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Speaker 1: Murder in Oregon is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Frank Gable has found himself a key figure in the

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Speaker 2: Michael Frankie murder investigation. He says he didn't do it.

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Speaker 2: He says he's being set up.

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Speaker 3: Oh no, I've been so scared.

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Speaker 4: More than a year after Michael Frankie's death, the state

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Speaker 4: was now fully focused on Frank Gable as the sole

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Speaker 4: suspect in his murder.

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Speaker 2: Something else scares Gable too. He says some of the

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Speaker 2: members of his old drug ring have shown up in

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Speaker 2: the COO's County jail. He's not sure why, but he

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Speaker 2: thinks that has something to do with Frankie's murder as well.

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Speaker 5: So I think I might have walked into something that

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Speaker 5: I'm known aware of last year, and.

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Speaker 3: I think it's involved behind drugs.

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Speaker 4: Gable, who maintained his innocence, was indicted and arrested for

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Speaker 4: Frankie's murder in April of nineteen ninety, but he was

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Speaker 4: about to receive another blow. The defense attorney assigned to

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Speaker 4: his case, Bob Abel.

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Speaker 6: There were some good lawyers in Salem, but to be

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Speaker 6: as blunt as possible, Abel was not one of them.

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Speaker 5: If I was going to pick an attorney to handle

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Speaker 5: that case. I would have picked several other people first,

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Speaker 5: and I think anybody would have.

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Speaker 4: Bob Abel's assignment as Frank Able's defense attorney was just

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Speaker 4: the first in a series of missteps that would place

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Speaker 4: Gable's life in jeopardy. I'm Lauren brad Pacheco, and this

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Speaker 4: is murder in Oregon. Oddly, attorney Bob Abel seemed to

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Speaker 4: know he was going to get the Frankie murder case

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Speaker 4: before Frank Gable even charged. According to Tom McCallum, the

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Speaker 4: lead investigator for gables defense team.

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Speaker 5: He told me several months before that he was going

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Speaker 5: to get the Michael Frankie case, And at the time

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Speaker 5: I thought it was a pretty bold statement because I

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Speaker 5: actually thought he was an attorney that probably wouldn't even

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Speaker 5: be on the list, And when he called and told

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Speaker 5: me that he had it, I was surprised.

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Speaker 4: McCallum says Abel's working conditions weren't exactly ideal for handling

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Speaker 4: what was the highest profile murder case in the state.

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Speaker 5: I knew that Bob didn't have an office because I

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Speaker 5: did a big murder case for him about a year before,

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Speaker 5: and he worked out of the office of as co counsel.

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Speaker 5: We met at the Tiki Lounge a lot of times

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Speaker 5: and occasionally in the Marion County Courthouse in the law library.

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Speaker 5: So I knew he didn't have an office, and I

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Speaker 5: knew he'd been recently divorced because I help him his

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Speaker 5: divorced and he was having some problems with that. He

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Speaker 5: was sort of out of touch with the I thought,

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Speaker 5: with the legal community.

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Speaker 4: So in addition to not having an office, that I

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Speaker 4: would assume he didn't have a fax machine or a

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Speaker 4: professional phone or a secretary at the time.

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Speaker 3: No, he didn't.

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Speaker 5: In fact, he actually moved into a spare office we

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Speaker 5: had in a building in Salem.

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Speaker 4: While he didn't have an office of his own, what

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Speaker 4: Abel did have was a reputation.

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Speaker 7: Here's Kevin My understanding from a couple of the attorneys

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Speaker 7: that are on the list for capital cases said that

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Speaker 7: they should have been on it, and they jumped the

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Speaker 7: scheduling or the pecking.

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Speaker 8: Order got rearranged to get Bob Abel in that position.

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Speaker 8: It wasn't because he was the best that they had

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Speaker 8: to offer in terms of defense attorneys. He's only had

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Speaker 8: one capital murder case on his record at that time

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Speaker 8: and he lost that in dramatic fashion. I think a

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Speaker 8: three year old kid could figure out why Bob Abel

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Speaker 8: was picked.

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Speaker 4: Phil goes into more specifics.

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Speaker 6: Well, he was a heavy drinker, and everyone in the

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Speaker 6: legal business in Salem would.

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Speaker 3: Have known that.

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Speaker 6: In fact, Abel has acknowledged it in post conviction testimony.

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Speaker 6: He denied that he was drinking heavily during the trial,

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Speaker 6: but he did admit that not too long after the

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Speaker 6: trial was over he went into rehab.

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Speaker 4: So the chances are he didn't develop that issue after

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Speaker 4: Gable's trial.

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Speaker 6: Well, no, In fact, everyone around him knew that he

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Speaker 6: was drinking. Gable complained about it, The investigators knew about it.

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Speaker 3: Just a few years ago.

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Speaker 6: I talked to Abel's girlfriend who was with him during

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Speaker 6: the time of the trial, and she said each night

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Speaker 6: he was drinking about a court of vodka.

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Speaker 3: He said, vodka with squirt mixer. If you can imagine that.

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Speaker 4: Kevin also voiced his concerns to the prosecution at the time.

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Speaker 8: If I'm getting into an airplane, I don't want the

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Speaker 8: goddamn pilot drunk.

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Speaker 3: If I'm fright Gable, I don't want my lawyer drunk.

