The Letters and the McDonald's Lot: Crime Watch Daily on the William Devin Howell Case, Part 2 (2017)

Name: The Letters and the McDonald's Lot: Crime Watch Daily on the William Devin Howell Case, Part 2 (2017)
Uploaded: 2018-01-05T00:00:00Z
Duration: 5 min 40 s
Description: The second part of Crime Watch Daily's report: a cellmate's account of Howell's confession, four more victims, and author Anne K. Howard at the New Britain parking lot and ravine described in Howell's letters to her.

The second part of Crime Watch Daily's report: a cellmate's account of Howell's confession, four more victims, and author Anne K. Howard at the New Britain parking lot and ravine described in Howell's letters to her.

Subject: William Devin Howell
Recorded: about December 2017
Runtime: 5:40

Content warning: Describes rapes, a hammer attack, strangulation and the disposal of victims' bodies, in passages quoted from Howell's letters; concerns the murders of seven people in Connecticut in 2003.

The Interview

This is a television news report, the second of three parts of a Crime Watch Daily with Chris Hansen story first broadcast around January 2018, with correspondent Nerissa Knight. It is not an interview with William Devin Howell. His voice is heard only at the end, in teaser clips of about 20 seconds in all from the telephone interview that airs in part 3. The report covers his confession to a cellmate, the recovery of four more bodies, the charges and his guilty plea, and his correspondence with author and attorney Anne K. Howard, who takes Knight to the places he described in his letters.

Historical Context

In 2003 seven people disappeared from the New Britain, Hartford and Waterbury areas of Connecticut. Howell was linked to the disappearance of Nilsa Arizmendi by DNA found in his van and in January 2007 entered an Alford plea to manslaughter, receiving 15 years. Remains were found behind a New Britain strip mall in 2007 and again in 2015. In 2015 he was charged with six murders, and on September 8, 2017, he pleaded guilty. On November 17, 2017, he was sentenced to six consecutive life terms, a total of 360 years.

Circumstances of the Recording

Crime Watch Daily uploaded the story to its YouTube channel in three parts on January 5, 2018. In this part Knight and Howard stand at the corner of a McDonald's parking lot in New Britain and at the edge of the ravine behind it. Howard says Howell wrote back two weeks after she first wrote to him, and the narration says he gave his letters to her for her book. The narration places her first letter while he awaited sentencing; her publisher, WildBlue Press, says she first contacted him while he was serving his 15-year sentence and was about to be charged with the six murders.

What the Interview Covers

The narration says prosecutors reported that Howell confessed to his cellmate, Jonathan Mills, describing an alter ego he called the Sick Ripper and a van he called his murder mobile. Investigators then found four more bodies, identified as Melanie Ruth Camilini, the victim charged as Danny Lee Whistnant, Marilyn Gonzalez and Nilsa Arizmendi. Howard explains where, she says, Howell attacked three of his victims and how he disposed of their bodies. The narration reads passages from his letters about Arizmendi, Camilini and Gonzalez, including his account of driving through a fast food drive-through with a bound victim in the back. In the closing teasers Howell says, "I committed monstrous and heinous crimes, but my true character isn't a monstrous and heinous person."

What Makes the Recording Significant

The report shows the locations Howell described in his letters, with the author who received them, and quotes from those letters. The closing teaser about his "true character" is not in the part 3 upload.

Archival Importance

Together with parts 1 and 3, this part preserves the Crime Watch Daily story on the case as the program published it online. Its quotations from Howell's letters record his written account as the program presented it in the weeks after his sentencing.

Important Caveats

Howell is heard only in teaser clips; his interview is in part 3. The letter passages are read by the narration; they are his written words, not recordings of his voice, and they are his claims. Several short lines by officials could not be attributed from the machine text. The program's timing of Howard's first letter (after the guilty plea) differs from her publisher's account (before the 2015 charges). The recording date and first broadcast date are inferred.

Nerissa Knight: The mutilated bodies of three women are discovered buried in the woods behind a strip mall in New Britain, Connecticut. At the same time, a man by the name of William Howell is serving out a prison sentence in connection to the disappearance of 33-year-old Nilsa Arizmendi.

Unnamed Official: The person we [unclear: "believe" / "believed"] to be a suspect...

Nerissa Knight: Howell is suddenly named as a suspect in the other murders.

