Speaker 1: Murder in Illinois, a production of iHeartRadio. If you spend
Speaker 1: enough time investigating true crime stories, you wind up with
Speaker 1: some pretty disturbing content, and that's how this case landed
Speaker 1: on my radar. Back in twenty eighteen, I was wrapping
Speaker 1: up my first podcast, Happy Face. Maybe at some point
Speaker 1: i'd entered the keywords kill her dad or father who
Speaker 1: kills but the ten year anniversary of the Vaughan family
Speaker 1: murders wound up in my feed. I'd never heard of
Speaker 1: the two thousand and seven killings, although regionally around Illinois
Speaker 1: they received a ton of press. But it was the
Speaker 1: father's mugshot that caught my attention and its expression that
Speaker 1: actually made me click that link. Suddenly I found myself
Speaker 1: staring into the eyes of Christopher Vaughan. I scanned some
Speaker 1: articles and viewed a few news pieces about the gruesome murders.
Speaker 1: Three kids and their mother all dead. Then I went
Speaker 1: back to the top, reabsorbing the timeline and the details.
Speaker 1: Some like infidelity in strip clubs, were tabloid headlines, some
Speaker 1: disturbing and all heartbreaking. But I kept getting drawn back
Speaker 1: to the look on this guy, Christopher Baughd's face. There
Speaker 1: was this unnervingly odd, almost eerie look in his eyes,
Speaker 1: eyes that belonged to a man the will County States
Speaker 1: Attorney described.
Speaker 2: As the heartless, soulless psychopath.
Speaker 1: I remember thinking, for a guy convicted of killing his
Speaker 1: entire family, ban looked a hell of a lot more
Speaker 1: bewildered than evil. Putting on my glasses, I leaned in
Speaker 1: closer and expanded the screen until it was filled entirely
Speaker 1: with just Baughn's eyes, and thought, what could possibly drive
Speaker 1: a parent to kill their kids in such a twisted,
Speaker 1: cruel and confrontational way? And why did the eyes staring
Speaker 1: back at me look so confused, almost lost? They had
Speaker 1: this pained intensity, heightened by the slight furrow of the
Speaker 1: sparse brows that topped them, and punctuated by the dark
Speaker 1: circles beneath them. Those eyes didn't look like they belonged
Speaker 1: to a guy who shot his entire family at close range.
Speaker 1: They looked haunted. Then, almost as an involuntary reflex, I typed,
Speaker 1: could Christopher Vaughn be innocent? Into Google? The results that
Speaker 1: popped up would put me on a troubling, nearly two
Speaker 1: year path filled with staggering twists, turns, and bombshells. I'm
Speaker 1: Lauren Brett Pacheco, and this is murder in Illinois.
Speaker 3: Cageaty change feel the ground, ho.
Speaker 4: HO change.
Speaker 1: Out.
Speaker 2: Christopher Vaughan is a former private investigator who specialized in
Speaker 2: computer forensics. He is today sitting in the Illinois Department
Speaker 2: of Corrections in Pinkneyville, Illinois, convicted of the murder of
Speaker 2: his family that consisted of his wife, Kimberly, and three children.
Speaker 2: The deeper I got into was case I realized that
Speaker 2: he's actually innocent.
Speaker 1: That's Bill the man. My internet search into Vaughn's possible
Speaker 1: innocence led me to.
Speaker 2: My name is Bill Clutter. I work as a private investigator.
Speaker 2: I've been doing this for over thirty years now and
Speaker 2: have developed a specialty of criminal defense investigation.
Speaker 1: Clutter was a detective for Vaughn's initial defense team, but
Speaker 1: initially didn't believe he was innocent.
Speaker 2: I was influenced by the media as much of the
Speaker 2: public was, and just assume he's got these superficial injuries.
Speaker 2: He's the sole survivor, and so initially I assumed this
Speaker 2: was going to be a mitigation case where we would
Speaker 2: focus on telling a story that would persuade A Jerry
Speaker 2: to spare his life.
Speaker 1: There are a number of developments that take us from
Speaker 1: there to why Bill Clutter is still involved with the
Speaker 1: case fourteen years later, nine years after Vaughn was convicted.
Speaker 2: Over the years, have worked on a number of people
Speaker 2: who've been wrongfully convicted, and it led me to create
Speaker 2: what's now the Illinois Innocence Project. And that was almost
Speaker 2: twenty years ago. I started investigating innocence after I moved
Speaker 2: to Louisville, Kentucky, after Illinois abolished the death Belloty.
Speaker 1: Clutters days pretty busy trying to get people out of prison,
Speaker 1: which is why it took me a while to track
Speaker 1: him down.
Speaker 2: When we finally connected by a phone. I had just
Speaker 2: pulled into Columbus, Ohios late in the evenings, sometime after seven,
Speaker 2: and I was park literally outside of a restaurant to
Speaker 2: have dinner in Dublin, Ohio. That was December of twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: We've been talking ever since. I'd get to know Bill
Speaker 1: Clutter is an affable, principled guy with an almost boyish
Speaker 1: enthusiasm about social issues balanced by pragmatics, somewhat pessimistic takes
Speaker 1: on the judicial system, and politics. He ran for the
Speaker 1: Illinois Senate twice.
Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety I almost became the first Democrat in
Speaker 2: eighty six years to win that seat.
Speaker 1: Once COVID lockdown hit, I started communicating more with Bill
Speaker 1: than just about anybody living outside my house, mostly about
Speaker 1: his frustrations involving his long history challenging Christopher Vaughan's conviction.
Speaker 2: You know, I've been trying to pitch the Vaughn case
Speaker 2: and line up pro bono representation for him. I could
Speaker 2: show you stacks of letters that I've sent out to
Speaker 2: the president of the Illinois Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers,
Speaker 2: who I knew and I've got no response, and to others,
Speaker 2: and trying to get him support.
Speaker 1: Not exactly an easy undertaking, since Clutter is one of
Speaker 1: the few people who believe Chris Vaughn is innocent outside
Speaker 1: of Chris's parents and siblings.
Speaker 2: I've never given up on Christoph Vaughan. In the eyes
Speaker 2: of the law, he is a convicted killer. And so
Speaker 2: you're starting at that point, and it's difficult to change
Speaker 2: people's minds once they hear that. Hopefully, the more we
Speaker 2: peel away at this case and expose the wrongful nature
Speaker 2: of the conviction, those minds will change, but.
Speaker 1: Many minds have already been influenced by the reality. Vaughn
Speaker 1: was the sole survivor of a horrific crime for which
Speaker 1: he was convicted, and it was salaciously covered, especially by
Speaker 1: local news.
Speaker 2: This all played out in the media, and they really
Speaker 2: had a field day.
Speaker 1: Vaughn is accused of killing his wife and three children.
Speaker 2: There was just a drone of negative media about him
Speaker 2: and his case.
Speaker 5: Prosecutors said that Vaughn's motive was his wife's one million
Speaker 5: dollar life insurance policy.
Speaker 1: So understandably to many living around Illinois, Vaughn is considered
Speaker 1: an especially evil man. Prosecutors in the Christopher Vaughan murder
Speaker 1: trial argue he murdered his family because they were obstacles
Speaker 1: in his life. Jojosey was one of the local reporters
Speaker 1: who covered the story well.
Speaker 6: At the time the Vaughn family murders. I was working
Speaker 6: at the Juliet Herald News newspaper and Juliet Ellino and
Speaker 6: I got one of the editors to sometimes calling me
Speaker 6: on mysell and demanding to know where I am. He's like,
Speaker 6: we got this huge story. There's a big murder in Shanahan.
Speaker 6: A whole family has been murdered. Chrusoper Vaughn case was.
Speaker 6: It was a very big case locally. I mean, you
Speaker 6: had the Chicago media down here, it was. It had
Speaker 6: a great impact. I mean, three children and their mother
Speaker 6: on their way to a water park and then executed.
Speaker 6: That's going to be a big story.
Speaker 1: Joe's a prolific journalist and the author of fatal Now's
Speaker 1: The Tragic Wives of Sergeant Drew Peterson, which was later
Speaker 1: made into a movie called Untouchable starring Rob Lowe as
Speaker 1: the wife killing cop. It unfolded the same year as
Speaker 1: the Vaughn tragedy, along with another high profile case.
Speaker 6: Two thousand and seven was an unusual year around here.
Speaker 6: They had the disappearance of Lisa Static mother and wife
Speaker 6: and playfield and she was going through a divorce but
Speaker 6: living in the same house as or a strange husband,
Speaker 6: and she vanished. That was a huge story in the
Speaker 6: Chicago area. Soon after that you had the Lawns Christopher
Speaker 6: Vaughn and his family, mother and three children shot to death.
Speaker 6: Then months after that you had Drew Peterson, which pulled
Speaker 6: all the attention off of both of those cases. Really,
Speaker 6: I mean Drew Peterson, Stacy Peterson, Kathleen Savio. That story
Speaker 6: pulled the limelight away from all of them.
Speaker 1: Drew Peterson's high profile trial grabbed national headlines, and his
Speaker 1: trial also happened at the same time in the same
Speaker 1: building as Christopher Vaughns.
Speaker 6: I ended up covering most of the trial after Drew
Speaker 6: Peterson's was over. It's a very photogenic family, very attractive family,
Speaker 6: adorable children, and they were terribly brutally murdered. I don't
Speaker 6: think I saw the crime scene photos until the trial,
Speaker 6: but which they were heartbreaking. But you don't really need
Speaker 6: to see the crime scene photos to have your heart broken.
Speaker 6: Anytime there's a case involving murdered children and murdered mother,
Speaker 6: it's heartbreaking. It's terrible. There's nothing worse that I can
Speaker 6: really think of.
