Serial Killer Documentary - Christopher Hightower

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22nd September 1991, Guilford, Connecticut, USA. Early Sunday evening, a
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mysterious man called at a house in the suburbs. Homeowner
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Christine was told some shocking news. Her brother Ernest and
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his family had been kidnapped and were being held ransom
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by the mafia.
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I didn't quite know what to make of it. He
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had Ernie's car and he opened the trunk, it was
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full of blood.
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It turned out the man at the door, 42-year-old Christopher Hightower,
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was a pathological liar and a killer. He claimed he
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needed $ 75, 000 to release the family, but in fact he'd
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just murdered them.
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He would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.
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It didn't matter who he hurt, it didn't matter who
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he conned.
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Most shocking of all, Hightower annihilated his friend, Ernest, with
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a crossbow, strangled his wife, Alice, then drugged their eight-year-old daughter, Emily,
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and dumped her in a shallow grave.
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There was evidence that she was buried alive. That's a monster.
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That's a monster.
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But in court, he continued his lies, claiming he saw
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the mob carry out the killings. I couldn't believe it.
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It was impossible.
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You don't kill a child.
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The church-going investment broker turned out to be a con
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man who went on to murder three innocent victims, making
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him one of the world's most evil killers. Rhode Island, 1991.
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Residents from the affluent church-going town of Ballington help police
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in the search for 53-year-old Ernest Brendel and his family.
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They had completely vanished from their detached suburban home.
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The impact of this on the community was absolutely devastating
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because this is upper-middle-class America.
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This is the American dream.
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Six weeks after their disappearance on the 7th of November, 1991,
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police made a grisly discovery, finding Ernest, wife Alice, and
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eight-year-old daughter Emily buried in woods next to a local school.
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Ernest's sister, Christine, never forgot the day she received the news.
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Her niece, Emily, was drugged and asleep when she was
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dumped in her grave.
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I think killing a child's bad enough, what he did
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with Emily. That's above and beyond.
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The man has no soul.
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What Ballington's residents didn't realize was the man responsible was
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one of them. The killer, 42-year-old Christopher Hightower, was a
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Sunday school teacher and a pillar of the community. There
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was shock across the town at news of his arrest,
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as former state prosecutor Patrick Youngs remembers.
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He was just a typical suburban father. There were millions
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of them in America. The last person you would think
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would commit a horrible crime.
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On the surface, Christopher Hightower was extraordinarily trustworthy, the sort
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of man that everybody trusted.
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But suddenly, that trust was broken.
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Hightower's crimes had a lasting impact on the picture-book American town.
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People started to call... When they didn't see something that
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looked good, maybe a child on a bicycle late at
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night or a strange car in a neighborhood or these
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terrible events, they just bring about a heightened state of awareness.
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To have an individual come along who appears to be
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one of you, who appears to be just like everyone
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else and capable of such harm, really does shake people's foundations.
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This killer story begins on the 20th of August, 1949.
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Christopher Jameer Hightower was born in Winter Haven in Central Florida.
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His father worked as a printer.
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In the U.S., this was the post-war years. It was
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the age of affluence, the rise of the consumer society.
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He comes from what appears to be a traditional nuclear family,
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the American dream, and nothing appears to be out of
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the ordinary.
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He was the eldest of five children, the one who
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got what he wanted almost always.
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But soon the young Christopher would discover a dark family truth.
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Hightower discovered that the man whom he called his father
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was actually his stepfather. His real father abandoned them both
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when his mother was only 17. It was upsetting, but
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not something that someone couldn't recover from.
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It drove a wedge between Hightower and his stepfather that
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would never be repaired.
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I think at the time, this idea of illegitimacy is
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incredibly stigmatised in the US and it would have been
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something that would make him quite angry. His family have
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lied to him and I think that that starts off
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some feelings of rage, some feelings of resentment.
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Although determined, Hightower wasn't particularly bright and only just scraped
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through high school, graduating on the 8th of June, 1967.
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At the age of 19, he left home to join
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the Navy. He was committed to forging a glittering career,
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unlike his stepfather, the printer, whom Hightower dismissed as a
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low achiever.
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When he leaves, he never sees this man ever again.
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To be able to just drop somebody, and never see
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them again. Somebody who's been such an influential person in
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your life suggests to me that this is somebody who
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does not have the same emotional attachments to other people
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that the rest of us do.
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After just over four years in the Navy, Hightower wanted
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to start a successful new career. He married in August
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1973 at the age of 24, then enrolled at the
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University of Rhode Island to study zoology.
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Next, he set his sights.
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On medical school and would stop at nothing, even gambling
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his family's livelihood to get his dream.
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It was revealed that he was actually trying to sell
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the family home to pay for his college education, and
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his wife wasn't very happy when she found out about this.
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So after just over seven years of marriage, Hightower divorced
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and soon found a new love in his life, Susan.
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They married in 1982, and his plans to become a
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doctor were back on track. Nothing would get in his way.
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When he found a course at Wright State University in Ohio,
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he forged his academic qualifications to get in.
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He had taken his transcripts from the University of Rhode Island,
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which were fairly pedestrian transcripts, and doctored them to make
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it look like he got all As.
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The actual truth of the matter was that he did
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terrible at URI, University of Rhode Island. He just about
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failed almost everything. And so he got into graduate school.
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On a lie. Hightower had got where he wanted through deception.
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Now he realized how faking it could get what he desired.
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Soon he was lured by the highs and lows of
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the stock market, and this inspired his next ruse.
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When he was in Ohio attending Wright State University, he
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had some sort of investment group where he convinced people
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to invest a modest amount of money. He'd turn it
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into a lot of money. Well, it was all a scam.
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He kept all the money. He was a good salesman,
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but he had no idea how to actually do it.
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He had grandiose ideas about himself, and I think he
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was frustrated at his lack of talent, and eventually he
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would be discovered to be a fraud.
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Despite losing his investors more than $ 100, 000 of their life savings,
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Hightower was never prosecuted, but he'd stumbled upon an easy
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way to make money. So Hightower decided to ditch med
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school and, with his wife Susan, moved over 800 miles
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to Barrington, Rhode Island. Here, the fraudster would set up
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another dubious financial venture. To his neighbors, though, Hightower seemed
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like the happy family man.
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They have two children together, and they live with his
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wife's parents. Now, his wife's parents have got this rather
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lovely house in Barrington. So essentially what Hightower's doing here
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is he's being able to perform the perfect American family
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in the lovely big house, but he hasn't had to
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do a single thing to earn that. What matters for
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him is how other people see him, and he really
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thinks that he's got it all sorted now.
