#544 - Moronic Murderers - Washington Boro, Pennsylvania

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Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay, choo-choo! Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy.
Yay indeed. My name is James Petrogallo.
I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman.
Thank you, folks, so much for joining us today on another absolutely insane edition of Small Town Murder Express. You know by now this is way more murder than we can fit in an hour.
We're going to cram it in there, and it's 10 pounds of murder in a 2-pound bag. Let's get it on here the murder train pulling away from the station just have to say before we start head over to shut up and give me murder.com get tickets for live shows tons of live shows well not tons of them actually we have two that you can buy right now there's actually more than that austin you're up next and then there's a couple tickets left for new york a few tickets left for boston ph is sold out.
And if you're listening to this and it's before, like, November 13th, you can still get the virtual live show. Right.
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And also thank you to all of you that did that. Absolutely.
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It's wild. Then we're going to talk about just in general exorcism type things and kind of the history of that and how that goes here.
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And you get a shout out at the end of the regular show as well where Jimmy will mispronounce your name. So that said, I think it's time everybody.
Let's all sit back. What do you say here? Deep breath.
Let's clear the lungs. Arms to the sky.
Let's all shout Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this everybody.
Okay. Let's go on a trip, shall we? Let's do it.

We're going to Pennsylvania this week.

Here we go. We're coming.
We've been

in the south a little bit. Now we're going to head up north.

Go to Pennsylvania. This is Washington

Borough, Pennsylvania. Those are

two separate words. That's why I said that like

that. Washington space

Borough. B-O-R-O.

Really? Yes. It makes

no sense at all here. Washington Borough.
It'sO-R-O. Really? Yes.
It makes no sense at all here.

So Washington Borough.

It's in southeastern Pennsylvania, about two hours from Philly, about two hours west of Philly is how it is.

So kind of towards central Pennsylvania, I guess.

About an hour 25 to Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, our last Pennsylvania episode.

The serial killing nerd, which had the – they thought that Dungeons and Dragons was a big part of the murder and all that kind of thing. And it was kind of a wild episode here.
This town, very small population, 729. Okay.
Tiny town, under a thousand. Median household income here is high.
I mean, real high. It's about 69,000 in the rest of the country Here, $108,438 is the median household income.
Not sure. Median home price here is low, too.
That's the other thing. Crazy high salaries.
We are breaking the news. I don't know what's going on here.
$241,200 is the median home price, which is very low. So it's great.
None of this makes any sense is what I'm finding here. Drop a history here.
This place was started or the kind of, you know, first inhabited by a French Canadian fur trader named Martin Chartier and his son, Peter, established a trading post here in 1718. And a monument was erected on the spot in 1925.
So there's a monument of these fur trappers. I don't know what they're doing, trapping fur.
Trapping some fur. I don't know how you put that in brass or whatever, but they're copper.
They did it. It's also called the Borough of Washington or Washington Borough in the past.
Then they, for some reason, said, let's put a space between Washington and Borough. That makes sense.
It's the most bizarre idea. Really weird.
It was incorporated in 1827. There was a lot of river.
It's right on the river, the Susquehanna, I think. So you're getting a lot of river stuff, jobs on the river and things going in and out back in the day here.
It was the site of the first colonial era animal-powered ferry. I don't know what that means.
How do you do that? How do you force? I don't know if they tied whales to it and made them swim. A couple of dolphins.
I'm not sure if they have cows that only go one trip back and forth because they're drowned. They'll get you to the middle, then you've got to cut the rope and coast to the other side.
Use your oars for the rest of it. I'm not sure how it works here.
But due to the decline in river trade and jobs, the borough of Washington was dissolved politically and became a part politically of Manor Township. So if you call the cops, the Manor Township cops show up or whatever.
But they're still their own town in address form. So the reviews of this town, a few of those.
Here's five stars. They're all good reviews, too.
Here's five stars. It is a nice place to live.
The location is close to other towns, cities, and the highway. We can get to other places quickly and easily.
Well, that's helpful. The best part of your town is that you can get other places faster.
That's not saying, it's not a whole, that's not five stars for your town. Pretty good place, you can get out.
Pretty good place, you don't have to stay here, is a weird thing to say. It's like living in a cave and being like, there's a ladder.
Yeah, there's a ladder and it's cool. So four stars, good, clean, healthy.
Wow. Okay.
This is a community that is perfect for young and growing families to live and play.

There's only 700.

Oh, that's it.

Not many people have found it.

Four stars, although Washington Borough is a very small town, it is connected with a very close community.

The neighbors are very friendly and are always willing to help out.

The scenery is amazing and sits upon the Susquehanna River. So there you go.
That's the town. You can see it.
It's a little tiny town. It feels like Amish people and their buggies would be passing by.
And you're like, okay. And there's a river.
And there's a big river next door there. We love rivers.
We like rivers. Things to do in this town.
The Washington Borough Tomato Festival. Okay.
This is tomato country here.

That's the thing.

Pennsylvania, I've said this before, my grandmother used to go once a year to Pennsylvania, and

her and all of her sisters would go together and fill their cars with tomatoes to the point

where they had tomatoes around them.

It was just a face.

Inside of the car was just a tomato with a face.

That's all it was.

That's how they drive home. And then you make sauce for the whole year.
Oh, okay. So you make it all up and then can it, I guess? You jar it.
Yeah, she'd put it in these big jars. But, I mean, there was like a four-day thing where all the daughters would be there, and I'll be peeling and boiling and fucking doing this and making this of sauce.
Good lord. Oh, yeah, every year.
But then after that, you just reach in and grab a thing of sauce. So it was nice after that.
That's helpful. Yeah.
So the annual Washington Borough Tomato Festival is held every year on the second and third Saturday of July. And it benefits a fire rescue organization and also celebrates the area's tomato-growing heritage.
There is food, games, music, and plenty of fun for the whole family. Okay.
And all of the summer's tomato growing heritage. There is food games, music, and plenty of fun for the whole family.
In all of the summer's delights, few things compare to a fresh tomato sandwich or a BLT. A tomato sandwich? Yeah, tomatoes.
Yeah, if you're not, I don't know if every ethnicity you'll eat tomatoes. Just tomato? You can eat just tomato or like my grandmother used to just slice a tomato and put a little salt on it, and that was a snack.
You know what I mean? You sit there with that little bread. You know what I mean? So just kind of a tomato thing.
The festival kicks off here. They said, naturally, there will be plenty of plentiful tomatoes and tomato sandwiches for sale.
There'll also be live music from Borderline. Yeah.
Madonna covers. Have we heard of them before? Borderline? Yeah.
Possibly. I possibly i don't know i feel like we have and then there's another this one i think we have heard of there's another one here another performance after that from three hour tour is the name we have that we have absolutely heard of three hour tour 100 that's crazy there's a.
There's a circuit. We found the circuit.

Okay.

The bigger county fairs that go on that have some population centers in them, that's ludicrous.

He's there for every one of those.

Nelly, if he's not available.

Yeah.

Then for the smaller festivals in tiny towns, it's three-hour tour.

