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He Called Himself the Teen's Guardian. Then He Took Him Hunting. · FBI Files

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: In the fall of 1983, four men set out to
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: hunt deer in Virginia. One of them would never return home.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Authorities determined the hunter's death was accidental, but an insurance
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: adjuster believed otherwise. A year later, the FBI had only
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: one option. Agents had to get the suspect's confession on
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: tape before their witness also became the hunter's target.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Over a thousand hunting accidents are reported in the United
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: States each year. Fewer than 10% of them are fatal.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: But when one hunter's death seems suspicious, the FBI was
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: called in to investigate. I'm Jim Kallstrom, former head of
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: the FBI's New York office. Agents would have to determine
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: if their suspect was a grieving father figure or a
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: man who murdered a friend in cold blood.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: On November 21st, 1983, near Roanoke, Virginia, 41-year-old David Fisher
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: hunted deer with the three people who were closest to him.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: His 16-year-old stepson, his friend 22-year-old Bobby Mulligan, and 18-year-old
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: David Wilkie. Wilkie looked up to Fisher as the father
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: he never had The group had been hiking since the
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: early morning, but no one had spotted a deer. $ 50
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: was wagered on the first to shoot one. Fisher's stepson
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: was bored and asked to go off on his own.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: He told him not to go far. The teenager had
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: little experience in the woods. He walked a short distance
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: when he heard someone yell, deer. Then he heard a gunshot.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: The boy ran back to see if anyone had won
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: the $ 50. He found the group a few yards from
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: where he left them, sitting on the incline of a
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: small hill.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Dad, what's wrong?
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: 18-year-old David Wilkie had been shot. He was still alive,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: but they were miles from the nearest phone. Fisher told
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: his stepson to run and get help. 30 minutes later,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: he reached rescuers. Lieutenant Michael Ashworth of Virginia's Department of
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Game and Inland Fisheries was called in.
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: I received a call from the Bedford County Sheriff's Department
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: somewhere around 3 p.m., stating that there had been a
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: hunting accident. I proceeded immediately to the scene. It was
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: on the south side of Bedford County off of Stone
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: Mountain Road.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Authorities were too late. David Wilkie died before help could
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: reach him. The lieutenant asked the hunters to describe what happened.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Bobby Mulligan said that when they spotted the deer, David
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Wilkie got excited and ran ahead. I see it! Mulligan
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: and Fisher followed behind. As he started down the slope,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Mulligan explained that he slipped in the dry leaves. His
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: gun discharged when he hit the ground. To Lieutenant Ashworth,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: it was clear that Mulligan was a novice with firearms
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: since he had made such a critical error.
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: I said, you know, you would have had this firearm
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: cocked and He said, yeah, I did. I was carrying
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: it cocked. When I had heard the deer, then I
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: cocked the gun, which was obvious he was very ignorant
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: of safety, basic safety rules.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: David Fisher told the lieutenant he saw the whole thing
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: happen from the top of the slope. He was behind
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: the two younger men when the shot went off. He
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: saw Wilkie go down and rush to the side of
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: the fallen teenager. He told investigators he placed a rag
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: over the wound in Wilkie's back in an effort to
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: stop the bleeding. The father figure tried to comfort his
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: dying friend until help could arrive. But after only a
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: few minutes, Wilkie stopped breathing. Investigators examined the surrounding area
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: to determine if there was any physical evidence to corroborate
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: this story. Investigators found the spot where Mulligan had slipped.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Here you go. The size of the wound in Wilkie's
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: back seemed consistent with a gunshot fired from where the
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: hunter had hit the ground. Nothing they could find contradicted
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Mulligan and Fisher's story.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: I came running down the path there and I saw
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: a deer.
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: And I ran.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: I slipped and I fell and it kind of swung.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Officials then turned their attention to the weapon that fired
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: the fatal shot. They found that it had been undisturbed
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: since it was last fired. When the lieutenant opened the barrel,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: he discovered the spent cartridge was still inside. The men
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: were not placed under arrest, but investigators asked them to
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: come to the sheriff's office for further questioning. Authorities were
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: still uncertain if they were going to press charges against
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: the hunters.
