Ep 9 | THEODIS HILL PART 2 Transcript

Voices of a Killer Podcast: Ep 9 | Theodis Hill Part 2Transcript

Before we begin this podcast, please be advised that the following episode contains language that some listeners may find offensive and inappropriate. The opinions expressed by the host and guests are their own and do not reflect the views of the podcast producers, listener discretion is advised.

How come you didn't write anybody in Chicago about this one? They never was interested in that. They just wanted to be arrested in the one that I talked about. That's one of the murders that they never prosecuted you on? Yeah, they never prosecuted me. So how long have you been in prison now? How many years?

Since '09. There's got to be more mental health awareness, man. These doctors that these mental health clinic gotta take people seriously what they're saying. Cause all they do is write down stuff on the paper or pad and they throw it to the side, write through some prescription, and then they keep right back out there.

Eventually it's going weigh on them and their consciousness is, man, that was wrong. If there there any humanity in their life. You are now listening to the podcast Voices of a Killer. I'm bringing you the stories from the perspective of the people that have taken the life of another human and their current situation thereafter in prison. You'll see that although these are the folks that we have been programmed to hate, they all have something in common. They are all humans like us that admit that they made a mistake. Will you forgive them or will you condemn them? They're currently serving time for their murders, and they give us an inside glimpse of what took place when they killed and their feelings on the matter now. Here are the voices of those who have killed.

On this episode of Voices of a Killer, prepare yourself for an unprecedented revelation in the dark and twisted story of serial killer, Theodis Hill. As we delve deeper into part two of this chilling podcast episode, get ready to witness a groundbreaking moment in a first for the voices of a killer podcast.

Theodis will reveal the secrets of more murders that have remained hidden from the world. These chilling acts have never been exposed, and their details have remained locked away in the depths of his mind until now. So far, we have already spoken about the convictions that Theodis is already serving time for, and if you would like more detail about those, I suggest you go back and listen to the previous episode.

For now, listen closely as Theodis Hill is about to rewrite the rules of this chilling saga, and you won't want to miss a single moment of this captivating story from Voices of a Killer.

So you're in prison and prosecuted on five murders total, is that correct? Second degree murder, three first degree murders and the capital murder two in Arkansas three in Missouri. And besides those five, you have tried to get the authorities to know about two more or more? Yeah. So they caught you for, and prosecuted you for Marissa Lowes.

And you, they sentenced you to 15 years, correct? For second degree murder? Yeah. So once you got to prison, you probably sobered up some and uh, thinking a little bit differently. No, I had no, I had sobered up. It was then I got sobered going to church. I gave my life to the Lord. I got believing in Jesus Christ.

And I start feeling a heavy weight on me about the crimes that I committed. When you took this turn spiritually at this point, you only were known to have killed Marissa Lowes or prosecuted for it? They didn't know nothing about the other ones. Just one I confessed to other. I could have been on the streets right now today if I'd have never told them about the Yeah, cuz 15 years is not very long for killing someone.

I would've been on the streets right now today. So how long would, since the day you got locked up, when they took you in for Marissa's murder, how long did it take for you to say, you know what, I'm going to tell them about other murders? Hey, you know what? I'm glad you brought that up. Cause when I first tried to tell them, they wouldn't believe about the other one down there, the Dawson case.

They, they wanted for the, they already wanted me for the case. I had warrant for. And it took them about two years to even get a governor's warrant to come take me across the state line over there. I had wrote the governor over there like two or three times before they even came to get me. What was the governor's response when you would write him?

He told me to contact an attorney. And then what governor was this? I think was Pastor Hutchinson, I think it was Pastor Hutchinson. Because when I first wrote the governor over here, I wrote Sarah Huckabee. I wrote Huckabee. I wrote the military governor over here. He was a military guy. What would you say in these letters to him? I was explaining to him that I was about to probably be released there.

I had committed other crimes, other murders, and then they sent police down here from Arkansas. And I was telling them about it. I guess they didn't want, I dunno, they was surprised that I was telling them about it. It's just cause I know that those people's families needed to closure for those cases. And the mind frame that I was in back then, I didn't want to be released back out there and hurt nobody else.

