WEBVTT 1 00:00:07.639 --> 00:00:11.080 You are now listening to True Murder, the most shocking 2 00:00:11.160 --> 00:00:14.160 killers in true crime history and the authors that have 3 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:21.519 written about them. Geesy Bundy Dahmer The Nightstalker VTK every 4 00:00:21.559 --> 00:00:25.239 week another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and 5 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:29.879 infamous killers in true crime history. True Murder with your host, 6 00:00:30.280 --> 00:00:40.439 journalist and author Dan Zufanski. Good Evening. 7 00:00:41.479 --> 00:00:45.719 In this dramatic true account about the power of sensationalized crime, 8 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:51.000 one woman's case is exposed for its sexism, flagrant disregard 9 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:55.399 for the truth, and ultimately the dangers posed by an 10 00:00:55.479 --> 00:01:02.759 unbridled prosecution. Unwanted and thected from birth, Barbara Graham had 11 00:01:02.799 --> 00:01:07.760 to overcome the odds just to survive. Her beauty was 12 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:11.680 both a blessing and a curse, offering her too many 13 00:01:11.719 --> 00:01:17.040 options of all the wrong kind. Her innate sensitivity left 14 00:01:17.079 --> 00:01:20.799 her vulnerable to the harsh realities of the street, where 15 00:01:20.840 --> 00:01:24.159 she was left to fend for herself before she reached 16 00:01:24.439 --> 00:01:29.159 double digits. Her record of petty crime spoke to a 17 00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:34.280 life that constantly teetered on the brink of disaster. But 18 00:01:34.359 --> 00:01:38.959 in nineteen fifty three, a catastrophic twist of fate would 19 00:01:39.079 --> 00:01:44.560 catapult out of obscurity and into the headlines. When a 20 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:49.040 robbery spiraled out of control and escalated into a brutal murder, 21 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:55.040 Barbara became the centerpiece of a media circus. Her beauty 22 00:01:55.280 --> 00:01:58.480 enraptured the press, and they were quick to portray her 23 00:01:58.519 --> 00:02:04.000 as a villainous femme fete, despite abundant evidence to the contrary, 24 00:02:05.200 --> 00:02:11.319 a fiction. The prosecution eagerly promoted the frenzy of public 25 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:17.080 interest and wilful distortion paved a treacherous path for Barbara Graham. 26 00:02:17.879 --> 00:02:22.639 In Trial by Ambush, author and criminal lawyer Marcia Clark 27 00:02:23.240 --> 00:02:27.759 investigates the case, exposing the fallacies in the demonizing picture 28 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:32.360 they painted and the critical evidence that was never revealed. 29 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:37.360 The book that we're featuring this evening is Trial by Ambush, 30 00:02:37.879 --> 00:02:42.560 Murder Injustice and the Truth about the Case of Barbara Graham, 31 00:02:43.560 --> 00:02:48.919 with my special guest, criminal lawyer O. J. Simpson, prosecutor 32 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:55.319 and New York Times bestselling author Marcia Clark. Welcome to 33 00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:58.000 the program, and thank you very much for this interview. 34 00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:00.479 Marcia Clark, Thank. 35 00:03:00.319 --> 00:03:02.120 You so much. Dan. It's a pleasure to be here 36 00:03:02.120 --> 00:03:02.360 with you. 37 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:04.639 It's a pleasure to be able to speak to you 38 00:03:04.680 --> 00:03:08.759 and congratulations on this new book, Trial by Ambush. 39 00:03:09.759 --> 00:03:11.360 Delighted to be able to talk to you about it. 40 00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:16.360 You are a New York Times bestselling novelist, among being 41 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:20.360 a former prosecutor and defense attorney. But tell us about 42 00:03:20.599 --> 00:03:23.840 your decision to write about Barbara Graham. You write that 43 00:03:23.879 --> 00:03:25.840 you have a vivid memory of the minute you knew 44 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:29.159 that you were going to write about Barbara Graham. Tell 45 00:03:29.240 --> 00:03:33.080 us what it was that finally convinced you. 46 00:03:33.080 --> 00:03:35.560 You know, it was a slow rolling process, Dan, It 47 00:03:35.639 --> 00:03:37.879 was not one of those Eureka moments. You know that 48 00:03:37.960 --> 00:03:40.479 I saw the case and I said, oh, this is it. 49 00:03:40.599 --> 00:03:43.360 I did not know that I had been researching another 50 00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:46.199 case all entirely. And it was a footnote at the 51 00:03:46.199 --> 00:03:49.879 bottom of the page that mentioned Barbara Graham's case. And 52 00:03:49.919 --> 00:03:52.599 I looked at that, and then I saw that it 53 00:03:52.639 --> 00:03:54.960 had been a very famous case. It was its own 54 00:03:54.960 --> 00:03:59.599 trial of the century back in nineteen fifty three. Nationwide coverage. 