American Monsters: Michael John Braae - "Cowboy Mike"
Sources:
https://www.seattleweekly.com/news/cowboy-mike-the-ladykiller/ https://www.chronline.com/stories/serial-rapistkiller-cowboy-mikes-tale-should-give-us-pause,198511
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Zevon Odelberg is a true crime podcast host and disability advocate. Zevon has cerebral palsy and he wants Kinda Murdery to be welcoming community for people with disabilities and for people living with challenges of any kind. Life can be hard, but being together makes it better.
Speaker 1: Warning, Kind of Murdery contains adult themes, explicit language, and
Speaker 1: descriptions of violence. It is not suitable for anyone, and
Speaker 1: we recommend you stop listening now.
Speaker 2: True crime with a dash of the paranormal, the garish,
Speaker 2: the strange in the darkly comic. I'm Zevan Odelberg, host
Speaker 2: of Kind of Murdery, a podcast that's about more than
Speaker 2: just murder. It's my very own pocket dimension, home to
Speaker 2: a curated collection of bizarre and compelling stories, the unsolved,
Speaker 2: the unsettling, and the unbelievable. I cover it all just
Speaker 2: so long as it's kind of Murdery.
Speaker 3: Hello everyone, as always, Just like it says in the intro,
Speaker 3: I am Zevan Odelberg, and this is kind of Murdery
Speaker 3: and I am so glad that you're joining me here today.
Speaker 3: Last week we dipped our toes in the lighter side
Speaker 3: of true crime, relatively speaking, with the story of the
Speaker 3: Barefoot Bandit. We're headed back to the dark, ugly alleys
Speaker 3: of human nature to meet another serial killer, another American monster,
Speaker 3: Michael John Bray, the serial rapist and murderer who would
Speaker 3: become famous, infamous, notorious as Cowboy Mike so if you're
Speaker 3: ready for another bumpy ride through terrible things that have
Speaker 3: been but should never be, then please join me as
Speaker 3: we uncover what truths we can and solve what mysteries
Speaker 3: we may kind of murderies. American monster Cowboy Mike starts now.
Speaker 3: Just over two decades ago, in the summer of two
Speaker 3: thousand and one, a predator walked among the unsuspecting residents
Speaker 3: of western Washington. He moved quietly, slipping through towns and
Speaker 3: hamlets and leaving devastation in his wake. This man, this
Speaker 3: American monster, was Michael John Bray, better known as Cowboy Mike.
Speaker 3: He was a serial killer and serial rapist who left
Speaker 3: behind him a tragic trail of violence, terror, and shattered lives,
Speaker 3: and the authorities might never have caught him if it
Speaker 3: weren't for the courage of a single woman who provided
Speaker 3: a tip that ultimately led to his arrest. Cowboy Mike
Speaker 3: didn't look like your typical killer, whatever it is we
Speaker 3: think your typical killer looks like. He was in his
Speaker 3: early forties, tall and lean, with a rugged cowboy charm
Speaker 3: that allowed him to slip easily into the nightlife of
Speaker 3: Washington's small towns, wearing his signature jean jacket and cowboy hat.
Speaker 3: He could blend in with the regulars at local watering
Speaker 3: holes like Bailey's Lounge in Olympia, the Red Barn in
Speaker 3: Grand Mound, and the Roadside in Tavern in Glenoma. But
Speaker 3: behind that disarming exterior was a man with dark and
Speaker 3: hideous intentions. Ry Jones was one of the first to
Speaker 3: fall into Bray's deadly web. That summer. She had gone
Speaker 3: to Bailey's Lounge in Olympia for what should have been
Speaker 3: a normal Saturday night out. Laurie had been stood up
Speaker 3: by an online date and maybe she just needed to
Speaker 3: forget about it for a while, to lose herself in
Speaker 3: the music and the comfort of strangers. But that night
Speaker 3: she met cowboy Mike. The two danced together, drank whiskey,
Speaker 3: and seemed to hit it off. To the barman and
Speaker 3: the other patrons, they might have looked just like another
Speaker 3: couple enjoying a night out, but for Laurie, the night
Speaker 3: would end in tragedy. Laurie's daughter, Elisa, had been away
Speaker 3: on a fishing trip that weekend. When she returned home,
Speaker 3: she knew immediately that something was wrong. The apartment was
Speaker 3: eerily quiet, and her mother was nowhere to be found.
Speaker 3: In a state of growing panic, Elisa approached the building
Speaker 3: manager and asked him to help her unlock the door.