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: Bobby Mulligan seemed to be very sincerely remorseful. He was
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: crying at times and talking about the fact that he
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: had hunted very little. But it looked like that it
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: was exactly as what it appeared to be, a simple
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: hunting accident. And we do have accidents that occur that way.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: At the station, the two men were interviewed once more
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: in separate rooms. Their stories never changed. Unlike Bobby Mulligan,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: David Lee Fisher remained composed and assured his stepson that
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: everything would be okay. Since the hunters had inadvertently wandered
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: onto private land, they were charged with hunting on posted property.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: The man who fired the fatal shot, Bobby Mulligan, was
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: charged additionally with reckless use of a firearm and hunting
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: without a big game license. The charges were misdemeanors. Fisher
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: and Mulligan would need to answer them in court. Until then,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: they were allowed to return home to Charlotte, North Carolina.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: As standard procedure, David Wilkie's body was autopsied. The cause
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: of death was determined to be a transsection of the
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: aorta and lacerations of the lungs due to a single projectile.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: In addition to the 12-gauge slug, the medical examiner extracted
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: cardboard wadding that had also been discharged from the shotgun shell.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Examiners confirmed the slug was fired from Mulligan's rifle. A
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: month later, Fisher and Mulligan defended their misdemeanor charges in
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Virginia's General District Court. The judge gave Mulligan a suspended
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: sentence and fined him $ 585. Fisher was fined $ 220. The
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: property officer returned the shotgun to the men and the
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: case was closed. Two days later, an insurance company received
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: a claim on the dead boy's life insurance. The policy
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: promised to pay $ 100, 000 in the event that Wilkie's death
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: was accidental. Though Wilkie's signature appeared on the forms, he
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: was not the policy's owner. His close friend, David Fisher,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: was the owner and the sole beneficiary. This wasn't illegal,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: but it struck the agent as strange since Fisher wasn't
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: listed as the boy's father, nor as his business partner.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: The company decided to contest the claim. On January 6, 1984,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: they hired independent claims director Harlan Davis to determine if
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: David Wilkie's death was in fact accidental.
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: They contacted our office and requested that we complete an
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: investigation to determine the relationship between Bobby Mulligan, David Fisher,
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: and David William Wilkie, and also to check police records,
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: obtain a medical examiner's report, and to get in it
• 10:44
  Speaker 5: and develop the circumstances surrounding this death.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Davis attempted to contact Fisher and Mulligan, but the claims
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: director was unable to reach them. He was able to
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: reach Wilkie's single mother in Florida. This is Diane.
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: She told him that her son had left home for Charlotte,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: North Carolina, less than a year before.
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: Who are you again? Oh.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: The 18-year-old had heard that his estranged father was in
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Charlotte visiting relatives. Wilkie hadn't seen his dad since childhood.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: His mother said that he caught up with his father briefly,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: but his dad left Charlotte before they could become reacquainted.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: The father wanted nothing to do with him. Hello, senior ranch.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: That's when Wilkie met Fisher.
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: David Wilkie was looking for a father, which he didn't have.
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: His father and mother were separated. They were distant from him.
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: He felt like he wanted to get to know his father,
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: and this is the reason he really fell into a
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: relationship with David Fisher, was because he was looking for
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: this father figure, and it became a friendship.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Shortly after her son died, Fisher called to tell her
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: that the teenager wished to be cremated but had no
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: life insurance. The mother believed Fisher and ordered the cremation
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: since Fisher seemed to have been close with her son.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: The claims director finally caught up with David Fisher to
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: ask him why the policy had been purchased. Fisher replied
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: that Wilkie had wanted life insurance because he was planning
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: to get married His fiance did not want insurance, so
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: the 18-year-old turned to Fisher. Since Wilkie had no money,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Fisher gave him a loan and a job working for
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: him to pay it off. Fisher was the owner and
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: operator of Fisher Services, a small business that employed several people,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: including Bobby Mulligan. Morgues and mortuaries called Fisher's services when
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: they needed a body transported to their facilities from accident scenes.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Fisher and his men worked mostly after 11 p.m. He
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: didn't get paid unless people died. On a good week,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: the work was lucrative, but when there were no bodies
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: to transport, he needed other ways to get paid. The
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: investigator questioned why Fisher had paid the insurance premium if
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Wilkie was making income. The businessman replied that he only
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: wrote the checks to the insurance company after Wilkie paid
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: him first. Fisher had an answer for every anomaly. In
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: spite of Fisher's deflections, the investigator managed to get an
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: important piece of information from him. The new address of
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Bobby Mulligan, the man who fired the gun that killed
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: David Wilkie. The claims director found Mulligan at a pizza
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: parlor in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Mulligan didn't have much
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: to add to what Davis had already heard. 100 Main Street.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Claim's investigator concluded his inquiry in the spring of 1984.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: His firm gave their assessment to the insurance company.