55 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:04.919 They were covering it NonStop, feverishly, especially in California and 56 00:04:05.039 --> 00:04:10.039 Los Angeles, like morning, afternoon and evening newspapers. And I thought, 57 00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:14.240 oh boy, I don't know. I don't want to tread 58 00:04:14.280 --> 00:04:17.240 on ground that's already well trodden. And then I saw 59 00:04:17.279 --> 00:04:19.439 that it had been the subject of an Oscar winning 60 00:04:19.560 --> 00:04:23.360 film called I Want to Live, featuring Barbara Graham, who 61 00:04:23.399 --> 00:04:26.439 was one of the defendants and won an Oscar actually 62 00:04:26.439 --> 00:04:28.480 for Best Actress for Susan Hayward. And then I was 63 00:04:28.519 --> 00:04:31.360 really convinced this was never going to work, but I 64 00:04:31.439 --> 00:04:35.319 was intrigued nonetheless, and so I decided to look into 65 00:04:35.319 --> 00:04:38.000 it and see what had been written. And it turned 66 00:04:38.040 --> 00:04:41.199 out that actually, other than newspaper clippings, it had been 67 00:04:41.399 --> 00:04:45.720 very little written about. One book, a very slim volume 68 00:04:46.199 --> 00:04:49.240 published by one of the reporters who covered the case 69 00:04:49.639 --> 00:04:52.399 for the Herald examer which was not your most reliable 70 00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:56.560 outlet at the time, and he covered it. He wrote 71 00:04:56.560 --> 00:05:00.920 the book in collaboration with the prosecution. So I thought, okay, 72 00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:03.720 And then I read the book, very short book, and 73 00:05:03.759 --> 00:05:06.519 it was it was filled with things that made me go, 74 00:05:06.600 --> 00:05:09.519 what that can't be right. This can't be right. That 75 00:05:09.560 --> 00:05:12.040 can't be right. I thought, okay, so this is not 76 00:05:12.079 --> 00:05:15.319 going to be the definitive work on this, And then 77 00:05:15.439 --> 00:05:17.560 I saw that it had also been written about, in 78 00:05:17.639 --> 00:05:20.720 some measure by Kathleen Karen, who wrote a fantastic book 79 00:05:20.759 --> 00:05:23.639 called Proof of Guilt, which focuses on the death penalty, 80 00:05:23.959 --> 00:05:27.480 and she mentioned Barbara's case among others. Excellent book. I 81 00:05:27.480 --> 00:05:29.759 recommend it, but it did not go into the trial, 82 00:05:29.800 --> 00:05:32.519 which is what I wanted to do, because what you 83 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:35.560 have here was a really heinous, brutal murder of a 84 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:40.120 totally innocent victim. Mabel Monahan, who was in her sixties 85 00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:44.480 and infirm, lived a quiet life in a suburban little 86 00:05:44.519 --> 00:05:47.560 house in Burbank. There was no reason for her to 87 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:52.319 be bludgeoned and strangled to death by these defendants. But 88 00:05:52.399 --> 00:05:54.920 the defendants that were involved in this case along with Barbara, 89 00:05:54.920 --> 00:05:57.959 looked nothing like her. They looked like the thugs they were. 90 00:05:58.639 --> 00:06:01.000 You can imagine them doing just a anything. Barbara, on 91 00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:04.560 the other hand, she had a misdemeanor rap sheet that 92 00:06:04.680 --> 00:06:10.360 was nothing, that was marijuana possession, check kiding, maybe prostitution 93 00:06:10.519 --> 00:06:13.319 here and there, really way out of her lead to 94 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:16.240 be involved in something like this. So I knew that 95 00:06:16.639 --> 00:06:19.120 I had to find out what really happened, How did 96 00:06:19.160 --> 00:06:21.959 she get convicted and how did she get put to death? 