Latest / NO FILTER / Mother _ Son Accuse Each Other of Brutal Killing_The Murder of Lanny Horwitz _True Crime Documentary

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Mother _ Son Accuse Each Other of Brutal Killing_The Murder of Lanny Horwitz _True Crime Documentary · NO FILTER

0:03
Speaker 1: Early one autumn morning in twenty eleven, a security guard
0:07
Speaker 1: in the wealthy gated community of Admiral's Cove responded to
0:11
Speaker 1: a security alarm at one of the homes in the neighborhood.
0:15
Speaker 1: The guard arrived at the residence within three minutes of dispatch. Inside,
0:20
Speaker 1: he found the patriarch of the family dead in the bathroom.
0:25
Speaker 1: Two possible murder weapons were spotted nearby. Emerging from the
0:30
Speaker 1: house were two suspects, a mother and son, each with
0:34
Speaker 1: a motive and each pointing the finger at the other.
0:39
Speaker 1: It seemed that one of them had to be the killer,
0:42
Speaker 1: that is, unless there was a third person who had
0:46
Speaker 1: somehow made a rapid escape from the scene. Hi there,
0:53
Speaker 1: I'm Kevin, and welcome to Just Thought Lounge. Today's case
0:57
Speaker 1: has so many of the aspects that make for a
1:00
Speaker 1: head scratching roller coaster of a story. It has romance, scandal, resentment,
1:06
Speaker 1: ambiguous physical evidence, and the knowledge that at least one
1:09
Speaker 1: of the main figures must be lying for any of
1:13
Speaker 1: it to make sense. Let's take a look. Admiral's Cove
1:32
Speaker 1: is an affluent neighborhood in Palm Beach, Florida. The waterfront
1:36
Speaker 1: promenade provides stunning views of the water lined with multimillion
1:40
Speaker 1: dollar homes and luxury apartments. At seven am on September thirty,
1:45
Speaker 1: twenty eleven, Lewis Garcia, a security officer, was instructed to
1:50
Speaker 1: respond to a home alarm in the gated community. It
1:53
Speaker 1: appeared to have been triggered by the system's glass break sensors.
1:57
Speaker 1: He arrived at the house three minutes lefter. Answering the
2:01
Speaker 1: door was thirty eight year old Radley Horowitz, who appeared
2:04
Speaker 1: to be a bit dazed, perhaps having only just awoken
2:09
Speaker 1: from inside the house. His mother, Donna, was distraught and screaming,
2:13
Speaker 1: I think he's dead. Further inside the house, through the
2:17
Speaker 1: master bedroom, Lewis found sixty six year old Lanny Horowitz
2:21
Speaker 1: collapsed in the bathroom in a bloody scene. The glass
2:25
Speaker 1: from the shower door had shattered behind him, leaving shards
2:28
Speaker 1: scattered across the floor. Lanny was bleeding from the head
2:33
Speaker 1: a gun in his hand. Police and EMTs responded swiftly,
2:39
Speaker 1: though when they arrived it was too late. Lanny was
2:43
Speaker 1: pronounced dead at the scene.
2:50
Speaker 2: In retrospect, it could be something else, but I'm thinking
2:53
Speaker 2: you look like Shelshaw Hack to wake like you just
2:55
Speaker 2: crawled out a bed, literally just crawled out of bed.
2:58
Speaker 2: So he's at it jama but he's in clothes and
3:01
Speaker 2: he looks roggier, gazed, if you just got out of bed.
3:05
Speaker 3: So I said to him, what's going on? We're here
3:07
Speaker 3: for an alarm.
3:07
Speaker 2: He goes, I don't know, and he said, my mom
3:10
Speaker 2: is screaming. I said, okay, why is her mom screaming?
3:12
Speaker 4: Goes, I don't know.
3:13
Speaker 2: I said, is there anybody else in the house? Who
3:15
Speaker 2: was in the house just YouTube go with my father?
3:18
Speaker 2: And I said, are there any weapons or guns inside
3:20
Speaker 2: the house?
3:21
Speaker 3: Does he have a gun? He said, yes, I think
3:23
Speaker 3: he had the gun.
3:24
Speaker 2: And I see her upset, hysterical, sobbing, and I come
3:28
Speaker 2: to her quickly.
3:29
Speaker 3: I look around and I.
3:30
Speaker 2: Tell him to stay right there, and I say, what's
3:33
Speaker 2: going on? She said, I think he's dead.
3:36
Speaker 4: What sort of either action or reaction or actions do
3:41
Speaker 4: you see from mom?
3:43
Speaker 5: And from the sun, Mom is very emotional, She's extremely upset,
3:49
Speaker 5: almost can't speak. The sun again, I thought, was days
3:55
Speaker 5: shock not showing a.
3:58
Speaker 2: Whole lot of them emotion like, I don't know, maybe's sleepy,
4:02
Speaker 2: drawing down in or whatever. Now obviously things are pointing
4:04
Speaker 2: in different direction. But I clearly remember that Mom was
4:07
Speaker 2: very emotional. Son was not. Nothing about them made me
4:13
Speaker 2: think that they were involved.
4:14
Speaker 3: I saw no blood on them. On the way, they
4:16
Speaker 3: would have been a little different. No injuries, nothing, no injuries.
4:20
Speaker 3: I didn't see any blood, any injuries, nothing.
4:24
Speaker 6: No.
4:24
Speaker 3: One was pretty upset son period.
4:27
Speaker 4: It is if he had just woken up and then.
