The Shocking True Story of Black Bird
Trisha Reitler & Jessica Roach
On the night of March 29, 1993, 19-year-old Tricia Lynn Reitler disappeared after she left her dorm at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana to head to a nearby supermarket. As you can probably guess, she never returned home. About a week later, two female students spotted a tan van with brown stripes following them on their way back to campus, so they alerted the campus security guard. He pulled over Larry Hall, who alleged he was trying to find a friend’s house. The guard let him go but later found out the address was a fake. A few months later on September 20th, 15-year-old Jessica Roach of Georgetown, Illinois, was last seen by her sister walking down the road. A bus driver came across an abandoned bike in the middle of the road which was later determined to belong to Jessica. In November, Vermilion County Illinois chief investigator Gary Miller went out to a crime scene in a cornfield near Perrysville, Indiana, where the body of a young girl was found. It later was positively identified as Jessica Roach. On May 29, 1994, Amy Baker was rollerblading near the area where Jessica’s body was found when she realized a tan van with brown stripes kept passing by her. Also on that day, Abby Rommel and Kaylen Hoskins reported being followed by the same van while they were riding their bikes. When Abby’s parents went searching for the van, they called the police to give them the license plate. It was the same plate number Baker memorized and reported earlier, which was registered to Larry Hall. The next day, Officer Neil Pence caught Hall repeatedly driving by more girls. Pence pulled him over and searched the van, where he found suspicious items like cotton balls, knives, rope, and newspaper articles about Trisha Reitler. Hall was arrested and actually confessed to killing Reitler. However, since he couldn’t show the officers where her body was, they dismissed him as a “serial confessor” just looking for attention. Again, Hall was released.
Larry DeWayne Hall
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Larry and his twin brother Gary were born December 11, 1962, in Wabash, Indiana. Growing up, the boys were forced to help their father dig graves in Fall Cemetery, where they also lived. Though they were identical, Larry and Gary had very different personalities. Gary was the more social and athletic of the two, while Larry kept to himself, and was suspected of various petty crimes around his hometown. As adults, the brothers were both Civil War buffs and traveled around the country participating in reenactments. Larry even grew out mutton chops to better resemble the soldiers of the era. Several young women all over the Midwest were stalked by Hall in his van. Girls continued disappearing, some of them later found deceased. The locations often coincided with reenactments Hall attended, like the Revolutionary War reenactment at Forest Glen Park near Georgetown, Illinois, which took place the day before Jessica Roach went missing and less than 20 miles from where her body was found. In late October 1994, investigator Gary Miller contacted Wabash City Police saying Larry Hall was a suspect in two attempted kidnappings in Georgetown. On November 2, Miller went to Hall’s hometown to interview him. When questioned about harassing the girls in Georgetown, Hall denied that he was ever in the area. Miller found him to be soft spoken with no obvious signs of violent or odd behavior.
Larry Hall’s First Conviction
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Miller returned to Wabash on November 15th to question Hall again. This time, he showed Hall a photo of Jessica, and his reaction spoke volumes. He then tearfully confessed to abducting and killing Jessica on September 20 of the year prior. He signed a confession and, on December 21, 1994, Larry Hall was charged with kidnapping that resulted in death. In June of 1995, a jury found him guilty. On August 18th, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. However, in February 1996, Hall’s attorney filed an appeal requesting a new trial, believing his client’s confession was coerced and he did not receive a fair trial. His second trial began on August 18, 1997, but, luckily, he would be given the same sentence. Even though Larry Hall was now in prison, investigators still hadn’t found Reitler’s body. Federal prosecutor Larry Beaumont led a search that yielded no results. So, he decided to do something unconventional.
Jimmy Keene
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Former high school football star Jimmy Keene grew up in Kankakee, Illinois. His father, James “Big Jim” Keene, was a celebrated cop in the Kankakee police and fire departments, who was also known for dealing with mob associates. Even with a promising future on the horizon, in his teen years, Jimmy started dealing drugs, and eventually established something of his own drug empire in Chicago. In 1996, however, Jimmy was arrested on drug trafficking charges. To his surprise, he received a 10-year sentence. Larry Beaumont made sure Jimmy received the maximum time for the charge, but he also knew that he was smart, had impressive social skills and could fit in with anyone. So, Beaumont approached Jimmy with an offer. He’d need to transfer to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, a maximum-security prison known for housing some of the most violent criminals. If Jimmy successfully befriended Hall, secured a confession in relation to Reitler, and found out where he buried his victim, he’d be granted early release. Realizing how high the stakes were, and not trusting Beaumont to keep his word, Jimmy turned it down. But he ultimately accepted the offer a few weeks later when his father suffered a stroke. Not only did Jimmy want to be by his father’s side, he also wanted to redeem himself.
Getting the Confession
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On August 3, 1998, Jimmy was picked up by federal marshals and taken to Springfield. Though he was told to wait months before making contact, Jimmy met Larry Hall right away, so he asked for help finding the library and offered him a compliment for his help. As Jimmy continued to build his trust, Hall began sharing details about how he found, captured, assaulted, and murdered young women, claiming that he’d “black out” and have no memory of actually killing them. One day, Jimmy approached Larry in a woodworking class and saw him carving figures of birds, placing them around a map with markings. After already securing the confession and now seeing the detailed map of burial sites, Jimmy left a message for his FBI contacts. He thought he was done with his mission, his cover was blown, and he ended up thrown into solitary confinement. By the time Jimmy was released, the map and birds were gone. Even though he didn’t get evidence to find the bodies, Beaumont still upheld the deal. Jimmy was given credit for time served and became a free man. On September 10, 1998, Larry Hall’s appeal was denied. Though he’s serving a life sentence, he’s only been charged with kidnapping Jessica Roach. He’s believed to have abducted and killed over 40 young women between 1980 and 1994. And, despite numerous confessions and suspicious items found in his van, he’s never been convicted of murder. In 2010, Hall confessed to kidnapping and killing several other women, including 20-year-old Laurie Depies, last seen August 19, 1992, in Wisconsin. However, no evidence was found to confirm his involvement.
In the Media
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The story of Larry Hall and Jimmy Keene sounds like it could be a movie, and Hollywood agrees. For years, Jimmy Keene’s been in talks with big names to develop a movie, and in 2010, he published “In with the Devil: A Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption” with co-writer Hillel Levin. The book sparked renewed interest into the alleged crimes of Larry Hall, as well as the several cold cases of missing women and girls. Dennis Lehane’s “Black Bird”, based on Keene’s memoir, is slated to premiere on AppleTV+ in 2022. The six-episode limited series stars Taron Egerton as Jimmy Keene, Paul Walter Hauser \takes on the role of Larry Hall, and the late Ray Liotta plays Jimmy’s father “Big Jim”.