Speaker 3: When they opened it, the sight that greeted them was
Speaker 3: beyond anything Elisa could have imagined. Laurie's naked body lay
Speaker 3: hidden beneath the bed, a pillow case over her head.
Speaker 3: She'd been raped and strangled, her life snuffed out in
Speaker 3: a moment of unforgivable violence. It was a brutal and
Speaker 3: calculated murder, and by the time her body was discovered,
Speaker 3: Michael John Bray was long gone. The police were called
Speaker 3: and the investigation began. Laurie's apartment became a crime scene,
Speaker 3: and detectives combed through every inch of it, searching for
Speaker 3: clues that might point them toward the killer. What they
Speaker 3: found was a cigarette button the toilet, a small screwdriver
Speaker 3: on the bedside table, and Lourie's purse with a receipt
Speaker 3: from Bailey's lounge. But it wasn't just these items that
Speaker 3: told the story of her last night. It was the
Speaker 3: fingerprint on the window blind and the DNA left on
Speaker 3: her body. Those would be the key to solving the case,
Speaker 3: But for Now the trail led back to Bailey's lounge,
Speaker 3: where a bartender confirmed that Lourie had spent the night
Speaker 3: drinking and dancing with a man who seemed very familiar.
Speaker 3: He described a tall man with cowboy boots and a hat,
Speaker 3: a man who had introduced himself as Mike. The bartender
Speaker 3: also remembered the charming cowboy's favorite drink, a snake bite
Speaker 3: on jack with a shot of lime juice. This tiny,
Speaker 3: circumstantial detail would become one of the few reliable pieces
Speaker 3: of evidence that detectives could use to trace Cowboy Mike's
Speaker 3: movements across Washington State. But by the time detectives were
Speaker 3: able to piece together that Michael John Bray was their suspect,
Speaker 3: he was already gone. He'd slipped out of Olympia and
Speaker 3: vanished into the wind, leaving behind nothing but a cold
Speaker 3: trail and a growing sense of dread for the small
Speaker 3: communities of western Washington. For a while, it seemed like
Speaker 3: Bray might get away with it. He was an expert
Speaker 3: at evasion, a man who knew how to disappear when
Speaker 3: the heat got too close. But even as he fled,
Speaker 3: the noose was tightening around him. Detectives were piecing together
Speaker 3: his movement, tracking him from town to town as he
Speaker 3: moved through the Pacific Northwest like a shadow. They knew
Speaker 3: that if they didn't catch him soon, more women would
Speaker 3: fall victim to his violent urges. They knew it, and
Speaker 3: they were right. Bray's next stop was Yakima, a city
Speaker 3: nestled in the eastern side of the state. It was
Speaker 3: there that he reunited with his on again, off again
Speaker 3: girl friend, Marceill Morgan. They'd spent time together before, drinking
Speaker 3: and laughing in bars like the Red Barn and Grand Mound,
Speaker 3: but this time their reunion would end in blood. Bray
Speaker 3: shot Marshall in the head, leaving her for dead in
Speaker 3: a ditch on the outskirts of town. Miraculously, Martiall survived,
Speaker 3: though she would never be the same. The bullet that
Speaker 3: should have killed her instead left her with permanent brain damage,
Speaker 3: robbing her of her memories and her ability to fully
Speaker 3: understand what had happened to her. While Marshall Morgan lay
Speaker 3: bleeding and broken, Bray moved on like nothing had happened.
Speaker 3: He walked into another Yakuma bar, calm as ever, and
Speaker 3: charmed yet another woman. This time his target took him home.
Speaker 3: She had no idea that she was inviting a monster
Speaker 3: into her life. The next morning, she woke up disoriented,
Speaker 3: her clothes missing, and her body bearing the signs of
Speaker 3: a brutal assault. It wasn't until she saw Bray's face
Speaker 3: in the newspaper that she realized the truth. She had
Speaker 3: been violated by the man known as Cowboy Mike. The
Speaker 3: fear that gripped Yakima in the surrounding areas was palpable.
Speaker 3: This wasn't just another criminal on the loose. This was
Speaker 3: a man with a history of violence, a man who
Speaker 3: had already left a trail of victims across the state.