4:30
Speaker 1: Lewis told police that after he entered the bathroom, he
4:33
Speaker 1: secured the gun from Lanny's hand by removing it. Then
4:36
Speaker 1: he began to render medical aid. The security officer's initial
4:40
Speaker 1: assumption was that the wounds had been self inflicted, indeed,
4:44
Speaker 1: because he discovered the gun in Lanny's hand, responding officers
4:48
Speaker 1: and even detectives believed this to be the case. At
4:51
Speaker 1: least at first. Initial assumptions were proven wrong when it
4:56
Speaker 1: was discovered that Lanny had been shot not just once,
4:59
Speaker 1: but nine times. There was no indication of forced entry
5:05
Speaker 1: into the house. That left two potential suspects, Donna Horwitz
5:09
Speaker 1: and her and Lanny's son Radley, at the scene. Donna
5:16
Speaker 1: refused to speak with law enforcement. She appeared to be
5:19
Speaker 1: in a state of shock. Radley, however, spoke freely. He
5:23
Speaker 1: told the detective that he awoke and heard gunshots. However,
5:27
Speaker 1: he could not be certain if he was initially jolted
5:30
Speaker 1: awake by the gunfiring or the security alarm regardless. From
5:34
Speaker 1: the doorway of his bedroom, he claimed to see his
5:37
Speaker 1: mother screaming and pacing.
5:41
Speaker 7: It was like pop pop, and the alarm was going off,
5:46
Speaker 7: and I heard screaming, and.
5:48
Speaker 4: I was afraid to come out of my room.
5:50
Speaker 7: I know that sounds awful, but I was scared, okay,
5:55
Speaker 7: And my mom was screaming and she was in the
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Speaker 7: living room. I could see my dad through the doorway.
6:03
Speaker 7: At least I assume it was that nobody else would
6:06
Speaker 7: have been in the house, and obviously now it is
6:09
Speaker 7: I saw someone on the floor in blood. I don't
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Speaker 7: know if I heard a couple of pops, but I
6:16
Speaker 7: don't know how many there were, Okay, but it.
6:19
Speaker 4: Was it was loud. What was What was your mom's demeanor?
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Speaker 7: What was she She was screaming and screaming my name,
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Speaker 7: and she was like going around in the living room
6:33
Speaker 7: for arms.
6:36
Speaker 8: Did she was she.
6:37
Speaker 4: Saying anything of what happened or what you or anything?
6:42
Speaker 7: No? You know, do you think that your mom is
6:47
Speaker 7: capable of shooting your dad. No, No, she's got her
6:54
Speaker 7: dogs and she's got us.
6:57
Speaker 4: Yeah.
6:58
Speaker 1: There were no arrests made at the scene. Indeed, it
7:01
Speaker 1: took some time for investigators to sort through the evidence
7:05
Speaker 1: in the house. Entering the lavish mansion, investigators first noted
7:09
Speaker 1: the cleanliness of the home. The only notable indication of
7:13
Speaker 1: the horrific murder that had taken place. Further inside was
7:17
Speaker 1: a small smear of blood on the railing of the gate.
7:20
Speaker 1: On the other side of the front door. Approaching the
7:23
Speaker 1: master bathroom, a gun was found on the floor outside,
7:27
Speaker 1: the one that Lewis had removed from Lannie's hand. Another
7:31
Speaker 1: was identified in a holster on the bedroom dresser. Bullet
7:34
Speaker 1: fragments fired from both guns were found in the bathroom.
7:39
Speaker 1: Two guns had been fired at Lannie as he exited
7:42
Speaker 1: the shower. These were not the only firearms located in
7:47
Speaker 1: the home, not even close. It seems that both Lannie
7:51
Speaker 1: and his son had a propensity for guns. Police found
7:55
Speaker 1: twenty four other firearms in the house, ranging from handguns
7:58
Speaker 1: to rifles. There were masses of ammunition as well as
8:02
Speaker 1: other accessories. In a suitcase with Radley's name of the
8:06
Speaker 1: tag was ammunition matching the type fired from the two
8:10
Speaker 1: guns that killed his father At the station, Donna was
8:17
Speaker 1: read a warrant before her DNA was collected for analysis.
8:21
Speaker 1: When the results were returned, they provided more questions than answers.
8:26
Speaker 1: The gun on the floor near the bathroom had a
8:28
Speaker 1: mixture of Lanni's DNA and one other DNA source. Radley
8:33
Speaker 1: and the security guards were excluded as the second source,
8:36
Speaker 1: but Donna could not be. The gun on the dresser
8:39
Speaker 1: was found to also contain DNA from two people, but
8:43
Speaker 1: these test results were inconclusive. Perhaps most curiously, the bloody
8:48
Speaker 1: finger smudge that had been left so far from the
8:50
Speaker 1: scene of the shooting at the entrance to the house
8:53
Speaker 1: also contained a mixture of two DNA profiles. One of
8:57
Speaker 1: these was Lannie's, the other was from an unidentified source.
9:09
Speaker 1: Investigators seeking to piece together the family dynamic sought out
9:13
Speaker 1: those who knew the Horwitz household. They spoke with Mary Garbo,
9:17
Speaker 1: Radley's ex partner, with whom he shared a daughter. Mary
9:21
Speaker 1: had at one time also been close with Donna, though
9:23
Speaker 1: their relationship had soured in the years after she and
9:26
Speaker 1: Radley split. Mary explained that until a few years prior
9:30
Speaker 1: Radley had operated a business called Jupiter Arms, selling guns
9:35
Speaker 1: and accessories. He had his gun selling license revoked. However,
9:39
Speaker 1: after a run in with law enforcement, Radley was put
9:42
Speaker 1: on the radar of the ATF after purchasing an illegal
9:46
Speaker 1: gun part online, one which could convert a glock pistol
9:49
Speaker 1: into a fully automatic weapon. He had been encouraged to
9:53
Speaker 1: purchase it by his father. That decision turned out to
9:57
Speaker 1: be a life changing. One guy.
10:00
Speaker 9: Let him you hang up his certificate on his on
10:03
Speaker 9: his wall at his business certificate stating that he had
10:07
Speaker 9: an FFL and then his business basically was he go
10:15
Speaker 9: to the bars at night where he hung out anyway,
10:17
Speaker 9: and he would try to drum up business guns.
10:23
Speaker 4: What's guns in the house.
10:26
Speaker 9: His father was just as paranoid about having guns as
10:31
Speaker 9: as Radley became that rad was more obsessive about it
10:34
Speaker 9: than his father was.
