Serial Killer Documentary - Charles ＂Smitty＂ Schmid

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It was Life and Time magazines that turned a local
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story from Tucson, Arizona into a national abomination. Reporters came
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from all over to be sure, but on March 4th, 1966,
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Life printed an ominous photo of the desert landscape where
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three girls had disappeared and the story of Charles Howard
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Schmidt Jr., or Smitty, became international news. He had been
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arrested four months earlier, on November 11, just after marrying
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a 15-year-old girl whom he'd met on a blind date.
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The article was published even before the juries in two
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separate trials had decided his fate. Dubbed the Pied Piper
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of Tucson for his ability to get girls to fall
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for him, he stood 5 feet 4 inches tall, but
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added 3 more inches by padding his stack-heeled cowboy boots
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with rags and tin cans. He also dyed his reddish-brown
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hair black, used pancake makeup, whitened his lips, and applied
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a fake mole to his left cheek. A beauty mark.
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Arrogant and narcissistic, he came from a wealthy family, so
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he used the niceties he could buy to impress young
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high school girls. He adopted the droopy-eyed look associated with Elvis,
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his idol, and acquired a rock musician's mystique. His tiny
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house on his parents' property was the scene of many parties.
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Tucson society was not merely shaken by the murders of
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three of their young women, but by what the details
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of those murders revealed about its adolescent population. Sex clubs,
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drinking parties, blackmail, cover-ups for murder, and even connections with
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the crime underworld. Parents suddenly became more strict, more aware
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now that their kids weren't safe, and maybe weren't even
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behaving properly. When kids looked to someone like Charles Schmidt
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for answers, there was something terribly wrong. Smitty hung around
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the high school, luring girls into his cars. They hung
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out on Speedway, a main drag, and they were easy
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prey for a predator, even one who stumbled around in
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his ridiculous boots. He became something of a folk hero
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to kids who didn't quite fit in, because he was
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older and he knew things. He was strange, but he
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livened things up in a desert town full of retired
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people where nothing much was happening. Smitty made things interesting.
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Even so, it was difficult to figure out just what
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it was that inspired kids to follow his lead. Many
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girls went out with him, and three never returned. There
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are a lot of places to bury a body in
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the desert. Born to an unwed mother on July 8th, 1942,
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the baby boy to be known as Charles Jr., was
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adopted by Charles and Catherine Schmidt, proprietors of a Hillcrest
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nursing home in Tucson, Arizona. Charles spent his childhood around
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Hillcrest and developed into something of a trickster. He was curious, bright, imaginative, courteous,
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and indifferent to others' expectations of him. He took a
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lot of chances and lived dangerously, without much interference from
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his parents. Charles soon grew to hate his foster father,
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and they got into frequent arguments. At school, he raced
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through assignments so he could be the first one done.
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He had little regard for learning. His one fear was
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to be left alone, so he did things to make
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people notice him. In high school, he excelled in gymnastics,
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but most of his grades were just above failing. He
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seemed unable to focus his intelligence to achieve within the
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educational structure. In 1960, he led the school to the
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state gymnastics championship, and then gave up in his senior year.
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He claimed to have had hallucinogenic or psychic power, seeing
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things in his mind before they occurred. For example, he
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could see himself winning, and that helped him to achieve
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things in a shorter amount of time than his peers.
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I'd shut my eyes and everything would seem logical, so
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I'd do it. Just before graduating, Charles stole some tools
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from the machine shop, so he was suspended. He could
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have been readmitted, but he never bothered. I quit, out
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of boredom, he said. By the time he was 16,
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he was living in his own quarters on his parents' property,
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and received an allowance of $ 300 a month. His foster
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parents left him to run on his own, with a
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new car and a motorcycle. He spent much of his
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time on Speedway, picking up girls and drinking with buddies,
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although he tended to be a loner. His nickname was Smitty,
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and he had a way about him that made kids
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feel that life could be exciting. Although he was odd,
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the girls seemed to go for him, and he never
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had much trouble getting a date. He was using makeup
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to darken his skin, and the chapstick he applied was
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so thick it made his lips appear white. One friend noticed...
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that the tiny mole he darkened on his cheek seemed
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to get larger and larger over time. To finish the image,
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Smitty chewed on a toothpick, working it around in his
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mouth as he spoke, and sometimes he put a clothespin
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on his lower lip, presumably to give it a deeper droop.
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Smitty would just tell the dubious parents of any girl
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in whom he was interested that he dyed his hair
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and wore makeup because he was in a rock band.
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He'd act the part of the gentleman quite convincingly, and
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they were often impressed by his courteous manner. The oddest
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thing was his boots. He'd had them special made, according
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to his own design. They were black and laced all
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the way up the back with a tall cowboy heel
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and pointed toes. He would stuff them to make himself taller,
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although he didn't mind exploiting his bantam height to convince
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girls he'd once been crippled. That often made them pliable
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and easy. His best friend was Paul Graff, who was
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sent to the reformatory at Fort Grant Industrial School for
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a hold-up that resulted in a man's death. Paul eventually
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moved in with Smitty. During that time, Smitty was involved
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with several girls, one of whom was married, taking singing
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lessons and practising the guitar. Another Fort Grant graduate who
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Smitty befriended was Richie Bruns. He'd been arrested for breaking probation.
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and once out on his own, spent his time drinking
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and indulging in petty thefts, which landed him for another
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stint at Fort Grant. Smitty met Richie through Paul, and
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the three of them hung out together. When Smitty was 21,
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he found out he was adopted, and his foster mother
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gave him the name of his real mother. When he
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located her, according to his account, she told him,' I
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didn't want you when you were born, or even before
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you were born,' and I don't want you now. Get out.
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She then slammed the door in his face. This treatment
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seemed to affect him, but he kept his feelings mostly
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to himself. At least, that's what he conveyed to Richie.
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It was difficult to tell with a guy like Smitty,
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since many of his stories were calculated to create an
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impression rather than disclose the truth. He often had more
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than one girlfriend at the same time, and even proposed
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marriage to several of them simultaneously, taking money from them
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in return for the promise that he would take care
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of them. He managed to get them into bed by
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telling fantastic stories about how deprived he was, or that
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he had some form of cancer and did not have
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long to live. Often all he had to do was
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tell jokes to make them laugh, and throw in a
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few outrageous compliments. He even used salt to make his
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eyes tear up so he could convince a girl that
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he was overwhelmed by the privilege of being with her.
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Girls were playthings to him, and the way they fell
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for every line, it was no wonder he showed them
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no respect. He once even told a girl that he
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had murdered a young man who had killed his girlfriend
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in a car accident, cut off his hands and buried
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him in the desert. Little did he know how this
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tall story foreshadowed what he was about to do and
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there was some doubt later that he'd actually made it up.
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He once claimed four murders, which indicated that this might
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have been the first. What seemed to intrigue people most
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about Smitty, girls and boys alike, was his freedom. He
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did whatever he wanted, and his daredevil ways made him
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seem larger than life. At least, he thought so. Most
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of what he did had exhibitionist qualities designed to make
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people notice him, and possibly even to try to stop
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him from putting himself in danger. But the activities that
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most appealed to him, such as motorcycle racing and skydiving,
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were those that pushed him right into death's face. I
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truly wish I could have been a great surgeon, he
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once said, or philosopher or author or anything constructive. However,
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he could never quite focus on anything but loud music
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and animal passion with a hint of cruelty. To him,
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those activities were just more sensible. Or perhaps they were
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just easier. In any event, with girls falling into line
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and even fighting over him, why apply himself to anything else?
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She was 15 on that ominous night of May 31st, 1964.
