The House of Horrors: Billy Mansfield's Family of Predators

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A six acre property in rural Florida heavily wooded filled with junk, a mobile home in

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the middle of it.

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The neighbors drive by, they see something wrong, but they don't say anything.

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They just look the other way and drive faster.

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What would you do if you lived next to that?

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Would you call the police?

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Would you be scared?

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Keep that in mind, because what we're talking about today sits right there on that property

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with a family that nobody wanted to talk to.

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[Music]

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Okay, let me tell you about the real Florida where you drive in there's cows and woods,

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and nothing for 20 miles.

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In the 1970s, Wiki Watchi acres in Spring Hill had about 76 people, and that's in 1970,

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dropped to 8 by 1980.

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People lived on six acre plots with mobile homes and junk yards, and they didn't really

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talk to each other.

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On one plot, there was a family that nobody ever invited over.

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The dad was William Mansfield's senior, with history stretching back to the 1940s.

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In Michigan, he was charged with attempted rape of a 13-year-old girl, and the jury didn't

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believe her, so they let him go.

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A year later, he was convicted of armed robbery and sent to prison.

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He got out, but then he was back in Reno, Nevada, violating parole on new rape charges, and

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he went back in.

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This man moves his family to Florida in 1974 with his wife Virginia and his six sons.

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The oldest is William, Jr., 19, born in 1955 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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The property there is heavily wooded with junk and debris and a mobile home right there in

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the middle.

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They run an air conditioning repair business together, so they're always on the property,

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always cloistered together.

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Neighbors would later tell you that William's senior encouraged his sons to fight each other,

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chasing one boy down the street with a two by four screaming he was going to kill him.

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Billy grows up where violence is normal, and it's just the texture of his home.

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Where in your home you might be used to eating Sunday dinners with a family, Billy was used

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to maybe getting punched in the face for eating the last bowl of Cheerios.

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Billy drops out at 14, forges his birth certificate, and enlists in the army to escape the compound,

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but he develops alcohol addiction and drug dependency, getting sent to Veterans Administration

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Hospital in Tampa for treatment in 1978, and then again in 1980.

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The military and VA sent him back without fixing what's underneath, which is the pattern

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with his family.

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And I mean you can't expect the army to fix his family.

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But before the murders, there is a pattern.

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At 18, Billy gets arrested in Michigan and charged with kidnapping two women and forcing

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sexual acts.

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But the jury doesn't convict because they can't believe one man could force two women.

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In 1977, at 22, he pleads guilty to sexual misconduct against a babysitter in Grand Rapids

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and gets six months in jail and three months probation.

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But within a year, he assaults two teenage girls at knife point, and it goes back to prison.

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In there, he shares a cell with Albert Lee III, who tells him he murdered an 11 year old

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girl named Linda Vanderving.

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So Billy testifies against Lee for a reduced sentence, and he gets out after only one year.

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Back in Wiki Watch, in early 1980, which makes you realize the system was not set up to protect

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people.

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In 1975, Billy marries Phyllis Speelmaker, and they have two kids together.

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She says he's easy going when he's sober, but violent when he's drunk.

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Also she says that he's a closeted bisexual.

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He brings men home from gay bars and has sex with them in front of her.

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On one occasion, he discusses a murder with her.

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And they divorce in 1979, so she takes the kids back to Grand Rapids because she knows

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what he was and she got out.

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New Year's Eve, 1975, and 15 year old Elaine Zeagler from Parkman, Ohio is on vacation with

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her mother and her stepfather at a co-acampground near Brooksville, Florida.

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On December 31, she goes to the camp showers and is never seen again.

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Search parties form immediately.

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People say they saw a girl matching her description riding on a motorbike, claiming that she's

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heading back to Ohio.

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While others saw Elaine talking to a man in his 20s near the shower and then getting into

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his car, a light blue Ford with Florida plates.

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Her family stays in additional week to search, but they eventually go back to Ohio without

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her.

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Elaine gets classified as a runaway, a 15 year old girl vanishes from a campground at night,

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which was everywhere in the 1970s when young women disappear and police think that they chose

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to leave.

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This was happening pretty often.

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They're giving perpetrators time to escape and six years pass without anyone finding

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her.

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March 1980, an 18 year old named Carol Ann Barrett from Zanesville, Ohio is on spring break

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with seven friends at the Treasure Island Motel and Daytona Beach Shores.

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A March 23rd at 2am, a lone gunman bursts into room 12, forcing everyone at gunpoint to

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undress and robs them, then saying he'll kill anyone who calls the police.

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When he grabs one of Carol's friends as a hostage, Carol offers herself instead because

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she's trying to calm him down and also trying to save her friend.

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He drives her over 90 miles to Jacksonville and her body's found next day in a ditch along

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interstate 95 near Pecan Park Road.

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A marked execution style with no signs of a struggle.

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For 40 years, the only evidence is a police sketch from her friend's memories and the case

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goes cold.

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April 26th, 1980, and 21-year-old Sandra Graham from Tampa is a divorcee working at a Hillsboro

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Community College.

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She's last seen at Pam's liquor lounge on April 27th leaving with a biker.

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She leaves behind her cigarettes, her car keys, and her eyeglasses.

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Her body gets identified one year later from beneath the man's filled property and the

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cause of death is strangulation.

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May 16th, 1980, and 17-year-old Teresa Phillingerim from Tampa disappears one week before her birthday

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when her sister reports her missing and she doesn't show up for a job interview.

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And she'd remain a Jane Doe for 42 years.