10:35
Speaker 1: Though, Radley was convicted of a felony after he agreed
10:39
Speaker 1: to sell a gun to an undercover officer with the
10:42
Speaker 1: ATF who presented the wrong paperwork. This led to a
10:45
Speaker 1: five month prison sentence. Radley claimed afterwards that he had
10:49
Speaker 1: been entrapped and that the only reason he had been
10:52
Speaker 1: targeted was the prior illegal purchase prompted by his father.
10:57
Speaker 1: In this way, he blamed Lanny for the conviction. It
11:00
Speaker 1: did not help that when federal agents arrived to arrest him,
11:04
Speaker 1: he recalled that his father had laughed.
11:08
Speaker 4: Do you know what the guns had kept in the house.
11:11
Speaker 9: The guns used to be kept in every door closet,
11:14
Speaker 9: in underneath beds and bathrooms, and they used to be
11:18
Speaker 9: everywhere once upon a time that after rad got in trouble,
11:22
Speaker 9: I was told all the guns were sold.
11:25
Speaker 4: There were no more guns.
11:26
Speaker 9: And because he was in trouble and improbation, he was
11:30
Speaker 9: as being your weapons.
11:31
Speaker 8: So I was told everything was gone.
11:35
Speaker 1: Following the conviction, Radley struggled to find work. He moved
11:39
Speaker 1: back into the family home, where he began working for
11:42
Speaker 1: his father's business. But things in the household had been
11:46
Speaker 1: tense ever since Donna had moved back into the house
11:50
Speaker 1: six months before the murder. Lanny and Donna Horwitz were
12:00
Speaker 1: first married in nineteen sixty seven. They had met as
12:03
Speaker 1: teenagers and quickly became inseparable. Their only son, Radley, was
12:08
Speaker 1: welcomed six years following their wedding. They moved to the
12:12
Speaker 1: gated community in Jupiter in nineteen ninety, where Lannie began
12:16
Speaker 1: building their family home. He had trained as a lawyer
12:19
Speaker 1: specializing in real estate, but had never formally practiced law.
12:24
Speaker 1: An early investment in hotels led to quick gains, and
12:28
Speaker 1: in early retirement at the age of thirty nine, the
12:31
Speaker 1: family was worth millions and lived a very comfortable lifestyle
12:35
Speaker 1: for many years, purchasing a second home and luxury vehicles.
12:40
Speaker 1: In the years before his death, however, Lannie's financial situation
12:44
Speaker 1: had grown more precarious. He was involved in a prospective
12:48
Speaker 1: deal in Italy involving the construction of a resort style property,
12:53
Speaker 1: which promised to pay substantial gains if he could get
12:56
Speaker 1: it to completion. He also ran a food supplement to business,
13:00
Speaker 1: which kept him afloat. If his finances had grown unstable,
13:07
Speaker 1: it was nothing compared to his personal life. In two
13:10
Speaker 1: thousand and one, after decades of marriage, Donna and Lannie divorced.
13:16
Speaker 1: Donna had reportedly carried on an affair with a local
13:19
Speaker 1: security guard, later moving in with him for a time
13:22
Speaker 1: in a small apartment. The ink was not yet dry
13:25
Speaker 1: on the divorce papers, however, when the two reconciled, in fact,
13:29
Speaker 1: they remarried. The divorce finalized in May. They were remarried
13:34
Speaker 1: by September, but it did not last. By the spring
13:38
Speaker 1: of the following year, they had parted ways once again,
13:42
Speaker 1: but it seems not permanently. Donna had spent years fighting
13:47
Speaker 1: mental health battles, including more than one attempt on her life.
13:51
Speaker 1: By twenty eleven, she was keen for yet another reconciliation,
13:55
Speaker 1: and her wish seemed to come true when Lannie asked
13:58
Speaker 1: her to move back into the home in Admiral's Cove.
14:02
Speaker 1: Their son, fresh out of prison and unable to find
14:05
Speaker 1: work as a convicted felon, would move in as well.
14:08
Speaker 1: They would be a family again. The night before the murder, Radley,
14:15
Speaker 1: with his young daughter, went to dinner with his father.
14:18
Speaker 1: According to his recollection, over frisen Hamburger's, Lannie made two
14:23
Speaker 1: significant and contradictory statements. The first was that despite the divorce,
14:29
Speaker 1: he had always seen himself growing old with Donna, his
14:32
Speaker 1: high school sweetheart and the mother of his son. The
14:35
Speaker 1: second was that he was leaving on a trip to
14:38
Speaker 1: North Carolina the next day with his business partner and
14:42
Speaker 1: the woman believed to be as longtime mistress, Francine Tice.
14:49
Speaker 1: Fran lived ten houses down from the Horwitz family in
14:51
Speaker 1: Admiral's Cove. For roughly five years, she and Lannie had
14:55
Speaker 1: worked closely together and had developed a tight bond. Afection
15:00
Speaker 1: for each other was obvious. They held hands in public,
15:03
Speaker 1: frequently embraced, and openly kissed. They spent a great deal
15:08
Speaker 1: of time in each other's company. When apart, they exchanged
15:11
Speaker 1: text messages at all times of the day and night.
15:15
Speaker 1: Investigators were keen to speak with Fran. By the time
15:18
Speaker 1: detectives arrived at her home, the news of Lannie's death
15:21
Speaker 1: had already reached her, though they told her none of
15:24
Speaker 1: the details.
15:26
Speaker 8: He lived his life through my friends and amazing friends
15:30
Speaker 8: and dinner parties and our businesses and traveling went to
15:34
Speaker 8: Europe brief the best. You always want to Lani. Everybody
15:39
Speaker 8: wanted to meet a Lannie. Happened? Could they bring him
15:43
Speaker 8: back to life with her?
15:45
Speaker 4: And they'll say, if you really de.
15:48
Speaker 1: Fran was first asked about a relationship with Lannie. She
15:52
Speaker 1: insisted repeatedly that their relationship had never been physical, but
15:56
Speaker 1: it had been a kind of romance. Nonetheless, if you
16:00
Speaker 1: don't mind.