They're going to get all of those gigs. That's amazing.
They're trying to work their way up to opening for Ludacris. There are a bunch of bands that listen to our show because they love – Good travel.
Yeah. Yeah, and they recognize some of these towns as they're traveling.
I bet. And they love – I've heard from a bunch of them.
They adore when we just bash these shit small town yeah they don't want to go there they have to they're going there because they need 700 they're not going there because they really want to play to the people of they love tomato washington borough fucking pennsylvania they can't wait for the tomato sandwiches well we're headed to amish country anyway so on the way we might as well stop here pick a few bucks. And get a tomato sandwich.
Jesus Christ. That said, let's talk about some murder.
What do you say, everybody? Here we go. Tomato sandwiches for all.
Let's do this. We'll give the murderer a nice big tomato sandwich this week.
We'll send them one. Is it like tomato slices with shit between them, or is it tomato slices on bread? Tomato slices on bread.
That's it? Yeah, I mean, I'm sure there's, you know, seasonings or herbs or basil or something or whatever the fuck you want to put on it. I had a tomato sandwich today.
Yeah, I did. It had turkey and cheddar and there was also tomato.
It's not bad. It's a tomato sandwich for me.
They're trying to showcase the taste of their locally grown tomatoes. So if you put turkey and bacon in it, then you fuck it all up.
It's so good. You don't taste.
Oh, it's going to be delicious, but you don't taste it in what they're doing. Best tomato I've ever had.
So murder here. Let's talk about this.
Here we go. We got to talk about a couple, first of all, here.
Rod and Barbara here. Okay.
Rod and Barbara.ara roderick herman fry is the husband he's born in 1937 this guy his parents by the way this is how old he is his parents his dad's name is cyrus not a lot of that going on nowadays yeah cyrus strickler fry is his dad's name and his mother's name is helen mary fry so i find that hilarious and by the way herman is his mom's name. And his mother's name is Helen Mary Fry.
So I find that hilarious. And by the way, Herman is his mom's maiden name.
That's why it's his middle name. Okay.
Old school shit there. He marries Barbara Jean Schenk.
And she becomes Barbara Jean Fry after that. F-R-E-Y, by the way.
She is born November 15, 1938. So, you know, same deal there.
She's from Manor Township, which is the town right next door, and technically this town now. And her parents are Benjamin and Ada Dombach.
Okay? Now, Benjamin, I have to say about this guy, because he sounds like a fucking, like a cool old guy. He was the 1985 Valley Manor golf champion.
And from 78 to 80, he was the Pennsylvania State Bowling Association senior champion. Is that right? Yeah.
So dad is really good at, you know, non games that don't involve running. Yeah.
Well, bowling isn't rich guy shit, but that's what's there. You don't find guys who are great at golf and bowling.
Those are two things golfers don't involve running yeah well bowling isn't rich guy shit but that's what's you don't find guys who are great at golf and bowling those are two things golfers don't bowl bowlers don't golf usually my dad's a my dad's a bowler if i gave him a golf club a bag of golf clubs he would not even know what club to hit what with he wouldn't fucking care because he's never played his life you know what i mean yeah sure and uh my stepfather is a golfer and i don't think he can fucking bowl a 50 if you gave him 10 frames. He has his pinball.
I'll bet he can do that, too. Ah, it's probably good.
Yeah. Yeah.
So in October 1956, they get married. Okay.
So, I mean, she's 18 years old, and he's 19 years old. They get married.
They're going to have some kids here. In the late 50s, they have a son named Kevin.
Then in 1960, they have twin boys named Wendell, Lee and Wesley. So they go with the Ws.
Wendell and Wesley. Wendell and Wes here in 1960.
Now, in 1969, they both get involved with the Turkey Hill Company. And Turkey Hill does ice cream, dairy, all that kind of shit.
East Coast, Turkey Hill is in every grocery store for ice cream. Yeah, they have good ice cream.
It's not bad at all. So that's the, it's kind of like the Tillamook of the East, I would say.
Turkey Hill. Oh, really? Tillamook doesn't come out East? I don't know.
I don't think I see it much out here, no. Is that right? No, but they do have Turkey Hill.
You get Blue Bunny and shit like that? I don't think so. I'm not sure.
Or Blue Bell? I'm not sure. I buy all my ice cream from Stewart because that's that's my favorite ice cream here so i never buy it from the grocery store you didn't get turkey creek turkey what turkey hill no i like stewart's the best because it's also fresher and they ship it right to the stores right there that's good yeah and it's down the street from my house i like that so she gets a job she is the turkey hill minute market manager oh minute market minute with no e way.
It's so fast in and out, they don't even have time to spell it all the way. Because it's so fast.
It's a convenience store. Let's get time for seven letters.
No time. Let's go.
Six? How many is it? Six. She is twice selected as Turkey Hill Manager of the Year, by the way.
Manager of the Year? Of the Year. Of all their corporate shit.
Of 100 stores. She's the manager of the year.
Back to back? No, no. 74 and 78.
Okay. Four years ago.
Okay. 74, I give it to her as a clean win.
78, I feel like they might have felt bad for her, as we'll talk about here. I feel like maybe they were like, man, she's still showing up to work and she's had a tough year.
So, yeah, she won in 78 while working at the Wrightsville location. They say they select about four managers of the year from among 100 stores.
Wow. Yeah.
They're given awards for cleanliness, inventory, sales, labor relations, and manager attitude. Okay.
There you go. Now, Rod, her husband, is a Turkey Hill delivery man.
He delivers shit to the stores. Yeah, he's a four-day- day a week guy who delivers milk to the Turkey Hill stores from the Turkey Hill dairies.
So that's what he does. So yeah, they're all tied up in Turkey Hill.
They have a house at 40 mill street in Washington borough. It's a four bedroom, two bath, 1532 square foot house that still stands today and is built in 1900.
it's old old little house and but with the picture of it on zillow is just woods with an rv parked in front of it somewhere behind that rv move that rv is this fucking van or is this house 1977 wendell their son is killed at 20 oh no it's just 17 yeah it's just west as he's killed in a car crash on route 441 in connolly township um so yeah the he was driving a truck and he had a high rate of speed and crashed it in a single car crash so he did it to himself

on that one wow so they give her the manager of the year in 78 that's why i said i feel like maybe it's just they feel bad for her like she's been through a ton jesus christ truly so um by 1978 to the couples having problems they're having marital problems which after the death of a child is very common. It's extremely common here.

Also,

this is less common,

but Rod is also fucking whoever he can on the side too.

So yeah,

that doesn't help.

That's not going to help.

Yeah.

It's not like it's the child dying is less common,

but you know,

when a child dies,

that's a less common reason to fight is you're also fucking everybody.

Also, that's gross. Losing a twin is even more uncommon.
Yeah. And then, depending on how you two grieve over it, it may drive the other into the arms of seven or eight different ladies.
He grieves with his penis and other people. That's how he grieves.
His penis is crying. It's crying out for help.
That's the problem. Gently my penis weeps.
It weeps. So in 1978, while this is going on, they decide she files for divorce anyway.
She's had enough. But then the proceeding is dropped at some point in 78.
So they decide to get a divorce and they decide not to get a divorce. Who knows what's happening?

But Rod, he keeps having affairs.

It doesn't matter.

He's not going to stop that

at all. By 1979,

they're having even

more problems. November 4th,

1979, they separate,

meaning he moves out of the house

completely. He goes and moves into a

trailer a few miles away.

