In our special 200th episode, we deep dive into the story of a serial killer that a lot of people have never heard about, a man named Larry Hall. Larry was an avid fan of the Civil War, frequently travelled across the country to take part in reenactments, and even grew out his facial hair so that he would look more like a soldier from that era. But what the others at the reenactments didn’t know, was that when they weren’t busy role playing, their friend Larry was taking trips around the areas they were in to murder young women… - Listen to our new show, "THE CONSPIRACY FILES"!: -Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5IY9nWD2MYDzlSYP48nRPl -Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-conspiracy-files/id1752719844 -Amazon/Audible - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/ab1ade99-740c-46ae-8028-b2cf41eabf58/the-conspiracy-files -Pandora - https://www.pandora.com/podcast/the-conspiracy-files/PC:1001089101 -iHeart - https://iheart.com/podcast/186907423/ -PocketCast - https://pca.st/dpdyrcca -CastBox - https://castbox.fm/channel/id6193084?country=us - Stay Connected: Join the Murder in America fam in our free Facebook Community for a behind-the-scenes look, more insights and current events in the true crime world: https://www.facebook.com/groups/4365229996855701 If you want even more Murder in America bonus content, including ad-free episodes, come join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderinamerica Instagram: http://instagram.com/murderinamerica/ Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/people/Murder-in-America-Podcast/100086268848682/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MurderInAmerica TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theparanormalfiles and https://www.tiktok.com/@courtneybrowen Feeling spooky? Follow Colin as he travels state to state (and even country to country!) investigating claims of extreme paranormal activity and visiting famous haunted locations on The Paranormal Files Official Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheParanormalFilesOfficialChannel - (c) BLOOD IN THE SINK PRODUCTIONS 2025 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the background and early life of Larry Hall?
Nestled in the United States' Midwest is a town called Wabash, Indiana. a small town with a small town feel and it has a lot of history in fact wabash prides itself on being the first electrically lighted city in the world on march 31st 1880 four 3 000 candle power brush lamps were suspended from the courthouse and the spectacle drew over 10 000 people to witness it
Now, people have since debated whether or not this claim is accurate since, technically, only the courthouse was lit, not the whole town. However, to this day, the people of the city stand proudly by this accomplishment. But if you were to walk down the streets of the historic downtown today, you'd see a line of old brick and limestone buildings that are home to over 100 small businesses.
There are restaurants, boutiques, and every week they have a farmers market. The population of Wabash is around 11,000, and many of the people who were born and raised here grew up to be good, upstanding citizens. After all, people from the Midwest have a reputation of being overly friendly and nice. But on December 11, 1962, a little boy would be born.
His name was Larry DeWayne Hall, and he would grow up to embody the very antithesis of Midwestern values.
Larry DeWayne Hall did not enter this world by himself. In fact, he came here just a few minutes after another little boy named Gary Hall. The two were twins, Gary and Larry. And throughout their lives, you'll see that Gary seemed to have been dealt the upper hand, which was even the case before the two were born. You see, Larry and Gary were monochorionic twins.
which meant they shared a placenta. And while in utero, Gary received a greater share of oxygen and nutrients. In fact, it was reported that Gary had, quote, fed on Larry in the womb, end quote. So when the twins were born, Larry had to spend some time in the neonatal intensive care unit while his brother Gary was doing just fine.
But this would seem to mirror what their lives would kind of always look like. Gary would be known as the stronger, more confident of the two, while Larry suffered from health problems and insecurity.
When the twins were born, it wasn't the happiest time for their family. Larry and Gary's mom, Bernice, had had a difficult pregnancy and their father, Robert, was not financially ready to feed two extra mouths. Now at the time, Robert Hall was working as a gravedigger at Falls Cemetery in Wabash, and the work wasn't easy. He would dig the graves by hand, using picks and shovels.
It was reported that it would take him 18 hours to dig one single grave, but Robert was good at what he did. He was a hard worker and did his best to maintain the cemetery. The only problem was it didn't pay very well. So when Robert, who was already in his 40s, found out that his wife, Bernice, was pregnant with twins, he wasn't very excited about the extra expenses that were to come.
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Chapter 2: How did Larry Hall's family and childhood influence his behavior?
In addition, the Hall home, which was located on the cemetery grounds, was not an ideal place for children. As it turns out, Robert and Bernice were hoarders. According to people who knew the family, they had stuff piled up all the way to the ceilings in nearly every room of their house.
