WEBVTT - 9. Prejudicial Effect 0:00:14.996 --> 0:00:32.996 Pushkin. When I first got in touch with Fred's daughter Kirsten, 0:00:33.356 --> 0:00:35.796 she told me she and her sisters had tons of 0:00:35.836 --> 0:00:41.516 materials related to Fred's case. Court filings, notes, pictures, police reports, 0:00:41.956 --> 0:00:46.516 tapes of the actual investigation into Fred. All this stuff 0:00:46.596 --> 0:00:49.276 was sitting in boxes in a hayloft at Heidi's place 0:00:49.356 --> 0:00:53.436 in Colorado, which is actually her grandparents ranch where her mother, 0:00:53.676 --> 0:00:58.636 Jean grew up. So over the summer, when all three sisters, Heidi, 0:00:58.796 --> 0:01:01.236 Kirsten and Kim were going to be together at the ranch, 0:01:01.956 --> 0:01:04.116 I went out there to meet them and have a 0:01:04.156 --> 0:01:10.236 look at the trove of documents. We climbed into the 0:01:10.236 --> 0:01:13.636 hayloft and opened a box. It was full of letters 0:01:13.676 --> 0:01:16.996 the sisters had written to Fred. Heidi pulled one out. 0:01:17.996 --> 0:01:24.076 It was in her handwriting. Okay, so this is dated 0:01:24.116 --> 0:01:29.396 April eighteenth, nineteen eighty, or one weeks after he was arrested. 0:01:29.636 --> 0:01:34.156 Weeks after Dear Dad, how are you? I am fine. 0:01:34.836 --> 0:01:38.316 By the way, I'm ten years old to sea. I 0:01:38.436 --> 0:01:41.076 had a fun time talking to you. I hope you 0:01:41.196 --> 0:01:44.756 have a happy, happy Easter. I miss you very very 0:01:44.876 --> 0:01:49.356 very much. Here's a joke. Knock knock, who's there? Boo? Hoo. 0:01:49.596 --> 0:01:52.556 Why are you crying? I wish you could come out 0:01:52.596 --> 0:01:56.476 of jail soon. You never did anything wrong. I love you. 0:01:56.756 --> 0:01:59.956 Where on your side? Love? Heidi? PS? Please right back, 0:02:00.196 --> 0:02:07.916 I love you. It started raining, one of those afternoons 0:02:07.956 --> 0:02:12.436 summer storms you get in Colorado. Heidi pulled out another 0:02:12.516 --> 0:02:18.396 letter April sixteenth, nineteen eighty one, says, what have you 0:02:18.476 --> 0:02:20.996 been doing? We can see you Sunday. I love you 0:02:21.156 --> 0:02:24.956 very very much. You would never do anything so wrong. 0:02:25.716 --> 0:02:29.036 You're so nice to Mom and Doug. And then it 0:02:29.076 --> 0:02:36.636 says Muffett and Lady are not getting a long Lady, 0:02:36.916 --> 0:02:40.956 their beagle, who survived the journey to Bird Rock. She'd 0:02:40.996 --> 0:02:43.596 gone with the sisters to live with Fred's brother Ron 0:02:43.676 --> 0:02:46.796 and his wife Elizabeth, who had a Christmas tree farm 0:02:46.836 --> 0:02:54.316 far away from Malibu. Yeah. I'm gonna flip that in 0:02:54.436 --> 0:03:01.676 after you are clearly innocent and the dogs are fighting. Eventually, 0:03:02.036 --> 0:03:06.756 Lady went to live with Verna's sister Julianne. That must 0:03:06.796 --> 0:03:09.556 have been heartbreaking to have Lady leave Kie and he 0:03:09.636 --> 0:03:12.236 Julie took her. But I remember when I pulled into 0:03:12.236 --> 0:03:15.276 our house and my aunt Elizabeth and I think Kim 0:03:15.276 --> 0:03:19.036 were standing in the driveway. And it didn't look good 0:03:19.356 --> 0:03:22.396 and I was just like, oh no, and they told 0:03:22.436 --> 0:03:25.116 me lady died of cancer, and so that was just 0:03:26.076 --> 0:03:28.316 that was like our last link, you know, and I 0:03:29.396 --> 0:03:31.676 and that was really sad. And I also realized when 0:03:32.116 --> 0:03:34.996 when Robin Williams passed away. It hit me so hard 0:03:35.076 --> 0:03:38.236 because we would watch Mork and Mindy with my dad 0:03:38.556 --> 0:03:41.116 and it took a while to realize, like why so 0:03:41.196 --> 0:03:45.196 many people, but it was Robin Williams, Michael landon that 0:03:45.356 --> 0:03:48.316 because that all connected me to Malibu and my dad, 0:03:48.996 --> 0:03:50.836 and I think that's when it hit me. I'm like, 0:03:50.996 --> 0:03:54.396 that's why it's so devastating, because it was just part 0:03:54.436 --> 0:04:00.636 of our happy times, you know. By now it was pouring. 