WEBVTT - #589 Jason Flom with Tyrone Noling 0:00:04.930 --> 0:00:05.830 This is difficult. 0:00:06.850 --> 0:00:10.390 It's difficult cleaning for your life, especially. 0:00:09.970 --> 0:00:12.780 When you haven't been hurt for a long time. I'm 0:00:12.810 --> 0:00:15.800 an innocent person on Ohio's death row. I don't belong 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:17.419 here and I need help. 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:19.419 Now's the time. 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:25.980 Tyrone has been on death row in Ohio for over 0:00:25.980 --> 0:00:28.680 30 years, where he remains to this day. 0:00:29.940 --> 0:00:33.070 On August 25th, the Ohio Parole Board issued a recommendation 0:00:33.130 --> 0:00:36.390 for executive clemency in the form of commutation from death 0:00:36.409 --> 0:00:40.010 row to life, eligibility for parole. Two members of the 0:00:40.050 --> 0:00:44.440 board opposed clemency. One member supported Tyrone's request for a 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:48.269 full pardon in his immediate release. We're encouraged that members 0:00:48.310 --> 0:00:51.470 of the parole board agree that executive clemency is appropriate 0:00:51.870 --> 0:00:54.810 and recognize the serious problems in Tyrone's case. We think 0:00:54.850 --> 0:00:58.650 it's highly significant that the board member who actually voted 0:00:58.690 --> 0:01:02.270 for a full pardon was a former prosecutor. Typically, former 0:01:02.310 --> 0:01:07.600 prosecutors are among the most critical reviewers during the post-conviction 0:01:07.660 --> 0:01:10.800 review process. The parole board makes a recommendation, but the 0:01:11.020 --> 0:01:14.670 ultimate decision belongs to Governor DeLay. The governor is not 0:01:14.730 --> 0:01:17.710 limited to the particular form of clemency recommended by a 0:01:17.750 --> 0:01:21.030 majority of the parole board. Governor DeWine has the unique 0:01:21.090 --> 0:01:24.750 authority here to look at all of the circumstances in 0:01:24.780 --> 0:01:27.900 the case and the record that's existed for over 35 years. 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:31.700 He is not subject to the same time constraints and 0:01:31.740 --> 0:01:34.280 restrictions that sometimes exist on the court, so he can 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:37.480 send Tyrone home a meet. We very much appreciate Governor 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:39.220 DeWine's consideration of that request. 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:43.660 I would just like to thank everybody involved And to 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:44.680 encourage them again. 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:50.160 Look into my case. To get involved. To be a 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:52.820 voice for me. Because I don't belong here. 0:01:54.220 --> 0:01:56.610 I wish I could say more, but being in this 0:01:56.810 --> 0:01:59.450 situation for this many years, you don't know what to 0:01:59.510 --> 0:02:02.330 say anymore. You just want to go in a hole 0:02:02.670 --> 0:02:03.410 and never come out. 0:02:03.490 --> 0:02:04.890 But I'm going to keep fighting. 0:02:05.690 --> 0:02:08.810 I hope that people will fight with me and for me. 0:02:22.260 --> 0:02:25.100 Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction. This is a hard one, 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:31.960 even for me, because this is one of the most twisted, entangled, nonsensical, 0:02:32.900 --> 0:02:36.760 and I'm going to say evil, wrongful convictions that I 0:02:36.820 --> 0:02:40.220 know of. And of course, I'm referring to the case 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:43.750 of Tyrone Noling. Tyrone has been on death row in 0:02:43.830 --> 0:02:48.340 Ohio for over 30 years. where he remains to this day. 0:02:48.380 --> 0:02:50.960 And with us today to talk about the case is 0:02:50.980 --> 0:02:54.120 a man who knows it like the back of his hand, 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:58.200 Brian Howe. Brian is an attorney with the Ohio Innocence Project. 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:01.300 So Brian, I'm glad you're here, but Jesus, this. 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:02.900 Is going to be a tough one. Thanks, Jason. 