00:00:00
Hugh Gardenier: Fred and Edwina had been
fighting for decades. They maintained in
00:00:07
the kitchen two separate refrigerators.
One refrigerator kept Fred's food in it.
00:00:15
The other refrigerator kept Edwina's food in
it. They came up and they fought constantly.
00:00:22
And this had been going on for decades.
Phoebe Judge: Fred Rogers was born in 1884,
00:00:28
a real estate agent who also had a side
career as a bookie. His wife Edwina was
00:00:34
15 years younger. They lived in Houston, Texas,
and by all accounts absolutely hated each other.
00:00:40
We're hearing about them from Hugh Gardenier.
In June of 1965, a relative called the Houston
00:00:47
police and said he hadn't been able to
get Fred or Edwina on the phone for days.
00:00:52
Two Houston patrol officers went to the house
and knocked on the door. When no one answered,
00:00:57
they entered the house to investigate.
Hugh Gardenier: And in the story that is
00:01:01
told in the folklore of this story is that one of
them was looking for a cold beer. So he came up,
00:01:09
went over to the refrigerator, and he saw
what he thought was the side of a hawk.
00:01:20
He looked at it and said, "Well, that's a
good piece of meat that's going to waste."
00:01:26
And he was starting to close the refrigerator,
and he looks down in the vegetable crisper,
00:01:32
and there was Edwina Rogers' head.
And she was staring right back at him. When the police and the medical examiner
got to the house, and they started pulling
00:01:47
the body parts out of the refrigerator, and they
were laying them out on black plastic, on top of
00:01:53
the linoleum kitchen floor, they thought there was
only one body. And it was only after they started
00:02:01
coming up and pulling body parts out and counting
them that they realized they had two victims.
00:02:08
Phoebe Judge: Edwina and her husband Fred had been
murdered, cut up, and put in the refrigerator.
00:02:16
The police found their bodies on Wednesday, and by
Thursday had focused their attention on Edwina and
00:02:22
Fred's son, Charles Rogers. Charles was 43 years
old and lived with his parents. He was described
00:02:29
by neighbors as a "complete hermit, who went out
of his way never to see his mother and father."
00:02:35
The family maid told police that Edwina had
not seen her son face-to-face in five years.
00:02:40
Hugh Gardenier: Yeah. His mother would slip notes
under the door, and sometimes Charles was there,
00:02:45
sometimes he wasn't. She would take a broom
and with the handle would knock it against the
00:02:52
ceiling of the room if she thought that the music
or the noise from the bedroom above was too loud,
00:03:00
or if she wanted Charles' attention.
Phoebe Judge: After the murder of his parents,
00:03:05
there was a nationwide manhunt for Charles Rogers,
but he was never seen or heard from again. It's
00:03:11
still considered an open case. But back in 1997,
Hugh Gardenier and his wife, Martha, took it upon
00:03:18
themselves to do a little more digging.
Hugh Gardenier: It causes pretty close to heart attacks, when you
show up on someone's doorstep
00:03:28
35 years after the fact, and you start asking them
questions about a double homicide in June of '65.
00:03:40
They first stare at you blankly, and they
say, "Well, I don't know anything about it."
00:03:47
You then come up and pull out a document
that has their name on it. And you start
00:03:52
going through the linage of the document.
And at that point in time, I think we were
00:03:58
either a whole lot smarter or a whole lot
dumber than we are now, because we did some
00:04:03
pretty gutsy things in order to get information.
Phoebe Judge: It was especially gutsy considering
00:04:10
that the Gardeniers have no law enforcement
training whatsoever. They're accountants. A
00:04:16
husband and wife accounting team running their
own business, Gardenier and Associates.
00:04:21
[Laughing.] Would you knock on the door and
say, "Excuse me, we're accountants"? Hugh
00:04:30
Gardenier: Nah. Nah. Nah. Nah.
[Playful keyboard music, in organ style.] Phoebe Judge: They do regular accountant
stuff — taxes, audits — but they're also
00:04:36
certified forensic accountants.
Hugh Gardenier: In essence, the best way to put it is,
when people look at numbers,
00:04:43
they might see a number that is $15,000.
That's the whole number. We come up and
00:04:51
we tear that number apart, and we determine
how it was composed. What put it together,
00:04:58
the documents that back it up, and the story.
Phoebe Judge: So, you're like paper detectives.
00:05:05
Martha Gardenier: Exactly.
We follow the paper trail. Phoebe Judge: Hugh and Martha retraced every
step of the original police investigation,
00:05:13
and didn't accept anything as fact without
checking it out for themselves. They
00:05:18
basically audited the police reports.