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Aline was only a sophomore at Palo Verde. and she
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unfortunately befriended frumpy 19-year-old Mary French, a friend and lover
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of Charles Schmidt. Alain's mother, freshly divorced, moved her children
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to Tucson the year before. One of Alain's favourite things
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to do was walk in the desert, gathering unusual stones.
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She liked the hot sun because it made her feel alive.
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Her hope was to become an oceanographer, and with her
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above-average grades, she had a shot. Blonde and blue-eyed, Aline
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attracted Schmidt's attention. One afternoon, he told Mary French to
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persuade Aline to go out with his friend, John Saunders.
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Aline turned down the invitation, but Schmidt was not to
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be refused. He called Mary half a dozen times that
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day to get her to talk Aline into the date.
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Each time Aline said that she could not go, she
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had an exam the next morning at school. Schmid arrived
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that evening at Mary's house with Saunders at his side. Earlier,
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he'd been talking about killing someone, specifically a girl. He
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just wanted to find out what it would be like
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to snuff out a life and to see if he
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could get away with it, as he seemed to do
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with everything else. He made up a list of potential candidates,
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and Aline Rowe was one of them. His plan was
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to lure her into a desolate place, hit her with
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a rock, and bury her in the desert. Rather than
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try to dissuade him, Mary simply complained that she tried
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and failed to get Aline to come. Schmid instructed her
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to then find someone else. He was restless. He wanted
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to kill someone, now, that very night. She tried but
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found no one, so she went to where Aline was
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visiting a friend and talked with her once again. Finally,
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Aline relented, but said she would have to wait until
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her mother went to work that night. When Mary reported
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her success, John and Smitty got a shovel and put
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it into the trunk of the car. They drove around
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until they knew that Alain's mother was gone, and Mary
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went over to tap on her bedroom window. She came
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out barefoot, with curlers in her hair, wearing a bathing
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suit and a yellow checked shift, and carrying her shoes.
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Mary sat with Smitty in front, while Aline climbed in
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next to John in the back. They drove out to
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the desert, out by Gulf Links Road, where Smitty liked
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to drink and make out. They walked for a while
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into the desert, and then found a wash where they
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could sit and talk. At some point, Smitty asked Mary
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to go back to the car and get a radio.
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He went with her, and soon they heard Aline scream.
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Smitty told Mary to get into the car while he
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ran back down to the wash. John was struggling there
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with Aline, and Smitty told him to put his hand
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over her mouth. Smitty bound her arms behind her back
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with a guitar chord, while Aline begged to be told
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why they were doing this to her. Mary wants us
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to do this, Smitty told her. She hates you. Aline
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continued to resist, so Smitty led her further into the wash.
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He instructed John to take her bathing suit off, but
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John had trouble getting it over her arms, since they
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were tied. Smitty untied her, put her shift on the
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ground and told her to lie on it. She obeyed,
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and Smitty then told John to go ahead, but she
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was crying so much that he couldn't kiss her. Smitty
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told John to take a walk. Then Smitty called for him,
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and he returned to find Aline putting her bathing suit
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back on. She walked away, further into the wash. The
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two young men followed her. Smitty picked up a rock
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with a pointed edge and handed it to John. He
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gave it back, unable to go through with the plan.
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Smitty insisted that he return to the car and get Mary,
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but Mary refused to go anywhere. So John went back
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to find Smitty. When he returned, he saw Aline lying
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on her back on the ground, her face and head
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covered in blood. Smitty's hands were bloody as well, and
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blood covered the front of his shirt. He wanted to
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know where Mary was, and when John told him, he
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went to the car and told her, we killed her.
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He also added, I love you very much. Mary recalled
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later that he seemed to be very excited. Then he
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got the shovel, told Mary that John was the one
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who had struck Aline with the rock, and got her
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to accompany him back to the murder site. She saw
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Aline and could not detect any signs that the girl
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was still alive. Smitty gave John the shovel and used
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his hands to start digging a grave. Mary joined in.
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00:15:22.769 --> 00:15:26.409
Smitty then took Aline's hands and instructed Mary to lift
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her by the feet while they lowered her into the
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00:15:29.049 --> 00:15:32.730
shallow pit they had opened. They dumped her dress into
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the grave, covered the body with sand, and tossed sand
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00:15:36.580 --> 00:15:39.899
over the hair curlers. Smitty then took off his shirt
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00:15:40.320 --> 00:15:42.840
and buried it in the sand, along with the shovel.
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After they felt they secured the scene and covered all
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the evidence, they went back to the car to wipe
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00:15:49.399 --> 00:15:53.539
it clean of prints. They invented a story that Aline
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00:15:53.580 --> 00:15:56.299
agreed to go out with John that evening, but when
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00:15:56.320 --> 00:15:59.039
they drove by to pick her up, she was not home.
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00:15:59.639 --> 00:16:03.279
Then they dropped Mary off and went their way. The
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00:16:03.320 --> 00:16:07.440
next day, Norma Rowe, Aline's mother, made every effort to
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00:16:07.480 --> 00:16:11.620
locate her, and finally contacted the police. She worked as
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00:16:11.659 --> 00:16:15.019
a night nurse, she said, and when she left, Aline
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00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:18.590
was in her bed. The next morning, she was gone,
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00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:22.279
without taking her purse or any clothing except the bathing
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00:16:22.330 --> 00:16:26.590
suit she was wearing, and a yellow shift. Norma told
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00:16:26.629 --> 00:16:29.269
them about a sex club at the high school that
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00:16:29.309 --> 00:16:32.389
her daughter described to her, in which young people were
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involved with drugs, perversions, and organised prostitution. The officer in
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00:16:38.159 --> 00:16:40.549
charge said that this was one of the most far-fetched
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00:16:40.629 --> 00:16:43.710
tales he'd ever heard, and did not take it seriously.
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An investigation failed to disclose any sign of such activities.
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00:16:49.509 --> 00:16:54.139
Mary French was questioned, along with Smitty and John. Smitty
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00:16:54.200 --> 00:16:56.820
took the other two out and made them repeat the
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00:16:56.879 --> 00:16:59.860
story they concocted, to be sure that no one gave
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them away by some slip-up. A week later, Aline's father
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00:17:04.140 --> 00:17:06.690
called Norma to tell her that he dreamed that their
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00:17:06.730 --> 00:17:10.589
daughter was murdered and left in the desert. Norma felt
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00:17:10.630 --> 00:17:13.589
there was truth in the dream, and she dogged the police,
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00:17:13.910 --> 00:17:16.710
who insisted on better evidence before they went looking in
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00:17:16.769 --> 00:17:20.779
such a vast area. By March, when nothing turned up,
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00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:24.920
Norma Rowe went to Arizona's Attorney General and the FBI.
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00:17:25.599 --> 00:17:28.430
She also called in reporters, and would not give up,
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00:17:28.900 --> 00:17:32.720
despite official sentiment that Aline was just another teenage runaway.
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00:17:33.890 --> 00:17:37.190
Norma even consulted a psychic, but nothing came of it.
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And the case of Aline Rowe was soon buried by
275
00:17:41.470 --> 00:17:46.450
the police under other, more pressing concerns. John Saunders, who
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00:17:46.490 --> 00:17:49.789
left Tucson to join the Navy, was replaced by Richie
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00:17:49.849 --> 00:17:55.319
Bruns as Smitty's closest friend. Paul Graff was gone as well,
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00:17:55.660 --> 00:17:59.180
but would be back for a short stay. Richie told
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00:17:59.279 --> 00:18:02.950
Smitty everything, began to imitate the way he dressed. and
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00:18:03.009 --> 00:18:06.250
felt they were like brothers. He served two terms in
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00:18:06.269 --> 00:18:09.369
the reformatory at Fort Grant, got only as far as
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00:18:09.430 --> 00:18:13.849
the 10th grade, and was generally a misfit. All four
283
00:18:13.910 --> 00:18:17.329
girls he dated dropped him because he was socially inept.