One of the boys' best friends, Ross Davis, would tell author James Keen in his novel, In with the Devil, quote, "...the house was a big place, but it was a dump. It was like a path to walk through. Stuff was piled everywhere. Mrs. Hall was always having a rummage sale, and we used to joke that they lived inside a rummage sale. All the years I knew the family, I never once saw her do any cleaning.
They would eat out every day because she was too lazy to cook. That's why they never saved a penny." She was just a big fat lady who sat around the house all day and did nothing but yell and stir up a lot of trouble."
When the twins reached elementary school, Gary proved himself to be an excellent student. He was intelligent, a hard worker, and he had a lot of friends. But Larry was a completely different story. He really struggled. Not only was his IQ around 80, but he was very antisocial and anxious, and he had a hard time making friends. He also had a speech impediment.
So while his twin brother Gary was considered popular, Larry was picked on. Kids would call him stupid and worthless, and he was known around school as the quote, stinky kid. And sadly, his life at home wasn't much easier. You see, Larry struggled with bedwetting, something that followed him into his preteen years. According to his family, he would have these nightmares.
And when he would wake up from them, he would find himself soiled in his own urine. And instead of getting help, his parents punished him anytime it happened. Now their father, Robert Hall, was very strict, but so was their mother, Bernice. She was known to be just as ruthless as her husband. So Larry Hall didn't really have a safe space.
His home life wasn't easy, school was difficult, and he didn't have any friends, aside from his brother. In fact, throughout his life, his twin brother Gary was really the only person he could rely on. Now growing up, Larry and Gary spent a lot of their childhood in the graveyard. That was their playground. They would play hide and seek, hiding behind tombstones.
and they would watch their father spend hours digging up graves for people in their community. In the winter, the boys would sled down the embankment in their backyard, and in the summer they would catch minnows in the nearby creek. They were two Midwestern boys with big imaginations.
Now, their father would always tell them that they were part Native American, and they were always very interested in their heritage. When they would run around outside, they would look for arrowheads, and they would transport themselves back in time, pretending that the cemetery was their village and that they were Native American war chiefs.
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Chapter 3: What were Larry Hall's early criminal activities and suspected murders?
By the age of 18, Larry was well on his way to becoming a criminal. He was a burglar, vandal, and arsonist, but he was still able to graduate from high school in 1981. However, things were really difficult for the Hall family around this time. Robert Hall, their father, had actually been fired from his gravedigging position after working there for decades.
Apparently, Robert's alcoholism had gotten really bad, so much so it started to affect his job. It was reported that he even put people in the wrong graves on several occasions. So from there, Robert was fired and their family was forced to move out of their home. Now by this point, Gary was actually doing really well for himself.
After graduation, he moved out of his parents' house, got a good paying job, and he even had a serious girlfriend. But Larry was still struggling. After his twin brother moved out, he was now living with his parents all by himself, enduring the brunt of his father's abuse.
Larry also didn't really know what he wanted to do with his life, so he ended up finding work as a janitor, cleaning for various businesses around town. But he was still feeling unfulfilled. However, something that brought a little excitement into his life was car shows.
He had been known to travel around the Midwest visiting these shows in the early 80s, and it's believed that during one of these car shows, he participated in another hobby of his, stalking women. Now, the case we are about to mention is of 19-year-old Naomi Lee Kidder, who went missing in Buffalo, Wyoming in June of 1982.
At the time, Larry Hall would have been just 19 years old, but some people suspect him of Naomi's murder. And that's because years down the road, when investigators would search through Larry's things, they found a notebook of his. And as they flipped through the pages, there was her name, Naomi Lee Kidder.
Now, Naomi went missing in Wyoming, which is pretty far away from Indiana, but it's believed that Larry was possibly visiting a car show over there when he decided to take a drive through town. It was June 28th, 1982. Naomi had just left her home in Buffalo to go on a road trip with some friends. Eventually, the group ended up about 150 miles away in the town of Rawlins. That night,
they decided to pull over and stay at a Travelodge hotel. However, by that next morning, Naomi told her friends to go on without her. Now, the details around this are still a little unclear, but for whatever reason, Naomi decided that she was going to hitchhike. However, she would never make it. For the next few months, no one had seen or heard from her. That is until September 10th, 1982.
That day, out in a rural area of Natrona County, Wyoming, a nude body of a woman was found in a shallow grave. Horrifically, she had barbed wire knotted around her neck that indicated the cause of death was strangulation. But because she was in such an advanced state of decomposition, she wouldn't be identified for years.