Martha Gardenier: It would be things like
00:05:22
a Saturday afternoon with my 12-year-old
son, going down to the neighborhood where
00:05:29
this happened with tape measures and maps, and
measuring sewer openings. And going down and
00:05:38
going through the archives of the City Planning
Department and looking where the sewer lines ran,
00:05:47
so that we knew exactly which sewers connected to
the house. And the ones that police said had been
00:05:54
used to flush organs didn't even connect to the
house. So, that wouldn't have been possible.
00:05:59
Hugh Gardenier: You come up there, there are
certain things in life that become a quest.
00:06:06
And you come up and you get involved with it, and
it's like you're unraveling a string from a giant
00:06:14
knotted ball, and you keep working with it and
working with it and working with it. And I would
00:06:22
say this, that during the years we worked on this,
it was a singular challenge. Because you came up
00:06:30
and said, "I know the answer is out there." In our
minds, we were and are satisfied that we unraveled
00:06:40
the mystery, and we were able to document it.
Phoebe Judge: They estimate they put more than
00:06:46
5,000 hours into this, interviewing more than a
hundred people. And they think they've solved,not
00:06:52
only the mystery of why Charles Rogers killed
his parents, but how he managed to disappear.
00:06:58
I'm Phoebe Judge, this is Criminal.
[Mysterious marimba music.] Martha Gardenier: His childhood was pretty grim
by most acceptable standards. It was a life of
00:07:14
alcohol and physical abuse and emotional abuse.
And it was very tough for him. He was small for
00:07:23
his age. So, there was a lot of bullying from
other kids and he basically became a loner.
00:07:34
But he was a brilliant person.
Phoebe Judge: Charles Rogers had gone to the University of Houston. He was in the Navy in World
War II, and ended up becoming a geophysicist,
00:07:44
first for Shell Oil Company, and later on his
own. He's the guy who’d tell you where to dig
00:07:50
for minerals, oil, and gas on your land.
While newspapers in the '60s described him
00:07:55
as a bizarre shut-in, Hugh and Martha
discovered that wasn't the whole story. He had a long-term girlfriend. He communicated
with people all over the world on a ham radio,
00:08:06
and owned property, including the home where his
parents were murdered. He'd had a pilot's license
00:08:12
and flew himself around the Sierra Madres
in Mexico looking for gold and silver.
00:08:17
Hugh Gardenier: We very quickly determined
with this case that this was not a typical
00:08:24
violent crime with the perpetrator or suspect
acting in the manner of a violent criminal.
00:08:34
It was like a white collar crime.
Phoebe Judge: What do you mean? What does that mean exactly?
Hugh Gardenier: Well,
00:08:41
what it means is this: it was money motivated. Charles' parents had defrauded him. They had
come up and forged his signature with respect
00:08:56
to deeds on land that he owned. His mother had
come up and liened the house, which he owned the
00:09:05
house. She had told everyone that they owned the
house, not Charles. And so it was a matter of:
00:09:13
she had taken out loans against the house and
pocketed the money. This was one of the things
00:09:23
that was missed with the police investigation.
They never had the time or the resources to put
00:09:32
together the paper trail, and to look at it
from a standpoint of: what were the financial
00:09:39
transactions that led up to the murders?
Phoebe Judge: Hugh and Martha say Charles had
00:09:45
been abused by his parents well into adulthood,
and that he planned their murders meticulously.
00:09:50
He approached it as a kind of engineering
problem, first developing a course of action,
00:09:56
and then making backup plans and backup-backup
plans. Finally, on Father's Day 1965,
00:10:03
Charles asked his mother to come up to his room.
Hugh Gardenier: And he put a bullet in her head.
00:10:09
He then went downstairs. He got a claw hammer
out of a tool box that belonged to a handyman
00:10:18
that they had that would work on the
house. He went in, dragged his father, Fred Rogers. He was 81 years old. He dragged him
out of the bed, and then he proceeded to beat
00:10:32
him to death with the hammer. Then after that,
he dragged their bodies to the master bathroom
00:10:41
on the first floor and proceeded to dissect
their bodies, drain the blood, and come up
00:10:49
and put the bodies in the kitchen refrigerator.
Phoebe Judge: Charles didn't leave his house for
00:10:57
three days. He was patient and careful, making
sure there was no trace of what he had done.
00:11:03
He even staged parts of the house
to make it look like a robbery. He left the gun on the nightstand in
his bedroom, slipped out a back window,
00:11:10
and disappeared.
[Driving guitar music.] Back in 1968, a few years after the murders,
a small item ran in the Houston Chronicle
00:11:27
with information that the police had
initially withheld from the public. The day after police had found the bodies
of Edwina and Fred Rogers, a man who looked
00:11:37
exactly like Charles Rogers had
walked into an office building. Employees reported that the man seemed
nervous, and said he was a welder and
00:11:46
wanted to apply for a job overseas. When they
asked his name, he said it was Anthony Pitts.
