#192: Escaped Prisoner Holds Entire Family Hostage & Plays Sick Mind Games

"Bettering Better Boop." Welcome to this week's main episode of Rotten Mingo. I'm your host, Stephanie Sue, and let's get into it. Jill sat down on her makeup vanity. Her whole body felt sore. She looked into the mirror and she saw this nasty bruise on her neck. Shit. She just wore a turtleneck. What would people think if they saw that bruise? Besides, there's a blizzard coming down heavy on the town. Nobody would even question the turtleneck. So she methodically gazed into the mirror, applied her makeup, step by step. It made it almost robotic. The door to her room pushed open. It was him again. Where's Sarah? He said, "Oh, she's sound asleep in mom's spare room. I've covered her over with a blanket. I fed the dogs, fed the rabbit. And if you could just go downstairs and make some tea and then head into town and buy a newspaper and some cigarettes, that'd be perfect." Okay. Jill half-smiled. She hated him. She despised him, really. But what could she do? She got into her car, blasting the heater, defrosting her fingers from the cold steering wheel, and she calmly drove to the grocery store. This is the one that she went to all the time. It was a routine for her. But today just felt a little bit different. Maybe it was the snow that was piling up. Maybe it was all the happy families holding hands, stockpiling food in case they were snowed in. She just felt this pang in her heart, this tightness in her chest. One of them knew the silent terror that she felt. It's almost like, if only you knew what was going on in my house right now. The jealousy that she felt when she was looking at these happy couples just living their best lives. So she's walking around the store and I'm sure she's listening to these people talking. Some of them were probably talking about what they did for the holidays. Others were probably talking about the news. Did you hear? The storm is only going to get worse. I gotta get some extra toilet paper. Oh my god. Did you hear about that fugitive that escaped from prison? Bad timing if you ask me. I bet you when everything defrosts, we're going to be on the lookout for a dead prisoner. She passed by more smiling happy families, got into her car and drove home dutifully with the cigarettes and the newspaper. She opened up the door and he came up to her. Give it to me. Jill passed him the things. And she felt like her life was a blur. Everything felt like a blur. That shopping trip felt like a blur. Everything in the room felt blurry except that man on the couch, smoking a cigarette. You know the man from the news, the escaped prisoner. She hated him but all she cared about was her family members and they were all tied up upstairs. As always full show notes are available at rottingminglepodcast.com but there are two fantastic books on this case. So there's the pottery cottage by Alan R. Hurndall so good and then we have the pottery cottage murders by Carol Anne Lee and Peter Howezy. I mean, this case is so mind-boggling. It's so infuriating. It's so, I don't even know what to say. There's no words that can even describe how I felt while I was going through this case and research. It's just horrendous. So please go give those books a read and with that being said, playing cards is usually fun, right? You know you sit around with your family, maybe you're drinking whiskey. It's an adult-only game called Chinese Patients. It sounds interesting but the objective is to get rid of all of your cards. It's not the most exciting game in the world but it's fine. They were playing for money. Anyone want to smoke? Sure, I'll take one. So they're all sitting in a circle, smoking, drinking, playing cards, bickering about who's winning. Now how many cards do you have? Now then I'm winning. The TV's on a low volume in the background, just illuminating this gloomy room with flashing colors. The headline today was bleak. The winter storm, the escape prisoner on the loose. I mean it just looked like a hopeless bleak winter, no? The family, I mean they might have been winning the card games but they felt like luck just wasn't on their side. Because each one of them took turns taking nervous glances at each other and then at the knife shining bright on the table. Because they may win the card game, but how do you win as a hostage? Each person in the family knew at different times that something was very wrong. For Sarah, it was when her school bus pulled up in front of the pottery cottage. So that's her house. Sarah's 10 years old by the way and her house has a name. A lot of these bigger remote houses in the area, they all had names. And Sarah was just so excited to be home. She heard maybe they're going to be so snowed in, school might be canceled tomorrow. But when the school bus doors, they crank open, she's bolted out of there. She doesn't even care if someone has salted the driveway. She's running up at kicking the snow from her path. She's excited to see her mom, her grandparents, her dad should be home soon. I mean she won't hurt. What's for dinner? Maybe some warm soup in this cold weather? She rang the front doorbell. Probably like 239 times, like any 10 year old does. Her mom opens up. Hi mom. She runs in. And Jill puts an arm around her daughter. She's going to be home soon. Maybe they siped the tea in their chair. Maybe she saw her mom rubbing her palms together and then wiping them on her pants. Maybe there was a little wrinkle in between everyone s eyebrows. Sarah might have felt something was wrong. Maybe she didn't because I don't know if a 10 year old could quite put their finger on it. But when Billy, the visiting stranger, having car troubles, started pacing the room, demanding to know when is Richard coming home. That was Sarah's dad. Why would he care when her dad is coming home? Amy, Sarah's grandma, try to calm him down. I don't know. He s gone to burming him today, but it should be soon. Billy started getting even more panicked. He started pacing back and forth with his fist up and clenched. It looked like he was preparing to knock somebody out in a minute that they get in through the door. What is he doing? Getting ready for some sort of fight? Jill, Sarah's mom tried to calm him down. My husband, Richard, would never pick a fight. He'll do whatever you tell him to do. He never acts aggressively or impulsively. It's okay, Billy. Please calm down. Billy reconnected the phone just in case Richard called. Maybe he was going to say, "Hey guys, I'm coming home." In that moment, the minute that he reconnected that phone, it rang. Billy took out his knife, put it up to Jill's throat, and forced her to answer it. You better act normal. So do you guys know what a hue and cry is? No. So this is. It's very interesting. It makes sense. When a police force is dealing with a crisis in their community, sometimes it's hard to depend on the citizens to watch the news or read the newspaper, right? So what they'll do is they'll get a handful or two handfuls of citizens and tell them, "This is what's going on. You need to tell every single person in your phone book, every single person that you know that there's a crisis happening." And then, after you're done telling them what happened, you have to tell them to call every single person that they know. So it's word of mouth. It's like an amber alert, but word of mouth, right? Billy pulls the knife out at Jill, tells her to answer the phone, and it was their neighbor. Hey Jill, I don't know if you guys heard, but apparently some crazy fugitive is on the loose in our town. Just be careful tonight. I know the storm's coming in heavy, just keep those doors locked and check your windows, all right? And if you see someone coming in knocking, don't answer. Jill wanted to scream into the receiver. She wanted to say, "Help me. Please. He's right here. He's here." But she looked at that knife, pressed up against her throat, and she probably saw the look on her daughter's face. And with the utmost composure, Jill responded casually. "Oh, wow, gee, I had no idea. That's crazy. Car is scary. Well, you know what? Thanks for letting me know. I'll tell Richard, but you guys stay safe and call me if you need anything, okay? Okay, bye now. Stay warm." The neighbor later said that Jill sounded so normal and so composed. There was nothing in her voice that hinted at the fact that a fugitive was breathing down her neck the whole time. But everyone in the house knew, including Sarah. She knew that her mom had lied, that this nice friendly stranger that was waiting for the snow to stop so he could fix his broken down car. That wasn't the truth. He was a fugitive, that it escaped from prison, and now he's holding their entire freaking family hostage in the middle of a blizzard. Nobody's going to stop by to drop off packages. Nobody's randomly coming over. Everybody's getting stormed in, and here they are in this house. Nobody can hear them. They were stuck. It was going to be a cold winter. And I don't think anyone in the pottery cottage family could have foreseen that this winter would be this horrific. The only person that maybe could have foreseen something like this is, is Billy. Actually, maybe not even Billy. 