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:05.679 And Tyrone, I'm so glad you're here with us today, 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:09.590 even though I'm so very sorry because of the reason 0:03:09.650 --> 0:03:12.530 why you're here and even more so because of where 0:03:12.610 --> 0:03:12.989 you are. 0:03:13.010 --> 0:03:14.010 Thank you. 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:19.220 So, Tyrone, let's start by going back to before everything 0:03:19.260 --> 0:03:22.080 that's happened. What was your life like growing up? 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:25.640 I grew up in a small town outside of Canton, Ohio, 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:27.120 in Stark County called Alliance. 0:03:27.500 --> 0:03:30.510 I grew up in a one-parent home with four other siblings. 0:03:31.130 --> 0:03:34.350 And my childhood was like any other childhood. Did sports, 0:03:34.890 --> 0:03:35.590 went to school. 0:03:36.130 --> 0:03:38.650 And as I got older, I got in a little trouble. 0:03:39.130 --> 0:03:41.610 But for the most part, life at home was pretty good. 0:03:42.190 --> 0:03:43.480 Turned 18. 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:44.400 And I pretty much. 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:46.940 Found myself on my own, just hanging out with a 0:03:47.100 --> 0:03:48.660 group of friends that I had grew up with. 0:03:49.710 --> 0:03:52.390 And the group of friends that you mentioned here, you're 0:03:52.430 --> 0:03:56.790 talking about Johnny Trandefer, Gary St. Clair, Joseph D'Alessandro, and 0:03:56.850 --> 0:04:00.410 Butch Walcott. And the latter three all play a part 0:04:00.450 --> 0:04:04.570 in this wrongful conviction. Now, you all were staying together 0:04:04.610 --> 0:04:06.010 in the same house, right? 0:04:06.490 --> 0:04:09.390 Yeah, I didn't really know Butch Walcott. I grew up 0:04:09.430 --> 0:04:12.710 with Gary St. Clair and Joey D'Alessandro. We lived pretty 0:04:12.750 --> 0:04:16.090 much in the same neighborhood and knew each other since kindergarten. 0:04:16.450 --> 0:04:21.070 Gary's stepdad had an accident and the house became vacant. 0:04:21.170 --> 0:04:24.130 So we all just started congregating there. We were just 0:04:24.170 --> 0:04:24.610 hanging out. 0:04:24.630 --> 0:04:28.290 We were doing dumb stuff, you know, bought pizza, chased girls, 0:04:28.650 --> 0:04:29.529 stayed up late. 0:04:30.290 --> 0:04:32.690 And Brian, I want to bring you back in here. 0:04:32.770 --> 0:04:36.510 So like Tyrone says, he was getting into some trouble, 0:04:37.089 --> 0:04:39.979 which is what leads to the connection with this crime, right? 0:04:40.370 --> 0:04:43.270 Sure. I mean, the reason that Tyrone was on the 0:04:43.330 --> 0:04:49.350 radar of investigators was that there were two burglaries that 0:04:49.390 --> 0:04:53.030 happened the next county over that Tyrone was ultimately arrested 0:04:53.110 --> 0:04:58.490 for and pleaded guilty to. And those robberies were what 0:04:58.890 --> 0:05:02.430 made him a target in the Harding murder investigation to 0:05:02.450 --> 0:05:02.790 begin with. 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:03.660 Right. 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:07.240 Tyrone and the other young men were involved in some burglaries. 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:10.440 And in one, he did have a gun that they 0:05:10.460 --> 0:05:13.279 got from another robbery. And the gun went off accidentally 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:17.470 and shot directly into the floor. But Tyrone made sure 0:05:17.529 --> 0:05:20.250 that no one was hurt before running away. I mean, 0:05:21.190 --> 0:05:23.810 this is not a guy who was out to hurt anyone. 0:05:23.870 --> 0:05:27.650 He was definitely doing some very dumb things, but not 0:05:27.690 --> 0:05:30.560 a violent guy. And he was arrested for those robberies. 0:05:30.970 --> 0:05:33.810 pled guilty, and ended up serving time in prison. And 0:05:34.190 --> 0:05:39.860 that leads us up to this crime, which happens fatefully 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:43.800 around the same time. I'm talking about April 5th, 1990, 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:46.860 which is when Bernhardt and Cora Harding, both 81 years old, 0:05:46.900 --> 0:05:49.500 were shot to death in their own home. From the 0:05:49.620 --> 0:05:52.210 look of things, they had been doing some spring cleaning, 0:05:52.250 --> 0:05:55.010 and they were shot while sitting at their dining room table. 