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Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan: A Cold-Blooded Christmas - the Sturmfels Murder · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan. I can't help myself.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: As tried as it is. I used to really loathe
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: the thought that Christmas was around the corner, because it
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: always meant buying gifts, and it always meant me having
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: to spend money, and it meant rushing about and waiting
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: till the last minute to accomplish those tasks. But something
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: has changed in me. I'm a grandfather now, and now
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I cannot wait for Christmas to come around because the
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: circle is complete. Can you imagine going to Florida to
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: celebrate perhaps Christmas with your wife. You're hanging out in
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: a house you live in New Jersey. You've escaped the
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: cold weather and you're headed down south to sunny Florida,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: and you're just going to relax and enjoy the Christmas season.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: And on the night of December the twentieth, nineteen eighty nine,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: a couple were seated in their home in Flagler County, Florida.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: And there's a beautiful window with little panes that have
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: been placed in the window of Christmas images, Santa Claus
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: and Christmas trees, and all of a sudden, that window
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: just explodes. You're sitting in your chair, you're watching television,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: and it explodes as a result of bullets passing through it,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: and suddenly your life ends. Today we're going to talk
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: about the brutal homicides of Robert and Georgiatt sternfalls on
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: the night of December the twentieth, nineteen eighty nine. I'm
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Joseph Scott Morgan and this is Bodybacks Dave mac. Are
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: you a fan of Christmas? Do you like Christmas? Yes?
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: I do?
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: You do? Yeah? Well I do too, man.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: I've actually never been asked that question as an adult.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Really yeah. And it's a different way of looking at it.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: When you're a kid they ask you that question. Of
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: course on forty out of your mind, of course I
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: like Christmas. But as an adult you start to I
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: don't know. It's just me. I sit there and I think,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: oh God, it used to be such a labor But now, man,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: when you get grandbabies, it's such a cool thing. It
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: really is for me at least.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: And also one of the things about Christmas specifically that
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: causes our memories as we get older, to get bigger
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: and more loving, is because it tends to remind us
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: of very special times when we were a child, and
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: our parents were younger, and our grandparents. It reminds us
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: of those times, and that's a very warm thing. So
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: there's multiple things going into the whole Christmas spere beyond
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: just the active gift giving that as an adult, it's
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: which credit card to we used to buy this with?
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I hate to beat that cynical about it. I
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: truly do, and I've tried to get past that. I
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: really have Dave, and I'm chief among sinners in that area.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: But you know, now, you get a little bit older
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: and you get a few miles on the tires and
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: you think, wow, this is really a great opportunity to
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: be together as a family and to celebrate, right.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: And that's what I mean. As you get older, you
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: recognize those things. When you're younger, you don't because you're
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: a kid. But then even when you first have children,
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: you remember this. When you're a young parent, there's a
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: lot of stress involved with Christmas. It's only after you
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: get older. And that's why I have such a loving,
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: wonderful feeling when I think of Christmas. It reminds me
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: of my mother and my grandparents and people that are
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: no longer with us, and that's why it's so special.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: And of course, you know you mentioned grandchildren. This is
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: the time for Pop Paull to show off. What do
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: you mean you can't have a pony?
