Speaker 1: LLL Flooring is everything flooring professionals need to keep clients
Speaker 1: projects on track. Visit your local store or lllflooring dot
Speaker 1: Com for quality flooring that's in stock and ready to go.
Speaker 1: Plus get the accessories you need to finish the job
Speaker 1: right at exclusive pro prices so you can stay on budget.
Speaker 1: And LLL Flooring offers job site delivery at a flat
Speaker 1: rate to save you time and money. Lumber Liquidators is
Speaker 1: now l L Flooring. These are the floors homes are
Speaker 1: built on. You're listening to Unexplained with Me Richard McClean
Speaker 1: smith Lex talionis Part two. With the announcement of Johnny's
Speaker 1: arrest on Monday, November ninth, a great tension in the
Speaker 1: community has been released, and although Bishop Matheson advises some
Speaker 1: caution since it remains to be seen if Johnny is
Speaker 1: the perpetrator, there is palpable relief at the Saint Franci's
Speaker 1: convent back at the city jail. Later that evening, local
Speaker 1: attorney Bill Pollius offers his services as a court appointed
Speaker 1: attorney to Johnny. The family has little money and little
Speaker 1: choice but to take him on, but even at this
Speaker 1: point his attitude causes great concern for Johnny's mother, Charlotte.
Speaker 1: From the moment he introduces himself, she can tell his
Speaker 1: mind is already made up. It was a lost cause.
Speaker 1: That night, Johnny sits alone in his cell while his
Speaker 1: mother returns home, haunted by what he had told her.
Speaker 1: According to Johnny, after his arrest, he had been taken
Speaker 1: into an interview room where two detectives had immediately started
Speaker 1: telling him what he was supposed to have done. When
Speaker 1: they offered a version of events, he had just nodded
Speaker 1: along and told them to put it down. But they
Speaker 1: weren't his words, He kept telling his mother he never
Speaker 1: did any of it. The following day, at tired and fragile,
Speaker 1: Charlotte arrives at the county courthouse, jostled by press and
Speaker 1: onlookers as she makes her way to meet her son
Speaker 1: to escort him to his bail hearing at one thirty pm.
Speaker 1: Accompanied by Bill Pollius, she takes the scared and handcuffed
Speaker 1: seventeen year old Johnny by the arm and leads him
Speaker 1: into the charged atmosphere of a packed courtroom. Trying not
Speaker 1: to look at the many spectators who have crammed in
Speaker 1: to watch the hearing, She just has time to give
Speaker 1: her son a peck on the cheek before two police
Speaker 1: deputies take him away, removing his handcuffs and sitting him
Speaker 1: down by the judge's bench. All rise to their feet
Speaker 1: when a solemn Elbe Bartlet, Justice of the Peace, enters
Speaker 1: the room. Johnny, Charlotte, and Pollius remained standing as Bartlet
Speaker 1: lays out the charges, But before he can speak, Charlotte
Speaker 1: feels her legs go and is helped to a seat
Speaker 1: at the council table behind her son. Johnny Frank Garrett,
Speaker 1: hereinafter styled the defendant, heretofore on or about the thirty
Speaker 1: first day of October, did then and there knowingly and intentionally,
Speaker 1: while in the course of committing and attempting to commit
Speaker 1: the offense of burglary, cause the death of to day
Speaker 1: a bends by choking and strangling the complainant manner and
Speaker 1: means unknown. Johnnie stares at the table, shaking his head
Speaker 1: as his mother struggles to hold back the tears covering
Speaker 1: her ears. At the mention of choking and strangling, Detective
Speaker 1: Joger places a hand on her shoulder. Barrett finishes by
Speaker 1: asking Johnny to sign a document stating he understands the charges,
Speaker 1: Charlotte interrupts, letting the judge know that her son cannot read.
