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Don't miss out on early access to upcoming episodes, plus exclusive bonus episodes from this podcast and others. Avoid the wait by becoming a Texas Monthly subscriber at TexasMonthly.com slash audio. Texas Monthly. There was a time when hiring an assassin would require leaving the couch. The client would have to go to the bank at least and get cash. He'd have to bring the cash to the killer and discuss logistics, names, locations, routines.
These actions would have allowed time for a reflection and second guessing. Eric Mond was driving up I-35 from South Texas and had been drinking when he ordered his third hit over the phone from the side of the road. No one would actually be killed this time. This was a ruse. On the other line, Gil Pallet was in a room with the FBI and they wanted to see if Eric would pay to kill again.
Maybe Eric felt some grief after the first murders. Maybe he regretted what he'd done. But by this time, you can hear it in his voice. He knew he could just wire the money, like he's buying from Amazon. Open the banking app, hit transfer, 150, three zeros, send. Honestly, I think I'd rather take care of it permanently and do the 25. And then I'll just run 150 through Spear Tip, like we did last time.
Eric Mond had no idea that earlier in that day, on December 10th, 2021, law enforcement had arrested Brian Brockway, Adam Carey, and Gil Pallet, or that an FBI agent was near Eric's car, tracking his movements. After falling for the trap and ordering a fake hit, Eric hung up with Gil and got back on the road, speeding north towards Austin. Five minutes later, Eric Mond was in handcuffs.
I'm Katie Vine, and this is The Problem with Eric, an original podcast created by Texas Monthly and Anna Wuerl. This is the final episode, episode six, The Fall. Eric Mond cooperated completely as he was transported to the FBI's office in northwest Austin. He even gave the driver a shortcut to beat the downtown traffic. When they pulled up to the wide, four-story brick building, they brought Eric inside and placed him in a white-walled interrogation room.
He sat by himself at a cherry wood table, dressed in an untucked khaki hunting shirt and blue jeans, his hands in cuffs resting in his lap. Then the door swung open. Two FBI agents entered, Agent Shields and Agent Somm. You might have to spit out my gum. No, no, no. Agent Shields handed Eric a trash can for his chewing gum. Thank you. Hey, Eric. How you doing? I'm good. So, um...
- My name's James Hassan. I'm with the FBI, obviously. Here's Brett. We don't like interviewing people with handcuffs on. Are you good with us kicking it off? - Yes, trust me. - Okay, you're not gonna be a problem or anything? - No, I promise I won't.
Eric told them he shot some quail and pheasant on his hunting trip as Agent Somm unlocked his handcuffs. The agents read Eric his Miranda rights. Then they tiptoed into the purpose of his arrest. First of all, do you have any suspicion? Well, would it help you if we told you that we were from Nashville, Tennessee?
Since Eric was playing dumb, Agent Somm changed up his tactic. I personally see things in shades of gray, not black and white. I'm not the kind of guy who's like, anybody who shoots someone and kills them is evil or anything like that.
Agent Sam opened a folder, took out a sheet of paper and showed it to Eric.
It was a picture of Bill and Holly. So, we're going to get into this. This is obviously an investigation that you're aware of. It happened in Nashville. Okay. I'm not going to be able to really explain what happened other than I'm going to play you some audio because you understand like when the murder happened, Holly had... I don't think we have to explain that part to him. This is a homicide investigation. Oh, he knows. He knows. Don't worry about that.
Eric remained expressionless. Then Sam pulled out his cell phone and played Eric the clip from Holly's security camera the night of the murders. Eric leaned forward. Holly and Bill's screams filled the room, and he bowed his head. This is someone I think you cared about.
Eric seemed confused at the mention of Bill Lanway. There's a good chance Eric never knew him by name. Gil had always been the one taking care of things. Let's kind of cut to the chase with this. Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry.
Do you tell me you know who this girl is? Agent Shields pointed to a picture of Holly. I met her at Bar and National. Okay. And how long was your relationship with her? That night and another night I came back from National. So you were using her services as a prostitute, correct? Yes. And now this guy right here, Landway, right? Never met him. Never met him, but he starts trying to...
