WEBVTT - The Returning Mother 0:00:14.996 --> 0:00:26.636 Pushkin. I'm Dana Goodyear. Lost Hills is back with another 0:00:26.676 --> 0:00:30.396 season two bonus episode. This one comes courtesy of our 0:00:30.436 --> 0:00:32.796 tip line, where a few months ago, I got the 0:00:32.876 --> 0:00:35.196 kind of email from a stranger that I live for. 0:00:36.436 --> 0:00:40.116 Will there be more episodes? Regarding Fred Railer? The sender asked, 0:00:40.876 --> 0:00:44.876 I worked with Jean the dacy drowned Jean as in 0:00:45.076 --> 0:00:48.876 Jean Railer, Fred's first wife, the mother of his daughters, 0:00:48.956 --> 0:00:52.796 Heidi and Kirsten. I'd been searching for someone who could 0:00:52.796 --> 0:00:57.076 shed light on that day, Friday, October fifteenth, nineteen seventy six, 0:00:57.556 --> 0:01:01.156 when Jean, a flight attendant for United, flew from lax 0:01:01.196 --> 0:01:05.436 to Chicago O'Hare and back, went home to Malibu, got 0:01:05.436 --> 0:01:08.436 in the hot tub with Fred to unwind, and then 0:01:09.196 --> 0:01:13.516 somehow ended up drowning. Her death wasn't investigated as a 0:01:13.556 --> 0:01:18.076 homicide until Fred's second wife, Verna, and his eight year 0:01:18.076 --> 0:01:23.356 old steps on Doug, drowned under equally suspicious circumstances less 0:01:23.356 --> 0:01:28.036 than five years later. My name's Karen McLean and I 0:01:28.156 --> 0:01:33.116 was a flight attendant for United Airlines. Karen mcclean's the 0:01:33.116 --> 0:01:36.036 one that wrote that letter. She told me she'd stumbled 0:01:36.036 --> 0:01:40.596 on the podcast totally by accident. My daughter put Spotify 0:01:40.756 --> 0:01:45.316 on my phone and I am so lacking in technology 0:01:45.356 --> 0:01:49.196 and stuff, and I was just kind of browsing through 0:01:49.436 --> 0:01:52.036 and I came across this and I saw Verna and 0:01:52.156 --> 0:01:54.876 Doug and I thought, I wonder if this is about Jeane. 0:01:56.156 --> 0:02:00.156 Karen flew with Jean just twice, once the Sunday before 0:02:00.156 --> 0:02:03.956 her drowning, and then on the very day she drowned, 0:02:04.876 --> 0:02:07.476 we flew Chicago. Turns it was when we were first 0:02:07.516 --> 0:02:10.796 able to be moms, and we only worked two days 0:02:10.836 --> 0:02:14.476 a week and we were home every night, so it 0:02:14.556 --> 0:02:17.716 was a great way to be a mom and still 0:02:17.716 --> 0:02:20.556 have a job. But we'd check in like a six 0:02:20.756 --> 0:02:23.476 forty five in the morning and fly to Chicago at 0:02:23.516 --> 0:02:26.156 seven forty five, sit there for a couple hours, and 0:02:26.156 --> 0:02:29.916 then fly back the same day. So we were gone 0:02:29.916 --> 0:02:34.876 for about twelve hours, and then we'd get on the tram, 0:02:34.956 --> 0:02:37.116 go over to the parking lot, and go home. I 0:02:37.156 --> 0:02:42.836 normally got home about seven thirty at night, so you know, 0:02:42.876 --> 0:02:45.756 it was just a long day. Most of us were 0:02:45.836 --> 0:02:50.756 young moms that did the Chicago churns. It was pretty 0:02:50.796 --> 0:02:54.556 much I don't remember anybody that wasn't a mom. You know, 0:02:54.676 --> 0:02:59.636 flying those trips, those flights Flight one hundred from Lax 0:02:59.676 --> 0:03:02.516 to Chicago and flight one eleven from Chicago back to 0:03:02.636 --> 0:03:09.116 Lax were always packed. It was mostly businessmen at that time. 0:03:09.556 --> 0:03:14.556 You know, it was before computers, so every you know, 0:03:14.676 --> 0:03:18.036 there was a lot of business travel. In fact, in 0:03:18.076 --> 0:03:22.276 the sixties we had trips that were just primarily men 0:03:22.796 --> 