00:00:04
on this episode of women behind bars
00:00:06
one woman was convicted of masterminding
00:00:08
a cruel plot to murder a
00:00:10
wheelchair-bound man
00:00:11
a paramedic went over said he has a belt
00:00:15
around his neck and he has
00:00:17
literally split open from the heat
00:00:21
nine o'clock i am a detective gets down
00:00:23
on my face and said
00:00:25
your fingerprints are all over his house
00:00:28
i was his cab driver
00:00:32
you're gonna find my fingerprints
00:00:33
everywhere then
00:00:35
connie kiel tells her story she
00:00:37
allegedly participated in the robbery
00:00:39
and murder of a liquor store clerk
00:00:41
we're going down the highway all of a
00:00:43
sudden all these cops were coming around
00:00:45
us
00:00:45
and we were arrested right there the
00:00:48
evidence clearly
00:00:49
showed that connie was not just a
00:00:51
ride-along but she was there acting as a
00:00:53
lookout
00:00:53
she knew that a robbery was going to
00:00:56
take place
00:00:57
two women two brutal crimes these are
00:01:00
the stories of rowena ashing
00:01:01
and connie kiel
00:01:26
at 2 15 a.m on august 10 1992
00:01:29
fire crews responded to a rapidly
00:01:31
burning house fire in the northwest
00:01:33
section of town
00:01:34
[Music]
00:01:36
there were civilians standing on this
00:01:38
sidewalk in a semicircle screaming
00:01:40
there's someone in there he's an
00:01:42
invalid he's in a wheelchair but it was
00:01:45
too late for 57 year old tom bauer
00:01:47
a disabled man whose body was discovered
00:01:50
inside
00:01:51
there was evidence at the scene that
00:01:52
this was a homicide
00:01:55
police brought 38 year old cab driver
00:01:57
rowena ashing in for questioning
00:01:59
she'd recently been accused of stealing
00:02:01
500 from bauer who was one of her
00:02:03
regular customers
00:02:05
soon rowena her 25 year old boyfriend
00:02:08
jeff ramsey
00:02:09
and three others were arrested and
00:02:11
charged with the gruesome killing which
00:02:13
left the working-class steel town
00:02:15
shell shocked was rowena ashing the
00:02:18
mastermind behind a cool-blooded murder
00:02:20
or was she unfairly implicated by her
00:02:22
boyfriend and his cohorts
00:02:31
i was born in granite city illinois i
00:02:33
was the oldest child of my mother and
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father's marriage
00:02:37
rowena grew up in a family of five kids
00:02:40
as she remembers her childhood
00:02:42
she did not have a good relationship
00:02:43
with her mother who was on her second
00:02:45
marriage
00:02:47
i'm not gonna be one of these people
00:02:48
that blames all their background on
00:02:49
their mother okay
00:02:50
but my mother was extremely abusive
00:02:52
individual
00:02:53
and some of the scars i care today are
00:02:56
from my mother
00:02:57
rowena felt that she was the focus of
00:02:59
her mother's rage because rowena was one
00:03:01
of her father's favorites
00:03:03
maybe she felt threatened by the fact
00:03:05
that
00:03:06
i got along well with my father my
00:03:09
mother was
00:03:10
five foot tall 197 pounds she had a back
00:03:13
hand would have made babe ruth green
00:03:14
within me
00:03:16
by rowena's account as she entered high
00:03:18
school things at home only got worse
00:03:21
the day for my 15th birthday she got mad
00:03:24
at me because i was on the phone and i
00:03:25
said well you just can't talk to nobody
00:03:26
around here
00:03:27
she took the phone and wrapped around my
00:03:29
neck tried to choke me
00:03:31
these claims of abuse are backed up only
00:03:33
by her daughter loretta who says she
00:03:35
learned of the abuse from her mother
00:03:36
and aunts my grandmother was very
00:03:38
abusive especially towards my mom
00:03:41
my grandfather never hit my grandma
00:03:44
but one time he did put her against the
00:03:46
wall and let her know not to be hitting
00:03:48
the kids anymore because she was just
00:03:49
that
00:03:50
far out of it according to rowena by the
00:03:53
end of high school her mother became
00:03:54
less abusive to her
00:03:56
but nonetheless rowena was eager to
00:03:58
leave granite city and plan to enlist
00:04:00
in the military as a way out yeah i had
00:04:03
it all said i was going to go join
00:04:04
you uncle sam's air force well i want to
00:04:07
take my physical to be in the air force
00:04:08
and they said well
00:04:09
you're pregnant i said you're crazy the
00:04:12
father was rowena's high school
00:04:14
sweetheart