And this is the part where it all came crashing down.
Thanks for being with us this afternoon. We begin with breaking news on the News at Five. Federal investigators say a prominent Austin auto executive orchestrated a $1 million hit job. Eric Charles Mond was a partner with a well-known auto dealer chain started by his grandfather. Tonight, he is in jail. Eric was taken to jail without bond. Authorities considered him a flight risk. He was charged with murder for hire with death resulting.
Gil Pallad, Adam Carey, and Brian Brockway faced the same charge, plus two other charges. Conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and kidnapping with death resulting. Each of these charges could result in a mandatory life sentence. No wiggle room for good behavior. So all of them pleaded not guilty, except for Gil Pallad. He teamed up with the prosecution. Attorney Joe Turner, who once worked as a federal prosecutor, explained Gil's situation to us at the shithole.
Well, if somebody asks me about federal court, when my clients come in to discuss federal court, I start off with the mountain lion story. Have you heard the mountain lion story? And they say no. I say, well, let me explain to you how federal court works. You know, you've got several co-defendants in this case. And I said, the way it works is, is all your defendants are sitting around at a campfire. And all of a sudden, the mountain lion shows up and you all start running. And you've turned to one of the others and say, we can't outrun this mountain lion.
And the guy turns to you and says, I just got to outrun you. And it's a funny story because it kind of shows you how brutal the federal system can be, though, is that the first person to cooperate generally gets the deal and gets the better deal and so on and so forth. The last one who cooperates gets the worst deal. That is the starting point for negotiation for every federal criminal lawyer in any conspiracy case is where do you fit in here?
And can you be the guy? Because the other factor is, does the government want to make a deal with you? Or does the government just want to eat you? In this case, Gill was the first to make a deal. And they made the deal with the wrong guy, in my opinion.
Because Maude probably would have cooperated against him. But it was too late because by the time they got to Maude who had hired a lawyer, they had already had that conversation already completed. And 20 minutes later, he's calling a lawyer or whatever and the lawyer's like, you did what?
Sure, that's what, you know, that had to have happened. Because the lawyer, anybody who's been around the federal system knows you've got to outrun the other guy. Because the mountain lion is going to eat somebody. They are here and they're hungry and the federal government is going to get them. The way Joe explained it, Gil pleading guilty didn't guarantee him any leniency in sentencing. But he had some hope that he'd get a better deal than the other guys.
I asked him, is that it? Gil just won because they got to him first? Or could there be another reason they went after Eric instead? Well, I'm wondering to what extent the fact that his last name played a part in this too. I don't know. How would you explain that? He's a bigger target. He's a well-known person, right? There's jealousy among federal agents and people who came with that, people that have money. And they look at somebody like Mond and said, oh, you inherited all this money, you know,
You're not as sympathetic to us. Some in Eric's circle were surprised to hear about a double murder. They wondered if authorities had trumped up the charges. But as one person told us, if it was going to be anyone, it would be Eric. The guys at the shithole had their own theories. So, Pallad's greed is what probably precipitated this whole thing. Pallad's greed to try to con this poor drunk out of money
and then gets, you know, says, "I'm somebody that he really wasn't," and said that, "I can handle this whole thing for you, but it's gonna cost you a little bit of money, and it'll cost you a lot of money." He knew he could take advantage of this young man, and he did. They seemed to think that Eric was guilty of poor judgment, but they didn't think he was a threat to society. People have that liquid courage. You know, "You want us to get rid of him? Yeah, get rid of him, you know, drunk."
He would never kill anybody. They thought Gil was more responsible than Eric. Joe Turner, you said it a while ago. You know, the main man that they're giving the deal to, he's the most culpable. He was the one, Eric Martin, they made the deal with the wrong guy. Eric couldn't tell you what day it was. Can the appeal show that, not that he's, he deserves to lose a lot, but.
not to stay in jail the rest of his life. That's the injustice of what happened here. He had a very good lawyer, and the government chose to target Mond and not that guy. And they made the deal with the devil, who really was the one who instigated probably most of this anyway. I asked what they thought was a fair punishment for Eric, but no one could really say. One of the guys said he only did it one time.
