American Monsters: Robert J. Moody & Walter Leroy Moody

0:00 Speaker 1: Warning. Kind of Murdery contains adult themes, explicit language, and descriptions of violence. It is not suitable for anyone, and we recommend you stop listening. Now. True crime with a dash of the paranormal, the garish, the strange in the darkly comic, a podcast that's about more than just murder. It's my very own pocket dimension, home to a curated collection of bizarre and compelling stories, the unsolved, the unsettling, and the unbelievable. I cover it all just so long as it's kind of murdery.

0:41 Speaker 1: Although he acknowledged that it sounded quote truly bizarre unquote, Moody would say during his trial that cocaine pushing space aliens took control of his body and forced him to murder Michelle Malone, a friend, and Patricia Magda, a neighbor, in November nineteen ninety one three to prove that aliens existed. The aliens told him that their mission required that he be convicted and sentenced to die, but that he would survive a lethal injection. Said Moody after being declared dead. The extra sensory biological entities will bring me back to life to speak through me.

1:19 Speaker 1: That his involvement in these crimes was involuntary, is Moody's assertion. He says that space aliens were in control of his body and he was merely an unconscious observer of the murders. A name's just a name, right, I mean, it doesn't dictate who we are, does it. If your last name is Moody, it doesn't mean you will be moody, and it certainly doesn't mean you will be murdery, does it. Juliet in Shakespeare's Legendary to the point of cliche, that most basic of beautiful tragedies, so famous as to practically be the Pumpkin Spice Latte of shakespeare plays, Although to be fair, the Pumpkin Spy Latte is probably Midsummer Night's Dream.

2:02 Speaker 1: But you know the drama to which I refer Romeo and Juliet, Yes, well, in that play, Juliette famously says of Romeo, and his last name 'tis but thy name that is my enemy? Thou art thyself though not a Montague. What's montague? Is it? Not hand, nor foot, nor arm, nor face? Oh be some other name belonging to a man? What's in a name that which we would call a Rose by any other name would smell as sweet, which basically means a name is just a name. It doesn't make you who you are, well respectfully and with no offense meant to any listener who may share the last name Moody, even a cursory googling will reveal that Moody is apparently a super murdery last name.

2:51 Speaker 1: The Moody seem to have moods that migrate toward the murdery. It's such a murdery name, in fact, that it made researching today's EPI so challenging, because every time I was looking for information on one murdery Moody, I was apt to find many murdery Moodies, sometimes with the same first and last name, even and so I spent a fair amount of time untangling Moody Gordian knots. Here is a brief and by no means all inclusive list of murdery Moodies I had discovered while looking for information on just one of them.

3:25 Speaker 1: Robert J. Moody, double murderer who claimed he killed to prove the existence of aliens, Scott Moody and the Moody Massacre. Another Robert Moody, who went to the mall in Florida to tell his girlfriend he was going to take his own life and ended up murdering her instead. Raymond Moody, who killed Brittany Drexel Walter Leroy Moody, the tri State terrorist. Frankly, the list goes on and on. Now, please understand that I don't mean to sound flippant or light hearted in the face of all this death dealing.

3:56 Speaker 1: But Moody turned out to be such a murdery name. And keep in mind, researching murdery names almost daily, so I've got some context for this observation. Anyway, the general murderiness of the name Moody surprised me so much that I felt I had to mention it. I hope you'll all forgive me for what probably feels like a lighthearted observation about a series of tragic events. So the point is, I went into this episode expecting to tell one story, but once I'd settled on my first Moody, which was entirely by accident, in mind you, I did not set out to tell a murdery story about a Moody, but once I'd sawcted my first story and then encountered so many more Murdery Moodies.

4:35 Speaker 1: I decided I had to tell two stories today about murderers with the last name Moody. My sources are in the show notes, by the way. Who knows. Maybe I'll keep it going, Maybe we'll have a whole bunch of Murdery Moody episodes. But I confess that feels unfair to all the upstanding, good Moodies out there who I'm sure would never murder. Pop culture observation has done such a number the name Karen. I'd hate to be the reason that the Moodies of the world become a meme. And so on to today's story. First up, we'll cover Robert J. Moody in a tale that features crack, cocaine, extraterrestrials, and an appearance on America's Most Wanted.

5:17 Speaker 1: And then I'll bring you the story of Walter Leroy Moody, the tri state terrorist kind of murdery. The Murdery Moody's starts. Now our first Murdery Moody is the protagonist. Well, actually, I suppose since he's a vile murderer, he's the antagonist in the case of the State of Arizona versus Robert Jay Moody. On November fifteenth, nineteen ninety three, Robert J. Moody awoke, put on his best suit, picked up some flowers, and drove to the home of female friend Michelle Malone. Seeing her husband's car in the driveway, the defendant went to have breakfast.

6:05 Speaker 1: He later returned, parked his car, went to the front door and knocked. After first checking to see who it was, Malone let the defendant into her house. Moody gave her the flowers, then sat and talked with her at the kitchen table. She showed him around her newly decorated house. When they returned to the kitchen, Moody pulled a knife out of his jacket pocket and attacked Michelle Malone. Michelle tried to defend herself, cutting her hand in the process. Moody held Malone by the neck and forced her into her home office, where he emptied her purse and took cash, a check book, and some credit cards.