Speaker 1: And Dan Illinois, Christopher Vaughn is thought of as the
Speaker 1: guy who killed his wife and three children to escape
Speaker 1: his marriage. Was there ever any sympathy for Christopher.
Speaker 6: Vaughn, Not that I can recall. I mean, I don't
Speaker 6: think anybody really bought into his version of events.
Speaker 1: Yep, there are many more complicated pieces to the story.
Speaker 1: We'll be covering them all but we have to start
Speaker 1: with the murders Christopher Vaughan was convicted of committing. While
Speaker 1: the details are disturbing and brutal, they are also critical
Speaker 1: to understanding the case and whether the man now serving
Speaker 1: life actually took four lives. The murders occurred on June fourteenth,
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven. In the quiet pre dawn hours
Speaker 1: of that Thursday morning. The Vaughn family, Christopher, his wife Kimberly,
Speaker 1: and their three children, loaded up their red Ford Xpedition suv,
Speaker 1: setting out before five a m. From their home in
Speaker 1: Oswego for an impromptu family trip to a water park
Speaker 1: three hours away in Springfield, Illinois. They would never arrive.
Speaker 1: At approximately five fifteen a m. A passing motorist stop
Speaker 1: to render assistance to Christopher Vaughan, who was found limping
Speaker 1: along the frontage road of Interstate fifty five south of Joliet, Illinois.
Speaker 1: Vaughan had two gunshot wounds. One bullet had pierced his
Speaker 1: left wrist, the other went entirely through his left leg.
Speaker 1: When the man asked if Vaughan had been in a
Speaker 1: motorcycle accident or if he'd been stabbed, he replied, no,
Speaker 1: I think my wife shot me. The rest of his
Speaker 1: family wouldn't fare as well. At five twenty four a
Speaker 1: m first responders would encounter a trail of blood reaching
Speaker 1: roughly one hundred and forty feet, which led to the
Speaker 1: family's red Ford expedition nestled in a secluded area of
Speaker 1: the frontage road of Interstate fifty five. Upon their arrival,
Speaker 1: all the doors to the suv were closed. Inside were
Speaker 1: the remaining members of Christopher Vaughan's family dead. His three
Speaker 1: children were in the back seat. Abigail, aged twelve, behind
Speaker 1: the driver's seat, shot once in the head and once
Speaker 1: in the chest, had been clutching a Harry Potter book
Speaker 1: and a stuffed animal. Her younger sister, Cassandra eleven, in
Speaker 1: the center seat, and their little brother, Blake, age eight,
Speaker 1: seated behind the passenger seat, had also been shot twice.
Speaker 1: Evidence would later show the young boy was holding his
Speaker 1: arms out in a defensive position and likely saw what
Speaker 1: was coming. The body of their mother, Kimberly Vaughan, was
Speaker 1: slumped in the passenger seat, a single gunshot wound under
Speaker 1: her chin. On the floor board. At her feet were
Speaker 1: her purse and a nine millimeter Torus handgun. The murder
Speaker 1: scene was so traumatizing that a police chaplain was brought
Speaker 1: out to provide counseling to responders. Christopher Vaughan, the old
Speaker 1: surviving member of the family, was loaded into an ambulance
Speaker 1: bound for the hospital. On the way there, Chris Vaughn
Speaker 1: appeared to believe his family was still alive. Upon arriving
Speaker 1: at the hospital, he told a nurse, you should call
Speaker 1: my wife. She gets mad when I don't call her.
Speaker 1: That disconnect would continue. After being released from the hospital,
Speaker 1: Christopher Vaughan was taken to the District five police headquarters,
Speaker 1: where he was interviewed by detectives. Vaughn had apparent gaps
Speaker 1: in his recollection of the morning events. He said his
Speaker 1: wife wanted him to pull off the highway because she
Speaker 1: was feeling nauseous, a side effect of anxiety induced migraines,
Speaker 1: or possibly the prescription medication she was taking for the condition.
Speaker 1: Vaughn remembered pulling off, parking in front of a cell
Speaker 1: phone tower along a frontage road to provide privacy for
Speaker 1: his wife, and then getting out of the car to
Speaker 1: check the back tires. He recalled resecuring the strap on
Speaker 1: the luggage rack and observed a deer in the adjoining cornfield.
Speaker 1: It was only after getting back into the vehicle Vaughn
Speaker 1: noticed his leg was bleeding, but had no memory of
Speaker 1: being shot. Over the next twenty hours, police would interrogate Vaughn,
Speaker 1: still clad in a hospital gown, and Vaughn's reaction during
Speaker 1: the questioning raised scrutiny, especially those captured by hidden video
Speaker 1: cameras when the officers left the room. At one point,
Speaker 1: when alone, confronted by a photo of his eight year
Speaker 1: old son, Blake, Vaughn crumpled it and threw it into
Speaker 1: the corner of the room. Less than a week later,
Speaker 1: Christopher Vaughan would be arrested at the funeral of his
Speaker 1: wife and children. Five years later. During Vaughn's five week trial,
Speaker 1: incriminating revelation after revelation would drop, none of them flattering
Speaker 1: for the accused killer.
