Sells Names Who Hired Him To Kill Forsyth Mom and Son:

By Dave Warren and Kathee Baird



This is the third installment in our investigation into confessed serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells and his account of what happened in 1985 when Ena Cordt and her son, Rory, were brutally slain in her Forsyth home. We had initially planned on this being the final part of the story. However, over the past few weeks’ new information as come to light that will be explored in a fourth part of this series.



Press here for a link to the first story. Press here for a link to the second story.

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Tommy Lynn Sells on death row in Texas

For the past 25 years there have been many in Taney County who doubted the guilt of a man accused of a crime he says he didn’t commit. Others have been certain there was a cover-up at the county level. Some saw Indians behind every tree, claiming conspiracy in the unsolved double homicide of Ena and Rory Cordt.



Did Tommy Lynn Sells really commit the crime



Why have investigators from Missouri discounted Sells confession while Texas authorities believe it is likely true? How many coincidences does it take before they're a just too many? Are there ties between a Nixa murder and the double homicides in Forsyth?



Over the past two weeks we have examined the written words of Tommy Lynn Sells, one of America’s most prolific serial killers, in regard to the 1985 slayings of Ena and Rory Cordt of Forsyth. Sells, whom law enforcement considers one of the worse serial killers in recent memory, is on death row in Texas for the brutal murder of Kaylene Harris in 1999 in Del Rio.



What we do know about the murder of the Cordts is that Sells was in the Forsyth area enrolled at a drug treatment center in Blue Eye at the time of the murders. He claims he was approached by a Taney County deputy at the county fair. At the time he was away from a the rehabilitation center where he had been placed following his release from the Missouri Department of Corrections.



Sells modus operandi, (m.o.) in most of the homicides he committed was the use of a knife and weapons of opportunity like baseball bats. Ena and Rory were killed with his favorite weapons.



Following the death of Ena and Rory Cordt, Sells, who has been dubbed The Coast-To-Coast Killer, went on to become one of the nation’s worst serial killers.



Coincidence after coincidence



Sells wasn’t even looked at by local law enforcement in 1985 as a suspect, despite his being recently released from prison and his “talk” with a deputy at the Taney County Fair. While he was not known as a prolific killer at the time, his confession was looked at with skepticism in 2000? But why, by then police were well aware of his actions and his ability to ruthlessly kill people.



Why did authorities in Taney County choose to send the very deputy Sells allegedly spoke with in 1985, and whom he claims was involved in the plot to kill the Cordts, to interview him on death row to determine if he was involved in the Cordt killings?



Who had the most to lose if Sells’ confession was true? Certainly the deputy would have been implicated had law enforcement taken his confession into account.



Sells maintains in letters to Bob Schanz, an expert on the serial killer, that the murder in Forsyth was one for which he was paid. He claims the deputy, the sheriff and the then county clerk as the three people who approached him and a friend at the Taney County Fair in July of 1985(who he will only refer to as Bob) and paid him to kill Ena Cordt.



He claims the first contact was through the deputy (Sells worked for much of his adult life as a carny, traveling from state to state). He claims the deputy, who he names as Don Swan, was the one who first mentioned the “job.”



Sells then goes on to implicate the former County Clerk, who he calls “Ron” in his letter to Schanz. Finally he names the former Taney County Sheriff as being another one involved in having Cordt silenced.



He claims he was offered $2,500 for the murder, but was only paid $1,000. When he asked for the remaining money, he was allegedly told "you had a $1,000 piece of ass."



All of this appears in a written confession (which we will publish,) yet authorities claim that Sells account of the murder and his knowledge of details of the crime scene are inconsistent.



Amazingly, Sells did recall the first name of the county clerk and the full name of the deputy whom he claimed first spoke with him about money in exchange for killing Cordt.



It's been 25 years since the Cordt murders. Given the many years that have passed and years of drug and alcohol abuse by Sells coupled with the numerous murders he has committed, investigators are being unreasonable when they ask him to recall each portion of the 1985 double homicide in Forsyth.



Not likely



Texas Ranger John Allen said that following Sells’ arrest in Texas, "He was calm, almost complacent when we began to question him. Then he said: I guess you want to know about the others."