Eric hired a team of high-power attorneys who gave him hope. His father, Doug, would pepper his conversations with the phrase, when Eric gets home. The trial began on November 1st, 2023, at the federal courthouse in downtown Nashville. My producer Anna and I were there. Eric's lawyers filed a motion to keep the jurors from seeing the Google review, but the judge denied it.
Despite all the evidence against him, bank statements that showed Eric wired Gil $150,000 the day of the murders, and the Google review, Eric still pleaded not guilty. In the months leading up to the trial, Eric Mond and Adam Carey filed motions to sever so they could be tried as individuals, not as members of a conspiracy. But the judge didn't go for it, and they were forced to face each other and the other defendants in person.
Eric saw Adam and Brian for the first time in the confines of the courtroom, sitting only a few feet apart from them. The room was small, with Eric, Brian, Adam, and their lawyers packed in a tight row on one side of the courtroom, facing the jury. Since Gil pleaded guilty, he never joined them. He only came to testify for the government.
Behind the bar, that's the short wall that divides the room, visitors sat in six rows of benches. The victim's family and friends were on one side, and the defendant's friends and family were on the other. Anna and I sat in the press row in the back. We didn't have much company, just a newspaper reporter from the Tennessean and a producer from ABC's 2020. We were right behind Eric's parents and sisters. His wife and children did not attend.
We weren't allowed to record the trial, but we took notes. We watched Gil take the stand in his orange jumpsuit, escorted by U.S. Marshals. We watched Meat and Red testify to the timeline as they remembered it, and their impressions of Brian and Adam. We watched a video deposition from the Vanderbilt radiologist whom Bill had threatened to expose. We heard all of the undercover calls.
At one point, the hallway was abuzz with rumors that Charlie Sheen was going to appear to testify to Gil's character. But that never did happen. The trial lasted 11 days, with each defendant blaming the others. It was pretty interesting to see them all sit in a row as they turned on one another, watching their lawyers hurl accusations. Eric Mahon's lawyers said it was all Gil Pallet's fault.
They argued that Gill was broke, with no contacts in Austin. So when Eric Maude reached out, Gill took advantage of him. They said that Gill took a small problem, turned it into a big problem, and put a price tag on it. Sure, Eric may have paid for surveillance, but he didn't know about the hit, and there's no proof he ordered it. The jury would have to take Gill's word for it, and Gill was a liar.
They said that when Gil was caught, he tried to save himself and give the feds the rich guy they sought as a prize. The upshot? Eric was unfairly targeted because of his money and family name. Brian's defense also focused on discrediting Gil's testimony. They even brought out Gil's CV to prove that he had lied about his military record. He wasn't in the Israeli Secret Service. He was just a tank commander. Gil sheepishly admitted the tweaks to his resume made him look better.
Brian's lawyer argued that Gil would lie on the stand, just like he lied on his resume. And since the murder weapon was never found, Brian's lawyer vaguely pointed the finger at Adam. He said, quote, "Obviously Holly Williams and Bill Landway were killed," note the passive voice, "but not by Brian."
As for the recording of Brian telling Red that he'd killed Bill Lanway, his lawyer said that was just chest-beating. "Consider context," he said. "They're in a bar drinking. It was just an attempt to look cool in front of a friend." Adam's attorney spent the least amount of time in front of the jury. He, too, used the passive voice. While both Holly and Bill were killed, he said, they did not die at the hands of Adam Carey. The attorney argued that the bullets came from one gun.
And since Brian admits to shooting Bill on the recording, wasn't it possible that Brian killed them both? The big takeaway? Eric said it was all Gil. Brian said it was all Gil and Adam. Adam said it was all Brian. The government said it was all of them. And the undercover recordings were key to their argument. Especially the call Eric took from Gil on the side of I-35.
Federal Prosecutor Rob McGuire, whom you've heard throughout the show, stood at a podium and explained the way he saw it. What we argued was that in the controlled phone call that he had with Gilad Pallad, when he's confronted with a request for money, it is more about control than it is about the money. You know, he's not saying I'm afraid or I'm terrified. He's saying, you know, I want to be in control of this situation.