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: We recommended strongly to them that they not pay the
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: policy and that further investigation be followed up to determine
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: any other information that might shed some light onto this shooting,
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: that it was not exactly as it looked on the surface.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: The insurance company sent the case to an attorney in Greensboro,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: North Carolina. Fisher signed an affidavit vouching that he had
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: seen the deceased sign the policy. The lawyer asked Fisher
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: to describe the shooting one more time. Once again, Fisher
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: indicated that Mulligan was 15 feet behind Wilkie when the
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: gun discharged. The attorney confronted Fisher with the coroner's report.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Two pieces of cardboard wadding from the shotgun shell had
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: been found inside Wilkie's chest. For the wadding to have
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: lodged there, it was likely the shot had been fired
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: from much closer than 15 feet. The evidence was not
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: strong enough to prove murder, but it was strong enough
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: to win a civil suit.
• 16:17
  Speaker 6: We are prepared to make you an offer.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: He offered Fisher $ 25, 000 to settle out of court, the
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: amount the lawyer figured it would cost to defend the case.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Fisher accepted.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: If you will sign here, please.
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: They were afraid that if they did not settle the
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: claim for some amount, that David Fisher would possibly sue
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: them for not following the law in paying a claim
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: when he had a legitimate claim.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: David Fisher had just made $ 25, 000 from the death of
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: David Wilkie, his friend and employee. The portion of that
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: money he loaned to a friend would soon be paid
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: back in ways he never expected. On a hunting trip
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: to Virginia, 18-year-old David Wilkie's shooting death had been ruled accidental.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: The man the dead teenager had looked up to, 41-year-old
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: David Fisher, had been paid $ 25, 000 as the sole beneficiary
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: of the boy's life insurance policy. Then a year and
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: a half later, in the spring of 1985, Special Agent
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Robert McDowell of the FBI Charlotte Field Office received a
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: call from one of his informants.
• 17:44
  Speaker 6: Early on in 1985, I had a source, and one
• 17:47
  Speaker 6: day he came to me with a story that a
• 17:49
  Speaker 6: friend of his had been hired and refused to take
• 17:54
  Speaker 6: the job to murder somebody for insurance money. I, at first,
• 18:00
  Speaker 6: didn't understand exactly why he was bringing me this information
• 18:03
  Speaker 6: and why this individual is willing to talk about this now.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: Over the course of two more weeks, the agent continued
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: to speak to his source. The informant said his friend's
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: name was Bear and that Bear's life was in danger.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Agents wanted to speak to this person at the Charlotte
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: FBI field office. But the source said Bear was reluctant
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: since he was an ex-convict. He would only meet them
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: in a neutral place. They agreed to meet in a park.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Special Agent James Lillard, who's currently working undercover, helped Agent
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Bob McDowell develop the case.
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: Working right beside Bob, he asked me if I wanted
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: to go out with him to interview his source and
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: find out a little bit more about this information.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Lillard would keep watch from a distance in case his
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: partner was being set up Bear arrived on schedule. His
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: real name was Gerald Stedham. Stedham said that a man
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: named David Fisher was threatening his life because Stedham owed
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: him several thousand dollars from a personal loan. He also
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: accused Fisher of murdering 18-year-old David Wilkie more than a
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: year earlier. Agents were skeptical.
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: When you hear something like that, it initially sounds pretty fantastic,
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: and you kind of scratch your head. You're thinking, is
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: this for real or not? Stedham may have been exaggerating
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: a little bit, and maybe he exaggerated about the story
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: in itself.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: He hoped the FBI would protect him in exchange for
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: information about his old friend David Fisher. When the agent
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: asked if Stedham... was willing to wear a wire to
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: prove the story, the ex-convict refused.
• 19:55
  Speaker 6: He'd had his run-ins with law enforcement officers before, and
• 19:59
  Speaker 6: he pretty much said right from the very beginning that
• 20:01
  Speaker 6: he didn't trust police, FBI, or anybody else. So at
• 20:06
  Speaker 6: that point, it was a matter of trying to gain
• 20:09
  Speaker 6: Stedham's trust to the point that he would actually work
• 20:11
  Speaker 6: with us and not back out of the situation once
• 20:14
  Speaker 6: he started getting into it.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Agent McDowell needed to find out more about Fisher. A
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: background check revealed that David Fisher had several aliases and
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: 25 prior convictions for crimes ranging from larceny to forgery.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Years earlier, Fisher had testified in the trial of an
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: underworld crime figure and was then entered into the Witness
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Protection Program, Not long after, his protection was removed since
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: his continuing criminal behavior was in violation of its rules.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: Agents also checked records in Virginia to confirm Stedham's story.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: Yes, there was, in fact, a hunting accident where a
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: gentleman by the name of David Wilkie was shot in
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: the back, supposedly accidentally. So that in itself verified that
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: this definitely happened. Then the next step is to find
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: out if there are any motives here. I mean, why
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: did this happen? And if there was any other details.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: McDowell arranged another meeting with Stedham to find out more.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Stedham refused to come to the FBI office. Instead, he
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: agreed to meet in the parking lot of a local restaurant.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Once again, Stedham promised to tell the FBI anything they
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: wanted to know about Fisher, but refused to wear a
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: wire to secure evidence. If Fisher discovered the wire, Stedham
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: believed he would certainly be killed. He didn't trust that
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: the FBI would protect him if his cover was blown.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: They were interrupted before McDowell was able to convince him.