97 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:25.480 And so that required, of course that I look into 98 00:06:25.560 --> 00:06:29.199 not only the investigation of the case, but the testimony 99 00:06:29.240 --> 00:06:32.600 at trial that put her in the gas chamber. And 100 00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:36.000 so that was I think. And then it was the 101 00:06:36.480 --> 00:06:39.759 final final grace note and coupdi gras in terms of 102 00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:43.199 my decision to do it was the photograph I saw. 103 00:06:43.800 --> 00:06:46.120 It was her sitting with her lawyer in her prison dress. 104 00:06:46.519 --> 00:06:48.519 She was by the way, I should not say by 105 00:06:48.519 --> 00:06:51.040 the way, because the newspapers made a big deal. She 106 00:06:51.240 --> 00:06:54.519 was beautiful. She did not look like a murderer in 107 00:06:54.560 --> 00:06:56.360 any way, shape or form. In fact, some of the 108 00:06:56.399 --> 00:06:59.480 newspapers said that she looked more like a showgirl than 109 00:06:59.519 --> 00:07:05.160 a defender. She was beautiful, and she was sitting at 110 00:07:05.160 --> 00:07:09.959 this little table with a horde of reporters, all men like, 111 00:07:10.199 --> 00:07:14.519 hovering over her. The degree to which she was just 112 00:07:14.639 --> 00:07:19.279 kind of at the center of this intense energy, all 113 00:07:19.319 --> 00:07:23.160 focused deeply on her was really very compelling. And she's 114 00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:25.160 looking over her shoulder in a way that looks a 115 00:07:25.240 --> 00:07:29.560 little frightened, a little intimidated. There is no sign of 116 00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:34.680 the ultimate of the murderous, the stone cold, bloody Babs 117 00:07:34.720 --> 00:07:37.920 as they called her that the press had been touting 118 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:41.040 throughout the trial. And I thought, Okay, this is really 119 00:07:41.560 --> 00:07:44.399 something's wrong here. I have to look into this and 120 00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:45.519 that was the final moment. 121 00:07:47.319 --> 00:07:51.079 You say that at first it was a circuitous route 122 00:07:51.079 --> 00:07:54.600 to get this reporter's transcript, because at first you got 123 00:07:54.600 --> 00:08:00.000 the clerk's transcript. So this author, Kathleen Cairn's actually helped 124 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:04.759 you locate that reporter's transcript, which was, you say, essential 125 00:08:04.839 --> 00:08:07.279 to be able to write this book. Right. 126 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:11.000 She recommended that I check out the state archives. Now, 127 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:15.079 even so, I wasn't sure that reporters would be keeping 128 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:18.199 the court reporters would keep the transcript for as long 129 00:08:18.240 --> 00:08:20.920 as this This is over seventy years ago, and so 130 00:08:21.160 --> 00:08:23.959 I had reached out to this court reporter's website with 131 00:08:24.040 --> 00:08:26.720 an email saying, do you guys still how long do 132 00:08:26.759 --> 00:08:29.560 you keep these notes and how long do you keep 133 00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:32.679 transcripts for? Because in the average case, I know handling 134 00:08:32.720 --> 00:08:35.840 appeals as I do in California that in the typical 135 00:08:35.879 --> 00:08:39.120 felony they don't keep their notes longer than ten years. 136 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:42.559 So I got no answer to the email, and I thought, well, 137 00:08:42.600 --> 00:08:45.159 these guys are too busy to deal with me. So 138 00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:49.200 I called the number and got extremely lucky that a 139 00:08:49.240 --> 00:08:52.600 court reporter actually picked up the phone, and I said, 140 00:08:52.919 --> 00:08:57.039 is there any chance that you would keep the transcripts 141 00:08:57.480 --> 00:08:59.759 and the notes from a case this old. And she 142 00:08:59.759 --> 00:09:02.759 said said, well or nearly no, Well what was the 143 00:09:02.799 --> 00:09:04.679 sentence And I said it was the death sentence. Oh, 144 00:09:04.679 --> 00:09:07.440 she goes, Oh, we keep those forever, There'll be somewhere. 