6:42 Speaker 1: He ordered Malone to write a check for five hundred dollars, and then, because that check was smeared with her blood, he made her write another. He then forced Malone back into the kitchen and tied her to a chair with some telephone cords that he'd ripped from the wall. He dragged her, still tied to the chair, into a bedroom, where he found a twenty two caliber rifle and a Winchester twelve gage shotgun in a closet. He hit Malone over her head with a bebie gun, then shot her several times with the twenty two caliber rifle, reloading between each shot.

7:14 Speaker 1: After shooting Malone, Moody found a Ruger twenty two caliber pistol in a chest of drawers and placed the pistol in his pocket. He then wrapped the rifle and the shotgun in a blanket and drove home and went to sleep. Five days later, on the evening of November twentieth, nineteen ninety three, Moody packed a suitcase and went to the home of another friend, Patricia Magda. After visiting for a while, Magda showed Moody a Christmas calendar she'd made. When she bent down on her knees, he grabbed her around the neck and tied her hands and feet with neckties that he had in his jacket pocket.

7:47 Speaker 1: He took a bank card from her purse and forced her to reveal the pin number. Next, he put a chair over her and drove her car to an automatic teller machine. He was unable to get any money, so he drove back to him Magde's house, where she again gave him her pen. He then went to the ATM and withdrew three hundred dollars. Moody returned to Magdu's house, pulled a knife from his pocket, slit her throat, stabbed her in the back, covered her with a rug, and beat her over the head with hedge clippers. He cut the telephone cords, took Magda's wallet and keys, and left in her car.

8:23 Speaker 1: About a month later, on December twentieth, nineteen ninety three, Moody broke and climbed through a kitchen window into the Yuma, Arizona home of Mary de Forest, his ex wife's sister. After demanding cash and guns, Moody tied to Forest up, ordered her and her two sons into a closet, and nailed the door shut. He took to Forest's purse and left in her suburban, leaving Magdu's car behind. Magda's car was discovered at to Forest's house, said Sergeant Michael Downing, homicide supervisor for the Pima County Sheriff's Department.

8:59 Speaker 1: He said that Moody was a former financial analyst. They told us that he was going to go to Mexico. Pima Detective Mike Ying said, we knew we'd arrest him eventually, but I never thought it would happen like this, and this is how it happened. By tracing credit card receipts and following tips from viewers of America's Most Wanted, police followed Moody's path. He went from Yuma to Las Vegas, to San Diego, to Los Angeles, and back to Yuma and Vegas. Sheriff's deputies missed him in each city by a very small margin.

9:34 Speaker 1: Let's backtrack just a little bit. After leaving DeForest's house, Moody drove to Las Vegas before eventually proceeding to California. At approximately three am on January fourth, nineteen ninety four, Moody flagged down San Bernardino County Deputy Joseph Duarte in Baker, California. Moody identified himself to Deputy Duarte as Todd Joe Williams and claimed that his car had been stolen about three hours earlier by a black male hitchhiker. He'd picked up outside of Vegas. When asked for specific information about the vehicle, Moody could only say it was a blue and gray suburban.

10:13 Speaker 1: He was unable to give the officer a vehicle identification number, license plate number, or any other information. Deputy Duarte took Moody to the Sheriff's office for further questioning. When Moody was unable to provide any further information regarding his stolen vehicle, he was released. Between four and four thirty That same day, Moody appeared at a rescue mission in Santa Anna, California. He told the mission's director, Reverend James Womack, that he had no idea who he was or where he was from, although he thought his name was Bob.

10:46 Speaker 1: Reverend Womack advised him to contact the police if Moody didn't know who he was. He quickly found out he was a TV celebrity of sorts, a murder suspect featured on America's Most Wanted. Approximately two hours after Moody left the mission, a paroled felon named Carlos Logan was arrested outside the Los Angeles Airport for driving Mary to Forest's stolen suburban Los Angeles County Sheriff's officers stopped the stolen car in a routine traffic stop in Lenox. Logan first said that Moody had loaned him the car.

11:21 Speaker 1: He later admitted that he'd given the white guy cocaine in exchange for the car, and that Moody had bragged that he'd been the subject of a segment on America's Most Wanted, but Logan had dismissed Moody's story as bravado. The next day, on January fifth, nineteen ninety four, Moody showed up at the Orange County Sheriff's Department, claiming not to know his identity or to remember anything prior to the day before January fourth, nineteen ninety four, when he found himself on a bus bench. He said that other than knowing that his name was Bob, he had total amnesia and couldn't remember anything about himself at all.

12:00 Speaker 1: At the sheriff's station in Santa Anna, a sheriff's spokesman said, Moody told investigators, I don't know anything about myself before Tuesday. You call me Moody, but I don't know anything about that name. The officer's finger printed him, leading to the discovery of warrants for the murders of Michelle Malone and Patricia Magda. The officers arrested Moody and told him that he'd killed two people. Looking confused, Moody replied I did. Later that day, Tucson Police Department detective Karen Wright and Pima County Sheriff's Department detectives Michael Ying and Bryce Tipling flew to California to interview Moody on videotape before transporting him to Tucson.

12:39 Speaker 1: Throughout the interview, Moody maintained that he woke up on a bench on January fourth and did not know how he got there or who he was, and had no memory of events before twelve thirty p m. Of that day. Moody was then returned to Arizona to stand trial for the murders of Michelle Malone and Patricia Magda. His capture brought leef to Magda's family and Tucson, who had been living in fear since her killing. We're really glad he's not going to have the opportunity to do this to anyone else, said Nancy Royle, the victim's daughter.