16:01
Speaker 8: My asking, that's the personal question. Are you are you physical? Never? Okay?
16:05
Speaker 8: Best friends beyond best friend. Okay, it's just the guy. Okay,
16:08
Speaker 8: the guy with the best friend, just like you have
16:10
Speaker 8: his O partner and my fest point of my God
16:12
Speaker 8: and so many of my businesses.
16:14
Speaker 4: Not for not his lack of trying.
16:17
Speaker 8: If you want to do you want to do any
16:19
Speaker 8: cool comes to the airport with a dozen red roses
16:22
Speaker 8: to say I missed you, away with a kiss out
16:25
Speaker 8: shape right.
16:27
Speaker 1: Next friend was asked about Lanny's relationship with Radley. A
16:31
Speaker 1: friend of hers was present at the interview to offer
16:33
Speaker 1: support and prompted her not to hold back other than that,
16:37
Speaker 1: has he.
16:38
Speaker 8: Had any issues with red or to my knowledge again
16:42
Speaker 8: Lanny's private person. Uh tell why that's sweetie, he's not here.
16:49
Speaker 8: Let me tell you it's the issue.
16:51
Speaker 6: Then we don't know.
16:53
Speaker 8: That's what that's what we're trying to find.
16:55
Speaker 10: Out, struggle.
16:56
Speaker 4: We don't know.
16:57
Speaker 8: Can I tell you what I say?
16:59
Speaker 10: But enough I should say.
17:01
Speaker 8: The whole thing.
17:03
Speaker 3: I said.
17:05
Speaker 8: You can tell us. No I reather not okay, I
17:07
Speaker 8: read it. Not. No no real issues that you know
17:11
Speaker 8: with rad except that he's just not just on baby. Yeah,
17:14
Speaker 8: no jobs or anything like that. Had a couple didn't
17:18
Speaker 8: keep them on unemployment, all right, and then he stays,
17:21
Speaker 8: he's been living with his dad as long as you now,
17:23
Speaker 8: as long as I'm known on okay.
17:25
Speaker 1: Finally, Brand was asked about Donna. If she and Lanny
17:29
Speaker 1: had been so happy together, why did he move his
17:31
Speaker 1: ex wife back into the house.
17:35
Speaker 8: Did a deal with him? And he wouldn't tell me
17:37
Speaker 8: what the deal was. She was the ex wife. And
17:45
Speaker 8: when you say THEO, what do you mean? Like no, no.
17:49
Speaker 8: So he'd liked to Ashville, and then when he came
17:52
Speaker 8: back from that trip, he said that Donna was moving
17:58
Speaker 8: back into the house, the not remarrying, that she wanted
18:02
Speaker 8: to make it work. I said, hasn't she done this
18:06
Speaker 8: to you?
18:06
Speaker 4: Four times?
18:07
Speaker 8: Pansy goes yep.
18:10
Speaker 1: The deal that fran was likely referencing was the financial
18:13
Speaker 1: arrangement that Lannie had proposed to Donna six months prior
18:17
Speaker 1: they would reconcile, but she needed to lend him two
18:21
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars. He needed the money to keep the
18:24
Speaker 1: two family homes afloat. Donna agreed she was excited to
18:28
Speaker 1: make things work again with her ex husband, but was
18:32
Speaker 1: she at that time aware of the special relationship that
18:35
Speaker 1: Lannie had with Francine and what that would mean for
18:39
Speaker 1: her potential reconciliation.
18:42
Speaker 8: Did his ex wife know that he loves you? Wouldn't
18:48
Speaker 8: you think, well, you think I wouldn't I show you did?
18:53
Speaker 8: And wouldn't you think she's still off the text? And
18:56
Speaker 8: wouldn't you think she to some other pictures? King on
19:00
Speaker 8: my birthday, blowing out candles at three forks my birthday cake?
19:05
Speaker 8: Bring you think? Well, we were told that you and
19:08
Speaker 8: he had a relationship by her, but that's not No,
19:12
Speaker 8: I never had any intimacy. You were and his girlfriend?
19:16
Speaker 10: Oh like that planning.
19:19
Speaker 8: I was not his girlfriend. I was his business partner,
19:21
Speaker 8: business associate, best friend or okay, put some texts my
19:26
Speaker 8: best friend, paying.
19:27
Speaker 4: Pal, my buddy?
19:29
Speaker 8: Okay? Would that be a girlfriend? Did I ever have
19:32
Speaker 8: sex with the man? Never? Okay?
19:34
Speaker 4: Did I kiss him?
19:35
Speaker 8: Of course I did? Do I kiss my girlfriend's absolute rate?
19:38
Speaker 8: Did his family think that you guys were having an affair?
19:40
Speaker 4: Obvious than it is?
19:41
Speaker 8: Oh?
19:42
Speaker 9: I don't know.
19:42
Speaker 1: That's Even if Fran had no direct knowledge of Donna
19:46
Speaker 1: and Radley's view of her, she did know that tensions
19:49
Speaker 1: in the Horrorwitz household had been heating up and had
19:53
Speaker 1: the potential to turn deadly. She told the detective that
19:57
Speaker 1: Lanny had made prophetic statements to her shortly before his death,
20:01
Speaker 1: as though he knew that he would meet a violent
20:04
Speaker 1: and for her part, Francine believed that she could see
20:08
Speaker 1: what had happened to him. She had dreamt about the guns.
20:13
Speaker 8: He said to me, if anything happens to me, promise me.
20:17
Speaker 8: Promise me that you will fight to the end the
20:23
Speaker 8: fate that I get justice. When he told me that,
20:27
Speaker 8: it's always been on my mind, I said, well, you
20:29
Speaker 8: know you moved into the house. She never cooked a
20:31
Speaker 8: meal for Ulani in all the years you were married,
20:34
Speaker 8: and she's cooking your meal every night. I don't understand it.