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: You're absolutely right. And I wonder thinking about Robert and Georgiette.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: They had made the trip down from their New Jersey
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: home to spend the holiday season down and what they're
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: referred to as the Palm Coast down there, and they're
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: just minding their own business. And this is what's so horrible.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: The case is horrible anyway, all right, But what is
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: so horrible is that this kind of peaceful thing that's
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: going on, and you're sitting there and I can't imagine
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: the horror I saw the crime scene photos from this,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: by the way, particularly this blown out window I was
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: referring to. You're sitting there in your chair, You're there
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: with this person that you're spending the rest of your
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: life with, and all of a sudden, your world just
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: crashes in on you. Literally, in just a few moments,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: your life comes to an end in this home that
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: is just kind of a It's not like home in
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: New Jersey. It's a home that you've come to in Florida,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: to stay and spend part of the year. And I
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: just I can't begin to imagine.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Dave going to Florida. It's almost a right of passage.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Once you reach a certain age, you go there for
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: the comfort of the warmer climate and everything else and snowbirds.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And with regard to the Strumfells, they are fifty
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: six and fifty five years old. They're just relaxing. It's
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: an evening. It's the two of them. It's quiet, they're
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: just watching TV. But outside their window lurks a ninja. Now,
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: this man, Lewis Gaskins has been referred to as the
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: quote unquote ninja killer that somehow romanticizes the fact that
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: this guy is a cold blooded killer that decided to
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: do his Christmas shopping while committing the most heinous act
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: of murder one can imagine backing up here, a twenty
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: two caliber rifle. I've always thought of that weapon as
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: one step up from a pellet gun. I've never thought
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: of a twin as the type of killing machine that
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: it really is. Am I correct in assuming that a
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: lot of people think the same thing, Yeah, you.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Are, because when you look at the spectrum and there's
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: a spectrum of pistol and rifle cartridges out there. It's
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: on the low end as far as the size of this.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: It's point two two and so it's it's very tiny.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: But also keep this in mind, we fire around in
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: the military, I say we as a form assaultier. We've
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: fired around in the military called five point five to
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: six millimeter. But if you convert that over to caliber
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: instead of a millimeter, Dave, that's point two to three. It's
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: roughly the same diameter as the twenty two. It has
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: more bulk to it a bit the point two two three,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: and it's also got more propellant with it as well.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: In the shape of it too, it's got this kind
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: of conical shape, the point two two three. With the
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: rifle rounds being fired from a twenty two caliber, I
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: think back there's a variety of different types of twenty
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: two rounds. You've got like a twenty two short that
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: when you hear it fire you can barely make out
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: the sound. Many times it sounds it's a few decibels
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: higher than say firing a pellet rifle. Pellet rifle will
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: have that sound to it like that twenty two short.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: It cracks the wind it's fired. But when you go
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: above that and you get into a standard twenty two
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: and then certainly into a twenty two long rifle, that
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: round has a lot of power. What I can't figure out, Dave,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: is that you got a perpetrator that shows up to
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: a scene. And this is not standard. You see it
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: in the movies all the time. All right, this is
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: not standard. You got a perpetrator that shows up to
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: a scene wielding a long arm. And a long arm
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: is a rifle or is a like a rifle. You
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: have to fire it from your shoulder, and the military
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: they refer to them as shoulder fired arms, and so
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: you have to nestle this thing into your shoulder. Now
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: you can fire it, Audie Murphy, I guess if you
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: want to from your hip, But standardly you put the
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: butt of the stock into your shoulder and you open up,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: you fire it, and you have more accuracy. But it
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: doesn't give you a lot of portability. With a pistol,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: you can conceal it. Look, man, if you're walking down
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: the street and you're carrying a long arm, you're walking
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: down the street and you're carrying a rifle, I'm going
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: to take notice of.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: You bottom line, As you mentioned, carrying that rifle in
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: broad daylight would bring about a lot of attention. But
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: in the case of Lewis Gaskin, on this particular night,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: it was dark. It was bedtime, and he was not
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: necessarily bedtime, but it was all dark. He's wearing all black.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: He parked his car a ways away, and the home
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: where Robert and Georgia at Strumfells you know we're staying
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: was actually their winter home. It wasn't a rental. Back then,
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: they didn't have airbnbs. So if you had a place,
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: a house or whatever in Florida from New Jersey, that
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: was your winter summer home, however you wanted to look
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: at it. It was your escape from New York. And
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: that's why it was even more than just sitting at
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: a house at night, Joe. This was not just a house.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: It was their getaway home. This was their peaceful environment.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: They probably looked forward for months before they could go