• 22:11
  Speaker 6: I was speaking to him when suddenly screaming and yelling
• 22:14
  Speaker 6: came from a local restaurant. And I realized that there
• 22:18
  Speaker 6: was an armed robbery taking place at the time. and
• 22:21
  Speaker 6: I asked Gerald Stedham just to step off to the side.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: The thief was stopped by the agent before he could flee.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Stedham was speechless. At first he wondered if the agents
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: had staged the robbery to convince him to cooperate. When
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: he was sure the arrest was real, his attitude towards
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: the FBI changed.
• 22:52
  Speaker 6: And at that point, I realized that I had gained
• 22:54
  Speaker 6: his trust as somebody who knew what he was doing.
• 22:57
  Speaker 6: So from that point on, it was pretty easy to
• 23:00
  Speaker 6: be able to get Stedham to believe that we were
• 23:01
  Speaker 6: going to protect them and be able to get the
• 23:03
  Speaker 6: information that we needed.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: How can I help you? I really think this meeting
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: will help you out. At last, Stedham agreed to meet
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: with agents in the FBI offices. All I can do
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: for you is just go out. For the first time,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: agents learned the plan Fisher made to kill his young
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: friend David Wilkie. In the summer of 1983, Fisher suggested
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: that he and Stedham, his old prison buddy, could make $ 100, 000
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: from a life insurance scam. The ex-convict would take out
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: a policy on their young friend David Wilkie if Stedham
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: would do the killing. Despite working several odd jobs, Wilkie
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: was poor and estranged from his family. Fisher believed no
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: one would miss him.
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: His proposal was to, let's take him out into Virginia,
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: let's take him out to an overlook. and we'll get
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: him near the overlook, and I want you to push
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: him off. And that way, he would die, it would
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: look like an accident, and Fisher could collect the insurance money, which,
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: of course, he would share with him if he did it.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Stedham told agents that he didn't take Fisher seriously until
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: he learned Fisher had obtained the life insurance policy on Wilkie.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: And at a.
• 24:29
  Speaker 6: Point, Stedham said he didn't want anything to do with it.
• 24:33
  Speaker 6: He backed out, which again made Fisher absolutely furious to
• 24:38
  Speaker 6: the point of almost a hatred developing between his old
• 24:40
  Speaker 6: friend Gerald Stedham and David Fisher.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: A few months later, when Stedham heard that Wilkie had
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: been killed hunting in Virginia, he knew the death was
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: probably not accidental. Stedham told agents that Fisher later offered
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: him $ 50, 000 to kill the hitman Bobby Mulligan. The informant
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: believed that Fisher would likely come after him next.
• 25:09
  Speaker 6: The unfortunate situation was that Fisher hated Stedham at this point.
• 25:13
  Speaker 6: I mean, actually wanted, would probably kill him. So we
• 25:17
  Speaker 6: realized that the only way we were going to be
• 25:18
  Speaker 6: able to get at Fisher through Stedham was to have
• 25:20
  Speaker 6: Stedham tell him that he was sorry that he hadn't
• 25:23
  Speaker 6: paid him back and that he wanted to pay him
• 25:25
  Speaker 6: back even if it's only $ 100 a week.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: $ 100 a week would give the FBI several opportunities to
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: get Fisher friendly again Fisher didn't hate Stedham enough to
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: turn down the money. Eventually, agents hoped Stedham could then
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: start reminiscing about what happened in the past. Since the
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: FBI gave Fisher a reason to see their informant, the
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: next step was to get Fisher confessing on tape. A
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: few days later, Fisher asked Stedham to meet him at
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: a coffee shop. Pick it up, Mr. Stedham. Stedham was
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: nervous about the wire, but finally agreed to wear it.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Let's do it.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: Okay. Here we go. He was terrified, and he was
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: worried that Fisher would frisk him. He was worried that
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: Fisher might get suspicious. So basically what we advised him
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: to do was to just say, look, tell him that
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: the insurance company is calling him and asking him about this.
