The Unsettling True Story Behind ‘Black Bird’s Serial Killer (2025)

Amongst Apple TV+’s latest streak of hit drama TV series is the understated but incredible true story of James "Jimmy" Keene (Taron Egerton) and serial killer Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser), Black Bird. Owing to its brilliant casting, Mindhunter-like cinematography, and faithful adaptation of James Keene’s own 2010 memoir (In with the Devil: A Fallen Hero, A Serial Killer and A Dagerous BArgain for Redemption), the series has received much critical acclaim, with many publications agreeing that the show is a fitting farewell to Goodfellas star Ray Liotta, in one of his last ever roles. Egerton’s performance as Keene himself is a brilliant focal point as well, where the actor plays the charming but arrogant, drug-dealing son of long-serving police officer, Big Jim Keene, (Liotta) with much vulnerability and pain underneath an apparent unflappable exterior.

Because of the show’s remarkable twists and turns, many viewers may be surprised to learn that even the strangest of plot lines in the series are, in fact, based on reality. In his memoir, Keene describes his own journey as the son of a former cop, who went from high school football star to big-time drug dealer to avoid succumbing to poverty. As shown in Black Bird, Keene is sentenced to 10 years in prison, so he accepts an offer from the FBI to go undercover as an inmate in one of the US’s toughest maximum security prisons for the criminally insane, to help solve the case of a serial killer who was in incarceration at the time.

Black Bird

TV-MA

Biography

Crime

Drama

As Jimmy Keene begins a 10-year prison sentence, he gets an incredible offer: if he can elicit a confession from suspected killer Larry Hall, he will be freed; completing this mission becomes the challenge of a lifetime.

Release Date

July 8, 2022

Cast

Taron Egerton , Paul Walter Hauser , Greg Kinnear , Ray Liotta

Seasons

1

Larry Hall Was Suspected in the Disappearances of Several Women

In reality, the serial killer in question, Larry Hall, was indeed sent to USMFCP Springfield for kidnapping a 15-year-old girl who was reported missing in 1993, Jessica Roach. Played with a brilliant but unsettling eeriness by Hauser, the real Larry Hall was born in Wabash, Indiana, along with his twin brother Gary (depicted by Jake McLaughlin in the miniseries). According to a research paper by the psychology department at Radford University, despite being an identical twin, Larry had a much lower IQ, was highly antisocial and had a speech impediment. Subsequently, he was often bullied by his peers at school.

The document also outlined his unusual childhood job of grave-digging alongside his brother and father, who worked at a cemetery, which is also included in Black Bird's exploration of the serial killer's early years. Something that the show didn't quite touch upon is that Hall was suspected of several crimes in his hometown of Wabash during his teenage years. The same Radford University document mentions that these included acts of arson and vandalism, as well as much more serious crimes involving the abduction of two young girls in Michigan and Indiana. However, with the bodies of these victims never found, the police could never stick anything on Hall.

As depicted in the series, and backed up by claims from Keene’s own memoir, Hall became fascinated with Civil War and Revolutionary War reenactments in his later years, leading him to grow out his signature “burnsides,” or sideburns, to help him look more authentic as a general, as well as adding to his overall unnerving appearance. From the late '80s to the early '90s, Hall traveled across the Midwest to participate in these reenactments, and it is during this time that he is suspected to have been responsible for the disappearances and possible murders of around 40 young women.

Yet as noted in several true-crime documentaries, many notorious serial killers, like Ted Bundy, were able to operate for so long undetected simply because they committed murders across several jurisdictions. With very little communication between jurisdictions during this time period, Hall would have been likely to get away with these alleged murders if he did commit them. It was only when the remains of Jessica Roach were discovered in 1993 that the local police had a concrete and viable way to approach the suspected Hall.

How Was Larry Hall Finally Sent to Prison?

Larry Hall was finally arrested after two girls wrote down his license plate number after he chased them down, leading the police to him. CNN spoke to one of the officers about the arrest, who described Hall's reaction when he first saw a picture of Jessica Roach: "He immediately flinched. He turned to his right and put his hand up over his face like he didn't want to see the picture." Eventually he confessed to abducting and raping Jessica Roach. Hall was finally convicted of abduction in 1995, cemented by the smoking gun of his confession which contained details not disclosed to the public, as reported in the Indianapolis News (August 1995). He tried to recant the confession, telling the judge, "I'd just like to say to you, Judge Baker, and the God in heaven that I did not commit this crime," yet was convicted without parole anyway, primarily due to the meticulous details in his confession.