So one of the people that you wrote was a deputy prosecutor in Arkansas that got one of your letters in March of 2014, and they brought investigators to you. Did they pull you out and basically sit you down and ask you all the questions about what happened? Yeah, they called me up front cause they had somebody locked up for that case already.

They had somebody locked up for the Dawson case. And also what I'm reading here, it actually says another man had been charged in the Dawson case. Prosecutors dropped the case against him after they were introduced to Theodis and his letters. Right? So that Dawson case is where they had actually charged another man.

And how many more do you think that you people that you killed, that they are not pinning them on you? I know there's two more that they probably cause they didn't wanna hear about them. When they closed their hear upon hearing about 'em, I knew then, but I didn't really think upon it until I was telling the guy that I know on here and he knows law pretty good.

And he was telling me he, man, they charged somebody for those cases. That's why they don't want to hear about 'em. Cause they would have to reopen those cases and release that person and he could file a lawsuit against. Yeah, it says your, it's stated by authorities that in your letters you gave details that would've been only known by authorities.

I did, but they didn't want to hear about it, so I just left it alone. I left it alone. Theodis's decision to confess came from a place of spirituality, his transformation behind bars, his spiritual awakening, and desire for redemption, push him to break the silence. He yearns to provide closure for the families of his victims and ensure that no more lives are tarnished by his actions. Initially convicted and sentenced in 2009 for the murder of Fanny Mae Hill in 2006, Theodis pled guilty to the charges from the Marissa Lowe case in 2013. In March of 2014, he wrote to a deputy prosecutor in Arkansas admitting to the murder of Katherine Dawson in the Forest City area just two weeks prior to Lowe's body being discovered. He described using a pillow to suffocate his victim details that only authorities knew at the time Theodis's letters didn't stop there.

He also reached out to St Louis homicide Detective Scott Sailor, offering information about the death of Sierra Sullivan, whose lifeless body was found, wrapped in a sheet in a vacant lot in the summer of 2009. Another victim, Janice Mayhew. Met a similar fate in St Louis in 2008. His detailed knowledge of these crimes convinced authorities that he was indeed the perpetrator.

Now this is a first for this podcast. As with a heavy conscience and a newfound faith, Theodis musters the courage to confess to additional killings that have remained hidden until now. So who else have you killed? I was younger when I was living in Chicago. I don't know his name. I don't know his name.

Have you tried to tell the authorities about it? No. No, never have. What city did this happen in? That's in Chicago, Illinois. I think it was around my early eighties. What happened there? I shot the guy. I shot him, he died, but this is my neighborhood. At the time, I was standing at this shelter thing cause I didn't have nowhere to say at the time.

I was down on my left and I was basically doing crimes, a lot of robberies and stuff like that to survive. Street roberies. He resisted on a robbery and I found out the next day that he had passed away. I can't even remember what exactly what month it was, but I know it. Summertime found about 81, 82, something like that.

I ended up leaving Chicago and I went down south for a while. So I was trying to find some work. I was just tired of the way I was really living. So this person that you killed, you were a teenager back in the eighties you said? Yeah, young. Yeah. I was really young. I was young. Been 30 years ago. What did he look like?

Oh God, he's like Hispanic and stuff like that. I can't even remember. It's been so long. Over 30 years, man. I can't even remember. How come you didn't write anybody in Chicago about this one? They never was interested in that. They just wanted to be arrested in the warrant that I talked about. So Theodis' first confession is from a crime he committed when he must have been a young adult.

The details are hazy. His memory faded by the passage of time, but the haunting truth still remains. He admits to shooting a man his actions driven by a life of desperation and crime. Yet the authorities in Chicago never showed any interest in his confession. Their attention seemingly focused on other warrants and charges.

The frustration in hill's voice is palpable as he recounts his failed attempts to bring these dark secrets to light. His letters filled with the weight of his guilt and the need for acknowledgement seem to fall on deaf ears. They also served as a testament to his inner turmoil as he grappled with the weight of his past actions.