284
00:18:18.299 --> 00:18:21.130
He looked up to Smitty, and Smitty allowed him in
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00:18:21.230 --> 00:18:25.059
on his activities. He even told Ritchie about Alain Rowe,
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00:18:25.660 --> 00:18:28.720
but Ritchie was used to Smitty's stories and did not
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00:18:28.779 --> 00:18:34.759
believe him. In July of 1964, Smitty noticed a 16-year-old
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00:18:34.839 --> 00:18:38.279
girl at a swimming pool near Speedway. She was blonde
289
00:18:38.519 --> 00:18:41.099
and thin, the way he liked, and her name was
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00:18:41.160 --> 00:18:45.400
Gretchen Fritz. Other boys told Smitty she was trouble for
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00:18:45.460 --> 00:18:48.349
anyone who got involved with her, but that only interested
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00:18:48.410 --> 00:18:51.910
him more. The day he saw her, he followed her
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00:18:51.970 --> 00:18:54.869
home and saw that she lived in an upper-class neighbourhood,
294
00:18:55.650 --> 00:18:59.450
in what seemed to him a mansion. Her father was
295
00:18:59.490 --> 00:19:02.869
a physician, a heart and chest specialist, and a board
296
00:19:02.930 --> 00:19:06.470
member of the Union Bank. Gretchen was a misfit in
297
00:19:06.509 --> 00:19:11.380
this family, with odd ideas. She scorned boys, she told
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00:19:11.440 --> 00:19:15.039
a friend, and admired prostitutes for their ability to charge
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00:19:15.099 --> 00:19:19.019
for what boys expected for free. One teacher called her
300
00:19:19.059 --> 00:19:23.049
a psychopathic liar. The headmaster at her private school recommended
301
00:19:23.109 --> 00:19:26.930
psychiatric treatment before suspending her, and a friend noted that
302
00:19:26.970 --> 00:19:31.690
she seemed psychotically jealous. She often cut classes to cruise
303
00:19:31.710 --> 00:19:36.700
the speedway, and was suspected in some minor crimes. Smitty
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00:19:36.740 --> 00:19:38.700
met her by going up to her house with a
305
00:19:38.740 --> 00:19:41.220
load of pots and pans, as if he were a
306
00:19:41.299 --> 00:19:45.849
travelling salesman. After playing out his act, he confessed that
307
00:19:45.890 --> 00:19:48.150
it was all a lie that he concocted in order
308
00:19:48.190 --> 00:19:52.099
to meet her. She laughed, then cried, and then offered
309
00:19:52.140 --> 00:19:56.680
him a cocktail. He was thoroughly confused but also aroused.
310
00:19:57.400 --> 00:20:01.750
It was the start of a fatal attraction. As they
311
00:20:01.789 --> 00:20:05.190
got to know each other, Gretchen told Smitty that she
312
00:20:05.230 --> 00:20:09.650
was pregnant, her family did not love her, and her brother-in-law,
313
00:20:10.039 --> 00:20:14.420
was involved in the mafia. After they had sex, Gretchen
314
00:20:14.460 --> 00:20:18.019
assumed Smitty would leave her, but he told her he
315
00:20:18.099 --> 00:20:21.730
loved her. They started hanging out together as a couple,
316
00:20:22.170 --> 00:20:26.529
although Smitty also gave Mary French and another girl, Darlene Kirk,
317
00:20:26.910 --> 00:20:31.089
cheap engagement rings. He'd made each a false promise of marriage,
318
00:20:31.569 --> 00:20:33.789
although he really just wanted them to work and put
319
00:20:33.829 --> 00:20:37.400
their money in a bank account for his use. Darlene
320
00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:41.880
eventually gave the ring back, but she attracted Richie's devoted attention.
321
00:20:42.920 --> 00:20:46.609
Gretchen and Smitty often quarreled about other girls he was seeing,
322
00:20:47.109 --> 00:20:49.670
and she did not get along with Richie, so after
323
00:20:49.730 --> 00:20:52.450
some time, he decided to break it off with her.
324
00:20:53.289 --> 00:20:58.650
He tried several times, and failed. Richie asked him why
325
00:20:58.710 --> 00:21:01.240
he was letting this girl get to him, when no
326
00:21:01.359 --> 00:21:04.980
one ever got to him before. Smitty admitted that she
327
00:21:05.019 --> 00:21:07.960
was in on the same secret that Ritchie was, the
328
00:21:08.019 --> 00:21:13.019
murder of Aline Rowe. She also stole his diary, which
329
00:21:13.079 --> 00:21:17.099
contained a description of killing a 16-year-old boy and burying
330
00:21:17.160 --> 00:21:20.259
him in the desert. She was holding this over his head,
331
00:21:20.700 --> 00:21:24.029
and it was beginning to annoy him. He pondered out
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00:21:24.089 --> 00:21:26.710
loud ways of hurting her, one of which was to
333
00:21:26.750 --> 00:21:30.180
get Ritchie to throw acid in her face. He reneged
334
00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:32.660
on that plan when he surmised that he might not
335
00:21:32.700 --> 00:21:36.579
be attracted to her any longer. However, Gretchen heard about
336
00:21:36.680 --> 00:21:41.369
one of Smitty's engagements, which made her furious. He knew
337
00:21:41.420 --> 00:21:45.190
he had to do something about it. When Gretchen went
338
00:21:45.250 --> 00:21:48.769
on vacation with her parents, the heat was off, and
339
00:21:48.890 --> 00:21:53.569
Smitty threw a series of wild parties. Then Gretchen showed up,
340
00:21:54.029 --> 00:21:56.750
yelling at him, and Mary French came over and demanded
341
00:21:56.789 --> 00:21:59.220
he marry her and be a proper father to the
342
00:21:59.259 --> 00:22:03.029
baby she was going to have. Then Gretchen too claimed
343
00:22:03.069 --> 00:22:06.210
to be pregnant, and wanted to know what Smitty planned
344
00:22:06.250 --> 00:22:10.009
to do about it. They argued, but later she insisted
345
00:22:10.049 --> 00:22:14.170
they run away together and elope. Smitty was not keen
346
00:22:14.250 --> 00:22:18.720
on that, so Gretchen took off, yelling back, Smitty you rat!
347
00:22:20.059 --> 00:22:22.299
That evening, August 16th, 1965, Gretchen left the house at 7.30pm,
348
00:22:26.099 --> 00:22:29.920
with her 13-year-old sister, Wendy, to go see Elvis Presley
349
00:22:30.259 --> 00:22:35.250
in Tickle Me. They didn't come home. Dr Fritz hired
350
00:22:35.289 --> 00:22:39.430
a private detective, William Hellig, who turned up Gretchen's red
351
00:22:39.490 --> 00:22:43.410
and white Pontiac Le Mans, parked behind the Flamingo Hotel,
352
00:22:43.930 --> 00:22:48.039
near Speedway. There were traces of gravel and mud on
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00:22:48.079 --> 00:22:51.440
the floor of the back and front seats, and 60
354
00:22:51.440 --> 00:22:55.460
extra miles showed on the speedometer, although it had been disconnected.
