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Bizarre Colorado Killing Subject of Mortician Murder Docuseries · Murder Files Unsealed

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to the deep Dive. Today, we're heading to
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a place that really stands apart from the usual true
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crime settings. We're not in a major city, no, not
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at all. We're going to Florence, Colorado, a small town
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that sits quite literally in the shadow of the infamous
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eighty X Federal supermax prison.
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Speaker 2: And it's that contrast that makes this story so compelling.
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Is a town that really believes it's safe, you know,
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walled off from the dangers at houses.
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Speaker 1: But the story we're diving into today shows just how
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much deceit a place like that can harbor.
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Speaker 2: M This is a deep dive into the twenty twelve
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murder of Byron Griffy. He was a seventy six year
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old mortician and at first glance, his death looked like
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a simple tragic.
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Speaker 1: Robbery, right, a break in gone wrong.
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Speaker 2: Exactly, But investigators quickly uncovered these layers of betrayal that
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were just well, they were almost theatrical. The real story
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was about immense trust, greed, and a valuable collection of
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rare gold coins.
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Speaker 1: And the central conflict, the real core of this it
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hinges on Griffy's relationship with two men, Charles Giebler, and
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Anthony Wright.
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Speaker 2: These were not just his friends for two decades, they
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were the absolute pillars of Florence. They co owned a
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successful funeral home, they were deeply involved in the community,
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and they presented themselves to everyone as devoted half brothers.
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Speaker 1: But that was the first lie, the biggest one.
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Speaker 2: It was a brilliant twenty year fabrication. In reality, they
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were long term romantic partners, a secret they guarded fiercely
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in a very conservative, rural part of Colorado.
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Speaker 1: And the prize for all this deception and ultimately for
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murder was Byron Griffy's staggering collection of gold and silver coins.
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Speaker 2: The collection he foolishly tragically entrusted to the brothers for safekeeping.
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Speaker 1: So our mission today is to really synthesize this entire
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complex story for you. We're going to unpack the details
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of that decade's long facade, the forensics of what was
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a very staged crime scene.
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Speaker 2: And that explosive revelation that completely destroyed their empire, right.
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Speaker 1: And then we'll get into the controversial plea deal that
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left the community reeling and you know, left the victim's
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family feeling like they never really got justice.
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Speaker 2: So to start, you really have to understand the place itself.
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The atmosphere of Florence, Colorado is the stage for this
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entire drama.
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Speaker 1: Let's set that stage then, Okay.
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Speaker 2: So to understand how two men could possibly maintain a
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lie that profound for twenty years, you have to understand Florence.
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It's in Fremont County, right along the Arkansas River, and.
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Speaker 1: Its history is very uh boom and bust right, very
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much so.
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Speaker 2: It was incorporated back in eighteen eighty seven, had a
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brief moment during the Colorado oil boom, but that faded.
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The town then had to rely on, you know, farming
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and a bit of tourism.
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Speaker 1: But by the time our story takes place, the main
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economic driver wasn't oil or agriculture. It was the federal
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government exactly.
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Speaker 2: The construction of the ADX Supermacs Facility changed everything. It
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fundamentally altered the economic and even the demographic fabric of
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this small town.
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Speaker 1: Can you elaborate on that the ADX factor?
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Speaker 2: Sure? I mean, this facility is known as the Alcatraz
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of the Rockies. It houses notorious figures like Ted Kasinski,
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the unabomber, Jukar Sarnae of from the Boston bombing.
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Speaker 1: The worst of the worst, the worst of the worst.
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Speaker 2: So the prison brought jobs, it brought economic stability, guards, administrators,
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support staff, but it created this fascinating sociological split in
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the town. So well, you had the traditional conservative, multi
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generational local families living right alongside these federal employees who
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often brought in higher salaries and you know, slightly different worldview.
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Speaker 1: So beneath that classic small town charm, the Friday night football,
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the church barbecues, the sources say, there was this really
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palpable undercurrent.
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Speaker 2: An undercurrent of economic stagnation, of hidden struggles. Florence was
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just it was a town right for secrets.
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Speaker 1: Because people were reluctant to challenge the status quo exactly.
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Speaker 2: People didn't want to draw attention to the community's flaws.
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It was a pressure cooker atmosphere, and being a prison
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town just amplified that appearances were everything.
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Speaker 1: And that is the world that Byron Griffy lived in.