In the subsequent days that followed, Sells spelled out how he'd drifted across America, killing as he made his way across the country, often in a drunken or drug-induced haze.



In most of those confessions he was inconsistent on some points and failed to have a clear recollection of crime scene details, but homicides across the United States have been solved with what he does remember.



The FBI profiling guide indicates that many serial killers are unable to recall exact details of each crime for a variety of reasons.



For example:

• Perceptions during violence: The acts the killer carries out on victims is done very much like he is put on autopilot. This is believed to be the case because they have acted these scenarios many times in their fantasies and so it is just like revisiting them. Identify lies based on the amount of detail provided. Fantasy worlds or delusions are typically very detailed, so if the story appears inconsistent and lacking in detail, the subject may be trying to feign psychosis or delusion. Law enforcement agencies that dismiss confessions because of inconsistencies have repeatedly failed to identify individuals who were later found guilty of the crime.

For some who have interviewed Sells on death row he has a few surprises

Dr. Michael Stone, the host of Discovery’s “Most Evil” is a professor of clinical psychiatry at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. The author of ten books, he has recently published “The Anatomy of Evil” with Prometheus.

Stone believes Sells account of the Taney County double homicide and told Dr. Katherine Ramsland in an interview that Sells troubled childhood is probably what sparked his murderous rages. “I was surprised by Tommy Lynn Sells, on Death Row in Texas. I assumed I’d hate him and want to pull the switch on him myself. But when I interviewed him, I was struck by his candor and openness about his dreadful childhood and about the terrible crimes he committed, since he was willing to explain to me how his crimes gave him a (temporary) surcease from the rageful and vengeful feelings he had stored up over the years because of his maltreatment. So I ended up with some respect and sympathy for him,” he said. “Tommy Lynn Sells and I continue to exchange letters.”

What is surprising in Sells’ alleged written confession is that he knows the positions and names of those he maintains hired him to carry out the murders in 1985. Those facts, according to psychiatrists, would be likely to stand out in the killer’s mind. For example, he notes in the letters that the sheriff of the county was the uncle of the county clerk – a detail that is significant.

Unfortunately, we do not know how much information was fed to Sells, either unintentionally or intentionally, by law enforcers. It would be possible to frame questions that had enough information in them so that Sells could later retell a story in a way that would implicate others. But, there’s a problem with that theory, too.

First and foremost, Sells has never claimed the involvement of others in any of the other homicides he has confessed to. Only the Cordt killings has others named as co-conspirators and only those killings have other participants in the crime indicated by Sells.

Amazingly, Sells alleged killing of the Cordt’s is not the only crime he has confessed to in southwest Missouri. He has been indicted for the Oct. 15, 1997 abduction, rape, and murder of 13-year-old Stephanie Mahaney in Springfield. In that case, he is considered the only one present during the commission of the crime.

In the Cordt case, authorities in Missouri have discounted Sells confession despite some strong, albeit circumstantial evidence, that he may well be involved.

Included in that evidence is the statement by former suspect Paul Smart that he was allegedly told by a member of law enforcement that they knew Sells was “guilty as hell” and that he (Sells) had told investigators exactly what the Cordts had eaten before they were killed and that it was confirmed through their autopsies.

Smart was considered a suspect early on after investigators found his fingerprints in the shower at the Cordt home. Smart says he was going to do some drywall work in Cordt's bathroom, and that he was friends with her father, Bob.

Even more disturbing is Smart’s allegation that a member of the Taney County government was initially investigated but that the sheriff told investigators to go after Smart instead. Smart was never charged with the murders but has lived under the shadow of suspicion for the past 25 years.

Sells maintains that he and two other men drove to Ena’s home that fateful evening and that all three raped her before Sells ended her life. If true, is it only Sells DNA that the Missouri Highway Patrol claims to have?

Those who have spoken or had written communication with Sells, point out that he was young and in need of money after his release from prison. His account of being threatened by a deputy who then hired him, to kill Cordt seems plausible given his fear of being of going back to prison.

One expert on Sells says the whole story Sells weaves about the Cordt killings is more than plausible, despite some inconsistencies that he feels are expected 25 years after the commission of the crime. The passage of time has had an impact on the case, witnesses have died, or in the case of one of those named suffer from Alzheimer's disease. Facts have become muddled.