0:03:26.476 from Chicago to Newark and they were all men trips, 0:03:26.876 --> 0:03:30.196 and United catered to them. They'd have all these little 0:03:30.796 --> 0:03:34.836 gifts that they'd give all these men and stuff, but 0:03:34.996 --> 0:03:39.396 it was basically a businessman that traveled back and forth 0:03:39.516 --> 0:03:44.276 all the time in first class. Karen remembers that the 0:03:44.316 --> 0:03:47.956 Sunday before Jean drown, Jean was working in coach. It 0:03:48.036 --> 0:03:50.116 was the first time they'd met, and they started to 0:03:50.196 --> 0:03:53.396 chat and Karen got a little window into Jean's world. 0:03:54.516 --> 0:03:56.996 She was working the lower deck galley on A seven 0:03:57.196 --> 0:04:00.116 forty seven and I went down and the first time 0:04:00.156 --> 0:04:02.196 I had ever talked to her, and I went down 0:04:02.236 --> 0:04:05.076 for a break and we were just talking about our kids. 0:04:06.396 --> 0:04:09.356 At the time, Jean and Fred's older daughter, Heidi was 0:04:09.396 --> 0:04:12.756 six and Kirsten was two. The family was living on 0:04:12.836 --> 0:04:16.356 Colpine Drive in Malibu, and there was a lot going on. 0:04:17.276 --> 0:04:19.956 Jean was telling friends she was madly in love with 0:04:20.076 --> 0:04:24.156 Fred's friend Dick fell though In, and that she was 0:04:24.236 --> 0:04:27.836 miserable with Fred, and that Fred had threatened to kill 0:04:27.916 --> 0:04:32.356 her if he ever caught her cheating. Jean was stretched thin, 0:04:33.036 --> 0:04:36.956 falling headlong into a radical self improvement group called Life Spring, 0:04:37.556 --> 0:04:42.796 rapidly losing weight, manically planning her future without Fred, working 0:04:42.836 --> 0:04:46.036 twelve hour days for United Airlines, and in the gaps 0:04:47.076 --> 0:04:51.836 being mom to two young girls. She didn't say any 0:04:51.836 --> 0:04:54.596 of this to Karen, but she did ask her for 0:04:54.636 --> 0:04:59.516 some advice, and she said that Heidi was going to 0:04:59.516 --> 0:05:02.836 have her tonsils taken out the following Friday, And she said, 0:05:02.876 --> 0:05:04.956 do you think I should take the day off? And 0:05:04.996 --> 0:05:07.156 I said, well, if it were my daughter, I would. 0:05:08.596 --> 0:05:12.676 But Ge didn't take Karen's advice. On Friday, she showed 0:05:12.716 --> 0:05:16.156 up for work to fly the Chicago Turn again. And 0:05:16.396 --> 0:05:19.356 Friday came and she was there and I said, I 0:05:19.396 --> 0:05:23.796 thought Heidi was getting her tonsils out. This time, Jean 0:05:23.996 --> 0:05:26.996 was working in the first class galley, preparing multi course 0:05:27.036 --> 0:05:30.716 meals for a couple dozen passengers. She was acting normal, 0:05:30.796 --> 0:05:33.876 According to testimony later given by her supervisor on the flight, 0:05:34.516 --> 0:05:36.636 but the fact that Jean was there at all struck 0:05:36.756 --> 0:05:40.316 Karen as strange to be a mom of a six 0:05:40.396 --> 0:05:42.956 year old in a hospital. I think that I would 0:05:42.956 --> 0:05:48.356 have been more active, you know, or concerned, and she 0:05:48.396 --> 0:05:51.516 didn't seem to be that now that I think of it. 0:05:52.996 --> 0:05:57.276 She was kind of distant, and she said, well, Fred 0:05:57.396 --> 0:06:02.036 was taking care of it. Fred was taking care of it. 0:06:02.956 --> 0:06:09.516 He had it handled. That was his style, organized, meticulous rolling. 