WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.960 --> 00:00:05.589
New Mexico, a few miles outside Albuquerque. The landscape gives
2
00:00:05.650 --> 00:00:10.210
way to a dusty sprawl dotted by strip malls and subdivisions.
3
00:00:12.849 --> 00:00:18.010
On April 16th, 1981, Sandoval County Sheriff Gennaro Ferrara was
4
00:00:18.030 --> 00:00:21.309
dispatched to a remote patch of desert 20 miles north
5
00:00:21.350 --> 00:00:26.190
of the city. Among the rocks and sand, two gas
6
00:00:26.230 --> 00:00:28.390
company workers had discovered a body.
7
00:00:29.410 --> 00:00:33.829
It was a very gruesome sight. It was totally nude.
8
00:00:33.869 --> 00:00:36.079
There were no clothes on. The body had been burned off.
9
00:00:36.659 --> 00:00:40.060
And you could see where some predators, maybe coyotes, had
10
00:00:40.100 --> 00:00:41.859
tried to gnaw at the body.
11
00:00:42.740 --> 00:00:45.520
It was clearly a homicide. The body had been burned.
12
00:00:45.859 --> 00:00:49.509
The skull fractured. The crime scene yielded no clues about
13
00:00:49.570 --> 00:00:53.649
who killed this person. But a medic alert bracelet was
14
00:00:53.689 --> 00:00:56.520
found nearby. and it was quickly traced to a woman
15
00:00:56.590 --> 00:01:00.810
named Pamela Sue Barker. Tattoos on the corpse suggested she
16
00:01:00.850 --> 00:01:04.409
could be a biker. The sheriff tracked down the dead
17
00:01:04.469 --> 00:01:07.569
woman's mother, who confirmed that her daughter was indeed a biker.
18
00:01:08.750 --> 00:01:11.530
This image is one of the only available pictures of
19
00:01:11.609 --> 00:01:15.780
Pamela Barker. The mother revealed her daughter had been married
20
00:01:15.819 --> 00:01:17.840
to a man named Sonny Pearson.
21
00:01:19.120 --> 00:01:22.079
The mom says, Pearson. We start looking.
22
00:01:23.430 --> 00:01:27.409
Police started canvassing local biker hangouts. They soon learned that
23
00:01:27.489 --> 00:01:31.459
Sonny Pearson and his wife were mysterious recent additions to
24
00:01:31.500 --> 00:01:35.939
this part of New Mexico. Two years earlier, the couple
25
00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:39.709
had moved to a subdivision outside Albuquerque called Rio Rancho.
26
00:01:40.849 --> 00:01:44.950
Pearson invested in a trucking business and in this truck stop,
27
00:01:45.569 --> 00:01:51.209
the Big Chief Cafe. Alice Vick and her son Daniel
28
00:01:51.250 --> 00:01:54.079
were both working there when Pearson became part owner.
29
00:01:56.239 --> 00:01:58.359
He was a biker and hung around with the biker crowd,
30
00:01:58.379 --> 00:02:01.239
and you don't really, you don't ask a lot of
31
00:02:01.260 --> 00:02:03.439
questions in that circle of people.
32
00:02:03.969 --> 00:02:07.069
I was prep cook, and he just always backed the
33
00:02:07.090 --> 00:02:11.349
visiting with me, I guess because of my age. And
34
00:02:11.669 --> 00:02:15.370
like you know, he calls me mom. And we just
35
00:02:15.430 --> 00:02:18.000
got to be real friendly. Tried to turn him on
36
00:02:18.020 --> 00:02:18.979
to God, but it didn't work.
37
00:02:20.300 --> 00:02:24.379
The 31-year-old Pearson was a distinctive figure, even among local bikers,
38
00:02:24.840 --> 00:02:28.900
standing 5'7, with a long beard, a limp, and a
39
00:02:28.919 --> 00:02:30.870
glass eye from a childhood accident.
40
00:02:32.090 --> 00:02:33.430
When he didn't have any money and he was in
41
00:02:33.469 --> 00:02:35.629
a bar, he'd take his eye out and drop it
42
00:02:35.650 --> 00:02:37.949
in somebody's drink when they weren't looking, and then they
43
00:02:37.969 --> 00:02:39.610
wouldn't want their drink anymore, and he'd take it.
44
00:02:40.810 --> 00:02:44.490
Sonny could talk people into almost anything.
45
00:02:44.729 --> 00:02:48.710
He just had that personality, and he had that gift.
46
00:02:49.150 --> 00:02:50.389
He made me real uneasy.
47
00:02:51.150 --> 00:02:54.710
Businesswoman Judy Crawley knew Pearson and his wife Michelle from
48
00:02:54.770 --> 00:02:55.689
his trucking business.
49
00:02:57.750 --> 00:03:01.039
She was busy working on the motorcycles, and Sonny was
50
00:03:01.219 --> 00:03:02.560
busy being the tough guy.
51
00:03:03.259 --> 00:03:06.800
I didn't see a lot of closeness with Michelle and Sonny.
52
00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:09.219
They were more like friends.
53
00:03:11.960 --> 00:03:14.759
Now, following the discovery of the corpse in the desert,
54
00:03:15.259 --> 00:03:19.159
and two days after police got Pearson's name, Sonny himself
55
00:03:19.300 --> 00:03:23.180
paid Sheriff Ferrara a visit. He said he had heard
56
00:03:23.219 --> 00:03:25.659
about the body and was sure it was his wife.
57
00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:28.620
He said, I want to see my wife.
58
00:03:28.840 --> 00:03:30.110
I want to see my wife.
59
00:03:30.129 --> 00:03:34.009
I said, you know, sit down. We need to ask
60
00:03:34.050 --> 00:03:35.069
you a few questions.
61
00:03:36.009 --> 00:03:39.270
Pearson told police his wife had disappeared six weeks earlier
62
00:03:39.349 --> 00:03:42.949
from their trailer home. He had filed a missing persons
63
00:03:43.009 --> 00:03:45.370
report in neighboring Bernalillo County.
64
00:03:46.659 --> 00:03:52.590
Pearson had filed a report on March the 2nd stating
65
00:03:52.620 --> 00:03:55.569
that his wife and him had gotten into an argument.
66
00:03:56.129 --> 00:03:59.330
And about 2 o'clock in the morning, she took off
67
00:04:00.650 --> 00:04:03.509
and was walking. Last time he seen her, he says,
68
00:04:03.879 --> 00:04:07.199
he was heading south on the tracks behind the trailer court.
69
00:04:07.800 --> 00:04:11.500
And it just didn't fit. Where was this woman going
70
00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:13.110
to go at 2 a.m.
71
00:04:14.810 --> 00:04:17.870
The sheriff grilled Sonny for more than three hours, during
72
00:04:17.930 --> 00:04:21.310
which Pearson revealed that he had a criminal past and
73
00:04:21.810 --> 00:04:25.430
a secret identity, courtesy of the federal government.
74
00:04:26.490 --> 00:04:31.750
He gives me the story about the Marshal Service Witness
75
00:04:31.769 --> 00:04:34.910
Protection Program. Come to pass, he did say at one
76
00:04:34.949 --> 00:04:37.209
point in time that he had robbed a bank at
77
00:04:37.269 --> 00:04:38.149
one point in his life.
78
00:04:39.129 --> 00:04:42.350
Pearson refused to say much else. but did mention that
79
00:04:42.389 --> 00:04:46.170
he'd served time at the federal penitentiary in Atlanta. He
80
00:04:46.209 --> 00:04:49.250
dared the sheriff to contact the U.S. Marshal Service for
81
00:04:49.290 --> 00:04:55.370
more answers. Ferrara left Pearson in the interrogation room and
82
00:04:55.430 --> 00:04:57.750
went to call the Marshal Service in Albuquerque.
83
00:04:59.850 --> 00:05:02.420
I says, listen, yeah, we know this guy. I says,
84
00:05:03.009 --> 00:05:05.740
you need to give me some information on Woodall. He says, well,
85
00:05:05.759 --> 00:05:08.920
we can't give out any information about his prior and
86
00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:11.750
this and that, but We have some other information.
87
00:05:13.290 --> 00:05:16.750
The marshal confirmed that his suspect and his wife had
88
00:05:16.850 --> 00:05:21.430
both received new identities as Michelle and Charles Sonny Pearson.
89
00:05:22.050 --> 00:05:28.639
Pearson's real name was Marion Albert Pruitt. The marshal divulged
90
00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:33.060
one other startling detail. Apparently, the night before she disappeared,
91
00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:36.019
Pruitt's wife called a marshal at home and said she
92
00:05:36.060 --> 00:05:38.879
was afraid her husband was going to kill her. The
93
00:05:38.920 --> 00:05:41.540
marshal told her to contact local police in the morning.
94
00:05:44.709 --> 00:05:49.589
That was the last anyone heard from her. Once Sheriff
95
00:05:49.629 --> 00:05:52.829
Ferrara was done talking to the marshal in Albuquerque, he
96
00:05:52.889 --> 00:05:56.029
returned to the interrogation room and confronted his suspect.
97
00:05:58.110 --> 00:06:02.819
I told him, you murdered your wife. You did it.
98
00:06:04.040 --> 00:06:05.540
You're going to be put downstairs.
99
00:06:05.560 --> 00:06:07.600
I'm locking you up as a material witness.
100
00:06:08.870 --> 00:06:11.920
I know I could hold him for 72 hours and
101
00:06:11.980 --> 00:06:15.220
then kept trying to develop more stuff.
102
00:06:16.839 --> 00:06:20.779
But the sheriff's case quickly fell apart. 48 hours later,
103
00:06:20.839 --> 00:06:24.399
a judge ordered the suspect released for lack of evidence.
104
00:06:25.459 --> 00:06:29.019
Then the FBI sent back a report on the man's fingerprints.
105
00:06:30.300 --> 00:06:34.620
They sent me back a print card that said no record.
106
00:06:36.779 --> 00:06:38.379
I was sort of taken back.
107
00:06:39.569 --> 00:06:40.129
No record?
108
00:06:40.589 --> 00:06:41.670
This guy's telling.
109
00:06:41.449 --> 00:06:43.029
Me he'd been in the Atlanta Penitentiary.
110
00:06:44.350 --> 00:06:44.970
No record?
111
00:06:46.709 --> 00:06:49.839
Couldn't get any, anything. Nothing.
112
00:06:50.899 --> 00:06:53.920
With no help from either the FBI or the U.S. Marshals,
113
00:06:54.379 --> 00:06:57.740
Sheriff Ferrara and his deputies kept on trying to crack
114
00:06:57.779 --> 00:07:03.949
the case. Almost two months later, finally, a breakthrough. Police
115
00:07:04.009 --> 00:07:06.930
tracked down a close friend of Marion Pruitt's who seemed
116
00:07:07.089 --> 00:07:12.370
nervous about talking. After some prodding, 24-year-old Bill Sherman confessed
117
00:07:12.430 --> 00:07:16.319
that he saw Pruitt kill his wife and that he
118
00:07:16.459 --> 00:07:17.779
helped dispose of the body.
119
00:07:19.800 --> 00:07:24.180
He tells me, I was there. I was there when
120
00:07:24.199 --> 00:07:27.680
he murdered her. And you know what? He was eager
121
00:07:27.720 --> 00:07:28.920
to get that off his chest.
122
00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:33.000
There was no question that Bill Sherman was terrified.
123
00:07:34.180 --> 00:07:35.110
Of Marion Pruitt.
124
00:07:36.920 --> 00:07:45.100
And that Marion Pruitt used his persona to totally control
125
00:07:45.139 --> 00:07:47.759
and manipulate the accomplice in this case.
126
00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:52.579
Sherman began telling the sheriff about the night Pruitt's wife disappeared.
127
00:07:53.259 --> 00:07:55.660
He said he spent the evening drinking with Pruitt at
128
00:07:55.699 --> 00:07:59.180
his trailer. Then he claimed his friend told him to
129
00:07:59.220 --> 00:08:02.259
go home and return later that night so they could
130
00:08:02.279 --> 00:08:06.209
discuss his trucking business. Sherman returned and said Pruitt immediately
131
00:08:06.250 --> 00:08:08.970
took a hammer into the bedroom where his wife was asleep.
132
00:08:09.610 --> 00:08:12.790
There were screams. Then Sherman entered the room.
133
00:08:15.689 --> 00:08:20.160
Blood was all over. She was just fairly not even
134
00:08:20.220 --> 00:08:21.019
moving at that.
135
00:08:20.939 --> 00:08:21.439
Point in time.
136
00:08:21.980 --> 00:08:25.279
And then what they did is they took the body
137
00:08:25.379 --> 00:08:27.439
and put it in the trunk of a car and
138
00:08:27.480 --> 00:08:29.259
took it out to the mesa, which is on the
139
00:08:29.300 --> 00:08:33.289
west side of Albuquerque here, and then burned it and
140
00:08:33.350 --> 00:08:33.669
left it.
141
00:08:35.009 --> 00:08:39.009
Based on this eyewitness account, authorities issued an arrest warrant
142
00:08:39.049 --> 00:08:44.110
for Marion Pruitt, but Pruitt had disappeared. Investigators later found
143
00:08:44.230 --> 00:08:46.850
out that before he left town, he had stopped by
144
00:08:46.889 --> 00:08:49.600
to see his employee and friend, Alice Vick.
145
00:08:51.009 --> 00:08:53.120
He just told me he had to leave because the
146
00:08:54.039 --> 00:08:56.679
law was blaming him for the murder of his wife,
147
00:08:56.740 --> 00:08:58.659
and he told me, he said, I swear to you
148
00:08:59.340 --> 00:09:01.980
on my mom's soul that I did not kill my wife.
149
00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:04.500
And those were his words when he left.
150
00:09:05.669 --> 00:09:09.330
Marion Pruitt escaped New Mexico undetected and went on a
151
00:09:09.409 --> 00:09:15.019
nationwide crime spree. And because the Federal Witness Protection Program
152
00:09:15.080 --> 00:09:18.980
had given Pruitt a new cleaned-up identity, the government would
153
00:09:19.019 --> 00:09:22.039
be widely blamed for allowing the rampage to occur.
154
00:09:22.059 --> 00:09:29.279
The guy that turns a wild animal loose to kill
155
00:09:30.700 --> 00:09:33.659
is responsible. It's not the wild animal. The wild animal
156
00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:36.009
is just doing what comes naturally.
157
00:09:43.580 --> 00:09:47.419
In June 1981, police in Sandoval County, New Mexico, just
158
00:09:47.480 --> 00:09:51.860
outside Albuquerque, issued an all-points bulletin for Marion Albert Pruitt.
159
00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:55.500
As a member of the Witness Protection Program, the man
160
00:09:55.539 --> 00:09:58.179
had been living under the name Sonny Pearson. He was
161
00:09:58.220 --> 00:10:01.539
now wanted for the murder of his wife. Pruitt would
162
00:10:01.580 --> 00:10:05.019
elude capture for months, go on a killing spree, and
163
00:10:05.059 --> 00:10:07.320
in the process live up to a nickname he had
164
00:10:07.379 --> 00:10:10.139
carried with him since his teens, Mad Dog.
