Murder In The Blood - Grasshopper Junction, Arizona

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hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express.

Yay, choo choo.

Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy.

Yay indeed.

I'm James Petrogallo.

I'm here with my co-host.

I'm Jimmy Wissman.

Thank you folks so much for joining us today, all aboard the murder train, pulling away from the station.

We have some wild stuff for you today.

We're going to Arizona, and it's always...

Oh,

it's never a normal one in Arizona either.

We live there a long time, and

it's a place where the murders are

vicious and strange.

And the desert does things to people, man.

It's weird stuff.

It'll make you see things.

We'll talk all about that.

Yeah, if it can make you see things, it can make you into a weird murderer.

So we'll talk all about that and more.

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This week, what we're going to talk about for crime and sports, we are going to talk about those old rock and jock specials that used to be on MTV.

I Really bad.

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It's very funny, and we're going to talk all about that.

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I watched them every year.

I watched all of them.

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Yeah.

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about somewhere else.

That's all we can do for you for $5.

So do that and keep hanging out with us.

That said, I think it's time, everybody, to sit back, clear the lungs.

Here we go.

And let's all shout.

Shut up

and give me murder.

Let's do this, everybody.

Let's go on a trip, shall we?

Yeah.

We're going to Arizona.

There we go.

We both know it well.

We are going to Grasshopper Junction, Arizona.

Who knew it existed?

This place, man.

Now, we're going to talk about the stats for a town that's four miles from there called Chloride, Arizona, where there's actually people.

Chloride, that sounds

great, doesn't it?

Yeah.

God,

like, it should be like cyanide should be in there.

Cyanide, chloride, Arizona.

In the direction of Kingman?

It's all outside Kingman in trash country.

Yeah, this is trash country.

It sounds.

It's bad.

It's just what it sounds like.

Now, Chloride actually has some people.

Grasshopper Junction at this point has zero population.

At the time of the murder, obviously, there was some people there,

but this wiped out the entire town.

Really?

Yeah, we've never done a murder where the whole town died, but this is we're there this week.

So we'll talk about it.

This is in northwestern Arizona.

Either way, chloride or grasshopper junction, it's about three and a half hours down to Phoenix.

It's about an hour and a half to Vegas and about

seven hours to Clifton, Arizona, which was our last Arizona episode, number 592, Murder Texts Are Forever.

And yeah, it's a particularly stupid person in that one.

It's like northeast of Kingman, huh?

I think it's west of Kingman.

It might be east of Kingman.

I'm not sure.

Kingman's on the goddamn border.

Well, it's west.

It's west of Kingman.

Yeah.

Is it really?

I think it's over more toward California, yeah, or Nevada.

Holy.

In that area.

This is in Mojave County.

Here are the stats for chloride.

Population, 296.

Not a lot.

Median household income there.

Household, $22,708.

That's a lot of meth.

Wow.

Yeah.

And then median home cost, $109,600.

That's the median home.

I guarantee you this place is drug-addled.

drug-addled.

Oh, it has to be.

Yeah, and I don't think

a lot of those homes in that median home cost are like attached to the ground.

I don't think there's a lot of those.

Even if they are, they've been there since fucking

territory was in the word.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

And the motto for chloride, it is known as the gem of the surbats, curbats.

I don't know.

C-E-R-B-A-T-S.

Is that a mountain range?

How long have you lived in Arizona?

40 years?

38 years?

38 years.

And you you don't, yeah, I've never heard of this either.

I lived there over 20 years.

Never heard of this.

I've been up this way a hundred times.

I've never heard of any of this.

Yeah, go to Vegas and you pass all this shit and you ignore it.

History here.

Chloride is a one-time silver mining camp and is considered the oldest continuously inhabited mining town in Arizona.

Oldest continuously inhabited mining town.

It was never a ghost town.

It never was abandoned.

People stayed the whole time.

So, yeah, in 1860, six miners began what was mining there in the Hullapai Indian Territory.

The miners were attacked and four were killed on the site.

So they said, this is a great place, obviously.

So the two miners ended up escaping and bringing back the cavalry to claim the mine for them.

Oh, boy.

And word got out that silver was found, and by 1863, there's a town.

basically.

Now, Grasshopper Junction, real quick here,

between May 28th and October 7th, 1957, the Nevada test site for nuclear testing ran a series of nuclear tests called Operation Plumb.

In 1958, they also

did more tests called Operation Hardtack 2.

And Grasshopper Junction became a part of hearings before

a special subcommittee on radiation in the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy.

Basically, there's some radiation here is the problem.

A lot.

They figured it out.

Yeah, which Northern Arizona is kind of.

Call it micro Columbos, all you want.

That's too many Columbos.

I don't want any Columbos.

Cereal Columbos is my goal.

Holy shit.

In 1975, a marker was erected across from Grasshopper Junction to honor the bicentennial of chloride.

200 years, huh?

Yeah.

From 1988 to 1991, Grasshopper Junction had a population of six.

Holy shit.

Yeah, and it's one family.

That's a family.

It is, and it is one family.

We'll talk about them.

Reviews of this town.

This is for chloride.

Not a lot out there.

Here is one.

Chloride is a hidden gem in Arizona.

Okay.

The people here are welcoming and friendly, and the landscape is breathtaking.

Oh, I love dirt.

It's great.

It's a great.

Fucking landscape.

There's no landscaping up that direction.

It's a great place to escape the hustle and bustle of city life and enjoy some peace and quiet.

Yeah.

Here's a better one here.

The hustle and bustle of Kingman.

Of Kingman.

Of a bunch of gas stations.

Williams, Arizona.

Oh, boy.

Here's Sarah.

Living in chloride is like stepping back in time.

The town has a rich history, and you can feel it as you walk down the streets.

Yeah, it's all under your feet.

I mean, it's all the Colombos around here.

I can feel them.

However, it can feel isolated at times, and there aren't many amenities nearby.

Yeah, it's absolutely not.

Things to do here.

The Old Miners' Day parade and celebration.

Old Miners' Day.

They say some families have lived in Chloride for generations.

On the third Saturday in October, Chloride honors its hard rock miners.

They fucking rock.

Hard rock.

Fucking megadeth.

They're fucking killing it.

Hard rock miners of the past.

They just bring like Twisted Cister and D.

Snyder waves to people.

To start the day, Chloride's bakers prepare their one-of-a-kind treats for the corner bake sale.

Sure.

Pineapple upside down cake and pecan pie are bestsellers.

Don't forget to buy raffle tickets.

The prize includes

hotel stays and chloride.

Say motel.

Yeah.

Don't you dare.

How dare you.

Gift certificates and sometimes cash.

Sometimes.

I'll give you a 20.

There you go.

You win.

When we've synced it.

You can participate in the parade if you just sign up at town hall.

You can watch gunfight reenactments in the Chloride Historical Society's cyanide springs.

That sounds

lovely.

Where are you going?

Me and the wife are going to spend some weekend to soak in the cyanide springs.

I've been feeling too good lately.

Up in chloride.

I think I just found out why there's 280 people here.

Jesus Christ,

man.

This is wild stuff.

That said, okay, let's talk about some murder.

Never mind chloride and their parade.

Let's talk about some murder.

Okay, May 14th, 1991.

All right.

This is in the morning, pre-8 a.m.