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In a bid to show he was going up in
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the world, the smooth-talking salesman started a seemingly reputable business
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to match, Hightower Investments, Inc. In his new downtown office,
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he bumped into local lawyer, Ernest Brendel.
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He somehow convinced Ernie that he should invest some of
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his money with him. And he had a formula that
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he said was foolproof. Of course, he didn't have any formula.
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He didn't know what he was doing in the commodities business.
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Everything that he said was a total fabrication.
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Soon, Hightower and Earnest became the best of friends. Their
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families even started holidaying together in New Hampshire. By now,
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Hightower had become an upstanding member of the community. He
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was a local Sunday school teacher and a coach of
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the town's junior football team.
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He was such good friends with the Brendels that when
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Emily went to the YMCA after school, Hightower was on
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her list of approved people to pick her up. He
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was such a good family friend, he was actually on
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the list as someone they trusted to pick up their daughter.
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Eventually, Hightower persuaded Ernest to invest $ 15, 000 in his get-rich-quick scheme.
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Hightower is a very parasitic individual who will feed off
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other people, and he will come to know about Ernest
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and how much money he had just through spending time
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with him and the family. So these people are predators.
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They identify people's vulnerabilities. They kind of get to figure
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out what people have and what they can get out
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of them.
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Hightower is a perfect role model, the kind of person
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everyone can trust. And when con men are concerned, trust
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is everything.
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Within a year, Ernest Brendel started having doubts. He soon
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discovered that instead of making him money, Hightower had squandered
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nearly $ 12, 000 of his investment.
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Ernie realized that this system was a scam. And when
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he realized that, he did what you would expect Mr.
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Brendel to do. He reported it to the Commodities Future
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Trading Commission, which is the commission in this country that
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oversees commodities. It was the wrong person for Hightower to trick.
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He realized there was only a matter of time before
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people found out exactly what he was up to. The
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Sunday school teaching, the coaching the soccer team, That cherished
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reputation that he'd built up was about to disintegrate.
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Not only was Hightower standing in the community in jeopardy,
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the complaint against him looming at the commodities regulator would
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mean he'd lose his license to trade and his livelihood.
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Hightower's house of cards was crumbling down. The phone at
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his office had been disconnected, and his landlord was chasing
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him for $ 1, 800 of unpaid rent. His problems with debt
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caused ructions at home, and this led to the final
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nail in the coffin.
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Hightower's wife says that she wants a divorce.
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She doesn't want this marriage to continue.
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Now, for Hightower, this is terrible because she is essentially
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the access route to this lifestyle that he's been performing.
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They live in her parents' house.
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It's very grand.
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Everybody thinks that he's very wealthy, so he threatens her.
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Rhode Island once had a reputation as a mob state,
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with key figures of the mafia believed to be operating
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in the area. In a desperate ploy, Hightower threatened his
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wife with associates he claimed he had in this criminal underworld.
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He allegedly had told her that he had paid a
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group of organized hitmen to kill her for $ 5, 000, and
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for another $ 1, 000 he would make her disappearance complete.
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It was just this fantasy world he lived in. I
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don't think there was any truth to any of that.
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His marriage was ending. He was concerned, I believe, about
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whether he'd see his kids. His professional life, such as
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it was, was falling apart, so this was all crashing
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in on him at the same time.
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Hightower's answer?
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To eliminate the man who'd started the complaint against him,
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threatening his livelihood and reputation, 53-year-old Ernest Brendel. On Thursday,
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the 19th of September, Hightower set off on a six-mile
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journey to the town of Seekonk, Massachusetts.
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He goes to Massachusetts and buys a bare Devastator crossbow,
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and he bought six bolts. He had told his family
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he would be out maybe all night or come back
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very late.
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I suspect there would have been quite a lot of
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stalking of the Brendel family, so he would have known
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what their movements were, what time they left, what time
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they arrived home, their routines. This was a very well-planned murder.
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On Friday the 20th, as usual, Ernest's 8-year-old daughter Emily
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left on the school bus. Then Ernest drove wife Alice
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to work at nearby Brown University. Seizing his moment, Christopher
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Hightower broke into the house.
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Hightower goes and hides out, essentially, in Ernest's garage, so
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he lays in wait for him.
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He could decide not to.
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Do it, but the fact that he doesn't suggests to
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me that this is somebody who is emotionally empty, who
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just does not care about harming other people, and he's
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there on a mission, and he's not going to leave
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until he's executed that mission.
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With his lethal weapon at the ready, Hightower watched Ernest
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00:15:04.840 --> 00:15:07.080
Brendel pull up onto the drive.
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00:15:08.019 --> 00:15:11.730
We believe when Ernie pulled into his garage, Hightower was
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00:15:11.779 --> 00:15:14.970
waiting for him with the bare Devastator and shot him
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00:15:15.009 --> 00:15:19.230
three times with the crossbow. The first shot to Mr.
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00:15:19.289 --> 00:15:25.529
Brendel didn't kill him. The second shot hit him in
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00:15:25.549 --> 00:15:30.799
the posterior. And then the third shot was a kill shot.
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00:15:35.080 --> 00:15:37.580
Went through his spinal cord, through his esophagus, into his heart.
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00:15:37.940 --> 00:15:38.820
So he killed him right away.
250
00:15:40.279 --> 00:15:44.500
To make sure his nemesis was dead, Hightower bludgeoned Ernest
251
00:15:44.659 --> 00:15:46.139
on the head with a crowbar.
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00:15:46.500 --> 00:15:48.440
This individual is a psychopath.
253
00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:50.539
He very much lives in the present moment.
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00:15:50.710 --> 00:15:52.590
And as far as he's concerned, at this point in time.
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00:15:53.100 --> 00:15:55.940
Ernest has been taken out of the picture and he's
256
00:15:56.139 --> 00:15:59.100
hoping that actually everything's going to be fine because this
257
00:15:59.139 --> 00:16:01.860
complaint isn't going to get looked at and everything will
258
00:16:01.879 --> 00:16:02.620
go back to normal.
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00:16:03.159 --> 00:16:07.450
Now he'd exacted his revenge, Hightower calmly cleaned up the
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00:16:07.490 --> 00:16:12.289
crime scene using hydrochloric acid, then drove his former friend
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00:16:12.370 --> 00:16:15.490
a mile to remote woodland on the edge of town.
262
00:16:16.389 --> 00:16:20.120
After burying Ernest in a shallow grave, the killer returned
263
00:16:20.200 --> 00:16:24.470
home and calmly washed his clothes. But then Hightower got
264
00:16:24.850 --> 00:16:26.730
an unexpected surprise.