Speaker 3: The authorities knew they were dealing with a predator who
Speaker 3: wouldn't stop until he was caught, or worse, until he
Speaker 3: slipped away for good. And even then, of course, he
Speaker 3: wouldn't stop. They just wouldn't have caught him. But Bray
Speaker 3: wasn't done with small town Washington yet. After the attack
Speaker 3: in Yakima, he fled westward, back toward Glenoma. Glenoma was
Speaker 3: the kind of place where nothing much ever happened. It
Speaker 3: was a small town, tucked away in the shadow of
Speaker 3: the mountains, where life moved at an unhurried pace. This small,
Speaker 3: quiet town seemed like the perfect place for a man
Speaker 3: on the run to disappear, and it was here, at
Speaker 3: a local garage sale, that Bray made his next move.
Speaker 3: Instead of violence and violation for now anyway, Mike offered
Speaker 3: only music, bringing out his guitar and strumming tunes for
Speaker 3: the people gathered there, blending in as if he were
Speaker 3: just another passerby. Among those who fell under his spell
Speaker 3: was Brenda Keene, a local resident. Bray and Keen ended
Speaker 3: up spending the night together at the roadside Inn, a
Speaker 3: small out of the way tavern, but in an odd twist,
Speaker 3: Bray deviated from his amo and didn't harm Brenda. He
Speaker 3: left the next morning, slipping away as quietly as he'd arrived.
Speaker 3: It wasn't until later, when Brenda saw his face in
Speaker 3: the newspaper that she realized just how close she'd come
Speaker 3: to death. She immediately contacted the authorities, providing them with
Speaker 3: a crucial piece of information, the license plate number of
Speaker 3: Bray's car. This was the break the police had been
Speaker 3: waiting for. They tracked Bray's movements, narrowing in on his location,
Speaker 3: and the chase was on It was the kind of
Speaker 3: chase you'd expect to see in a movie. Fast, dangerous,
Speaker 3: and filled with twists and turns. Bray was driving a
Speaker 3: blue Nissan pickup when the police caught sight of him
Speaker 3: at a truck stop along Interstate eighty four near the
Speaker 3: Idaho organ border. When officers tried to pull him over,
Speaker 3: Bray hit the gas, sending his truck speeding down the highway.
Speaker 3: The police gave chase, their lights flashing and sirens blaring
Speaker 3: as they pursued him through the winding roads of the
Speaker 3: Pacific Northwest. But Bray wasn't about to be caught that easily.
Speaker 3: He'd spent his whole life running, evading the law, and
Speaker 3: he wasn't about to stop now. As the chase intensified,
Speaker 3: Bray made a bold move. He swerved off the road,
Speaker 3: his truck barreling through a barricade set up by the police.
Speaker 3: The truck careened down a steep embankment, crashing through trees
Speaker 3: and brush until it came to a stop at the
Speaker 3: edge of the Snake River. With the police closing in,
Speaker 3: Bray jumped out of the truck and made a run
Speaker 3: for the water. The Snake River was wide and fast, moving,
Speaker 3: its currents strong enough to pull a man under in seconds,
Speaker 3: but Bray didn't hesitate. He'd dove in, his body, disappearing
Speaker 3: beneath the surface as the police watched from the shore.
Speaker 3: For a moment, it seemed like he might escape. The
Speaker 3: river was treacherous, and the police were relucted to follow
Speaker 3: him into the freezing waters. But they couldn't just let
Speaker 3: him get away, not after everything he'd done, so they
Speaker 3: sent a police dog after him, the animal plunging into
Speaker 3: the water with the same determination that had driven the
Speaker 3: officers in their pursuit. As Bray swam, the dog closed
Speaker 3: in on him, he tried to fight it off, his
Speaker 3: hands locking around the animal's neck as he attempted to
Speaker 3: drown it in the churning water. It was a desperate,
Speaker 3: violent struggle, man against beast, and for a moment it
Speaker 3: looked like Bray might win, but the dog held on,
Speaker 3: refusing to let go, even as the current threatened to
Speaker 3: pull them both under. The struggle in the Snake River
Speaker 3: was vicious, both man and beast fighting for survival. Bray's
Speaker 3: muscles strained as he tried to subdue the police dog,
Speaker 3: his fingers digging into its fur, attempting to force its
Speaker 3: head beneath the icy water. But the dog was relentless
Speaker 3: trained for moments just like this. It fought back with
Speaker 3: equal ferocity, teeth sinking into Bray's arm, holding onto him
Speaker 3: with the kind of grip that only years of training
Speaker 3: could produce. The water churned wildly round them, the current
Speaker 3: tugging at Bray's legs as he thrashed against the dog.