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Speaker 2: It's the world he dominated in some ways. He was
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a genuine local fixture. Seventy six years old, the patriarch
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of the Griffy Funeral Chapel, which had been there since
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nineteen fifty seven.
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Speaker 1: A mortician in a town that small holds a very
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unique position.
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Speaker 2: Oh. Absolutely. He was the person families confided in during
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their darkest moments. He was a storyteller, a local historian,
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and by all accounts, a devoted grandfather.
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Speaker 1: But Griffy was a man of contrasts and his personal
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passions they ended up creating this massive financial vulnerability for him.
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Speaker 2: That's putting it mildly. His forty acre ranch was described
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by many as a hoarder's paradise. It was just crammed
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with antiques, firearms, but the crown jewel. The real prize
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was his collection of gold and silver coins.
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Speaker 1: And this wasn't just a hobby collection.
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Speaker 2: Oh no, not at all. Yeah, we're talking about numismatic
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assets valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. He
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could have easily easily eclipsed the half million dollar market auction.
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Speaker 1: Wow.
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Speaker 2: Griffy collected true rarities Carson City gold pieces, which are
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incredibly sought after because of their limited minting Morgan silver dollars,
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and he loved to show them off. He would, as
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one source put it, regale visitors with stories about their
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history and their value.
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Speaker 1: Which is a dangerous habit.
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Speaker 2: A very dangerous habit. It made the collection common knowledge
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in the community, and critically, it made him a target.
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Speaker 1: And this all leads us directly to the event that
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completely blew up his life. It's what created the urgent
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need to hide those assets.
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Speaker 2: Right in early twenty twelve, just months before his murder Byron,
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Griffey was convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage boy who
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worked for him at the funeral home.
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Speaker 1: A devastating charge.
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Speaker 2: The sources are pretty clear the accusation involved inappropriate touching
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during late night embalming sessions, and the fallout from that
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conviction was immediate and catastrophic for him.
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Speaker 1: He lost his licensize, him.
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Speaker 2: Lost his license to practice mortuary science, his professional reputation,
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which was his entire life, was destroyed, and he was
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facing potential prison time, not to mention ruinous civil lawsuits
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from the victms family.
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Speaker 1: So this conviction becomes this immense financials dresser. He's got creditors,
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potential court ordered restitution, and family.
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Speaker 2: Disputes that were erupting because of the scandal. And you
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have to think when assets are seized in civil cases,
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they go after the easy stuff first banks.
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Speaker 1: Real estate, but a coin collection, a.
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Speaker 2: Collection of rare, untraceable gold and silver coins, especially pre
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nineteen thirty three US gold, which is highly liquid and
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has no paper trail. Today, that's a completely different class
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of assets.
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Speaker 1: So he was desperate, desperate.
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Speaker 2: He needed a trustworthy, discreet partner to shelter this untraceable
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wealth and this financial pivot. This desperation drove him straight
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into the arms of the two men who had spent
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two decades proving they were the most trustworthy people in town.
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Speaker 1: Charles Giebler and Anthony Wright the very same. So to
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really get why Griffy would make this choice, we have
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to look at the incredible facade these two men built.
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It's really extraordinary.
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Speaker 2: It is. They arrived in Florence from the Midwest back
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in nineteen ninety two, and right away they established this
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professional and civic identity that's all rooted in this idea
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of family loyalty.
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Speaker 1: They were in their late thirties and they told everyone that.
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Speaker 2: They were half brothers. Yeah, shared a mother, and their
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personalities were perfectly complimentary, which made them such an effective team.
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Speaker 1: Gebler was the front man, right.
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Speaker 2: Charles Gebler was the public face, outgoing, charismatic, a natural entrepreneur.
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Anthony Wright was the yin to his yang, much quieter, meticulous.
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He handled all the books, the details, behind the scenes.
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Speaker 1: And they didn't just open a business. It feels like
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they were building an empire of trust from day one.
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Speaker 2: That's a great way to put it. They took this
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run down funeral parlor and they poured money and personality
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into it. They relaunched it as the Charles Anthony Funeral Home.
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Speaker 1: A name intentionally chosen to reinforce that lie.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely. But they were smart. They knew that real influence
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in a small town goes beyond your business. So over
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the next two decades they kept expanding. They bought a
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local restaurant, opened a guitar.
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Speaker 1: Shop, which is brilliant for their cover.
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Speaker 2: It's genius, it's ce men's their influence across the town's
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social and economic life, and crucially, it gives them multiple
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avenues to manage cash flow, a perfect setup for any
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financial irregularities they might want to hide.
