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#349 Maggie Freleng with Gwen Graham · Wrongful Conviction

0:02
Speaker 1: A warning for listeners, this episode contains discussion of suicide.
0:06
Speaker 1: Please listen with caution and care. In nineteen eighty seven,
0:16
Speaker 1: Gwen Graham was twenty three years old and had high
0:19
Speaker 1: hopes and dreams for her future. She was a natural
0:22
Speaker 1: caretaker and wanted to be a veterinarian. After moving across
0:26
Speaker 1: the country to Michigan, she went to work at a
0:28
Speaker 1: nursing home called Alpine Manor.
0:31
Speaker 2: Gwen liked it there.
0:32
Speaker 1: She enjoyed her coworkers and loved helping people. Gwen men
0:38
Speaker 1: and a woman named Kathy who also worked at the
0:41
Speaker 1: nursing home, and they started a relationship. During that time,
0:44
Speaker 1: some of the patients that Alpine Manor passed away. It
0:48
Speaker 1: wasn't unusual though, Many of the residents were elderly or
0:51
Speaker 1: in poor health and died of natural causes. But months later,
0:56
Speaker 1: after Gwen had broken up with Kathy, she learned that
0:59
Speaker 1: Kathy had accused her of doing the unthinkable.
1:05
Speaker 3: Let's say, I know the police are coming down to
1:07
Speaker 3: talk to me. They told me they said, your extra
1:10
Speaker 3: friend said that you killed somebody at an earthy home.
1:13
Speaker 3: And I laughed at him. I said, I can't believe
1:14
Speaker 3: he came down here for that bullshion. But then when
1:19
Speaker 3: they charged me with four more, that's when I started
1:22
Speaker 3: losing it. My name is Gwendolin Graham. I've been incarcerated
1:29
Speaker 3: in Michigan for thirty five years for something that I
1:33
Speaker 3: didn't do, that didn't even happen.
1:39
Speaker 1: From LoVa for good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie
1:42
Speaker 1: Freeling today. Gwen Graham Gwendolyn Gail Graham was born in
2:05
Speaker 1: Santa Maria, California, on August sixth, nineteen sixty three, to
2:10
Speaker 1: Mac Wade and Linda Ruth Graham.
2:13
Speaker 3: I had a normal upbringing. I went to a public school.
2:19
Speaker 3: I have a younger sister, Corina, and an older brother, Robert.
2:27
Speaker 3: We were always at the beach. My dad used to
2:30
Speaker 3: take us down there. He had bought an old vintage truck,
2:33
Speaker 3: and those kids would be on the back of the
2:35
Speaker 3: truck or like on the sideboards and stuff, and he'd
2:37
Speaker 3: be driving around the dunes. He'd let us kids drive,
2:40
Speaker 3: so we felt grown up and everything.
2:44
Speaker 1: Gwen and her siblings were growing up in a farm
2:46
Speaker 1: just a few miles from the beach.
2:49
Speaker 3: We have chickens in the backyard, and it was fun
2:51
Speaker 3: to have the little chicks when they be born. We
2:53
Speaker 3: turned the eggs in the incubator and stuff. We had
2:57
Speaker 3: a ducks. They would follow you around. That's like a
2:59
Speaker 3: puppy dough would.
3:03
Speaker 1: Gwen's younger sister, Karina remembers how Gwen loved and cared
3:06
Speaker 1: for these animals.
3:08
Speaker 4: Watching her take care of her animals and her little pig, Petunia.
3:13
Speaker 4: She loved that little pig. You know. She had a
3:17
Speaker 4: dog named Mitzi and she loved that little animal. So
3:21
Speaker 4: she was always very compassionate.
3:29
Speaker 1: But while Gwen cared for everything and everyone around her,
3:33
Speaker 1: she was struggling with herself.
3:36
Speaker 3: I didn't really know what to ask her what was
3:39
Speaker 3: going on. I felt like there was something. It just
3:41
Speaker 3: made me feel real different, probably around seven six and seven,
3:47
Speaker 3: because I liked girls, and I knew if that was
3:51
Speaker 3: I knew the end that there was something wrong with that,
3:53
Speaker 3: because they're supposed to like little boys and I didn't
3:55
Speaker 3: like little girls. And I didn't know what it was.
3:58
Speaker 3: I just knew that it was different, and I kept
4:00
Speaker 3: it to.
4:00
Speaker 1: Myself, especially because her family was pretty conservative. They were religious,
4:07
Speaker 1: and in their world, being gay was taboo.
4:11
Speaker 3: My parents had put us in a private Christian school
4:14
Speaker 3: and My uncle was a head administrator there, and I
4:17
Speaker 3: remember at some point there was a discussion about homosexuality
4:21
Speaker 3: and it was not certainly not in a favorable light.
4:24
Speaker 3: And I realized at that time that that was me.
4:28
Speaker 3: And I had a friend at school and I went
4:30
Speaker 3: and talked to her and I told her I think
4:33
Speaker 3: I'm gay, and she told her parents about it, and
4:36
Speaker 3: I believe they contacted mind that's how they found out.