I don't think it was just his wife that he wanted to keep this secret from. I think he wanted to keep this secret a secret from everyone in his life. His children, his colleagues, people he would encounter in the community. He wanted to keep his secrets a secret. On some days of the trial, Eric appeared relaxed, smiling and even laughing. So much so that one of his attorneys felt the need to explain his behavior to the jury.
He and Eric were old friends, he said. But when the jury foreman read the verdict, Eric sat still, as if he were trying to remember how to breathe.
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As we walked down the courthouse steps for the last time, we knew there was somebody who would want to hear the news first. Wallace Lundgren. Wallace, the former Chevrolet dealer, had been our window into the world of Austin car dealerships when we started this project. The whole thing.
Eric was found guilty of murder for hire, with death resulting. Adam and Brian each received two additional convictions related to kidnapping, since Holly was still alive when they moved her to the construction site. Sentencing for Eric, Adam, and Brian won't be held until later this year, though they're all appealing. The judge may grant Gil some leniency because of his cooperation, but as it stands, each count carries a mandatory life sentence. For now, Eric's in jail.
After the trial, Wallace invited us for lunch at an old-school, top-floor, members-only club in downtown Austin called the Headliners Club. Over fajitas and iced tea, he told us that the country club types went quiet after news about the trial spread. Dead quiet. I mean, dead quiet. After the verdict?
We told him more about what we saw at the trial, and then Wallace gave us a surprising take. It wasn't about the trial at all. He thought we didn't have a story.
I just don't know if it has enough kinks in it to be saleable. It's pretty straightforward. I mean, sex is a component, but not any kind of lurid sex, just normal every day. But there's not all that much to know. Wallace wondered, what's so unique about a car dealer who hired some hitmen? Car dealers aren't all angels.
Another Austin car dealership businessman, Dorsey Brian Hardiman, is facing four charges of arson for setting multiple fires throughout the city this past winter. In 2021, a car dealer in Lubbock named Bart Rieger was convicted of running a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme. He was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $9 million in restitution. Wallace just didn't think Eric's wrongdoing was that unique.
It's not like he was a head of a community and like a preacher or something where it was the makings of a real, you know, a car dealer who screws around is pretty common. It's not a big deal. And are Adam Carey and Brian Brockway even hitmen? They're certainly not like other career hitmen he and Salem had heard about over the years. I wouldn't say these guys were hitmen. I'd say they were just...
Gave them a little money to kill somebody. It didn't mean nothing to them. It's kind of like life doesn't mean nothing to them. Especially Holly's life. People at this woman's stature generally don't have an advocate. You know, because they're just that layer of society that society doesn't want to think about too much. I miss her. I wish I could tell her that I love her. This is Holly's friend Marie Carroll.
We spoke with her the day before the trial started. I don't know, like, what can you say? You want to kind of be angry at her choices and the situation, but then you're just angry because you lost her. I just hate it. I really hate it. At the end of our interview, as we were packing up and Marie was getting ready to leave, she told us she was frustrated that some of the guys she knew from Holly's circle weren't willing to talk to us about Holly. I'm so angry at other people just not standing up for her.
And it's, you know, it's guys mainly because that's who we all had in common or we had in common. It's just guys because of who I was, the way I acted and, uh, searching for men's attention. And, uh, you know, it's like they knew Holly too for probably the same reasons. And, uh,
I even asked a couple of them, are you going to talk? Are you going to say anything? They were like, no, why would I? Just like she was a piece of trash too. And I'm like, I need to get out of here. Because if I murdered, they would not care. Marie said she'd even seen people online victim blame Holly. As if to say she had this coming. Just bringing up her past. Well, this is how she was. This is the choices that she made. And she shouldn't have done this. She shouldn't have done that. And...
I mean, I agree, but again, the choices make us who we are. And no matter what, he had no right to do what he did. She's talking about Eric Mond, but really, she could be talking about any of the men in this story. Gil Pallad, Adam Carey, Brian Rockway, Bill Lanway. Holly's friend Matt Garrett, who had the dream that Bill was going to kill Holly, has thought a lot about Holly and Bill's relationship.
