So, now we’re back for part two of the fascinating and disturbing case of convicted child killer Lucy Letby. Since part one, we’ve reviewed interviews with her accusers, her defenders, scientific experts, and nurses who either worked in neonatal units, in the Countess of Chester neonatal unit, or worked directly with Lucy Letby. We’ve also read through the available evidence and testimony from her trial.

Join us at the quiet end for Lucy Letby: The Common Denominator Part Two. Today, we are going to talk you through Letby’s trials and what has been going on since her convictions. Dick’s been doing his homework, too, and he will share his interpretations of the statistical and medical evidence, outcomes, and published opinions surrounding the case.

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Sources

A British Nurse Was Found Guilty of Killing Seven Babies, Did She Do It? The New Yorker, Rachel Aviv, 5/13/2024.

Countess of Chester Hospital: Woman held in baby deaths probe, BBC News, 7/3/2018.

Lucy Letby: The Complete Story by Katherine Smith, 2023.

Lucy Letby: how did a nurse commit such unthinkable murders? The Guardian, 8/18/2023.

Lucy Letby: Killer or Coincidence? Why some experts question the evidence, The Guardian, Felicity Lawrence, 7/9/2024.

Lucy Letby’s weird behaviors that could explain why she killed, Times Radio, 11/2024.

Lucy Letby whistleblower says babies would have lived if hospital had acted sooner, The Guardian, Josh Halliday, 8/18/2023.

The King v. Lucy Letby, Sentencing Remarks, Honorable Mr. Justice Goss Kt., 8/21/2023.

Manchester Crown Court, The Honourable Mr. Justice Goss Kt. Between The King v. Lucy Letby, Sentencing Remarks, Redacted Version, 8/21/2023.

Panorama, Lucy Letby: The Nurse Who Killed, BBC One TV documentary, 8/21/2023.

Pulmonary vascular air embolism in the newborn, Archives of Disease in Childhood, SK Lee & AK Tanswell, 507-510, 1989.

Revealed: the files that show how Lucy Letby was treated as a victim, The Times, Shaun Lintern & David Collins, 8/20/2023.

Sir David Davis: It’s Highly Probable Lucy Letby is Innocent, Good Morning Britain, 9/2024.

Sudden unexpected neonatal death in the first week of life: Autopsy findings from a specialist centre, The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, Martin A. Weber, Michael T. Ashworth, Anthony R. Risdon, Ivan Brooke, Marian Malone, Neil J. Sebire, 2009.

What I learned about Lucy Letby after 10 months in court, BBC News, Judith Moritz, 8/24/2023.

What is the evidence against Lucy Letby? Five key points that convicted baby killer, YorkshireLive, Sophie Corcoran, 8/24/2023.

What is the Truth About Lucy Letby and the Married Doctor? Daily Mail, Liz Hull, 10/10/2024.

This is a rerelease of a bonus episode released last summer for subscribers only. We thought we’d share this on the public feed for those of you needing an escape from the upcoming holiday stress. Hope you enjoy our discussion!

Cullen Davis was a man who believed that money could buy anything. And he may have been right. His life, loves, and even his crimes show this to be true. In the 1970s, Davis, a wealthy oil tycoon from Texas, was accused of murder. The first incident occurred in August 1976, when there was a deadly shooting inside his estranged wife’s Fort Worth mansion. In the second incident, he was charged with hiring a hitman and conspiring to kill 15 people.

Join us at the quiet end for A Perversion of Justice. Cullen Davis would become known for getting away with the criminal charges against him, thanks to the best defense his money could buy. But to many, the evidence against him was overwhelming. So, where and why did the justice system fail so miserably?

Sources

Blood Will Tell: The Murder Trials of T. Cullen Davis by Gary Cartwright, 1979.

Rich Man, Dead Man, Texas Monthly, Gary Cartwright, 1977, retrieved 7/5/2024.

A Texas Oil Dynasty: The Family Tree of T. Cullen Davis, Genealogy Magazine,  Pylant, James, 4/3/2007, retrieved 7/2/2024.

Texas vs. Davis: The Only Complete Account of the Bizarre Thomas Cullen Davis Murder Case by Mike Cochran, 1980.

In this previously released for members-only episode, Jill & Dick recap and discuss the ID docuseries The Lost Women of Highway 20. We recommend that you watch it first, but you can definitely follow the story by just listening to the podcast.

