Hello!
Welcome back to another episode of Diagnosing a Killer.
I'm Kenna and I'm Koel.
Welcome back everybody.
Hey!
How's it going?
Good.
Little foggy brain today but I just had my coffee so I think I'll be okay.
The night coffee.
That's a good night coffee.
That's nice.
Everything has been- actually I had a pretty decent day.
I think that I was finally able to get out and get some sunlight and that helped a lot.
I did the opposite of that today and that's what I'll be doing tomorrow.
There you go.
It's on my schedule to get some sunlight tomorrow.
Perfect.
Do you have anything before we get started?
I do.
I have an apology to make.
Okay.
I do.
We actually got a message from a listener.
It is Tyler.
Tyler.
He said, great episode and kudos to y'all for putting in the work the day that you lost
a pet as well.
It couldn't have been easy on y'all, expected or not.
Not to be the well actually kinda dude.
But I did want to point out for the sake of political correctness or whatever you want
to call it, that when you were talking about the Ukrainian child, that is an example of
RAD.
I'm blanking on their name right now.
But you kept saying the Ukraine, which is typically considered pro-Russian terminology
because it infers that it's a territory rather than its own country.
I didn't know if y'all typically had any listeners in the Ukraine or anything, but
I did want to make you aware of that.
So that is my bad.
My apology is absolutely- now that is something that I learned today.
So it's just referred to as Ukraine?
Ukraine.
Okay, well I didn't know that either.
Thank you Tyler for clarifying that for us.
So Natalie Grace, Natalia Grace rather is Ukrainian.
I guess it makes sense because you wouldn't say-
You wouldn't say the Russia, the Australia.
Yeah, that doesn't make sense.
But yeah, I guess something we didn't think about.
So there you go.
Thanks Tyler.
Yeah, absolutely.
And thanks for being such a loyal listener and friend.
Do you want to give everybody our handles before we get started, if this is their first
time listening?
Sure, you can check us out on any social media platform at Diagnostia Killer, other than
X formerly known as Twitter, which is at Killer Diagnosis.
We also have a Patreon, and every month you will get an added bonus episode for our tier
2 and 3 Patreon members.
Those come out towards the end of the month, this month you are getting two bonus episodes
because they love each other.
We also have a PayPal, a Venmo, and a Cash App that is at Diagnostia Killer if you would
like to make a monetary donation.
Alright, I think that's everything.
Or maybe we should mention the True Crime and Paranormal Podcast Festival.
That's right.
You can come see us and Denver at the True Crime Paranormal Podcast Festival from the
12th of July to the 14th of July.
It is Kenna's birthday weekend, so we are gonna turn it up.
Hell yeah.
Yeah.
Alright, I think we should just go ahead and get right on into this episode.
This is someone that I actually didn't know about before I started researching.
His name was in my notes because I think I had maybe seen a short video of him or just
heard about him.
So I was like, oh, I'm just gonna go ahead and do it.
So we're going to be talking today about Ronald Dominic, aka the Bayou Strangler.
I've never heard of this case.
The Bayou Strangler.
You'd think that you would remember if you had heard that before.
I don't know.
Bayou.
Content warning, this episode contains depictions of sexual assault of minors, drug addiction,
and negative talk about the sex work community.
If this episode is not for you, we encourage you to find another one of our episodes.
Remember your mental health is very important to us and we love you.
Love you.
Bye.
So yes, the Bayou Strangler.
Here we go.
Ronald Joseph Dominic was born on January 9th, 1964 in Tibidow, Louisiana.
He's a Capricorn.
Always.
He was the youngest of six children born to poor laborers and the family lived in a trailer
park located on the outskirts of the city.
I could not find the name of his parents, no matter how hard I looked.
I don't know if that was intentionally not, but they don't have their names out there.
Dan Wozniak's parents were really hard to find their name.
I think they found one article where they had their name.
They were just like, nah, not my kid.
Pass.
Yikes, hard pass.
Due to the family being not well off financially, Ronald lived out his young childhood with
very little.
There's again, not really much known about his grade school years.
His early childhood is very hard to decipher.
It's just really not there.
Not your rest of second?
1964.
Okay, so it wasn't even that long ago.
It wasn't, but I don't know.
I think it's just like scrapped because they're like, we don't want this information on.
Ronald would go on to attend Tibidow High School around the year 1979.
While in high school, Ronald was known to be melancholy most of the time with minimal
communication skills and low self-esteem.
