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Speaker 8: You are now listening to True Murder, the most shocking
Speaker 8: killers in true crime history and the authors that have
Speaker 8: written about them. Gasey Bundy, Dalhmer, The Nightstalker, Dck. Every
Speaker 8: week another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and
Speaker 8: infamous killers in true crime history. True Murder with your host,
Speaker 8: journalist and author Dan Zupanski, Good Evening.
Speaker 11: The Great Ranch along Third Avenue in the sleepy Midwestern
Speaker 11: town of less than four hundred people was the recurring
Speaker 11: site of screaming, mad chaos, and horrific domestic violence. Then
Speaker 11: one day, abusive husband Scott Shanahan was gone. Some thought
Speaker 11: he packed his bags and left town. Weeks, past months
Speaker 11: went by, still no sign of the volatile wife beater.
Speaker 11: But what really happened to him was so shocking and
Speaker 11: so unbelievable that even grizzled longtime law enforcement officials were
Speaker 11: gassed by the sight and awful smell. The town wondered
Speaker 11: why Dixie Shanahan managed to live with her husband's rotting
Speaker 11: body inside her master bedroom for fourteen months. This fascinating
Speaker 11: story will leave you asking yourself. One question was the
Speaker 11: punishment that Dixie received in her case justified. The book
Speaker 11: that we're profiling this evening is Dixie's Last Stand? Was
Speaker 11: it Murder or Self Defense? With my special guest, journalist
Speaker 11: and author John Ferrick. Welcome back to the program, and
Speaker 11: thank you for agreeed to dis interview John Ferrick.
Speaker 4: Dan, thanks very much for having me back on.
Speaker 11: Very thankful, Thank you very much. We had a great
Speaker 11: time last time speaking with you. So let's jump right
Speaker 11: into this. Tell us why how you came to be
Speaker 11: interested in this story and why you decided to write
Speaker 11: this book Dixie's last name? What was it about this
Speaker 11: case that compelled you to write this book?
Speaker 4: Well, one of the things that was kind of interesting too, Dan,
Speaker 4: just from a timeliness standpoint, I think this was probably
Speaker 4: my second or a third day. I was a newspaper
Speaker 4: journalist in Omaha, Nebraska. I wound up being out there
Speaker 4: for about nine years, but it was actually, I think
Speaker 4: my second second third day on the job, and a
Speaker 4: brief story came over the Associated Press wire back at
Speaker 4: the downtown office, and it was just real short, and
Speaker 4: it announced that a woman in Defiance, i Iowa had
Speaker 4: been arrested for murder. But it also pointed out that
Speaker 4: her husband had apparently been left in the house for
Speaker 4: more than a year, which was just unbelievable. So that day,
Speaker 4: myself and a seasoned veteran, a photographer by the name
Speaker 4: of Rudy Smith who had been at the Omaha newspaper
Speaker 4: for forty years, we loaded up the photography gear and
Speaker 4: got our notebooks and made the hour long drive out
Speaker 4: to Defiance, Iowa. And it just really was an unusual
Speaker 4: murder case to be covering. I really couldn't recall up
Speaker 4: at that point in time, really covering an odd murder
Speaker 4: case such as this in the town of less than
Speaker 4: four hundred people, in a county of about thirteen thousand people,
Speaker 4: And it just really was unbelievable. In the first thing
Speaker 4: that kind of jumped in my mind, uh and a
Speaker 4: lot of other people was how could how could this
Speaker 4: have been hidden for for over a year? You know?
Speaker 4: How is how is Scott Shanahan's body hidden from uh,
Speaker 4: you know, from the public, just you know, how come
Speaker 4: nobody knew about this?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 4: And we'll get into this, I'm sure in the show.
Speaker 4: But but eventually a lot of the peculiarities of the case,
Speaker 4: but then also other aspects of domestic violence and issues
Speaker 4: about uh fair and righteous sentencings and actually kind of
Speaker 4: a forgotten point. But but when I really focused in,
Speaker 4: it really drove me to kind of write the book
Speaker 4: as well. Dan was along the lines of I thought
Speaker 4: this was a very well done small town sheriff's investigation.
Speaker 4: This was an agency that that only had I think
Speaker 4: seven or eight full time deputies plus the plus the sheriff,
Speaker 4: and in this case, the sheriff actually did his own
Speaker 4: investigations and played a key role in getting to the
Speaker 4: bottom of things. So so kind of all those things
Speaker 4: came together, and you know, that's what it's gonna ultimately
Speaker 4: lead me to write a book on this that came
Speaker 4: out earlier this year.
Speaker 11: Dan, now tell us, basically, I like to get for
Speaker 11: people that don't live in this area. I'm not familiar
Speaker 11: with it and might not even be familiar with the
Speaker 11: United States so much. But let's get the geographical position
Speaker 11: in terms of there's Des Moines, which is a place
Speaker 11: more well known. And you said, like, this is less
Speaker 11: than four hundred people, but this is about sixty miles
Speaker 11: outside of Omaha. So give us basically the basic the
Speaker 11: cities that are bigger that we might note and tell
Speaker 11: us where this place is and then tell us a
Speaker 11: little bit more about Harlan, Iowa. So where basically the bigger,
Speaker 11: the closest, biggest town to in this county.
Speaker 4: So tell asal of that great yeah for people again
Speaker 4: throughout North America, United States and Canada. Like Dan had mentioned,
Speaker 4: the two most populated cities, so you know, one is Omaha, Nebraska,
Speaker 4: which is about an hour to the west of of
Speaker 4: of Defiance, Iowa, and and Des Moines, which would probably
Speaker 4: be about two hours to the to the east of
Speaker 4: of of Defiance, Iowa. And again, Defiance is a little
Speaker 4: town of about four hundred people in the county Shelby County, Iowa,
Speaker 4: which had about thirteen thousand people. And this is this
Speaker 4: is a very agriculture, agriculturally dominated area in the region
Speaker 4: of Iowa. So a lot of people throughout this region
Speaker 4: either work in agriculture, work in farming, or have have
Speaker 4: some type of job that's connected, you know to the
Speaker 4: agriculture community, you know, economy, while others may work in
Speaker 4: government sector jobs such as working for the county, county government,
Speaker 4: county courthouse, or a school teacher or you know, law
Speaker 4: enforcement jobs and stuff like that. This is an area
Speaker 4: of the country that really or at least this area
Speaker 4: here Shelby County and in particular Defiance, you know, we're
Speaker 4: really trying to trying of maintain status. Quote, there really
Speaker 4: weren't too many new job opportunities, let alone any companies
Speaker 4: opening up, so uh, Defiance in particular had had a
Speaker 4: downtown that really didn't have very much aside from the
Speaker 4: volunteer fire station, a small bank, and uh you know,
Speaker 4: a village hall and the clerk's office and one restaurant,
Speaker 4: uh slash bar that was kind of a you know,
Speaker 4: tucked in, uh you know, chucked in the community. While Harlan,
Speaker 4: as you mentioned, Dan was the county seat and Harlan
Speaker 4: was a still is a very viable, uh strong small
Speaker 4: town community, has excellent schools, really good sports programs, and
Speaker 4: really is the economic hub of Shelby County. A town
Speaker 4: of about five or six thousand with a handful of
Speaker 4: key I think manufacturing companies and major employers, so really
Speaker 4: a lot of people throughout the Shelby County area, particularly Defiance.
Speaker 4: You would often make the twelve or thirteen mile drive
Speaker 4: either into Harlan and Iowa or also up Highway fifty
Speaker 4: nine toward Dennis and Iowa, which was about again another
Speaker 4: eight or nine miles up the road. But really Harlan
Speaker 4: was the economic base of the county. And Harlan is
Speaker 4: actually where the Sheriff's office and the City of Harlan
Speaker 4: police department were located, and that's where all the county
Speaker 4: government offices, including the courthouse in the jail were located.
Speaker 11: Now, let's talk about scotch hand. He was born in
Speaker 11: nineteen sixty two, not really a big guy. But tell
Speaker 11: us a little bit about his as much as you
Speaker 11: could find you found out about his early life and uh,
Speaker 11: and tell us what happens according to Harlan Police later
Speaker 11: Deputy John Kelly. But let's start off with his earliest
Speaker 11: background and if it's some kind of indication of what
Speaker 11: later he becomes.
Speaker 4: Right, Well, I'm going off a memory here and uh
Speaker 4: and I'm Scott was.
Speaker 11: Uh.
Speaker 4: He was short, five foot four, tough kid, tough guy,
Speaker 4: and was an only child. And his uh, his parents
Speaker 4: had had moved when he was really little from from
Speaker 4: I believe Dennison. Yeah, he was born in Dennison and
Speaker 4: then they moved just right down the road. And uh,
Speaker 4: in the early nineteen eighties, had built a house in
Speaker 4: the town of Defiance, Iowa. And it's a nice piece
Speaker 4: of property. It's a ranch. Uh, it's got a nice
Speaker 4: big backyard, really nice, nice mature trees now and uh,
Speaker 4: like I said, it's a it's a it's a nice house.
Speaker 4: And uh. And this is where he grew up, lived
Speaker 4: there with his mom and dad, and and really just
Speaker 4: kind of putted around as he as he grew up,
Speaker 4: really didn't you know, wasn't very motivated either for career
Speaker 4: or education. And uh, he really took a liking to
Speaker 4: uh two automobiles, but really didn't pursue that as a career.
Speaker 4: And he had worked a handful of different jobs over
Speaker 4: the years, but uh oftentimes got fired from these jobs.
Speaker 4: Uh usually related to not showing up for work. So
Speaker 4: he was not really dependable. And he also wasn't very motivated,
Speaker 4: you know, to to make something of himself more or less.
Speaker 4: But but his his family had or they came into
Speaker 4: a into a garage property that was right across the street.
Speaker 4: Dan And it's really this garage where he spent the
Speaker 4: bulk of his time restoring and acquiring older vehicles, a
Speaker 4: lot of classic cars. And this is kind of where
Speaker 4: he would just putts around most of his days and
Speaker 4: just really refurbish these cars, you know, you know, cut
Speaker 4: them down a little bit, but but spend a lot
Speaker 4: of his time there. And you know, as his future
Speaker 4: wife is could eventually talk about and testify, this really
Speaker 4: wasn't a job or anything where he was making a
Speaker 4: lot of money. It just really was more or less,
Speaker 4: you know, his hobby and that really didn't help out,
Speaker 4: you know, as far as generating income. You know, once
Speaker 4: he eventually does get married and have children.
Speaker 11: Now, what was his earliest the earliest record of in
Speaker 11: terms of alcohol and or drug problems be before we
Speaker 11: talk about just his relationships with women in general, how
Speaker 11: he was and how he was received by women.
Speaker 4: I know he had a couple of minor skirmishes with
Speaker 4: the law enforcement, I believe in his uh let's see
Speaker 4: born sixty two in in his twenties, but nothing that
Speaker 4: really landed him in in any serious hot water with authorities. Uh.
Speaker 4: I mean there were there were different reports, like I said,
Speaker 4: just minor drug use, you know, marijuana, but this is
Speaker 4: not really hardcore distribution or dealing, you know, I think
Speaker 4: by in large, like I said, he he came in contact,
Speaker 4: he interacted with a lot of the local law enforcement officials.
Speaker 4: And again in a small town, small county, you know,
Speaker 4: such as Shelby County, you know, wasn't uncommon for the
Speaker 4: cops to know the locals and vice versa, even if
Speaker 4: they weren't causing trouble. But but the problems by in
Speaker 4: large that you know, that he was involved with, you know,
Speaker 4: prior to his marriage with Dixie. You know, really we're
Speaker 4: pretty minor. And you know, again didn't amount twenty any
Speaker 4: significant crime that would have ever you know, put him
Speaker 4: in jail, you know, a quite along prison. Dan.