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Speaker 4: In addition to his reputation, Bob Abel also had an

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Speaker 4: apparent connection to the judge presiding over the case, Gregory West.

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Speaker 4: Here's lead investigator for the defense, Tom McCallum.

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Speaker 5: Again, I did know from things that I'd heard that

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Speaker 5: he had at one point in time shared an office

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Speaker 5: with Judge West, who is the judge on the case,

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Speaker 5: but I never ever confirmed that.

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Speaker 4: But Phil Stamford did.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah.

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Speaker 6: I checked the city directory for that time immediately before

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Speaker 6: the trial, and Abel and Judge West, who was then

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Speaker 6: a lawyer, had had offices just down the hallway from

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Speaker 6: each other, joining offices same hallway in the same building.

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Speaker 4: Regardless of how Able landed the case, just weeks before

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Speaker 4: the trial, the investigators for the defense were so concerned

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Speaker 4: by his lack of preparedness that they wrote and signed

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Speaker 4: a letter imploring Judge West to postpone the trial.

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Speaker 5: So Grace Castle, who was the only investigator that I

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Speaker 5: didn't hire Bob and sisters to hire her, and she

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Speaker 5: suggested we should prepare a letter and send it to

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Speaker 5: the judge. So we all agreed, and she prepared this

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Speaker 5: letter saying that we thought we needed a continuance because

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Speaker 5: we didn't think that they were prepared, and we all

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Speaker 5: signed the letter including Bob assistant.

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Speaker 4: How many people signed that letter, all of us?

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Speaker 5: We had I think nine investigators. All the investigators were there,

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Speaker 5: and then the next day I hand delivered it to Bob.

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Speaker 5: He wanted to initially fire everybody, and ultimately, over my objections,

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Speaker 5: he called in Grace, who happened to be in our

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Speaker 5: office at the time.

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Speaker 3: And fired her. I think he had an obligation because

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Speaker 3: we'd given it.

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Speaker 5: To him, and I know he delivered the letter to

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Speaker 5: Judge West, and then I nothing never came with the trial,

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Speaker 5: never got postponed. Nobody ever said anything. I've heard different

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Speaker 5: scenarios that have Judge West destroyed it, and I the

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Speaker 5: other ones that it was still included in the record somewhere.

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Speaker 4: So, with his defense woefully unprepared and without an apparent

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Speaker 4: game plan, Gable's trial began on May one, nineteen ninety one,

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Speaker 4: and as the prosecution rested, Tom McCallum found himself coordinating

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Speaker 4: the initial witnesses for the defense, and one of his

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Speaker 4: first Phil Stanford, to share the story about Mark Gesner,

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Speaker 4: the innate he'd interviewed Ude, who claimed he'd been approached

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Speaker 4: to fabricate testimony against Gable in exchange for leniency.

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Speaker 6: I wrote a column about that, and for all the

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Speaker 6: good it did, because the state went ahead and called

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Speaker 6: him as a prosecution witness. When it came time for trial,

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Speaker 6: I was sitting at my desk at The Oregonian got

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Speaker 6: a call from Tom McCallum, and he said, a Phil,

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Speaker 6: can you come down and testify tomorrow? We're starting our

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Speaker 6: case and we're not.

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Speaker 3: Ready to go.

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Speaker 4: Did he explain that?

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Speaker 6: He said, Abel's been out drinking. We haven't put together

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Speaker 6: a case. And in fact, as I learned later, he

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Speaker 6: and another investigator had.

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Speaker 3: Been putting it together.

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Speaker 6: The opening presentation for the defense on this thing, it

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Speaker 6: was incredible. So I went down there and I testified.

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Speaker 6: I don't think I did a particularly good job, but

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Speaker 6: it was completely out of order. There was no context.

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Speaker 6: I talked about the interview I'd had with Gessner and

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Speaker 6: at the column I had written in which he said

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Speaker 6: he was going to make up his testimony, and that was.

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Speaker 4: That, And who did he say was coercing his testimony?

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Speaker 3: Oh?

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Speaker 6: As he told me down when he was in jail,

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Speaker 6: the state police were trying to get him to say

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Speaker 6: that Gable had confessed to him, and he said he

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Speaker 6: didn't man, But you know, everybody's got to look out

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Speaker 6: for himself, and that's what I said.

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Speaker 3: For all the good it did, right.

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Speaker 4: But even with the defense's rocky start, Initially, Phil and

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Speaker 4: the other journalists covering the case thought it would be

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Speaker 4: an uphill battle for the prosecution with their ragtag assortment

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Speaker 4: of witnesses. Here's local television reporter Eric Mason.

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Speaker 9: I think all of us realized there was nothing really

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Speaker 9: the connected Frank Gable to this crime, and that the

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Speaker 9: people who had told the story that and had become

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Speaker 9: informants and stitches against Frank Gable, they were all professional liars.

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Speaker 9: They were all people who had made serious, big deals

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Speaker 9: before in their lives with prosecutors and understood the system

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Speaker 9: and the way it worked.

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Speaker 4: Steve Jackson believes the sketchy witnesses and complete lack of

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Speaker 4: physical evidence linking Gable to the murder should have worked

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Speaker 4: in Gable's favor had he been properly defended.

