Thrasher Banks
Appearances
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
After my mom's last visit with Mick, we cut off contact with him and tried to move on with our lives. But as I got older, I couldn't stop thinking about Mick and wondering how he was doing. One day, when I was in middle school, I found all of his belongings in our shed. My mom had kept them out there.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
His clothes, his favorite leather jacket, and his CD collection, which was mostly thrash metal from the 1980s. Through my newfound obsession with Slayer and early Metallica, I started to feel a connection with Mick. In study hall, I'd write him letters that I had no intention of sending, but it helped me cope with the situation.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
It seemed like no matter how hard I tried to forget about Mick, there was always a reminder. On the first day of high school, I was sitting in music theory class and heard someone singing behind me. My best friend at the time, Dustin, and I were starting a band together, so we were interested in whoever this singer was.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
It turned out it was Keir Smiley, Mick's attorney's son that I went to kindergarten with. So we asked him to join our band called Time Wasted. It wasn't until I moved out of my mom's house to go to college that I would actually write to Mick. At that point, my mom and Ben had split up and Mick hadn't heard from us in close to 15 years.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
A couple weeks later, there was a letter waiting for me in his familiar cursive handwriting. It read, I got your letter and pictures last night. I was so happy to hear from you. The pictures of you, Kara, and Carrie put a huge smile on my face. Carrie did an outstanding job raising you two, which really isn't a surprise.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
You turned out just the way I always thought you would, smart and handsome, although you're a little taller than I remember. I'm glad you're a Slayer fan. They're my favorite band in the world. The parole board is just too unpredictable. I don't believe they'll ever parole me. It is what it is. My max out date is 2026, though, so they can't keep me forever. It's a rotten system, ain't it?
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
I never stopped thinking about you. Even after I lost contact with your mom, I always thought that I would never see you again. That was just awful. You'll always be bubs to me. Stay cool. As always, Mick. Mick sounded pretty defeated about the parole board and his chances of getting a sentence lessened. But all in all, he sounded like the Mick I remembered.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
When I sent this letter, my mom also included a letter of her own. Initially, she was on the fence about it, but I think seeing how much I wanted to connect with Mick helped her realize it was something she wanted too. Carrie, I got your letter the same day you sent it. Sorry it took me so long to answer. I got the pictures of everyone. I have to admit, it brought a few tears.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
You've done an awesome job raising them. They really are beautiful. I always wondered how everyone was doing. Being locked up all this time has made me wonder how I haven't lost my mind yet. I agree, it's going to be weird calling you grandma, but you'll get used to it after a while. I still have dreams about you. Sometimes we're traveling, other times just walking together and it feels real.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
I'm happy that you found happiness, Carrie. I'd rather be good friends than no friends at all. You take care. Mick." Three years after reestablishing contact with Mick, I decided that I was ready to visit him in prison. He was at Madison Correctional in London, Ohio at the time.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
As I got through security and told the guard who I was there to see, he was surprised and told me that Mick never had visitors. It turned out I was the first person to visit him since the day my mom cut ties with him 17 years earlier. It was awkward at first, but after we warmed up, he seemed just like the Mick I remembered as a kid.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
That was back in 2015, and at that point, I'd already started researching everything I'd found in the box. Back then, I still believed that he didn't shoot Cindy. It wasn't until a few years later, while digging through the box, that I'd learned that wasn't true. In the box, there's hundreds of letters, and I'd eventually read through all of them.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
That's how I found this letter Mick wrote my mom from jail in August of 1995. So here's a letter he wrote you in August of 95. He said, Carrie, I'm gonna tell you a little secret. I'm ashamed to admit, but I was scared of Tim. I've been scared of Tim for about two years. He's not the same Tim I knew before he moved in with us.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
I guess it was the night he rolled us in Cambridge that started me to look at Tim differently. Ever since then, I wondered what really made him tick. I wanted to tell you how Tim scared me, but I'm ashamed and embarrassed to admit this to you in person. I'd be afraid you wouldn't feel safe around me anymore. It's not his size, we know that. It's his mental ability that scared me.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
I knew he was capable of hurting someone or killing, but I never thought he would turn on us. All I know is I felt uneasy with him. I really feared him at times. I guess my guard went to red alert when you told me what he said about loving you so much that he would kill for you. Do you remember that?