Speaker 7: This morning, Assistant State's Attorney Mike Fitzgerald meticulously reviewed the
Speaker 7: evidence from the five week long trial, testimony from dozens
Speaker 7: of witnesses. Fitzgerald claimed Vaughn's guilt is painfully obvious.
Speaker 1: The jury would take fifty minutes to find von guilty
Speaker 1: on all four counts of first degree murder. Christopher Vaughan
Speaker 1: has never confessed and for fourteen years has maintained no
Speaker 1: memory of what actually happened to his family in their
Speaker 1: suv that day, no recollection of the four murders for
Speaker 1: which he is now serving a life sentence. Here's Bill
Speaker 1: Clutter again.
Speaker 2: Generally, my rule of thumb as your client is your
Speaker 2: best source of information, and the biggest obstacle was Chris's
Speaker 2: inability to remember the events of what happened that morning.
Speaker 1: The lone survivor, the only person who would have been
Speaker 1: an eye witness to what happened that day, couldn't provide
Speaker 1: you with that information.
Speaker 2: That was the frustrating part of the case.
Speaker 1: Yes, Vaughan's defense would attribute his recollection gap to something
Speaker 1: called dissociative amnesia, a disorder that involves the inability to
Speaker 1: recall important personal information that is usually caused by trauma
Speaker 1: or stress.
Speaker 2: He really had no memory, and this is the thing.
Speaker 2: The probable cost to arrest him cited the fact that
Speaker 2: he had basically these gaps in his story, and it
Speaker 2: became clear that he couldn't remember what actually happened.
Speaker 1: But many people in Illinois can't forget it.
Speaker 8: It was a strange case. I'll say that it was
Speaker 8: one of the saddest ones I've covered. It'll never leave me.
Speaker 9: And I've covered serial killer cases, death penalty sentencing hearings
Speaker 9: and all the bets and terrible things, and this one
Speaker 9: will be with.
Speaker 2: Me for.
Speaker 1: That's journalist Erica Worst, a seasoned local reporter who feels
Speaker 1: deeply rooted to the Bond case just to hear.
Speaker 10: The word actually go, I know that that's my community
Speaker 10: and that's where I grow up. We never I mean
Speaker 10: to have three children and a mother killed and a father,
Speaker 10: you know, being convicted of that crime. I mean, you
Speaker 10: would not find that.
Speaker 8: Around here, would not.
Speaker 1: At the time of the murders, Worst was a reporter
Speaker 1: at the Chicago Sun Times, a newspaper that had already
Speaker 1: done a profile on the exceptionally photogenic family before the
Speaker 1: tragedy for a real estate article.
Speaker 10: It was weird because when the story happened, we were
Speaker 10: looking through our types of for a a picture we
Speaker 10: might have had of them, and then we're like, holy shit,
Speaker 10: they were in our own paper not that long ago.
Speaker 10: So that was that was a photo they used often,
Speaker 10: the family's photo when they moved into their house, and
Speaker 10: as we go.
Speaker 8: We had a weekend.
Speaker 10: Feature in the paper that was a design feature, talked
Speaker 10: about homes, et cetera. And their home was featured, and
Speaker 10: they're ganding in front of a bay window, and it's
Speaker 10: all of them and it's just talking about how they
Speaker 10: moved here in their house and this and that.
Speaker 1: Google Christopher Vaughan's family, and two of those photos are
Speaker 1: in the top results, One of Chris and Kim seated
Speaker 1: in front of their three standing children, Another of the
Speaker 1: family of five seated together on a brown sectional couch.
Speaker 1: All are casually clad in jeans, the three kids peering
Speaker 1: out beneath silky bangs. Abigail's coloring leaning more towards the
Speaker 1: strawberry blonde of her mother, Cassandra, and Blake a bit
Speaker 1: more brunette like their dad. Chris looks significantly heavier than
Speaker 1: he'd later appear in mugshots. Kimberly is beaming beautifully in
Speaker 1: both photos. The only member of the family smiling broadly
Speaker 1: enough to reveal teeth the home was Christine.
Speaker 10: They had just moved in. They're all standing there, and
Speaker 10: they couldn't have been much younger than they were the
Speaker 10: age they were killed, because they hadn't lived in Las
Speaker 10: Lego too long. You just think, Okay, I got a
Speaker 10: flippath this picture without evening it, not even read the article.
Speaker 10: It was just a picture and the paper that I
Speaker 10: looked at every single day to look at the picture
Speaker 10: and think, oh my god. Four of those five people
Speaker 10: are dead. Now, those kids are dead forever and ever
Speaker 10: and ever and ever and ever. And that's what's haunting,
Speaker 10: because they'll never get any older than they were in
Speaker 10: that picture.
Speaker 1: The tragedy that photo now represents is in stark contrast
Speaker 1: to the stunning good looks of the Telegenic family.