Perhaps the admission to the murder of Katherine Dawson gave Theodis some hope for redemption with the success of an innocent man being released because of his letters. Perhaps this could be achieved again through his next confession on this recording. And so what you're saying is there's other murders that you have admitted doing and you try to tell them, but you think that maybe they've already prosecuted somebody and they're trying to? Listen. To be honest with you. I know they have. The reason I know it because when I told my attorney about it, first, Marissa Holman, the St Louis City Public Defender's office, and she must have went notified the circuit attorney's office, which was Jennifer Joyce at the time.

And Dwight Warren, and they came down there to the St Louis City Justice Center together to see me, and she asked me about details of the case that only the person had done it would know. And when I told her, and then I even told her something that I know they, they didn't even know about, and then they probably didn't know it was a point of the crime scene.

When I told them about it, they looked at each other and then when they left, my lawyer said, come back, see you couple days. So she came back the next morning. It wasn't a couple days the next morning, and she said, we not gonna discuss those cases there anymore. We're gonna [unintelligible]. They wanted not even talk about it no more.

Yeah. The work had been done already. That's one of the murders that they never prosecuted you on? Yeah, they never prosecuted me on Who was the victim? It was the person by the name of Danielle. What's Danielle's last name? I don't know. Where. What city was this In? St Louis City. Around where? It happened on off of Broadway, going towards downtown St Louis. It's a lounge by the highway. What year? On that? This had to be about two thousand and had to be like 2005. And how did she die? Same way. But the body was in a house. It was house that they was turned down. On Side Street on Broadway, but the street, but the house is on, had a gate around it, and the corner was a lounge.

It was one of those like pubs, it's like an Irish pub. You could see the highway when you come out the lounge door. You could see the Highway 70, highway 70 right there. I told him about, okay, the house and the room one of those in the house. Which they never knew. I saw the, where I had put a pipe, I stashed it and they had to find it.

It was wrapped in a, like a blue rag, like one of those bandanas or something. Was that the murder weapon or a crack pipe? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. The pipe, in the room, I put it in the floors was missing like they was taking up the floors in the house. Yeah. I had to walk on the beam. It was just the beam they had took the little doors that makes the floor up halfway done.

There was nothing, the whole floor was done like, but it was turned and house down. And then when I heard about that, they had found the potty in there. I never heard anything else about it. So when I start telling them about the other murders, I bought that one though. Have you ever told anybody else, really any kind of organizations out there or other authorities?

I never told. I never told anyone else about it. I take it up to the circuit attorney's office and want everybody who else wanna hear about it? Told them exactly what the victim had on,

some black, black, black, blue jeans, a white T-shirt, no writing or nothing on. Have you ever researched who was charged with that crime, with that murder? I can't research nothing from in here. Yeah, I never, once the circuit attorneys office wasn't interested in it, I, yeah. Some people locked up. Just have people on the outside do all their research for, yeah.

I don't have nobody to do nothing like that, so I never said anything else about it just now. In this poignant confession, Theodis opens up about the murders that have haunted him for years. The second victim identified as Danielle lost her life in St Louis around 2005. Her tragic fate mirrored that of other victims as she was also strangled.

The body was discovered in a house located off of Broadway, near a lounge by the highway. He vividly recalls the dilapidated state of the house with missing floors that forced him to walk on beans and discloses how he left a crucial piece of evidence at the crime scene. A pipe concealed in a room where the murder took place. Astonishingly, even with this compelling evidence, the attorney and the prosecutor's office appeared reluctant to pursue the case further. It seems that once a conviction has been secured, authorities may be hesitant to reopen a case fearing the potential legal consequences and the possibility of facing a lawsuit from the wrongly convicted individual.

This is the first time that he has disclosed this information to any anyone else, and without the means to conduct research from behind bars. He remains unaware of who, if anyone, was charged with Danielle's murder. After the break, we find out more about why Theodis confesses.

Hey, what's up man? I much. How was your shower? Good. Yeah, I got shower, ate, meals. Soup, man. Yeah. Had to go soup. What kinda soup did you? Little ramen noodle things. Yeah. Yeah. Which one though? Beef. You know how much some things cost for a case now how much? 13 dollars and some change.

