A MAN accused by Richard Allen’s attorneys of carrying out the Delphi murders as part of a ritualistic sacrifice said he’s exploring legal action after the sensational allegations turned his life “upside down.”

Johnny Messer, of Rushville, Indiana, was named in a bombshell memorandum filed by Allen’s legal team last month in which they claimed he and four other alleged followers of a Nordic cult had murdered Libby German and Abigail Williams in February 2017 – and not their client.

Allen was arrested in October 2022 after an unspent .40 caliber round discovered at the crime scene was allegedly determined to have been cycled through a handgun he owns.

In various interviews with police, Allen also admitted to being in the vicinity of the murders on the day Libby and Abby were killed and described wearing almost identical clothing to a man captured by Libby on video moments before their deaths, ordering the girls to go “down the hill.”

Very little evidence has been shared by investigators since 2017.

However, in a 136-page filing last month requesting a Frank’s Hearing – a proceeding to determine if a police officer lied to obtain a search warrant – Allen’s attorneys made a series of sensational claims and shared intimate alleged details about the crime scene for the first time.

In the filing, Allen’s team reaffirmed his claims of innocence and alleged that the girls were instead murdered by members of a pagan Norse religion, called Odinism, which in recent years has been increasingly infiltrated by white supremacists.

The attorneys claimed that two groups of Odinists, one from the Delphi area and one from the Rushville area in southeastern Indiana, were investigated for their involvement in the crimes.

Those alleged Odinists were identified in the documents as Johnny Messer, Brad Holder, Elvis Fields, Patrick Westfall, and Rod Abrams – none of whom has been publicly named as a suspect or charged with any crimes related to the murders.

Allen’s attorneys claimed that various Odinist iconography was left at the crime scene, including runes made out of sticks and blood.

Across dozens of pages, the attorneys outlined Messer and co.’s alleged ties to Odinism and pointed to what they call glaring evidence linking the men to the murders, which they alleged was “recklessly ignored” by prosecutors during their pursuit of Allen.

When approached by The U.S. Sun to share his side of the story, Messer refused to comment on the specific allegations made by Allen’s defense team but said he is considering legal action against them and spoke of the emotional toll their claims have had on him and his family.

“As much as I would like to defend my name, I respectfully decline to [speak] at this time,” Messer said in a written statement.

“I am seeking legal action[.] This has turned my life upside down and has taken a huge toll on my family and mental health.”

He added: “I just don’t want to say anything to jeopardize my legal action that I’m going to take.”

Friends and family of Messer’s have also raced to his defense on social media.

One supporter, Wendy Daughtery, wrote: “Johnny Messer has been cleared of all wrongdoing in this case so please read into true facts before judgment.

“He is a decent man that deserves to be given [a] fair chance, leave him alone!!!!! Please share.”

One woman who identified herself as Messer’s sister thanked Daughtery for her post, adding: “I love my brother too. And know he had been cleared of this.”

Messer’s sister, when contacted by The U.S. Sun, said she would “love” to speak and help clear her brother’s name but she has been advised by legal counsel not to do so at this time.

“Anyone who knows Johnny Messer at all knows his heart and knows he would never do anything to a child,” added another friend under Daughtery’s post.

“He was innocent in my eyes before it was proven.”

AN ODINIST CONSPIRACY

Attempts to reach the other four men named in Allen’s attorneys’ filing have so far been unsuccessful.

A man answered the phone for a cellphone number registered to Brad Holder but denied being or knowing him.

In their memorandum, Allen’s legal team called the links between the Delphi murders and Odinism “confounding.”

They alleged that Holder’s son was dating Abby at the time of her death and that Holder posted a series of “Easter eggs” to Facebook in the aftermath – including apparent images of runes and other photos mirroring elements of the crime scene – which they claim were uploaded to taunt police about his alleged involvement.

Allen’s attorney claim investigators failed to vigorously pursue the “obvious links” between the crime scene and Odinism.

Making matters more perplexing, they say, is the evidence investigators ignored that “demonstrated a clear nexus between Brad Holder and at least four other suspects: Elvis Fields from Rushville, Patrick Westfall from Delphi, Johnny Messer from Rushville, and Rod Abrams from Rushville.”

