Born to Kill - The Briley Brothers (HD)

in the late 70s the Briley brothers rocked the US city of Richmond with a string of vicious murders the level of hours was horrifying men women and children would lose their lives seemingly at random this was just not murdered this was overkill the siblings were a brutal gang the family that slayed together stayed together they were targeting weak and vulnerable people like a snake would target a mouse so cunning that even death row couldn't hold the moon it was supposed to be escaped truth the strong was maximum security that we had in Virginia but was murder in their DNA were these blood brothers born to kill you know they hadn't seen carnage like this in private the Civil War [Applause] [Music] on i-95 WSGI Richmond Virginia broadcasting at 7:01 German school Road in Richmond in 1979 Richmond would be rocked by the disappearance of popular local country music DJ Johnny Gallagher well when I was born Johnny G was there he was my dad's probably best friend he they just grew up playing music together they hung together kind of like Batman and Robin used to you know he was like our uncle and he was a radio disc jockey he was originally from Tennessee it's where he grew up and that's why he was known as Johnny G from Tennessee he used to help me with my homework and it was a quite at what state that to me they were there for every Christmas help us help us put the Christmas trees up every Sunday there eating dinner watching football games yeah many of Super Bowls we watched together he was just a very good person on the 14th of September the bass playing DJ mysteriously vanished [Music] he had been playing at a night spot down on the main thoroughfare going out of the city to the south called Jefferson Davis Hogg way Johnny didn't smoke cigarettes and a smoke-filled barroom you know he won't go get some fresh air so he went outside to get some fresh air and never come back in some of the people playing music with him and the owners and stuff they knew my dad was a policeman and so they called dad and dad knew something was all automatically wrong [Music] detective Jim Gordo was assigned the case Johnny G we worked for wxg I radio station was a comfort station and he played in the country bands and on the weekends and so forth bob was a log cabin rest for night club down on Jefferson Davis Highway and he was playing down there that night [Music] Johnny G's disappearance was out of character they started looking around trying to figure out what happened that he just something leave or or what happened they D really didn't know it's time you know fearing he'd been abducted a search began his car was found that Saturday evening the car was discovered less than a mile from Richmond's Jaynes River but would it hold the key to Gallagher's whereabouts we responded to where the car was found and we thought maybe he was in the trunk we popped a trunk and he wasn't in there so then we don't we processed the car and we found the fingerprint behind the door panel I guess they were looking for a speakers or whatever and they did take a CB radio and an antenna paralyzed they thought they could get something out of the car although Johnny G was nowhere to be found it was clear he'd been the victim of some sort of crime that year he wouldn't be alone [Music] Richmond was in the middle of an unprecedented brutal crime spree oh we are very out of the ordinary very out of the ordinary you know they hadn't seen carnage like it's in private the civil war robbery rape murder no one seemed safe the type of ferocity violence atrocity was just something that Richmond had not experienced never before never since the end a common factor was that the victims were vulnerable they were highly predatory they weren't targeting a group of guys who may have had a weapon no you know they were targeting weak and vulnerable people like a snake would target a mouse young old good neighborhood or bad there was no hiding place and that's what scared people that you know they didn't know what was going on they were scared and the brutality of it this just erupted the city you know into fear the range of crimes meant that no one was sure if they were connected but on the 22nd of October police would be called to a shocking scene that would tie all the attacks together in Barton Avenue on the city's north side detectives were alerted to something strange at the home of the Wilkinson family we get a call that this couple had not been seen that something's suspicious about the the house that neighbors were concerned about [Music] 23:01 Barton Avenue it's right here [Music] right there's their apartment the front door was open two went in and that was the young son laying on the sofa the female victim who was about eight months pregnant man in the floor and her live-in boyfriend that was that was bad as soon as you got in the house blood everywhere tracked they had to double and pence for puppies and they were just running through the blood and everything it was just a mess Harvey Wilkerson and Judith Barton was tied up with duct tape behind them and both shot the thing that strikes me about that crime scene it looks like the little boy just laying on the sofa