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
To get leverage over Mick? Blackmail? Forcing him to participate?
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
So Mick's talking about he didn't know how to tell you he was afraid of Tim. Do you think that this is the truth?
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
So he goes on, when he threatened to kill you and the kids, I knew he was for real. So were you aware of those threats?
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
I want to hop back to this letter for a minute. We left off, he threatened to kill you and the kids. I knew he was for real. I did whatever it took to keep us alive. Carrie, please understand that I was forced to shoot at the girl. I know she was already dead. I really don't think I hit the girl anyway, but I had to. Sure, I could have pulled the gun on Tim, but I was too scared to.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
I don't think killing Tim would have helped Cindy anyway. She was already dead. Do you think that's the truth?
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
So I took a shot at her while she was on the floor. I'm positive I missed though. Just as long as Tim saw I shot at Cindy, I figured he would chill. He did, too. He said he had to make sure I would not say anything. He brought up the fact that I had a prior murder charge on my record and said if he went, I was going right behind him.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
I may not look too good for shooting at the girl, but Tim made it clear as to what would have happened if I did not cooperate with him. I never in my life felt so helpless and defeated and scared. My uncle never even made me feel that way. Tim sure did though. Because he threatened to harm you and the kids. It's why I was so scared. I think that this... I think this is the truth.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
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Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
So if Tim was sitting where I'm sitting right now, what would you say to him?
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
I mean... I understand why you feel that way, but it's not your fault.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
Do you know what Altia had something to do with though? Putting this man behind bars.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
Tim's next parole board hearing is in November of 2025. I doubt he'll be released, but I plan on doing everything in my power to make sure he stays behind bars for the rest of his life.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
Mick is still incarcerated for his role in the death of Cindy Kozad. At his last parole board hearing in 2019, the board noted that, quote, McWhorter has been assessed as having an elevated risk for reoffending. The case, aggravated by case-specific factors of violence, brutality, and victimization, McWhorter lacks the family and community support, along with a viable and supportive release plan.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
The aggravating factors in this case lead the board to conclude that release would not further the interest of justice. The board does not consider the inmate suitable for release at this time. His max out date is coming up soon, though. He'll be released from prison in 2026 after serving 31 years behind bars.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
You know, I think about it and it's like, there's not just us. I mean, there's Cindy's family. There's everybody that Tim impacted when he still lived in Guernsey County. Any other victims.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
There are kids, his stepkids with Pam. Cindy lost her life. So there's just a big impact from one person. It's kind of a lot to wrap your head around.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
With Mick's guilty verdict, that chapter of our life together came to an end. As the years went by and we moved on with our lives, the box my mom gave me would sit collecting dust in my grandma's basement. Now that I sit here pouring over the documents in the box, I still wonder, was Mick telling the full truth or did he deceive all of us?