0:06:11.116 --> 0:06:14.636 Later on, Jean's fellow stortises and many of her friends 0:06:14.876 --> 0:06:19.036 would question what Fred was taking care of and what 0:06:19.156 --> 0:06:38.436 his motives were. Picture Jean. When she met Fred, she 0:06:38.556 --> 0:06:41.836 was in her late twenties unmarried. According to one of 0:06:41.836 --> 0:06:43.996 her friends, she was starting to wonder if she would 0:06:44.036 --> 0:06:49.236 get married. She was a knockout, dark hair, slim, athletic frame, 0:06:49.876 --> 0:06:54.076 fun loving, if a bit high strung. She would probably 0:06:54.116 --> 0:06:56.996 have been wearing a blue flower patterned mumu when she 0:06:57.036 --> 0:06:59.796 met her future husband on his way back from Hawaii. 0:07:00.636 --> 0:07:03.996 That was the uniform for United's Honolulu route, which Jean 0:07:04.116 --> 0:07:08.316 was working at the time. Back then, the airlines nakedly 0:07:08.396 --> 0:07:12.436 catered to mail business travelers, selling the attentive women on 0:07:12.476 --> 0:07:14.836 the flight as one of the attractions of air travel. 0:07:15.836 --> 0:07:19.396 On Southwest the storedis uniform was hot pants and go 0:07:19.396 --> 0:07:23.236 go boots, and pretty much across the industry, the rules 0:07:23.236 --> 0:07:28.676 stipulated no wedding rings. Here's Karen McLean again. When we 0:07:28.716 --> 0:07:31.316 first started flying, we couldn't be married, and we couldn't 0:07:31.356 --> 0:07:34.996 have kids. While you could have kids, they would put 0:07:34.996 --> 0:07:38.276 them up for adoption, but you couldn't be married and 0:07:38.636 --> 0:07:42.396 you had to quit when you were thirty two. Ironically, 0:07:42.556 --> 0:07:46.036 the profession was full of ambitious young women who found 0:07:46.116 --> 0:07:50.356 freedom and independence, financial and otherwise through working for the airlines. 0:07:53.396 --> 0:07:56.596 This is Becky Sprecker. She started working for PanAm in 0:07:56.676 --> 0:08:00.756 nineteen seventy two, two weeks after graduating from UNC Chapel Hill. 0:08:01.716 --> 0:08:08.716 Back then, women were just starting to delay marriage and 0:08:09.276 --> 0:08:12.796 they were thinking about maybe going to medical school or 0:08:12.916 --> 0:08:16.956 law school. The major careers that existed during those days, 0:08:17.036 --> 0:08:21.996 of course, were being a secretary, or being a nurse, 0:08:22.276 --> 0:08:26.516 or a teacher or a stewardess. We lived kind of 0:08:26.516 --> 0:08:32.756 like little rich girls without the trust fund. We stayed 0:08:32.836 --> 0:08:39.276 in intercontinental hotels, which were wonderful upscale hotels because PanAm 0:08:39.276 --> 0:08:45.116 owned intercontinental hotels. We were young we were high spirited. 0:08:46.116 --> 0:08:54.156 We had I would say, the ideal prescription for a 0:08:54.196 --> 0:08:59.916 pretty freewheeling lifestyle in the seventies. I mean, we had educations, 0:09:00.636 --> 0:09:03.516 we had a job, we were making some money, We 0:09:03.556 --> 0:09:05.636 could fly anywhere in the world. We wanted to go 0:09:05.676 --> 0:09:09.916 on a discount, and we had birth control. Flying for 0:09:09.956 --> 0:09:17.156 the airlines was glamorous. Well back then, in the nineteen seventies, 0:09:18.836 --> 0:09:24.276 famous people did fly commercially. That's a big difference between 0:09:24.556 --> 0:09:28.316 then and now because now they have their own private aircraft. 