13:10 Speaker 1: In law. Royle said she believes her mother in law, who had three children and five grandchildren, was killed for her car on November twenty fourth. The woman's assailant also stole her wall at bank card and some money. Royle and her husband found Magda's body after she failed to arrive at Thanksgiving at a relative's home in Utah. God that's said, it's sickening, Royal said, it's a terrible, terrible thing. Royal said Magda, who worked at a title company, was a charitable, giving, caring, wonderful person who would help anyone.

13:43 Speaker 1: Her caring even extended to Moody, her neighbor. Although Magda did not know Moody well, she would listen with sympathy to his complaints about financial problems and about his daughter living out of state. Royle said she was very kind about speaking to him. At one point she brought him over some food because she knew he was hungry. She'd even mentioned to a friend at work that she felt mad for him. Robert J. Moody's arrest ended a manhunt of almost two months that spanned three states. As we've covered, his first murder occurred November fifteenth, when acquaintance of Moody's thirty three year old Michelle Page Malone was found shot to death in her Tucson home.

14:20 Speaker 1: And then his second victim, who we've just been discussing, fifty six year old Patricia Magda, a neighbor of Moody's, was found beaten to death in her Tucson home about a week later, and a month after that, Moody showed up at his relatives the DeForest's house in Yuma, beat them, tied them up, and stole their guns in car, and then continued on his deluded rampage. All in all, it was a horrific spree that saw him targeting friends and family. The rampage continued for another two weeks until he was finally arrested on January fifth, nineteen ninety four.

14:55 Speaker 1: On February first of that year, the state presented evidence of the murders of michellmala Out of Patricia Magna to the grand jury. At the hearing, Tucson police detective Karen Wright testified that Carlos Logan, the paroled felon who was arrested for driving Mary to Forest suburban, had informed detectives that he'd traded cocaine for the car with the vehicle's owner, a white male named Bob, who had bragged at the time about killing two people in Tucson and being profiled on America's Most Wanted.

15:21 Speaker 1: The grand jury indicted Moody for the two murders after first acknowledging that what he was about to say sounded truly bizarre. Moody would state during his trial that cocaine pushing space aliens took control of his body and forced him to murder Michelle Malone, a friend, and Patricia Magda, a neighbor, in November nineteen ninety three to prove that aliens existed. The aliens told him that their mission required that he be convicted and sentenced to die, but that he would survive a lethal injection.

15:55 Speaker 1: He testified after being declared dead. The extra sensory biological entities will bring me back to life to speak through me, he said, and further stated that his involvement in the crimes was involuntary. The space aliens were in control of his body and he was merely an unconscious observer of the murders. My God, that is the most tortured version of the dog ate my homework that I have ever heard except this isn't homework, it's horrific murder. By the end of July nineteen ninety five, Moody would be convicted of double murder and sentenced to death, but that conviction would be reversed and remanded by the Arizona Supreme Court.

16:41 Speaker 1: And if you're saying to yourself, wait a minute, what how is his conviction reversed? You just skipped a bunch of stuff? Are you saying he wasn't convicted at all? Did the jury buy into the space alien's defense? What the heck is going on? If that's what you're thinking right now, you're right. I did skip a bunch of stuff. And that's because the strange and frankly almost comic true events of Robert J. Moody's trial, if anything could be considered comic in the context of these murders, matches the compelling nature of his horrible crimes.

17:12 Speaker 1: Except where those crimes were heinous and terrible. The story of Moody's trial is bizarre and at times almost sublimely silly. If you've got a dark sense of humor like I do, which frankly I find to be the only way to withstand a life immerged in shocking and horrific true crime stories. No disrespect meant to victims, their friends and families, of course, but sometimes shit just gets weird and you can cry or you can laugh. And when I choose to laugh, So if you do share my dark sense of humor, I suspect that you, like me, might find yourself chuckling grimly at the oddball caper that Robert J. Moody's legal adventures become.

17:51 Speaker 1: But as I told you at the outset of today's episode, I'm telling you two different stories today, and so without further ado, it's time to move on to our Murdering Moody number two.

18:04 Speaker 2: But don't worry, we'll get back to Robert J. Moody and his crack induced alien shenanigans before this episode ends. Our second story of the episode, Walter Leroy Moody tries state terrorist starts.

18:18 Speaker 1: Right after these brief messages, around the second week of December nineteen eighty nine, four pipe bombs were sent through the United States mail to different locations in the southeastern United States. On December sixteenth, nineteen eighty nine, the package containing one of those pipe bombs was delivered to Mountain Brook Alabama, the residence of Judge Vance. The package was addressed to Judge Vance and showed the name and Noonan, Georgia address of one of his judicial colleagues as the return address.

18:49 Speaker 1: When Judge Vance opened the package, the bomb inside detonated, killing him almost instantly. Judge Vance's wife, Helen Vance, was seriously injured by the blast. The pipe bomb was constructed of a steel pipe approximately five and one half inches in length and one and one half inches in diameter, sealed at each end with threaded caps. It contained smokeless gunpowder and a homemade detonator fastened from the hallowed out barrel of a ballpoint pen. The device was designed to explode when the lid of the box in which it was contained was open.