00:04:14
who also had plans to join the air force
00:04:19
well his mother was very adamant that
00:04:22
he was going into service and when
00:04:26
my father's mother found out that my
00:04:29
mother was pregnant
00:04:31
he got shipped off a little faster
00:04:35
it was really a tough thing at that time
00:04:38
rowena was so determined she was even
00:04:40
willing to leave her newborn baby whom
00:04:41
she had named loretta in the care of her
00:04:43
mother
00:04:44
despite their rocky past my mother
00:04:48
was going to actually go in the service
00:04:50
and leave me with my grandmother
00:04:52
she was going to um take care of my
00:04:53
child and i was going to go in the air
00:04:54
force anyway but six months into her
00:04:57
pregnancy rowena's mother was admitted
00:04:58
to the hospital
00:05:00
she went for gallstones the doctor had
00:05:03
told her he said noni
00:05:04
you're 197 pounds three-fourths of your
00:05:07
heart
00:05:08
is not good he said i can guarantee you
00:05:11
if you don't lose some weight
00:05:12
when you go in there he said i'm not
00:05:14
gonna guarantee your chances of survival
00:05:17
and um
00:05:20
and um
00:05:24
she said i'll operate on me anyway
00:05:27
rowena's mother never made it home dying
00:05:29
from complications from the surgery
00:05:32
in may of 1973 rowena gave up her dream
00:05:35
of joining the military
00:05:36
when she gave birth to her daughter
00:05:38
loretta
00:05:40
i was born three months after my
00:05:42
grandmother passed away
00:05:43
so it was very tough time emotionally
00:05:46
for my mom
00:05:47
i left my daughter with my dad because i
00:05:49
could see some of the things that i was
00:05:51
doing with her
00:05:52
my mother was doing with me and rather
00:05:54
than put her through that
00:05:56
i told dad i said i can't do this to my
00:05:59
child
00:06:00
in late 1973 rowena took off with a
00:06:03
friend to louisiana and it was there she
00:06:05
met tom ashing
00:06:06
the two quickly fell in love and by may
00:06:08
of 1974 they were married
00:06:11
rowena then decided to focus on raising
00:06:13
a family
00:06:14
i guess i was about a year old she
00:06:17
came back with tom which is my stepdad
00:06:20
he raised me from the time i was a year
00:06:22
old tom and rowena settled in louisiana
00:06:25
and eventually went on to have two more
00:06:26
children
00:06:27
to support the family rowena worked odd
00:06:29
jobs while tom drove trucks and took on
00:06:32
seasonal work on offshore oil rigs
00:06:34
being raised in the midwest i dreamed of
00:06:36
the little white picket house
00:06:38
you know the whole nine yards the
00:06:39
husband should go to work and the mom
00:06:40
stays home and keeps house and blah blah
00:06:42
blah
00:06:43
and of course that didn't happen but the
00:06:45
reality of it is he
00:06:46
really really really really really liked
00:06:48
other women i mean i'm not gorgeous
00:06:50
enough but i'm not a bad looking woman
00:06:51
these women he run around with her oh
00:06:54
my god the stringy hair the buck teeth
00:06:58
you know they just were not gorgeous so
00:07:00
i was like okay
00:07:02
and i figured there had to be something
00:07:03
i could do
00:07:05
there was nothing i could do to change
00:07:09
him
00:07:10
in 1991 after 17 years of marriage
00:07:13
rowena and tom filed for divorce
00:07:16
the single mother moved back to granite
00:07:17
city illinois renting an apartment with
00:07:20
her eight-year-old son
00:07:21
and sixteen-year-old daughter nona
00:07:23
loretta was 18
00:07:24
and living on her own to make ends meet
00:07:27
rowena landed a job as a cab driver
00:07:30
i got to meet some strange people but i
00:07:32
got me a lot of nice ones too
00:07:34
and it was just it was great
00:07:37
i enjoyed the intermingling with people
00:07:39
one of her regular customers was tom
00:07:41
bauer
00:07:42
bauer was confined to a walker and a
00:07:44
wheelchair
00:07:46
tom was uh he was a local person i
00:07:48
believe he was 57 years old
00:07:51
he had some drinking problems could not
00:07:54
get around
00:07:55
he had to rely on other people to help
00:07:57
him and people that helped clean his
00:07:58
house
00:08:00
and he relied a lot on the local cab
00:08:02
company to go in
00:08:04
and pick things up for him and take him
00:08:07
places
00:08:08
take him to go get his medication i take
00:08:10
him to go pay bills
00:08:11
i take him wherever he needs to go i did
00:08:13
his shopping for him he'd make me a list