Speaker 10: I mean, they were a picture perfect. That's the kind
Speaker 10: of couple that I would look at and be like,
Speaker 10: see I look there, like, you know, three cute little
Speaker 10: kids and take nice house and cam seems so heavy,
Speaker 10: and that that's what I would point to and say.
Speaker 5: That's what I want.
Speaker 10: And you know, never know what's going on behind closed doors, much.
Speaker 1: Of which would come out in court in front of
Speaker 1: both Chris and Kimberly's grieving torn Aparte families, the Vaughn's
Speaker 1: and the Phillips worst kept meticulous notes throughout the Vaughn
Speaker 1: trial and finds them difficult to revisit.
Speaker 8: It's hard when it's a family family thing. Usually one guy.
Speaker 8: Again it's another guy.
Speaker 4: And a different family, and in this case, it's like
Speaker 4: total devastation, the whole family that was sad. Here's these
Speaker 4: families that used to be one family and now are
Speaker 4: sitting on different sides of the courtroom, and they believe
Speaker 4: one thing, and they believe one thing, and it's never
Speaker 4: going to be resolved, so there's no justice.
Speaker 8: No one's gonna get what they want, which is they
Speaker 8: loved ones.
Speaker 1: Maath covering the five week trial gave worst ample time
Speaker 1: to scrutinize Christopher Vaughn and his behavior.
Speaker 10: I was there and watched every ninety witnesses and every
Speaker 10: piece of evidence, be withdrawald and every autopsy photo.
Speaker 1: When you saw Vaughn in person as opposed to seeing
Speaker 1: the mugshot, can you just take me to your thoughts
Speaker 1: of how he presented in the courtroom.
Speaker 10: Well, I mean he's a handsome man. He was well dressed.
Speaker 10: You don't look at Chris and be like you slaughtered
Speaker 10: your family. It's just not the vibe he gives off.
Speaker 8: It's like he can't be the epitome of evil.
Speaker 4: But then you think back to the autopsy photos and
Speaker 4: you're like, no, that's pretty damn evil.
Speaker 1: Hello, Hey Gail, it's Lauren.
Speaker 11: Hi here Lauren.
Speaker 1: How are you.
Speaker 11: I am doing very well.
Speaker 1: That's Chris Bahnd's mother, Gail. We'd connect by email then phone.
Speaker 1: Her voice reminds me of Yankee candles, warm and comforting
Speaker 1: throughout our calls. I was struck by the consistently positive
Speaker 1: energy she radiates every time she picks up the phone.
Speaker 1: For over a year, we've talked about just about everything,
Speaker 1: including fishing.
Speaker 4: We've got some.
Speaker 12: Pretty good size ones around here, and when I finally.
Speaker 8: Get one, I usually fish only.
Speaker 6: For the little fun fish.
Speaker 12: So when I get something that thens my rod backwards,
Speaker 12: it's like, no, I don't want this. And here's usually
Speaker 12: with me, So I say, if you don't want this fish,
Speaker 12: I'm just dropping the rod and he'll scramble.
Speaker 1: The eye into the boat.
Speaker 13: He said, give it, give it, give it.
Speaker 1: Well, then it's a good thing that you fish together then,
Speaker 1: or you'd be losing a lot of rods. Yes, But
Speaker 1: when the topic turns to Chris, the eldest of her
Speaker 1: three sons, you hear a sudden shift, almost like a
Speaker 1: WinCE from an old injury, followed by frustration, Well, my
Speaker 1: son is innocent.
Speaker 11: He did not kill his three children nor his wife.
Speaker 11: My son did not do this, and he's sitting there
Speaker 11: in prison in the middle of Illinois. Nobody can hold him.
Speaker 11: When this happened, there was nobody to talk to him
Speaker 11: after he lost these his family. We had counselors, we
Speaker 11: had each other.
Speaker 1: Chris had no one for fourteen years. Gail's been trying
Speaker 1: to get her son out of prison with little support,
Speaker 1: something she's grown used to.
Speaker 14: A couple days after this this awful tragedy, mister Glasgow
Speaker 14: appeared on TV with all the higher up people that
Speaker 14: were investigating.
Speaker 1: She's referencing James Glasgow, the Will County State's attorney who
Speaker 1: prosecuted her son.
Speaker 13: And he pretty much pointed out that Kimberly was an
Speaker 13: angel and he would deal with the person that did this,
Speaker 13: and he was pretty sure he knew who it was.
Speaker 11: And it never deviated from his point of view there.
Speaker 11: He was always trying to fit the evidence into the
Speaker 11: crime instead of following the evidence. The jurors some of
Speaker 11: them actually fell asleep during the trial. I mean, how
Speaker 11: can somebody put somebody into prison that doesn't listen.
Speaker 1: To all of the facts. Gaale moderates a Facebook group
Speaker 1: Christopher Vaughan is Innocent, the last word in all caps.
Speaker 1: It had sixteen members when I looked it up. In
Speaker 1: addition to Bill Clutter, many of them are Vaughn relatives.