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Speaker 10: I just didn't feel that the defense attorneys were on

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Speaker 10: the same level as the prosecutors. But as witnesses, I

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Speaker 10: think for either side they would have just been problematic

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Speaker 10: because you put them up there and you can go

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Speaker 10: at them and say, you know what crimes have you

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Speaker 10: been convicted of in the past, and have you ever

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Speaker 10: lied on the stand, and have you changed your story

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Speaker 10: back and forth? Your believability and you know your integrity.

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Speaker 3: Phil agrees the state had no physical evidence.

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Speaker 6: Their whole case, their whole case on these so called

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Speaker 6: material witnesses whose testimony they had, it's now clear, manufactured

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Speaker 6: using light detector tests, primarily until these jail birds and

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Speaker 6: ex cons and teenage runaways got their stories straight, they

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Speaker 6: figured out what the cops wanted them to say, and

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Speaker 6: eventually several of them did enough to put on the stand.

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Speaker 3: But that's what their case was.

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Speaker 4: And it seems that their witnesses all had something to

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Speaker 4: lose by not testifying and something to gain.

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Speaker 8: Oh yeah.

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Speaker 6: In some cases, as with Guessner, they were threatening to

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Speaker 6: charge him with other more serious crimes and made a

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Speaker 6: deal for that, and with others.

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Speaker 3: They threatened to tie them into the murder.

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Speaker 6: So yeah, they made up stories and the state put

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Speaker 6: them on and Abel was not capable of demonstrating how

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Speaker 6: inconsistent and ultimately manufactured these stories were.

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Speaker 4: It became clear that the state was leveraging and shaping

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Speaker 4: testimony and using polygraphs light detector tests to do it.

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Speaker 6: Several of the witnesses or all of them when they

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Speaker 6: started out, would say, yeah, Gables a drug dealer. I

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Speaker 6: don't like him, nothing about the murder. But then they

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Speaker 6: would say, we know you're lying. They give him another one,

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Speaker 6: and they were given multiple tests. Jodi was even given

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Speaker 6: twenty three light detector tests, which is unheard of. And

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Speaker 6: over time they would figure out what the cops would

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Speaker 6: accept as the truth because they were also being threatened

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Speaker 6: with being charged with other crimes or even being drawn

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Speaker 6: into the Frankie murder.

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Speaker 4: But even the state's most reputable witness, Huntsacker, the maintenance

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Speaker 4: man at the Dome building, seemed to present testimony during

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Speaker 4: the trial. The original statement he made regarding the two

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Speaker 4: men he claimed to see the night Michael Frankie was

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Speaker 4: murdered seemed altered to fit the state's narrative. Here's Kevin Frankie.

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Speaker 8: Even Hunsacker, his story changed from what he told me

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Speaker 8: before the trial. He went from his discussion with me from.

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Speaker 11: His map to my ears that the guy that turned

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Speaker 11: around and went back to the Dome building was walking

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Speaker 11: like he didn't have any place to go. He wasn't

224
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Speaker 11: in a hurry, he wasn't crouched, he wasn't holding his chest,

225
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Speaker 11: he wasn't stumbling. It was just walking like he didn't

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Speaker 11: have no place to go. His exact words.

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Speaker 8: And his testimony at trial was that he walked briskly

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Speaker 8: back up to the North Portico entrance. Those two big changes.

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Speaker 4: And Hunsacker's testimony also contradicted the story that the state

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Speaker 4: was hinging their case on testimony from their star witness,

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Speaker 4: drug dealing career criminal Shorty Harden. Remember that name. That's

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Speaker 4: the same Shorty Harden who ran with Tim Natividad, the

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Speaker 4: guy with the van Kerrie Rothschild mentioned multiple times.

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Speaker 6: Hunsaker, the janitor, said he walked out of the building

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Speaker 6: and was looking at these two figures. One turned around

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Speaker 6: and ran away to the west and the other walked

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Speaker 6: back to the Dome building. But he would have been

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Speaker 6: looking straight at the spot where Shorty said he had

239
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Speaker 6: parked his car. He didn't see a car. Shorty said

240
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Speaker 6: he started up the car after he saw Michael Frankie

241
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Speaker 6: get stabbed. Hunsaker would have seen and heard that seen

242
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Speaker 6: the car racing away. And there were other contradictions as well,

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Speaker 6: which Abel did not have the wherewithal to point out.

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Speaker 4: And it seems to me that Huntsacker or Huntsaker was

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Speaker 4: the only one on the stand who didn't have anything

246
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Speaker 4: to gain or lose of.

247
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Speaker 6: These crime scene witnesses. Yes, that's for sure.

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Speaker 4: But yet his testimony changed slightly from the statements he

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Speaker 4: had made immediately after the murder.

250
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Speaker 6: Well, Eric Mason and I went down and talked to

251
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Speaker 6: him shortly after the murder, and he said that the

252
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Speaker 6: man who walked back to the building walked back in

253
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Speaker 6: sort of a leisurely manner.

254
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Speaker 3: Leisurely is the word.

255
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Speaker 6: I put in my notes at the time, And by

256
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Speaker 6: the time the state had him on the stand, he

257
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Speaker 6: said he was walking back briskly, things like that.

258
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Speaker 3: Yeah.