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
I wanted to continue this tradition, so I went to the shelter and left flowers for Cindy. I took a picture of them and sent it to her sister. A few days later, she sent me an edited version back. It had a picture of Cindy with angel wings, surrounded by light, looking through the window of the shelter at the flowers.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
Well, I don't hold anything against you at all because you showed me that you don't have to be perfect, that if you get knocked down, you can get back up. You showed me that that was possible no matter how bad things got. It made me stronger.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
Okay, so here's a question I have for you. How should I end the podcast? How does it end? In your mind.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
And not just my family, but his attorney, Isabel, the jury at his trial, and even Tim's attorney, Carl. It seems like just about everyone outside of law enforcement felt that Mick acted out of fear that night. I'm at the bottom of the box now. I've gone through nearly every scrap, every letter, every document.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
Thanks for listening to this episode of Lords of Death. This series is released weekly, absolutely free. But if you want an exclusive ad-free binge, sign up for Tenderfoot+. Check out the show notes for the link to subscribe.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
What's left is a few items that shed light on what really happened on the night of Cindy Cozad's murder. From Tenderfoot TV, I'm Thrasher Banks. This is Lords of Death. With Mick's conviction for the murder of Cindy Kozad, there was a real chance he would spend the rest of his life behind bars. But it turned out that Mick and his defense team had a plan.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
Mick filed an appeal that argued his conviction should be overturned in favor of a new trial due to ineffective counsel from his defense. They laid out three separate claims to prove that Mick's defense failed to properly represent him in court.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
First, there was a chain of custody issue with the witness that prevented a forensic expert from testifying that none of Cindy Cozad's blood was found on Mick's clothing. Further, their testimony would have verified that there was no blood found in my mom's car.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
This would have disproved the version of the story that Mick told my mom the night of the murder, that Cindy was shot while still in the vehicle. The second claim involved a rebuttal witness that was called by the state. He was a prison psychologist who conducted an assessment on Mick while he was in prison for murdering his uncle.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
The psychologist testified that Mick showed signs typical of someone with antisocial disorder. During cross-examination, Mick's attorney, Chuck Smiley, pursued a line of questioning that led the psychologist to say that people with this personality disorder can exhibit, at times, a disregard for human life.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
The last claim was that by deciding not to cross-examine my mom, Carrie, during her testimony for the state, the defense failed to establish that she feared Tim in the aftermath of the murder. The appellate court found that the first two claims, taken together, undermined confidence in the outcome of the trial.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
They added that the testimony of a witness called by the state that heard the gunshots that night was consistent with Mick's account of the murder. This, according to the appellate court, supported a verdict of innocence on the murder charge.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
The court stated that, quote, while this evidence would yet permit the jury to find that McWhorter shot Cozad while her body lie on the ground, even that version raises doubts concerning his criminal liability for murder. End quote.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
Before the trial got underway, Mick's attorney, Dennis Adkins, proposed a deal to drop the murder charge for a straight 10-year sentence. The prosecutor declined and instead made a counteroffer. If Mick would plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter, which would carry a sentence of 10 to 15 years, the prosecutor's office wouldn't oppose his release when he was eligible for parole in eight years.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
Plus the other charges would run concurrently, reducing his overall sentence. Mick's attorney, Dennis, seemed confident that he would be released at his second parole hearing in about 10 years.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
He said he just didn't want to put you through it again.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
Every defense attorney I've talked to says, go to trial. Roll the dice. The plea deals are never...
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
Well, his attorney said that he'd be out in 10 years. They lied. Nick's pleedial sentencing took place on March 12, 1998. The official sentence was 10 to 25 years, plus three years for the firearm specification. That charge would then run concurrent with his other charges for tampering with evidence and weapons under disability.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
Part of the plea agreement was that Mick was required to admit he shot Cindy, which he protested at first, but eventually gave in and admitted to it. But my mom tells me that Mick still had one last hope of escaping a lengthy prison sentence, and it would come from Tim, of all people.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
The letter reads, Carrie, I got your letter, Tim wrote. I've just been trying to figure out if I should tell you or not, but I've also been reading the Bible and studying it and it says I should tell you the truth. I'm not going to keep in touch with you and I know you'll be glad to hear that. That stuff that Wade and Tom Lawson got Mick to say was the same thing they tried to get me to say.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
So don't believe it because it's a lie. Mick didn't do any of the stuff I said he did. I only said it because I wanted to have you. And if I couldn't, then I was going to take him down with me. So I lied about it. Well, you don't need to write me back. If I hadn't been saved by Jesus Christ, you wouldn't know now.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
In this letter, Tim implied that he was in love with my mom, that he wanted her all to himself, and if he couldn't have her, neither could Mick. This was news to me. But could this really have been what motivated Tim? Or was he just trying to manipulate my mom?
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
In the end, the letter from Tim wasn't enough to help Mick. For a while, my mom didn't know how to move forward and maintaining a relationship with Mick while he was incarcerated was becoming a burden.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
Life had to go on, obviously. How did you... How did you do that?
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
Eventually my mom decided she was ready to start dating again. She wanted a stable partner to help raise me and my sister. That's when she met Ben.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
The way my mom describes it is that me and my sister chose Ben for her because we both connected with him right away. We even have the same birthday, which we'd end up celebrating together over the next 15 years. There was still one problem though.
