Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast
This Maniac Killed His CoWorker - The Tom Monfils Story
24 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What led to Tom Monfils's tragic death?
So this guy reports a co-worker for stealing and then they end up killing him over it. Now this story starts with this guy, Keith. And Keith is around 41 when all this begins and he's living in Wisconsin. Now Keith, he's just a total jerk. Like he works at the local paper mill and he's known around work as a dude you don't want to mess with because he can get pretty violent.
Bro, he's very much a thug. And one day in 1992, he comes up with a very stupid idea. He plans to steal about 10 to 15 feet of electric cable from his job at the mill. And this cable is expensive. And he would probably get away with this theft, except that this guy finds out about the plan, Tom. Tom also works at the mill, and he's a really nice guy and a hard worker.
Now, Tom could just keep his mouth shut about this potential upcoming theft, but he's not that kind of guy. While most of the workers there enjoy hitting the strip club and grabbing a drink after work, Tom, he's not really into all that stuff, so he's somewhat of an outsider there at the mill. So when he hears about Keith's plans, he decides to report him.
But he doesn't report him to his bosses at the mill, because he doesn't want anyone at work to know that he snitched. Instead, he calls the police. So he's on the phone with them, and he tells them that he would like to report an upcoming theft, and also that he wants to keep this call anonymous.
Presumably because Keith, the thief, is known to be a violent guy and Tom is worried about his safety. And so police agree to keep the call anonymous. Then police contact security at the mill and they let them know that their employee Keith is planning on stealing some very expensive cable. So then hours pass and it's the end of the shift and Keith is leaving the mill and security stops him.
And they're like, let us take a look in your bag, Keith. But Keith refuses. He's like, nah, I gotta go. I'm in a hurry. And he just leaves. The next day, he comes into work. And right when he shows up, he gets sent into a disciplinary review meeting. And at the meeting, it is decided that because he wouldn't let security search his bag, he will get suspended for five days without pay.
And this, of course, pisses Keith off. How dare they discipline him for ripping off the company. Meanwhile, Tom, he's still paranoid that word is going to get back to Keith that he's the one who called police on him. So he calls police again and he tells them that he's worried that Keith is going to find out. But police assure him that that is not going to happen.
His call was anonymous and that there is no way they would ever release the recording of it to the suspect. Now, it's not long before Keith starts to realize that someone must have snitched on him. And by the time he's back at work, he's telling all the workers that he's gonna find out who told on him, and he's gonna get him. Then, he gets an idea.
What if the police have a recording of the call? If he can get a copy of that recording, he'll recognize the voice and he'll know who called. So Keith starts making calls to the police department and he asks them to get him a recording of that anonymous tip that they got. Meanwhile, Tom is quietly freaking out. He knows Keith is trying to piece together who ratted him out.
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Chapter 2: How did Tom's anonymous tip escalate workplace tensions?
And I don't know if Tom is talking trash back or just not apologizing enough for Keith, But it's during this moment that Key finally just snaps. And pow, he punches Tom in the face. Then a whole group of guys jump in. And boom, boom, they start beating him down. And they apparently beat him down pretty bad.
But I guess Keith feels that this just isn't enough punishment, and he decides that the only other thing that they can do to Tom is murder him. So with Tom barely still alive, some of the guys pick him up and they carry him over to the nearest paper vat. Then they tie a cord around his neck so he can't breathe, and they attach a 45-pound metal weight to the other end.
Then they lift him up high and they toss him over into the vat, which contains tissue pulp. And with that weight tied to him, he sinks 20 feet to the bottom. And he, of course, doesn't survive. Now, eventually, Tom doesn't come home from work, and his family, they get worried, and they call the police.
So police get involved, and suddenly a big search for Tom is launched, and they end up emptying out the pulp vats at the paper mill, and there they find Tom at the bottom of one of them. So now police know that he's been murdered, and they start investigating and questioning all the workers at the mill, but not surprisingly, none of them are willing to talk.
I guess these union guys stick together. I mean not only that, I mean they all just saw what happened to a guy who just snitched, so I'm sure a lot of them are also scared. Regardless, Keith becomes the main suspect. because of the known beef that he had with Tom. But police, they don't really have any evidence against him. And so the case goes cold.
Until... At some point, Keith's dumbass gets drunk at a bar one night, and he starts talking about what they did to Tom and doing a reenactment of the beatdown, aka basically confessing to the murder. And then one of his friends ends up going and telling police all this. And so, bam, Keith is arrested. Also, bam, five of his co-workers who participated in the murder are arrested.
And unfortunately, I couldn't find any 90s mugshots of any of them, so you don't get any real pictures. Anyway, all six of these guys are found guilty and all six of them get life in prison. Not only that, but eventually Tom's wife sues the police department for releasing that tape and ultimately getting Tom killed and she's awarded two million dollars. Good for her.
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