with his head laying on a sofa looking towards the TV like he was just laying there watching television but five-year-old Harvey Wilkerson was not watching TV he'd been shot through the head at point-blank range his pregnant mother had been assaulted in front of him very brutal very sadistic the feared local gang had been spotted running from the scene three days earlier Linwood James and Anthony Briley would become prime suspects in the triple murder but as police moved in to arrest the gang they could never have imagined the bloody rampage they were about to uncover in 1979 Richmond police discovered a bloody triple murder the Wilkinson family had been violated and executed in their home and suspicion fell on a group of brothers with a fearsome reputation as police moved in to make an arrest Linwood Briley and a gang member Duncan Meekins were in a car and on the move we were following them Linwood was driving Meekins and Lynne was dad was in the car what happened next illustrated just how street smart the gang were every time we would make a conversation that they're turning right they would turn left we didn't know what was going on and we say the turning left because they're giving the signal they would turn right yeah we were just kind of fluctuating all over because we didn't know where they were going or what they were gonna do with the bride is leading their trackers of merry dance police decided to force the situation finally we just had enough and I had to just just put him into a pole so they ran him into a telephone pole that's when we found the scanner and realized that's how they were listening to what we were doing the Briley brothers and Duncan Meekins were taken into custody and detectives got their first look at the gang suspected of the brutal murder of man woman and child they were very offensive they they didn't think we had anything on them and they weren't going to tell you anything Lynnwood he was calculated and cold and he was just looking all over the place and sort of ignoring me you know Linwood Briley was apparently fearless I said you know this is serious you could get the deflected chair he threw up his arms we said take it like a man so just who were this family seemingly capable of violent rape and cold-blooded murder the brawly's all lived over and the east side of the city to the north called Holland Park the area that the Briley's grew up in was you know row houses you know middle-income class houses certainly not anything to be ashamed of the only bad part was the braless that's where the brawler's lived with her mother and father the mother and father were good people their mother was a lovely lady you would never have attributed her to bringing up three boys that that turned out as bad as these three people but I knew some people that went to school with them and said they were bullies in school you know they said they'd like to bully around and have their way the young bride is also had a telling hobby they liked pets but they liked really dangerous pets they had a ball constructor and they had some French alone they liked you know they had poisonous things piranhas and snakes and things like that there were clearly predators and they enjoyed feeding live mice to the snakes and watching so there is significance in the delight they would take of watching one predator go after its prey it seemed to a certain point that their family life was unconventional normal and then when they reached their teenage years something changed and there seemed to be I don't know there certainly seemed to be a lack of empathy [Music] that lack of empathy would be illustrated by the mysterious death of the Briley's elderly neighbor all the way question she lived in this house here 19 all in Christian had been hanging out washing in her yard when she'd suddenly dropped dead at first it was more or less a natural death because she had heart problem until some of the family noticed a spot on her and further we found out she been shot a Richmond detective began investigating the motiveless murder then the sharp investigator that he was took a 8-foot 2x4 and he cut the 2x4 off to the heights of the victim and then using the autopsy report drilled a hole through this 2x4 showing the direction that the projectile came from and then he stood in the backyard where the victim was and he turned this 2x4 around until he eventually it it showed that it would possibly have come from Glenwood Raleigh's rooftop when the murder weapon was found in sixteen-year-old Linwood's house his lack of remorse for the death of the elderly neighbor was shocking his response according to the documents was well she was going to die anyway stunning absolute stunning you can clearly see this attitude starting as a teenager that he he has no regard for human life and that she was just for target practice sentenced to a year in a juvenile facility Lynwood would become a role model for his younger brothers James and Anthony I think everybody saw just how deviant he was how how extreme he was what he's capable of then the other two brothers just seemed to chime in and go along with that he would have probably bragged to them he would have probably strutted about because