00:11:52
That's all the newspaper item said, but Hugh and
Martha figured out that Charles Rogers' girlfriend
00:11:58
worked in that office, and that she was expecting
Charles. She was going to sneak him the keys to a
00:12:04
getaway car. It was all part of the plan.
Hugh Gardenier: Well, the secretary, Jean,
00:12:10
provided him with a 1959 Cadillac. He came up,
and this was Charles. Charles drove the 1959
00:12:18
Cadillac down to Mexico. He crossed the border at
Presidio, and then he headed on to Chihuahua.
00:12:29
Phoebe Judge: The police never made that
connection. All they knew was that Charles
00:12:33
Rogers had pretended to need a job and given
a fake name, Anthony Pitts. But this small
00:12:40
news item became even more meaningful to Hugh
and Martha when they were digging around and
00:12:45
remembered that Charles had a pilot's license.
Hugh Gardenier: We knew so much about his
00:12:51
personality that we went, "I bet he used his
own plane when he got his pilot's license."
00:13:02
So, we were in a situation where we looked at the
pilot's license, we could not make the end number
00:13:10
out completely, but we had it down to a range of
numbers. We went up to the Texas A&M library and
00:13:19
started pulling out old registration information
from the FAA. We got it down to a list,
00:13:28
a sequence of possibly 10 numbers. We then ordered
microfiche on all of those aircraft registration
00:13:39
numbers from the FAA in Oklahoma City. When we
got the microfiche in, we went through, bingo.
00:13:46
One of the planes was Charles Rogers' plane.
Phoebe Judge: They followed the sales records of
00:13:51
the airplane, a Cessna 140, and found that Charles
sold it to a man named Pop Folwood, who went on
00:13:58
to sell it to a man named Anthony Pitts.
Hugh Gardenier: And we went, "Wait a second.
00:14:02
Pitts. Where does Pitts fall in this?" We
then come up and look into the newspaper
00:14:10
article in 1968 that describes somebody
by the name of Pitts, who is a welder for a supposed job interview. We started
pulling records from the Department of
00:14:24
Public Safety in Texas and the DEA, and we
managed to get a goldmine of information that,
00:14:33
in turn, started leading to Charles'
associates. But it all opened up with that pilot's license, and that Cessna 140.
Phoebe Judge: This was their first major
00:14:46
breakthrough. Anthony Pitts was a real person.
He'd worked with Charles Rogers in Central America
00:14:52
before the murders. Now they needed proof that
the two men continued to work together afterwards.
00:14:59
And they found that proof by following a name
that kept appearing in Charles Rogers' business
00:15:04
records: John Mackey. They tracked down Mackey's
lawyer, who put them in touch with Mackey's widow.
00:15:11
She knew exactly who Charles Rogers was.
Hugh Gardenier: Widows will talk after their,
00:15:18
quite frankly, philandering husbands are dead. It's amazing the information you can get out.
Phoebe Judge: John Mackey was running mining
00:15:27
businesses in Mexico and Honduras for investors
back in Texas. He needed a solid geophysicist
00:15:34
to assure these investors that they'd be
digging in the right place: Charles Rogers.
00:15:40
Whether or not the Texans recognized Rogers
from the newspapers honestly didn't seem to
00:15:46
matter. He was really good at his job.
Hugh Gardenier: Charles literally had an
00:15:53
employer in Houston. The owner of the
company could have come forward. [Melancholic piano music fades in.]
He could have said, "Hey, I know this
00:16:03
man. I know where he is. I know what
his habits are, his pattern." No, the gentlemen wouldn't. And a lot of the reason
that people didn't come forward that knew things,
00:16:14
is they had either made money from Charles Rogers,
or they were making money from Charles Rogers.
00:16:22
He, in essence, was the golden goose.
Phoebe Judge: Do you think he's still alive?
Hugh Gardenier: No. It's a situation,
00:16:34
if Charles were still alive, he would be one
old codger now, because he was born in 1921. No,
00:16:42
the story we get, and this is through John
Mackey's widow in Honduras, and also through
00:16:52
an attorney that put together the papers down
in Honduras, and some other people down there,
00:16:59
was that he was murdered by the Campesino miners,
and that his body was thrown into the river.
00:17:06
Phoebe Judge: The Honduran national police
came to Mackey's home and said an American
00:17:11
geologist had been pickaxed to death over a
wage dispute. His body had been dumped in the
00:17:18
river and had been found downstream. Between the
heat and the fish, the body was badly decayed and
00:17:24
difficult to identify. John Mackey told the
officers he had no idea who it could be.
00:17:39
[Piano music ends.]