165
00:10:11.559 --> 00:10:14.279
What caused him to become this way, how he became
166
00:10:14.299 --> 00:10:16.779
that way, I don't know. I think he's a person
167
00:10:16.820 --> 00:10:19.299
who just liked to hurt. and hurt in the most
168
00:10:19.350 --> 00:10:19.970
severe way.
169
00:10:20.730 --> 00:10:23.690
Pruitt's case would throw a harsh spotlight on the Federal
170
00:10:23.730 --> 00:10:28.950
Witness Protection Program and raise the question, does society sometimes
171
00:10:29.070 --> 00:10:31.990
pay too high a price for the secret deals the
172
00:10:32.029 --> 00:10:43.029
government makes with violent criminals? Marion Albert Pruitt was raised
173
00:10:43.090 --> 00:10:47.789
in Charlotte, North Carolina. His childhood pursuits of baseball and
174
00:10:47.909 --> 00:10:51.350
roller skating gave way in his teens to a motorcycle
175
00:10:51.389 --> 00:10:56.740
gang and drugs. He took speed, smoked pot, and drank
176
00:10:56.919 --> 00:11:00.139
so much of the inexpensive brand of wine, Mogan David,
177
00:11:00.399 --> 00:11:02.799
that his friends started calling him by its street name,
178
00:11:03.340 --> 00:11:06.840
Mad Dog. Crime came easily to him, as did prison time.
179
00:11:07.899 --> 00:11:11.429
A six-month sentence for petty theft at age 17 cemented
180
00:11:11.470 --> 00:11:15.120
a lifelong hatred of authority. He took to robbing banks,
181
00:11:15.419 --> 00:11:18.519
which earned him, at age 21, a long stretch in
182
00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:27.000
the Atlanta penitentiary. Eight years later, in the spring of 1978,
183
00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:30.500
one year before Pruitt's scheduled release, his cellmate at informant
184
00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:34.250
in a drug trial was murdered. The 28-year-old Pruitt claimed
185
00:11:34.259 --> 00:11:37.370
he witnessed the crime and offered to testify if he
186
00:11:37.450 --> 00:11:40.129
could win a spot in the Federal Witness Protection Program.
187
00:11:42.049 --> 00:11:44.909
it fell to Gerald Shore at the U.S. Justice Department
188
00:11:45.129 --> 00:11:46.350
to consider the request.
189
00:11:47.210 --> 00:11:49.129
I would have to be convinced that that witness was
190
00:11:49.190 --> 00:11:53.120
very important to what I concluded was a very important case.
191
00:11:53.860 --> 00:11:56.259
Here an informant had been murdered, that would be a
192
00:11:56.299 --> 00:11:57.240
very important case.
193
00:11:57.779 --> 00:12:01.039
So Marion Pruitt was placed in witness protection. He was
194
00:12:01.100 --> 00:12:05.330
paroled in November 1979, 11 months early, based on his
195
00:12:05.370 --> 00:12:09.090
cooperation with the government. He then married Pamela Sue Barker,
196
00:12:09.610 --> 00:12:11.210
whom he'd met while in prison.
197
00:12:12.899 --> 00:12:13.399
The U.S.
198
00:12:13.460 --> 00:12:16.840
Marshals moved the newlyweds to New Mexico and gave them
199
00:12:16.899 --> 00:12:21.740
new identities as Charles and Michelle Pearson. For about nine months,
200
00:12:22.120 --> 00:12:26.360
the couple received a monthly stipend of $ 800 until they
201
00:12:26.379 --> 00:12:31.669
were deemed self-sufficient. Pruitt bought into two businesses and made friends.
202
00:12:32.629 --> 00:12:36.129
He said he was happy with his life. He wasn't trouble,
203
00:12:36.470 --> 00:12:39.370
drank a lot, and I'd be chewing him out telling
204
00:12:39.389 --> 00:12:43.110
him to eat instead of drink. And That's when he'd
205
00:12:43.129 --> 00:12:45.789
start calling me Mama. He'd say, yes, Mama, yes, Mama.
206
00:12:46.610 --> 00:12:49.549
But we never had any trouble with him. Always treated
207
00:12:49.570 --> 00:12:49.970
me great.
208
00:12:50.889 --> 00:12:58.940
But Pruitt eventually did get into trouble. In August 1980,
209
00:12:58.940 --> 00:13:03.259
he was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after
210
00:13:03.320 --> 00:13:07.580
a barroom brawl. However, Pruitt had no arrest record under
211
00:13:07.639 --> 00:13:12.080
his new identity, Charles Pearson. The judge had no idea
212
00:13:12.159 --> 00:13:15.710
what kind of person he was dealing with. So instead
213
00:13:15.750 --> 00:13:19.149
of a return trip to prison for breaking parole, Pruitt
214
00:13:19.210 --> 00:13:25.129
received six months unsupervised probation. Just a few months later,
215
00:13:25.250 --> 00:13:29.629
Pruitt's wife would turn up dead. Pruitt became the prime suspect,
216
00:13:29.750 --> 00:13:33.370
but New Mexico authorities still could not get access to
217
00:13:33.409 --> 00:13:36.320
his real record. They weren't allowed to hold him in jail,
218
00:13:36.399 --> 00:13:38.500
and then the man disappeared.
219
00:13:39.960 --> 00:13:43.500
To be honest with you, I never got a copy
220
00:13:43.539 --> 00:13:45.830
of his rap sheet from the FBI.
221
00:13:46.529 --> 00:13:51.190
They weren't releasing anything. Now wanted for the murder of
222
00:13:51.230 --> 00:13:59.769
his wife, Pruitt went on the run. On September 17th, 1981,
223
00:13:59.769 --> 00:14:02.460
a man dressed in a three-piece suit and a wig
224
00:14:03.059 --> 00:14:06.259
walked into the Unifirst Savings and Loan in Jackson, Mississippi.
225
00:14:06.980 --> 00:14:08.740
He told the tellers he was armed.
226
00:14:10.080 --> 00:14:14.580
This individual then handed one of the bank employees a
227
00:14:14.620 --> 00:14:17.360
bag and asked her to fill it with money. He
228
00:14:17.379 --> 00:14:20.039
was told that they did not have that kind of money,
229
00:14:20.299 --> 00:14:22.659
to which he said, give me what you have.
230
00:14:23.720 --> 00:14:28.240
The suspect fled with about $ 7, 000 in cash and a hostage,
231
00:14:28.820 --> 00:14:32.159
a 43-year-old bank loan officer named Peggy Lowe.
232
00:14:33.419 --> 00:14:37.159
Someone else was going to be the hostage, and that
233
00:14:37.460 --> 00:14:41.879
lady panicked and said, Peggy more or less volunteered to
234
00:14:41.919 --> 00:14:45.700
be the hostage to get the other employees out of
235
00:14:45.740 --> 00:14:46.379
harm's way.
236
00:14:47.580 --> 00:14:49.460
My husband told me that there had been a bank
237
00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:53.080
robbery and that they had abducted my mother. They didn't
238
00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:55.639
know where she was at the moment, but I needed
239
00:14:55.679 --> 00:14:59.250
to go to the bank, to the universe, and my
240
00:14:59.259 --> 00:15:04.809
dad was there. The bank employees were there, the FBI, Jackson, police,
241
00:15:05.590 --> 00:15:08.970
TV reporters, everybody was there.
242
00:15:11.039 --> 00:15:14.620
Police scoured the area and found Peggy Lowe's car parked
243
00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:18.600
behind the bank. Hoping to find her inside, they told
244
00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:24.889
her husband to open the trunk. It was empty. Within hours,
245
00:15:25.409 --> 00:15:31.450
a statewide manhunt was underway. Authorities circulated Lowe's photograph. Helicopters
246
00:15:31.610 --> 00:15:34.929
buzzed over state highways. The bank robber and his hostage
247
00:15:35.370 --> 00:15:40.299
were nowhere to be found. the FBI distributed a composite
248
00:15:40.360 --> 00:15:44.259
sketch of the suspect, drawn from eyewitness accounts to field
249
00:15:44.330 --> 00:15:45.620
offices across the country.
250
00:15:47.029 --> 00:15:51.529
He, from physical stature, was a short person, I believe
251
00:15:51.549 --> 00:15:56.850
about 5'6, 5'7, wearing sunglasses, and he walked with a limp.
252
00:15:57.590 --> 00:16:02.710
Calls came flooding in to Mississippi, from Corpus Christi, Texas, Tallahassee, Florida,
253
00:16:03.330 --> 00:16:08.500
and as far away as Seattle, Washington. Each jurisdiction reported
254
00:16:08.529 --> 00:16:11.100
that it, too, had a recent bank robbery with a
255
00:16:11.139 --> 00:16:16.659
suspect matching that very description. Fingerprint evidence soon confirmed it.
256
00:16:17.039 --> 00:16:21.580
Marion Mad Dog Pruitt had hit all the locations. This
257
00:16:21.620 --> 00:16:25.259
was little solace to the family of the still-missing Peggy Lowe.
258
00:16:26.840 --> 00:16:29.350
Life at home was waiting for the phone to ring,
259
00:16:29.379 --> 00:16:30.889
waiting for somebody to tell us anything.
260
00:16:30.909 --> 00:16:35.330
I was thinking, you know, maybe there's hope, but really
261
00:16:35.450 --> 00:16:38.500
after the second week, I I knew within my heart
262
00:16:38.740 --> 00:16:41.179
that I'd never see her alive on this earth again.
263
00:16:41.419 --> 00:16:46.840
And he wasn't done yet. In Fort Smith, Arkansas, on
264
00:16:46.879 --> 00:16:50.919
October 12, 1981, a gunman walked into a convenience store
265
00:16:50.980 --> 00:16:55.460
and abducted the night shift clerk, Bobbie Jean Robertson. Her
266
00:16:55.500 --> 00:16:58.159
body was discovered shot to death in a nearby wooded area.
267
00:16:58.919 --> 00:17:09.819
The suspect had escaped with $ 163 in cash. Four days later,
268
00:17:10.819 --> 00:17:15.279
and 850 miles away, a police investigator in Loveland, Colorado
269
00:17:15.339 --> 00:17:18.440
was dispatched to an early morning shooting at a 7-Eleven.
270
00:17:18.460 --> 00:17:22.730
The victim was alive at that particular point in time.
271
00:17:23.029 --> 00:17:25.369
We don't know for sure how long he was on
272
00:17:25.410 --> 00:17:26.789
the floor of the store bleeding.
273
00:17:27.950 --> 00:17:31.849
Anthony Tate, the 21-year-old clerk, had been shot four times
274
00:17:32.009 --> 00:17:37.259
at point-blank range. The young man was pronounced dead at
275
00:17:37.299 --> 00:17:42.000
the hospital 45 minutes later. Police soon learned that 13
276
00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:46.220
miles away in Fort Collins, Colorado, another 7-Eleven had also
277
00:17:46.269 --> 00:17:51.490
been robbed and the overnight clerk, 24-year-old James Balderson, murdered.
278
00:17:52.230 --> 00:17:54.210
His parents found out later that morning.
279
00:17:56.190 --> 00:18:00.210
We always had some reservations with him working at night,
280
00:18:00.430 --> 00:18:03.789
but Fort Collins we thought was as good a town
281
00:18:03.869 --> 00:18:07.279
as any. My first The reaction was I just broke
282
00:18:07.299 --> 00:18:10.700
down and cried like a baby. Because I love my son.
283
00:18:12.140 --> 00:18:15.059
The Colorado police sent out an APB and got an
284
00:18:15.119 --> 00:18:19.329
immediate response from the FBI. The Bureau was keeping an
285
00:18:19.450 --> 00:18:23.150
eye out for suspicious robberies and sent back information on
286
00:18:23.190 --> 00:18:26.910
Marion Pruitt's bank robbery and kidnapping in Mississippi.
287
00:18:29.170 --> 00:18:33.029
Actually, you know, I thought the FBI was just throwing
288
00:18:33.069 --> 00:18:34.910
us a bone when we got the original teletype.
289
00:18:34.970 --> 00:18:35.210
I thought.
290
00:18:35.940 --> 00:18:38.779
How could this have any connection? You know, it doesn't...
291
00:18:39.900 --> 00:18:42.259
And Mississippi's a long way from Colorado, and I just
292
00:18:42.299 --> 00:18:43.759
didn't see any connection at all.
293
00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:50.099
Just two days later, the connection would be confirmed. On
294
00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:53.440
a highway outside Amarillo, Texas, state troopers pulled over a
295
00:18:53.579 --> 00:18:57.920
speeding Cadillac. A. 38 caliber handgun was found under the seat,
296
00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:03.519
along with drug paraphernalia and 7-11 receipts from Colorado. The
297
00:19:03.539 --> 00:19:09.000
driver was arrested. His name was Marion Albert Pruitt. His
298
00:19:09.079 --> 00:19:12.859
five-month spree of seven holdups, which had left three people
299
00:19:12.900 --> 00:19:17.180
dead and one missing, was over. The arrest of Med
300
00:19:17.220 --> 00:19:21.430
Dog Pruitt made headlines nationwide. The victims' families were furious
301
00:19:21.470 --> 00:19:23.890
when they found out the former bank robber had been
302
00:19:23.910 --> 00:19:27.789
given a new identity in the Federal Witness Protection Program.
303
00:19:29.750 --> 00:19:34.720
I did not have a feeling of anger at until
304
00:19:34.759 --> 00:19:37.339
I found out his real name was Marion Albert Pruitt
305
00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:39.769
and found out that he was a protected witness. Then
306
00:19:39.809 --> 00:19:41.109
the rage started to build.
307
00:19:41.789 --> 00:19:44.890
If he was never in the witness program, he still
308
00:19:44.930 --> 00:19:47.950
would have committed crime. When I learned of Pruitt's crimes,
309
00:19:48.569 --> 00:19:52.460
I was personally devastated. by the deaths of every individual,
310
00:19:52.519 --> 00:19:55.799
young people, others that he had killed. It was just wanton,
311
00:19:55.859 --> 00:19:56.480
reckless killing.
312
00:19:56.500 --> 00:20:00.740
The New Mexico sheriff who was pursuing Pruitt for killing
313
00:20:00.789 --> 00:20:04.109
his wife believed the crime spree never had to happen.
314
00:20:04.710 --> 00:20:09.329
Gennaro Farah insisted the FBI and the U.S. Marshals failed
315
00:20:09.369 --> 00:20:11.130
to give him assistance when it mattered.