0:09:29.876 --> 0:09:31.756 Becky said, a friend of hers on the La to 0:09:31.836 --> 0:09:36.396 Tahiti route had an unforgettable star sighting. She reported for 0:09:36.436 --> 0:09:39.116 briefing and poppierte to come back to Los Angeles and 0:09:39.156 --> 0:09:42.756 they said, well, you have Marlon Brando in first class, 0:09:43.796 --> 0:09:50.036 and he was married to a Tahitian actress and I 0:09:50.076 --> 0:09:52.996 think they had a child. He had filmed Mutiny on 0:09:53.036 --> 0:09:55.956 the Bounty down there and had met her. She was 0:09:56.036 --> 0:09:59.716 his love interest in the movie, and he flew frequently 0:09:59.796 --> 0:10:05.156 on pan Am to La. So she only had four 0:10:05.196 --> 0:10:08.836 people in the front. So when they took off, she 0:10:09.196 --> 0:10:12.356 sent the other stewardess to the back to help out 0:10:12.436 --> 0:10:14.636 back there because they were they had a heavier load 0:10:14.676 --> 0:10:18.956 back there, and she was getting ready to do eggs 0:10:18.996 --> 0:10:23.276 to order for the passengers, and the next thing she knows, 0:10:23.636 --> 0:10:25.956 mister Brando comes into the galley and said, well, I 0:10:25.996 --> 0:10:30.236 know how to scramble eggs. I'll help with that, which 0:10:30.236 --> 0:10:33.556 he did, and of course the passengers were delighted. And 0:10:33.836 --> 0:10:37.356 after the service was complete, he said, well, why don't 0:10:37.356 --> 0:10:39.676 you sit down and chat. So she sits down beside him. 0:10:39.716 --> 0:10:41.916 All of our famous people were always in one egg 0:10:42.756 --> 0:10:45.516 And she sits down beside him, and he gives her 0:10:45.556 --> 0:10:49.516 a shell leat that he had on and she still hasn't, 0:10:49.596 --> 0:10:53.916 by the way, and he lit her cigarette. Now this 0:10:53.996 --> 0:10:56.116 was in the days when you could smoke on the plane, 0:10:56.476 --> 0:10:58.796 and somebody took a picture of him, and it's absolutely 0:10:58.836 --> 0:11:01.076 the cutest thing in the world. But that kind of 0:11:01.116 --> 0:11:04.556 thing happened a lot. Then there was the time Becky 0:11:04.596 --> 0:11:08.236 found herself on a movie set. I was flying with 0:11:08.276 --> 0:11:14.036 my ring mate and we had some movie producers on 0:11:14.076 --> 0:11:17.756 the flight out of Los Angeles. They'd come through Honolulu, 0:11:17.796 --> 0:11:21.796 they had to connect and they I said, well, you know, 0:11:21.836 --> 0:11:24.796 what are you guys doing. Well, we're making a movie 0:11:26.156 --> 0:11:31.996 that's being directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and I said, oh, okay, 0:11:32.036 --> 0:11:33.876 you know, well what is it? And they said, well, 0:11:33.876 --> 0:11:39.236 it's based on Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness, and 0:11:39.276 --> 0:11:43.236 it was it was apocalypse Now, and they invited us 0:11:43.316 --> 0:11:46.356 up to the set. If you can imagine, it was 0:11:46.396 --> 0:11:56.116 supposed to be Neutraang and this young actor who had 0:11:56.116 --> 0:11:58.876 just arrived it was his first day on the set. 0:11:58.996 --> 0:12:02.876 We flew up there with him and it was Martin 0:12:02.956 --> 0:12:11.116 Sheen and I've never been on a movie set before 0:12:11.316 --> 0:12:17.636 or since, but that was an incredibly educational experience. Let's 0:12:17.636 --> 0:12:24.276 say it was a crazy kind of environment. And of 0:12:24.276 --> 0:12:27.076 course we all know that in the seventies there was 0:12:27.116 --> 0:12:29.596 a lot of cocaine and a lot of drugs on 0:12:29.676 --> 0:12:35.716 movie sets, and this was no exception. According to Becky, 0:12:35.956 --> 0:12:39.356 even though the airline industry trafficked in stereotypes about women 0:12:39.516 --> 0:12:42.796 and catered to mail clientele, it was also a hotbed 0:12:42.836 --> 0:12:46.036 of second wave feminism. It used to be that you 0:12:46.116 --> 0:12:51.116 could you could not be married and fly, and they sued, 0:12:51.276 --> 0:12:55.436 and they got that changed. You couldn't have children and fly, 0:12:55.756 --> 0:12:59.396 so they sued