0:04:02.836 --> 0:04:06.356 So July seventh, nineteen eighty one, Dear Dad, how are you. 0:04:06.556 --> 0:04:10.396 I am fine. Sorry, I have not been writing. I 0:04:10.516 --> 0:04:14.596 love you and miss you very very much. This coming Tuesday, 0:04:14.756 --> 0:04:17.076 we are going to San Diego. I hope you are 0:04:17.156 --> 0:04:22.396 out by then. And then it says who has been 0:04:22.396 --> 0:04:26.076 writing you? I love you and miss you, Love Heidi. 0:04:26.796 --> 0:04:33.636 Then it is your tops. Yeah, I hope you're out 0:04:33.636 --> 0:04:42.396 by next Tuesday. I'm like, next Tuesday? How many tuesdays? 0:04:42.436 --> 0:04:57.196 I has it been a lot. I'm Dana Goodyear and 0:04:57.356 --> 0:05:33.356 this is Lost Hells episode nine. Prejudicial effect. Authorities believed 0:05:33.436 --> 0:05:37.796 that Fred Rayler had conceived the perfect crime, like something 0:05:37.836 --> 0:05:41.756 out of Hitchcock on a holiday weekend with so many 0:05:41.756 --> 0:05:45.076 people around, with his own parents on the sailboat nearby, 0:05:45.556 --> 0:05:48.636 the next best thing to an alibi. He'd managed to 0:05:48.716 --> 0:05:52.796 kill Verna and Doug without leaving obvious marks, so that 0:05:52.836 --> 0:05:55.156 when the three of them were discovered in the frigid water, 0:05:55.636 --> 0:05:59.996 he'd appeared to be rescuing them. But how to prove it. 0:06:00.716 --> 0:06:03.596 To do that, the da stan Rodin had to look 0:06:03.596 --> 0:06:10.116 at every possible angle, stands to nations afterward, fanacity, you know, 0:06:10.756 --> 0:06:13.636 he was just like a bulldog with his teeth in it. 0:06:14.636 --> 0:06:17.396 Stan Rodin didn't respond to my request for an interview. 0:06:17.836 --> 0:06:21.476 So this is Dempsey Billy, one of Roden's investigators. A 0:06:21.516 --> 0:06:25.316 lot of times stands say something, what you can find 0:06:25.316 --> 0:06:28.476 out about this? And I say, stand, you can't do that, 0:06:28.956 --> 0:06:31.356 no way, So I'd go do it, and sure enough 0:06:31.476 --> 0:06:33.996 you'd be right. We'd find whatever he was looking for. 0:06:35.276 --> 0:06:38.516 In a criminal case, the standard jury instructions are that 0:06:38.556 --> 0:06:42.596 the government must prove the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, 0:06:43.236 --> 0:06:47.476 but not to a scientific certainty. The case against Fred, 0:06:47.756 --> 0:06:50.596 the mysterious drownings of his wife and steps on the 0:06:50.596 --> 0:06:54.676 insurance policies, and in the background the story of another 0:06:54.716 --> 0:06:59.796 wife who'd also drowned inexplicably. It all looked bad but 0:06:59.956 --> 0:07:07.916 also potentially like bad luck. Maybe Fred was a Malibu job, pitiable, cursed. 0:07:08.876 --> 0:07:12.716 That's what his friends thought. Here's Mike Killeen. You have 0:07:12.756 --> 0:07:16.396 to ask yourself, is it possible for a human being 0:07:16.516 --> 0:07:19.316 from day one to be stakementten? You know I use 0:07:19.396 --> 0:07:22.836 that term, but you know how it applies to various things. 0:07:23.796 --> 0:07:26.916 Is that possible? He'd turn left, he'd turn right, and 0:07:27.036 --> 0:07:30.156 things would go wrong. And it was all built up 0:07:30.196 --> 0:07:35.196 as as circumstance to create this character who really wasn't Fred. 0:07:36.436 --> 0:07:40.236 There was room for a healthy dose of doubt. Stan 0:07:40.396 --> 0:07:43.836 Rodin had to try to make his case empirically by 0:07:43.876 --> 0:07:48.596 presenting the jury with science, because the circumstances, all those 0:07:48.636 --> 0:07:53.836 suspicious coincidences, might not be enough. But how could he 0:07:53.876 --> 0:07:58.316 do that when there was so little physical evidence. That's 0:07:58.356 --> 0:08:02.796 where doctor Thomas Nagucci, the long time weirdly famous Elle 0:08:02.796 --> 0:08:10.636 County Coroner, came in. Nagucci was the so called corner 0:08:10.676 --> 0:08:15.236 to the stars. He'd done Marilyn and RFK and Sharon Tate. 0:08:16.076 --> 0:08:18.956 He'd also been the coroner when Fred's first wife, Jean 0:08:19.156 --> 0:08:22.556 had died, and his office signed off on her death 0:08:23.156 --> 0:08:27.996 as an accident. Now the Santa