The Jefferson Davis Eight

In the small Louisiana town of Jennings, a troubling series of murders has remained unsolved for nearly two decades, revealing dark truths about how some communities value certain lives less than others. Between 2005 and 2009, eight women were found dead—Loretta Chasson, Ernestine Patterson, Kristen Gary Lopez, Whitney Dubois, Laconia "Muggy" Brown, Crystal Benoit Zeno, Brittany Gary, and Nicole Guillory—all connected through their struggles with addiction, involvement in sex work, and roles as police informants.

What makes these murders particularly disturbing isn't just their brutality but the web of suspicious circumstances surrounding the investigation. When Loretta Chasson's body was pulled from a canal, a deputy had mysteriously shown up at her friend's door asking about her whereabouts before the body was even identified. The chief detective purchased a truck from a jail inmate—a vehicle that had supposedly transported one of the victims on the day she disappeared—only to have it thoroughly cleaned before quickly reselling it. Multiple victims told loved ones they feared they would be "next," suggesting they knew their killer.

The community remains divided by more than just the railroad tracks that physically separate the affluent from the impoverished. As Sheriff Ricky Edwards repeatedly blamed the victims' "high-risk lifestyles" for their deaths, citizens grew increasingly suspicious of law enforcement involvement. A local figure named Frankie Richard—pimp, drug dealer, and friend to all victims—remained seemingly untouchable until his death in 2020. Most chilling were the allegations that jail staff regularly exchanged contraband for sexual favors with female inmates, and that some victims had witnessed murders committed by or at the behest of law enforcement officers.

Investigative journalist Ethan Brown's exhaustive research raised disturbing questions about systemic corruption in Jefferson Davis Parish, with whistleblowers within law enforcement promptly fired for speaking out. Were these women murdered because they knew too much? Were they eliminated by the very people sworn to protect them? The Jennings Eight case reminds us that when society renders people "invisible," justice becomes elusive. Share this episode with anyone who believes every life deserves equal protection under the law.

Chapters

• 0:00 Small Southern Towns' Dark Secrets
• 1:30 Finding Loretta: The First Victim
• 7:22 The Invisible People
• 14:55 More Bodies Found
• 21:00 Frankie Richard: Common Thread
• 27:00 Law Enforcement Under Suspicion
• 32:25 Eight Victims, Zero Justice
• 38:00 Unanswered Questions Remain

Transcript

Carole Townsend: 0:03

If you know anything at all about small southern towns, you know that they enjoy a unique reputation all their own. While most of them are friendly, welcoming, lawful and the absolute picture of southern hospitality and charm, that's not true of all of them. We've all likely heard stories about a small southern town run by an iron-fisted sheriff with his hands in various pockets, those pockets lined with crimes of all types. I myself have looked into southern jurisdictions run by such men, with drugs, prostitution, gambling and even murder to their credit. More than once. I admit that I feared for my safety.

Carole Townsend: 0:56

Is there anything better than a well-told story? I don't think so. An engaging tale, told in the right place, at the right time and by the right person, captures us. It captures our imaginations. It takes us away from the here and now and carries us to the what if? When we were kids, was there anything better than sitting around a campfire, the cold, dark night at our backs, the warmth and light of the fire drawing us closer, comforting us as we listened to a well-spun tale? Here in the South, a welcoming front porch is often where we spin our tales. Now it's familiar and it welcomes others to join us At the end of the day when we've put away our cares and responsibilities for just a few hours. We sit and we talk, and maybe we rock in a comfortable chair and we're taken back to a time when the story was the thing, the only thing. So join me tonight, won't you, as we step into another tale that's rooted in truth, so difficult to fathom that it defies belief. And to keep the dark and the cold at bay, I'll turn on the light.

Carole Townsend: 2:25

The following podcast contains material that may be disturbing. Listener discretion is advised.

Carole Townsend: 2:49

There's another characteristic of small towns that we've all heard at one time or another, and that's that there is a very definite socioeconomic division, sometimes an actual line that can be drawn separating the haves from the have-nots. There's a reason that we hear the expression the other side of the tracks. In Jennings, louisiana, it's literally the railroad tracks in town that draw that line. On one side of the tracks you'll find nice, comfortable houses, expensive cars and better schools. On the other side, you'll find small, dilapidated homes, unkempt yards, old, broken-down cars and deserted businesses.

