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Speaker 1: built on. You're listening to Unexplained with Me Richard McClean

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Speaker 1: smith Lex talionis Part two. With the announcement of Johnny's

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Speaker 1: arrest on Monday, November ninth, a great tension in the

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Speaker 1: community has been released, and although Bishop Matheson advises some

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Speaker 1: caution since it remains to be seen if Johnny is

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Speaker 1: the perpetrator, there is palpable relief at the Saint Franci's

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Speaker 1: convent back at the city jail. Later that evening, local

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Speaker 1: attorney Bill Pollius offers his services as a court appointed

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Speaker 1: attorney to Johnny. The family has little money and little

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Speaker 1: choice but to take him on, but even at this

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Speaker 1: point his attitude causes great concern for Johnny's mother, Charlotte.

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Speaker 1: From the moment he introduces himself, she can tell his

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Speaker 1: mind is already made up. It was a lost cause.

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Speaker 1: That night, Johnny sits alone in his cell while his

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Speaker 1: mother returns home, haunted by what he had told her.

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Speaker 1: According to Johnny, after his arrest, he had been taken

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Speaker 1: into an interview room where two detectives had immediately started

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Speaker 1: telling him what he was supposed to have done. When

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Speaker 1: they offered a version of events, he had just nodded

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Speaker 1: along and told them to put it down. But they

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Speaker 1: weren't his words, He kept telling his mother he never

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Speaker 1: did any of it. The following day, at tired and fragile,

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Speaker 1: Charlotte arrives at the county courthouse, jostled by press and

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Speaker 1: onlookers as she makes her way to meet her son

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Speaker 1: to escort him to his bail hearing at one thirty pm.

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Speaker 1: Accompanied by Bill Pollius, she takes the scared and handcuffed

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Speaker 1: seventeen year old Johnny by the arm and leads him

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Speaker 1: into the charged atmosphere of a packed courtroom. Trying not

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Speaker 1: to look at the many spectators who have crammed in

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Speaker 1: to watch the hearing, She just has time to give

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Speaker 1: her son a peck on the cheek before two police

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Speaker 1: deputies take him away, removing his handcuffs and sitting him

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Speaker 1: down by the judge's bench. All rise to their feet

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Speaker 1: when a solemn Elbe Bartlet, Justice of the Peace, enters

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Speaker 1: the room. Johnny, Charlotte, and Pollius remained standing as Bartlet

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Speaker 1: lays out the charges, But before he can speak, Charlotte

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Speaker 1: feels her legs go and is helped to a seat

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Speaker 1: at the council table behind her son. Johnny Frank Garrett,

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Speaker 1: hereinafter styled the defendant, heretofore on or about the thirty

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Speaker 1: first day of October, did then and there knowingly and intentionally,

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Speaker 1: while in the course of committing and attempting to commit

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Speaker 1: the offense of burglary, cause the death of to day

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Speaker 1: a bends by choking and strangling the complainant manner and

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Speaker 1: means unknown. Johnnie stares at the table, shaking his head

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Speaker 1: as his mother struggles to hold back the tears covering

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Speaker 1: her ears. At the mention of choking and strangling, Detective

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Speaker 1: Joger places a hand on her shoulder. Barrett finishes by

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Speaker 1: asking Johnny to sign a document stating he understands the charges,

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Speaker 1: Charlotte interrupts, letting the judge know that her son cannot read.

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Speaker 1: Pollius then proceeds to read the document to Johnny. Despite

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Speaker 1: an attempt by Pollius to secure an examination trial to

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Speaker 1: ascertain if there is even enough evidence to indicte Johnny,

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Speaker 1: District Attorney Danny Hill argues forcibly against it, and the

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Speaker 1: opportunity is denied. Johnny is refused bail and instructed to

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Speaker 1: return to jail to await his trial date. With the

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Speaker 1: hearing brought to her clothes, he is handcuffed once again

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Speaker 1: and led toward the door, kissing his mother good bye,

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Speaker 1: before being walked past a horde of jeering spectators and

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Speaker 1: the media. That night, Johnny is put in a cell

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Speaker 1: with b and offender J. Kelly Pinkerton, who was awaiting

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Speaker 1: trial charged with rape and murder, having already received the

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Speaker 1: death penalty for a murder he committed back in nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy nine. Throughout the county, as the press raced to

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Speaker 1: break the news of the teenager's indictment, one reporter has

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Speaker 1: been especially thrown by the charge six days previously, five

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Speaker 1: days before Garrett had supposedly even become a suspect. Globe

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Speaker 1: News reporter Charlie Bates had been contacted by two apparent psychics.