Barbaradier wanted Nagucci to 0:08:28.036 --> 0:08:31.196 help figure out what had caused those bruises discovered in 0:08:31.236 --> 0:08:35.116 the second autopsies, the ones on the back of Doug's head. 0:08:36.876 --> 0:08:41.076 He was a cracker jack forensic pathologist. He really knew 0:08:41.116 --> 0:08:45.996 his stuff. That's Duane Mosay, the criminalist. He worked alongside 0:08:46.116 --> 0:08:50.396 Nagucci to recreate the last moments of Doug's life. Together, 0:08:50.636 --> 0:08:54.956 they designed a series of experiments centered on Fred's Orange Dory, 0:08:55.516 --> 0:08:57.676 the boat he'd been rowing in with Ferna and Doug, 0:08:57.876 --> 0:09:00.676 which he said had overturned in the open ocean by 0:09:00.716 --> 0:09:07.276 bird rock. Nagucci was eccentric and controversial. Well, He'd walk 0:09:07.356 --> 0:09:12.636 around the Corner's office waving scalpel and telling people sooner 0:09:12.716 --> 0:09:15.556 or later, I'll get you on a table, or words 0:09:15.636 --> 0:09:20.996 to that effect, and people complained about that, so they 0:09:21.156 --> 0:09:25.356 removed him from his office as La County Corner and 0:09:25.516 --> 0:09:29.836 sent him to be a pathologist at the County USC Hospital, 0:09:30.636 --> 0:09:35.156 which is just east of downtown La and doctor Nagucci 0:09:35.236 --> 0:09:37.956 put a sign on his office door that said corner 0:09:38.116 --> 0:09:43.876 in Exile. The experiments didn't take place in doctor Nagucci's lab, No, 0:09:44.636 --> 0:09:48.596 they happened at Nagucci's apartment building in Marina del Rey. 0:09:49.196 --> 0:09:53.036 The sheriff would haul down the dory, we'd do some 0:09:53.116 --> 0:09:55.436 work with it, and they'd haul it back when we 0:09:55.436 --> 0:09:59.316 were done. Their working theory was that Verna had been 0:09:59.356 --> 0:10:01.996 struck with an oar, but they didn't have the oars 0:10:02.036 --> 0:10:04.676 from Fred's dory. They were probably in the middle of 0:10:04.716 --> 0:10:08.876 the ocean somewhere, so they focused on Doug and the 0:10:09.116 --> 0:10:11.876 bruises on the back of his head, a linear bruise 0:10:12.036 --> 0:10:18.116 and a circular bruise three centimeters apart. That pattern repeated twice. 0:10:18.836 --> 0:10:21.596 They took a Doug sized dummy with a Doug sized 0:10:21.676 --> 0:10:25.316 dummy head, and they bashed it on every surface they 0:10:25.356 --> 0:10:28.716 could think of. One hundred and two times they bashed 0:10:28.756 --> 0:10:33.876 the dummy head and they found a match. I tested 0:10:33.876 --> 0:10:40.396 the dory inside and out, from bow to stern. Nothing 0:10:40.516 --> 0:10:46.116 panned out except one place, and that particular place was 0:10:46.196 --> 0:10:49.756 the edge of the seat in the middle of the 0:10:49.836 --> 0:10:54.916 dory where the rower would sit. Stan Rodin liked it, 0:10:55.556 --> 0:11:01.196 but Nagucci couldn't testify. He was in disgrace. So Stanley 0:11:01.276 --> 0:11:03.916 Roden and I had to sit down and figure out 0:11:04.076 --> 0:11:07.956 what I could testify too and what was out of bounds. 0:11:08.116 --> 0:11:11.316 Because I'm not a medical doctor, I could not express 0:11:11.396 --> 0:11:19.756 a medical opinion. And that's how Dwayne Mose criminalist, became 0:11:19.876 --> 0:11:23.956 stan Rodin's star witness in what would be the longest 0:11:23.996 --> 0:11:29.156 and most expensive trial in Santa Barbara history. One hundred 0:11:29.196 --> 0:11:35.556 and five days, four dozen witnesses, and one orange story. 0:11:59.916 --> 0:12:02.516 The trial for the murders of Verna and Doug started 0:12:02.516 --> 0:12:06.436 on December fifteenth, nineteen eighty one, in Santa Barbara's majestic 0:12:06.556 --> 0:12:12.676 Spanish style courthouse. The courtroom was packed standing room. Fred's 0:12:12.676 --> 0:12:17.116 family was there, so was Verna's mother. They were supporting Fred. 0:12:17.996 --> 0:12:21.956 There were journalists and screenwriters and look you loose. The 0:12:22.036 --> 0:12:25.836 famous mystery writer Margaret Millar was a regular. She lived 0:12:25.876 --> 0:12:28.796 in Santa Barbara and had made her name writing chilling 0:12:28.836 --> 0:12:33.196 tales of marital deceit. This plot line was right up 0:12:33.196 --> 0:12:37.276 her alley in California. For someone to be sentenced to 0:12:37.356 --> 0:12:40.356 death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. 