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Speaker 1: Later on, they became the absolute pillars.
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Speaker 2: Of Florence, undeniably. Charles Geibler leveraged all that charisma and
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trust straight into political power. He successfully ran for mayor
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in two thousand and eight focused on local economic development, and.
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Speaker 1: Their influence wasn't just political or etonomic.
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Speaker 2: It was spiritual too, which is maybe the most shocking part.
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Gebler was an ordained bishop at the local Saint Jude
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the Apostle parish, and Wright served as a deacon.
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Speaker 1: So to this conservative, traditional town, these men were the
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epitome of Midwestern wholesomeness.
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Speaker 2: They were everything the town valued, generous donors, tireless volunteers,
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the trusted figures you turned to when your life was
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falling apart.
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Speaker 1: If Gebler is running the city and Right is managing
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the church's books, who on earth is going to question
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their integrity?
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Speaker 2: No one, but of course, the entire foundation of this life,
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this edifice was a lie. They weren't brothers. They were
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long term romantic.
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Speaker 1: Partners, and that secret their relationship was a massive liability
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they had to guard ferociously in that environment.
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Speaker 2: You really have to stop and think about the psychological
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burden maintaining that charade for twenty years, especially given their
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public roles as mayor and religious figures. It's immense.
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Speaker 1: The Docusaries really went deep on the mechanics of it all.
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Speaker 2: It did. They maintained separate bedrooms in their home just
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for show. They had perfected this system of coded glances,
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a private language so they could communicate in public without
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anyone knowing.
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Speaker 1: And they relied on enablers.
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Speaker 2: Oh completely, a whole network of people who either suspected
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the truth and were just too polite to ask, or
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who were actively turning a blind eye to the reality
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right in front of them.
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Speaker 1: All that sustained deceit, as exhausting as it must have been,
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it paid off in the form of trust.
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Speaker 2: It's what made them the perfect choice for Griffy in
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the middle of his public scandal. He didn't need a
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lawyer or a banker. He needed people who were totally
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impervious to scrutiny.
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Speaker 1: And the twenty years of trust they'd cultivated is exactly
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why he went to them without a second thought. He
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saw them as the safest possible custodians for his untraceable wealth.
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Speaker 2: The only safe harbor in the storm.
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Speaker 1: So let's really focus on that transfer of wealth, because
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this single act of trust was I mean, it was
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the lynchpin of Griffe's undoing.
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Speaker 2: It really was. He wasn't just handing over some savings.
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He was systematically transferring these incredibly high value, high liquidity assets.
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Speaker 1: And the sheer scope of what he gave them is
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just stunning.
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Speaker 2: It is. We're talking about boxes filled with hundreds of
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pre nineteen thirty three US gold coins. These are unique
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because they were taken out of circulation, so they don't
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have the same regulatory paper trail as modern gold.
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Speaker 1: And it wasn't just gold.
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Speaker 2: No, they were also extremely rare silver certificates, even items
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as unique as Confederate half sense. These are assets you
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can sell for cash privately anywhere in the world with
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almost no questions.
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Speaker 1: Asked, and the sources confirmed there was at least a
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partial paper trail for the exchange.
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Speaker 2: Right. There are receipts and witness statements that corroborate deliveries
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totaling over one hundred thousand dollars in stated value.
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Speaker 1: But the real value, the numismatic value, was much much higher.
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Speaker 2: Oh way higher. We're talking closer to half a million dollars,
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maybe even more. And this gap between the face value
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and the market value is absolutely.
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Speaker 1: Critical because the moment Griffy hands over those.
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Speaker 2: Boxes, Gebler and Wright immediately realize the liquid wealth they're holding.
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Prosecutors later built their entire case around this. They argued
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that this transfer created a crystal clear financial motive to
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get rid of Griffy.
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Speaker 1: The logic is just brutal, isn't it.
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Speaker 2: It is Griffy went from being the owner of the
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coins to just being a creditor. He was just someone
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Giebler and Wright owed the coins back to.
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Speaker 1: So if Griffy wins his appeals, or if a court
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orders the assets seized.
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Speaker 2: Gebler and Write stand and lose immediate access to one
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hundred thousands of dollars that they had probably already started
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to liquidate or spend.
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Speaker 1: Silencing the creditor was the only way to secure the gold.