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: That way it'll keep him off the trail of thinking
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: that any law enforcement is involved.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Under the watchful eye of agents, Stedham met with Fisher briefly.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: The murder suspect said little and avoided the incident in
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Virginia altogether. Fisher had been an informant himself at one
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: time and suspected Stedham was wired. Outside the restaurant, the
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: mood turned ugly.
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: Let's check.
• 26:59
  Speaker 6: Let's see who's got the wire on.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: If agents moved in now, Stedham's cover would be blown.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: But if they didn't, they feared the suspected murderer would
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: kill again if he found the wire. Agents surveilled murder
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: suspect David Fisher, hoping that their wired informant Gerald Stedham
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: would be able to solicit a confession from his old friend.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Fisher arranged the meeting to receive money that Stedham owed him.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: But Fisher was suspicious of Stedham. To the relief of
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Stedham and Agent James Lillard, Fisher never found the wire.
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: The first time that we had wired Stedham up and
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: sent him in to talk to Fisher, he was a
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: little too zealous. And he was asking too many poignant questions.
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: So Fisher kind of got a little suspicious and actually
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: frisked him. Fortunately, we had a recording device in a
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: place where he wasn't going to find it.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: Unless Fisher called to meet Stedham again, Special Agent Robert
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: McDowell and his team had no other means to get
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: the evidence they needed to arrest Fisher for his two-year-old crime.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Five days later, Fisher called Stedham to arrange another meeting.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Agents were hopeful. The cooperating witness tried to steer the
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: conversation towards Fisher's past crimes, but Fisher once again avoided
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: the topic.
• 28:36
  Speaker 6: It was one of these situations where Fisher constantly would
• 28:40
  Speaker 6: talk about the fact that he didn't trust anybody, didn't
• 28:43
  Speaker 6: want to talk about anything. Every time Stedham would try
• 28:46
  Speaker 6: to bring up the conversation about what happened back in
• 28:50
  Speaker 6: those days, he would be tight-lipped. He wouldn't do it.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: Since Fisher said nothing to corroborate Stedham's version of events,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: it occurred to agents that perhaps Stedham may be lying
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: since the ex-convict was reluctant to come forward in the
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: first place.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: The FBI conducted a polygraph examination to evaluate Stedham's credibility.
• 29:15
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: Stedham admitted he lied about Fisher, offering him $ 50, 000 to
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: kill Mulligan.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: Were you hired to kill Bobby Mulligan?
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: He insisted that Fisher had asked him to do it,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: but he could not remember the exact amount he'd been offered.
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: One of the things we did in order to try
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: to make sure we weren't just chasing our tails was to...
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: get Stedham a polygraph exam. And the fact that it
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: was non-conclusive could be that there may be some things
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: that he's saying that he's maybe holding back, but in
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: general what he's stating is pretty much going to be correct.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: Agents believe Stedham was still their best hope of getting
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: to Fisher, since the case lacked any physical evidence. But Fisher,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: the delivery man for the morgues, was extremely cautious, particularly
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: with Stedham. For the case to move forward, the FBI
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: needed another plan.
• 30:22
  Speaker 6: So what we're going to have to do is create
• 30:24
  Speaker 6: a situation in Fisher's mind where he felt they were
• 30:29
  Speaker 6: closing in on him. one way or another to try
• 30:31
  Speaker 6: to stir the conversation.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Agents figured that Fisher would relax his suspicion of being
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: taped while inside his own vehicle. On a day that
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Fisher asked Stedham to help him with a job, agents
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: decided that time was right.
• 30:46
  Speaker 6: Technology was just starting to come out where actually voices
• 30:50
  Speaker 6: would come across on a beeper. And Stedham had one.
• 30:54
  Speaker 6: So we had a female in our office make a
• 30:56
  Speaker 6: phone call to Stedham on his beeper telling him to
• 31:01
  Speaker 6: call home immediately, making believe that the voice that was
• 31:05
  Speaker 6: coming over the pager was Stedham's girlfriend. So the car stopped.
• 31:11
  Speaker 6: Stedham got out.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: For appearances, Stedham briefly spoke to the agent back in
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: the office to let her know the message was received.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: When Stedham returned to the car, he told Fisher that
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: it was an insurance agent asking to meet Stedham about
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: an ongoing investigation. Fisher told him that if he kept
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: his mouth shut, their new inquiry would go nowhere since
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: the body had been cremated and that everyone said it
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: was an accident.
• 31:56
  Speaker 6: He says, I'm telling you right now, if anybody tries
• 31:59
  Speaker 6: to bring up anything, any witnesses pop their head above
• 32:01
  Speaker 6: the water, it's going to be pew, pew, pew, pew.
• 32:04
  Speaker 6: And those are the sounds that came over the tape.
