‘Scary Larry’ who joined grisly conspiracy to kidnap man, torture him with blowtorch, learns his fate

Mugshots showing Freddie Tilton (left), Carla Jo Ward (top right), and Lawrence Vaughan in Greene County Jail

Freddie Lewis “Ol Boy” Tilton (left), Carla Jo Ward (top right), and Lawrence “Scary Larry” Vaughan (bottom right)

A co-conspirator to a ghastly kidnapping and 2020 murder in Missouri where a man was beaten, cut and tortured with a blow torch in a nightmare merry-go-round of abuse by his captors, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison without hope for parole.

Lawrence William Vaughan, also known as “Scary Larry” admitted this April to being part of a conspiracy to kidnap 41-year-old Michael James Hall of Carthage, Missouri, in July 2020. Vaughan told authorities after he was arrested that he was offered $5,000 to find Hall and kidnap him.

Vaughan, 52, who was charged alongside co-conspirators Freddie Lewis “Ol’ Boy” Tilton, Carla Jo Ward, Amy Kay Thomas, James B. Gibson, and Russell Eugene “Uncle” Hurtt, learned his sentence on Nov. 7 before U.S. District Judge Douglas Harpool. All of Vaughan’s co-defendants have pleaded guilty and await sentencing. Only Tilton wavered early on; he initially pleaded not guilty to murder charges in May but then backtracked in September once the trial was set to begin, according to local NBC affiliate KSN.

Prosecutors said several of the defendants bound Hall and placed duct tape on his mouth and around other body parts after they kidnapped him on July 15, 2020. It was Vaughan’s co-defendants, specifically Gibson and Thomas, who led a gruesome assault that began in Vaughan’s home after Vaughan coaxed Hall to come over. Prosecutors said once Hall arrived, Vaughan sent a message to Tilton, writing, “Call me quickly handing [Hall] off to you.”

Hall was handcuffed and he was “cut, beaten, shot at and burned with a blowtorch,” according to an indictment first issued in July 2021.

Prosecutors said it was Tilton who delivered the fatal blow by firing a bullet into Hall’s skull.

Vaughan did clean-up duty at the crime scene and hid other damage done at the site. The co-conspirators took Hall’s mangled corpse, wrapped it in plastic and transported it to another property owned by Hurtt in Joplin, Missouri, court records show. When a report was made to police roughly two weeks after Hall’s kidnapping that a dead body may be on Hutt’s property, police went there with a search warrant. Tilton was inside Hurtt’s home and started firing at officers who were outside and inspecting the area.

Tilton was apprehended by police after a brief standoff and he was swiftly arrested, although not for Hall’s murder.

Instead, police arrested Tilton for the kidnapping of a woman several days after the group had abducted Hall. Attorneys said Tilton and a man named Alvin Dale Boyer had kidnapped and beat the woman in a hotel room. She narrowly escaped with her life.

As for Hall, his badly decomposed body was found by police on Tilton’s property on July 28, 2020.

A swath of firearms were also found on Hutt’s property including guns without serial numbers.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office reported finding a Rigarmi .25-caliber pistol, an Ithaca .22-caliber rifle, a Remington .22-caliber rifle sans serial number, a Harrington and Richardson 12-gauge shotgun, a Ruger 9mm handgun, and a Taurus 9mm handgun, also without a serial number.

Authorities also located a “burned cell phone that contained photos and screenshots from a video of [Hall] being assaulted,” according to prosecutors.

In February, Vaughan pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a firearm while being an unlawful user of a controlled substance. He also copped to two counts of possessing a stolen firearm.

Court records indicate the violence all began over a dispute involving a stolen vehicle. Evidence amassed by prosecutors, including text messages between defendant Tilton and victim Hall showed Tilton accusing Hall of being a “rat.”

Ten days before Hall was kidnapped, Tilton sent him a message on Facebook.

“Let’s finish this,” the message stated. “… So why you trying to help a rat. You crossed a line there for you will be punished I would have had respect for you if you wodnt have got scared and ran dragjing the rv when you knew I was coming run little scared punk run I will find you you picked the right one.” [Grammar, spelling original]

All of the defendants were charged with one count of kidnapping resulting in death and one count of using a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence resulting in murder.