00:08:14
give me the money i'd bring his stuff
00:08:16
back
00:08:17
tom bower hadn't always been so
00:08:19
dependent on others
00:08:20
in the mid-1980s he was struck by a
00:08:22
mysterious illness
00:08:24
thomas bauer had been married for some
00:08:27
time
00:08:28
and began to
00:08:32
exhibit a number of illness symptoms
00:08:34
they finally
00:08:35
determined that he had been poisoned
00:08:37
over a fairly long period of time
00:08:40
by his wife who was spiking his iced tea
00:08:43
with
00:08:43
arsenic it was an attempt for her to get
00:08:46
him to stop
00:08:47
drinking it crippled him it left him
00:08:50
largely confined to a wheelchair it was
00:08:53
just one of those tragic stories
00:08:54
that you know that when you're covered
00:08:57
as a reporter you just keep looking at
00:08:58
it and going why
00:09:00
why do these things happen well he
00:09:03
needed somebody to talk to sometimes and
00:09:04
he made me talk to him
00:09:06
he told me about how unhappy he'd been
00:09:07
with his first wife and
00:09:10
how come she came to do what she did to
00:09:11
him
00:09:13
rowena's job with the cab company had
00:09:14
also put her in touch with jeff ramsey
00:09:17
a 25 year old cab driver who'd already
00:09:19
had a number of scrapes with the law
00:09:21
since he went awol from the army the
00:09:23
charges included assault
00:09:24
battery and armed robbery i didn't know
00:09:27
too much about him but
00:09:29
you know he said all the right things
00:09:31
that i wanted to hear i mean the man's a
00:09:33
really you know nice looking young man
00:09:36
you know
00:09:36
so of course i took up with him for a
00:09:38
while he made her feel younger
00:09:40
he catered to my mom's needs and made
00:09:42
her feel special
00:09:43
he was a player type of guy that tell
00:09:46
you
00:09:46
exactly what it is you want to hear and
00:09:49
just
00:09:50
to get you to do whatever it is he needs
00:09:52
you to do at that time
00:09:54
before long jeff quit his job at the cab
00:09:56
stand and moved in with rowena
00:09:58
according to rowena he relied on her to
00:10:00
pay the bills
00:10:02
he also began to surround himself with a
00:10:04
group of young guys
00:10:05
who appeared to look up to him i think
00:10:08
he was just trying to start up his own
00:10:10
gang
00:10:10
type of thing so kind of like godfather
00:10:14
type
00:10:14
mentality jeff ramsey's crew consisted
00:10:18
of john mcintyre
00:10:19
bob killer russell and richie loftus
00:10:23
they thought jeff was this big guy
00:10:24
because he did have a record
00:10:26
you know at the same time they were
00:10:28
scared of him because he had a record
00:10:30
and jeff made sure they knew you know
00:10:32
that about the violent past
00:10:35
on august 9 1992 rowena revealed to jeff
00:10:38
that one of her most loyal customers
00:10:40
tom bauer had accused her of stealing
00:10:42
500
00:10:44
he called me at the cab stand and he
00:10:47
said uh
00:10:48
oh he was just all out of bed been out
00:10:50
of shape you uh
00:10:52
took my money i'm gonna put you in jail
00:10:57
when women behind bars continues rowena
00:11:00
indicated to him that she wanted tommy
00:11:03
bauer taken out
00:11:04
i believe it was even mentioned to burn
00:11:05
him out
00:11:11
in august of 1992 rowena ashing was
00:11:14
working as a cab driver in granite city
00:11:17
illinois to support her two youngest
00:11:19
children
00:11:20
her oldest daughter loretta now 18 was
00:11:22
living on her own
00:11:23
one of her regular customers 57 year old
00:11:26
tom bauer
00:11:27
had accused rowena of stealing 500 and
00:11:30
had even filed a report with the granite
00:11:31
city police department
00:11:33
just after 2 am on august 10 neighbors
00:11:36
on illinois avenue in granite city
00:11:38
reported seeing smoke and flames coming
00:11:40
from inside the house of tom bower
00:11:42
the fire department arrived on the scene
00:11:44
there were
00:11:45
civilians standing on this sidewalk in a
00:11:48
semicircle screaming there's someone in
00:11:50
there he's an invalid
00:11:51
he's in a wheelchair we know that he's
00:11:53
in there as the smoke rose we found
00:11:56
the victim he was dead
00:11:59
her paramedic went over said he has a
00:12:03
belt around his neck
00:12:04
and he has literally split open from
00:12:07
the heat we knew that this wasn't a fire
00:12:11
victim because he had been strangulated
00:12:13
investigators from the granite city
00:12:15