316
00:20:11.150 --> 00:20:15.670
They're supposed to send us the information, especially when we
317
00:20:15.690 --> 00:20:19.589
got them arrested and on the card it says material
318
00:20:19.609 --> 00:20:24.490
witness homicide. Don't you think that they should have shared
319
00:20:24.529 --> 00:20:27.809
a little bit with us? They turned this mad dog
320
00:20:28.349 --> 00:20:29.369
out on society.
321
00:20:31.269 --> 00:20:35.029
Pruitt was first extradited to Jackson, Mississippi to face charges
322
00:20:35.529 --> 00:20:38.390
on armed bank robbery and the kidnapping of Peggy Lowe.
323
00:20:39.220 --> 00:20:45.460
Authorities chose Mississippi because Lowe was still missing. Two weeks later,
324
00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:48.960
Pruitt confessed to police that he had killed her and
325
00:20:48.980 --> 00:20:53.079
agreed on October 28, 1981, to take them to the body.
326
00:20:55.579 --> 00:20:58.789
As they drove to a wooded area near the Mississippi-Alabama border,
327
00:20:59.380 --> 00:21:02.710
Pruitt recounted the last two hours of Peggy Lowe's life.
328
00:21:04.690 --> 00:21:07.829
He said that after robbing the Unifirst Bank in downtown Jackson,
329
00:21:08.579 --> 00:21:12.960
He'd driven 125 miles east over the border into Alabama.
330
00:21:14.599 --> 00:21:18.359
He found an abandoned dirt road. Then he stopped the car.
331
00:21:21.019 --> 00:21:23.460
He took Mrs. Lowe out of the car, took her
332
00:21:23.529 --> 00:21:27.369
into a wooded area, and had her take her clothes
333
00:21:27.529 --> 00:21:30.329
off for the purpose of leaving her. And he was
334
00:21:30.390 --> 00:21:33.930
thinking that, you know, perhaps this is not good. He
335
00:21:33.970 --> 00:21:37.859
confronts her. at this time, makes her go back, kneel down,
336
00:21:37.940 --> 00:21:40.609
and ultimately he shoots her in the back of the head.
337
00:21:41.869 --> 00:21:45.130
One thing that I asked him, did he sexually molest
338
00:21:45.250 --> 00:21:49.250
Miss Lowe? And he said he did not. I asked him,
339
00:21:49.269 --> 00:21:53.809
did she die instantly? And he said that he believed
340
00:21:53.849 --> 00:21:54.589
that she did.
341
00:21:54.609 --> 00:21:59.759
The agents followed Pruitt's directions to a clearing where they
342
00:21:59.799 --> 00:22:05.920
found Peggy Lowe's decomposing body. Then Pruitt abruptly announced that
343
00:22:05.960 --> 00:22:09.380
he was ready to leave and eat breakfast. The authorities
344
00:22:09.779 --> 00:22:10.559
were appalled.
345
00:22:11.420 --> 00:22:14.380
He had showed us, admitted to us that he killed
346
00:22:14.420 --> 00:22:19.680
this lady, and now I want something to eat. That's
347
00:22:19.700 --> 00:22:25.420
when the old good American red-blooded law enforcement man's blood
348
00:22:25.460 --> 00:22:26.240
gets real high.
349
00:22:28.279 --> 00:22:28.500
You know?
350
00:22:30.400 --> 00:22:32.500
That's when you want to take the law into your
351
00:22:32.519 --> 00:22:33.980
own hands, but you know you can't.
352
00:22:36.160 --> 00:22:40.009
That same day, after Marion Pruitt was driven back to Jackson, Mississippi,
353
00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:46.869
he granted an interview to four local reporters. From the start,
354
00:22:46.910 --> 00:22:49.130
he was remarkably candid about his crimes.
355
00:22:50.329 --> 00:22:52.210
You know, I've become a mad dog killer. I've done
356
00:22:52.230 --> 00:22:53.230
so much cocaine.
357
00:22:54.339 --> 00:22:56.160
And I don't mind telling you, I killed two people
358
00:22:56.180 --> 00:22:58.079
in Colorado and one in Arkansas, too.
359
00:22:58.099 --> 00:22:58.480
That's how.
360
00:22:59.690 --> 00:23:02.769
about a $ 4, 000 a week cocaine habit, okay?
361
00:23:05.490 --> 00:23:09.700
It was a stunning free trial confession. Pruitt explained why
362
00:23:09.779 --> 00:23:12.640
he had become a killer. He blamed it on drugs.
363
00:23:15.039 --> 00:23:22.930
Peggy Long's death was something that, it was just, I
364
00:23:22.970 --> 00:23:25.250
was too high, it was accidental, it was something that
365
00:23:25.269 --> 00:23:25.910
shouldn't have happened.
366
00:23:26.950 --> 00:23:28.089
You were high on cocaine?
367
00:23:28.109 --> 00:23:28.430
Yeah, I was.
368
00:23:29.119 --> 00:23:31.420
That and methadrine with ether base and crank.
369
00:23:31.839 --> 00:23:32.579
California crank.
370
00:23:35.119 --> 00:23:35.680
You think so?
371
00:23:35.700 --> 00:23:41.339
Okay, you said you're trying to embarrass the federal government.
372
00:23:41.400 --> 00:23:41.940
In what way?
373
00:23:42.599 --> 00:23:45.460
Pruitt said he had harbored a grudge against the government
374
00:23:45.900 --> 00:23:49.660
since his first stint in prison as a teenager. Now
375
00:23:49.759 --> 00:23:53.160
Pruitt added one more reason to be angry. He believed
376
00:23:53.200 --> 00:23:55.759
that the sheriff in New Mexico had told the press
377
00:23:56.089 --> 00:23:57.700
about his protected witness status.
378
00:23:59.640 --> 00:24:01.880
They let them tell everybody there that I was a
379
00:24:02.359 --> 00:24:03.299
government witness and.
380
00:24:03.259 --> 00:24:07.079
So was my wife. In reality, that information was only
381
00:24:07.140 --> 00:24:11.930
released after Pruitt fled. Pruitt used his bitterness as an excuse.
382
00:24:13.589 --> 00:24:16.430
I started out just to rob banks and embarrass the government,
383
00:24:16.990 --> 00:24:21.210
and there was a killing involved. Then I got a
384
00:24:21.250 --> 00:24:22.430
little bit more crazy.
385
00:24:23.650 --> 00:24:26.289
He was so resentful that he was unwilling to give
386
00:24:26.329 --> 00:24:28.329
the government credit for capturing him.
387
00:24:29.900 --> 00:24:33.079
The police in Texas did not apprehend me.
388
00:24:33.160 --> 00:24:33.980
I let them catch me.
389
00:24:34.039 --> 00:24:35.920
I guess, I mean, surely you're aware of that.
390
00:24:36.519 --> 00:24:38.079
I mean, if.
391
00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:40.000
I've killed five people and I got a.
392
00:24:39.869 --> 00:24:41.490
38 under the seat, what the hell am I doing
393
00:24:41.509 --> 00:24:44.569
going through town 69 miles an hour and not pulling
394
00:24:44.630 --> 00:24:45.289
a gun on them?
395
00:24:48.869 --> 00:24:51.609
It was a bizarre performance from a man who hadn't
396
00:24:51.730 --> 00:24:54.789
faced trial on any of his most recent crimes, the
397
00:24:54.809 --> 00:24:57.099
worst of which were murder charges for the killing of
398
00:24:57.170 --> 00:25:11.450
five people, including his wife. At the end of October 1981,
399
00:25:11.450 --> 00:25:15.240
captured spree killer Marion Mad Dog Pruitt held a two-day
400
00:25:15.279 --> 00:25:19.240
press conference in Jackson, Mississippi. He was facing charges for
401
00:25:19.319 --> 00:25:23.740
killing his wife, as well as four other murders. Even so,
402
00:25:24.339 --> 00:25:27.440
he discussed his life in the Witness Protection Program and
403
00:25:27.500 --> 00:25:35.049
his nationwide crime spree. How did you do it? I
404
00:25:35.049 --> 00:25:38.950
was a solo artist. Well, I His statements also offered
405
00:25:38.990 --> 00:25:42.470
a glimpse into the workings of a criminal mind. He
406
00:25:42.559 --> 00:25:44.819
explained why he targeted savings and loans.
407
00:25:44.819 --> 00:25:50.119
99% of the savings and loans are run by female
408
00:25:51.319 --> 00:25:57.009
and female managers. And women have not equal right things
409
00:25:57.089 --> 00:25:59.730
of getting into, but women has more common sense than
410
00:25:59.750 --> 00:26:02.190
the man does when it comes to bodily harm, okay?
411
00:26:02.609 --> 00:26:05.329
Where a man would try to play gun holder. FBI says,
412
00:26:05.890 --> 00:26:06.759
don't play hero.
413
00:26:07.619 --> 00:26:10.940
How much money would you say that you came across
414
00:26:11.039 --> 00:26:14.200
in these robberies altogether? Is there any way to spend
415
00:26:14.259 --> 00:26:14.700
it quickly?
416
00:26:16.559 --> 00:26:24.490
Yeah, spend it very quickly. Too fast.
417
00:26:26.430 --> 00:26:26.970
On what?
418
00:26:30.849 --> 00:26:32.049
Good living, I guess they call it.
419
00:26:33.069 --> 00:26:33.869
Was it a good living?
420
00:26:38.019 --> 00:26:39.460
Lonely, I guess, you know.
421
00:26:42.019 --> 00:26:43.920
Not as far as people around me and stuff, just
422
00:26:44.079 --> 00:26:49.859
lonely feelings, you know. It's like, what's that song they
423
00:26:49.880 --> 00:26:53.319
sung about the clown deep down inside, you know, he's
424
00:26:54.029 --> 00:26:54.400
a loser.
425
00:26:56.569 --> 00:27:00.890
Pruitt addressed questions about his upcoming trials and what penalty
426
00:27:00.990 --> 00:27:04.849
he thought he should receive for murdering 43 Jackson area
427
00:27:04.910 --> 00:27:06.069
resident Peggy Lowe.
428
00:27:07.700 --> 00:27:09.359
I think the people of Mississippi want to see me
429
00:27:09.400 --> 00:27:12.539
dead just as much as I want to die. Nothing,
430
00:27:12.900 --> 00:27:17.319
nothing justified the killing of Peggy Lee or whatever her
431
00:27:17.380 --> 00:27:21.849
name was. If I think it was probable justification for myself,
432
00:27:21.890 --> 00:27:23.269
I wouldn't be asking for the death penalty.
433
00:27:31.670 --> 00:27:32.809
I killed an innocent person.
434
00:27:32.829 --> 00:27:33.690
It's that simple, okay?
435
00:27:34.460 --> 00:27:37.339
Do you think that you will gain anything by talking
436
00:27:37.380 --> 00:27:38.380
to the four of us?
437
00:27:38.740 --> 00:27:41.400
Or do you hope to gain anything by talking to
438
00:27:41.440 --> 00:27:45.470
the four of us? I hope I can gain the
439
00:27:45.529 --> 00:27:47.029
support of the people that will.
440
00:27:46.930 --> 00:27:48.049
Turn around and help me.
441
00:27:48.069 --> 00:27:51.490
You know, maybe this kind of sounds crazy, me asking
442
00:27:51.509 --> 00:27:54.589
the people of Mississippi to help me, but I'd like
443
00:27:54.630 --> 00:27:57.539
for them to help me, you know, for the state
444
00:27:57.559 --> 00:27:58.779
to have me, to put me to death.
445
00:27:59.480 --> 00:28:01.259
In other words, you didn't want to stay in prison
446
00:28:01.279 --> 00:28:01.880
the rest of your life?
447
00:28:03.690 --> 00:28:06.829
That's my question. No, I don't think so, because right
448
00:28:06.849 --> 00:28:10.809
now society and everything is, as far as getting so
449
00:28:10.849 --> 00:28:16.309
weak about violence and clearing the criminal's mind and everything,
450
00:28:16.329 --> 00:28:18.009
they might have paroled me in 10 years.
451
00:28:18.950 --> 00:28:20.150
I wouldn't have been before 42 then.
452
00:28:20.170 --> 00:28:21.470
I'd still be ready to go raise.
453
00:28:21.309 --> 00:28:22.059
Hell again, wouldn't I?
454
00:28:25.089 --> 00:28:28.289
Pruitt might have saved the people of Mississippi the expense
455
00:28:28.329 --> 00:28:32.230
of a trial, but despite his bluster, he pleaded not guilty.
456
00:28:32.769 --> 00:28:36.829
and left his fate to a jury. Pruitt requested to
457
00:28:36.990 --> 00:28:40.759
act as his own attorney. The judge agreed, but appointed
458
00:28:40.839 --> 00:28:44.619
lawyer William Kirksey as one of his advisors. Kirksey didn't
459
00:28:44.700 --> 00:28:47.380
think much of his client, but he also didn't think
460
00:28:47.420 --> 00:28:49.420
Pruitt was the only one to blame.
461
00:28:50.720 --> 00:28:55.670
Part of Marion Albert Pruitt's crimes should be laid right
462
00:28:55.730 --> 00:28:59.539
on the lap of the United States government. They protected him.
463
00:28:59.940 --> 00:29:02.339
The people of Mississippi did not. The people of New
464
00:29:02.400 --> 00:29:04.880
Mexico did not. Or these other states.
465
00:29:06.180 --> 00:29:09.240
Marion Pruitt's trial for the murder of Peggy Lowe began
466
00:29:09.279 --> 00:29:13.799
in April 1982 in Columbus, Mississippi. If there were any
467
00:29:13.839 --> 00:29:17.720
doubts about the outcome, Pruitt quelled them by insisting on
468
00:29:17.859 --> 00:29:22.339
taking the stand. There was some electricity in the air.
469
00:29:22.380 --> 00:29:24.549
There's no question about it in the courtroom.
470
00:29:25.599 --> 00:29:28.819
Pruitt recounted robbing the universe savings and loan and how
471
00:29:28.859 --> 00:29:31.900
he took Peggy Lowe to the woods in Alabama and
472
00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:32.519
murdered her.
473
00:29:36.009 --> 00:29:39.930
I guess the worst part of it was his description.
474
00:29:40.640 --> 00:29:44.519
of it and what he was doing and all he
475
00:29:44.559 --> 00:29:48.619
was thinking about was getting his fix and all and
476
00:29:48.859 --> 00:29:51.279
it was just so hard to restrain myself.
477
00:29:52.329 --> 00:29:55.470
Pruitt displayed needle marks on his arms to the jury.
478
00:29:56.250 --> 00:29:59.230
His defense, he said, was that the drugs made him kill.
479
00:30:00.240 --> 00:30:03.259
He refused to take blame for his true inner self,
480
00:30:03.400 --> 00:30:06.079
and his true inner self was a murdering scumbag.
481
00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:09.460
And I hate that my mother had her last thoughts
482
00:30:09.519 --> 00:30:12.359
were with him and had to look at him.
483
00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:18.269
The jury only took three hours to determine that Pruitt
484
00:30:18.309 --> 00:30:22.009
was guilty and deserved the death penalty. The judge agreed.
