WEBVTT
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Hi guys. I'm Courtney and I'm Lisa, and welcome to
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the next chapter in the Book of the Dead, brought
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to you by dark Cast Network insie podcasts with a Twist.
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Did you know one of the few things that Nostre
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Damas correctly predicted was his own death? Did you know
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that only one professional baseball player has been killed while
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playing the game? What about the fact that one of
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the most poignant last words ever were spoken by a parrot?
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Each week on Famous last Words, we'll examine some of
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the final thoughts of some of the most fascinating people
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in history, from presidents to murderouses, from business innovators to
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teen pop icons. That's Famous last Words, part of the
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dark Cast Network, available right now wherever you get your podcasts.
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Hello, Hello, Welcome to the last chapter of the year
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for the Book of the Dead. Happy holidays and happy
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New Year. For today's chapter, the last one of twenty
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twenty four, I thought we would do something a little
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bit different. Inspired by revisiting the case of the Lands
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Angels of Death, I thought we would revisit a case
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I did recently. There are many cases we have covered
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over the years that I think about constantly. Some are solved,
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like Jinko Ferudo's whose case details I have yet to
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forget since I learned about her fourteen years ago. And
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some cases are on salt still, but I check for
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updates daily, like Daniel Robinson's day disappearance or Elizabeth Sealgato. However,
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the case I covered recently about the execution of Johnny
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Frank Garrett, has been a case that I have been
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festering about since I covered it. As I said in
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the original recording, it was a case that seemed pretty
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straightforward now to recap if you haven't listened to the episode,
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which I recommend you do. Sister Tada Bens was murdered
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on Halloween in nineteen eighty one in Amarillo, Texas. She
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had been assaulted, beaten, stabbed, strangled, and her death was
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very similar to a woman murdered months before named Narnie Bryson. Now,
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at face value, the evidence found seemed to point to
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Johnny Frank Garrett, who was seventeen at the time of
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the murder, and a clairvoyant claims that she had a
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vision showing Johnny was the culprit. He was arrested, charged
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and convicted of sister Toda's murder and put to death
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via lethal injection. However, multiple witness statements claimed that they
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had seen a dark skinned Cuban man hanging around the
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convent at the time of the murder, and most of
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the evidence was not a DNA match for Johnny. The
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only match they had was his handprint on sister Toda's bed,
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which he claimed happened after he had broken into her
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room and leaned against the headboard to steal a crucifix,
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and we will get into that. Additionally, police initially believed
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that sister Tadaz and Narnie Bryson's murders were connected, but
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Johnny was only ever charged with sister to Diaz. In fact,
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someone else was arrested for Narnie Bryson's murder after Johnny's execution,
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named Leoncio Roeda, and he had confessed to knowing who
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killed Sister to Dia as well, but he ignored this
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other man was ever charged. Now, the reason I mention
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all of this is because after recording, I found more
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information about Johnny's case that I want to share because
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it reinforces the fact that the Amarillo police made massive
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errors and Johnny's execution is glaringly obvious to be a
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total miscarriage of justice, So let's get into it. Twenty
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two years after Johnny Frank Garrett was put to death,
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Jesse Quackenbush, an attorney from Amarillo, took on his case
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to prove his innocence posthumously, telling Betsy Blaney of the
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Associated Press quote, the old and newly discovered evidence of
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Johnny Frank Garrett's innocence is so compelling it will cause
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even the most bloodthirsty proponents of the death penalty to
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shake their heads in doubt. According to the same article,
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in Johnny's unassigned confession, he had allegedly said that he
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was high on LSD drunk when he had originally broken
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into the convent to try and steal stereo. He also
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profusely proclaimed his innocence up until his death. Additionally, although
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multiple articles covering the murder from nineteen eighty one have
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stated that police were convinced that the same person, somewhat
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of Hispanic descent, committed bulk murders, in two thousand and four,
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Chief Jerry Neal claims that that was never stated at all.
