Disturbing Things Richard Allen Has Said In Jail

Since October 2022, Richard Allen, 52, who is accused of murdering two teenage girls in Delphi, Indiana in 2017, has been held in jail as his case made its way through the court system. Allen, whose trial in a Carroll County court began October 18, 2024, has pleaded not guilty to the murders. In the time he was behind bars, he allegedly confessed to the killings of 14-year-old Liberty "Libby" German and her 13-year-old best friend Abigail "Abby" Williams more than 60 times. Among the people to whom Allen has admitted his involvement in the crimes are his wife and mother, fellow inmates, corrections officers, a chaplain, and his therapist, according to police and prosecutors.

While many of the exact details of what Allen allegedly said haven't been publicly released — a continuing pattern in the Delphi murders case — in various court documents and pre-trial hearings, prosecutors and witnesses have said that the statements gave specific details only the killer would know and provided a motive for his actions. The defendant's attorneys told the court that any admissions Allen may have made happened when he was in the midst of a severe mental health crisis and should be discounted.

On February 13, 2017, Abby Williams and Libby German disappeared. A search ensued and the next day the Indiana State Police found the girls' bodies near the Monon High Bridge, not far from Delphi where they lived. Both their throats had been slashed. Not long before the girls' murders, German recorded a grainy video on her phone that showed a man walking behind them before he pulled a gun and forced them down a hill.

The investigation into the crimes dragged on for nearly six years before police arrested Richard Allen, a pharmacy technician at CVS, on October 31, 2022. Prior his arrest, Allen allegedly admitted to investigators in two separate interviews that he'd been on the bridge the day German and Williams disappeared, owned clothing similar to what the man in the video was wearing, and had both guns and knives. Detectives recovered a pistol at Allen's home and allege an unspent round found at the crime scene came from that weapon.

While Richard Allen awaited trial, he made numerous phone calls from prison to both his wife, Kathy Allen, and his mother in which police say he admitted killing the two girls. While details of exactly what Allen allegedly said have not come out, in both the court documents in the Delphi murders case that have finally been unsealed ahead of Allen's trial and in a pretrial hearing in August 2024, prosecutors allege what Allen said was enough to have the women abruptly end the calls or quickly change the subject.

The conversations Allen had with his wife and mother about the crimes "greatly upset" the women, Indiana State Police Detective Brian Harshman, who reviewed the phone recordings, said in court in August 2024 (via the Journal & Courier). Harshman told the court Allen admitted to the women why he killed the girls and why it took him so long to confess. The defendant expressed his fears that his family would no longer love him after they saw photos of the bodies in court. Allen also maintained his innocence in other of his conversations with the women.

Of all the alleged confessions Richard Allen has made, the most detailed revelations thus far came from an unnamed fellow inmate who sat with Allen as part of a suicide watch while he was in solitary confinement at the Westville prison where he'd been moved for his own safety. Allen allegedly told the other inmate he had killed the girls with a boxcutter and afterward dumped the murder weapon in a dumpster near the CVS where he was working as a pharmacy technician at the time, per the Independent.

Dr. Monica Wala, a psychologist working at the prison also alleged Allen confessed to killing Abby Williams and Libby German. At the same August pretrial hearing, Wala testified that in May 2023 Allen told her details about the murders and asked her to help him make a phone call. "He said he wanted to call his wife back and tell her he did it and he wanted me to hear to understand," she said (via the Carroll County Comet). Allen also worried what his family would see at trial and "indicated he didn't want them to see what he had done."

The prosecution also has a written confession allegedly signed by Richard Allen. "I am ready to officially confess for killing Abby and Libby," the form from March 2023 requesting a meeting with the prison warden reads (via WTHR). "I hope I get the opportunity to tell the families I'm sorry." Richard Allen's defense attorneys attempted to keep these alleged confessions from the jury arguing that they had been made under duress because Allen had been in solitary confinement and experiencing significant mental health issues.

Allen's confessions coincided with what his defense team asserted was a mental health crisis. During her August 2024 testimony, Dr. Monica Wala said Allen had begun acting bizarrely — striking his head against the cell bars and eating his own excrement. Allen expressed suicidal ideations and told her: "I killed myself by killing my entire family and best friends." Even so, she was unsure whether Allen was faking psychotic behavior.

In October 2024, Kathy Allen broke her silence and gave a statement to a podcast called The Murder Sheet concerning the phone calls in which her husband allegedly admitted killing the two teens. Through her attorney Dave Cloutier, she sent the podcast a written statement that said that although her marriage has been "profoundly affected" by Richard Allen's incarceration and both are "suffering immense stress" she loved him and was sticking by his side. Kathy Allen gave her press statement in response to rumors that their marriage was over and that she believed her husband was guilty. "As to her husband's alleged confessions, it is not true that Kathy now believes them," the attorney said.

While Allen's wife believes her husband didn't actually confess to the murders, because of a ruling in late August 2024 by Special Judge Fran Gull, who is overseeing the case, the jury will be allowed to hear about Allen's alleged confession during the trial. In opening arguments on October 18, 2024, Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland told the jury that Allen's confessions were true. "They had details that only the killer would know," he said (via The Independent). "Richard Allen is the man on the bridge."