485
00:30:23.369 --> 00:30:27.210
I will never forget when Judge Coleman read him the
486
00:30:27.329 --> 00:30:30.630
sentencing order of the court. saying that he would be
487
00:30:30.730 --> 00:30:35.609
put to death on so-and-so date at Partsman Prison. This mean,
488
00:30:35.670 --> 00:30:40.210
tough guy, who I say is a punk, his knees
489
00:30:40.329 --> 00:30:43.230
buckled and he almost went to the floor. I will
490
00:30:43.269 --> 00:30:44.029
never forget that.
491
00:30:46.079 --> 00:30:49.240
Marion Pruitt racked up another death sentence in Arkansas for
492
00:30:49.279 --> 00:30:54.180
the murder of convenience store clerk Bobby Jean Robertson. In Colorado,
493
00:30:54.599 --> 00:30:58.420
in exchange for two life sentences, Pruitt pleaded guilty to
494
00:30:58.460 --> 00:31:02.660
killing the two other clerks, Anthony Tate and James Balderson.
495
00:31:03.279 --> 00:31:05.880
This plea bargain satisfied Balderson's father.
496
00:31:07.339 --> 00:31:09.880
I figured Pruitt would never see the light of day again,
497
00:31:11.160 --> 00:31:12.359
which was fine with me.
498
00:31:13.660 --> 00:31:17.589
Then in February 1983, Pruitt appeared in a New Mexico
499
00:31:17.680 --> 00:31:20.910
court to stand trial for the one crime he maintained
500
00:31:20.950 --> 00:31:23.789
he did not commit, the murder of his wife, Pamela
501
00:31:23.829 --> 00:31:27.509
Sue Barker. He was tried under the name he received
502
00:31:27.549 --> 00:31:33.470
in the Witness Protection Program, Charles Sonny Pearson. During pretrial motions,
503
00:31:33.829 --> 00:31:37.390
the defendant criticized Judge Thomas Meskel for refusing to grant
504
00:31:37.430 --> 00:31:38.210
a change of venue.
505
00:31:39.130 --> 00:31:40.849
I have a couple other requests I'd like to make.
506
00:31:41.089 --> 00:31:44.589
One is I want a gag order on the case.
507
00:31:44.609 --> 00:31:46.930
I'd like the news media removed out of this courtroom.
508
00:31:47.490 --> 00:31:49.569
I believe this is nothing but a political trial for
509
00:31:50.089 --> 00:31:52.509
certain people to use as stepping stones for their political
510
00:31:52.549 --> 00:31:53.589
future on me, okay?
511
00:31:55.910 --> 00:32:01.069
Was a very hostile individual. But he was also a
512
00:32:01.089 --> 00:32:07.119
person who liked, and I believe, craved attention. He just
513
00:32:07.140 --> 00:32:08.920
didn't want to have a silent part. He wanted to
514
00:32:08.940 --> 00:32:13.980
have a speaking part in those shows. He'd have statements,
515
00:32:14.019 --> 00:32:17.900
which I'm sure a defense attorney would be aghast at
516
00:32:18.099 --> 00:32:18.519
him doing.
517
00:32:22.589 --> 00:32:24.849
The result in this case was the same as in
518
00:32:24.990 --> 00:32:31.410
all of his other trials. The jury convicted Marion Albert Pruitt, a.k.a.
519
00:32:31.529 --> 00:32:36.049
Charles Sonny Pearson, of first-degree murder. He received a third
520
00:32:36.150 --> 00:32:38.990
life sentence on top of his two death sentences.
521
00:32:40.910 --> 00:32:46.279
When you looked into his eyes, you could see right
522
00:32:46.319 --> 00:32:49.910
through him. It's kind of analogous to sharks. When you
523
00:32:49.950 --> 00:32:52.470
look into their eyes, you just, you see ice.
524
00:33:00.660 --> 00:33:06.099
Marion Pruitt, the self-proclaimed mad dog killer. By 1999, he
525
00:33:06.140 --> 00:33:09.740
had been on death row for 17 years. Just two
526
00:33:09.789 --> 00:33:13.930
weeks before his execution in Arkansas, the 49-year-old gave one
527
00:33:14.069 --> 00:33:19.859
last interview. A Swedish television crew filmed it with a
528
00:33:19.920 --> 00:33:23.859
fisheye lens for a documentary on the last meals of
529
00:33:23.920 --> 00:33:24.839
death row inmates.
530
00:33:26.220 --> 00:33:29.529
Well, let me ask you this. Are you trying to
531
00:33:29.589 --> 00:33:33.109
tie the last meal on death row guys in with
532
00:33:33.130 --> 00:33:34.329
the last supper of Christ?
533
00:33:35.829 --> 00:33:40.630
He was skinny, scrawny, druggy when he did this to
534
00:33:40.670 --> 00:33:43.599
my mom. They said that was his main objective in
535
00:33:43.819 --> 00:33:47.670
jail was his feedings and getting his food and making
536
00:33:47.710 --> 00:33:50.839
sure all of his needs were met. He was absolutely
537
00:33:50.920 --> 00:33:53.039
a blimp by the time they executed him.
538
00:33:54.740 --> 00:33:57.140
It's been so many years since I had junk food
539
00:33:57.259 --> 00:33:59.500
out on the streets. I'm going to order one of
540
00:33:59.519 --> 00:34:02.160
them big Pizza Hut pizzas with the cheese in the ring.
541
00:34:03.759 --> 00:34:07.000
I'm going to order about four big Burger King Whoppers
542
00:34:07.099 --> 00:34:14.000
and French fries and about three big two-liter Pepsi's, a
543
00:34:14.039 --> 00:34:16.530
bucket of ice, a bottle of ketchup, some salt, and
544
00:34:16.550 --> 00:34:19.429
a I want a big plate of eggplants rolled in
545
00:34:19.469 --> 00:34:22.650
cornmeal deep fried and some squash rolled in cornmeal deep
546
00:34:22.710 --> 00:34:25.860
fried and some okra rolled in cornmeal deep fried and
547
00:34:25.880 --> 00:34:28.679
a big pecan pie. And I'm going to eat from,
548
00:34:28.840 --> 00:34:30.679
you say I can do that. I'm going to get
549
00:34:30.699 --> 00:34:32.179
my money's worth by that last meal.
550
00:34:33.360 --> 00:34:36.320
In the years following his killing spree, Pruitt had professed
551
00:34:36.360 --> 00:34:39.710
a belief in God. He had decided to forego his
552
00:34:39.789 --> 00:34:43.889
last set of appeals and let his death sentence proceed unimpeded.
553
00:34:44.889 --> 00:34:45.650
Buddy, I was a devil.
554
00:34:47.590 --> 00:34:50.190
I mean, I wasn't nothing nice. How could I honestly
555
00:34:50.210 --> 00:34:56.550
take a life and say, you can't take mine? I
556
00:34:56.590 --> 00:34:58.829
got no beef whatsoever with mankind.
557
00:34:59.929 --> 00:35:03.840
Pruitt said he accepted his fate and was no longer angry.
558
00:35:04.739 --> 00:35:07.320
But I believe in my heart I should die for
559
00:35:07.380 --> 00:35:10.519
what I've done. I really do. But the last 17 years,
560
00:35:10.539 --> 00:35:12.400
the one thing it's done, it gave me a chance
561
00:35:12.420 --> 00:35:14.719
to receive the Lord and to get to study this
562
00:35:14.780 --> 00:35:17.690
Bible for 14 years. And I'm at peace now, man.
563
00:35:20.059 --> 00:35:23.079
Pruitt had maintained contact with some people on the outside,
564
00:35:23.920 --> 00:35:27.260
including Alice Vick, a friend from New Mexico during the
565
00:35:27.280 --> 00:35:30.809
period when he was in the Witness Protection Program. She
566
00:35:30.849 --> 00:35:34.329
believes Pruitt had a true religious conversion in prison.
567
00:35:34.349 --> 00:35:38.250
They just got mixed up with drugs and it made
568
00:35:38.269 --> 00:35:42.900
him crazy. He did some horrible, horrible things, but like
569
00:35:42.960 --> 00:35:44.820
I told him, if the Lord could forgive him, I
570
00:35:44.900 --> 00:35:45.340
sure could.
571
00:35:47.639 --> 00:35:48.070
And they did.
572
00:35:48.960 --> 00:35:53.360
I know I'm forgiven them, you know. And that's going
573
00:35:53.380 --> 00:35:53.699
to be.
574
00:35:53.619 --> 00:35:54.119
My last words.
575
00:35:55.980 --> 00:36:01.170
Marion Pruitt's execution went forward as planned on April 12, 1999,
576
00:36:01.170 --> 00:36:03.230
in Grady, Arkansas.
577
00:36:04.309 --> 00:36:06.789
All of our family went, even though he wasn't being
578
00:36:06.849 --> 00:36:12.070
executed for my mother's death. We were grateful that he
579
00:36:12.090 --> 00:36:14.500
was going to get just treatment for what it meant
580
00:36:14.739 --> 00:36:19.380
to other people besides her. And just out of support
581
00:36:19.420 --> 00:36:20.760
for them, we wanted to be there.
582
00:36:21.360 --> 00:36:24.960
Pruitt was strapped to the lethal injection gurney. He begged
583
00:36:25.019 --> 00:36:27.940
God and the family members of his victims for forgiveness
584
00:36:28.380 --> 00:36:30.579
before the needle was inserted in his arm.
585
00:36:30.599 --> 00:36:32.039
Okay, it's official.
586
00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:39.889
They administered the lethal injection at 8.04. Pruitt expired at 8.09.
587
00:36:39.889 --> 00:36:43.130
Pruitt's execution closed the book on one of the Federal
588
00:36:43.190 --> 00:36:47.820
Witness Protection Program's worst embarrassments. His brutal crimes had brought
589
00:36:47.920 --> 00:36:49.960
unpleasant publicity to the program.
590
00:36:51.920 --> 00:36:55.860
It's operating on the premise that one criminal is going
591
00:36:55.880 --> 00:37:00.079
to testify against another criminal and tell the truth. Well,
592
00:37:01.099 --> 00:37:05.500
I think experience has shown, as in the case of Pruitt,
593
00:37:07.949 --> 00:37:11.510
that if you offer incentive to a person, he'll testify
594
00:37:11.590 --> 00:37:13.530
to whatever he thinks you want to hear.
595
00:37:14.760 --> 00:37:18.119
Before his execution, Pruitt even told a reporter that his
596
00:37:18.199 --> 00:37:21.099
claim of having witnessed the murder of his cellmate in
597
00:37:21.139 --> 00:37:26.460
the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary back in 1978 was false. That
598
00:37:26.519 --> 00:37:30.440
testimony had earned him his place in the Witness Protection Program.
599
00:37:31.179 --> 00:37:34.780
He now insisted that he was the real murderer. Justice
600
00:37:34.820 --> 00:37:38.280
Department officials denied Pruitt's story, saying it was a lie
601
00:37:38.360 --> 00:37:39.550
spun to get attention.
602
00:37:41.179 --> 00:37:43.610
I think that was Pruitt again trying to strike out
603
00:37:43.670 --> 00:37:46.039
and just hurt. but this time he can't strike with
604
00:37:46.099 --> 00:37:46.340
a gun.
605
00:37:47.539 --> 00:37:50.159
The former director of the program for the Justice Department,
606
00:37:50.280 --> 00:37:53.460
Gerald Shurer, says that Pruitt's killing spree was a sad
607
00:37:53.500 --> 00:37:54.780
but rare aberration.
608
00:37:56.650 --> 00:38:00.469
We had never had this happen before with anyone who
609
00:38:00.510 --> 00:38:03.250
had been in the witness program. The witness program didn't
610
00:38:03.289 --> 00:38:05.989
go wrong in the Pruitt case. Pruitt went wrong in
611
00:38:06.010 --> 00:38:10.139
the Pruitt case. If I saw Pruitt again today, yes,
612
00:38:10.219 --> 00:38:13.090
I would put him in the program in prison. And
613
00:38:13.110 --> 00:38:15.289
I suppose I would be inclined not to put him
614
00:38:15.349 --> 00:38:18.309
in the program when he left prison, but how would
615
00:38:18.329 --> 00:38:21.710
I ever stop him from killing? He was determined to murder.
616
00:38:23.630 --> 00:38:27.739
After Pruitt murdered their son in 1981, Frank Balderson and
617
00:38:27.780 --> 00:38:31.500
his wife Betty started lobbying against the Witness Protection Program.
618
00:38:32.320 --> 00:38:36.719
They testified before a congressional committee demanding that surveillance of
619
00:38:36.900 --> 00:38:42.570
protected criminals be improved. Three years later in 1984, Congress
620
00:38:42.630 --> 00:38:46.570
amended the program. It gave new directives to the Justice Department,
621
00:38:46.869 --> 00:38:49.929
which raised the standards on who would be allowed into
622
00:38:49.949 --> 00:38:55.420
the program. These included mandatory psychological testing of prospective witnesses.
623
00:38:57.039 --> 00:39:01.000
Congress also provided compensation to victims up to $ 50, 000 for
624
00:39:01.179 --> 00:39:05.159
their losses due to the crimes of protected witnesses. Frank
625
00:39:05.179 --> 00:39:13.800
Balderson and his family eventually collected $ 25, 000.
626
00:39:11.940 --> 00:39:16.219
We had to make a claim for him. My wife
627
00:39:16.280 --> 00:39:18.289
wanted to go ahead and make the claim, make him
628
00:39:18.329 --> 00:39:22.090
pay through the nose, so to speak. And our friends
629
00:39:22.210 --> 00:39:24.789
and relatives encouraged us to do that, so I did.
630
00:39:24.849 --> 00:39:28.099
But there's no amount of money that can compensate for
631
00:39:28.139 --> 00:39:28.940
the loss of our son.
632
00:39:31.079 --> 00:39:35.119
The Balderson family is still angry with the Witness Protection Program.
633
00:39:36.059 --> 00:39:38.800
Even some in law enforcement wonder whether the Pruitt case
634
00:39:39.119 --> 00:39:40.190
was handled properly.
635
00:39:41.590 --> 00:39:41.909
I don't know.
636
00:39:41.929 --> 00:39:45.969
I had mixed feelings about it. How many crimes can
637
00:39:46.030 --> 00:39:51.710
a person commit before his true identity is revealed.
638
00:39:51.349 --> 00:39:51.889
To the public.
639
00:39:52.329 --> 00:39:57.989
This program was responsible for making this country significantly safer. Unfortunately,
640
00:39:58.150 --> 00:40:00.769
some of those people entering this program were still going
641
00:40:00.809 --> 00:40:04.050
to commit crime, still going to commit murder, and there
642
00:40:04.090 --> 00:40:07.280
was that one Pruitt that committed so many murders that
643
00:40:07.340 --> 00:40:09.019
sort of rocked us all back on our heels.