This might just be because of the lack of education due to the family not being well
off, but there's clearly some social challenges that he was facing.
He was actually physically larger than most of his classmates in his school, and he would
also struggle with health problems due to his weight, so he would be picked on for that
as well.
He was a heavy guy.
Yeah, he did struggle with his weight, and I think that might have caused some sort
of breathing problems or whatever.
Ronald would join the school choir and the Glee Club, even though he was considered melancholy,
and was generally considered unpopular and a social outcast by his peers.
He was not involved in sports, and he didn't really partake in the extracurricular activities,
like drinking and smoking like his other classmates.
So he just was very much a loner.
He was just, yeah, just kind of an outcast, you know.
But despite all of this, Ronald would graduate high school in 1983 and enroll in Nichols
State University, where he studied computer science.
While there, Ronald experienced somewhat similar things to high school in terms of peers, and
it was around this time that he would begin to lean towards his true identity.
Ronald would fully discover that he was gay, and he would begin frequenting a local gay
bar.
Unfortunately, some of Ronald's classmates would spot him entering and leaving the gay
bar and actually at the gay bar, and they would begin harassing him about it.
But I'm like, you were there.
No, my girlfriend drugged me here.
Yeah.
That's the gay bar.
Exactly.
So it was kind of like, you're making fun of me, but you're also like hanging out.
But like, you know, down at the strip.
After being ridiculed essentially, Ronald would intensely deny the accusations that he was
gay, but his classmates were unfortunately relentless.
Ronald would not find much solace at the bar as either, as the patrons of the bar would
find him to be unsettling and off-putting whenever he was around.
He's a real dumber, right?
Right.
He's like, don't hang out with that guy.
Although dumber was like, apparently.
He was like popular.
He was a hot commodity.
Ronald would ultimately drop out of college in the mid 1980s.
On June 12th, 1985, Ronald would be arrested on charges of sexual harassment committed
via telephone and was fined $75 for this charge.
Was he like calling people in mouth breathing?
Yeah, I think so.
He's something.
So gross.
It's so gross.
So gross.
Due to his not having a college degree, Ronald was left to engage in low-skilled labor
jobs for the following years, and he would struggle to hold down jobs due to his disciplinary
issues.
He didn't really have a great time with authority, and he was kind of unwilling to remain in
a job for a long period of time.
He probably called his job all the time, mouth breathing.
That's probably where he got the charge from.
The telephone was a lawless woman back then.
As soon as he gets fired, he starts sexually harassing people via telephone.
Well, it was before caller ID.
Yeah, that's very true.
I had a girlfriend of mine growing up that she had her own telephone line, and she would
get a mouth breather.
And for the longest time, I didn't believe her until I picked up the phone one day, and
I heard a dude mouth breathing on the other end.
Creepy.
What is the point?
The main line had a caller ID, but her line didn't.
That's creepy.
I guess the point is fear tactic or whatever, or just being creepy.
Yeah, just being creepy.
When you get out of that.
You're not even saying anything.
You're just breathing.
You don't even get a conversation out of this.
So, due to not being able to hold down a job for a long period of time, Ronald would live
with the relatives and would survive off of other people's income.
Oh, he was a bum.
Yes.
Out of these people, he would take advantage of his older sister and his mother the most.
In May of 1994, Ronald would be arrested for drunk driving, and it would be fined again
for this offense.
So, it's- I'm not gonna say- clearly this is gonna build up, right?
Yeah.
But in this crime, it's kind of like, all right, drunk driving, mouth breathing, you
know, these- Tom peeping.
Tom peeping.
Yeah.
I wouldn't- I'm not gonna say that these are harmless crimes, but-
Yeah, it's very much so.
This story is like these little things that he's getting in trouble for, and then like
all of a sudden it goes to murder.
Like that's not a secret.
This is a murder bucket.
But I almost think that like he was doing a lot of things that he just didn't get caught
for.
I see.
And I don't know where this even came from.
Like I don't know if he just felt so outcasted his whole life, and that's why he wanted to
like take revenge like we've heard before.
Or if he was dealing with these feelings his whole life and was trying to join up with
like the Glee Club and choir and stuff to like get away from that and then he just succumbed
to it.
I mean, this would be in his mid-20s, you know, so it makes sense.
It is kind of mirroring, I mean, I guess we haven't really talked because we don't know
much about the parents.
What the mother-son dynamic was, but you did say like that he's clearly going to live
with or is living with the sister and the mom, or at least taking advantage of them.
So I'm wondering if that's part of that.
