jimmy keen grew up 135 miles away from kankakee, illinois. he didn t know larry hall, and he had no idea that their worlds would someday collide. third down and five at the 25 yard line. for jimmy keen, life couldn t have been more different. while hall was an awkward outsider, jimmy keen was a star. especially under the lights on friday nights. we would come out here, the lights would be on. the whole stadium would just be completely full and the crowd would be roaring and it was just a very euphoric, unbelievable high. the friday night games were the biggest rush i ve ever had in my life.
doubt. they had posters of me all over town. i mean, everybody knew who i was with my sports ability. so, yeah, i was the most popular guy around. there s no question. i was voted most popular guy in school. jimmy seemed to have everything. except enough money to keep up with the rich kids at school and he only saw one way to get it. he started selling drugs and quickly learned he was good at it. you re making decent money, you don t think is this a wrong thing that you re doing? so i kept growing into it and growing into it and by the time i was 20 years old, i mean, i was sitting on top of an empire. by keene s own account, he bulzing in around $1 million a year. he was addicted. not to the drugs, but the money. it s hard to walk away from that kind of money, especially a 20-year-old. so he didn t. and that single decision would
he said, jimmy, we need you to help us with this case. beaumont wanted keene to go undercover to transfer from his low-security lockup to a dangerous prison. and to befriend alleged serial killer larry hall. he says, if you can get solid confessions from him and help us locate the bodies that are still missing, we re willing to completely wash your record. keene s mission? to learn where tricia reitler was buried. purpose of this operation was to find that body. beaumont made it clear, no body, no early release. keene would have to serve the rest of his ten-year sentence. but beaumont believed keene could do it. he s smart. he s articulate. he s not afraid. and i knew he wanted to get out. for keene it was a chance for redemption, to restore his family name, and says this
alleged victims of larry hall. for years there was no progress and no relief for people like donna and gary reitler. as a parent there s the part that you ve let her down and that you want to find her and you want to bring her home and you can t. i mean, we ve done pretty much everything physically that we can to find her. and there s somebody out there that holds that one answer for us. beaumont too felt that he d done all he could and that the pursuit of larry hall was over. there was going to be no further prosecution from the federal perspective. he s already serving life in prison. he was done. once again, larry hall had slipped off the radar, and it easily could have remained that way. except for jimmy keen. first keene s story of strange redemption was featured in a playboy article and then a book written by keen and hillel levin.
by the early 90s, jimmy keen was on top of the world. his booming business afforded him a lavish lifestyle with large homes, souped up corvettes. and an endless supply of women. i would have 30 or 40-k parties with volleyball nets, live bands. we d have literally 1,000 people or more sometimes. i mean, these were gigantic, huge parties. you were the guy women wanted to be with and guys waned to be best friends with. something like that. back then, he owned this 6,000 square foot home. right behind that is a golf course. he says he didn t stash the drugs here. this is a walk-in closet. but there was always a place to hide his fortunes.