1
00:00:00.960 --> 00:00:05.589
New Mexico, a few miles outside Albuquerque. The landscape gives
2
00:00:05.650 --> 00:00:10.210
way to a dusty sprawl dotted by strip malls and subdivisions.
3
00:00:12.849 --> 00:00:18.010
On April 16th, 1981, Sandoval County Sheriff Gennaro Ferrara was
4
00:00:18.030 --> 00:00:21.309
dispatched to a remote patch of desert 20 miles north
5
00:00:21.350 --> 00:00:26.190
of the city. Among the rocks and sand, two gas
6
00:00:26.230 --> 00:00:28.390
company workers had discovered a body.
7
00:00:29.410 --> 00:00:33.829
It was a very gruesome sight. It was totally nude.
8
00:00:33.869 --> 00:00:36.079
There were no clothes on. The body had been burned off.
9
00:00:36.659 --> 00:00:40.060
And you could see where some predators, maybe coyotes, had
10
00:00:40.100 --> 00:00:41.859
tried to gnaw at the body.
11
00:00:42.740 --> 00:00:45.520
It was clearly a homicide. The body had been burned.
12
00:00:45.859 --> 00:00:49.509
The skull fractured. The crime scene yielded no clues about
13
00:00:49.570 --> 00:00:53.649
who killed this person. But a medic alert bracelet was
14
00:00:53.689 --> 00:00:56.520
found nearby. and it was quickly traced to a woman
15
00:00:56.590 --> 00:01:00.810
named Pamela Sue Barker. Tattoos on the corpse suggested she
16
00:01:00.850 --> 00:01:04.409
could be a biker. The sheriff tracked down the dead
17
00:01:04.469 --> 00:01:07.569
woman's mother, who confirmed that her daughter was indeed a biker.
18
00:01:08.750 --> 00:01:11.530
This image is one of the only available pictures of
19
00:01:11.609 --> 00:01:15.780
Pamela Barker. The mother revealed her daughter had been married
20
00:01:15.819 --> 00:01:17.840
to a man named Sonny Pearson.
21
00:01:19.120 --> 00:01:22.079
The mom says, Pearson. We start looking.
22
00:01:23.430 --> 00:01:27.409
Police started canvassing local biker hangouts. They soon learned that
23
00:01:27.489 --> 00:01:31.459
Sonny Pearson and his wife were mysterious recent additions to
24
00:01:31.500 --> 00:01:35.939
this part of New Mexico. Two years earlier, the couple
25
00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:39.709
had moved to a subdivision outside Albuquerque called Rio Rancho.
26
00:01:40.849 --> 00:01:44.950
Pearson invested in a trucking business and in this truck stop,
27
00:01:45.569 --> 00:01:51.209
the Big Chief Cafe. Alice Vick and her son Daniel
28
00:01:51.250 --> 00:01:54.079
were both working there when Pearson became part owner.
29
00:01:56.239 --> 00:01:58.359
He was a biker and hung around with the biker crowd,
30
00:01:58.379 --> 00:02:01.239
and you don't really, you don't ask a lot of
31
00:02:01.260 --> 00:02:03.439
questions in that circle of people.
32
00:02:03.969 --> 00:02:07.069
I was prep cook, and he just always backed the
33
00:02:07.090 --> 00:02:11.349
visiting with me, I guess because of my age. And
34
00:02:11.669 --> 00:02:15.370
like you know, he calls me mom. And we just
35
00:02:15.430 --> 00:02:18.000
got to be real friendly. Tried to turn him on
36
00:02:18.020 --> 00:02:18.979
to God, but it didn't work.
37
00:02:20.300 --> 00:02:24.379
The 31-year-old Pearson was a distinctive figure, even among local bikers,
38
00:02:24.840 --> 00:02:28.900
standing 5'7, with a long beard, a limp, and a
39
00:02:28.919 --> 00:02:30.870
glass eye from a childhood accident.
40
00:02:32.090 --> 00:02:33.430
When he didn't have any money and he was in
41
00:02:33.469 --> 00:02:35.629
a bar, he'd take his eye out and drop it
42
00:02:35.650 --> 00:02:37.949
in somebody's drink when they weren't looking, and then they
43
00:02:37.969 --> 00:02:39.610
wouldn't want their drink anymore, and he'd take it.
44
00:02:40.810 --> 00:02:44.490
Sonny could talk people into almost anything.
45
00:02:44.729 --> 00:02:48.710
He just had that personality, and he had that gift.
46
00:02:49.150 --> 00:02:50.389
He made me real uneasy.
47
00:02:51.150 --> 00:02:54.710
Businesswoman Judy Crawley knew Pearson and his wife Michelle from
48
00:02:54.770 --> 00:02:55.689
his trucking business.
49
00:02:57.750 --> 00:03:01.039
She was busy working on the motorcycles, and Sonny was
50
00:03:01.219 --> 00:03:02.560
busy being the tough guy.
51
00:03:03.259 --> 00:03:06.800
I didn't see a lot of closeness with Michelle and Sonny.
52
00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:09.219
They were more like friends.
53
00:03:11.960 --> 00:03:14.759
Now, following the discovery of the corpse in the desert,
54
00:03:15.259 --> 00:03:19.159
and two days after police got Pearson's name, Sonny himself
55
00:03:19.300 --> 00:03:23.180
paid Sheriff Ferrara a visit. He said he had heard
56
00:03:23.219 --> 00:03:25.659
about the body and was sure it was his wife.
57
00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:28.620
He said, I want to see my wife.
58
00:03:28.840 --> 00:03:30.110
I want to see my wife.
59
00:03:30.129 --> 00:03:34.009
I said, you know, sit down. We need to ask
60
00:03:34.050 --> 00:03:35.069
you a few questions.
61
00:03:36.009 --> 00:03:39.270
Pearson told police his wife had disappeared six weeks earlier
62
00:03:39.349 --> 00:03:42.949
from their trailer home. He had filed a missing persons
63
00:03:43.009 --> 00:03:45.370
report in neighboring Bernalillo County.
64
00:03:46.659 --> 00:03:52.590
Pearson had filed a report on March the 2nd stating
65
00:03:52.620 --> 00:03:55.569
that his wife and him had gotten into an argument.
66
00:03:56.129 --> 00:03:59.330
And about 2 o'clock in the morning, she took off
67
00:04:00.650 --> 00:04:03.509
and was walking. Last time he seen her, he says,
68
00:04:03.879 --> 00:04:07.199
he was heading south on the tracks behind the trailer court.
69
00:04:07.800 --> 00:04:11.500
And it just didn't fit. Where was this woman going
70
00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:13.110
to go at 2 a.m.
71
00:04:14.810 --> 00:04:17.870
The sheriff grilled Sonny for more than three hours, during
72
00:04:17.930 --> 00:04:21.310
which Pearson revealed that he had a criminal past and
73
00:04:21.810 --> 00:04:25.430
a secret identity, courtesy of the federal government.
74
00:04:26.490 --> 00:04:31.750
He gives me the story about the Marshal Service Witness
75
00:04:31.769 --> 00:04:34.910
Protection Program. Come to pass, he did say at one
76
00:04:34.949 --> 00:04:37.209
point in time that he had robbed a bank at
77
00:04:37.269 --> 00:04:38.149
one point in his life.
78
00:04:39.129 --> 00:04:42.350
Pearson refused to say much else. but did mention that
79
00:04:42.389 --> 00:04:46.170
he'd served time at the federal penitentiary in Atlanta. He
80
00:04:46.209 --> 00:04:49.250
dared the sheriff to contact the U.S. Marshal Service for
81
00:04:49.290 --> 00:04:55.370
more answers. Ferrara left Pearson in the interrogation room and
82
00:04:55.430 --> 00:04:57.750
went to call the Marshal Service in Albuquerque.
83
00:04:59.850 --> 00:05:02.420
I says, listen, yeah, we know this guy. I says,
84
00:05:03.009 --> 00:05:05.740
you need to give me some information on Woodall. He says, well,
85
00:05:05.759 --> 00:05:08.920
we can't give out any information about his prior and
86
00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:11.750
this and that, but We have some other information.
87
00:05:13.290 --> 00:05:16.750
The marshal confirmed that his suspect and his wife had
88
00:05:16.850 --> 00:05:21.430
both received new identities as Michelle and Charles Sonny Pearson.
89
00:05:22.050 --> 00:05:28.639
Pearson's real name was Marion Albert Pruitt. The marshal divulged
90
00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:33.060
one other startling detail. Apparently, the night before she disappeared,
91
00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:36.019
Pruitt's wife called a marshal at home and said she
92
00:05:36.060 --> 00:05:38.879
was afraid her husband was going to kill her. The
93
00:05:38.920 --> 00:05:41.540
marshal told her to contact local police in the morning.
94
00:05:44.709 --> 00:05:49.589
That was the last anyone heard from her. Once Sheriff
95
00:05:49.629 --> 00:05:52.829
Ferrara was done talking to the marshal in Albuquerque, he
96
00:05:52.889 --> 00:05:56.029
returned to the interrogation room and confronted his suspect.
97
00:05:58.110 --> 00:06:02.819
I told him, you murdered your wife. You did it.
98
00:06:04.040 --> 00:06:05.540
You're going to be put downstairs.
99
00:06:05.560 --> 00:06:07.600
I'm locking you up as a material witness.
100
00:06:08.870 --> 00:06:11.920
I know I could hold him for 72 hours and
101
00:06:11.980 --> 00:06:15.220
then kept trying to develop more stuff.
102
00:06:16.839 --> 00:06:20.779
But the sheriff's case quickly fell apart. 48 hours later,
103
00:06:20.839 --> 00:06:24.399
a judge ordered the suspect released for lack of evidence.
104
00:06:25.459 --> 00:06:29.019
Then the FBI sent back a report on the man's fingerprints.
105
00:06:30.300 --> 00:06:34.620
They sent me back a print card that said no record.
106
00:06:36.779 --> 00:06:38.379
I was sort of taken back.
107
00:06:39.569 --> 00:06:40.129
No record?
108
00:06:40.589 --> 00:06:41.670
This guy's telling.
109
00:06:41.449 --> 00:06:43.029
Me he'd been in the Atlanta Penitentiary.
110
00:06:44.350 --> 00:06:44.970
No record?
111
00:06:46.709 --> 00:06:49.839
Couldn't get any, anything. Nothing.
112
00:06:50.899 --> 00:06:53.920
With no help from either the FBI or the U.S. Marshals,
113
00:06:54.379 --> 00:06:57.740
Sheriff Ferrara and his deputies kept on trying to crack
114
00:06:57.779 --> 00:07:03.949
the case. Almost two months later, finally, a breakthrough. Police
115
00:07:04.009 --> 00:07:06.930
tracked down a close friend of Marion Pruitt's who seemed
116
00:07:07.089 --> 00:07:12.370
nervous about talking. After some prodding, 24-year-old Bill Sherman confessed
117
00:07:12.430 --> 00:07:16.319
that he saw Pruitt kill his wife and that he
118
00:07:16.459 --> 00:07:17.779
helped dispose of the body.
119
00:07:19.800 --> 00:07:24.180
He tells me, I was there. I was there when
120
00:07:24.199 --> 00:07:27.680
he murdered her. And you know what? He was eager
121
00:07:27.720 --> 00:07:28.920
to get that off his chest.
122
00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:33.000
There was no question that Bill Sherman was terrified.
123
00:07:34.180 --> 00:07:35.110
Of Marion Pruitt.
124
00:07:36.920 --> 00:07:45.100
And that Marion Pruitt used his persona to totally control
125
00:07:45.139 --> 00:07:47.759
and manipulate the accomplice in this case.
126
00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:52.579
Sherman began telling the sheriff about the night Pruitt's wife disappeared.
127
00:07:53.259 --> 00:07:55.660
He said he spent the evening drinking with Pruitt at
128
00:07:55.699 --> 00:07:59.180
his trailer. Then he claimed his friend told him to
129
00:07:59.220 --> 00:08:02.259
go home and return later that night so they could
130
00:08:02.279 --> 00:08:06.209
discuss his trucking business. Sherman returned and said Pruitt immediately
131
00:08:06.250 --> 00:08:08.970
took a hammer into the bedroom where his wife was asleep.
132
00:08:09.610 --> 00:08:12.790
There were screams. Then Sherman entered the room.
133
00:08:15.689 --> 00:08:20.160
Blood was all over. She was just fairly not even
134
00:08:20.220 --> 00:08:21.019
moving at that.
135
00:08:20.939 --> 00:08:21.439
Point in time.
136
00:08:21.980 --> 00:08:25.279
And then what they did is they took the body
137
00:08:25.379 --> 00:08:27.439
and put it in the trunk of a car and
138
00:08:27.480 --> 00:08:29.259
took it out to the mesa, which is on the
139
00:08:29.300 --> 00:08:33.289
west side of Albuquerque here, and then burned it and
140
00:08:33.350 --> 00:08:33.669
left it.
141
00:08:35.009 --> 00:08:39.009
Based on this eyewitness account, authorities issued an arrest warrant
142
00:08:39.049 --> 00:08:44.110
for Marion Pruitt, but Pruitt had disappeared. Investigators later found
143
00:08:44.230 --> 00:08:46.850
out that before he left town, he had stopped by
144
00:08:46.889 --> 00:08:49.600
to see his employee and friend, Alice Vick.
145
00:08:51.009 --> 00:08:53.120
He just told me he had to leave because the
146
00:08:54.039 --> 00:08:56.679
law was blaming him for the murder of his wife,
147
00:08:56.740 --> 00:08:58.659
and he told me, he said, I swear to you
148
00:08:59.340 --> 00:09:01.980
on my mom's soul that I did not kill my wife.
149
00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:04.500
And those were his words when he left.
150
00:09:05.669 --> 00:09:09.330
Marion Pruitt escaped New Mexico undetected and went on a
151
00:09:09.409 --> 00:09:15.019
nationwide crime spree. And because the Federal Witness Protection Program
152
00:09:15.080 --> 00:09:18.980
had given Pruitt a new cleaned-up identity, the government would
153
00:09:19.019 --> 00:09:22.039
be widely blamed for allowing the rampage to occur.
154
00:09:22.059 --> 00:09:29.279
The guy that turns a wild animal loose to kill
155
00:09:30.700 --> 00:09:33.659
is responsible. It's not the wild animal. The wild animal
156
00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:36.009
is just doing what comes naturally.
157
00:09:43.580 --> 00:09:47.419
In June 1981, police in Sandoval County, New Mexico, just
158
00:09:47.480 --> 00:09:51.860
outside Albuquerque, issued an all-points bulletin for Marion Albert Pruitt.
159
00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:55.500
As a member of the Witness Protection Program, the man
160
00:09:55.539 --> 00:09:58.179
had been living under the name Sonny Pearson. He was
161
00:09:58.220 --> 00:10:01.539
now wanted for the murder of his wife. Pruitt would
162
00:10:01.580 --> 00:10:05.019
elude capture for months, go on a killing spree, and
163
00:10:05.059 --> 00:10:07.320
in the process live up to a nickname he had
164
00:10:07.379 --> 00:10:10.139
carried with him since his teens, Mad Dog.