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Now this is interesting because, according to an article written
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by Donna weeks for the Globe News. In nineteen eighty one,
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Detective Captain Jimmy Davies said he thought that the same
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person may have committed both murders. Jimmy Davies was a
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captain for the Amarilla Police Department, and I don't believe
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that the statement would have been mentioned, let alone published,
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if this wasn't true. So I don't know if Jerry
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Neil is attempting to backtrack on what they thought the time,
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or if he doesn't remember. Which to play Devil's advocate
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is possible, as there was twenty years between both statements.
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In addition, District Attorney Danny Hill stated in an article
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for the Amilla Dailly News at the time that while
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it was only speculation, he believed the cases were connected
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because they were so similar. Now, this alleged confession says
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that Johnny stated that he was under the influence of
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drugs and alcohol and he had entered the convent to steal.
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This confession also states that he covered sister to DIA's
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mouth and knows and she passed out and he proceeded
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to quote have sex with her. Now, this alleged confession
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says nothing about the murder and the report made by
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the Amilla Police regarding Johnny's arrest and statement also does
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not mention Johnny confessing to murder. However, it does say
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that Johnny allegedly confessed to Detective Walt Yerger. He then,
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according to the statement, ask for a lawyer. Now, this
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statement report was made by Yurger's supervisor, and he claims
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that when he went into the interrogation room after Johnny
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asked for a lawyer, Johnny spontaneously made the same confession
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and said that he wouldn't sign a statement without his
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lawyer present. What's interesting to me is that they allowed
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Johnny to make this statement again after he asked for
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a lawyer allegedly. But the interview should have stopped there,
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and this supervisor should have not entertained Johnny's reiteration of
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this alleged confession either. But I'll tell you why Johnny
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was allegedly allowed to keep talking. This is a tactic
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that police will use to skirt around a suspect asking
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for legal counsel. Once a lawyer has been asked for,
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all lines of questioning are supposed to cease until legal
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representation is present. And if the interrogation were to continue
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atro lawyer is asked for anything said will be inadmissible
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in court. The way police will try and get around
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this is by coming in and maybe starting up some
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general banter to keep the suspect talking, as anything the
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suspect says voluntarily outside of a response to an interrogation
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is admissible in court. It's sneaky, but it's legal. So
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it is possible that Johnny may have said something in
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distress to the police officer after asking for legal counsel.
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In addition to the alleged confession that may or may
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not have been bogus. We have to speak about the evidence.
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As I said in the original recording, the Amarilla Police
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sends a plethora of evidence to the FBI for analysis.
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Among the evidence sent where samples of hair from Johnny,
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Frank Garrett, and Fernandoores, who was the original suspect. According
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to the report from the FBI, and this report is
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accessed through Jesse Quackenbush's website for the documentary he made
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about this case, the report acknowledges that the hairs obtained
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from Johnny's home, not the crime scene, belonged to Johnny,
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and all of the evidence is cataloged with where it
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was found. The report is obviously very specific. There were
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hairs found on the blanket, bedspread, t shirt, and vacuum
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sweepings obtained from sister to DIA's crime scene that had
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Caucasian characteristics, as well as hairs found in the bedsheets
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that quote are unlike the hairs in K seven and
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K twelve and accordingly cannot be associated with the source
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of K seven or K twelve. The evidence labeled K
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seven is sister Toda's hair and K twelve is Johnny
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Garrett's hair, So according to the FBI, the hair found
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at the scene of sister Toda's murder did not match Johnny.
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In fact, according to that report, they found zero hairs
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that matched Johnny in the evidence since the FBI at all.
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Regarding the knives, they found a bent butter knife under
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sister Toda's bed and they seized knives from Johnny's house.
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They also took knives from the kitchen in the convent,
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as well as a knife that they found in the
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driveway of the convent. According to the FBI, since the
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butter knife was serrated, it is possible it could have
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been the murder weapon. Still, the report also acknowledges that
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any similarly serrated knife could have also produced the blood
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stained draation pattern found on the bed sheets. I will
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also add that according to the crime scene photos, there
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was no visible blood scene on the butter knife that
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was most likely used by someone trying to open a lock,
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given how it was bent. Forensically, they also found no
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blood on the snife. Now, Johnny claims he was attempting
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to break into a locked drawer, so if the knife
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is his, that would explain it being bent trying to
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wedge it in between the door and maybe the top
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of the drawer. Additionally, the steak knife seized from Johnny's
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home could not duplicate the cutting marks found on the
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window screen. They weren't a match. According to the FBI.