145 00:09:07.720 --> 00:09:08.000 Wow. 146 00:09:08.039 --> 00:09:11.000 So I had hope. And then I went to the archives, 147 00:09:11.039 --> 00:09:13.279 and the archives took a while to say, we don't 148 00:09:13.320 --> 00:09:15.399 know what we have. We might have it, we might not. 149 00:09:15.919 --> 00:09:18.480 And I had my researcher, John Valeri, who was amazing, 150 00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:21.120 keep after them and keep in communication, and they kept 151 00:09:21.120 --> 00:09:23.720 saying they were having their legal team review it and 152 00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:26.559 vet it. And I thought, wait, if they have transcripts 153 00:09:26.600 --> 00:09:29.960 of the trial that's public record, anyone can get that. 154 00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:33.799 There's nothing to vet. So I was worried that what 155 00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:37.159 they might actually have would not be the transcripts. So 156 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:40.039 when they finally said they're on their way. What we've got, 157 00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:42.600 you've got now, I wasn't sure I was going to 158 00:09:42.679 --> 00:09:45.320 get what I needed. So it was like a moment 159 00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:47.519 of heart pounding when I saw when the boxes were 160 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:50.159 dropped on my doorstep and I opened up the first 161 00:09:50.240 --> 00:09:53.360 one and I almost didn't want to look. I opened 162 00:09:53.360 --> 00:09:55.039 it up and then I saw the front page. It 163 00:09:55.120 --> 00:09:58.720 said volume one reporters transcript, and I was like, yes, 164 00:09:59.559 --> 00:10:02.000 this is but then I saw it was over four 165 00:10:02.039 --> 00:10:06.080 thousand pages. So this was the heaven and the hell 166 00:10:06.120 --> 00:10:09.159 of it all. Here you go. And so that's why 167 00:10:09.159 --> 00:10:11.320 it took the better part of two years to write 168 00:10:11.320 --> 00:10:11.759 this book. 169 00:10:12.120 --> 00:10:16.679 Wow, now you tell the story of Barbara Graham on 170 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:22.000 the evening of March eighth, nineteen fifty three in Burbank, California. 171 00:10:22.559 --> 00:10:25.720 But where you take us to the home of Mabel Monahan, 172 00:10:26.159 --> 00:10:28.879 the widow who lived alone, and she was ready to 173 00:10:28.919 --> 00:10:31.879 go to her regular Sunday night poker game where her 174 00:10:31.919 --> 00:10:36.000 close friend Merle Leslie tell us a little bit about 175 00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:41.200 Mabel and that night before March ninth, nineteen fifty three. 176 00:10:42.679 --> 00:10:46.200 So Mabel was a really cool person. She was trippy, 177 00:10:46.720 --> 00:10:48.919 She was a member of a vaudeville troop. She was 178 00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:53.279 a renowned roller skater, and say she toured the country, 179 00:10:53.960 --> 00:10:56.879 spent all of her adult life doing that and performing. 180 00:10:56.960 --> 00:10:59.559 And at one point she was even she palmed herself 181 00:10:59.559 --> 00:11:04.440 off as a palm reader and called herself Madame Martinez, 182 00:11:04.440 --> 00:11:07.799 which was at that time considered an exotic name. And 183 00:11:07.879 --> 00:11:10.840 she met her husband, who was a world class ice 184 00:11:10.879 --> 00:11:15.759 skater and roller skating performer. They became a duo and 185 00:11:15.799 --> 00:11:19.720 they performed together and ultimately married. And there's this picture 186 00:11:19.720 --> 00:11:23.240 of them skating where he's holding her by a rope 187 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:26.200 in his mouth that she's holding in her mouth and 188 00:11:26.240 --> 00:11:29.559 she's spinning around in the air with him spinning in circles, 189 00:11:29.600 --> 00:11:33.759 an amazing feat. So she was really quite something. So 190 00:11:33.919 --> 00:11:37.039 how does she wind up in Burbank? That was purely happenstance. 191 00:11:37.080 --> 00:11:40.759 Her daughter, Iris, who was also a performer, wound up 192 00:11:40.799 --> 00:11:44.840 marrying a casino owner and real estate entrepreneur named Tutor Scherer. 193 00:11:45.279 --> 00:11:48.080 And he was a trip in himself. He had been 194 00:11:48.679 --> 00:11:53.039 heavily invested in his speakeasy in this restaurant that was 195 00:11:53.279 --> 00:11:57.159 basically a refurbished ship off the pier of Santa Monica 196 00:11:58.360 --> 00:12:02.879 called Ships, and I had audition to perform his in 197 00:12:02.919 --> 00:12:06.799 a stage show there, and in hiring her, they got 198 00:12:06.840 --> 00:12:09.000 to be close and then they wound up getting married. 