Okay, so it's 112 already.

118 degrees.

Everyone's gone inside.

Basically, there are...

you know, state workers driving around these highways all the time, and one of them finds a tow truck abandoned on the I-40 westbound near Kingman.

Okay.

Like pointed westbound, headed west.

How many of them you got to take to go to Vegas, that direction?

Over there.

So they're like, okay, they're looking at that.

They find this tow truck and they find the tow truck belongs to a man named Dean Morrison in

Grasshopper Junction.

They own a couple of businesses in there.

So that is that's they find that tow truck.

Now, about 20 minutes later,

on the I-40 eastbound near Holbrook, which is way in the other direction.

Yeah.

A couple hours

of the state.

Yeah, Holbrook is going toward New Mexico.

Towards Winslow, yeah, that direction.

If you wanted to, you can take, if you're going up to the 40, you can go to Flagstaff and over, or you can take that 87 and cut through Holbrook and go that way, depending on traffic and whatever.

Well, the 40 goes that way, too.

That's what I mean.

You connect to it from there.

Oh, gotcha.

Gotcha.

Yeah, you connect like from Phoenix, I'm thinking.

I should have made that clear.

Yeah.

so this is about 8 a.m.

a Department of Public Safety officer spots a for a white Ford tempo with Arizona or with Alabama license plates on it oh boy so he's just bored and runs the plates yeah and finds out that the owner of this car the registered owner is wanted for assault and robbery assault and armed robbery and is considered armed and dangerous out of alabama out of alabama wow so they're like okay

dude puts his lights on to pull him over.

Fucking tempo takes off.

Now we're in a 35 miles an hour.

An 88 Ford tempo is not exactly the car you want to make it run forward in.

Yeah.

They call it a tempo because you've got to

keep real easy.

Well, you keep a very steady tempo of 37 miles an hour at all times.

6,000 RPMs.

Those things made escorts look like they were luxurious.

It was

step down from the escorts.

Yeah, at least the escort had a GT model.

You know what I mean?

Like, there wasn't, the tempo was just, here you go, asshole.

It was 86 horsepower enjoy.

I think in the 90s, they put ground effects on some of those pieces.

Oh, God, yeah.

Yeah, that was a bad time for everybody.

It's a bad car.

So they attempt a traffic stop, turn the lights on.

The tempo is gone.

Now, who is inside of this running tempo?

I don't know, but who's crazy?

He's got a Mustang motor in it, that's for sure.

Who's crazy enough to think they can make a run for it and a Ford Tempo?

An 88 tempo?

Well, it's a couple of brothers are in the car.

This is wild.

Robert Wayne Murray is one of the brothers.

He's the older brother, born December 20th, 1964.

And also in the car is his younger brother, Roger Wayne Murray.

Okay.

Both of their middle names are Wayne.

Wayne, yeah.

Roger and Robert, which are also very close.

Yeah,

this was so confusing to put together.

I can't even tell you.

Now, he's born July 28th, 1970.

So Robert Older, Roger Younger.

Got it.

Think of who framed Roger Rabbit.

He's a cartoon.

He's young.

There you go.

Okay.

Okay.

That's how I had to think about it

to keep them straight in my head.

The older's got more letters in his name.

That's all.

Is it?

Yeah, one more.

He's got one more letter.

Now, they're from Mount Hope, Alabama.

I heard they also lived in Russellville, but they're fleeing.

Alabama's there, yeah.

They're fleeing from Mount Hope.

Now, a little bit about their backgrounds to figure out who's in this car running, what kind of an an asshole tries to make a desert getaway and afford tempo.

Sure.

Let's figure it out.

First of all, Robert,

apparently Robert's mother and aunt will say that when he was a small child and growing up into his teens, he had a problem with, quote, involuntary bowel movements,

which

sounds horrifying for a child.

He just shits himself a lot.

And he can't do anything about it.

Apparently not, but it's not a physical thing.

They take him to the doctor and they do, I don't know, there's something wrong with him.

It's like a psychological problem.

His body just doesn't want it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

His asshole

won't compress or something.

I don't know.

It just won't hold.

It just won't hold waste.

It just shoots it out.

It won't shut it.

It's like a bird.

As soon as it comes through, it's gone.

It's like a fucking bird.

Except with pants on to catch it, which is even grosser.

It's no good.

At least a bird just gets rid of it.

So the mother also said that his father would beat the shit out of Robert all the time, punch him with fists.

Well, now you've got the problem.

That's what I was going to say.

Maybe that's why.

Yeah.

Because a lot of times when kids are like wetting the bed as an older, at an older age, it's because of

abuse.

So

apparently Robert got married at the age of 16 when he got his girlfriend pregnant.

Okay, yeah.

So he must have been done with the involuntary bowel movements by then to get enough time to get someone pregnant.

So he quit high school to work full-time at 16.

Okay.

He's about six feet tall,

two.

He has a lot of criminal problems.

He does here.

He has all sorts of arrests for burglary, theft.

He's wanted for armed robbery, like we said here.

He had, I guess also,

he felt like

he was forced to quit school.

His parents made him quit school, which

is my bother.

My husband has math classes, weird.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

My husband has a D in social studies.

My husband.

So he's going to have to do summer school.

Well, my husband has second period gyms, so I can't get a hold of him right now.

It's a weird

weird thing.

No.

Also, he was forced not only to quit school, but to work for his father's business, which was illegal.

I don't know what he was doing, but it was some sort of illegal business.

Oh, God.

So that's part of it.

Now, Roger, the younger one, actually has a way more extensive criminal history.

Really?

Oh, he's.

Roger's better.

Roger Roger is a mess.

How about it?

Now, Roger has some ADD when he's a kid, hyperactivity.

And, you know, he's born in 1970.

And even in the 70s, they were like, this kid's, you know, something wrong with him here.

He's a little too hyper.

Is he pants shitting, though?

He's not.

He keeps his shit in his body until he's ready to expel it, which is excellent.

That's sad when that's the base level.

Can you control your bowels?

Yes.

Hey.

All right.

Now we're on his.

He's a better kid.

He has multiple head injuries injuries as a child.

His father obviously physically abused him, too.

Extensive juvenile record that starts at age nine.

Oh, boy.

Which it's hard to get arrested at nine.

Yeah.

It's you know, he got arrested for shoplifting, but at nine, you have to get arrested.

You have to get caught multiple times before the police are involved at nine.

Yeah.

Yeah.

At nine, they'll take it away from you, take you aside and go, listen, this is why they'll talk to your mother.

Your mother will yell at you.

Police don't get involved with nine-year-olds until they've done this a lot.

He told classmates at one point here, when he's 13, he brings a gun to school,

which you're not supposed to do.

That was early.

And he's showing his classmates the gun, and they're like, why'd you bring that?

And he said, that way I can blow my teacher's brains out if I want to.

If I want to.

If I want to.

We're going to watch the lesson plan today.

See how it goes.

If the man plays a film strip, he's going to live.

Let's just put it that way.

Better be on his P's and Q's today.

Second that Overbread protector turns on, we're going to have a problem.

It's a problem.

He's sent to a detention home at one point during this era.

Wonder why.

A home counselor there wrote that Roger is a time bomb waiting to go off.

That's not a good, that's not a ringing endorsement.

Also, his brother shits his pants a lot, and that's kind of disturbing.