0:05:55.410 --> 0:05:57.950 This is in Atwater, Ohio, which is a rural town 0:05:57.990 --> 0:05:58.950 in Portage County. 0:05:59.330 --> 0:06:02.970 And if you don't know Atwater, Ohio, it's almost a 0:06:03.029 --> 0:06:06.049 stretch to call it a town. The people who live 0:06:06.170 --> 0:06:09.770 within a square mile of this, you could count on 0:06:09.810 --> 0:06:10.250 your hands. 0:06:10.710 --> 0:06:14.690 So let me set the stage. Saturday, April 7th, 1990, 0:06:14.690 --> 0:06:19.760 at 6.15 p.m., Chief Detective Dwayne Cayley was notified by 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:24.580 dispatcher Kathy Rubino that Jim Rubino had called and reported 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:27.200 that there were two people laying on the kitchen floor 0:06:27.220 --> 0:06:30.660 of the neighbor's house. Jim's mother, who had lived next 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:33.260 door to the Hardigs for 30 years, asked him to 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:36.049 go check on them when she noticed their garage had 0:06:36.110 --> 0:06:39.210 been open with the lawnmower outside for almost three days. 0:06:39.810 --> 0:06:41.810 There was no answer when he knocked on the door 0:06:41.930 --> 0:06:44.049 and their car was in the garage. She looked inside 0:06:44.950 --> 0:06:48.340 and saw the Hardigs laying on the kitchen floor. Now, 10. 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:50.190 25 caliber shell cases were found on the floor of 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:52.860 the Hardig home. Papers from the living room desk were 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:55.760 scattered around the room. Dresser drawers and jewelry boxes were 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:58.990 open and had been rifled through. At this point, Detective 0:06:59.050 --> 0:07:01.850 Cayley reported that there didn't seem to be any signs 0:07:01.890 --> 0:07:03.050 of struggle from the victims. 0:07:03.650 --> 0:07:03.969 Mr. 0:07:04.190 --> 0:07:08.029 Harding's wallet was in his pocket and the money was 0:07:08.070 --> 0:07:11.290 still inside. So there was no forced entry found in 0:07:11.310 --> 0:07:13.710 the house. And it seemed as if there had been 0:07:13.790 --> 0:07:16.420 at least one other person sitting at the kitchen table. 0:07:17.260 --> 0:07:19.180 You want to take it from here because this gets 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:20.260 weirder and weirder. 0:07:21.070 --> 0:07:25.800 Sure. So it's not a usual occurrence in Atwater, Ohio 0:07:25.900 --> 0:07:29.220 to have a double murder, especially 80 plus year old victims. 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:34.000 And so the sheriff's department began investigating. One of the 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:37.920 first leads that they had, and this is even as 0:07:38.020 --> 0:07:41.640 they are processing the scene, they get a call from 0:07:41.660 --> 0:07:45.520 a roller rink, maybe a couple of miles away. And 0:07:45.540 --> 0:07:50.320 there is a person there saying that He lost a. 0:07:50.290 --> 0:07:54.010 25 caliber pistol there on Friday night. He was looking 0:07:54.070 --> 0:07:55.930 for it, trying to see if anyone had turned it in. 0:07:55.970 --> 0:07:57.790 He was worried that some kids were going to find it. 0:07:58.330 --> 0:08:01.310 And the person is a man named Dennis Van Steenburg 0:08:01.770 --> 0:08:05.820 who lived in the area. Police investigate that, but while 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.080 they're doing that, leads are sort of pouring in, right? 0:08:08.140 --> 0:08:09.700 This is a big deal in the county. It's a 0:08:09.700 --> 0:08:12.500 big deal in the city. One of the tips they get, again, 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:16.840 almost right away, is from a high school student named 0:08:16.900 --> 0:08:20.650 Nathan Chesley. And he says, that my foster brother told 0:08:20.690 --> 0:08:23.050 me that he was the person who had killed the Hartigs. 