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Speaker 2: It was the only way to make the gold theirs permanently,
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and they did secure it. This dark intersection of greed
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and betrayal. It all came to a head on October twelve,
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twenty twelve.
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Speaker 1: The day of the murder.
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Speaker 2: Yes, Griffy was a man of routines. He was supposed
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to meet Geebler and Write for lunch that day. It
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was meant to be a belated celebration for his upcoming
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seventy seventh birthday.
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Speaker 1: But he never showed up.
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Speaker 2: He never made it. Around four pm, after he'd missed
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the lunch and wasn't answering his phone. His daughter, Gina,
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her husband, and Griffy's handyman. They all drove out to
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his forty acre.
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Speaker 1: Ranch and the first sign that something was wrong was
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the gate.
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Speaker 2: Yes, Griffy was meticulous about security, especially with that collection
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on the property. The gate was always locked, always, but on.
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Speaker 1: This day it was unlocked, and inside.
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Speaker 2: Inside the farmhouse, the scene was chilling. Greasey was slumped
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in his favorite recliner, the television was still on, and
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he'd been murdered with the single precise zo point three
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to eight caliber bullet wound to the back of his head.
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Speaker 1: The crime scene analysis is what immediately started to unravel
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the robbery story absolutely.
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Speaker 2: One of the lead investigators described it perfectly. She said,
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it looks staged.
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Speaker 1: Those signs of a struggle, no struggle.
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Speaker 2: No forced entry anywhere. The drawers in the house were
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all neatly closed. If this was a random robber, you
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would expect violence, you'd expect chaos. Things tossed everywhere, but
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it was clean, immaculate. The control displayed by the killer
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indicated it was someone Griffy new, someone he was relaxed with,
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who could walk up behind him without setting off any
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alarm bells.
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Speaker 1: So what about the items that were missing? His wallet?
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Some guns?
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Speaker 2: That's what supported the initial robbery theory. His wallet was gone,
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a few firearms and some specific coin albums that he
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kept separate from the main horde. But investigators came to
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see those as distraction items.
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Speaker 1: Meant to throw them off the scent.
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Speaker 2: Exactly because the execution style nature of that single shot
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to the back of a head, it just screamed intimacy
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and planning. It argued overwhelmingly against a random, frenzied break in.
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Speaker 1: So once that initial theory of a robbery gone wrong
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started to crumble because of the stage scene, the investigation
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really pivoted inward.
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Speaker 2: It had to. They started looking at people close to Griffy,
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and the forensic evidence that began to come in it
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quickly started pointing in one.
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Speaker 1: Direction towards Gibler and right.
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Speaker 2: Towards the brothers. The most critical piece of evidence was
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the murder weapon itself, or rather the bullet. What did
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they find The bullet recovered from Griffy was a perfect
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match for a point three to eight revolver that was
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registered to Anthony Wright.
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Speaker 1: Wow, that's pretty damning.
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Speaker 2: It's a direct link. Yeah, and Right's explanation was, let's say,
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very convenient. He claimed he'd reported that specific gun stolen
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months earlier, which.
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Speaker 1: Is plausible on the surface, but.
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Speaker 2: It immediately establishes a connection, however tenuous. He tried to
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make it between one of the trusted colleagues and the
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actual means of death.
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Speaker 1: And the ballistics experts. They added more than just a match, right,
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They added a psychological profile.
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Speaker 2: They did. They confirmed the shot was fired at extremely
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close range, which backed up what the investigators suspective from
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the start. This was an intimate killing, an execution. It
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was an impulsive act of violence. It required a level
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of trust between the killer and the victim that a
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stranger just wouldn't have.
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Speaker 1: Did they look at anyone else?
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Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, they did their due diligence, which is vital.
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They looked very hard at a couple of other suspects.
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Speaker 1: Griffy's grandson, for one, He had a history of theft, Right.
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Speaker 2: A history of theft, and it argued with his grandfather
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about money repeatedly. Then there was the handyman who had
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easy access to the property and gave what they called
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a sketchy alibi.
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Speaker 1: And the defense would later use them.
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Speaker 2: They would. They tried to elevate these other suspects into
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reasonable doubt, but the trail every time just circled right
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back to the funeral directors.
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Speaker 1: What was Gibler in Wright's alibi?
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Speaker 2: It was rock solid, at least at first. They claimed
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they drove to the ranch gate at noon, found it locked,
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and left after about twenty minutes because Griffy wasn't there.
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They presented this completely unified front, and.