Speaker 11: This is hard to put together all of the things
Speaker 11: that went wrong and what we should have said throughout
Speaker 11: the whole trial. We kept our emotions in because that's
Speaker 11: what our lawyers told us to do.
Speaker 1: That Facebook group's banner image is a photo of Vaughn
Speaker 1: in prison Issu Blue, standing between Gale and her husband Pierre,
Speaker 1: who also goes by the nickname Pete. The three are
Speaker 1: arm in arms, smiling at the camera, in front of
Speaker 1: the photo backdrop of a slightly tropical sunsetting sky. Above
Speaker 1: them is a string of glittery paper hearts that looks
Speaker 1: like it would be more at home in an elementary
Speaker 1: school than a prison. Chris sports symmetrical features, a shaved
Speaker 1: head and a slim trim goatee. He's a pretty balanced
Speaker 1: mixture of his parents, with a scale tilted maybe the
Speaker 1: slightest bit towards his mother. Chris shares her defined jaw
Speaker 1: and like hers. His eyes are lighter than Pierre's dark
Speaker 1: brown ones, but almost identical in shape to his dad's.
Speaker 1: Both parents are wearing similar plaid flannel shirts, have salt
Speaker 1: and pepper shades of hair, and the same expression, a
Speaker 1: combination of happiness, vulnerability, and weariness. They're visiting a son
Speaker 1: sentenced to life for killing their three grandchildren and daughter
Speaker 1: in law. The look in all their eyes is at
Speaker 1: odds with the smiles beneath them. Pierre, Yes, Hey, it's Lauren.
Speaker 5: Hi, Lauren, how are you.
Speaker 1: I'm fine. Gail told me to call this number. Pierre
Speaker 1: Bond shares his wife Gail's belief in Chris's innocence, but
Speaker 1: it's tampered with a bit more anger in cynicism.
Speaker 15: He was convicted before he even started. My son was
Speaker 15: presumed guilty immediately. They took him after he was treated
Speaker 15: for being shot. They took him immediately from the hospital
Speaker 15: to the police station, and the police were relentless and
Speaker 15: pursuing him and persuading him and lying to him to
Speaker 15: get him to confess. And he never did do that,
Speaker 15: and that was never brought up in the trial. My
Speaker 15: son who was shot, his family was killed, and he
Speaker 15: lost everything and nobody stopped to think about, you know,
Speaker 15: wait a minute, what if he did not do this?
Speaker 1: So you don't feel that Chris got a proper defense.
Speaker 5: Absolutely not, absolutely not.
Speaker 1: When I first started speaking with Chris Vaughn's parents, Pierre
Speaker 1: was transitioning towards retirement and the couple was in the
Speaker 1: process of moving to the last home they planned to
Speaker 1: live in, one that includes a room for Chris.
Speaker 2: My son did not do this.
Speaker 11: He needs to come home.
Speaker 1: It's not surprising that parents would believe in the innocence
Speaker 1: of their own child. Gale and Pierre's printal allegiance and
Speaker 1: optimism aside, the process of revisiting the conviction of Christopher
Speaker 1: Vaughan is daunting. According to Bill Clutter, these.
Speaker 2: Cases are an uphill climb, even when you have newly
Speaker 2: discovered evidence that just blows the doors off the conviction.
Speaker 2: These are hard cases, and you're always going to get
Speaker 2: pushed back on some level, and especially at the lower court,
Speaker 2: the court where the case original, you're always going to
Speaker 2: push back when you go back there.
Speaker 1: I did reach out to the office of James W. Glasgow,
Speaker 1: the will County States attorney who mounted the case against Vaughn.
Speaker 1: Glasgow's website sports his polished mustachioed photo which calls to
Speaker 1: mind a more Hollywood version of Mike Ditka, and a
Speaker 1: lengthy list of his accomplishments during an unprecedented seven terms
Speaker 1: as Will County State's attorney. Prominently featured is that Glasgow
Speaker 1: quote successfully prosecuted Christopher Vaughan and secured a life sentence
Speaker 1: for the murder of his wife and three children unquote.
Speaker 1: Vaughan is second in billing to another career highlight convicting
Speaker 1: wife killing cop Drew Peterson, listed as quote a landmark
Speaker 1: case that attracted international attention unquote. While Glasgow's office politely
Speaker 1: declined our request for a formal interview, they did share
Speaker 1: the close using arguments for the people of Illinois versus
Speaker 1: Christopher Vaughan and the impressive PowerPoint presentation that accompanied it.
Speaker 1: It's quite thorough and was obviously successful in terms of
Speaker 1: swaying the jury to convict, but Bill Clutter contends it
Speaker 1: was built on a problematic foundation.
