Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / Serial Killer Documentary - Charles ＂Smitty＂ Schmid

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Serial Killer Documentary - Charles ＂Smitty＂ Schmid · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

0:00
Speaker 1: It was Life and Time magazines that turned a local
0:03
Speaker 1: story from Tucson, Arizona into a national abomination. Reporters came
0:08
Speaker 1: from all over to be sure, but on March 4th, 1966,
0:13
Speaker 1: Life printed an ominous photo of the desert landscape where
0:16
Speaker 1: three girls had disappeared and the story of Charles Howard
0:19
Speaker 1: Schmidt Jr., or Smitty, became international news. He had been
0:43
Speaker 1: arrested four months earlier, on November 11, just after marrying
0:47
Speaker 1: a 15-year-old girl whom he'd met on a blind date.
0:52
Speaker 1: The article was published even before the juries in two
0:55
Speaker 1: separate trials had decided his fate. Dubbed the Pied Piper
0:59
Speaker 1: of Tucson for his ability to get girls to fall
1:02
Speaker 1: for him, he stood 5 feet 4 inches tall, but
1:05
Speaker 1: added 3 more inches by padding his stack-heeled cowboy boots
1:09
Speaker 1: with rags and tin cans. He also dyed his reddish-brown
1:14
Speaker 1: hair black, used pancake makeup, whitened his lips, and applied
1:19
Speaker 1: a fake mole to his left cheek. A beauty mark.
1:24
Speaker 1: Arrogant and narcissistic, he came from a wealthy family, so
1:28
Speaker 1: he used the niceties he could buy to impress young
1:30
Speaker 1: high school girls. He adopted the droopy-eyed look associated with Elvis,
1:35
Speaker 1: his idol, and acquired a rock musician's mystique. His tiny
1:40
Speaker 1: house on his parents' property was the scene of many parties.
1:44
Speaker 1: Tucson society was not merely shaken by the murders of
1:48
Speaker 1: three of their young women, but by what the details
1:50
Speaker 1: of those murders revealed about its adolescent population. Sex clubs,
1:55
Speaker 1: drinking parties, blackmail, cover-ups for murder, and even connections with
2:00
Speaker 1: the crime underworld. Parents suddenly became more strict, more aware
2:05
Speaker 1: now that their kids weren't safe, and maybe weren't even
2:08
Speaker 1: behaving properly. When kids looked to someone like Charles Schmidt
2:13
Speaker 1: for answers, there was something terribly wrong. Smitty hung around
2:18
Speaker 1: the high school, luring girls into his cars. They hung
2:22
Speaker 1: out on Speedway, a main drag, and they were easy
2:25
Speaker 1: prey for a predator, even one who stumbled around in
2:28
Speaker 1: his ridiculous boots. He became something of a folk hero
2:32
Speaker 1: to kids who didn't quite fit in, because he was
2:35
Speaker 1: older and he knew things. He was strange, but he
2:39
Speaker 1: livened things up in a desert town full of retired
2:41
Speaker 1: people where nothing much was happening. Smitty made things interesting.
2:47
Speaker 1: Even so, it was difficult to figure out just what
2:50
Speaker 1: it was that inspired kids to follow his lead. Many
2:53
Speaker 1: girls went out with him, and three never returned. There
2:58
Speaker 1: are a lot of places to bury a body in
2:59
Speaker 1: the desert. Born to an unwed mother on July 8th, 1942,
3:05
Speaker 1: the baby boy to be known as Charles Jr., was
3:08
Speaker 1: adopted by Charles and Catherine Schmidt, proprietors of a Hillcrest
3:12
Speaker 1: nursing home in Tucson, Arizona. Charles spent his childhood around
3:18
Speaker 1: Hillcrest and developed into something of a trickster. He was curious, bright, imaginative, courteous,
3:25
Speaker 1: and indifferent to others' expectations of him. He took a
3:29
Speaker 1: lot of chances and lived dangerously, without much interference from
3:32
Speaker 1: his parents. Charles soon grew to hate his foster father,
3:36
Speaker 1: and they got into frequent arguments. At school, he raced
3:41
Speaker 1: through assignments so he could be the first one done.
3:44
Speaker 1: He had little regard for learning. His one fear was
3:48
Speaker 1: to be left alone, so he did things to make
3:50
Speaker 1: people notice him. In high school, he excelled in gymnastics,
3:55
Speaker 1: but most of his grades were just above failing. He
3:59
Speaker 1: seemed unable to focus his intelligence to achieve within the
4:03
Speaker 1: educational structure. In 1960, he led the school to the
4:07
Speaker 1: state gymnastics championship, and then gave up in his senior year.
4:12
Speaker 1: He claimed to have had hallucinogenic or psychic power, seeing
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Speaker 1: things in his mind before they occurred. For example, he
4:21
Speaker 1: could see himself winning, and that helped him to achieve
4:24
Speaker 1: things in a shorter amount of time than his peers.
4:28
Speaker 1: I'd shut my eyes and everything would seem logical, so
4:31
Speaker 1: I'd do it. Just before graduating, Charles stole some tools
4:36
Speaker 1: from the machine shop, so he was suspended. He could
4:40
Speaker 1: have been readmitted, but he never bothered. I quit, out
4:44
Speaker 1: of boredom, he said. By the time he was 16,
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Speaker 1: he was living in his own quarters on his parents' property,
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Speaker 1: and received an allowance of $ 300 a month. His foster
4:56
Speaker 1: parents left him to run on his own, with a
4:58
Speaker 1: new car and a motorcycle. He spent much of his
5:01
Speaker 1: time on Speedway, picking up girls and drinking with buddies,
5:05
Speaker 1: although he tended to be a loner. His nickname was Smitty,
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Speaker 1: and he had a way about him that made kids
5:13
Speaker 1: feel that life could be exciting. Although he was odd,
5:16
Speaker 1: the girls seemed to go for him, and he never
5:18
Speaker 1: had much trouble getting a date. He was using makeup
5:22
Speaker 1: to darken his skin, and the chapstick he applied was
5:26
Speaker 1: so thick it made his lips appear white. One friend noticed...
5:31
Speaker 1: that the tiny mole he darkened on his cheek seemed
5:34
Speaker 1: to get larger and larger over time. To finish the image,
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Speaker 1: Smitty chewed on a toothpick, working it around in his
5:42
Speaker 1: mouth as he spoke, and sometimes he put a clothespin
5:45
Speaker 1: on his lower lip, presumably to give it a deeper droop.
5:49
Speaker 1: Smitty would just tell the dubious parents of any girl
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Speaker 1: in whom he was interested that he dyed his hair
5:56
Speaker 1: and wore makeup because he was in a rock band.