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Chapter 4: How did Larry Hall get involved in Civil War reenactments and what was his behavior there?
But at this time in Larry's life, he was very unhappy. He was still living with his parents in their one-bedroom home, having to sleep in their living room. And he was still close to his brother Gary, but he had moved out and had his own life. So anytime Larry had the opportunity to get away for a weekend, he would take it. And it's around this time when he discovered Civil War reenactments.
He first learned about them after hearing about them on a television program. At these reenactments, men would travel to the battlefields and reenact famous battles from the Civil War. Now, like we mentioned before, throughout his entire life, Larry had always loved history, so he decided to go to one himself.
In December of 1986, Larry made the three-hour drive to Champaign, Illinois, where they were doing one of these reenactments, which also happened to be the exact same time and place where 25-year-old Kimberly Ann Thompson went missing. It was December 1st of that year, and Kimberly's father had just dropped her off near her boyfriend's house.
However, it seemed as though Kimberly never made it inside, because right after her father drove away that day, no one would ever see or hear from her again. Now, interestingly, a few months before her disappearance, she had actually testified against two men in a drug trafficking case, and her testimony landed the men in prison for seven years.
So there were people out there who weren't too happy with her. The police even offered her protection and money for her to relocate, but she refused, stating she wasn't ready to leave the area.
Kimberly had also come into some money, roughly $25,000 to $35,000 after she filed a workplace injury lawsuit, but unfortunately, she never arrived to collect the cash, leading everybody to believe she was dead. Now, like we mentioned, her name is often associated with Larry Hall because he was in the area at the time of her disappearance.
but he's never officially been linked to her case, and sadly, her body has never been found, so her case is still unsolved.
The following year in 1987, a 10-year-old girl named Linda Lynn Weldy disappeared after getting off her school bus in La Porte, Indiana. Described by her mother, Karen, as a joyful and funny girl with a good sense of humor, Linda loved being outdoors. She was a fifth grader at her elementary school and she was extremely close to her family. But on that February afternoon, Linda vanished.
Now that night, when her mom got home from work, she saw that her son and boyfriend were home, but Linda was gone. The guys had just assumed that she had went over to a friend's house, but Karen knew that something was wrong, so she called the police. But sadly, by then, Linda had already been missing for over seven hours.
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Chapter 5: What are the details of Larry Hall's known and suspected victims?
After spending their weekends traveling around with the Iron Brigade, the Hall twins were well-known within the group. But like always, people seemed to prefer Gary Hall over his quiet and introverted twin brother, Larry. People that worked with them said that Larry was never one to strike up a conversation. He was so shy, they even gave him the nickname Laidback Larry.
Now something else these men noticed about Larry was that he always drove to these reenactments in his van. And this job brought them to towns all over the Midwest. When they were done with their work for the day, Larry was known to get into his van and go explore whatever town they were in. But when he would take these drives, he always avoided the interstates.
He preferred the long country roads that took you through the rural neighborhoods. Every time he would leave to go take these drives, his coworkers always assumed that he was just the kind of guy that preferred peace and quiet, someone who loved long drives all by himself. But in reality, Laid-back Larry wasn't at all who they thought he was.
As it turns out, Larry Hall would use this opportunity to drive around these towns and look for women. And just like he did in high school, when he would find someone he was attracted to, he would stalk them. At times, Larry would follow these women around for days, and he would make notes about them in his journal. He would write down the area where young women frequented.
he would write down the supplies he needed to abduct them. And eventually, after following a victim around for days, he would find a moment where they were finally alone. Using his van, Larry would pull up beside these girls and abduct them. He would usually use a knife to intimidate them, saying if they just followed instructions, they would make it out alive.
But that was always an empty promise. Because once these girls were inside of his van, Larry knew that they would never be leaving. And the horrors that took place inside of that van were unimaginable. Larry would tie these women up and rape them. Then when he was finished with the assault, He would kill them by either stabbing or strangulation.
After the murders, he would discard their bodies in remote parts of town. Some of his victims would end up being found. Others are still missing to this day. But at the time, because he was from out of town, investigators in the area would never have Larry on their radar.
Larry Hall's next suspected murder took place on September 2, 1988. 19-year-old Paulette Webster had disappeared near Chester, Illinois. She had just left her friend's house after an evening of bowling and was never seen again. At first, investigators believed that Paulette left the area on her own accord. However, she took no personal belongings with her.