4:40
Speaker 1: Gwen doesn't remember much about the discussion she eventually had
4:43
Speaker 1: with her parents about her sexuality, but she does remember
4:46
Speaker 1: the aftermath.
4:48
Speaker 3: The philosophy or whatever the means, was just the prey
4:52
Speaker 3: it out of you, I guess. My uncle kept me
4:56
Speaker 3: after school for I think about three weeks, and we
4:58
Speaker 3: prayed on it and just prayed about it, talked about it,
5:01
Speaker 3: and it just never went away. It just didn't happen
5:04
Speaker 3: like that for me, and that just made me feel
5:06
Speaker 3: like there was even more wrong with me because that
5:09
Speaker 3: didn't work.
5:11
Speaker 1: So Gwen kept to herself after that.
5:15
Speaker 3: There used to be, uh, these really really tall trees
5:18
Speaker 3: across the street from us, and he used to crawl
5:21
Speaker 3: away into the top of these really tall trees and
5:24
Speaker 3: look over like the entire city. I felt like I
5:26
Speaker 3: was on top of the world. That's where I would go.
5:30
Speaker 3: So I always would go buy some place to be alone.
5:35
Speaker 4: She was pretty much closed off.
5:38
Speaker 1: This is Gwen's sister Karina. Again.
5:41
Speaker 4: As far as being gay, that's not something that she
5:45
Speaker 4: and I really talked a whole lot about. I know
5:49
Speaker 4: that she had her struggles with it.
5:55
Speaker 3: I would decide I was just gonna go ahead and
5:57
Speaker 3: pretend like I wasn't and just try to be what
6:01
Speaker 3: I was supposed to be date date guys, which that
6:05
Speaker 3: was like super rare. Most of the time. I just
6:08
Speaker 3: pre didn't like I didn't want to date. It didn't
6:09
Speaker 3: bother me, and I just just ignored it. When you know,
6:14
Speaker 3: I didn't discuss it. They didn't ask.
6:23
Speaker 1: When she was in the second grade, Gwen's family moved
6:26
Speaker 1: from California to Texas. She lived there until she was
6:30
Speaker 1: about sixteen. That's when her parents split up and she
6:33
Speaker 1: went back to California to live with her dad. In California,
6:37
Speaker 1: Gwen found herself becoming more accepting of her sexuality.
6:43
Speaker 3: I became acquainted with people that were comfortable with that lifestyle.
6:48
Speaker 3: They were out in the open about it, and it
6:51
Speaker 3: made me comfortable to be out in the open about
6:53
Speaker 3: it and not be as a you know, like ashamed,
6:56
Speaker 3: outwardly ashamed, publicly ashamed about what I was. I accepted it.
7:00
Speaker 3: That's who I am, and that makes me happy. There's
7:04
Speaker 3: really nothing I can do about. I can choose to
7:06
Speaker 3: be miserable and the rest of my life and live
7:09
Speaker 3: for everybody else, or just live for me and just
7:13
Speaker 3: be okay with it.
7:17
Speaker 2: When did you find out that Gwen was gay?
7:21
Speaker 4: That wasn't my later teen years. I guess I was
7:24
Speaker 4: like many fifteen. She was sixteen. Then I found out,
7:30
Speaker 4: and I just I didn't have a problem with it.
7:32
Speaker 4: It didn't change how I felt about her. I've always
7:35
Speaker 4: loved her just for who she is.
7:46
Speaker 1: Gwen moved back to Texas a few years later. She
7:49
Speaker 1: soon met a woman from Michigan and the two started dating.
7:52
Speaker 1: They decided to move to Michigan together, but when Gwen
7:55
Speaker 1: got there, she realized the change was not what she anticipated.
8:00
Speaker 3: She had told me she had a really good job
8:02
Speaker 3: either four. I think it was Ford, one of our companies,
8:06
Speaker 3: and come to find out, she did not. When I
8:08
Speaker 3: got here, she was on public assistance and felt like
8:13
Speaker 3: the state owed hood living and she just wasn't going
8:17
Speaker 3: to work anymore, so I walked into a really bad situation.
8:21
Speaker 2: Did you start working at the nursing home right away?
8:23
Speaker 3: Yes? I did. I took the first job. I hit
8:27
Speaker 3: the ground run.
8:28
Speaker 1: And Gwen took a job at Alpine Manor Nursing Home
8:31
Speaker 1: in Walker, a suburb of Grand Rapids. Alpine Manor Nursing
8:37
Speaker 1: Home was a safe haven for its residents and its workers.
8:41
Speaker 1: Many people who identified as queer or LGBTQ worked there.
8:46
Speaker 1: It was a comfortable environment where they felt free to
8:49
Speaker 1: joke around with each other and pursue all kinds of relationships.
8:53
Speaker 3: I think it was mostly the women. There was a
8:55
Speaker 3: few men there. It was an intimidating universe. So I
8:58
Speaker 3: was just really shy.
9:00
Speaker 1: But soon Gwen made friends and started socializing. A woman
9:04
Speaker 1: named Don became one of Gwen's first friends. Don's roommate
9:08
Speaker 1: also worked there at the nursing home. Her name was
9:11
Speaker 1: Kathy Wood.