259
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Speaker 4: Shorty Harden took the stand and told the same story

260
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Speaker 4: he told the grand jury. Shorty claimed when he picked

261
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Speaker 4: Jody up, he saw Frank Gable in the car across

262
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Speaker 4: from him. Apparently Michael Frankie then approached. There were blaring

263
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Speaker 4: contradiction to Hunsacker's testimony, who claimed to only see two men,

264
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Speaker 4: never mentioned another vehicle pulling up, seeing a woman, or

265
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Speaker 4: hearing that loud exchange, But the defense never challenged the discrepancies.

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Speaker 4: Here's Kevin Well.

267
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Speaker 8: Shorty was obviously making up the story that Bob Abele

268
00:16:08,760 --> 00:16:13,360
Speaker 8: didn't jump on He never asked Huntsacker, did you hear

269
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Speaker 8: or see Shorty Harden's car coming into the parking lot

270
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Speaker 8: at this time? Did you hear or see Shorty Harden

271
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Speaker 8: pull up and the car door open and Jody get out?

272
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Speaker 8: Did you hear or see Frank Gable wrestling in the

273
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Speaker 8: car with Mike Frankie? Did you hear Mike Frankie yell

274
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Speaker 8: out as Shorty testified, Hey, what are you doing in

275
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Speaker 8: my car? Never asking those questions? But I asked him

276
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Speaker 8: those questions and he said no. There were no other cars,

277
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Speaker 8: there were no other headlines, there were no engines running.

278
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Speaker 8: It was definitely quiet. That was astounding, and that's when

279
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Speaker 8: I knew frank was fucked.

280
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Speaker 4: Another blow came when Jody Swearingen, the troubled teenage runaway

281
00:17:14,400 --> 00:17:17,879
Speaker 4: and drug user, took the stand. Jody had formerly been

282
00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:21,200
Speaker 4: a grand jury witness for the prosecution, but had now

283
00:17:21,280 --> 00:17:24,960
Speaker 4: recanted her testimony and was no longer on board. She

284
00:17:25,119 --> 00:17:29,240
Speaker 4: was now testifying for the defense and adamant she'd never

285
00:17:29,280 --> 00:17:32,040
Speaker 4: seen Gable at the Dome building or witnessed him kill

286
00:17:32,080 --> 00:17:37,560
Speaker 4: Michael Frankie. Her cross examination by prosecutor Sarah Moore provided

287
00:17:37,600 --> 00:17:40,280
Speaker 4: one of the most dramatic moments of the trial, as

288
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Speaker 4: Moore reminded her of her previous testimony. Here's phil.

289
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Speaker 6: If the trial had a turning point, it was Jody's testimony.

290
00:17:48,560 --> 00:17:53,480
Speaker 6: She was called by the defense and Sarah Moore, the

291
00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:57,280
Speaker 6: lead prosecutor, had a cross examine her.

292
00:17:57,640 --> 00:18:02,280
Speaker 3: What Sarah did was to read back to Jody her.

293
00:18:02,320 --> 00:18:07,800
Speaker 6: Testimony before the grand jury, which, as Sarah knew, had

294
00:18:07,840 --> 00:18:12,159
Speaker 6: been manufactured using all these twenty three lie detector tests.

295
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Speaker 6: And so she would read, and did you say you

296
00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:18,640
Speaker 6: drove there in Frank Gable's car over to the Dome

297
00:18:18,680 --> 00:18:19,840
Speaker 6: building And Jody.

298
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Speaker 3: Would say, but that's a lie.

299
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Speaker 6: And then she'd say that you were a lookout basically

300
00:18:24,320 --> 00:18:26,720
Speaker 6: standing in front of the tree that immediately in front

301
00:18:26,760 --> 00:18:29,959
Speaker 6: of the North Portico Porch area, and Jody would say,

302
00:18:30,080 --> 00:18:33,240
Speaker 6: but that's a lie, and that you saw Frank Gable

303
00:18:33,240 --> 00:18:35,920
Speaker 6: get into a struggle with a big tall man near

304
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Speaker 6: the car that night, and Jody, that's a lie.

305
00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:43,040
Speaker 4: Ultimately, the spectacle was damning for the defense.

306
00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:48,320
Speaker 6: It was at best completely confusing to the jury. But

307
00:18:48,359 --> 00:18:51,679
Speaker 6: it made Jody. It must have seemed to them that

308
00:18:51,760 --> 00:18:55,919
Speaker 6: she was really confirming this story that she had for

309
00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:57,679
Speaker 6: some time recanted.

310
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Speaker 4: So the prosecutions approached was if you're lying, then you're lying.

311
00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:08,159
Speaker 6: Now, yes, But beyond that, they got her false confession

312
00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:10,960
Speaker 6: in and made it seem like the truth.

313
00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:13,280
Speaker 4: Here's Kevin Frankie.

314
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Speaker 8: My take on Jody is that she was still extremely

315
00:19:16,480 --> 00:19:20,919
Speaker 8: afraid of being held even though they had given her immunity.

316
00:19:21,880 --> 00:19:24,480
Speaker 8: She was afraid that anything could happen, that she could

317
00:19:24,520 --> 00:19:27,600
Speaker 8: say the wrong thing and the immunity agreement would go

318
00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:30,480
Speaker 8: down the toilet and she'd and that spend the rest

319
00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:33,520
Speaker 8: of her life or a good twenty or thirty years

320
00:19:33,560 --> 00:19:34,080
Speaker 8: in prison.

