one of the very first suspects that police also looked at was a drifter put up at the hotel france, downtown four blocks from the crime scene, according to the radio dispatch logs he was the very first suspect after they discovered the bodies. around 9:00 a.m. in the morning, jack ekkerly of the illinois state police goes to the hotel france, and by that time he had already checked out and was long gone. clutter believed that drifter was none other than tommy lynn sells, one of the most notorious serial killers in the country. i like to use a knife. a gun is too violence, too too noisy. i like to watch the eyes fade, the pupils fade. it s just like setting their soul free. i get this letter from tommy lynn sells after i interview him. in the letter, he makes this
that night, rory steidel met with investigators. they said if you will get him to confess, we ll spare him the death penalty. otherwise, he s getting the death penalty. i marched right up to the jail, asked to talk to randy. i m pacing back and forth and he came up to me and said i ve talked to the prosecutor and jack ekkerly i said if they come up with hair, fiber, any type of trace evidence, they re going to get you and you re going to get the death penalty. so if you did it, you need to let me know now. he slammed that stool down and screamed at me, they don t arrest people that aren t guilty. you know, these my little brother telling me that. why don t you confess and cooperate and they won t seek the death penalty? i was thinking, my god, we re talking about your life.