5:59
Speaker 1: He'd act the part of the gentleman quite convincingly, and
6:03
Speaker 1: they were often impressed by his courteous manner. The oddest
6:06
Speaker 1: thing was his boots. He'd had them special made, according
6:10
Speaker 1: to his own design. They were black and laced all
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Speaker 1: the way up the back with a tall cowboy heel
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Speaker 1: and pointed toes. He would stuff them to make himself taller,
6:22
Speaker 1: although he didn't mind exploiting his bantam height to convince
6:25
Speaker 1: girls he'd once been crippled. That often made them pliable
6:29
Speaker 1: and easy. His best friend was Paul Graff, who was
6:33
Speaker 1: sent to the reformatory at Fort Grant Industrial School for
6:37
Speaker 1: a hold-up that resulted in a man's death. Paul eventually
6:42
Speaker 1: moved in with Smitty. During that time, Smitty was involved
6:46
Speaker 1: with several girls, one of whom was married, taking singing
6:49
Speaker 1: lessons and practising the guitar. Another Fort Grant graduate who
6:55
Speaker 1: Smitty befriended was Richie Bruns. He'd been arrested for breaking probation.
7:00
Speaker 1: and once out on his own, spent his time drinking
7:03
Speaker 1: and indulging in petty thefts, which landed him for another
7:06
Speaker 1: stint at Fort Grant. Smitty met Richie through Paul, and
7:11
Speaker 1: the three of them hung out together. When Smitty was 21,
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Speaker 1: he found out he was adopted, and his foster mother
7:19
Speaker 1: gave him the name of his real mother. When he
7:22
Speaker 1: located her, according to his account, she told him,' I
7:26
Speaker 1: didn't want you when you were born, or even before
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Speaker 1: you were born,' and I don't want you now. Get out.
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Speaker 1: She then slammed the door in his face. This treatment
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Speaker 1: seemed to affect him, but he kept his feelings mostly
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Speaker 1: to himself. At least, that's what he conveyed to Richie.
7:45
Speaker 1: It was difficult to tell with a guy like Smitty,
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Speaker 1: since many of his stories were calculated to create an
7:51
Speaker 1: impression rather than disclose the truth. He often had more
7:56
Speaker 1: than one girlfriend at the same time, and even proposed
7:59
Speaker 1: marriage to several of them simultaneously, taking money from them
8:04
Speaker 1: in return for the promise that he would take care
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Speaker 1: of them. He managed to get them into bed by
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Speaker 1: telling fantastic stories about how deprived he was, or that
8:13
Speaker 1: he had some form of cancer and did not have
8:15
Speaker 1: long to live. Often all he had to do was
8:19
Speaker 1: tell jokes to make them laugh, and throw in a
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Speaker 1: few outrageous compliments. He even used salt to make his
8:25
Speaker 1: eyes tear up so he could convince a girl that
8:28
Speaker 1: he was overwhelmed by the privilege of being with her.
8:31
Speaker 1: Girls were playthings to him, and the way they fell
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Speaker 1: for every line, it was no wonder he showed them
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Speaker 1: no respect. He once even told a girl that he
8:41
Speaker 1: had murdered a young man who had killed his girlfriend
8:43
Speaker 1: in a car accident, cut off his hands and buried
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Speaker 1: him in the desert. Little did he know how this
8:50
Speaker 1: tall story foreshadowed what he was about to do and
8:54
Speaker 1: there was some doubt later that he'd actually made it up.
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Speaker 1: He once claimed four murders, which indicated that this might
9:02
Speaker 1: have been the first. What seemed to intrigue people most
9:05
Speaker 1: about Smitty, girls and boys alike, was his freedom. He
9:10
Speaker 1: did whatever he wanted, and his daredevil ways made him
9:13
Speaker 1: seem larger than life. At least, he thought so. Most
9:19
Speaker 1: of what he did had exhibitionist qualities designed to make
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Speaker 1: people notice him, and possibly even to try to stop
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Speaker 1: him from putting himself in danger. But the activities that
9:28
Speaker 1: most appealed to him, such as motorcycle racing and skydiving,
9:33
Speaker 1: were those that pushed him right into death's face. I
9:36
Speaker 1: truly wish I could have been a great surgeon, he
9:39
Speaker 1: once said, or philosopher or author or anything constructive. However,
9:46
Speaker 1: he could never quite focus on anything but loud music
9:49
Speaker 1: and animal passion with a hint of cruelty. To him,
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Speaker 1: those activities were just more sensible. Or perhaps they were
9:58
Speaker 1: just easier. In any event, with girls falling into line
10:01
Speaker 1: and even fighting over him, why apply himself to anything else?
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Speaker 1: She was 15 on that ominous night of May 31st, 1964.
10:13
Speaker 1: Aline was only a sophomore at Palo Verde. and she
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Speaker 1: unfortunately befriended frumpy 19-year-old Mary French, a friend and lover
10:21
Speaker 1: of Charles Schmidt. Alain's mother, freshly divorced, moved her children
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Speaker 1: to Tucson the year before. One of Alain's favourite things
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Speaker 1: to do was walk in the desert, gathering unusual stones.
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Speaker 1: She liked the hot sun because it made her feel alive.
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Speaker 1: Her hope was to become an oceanographer, and with her
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Speaker 1: above-average grades, she had a shot. Blonde and blue-eyed, Aline
10:48
Speaker 1: attracted Schmidt's attention. One afternoon, he told Mary French to
10:53
Speaker 1: persuade Aline to go out with his friend, John Saunders.
10:57
Speaker 1: Aline turned down the invitation, but Schmidt was not to
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Speaker 1: be refused. He called Mary half a dozen times that
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Speaker 1: day to get her to talk Aline into the date.
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Speaker 1: Each time Aline said that she could not go, she
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Speaker 1: had an exam the next morning at school. Schmid arrived
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Speaker 1: that evening at Mary's house with Saunders at his side. Earlier,
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Speaker 1: he'd been talking about killing someone, specifically a girl. He
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Speaker 1: just wanted to find out what it would be like
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Speaker 1: to snuff out a life and to see if he
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Speaker 1: could get away with it, as he seemed to do
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Speaker 1: with everything else. He made up a list of potential candidates,
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Speaker 1: and Aline Rowe was one of them. His plan was
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Speaker 1: to lure her into a desolate place, hit her with
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Speaker 1: a rock, and bury her in the desert. Rather than
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Speaker 1: try to dissuade him, Mary simply complained that she tried
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Speaker 1: and failed to get Aline to come. Schmid instructed her
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Speaker 1: to then find someone else. He was restless. He wanted
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Speaker 1: to kill someone, now, that very night. She tried but
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Speaker 1: found no one, so she went to where Aline was
12:06
Speaker 1: visiting a friend and talked with her once again. Finally,
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Speaker 1: Aline relented, but said she would have to wait until
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Speaker 1: her mother went to work that night. When Mary reported
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Speaker 1: her success, John and Smitty got a shovel and put
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Speaker 1: it into the trunk of the car. They drove around
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Speaker 1: until they knew that Alain's mother was gone, and Mary
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Speaker 1: went over to tap on her bedroom window. She came
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Speaker 1: out barefoot, with curlers in her hair, wearing a bathing
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Speaker 1: suit and a yellow checked shift, and carrying her shoes.