'Cause he had no plans when he climbed out of the crashed car. Snow was just falling on his eyelashes, making it hard for him to see. Everything around him looked white. He was in the middle of literally freaking nowhere, covered in layers of snow. Everything looked like just a marshmallow fluff, but not in a pleasant way. You know, what a day for a blizzard he thought. It was hard to see the roads. Fresh snow was piling up fast, okay? What's worse, prison or getting lost in the snow. Maybe both. The ability decides to walk along the trees so he doesn't get lost. He keeps walking. And I don't think he had a plan at this point. He was just on a mission to keep walking to get as far away from that car as possible. He walked four miles through the freezing cold wind that was just blowing back at it and literally screaming at him. It sounded like it. The snow was unforgiving. It was dense. Each step felt like he was pulling his foot out of sticky wet cement and then stepping back down and doing it again. It was rough. Everything was mushy and wet in his socks and his feet felt frozen. He looked ahead. He could barely see what's in front of him. The blizzard was that bad. He could barely even keep his eyes open. They stung. It felt like icicles were being pelted directly into his retinas. And when Billy turned around and looked behind him, his footprints were pretty much gone. Replace with a fresh layer of snow. It was like Billy only existed in this exact place that he was standing and nowhere else. It was like there was no trace of him anywhere else. So after four very long miles, he said it was like a movie, like a quirky dream, like Alice in Wonderland. A big house just materialized out of nowhere in front of him and he was in the backyard. There were some neighbors but they weren't close by. You could barely see the neighbors. This was a typical neighborhood. The house was relatively remote. It's kind of perfect. The backyard had a small garden and a courtyard and a wooden shed in the corner where Billy spotted two axes just glistening in the snow. Literally perfect. He grabbed both of them, headed for the main house. His boots were crunching and through the window he saw an older woman at the kitchen sink washing and cutting up some vegetables. He looked up and down. He could probably take her. She looked what? 60, 70. She looked like somebody's grandma. So he crept to the back door. Slowly tried to turn the door handle. And what do you know? It was unlocked. I mean, of course it was. Billy thought, you know, people in these nice little cottages always left it unlocked. There were no neighbors, no predators lurking. They wanted to be close to their garden. They would never expect that someone like Billy would end up in their backyard in the middle of a blizzard. So he swung open the door and the older woman looked up and she looked like she was about to scream but she didn't. She just covered her mouth and whore. Her potato, peeler, felt her feet. Billy was a sight to see, but I guess her fight her flight since it had kicked in and maybe she knew it was smarter to not scream. I don't know, but she remained quiet. She stood motionless, just eyes bulging out at Billy. He looked like he was straight out of a horror movie. He's in his prison uniform. Prison boots and all completely soaked from the snow. Hair wet sticking to his face, holding two axes with a six smile. A horror movie nightmare that was now staring directly back at Amy. Billy, as if he was already a resident there, as if he was paying freaking rent, closed the door behind him and locked it. The click of the lock would probably be forever engrained in Amy's mind because it was the start of their nightmare. Billy was speaking softly. "Shit, okay. I'm wanted by the police, but I'm not going to hurt you, okay?" And in that moment, Amy's elderly husband walked into the kitchen and Billy wasted no time throwing him down onto the ground. Was that necessary? I mean, Arthur, the husband, was elderly. He's 73 years old. And Billy repeats, "Shit, it's okay. The police want me. I need to stay here till it's dark. If you do as I say, everything will be alright." And then as a sign of good faith, Billy helps Arthur get back up. There's no need to be frightened, okay? Do as I say, and it will all be alright. How many people live here? Five. What are their names? I'm Amy Mitten and this is Arthur Mitten, my husband, and five people live in this house. Our daughter Jill, her husband Richard, and their granddaughter Sarah. We're the only ones home right now. So Billy asked the two to show him around. He wanted to get the lay of the land, if you will. He went through the main living room. The huge stone fireplace, the TV, the comfy lounge chairs, the fancy stone arch. Everything was the way he liked it. I mean, this felt like a home, you know? A nice one. Renovated. Recently? Yeah? Cozy. But grand, to a degree. Big. Billy looked around casually as if he's like at an open house. He went around disconnecting all the phone lines that he could find. And upstairs, he went through Jill's husband's things, found a new pair of socks. His were soaked. He'd been walking in them for four miles in the icy, mushy, freezing cold snow. Billy even requested to see inside all the rooms. There was Sarah's room, the guest room. But then he figured out that the house wasn't set up like a normal design. It's almost like two houses connected in one without an exterior wall. So the grandparents, Amy and Arthur had their own section with their own kitchen, their own living room, and their own upstairs. So two different staircases leading to two different upstairs area. So it's a big place. But Billy's satisfied. He puts down his axe and starts rummaging through the kitchen drawers to find a knife. Now here's the thing. Arthur the grandpa loved a good steak knife. Used to work in a grocery store butchering up meat. So he had these very special knives that he would use to bone the sides of bacon. And he always kept his knives in tip top shape. So the knife that Billy was pulling out, I mean, it wasn't just any normal knife. It was an incredibly sharp knife. So Billy held it and told Amy to make some tea. And he made himself at home. He sat on the plush couch in front of the two grandparents who were staring back at him, curiously, but also with fear because what the hell, Billy took a sip of his tea and said, "All right, so tell me about this little family of yours. You can start with your daughter, Jill. You said her name was?" Amy and Arthur glanced at each other. So a little bit about them. Some of this stuff they did tell Billy a lot of it they didn't, but I'm going to tell you. Amy was 68 years old. Arthur was 73. Arthur had spent over half of his life with an amputated right leg. When he was 33 years old, he lost it in this really bad motorcycle accident. But he loved his artificial limb. Okay, he learned to love it. He did not let it deter him from doing every single thing that he wanted in life, including chasing the prettiest woman he had ever laid eyes on. Amy. Two of them they fall in love. They get married and have two beautiful daughters, Barbara and Jill, Jillian being their youngest. And well, she wasn't that young anymore. You know, she's married to this nice man named Richard Moran. Now, Richard had an interesting childhood. He grew up in a foster family home, which he loved his foster family. All of his foster sisters felt like his real sisters. And he dropped out of high school at 14. Started doing some manual labor jobs. So when Jill and Richard first got married, they both didn't have money. You know, they're determined, they're working hard. They're trying to make money so that they can start a family. That's all that Jill wanted in life was to have her own family. And Richard was fueled by that. He was so determined. Jill was the love of his life and she deserved everything that she wanted. So this man gets to work with that even a high school diploma. Within a few years of being married, Richard becomes a department manager for Hunter Plastics in Derby Shire, which is in the UK. Now, this is a huge step in his career and an even bigger pay bump. Okay? Sure, they would have to relocate, but you know, this is what they needed to do. Except Jill felt really guilty. Her parents, Amy and Arthur, they were going to retire. You know, she had this feeling that if her dad retired, he'd stop moving. And the doctors say that when you stop moving, that's when you really start dying. And with his leg, he's going to have difficulties. I mean, she swore if Arthur was ever wheelchair bound, it would defeat him. He would be miserable. So Jill invited her parents to move in with them in their house in North End Farm. Arthur could get a job on the side just to keep his body moving so he can stay active and they can be happy as a family. Besides the access to fresh air, the company of lots of wild animals, I mean, it sounds like a dream. The house, it's big. It's a fixer-oper, but you know, they have the budget to renovate now. I mean, it sounds perfect. Enough space to grow into. Amy and Arthur agreed it was perfect. The house was remote, but it didn't feel isolated. There were still neighbors. They just weren't breathing down your neck. So they moved into the farm and they renamed it pottery cottage. They even put up a sign with a pair of lucky horseshoes next to it. It was going to be a fresh start because it wouldn't just be a family of four. It would be five. Richard and Jill had been trying for kids for years. It was impossible for them. So they decided why go through this, why not adopt a baby girl and they did. And they named her Sarah Jane. I mean, you can imagine every single person was over the moon. That was their precious child, their precious grandchild. There was nothing the four adults in this house wouldn't do for little Sarah Jane. So they start renovating pottery cottage to make it more of the perfect place for them. You know, the Arthur and Amy, the grandparents would have their own space. This was going to be the type of place that Sarah would remember forever. She would grow up in this house and it would be like her safe haven. They had a garden with fresh veggies her grandparents would cook up every day. Are you kidding? And then more good news. Richard's career took a while turn. A few of his good friends asked him if he wanted to join them in their new firm specializing in plastic piping. I mean, Richard had worked with plastic manufacturing his whole life. So this, this sounds like a plan, right? This sounds good. But the guy had a full house defeat. What if things don't go as planned? This is a start up. But he trusted his friends. He had faith in them. And he turned. and they knew what they were doing. I mean, so did Richard, because Richard was named sales director at Brett Plastics. The company just kept growing and growing and now they had a team of 70 employees. I mean, the family was thriving. They had everything going for them. Sarah had recently turned 10. They felt like they must have been amazing people in their past lives. Because how could they be so blessed in this life? I don't know if Jill was thinking about that on her way home from work, January 12th. Maybe, or maybe she was thinking about the snow. But when she got home, she would find out that her entire life was about to change forever. She pulled up to the house and she noticed that the front gate of the pottery cottage was wide open. Which is strange. You know, they have two dogs that they like to take out. They always lock all the gates so that when the dogs go out, they never run away. Why would her parents forget to close the gate? Sure, they're getting older, but they're still sharp. They never forgot to close the gate. You know what? Maybe it's the blizzard. Maybe the dogs aren't going to be out anyway. So she