This has turned my life upside down and has taken a huge toll on my family and mental health.

Johnny Messer

In the document, Allen’s team claims that Messer and Holder share a very close relationship, and alleged he was a “recruiter” for the “Vinlander” group.

According to the attorneys, Vinlander is a word that is interchangeable with those who practice Odinism.

Per their claims, Messer was in the Delphi area with his “Vinlander buddies” on or around Valentine’s Day 2017, the day the girls were found dead.

“Johnny’s ex-girlfriend, Taylor Hornaday, told police that Johnny Messer and Patrick Westfall were like brothers,” reads the document.

“She also told police that she had allowed Johnny to borrow her car on or around Valentine’s Day 2017 and that Johnny drove her car ‘up there’ [to Delphi] to hang with his Vinlander friends.”

When Messer returned the vehicle to Hornaday, she apparently told investigators there was dried blood over the side of the car and Messer allegedly refused to discuss the details of how it got there.

“Johnny Messer’s ex-girlfriend further stated that it took her several car washes to finally remove the blood,” the document continues.

“Meanwhile, Messer has claimed that he had never, not once in his life, been to Delphi, home of his ‘brother’ Patrick Westfall, and near the home of his other Odinite brother, Brad Holder.”

According to the document, Messer’s ex-girlfriend described him and Holder as two of the most violent people she knew, who, in her opinion, were “fully capable of being involved in the murders.”

“Johnny Messer’s ex-girlfriend further stated that a motive for their involvement in the murder of Abby and Libby might be the concept of ‘blood in and blood out,’ which means ‘social acceptance into their secret circles,'” reads the memorandum.

“All this information was relayed to Liggett and the Unified Command team, yet Unified Command provided no guidance as to what to do to capitalize on this information in order to work toward solving the murders.

“Additionally, Unified Command learned that Johnny Messer’s ex-girlfriend had been listening to and recording Johnny Messer’s phone calls.

“Police secured the phone and listened to three phone calls involving Johnny Messer. In two of those phone calls, Messer was ‘offering money to other people to find someone so they can be injured or killed.’

“The third call involves Messer ‘bragging about holding a subject hostage and shooting them at his house.'”

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Allen’s attorneys claimed that, in spite of the alleged evidence, investigators said “nothing to see here” regarding Messer and issued no search warrant for his home, nor did they “attempt to utilize an age-old investigative tool referred to as an ‘interrogation’ to pursue the truth about the involvement of Johnny Messer, Brad Holder, or Patrick Westfall in these crimes,” the document states.

In the memorandum, Allen’s lawyers also allege that Elvis Fields told his sister on February 14, 2017, that he was part of a gang and had been on a “bridge with two girls that were killed.”

“Elvis told her that someone named Abigail was a pain in the a** and a troublemaker. She said Elvis tried to give her (Mary Jacobs) a blue jacket. She told him that she had her own jacket.

“After Elvis made these statements to his sister, Mary Jacobs, she later became aware of the Delphi murders and put two and two together.”

Two to three weeks later, Jacobs reportedly drove to Delphi with her husband to inform investigators about what Fields had purportedly told her.

However, due to the influx of tips investigators were receiving at the time, Allen’s team believes Jacobs’ remarks may have been overlooked.

Elvis Fields was interviewed by police just over a year later and he consented to a mouth swab to compare his DNA to that found at the scene of the murders.

After being dropped back off at his trailer, Fields allegedly walked back to the police squad car and asked a trooper: “What would happen if his spit is found on one of the girls, but he has an explanation? Would he still be in trouble?”

Another of Fields’ siblings claimed he’d made a series of incriminating statements about the murders, according to Allen’s lawyers.

In one interaction in October 2017, Fields allegedly told his older sister: “I am in a lot of trouble. I am going away for a long time. I was on that trail and that bridge with those girls when they were murdered. There were two other people there with me when it happened. I spit on one of the girls (after they were killed).”

Jacobs also testified, according to the documents, that Fields told her “Abigail is a little troublemaker, [and] that he placed leaves on her and used sticks to give her horns.”

