Folie à deux: Judith and Alvin Neelley

Our first installment in our 'Folie à deux' series focusing on killer couples is the story of Judith and Alvin Neelley who killed several women in the 1980s.

Judith and Alvin Neelley/Courtesy: Rome News-Tribune

Judith Ann Adams was born in 1964, and grew up in Murfreesboro, Tn. She had a seemingly ordinary upbringing in a middle class family. As a child, she appeared to be well adjusted. She was a cheerleader in the 8th grade and active in the 4-H club. She reportedly wanted to become a nurse when she was older.

However, when she was 9 years old, her father died while riding his motorcycle drunk. This set off a chain of events that rocked the family and changed their financial future.

Judith's mother Barbara reportedly tried to make ends meet but after several years the family was living in a doublewide trailer and she began to recruit sexual partners through a CB radio.

Barbara was part Cherokee Indian and chose the radio handle, 'Indian Princess.' A stream of men began coming by the trailer for sexual liaisons that would allegedly happen with only a thin bed sheet as barrier between her and her daughter.

Judith Ann Neely/Courtesy: Rome News-Tribune

Roughly five years after her father’s death, when Judith was 14, her mother was arrested after a scandalous car crash. Barbara had allegedly been drinking with the sheriff's 15-year-old son and had let him drive.

Judith reportedly paid a price for her mother's poor choices and was made fun of by other children in school. Shortly afterward, Judith turned 15 and she met Alvin, who had accompanied one of his friends to the trailer for a romp with the 'Indian Princess.'

Alvin and Judith talked outside the trailer until the early hours of the morning. Besides their age difference- he was nearly double her age at 26- and that fact that he was married with three children, the pair soon became a couple.

By this point in time, Alvin had already led a life of crime, which started at a young age. He had been arrested for grand theft at 17 years old and was tried as an adult, which made him a convicted felon. As we find out, this was only the beginning of his illegal endeavors.

Judith and Alvin eventually ran away to elope. They wound up in Kennesaw, Ga., northwest of Atlanta, where Alvin got a job working at a small market. They quickly learned he could make an extra buck by swiping cash from the register. This was one of the first-known crimes the couple would complete, but it would be far from the last.

Together they would move from town to town, gain employment at a market or convenience store, rob the register and then leave the area. They moved between several cities in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas and Florida. They would stay in cheap hotels and genuinely seemed to love their time on the run together. A modern-day Bonnie and Clyde.

Alvin had obtained a divorce by this point, and he and Judith had been legally married. By the time they made their way back to Georgia, Judith was 8 months pregnant with twins.

Over time, their crimes began to escalate. It was an October day in 1980 when Judith ended up at the Riverbend Mall in Rome, Ga., where she robbed a woman at gunpoint and stole her purse. Judith and Alvin began writing themselves checks out of the woman's checkbook. The effort only earned them about $10 bucks before they were caught and arrested.

Alvin was sentenced to 10 years for robbery, but Judith, who was still a minor at 16, was sentenced to five years in the Rome Youth Development Center, or YDC. Two days after arriving at the detention center she gave birth to the twins.

Judith and Alvin would spend their time in lockup writing each other letters by using secret names they had given each other. Alvin was known as Nightrider. Judith was Lady Sundown.

Both of them were released and reunited by late 1982. Pretty quickly they were back to their life of crime- this time stealing tax return checks out of mailboxes. They also became focused on revenge.

Judith had allegedly been mistreated and told Alvin that she was raped by staff at the YDC. This was something that was later debated at trial.

None-the-less, this is where this killer couple's reign of terror really starts to escalate. They began calling the homes of YDC staff members and eventually shoot up one and fire bomb the other.

Shortly afterward on September 25, 1982, a 13-year-old girl named Lisa Millican disappeared from the Riverbend Mall. Her body would later be found at the bottom of an Alabama cliff. She had been injected with liquid Drano and shot in the back with a .38 caliber pistol. A mysterious series of phone calls led to her discovery.

Sadly, Lisa had also been the victim of a traumatic childhood. She had only recently been placed in a local orphanage-like facility. Her father had been a violent alcoholic and had sexually abused her. Her mother reportedly did nothing to stop it. A neighbor who she confided in eventually helped her escape the nightmare.

Lisa Ann Millican/Courtesy: Rome News-Tribune

Recovery efforts at the Alabama canyon where Lisa Millican's body was found/Courtesy: Rome News-Tribune

Judith and Alvin continued to bounce between motels. They never stayed in one place too long. They filled their days with their favorite past-time- joy riding in their own respective vehicles and talking to each other via CB radios. Judith drove a brown Dodge Demon. Alvin a red Ford Granada. The twins were often in tow. Nightrider and Lady Sundown would also sometimes use the handles "Boney" and "Claude."

Their joy rides started with terrorizing the YDC employees, but soon they changed course to a focus on finding young women. Several failed attempts would later help to lead to their capture.

Unfortunately, that wasn't before they came into contact with 26-year-old John Hancock and his common-law wife, 22-year-old Janice Kay Chatman.

Janice Kay Chatman/Courtesy: Rome News-Tribune

Listen to the Judith and Alvin Neelley case on the 'Two Sleuths Podcast' to learn how the killer couple found their victims, hunting them down like prey, and how they were caught and punished for their crimes- plus where they are now.

We also hope you'll join us for future installments of our 'Folie a deux' series, which is a French term that translates into "the folly of two," or "the shared madness of two people."

Sources:

Folie à deux: Judith and Alvin Neelley

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