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Speaker 1: What they told him at the time had been too

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Speaker 1: peculiar to print In an article published the day after

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Speaker 1: the hearing, However, Bates was finally able to explain the

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Speaker 1: extraordinary turn of events. After hearing about the horrific murder

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Speaker 1: of sister todaya self confirmed psychic, INA's Patterson, who had

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Speaker 1: assist police previously on a nineteen seventy nine rape case,

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Speaker 1: together with her associate Allne, decided to hold a clairvoyant

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Speaker 1: session to see what they might find out. That night,

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Speaker 1: as Allene watched on, Inez apparently entered a trance like

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Speaker 1: state in an effort to channel the murdered nun, but

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Speaker 1: had to end the session abruptly when she became too

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Speaker 1: enwrapped in the victim's emotions. Not before, however, she had

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Speaker 1: gleamed some vital information. During the trance, Ines claimed to

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Speaker 1: have received the vision of a house, as well as

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Speaker 1: the name Clyde. The house was described as being on

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Speaker 1: Northeast eighteenth Avenue, having a white frame structure and dirty

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Speaker 1: hardwood floors. The following day, the two psychics took a

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Speaker 1: walk along northeast eighteenth, tracing their steps from the convent

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Speaker 1: until they apparently found themselves standing in front of the

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Speaker 1: exact house. Inez had supposedly seen in her vision. It

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Speaker 1: was number four thousand, Johnny Garrett's home, and at the

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Speaker 1: back of the house they spotted a dog kennel, over

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Speaker 1: which scrawled in thick paint was the name mister Clyde.

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Speaker 1: Patterson had also offered a description of the suspect to

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Speaker 1: journalist Charlie Bates, saying that he was a young man

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Speaker 1: about five ft eleven with a muscular, small frame, having

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Speaker 1: what was described as a long abe Lincoln nose and

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Speaker 1: large ears, a description that could be said to closely

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Speaker 1: match Johnny's. On receiving this information, Bates had attempted to

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Speaker 1: put authorities in touch with the psychics, but they had

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Speaker 1: apparently made no attempt to contact them. Over the next year,

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Speaker 1: the District Attorney's office worked to build their case against Johnny,

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Speaker 1: who continues to profess his innocence as the trial approaches

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Speaker 1: in August of nineteen eighty two. The case of the

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Speaker 1: teenager Johnny Frank Garrett is all that the city of

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Speaker 1: Amarillo can talk about united in their speculation of who

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Speaker 1: this monstrous eighteen year old might be and how his

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Speaker 1: mother could have raised him to be that way. During

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Speaker 1: the trial, the case against Johnny rests mostly on the

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Speaker 1: two finger prints found in Sister to dea Benz's room,

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Speaker 1: one on the nun's headboard and one on the knife

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Speaker 1: found under her bed. Although both knives found close to

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Speaker 1: the scene were determined not to have been used to

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Speaker 1: stab the victim, pathologist Ralph Erdmann, who carried out to

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Speaker 1: daa Benz's autopsy, claims that injuries to the front of

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Speaker 1: the nun's neck were caused by an object consistent with

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Speaker 1: the knife found under the bed. One FBI agent testifies

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Speaker 1: that the stake knife found outside the building was the

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Speaker 1: same brand as a knife recovered from Johnny's mother's kitchen.