parks her car in the garage, still thinking about that open gate. She walks to the back door, that's always unlocked in tugs at the handle. Usually, her mom left it unlocked. Why is it locked? I'm sure it's fine. So Jill's still feeling a little bit weird about everything, but I mean, this is her routine. What is she going to do? Stand outside and just ponder these weird incidences? She could just ask her parents. So she starts knocking. Her mom opens up. Her mom seemed calm, normal, but her words came out like a flood. And they made Jill's blood run cold. I know, it wasn't the blizzard's unrelenting air that was still pounding on her back. Amy rushed her in, closed the door, and continued to explain. Don't panic Jill, but there's a man here with a knife. He's hiding from the police. Just stay calm. He's not going to hurt us. A few minutes later, Billy and Jill were face to face. I mean, Jill throughout this whole ordeal, I just want to say, is so calm, so collected against all odds, against what she really felt. I mean, she knew that she had to remain calm to keep her family safe, so that's exactly what she did. She glanced that Billy had a knife tucked in his waistband. She tried to make nice, maybe even build rapport. She asked, "Coffee, anyone?" And the four of them awkwardly stood in the kitchen, sipping on freshly brewed coffee. The awkward silence was a bit much. But the awkward silence was better than Billy talking. Because the minute that he opened his mouth, all he wanted to do was tell them about the story of how he escaped prison, he stabbed the prison guards. And the three family members probably couldn't help but glance at the shiny light reflecting knife blade that was next to his side. But nothing scared Jill more in Billy's story than when he said, "I didn't kill him though. I could have killed him. I mean, I know exactly how to do it, but I didn't." Anyway, gang, here's the plan. The police are probably going to go from house to house looking to see if I'm around, you know, they always do that. If that happens, Jill, you're going to run upstairs with me and start drawing a bath. Amy and Arthur will open the door to tell the police that the homeowner Jill is upstairs having a bath. And there's no fugitive here. Remember, if you tell them that I am here, I'm with Jill. So I guess it's up to you if you want to risk your own daughter's life. That's on you. At this point, Jill said she was losing her sense of composure. I mean, the reality, the severity of the situation was starting to sink in, and the only thing she could think about was Sarah. Sarah was going to be home soon, and she didn't want Sarah to feel the hopelessness in the fear that she is currently feeling. So she said, "Is it okay if I tell my child that you're a visitor? I don't want her to freak out while you're here." And I'm sure Billie agreed to it at first, you know, even tried to make nice with Sarah by helping her thread the needle. But soon he changed his mind. He was getting anxious about Richard's arrival. He was able to subdue Amy, the grandma, Arthur, the grandpa, Jill, the wife, Sarah, the 10-year-old, but the husband, he's a wild card. What if he was big, buff, tall, trained in martial arts? It was a lot of risk. Billie was in the family home for about three hours, till Richard finally pulled up. Billie lunged at Jill when he saw Richard's car pull up, put the knife to her throat, and said, "Amy, go outside to Richard and tell him what's going on. I won't use the knife on Jill as long as he does exactly what I say. Go!" Amy rushed outside, the cold air was stabbing in her face. She filled Richard in, and thankfully he wasn't the one to lash out or seek immediate confrontation. Instead he calmly walked into the house. He walked into his family's nightmare, and he offered Billie his car keys. He tried to reason with him. "I'm not gonna do anything, Billie. Look, take my car. The tank is full. You can get away before they come looking, and we won't call the police. We won't tell anyone." Billie thought about it for a second. But instead of taking Richard up on that offer, he turned off the lamp in the living room, yanked the cord out of the outlet, cut it with his knife from the lamp. Nearby he cut the cords to the vacuum, the ironing board, and using these electrical cords, he forced Richard on to the ground and tied him up by his hands and ankles. Then he tied up Jill's ankles with more cords that he found. Now, at this point, Amy and Arthur had taken Sarah out of the room. But hearing the thumping and commotion they rushed back in and they were pissed. Amy shouting at Billie, "What on earth are you doing? You can't tie them up. We told you that we would do anything to keep you safe. We aren't even doing anything." Arthur runs in screaming, "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Sarah was right behind a misterical, "Don't hurt mommy and daddy. Don't you dare get out!" Jill tried to calm everyone down. "Dad, that book at me? He's not gonna hurt us, okay? Everyone calm down." But it was too late. I wanted to tie everyone up for now for good measure. Yet Amy sat on the chair and started binding her by the wrist and ankles. He forced Arthur down onto the ground to tie his wrist behind his back and then bound his ankles. Jill begged Billie to not tie up Sarah, but he ignored her and instead ripped up some t-tells and, well, Billie regretted the next thing that he was gonna say. He said, "Anybody got fake teeth?" Arthur and Amy did. I should have asked you before I tied you up. So now Billie went over and he had to take out Amy and Arthur's fake teeth. He looked disgusted. Even though he's the one facilitating this torture. Like the audacity of him looking grossed out by this. Why is he taking them off? Because he's gonna shove a rag in their mouth. Now Jill said that this moment was depressing. She had never seen her parents without dentures in and it made her physically sick just thinking about the indignity that they were being subjected to. So Billie stuffed everybody's mouths with rags. He picked Richard up like a giant sack of potatoes and carried him up the stairs into the guest room. Billie was short but the fact that he could manhandle a full grown adult like that, honestly very scary. Billie came back downstairs, lifted Jill away. And I can't even imagine in these moments, you know, when you're flipped over at this escaped prisoner of shoulders just looking at your family that are tied up in gags. You can't scream, you can't say anything. Not because of the gag. I mean forget the gag. What would screaming even do though? Other than make Billie mad and make the whole thing worse for all your loved ones. I think every single adult there regardless of if they had a gag or not, they would not have screamed for help. They were doing anything necessary to keep each other and to keep Sarah safe. That is all they cared about. And helping Sarah included putting on a brave face. So that's what the four adults did. They were brave. Jill was taken into the primary bedroom and plopped onto the bed. Billie left and she heard Billie carry Amy to Sarah's bedroom. And then the rest of the house felt eerily silent. At one point Jill thought about trying to hop off the bed and hop downstairs, you know, maybe he left. Maybe this is his plan. Tie everyone up so that he would have time before they call the police. Well, no. Because it's almost like Sarah could communicate with her mother telepathically. She shouted up the stairs. Don't fall for it, mom. He's just been quiet. He's still here. And then the house went silent again. It seemed like Billie took Arthur and Sarah to the other side of the house, separating the two weakest physically from the rest of the family might make sense. Maybe he hoped the two together wouldn't try to do anything. Arthur would never put Sarah's life at risk anyway. So Jill tried to count the minutes to see if maybe she could try sneaking out again. But the phone rang and Billie burst into the room and he carried Jill downstairs, put the phone up to her ear and gave her the look. From where Jill was sitting, she could see her father tied up in the armchair in a different room. He was moving his head and shoulders as if he was in pain. She felt tear-stinging in her eyes. Hello? Hiya! This is Richard's nephew. Wondering if maybe I could talk to Richard? He told me to call about getting a job at Brett Plastics. Oh, sorry. Richard hasn't come home from work yet. I'll let him know to call you back as soon as possible though, yeah? Again, just think about the agony. Richard's nephew would later say that the phone call felt completely normal. There was nothing in Jill's voice to suggest that Billie was breathing down her neck. Jill probably prayed though that maybe the neighbor or the nephew or someone might think back on the call an hour later and wonder, wait a minute, does she sound a little funky fresh to you? Billie slammed the phone down and picked Jill up to bring her back upstairs. When she was finally un-gagged in the bed, she tried to talk to Billie. "Please, Sarah, is she okay?" She's in your mom's room with the dog, she's alright. And with that, he left. Jill just laid there trying to hear what was going on outside. At first, there was nothing, but then she did hear a faint cry and a moan and a sound she couldn't really place. And then the house fell silent again. Eventually, Billie entered back into Jill's room with a cup of water. I mean, she was confused. Why is he still here? Where is the rest of the family? When is he going to leave? Why is he trying to act like they're all one big family? He literally walked into the room with a glass of water as if he lives here and he's bringing up a cup for a family member. She took a few sips and then he brought up some tea. And silently, as she drank her tea, Billie started untying Jill's ankles and wrist. And she knew, she knew what was going to happen. She was a woman living in this world after all. She had tears streaming down her cheeks, but she resisted the urge to scream while he tore off her blossom bra. did not want her family to hear, for them to feel distressed. She told Billy that she was on her period, which was true, but he assaulted her in a different way. And it was aggressive. At one point, Billy bit Jill's neck, and the next day Jill was covered in bruises around her shoulders, around her neck. But the strangest thing was that Jill realized that after the assault, Billy's entire behavior and attitude towards her shifted completely. He did tie her