He also wrote, he constantly talks about killing people, especially policemen.

Oh.

He's very destructive.

He needs help that we cannot give him here.

We are taxed.

Oh, boy.

He's way too fucked up for us, is what they're saying.

They said he, yeah, he has serious emotional problems.

They also said when he isn't crying, he's cursing or destroying things around the house.

Oh.

And then says he needs help we can't give him, and he's a time bomb waiting to go off.

Another

psychologist during this period,

a court-appointed psychologist, said, My fear is that Roger will have no care for society.

I believe that Roger and society are going to be at odds until some drastic steps are taken.

It appears that it would be to Roger's benefit for those steps to occur as soon as possible if we're going to have a chance of changing his behavior.

Yeah.

Society's on a collision course with Roger.

Yeah, if we don't fix this now, he is going to be a mess later.

We're going to have to deal with him later, later, essentially.

Which, yeah, that's how kids are.

If you don't deal with them now, you got to deal with them later when they're doing bad shit and they're on our show.

So

he vandalized a cemetery at age 14.

Really?

That's just shitty.

Like, who vandalizes a cemetery?

I sound like Tony Soprano now.

How do you vandalize a swimming pool?

What do you do?

How do you do?

Well, that's a good question.

How do you vandalize a swimming pool?

You can't spray paint it.

Like, what do you do?

I guess you pour concrete in it or something.

They threw chairs in it.

Right.

Those sopranos.

That was it.

Oh, yeah.

Little Anthony Jr.

act.

Yeah.

And Lady Gaga, too.

She was in that scene.

She was in that scene.

Yeah, she was.

Wow.

How about that?

She was being an actress, and she's an Italian person.

She's being an Italian girl.

Just being, hey, you're an Italian chick.

There, throw some shit in the water.

Throw a chair.

There you go.

So, well, she was doing it anyway, and they were like, well, yeah, just got this on film.

So

he vandalizes a cemetery, which is really just creepy.

So he's just scummy shit.

Yeah, these people are dead.

What He lives.

Yeah.

And it's not like he's vandalizing some famous person shit.

It's just some dude named Todd in Alabama, and he's kicking over his fucking headstone.

Yeah, just so the family will be upset or whatever.

So he's sent to the Department of Youth Services for Criminal Mischief.

It's kind of a, it's more of a commitment, they call it, than a sentence, basically.

A counselor reported that Roger was receiving behavioral counseling, but said, quote, at present, he just simply does not appear interested in rectifying his misdeeds.

So even in counseling, he's like, don't care, fuck you.

I don't want to fix it.

Just a bad guy.

In 1984, around this time, a psychologist gave a diagnostic report that Roger had a conduct disorder and was under-socialized and aggressive.

After which they put him

for a year of treatment and rehabilitation at the Alabama Department of Youth Services, which he also got drug and alcohol counseling at this point, too.

So he was already drinking and doing drugs at 14.

A doctor there, Dr.

Potts, diagnosed him with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and also antisocial personality disorder and things like that.

They said, this doctor said that his life has been directed by what is quite probably an organic brain disorder.

The psychological testing conducted since he was 14 is consistent with brain damage.

It manifests as hyperactivity, poor impulse control, a short fuse, violent rages, and increased susceptibility to the effects of alcohol and other illicit substances.

So

basically a keg of nitroglycerin just that any little thing can set off, is what they just said.

Now at 17, he's going to plead guilty to unauthorized use of a vehicle and was placed on probation.

A few months later, he's again charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle.

Yeah.

So he didn't get that.

Then, also at age 17, he's arrested for two separate armed robbery incidents.

My Christ.

And third-degree burglary and theft.

Now, he admitted the theft and the robbery, but would not admit the armed robbery.

Okay.

Okay.

Now, when he is brought to court and

sentenced, he is asking them for youthful offender status, which means that he won't be sent to adult prison.

Well, he's robbing like crazy at 17.

It's time to maybe rectify the situation.

I think we've tried and you didn't listen and now you're an adult here.

Now you just want leniency to keep doing the shit.

Basically, that's it.

So the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles said the subject, meaning Roger, bears a bad reputation in Colbert County.

He's considered to be dangerous.

He has a thing about about guns.

He has been stealing since he was nine years old.

He's been through the juvenile court system and this has not helped him any.

He runs with a bad crowd of older people.

He has never worked to any amount of anything and as stated above, he is considered to be dangerous by the folks who know him.

And one of his ex-parole officers said, Roger Wayne Murray is a dangerous individual.

I believe that if left to remain in society, he will harm and continue to harm people.

Roger should be treated as an adult in order that society might be protected from such aggressiveness and abusive personality they tried to tell him dude we all yeah and they said collision course with society so they end up he's convicted as an adult for burglary they drop the robbery charge it's a plea deal and he gets rather than prison he is sentenced to a boot camp

Okay, which this

was part of his plea was to go to this boot camp.

So that's what he wanted.

He, of course, failed that miserably and is sent to adult prison after that.

Yeah.

All he had to do is get through this boot camp.

Instead, he's sent to prison for four years.

Oh, my God.

There is no, like,

if I do this, then this will happen with this guy.

Yeah.

It's he doesn't understand that just keeping it between the lines is like beneficial to I mean, if you want freedom, there's that.

But just like, yeah, be a decent dude.

You can still be a dickhead.

Just fucking don't do anything illegal.

He's just a slave to his impulses, it seems like.

Wow.

They also said that doctor from before, oh, by the way, the Alabama Board of Pardons called him dangerous and talked about his, quote, thing about guns because he's released in 1990 from prison, January 1990.

In a pre-sentence evaluation, they said that Roger had cerebrovascular,

had a cerebrovascular accident, quite possibly secondary to

PCP ingestion.

What the fuck?

So he has a brain injury that's similar to

PCP?

No, no, no.

He has a brain injury that's exacerbated by PCP ingestion.

Okay.

It's only made worse.

So he should certainly do that.

So he should do as much PCP as possible, I would say.

So he's released from prison in January of 1990 and seems to stay out of trouble for a year.

Okay.

Which is a long time for Roger to stay out of trouble.

52 weeks.

Yes.

Then he's charged with theft of property, attempt to elude, and driving without a license.

Okay, stole a car.

Stole a car, fled, tried to run.

Had no license.

So now he's, by the way, he's about five foot eight, so he's shorter than his brother, six foot and five foot eight.

So these are the two people fleeing in this Ford tempo.

Wow.

The bad guys, not great guys.

And whoever's following, all they know is they're wanted for armed robbery.

They don't know the list I just gave you of shit of exactly who they're dealing with.

Wow.

Now, during the same time,

all of this is going on here,

which is crazy.

So,

what they're fleeing from in Alabama, because you might say, why are they fleeing Alabama?

On April 30th, 1991, this is the armed robbery they're wanted for, at about 9 p.m.

in Mount Hope, Alabama, a 78-year-old woman was alone in her home

when two men enter, one wearing a mask cut from a sweatshirt sleeve

oh literally pulled a sweatshirt sleeve over his head cut some holes in it

ingenuity but it looks funny it looks ridiculous and only one of them wore a mask the other one didn't okay

Robert had the mask on Roger didn't okay uh they tie her up beat her for

a period of time and ransack the whole house just tear it apart They leave her alive, though.