Carole Townsend: 3:40

In our last episode we took a look at a baffling case of serial killings that haunted southern Louisiana. The 12-year siege of Baton Rouge, louisiana State University and the surrounding area, paralyzed women and frustrated law enforcement, but the cases, or many of them, were finally solved and once again southern Louisiana could breathe easy. This siege of fear, however, left a scar that will likely never heal. People are more careful now, more wary, and that small-town innocence has faded to a mere shadow of what it once was. In its place lurks suspicion and locked doors. The solved cases had nothing to do with corruption or dirty cops. Quite the opposite. Local police and the fbi worked tirelessly to apprehend the monsters who were raping, killing and in some cases even mutilating women, and in some cases even mutilating women. Both killers had been arrested and convicted by the year 2004.

Carole Townsend: 4:51

Imagine then when, on May 20, 2005, the body of 28-year-old Loretta Chasson was found floating in a canal by a fisherman. The fisherman, a soft-spoken man named Jerry Jackson, fished from the bridge over the Grand Marais Canal. Quite often he was preparing to cast his line into the water that morning when he saw what he first thought to be a mannequin bobbing and dipping in the slow-moving current. Oddly, a recent theft of mannequins had taken place in the area, and that was the first thing that came to Jerry's mind when he saw the object in the canal, but he thought mannequins don't attract flies. Jackson called 911 to report what he had seen and within five minutes about a dozen deputies and detectives arrived on the scene.

Carole Townsend: 5:50

Shortly after they arrived, loretta's badly decomposed body was fished from the water. She was wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt, and the advanced decomposition of her body made it impossible to determine the manner of death as well as her identity. Police eventually identified her by using her fingerprints. The autopsy toxicology screen showed some drugs in her system, but it wasn't clear as to whether the drugs contributed to her death in any way. Examiners also found evidence of some bleeding under her scalp. The coroner estimated that Loretta had been in the Grand Marais Canal for about three days. The water and the marine life, combined with the suffocating heat and humidity characteristic of Louisiana, made it impossible to determine Loretta's cause of death, which was listed as undetermined.

Carole Townsend: 6:53

Loretta's body was found on the outskirts of Jennings in the Jefferson Davis Parish, deep in the heart of Cajun country. Jennings' official claim to fame is that it's the birthplace of Louisiana oil. Unofficially, jennings is unique and somewhat famous for its darker history. Loretta Chasson was a loving wife, mother, sister, daughter and friend. She was no stranger to police, however, as she was also a sex worker battling a crippling addiction to crack cocaine, as so many were doing in southern Louisiana in the early 2000s. You see, jennings is the halfway point between Houston and New Orleans, along the I-10 corridor. I-10 runs from Santa Monica, california, to Jacksonville, florida, and that ribbon of highway carries more than tourists and business travelers. According to law enforcement officials, i-10 is a major drug corridor and the halfway point, jennings and the surrounding area is saturated with illicit drugs, from synthetic marijuana to cocaine, heroin to fentanyl. As with any other such corridor in the United States, such as I-85 through Georgia stops along the way bleed these drugs into the local populations, and communities are ravaged by both the drugs and by the crime and violence that always accompany them.

Carole Townsend: 8:52

It's interesting to note here that Loretta's friend, a woman named Barb Ann, watched anxiously as police set up a perimeter around the crime scene and fished her friend's body out of the Grand Marais Canal. Barb Ann and Loretta's brother, nick, watched from a distance, in fear and in silence. You see, at that point no one had reported Loretta missing. So how did those two know to go to the canal at all? Well, mysteriously, a deputy from Jefferson Davis Parish had knocked on Barban's door that very morning asking when she had last seen her friend. When Barban asked him why he wanted to know that, he said we think she might be missing. And with that he turned and walked away.