police department were called to the
00:12:16
scene
00:12:19
water is dripping on you everything's
00:12:21
burnt we
00:12:22
i walked over and saw the deceased on
00:12:25
the bed
00:12:26
and it was pretty obvious what it was a
00:12:29
homicide
00:12:29
well this is the murder weapon which is
00:12:31
the key a very key part of evidence
00:12:34
and it's believed that this was his belt
00:12:35
that he wore around his pants and the
00:12:38
suspects took off
00:12:39
of the pants and then wrapped it around
00:12:41
his neck one of the
00:12:43
main key elements of this crime was a
00:12:46
frying pan that
00:12:48
the perpetrators used to hit him in the
00:12:50
head with and pieces of this firing pan
00:12:53
was even underneath his body
00:12:55
this ended up being the bottom of a
00:12:57
frying skillet and it
00:12:58
used such a force that it actually broke
00:13:00
the bottom of the skillet out
00:13:02
there was also a rug that was placed
00:13:04
over the body that's uncharacteristic
00:13:06
for someone sleeping to have a rug over
00:13:08
them and through the investigation it
00:13:10
was later determined that was actually
00:13:12
used in the crime
00:13:13
it's troublesome to a police department
00:13:15
and to a community
00:13:16
when you have someone like mr bauer who
00:13:18
is unable to get around for someone to
00:13:20
come in and use these means
00:13:22
to take his life
00:13:25
police began to look at anyone who may
00:13:27
have had a recent dispute with tom bower
00:13:29
and discovered that he'd recently
00:13:30
accused rowena ashing of stealing from
00:13:32
him
00:13:33
although he relied on her as a cab
00:13:35
driver and a friend
00:13:36
she was also the one person who had
00:13:38
access to his home
00:13:40
he made an accusation through a police
00:13:42
report that
00:13:43
he had sent her to the bank to withdraw
00:13:45
some money
00:13:46
that money never made its way to him i
00:13:49
believe it was
00:13:49
it was 500 that is a huge red flag to an
00:13:53
investigator
00:13:55
police brought rowena in for questioning
00:13:57
first asking her about the theft
00:13:59
and then the homicide nine o'clock am
00:14:03
detective in granite city hauls me in
00:14:07
and took me to jail and he's telling
00:14:08
about this house fire on 2106 illinois
00:14:13
i'm like oh crap and he comes in and he
00:14:15
goes you know thomas bauer got killed i
00:14:17
said
00:14:18
no i didn't know that and he
00:14:21
gets down on my face and said your
00:14:23
fingerprints are all over his house
00:14:26
i was his cab driver
00:14:30
you're going to find my fingerprints
00:14:31
everywhere
00:14:33
a background check revealed that rowena
00:14:35
had been arrested a year earlier for
00:14:36
stealing 2 500
00:14:38
from another elderly cab customer
00:14:40
investigators asked rowena to take a lie
00:14:42
detector test about the 500
00:14:44
theft and to see if she knew anything
00:14:47
about bower's death
00:14:48
first she said no then she went on and
00:14:51
said yeah i'll take it
00:14:53
after she failed to be truthful on the
00:14:56
polygraph
00:14:57
indicates to us that we got somewhere to
00:14:59
start now on this crime
00:15:01
she had nothing to hide why was she
00:15:03
being deceitful
00:15:04
at that point did we know that she was
00:15:06
involved beyond any shadow doubt no
00:15:09
but it gives you an avenue as an
00:15:10
investigator to travel on to try to
00:15:13
determine if she knows more about this
00:15:14
than she's leading us to believe
00:15:17
according to police although the results
00:15:19
showed rowena was being deceitful police
00:15:21
had no evidence linking her to the
00:15:22
murder
00:15:23
but they did have enough to arrest and
00:15:25
charge her with theft
00:15:27
still with no solid leads police turned
00:15:30
to her boyfriend
00:15:31
25 year old jeff ramsey who denied
00:15:33
knowing anything about the killing
00:15:35
then according to reports jeff's 23 year
00:15:38
old brother steven came forward
00:15:40
he'd heard something on the news and
00:15:42
became suspicious that his older brother
00:15:44
was somehow involved steve ramsey
00:15:48
had spoke with his brother and came out
00:15:51
and told the investigators
00:15:52
you need to talk to him further there's
00:15:54
more people involved
00:15:56
the biggest break came from the youngest
00:15:58
member of jeff ramsey's crew
00:16:00
18 year old john mcintyre who'd been
00:16:02
brought in for questioning
00:16:04
he told investigators a story of how