321
00:19:35,040 --> 00:19:38,560
Speaker 4: Jody swearing Gen had previously been granted immunity by the

322
00:19:38,640 --> 00:19:42,520
Speaker 4: state for her grand jury testimony. That immunity seems to

323
00:19:42,560 --> 00:19:45,520
Speaker 4: have been leveraged for a reason. Even as Kevin Frankie

324
00:19:45,560 --> 00:19:49,240
Speaker 4: watched the train wreck of Jody's cross examination unfold, he

325
00:19:49,400 --> 00:19:52,360
Speaker 4: was waiting for the defense to retaliate with a bombshell

326
00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:56,560
Speaker 4: he'd uncovered months before the trial even started, involving Jody

327
00:19:56,640 --> 00:20:00,000
Speaker 4: swearing Gen and a lawyer she had turned to. Desperate

328
00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:00,560
Speaker 4: for help.

329
00:20:01,440 --> 00:20:06,920
Speaker 8: Joe Bisbam and his offices were in downtown Albany, which

330
00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:11,240
Speaker 8: is about twenty five miles south of Salem, and I

331
00:20:11,280 --> 00:20:14,160
Speaker 8: went down there to see him after I moved out

332
00:20:14,200 --> 00:20:16,439
Speaker 8: here in August of nineteen ninety.

333
00:20:16,760 --> 00:20:18,919
Speaker 4: So this was way before Gable's trial.

334
00:20:19,600 --> 00:20:21,240
Speaker 8: Yeah, this was before gablestrial.

335
00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:26,840
Speaker 4: That lawyer and his wife took notes of that meeting,

336
00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:30,719
Speaker 4: which we have, and what did he share with you?

337
00:20:31,119 --> 00:20:34,800
Speaker 8: Joe said that Jody was really really wired and just

338
00:20:35,080 --> 00:20:39,800
Speaker 8: scared and shaking and babbling off about her boyfriend murdering

339
00:20:39,800 --> 00:20:42,320
Speaker 8: a guy, and that she was there and that she

340
00:20:42,400 --> 00:20:44,440
Speaker 8: might be an accomplice and didn't want to go down

341
00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:46,680
Speaker 8: for life for murder and blah blah blah and all that.

342
00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:50,480
Speaker 8: And that's where she mentioned Mike Frankie.

343
00:20:50,080 --> 00:20:53,440
Speaker 4: And who was the boyfriend she believed committed the murder.

344
00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:57,000
Speaker 8: Jody said that Tim had killed Mike Frankie.

345
00:20:57,280 --> 00:20:59,760
Speaker 4: Did you ever find out who that Tim was?

346
00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:04,000
Speaker 8: Tim was Rooster according to Jody.

347
00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:10,520
Speaker 4: Tim Natividad. Yes, that Tim Rooster Natividad, the same drug

348
00:21:10,560 --> 00:21:15,080
Speaker 4: dealing Natividad Carrie Rothschild wiped blood off of after a murder,

349
00:21:15,480 --> 00:21:18,919
Speaker 4: the same Natividad Liz Godlove believes was the man in

350
00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:24,080
Speaker 4: the Pinstripe suit, the same Natividad. Conrad Nick Garcia says

351
00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:27,560
Speaker 4: approached him to kill Michael Frankie at the request of

352
00:21:27,640 --> 00:21:32,840
Speaker 4: the then Assistant ag Scott McAllister, that Tim Natividad.

353
00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:36,680
Speaker 8: And I gave a copy of those notes to Gable's

354
00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:40,440
Speaker 8: defense team, and I gave a copy to Sarah Moore,

355
00:21:41,520 --> 00:21:45,679
Speaker 8: who was the prosecuting attorney for Frank Gables, and I

356
00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:48,560
Speaker 8: told Sarah, this kind of throws a wrench in your

357
00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:49,480
Speaker 8: case against Gabe.

358
00:21:50,080 --> 00:21:53,080
Speaker 4: So how did the courtroom and jury react to that

359
00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:58,920
Speaker 4: incredible bombshell about Tim Natividad. They didn't. Did that ever

360
00:21:58,960 --> 00:21:59,840
Speaker 4: come up in the trial?

361
00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:05,320
Speaker 8: No, never, any information regarding Tim Natividad was ruled irrelevant

362
00:22:05,359 --> 00:22:06,280
Speaker 8: and inadmissible.

363
00:22:07,040 --> 00:22:10,840
Speaker 4: That's right. For some reason, Judge Gregory West didn't permit

364
00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:13,479
Speaker 4: mention of Tim Natividad during the trial.

365
00:22:13,920 --> 00:22:17,159
Speaker 6: Jody wasn't even allowed to mention Natividad's name. She was

366
00:22:17,400 --> 00:22:22,320
Speaker 6: specifically forbidden by West to mention Natividad's name. There was

367
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:26,040
Speaker 6: a lot of discussion out of hearing of the jury

368
00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:29,280
Speaker 6: about that, and she was forbidden to mention Natividad.

369
00:22:29,560 --> 00:22:30,640
Speaker 4: And that's not all.

370
00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:33,400
Speaker 3: And of course Kraus was never brought up.

371
00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:36,320
Speaker 4: That's the Johnny Krause who confessed to knowledge of the

372
00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:40,920
Speaker 4: murder and was granted immunity to recant. Those omissions would

373
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:42,720
Speaker 4: layer with other issues.