0:12:41.036 --> 0:12:46.716 Their crime must meet certain criteria called special circumstances. In 0:12:46.716 --> 0:12:51.516 Fred's case, there were three alleged special circumstances. There was 0:12:51.556 --> 0:12:54.956 more than one victim that was special circumstance number one. 0:12:55.916 --> 0:12:59.636 Special circumstances Numbers two and three were the motive of 0:12:59.716 --> 0:13:03.876 financial gain the insurance payouts from the freshly aanked policies 0:13:03.916 --> 0:13:08.476 on Verna and Doug. If Fred was convicted and any 0:13:08.476 --> 0:13:11.756 of the special circumstances were found to apply, he'd be 0:13:11.796 --> 0:13:15.636 eligible for the most severe sentence. And Stan Rowden, the 0:13:15.716 --> 0:13:18.916 district attorney, was hoping to send Fred to the gas 0:13:19.036 --> 0:13:23.756 chamber at San Quentin. Rowden wanted to try a spectacle 0:13:23.836 --> 0:13:27.516 involving rich people and insurance and made for TV and 0:13:27.596 --> 0:13:30.916 that kind of thing. That's a pellet. Attorney Wendy Lasher 0:13:31.596 --> 0:13:35.436 she attended every day of Fred's trial taking notes because 0:13:35.476 --> 0:13:38.876 even before the trial started she was laying the groundwork 0:13:39.036 --> 0:13:42.756 for an appeal. I asked her what she remembered about 0:13:42.836 --> 0:13:51.876 Rodin Paul then at the time energetic, aggressive, pleasant on 0:13:51.916 --> 0:13:56.076 the surface, but kind of devious. I wouldn't quite go 0:13:56.156 --> 0:14:00.676 so far as to say, unscrupulous, but certainly pushing the 0:14:00.796 --> 0:14:04.276 envelope in terms of what he could do. A definitely 0:14:04.356 --> 0:14:08.476 concerned about his reputation and making his way as an aggressive, 0:14:09.396 --> 0:14:14.956 leading prosecutor in the world, a little bit politicianlike. At 0:14:14.956 --> 0:14:18.876 the outset, the defense was feeling strong. Fred had been 0:14:18.916 --> 0:14:21.596 working out every day in jail, and the papers were 0:14:21.636 --> 0:14:25.156 full of admiring descriptions of his thick, curly hair and 0:14:25.236 --> 0:14:28.596 athletic physique. At the time of his arrest, he'd worn 0:14:28.596 --> 0:14:31.676 a full beard. His team didn't think that look would 0:14:31.716 --> 0:14:35.356 fly in conservative Santa Barbara County. They thought it made 0:14:35.396 --> 0:14:39.556 him look resputeinish, like he was hiding something. He came 0:14:39.596 --> 0:14:43.636 to court with a clean shave. The concerns Fred had 0:14:43.676 --> 0:14:46.756 about being indicted for killing Verna's first husband and the 0:14:46.876 --> 0:14:50.636 navy diver who drowned while using Fred's scuba equipment were gone. 0:14:51.236 --> 0:14:53.916 The DA appeared to have dropped those lines of inquiry. 0:14:54.876 --> 0:14:58.636 All Fred's prior sketchy insurance history, it might as well 0:14:58.636 --> 0:15:01.916 have disappeared too. The judge wasn't going to allow the 0:15:01.956 --> 0:15:06.316 prosecution to introduce it, and Fred's defense attorney had scored 0:15:06.396 --> 0:15:10.556 a significant victory on the matter. Of Gene. The judge 0:15:10.596 --> 0:15:13.556 had ruled to exclude all evidence regarding the death of 0:15:13.636 --> 0:15:16.276 Fred's first wife from the guilt phase of his trial. 0:15:17.036 --> 0:15:21.476 The judge said its prejudicial effect would far outweigh its 0:15:21.516 --> 0:15:25.556 probitive value. In other words, the story of Jean's death 0:15:25.636 --> 0:15:28.756 wouldn't prove Fred had killed Werna or dug, but it 0:15:28.796 --> 0:15:32.516 would almost certainly persuade the jury that he had. The 0:15:32.596 --> 0:15:35.276 defense also made a motion to quash the results of 0:15:35.316 --> 0:15:39.196 the Santa Barbara autopsies. They'd been conducted in secret, and 0:15:39.236 --> 0:15:42.556 then the bodies had been cremated, so Fred's defense couldn't 0:15:42.596 --> 0:15:48.116 effectively counter their findings. Here's Wendy Lasher. What they found 0:15:48.156 --> 0:15:52.676 in the autopsies, or said that they found was like 0:15:52.796 --> 0:15:56.276 looking at roshock tests. You know, you could see what 0:15:56.396 --> 0:16:00.556 you wanted in those autopsy results, but you had no 0:16:00.596 --> 0:16:04.356 opportunity to look and say, preserve evidence that you could 0:16:04.436 --> 0:16:06.676 later say, see if you look at it this way, 0:16:06.716 --> 0:16:11.196 it doesn't show any such thing. That motion was denied. 