Is that good?

I mean, I.

Well, and two days later, she identifies Roger in a photo lineup as the guy who wasn't wearing the mask.

After she got out of the hospital, I imagine.

Yeah.

Yep, absolutely.

It took her two days to be able to

process all this because she was beaten and fucked with for two days.

She's 17 years old.

God damn.

Now, that's

now Roger.

That tells you a lot about Roger.

Robert said, I'll put a mask on.

Roger said, what?

Consequences that come later?

I don't understand that.

I don't need a mask.

Somebody walks in not wearing a mask,

you're probably about to die.

That's frightening.

That's terrifying.

Yeah.

Especially one scary, weird sweatshirt mask.

Was the sleeve sticking up or was it like whacked off there?

No, no, no.

Yeah, it was fitting.

But like, everybody out there who wants a weird Halloween costume or anyone making a horror movie, have the killer wear a sweatshirt sleeve pulled over their head with eye holes cut out.

Terrifying.

I would shit my pants if I saw that in my house.

Especially if it's like if it's just whacked off at the armpit and then pulled over and then that long part just draped back.

That would be like a big fucking elephant tusk on your head.

He wasn't wearing the sweatshirt that he cut the sleeve off of.

Right.

I'm saying, yeah, right.

I'm just saying that.

So that the mask also matches basically, they said we have a description of this mask.

They went to their house after they were picked out of a photo wagon.

No, no, no.

Their father,

Murray Sr.

there,

he gave the police a sweatshirt with a missing sleeve that matched it perfectly that they had in their room.

Perhaps this is it.

Yep.

So they know they're wanted for armed robbery.

That's when they fled Alabama and headed west.

And that's where we find them on May 14th, 1991.

Oh, they're rolling tight, all right.

This back to the chase now.

Okay.

They get up to 85 miles an hour because that's as fast as a Ford Tempo will go.

That's pinned.

That is fucking pinned.

With two adult men inside?

That's all it's good.

Guys, yeah.

So they leave the highway.

There's a manned armed roadblock ahead for them.

Oh, boy.

Because they're armed and dangerous and wanted.

So, you know, they do that.

They crash through it.

They just gunned it and crashed through it.

They had like a movie.

They had cops diving off to the side while they crashed through the roadblock and kept going.

Wow.

Finally, they're all all behind them on the road.

They decide that the best course of action is to go off the road into the desert.

In a Ford tempo, we're going to do it.

In a Ford tempo,

we're going to do Baja in a Ford fucking tempo.

Now,

the desert, you might look at it, and if you just look out across it, it looks like it's an equal, like an even surface.

Even close.

There's so many big dips and washes.

It's like a Detroit road.

It's terrifying.

Yeah, it's horrifying, but worse.

So

they're driving through the desert, and finally they crash into a wash, which is just a big

gully in the fucking desert, basically.

So now they're stuck in a wash

here.

While they were driving through the desert, and I think this is why they turned off into the desert, they're throwing things out the window.

Robert throws a.38 revolver from the car.

Oh.

Four live rounds still in it.

Really?

And Roger tosses a fully loaded 25 semi-automatic as well out the window.

And they're behind them in the desert.

They're watching guns fly out the window as they're behind them.

It's not a good thing here.

So they ended up giving up and everything like that.

So

they pick up the guns, and they have a.38 revolver with four bullets, loaded 25.

Robert also has two spent shotgun shell casings in his pocket, just in his jeans pocket there.

No shotgun, just the shells.

Just spent shells, too, just in his Levi's there.

Not like, you know, about to be made.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Inside the vehicle, they find a loaded 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun.

Might want to throw that out the window, too, while you're driving.

Okay.

Along with live double-aught buckshot shells.

Sure.

There's also a checkered cushion cover that goes over like a couch cushion, that kind of thing.

Okay,

which contained rolled coins.

Okay, so that was the bag that they used to rob something.

The coin rolls are stamped with Dean's Enterprises, Grasshopper Junction, Kingman, Arizona, 86401.

Okay.

Okay.

Along with the blue pillowcase as well in the car containing approximately $1,400 in coin rolls

and $3,300 in cash.

Wow.

Okay, so that's like a

lot.

A safe

safe cracker.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They found gloves as well, and also a receipt from the Holiday House Motel in Kingman dated May 12th, 1991.

Now, this is the morning of May 14th.

Motel records.

All this shit.

Yeah.

Motel records showed the brothers had listed a 1988 Ford tempo on the hotel registration card with matching Alabama license plate as well.

Nice.

They also had a road atlas in the car that had circles around locations of two rural shops and restaurants.

One is Oasis and one is Grasshopper Junction.

Okay.

Okay.

That's all that was indicated on the map.

Just two circles around there and an atlas.

Okay.

They also have keys to a truck that they don't have possession of

as well, a Chevy truck.

Now, this is important.

Robert is wearing cowboy boots.

Roger's wearing sneakers.

That'll be important important later.

Yeah.

I'm a little rock and roll.

Yeah, there you go.

Roger knows he's going to have to make a run for it, I think, a lot.

Robert's like, if I run, I'll shit my pants.

Those boots will make shit come out my face.

Maybe that's his catch-all at the bottom.

Yeah.

So he also has a hacksaw.

They have a phone number and address of a Las Vegas gun dealer,

gloves, and a

police scanner.

Yeah, okay.

They have all of this in the car.

It's all very suspect shit.

I would say.

Now, about that same time, by the time they catch up to them, it's about 8:30 in the morning, somewhere between 8:30 and 9 a.m., there's a guy named Laverne Redunes.

And Laverne Redunes,

he lives in this area, the Grasshopper Junction area, not in the town, but he goes here usually between 8:30 and 9 a.m.

every morning for coffee.

He goes and has coffee with the owners of this place,

who are Dean Reginald Morrison and Jackie Jacqueline Applehans.

Those are the people who own the place.

Now, a little bit about them.

Dean Reginald Morrison, born July 23rd, 1925.

So he's about 65 at this point.

He's from Michigan.

He has parents, Roy and Violet, as a brother and sister.

He got married in 1945.

Wow.

He was born when Woodrow Wilson was president, for Christ's sake.

Yeah, no shit.

He was, yeah, I don't think Hoover came in yet.

So he was born in 1945.

Or I'm sorry, in 1945, he gets married.

Now, he served in the Navy in World War II, so I feel like that's why he got married because a lot of those guys got married before they went.

And this is a short-lived marriage.

I know because I found in the records that Grace, the woman he married, was married to somebody else by 1947.

So that this did not last long.

Now, Jacqueline Louise Corsat Applehans.

Corsat Applehans.

Corsat's her maiden name, and then Applehans is one of her married names.

She's born November 5th, 1930.

She's born in Santa Ana, California.

And her father's Carl.

Her mother's Donna.

She's been married a few times, too.

She's married in 1949, became Jackie Stearns.

Then 1971, she's Jackie Martin.

And then

sometime in there, she must have married and divorced a man named Apple Hans because she's Apple Hans after that.

Now,

the two of the Dean and Jackie, they live together and they're a couple and everything.

They have four children.

I don't know if they're their four children or four children from different marriages and put it together.

But by 1991, all the children have moved out.

They're all older and all adults, yeah.

