The true crime miniseries Black Bird focuses on James "Jimmy" Keene's undercover work to elicit a confession from suspected serial killer Larry Hall. The series is based on Keene's 2010 memoir With the Devil and recounts his real-life experience with Hall, who is alleged to be responsible for over 40 murders.

So, who is Larry Hall?

Unlike other serial killers like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, definitive details about Hall's life and crimes have not been widely disclosed; however, Hall may be one of the most prolific serial killers in American history.

Wikimedia CommonsLarry Hall’s 1994 arrest photo.

Despite admitting to killing dozens of women and girls during the 1980s and 90s, Hall quickly recanted his confession. In 1993, he was sentenced to life in prison for the abduction of a 15-year-old girl, but no charges were ever filed regarding her murder or the murders of other potential victims.

Still, the publicly disclosed details of Larry Hall's life paint a portrait of an extremely disturbing man capable of committing some of the most horrific acts. Here is his story.

Larry Hall's Troubled Childhood

Larry Dewayne Hall and his twin brother Gary were born on December 11, 1962, in Wabash, Indiana. The two boys were monochorionic twins, meaning they shared one placenta. Unfortunately, Larry's brother received most of the nutrients and oxygen in the womb, so newborn Larry was taken to the neonatal intensive care unit immediately after birth.

Due to medical issues surrounding his birth and development, Larry Hall experienced cognitive delays. His peers teased him for his speech impediment and for still wetting the bed in his later childhood years.

Additionally, Gary Hall recalled in a 2011 interview with CNN that Larry was strange growing up and exhibited destructive behaviors.

“He was the quiet twin. I was the more dominant, outgoing twin,” Gary said. He noted that he tried to have a positive influence on his brother but that it did not work. According to Gary, Larry was "demonic" and had tried to kill him on multiple occasions.

Once, Gary recalled, “I just woke up from a deep sleep and saw my brother standing over me with a huge stick.”

Larry Hall's first encounter with the law came when he was 15, after he and Gary were caught breaking the windows of a shop. One of the police officers who questioned them afterward recalled, “It took us a long time to figure out the Hall brothers. They were just kids, but they were tougher than hardened criminals.”

This would not be the last time Larry Hall surprised investigators.

Larry Hall's Alleged Murder Spree

After high school, Larry Hall began traveling around the Midwest to participate in Civil War reenactments. Strangely, girls and young women were reported missing in every town Hall visited.

It is unclear who Hall's first victim was, but 19-year-old Naomi Kidder went missing in Wyoming in June 1982. When police arrested Hall for other crimes 12 years later, they found a document among his belongings with Kidder's name on it.

However, the situation that put Larry Hall on investigators' radar was the disappearance of 15-year-old Jessica Roach from Georgetown, Illinois, in September 1993. She had last been seen riding her bike near her home. Two months later, her body was found in a cornfield in Indiana.

Witnesses reported seeing a strange van passing through the cornfield where Roach's body was found — and police traced the license plate back to Hall.

Moreover, another young girl, Tricia Lynn Reitler, had gone missing in Indiana six months before Roach, and the cases of the two girls bore eerie similarities.

Tricia Reitler's FamilyTricia Reitler, around 1993. To this day, her family is unsure of what happened to her.

On March 29, 1993, 19-year-old Reitler decided to take a break while writing a term paper. She left her dorm room to go to a store just half a mile away to get a soda and a magazine.

She never returned to her room.

Instead, police believe that Reitler was abducted while walking. Her family believes she was killed that night, but her body was never found. Hall was reported to have been seen watching women outside the store where Reitler was shopping.

Now that investigators had evidence linking Larry Hall to at least one missing persons case, they brought him in for questioning — and were shocked by what they heard.

Disturbing Confessions

Investigators had never heard Hall's name before linking his vehicle to Jessica Roach's disappearance. But when they questioned him, it was immediately clear that he knew something.

Gary Miller, the lead detective from the Vermilion County Sheriff's Office in Illinois, brought Hall in for questioning and showed him a photo of Jessica.

“He immediately flinched. He turned to the right and put his hand over his face as if he didn't want to see it. And he told me he had never seen that girl,” Miller recalled to CNN.

It didn't take long for Hall to confess. He admitted to raping Jessica and strangling her to death in the woods. “I laid her down by a tree and put a belt around her neck, and she stopped breathing,” Hall said.

FacebookJessica Roach, the young girl Hall confessed to abducting and killing.

Hall also admitted to harming other girls, including Reitler; he identified her by pointing to her photo.

“All the girls looked alike,” Hall said. “I can't remember all of them. I took a few girls from other places, but I don't remember which ones I hurt.”

However, the next day, Larry Hall took everything back. He reportedly told Miller, “I was just talking about my dreams. That really didn't happen.”

Unfortunately, Hall continued to confess when questioned and immediately recanted. Investigators struggled to get a confession from Hall that he would not take back. They decided that someone needed to be inside to get a real confession. They found Jimmy Keene.

Jimmy Keene's Attempt to Bring Down Larry Hall

In 1995, Larry Hall was found guilty of abducting Jessica Roach and sentenced to life in prison, but many questions remained unanswered. How many girls did Larry Hall really kill? Was he truly the one responsible for Tricia Reitler's disappearance? If so, where was her body?

Meanwhile, a man named Jimmy Keene was serving a 10-year sentence for drug offenses. Both Hall and Keene had been tried by Lawrence Beaumont, who was determined to uncover the true extent of Hall's crimes. In the 10th month of Keene's sentence, Beaumont offered him a deal: if he worked undercover as an FBI agent and got a confession from Larry Hall, he would be released and have his record cleared.

Naturally, Keene agreed and was transferred to the Missouri prison where Hall was incarcerated. There, Keene befriended Hall and tried to gain his trust.

At one point, Keene observed Hall in the prison woodshop, carving hawks and looking at a map he had marked. According to Newsweek, Keene noted that Hall said the hawks were "waiting over the dead," leading Keene to believe the marked locations were where Hall had killed his suspected victims.

Apple/XActor Taron Egerton portraying Jimmy Keene in Black Bird, with the real Jimmy Keene on set.

Keene thought he had cracked the case. He left a message for the FBI about the map. Thinking he would be released from prison soon, Keene confronted Hall angrily about the alleged murders — and found himself sent to solitary confinement.

Unfortunately, the FBI never received his message. He remained in solitary confinement for weeks, and when he was finally released, Hall had discarded the map and the hawks. Keene was released, but Hall's alleged crimes went unpunished once again.

As a result, no one is exactly sure how many murders Larry Hall is truly responsible for — except for Hall himself.