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Speaker 1: Another that some pubic hair found on the floor of

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Speaker 1: Sister to Day's room, although not a confirmed match, came

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Speaker 1: from an individual with similar characteristics to Johnny. None of

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Speaker 1: Sister to Day's blood was linked back to Johnny in

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Speaker 1: any way. No fibers from Sister to day as clothes

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Speaker 1: were found on any of Johnny's clothes, nor were any

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Speaker 1: fibers found on her that had come from him. Unknown

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Speaker 1: footprints found at the scene were not matched with any

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Speaker 1: shoes belonging to Johnny. Black hairs, as well as the

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Speaker 1: white T shirt that was found were also not linked

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Speaker 1: to Johnny in any way, and crucially, no attempt was

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Speaker 1: made to test the sperm or prostrate secretions to determine

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Speaker 1: the blood type of the perpetrator. The samples had been

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Speaker 1: destroyed soon after Johnny's arrest, and yet Johnny's finger prints

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Speaker 1: were found in sister to Day's room. Although he virulently

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Speaker 1: denied the rape and murder charges, Johnny testified in court

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Speaker 1: that he had been to the convent before. After all,

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Speaker 1: he had been there two days prior to the murder,

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Speaker 1: apparently looking for things to steal. Johnny claimed that he

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Speaker 1: had snuck into the convent some time around lunch and

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Speaker 1: taken the butter knife from the kitchen to pry open

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Speaker 1: locked drawers, which is how he suggested it ended up

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Speaker 1: in the nun's bedroom. The finger print on her bed,

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Speaker 1: he said, had got there when he leant against it

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Speaker 1: to steal a crucifix that had been hanging on the wall. However,

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Speaker 1: a nun subsequently testified that Johnny couldn't possibly have been

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Speaker 1: near the canteen at lunch without being seen, and that

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Speaker 1: there were no locked drawers in the convent. It was

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Speaker 1: a damning indictment for Johnny's defense. And then a final

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Speaker 1: piece of information is presented by the prosecution, a statement

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Speaker 1: made by eighteen year old Lonnie Dale Whatley, who had

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Speaker 1: been a fellow inmate of Johnny's at the Potter County Jail.

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Speaker 1: Whatley's statement claimed that Johnny had confessed the murder to

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Speaker 1: him shortly after his arrest in November. Johnny strongly denied

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Speaker 1: the claim. It took the jury of eight men and

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Speaker 1: four women five hours to deliberate over their decision, and

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Speaker 1: on September third, nineteen eighty two, Johnny Frank Garrett was

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Speaker 1: convicted of the rape and murder of sister TODAYA Bends

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Speaker 1: and sentenced to death by lethal injection. Are you always

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Speaker 1: taking care of your family? Do you often take care

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Speaker 1: of others and not yourself? Now it's time to take

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Speaker 1: care of yourself, To make time for you you deserve it.

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Speaker 1: TELEDOC gives you access to a licensed therapist to help

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Speaker 1: you get back to feeling your best, to feeling like

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Speaker 1: days a week from seven am to nine pm local time.

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Speaker 1: depressed or lonely, or you might be struggling with a

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Speaker 1: to facilitating great therapeutic matches, so they make it easy

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Speaker 1: to change counselors if needed. For free. Teledoc therapy is

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Speaker 1: available through most insurance or employers. Download the app or

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Speaker 1: visit telldoc dot com Forward slash Unexplained podcast to Day

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Speaker 1: to Get Started. That's t e l a d oc

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Speaker 1: dot com slash Unexplained podcast. While most of the cities

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Speaker 1: celebrated Garrett's conviction, those who actually knew the boy struggled

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Speaker 1: to reconcile his betrayal in the press. With the troubled

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Speaker 1: but soft natured young man they thought him to be

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Speaker 1: born on Christmas Eve in nineteen sixty three, Garrett had

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Speaker 1: significant learning difficulties and struggled at school. By sixth grade,

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Speaker 1: he had yet learned how to read em write. As

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Speaker 1: a young boy, Johnny had been raped by two separate stepfathers,

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Speaker 1: beaten burned by cigarettes all over his body, and once

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Speaker 1: held down onto a kitchen stove. One step father even

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Speaker 1: prostituted Johnny to his friends and would also film him

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Speaker 1: being forced to commit sexual acts. Neighbors sued Jasper would

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Speaker 1: often find a desperate Johnny crying uncontrollably on her doorstep,

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Speaker 1: but he would never say why, only asking if he

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Speaker 1: could stay the night at hers. Other nights, Johnny would

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Speaker 1: be found sleeping under his high school football stand, too

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Speaker 1: afraid to go home. At fourteen, Johnny began drinking and

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Speaker 1: experimenting with drugs, soon earning a reputation for minor misdemeanors.

