Speaker 1: This series includes sensitive and potentially distressing topics, including sexual
Speaker 1: assault and abuse involving children. Listener discretion is advised. Since
Speaker 1: middle school, Rachel Laura has been telling the authorities better
Speaker 1: moms than boyfriend Howard Gombert. She told her guidance counselor.
Speaker 1: She told Putnam Sheriff's detectives and Carmel cops. She told
Speaker 1: three different judges in Putnam County and at least that
Speaker 1: many das and their assistance. And each time she told
Speaker 1: her story, she'd go into a steep tailspin, reliving the
Speaker 1: violations and the helplessness afresh. And then I called Rachel
Speaker 1: five years ago and asked her the unaskable. I was
Speaker 1: reporting the wrongful convictions of Anthony and Andy. Did her
Speaker 1: help clearing their names? But she told me about the
Speaker 1: screaming nightmare she had each time that she came forward,
Speaker 1: the feeling of going crazy for weeks on end, and
Speaker 1: the sickness that settled in her bones. In the end, no,
Speaker 1: Rachel agreed to talk, but only as it pertained to Josette.
Speaker 1: I love that kid, she said, so I'm going to
Speaker 1: do this for her. But she insisted there'd be no
Speaker 1: talk of Howard she was done pouring gas on that
Speaker 1: grease fire. So last fall she talked to me from
Speaker 1: her living room. I asked my questions over the phone
Speaker 1: while she sat with our reporter, Kathleen. Would you like
Speaker 1: a pseudonym for this conversation?
Speaker 2: Give me, give me something else? Yeah, Kimmy, Kimmy. I'm
Speaker 2: like all over the place, ew feeling about doing all
Speaker 2: this again.
Speaker 1: I mean, over the course of the next hour, Rachel
Speaker 1: talked about Josette, about the sweet but love starved girl
Speaker 1: who felt unseen and who'd been grateful to hook on
Speaker 1: with Rachel's family, dropping by there after school and sticking
Speaker 1: around for dinner, spending hours learning to crochet with Rachel's mom.
Speaker 1: But each time she went in deep about Josette, Rachel
Speaker 1: ran into a problem, a problem named Howard Combert.
Speaker 2: So, you know, to try to get around the whole
Speaker 2: not talking about Howard. Thing about Josette is kind of
Speaker 2: hard because he met her at my mom's house, you know,
Speaker 2: of course.
Speaker 1: So in the end she decided to sit for us again,
Speaker 1: to meet another day with Kathleen.
Speaker 2: Can I get you to introduce yourself and tell me
Speaker 2: what you have for breakfast or lunch? Then get a level.
Speaker 2: I didn't need anything today, not one thing. No, now
Speaker 2: I want to give you some almonds or something.
Speaker 1: Kathleen sat with Rachel as she delved into her past,
Speaker 1: rummaging old photos and dusty scrap books, reading up bits
Speaker 1: of letters.
Speaker 2: So I did you find some feelings that you as
Speaker 2: you're going up into the.
Speaker 1: Attic It was clear she hadn't done this in a
Speaker 1: very long time. Exhuming her girlhood year by year.
Speaker 2: Grade three, it is around the time when it started.
Speaker 1: By it, she means the mumcumbered entered her life and
Speaker 1: her home from which you take advantage of young girls
Speaker 1: in and around Putnam County.
Speaker 2: And you want to know what goes through my head
Speaker 2: is how many of them could have been saved if
Speaker 2: they would have just listened to me.
Speaker 3: My madness, laughter, my fears, sorrows, depths are endless valley.
Speaker 4: My ears, this is the Devil's quarry.
Speaker 1: Rachel was around eight when she first met Gombert. She
Speaker 1: was living with her mom and brother in an apartment
Speaker 1: three miles east of Carmel. One day, she stopped at
Speaker 1: a gas station with her uncle. The uncle started chatting
Speaker 1: with a stranger there. That stranger was Howard Gombert.
Speaker 2: And whether it was about getting some weed or getting
Speaker 2: you know, whatever drug was involved, he ended up coming
Speaker 2: back to the house.
