Who is Larry Hall? The real story of the subject of Apple TV’s ‘Black Bird’ true crime series
“Black Bird,” a new true crime series, chronicles inmate Larry D. Hall’s confessions of the rape, murder and abduction of multiple Midwest victims in the 90s.
Apple TV+ launched the series Friday with the first two episodes, both running about an hour. The story follows inmate James Keene, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison without parole after being caught in a drug sting.
Keene is tasked with eliciting a confession from Hall to several murders, with the promise Keene will walk free if he succeeds.
But who is Larry Hall and what violent crimes do police suspect he committed? Here’s a recap of the real case.
Who is Larry Hall?
According to 2017 News-Democrat coverage, Hall used to live in an Indiana cemetery and wandered the Midwest in a van.
He’s a suspect in the rape and murder of multiple women in Illinois, and he’s confessed to some.
What has Hall confessed to?
Although Hall has not been convicted of murder to date, he has made multiple confessions.
He confessed to raping and killing 15-year-old Jessica Roach in 1993 after abducting her while she was out riding her bicycle in Georgetown, Ill. A jury convicted him of kidnapping Roach and bringing her across state lines for the purpose of sex. Physical evidence to support a murder conviction was reportedly not available.
The federal 7th Circuit Court of Appeals granted Hall a retrial in the Roach case in 1996 because the original trial judge didn’t allow a psychologist to testify. The testimony reportedly indicated a mental health condition caused Hall to falsely confess to Roach’s abduction.
Hall was convicted again in the second trial and was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
Although Hall also confessed to abducting and killing Laurie Depies, 20, police could not corroborate his confession. Depies disappeared from northern Wisconsin in 1992.
He says he’s a serial killer. Did he murder the Summerfield and Chester women?
What other crimes do police suspect Hall committed?
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Illinois State Police announced in August 2017 they reopened the 1992 cold case of Tammy Zywicki, 21, who was murdered.
She was abducted just four days after Depies, from Utica, Ill., which is 233 miles south of Depies’ abduction location.
“We will definitely look into this other case in Illinois,” special agent Kyra Schallhorn of the Wisconsin Bureau of Criminal Investigation said in 2017. “I had not heard of it before.”
Schallhorn said Hall was a suspect in the case, but that there were others as well.
Zywicki’s murder remains unsolved, according to the FBI.
Hall has confessed and recanted confessions to several more rapes and murders. He is currently serving a life sentence at a medium security level federal prison in Butner, N.C., according to CBS News.