Speaker 11: Now, let's talk about Dixie Schreiber. She was born in
Speaker 11: nineteen sixty seven in Muscatine, Iowa. And her parents are
Speaker 11: Richard and Darlene, And she's got two brothers and two
Speaker 11: sisters or part of two brothers and two sisters. And
Speaker 11: her father dies when she's three, and then a stepfather
Speaker 11: comes into the scene and he's sexually abusive. So tell
Speaker 11: us a little bit more about this chaotic family situation
Speaker 11: that Dixie grew up in.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is actually one of the the family that
Speaker 4: she came from, you know, is well known nowadays. Unfortunately,
Speaker 4: more infamous for you know, for its dysfunction and uh,
Speaker 4: you know, and there was there was a lot of reports,
Speaker 4: you know, over the years after, uh you know, even
Speaker 4: after Dixie had had gotten away from this family Dan,
Speaker 4: but uh, you know, just all kinds of uh you know,
Speaker 4: unfortunate reports of incest and uh you know, and sexual
Speaker 4: abuse by by stepfather, you know, toward his uh you know,
Speaker 4: toward his stepdaughters and stuff. And you know, and as
Speaker 4: as as Dixie later testified, she you know, she she
Speaker 4: testified that she she had been a victim, uh you know,
Speaker 4: as well as uh, her siblings. But uh, it's a
Speaker 4: it's a it's yeah, it's a rough situation. It's an
Speaker 4: unfortunate situation and uh and people certainly understood and felt
Speaker 4: sorry for her. And uh and as a teenager, around
Speaker 4: fifteen or sixteen, she's going to come to live with
Speaker 4: Scott Shanahan and his parents Beverly and uh al and
Speaker 4: uh and and that's it's around that point in time
Speaker 4: where I think Dixie was fifteen or sixteen, Scot's about
Speaker 4: five years older. That's where they started dating and became
Speaker 4: a serious item, you know. Again, at the same point
Speaker 4: that they're you know, living under the same roof. But
Speaker 4: it's really, yeah, this house on third third Street or
Speaker 4: third Avenue in Defiance is where Dixie's going to move
Speaker 4: and you know, during the nineteen eighties, and it's it's
Speaker 4: really where she's going to spend the next twenty years
Speaker 4: or so, you know, of her of her life. No,
Speaker 4: but like you said, yeah, she came from a tough family.
Speaker 11: Now let's talk about the age that she there's an
Speaker 11: age difference, and so it's important at this young age.
Speaker 11: So she's sixteen, Scott is twenty one at this time.
Speaker 4: Correct, And and and he also he's he possesses a
Speaker 4: very domineering, overbearing personality. But it sounds like that wasn't
Speaker 4: immediately apparent or at least at first to Dixie. You know,
Speaker 4: it it may have involved you know, you know, yelling
Speaker 4: and you know, screaming, you know, you know, kind of
Speaker 4: more of a domineering personnel, but it wasn't any type
Speaker 4: of serious, you know, violence at first that eventually perpetuates
Speaker 4: and becomes a huge issue and a huge factor in
Speaker 4: you know, the events that unfold over a matter of time.
Speaker 4: But at first, you know, like like like we pointed out,
Speaker 4: you know about a five or six year age difference
Speaker 4: between the two of them, but you know, they got along.
Speaker 4: You know, they yell at each other, but we're willing
Speaker 4: to put up with each other. And and I think
Speaker 4: Dan the fact that Dixie was so young, you know,
Speaker 4: fifteen or sixteen, she really especially in a real small
Speaker 4: isolated town like this too. You know, I think she
Speaker 4: really wasn't exposed you know to other other guys, you know,
Speaker 4: other potential suitors are just just having an opportunity to
Speaker 4: even see what else is out there. That's kind of
Speaker 4: my my take from you know, from studying the case
Speaker 4: over the years. But uh, but it just it just
Speaker 4: seems like those two start serious romance, serious relationship with
Speaker 4: each other while they're very young, while she's very young
Speaker 4: and he's a little bit older, and and that's really
Speaker 4: all Dixie is exposed to. And she really just uh,
Speaker 4: you know, falls head over heels for Scott Shanahan and uh,
Speaker 4: you know, and uh and and unfortunately it's going to
Speaker 4: lead to a downward spiral, you know, over over a
Speaker 4: period of time.
Speaker 11: What we didn't mention, and I think is important to
Speaker 11: to to sort of understand the character of of uh, Dixie,
Speaker 11: and that is that in nineteen eighty four she finally
Speaker 11: broke away from this sexual abuse that was rampant in
Speaker 11: her family, this continual sexual abuse. So she broke away
Speaker 11: in nineteen eighty four. But you talk about how she
Speaker 11: did that, She said she threatened her her father that
Speaker 11: she was going to go to police, and then the
Speaker 11: father took off with one of his female companions. So
Speaker 11: you could see that the father dying at three. She
Speaker 11: finally breaking away, but in that that she had to
Speaker 11: actually tell actually threatened to call police, and then her
Speaker 11: father the solution was to take off with his newest girlfriend.
Speaker 4: Thanks for this function, right right, And and I remember
Speaker 4: I think they were living right across the state line
Speaker 4: again close to Omaha, in the small community of Utah
Speaker 4: On Nebraska, which was a small town of about eleven
Speaker 4: hundred people just west of Omaha, Nebraska. And I remember
Speaker 4: it either come out in the trial or in court
Speaker 4: testimony a later day two but I think Dixie had
Speaker 4: pointed out that that the family was constantly on the
Speaker 4: move when she was young, and her belief was that
Speaker 4: that was often because it was harder for the police
Speaker 4: to especially the smaller community police to keep tabs on
Speaker 4: her family, especially her abusive stepfather, and more or less
Speaker 4: they were always kind of the family of the stepfather
Speaker 4: always kept one step ahead of the police and the investigators,
Speaker 4: and especially at that day and age, in that time frame,
Speaker 4: you know, it was a lot harder for police to
Speaker 4: make a case and investigate a case. You know, if
Speaker 4: by the time they're going out to the house, no
Speaker 4: sooner do they find out that the family had moved
Speaker 4: sixty miles away. And that seemed to be kind of
Speaker 4: the events that were unfolding when when Dixie was very young,
Speaker 4: her father, stepfather, you know, had the family moving around
Speaker 4: a lot, and you know, Dixie as she got older
Speaker 4: just was fed up, put the abuse and kind of
Speaker 4: put her foot down into you know, eventually got out
Speaker 4: of that house, got away from that environment. But the
Speaker 4: unfortunate and result is that that's going to lead to
Speaker 4: you know, bad decisions and you know, and bad, bad,
Speaker 4: bad events.
Speaker 9: For her.
Speaker 4: Over the course of her adult over the course of
Speaker 4: her adult life.
Speaker 11: Dan, Now, let's talk about the environment that she's living
Speaker 11: in for this twenty years. And the parents are Alfesser
Speaker 11: and Bev and and he's got diabetes and so he's
Speaker 11: got two legs amputated, and he's legally blind, and she's
Speaker 11: had a heart attack triple bypass, and she's on an
Speaker 11: oxygen tank. So tell us about the beginning of this
Speaker 11: relationship in terms of what Dixie sees in the relationship,
Speaker 11: and tell us how it in, how it proceeds, and
Speaker 11: before we talk about the dissent into something a lot
Speaker 11: different than when it started with. So tell us what
Speaker 11: it started off with and what was his relationship with
Speaker 11: with all the people in the home, including Dixie.
Speaker 4: Well, with Dixie's situation, you know, back then, she got
Speaker 4: along real well with with Al and Bov, especially Bev
Speaker 4: and you know, and and part of living in this
Speaker 4: environment too, in this house again, the four of them, Al,
Speaker 4: Bev and their their child, Scott. But uh, Dixie took
Speaker 4: it upon herself to really also help care for Bev
Speaker 4: and and and Al. And then as you pointed out
Speaker 4: for listeners, Uh, both of them, especially Al, you know,
Speaker 4: really had some serious serious health issues and uh, you know,
Speaker 4: and and so so you Dixie kind of take it
Speaker 4: upon herself to you know, really be the caregiver to
Speaker 4: help both of them out, you know, whereas Scott is
Speaker 4: kind of absence or really that's not something that you know,
Speaker 4: he really took upon himself. Dixie would go, you know
Speaker 4: and help buy groceries, you know, and help run errands,
Speaker 4: you know, especially since Al couldn't really get out of
Speaker 4: the house very much and stuff, and you know, als
Speaker 4: eventually you know, going to pass away, and uh, there's
Speaker 4: gonna be a conversation at a later point in time.
Speaker 4: You know that Dixie's going to really remember as she
Speaker 4: gets older, you know, and it's a conversation with Bev,
Speaker 4: you know, along the lines of this, you know, something
Speaker 4: ever happens to me, you know, I really want you
Speaker 4: to look after Scott. There was also signs too, though,
Speaker 4: Dan and supporting to bring this up to for the listeners,
Speaker 4: where you know, Dixie, you know, had had also observed
Speaker 4: situations where where Scott had been abusive toward his own mother,
Speaker 4: and Bev was very embarrassed and ashamed about this, to
Speaker 4: the point where I know there was such there was
Speaker 4: an instant where, you know, where she told somebody and
Speaker 4: I'm going off of memory, so I can't remember if
Speaker 4: it was Dixie or if it was actually one of
Speaker 4: the neighbors, but I think it may have been one
Speaker 4: of the neighbors. But but, but Bevitt had told one
Speaker 4: of the neighbors that she had fallen off a ladder,
Speaker 4: you know, while she was you know, doing doing work
Speaker 4: on the house, when in reality, you know, Scott had
Speaker 4: had he had most likely punched his mother, gotten angry
Speaker 4: with her in a fit of rage. So so there
Speaker 4: were signs of of Scott being abusive toward his own mother,
Speaker 4: being physically violent toward her when he didn't get his
Speaker 4: way or or wanted to, you know, wanted something and
Speaker 4: uh and again in this environment, Dixie was more or
Speaker 4: less a caregiver, you know four l and uh and
Speaker 4: bev and uh. You know, really they weren't in the
Speaker 4: best of health. And it's it's around the early nineteen nineties,
Speaker 4: I think nineteen ninety four, memory serves, you know, where
Speaker 4: bev passes away. And now you know both the Scott's parents,
Speaker 4: you know, are gone, and it's.
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Speaker 4: Just him and Dixie with that house.
Speaker 11: Now, you talked about his career and that really he
Speaker 11: didn't have much of one and wasn't inclined for steady work,
Speaker 11: so he tinkered at the garage it was conveniently across
Speaker 11: the street. And so tell us about how they supported
Speaker 11: themselves with what income? Where did this income come from?
Speaker 4: Well, they were very fortunate that especially you know, and
Speaker 4: you know, in those days. And yeah, based on you know,
Speaker 4: the economy at that point in time. But when when
Speaker 4: Scott's parents had passed away, Scott had inherited, it was
Speaker 4: at least one hundred and fifty thousand dollars plus the property.