Something else that the series manages to capture in a particularly poignant way is Jessica Roach’s life before becoming just another of Hall’s victims. While we may tend to focus on the psychology and mind of the killer himself, it is important to remember victims like Jessica Roach as full and complete people who had their whole lives ahead of them, which Black Bird expresses in a poetic, dream-like sequence that effectively reinforces the sheer brutality of Hall’s crimes. Paired with the aforementioned CNN investigation, as they spoke to parents of other missing women, we are given a glimpse into the harrowing experience for the families of the victims too. This especially comes from a haunting comment by Gary Reitler, father of missing Tricia Reitler: "How sad to be envious of another family just because they found the body of their child."

Keene Went Undercover To Gain Hall’s Trust in Prison

The real Larry Hall was also as frustrating to encounter for law enforcement as the show portrays, with recants of confessions and fake stories quickly becoming a well-known trend for the notorious killer. So the court was unable to pin him down for the murder of Jessica Roach and instead settled for abduction. However, with Keene on-board as an undercover agent for the FBI — a deal which did in reality take place as outlined in the series — he successfully gained Hall’s trust and was able to ascertain that he did, without a doubt murder Jessica Roach, despite appealing his sentence many times.

In his memoir, Keene describes the arduous process of breaking down the ice with Hall: “I was right across the table from him for at least 15 minutes,” Keene remembers, “and he never said a word; never so much as made eye contact. When he was done, all he said was, ‘I’ll see you later, James,’ and just walked out. The same thing happened the next day and then the next.” It was a long and tedious process, yet an important one, as it was the only way for the FBI to determine if Hall was indeed responsible for all the murders they suspected him of.

According to his memoir, Keene was additionally tasked with finding out about the murder of another missing young woman, Tricia Reitler. Keene describes how he was able to get Hall to admit to burying Reitler’s body “way out in the country.” In the series, we see how Hall eerily describes how Reitler’s grave was the “best grave” he ever dug. In his speech about burying Tricia Reitler, Hauser adds new levels of horror to this strange aspect of Hall’s personal history, but Keene admits, in his book, that he was not able to extract a precise location from his target — ultimately leaving this assignment incomplete.

How Real Is the Map Depicted in 'Black Bird'?

Interestingly, it is reported that Keene did, in real life, find Hall with a map identifying several locations that are thought to have represented additional bodies, a scene of prominence in the series too, played with the perfect amount of concealed terror by Egerton in particular. The miniseries takes a dash of creative liberty here, as the fictional Hall voluntarily shares the map with Keene and boasts about his crimes in great detail. Keene responds by pleading with Hall to confess his crimes to give the victims' families some closure, which is met with resistance, and eventually, the friendship breaks apart.

In his memoir, Keene describes how he found Hall working on a black-and-white photocopy of the map of Illinois and Indiana, with several red dots scattered inside the borders, and 10 or 12 falcons etched across the top. When asked what the falcons were for, Hall ominously replied, “They watch over the dead.” Keene suspected he was onto something big, and thus thought it was his golden ticket for the FBI to end his stay in prison. In the same CNN investigation, Keene says he chose to break his cover at this point as he thought this was all the FBI needed, calling Hall a "sicko." But this confrontation led to him being thrown into solitary confinement before he could alert the FBI. After his release from solitary, the map was gone.

What Happened After the Events of 'Black Bird?'

In real life, in the years after his encounter with Keene, Hall did eventually confess to several other murders —including Tricia Reitler — but then, unsurprisingly, he recanted all these, too. Despite the mysteries behind who and how many people Hall killed, the FBI estimate that it could have been up to 40 young women. Even as recent as 2017, cold murder cases have been reopened with Hall as one of the leading suspects, as police officer hope they can at least provide closure to some families. Today, alleged serial killer Larry Hall continues to be imprisoned at a facility in North Carolina, where he is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole.

On the other hand, as the show correctly depicts, Keene was released from prison after serving a sentence of around 17 months in total, out of the originally sentenced 120 months. This allowed him to have 5 more years with his father, Big Jim, before his death in 2004. Afterward, Keene would go on to chronicle his troubling experience with Hall in his memoir, which eventually gave us the dark and disturbing miniseries that even Hauser had a hard time dealing with as he told IndieWire. Inhabiting such an evil person took a toll on him even when he left the set, but the series did compel him to get sober. From cast members, to victims, to families, to cellmates, Larry Hall had a profound impact on more people than we could imagine.

Black Bird is available to stream on Apple TV+ in the U.S.

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