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: to their winter or to their Florida home, their escape.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: In their living room, in particular, mister Sternfel's George or
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: Robert rather is sitting in his recliner and I'm picturing
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: this man watching you know you got the TV on.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: You're just relaxing, and you mentioned the blast of the window.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Lewis Gaskins had parked his car down a ways from
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: the house. He walks up to the home and he
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: has his plan. He does not want to come in
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: there while they're sleeping. He doesn't want to sneak up
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: on him that way. He needs them up and about
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: so that he can take them out from outside. That's
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: the part about this that really shocked me, Joe, that
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Lewis Gaskin planned on shooting out the window to take
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: out the stern Fells. And when he takes that first
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: shot with his twenty two caliber rifle, he shoots directly
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: through the window and hits mister Sternfels in the chest.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: He then shoots a second time and sees Georgett's stern
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Fells as she starts to try to get out of
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: the room. She's headed to the hallway when Gaskin shoots her.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: He then breaks out the window the rest of the way,
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: pulls the screen break, gets out the window and goes in.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: He then puts another shot in the head of mister Sternfells,
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: who had been trying to get up again. By the way,
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: he had been shot twice. He's still trying to get
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: up Joe, and all like think of is his last
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: moment was what in the world just happened? Bam bam,
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: bam so fast. His wife is trying to crawl her way,
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: and Lewis Gaskin goes around the house. He's looking in
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: windows to find to where she is. He wants to
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: take her out before he goes in as well, and
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: he gets in the house and shoots her in the head.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: So we've got two murdered individuals.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: And in that moment, those final moments of their lives,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: as they are bleeding out, as Missus Stemfells is lying
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: in the hallway, Gaskins enters the home and robs them,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: literally robs them, and their lives were exchanged for lamps, VCRs,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: cash and a bit of jewelry. Just because you're shot
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean that your life immediately hints. That's again a
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: lie that Hollywood has sold you. Gunshot wounds are painful.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: There's an awareness many times that people have been shot.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: There are other times when people are shot in fact,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: particularly with a high velocity round, where it will pass
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: through the body and they won't have an awareness, but
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: for the most part, depended upon where you were shot,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: there is a high probability you're going to feel it.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: In the case particularly of missus Sturmfels, she had an awareness.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: I think something came up about what was it, Dave,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: about a dog.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: You mentioned the noise that she made as she was dying.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: He actually compared the gurgling sound to that of a dog,
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: a dog that you were taking out. The reason we
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: know a lot of what took place, Joe is this
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: career criminal. By the way, he was a young guy.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: You know, Gaskins was only what twenty two years old
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: at the time of these murders, and he already had
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: a rap sheet. But we know that he picked this
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: house randomly. It could have been anybody, could have been
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: you or me, just happened to be the storm fellas
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: that night and he parks his car away. He goes
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: up to the house and says, he circled the house.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: He walked around it six times, six times. He walked
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: around the house before just you know, making the plan.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: He already knew he was going to shoot from the outside.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: And Joe, when you do that, when somebody shoots through
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: a window to hit a target. And I boy, I
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: want to apologize to the families right now of anybody
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: who's ever been the victim of a violent crime. I
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: am not trying to act like this is nothing. The
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: man was murdered. And I don't know another way to
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: actually say this than to ask the bullet goes through
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: the window, does that not change its trajectory? Does it
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: take glass with it as it enters the body as
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: it goes? I mean, you're talking about going through screen, glass,
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: clothing before ever hitting the body.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: You're right on all those points. And let me break
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: this down from forensics perspective, when around is fired through
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: what's referred to as an intermediate target, and that essentially
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: what that means is just imagine that you're standing staring
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: out a window and a rock flies through from the
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: outside and strikes the window and then happens to hit you. Well,
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: that glass window gives way, right, and that window acts
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: as almost kind of a barrier, not much of a barrier,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: but a barrier nonetheless, and you are subsequently struck by
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: the rock. Now, the question would be would the rock
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: maintain first the same level of energy as when initially
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: thrown before striking the intermediate target, and would it stay
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: or remain on the same path. Well, the answer to
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: both of those questions is no and no. So what happens,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: well when around when even a bullet is fired and
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: it strikes intermediate target. You mentioned the screen, You mentioned
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: the glass that is going to bleed energy of the round.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: So as that explosion takes place in the barrel, the