Lords of Death
8 | Time Casts a Spell on You
As we all got closer with Ben over the next few months, my mom knew she had to make a difficult decision regarding Mick.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
At that point, they went inside the house to check on Matty and Geraldine, who were both distraught.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
After killing Jack, they wrapped his body up in a rug and put him in the back of a pickup truck. They decided that Mick and Miles would bury his body in a remote part of Wayne National Forest while Caleb stayed home to clean up the blood and pick up the shell casings.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
Nick and Miles spent several hours digging the hole for Jack's body. By the time they were done, it was daylight, and they drove into town to wash the blood off of the truck.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
It took authorities nearly two years to figure out what happened. When they first spoke with Mick, he wrote out a detailed confession about the murder. Here's part of his statement. That was a very nice family, Mick wrote. They would do anything for a person. But when Jack came into their lives, it was a whole new deal. Jack had that family scared to death.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
What we did was the only way out for the family. And if you knew Jack the way we did, you would agree that was the only way out for them too. You know, I've never had any feelings of taking someone's life. And after we shot and killed Jack, things in my life haven't been the same for me. And I'm sure it hasn't been for Miles and Caleb. You have these weird dreams, can't think right.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
But as time goes by, it clears up little by little, but not all of it. I can see myself not wanting to do things like I used to. It's just a different life to live with. Although Miles, Maddie, Caleb, and Geraldine could finally live in peace after seven years of fear, beatings, and whatever else Jack put them through, they are free to live their lives the way they want to.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
But you gotta understand this much. I ain't no murderer. I don't intend to be one either, even though I have killed a person. But that was the only chance that I could see of getting something done about Jack. You must understand, it had to be done. We had a purpose to do what we did, and I sure do feel bad about it. We had no choice.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
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Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
All I want to do is get this out in the open so I can go on living a normal life. Because I feel that after all this is over with, I'll be able to go on without any problems. But I want you to understand, we're not cold-blooded. And I don't want to be thought of as that. Just investigate it, and you'll see I speak the truth.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
Even with Mick's confession, the lack of a body made it difficult to build a case. So they asked Mick to take them where they buried Jack, out in Wayne National Forest.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
I found documents in the box about Jack's murder and noticed that an attorney named Rick Faulkner represented Mick on the case. I have no reason to doubt making Caleb's account, but I hope to get additional clarification from a third party. So I gave Rick a call and asked him if he remembered Mick's case.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
Even law enforcement understood why they killed Jack. As Caleb said, they went through seven years of hell. Given the pattern of abuse they were subjected to, I could see why they did what they did, although I don't condone it. And so far, it sounds like Mick has been truthful about why they killed Jack. His public defender, Rick, was able to confirm it almost to a T all these years later.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
So the discrepancy between Mick's account and Rick's is that Mick told me that they buried Jack, but when he went with law enforcement to search for the body, he told them they dumped him in a well.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
So what I gathered, without Mick stating it explicitly, is that he had no intentions of leading them to Jack's body. So he made up the story about the well. Even though they didn't recover Jack's body, Mick was charged with aggravated murder.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
Given the circumstances of Jack's murder, Rick was able to get the courts to throw out the aggravated murder charge if Mick pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter, which carried a sentence of three to 10 years. After that, Mick never saw his cousins or Geraldine again.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
Mick's cousins avoided charges for the murder and didn't know what happened to Mick until I connected with Caleb a few years ago.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
When my mom, Carrie, gave me the box that started all of this, I wanted to figure out why Cindy Cozad was murdered in June of 1995 and what was the extent of Mick's involvement. When I was a kid, my mom was adamant that Mick was just driving the car and had nothing to do with the murder. But if this is true, it's not clear why Tim killed Cindy. Even today, Mick claims he doesn't know.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
Learning about the circumstances surrounding Jack's murder gave me a new perspective on Mick. It turned out that he wasn't manipulating my mom at all. What he told her about the murder when they first met was true. What he did wasn't right, but he did it to protect his family. So he operates in a moral gray area.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
He's willing to make sacrifices to protect the people he loves, even if it involves violence. If they didn't kill Jack, Maddie could have ended up dead. But what does this mean for his role in Cindy Cozad's murder 10 years later? Do you think that Mick would kill someone, kill a woman for no reason?