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Speaker 1: In many ways, he presented as an ideal suspect for

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Speaker 1: sister to Day's murder, and yet, in spite of everything

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Speaker 1: that had happened to him, Johnny was not known to

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Speaker 1: be particularly violent and had been a loving brother to

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Speaker 1: both his sisters. After his conviction, Johnny was moved to

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Speaker 1: Ellis Unit, just north of Huntsville in Texas, which served

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Speaker 1: as death row for the state. After hearing about his case,

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Speaker 1: local lawyer Jeff Blackburn, who had later found the Texas

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Speaker 1: Innocence project, which attempted to overturn what he considered to

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Speaker 1: be unconvincing convictions, took up Johnny's case over the next

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Speaker 1: ten years. Blackburn will try and fail on two separate

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Speaker 1: occasions to appeal Johnny's conviction, arguing variously that Johnny had

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Speaker 1: not been mentally competent to stand trial, that there had

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Speaker 1: not been enough evidence to convict him, and that doctor

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Speaker 1: Erdman's negligence in discarding the samples of seamen had denied

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Speaker 1: Johnny the right to at least clear his name for

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Speaker 1: the rape of Sister to Daa. On both occasions, the

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Speaker 1: Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles voted unanimously, with the

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Speaker 1: exception of one abstension, to uphold garrett death sentence. After

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Speaker 1: the first appeal, District Attorney Danny Hill had been elated

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Speaker 1: to hear the news of its failure, stating it was

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Speaker 1: wonderful and that he hoped the execution would now be

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Speaker 1: speeded through. With an hour to go before Johnny's nineteen

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Speaker 1: ninety two scheduled execution in January, a request from Pope

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Speaker 1: John Paul the Second and a statement signed by Bishop

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Speaker 1: le Roy Matheson and other Texas bishops earns garrett a

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Speaker 1: thirty day stay of execution. Although Bishop Matheson was not

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Speaker 1: questioning his conviction, it was his and the opinion of

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Speaker 1: his colleagues that human life was sacred, that the church

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Speaker 1: ought to be the voice of social conscience. Their obligation

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Speaker 1: as religious leaders, he said, was to be faithful to

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Speaker 1: the teachings of Jesus Christ, which calls us to reconciliation

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Speaker 1: and forgiveness of those who wronged us. But their test

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Speaker 1: would come too late. On February tenth, nineteen ninety two,

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Speaker 1: a by now twenty eight year old Johnny garrett Is

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Speaker 1: served his final meal, a large bowl of ice cream.

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Speaker 1: Shortly before midnight, Johnny's mother, Charlotte, and his two sisters, stepbrother,

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Speaker 1: and new stepfather file into the death House, a small

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Speaker 1: brick building inside the Ellis Unit. The room, painted mint

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Speaker 1: green and brightly lit, is divided in two by a

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Speaker 1: row of bars, on one side of which stood Johnny's family,

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Speaker 1: and on the other a gurney with a number of

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Speaker 1: white leather straps laid across the top. Behind the gurney,

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Speaker 1: to the right a small window of mirrored glass, behind

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Speaker 1: which the executioner waited. A moment later, the door was

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Speaker 1: unbolted open. Charlotte let out a cry at the first

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Speaker 1: sight of Johnny being led into the room by two

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Speaker 1: guards and the prison warden. He was clean shaven, his

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Speaker 1: hair neatly combed, and wearing a pristine blue jumpsuit. Johnny's

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Speaker 1: mother uttered the first of many I love yous, holding

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Speaker 1: onto the bars with one hand and to her daughters

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Speaker 1: with the other as she tried her best to stay

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Speaker 1: strong for her son. Together, the family watched as Johnny

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Speaker 1: is led shuffling forward towards the gurney, pausing to have

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Speaker 1: his hands and legs unshackled before being helped onto the bed.