and that was changed. So I think 0:12:59.476 --> 0:13:02.316 that they were really sort of trailblazing and in a 0:13:02.876 --> 0:13:06.436 profession where you had to be put on the scales 0:13:06.556 --> 0:13:08.836 and you were hired for how you looked, and you 0:13:08.916 --> 0:13:12.156 had to wear makeup and all of that. It was 0:13:12.196 --> 0:13:16.436 a very It was a big contradiction, and we were 0:13:16.476 --> 0:13:20.276 the most independent of women because we could go anywhere 0:13:20.276 --> 0:13:23.116 in the world that we wanted to go. So wait 0:13:23.116 --> 0:13:27.036 a minute, you guys had to get weight in. We did. 0:13:27.396 --> 0:13:30.516 That did go by the wayside later on, but they 0:13:30.876 --> 0:13:32.956 put you on the scales every now and then to 0:13:33.076 --> 0:13:36.836 make sure you weren't getting too heavy. I was five 0:13:37.156 --> 0:13:40.956 three and the weight maximum I think was one hundred 0:13:40.996 --> 0:13:47.876 and fifteen with your clothes on. So we would starve 0:13:47.916 --> 0:13:50.916 for a few days when we knew we were meeting 0:13:50.916 --> 0:13:57.076 with our supervisors. To make sure that we, you know, 0:13:57.196 --> 0:13:59.396 weren't over the maximum. They put would put you on 0:13:59.436 --> 0:14:01.956 weight check and you had to go in and weigh 0:14:02.036 --> 0:14:06.116 every two weeks. Jean, who gave birth to Heidi in 0:14:06.156 --> 0:14:08.996 nineteen seventy, was a pioneer of the new policy that 0:14:09.156 --> 0:14:13.316 allowed women to resume flying after they'd had kids. I 0:14:13.396 --> 0:14:18.676 remember they were called the returning mothers, and I the 0:14:18.756 --> 0:14:22.516 first ones maybe I saw were in seventy two seventy three, 0:14:22.636 --> 0:14:27.276 right around in there. That turned the job into a 0:14:27.396 --> 0:14:34.236 career because people could combine having families with flying. Before 0:14:34.316 --> 0:14:36.596 it had been sort of a lark for a year 0:14:36.676 --> 0:14:40.756 or two to find a husband and get married and leave, 0:14:40.876 --> 0:14:45.436 you know, and quit. But now they were combining it 0:14:45.516 --> 0:14:50.236 with raising their families, having a decent paying job with 0:14:50.276 --> 0:14:53.156 good benefits. That would have been a source of stability 0:14:53.196 --> 0:14:56.876 for Geene as she contemplated leaving Fred. She had a 0:14:56.876 --> 0:15:02.516 career and some financial wherewithal through United. Jean also had 0:15:02.556 --> 0:15:05.996 a twenty four thousand dollars life insurance policy, which five 0:15:06.036 --> 0:15:08.516 months before her death had been changed to make Fred 0:15:08.556 --> 0:15:12.516 the beneficial and if he predeceased, her named Heidi and 0:15:12.636 --> 0:15:17.156 Kirsten co beneficiaries. When Jean died, there were a number 0:15:17.156 --> 0:15:19.996 of women who knew how troubled her marriage was and 0:15:20.076 --> 0:15:23.716 how scared she was it. Fred. Jean was a sharer, 0:15:24.236 --> 0:15:26.596 and back then being a flight attendant, you were part 0:15:26.636 --> 0:15:30.956 of a sisterhood. We called it jump seat therapy, you know, 0:15:31.076 --> 0:15:34.196 when everybody was asleep and you finally sat down with 0:15:34.236 --> 0:15:37.116 a cup of coffee on the jump seat and started 0:15:37.156 --> 0:15:39.196 talking to a friend of yours. That you hadn't flown 0:15:39.236 --> 0:15:41.796 with for a long time, and you got caught up 0:15:41.796 --> 0:15:43.916 on their families and how things were going or who 0:15:43.916 --> 0:15:48.596 they were dating. Jean's flight attendant friends were saddened and 0:15:48.716 --> 0:15:52.556 confused by