Speaker 1: Pollius then proceeds to read the document to Johnny. Despite
Speaker 1: an attempt by Pollius to secure an examination trial to
Speaker 1: ascertain if there is even enough evidence to indicte Johnny,
Speaker 1: District Attorney Danny Hill argues forcibly against it, and the
Speaker 1: opportunity is denied. Johnny is refused bail and instructed to
Speaker 1: return to jail to await his trial date. With the
Speaker 1: hearing brought to her clothes, he is handcuffed once again
Speaker 1: and led toward the door, kissing his mother good bye,
Speaker 1: before being walked past a horde of jeering spectators and
Speaker 1: the media. That night, Johnny is put in a cell
Speaker 1: with b and offender J. Kelly Pinkerton, who was awaiting
Speaker 1: trial charged with rape and murder, having already received the
Speaker 1: death penalty for a murder he committed back in nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy nine. Throughout the county, as the press raced to
Speaker 1: break the news of the teenager's indictment, one reporter has
Speaker 1: been especially thrown by the charge six days previously, five
Speaker 1: days before Garrett had supposedly even become a suspect. Globe
Speaker 1: News reporter Charlie Bates had been contacted by two apparent psychics.
Speaker 1: What they told him at the time had been too
Speaker 1: peculiar to print In an article published the day after
Speaker 1: the hearing, However, Bates was finally able to explain the
Speaker 1: extraordinary turn of events. After hearing about the horrific murder
Speaker 1: of sister todaya self confirmed psychic, INA's Patterson, who had
Speaker 1: assist police previously on a nineteen seventy nine rape case,
Speaker 1: together with her associate Allne, decided to hold a clairvoyant
Speaker 1: session to see what they might find out. That night,
Speaker 1: as Allene watched on, Inez apparently entered a trance like
Speaker 1: state in an effort to channel the murdered nun, but
Speaker 1: had to end the session abruptly when she became too
Speaker 1: enwrapped in the victim's emotions. Not before, however, she had
Speaker 1: gleamed some vital information. During the trance, Ines claimed to
Speaker 1: have received the vision of a house, as well as
Speaker 1: the name Clyde. The house was described as being on
Speaker 1: Northeast eighteenth Avenue, having a white frame structure and dirty
Speaker 1: hardwood floors. The following day, the two psychics took a
Speaker 1: walk along northeast eighteenth, tracing their steps from the convent
Speaker 1: until they apparently found themselves standing in front of the
Speaker 1: exact house. Inez had supposedly seen in her vision. It
Speaker 1: was number four thousand, Johnny Garrett's home, and at the
Speaker 1: back of the house they spotted a dog kennel, over
Speaker 1: which scrawled in thick paint was the name mister Clyde.
Speaker 1: Patterson had also offered a description of the suspect to
Speaker 1: journalist Charlie Bates, saying that he was a young man
Speaker 1: about five ft eleven with a muscular, small frame, having
Speaker 1: what was described as a long abe Lincoln nose and
Speaker 1: large ears, a description that could be said to closely
Speaker 1: match Johnny's. On receiving this information, Bates had attempted to
Speaker 1: put authorities in touch with the psychics, but they had
Speaker 1: apparently made no attempt to contact them. Over the next year,
Speaker 1: the District Attorney's office worked to build their case against Johnny,
Speaker 1: who continues to profess his innocence as the trial approaches
Speaker 1: in August of nineteen eighty two. The case of the
Speaker 1: teenager Johnny Frank Garrett is all that the city of
Speaker 1: Amarillo can talk about united in their speculation of who
Speaker 1: this monstrous eighteen year old might be and how his
Speaker 1: mother could have raised him to be that way. During
Speaker 1: the trial, the case against Johnny rests mostly on the
Speaker 1: two finger prints found in Sister to dea Benz's room,
Speaker 1: one on the nun's headboard and one on the knife
Speaker 1: found under her bed. Although both knives found close to
Speaker 1: the scene were determined not to have been used to
Speaker 1: stab the victim, pathologist Ralph Erdmann, who carried out to
Speaker 1: daa Benz's autopsy, claims that injuries to the front of
Speaker 1: the nun's neck were caused by an object consistent with
Speaker 1: the knife found under the bed. One FBI agent testifies
Speaker 1: that the stake knife found outside the building was the
Speaker 1: same brand as a knife recovered from Johnny's mother's kitchen.
