Josh Mankiewicz and Andrea Canning sit down to talk about Andrea’s episode, “The Killer Among Them.” In 1996, Atlanta millionaire Lance Herndon was found bludgeoned to death in his suburban Atlanta home. Investigators took a closer look at Lance’s life and discovered complicated connections that could have led to his murder. Josh and Andrea discuss the various clues left at the crime scene and Andrea shares more of the cat-and-mouse game between detectives and Lance’s killer in the police interview. Plus, they answer viewer and listener questions about the episode and Josh gives a preview of his brand-new original podcast series, “Deadly Mirage.”Listen to the full episode of “The Killer Among Them” on Apple: https://apple.co/4isAjojListen to the full episode on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3SVdbkBdBC9ZkqktgHUsE1
Chapter 1: What happened to Lance Herndon?
Hi, everybody. It's Josh Mankiewicz, and we are talking Dateline today with Andrea Canning. Hi, Andrea. Hi, hi. So this episode is called The Killer Among Them. It's from 1996. An Atlanta millionaire named Lance Herndon was found bludgeoned to death in his home, and detectives dug into his life. It turned out one of the people closest to him was his killer.
Chapter 2: Who was the killer at the birthday party?
And that person had actually been at his big glamorous birthday party in Atlanta just a little while before he was killed. Now, when you come back, Andrea has an extra clip that she wants to play for us from the killer's police interrogation. And also later, we're going to answer some of your questions about the episode from social media. And now let's talk Dateline.
So you say killer among us in the episode. Is this one of those rare instances in which the title is actually your title?
So I did not come up with this title, but I actually, I watched the show Friday, like everyone else at home. I mean, I'd seen it before that, but I did notice that. And I had the same question. Did the title come from this? So I actually just texted Susan Nall, who comes up with a lot of our titles, and I'm waiting to hear back from her.
Maybe you're like the muse. I like that. So I loved the using of the clouds and the weather to sort of set the scene at the top. And then it ends with the candles being blown out, which suddenly looks very ominous, which is normally a very happy thing. I thought that was great. And the whole idea that like you just celebrated this birthday with this sort of star studded party and now he's dead.
And also the fact that the killer was at that party.
Yeah, I mean, it really reads like a mystery novel when you set it up that way, almost like an Agatha Christie. And our crew, JP, Julie, Isar, they actually went to Party City and bought this party stuff so they could shoot it at the top of a hotel.
And rented the same room, right?
Yeah, we just clearly we wanted it to be authentic to really kind of go back to that place. And they did a really good job, I thought.
Yeah, I love how that draws you into the mystery that follows. One of the things that sort of jumped out at me in this episode was sort of how weird the crime scene was. Like putting the girlfriend's picture face down at the side of the bed. That says to me, I didn't want to see that woman, right?
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Chapter 3: What clues were found at the crime scene?
Stopping the clocks, which I guess maybe was to prevent the alarm from going off and somebody finding the body sooner, right?
That's what I was thinking about the clocks. Yeah, the crime scene, though, I kept calling it like a game of Clue. There were so many clues. The wrench and the clocks, as you mentioned, and the photo turned down and the shower.
The gum wrappers. The gum wrappers.
I mean, it was like the wrench in the library with Mr. Plum. I felt like there were so many clues.
The gum wrappers that were found on the ground. I think the first law enforcement theory was that this person standing outside the house watching him chewing gum, throwing the wrappers on the ground.
I called it the smoking gum. Right, which I thought— It didn't make the show.
I know, but I do love that. I'm applauding here. Yeah. So I used to live in Atlanta. Before this happened, I lived there about 40 years ago. It's one of my favorites.
Yeah, I like it too.
I called a friend of mine who lives there and asked if she knew Lance because they sort of ran in the same circles back then. She hadn't even seen the episode when I talked with her. And she was like, oh, yeah. Yeah. I remember that story. I remember he died and he was a huge womanizer. That was like the first thing that came out of it. And she hadn't even seen your story.
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Chapter 4: How did Dionne Baugh behave during the police interrogation?
That was weird. That was just weird.
In fact, it's like wearing a sandwich board that says, I did it.
It's just odd. Like, who does that and why would anyone believe that?
Yeah, what are you doing? You sort of want to say to Dion, you were already stalking him. Police already knew that. He already knew that. Like, come on.