Speaker 1: Gombert would have been in his early twenties then. He
Speaker 1: was handsome in his seventies, windblown way with a center
Speaker 1: part mullet, a thin mustache, and a dimple in his chin,
Speaker 1: dressed in black boots and driving a motorcycle. He was
Speaker 1: something of a seducer in those days. Just weeks after
Speaker 1: meeting Rachel's mom, for example, he'd moved himself into the flat.
Speaker 1: The physical and sexual abuse began soon after. Rachel had
Speaker 1: already seen her mom man handled by guys that she
Speaker 1: brought home.
Speaker 2: She was a very loving lady. She wore a heart
Speaker 2: on her sleeve, but like many of us, she was traumatized.
Speaker 1: But Gombert was a different beast entirely. A few months
Speaker 1: after Gombert moved in, Rachel was alone with him in
Speaker 1: the apartment. Her mom was off at work and Rachel
Speaker 1: was folding laundry. Gomber came up behind her, saying he
Speaker 1: knew boys were going to like her. Then he lureded
Speaker 1: the back bedroom, where he raped her for the first time.
Speaker 2: I was eight and nine years old when it started.
Speaker 1: Soon Gomber crept into her bed at night. She'd awakened
Speaker 1: to his hand clasped over her mouth, is growing pressed
Speaker 1: up against her. It went on like this for years,
Speaker 1: she says, the rapes, the whispered death threats. She was
Speaker 1: made to feel like her body wasn't hers, like it
Speaker 1: was his to do with as he chose, Nor was
Speaker 1: that his only form of abuse.
Speaker 2: Let me just give you an example. Cigarettes were found
Speaker 2: under my bed. I started smoking early. Howard whopped my ass.
Speaker 2: He whopped my ass just to show my mom that
Speaker 2: I was being disciplined.
Speaker 1: Five years of this went by. Gombert moved in and
Speaker 1: out of her house, but kept coming back.
Speaker 2: For little visits for many years. Like it felt wrong
Speaker 2: and knew it was wrong, but he didn't actually find
Speaker 2: out until I was sitting in health class.
Speaker 1: An instructor was teaching a module on sex ad that
Speaker 1: day and the difference between right touch and the.
Speaker 2: Wrong touch, you know, no touching in the bathing suit areas,
Speaker 2: And I was sitting in class learning that it was
Speaker 2: all wrong. It was all wrong, and it just kind
Speaker 2: of verified what I was feeling, you know, And that's
Speaker 2: why you're not supposed to say anything that's why nobody's
Speaker 2: gonna believe you, you know, like keep this between.
Speaker 1: It was all wrong, Rachel confided in a friend soon
Speaker 1: after that it was the first time she told anyone
Speaker 1: about Combert. Her friends told him adult at the school.
Speaker 2: The next period, I was called up to the guidance
Speaker 2: counselor's office and they never went back home. I ended
Speaker 2: up at the Sheriff's department. I spent the rest of
Speaker 2: my day in that sheriff's department.
Speaker 1: But in detectives arrested Gombert and charged him with raping
Speaker 1: a minor. But it was Rachel who's removed from her
Speaker 1: own house.
Speaker 2: I just wanted to go home, you know, like in
Speaker 2: my head, being that young and not they took him
Speaker 2: out of the house, so why couldn't I go back home?
Speaker 1: A worker from Child Services was assigned to her case.
Speaker 1: Rachel moved into the Cabrini Girls' Home in Carmel. A
Speaker 1: month or two later, she was summoned to court to
Speaker 1: testify against Gombert. She'd been prepped for the hearing by
Speaker 1: her Child's Services worker to tell her story remotely via
Speaker 1: video feed from the separate courtroom. That was and remains
Speaker 1: the procedure in child rape cases.
Speaker 2: I remember the day of court and they had me
Speaker 2: in the side room. We're setting up, getting ready to
Speaker 2: do the testimony or getting ready to do, you know,
Speaker 2: start the court. I was scared. I mean like I
Speaker 2: was nervous. I was I'm like shaking inside.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was something that you know, like I didn't
Speaker 2: want to do, but I had to do.
Speaker 1: And suddenly a commotion. Someone came in and pulled her
Speaker 1: advocate aside.