374
00:22:42,560 --> 00:22:45,879
Speaker 6: The defense's failure to point out the contradictions between Hunsacre

375
00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:49,760
Speaker 6: and Shorting, failure to present an alibi A Gable was

376
00:22:49,800 --> 00:22:52,520
Speaker 6: at home that night and as would later be proved,

377
00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:54,400
Speaker 6: but they didn't do that.

378
00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:58,160
Speaker 4: And after Jody Schweringen testified that she'd been coerced into

379
00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:02,240
Speaker 4: testifying against Gable, after she recanted her story that placed

380
00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:05,080
Speaker 4: Gable at the Dome building that night as a lie,

381
00:23:05,359 --> 00:23:08,840
Speaker 4: after she was ripped apart by the prosecution, who used

382
00:23:08,840 --> 00:23:12,119
Speaker 4: the story they'd coerced and shaped with nearly two dozen

383
00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:17,360
Speaker 4: polygraph tests against her, Gable's defense made a shocking decision.

384
00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:21,879
Speaker 5: After Sarah Moore came back and destroyed everything. But it

385
00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:25,080
Speaker 5: was all stuff that we could reassemble when we called

386
00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:25,879
Speaker 5: her back in the stand.

387
00:23:26,200 --> 00:23:29,960
Speaker 4: But for some reason, Bob Abel refused to put Jody

388
00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:30,919
Speaker 4: back on the stand.

389
00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:33,800
Speaker 3: He just didn't want to messle with it.

390
00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:35,679
Speaker 5: I don't want to put her back up.

391
00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:36,720
Speaker 3: She's too dangerous.

392
00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:40,359
Speaker 5: Even though we could have resolved a lot of the

393
00:23:40,400 --> 00:23:43,240
Speaker 5: things that Sarah did and you know, kind of reconstructed

394
00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:46,600
Speaker 5: her testimony, which was very important. Bob wouldn't do it,

395
00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:49,800
Speaker 5: and from that point on, I didn't have the feeling

396
00:23:49,840 --> 00:23:51,760
Speaker 5: that he hit through the case, but he just gave

397
00:23:51,840 --> 00:23:52,280
Speaker 5: up on it.

398
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:57,119
Speaker 4: Here's newspaper reporter Steve Jackson's take on Jody So.

399
00:23:58,080 --> 00:24:04,080
Speaker 10: I think that she was being truthful when she retracted

400
00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:07,960
Speaker 10: her statement to the police. It didn't make sense, and

401
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:10,240
Speaker 10: there are some parts that I felt the defense attorney

402
00:24:10,280 --> 00:24:13,000
Speaker 10: should have been able to turn on on that with

403
00:24:13,400 --> 00:24:16,600
Speaker 10: you the timing, I mean, you know, she supposedly left

404
00:24:16,600 --> 00:24:18,560
Speaker 10: the scene and had made a phone call and then

405
00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:20,919
Speaker 10: came back to the scene and witnessed all this. You know,

406
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:23,359
Speaker 10: she would have had to have been a world class

407
00:24:23,480 --> 00:24:28,359
Speaker 10: printer to actually bid into that timeline, but the defense

408
00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:29,280
Speaker 10: never brought it up.

409
00:24:30,080 --> 00:24:33,120
Speaker 4: Phil Stafford thinks the defense may have been more than

410
00:24:33,240 --> 00:24:33,959
Speaker 4: just incompetent.

411
00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:38,720
Speaker 6: Abel He did such a bad job that the last

412
00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:41,000
Speaker 6: thing you can say about him is that he was incompetent,

413
00:24:41,040 --> 00:24:43,560
Speaker 6: But it was more than that is an interesting question.

414
00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:47,800
Speaker 6: At the time he was given this case, his business

415
00:24:47,840 --> 00:24:52,280
Speaker 6: was going down the tubes. He was desperate for a job,

416
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,320
Speaker 6: and he was handed one that was very, very lucrative here.

417
00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:00,280
Speaker 6: So it's worth while considering the possibility that the case

418
00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:01,280
Speaker 6: was thrown as.

419
00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:04,720
Speaker 4: Far as I'm concerned, but as shocking as the defense

420
00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:08,200
Speaker 4: is seeming an ability to challenge and properly cross examined

421
00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:13,080
Speaker 4: witnesses like Hunsacker, Hardin and swearing Jen, it's the fact

422
00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:17,960
Speaker 4: that Gable, who vehemently wanted to testify, was never given

423
00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:23,480
Speaker 4: the chance that still haunts the lead defense investigator, Tom McCallum.

424
00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:24,640
Speaker 3: I kind of.

425
00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:28,439
Speaker 5: Controlled all the witnesses. I had witness all set up,

426
00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:31,040
Speaker 5: and at the end of our case, doctor Spitch was

427
00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:33,800
Speaker 5: one of our last witnesses, and we had several letter

428
00:25:33,840 --> 00:25:36,480
Speaker 5: witnesses coming after that, but we're going to have Frank testify.

429
00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:40,000
Speaker 5: And I had to give doctor Spitch a ride back

430
00:25:40,359 --> 00:25:43,399
Speaker 5: at lunch break to the Portland Airport.

431
00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:46,680
Speaker 4: And it was wal McCallum was driving that witness back

432
00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:51,399
Speaker 4: to the airport that the defense abruptly rested, shocking many,

433
00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:52,640
Speaker 4: including McCallum.

434
00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:53,720
Speaker 3: On my way.