• 32:06
  Speaker 6: And we realized at that point what Fisher was doing
• 32:08
  Speaker 6: was actually threatening the lives of all witnesses involved in
• 32:11
  Speaker 6: the investigation that took place.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: The recording was good, but it was far from a confession.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Agents had hoped for more. Unfortunately, over the next several weeks,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: Fisher avoided Stedham altogether. Agents pursued Mulligan instead. On tape,
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: the shooter described a meeting he had with Fisher after
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: the shooting. Mulligan told him that he had written out
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: the details of what happened and gave it to someone
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: for safekeeping. If Fisher killed Mulligan, those details would be
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: mailed to authorities. Mulligan refused to tell Stedham what he
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: had written or who held the letter. Then, just after
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: midnight on June 16, 1986, an anonymous woman called the
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: FBI to report that a hitman would be coming after Stedham.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: Agents scrambled to hide their informant at a remote location.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: They suspected that Fisher had made the threat. Investigators hoped
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: they could secure an arrest warrant before the suspected killer
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: got to Stedham. Fisher had arranged a killing before. Agents
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: feared he would kill again. While agents began to close
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: in on murder suspect David Fisher, the FBI received a
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: death threat against their informant, Gerald Stedham. To protect their
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: key witness, Stedham was held in a remote location until
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: agents could decipher the identity of the caller. Two days later,
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: agents reported their discovery to Stedham.
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: What is it?
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: The death threat had been traced to the residence of
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: one of Stedham's friends. Stedham admitted that he had a
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: female friend place the call, but he emphasized that the
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: threat was real. He explained that his longtime friend David
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: Fisher was suddenly acting like a stranger. To Stedham, this
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: could only mean one thing. Fisher, the man who transported
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: bodies for the morgues, was planning to kill him. Agents
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: weren't happy with Stedham's deception, but Agent McDowell knew that
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: the danger to Stedham was genuine.
• 35:03
  Speaker 6: Stedham told me that Fisher, as a part of dealing
• 35:08
  Speaker 6: with the morticians and all the different funeral homes, had
• 35:12
  Speaker 6: obtained a number of chemicals that he felt that could
• 35:15
  Speaker 6: be injected into people without them ever knowing, and that
• 35:18
  Speaker 6: they would die without any traces whatsoever of what caused
• 35:21
  Speaker 6: their death.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: The only way to assure Stedham's safety was to get
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: Fisher into custody. Before they could do that, they needed
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: more evidence.
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, um.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: In the fall of 1986, a year and a half
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: after the FBI began their investigation, agents finally tracked down
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: David Wilkie's former fiancée. They found her in Florida with
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: a new married name. She told agents that she and
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: Wilkie were engaged six weeks after they met and planned
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: to move to Florida. To save money, the couple moved
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: in with Fisher for a short time. But after her
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: fiance was killed, she moved out immediately. She told agents
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: that she felt intimidated by Fisher. Just before Wilkie's death,
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: Fisher had come to her with a proposition to kill
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: the boy for insurance money. Like Stedham, she didn't believe
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: Fisher was serious until Wilkie turned up dead.
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: We want to do as he said it was, get
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: him a few drinks and then give him a good time.
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: I want you to lure him into the pool, get
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: him into the deep end, and then I want you
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: to drown him because he can't swim. Then, again, they'll run,
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: call a hotel security, and it'll look like an accident.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: She believed Fisher was responsible for the killing, but she
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: had no way to prove it and feared she could
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: be next. Well, thank you very much.
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: You've been very helpful. We were... very surprised so many
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: people were aware that fisher was looking for somebody to
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: kill wilkie that was incredible i we found it hard
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: to believe that he had gone to that many people
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: regarding some type of scam or some type of setup
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: to murder somebody.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: Wilkie's former fiance had provided a few more pieces of
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: corroborating evidence Though Special Agent McDowell felt the case still
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: had holes, he believed they had to arrest Fisher and
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: Mulligan before someone else was killed.
• 37:40
  Speaker 6: We were stretching our luck with David Fisher, knowing the
• 37:44
  Speaker 6: type of person he was, to wind up reaching out
• 37:46
  Speaker 6: and finally making up his mind and killing somebody. We
• 37:49
  Speaker 6: decided that it was time, it would be best to
• 37:51
  Speaker 6: go after him and seek indictments and get him arrested
• 37:53
  Speaker 6: and take him off the street as well as Bobby Mulligan.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: On November 5th, 1986... a Virginia grand jury handed down
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: an indictment charging Fisher and Mulligan with first-degree murder. But
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: with the evidence they had, a conviction was still questionable.
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: McDowell had one last chance to get the taped confession
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: from Fisher that would guarantee a guilty verdict at trial.