199 00:12:09.320 --> 00:12:13.320 But he was somebody who didn't necessarily believe in monogamy. 200 00:12:13.799 --> 00:12:16.399 They had thirteen years of a rocky marriage and ultimately 201 00:12:16.440 --> 00:12:20.320 Iris divorced him. He was a very wealthy man and 202 00:12:20.399 --> 00:12:22.799 he was very generous with Iris when he divorced her. 203 00:12:23.080 --> 00:12:25.879 When she divorced him, that is, she didn't. He gave 204 00:12:25.879 --> 00:12:29.759 her the house in Burbank, as well as jewels and money. 205 00:12:30.320 --> 00:12:32.679 She didn't want the house. She wanted to remarry and 206 00:12:32.720 --> 00:12:34.639 move to New York, which she did, so she gave 207 00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:38.399 the house to her mother, Mabel Monahan. Now Mabel had 208 00:12:38.440 --> 00:12:40.679 never lived in a house before, so she was very 209 00:12:40.679 --> 00:12:44.000 security conscious because she'd always lived in hotels. Hotels had 210 00:12:44.039 --> 00:12:46.720 front desks, they had men between you and whoever was 211 00:12:46.759 --> 00:12:49.159 going to come to see you. So she was not 212 00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:53.279 accustomed to living on her own and that made her nervous, 213 00:12:53.559 --> 00:12:55.879 so she would keep her doors and windows locked and 214 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:59.279 gates locked. This was not somebody who was likely to 215 00:12:59.320 --> 00:13:04.559 open the door for anyone. So although Irish divorced Tutor Sharer, 216 00:13:04.919 --> 00:13:08.240 Mabel Monahan was very close with him. They were very tight. 217 00:13:08.919 --> 00:13:11.480 She loved him, he loved her, and he would come 218 00:13:11.480 --> 00:13:13.960 to visit her whenever he came to Los Angeles. He 219 00:13:14.039 --> 00:13:18.240 had since although he had been heavy into his speakeasy 220 00:13:18.360 --> 00:13:20.480 and even tried to get into the gambling scene in 221 00:13:20.519 --> 00:13:23.720 Los Angeles, it soon became apparent he couldn't stay here 222 00:13:23.879 --> 00:13:27.159 because Mickey Cohen owned all the gambling business, and Mickey 223 00:13:27.159 --> 00:13:30.080 Cohen didn't like competition. So Tudor Scherer, who liked to 224 00:13:30.159 --> 00:13:33.559 keep his who liked to stay breathing, decided he would 225 00:13:33.639 --> 00:13:36.440 move to Las Vegas and there he invested in casinos 226 00:13:36.440 --> 00:13:39.120 et cetera, made a lot of money, did extremely well. 227 00:13:39.679 --> 00:13:42.600 He would come out to visit occasionally for various interest 228 00:13:42.679 --> 00:13:45.399 real estate interests here, and he would come and stay 229 00:13:45.399 --> 00:13:49.840 with Mabel Monahan. This led the community of bad guys, 230 00:13:49.840 --> 00:13:54.279 safecrackers and burglars to start a rumor that Tutor Sharer 231 00:13:54.360 --> 00:13:56.840 came out to visit Mabel Monahan because he was stashing 232 00:13:56.879 --> 00:13:59.759 money in her house. And this big rumor started to 233 00:13:59.759 --> 00:14:02.559 flingvoing around that there was a safe in her house 234 00:14:02.600 --> 00:14:06.000 with hundreds of thousands of dollars, and two years before 235 00:14:06.200 --> 00:14:09.120 the murder, there was an effort to actually case the 236 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:12.000 house to see whether it was possible to get in 237 00:14:12.600 --> 00:14:15.879 and steal the money and break into the safe. Nothing 238 00:14:15.919 --> 00:14:19.879 came of it. It never happened. So flashed forward to 239 00:14:20.279 --> 00:14:23.639 March eighth. The evening of March eighth, Mabel Monahan went 240 00:14:23.679 --> 00:14:26.279 with her friends to her regular poker game. It was 241 00:14:26.320 --> 00:14:30.639 a poker party actually in Studio City, after which they 242 00:14:30.679 --> 00:14:33.480 went to what they called dinner, which was at four 243 00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:37.639 in the morning, and then they went home, and it 244 00:14:37.720 --> 00:14:40.720 was on that day she went to sleep. Mabel her 245 00:14:40.759 --> 00:14:45.600 friend ultimately left that afternoon, and by the evening, Mabel 246 00:14:45.679 --> 00:14:48.840 was sitting and reading a murder mystery called The Purple Pony, 247 00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:52.799 when there was a knock on the door. Now, unbeknownst 248 00:14:52.799 --> 00:14:56.840 to Mabel, the plot had been hatched to burglarize the house. 