0:08:23.870 --> 0:08:27.300 And so police are investigating that lead as well. 0:08:27.940 --> 0:08:28.260 Okay. 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:30.560 So right off the bat, they have some pretty strong 0:08:30.620 --> 0:08:34.100 leads here, right? So what's going on with the first guy, 0:08:34.260 --> 0:08:35.400 Dennis Van Steenburg? 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:38.450 They go talk to him. He says, well, yes, I 0:08:38.490 --> 0:08:40.609 did have a 25. I don't know where it went. 0:08:40.650 --> 0:08:42.350 It must have fallen out of my car or something 0:08:42.370 --> 0:08:44.770 like that around the time of the murders. He said 0:08:44.809 --> 0:08:48.150 he had found it. So The police check the pistol 0:08:48.290 --> 0:08:51.829 to the ballistics of the rounds recovered from the scene, 0:08:52.350 --> 0:08:54.450 and it's not a match. And so at that point, 0:08:54.670 --> 0:08:59.150 the investigation into Van Steenburg sort of fades away. In 0:08:59.190 --> 0:09:02.990 the meantime, the police have followed up on Nathan Chesley's tip. 0:09:03.230 --> 0:09:07.590 They go to his house, which is a woman who 0:09:07.630 --> 0:09:09.770 had fostered a lot of sort of troubled teens in 0:09:09.809 --> 0:09:13.590 the area. It's less than a mile and a half 0:09:13.690 --> 0:09:15.500 from the scene, and you remember Chesley There's not a 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:19.250 lot of people who live as close as Nathan Chesley 0:09:19.260 --> 0:09:22.330 did to the victims in this case. And so the 0:09:22.350 --> 0:09:25.650 police ask whether there's a foster brother around who they 0:09:25.670 --> 0:09:28.890 can interview. And they're told there's a foster brother. He's 0:09:28.929 --> 0:09:32.550 only 14 years old. And they eliminate this foster brother 0:09:32.570 --> 0:09:35.870 pretty quickly. In the meantime, they also get a tip 0:09:36.070 --> 0:09:40.300 from the neighboring county, Stark County. Stark County has been 0:09:40.340 --> 0:09:45.060 investigating a series of break-ins where A group of teenagers 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:49.460 has been going to various houses saying, my car broke 0:09:49.500 --> 0:09:52.140 down and I'd like to use your telephone. When they're 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:56.309 let inside the house, they then produce a shotgun and 0:09:56.330 --> 0:09:59.110 what turns out to be a fake. 38 caliber revolver. 0:09:59.870 --> 0:10:03.650 And they take various valuables, VCRs, jewelry, things like that. 0:10:04.110 --> 0:10:08.490 And that turns out to be Tyrone Rowling and his co-defendants. 0:10:09.070 --> 0:10:13.170 So Tyrone is arrested with his co-defendants and they find 0:10:13.190 --> 0:10:17.030 a 25 caliber gun. So now it's very interesting to 0:10:17.070 --> 0:10:20.190 the Porch County authorities. They test that one for ballistics, 0:10:20.350 --> 0:10:22.910 and it turns out that it does not match the 0:10:23.010 --> 0:10:24.110 one that was used in the crime. 0:10:24.270 --> 0:10:27.160 I mean, there's no getting around that. So at this point, 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.880 the sheriff knows that these guys, Tyrone and his friends, 0:10:31.100 --> 0:10:32.860 are not involved in the murders. 0:10:33.460 --> 0:10:35.940 So at that point, the investigation sort of stalls out 0:10:36.100 --> 0:10:39.969 for about a year. The detectives are facing pressure. They 0:10:40.010 --> 0:10:42.830 come up with another lead. This time, they talk to 0:10:43.510 --> 0:10:47.449 the Hartig's doctor, Dr. Canone, the week before the bodies 0:10:47.490 --> 0:10:51.709 were found. Mr. Harding told Dr. Canone that he had 0:10:51.890 --> 0:10:54.630 lent $ 10, 000 to an insurance salesman, that the insurance salesman 0:10:54.650 --> 0:10:56.790 had failed to pay when the loan had come due 0:10:56.890 --> 0:11:00.209 on April 1st, that something fishy was going on with 0:11:00.250 --> 0:11:02.910 this loan and with the insurance salesman explanation for why 0:11:02.950 --> 0:11:04.670 he refused to pay. And as soon as he got 0:11:04.690 --> 0:11:06.550 off the phone with Dr. Canone, he was going to 0:11:06.620 --> 0:11:10.059 go sort this out with the insurance salesman. The police 0:11:10.340 --> 0:11:12.579 start to look at insurance salesman that the Hardings had 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:14.960 dealt with, and they find a man named Louis Lehman. 