She remains in the marital

home here with the 17-year-old

I'm going to go ahead and get it. Meaning he moves out of the house completely.
He goes and moves into a trailer a few miles away.

And she remains in the marital home here with the 17 year old remaining live twin. I think he's 19 at this point, but they live together.
So, yeah, they're doing that. He moves out.
And that's how that goes. Now, November 7th, 1979, Barbara is, Wesley sees her at about 11 p.m.
on November 7th, 1979, before they go to bed. And she's got to get up early in the morning for work.
Her job sounds rough. She leaves for work at about 4.30 in the morning.
Hell yeah. And gets there at 5, which sounds like a fucking nightmare.
That gal was up at 3.30. That's a nightmare.
She might as well go milk cows. You know what I mean? She might as well be at that part of the operation because she's up anyway.
Be early on the end of this if you're up that early. Yeah, why not? Yeah, at least when you're done, you're done.
So November 8th, the next morning, she leaves for work at about 4.30 a.m. to go to the Turkey Hill Minute Market in Wrightsville where she's working.
She's usually at work by 5, but that's like when she starts her shift, but she gets there before 5 usually because she's a conscientious manager that wins awards. You got to beat everyone.
If you can't, as the manager, be there early, then you don't have a leg to stand on lecturing people. You got to be there with cow milk and gloves on 15 minutes early yeah 15 minutes before start a shift if you're not early or late that's how she works so about 6 a.m wesley gets a call from people at the store wondering where she is she's never late i mean that doesn't happen so they're like an hour an hour and a half ago right that's yeah so the sign it's you know a 15 minute ride so she definitely shouldn't take an hour and a half so he then called all the hospitals in the county to see if made because she looked out the window her car's gone so it doesn't take her an hour and a half to get to work so he figures she must have gotten a car accident she's probably in the hospital starts calling around to all the hospitals So by the time he's done it's 8 52 a.m and he reports his mother missing to the manor township police at that point took him two and a half hours to make those calls yep that's what i'm saying two and a half hours to call i don't know how i guess at first i don't know i don't know how long it takes to call how many hospitals can there be in this county you know what what I mean? I guess a lot because there's small ones.
Yeah. Would they take the name and then just go walk door to door and see if that person is in that room? I don't know if also he sat there for a while going, well, I don't want to get the cops on it.
If she, like, stops somewhere or, you know, something. She's not in the hospital.
Then it's her choice to not be at work. I don't know.
But he ends up calling2 and there's a lady named mrs wakefield she is at the store that she works at she's the one who called the sun and she said she figured something must have happened to barbara um and she asked wesley to quote to come up to route 441 to see if there was an accident so then she said i'll departments, you call the hospitals, and we'll get back with each other.

Mrs. Wakefield said, quote, I was almost certain she was dead, which is crazy.

A person is an hour late for work, and you're like, I'm pretty sure she's dead.

I'm already making funeral arrangements, picking out a dress.

This is insane.

Like, you are really skipping ahead of the line here, lady. Yeah.
She was gone a week. I can see you go.
Okay. I'm pretty sure she's dead, but fuck hour and a half.
She must be dead. I don't know.
Yeah. So they said, where the hell is she? Uh, they, the cops are looking for her.
They said she's five foot seven, 220 pounds and wearing a brown leather wearing brown leather shoes, red slacks, a heavy black pullover sweater, and a dark blue windbreaker. It's November in Pennsylvania, so it's cold but not freezing.
She's wearing nice stuff. So then at 4.20 p.m., there is a guy here named Roy R.
Nisley. And he is a farmer who has got a cornfield and all this shit out here, right? There's this guy.
So it's 420. After he sparks up his afternoon dube here, he heads out to the cornfields here.
And he's just looking around. And then he ends up coming upon a car in his cornfield.
He found a car that looked like it had been driven into the cornfield. It's just sitting there, and yeah, he's working on his cornfield.
He started to work the west side of Franklin Road and had gone across the highway to the east side to check on a field of standing corn there. He came upon a car about 100 yards off the roadway in the cornfield.
The vehicle had been driven about a car length into the standing corn. So just enough to be inside of it.
Just enough to hide. The hood was up, and it appeared the motor had been left running, although it was not running when it was found.
It ran out again. It was in the on position, the key and all that kind of shit.
So there was a circle of charred and burned corn and other viscera around there directly beneath the engine as well. All sorts of burned shit there.
Like it was on fire. And he looks in the car and sees a woman inside the car.
Oh, no. And Nisley said, I was shocked to see that woman laying there, which, you know, you go out to inspect a cornfield.
You don't expect to find cars and ladies. So he said that she was slumped against the door inside the car on the driver's side, and there is blood in the car that he can see.
Yeah. So he goes, hey, I'm out of here, Nistley says.
he said some of his neighbors had reported seeing headlights in the cornfield during the early morning hours and hearing a motor running in the cornfield. They told him that later.
Missley said he woke up between four and five a.m. and heard a car apparently speeding along Central Manor Road not far from this.
so he reported this to the Manor Police Township, our Manor Township Police at 420, and they came and they confirmed that not only was this woman dead, but it's Barbara Fry. Oh, no.
So no gun is found at the scene, although she is bloody and appears to have bullet wounds in her. Oh, no.
Along with other multiple situations. Oh, yeah.
She's been through the ringer here um so they said they went there they did they took a helicopter out and made several passes over the area where the body was found seeking some evidence that another car may have been parked in the cornfield area that's what they're looking for to see if they can they can see that because they said whoever did this to her must have had transportation to and from the scene. Because her car's here.
So unless this Roy Nistley guy did it, which they highly doubt, then, you know. It's his cornfield, but, you know.
So wounds. Okay.
The autopsy says that she died from a single gunshot wound that entered her left arm, then went into her chest and severed a major blood vessel from her heart. Oh, no.
But there's other injuries as well. Shot through the chest, severely beaten about the face and head, and has big, nasty bite marks on her left arm.
Really? Big, yeah. Like someone was trying, like Ted Bundy shit here.
Like someone was trying to bite her, which is, you know, that's not expected usually in a shooting. You don't see a shooting in a car and expect the person to be bitten up too.
So they said that the fatal bullet passed through her left lung, pulmonary artery, heart, right lung, and exited from the chest. It's a large caliber weapon, by the way.
He said that the woman died in a matter of seconds from massive bleeding. He said the murder weapon was certainly not a 22.
I would say 30 caliber or larger. So besides the bullet wound, though, they said an extensive amount of injuries to the body.
Nearly all of them blunt injuries as well, including multiple large lacerations of the scalp. They said there were five lacerations on the front and another on the left side.
Small to medium bruises and abrasions of the forehead, face, nose, left forearm, and both hands. So there was a fight here.
Is she in the driver's seat of this car? Yes, driver's seat leaned up against the door. What in the fuck? Bruises and abrasions of the left arm left arm including a human bite mark they made sure to say that they said this woman was bitten by a human this an animal didn't come and open her car door and fucking bite her um they said the bite mark was from then it was recent it wasn't an old bite mark or anything later on he's asked did you make a comparison of the marks to see if she bit herself? And he said, no.
Who the fuck would do that? Why? It's on her shoulder. Doesn't make any sense.
They indicated 5 to 10 a.m. was the time of death, which is they never know when the hell the time of death is.
And it's wild here. They said the windbreaker had one bullet hole and the sweater she wore underneath had three bullet holes.
What? Mostly in the area of the left sleeve and left chest, but there was only one bullet tracked through the body. And they said they learned that a bullet dropped from the woman's clothing during removal of the body.
So there was more than one shot fired. The other one just didn't.
Her sweater stopped it. Yeah, somehow.
The other one went all the way through her body, arm, chest, lungs, heart, and out the other side. And this one didn't penetrate her and fucking fell out of her clothing.
Low powder velocity or something? Very, very weird here. So now the first person they want to talk to is Rod, of course, because he just moved out out he said he was home at the time of the murder at his trailer um he said he had not didn't hear about his wife's death until 8 or 8 30 that evening four hours after she was found and that was when other close relatives were told by police and then they called him so yeah he lives on donnerville road in a mobile home about three miles from the scene.
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And he said, they said, do you know anybody who would want to hurt your wife?