Obviously, yeah, she's going to be on their radar after that. I mean, he's found bludgeoned to death in his bed, and everyone says how jealous this woman is.
So at some point, Dion is in there for the police interrogation in which I'm going to say does not realize that she is, that the persona she is showing the cops is more important than the things that are coming out of her mouth because she's telling a story which later gets picked apart.
But sort of way she talks about Lance and about money and about what she's owed and who she is, that sort of tells you more about Dion than any single thing she says.
Yeah, and also her smiling and, you know, oh, is this going to be on camera? Who talks like that in a police interview room? And also your boyfriend was just bludgeoned to death. Like, who – It's just bizarre behavior all around. Everything was bizarre about her. I don't know.
This feels like a good time to listen to some extra sound that did not make the episode. So let's listen to that. This is Dionne talking about how she felt fearful after Lance's death.
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Chapter 5: What was Lance's impact on his friends and family?
There's a part of me, I'm so glad I met him because he was so exciting and he exposed me to a lot of things. But after all this, it's like there's a part of me that just wish I never knew him.
Yeah, now that all this has happened, you know, I can understand that.
And now I'm having to look over my shoulder, you know. I want to go to my house in the nighttime because I'm just so afraid. I don't know who's watching me. You don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what's going to happen. It's scary. And I don't know if people knew that we were seeing each other. I don't know how many people saw us together. You know, it just happened.
You have no idea. You know, the interesting thing there is that she's clearly lying. Now we know that. You know, I was afraid. The cops are playing along. Earlier in that same interrogation, they're lying about the video cameras, and she's playing along. It's a nice little dance that's going on there in that little tiny room.
That's true. I got the impression that she just thought she was smarter or that they would just, like, believe whatever she was selling.
How many times on Dateline have we seen that? People who sit down in that room and think, I'm smarter than these guys who are interrogating me, and they're not. Right. You know, she lies on the stand in her divorce trial, or she tells the truth on the stand in the divorce trial, which means she's lying to the cops.
But she can't get her story straight, and it clearly didn't occur to her that cops are going to be watching both of those things.
That was a big oopsie.
Yeah. I loved the prosecutor going to the divorce hearing.
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Chapter 6: What were the inconsistencies in Dionne's statements?
Oh, I know, right? Clint shows up like a fly on the wall in the back. And she has no idea.
Clint Rucker, when he was a prosecutor, he was the prosecutor in the Tex McIver case, which we covered here on Dateline. And he did a thing, which I, in that case, which I think he did in other cases, which is when he's giving, I can't remember whether it's his opening or his summation at the end. He had a jar of muddy water.
But he shakes it up like a mason jar full of water and dirt, and so it's all muddy. And he puts it down on the edge of the juror box, and he says, this is cloudy.
By the time I get through with my argument and take my seat, this jar is going to be clear. And it's going to be clear just like each and every one of your minds will be clear about the guilt of this defendant.
And then he lays out his case. And that takes an hour or something because it's a long opening or a long summation. By the end, the silt has settled and you can see through the water. It's a good prop.
I love it.
I don't know if he did it in your trial or not.
He had a prop in this one, too. He had the wrench they bought at Home Depot because they never found the murder weapon. And Tommy, the former patrol officer, thinks the wrench is at the bottom of the Chattahoochee River.
Tommy was a good interview. I liked him.
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Chapter 7: How did the prosecutor handle the case?
Yeah. Then the whole story falls apart.
All right. Let's go to more social media. Joanna F31894705, which is a very catchy social media handle, Joanna. Oh, my gosh.
I will never forget that handle ever.
Yeah, man, I wanted to get that, but apparently, yeah, it was taken. Yeah, that's the first one I went after. We love you, Joanna. She's referring to Lance's phone call telling his friend to take care of herself right before he was killed. And she says, that sounds like a goodbye call, like he knew it was coming. I don't think he knew it was coming.
Yeah, no, but his friends sure thought it was odd.
I think, in fact, he wasn't suspicious enough because he shouldn't have let that woman into his house.
Yeah, but she'll never forget that call, and she did think it wasn't like him to call out of the blue and talk like that.
Next, Southern Beach Girl says, if you have to designate girlfriends as primary and secondaries, I don't want to be on the list. Yeah, I would agree.
I agree with you, Southern Beach Girl. Absolutely. Yep.
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