• 38:21
  Speaker 6: I really wanted to try one more time to get
• 38:25
  Speaker 6: Fisher to articulate in detail... the fact that he had
• 38:29
  Speaker 6: killed Wilkie for money. And I really would like to
• 38:33
  Speaker 6: have heard a verbal confession from him. And I felt
• 38:37
  Speaker 6: that the only way we could do that was you
• 38:39
  Speaker 6: had to escalate his anger. You had to get him
• 38:42
  Speaker 6: to the point where he just lost control, and then
• 38:44
  Speaker 6: we'd start being truthful.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: On the night of November 12, 1986, three years after
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: Wilkie's death, agents wired Stedham after he had baited Fisher
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: with the promise of some easy cash. Stedham had told
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: him that a bail bondsman whom they both knew had
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: a lead on a suspect who had jumped bail. The bondsman,
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: covertly working for the FBI, would ride along.
• 39:19
  Speaker 6: There were several locations in which the trio would go,
• 39:24
  Speaker 6: and the plan was that the third individual in the
• 39:27
  Speaker 6: car would be able to get out of the car
• 39:29
  Speaker 6: leaving Fisher and Stedham alone. And in between each stop,
• 39:33
  Speaker 6: Stedham would escalate the situation by confronting Fisher straight up.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: Stedham needed to push Fisher to the brink in the
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: hopes that he'd reveal his crime. But if Fisher first
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: discovered that Stedham was an informant, the FBI's key witness
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: might end up dead. The FBI plan to arrest suspected
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: murderer David Fisher had been set in motion, though agents
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: were still uncertain whether they had enough evidence to convict.
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: Their last hope rested with informant Gerald Stenner. He just
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: will not be quiet.
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: He keeps talking and talking.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: Wearing a wire, Stedham needed to convince Fisher to talk
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: directly about the killing. A bondsman who Fisher believed was
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: checking leads on a fugitive was in fact working covertly
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: for the FBI. When the bondsman left the car, Stedham
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: provoked the suspected killer to react as Agent McDowell had instructed.
• 40:42
  Speaker 6: Stedham, inside the car, had done his job. He really
• 40:45
  Speaker 6: tried to get him cranked up. to the point where
• 40:48
  Speaker 6: he would lose control and actually start talking. But Fisher
• 40:52
  Speaker 6: started reverting into that mode of being even more quiet,
• 40:55
  Speaker 6: and we knew at that point that what Fisher was
• 40:59
  Speaker 6: doing was going into his planning mode.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: To agents, the risk had become too great. If Fisher
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: discovered Stedham was wired, the key witness, the case, and
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: the arrest would be jeopardized. As planned, at around 11 p.m.,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: Stedham suggested that they report back to the bond office
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: that had supposedly hired them. When they arrived, FBI agents
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: and Charlotte police would be waiting.
• 41:33
  Speaker 6: Once he got out of the car, he pretty much
• 41:35
  Speaker 6: said to Stedham, in no uncertain terms, I'll see you later.
• 41:41
  Speaker 6: Our units in the area were able to converge in
• 41:44
  Speaker 6: on Fisher and had him pretty much surrounded. He wasn't
• 41:46
  Speaker 6: going to run.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: Members of the Charlotte Police Department's fugitive unit arrested Fisher, Stedham,
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: and the other bondsmen. They wanted to remove any suspicion
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: that Stedham and the bondsmen had set Fisher up.
• 42:08
  Speaker 6: The other part of the plan that night was that
• 42:09
  Speaker 6: we had surveillance teams out following Bobby Mulligan, and we
• 42:13
  Speaker 6: knew where he was going to be located. So after
• 42:15
  Speaker 6: the arrest of Fisher took place, we immediately restaged and
• 42:19
  Speaker 6: set up our arrest phase for Bobby Mulligan.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: Agents replaced the tape in the recorder Stedham was wearing.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: As instructed, Stedham had made arrangements earlier that evening to
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: pick up Mulligan from a club where he worked part-time.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: It was after midnight when the two of them arrived
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: at a tavern. He persuaded Mulligan to sit at the
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: bar where they'd be visible to the agents outside in
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: case anything went wrong. When units from the Charlotte Police
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: Department arrived, agents directed them to make the arrest.
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: Mulligan, you're under arrest.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: For their informant's safety and to encourage Mulligan's cooperation, they
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: arrested both men. Though Mulligan and his former employer, David Fisher,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: were now in custody, agents still needed one of them
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: to talk about the murders.