And he said, I can't think of a motive anyone would have to kill her.

She's a fucking Turkey Hill store manager.

Who's after her?

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Somebody bought bad milk or shitty ice cream or something. They're upset.
So the cop said there was no signs of robbery, no signs that she'd been sexually molested in any way, shape or form. Really? The lieutenant said it's really a mystery.
Total mystery. Beaten and shot.
And bitten. Beaten, bitten and shot.
Yeah. It's very fucking weird.
And then parked in a cornfield ever so gently. Ever so nicely here.
And the lieutenant also said that the husband lives about three miles away, and there's no evidence that he was anywhere near here. He said, quote, you can't classify him as a suspect.
No. So you take him out of there.
Cheating husband who just is in the middle of a divorce and he's not even a suspect.

Now you really have a mystery. What the fuck? Gotcha.
Yeah. So

one of the, her

friends said, I don't know anybody who didn't

think she was an awfully, awfully nice

person. We're still in shock over Barbara.

We all, we hope all

who, we all hope whoever did

this is discovered and apprehended.

Right. So at this point

they believe that she was murdered prior

to daylight. That's the

Thank you. who we all hope whoever did this is discovered and apprehended.
Right. So at this point, they believe that she was murdered prior to daylight.
That's the inclination here. And elsewhere, right? Well, that's what they're trying to figure out.
They said they didn't feel that she'd been killed by a complete outsider. So they said, well, it's not a serial killer because people started to panic.
Oh, God, is this somebody doing this? And they said, no, no, no. We don't think this was an outsider that's going to kill other people randomly.
They said, we think we are having. This is pretty personal.
Yeah, we think we are having success. We think we are focusing in the right direction.
The cop said, but that means nothing because they don't have any evidence at this point. They said the chance that two people were involved in the murder is a possibility.
Oh. The body was found in her own car, and it appears the killer would have needed a getaway vehicle.
If he acted alone, he would have had to halt her vehicle on foot and driven the woman to the cornfield where he had a second vehicle waiting. So that wouldn't make much sense.
Right. It would make more sense for two people to be doing this.
Sure. And they said, quote, it had to be someone who knew the area, knew her schedule and the way she went to work.
I hope to God, I hope God forgives us for feeling the way we do, but we're very suspicious is what her family says. The police say they have some good leads, quote, some leads, some good leads, but not positive leads.
What the fuck does that mean? Nothing. Yeah, that doesn't mean anything at all.
It means we talk to people. We got nothing.
Get back to you later. We have a lot of questions is what that means.
More questions than answers here. Yes.
And this was, by the way, less than a mile from her home this happened. Oh, my.
So, I mean, five fucking minutes here. That's almost fucking hunted, right? And her car windows are shattered also.
Not the windshield in the back windows. Only her the door windows are shattered as well.
So they talked to Roderick. The press does.
And he said that he's uneasy over the fact that nobody has been arrested yet. He said it makes you half wonder if you want to ever go out.
Stay inside your house. Could be some maniac out there.
he said that he was home at the time they said where were you and he said i was home at the time other people told me and they said how did you feel and he said quote i was all broken up which is the way why does it keep coming i don't know you're laughing about we laugh about this because that's kuklinski the ice man when he's found out about roy de mayo being killed he said how'd you feel about he goes i was all broken up it with a big smile on his face it's a very italian sarcastic thing it really is when you don't give a shit my grandfather said it all the time i'm all broken up about it it's just the way it is but he they said well do you know who could have done this and he said quote she keeps things to herself she never told me much so he said i don't know who she was hanging out with what she was

doing um they talked to their pastor now apparently she attended the grace evangelical congregational

church on creedy avenue in millersville and the pastor philip ghost white used geese white whatever

um he said the entire fry family were members of the church he said that he often said hello to

bar to barbara after sunday services and paid one visit to the home after he learned there were marital difficulties. Mind your business.
Fuck off. I hear you guys are having problems.
Okay. What about you? Let's worry about your – let's talk to your wife and see if everything's perfect.
What's what I'm talking about? Yeah. He said, I didn't know the family situation that well.

To me, she was a melancholy person.

She seemed always to be pretty distraught and concerned about her marital situation.

Which also, she's still recovering from her son being killed also.

So if you add that into the fold, you can understand why she'd be a bit of a downer.

Plenty of reason to be melancholy.

A little melancholy.

This guy estimated there were more than 100 people at her funeral, which was held at the Kraft Funeral Home.

Mac and cheese for all, everybody.

He said that Roderick, the woman's husband, was present and seemed very distraught.

He said, I think he was crushed by the whole thing.

It was a complete shock to him, the pastor said.

They said, who do you think might be responsible? Because no one solves crimes better than pastors. Who do you think could have done this? And he said, it sounds like she knew something about someone they didn't want her to know.
Someone didn't want her to have that information and they killed her. I don't have any concrete facts except that she was indeed killed we all have theories so that i'm really wildly speculating right just wildly throwing fucking bullshit at the wall throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing if it sticks wildly casting aspersions all around i think she maybe found all the messages in da vinci's paintings oh my god they couldn't let it out i think she found the nsa's secrets i think that uh the cia is involved in this she's heard of some jfk stuff wow so that's what left her in a cornfield and that's the pastor so imagine what people are sitting around coming up with you know what i mean boy is he fun fuck because december 5th comes up and no progress.
So that's almost a month. Wow.
So people are really going wild with their own theories now. You need to have passed her just to believe anything at all.
That's anything. I just think that she had information.
She's a fucking Turkey Hill convenience store manager. What information could she possibly have gleaned from anybody that would make her murder worthy yeah she knows how the milk is stored that's what it is she's seen the microfilm

she knows how the ice cream is made and you got to take her the fuck out so it remains unsolved

relatives and close friends said they're scared by the knowledge that the killer or killers are

still at large they also say they're in a state of shock over the death and um they said we think

I'm going to go back. solved relatives and close friends said they're scared by the knowledge that the killer or killers are still at large they also say they're in a state of shock over the death and um they said we think the cops said we think we're having success we think we're focusing in the right direction yeah which is not making me feel better he said we have to check a couple things this week there's a lot of false rumors going around this week we're gonna run them down yeah there's a lot of false rumors apparently uh he said that uh people have he has talked to concerning the murder have been cooperative but scared her work friend said that they're surprised that there's been no arrest yet here's edna wakefield the lady who was sure she was dead after an hour.
She's mean as shit. Edna, area,

she's a manager here,

was a close friend of Mrs. Fry, and also Peggy Rhodes, an employee at the store.
They're both surprised the case is still open. Edna and Peggy are both surprised.
Somewhere there's high schools with secretaries missing. You know what I mean? Those are high school secretary names.
And they think that all cases are solved lickety-split. Lickety-split.
And then they call Ferris Bueller's house and see why he's absent. Wasn't her name Edna, I think? Was it? I think it was.
Maybe it was Peggy. It was one of the two.
I'll tell you that much. He said, I think they just had to pick up.
I thought they just had to pick up the person is what peggy said i don't get it like we haven't figured she thought just go we see a dead body and we just go get go grab somebody and pick them up uh peggy also said she didn't seem to think she was in any imminent danger she said she saw her they worked together on the seventh and barbara told her see you tomorrow she didn't say not gonna see you tomorrow. You have a good night, but I'll be long dead by the time you get here.