back up after the assault, but he didn't even check if it was tight. He didn't gag her, he even covered her with a blanket in case she was chilly, offered her a cigarette. I mean, clearly Jill didn't care about any of that stuff. She just kept asking, "How's Sarah?" And then with a little smile, Billy said, "She's fine. I would never harm Sarah." You know, I've got a little girl of my own. Honestly, I was a relief. Jill needed to hear that. As long as Sarah was safe, it didn't matter what happened to Jill. Eventually, Billy left Jill to go chat with Richard, which, "Guy, I don't want. " I don't know what he was talking to Richard about, but the fact that he just assaulted Gill and then casually went to go talk to her husband is terrifying, sick and depraved on so many different levels. Jill strained to listen to their conversation because I can imagine. I mean, this is traumatic, but I'm sure she still doesn't want her husband in this type of setting to find out from the repist, you know? So she's trying to listen. Thankfully, it doesn't seem like he told him. But he bragged about how he killed a police dog with his bare hands. Just strangled it. How he and his brother knocked out nine police officers one time. I mean, it was really bizarre. It was probably the longest night of everybody's lives. The next morning was around. Billy comes in to wake up Jill. Not that she needed to be woken up. I mean, she didn't sleep at all. He forced her to put on makeup for the day, and he freaked out when some workers came by to clean out a septic tank. He forced her to open the door and sign the papers, okay, the work. She thought about maybe writing help on the bottom of the document that she signed, or something, anything to let these men know that her family was being held hostage. But she couldn't, because even if she couldn't see Billy, she knew that Billy was watching her, and she knew that he would kill her whole family if he found out. Instead, she did everything that he told her. She went to the store telling nobody about her nightmare. She bought him the newspaper, some cigarettes. She did every single thing that she was told. She hoped that he would see that and just leave. Just trust them. We're not going to call the cops. But he didn't. And that night, he kissed Jill and assaulted her again. This time he didn't even bother tying Jill back up when he was done. He just put his clothes back on and went straight to chat with Richard, which again feels so freaking sick. Jill had no idea what to do. She couldn't lose her mind. I mean, she had to save her family. So she asked Billy, can I make some lunch for everyone? She prepared a soup. Richard was escorted downstairs, but his hands weren't untied so. She had to feed the soup to him. And she was worried because his hands were turning purple. Billy brought the soup up to Amy, the grandma. And he also brought two bowls up for the grandpa and for Sarah. And when he came back down, it was just Billy, Jill, and Richard. And Billy's talking about his big plan to steal a bunch of money and how he's going to go on the run. But everything would be easier if he takes a hostage with him. Just in case while he's on the run, he gets arrested by the police and he can negotiate with the hostage. So Jill, it's going to be you. And that was the moment she'll realize her nightmare was never ending. This guy wanted to take her with him. So what? She could be raped every day, assaulted every single day. I mean, she lost it. For the first time ever, she lost her composure and she started sobbing uncontrollably, screaming, no, no, no. So to calm her down, he offered some whiskey. Would she just gulp down? Richard was given some whiskey as well. And Billy took them upstairs to Sarah's room where grandma was bound and gagged. Grandma was given some whiskey to drink as well. And the silence was broken by Billy. He said, "Well, probably going to leave tonight, but I have some time to kill him. So you guys want to play some cards?" And that's how the four of them found themselves sitting around a table, playing cards. Jill said it was the most bizarre two hours of her entire life. Everyone was oddly relaxed. They were bickering about who was winning. It was really weird. Jill did remember she felt concerned, though, throughout the whole time. She was finally downstairs where she could hear the other side of the upstairs, more clearly. She didn't hear the toilet flush once. And they were supposed to be there. She never heard a peep. She didn't hear any stomping or thumping, not a toilet flush, nothing. And whenever she asked Billy, he just told her that they were napping. I mean, what could Jill do then take him at face value? Billy had such a tight grip on Richard, grandma, and Jill at this point that he didn't even bother tying them up anymore. Jill made burgers for dinner. She cupped up burgers and fries. Billy took two plates of food to give it to Arthur and Sarah. And when he got back, Jill was like, "Wait, why hasn't Sarah asked for her blinky yet?" She never sleeps without it. Ever. That's like one of her sleep essentials. Why didn't she ask for it? Billy just shrugged. I don't know. She hasn't asked for it. She never mentioned it. She's quite happy up there with your dad. But I don't understand. She must want her blinky. Would you just take it to her, please? Okay. And then he came back down. And then the phone rang. Jill was forced to pick up the phone. It was Richard's work. They were asking, "Hey, is Richard feeling any better since he called off work today? Just check it in." Jill assured, "Yeah, Richard's getting better. He should be back to work soon. You know, I think it's the storm and everything. He's just feeling a little under the weather." And right when they were about to hang up, the employee said, "Hey, also, have you heard about the loony on the loose?" Oh my gosh. And Jill froze. Billy was standing next to her. He had heard every single word and he had clenched his jaw. Jill frantically mumbled that she had to go and hung up. Billy blew up. He started to rage, pacing down the hallway up and down. "Luny? LUNY? Why did he call me that?" "I'm not f***ing taking that. I'm not f***ing crazy." She tried to diffuse the situation. Billy, he's just parroting what he read in the news. You know the news prints lies all the time. Yeah, that's what they do. It's all f***ing lies. Imagine being held hostage and having to make your captor feel better about being called names by the press. I seriously admire Gill so much for staying collected during this entire thing because how do you stay calm in a situation like this? It's unthinkable. Meanwhile, Billy keeps muttering to himself. LUNY? LUNY. Billy wasn't always loony. Although I'm not even sure we can call him loony. Because that would give him some sort of benefit of the doubt, right? Some sort of excuse for a sick depraved actions. I think Billy was just evil. But I don't know if it necessarily started off that way. Does it ever? Billy was actually born William Thomas Hughes. Listen, if that's not a fancy name, I don't know what it is. But the Hughes family, they weren't part of British prestige and class. They were middle class at best. And they found themselves in a situation, well, they were popping out kids like Skittles. First, it was Billy, then boom, boom, boom, another five kids. Just back to back to back. Clearly, money was a touchy subject for the Hughes. They really didn't have any. So that's what led Billy's dad to join the army. At least you would get paid more and the family could travel the world. They even got to stay in Hong Kong at one point. Billy was 11 when they went. The kids loved Hong Kong. They loved all the new food. It felt like a never ending adventure. Just the neon lights is just a lot. They're like, "Mom, dad, we want to stay here forever." They felt happy in Hong Kong. But less than six months later, they were sent back to the UK. Some whisper say it was because Billy's dad wasn't as healthy anymore and not as useful to the army. Some say it's because Billy's dad was drunk out of his mind and f*cking around in an army vehicle. I don't know which one. Regardless, they end up back in the UK. In any case, have you heard of the term "parentification"? Now, I don't know how or why, but this is a pretty controversial word these days. So let's start off with the way that it works. Now, a normal, healthy family unit, the parents are the child support system. So the child feels like they can explore the world, satiate their curiosities, knowing that their parents are their rock. The ideal parent is there to unconditionally give their children support to help them become good-adjusted people. That's like the perfect parent. Most people fall somewhere in the middle, I'm sure. You know, making mistakes, learning from them, but overall the child feels very much cared for, protected and loved. But then you have the other extreme group. The parents that begin to take more from the kid than they themselves give. In some extreme cases, it can even be considered a form of child abuse. So there's two types. The kid has to go get groceries. Worry about the bills. Cook meals for the other siblings. Take care of the siblings. And the controversy comes in because people want to be like, "Oh my God, is this some gentle parenting shit I can't even give my kids chores anymore otherwise it's perentification?" No. Perentification is typically different. It's when you're asking a ten-year-old to go to the grocery store, walk to the nearest grocery store by themselves and buy a week supply of groceries for the entire family, bring it home, put it away, cook the food, otherwise everyone's going to starve and die. This is not asking your ten-year-old to do some dishes and put away his toys. Yeah, I guess it's like one is you're teaching the other one's just you're making them work. It's you're asking your kid to do highly age inappropriate chores that they cannot and are not capable of doing. And giving them the stress of, well if you don't do it, the whole family's going to die because we're not going to eat, I mean no six-year-old needs that kind of stress, then you have the emotional perentification. This is when parents force a child to figure out their emotional needs, responsive their needs as a parent. For example, when a parent feels distressed or sad, most parents will try their best to hide it from their child and fake happy. And maybe they'll confide in other friends and family and adults. But perentification happens when the parent