Speaker 4: And again that's a very nice ranch right in the
Speaker 4: community of Defiance. And also they grudge and uh and
Speaker 4: within a couple of years, the economy was was was
Speaker 4: very strong. This you know, this uh this mutual fund
Speaker 4: or stack fund. I can't remember off the top of
Speaker 4: my head what it was. But but anyway, this this
Speaker 4: inheritance grew very quickly too, from one hundred and fifty
Speaker 4: thousand to uh to upwards of one hundred and eighty
Speaker 4: thousand within a couple of years. And Dixie was also
Speaker 4: working around this time time frame. Thank Scott had had
Speaker 4: uh more or less ordered her to work. And uh,
Speaker 4: you know, she actually she she was a she was
Speaker 4: a very good employee. She actually worked in uh uh
Speaker 4: for for a handful of different uh assisted living homes
Speaker 4: or independent living uh, but senior care. You know, she
Speaker 4: worked in senior care and provided uh, you know, care
Speaker 4: and comfort to you know, for the area elderly and
Speaker 4: so she was working bringing in some money from that job.
Speaker 4: But really over time though, it's this inheritance stand that
Speaker 4: that the couple, primarily scot you know, are really gonna
Speaker 4: kind of become greedy or really just kind of uh
Speaker 4: make us the focus uh you know of uh, you know,
Speaker 4: their spending habits and practices you know, from from from
Speaker 4: there on out. And it's really this you know, this
Speaker 4: inheritance that they're going to live off of and uh
Speaker 4: and drain down you know, over a short few years.
Speaker 4: And that is certainly gonna strain the tensions between the
Speaker 4: between the couple, I believe.
Speaker 11: Now you get to the point where there is reports
Speaker 11: that she has said to him, ah, listen, this is
Speaker 11: just a hobby. You're gonna have to get a job.
Speaker 11: So that was part of the tension that she had
Speaker 11: this responsibilit with the children and she want him to
Speaker 11: find full time employment. And his response was what.
Speaker 4: He just becomes very very angry and threatening toward her,
Speaker 4: and uh and and uh and I'm trying to remember
Speaker 4: there's so many different violent episodes stand but uh but
Speaker 4: uh I I I just know that he screams at her,
Speaker 4: you know, on various occasions and uh, and and eventually
Speaker 4: that's gonna become very very very violent. But he just
Speaker 4: is adamant that uh, you know that he doesn't need
Speaker 4: a job, and you know, and uh and and just
Speaker 4: is not going to go out and look for a job,
Speaker 4: and and and how dare you you know, kind of
Speaker 4: becomes uh, you know, he just he he just can't
Speaker 4: accept somebody else criticizing him, let alone suggesting that that
Speaker 4: he changes ways. And uh, there's gonna be all kinds
Speaker 4: of situations where you know, he's gonna throw you know,
Speaker 4: garden tools at her. You know, there's really some violent
Speaker 4: episodes where you know, he forces her to u take
Speaker 4: out some concrete actually poured some kind of crete uh
Speaker 4: sidewalk in front of the house, just to ridicule her
Speaker 4: when clearly, you know, he would have known how to
Speaker 4: do this. He sent her to drive around a few
Speaker 4: of the area towns to find the right concrete mix
Speaker 4: and then forced her to mix the concrete when she admitted,
Speaker 4: you know, she clearly didn't know what she was doing.
Speaker 4: You know, he just he just stood around and you know, smirked,
Speaker 4: and you know, then you know, just mocked her and
Speaker 4: humiliated her. And there's gonna be a number of other episodes,
Speaker 4: you know, where things get much much worse than that,
Speaker 4: where she's eventually gonna take her down the basement and
Speaker 4: uh and uh tie her up with with the clothes
Speaker 4: hanger and leave her down the basement for a couple
Speaker 4: of days at at at at one point in time,
Speaker 4: and uh, like I said, it's just really you know,
Speaker 4: where the verbal abuse really shifts into more physical abuse
Speaker 4: and it really becomes a lot worse for Dixie over
Speaker 4: a short period of years, Dan, you talk.
Speaker 11: In the book that is year two thousand and again,
Speaker 11: a lot of these reports are according to Dixie because
Speaker 11: she doesn't call police. And the incident did you mention
Speaker 11: where he drags her downstairs by the hair and leads
Speaker 11: her down there tied up with a coat hanger behind
Speaker 11: her back, her hands tied. She doesn't call police, so
Speaker 11: we're getting these reports from her. And October sixth two thousand,
Speaker 11: her friend Brenda Johnson called Shelby County Police told them
Speaker 11: of abuse, but Dixie had some plan to move to Texas.
Speaker 11: So tell us about this because this is very important
Speaker 11: to this entire story in the trial too. What happens
Speaker 11: with this Prince Joseph.
Speaker 4: Well, there have been a handful of times where again
Speaker 4: and I should just point this out for listeners. Uh, Dixie,
Speaker 4: Dixie had several family members by this point in time,
Speaker 4: around two thousand that had moved or or you know,
Speaker 4: located in uh around just in the state of Texas.
Speaker 4: And uh and yeah, and one was her sister, Diane,
Speaker 4: I remember, and uh, and she had gone back a
Speaker 4: couple of times again, even during this tumultuous relationship, a
Speaker 4: couple of times. And then I and I may not
Speaker 4: even gotten into this really in depth in the book, uh,
Speaker 4: just because again some of these were short trips. But uh,
Speaker 4: but Dixie did make a couple of trips down to
Speaker 4: Texas to stay down there for a couple of days
Speaker 4: and then she would come back. But in this particular episode,
Speaker 4: the one you're talking about, Dan, she had had confided
Speaker 4: in her friend Brenda, you know, that she was finally
Speaker 4: ready and willing to uh, you know, to get out
Speaker 4: of this relationship with Scott once and for all, and
Speaker 4: and and and and Brenda wanted to make sure that
Speaker 4: it happened. She wanted to, you know, yeah, see through
Speaker 4: just because she knew that especially in a in a
Speaker 4: situation like this. Uh. You know, oftentimes the the abuser
Speaker 4: becomes very very overpowering and overbearing. And in the in
Speaker 4: the victim, in this case, Dixie, Uh, it would not
Speaker 4: have been a surprise for her to wilt under pressure,
Speaker 4: or make excuses or just be afraid that something bad
Speaker 4: would happen if she actually carried through and uh, you know,
Speaker 4: and and and and actually did move out, pack her
Speaker 4: bags and you know, and left. So UH on this occasion, Brenda,
Speaker 4: Brenda goes to the property and uh and and she
Speaker 4: sees clearly both cars in the driveway, Scott's and Dixie's.
Speaker 4: And she goes to the door and uh and nobody
Speaker 4: answers the door. And I think this was the middle
Speaker 4: of the daytime too, on a weekday. And Brenda at
Speaker 4: least had the smart the sixth sense or intuition whatever
Speaker 4: you want to say too to UH to get a
Speaker 4: hold of UH law enforcement in this case, the Shelby
Speaker 4: County Sheriff's office. And I know the fellow that's the
Speaker 4: current sheriff now, Mark Hervey, was one of the responders.
Speaker 4: And I interviewed him at length of this book. And
Speaker 4: and and so Mark Mark arrives and I can't remember
Speaker 4: if another deputy was there as well, but uh, but
Speaker 4: you know, they tried their best. They tried knocking on
Speaker 4: the door, and nobody came to the door. They walk
Speaker 4: around the back, and I think Mark had the smarts
Speaker 4: to uh to you know, think to himself that people
Speaker 4: often have keys, you know, uh, sometimes on their light
Speaker 4: post or you know, or under a matt and uh,
Speaker 4: you know, he and Brenda, you know, quickly you find
Speaker 4: found this found this key to the front door. They
Speaker 4: walk around to the front. Now I want to just
Speaker 4: give a little background just for listeners, kind of what's
Speaker 4: going on inside the house. Okay, the drapes are closed.
Speaker 4: Scott's inside the house with Dixie, and I believe they're
Speaker 4: two small children at that point in time yet because
Speaker 4: two thousand, yeah, they would have had two. And Scott's
Speaker 4: just furious. But he's whispering because he notices a squad
Speaker 4: car now in his front driveway and he yelled, he
Speaker 4: whispers watching and they whispers but uh he uh, you know,
Speaker 4: he turns to Dixie and he's like, did you call
Speaker 4: the police? And and Astley she didn't, so you know,
Speaker 4: she's told the truth, you know, but obviously he didn't
Speaker 4: believe her. Nonetheless, he's hiding her in one of the closets.
Speaker 4: Uh and uh and I believe the children were they're
Speaker 4: in the closet or or the bedroom. He can find
Speaker 4: them as well. Eventually Herbie uh and uh and and
Speaker 4: and Brenda come around back to the front of the house,
Speaker 4: you know, and announced their presence and opened the door,
Speaker 4: and uh, you know, and Scott and uh, Dixie emerged us.
Speaker 4: You know, Scott, you know, a lot of out of
Speaker 4: the closet. The two children emerge as well, and Dixie
Speaker 4: just had both eyes just for here. You know, we're
Speaker 4: just horribly you know, purple, just black and blue, I
Speaker 4: should say, but uh, you know, she had clearly been
Speaker 4: beaten by Scott in the hours uh preceding this, and uh.
Speaker 4: In that day, the Sheriff's office took took Scott into
Speaker 4: custody and they charged him with with domestic violence. Again,
Speaker 4: I'm going off a memory. I think if we're talking
Speaker 4: two thousand and this would have been his third arrest
Speaker 4: for domestic violence and uh and which would have been
Speaker 4: very important because that would have been the one that
Speaker 4: led to the Class D felony, which was the most
Speaker 4: severe charge that he had faced up to this point
Speaker 4: in time related to domestic violence with Dixie. This would
Speaker 4: have been the charge carried up to five years in prison.
Speaker 4: And I believe they also charged him as well, you know,
Speaker 4: with you know, with false imprisonment or a charge you know,
Speaker 4: basically for holding Dick Dixie captive as well, So there
Speaker 4: were two charges he based. Dixie's able to get out
Speaker 4: of the situation. Obviously, skot Get's taken away in handcuffs,
Speaker 4: you know, driven to the county jail, and Harlan twelve
Speaker 4: miles away, he's sitting there waiting trial. Dixie does make
Speaker 4: it down to Texas then, and uh and again, especially
Speaker 4: for listeners throughout North America, the distance from Iowa to Texas,
Speaker 4: you know, it's well over a thousand miles. There's a
Speaker 4: there's a it's a very very long distance to to
Speaker 4: get there, either by car or by automobile. And that's
Speaker 4: very important to point out because that distance alone would
Speaker 4: make it very, very difficult for an abuser, even like
Speaker 4: Scott Shanahan, to just all of a sudden suddenly show
Speaker 4: up and harm Dixie, you know, grab her and throw
Speaker 4: her in the back of his pickup truck and drive
Speaker 4: all the way back to Iowa, so that that that
Speaker 4: the distance could and should have been some comfort and
Speaker 4: reassurance to Dixie. And the fact that the Shelby County
Speaker 4: County Attorney's office, in concert with the Sheriff's office, you know,
Speaker 4: really was was was gonna work hard to make sure
Speaker 4: that this third arrest for domestic violence, the tellnty charge
Speaker 4: really was going to stick. And if it would stick,
Speaker 4: in all likelihood, he would have gone to prison, you know,
Speaker 4: and served at least a handful of years, if not
Speaker 4: the full five years. Bottom line. That's very important too,
Speaker 4: because that would have made it easy too for Dixie
Speaker 4: to get a divorce or just get out of this
Speaker 4: relationship and you know, and move on and and meet somebody,
Speaker 4: meet a nice guy, you know, somebody she had never
Speaker 4: had an opportunity to meet, because you know, she and
Speaker 4: Scott have been together since she was you know, fifteen
Speaker 4: or sixteen. Then Dan.