her death, and more than that, they were 0:15:52.596 --> 0:15:56.716 alarmed had Fred done this to her and made it 0:15:56.756 --> 0:16:07.996 seem like an accident. When homicide detectives went to interview 0:16:07.996 --> 0:16:10.796 Fred about the deaths of his second wife, Verna and 0:16:10.916 --> 0:16:14.076 his stepson Doug in nineteen eighty one, one of the 0:16:14.156 --> 0:16:17.156 many things they found strange was that Fred wanted them 0:16:17.156 --> 0:16:20.236 to read a document he'd typed up about the death 0:16:20.276 --> 0:16:24.196 of his first wife, Jean. I'm going to read a 0:16:24.196 --> 0:16:28.356 little bit of it because it's so deliberate, so oddly specific. 0:16:29.196 --> 0:16:32.436 It uses military time, like Fred is writing out a 0:16:32.476 --> 0:16:34.836 report for his day job at the naval base at 0:16:34.876 --> 0:16:42.156 Point Magoo. The document is titled Accident Narrative. October fifteenth, 0:16:42.276 --> 0:16:45.916 seventy six, zero four hundred hours, Jean and I woke 0:16:45.996 --> 0:16:48.436 up to the alarm clock. She got dressed and started 0:16:48.436 --> 0:16:50.916 her makeup. I put coffee on and sat in her 0:16:50.916 --> 0:16:54.956 bathroom talking as she put her makeup on. Zero five 0:16:55.116 --> 0:16:58.356 thirty Jean left for a Los Angeles International Airport for 0:16:58.396 --> 0:17:01.756 a turnaround flight to Chicago. I showered, feed dogs, and 0:17:01.796 --> 0:17:06.036 prepared a bag for Kirsten to take to babysitters. Zero 0:17:06.076 --> 0:17:08.916 seven thirty. Took Kirsten to babysitters and went on to 0:17:09.356 --> 0:17:11.596 Rogue Lays Hospital in Thousand Oaks to be with Heidi 0:17:11.636 --> 0:17:16.556 while she had her tonsils and adenoids removed. Seventeen hundred hours, 0:17:16.996 --> 0:17:20.596 feed Heidi popsicle, jello and more fruit juice, read to her, 0:17:20.636 --> 0:17:24.996 then put her back to bed. Nineteen thirty in process 0:17:25.036 --> 0:17:27.756 of changing Kirsten into pajamas when Jean got in from 0:17:27.756 --> 0:17:32.556 her trip twenty hundred Jean played with Kirsten and finished 0:17:32.556 --> 0:17:34.956 putting her to bed. Jeane and I sat in kitchen 0:17:34.996 --> 0:17:37.676 and I gave her my report on Heidi discussed her 0:17:37.676 --> 0:17:40.556 trip while I fixed myself some soup. While the soup 0:17:40.636 --> 0:17:42.916 was heating, I went out and turned on the tub heater. 0:17:44.796 --> 0:17:48.396 And then Fred's clipped matter of fact description of parenting 0:17:48.436 --> 0:17:54.036 and spousing shifts into a more expansive register. Twenty two 0:17:54.156 --> 0:17:57.796 hundred hours. Jean shut off the house lights and came out. 0:17:58.396 --> 0:18:01.116 We sat in the There's a word missing here, and 0:18:01.156 --> 0:18:04.276 I assume he forgot to write hot tub, discussing the 0:18:04.316 --> 0:18:07.956 phone call and Heidi for about fifteen minutes. Jean sat 0:18:08.036 --> 0:18:09.716 up on the edge of the tub and said she 0:18:09.836 --> 0:18:13.036 was hot, then asked what I was drinking. I said 0:18:13.076 --> 0:18:15.476 I had a swallow of beer left, and she drank it. 0:18:16.036 --> 0:18:18.676 She then said she would really like a glass of wine. 0:18:19.516 --> 0:18:22.436 I said okay and got out of the tub. She said, 0:18:22.596 --> 0:18:24.796 would you mind checking Kirston as she does not have 0:18:24.996 --> 0:18:28.796 her usual three diapers on? I said okay, and she 0:18:28.876 --> 0:18:33.076 kissed me and said thank you, honey. Jean was still 0:18:33.116 --> 0:18:35.396 sitting on the edge of the tub when I walked away. 0:18:36.356 --> 0:18:39.196 Walked up to the house and into Kirston's room. She 0:18:39.276 --> 0:18:41.156 was soaked, so I changed her and put her back 0:18:41.156 --> 0:18:43.756 to bed. Went into the kitchen and pulled a new 0:18:43.796 --> 0:18:46.276 bottle of wine, used a cork puller to open it, 0:18:46.556 --> 0:18:49.996 grabbed two glasses and some ice, turned off the kitchen light, 0:18:50.236 --> 0:18:56.036 and went outside. At this point Fred's style becomes almost novelistic. 