0:16:11.796 --> 0:16:15.876 The second autopsies would be allowed. In fact, Stan Rodin 0:16:16.036 --> 0:16:26.676 would call them the lynchpin of the case. Stan Roden 0:16:26.756 --> 0:16:30.356 spent months arguing motive that Fred was running out of 0:16:30.356 --> 0:16:33.956 money and that his lifestyle was demanding more and more cash. 0:16:34.876 --> 0:16:39.996 Rodin argued Fred wanted freedom and unencumbered, newly flushed life 0:16:40.036 --> 0:16:44.156 in Malibu with houses and a sailboat and money to burn. 0:16:45.196 --> 0:16:49.236 Here's a pellet, attorney Wendy Lasher again, people like stories 0:16:49.236 --> 0:16:52.156 about rich people and rich people doing bad things. You know, 0:16:52.796 --> 0:16:57.236 this is mythology. If somebody killed got life insurance and 0:16:57.956 --> 0:17:02.356 killed their wife in a glamorous situation on a yacht 0:17:03.316 --> 0:17:07.356 on a holiday weekend, Wow, that's a big deal. And look, 0:17:07.476 --> 0:17:10.756 we've got this highly technical it's about it because you know, 0:17:10.836 --> 0:17:13.356 we're such a hot shot prosecution that we can do this. 0:17:14.436 --> 0:17:17.556 They also had the thing about Fred had thirty thousand 0:17:17.596 --> 0:17:21.516 dollars in cash and a coffee canon is freezer, and 0:17:21.636 --> 0:17:24.756 they tried to make that out as you know, clearly 0:17:24.796 --> 0:17:27.036 he was going to kill these people and escape to 0:17:27.116 --> 0:17:30.476 Mexico with his cash and live on it, you know, 0:17:30.596 --> 0:17:35.916 make a new life for himself. The DA called doctor 0:17:35.956 --> 0:17:38.716 de Witt Hunter to the stand in January of nineteen 0:17:38.756 --> 0:17:43.196 eighty two. Hunter was the Santa Barbara pathologist whose autopsy 0:17:43.236 --> 0:17:47.836 reports indicated trauma to Verna and Doug. The prosecution didn't 0:17:47.876 --> 0:17:50.916 present evidence about Fred using an oar to strike Verna's 0:17:50.916 --> 0:17:54.596 head because they had no ore. But Hunter did present 0:17:54.636 --> 0:17:57.516 a slide that he said showed a crush effect on 0:17:57.676 --> 0:18:02.196 Verna's scalp, a minor traumatic injury that had happened a 0:18:02.276 --> 0:18:05.116 minute to a minute and a half before her death. 0:18:06.796 --> 0:18:09.236 He said the trauma to Doug had also not been 0:18:09.356 --> 0:18:13.316 lethal and occurred before Doug's death. In other words, Doug 0:18:13.316 --> 0:18:16.516 had hit his head or had his head hit before 0:18:16.596 --> 0:18:20.476 he drowned. The story was there, he said, in a 0:18:20.556 --> 0:18:25.476 single hair follicle. They had preserved the whole hair, the 0:18:25.556 --> 0:18:29.556 follicle and the hair itself. This is doctor Michael Boden, 0:18:29.716 --> 0:18:32.716 who for twenty five years was the chief forensic pathologist 0:18:32.756 --> 0:18:36.036 for the New York State Police. Fred's family asked him 0:18:36.036 --> 0:18:38.916 to review his case, and he says the single hair 0:18:38.996 --> 0:18:44.316 theory was a misreading of the evidence. He testified that 0:18:44.396 --> 0:18:46.996 he could look at that hair under the microscope and 0:18:47.116 --> 0:18:50.356 tell that had been crushed by a blunt object one hair. 0:18:51.636 --> 0:18:54.516 But Boden says there was a very obvious and benign 0:18:54.556 --> 0:18:58.596 reason for the damage to Doug's hair, in order to 0:18:58.636 --> 0:19:01.476 reflect the scalp when it's a cut through the hair 0:19:02.356 --> 0:19:05.756 and pull up the hair and bruise the hair with 0:19:05.956 --> 0:19:11.436 rolling trying to lift the scalp tissue off the scowbones, 0:19:12.316 --> 0:19:17.596 which causes blood trauma to the