9:13
Speaker 2: So she became a friend. What did you like about her?
9:16
Speaker 2: What was your friendship like?
9:18
Speaker 3: Well, Kathy was very intelligent, a lot of fun to
9:23
Speaker 3: be around.
9:25
Speaker 1: At the time, both Gwen and Kathy were getting fed
9:28
Speaker 1: up with their respective partners.
9:31
Speaker 3: Don had lost her job and she was just sitting
9:33
Speaker 3: around the house doing nothing, and my Griffert didn't want
9:36
Speaker 3: to work. She didn't want to do anything, she didn't
9:38
Speaker 3: want to move forward in life, and I just felt
9:40
Speaker 3: like over time her and I decided that well, she
9:44
Speaker 3: didn't want to support Don anymore, and I didn't want
9:47
Speaker 3: to support the person I was with. So I'm moving
9:50
Speaker 3: with Kathy. After she made Don leave.
9:55
Speaker 1: They started out his roommates. Gwen was seeing another woman
9:58
Speaker 1: who worked at the nursing home, and Kathy was married
10:01
Speaker 1: to her husband Ken, but Kathy and Ken were going
10:04
Speaker 1: through a rocky time.
10:06
Speaker 3: She said that her husband was coming over that night
10:09
Speaker 3: to pick up some of his things, and I said, well,
10:12
Speaker 3: I'm going out on the eight with a girl, and
10:13
Speaker 3: so I went over to the girl's house. And I
10:15
Speaker 3: wasn't over there at the girl's house very long, and
10:19
Speaker 3: Kathy had called and she was hysterical and saying that
10:22
Speaker 3: Ken was going to hurt her and please hurry back,
10:26
Speaker 3: and she was just really hysterical. I said, yeah, I'm coming.
10:30
Speaker 1: Gwen headed over ready to go to battle for her friend,
10:34
Speaker 1: but she.
10:35
Speaker 3: Stops me at the door and she's tea saying everything's okay,
10:37
Speaker 3: everything's okay. So I walked in and Ken was sitting there.
10:41
Speaker 3: He stood up and he introduced himself. He was really polite,
10:44
Speaker 3: really well spoken, and we sat down and had a
10:47
Speaker 3: friendly conversation. And the whole time I'm thinking about the
10:51
Speaker 3: phone conversation and what happened is that.
10:57
Speaker 1: After Ken left, Gwen asked Kathy what that was all about.
11:01
Speaker 1: Kathy tried to explain, but things weren't adding up.
11:06
Speaker 3: It didn't take me too long to figure out that
11:08
Speaker 3: she had done that because she was it was manipulative
11:12
Speaker 3: and she just didn't want me out with the girl.
11:14
Speaker 2: I want to ask you about that, like, about Kathy
11:17
Speaker 2: being manipulative and a liar. Is this like one of
11:20
Speaker 2: the first times you started to realize.
11:21
Speaker 3: That that wasn't the first incident. I thought, well, it
11:26
Speaker 3: can't really be that bad. I mean, the girl likes
11:29
Speaker 3: me and stuff, and we ended up being together.
11:33
Speaker 1: Gwen really liked Kathy, but as time went on, she
11:36
Speaker 1: started noticing that Kathy was becoming increasingly jealous and manipulative.
11:41
Speaker 3: Over time, thanks to God to be more vicious, more calculated,
11:47
Speaker 3: and not really good motive. Sometime just took the minute
11:51
Speaker 3: to sit down and think about the thing that she
11:53
Speaker 3: did figure out why she did him.
11:56
Speaker 1: Gwen remembers one day she was with her good friend
11:58
Speaker 1: Lisa outside of the nurse home waiting for Kathy to
12:01
Speaker 1: get off work. When Kathy saw them together, she was
12:04
Speaker 1: suspicious and vindictive.
12:08
Speaker 3: She ended up calling Lisa's cousin and telling him that
12:11
Speaker 3: Lisa had confided in her that the baby that they
12:15
Speaker 3: had together was not his, that she had had an
12:18
Speaker 3: affair on him. She just really visious stuff like it.
12:21
Speaker 3: It wasn't true, but this caused the conflict with him,
12:24
Speaker 3: and I do believe they ended up not together. Her
12:27
Speaker 3: and her husband ended up splitting up over it.
12:31
Speaker 4: If I was to pick a partner for Gwen, she
12:36
Speaker 4: would not be absolutely not be one that I would
12:39
Speaker 4: choose for her. Some of the things that she'd done
12:44
Speaker 4: to Gwen, you just don't do to somebody that you
12:48
Speaker 4: say you care about on your love.
13:01
Speaker 1: Gwen dated Kathy for nine months before they split up.
13:05
Speaker 3: I just got tired of all the the manipulating, the games,
13:11
Speaker 3: and I just couldn't do it anymore. I just wanted
13:13
Speaker 3: to be happy. I didn't want to be in this
13:15
Speaker 3: situation anymore, and I rubbed her.
13:19
Speaker 1: Gwen and Cathy agreed to remain friends after the breakup.