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Speaker 1: They had a witness, a neighbor.
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Speaker 2: A neighbor who gave a very vague sighting of their
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vehicle in the area around that time. It was just
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enough to muddy the waters.
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Speaker 1: But the digital footprint told a different story.
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Speaker 2: It always does. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation the CBI,
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they dug into the phone records, and they found this
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critical inconsistency in Anthony Wright's records.
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Speaker 1: The payphone call.
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Speaker 2: The payphone call. There was a suspicious call made from
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right cell phone to a public payphone near Griffy's ranch
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at eleven forty five am, just.
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Speaker 1: Minutes before they estimated time of death exactly.
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Speaker 2: And let's just pause on that for a second. Why
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is that suspicious If you're just driving to your friend's house,
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finding the gate locked, and leaving, there is no logical
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reason to call a public payphone from your cell.
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Speaker 1: It suggests pre planning.
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Speaker 2: It screams pre planning. It suggests a desire to create
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a communication buffer, something that couldn't be traced directly back
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to their precise location at the moment of the murder.
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It shattered the simplicity of their alibi.
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Speaker 1: So despite all this mounting evidence, the pressure is building
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on them, and then the whole thing just implodes.
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Speaker 2: The entire twenty year old house of cards completely collapsed.
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It happened just a few months later, January twenty thirteen,
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and it was triggered by this stunning personal betrayal within
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their own secret relationship.
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Speaker 1: Charles Gebler confessed he.
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Speaker 2: Did, under all this pressure from the investigation, juggling all
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these secrets, he confessed his secret romantic relationship with Anthony
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Wright to write supposed female girlfriend, a woman named Laura Anderson.
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Speaker 1: And the context for that confession is just bizarrely complicated.
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Speaker 2: It's a mess. Not only was he maintaining the brotherly
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lie with Wright, but Gebler was simultaneously having an affair
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with a female prison guard from ADX Florence. Wow, so
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this affair just fueled chaos, jealousy. It blurred all the
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lines between the professional lives and what was becoming a
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criminal conspiracy. Laura Anderson, the girlfriend, said in the documentary
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that the revelation was just seismic. She realized the entire
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social fabric of their lives was a complete fiction.
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Speaker 1: And that revelation it didn't stay secret for long.
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Speaker 2: In Florence, not a chance. It spread like wildfire. The
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outing of this prominent couple to this deeply conservative town.
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It immediately led to the collapse of their entire empire.
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Speaker 1: Gebler resigned as mayor.
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Speaker 2: Immediately, and there were whispers of financial misconduct with church funds.
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At the same time. The emotional fallout was just catastrophic.
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Speaker 1: Yep, right, attempt at suicide.
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Speaker 2: He did in the wake of that public exposure and
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Gebler's affair. He attempted suicide. He survived, but now he
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was facing this aggressive police scrutiny that he could no
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longer deflect with his reputation.
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Speaker 1: And then came the smoking gun, the final piece of
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the puzzle.
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Speaker 2: The search warrant investigators finally got a warrant for the
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brother's home, and what they found connected the tw twenty
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years of deceit directly to the motive for murder.
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Speaker 1: The coins.
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Speaker 2: The coins in a basement safe, they found several of
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Griffy's coin albums. An appraiser confirmed the value of just
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that recovered portion was a quarter of a million.
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Speaker 1: Dollars and they could match them to Griffy's inventory.
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Speaker 2: They matched serial numbers provided by the family, and the
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fact that the coins were hidden in a safe, not
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secured or documented in any official way. It contradicted every
19:27
story the brothers had told about holding the assets legitimately.
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Speaker 1: What was their defense for having them?
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Speaker 2: It was alsot absurd. Gebler claimed they were gifts for
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storage fees, right claimed Griffy just insisted they take them,
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But there was no paperwork, no contract.
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Speaker 1: And Griffy's family disputed it vehemently.
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Speaker 2: They said he would never have gifted them, and critically,
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some of the most valuable rarest pieces of that half
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million dollar collection were still missing.
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Speaker 1: And then the ultimate haunting twist to this whole section
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of the story.
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Speaker 2: Charles Gebler's death just weeks after being out weeks after
20:00
this secret life was revealed. Gebler, who was fifty eight, died.
20:04
Speaker 1: Suddenly a massive heart attack while jogging.
20:07
Speaker 2: Died on route to the hospital in March of twenty thirteen.