19:22 Speaker 1: Numerous nails had been secured to the pipe with rubber bands. The nails served as projectiles upon detonation. Two days later, on December eighteenth, nineteen eighty nine, Robert Robinson, a civil rights attorney in Savannah, Georgia, was killed after opening a package containing a similar pipe bomb, which had been delivered to Robinson's Savannah law office. That same day, a third pipe bomb was received at the court house of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia.

19:53 Speaker 1: A court security officer using an X ray machine discovered the device, which was disarmed by bomb squad technicians before it could detonate. The following day, on December nineteenth, nineteen eighty nine, a fourth pipe bomb was received, this one at the Jacksonville, Florida office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People the NAACP. The bomb was discovered and disarmed before it could injure anyone. Testimony presented at Moody's trial indicated that the four pipe bombs were very similar in construction and design.

20:23 Speaker 1: All the bombs had been placed in reinforced cardboard boxes that had been painted inside with black latex paint. All were delivered in packages wrapped in brown paper, tied with string, wrapped with the same kind of tape, posted with the same kind of priority mail stamps, and addressed with the same kind of mailing labels. The addresses on all the mailing labels appeared to have been typed with the same typewriter. All of the bombs were constructed of steel pipes filled with hercules red dot brand smokeless gunpowder.

20:52 Speaker 1: While the pipe that made up the bomb that killed Judge Vance was sealed at both ends within caps that had been screwed into place, the ends of the other three bombs had been sealed with welded in plates that were joined by a steel rod extending through the center of each pipe. The steel rods were secured at the ends by hexagonal nuts. Nails had been attached by rubber bands to the outside of each pipe, and each bomb had the same kind of triggering mechanism and detonator. All of the bombs used C cell batteries as their electrical source, and all had the same type of modified battery holder in them.

21:23 Speaker 1: Type notes threatening death were contained inside the boxes in which three of the four bombs had been sent. Only the bombs sent to the Federal courthouse in Atlanta was not accompanied by such a note. There were numerous other similarities in the details of the bomb's composition, in the construction of the boxes that held the bombs, and the packaging of the devices. Based on the many similarities, forensic investigators believed that all four bombs were made and sent by the same person. In the days that followed the killings of Judge Vance, and Robert Robinson.

21:53 Speaker 1: Every judge on the eleven Circuit Court of Appeals received type letters in which the sender took credit for the bombings and threatened the recipients with assassination. The letters explained that the threats were because of the federal courts callous disregard for the Administration of Justice, and sent in the name of an organization known as Americans for a competent federal judicial system. Similar death threat letters were received at the Atlanta and Jacksonville offices of the NAACP. A separate type death threat letter addressed to news anchor woman Brenda Wood was received at the WAGA television station in Atlanta.

22:28 Speaker 1: The death threat letters were all signed zero one zero one eight seven and specified that the writer was using this number as a secret code and that it was not to be disclosed to the public. All of the letters were postmarked from Atlanta and were posted with twenty five cent American flag over Yosemite stamps. The packages containing three of the four pipe bombs were posted with the same kind of American Flag over Yosemite stamp. An analyst for the Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded that the letters received by the judges on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and at the Atlanta and Jacksonville offices of the NBA LACP had all been prepared with the same manual typewriter used to type the addresses on the mailing labels affixed to all four of the pipe bomb packages.

23:08 Speaker 1: A letter addressed to Brenda Wood had been prepared with a different typewriter. Testimony revealed that on August twenty first, nineteen eighty nine, about four months before the murder of Judge Vance, the NAACP regional office in Atlanta, had received through the mail a tear gas bomb, the triggering mechanism and packaging of which were similar in numerous respects to the four pipe bombs mailed in December of nineteen eighty nine. The tear gas bomb exploded when an NAACP employee opened the box in which it was packaged, filling the office with teargas.

23:37 Speaker 1: Like three of the four December nineteen eighty nine pipe bombs, the tear gas bomb was accompanied by a typed death threat note. The package containing the tear gas bomb bore a false return address from Atlanta. In the days following the receipt of the tear gas bomb at the NAACP office. Various news outlets throughout the Eastern United States received copies of a typed letter in which the anonymous sender complained about the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals callous disregard for justice. In the letter, the sender issued a quote declaration of war unquote, and threatened nerve gas attacks against densely populated American cities.

24:10 Speaker 1: All the letters were posted with a twenty five cent American flag over Yosemite stamp. It was determined that the letters had been prepared with the same manual typewriter used to type the address on the mailing label A fixed to the package containing the tear gas bomb. The state presented evidence indicating that the August nineteen eighty nine tear gas bomb and the four December nineteen eighty nine pipe bombs, including the one that killed Judge Vance, were all constructed and sent by Walter Leroy Moody, Junior, as part of Moody's declared war on the court system.

24:40 Speaker 1: The war stemmed from Moody's conviction in federal court almost seventeen years earlier on charges of possessing a pipe bomb in May nineteen seventy two, a pipe bomb had exploded in Moody's residence in Macon, Georgia. That bomb, which had been contained inside a package addressed to an automobile dealer who had repossessed Moody's car, had exploded when o opened by Moody's then wife, seriously injuring her. Moody had been arrested and charged with the manufacturer and possession of a pipe bomb.

25:07 Speaker 1: During his nineteen seventy two trial on those charges in federal court, Moody had taken the stand in his own defense and maintained that a man named Jean Wallace had secretly planted the bomb in Moody's home, allegedly to harm Moody. The jury found Moody guilty of possessing a pipe bomb, although it had acquitted him of the charge of manufacturing it. Moody served three years in the federal penitentiary for the conviction. This grievance that he spent three years in prison for nearly blowing up his wife with a homemade pipe bomb inspired Moody's war on the legal system.