249 00:14:56.919 --> 00:15:00.360 But knowing that she would never open the door to someone, 250 00:15:00.679 --> 00:15:03.240 to a man or someone she didn't know, they had 251 00:15:03.240 --> 00:15:06.159 to find someone who would act as the lure, whom 252 00:15:06.159 --> 00:15:09.960 Mabel would be more likely to trust, and that was 253 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:14.759 Barbara Graham Petit very sweet looking, certainly didn't look like 254 00:15:14.759 --> 00:15:17.960 a criminal. Barbara went to the door and knocked on 255 00:15:18.039 --> 00:15:20.759 the door and said, could you please help me? My 256 00:15:20.840 --> 00:15:23.279 car broke down in the middle of the street. I 257 00:15:23.320 --> 00:15:25.080 don't know what to do. I have to get to 258 00:15:25.120 --> 00:15:27.039 a phone. Can I please use your phone to call 259 00:15:27.120 --> 00:15:31.039 for help. Mabel made her one fatal mistake and let 260 00:15:31.080 --> 00:15:34.879 Barbara in, and then the men came in behind her. 261 00:15:36.879 --> 00:15:37.399 You say that. 262 00:15:37.440 --> 00:15:42.039 Two days later, March eleventh, nineteen fifty three, her gardener 263 00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:46.720 at about eleven thirty came by Mitchell Shreuesdale and he 264 00:15:46.840 --> 00:15:50.240 thought it was unusual because the floodlights were still on 265 00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:53.559 and then the front door was ajar, So tell us 266 00:15:53.600 --> 00:15:56.279 what he discovers, then what happens following. 267 00:15:56.879 --> 00:15:59.519 Yeah, so this was completely out of character for Mabel. 268 00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:01.960 I mean, not only did she never leave her front 269 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:05.679 door unopened, she never left it unlocked. Not only that, 270 00:16:05.799 --> 00:16:08.879 but the gate to the backyard was also I think 271 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:11.879 unlocked as well. But just the front door being open 272 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:15.200 was really shocked him. He pushed it a little further 273 00:16:15.279 --> 00:16:19.279 open and looked inside and immediately saw blood on the walls. 274 00:16:19.720 --> 00:16:21.759 Could see right through It's not a big house. You 275 00:16:21.759 --> 00:16:23.799 could see right through to the living room and all 276 00:16:23.799 --> 00:16:26.720 the furniture had been upended, the carpeting and the rugs 277 00:16:26.720 --> 00:16:29.639 had been torn up. The house had been turned upside down, 278 00:16:29.879 --> 00:16:32.279 and there was more blood toward the going toward the 279 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:36.279 living room. He backed out, freaked out, called his friend, 280 00:16:36.360 --> 00:16:39.879 who was a police officer in Burbank Police Department, and 281 00:16:39.960 --> 00:16:41.559 he happened to be off duty at the time. He 282 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:45.240 showed up. He walked through the house and saw Mabel 283 00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:48.600 Monahan lying in a hallway with a garage around her 284 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:52.200 neck and her head bloodied, and then he called in 285 00:16:52.919 --> 00:16:55.679 the regy, Lieutenant Robert Coveney. 286 00:16:58.039 --> 00:17:01.559 You're right right away that of course suspect some form 287 00:17:01.600 --> 00:17:04.319 of robbery. But then they go into this closet and 288 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:07.240 what did they discover that was crazy. 289 00:17:07.759 --> 00:17:11.160 So it looks like it's for all intents and purposes, 290 00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:13.000 the way the house has been ransacked looks like it 291 00:17:13.079 --> 00:17:16.599 must have been an intended burglary, robbery, et cetera. But 292 00:17:16.680 --> 00:17:20.720 they they don't find a safe, they don't find anything wrong, 293 00:17:20.759 --> 00:17:23.319 and then they go to mal Mabel's mon Han's. They 294 00:17:23.319 --> 00:17:26.240 go to Mabel Monahan's closet and they see all these 295 00:17:26.279 --> 00:17:28.680 purses that she had, and they go through all and 296 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:31.039 it's clear that they went through all the purses. They 297 00:17:31.119 --> 00:17:34.200 dumped them out, throw them on the floor. But there's 298 00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:36.480 a purse left hanging on a hook in the closet 299 00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:39.519 that they didn't touch, and that was the purse that 300 00:17:39.559 --> 00:17:42.559 Mabel Monahanue had used the night before, which happened to 301 00:17:42.559 --> 00:17:46.759 contain all kinds of expensive jewelry as well as hundreds 302 00:17:46.759 --> 00:17:50.119 of dollars in cash. Because Mabel liked to flashed her 303 00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:52.359 jewelry to all her buddies whenever she went out, and 304 00:17:52.359 --> 00:17:55.720 she carried it with her frequently. That purse happened to 305 00:17:55.720 --> 00:17:59.839 be left untouched there. Plus, okay, so that's a mystery. 