20:09
Speaker 1: And the coroners ruled it natural causes, which, given the stress,
20:14
is plausible.
20:15
Speaker 2: It's highly plausible, the complete and abrupt destruction of his
20:18
entire life and reputation. That kind of stress can kill you.
20:22
But in a true crime case built on secrets, whispers
20:25
started immediately. Of course, the timing is just it's chilling.
20:28
Gebler was the co conspirator, He was the public face
20:31
of the operation. He was the one who knew where
20:32
the rest of the missing coins were.
20:34
Speaker 1: So the theories ran wild.
20:36
Speaker 2: They did Was it just stress? Or was he poisoned?
20:40
Or and this is the darker speculation, was he silenced
20:43
by right to make sure the secrets Gebler held died
20:47
right there with him. The official ruling is natural causes,
20:51
but that timing casts a permanent shadow over everything that
20:54
came next.
20:55
Speaker 1: So with Gebler dead, the entire legal focus now shifts
20:58
onto the sole surviving partner, Anthony Wright.
21:01
Speaker 2: He's the only one left to answer for the crime.
21:03
He was arrested in August twenty thirteen, charged with first
21:06
degree murder, and the prosecution they were ready to argue
21:09
premeditation and pure greed.
21:11
Speaker 1: Their narrative was pretty straightforward, very clear.
21:14
Speaker 2: The lovers, facing financial ruin from bad investments and the
21:17
threat of Criffy demanding his assets back, executed him to
21:20
secure the untraceable gold. They had to rely heavily on
21:23
circumstantial evidence.
21:24
Speaker 1: But it was strong, and to bolster that case, they
21:26
brought in a jail house informant.
21:28
Speaker 2: They did this. Informant claimed that Wright had confessed while
21:31
they were incarcerated together, stating the motive in just chillingly
21:35
clear terms. He allegedly said, Byron knew too much about us,
21:38
the money, the relationship. It had to end.
21:41
Speaker 1: But the prosecution didn't just rely on hearsay.
21:44
Speaker 2: No, they brought in financial witnesses who testified at length,
21:47
and they painted this picture of a surprisingly lavish lifestyle
21:50
that the brothers maintained, expensive cars, rapid business expansion.
21:55
Speaker 1: It didn't match the books, not at all.
21:57
Speaker 2: It's severely contrasted with the funeral homes, modern reported income.
22:01
The clear implication was their real income source was the slow, steady,
22:06
unreported sale of Byron Griffy's coins.
22:09
Speaker 1: The trial in twenty sixteen must have been a spectacle.
22:12
Speaker 2: It was. It brought intense national media attention to Canyon City.
22:16
You had the secret gay relationship, the prominent civic roles,
22:19
the cold blooded murder. It was a perfect storm of
22:22
small town drama and high crime.
22:24
Speaker 1: And the prosecution really drove home the financial angle they did.
22:27
Speaker 2: They brought in a professional numismatist, a coin expert, to testify,
22:31
and this expert detailed how Griffey's rarest items had.
22:34
Speaker 1: Just vanished, including that legendary Morgan silver dollar.
22:37
Speaker 2: The eighteen ninety three East and Morgan silver Dollar, an
22:41
item that could fetch upwards of half a million dollars
22:43
by itself at auction gone.
22:46
Speaker 1: And the expert was able to connect some of the
22:47
dots right he was.
22:49
Speaker 2: He explained how they'd trace some of the other missing
22:52
rarities to private auction houses. They were sold under aliases
22:55
that matched transaction patterns linked directly to Charles Gibler before
23:00
his death.
23:00
Speaker 1: So that was hard evidence. They were liquidating, not just
23:03
storing exactly.
23:04
Speaker 2: This wasn't just safekeeping. It was theft and liquidation, likely
23:07
over a period of years.
23:08
Speaker 1: But the defense had a strategy, a classic one.
23:12
Speaker 2: The defense attorney focused entirely on creating reasonable doubt. He
23:15
putted the finger right back at those initial secondary.
23:18
Speaker 1: Suspects, the grandson and the handyman.
23:20
Speaker 2: Precisely. They highlighted that the troubled grandson's DNA was found
23:25
on the ranch gate, and they proved that the handyman,
23:28
with his sketchy alibi, had pawned guns that were similar
23:31
to the ones missing from Griffy's ranch, just.
23:34
Speaker 1: Enough to introduce some chaos for the jury.
