and smiled,

cute little smile and shook
his head from side to side,

and said, "Yeah, honey
bunny, I'm sorry.

I did that."

At first,

I couldn't believe it.

I had to step back
and think for a while.

And I just shook my head yes,
and turned around, and left.

And it's like all my
walls came tumbling down

because nothing was ever
gonna be the same anymore.

My whole world had changed.

[car accelerating]

[brooding music]

- We know we have his DNA
profile at three crime scenes

from the bodies of three
victims, which he can't refute.

And so we're looking for other
evidence which might tie him

to the crimes to see if
he might have any evidence

from our victims
at his residence

while the interview
process starts.

- I was actually one of the
crime scene people that went

and processed Sean
Vincent Gillis's house.

And that was the other
thing that was weird.

He lived right in the area

where Derek Todd Lee was
actually killing his victims;

not very far from
the LSU campus,

definitely not very far
from Gina Green's house,

and not very far
from the apartments

that Charlotte
Murray Pace lived in.

We processed the scene,

and so, it was just
like anything else.

We looked for specific things
that are, what we call,

in our search warrant.

So there's certain things

that law enforcement has already
know about at that point.

Sometimes it might be through
interviewing of the suspect,

but there's certain things
that they're looking for,

and they'll include
all that information

to the search warrant.

And so, we'll look for that
when we're processing the scene.

- One of the things
that I noticed

when we were searching
Mr. Gillis's residence,

is the large number of like
swords and cutting implements,

saws, things like that.

It turned out that we were told

that his wife had a
fascination with swords,

like fantasy type swords
and things like that.

But there were also saws,
and knives, and things.

- Those swords are
Terri's and none of them,

none of them were
used in anything.

They're hers and they're
decorational things, basically.

I'm sure if forensics
is probably gonna
want to go over 'em,

but I'm telling you, none
of that cutlery was used.

- Did you ever
use any kinda saw?

[TV static hissing]

They were pretty clean cuts.

Do you still have the saw?

You threw it?

- I threw it.

- What kind of saw was it?

- Hacksaw.
- Hacksaw?

- Sean even had photographs

of Donna Bennett Johnston
posed in the back of his car.

[suspenseful music]

And in one of the photographs,

which we uncovered at his
residence during the search,

it had his partial license
plate in the car also too.

And Sean had a file.

He kept the photographs,

he kept all the newspaper
articles at his house.

He had some photographs
of his victims,

and of course, Sean just
laid out the specific details

about each individual victim,

and what he did
with the victims.

And of course, that matched
up to the crime scenes.

- I almost decapitated Johnnie.

For all intents and
purposes, I did.

[TV static hissing]

[brooding music]

- Sean Vincent Gillis
grew up off of Lee Road

in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,

in a middle class,
average subdivision.

- One time he told me he had a
father, but his father quote,

"Wasn't quite all there,"

which I assumed meant that
he had a mental problem.

- When Sean Gillis was young,
his father tried to kill him.

He told his wife that
he was going to kill him

and that he was
going to kill her.

She escaped out of
the bathroom window

and ran to call police.

Her husband, Sean's
father, Norman,

was taken to a
mental institution.

He would spend many
years of his life

in and out of
mental institutions.

Sean's mother,
Yvonne, raised him.

She loved him.

She doted upon him.

She was a good mother to him.

Occasionally, she spanked him,

but no more than any other child

who grew up in that
era got spanked.

- I think it was abusive in
the way of being left alone.

Not having someone to
talk to or someone...

'Cause mom worked all the time,

and he didn't have any
other family members

to take care of him or anything.

So I think Sean was always
looking for somebody to talk to.

- He worked in a
convenience store,

in a Southern part
of Baton Rouge.

And I know police
officers actually went in

and knew who he was.

He was a clerk and
they would stop

in the middle of the night,
and they said he was, you know,

he was a strange little dude.

He'd give him coffee,
whatever they wanted,

and they'd hold conversations.

He said the conversations
were a little distorted,

but nothing hinging
on rape and murder.

[somber music continues]

- Gillis, somewhat unlikely,

was I think a true
psychosexual serial killer

in the mold of Ed
Gein, John Wayne Gacy,

others like that.

He needed a body for his
particular preferences.

And so, he was the type of guy
that if he thought too much

about what he was
actually doing,

it was a nightmare scenario.

[brooding music continues]

- Early on in this
investigation,

you realize we're dealing
with a sick individual

who could do this type of
cutting and dismemberment

to another human being.

We hadn't had any
homicides like that

in the Baton Rouge area.

And we had multiple victims,

and there was a lot
of stabbing, cutting,

dismemberment, body parts
removed from the crime scene,

and never recovered.

Sean told us where he discarded
the various body parts.