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Speaker 1: Mary sat with Smitty in front, while Aline climbed in
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Speaker 1: next to John in the back. They drove out to
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Speaker 1: the desert, out by Gulf Links Road, where Smitty liked
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Speaker 1: to drink and make out. They walked for a while
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Speaker 1: into the desert, and then found a wash where they
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Speaker 1: could sit and talk. At some point, Smitty asked Mary
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Speaker 1: to go back to the car and get a radio.
13:01
Speaker 1: He went with her, and soon they heard Aline scream.
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Speaker 1: Smitty told Mary to get into the car while he
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Speaker 1: ran back down to the wash. John was struggling there
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Speaker 1: with Aline, and Smitty told him to put his hand
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Speaker 1: over her mouth. Smitty bound her arms behind her back
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Speaker 1: with a guitar chord, while Aline begged to be told
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Speaker 1: why they were doing this to her. Mary wants us
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Speaker 1: to do this, Smitty told her. She hates you. Aline
13:31
Speaker 1: continued to resist, so Smitty led her further into the wash.
13:36
Speaker 1: He instructed John to take her bathing suit off, but
13:40
Speaker 1: John had trouble getting it over her arms, since they
13:43
Speaker 1: were tied. Smitty untied her, put her shift on the
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Speaker 1: ground and told her to lie on it. She obeyed,
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Speaker 1: and Smitty then told John to go ahead, but she
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Speaker 1: was crying so much that he couldn't kiss her. Smitty
13:58
Speaker 1: told John to take a walk. Then Smitty called for him,
14:02
Speaker 1: and he returned to find Aline putting her bathing suit
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Speaker 1: back on. She walked away, further into the wash. The
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Speaker 1: two young men followed her. Smitty picked up a rock
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Speaker 1: with a pointed edge and handed it to John. He
14:17
Speaker 1: gave it back, unable to go through with the plan.
14:21
Speaker 1: Smitty insisted that he return to the car and get Mary,
14:25
Speaker 1: but Mary refused to go anywhere. So John went back
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Speaker 1: to find Smitty. When he returned, he saw Aline lying
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Speaker 1: on her back on the ground, her face and head
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Speaker 1: covered in blood. Smitty's hands were bloody as well, and
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Speaker 1: blood covered the front of his shirt. He wanted to
14:44
Speaker 1: know where Mary was, and when John told him, he
14:48
Speaker 1: went to the car and told her, we killed her.
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Speaker 1: He also added, I love you very much. Mary recalled
14:57
Speaker 1: later that he seemed to be very excited. Then he
15:01
Speaker 1: got the shovel, told Mary that John was the one
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Speaker 1: who had struck Aline with the rock, and got her
15:07
Speaker 1: to accompany him back to the murder site. She saw
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Speaker 1: Aline and could not detect any signs that the girl
15:13
Speaker 1: was still alive. Smitty gave John the shovel and used
15:17
Speaker 1: his hands to start digging a grave. Mary joined in.
15:22
Speaker 1: Smitty then took Aline's hands and instructed Mary to lift
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Speaker 1: her by the feet while they lowered her into the
15:29
Speaker 1: shallow pit they had opened. They dumped her dress into
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Speaker 1: the grave, covered the body with sand, and tossed sand
15:36
Speaker 1: over the hair curlers. Smitty then took off his shirt
15:40
Speaker 1: and buried it in the sand, along with the shovel.
15:44
Speaker 1: After they felt they secured the scene and covered all
15:46
Speaker 1: the evidence, they went back to the car to wipe
15:49
Speaker 1: it clean of prints. They invented a story that Aline
15:53
Speaker 1: agreed to go out with John that evening, but when
15:56
Speaker 1: they drove by to pick her up, she was not home.
15:59
Speaker 1: Then they dropped Mary off and went their way. The
16:03
Speaker 1: next day, Norma Rowe, Aline's mother, made every effort to
16:07
Speaker 1: locate her, and finally contacted the police. She worked as
16:11
Speaker 1: a night nurse, she said, and when she left, Aline
16:15
Speaker 1: was in her bed. The next morning, she was gone,
16:19
Speaker 1: without taking her purse or any clothing except the bathing
16:22
Speaker 1: suit she was wearing, and a yellow shift. Norma told
16:26
Speaker 1: them about a sex club at the high school that
16:29
Speaker 1: her daughter described to her, in which young people were
16:32
Speaker 1: involved with drugs, perversions, and organised prostitution. The officer in
16:38
Speaker 1: charge said that this was one of the most far-fetched
16:40
Speaker 1: tales he'd ever heard, and did not take it seriously.
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Speaker 1: An investigation failed to disclose any sign of such activities.
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Speaker 1: Mary French was questioned, along with Smitty and John. Smitty
16:54
Speaker 1: took the other two out and made them repeat the
16:56
Speaker 1: story they concocted, to be sure that no one gave
16:59
Speaker 1: them away by some slip-up. A week later, Aline's father
17:04
Speaker 1: called Norma to tell her that he dreamed that their
17:06
Speaker 1: daughter was murdered and left in the desert. Norma felt
17:10
Speaker 1: there was truth in the dream, and she dogged the police,
17:13
Speaker 1: who insisted on better evidence before they went looking in
17:16
Speaker 1: such a vast area. By March, when nothing turned up,
17:21
Speaker 1: Norma Rowe went to Arizona's Attorney General and the FBI.
17:25
Speaker 1: She also called in reporters, and would not give up,
17:28
Speaker 1: despite official sentiment that Aline was just another teenage runaway.
17:33
Speaker 1: Norma even consulted a psychic, but nothing came of it.
17:38
Speaker 1: And the case of Aline Rowe was soon buried by
17:41
Speaker 1: the police under other, more pressing concerns. John Saunders, who
17:46
Speaker 1: left Tucson to join the Navy, was replaced by Richie
17:49
Speaker 1: Bruns as Smitty's closest friend. Paul Graff was gone as well,
17:55
Speaker 1: but would be back for a short stay. Richie told
17:59
Speaker 1: Smitty everything, began to imitate the way he dressed. and
18:03
Speaker 1: felt they were like brothers. He served two terms in
18:06
Speaker 1: the reformatory at Fort Grant, got only as far as
18:09
Speaker 1: the 10th grade, and was generally a misfit. All four
18:13
Speaker 1: girls he dated dropped him because he was socially inept.