He's like seeking that nurture or because he has a connection with his mom or his sister.
It sounds like Kemper, that's what I'm saying.
Yeah, for sure.
And it sounds like he, I mean, obviously has struggled with his identity in the past, and
when he decided to come out as being homosexual, he got ridiculed for it.
So he probably has some inner like anger, you know.
Two years later on August 25th, 1996, a partially naked young male would be seen jumping out
of a window of Ronald's sister's home where Ronald was living at the time.
The boy would run to neighbors where he told them that Ronald had raped him and attempted
to kill him.
Ronald would subsequently be arrested for this and charged with forcible rape with
his bail being set at $100,000.
When the case got transferred to the court, the prosecutor's office was unable to locate
the victim or even establish his identity.
What?
Due to this, the case would be dismissed in November of that year.
Can't find the victim, so just let him go.
I don't know if he was threatened or if he just decided maybe it's not worth it.
Maybe he wasn't out himself and didn't want to go through all of that, not exactly sure.
But yeah, the charges would be dropped.
But still, you would think like there's a claim.
At least he's on the radar.
Yeah, for sure.
Following this, Ronald would continue to frequent local gay bars without finding any luck with
relationships.
He would use his love of singing and glee club background to involve himself with music.
Ronald would also frequently be seen dressed up as singer Patty LaBelle, with whom he was
a big fan.
I love Patty LaBelle.
So he would show up to the bar as a Patty LaBelle impersonator.
Yeah.
Sweet dear, Miss Patty LaBelle.
Love it.
On July 12th of 1997, 19-year-old David Mitchell was hitchhiking back home after leaving a
relative's birthday party at his grandmother's home where he was picked up by Ronald.
Don't know why a relative didn't drive him home, maybe everyone was busy or too drunk.
He's like, fuck it, I'll just hitchhike.
I think he's probably just a really big Patty LaBelle fan.
What?
Oh, it's a guy.
Just imagine him in the car dressed as Patty LaBelle.
Where he was picked up by Patty LaBelle.
Where he...
No, this isn't funny.
Sorry.
Ronald would take David back to his house with the promise of sexual activity.
And here he would bind torture, rape, and ultimately murder David.
Ronald was noted as stating about this later that he knew after his first victim got away
that he would be facing jail time if he did not kill his future victims.
So okay, great.
So he's like, oh, I let one get away and now I can't do that.
Now I can't do that ever again, so they're all gonna die.
Oh my god, that's awful.
David's body would be found two days later on July 14th in 1997 in a ditch along a highway
near a sugarcane field in St. Charles Parish.
Forensic research found that there was ditch water in David's lungs, but no trace of physical
trauma, drugs, or alcohol.
David's death would initially be ruled an accidental drowning, but his father insisted
that his son was an excellent swimmer and he knew that he had been murdered.
This was more believable, especially due to the fact that the water level in the ditch
was very low and that David's pants had been found around his ankles when he was discovered.
Oh yeah, but he just like drowned.
He just like took his pants off and then drowned.
He literally laid down face down, like he would have to make himself.
Exactly.
That's silly.
The Louisiana State Police launched a task force of sheriffs from nine parishes shortly
after the death of David.
Unfortunately, nothing would come of the investigation.
That's a lot of police energy though.
That's interesting.
I think this is like eventually, I don't know actually, maybe it was because the dad
was super insistent like, no, like you need to fucking look into this.
Yeah, that reminded me of Sam Hur and Steve Hur, his dad, from the Dan Wasniac case, how
they thought that Sam had murdered Julie and the police were looking for Sam as a suspect
and Steve's like, my son didn't do this.
You will find him, but my son did not do this.
Yeah, that's gotta be awful to not be believed.
Right.
In December of 1997, 20 year old Gary Pierre was picked up by Ronald and would become his
second victim.
Well, murder victim.
Gary had recently been arrested for drug trafficking and his body would be found fully clothed
with no signs of physical trauma or drugs in his system.
Interesting.
Because of this, investigators did not rule his death a homicide immediately.
The following year on July 31st, 1998, 38 year old Larry Ranson would become Ronald's
next victim.
Larry was known to have been struggling with drug addiction and was living on the streets
at the time of his murder.
Again, due to these things, there was not a strong investigation following his death.
I can't believe I've never heard of this case.
Yes, and we'll see like it's like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, like victim after victim.
Yeah.
Like I've done cases like this before.