Speaker 1: Another that some pubic hair found on the floor of
Speaker 1: Sister to Day's room, although not a confirmed match, came
Speaker 1: from an individual with similar characteristics to Johnny. None of
Speaker 1: Sister to Day's blood was linked back to Johnny in
Speaker 1: any way. No fibers from Sister to day as clothes
Speaker 1: were found on any of Johnny's clothes, nor were any
Speaker 1: fibers found on her that had come from him. Unknown
Speaker 1: footprints found at the scene were not matched with any
Speaker 1: shoes belonging to Johnny. Black hairs, as well as the
Speaker 1: white T shirt that was found were also not linked
Speaker 1: to Johnny in any way, and crucially, no attempt was
Speaker 1: made to test the sperm or prostrate secretions to determine
Speaker 1: the blood type of the perpetrator. The samples had been
Speaker 1: destroyed soon after Johnny's arrest, and yet Johnny's finger prints
Speaker 1: were found in sister to Day's room. Although he virulently
Speaker 1: denied the rape and murder charges, Johnny testified in court
Speaker 1: that he had been to the convent before. After all,
Speaker 1: he had been there two days prior to the murder,
Speaker 1: apparently looking for things to steal. Johnny claimed that he
Speaker 1: had snuck into the convent some time around lunch and
Speaker 1: taken the butter knife from the kitchen to pry open
Speaker 1: locked drawers, which is how he suggested it ended up
Speaker 1: in the nun's bedroom. The finger print on her bed,
Speaker 1: he said, had got there when he leant against it
Speaker 1: to steal a crucifix that had been hanging on the wall. However,
Speaker 1: a nun subsequently testified that Johnny couldn't possibly have been
Speaker 1: near the canteen at lunch without being seen, and that
Speaker 1: there were no locked drawers in the convent. It was
Speaker 1: a damning indictment for Johnny's defense. And then a final
Speaker 1: piece of information is presented by the prosecution, a statement
Speaker 1: made by eighteen year old Lonnie Dale Whatley, who had
Speaker 1: been a fellow inmate of Johnny's at the Potter County Jail.
Speaker 1: Whatley's statement claimed that Johnny had confessed the murder to
Speaker 1: him shortly after his arrest in November. Johnny strongly denied
Speaker 1: the claim. It took the jury of eight men and
Speaker 1: four women five hours to deliberate over their decision, and
Speaker 1: on September third, nineteen eighty two, Johnny Frank Garrett was
Speaker 1: convicted of the rape and murder of sister TODAYA Bends
Speaker 1: and sentenced to death by lethal injection. Are you always
Speaker 1: taking care of your family? Do you often take care
Speaker 1: of others and not yourself? Now it's time to take
Speaker 1: care of yourself, To make time for you you deserve it.
Speaker 1: TELEDOC gives you access to a licensed therapist to help
Speaker 1: you get back to feeling your best, to feeling like
Speaker 1: yourself again with teledoc. You can speak to a licensed
Speaker 1: therapist by phone or video. Therapy appointments are available seven
Speaker 1: days a week from seven am to nine pm local time.
Speaker 1: If you feel overwhelmed sometimes maybe you feel stressed or anxious,
Speaker 1: depressed or lonely, or you might be struggling with a
Speaker 1: personal or family issue, teledoc can help. Teledoc is committed
Speaker 1: to facilitating great therapeutic matches, so they make it easy
Speaker 1: to change counselors if needed. For free. Teledoc therapy is
Speaker 1: available through most insurance or employers. Download the app or
Speaker 1: visit telldoc dot com Forward slash Unexplained podcast to Day
Speaker 1: to Get Started. That's t e l a d oc
Speaker 1: dot com slash Unexplained podcast. While most of the cities
Speaker 1: celebrated Garrett's conviction, those who actually knew the boy struggled
Speaker 1: to reconcile his betrayal in the press. With the troubled
Speaker 1: but soft natured young man they thought him to be
Speaker 1: born on Christmas Eve in nineteen sixty three, Garrett had
Speaker 1: significant learning difficulties and struggled at school. By sixth grade,
Speaker 1: he had yet learned how to read em write. As
Speaker 1: a young boy, Johnny had been raped by two separate stepfathers,
Speaker 1: beaten burned by cigarettes all over his body, and once
Speaker 1: held down onto a kitchen stove. One step father even
Speaker 1: prostituted Johnny to his friends and would also film him
Speaker 1: being forced to commit sexual acts. Neighbors sued Jasper would
Speaker 1: often find a desperate Johnny crying uncontrollably on her doorstep,
Speaker 1: but he would never say why, only asking if he
Speaker 1: could stay the night at hers. Other nights, Johnny would
Speaker 1: be found sleeping under his high school football stand, too
Speaker 1: afraid to go home. At fourteen, Johnny began drinking and
Speaker 1: experimenting with drugs, soon earning a reputation for minor misdemeanors.