Man. That sounds like jail, man. This stuff, all this stuff that went up so high. Yeah. Everything everyth. The prices have skyrocketed in this place. Yeah. I had go get me a job, man I have to work for 90 days to get personal pay for 37 dollars, and then after that .

After every 3 months you get 2 dollars. 37 a month. Yeah, Theodis and I had developed quite a friendly relationship during our phone calls, and this little snippet highlights some of the struggles in prison. It's also interesting to note that the cost of living is not just affecting us on the outside, but those behind bars are also finding it hard to buy their favorite foods.

Nevertheless, I wanted to find out more about what drove Theodis to confess. His life behind bars was marked with a personal shift towards religion. Was this the only reason that brought him to confess? What had driven him to this pivotal moment in his life? So how long have you been in prison now? How many years since oh nine?

Do you feel like you, since you found Jesus and and in prison, what do you think that your result is gonna be when you pass away? I've asked for forgiveness for it, so I don't want handouts for forgiveness. I've confessed to my crimes, aswell.

To God and to authorities as well. They didn't even know I had done that stuff. They didn't even know. They had no idea. Yeah. So how does that make you feel being labeled a serial killer? That's what man caused me though. That's what it So don't bother me. And you think that because you found God and you've confessed that you're gonna go to heaven.

Sure. What would you do if you went to heaven and you saw your victims? I would be for forgiven. I guess we would just probably talk about the things, what we did that I've done today. I would ask, forgive me. I always pray and ask for their forgiveness. I'm not gonna wait for then I always pray and I ask think my prayers are asking forgiveness, that they forgive me as well as God forgives me, and they family as well forgive me.

That's why that's my class so they can get closure. So why would it, why would the- one of the main points of the Bible is the 10 Commandments. Everybody knows this even if you're a Christian or a believer or not, and one of the first things it says is Thou shall not kill. And it's seemed indicated that killing is like really extremely bad.

Under the Christian faith. There's no sin bigger than another. All the sin. There's no sin greater than another sin, and that's where people go wrong in life. They think that as you may steal an alcohol in stores it's less than, You robbing somebody on the street. You see what I'm saying? yeah, Theodis, having found solace in his faith while in prison, contemplates the consequences awaiting him in the afterlife.

He acknowledges his need for forgiveness, both from God and the authorities, confessing his crimes and accepting the label of a serial killer. Despite the weight of his past actions, Theodis believes that through prayer and repentance, he can attain forgiveness from both God and his victims. He sees confession as a means to provide closure to the families affected by his crimes.

Theodis recognizes that all sins hold equal weight, rejecting the notion that some transgressions are greater or lesser than others. In his eyes, all forms of wrongdoing from theft to murder carry the burden of sin. With that in mind, I was curious about his perspective on drug use, seeing as this was a common thread amongst his murders as a serial killer.

How long had you been smoking crack when this happened with Fanny Mae? Not long. Not long. I started smoking it all the tobacco with the rolled like a cigarette. I was young. I think I was in my thirties. A friend of mine that turned me onto it when I was out there on the street. How would you explain how crack made you feel when you first started doing it?

You know what? I was really so depressed. I was very depressed, man. I was a lot of mental stuff. I was taking mental health meds at the time as well. I was. I was drinking on my medication. But like I told you, I went to a Hopewell several times, an outpatient mental health clinic. I was searching for help, man.

Wasn't nobody help me. Wasn't nobody help me way before the Fanny Mae thing. I never could. I get no help from nobody. I was reaching out and people was just rejecting me. I didn't understand why. Cause I was poor and black. I dunno what it was. Can't figure it out. I never could. I never wrap my mind around why was I not helped, and I asked for it.

You went to somebody, a doctor, and you said you had bad thoughts and things like that. Yeah. Hopewell. Yeah. At Hopewell on Grand Park in St Louis, Missouri. What, so what's Hopewell? It's a mental health, outpatient mental health clinic. What did you tell them? I tell them I was filling and that's not there.

First I went, I was at an inpatient place on Delmar and St Louis's called Missouri Psychiatric Center. I checked myself in because this urges was coming over me to do these type of things. My mind was really playing a lot of serious tricks on me at that time, and I checked myself in cause I wanted to know what was wrong with me.