Her clothes, purse, and driver's license were all found in her bedroom. And sadly, Paulette was never seen again. Now, Larry Hall would later say that he couldn't remember if he was responsible for her murder, but said, quote, If I did it, I would have put her in a river or in a field, end quote.
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Chapter 6: How did Larry Hall abduct and kill his victims?
On July 20, 1990, an unidentified white female was found in a bean field in Jarvis Township, Illinois. The woman was around 25 years old and had shoulder-length auburn hair. She had several stab wounds to her neck and torso, and she had been sexually mutilated. The killer had removed her reproductive organs. Unfortunately, the woman has never been identified and is known only today as Jane Doe.
Her case remains unsolved. Investigators later looked into Larry Hall as being their killer, but without sufficient evidence, they couldn't prove it. Once the temperatures started rising this spring, Courtney and I both realized that we were back in the same worn-out rotation. We were wearing the same tanks, the same shorts, the same pants, the same everything.
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On July 1st, 1991, Larry Hall was in Indianapolis, Indiana. He had driven there to look at a 1982 blue Dodge van that he was interested in. But he also decided to use his time to drive around looking for young women. And according to Larry, he would eventually find one. That afternoon, 20-year-old Michelle Dewey was outside her apartment complex sunbathing with her infant son, Will.
It was a beautiful day out, but unbeknownst to Michelle, a man had been watching her for hours. Eventually, she would go inside her apartment to put her son down for a nap, and according to Larry, that's when he decided to go in for the attack, barging into Michelle's apartment with a knife. And it's here where a struggle ensued.
Michelle ran around her apartment trying to escape him, but eventually, he got her, and on the floor of her apartment, she was strangled and stabbed to death. Now later that night, Michelle actually had plans, so she had hired a babysitter, but when that babysitter showed up to her apartment, She had no idea what she was about to walk into.
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Chapter 7: What happened in the case of Trisha Lynn Reitler and her family’s perspective?
Chapter 8: What is the current status of Larry Hall's cases and investigations?
Now, according to Larry, he had actually met her earlier that day at the mall and he asked her out, but Lori respectfully declined. She said that she was meeting up with some friends after work, so she wouldn't be able to hang out with him. However, for that entire day, Larry continued following Lori. He said that when she left work that night, he was in his van waiting for her.
And as she drove to her boyfriend's apartment, he was following close behind. Once she arrived, Lori got out of her car and began to grab her stuff. And it's here where Larry said he approached her and asked if she wanted to look at a photo album of vintage cars. Now, Larry said that Lori willingly got into his van to look at the pictures. But anyone hearing this story knows that that isn't true.
If Larry had already approached her at the mall that day, then she would have known that he was following her, and she definitely would have been scared. But according to Larry, once she got into the van, he injected her with an animal tranquilizer, something he said he got from a friend. Then, once she was unconscious, he sped out of the parking lot and found a remote area to rape and murder her.
He then disposed of her body in a wooded area. Now, disturbingly, earlier that night, Lori's boyfriend said that he actually heard her car pull up to his apartment. She apparently had this loud muffler, so he knew that she had arrived. After hearing her car shut off, he was expecting her to walk through the door at any moment, but several minutes would pass with nothing.
So from there, he decided to go outside. And just like he expected, There was Lori's Volkswagen in the parking lot, but there was no sign of Lori. Now at first, he thought this was some kind of prank she was playing. He even jokingly yelled out, "'Come out, come out wherever you are,' but Lori didn't come out." And eerily enough, her car was locked with her overnight bag still inside.
Then on top of her car roof was a styrofoam cup of soda with the ice still melting. So from here, her boyfriend decided to call the police.
After her disappearance, investigators theorized that perhaps Lori had run off with someone she knew, but her loved ones couldn't stop thinking about that cup of soda in her car and the fact that she left her overnight bag inside her vehicle. Lori didn't run away. Someone had heard her. But for months, Lori remained missing.
Following her disappearance, hundreds of volunteers searched alongside investigators. Thousands of missing persons flyers were distributed throughout surrounding areas. Civil Air Patrol helicopters looked for clues by air, but there was absolutely nothing to be found. Unfortunately, Lori was never seen again, and her case remains unsolved to this day.
In Larry's 1994 confession, he admitted he had traveled to Wisconsin several days before Lori's disappearance for a Civil War reenactment at Gringan Mansion in Kaukauna. Shockingly, her name was also mentioned in his diary that was discovered in his van after he was arrested. Larry ultimately confessed to her murder in November of 2010, but to this day, she's never been found.
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