265
00:16:28.049 --> 00:16:32.769
The sheriffs arrive with the restraining order that had been
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00:16:33.309 --> 00:16:37.259
sought by his wife. So when he's served the restraining order,
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00:16:37.480 --> 00:16:39.200
he now has no place to live.
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00:16:40.120 --> 00:16:44.080
Destitute and homeless, Hightower returned to the scene of his crime.
269
00:16:44.620 --> 00:16:47.840
As he monitored messages left on the Brendels' answer phone,
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00:16:48.220 --> 00:16:50.440
he thought about what he was going to do with
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00:16:50.460 --> 00:16:51.500
the rest of the family.
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Family life.
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00:16:54.019 --> 00:16:58.480
There are commitments, there are responsibilities, and on that particular day,
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00:16:59.320 --> 00:17:01.879
Ernest was expected to pick up his daughter from school.
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00:17:03.639 --> 00:17:07.279
Ernest's wife, Alice, and 8-year-old daughter, Emily, would be next
276
00:17:07.359 --> 00:17:11.119
on Hightower's hit list. He had to silence them before
277
00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:14.900
they raised the alarm. On that day, Friday the 20th,
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00:17:15.180 --> 00:17:18.390
daughter Emily had been on a school trip. The killer
279
00:17:18.430 --> 00:17:20.759
made sinister plans to pick her up.
280
00:17:22.109 --> 00:17:25.690
So he calls the Primrose School, where Emily attended, and
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00:17:25.809 --> 00:17:28.390
pretends to be Mr. Brindell, and said, Emily can walk home.
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00:17:29.250 --> 00:17:32.170
And to their credit, the school said, no, that's not
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00:17:32.250 --> 00:17:32.829
going to happen.
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00:17:33.410 --> 00:17:36.680
Not one to be diverted from his mission, the determined
285
00:17:36.759 --> 00:17:41.519
Hightower then stole Alice's car and drove it to the YMCA,
286
00:17:41.839 --> 00:17:45.079
where Emily was having her usual after-school care.
287
00:17:46.019 --> 00:17:47.720
So he goes to the Y, tries to pick her up,
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00:17:47.789 --> 00:17:49.509
and they won't let her because she's no longer on
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00:17:49.529 --> 00:17:52.930
their proof list. So then the YMCA gets a phone call,
290
00:17:53.829 --> 00:17:59.170
purportedly from Mr. Brendel, but undoubtedly from Hightower. This is
291
00:17:59.190 --> 00:18:02.829
Ernie Brendel. My friend Christopher Hightower, who was on my list,
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00:18:02.869 --> 00:18:04.150
is going to pick her up. I'm going to give
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00:18:04.170 --> 00:18:07.069
him my driver's license, which he has access to because
294
00:18:07.509 --> 00:18:11.130
Ernie's dead. So he goes to the YMCA and gets Emily.
295
00:18:12.059 --> 00:18:16.400
Even though Hightower was a trusted family friend, 8-year-old Emily
296
00:18:16.440 --> 00:18:20.339
had a sixth sense that something wasn't right. Tragically, she
297
00:18:20.380 --> 00:18:23.680
tried to call her father, Ernest, to warn him, leaving
298
00:18:23.720 --> 00:18:25.900
a message on the family's answer phone.
299
00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:31.819
Emily knew this wasn't right. And it's, Dad, Dad, this
300
00:18:31.839 --> 00:18:35.460
doesn't seem right, something like that. But eventually the YMCA
301
00:18:35.619 --> 00:18:38.140
lets her go. And that's the last anybody that we
302
00:18:38.180 --> 00:18:40.329
know of saw her, was the woman at the YMCA
303
00:18:40.369 --> 00:18:44.049
who sees her walking to Alice's car with Christopher Hightower.
304
00:18:45.069 --> 00:18:49.849
Once home, Hightower drugged 8-year-old Emily with Benadryl, then tied
305
00:18:49.890 --> 00:18:52.829
her up in the basement. The brutal killer knew she'd
306
00:18:52.869 --> 00:18:56.450
be useful as a bargaining chip when Mother Alice came home.
307
00:18:57.160 --> 00:18:59.400
Alice always got the bus home. Ernest would pick her
308
00:18:59.440 --> 00:19:02.920
up from the stop, but on this particular evening, Ernest
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00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:05.359
wasn't there, so she made her own way.
310
00:19:05.920 --> 00:19:09.460
Once home, she, too, was held hostage by Hightower.
311
00:19:10.029 --> 00:19:13.509
Throughout the day, people arrived at the house, um, Little
312
00:19:13.549 --> 00:19:16.109
girls came looking for Emily. He said she wasn't home.
313
00:19:16.869 --> 00:19:19.569
At one point, a discount store showed up to deliver
314
00:19:19.589 --> 00:19:21.190
a mattress. He sent them away.
315
00:19:22.109 --> 00:19:25.250
Mother and daughter were held hostage until the next morning
316
00:19:25.549 --> 00:19:28.769
when Hightower used Alice to carry out the final act
317
00:19:28.829 --> 00:19:33.390
in his plans. On Ernest's computer, he made her type
318
00:19:33.470 --> 00:19:37.710
out a letter in Ernest's name to the U.S. commodities regulators,
319
00:19:38.069 --> 00:19:43.480
withdrawing his complaints against Christopher Hightower. It's believed, though, she
320
00:19:43.529 --> 00:19:45.630
left a coded message for the police.
321
00:19:46.349 --> 00:19:49.839
She put Hightower's initials on the file she opened. and
322
00:19:49.859 --> 00:19:51.180
we all have to tell that was a clue.
323
00:19:52.240 --> 00:19:56.680
Now Hightower had no use for his hostages, he strangled Alice.
324
00:19:57.240 --> 00:20:00.589
Then later that evening, he drove her body, together with
325
00:20:00.650 --> 00:20:04.069
sleeping daughter Emily, to the remote woodland on the edge
326
00:20:04.109 --> 00:20:09.690
of town where Father Ernest was buried. Under cover of darkness,
327
00:20:09.990 --> 00:20:14.470
Hightower dug them a shallow grave, then buried eight-year-old Emily
328
00:20:14.609 --> 00:20:18.980
underneath her mother, as former detective Gary Palumbo remembers.
329
00:20:20.160 --> 00:20:27.289
There was evidence that she was buried alive. I know
330
00:20:27.329 --> 00:20:32.170
he gave her Benadryl, an insufficient amount that would make
331
00:20:32.210 --> 00:20:36.509
her drowsy or, you know, sleepy, but it wasn't enough to...
332
00:20:37.460 --> 00:20:43.359
To kill a child, that's a monster. That's a monster.