Carole Townsend: 9:44

Shortly after the deputy's odd visit, whispers began ruffling through the neighborhood. A woman's body had been found in the canal. Barbann called Nick and they both had a sinking feeling of dread that that woman was Loretta. Nick remembered that the last time he had seen his sister alive was at a Phillips 66 gas station in Jennings. Three days earlier he saw his sister willingly get into a car with a man named Frankie Richard. Frankie was very well connected in Jennings' criminal underworld, rife with drugs, sex and violence. Everyone law enforcement, criminals and citizens alike knew Frankie. Anyway, later that same evening Loretta was seen at the Boudreaux Inn, a seedy hotel and bar famous for sex work and drug activity. There she was seen in the company of two other prostitutes, friends of hers.

Carole Townsend: 11:00

I'm going to take a minute here to share an observation, a fact, actually, that you probably already know, but I want to share it anyway because it matters in this story and elsewhere. There are people in this world who are invisible to many of us, to polite society. They're those who live on the edges, on the fringe of society, whether by choice or by circumstance. They are the sex workers, the people with substance use disorders, the mentally ill and the homeless. Of course, they're not really invisible, but most people don't actually want to see them. They politely look the other way or they dehumanize them by labeling them as being this or that. The bottom line is that if one of these invisible people was to actually disappear, who would notice, who would care and who would take the time and make the effort to find them or at least to find out what happened to them?

Carole Townsend: 12:00

In Jennings, those living on the south side of the tracks the wrong side believed that no one would care. They trusted neither the Jennings PD nor the Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff's Office. Such crimes in Jennings tended to languish unsolved for years, if they're ever solved. Loretta was one of the invisible people known and loved by her family and friends, but merely a statistic in the world of media and law enforcement. She did, after all, live a high-risk lifestyle. She spent a good deal of time in and out of jail. She committed the crimes of prostitution using illegal drugs, drugs and theft, but she was a human being and she was dead, and she died under suspicious and unusual circumstances. Those who knew her knew that she didn't slip and fall into the water by accident. She didn't commit suicide, but she knew things about people, powerful people, who didn't want their secrets known. She was also an informant for cops regarding the drug trade in Jennings and she knew things about those same cops. Her loved ones knew that much.

Carole Townsend: 13:27

A reporter for the local Jennings newspaper remembers that the day after Loretta's body was found, he was inundated with phone calls seeming to push the rumor of a serial killer at work in Jennings. While, yes, the murders in the Baton Rouge area had been committed by two different serial killers, this was Jefferson Davis Parish. This was a year after those murderers were apprehended and this was a single death, not several. Why were people talking about a serial killer? Surprisingly, even cops, including then-Sheriff Ricky Edwards, hinted that a serial killer could be the culprit. It just didn't make sense.

Carole Townsend: 14:11

Less than a month after Loretta's body was pulled from the Grand Marais Canal on June 17th, froggers in a dark bayou about six miles from that canal were quietly cruising the still dark waters of the bayou in the black of night, hunting frogs for a hearty Cajun meal of fried frog legs. Fog blanketed the black water and their flashlights illuminated thick, sticky spiderwebs laced from tree to tree. Not long into their fishing expedition, the froggers smelled something sick and sweet and rotten, that unmistakable scent of death. Once you've smelled it, you never forget it. Following that smell, they discovered the body of Ernestine Patterson floating in the water. Her body too was badly decomposed, and when a body is in that condition it takes months to identify the person. There were, however, obvious wounds to her body, deep cuts to her throat and her face, bruises on her hands. Examiners used bone tissue to eventually identify her. Drugs were found in Ernestine's talk screen as well. And listen to this. Ernestine and Loretta knew each other. They moved in the same circles and knew a lot of the same people. They both had a relentless drug habit on their backs and they both resorted to sex work to feed that habit.

Carole Townsend: 15:54

Of course, now that two women were dead and both dumped in canals, the serial killer rumor began to gain traction again. But in Ernestine's case, there were also rumors circulating that two men had killed her Byron Chad Jones and Lawrence Nixon. Supposedly, ernestine had approached these two men, offered Byron sex for money, and then the three went to an abandoned house to complete the transaction. The rumor was that these two men killed Ernestine and dumped her body in the bayou. Nixon's wife even told police. The two men showed up at her house with a large trash bag filled with something and soaked with blood. The two men left the bag there on the front porch and told her that they killed Ernestine. Nixon's own daughter saw her dad that night. His clothes soaked in blood. Later, eyewitnesses said that these men had left a jagged hunting knife in a nearby abandoned home. Based on these witness accounts, nixon and Jones were indicted for second-degree murder.