You know, we used cadaver dogs.

We went and did exhaustive
searches trying to locate

those missing body
parts from our victims.

Sean directed us throughout
East Baton Rouge Parish

to Lafayette, to other parishes,

of where he picked
his victims up,

where he took them, where
he strangled them at,

and then the ones that he
brought back to his residence.

And then described the acts
that he did to the victims

and then how he would go and
discard the victim's remains

at various other locations
throughout the parish.

- One of the victims he
brought back to his house.

He's bathing the victim.

He's showering with this
dead person in the shower!

Soaping them up, washing
them, holding them;

I mean, it's a very
unusual type of activity.

- We showered, shall we say,

I showered with the corpse.

Did a few funny
little things to me

that were funny at the time.

You know, I'm saying,
sick, funny things,

like held her up and just let
her slowly slide down the wall

and pick her up again,
let her slowly...

I did that a couple of times.

[TV static hissing]

[brooding music contiues]

- I don't know
what he did to who.

The policeman told me that he
had dismembered some of them,

took their hand or their arm.

- There was gonna
be a hand taken.

I wanted to get a whole arm.

And so, I was whack,
whack, whacking.

I know I must have done
some hell of a lot of damage

to her shoulder and
in the neck area.

'Cause I was also trying to see

if I could get the head off too.

And then I gave it just a
few good, with all my might,

swinging away over my
head, chopping down,

and pretty much just
shattered the bone,

rather than cut it, you know?

And at that point, it was clear.

It was just hanging by the meat

on the other side of the arm.

I took the machete,
turned it over,

and with the machete head,
since it was so dull,

had to saw the rest of the way.

[brooding music]

[clock ticking]

- I'm taking you to the
bathroom in the hall.

The police told me that
Sean had brought one

into the shower.

And this is the
shower, this here.

This is basically the main
bathroom of the house,

and I don't use this
bathroom at all.

I use the one attached
to the bedroom.

I've never showered in here,
and I use the other one,

so, keeps me sane.

[Terri chuckling]

I found out by the police that
someone had been dismembered

on the floor here, right
in front of the sink.

And when I found that out,

I immediately tore out
the floor and redid it.

And I never found out who it was

or what exactly was done to her.

People ask me, "How can
you live in that house

after you know what
happened in that house?"

I don't think of that
happening here, because

this is my home.

- This was where I tried
a little cannibalism.

Okay, human patty
does not taste good.

I don't advise it.

I perfectly got a nipple off.

- What did you do with it?

- I chewed on it
a while, just...

- Did you swallow it?

- No, no.

This ended up being flushed
down the commode at my house.

And I chewed on it, and chewed
on it, and chewed on it.

It's like, damn, skin is
pretty tough, you know?

I mean, literally, I've got
bad teeth that are razor sharp.

Barely scratched them.

[suspenseful music]

- That was when I made the
decision to never see him again.

You know, even during
his trial or anything,

I would be there only if the
police called me to be there.

Because those were,
in my thoughts,

decisions he made to do,
wasn't something he had to do

or something that just
hit him all of a sudden.

To me, you decide
to do these things

and no, I can't forgive that.

[upbeat music]

- [News Reporter] You're
watching WAFB 9 News at noon.

- East Baton Rouge
Parish authority say

with the early morning arrest
of Sean Vincent Gillis,

they have solved the murders
of three local women.

And they believe Gillis might
have killed even more women.

- When Sean started telling
the story and confessed,

and after the three victims,

which he knew we had
physical evidence tying him

to those scenes, he then began
to talk about other victims.

The task force had pulled
unsolved homicide reports

from not only our agency,
the Baton Rouge City Police,

other surrounding agencies,

where we knew victims
remains had been discarded.

We felt like the same
individual was involved

in those homicides too.

- Sean Vincent Gillis
continues to confess to murders

and detectives are
linking more murders

to Baton Rouge's second
suspected serial killer.

Detectives now confirm
Gillis is responsible

for the deaths of 81
year old Ann Bryan

and 52 year old Hardee Schmidt,

mysteries that have
long alluded us.

[somber music continues]

- One of Gillis' victims
was Hardee Moseley Schmidt.

She was totally different
from his other victims.

She was married to an attorney.

She lived in an upper
middle class neighborhood

called Pollard Estates
in Baton Rouge.

Her father was a judge.

She was from a very well
respected family in this area.

On May 30th, 1999, Hardee
went out for her morning run,

through her safe neighborhood,

when Sean Gillis struck
her with his vehicle.

- Hit her, she flew
off in the air,

and landed face down,
you know, in the ditch.

She was lifting herself up.

I came walking behind
and straddled her.

And she was saying something
like, "Oh, my back,"

or something,
something like that.