Speaker 2: There was this snap judgment that he did it. This
Speaker 2: happened early in the morning on June fourteenth, two thousand
Speaker 2: and seven. There was a three day period where he
Speaker 2: was interrogated by police. It was shortly after that, as
Speaker 2: he was preparing to attend the funeral of his family
Speaker 2: in Saint Louis, that handcuffs were placed on him and
Speaker 2: he was whisked away, taken to Joliet. And he hasn't
Speaker 2: seen the light of day since. There was a rush
Speaker 2: to judgment, and we didn't realize the extent of the
Speaker 2: tunnel vision until we started taking depositions. You know, none
Speaker 2: of their theories of how this happened fit the crime
Speaker 2: scene evidence.
Speaker 1: Clutter's convinced he can mount a post conviction case that
Speaker 1: can clear Christopher Vaughan.
Speaker 2: If you just analyze the evidence in the case without
Speaker 2: these blinders of emotion and prejudice, it's a pretty clear
Speaker 2: case of actual innocence.
Speaker 1: Attorney Keith Altman agrees like Clutter, he was involved in
Speaker 1: Vaughn's initial defense team, but as an expert, will dive
Speaker 1: more deeply into that in future episodes.
Speaker 5: I believe that Chris did not get the defense that
Speaker 5: his case demanded once the death penalty was taken off
Speaker 5: the table in the state stoped funding his defense.
Speaker 1: Altman is referencing that Democratic Governor Pat Quinn signed legislation
Speaker 1: on March ninth, twenty eleven, to abolish the death penalty
Speaker 1: in Illinois. It went into effect on July first, twenty eleven,
Speaker 1: and with it went the funding for the impressive team
Speaker 1: who'd been mounting their defense of Vaughn for the past
Speaker 1: four years. And this happened a little more than a
Speaker 1: year before his trial.
Speaker 5: When Chris was under the threat of the death penalty,
Speaker 5: the state of Illinois ensured that he received the best
Speaker 5: possible success. Between the attorneys who were involved, who were superb.
Speaker 5: I was able to bring one of the top experts
Speaker 5: in the world on psychiatric adverse events of drugs and
Speaker 5: work in support of him, David Healy. The ballistics that
Speaker 5: they had were world class. As soon as the death
Speaker 5: penalty was taken off the table, the public defender abandoned
Speaker 5: all the work that we had done, never called any
Speaker 5: of us, never did anything with any of us, and
Speaker 5: never really gave Chris his proper dude. And so it
Speaker 5: just bothers me to the day.
Speaker 1: Altman's online profile is accompanied by burly, pleasantly smiling photo,
Speaker 1: but his record's a little more pitfull than Teddy Bear.
Speaker 1: He led a series of potentially precedent setting lawsuits against
Speaker 1: some of the world's most powerful social media companies, an
Speaker 1: effort to hold them accountable for allowing terrorists to radicalize
Speaker 1: people through social media channels. He maintains that same fierceness
Speaker 1: in his belief of Chris Vaughn's innocence.
Speaker 5: Chris's case haunts me because, between me and the other experts,
Speaker 5: I believe you had a very strong presentation of evidence
Speaker 5: vindicating Chris, and unfortunately the circumstances of the death felt
Speaker 5: to be taken off the table meant he did not
Speaker 5: have access to those resources. And you know, I believe
Speaker 5: that the truth should come out, and I don't think
Speaker 5: he taught the justice that he deserved.
Speaker 1: In twenty eleven, Christopher Vaughan was left with a public
Speaker 1: defender who had just over a year to get up
Speaker 1: to speed for the trial. Here's Bill Clutter again.
Speaker 2: That's the thing that bothers me most of all is
Speaker 2: that you had these reforms that were put in place
Speaker 2: to guard against an innocent person facing the death penalty
Speaker 2: from being convicted. But then you become vulnerable once a
Speaker 2: decision is made not to seek the death penalty, you're
Speaker 2: stripped of all those resources intended to prevent a miscarriage
Speaker 2: of justice.
Speaker 1: And he's used up all his appeals.
Speaker 2: He had his direct appeal and there was no appeal
Speaker 2: to that. Right now, the only way for him to
Speaker 2: be free is to prove actual innocence. And that's a
Speaker 2: hard road. That's a very hard road.
Speaker 1: It's a road that journalist Erica Worst isn't entirely convinced
Speaker 1: we should be setting out on at all.
Speaker 8: Christopher had a plan. I feel like he executed that plan,
Speaker 8: and I feel like it didn't go the way he
Speaker 8: wanted to.
Speaker 1: What do you think was his plan then? In other words,
Speaker 1: what did he hope would happen that it would be
Speaker 1: viewed as murder suicide?
Speaker 4: Yeah, he wanted it to be viewed as murder suicide
Speaker 4: one hundred percent. And then you know what, oh four
Speaker 4: weeks later less than that, I don't know. He's getting
Speaker 4: her life insurance money.
Speaker 8: He basically he has said, this isn't the life I
Speaker 8: want to live. This isn't the life I want to live,
Speaker 8: This isn't the life for me.
Speaker 1: Worst also takes issue with any scenario that places Chris
Speaker 1: as a possible victim.
Speaker 4: How does he get out of that car and go
Speaker 4: running for help leaving him in there with a gun
Speaker 4: and the three kids.