Carole Townsend: 17:06

The case fell apart pretty quickly, though, as the so-called evidence was just hearsay and unsubstantiated accusations. Police didn't test the front porch for blood for 16 months and, of course, none was found. Cops never went back to find the hunting knife. Charges against both men were dismissed. What was clear was that Ernestine had been murdered. Clearly her throat had been cut and her face was badly bruised. Bruises and cuts on her hands told the story of a life-or-death struggle. Once again, the community vibrated with the rumors of a serial killer, and law enforcement fanned that narrative.

Carole Townsend: 18:00

Two years passed following Ernestine's murder. Her death and Loretta's remained unsolved. Jennings' citizens, those from the other side of the tracks, didn't believe that law enforcement was putting any effort at all into solving these cases. These women were, after all, invisible, disposable. These women were, after all, invisible, disposable. At least that's what the community believed, that the police and deputies believed.

Carole Townsend: 18:28

Then, in March 2007, a third body was discovered, that of 21-year-old Kristen Gary Lopez. She was found floating in a canal nearly nude. She had very obviously been in the water for quite some time and her body was identified using dental records. According to her friends, kristen had a habit of disappearing for days, sometimes weeks. When she was binging on drugs, her father would smoke crack cocaine with her, so when she would disappear, no one would be too worried. After all, she was likely with her dad and she always came back eventually.

Carole Townsend: 19:10

You see, kristen and other young women, including Loretta and sometimes Ernestine, would often hang out at Kristen's dad's camper and use drugs. And always with them always with the seemingly endless supply of those drugs, was the man I mentioned earlier, frankie Richard. Some of Kristen's friends did tell police, however, that in the days leading up to her death, kristen seemed nervous, even paranoid, always looking over her shoulder, but she would never say why. Now Frank Richard was a self-described friend to these young women and he admittedly used the illegal drugs he so freely supplied to them. Frank said that as a friend he would introduce these young women to older gentlemen, protect the women when necessary and collect money from the men at the Boudreaux Inn or wherever the sex work took place. Frank called himself a friend and a facilitator to these vulnerable women. Others, I believe, might call that a pimp. Now, when Kristen was reported missing, her friend Hannah Cooper thought that was odd. Kristen, like the other murdered women, would sometimes disappear for days when she'd binge her drugs. Her friends never thought anything of it, as she always turned up again in a few days or weeks. In fact, hannah, kristen, kristen's father, billy, and Frankie Richard often hung out together in Billy's camper and used drugs together. Hannah, who happens to be Frankie Richard's niece, offered her help to cops as they looked into Kristen's disappearance.

Carole Townsend: 21:04

Three women now dead, three women who knew each other and who shared similar life circumstances. Sheriff Ricky Edwards, still pushing the serial killer theory, began hinting that these women met their violent end because of their high-risk lifestyle. In other words, they were asking for it. Such women, he would add, make themselves easy targets for murderers. There was just one problem with that narrative Victims of serial killers rarely know each other and usually don't move in the same close circles. Still, edwards' insinuations seem to make those who lived on the right side of the tracks feel safer.

Carole Townsend: 21:56

On May 12, 2007, a fourth body was found in Jefferson Davis Parish. 26-year-old Whitney Dubois' nude body was discovered not floating in a canal but dumped on a country road. The parish coroner again couldn't determine a cause of death. It was obvious by the condition of her remains, however, that Whitney's face and body had been badly beaten. And yes, whitney knew the other victims well. She was addicted to crack cocaine and she often resorted to sex work to fund her habit. She was also a police informant, as were the other victims. Whitney's body had been found by another drug user, a man named Jamie Trujuan, who told police he discovered the body that morning. Another informant said that Trujuan was lying and he had actually seen Whitney's body in the road the night before. It turns out that Trujan is a friend of Frankie Richard's and it's been suggested that both Richard and Trujan knew about Whitney's death and the placement of her body well before both were reported to law enforcement.