25:39 Speaker 1: Sometime in nineteen eighty five, Moody devised a scheme to get his conviction overturned by bribing an acquaintance, Julie Lynn West, to give perjured testimony substantiating Moody's claim that the fictional Gene Wallace had placed the pipe bomb in Moody's home in Macon in nineteen seventy two. Moody provided Lynn West, a young death Institute wheelchair bound woman, with a detailed scripted story shifting the blame to Gene Wallace. Moody paid West in small monthly installments as she learned Moody's written script, according to which Lynn West was to claim that she had been with Jeene Wallace in Macon in nineteen seventy two and seen him place the bomb in Moody's home.

26:20 Speaker 1: So the famed refrain from the fugitive. It wasn't me, It was the one armed man becomes It wasn't me, It was Geene Wallace. Walter Leroy Moody the Tri State Terrorists nineteen eighty nine murderous bombing campaign against the American federal legal system was inspired by his grievance against the justice system for giving him a three year prison sentence for nearly blowing up his wife with an improvised pipe bomb. Also based on how often he seemed to target African Americans in the NAACP in particular, which has nothing really to do with the federal legal system, it seems like his bombings were most likely also inspired by deep personal racial hatred.

27:03 Speaker 1: But that's not exactly why we're telling this story. You know, I have to say that the logical blinders that criminals often have throw me for a loop. I mean, sure, Robert J. Moody has an excuse for alien possession made me do it, he was a crackhead. But in the case of William Leroy Moody, and according to William Leroy Moody, his reason was that he was wrongly convicted by a corrupt federal court system of almost killing his wife with a pipe bomb. And if that were true, then Moody's logic essentially goes as follows.

27:38 Speaker 2: I William Leroy.

27:39 Speaker 1: Moody, I am so furious that the justice system for sending me to prison for three years for making an illegal pipe bomb that nearly killed my wife. And I'm going to claim that some random guy actually built the pipe bomb and left it in my house, despite the fact that I won't be able to prove he exists. Notwithstanding that if he hated me enough to blow me up was real, I'd probably have provable history with him. After all, I'm just a private citizen, not a government institution that's likely to be targeted by bomb making madmen.

28:12 Speaker 1: But I say I'm innocent. So now I'm going to be an aggrieved, innocent man who didn't build the pipe bomb that almost blew up my house, and I'll carry out my vengeance by sending out several pipe bombs that are identical to the one I didn't build, to blow up the luminaries in the justice system, or to blow up my wife in my house, or to blow up the car dealer who repossessed my car. I mean, wait a minute, what the head spins, right? I mean, whoa? But anyhow, let's get to it. In May nineteen seventy two, a pipe bomb had exploded, as I just alluded to, in Moody's residence in Macon, Georgia.

28:52 Speaker 1: The bomb, which had been contained inside a package addressed to an automobile dealer who had repossessed Moody's car, had exploded when opened by Moody's then wife, seriously injuring her. Moody had been arrested and charged with the manufacturer and possession of a pipe bomb. During his nineteen seventy two trial on those charges in federal court, Moody had taken the stand in his own defense and maintained that a man named Jean Wallace had secretly planted the bomb in Moody's home, allegedly to harm Moody.

29:23 Speaker 1: The jury found Moody guilty of possessing a pipe bomb, although it acquitted him of the charge of manufacturing it. Moody served three years in the federal penitentiary for the conviction. After he was released from prison, Moody became obsessed with overturning his conviction, believing that it tarnished his good name and that it stood in the way of his aspirations of becoming a lawyer. Several years before he went to prison, Moody had attended law school without finishing, and in the mid nineteen eighties he inquired into resuming those studies.

29:53 Speaker 1: However, he learned that a felony conviction would disqualify him from practicing law in Georgia. In addition to seeing his conviction his standing between him and a legal career, Moody had convinced himself that he'd been unfairly convicted, that he was the victim of an immense conspiracy involving, in his mind, corrupt law enforcement officers, the trial judge, the prosecutor, and even his own appointed council. Moody's sense of aggrieved victimization fueled what was to become his long running and continuing quarrel with the legal system, particularly with the federal courts in the Eleventh Circuit.

30:26 Speaker 1: Sometime in nineteen eighty five, Moody devised a scheme to get his conviction overturned by bribing an acquaintance, Julie Lynn West, to give perjured testimony substantiating Moody's claim that the fictional Gene Wallace had placed the pipe bomb in Moody's home in Macon in nineteen seventy two. Moody provided Lynn West, a young, destitute, wheelchair bound woman, with a detailed scripted story shifting the blame to Gene Wallace. Moody paid Lynn West in small monthly installments as she learned Moody's written script, according to which Lynn West was to claim that she had been with Jean Wallace in Macon in nineteen seventy two and had seen him place the bomb in Moody's home.

31:03 Speaker 1: According to the script, lynn West was also to maintain that she feared Jean Wallace would harm her if she had implicated him, but that after experiencing pangs of conscience, she'd finally come forward to help Moody clear his name. In September nineteen eighty six, when he was satisfied that lynn West had learned his scripted story, Moody filed a petition for a writ of error Korum Nobis in the Federal District Court in Macon, asking the court to vacate his nineteen seventy two conviction based on newly discovered evidence.