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Speaker 1: Within seconds, the straps had been secured across his body,

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Speaker 1: his arms outstretched as if pinned to the cross. Two

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Speaker 1: lines of clear tubing ailing from out of the wall

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Speaker 1: were needled into each of Johnny's arms. The family had

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Speaker 1: barely noticed the handful of journalists that had filed into

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Speaker 1: the room behind them, eager to watch the execution for themselves.

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Speaker 1: In response to his family's words of reassurance, Johnny turned

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Speaker 1: his head to the right, speaking with a mixture of

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Speaker 1: fear and defiance. I'd like to thank my friends who

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Speaker 1: tried to pull me through this. My guru for helping

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Speaker 1: me go through this. I'd like to thank my family

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Speaker 1: for loving me, and the rest of the world can

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Speaker 1: kiss my ass. Johnny fixed the warden with his eyes

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Speaker 1: before swiftly turning his head back to face the ceiling.

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Speaker 1: The warden nodded towards the glass panel, and seconds later,

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Speaker 1: a concoction of sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride

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Speaker 1: snaked its way through the plastic tubing. Charlotte turned her

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Speaker 1: eyes to the floor, leading the family in a tearful

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Speaker 1: rendition of amazing grace as the liquid creeps into Johnny's veins.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't clear quite when the moment had come, but

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Speaker 1: when Charlotte raised her eyes again, Johnny's body was completely still,

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Speaker 1: his mouth slightly agape and eyes staring into nothing. After

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Speaker 1: a quick check of Johnny's pulse, the prison doctor turned

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Speaker 1: to the warden and announced the time as twelve eighteen am.

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Speaker 1: When a side door was pulled open, Johnny's family said

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Speaker 1: their last goodbyes and left the building outside. Stepping into

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Speaker 1: the cold air, the family were met with the sound

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Speaker 1: of clapping and ecstatic cheers. As a crowd of students

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Speaker 1: from sam Houston State University gathered to celebrate the execution,

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Speaker 1: earing and breaking into a lated song as the embattled

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Speaker 1: family silently made their way back to the prison administration building.

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Speaker 1: And that is how things might have ended until something

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Speaker 1: very peculiar came to light. In all his time incarcerated,

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Speaker 1: Johnny never wavered in his insistence that he was innocent

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Speaker 1: of sister to Day's murder, or lost sight of the

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Speaker 1: anger at the unfairness of his predicament. And he put

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Speaker 1: it all down in a letter over five pages of

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Speaker 1: impassioned invective. Garrett cursed a hypocritical society who turned a

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Speaker 1: blind eye to him when he needed them, but was

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Speaker 1: all too ready to crucify him when they needed a

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Speaker 1: monster on which to pin their fears. He was not

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Speaker 1: about to go quietly in your nightmares. I will live

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Speaker 1: in your times of fear, big or small. Will I be.

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Speaker 1: Every frustration in your lives will be me. Every death

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Speaker 1: of your families will be me. I will be the

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Speaker 1: fear you experience upon your last breath. I curse your

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Speaker 1: souls to the deepest depths of your own hell. I

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Speaker 1: curse your parents souls and your rotten grandparents souls. I

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Speaker 1: curse every adult, every person that's born after my death

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Speaker 1: that is remotely related to your infested blood. And because

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Speaker 1: I know that curses will be fulfilled, I meet death

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Speaker 1: in a better spirit and stronger soul. And in the

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Speaker 1: months that followed Garrett's death, some say his curse came

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Speaker 1: to fruition, with a number of people will involved in

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Speaker 1: the case dying prematurely, chief among them being district Attorney

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Speaker 1: Danny Hill, who had worked so hard to secure Garrett's conviction.