just expects their child to drop everything to make them feel better. And then tells them every single thing that's wrong in their lives just dumps their emotional baggage on this kid. Which side note, this is a huge thing. If as a parent, this is what I read online. If as a parent, you ever find yourself. saying, "Hey, you know, my teenage kid or my six-year-old kid is so mature, I feel like they're my best friend. You might be subjecting them to perentification. They're not supposed to be your best friend. They're supposed to be your child. You're not supposed to tell them about everything's thing going on in your life. Studies have shown that emotional perentification oftentimes can be more destructive than instrumental perentification. Because kids are more prone to developing anxiety as adults, experiencing stress that is so severe that they start displaying physical symptoms, just really rough stuff. And as they get older, it doesn't really get better. Some of these kids tend to find it nearly impossible to form attachments and relationships with other people. They might develop an inability to connect with their own feelings. What do I have a feeling like half or more of you guys are listening to this, like, what the fuck I've been preentified? Because, like, same. Now, I can't really tell you how badly Billy was preentified, but I can tell you that the family didn't have money. Both of Billy's parents were working full-time. Billy was basically putting in charge of his five-older siblings. I mean, imagine looking after five whole children when you're what? 12? Like, you're not even a teenager? And it's not like he could escape at school. He was bullied at school. This was before the times of being a short king. Billy was just short. Not a king. Just short. He was the shortest in his class, and everyone made fun of him for it. Which side note, he grew up to be five-six. The average in the UK is five-nine. So, I don't know. Maybe these three inches really were a big of a deal for these kids. I have no idea. So, Billy, he had this pent-up anger and resentment of having to take care of his siblings and being giggled at for being short. It's just another thing that he can't control. He felt like he needed to take a stance. So, he starts getting really violent at school. I mean, I guess he was thinking, "If I can't scare them with my hide, I'm going to do it with my fist." So, he went from being the shortest guy in class to, "Oh, that's the guy. If you ever see him clunch his fist, doesn't matter how many times you apologize. It doesn't matter. It's too late. He's going to throw some punches." But it wasn't just the bullies. A few of Billy's friends remember that when they went to go pick wild berries in a nearby field, which, I don't know where their living sounds picked to ask, a wild horse came up to them. They're like, "Wow, this is so majestic." Billy, on the other hand, picked up a plank of wood and beat the horse until it ran off. "Fourth?" Which, can you imagine being, I don't know, a short kid and this wild horse, like, I'm a full grown adult and wild horses are still very, very terrifying. He just liked the thrill. He starts dipping his toes into crime after that. I mean, the guy did everything. He stole motorcycles, broke into local shops, got jobs at factories, and then stole from the factories, stole old ladies' parcels. Doubled in pig pocketing. One time he broke into a house and just stole Christmas stockings. Like, the dudes just ruined Christmas. There's not even much monetary value in Christmas stockings. It's like, typically stuff with small candies and knickknacks, no? At least in our house, I don't know. He went to a local train station, smashed 19 windows on a public train. I mean, the kid was in and out of court, and each time they just gave him a slap on the wrist. Because what? He's not 18 yet. He starts getting into alcohol at an early age. I mean, eventually he does turn nine and it starts hitting the fan. -Turn nine? -Oh, 19 times. -He did this all by seven. -No, I'm kidding. So eventually he turns 19 and this is when it starts hitting the fan. Like, this guy's no longer gonna get slaps on the wrist. He's going to do big boy time if he does something bad, which he does. He risks it all for some fruit. No, I'm kidding. Okay, he risks it all for a gambling machine, but apparently in the United Kingdom they call it a fruit machine. They're like, "Oh, you want to go to the fruit machine? It's like a slot machine." So he was found on the floor of a bar trying to break into one of those slot machines to take all the cash. The guy was arrested. And I mean, nobody that knew Billy since he was younger was surprised by this. They all said that Billy's whole personality was based on crime and theft. That's all he talked about. Other guys their age talked about girls, sports, you know, food. Billy, he's like, "You see that fruit machine over there? Driving me bananas." And then he would just space out. Which seemed to be a common thing that he did. The guy just spaced out all the time. Everyone, family, friends, police officers said, "Billy would just space out." And it wasn't like this dumb look of spacing out. It wasn't like that. It was scarier. His eyes would go blank. It's almost as if anyone that tried to talk to him, a shield would come down. And his eyes would go blank. You could almost see the transition. And anything you say to him after that, didn't matter. I mean, how terrifying is that? You could never appeal to this guy's humanity after this shield comes down. There's no reasoning with him. There's no trying to get him to see something. Feel something. Nothing. The officer said, "Billy could look right through you. There was something truly evil there." So Billy does multiple stints in jail. He did have a psychiatrist that said this about him. He's suffering from depression and low self-esteem. Exacerbated by a lack of contact from his parents, with whom he would like to reconcile with. He also seems to harbor a lot of shame and has very little self-respect. Great. Release him into the wild. So there he goes. Again. Billy lasted a week before he was arrested. He tried to steal something. An officer caught him. So what does Billy think is the absolute best and only option in this situation? It was to use his big ass forehead to headbutt the officer to the ground, punch him, kick him, and then make a run for it. Billy was caught, charged with burglary and a assaulting a police officer. But then he was let out again. And this part of the case is so frustrating because not only was Billy let out and giving these lenient sentences and not rehabilitated in prison, but he was getting out early for good behavior. And each time he would re-offend with increasing violence and the authorities would look at each other like, "Wow, we can't blame ourselves." You know, nobody could have predicted this. Anyway, let's do it again. Same time tomorrow. I don't know how many times this happened. I can't keep count. This was like the millionth time that he ended up in prison. And this time he said, "I'm a little bit different, you know. Things are going to be a little bit different today." Because what's that smell? Do you smell that? "Ah yeah. Love. Love is in the air." Billy had managed to find a girlfriend while he was out. So now in prison, he was just pining for her. Even had her name Diane tattooed on his chest in prison. This guy loved his prison tattoos. He had love tattooed on one of his fingers on his right hand and then hate tattooed on one of his fingers on his left hand. Which, listen, I don't know why. That doesn't really feel like a tough prison tattoo. It's giving Pinterest girl a moment. I don't know why. But he was like, "Fuck yeah, hardcore bitch, love and hate." And to go with this hardcore vibe, of course he had to get an eagle tattooed on him with the little talons just pointed out ready to grab someone. Oh, and a snake with a fork, tongue, and tail dripping blood. We need to have a booklet of tattoos that are red flags because these are all red flags. So anyway, when he had to appear at court for his crimes, Bill, Billy made this drastic gesture. He pulled out a razor blade that he had smuggled and the court went silent and he dramatically put his wrist up into the air and ever so slightly sliced it and his throat. Everyone leaked his subdue him and rushed him to the hospital and he was looking out the window, being all dramatic. Just let me die. I want to die. Let me go. Diane broke up with me. I can't do this anymore. I'm in so much pain. The doctor is stitching Billy back up and he's like, "You really didn't try that hard. I'm just saying, like you're fine. I've seen kids get bigger scrapes at the playground. So you got to go back to prison, bro." And then right back out, he went. And this is when Billy runs into Jean. So this is when things start getting really, really bad. Jean is a divorcee with a five year old named Tracy, a daughter and Jean just wasn't in a great place in life either. She had a record. She found it hard to keep a job, but she was trying, but she couldn't help herself. The minute that she laid eyes on Billy, she fell for him. He was attractive. A lady's man and he knew what to say. He was a smooth talker. And boom, within six weeks of knowing each other, she was pregnant with his baby. And things were not looking good. Billy could not hold down a job either. His biggest problem wasn't even his prison record. It was the fact that anytime he got even a little bit of criticism, like, "Oh, hey, Billy, you know, we only do like 30 minute lunch break. So maybe you shouldn't do a three hour lunch break every single day." Billy would get so mad he would trash the lunch room. His employers were not impressed. Billy also started getting violent at home. Jean said for the first, I don't know, a couple of months. Their relationship was fine. I mean, they were struggling, but he was so nice to her. But out of nowhere, absolutely unprovoked, out of the fucking blue, Jean was cooking dinner one day and said a plate down on the table for Billy. He looked at it. And he got up, picked up the plate and threw it at her face. I don't want to eat this. Cook something else. Jean was in so much shock that instead of storming out, I mean, she was terrified. She was confused. She started scrambling to find what else she could make for him. And then she said that plate down too, and he threw it in her face. He didn't like that one either. This happened to total four times. In the same night? Yeah. And