Holly loved him in some way, so I'm sure he did have a really good side to him. But also you think of the tumultuous relationship that must have occurred between his mom and his dad. These toxic things were imprinted on him too, and these violent tendencies. Matt understood how old patterns affected new relationships. They could lead a person to choose partners who just weren't good for them.
Oh, that's, I think most of mine have been that way. It's always been that way. So yeah, it's hard to break that stuff, you know, because you gotta be lonely, you know, for a long time. But I don't know, maybe that's one of our tests too in this journey. Here's something to consider. Bill's court date for his attack against Holly was scheduled to take place on March 16th, just four days after he and Holly were killed.
There's no way to know whether or not Bill was definitely going to jail that March. Holly mentioned in texts that she might drop her charges against him. But still, there is a world in which Eric waited a week to respond to Bill's threats. Bill got locked up, and Holly remained safe from both of them. I wonder if Eric has thought about this, and if he feels any remorse, especially about Holly, knowing now that she wasn't involved in Bill's blackmail scheme.
Austinites had a field day on Reddit when the news spread about the Charles Small and Toyota guy. In one thread, commenters workshopped jokes. Is Truck Month canceled then? A local filmmaker even made a fake car commercial called Certified Used Hitman.
So much for avoiding family pain and embarrassment. The coverts of Covert Ford and the Hennas of Hanna Chevrolet probably knew about the verdict within hours. The shithole? They probably knew within seconds.
In the aftermath of the arrests, the Mons sold their car business to a Fortune 300 company called Group One Automotive for an undisclosed amount. It's possible the family was compelled to sell.
Because they lost the Toyota dealership over this deal. You know, there's a contract in all of our agreements with Chevrolet, kind of a moral turpitude clause. They stick to it. If you get in some kind of a jam like this, you're done. What was once the mighty Charles Mohn Toyota is now simply Toyota of North Austin. The all-new Toyota of North Austin is open now. We are Austin.
Eric Mond was no longer heir to anything but a stockpile of money, some $40 million, that he'll never see again. You have to wonder what the street-smart, hungry forefathers who built the car empires would have thought of all this. At the shithole, Eric's downfall epitomized a younger generation's foolishness. Charlie, he came up the hard way. He knew about all that stuff.
Charlie would have done exactly what Joe Turner said. He would have said, "Go get your divorce lawyer and pay her and go home." Simple. But you don't need to have come up the hard way to understand that Eric had better options. For all his motivation to protect his wife and kids from scandal, they were thrust into a much worse, more public one.
One of the most astonishing parts of this whole story? Just two months after the murders, well before his arrest, Eric filed for divorce anyway. He and Sherry are now separate. The empire Eric meant to inherit has vanished. But there are still remnants around town. If you drive around central Texas today, you're bound to see a truck with a Charles Mone Toyota license plate holder, marked by the company's logo, the shape of Texas, colored like the state flag.
Someday, years from now, a driver might see one of those and wonder, whatever happened to Charles Maughan Toyota? A silence will follow, and that will be Eric Maughan's piece of the legacy. Rolling fast down I-35 Supersonic overdrive Rolling fast down I-35 Through the day and past the night
The Problem with Eric is an original podcast created by Texas Monthly and Anna Worrell. Our executive producer is Megan Kreit. The show is reported and written by me, Katie Vine, and written, produced, and reported by Anna Worrell. It was produced and engineered by Brian Standifer, who also wrote the music. Story editing and production by Patrick Michaels. Additional production is by Aisling Ayers. Additional editing by Karen Olson.
Jacqueline Colletti is our fact checker. Studio musicians were John Sanchez, Glenn Fukunaga, and Pat Manske. Artwork is by Emily Kimbrough and Victoria Milner. Our theme is Entrance Song by the Black Angels. News coverage of Eric Mon's arrest is from KVUE. Thank you for listening. You can listen to the next episode now by becoming a Texas Monthly subscriber. Go to texasmonthly.com slash audio to subscribe today.