And you know, I callously
said something like,

"Don't worry about your back."

And then put the thing
on her and lifted her up

by the wrap and her shirt.

- He decided the
best way to kill

would be using a plastic
zip tie because you pull it,

it locks, person can't escape,

and it's not as
messy or as bloody.

Because for Sean, it
wasn't about killing.

It was about what he
could do with the bodies

after they were dead.

- Mrs. Schmidt, that was
a very beautiful woman.

And I said, I almost had
intercourse with her,

but at the moment, right
before penetration,

I couldn't.

- You lose your erection?

- I went from, yes,

I went from arousal of
when I was caressing,

squeezing the breasts, and
making love to a corpse.

And at that point realizing
I'm not making love to a woman.

I'm playing with a corpse.

[somber music continues]

- [Susan] Then he drove to pick
his girlfriend up from work.

- One morning, he had come
to pick me up from work

and there was a terrible
smell in the car.

And I asked him what that was,

and he told me he
had hit an animal

on the way to pick me up.

And I was so tired at the time,

I didn't even think
twice about it.

We got home and I said,
"Please, just wash the car."

And I came inside, went to bed.

[cars accelerating]

- Depending on who you talk to,

there are certain
people that believe

that he was responsible
for certain murders,

and some people that don't.

I remember talking
to an investigator

that was kind of uneasy
with some of the things

that were going on.

And he said, you know, we
would show him pictures.

And he would say,
"I did that one."

We'd show him another picture,
he said, "I did that one."

And he said that he
almost got the opinion

that maybe he was trying to
impress the investigators

with giving them more
of what they wanted.

I don't wanna say it was
over zealous investigators

clearing cases, but the more
pictures they showed him,

the more he confessed
to certain things.

And there are family members
of some of the victims

that he's not tied to directly,

that he's confessed to killing
that just don't buy it.

They just don't believe
that that's happened.

- [News Reporter] According
to the arrest warrant,

Gillis told detectives he
came here, to St. James place

in the early morning
of March 21st, 1994.

The warrant says
Gillis told detectives

he entered Anne's home
to rape the 81 year old,

but she started screaming
when he touched her.

Gillis then told detectives
he cut her throat

to stop her screaming
and began stabbing her.

- I truly believe that he
killed those three women,

but you know, in
the back of my mind,

I just don't believe
he killed my mother.

I just don't think he did.

There was lots of things
that he didn't know about,

things that he said
different things about.

There was things about her
nightgown that he didn't know

and things about her.

There was just a lot of
misinformation that he gave.

- First victim, Mrs. Bryan.

She was there, she
aroused me, period.

Honestly, it was just gonna
be some sort of sexual thing.

Just watching her sleep,

and that should
have been enough.

No, I had to go a step further.

I had to also touch her.

- I think these guys
somewhat like to compete

against one another.

And once they are captured

and once they are put
through the judicial system,

I think they try to boast

to say that I'm some
great serial killer.

- I think that he was trying
to one up Derek Todd Lee,

and he admitted
to it just to try

to make himself
look better than,

I don't know if
better's the right word,

but I still firmly believe that
he was confessing to murders

that he did not commit.

At the time, Derek Todd Lee
was only linked to six murders.

- First, when Sean's describing
these acts that he's done,

you know he's a sick individual.

And it's evident by what he
did to all of his victims.

And for hear him just to
sit there and describe it,

just matter of factly, you know,

he was reliving the moment.

We felt like he was
adlibbing on some things,

which of course,
suspects do sometime.

Because this was his moment now,

you know, he wanted to
tell his side of the story,

how he chose his
victims, what he did,

because he was unique.

He was different.

We know he's a sick
individual to do the acts

that he did upon
another human being.

[Sean whispering]

- Probably the strangest
guy I've ever witnessed

in an interrogation in my life.

And I've interviewed
hundreds of people.

And there was no
question in my mind

from the moment
Gillis started talking

that he was so out
there somewhere

and enjoyed the
killing to the point of

just, it was a thrill for him.

- It's... at one point,
I could control it.

It's beyond my
control, at the moment.

Has been.

[TV static hissing]

- To say he's
psychologically unbalanced

is an understatement.

He was very deranged, and I
don't think he planned it all

where he was
getting his victims.

I think it was just
whenever the urge hit him,

whoever was convenient,
nearby to pick up

and sexually assault, and
brutalize, and torture.

I mean, that's what he did.

[TV static hissing]

- [News Reporter] Guilty.

It a took Baton Rouge's
jury less than three

and a half hours today to
bring in a new conviction

against serial
killer, Sean Gillis.

[suspenseful music continues]

- I mean, Sean got convicted
of second degree murder.

In Louisiana, that
is a life sentence,

and it means your natural life.