In early October of 1998, Ronald met 27 year old Oliver LeBanks and I think it's called
a Metri, which is a part of New Orleans.
According to Ronald, Oliver was addicted to drugs and he offered Ronald sexual services
in exchange for money.
Ronald stated that he took Oliver up on his offer and then he strangled him to death following
the encounter.
Oliver LeBanks body would be found a few days later on October 4th on the outskirts of New
Orleans.
During the autopsy of Oliver's body, traces of semen were found on his body.
Relatives and friends of Oliver's would later comment about his lifestyle and said that
he only began abusing drugs and living on the streets following him losing his most
recent job for drug use.
Which is really sad.
That is sad.
The same month, October of 1998, 16 year old Joseph Brown was lured into Ronald's truck
and Kenner under the guise of buying crack cocaine.
After doing the drugs together, Ronald would beat the teens several times on the head with
a blunt object and would proceed to strangle him to death with a plastic bag.
It's just awful.
So many people already.
Yeah.
Well, I find it interesting.
I mean, I guess we have seen it in cases before but that he is targeting people that
are drug users.
Yeah, and on the streets.
A month later, 18 year old Bruce Williams would also become a victim of Ronald's with
similar circumstances being his cause of death.
In May of 1999, a 36 year old Ronald was driving around Kenner when he came across 21 year old
Manuel Reed who offered to sell Ronald drugs.
Ronald stated that he agreed to the offer and allowed Manuel into his truck where he
would ultimately rape and strangle him to death as well.
Your saying stated.
So I'm assuming there is some type of a confession later.
What?
I don't know what you're talking about.
What's over there?
Ronald would dump Manuel's body into an industrial site in the city about a mile from where
Joseph Brown's body was found.
And he's getting lazy, essentially.
He's just throwing him a thing.
And we'll see a lot of his victims are found days after they're murdered.
It's not like they're there for months.
I see, yeah.
So he's positioning these bodies in a way that someone would find them.
I don't know if he's doing it on purpose though.
Yeah, yeah.
I think he's just like whatever.
You know, kind of like convenience.
Yeah, it's just like this is as good a spot as any.
Yeah.
Whether it's your favorite browser or by app, listening to audiobooks with audiobooks
now makes it easier and more affordable to enjoy your favorite books.
Audiobooks Now subscribers receive their club price plan and includes other amazing
deals.
Click the link in the show notes for an exclusive offer today.
Get audiobooks you love for less with audiobooks now.
Similar to Oliver LeBanks, traces of semen were found on Manuel's body belonging to
an unknown male.
Just to get everybody up to speed, this is now seven murder victims that have been killed.
In the span of how long?
A couple of years.
A month following this, in June of 1999, 21-year-old Angelma J.
A transient male with a past conviction for drug possession became Ronald's next victim.
Following killing Angel, Ronald attempted to dump his body in a dumpster, but after discovering
that it was full, Ronald would dump Angel's body on the street just out in the open.
Oh my god.
I think I'm telling you, I think it's just convenience, like whatever.
I just need to get rid of this body.
Yeah.
Oh my god.
After examining the corpse, the coroner would find that the victim had been tied up with
rope prior to his death.
So he's escalating.
Yeah, but it definitely seems like sloppy.
Yeah.
It's like, what were we talking about, the different types of killers?
It's like he's the disorganized type.
Yeah.
And it's just like anybody that he sees, or anybody can be a victim.
He's not, I mean, he's specifically targeting young men, of course, but like, oh, if I
see one on the street, I'm gonna try to lure him.
Yeah, that's just, but I find it interesting that it's been a few years and I guess, here's
the thing though.
We've seen it again before in cases, but there's certain demographics of people that do not
get police attention.
For sure.
And although they might be slowly linking these crimes together, is it like from page
news, probably not?
Well, yeah.
And of course, and like we said, a lot of these people had known problems with drug use.
So it's like who's to say that they didn't just overdose, right?
The police might be thinking that.
Right.
Or it's a drug deal gone wrong.
Yeah.
Or if they don't have like marks, you know, that are really obvious and they might not
even be a homicide in their eyes, you know?
Yeah.
The investigation into the killings, it's funny you say that, it was still ongoing.
But at this point, investigators had discovered that Gary Pierre, Joseph Brown, and Angel
Mejia had not only all known each other, but had all lived within close proximity to each
other.
What?
They were all friends.
Oh my gosh.
Well, acquaintances, I guess.
Yeah.
But it's like hunting grounds for him.
Like this is his hunting ground.
Exactly.