So old Edna Wakefield recalled having a phone conversation with Barbara the evening prior to when she was killed. And she said most of it was business, a few personal things.
and she described her as a quiet type person

and said that she described him as a quiet type person and said that she she said that she described him as a Rod as a quiet type person and said that Mrs. Fry was outgoing so at work she's outgoing at church she's melancholy there's no who knows so her kids everybody that's 10 minutes out of Edna's life is dead dead fucking dead oh my husband he must be dead he's like, I stopped at the store for a six-pack.
What the fuck? I was cutting the lawn. Didn't you hear the mower? Good Lord, man.
Jesus Christ. I fell asleep in the den.
What do you want? What the hell's going on here? I took a nap. I called the coroner.
I took a nap. Next thing you know, there's a goddamn fucking slab in my room here.
They're going to wheel me out on a gurney. she's got a fucking headstone in the living room she's polishing i wake up to two guys putting me in a bag for fuck's sake calm down edna jesus christ the zipper woke me up yeah it's like hey what are you doing leave me alone so uh he said the they talked to her son kevin and he expressed concern for the of his family, saying it might be somebody after his family and they could all be next.
And he asked the newspaper that nothing be printed about the phone conversation he has with them. He's scared.
Then Wesley said no comment. He didn't want to comment on it at all.
Can you imagine? She's been murdered seven different ways, sitting in a car. Sitting in a car hitman crazy mafia guys she's a fucking convenience store this is acting like she's got international secrets somewhere what an aggressive way to murder somebody when they oh strange very little to do with much no um they talked and rod said that he only talked to his wife for about five minutes the whole week there.
He said because they'd been separated. He said she didn't seem too scared or anything.
And he said that he's been trying to contact, Rod said this, trying to contact the trooper in charge of the investigation for the past few days but can't get a hold of him. And so he said, I don't know.
He said, have the police told you he goes this guy won't call me back he said i got the impression they were on to a lead so maybe they're busy yeah they're out there running around they don't have time for the phone yeah he said that you know he thinks that the police are doing all they can to solve the murder he said he's still in shock over the murder and they said do you think the killer will strike again and he said it's hard to say it's late 70s who knows he said maybe they'll do this again. I don't know And he said, it's hard to say.
It's late 70s. Who knows?

He said, maybe they'll do this again.

I don't know.

I mean, everybody be careful.

Two days later, he's arrested, Rod is, by the police.

Oh, is that right?

For murder.

Yes, for murdering his wife.

Boy, that was fast.

I don't know.

I haven't decided yet.

You think there'll be more murders?

I don't know.

I don't know.

I'm going to go look over my address book and see if anybody's pissed me off. on a minute as soon as i get enough money to buy more ammo maybe maybe well no it's he's not arrested alone it's also charles d zering z e h r i n g who's 22 years old 20 years younger than rod he's arrested as well and another and a third man is also arrested here that we'll talk about they're all charged with murder and conspiracy um so let's talk about this what the fuck what the fuck happened because we end up finding out what happened because everybody's everybody spills the beans here which is also hilarious shit we didn't we didn't get this far let's tell on each other everybody yeah so.
Yeah. So going back to May of 1979, months before the murder, six months before, Rod meets a guy, Charles David Ziering, who's 22 years old.
Ziering installs alarm systems and used to be the manager of a Turkey Hill store in Cliona. And he also, Ziering is also a private investigator.
So he installs alarms.

He's a private investigator. He also slings ice cream.
Yeah. He's a busy guy.
He's on the side, yeah. So they met through their employment and had a series of conversations about his marital difficulties.
That's what he taught. Hey, how's it going? Ah, the fucking wife.
And they talk and we're fighting. Yeah.
So they talk about that. Ziering, zering who is described as a quote paranoid schizophrenic who collects exotic weaponry and anarchist slash survivalist literature so those are actual problem those are three separate problems rolled into one any one of those three things i'm going yeah fucking i'm worried about this guy paranoid exotic weaponry collectors yeah and anarchist slash survivalist literature collectors all crazy he's all three horrible that he could own weaponry when he has that exotic weaponry jimmy not even fucking not a pocket knife no he was japanese samurai sword Yeah.
I got me a 17th century Japanese sword and a rocket launcher from Vietnam. Two things I got.
And a bazooka. An anarchist fucking catapult.
I learned in the anarchist cookbook how to make the anarchist catapult

my favorite thing about the whole thing is the anarchist soup because it was delicious let me

tell i never thought to put the spices they use but man i'll tell you they really that cookbook

is something it's also flammable you can make napalm in the most delicious spring soup all in

one soup one book you put it in a super soaker and spray it in your enemy's eye oh it's the best man

Thank you. You can make napalm in the most delicious spring soup all in one book.
You put it in a super soaker and spray it in your enemy's eye. Oh, it's the best, man.
I never would have thought about it. So apparently this lunatic, Zaring, suggested to Rod about three months before the murder that maybe the solution to your wife problem is to, quote, waste her.
Maybe you just waste her.

Waste her.

Just waste her.

So Barbara apparently had refiled for divorce during this, like right before the separation.

And at that point is when he said, OK, fuck this.

Yeah, let's kill her.

OK.

Let's get rid of her.

Yeah.

So now what how does he says that?

What does it cost? What will you take to kill her? know obviously you're not going to do it as a favor right i'd like to be paid an exotic weaponry please no he said exotic spices he said five grand is my price wow incredibly affordable in 1979 that's way more money than that is now. Yeah, that's two cars.
That's a lot back then. That's actually not a cot price back then.
Right. Nowadays, that'd be a cot price.
It's two cars. It's probably 30 grand, 25 grand, probably five, six times.
Yeah, but you can't buy two cars for that anymore. No, no, no.
But those were also awful cars they were terrible pieces of shit too so terrible pieces of shit now still cost 30 grand yes but they're not no car is a piece of shit now that was the thing they're all you're saying all new cars reliable it'll get you a hundred thousand miles yeah they all have like computer systems and all this crazy shit back then it was like here's your piece of shit pinto yeah likeinto. The justy does not equate to a Nissan Max.

No, exactly.

Pinto was $2,800, and it was because it exploded if you ran into it.

So how's he going to get five grand?

Because he doesn't have five grand.