18:18
Speaker 1: He looked up to Smitty, and Smitty allowed him in
18:21
Speaker 1: on his activities. He even told Ritchie about Alain Rowe,
18:25
Speaker 1: but Ritchie was used to Smitty's stories and did not
18:28
Speaker 1: believe him. In July of 1964, Smitty noticed a 16-year-old
18:34
Speaker 1: girl at a swimming pool near Speedway. She was blonde
18:38
Speaker 1: and thin, the way he liked, and her name was
18:41
Speaker 1: Gretchen Fritz. Other boys told Smitty she was trouble for
18:45
Speaker 1: anyone who got involved with her, but that only interested
18:48
Speaker 1: him more. The day he saw her, he followed her
18:51
Speaker 1: home and saw that she lived in an upper-class neighbourhood,
18:55
Speaker 1: in what seemed to him a mansion. Her father was
18:59
Speaker 1: a physician, a heart and chest specialist, and a board
19:02
Speaker 1: member of the Union Bank. Gretchen was a misfit in
19:06
Speaker 1: this family, with odd ideas. She scorned boys, she told
19:11
Speaker 1: a friend, and admired prostitutes for their ability to charge
19:15
Speaker 1: for what boys expected for free. One teacher called her
19:19
Speaker 1: a psychopathic liar. The headmaster at her private school recommended
19:23
Speaker 1: psychiatric treatment before suspending her, and a friend noted that
19:26
Speaker 1: she seemed psychotically jealous. She often cut classes to cruise
19:31
Speaker 1: the speedway, and was suspected in some minor crimes. Smitty
19:36
Speaker 1: met her by going up to her house with a
19:38
Speaker 1: load of pots and pans, as if he were a
19:41
Speaker 1: travelling salesman. After playing out his act, he confessed that
19:45
Speaker 1: it was all a lie that he concocted in order
19:48
Speaker 1: to meet her. She laughed, then cried, and then offered
19:52
Speaker 1: him a cocktail. He was thoroughly confused but also aroused.
19:57
Speaker 1: It was the start of a fatal attraction. As they
20:01
Speaker 1: got to know each other, Gretchen told Smitty that she
20:05
Speaker 1: was pregnant, her family did not love her, and her brother-in-law,
20:10
Speaker 1: was involved in the mafia. After they had sex, Gretchen
20:14
Speaker 1: assumed Smitty would leave her, but he told her he
20:18
Speaker 1: loved her. They started hanging out together as a couple,
20:22
Speaker 1: although Smitty also gave Mary French and another girl, Darlene Kirk,
20:26
Speaker 1: cheap engagement rings. He'd made each a false promise of marriage,
20:31
Speaker 1: although he really just wanted them to work and put
20:33
Speaker 1: their money in a bank account for his use. Darlene
20:37
Speaker 1: eventually gave the ring back, but she attracted Richie's devoted attention.
20:42
Speaker 1: Gretchen and Smitty often quarreled about other girls he was seeing,
20:47
Speaker 1: and she did not get along with Richie, so after
20:49
Speaker 1: some time, he decided to break it off with her.
20:53
Speaker 1: He tried several times, and failed. Richie asked him why
20:58
Speaker 1: he was letting this girl get to him, when no
21:01
Speaker 1: one ever got to him before. Smitty admitted that she
21:05
Speaker 1: was in on the same secret that Ritchie was, the
21:08
Speaker 1: murder of Aline Rowe. She also stole his diary, which
21:13
Speaker 1: contained a description of killing a 16-year-old boy and burying
21:17
Speaker 1: him in the desert. She was holding this over his head,
21:20
Speaker 1: and it was beginning to annoy him. He pondered out
21:24
Speaker 1: loud ways of hurting her, one of which was to
21:26
Speaker 1: get Ritchie to throw acid in her face. He reneged
21:30
Speaker 1: on that plan when he surmised that he might not
21:32
Speaker 1: be attracted to her any longer. However, Gretchen heard about
21:36
Speaker 1: one of Smitty's engagements, which made her furious. He knew
21:41
Speaker 1: he had to do something about it. When Gretchen went
21:45
Speaker 1: on vacation with her parents, the heat was off, and
21:48
Speaker 1: Smitty threw a series of wild parties. Then Gretchen showed up,
21:54
Speaker 1: yelling at him, and Mary French came over and demanded
21:56
Speaker 1: he marry her and be a proper father to the
21:59
Speaker 1: baby she was going to have. Then Gretchen too claimed
22:03
Speaker 1: to be pregnant, and wanted to know what Smitty planned
22:06
Speaker 1: to do about it. They argued, but later she insisted
22:10
Speaker 1: they run away together and elope. Smitty was not keen
22:14
Speaker 1: on that, so Gretchen took off, yelling back, Smitty you rat!
22:20
Speaker 1: That evening, August 16th, 1965, Gretchen left the house at 7.30pm,
22:26
Speaker 1: with her 13-year-old sister, Wendy, to go see Elvis Presley
22:30
Speaker 1: in Tickle Me. They didn't come home. Dr Fritz hired
22:35
Speaker 1: a private detective, William Hellig, who turned up Gretchen's red
22:39
Speaker 1: and white Pontiac Le Mans, parked behind the Flamingo Hotel,
22:43
Speaker 1: near Speedway. There were traces of gravel and mud on
22:48
Speaker 1: the floor of the back and front seats, and 60
22:51
Speaker 1: extra miles showed on the speedometer, although it had been disconnected.
22:56
Speaker 1: Gretchen's purse was in it, with $ 20 ticket stubs from
23:00
Speaker 1: the movie, her keys, and Smitty's business card from a
23:03
Speaker 1: failed upholstery business he started. However, no one had seen
23:08
Speaker 1: the car being parked, and Helig found no other leads.
23:13
Speaker 1: Gretchen and Wendy were seen at the movie at the
23:15
Speaker 1: Cactus Drive-In, and a friend told Gretchen that Smitty was
23:19
Speaker 1: throwing a party. The police received a report of two
23:23
Speaker 1: girls who fit the description of the missing sisters hitchhiking
23:27
Speaker 1: on the road to Nogales. They were picked up by
23:30
Speaker 1: a car heading toward Mexico, and in Mexico several people
23:34
Speaker 1: swore the girls boarded a bus bound for Hermosillo. A
23:38
Speaker 1: search into the heart of Mexico through several tourist towns,
23:42
Speaker 1: where two girls reportedly were spotted, failed to turn up
23:46
Speaker 1: anything solid. Finally, the police gave up. and listed them
23:51
Speaker 1: as runaways. Ritchie Bruns believed that was the most likely scenario,
23:56
Speaker 1: until Smitty later told him the truth about the Fritz sisters.
24:01
Speaker 1: Both Ritchie and Smitty were questioned relentlessly by William Hellig.
24:06
Speaker 1: He believed that Schmidt knew more than he was telling,
24:09
Speaker 1: and it seemed that he did. Initially, Smitty told Ritchie
24:14
Speaker 1: that the girls drove off in Gretchen's car to run away.