Urban legends have sprung about the double homicide and they are now starting to be taken as fact in the Cordt case. The inability of the state’s elite Highway Patrol to solve the Cordt murders, the case being put on the back burner for so long and the dimissal of Sells as a suspect have done little to “lay the story to rest.”

One thing is for certain

For most experts on Sells, authorities in other states and for Sells himself, the murder of Ena Cordt and her young son Rory has been solved. No one has been brought to justice and, in fact, if others were involved, some people have been able to escape justice.

In 1985, while still alive herself, Ena’s mother laid her daughter and grandson to rest just across the bridge in Forsyth. We cannot allow them to lie in the cold ground without justice being served, while some hope that time will erase the memory of two young lives cut short and that they will soon be forgotten.

Their deaths have been forgotten by many, but not all.

In next week’s article we will take a look at other possible suspects and where law enforcement currently is on this cold case. In addition, we will publish the complete written confession that Bob Schanz said came from Tommy Lynn Sells.

Coast-To-Coast Killer Tommy Lynn Sells Admits Role In Cordt Murders:

By Dave Warren and Kathee Baird

In part two of our series looking into the murders of Ena and Rory Cordt, we take a look at the similarities between the Cordt's murders and the victims of Coast-To-Coast Killer Tommy Lynn Sells.
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Press here for a link to the first story.

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Tommy Lynn Sells (photo taken on death row in Texas)

The murder of Ena Cordt and her four-year-old son, Rory, is one of Missouri’s most disturbing cold cases. In July of 1985, the two were killed in their Forsyth home where their bodies lay for three days before they were discovered.

Initially, the investigation moved forward but came to an abrupt halt just a few weeks after the killings. It remains unsolved, despite the confession of Tommy Lynn Sells, a man incarcerated in Texas for the 2000 murder of a little girl in Texas.

The similarities between the Cordt homicides and the known killings committed by Sells is uncanny.

Sells is sitting on death row for the murder of Kaylene Harris in Del Rio, Texas. The killer entered the Harris family home on December 31, 1999, and sexually assaulted 13-year-old Kaylene, before he sliced her throat. He attempted to silence the only witness to Harris's murder, Krystal Surles, who was 10 at the time and sleeping on the top bunk at her friends house.

Tommy Lynn Sells weapon of choice appears to be a knife, which he used to cut the throat of his victims, and baseball bats he used to bludgeon them to death. Ena Cordt was killed with a knife, her son, beaten to death with a bat.

He attacked children who were in the home when he committed crimes. In 1987, Elaine Dardeen, who was seven months pregnant at the time, and her 3-year-old son, Peter, were found beaten to death in their Illinois home. The baby girl that Dardeen gave birth to during the attack was beaten to death with the same bat used to kill her mother and brother. Elaine's husband, Keith, was found dead in a nearby field, shot in the head.

According to Sells, Rory Cordt was at home and witnessed his mother's murder.

One popular story is that Cordt met Sells at the Taney County Fair and took him back to her home where the couple engaged in consensual sex. He says he discovered Ena Cordt rifling through his backpack where he had a stash of cocaine. Angered, he killed Ena and then beat Rory to death with the child’s baseball bat to eliminate any witness to his crime. Even the online encyclopedia Wikipedia states, “While working as a carny in Missouri during the summer of 1985 Sells met 29 year old, Ena Cordt. According to Sells, Cordt invited him to her home where they had consensual sex. The bodies of Cordt and her four-year-old son were found three days later.”

It’s an urban legend that people have taken as fact in the case – except for one thing; Sells says it didn't happen that way.

In a letter to Bob Schanz, a man who has spent years investigating Sells and who is recognized as an expert on the serial killer, the convicted killer says the murder, one of his first, was not what many people think. It was, he states, a murder-for-hire.

Sells, who had just been released from prison, says he was at the fair and did make some remark to Ena Cordt, but, he claims, she did not pick him up and take him home.

Sells claims he was approached by a law enforcement officer who told him that the woman Sells had made the flippant remark to was one who he (the deputy) could tell to cry rape and Sells would be charged. Faced with the prospect of returning to prison, Sells claims it was then that he was asked to kill Cordt.