435
00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:56,520
Speaker 5: Back, I had a call from Phil seeing what the

436
00:25:56,600 --> 00:25:58,800
Speaker 5: hell's going on, and so what do you mean? And

437
00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:01,600
Speaker 5: he goes, well, do you guys read sittiness you're talking about.

438
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:04,679
Speaker 5: We can't have rested if Frank's going to testify. And

439
00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:06,840
Speaker 5: we got all kinds of witnesses set up this afternoon,

440
00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:09,679
Speaker 5: and I guess Bob took advantage of the fact that

441
00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:13,240
Speaker 5: I was gone and rested the case that surprised me,

442
00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:16,639
Speaker 5: and that we had things that needed to be addressed

443
00:26:16,640 --> 00:26:18,760
Speaker 5: and said, and witnesses that I had things to say,

444
00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:20,680
Speaker 5: And I guess they lost a little bit of hope

445
00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:21,000
Speaker 5: with that.

446
00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:25,520
Speaker 4: Reporter Steve Jackson thought when the defense rested, it was

447
00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:28,360
Speaker 4: clear Gable wasn't actually being defended.

448
00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:33,159
Speaker 10: It didn't happen. In fact, the defense folded and closed

449
00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:36,240
Speaker 10: its case in so short a time as it was

450
00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:37,480
Speaker 10: just pretty shocking.

451
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:38,080
Speaker 3: To tell you.

452
00:26:38,119 --> 00:26:41,280
Speaker 10: The truth is that, you know, I've seen defenses before

453
00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:44,040
Speaker 10: where they don't even present anything, but usually that's because

454
00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:47,000
Speaker 10: the state case is so ridiculous that you know, they

455
00:26:47,119 --> 00:26:49,040
Speaker 10: just go to closing and they say something like that.

456
00:26:49,119 --> 00:26:52,040
Speaker 10: But in this case, I thought there was an opportunity

457
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:56,320
Speaker 10: to at least cast reasonable doubt on the state case

458
00:26:56,640 --> 00:27:02,119
Speaker 10: as presented and gone from there. But there was just

459
00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:08,400
Speaker 10: little to nothing. There's a couple expert witnesses, some witnesses recanting.

460
00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:12,160
Speaker 10: But it was just it was kind of over and done,

461
00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:16,040
Speaker 10: and you're sitting there wondering, what about the timeline, what

462
00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:18,719
Speaker 10: about the things that don't make sense? What about Michael

463
00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:22,800
Speaker 10: Frankie and you know, the situation around his house, and

464
00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:25,360
Speaker 10: what about some of these other.

465
00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:29,320
Speaker 4: Things, things like the spent riot gun shells littering Frankie's

466
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:33,560
Speaker 4: back deck, or the pistol found under his pillow, or

467
00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:36,920
Speaker 4: that he was teaching his wife to shoot. But even

468
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:41,680
Speaker 4: with all the defense's missteps with resting prematurely, without letting

469
00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:45,240
Speaker 4: Gable take the stand, there was still no physical evidence

470
00:27:45,320 --> 00:27:49,560
Speaker 4: linking Frank Gable to the crime. Here's local reporter Eric Mason,

471
00:27:50,080 --> 00:27:50,679
Speaker 4: there was.

472
00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:53,840
Speaker 9: No one there to provide the glue, to put it

473
00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:59,399
Speaker 9: all together, to basically say to the jury, there's not

474
00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:02,960
Speaker 9: a hair, there's not a fiber, there's not a drop

475
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:06,920
Speaker 9: of blood that ties Frank Gable to any of this.

476
00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:09,120
Speaker 3: It just wasn't there.

477
00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:14,280
Speaker 9: Those of us who understood the story thought to ourselves, man,

478
00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:19,160
Speaker 9: there's just not enough evidence here except for some inmates,

479
00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:24,200
Speaker 9: some convicted and professional liars to come forward and tell

480
00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:28,520
Speaker 9: these stories about Frank Gable and about his admissions. There's

481
00:28:28,560 --> 00:28:33,800
Speaker 9: nothing there that holds this together, and the prosecution hasn't

482
00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:36,960
Speaker 9: met its burden of proof in the eyes of everyone

483
00:28:36,960 --> 00:28:39,440
Speaker 9: who had been there to study the case.

484
00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:42,760
Speaker 4: And Mason wasn't alone in believing the state hadn't proved

485
00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:44,400
Speaker 4: guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

486
00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:48,080
Speaker 9: I think ninety nine percent of reporters knew that he

487
00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:50,960
Speaker 9: was not the right guy. As the jury is deliberating,

488
00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:55,320
Speaker 9: we did take a straw poll as reporters and all

489
00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:58,960
Speaker 9: of us but one believe that Frank Gable should be

490
00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:01,320
Speaker 9: acquitted of the crime. I was not enough there to

491
00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:04,720
Speaker 9: convict him of stabbing Michael Frankie. It was just a

492
00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:07,760
Speaker 9: lack of forensic evidence of any kind that tied him

493
00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:08,480
Speaker 9: to the scene.

494
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:13,160
Speaker 4: Even the defense's lead investigator, Tom McCallum, thought Gable would

495
00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:13,760
Speaker 4: be acquitted.

496
00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:18,000
Speaker 5: In fact, when the verdict came back, I went down

497
00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:20,280
Speaker 5: and Frank didn't want to come up. He was scared

498
00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:24,880
Speaker 5: and didn't want to come up, and here's a verdict.