20:37
Speaker 8: I'd be afraid of going to the food he lived,
20:40
Speaker 8: he says, Noah, she was trying to show me she
20:42
Speaker 8: got domestic thirty five years. She couldn't show you that.
20:47
Speaker 8: And the dream of the guns. You don't understand. I
20:50
Speaker 8: see things I know as that's crazy. What do you
20:54
Speaker 8: see happening? What do you see happened? He was getting
20:57
Speaker 8: out of the shelves of self post here a fellar
21:00
Speaker 8: very first, because he always brings it with him. He
21:02
Speaker 8: was coming out of the shower she sold the suitcase
21:04
Speaker 8: being impact because I al told her he was going
21:08
Speaker 8: to ashle.
21:09
Speaker 11: This is what I say.
21:10
Speaker 8: This is the scene. She says, you go up and
21:12
Speaker 8: to kill you. That's what I see as he says, stops, Donna,
21:17
Speaker 8: she takes I know he could be gentle. He took
21:19
Speaker 8: the gun and it killed him.
21:26
Speaker 1: Lanny had not been found with his cell phone, though
21:29
Speaker 1: he had knocked a landline device from the wall during
21:32
Speaker 1: the attack. Crime scene analysts suggested he may have been
21:35
Speaker 1: reaching for the phone to call for help. In the
21:42
Speaker 1: days following the murder, Radley Horowitz voluntarily sat down with
21:46
Speaker 1: police alongside his attorney to offer further details. According to Radley,
21:52
Speaker 1: his father's suitcases were packed for his trip with Francine
21:55
Speaker 1: the next day. He assumed his mother had also spotted them.
21:59
Speaker 1: Since his mother had moved into the house, he described
22:02
Speaker 1: how her physical and mental health had been visibly deteriorating.
22:06
Speaker 1: Always an energetic and attractive woman, she had descended rapidly
22:11
Speaker 1: losing weight, her hair turning brittle. He characterized his father
22:16
Speaker 1: as a difficult man, emotionally and psychologically manipulative.
22:22
Speaker 10: They you know, my dad said that they that he
22:25
Speaker 10: wanted to you know, work things out with my mom
22:27
Speaker 10: and stuff. And with the initial divorce, I thought, you know,
22:29
Speaker 10: she was the worst person in the world.
22:31
Speaker 4: But then once I was living at home and I was.
22:34
Speaker 10: Under his thumb, I realized that he was, you know,
22:38
Speaker 10: I guess you know, when you're younger and stuff whatever,
22:42
Speaker 10: but that he, you know, wasn't the nicest person, you know.
22:49
Speaker 10: And she said to me that he used to, you know,
22:53
Speaker 10: tell her that he put her out on the street.
22:56
Speaker 4: And I never believed it that he'd, you.
22:58
Speaker 10: Know, after the grandmother die, Anita that because of all
23:03
Speaker 10: the legal stuff that.
23:04
Speaker 7: He had her science is the divorce and a one
23:07
Speaker 7: that he would that he'd have her out in the street.
23:09
Speaker 7: And she always said that, you know, she thought she
23:11
Speaker 7: was got up as a bag leg.
23:12
Speaker 12: And I'm like, you know that, you know, so you're saying,
23:16
Speaker 12: you believe that he brought her back into the home
23:20
Speaker 12: just to like.
23:21
Speaker 4: To get that mess with her, about to get the
23:24
Speaker 4: money to torment her. And I'll use that word again
23:27
Speaker 4: and and again. A black eyes one thing which.
23:30
Speaker 10: I never saw, but those he'll go away, you know,
23:32
Speaker 10: the psychological stuff, it's a lot worse.
23:36
Speaker 1: Detectives had Radley close his eyes and recount the morning
23:40
Speaker 1: of the murder, again summoning as much detail as possible.
23:44
Speaker 1: He recounted that he awoke and pulled one of his
23:47
Speaker 1: ear plugs out through the noise of the house alarm,
23:49
Speaker 1: he heard the sound of a gun clicking. The trigger
23:53
Speaker 1: was being pulled, but there was no ammunition left to fire.
23:58
Speaker 4: Clicking sound.
23:59
Speaker 10: You've you were in the gun business before, Yeah, you
24:03
Speaker 10: hear this, the clicking sound as you describe it to you,
24:07
Speaker 10: What is that clicking sound out?
24:09
Speaker 4: You know, out on one or no more shots in
24:13
Speaker 4: the gun?
24:13
Speaker 10: In a gun, it's it's a gun being dry fired
24:16
Speaker 10: or you know, fired empty.
24:18
Speaker 4: And you know when you saw your mom walking back
24:23
Speaker 4: and forth, was the gun still in her hand?
24:26
Speaker 8: You know?
24:27
Speaker 4: I I don't know, so I'm not going to say
24:29
Speaker 4: I don't know.
24:29
Speaker 10: And I know there was a lot of screaming, and
24:31
Speaker 10: I think she was screaming my name. I'm pretty sure
24:35
Speaker 10: she was saying Radley, Radley at least a couple of times.
24:39
Speaker 4: And the other out of like, oh, I.
24:44
Speaker 10: Came out, but once I already peeked out the other side.
24:50
Speaker 4: And then I don't know if my shorts on then.
24:52
Speaker 10: Or what, but I came out.
24:57
Speaker 12: It's important for us to understand and know whether or
24:59
Speaker 12: not you said something.
25:00
Speaker 4: I mean, what happened here? She okay, all right? She
25:05
Speaker 4: was saying he was so awful. He was so awful.
25:10
Speaker 4: She said that twice, and I said, did he attack you?
25:16
Speaker 10: And I don't know if it was there, if we
25:19
Speaker 10: were in the car, And I was like, you know,
25:20
Speaker 10: did he attack you? And I'm pretty sure that all
25:24
Speaker 10: she kept saying was that he was so awful.
25:28
Speaker 1: The interview concluded with Radley denying any involvement in his
25:32
Speaker 1: father's killing and insisting that whatever happened his mother was
25:37
Speaker 1: not at fault.