that was his his personality and so for them they probably would have thought you know wow this is really a bold thing to do so he's certainly modeling for them you know what it takes to be a man [Music] I don't think there's any question that Linwood was the leader and James was a follower and Anthony to a lesser degree was a follower to Linwood was very cold very calculating very methodical and James was a little bit more emotional but he wasn't as cerebral certainly didn't have the intelligence that his brother did Linwood did but he certainly had the arrogance at 16 James would follow in his brother's footsteps James Briley was arrested for robbery and attempted murder of a police officer James Briley had robbed a store and had escaped from the robbery and trying to make a getaway and a police officer who was on duty closeby responded and picked up James bra Lane was chasing him detective Cecil ballooned ran after him and he shot at glutton England to return fire and hit him so he wounded as the brothers grew older they grew tougher you just start to see these glimmers like James and Linwood's father would sleep with a lock on his door at night the pad locked his own bedroom at night because he feared that they might do something to them that's very very rare most parents feel that they have control over their kids even if the kids are acting out and very aggressive and violent ways they usually don't feel personally threatened by them Briley's father did I think that speaks volumes just to how deviant are the three brothers were now years later with the bride is in custody for the sickening murder of the wilkinson family police were about to discover the shocking truth about just how to pray the brothers had become with Linwood before him in the interview room detective Jim gordei realized that Briley's might be responsible for more than just the triple murder at Boston Avenue I had Johnny G or Johnny Gallagher the disc jockey case and items were taken from him when I was a turquoise ring I noticed Linwood was wearing a ring turquoise ring like was described so I took it off and I called Leroy Morgan the detective and he had this ring on his finger and my dad seen it and said that's John's ring ring that's Johnny's got his watch and that's how they laid for Ali's Johnny's murder despite Linwood being caught wearing Johnny G's jewelry the police had little evidence to tie the three Briley brothers to either the DJ's abduction or the bloodbath at Barton Avenue however a fourth member of the gang might provide the key Duncan Meekins was just 16 years old and was a neighbor not family he came from a very well grounded background as far as I could tell he was a good student or a decent student active in the church and had been an altar boy Micah's lived next door to the Raleigh's and they were idols to him basically you know he thought they were you know big tough people and he wanted to get involved so they kind of took him under their wing prosecutors decided to attempt to deal with Duncan Meekins his evidence in return for his life Macon's was offered a deal and sometimes when they're juveniles involved a figure that they won't get the chair so he started talking what meetings would reveal would leave the people of Richmond stunned when this broke I just thought holy moley well that's not what I thought you know what I thought the Briley gang had been on a seven-month violence spree that had caused devastation all over the city the level of violence was horrifying when you when all the details became known just harvest bad [Music] one of the first to die was elderly babysitter Mary Gowen resident of a well-to-do Richmond neighborhood 76 year old woman she lives at upscale apartments no crime ever occurs there she had been babysitting over in north part of Richmond at her daughter's house de brollies had seen this elderly lady leave from her babysitting job followed her all the way through the city of Richmond out to her apartment I don't think she even had a chance to yell but there's probably somebody would have heard her she's probably a little parked here and 51 was over there in that corner that's it right there they abducted her drugged her into the stairwell took turns raping her and then shot her in head and left her for dead well just a vicious horrific type crime no rhyme or reason didn't know the victim just picked her at random Mary was just a wonderful lady loved her grandkids loved life so that was the beginning of next to die would be a 17 year old that Linwood Briley suspected was casing his car Christopher Phillips that was another fake it was my case I didn't have anything on they thought that he was looking in her car 17-year old boy so they take him drag him into the backyard hold him down he's yelling take a cinder block and smash his head it seems that the Briley brothers were getting a taste for murder if they hadn't enjoyed they wouldn't have kept doing it and I think that's what we see with with some of these is it's some people think about committing murder and when they find out you know not only as a tough but getting rid of a body is difficult in their case they didn't really care they didn't have any of that stuff and there