355
00:22:56.549 --> 00:23:00.309
Gretchen's purse was in it, with $ 20 ticket stubs from
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00:23:00.329 --> 00:23:03.670
the movie, her keys, and Smitty's business card from a
357
00:23:03.750 --> 00:23:08.490
failed upholstery business he started. However, no one had seen
358
00:23:08.539 --> 00:23:12.039
the car being parked, and Helig found no other leads.
359
00:23:13.420 --> 00:23:15.759
Gretchen and Wendy were seen at the movie at the
360
00:23:15.819 --> 00:23:19.559
Cactus Drive-In, and a friend told Gretchen that Smitty was
361
00:23:19.619 --> 00:23:23.380
throwing a party. The police received a report of two
362
00:23:23.440 --> 00:23:26.680
girls who fit the description of the missing sisters hitchhiking
363
00:23:27.160 --> 00:23:30.400
on the road to Nogales. They were picked up by
364
00:23:30.440 --> 00:23:34.480
a car heading toward Mexico, and in Mexico several people
365
00:23:34.599 --> 00:23:38.460
swore the girls boarded a bus bound for Hermosillo. A
366
00:23:38.549 --> 00:23:42.430
search into the heart of Mexico through several tourist towns,
367
00:23:42.849 --> 00:23:46.190
where two girls reportedly were spotted, failed to turn up
368
00:23:46.250 --> 00:23:50.980
anything solid. Finally, the police gave up. and listed them
369
00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:55.829
as runaways. Ritchie Bruns believed that was the most likely scenario,
370
00:23:56.240 --> 00:24:00.069
until Smitty later told him the truth about the Fritz sisters.
371
00:24:01.509 --> 00:24:06.049
Both Ritchie and Smitty were questioned relentlessly by William Hellig.
372
00:24:06.569 --> 00:24:09.019
He believed that Schmidt knew more than he was telling,
373
00:24:09.470 --> 00:24:14.220
and it seemed that he did. Initially, Smitty told Ritchie
374
00:24:14.259 --> 00:24:17.220
that the girls drove off in Gretchen's car to run away.
375
00:24:18.359 --> 00:24:21.400
Richie saw the car drive by his house around midnight
376
00:24:21.500 --> 00:24:24.829
on the night they disappeared. He'd given it no more thought,
377
00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:28.529
glad to have Gretchen gone, until he dropped over to
378
00:24:28.589 --> 00:24:33.390
Smitty's one day. Smitty calmly mentioned that he supposed that
379
00:24:33.470 --> 00:24:38.339
Richie knew what happened to Gretchen. Richie said, no, he didn't.
380
00:24:39.299 --> 00:24:42.819
So Smitty admitted that he killed both girls himself, right
381
00:24:42.880 --> 00:24:45.730
there in his house where they were sitting. This was
382
00:24:45.769 --> 00:24:48.170
not the first time that Ritchie heard such a thing
383
00:24:48.250 --> 00:24:52.069
from his buddy. Smitty once talked about killing Aline Rowe
384
00:24:52.150 --> 00:24:56.150
with John Saunders. Ritchie didn't really believe that story, since
385
00:24:56.190 --> 00:24:58.009
he was used to the two of them making up
386
00:24:58.089 --> 00:25:02.509
tales to outdo each other's badness. But Smitty was serious.
387
00:25:03.049 --> 00:25:05.390
He strangled them both and put their bodies in the
388
00:25:05.430 --> 00:25:07.880
trunk of the car and left them out in an
389
00:25:08.019 --> 00:25:12.119
obvious place, because he just didn't care any longer. But
390
00:25:12.140 --> 00:25:16.890
he did add, each time it gets easier, It's likely
391
00:25:16.930 --> 00:25:20.180
that those murders, too, would have gone undiscovered if it
392
00:25:20.220 --> 00:25:23.319
wasn't for an incident that shook Ritchie up, which led
393
00:25:23.380 --> 00:25:26.440
to the further unhinging of his mind and an increased
394
00:25:26.539 --> 00:25:31.359
paranoia about Schmidt's psychopathy. One day, a group of men
395
00:25:31.420 --> 00:25:35.119
known as the Tucson Mafia paid a visit. They put
396
00:25:35.200 --> 00:25:37.619
pressure on Smitty and Ritchie to tell them about the
397
00:25:37.660 --> 00:25:41.579
missing girls. Since Smitty told the detective that he thought
398
00:25:41.619 --> 00:25:44.829
Gretchen ran away to San Diego, they were prepared to
399
00:25:44.900 --> 00:25:48.210
take him there to search. they advised him to be ready.
400
00:25:49.069 --> 00:25:50.789
They picked him up and took him to meet a
401
00:25:50.829 --> 00:25:56.049
man he called Charles Batts Battaglia. They then insisted on
402
00:25:56.130 --> 00:25:59.960
questioning Ritchie, who was afraid they found the bodies. He
403
00:26:00.039 --> 00:26:02.500
too was taken to meet a group of men, and
404
00:26:02.519 --> 00:26:04.779
then dropped back off to think about what was said.
405
00:26:06.380 --> 00:26:09.599
Ritchie said they should call Paul Graff, who advised Smitty
406
00:26:09.619 --> 00:26:14.359
to call the FBI. Which he did, oddly enough. When
407
00:26:14.380 --> 00:26:16.400
he failed to get through to someone to whom he
408
00:26:16.440 --> 00:26:19.740
could speak, he suggested they go bury the bodies to
409
00:26:19.779 --> 00:26:23.680
make sure no one found them. Ritchie still did not
410
00:26:23.759 --> 00:26:27.730
take him seriously, but accompanied him to a former drinking spot.
411
00:26:28.430 --> 00:26:33.230
Smitty got out, grabbed a shovel, and walked around. Then
412
00:26:33.349 --> 00:26:36.650
he called Ritchie over. By that time, Ritchie knew from
413
00:26:36.690 --> 00:26:39.619
the smell that there was indeed a body out there.
414
00:26:40.819 --> 00:26:43.279
He went to where Smitty was kneeling over a black
415
00:26:43.400 --> 00:26:46.440
form lying out in the open, and was told that
416
00:26:46.460 --> 00:26:50.660
this was Gretchen. She was badly decomposed, and her legs
417
00:26:50.720 --> 00:26:54.640
were tied together with a rag. Wendy was not far away,
418
00:26:55.059 --> 00:26:57.519
but all Richie could make out was a black mound
419
00:26:57.579 --> 00:27:00.039
with part of a leg and foot sticking up out
420
00:27:00.079 --> 00:27:05.000
of the sand. Richie reluctantly dug a shallow hole, while
421
00:27:05.079 --> 00:27:09.200
Smitty dragged Gretchen's body further down the wash. They buried it.
422
00:27:09.849 --> 00:27:14.150
but left Wendy's corpse where it lay. Then Smitty told
423
00:27:14.230 --> 00:27:17.049
Ritchie to wipe off Gretchen's shoe to clean it of prints,
424
00:27:17.529 --> 00:27:20.630
so Ritchie did that. He then removed the shoe from
425
00:27:20.670 --> 00:27:25.099
Wendy's leg and threw it into the desert. Smitty told
426
00:27:25.150 --> 00:27:28.130
him he was in it now as deeply as Smitty was.