333
00:20:49.619 --> 00:20:52.960
Many people will say, well, maybe he felt bad. Maybe
334
00:20:53.059 --> 00:20:56.079
he didn't want her to kill her and he was
335
00:20:56.140 --> 00:20:58.539
just burying her body just to kind of get it
336
00:20:58.660 --> 00:21:01.640
out of sight, out of mind. But I think he's
337
00:21:01.680 --> 00:21:05.109
coming towards the end of his plan here. and perhaps
338
00:21:05.190 --> 00:21:07.910
that the killing of Emily wasn't as carefully thought through
339
00:21:08.109 --> 00:21:10.849
as the killing of Ernest and Alice.
340
00:21:12.230 --> 00:21:16.509
After burying the bodies, Hightower covered the graves with lime
341
00:21:16.890 --> 00:21:21.650
to mask the smell of decomposition. Now the killer was satisfied,
342
00:21:21.970 --> 00:21:25.150
he disposed of the entire Brendel family.
343
00:21:25.730 --> 00:21:28.450
He buries them quite close to their home, and this
344
00:21:28.490 --> 00:21:30.369
is interesting for me, because he has a lot in
345
00:21:30.430 --> 00:21:35.250
common with other killers here. He's thought fairly carefully about
346
00:21:35.349 --> 00:21:38.230
the murders themselves, but he hasn't thought very carefully about
347
00:21:38.250 --> 00:21:41.529
the aftermath in much detail. They're in a place where
348
00:21:41.549 --> 00:21:42.829
they're going to be discovered.
349
00:21:43.789 --> 00:21:47.750
The Earth would soon give up Hightower's dark, dark secret,
350
00:21:48.089 --> 00:21:53.650
and the reputation of the upstanding churchgoer would come crashing down. Soon,
351
00:21:53.730 --> 00:21:58.710
Christopher Hightower the fraudster would become known as a triple killer.
352
00:22:01.769 --> 00:22:06.430
The fact that Hightower kills a child is shocking, is awful.
353
00:22:06.690 --> 00:22:09.309
And we reflect on the fact that he's a father himself.
354
00:22:09.930 --> 00:22:12.910
But he's somebody who is completely cold, who is completely
355
00:22:13.009 --> 00:22:14.230
emotionally empty.
356
00:22:14.430 --> 00:22:15.650
So he would have felt.
357
00:22:15.490 --> 00:22:20.099
Absolutely no hesitation at killing the child because he sees
358
00:22:20.180 --> 00:22:22.740
people in terms of what they can do for him,
359
00:22:23.220 --> 00:22:25.700
whether they're a threat to him, whether they're a barrier
360
00:22:25.759 --> 00:22:26.160
to him.
361
00:22:26.180 --> 00:22:28.420
There's no emotional connection to them.
362
00:22:29.410 --> 00:22:33.309
Barrington was blissfully unaware of the Grizzly family murders that
363
00:22:33.349 --> 00:22:36.890
had taken place in the close-knit town. The destitute and
364
00:22:36.950 --> 00:22:41.480
homeless killer, Hightower, stole Alice's Toyota, then went on a
365
00:22:41.539 --> 00:22:44.680
spending spree with her husband, Ernest's, checkbook.
366
00:22:45.559 --> 00:22:49.519
He went about his business, buying stuff, cleaning supplies, you know,
367
00:22:49.799 --> 00:22:52.690
cashing checks. We got him at a yogurt store. We
368
00:22:52.789 --> 00:22:55.809
got him pumping gas. We got him all over Barrington
369
00:22:55.890 --> 00:22:57.630
and southeastern Massachusetts.
370
00:22:58.279 --> 00:23:02.200
Aware the alarm would soon be raised over the Brendels' disappearance,
371
00:23:02.480 --> 00:23:03.480
Hightower had to.
372
00:23:03.460 --> 00:23:04.779
Work out his alibi.
373
00:23:05.579 --> 00:23:08.220
Now he's scared that everything's going to come out and
374
00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:10.410
he's got to find a way of sorting it out.
375
00:23:10.809 --> 00:23:15.269
The finger of suspicion is almost inevitably going to point
376
00:23:15.289 --> 00:23:18.200
to him. So he devises a plan and goes to
377
00:23:18.259 --> 00:23:19.599
see Ernest's sister.
378
00:23:20.460 --> 00:23:24.849
That Sunday evening in the stolen family car, Hightower set
379
00:23:24.940 --> 00:23:29.329
off on the 95-mile journey to Guildford, Connecticut, where Ernest's
380
00:23:29.369 --> 00:23:33.430
sister Christine lived. She was very fond of her elder brother.
381
00:23:34.450 --> 00:23:37.829
Ernie was two years older than me. He was my
382
00:23:37.910 --> 00:23:38.450
big brother.
383
00:23:39.250 --> 00:23:41.970
And we were pretty close, I think, for a brother
384
00:23:42.009 --> 00:23:44.619
and a sister, and we led a very active relationship.
385
00:23:45.599 --> 00:23:47.279
Physically active childhood.
386
00:23:48.039 --> 00:23:51.529
Our parents had a house in the Pocono Mountains, so
387
00:23:51.569 --> 00:23:53.490
in the summer we just sort of ran wild.
388
00:23:54.069 --> 00:23:58.529
As adults, they remained close, even after Ernest married Alice.
389
00:23:59.230 --> 00:24:00.190
We had a good relationship.
390
00:24:00.210 --> 00:24:02.390
We argued, but we argued when we were kids too.
391
00:24:02.849 --> 00:24:08.440
Alice was the great peacemaker, mediator. You couldn't not have
392
00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:11.559
a good relationship with her because she was very easy
393
00:24:11.599 --> 00:24:12.259
to get along with.
394
00:24:13.569 --> 00:24:18.210
On Sunday evening, the 22nd of September, Christine was unaware
395
00:24:18.250 --> 00:24:22.029
of the tragedy that had befallen her brother. But his killer,
396
00:24:22.089 --> 00:24:24.569
Christopher Hightower, called at her door.
397
00:24:25.490 --> 00:24:27.750
We had guests for dinner.
398
00:24:29.099 --> 00:24:33.720
And he arrived at the door and started telling me
399
00:24:33.779 --> 00:24:37.339
his crazy story. And I said, why don't you go
400
00:24:37.359 --> 00:24:40.579
in the living room and sit down and relax?
401
00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:41.579
I said, because.
402
00:24:42.319 --> 00:24:45.619
we can't do anything about this until my guests leave.