Speaker 11: Now, the thing is, she's got this ideal opportunity to
Speaker 11: rebuild his life, the support of family, especially with the
Speaker 11: sister one thousand miles away from and it looks like
Speaker 11: they're gonna they're very determined to put this guy away
Speaker 11: for a fair amount of time. So what does Scott
Speaker 11: do in response to this? What does he do?
Speaker 4: Well, that's kind of in the point where he really
Speaker 4: kind of tries to become mister lovey dovey and really
Speaker 4: appealed to Dixie that he's going to become a changed,
Speaker 4: changed man and that that he's he's really going to
Speaker 4: settle down these rethought things. You know, he's not going
Speaker 4: to be you know, he's going to change his old
Speaker 4: ways and bad ways, bad behavior. I' going off a memory,
Speaker 4: but I know he mentions things like going to counseling,
Speaker 4: you know, better's education classes and uh, you know, and
Speaker 4: he's really going to appeal to her on an emotional standpoint,
Speaker 4: you know that, uh, you know that really the most
Speaker 4: important thing for her, according to him, is really to
Speaker 4: have their family whole whole again, to be intact and
Speaker 4: and and he's going to uh and also obviously you
Speaker 4: can't have a family if he's going to be in prison.
Speaker 4: So so you've got to remember, listeners have to remember
Speaker 4: he's appealing to her, but in reality he's pushing her
Speaker 4: he either subconsciously or or just being outright about it.
Speaker 4: But uh, but nonetheless he's going to appeal to her
Speaker 4: to the point where she's going to right to the
Speaker 4: court the h the prosecutor's office and informed them that
Speaker 4: she does not want to come back to the state
Speaker 4: of Iowa to testify as their key witness in order
Speaker 4: to uh, you know, secure a conviction against Scott Shanahan
Speaker 4: in court. This this domestic bounce is telling the charge
Speaker 4: at the prosecutor's office, uh, and Susan Christensen, the prosecutor,
Speaker 4: you know, really we're we're we're hoping to move forward
Speaker 4: and you know, send Scott to prison. For the prosecutor's
Speaker 4: offices isn't gonna just immediately listen to Dixie. They're gonna
Speaker 4: plead with her to the point where, you know, they're
Speaker 4: going to initially delay the trial. Inn And they're also
Speaker 4: going to point out that if money is a concern,
Speaker 4: well they're just gonna point they're they're willing to pay
Speaker 4: to get Dixie to come back to Iowa, pay her
Speaker 4: air airfare, hotel, whatever accommodations are necessary, you know, to
Speaker 4: help just to make sure that she's able to be
Speaker 4: in court to appear on the witness stand, raise the
Speaker 4: right hand and promise to tell the truth. So I'll
Speaker 4: forgot so, but she's not gonna want to have any
Speaker 4: of that, and uh, it's gonna become a lost cause
Speaker 4: in a very frustrating case for them, for the county
Speaker 4: attorney's office, in the in the sheriff's office, and eventually
Speaker 4: what's gonna happen is without their key witness, they're going
Speaker 4: to have to drop their the criminal charges against Scott Shanahan.
Speaker 4: So for context and background for listeners, Scott had already
Speaker 4: been convicted of two misdemeanor domestic violence charges prior to this,
Speaker 4: this third charge where he had held his wife captive
Speaker 4: and you know, left her with you know, black and
Speaker 4: blue eyes. So so unfortunately, the most serious crime that
Speaker 4: he commits, the most serious offense that he's arrested for,
Speaker 4: is the one that that he ultimately gets away with,
Speaker 4: Scott free. It never goes on his record as far
Speaker 4: as a conviction, He never does any you know, incarceration
Speaker 4: as far as the sentence for this crime. Yes, he
Speaker 4: had been arrested, yes he did, you know sometime in
Speaker 4: jail awaiting trial. Le but uh, but there was no
Speaker 4: conviction for this crime and no felony on his record.
Speaker 4: So he gets released from jail. And this is I
Speaker 4: think is really even more important for listeners as far
Speaker 4: as just kind of the string of bad decisions that
Speaker 4: happened involving Dixie Shanahan. Dixie's gonna soon afterwards make the
Speaker 4: decision to reunite with Scott, to the point where she
Speaker 4: doesn't even tell her sister, Diane, you know, that she's
Speaker 4: going to go back to Iowa and get back together
Speaker 4: with Scott, And by doing so, she had abandoned she
Speaker 4: was going to nursing school down in the state of
Speaker 4: Texas and and pursuing a nursing degree, which which really
Speaker 4: would have set her up, uh, you know, for for
Speaker 4: a great and steady career path in in Texas. She's
Speaker 4: gonna drop that and uh and return in to the
Speaker 4: state of Iowa and move back to the house on
Speaker 4: third third Avenue and get back together with with Scott
Speaker 4: and the two kids. So for Scott, he gets his
Speaker 4: wife back, who he had abused repeatedly, and he doesn't
Speaker 4: have an additional conviction on his on his record, and
Speaker 4: he doesn't go to prison, so he gets everything he wants.
Speaker 4: And unfortunately for Dixie, you know, the abuse is still
Speaker 4: going to continue it's only going to intensify, you know,
Speaker 4: according to all accounts, and from that point forward.
Speaker 11: What happens in terms of the relationship, it's very very
Speaker 11: important according to her, according to anybody, in terms of
Speaker 11: addition to the family.
Speaker 4: Well, let's see, I'm there's gonna be a situation where
Speaker 4: let's see we're talking two thousand and two, where where
Speaker 4: where Dixie finds out that she's pregnant. Is that the
Speaker 4: part that you want me to talk about a lot
Speaker 4: of it, Dan, Yes, yes, okay, good, okay? Yes? And
Speaker 4: uh and so this I believe was probably unexpected and
Speaker 4: uh and uh apparently according to Dixie, by all accounts,
Speaker 4: Scott was just furious, raving, mad, stark mad you know
Speaker 4: about this, about this news and uh and and just
Speaker 4: did not want to have this baby. And by all accounts, uh,
Speaker 4: just become verbally abusive and and and apparently even physically
Speaker 4: abusive toward Dixie just over this issue that that she
Speaker 4: was going to go forward and have this child. She
Speaker 4: was adamant, she absolutely wanted to have the have the
Speaker 4: have the have the child. And uh and by her,
Speaker 4: by her, by her account, and uh, we have nothing
Speaker 4: to uh believe that it's not true, just based on
Speaker 4: Scott's character and other issues. You know that he absolutely
Speaker 4: did not want to go forward and have this have
Speaker 4: this child, and that is going to become kind of
Speaker 4: a key wedge or a key issue, you know, that's
Speaker 4: really going to strain the relationship. On top of the
Speaker 4: fact that that the financial situation for Dixie and Scott
Speaker 4: and their family is really starting to, uh, you know,
Speaker 4: put them in a perilous predicament. Comes around the summer
Speaker 4: of summer months of two thousand and two, you know,
Speaker 4: right around this time that this uh, this of this
Speaker 4: news of this pregnancy. Dan.
Speaker 11: Now she's kind of isolated from her family, is she not?
Speaker 11: And at this time as well, she's not really confiding
Speaker 11: in her friends about how this relationship has, you know,
Speaker 11: either you know, improved or not improved when we're talking
Speaker 11: about Brenda Johnson. But so tell us what she does
Speaker 11: say though, in terms of the abuse extending to the
Speaker 11: baby to claim about Scott.
Speaker 4: Well, she's going to claim that that Scott's can eventually
Speaker 4: uh you know, punch her in the stomach and and
Speaker 4: you know and hit her, you know again, yelling at
Speaker 4: her and screaming at her and just telling her that
Speaker 4: she's not going to have this, this this baby, and uh,
Speaker 4: uh do you want me just to go keep going
Speaker 4: forward on that Dan and didn't go into you know,
Speaker 4: you know, the day you know, of this of this homicide.
Speaker 4: So again according to Dixie's account, again this would have
Speaker 4: been very late summer of two thousand and two. But
Speaker 4: but she had gotten one of the oldest, her oldest children, Zach,
Speaker 4: you know, got him up for school and uh, you know,
Speaker 4: getting him ready to get on the school bus. And uh.
Speaker 4: And the story is that, uh, you know that that
Speaker 4: the young boy again about seven or eight years old,
Speaker 4: would have gone into the bedroom to say goodbye to
Speaker 4: his father, you know, and Scott just kind of rolled
Speaker 4: over and you know and just you know, continued to sleep.
Speaker 4: Dixie gets her son, you know, ready for school, and uh,
Speaker 4: shortly thereafter, Scott wakes up and just kind of a
Speaker 4: ball of uh you know, fury and rage, I should say,
Speaker 4: and you know, just angry about you know, you know,
Speaker 4: kid going off to school. And then a fight develops
Speaker 4: again over this this pregnancy, and and uh you know,
Speaker 4: from there, the story, uh, the story is that the
Speaker 4: fight eventually moved into the garage. You know where where
Speaker 4: Scott had beaten Dixie punched her repeatedly and uh and
Speaker 4: eventually gets uh moved back into the house and uh,
Speaker 4: you know, and that's where Scott apparently grabs a gun,
Speaker 4: grabs his shotgun, you know, and and and uh kind
Speaker 4: of gives Dixie the evil eyes and and uh, you know,
Speaker 4: and and tells her, you know, this day is not
Speaker 4: over with yet again, according to her her account, he
Speaker 4: takes the shotgun, walks with it back into his bedroom
Speaker 4: and uh, and Dixie maintains that this is the time
Speaker 4: that she's finally gonna call law enforcement. And again for
Speaker 4: context purposes for listeners, all the while that Dixie had
Speaker 4: returned to Defiance, Iowa after the charges were dismissed against
Speaker 4: Scott back in the early part of two thousand and one.
Speaker 4: There had never been one call to law enforcement for
Speaker 4: any domestic violence by Dixie. But but we know that
Speaker 4: there was probably a lot of domestic abuse still going on.
Speaker 4: And like you pointed out, she was very isolated, unintentionally
Speaker 4: or intentionally, as far as just her small support network
Speaker 4: really was not aware, you know, that things were escalating
Speaker 4: and becoming worse for her. But on this occasion, According
Speaker 4: to Dixie, she maintains that she made the decision she
Speaker 4: was going to go back in that bedroom and and.
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Speaker 4: And use the telephone? And I forgot to point out
Speaker 4: for listeners. But but earlier when Scott had walked up
Speaker 4: to her and you know how you know, scowled at
Speaker 4: her about the shotgun instead, the day isn't over. According
Speaker 4: to Dixie, Scott had also grabbed a couple of the telephones.
Speaker 4: You know again, people mostly had landlines at that point
Speaker 4: in time, really didn't have cell phones as much. So
Speaker 4: the story of Scott grabbed the cell phone or grabbed
Speaker 4: the landlines, took him back to the bedroom with him
Speaker 4: along with the shotgun, and Dixie's gonna maintain that she
Speaker 4: walked down the hallway, went into the bedroom to use
Speaker 4: the phone, saw the shotgun by the bed, and thought
Speaker 4: that Scott was you know, going to uh to shoot her,
Speaker 4: and that she grabbed the gun and uh, you know,
Speaker 4: and a moment of heroic self defense, shot Scott uh
Speaker 4: in fear of her life and thinking about her unborn
Speaker 4: child and uh and just after that, went retreated back
Speaker 4: to the living room and just sat in the having
Speaker 4: room chair, you know, for several hours and just kind
Speaker 4: of thought to herself, you know, oh my god, what
Speaker 4: just happened? You know, just kind of this whole set
Speaker 4: of events just kind of really hit home, you know. Again,
Speaker 4: That's that Stixie's account of how the day, the morning
Speaker 4: went and how how things escalated and turned not only
Speaker 4: violent but but fatal.