Speaker 3: But even as the river pulled them downstream, neither man
Speaker 3: nor beast relented. Cowboy Mike's breaths came in ragged gasps
Speaker 3: as he struggled to keep his head above the water,
Speaker 3: his body exhausted from the fight. For a moment, it
Speaker 3: looked like the river itself might win, dragging both of
Speaker 3: them beneath the surface, erasing any trace of the chase.
Speaker 3: But then through the spray and the chaos, police officers
Speaker 3: in a boat made their move. They'd been tracking Bray
Speaker 3: from the shore maneuvering their boat closer with every passing second.
Speaker 3: Now with the fight reaching its peak, they seized their opportunity.
Speaker 3: The boat surged forward, cutting through the river water with precision,
Speaker 3: and the officers leapt into action. They pulled Cowboy Mike
Speaker 3: out of the river, wrestling him onto the deck. As
Speaker 3: he fought with them with what little strength he had left.
Speaker 3: His limbs flailed, but it was no use. The officers
Speaker 3: held him down, securing him in cuffs. As the dog
Speaker 3: paddled back to the shore, its job well done. Cowboy
Speaker 3: Mike's face was pale, his body soaked and trembling from
Speaker 3: the cold. His once cocky demeanor had vanished, replaced by
Speaker 3: a look of sheer exhaustion. The Snake River had nearly
Speaker 3: claimed him, but the law had come out on top
Speaker 3: this time, and the long chase to capture the monster
Speaker 3: known as Cowboy Mike had finally come to an end.
Speaker 3: But even in custody, Michael John Bray didn't go quietly.
Speaker 3: In the days following his capture, he remained defiant, insisting
Speaker 3: that he had nothing to do with the murders and
Speaker 3: assaults he'd been accused of. He clung to his story,
Speaker 3: claiming that he was an innocent man, a drifter who
Speaker 3: had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time,
Speaker 3: But the evidence told a different story. Once Bray was
Speaker 3: behind bars, investigators began to piece together the full scope
Speaker 3: of his crimes. The DNA evidence from Lorie Jones's body
Speaker 3: matched Bray's, and his fingerprint on the window blind of
Speaker 3: her apartment tied him directly to the scene of the crime.
Speaker 3: The prosecution's case was air tight, but that didn't stop
Speaker 3: Bray from trying to play the system one more time.
Speaker 3: During his trial, Bray took the stand in his own defense,
Speaker 3: a move that many found both bold and foolish. He
Speaker 3: testified that he and Laurie had engaged in consensual sex
Speaker 3: that night, and that he had left her alive and
Speaker 3: well when he walked out of the apartment, But the
Speaker 3: jury saw through his lies. The DNA evidence was undeniable,
Speaker 3: and the timeline of events didn't match his story. After
Speaker 3: a three week trial, the jury took only two and
Speaker 3: a half hours to deliberate before finding Bray guilty of
Speaker 3: first degree rape and second degree murder. The conviction marked
Speaker 3: the end of Cowboy Mike's reign of terror, but for
Speaker 3: many it came far too late. The families of his
Speaker 3: victims were left to pick up the pieces of their
Speaker 3: lives shattered by his violence. The survivors those who had
Speaker 3: managed to escape Cowboy Mike's grasp were haunted by the
Speaker 3: memories of what he had done to them. Justice had
Speaker 3: been served, but the scars of this American monster would remain.
Speaker 3: In the years that followed, more details about Bray's life, life,
Speaker 3: and crimes began to emerge. He was suspected of being
Speaker 3: involved in the disappearances and deaths of multiple women across
Speaker 3: the Pacific Northwest, though concrete evidence was harder to come
Speaker 3: by in those cases. Among his suspected victims was Susan Alt,
Speaker 3: a woman who had gone missing just weeks before Bray's arrests.