0:18:57.716 --> 0:18:59.916 My eyes were not used to the darkness, and I 0:18:59.996 --> 0:19:03.796 slowly scuffed along the walk towards the tub. I called 0:19:03.836 --> 0:19:07.076 out softly Jean for no real reason. When I was 0:19:07.156 --> 0:19:10.676 halfway there. I was not surprised when I heard no answer, 0:19:10.796 --> 0:19:14.396 as the low bubbling of the tub usually masked low conversation. 0:19:15.716 --> 0:19:17.636 Then I went over to the tub, saw she was 0:19:17.716 --> 0:19:20.116 not there, and saw the German shepherd and jean at 0:19:20.116 --> 0:19:23.156 the same time. Jeanne was faced down in the pool 0:19:23.196 --> 0:19:26.436 with her arms outstretched hands a few feet away from 0:19:26.436 --> 0:19:29.516 the wide built in steps of the pool. The dog 0:19:29.636 --> 0:19:33.116 was crouched down, just looking at her, not making a sound. 0:19:35.716 --> 0:19:38.636 After pulling jean out of the pool, Fred started mouth 0:19:38.676 --> 0:19:42.196 to mouth. The paramedics arrived and took her to Westlake Hospital. 0:19:43.916 --> 0:19:53.196 She was brain dead. Fred's friends and supporters would call 0:19:53.236 --> 0:19:57.356 it the United Airline's rumor mill, this engine of disquiet 0:19:57.476 --> 0:20:01.796 that started to hum. Saturday morning, Karen mcclean's phone rang. 0:20:02.316 --> 0:20:05.236 She'd flown with jean the day before, and she happened 0:20:05.276 --> 0:20:07.716 to live near the hospital where Jeanne was being treated 0:20:07.756 --> 0:20:11.596 in the ICU. I was living in Westlake Village and 0:20:11.636 --> 0:20:15.276 a friend of mine called and she said, have you 0:20:15.316 --> 0:20:17.996 heard about jean And I said no. She said she 0:20:18.196 --> 0:20:21.516 drowned last night, and she said she's supposed to be 0:20:21.596 --> 0:20:24.716 it's Westlake Hospital. Can you go over and see if 0:20:24.716 --> 0:20:28.836 you can find something out Karen was shocked, but things 0:20:28.836 --> 0:20:31.676 only got more confusing once she got to the hospital. 0:20:32.476 --> 0:20:35.076 So I went over to the hospital and I ended 0:20:35.156 --> 0:20:37.956 up talking to a nurse and I just said, you know, 0:20:38.236 --> 0:20:41.236 could you tell me what room Jean Roller is in? 0:20:42.516 --> 0:20:44.716 But she couldn't get in to see Jean, who was 0:20:44.756 --> 0:20:47.596 being kept alive on a respirator, And she couldn't find 0:20:47.676 --> 0:20:51.956 any of Jean's family. And Jean's dad was a pilot, 0:20:52.196 --> 0:20:55.836 and I think her sister, Linda was a flight attendant. 0:20:56.356 --> 0:20:59.036 So I went over to the hospital thinking that somebody 0:20:59.116 --> 0:21:04.076 would be there, and nobody was there. Jean's sisters later 0:21:04.116 --> 0:21:07.276 told detectives that Fred was running point, making the medical 0:21:07.316 --> 0:21:10.756 decisions and keeping them out of the loop. So Karen 0:21:10.836 --> 0:21:13.996 came back from the hospital empty handed, no information to 0:21:13.996 --> 0:21:17.316 share with the other flight attendants, and then nothing was 0:21:17.796 --> 0:21:22.436 ever said. It was very hushed up. Barbara Warner, a 0:21:22.476 --> 0:21:25.916 fellow flight attendant, feared the worst. She had been roommates 0:21:25.956 --> 0:21:29.556 with Jean before Jean's marriage, and they were still extremely close. 