Speaker 2: And it was said, no, you're not allowed to do
Speaker 2: a video testimony. You actually have to go on the stand.
Speaker 1: She asked her worker what that meant. The worker couldn't
Speaker 1: tell her. This is the answer Rachel got from the judge.
Speaker 2: You know, like he has the right to hear you
Speaker 2: accuse accusing him.
Speaker 1: Frantic, she asked her advocate what to do. Don't worry,
Speaker 1: said the advocate. I'm with you every step. Just look
Speaker 1: at me when you tell it, not at him.
Speaker 2: She would sit and be my focal point. But that
Speaker 2: all suddenly changed.
Speaker 1: The room the hearing was held in was claustrophobically small,
Speaker 1: some folding chairs, a couple of tables, a judge behind
Speaker 1: one of them. Rachel took her seat beside the judge,
Speaker 1: and three feet away at his lawyer's table, sat convert.
Speaker 2: He was put basically right in front of me feet
Speaker 2: do I and Howard's got this look and scared shut
Speaker 2: at me.
Speaker 1: And then there was his lawyer. The name of that
Speaker 1: lawyer Bob A. Leader before he represented Anthony for the
Speaker 1: murder of Josette. Right. Bobby Leader was Howard Gombert's lawyer.
Speaker 2: I don't remember what the questions was, but it was,
Speaker 2: you know, like pertraining to what I am accusing him of,
Speaker 2: or what happened or the incident or you know, I'm
Speaker 2: sure it had to do with what I said in
Speaker 2: the first place, you know, like what brought me to
Speaker 2: that guidance counselor.
Speaker 1: Rachel started his story, tripping over the words, trying just
Speaker 1: to breathe and not pass out.
Speaker 2: And I started, like I did. I testified one hundred
Speaker 2: percent with my head down for reason. And the judge,
Speaker 2: I can't even remember who he was, he said, I
Speaker 2: can't hear you. Pick up your head.
Speaker 1: She did, and there were Gombert's eyes staring back at her.
Speaker 2: They just become dark, and it's like they pierced through
Speaker 2: you and brose me, and it just became overwhelming for me,
Speaker 2: and I walked off, said I couldn't do it.
Speaker 1: Rachel bolted from her chair and fled the room. There
Speaker 1: was no hope of getting her back into the chair.
Speaker 1: The rape charge was dropped, Gombert was released. The prosecutor
Speaker 1: told the papers that Rachel recanted whipsawed. Rachel returned to
Speaker 1: the group home. Several months later, her mom moved to Carmel.
Speaker 1: She took an apartment down the road from the group home.
Speaker 1: Rachel moved back home when her at the age of fifteen,
Speaker 1: and guess who was waiting for her there.
Speaker 2: Howard was still around. My mom thought that if she
Speaker 2: was there, nothing would happen. There was people around, I
Speaker 2: was protected. She was wrong.
Speaker 1: One of Howard's spots was the woods off Fields Lane.
Speaker 1: He put Rachel on the back of his bike and
Speaker 1: take her to his secret place there where he'd do
Speaker 1: whatever he wanted with her. After he split with Rachel's mom, Gomber,
Speaker 1: now in his late twenties, moved in with his teen girlfriend,
Speaker 1: but he'd still drop by Rachel's mom's apartment. Sometimes he
Speaker 1: drag his girlfriend along, other times he'd show up solo.
Speaker 1: He just seemed to somehow know when Rachel was alone
Speaker 1: there and to steal up from behind her wherever she
Speaker 1: happened to be. Still, Rachel tried to live in normal adolescence.
Speaker 1: She hung with her friends in Carmel after school. She
Speaker 1: had her first boyfriends who looked after Josette, who kept
Speaker 1: showing up at her house. The girl was there so
Speaker 1: often she was practically on the lease, and that's where
Speaker 1: she got to know Gombert. After Josette was killed, Rachel's
Speaker 1: mom told the cops that Gombert took an interest in Josette,
Speaker 1: and that Josette returned his interest and would ask about
Speaker 1: him when he wasn't around. In the fall of ninety three,
Speaker 1: Rachel felt pregnant. She'd know if the baby was her
Speaker 1: boyfriends or Gomberts. As it happened, She was with Gombert
Speaker 1: the day she got the news from the doctor. When
Speaker 1: she got off the phone and told him, Gombert lost
Speaker 1: his mind.
