Harry Spiller Discusses Kathy Woodhouse’s Murder and More in a Q&A
(“A Clean Getaway,” Forensic Files)
If there’s one takeaway from Harry Spiller’s career in law enforcement, it’s that criminals are dumb and irrational.
“You almost get to the point where you don’t expect normal things to happen,” says Spiller, who retired from his job as Williamson County sheriff and went on to write 17 history and true-crime books, including the Murder in the Heartland series about homicides in Illinois and Missouri.
Forensic Files watchers may recognize Spiller from his appearance on “Clean Getaway,” the episode about Paul Taylor’s rape and murder of Kathy Woodhouse.
Born and raised in Marion, Illinois, Spiller spent 10 years in the Marines, doing two tours in Vietnam before returning to the Land of Lincoln and donning a sheriff’s badge.
Spiller, who today teaches criminal justice at John A. Logan College, recently gave ForensicFilesNow.com some extra intelligence on the Woodhouse case as well as a couple of other famous homicides that happened 50 years apart.
Edited excerpts of the conversation with Harry Spiller follow:
Do you watch true-crime shows now? They don’t hold my interest as much as other people’s. It’s always, “Can you believe it really happened?” I say, “Ride around with us in a squad car for a while.” You see the way people can treat one another — child abuse, domestic abuse.
Is it true that the area around Herrin, Illinois, is so safe that police almost laughed off the anonymous call reporting Kathy Woodhouse’s murder? The police didn’t really think it was a joke. Everyone wants to think they live in Mayberry, RFD, but we have a lot more crime than what people would imagine.
You mentioned that Kathy’s killer, Paul Taylor, had a tough life. Do you think it drove him to rape and murder? I’m not saying that’s why he did it, but it could be a reason he got off keel.
After years of watching Forensic Files, I’m curious: When ATF or FBI agents join an investigation, does local law enforcement resent it? No, they’re used to working together. Sometimes the FBI would have information it couldn’t share and they’d want us to help but wouldn’t tell us what’s going on, which was difficult. But overall, I have the highest respect for the FBI.
Are there any cases you discuss with students in your work as a professor? I use the Jeff MacDonald Fatal Vision case.
Do you think that Jeffrey MacDonald [a handsome surgeon and Green Beret convicted of stabbing his wife and daughters to death in 1970] is guilty? In court, I think he was railroaded because people didn’t like him because he was cheating on his wife and he didn’t do much to push for looking for another suspect.
But, yes, I think he’s guilty.
He took a polygraph, but you can beat a polygraph. He never would take truth serum — if you take that and they start asking you questions, you can’t fake it.
I wrote to Jeff MacDonald and his team, and I asked why he didn’t take truth serum.
He wrote me back and said, “We already have enough evidence to prove I’m innocent.”
Fast-forwarding to today, what’s your take on the case of Jacob Blake, the unarmed black man who a police officer shot in the back multiple times in August 2020? There are times when someone does something and the police have to react quickly — but not in that case. ♣
You can buy Harry Spiller’s books from Amazon or at a discount via his Facebook page or by emailing harryspiller@icloud.com.
That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR
Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube
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