In with the Devil: A Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption

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Jimmy nonchalantly grabbed it with his cuffed hands and lifted up the flap, putting on his best poker face to mask his reaction to whatever he saw inside. Still, nothing could have prepared him for the first glossy photograph he pulled from the folder. This was not a picture of a drug dealer or local big shot. Instead, he saw the battered naked body of a young woman, sprawled between rows of standing corn. Her skin was torn and discolored. As best he could with the cuffs, Jim turned over photo after photo of the grisly scene, first thinking, “Are they trying to pin this on me, too?” In his book, Keene explained that taking part in the operation allowed him to spend five years with his father, who passed away in 2004. Jimmy was still confused. Why did the prosecutor want him to go undercover? “Why don’t you take some FBI guy and send him in?” he asked. Was the prosecutor concerned that Larry Hall's conviction might be overturned without more evidence?

I did a good deed, and I did a lot of good things," he said in the TV interview. "That's where I feel the redemption comes in. I've done something good for the things that I did wrong."

Did Jimmy Keene really try to befriend Larry Hall?

In researching the true story, we discovered that federal prosecutor Lawrence Beaumont believed that suspected mass murderer Larry DeWayne Hall was responsible for more than 20 killings. Of Larry Hall's victims, only one body has been discovered, that of Jessica Roach. -In with the Devil Briefly, the book follows James Keene in the 1990s as he gets arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison. Keene’s novel follows the events that took place in the prison, notoriously known for keeping the worst of the worst. That evening, Larry calls out to Jimmy to say goodnight. But he is met with no response: Jimmy is sobbing into a tightly clenched fist, unable to speak. At night, he has a grotqesque nightmare in which his past sexual exploits become the murdered corpses of Larry’s victims, his own hands tightening around their throats as his face become's Larry’s. Hall was arrested for Roach's murder in 1995 as enough evidence was garnered to convict him. He was given a life sentence. Jimmy Keene grew up outside of Chicago. Although he was the son of a policeman and rubbed shoulders with the city's elite, he ended up on the wrong side of the law and was sentenced to ten years with no chance of parole.

Ironically enough, I wanted to be a police officer, but my Dad was totally against it, so heeding that his advice left me only more confused as a young man. Perhaps I should have taken an out of state football wrestling scholarship, and seen where that would have taken me, but the reality of moving out of state and away from my thriving marijuana business, my only real means of financial survival kept me in Chicago and still on a wayward path. Although Beaumont and the FBI were convinced that Hall was a serial killer, he had been convicted for killing just one victim, Jessica Roach, the girl in the cornfield, and it took two trials to do it. The guilty verdict from the first was overturned on appeal, and now an appeal was pending on the second conviction. A basis for both appeals was that Hall’s confession had been coerced by wily investigators. If the government lost the second appeal, Beaumont would have to try Hall yet again and he might go free. But I think, when you do realise how deeply organic it is, that there's something driving these people, that gets to the point where they really cannot control themselves.”

Keene – who now works as a consultant helping authorities profile serial offenders – was released from Springfield in 1999. But he was deeply affected by his time in Springfield, surrounded by the worst or most insane offenders in America, men with “no soul left” and no hope of release, unpredictable and violent. In a letter to his sister, Keene wrote: “The inhuman screams of the patients around me sounded like something straight out of Dante’s Inferno.” I do plan to keep writing new books. My first next book will be “American Sparkle”, and I’m in talks with publishers about a 5 book deal. Either way, I will be writing more books. I hope my books and my redemption serve as a reminder that as long as you keep your head held high and stay positive and forge forward and stay focused that anything can be accomplished even in extreme adversity. James Keene is an American author, writer, executive producer, and businessman. His first book is In With the Devil: A Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption.

When Levin spoke on the phone with Hall to corroborate Keen’s story, he found him to be somewhat defiant. “It’s not like he said, ‘I’m innocent. I never did any of this. They totally set me up.’ Instead, it was, ‘the prosecutor really hated me. Really. I didn’t like him either.’”During a 2012 appearance on NBC’s Dateline, Keene told host Lester Holt that he’s especially proud that his book and expertise have led to the reopening of more cold case investigations, several of which involve Hall. The NBC broadcast also noted that Keene is involved in the real estate industry, and he even had conversations with Brad Pitt about adapting his story at one time. “I did a good deed, and I did a lot of good things,” Keene, who now splits his time between Chicago and Los Angeles, added on Dateline. “And that's where I feel the redemption comes in. I’ve done something good for the things that I did wrong.”

In 2010 Keene appeared on an episode of Chicago Tonight. In 2010, Keene appeared on an episode of Discovery ID: " On the Case With Paula Zahn", a documentary about Keene's life. In 2012, Keene appeared on an episode of Dateline titled "The Inside Man" a documentary about Keene's life that detailed his work as an FBI operative. [16] That same year, CNN produced To Catch a Serial Killer, a special award-winning documentary about Keene’s life and undercover FBI work. [17] Keene has since become an author and has spoken about his experience with media outlets including Dateline. He also works in real estate.

Who was the real Larry Hall?

The worst was yet to come. His mother sobbed hysterically somewhere behind him, but when the marshals grabbed his arms to lead him out of the court, he first scanned the spectators to find his father—his idol and his best friend. A tall, brawny man with a mustache and full head of dark hair, Big Jim looked a decade younger than his sixty years. But now, upon hearing the sentence, he, too, was stunned, his face pale and eyes unfocused. “Like he was lost,” Jimmy says. Unfortunately for him, Ford County jail was somewhat centrally located on his road to ruin. An hour up the highway in one direction was his hometown of Kankakee, where he was busted for conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Down the highway from Ford County in the other direction was the U.S. courthouse in Urbana, where he took a plea on the drug charge and was sentenced to ten years. Then he was held at the jail a few days longer until he was transferred to the custody of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. He did not relish returning to Ford County yet again in 1998, even though he would be closer to family and friends, and he certainly didn’t look forward to seeing Lawrence Beaumont, the assistant U.S. attorney who had summoned him from his federal prison in Michigan.