165
00:10:11.559 --> 00:10:14.279
What caused him to become this way, how he became
166
00:10:14.299 --> 00:10:16.779
that way, I don't know. I think he's a person
167
00:10:16.820 --> 00:10:19.299
who just liked to hurt. and hurt in the most
168
00:10:19.350 --> 00:10:19.970
severe way.
169
00:10:20.730 --> 00:10:23.690
Pruitt's case would throw a harsh spotlight on the Federal
170
00:10:23.730 --> 00:10:28.950
Witness Protection Program and raise the question, does society sometimes
171
00:10:29.070 --> 00:10:31.990
pay too high a price for the secret deals the
172
00:10:32.029 --> 00:10:43.029
government makes with violent criminals? Marion Albert Pruitt was raised
173
00:10:43.090 --> 00:10:47.789
in Charlotte, North Carolina. His childhood pursuits of baseball and
174
00:10:47.909 --> 00:10:51.350
roller skating gave way in his teens to a motorcycle
175
00:10:51.389 --> 00:10:56.740
gang and drugs. He took speed, smoked pot, and drank
176
00:10:56.919 --> 00:11:00.139
so much of the inexpensive brand of wine, Mogan David,
177
00:11:00.399 --> 00:11:02.799
that his friends started calling him by its street name,
178
00:11:03.340 --> 00:11:06.840
Mad Dog. Crime came easily to him, as did prison time.
179
00:11:07.899 --> 00:11:11.429
A six-month sentence for petty theft at age 17 cemented
180
00:11:11.470 --> 00:11:15.120
a lifelong hatred of authority. He took to robbing banks,
181
00:11:15.419 --> 00:11:18.519
which earned him, at age 21, a long stretch in
182
00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:27.000
the Atlanta penitentiary. Eight years later, in the spring of 1978,
183
00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:30.500
one year before Pruitt's scheduled release, his cellmate at informant
184
00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:34.250
in a drug trial was murdered. The 28-year-old Pruitt claimed
185
00:11:34.259 --> 00:11:37.370
he witnessed the crime and offered to testify if he
186
00:11:37.450 --> 00:11:40.129
could win a spot in the Federal Witness Protection Program.
187
00:11:42.049 --> 00:11:44.909
it fell to Gerald Shore at the U.S. Justice Department
188
00:11:45.129 --> 00:11:46.350
to consider the request.
189
00:11:47.210 --> 00:11:49.129
I would have to be convinced that that witness was
190
00:11:49.190 --> 00:11:53.120
very important to what I concluded was a very important case.
191
00:11:53.860 --> 00:11:56.259
Here an informant had been murdered, that would be a
192
00:11:56.299 --> 00:11:57.240
very important case.
193
00:11:57.779 --> 00:12:01.039
So Marion Pruitt was placed in witness protection. He was
194
00:12:01.100 --> 00:12:05.330
paroled in November 1979, 11 months early, based on his
195
00:12:05.370 --> 00:12:09.090
cooperation with the government. He then married Pamela Sue Barker,
196
00:12:09.610 --> 00:12:11.210
whom he'd met while in prison.
197
00:12:12.899 --> 00:12:13.399
The U.S.
198
00:12:13.460 --> 00:12:16.840
Marshals moved the newlyweds to New Mexico and gave them
199
00:12:16.899 --> 00:12:21.740
new identities as Charles and Michelle Pearson. For about nine months,
200
00:12:22.120 --> 00:12:26.360
the couple received a monthly stipend of $ 800 until they
201
00:12:26.379 --> 00:12:31.669
were deemed self-sufficient. Pruitt bought into two businesses and made friends.
202
00:12:32.629 --> 00:12:36.129
He said he was happy with his life. He wasn't trouble,
203
00:12:36.470 --> 00:12:39.370
drank a lot, and I'd be chewing him out telling
204
00:12:39.389 --> 00:12:43.110
him to eat instead of drink. And That's when he'd
205
00:12:43.129 --> 00:12:45.789
start calling me Mama. He'd say, yes, Mama, yes, Mama.
206
00:12:46.610 --> 00:12:49.549
But we never had any trouble with him. Always treated
207
00:12:49.570 --> 00:12:49.970
me great.
208
00:12:50.889 --> 00:12:58.940
But Pruitt eventually did get into trouble. In August 1980,
209
00:12:58.940 --> 00:13:03.259
he was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after
210
00:13:03.320 --> 00:13:07.580
a barroom brawl. However, Pruitt had no arrest record under
211
00:13:07.639 --> 00:13:12.080
his new identity, Charles Pearson. The judge had no idea
212
00:13:12.159 --> 00:13:15.710
what kind of person he was dealing with. So instead
213
00:13:15.750 --> 00:13:19.149
of a return trip to prison for breaking parole, Pruitt
214
00:13:19.210 --> 00:13:25.129
received six months unsupervised probation. Just a few months later,
215
00:13:25.250 --> 00:13:29.629
Pruitt's wife would turn up dead. Pruitt became the prime suspect,
216
00:13:29.750 --> 00:13:33.370
but New Mexico authorities still could not get access to
217
00:13:33.409 --> 00:13:36.320
his real record. They weren't allowed to hold him in jail,
218
00:13:36.399 --> 00:13:38.500
and then the man disappeared.
219
00:13:39.960 --> 00:13:43.500
To be honest with you, I never got a copy
220
00:13:43.539 --> 00:13:45.830
of his rap sheet from the FBI.
221
00:13:46.529 --> 00:13:51.190
They weren't releasing anything. Now wanted for the murder of
222
00:13:51.230 --> 00:13:59.769
his wife, Pruitt went on the run. On September 17th, 1981,
223
00:13:59.769 --> 00:14:02.460
a man dressed in a three-piece suit and a wig
224
00:14:03.059 --> 00:14:06.259
walked into the Unifirst Savings and Loan in Jackson, Mississippi.
225
00:14:06.980 --> 00:14:08.740
He told the tellers he was armed.
226
00:14:10.080 --> 00:14:14.580
This individual then handed one of the bank employees a
227
00:14:14.620 --> 00:14:17.360
bag and asked her to fill it with money. He
228
00:14:17.379 --> 00:14:20.039
was told that they did not have that kind of money,
229
00:14:20.299 --> 00:14:22.659
to which he said, give me what you have.
230
00:14:23.720 --> 00:14:28.240
The suspect fled with about $ 7, 000 in cash and a hostage,
231
00:14:28.820 --> 00:14:32.159
a 43-year-old bank loan officer named Peggy Lowe.
232
00:14:33.419 --> 00:14:37.159
Someone else was going to be the hostage, and that
233
00:14:37.460 --> 00:14:41.879
lady panicked and said, Peggy more or less volunteered to
234
00:14:41.919 --> 00:14:45.700
be the hostage to get the other employees out of
235
00:14:45.740 --> 00:14:46.379
harm's way.
236
00:14:47.580 --> 00:14:49.460
My husband told me that there had been a bank
237
00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:53.080
robbery and that they had abducted my mother. They didn't
238
00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:55.639
know where she was at the moment, but I needed
239
00:14:55.679 --> 00:14:59.250
to go to the bank, to the universe, and my
240
00:14:59.259 --> 00:15:04.809
dad was there. The bank employees were there, the FBI, Jackson, police,
241
00:15:05.590 --> 00:15:08.970
TV reporters, everybody was there.
242
00:15:11.039 --> 00:15:14.620
Police scoured the area and found Peggy Lowe's car parked
243
00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:18.600
behind the bank. Hoping to find her inside, they told
244
00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:24.889
her husband to open the trunk. It was empty. Within hours,
245
00:15:25.409 --> 00:15:31.450
a statewide manhunt was underway. Authorities circulated Lowe's photograph. Helicopters
246
00:15:31.610 --> 00:15:34.929
buzzed over state highways. The bank robber and his hostage
247
00:15:35.370 --> 00:15:40.299
were nowhere to be found. the FBI distributed a composite
248
00:15:40.360 --> 00:15:44.259
sketch of the suspect, drawn from eyewitness accounts to field
249
00:15:44.330 --> 00:15:45.620
offices across the country.
250
00:15:47.029 --> 00:15:51.529
He, from physical stature, was a short person, I believe
251
00:15:51.549 --> 00:15:56.850
about 5'6, 5'7, wearing sunglasses, and he walked with a limp.
252
00:15:57.590 --> 00:16:02.710
Calls came flooding in to Mississippi, from Corpus Christi, Texas, Tallahassee, Florida,
253
00:16:03.330 --> 00:16:08.500
and as far away as Seattle, Washington. Each jurisdiction reported
254
00:16:08.529 --> 00:16:11.100
that it, too, had a recent bank robbery with a
255
00:16:11.139 --> 00:16:16.659
suspect matching that very description. Fingerprint evidence soon confirmed it.
256
00:16:17.039 --> 00:16:21.580
Marion Mad Dog Pruitt had hit all the locations. This
257
00:16:21.620 --> 00:16:25.259
was little solace to the family of the still-missing Peggy Lowe.
258
00:16:26.840 --> 00:16:29.350
Life at home was waiting for the phone to ring,
259
00:16:29.379 --> 00:16:30.889
waiting for somebody to tell us anything.
260
00:16:30.909 --> 00:16:35.330
I was thinking, you know, maybe there's hope, but really
261
00:16:35.450 --> 00:16:38.500
after the second week, I I knew within my heart
262
00:16:38.740 --> 00:16:41.179
that I'd never see her alive on this earth again.
263
00:16:41.419 --> 00:16:46.840
And he wasn't done yet. In Fort Smith, Arkansas, on
264
00:16:46.879 --> 00:16:50.919
October 12, 1981, a gunman walked into a convenience store
265
00:16:50.980 --> 00:16:55.460
and abducted the night shift clerk, Bobbie Jean Robertson. Her
266
00:16:55.500 --> 00:16:58.159
body was discovered shot to death in a nearby wooded area.
267
00:16:58.919 --> 00:17:09.819
The suspect had escaped with $ 163 in cash. Four days later,
268
00:17:10.819 --> 00:17:15.279
and 850 miles away, a police investigator in Loveland, Colorado
269
00:17:15.339 --> 00:17:18.440
was dispatched to an early morning shooting at a 7-Eleven.
270
00:17:18.460 --> 00:17:22.730
The victim was alive at that particular point in time.
271
00:17:23.029 --> 00:17:25.369
We don't know for sure how long he was on
272
00:17:25.410 --> 00:17:26.789
the floor of the store bleeding.
273
00:17:27.950 --> 00:17:31.849
Anthony Tate, the 21-year-old clerk, had been shot four times
274
00:17:32.009 --> 00:17:37.259
at point-blank range. The young man was pronounced dead at
275
00:17:37.299 --> 00:17:42.000
the hospital 45 minutes later. Police soon learned that 13
276
00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:46.220
miles away in Fort Collins, Colorado, another 7-Eleven had also
277
00:17:46.269 --> 00:17:51.490
been robbed and the overnight clerk, 24-year-old James Balderson, murdered.
278
00:17:52.230 --> 00:17:54.210
His parents found out later that morning.
279
00:17:56.190 --> 00:18:00.210
We always had some reservations with him working at night,
280
00:18:00.430 --> 00:18:03.789
but Fort Collins we thought was as good a town
281
00:18:03.869 --> 00:18:07.279
as any. My first The reaction was I just broke
282
00:18:07.299 --> 00:18:10.700
down and cried like a baby. Because I love my son.
283
00:18:12.140 --> 00:18:15.059
The Colorado police sent out an APB and got an
284
00:18:15.119 --> 00:18:19.329
immediate response from the FBI. The Bureau was keeping an
285
00:18:19.450 --> 00:18:23.150
eye out for suspicious robberies and sent back information on
286
00:18:23.190 --> 00:18:26.910
Marion Pruitt's bank robbery and kidnapping in Mississippi.
287
00:18:29.170 --> 00:18:33.029
Actually, you know, I thought the FBI was just throwing
288
00:18:33.069 --> 00:18:34.910
us a bone when we got the original teletype.
289
00:18:34.970 --> 00:18:35.210
I thought.
290
00:18:35.940 --> 00:18:38.779
How could this have any connection? You know, it doesn't...
291
00:18:39.900 --> 00:18:42.259
And Mississippi's a long way from Colorado, and I just
292
00:18:42.299 --> 00:18:43.759
didn't see any connection at all.
293
00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:50.099
Just two days later, the connection would be confirmed. On
294
00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:53.440
a highway outside Amarillo, Texas, state troopers pulled over a
295
00:18:53.579 --> 00:18:57.920
speeding Cadillac. A. 38 caliber handgun was found under the seat,
296
00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:03.519
along with drug paraphernalia and 7-11 receipts from Colorado. The
297
00:19:03.539 --> 00:19:09.000
driver was arrested. His name was Marion Albert Pruitt. His
298
00:19:09.079 --> 00:19:12.859
five-month spree of seven holdups, which had left three people
299
00:19:12.900 --> 00:19:17.180
dead and one missing, was over. The arrest of Med
300
00:19:17.220 --> 00:19:21.430
Dog Pruitt made headlines nationwide. The victims' families were furious
301
00:19:21.470 --> 00:19:23.890
when they found out the former bank robber had been
302
00:19:23.910 --> 00:19:27.789
given a new identity in the Federal Witness Protection Program.
303
00:19:29.750 --> 00:19:34.720
I did not have a feeling of anger at until
304
00:19:34.759 --> 00:19:37.339
I found out his real name was Marion Albert Pruitt
305
00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:39.769
and found out that he was a protected witness. Then
306
00:19:39.809 --> 00:19:41.109
the rage started to build.
307
00:19:41.789 --> 00:19:44.890
If he was never in the witness program, he still
308
00:19:44.930 --> 00:19:47.950
would have committed crime. When I learned of Pruitt's crimes,
309
00:19:48.569 --> 00:19:52.460
I was personally devastated. by the deaths of every individual,
310
00:19:52.519 --> 00:19:55.799
young people, others that he had killed. It was just wanton,
311
00:19:55.859 --> 00:19:56.480
reckless killing.
312
00:19:56.500 --> 00:20:00.740
The New Mexico sheriff who was pursuing Pruitt for killing
313
00:20:00.789 --> 00:20:04.109
his wife believed the crime spree never had to happen.
314
00:20:04.710 --> 00:20:09.329
Gennaro Farah insisted the FBI and the U.S. Marshals failed
315
00:20:09.369 --> 00:20:11.130
to give him assistance when it mattered.