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
I found a news article in the box where Mick is quoted saying that Tim had threatened to kill me, my mom, and my sister if he told anyone about the murder. He even echoes this sentiment in his interview with Detective Wade Lawson.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
So if Mick did shoot Cindy, did he do it out of fear that Tim would harm my family? If he was coerced by Tim, is he equally responsible for Cindy's death? Ultimately, that question was decided by a jury at his trial.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
When I spoke with Tim's close friend, Pete Gravins, he revealed one potential motive for the murder.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
Thanks for listening to this episode of Lords of Death. This series is released weekly, absolutely free. But if you want an exclusive ad-free binge, sign up for Tinderfoot+. Check out the show notes for the link to subscribe.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
This made me wonder if the murder was supposed to be Mick's sacrifice to join the Lords of Death. Remember, to join the group, you had to take a soul. As much as I didn't want to believe this, I couldn't just write it off. And the only person who knew the real reason behind the murder was Tim. So I wrote him a letter and asked him to tell me the truth about what happened and if Mick shot Cindy.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
You want to know if Mick lied? He wrote, I'm not asking you to believe me over Mick. So ask him to explain what happened on his last case when he went to prison for manslaughter. So Tim's reasoning for why I should believe Mick shot Cindy Kozad is simple. He says Mick has killed before. But if this is true, I need to know the full story.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
So here's the thing about my mom. She always looks for the best in people. The idea that Mick sacrificed himself to protect his family outweighed the fact that he had killed someone. But for me, as an adult, I had a hard time believing Mick's story. I mean, what are the odds that Mick was involved in two different murders?
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
At this point, I started thinking that maybe Mick had manipulated my mom and wasn't the person we thought he was. But to give Mick the benefit of the doubt, I gave him the opportunity to tell me his side of the story.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
Mick's uncle Jack lived in a rural part of southeastern Ohio with his wife Geraldine and her three kids from a previous marriage. To protect their privacy, I'm not using their real names. There was Caleb, who was Mick's age, his brother Miles, and their older sister Maddie.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
After spending a few summers in Ohio with the family, Mick developed a close relationship with his cousins. For a while, everything seemed fine. Mick even admits he enjoyed spending time with his Uncle Jack and the rest of the family. But in the summer of 1985, things started to change.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
Mick witnessed some of this firsthand, like the bullet holes in the bedroom wall that he mentioned. But his cousins shared other stories about Jack that detailed a pattern of abuse they'd endured during the seven years he'd been in their lives. Here's one of the cousins, Caleb. He refers to Mick by his first name, James.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
Some of the stories Caleb and Mick shared with me are so horrific, I don't even want to go into detail here.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
Matty had it the worst of them all, and as the abuse escalated over the coming months, the other cousins couldn't bear to let it go on a day longer.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
As the night went on and Jack became more intoxicated, his behavior towards Maddie grew more violent and unpredictable, making his cousins felt that if they didn't do something, her life could be in danger.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
The way Jack was treating Maddie pushed Mick and his cousins over the edge. Rather than let him continue to abuse her, they decided to finally do something about it.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
And according to Mick, the cousins weren't the only ones ready to do something about Jack.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
The cousins decided that rather than call the police and run the risk of Jack making bail and it all coming back on them, they needed to end it once and for all. To them, the only way out was to kill Jack. So after he left the house with Maddie to drink with a friend, Mick, Caleb, and Miles put a plan into motion.
Lords of Death
6 | Angel of Death
The plan was for Mick and Miles to wait behind a coal pile and shoot Jack when he got out of his truck. Caleb's job was to guard the back door with a shotgun in case Jack tried to get inside.
Lords of Death
Who are the Lords of Death?
It all begins with the grim murder of Cindy's host dad in Triangle Park. The 29-year-old was shot twice, killed, and left for dead in a park shelter. It was a pair of shorts, women's shorts, and they were covered in blood and brain matter.
Lords of Death
Who are the Lords of Death?
I'm Thrasher Banks, the host of the new Tenderfoot TV podcast, Lords of Death, available now.