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: muzzle velocity, which is kind of significant in a twenty
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: two rifle. All right, it's spinning. We know that because
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: of the rifling that is within the structure of the bullet.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: It twists. It either twist to the left or twist
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: to the right, either way. As it is spinning, it's
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: like a football if you've ever seen a football that
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: is thrown, and it's kind of what they refer to
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: as a wounded duck where it kind of flutters in
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: the air. That means that the spin is not present
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: in the bullet as it should be, because if thrown correctly,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: the bullet will maintain that tight spin as it travels
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: down range, and it will maintain all of those ideal
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: ballistic characteristics. Bullet works the same way as it's flying
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: through the air, and it strikes glass, the screen the glass,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: it's going to bleed off energy, and then depended upon
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: the position of the shooter that is when the round
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: is first fired and their position relative to the intermediate target.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Remember he could see them through this glass and he
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: fires at them, the pitch of the round is going
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: to change. There's a high probability it will probably drop
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: down because gravity is working on the bullet as well
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: as this intermediate target. So even as a bullet is
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: traveling through the air, it's fighting against this downward pull
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: of gravity all the while. Now, the initial energy that's
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: generated in that blast will defeat gravity just for a
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: few seconds, but after it's traveled out of the end
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: of the barrel, gravity takes hold and it begins to
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: pull it down. That's why when you see people fire
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: around at a great distance, like snipers, they have to
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: elevate and adjust for bullet drop. The short of the range,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: it doesn't have as much of an effect. But then
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: you throw glass into it and it does begin to pull,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: and it pulls downward. And as it pulls downward, it
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: even deflects further downward with the striking of the glass.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: And so if you were aiming save for instance, at well,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: let's just say you had a target where you're aiming
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: just below. If you think of a silhouette of a person,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: one of those that you see at a firing range
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: that has a head on it in the shoulders and
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: that sort of thing. Let's just say that you were
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: aiming at the chin of a target and you're firing
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: through a piece of glass. There's a high probability that
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: you will not hit the chin. You might hit center
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: mass in the chest. It'll drop down to where the
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: breastbone is, the sternum. Once the glasses, it is blown out.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: If you fire another round at that point, now you
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: don't have an intermediate target any longer. But I like
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: what you did when you mentioned the nature of the glass.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Glass is fascinating. We can learn a lot from it.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: First off, you mentioned the nature of the glass flying
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: through the air well. Glass is just sitting there being glass,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: all right, and once this energy is introduced into it,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: it's very brittle, as we all know, it's blasted outward.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: It doesn't have optimum aerodynamic qualities. So you've got static
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: glass that's sitting there and a bullet meets it, it
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: blows it out. And for a few inches, maybe a
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: foot or two, you'll get the glass blasted out, and
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: for that moment in time, you'll see it turn into
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: like little flecks of shrapnel. And sometimes a glass will
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: actually burst so that it creates almost a powder. But
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: then you'll get the heftier fragments that will travel down range. Dave,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: I've actually had cases where people have been shot while
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: seated in a car with the driver's side window up.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Now that's safety glass. Their entire courses taught in glass
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: and forensics. But I've seen a shotgun blast go through
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: a car window where the glass, along with the pellets
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: from the shotgun are embedded in the body. So you'll
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: find you'll be picking bits of glass. But in this
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: particular case, I think that there's sufficient distance that the
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: lack of aerodynamicism in the glass, the glass will have
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: essentially shatter and fallen away. But you'll see it all
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: over the floor.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: And when this actually transpired, Joe, we had mister Sternfel's
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: got up after the first shot. It says he stood
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: up and that caused an immediate second shot from Gaskins
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: that dropped him. In this process, missus sturnfell, she actually
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: realizes what's happening after the second shot, and that's when
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: she goes to move to get out of the room.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: And that's when Lewis Gaskins shoots her for the first time.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: Right there, when she realizes something bad has just now
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: happened in this house. My husband has been shot twice. Boom,
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Now she is hit sternfels and I don't know how
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: this is even possible. After being shot twice, he actually
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: tries to make it to his feet a third time,
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: Joe to get to his wife, and that's when we
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: now know. Gaskins grabs his knife from his pocket, cuts
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: the screen out, comes into the house, and then shoots
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: him right in the head. The kills shot.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: He executes him, Yeah, he does. In this confession that
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Gaskin makes, he states, like putting down a dog or
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: something to that effect. First off, how do you know
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: what it's like to put down a dog? And that
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: gives you a real insight, doesn't it that?