13:22
Speaker 1: Gwen then left Alpine Manor for another job and started
13:25
Speaker 1: seriously dating another woman from the nursing home named Heather.
13:29
Speaker 1: The two decided to move out of Michigan and out
13:32
Speaker 1: of respect for their friendship. Gwen told Kathy the.
13:35
Speaker 3: News, and I thought that everything was okay. I told her,
13:39
Speaker 3: I'm going to Texas and I'm going with Heather, and
13:42
Speaker 3: she seemed to be okay with everything.
13:44
Speaker 2: So you thought everything was fine. So you and Heather
13:46
Speaker 2: go to Texas and then tell me what happens.
13:50
Speaker 3: Last thing I know, the police are coming down to
13:52
Speaker 3: talk to me about her, saying that I killed people
13:56
Speaker 3: at a nursing home or killed a person up to
13:58
Speaker 3: nursing home as I was started out.
14:04
Speaker 1: In August of nineteen eighty seven, around the same time
14:07
Speaker 1: that Gwen moved away with Heather, Kathy told her now
14:10
Speaker 1: ex husband Ken a shocking tale. Between January and April
14:16
Speaker 1: that year, while Gwen and Kathy were still working at
14:18
Speaker 1: Alpine Manor, a number of the patients passed away. Among
14:22
Speaker 1: them were sixty year old Marguerite Chambers, May Mason and
14:26
Speaker 1: Bell Burkhard, who were both in their seventies, and Edith
14:29
Speaker 1: Cook and Myrtle Luce, who were in their nineties. Like
14:33
Speaker 1: most of the residents at the nursing home, these women
14:36
Speaker 1: were either elderly, ill, or both, and their causes of
14:39
Speaker 1: death were listed as natural, such as Alzheimer's and heart attack.
14:45
Speaker 1: But Kathy told her ex husband these five women hadn't
14:48
Speaker 1: died of natural causes. She told him she and Gwen
14:52
Speaker 1: had plotted to murder the women as part of a
14:54
Speaker 1: lover's pact that would bind them together for life. Kathy
14:58
Speaker 1: painted Gwen as the mass remind of the crime, saying
15:01
Speaker 1: that she herself had acted as a lookout while Gwen
15:05
Speaker 1: killed the patients by smothering them. Over a year later,
15:10
Speaker 1: in October nineteen eighty eight, Ken went to authorities and
15:15
Speaker 1: told them what Kathy had said. His report launched an
15:18
Speaker 1: entirely new investigation into these women's deaths. Three of the
15:22
Speaker 1: bodies had been cremated, but the medical examiner, doctor Stephen Cole,
15:26
Speaker 1: had the other two exhumed in order to re examine them.
15:31
Speaker 1: Upon this second look, doctor Cole determined that these two
15:34
Speaker 1: women had died from asphyxiation. He proceeded to change the
15:38
Speaker 1: manners of death on both their death certificates, from natural
15:42
Speaker 1: causes to homicide. Quickly, the media started buzzing about the
15:47
Speaker 1: case in salacious detail. Newspapers seized on Gwen and Kathy's sexuality,
15:53
Speaker 1: depicting them as a pair of lesbian serial killers.
15:57
Speaker 3: And it was in the paper and they were saying
16:00
Speaker 3: that people were killed at the nursing home. And I
16:04
Speaker 3: wasn't too worried about it. I never really thought it
16:07
Speaker 3: was going to go anywhere. So when they showed up
16:10
Speaker 3: at the door, when they came to talk to me,
16:12
Speaker 3: that that was sound of ridiculous. They told me, they said,
16:15
Speaker 3: your ext girlfriend said that you killed somebody at a
16:18
Speaker 3: nursing home. And I left him. I couldn't believe, I said,
16:20
Speaker 3: I can't believe he came down here for that bullshit.
16:23
Speaker 1: But on December fourth, nineteen eighty eight, Gwen was arrested
16:27
Speaker 1: for murder. When she was arrested and brought back to Michigan,
16:33
Speaker 1: Gwen still thought things would be cleared up, that the
16:36
Speaker 1: police would realize Kathy was lying and that she would
16:39
Speaker 1: be released, but that didn't happen. The police and prosecutors
16:45
Speaker 1: then used doctor Cole's conclusions to bolster the story that
16:48
Speaker 1: Kathy was telling, saying that the other three women also
16:52
Speaker 1: must have died by asphyxiation.
16:56
Speaker 3: When they charged me with four I think four or more.
17:00
Speaker 3: That's when I started losing it. I couldn't believe that
17:02
Speaker 3: it got as far as it did.
17:19
Speaker 1: This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company.
17:23
Speaker 1: AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making
17:28
Speaker 1: a positive difference in the lives of its employees and
17:30
Speaker 1: in the communities where they work and live. In light
17:33
Speaker 1: of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and
17:36
Speaker 1: in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform,
17:41
Speaker 1: the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and
17:45
Speaker 1: other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. Gwen's trial star
18:00
Speaker 1: in September of nineteen eighty nine. The state's case was
18:04
Speaker 1: presented by Assistant Kent County Prosecutor David Scheiber. He started
18:08
Speaker 1: by telling the jury about the alleged lover's packed that
18:12
Speaker 1: Kathy had described.