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June 19th, 1980, an 18-year-old Pamela Cheryl is forced into Billy's van.

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She's driven to a rented trailer, beaten, bruised in an attempted rape, and she does escape.

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She reports it immediately.

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The police go to arrest him, but he's already gone.

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He's fled to California.

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So if police had found him in time, the California murders might have never happened.

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December 6th and December 7th, 1980.

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Billy and Gary live at a co-acampground in Watsonville, California, working at a mushroom farm.

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Billy meets Renee Sailing, 29, a mother of three, at a tavern, and witnesses see them leave

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together.

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The next morning, her half-naked bodies found in a drainage ditch where her clothes are torn,

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and a nylon rope is tied so tightly around her neck it's embedded in her skin.

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Four days later, a rookie police officer in Nevada pulls over a van with two men giving

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false names, and he arrests them both because their descriptions match a bulletin on two

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men wanted for Sailing's murder.

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At their arraignment in Watsonville, both brothers appear with bags over their heads, and the

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press starts calling them "the bag brothers."

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Mid-March 1981, the Hernando County Sheriff's Office gets anonymous tips that bodies are buried

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on the man's filled property, and armed with a warrant they descend on March 16th.

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Within 24 hours, they find a skeletonized young woman wrapped in a blanket behind the house.

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With wire wrapped around her neck and wrist, she's never identified.

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Next later, beneath the water pipes under the house, they find Elaine Ziegler's remains,

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confirmed by dental records.

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The search continues, and eventually three more sets are unearthed.

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Elaine at 15, Sandra at 21, and Teresa at 16 years old.

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Plus the Jando estimated to be about 22 to 30 at death, and still unidentified to this day.

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Billy's first California trial for Renee Sailing's murder moves to San Rafael, and the only

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physical evidence is a fiber from his pants was found on her body.

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So the jury deadlocks.

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Before retrial, he escapes on October 27th, 1981, aided by fellow inmate Ben Berrigan, when

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he unchains himself, climbs to a rooftop, and they jump and run.

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After 11 hours on the run, Billy is found hiding in the bushes at Paradise Park, still wearing

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his prison uniform.

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In the second California trial, Gary testifies against his brother, and Billy is convicted

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of first degree murder, sentenced to 25 years to life.

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Facing four Florida murder charges and possible death penalty, Billy changes his plead to

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guilty for all four and receives four concurrent life sentences in Florida.

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Critically, when pleading guilty to those Florida murders, Mansfield did not name the two unidentified

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victims, so that silence defines the ongoing investigation for over four decades now.

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Fast forward to October 27th, 2020, Gary Mansfield is still living on the family property.

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He gets arrested for selling meth to an undercover officer, and deputies also find LSD and Fettinal.

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As he's being placed in the patrol car, he yells out, claiming there are bodies all over

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the property.

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The police get another search warrant, they find additional human remains, and Billy

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Mansfield III, Billy Jr's son, tells the media that he believes there are many more victims.

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June 22nd, 2026, the FBI, Hernando County Sheriff's Office, and State prosecutors are actively

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excavating dry creek ranch in Sunshine Grove near Brooksville, and cadaver dogs alerted

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investigators.

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The sheriff confirms conversations with Mansfield indicate possible additional remains

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in Hernando, Pasco, and Pinellas counties.

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Billy is in his late 60s now.

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He's in Stockton, California, and he's outlived two of his trial judges, but the case remains

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open.

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The fourth Jane Doe is still waiting, and the DNA is in the system with the genealogist

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working.

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So somewhere, a family might still be looking for someone they loved, who never came home.

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That's the part of this story that keeps going, even 46 years later.

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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, Bingeable True Crime Stories.

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Hello.

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I'm Joe, I'm the host, and here's an email that I can't read, hold on, me, and scroll.

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Subjects.

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This made me laugh.

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Hey, Joe.

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I'm a co-worker about your podcast the other day, and halfway through explaining a case,

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I realized I sounded way too enthusiastic about murder.

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I had to stop and clarify that I just appreciate good storytelling.

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Anyway, he ended up subscribing, so I guess it worked.

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Lisa in Peoria, Illinois.

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Lisa, first of all, thank you for risking being a creepy creeper and sharing the podcast

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with your co-worker there.

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But also, I can't remember, I don't live there, obviously, that's going to be evident by

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the thing I say next, but it's Illinois, right?

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There's an S at the end.

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I always forget.

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I don't know why I forget.

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It's Illinois.

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You don't say the S. I hope that's right, and I feel really stupid right now, and I apologize.

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And it's along the same lines as the people when I say Nevada, and it's, what's the other

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way of saying it?

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I've forgotten.

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No, Nevada is not the right way, but that's the way I say it.

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Nevada, that's it.

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Every time I tell a story and I say Nevada, someone will email me, at least one person emails

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me and says, "You said Nevada wrong."

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It's Nevada.

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And I realize that, but I just forget every single time.

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Anyway, Lisa, back to you, ADHD, I'm sorry.

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Thank you for sharing the podcast with your friends and your family and your co-workers,

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and you listening to me right now if you enjoy this podcast, please do share it.

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Whoever you think may be into brief stories about true crime, share 10-minute murder with

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them.

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That's how the whole thing grows.

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That's how it started from just me and my family listening to now, you know, I don't

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know how many downloads per year.

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It's over a million.

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I don't really keep track of it, but it's well over that.

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But it's because of people like Lisa sharing it with her coworker, and I really do genuinely

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appreciate it.

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Alright, that's going to do it.

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That's your episode for today.

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Thank you again for listening to 10-minute murder.

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See you next time.