Allen’s team claimed that, once again, law enforcement failed to show even basic curiosity about Fields’ remarks and how he knew apparent details about the crime scene which had never been made public.

“It would be refreshing if someone in Unified Command could stop worrying about how the public will view their incompetence, admit to mistakes, and then perform the type of police work that should have been performed 6 years ago,” reads the memorandum.

“The Defense is not holding its breath.

“As the Defense told [Indiana State Police First Sergeant Jerry] Holeman in his deposition, the unfortunate expectation is that Holeman and [Carroll County Sheriff Tony] Liggett will try to figure out how to solve that problem rather than to solve the case of who murdered those girls.

“Elvis’s insider knowledge of the crime scene may be a place for Holeman to start.”

POINTING THE FINGER

Over dozens of pages, Allen’s attorneys lay out various other items of alleged evidence they believe point blame away from Allen and toward the five alleged Odinists they accuse of murdering Libby and Abby.

“Delphi investigators seemingly, and quickly, abandoned the obvious correlation between the crime scene and Odinism, despite an obscene amount of evidence linking Odinism to the crime scene,” states the document.

They added that “absolutely nothing” links Allen to Odinism or the five men they named in the memorandum.

“Also, no forensics (such as DNA), no electronic data extracted from his computers or phones or from his social media links Richard Allen to the crime scene,” wrote Allen’s attorneys.

“Additionally, nothing links Richard Allen to any of the Odinite suspects: the same Odinite suspects that evidence strongly supports sacrificed Abby and Libby in some sort of pagan ritual.

“Richard Allen had nothing to do with this crime, but rather is an innocent man; a patsy for the police, arrested 26 days before an election.”

In response, the prosecution has sought to discredit the vast majority of the defense’s claims, calling the memorandum “colorful, dramatic, and highly unprofessional.”

“It’s not completely true,” wrote prosecutor Nick McLeland of the defense’s claims, adding that the allegations made “are not supported by evidence…Sheriff Tony Liggett did not intentionally or recklessly omit evidence or lie about evidence in the probable cause affidavit to support the search warrant.”

McLeland further claimed only 13 pages of the defense’s 136-page filing was relevant to their request for a Frank’s Hearing and the “remaining 90% of the Memorandum outlines its fanciful defense for social media to devour.”

In a filing on Tuesday, McLeland once again sought to pour cold water on the claims, calling them unfounded allegations supported by absolutely no proof.

He accused the defense of “consuming the limited resources of the office and this court with repetitive motions that lack any factual basis.”

TRIAL AWAITS

For years, the girls’ causes of death and how their bodies were found remained a total mystery as investigators withheld evidence during their search for the culprit.

However, in June, it was revealed for the first time that both Abby and Libby were believed to have been killed with a knife, having suffered an undisclosed number of wounds caused by a sharp object.

Documents released more than a year prior, by The Murder Sheet podcast, also suggested that the crime scene appeared to have been staged and the girls’ bodies posed.

Allen’s arrest came in October last year after investigators allegedly matched an unspent .40 caliber round found between Abby and Libby’s bodies to a SIG-Sauer P226 handgun he owns.

Much of the prosecution’s evidence remains under seal and a strict gag order has been put in place by a judge, preventing families, officials, and attorneys from sharing what they know with the media.

But during a court hearing in June, prosecutors claimed that Allen has made multiple confessions about murdering Libby and Abby, including during phone calls with his wife and mother.

Allen’s attorneys, meanwhile, have claimed their client’s mental and physical health has declined rapidly since his incarceration because of the alleged “inhumane” conditions he’s being kept in.

They have previously requested for him to be transferred out of Westville Correctional Facility, where he is currently being housed in solitary confinement.

In the memorandum, they also claimed he is being watched over by guards who are followers of Odinism, something the prosecution has firmly pushed back against.

Allen’s murder trial is due to go ahead in January next year. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

He will next appear in court at the Allen County Courthouse on October 19 for a hearing that was just recently scheduled.

According to the court, the purpose of the proceeding is to discuss an upcoming October 31 hearing and “other matters which have recently arisen.”