18:14
Speaker 5: This idea of the lover's packed, this lover's tryst, this
18:20
Speaker 5: homicidal lesbian duo was extremely shocking and salacious. At the time.
18:28
Speaker 1: This is Elizabeth Cole, clinical fellow at the Michigan Innocence Clinic.
18:32
Speaker 5: It was no secret at the time that Gwen was
18:36
Speaker 5: in a relationship with another woman, that she had dated
18:40
Speaker 5: other women in the past, and that she identified as gay,
18:44
Speaker 5: and that played a really large part of trial. It
18:50
Speaker 5: was sort of central to the prosecutor's theme.
18:53
Speaker 1: And that's how the prosecutor targeted his audience.
18:57
Speaker 5: I mean, Grand Rapids is beautiful, but it is not
19:03
Speaker 5: the most liberal of towns, especially not in the eighties.
19:07
Speaker 5: As Gwen has told me before, there's a church on
19:10
Speaker 5: every street corner, and we have seen in the transcripts
19:13
Speaker 5: this intense undertone of homophobia throughout.
19:18
Speaker 1: Schiper used that to his full advantage. When questioning Gwen
19:21
Speaker 1: on the stand.
19:23
Speaker 5: The prosecutor asks her about her relationship with Kathy and
19:27
Speaker 5: whether or not that relationship was satisfying. And there was
19:32
Speaker 5: a lot of questions about whether or not Gwen had
19:36
Speaker 5: attempted to seduce other women, and whether or not Gwen
19:40
Speaker 5: had been faithful to Kathy in this relationship. And I
19:44
Speaker 5: think that all of these little things really tried to
19:47
Speaker 5: show how the prosecution was trying to portray Gwen, which
19:53
Speaker 5: was this controlling, corruptive individual who has no sense of
19:57
Speaker 5: morals and who is a day from every aspect.
20:03
Speaker 3: They spent more time to just going over details of
20:05
Speaker 3: my sex life, saying it was kinky. And I was
20:09
Speaker 3: thinking if it was my person, my grandma, that had
20:12
Speaker 3: been killed and they were talking about that, I would
20:15
Speaker 3: have been out in the courtroom and probably would have
20:17
Speaker 3: set up said well, the fun does I got to
20:19
Speaker 3: do with anything? Can we get back to, you know,
20:21
Speaker 3: my grandma?
20:27
Speaker 1: But the actual evidence against Gwen was thin. It was
20:30
Speaker 1: a story that started with Kathy. And before trial, when
20:33
Speaker 1: Gwen and Kathy were in holding cells next to each other,
20:36
Speaker 1: Gwen says she had a chance to ask Kathy about it.
20:41
Speaker 3: I said, why are you doing this? She said, because
20:45
Speaker 3: you hurt me, because you lied to me, because you
20:47
Speaker 3: cheated on me. I said, there is nothing I can
20:50
Speaker 3: do to change that, and she started She started crying
20:54
Speaker 3: and saying, but I loved you, and started banging her
20:56
Speaker 3: head on the wall in there, and so I was
20:59
Speaker 3: calling the guard and telling them she's over there hurting herself.
21:06
Speaker 1: After that, Gwen thought that Kathy would come clean on
21:09
Speaker 1: the stand.
21:10
Speaker 3: That's not what she did at all. I don't know
21:13
Speaker 3: what happened to her between that and getting on the stand.
21:18
Speaker 3: All of a sudden, she was totally composed and nailing
21:21
Speaker 3: me to the cloth.
21:29
Speaker 1: Kathy testified as to what she told Ken and eventually
21:32
Speaker 1: told police that she and Gwen plotted to kill the
21:36
Speaker 1: women in a lover's pact. The medical examiner, doctor Cole,
21:41
Speaker 1: testified that the cause of death for the two women
21:44
Speaker 1: he re examined was asphyxiation, and finally, witnesses from the
21:48
Speaker 1: nursing home said they had heard Gwen and Kathy making
21:52
Speaker 1: jokes about killing patients. So what did the defense do
21:58
Speaker 1: at trial? How did they try and refute this?
22:00
Speaker 5: So the defense really tried, I think, to poke holes
22:03
Speaker 5: in every space that they could.
22:06
Speaker 1: Gwen's defense attorney, James Piazza, started with Kathy.
22:10
Speaker 5: The defense really tried to show that this was nothing
22:15
Speaker 5: more than a story made up by Kathy, but he
22:20
Speaker 5: was limited in what he was able to do. He
22:23
Speaker 5: requested mental health records on Kathy to be able to
22:27
Speaker 5: discuss that with her. So the judge says, after reviewing
22:31
Speaker 5: the records himself, that he was denying the motion for
22:37
Speaker 5: her psychological records to be revealed.
22:40
Speaker 1: The judge determined that Kathy's mental health records would be
22:43
Speaker 1: irrelevant to the defense and could potentially even hurt their case.