24:18
Speaker 1: Richie saw the car drive by his house around midnight
24:21
Speaker 1: on the night they disappeared. He'd given it no more thought,
24:25
Speaker 1: glad to have Gretchen gone, until he dropped over to
24:28
Speaker 1: Smitty's one day. Smitty calmly mentioned that he supposed that
24:33
Speaker 1: Richie knew what happened to Gretchen. Richie said, no, he didn't.
24:39
Speaker 1: So Smitty admitted that he killed both girls himself, right
24:42
Speaker 1: there in his house where they were sitting. This was
24:45
Speaker 1: not the first time that Ritchie heard such a thing
24:48
Speaker 1: from his buddy. Smitty once talked about killing Aline Rowe
24:52
Speaker 1: with John Saunders. Ritchie didn't really believe that story, since
24:56
Speaker 1: he was used to the two of them making up
24:58
Speaker 1: tales to outdo each other's badness. But Smitty was serious.
25:03
Speaker 1: He strangled them both and put their bodies in the
25:05
Speaker 1: trunk of the car and left them out in an
25:08
Speaker 1: obvious place, because he just didn't care any longer. But
25:12
Speaker 1: he did add, each time it gets easier, It's likely
25:16
Speaker 1: that those murders, too, would have gone undiscovered if it
25:20
Speaker 1: wasn't for an incident that shook Ritchie up, which led
25:23
Speaker 1: to the further unhinging of his mind and an increased
25:26
Speaker 1: paranoia about Schmidt's psychopathy. One day, a group of men
25:31
Speaker 1: known as the Tucson Mafia paid a visit. They put
25:35
Speaker 1: pressure on Smitty and Ritchie to tell them about the
25:37
Speaker 1: missing girls. Since Smitty told the detective that he thought
25:41
Speaker 1: Gretchen ran away to San Diego, they were prepared to
25:44
Speaker 1: take him there to search. they advised him to be ready.
25:49
Speaker 1: They picked him up and took him to meet a
25:50
Speaker 1: man he called Charles Batts Battaglia. They then insisted on
25:56
Speaker 1: questioning Ritchie, who was afraid they found the bodies. He
26:00
Speaker 1: too was taken to meet a group of men, and
26:02
Speaker 1: then dropped back off to think about what was said.
26:06
Speaker 1: Ritchie said they should call Paul Graff, who advised Smitty
26:09
Speaker 1: to call the FBI. Which he did, oddly enough. When
26:14
Speaker 1: he failed to get through to someone to whom he
26:16
Speaker 1: could speak, he suggested they go bury the bodies to
26:19
Speaker 1: make sure no one found them. Ritchie still did not
26:23
Speaker 1: take him seriously, but accompanied him to a former drinking spot.
26:28
Speaker 1: Smitty got out, grabbed a shovel, and walked around. Then
26:33
Speaker 1: he called Ritchie over. By that time, Ritchie knew from
26:36
Speaker 1: the smell that there was indeed a body out there.
26:40
Speaker 1: He went to where Smitty was kneeling over a black
26:43
Speaker 1: form lying out in the open, and was told that
26:46
Speaker 1: this was Gretchen. She was badly decomposed, and her legs
26:50
Speaker 1: were tied together with a rag. Wendy was not far away,
26:55
Speaker 1: but all Richie could make out was a black mound
26:57
Speaker 1: with part of a leg and foot sticking up out
27:00
Speaker 1: of the sand. Richie reluctantly dug a shallow hole, while
27:05
Speaker 1: Smitty dragged Gretchen's body further down the wash. They buried it.
27:09
Speaker 1: but left Wendy's corpse where it lay. Then Smitty told
27:14
Speaker 1: Ritchie to wipe off Gretchen's shoe to clean it of prints,
27:17
Speaker 1: so Ritchie did that. He then removed the shoe from
27:20
Speaker 1: Wendy's leg and threw it into the desert. Smitty told
27:25
Speaker 1: him he was in it now as deeply as Smitty was.
27:29
Speaker 1: The next day they discovered that the FBI visited Smitty's
27:32
Speaker 1: parents and left. Then the mafia took him to San
27:36
Speaker 1: Diego where he attempted without success to contact a boy
27:40
Speaker 1: that Gretchen mentioned meeting. He showed photos of Gretchen around
27:44
Speaker 1: the beach, playing out the facade, but was arrested for
27:47
Speaker 1: impersonating an FBI agent. His mother rescued him, and he
27:52
Speaker 1: went home. However, he was not home free. Ritchie got
27:56
Speaker 1: the idea that a girl he liked, Darlene Kirk, one
28:00
Speaker 1: of Smitty's cast-offs, was on Smitty's hit list. He began
28:04
Speaker 1: to patrol her house to protect her. and to keep
28:07
Speaker 1: other boys from approaching her. When the screen door was cut,
28:11
Speaker 1: her father suspected him, but he suspected Smitty. He hung
28:16
Speaker 1: out at all hours, even hiding in trash cans, until
28:20
Speaker 1: people began to be afraid of him. Darlene's father tried
28:24
Speaker 1: to run him off with an air rifle, but he
28:27
Speaker 1: told the man to go ahead and shoot. It would
28:30
Speaker 1: end his sufferings. Around this time, Smitty went out with
28:35
Speaker 1: a 15-year-old girl named Diane Lynch, who weighed all of
28:39
Speaker 1: 87 pounds. Smitty took one look at her and decided
28:44
Speaker 1: she was just my size. For her part, Diane fell
28:49
Speaker 1: in love. On their first date, Smitty asked her to
28:53
Speaker 1: marry him, and she said, OK. He took to wearing
28:58
Speaker 1: a plaster patch on his nose, claiming he'd broken it.
29:02
Speaker 1: He was still wearing it, along with his make-up and
29:05
Speaker 1: fake mole, when he married Diane in Nogales on October 24th, 1965.
29:10
Speaker 1: Ritchie couldn't believe that Smitty just forgot all about the
29:16
Speaker 1: dead girls. His own guilt manifested in an increasingly bizarre
29:20
Speaker 1: mania to watch over Darlene. When he made some threats,
29:25
Speaker 1: he was arrested and sentenced to leave town for three
29:28
Speaker 1: months in the hope that he would get over his infatuation.
29:32
Speaker 1: He went to live with his grandmother in Ohio, where
29:35
Speaker 1: he quickly broke down and confessed everything. The Tucson police
29:40
Speaker 1: flew him back to show them the location of the bodies.
29:43
Speaker 1: He told them about John Saunders and Mary French as well.
29:47
Speaker 1: They found the skeletal remains of the Fritz sisters, bits
29:51
Speaker 1: of clothing, a shoe and wisps of hair. It was
29:55
Speaker 1: time now to confront the killer. Smitty was working in
30:00
Speaker 1: the front yard of his house on November 10 when
30:03
Speaker 1: the cops came up to arrest him. He thought at
30:06
Speaker 1: first that the men in the car that was slowly
30:09
Speaker 1: circling his block were the mafia. He went inside and
30:13
Speaker 1: they came in after him. As they took him out
30:15
Speaker 1: his front door, he called to his young wife to
30:18
Speaker 1: get his mother. Catherine Schmidt would take care of this.