306 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:03.359 What happened here? And why did they leave that? Why 307 00:18:03.440 --> 00:18:06.920 were they there? Plus they had no physical evidence. They 308 00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:10.039 never found fingerprints, They never found really any shoeprints that 309 00:18:10.079 --> 00:18:12.680 went to anything. All they knew that there was blood 310 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:16.880 on the walls, blood on the floor, and Mabel Monahan 311 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:18.880 lying dead, bludgeoned and garroted. 312 00:18:20.400 --> 00:18:24.359 Now police don't have any leads, They don't have any 313 00:18:24.359 --> 00:18:27.480 physical evidence, as you're right, So who do they go 314 00:18:27.559 --> 00:18:31.039 to initially to see if they can find any information? 315 00:18:32.279 --> 00:18:34.440 So the police fan out all over the place. They 316 00:18:34.440 --> 00:18:37.039 asked neighbors if they saw or heard anything. No one did. 317 00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:41.039 Remember this is nineteen fifty three. There's no close circuit cameras, 318 00:18:41.039 --> 00:18:44.960 there's no citywide cameras, there's no ring cameras, and there's 319 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.720 no necessarily of course, there's not DNA. There's a lot 320 00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:53.480 they didn't have. No one heard anything, no one saw anything. 321 00:18:54.079 --> 00:18:56.880 So they had to fan out to their known informants 322 00:18:56.960 --> 00:19:00.079 and bad guys who lived or worked the area. It 323 00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:02.200 took a while, and for a couple of weeks there 324 00:19:02.200 --> 00:19:06.799 were no leeds whatsoever. Because this was such an innocent 325 00:19:06.920 --> 00:19:10.759 victim and in such a quiet, very peaceful neighborhood that 326 00:19:10.839 --> 00:19:13.319 never had any crime in it. There was a real 327 00:19:13.359 --> 00:19:16.440 public outcry about what had happened and a lot of 328 00:19:16.440 --> 00:19:19.960 pressure on the police to solve this one. So they 329 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:23.480 reached out to the typical suspects who might know something 330 00:19:23.519 --> 00:19:27.920 about the criminal community, the typical burglars and boxmen as 331 00:19:27.960 --> 00:19:30.920 they called men. The boxman is their slang for a 332 00:19:30.960 --> 00:19:34.640 safe cracker. And they eventually came up with someone who 333 00:19:34.759 --> 00:19:38.279 was called Indian George, and he told, you know, I 334 00:19:38.359 --> 00:19:43.480 remember people talking about wanting to ransack this house because 335 00:19:43.480 --> 00:19:46.079 we believed that it had a safe with lots of 336 00:19:46.119 --> 00:19:49.559 money in it. He gave up some names, and all 337 00:19:49.599 --> 00:19:51.920 of the names he gave up were former employees of 338 00:19:51.960 --> 00:19:57.319 Mickey Cohen the Gangster. A couple of them panned out. 339 00:19:57.519 --> 00:20:01.079 One of them first was William Upshaw. He was known 340 00:20:01.119 --> 00:20:03.960 to have worked for Mickey Cohen. He began to talk 341 00:20:04.279 --> 00:20:07.160 and he gave them the name of Baxter Shorter, another 342 00:20:07.240 --> 00:20:10.960 former cohort of Mickey Cohen and Baxter Shorter was known 343 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:15.599 to be a boxman too. Baxter Shorter was indeed turned 344 00:20:15.640 --> 00:20:19.240 out to be was indeed involved in the burglary and murder. 