• 43:34
  Speaker 6: We wanted to set it up to the point where
• 43:37
  Speaker 6: David Fisher would be within view of the fact that
• 43:41
  Speaker 6: Bobby Bryce Mulligan was being brought in. And we wanted
• 43:46
  Speaker 6: him to know in certain terms that we had him
• 43:48
  Speaker 6: and we had the shooter, and hopefully to make him
• 43:51
  Speaker 6: realize that he was had.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: It didn't work. Fisher declined to be interviewed without an
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: attorney being present. Agents secured a warrant to search the
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: room that Fisher had been renting. Recorded in Fisher's diary,
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: they found a series of cash payments to Mulligan. From
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: a closet, they removed two strong boxes. Agents hoped that inside,
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: they would find the criminal evidence that could ensure Fisher's conviction.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: Agents obtained a search warrant and cut the locks. Inside
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: the first box, they found documents that held David Wilkie's signature.
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: They were likely samples used by Fisher to falsify the
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: insurance claim. But the evidence was only circumstantial. This definitely
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: is going to tie this in there. In the other,
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: they found only personal effects, nothing of evidentiary value. It
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: looked like agents would have little else to offer as
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: evidence at trial. A few days later, Agent McDowell got
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: a message that 22-year-old Bobby Mulligan wanted to meet. So far,
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: both Mulligan and Fisher had remained quiet.
• 45:38
  Speaker 6: But after a couple days of thinking about it and
• 45:42
  Speaker 6: in consultation with his parents, it was apparently Mr. Mulligan's
• 45:46
  Speaker 6: decision that he wanted to come clean about his participation
• 45:50
  Speaker 6: in this murder and felt that it was to his
• 45:52
  Speaker 6: best benefit to be the first to come forward with
• 45:57
  Speaker 6: a confession.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: Agents interviewed Mulligan at an office in the jail. he
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: confirmed that David Wilkie's death was no accident. Mulligan said
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: it all began with Fisher's plan to kill Wilkie's fiance.
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: Fisher had fronted Wilkie money to romance a young woman,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: kill her, then collect on her insurance. But Wilkie fell
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: in love and backed out. Fisher was furious. To get
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: the money back that he had invested in the teenager,
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: Fisher recruited Mulligan to kill Wilkie for his insurance. Mulligan's
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: story supported Steddon. Agents finally had the corroborating evidence they'd
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: been pursuing for over a year. Mulligan added that he'd
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: tried to call the whole thing off, but Fisher kept
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: pressuring him to shoot Wilkie and get it over with.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: He said Fisher brought his ex-wife's son along as a decoy.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: Mulligan maintained that he actually did slip and fall.
• 47:18
  Speaker 5: I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: Mulligan claimed that he hadn't intended to kill Wilkie, only
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: injure him. He said it was Fisher who actually murdered
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: the kid.
• 47:41
  Speaker 6: He believed that it was the finger of David Fisher
• 47:44
  Speaker 6: going into the wound that killed Wilkie, that his own
• 47:47
  Speaker 6: gunshot didn't do it. So he believed that Fisher actually
• 47:49
  Speaker 6: did this. But unfortunately, there was no way of being
• 47:55
  Speaker 6: able to determine that forensically because Fisher convinced Wilkie's mother,
• 48:01
  Speaker 6: in a phone call at least two days after the
• 48:04
  Speaker 6: incident happened, that it was Wilkie's last request to be cremated.
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: What was the final contract amount?
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: He said Fisher had promised him $ 38, 000 to pull the trigger,
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: but ended up paying him only $ 7, 000. David Fisher was
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: tried for first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and murder
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: for hire. Fisher got the death penalty. Mulligan pled guilty
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: to the same charges and was sentenced to life in prison.
• 48:38
  Speaker 6: I had been a law enforcement officer almost 13 years
• 48:40
  Speaker 6: before I became an FBI agent. And the one thing
• 48:44
  Speaker 6: I did realize from this case is that people can
• 48:48
  Speaker 6: be extremely, extremely cold-blooded and evil. And that there is
• 48:54
  Speaker 6: no remorse whatsoever in their souls. None. And that Anytime
• 48:59
  Speaker 6: you hear a story about something not being right, you
• 49:03
  Speaker 6: have to listen to it. You have to listen to
• 49:05
  Speaker 6: them and hear what they have to say, because you
• 49:07
  Speaker 6: never know when something like that could be true.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: Eleven years later, on March 25, 1999, David Lee Fisher
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: was executed by lethal injection.
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: Fisher.
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: Wilkie had considered Fisher his closest friend. But to David
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: Lee Fisher, money was more important than friendship, or even
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: life itself. On this day, a corpse would need to
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: be transported, but this time, it would be Fisher's.
• 50:05
  Speaker 3: Bye.