0:11:15.900 --> 0:11:19.680 Lewis Lehman denies having taken out a loan, but he 0:11:19.780 --> 0:11:23.680 was the insurance salesman for the Hardigs. And what's more, 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:27.840 he had a. 25 caliber pistol as well. Unlike the 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:31.360 other two pistols that the police have compared, they're able 0:11:31.420 --> 0:11:33.600 to look up the make and model and see that 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:37.420 the pistol Lehman had was consistent with the general rifling 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:40.939 characteristics of the rounds that were found in the house. 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:46.500 They asked Lehman where his. 25 caliber pistol was. He said, well, 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:49.059 I must have sold it. I don't remember who bought it. 0:11:49.179 --> 0:11:51.199 I don't remember when I sold it. And I'm done 0:11:51.260 --> 0:11:53.599 answering questions from you all. He refused to take a 0:11:53.620 --> 0:11:58.330 lie detector test and basically stopped talking to detectives. And 0:11:58.350 --> 0:12:02.230 at that point, the investigation had basically completely stalled out. 0:12:02.970 --> 0:12:06.270 So this lead with Lehman, I mean, if this was 0:12:06.309 --> 0:12:09.620 a movie script, you'd say that this is it was 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:12.480 too obvious, right? What I'm trying to wrap my head 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:15.580 around here is this sounds like the investigators are just 0:12:15.700 --> 0:12:20.540 bungling this at every stage. And we haven't even gotten 0:12:20.700 --> 0:12:24.309 to one of the craziest leads. And that is this guy, 0:12:24.350 --> 0:12:25.150 Dan Wilson. 0:12:25.429 --> 0:12:29.110 That's right. Dan Wilson is arrested for a murder a 0:12:29.230 --> 0:12:33.069 few counties over in northern Ohio. Dan had gotten drunk, 0:12:33.610 --> 0:12:36.070 put a young woman that he'd met earlier that night 0:12:36.210 --> 0:12:39.559 in the trunk of his car and set the car 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:44.210 on fire. This was very big news, and law enforcement 0:12:44.390 --> 0:12:49.989 across Northeast Ohio started looking at Dan for basically every 0:12:50.050 --> 0:12:53.580 unsolved murder that they had. That included the Portage County 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:56.660 Sheriff's Department. When they did that, they discovered something about 0:12:56.679 --> 0:13:00.240 Dan Wilson that they'd missed earlier, and that is that 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:05.040 he was a foster brother of Nathan Chesley. very kid 0:13:05.100 --> 0:13:07.640 who came to them the day after the murder and said, 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:10.340 my foster brother confessed to that. When the detectives followed 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:13.500 up on that, they never interviewed Nathan Chesley and eliminated 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:16.620 the wrong foster brother. They never connected the dots to 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:20.010 Dan Wilson. They never bothered to interview Nathan Chesley. And 0:13:20.090 --> 0:13:23.330 so Dan Wilson, who lived within a mile of the 0:13:23.370 --> 0:13:27.130 house and who police now believe is a serial killer, 0:13:27.830 --> 0:13:31.110 was known to them almost immediately after the murder and 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:33.140 They let it slip through their fingers. He went on 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:34.220 to kill another woman. 0:13:49.770 --> 0:13:52.309 This podcast is brought to you by Ohio Justice and 0:13:52.370 --> 0:13:55.610 Policy Center, a nonprofit law firm that seeks justice for 0:13:55.650 --> 0:14:00.590 people directly impacted by Ohio's criminal legal system. OJPC provides 0:14:00.750 --> 0:14:04.830 free legal services to currently and formerly incarcerated people. Through 0:14:04.870 --> 0:14:09.089 its Beyond Guilt project, OJPC works to free overpunished people 0:14:09.150 --> 0:14:13.530 who have rehabilitated themselves. OJPC's Human Rights in Prison project 0:14:13.670 --> 0:14:17.069 represents people who face denial of medical care. In its 0:14:17.090 --> 0:14:21.120 25-year history, OJPC has worked at the policy level and 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:24.900 won numerous victories in Ohio, including ending juvenile life without 0:14:24.940 --> 0:14:29.080 parole and exempting seriously mentally ill people from the death penalty. 