ever since then, I don't know what snapped in Billy, but he was just violent every waking second from then on. For the next five years, he broke Jean's arms. Her ribs perforated her ear drums. Billy would even get violent with Jean's five-year-old daughter, who of course was in return terrified of Billy, understandably, this is her abuser, but that only pissed him off more. He would scream, "Why the fuck don't you talk to me? Why don't you love me?" Even with his own daughter, Billy pretended to be this good father. He would sit there and talk about how much he loved being a dad and how he was just so fulfilling. He's a family man and all this. He would Google God God his child. But one morning, Jean was feeding the baby, and she was gonna make Billy breakfast after. But Billy was ravenous. He wanted breakfast now. I don't know why I just imagined him sitting at the table with an empty plate, a fork in one hand, a knife in the other, just like slamming it onto man-made food. Man-food now. Jean nicely asked Billy, "Oh, could you please calm down, please honey, I'm gonna get you breakfast." As soon as Nicholas fed, she's gonna be 5C in satire, she's gonna be right now, just two more minutes. I mean, most people would wait, or I don't know, here's a spectacular idea. Make your own breakfast, as a grown adult. But Billy didn't have the patience for either. Instead he started hitting Jean while she was feeding their child. So Jean was worried that she was going to drop Nicola, placed her back into the cot, and dashed out of the house to defuse the situation. Billy went back inside, reappeared in the open doorway, holding Nicola by the neck, shaking her. Jean, if you don't come back right now and make me my damn breakfast, I will drop her. Jean walked back in, expecting to be beat, but miraculously, Billy started apologizing. Jean said he was like that. One minute he was beating her or the kids, and then the next minute he was tearfully begging for their forgiveness. Jean thought that he would change. He would change, right? The only thing that would change was their address. Billy would get a new place for them to stay, refuse to pay rent, and then repeat the process. They were just getting evicted non-stop. So I mean, we've established that this guy is violent. How the hell did he end up in the house, though? We're not ready for what this guy does next. Billy and his little brother, Alan, were out committing crimes. Great influence. I love it. Just, you know, keep it in the family. They said, teach your little brother all the tricks and tools. And a patrol car was investigating a hit and run. He sees the brother is walking, and one of them, Billy, has blood on him. So naturally, the police wants to ask him a couple of questions. I mean, so many red flags. The primary one being. The officers at the brothers looked drugged up to the eyeballs. Whatever that means. Again, the visual. I don't know why I imagine their eyeballs just free roaming, floating around in their sockets. The police asked to see Billy's car. He called for backup because, well, the car was just bricks of drugs on wheels. It was a narcos fan. It was full of drugs to the brim, all kinds of drugs. Either they were raiding a mobile CVS pharmacy, or these guys needed to be arrested right now. So the police went with the latter. So with backup, the police arrested Alan first. Now, Alan punches one of them in the face, gets arrested, gets thrown into the back of a police fan so that they could go arrest Billy. But while Alan is in the police fan, he manages to smash the vehicle locks, scramble out the rear window, and officer tries to stop him, he kicks him down, and Billy sees his brother as escaping. And I guess it gives him this motivation to go absolutely berserk. So now, these officers, side note, they're not the officers that you're imagining. These officers are like romance novel officers. They're jacked, like six, four, former rugby players jacked. Very, very capable men. And even them, it took them 30 minutes. Three officers to control the situation. Mind you, Billy is short. These guys are well over six feet tall and buff, and Alan and Billy, I don't know what kind of drugs they were on, but they just had this superhuman strength. Billy even attempted to gauge out one of the officers' eyes with his bare hands, and then knocked the officer unconscious. He then ran up to the second officer, bit him through his jacket. The officer had severe bruising from the bite, severe bruising. The police officer said, "We were kicking, punching, and every time we knocked them down, they just bounced right back up. I kicked Billy in the head with my foot, with all that it was worth, with my freaking police boot on. Damn, make a difference. He just kept coming back for more." It's like a zombie. So finally, with more backup, the officers managed to get the two brothers inside the second police fan. The one that Alan hadn't broken out of, and now you're like, "Okay, well, okay, that's good. We're done." No. They managed to tear the seat out and used it to better open the rear doors while the officers were driving. They said it was insane. They were going 40 miles an hour. The brothers got the door open. They jumped out onto the road at 40 miles an hour. It was unbelievable. The officers looked back and they were just fucking running off. Two and other six officers came, tracked them down, and finally, they were able to arrest them. But not without every single one of them getting a good beating. Everything a cop got a good beating. Yeah. Some of them had to spend several weeks in the hospital with bruised internal organs. And I mean, the two brothers had single-handedly just, well, I guess there were four hands involved, but you'll get it. They had beaten up like nine buff police officers. But they weren't superhuman. The brothers had bruising on 90% of their bodies, which is not an exaggeration. But did that soreness, tenderness, pain, anything stop Billy? No. When he was taken to prison, he lost his shit and headbutted a prison guard and ripped out the central heating system in his cell and used a pipe from that to smash up the toilet. He was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. That's it? Yeah. It's the UK. I don't know if they'd be doing things different there, but like you look at a cop the wrong way in the US and you're in jail for life. I thought you were trying to assault the cops. But apparently in the UK you can take down nine of them and you're good. Now the thing that's interesting with Billy is it's just like what he does to Jean. He does the same thing every time he's in prison. He loses his shit, goes bonkers, and then immediately flips the switch and becomes a polygenic and docile and is on his best behavior. Even in prison he felt like he needed more support. So what does he do? He proposes to Jean and convinces her that they need to have a prison wedding instead of just waiting the three and a half years because why I'm sure he was scared that he was going to leave him. So does the guy have bouts of violence and then feel heavy remorse? I doubt it. I think he's just manipulating people to give him more chances. Cellmates reported that he loved talking about killing and murder. He said he would love to kill all the prison staff. But he somehow tricks everyone into thinking that he's a changed man. He gets out of prison, moves in with Jean and things go south very quickly. He would slam Jean's head against the floor. Whatever he didn't like, whatever she made for dinner. He broke a few of her ribs for no reason at all. I mean, is there any reason to break someone's ribs? Another time he pushed Tracy towards an open fire because she refused to talk to him. And once he punched his own three-year-old daughter in the face, why? Because she was so excited about a new toy that she got that she woke him up and was like, "Daddy, look at my new toy." Any punch during the face. A lot of the neighbors witnessed this with their own two eyes. They heard the slamming of Jean's head from their apartments and they blamed Jean. Can you believe it? They were all like, "Well, yeah, I mean, she does trigger him a lot. She just likes to get under his skin." Ridiculous. Around that time, Billy starts having an affair with a coworker named Teresa. Now, Jean was not surprised. This wasn't the first time that he cheated. And about a month into Billy's affair, he said he was going to leave Jean for Teresa. Now, Billy was head over heels for her. Teresa had this husky voice, such as "made her seem hotter and more glamorous than every other girl that he's dated." Billy turned on the charm. And when they first started dating, he gave Teresa the impression that he was a family man. And then he got out of the water, outdoorsy type guy, you know. Meanwhile, he continued to torment Jean for funsies, not because he wanted to be with her. One time, after he had already moved out, Billy came over to Jean's place, where she was living with her best friend Alice, Alice's kids, and another roommate, let's call her Kate. So Billy kept coming over, claiming that he wanted to see their daughter, but it was just very unsettling for the entire house. He seemed erratic and unhinged. One night he shows up at 3 a.m., wielding a felon axe. Just he cut the phone lines outside so nobody could call the police. He forced himself inside the house and raped Kate. Then went upstairs and found Jean and Alice in a room. And he announced, "Jean, you're gonna see your best friend shopped to pieces." And he hit Alice on the head with the axe. Blood splurred everywhere. She screamed, the kids all woke up, and I don't know what snapped Billy out of this homestead or rage, but he just started profusely apologizing. He even escorted Alice to the bathroom to help her clean up her bloody wound. Kate and Jean tried to call the police, but the phone lines were cut. So instead they focused on making sure Billy stayed calm. They played his favorite song, "Made 'em Tea." And Billy sat with everyone for close to two hours, just hanging out, acting like nothing happened. He basically held them hostage and then left. The frustrating part is that the court really didn't even care. Kate's rape wasn't even mentioned in the charges, and Billy was just charged with wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm. He would get nine months for that. So basically, no repercussions for a raping a woman and almost killing another woman. So I guess the US and the UK are the same. Who could speak about women? Theresa