Yeah, this isn't a place where you like, you live at home till you're 25 you'll be real bored you get the hell out of here

now at this moment in time in 1991 the four children are still counted in the official town population of six

oh really it's yeah it's dean so it's really only two

yes that's in reality this town is two people wow and they are co-owner and operators of the grasshopper junction store restaurant thing there uh they live on site and they also own a towing business called Deans Enterprises.

So they have a tow truck.

Okay.

Now, friend is there, Laverne.

He pops up for coffee and finds the restaurant door wide open

and money on the ground outside, which is strange, obviously.

Who the hell leaves money scattered around?

Walks through the door and sees the cash register isn't where it normally is.

It's out of place and crooked, like someone just threw it.

So this guy leaves the restaurant and walks to the house that they live in right, you know, attached to it.

And their door is open.

And that's when they look in and see blood and bodies.

Oh, no.

So this guy hops in his car to drive to call the police.

There's no phone here.

There might be a phone in there in the restaurant, but he sees it as a drive.

He doesn't want to be around.

Doesn't want to.

Also, what if they're still here?

That's the other thing.

He takes off, drives, and goes to call the cops.

Now the police arrive, and they find both Dean and Jackie lying face down in the living room wearing bathrobes.

These poor people just got up.

Both have a lot of gunshot wounds, by the way.

We'll talk about it.

Multiple gunshot wounds to the head from multiple different calibers.

It's a lot.

On the couch, there's a revolver and a semi-automatic, a.22 semi-automatic rifle leaned against the wall, muzzle down, which is a weird way to put a gun, lean a gun against the wall.

No.

Various 22 caliber and 38 caliber bullets and casings and shells are found near the body, as well as shotgun pellets.

Oh, boy.

This looks like 18 people came in and mowed them down.

Like, this is like a sunny Corleone at the toll booth.

This is crazy.

So,

yeah, they found that stuff here.

Jackie was, her hand was clutching Dean's arm.

Okay, yeah.

So they were help, yeah.

They were connected, trying to get through it.

She's looking for help, too.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, they're both in the same spot.

Drawers in the living room, all the drawers and any kind of cabinets, had been pulled out and pulled open, the contents strewn about.

The bedrooms and kitchen were ransacked.

One of the two cushion coverings was missing from the couch.

Was it checkered?

Let's find out.

Yeah.

There's a 303 rifle on the bed and $172 on a desk chair.

There's loose change and a a single roll of coins on the kitchen floor.

Inside Dean Morrison's wallet, which was undisturbed in the pocket of his pants on the kitchen floor, he had $800 in cash in there, too.

What the hell?

The drawer from the store's cash register had been removed.

Packs of Marlborough cigarettes were left in paper bags in the store.

They filled paper bags with Marlboroughs and left them there.

The gas register was turned on.

There's a separate register for the gas, so the pumps are turned on.

The The pumps are turned on.

They found Dean's glasses, a flashlight, and a set of keys on the patio of the store.

They also found three live.38 caliber rounds near the gas pump,

which is interesting.

And Dean's sister,

a couple weeks later, will find a fired.25 caliber slug in the pantry about two weeks later as well.

Okay.

Now, there's a detective named Detective Lent of the Mojave County Sheriff's Department.

He's documenting the tracks around the scene, foot tracks.

They literally get a guy who could like, you know, who, you know, picks up a leaf and smells it and goes,

he's going west.

He's one of those guys.

He's headed west.

He tastes.

He's a sip of it and goes, yeah.

He licks his finger, puts it to the dirt and licks it and you go,

north.

He's going north.

He had eggs Benedict this morning.

I know it.

And he shit his pants.

He shit his pants.

Florentine.

Pants full of shit, also.

For sure.

For a man.

Full of shit.

Full of shit.

He might be walking funny because his pants is full.

So this guy documents the tracks around the scene, noting that the tracks of the officers at the scene, as well as those of Laverne, the person who found the bodies.

Lent and another experienced tracker found four sets of footprints not made by the officers or the friend who came to visit, two of which turn out to be the victims.

They're made by slippers, two of the footprints.

The other two sets of footprints are made by a pair of tennis shoes and a pair of cowboy boots.

Oh.

Yeah.

Who's wearing those that we would know?

I'm familiar with those guys, yeah.

Yeah.

So they photographed and sketched the footprints.

They did not make casts, though.

Okay.

Other than the shoe prints, the victims and

the guy who found the victims here, these are the only footprints to enter or leave the crime scene other than these people.

One trail showed three sets of prints, tennis shoes, boots, and Dean Morrison slippers.

The prints indicated that Dean Morrison was fighting by the shuffling around and the movement of the slippers.

You could tell he was fighting.

They said they also found rolled and loosed coins in the courtyard amidst the footprints of the victims and the perpetrators.

And they were also, both

the boots, the tennis shoes, and the slippers footprints were all found near a back hoe as well, where there was also tire tracks later determined to be from the tow truck that they found on the westbound I-40 earlier that day.

Yeah.

Okay.

So the injuries, Dean Morrison has a shotgun blast behind his left ear.

Ah, Jesus.

From no more than three feet of distance.

Ah, so that's you're on the ground I'm above you

goodbye skull shattered also two large caliber pistol wounds left lower neck and right temple

38 bullet recovered from the neck buckshot removed from his head he's also has lacerations and abrasions on his face elbow forearm knee and thigh from fighting

Jackie has contact shotgun wounds shattering her head.

Fuck.

Quote, brain and scalp tissue on couch and surrounding area.

Just blew her head apart from close range.

Two.38 caliber slugs still in the left of her head.

Two.22 caliber wounds to the back of the neck exiting her face.

That's fucked up.

In the face.

22 caliber bullet fragment in her right hand.

And they find in her autopsy, she has aspiration hemorrhage in the lungs, meaning a time lapse between when she was shot and when she died.

She sat there suffering.

He said the.38 caliber bullets were a possible cause of death.

The 22 bullets had an uncertain role, and obviously the shotgun blast was lethal, but the autopsy could not figure out the sequence of the shots.

They assume the.22's first because of the aspiration.

Because once the shotgun hit the head, it would have been awesome.

There's nothing.

And they find on the scene, like we said, there are a bunch of weapons on the scene.

38 revolver on the couch, 22 semi-automatic revolver rifle against the wall, 303 rifle on the bed, all the bullet casing, shells near body, 24 caliber bullet found in the pantry,

25, I'm sorry, 25 caliber, and three live 38 bullets near the gas pumps.

Fucking shit.

So, yeah, they have all of this stuff that we've talked about.

Now, the footprints, footprint evidence, we talked about that, the trails and the backhoe.

So the police figure out where these brothers have been because they have these brothers and all these guns and they have this body.

And these guys all, by the way, are covered covered in blood

is the other thing they have like blood and like just viscera on them just like skull fragments in their in their shirts and stuff like that so they pull them in they find figure out without their help that they've been driving this 1988 ford tempo they track them they don't know where they were basically from the 30th when they attacked that lady in alabama to may 11th when they found them in las vegas yeah

so who knows what kind of trail of destruction they left across the country to get that far?

But in Las Vegas, they spent the night in Vegas.

They purchased a 12-gauge shotgun.

They found a gun dealer, bought the shotgun, and paid cash for the transaction.

Yeah.

