The C.O.W.S. Fred Rosen’s The Bayou Strangler Part 4 (Conclusion) #Katrina17 #NOLA #Homoeroticism

Thursday, September 15th 8:00PM Eastern / 5:00PM Pacific

The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the 4th and final study session on Fred Rosen’s The Bayou Strangler: Louisiana’s Most Gruesome Serial Killer. As Gus stated, there wasn’t a lot of press coverage about Ronald J. Dominique and the 23 males he killed in Louisiana. So there isn’t a rich collection of video and written reports documenting family members’s loss and the furor over the killings. That’s probably irrelevant to Rosen – who died in 2020. At the very beginning of The Bayou Strangler, Rosen informs readers that some people’s names have been changed, but all other elements of this history remains true to the record. During last week’s reading, we discovered Rosen’s book is flagrantly inaccurate. In fact, Gus and several listeners suspect Rosen changed names of characters so that he can more easily fabricate details of these crimes. Rosen tells us that one “John Banning” was “horny” and willing to accompany Dominique once offered the chance to earn a few nickels having sex with a White Woman. The allegedly feverish black male is actually named Ricky Wallace, and he has no need for anonymity. He was on the front of the artwork for a 2011 documentary on these crimes, and is mentioned in newspaper reports as well. Equally important, Rosen tells readers that “Banning” declined the offer and walked away. Wallace provided a sworn statement to his White parole officer, where he indicated that he had a standoff of at least twenty minutes inside Dominique’s residence. After using a modicum of counter-violence, he convinced the White man to drive him back to where they met. Wallace said he threatened to strike Dominique in the face during the drive because the White man repeatedly reached for a compartment on the driver’s door. There is no logical reason for Rosen to lie about these events. His fabrication is no more entertaining and it gives White enforcement officers unearned credit for solving this case. Wallace initiated contact with officers after the near fatal encounter with Dominique.