Murder or Suicide?

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48 Hours detailed a very interesting story this past weekend about a police officer from Wisconsin whose wife was found dead during the final stages of their divorce.

John Maloney’s wife, Sandy, was found charred to death on her living room sofa. She had what appeared strangulation marks on her neck and blunt trauma injury to her head. The case clearly pointed to murder.

The police didn’t have enough evidence however to convict Maloney so they convinced his then girlfriend at the time to try to get Maloney to confess. They wired a room and recorded Maloney interact with his girlfriend.

On the video tape you see a tense stand off between Maloney and his girlfriend. She starts questioning him — asking out right — if he killed his wife. Maloney’s adamantly denies it and his words become abusive. You feel an undeniable anger that is raging inside him. Maloney gets in his girlfriend’s face — too close for comfort — on multiple occasions. He makes you feel like he could tip over-the-brink-of-sanity several times though he never lays on finger on his girlfriend. In the last bit of tape shown on 48 hours, Maloney says that he was at his wife’s house the night of the crime. He says nothing else nor does he admit he killed his wife.

It was this tape that was the biggest blow for Maloney’s case. This is what the Special Prosecutor used to arrest and convict him.

Yet when Maloney is interviewed on 48 hours, and speaks of the crime — he stands firmly by his innocence. He swears he had nothing to do with the crime, and I truly believe him. His facial expressions are genuine and real. He shows emotions appropriately. I think this is an innocent man who has a raging temper.

The case goes to court and Maloney is found guilty of strangulation and setting his wife’s body on fire. Six years go by and then Special Prosecutor Joe Paulus, the prosecutor who tried Maloney’s case was charged and convicted of bribery and income tax evasion. That’s right, Paulus was taking money to fix cases. Cases that were fixed when Maloney was charged and convicted.

At the same time, “Sheila Berry, who had never even met Maloney, took up his cause. Berry is a part-time novelist, part-time investigator, and part-time head of Truth in Justice, a non-profit group that tries to help people it feels are wrongly imprisoned. ” (48 hours)

She uncovered a lot of evidence that Special Prosecutor Paulus never brought up in court. Not only does Berry believe that Sandy Maloney wasn’t murdered, she believed she killed herself.

“She says the evidence was in the basement of the Maloney house, where police
recorded a bizarre scene: two VCRs on top of a coffee table. And from the ceiling, there appeared to be a ligature hanging from a conduit pipe, right down in front of the coffee table.

The autopsy showed that Sandy was very drunk the night she died. Berry thinks Sandy tried to hang herself with the electrical cord: “She made a suicide attempt, at least a gesture, but enough of a gesture to jump off that coffee table and hit her — back of her head.”

Then, as Berry’s theory goes, Sandy tried to clean up in the basement shower. But ultimately, she ended up on the first floor, where she collapsed into unconsciousness on the couch while smoking. It was that lit cigarette, Berry believes, that caused the fire. “There certainly was a big death wish going on,” says Berry. “She did want to die.” (48 hours)

In support of this theory, Berry finds that police discovered multiple suicide notes written by Sandy in the garbage. Suicide notes that were never brought up at Maloney’s trial. The jury never even heard the theory that Maloney’s wife tried to commit suicide.

Berry goes on to find blood evidence to support her story. She also notes that the police were unable to find any blood evidence that linked Maloney to this crime scene. Berry believes that Sandy Maloney drank herself to death and died of alcohol poisoning. It was well known that Sandy had serious alcohol and drug problems.

Sandy Maloney had lost custody of her kids, had lost her marriage and had nothing left to live for. The following day her divorce was to be made final.

The twists and turns in this case are astonishing.

Even worse is what the defense attorney for Maloney did in this case. It was another tragedy for Maloney. He didn’t defend Maloney’s innocence with Sandy’s suicide notes. Oh no. He instead argued Maloney’s girlfriend killed Sandy. Absolute absurdity. Absurdity that helped convict Maloney if you ask me. It makes you wonder where his allegiances were at the time of this trial.