After the purchase, they must have...

taken the hacksaw that's in the car and hacked off the shotgun because it's sawed off by the time they find it, but the serial number matches the one they bought in Vegas.

May 12th, 1991 is when they drove to Kingman and checked into the Holiday House Motel, registered their Ford Tempo, just so it's

nice and documented.

Holiday House.

Couldn't be

in the Holiday Inn

franchise.

They were like, there's red roofs and there's holiday inns and there's, you know, fucking Springwood suites and there's courtyards.

And what about a holiday house?

That sounds fun, don't it?

Holiday House.

So they got a room for two nights.

They had a road atlas that we talked about.

They circled two locations, Grasshopper Junction and Oasis, which are both remote, isolated places.

If you're going to rob,

you can scream all you want, ain't nobody going to hear you type of thing.

So they checked out of the motel on May 13th, even though they had it for two nights.

They still checked out.

They went that night to the Temple Bar from 9 to 10 p.m.

That's 53 miles from Grasshopper Junction.

This bar.

Now they drank there.

The manager, because

everyone else here, they know.

So these are two strangers.

So the manager kept an eye on them and said even though they were drinking, they were handling themselves very well.

They weren't stumbling drunk, not out of control, just normal guys having some drinks.

They left around 10 p.m., drive off into the desert night here.

They apparently arrived at Grasshopper Junction at Dean Morrison's place sometime after midnight, is what they assume.

Now, the shotgun seller remembers the Ford tempo, remembers writing down their phone number and address, but doesn't remember their faces.

Imagine that.

I remember.

A piece of shit car is so much.

Oh, that a fucking Topaz?

No, it's a fucking tempo.

It's a fucking tempo, babe.

Yeah.

But doesn't remember either of their faces.

Yeah.

Okay.

Now, also in their possession is a checkered couch cushion cover, which matches Dean Morrison's couch.

The stamped.

rolled coins that say Dean's Enterprises Grasshopper Junction.

It's pretty bad.

Oh, and also, by the way, the keys that the unknown keys that one of them had in their pocket match

Dean Morrison's 1991 Chevy pickup truck that's still at the house.

The tow truck, apparently what they were doing, and the scanner is also, the scanner goes to the tow truck, the police scanner.

What they were doing, apparently, was they drove that tow truck and pointed it west while they drove east.

Ah, well,

we're going to put, it would be weird to put up a sign that said the Wayne Murray boys went this way.

So what if we point it that way?

Hold on.

You know what we're going to do?

We're going to point it.

Then we're going to walk in the desert, make footprints, and then walk backwards in all them footprints.

So it looks like we just disappeared.

Looks like aliens took us in the desert.

They'll never know where we are.

Just, oh,

they must have done, got sucked up to space right there.

No, that's not what happened.

Point it straight towards Vegas and let's walk the other way.

Walk the other way.

That's how it goes.

Plus, there's blood all over both of their clothing and shoes, and blood on the cushion cover that they're carrying.

Shell casings matched the guns that are in their possession,

the ones from the scene.

Bullets and slugs ballistically match the weapons they're carrying.

This is not good.

No.

The shell casings in Robert's pocket, the shotgun shells, also matched the scene as well.

Why?

Why the fuck did they do this?

All fired from the shotgun found in the Ford.

They kept that shotgun.

The 38 bullets matched Robert's revolver.

And the bullets that were in the revolver, the ones they found out by the gas pump.

And the 22 casings were consistent with all the weapons, multiple 22s they had.

Three different guns were used on these victims altogether, which is ridiculous.

And then a 25 got shot into a cabinet, which makes no sense.

So they're in the blood on Roger's pants.

There's blood that matches the blood type of

either the victims and Robert as well, but Robert's not bleeding.

Robert's shirt, yeah, or Robert, and then Robert's shirt, the blood typing can only be from Dean and Jackie.

It doesn't match either of them

because this is pre-DNA testing everything, got to imagine.

And I don't think there's a DNA center in Grasshopper Junction up there or wherever the colours are.

I can't imagine.

No.

Also, the cushion cover is obviously from their house.

They left DNA everywhere with the blood on the clothes and pants and all over the goddamn place.

The footprints as well, the detective,

from the photographs and sketches taken, matches the footwear to the footprints that they're wearing,

which is interesting.

Now,

during the interrogations, they all, they clam right up.

I don't know what you're talking about.

I don't know what you're talking about.

But from what it seems like, it seems like Robert eventually cracks.

Somebody's gonna.

Robert eventually cracks.

The evidence is overwhelming.

It's like dude.

Jesus Christ, man, you might as well have been carrying one of their heads in your back seat.

Like, it's that obvious.

This is crazy.

You have his keys.

Yeah, and his scanner and his stuff and his couch cushion cover.

What the fuck are you talking about?

And rolls of coins with his company's name on them.

Stamped on.

You're so fucked.

Ready for the bank.

Yeah.

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So apparently this is what happened.

They went in with a 12 gauge, a 38, and a 22 rifle.

They said that they were in their bathrobes, possibly awakened from sleep or had just gotten up and were about to have coffee, one or the other.

So they forced them to lie down on the living room floor side by side with Jackie.

This is after they had taken Dean around and forced him to try to find things and get money and shit like that.

That's why he's out by the backhoe and all that kind of thing.

Jackie's reaching out, clutching onto Dean's arm.

The 38s came came first.

Dean took two, left lower neck and right temple, and Jackie takes at least two to the skull.

Then the 22 rifle, multiple shots to Jackie in the back of the neck, exiting through the face.

A fragment lodged in her right hand, possibly a defensive wound.

We said Dean has lacerations on his face, elbow, forearm, knee, thigh.

He struggled.

And then finally, they got the shotgun and shot Dean from three feet away behind his left ear, shattering his skull and put the fucking barrel right up to Jackie's head.

Jesus.

And shot her brain, tissue, and scalp all over the walls, couch, and table.

Fuck.

Then they ransacked.

They pulled out drawers and everything.

They found his wallet with $800 inside and leave it.

They knew about the wallet.

They knew it was there.

They left it in the kitchen floor.

They didn't want to make it look like a robbery.

Yeah, you know, we wanted to make it look.

That's weird.

Because they took all the other money, but they're like, leave that.

It'll make it,

it'll perplex them off.

Yeah, just like the, that's, there's just like pointing the truck in the wrong direction.

Real weird.

They took all the other money, though.

Like we said, $3,300 in cash, $1,400 in change.

Grabbed the couch cushion because, you know, you can't carry all those rolls of coins.

They removed the cash register drawer.

They left the Marlboro cigarettes and paper bags.

I think they just forgot them, honestly.

Yep.

They turned on the gas thing.

They filled their tanks up.

They did that.

They left the other shit on the patio, the glasses and flashlight and keys.

And they found the tow truck keys.

And then they were like, ah, let's do it.

Let's do it that way.

So we go to trial, and they're going to be tried together,

which seems right for these two idiots.

Robert, the older one, files a motion to be a pro-pur.

He wants to defend himself.

Really?

This guy's going to defend himself.

Now,

Robert had become a paralegal, apparently.

Oh.

Sometime in the midst of being a fuck-up and everything else, he became a paralegal.

So he thinks he's a lawyer now.

He started to get his life together, whereas Roger's just a dumb shit.

Roger is all criminal from day one.