427
00:27:29.440 --> 00:27:32.660
The next day they discovered that the FBI visited Smitty's
428
00:27:32.740 --> 00:27:36.259
parents and left. Then the mafia took him to San
429
00:27:36.339 --> 00:27:40.059
Diego where he attempted without success to contact a boy
430
00:27:40.099 --> 00:27:44.440
that Gretchen mentioned meeting. He showed photos of Gretchen around
431
00:27:44.480 --> 00:27:47.799
the beach, playing out the facade, but was arrested for
432
00:27:47.859 --> 00:27:52.180
impersonating an FBI agent. His mother rescued him, and he
433
00:27:52.220 --> 00:27:56.779
went home. However, he was not home free. Ritchie got
434
00:27:56.819 --> 00:28:00.230
the idea that a girl he liked, Darlene Kirk, one
435
00:28:00.250 --> 00:28:04.589
of Smitty's cast-offs, was on Smitty's hit list. He began
436
00:28:04.650 --> 00:28:07.519
to patrol her house to protect her. and to keep
437
00:28:07.640 --> 00:28:11.220
other boys from approaching her. When the screen door was cut,
438
00:28:11.579 --> 00:28:16.619
her father suspected him, but he suspected Smitty. He hung
439
00:28:16.740 --> 00:28:20.339
out at all hours, even hiding in trash cans, until
440
00:28:20.400 --> 00:28:24.819
people began to be afraid of him. Darlene's father tried
441
00:28:24.859 --> 00:28:27.180
to run him off with an air rifle, but he
442
00:28:27.240 --> 00:28:30.400
told the man to go ahead and shoot. It would
443
00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:35.099
end his sufferings. Around this time, Smitty went out with
444
00:28:35.140 --> 00:28:39.140
a 15-year-old girl named Diane Lynch, who weighed all of
445
00:28:39.140 --> 00:28:44.440
87 pounds. Smitty took one look at her and decided
446
00:28:44.519 --> 00:28:49.779
she was just my size. For her part, Diane fell
447
00:28:49.819 --> 00:28:53.680
in love. On their first date, Smitty asked her to
448
00:28:53.720 --> 00:28:58.319
marry him, and she said, OK. He took to wearing
449
00:28:58.380 --> 00:29:01.880
a plaster patch on his nose, claiming he'd broken it.
450
00:29:02.900 --> 00:29:05.599
He was still wearing it, along with his make-up and
451
00:29:05.680 --> 00:29:10.009
fake mole, when he married Diane in Nogales on October 24th, 1965.
452
00:29:10.009 --> 00:29:16.130
Ritchie couldn't believe that Smitty just forgot all about the
453
00:29:16.170 --> 00:29:20.750
dead girls. His own guilt manifested in an increasingly bizarre
454
00:29:20.789 --> 00:29:25.029
mania to watch over Darlene. When he made some threats,
455
00:29:25.450 --> 00:29:28.170
he was arrested and sentenced to leave town for three
456
00:29:28.210 --> 00:29:31.359
months in the hope that he would get over his infatuation.
457
00:29:32.640 --> 00:29:35.299
He went to live with his grandmother in Ohio, where
458
00:29:35.319 --> 00:29:39.440
he quickly broke down and confessed everything. The Tucson police
459
00:29:40.019 --> 00:29:42.539
flew him back to show them the location of the bodies.
460
00:29:43.859 --> 00:29:47.140
He told them about John Saunders and Mary French as well.
461
00:29:47.869 --> 00:29:50.970
They found the skeletal remains of the Fritz sisters, bits
462
00:29:51.029 --> 00:29:55.589
of clothing, a shoe and wisps of hair. It was
463
00:29:55.670 --> 00:30:00.190
time now to confront the killer. Smitty was working in
464
00:30:00.230 --> 00:30:03.430
the front yard of his house on November 10 when
465
00:30:03.450 --> 00:30:06.809
the cops came up to arrest him. He thought at
466
00:30:06.890 --> 00:30:09.109
first that the men in the car that was slowly
467
00:30:09.210 --> 00:30:13.269
circling his block were the mafia. He went inside and
468
00:30:13.289 --> 00:30:15.750
they came in after him. As they took him out
469
00:30:15.809 --> 00:30:18.450
his front door, he called to his young wife to
470
00:30:18.490 --> 00:30:22.410
get his mother. Catherine Schmidt would take care of this.
471
00:30:23.569 --> 00:30:26.579
One officer returned to the house to search it, but
472
00:30:26.650 --> 00:30:31.450
Smitty's mother blocked him. and demanded a warrant. Then she
473
00:30:31.490 --> 00:30:35.750
called a lawyer. Back at the police station, Smitty heard
474
00:30:35.769 --> 00:30:39.569
the tapes of Ritchie spilling the beans. They brought Ritchie
475
00:30:39.609 --> 00:30:41.950
into the room in the hope that having him confront
476
00:30:42.039 --> 00:30:46.059
Smitty would get a confession. The two young men glared
477
00:30:46.099 --> 00:30:49.440
at each other, and Smitty said, I know why you're
478
00:30:49.480 --> 00:30:54.779
doing this. Nevertheless, Smitty protested his innocence and said he
479
00:30:54.819 --> 00:30:58.259
would prove it at the trial. They booked him for
480
00:30:58.319 --> 00:31:02.099
two murders. At the booking, they asked him to remove
481
00:31:02.160 --> 00:31:05.319
his boots. He was reluctant to do so, and when
482
00:31:05.380 --> 00:31:09.680
he did, he was several inches shorter. Photographers from the
483
00:31:09.740 --> 00:31:13.269
press crowded in, and he sat down, refusing to stand
484
00:31:13.329 --> 00:31:17.250
for them. The contents of the boots filled two shoeboxes
485
00:31:17.289 --> 00:31:21.369
with folded-up rags, flattened beer cans covered with more rags,
486
00:31:21.809 --> 00:31:25.869
and pieces of cardboard. Smitty was held without bail until
487
00:31:25.910 --> 00:31:29.670
the hearings. set for December 13. The police got a
488
00:31:29.710 --> 00:31:33.369
warrant to search Smitty's house, looking for a guitar without
489
00:31:33.410 --> 00:31:37.589
a string, which they did not find. Then one officer
490
00:31:37.690 --> 00:31:40.789
flew to Connecticut to pick up John Saunders, and another
491
00:31:40.829 --> 00:31:44.569
went to Texas to get Mary French. After she was
492
00:31:44.650 --> 00:31:48.250
told that Smitty had married, she gave a detailed statement.
493
00:31:49.309 --> 00:31:53.170
Saunders too confessed, but maintained that Schmid had done the
494
00:31:53.269 --> 00:31:57.410
actual killing. When taken to the murder location, he was
495
00:31:57.490 --> 00:32:01.950
unable to locate the grave. Likewise, Mary could not help,
496
00:32:02.559 --> 00:32:06.440
although the search turned up two rusty hair curlers. Norma
497
00:32:06.460 --> 00:32:10.940
Rowe identified them as belonging to her daughter. An intensive
498
00:32:11.019 --> 00:32:14.720
search was begun, including a crew of high school students.
499
00:32:15.420 --> 00:32:18.579
The area was dug up every which way, but to
500
00:32:18.640 --> 00:32:23.400
no avail. Sheriff Burr believed that a hurricane in September
501
00:32:23.440 --> 00:32:27.049
of 1964 might have washed the bones to another location.
502
00:32:28.210 --> 00:32:32.150
County Attorney Norman Green said that he would proceed with
503
00:32:32.170 --> 00:32:35.470
or without a body. There was precedent, and he would
504
00:32:35.509 --> 00:32:40.589
exploit it. At the preliminary hearing, Saunders pleaded guilty to
505
00:32:40.650 --> 00:32:45.309
first-degree murder. Mary French agreed to plead to lesser charges,
506
00:32:45.769 --> 00:32:48.549
and both were to testify for the state against Schmidt.