There are so many facts to this case, you can only wonder what the truth is. But when I watch John Maloney speak about this case, I believe he is telling the truth. His facial expressions are consistent with what he is saying. I get a deep sense he didn’t kill his wife.

I believe John Maloney truly deserves another trial but the current Special Prosecutor doesn’t believe John Maloney. He still believes Maloney killed his wife regardless of the new facts– and Maloney continues live out his life-sentence.

I think this a big injustice. A tragedy.

A Super-liar

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On Saturday night, 48 Hours on CBS profiled the story of a doctor’s wife, Miriam Illes. She was shot and killed, as if by a marksman. The killer stood some 70 feet from her kitchen window — in the dark, in a creek — fired once — and shot one bullet directly through her heart using a silencer so no one would be alerted.

The case was chilling, but what was even more chilling was watching the husband of Miriam Illes, Dr. Illes. He proclaims to this day he is innocent.

Throughout the entire interview on CBS, Dr. Illes never once gave away a HINT that he was lying. His stories were believable. He said the exact right things — EVERY TIME. His facial expressions didn’t contradict what he was saying. He didn’t project anger or frustration. He was calm and totally BELIEVABLE.

He didn’t give away ONE characteristic of a liar — yet as the investigation revealed itself — the circumstantial evidence became so overwhelming against him — you couldn’t help but believe he did it. He just had to be the killer. Dr. Illes, I suspect, is a super liar — a liar no one could ever catch by listening to him alone.

This guy was cold, calculating and beyond creepy especially in the end after he said and did everything “right”. When he was arrested, the police found a manuscript that he had written on his computer titled, “Heart Shot: Murder Of The Doctor’s Wife.” In his manuscript, he even used correct names for people. Yet as the murderer killed, his manuscript read that the murderer found it “erotic” and more exciting than sex!

Bone-chilling!

Dr. Illes response? Why did he write this book knowing the situation? He replied:

“I thought it would generate more interest and more widespread knowledge of the actual facts of the case, which were not being disseminated by the police. That was my motive.”

I wonder how many of his surgery patients may have died at the mind and hands of this clever, highly-intelligent madman?

You can watch a video of Mr. Illes titled: Shot in the dark to see if you can tell if he is lying. Go ahead, check it out. Watch him speak. You can also read all the details of the crime investigation here.

This is one case I can honestly say I wouldn’t have been able to pinpoint with any accuracy that Mr. Illes was lying by purely watching him speak alone. He came across as trustworthy — yet with all the evidence found — even without any directly linking him to the crime — I just can’t believe him. Too many weird behaviors implicate him to the crime in a bizarre way.

They say this man was a genius, exceptionally smart — smarter than any one of the people investigating him as said by the District Attorney — but as a group collectively, he wasn’t smarter than all of them.

Thankfully.

Chilling!

48 Hour Rape Case Review

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CBS News: Eye Of The Beholder, November 19, 2004

In Orange County, California, three 17-year-old guys are accused to committing rape against a 16-year-old girl who is officially being called Jane Doe. 48 Hours starts out their report showing Jane Doe reading a poem from behind to protect her identity. You hear the girl speak sincerely. She is clearly feeling violated. Her feelings are sincere.


Photo courtesy of http://www.freefoto.com

Next, you see one of the accused boys, Kyle Nachreiner, answering 48 Hours interviewer, Bill Lagattuta’s questions, “Did you rape her? Or, was it consensual sex?”

Kyle clearly lies when he replies something to the fact that she really wanted it and it was consensual. That was all I needed to see to have a deep seeded feeling that Kyle was the one lying. I suspected the problems lied with the three boys.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t always side with the women. Many women are motivated to lie in situations dealing with rape accusations (to gain money) — but in this case, this girl was being honest.