So he said that in the hearing, Robert said, Your Honor, I feel that

due to the fact that it's been eight months since this thing started, it's been dragging out around, in my opinion.

I don't ask the court to proceed by myself as pro per, but as primary counsel, a co-counsel appointed from the legal defender's office to assist me in this thing.

You know, it might be better to have more control.

The state said that hybrid representation is not allowed and that he should not have access to the county law library because of a letter he wrote to Roger stating that he would escape if given the chance and then come back for him.

They intercepted a letter that he wrote to his brother.

It It was all in code, too.

Like they had to decode it, and it said,

I'm going to escape.

Don't worry.

Come back and rip it.

I'll be back for it.

I was just going to say, I'm going to come back and put like a bunch of horses up to the back of the cell wall.

We're going to pull it out and free you like Billy the Kid.

So.

All right.

The court said you're entitled to represent yourself if that's what you choose.

And of course, if the court finds that you're competent to represent yourself, but you're not entitled to have a co-counsel.

You can have an advisory counsel, but you can't, you're going to be doing everything.

It's going to be like Lori Vallo.

Remember that?

Because that was in Arizona too.

Once the co-if she wants the co-counsel to question anybody, even one question, she's out as a lawyer.

Now the co-counsel is the counsel.

So that's how it works.

They said, you will not be allowed

out of jail to do any research.

So you need to tell me what your position is, whether you want to represent yourself or if you're willing to stay with the attorney that you've got.

And he said, under those terms, I would attempt to be satisfied with another attorney appointed from the legal defender's office.

So they have a defense witness they want to testify.

There's a guy named Anthony.

That's all we know.

He said he saw a blue car parked outside the Grasshopper Junction store on the same night of the murders.

Now they drive a white Ford Tempo, obviously.

Anthony told the prosecution's investigator that he

thought he saw Dean Morrison with three men, none of them who resembled Robert or Roger.

Anthony's testimony would have supported the theory of the defense, which is that Roger and Robert happened to be at Grasshopper Junction, but did not commit the murders.

What else were you doing?

There's literally nothing else there.

There's two people in the whole town, and those are them.

What were you doing?

We stumbled upon an already robbed and murdered site, and we stole things.

We said, oh, fuck it.

No, no, no.

They're just saying they happened to be there.

Okay.

They're denying the evidence.

It's crazy, dude.

It's insane.

So they never called this guy as a witness because apparently their investigator discovered that this Anthony was in a veterans administration treatment center in California, and the investigator was never able to make contact with him again.

So he didn't go.

Also, they said that

the list for the jurors, the juror master list, is a year and a half old on the driver's licenses

for a year and a half.

They said, so it contained fewer young people than it would have if it was new.

You know, people who just got their license.

Right.

And since they're younger, they're arguing that, especially Roger's saying, you know, I'm 20 fucking years old here.

Yeah.

You know, I should have young people to be as an option for jurors, so it's a jury of my peers.

Oh, I need these

peers.

Yeah.

If you could find ones from Alabama whose names start with R, that would also help.

I think both of us do.

Some that have brothers with the

terrible affliction of shitting their pants.

Maybe

brothers with pants full of shit.

No, that's Robert.

He's the one with pants full of shit.

Oh, he's the one that wants it.

Yeah, yeah, he wants it.

I need pants shit or something, you know.

If you can get them.

So they said the presiding judge delegated the responsibility of excusing jurors to

in another hearing.

So anyway, they said the questionnaire did not ask about race, nationality, or place of origin.

She excused some who were elderly or could not serve and they had small children and couldn't get babysitters and all that kind of shit.

Now, during the jury selection, the prosecutor strikes the only two Hispanic potential jurors.

And they're going to make a big deal out of this, even though neither of them are anywhere close to Hispanic.

That makes no difference to them.

They're two white guys from Alabama.

Who gives a shit?

All right.

So this is a back and forth between a prosecutor and the judge in this, which is, or and the defense and the judge altogether.

Your honor, first, as to Ms.

Pethers, I don't believe that she's Hispanic.

She is a Hispanic, is what they said.

I don't recall seeing that on her jury questionnaire, and I don't recall if she attempted to talk Hispanic to me.

What the fuck does that mean?

So I'm not sure that's a showing, and the defense said the questionnaire did indicate that she's Hispanic, Your Honor.

I believe her maiden name was Garcia, but her first name is Christina.

So the court said, I remember she said her mother's name is Garcia.

And the prosecutor said, right.

I'm not sure that's Hispanic.

Garcia, as opposed to Spanish, the amount, well, she's in Arizona.

We can assume

more likely to be Mexican than from Spain, I would say.

Just an experience of living in Arizona forever.

I would certainly say that her lineage travels through one or both of those places.

Yes.

I was a process server.

If you got, I remember having a woman named Anna Garcia that I had to hunt for seven months because everybody in Arizona is named fucking Anna Garcia.

Every single woman, I found out.

86% of the Arizona population is named Anna Garcia.

Anna Garcia is.

Oh, my God.

It was horrible to do.

So, anyway, she says, I know her mother.

I know about her mother from the prosecutor.

I could be wrong.

The court says I'll have to take a recess to look at the questionnaires, blah, blah, blah.

The prosecutor said, Your Honor, the state recently did a major drug investigation of her mother and her mother's brother.

This is a juror they're talking about.

It's a very big case.

Both of those defendants went to jail for a time.

I'm not sure of the status of Mrs.

Garcia.

From what Mrs.

Pether Pether said, the charge was dismissed.

I believe there's been some sort of a negotiated deal, but I'm not positive about that.

I know both of these people were heavy into drugs.

Both the people around them were suspected of being in drugs.

There's a forfeiture action proceeding against Garcia.

This being the daughter, I don't believe that she, I don't want her on the jury for those reasons, possible bias.

Okay.

And then there's another guy named Alvarado, the only other Hispanic guy, and they said he was dismissed.

This is fucking amazing.

The prosecutor said, Mr.

Alvarado is Hispanic, and it was a close call on that strike.

What I went on is that Mr.

Alvarado told the court he knows me and I know him, not well.

I'm going to basically, I'm going basically on my personal knowledge of Mr.

Alvarado five or six years ago.

I was dating a lady who was a nurse.

He can't be a juror.

This is, we're getting in.

to various social functions parties and whatnot.

I met Mr.

Alvarado possibly a half dozen times anyway, and I had discussions with him.

The social functions at these parties, my recollection of Mr.

Alvarado is he's a very nice person.

He is too nice.

He said you couldn't get him to disagree with you.

He just didn't want to hurt anybody.

He's just indecisive is my recollection of him.

My strike on him is solely going back to my personal knowledge of meeting him numerous times.

This is ridiculous.

Why do they all know each other?

Well,

that's what happens up here.

Yeah, they have to.

That was another one of his things was you didn't do a wide enough jury pool here.

Yeah, sure.

They put in some real vicious photos, man.

These are extremely

explicit, these photos.

I mean, just lots of a table leg with an attached chunk of scalp and hair, shit like that.

With blood, yeah.

Yep.

I mean, just the most graphic pictures you can show.

Her head with the scalp blown away, exposing the brain and bone matter.

Oh, boy.

Yeah, things like that.

Also, all the evidence we mentioned before, all that connects them.