31:33 Speaker 1: I eed a fabricated story placing the blame for the bombing on Jeen Wallace. Lynn West's mother, Joanne Ekstrom, subsequently became involved in Moody's scheme, and she too, agreed to give false testimony on his behalf. Following a hearing in March nineteen eighty eight, at which Lynn West and Eskram perjured themselves by reciting Moody's scripted story, the district court denied Moody's petition. Moody appealed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which affirmed the denial in June nineteen eighty nine.

32:01 Speaker 1: This final rejection precipitated Moody's war on the courts. It was the state's theory at trial that Moody became disillusioned with lawyers, judges, and other representatives of the legal system as a result of his contacts with that system, and that his inability to convince the courts that he had been wronged by the system led to the series of bombings that resulted in the death of Judge Vance. The evidence revealed that in the summer of nineteen eighty nine, Moody enlisted the help of his girlfriend who later became his wife, Susan McBride Samford, to procure items necessary for him to construct explosive devices to use against the court and others.

32:37 Speaker 1: Moody initially dispatched Sandford on trips around the Southeast to gather the components for a chemical project he was allegedly working on. In July nineteen eighty nine, however, Moody abandoned his chemical project. He then started the project that ultimately produced the tear gas bomb that exploded at the NAACP regional office in Atlanta. In nineteen eighty nine, after the tear gas bombing, Moody pursued another project, again using Samford to procure the necessary components for him, sending her on numerous surreptitious missions to hardware and supply stores where Samford made purchases or shoplifted items as instructed by Moody.

33:13 Speaker 1: During this time, Moody sealed off the front bedroom of the Rex Georgia residence he shared with Stamford and gave her list of items to procure. With these items, Moody then constructed four pipe bombs, including the pipe bombs that killed Robert Robinson and Judge Vance. At Moody's trial, Samford, Moody's wife, testified at length about her activities in gathering the components Moody used to make the pipe bombs and packages in which they were sent. Among the items Samford stated she procured for Moody were mailing labels of the same type used in the December nineteen eighty nine pipe bombs, stamps like those on the packages containing the December nineteen eighty nine pipe bombs, cardboard boxes, aluminium pie pans, goose patterned paper, towels, sea batteries, flashlight bulbs, black latex paint, nails, string, brown wrapping paper, aluminum clothes line wire like the heavy gage aluminum clothed line wire used in the same December nineteen eighty nine pipe bombs, rubber bands, and tape.

34:12 Speaker 1: Samford's testimony indicated that after Moody finished his construction of the pipe bombs in early December nineteen eighty nine, he opened the bedroom in which he had been working and then thoroughly cleaned and remodeled it in order to erase evidence of his bomb making. He then mailed the bombs. According to Samford, after the FBI began investigating Moody's involvement in the December nineteen eighty nine bombings, Moody remarked to her, if they have any evidence, it would be DNA. On another occasion, in late December nineteen eighty nine, after seeing a television news report that a judge in Maryland had been injured by a pipe bomb, Moody told Samford something to the effect of that one's not mine or I didn't do that one.

34:52 Speaker 1: In addition to the incriminating testimony against Moody presented by Samford, there was eyewitness testimony indicating that on December second, nineteen eighty nine, at a gun shop in Griffin, Georgia, Moody purchased four pounds of Hercules Red Dot brand smokeless gunpowder and an unusually large amount of Cci brand pistol primers, the kind of gunpowder and primer material that, according to forensic analysis, was used in the pipe bombs. The state's experts testified that there were numerous similarities between the pipe bomb that exploded in Moody's home in nineteen seventy two and the four December nineteen eighty nine pipe bombs.

35:28 Speaker 1: They further testified that the bombs contained the signature of the same maker, indicating that they had all been made by the same person. The evidence also showed that the nineteen seventy two pipe bomb, like three of the four December nineteen eighty nine pipe bombs, and like the August nineteen eighty nine tier gas bomb, had been accompanied by a threatening note. The state also presented evidence showing that in February nineteen ninety, federal investigators recovered a steel pipe with threaded incaps during a search of a storage area that Moody was renting in Chamblee, Georgia.

36:00 Speaker 1: The device was similar in some respects to the nineteen seventy two pipe bomb and the December nineteen eighty nine pipe bomb, and a forensic explosives expert testified that the device appeared to represent a transitional phase between the nineteen seventy two pipe bomb and those used in December of nineteen eighty nine. Carlene Shiver, a woman who had dated Moody in the early nineteen eighties, testified that Moody owned a manual typewriter on which the letter A would jump. The state presented evidence demonstrating that each A appearing in a word on a type death threat letter from Americans for Competent Federal Judicial Systems that was sent to Brenda Wood at the WAGA television station in Atlanta shortly after the pipe bomb killing, jumped above the other letters in the word.

36:43 Speaker 1: Shiver also testified that Moody had once told her that a bombing was a perfect crime because when everything exploded, there was nothing left to investigate. That's an optimistic take, huh. During their investigation of the bombings, federal agents electronically monitored Moody's residence and the jail cell in which he was held after his arrest. The surveillance yielded several audio tapes on which Moody was heard whispering and criminating statements to himself. In one such quote conversation unquote, Moody stated, how you've killed two now you can't pull another bomban.