0:14:29.540 --> 0:14:32.610 To learn more about Ohio Justice and Policy Center and 0:14:32.660 --> 0:14:39.910 how you can support its mission, visit OhioJPC.org. That's O-H-I-O-J-P-C 0:14:40.330 --> 0:14:44.470 dot org. Ohio Justice and Policy Center. We don't write 0:14:44.510 --> 0:14:45.070 people off. 0:14:53.430 --> 0:14:55.090 You know, at the very least, I think it must 0:14:55.130 --> 0:14:58.050 have been embarrassing to the office that they had this 0:14:58.150 --> 0:15:01.850 tip within days of the murder, and they didn't realize 0:15:01.870 --> 0:15:05.210 their mistake until Dan Wilson had committed another very high-profile murder. 0:15:05.750 --> 0:15:08.790 Right at the same time that that's happening, someone gets 0:15:08.810 --> 0:15:12.610 a call from a woman named Marlene Van Steenburg. She is, 0:15:12.630 --> 0:15:16.050 I believe, the aunt of Dennis Van Steenburg, again, who 0:15:16.090 --> 0:15:18.030 was the very first person who they'd looked at and 0:15:18.050 --> 0:15:20.750 who they eliminated after he turned in his weapon. Well, 0:15:20.890 --> 0:15:24.710 Marlene says that in those first days of the investigation, 0:15:25.610 --> 0:15:29.390 Dennis's father had come over to their house and asked 0:15:29.500 --> 0:15:34.260 his brother, who was Marlene's husband, if he could borrow his. 0:15:34.140 --> 0:15:38.260 25 caliber pistol for a few weeks. And when Richard 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:40.610 Van Steenburg asked, why do you need my. 0:15:40.380 --> 0:15:40.840 25? 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:43.950 The response was, well, Dennis had to get rid of 0:15:44.070 --> 0:15:46.990 his because he was in some sort of trouble with 0:15:47.030 --> 0:15:50.230 the police and he needed a different one to give 0:15:50.270 --> 0:15:53.930 the police. And so they ultimately gave it to him. 0:15:54.650 --> 0:15:57.080 And that was the weapon that was turned into the 0:15:57.100 --> 0:16:00.400 police and eliminated. What's more, Marlene says that she called 0:16:00.460 --> 0:16:04.350 the police to tell them this during that original investigation. 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:07.570 So the police should have been on notice that Dennis 0:16:07.590 --> 0:16:11.890 Van Steenburg is turning in the wrong gun for comparison purposes, 0:16:12.670 --> 0:16:16.810 and they still eliminated Van Steenburg as a suspect. So 0:16:17.310 --> 0:16:20.310 those two things are happening right back to back. Dan 0:16:20.330 --> 0:16:23.050 Wilson comes to light, and it comes to light that 0:16:23.070 --> 0:16:27.210 they basically wasted a ballistic comparison on what they should 0:16:27.250 --> 0:16:29.670 have known was the wrong gun for Dennis Van Steenburg. 0:16:30.410 --> 0:16:34.270 So we have these incredibly powerful leads that should have 0:16:34.310 --> 0:16:36.770 led them, not towards, but away from those four boys, 0:16:36.790 --> 0:16:39.660 because there's no connection between these nefarious characters and the 0:16:39.700 --> 0:16:41.640 four kids. What happens next? 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:45.840 So that is when the Portage County Prosecuting Attorney's Office 0:16:46.100 --> 0:16:49.540 takes over the investigation, and they assign their own investigator 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.000 to the case, a man named Ron Craig. 0:16:52.810 --> 0:16:56.810 Yes, Ron Craig. Let's not skip over this character. From 0:16:56.850 --> 0:17:03.380 my understanding, he was known for his extremely aggressive interrogation techniques, 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:08.000 for playing fast and loose with the rules in order 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:10.280 to get results that he wanted. 