507
00:32:49.710 --> 00:32:53.460
On November 30th, Smitty was bound over for trial in
508
00:32:53.519 --> 00:32:58.190
Superior Court. John Saunders was sentenced a week later to
509
00:32:58.250 --> 00:33:03.519
life in prison, eligible for parole in seven years. Mary
510
00:33:03.579 --> 00:33:07.140
French was charged as an accessory to murder, and with
511
00:33:07.200 --> 00:33:11.680
concealing and compounding a felony. She would be eligible for
512
00:33:11.740 --> 00:33:15.980
parole in four to five years. Schmidt's trial for the
513
00:33:16.039 --> 00:33:22.269
murders of Gretchen and Wendy Fritz was scheduled for February 15th, 1966,
514
00:33:22.509 --> 00:33:25.400
and the state would go for the death penalty. He
515
00:33:25.440 --> 00:33:28.039
would stand trial for the murder of Aline Rowe on
516
00:33:28.099 --> 00:33:33.329
March 15, also a death penalty case. Smitty arrived at
517
00:33:33.369 --> 00:33:39.589
the Pima County Courthouse on Tuesday, February 15, 1966, wearing
518
00:33:39.630 --> 00:33:45.660
a herringbone jacket and tan trousers. He actually looked fairly clean-cut,
519
00:33:46.079 --> 00:33:48.299
and some of the people who saw him remarked how
520
00:33:48.420 --> 00:33:53.559
small he was. William Tinney represented him. Tinney made a
521
00:33:53.599 --> 00:33:57.619
motion to exclude the press, which was denied, so reporters
522
00:33:57.700 --> 00:34:03.059
filled the courtroom. William Schaeffer III was chosen to prosecute,
523
00:34:03.519 --> 00:34:08.280
with the Honourable Lee Garrett presiding. The proceedings got off
524
00:34:08.300 --> 00:34:11.719
to a bad start when the elderly judge misstated that
525
00:34:11.760 --> 00:34:15.469
the defendant entered a plea of guilty. When he saw
526
00:34:15.510 --> 00:34:18.969
the looks that everyone gave him, he hastily corrected himself.
527
00:34:20.050 --> 00:34:23.849
Tinney's first move, with the jury dismissed, was to request
528
00:34:23.929 --> 00:34:26.929
a psychologist to come and prove that the jury had
529
00:34:26.989 --> 00:34:32.780
been subconsciously influenced by pre-trial publicity. Lee Bailey had a
530
00:34:32.820 --> 00:34:36.260
case pending before the Supreme Court on that very issue.
531
00:34:37.380 --> 00:34:40.739
The judge allowed it, but then dismissed psychiatry as a
532
00:34:40.800 --> 00:34:43.739
science and refused to postpone the trial for a year,
533
00:34:44.179 --> 00:34:49.079
as Tinney requested. The jury was then brought in. Thirty
534
00:34:49.119 --> 00:34:52.489
witnesses were to testify on the state's behalf, to prove
535
00:34:52.590 --> 00:34:56.710
premeditation in two murders to cover up a prior murder.
536
00:34:57.469 --> 00:35:00.269
That is, they would use a case in which Smitty
537
00:35:00.289 --> 00:35:02.789
had yet to be tried as a foundation to try
538
00:35:02.829 --> 00:35:06.809
him in the case at hand. Schaefer then outlined what
539
00:35:06.849 --> 00:35:10.309
he believed happened, pretty much the way Ritchie related it
540
00:35:10.349 --> 00:35:14.230
to him. Tinney turned it around by pointing the finger
541
00:35:14.289 --> 00:35:17.110
at Ritchie, as the one with the motive and the
542
00:35:17.239 --> 00:35:20.159
one who did the bloody deed. then blamed it on
543
00:35:20.179 --> 00:35:23.900
his best friend to get himself off the hook. Nancy
544
00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:28.010
Fritz identified her daughter's articles of clothing found in the desert,
545
00:35:28.550 --> 00:35:33.329
and then described Gretchen's relationship with Smitty as courteousness. She
546
00:35:33.409 --> 00:35:38.949
added that Gretchen disliked Ritchie. Detectives testified that they found
547
00:35:39.010 --> 00:35:41.869
a guitar chord in the desert, near the jawbone of
548
00:35:42.050 --> 00:35:45.630
one's skull, but there was no police photograph to support it.
549
00:35:46.309 --> 00:35:49.699
The corpse was too mummified, to determine cause of death.
550
00:35:51.179 --> 00:35:54.570
They found Smitty's guitar at a pawn shop, but could
551
00:35:54.610 --> 00:35:57.690
not determine if the chord they found was definitely from
552
00:35:57.730 --> 00:36:02.630
that instrument. A girl who knew Smitty, Irma Jean Holt,
553
00:36:03.449 --> 00:36:06.489
testified that she once asked him why he jumped whenever
554
00:36:06.530 --> 00:36:10.150
Gretchen wanted something, and he told her that Gretchen took
555
00:36:10.190 --> 00:36:13.730
his diary, which contained information about a boy he killed
556
00:36:13.769 --> 00:36:16.969
in the desert, for involving one of his former girlfriends
557
00:36:17.420 --> 00:36:21.539
in a fatal car accident. He also told Irma Jean
558
00:36:21.599 --> 00:36:25.780
that he hated Gretchen. When John Saunders came to the stand,
559
00:36:26.179 --> 00:36:29.460
he pleaded the Fifth Amendment to every question, which Tinney
560
00:36:29.519 --> 00:36:34.139
claimed was prejudicial in front of the jury. Saunders was removed.
561
00:36:35.179 --> 00:36:40.190
Mary French was next. Tinney objected to her presence, since
562
00:36:40.210 --> 00:36:42.590
she could only testify about a crime for which there
563
00:36:42.630 --> 00:36:46.679
was no body, but he was overruled. she gave an
564
00:36:46.739 --> 00:36:50.570
account of the murder of Aline Rowe. Tinney brought out
565
00:36:50.610 --> 00:36:53.889
that Mary was jealous of Gretchen and angry at Smitty.
566
00:36:54.949 --> 00:36:58.030
Paul Graff, who was brought from New Orleans as a
567
00:36:58.090 --> 00:37:01.739
hostile witness, said that he lived with Smitty for a while,
568
00:37:02.239 --> 00:37:04.500
and Smitty told him about killing a girl in the
569
00:37:04.539 --> 00:37:07.980
desert in the company of Mary French and John Saunders.
570
00:37:09.239 --> 00:37:12.530
Paul was invited to go see the grave, but he declined.
571
00:37:14.170 --> 00:37:17.030
Tinney got him to describe the bad blood between Ritchie
572
00:37:17.070 --> 00:37:20.230
and Gretchen. He said he never heard any talk of
573
00:37:20.269 --> 00:37:23.769
a diary. The next people on the stand were a
574
00:37:23.809 --> 00:37:27.489
husband and wife, Mr and Mrs Bill Morgan, whom Smitty
575
00:37:27.530 --> 00:37:31.070
had once taken in, who witnessed his relationship with Gretchen.
576
00:37:32.150 --> 00:37:34.889
Bill was the man with whom Smitty attempted to start
577
00:37:34.929 --> 00:37:39.179
an upholstery business. Morgan claimed that Smitty told him about
578
00:37:39.219 --> 00:37:42.659
the boy he killed, whose hands he cut off. He
579
00:37:42.719 --> 00:37:45.949
also spoke of Smitty's reference to a diary that Gretchen
580
00:37:46.050 --> 00:37:50.050
stole that contained a description of this murder. Smitty said
581
00:37:50.389 --> 00:37:54.690
he'd like to kill Gretchen. Mrs Morgan too heard the
582
00:37:54.750 --> 00:37:58.079
story along with the threat, but didn't take them seriously.
