Billy Lee Tuttle is a character in the first season of True Detective, portrayed by actor Jay O. Sanders. He is the son of Sam Tuttle and the leader of the Tuttle Cult, as well as the cousin of Louisiana Senator Edwin Tuttle.
History[]
Billy was a reverend and ran various churches, charity foundations, and schools throughout the Bayou in the 1990s and early 2000s.[1] An influential man, he was known to have a positive relationship with law enforcement, running a statewide charity drive. He visited the Louisiana State Police department in 1995 in the wake of the Dora Lange killing and appeared concerned, mentioning talks with his cousin Edwin about setting up a task force to investigate crimes with an anti-Christian connotation.[2]
In 2002, detective Rustin Cohle visited Tuttle to ask questions relating to the Dora Lange case, suspecting it was not fully solved years before. This interaction was problematic for Cohle, who was reprimanded and chose to quit being a detective.[2]
Tuttle died in 2010, presumably from a drug overdose. Detectives Maynard Gilbough and Thomas Papania suspected Cohle could have been responsible, as he appeared back in Louisiana at the exact same time.[1] Cohle later explained to Marty Hart that he broke into two of Tuttle's houses and took the contents of a safe, finding definitive proof linking missing persons and murders to Tuttle and some of his connections. Cohle believed that once it became known that the safe contents were gone, other people incriminated killed Tuttle.[3]
According to news reports, Cohle and Hart eventually released information about the crimes to a number of news and law enforcement agencies, though the state attorney general and the FBI discredited rumours that the Tuttle family was related with serial murderer Errol Childress.[4]
Relationships[]
Career[]
Notes and Trivia[]
Gallery[]
Appearances[]
- 101. "The Long Bright Dark" (First appearance)
- 102. "Seeing Things" (Mentioned only)
- 103. "The Locked Room" (Mentioned only)
- 105. "The Secret Fate of All Life" (Mentioned only)
- 106. "Haunted Houses"
- 107. "After You've Gone" (Mentioned only)
- 108. "Form and Void" (Indirect mention only)
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Pizzolatto, Nic (writer) & Fukunaga, Cary Joji (director). (February 23, 2014). "Haunted Houses". True Detective. Season 1. Episode 6. HBO.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Pizzolatto, Nic (writer) & Fukunaga, Cary Joji (director). (January 12, 2014). "The Long Bright Dark". True Detective. Season 1. Episode 1. HBO.
- ↑ Pizzolatto, Nic (writer) & Fukunaga, Cary Joji (director). (March 2, 2014). "After You've Gone". True Detective. Season 1. Episode 7. HBO.
- ↑ Pizzolatto, Nic (writer) & Fukunaga, Cary Joji (director). (March 9, 2014). "Form and Void". True Detective. Season 1. Episode 8. HBO.