You were thinking about hurting people? Yeah, and I tell them that all the time and they wouldn't listen to me. They thought I was playing. Did you only have these thoughts whenever you were smoking crack or just all the time? No, it's before. It was way before. It was way before. What about as a child? When I was a child, I always had the urge to wanna hurt people.

Cause what was going on around me. And I feel that's the only way that I could keep people off of me was to, they said he hurt somebody. You know what I'm saying? Well, Theodis, do you think that if your environment was better, that those thoughts wouldn't occur? Or do you think that if we took the bad environment away? You know what it was?

I think it was my, it had a whole lot to do with my environment. It had a whole lot to do with my environment. And then when I was going to school, I was young. I wasn't able to have the clothes and stuff that I really wanted. Kids would laugh at me know. Cause I have a lot of secondhand stuff like that.

You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. My kids could be, kids can be cruel. Well, let me ask you, let me ask you how you feel about this. There's a ton of kids, especially young black kids in inner cities that really have it bad, but they don't end up killing multiple people. What sets you apart? I think I had the mental health issues that I had all assignment.

Never knew it. Like the combination of, of mental health and, and environment, mental health, my environment, drugs and drinking. It all had a great deal. It man, it's the devil. It took a hold of me, man. That's what it was. Normal people just don't wake up. I'm go start killing people. That's not a normal behavior of any human being.

A human being. Just don't wake up. Say, oh, today seems like a nice day to go commit murder today. Seems like a nice day to go shoot up a grocery. This, it's mental health playing a great part of it. And if you're not getting the help that you need, it's going to progress. It just progresses as you get older.

And then when you be able to get your hands on something to hurt someone, that's when it takes, it takes place. Then we look on the news and we see all this craziness going on. It's a lot of those cases gotta do lot of mental health and people just don't see it. They don't wanna recognize it. First thing they wanna put it off on, he was on some type of drug.

The majority of the people that does drugs, they're self-medicating, theyself. Cause they have issues that they don't understand what's going on with. Yeah. It could be low self-esteem. Low self-esteem. Or it could be a bipolar. Yeah, schizophrenic. And if we don't understand, cause we're the patient, so we don't understand that unless we get the right doctors or some psychologist to explain to us and to medicate us or to keep us from society until we're fixed, no matter how many years it may take. We can avoid a lot of victims out there in society. What do you think the public needs to do to ensure that things like what you did happen? More mental health awareness? Yes, what it is. It's got to be more mental health awareness.

Man. These doctors at these mental health awareness gotta take people seriously what they're saying. Cause all they do is write down some stuff on the paper or pad and then they throw it to the side, write you some prescription, and then they keep you right back out there in society. And then you're not taking the medication properly when you actually need to be put into a mental hospital where you could be monitored and watched and go through some counseling.

Just giving you some pills and kicking you back out there, you're not gonna take those pills regularly and then you're not gonna take them nine times outta 10. You're gonna be drinking with 'em or using some type of drugs with them. So the pills not gonna affect you properly cause you just basically with alcohol and drugs.

Do you think that's more easier said than done to do all the things that to put in place? If you don't have the money nobody cares. If they can't make the money off you, if you're just going down there with a Medicaid card or Medicaid only paying so much of just walking in as a, like a free clinic, they just going to do enough where they can get paid from you, from the state or whoever pays them just to say, okay, I'll get with this patient here.

Come in and he's, they'll write down the diagnosis and they probably gonna see you again for another three months. I couldn't go as regular as I wanted to when I was going home. I think they would give me a appointment like for every 90 days I would go down there. I couldn't go down to then other than that, if I had some serious issues, they'll say, go check your self in down there on Delmore, the psychiatric help

and they would only hold you for a certain amount of days cause they not getting paid for you if you didn't have no type of insurance. I've never had no type of insurance, but some car insurance. That's the only kinda insurance I've ever had. I've never had no medical insurance, no health insurance or life insurance, nothing like that. Nothing. I've had nothing like that.

Theodis's perspective on drug use was a sobering reflection of the systemic letdown he experienced. According to him, drugs were not his initial choice, but a desperate attempt to escape the clutches of depression. Theodis spoke of his struggles to find adequate mental health support, recounting his visits to clinics or his pleas for help fell on deaf ears.