Speaker 3: Witnesses had seen her arguing with Bray shortly before her disappearance,
Speaker 3: and though her body was never found, many believed that
Speaker 3: she had fallen prey to cowboy Mike. In a hearing
Speaker 3: in late two thousand, this was before the spree that
Speaker 3: we've just discussed, a judge had ordered Bray to be
Speaker 3: placed under community supervision after violating his probation for an
Speaker 3: earlier conviction related to a jail escape, But instead of
Speaker 3: strict monitoring, Bray was placed in a program that required
Speaker 3: him only to pay fines. It was a baffling oversight,
Speaker 3: and one that would allow him to remain free, leading
Speaker 3: directly and famously as we've already discussed, to the murderous
Speaker 3: sprea that would eventually see him captured in two thousand
Speaker 3: and one. But even before these terrible crimes, law enforcement
Speaker 3: had known that Bray was a dangerous man. In nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety eight, the Clackhama County Sheriff's office had Bray in
Speaker 3: their sights. A deputy investigating the death of another woman
Speaker 3: in Oregon suspected Bray and wanted to make sure he
Speaker 3: didn't slip through the cracks again. The deputy requested to
Speaker 3: be notified twenty four hours before Bray's release if it
Speaker 3: ever came to that. And Bray wasn't just a suspect
Speaker 3: in that one death. He'd also been arrested or investigated
Speaker 3: three times in connection with rapes that never made it
Speaker 3: to trial. Each time, he had evaded serious consequences, slipping
Speaker 3: out from under the justice system's grasp like a snake
Speaker 3: shedding its skin. Perhaps that's why the snake Bite was
Speaker 3: Cowboy Mike's favorite cocktail. Regardless, the repeated failure to hold
Speaker 3: him accountable allowed Michael John Bray's violent tendencies to fest unchecked.
Speaker 3: The system that had allowed Bray to remain free for
Speaker 3: so long came under heavy scrutiny. Lawsuits were filed against
Speaker 3: the state, particularly the Department of Corrections, for their failure
Speaker 3: to adequately supervise Bray, who was supposed to have been
Speaker 3: on a tight leash. By all accounts, Bray should have
Speaker 3: been in prison or at least under heavy supervision. Instead,
Speaker 3: he moved freely from town to town, killing, raping as
Speaker 3: he pleased. The families of Lorie Jones and other victims
Speaker 3: sought justice in civil court, demanding accountability for the state's failures.
Speaker 3: In the end, the Department of Corrections was forced to
Speaker 3: settle the lawsuits, paying millions of dollars to the families
Speaker 3: of the victims. But for those families, no amount of
Speaker 3: money could ever make up for the loss they had suffered.
Speaker 3: They had been failed by a system that was supposed
Speaker 3: to protect them, and the consequences had been devastating. Even
Speaker 3: as the lawsuits wound down and the dust began to
Speaker 3: settle on Cowboy Mike's case, Bray himself remained a source
Speaker 3: of frustration for prison officials. He'd always been a man
Speaker 3: who refused to be confined, and even behind bars, he
Speaker 3: continued to test the limits of the system. He attempted
Speaker 3: to escape from prison at least five times during his incarceration,
Speaker 3: the most notable being in two thousand and five, when
Speaker 3: he used a toothbrush to pick a lock and tried
Speaker 3: to crawl through the ventilation system of Yakama County Jail.
Speaker 3: Each time his attempts were thwarted, but they only added
Speaker 3: to his notoriety his reputation as a feral man who
Speaker 3: refused to be caged. In two thousand and eight, Michael
Speaker 3: John Bray was finally convicted for the murder of Lorie
Speaker 3: Jones after a three week trial, and that trial may
Speaker 3: have brought a measure of justice for Laurie, but the
Speaker 3: unanswered questions about Bray's other suspected crimes continued to haunt
Speaker 3: the investigation. Authorities believed he was responsible for the deaths
Speaker 3: of multiple women, but the concrete evidence was scarce. After
Speaker 3: his conviction, prosecutors pushed for the maximum sentence, knowing that
Speaker 3: they were dealing with a man who had a long
Speaker 3: history of violence and evasion. In the end, Cowboy Mike
Speaker 3: was sentenced to nearly forty eight years in prison, enough
Speaker 3: time to ensure that he would spend the rest of
Speaker 3: his life behind bars. For the families of the victims,
Speaker 3: it wasn't enough, but it was the closest they would
Speaker 3: get to closure. As of the release of this episode,
Speaker 3: Michael John Bray remains incarcerated at the Washington State Penitentiary
Speaker 3: under strict supervision. He's no longer the cowboy drifting from
Speaker 3: town to town, leaving a trail of destruction behind him.
Speaker 3: His days of freedom are over, but the scars he
Speaker 3: left on the communities he terrorized will never completely fade.
Speaker 3: I'm Zevan Odelberg and this has been kind of Murdery.
Speaker 1: If you like the show, please subscribe, review and tell
Speaker 1: your friends. You can find us on social media at
Speaker 1: kind email at Kinomurdery at gmail dot com.
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