Speaker 11: And what does she say that she does with a
Speaker 11: Scott's body and the room that he has killed in,
Speaker 11: what does she do? According to her.
Speaker 4: Well, she's gonna maintain that she's going to go into
Speaker 4: that room I think once or twice that day. And
Speaker 4: that's pretty much. It's going to be it, but double
Speaker 4: what she's going to do was after after she shot him,
Speaker 4: she's going to pull the bed sheets just over his
Speaker 4: head and uh, and so basically you can't see space
Speaker 4: and there's just a lump under the bed at that
Speaker 4: point in time. So she's going to cover them up
Speaker 4: in the in the in their bedroom in the northeast
Speaker 4: bedroom of the house of the ranch. And and then
Speaker 4: there's also gonna be kind of a chest of drawers
Speaker 4: that Again there's two there's two doors that lead to
Speaker 4: the bedroom, one you know, being the main door from
Speaker 4: the from the hallway, the main hallway in the home.
Speaker 4: But then there's also a second door from the bathroom
Speaker 4: right over by the by the bedroom. And there's gonna
Speaker 4: be a chest of drawers that's gonna be placed or
Speaker 4: a hamper, i should say, placed up against the bathroom door.
Speaker 4: So in effect, somebody if the family was using the
Speaker 4: bathroom and tried to open the door and go into
Speaker 4: the bathroom or go into the bedroom, you know, they
Speaker 4: would be blocked. It just would be next to impossible
Speaker 4: unless you're a pro football player to get in there.
Speaker 4: And the other thing that she's going to do too,
Speaker 4: dan Is she's going to put down some towels underneath
Speaker 4: the underneath the door kind of half inch area, you know,
Speaker 4: on both doors. But she's gonna put some towels down
Speaker 4: there to make to basically prevent any odors or stench
Speaker 4: from percolating into the house. And along the lines too,
Speaker 4: I should point out, but I almost forgot about the windows.
Speaker 4: But but the window in the back bedroom, you know,
Speaker 4: she's gonna crank that open, and that's going to be
Speaker 4: open up pretty much all summer, fall and winter, you know,
Speaker 4: over the next six to nine months. You know, the
Speaker 4: back bedroom door is going to be open, the back
Speaker 4: bed bedroom windows, I should say, it's gonna be wide open.
Speaker 4: And so she takes these steps and and not only that,
Speaker 4: then she's eventually gonna move a bunch of boxes, cardboard boxes,
Speaker 4: and some of these I think came from Christmas gifts
Speaker 4: that she had bought her children, you know, for for
Speaker 4: different toys, and I think a TV and a stereo possibly,
Speaker 4: But anyway, there's gonna be a bunch of children's toys
Speaker 4: and you know, and I think a cooler, but just
Speaker 4: all kinds of stuff is going to kind of block
Speaker 4: the door. The main you know door for the for
Speaker 4: the for the northeast bedroom that she and Scott had
Speaker 4: previously shared. But but that's pretty much it. Uh. Once
Speaker 4: she closes that door, she closes that chapter, you know,
Speaker 4: o her life as far as just you know, Scott's
Speaker 4: just remains under the covers to his dead body, you know,
Speaker 4: hour after hour, day after day, you know, over the
Speaker 4: course of many, many months. And it's gonna take a while.
Speaker 11: Yeah, let's let's go back now, because part of it
Speaker 11: is that we don't get all this information at the
Speaker 11: same time. So unbeknownst to anyone, Scott Shanahan, his parents
Speaker 11: are dead, he's not really much of a lot of
Speaker 11: friends or co workers that he's had in this in
Speaker 11: Harlan or in the small town of Defiance, so he's
Speaker 11: not reported missing. But what people in this small community
Speaker 11: notice is that they don't see him in town. They
Speaker 11: see Dixie in town. Tell us some of the suspicious
Speaker 11: things that kind of stack up for people that are
Speaker 11: can't help but observing things in this small town.
Speaker 4: Thanks Dania. That's that's a good point to bring up.
Speaker 4: So again, in a small town like Defiant Side where
Speaker 4: everybody kind of knows everybody, but on the other side too,
Speaker 4: I want to point out, you know, people aren't always
Speaker 4: overly nosy, and people do keep to themselves. But the
Speaker 4: thing is, Dixie's going to take a handful of actions
Speaker 4: that people are going to kind of raise their eyebrow
Speaker 4: and become a little suspicious self just because they're going
Speaker 4: to know it's not in Scott's character. And some of
Speaker 4: those things that she does immediately in the aftermath of
Speaker 4: his death are selling off putting ads in the newspapers,
Speaker 4: including the Omaha newspaper, you know, sixty miles away. But
Speaker 4: she's going to put classified ads in the paper to
Speaker 4: sell off some of Scott's prized possessions, including a number
Speaker 4: of these cars and and I can say this, and
Speaker 4: antique tractors that he had also collected or had on
Speaker 4: his property, and and a bunch of his tools. Now,
Speaker 4: some of the people that are going to come to
Speaker 4: take a look at these vehicles are going to be
Speaker 4: people that are already familiar a little bit with Scott
Speaker 4: Shanahan to the point where you know, they're even going
Speaker 4: to be very reluctant because they know Scott's reputation, you know,
Speaker 4: and his explosive tendencies. You know, they're going to become
Speaker 4: a little reluctant, and they tell Dixie that, you know,
Speaker 4: when Scott comes back, well when they see Scott, you know,
Speaker 4: they'll just bring him back the vehicle and stuff. And
Speaker 4: I should point out Dixie would would tell these people
Speaker 4: that Scott had run off. There were different stories that
Speaker 4: she gave, but it was kind of all along the
Speaker 4: lines of that he had run away. You know. One
Speaker 4: story had him going to a town about fifty or
Speaker 4: sixty miles away Atlantic, Iowa. Other stories had him in
Speaker 4: different parts of Iowa, but the story was that he
Speaker 4: had up and left her and the kids. And again
Speaker 4: along those lines, some of these people were very reluctant
Speaker 4: to even want to take his vehicles, thinking he'd be back.
Speaker 4: But I know in one situation in particular, where Dixie
Speaker 4: made a comment over at the post office to a
Speaker 4: fella where again she was willing to let him take
Speaker 4: one of the farm tractors for nothing, you know, and
Speaker 4: he was willing to just to put it on his lot,
Speaker 4: you know, and in the minute he saw Scott return
Speaker 4: to town, you know, Scott could just gladly come by
Speaker 4: and take the tractor back, you know, No problems, and
Speaker 4: Dixie makes a comment just very bold, he's not coming back.
Speaker 4: And again, at that point in time, the guy wasn't thinking,
Speaker 4: oh my god, he's probably dead. He's murdered in the
Speaker 4: back bedroom. She but but as time goes by, in
Speaker 4: the events unfold, you know, when nobody sees Scott, it's
Speaker 4: those kinds of comments that people are going to remember.
Speaker 4: And uh and again there was another fell up that
Speaker 4: lived over in Council Bluffs, Iowa, which is very close
Speaker 4: to Omaha. And uh, and he's going to become interested
Speaker 4: in the classic cars, and he just remembers when he
Speaker 4: we made the phone call to inquire about the car,
Speaker 4: you know, just that uh, you know, Dixie was selling
Speaker 4: these classic cars but really didn't sound like she knew
Speaker 4: practically anything, you know, about the vehicles and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: So he was worried that that he was walking into
Speaker 4: the middle of a you know, of a potential divorce
Speaker 4: or you know or or you know, jealous situation or
Speaker 4: a property being repossessed, and just was very reluctant to
Speaker 4: you know, want to even go up there to defiance
Speaker 4: that would look at these cars. But you know, eventually
Speaker 4: he's going to make the drive up there with his kid,
Speaker 4: and you know they're going to buy one of the
Speaker 4: cars and some tools for seven or eight hundred bucks.
Speaker 4: But you know, again it's other people kind of it
Speaker 4: becomes suspicious of a lot of this stuff too, because
Speaker 4: they just knew Scott real well, and they knew about
Speaker 4: the only thing Scott loved in life, or seemed to
Speaker 4: love in life, was his tools and these cars that
Speaker 4: he spent all his time refurbishing and restoring. And you know,
Speaker 4: for his wife Dixie to be just pawning, I don't know,
Speaker 4: pawning is not the right word, but just to be
Speaker 4: selling these off one at a time, you know, for
Speaker 4: some extra money. If Scott supposedly is still around, just
Speaker 4: did not make very much sense at all to these people.
Speaker 4: And the most important thing too, that seemed to get overlooked,
Speaker 4: but Scott's truck was still sitting in his driveway the
Speaker 4: whole time too, So it begged the question, you know,
Speaker 4: if Scott did run off, you know, how did he
Speaker 4: run off? You know, how did he get out of Defiance, Siowa?
Speaker 4: If his truck was still you know, his brown truck
Speaker 4: was still sitting in his his blacktop driveway on third
Speaker 4: third Avenue.
Speaker 11: Now to add to the incredulous, another incredulous. You know
Speaker 11: a person that should be have some red flags when
Speaker 11: he talks to Dixie is Jeff Duty. And so tell
Speaker 11: us who Jeff Duty is and what his relationship becomes
Speaker 11: with Dixie.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so we Jeff Duty's he's a few years older
Speaker 4: than than Dixie, memory serves. And he lived in a
Speaker 4: town about half an hour to forty five minutes away
Speaker 4: called i to Grove, Iowa. And he had worked at
Speaker 4: one of the big manufacturing companies, uh in I to grow.
Speaker 4: But Uh, it's so round the Memorial Day weekend and
Speaker 4: of two thousand and three, where where Jeff and Dixie
Speaker 4: uh become acquainted with each other at at a local
Speaker 4: neighborhood barbecue that was hosted by one of the other
Speaker 4: neighbors of Dixie and Scott Shanahan their last name with
Speaker 4: the Carls. But but anyway, Dixie and Jeff Duty hit
Speaker 4: it off right away, and uh to the point where
Speaker 4: they've become a very serious couple of serious items, you
Speaker 4: know from the outset and UH and Jeff would stay
Speaker 4: at Dixie's house on the weekends pretty much every weekend
Speaker 4: during the summer of two thousand and three, and I
Speaker 4: know they go on at least one vacation together too
Speaker 4: as well. But again, he's staying at the Shanahan home
Speaker 4: on Third Avenue. And uh, I don't know how to
Speaker 4: explain this other than he just overlooked or was not inquisitive. Uh,
Speaker 4: you know, didn't ask the right questions, didn't notice anything
Speaker 4: out of the ordinary. But uh, but uh, he's staying
Speaker 4: at the Shanahan house. Meanwhile, Dixie's main bedroom, the master bedroom,
Speaker 4: is cordoned off and uh, and they're spending their time
Speaker 4: sleeping on a on a bed in a in a
Speaker 4: back bedroom, uh, you know, off the off the kitchen.
Speaker 4: If I'm not mistaken, I can't remember if the real
Speaker 4: bedroom was kind of a pull up bed. But nonetheless,
Speaker 4: they're not sleeping in the master bedroom. And his version,
Speaker 4: his statement later is you know that he just suspected
Speaker 4: or it was under the impression that that's where all
Speaker 4: the abuse that happened. And you know, more or less
Speaker 4: he took Dixie at her word that you know that
Speaker 4: that's why the room was closed, and and you know,
Speaker 4: when he respected her privacy and respected her wishes and
Speaker 4: you know, never was curious and never tried to open
Speaker 4: the door. And and certainly according to him, he never suspected
Speaker 4: that Scott Shanahan was dead, you know. And uh, you know,
Speaker 4: riding away in that under the covers of that back bedroom.