hair. Doctor Duncan, who 0:19:17.636 --> 0:19:21.436 did the first autopsies in Ventura County, says doctor Hunter's 0:19:21.436 --> 0:19:27.996 findings were a joke. Hunter was unqualified, unqualified to really 0:19:28.116 --> 0:19:32.956 interpret forensic autopsies, but this was an especially troubling re 0:19:33.196 --> 0:19:38.276 autopsy case. Eight days after death or thereabouts, seven days 0:19:38.316 --> 0:19:43.076 after an initial autopsy. He was totally unqualified to interpret 0:19:43.116 --> 0:19:48.116 those findings, which changed dramatically, and what he presented the 0:19:48.196 --> 0:19:50.916 court never should have been allowed to be presented in court. 0:19:51.996 --> 0:19:54.716 I couldn't get in touch with Hunter. But Duncan contends 0:19:54.756 --> 0:19:58.116 that Hunter's lack of expertise sent the investigation down a 0:19:58.116 --> 0:20:02.956 treacherous path because, he says, forensic pathology is an art 0:20:02.996 --> 0:20:07.236 of exclusion, and Hunter saw a meaning where there was none. 0:20:08.476 --> 0:20:13.236 The difference between a non trained pathologist and a forensic pathologist. 0:20:13.516 --> 0:20:18.316 As a forensic pathologist knows what not to interpret, an 0:20:18.396 --> 0:20:24.116 untrained pathologist interprets everything. Hunter's biggest error, according to Duncan, 0:20:24.476 --> 0:20:26.876 was that he failed to account for the passage of time. 0:20:27.676 --> 0:20:30.636 The bruises and markings that Hunter saw on January ninth, 0:20:30.836 --> 0:20:34.676 nineteen eighty one, that Duncan had not noticed six days earlier, 0:20:34.796 --> 0:20:39.156 on January third. Duncan says that's because the bruises weren't 0:20:39.236 --> 0:20:44.076 there on January third, he didn't miss the signs of trauma. 0:20:44.156 --> 0:20:48.036 He says the trauma was post mortem, most likely a 0:20:48.076 --> 0:20:51.956 result of the first autopsies, accentuated by time as the 0:20:51.996 --> 0:20:56.836 blood Inverna and Doug's bodies settled and pulled. The marks 0:20:56.876 --> 0:21:04.156 were artifacts phantoms, not maliciously inflicted wounds. It's more like 0:21:04.196 --> 0:21:08.116 a photograph of a ghost that wasn't there and now 0:21:08.116 --> 0:21:13.356 appears to be there, and it was nothing. Even the 0:21:13.396 --> 0:21:17.036 bruises on the back of Doug's head that I contend 0:21:17.356 --> 0:21:21.276 is from post mortem artifact. From the way bodies are stored. 0:21:22.356 --> 0:21:27.156 The bodies are laid on a head brace and they 0:21:27.196 --> 0:21:31.996 sit that way for a week. Is just describing artifacts 0:21:32.036 --> 0:21:36.876 as if they were significant throughout the autopsy. And once 0:21:36.916 --> 0:21:41.516 you're doing that, you know that's crazy from a forensic 0:21:41.556 --> 0:21:45.636 pathology point of view. So it's it's kind of clown 0:21:45.756 --> 0:21:52.636 car pathology. According to Duncan, the second autopsies served their purpose. 0:21:53.276 --> 0:21:57.356 They produced evidence for the DA to use against Fred Railer. 0:21:58.636 --> 0:22:02.836 I contend it was orchestrated to be used as an 0:22:02.876 --> 0:22:07.516 agenda for the prosecution, and that's not as far fetched 0:22:07.516 --> 0:22:11.196 as it sounds, because in Santa Barbara County the Coroner's 0:22:11.236 --> 0:22:14.916 office is part of the Sheriff's department. Hunter was working 0:22:14.956 --> 0:22:18.836 for law enforcement Detectives Ray and Tuller were present for 0:22:18.876 --> 0:22:28.436 the autopsies. They wanted clues, and he produced them. When 0:22:28.476 --> 0:22:32.316 it was time for Duane mos the criminalist, to testify 0:22:32.356 --> 0:22:35.956 about the dummy tests, the DA arranged for the orange dory, 0:22:36.436 --> 0:22:38.876 all one hundred and thirty eight pounds of it, to 0:22:38.996 --> 0:22:42.396 be delivered to the Santa Barbara Courthouse, and with that 0:22:42.476 --> 0:22:47.996 prop in place, Mosa demonstrated his experiments to spectacular effect. 