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: It does? I did that pass me. I'm glad you
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: brought that up.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe you were out shooting dogs before
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: you decided to take out humans. I have no idea,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: but I do know this he said that that Georgette
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: was actually gurgling like a dog. And if that's the case,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: this is what I know that because I've seen it.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: It seems this is more than likely a shot that
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: would have passed through her lungs, and you get this
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: kind of fine pink aspirit that issues forth out of
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: your mouth and these death throws, if you will, And
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: she's crawling down the hallway, and so there's this trail
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: of kind of frothy blood that's been left behind her.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: And you can still see this many times at the
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: scene when you arrive, and you can certainly see it
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: still issuing from the nose in the mouth, and this
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: is this kind of hyper arated blood because of this
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: gurgling that's taking place. You've been shot in the lung,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: so they've got this death wheeze that's going on. And
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: then he walks up after he's Gaskins has made entry
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: into the home, and he shoots her in the back
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: of the head and executes her. And at this point
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: that he goes about beginning to burglarize the home. And
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, Dave, I think that it was
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: for the purpose of getting Christmas presents. If I'm not mistaken.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: The saddest part of crime is the mot evading factor
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: that began this whole What took place? Yeah, it was
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: December twentieth and the criminal needed to go Christmas shopping.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: What did criminals do? They don't go to the store
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: and shop. No, that's the easy thing to do. Askin
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: actually went out hunting for his Christmas presence. That's why
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: some of the things he stole were fairly odd. Who
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: steals a lamp? Who goes into a house, kills two
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: people and steals a lamp? That makes no sense. He
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: stole a VCR. He stole several other items, and he
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: took them all to a friend's house to stay. Here's
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: got some Christmas present I need to stash here for
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: a little while.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: The conflating of the joy of Christmas with multiple homicide
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: and burglary is something that I never thought that I
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: would have a discussion about. So you've rained down, holy
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: hell on the home of these two innocent people. They're
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: just in this place that obviously they found joy in.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: They've traveled down from the North, the cold North, at
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: this particular time of the year. Remember it's December nineteen
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: eighty nine. They've left their New Jersey home to come
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: and fly south for the winter, and there they are
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: and their life ends in this little home. Apparently that
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: wasn't the end of this night of terror that Gaskins
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: decides to perpetrate on this local community.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Now, to give it a very quick overview, we mentioned
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: Gaskin burglarizes the home. Joe after the kill shot on
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: mister and Missus Strumfels, shooting them both in the head.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: He covered their bodies with blankets and then burglarized the house,
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: taking lamps, VCR's cash, jewelry, things like that. I don't
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: know what goes on in a person's mind or their physiology.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: I would imagine you've got a little adrenaline rush going on.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: There's going to have to be something along those lines
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: to push you to the next part of the adventure,
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: which is a couple hours later. Gaskins, again just arbitrarily
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: picking a place, drives up to the home of Joseph
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: and Mary Rector and he finds them in the first murder,
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: we talked about how he got them in the living room.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: He was able to goes around the house several times
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: to make sure he knows exactly where they are, and
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: he does the same thing here at the home of
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: Joseph and Mary Rector. He sneaks up there in his
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: all black ninja outfit with his twenty two rifle. He
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: walks around the house and he notices that they are
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: in the den slash living room. So what he does
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: this time is he cuts the phone line, and as
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: he's getting ready to go up and do his dirty work,
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: the Rectors decided to sign for bed, So he cuts
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: the phone line. They turn off the lights and head
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: to the bedroom. Now this was not the plan. You know,
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: I mentioned earlier that he didn't want to go in
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: and sneak in the middle of the night and shoot
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: people in their bed. There had to be some terror here.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: He wanted them to know that he was going to