Speaker 2: He told me that I was moving in with him.
Speaker 1: That wasn't an invitation, it was an order. She was
Speaker 1: going to be the living sitter for Gombert's toddler, the
Speaker 1: baby had with his girlfriend or else.
Speaker 2: He told me that if I didn't tell my mom
Speaker 2: that I was going to move in with him to
Speaker 2: watch his daughter. That he was going to get Joe
Speaker 2: set too, and he said, no, I'm going to leave
Speaker 2: her alone.
Speaker 1: And that's when she told Gombert that she was moving
Speaker 1: at a carmel. They fought about her leaving and his
Speaker 1: designs on Josette until Rachel couldn't take it anymore.
Speaker 2: And I just wanted to go home. It was a
Speaker 2: rough day, you know. He went through a lot of
Speaker 2: that day with Howard, but.
Speaker 1: It was late by then she was miles from home.
Speaker 1: She had no choice but to accept a ride from Gombert.
Speaker 2: Somehow I ended up on that bike and he was
Speaker 2: bringing me home.
Speaker 1: Sitting behind him, Rachel watched the road.
Speaker 2: He goes to make a right. Shouldn't have like, why
Speaker 2: are you going up this road? But he went to turn.
Speaker 2: I never held onto him. I didn't like, you know,
Speaker 2: but I'm on the back of a motorcycle. So I
Speaker 2: kind of had his jacket and I felt the knife.
Speaker 2: He always had a knife on him. He always had
Speaker 2: some kind of weapon, and I just got this feeling
Speaker 2: he's going to kill me. I didn't know why he
Speaker 2: was turning. I didn't know where he was going. Then
Speaker 2: I jumped off the bike.
Speaker 1: While it was moving. She hit the asphalt hard.
Speaker 2: I jumped off and tried to protect my stomach, like
Speaker 2: I know I was pregnant and screwed myself up, like
Speaker 2: I messed up my name, elbow, like I'm jumped out
Speaker 2: into traffic. Uh, and I just started running. I just
Speaker 2: started running like I just wanted somebody to come down
Speaker 2: that road and stop. And nobody did. Nobody came down
Speaker 2: the road.
Speaker 1: She heard the roar of the bike turning back and
Speaker 1: gunning for her. Bruised and bloody, she watched herself get
Speaker 1: back on the bike.
Speaker 2: So he got me. And now he's nervous, you know,
Speaker 2: trying to come up with the story on how I
Speaker 2: off the bike.
Speaker 1: It was an accident. Gomber told her, you fell off
Speaker 1: the bike. Anyone asks you, that's what you say. But
Speaker 1: Rachel defied him. She confided in her boyfriend, told him
Speaker 1: she'd jumped because she'd feared for her life.
Speaker 2: I immediately told him what happened, and uh, he was pissed.
Speaker 2: But nobody ever did anything, you know, like nobody ever
Speaker 2: did anything. That's a really chilling squirt story. My heart's
Speaker 2: coming guessed. My whole insides are.
Speaker 1: Shaking in spite of Gombert's threats, Rachel went ahead with
Speaker 1: her plans. She packed up her life into moving boxes
Speaker 1: and brought them out to the curb. That was when
Speaker 1: Josette walked up and burst into tears on the sidewalk.
Speaker 1: The two girls hug well, both of them stood there sobbing.
Speaker 2: Quite honestly, I remember, chrisaye, just take me. They won't
Speaker 2: even notice I'm gone. I was like, we can't, we
Speaker 2: can't take you. You know, it crushed me. I worried
Speaker 2: about her. I worried about her, but I did tell
Speaker 2: her to stay away from Howard though had to stay away,
Speaker 2: you know, like it kind of threatened me with her,
Speaker 2: you know, like so I worried about her.
Speaker 1: For good reason. Joseph vanished a couple months after Rachel moved.
Speaker 1: Rachel had no house phone, so her mom stopped by
Speaker 1: to tell her.
Speaker 2: I was angry at myself. I feel like I could
Speaker 2: have protected her by.