37:14 Speaker 1: In another statement that he whispered to himself, Moody complained that the courts were crooks and that he had been the victim of a quote judicial raping unquote. Moody then stated, I'll guarantee it'll never happen again. Now you don't believe me, you're in for a root awakening. In November nineteen ninety Moody was charged with numerous federal crimes related to the bombings. The venue for the trial on those charges was changed to Saint Paul, Minnesota. After a trial in June nineteen ninety one, the jury found Moody guilty on seventy one separate counts.

37:44 Speaker 1: He was sentenced to seven life terms plus four hundred years in the federal penitentiary. On April nineteenth, twenty eighteen, Walter Leroy Moody was executed by lethal injection at the age of eighty three.

37:57 Speaker 2: He was the.

37:57 Speaker 1: Oldest inmate ever executed in the state of out Babama since the death penalty was reinstated in nineteen seventy six. And that's the story of Walter Lee Roy Moody, the tri state terrorist. Phew, that was heavy. Let's get onto the crackhead Herald of Extraterrestrials, shall we. I'm, of course referring to Robert J. Moody. He was convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to death, but then the charges were remanded and the conviction was reversed. So just what the heck happened? Well, this is the story of the power of hating, hating, hating your attorney, and whether through true, honest loathing or clever artifice, Robert J. Moody certainly hated his Upon Robert J. Moody's return to Arizona, Deputy Public Defender Daniel Grills was appointed as his counsel.

38:55 Speaker 1: In May of nineteen ninety four, Grills moved to withdraw alleging that Moody had developed an obsessive hatred for his attorney and his attorney's staff, and a belief that his attorney was totally incapable of providing him with even minimally competent representation. Grills this is the attorney further claimed that he had exhausted all efforts to reconcile the conflict and had reached a firm decision that the situation was irreparable. The court perceived that Moody's disagreement with Grills was based on his lawyer's refusal to present or investigate his so called quote alien defense unquote, rather than with the lawyer personally.

39:33 Speaker 1: So, in other words, the judge assumed that Moody didn't hate his lawyer personally, he just hated his lawyer because the lawyer would not pursue the extraterrestrial defense. Although the judge stated his opinion that this conflict would likely be present with any attorney appointed for the defendant, there is no record of a formal ruling on Grill's motion to withdraw. Because Grills continued with the representation, it's assumed that motion was denied. Then, on June twenty first, nineteen ninety five, Grills filed a second motion to withdraw, stating that Moody had demanded his removal.

40:07 Speaker 1: Apparently, Moody threatened to file ethical complaints against both Grills and the Public Defender's office if he did not obtain new counsel. He expressed his frustration at his attorney's failure to interview any witnesses. He also stated that he had no trust in Grills and no confidence that the lawyer would act in his best interest. When the judge denied this motion, Robert J. Moody indicated that he would file a request to proceed pro sae because of the court's refusal to appoint new council.

40:34 Speaker 1: In other words, Robert J. Moody wanted to represent himself. On July fifth, nineteen ninety five, Moody filed his motion for self representation, claiming, among other things, that Grills wilfully neglected to interview any of the states or the defendant's witnesses, and that the quote trust essential to effective attorney client relationship has been completely destroyed. He stated that he was being forced to accept the lawyer against his will. Ironically, Grills opposed the motion for Moody to represent himself, believing that any waiver was coercive under the circumstances.

41:07 Speaker 1: The court, however, granted the defendant's request and Moody represented himself at trial, Grills was appointed as advisory council, but was later replaced by another public defender, John Seaman. At this point, as mentioned on Thursday, Moody was convicted on both counts of first degree murder and sentenced to death. So why exactly was the conviction remanded and reversed? Well? On July thirteenth, nineteen ninety five, the court had a hearing on the motions, in which Moody testified his desire to represent himself, and the judge found his waiver of council to be knowing, intelligent and voluntary.

41:44 Speaker 1: So the case proceeded a trial, with Moody defending himself and accused has a right under both federal and state constitutions to waive council and represent himself. However, as just stated, it must be knowing, intelligent and voluntary, which the judge found that it was. However, in this particular case, the choices presented to Moody were either representation by a lawyer with whom he had completely fractured his relationship and had clearly an irreconcilable conflict, or self representation.

42:14 Speaker 1: So by refusing to appoint a new council, the trial court effectively left him no alternative but to represent himself, forcing Moody to choose a situation that was constitutionally impermissible because both alternatives resulted in a violation of his right to representation. And this is the reason that the conviction was reversed. So I realized, this has all been fairly dry. And I promised you that the legal wrangling of Robert J. Moody would be entertaining. So where's the entertainment. Well, the entertainment lies in the elevated level of extreme conflict between Robert J. Moody and his attorney prior to the point at which Moody represented himself.

43:01 Speaker 1: Let's delve into those details a little bit. The record of this case is chock full of examples of deep and irreconcilable conflict between Robert J. Moody and his public defender, attorney Grills. Moody's confidence in his attorney was shaken at the outset when an officer at the jail allegedly told him that if Grills was his attorney, he might as well plead guilty because the lawyer quote keeps his files in his shirt pocket. In addition, the defendants assertions that he had been abducted by space aliens caused Grills to get angry with him and call him crazy, both to his face and to the press.

43:40 Speaker 1: When Grills disclosed one hundred and seventeen witnesses, the prosecutor moved for sanctions against him, claiming bad faith. The list of witnesses included former United States presidents and astronomer Carl Sagan. Grills provided address and phone information for only five of the persons on the list, and some were identified by first name only. Grill's response to the prosecutor's motion for sanction described the difficulties he was having with the defendant. He claimed that Moody insisted on the contents of the disclosure statement and that it was filed in an effort to regain his client's confidence by quote playing ball as the defendant would like it played.