0:22:48.836 --> 0:22:54.116 One of the exhibits the court was one to one 0:22:54.196 --> 0:22:58.596 picture of the back of Douglas's head with a scalp 0:22:58.636 --> 0:23:05.596 pulled back and a transparent overlay of the pattern on 0:23:05.636 --> 0:23:09.396 the back of the test dummy, and I overlay the 0:23:09.476 --> 0:23:14.956 transparency from the test dummy on top of Douglas Johnson's 0:23:14.996 --> 0:23:22.036 head and the patterns match. Nothing was off. Mose had 0:23:22.036 --> 0:23:25.236 a dummy the same size and weight as Doug. So 0:23:25.276 --> 0:23:28.276 he acted out the murder as the prosecution imagined it 0:23:28.836 --> 0:23:32.956 a beating, then a drowning. Here's Fred's friend, Mike Keilleen. 0:23:33.996 --> 0:23:37.156 It was very dramatic. He took the dummy and he 0:23:37.276 --> 0:23:41.756 slammed it against the boat and somehow, I think on 0:23:41.836 --> 0:23:44.676 his head or something, there was some carbon something that 0:23:45.436 --> 0:23:49.756 created a pattern. And that pattern was the same pattern 0:23:49.996 --> 0:23:55.596 they found on Doug's head after the accident. So they said, 0:23:56.236 --> 0:23:59.916 but it's really been called junk science by so many people. 0:24:01.556 --> 0:24:05.436 But what it did to the jury was because there 0:24:05.476 --> 0:24:08.756 was really nothing to counter it, it told him that's 0:24:08.756 --> 0:24:14.316 what happen. The visual was so powerful and that was 0:24:14.356 --> 0:24:20.116 definitely the turning point. Then the jury actually got to 0:24:20.156 --> 0:24:24.236 participate in a forensic discovery of their own. On one 0:24:24.236 --> 0:24:26.356 side of the dory, there was a small bump in 0:24:26.396 --> 0:24:30.396 the fiberglass, which Mosai said corresponded to a little tear 0:24:30.436 --> 0:24:33.436 shape visible at one end of one of the linear bruises. 0:24:34.516 --> 0:24:38.996 Fred says it was ridiculous. They ended up having the 0:24:39.036 --> 0:24:43.996 whole jury parade by and touched the bump. Then it 0:24:44.036 --> 0:24:47.596 was Fred's turn to testify, and right before he did 0:24:48.316 --> 0:25:17.916 he got a piece of very good news. Two days 0:25:17.996 --> 0:25:22.116 before Fred took the stand. He was acquitted on special 0:25:22.116 --> 0:25:26.956 Circumstance number three that he had killed Doug for financial 0:25:26.996 --> 0:25:31.796 gain because Doug's sister Kim and his stepsisters Kirsten and 0:25:31.876 --> 0:25:35.956 Heidee were the beneficiaries of his policy. The court found 0:25:35.996 --> 0:25:38.436 that Fred could not have killed him for the money. 0:25:39.476 --> 0:25:42.956 As for the policy on Verna, the insurance company paid it. 0:25:43.476 --> 0:25:46.636 It went into the Johnson Railer Trust, but only after 0:25:46.716 --> 0:25:51.436 Fred had removed himself as trustee. Bill Fairfield, Fred's friend 0:25:51.436 --> 0:25:55.476 and lawyer, replaced him as trustee. Bill also testified in 0:25:55.516 --> 0:25:59.836 the trial. He wept on the witness stand, swearing the 0:25:59.916 --> 0:26:07.516 insurance had been his idea. Fred's testimony began on March eleventh, 0:26:07.636 --> 0:26:10.876 nineteen eighty one. Were a dark blue suit and he 0:26:10.996 --> 0:26:14.236 was calm. A newspaper report from the time says he 0:26:14.316 --> 0:26:18.316 only broke down when describing his realization that Verna might 0:26:18.356 --> 0:26:22.036 be dead. He says there was never any question whether 0:26:22.036 --> 0:26:25.716 he would take the stand. He had unshakable confidence in 0:26:25.796 --> 0:26:30.436 his version of events. I said, the only way that 0:26:30.596 --> 0:26:34.196 they will ever you know, really understand the whole works 0:26:34.236 --> 0:26:37.996 as if I testify. He never doubted that he would 0:26:37.996 --> 0:26:43.596 be acquitted of murdering Verna and Doug because even though 0:26:43.636 --> 0:26:47.436 they basically, you know, cheated doing the second autopsy, in 0:26:48.196 --> 0:26:51.916 hiding that and all those things, the people that we 0:26:52.076 --> 0:26:57.076 had who testified basically showed that there was no foul, 0:26:57.156 --> 0:27:00.356 there was no harm, there was no murder. You know, 0:27:00.396 --> 0:27:03.796 in all the legalise that there is about proof beyond 0:27:03.796 --> 0:27:07.396 a reasonable doubt into a moral certainty, that's basically DS. 0:27:08.556 --> 0:27:12.396 You know, you're trying to convince twelve people by hook 0:27:12.436 --> 0:27:17.036 or crook to vote a certain way. During his cross 0:27:17.076 --> 0:27:20.516 examination of Fred, Stan Rodin made sure the dory was 0:27:20.556 --> 0:27:23.156 brought back into the courtroom. It hung in front of 0:27:23.196 --> 0:27:26.596 the jury box, suspended from four ladders seven feet off 0:27:26.636 --> 0:27:30.356 the ground. Rodin drilled down on all the things about 0:27:30.396 --> 0:27:33.516 Fred's story of the drowning that did not make sense. 