25:39
Speaker 12: I have to ask you before you know, we go.
25:41
Speaker 12: You know, you said you got to go to bathroom,
25:43
Speaker 12: but I just want to ask you. Did you shoot
25:47
Speaker 12: your father or were you involved in any way?
25:51
Speaker 10: Absolutely not. I did not shoot my father. I was
25:55
Speaker 10: not involved in any other way in any way. I
25:58
Speaker 10: was woken up to gunfire. I'll you know, polygraph whatever
26:03
Speaker 10: I mean. I think you guys know, but you still gotta.
26:06
Speaker 4: Ask what did you think? But seeing what was there,
26:13
Speaker 4: maybe listening to what you said when you're telling us
26:16
Speaker 4: you heard.
26:16
Speaker 10: Maybe he snapped, maybe she snapped, But that this is
26:24
Speaker 10: going to sound absolutely stupid, but it was just sound
26:27
Speaker 10: beyond stupid, but cliche too.
26:30
Speaker 4: But whatever happened, and whatever.
26:34
Speaker 10: Had been happening, she was a victim, and my dad's
26:39
Speaker 10: laying in the goddamn Morgan.
26:40
Speaker 4: I'm telling you that.
26:43
Speaker 1: Donna had never given a formal statement to law enforcement. Nonetheless,
26:47
Speaker 1: investigators believed they had discovered evidence that offered unique insight
26:51
Speaker 1: into her mind and motive. They had found Donna's diary.
26:56
Speaker 1: Her entries provided a narrative of the emotional and psychological
27:00
Speaker 1: that Radley had described witnessing firsthand. In March of twenty eleven,
27:05
Speaker 1: upon deciding to give Lanny the two hundred thousand dollars
27:08
Speaker 1: loan as part of their reconciliation, she wrote, Lannie asked
27:12
Speaker 1: about two hundred thousand dollars to keep both houses afloat
27:15
Speaker 1: and move back in and reconcile. Great day. Lannie loves me,
27:20
Speaker 1: and I love him, and I want to help. By July, however,
27:25
Speaker 1: her entries had taken a dark turn. She had come
27:28
Speaker 1: to believe that Lannie was having an affair with Francine,
27:32
Speaker 1: though he continued to deny it. Fran texted Lambeau at
27:36
Speaker 1: midnight woke us up. Lanny left at one point fifteen
27:39
Speaker 1: to go on an errand with Fran didn't return until
27:42
Speaker 1: four forty five pm. In August, she recorded, my heart
27:47
Speaker 1: is broken and he is working on my mind, playing
27:51
Speaker 1: games with me. By early September there was less ambiguity.
27:56
Speaker 1: She wrote, things are not good here. His comments are
27:59
Speaker 1: in so trying to act like he isn't with Fran
28:03
Speaker 1: all the time. Throughout these entries, Donna's affectionate nickname Lambeau
28:09
Speaker 1: was replaced with a new name, which she gave to
28:11
Speaker 1: her ex husband, mister Meanie. The last entry was dated
28:16
Speaker 1: September fifth, just weeks before the murder. After Lanny had
28:20
Speaker 1: left to spend time with Francine, Donna wrote, another long
28:24
Speaker 1: day of lies of being mister Meani. I stayed home
28:28
Speaker 1: all day, very tired. Donna Horowitz was arrested and charged
28:34
Speaker 1: with the murder of her ex husband. She pleaded not
28:37
Speaker 1: guilty and headed to trial in twenty thirteen. The prosecution
28:46
Speaker 1: argued that on the morning of September thirtieth, Donna saw
28:49
Speaker 1: Lanny's suitcases packed and ready to go for his trip
28:52
Speaker 1: with Franccene, and she snapped. She shot at her ex
28:56
Speaker 1: husband ten times from two handguns. Nine of them those
29:00
Speaker 1: shots hit their mark.
29:02
Speaker 2: What you have.
29:02
Speaker 6: Here is a woman scorned, love, hate, and obsession. It
29:07
Speaker 6: went about money. It was about you want to know
29:09
Speaker 6: what You are not going to North Carolina. You are
29:15
Speaker 6: not going anywhere. And if I can't have you, no
29:18
Speaker 6: one else can. Ten times on a naked man when
29:22
Speaker 6: he's in the shower. The last one in the mouth
29:25
Speaker 6: is the shot of an angry, angry woman.
29:29
Speaker 4: We don't really know exactly what happened here. You know,
29:36
Speaker 4: at the end of this trial you may have.
29:39
Speaker 8: More questions.
29:42
Speaker 4: Than answers. That's the reasonable guy.
29:48
Speaker 8: We never know what happened.
29:51
Speaker 1: The defense argued that it was not Donna that snapped
29:55
Speaker 1: that morning, but her son, Radley Horowitz, they said, was
29:59
Speaker 1: the real killer. In forming this theory, they pointed to
30:02
Speaker 1: several factors that they believed proved Bradley had arranged the murder.
30:07
Speaker 1: The first was the downward trajectory of the gunshots, which
30:11
Speaker 1: they argued showed that someone taller than Donna Horowitz had
30:14
Speaker 1: been the shooter.
30:16
Speaker 13: The gun would have to be very close to the
30:19
Speaker 13: top of her forehead, absolutely scientifically impossible.
30:26
Speaker 4: That Donna Horowitz was the shooter.
30:29
Speaker 8: Here.
30:31
Speaker 1: One of the central issues with pointing to Radley as
30:34
Speaker 1: the killer was the result of his GSR test. Unlike
30:38
Speaker 1: his mother, who refused to work with detectives, Radley gave
30:41
Speaker 1: consent to have this test performed. At the scene that morning,
30:45
Speaker 1: his hands were swabbed to test for gunpowder. The results
30:49
Speaker 1: came back negative. The defense theory therefore relied on speculation
30:56
Speaker 1: that Radley had not fired the guns himself, yet arranged
31:00
Speaker 1: for a hit man to enter the house that morning.