22:48
Speaker 1: Despite this being an attorney's decision to make, the judge
22:51
Speaker 1: maintained that having these files available might actually help the
22:55
Speaker 1: prosecution's case because it would help argue that Kathy was
22:58
Speaker 1: susceptible to manipulate by Gwen. After an unsuccessful attempt at
23:04
Speaker 1: dismantling Kathy's credibility, defense attorney Piazza then pointed out the
23:08
Speaker 1: homophobia that was on display in the courtroom.
23:12
Speaker 5: Everyone's sex life is not important because we're talking about
23:16
Speaker 5: murders here, and so I think he tried to sort
23:21
Speaker 5: of minimize the idea that because everyone is gay or
23:26
Speaker 5: was in a relationship with one another, that that meant
23:29
Speaker 5: something in this case.
23:33
Speaker 1: Then Piazza focused on doctor Cole. On cross examination. Piazza
23:38
Speaker 1: questioned Cole about changing the manner of death for two
23:41
Speaker 1: of the women on their death certificates. Did he see
23:45
Speaker 1: any evidence in these two bodies that it was a homicide.
23:49
Speaker 5: Based upon his testimony at trial. The short answer is no.
23:53
Speaker 5: There were a number of other things that these people
23:57
Speaker 5: could have passed away from. They were at a nursing home.
24:01
Speaker 5: Most of them had multiple maladies that could have been
24:04
Speaker 5: the reason they passed away, and doctor Cole at trial
24:09
Speaker 5: testified that there really wasn't any typical signs of smothering,
24:15
Speaker 5: which was the allegations that each of these individuals had
24:19
Speaker 5: been smothered, such as burst capillaries, bruising on the face
24:23
Speaker 5: or in the mouth, things like that. He said there
24:26
Speaker 5: was no evidence of that, but based on what Kathy stated,
24:30
Speaker 5: he determined that it was a homicide. Each time.
24:34
Speaker 1: Doctor Cole admitted that if it wasn't for Cathy's confession,
24:38
Speaker 1: which he knew was the reason for the re examinations,
24:41
Speaker 1: he would not have determined the cause of death to
24:43
Speaker 1: be asphyxiation as for the other three women, because there
24:48
Speaker 1: had been no reexaminations. Piazza asked the judge to determine
24:53
Speaker 1: that there wasn't sufficient evidence for the jury to conclude
24:56
Speaker 1: that they were murdered. His request was denied. Finally, Gwen
25:02
Speaker 1: took the stand to defend herself, but it didn't go
25:05
Speaker 1: over as she hoped.
25:07
Speaker 5: I think she feels like she didn't get to explain
25:10
Speaker 5: her side of the story the way that she wanted to.
25:13
Speaker 5: When she was testifying at trial. I think that she
25:17
Speaker 5: tried to explain a lot of the things that were presented,
25:22
Speaker 5: like the joke about killing people.
25:26
Speaker 1: Gwen admits that the atmosphere at the nursing home sometimes
25:29
Speaker 1: led to gallows humor.
25:32
Speaker 3: I mean, there was things that we did that were
25:34
Speaker 3: silly and just just to get through. It's a real
25:37
Speaker 3: hard place to work where you know, people pass away
25:41
Speaker 3: and people were sick in there, and you know that
25:42
Speaker 3: this is not a place that people were coming to
25:44
Speaker 3: get too muths or better.
25:50
Speaker 1: What she was talking about was something witnesses testified to
25:53
Speaker 1: hearing at the nursing home. Gwen says this joke started
25:56
Speaker 1: with a horror movie Motel Hell, that a group of
25:59
Speaker 1: them had watched at a party. In the film, motel
26:02
Speaker 1: owners killed their guests and sold their bodies as meat
26:05
Speaker 1: to annoying customers.
26:09
Speaker 3: And so I believe it was two of the boys
26:12
Speaker 3: at the party that started saying, well, the body is
26:15
Speaker 3: at a nursing home, We're about doing a chili cook off.
26:19
Speaker 3: And that's just where it started. It just went from there,
26:23
Speaker 3: and every time that somebody would die, it was just
26:25
Speaker 3: a joke that we're going to have a chili cook Off.
26:27
Speaker 3: That's all it ever was.
26:29
Speaker 2: How do you feel about making those jokes?
26:30
Speaker 1: Now?
26:31
Speaker 3: I mean really awful, really awful, Yeah, really really awful
26:36
Speaker 3: considering where it went. I can't even imagine that if
26:41
Speaker 3: it had been my grandma or my mother and I
26:44
Speaker 3: heard her stuff like that and people making jokes about it,
26:46
Speaker 3: and you know, her death, and you know, I'd the.
26:50
Speaker 6: Horrible about it.
26:59
Speaker 5: I think she tried to explain that, but after so
27:01
Speaker 5: many people had testified to it, it sort of fell flat.
27:06
Speaker 5: And I think that Gwen wasn't able really to talk
27:09
Speaker 5: about what it was that she wanted to talk about,
27:12
Speaker 5: which was her innocence. And so looking at Gwen's testimony,
27:17
Speaker 5: it seems like they tried to address all of the
27:20
Speaker 5: issues that had been presented at trial. They sort of
27:23
Speaker 5: went point by point and tried to address every conversation
27:27
Speaker 5: she had had with every witness, and I just think
27:29
Speaker 5: that the impact wasn't felt by the jury, that sincerity
27:33
Speaker 5: wasn't felt by the jury.