44:18 Speaker 1: In other words, Grills said it was Moody's idea to call one hundred and seventeen people, including US presidents, Carl Sagan, and people by their first names. Despite this explanation, the court found the disclosure's fraudulent and ordered a good faith supplemental pleading within two weeks. The strained relationship between Moody and his lawyer continued. Moody accused Grills and the lead public defender of being incompetent and crazy. He believed that the lawyers were conspiring with the prosecutor, the court, and the doctor to have him declared insane.

44:48 Speaker 1: Grills admitted yelling at his clients, telling him that he did not care about his case, and threatened to quit if the defendant called the press. According to Grills, Moody developed an obsessive hatred for him and the public defender's office. Moody believed they were incapable of providing him with minimally competent representation. Grills stated that he and the defendant were almost at blows and were antagonistic towards each other. When Moody was found incompetent to stand trial, Grills allegedly had a party to celebrate.

45:19 Speaker 1: The conflict worsened after Moody was restored to confidence. He continued to believe that his lawyer was ineffective. The witnesses had yet to be interviewed, and, according to Moody, the attorney refused to meet with him. Meanwhile, Grills complained that his caseload was preventing him from preparing adequately for Moody's trial. Grills repeatedly informed the trial court that he believed his client would cooperate with a different attorney. During the hearing. On the first motion to withdraw, he pleaded with the trial judge.

45:46 Speaker 1: Here's some of what he had to say. I've addressed personally my issue of this problem, and that he's not going to have any other attorney otherwise. I've tried to weather the storm, your honor. I've tried from day one. I just got off to a bad start, all the problem with the jail, with the guards attacking my ability as an attorney way back in the proceedings. It's just degraded ever since then. I've made every effort, your honor. I made mister Moodia wear countless times. If there's a substitution that occurs, that it's his last one, the last bite he gets at the apple.

46:16 Speaker 1: I think that alone will create incentive, but frankly, not to oversimplify it, its just not have the name public defender after it. I know people that are on the contract list, and I can't think of one that wouldn't be able to get along better with him than me, Your Honor. He's focused on me one hundred percent. Interesting aside, part of his thinking is that the next lawyer is predestined and he's not going to have any problems with him. I've told him this has been going on since day one, Your Honor, and I've in effect threatened him, saying, you know, if you get another lawyer, that's going to be it.

46:46 Speaker 1: You don't get any more. But if there's one thousand lawyers in Pima County, nine hundred and ninety nine of them will get along better with him than me. And that, my friends, is some serious lawyer shade. If there's a thousand lawyers in Pima County, nine hundred and ninety nine of them will get along with him better than me. Wow. So we already know that Moody's initial conviction and sentence of death was reversed, but before the reversal, before the conviction. In fact, on the last day of the trial, when he was representing himself the last day of the trial, which in fact was Moody's thirty seventh birthday, he said to Judge Howard Hantman, We've finally come to the point where I get my birthday wish I hope you grant me the appropriate sentence to allow me to complete my mission, by which he meant sentence me to death so I can finish my job of being the crackhead herald of extraterrestrials.

47:45 Speaker 1: And on the day of his sentencing to death, Robert J. Moody, the one time financial planner and real estate agent, showed no reaction to the sentence and spent much of the hearing smiling at the packed courtroom. Even though his conviction was reversed, Moody would go back on trial in twenty ten and be convicted again no double murder this time, though he was not sentenced to death, but rather to life in prison. And in twenty nineteen, Robert J. Moody, Crackhead Herald of Extraterrestrials, died in prison of an undisclosed illness.

48:21 Speaker 1: Shortly after his passing, The following letter was written to a newspaper in Tucson. And I have in fact found this same testimony in the official appeal documents surrounding Moody's case, so I think we can safely assume that it's true. Here's what the letter writer had to say. As a former deputy working in the courthouse. I was assigned, along with others to guard Moody during his self representation. Moody was allowed every day eight full hours to use the phone and have legal access. The personnel specifically assigned to him not allowed to write reports or speak of his calls or statements.

49:03 Speaker 1: Evans aside. Here he essentially had attorney client privilege with himself, so he could say or do whatever during his legal time, and the guards who observed it had to keep his secrets. So the letter written to the Tucson newspaper goes on to say again, the personnel specifically assigned to him were not allowed to write reports or speak of his calls or statements. I this is the former guard. I repeatedly heard him confess to these murders and stood by while he used his quote law time unquote that's what he called it to call publishers and friends, to whom he bragged about how he was beating the system, costing the taxpayer's money, and buying time to embarrass the system.

49:47 Speaker 1: He even told me himself that he murdered the women because he was on a coke binge and needed money. I was bound by court orders not to repeat, nor document these confessions. Judge Hampman followed all safeties to ensure a fair trial. So that's pretty wild, isn't it. I mean that essentially shows that this whole space alien malarkey was just that mallarchy, and that Moody was convinced that he could successfully confound the justice system by forcing self representation through waging war on his poor public defender.

50:24 Speaker 1: Wow, that is indeed one murdery Moody. I'm z Evan Oldberg and this has been kind of murdery. If you like the show, they subscribe, review and tell your friends. You can find us on social media at Kinyamurdery or email at Kinomurdery at gmail dot com.