31:03
Speaker 1: They pointed to the bloody finger smudge on the gate
31:06
Speaker 1: by the door, which contained Lanny and an unknown individual's DNA.
31:11
Speaker 1: They argued that the hit man left this smudge as
31:15
Speaker 1: they rapidly fled the scene. What was not properly explained
31:19
Speaker 1: was how an unknown individual managed to enter the home
31:23
Speaker 1: undetected bypassing the security system. The system was triggered only
31:28
Speaker 1: after shots had been fired. When Radley took the stand,
31:35
Speaker 1: he recounted his version of events from that morning, including
31:39
Speaker 1: observing disturbing details of his father's final breaths as he
31:44
Speaker 1: fearfully looked in on him lying on the bathroom floor.
31:48
Speaker 10: Screaming my name, and she might have said, like your
31:51
Speaker 10: father or your father or something like that.
31:54
Speaker 4: H made this.
31:56
Speaker 11: Sum this uh god awful in humany.
32:09
Speaker 4: Gurgling sound. Did that frighten you? Yes?
32:12
Speaker 7: Yeah.
32:14
Speaker 1: Upon cross examination, Radley was confronted with his own potential
32:18
Speaker 1: motive to see his father dead. He had blamed Lanny
32:22
Speaker 1: for his arrest and conviction on the weapons charge from
32:25
Speaker 1: years earlier. After following his father's advice, he made the
32:29
Speaker 1: illegal purchase online that had placed him in the ATF's crosshairs,
32:33
Speaker 1: or so he believed. He placed the blame for the
32:37
Speaker 1: conviction that derailed his life on his father. Then there
32:42
Speaker 1: was the financial motive. Radley admitted that his father had
32:45
Speaker 1: tricked him into signing away entitlement to a two hundred
32:48
Speaker 1: thousand dollars life insurance policy. That money was then earmarked
32:53
Speaker 1: for Francine. Nonetheless, Radley was still poised to receive a
32:58
Speaker 1: large sum of money upon his father's death, at least
33:01
Speaker 1: half a million dollars, two homes and luxury cars.
33:05
Speaker 13: And you probably got around half a million dollars out of.
33:09
Speaker 4: This all park, Yes, maybe even a little bit more.
33:14
Speaker 1: The defense then grilled him about a book he purchased
33:17
Speaker 1: in two thousand and four. It was entitled hitman asked
33:21
Speaker 1: if the book could be characterized as a manual on
33:24
Speaker 1: how to kill someone and get away with it. Radley replied,
33:27
Speaker 1: as opposed to killing somebody and getting caught.
33:30
Speaker 4: Yes.
33:33
Speaker 6: Did you hire anyone to kill your father?
33:36
Speaker 4: Absolutely not?
33:37
Speaker 6: And did you yourself kill your dad?
33:39
Speaker 4: Absolutely not. That's all I have thinking.
33:42
Speaker 1: The final assertion of the defense was that if Donna
33:45
Speaker 1: had fired the shots, she would have been covered in blood.
33:49
Speaker 1: The pajamas that she wore were eventually obtained and processed,
33:52
Speaker 1: but not on the morning of the murder. It was
33:55
Speaker 1: a significant oversight made by law enforcement in the initial
33:59
Speaker 1: hours at the scene as they attempted to determine if
34:02
Speaker 1: the wounds had been self inflicted or whether they were
34:04
Speaker 1: dealing with a homicide. None of the officers who dealt
34:08
Speaker 1: with Donna at that time had noted blood on her. Indeed,
34:12
Speaker 1: that would have been a major red flag, leading them
34:15
Speaker 1: to conclude it was a likely murder scene before they
34:18
Speaker 1: even knew the number of shots that had been fired.
34:21
Speaker 1: Radley told police that he noticed blood on his mother's
34:24
Speaker 1: foot while they were seated outside of the house. He
34:27
Speaker 1: handed her a napkin to wipe it off. The prosecution however,
34:32
Speaker 1: did not necessarily need the blood to place Donna inside
34:36
Speaker 1: the bathroom with her husband at the time the guns
34:38
Speaker 1: were fired. There was another telltale sign at the scene.
34:43
Speaker 1: Donna was asked by a detective if she needed a
34:45
Speaker 1: bottle of water. In response, she indicated to her ears
34:50
Speaker 1: she could not hear anything. So Donna was asked directly
34:55
Speaker 1: if she was in the room when the gun went off.
34:57
Speaker 1: To this question and others, she did not respond. It
35:01
Speaker 1: was later determined, however, that Donna permanently lost forty eight
35:06
Speaker 1: percent of her hearing that day.
35:09
Speaker 4: This is a case.
35:10
Speaker 12: About jumping to his conclusions.
35:17
Speaker 14: A third party murdered Lanny Warriors, and he left the
35:24
Speaker 14: bloody smudge of his DNA on the gate as he
35:30
Speaker 14: made his gas boom.
35:33
Speaker 13: The first shot goes off and hits him. He's in
35:35
Speaker 13: the shower. He's an absolute shot. Glass flies all over
35:39
Speaker 13: the place. He steps out and boom, boom boom. He
35:42
Speaker 13: shot four more times by one gun, and.
35:46
Speaker 4: His blood spatter all ooover.
35:51
Speaker 14: He had a half a million reasons to.
35:56
Speaker 4: Have his dad dead, all shrops he was the beneficiary.
36:05
Speaker 1: It took the jury less than two hours to convict
36:08
Speaker 1: the sixty six year old a first degree murder with
36:11
Speaker 1: a firearm. Jurors had quickly dismissed arguments that the bullet
36:15
Speaker 1: trajectory showed someone taller than Donna Horowitz had been the shooter.
36:20
Speaker 1: They also believed testimony from a blood spatter analyst that
36:23
Speaker 1: the smudge on the gate was probably transferred from a
36:27
Speaker 1: glove or other supplies that first responders used at the
36:30
Speaker 1: crime scene. They concluded that it did not indicate that
36:34
Speaker 1: a third person had been present at the time of
36:37
Speaker 1: the murder.