403
00:24:46.579 --> 00:24:48.740
So I sort of hurried them out of the door,
404
00:24:49.440 --> 00:24:53.279
and then my husband and I sat down with Hightower,
405
00:24:53.980 --> 00:24:58.579
and then we started hearing his story, which was.
406
00:25:00.029 --> 00:25:00.289
Nuts.
407
00:25:02.289 --> 00:25:06.150
Although she'd never met him before, Hightower told Christine that
408
00:25:06.190 --> 00:25:09.569
her brother Ernest and his family had been kidnapped and
409
00:25:09.589 --> 00:25:11.990
were being held hostage by the mafia.
410
00:25:12.700 --> 00:25:15.890
I didn't quite know what to make of it. But
411
00:25:15.970 --> 00:25:18.369
I didn't think what he was telling me was the truth.
412
00:25:19.160 --> 00:25:22.940
Then he decided that he would show us the car.
413
00:25:23.690 --> 00:25:26.890
As well as showing Christine and her husband Ernest's bank
414
00:25:26.950 --> 00:25:30.349
cards and driving license, Hightower opened up the boot of
415
00:25:30.390 --> 00:25:33.490
the family car to reveal a massive stain of blood.
416
00:25:33.990 --> 00:25:36.710
He claimed the blood came from a broken jaw Ernest
417
00:25:36.750 --> 00:25:40.710
had sustained during the kidnap, but Christine's husband Alex was
418
00:25:40.769 --> 00:25:43.279
a doctor and didn't believe what he was hearing.
419
00:25:44.130 --> 00:25:46.380
He said to me was that there was a lot
420
00:25:46.400 --> 00:25:47.140
of blood.
421
00:25:46.880 --> 00:25:50.160
And there's probably more than someone could bleed and still
422
00:25:50.180 --> 00:25:53.220
be alive. We knew that something really bad had happened.
423
00:25:54.589 --> 00:25:56.049
but we didn't know exactly what.
424
00:25:56.670 --> 00:26:01.640
Hightower claimed the mafia wanted $ 300, 000 to release Ernest and
425
00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:07.720
his family. He asked Christine and her husband for $ 75, 000
426
00:26:07.079 --> 00:26:08.269
to help pay the ransom.
427
00:26:09.250 --> 00:26:12.450
We just told them that we obviously don't have that
428
00:26:12.529 --> 00:26:14.190
kind of money around the house.
429
00:26:14.250 --> 00:26:15.450
We don't deal in cash.
430
00:26:16.849 --> 00:26:21.069
Hightower left empty-handed, but he warned Christine and husband Alex
431
00:26:21.430 --> 00:26:25.240
not to call the police, claiming their phones were being tapped.
432
00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:29.640
Once Hightower disappeared, though, they went to a neighbor's house
433
00:26:30.039 --> 00:26:31.940
and called the authorities straight away.
434
00:26:32.759 --> 00:26:38.359
We went over there and called the FBI because I
435
00:26:38.400 --> 00:26:42.460
thought that, you know, if it's kidnapped, it's much better
436
00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:44.519
to get them on the case.
437
00:26:45.140 --> 00:26:49.299
The FBI alerted the local Barrington police, who conducted a
438
00:26:49.400 --> 00:26:51.779
thorough search of the Brendels' family home.
439
00:26:52.440 --> 00:26:55.259
We forcibly entered the house. The one thing that I
440
00:26:55.339 --> 00:26:58.029
noticed right off the top is there were no cords
441
00:26:58.109 --> 00:27:00.849
to the telephones. It wasn't connected to anything, and the
442
00:27:00.910 --> 00:27:05.230
cords were gone. So that raised my suspicion a little bit.
443
00:27:06.069 --> 00:27:09.109
And when we go out to the garage, the southwest
444
00:27:09.170 --> 00:27:14.710
window of the garage looked like somebody forcibly entered through there.
445
00:27:15.740 --> 00:27:18.920
Although there was no obvious evidence of a murder scene,
446
00:27:19.220 --> 00:27:22.220
the police were concerned about the missing family of three.
447
00:27:22.680 --> 00:27:26.460
The only potential link to their whereabouts was Christopher Hightower,
448
00:27:26.769 --> 00:27:31.329
who Christine had reported driving the family's Toyota. For Barrington's
449
00:27:31.410 --> 00:27:35.230
chief of police, Charles Brule, Hightower had to be brought
450
00:27:35.309 --> 00:27:36.309
in for questioning.
451
00:27:37.269 --> 00:27:40.589
I advised the dispatcher to put a broadcast out on
452
00:27:40.609 --> 00:27:43.839
the motor vehicle we were looking for, and one of
453
00:27:43.859 --> 00:27:46.519
the officers on patrol who was in the Barrington Shopping
454
00:27:46.559 --> 00:27:51.329
Center saw the vehicle exiting, stopped the vehicle, and at
455
00:27:51.380 --> 00:27:53.730
that point, we took the individual into custody.
456
00:27:55.450 --> 00:28:00.289
Once in custody, Hightower feigned concern about the Brendels' whereabouts.
457
00:28:00.849 --> 00:28:04.190
He also told the police that they'd been kidnapped.
458
00:28:03.730 --> 00:28:04.549
By the mafia.
459
00:28:05.150 --> 00:28:08.859
Meanwhile, the family's Toyota that he'd been driving was searched.
460
00:28:09.700 --> 00:28:12.470
Based on the search warrant, we found... an empty bag
461
00:28:12.490 --> 00:28:18.019
of lime, blood splatters and stains inside the car, and
462
00:28:18.359 --> 00:28:22.799
in the trunk there was a crossbow, and also they
463
00:28:22.859 --> 00:28:27.859
found three teeth, which ended up being Ernie's, in the
464
00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:28.680
back of the car.
465
00:28:29.559 --> 00:28:33.269
It was obvious about the evidence that was inside the Toyota,
466
00:28:33.329 --> 00:28:36.750
which was accumulation of blood stains, more than a person
467
00:28:36.789 --> 00:28:38.869
would receive from a beating, from a facial beating.
468
00:28:39.329 --> 00:28:41.369
We thought the family was in trouble at that time,
469
00:28:41.390 --> 00:28:45.220
especially just observing the car without searching it. You could
470
00:28:45.859 --> 00:28:48.609
see the bloodstains, so we thought they were in trouble.
471
00:28:50.109 --> 00:28:53.910
With this forensic evidence and no sightings of the Brendels
472
00:28:53.990 --> 00:28:57.230
alive in the last three days, the police believe they
473
00:28:57.269 --> 00:29:01.029
had a triple murder on their hands. At this point,
474
00:29:01.170 --> 00:29:04.930
under pressure, Hightower made his first mistake in his mafia
475
00:29:04.990 --> 00:29:09.380
kidnapping story. When the police commented on tyre tracks found
476
00:29:09.430 --> 00:29:12.180
near Hightower's home, his pretense slipped.