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:14.280 That's right. Ron Craig was a person who the prosecuting 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:18.920 attorney's office turned to who could crack this case open 0:17:19.060 --> 0:17:23.919 through aggressive interrogation. get results. That is what he was 0:17:23.940 --> 0:17:26.700 known for at that time. If you look at where 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:30.159 the investigation was when they took it over, Dan Wilson 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:32.510 at that time was under indictment for murder. You could 0:17:32.550 --> 0:17:35.410 not interview him without an attorney. Lewis Lehman at that 0:17:35.470 --> 0:17:39.110 point was not cooperating. He had gotten an attorney as well. 0:17:39.369 --> 0:17:42.890 Maybe the most logical place for Ron Craig to go 0:17:43.369 --> 0:17:46.050 was back to these other four kids who had also 0:17:46.070 --> 0:17:50.030 been eliminated through ballistics and try to see what he 0:17:50.070 --> 0:17:53.250 could do in terms of interrogating them. And so he 0:17:53.310 --> 0:17:57.350 started with Butch Wolcott, who was 16 years old at 0:17:57.369 --> 0:17:57.770 the time. 0:17:58.850 --> 0:17:59.169 Yeah. 0:17:59.510 --> 0:18:02.770 And this part, it gets more and more disturbing because 0:18:02.810 --> 0:18:06.830 they took these four young kids and with the very 0:18:06.890 --> 0:18:10.010 real threat of the death penalty, they were able to 0:18:10.250 --> 0:18:15.270 scare these kids and browbeat them into saying things that 0:18:15.310 --> 0:18:18.350 they knew weren't true. Because they weren't there and they 0:18:18.369 --> 0:18:22.120 didn't know anything. And basically, as in other false confession 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:25.060 cases or false eyewitness cases that we've seen over and 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:28.379 over again, they were fed the information by the police. 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:31.700 And then they were given basically a Sophie's choice. Either 0:18:31.740 --> 0:18:34.840 you lie and implicate your friends or we are going 0:18:34.900 --> 0:18:37.940 to send you to death row. Right. Am I missing anything? 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:40.659 No, and I mean, for Butch, if you read the 0:18:40.900 --> 0:18:43.860 series of interrogations and statements that he makes, at least 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:47.260 my impression is that he was terrified, and it's clear 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:51.050 he's just trying to do his best. He continues to 0:18:51.090 --> 0:18:53.730 insist he wasn't there. He had nothing to do with this. 0:18:54.270 --> 0:18:55.889 He tells them everything they want to know about the 0:18:55.950 --> 0:18:58.690 two robberies that happened in Stark County, but he says, 0:18:58.750 --> 0:19:01.560 we never went to Portage County. We never went out 0:19:01.619 --> 0:19:04.880 to Atwater. He doesn't know where it is, and that's 0:19:04.940 --> 0:19:07.760 not an answer that Ron Craig is willing to accept. 0:19:08.130 --> 0:19:11.530 So what they do is they send him to a 0:19:11.710 --> 0:19:16.790 child psychologist who then puts Butch, the 16-year-old kid, under 0:19:16.869 --> 0:19:21.470 hypnosis in order to recover what they allege are repressed 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:25.060 memories of the murder. And so under hypnosis, they would 0:19:25.100 --> 0:19:27.560 ask things like, when did the murder take place? And 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:30.240 Butch would say, well, it was not quite dark, but 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:32.359 it was not quite light. I don't know, maybe somewhere 0:19:32.380 --> 0:19:34.879 in between. I just don't remember. And he would give 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:37.900 answers like that to every question. And even the psychologist 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:40.520 at the time said, if we keep this up, he's 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:43.270 just going to say false things to try and make 0:19:43.390 --> 0:19:46.970 the investigators happy because he's so terrified. But it didn't 0:19:47.030 --> 0:19:48.130 stop it. Right. 