was some fun involved in it it felt powerful to them felt like they were they were in charge and they they could make people do what they wanted and there were really no consequences for them and the Briley's violent rampage wasn't over yet their brutality was about to escalate to new unthinkable levels in 1979 the Briley brothers Linwood James and Anthony along with their accomplice sixteen-year-old Duncan Meekins had terrorized the city of Richmond with a series of vicious robberies rapes and murders in custody Meekins would reveal the horrific details of their violent rampage including the answer to the riddle of DJ Johnny G's disappearance they rode around looking for people to rob and whatever and if they seen somebody that's when they done it I mean it wasn't pre-planned they just if they saw somebody walking here they had abduct him or whatever you know this time Johnny G would be in the wrong place at the wrong time Meekins related how the gang had gone looking for someone to mug and had hidden in the bushes by the bar where the DJ was performing and lain in wait for a victim at that point he'd stepped out for air they broke into his Lincoln Mark four and they caught him when they were going across the parking lot [Music] they abducted him took his car keys and put him in the trunk of his own car [Music] with Johnny G in the boot the Briley's took his car to an abandoned paper mill on an island in the River Grove to the back by the river they knocked him in he'd they did and carried him down to the river and shot him and threw him in a river three days in a row we were down there trying to find him we couldn't find him [Music] you got hung up under the water and some logs and it took it took almost a week for him to surface up yeah it was baby and it still hurts me to this day 30 years later I just don't know anybody could do something like that [Music] if the Briley brothers were killing or stealing to gain something as their primary motive that's at least understandable but it seems to me as I look at this that their main motivation was just to kill and destroy we're robbery was actually secondary they functioned like a street gang a street gang that had gone amok just two weeks after the murder of Johnny G the Briley gang were on the Proud again 62 year old nurse Mary Wilfong had been returning to her home in a safe suburban neighborhood Mary will fall I haven't been up here in a long time they apparently saw her walking in the Department of something and took out a baseball bat and smashed her head right in front of her house then they went in the house and ransacked it and she was left on the sidewalk to die and she did [Music] and the Briley's reign of terror wasn't over yet as they continued to escape justice the brothers became bolder and more cruel I don't think the Briley's were out of control so much as feeling as if they were invincible and immune to arrest they could have easily stopped doing it but didn't want to because there were no consequences in October the Briley gang would commit a crime the brutality of which no one would ever forget we had a call to 5th Avenue an elderly couple and they hadn't been seen or heard from in several days mrs. Paige she was a partially paralyzed so she she didn't get around much mr. Gardner stayed there and paid rent to room there arriving at the property investigators were met by a gruesome scene the thing that was the struck me as soon as I walked in the door is that she looked up the stairwell and the whole wall going up stairwell and and the steps were just covered in blood all the way up 59 year-old Charles Garner was discovered in the kitchen you never forget the smell of death and when I walked into that kitchen he was just rampant I mean you could just smell it you knew it and I've never forgotten it the level of violence inflicted on Garner was shocking he'd been brutally attacked with the bat no the poor guy was there's no harm to anybody but you know they beat him and it was just idea let me do this let me do that and the horror continued upstairs in the bedroom every wall in that room was covered with blood I mean it would just it would look like a slaughter house basically 79 year old Blanche Paige was discovered in bed here's this poor white female laying in bed like she's sleep but she's been beat to death with a baseball bat they didn't just hit her they kept beating out I don't care how long you been a policeman that's hard to see and take because what somebody can do to a human body is just unbelievable this was just not murder this was overkill his individuals like this to some degree it gave them some sense of superiority some sense of recognition to themselves that they could do anything they weren't afraid of anybody or anything there's nothing that would inhibit them the police society rules none of that applied to the Briley brothers nothing Illustrated the brothers departure from morality more than the bloodbath at Barton Avenue as Duncan Meekins sickening account revealed on the morning of October the 19th James Briley had promised a parole judge he could be trusted to stay out of trouble by the evening he had other plans they had smoked some marijuana they had tried some