Delphi murder suspect Richard Allen reportedly confessed to the brutal 2017 murders of teenagers Abigail Williams and Liberty German during a series of jailhouse phone calls with his wife — but the defense argued he could lose his mind behind bars.
“I did it. I killed Abby and Libby,” Allen, 52, said in a telephone conversation in court Thursday: ABC News reports this.
When his wife, Kathy, said he couldn’t have done it, Allen replied, “Yes, I did.”
“Why would you say that? I know you didn’t. Something is wrong,” Kathy reportedly replied.
The conversation was just one of a series of confessions Allen appeared to make to his wife during phone calls from jail — several of which were played in court.
With every phone call, Allen continued to insist he was guilty, while his wife remained adamant that he was not.
“I think I may have gone crazy,” Allen said in another conversation, adding, “I want you to know that I did this.”
‘No, you haven’t. You’re unwell,’ his wife insisted.
In another phone conversation, Allen asked if his wife would support him if he were executed for the crimes.
“If I get the electric chair or the death penalty, will you be there for me? I killed Abby and Libby,” he said.
“I did it, Kathy. I did it. Do you still love me?” Allen said in another conversation.
“Yes, I do. But you didn’t do it,” she replied.
The victims were just 13 and 14 years old when a man pulled a gun on them as they walked past a train trestle in the woods near their homes in Indiana.
One of the girls took out her phone and filmed the man’s approach in now-infamous footage, at which point the suspected attacker ordered them to ‘get down the hill’.
During the first week of the trial, jurors were shown graphic photos showing how the girls’ throats had been slit in a viscous manner during the brutal killings.
Despite his confessions – which he also made to prison guards and a psychologist – the court heard arguments that Allen could go crazy after 13 months of solitary confinement and that his claims were false.
One psychologist testified that, in her opinion, Allen suffered from “situational psychosis” as a result of his captivity and that he lurched back and forth from lucidity to psychotic episodes, ABC reported.
His behavior during his captivity was particularly alarming.
Allen has been restrained from hitting his head on cell walls, bathing in his toilet, refusing to eat and then consume paper, and covering his face and cell walls with feces, prison guards testified.
“I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know if I’ve gone crazy,” he told his wife during a phone call.
“It feels like I’m already in hell. I don’t understand what’s going on,” he added.