He has to pay him. So what he does is he calls Barbara up, Rod does, and convinces her that he should get some money as an advance from the upcoming divorce property settlement.
He's getting. He had her pay for her own murder.
Get the fuck out of my life. Are you kidding me? Oh, my God.
He said, give me money. She did.
And he said, here, go kill that bitch. Oh, my God.
That's the craziest thing ever the fact that she they're in the middle of a divorce because he's cheating on her and she's still willing to give him an advance on the money and not tell her to fuck off not tell him to fuck off tells me that she's not murder worthy this is not a candidate for murder here she's a decent person not the problem you are man yeah so he said it expenses for moving out and all that. I could use five grand.
So she issued him a check for $5,000 drawn from the Colonial Savings and Loan Association. Oh, my God.
He paid $3,000 up front to Ziering. Didn't even give it all up? He does.
It's a before and after. Upon completion.
Can't just give him the whole five grand. Yeah, but.
Run off into the hills. So he gives him an upfront, which is normal.
I mean, that's fine. He gave him that about three days before the murder.
Three or four days. Now, on the evening of November 7th, Zaring met with Rod at Rod's residence.
The trailer, and Rod told Zaring,

this is how Barbara goes to work.

This is what time she leaves.

This is the route she takes.

And it was his understanding, Rod's, that at the time,

Zaring would be accompanied by another person,

and they were going to, the whole point was to rig the car so it looks like she got in a car accident and died.

Okay.

That's the point.

But look how it ended up.

Nowhere near that.

Shooting, biting, beating, not even close. This car really turned on her.
And the car's in fine shape, too. That's the other thing.
No accident at all. Wow.
She ran into a cornfield and the car fired a bullet in her chest and then beat her over the head and bit her with its human teeth. And bit her.
So it was the intention. Here's what it was.

They were going to knock her unconscious. Yeah.
Take her elsewhere. Run her car in a tree and put her in there and put her head up against the steering wheel like she bashed her head into the fucking steering wheel and killed herself.
That's the plan. I suppose.
Yeah. It's 1979 forensics.
That could work. Maybe.
So Rod asked his wife, Barbara, to meet him early in the morning at the convenience store that she managed so that she could deliver some lunch meat that she was to slice for him. Okay.
I don't know. I got a chunk of cubed beef.
Apparently, she gave him five grand, and he gave her a ham to slice for him. This is a very strange separated relationship going on here.
I'll be around to pick up my chipped ham. Weird.
So that same night, Rod spent the night with his girlfriend, the night before the murder. Now on November 8th, the other person involved is Richard Heberlig.
H's 33 years old. So we've got a 22-year-old, a 33-year-old, and a 42-year-old.
None of these people should be hanging out with each other, and they're all in the same murder plot. So what they did is they intercepted Barbara on her way to work to kill her.
They acted as police officers.

They put a fucking light.

They had a light.

They put it on their car, and they put the light on and pulled her over.

That's how they did it, like a fucking mob hit.

Like Cara Capa and the other guy, the mob guys that did that,

the mob cops that would just arrest mobsters and then go murder them.

They were gone.

They'd pull them over, take them away, and kill them. They killed like 50 people for the mob in the 70s and 80s.
Oh, yeah. They were some of the most prolific guys in the world because they just pulled some.
It was like they disappeared. Their car was on the side of the road, and they were gone, never to be found again.
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Now back to the show. In the early hours of December 4th, 2024, CEO Brian Thompson stepped out onto the streets of Midtown Manhattan.

This assailant starts firing at him.

And the suspect.

He has been identified as Luigi Nicholas Mangione.

Became one of the most divisive figures in modern criminal history.

I was meant to sow terror.

He's awoken the people to a true issue.

Listen to Law & Crimes Luigi exclusively on Wondery Plus. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.
In the early hours of December 4th, 2024, CEO Brian Thompson stepped out onto the streets of Midtown Manhattan. This assailant starts firing at him.
And the suspect... He has been identified as Luigi Nicholas Mangione.
...became one of the most divisive figures in modern criminal history. I was meant to sow terror.
He's awoken the people to a true issue. Listen to Law and Crimes Luigi exclusively on Wondery Plus.
You can join Wondery Plus on the Wondery app, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts. Wow.
At what point do you think they realized that it was like, you know what I i mean at what point did they realize that they were about to be killed probably well at first not at all because they were detectives pulling them over right but after thrown in the back of a car after a while everybody knew what they were doing and they were like oh shit if you got pulled over then those two showed up you knew you were fucking dead at that point so yeah you knew you were fucked yeah and one of the guys was in goodf knew you were fucked. Yeah.
And one of the guys was in Goodfellas, too. Really? Yeah.
He was one of the guys in the bar scene in Goodfellas. They used him for that.
Interesting, right? What the fuck? Because he knew a bunch of mob guys. So they pulled her car over.
They intended to beat her unconscious and staged a car accident. But they couldn't knock her out.
These two guys beat the living shit out of her. kept fighting back that's why they bit her they bit her because she was attacking them she was no fucking she's gonna win shrinking fucking violet here she was yeah she weighs 220 and she's not fucking around she will kick your goddamn ass they couldn't knock her out she was she was fighting off two grown men on her own funny how if you've never knocked anybody out how fucking hard oh it's real hard it's a it's like funny farm when they're beating a guy he goes you're not knocking him out you're just beating the piss out of him that's the same thing it's so hard he just keeps punching him hey you can't knock somebody out by hitting him in the in the shoulder blade no so that's what happened here they couldn't do it yeah so apparently um what happened is heberlig panicked and just took his gun out and shot her in the chest because she was she was winning she was fighting them and winning yeah they literally resorted to biting her wow like that's how much they she was winning so that fucked up the whole accident thing here yeah um when they pulled her over apparently well we'll get to that in a second but they then um uh they moved it into a cornfield and tried to set the car on fire that's why everything's burned under it right they tried to burn it the fire went out and didn't destroy any of the evidence it was just terrible it's just a lady laying there beat up bitten with a massiveshot wound in her fucking chest.
Would you just crumble and hit your knees and just start crying about how terrible you are at this? I'm so bad at murder. I would go, I'm never doing this again, obviously.
I couldn't even knock out the Turkey Hill convenience store manager lady. Very Sarah Boone of you going, I'll never drink again.
I'll never drink again. I swear to God.
I'll tell you guys one thing. I'll never drink alcohol again never drink again i swear to god i'll tell you guys one thing i'll never drink alcohol again oh all right well she's punished herself everybody let's let her don't worry about it moratorium on the giant bottles of woodbridge jesus christ so during the course of their investigation the police came across the five thousand dollar payment from barber to rod that's what got this all going she gave you five grand at first rod told authorities they said where's the money now because he said i don't have it and they go well where is it he goes i gambled it away oh and they're like no you didn't we checked around you haven't been anywhere so then he said fine i paid it to zering not to kill my wife though see it was an extortion payment to prevent him from killing her.
That's it was all right so they get zering in there and he says that by the way he wasn't certain that she was dead when he they left her in the car oh she was dead though we found out she died very shot her in the fucking heart yeah she he didn't know but we find out later that she died very quickly um i guess that zering told the trooper here that he was scared to death after Mrs. Fry was shot.
He said her vehicle was taken to the cornfield. He said that he didn't know for sure she was dead.
He said that they waited for her to travel north on Route 441, and they pulled out in front of her to stop her vehicle using the red police-type lights that they installed on his vehicle. He bought it at U by the way is that right you can just buy that apparently in the 70s you could buy that like a bong whatever they had all sorts of shit there at the u-haul he picked up flashing lights and some handcuffs yeah some uppers they got it all so zering told her to get at our zering told the cop that he got out of the car and asked her for her driver's license.