Now, Roger argues that the trial court's denial of his request for expenses for an out-of-state expert on the footprint identification meant that they shouldn't have been able to put the footprint stuff in.

He requested

the trial court authorized $3,000 before trial for additional investigation and expenses for use as they determined, which would cost more than that just to get a footprint expert.

They put the detective lent up about the footprints.

Now, they said that they challenged his methodology, that he didn't follow FBI procedures, didn't cast the prints, didn't use a tripod for photos, and said the footprints were improperly admitted because he's not qualified as an expert as well.

Yeah.

Disqualified.

Yeah.

They said, but the prosecution said,

shaky, shaky.

His qualifications and background included extensive tracking and criminal investigations, tracking livestock, military training in the examination of enemy trails, hunting, trapping, training from an experienced Department of Public Safety officer, teaching numerous classes in tracking and footprint.

It doesn't matter.

You had their blood and brains all over you.

Ridiculous.

But the tracking.

He didn't have a fucking ring light.

This is

John.

This is bullshit.

So the verdict in this case, with all of this, I mean, the evidence is overwhelming.

Yeah.

They had everything connecting them.

They're throwing guns out the window.

They're found guilty.

Yes.

Two counts of first-degree murder each, one count of armed robbery each.

And

it's also premeditated murder and felony murder.

So

this is bad.

For sentencing, they're going for the death penalty on both of them.

Let's wipe this family off the face of the earth.

We'll kill them both.

Which even in World War II, I don't think they'd make both brothers go, right?

I don't think you're allowed, yeah.

I mean, that's the whole point of saving private Ryan.

Yeah, it's a poor prior.

He's got to get his ass home.

So, Jesus Christ, we're going to kill Matt Damon and all his brothers now.

Fuck them all.

So, aggravating circumstances.

They did it for monetary gain, especially heinous, cruel, or depraved, and multiple murders.

Sure.

Mitigation, Robert said, bad childhood.

Father beat him with fists.

He shit his pants and was never treated for it.

Forced to quit school and work for an illegal business.

He also claims he was intoxicated from the temple bar that night as well.

Oh.

And also, a doctor who evaluated him for this finds him clearly rehabilitable.

Clearly.

Clearly.

That's obvious.

Says that he had relatively minor participation.

Roger was the ringleader.

The six years younger brothers, the ringleader.

Okay.

He's more of a criminal, but

you tell your younger brother six years younger, hey, stupid, we're not doing that.

My brother's nine years younger.

He said, we're going to go kill somebody.

He'd be like, what are you a fucking asshole?

Shut up.

Be the end of it.

And he'd go, oh, yeah, you're right.

Just because that's how older brother, sibling relationships work.

So potential for rehabilitation, nonviolent criminal history he has,

which is interesting.

Robert presents a videotape and a transcript in which one William Motter, a detainee in the cell next to Roger, discussed with an officer conversations he had with Roger.

This guy stated that he had a number of conversations with Roger in which Roger admitted killing Morrison and Applehans, and Robert also elicited evidence that Robert is the leader, or Roger's the leader, Robert's the follower.

Okay.

The court rejects this evidence here, also rejects the evidence of intoxication based on witnesses who said they didn't look drunk to me.

They said they never had good role models,

you know, shitting himself, nobody helping him.

Roger said, I'm 20 at the time.

I have hyperactivity, possible ADHD, head injuries.

The juvenile system has failed me.

It ruined me, yeah.

But I mean, Jesus Christ, this is too much, man.

I mean, it's overwhelming, especially his background.

They have his school records and all that kind of shit.

So the judge's words on Robert is, or Roger, quote, the offenses were not impulsive, but planned in advance.

You purchased a shotgun.

You circled the Atlas.

You chose your victims by an isolated manner.

On Robert, they acknowledged that he might have a potential for rehabilitation, but that's outweighed by the enormity of this crime.

You, sirs, may fuck off.

Death penalty for both of you.

Dang.

Both of you get the death.

Holy shit.

I'm not going to talk about the appeal because we have no time, but Roger raised 56 claims on appeal.

Is that right?

Yeah, there was everything.

The footprints were a big deal.

Shit like that.

He also claims prosecutorial misconduct because

detention officers in the courthouse library said that the defendants were using the fecal defense of throwing anything up against the wall and hoping it sticks.

That one, this guy's got this many problems.

The fecal defense.

That's hilarious.

So there's all of that.

There are multiple appeals are denied.

The evidence is just overwhelming.

It's just too much.

There's no way you can say it could have been that guy.

No, it can't.

June 28th, 2014, Robert, the older one, dies in prison.

What?

He's pronounced dead at age 49 of natural causes.

I don't think they will share that.

Natural causes at 49?

The fuck is natural about that?

He died of some sh.

I mean,

in 1812, that's an old man.

Yeah, oh, man.

Jesus Christ.

Good Lord.

Well, sure, we got raised with no running water, but these these people are from the 60s and 70s here.

And then finally,

Roger, I'm going to read part of Roger's essay that he wrote

called The Face of Evil.

Oh.

And he says, real quick, we'll go over this.

What does evil look like?

Does it have a face?

Can we see it, taste, or smell its presence?

Does it laugh or smile?

The short answer is, perhaps.

Yes.

You already want to punch Roger.

Every day I converse

with the men society has deemed unfit to live, men considered the poster children of evil.

Yeah, death row, touted by the media as the worst of the worst for the senseless act of murder.

I often wonder what's going through the mind of someone who premeditates the murder of another human being.

Well, think.

You'll find it.

Deliberately pursues this murder for 10, 15, 20, even 25 years down the road.

Are these people deranged?

What are we to make of this relentless pursuit of murder for decades?

This person must be a psychopath with lust for murder, evil, perhaps.

These people live among the unsuspecting public, practicing their trade under the legal guise of the office of the prosecutor.

See?

Sure.

Gonna hold you in there.

See how I flipped it?

I flipped it.

I reside around an odd assortment of characters, mass murderers, serial killers, rapists, assassins, and more than one whom choose to quarter his victim for ease of disposing of the corpse.

One man resides nearby who even the police admits wasn't at the crime scene to participate in the murder.

We know that case, by the way.

He has since committed suicide, unable to bear living on the row as an innocent man.

If evil exists in human form, then I have an excellent chance of coming face to face with it here on death row.

I won't read any more.

You can see where this is going.

It's long, though.

He's embarrassed.

It's embarrassed.

Yeah, Dean is buried

in Cass City, Michigan, where he's from.

There you go, everybody.

That is Grasshopper Junction.

Real quickly, shut up and

October 18th, get your tickets for Seattle at the Moor.

The Thursday before Halloween, get your tickets for the virtual live show that we're fucking jacked about.

It's available for two weeks after it.

It's going to be costumes and fun, just like a regular live show.

Can't fucking wait.

ShutupandGiveMemurder.com, patreon.com slash crime in sports, all your bonus material, ad-free, everything like that.

This week, Crime and Sports, Rock and Jock Specials we'll make fun of.

And Small Town Murder, the Unknown Number documentary.

You get it all, of course.

There's that.

So keep coming back, hanging out with us, patreon.com/slash crime insports.

Do that.

Shut up and give me murder.com has links to everything you might need.

That said, thank you so much, everybody.

And until next week, it's been our pleasure.

Don't shit your pants.

Bye.

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