Speaker 4: It's a peculiar situation, to say the least. But uh,
Speaker 4: you know, there's there really was never any evidence or
Speaker 4: it's certainly no proof, you know that somehow he was
Speaker 4: in on this situation, that he had any knowledge or
Speaker 4: intimate knowledge, or or any knowledge at all, you know
Speaker 4: that that Scott's body was being concealed in that back
Speaker 4: northeast bedroom of the house. And uh, and again the
Speaker 4: other thing too though, and again when you brought up
Speaker 4: that point earlier, Dan, about people becoming suspicious and talent
Speaker 4: about Dixie's actions, I think the fact that she was
Speaker 4: dating Jeff Duty, you know, bring him to the house,
Speaker 4: to the Shanahan house, and he was staying there every week,
Speaker 4: and and people saw his vehicle in the driveway all
Speaker 4: the time. That in a lot of respects was a
Speaker 4: huge red flag for some of the folks in the
Speaker 4: real small town of Defiance, Iowa too, Dan, because people
Speaker 4: just knew Scott Shanahan so well that they couldn't imagine
Speaker 4: that somehow he would put up with, you know, his
Speaker 4: wife tearing on an affair, you know, letting some other
Speaker 4: man stay at his house, all this wild stuff like that.
Speaker 4: So the fact that she's dating Jeff Duty after selling
Speaker 4: off a lot of Scott's tools and his vehicles for
Speaker 4: extra money, in the fact that nobody saw Scott around town,
Speaker 4: that's ultimately gonna at least push somebody in the community
Speaker 4: to make a phone call to the Shelby County Sheriff's
Speaker 4: office over in harlan And, Iowa, twelve miles away sometime
Speaker 4: during the summer months of two thousand and three.
Speaker 11: Now, you introduced a character named Gene Kavanaugh, and he
Speaker 11: has some questions and so he looks at the what
Speaker 11: the official reports were in the initial statements, and so
Speaker 11: tell us how he proceeds with this and what does
Speaker 11: he do to basically reopen this case.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Jean's an old school sheriff too, and uh, you know,
Speaker 4: just kind of back in the day, you know, where
Speaker 4: you know, he's not really a political grand scant, grand standard.
Speaker 4: You know, he's an old fashioned detective and uh and
Speaker 4: in this case, you know, the call comes to him,
Speaker 4: and he kind of takes the initiative to to UH
Speaker 4: not only a sign one of his deputies to do
Speaker 4: some work, but then Jeans can also do some of
Speaker 4: the key investigative work himself. Bottom line, he's going to
Speaker 4: send somebody out to UH to at least ask Dixie basically,
Speaker 4: what's up, you know, where's Scott at? You know, they've
Speaker 4: gotten the call that you know, somebody. People haven't seen
Speaker 4: Scott in town for practically a full year now, and
Speaker 4: you know, again her story is that he ran off.
Speaker 4: That Scott ran off and you know, may have gone
Speaker 4: to Atlantic, Iowa. What Jane's gonna eventually do, though, is
Speaker 4: he's going to do some legwork and background research too.
Speaker 4: He's gonna start getting a hold of some of the
Speaker 4: other area law enforcement departments try to find out if
Speaker 4: Scott had moved to UH to any of these area towns.
Speaker 4: He's also gonna check and see if any of those
Speaker 4: area towns today law enforcement contact with him, had he
Speaker 4: been stopped for a traffic offense or arrested for anything.
Speaker 4: Nobody's gonna find anything there. He's gonna do a lot
Speaker 4: more research than that too. He's gonna see if Scott
Speaker 4: may have moved to a different state. You know, are
Speaker 4: there any driver's license records for Scott? The only one
Speaker 4: that came up with the one he already had a
Speaker 4: State of Iowa driver's license. Jean's gonna eventually check payroll records,
Speaker 4: in unemployment records, uh, you know, through different federal databases.
Speaker 4: Is Scott receiving unemployment somewhere? Did he find a job?
Speaker 4: So where that's not gonna lead anywhere. There's no proof,
Speaker 4: there's no indication that Scott's collecting any unemployment or you know,
Speaker 4: or working in a job where he's uh, you know,
Speaker 4: paying taxes either. And there's other steps that Jane's gonna
Speaker 4: take two. But but the long and short of it
Speaker 4: is that Gene Cavanaugh is not going to find any
Speaker 4: any paper trail that's gonna lead him to believe that,
Speaker 4: you know, that there's any activity going out with Scott Shanahan,
Speaker 4: including his bank account, any credit cards, nothing like that.
Speaker 4: And that's again gonna lead Gene you know, and his
Speaker 4: deputies to continue to interview Dixie to try to get
Speaker 4: to the bottom of things. And uh, and her story
Speaker 4: is going to deviate a little bit, uh, you know,
Speaker 4: over time to the point where it's gonna be different
Speaker 4: versions of the story, and there's gonna be a story
Speaker 4: she's gonna throw out there, you know, about Scott had
Speaker 4: you know, found another girlfriend, some heavy set blonde woman
Speaker 4: that may have come by to pick him up and
Speaker 4: then dropped him off one time to pick up some
Speaker 4: of his music CDs. But by and large, you know,
Speaker 4: from Gene Kavanaugh's standpoint, he had exhausted all the legitimate leads.
Speaker 4: You know, that Scott may have been a missing person voluntarily,
Speaker 4: that Scott may have left his wife, you know, and
Speaker 4: decided to take on, you know, move away and start
Speaker 4: a new life somewhere else for other reasons. And and
Speaker 4: really the only thing left really for the Sheriff's office
Speaker 4: to do was to check the property to see if,
Speaker 4: by chance, Scott Shanahan was still there. And I remember
Speaker 4: Sheriff Kavanaugh told me, and I may have put this
Speaker 4: in the book. I can't remember if I did or not,
Speaker 4: but I know he did not think that they were
Speaker 4: going to find anything when they went ahead with the
Speaker 4: search warrant. He just wasn't expecting to find, you know what.
Speaker 4: They ultimately found that first. She was around October twentieth
Speaker 4: of two thousand and three.
Speaker 11: Dan, Now right away she's at a friend's house. But
Speaker 11: we'll we'll just skip over that she is arrested and
Speaker 11: she is charged. To tell us what the charges are,
Speaker 11: what the bail is said at, and how things proceed
Speaker 11: just right, initially after she is arrested.
Speaker 4: Well, get Dixie is arrested and charged with first degree
Speaker 4: murder and the bail of memory serves, I think was
Speaker 4: around one hundred thousand, but ten percent then so, and
Speaker 4: the town's gonna rally to her defense to to the
Speaker 4: point where they're gonna take up some good will offerings
Speaker 4: and you know, and and you know, collection buckets at
Speaker 4: local tavern and stuff like that. But but she's gonna
Speaker 4: bail out of jail shortly after being arrested and charged
Speaker 4: with Scott's Scott's murder and uh and again just based
Speaker 4: on the based on what the Sheriff's office in the
Speaker 4: Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, which again is the equivalent
Speaker 4: of a state the state detective agency, you know, to
Speaker 4: help out smaller departments if necessary. The Shelby County Share
Speaker 4: worked in hand in hand with them to help carry
Speaker 4: out the search warrant that found Scott but but again
Speaker 4: it's based on the autopsy and based on what they
Speaker 4: found in the bedroom that left the authorities very convinced.
Speaker 4: You know that Scott Shnahan died, you know, from an
Speaker 4: intentional homicide, and that this was not some type of
Speaker 4: domestic domestic spat. You know that you know where it
Speaker 4: was a where was a case of self defense.
Speaker 11: Now the thing is to to dispute the claim of
Speaker 11: self defense. Initially, what you have is the autops So
Speaker 11: tell us where he was shot in terms of and
Speaker 11: her We went over the explanation that she again gives. Again,
Speaker 11: we there's a trial, but let's talk about what the
Speaker 11: autopsy gleaned in terms of how he was shot and
Speaker 11: where he was shot in that room. So and then
Speaker 11: tell us just what she had initially said in her
Speaker 11: statement as to how it how she feared for her
Speaker 11: life and it was self defense. Tell us again about
Speaker 11: what her statement was.
Speaker 4: Right, Well, well, you're getting getting back to the autopsy. Dan,
Speaker 4: When they take Scat's remains, and there wasn't much left
Speaker 4: to them, he was down about forty to forty five douns,
Speaker 4: but there was still a fair amount of flesh there.
Speaker 4: And and when they took him to the autopsy table
Speaker 4: and turned of her. They found that there was a
Speaker 4: shotgun shell lodged in the back of his skull, and
Speaker 4: you know, so nothing in the front. And ordinarily, obviously
Speaker 4: listeners would know this. But the self defense situation, you know,
Speaker 4: just think of a whether it's a gunfight or just
Speaker 4: a knifing situation. But but but the expectation would be
Speaker 4: that the person would be wounded, you know, or hurt,
Speaker 4: you know, on their face, on their skin, not on
Speaker 4: their backside. And that's true in this situation. So so
Speaker 4: you have Scott suffering one fatal shotgun blast and it's
Speaker 4: to the back of his head. And it's also important
Speaker 4: to point out too that since his body was left
Speaker 4: in the exact condition that the peerod he was shot in,
Speaker 4: Scott appeared to be resting comfortably no less at the
Speaker 4: time that he was shot. He had a pillow, he
Speaker 4: has head on a pillow he had apparently he slept
Speaker 4: with a pillow between his legs. Prosecutor point out that
Speaker 4: that's not that uncommon, but uh he was wearing his
Speaker 4: box through shorts and uh so the inference to law
Speaker 4: enforcement and to the crime scene officials, you know was
Speaker 4: that uh, and again pointing out the fact that the
Speaker 4: only wound, the mortal wound, was to the back of
Speaker 4: his head. You know, it was this Scott had been
Speaker 4: shot from the back, you know, from behind. Somebody basically
Speaker 4: had sneaked up on him, you know, and shot him
Speaker 4: from behind and shot him in his sleep. And so
Speaker 4: again the physical evidence in the crime scene indicated that
Speaker 4: this was a you know, a homicide where the person
Speaker 4: was uh, may have been shot while they were sleeping,
Speaker 4: and that that that it was not a case at
Speaker 4: least the evidence didn't show that this was a case
Speaker 4: of self defense. And again, backing up to earlier part
Speaker 4: of the interview, Dixie's version of events. Her story was
Speaker 4: that you know that she had gone to that back
Speaker 4: bedroom to try to retrieve one of her telephones. She
Speaker 4: was going to call the sheriff's office that morning once
Speaker 4: and for all, sat up with the abuse that she
Speaker 4: was enduring through Scott, especially related to this, uh, this
Speaker 4: third pregnancy that she had experienced, and uh and uh
Speaker 4: and that uh and that she saw that there was
Speaker 4: a gun near the bed between Scott and the and
Speaker 4: the and the dresser, and then she thought that Scott
Speaker 4: was in the process of lunging for this for the
Speaker 4: shotgun of his and that she thought to herself that
Speaker 4: she needed to protect herself and her unborn child. So
Speaker 4: she quickly grabbed the gun and fired, uh a shot aimlessly,
Speaker 4: you know, and it happened to hit Scott in the
Speaker 4: back of his head, and uh, you know, and that
Speaker 4: was the catastro off the version of events that happened
Speaker 4: that they coined to her statement, I should say.