583
00:37:59.239 --> 00:38:03.619
Then it was Ritchie's turn. He spoke evenly and looked
584
00:38:03.659 --> 00:38:07.300
without hesitation at his former best friend as he described
585
00:38:07.320 --> 00:38:11.210
the events that he remembered. Tinney was unable to shake
586
00:38:11.250 --> 00:38:13.989
his story, but managed to get him to admit his
587
00:38:14.050 --> 00:38:19.050
ill feelings toward Gretchen. Then a girl named Gloria Andrews
588
00:38:19.409 --> 00:38:22.380
admitted that she was at Smitty's house on the night
589
00:38:22.440 --> 00:38:26.400
when Gretchen went missing. Smitty took a phone call from
590
00:38:26.460 --> 00:38:30.280
Gretchen and then said, I'm gonna get that bitch if
591
00:38:30.340 --> 00:38:34.230
it's the last thing I do. He left with Paul Graff,
592
00:38:34.730 --> 00:38:38.349
carrying an old black briefcase, and returned around one o'clock
593
00:38:38.409 --> 00:38:43.570
in the morning. Gloria overheard Smitty tell Paul to keep quiet,
594
00:38:44.090 --> 00:38:47.130
and Paul said he wasn't in it and wasn't going
595
00:38:47.190 --> 00:38:51.769
to get in it. Smitty came in all dusty and unkempt,
596
00:38:52.269 --> 00:38:56.030
and Paul left, taking two large butcher knives with him.
597
00:38:57.190 --> 00:39:00.789
The next day, Smitty called Gloria to tell her that
598
00:39:00.849 --> 00:39:03.690
Gretchen was missing, and now he could go out with
599
00:39:03.750 --> 00:39:08.670
anyone he wanted. Essentially, she contradicted the story Richie heard
600
00:39:08.710 --> 00:39:11.769
from Smitty that he killed the Fritz sisters there in
601
00:39:11.809 --> 00:39:16.179
his living room. The prosecution rested, and Tinney moved for
602
00:39:16.219 --> 00:39:19.900
a mistrial, on the basis that no evidence had been produced.
603
00:39:20.659 --> 00:39:23.260
But the judge said that the evidence was not weak
604
00:39:23.340 --> 00:39:28.329
from a legal standpoint. Tinney called witnesses who testified to
605
00:39:28.349 --> 00:39:32.599
the hostility between Richian. Gretchen. Several of them said that
606
00:39:32.679 --> 00:39:36.400
Paul Graff was not present at the party on August 16th,
607
00:39:36.880 --> 00:39:41.800
cancelling the testimony of Gloria Andrews. Several of them admitted
608
00:39:41.840 --> 00:39:45.099
they made plans to kill Ritchie for turning Smitty in.
609
00:39:46.500 --> 00:39:50.420
When Smitty's father took the stand, He virtually demolished the
610
00:39:50.500 --> 00:39:53.360
alibi set up by the defence that Smitty was with
611
00:39:53.400 --> 00:39:56.219
his parents, or some other couple, on the night of
612
00:39:56.260 --> 00:40:00.380
the murder. Charles Schmid, Sr. said that he was definitely
613
00:40:00.420 --> 00:40:05.010
at his own house and was having a party. His wife, Catherine, however,
614
00:40:05.469 --> 00:40:08.050
said that Charlie came over and watched television with them
615
00:40:08.110 --> 00:40:12.130
for a while. She also said that all of Charlie's
616
00:40:12.170 --> 00:40:15.269
guitar chords were grey, while the one found in the
617
00:40:15.320 --> 00:40:19.460
desert was black. After a few more witnesses, one of
618
00:40:19.500 --> 00:40:22.090
whom denied that Ritchie was with him all evening on
619
00:40:22.190 --> 00:40:28.050
August 16th, as Ritchie had claimed, both sides rested. Just
620
00:40:28.130 --> 00:40:31.010
over two hours after the jury filed out, they had
621
00:40:31.050 --> 00:40:37.889
a verdict. Guilty. The penalty? Death. Yet Smitty still had
622
00:40:38.070 --> 00:40:42.719
another trial to face. His lawyer was interested in what
623
00:40:42.800 --> 00:40:46.619
might happen with Lee Bailey's Supreme Court appeal, filed in
624
00:40:46.659 --> 00:40:50.500
the case of Dr. Sam Shepard, based on pre-trial publicity.
625
00:40:51.840 --> 00:40:54.920
The issue had yet to be decided, but on that basis,
626
00:40:55.320 --> 00:40:58.820
he wanted to get the Aline Rowe trial postponed, and
627
00:40:58.880 --> 00:41:03.699
Judge Mary Ann Ritchie granted it. The trial was rescheduled
628
00:41:03.739 --> 00:41:09.130
for October 4th, 1966. However, Smitty was sentenced to be
629
00:41:09.210 --> 00:41:15.090
executed on June 17, by lethal injection. He demanded to
630
00:41:15.130 --> 00:41:18.949
be able to testify under sodium pentothal, but the court
631
00:41:18.989 --> 00:41:22.929
had no power to grant it. They postponed his execution date,
632
00:41:23.250 --> 00:41:28.849
pending appeal. Smitty contacted another lawyer, Percy Foreman, who could
633
00:41:28.909 --> 00:41:32.309
not take the case, but who criticised Tinney for not
634
00:41:32.469 --> 00:41:37.230
using psychiatric testimony. After hearing an interview by Smitty on
635
00:41:37.269 --> 00:41:41.150
a radio station, he contacted F. Lee Bailey to see
636
00:41:41.190 --> 00:41:44.710
if he might be interested. He was. He figured he
637
00:41:44.750 --> 00:41:47.030
could crack this case open the way he had with
638
00:41:47.050 --> 00:41:50.050
the Shepard case. there appeared to be just as much
639
00:41:50.110 --> 00:41:55.059
publicity involved. He recommended that Smitty take a lie detector
640
00:41:55.119 --> 00:41:59.179
test with a qualified expert. He also met with Tinney
641
00:41:59.420 --> 00:42:03.780
and asked why there was no psychiatric testimony. Tinney reportedly
642
00:42:03.840 --> 00:42:07.909
said there had been psychiatric examinations and the results would
643
00:42:07.949 --> 00:42:12.050
scare the pants off any lawyer. Bailey then left town,
644
00:42:12.489 --> 00:42:15.590
seeing no reason to become involved. Then he said he'd
645
00:42:15.630 --> 00:42:19.070
do it, but only with Tinney as co-counsel, and only
646
00:42:19.110 --> 00:42:21.949
if funds could be raised to pay him. They managed
647
00:42:21.989 --> 00:42:26.969
to raise $ 36. Then Diane Schmidt sued for divorce on
648
00:42:26.989 --> 00:42:31.610
the advice of her mother. In June, Bailey accepted a
649
00:42:31.659 --> 00:42:36.599
retainer from Schmidt's parents and entered the case. Shortly thereafter,
650
00:42:37.139 --> 00:42:40.420
the US Supreme Court ruled on the Sam Shepard case,
651
00:42:41.019 --> 00:42:44.099
saying that he did not receive a fair trial due
652
00:42:44.159 --> 00:42:48.250
to all the prejudicial publicity. It was a major victory
653
00:42:48.289 --> 00:42:52.869
for Bailey, and he entered Schmidt's trial with confidence. Bailey
654
00:42:52.909 --> 00:42:55.949
brought in a polygraph expert, the best he could find,
655
00:42:56.530 --> 00:42:59.329
stating that if Smitty lied, he would just turn the
656
00:42:59.369 --> 00:43:03.309
results over to his mother and forget about it. After
657
00:43:03.369 --> 00:43:06.750
seeing the results of 10 hours of testing, he announced
658
00:43:06.949 --> 00:43:10.969
that he would take the case. He and Tinney attempted
659
00:43:11.010 --> 00:43:14.469
to get the U.S. District Court to take over jurisdiction
660
00:43:14.889 --> 00:43:17.780
and move the case out of the state, They managed
661
00:43:17.880 --> 00:43:21.820
only to postpone the Roe trial until April 3rd, 1967,
662
00:43:21.820 --> 00:43:27.219
then continued it to May 10. Bailey flew in on
663
00:43:27.260 --> 00:43:30.530
May 9, prepared to defend Schmidt on the basis of
664
00:43:30.570 --> 00:43:33.610
the absence of a body, implying there was no murder.