0:19:48.190 --> 0:19:51.399 And I want to also mention that this... detective, Ron Craig, 0:19:51.540 --> 0:19:55.119 made sure to separate Butch from his father. This detective 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:59.160 pressured young Butch Walcott relentlessly, lying directly to the kid. 0:19:59.400 --> 0:19:59.740 That's right. 0:19:59.900 --> 0:20:02.720 That he had hard evidence implicating him, including a witness 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:05.330 and DNA matches, right? So, you know, you can imagine 0:20:05.350 --> 0:20:07.750 what's going on in this poor kid's brain. where it's 0:20:07.770 --> 0:20:10.520 just getting completely scrambled. He's just giving these answers that 0:20:10.540 --> 0:20:14.219 don't make any sense. And let us not forget that 0:20:14.260 --> 0:20:18.500 the tape recorder was only turned on when Walcott finally 0:20:18.580 --> 0:20:20.980 made statements that had been fed to him that were 0:20:21.020 --> 0:20:24.219 consistent with what they wanted to hear, right? That was 0:20:24.300 --> 0:20:28.700 when he implicated the subject of our show today, Tyrone Knolling. 0:20:29.350 --> 0:20:33.430 And then Craig turned to one of the other kids, D. Alessandro, 0:20:33.710 --> 0:20:36.470 who said he knew nothing about the murderers. But his 0:20:36.609 --> 0:20:38.710 own attorney convinced him and his family that he should 0:20:38.730 --> 0:20:40.580 plea bargain to avoid the electric chair. 0:20:41.190 --> 0:20:43.800 That's right. Yeah, I mean, once they can get Butch 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:47.960 Wolcott to come up with this story, the rest sort 0:20:48.000 --> 0:20:50.060 of fall in line. At that point, they don't need 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:52.960 to go any further. Tyrone's the main target, and he's 0:20:53.000 --> 0:20:56.879 indicted for aggravated murder with capital specifications. Okay. 0:20:57.100 --> 0:20:59.639 In addition to the other guys, St. Clair pled guilty 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:02.660 to the Hardick murders as well, right? He had given 0:21:02.740 --> 0:21:05.530 in to pressure from Detective Craig. as well as his 0:21:05.770 --> 0:21:10.970 own attorneys and his family. And he was understandably scared 0:21:11.010 --> 0:21:13.810 out of his mind about the death penalty. And then 0:21:13.910 --> 0:21:17.950 Tyrone Knolling is indicted initially for the murders in 1993. 0:21:17.950 --> 0:21:22.160 But this is when things get even weirder. In June 1993, 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:26.419 the court entered a null pros, which means that the 0:21:26.480 --> 0:21:30.300 prosecutor or plaintiff states that they will no longer pursue 0:21:30.340 --> 0:21:34.010 the matter. So they dismissed the case. The whole thing 0:21:34.030 --> 0:21:37.139 should have wrapped up right there. That should have been it. 0:21:37.130 --> 0:21:39.800 Well, that's right. And the reason that the case was 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:44.280 initially dismissed was that almost as soon as they had 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:48.200 made the deals, both Joey D'Alessandro and Gary St. Clair 0:21:48.300 --> 0:21:51.340 started taking them back. You know, it's one thing under 0:21:51.380 --> 0:21:54.340 a lot of pressure, under threats with deals being offered, 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:57.140 to sort of agree to it in the abstract under 0:21:57.180 --> 0:22:00.920 that very immediate pressure. But as the court date actually approached, 0:22:01.340 --> 0:22:05.490 D'Alessandro recanted. asserted their innocence. We had nothing to do 0:22:05.530 --> 0:22:09.310 with this. And Gary St. Clair recanted in a prison interview, said, 0:22:09.710 --> 0:22:11.990 we lied, we were pressured, we had nothing to do 0:22:12.010 --> 0:22:13.990 with this. And at that point, I think the state 0:22:14.010 --> 0:22:16.410 had no choice but to agree to dismiss the case. 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:20.920 And Tyrone, this all has to be so crazy because 0:22:20.940 --> 0:22:23.240 you have your friends, these guys you've known most of 0:22:23.260 --> 0:22:26.180 your life saying things about this crime that you know 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:29.199 you weren't a part of, but you're indicted for it. 0:22:29.770 --> 0:22:32.180 And Then they dropped the charges. 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:34.740