Speaker 1: Staying a long Sidely ear went by. No word about Josette. Then,
Speaker 1: two days after cops found her body, they stopped by
Speaker 1: Rachel's house. She talked to them about Gombert.
Speaker 2: My first thought was, son of a bitch. Did he
Speaker 2: get her? You know, like Honestly, that hit me hard.
Speaker 1: At last, she didn't trust the cops or anyone else
Speaker 1: in this system, not after that system it so callously
Speaker 1: failed her when she reported Gombert five years prior. Her
Speaker 1: police statement made no mention of Gombert's spot off Fields
Speaker 1: Lane or the vile things he'd done to her in
Speaker 1: the woods. But as I reread her statement to Putnam
Speaker 1: Detective Bill Quick, I'm struck by what she did. Tell
Speaker 1: them that she was freaked by the idea of Josette
Speaker 1: babysitting for Gombert, that Gombert often drove his girlfriend's car,
Speaker 1: a car just like the one Josette was last seen
Speaker 1: getting into. All of that tallied with what other girls
Speaker 1: told them the Gombra was a creep who liked young girls.
Speaker 1: But those cops didn't drag Gombert out of his house
Speaker 1: and tossed them in the box with Castaldo. Instead, Costaldo
Speaker 1: picked Anthony and Andy out of a hat and chose
Speaker 1: them as Josette's killers. In doing so, he and Quick
Speaker 1: gave Gombert a pass, a get out of town free card,
Speaker 1: if you will. Gombert high tailed out of Carmel in
Speaker 1: ninety five, lived in Connecticut for several years, but Gombert
Speaker 1: couldn't help himself. He kept crawling back to New York.
Speaker 1: That hurt Rachel. She'd moved to the safest place she
Speaker 1: could find, a remote cottage high up in the hills.
Speaker 1: One night, she and her infant were fast asleep when
Speaker 1: she awoke to a hand over her mouth. He told
Speaker 1: her he'd take a baby and sell her to strangers
Speaker 1: if she didn't submit to him. When Gomber left without
Speaker 1: her infant, Rachel says she reported him once again, this
Speaker 1: time to the state trooper, who drove her to the
Speaker 1: hospital where a rape kit was performed. I've read the
Speaker 1: hospital report, but it's not clear whether the trooper documented
Speaker 1: the attack. In any case, they never brought Gombert in.
Speaker 1: Six years later, in two thousand and two, Anthony sat
Speaker 1: in prison reading his case file. He was halfway through
Speaker 1: it when he came to the statement that Rachel gave
Speaker 1: to police, the one about Howard knowing Josette.
Speaker 2: He opened up, this is Howard box, not knowing what
Speaker 2: he was going to find, but didn't know that I
Speaker 2: was in that box.
Speaker 1: Anthony told his investigators to go out and find Rachel,
Speaker 1: a girl he knew from hanging around the group home.
Speaker 1: They found her all right, and when they brought her
Speaker 1: story back to him, Anthony was staggered.
Speaker 5: The last time I seen her, I think she was
Speaker 5: working at a gas station. I had no idea she
Speaker 5: was suffered anything, but sitting with her story tripped memory
Speaker 5: for Anthony. I rob somebody I'd believe to be Howard Gombert.
Speaker 1: It was an evening in the fall of nineteen ninety four,
Speaker 1: right around the time Josette went missing. Anthony was selling
Speaker 1: drugs back then, was out with two of his stone
Speaker 1: or pals and Caramel. So I'm out there.
Speaker 5: There's the courthouse, there's this little area where there's these
Speaker 5: three benches. I'm standing out there and this guy comes
Speaker 5: up to me, right and he says, I want some
Speaker 5: cracker or some blow.
Speaker 1: Tom, one of his friends, you gambled on site. So
Speaker 1: the other kid, Rick, They whisper to Anthony. This guy's
Speaker 1: a fucking dick. He's no good.
Speaker 5: And Rick and Tom, I'm like, this guy, so you abuse,
Speaker 5: abuse mycrofriend, abuse my girlfriend. So I'm like, all right,
Speaker 5: well you want to want to do something about this,
Speaker 5: I'm like yeah.
Speaker 1: Anthony walked over to the guy and told him, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll help you out.