In late August of 1999, Ronald would meet 34 year old Mitchell Johnson and offered him
drugs in exchange for sexual favors.
He would then take Mitchell to the forest outside Metruyre where he bound him, raped,
and strangled him to death.
Mitchell's fully nude body would be found on September 1st.
In January of the year 2000, Ronald would meet 23 year old Michael Vincent in LaFourche,
Parish, and subsequently lead him to the same fate as his other victims.
That was like last year.
2000?
Yeah, it was.
In early October of 2000, 20 year old Kenneth Randolph Jr., a three time prosecuted child
sex offender, would meet Ronald and the two would become friends.
Oh yeah.
Douche meets douche.
Okay.
Douche meets douche.
Kenneth lived in the trailer park next to Ronald, and since the two were acquainted,
Kenneth thought nothing of it when Ronald invited him back to his trailer.
Ronald would also include the lie that a girl was waiting at his trailer for Kenneth and
that she was interested in sex.
Because this guy was not homosexual.
Once the two were alone, Ronald would attack and murder Kenneth, taking his body to a field
outside the city and dumping him.
Kenneth's remains would be found a few days later on October 6th.
But isn't that kind of gross that he was like, oh there's a little girl waiting for
you to have sex with her over my trailer?
Like, ugh.
I could say something really fucked up right now.
Don't.
So 2001 was kind of a lull for Ronald as there was no record of any murders that actually
took place during this year, which I thought was interesting.
Because if you really did take a hiatus, like a year-long hiatus, that's difficult to do
when you're a serial killer.
Yeah, and again, I keep calling back to other cases, but it's true, like when you have a
job change or a location change or a lifestyle change, but sometimes there is a lull.
Yeah, for sure.
On February 10th, 2002, Ronald would be arrested yet again, this time for assaulting a woman
in Tarabani Parish during a Mardi Gras festival.
Ronald had claimed that he witnessed this woman hit a baby stroller with her car in
one of the parking lots, and he tracked her down to demand an apology.
Okay, so that's what I was gonna say.
I'm sure everybody's curious, it's the horrible thing I was gonna say, but it was like, look,
I'm here vigilante, right?
He took out the sexual child predator, and now he's a hero for saving a baby in a stroller.
The woman would apologize to him, and Ronald would respond by punching her in the face.
That's not funny.
I am Batman.
Just punches her in the face.
That's terrible.
Ronald would be charged with assault, but these charges would also later be dropped after
an agreement of reconciliation was reached between him and the woman.
Yeah, I'm sure she was like, pay for my medical bills.
During this time, no one was the wiser that the man who had been arrested was responsible
for the deaths of at least 11 people.
On October 12, 2002, 26-year-old Anoka Jones would meet Ronald while he was living on the
streets in Halma.
Anoka?
What's an interesting name?
It is.
Anoka was noted as being financially strained and a petty criminal, so he was pretty willing
to do anything for money.
Ronald would lure him to his car where he attacked, tied up, raped, and strangled Anoka
to death.
Ronald would dump Anoka's body under a highway overpass where it would be discovered several
hours later.
That's what I'm saying.
He just doesn't care.
He's getting ballsy as fuck.
He's just like, whatever.
Nobody's going to catch me.
Nobody cares about these people.
Well, he's probably like, nobody cares about me.
You know?
He's like, I'm not important.
Fuck it.
I mean, that's what he was taught his whole life, that he was insignificant, right?
In late 2002, Ronald's sister would move, and Ronald would of course follow with her,
having nowhere else to go.
They would both move to the rural community of Bayou Blue.
Here, Ronald would find a job as a specialist who checked electricity levels at a local
power supply, allowing him to periodically travel.
Around this time, 19-year-old Detrell Woods would become the next victim of Ronald's.
His partially nude body and bicycle would be dumped in a field where it would remain
undiscovered until May 24th of 2003.
Detrell's cause of death would be determined to be asphyxiation from accidental causes.
Detrell was known to have suffered from asthma, so police would rule his death as an accident.
I see.
I was going to ask.
Like, how?
How?
Accidentally get choked to death?
Yeah.
No, but that's really awful, because he has asthma, and they're like, it's almost like
they're finding something else.
Was any other reason they could have died besides being murdered?
They were drug addiction?
They were homeless?
You know, the elements?
Right, this asthma?
Yeah.
It's just, there's not a lot of effort getting put into this like ME report or like the investigation.
Right.
Yeah.
2003 was another lull year for Ronald, as there are no recorded murders during this
year as well.