Speaker 11: Dan, now she gets a public defender, but she gets
Speaker 11: two public defenders. And these guys are not rookies. These
Speaker 11: guys are experienced. There is an incredible amount of public
Speaker 11: support for her and in the community. And also and
Speaker 11: there's also a big sentiment against Scott Shanahan. There's just
Speaker 11: this acknowledgment that he was a bad guy and maybe
Speaker 11: had it coming to him. Now in light of that sentiment,
Speaker 11: and of course that sentiment will can lead to a
Speaker 11: jury having those kinds of feeling as well in a
Speaker 11: community like this. There was a plea bargain, again a
Speaker 11: little bit surprising, that was offered through to the attorneys,
Speaker 11: and as we all know, not taking the advice of
Speaker 11: your attorneys is usually doesn't work well. To your advantage.
Speaker 11: So what was the plea bargain four? And why was
Speaker 11: the plea bargain offered? Do you think?
Speaker 4: Well, the the plea bargain, just to answer your question, Uh, Dan,
Speaker 4: the plea bargain was to the charge of manslaughter and
Speaker 4: it would have carried a maximum maximum penalty maximum sentence
Speaker 4: of of zero to ten years. And in Iowa, oftentimes,
Speaker 4: if you got the tenure maximum, you would probably you know,
Speaker 4: be released from custody after serving five to seven years,
Speaker 4: and maybe even shorter than that. It really would depend
Speaker 4: on the defendant's behavior and just in how they were
Speaker 4: adapting to prison life, and and you know, and so
Speaker 4: on and so forth. So so bottom line, if Dixie
Speaker 4: would have accepted this plea bargain, and she would have
Speaker 4: probably been released from custody, you know, after serving five
Speaker 4: to seven years. And uh, and again the plea bargain
Speaker 4: was an unusual on one according to UH, you know
Speaker 4: my conversations and interviews with the UH with the key
Speaker 4: prosecutor in this case, UH, Charlie Dolman, who was from
Speaker 4: the Iowa Attorney General's office, and he was kind of
Speaker 4: the lone wolf on this case because again, small town
Speaker 4: situation where you get you know, there's very few lawyers,
Speaker 4: and you know, and everybody, you know kind of knows everybody.
Speaker 4: But but lawyers had to be careful of conflicts of interest.
Speaker 4: The the the recently elected prosecutor, Marcus Gross had previously
Speaker 4: served as a public defender for Scott Shanahan on one
Speaker 4: of those earlier domestic violence cases that he had pleaded
Speaker 4: guilty to. So so uh so, Marcus had informed the
Speaker 4: court that just there was in his best interest in
Speaker 4: that of the community at large, that he bowed out
Speaker 4: of the case and not be involved. So that's how
Speaker 4: Charlie Dolman from SEUSS to the Iowa got involved in
Speaker 4: the case and handled it himself. But uh but Tholman,
Speaker 4: you know, Thowman, the prosecutor, had not initially offered Dixie
Speaker 4: a plea bargain, but he kind of felt prod it
Speaker 4: pressured would not be the right word. It wasn't pressured,
Speaker 4: but just kind of prodded by the judge who was
Speaker 4: an interesting guy, a really likable guy named Charlie Charlie Smith,
Speaker 4: Judge Charles Smith, and just Smith had had kind of
Speaker 4: u indicated that, you know, he'd like to at least see,
Speaker 4: you know, a play bargain offered in this case. And
Speaker 4: and Tholman took that interpreted that to mean that the
Speaker 4: judge wand you know, wanted to see the case resolved
Speaker 4: with a play bargain. And and probably ninety to ninety
Speaker 4: eight percent, I should say, probably ninety eight percent of
Speaker 4: all criminal cases do get resolved with a plea bargain
Speaker 4: and don't go to trial. But so it was not
Speaker 4: that unexpected for, you know, for a play bargain to
Speaker 4: be offered. Anyway, Thowman goes ahead, and you know, and
Speaker 4: and it goes along with this program he had visited
Speaker 4: with with sheriff, having ahead of time, and also you
Speaker 4: know Mark Kirby who was the chief deputy and kind
Speaker 4: of told them what was up. They both were on
Speaker 4: board with the idea of a plea bargain, thinking that
Speaker 4: might be a fair waiters all the case and just
Speaker 4: you know, get it resolved. So Thomen goes ahead, makes
Speaker 4: this offer, and you know, he never hears back from
Speaker 4: John the main attorney for Dixie, Greg Stensland. Uh day passes,
Speaker 4: another day passes, I think by the third day, you know,
Speaker 4: Thoman starting to scratch his head so he places a
Speaker 4: phone call, gets a hold of Greg Stensland, you know,
Speaker 4: and Greg and Fornes and that you know that his client,
Speaker 4: you know, does not want to accept any plea bargain,
Speaker 4: you know, and uh, you know, and uh and An
Speaker 4: again I should point out, yeah, Thoman was the one
Speaker 4: that had I'm sorry, Greg Stensland, Dixie's attorney was the
Speaker 4: was the first one that had had made the comment
Speaker 4: early on in the case saying that, you know that
Speaker 4: he thought she would be more than willing to you know,
Speaker 4: plea you know, plea bargain down to manslaughter. But in reality,
Speaker 4: by the time you know, push came the shove, Dixie
Speaker 4: was adamantly refused to She hadn'tly refused to accept the
Speaker 4: plea bargain. So everything was kind of off at that
Speaker 4: point in time, and she was going to go to trial,
Speaker 4: you know, on this on this murder charge, and that's
Speaker 4: kind of the stage that was set. And you're right,
Speaker 4: she knew what she already had. There was a lot
Speaker 4: of public support for her. I mean, people in the
Speaker 4: town and the area had had a lot of them
Speaker 4: had given given money to help her bail out of jail.
Speaker 4: As you pointed, out earlier, Scott had very few friends,
Speaker 4: you know, of all murder victims that I could remember,
Speaker 4: counting in my last twenty years as a as a
Speaker 4: as a reporter, and a handful of different states too, Dan,
Speaker 4: I just can't really nobody else comes to mind of
Speaker 4: somebody that that just really people by and large just
Speaker 4: did not miss. So he was unsympathetic, uh, you know,
Speaker 4: murder victim here. And ordinarily when you have high profile
Speaker 4: murder cases like this, as the listeners know, you know,
Speaker 4: you hear about pre trial publicity and then you know,
Speaker 4: and you know they you know, it's usually the defense
Speaker 4: that wants to move the trial to a different county,
Speaker 4: thinking they can't get a fair trial. Well that's the
Speaker 4: opposite here. Dixie was more than willing to take her
Speaker 4: chances in her home county, you know, Shelby County, Iowa,
Speaker 4: and you know, in Picka Jery, you know, amongst her
Speaker 4: neighbors and you know, and other people throughout the you know,
Speaker 4: Shelby County area, thinking that they couldn't possibly find her
Speaker 4: guilty of murder. You know, when the case with the
Speaker 4: trial and.
Speaker 11: Now she doesn't listen to her attorneys, so the attorneys
Speaker 11: have these this dilemma where they have an uncooperative client, unrealistic,
Speaker 11: so there's nothing else to lose. And since it's going
Speaker 11: to be he said, she said, and he being dead,
Speaker 11: then she has to take the stand. So we don't
Speaker 11: have much time, but we can't go through the entire
Speaker 11: trial her, but really, uh, tell us a little bit
Speaker 11: about the cross examination and really where the prosecutor really
Speaker 11: decimated her on the stand with an issue that really
Speaker 11: she couldn't really answer and really spoke to her lack
Speaker 11: of credibility.
Speaker 4: Well, and it really was a fascinating trial, but it
Speaker 4: really did boil down to what was Dixie. How is
Speaker 4: the jury gonna view Dixie's testimony? Because clearly she took
Speaker 4: the position of that that this was a justification. She
Speaker 4: was justified in you know, in committing in fatally wounding
Speaker 4: her husband. We we we know, the listeners know her
Speaker 4: version of events. Dolman, in my mind, really reminds me
Speaker 4: a lot of a Clint East Twit as far as
Speaker 4: she's not a very you know, louder, you know, overbearing guy,
Speaker 4: although he is a big guy, Charlie Thumman, the prosecutor,
Speaker 4: but he's very subtle in his line of questioning, and
Speaker 4: he was very professional and very courteous to Dixie Shanahan
Speaker 4: on the stand, but it really worked to his advantage
Speaker 4: where he was able to convince the twelve jurors that
Speaker 4: she had helped select that that her version of events
Speaker 4: just could not vibe with the facts. And he hammered
Speaker 4: her over and over by pointing out the photos, and
Speaker 4: he showed the video of the crime scene as far
Speaker 4: as just how Scott was still in that bed fourteen
Speaker 4: months after she had shot him, and he looked like
Speaker 4: he was sleeping in that bed, and and and again
Speaker 4: he really drove home the fact that you know that
Speaker 4: her story just couldn't be true, that there's no way
Speaker 4: that she shot Scott with you know, with his own shotgun,
Speaker 4: you know, during argument or struggle over the gun, when
Speaker 4: the wound was to the back of his head. And
Speaker 4: and I'll point out very quickly one other thing that
Speaker 4: he had that he had used that really was damning
Speaker 4: for her. Dixie did not know how to operate weapons.
Speaker 4: I mean, she testified that she was not familiar with shotguns.
Speaker 4: The this was I believe a sixteen gage shotgun and
Speaker 4: the ammunition round that was used to to kill Scott
Speaker 4: was a twelve gauge round. There was also a twenty
Speaker 4: gauge round that was jammed, that was stuck in the
Speaker 4: in the chamber. I believe of this, uh the shotgun,
Speaker 4: and and and Thowman did a masterful job, as far
Speaker 4: as you know, showing the jury that Scott Shanahan may
Speaker 4: have been all kinds of bad things in life, but
Speaker 4: he knew his cars, and he knew and he knew
Speaker 4: his weapons, and there was no rhyme or reason for
Speaker 4: Scott Shanahan to have the wrong ammunition in his own gun.
Speaker 4: So that spoke to premeditation, and and and and Thowman
Speaker 4: was able to convince the jury that that it was
Speaker 4: that loaded that shotgun and she loaded it with the
Speaker 4: wrong ammunition because she didn't know the ammunition, and you know,
Speaker 4: and that that's why Scott got shot with a twelve
Speaker 4: gauge round with a sixteen gage shotgun, and that's why
Speaker 4: the twenty gauge round was still stuck in that stuck
Speaker 4: in the in the shotgun. So again, Thomas just really
Speaker 4: able to hammer home to the jury a very simple
Speaker 4: point that her version of events just absolutely can't be true.
Speaker 4: That she's not telling the truth on the witness stand.
Speaker 4: People may be sympathetic toward her. She may have been
Speaker 4: a multiple time domestic violence victim. He didn't dispute that,
Speaker 4: and he stressed that, but his point was that that
Speaker 4: didn't make it right. That didn't make it right for
Speaker 4: this to be an intentional homicide and for Dixie to
Speaker 4: leave Scott's body in the bedroom, you know, and not
Speaker 4: do anything about it, and let fourteen months pass, you know,
Speaker 4: while his body's just kind of riding away in that
Speaker 4: back bedroom.