Unnamed Speaker: Howell did confess his crimes.

Nerissa Knight: Prosecutors say while in prison, Howell confessed to his cellmate, Jonathan Mills, and according to Mills, he tells him a terrifying tale about his alter ego, the Sick Ripper, who picked up women in what he called his murder mobile and buried them in the woods behind a mall. When cops get word of this killer confession...

Unnamed Official: Additional human remains were located and recovered.

Nerissa Knight: Tragically, investigators unearth four more bodies. That brings the body count to seven, six women and one man.

Unnamed Official: We knew that they were not just Jane Does, that they were somebody's loved one. They were somebody's daughter, somebody's sister.

Nerissa Knight: Soon, the coroner identifies the additional victims as 29-year-old Melanie Ruth Camilini, 44-year-old Danny Lee Whistnant, 26-year-old Marilyn Mendez Gonzalez, and 33-year-old Nilsa Arizmendi.

Unnamed Speaker: The prosecutors had six out of seven DNA samples of the victims in his van.

Nerissa Knight: William Devin Howell is charged with multiple capital felony murders. It's an unprecedented crime, giving him an unprecedented title: the most notorious serial killer in the state of Connecticut's history. Then, in a stunning turn of events...

Unnamed Speaker: William Howell decided that he didn't want a trial, that he was prepared to plead guilty.

Nerissa Knight: Howell admits to the savage murders in the back of his murder mobile. While he awaits sentencing, Anne K. Howard, who's been blogging about the case, reaches out to the murderer.

Anne K. Howard: And I told him I was interested in writing a book about him, and much to my surprise, two weeks later, William Devin Howell wrote back to me.

Nerissa Knight: Over the next several months, the serial killer and the attorney turned author exchange numerous letters, which the killer gives exclusively to Ann for her book.

Anne K. Howard: I was introduced to a man that the public has not seen.

Nerissa Knight: In them, Howell describes his grisly killing spree that took the lives of seven people in just six short months.

Nerissa Knight: [unclear: "Ann" / "And"], what's significant about where we're standing right now?

Anne K. Howard: This is the location in the corner of the McDonald's parking lot in New Britain where the serial killer William Devin Howell raped and strangled three of his victims.

Nerissa Knight: [unclear: "Where we're standing?" / "We were standing"]

Anne K. Howard: Absolutely. He would duct tape their mouths so that no one would hear them making any noises. He was careful to park in remote enough locations, even though he would be in a parking lot that had public access and perhaps even had some cars parked. They were always, you know, at least 50 feet away.

Nerissa Knight: About Nilsa Arizmendi, he writes: "She wanted a ride into Hartford. I grabbed her, raped her throughout the night and into the day. I killed her and threw her down the hill."

Anne K. Howard: It was at this location, Nerissa, that he would drive his van up. He would slide open the side door. The body of each of his victims would be wrapped in plastic trash bags, and then very quickly thrown them over this steep embankment into the ravine below.

Nerissa Knight: Concerning Howell's first victim, Melanie Camilini, he writes: "I grabbed her by the throat, I raised a hammer and told her, 'All I want is sex. If you don't give me any trouble, you won't get hurt.'" But that wasn't true. He hits her with a hammer and strangles her to death.

Anne K. Howard: And that's not all. At the time, he was living in his van, so he slept beside her body for two weeks.

Nerissa Knight: According to police affidavits, he nicknamed the corpse "Baby." Then he writes about Marilyn Gonzalez and how, after raping her through the night, he, quote, "got us some fast food breakfast." It will be her final meal before Howell strangles her to death. It's a strange ritual he admits to doing with most of his victims, writing: "I'd go through the Mickey D's drive-through with a half-naked, tied-up," expletive, "in the back and told them if they made a sound, it would be their last. None of them did." They are acts that can only be described as pure evil. But as I was about to find out, the man who committed them is not so easily defined.

William Devin Howell: I mean, I committed monstrous and heinous crimes, but my true character isn't a monstrous and heinous person.

Nerissa Knight: Coming up:

William Devin Howell: Everybody wants to know why, why, why, why.

Nerissa Knight: In his first national interview, Connecticut's most prolific serial killer speaks from behind bars.

William Devin Howell: I chose to do what I did, and I just chose not to care. ... So I just don't fit the mold at all that everybody tries to put serial killers in, you know what I mean? ---