From that point forward, I was dying to learn the facts of the case to see if my gut reaction, my feelings of a lie, were accurate. As it turns out, I believe they were.

In my opinion, Jane Doe was a girl who was troubled and lost — and didn’t respect her body. She started hanging with the wrong crowd and lacked good judgment – there no doubt about it but when it came to the night of the alleged rape, she did not deserve what she got. She was violated.

The night before the alleged rape, the guys claimed that they discovered the following morning to their total surprise that while they partied at a pool in the backyard — they each had slept with Jane Doe at separate times — unaware that their friend(s) also had. They were shocked. When one of the guys, Greg Haidl, stated this, it was believable as strange and as contradictory as this seemed. I knew he was being honest. Weird.

What I believed happened in this situation is that these three guys felt “used” when they discovered they weren’t the only object of her affection that night. They felt violated and betrayed. And so hence they plotted to “use” her back in a very sick and twisted way — as pay back. That day after the discovery that they were each “used”, they called and invited Jane Doe back over for that evening.

One of the guys clearly states on camera that she came over and the first thing she said was “Hi. Can I have a beer?” Another lie. Yes, Jane Doe drank. She got drunk but she didn’t walk in the door and demand a beer.

Jane Doe admits to sleeping with two of the three boys the night before the rape. When she states this, for some reason I doubt her honesty about it. She seems evasive. I think she may have slept with all three of the boys as Greg Haidl said, but I am not certain.

In a deeper twist, as the story continues, you find out that the alleged crime took place at the house of Greg Haidl, whose father is the Assistant Sheriff in Orange County — second in charge in the county– while the Assistant sheriff himself was home. He was also home the night before with his wife when the boys had consensual sex with Jane Doe.

Furthermore, the boys recorded the entire event on video tape. The Assistant sheriff’s son, Greg Haidl, loved to make video movies — and according to him “someone” — one of his friends — turned on the camera that night and recorded the whole event. When he said he didn’t know who turned it on, he was clearly lying. You could see it in his face. I could feel it. He knew exactly who turned on that camera. I suspect it was him.

According to the D.A., Jane Doe is unconscious during the recording of the sexual act where the three guys have what they call “kinky sex” with the girl using not only their bodies but different objects. Since Jane Doe is supposedly unconscious in the video, it is considered rape by California state law because she wasn’t able to give consent. The big question is, did she?

The next morning, the guys drive Jane Doe home and she has no memories of what happened to her. It wasn’t until the Assistant sheriff’s son brought over his prized video tape to a friend’s house to show him — that he hung himself. He accidentally forgot to take it home with him — and another woman found it. She was appalled by what she saw and shared it with her neighbor who was a cop. The cop questioned if this woman was even alive still so formal charges were pressed against the boys. That’s when Jane Doe’s father gets a call and Jane Doe finds out.

The case went to trial and it was a mis-trial. The jury couldn’t agree if the girl was conscious enough to give consent. She had a pillow under her head which confused them and they say she kissed one of the boys. The jury deadlocked. It is now scheduled to go to court again in January 2005 which doesn’t bode well for the boys. Second trials have a statistically higher likelihood of ending in a sentence of guilty.

The Assistant sheriff’s son has since tried to commit suicide twice, and has been charged in raping another 16 year old girl (who claims this sex was consensual) — but this time he is 19 years old and she is clearly a minor (at least I suspect that is true in California). He is currently sitting in jail on suicide watch.

And Jane Doe? She’s been arrested for using meth and is now suing the Assistant sheriff’s family, the Haidl’s, who are well-to-do, for millions of dollars.

In any case, the victim isn’t a clean character — nor are the guys who raped her. Anyone can see that — which makes this case all the more difficult. It isn’t cut and dry. But clearly, to me, the guys told lie after lie after lie. All three of them. Jane Doe stretched the truth once, and perhaps lied one time though I am not certain. She seems much more believable.

Update:
Second Trial Results (March 23, 2005)