This might be personal, but I'm interested. You two were married in 2001, but you were
working together before you were married
00:17:54
and maybe became a couple. In any way, do you
think this investigation brought you together?
00:18:03
Martha Gardenier: It was sort of a strange
courtship. [Hugh and Martha laugh.] Phoebe Judge:
00:18:09
Why are you laughing, Hugh? [Laughs.]
Martha Gardenier: [Laughs.] Well. When your Saturday night date consists of
00:18:19
looking for murders, it's kind of an odd
courtship. I don't know that it — well,
00:18:29
that's hard to say. I think it did, maybe,
bring us a little bit closer, but...
00:18:38
Hugh Gardenier: The two of us are
research adrenaline junkies. Martha Gardenier: That's true.
Hugh Gardenier: Okay? And when we
00:18:46
get involved in endeavors like this, we
dig and dig and dig, and we essentially
00:18:55
feed off of each other. And yeah —
Martha Gardenier: It's very easy to corrupt each other.
Hugh Gardenier: Yeah.
00:19:01
Martha Gardenier: I don't know that it actually
played a part in us eventually getting married,
00:19:10
but I do believe it brought us closer
together because we just synced with it. Hugh Gardenier: Yeah.
Phoebe Judge: They published all
00:19:19
of their findings in a book. They'd expected
it to be a non-fiction book. But in 2003,
00:19:24
The Ice Box Murders was published as a novel.
Hugh Gardenier: 85% of it is straight fact. It
00:19:35
was a matter of Martha and I arm wrestled over
the other 15%. We just literally rolled around,
00:19:45
because my first intent was this growling gritting
of my teeth, and going, "By golly, this will never
00:19:54
be written as a novel." And there were going to
be footnotes everywhere, and so forth, and we're
00:20:00
going to reference the specific documents.
Martha Gardenier: But most true crime
00:20:06
is about stories or cases that have actually
been solved and gone to trial. And that's a
00:20:15
big part of it, is that there is a closure to
the case. But in this case, where it's still
00:20:21
considered to be an open case, it's much more
difficult to say, "Okay, this is non-fiction."
00:20:27
Phoebe Judge: It's an incredibly dense novel,
moving back and forth through time, and going
00:20:33
down these long paths with side characters. Just
the sheer amount of detail that they put into this
00:20:39
book makes you understand the level of research.
And really, it's rather violent in parts.
00:20:45
Hugh Gardenier: Some parts of this, I
got to admit in getting ready for this, we were going through and we were rereading the
book, and I came at one point, "Oh my God, I wrote
00:20:58
this stuff?" It's a situation, "My lord, Martha,
I'm absolutely amazed that you ever married me."
00:21:06
Martha Gardenier: That's true.
Phoebe Judge: I think that's true too, because I
00:21:10
read a couple of those pages and thought, "Wow."
Hugh Gardenier: Yep, yeah. [Optimistic electronic music.]
Phoebe Judge:
00:21:19
The house where Edwina and Fred Rogers
were killed was bulldozed by the city of Houston in 1972, with all the
furniture inside. Hugh went out
00:21:29
there with a metal detector once and found
parts from Charles Rogers' ham radio.
00:21:34
It was just an empty lot for a long time,
until 2000, when developers put condos on it.
00:21:40
Hugh and Martha haven't taken on any other
cases. They're very proud of the work they did,
00:21:45
and it's been hard to let go. They're keeping
their eyes out for a new paper trail to follow,
00:21:50
but nothing's seemed right yet. Hugh
says maybe he's a one-case guy. Criminal is produced by Lauren Spohrer and me.
Audio mix by Rob Byers and Johnny Vince Evans.
00:22:10
Special thanks to Alice Wilder and Will
Pierce. Julienne Alexander makes original
00:22:15
illustrations for each episode of Criminal.
You can see them at thisiscriminal.com.
00:22:19
Criminal is recorded in the studios
of North Carolina Public Radio, WUNC. We're a proud member of Radiotopia from
PRX, a collection of the 13 best shows around.
00:22:31
Shows like Radio Diaries. This month, Radio
Diaries is celebrating its 20th birthday. You can
00:22:37
hear their first teenage diary from 17-year-old
Amanda Brand. Amanda knew she was gay, but her
00:22:44
parents kept insisting she'd grow out of it.
Amanda Brand: I wear a cross between skater
00:22:49
clothes and industrial gothic. My parents think I
should dress more feminine, but what do they know,
00:22:57
right? They grew up back in ancient times...
Phoebe Judge: Go listen. Radiotopia from PRX is supported by
the Knight foundation and MailChimp
00:23:07
celebrating creativity, chaos and teamwork. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.
Jingle: Radiotopia. From PRX.