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Johnny's shoes also did not match footprints found of the
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crime scene. Blood and seamen samples from Johnny did not
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match anything found at the crime scene, and they found
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no glass or debris present on Johnny's person or belongings
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that matched anything found in sister to do his room.
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I will say that they did find blood on Fernando
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Flores's genes, but testing was inconclusive. Now, not only did
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the jury not hear about any of this. There was
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other evidence omitted from the trial, like the bloody T
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shirt found that didn't belong to Johnny, the athletic sock
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that didn't belong to him, the Prince and Harris found
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that were not a match. In fact, they were the
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same hairs found at Narnie Bryson's murder, as well as
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the testimony from the teenager that came forward saying that
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he and Johnny had broken into the convent two days
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before the murder, which corroborated Johnny's story. The other thing
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I have to mention is when I had spoken about
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the trial. Originally, I spoke about how one of the
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nuns testified that sister to Dia Ben's did not have
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a crucifix in her room, so Johnny was clearly lying
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about trying to steal it. However, while looking for pictures
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to post to go with the episode, I found the
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crime scene photos that Jesse Quackenbush has on his website,
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and in one of the photos, it chose sister to
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de bed up against the right hand wall. Above the bed.
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On this wall is a large crucifix. It is in
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the photo taken by police during the investigation. So my
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question is, assuming Johnny's lawyer, Bill Collius, saw these pictures,
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because he should have, why was no objection raised when
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the nuns said this. I want to know why his
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lawyer didn't do a lot of things. But if he
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knew about the crucifix, which again he should have, why
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didn't he say anything? Because it lends more credibility to
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his client's story, the client that he is attempting to represent,
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the client whose innocence he is attempting to prove. Additionally,
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he should have known about all of the evidence submitted
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to the FBI. He should have known the FBI's fine,
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which were that they didn't find anything relating to Johnny
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in any of the evidence. So why was none of
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it mentioned? Now? Johnny does say in his letter that
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he had written for prison from prison that he did
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not ask for Bill Collius to represent him. He did
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not want Bill as his lawyer. He had two choices,
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both of them were friendly with his family. That was
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who he wanted represented, and he claims that he was
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told that Bill was going to represent him. He didn't
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have a choice. Now. I don't know a lot about
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Bill Collius, but if he was sent to represent Johnny
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by the police or the prosecution or the district attorney.
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It could explain why, if the police wanted to make
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an example of Johnny or didn't want to admit they
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were wrong, why Bill would have allowed all of this
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evidence to not be heard in court. Now, this picture
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from the crime scene is literally public record. It's on
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Jesse's website, it's on my instagram. You can read the
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reports from the FBI showing their findings. You can see
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all of the evidence that was submitted. And by seeing
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I mean the descriptions of what was submitted. They're all cataloged,
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they're all labeled. There's no miscommunication, there's no misconstruing what
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the FBI said. Now, years after Johnny is executed and
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arrest was made in the murder of Narnie Bryson, and
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the man who was ultimately convicted was Leoncio Rueta. He
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is a Cuban man who had been arrested in the
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weeks after Narnie's murder for peeping, and he has close
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ties to Fernando Flores. Fernando had been idd by a
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witness as being the man seen at the convent at
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the time of Sister Toda's murder, and he was ultimately relieved.
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Watching the interview Leoncio did with Jesse Quackenbush was enlightening
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because Leoncio had a lot to say. According to Leoncio,
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he was not the one to kill Narnie Bryson, but
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he was there when Fernando killed her. According to this interview,
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Fernando not only killed Narni, he beat and sexually assaulted
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her and forced Leoncio to do so as well at gunpoint.
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Leoncio also claimed that Fernando told him that he had
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beat a nun, and when Jesse asked if Fernando admitted
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to killing this nun, Leoncio said, based on how he
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was speaking, he believed Fernando had killed this nun, presumably