477
00:29:12.700 --> 00:29:14.640
They're not buried there, he told them.
478
00:29:15.859 --> 00:29:18.599
Well, it's quite interesting because that's implying I do have
479
00:29:18.660 --> 00:29:21.829
some knowledge about this And this is a power play.
480
00:29:21.890 --> 00:29:24.549
He's basically saying to the police, I do know something
481
00:29:24.609 --> 00:29:26.089
about this, but I'm not going to give it up
482
00:29:26.170 --> 00:29:30.819
that easily. So he's trying to buy himself time. He's
483
00:29:31.160 --> 00:29:32.319
very much in control.
484
00:29:33.220 --> 00:29:34.079
As news of.
485
00:29:34.039 --> 00:29:39.170
The Brendels' disappearance spread, concerned Barrington residents helped in any
486
00:29:39.250 --> 00:29:39.910
way they could.
487
00:29:40.680 --> 00:29:45.390
Within a week's time, they started organizing searches. They would
488
00:29:45.450 --> 00:29:50.430
have searches where community members could volunteer, and they would
489
00:29:50.450 --> 00:29:52.250
come out and assist.
490
00:29:52.910 --> 00:29:57.019
As forensic investigators swept through the Brendels' home, they found
491
00:29:57.099 --> 00:30:01.819
microscopic evidence which linked to the crossbow found in Hightower's possession.
492
00:30:02.299 --> 00:30:04.819
Now it was a potential murder weapon.
493
00:30:06.559 --> 00:30:10.200
There was a little hole in the garage door that
494
00:30:10.240 --> 00:30:13.380
determined to be caused by an arrow, by a bolt.
495
00:30:13.759 --> 00:30:17.549
And forensically, they ended up finding blood splatters in that area.
496
00:30:18.279 --> 00:30:21.740
With news that the police had uncovered a likely murder scene,
497
00:30:21.759 --> 00:30:24.279
Ernest's sister Christine was giving.
498
00:30:24.099 --> 00:30:24.859
Up all hope.
499
00:30:25.819 --> 00:30:27.799
As time went on, it just got worse.
500
00:30:28.160 --> 00:30:30.980
You know, the chances that they were alive and the
501
00:30:31.039 --> 00:30:34.859
chances that they were unharmed were less and less.
502
00:30:35.880 --> 00:30:38.140
And it was too much.
503
00:30:39.670 --> 00:30:44.079
As police dug into Hightower's background, they found a destitute
504
00:30:44.140 --> 00:30:47.359
man with a trail of fraud leading from his investment
505
00:30:47.400 --> 00:30:52.200
scam in Ohio. On October the 2nd, U.S. regulator the
506
00:30:52.259 --> 00:30:57.869
National Futures Association told investigators about a letter they purportedly
507
00:30:57.910 --> 00:31:02.410
received from Ernest Brendel withdrawing a complaint against a broker,
508
00:31:02.730 --> 00:31:07.759
Christopher Hightower. Forensics experts examined it and revealed it was
509
00:31:07.890 --> 00:31:11.559
a forgery. Now the police knew this complaint could be
510
00:31:11.599 --> 00:31:18.259
their prime suspect's motive for murder. The town was shocked
511
00:31:18.299 --> 00:31:23.089
when they learned 42-year-old Sunday School teacher Christopher Hightower had
512
00:31:23.150 --> 00:31:27.269
been arrested in connection with the disappearance of the Brendel family.
513
00:31:30.630 --> 00:31:34.569
Despite a six-week search for their bodies, Ernest, wife Alice,
514
00:31:34.849 --> 00:31:38.970
and their eight-year-old daughter Emily still hadn't been found.
515
00:31:40.720 --> 00:31:42.660
A huge army of law enforcement with a lot of
516
00:31:42.700 --> 00:31:48.599
volunteers spent six weeks looking for the Brendels. We searched cemeteries.
517
00:31:48.660 --> 00:31:52.109
We searched abandoned pits. We looked everywhere. We had dogs.
518
00:31:52.329 --> 00:31:55.170
The FBI brought in mediums. We talked to profilers from
519
00:31:55.190 --> 00:31:56.990
the FBI, but we couldn't find them.
520
00:31:57.809 --> 00:32:00.990
On the 7th of November, a Barrington resident was out
521
00:32:01.069 --> 00:32:04.190
walking in remote woodland next to one of the town's
522
00:32:04.259 --> 00:32:07.279
schools when she made a sinister discovery.
523
00:32:07.859 --> 00:32:11.920
We got a phone call saying that a woman walking
524
00:32:11.960 --> 00:32:16.869
her dog had seen her dog reacted to an area.
525
00:32:17.549 --> 00:32:21.089
She showed us where it was. Myself and the sergeant
526
00:32:21.109 --> 00:32:25.089
went in, and it was briars and bushes everywhere. And
527
00:32:25.109 --> 00:32:27.890
then all of a sudden it was no more briars,
528
00:32:28.990 --> 00:32:32.200
no more bushes. And you could see an area where
529
00:32:32.420 --> 00:32:36.599
there were depressions. We dug the area where the depressions were.
530
00:32:37.720 --> 00:32:43.599
One depression revealed Ernie's knee, and the second depression revealed
531
00:32:43.759 --> 00:32:48.579
Alice's knee. And that's when we stopped and called the forensics.
532
00:32:49.599 --> 00:32:53.220
As a Barrington resident, it was the discovery even Detective
533
00:32:53.279 --> 00:32:54.799
Gary Palumbo was dreading.
534
00:32:55.589 --> 00:32:59.829
They train you. They mentor you. Don't get emotional. Leave
535
00:32:59.849 --> 00:33:03.369
it at work. But I was angry. It doesn't take
536
00:33:03.430 --> 00:33:06.849
a rocket scientist to realize what you found. And so
537
00:33:07.150 --> 00:33:09.089
I was angry.
538
00:33:12.630 --> 00:33:17.240
The FBI and soon forensic teams swooped on the shallow grave.
539
00:33:17.680 --> 00:33:21.900
Former state prosecutor Patrick Youngs was also called to attend.
540
00:33:22.420 --> 00:33:26.779
He saw damning evidence linking Christopher Hightower to the crime scene.
541
00:33:27.700 --> 00:33:30.130
Within the hole where Mr. Brendel was was a piece
542
00:33:30.170 --> 00:33:32.269
of a bag of lime. The piece of a bag
543
00:33:32.309 --> 00:33:34.589
of lime that matched the bag of lime that was
544
00:33:35.029 --> 00:33:37.789
in the car that Mr. Hightower was driving that we
545
00:33:37.849 --> 00:33:39.869
had a receipt that he bought at a hardware store.
