It took an Indiana jury nearly four days to determine what the rest of us already knew.
Recommended Videos
Richard Allen is one of the most fiendish monsters of our time.
He has wiggled out of catching the night train to nowhere but even the most determined abolitionist might agree that, yeah, Allen, 52, should swing, fry, suck gas, and get a lethal injection or a bullet.
Allen was convicted on Monday for the shocking sex slayings of Abigail “Abby” Williams, 13, and Liberty “Libby” German, 14, in 2017 outside tiny Delphi.
The small community became the focus of a murder hunt that sickened cops and the public alike and garnered worldwide attention.
Now, Allen faces 130 years in prison when he is finally sentenced on Dec. 20. His trial featured 17 days of harrowing testimony that frequently left the courtroom in tears.
The burly killer was convicted on two counts of murder along with two counts of felony murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping in the young teens’ deaths.
Best friends Abby and Libby decided to go for a hike on what would be their last day on Earth. When the girls did not appear at the pre-arranged meeting spot, their families hit the panic button.
Their bodies were discovered the next day in a wooded area off the Delphi Historic Trails system. Cops called homicide from the start on that frigid Feb. 13, 2017.
Recommended video
What followed was fear and a seemingly endless manhunt for the maniac. Making the investigation more frustrating was that cops had photos and audio, recorded by a courageous Libby German not long before she was murdered.
Still, it took five years to announce an arrest as investigators chased red herring after red herring. And even then, there wasn’t a lot of physical evidence that pointed the finger at Allen.
All the usual goodies — DNA, fingerprints and other forensics — were absent. There was also plenty of bungling along the way.
Prosecutors managed to lose 70 days’ worth of crucial police interrogations. Everything from April 28, 2017, to June 30, 2017, was gone, along with interviews of two men the defence believed should have been primary suspects in the horrific murders.
Then, the now-convicted killer’s legal eagles accidentally leaked sealed evidence. As a result, they were booted from the case before being reinstated.
The prosecutors argued Allen confessed to the killings on multiple occasions. He is also the “Bridge Guy,” captured by Libby, walking behind the two terrified teens.
The cherry on top was the killer’s phone conversation with his distraught wife: The call was recorded and he confessed to her: “I did it. I killed Abby and Libby.”
Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland told jurors in his closing argument: “The State has shown that Richard Allen is Bridge Guy. Five years, he lives in the city. Five years, he lives amongst us.”
But Allen’s team claimed prosecutors were trying to squeeze round pegs into square holes. They opined that because of the immense pressure cops and prosecutors were under, they tailor-made a guilt suit that fit Allen to a tee.
And they also claimed his confessions were bogus. And, uh, Libby and Abby were the victims of a ritual sacrifice from a racist “Odinism” death cult. Judge Francis C. Gull torpedoed the race cult gambit.
None of that now matters. The jury has spoken.
And the long nightmare of tiny Delphi, Indiana (population 3,000) is over.
@HunterTOSun