36:39
Speaker 8: It's just nobody should have to go there no matter what.
36:45
Speaker 4: Even the mafia doesn't tell like that.
36:47
Speaker 6: So it's unbelievable that she could do some.
36:52
Speaker 1: And I'd like her to remember every single day that
36:56
Speaker 1: the Prima Donna lifestyle and dead. When she put the
37:01
Speaker 1: gum in his.
37:02
Speaker 10: Mouth, I guess she prefers the police wagon to her
37:07
Speaker 10: white Mercedes.
37:11
Speaker 1: Donna's legal team quickly appealed to the verdict. The basis
37:14
Speaker 1: of the appeal was the emphasis and meaning that the
37:17
Speaker 1: state attributed to her decision to stay silent from the
37:20
Speaker 1: moment responders arrived un scene, despite testimony that at times
37:25
Speaker 1: it seemed she did not respond because she was unable
37:28
Speaker 1: to even hear the questions being posed. Her silence was
37:31
Speaker 1: used by prosecutors as proof of her consciousness of guilt.
37:36
Speaker 1: Donna did not respond to queries from Luis Garcia, the
37:38
Speaker 1: security officer, or her own son at the scene, even
37:42
Speaker 1: though at that time no one except perhaps Donna knew
37:46
Speaker 1: they were dealing with a murder. When the EMT arrived
37:49
Speaker 1: and pronounced Lannie dead, Donna still said nothing. This silence,
37:54
Speaker 1: they argued, was a sign of her guilt. The appeals court, however,
37:58
Speaker 1: found that her silence should not have been used as
38:01
Speaker 1: evidence against her. Donna's appeal on these grounds was successful,
38:06
Speaker 1: and in twenty seventeen she was granted a new trial.
38:11
Speaker 1: Despite its failure the first time around, the defense team's
38:15
Speaker 1: strategy had not changed. Radley Horowitz was the real killer,
38:19
Speaker 1: they said, or rather the mystery hitman that he hired
38:22
Speaker 1: to do the deed. Initially, it seems their argument had traction.
38:27
Speaker 1: Following closing arguments, jurors began their deliberations at one pm.
38:32
Speaker 1: Three hours later, they told the judge that they were
38:35
Speaker 1: hopelessly deadlocked. The vote was six to convict and six
38:40
Speaker 1: to acquit. Instead of declaring a mistrial, the judge ordered
38:44
Speaker 1: the jury to call it a day, go home and
38:47
Speaker 1: sleep on it, and then return in the morning to
38:49
Speaker 1: deliberate further. Surprisingly, that overnight break offered further clarity to
38:56
Speaker 1: exactly half of the jury. The next morning, they reached
39:00
Speaker 1: a unanimous verdict. They found donnad Horwitz guilty of second
39:06
Speaker 1: degree murder.
39:10
Speaker 15: I don't really believe I caved in. I feel that
39:16
Speaker 15: at the very end I was convinced that it had
39:19
Speaker 15: to be her. Would I have liked to have seen
39:22
Speaker 15: more evidence, yes, But my conscience and my gut said
39:27
Speaker 15: it had to be her. The biggest problem was that
39:29
Speaker 15: there were only two people in the house she was arrested,
39:33
Speaker 15: and the sun wasn't I had a lot of questions
39:37
Speaker 15: that were unanswered. I would like to have seen more evidence,
39:41
Speaker 15: more blood on her, something that said she did it directly,
39:46
Speaker 15: but there wasn't enough. Reasonable doubt and common sense in
39:52
Speaker 15: the end is what finally swayed me, and I was
39:55
Speaker 15: the last hold out. I don't think she should have
39:58
Speaker 15: a life sentence, but again, she's probably gonna, unfortunately die
40:03
Speaker 15: in prison unless they get an appeal and win.
40:09
Speaker 1: The state requested a sentence of life in prison following
40:12
Speaker 1: the conviction, arguing that Donna failed to demonstrate any remorse
40:16
Speaker 1: for her actions and continued to blame her own son
40:20
Speaker 1: for the murder. At the age of seventy, she was
40:23
Speaker 1: sentenced to thirty two years in prison.
40:27
Speaker 10: They used the same defense of second time didn't were
40:32
Speaker 10: the first time, didn't work the second time. You know,
40:35
Speaker 10: I think I've been picked around enough at this point,
40:37
Speaker 10: honestly so just looking to move on with my life,
40:41
Speaker 10: and I think the physical evidence has spoken to separate
40:45
Speaker 10: aurias have spoken.
40:46
Speaker 7: You know.
40:47
Speaker 10: I still can't help but feel a little bad for
40:49
Speaker 10: my mom, But as I said the last time, it's
40:51
Speaker 10: pretty much the only family that's left.
40:56
Speaker 1: Bradley Horowitz moved from the United States for a fresh
40:59
Speaker 1: start at life. He says that he has less hatred
41:02
Speaker 1: towards his father than he did years ago, and he
41:05
Speaker 1: does not hold any anger towards his mother, and that
41:13
Speaker 1: was the tragic case of Lanny Horowitz. Thanks for joining me,
41:17
Speaker 1: and a shout out this week to Alberto Vlar and
41:20
Speaker 1: Sky Good for joining our members.
41:22
Speaker 4: Lounge.
41:23
Speaker 1: I'm Kevin, this just thought lounge, and I'll see in
41:27
Speaker 1: the next one.
41:29
Speaker 16: Please tell me who the scream saves. I can hear
41:31
Speaker 16: the crimes repeat. Gotta take my time because these crimes
41:34
Speaker 16: get deep. But these stories can't hide. Let me find
41:36
Speaker 16: my sea. Kevin go ahead to settle in. Gotta be
41:38
Speaker 16: selective doing other research. Keeping it objective always been effective.
41:42
Speaker 16: Can say he got a neck, pick it a litter.
41:44
Speaker 16: You see how Newton got his back.
41:46
Speaker 4: Yeah.
41:46
Speaker 16: The content that you need is to be a