Speaker 5: I said, all right, we got to go take a ride.
Speaker 1: The guy gave Anthony a hundred bucks in cash. They
Speaker 1: all got into Big Larry's Bronco. Three teens and the
Speaker 1: guy seeking drugs, and I'm like, where are we going
Speaker 1: to take them? So we're driving around and we pull
Speaker 1: up in this little area and I'm like, I don't know.
Speaker 5: I'm not trying to be violent to him. I just
Speaker 5: I got his money in my pocket. I just They're like,
Speaker 5: let's buck him up.
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, just leave him. Anthony pulled the car over,
Speaker 1: told the guy to get out, and I left him there.
Speaker 5: It wasn't until I had paperwork and I kind of
Speaker 5: pieced it together because how many people did time go
Speaker 5: out with?
Speaker 1: We're playing that memory now, the truth that it hit him.
Speaker 1: Tom's girlfriend at the time was Rachel and the guy
Speaker 1: you ripped off of the hundred bucks that had to
Speaker 1: be Howard Combert.
Speaker 5: I didn't know that he was a killer. I didn't
Speaker 5: know that he was a rapist. I just knew these
Speaker 5: people didn't like him, and I like to take things
Speaker 5: from people that are bad, and so I left them there.
Speaker 1: For years. One question that plagued him in prison, Why
Speaker 1: did the cops home in on me. He still had
Speaker 1: no definitive answer, but now he had a theory. And
Speaker 1: you know what, I think. I have never been able
Speaker 1: to prove this, but I've said it to a few people.
Speaker 1: I think he said that I killed that girl. And
Speaker 1: I think the reason why I was first ever suspected
Speaker 1: was because that guy was mad that I robbed him.
Speaker 1: It took him years of motions, of failure upon failure,
Speaker 1: of judges turning blind eyes to the facts, but Anthony
Speaker 1: finally submitted an appeal that broke through. What sparked it
Speaker 1: was another flashback from the nineties, the memory of a
Speaker 1: meeting with his lawyer, Bottle Leader before his trial in
Speaker 1: ninety seven.
Speaker 5: We have these legal visits in these small rooms, and
Speaker 5: it was in the visiting room.
Speaker 1: There Anthony remembers Leader telling him he had evidence evidence
Speaker 1: on a man named Howard Gombered that pointed him as
Speaker 1: Josette's killer. He told Anthony was going to go after
Speaker 1: Gombert as the killer during the trial, except that, yeah,
Speaker 1: he never saw much as raised Gombert's named of the jury.
Speaker 5: Leader was like, yeah, I think we're going to go
Speaker 5: after this guy. Leader is like, yeah, I had him
Speaker 5: on a rape case.
Speaker 1: That case, Anthony learned, now dated to nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 1: Gombert's accuser was none other than Rachel. That's right. The
Speaker 1: lawyer had repped Anthony for the rape murder of a
Speaker 1: twelve year old had also repped Gombert for the rape
Speaker 1: of a minor girl.
Speaker 5: So wait a minute, it's just like this guy had
Speaker 5: conflict adventures.
Speaker 1: What is this? Having studied law for years now, Anthony
Speaker 1: put the pieces together. His lawyer, Bobble Leader, had committed
Speaker 1: a disborrible breach of ethics. You can't rep a client
Speaker 1: on a murder charge when you've repped another viable suspect
Speaker 1: for that crime. No matter that he wasn't Gombert's attorney
Speaker 1: in ninety seven, Leaders still had a duty to protect
Speaker 1: Gombert at Anthony's trial, and his having done so had
Speaker 1: denied Anthony's right to a fair trial. It was the
Speaker 1: perfect grounds for an appeal. Anthony's new lawyer wasted no
Speaker 1: time filing emotion with the courts. After he'd served fifteen years,
Speaker 1: Anthony's conviction was set aside. He was granted a new
Speaker 1: trial in twenty eleven, thanks in large part to Rachel
Speaker 1: and to the investigator's who founder. Anthony's conviction was overturned.
Speaker 1: Still it wasn't free very far from it, because the
Speaker 1: DA filed to try and again. In the run up
Speaker 1: to his new trial, Anthony's lawyer approached Rachel about testifying
Speaker 1: on Anthony's behalf. It was an enormous ask.