23:36
Speaker 2: Exactly Right even took the stand himself. He gave this
23:39
tearful emotional testimony, denying everything, claiming he and Gieblerer loved
23:44
Byron like family. His whole alibi rested on that neighbour's
23:48
vague sighting of them at the locked gate.
23:51
Speaker 1: And despite the mountain of evidence against him, the coins
23:55
in his safe, the gun match, the phone call, the
23:57
jury couldn't agree.
23:59
Speaker 2: After three days of intense deliberation, they came back deadlocked,
24:04
a mistrial. It was a massive blow to the prosecution
24:08
and a moment of extreme uncertainty for everyone.
24:11
Speaker 1: So we have a man charged with murder, strong evidence,
24:14
but no unanimous verdict.
24:16
Speaker 2: Right and he's facing the certainty of a retrial, which
24:19
is immensely risky and costly, and if he's convicted the
24:22
second time, it's life in prison for sure.
24:24
Speaker 1: So he took a plea deal.
24:25
Speaker 2: He did. In January twenty seventeen, Anthony Wright accepted a
24:29
plea deal.
24:29
Speaker 1: What was a charge? He pleaded to.
24:31
Speaker 2: Accessory to first degree murder, a significantly lesser offense. It
24:35
means he admitted to aiding an unknown killer, but he
24:37
avoided ever admitting to being the trigger man himself.
24:40
Speaker 1: So in theory, he's pointing the finger at the now
24:42
dead Gibler or some other killer exactly.
24:45
Speaker 2: It allows him to secure his freedom. And the sentence
24:48
was the most controversial part of this entire case.
24:50
Speaker 1: Ten years probation.
24:51
Speaker 2: Ten years probation. He walked free after having served only
24:55
about four years while awaiting trial. He's a convicted killer,
25:00
and he walked right out of the courthouse.
25:01
Speaker 1: The community must have been outraged.
25:03
Speaker 2: Outraged Right later told his attorney that miss trials rarely
25:07
favored the defendant, basically implying he was forced into the deal.
25:11
But Griffy's family felt completely betrayed. They called it a
25:15
slap on the wrist and the verdict immediately sparked protests
25:19
outside the courthouse.
25:20
Speaker 1: So the trial's outcome, it provided no real closure for anyone,
25:24
and the story continues to resonate, doesn't it, thanks in
25:27
part to that post trial investigative work.
25:29
Speaker 2: A lot of it captured in the docusaries. Yes, years later,
25:32
a CBI cold case detective Maria Baldez. She spearheaded this
25:36
critical review of the original police work, and she uncovered
25:40
some significant procedural shortcomings.
25:42
Speaker 1: She called it suppressed evidence.
25:43
Speaker 2: That's the term she used pieces of the puzzle that
25:46
were either dismissed at the time or not properly disclosed.
25:49
Speaker 1: During the trial, like the nine one one call.
25:51
Speaker 2: The nine to one one call, which is just stunning.
25:54
A call was placed from Griffy's ranch on the very
25:57
morning of the murder, a call that was never fully
26:00
investigated or analyzed. Why was he calling nine to one one?
26:03
Was he in distress? Was he already confronting someone? We
26:06
just don't know.
26:07
Speaker 1: And there was more physical evidence.
26:09
Speaker 2: Yes, Valdez found fibers from Anthony Wright's truck that were
26:12
a match for fibers found at the crime scene. This
26:15
establishes a physical link between the key suspect and the
26:18
interior of the murder.
26:20
Speaker 1: Location, a connection that should have been critical evidence.
26:24
Speaker 2: It should have been, but somehow it was either ignored
26:27
or marginalized during that first trial, and.
26:29
Speaker 1: The biggest questions still remain unanswered.
26:32
Speaker 2: The most damning ones, the murder weapon rights point three
26:35
to eight revolver was never found, and the trail of
26:38
the most valuable missing coins, the half million dollar rarities
26:42
that were the motive for the murder. That trail went
26:44
ice cold. The day Charles Gebler died, he took the
26:48
secrets of that liquidation process to his grave.
26:50
Speaker 1: The docusaries also provided a really sharp critique of how
26:53
small town justice and maybe small town prejudice played a
26:56
role it did.
26:58
Speaker 2: It highlighted how prejudice against the couple's sexuality seems to
27:02
have colored the initial investigation and definitely the media coverage.
27:05
The early press leagues focus so much on their explosive
27:08
outing as gay.
27:09
Speaker 1: Lovers rather than the forensics right.