Speaker 1: In many ways, he presented as an ideal suspect for
Speaker 1: sister to Day's murder, and yet, in spite of everything
Speaker 1: that had happened to him, Johnny was not known to
Speaker 1: be particularly violent and had been a loving brother to
Speaker 1: both his sisters. After his conviction, Johnny was moved to
Speaker 1: Ellis Unit, just north of Huntsville in Texas, which served
Speaker 1: as death row for the state. After hearing about his case,
Speaker 1: local lawyer Jeff Blackburn, who had later found the Texas
Speaker 1: Innocence project, which attempted to overturn what he considered to
Speaker 1: be unconvincing convictions, took up Johnny's case over the next
Speaker 1: ten years. Blackburn will try and fail on two separate
Speaker 1: occasions to appeal Johnny's conviction, arguing variously that Johnny had
Speaker 1: not been mentally competent to stand trial, that there had
Speaker 1: not been enough evidence to convict him, and that doctor
Speaker 1: Erdman's negligence in discarding the samples of seamen had denied
Speaker 1: Johnny the right to at least clear his name for
Speaker 1: the rape of Sister to Daa. On both occasions, the
Speaker 1: Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles voted unanimously, with the
Speaker 1: exception of one abstension, to uphold garrett death sentence. After
Speaker 1: the first appeal, District Attorney Danny Hill had been elated
Speaker 1: to hear the news of its failure, stating it was
Speaker 1: wonderful and that he hoped the execution would now be
Speaker 1: speeded through. With an hour to go before Johnny's nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety two scheduled execution in January, a request from Pope
Speaker 1: John Paul the Second and a statement signed by Bishop
Speaker 1: le Roy Matheson and other Texas bishops earns garrett a
Speaker 1: thirty day stay of execution. Although Bishop Matheson was not
Speaker 1: questioning his conviction, it was his and the opinion of
Speaker 1: his colleagues that human life was sacred, that the church
Speaker 1: ought to be the voice of social conscience. Their obligation
Speaker 1: as religious leaders, he said, was to be faithful to
Speaker 1: the teachings of Jesus Christ, which calls us to reconciliation
Speaker 1: and forgiveness of those who wronged us. But their test
Speaker 1: would come too late. On February tenth, nineteen ninety two,
Speaker 1: a by now twenty eight year old Johnny garrett Is
Speaker 1: served his final meal, a large bowl of ice cream.
Speaker 1: Shortly before midnight, Johnny's mother, Charlotte, and his two sisters, stepbrother,
Speaker 1: and new stepfather file into the death House, a small
Speaker 1: brick building inside the Ellis Unit. The room, painted mint
Speaker 1: green and brightly lit, is divided in two by a
Speaker 1: row of bars, on one side of which stood Johnny's family,
Speaker 1: and on the other a gurney with a number of
Speaker 1: white leather straps laid across the top. Behind the gurney,
Speaker 1: to the right a small window of mirrored glass, behind
Speaker 1: which the executioner waited. A moment later, the door was
Speaker 1: unbolted open. Charlotte let out a cry at the first
Speaker 1: sight of Johnny being led into the room by two
Speaker 1: guards and the prison warden. He was clean shaven, his
Speaker 1: hair neatly combed, and wearing a pristine blue jumpsuit. Johnny's
Speaker 1: mother uttered the first of many I love yous, holding
Speaker 1: onto the bars with one hand and to her daughters
Speaker 1: with the other as she tried her best to stay
Speaker 1: strong for her son. Together, the family watched as Johnny
Speaker 1: is led shuffling forward towards the gurney, pausing to have
Speaker 1: his hands and legs unshackled before being helped onto the bed.