Speaker 2: And I didn't understand my purpose or you know, and
Speaker 2: and having to heal and realize, like wow, like I
Speaker 2: have a fuck. My life has just been horror movie
Speaker 2: kind of like you know, like I'm very spiritual. I
Speaker 2: wouldn't say I'm religious. I was mad at God. There
Speaker 2: was a part in my life where I was just
Speaker 2: so mad at him and like why why? But I
Speaker 2: learned that sometimes you have to go through things they
Speaker 2: might not read particularly for you. But I had to
Speaker 2: go through something to help others. And you know, if
Speaker 2: that's what my purpose is, then I feel like I've
Speaker 2: tried to uphold that.
Speaker 1: When he learned that Rachel would testify for him, Anthony
Speaker 1: poured out his thanks to Hear in a letter.
Speaker 2: It says, first and foremost, I can't thank you enough
Speaker 2: for helping me and my family prosecute Howard Gombert. You
Speaker 2: are very courageous and it is because of this, me
Speaker 2: and Andy will be able to once again have a life.
Speaker 2: I know this to be true, and it's not important
Speaker 2: that you write me back. I just want you to
Speaker 2: know that we are forever grateful. You are the most
Speaker 2: important person in this case. Had you testified, my jury
Speaker 2: would not have believed a Nis wrote, the judge was
Speaker 2: protecting the dea by keeping you out hull with Howard Copper. Sincerely, Anthony,
Speaker 2: thank you.
Speaker 1: In twenty twelve, Anthony moved back to the Putnam jailhouse
Speaker 1: and carmeled await trial. One morning, he heard his name
Speaker 1: called out in lock up. Another inmate heard it and
Speaker 1: his ears pricked up. His name was Jeff Santora. A
Speaker 1: short muscular guy covered him prisoning who just transferred into
Speaker 1: Putnam lockup.
Speaker 5: He here's my name of comments Sary.
Speaker 6: So I called him over and he said, hey, what's up?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 6: I heard a lot about you. Yeah, I heard a
Speaker 6: lot about you too. Man.
Speaker 7: He's like, yeah, ain't none of his true though? I say,
Speaker 7: I know, I said, for where his work? I'm sorry
Speaker 7: you're in here, man. I know you ain't do that shit.
Speaker 7: How you know I can do it?
Speaker 1: Santoro said he'd been imprisoning Connecticut where he was doing
Speaker 1: a bit for possession. Then he shared a story about
Speaker 1: an inmate he'd met there.
Speaker 7: So I mean, this sounds funny. It because we like,
Speaker 7: we crossed paths in the shower, and uh, I heard
Speaker 7: him talking to somebody else.
Speaker 1: Specifically, you heard him talking about Putnam.
Speaker 6: County, and I'm like, Buttnam County.
Speaker 1: Centaura had grown up in Putnam. He looked the other
Speaker 1: end night over.
Speaker 6: He looks like a beady eyed weasel rat.
Speaker 7: You know. Once I seen him, and I seen him,
Speaker 7: and then I knew you could just tell it right
Speaker 7: off the jump. When I looked at him, I knew
Speaker 7: he was a sex offent.
Speaker 1: There.
Speaker 6: You see that he's a predator, but he's a predator
Speaker 6: for everybody.
Speaker 7: And then you have the weasel predator, a little lad
Speaker 7: with that beady eyes, and they just they prey on
Speaker 7: the small, the weak and easy, you know, like a vulture,
Speaker 7: you know, playing the dead. So somebody like that. Not
Speaker 7: too many people want to hear what he has to say.
Speaker 1: But again, the man mentioned Putnam County.
Speaker 6: So I'm giving him airtime. He just wants to talk.
Speaker 7: He was telling me stuff that I couldn't believe I
Speaker 7: was hearing.
Speaker 1: Then the beadyod Weasel mentioned a body.
Speaker 6: He explained it was the girl Josette.
Speaker 1: As a team. Growing up in Putnam, he'd learned a
Speaker 1: legend of Joseph backwards and forwards.