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: kill them and rob them. He wanted them to know that. Otherwise,
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: wouldn't it make sense to sneak into a house, catch
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: people unawares, do your business, and leave. So what he does.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: They've turned the lights off, they've gone to bed, so
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: he starts throwing logs rocks at the side of the
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: house on the roof, trying to wake them up. After
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: a couple of times of doing this, Finally, Joseph Rector, honey,
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: I got this. He gets up to go and see
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: what's going on, and it's when he gets back in
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: the den that's when Gaskins starts shooting again. That's when
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: he actually shoots from the outside. He shoots directors. But
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: in this particular case, mister and missus gas. Yeah, they
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: were scared, they were shocked, but they managed to escape.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: They got out of the house, they got in the car,
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: and Lewis Gaskin's while they're taking off down the road
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: in their car, he's shooting at them. He's shooting at
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: their car. They go to the hospital. But you know what,
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: bless their hearts, Joseph and Mary Rector, they were actually suspects.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: They didn't make any sense. Their story didn't make sense
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: to the local police.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: You hear a story like this, Where can you imagine
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: you're sitting there and you're talking to the police and
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: you're telling.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: On ninja guys, somebody dressed all in black in the
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: middle of the night.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and he's throwing items at our house and we
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: heard these noises. I get up and of course, speaking
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: for mister Rector here, and he gets shot. He shot
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: one time now, how in the world they were able
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: to escape that home, I have no idea. And they
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: were able to get to their car and get on
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: the road. And as in this you talk about being embolden,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: can you, And it's like something out of some crazy
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Hollywood trope. He steps out into the road and begins
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: firing at their car as they're driving away. I can
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: only imagine if you're this man and woman the Rectors,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: and you're thinking, what in the world have we done?
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: You're thinking, who could I have harmed to this degree?
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Where my car is now, I've been struck by a bullet.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: I'm in fear that my life is at its end.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: My wife is here in the vehicle with me. We're
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: heading out, maybe she's driving. We're trying to make it
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: to a point of safety. And then they're saying that
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: in some way we're involved in this. I don't know
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: in recent memory if I remember hearing someone being drawn out.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: And that's the really kind of dark part of this.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: A while back you mentioned the word hunting. You're literally
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: drawing your prey out so that you can essentially bag them.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: Was it all about taking from these people or was
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: it taking their lives? Is that what you're about, because
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: it kind of sounds that way to me. It sounds
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: as though that, yeah, you're going to take these worthless
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: trinkets from the home, but you were more about trying
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: to hunt them and kill them. And I really wonder
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: what the motivation behind that was. And it's quite striking
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: to me. He had an awareness. I think he had
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: an awareness that he had done wrong. You'd mentioned going
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: back to Stormfells. He covered their bodies with blankets. We
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: talk about face covering and death investigation, and that sometimes
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: gives us one of two answers here when we're looking
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: at trying to understand who may have done this. First off,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: it gives you an idea that they may have been
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: known by the perpetrator, or the perpetrator has an awareness
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: of their guilt because they're shame involved in it, and
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: so they're going to cover the bodies because they know
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: what they've done. I mean, this is you don't get
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: to use this term very often anymore, but this is
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: dastardly what has taken place, and their lives are at
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: an end, just laying there on the floor in that home.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: Back to the storm Fells, when mister sternfelt is shot,
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: it says, in the first time, the shot in the chest,
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: he comes up out of the chair. He gets shot
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: a second time and that drops him back down. But
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: somehow he is able. I don't know how, And that's
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: why I wanted to ask you, if you're shot twice
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: by a twenty two, what is allowing him? I mean,
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: the guy shot in the chest, at least we know
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: that what kind of wound is he going to have?