27:36
Speaker 1: Cathy took a plea deal of second degree murder in
27:39
Speaker 1: exchange for her testimony against Gwen. She was sentenced to
27:42
Speaker 1: twenty to forty years on September twentieth, nineteen eighty nine,
27:47
Speaker 1: Gwen was convicted of all counts and given six concurrent
27:50
Speaker 1: sentences of life without parole.
27:56
Speaker 2: Were you surprised when you found out she was convicted
27:59
Speaker 2: of this?
27:59
Speaker 5: Oh?
27:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, I cried. I still cry, and I feel like
28:04
Speaker 4: she was railroaded.
28:09
Speaker 1: It was fifteen years before Karina was able to visit
28:12
Speaker 1: Gwen in prison. At first, she didn't recognize her sister.
28:18
Speaker 4: I know she was like twenty five or so when
28:22
Speaker 4: she went in, but her appearance had changed. Of course
28:27
Speaker 4: mine had changed. So I mean I remember standing in
28:32
Speaker 4: the middle of the room just looking around, just like
28:36
Speaker 4: calling her name, and then I looked at this lady
28:43
Speaker 4: sedued her chair and she was just crying that I
28:50
Speaker 4: knew it was her, And so they allowed us to hug.
28:55
Speaker 4: Who were like, it's really you, You're really here. I'm like, yeah,
29:01
Speaker 4: I'm early here. To shoe is so beautiful. It was.
29:13
Speaker 4: It was really nice, really great a moment.
29:17
Speaker 1: Goud.
29:17
Speaker 4: I'll never forget to be able to see her again.
29:28
Speaker 3: I had a really hard time coping with how did
29:32
Speaker 3: this happen? I was in shock for probably years. I
29:37
Speaker 3: was just like an autopilot. I went through the motions.
29:39
Speaker 3: There were times when I just couldn't do it anymore.
29:41
Speaker 3: I just felt like I just couldn't do it anymore.
29:44
Speaker 3: I tried to hang myself a couple of times, and
29:47
Speaker 3: officers found me and cut me down, and I quit
29:50
Speaker 3: trying because I figured, well, if guy's not going to
29:53
Speaker 3: let me kill myself, unless be here for something, so
29:55
Speaker 3: let's get to it. I figured out through therapy that
30:03
Speaker 3: out is for me fixing other things. I spent a
30:06
Speaker 3: lot of time fixing other things and helping other people
30:10
Speaker 3: and fixing their things because I have an inability to
30:13
Speaker 3: fix my own no matter what I tried. I can't
30:16
Speaker 3: seem to to fix this to make people see that.
30:23
Speaker 3: How am I ever going to make him see him?
30:26
Speaker 3: But I didn't do this.
30:40
Speaker 1: Although Gwen didn't think she could fix her wrongful conviction,
30:43
Speaker 1: she still tried. Gwen wrote letters to experts, attorneys, and
30:48
Speaker 1: innocence projects. In twenty twenty two, Elizabeth Cole was handed
30:52
Speaker 1: Gwen's case to review by the Michigan Innocence Clinic.
30:56
Speaker 5: When you read the story of the case, it doesn't
30:59
Speaker 5: seem fully plausible. It seems really fantastical, like it would
31:04
Speaker 5: make great TV. And usually that stands out to us
31:10
Speaker 5: The other thing about this case in particular, and I
31:14
Speaker 5: think why we decided to investigate, is that this case
31:18
Speaker 5: is based around some very weak evidence.
31:21
Speaker 1: Currently, Elizabeth and the Michigan Innocence Clinic are looking at
31:25
Speaker 1: two specific angles that reinforce Helgwen's case was set up
31:29
Speaker 1: to fail. First, they're exploring how doctor Cole was prejudiced
31:33
Speaker 1: by outside information given to him prior to the re
31:36
Speaker 1: examination of the two bodies.
31:39
Speaker 5: Each of these women were determined to have been murdered
31:42
Speaker 5: by smothering, and doctor Cole was very clear about the
31:48
Speaker 5: fact that that all came from his conversations with the
31:51
Speaker 5: police and from Cathy's statement, which he believed. I can't
31:56
Speaker 5: stress this enough. There is no medical basis for the
32:00
Speaker 5: homicide determination, and this was testified to at trial and
32:04
Speaker 5: then reconfirmed during a review by another medical examiner some
32:09
Speaker 5: years later that there is no medical evidence to support
32:14
Speaker 5: a theory of smothering.
32:16
Speaker 1: Elizabeth says, the bottom line is any theory of a
32:19
Speaker 1: case should not be shared with medical examiners or similar
32:23
Speaker 1: personnel until after they make unbiased judgments, because this information
32:29
Speaker 1: can and likely will affect their opinions. The second avenue
32:35
Speaker 1: that the clinic is focusing on, is the rampant homophobia
32:39
Speaker 1: exhibited throughout the trial.