Speaker 1: Within seconds, the straps had been secured across his body,
Speaker 1: his arms outstretched as if pinned to the cross. Two
Speaker 1: lines of clear tubing ailing from out of the wall
Speaker 1: were needled into each of Johnny's arms. The family had
Speaker 1: barely noticed the handful of journalists that had filed into
Speaker 1: the room behind them, eager to watch the execution for themselves.
Speaker 1: In response to his family's words of reassurance, Johnny turned
Speaker 1: his head to the right, speaking with a mixture of
Speaker 1: fear and defiance. I'd like to thank my friends who
Speaker 1: tried to pull me through this. My guru for helping
Speaker 1: me go through this. I'd like to thank my family
Speaker 1: for loving me, and the rest of the world can
Speaker 1: kiss my ass. Johnny fixed the warden with his eyes
Speaker 1: before swiftly turning his head back to face the ceiling.
Speaker 1: The warden nodded towards the glass panel, and seconds later,
Speaker 1: a concoction of sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride
Speaker 1: snaked its way through the plastic tubing. Charlotte turned her
Speaker 1: eyes to the floor, leading the family in a tearful
Speaker 1: rendition of amazing grace as the liquid creeps into Johnny's veins.
Speaker 1: It wasn't clear quite when the moment had come, but
Speaker 1: when Charlotte raised her eyes again, Johnny's body was completely still,
Speaker 1: his mouth slightly agape and eyes staring into nothing. After
Speaker 1: a quick check of Johnny's pulse, the prison doctor turned
Speaker 1: to the warden and announced the time as twelve eighteen am.
Speaker 1: When a side door was pulled open, Johnny's family said
Speaker 1: their last goodbyes and left the building outside. Stepping into
Speaker 1: the cold air, the family were met with the sound
Speaker 1: of clapping and ecstatic cheers. As a crowd of students
Speaker 1: from sam Houston State University gathered to celebrate the execution,
Speaker 1: earing and breaking into a lated song as the embattled
Speaker 1: family silently made their way back to the prison administration building.
Speaker 1: And that is how things might have ended until something
Speaker 1: very peculiar came to light. In all his time incarcerated,
Speaker 1: Johnny never wavered in his insistence that he was innocent
Speaker 1: of sister to Day's murder, or lost sight of the
Speaker 1: anger at the unfairness of his predicament. And he put
Speaker 1: it all down in a letter over five pages of
Speaker 1: impassioned invective. Garrett cursed a hypocritical society who turned a
Speaker 1: blind eye to him when he needed them, but was
Speaker 1: all too ready to crucify him when they needed a
Speaker 1: monster on which to pin their fears. He was not
Speaker 1: about to go quietly in your nightmares. I will live
Speaker 1: in your times of fear, big or small. Will I be.
Speaker 1: Every frustration in your lives will be me. Every death
Speaker 1: of your families will be me. I will be the
Speaker 1: fear you experience upon your last breath. I curse your
Speaker 1: souls to the deepest depths of your own hell. I
Speaker 1: curse your parents souls and your rotten grandparents souls. I
Speaker 1: curse every adult, every person that's born after my death
Speaker 1: that is remotely related to your infested blood. And because
Speaker 1: I know that curses will be fulfilled, I meet death
Speaker 1: in a better spirit and stronger soul. And in the
Speaker 1: months that followed Garrett's death, some say his curse came
Speaker 1: to fruition, with a number of people will involved in
Speaker 1: the case dying prematurely, chief among them being district Attorney
Speaker 1: Danny Hill, who had worked so hard to secure Garrett's conviction.