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When British nurse Lucy Letby went on trial in 2023, the case against her seemed overwhelming. She was charged with 22 murders and attempted murders in the neonatal unit where she worked at Countess of Chester Hospital. The case centered on an abnormally high number of deaths between June 2015 and June 2016. Although no one ever saw Lucy harming a baby and the coroner did not find foul play in any of their deaths, thousands of pieces of evidence were gathered to convict her. In August of 2023, Lucy was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.

Join us at the quiet end for Lucy Letby: The Common Denominator, Part One. At her sentencing, the judge said that Lucy had committed a cruel, calculated, and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children. A public inquiry was ordered to discern how Lucy Letby was able to commit her crimes and how the hospital failed to protect babies. But she maintains that she is innocent and there are questions about the statistical evidence used to convict her and the working conditions on the unit. Is Lucy Letby the cruel, calculated killer that the jury found her to be, or could she be the victim of a false conviction?

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Sources

A British Nurse Was Found Guilty of Killing Seven Babies, Did She Do It? The New Yorker, Rachel Aviv, 5/13/2024.

Countess of Chester Hospital: Woman held in baby deaths probe, BBC News, 7/3/2018.

Lucy Letby: how did a nurse commit such unthinkable murders? The Guardian, 8/18/2023.

Lucy Letby: The Complete Story by Katherine Smith, 2023.

Lucy Letby whistleblower says babies would have lived if hospital had acted sooner, The Guardian, Josh Halliday, 8/18/2023.

The King v. Lucy Letby, Sentencing Remarks, Honorable Mr. Justice Goss Kt., 8/21/2023.

Panorama, Lucy Letby: The Nurse Who Killed, BBC One TV documentary, 8/21/2023.

Revealed: the files that show how Lucy Letby was treated as a victim, The Times, Shaun Lintern & David Collins, 8/20/2023.

Sudden unexpected neonatal death in the first week of life: Autopsy findings from a specialist centre, The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, Martin A. Weber, Michael T. Ashworth, Anthony R. Risdon, Ivan Brooke, Marian Malone, Neil J. Sebire, 2009.

What I learned about Lucy Letby after 10 months in court, BBC News, Judith Moritz, 8/24/2023.

What is the evidence against Lucy Letby? Five key points that convicted baby killer, YorkshireLive, Sophie Corcoran, 8/24/2023.

The van Breda family enjoyed wealth, travel, and the love of friends and family. They travelled together, had apparently enviable relationships, and the children were educated at some of the best schools from around the world. All five family members were living what seemed like a dream life in a high-security, luxury estate just outside Stellenbosch, South Africa. But everything changed for them overnight in late January of 2015.

Join us at the quiet end for What Marli Forgot: The van Breda Axe Murders. The gruesome murders of patriarch Martin, his wife Teresa, and their adult son Rudi shocked South Africa. A bloody axe, identified as coming from the van Breda residence, was recovered at the scene. But there was no indication of forced entry or an outside assailant. Could it have been that a member of the family was responsible for the violence that night? The youngest child, 16-year-old Marli, had no recollection of what happened that night. But her 20-year-old brother, Henri, who remembered details from that night, had a story to tell.

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Sources

As it happened: Henri van Breda pre-trial postponed, News24, 9/9/2016, retrieved 10/19/2024

The De Zalze Murders: The Story Behind the Brutal Axe Attack by Julian Jansen

Henri van Breda guilty of triple axe murders, News24, 5/21/2018, retrieved 10/20/2024

THE HIGH COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA (WESTERN CAPE DIVISION, CAPE TOWN) Case No: SS17/16 THE STATE v HENRI CHRISTO VAN BREDA, retrieved 10/24/2024

The Killer Within: Why Did Henri van Breda Murder His Family? 60 Minutes Australia, 2018, retrieved 10/25/2024 

Murder-Accused van Breda Claims He Saw Axe-Wielding Attacker Kill His Dad, Huffington Post, 4/24/2017, retrieved 10/22/2024

Listen to the emergency call: Henri van Breda call

When 15-year-old Holly Harvey’s grandparents forbade her from spending time with her 16-year-old lover, Sandy, both Holly and Sandy grew bitter and antagonistic. Carl and Sarah Collier loved their out-of-control granddaughter, who they were raising while her mother was in prison. Carl and Sarah did not give up on Holly, but then they began to fear her.

Join us at the quiet end for To-Do List. Holly and Sandy plotted against her grandparents. They asked around for a gun, made a to-do list, and told their friends about their horrific plans. Then, one hot summer night, the two teens put their plans into action. There was nothing spontaneous about the horrors they unleashed that night. In fact, their cold-blooded acts even shocked the most seasoned detectives on the case.