However, it is unknown if Detrell was killed at the end of 2002 or the beginning of 2003.
Regardless, the rest of the year 2003 was, there's nothing on record.
Yeah.
In October of 2004, Ronald would lure 46 year old Larry Matthews to his home with the promise
of drugs.
And this is interesting too, because this is his oldest victim.
Usually he, I mean, he has, I think anywhere from like 16 to 46 is his like range, maybe
a little bit here, give or take.
But typically you've seen like 1920, 21, 22.
Early 20s.
Yeah, exactly.
While the two were engaging in drug use, according to Ronald, Larry would lose consciousness
due to an overdose and Ronald would take advantage of this by raping and strangling the man.
Ronald would dump Larry's body 20 miles from the crime scene.
Like I said, like, I'm not laughing.
It's like he might have just, I'm, I'm, I'm confalling at the ridiculousness.
Like it's like, oh no, I didn't, I didn't make him pass out.
He did that.
He was overdosing.
Exactly.
To rape him.
Right.
But it's like, it's like, even if he was just trying to do drugs with this guy, as soon
as the opportunity arises or like presents itself, he's like, well, might as well just
rape and kill him.
Like, he's a sloppy opportunist.
He really is.
Since Larry was living on the streets at the time of his murder, nobody initially reported
him as missing.
That was another thing I was going to say.
Is that these people probably don't have allowed advocates either.
Exactly.
So the police can say whatever they want on a medical or, you know, on the cause of death,
not the police, but they would accept medical examiners, professional opinion, I'm missing
me.
Because they're like, there's no family looking forward anyway.
Exactly.
So it's like, homeboy that had their dad be their advocate, right?
Yeah.
Once Larry's body was discovered, it had to be identified via fingerprints.
I think it's because it was just decomposed.
Hmm.
21 year old Michael Barnett's body would be found on October 24th, 2004, and it would
later be discovered that he was also a victim of Ronald Dominic.
In February of 2005, Ronald would murder 22 year old Leon Lorette.
According to sources, Leon struggled with alcohol abuse and was also an old roommate
of two of Ronald's previous victims.
This guy.
Michael Barnett and Anoka Jones.
Hmm.
Leon was actually the prime suspect in the murder of his two old roommates.
That is, until he became a victim himself.
What the fuck?
Do you think he like takes their identification and stuff and then, I don't know, like, this
sounds cruel, but like picks them off one by one.
I mean, it's like.
I'm sorry.
I don't know.
I mean, I don't.
I mean, it's likely that I've won struggles with drugs than maybe someone else in the
house might.
Yeah.
And that's just kind of the, again, opportunist.
Yeah.
No, it's definitely an opportunist.
And he's like, oh, three young guys that all live together?
Well, yeah, all three of them.
Now I have, now I know where they live, you know.
Right.
It's freaky.
Two months later, Ronald would meet 31 year old August Watkins, another man who was living
on the streets.
He would lure August to his truck with the promise of letting him stay at his home overnight.
After the two returned to Ronald's home, August would be offered alcohol and was told that
there was a girl wanting to have sex with him.
Ronald would tie up, rape and strangle August to death following him agreeing to the sex
with the girl.
It was not until August's body was discovered that the police began to put the pieces together
that there may be a serial killer on the loose.
Oh, after 17 murders that had occurred in both Kenner and Halma were strikingly similar.
And at this point, the case was handed over to the FBI because it was already so big.
Well, because they can't, they can't be bothered to do anything else.
So like, we connected the dots, but let's just go ahead and pay for pushes to the FBI.
Right.
You won't be able to handle this.
I think that actually the FBI like takes point after a certain number of people have been
killed.
They like take it from them.
Yeah.
So the task force was made up of those original nine South Louisiana parish sheriffs, the
Louisiana State Police and of course the FBI.
So even though like the case is like the running point, yeah, they're all really trying to
help.
Ronald was clueless that he was being hunted or if he knew he just did not care.
A few days after killing August Watkins, Ronald would meet and kill 23 year old Kurt Cunningham.
Later that same summer, Ronald would also murder 28 year old Alonzo Hogan in St. Charles
Parish and 17 year old Wayne Smith in Terribon Parish.
He would lure both of these men by telling him that one of his female friends was wanting
to have sex with them.
Oh, it's worked so well.
Right.
Like most of his past victims, Alonzo and Wayne did not have past criminal records and
weren't known to use drugs.