Carole Townsend: 23:14

Sheriff Ricky Edwards told the media that his department had a few persons of interest at the time, but they were never named and no arrest was ever made. In this case either Four bodies. The public was scared and on both sides of the tracks, the sheriff, for the first time, steering clear of the serial killer conversation, glibly suggested to a reporter that while he didn't suspect a serial killer, he suspected that they may have a serial dumper on their hands. And he continued to insinuate that the young women's lifestyles were likely the reasons for their deaths, that the young women's lifestyles were likely the reasons for their deaths. Families who called his office, begging for updates and answers, got nothing.

Carole Townsend: 24:01

And then two arrests were made for Kristen's murder. Hannah Cooper and her uncle, frankie Richard, were taken into custody for killing Kristen Lopez, based on accusations made by Jennings' woman, tracy Chanson. The two were accused of murdering the young woman, frankie for beating her and Hannah for holding her head underwater, all because Whitney reportedly refused to have sex with Frankie. The sheriff's office made a big media splash about the arrests and fears for the time were quelled. A couple of weeks later, however, both suspects were released. Due to lack of conclusive evidence, tracy recanted her statement. Hannah and Frankie were quietly cleared of all wrongdoing and released back out into the community. And now listen to this.

Carole Townsend: 24:59

In 2007, the chief of detectives in the Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff's Office, warren Gary, purchased a Chevy Silverado truck from a female inmate in the county jail. This inmate was a known associate of Frankie Richard. After buying the truck for around $7,000, gary allegedly had it washed and thoroughly cleaned and then quickly resold it for about $15,000. A witness had told police that she saw Kristen Lopez in that same truck on the very day she disappeared, but by then the detective had washed and resold the truck. The white Chevy Silverado was likely the vehicle in which Kristen Lopez's body was transported after she was murdered. This transaction was clearly a breach of professional ethics, at the very least Obstruction of justice, maybe Concealing evidence, maybe Really really poor judgment? No doubt Now are you sitting down, warren? Gary was fined $10,000 by the Louisiana Board of Ethics, but he was cleared of any criminal charges and Sheriff Ricky Edwards then promoted him to become the head of the evidence room at the sheriff's office. I don't know what rats smell like, but I think I'm smelling one now.

Carole Townsend: 26:36

By now, frankie Richard's name was becoming associated in one way or another with all four of these murders. He owned several strip clubs, he was a pimp, he was a drug dealer, and yet he seemed absolutely untouchable with respect to these murders or for any of the other crimes he committed on a daily basis. And yet he seemed absolutely untouchable with respect to these murders or for any of the other crimes he committed on a daily basis. Why? On May 29, 2008, the body of Laconia Muggy Brown was found partially nude dumped on an out-of-the-way, deserted dirt road in Jennings. She had told her mom just a day before she was murdered that she felt like she'd be the next victim. She knew the other four women and she obviously knew even more than just that. She left her parents' house that night to go to a friend's house for a gumbo a get-together where that thick, spicy Creole stew is served and before she left she asked her mother to promise that if anything should happen to her, her mom would promise to raise her young son.

Carole Townsend: 27:50

Laconia, or Muggy's body was found lying in the middle of Raka Road by a cop around 5 am the next day. Muggy's sister had a question about that why would a cop be driving way out on a very rural road, a dirt road at that hour. And she had another question why was Muggy's family not allowed to see her body? Police told them, as they had told the other victims families, that her body was too decomposed to identify her, but she had been at her parents home, basically predicting her own murder less than 12 hours earlier. Her own murder less than 12 hours earlier. Five bodies now, five murders.

Carole Townsend: 28:42

People in the community were beginning to draw their own conclusions and they believed that all the killings were connected, but not necessarily committed by one deranged serial killer. They were connecting the murders using the one common thread Frankie Richard. So why was he so free to walk the streets and live his life unencumbered in the community that was home to these women? Sheriff Ricky Edwards, however, didn't see it that way. Edwards again pointed to the women's drug use and the sex trade as the likely reasons for their deaths.