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Sources

Harvey v. Georgia, Georgia Case Law, 2021, https://law.justia.com/cases/georgia/supreme-court/2021/s21a0871.html

If You Really Loved Me by Kevin McMurray, 2006

Just three years after Thomas Keir told everyone that his first wife Jean left him and their young son behind to be with another man, his second wife Rosalina was found dead and severely burned on her bed. Keir’s claims to be unlucky and grief-stricken were questioned by investigators as well as family, friends, and members of the media. Could the suspicious deaths of two wives be bad luck or a strange coincidence?

Join us at the quiet end for The Two Wives of Thomas Keir. Thomas Kier was a man so jealous that he had hated for even his own child to touch his wife, Jean. His possessiveness was expressed with threats that he would cut her up and feed her to the dogs if she ever left him. Police finally found seven small fragments of Jean’s bones buried under the same house in which Rosalina died. This is the story of two wives, two murders, and a long, difficult fight to get justice for them and their families.

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Sources

Convicted wife-killer’s ‘acts of concern’ after 22-year incarceration, 9news.com.au, 5/8/2020

Seven Bones, Two Wives, Two Violent Murders, A Fight for Justice by Peter Seymour & Jason K. Foster, 2011

Two wives murdered: husband convicted of one, The Sydney Morning Herald, 12/14/2004, retrieved 9/28/2024

Wife Killer Gets 22 Years Behind Bars, ABC News, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2004-12-13/wife-killer-gets-22-years-behind-bars/602088, 12/12/2004, retrieved 9/28/2024

On the afternoon of June 26, 2010, a Pennsylvania State Trooper witnessed a car driving erratically. It sped past him and crashed into a tree. Stopping to help, he found the driver alive and covered in blood. When asked what happened, the man answered: “I just killed everybody.”

Join us at the quiet end for Evil Out on Parole. Not far from the accident, police found a gruesome massacre. Then they learned that the man responsible had already been convicted of murder before and had been out on parole for just two months. Now, convicted killer Michael Ballard had used his freedom to murder four more innocent people, including an ex-girlfriend who had become his obsession.

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Sources

Death Penalty 101: Why it’s (almost) impossible to execute someone in Pennsylvania, and what’s next, Billy Penn, 1/15/2015

Fatal Jealousy by Colin McEvoy

Man Who Stabbed 4 People Should Have Been in Prison: DA says four people would still be alive if suspect served a full sentence, NBCPhiladelphia.com, Teresa Masterson, 6/27/2010

Northampton DA pushes to set execution date for death row inmate Michael Ballard, Lehighvalleylive.com, Kurt Bresswein, 6/24/2015

Northampton Killer Sentenced to Die: Jury sentences Michael Ballard to die for quadruple killing, Patch.com, Josh Popichak, 5/17/2011

Back in the winter of 1985, two friends from Detroit set out on a hunting trip in rural Michigan. Brian Ognjan and David Tyll, both 27-years-old, had been looking forward to this trip and had planned it for weeks. But somewhere along the way, the hunters became the hunted. They vanished somewhere in the bitter cold, leaving behind a legacy of grief and confusion.

Join us at the quiet end for Into the Cold. On November 22, Brian and David headed out for David’s family cabin in White Cloud. David picked up Brian, Brian cashed a check, and they left. They thought that they might stop to visit a friend along the way. But they never arrived at the cabin or the friend’s home. In fact, they were never seen again. And David’s vehicle, a 1980 black Ford Bronco, has never been found either.

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Sources

2 Michigan brothers are charged in hunters’ disappearance 18 years ago, Deseret News, 5/16/2003

Darker Than Night by Tom Henderson

Two Hunters Murdered Near Mio, Michigan Chopped Up and Fed to Pigs, WGRD, Tom Carroll, 8/8/2022

Two Sentenced for Murder of Detroit Hunters, The Michigan Daily, 10/30/2003

July 27th, 1996. Atlanta, Georgia. During a free concert at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park, security guard Richard Jewell spotted an abandoned backpack. Authorities soon discovered that it contained a live bomb. The bomb detonated minutes later, but Jewell’s actions saved countless lives. Days later, he became the main suspect in the bombing. The public would immediately associate him with the bombing and some would continue to believe he was responsible even after the actual perpetrator confessed.

Listen to Generation Why: The Olympic Park Bombing on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts. Start your free trial by visiting http://wondery.fm/GW_TCB now.