27:12
Speaker 2: Rather than rigorously pursuing the complex financial leads and that
27:15
sensationalism it really allowed the shock of the secret relationship
27:19
to overshadow the mechanics of the financial crime.
27:22
Speaker 1: Which may have clouded the jury's judgment.
27:24
Speaker 2: It very likely did. It allowed the defense to successfully
27:27
introduce just enough reasonable doubt by focusing on all those
27:30
external factors.
27:31
Speaker 1: So what's the lasting impact on Florence? The small town
27:35
built on tradition.
27:36
Speaker 2: Scars mostly the Charles Anthony Funeral Home, the very stage
27:41
for their twenty years of deceit. It shuttered in twenty fourteen.
27:44
It's now described as a ghostly relic on main Street.
27:47
Griffy's ranch, the murder scene was sold. The physical memory
27:50
is being erased.
27:51
Speaker 1: But not for the survivors.
27:53
Speaker 2: No, for them. The fight for justice just took a
27:56
new form. Griffy's daughter Gina, she now runs It's a
28:00
memorial fund that's dedicated to advocating for elder financial protections,
28:04
a direct response to the sophisticated way her father was manipulated, robbed,
28:09
and ultimately murdered by people who pretended to be.
28:12
Speaker 1: His friends and Anthony Wright, the surviving killer.
28:15
Speaker 2: He's now in his sixties. He lives quietly in a
28:17
nearby town, legally free, but also legally silenced. He is
28:22
forbidden from ever discussing the case publicly under the strict
28:25
conditions of his probation.
28:26
Speaker 1: But the Stora just refuses to settle.
28:28
Speaker 2: It really does. Detective Valdez, in the finale of the docusriies,
28:32
announced she's developed entirely new leads, and they suggest that
28:35
conspiracy was wider than just Gebler and right.
28:38
Speaker 1: What are the current theories?
28:39
Speaker 2: They revolve around the idea of that Gebler, who is
28:41
getting deeply involved in criminal cons during his business expansion,
28:44
may have actually hired a hit man, and the sources
28:47
suggest this potential hit man might be tied to Gebler's
28:51
affair with that eighty X prison guard, which raises the
28:54
possibility that the killing was connected to broader criminal activities,
28:58
may be linked directly to the high security prison environment itself.
29:01
Speaker 1: So the online debate continues, oh.
29:03
Speaker 2: It buzzes with unresolved theories. Was it a simple greed
29:06
motive between two lovers. Was it a desperate act to
29:09
protect a lifelong secret or as these new leads suggest,
29:13
was it a sophisticated contract killing. The failure of the
29:17
justice system to definitively name the trigger man just ensures
29:21
that the truth, much like Griffy's missing half million dollar coin,
29:24
remains elusive.
29:26
Speaker 1: This deep dive into the Rocky Mountain mortician's golden betrayal.
29:29
It's just such a powerful examination of the complexity of crime.
29:32
It really reminds us that the most devastating acts, they're
29:35
so often committed not by strangers, but by the people
29:37
we trust the most.
29:38
Speaker 2: It's a profound tragedy, and it's rooted in extreme financial
29:42
desperation and a lifetime of these meticulously managed secrets. The
29:47
story proves that even the most trusted prominent figures in
29:50
a small traditional town, your mayor, your deacons, your funeral directors,
29:55
can harbor the darkest and most calculating intentions.
29:58
Speaker 1: And ultimately, the pursuit of that staggering gold coin collection.
30:02
It was enabled entirely by silver Toungue Deceit, that twenty
30:06
year fabrication of being brothers and community pillars. That's what
30:10
created the vulnerability that allowed this whole crime to happen.
30:14
Speaker 2: You know, in a state that's famed all over the
30:16
world for its beautiful, majestic peaks and its wide open spaces.
30:20
This story is a reminder that the most treacherous terrain
30:22
isn't the rocky mountains themselves, it's the human heart and
30:26
the extraordinary lengths people will go to protect a secret
30:29
or a half million dollar fortune.
30:30
Speaker 1: We'll leave you with this final provocative thought. When a
30:33
community places decades of unchecked trust and individuals, how many
30:38
other seemingly perfect facades exist in towns that are built
30:41
on tradition, And what's terrible, pressures must be accumulating behind
30:45
those walls before those hidden foundations inevitably crack and expose
30:50
the darkness that's been hiding underneath all along.
30:52
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us for this team.
30:53
Speaker 1: Tive