32:42
Speaker 5: This was an incredibly salacious trial. The testimony was especially salacious,
32:49
Speaker 5: and so there was sort of this connection for the
32:52
Speaker 5: prosecution between like this lack of morality and Gwen's sexual preferences.
32:58
Speaker 5: This idea of homophobia that was played very heavily throughout
33:04
Speaker 5: trial really colors everything else. It colors her relationships with
33:09
Speaker 5: the people who testified. It colors who she is. It
33:12
Speaker 5: colors police opinion of her, It colors juror's opinion of her.
33:15
Speaker 5: It certainly colored the media's opinion of her. That colors
33:19
Speaker 5: every aspect of this case, and so that impacted Gwen
33:24
Speaker 5: and really prevented her from having a fair trial.
33:27
Speaker 1: The Michigan Innocence Clinic is currently writing a clemency petition
33:31
Speaker 1: on Gwen's behalf that will focus on these two issues,
33:34
Speaker 1: with the ultimate goal of getting Gwen out of prison.
33:42
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty, Kathy was released on parole, but only
33:46
Speaker 1: after spending almost thirty years in prison based on a
33:49
Speaker 1: lie she told to put Gwen behind bars. To this day,
33:53
Speaker 1: Kathy has not admitted she lied. Why do you think
33:59
Speaker 1: she's stuck with the story for so long or forever, I.
34:03
Speaker 3: Thought along and hard about it when she said that
34:07
Speaker 3: we were killing all people's nursing home, and for her
34:12
Speaker 3: to sit there and tell anybody in the world that
34:15
Speaker 3: it was a lie and everything, and then she would
34:18
Speaker 3: have to have that on her shoulders for the rest
34:19
Speaker 3: of the life, and I just don't think that she
34:21
Speaker 3: can live with it. I think that she was okay
34:23
Speaker 3: with the time that she did because because I'm here
34:27
Speaker 3: for nothing, I think she was okay with her like
34:29
Speaker 3: she was paying her own little price for what she
34:31
Speaker 3: did to me. And as long as she never says anything,
34:34
Speaker 3: she'll always be in control of my life. So always
34:37
Speaker 3: be in control.
34:46
Speaker 2: When you do get out, What do you hope to
34:48
Speaker 2: do with you, with your future, with your life.
34:51
Speaker 3: I'm going to take my sister walk around the world.
34:54
Speaker 3: I want to just take her around the world and
34:56
Speaker 3: travel because she works so hard also does work, work, work,
35:02
Speaker 3: and I just want her to slow down and have
35:05
Speaker 3: fond and I just want to spend time with her.
35:10
Speaker 3: The older I get, the more I realize that if
35:13
Speaker 3: I walk out of here, I'm not going to have
35:15
Speaker 3: a lot of time left. So my fucking list to
35:19
Speaker 3: get shorter. And shorter. I'm not a killer. I'm a
35:24
Speaker 3: good person. I care about people. Though I felt like
35:31
Speaker 3: the world that I cared so much about left me
35:35
Speaker 3: behind and forgot about me. I still care.
35:47
Speaker 1: If you want to help Gwen, you can contact Michigan
35:50
Speaker 1: Governor Gretchen Whitmer in support of Gwen and her clemency petition.
35:54
Speaker 1: You can also contact the Michigan Innocence Clinic to share
35:57
Speaker 1: your support for Gwen. These links will be in our bio.
36:09
Speaker 1: Next time on Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling, we'll revisit
36:13
Speaker 1: our season one episode with death row prisoner Hank Skinner.
36:19
Speaker 6: But I think with the evidence we have now that
36:23
Speaker 6: they're going to have to let me go and they're
36:25
Speaker 6: going to have to acknowledge that I'm innocent. I think,
36:29
Speaker 6: after all I've suffered, that I deserve a chance. I
36:34
Speaker 6: deserve to be with my wife. I deserve to have
36:36
Speaker 6: a life. I deserve to be released and get the
36:39
Speaker 6: hell out of here, and I won't out.
36:43
Speaker 1: Hank died in February at the prison hospital in Galveston, Texas,
36:47
Speaker 1: from complications following surgery for an aggressive brain tumor.
36:52
Speaker 2: Up until his.
36:52
Speaker 1: Death, he continued to maintain his innocence and to fight
36:56
Speaker 1: for exoneration. Thanks for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling.
37:08
Speaker 1: Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the
37:11
Speaker 1: links in our bio to see how you can help.
37:13
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank our executive producers Jason Flamm and
37:16
Speaker 1: Kevin Wurtis, as well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea,
37:20
Speaker 1: producer Lyla Robinson, and story editor Sonya Paul. The show
37:24
Speaker 1: is edited and mixed by Annie Chelsea, with additional production
37:27
Speaker 1: by Jeff Cliburn and Connor Hall. The music in this
37:31
Speaker 1: production is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
37:35
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,
37:38
Speaker 1: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at
37:41
Speaker 1: wrong Conviction, as well as at Lava for Good. On
37:44
Speaker 1: all three platforms, you can also follow me on both
37:47
Speaker 1: Instagram and Twitter at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie
37:51
Speaker 1: Freeling is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in
37:55
Speaker 1: association with Signal Company Number one