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Speaker 1: Hill committed suicide in April nineteen ninety five. The psychic

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Speaker 1: Inez Patterson, who had apparently received visions of Johnny's identity

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Speaker 1: five days before he was arrested by the police, turned

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Speaker 1: out to be the girlfriend of Michael Eugene Patterson, a

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Speaker 1: well known local drug dealer who some suspect of working

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Speaker 1: as an informant for the police. Patterson was found dead

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Speaker 1: in his car not long after Garrett's execution, his cause

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Speaker 1: of death unknown. Whether you believe in Garrett's curse or not,

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Speaker 1: one thing has begun to look increasingly likely. But Garrett's

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Speaker 1: first appeal hearing, doctor Ralph Erdman, testified that he had

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Speaker 1: not been instructed to deliberately throw away the one piece

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Speaker 1: of evidence that might have exonerated the defendant, the fluid

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Speaker 1: samples he had taken from vaginal swabs. In September nineteen

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Speaker 1: ninety two, barely six months after Garrett's execution, Erdman pleaded

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Speaker 1: guilty to seven felony offenses involving falsified autopsies that are

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Speaker 1: thought to be just the tip of the iceberg of

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Speaker 1: fraudulent activities perpetrated by the former coroner. Erdman was sentenced

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Speaker 1: to ten years probation for these charges, though some suspect

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Speaker 1: he may have falsified and faked numerous toxicology reports and autopsies.

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Speaker 1: One lawyer who had been appealing at murder case at

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Speaker 1: the time stated that I believe, as I believe that

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Speaker 1: the sun will come up to morrow, that there was

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Speaker 1: a conspiracy between the prosecut utian and Erdman to say

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Speaker 1: whatever was necessary to get a conviction. Then, in two

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Speaker 1: thousand and four, a homicide investigator analyzing a number of

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Speaker 1: unsolved crimes came across the murder case of Narnie box

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Speaker 1: Bryson after resubmitting a bedsheet for DNA testing taken from

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Speaker 1: the scene of the crime. Incredibly, they found a match.

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Speaker 1: The man was Lencio Perez Ruader, a former Cuban refugee

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Speaker 1: who had been picked up by police for peeping at

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Speaker 1: a woman through a window only two weeks after Bryson's murder.

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Speaker 1: In two thousand and five, Ruada was convicted for the

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Speaker 1: rape and murder of Bryson and sentenced to forty five

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Speaker 1: years in prison. At the time of Benz's and Bryson's murders,

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Speaker 1: before Garrett had come into the picture, Amarillo police and

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Speaker 1: Ye Danny Hill was certain that both crimes had been related,

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Speaker 1: with similar black hairs and an abandoned white T shirt

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Speaker 1: found at both crime scenes. Initial suspicions had fallen on

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Speaker 1: another Cuban refugee named Fernando Flores, in whose apartment police

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Speaker 1: found hairs similar to those found in both Bryson and

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Speaker 1: Sister to day of Benz's bedrooms, as well as what

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Speaker 1: they thought were fibers from Sister to Daya's blue night dress.

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Speaker 1: After analyzing the hairs, however, Flores was determined not to

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Speaker 1: have been a match. What wasn't discovered until many years

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Speaker 1: later is that Flores and Ruada had been flatmates at

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Speaker 1: the time. In August two thousand and four, while Ruada

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Speaker 1: was awaiting his trial, attorney Jesse Quackenbush, who was hired

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Speaker 1: by Johnny Garrett's sisters to reopen the case against their brother,

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Speaker 1: secured an interview with the defendant. Ruada at first claimed

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Speaker 1: that Flores had been the man who attacked the nun

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Speaker 1: in the early hours of October thirty first, nineteen eighty one,

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Speaker 1: before eventually admitting that he had been there too. All

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Speaker 1: elements of Unexplained are produced by me Richard McClain smith.

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Speaker 1: Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes, but feel

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Speaker 1: free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas

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Speaker 1: regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you

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Speaker 1: have an explanation of your own you'd like to share.

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Speaker 1: You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com

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00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:11,159
Speaker 1: or on Twitter at Unexplained Part Now it's time to

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Speaker 1: take care of yourself. To make time for you, teledoc

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Speaker 1: gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you

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Speaker 1: get back to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed

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Speaker 1: therapist by phone or video anytime between seven am to

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Speaker 1: is available through most insurance or employers download the app

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