30:23
Speaker 1: One officer returned to the house to search it, but
30:26
Speaker 1: Smitty's mother blocked him. and demanded a warrant. Then she
30:31
Speaker 1: called a lawyer. Back at the police station, Smitty heard
30:35
Speaker 1: the tapes of Ritchie spilling the beans. They brought Ritchie
30:39
Speaker 1: into the room in the hope that having him confront
30:42
Speaker 1: Smitty would get a confession. The two young men glared
30:46
Speaker 1: at each other, and Smitty said, I know why you're
30:49
Speaker 1: doing this. Nevertheless, Smitty protested his innocence and said he
30:54
Speaker 1: would prove it at the trial. They booked him for
30:58
Speaker 1: two murders. At the booking, they asked him to remove
31:02
Speaker 1: his boots. He was reluctant to do so, and when
31:05
Speaker 1: he did, he was several inches shorter. Photographers from the
31:09
Speaker 1: press crowded in, and he sat down, refusing to stand
31:13
Speaker 1: for them. The contents of the boots filled two shoeboxes
31:17
Speaker 1: with folded-up rags, flattened beer cans covered with more rags,
31:21
Speaker 1: and pieces of cardboard. Smitty was held without bail until
31:25
Speaker 1: the hearings. set for December 13. The police got a
31:29
Speaker 1: warrant to search Smitty's house, looking for a guitar without
31:33
Speaker 1: a string, which they did not find. Then one officer
31:37
Speaker 1: flew to Connecticut to pick up John Saunders, and another
31:40
Speaker 1: went to Texas to get Mary French. After she was
31:44
Speaker 1: told that Smitty had married, she gave a detailed statement.
31:49
Speaker 1: Saunders too confessed, but maintained that Schmid had done the
31:53
Speaker 1: actual killing. When taken to the murder location, he was
31:57
Speaker 1: unable to locate the grave. Likewise, Mary could not help,
32:02
Speaker 1: although the search turned up two rusty hair curlers. Norma
32:06
Speaker 1: Rowe identified them as belonging to her daughter. An intensive
32:11
Speaker 1: search was begun, including a crew of high school students.
32:15
Speaker 1: The area was dug up every which way, but to
32:18
Speaker 1: no avail. Sheriff Burr believed that a hurricane in September
32:23
Speaker 1: of 1964 might have washed the bones to another location.
32:28
Speaker 1: County Attorney Norman Green said that he would proceed with
32:32
Speaker 1: or without a body. There was precedent, and he would
32:35
Speaker 1: exploit it. At the preliminary hearing, Saunders pleaded guilty to
32:40
Speaker 1: first-degree murder. Mary French agreed to plead to lesser charges,
32:45
Speaker 1: and both were to testify for the state against Schmidt.
32:49
Speaker 1: On November 30th, Smitty was bound over for trial in
32:53
Speaker 1: Superior Court. John Saunders was sentenced a week later to
32:58
Speaker 1: life in prison, eligible for parole in seven years. Mary
33:03
Speaker 1: French was charged as an accessory to murder, and with
33:07
Speaker 1: concealing and compounding a felony. She would be eligible for
33:11
Speaker 1: parole in four to five years. Schmidt's trial for the
33:16
Speaker 1: murders of Gretchen and Wendy Fritz was scheduled for February 15th, 1966,
33:22
Speaker 1: and the state would go for the death penalty. He
33:25
Speaker 1: would stand trial for the murder of Aline Rowe on
33:28
Speaker 1: March 15, also a death penalty case. Smitty arrived at
33:33
Speaker 1: the Pima County Courthouse on Tuesday, February 15, 1966, wearing
33:39
Speaker 1: a herringbone jacket and tan trousers. He actually looked fairly clean-cut,
33:46
Speaker 1: and some of the people who saw him remarked how
33:48
Speaker 1: small he was. William Tinney represented him. Tinney made a
33:53
Speaker 1: motion to exclude the press, which was denied, so reporters
33:57
Speaker 1: filled the courtroom. William Schaeffer III was chosen to prosecute,
34:03
Speaker 1: with the Honourable Lee Garrett presiding. The proceedings got off
34:08
Speaker 1: to a bad start when the elderly judge misstated that
34:11
Speaker 1: the defendant entered a plea of guilty. When he saw
34:15
Speaker 1: the looks that everyone gave him, he hastily corrected himself.
34:20
Speaker 1: Tinney's first move, with the jury dismissed, was to request
34:23
Speaker 1: a psychologist to come and prove that the jury had
34:26
Speaker 1: been subconsciously influenced by pre-trial publicity. Lee Bailey had a
34:32
Speaker 1: case pending before the Supreme Court on that very issue.
34:37
Speaker 1: The judge allowed it, but then dismissed psychiatry as a
34:40
Speaker 1: science and refused to postpone the trial for a year,
34:44
Speaker 1: as Tinney requested. The jury was then brought in. Thirty
34:49
Speaker 1: witnesses were to testify on the state's behalf, to prove
34:52
Speaker 1: premeditation in two murders to cover up a prior murder.
34:57
Speaker 1: That is, they would use a case in which Smitty
35:00
Speaker 1: had yet to be tried as a foundation to try
35:02
Speaker 1: him in the case at hand. Schaefer then outlined what
35:06
Speaker 1: he believed happened, pretty much the way Ritchie related it
35:10
Speaker 1: to him. Tinney turned it around by pointing the finger
35:14
Speaker 1: at Ritchie, as the one with the motive and the
35:17
Speaker 1: one who did the bloody deed. then blamed it on
35:20
Speaker 1: his best friend to get himself off the hook. Nancy
35:24
Speaker 1: Fritz identified her daughter's articles of clothing found in the desert,
35:28
Speaker 1: and then described Gretchen's relationship with Smitty as courteousness. She
35:33
Speaker 1: added that Gretchen disliked Ritchie. Detectives testified that they found
35:39
Speaker 1: a guitar chord in the desert, near the jawbone of
35:42
Speaker 1: one's skull, but there was no police photograph to support it.
35:46
Speaker 1: The corpse was too mummified, to determine cause of death.
35:51
Speaker 1: They found Smitty's guitar at a pawn shop, but could
35:54
Speaker 1: not determine if the chord they found was definitely from
35:57
Speaker 1: that instrument. A girl who knew Smitty, Irma Jean Holt,
36:03
Speaker 1: testified that she once asked him why he jumped whenever
36:06
Speaker 1: Gretchen wanted something, and he told her that Gretchen took
36:10
Speaker 1: his diary, which contained information about a boy he killed
36:13
Speaker 1: in the desert, for involving one of his former girlfriends
36:17
Speaker 1: in a fatal car accident. He also told Irma Jean
36:21
Speaker 1: that he hated Gretchen. When John Saunders came to the stand,
36:26
Speaker 1: he pleaded the Fifth Amendment to every question, which Tinney
36:29
Speaker 1: claimed was prejudicial in front of the jury. Saunders was removed.