It was also noted that Alonzo Hogan had been sexually assaulted while it looked like Wayne
Smith had not, which was interesting.
In September of 2005, 40 year old Chris Neville was trying to hitchhike out of Napoleonville
following Hurricane Katrina when he was picked up by Ronald, which is even more fucked up.
But like you just lost everything in this hurricane.
Now you're trying to get out of the fucking city so you don't drown.
Yeah.
And this asshole picks you up.
Well, and diseases run rampant too because there's just no control.
There's no, like it becomes like all the stagnant water and stuff.
It's really easy for bacteria to be spread around.
And so it's just dangerous when natural disasters happen like that.
Yeah.
Ronald would murder Chris similar to his other victims and dump his body in a field.
Chris's skeletal remains would be discovered the following month and ID'd by his relatives.
There's a lot of victims.
I tell you, it's a lot.
In late November, 21 year old Nicholas Pelligran had been under concern from his family when
they had found out that he borrowed $400 from a local drug dealer and was unable to pay them
back.
Oh shit.
He would begin to receive death threats and around this same time, Nicholas would meet
Ronald.
Ronald would ultimately murder Nicholas, but when his body was discovered, police thought
that it must be drug related since he owed those guys money.
In the summer of 2006, Ronald would meet a 27 year old by the name of Christopher Sutterfield
and the two would begin casually dating.
He's finally got a boyfriend.
They would remain a couple for a few months until October 14th.
While on a date together, Ronald would hit Christopher over the head with a heavy object
causing him to lose consciousness.
Ronald would ultimately kill Christopher.
What the fuck?
That's your boyfriend.
It's one thing if it's strangers.
I'm sorry, but it is.
There's no escalation.
And now it's like, what did this fucking guy do?
He just didn't want to be with him anymore?
I was thinking about that a second ago when you were talking about the previous victim,
the one that they thought was drug related because you have money, that it's interesting
that even the FBI wouldn't consider this to be more personal because it's usually ex-exiation
or blunt force trauma, something that's pretty personal.
It's not a drive by, it's not gun related, it's not even a stabbing.
There's an instrument that's being used that separates you from the individual.
And so that's why it's interesting that they would rule a lot of these as drug related
or something like that.
It's true because especially if they have any markings of being physically assaulted
prior to death, that might not just be...
It's like a drug do-gone-wrong, you probably get shot, you know, stabbed or something.
Not tortured or strangled.
Sexually assaulted.
Yeah.
I mean, you know?
After finding Christopher's body, police would interview his relatives, friends, and
acquaintances, all of whom confirmed that they had last seen him with a man driving a
black SUV.
Oh, here we go, yeah.
They were unable to identify who it was or even describe his appearance.
Police still had no leads in the case, besides maybe a dark colored SUV, but they were unsure
if this was even the same person who was responsible for the murder of now 23 men.
But at the same time, it could at least be a witness.
Yes, potentially.
In November of 2006, Ronald would invite Ricky Wallace, a resident of Bayou Bleu to his home
with the promise of drugs and sex with a woman.
After Ricky entered the trailer, Ronald tried to convince him that the girl was really into
bondage and he offered to tie Ricky up prior to the girl coming in.
Yeah, just helping him grow out.
Ricky would refuse and soon after, Ronald allowed him to leave the home.
Ricky would go to police about this experience and initially he was simply not believed.
Ricky did have a reputation of being addicted to drugs and lying about big things in the
past.
However, regardless of this, police decided to question Ronald.
Good.
Ronald would go down to the police station where he agreed to give a blood sample.
Yep, take it.
I'll be fine.
I'm in significant.
Yeah.
Over the next week, police would discover that the DNA from Ronald matched the semen
samples taken from Oliver LeBanks and Manuel Reed and an arrest warrant was immediately
put out.
Tell me.
On December 1st, 2006, Ronald would be arrested at a homeless shelter.
After being arrested and questioned, Ronald stated to police that he was at the homeless
shelter because he knew that it was a matter of time before he was captured since he had
provided DNA samples.
So he moved out of his sister's house in order to not inconvenience her.
What?
What a nice guy.
He's so nice.
Once at the police station, Ronald expressed his desire to cooperate with investigators
and immediately confessed to 23 murders with details not released to the public.
What the fuck?
He was just like, oh, whatever.
He was just waiting to get caught.
Yeah.
He was just so careless.
Honestly, with the police investigation, he kept seeing, well, I can keep doing this,
and I'm going to keep doing this until I get caught.
Until I get caught.