Speaker 11: He also mentioned too that that because the prosecutor reached
Speaker 11: out to her, specifically to Dixie, that she had more
Speaker 11: than ample opportunities to go to police when she was
Speaker 11: in Texas as well. There he pointed out several things
Speaker 11: that she couldn't answer to in terms of opportunities to
Speaker 11: be able to end this rather than what she claimed
Speaker 11: was this one and only opportunity. And because he lost that,
Speaker 11: he lunged for her with the with the weapon that
Speaker 11: she had no she had no choice now with this
Speaker 11: as well, this story doesn't end in terms of with
Speaker 11: the trial. She's convicted of second degree murder. Tell us
Speaker 11: about the sentence, and then again just to add to
Speaker 11: this story. The story doesn't end there, So tell us
Speaker 11: about the sentence and then tell us what happens after that.
Speaker 4: Well, this was a situation where where as you said,
Speaker 4: the jury is going to convict Dixie a second degree murder,
Speaker 4: and I at that point in time, Iowa, several years earlier,
Speaker 4: had enacted these very tough, kind of get tough, no
Speaker 4: nonsense laws, trying to get tougher on crime and violent criminals,
Speaker 4: but not kind of allowing any metigating factors to get
Speaker 4: work that worked their way into the case, which certainly
Speaker 4: was true in this case. And so the judge was
Speaker 4: was forced to give Dixie just a slat fifty year sentence.
Speaker 4: So Judge Charles Smith had no opportunity at all to
Speaker 4: to give her a light sense or even give her
Speaker 4: a stiffer sentence. And he certainly would have given her
Speaker 4: a lighter sentence given all that she had been through
Speaker 4: in life and all the hardships and the abuse that
Speaker 4: she had gone through. But so the sentencing was horrible.
Speaker 4: I mean just I don't say horrible, but just it was.
Speaker 4: It was a waste of time. And everybody in the
Speaker 4: courtroom pretty much admitted that, including the judge so the
Speaker 4: judge really felt sorry for her, and he felt she did,
Speaker 4: you know, deserve to go to prison. He felt the
Speaker 4: jury's verdict was just, and he told he informed everyone
Speaker 4: that he was not going to return the verdict, but
Speaker 4: he did not believe that the sentence was just. And
Speaker 4: he pointed out that he hoped in the aftermath of
Speaker 4: Dixie's case that the publicity about it and the high
Speaker 4: profile nature of it would spark the state of Iowa
Speaker 4: legislature to reconsider its earlier decision to set these get
Speaker 4: tough laws, you know, where the judges had absolutely no
Speaker 4: leeway or wiggleoram in determining a sentence. He had hoped
Speaker 4: that this case would spark some debate and foster debate
Speaker 4: and cause them to reconsider make changes. But that never
Speaker 4: did happen. I mean, there was some debate, but politicians
Speaker 4: Democrat and Republican you know, never came together, you know,
Speaker 4: and made any changes to the law. So she went
Speaker 4: to prison with the standard fifty year sentence. A few
Speaker 4: years after she was in customer in prison. Though the
Speaker 4: Iowa governor at that point in time before he left
Speaker 4: office to uh to join the Barack Obama's Cabinet Secretary Agriculture.
Speaker 4: But uh, but Tom Wilsk had had had commuted the
Speaker 4: bottom portion of her sentence, so he didn't commute her sentence.
Speaker 4: But basically, what this meant was that earlier she had
Speaker 4: been eligible for parole if she had served thirty five years.
Speaker 4: Now he made it more or less that after she
Speaker 4: served ten years in prison, she would become eligible for
Speaker 4: parole for release every year thereafter. So twenty fourteen was
Speaker 4: the first year. So last summer was the first year
Speaker 4: that she was eligible for parole. And uh, and unfortunately
Speaker 4: for her, just based on her behavior in prison, she
Speaker 4: had still racked up a lot of violations for for
Speaker 4: you know, for problems and behavior, and and I think
Speaker 4: the fact that there have been some turnover too the
Speaker 4: probo it's very political, and some of the people that
Speaker 4: were initially on the pro board, you know, were gone.
Speaker 4: And uh, and by and large this pro board from
Speaker 4: last year decided just slightly not to grant her parole.
Speaker 4: She just came up recently, Dan and earlier this earlier
Speaker 4: this summer, and and her bid was denied. But I
Speaker 4: want to point this out, this is important. But uh,
Speaker 4: but it sounds like she was ordered to undergo. Uh,
Speaker 4: they were gonna have a psychologist do some evaluation, and
Speaker 4: so she's supposed to come back up. They basically said
Speaker 4: they'd reevaluate her case in a couple of months, so
Speaker 4: it'll be interesting. But but by September, you know, we
Speaker 4: should have word whether or not, you know, they're going
Speaker 4: to consider, you know, maybe letting her out early, you know,
Speaker 4: maybe even this year. So she's again she's been in
Speaker 4: prison now since two thousand and four, so so she's
Speaker 4: been in the State of Iowa's prison system for eleven
Speaker 4: years now. So it's pass well now you know that
Speaker 4: her days, you know, are getting a lot closer to
Speaker 4: to release actually.
Speaker 11: And what's interesting, uh sort of end note to this
Speaker 11: as well, is that she stated in that parole bid
Speaker 11: that she did have prospects for work and she had
Speaker 11: a home to go back to and a community that
Speaker 11: was supportive.
Speaker 4: Correct. And I even spoke with Sheriff Kavanaugh just a
Speaker 4: week or two ago because I'm going to be back
Speaker 4: in harl And, Iowa. I think it's August six. I'm
Speaker 4: gonna do two presentations back at the library there, and
Speaker 4: uh and and uh, Gene and I were talking over
Speaker 4: the phone, and yeah, he agreed. He thinks that the
Speaker 4: day is coming that you know that she may get released,
Speaker 4: and he is, He's repeatedly told me he's like John,
Speaker 4: She's going to go back to that house. My understanding
Speaker 4: is Jeff Duty, you know who she eventually did marry
Speaker 4: after she was charged with or but Uh, my understanding
Speaker 4: is Jeff Judy is still living in that house. And uh.
Speaker 4: And by all indications, by all accounts, if Dixie gets
Speaker 4: released from Iowa prison, whether it's this year, next year,
Speaker 4: or whenever, but she'll return to Defiance, Iowa and move
Speaker 4: back to that house. And and I would expect that
Speaker 4: she would be welcomed or at least accepted by the community.
Speaker 4: There's still a lot of people that feel that, you
Speaker 4: know that she served more than enough time now eleven years, uh,
Speaker 4: you know of prison and uh, and I think a
Speaker 4: lot of people would uh, you know, would uh would
Speaker 4: be willing to accept her back into the Defiance, Iowa community.
Speaker 11: Dan, big question, what happened to her children? Where are
Speaker 11: they now?
Speaker 4: Her children? Uh ultimately wound up with her with one
Speaker 4: of her sisters down in the state of Texas and Dan, so,
Speaker 4: so they are my understanding is that they're all still
Speaker 4: uh living down there. I think her older is eighteen
Speaker 4: or nineteen years old now, but but yeah, I understanding
Speaker 4: is that they're continuing continuing to live there, and I'm
Speaker 4: not exactly sure how much contact she can have with them,
Speaker 4: you know, given the fact that she's in prison in
Speaker 4: Iowa and they're down in Texas. I know they still correspond.
Speaker 4: But again, within shortly after she went to prison, you know,
Speaker 4: her parental rights you know, were revoked and her children
Speaker 4: were placed in custody with other family members, and you know,
Speaker 4: those family members happened to happen to be in the
Speaker 4: in the state of Texas and in.
Speaker 11: Very interesting I want to thank you very much for
Speaker 11: coming on and talking about Dixie's last stand. Was it
Speaker 11: murder or self defense? Now, for those people that might
Speaker 11: want to find out more about some of the other
Speaker 11: true crime offerings that you have, I know you with
Speaker 11: Wild Blue Press, but tell us about where they might
Speaker 11: locate you. Do you have a website? Do you do Facebook?
Speaker 11: Tell us how people might be able to content acting.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I try to be very active on social media
Speaker 4: fronts UH and UH and John Fairrick, so j O
Speaker 4: H N F E. R. A k dot com is
Speaker 4: my primary website and keep it updated regularly. And then uh,
Speaker 4: and then yes, I am the author author, true crime
Speaker 4: author affiliate with Steve Jackson and in the Wild Blue
Speaker 4: Press group which has some excellent authors like Kaitlin Rother
Speaker 4: and Ron Francell and bur Bear and I had a
Speaker 4: few others and and like I said, so, so I
Speaker 4: have a page on the Wild Blue Press website as well.
Speaker 4: And in my most recent book was just released last week,
Speaker 4: and that's actually a sequel to Bloody Lies, the CSI
Speaker 4: scandal in the Heartland. So that book is called Body
Speaker 4: of Proof, Tainted Evidence in the Jessica O'Grady murder question mark.
Speaker 4: So it's hard to do radio interviews, but you know,
Speaker 4: sorry just to say it that way, but but I
Speaker 4: had to plant out the question mark, so listeners will
Speaker 4: have to make up their minds after reading the book,
Speaker 4: you know, whether or not there there was evidence that
Speaker 4: was planted by this infamous CSI in Nebraska that that
Speaker 4: worked on this very high profile Omaha murder case that
Speaker 4: involved a beautiful young woman named Jessico Grady who was
Speaker 4: involved in a relationship with a with a fellow her
Speaker 4: age named Christopher Edwards. So again those are the primary spots,
Speaker 4: and people can also follow me on Facebook at true
Speaker 4: crime author John Berrick Dan.
Speaker 11: One last question, because I'm intrigued here, is that we
Speaker 11: did interview about Bloody Lies, and so you say this
Speaker 11: is a sequel, and I really not heard that term
Speaker 11: in true crime. So tell us a little bit just
Speaker 11: before we go, what why it's a sequel?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, the thing that's uh, And I didn't necessarily
Speaker 4: plan it out this way, but I d this in
Speaker 4: the back of my mind. The last few pages of
Speaker 4: Bloody Lives, I mentioned this, this murder case in Omaha,
Speaker 4: a very high profile case that had actually happened just
Speaker 4: three weeks after the farmhouse murders and Murdoch, Nebraska where
Speaker 4: the stocks were killed in just Go Grady Murder, and
Speaker 4: I know I even included a photo of a car
Speaker 4: that suspected blood was found. But the thing about this
Speaker 4: case was that that Dave Covid becomes the hero. He's
Speaker 4: he becomes the key law enforcement official, the key testifier
Speaker 4: for the prosecution's case in what became Nebraska's first no
Speaker 4: body murder case that went to trial. And the thing
Speaker 4: was that this case had happened three weeks after the
Speaker 4: Murdoch murders and also the Brending of Zals murders. So
Speaker 4: Covid goes to prison for planting evidence in those two
Speaker 4: prior cases. But yet questions remained, in questions lingered in
Speaker 4: the wake of his conviction and sentence. Well, what about
Speaker 4: the Essco Grading murder. You know, was the evidence, all
Speaker 4: this evidence that he found that helped secure the arrest
Speaker 4: and prosecution of Christopher Edwards? Was it legitimate or not?
Speaker 4: And that's probably pretty much the whole point of you know,
Speaker 4: the key point of my book, Dan, is to really
Speaker 4: dive into that evidence and also, you know, take a
Speaker 4: deep look at this case and put it in context.
Speaker 11: Well it sounds great, sounds like an opportunity for me
Speaker 11: to interview you again about that, So that will be
Speaker 11: another interesting interview, no doubt. So I want to thank
Speaker 11: you very much for coming on and talking about Dixie's
Speaker 11: last end. You have a great evening and hope to
Speaker 11: talk to you again real soon.
Speaker 4: Thank you great, Thanks again for the opportunity, Dan. I
Speaker 4: have a great night YouTube.
Speaker 11: Good night, good night.