546
00:33:41.049 --> 00:33:42.430
So we knew then, boy, we got him.
547
00:33:43.980 --> 00:33:47.400
In a shallow grave next to Ernest, they uncovered the
548
00:33:47.440 --> 00:33:51.299
body of his wife, Alice. She'd been strangled as a
549
00:33:51.359 --> 00:33:55.470
ligature had been left around her neck. But underneath Alice,
550
00:33:55.869 --> 00:33:58.450
they found her 8-year-old daughter, Emily.
551
00:33:59.089 --> 00:34:05.319
It was extremely sad, and..... you could see a little
552
00:34:05.390 --> 00:34:09.460
shoe in the dirt. State police, detective pressed to make
553
00:34:09.480 --> 00:34:11.099
sure there was a foot in there. That was a
554
00:34:11.119 --> 00:34:14.380
very sad moment. We had a photograph of Emily taken
555
00:34:14.400 --> 00:34:16.400
on Friday because she went on a field trip. She
556
00:34:16.420 --> 00:34:19.619
went to Newport to see a Viking ship. And we
557
00:34:19.659 --> 00:34:22.369
knew what clothes she had on on Friday. She had
558
00:34:22.409 --> 00:34:25.329
the same clothes on. To me, that was just so sad.
559
00:34:25.349 --> 00:34:28.650
It was just so sad seeing this little girl. So
560
00:34:28.929 --> 00:34:33.280
it was a very emotional day for everybody there. There
561
00:34:33.300 --> 00:34:35.300
were police officers in the hole with them. That was
562
00:34:35.320 --> 00:34:36.559
a very solemn occasion.
563
00:34:37.739 --> 00:34:42.380
That same day, Emily's aunt, Ernie's sister, Christine, was told
564
00:34:42.400 --> 00:34:42.840
the news.
565
00:34:44.159 --> 00:34:48.210
We had, I think, already had a funeral service. And
566
00:34:48.250 --> 00:34:51.949
we knew they were dead. My mother was still alive.
567
00:34:53.510 --> 00:34:56.289
And Ernie was the absolute apple of her eye.
568
00:34:56.849 --> 00:34:58.090
But she was in the.
569
00:34:57.989 --> 00:35:05.059
Early stages of dementia. And she said things like, where's
570
00:35:05.079 --> 00:35:05.500
your brother?
571
00:35:07.730 --> 00:35:12.460
Or,'' He hasn't come to visit me recently.'' I'd say,'' Mom,
572
00:35:12.840 --> 00:35:13.380
he's dead.
573
00:35:15.199 --> 00:35:16.239
It was very difficult.
574
00:35:18.179 --> 00:35:22.050
With the discovery of the Brendels' bodies, their killer would
575
00:35:22.119 --> 00:35:26.909
finally face justice. Christopher Hightower was charged on three counts
576
00:35:26.949 --> 00:35:31.250
of murder and one of kidnap. His trial started 16
577
00:35:31.250 --> 00:35:36.550
months later on 8 March 1993... at the Supreme Court
578
00:35:36.590 --> 00:35:41.750
of Rhode Island. Former state prosecutor Patrick Youngs helped prepare
579
00:35:41.809 --> 00:35:42.250
the case.
580
00:35:43.550 --> 00:35:46.909
Most cases that we prosecute, we usually have some sort
581
00:35:46.949 --> 00:35:49.289
of direct evidence, and a direct evidence is either an
582
00:35:49.309 --> 00:35:52.340
eyewitness to the crime or a confession. We had neither.
583
00:35:52.360 --> 00:35:57.000
He never confessed. But circumstantial cases, if you do it
584
00:35:57.039 --> 00:35:59.039
the right way, are the most compelling cases.
585
00:36:00.250 --> 00:36:03.469
Not only did the prosecution present the man who sold
586
00:36:03.570 --> 00:36:07.789
Hightower the crossbow, they called nearly 100 other witnesses.
587
00:36:09.030 --> 00:36:12.010
We could trace his receipts. And we had witnesses that
588
00:36:12.050 --> 00:36:16.750
saw him around town. He bought muriatic acid to clean
589
00:36:16.769 --> 00:36:21.789
the floor of the horse barn. Each little witness had
590
00:36:21.829 --> 00:36:24.829
a little essential dot to fill in. So we had
591
00:36:24.869 --> 00:36:28.389
witnesses that would see him at the house. We put
592
00:36:28.530 --> 00:36:31.829
in the delivery guy who showed up to deliver a mattress.
593
00:36:32.670 --> 00:36:36.829
We put in the neighbor who saw Hightower with the hose.
594
00:36:37.269 --> 00:36:39.570
We put in the guy at the shell station who
595
00:36:39.590 --> 00:36:42.510
pumped gas with him. We put in all these little.
596
00:36:43.750 --> 00:36:44.070
Dots.
597
00:36:45.130 --> 00:36:48.179
And at the end, they all pointed in only one direction,
598
00:36:48.300 --> 00:36:49.880
and that was Mr. Hightower.
599
00:36:50.360 --> 00:36:53.880
When Hightower took to the stand, true to form, he
600
00:36:53.960 --> 00:36:57.219
had an elaborate explanation for the damning evidence.
601
00:36:58.250 --> 00:37:02.400
Unbelievably, Hightower explained that Ernest had got involved with the
602
00:37:02.440 --> 00:37:04.380
mob and some serious drug dealing.
603
00:37:05.280 --> 00:37:08.780
Hightower claimed he was at Ernest's house when the mafia
604
00:37:08.860 --> 00:37:12.809
arrived and murdered the Brendel family in a dispute over money.
605
00:37:13.349 --> 00:37:16.250
He claimed he saw eight-year-old Emily strangled.
606
00:37:16.269 --> 00:37:19.590
They had already said they were going to kill her.
607
00:37:19.710 --> 00:37:21.070
He didn't tell them where the money was.
608
00:37:27.400 --> 00:37:28.199
I couldn't believe it.
609
00:37:28.199 --> 00:37:31.099
It was impossible. You don't kill a child.
610
00:37:35.659 --> 00:37:38.460
Then Hightower claimed he was threatened himself.
611
00:37:40.739 --> 00:37:48.199
Sometime during the evening, a pillowcase or something was placed
612
00:37:48.239 --> 00:37:51.070
over my head. I was taken out to one of
613
00:37:51.090 --> 00:37:51.510
the cars.
