Delphi murder victims were killed by members of ‘pagan cult,’ defense attorneys claim

Attorneys for a man charged in the murders of two girls in Delphi, Indiana, say it wasn’t their client who killed the girls, but a white nationalist who sacrificed them in a pagan ritual.

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Attorneys for Richard Allen claimed in court filings Monday that the murders are linked to a group that practices “Odinism.”

“Members of a pagan Norse religion, called Odinism, hijacked by white nationalists, ritualistically sacrificed Abigail Williams and Liberty German …,” the ruling read. “Nothing, absolutely nothing, links Richard Allen to Odinism or any religious cult.”

The memorandum alleges that Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14, were murdered in a ritual killing by several people, not Allen, The Lafayette Journal & Courier reported. 

Odinisim, according to the Anti-Defamation League, “is a term frequently given to a racist variant of the Norse pagan religion known as Asatru -- a religious sect that attempts to revive ancient Norse religious beliefs and practices of pre-Christian Europe.”

The memorandum also claims that law enforcement investigating the murders withheld exculpatory evidence and lied about the investigation while under oath, according to Law and Crime.

Allen was arrested in October 2022, five years after the girls’ went missing in February 2017 and their bodies were found on a hiking trail near an abandoned railroad bridge.

Prosecutors claim that Allen confessed to the murders during prison phone calls to his wife, CBS News reported.