I can put this guy in the middle of the street and they're still not going to know it's me.
Of course, charges would immediately be placed against Ronald who kept his stance on the
fact that although he confessed, he was not guilty.
What?
He would state that most of the victims had voluntarily gone with him and agreed to be
tied up since they wanted to earn money.
What the fuck?
He would state that anyone who didn't want to be tied up would be released, which is
not true because there's only evidence of that one guy, the last guy.
I'm sorry, but if you tie anyone up against their will, they're not going to want to
be tied up against their will.
Exactly.
I'm sorry.
When it came to his motive, Ronald stated that he was not interested in going to prison,
so he obviously had to dispose of the men that became witnesses to his crimes or victims,
like his sexual assault crimes.
He wasn't interested in going to prison, but yet he dumped every single body in plain
sight.
Yeah, for the most part.
According to him, after Ronald was arrested in 96 for rape, he was strongly impacted and
remained in a constant negative emotional state, even beginning to show signs of a mental disorder.
According to him?
Yes.
There were never any mental disorders that were diagnosed for him, but I don't know,
dissociativeness I think is a really big deal here.
Yeah, for sure.
Ronald would accept a plea bargain from prosecutors on September 24th, 2008, and the court would
find him guilty on all charges.
I think also maybe a paraffilic.
Yeah, definitely.
He would subsequently be sentenced to eight life terms without parole, avoiding the death
penalty by pleading guilty.
And he is currently incarcerated at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola.
How have I never heard of this case?
I don't know.
That's the whole case.
It's kind of a short one, but that was the whole case.
I mean, it was really like no early life, all victims and no aftermath.
That's all I could find.
But yeah, I had never heard of it either.
I guess I came across it, like I said, on a Reddit post or TikTok or something.
And yeah.
I have never heard, and they called him the Bayou Strangler?
Yes.
What?
I know.
That's interesting, because it was when we were not that young.
But yeah, that's the story of Ronald Dominic.
And I mean, like I said, it's pretty cut and dry.
I don't know.
Here's the thing.
A lot of the things that I think led him up to this were just not available to the public.
There had to have been a lot more that went into him developing the way that he did.
I don't think that just being ridiculed for being gay is enough to make someone do this.
I don't know, I think it's comorbid with a bunch of other things, obviously, that may
be paired.
But yeah, I mean, he just really cut and dry case, a lot of victims.
At times, like I said, it kind of reminded me of Edmund Kemper, that there had to have
been some type of an attachment issue with either parent.
Clearly he was close with his mom and his sister enough to want to live with him.
But it could also be a cover.
I think that he did deal with probably issues feeling inadequate and nobody's going to
love me for the way that I am, so I have to force this sexual interaction.
Yeah, like a dumber mindset.
Like a dumber mindset.
But also, like, all of these men were killed at his sister's home.
So there's obviously something dissociative going on there.
It's not like a dumber thing where he lives by himself in an apartment.
I mean, yeah, it's terrible nonetheless.
He lived with his grandmother though.
Other people, that's true.
He has other people in the home and he's still doing it.
That tells me that he's not attached to reality.
Dumping the body, not really even thinking about getting caught, doing it with the company
of other people maybe that could potentially hear who knows.
Or the fact that the victims were linked to each other.
Yeah, they were all roommates and stuff.
He cleared out an entire house of people that all lived together at one point.
That's awful.
It's really, really ballsy.
And again, I think that that ballsy-ness is not necessarily...
I said he was narcissistic earlier.
I don't even know if it's narcissistic.
I think it's just detached, really, is what it comes down to.
Yeah, I agree.
But yeah, that's all I have.
That was a wild case.
Thank you.
Yeah, absolutely.
You will get another Patreon bonus case sometime this week and be looking out for that.
If you are not already a Patreon member, you can go to patreon.com.
All three tiers get ad-free content every week, tiers two and three will get that additional
episode.
And that's no content warning, nothing just straight to the point, no banter, nothing
like that.
Y'all have a happy leap day and we will see you in March.
Oh yes, okay, we will talk to you later.
Love you, bye.
Loving a pet is easy.
Loving a pet is hard.
Perfect Memorials has been chosen by families since 2001 for their unique memorial products.
Choosing a cremation urn or other product from Perfect Memorials allows many special
ways to memorialize your loved one.
Keep your furry friend in your memory forever with unique, handcrafted, and personalized
products for everyone.
Click the link in our show notes for an exclusive offer with Perfect Memorials today.