Carole Townsend: 29:18

And then, on September 11, 2008, a body was found on a levee in a remote wooded area just south of Jennings. The body was so badly decomposed that hunters couldn't even tell what it was. They thought it might have been a coyote until they found a human skull nearby. When law enforcement officers arrived, they couldn't tell if the remains belonged to a man or a woman black or white. Evaluation of the remains identified 26-year-old Crystal Benoit Zeno as the victim and her death was ruled a homicide. She was last seen alive on August 27th. Crystal knew the other victims. She battled substance abuse, she fed her habit with sex work and she knew many Jefferson Davis Parish deputies and jailers, as did the other women, because they were in and out of that jail often. Here's another interesting fact that just doesn't add up. About 20 minutes after the radio call went out about a body being found on the levee, detectives were knocking on the front door at Crystal's house asking questions about when she was last seen and whether she was feared missing. But the body found on the levee wasn't identified as being Crystal's for some time because of the condition it was in. How did the detectives know that it was Crystal or that it could have been her? Were these women being killed simply because they were considered disposable, invisible, and if so, who was doing the killing and why?

Carole Townsend: 31:08

In November 2008, 17-year-old Brittany Gary went missing. Brittany was the cousin of the third murder victim, kristen Gary Lopez. She was last seen at the Dollar General store just minutes from her home where she lived with her mother Teresa. Two weeks later, the decomposed body of a young girl was found in some tall grasses by a creek. She was posed as though she was sleeping on her side, her head resting on her hands. Sheriff Edwards told Brittany's mother about tattoos on the body and asked if she could identify Brittany by those tattoos. The body was Brittany's, sadly, but her mother questioned how the sheriff knew about her tattoos, as none were visible on her body as she was found. She has never believed that a serial killer or that even Frankie Richard is the murderer. Brittany's mother believes that law enforcement is somehow involved After seven murders in about four years, believes that law enforcement is somehow involved After seven murders in about four years, sheriff Edwards finally commissioned a task force to investigate and solve the crimes.

Carole Townsend: 32:23

If he thought that move would pacify and build confidence in the Sheriff's Department's efforts, he was mistaken. He was heckled, booed and questioned relentlessly about his department's failure to make headway in the cases. And if anyone did hold out hope that the task force would make a difference, that hope was quickly snuffed out. Many tipsters reported that the task force wouldn't even return their calls or follow up on leads they were given, suspicion began to swell with respect to wrongdoing by both the sheriff's office and the Jennings PD. On August 19, 2009,. Body number 8 was found dumped on the side of I-10. This act alone indicated the brazenness of the killer, or killers, who would dump a body on the side of a very busy interstate highway and with a task force in place to hunt down the killer.

Carole Townsend: 33:26

The young woman's body was identified as being that of Jennings resident Nicole Guillory. Nicole was no stranger to law enforcement. She spent almost as much time in jail as she did at home. She abused drugs, she committed crimes to pay for those drugs and her uncle, Terry Guillory, was the warden in the jail in Jefferson Davis Parish and formerly a Jennings police officer. Nicole had told him and another officer in an interview that the jailers regularly had sex with the female inmates, either consensual or by force. Those jailers said Nicole would give the women cigarettes, drugs, alcohol and other things for their compliance and for their silence.

Carole Townsend: 34:19

Nicole knew all seven of the other murder victims and she confirmed that the victims were police informants about drug dealers and sometimes they even provided information about each other to law enforcement. Many of the murder victims had had sex with jailers while incarcerated, nicole included. Some of the victims had even witnessed the murders as they took place and they alleged that it was law enforcement officers or those hired to do their bidding who had committed the murders. It is alleged that Terry Guillory had had sexual relations with several of the victims, including Loretta Chasson. Disgraced but promoted Detective Warren Gary was guilty of the same transgression, as were others others.

Carole Townsend: 35:23

Shortly before her death, nicole told her mother that she was sure she'd be the next victim. She had become so paranoid about her safety that she locked herself in her room for two weeks, afraid to come out at all. When her mother asked her what kind of birthday cake she'd like for her upcoming celebration, nicole told her that she wouldn't live to see her next birthday and not to bother making a cake. After Nicole's body was found, sheriff Ricky Edwards raised the reward amount and reiterated that the task force was looking for a single killer in all eight murders In a town of about 10,000 people. How could no one know anything about these murders? It seems impossible, but Nicole, before her death, had said something that would prove to be very important to this case. She had told a couple of people that she knew from the beginning who was murdering the young women. She said it was members of law enforcement, troubling all of it. Let me say that as of 2025, these murders, now referred to as the Jeff Davis Eight or Jennings Eight, remain unsolved.