345 00:20:19.720 --> 00:20:22.480 Though he was peripheral, he was the one who actually 346 00:20:22.519 --> 00:20:25.480 knew where Mabel Monahan lived. He was the one hired 347 00:20:26.079 --> 00:20:28.519 to be the lookout, but also to show them where 348 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:31.680 to go, and he would remain The plan was he'd 349 00:20:31.680 --> 00:20:33.880 remain outside as the lookout. He'd get ten percent of 350 00:20:33.920 --> 00:20:34.400 the take. 351 00:20:36.680 --> 00:20:39.680 That Jesus has an opportunity to stop to hear these messages. 352 00:20:41.079 --> 00:20:44.079 Now you talk about right away, Shorter gets a lawyer, 353 00:20:44.319 --> 00:20:47.519 and what does the lawyer want for his client. 354 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:52.359 So the lawyer of Baxter Shorter, before he talked, reach 355 00:20:52.440 --> 00:20:55.559 out to a lawyer whom his buddy, William Upshaw happened 356 00:20:55.599 --> 00:20:59.319 to have used for his situation because he wanted immunity 357 00:20:59.359 --> 00:21:03.839 as well. He got that lawyer. The lawyer immediately saw 358 00:21:03.880 --> 00:21:06.839 the value of his testimony, of his statement, because the 359 00:21:06.960 --> 00:21:10.240 police had nothing, no leads, they had no case, and 360 00:21:10.279 --> 00:21:12.680 they said, I want complete immunity for Baxter Shorter. If 361 00:21:12.680 --> 00:21:14.759 he's going to give you this statement, he will give 362 00:21:14.799 --> 00:21:18.440 you all the information he has and he will absolutely 363 00:21:18.759 --> 00:21:22.240 be able to identify the other perpetrators involved, but he 364 00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:26.480 wants to be able to walk. The cops, having no choice, 365 00:21:26.799 --> 00:21:29.759 said yes, you know, done, done deal, come in and 366 00:21:29.759 --> 00:21:32.799 talk to us. So he gave a statement, an official 367 00:21:32.839 --> 00:21:36.599 statement under oath in the DA's office, in which which 368 00:21:36.680 --> 00:21:39.400 was memorialized by a stenographer. So you had a court 369 00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:42.200 reporter there taking down his statement word for word, which 370 00:21:42.279 --> 00:21:45.319 is in the book word for word. And he tells 371 00:21:45.359 --> 00:21:49.400 the story of these three let me see Jack Santo's 372 00:21:50.079 --> 00:21:54.759 Emmett Perkins, John True as I call him, the ironically 373 00:21:54.839 --> 00:21:57.920 named John True, and Barbara Graham. He did not know 374 00:21:58.000 --> 00:22:00.000 Barbara Graham's name. He just knew it was a woman 375 00:22:00.279 --> 00:22:03.240 was involved. He thought her name was Mary. And he 376 00:22:03.319 --> 00:22:06.759 told of how they said to him, we hear there's 377 00:22:06.799 --> 00:22:09.279 all this money in a safe at the Nabel Wanahan house. 378 00:22:09.640 --> 00:22:12.400 You're a box man, you know where she lives. You 379 00:22:12.440 --> 00:22:14.920 can tell us, you can help us with this plan 380 00:22:15.440 --> 00:22:18.680 and you'll get a part of the take. Baxter didn't 381 00:22:18.720 --> 00:22:21.599 really want to be part of the burglary itself. He 382 00:22:21.720 --> 00:22:24.400 was very gun shy about it. He had in fact 383 00:22:24.599 --> 00:22:26.720 been one of the people who cased the house before, 384 00:22:27.200 --> 00:22:29.960 and he was nervous that if this burglary went through, 385 00:22:30.279 --> 00:22:33.079 the cops would go straight to him, because he believed 386 00:22:33.079 --> 00:22:37.119 that the cops had arrested him previously for chasing the house. 387 00:22:37.599 --> 00:22:37.720 Right. 388 00:22:37.839 --> 00:22:40.039 He was wrong. He had never been arrested for that, 389 00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:42.839 but that's what he thought. So he decided, he said, 390 00:22:42.880 --> 00:22:45.720 you know, I'll help you out, but I won't ask 391 00:22:45.720 --> 00:22:47.000 for as much as the take. I'll just be a 392 00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:50.400 look out ten percent. So he named them, and he said, 393 00:22:50.480 --> 00:22:53.240 he told exactly what happened. He said, you know, they 394 00:22:53.279 --> 00:22:55.759 went to the house. Barbara got her to open the door, 395 00:22:56.279 --> 00:23:00.079 true John True went in right after her, like right afterwards. 396 00:23:00.680 --> 00:23:03.799 And then it took a long time. Something was going wrong. 397 00:23:03.839 --> 00:23:07.440 They should have subdued Mabel much quicker than they did. 398 00:23:07.519 --> 00:23:09.839 And for a long time there was no sound, no 399 00:23:09.960 --> 00:23:13.160 sight of anybody giving them the go ahead as they 400 00:23:13.160 --> 00:23:16.920 were waiting outside. And ultimately EMMITTT. Perkins decides to go 401 00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:21.880