Speaker 7: Susan's a little girl that was raped and killed by
Speaker 7: uh he did the pit bow and angel Prevac and
Speaker 7: that there was a piece of shit, you know that
Speaker 7: they did some dirty shit to this little twelve year
Speaker 7: old girl.
Speaker 6: And I was at.
Speaker 7: A place in my of hatred for them, like for that.
Speaker 7: I hated those kids for that. A piece of shit.
Speaker 7: You raped this little girl and kill her like that.
Speaker 7: It's fucked up.
Speaker 1: So now hearing this guy in a Connecticut prison talking
Speaker 1: about a body named Josette.
Speaker 7: And I'm like, I'm like what And in my head
Speaker 7: I'm like, oh my god, like this what is this
Speaker 7: guy talking about? So yeah, they got these two other
Speaker 7: suckers for it, though, so they'll never get me. I'm
Speaker 7: like two other suckers. I'm like, why are these suckers?
Speaker 7: He's like, you know, you know, I'm like you know
Speaker 7: what he's like, you know what? It is, like, Like,
Speaker 7: oh my god, I'm like, whoa this guy's saying it
Speaker 7: right now. In my mind, I'm like, this is you know,
Speaker 7: it's explode. It's an explosion in my mind. He flat
Speaker 7: out it was like, you know they got two other suckers. Fact,
Speaker 7: so that to me right there, that man you did
Speaker 7: that if they had why they suckers, they wouldn't be
Speaker 7: suckers if they did it. You don't know how big
Speaker 7: of a deal this was. Like when I was like,
Speaker 7: I'm gonna look tell all my friends about this. This
Speaker 7: is crazy, and I was like I was just writing
Speaker 7: it down, like, woman, we did they hit this shit?
Speaker 1: Santaorro Rand, who was selling scribbled everything he'd heard, four
Speaker 1: pages of notes, single spaced, and then a couple of
Speaker 1: months later he was sent to the Putnam Jail, where
Speaker 1: he heard Anthony's name being called over the PA while
Speaker 1: he had those notes on his person.
Speaker 7: When I got to fucking Putnham, it was almost like
Speaker 7: it was like feet, I guess I don't really believe
Speaker 7: in that shit, but it was like the world writing
Speaker 7: and wrong.
Speaker 6: I guess you know what the Bible was there.
Speaker 5: He starts telling me what is a credible account of
Speaker 5: being with Howard Gombert, and he started talking about what
Speaker 5: he said about the red Card, Josette, the two suckers.
Speaker 5: So he literally went from Howard Gombert's Connecticut prison to
Speaker 5: Putnam County jail and he had a set of notes
Speaker 5: where he says Howard Gombert said that he had sex
Speaker 5: with Josette around the time she disappeared.
Speaker 1: Santoro let Anthony read the notes.
Speaker 6: Read that Amy reading, he start crying and.
Speaker 1: I'm reading this shit. I'm like, holy shit. I'm like, i.
Speaker 5: Gotta get this out of the fucking jail. So I'm like,
Speaker 5: I call my lawyers. I'm like, you guys got to come.
Speaker 5: And I'm like, this has got to get into the court.
Speaker 7: He said, Yo, We've been looking. I've been trying to
Speaker 7: fucking like we've been looking at this guy. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 7: he's a sick Oh.
Speaker 5: I'm like, this is an act of God. I am
Speaker 5: delivered the confession of Howard Gombert in this jail at
Speaker 5: the time I needed the most.
Speaker 1: The Devil's Quarry is a production of Lava for Good
Speaker 1: in association with Rolling Stone Films and Signal Company Number One.
Speaker 1: I'm your creator and host Paul Soltaov. Executive producers are
Speaker 1: Jason Flomm Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wardis and Gilbert King from
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Speaker 1: fact checking by Lucy Croning, Our sound designer is Brit Spangler,
Speaker 1: and our engineer is Austin Smith. Additional reporting by Kathleen
Speaker 1: Hornan original music arranged and produced by Alexis Quadrado at
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Speaker 1: Our theme song, The One Who's Holding the Stars, is
Speaker 1: performed by Alexis Quadrado at the Plaza Rojas Studio, vocals
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Speaker 1: Correctional Facility, Monad