liquor and they left their home and hit it over to Barton Avenue which was just a few blocks away from where they lived unlike most of their previous victims Harvey Wilkerson was an acquaintance of the gang apparently the brollies and deacons came down here and with intent to rob them and Wilkerson saw him coming and he got scared and locked the door but then when they came up to the door he was afraid that they would break in and cause him harm so he let him in what happened next would shock even the most hardened of investigators tied her hands up with duct tape behind them and then after that was done they killed him so they he didn't kill the man first and then raped and sodomized a woman they did it all in his presence and then killed him which was a very let me just show you has sickened and mean and lowlife these people really weren't and I said on the way to this problem they would just they weren't fit to be called humans as far as I'm concerned the Briley gangs seven-month spree had cost the lives of at least ten victims in return for his testimony sixteen-year-old Duncan Meekins escaped the death penalty and received a life sentence as did youngest brother Anthony Briley but Linwood and James would both be sentenced to Virginia's electric chair James had no reaction when the sentence was brought down I never got the sense that he was remorseful at all for anything that had happened Linwood had his head down no emotion now remember he's saying you know somebody to defect mama don't worry about this this doesn't happen right away you know I just thought holy smokes I mean it was just a matter of fact voice as if is if you'd gone and gotten a pack of cigarettes you know from the grocery store I mean amazing it seemed the threat of execution meant little to the Briley brothers Deborah Wyatt would represent Linwood in his Appeals against the death sentence and encountered a bright and charming individual I found him to be in it and not an unenjoyable person to be around I mean I have had clients that I don't think I could have had a very long conversation with he was not one of those he was a nice-looking man he was a well-spoken man friendly calm with a sense of humor you know it was hard to believe that he was the kind of person who would have done these crimes [Music] but despite appearances Linwood and James had taken all their cunning and ruthlessness with them to death row Linwood had a kind of magnetism to him they wanted to please him even the guards and then people were scared of James the Briley's managed to exert their their strength in their sense of power even in prison the two of them basically seemed to operate the same way that they did when they were out they wanted to be known and feared while they were in the penitentiary they became kind of gang leaders there and even the guards were housed by them James and Linwood had had a drug business prison guards would bring the drugs in to death row and representatives in the prison would sell it and James and Linwood would make a certain amount of money but bossing the prison wouldn't be enough for Linwood and James Briley in 1984 their brash scheming would reach unbelievable heights as they set out to prove that not even death row could hold them if you wrote that in a some pulp fiction detective story nobody ever believed it what happened you in 1979 Richmond Virginia had been terrorized by the Briley brothers by 1984 with Linwood and James locked up on death row the public had began to relax little did they know that the brothers were about to do the unthinkable and spread panic through the city all over again they managed to plan and make one of the biggest prison breaks in the United States history the Briley brothers would take on Mettenberger action all Center held up as a model of modern prison design that was the strong most maximum-security that we had in Virginia all these different gates is going in and out I guess in a zoo you have to do that with ferocious animals you have all these different gates and nothing's open at the same time it was supposed to be escape-proof because everything was computerized Linwood and James however had other ideas they put together with a help of some other inmates a very sophisticated plan and on May the 31st 1984 they would put that plan into action the inmates had haircuts and shaved their beards then James Briley tricked an officer into opening the guard room and convict Earl plantain rushed to the control panel and opened all cell doors they overpowered some guards and took their uniforms disguised as officers and armed with homemade knives they overpowered any guards that entered the block at one point they did want to kill one of the prison guards and someone else stepped in and wouldn't let them do it so these were very cruel young men who really had no regard for human life at all and would kill regardless it didn't matter if if there was a purpose to it or not they wouldn't they just would then Linwood James and four other inmates began an audacious ruse first they forced a guard to call for emergency transport to be brought to the gate they said that they had discovered a homemade bomb and they asked for a van the group disguised