316
00:20:11.150 --> 00:20:15.670
They're supposed to send us the information, especially when we
317
00:20:15.690 --> 00:20:19.589
got them arrested and on the card it says material
318
00:20:19.609 --> 00:20:24.490
witness homicide. Don't you think that they should have shared
319
00:20:24.529 --> 00:20:27.809
a little bit with us? They turned this mad dog
320
00:20:28.349 --> 00:20:29.369
out on society.
321
00:20:31.269 --> 00:20:35.029
Pruitt was first extradited to Jackson, Mississippi to face charges
322
00:20:35.529 --> 00:20:38.390
on armed bank robbery and the kidnapping of Peggy Lowe.
323
00:20:39.220 --> 00:20:45.460
Authorities chose Mississippi because Lowe was still missing. Two weeks later,
324
00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:48.960
Pruitt confessed to police that he had killed her and
325
00:20:48.980 --> 00:20:53.079
agreed on October 28, 1981, to take them to the body.
326
00:20:55.579 --> 00:20:58.789
As they drove to a wooded area near the Mississippi-Alabama border,
327
00:20:59.380 --> 00:21:02.710
Pruitt recounted the last two hours of Peggy Lowe's life.
328
00:21:04.690 --> 00:21:07.829
He said that after robbing the Unifirst Bank in downtown Jackson,
329
00:21:08.579 --> 00:21:12.960
He'd driven 125 miles east over the border into Alabama.
330
00:21:14.599 --> 00:21:18.359
He found an abandoned dirt road. Then he stopped the car.
331
00:21:21.019 --> 00:21:23.460
He took Mrs. Lowe out of the car, took her
332
00:21:23.529 --> 00:21:27.369
into a wooded area, and had her take her clothes
333
00:21:27.529 --> 00:21:30.329
off for the purpose of leaving her. And he was
334
00:21:30.390 --> 00:21:33.930
thinking that, you know, perhaps this is not good. He
335
00:21:33.970 --> 00:21:37.859
confronts her. at this time, makes her go back, kneel down,
336
00:21:37.940 --> 00:21:40.609
and ultimately he shoots her in the back of the head.
337
00:21:41.869 --> 00:21:45.130
One thing that I asked him, did he sexually molest
338
00:21:45.250 --> 00:21:49.250
Miss Lowe? And he said he did not. I asked him,
339
00:21:49.269 --> 00:21:53.809
did she die instantly? And he said that he believed
340
00:21:53.849 --> 00:21:54.589
that she did.
341
00:21:54.609 --> 00:21:59.759
The agents followed Pruitt's directions to a clearing where they
342
00:21:59.799 --> 00:22:05.920
found Peggy Lowe's decomposing body. Then Pruitt abruptly announced that
343
00:22:05.960 --> 00:22:09.380
he was ready to leave and eat breakfast. The authorities
344
00:22:09.779 --> 00:22:10.559
were appalled.
345
00:22:11.420 --> 00:22:14.380
He had showed us, admitted to us that he killed
346
00:22:14.420 --> 00:22:19.680
this lady, and now I want something to eat. That's
347
00:22:19.700 --> 00:22:25.420
when the old good American red-blooded law enforcement man's blood
348
00:22:25.460 --> 00:22:26.240
gets real high.
349
00:22:28.279 --> 00:22:28.500
You know?
350
00:22:30.400 --> 00:22:32.500
That's when you want to take the law into your
351
00:22:32.519 --> 00:22:33.980
own hands, but you know you can't.
352
00:22:36.160 --> 00:22:40.009
That same day, after Marion Pruitt was driven back to Jackson, Mississippi,
353
00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:46.869
he granted an interview to four local reporters. From the start,
354
00:22:46.910 --> 00:22:49.130
he was remarkably candid about his crimes.
355
00:22:50.329 --> 00:22:52.210
You know, I've become a mad dog killer. I've done
356
00:22:52.230 --> 00:22:53.230
so much cocaine.
357
00:22:54.339 --> 00:22:56.160
And I don't mind telling you, I killed two people
358
00:22:56.180 --> 00:22:58.079
in Colorado and one in Arkansas, too.
359
00:22:58.099 --> 00:22:58.480
That's how.
360
00:22:59.690 --> 00:23:02.769
about a $ 4, 000 a week cocaine habit, okay?
361
00:23:05.490 --> 00:23:09.700
It was a stunning free trial confession. Pruitt explained why
362
00:23:09.779 --> 00:23:12.640
he had become a killer. He blamed it on drugs.
363
00:23:15.039 --> 00:23:22.930
Peggy Long's death was something that, it was just, I
364
00:23:22.970 --> 00:23:25.250
was too high, it was accidental, it was something that
365
00:23:25.269 --> 00:23:25.910
shouldn't have happened.
366
00:23:26.950 --> 00:23:28.089
You were high on cocaine?
367
00:23:28.109 --> 00:23:28.430
Yeah, I was.
368
00:23:29.119 --> 00:23:31.420
That and methadrine with ether base and crank.
369
00:23:31.839 --> 00:23:32.579
California crank.
370
00:23:35.119 --> 00:23:35.680
You think so?
371
00:23:35.700 --> 00:23:41.339
Okay, you said you're trying to embarrass the federal government.
372
00:23:41.400 --> 00:23:41.940
In what way?
373
00:23:42.599 --> 00:23:45.460
Pruitt said he had harbored a grudge against the government
374
00:23:45.900 --> 00:23:49.660
since his first stint in prison as a teenager. Now
375
00:23:49.759 --> 00:23:53.160
Pruitt added one more reason to be angry. He believed
376
00:23:53.200 --> 00:23:55.759
that the sheriff in New Mexico had told the press
377
00:23:56.089 --> 00:23:57.700
about his protected witness status.
378
00:23:59.640 --> 00:24:01.880
They let them tell everybody there that I was a
379
00:24:02.359 --> 00:24:03.299
government witness and.
380
00:24:03.259 --> 00:24:07.079
So was my wife. In reality, that information was only
381
00:24:07.140 --> 00:24:11.930
released after Pruitt fled. Pruitt used his bitterness as an excuse.
382
00:24:13.589 --> 00:24:16.430
I started out just to rob banks and embarrass the government,
383
00:24:16.990 --> 00:24:21.210
and there was a killing involved. Then I got a
384
00:24:21.250 --> 00:24:22.430
little bit more crazy.
385
00:24:23.650 --> 00:24:26.289
He was so resentful that he was unwilling to give
386
00:24:26.329 --> 00:24:28.329
the government credit for capturing him.
387
00:24:29.900 --> 00:24:33.079
The police in Texas did not apprehend me.
388
00:24:33.160 --> 00:24:33.980
I let them catch me.
389
00:24:34.039 --> 00:24:35.920
I guess, I mean, surely you're aware of that.
390
00:24:36.519 --> 00:24:38.079
I mean, if.
391
00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:40.000
I've killed five people and I got a.
392
00:24:39.869 --> 00:24:41.490
38 under the seat, what the hell am I doing
393
00:24:41.509 --> 00:24:44.569
going through town 69 miles an hour and not pulling
394
00:24:44.630 --> 00:24:45.289
a gun on them?
395
00:24:48.869 --> 00:24:51.609
It was a bizarre performance from a man who hadn't
396
00:24:51.730 --> 00:24:54.789
faced trial on any of his most recent crimes, the
397
00:24:54.809 --> 00:24:57.099
worst of which were murder charges for the killing of
398
00:24:57.170 --> 00:25:11.450
five people, including his wife. At the end of October 1981,
399
00:25:11.450 --> 00:25:15.240
captured spree killer Marion Mad Dog Pruitt held a two-day
400
00:25:15.279 --> 00:25:19.240
press conference in Jackson, Mississippi. He was facing charges for
401
00:25:19.319 --> 00:25:23.740
killing his wife, as well as four other murders. Even so,
402
00:25:24.339 --> 00:25:27.440
he discussed his life in the Witness Protection Program and
403
00:25:27.500 --> 00:25:35.049
his nationwide crime spree. How did you do it? I
404
00:25:35.049 --> 00:25:38.950
was a solo artist. Well, I His statements also offered
405
00:25:38.990 --> 00:25:42.470
a glimpse into the workings of a criminal mind. He
406
00:25:42.559 --> 00:25:44.819
explained why he targeted savings and loans.
407
00:25:44.819 --> 00:25:50.119
99% of the savings and loans are run by female
408
00:25:51.319 --> 00:25:57.009
and female managers. And women have not equal right things
409
00:25:57.089 --> 00:25:59.730
of getting into, but women has more common sense than
410
00:25:59.750 --> 00:26:02.190
the man does when it comes to bodily harm, okay?
411
00:26:02.609 --> 00:26:05.329
Where a man would try to play gun holder. FBI says,
412
00:26:05.890 --> 00:26:06.759
don't play hero.
413
00:26:07.619 --> 00:26:10.940
How much money would you say that you came across
414
00:26:11.039 --> 00:26:14.200
in these robberies altogether? Is there any way to spend
415
00:26:14.259 --> 00:26:14.700
it quickly?
416
00:26:16.559 --> 00:26:24.490
Yeah, spend it very quickly. Too fast.
417
00:26:26.430 --> 00:26:26.970
On what?
418
00:26:30.849 --> 00:26:32.049
Good living, I guess they call it.
419
00:26:33.069 --> 00:26:33.869
Was it a good living?
420
00:26:38.019 --> 00:26:39.460
Lonely, I guess, you know.
421
00:26:42.019 --> 00:26:43.920
Not as far as people around me and stuff, just
422
00:26:44.079 --> 00:26:49.859
lonely feelings, you know. It's like, what's that song they
423
00:26:49.880 --> 00:26:53.319
sung about the clown deep down inside, you know, he's
424
00:26:54.029 --> 00:26:54.400
a loser.
425
00:26:56.569 --> 00:27:00.890
Pruitt addressed questions about his upcoming trials and what penalty
426
00:27:00.990 --> 00:27:04.849
he thought he should receive for murdering 43 Jackson area
427
00:27:04.910 --> 00:27:06.069
resident Peggy Lowe.
428
00:27:07.700 --> 00:27:09.359
I think the people of Mississippi want to see me
429
00:27:09.400 --> 00:27:12.539
dead just as much as I want to die. Nothing,
430
00:27:12.900 --> 00:27:17.319
nothing justified the killing of Peggy Lee or whatever her
431
00:27:17.380 --> 00:27:21.849
name was. If I think it was probable justification for myself,
432
00:27:21.890 --> 00:27:23.269
I wouldn't be asking for the death penalty.
433
00:27:31.670 --> 00:27:32.809
I killed an innocent person.
434
00:27:32.829 --> 00:27:33.690
It's that simple, okay?
435
00:27:34.460 --> 00:27:37.339
Do you think that you will gain anything by talking
436
00:27:37.380 --> 00:27:38.380
to the four of us?
437
00:27:38.740 --> 00:27:41.400
Or do you hope to gain anything by talking to
438
00:27:41.440 --> 00:27:45.470
the four of us? I hope I can gain the
439
00:27:45.529 --> 00:27:47.029
support of the people that will.
440
00:27:46.930 --> 00:27:48.049
Turn around and help me.
441
00:27:48.069 --> 00:27:51.490
You know, maybe this kind of sounds crazy, me asking
442
00:27:51.509 --> 00:27:54.589
the people of Mississippi to help me, but I'd like
443
00:27:54.630 --> 00:27:57.539
for them to help me, you know, for the state
444
00:27:57.559 --> 00:27:58.779
to have me, to put me to death.
445
00:27:59.480 --> 00:28:01.259
In other words, you didn't want to stay in prison
446
00:28:01.279 --> 00:28:01.880
the rest of your life?
447
00:28:03.690 --> 00:28:06.829
That's my question. No, I don't think so, because right
448
00:28:06.849 --> 00:28:10.809
now society and everything is, as far as getting so
449
00:28:10.849 --> 00:28:16.309
weak about violence and clearing the criminal's mind and everything,
450
00:28:16.329 --> 00:28:18.009
they might have paroled me in 10 years.
451
00:28:18.950 --> 00:28:20.150
I wouldn't have been before 42 then.
452
00:28:20.170 --> 00:28:21.470
I'd still be ready to go raise.
453
00:28:21.309 --> 00:28:22.059
Hell again, wouldn't I?
454
00:28:25.089 --> 00:28:28.289
Pruitt might have saved the people of Mississippi the expense
455
00:28:28.329 --> 00:28:32.230
of a trial, but despite his bluster, he pleaded not guilty.
456
00:28:32.769 --> 00:28:36.829
and left his fate to a jury. Pruitt requested to
457
00:28:36.990 --> 00:28:40.759
act as his own attorney. The judge agreed, but appointed
458
00:28:40.839 --> 00:28:44.619
lawyer William Kirksey as one of his advisors. Kirksey didn't
459
00:28:44.700 --> 00:28:47.380
think much of his client, but he also didn't think
460
00:28:47.420 --> 00:28:49.420
Pruitt was the only one to blame.
461
00:28:50.720 --> 00:28:55.670
Part of Marion Albert Pruitt's crimes should be laid right
462
00:28:55.730 --> 00:28:59.539
on the lap of the United States government. They protected him.
463
00:28:59.940 --> 00:29:02.339
The people of Mississippi did not. The people of New
464
00:29:02.400 --> 00:29:04.880
Mexico did not. Or these other states.
465
00:29:06.180 --> 00:29:09.240
Marion Pruitt's trial for the murder of Peggy Lowe began
466
00:29:09.279 --> 00:29:13.799
in April 1982 in Columbus, Mississippi. If there were any
467
00:29:13.839 --> 00:29:17.720
doubts about the outcome, Pruitt quelled them by insisting on
468
00:29:17.859 --> 00:29:22.339
taking the stand. There was some electricity in the air.
469
00:29:22.380 --> 00:29:24.549
There's no question about it in the courtroom.
470
00:29:25.599 --> 00:29:28.819
Pruitt recounted robbing the universe savings and loan and how
471
00:29:28.859 --> 00:29:31.900
he took Peggy Lowe to the woods in Alabama and
472
00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:32.519
murdered her.
473
00:29:36.009 --> 00:29:39.930
I guess the worst part of it was his description.
474
00:29:40.640 --> 00:29:44.519
of it and what he was doing and all he
475
00:29:44.559 --> 00:29:48.619
was thinking about was getting his fix and all and
476
00:29:48.859 --> 00:29:51.279
it was just so hard to restrain myself.
477
00:29:52.329 --> 00:29:55.470
Pruitt displayed needle marks on his arms to the jury.
478
00:29:56.250 --> 00:29:59.230
His defense, he said, was that the drugs made him kill.
479
00:30:00.240 --> 00:30:03.259
He refused to take blame for his true inner self,
480
00:30:03.400 --> 00:30:06.079
and his true inner self was a murdering scumbag.
481
00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:09.460
And I hate that my mother had her last thoughts
482
00:30:09.519 --> 00:30:12.359
were with him and had to look at him.
483
00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:18.269
The jury only took three hours to determine that Pruitt
484
00:30:18.309 --> 00:30:22.009
was guilty and deserved the death penalty. The judge agreed.