0:21:30.676 --> 0:21:33.676 She told investigators in nineteen eighty one that Jean's death 0:21:33.956 --> 0:21:37.156 five years earlier still didn't sit right with her. She 0:21:37.276 --> 0:21:40.436 knew too much to take Fred's story at face value. 0:21:41.516 --> 0:21:44.676 Here's Barbara talking to an investigator about the morning after 0:21:44.796 --> 0:21:47.996 Jean's drowning. I got home for a trip on Saturday 0:21:48.196 --> 0:21:54.276 after the Friday incident drowning, and my first question to 0:21:54.316 --> 0:21:59.996 whether was mother with Red Spans and Marma at the point, 0:21:59.996 --> 0:22:01.676 I don't know. I'm at the airport, I had attat 0:22:02.476 --> 0:22:07.116 I don't know anything. Jean had told Barbara and others 0:22:07.196 --> 0:22:10.476 that Fred was threatening her, saying if she cheated on him, 0:22:10.676 --> 0:22:14.676 he'd kill her, and she was cheating on him. She 0:22:14.796 --> 0:22:20.276 was in love with his friend Dick. Well, if excuse me, 0:22:20.316 --> 0:22:23.596 I said he was going to kill her favorite Carter 0:22:23.676 --> 0:22:28.756 fooling around. You don't think he had an idea that 0:22:28.796 --> 0:22:32.316 she was fooling around. He may have been, I would say, 0:22:32.316 --> 0:22:35.596 touring the end before her death. I would say that 0:22:35.756 --> 0:22:40.156 he was beginning to feel helpless because he knew at 0:22:40.196 --> 0:22:44.196 that point that the marriage was so bad. Then Fred 0:22:44.276 --> 0:22:46.956 left for Hawaii on a long work trip. And I 0:22:46.996 --> 0:22:49.636 think that when Fred went to Ka, I knew. I 0:22:49.796 --> 0:22:53.596 think he really knew to think her in desperate strings. 0:22:56.196 --> 0:22:58.916 Barbara told the investigator that Jean had visited her the 0:22:58.956 --> 0:23:01.196 month before she died and had told her she was 0:23:01.236 --> 0:23:03.996 going to leave Fred when he got back. I do 0:23:04.156 --> 0:23:06.956 think that they had talked about separate before Fred with 0:23:07.156 --> 0:23:11.236 haiming did you do with it? Was it possible that 0:23:11.316 --> 0:23:14.436 on the night of October fifteenth, before she drowned, Jean 0:23:14.556 --> 0:23:18.636 had raised the subject with Fred again, this time saying 0:23:18.636 --> 0:23:22.356 her decision was final. Yeah. She's the kind of person 0:23:22.396 --> 0:23:25.716 that once she sat down to talk to Fred that 0:23:25.956 --> 0:23:29.636 she would tell him that she had been having an 0:23:29.716 --> 0:23:34.716 affair and everything, or I to be honest with you guys, 0:23:34.756 --> 0:23:39.196 often wondered that myself is that fatal night She was 0:23:39.236 --> 0:23:42.596 so tired she flung that Chicago turnoound on a Friday, 0:23:42.596 --> 0:23:44.116 which I can't tell you whether it does your body 0:23:44.116 --> 0:23:49.396 in your mind, she could see how Jean, in exasperation, 0:23:49.796 --> 0:23:52.036 might have just blurted out the truth about her feelings 0:23:52.036 --> 0:23:59.156 for Deck with horrifying consequences. But no one will ever 0:23:59.236 --> 0:24:05.756 know that any morning. Fred was never charged with killing Jean. 0:24:06.356 --> 0:24:09.156 He maintains his innocence, and he continues to serve a 0:24:09.236 --> 0:24:12.276 life sentence without the possibility of parole. For the murders 0:24:12.316 --> 0:24:20.716 of Verna and Doug. Lost Hills is written and reported 0:24:20.716 --> 0:24:23.956 by me Dana Goodyear It's created by me and Ben 0:24:23.956 --> 0:24:27.436 Adair and is a production of Western Sound and Pushkin industries.