Crimes, Killers, Cults and Beer: A True Crime Podcast · Dark Pass Productions

160 Israel Keyes Part 1 (With History Goon)

·1 hr 16 min·5 clips

Keyes told investigators he raped a teenage girl in Oregon before joining the Army.

1. Crimes, Killers, Cults and Beer focuses this episode on Israel Keyes and the early development of his violence across multiple states. 2. Bill hosts with Kevin from History Goon, and Kevin matters here because he is carrying the story and naming the dates, places, and cases. 3. The episode asks how Keyes moved from a strict Utah childhood to a long-running pattern of travel, stalking, robbery, and murder. 4. Keyes was born January 7th, 1978 in Richford, Utah to Heidi Hankinson and John Jeffrey Keyes, then later moved with his family to Colville, Washington. 5. The family lived in a small cabin with a wood stove and no electricity, and the children were homeschooled while attending a Christian Identity church called The Ark. 6. Kevin says people described Keyes’ mother as “creepy and cult-minded,” and the children had to sneak out to watch movies and play music. 7. Keyes learned carpentry, built his first cabin at 16, and worked for a general contractor in Colville from 1995 to 1997. 8. In the late 1990s, the family moved to an Amish community in Smyrna, Maine, where they attended Amish services but never formally joined. 9. Kevin says Keyes declared himself an atheist at 17, was kicked out of the house, and was forbidden contact with his brothers and sisters. 10. On July 9th, 1998, Keyes enlisted in the Army in New Jersey, was stationed at Fort Lewis and Fort Hood, and later spent time in Egypt with Sean McGuire. 11. Kevin highlights an argument in which Keyes told McGuire he wanted to kill him, and McGuire believed he meant it. 12. After a DUI in February 2001, Keyes received only one day in jail and a $300 fine, then got an Army Achievement Medal for work as a gunner and assistant gunner. 13. Kevin says Keyes later told investigators he raped a teenage girl in Oregon before enlistment, pulling her from a river while her friends floated away. 14. Keyes reportedly said he intended to kill that girl, but he put her back in her inner tube and let her drift off. 15. After his Army discharge in 2001, Keyes lived with Tammy Hawkins near Naya Bay, worked construction, and kept a low profile in public. 16. Kevin says Keyes planted buried “kill kits” in five-gallon buckets with duct tape, twine, knives, guns, cash, and drain cleaner so he could act quickly in different states. 17. In April 2009, Keyes robbed the community bank branch in Tupper Lake, New York, around the same period that Deborah Feldman disappeared in Hackensack, New Jersey. 18. Kevin then jumps to June 8th, 2011 in Essex, Vermont, where Keyes cut the phone line, entered the Courrier home, and forced Bill and Lorraine Courrier into their Saturn. 19. The episode has a conversational, improvised feel, with Bill and Kevin trading jokes about dog rescues, Fort Hood, and local places while the story moves forward. 20. Listeners who like methodical true-crime timelines and case-by-case detail should listen, while people who want a tight polished narrative may skip it.

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