485
00:30:23.369 --> 00:30:27.210
I will never forget when Judge Coleman read him the
486
00:30:27.329 --> 00:30:30.630
sentencing order of the court. saying that he would be
487
00:30:30.730 --> 00:30:35.609
put to death on so-and-so date at Partsman Prison. This mean,
488
00:30:35.670 --> 00:30:40.210
tough guy, who I say is a punk, his knees
489
00:30:40.329 --> 00:30:43.230
buckled and he almost went to the floor. I will
490
00:30:43.269 --> 00:30:44.029
never forget that.
491
00:30:46.079 --> 00:30:49.240
Marion Pruitt racked up another death sentence in Arkansas for
492
00:30:49.279 --> 00:30:54.180
the murder of convenience store clerk Bobby Jean Robertson. In Colorado,
493
00:30:54.599 --> 00:30:58.420
in exchange for two life sentences, Pruitt pleaded guilty to
494
00:30:58.460 --> 00:31:02.660
killing the two other clerks, Anthony Tate and James Balderson.
495
00:31:03.279 --> 00:31:05.880
This plea bargain satisfied Balderson's father.
496
00:31:07.339 --> 00:31:09.880
I figured Pruitt would never see the light of day again,
497
00:31:11.160 --> 00:31:12.359
which was fine with me.
498
00:31:13.660 --> 00:31:17.589
Then in February 1983, Pruitt appeared in a New Mexico
499
00:31:17.680 --> 00:31:20.910
court to stand trial for the one crime he maintained
500
00:31:20.950 --> 00:31:23.789
he did not commit, the murder of his wife, Pamela
501
00:31:23.829 --> 00:31:27.509
Sue Barker. He was tried under the name he received
502
00:31:27.549 --> 00:31:33.470
in the Witness Protection Program, Charles Sonny Pearson. During pretrial motions,
503
00:31:33.829 --> 00:31:37.390
the defendant criticized Judge Thomas Meskel for refusing to grant
504
00:31:37.430 --> 00:31:38.210
a change of venue.
505
00:31:39.130 --> 00:31:40.849
I have a couple other requests I'd like to make.
506
00:31:41.089 --> 00:31:44.589
One is I want a gag order on the case.
507
00:31:44.609 --> 00:31:46.930
I'd like the news media removed out of this courtroom.
508
00:31:47.490 --> 00:31:49.569
I believe this is nothing but a political trial for
509
00:31:50.089 --> 00:31:52.509
certain people to use as stepping stones for their political
510
00:31:52.549 --> 00:31:53.589
future on me, okay?
511
00:31:55.910 --> 00:32:01.069
Was a very hostile individual. But he was also a
512
00:32:01.089 --> 00:32:07.119
person who liked, and I believe, craved attention. He just
513
00:32:07.140 --> 00:32:08.920
didn't want to have a silent part. He wanted to
514
00:32:08.940 --> 00:32:13.980
have a speaking part in those shows. He'd have statements,
515
00:32:14.019 --> 00:32:17.900
which I'm sure a defense attorney would be aghast at
516
00:32:18.099 --> 00:32:18.519
him doing.
517
00:32:22.589 --> 00:32:24.849
The result in this case was the same as in
518
00:32:24.990 --> 00:32:31.410
all of his other trials. The jury convicted Marion Albert Pruitt, a.k.a.
519
00:32:31.529 --> 00:32:36.049
Charles Sonny Pearson, of first-degree murder. He received a third
520
00:32:36.150 --> 00:32:38.990
life sentence on top of his two death sentences.
521
00:32:40.910 --> 00:32:46.279
When you looked into his eyes, you could see right
522
00:32:46.319 --> 00:32:49.910
through him. It's kind of analogous to sharks. When you
523
00:32:49.950 --> 00:32:52.470
look into their eyes, you just, you see ice.
524
00:33:00.660 --> 00:33:06.099
Marion Pruitt, the self-proclaimed mad dog killer. By 1999, he
525
00:33:06.140 --> 00:33:09.740
had been on death row for 17 years. Just two
526
00:33:09.789 --> 00:33:13.930
weeks before his execution in Arkansas, the 49-year-old gave one
527
00:33:14.069 --> 00:33:19.859
last interview. A Swedish television crew filmed it with a
528
00:33:19.920 --> 00:33:23.859
fisheye lens for a documentary on the last meals of
529
00:33:23.920 --> 00:33:24.839
death row inmates.
530
00:33:26.220 --> 00:33:29.529
Well, let me ask you this. Are you trying to
531
00:33:29.589 --> 00:33:33.109
tie the last meal on death row guys in with
532
00:33:33.130 --> 00:33:34.329
the last supper of Christ?
533
00:33:35.829 --> 00:33:40.630
He was skinny, scrawny, druggy when he did this to
534
00:33:40.670 --> 00:33:43.599
my mom. They said that was his main objective in
535
00:33:43.819 --> 00:33:47.670
jail was his feedings and getting his food and making
536
00:33:47.710 --> 00:33:50.839
sure all of his needs were met. He was absolutely
537
00:33:50.920 --> 00:33:53.039
a blimp by the time they executed him.
538
00:33:54.740 --> 00:33:57.140
It's been so many years since I had junk food
539
00:33:57.259 --> 00:33:59.500
out on the streets. I'm going to order one of
540
00:33:59.519 --> 00:34:02.160
them big Pizza Hut pizzas with the cheese in the ring.
541
00:34:03.759 --> 00:34:07.000
I'm going to order about four big Burger King Whoppers
542
00:34:07.099 --> 00:34:14.000
and French fries and about three big two-liter Pepsi's, a
543
00:34:14.039 --> 00:34:16.530
bucket of ice, a bottle of ketchup, some salt, and
544
00:34:16.550 --> 00:34:19.429
a I want a big plate of eggplants rolled in
545
00:34:19.469 --> 00:34:22.650
cornmeal deep fried and some squash rolled in cornmeal deep
546
00:34:22.710 --> 00:34:25.860
fried and some okra rolled in cornmeal deep fried and
547
00:34:25.880 --> 00:34:28.679
a big pecan pie. And I'm going to eat from,
548
00:34:28.840 --> 00:34:30.679
you say I can do that. I'm going to get
549
00:34:30.699 --> 00:34:32.179
my money's worth by that last meal.
550
00:34:33.360 --> 00:34:36.320
In the years following his killing spree, Pruitt had professed
551
00:34:36.360 --> 00:34:39.710
a belief in God. He had decided to forego his
552
00:34:39.789 --> 00:34:43.889
last set of appeals and let his death sentence proceed unimpeded.
553
00:34:44.889 --> 00:34:45.650
Buddy, I was a devil.
554
00:34:47.590 --> 00:34:50.190
I mean, I wasn't nothing nice. How could I honestly
555
00:34:50.210 --> 00:34:56.550
take a life and say, you can't take mine? I
556
00:34:56.590 --> 00:34:58.829
got no beef whatsoever with mankind.
557
00:34:59.929 --> 00:35:03.840
Pruitt said he accepted his fate and was no longer angry.
558
00:35:04.739 --> 00:35:07.320
But I believe in my heart I should die for
559
00:35:07.380 --> 00:35:10.519
what I've done. I really do. But the last 17 years,
560
00:35:10.539 --> 00:35:12.400
the one thing it's done, it gave me a chance
561
00:35:12.420 --> 00:35:14.719
to receive the Lord and to get to study this
562
00:35:14.780 --> 00:35:17.690
Bible for 14 years. And I'm at peace now, man.
563
00:35:20.059 --> 00:35:23.079
Pruitt had maintained contact with some people on the outside,
564
00:35:23.920 --> 00:35:27.260
including Alice Vick, a friend from New Mexico during the
565
00:35:27.280 --> 00:35:30.809
period when he was in the Witness Protection Program. She
566
00:35:30.849 --> 00:35:34.329
believes Pruitt had a true religious conversion in prison.
567
00:35:34.349 --> 00:35:38.250
They just got mixed up with drugs and it made
568
00:35:38.269 --> 00:35:42.900
him crazy. He did some horrible, horrible things, but like
569
00:35:42.960 --> 00:35:44.820
I told him, if the Lord could forgive him, I
570
00:35:44.900 --> 00:35:45.340
sure could.
571
00:35:47.639 --> 00:35:48.070
And they did.
572
00:35:48.960 --> 00:35:53.360
I know I'm forgiven them, you know. And that's going
573
00:35:53.380 --> 00:35:53.699
to be.
574
00:35:53.619 --> 00:35:54.119
My last words.
575
00:35:55.980 --> 00:36:01.170
Marion Pruitt's execution went forward as planned on April 12, 1999,
576
00:36:01.170 --> 00:36:03.230
in Grady, Arkansas.
577
00:36:04.309 --> 00:36:06.789
All of our family went, even though he wasn't being
578
00:36:06.849 --> 00:36:12.070
executed for my mother's death. We were grateful that he
579
00:36:12.090 --> 00:36:14.500
was going to get just treatment for what it meant
580
00:36:14.739 --> 00:36:19.380
to other people besides her. And just out of support
581
00:36:19.420 --> 00:36:20.760
for them, we wanted to be there.
582
00:36:21.360 --> 00:36:24.960
Pruitt was strapped to the lethal injection gurney. He begged
583
00:36:25.019 --> 00:36:27.940
God and the family members of his victims for forgiveness
584
00:36:28.380 --> 00:36:30.579
before the needle was inserted in his arm.
585
00:36:30.599 --> 00:36:32.039
Okay, it's official.
586
00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:39.889
They administered the lethal injection at 8.04. Pruitt expired at 8.09.
587
00:36:39.889 --> 00:36:43.130
Pruitt's execution closed the book on one of the Federal
588
00:36:43.190 --> 00:36:47.820
Witness Protection Program's worst embarrassments. His brutal crimes had brought
589
00:36:47.920 --> 00:36:49.960
unpleasant publicity to the program.
590
00:36:51.920 --> 00:36:55.860
It's operating on the premise that one criminal is going
591
00:36:55.880 --> 00:37:00.079
to testify against another criminal and tell the truth. Well,
592
00:37:01.099 --> 00:37:05.500
I think experience has shown, as in the case of Pruitt,
593
00:37:07.949 --> 00:37:11.510
that if you offer incentive to a person, he'll testify
594
00:37:11.590 --> 00:37:13.530
to whatever he thinks you want to hear.
595
00:37:14.760 --> 00:37:18.119
Before his execution, Pruitt even told a reporter that his
596
00:37:18.199 --> 00:37:21.099
claim of having witnessed the murder of his cellmate in
597
00:37:21.139 --> 00:37:26.460
the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary back in 1978 was false. That
598
00:37:26.519 --> 00:37:30.440
testimony had earned him his place in the Witness Protection Program.
599
00:37:31.179 --> 00:37:34.780
He now insisted that he was the real murderer. Justice
600
00:37:34.820 --> 00:37:38.280
Department officials denied Pruitt's story, saying it was a lie
601
00:37:38.360 --> 00:37:39.550
spun to get attention.
602
00:37:41.179 --> 00:37:43.610
I think that was Pruitt again trying to strike out
603
00:37:43.670 --> 00:37:46.039
and just hurt. but this time he can't strike with
604
00:37:46.099 --> 00:37:46.340
a gun.
605
00:37:47.539 --> 00:37:50.159
The former director of the program for the Justice Department,
606
00:37:50.280 --> 00:37:53.460
Gerald Shurer, says that Pruitt's killing spree was a sad
607
00:37:53.500 --> 00:37:54.780
but rare aberration.
608
00:37:56.650 --> 00:38:00.469
We had never had this happen before with anyone who
609
00:38:00.510 --> 00:38:03.250
had been in the witness program. The witness program didn't
610
00:38:03.289 --> 00:38:05.989
go wrong in the Pruitt case. Pruitt went wrong in
611
00:38:06.010 --> 00:38:10.139
the Pruitt case. If I saw Pruitt again today, yes,
612
00:38:10.219 --> 00:38:13.090
I would put him in the program in prison. And
613
00:38:13.110 --> 00:38:15.289
I suppose I would be inclined not to put him
614
00:38:15.349 --> 00:38:18.309
in the program when he left prison, but how would
615
00:38:18.329 --> 00:38:21.710
I ever stop him from killing? He was determined to murder.
616
00:38:23.630 --> 00:38:27.739
After Pruitt murdered their son in 1981, Frank Balderson and
617
00:38:27.780 --> 00:38:31.500
his wife Betty started lobbying against the Witness Protection Program.
618
00:38:32.320 --> 00:38:36.719
They testified before a congressional committee demanding that surveillance of
619
00:38:36.900 --> 00:38:42.570
protected criminals be improved. Three years later in 1984, Congress
620
00:38:42.630 --> 00:38:46.570
amended the program. It gave new directives to the Justice Department,
621
00:38:46.869 --> 00:38:49.929
which raised the standards on who would be allowed into
622
00:38:49.949 --> 00:38:55.420
the program. These included mandatory psychological testing of prospective witnesses.
623
00:38:57.039 --> 00:39:01.000
Congress also provided compensation to victims up to $ 50, 000 for
624
00:39:01.179 --> 00:39:05.159
their losses due to the crimes of protected witnesses. Frank
625
00:39:05.179 --> 00:39:13.800
Balderson and his family eventually collected $ 25, 000.
626
00:39:11.940 --> 00:39:16.219
We had to make a claim for him. My wife
627
00:39:16.280 --> 00:39:18.289
wanted to go ahead and make the claim, make him
628
00:39:18.329 --> 00:39:22.090
pay through the nose, so to speak. And our friends
629
00:39:22.210 --> 00:39:24.789
and relatives encouraged us to do that, so I did.
630
00:39:24.849 --> 00:39:28.099
But there's no amount of money that can compensate for
631
00:39:28.139 --> 00:39:28.940
the loss of our son.
632
00:39:31.079 --> 00:39:35.119
The Balderson family is still angry with the Witness Protection Program.
633
00:39:36.059 --> 00:39:38.800
Even some in law enforcement wonder whether the Pruitt case
634
00:39:39.119 --> 00:39:40.190
was handled properly.
635
00:39:41.590 --> 00:39:41.909
I don't know.
636
00:39:41.929 --> 00:39:45.969
I had mixed feelings about it. How many crimes can
637
00:39:46.030 --> 00:39:51.710
a person commit before his true identity is revealed.
638
00:39:51.349 --> 00:39:51.889
To the public.
639
00:39:52.329 --> 00:39:57.989
This program was responsible for making this country significantly safer. Unfortunately,
640
00:39:58.150 --> 00:40:00.769
some of those people entering this program were still going
641
00:40:00.809 --> 00:40:04.050
to commit crime, still going to commit murder, and there
642
00:40:04.090 --> 00:40:07.280
was that one Pruitt that committed so many murders that
643
00:40:07.340 --> 00:40:09.019
sort of rocked us all back on our heels.