0:27:34.796 --> 0:27:38.116 How could a Navy trained scuba diver, a water safety 0:27:38.116 --> 0:27:42.116 instructor forget all the basic rules. He failed to kick 0:27:42.156 --> 0:27:45.556 off his sneakers and pants, He swam away from the dory, 0:27:45.716 --> 0:27:50.236 the perfect flotation device. Why would he undertake the risky 0:27:50.316 --> 0:27:54.876 and exhausting swim to bird Rock supporting two drowning victims 0:27:55.276 --> 0:27:58.356 and a dog. Why was he dealing with the dog 0:27:58.396 --> 0:28:02.916 at all when his wife and stepchild were dying. At 0:28:02.916 --> 0:28:08.316 this point, Rodin introduced new evidence People's Exhibit thirty one 0:28:08.396 --> 0:28:13.676 C A toy bear. He said, your honor, at this 0:28:13.756 --> 0:28:16.756 time I have an animal. It is certainly not a dog, 0:28:16.876 --> 0:28:19.316 but it has movable arms and legs, and this is 0:28:19.316 --> 0:28:21.876 as close as we can come it is a bear. 0:28:22.996 --> 0:28:25.716 Then Rowdin asked Detective Ray to put on the float 0:28:25.756 --> 0:28:28.836 coat Fred had been wearing on January second, nineteen eighty one, 0:28:29.276 --> 0:28:32.356 and he placed the teddy bear on Detective Ray's shoulders 0:28:32.356 --> 0:28:35.476 and moved it around as Fred directed from the witness stand. 0:28:36.436 --> 0:28:40.196 It must have looked absurd, and that was exactly Stan 0:28:40.356 --> 0:28:44.036 Rowden's point. He didn't think Fred had swum with Lady 0:28:44.116 --> 0:28:47.276 the dog on his back. He didn't think Lady had 0:28:47.276 --> 0:28:50.436 climbed the sheer cliff on the north side of Bird Rock. 0:28:51.236 --> 0:28:53.436 He didn't even think Lady was still in the boat 0:28:53.436 --> 0:28:57.076 when it flipped. He thought Fred had dumped her on 0:28:57.156 --> 0:28:59.836 the eastern end of bird Rock, where there's a nice, 0:28:59.876 --> 0:29:04.436 gentle ledge which she could have easily climbed up. Saving 0:29:04.436 --> 0:29:07.436 the dog was just one more aspect of his bogus 0:29:07.476 --> 0:29:11.676 hero story of vanity or a distraction. It was a 0:29:11.716 --> 0:29:15.396 fib and Rodin was sure it was a flaw in 0:29:15.476 --> 0:29:19.076 the lie Fred had been telling on autopilot since the 0:29:19.196 --> 0:29:25.356 day his wife and stepson died. Fred sat through the trial. 0:29:25.716 --> 0:29:29.876 You could say stoically, or you could say sullenly. Here's 0:29:29.916 --> 0:29:36.636 Wendy Lasher. Fred was his big stoic guy, quiet and 0:29:36.956 --> 0:29:40.156 kind of dark and brooding looking, kind of dark hair, 0:29:40.196 --> 0:29:43.916 heavy eyebrows, and I think they really wanted to cultivate 0:29:44.356 --> 0:29:49.756 a dislike of him. During the trial, the judge instructed 0:29:49.756 --> 0:29:53.756 the jury in the distinction between direct and circumstantial evidence 0:29:54.196 --> 0:29:56.796 and told them that there had been no direct evidence 0:29:56.836 --> 0:29:59.556 of any act of the defendants that caused Verna and 0:29:59.636 --> 0:30:03.396 Doug to drown. They were also told that when considering 0:30:03.396 --> 0:30:08.556 circumstantial evidence, if there were two reasonable interpretations, they had 0:30:08.636 --> 0:30:13.476 to give the defendant the benefit of the doubt. The 0:30:13.596 --> 0:30:18.876 jury deliberated for five days. This is Fred's friend Mike Kelleen. 0:30:19.676 --> 0:30:23.156 When the jury went away to make their decision, I 0:30:23.156 --> 0:30:26.876 think on day two they asked for information about the dory. 0:30:26.916 --> 0:30:29.836 They wanted to see the dory again. That dory made 0:30:29.836 --> 0:30:33.356