Speaker 1: Hill committed suicide in April nineteen ninety five. The psychic
Speaker 1: Inez Patterson, who had apparently received visions of Johnny's identity
Speaker 1: five days before he was arrested by the police, turned
Speaker 1: out to be the girlfriend of Michael Eugene Patterson, a
Speaker 1: well known local drug dealer who some suspect of working
Speaker 1: as an informant for the police. Patterson was found dead
Speaker 1: in his car not long after Garrett's execution, his cause
Speaker 1: of death unknown. Whether you believe in Garrett's curse or not,
Speaker 1: one thing has begun to look increasingly likely. But Garrett's
Speaker 1: first appeal hearing, doctor Ralph Erdman, testified that he had
Speaker 1: not been instructed to deliberately throw away the one piece
Speaker 1: of evidence that might have exonerated the defendant, the fluid
Speaker 1: samples he had taken from vaginal swabs. In September nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety two, barely six months after Garrett's execution, Erdman pleaded
Speaker 1: guilty to seven felony offenses involving falsified autopsies that are
Speaker 1: thought to be just the tip of the iceberg of
Speaker 1: fraudulent activities perpetrated by the former coroner. Erdman was sentenced
Speaker 1: to ten years probation for these charges, though some suspect
Speaker 1: he may have falsified and faked numerous toxicology reports and autopsies.
Speaker 1: One lawyer who had been appealing at murder case at
Speaker 1: the time stated that I believe, as I believe that
Speaker 1: the sun will come up to morrow, that there was
Speaker 1: a conspiracy between the prosecut utian and Erdman to say
Speaker 1: whatever was necessary to get a conviction. Then, in two
Speaker 1: thousand and four, a homicide investigator analyzing a number of
Speaker 1: unsolved crimes came across the murder case of Narnie box
Speaker 1: Bryson after resubmitting a bedsheet for DNA testing taken from
Speaker 1: the scene of the crime. Incredibly, they found a match.
Speaker 1: The man was Lencio Perez Ruader, a former Cuban refugee
Speaker 1: who had been picked up by police for peeping at
Speaker 1: a woman through a window only two weeks after Bryson's murder.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and five, Ruada was convicted for the
Speaker 1: rape and murder of Bryson and sentenced to forty five
Speaker 1: years in prison. At the time of Benz's and Bryson's murders,
Speaker 1: before Garrett had come into the picture, Amarillo police and
Speaker 1: Ye Danny Hill was certain that both crimes had been related,
Speaker 1: with similar black hairs and an abandoned white T shirt
Speaker 1: found at both crime scenes. Initial suspicions had fallen on
Speaker 1: another Cuban refugee named Fernando Flores, in whose apartment police
Speaker 1: found hairs similar to those found in both Bryson and
Speaker 1: Sister to day of Benz's bedrooms, as well as what
Speaker 1: they thought were fibers from Sister to Daya's blue night dress.
Speaker 1: After analyzing the hairs, however, Flores was determined not to
Speaker 1: have been a match. What wasn't discovered until many years
Speaker 1: later is that Flores and Ruada had been flatmates at
Speaker 1: the time. In August two thousand and four, while Ruada
Speaker 1: was awaiting his trial, attorney Jesse Quackenbush, who was hired
Speaker 1: by Johnny Garrett's sisters to reopen the case against their brother,
Speaker 1: secured an interview with the defendant. Ruada at first claimed
Speaker 1: that Flores had been the man who attacked the nun
Speaker 1: in the early hours of October thirty first, nineteen eighty one,
Speaker 1: before eventually admitting that he had been there too. All
Speaker 1: elements of Unexplained are produced by me Richard McClain smith.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes, but feel
Speaker 1: free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas
Speaker 1: regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you
Speaker 1: have an explanation of your own you'd like to share.
Speaker 1: You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com
Speaker 1: or on Twitter at Unexplained Part Now it's time to
Speaker 1: take care of yourself. To make time for you, teledoc
Speaker 1: gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you
Speaker 1: get back to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed
Speaker 1: therapist by phone or video anytime between seven am to
Speaker 1: nine pm local time, seven days a week. Teledoc Therapy
Speaker 1: is available through most insurance or employers download the app
Speaker 1: or visit teledoc dot com forward slash Unexplained podcast Today
Speaker 1: to get started. That's t e l a d oc
Speaker 1: dot com Slash Unexplained Podcast