Speaker 8: No one would do that.
Speaker 1: He says that he has no recollection whatsoever of that.
Speaker 1: If that is true, you know.
Speaker 16: He's in a duel kind of prison, right he doesn't
Speaker 16: know what happened, whether or not he was holding the
Speaker 16: gun or not. If he really doesn't remember, if he
Speaker 16: had some kind of a break.
Speaker 8: Then why the first thing he says when he stumbles
Speaker 8: upon guy on the street, you.
Speaker 4: Know, after he had been shot, Why does he say,
Speaker 4: my wife shot me like immediate? That's an immediate you're
Speaker 4: giving a statement immediately after occurred.
Speaker 8: If he's saying he got out of the car and
Speaker 8: he didn't see anyone else.
Speaker 4: Get shot, why is he in such a disassociated state
Speaker 4: just from being shot in the wrist and the legs?
Speaker 8: Superficially I caused the break in him. My husband is
Speaker 8: not an aggressive person or anything of that nature.
Speaker 4: But you better believe he'd go to bat for us
Speaker 4: if something like that had happened, and not just get
Speaker 4: out of the car and walk away.
Speaker 1: In other words, how do you walk away if your
Speaker 1: kids have been shot or haven't been shot? How do
Speaker 1: you leave it?
Speaker 9: You don't?
Speaker 8: I mean There's so many.
Speaker 4: Unknowns which will probably remain unknown, but the state put together.
Speaker 8: Enough of a case to get that verdict they wanted.
Speaker 1: A verdict worst agreed with then and now I believe.
Speaker 10: Where ninety eight point nine percent shorty that christ were
Speaker 10: gone so early and this was.
Speaker 8: Open and shut.
Speaker 10: And I know you guys are looking into Chris's innocence,
Speaker 10: and I think everyone deserves that chance. I'm just going
Speaker 10: to be really interested to see what you guys are
Speaker 10: finding that I may have missed during every single day
Speaker 10: of that trial.
Speaker 1: There is much more to this tragedy than the brutal
Speaker 1: horror that unfolded in that red SUV in two thousand
Speaker 1: and seven, including dysfunctional family dynamics, a troubled marriage, deception
Speaker 1: and betrayal. As we set out on this path, it's
Speaker 1: with the acknowledgment that on many levels, at many times,
Speaker 1: it may be polarizing. This was an absolutely horrific event,
Speaker 1: and we intend to cover it with in tech and sensitivity,
Speaker 1: but we also understand revisiting it at all is painful
Speaker 1: for many of the parties involved, especially for those close
Speaker 1: to Kimberley Vaughan. While to date her family has not
Speaker 1: responded to our multiple requests for an interview. We hope
Speaker 1: they will reconsider It is not our intention to disparage
Speaker 1: anyone living or dead. It's to re examine a case
Speaker 1: that's been tightly closed, to shed light on whether Christopher
Speaker 1: Vaughan was justly charged, tried, and convicted, and explore whether
Speaker 1: pertinent facts and later developments that could have been utilized
Speaker 1: in his defense were overlooked or ignored. What happened in
Speaker 1: the Vaughan family's suv was unfathomable. Three innocent children died
Speaker 1: facing a gun that was held by one of the
Speaker 1: last people they ever thought would harm them. But the
Speaker 1: only thing that could make this tragedy any more disturbing
Speaker 1: is the possibility that the man serving life sentences for
Speaker 1: having taken those lives didn't actually commit the murders. That
Speaker 1: is the possibility we'll explore, and in the process uncover
Speaker 1: answers to questions deemed mysteries for fourteen years. This season
Speaker 1: of Murder in Illinois came do say good.
Speaker 3: Things well, I think cann.
Speaker 1: On our next episode, we'll explore the upbringing and marriage
Speaker 1: of the man who had become one of Illinois's most
Speaker 1: vilified fathers and the intricate dynamics that led to a
Speaker 1: horrific tragedy.
Speaker 11: He was just instantly smitten with her.
Speaker 8: I mean it was just a clique.
Speaker 15: They really had nothing in common.
Speaker 1: Did you ever think in a million years that Chris
Speaker 1: would come home from college and tell you guys he
Speaker 1: was getting married.
Speaker 5: No, when they got to the point of the pastor
Speaker 5: said if anybody has objections, please say so now, and
Speaker 5: then lightning struck.
Speaker 2: That was a little awkward.
Speaker 3: Belloy you cry, Gage.
Speaker 1: Beard Brown, Hard Murder and Illinois. Product of My Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Executive producers are Lauren Bright Pacheco and Taylor Chackoine. Written
Speaker 1: by Lauren Bright Pacheco and Matthew Riddle, Story editing by
Speaker 1: Matthew Riddle, editing and sound design by Evan Tyre and
Speaker 1: Taylor Chakoye. Featuring music by Cicada Rhythm with new compositions
Speaker 1: engineered and mixed by Evan Tyre and Taylor Chakoine. Archive
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