She refused to roll down the window and give completely.

She did a sovereign citizen thing.

She rolled it down a crack and said, I'm not giving you my driver's license.

This is far enough.

She knew it was a bullshit stop.

She had to have.

She had to have.

That's why she had to have been scared because they're not in police uniforms. They didn't go that far to rent cop uniforms.
If they did that, she would have went with the ruse probably. So she refused to roll it down.
So then he broke her window out and started to hit her. And nothing was happening.
And she knew for sure that this was a bullshit stop. Not normal here.
So he said that Rich Halberlick got excited and shot her with a .44 caliber revolver. Golly! Big old gun.
So then he said that he got into her vehicle and drove to the Manor Township cornfield then they returned in his vehicle, the two of them back away from the scene here. He said two days after the shooting, he paid Heberlig $300 for assistance in the murder.
He got five grand. He paid his boy $300.
Talk about subcontracting. Fucking cheap.
Good Lord. They threw away the .44 gun in the Weavertown quarry.
They could never find it, by the way. I got quarried.
Yeah.

He also said that Zering explained details about the murder in a ledger book that was in a desk drawer located in his bedroom.

In a trailer, of course.

He diaried this?

He diaried it.

Yep.

They said a search discovered the ledger book referred to by him. He uncovered the book containing the inscription, not for anyone's eyes, failure to adhere will cause

death. I'm sure the police

will go ahead and adhere to that.

In there, there's also two

newspaper articles concerning Barbara's

murder case contained in there.

In there, also figure notations

under

the name, under fucking

Ziering's name? No, under

his name.

What's his name? Fucking Fry.

Rod Fry. What are the Thank you.
the name under fucking Ziering's name? No, under his name.

What's his name? Fucking Fry.

Rod Fry. What are the

figure numbers? Well, they indicate

the following payments. $1,000

October 29th, 2000 November

2nd, 2000 November 9th.

Yeah. Also indicated the

last $2,000 was made for

his, for the attempt

to kill, obviously. He said this is for murder.
Like, he put a memo on it. Other writings.
Don't worry. Nobody will read this.
Showed that he had hocked a ring given to him by Rod Fry here. He also indicated in the book that he reported his .44 caliber revolver stolen to the Bethel Township police chief on November 15th.
So an earlier search at the residence found various weapons and ammunitions. They said they found a box of .44 caliber cartridges, some of which had an X scratched on the top of the projectile.
Oh, he's trying to get them to break up. Yes, yes, trying to make them more deadly.
They said that the bullet that killed Fry had an X cut into it. So they connect those.
He also said that he examined the box of 40 bullets. 35 had an X cut into the head.
He really put some time into this. He also had a 12-gauge shotgun found in his bedroom, a box of shotgun shells that was similar to a shotgun shell that they found in the cornfield because they just found one on the ground.
So he must have had it in his pocket or something and dropped it.

And another shotgun shell found on the berm of Route 441, about a mile away from here.

They also found a pistol grip box for a grip that would be used for a .44 caliber weapon.

And Ziering said he had apparently purchased the .44 caliber weapon from Martin Levin's Sporting Goods in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

And he said that he purchased the bullets as well.

And the red lights from U-Haul.

He's given his whole fashion outfit here.

Oh, my, this from there.

And he said.

Who are you wearing?

Who are you wearing?

Well, U-Haul and Smith & Wesson. They make a very nice thing together.
Yeah, and Hoshman's sporting goods. They're all denied bail, obviously, here.
All three are arrested. Roderick's trial.
All right. Seven women, five men on the jury.
And they said the prosecutor said that he was anxious to kill his wife if he thought he could get away with it. He said that his wife has been talking about divorce and filing for it.
And he was upset that most of the family estate would be turned over to his wife. And so that he said that he wanted they say he wanted to kill his wife so she couldn't enjoy her money.
His money. Yeah.
So the defense argued that he acted under duress. You can't plan a murder and a hit and pay people under duress.
That's crazy. Man, that guy is really good under pressure.
Well, they said that Zering kept pressuring him for money and that he eventually paid him $5,000 to leave his wife alone, is what he said, which is fucking amazing. Now, Zering is going to testify.
That's a bad witness for Rod here. There's evidence also brought in by Rod that Zering is a scary, domineering person, while Fry was susceptible to domination.
And they said that several witnesses testified that Zering was, quote, a strange man who had a fetish for weapons and often made threats a problem yeah um great hit man also they brought in a ton of inmates that testified that since he's been in jail zering he scares the whole jail is scared of this fucking guy even though he can't knock out a 40 year old convenience store manager they store manager, they don't know what he's going to do.

They said he's crazed and he boasts in jail that he's extorting money from Rod Fry and intended to kill Rod Fry when this is all over with.

Oh, is that right?

As well.

Now, Rod testifies.

They said, did you meet on the evening of November 7th, the day before the crime with Zaring?

And he said, yes.

He came to my residence.

Do you recall what time it was? Around 11 o'clock. Did Mr.
Zering threaten you in any way? And he said, yes. He said, how was that? Broad said, he told me that if I would even talk to the police about this, I would get the same thing my wife got.
What is your understanding of that? And he said that I'll be shot, too. He said, did he tell you how or who this would be done by, who you'd be shot by? And he said, yes.
They said, well, what was it? He said he told me that the second party that was involved in this knows what I look like and they know where I work and they can get me at any time. For 300 bucks.
300. Yeah, this guy's a cheap fucking date, too.
He said, do you believe this to be true? Yes. Do you have a fear of Charles Zaring? Yes.
And would you explain to me why you fear him? And he said, because he might have me killed now. Because I paid him to murder my mom.
You know how that goes. I mean, shit.
So in the closing for the prosecution, they call him a cold-blooded contract killing. They said the thing was purely for money, not for hate or passion.
I have a hard time thinking of a contract that could be worse, they said to the jury. The defense said, hey, come on.
He said, Mr. Ziering is not a nice guy.
Mr. Ziering, through the Commonwealth's own witnesses and through witnesses we produced, was proven to you to be a man who always had guns, always had weapons, armed bombs, had books on anarchy, etc., made threats.
People consider him a little crazy. Did Mr.
Ziering coerce Mr. Frey in any way? Or Frey? He said, I don't believe that at all.
I think there was duress in this case. I think when Mr.
Fry tells you that he was threatened, he was threatened. Whether he was threatened before or after he paid the money or for what purpose he paid it, he was threatened.
He was threatened before Mrs. Fry was killed.
When he tells you that one morning at the Turkey Hill parking lot, Mr. Ziering appeared with black all over his face and a sweatshirt and held a gun and flashlight in his eyes, that is a threat.
That is coercion. That's duress.
He said, the psychologist told you about Mr. Fry and what kind of man he is.
He has a 91 IQ. He's not a super intelligent person.
Oh, he's a dumb-dumb? That's average, by the way. 90 to 110 is right in the average range and they're they call them a dumb dumb low they're saying he's he's obviously a fucking idiot and he's very average they said he's not someone who i don't think could coldly calc and calculatingly do this kind of thing without some pressure from from another source i suggest to you again the pressure for mr zering and that this thing took a sequence of events It wasn't as if Mr.
Fry went over to Mr. Ziering and said, here's $5,000, kill my wife.
That's not what happened. The payments were sporadic payments, and the Commonwealth cannot refute that.
This thing took a course of action. It went along.
It got more serious, more aggravating as it went along. But there was duress, and that's all that's required in this proceeding.
If you believe that Mr.