665
00:43:34.750 --> 00:43:37.670
The two defence lawyers tried to get the charges reduced
666
00:43:37.710 --> 00:43:42.210
to second-degree murder, but Schaefer wouldn't budge. They asked again,
667
00:43:42.730 --> 00:43:46.239
and he accepted the deal. Bailey then tried to convince
668
00:43:46.320 --> 00:43:49.769
Schmidt to plead guilty to lesser charges, because the jury
669
00:43:49.809 --> 00:43:53.909
was completely prejudiced, and Smitty decided to fire both Bailey
670
00:43:54.210 --> 00:43:59.050
and Tinney. His father persuaded him against it. The trial
671
00:43:59.070 --> 00:44:03.090
went forward, again with Mary French telling her story, but
672
00:44:03.130 --> 00:44:07.369
John Saunders refused to participate. The judge said that, as
673
00:44:07.409 --> 00:44:12.360
a substitute, he would admit Saunders' preliminary hearing statements. This
674
00:44:12.719 --> 00:44:16.929
alarmed the defence lawyers. Bailey did not show up the
675
00:44:16.989 --> 00:44:21.769
next day, claiming to be ill. Tinney informed Charlie's parents
676
00:44:22.090 --> 00:44:25.289
that they would accept the deal that Schaefer offered. They
677
00:44:25.349 --> 00:44:28.429
went and found Bailey, who did not seem ill to them,
678
00:44:28.889 --> 00:44:31.139
and he said that the jury was set to hang him.
679
00:44:32.119 --> 00:44:34.780
This deal was the only way to save his life.
680
00:44:36.019 --> 00:44:41.280
Charlie resisted, and then reconsidered. Finally, he pleaded guilty to
681
00:44:41.340 --> 00:44:46.920
second-degree murder. Bailey asked that he receive psychiatric treatment. He
682
00:44:46.980 --> 00:44:49.840
later told interviewers that he believed Schmidt to be guilty
683
00:44:49.880 --> 00:44:53.139
before the trial even started, despite the results of the
684
00:44:53.199 --> 00:44:56.380
lie detector test. Yet there were many people who believed
685
00:44:56.400 --> 00:44:59.460
the famous lawyer, seeing that he could not win, just
686
00:44:59.559 --> 00:45:04.440
bailed out. Schmidt wrote to the judge, asking for another trial,
687
00:45:04.719 --> 00:45:08.489
because his lawyers coerced his guilty plea. He said he
688
00:45:08.530 --> 00:45:11.389
could produce the body and thereby prove that she was
689
00:45:11.510 --> 00:45:15.019
not killed by a blow to the head. The judge
690
00:45:15.159 --> 00:45:19.579
agreed to hear Schmidt's request on June 12th. A lawyer
691
00:45:19.599 --> 00:45:22.780
was appointed by the court, and two psychiatrists were to
692
00:45:22.860 --> 00:45:26.630
examine him, but he refused to submit to testing. Then
693
00:45:26.730 --> 00:45:31.010
Schmidt abruptly withdrew his motion for a new trial. Judge
694
00:45:31.090 --> 00:45:34.250
Royalston gave him a sentence of 50 years to life
695
00:45:34.329 --> 00:45:39.960
in prison. Schmidt said he'd prefer death. On June 23rd,
696
00:45:40.380 --> 00:45:43.400
Schmid told the sheriff, whom he had taken into his confidence,
697
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that he wanted to lead them to the grave of
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00:45:45.719 --> 00:45:50.190
Aline Rowe. After a couple of failed attempts, he located
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00:45:50.250 --> 00:45:54.989
the grave. An autopsy indicated that, contrary to Schmidty's claim,
700
00:45:55.369 --> 00:45:58.349
there were fractures and dry blood at the base of
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00:45:58.389 --> 00:46:03.050
the skull. The fractures were induced while she was still alive.
702
00:46:04.400 --> 00:46:06.679
A rock examined by him that had lain near the
703
00:46:06.719 --> 00:46:10.340
remains had specks of blood on it. Smitty was stunned
704
00:46:10.400 --> 00:46:13.500
by these findings, but taken back to serve his time,
705
00:46:14.119 --> 00:46:19.719
the case of Aline Rowe came to a close. Charles Schmidt, Jr.
706
00:46:20.059 --> 00:46:23.619
was in the Arizona penitentiary, awaiting death for the murders
707
00:46:23.659 --> 00:46:28.219
of Gretchen and Wendy Fritz. He attempted to escape once
708
00:46:28.340 --> 00:46:32.139
by hiding inside a hollowed-out exercise horse, but was found
709
00:46:32.219 --> 00:46:36.500
before he succeeded. He then used a fake self-checkout attempt
710
00:46:36.519 --> 00:46:41.719
to escape, which also didn't work. In 1971, the state
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00:46:41.739 --> 00:46:45.619
of Arizona temporarily abolished the death penalty, but Smitty was
712
00:46:45.699 --> 00:46:49.619
still in prison for 50 years. So he tried another escape,
713
00:46:50.199 --> 00:46:54.460
and briefly succeeded. He was spotted by a railroad worker,
714
00:46:54.840 --> 00:46:57.420
who went to school with him, and who noticed him
715
00:46:57.460 --> 00:47:00.400
because of a foolish yellow wig he donned as a disguise.
716
00:47:01.619 --> 00:47:05.719
He was returned to prison. Schmitt changed his name to
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00:47:05.780 --> 00:47:09.500
Paul David Ashley and turned to writing music and essays
718
00:47:09.559 --> 00:47:14.550
to keep himself busy. He tried reading Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment,
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00:47:14.969 --> 00:47:18.690
but was puzzled by the way Raskolnikov, who murdered two women,
720
00:47:19.050 --> 00:47:23.110
was plagued by guilt and remorse. He strutted around the
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prison as if he were superior to other prisoners, and
722
00:47:26.320 --> 00:47:28.900
two of them beat him up one day. He was
723
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found stabbed and lying in a pool of blood. He
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had a sucking wound in the right chest that did
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00:47:35.460 --> 00:47:38.900
not respond to surgery. One eye had to be removed.
726
00:47:39.860 --> 00:47:42.360
In all, he had some 20 stab wounds to his
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00:47:42.440 --> 00:47:45.739
face and chest. On the tenth day after the stabbing,
728
00:47:46.260 --> 00:47:50.289
still in the hospital, Smitty began to fail. He was
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00:47:50.349 --> 00:47:56.269
pronounced dead on March 30th, 1975. At the request of
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00:47:56.309 --> 00:48:01.710
his parents, he was buried in the prison cemetery. I am...
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If you enjoyed this video, click this video right here
732
00:48:05.679 --> 00:48:10.480
as well, because I'm pointing my finger to it, so,
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00:48:10.820 --> 00:48:12.139
you know, you have to.