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: What's going on inside his body with that twenty two shot,
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: that still allows him to get back up and to
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: try to get to his wife.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: All of this is going to be depended upon placement
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: of the shot, the location anatomically obviously, if an individual,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: let's just say you're shot in the torso, if you're
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: hitting the heart, it's going to bring your life to
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: an end pretty quickly. But again, like Georgette Sternfell, she's
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: shot in the long dave. That is a languishchine way
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: to die. To be gut shot or shot in the lung,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: you're not going to die immediately, so you're still struggling,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: You're still able to uptake oxygen at that point in time,
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: and there's evidence of that with missus Stermfeld, because you know,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: she's bleeding out, wheezing, you know, in the hallway, she
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: still had life in her And to that point with
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: her husband, Robert, you're thinking, well, yeah, he was shot
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: in the chest, but was it a lung strike with him?
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: You can be shot initially and it not strike any
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: major organs that does happen in fact, or if it
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: strikes an organ it might not be as catastrophic as
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: other gunshot wounds might be. Now he shot twice, we know,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: and then he is executed. Now and when I say executed,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: that's a term that we kind of throw around quite
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: a bit relative to folks will say an execution style shooting.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: And what does that mean. Well, traditionally, what that means
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: is that you're going to walk up behind somebody and
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: shoot them in the back of their head with you
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: and a dominant you universal you being the perpetrator shooting
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: them in the head. And that's quite fascinating. But you know,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: all through this drama that night, that dark, cold night,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: you're thinking about his preparation. You've got a guy that's
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: dressed all in black. He's trying to, for whatever reason,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: blend into the night. He shows up with a weapon
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: in hand. Now certainly an interesting weapon, to say the
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: very least to commit such crime. A twenty two caliber rifle.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: You don't hear that very often. And he is standing
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: outside of the house. He's not certainly man enough to
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: break into the house and go toe to toe with
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: an older couple. He doesn't even have that kind of
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: intestinal fortitude. He stands outside the house and fires through
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: glass and shoots them. They were innocent victims sitting there
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: in their chair, I mean, just completely unaware that their
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: life was about to end, and the same way with
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: the rectors. To a lesser degree. They survived. But you
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: feel the safest at night, don't you, Dave, When you
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: all snuggle down in your bed, you've turned the lights out,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: you're getting ready to close your eyes, maybe to get
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: some sleep, and then all of a sudden you're hearing
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: something raining down on your house or glass is breaking out.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: And how evil do you have to be in order
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: to draw somebody out, probably in their pajamas, and then
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: shoot them down. And you're in a position of cover
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: where you're going to do this. It's not like you're
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: going to head with somebody that's armed and you're firing
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: at them like this, and that's what makes this so
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: very ominous. I think, you know, you kind of dig
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: through this and you think about, well, what was this,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Why would you be motivated at this point in time
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: to do it. Gaskin's made an interesting quote, Dave, and
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: this is him saying this. He admitted this to the
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: police when they questioned him, and he stated that the
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: night that he committed these heinous acts, that, in fact,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: and I'm paraphrasing, that the devil had more of him
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: that night than God did. And that's certainly an interesting
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: point because this was in fact pure evil. On April
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: the twelfth, twenty twenty three, Lewis Bernard Gaskin, otherwise known
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: as the Ninja Killer, was pronounced dead at Florida State
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Penitentiary at six fifteen pm after dying from lethal injection.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: I'm Joseph S. Gott Morgan and this is body backs