Zaring coerced, threatened, placed Mr. Fry

under duress prior to the death

of Barbara Jean Fry, that's enough.

He's entitled to be in prison for the rest

of his life, but that's it.

If you believe that. If you believe he didn't do it at all,

then do that.

Okay. The verdict comes in.

They deliberate for six hours

on this, and they find him guilty of first-degree murder. First-degree murder.
He got five grand from a lady and then paid it to a man to kill her. To kill her.
Made her pay for her own death is crazy. You cheap fuck.
So the sentencing comes around, and his mother, father, brother, they all testify that his personality, he's not cold blooded. He couldn't have done this unless they were.
He was under duress or was coerced. His father said he's never been in trouble before.
And, you know, he gets on the stand himself, Rod, and he asserts that his guilt phase testimony that Ziering had threatened him and his family was true. And he stated that he had never told anyone that he would kill his wife if he could get away with it.

Someone testified to that.

The death penalty can only be imposed if the jury feels aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigators, as we talked about all the time. aggravators are only aggravating circumstance presented to the jury is that the defendant paid

or was paid by another person or had contracted to pay or be paid by another person who has

conspired to pay or was paid by another person or had contracted to pay or be paid by another person who has conspired to pay or be paid by another person for the victim of the killing. You hired somebody, which is cold, cold shit.
The mitigators are no significant history of criminal convictions. They say he's under the duress, under the influence of extreme or mental or emotional disturbance.
The capacity of the defendant to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or conform to his conduct to the requirements of the law was substantially impaired. They said that he has a 91 IQ, and his attorney said that the psychologist said that his low IQ makes him susceptible to pressure.

Okay.

So the judge asked him before sentencing, anything you want to say for yourself?

And he said, nope, I'm good.

You didn't even say life's like a box of chocolates or anything? Not a fucking thing.

Nothing.

No dumb shit thing you could think of at all. All right.
He didn't call the guy Jenny or anything. He said then the attorney asked the judge to reconsider the whole thing here.
Yeah. Let's do a do-over.
The judge said the sentence of the law is that you, Roderick Herman Fry, be taken hence by the sheriff of Lancaster County to the State Correctional Institute at Camp Hill and from thence to the state penitentiary at Rockview or such other places that may be designated by law or executive order that you there suffer death during the week fixed by the governor of the Commonwealth in a building erected for the purpose on land owned by the Commonwealth. Such punishment be inflicted by either warden or deputy warden of said penitentiary or by person the warden shall designate by causing to pass through your body a current of electricity of intensity sufficient to cause death.
An application of such current to be continued until you are dead. You, sir, may fuck off death in the electric chair.
Electric chair? Electric chair. Jesus.
That's what he said. So he would be, I believe, the ninth person contend to the electric chair here.
But an electric chair, a death sentence hasn't been carried out in Pennsylvania in 19 years before that. The last man to die in the electric chair was Elmo Smith, convicted of the rape murder of a 16-year-old in 1960, which is much worse than what happened here, I feel like.
Ziering and Heberlig, they have their trial. They don't have a trial.
They have a non-jury proceeding where they both plead guilty because they're fucked. And then they also had to testify, but they have a deal here in place to not get the death penalty.
You, sirs, may fuck off life in prison for both of them. Okay, okay.
But he penalty yeah and they did killings and beatings it's just strange but he bummed five grand to murder that's wild that's unbelievable that's wild but that's what i mean usually it's the person who does the hiring gets more time than the people who do the killings unless your name is gypsy rose and then it's the opposite then you get then you get to go have babies then you get to fucking be a an instagram presence yeah and be a mom and while your mentally challenged boyfriend sits in prison and i'm not saying he should be out i'm saying they both should be him for sure yeah if she admitted it we've gone over this before i'm on her side right up until murder and then i'm like hey come down lady yeah take it easy take it easy so um then zering tries to pull back his guilty plea because you know why not because that sucks yeah it's like this sucks and they say you can't do that get in there 1984 uh rod is going to appeal this whole thing and um he is turned down and uh by that they said this was on the was on the basis of his death sentence being excessive or disproportionate as opposed to the penalties imposed on the co-defendants. There's that.
Does the death penalty procedure violate the 8th and 14th Amendments of the Constitution? All these different things here. So the stress factors.
Is death penalty, Pennsylvania death penalty statute unconstitutional in itself? The whole thing is going over. In 84, they tell him, no, eat dicks.
You're dying. You're done.
1988 comes around. Lawyer petitions the state again.
And an attorney has vowed to take extraordinary steps to prevent an executioner from carrying out the state's first electrocution in 26 years he is on the chopping block so they file a petition he's basically five days away from execution and he gets a stay really for another appeal yeah it doesn't mean they didn't you know lower it but it's for another consider it sure they're going to consider it. They said that the petition said that Fry, under the Post-Conviction Hearing Act, which requires petition contain issues not previously raised in court.
And some of these were things about – had the jury – had these facts been presented to the jury, Roderick Herman Fry most likely would have been found innocent in the penalty stage and sentenced to life in prison. Because they said that they're so stupid what they're saying to the whole thing.
They're saying that the jury didn't know that the other two weren't going to get the death penalty, basically, is how that works. So under if they found out the other two didn't get the death penalty, they may not have imposed the death penalty on him.
They would have given him life, too. June 12, 1988, there's a big editorial about how we should just fucking electrocute the shit out of him.
The whole thing is really into there. 1992, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals vacates the order that remanded the case for further consideration so basically told him to fuck off 1997 the third circuit this time based on different reasons disagreed and said that the fry did deserve a writ and in 1997 granted it and they vacate the death sentence and commute his punishment to life in prison without the possibility of parole his family's thrilled and his family says this

for them, Ziering and Helberling, to get one thing, and they actually did it, and for Roderick to get this, anyone who calls that right isn't right in the head. I don't care who thinks that, that's what I tell them, meaning he shouldn't get the death penalty while they get one, which sort of makes sense, I guess.
It's their family. They're going to say that.
His dad died the day before his sentence was commuted, by the way. Is that right? Cyrus died the day before.
Cyrus died thinking his son was going to ride the lightning. Then 2015 comes around, and Roderick Fry, 78 years old at the State Correctional Institution at Green, dies of natural causes.
Okay. After 35 years in prison, Barbara is buried at the Masonville Mennonite Cemetery.
I didn't know she was a Mennonite, but okay. Yeah, she was only 40 when she died.
That's rough. Her birthday was seven days away when she got killed, the way that sucks too so there you go everybody that is washington space borough pennsylvania hope you like that if you like it tell everyone you know about it get on apple podcast or this one or spot or whatever the fucking goddamn app you're listening on, give five stars.
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