614
00:37:53.150 --> 00:37:56.429
He then said he was forced to dig the Brendels' graves,
615
00:37:56.769 --> 00:37:58.929
otherwise his own family would be killed.
616
00:38:00.809 --> 00:38:02.739
I picked up the shovel and I started digging. I
617
00:38:02.980 --> 00:38:05.579
begged him, please, I'll do whatever you want, just leave
618
00:38:05.619 --> 00:38:06.260
him alone.
619
00:38:07.380 --> 00:38:10.800
Complete lies. There is no doubt whatever.
620
00:38:11.719 --> 00:38:11.920
Mr.
621
00:38:11.960 --> 00:38:15.809
Hightower claimed, I didn't do it. The mafia did it.
622
00:38:16.070 --> 00:38:18.030
These drug dealers did it. So he got on the
623
00:38:18.050 --> 00:38:19.010
stand and said, I'm innocent.
624
00:38:20.550 --> 00:38:21.650
They didn't kill anyone.
625
00:38:24.889 --> 00:38:25.449
Who did?
626
00:38:27.329 --> 00:38:29.289
The people that were with Mr. Brindell.
627
00:38:30.250 --> 00:38:35.530
State Attorney Michael Stone tore into Hightower's claims on behalf
628
00:38:35.909 --> 00:38:37.030
of the prosecution.
629
00:38:37.570 --> 00:38:40.440
I think he thought by testifying that he was going
630
00:38:40.460 --> 00:38:44.579
to convince the jury that he actually had nothing to
631
00:38:44.619 --> 00:38:47.780
do with these murders. I think he's the type of
632
00:38:47.840 --> 00:38:51.150
person who believes his own lie.
633
00:38:53.260 --> 00:38:56.760
Michael's pivotal moment in making his case was by proving
634
00:38:56.800 --> 00:39:01.940
beyond doubt that Christopher Hightower was a pathological liar. In court,
635
00:39:01.980 --> 00:39:05.949
he produced the transcripts Hightower had falsified to get into
636
00:39:06.010 --> 00:39:09.289
Wright State University 11 years previously.
637
00:39:10.010 --> 00:39:13.269
You didn't get accepted into that master's program with a 2.5 average,
638
00:39:13.349 --> 00:39:13.750
did you?
639
00:39:13.829 --> 00:39:14.550
No, I did not.
640
00:39:14.590 --> 00:39:15.889
And why is that?
641
00:39:16.849 --> 00:39:22.539
Because I had contacted an individual at... University of Rhode
642
00:39:22.599 --> 00:39:26.570
Island and obtained a forged transcript.
643
00:39:31.780 --> 00:39:33.739
I think by the time I finished that it was
644
00:39:33.820 --> 00:39:40.599
evident to the jurors that he was a total fabrication
645
00:39:41.719 --> 00:39:45.650
and that Ernie Brindell was just the person who got
646
00:39:45.690 --> 00:39:50.349
in his way and was expendable. He definitely... as a
647
00:39:50.389 --> 00:39:53.090
person who cared about nothing else but himself.
648
00:39:54.809 --> 00:39:59.010
After four days of cross-examination, the triple killer looked defeated.
649
00:39:59.530 --> 00:40:03.030
In desperation, his own defense team even brought an expert
650
00:40:03.070 --> 00:40:07.579
psychiatrist to the stand to testify that Hightower was delusional.
651
00:40:08.059 --> 00:40:12.289
But the court dismissed any claims of insanity. On the
652
00:40:12.510 --> 00:40:17.139
8th of June, 1993, Christopher Hightower was sentenced to life
653
00:40:17.199 --> 00:40:21.519
without parole. It was the result the investigators and prosecutors
654
00:40:21.820 --> 00:40:23.079
had been waiting for.
655
00:40:23.099 --> 00:40:26.800
Well, I think everybody was relieved. We're thankful we got
656
00:40:26.840 --> 00:40:29.239
the master off the street, and he's going to stay
657
00:40:29.260 --> 00:40:29.800
off the street.
658
00:40:30.380 --> 00:40:32.989
He's probably the lowest form of life on the earth.
659
00:40:33.530 --> 00:40:36.369
I had the opportunity to confront him when I was
660
00:40:36.449 --> 00:40:38.809
in my second employment in the federal court, and I
661
00:40:38.849 --> 00:40:41.269
just told him, I said, You rotten bastard, I hope
662
00:40:41.289 --> 00:40:45.960
you rot in hell. And that's the way I feel.
663
00:40:45.980 --> 00:40:49.119
Because there isn't any place for him in any kind
664
00:40:49.139 --> 00:40:50.099
of society at all.
665
00:40:51.699 --> 00:40:52.500
He's despicable.
666
00:40:53.139 --> 00:40:57.840
It's all about him. People were objects to him. People
667
00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:01.449
were there to be used to further his means.
668
00:41:02.130 --> 00:41:05.869
Hightower is such a cold and a despicable killer because
669
00:41:06.250 --> 00:41:09.980
nothing gets in his way. He is literally like a steamroller,
670
00:41:10.320 --> 00:41:14.179
and the devastation that he perpetrates lasts for a very,
671
00:41:14.219 --> 00:41:14.980
very long time.
672
00:41:16.079 --> 00:41:18.820
For Christine, there was comfort in knowing that the man
673
00:41:18.880 --> 00:41:21.780
who brutally wiped out the whole side of her family
674
00:41:22.059 --> 00:41:23.219
can never kill again.
675
00:41:23.239 --> 00:41:24.860
I mean, I.
676
00:41:28.070 --> 00:41:31.059
Emily was a dear child, and....
677
00:41:32.349 --> 00:41:37.480
The fact that he could kill her just absolutely leaves
678
00:41:37.539 --> 00:41:40.179
me absolutely no sympathy for him.
679
00:41:40.239 --> 00:41:41.400
He's an awful person.
680
00:41:42.440 --> 00:41:47.940
And he's soulless, even though I don't believe in souls.
681
00:41:49.989 --> 00:41:51.469
He's totally immoral.
682
00:41:55.329 --> 00:41:58.869
He was a con man who masqueraded as a church leader,
683
00:41:59.190 --> 00:42:04.210
duping people out of thousands of dollars. He mercilessly slaughtered
684
00:42:04.269 --> 00:42:07.980
a family of three just to protect his reputation and
685
00:42:08.059 --> 00:42:11.880
cover up his trail of fraud. He kidnapped an 8-year-old
686
00:42:11.920 --> 00:42:16.289
girl from school, drugged her and buried her alive. That's
687
00:42:16.329 --> 00:42:21.610
what makes Christopher Hightower one of the world's most evil killers.