Sells allegedly writes that the deputy next appeared at a “place where me and Ben (a friend of Sells. Ben is not his real name but one designated by Sells because I don’t want to get him in trouble) were drinking.” Sells says the deputy showed up with a Taney County elected official and says that both the deputy and the official allegedly admitted they were both “having their way with her (Cordt).” He alleges that the official stated that the woman was demanding money from him and was threatening to go public with their relationship and ruin him. --


Of note, Sells also claims in one of his letters "Ben" was a friend of the county official and that the two “get along real good with the white powder.”

Cocaine use has been linked to the investigation into the Cordt homicide from the beginning, yet Sells’ account of how it played a part is much different than that of law enforcement (who did not discover any backpack or cocaine in the Cordt home).

“He (the Taney County elected official) promised me the $2,500,” Sells writes.

“When I said I would hang for murder the official told me he owned the Prosecutor,” Sells stated. He (Taney County elected official) also noted the official stated that he had a relative in law enforcement. Sells claims, “To prove it they came back with the Sheriff.”

So what was Sells’ motive for writing the letter to Schanz in 2000? According to the killer, he was attempting to set the record straight.

“When I learned that Paul Smart had been blamed for 15 years for a crime he did not do and when I remembered that the sheriff and the deputy knew that Paul was innocent but accused him anyway, I wanted to set things straight for Paul Smart and for the family and friends of the woman and the boy,” he wrote. “I hope this helps the common people of the county. They need some help.”

Sells claims the murder for hire plot involves two other men who were with him at Cordt’s home that evening. He claims they all had sex with the woman before he killed her and that when he saw Rory watching, he killed him with the baseball bat “to put him in a better place.”

In his correspondence, Sells complains that he was never fully compensated for killing Cordt by the deputy or the elected official. "They told me that I had a $1,000 piece of ass before she died and that is all the money ($1,500) I was getting.”

Sells says that one of the other men who were with him that fateful night (whom he has refused to name) left Missouri after the killings until things “cooled off”.

Authorities in Missouri don't buy Sells confession. The Missouri Highway Patrol has repeatedly stated that Sells is not a person of interest in the case.

Sells believes they don't have any interest in solving the case because of the alleged ties to Taney County officials from the past and because the same deputy who approached him at the Taney County fair was the same one who was sent to interview him in a Texas prison following his capture.

Even one high ranking county official said that coincidence has bothered him for a long time. “Why would you send the same deputy implicated to do the interview? What questions did he ask? Did he lead Sells with his questions?,” he commented.

The Sentinel was told that the Highway Patrol had not actively investigated the case in almost a decade since their dismissal of Sells as as a suspect. However, since our investigation into the double homicide it was revealed by a source inside the patrol, "there is now some movement on the case.”

While DNA was in it's infancy in 1985, there was some recovered and preserved from the crime scene in Forsyth. It’s that evidence that law enforcement is now looking at. Whether it leads to Sells or one of the other two he claims were with him and had sex with the victim before her death, will remain to be seen.

Contrary to the claims of authorities in Missouri, the Texas Ranger Johnny Allen says Sells admission is plausible. In fact, Rangers have never wavered in connecting Sells to the murders of Ena and Rory Cordt. They place the double homicide in Forsyth as one of the earliest that Sells committed. Sells himself no longer talks with Rangers, because he says, he feels pressured by the bright lights and constant requests for information.

For some, the confession of Sells is disturbing and one they wish would go away. Sells himself said he is confessing to all of the crimes he can remember to clear his own mind. As a psychopath, he doesn’t have a conscience.

“Uh, I've hurt a lot of people, and sorry isn't going to cover that. But killing me ain't going to cover that either. But you know what, killing me is a whole lot easier to do than making me face it every day,” he said in a recent interview with 20/20.

Next week we’ll examine just who Sells says was involved, where they are now, and where the investigation is heading.

THE MISSOURI HIGHWAY PATROL IS ACTIVELY SEEKING INFORMATION ON THIS CASE AND IS REQUESTING THAT ANYONE WITH INFORMATION CONCERNING THE DEATH OF ENA AND RORY CORDT CONTACT THEM AT 866-362-6422.