Sean will never get out

of Louisiana State
Penitentiary's house
that he is there.

We do have the death
penalty in Louisiana.

And then sometimes you think,

if anybody deserves a
death penalty, well,

Sean would be one for the way
that he mutilated his victims.

- There are a lot of
people shaking their heads

in absolute disbelief.

- There are families
probably still in tears

because a jury saved
a man's life tonight,

but not just any man,

a convicted, self-professed
killer, Sean Vincent Gillis.

- For whatever reason, he
was not sentenced to death,

so it's interesting.

I think he's currently
housed on death row,

but that's primarily
so he can be safe.

- [News Reporter] Shock is
not a strong enough word.

- Really, I see a
evil, wicked man.

The Bible says there's
no peace for the wicked.

And Sean Vincent Gillis
got life in prison,

but I can I say this?

He better watch his back.

[upbeat music]

- Baton Rouge has changed a lot

and things have kind of gotten
a little bit back to normal,

but nobody has forgotten
what it was like

to live here in that decade

where these serial killers
terrorized the community.

- Both these guys were all over
the place and prior to DNA,

I'm not sure we would've ever
connected those cases together

based on how we would
investigate a crime.

[brooding music continues]

- What police didn't know
was in the three years

that Derek Todd Lee operated
inside of the city limits

of Baton Rouge, Sean
Gillis quit killing

for those three years.

Derek Todd Lee was getting
such a media presence,

and so much attention was
being paid to his victims

that Sean just stopped killing.

But he kept a file
on his computer

of Derek Todd Lee's victims.

- Sean described how he
really did spend a lot

of time tracking the
other unsolved homicides,

which were occurring in
the Baton Rouge area.

Sean had a file and
information on those homicides

at his residence.

He was very proud of his work,

and it was totally opposite

of what Derek Todd
Lee's victims were.

- I was told early on, don't
try to go in their mind.

You can't go there.

If you are trying
to think like them,

you're defeated,
because you can't.

Their minds go where
places that yours can't.

- They both were so evil.

But just to know that
the amount of fear

that Derek Todd Lee
put into his women

as he was killing them,

then you think about
Sean Vincent Gillis

and what he did to
so many of the women,

thankfully, after
they were dead.

The two are just evil monsters.

It's hard to pick,

if I was nailed
to it, I would say

Sean Vincent Gillis was
definitely more diabolical

in what he was doing,

but Derek Todd Lee doesn't
get a pass in any means.

[high intensity music]

- Good afternoon
to you, friends.

Greg Meriwether, here.

We're interrupting your program

with what will be
a sigh of relief

for many families here
in South Louisiana.

Serial killer, Derek
Todd Lee, has died.

He passed away at
Lane Memorial hospital

just a short time ago.

- I was pleased because
to us, it was over.

No more trial, no more waiting,

'cause we were still going
back and forth to court.

He was trying to
get off death row.

So we were still going to
court once a year, maybe,

for something, and so
when that happened,

we was like, it's finally over.

[suspenseful music]

- I often take
solace in the fact

that he died a heartbroken man.

But his heart should have
broke for what he did

to all the families that
he reeked havoc upon.

So God has way of fixing
things, and I leave that to him.

- I know people say that
forgiveness is good,

but it's hard for me
to forgive this one

when that was my only sibling
and the way it happened.

So I still resent Derek Todd
Lee for killing my sister.

- I had to forgive
him for peace of mind.

But my hardest question
is if you tell God,

yes, I believe in you.

Jesus is my direction to
heaven, that he forgives you.

Does God forgive
somebody that bad?

[suspenseful music]

- If you look at this sort
of from the 20,000 foot view,

in that seven to eight year
period that Derek Todd Lee

and Sean Gillis were active,

there were
approximately 60 women

who were murdered
or went missing.

Well, Sean Gillis, we're
pretty sure he did eight.

Pretty sure that we're close
to what Derek Todd Lee did,

but even if you were to
give both of these men,

say 10 victims, which is a lot,

that still leaves 40 women
who were either murdered

or are missing.

What happened to those women?

[suspenseful music]

- There is no way to
definitively know how many

of the unsolved murders are
attributable to Derek Todd Lee

or Sean Vincent Gillis.

When Sean Gillis was being
interrogated, he would say,

"Derek killed her.

I killed her.

That other guy killed her."

- I seriously think
he's responsible for her

because he's, well, he
frequented the area so much

and sometimes I'd
see the car parked.

- Sean had even said that
when he was out one night,

he matched gazes with someone

and said that they
were just like him.

- The way he looked at
me was kind of the way

I would look at someone that
was about to not be someone.

- If some of those women were
killed by another offender,

that guy is still out there.

[TV static hissing]

[high intensity music]