499
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:27,040
Speaker 5: And I went down and talked to him for about

500
00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:30,200
Speaker 5: half an hour and I said, yeah, there's no way

501
00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:31,440
Speaker 5: he can find you guilty.

502
00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:33,480
Speaker 3: And that's the way I felt.

503
00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:37,760
Speaker 4: But McCallum would be proved wrong after less than twenty

504
00:29:37,800 --> 00:29:42,560
Speaker 4: four hours of deliberation, the jury unanimously found Gable guilty

505
00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:45,680
Speaker 4: of murdering Michael Frankie. He was found guilty of six

506
00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:49,400
Speaker 4: counts of aggravated murder and one count of murder. He

507
00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:52,800
Speaker 4: was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

508
00:29:54,200 --> 00:29:57,600
Speaker 7: Here's Kevin when they announced guilty.

509
00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:02,320
Speaker 8: I've never heard of quiet in my life. Talking with

510
00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:05,200
Speaker 8: the reporters. There was a gallery to Atu that was there,

511
00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:07,240
Speaker 8: and she looked at me and she said, my god,

512
00:30:07,280 --> 00:30:09,320
Speaker 8: that could have been hearing me sitting in frank Abel's

513
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:13,760
Speaker 8: chair to shots that he was found guilty. So everybody was.

514
00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:19,600
Speaker 4: Here's Eric Mason when the verdict was announced. What went

515
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:20,280
Speaker 4: through your head?

516
00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:27,840
Speaker 9: Complete shock that twelve people could arrive at that conclusion

517
00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:33,880
Speaker 9: based on two deputy district attorneys who made that case

518
00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:41,000
Speaker 9: and basically these convicts who came and told these stories,

519
00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:44,640
Speaker 9: and we all just kind of shook our heads and went, Okay, well,

520
00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:48,280
Speaker 9: I guess we just go out and report what just happened.

521
00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:51,320
Speaker 4: Phil still grapples with that day.

522
00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:55,280
Speaker 6: You know, what gets me is that they knew what

523
00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:58,920
Speaker 6: they'd done. They knew that they'd absolutely made up a

524
00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:02,239
Speaker 6: case against a man who wasn't even there. They were

525
00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:04,640
Speaker 6: smart enough to know that, they were smart enough to

526
00:31:04,680 --> 00:31:07,680
Speaker 6: know how they did it, all these light detector tests,

527
00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:12,920
Speaker 6: all this manufactured testimony, and then not only do they

528
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:16,920
Speaker 6: get a conviction on the basis of this phony evidence,

529
00:31:17,440 --> 00:31:19,120
Speaker 6: they asked for the death.

530
00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:20,960
Speaker 4: Penalty and they came close to getting it.

531
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:24,160
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, they did. I think it was ten to two.

532
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:28,480
Speaker 4: Why do you think they would have wanted him dead?

533
00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:30,959
Speaker 4: Do you think it's safe to assume that it's because

534
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:32,480
Speaker 4: a case would have died with Gable?

535
00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:35,880
Speaker 3: Oh, it would have. Yeah, I think you're right. They're

536
00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:36,880
Speaker 3: willing to kill him.

537
00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:39,400
Speaker 6: As far as I'm concerned, that's about as evil as

538
00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:39,960
Speaker 6: you can get.

539
00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:49,240
Speaker 4: On the next murder in Oregon, another uncovered bombshell that

540
00:31:49,400 --> 00:31:50,800
Speaker 4: was kept from Gable's trial.

541
00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:55,200
Speaker 8: She overheard the conversation this gassa is supposed to look

542
00:31:55,240 --> 00:31:56,280
Speaker 8: like a suicide.

543
00:31:56,560 --> 00:32:00,200
Speaker 4: She now comes forward, it was a burden off of

544
00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:06,200
Speaker 4: his back that Michael was dead. Yes, connecting a by

545
00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:10,000
Speaker 4: now familiar name to the murder of Michael Frankie. And

546
00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:13,600
Speaker 4: he relishes in the misery that he brings to Peopil.

547
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:16,240
Speaker 4: He just absolutely relishes in it.

548
00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:25,360
Speaker 1: Murder in Oregon is hosted by Lauren Bright Pacheco and

549
00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:29,440
Speaker 1: Phil Stanford. Executive producers are Noel Brown, Lauren Bright Pacheco,

550
00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:33,600
Speaker 1: and Phil Stanford. Supervising producer and lead editor is Taylor Chacogne.

551
00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:37,680
Speaker 1: Sound designed by Tristan McNeil, Story editing by Matt Riddle,

552
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:41,720
Speaker 1: Written by Phil Stanford, Matt Riddle and Lauren Bright Pacheco.

553
00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:45,120
Speaker 1: Music written and performed by the Diamond Street Players and

554
00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:48,720
Speaker 1: mixed by Taylor Chackoine with music supervision by Noel Brown.

555
00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:54,120
Speaker 1: Additional music by Tristan McNeil. Archival elements courtesy of kg

556
00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:57,880
Speaker 1: W and Portland, Oregon, the station behind the podcast urged

557
00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:02,080
Speaker 1: to kill work in There is a production of iHeartRadio

558
00:33:18,640 --> 00:33:18,960
Speaker 1: MHM