stayed with him during his prison sentence and they moved in together when they got out. Now this is when Theresa started to see all the red flags. She saw that his mood would change very quickly. It was like juggle and hide. She said that she knew when not to mess with him because he had a different look in his eyes. It was a blank look. Like nobody was there. He didn't even see you. You didn't even register. You weren't even a human in front of him. Theresa tried to stay out of his way and Billy would go blow off some steam at the local bars. Now this day is going to change the course of a lot of people's lives. Billy went to a bar called Jingles. And he saw this couple, let's call them Christine and Kevin. Christine was 20. Kevin was 21. And both of them were approached by Billy who was chatting them up all night. I mean, Christine and Kevin were giving each other the eye. They knew what was going on. Like, is this guy trying to have a threesome with us? Like, it's very much that type of energy. So at the first opportunity they found they slipped out of the bar. Kevin is walking Christine home but as they walked by a local park it was relatively secluded and Kevin was there and the moment just struck. They decided to sit on the bench and start making out. While they were making out, a brick flew out of nowhere and smacked Kevin in the head. He blacked out and when he came to he found himself laying in a puddle of his own blood. Christine was gone. No where to be seen. So he's like, what the hell? He grabbed his dizzying head, ran to the police station and with the police help, Kevin starts frantically searching for Christine. They find her near the public restroom of the park and she was sobbing. She had been raped. And the rapist was none other than Billy Hughes. I think the way that Billy was caught is a bit unclear but I do think that it was Theresa that turned him in. Maybe she saw Mark's on the bench. him, heard the news, he gets arrested, and Billy starts to argue that this is all a big misunderstanding. He wasn't following the couple home, they happened to run into each other at the park. Anyway, Kevin and Billy got into this huge fist fight, which resulted in Kevin being knocked on the ground, because Billy is a big, bad, strong, high-value alpha man. And while Kevin was knocked out, Christine was so turned on by Billy and his high-value man, Alpha Status, and his ability to fight that she voluntarily had sex with him. I wish you could see the face that we're making, like it's so ridiculous. So the police officers were scared, that someone could even think that this type of excuse would work, but there was also this small little moment that the officers couldn't get out of their head. They said while they were setting up the tape recorder, Billy was looking straight into the lens, unblinking, and his gaze was so direct, so cold, and his eyes looked gray. The officers said that it sent a chill down their spine. Billy gets charged with rape, but because he's on the run from other charges, he had a lot of court appearances. For each court appearance, Billy had to be transferred from prison to the courthouse, and that whole trip with last three hours. Now of course, he always had two police escorts with him, and sometimes another inmate, but you can see where this is going, yes? Because one day the prison realized that they were missing a knife from the kitchen, and for some reason, they don't launch a full-scale investigation of the prisoner's cells. They just sweep the entire thing under the rug. I honestly cannot understand why the fork nobody took a missing kitchen knife in the prison seriously, but they didn't. A month passes, and now two prison guards are tasked with escorting Billy to the court appearance. They did a very small search for contraband, meaning that they just ran their fingers through Billy's shirt around his collar, around his waist, then up and down his legs, like this is less than the TSA random checks, you know? Yeah, because TSA gets really up there. They get really involved, but these people were like, it's fine. I don't know. Great place to hide a knife would be in the prison boot that these prison officers did not check. They handcuffed Billy and hauled the cab. Now, Don said that they took the normal precautions, which was virtually nothing. Now to give you a visual, the taxi driver is obviously in the front driving. Don sat in the front passenger seat. He's the experienced prison guard, and then Ken, another prison guard, and Billy were in the back. Now, it was already a bleak day. I'm talking blizzard, gray skies, everything felt cold and wet, just miserable. Ironically, the song "Jail House Rock" by Elvis was playing. Billy starts fidgeting, asking to use the toilet soon. They told him, "You gotta wait till we get to the courthouse." But he threatened to pee right that in there. So they take him to a local restroom. They later believe that this was when he took the the steak knife out of his boot and hid it somewhere easier to grab. Because when they got back in the car, they got back in their normal positions. And on the highway, Don in the front slump forward. He had a cut on the back of his neck. The gas was about five inches deep. The taxi driver was panicked, but Billy yelled at him, "Keep f***ing going." Then Ken's throat was slashed. Ken tried to fight back. Billy sliced his thumb, severing through his muscles and almost down to the bone. Then he forced Kevin with his nearly severed thumb to hand over the handcuff keys. Billy managed to free himself, and then he ordered Don to give him his arm. So Billy handcuffed Don from the front and Ken from the back together. And Drag Don to the back seat while he's bleeding while they're going, I don't know, 60 on a highway. So all three of them are in the back. Billy puts the knife up against the taxi driver's neck and forces him to drive. And he starts collecting all the wallets from everyone. He gets like what? $40 max? It's like $9.15 a.m. That's so scary. You just took control that easily. It's so scary. Now they're heading into the city, but he doesn't want to go into the city. So he forces the taxi driver to take a couple of turns and head into the open countryside. When they were somewhere remote enough, he was satisfied. The taxi driver pulled over and threw everybody out into the snow. Don and Ken literally left a bloody trail in the snow. Billy jumped into the driver's seat and sped off. Thankfully the three men would be rescued and get help. Now, back to Billy. Never a great driver. Okay. He was driving through a literal snow storm, so a few miles from where he abandoned three men, he crashed into a wall. Miraculously, the guy is unharmed. But he's in the middle of nowhere, snow everywhere. I mean, he's considered a fugitive. That's how he ended up at Padre Cottage. He told the family he was going to leave that night after playing cards and dinner, but he wasn't going to. The weather was too bad. The snow was falling. It was too dangerous to drive. Not that Billy really wanted to leave. He was forming this bizarre attraction to Jill. He felt like they were going to be together forever. That they had this bond now and he was eager to impress her. So he gathered Grandma, Jill and Richard and huddled them into one room to sleep. Billy would sleep by the door and he would lay there talking about his own daughter, Nicola, even past her on pictures of her and talking about how much he loved her. That gave every single person in that room hope because that means Sarah's going to be okay. I mean, he loves kids. This man has to care for kids, right? Then he went on to talk about how he beat up nine cops and it just seemed like he wanted everyone to be like, "Wow, you're so cool, Billy. We love you." Later Jill would beg to see her daughter. Billy, please, can Sarah just sleep with us for one night? She's must be so frightened I want to be with her. And Billy was irritated. It looked like he was so upset that Jill cared more about her daughter than his heroic fight against nine police officers. He's like, "What the fuck? What kind of audacity do you have, lady?" He made it very clear that if she asked again, he would blow up. At least they were all sharing a room that night, which meant Billy wouldn't rape Jill. In the next morning, Billy demanded Richard and Jill go to the stores to get a list of things he needed. A gas camping stove, a saucepan, six tins of stew, two packets of glacier, fruits, 24 cans of light ale whiskey, some newspapers, cigarettes, can openers. Richard and Jill would finally be alone together out. And this just shows you how scared they were in the car. For the first few minutes, Jill and Richard wrote in silence. They said that even when Billy was home, they knew Billy was home. They literally left him home. They felt like he was in the car with them. When they finally did talk, they whispered. Richard went first. " Jill, I can't do this anymore. We have to go to the police. No. That's the very last thing you're going to do." In Jill's mind, if they went to the police, they would show up lights and sirens blaring and in the meantime, Billy would massacre the whole family inside. I mean, hopefully the police would have a bit more tack than that, but that's not guaranteed and Jill's not thinking clearly at this point. Besides, all the stuff they were buying, it seemed like stuff that Billy would take and leave, right? The campfire stove, the cans of food, the fruit. Richard argued, but Jill put her foot down. I'm telling you, Richard, if you go to the police, I will never forgive you. Never. They went shopping. They did as they were told. They bought the newspaper, which Billy was all over the front pages. They rushed back home and Amy was a mess. She said, "Billy told her that Arthur had wet himself and Amy was crying. He won't let me go help him. I need Arthur to be okay." Billy instructed Jill to boil 13 eggs for him. And she asked him about Arthur and Billy just said, "Oh, no need to worry. I he peed. I cleaned it up as disgusting." Jill was concerned and she also asked Billy, "Well, has Sarah asked for a fresh underwear? She's usually very particular about cleanliness." He didn't respond. Jill gave him some of Sarah's underwear to bring to her and he came back down saying, "Yeah, she thanked me, but she made me turn around while she changed." And Jill felt relieved. That is exactly something Sarah would say. So Billy even took two plates of food for Arthur and Sarah and then Billy announced it was time to go. He was