themselves further still they actually had rot gear helmets and stuff so you couldn't actually see who they were and then made them move on foot across the compound they covered one of the TVs that the men watched in the in the day room with a blanket and then as some of the men were carrying it out to the van they would spray it with a fire extinguisher so that it looked like you know you know this was a serious matter here shouting that they had a live bomb that needed to be removed quickly the gang demanded the guards break Convention and open both gates at once the guards complied they carried it into the van and they drove through the gates and and just kept driving by 11:00 p.m. the Briley brothers and four conspirators were gone I remember very clearly as if it were this morning and when they said the Briley brothers I just thought whoa you know just whoa the news that the Briley brothers were free terrified their hometown everybody become concerned again about them being on the loose when a massive manhunt was launched people began to protect themselves against a revenge attack when people have committed these kinds of acts you you know that they're gonna probably want to blame their incarceration and the fact that they're facing the death sentence on someone who has been involved in the case the level of fear escalated as sightings were reported nationwide we had to put protective my office was around the judges home around some of the their witnesses homes all four of the brightest co-conspirators were recaptured but Linwood and James remained on the loose we went down to the police station and they issued us weapons somebody said what are you doing carrying a weapon and I said well it's it's not to do anything to anybody it's to keep them from doing something to me because there's no way in the world I was going to let them get their hands on me finally 19 days after their escape a wiretap on the Briley's uncle led searches to a garage in Philadelphia where Linwood and James were discovered barbecuing chicken in the alley known as lucky and slim they've been doing odd jobs and befriending neighbors James was slim Linwood was lucky Linwood and James were the last ones to be caught and they were just kind of hiding in plain sight which once again shows you know the kind of interesting intelligence there but neither Linwood nor James would be lucky again the escape would be their last taste of freedom and both of their executions would be planned for within a year of course choose to escape because I believe that you're supposed to be free together the three Briley brothers had terrorized a city and taken the lives of at least 11 men women and children but what had turned them into cold-blooded murderers were Linwood James and Anthony Briley born to kill I think the fact that one of them killed as an adolescent with such a callous disregard for the victim indicates the possibility of what we call a fledgling psychopath so he might be the one if any of them was born to kill it would have been him the others we really can't say the question arises as to whether each of these three brothers individually would have acted alone without the support let's say of the other brothers I'm not sure Lynwood would have the one who killed the elderly neighbor he probably would have behaved in very very deviant ways on his own I'm not so sure about the other brothers possibly they would have but they certainly gained a degree of support and a sense of belonging to the gang itself a lot of people within families I mean you know they start a business or something like that they become rich I mean these guys became powerful and dangerous and that was important it was like a drug better than sex you know better than real drugs I mean it was just almost essential for him I don't think people are born bad the Lord wouldn't want people to be born bad I think you just hit the wrong road five years after their brutal killing spree Linwood and James Briley would pay the ultimate price for their crimes I went to Linwood Riley's execution Linwood Briley as brutal killer as he was was a coward and they had to sedate him and actually pick him up by his belt and walk him to the electric chair he didn't go voluntarily he was like a whipped dog and they put him in the electric chair and gave him exactly what he deserved and I believe in God and heaven and a hell and there's no question in my mind that he mr. Brawley and James both the right way they deserved a bit I mean you don't make a light of anybody getting just death penalty you know but I mean they deserved it they got it I'm happy um sorry for their family with their family had to go through and I'm sorry for our family we had to go through the Briley brothers would leave a dark indelible mark on the history and people of Richmond the family that slayed together stayed together yeah may they all right now [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music]

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Views: 34,827

Rating: 4.906383 out of 5

Keywords: Born to Kill, The Briley Brothers, serial killer

Id: xJFMEJGv9H8

Length: 45min 0sec (2700 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 24 2020