He also emphasizes that drug addiction is not solely a criminal issue, but a social problem that requires compassion and understanding. We cannot ignore his passionate argument for a shift in society's approach. Advocating for comprehensive mental health support instead of punitive measures, addressing the root causes and providing proper care could prevent tragedies like his own.

Theodis's words serve as a stark reminder of the flaws in the system and the pressing need for change. Before we left our conversation, I wanted to know if he had any desire to murder again. Was he truly reformed?

Now that you've found God and you've confessed, do you ever feel like it would feel good to do that again, though? Kill someone? It was what? That it would feel good to do it again? Yeah. No, I don't have desire to, well, wouldn't have a desire to do it. That's been many years ago. I had a lot to think about who the years doing it.

Do you ever have dreams? Cuz that's a lot of, that's a lot of murders. Five murders total. Right. Actually more if they, that's five that you're just convicted of. I don't have no dreams about it. Never had no dreams about it. Just come across my mind and I think about it. It'll weigh on me cause I know it was wrong. Yeah, you just wanna change your life and you wanna be a better person.

The things you done was bad. It weighs on you cause you know that, it wasn't meant to be. People, wasn't meant to just go around, killing people like the person going in the store and kill up a bunch of people. Eventually it's going weigh on em and their conscience kick in. They're gonna say, man, that was wrong. If, is there any humanity in their life?

What kind of, uh, inmate are you or, you know, under the system? Are you pretty well behaved? Are you, are you patched up with a gang? I've taken, I've taken every program that's available. Better myself to be of the most respectful and moderate person I can be. Let me ask you a hypothetical question. If they came to you tomorrow and they said, Hey, we're gonna go ahead and let you out, would you say, no, I don't think that's safe?

Or do you think that, yeah, I can handle this without murder. I can handle without murder. And what about the drugs that'll be in everywhere you go? I have no desire for any narcotics, alcohol. No desire for them whatsoever. And I recommended that anybody that's doing it should stop. Cause it's a beast of other things. That's your recommendation. Don't do drugs?

That's my recommendation. No drugs or drink. Anything that crosses the mind is not good for the human body. What about for the people that aren't gonna kill when they do drugs? Because there's a lot of drugs out there and a lot of people that do drugs and not a lot of people do them and then kill. That's true. It's, there's a lot of other people doing it, but you gotta realize that everybody that does and doesn't have some type of mental health issues as well. When you do that and you have some mental health issues that triggers more than you know the human body can really take. So there's no telling what you may do.

Theodis, I appreciate you letting me delve into what's going on and all the specifics of your case. I'm glad that you found forgiveness and and yourself cuz that's important and, uh, You know, whatever that took. All right, man. I appreciate it, and have a good night, okay? Yeah. All right, man. See you. Thanks. All right.

Bye-bye. Bye.

On the next episode of Voices of a Killer. Why do they think that you did those six murders? No, I didn't have a gun. Nope. And I'm the only one that got arrested. I'm the only one that did time for the charge. I just did, took it on the chin. I started selling drugs at eight years old. Uh, the first time I got arrested was 10 years old for a stolen car.

Dewayne, it's my understanding that you actually committed a crime that put you in prison at the age of 15. As soon as they said that the captain has punched me in my face and when he punched me in my face, I hit the floor. But it didn't really hurt, but it, I played like I was knocked out and they told me to get my beat ass up.

Right. That's a wrap on this episode of Voices of a killer. I want to thank our guest Theodis for sharing his story with us today. I know it couldn't have been easy for him to relive those painful memories, but his willingness to be open and honest is what makes this podcast so special. A big shout out to Sonic Futures who handled the production audio editing, music, licensing, and promotion of this podcast.

If you want to hear more episodes like this one, make sure to visit our website at https://voicesofakiller.com There you can find previous episodes, transcripts, and additional information about the podcast. Lastly, if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a review on Spotify, apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Your feedback helps us improve and reach new listeners. Thank you for your support and we can't wait to share more stories with you in the future. Thank you for tuning in. I'm your host, Toby, and we'll see you next time on Voices of a Killer.