going to shower, change, and then he wanted to take the whole family to Richard's workplace so that he could steal all the money from Richard's workplace, which they did go. There was a security officer who let them in for some reason and they managed to take a few hundred pounds. But when they got back to the cottage, Billy wanted everyone to be tied up and staying home except for Jill. He wanted Jill to come with him. So she's crying and resistance and he's promising, "No, I'm going to let you go. Okay. When we get into another car and I find the right opportunity, I'm going to steal a different car and you can stay in Richard's car and come back home or something." So he ties up the whole family forces Jill into the Richard's car and it's winter. So they're struggling to get that car turned on, right? But it turns on. And as they're driving, Billy makes the weirdest excuse to go back to the house. Something about the maps. He's like, "I need to go back and I forgot the maps." Jill is like, "Why do you need to go back? Just freaking, I think at this point she's trying to keep him as far away as possible from her own family." So she's like, "You can't buy the maps anywhere else." They park in the driveway. He's driving, so they do make it back. And he instructs Jill to stay in the car. No, this next decision practically saved her life. He never told Jill not to turn off the car's engine, but she turned it off. You know, she's responsible. She don't want to waste gas. So when Billy gets out, he's wearing Richard's suit, which is odd. And he was mad. He's like, "Why the f*** did you turn off the f***ing car?" Jill's crying. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. F***, stop crying. They try to turn on the car. It won't start. Maybe they take Jill's car, but it's snowed in. So Jill's like, "Okay, well, maybe we just give it some time. A few minutes. I'm sure it just needs to heat up. I'll go inside and make some tea." No, don't go inside. We don't have time. Go next, or I'll ask them to give us a tow. There's a rope in the back of the trunk of this car. What? No, Billy, I can't involve them. Well then go and f***ing f*** down a random car. No car would stop for Jill. So she went to a neighbor's. She lied and said, "They needed to get to the hospital." Billy was a friend of hers. A friend's husband actually. But they need to get to the hospital if you could just tow us down the street or something. And the neighbors were looking at her like, "What? What's going on? Where's Rich?" Now, Billy was kind of standing a little bit far away. And Jill dropped her voice to a whisper, leaned ever so slightly forward and said, "He's tied to a chair." Len, the neighbor, put his hands on Jill's shoulders, looked during the face and said, "Are you drunk? What's going on?" Jill panicked. And she laughed, this high-pitched short laugh. Pat him on the cheek and said, "It's the man from the moors. He's listening. He's going to kill us all." Finally, Len got it. He said, I'll get my car. He was thinking fast. He didn't have a phone on him. He realized he had nothing to arm himself with. He got his wife. They got into the car in their garage, and they're thinking, OK, maybe we tow the car to wherever they want to go. And then we let the police know where we dropped him off. No, that's too dangerous. Lenin is wife, got on the car, and sped off to the police station. Leaving Jill and Billy speechless. Did you fucking tell him? No, Billy, I didn't. I didn't. I only said that Richard was in the bath. And then Billy gasped. Jill looked up, and she saw her mom walking out of the house. Her mom looked dazed. Amy was staggering and making this awful moaning noise. And Jill's thinking, what? That doesn't make sense. She should be tied up. Jill tried to get to her mom, but Billy threw her in the car and threatened her. Jill watched as her mom lurched forward. Blood splurding from her neck. And Billy caught her as she fell and dragged her by the arms into the garage. Jill had tears streaming down. She was screaming, mom, mom! Jill's fragile grip on reality was breaking now. She asked, what have you done to my mother? He said nothing. And this was the first time that Jill realized everything Billy had said was a lie. Every single one of her family members was dead. Billy forced Jill to ask another neighbor for help. She made the long track coast. They don't live close by. And immediately the neighbor was on edge. Jill didn't seem OK. She was hysterical. Who was this strange man he didn't know? So Ron, the neighbor offered them a drive in his truck back to the house so that he could help tow the car. And when the three of them got into Ron's truck, Jill sat as close to Ron as possible, like she was practically glued to Ron. That's not normal. He started putting two and two together. Billy was strange. He never heard of him. So he towed Richard's car out of the driveway and they were able to get the car going. Now Ron decided he would go back home and alert the police. So Billion Jill are in the car alone again and they're racing off. The police were called, rushed to the pottery cottage. They found blood splatter everywhere. Upstairs they found Richard lying face down on the carpet. He was recently stabbed to death in his throat. So when they came back for the maps, he killed Amy and Richard. But Arthur and Sarah had been dead from the get-go. Downstairs they found Arthur in the other side of the house's lounge. His leg was attached at an awkward angle. Someone had crudely put a teddy bear on his face in this stupid gesture. Arthur had been dead for two days. Near him were the meals that Billy quote, brought up. Amy was found in the snow near the garage, stabbed multiple times in her throat cut. And upstairs in the minton's bedroom, Sarah was found gagged in a fetal position and stabbed in the chest and throat. Time was of the essence because I mean, who knew what Billy was going to do to Jill. The two of them were speeding down the highway. Patrols were all patrols were alerted. And an unmarked vehicle started following them behind. Billy knew it was the cops. So he sped up, but due to his inability to be a competent driver, he crashed into a wall. This was his second wall crash in three days. Somehow, neither Billy nor Jill were injured. Just a little dazed. They rushed out of the car. Billy put the knife to Jill's throat and told the cops to hand over their car. They did. So now Billy and Jill are speeding away in an unmarked police car. But the police had hope. Other officers were busy putting up a roadblock ahead. Jill said that she felt like she was going to die. They were speeding so fast she could see the roadblock ahead. She closed her eyes and slipped down into the passenger seat. For some reason, she doesn't know how or when maybe Billy bought it. She had a bottle of whiskey in her hand. Maybe it was there. I don't-- she doesn't know. She just started drinking from it. You could see the roadblock. They weren't slowing down. He was going to try to drive right through it. And he tried. But the police were smart. They put a bus on the other side so he couldn't keep driving. He's whirfed, trying to avoid the bus, and crashed into another wall, his third wall in three days. Somehow the two were fine again. But Billy was not ready to go down. He grabbed the axe and held it to Jill's head and warned he would kill her. Jill was virtually could tonic at this point. I mean, I can't even imagine how she felt. Yet she tried to help. She said, Billy, the police chief is a really nice guy. He's going to do whatever you want. If you want to get away car, he's going to give you one. The police tried to argue. We will give you the car right now. Just like go of Jill. Billy refused. I'm taking her with me. And she just lost it. She's like, I don't want to go with you. And this set, Billy off. He lost it. He yelled at her. This is your fucking fault. Swung the axe at her. She tried to move out of the way. And at the same time, the chief inspector dove into the car and started wrestling Billy. Billy managed to strike a small blow to the side of Jill's head. And he hit the officer's arm. But thankfully, he hit it with the blunt side of the blade. The struggle was chaotic. They're confined in the space of a car. The police are outside realizing the situation does not look good. So they fire a shot. The bullet penetrated Billy's scalp. The second one into his shoulder and at his chest. Despite this, Billy is still wrestling for the axe. A third shot rang through the car. This fatally wounded Billy. And he slumped over. He was dead. The police get Jill out of the car. And again, I don't even know how a human can live through, not even just this car chase experience, but this whole ordeal and not come out of the car completely dead on the inside. I don't know. Because Jill would learn that she had lost her entire family in the span of 48 hours. Jill tried to recover. She did actually end up marrying Richard's foster nephew. And they had a daughter together named Jane Sara in honor of Sara Jane. And Billy Hughes was dead. I can't say anyone missed him. But his daughter, Nikola, felt like her mom Jane would look at her and say things like, you'll end up just like him. It's her redditary. You're going to be a psychopath. So Nikola developed depression and felt like her life was a mess. To make matters worse, Jean, her mother committed suicide. And Nikola felt like she was next. She tried to overdose. And thankfully it failed. She said that this near death shot gave her what she needed to turn her life around. She had her own kids and tried to be strong for that. Jill tried to be strong too. She tried to move on. And it might seem like she moved on. But she said this. Some days I get up with so much anger inside of me. But I think I won't be beaten. I won't. I know mom, dad, Richard, and Sara are watching over me, willing me somehow to be able to go on. I believe in God. But why me? Why me? Why take Sara? I always used to say, I don't know what I'll do if anything ever happens to mom and dad. But they had a life. Sara was growing into such a lovely girl. And Richard, it was all happening for him. It was right at the beginning of the good times for Richard. And he always tried so hard for us. Oh, I did want Richard to be proud of me. And that is the story of the pottery cottage hostage situation. It's like really one of those stories where you realize evil exists. It really does. So stay safe. Lock your doors. and I will see you guys on Sunday for the mini-sode. Bye.