36:35
Speaker 1: Mary French was next. Tinney objected to her presence, since
36:40
Speaker 1: she could only testify about a crime for which there
36:42
Speaker 1: was no body, but he was overruled. she gave an
36:46
Speaker 1: account of the murder of Aline Rowe. Tinney brought out
36:50
Speaker 1: that Mary was jealous of Gretchen and angry at Smitty.
36:54
Speaker 1: Paul Graff, who was brought from New Orleans as a
36:58
Speaker 1: hostile witness, said that he lived with Smitty for a while,
37:02
Speaker 1: and Smitty told him about killing a girl in the
37:04
Speaker 1: desert in the company of Mary French and John Saunders.
37:09
Speaker 1: Paul was invited to go see the grave, but he declined.
37:14
Speaker 1: Tinney got him to describe the bad blood between Ritchie
37:17
Speaker 1: and Gretchen. He said he never heard any talk of
37:20
Speaker 1: a diary. The next people on the stand were a
37:23
Speaker 1: husband and wife, Mr and Mrs Bill Morgan, whom Smitty
37:27
Speaker 1: had once taken in, who witnessed his relationship with Gretchen.
37:32
Speaker 1: Bill was the man with whom Smitty attempted to start
37:34
Speaker 1: an upholstery business. Morgan claimed that Smitty told him about
37:39
Speaker 1: the boy he killed, whose hands he cut off. He
37:42
Speaker 1: also spoke of Smitty's reference to a diary that Gretchen
37:46
Speaker 1: stole that contained a description of this murder. Smitty said
37:50
Speaker 1: he'd like to kill Gretchen. Mrs Morgan too heard the
37:54
Speaker 1: story along with the threat, but didn't take them seriously.
37:59
Speaker 1: Then it was Ritchie's turn. He spoke evenly and looked
38:03
Speaker 1: without hesitation at his former best friend as he described
38:07
Speaker 1: the events that he remembered. Tinney was unable to shake
38:11
Speaker 1: his story, but managed to get him to admit his
38:14
Speaker 1: ill feelings toward Gretchen. Then a girl named Gloria Andrews
38:19
Speaker 1: admitted that she was at Smitty's house on the night
38:22
Speaker 1: when Gretchen went missing. Smitty took a phone call from
38:26
Speaker 1: Gretchen and then said, I'm gonna get that bitch if
38:30
Speaker 1: it's the last thing I do. He left with Paul Graff,
38:34
Speaker 1: carrying an old black briefcase, and returned around one o'clock
38:38
Speaker 1: in the morning. Gloria overheard Smitty tell Paul to keep quiet,
38:44
Speaker 1: and Paul said he wasn't in it and wasn't going
38:47
Speaker 1: to get in it. Smitty came in all dusty and unkempt,
38:52
Speaker 1: and Paul left, taking two large butcher knives with him.
38:57
Speaker 1: The next day, Smitty called Gloria to tell her that
39:00
Speaker 1: Gretchen was missing, and now he could go out with
39:03
Speaker 1: anyone he wanted. Essentially, she contradicted the story Richie heard
39:08
Speaker 1: from Smitty that he killed the Fritz sisters there in
39:11
Speaker 1: his living room. The prosecution rested, and Tinney moved for
39:16
Speaker 1: a mistrial, on the basis that no evidence had been produced.
39:20
Speaker 1: But the judge said that the evidence was not weak
39:23
Speaker 1: from a legal standpoint. Tinney called witnesses who testified to
39:28
Speaker 1: the hostility between Richian. Gretchen. Several of them said that
39:32
Speaker 1: Paul Graff was not present at the party on August 16th,
39:36
Speaker 1: cancelling the testimony of Gloria Andrews. Several of them admitted
39:41
Speaker 1: they made plans to kill Ritchie for turning Smitty in.
39:46
Speaker 1: When Smitty's father took the stand, He virtually demolished the
39:50
Speaker 1: alibi set up by the defence that Smitty was with
39:53
Speaker 1: his parents, or some other couple, on the night of
39:56
Speaker 1: the murder. Charles Schmid, Sr. said that he was definitely
40:00
Speaker 1: at his own house and was having a party. His wife, Catherine, however,
40:05
Speaker 1: said that Charlie came over and watched television with them
40:08
Speaker 1: for a while. She also said that all of Charlie's
40:12
Speaker 1: guitar chords were grey, while the one found in the
40:15
Speaker 1: desert was black. After a few more witnesses, one of
40:19
Speaker 1: whom denied that Ritchie was with him all evening on
40:22
Speaker 1: August 16th, as Ritchie had claimed, both sides rested. Just
40:28
Speaker 1: over two hours after the jury filed out, they had
40:31
Speaker 1: a verdict. Guilty. The penalty? Death. Yet Smitty still had
40:38
Speaker 1: another trial to face. His lawyer was interested in what
40:42
Speaker 1: might happen with Lee Bailey's Supreme Court appeal, filed in
40:46
Speaker 1: the case of Dr. Sam Shepard, based on pre-trial publicity.