Carole Townsend: 36:47

When New York Times reporter Campbell Robertson reported this unsettling phenomenon in 2010, investigative reporter Ethan Brown paid attention. He visited Jennings and he was troubled from the very beginning. He was troubled by the apathy he felt from law enforcement. He was troubled by the obvious mistrust the people had for the sheriff's office and police department. He was troubled that there were clear conflicts of interest among some task force members, such as Terry Guillory's ex-wife being a member of that task force. He was troubled that the only two people in any position of authority in law enforcement a jail nurse and a detective who tried to blow the whistle about the blatant wrongdoing in Jefferson Davis Parish had been fired. He was troubled when he eventually learned of a Jefferson Davis Parish deputy who was a frequent client of the murder victims and he had a reputation for being a sexual sadist and a deviant. Something is very wrong in Jennings, louisiana, and if not for the brutal murders of eight women considered by law enforcement and others, to be invisible, to be disposable. The world might never have known. Brown spent years doing some of the most thorough investigative work I've ever seen, and the bulk of the information I've shared here is a direct result of his work. In fact, his book Murder in the Bayou sparked a well-produced 2019 docuseries by the same name. There was hope that the book and the series would rekindle the investigation into the slain women, the Jefferson Davis Eight.

Carole Townsend: 38:42

Frankie Richard died on March 22, 2020, at the age of 64. He went to his grave, denying any involvement in the murders. He went to his grave denying any involvement in the murders. Sheriff Ricky Edwards didn't seek re-election in 2011 and he left office in 2012, joining the Louisiana Sheriffs Association, where he works in operations. Support. Sheriff Ivey Woods was elected Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff replacing Edwards. Hopes ran high that Woods, who ran on a platform of solving the murders, would finally get to the truth about the brutal killings, but these hopes were soon dashed, as any tips or leads went exactly nowhere under his leadership.

Carole Townsend: 39:37

Law enforcement in the Jefferson Davis Parish in Jennings denies any allegations of misconduct or of sloppy investigative work and, of course, of any involvement in any of the eight unsolved murders, and United States Representative Charles Boustany, a Republican lawmaker from Lafayette, louisiana, filed suit against author Ethan Brown and his publisher for suggesting that the congressman solicited prostitutes at the Boudreaux Inn and that he profited financially from the inn's shady business dealings. Feelings Boustani dropped that suit a few months later, after he lost the November 2016 election, saying he felt it was best for all concerned. Who murdered these women? Was it Frankie Richard, the man who seemed untouchable in Jefferson Davis Parish? Was he protected by law enforcement because of his connections and the things he knew about drugs and crime in Jennings? Were the murders committed by several people for various reasons, and it was merely coincidence that the victims all knew each other, all had substance abuse issues and they were all sex workers? Did corrupt men in law enforcement murder these women because they saw and heard things that were incriminating to police? Or was there, in fact, a serial killer loose in the parish? I believe that Ethan Brown got very close to the answers and the things he discovered made these invisible women visible. He made them real and he reminded us that they mattered. To date, all eight murders remain unsolved.

Carole Townsend: 41:34

I'm Carole Townsend, veteran newspaper journalist and six-time award-winning author. You can find me at caroltownsendcom, anywhere on social media and be sure to check out the Front Porch Mysteries Facebook page. I'd love to hear from you, as always. Thanks for listening, and if you're enjoying these tales of Southern history and lore, I hope you'll tell your friends.

Carole Townsend: 42:03

My team and I reference the following sources to bring this sobering story to you the book Murder in the Bayou by Ethan Brown, the docuseries by the same name, investigation Discovery's Five Things you Need to Know About the Complex Case of the Jennings Eight, Biographycom Jeff Davis Ate. The True Story of the Murder in the Bayou Killings. And Channel 10 WBNS news in Louisiana. You.