40:51
Speaker 1: The issue had yet to be decided, but on that basis,
40:55
Speaker 1: he wanted to get the Aline Rowe trial postponed, and
40:58
Speaker 1: Judge Mary Ann Ritchie granted it. The trial was rescheduled
41:03
Speaker 1: for October 4th, 1966. However, Smitty was sentenced to be
41:09
Speaker 1: executed on June 17, by lethal injection. He demanded to
41:15
Speaker 1: be able to testify under sodium pentothal, but the court
41:18
Speaker 1: had no power to grant it. They postponed his execution date,
41:23
Speaker 1: pending appeal. Smitty contacted another lawyer, Percy Foreman, who could
41:28
Speaker 1: not take the case, but who criticised Tinney for not
41:32
Speaker 1: using psychiatric testimony. After hearing an interview by Smitty on
41:37
Speaker 1: a radio station, he contacted F. Lee Bailey to see
41:41
Speaker 1: if he might be interested. He was. He figured he
41:44
Speaker 1: could crack this case open the way he had with
41:47
Speaker 1: the Shepard case. there appeared to be just as much
41:50
Speaker 1: publicity involved. He recommended that Smitty take a lie detector
41:55
Speaker 1: test with a qualified expert. He also met with Tinney
41:59
Speaker 1: and asked why there was no psychiatric testimony. Tinney reportedly
42:03
Speaker 1: said there had been psychiatric examinations and the results would
42:07
Speaker 1: scare the pants off any lawyer. Bailey then left town,
42:12
Speaker 1: seeing no reason to become involved. Then he said he'd
42:15
Speaker 1: do it, but only with Tinney as co-counsel, and only
42:19
Speaker 1: if funds could be raised to pay him. They managed
42:21
Speaker 1: to raise $ 36. Then Diane Schmidt sued for divorce on
42:26
Speaker 1: the advice of her mother. In June, Bailey accepted a
42:31
Speaker 1: retainer from Schmidt's parents and entered the case. Shortly thereafter,
42:37
Speaker 1: the US Supreme Court ruled on the Sam Shepard case,
42:41
Speaker 1: saying that he did not receive a fair trial due
42:44
Speaker 1: to all the prejudicial publicity. It was a major victory
42:48
Speaker 1: for Bailey, and he entered Schmidt's trial with confidence. Bailey
42:52
Speaker 1: brought in a polygraph expert, the best he could find,
42:56
Speaker 1: stating that if Smitty lied, he would just turn the
42:59
Speaker 1: results over to his mother and forget about it. After
43:03
Speaker 1: seeing the results of 10 hours of testing, he announced
43:06
Speaker 1: that he would take the case. He and Tinney attempted
43:11
Speaker 1: to get the U.S. District Court to take over jurisdiction
43:14
Speaker 1: and move the case out of the state, They managed
43:17
Speaker 1: only to postpone the Roe trial until April 3rd, 1967,
43:21
Speaker 1: then continued it to May 10. Bailey flew in on
43:27
Speaker 1: May 9, prepared to defend Schmidt on the basis of
43:30
Speaker 1: the absence of a body, implying there was no murder.
43:34
Speaker 1: The two defence lawyers tried to get the charges reduced
43:37
Speaker 1: to second-degree murder, but Schaefer wouldn't budge. They asked again,
43:42
Speaker 1: and he accepted the deal. Bailey then tried to convince
43:46
Speaker 1: Schmidt to plead guilty to lesser charges, because the jury
43:49
Speaker 1: was completely prejudiced, and Smitty decided to fire both Bailey
43:54
Speaker 1: and Tinney. His father persuaded him against it. The trial
43:59
Speaker 1: went forward, again with Mary French telling her story, but
44:03
Speaker 1: John Saunders refused to participate. The judge said that, as
44:07
Speaker 1: a substitute, he would admit Saunders' preliminary hearing statements. This
44:12
Speaker 1: alarmed the defence lawyers. Bailey did not show up the
44:16
Speaker 1: next day, claiming to be ill. Tinney informed Charlie's parents
44:22
Speaker 1: that they would accept the deal that Schaefer offered. They
44:25
Speaker 1: went and found Bailey, who did not seem ill to them,
44:28
Speaker 1: and he said that the jury was set to hang him.
44:32
Speaker 1: This deal was the only way to save his life.
44:36
Speaker 1: Charlie resisted, and then reconsidered. Finally, he pleaded guilty to
44:41
Speaker 1: second-degree murder. Bailey asked that he receive psychiatric treatment. He
44:46
Speaker 1: later told interviewers that he believed Schmidt to be guilty
44:49
Speaker 1: before the trial even started, despite the results of the
44:53
Speaker 1: lie detector test. Yet there were many people who believed
44:56
Speaker 1: the famous lawyer, seeing that he could not win, just
44:59
Speaker 1: bailed out. Schmidt wrote to the judge, asking for another trial,
45:04
Speaker 1: because his lawyers coerced his guilty plea. He said he
45:08
Speaker 1: could produce the body and thereby prove that she was
45:11
Speaker 1: not killed by a blow to the head. The judge
45:15
Speaker 1: agreed to hear Schmidt's request on June 12th. A lawyer
45:19
Speaker 1: was appointed by the court, and two psychiatrists were to
45:22
Speaker 1: examine him, but he refused to submit to testing. Then
45:26
Speaker 1: Schmidt abruptly withdrew his motion for a new trial. Judge
45:31
Speaker 1: Royalston gave him a sentence of 50 years to life
45:34
Speaker 1: in prison. Schmidt said he'd prefer death. On June 23rd,
45:40
Speaker 1: Schmid told the sheriff, whom he had taken into his confidence,
45:43
Speaker 1: that he wanted to lead them to the grave of
45:45
Speaker 1: Aline Rowe. After a couple of failed attempts, he located
45:50
Speaker 1: the grave. An autopsy indicated that, contrary to Schmidty's claim,
45:55
Speaker 1: there were fractures and dry blood at the base of
45:58
Speaker 1: the skull. The fractures were induced while she was still alive.
46:04
Speaker 1: A rock examined by him that had lain near the
46:06
Speaker 1: remains had specks of blood on it. Smitty was stunned
46:10
Speaker 1: by these findings, but taken back to serve his time,
46:14
Speaker 1: the case of Aline Rowe came to a close. Charles Schmidt, Jr.
46:20
Speaker 1: was in the Arizona penitentiary, awaiting death for the murders
46:23
Speaker 1: of Gretchen and Wendy Fritz. He attempted to escape once
46:28
Speaker 1: by hiding inside a hollowed-out exercise horse, but was found
46:32
Speaker 1: before he succeeded. He then used a fake self-checkout attempt
46:36
Speaker 1: to escape, which also didn't work. In 1971, the state
46:41
Speaker 1: of Arizona temporarily abolished the death penalty, but Smitty was
46:45
Speaker 1: still in prison for 50 years. So he tried another escape,
46:50
Speaker 1: and briefly succeeded. He was spotted by a railroad worker,
46:54
Speaker 1: who went to school with him, and who noticed him
46:57
Speaker 1: because of a foolish yellow wig he donned as a disguise.
47:01
Speaker 1: He was returned to prison. Schmitt changed his name to
47:05
Speaker 1: Paul David Ashley and turned to writing music and essays
47:09
Speaker 1: to keep himself busy. He tried reading Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment,
47:14
Speaker 1: but was puzzled by the way Raskolnikov, who murdered two women,
47:19
Speaker 1: was plagued by guilt and remorse. He strutted around the
47:23
Speaker 1: prison as if he were superior to other prisoners, and
47:26
Speaker 1: two of them beat him up one day. He was
47:28
Speaker 1: found stabbed and lying in a pool of blood. He
47:32
Speaker 1: had a sucking wound in the right chest that did
47:35
Speaker 1: not respond to surgery. One eye had to be removed.
47:39
Speaker 1: In all, he had some 20 stab wounds to his
47:42
Speaker 1: face and chest. On the tenth day after the stabbing,
47:46
Speaker 1: still in the hospital, Smitty began to fail. He was
47:50
Speaker 1: pronounced dead on March 30th, 1975. At the request of
47:56
Speaker 1: his parents, he was buried in the prison cemetery. I am...
48:02
Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this video, click this video right here
48:05
Speaker 1: as well, because I'm pointing my finger to it, so,
48:10
Speaker 1: you know, you have to.