00:16:06
rowena approached jeff
00:16:07
with a plan to keep tom bauer from going
00:16:09
to the police
00:16:10
as an incentive rowena promised that
00:16:12
they would find money once they entered
00:16:14
the house
00:16:15
she indicated to him that she wanted
00:16:18
tommy bauer
00:16:18
taken out i believe it was even
00:16:20
mentioned to burn him out rowena told
00:16:22
him
00:16:23
that there was going to be 1500 a tv vcr
00:16:27
go in there rough the guy up take him
00:16:30
out
00:16:31
and you can find the money the equipment
00:16:35
and they would split that it's our
00:16:37
belief that rowena's
00:16:38
sole purpose in any of this was to have
00:16:41
tommy bauer killed
00:16:42
so he couldn't testify against her on
00:16:44
this theft case so her whole motive
00:16:47
was to use somebody else
00:16:50
to take out what she perceived as her
00:16:52
problem
00:16:54
they got together at the pool hall
00:16:56
sometime after midnight they had to go
00:16:59
by the gas station get 60 cents worth of
00:17:02
gas
00:17:02
in a clear plastic jug the four
00:17:05
gentlemen
00:17:06
parked down the street about two blocks
00:17:08
away carrying
00:17:10
the container of gasoline
00:17:13
went to tommy's house peeled open a
00:17:17
screen
00:17:17
crawled in through the back window and
00:17:20
while they were walking through the
00:17:21
kitchen
00:17:22
one of them picked up a large frying
00:17:24
kitchen skillet
00:17:26
they also had a rug tom bauer only knew
00:17:28
one of them
00:17:29
jeff ramsey and they wanted to cover the
00:17:33
face
00:17:34
of tom virus so he wouldn't see jeff
00:17:35
ramsey jeff
00:17:37
ramsey asked mcintyre to find out
00:17:42
where the money was at that time tom
00:17:44
barr says i don't have any money
00:17:47
i spent it all on bills he was then
00:17:49
struck in the head twice with the
00:17:50
skillet
00:17:51
so hard that it busted the bottom of the
00:17:52
skillet out
00:17:54
they then take the belt off of him wrap
00:17:57
it around his neck
00:17:58
and strangle him the whole time with the
00:18:00
whole intent of killing him
00:18:02
according to mcintyre he went through
00:18:04
the house looking for additional money
00:18:06
and couldn't find anything after they
00:18:11
couldn't find the money they decided to
00:18:14
burn the place which time john mcintyre
00:18:16
took
00:18:16
the gas can sprinkling gas over the body
00:18:21
of tom byer along with his bed and the
00:18:24
walls
00:18:25
and then lit it
00:18:28
part of john mcintyre's confession was
00:18:30
backed up by a second member of ramsey's
00:18:32
crew
00:18:34
twenty-six-year-old richie loftis who'd
00:18:36
acted as the driver
00:18:37
but these statements alone weren't proof
00:18:39
that rowena ashing ordered a hit on tom
00:18:42
bauer
00:18:42
as rowena awaited transfer to county
00:18:45
jail on theft charges
00:18:46
she requested to speak with police one
00:18:48
more time
00:18:49
according to roena she wanted to get it
00:18:51
off her chest she just couldn't go to
00:18:53
county jail knowing that we didn't know
00:18:55
the truth
00:18:58
she had nothing to do with it according
00:18:59
to rowena she
00:19:01
was just a
00:19:04
girlfriend of one of the people that was
00:19:06
involved in the crime
00:19:08
rowena says trouble began when her
00:19:09
boyfriend jeff ramsey discovered that
00:19:11
bauer had accused her of theft
00:19:14
i told him what went on that he had
00:19:15
accused me of stealing his money i said
00:19:17
jeff
00:19:17
i'll take care of it now here's the
00:19:19
thing he wanted to be
00:19:20
mr macho i'm going to take care of my
00:19:22
woman thing i said jeff
00:19:24
i can handle this i will take care of it
00:19:26
rowena also claims to have had no idea
00:19:29
jeff would take matters into his own
00:19:31
hands
00:19:32
i would think jeff thought he was doing
00:19:34
something for me
00:19:36
because i took care of him you know i
00:19:38
supported him i fed him my body's
00:19:39
clothes a little bit
00:19:40
so he didn't want anything to happen to
00:19:42
that he wanted me to be protected
00:19:45
when women behind bars continues so i'm
00:19:48
sitting there in the um
00:19:50
holding cell you know just sitting there
00:19:54
all of a sudden i'm all over the tv i'm
00:19:56
all over the newspapers
00:19:58
mastermind in murder and later on this
00:20:02
episode of women behind bars
00:20:04
connie kiel is accused of participating
00:20:06
in the robbery and murder of a liquor
00:20:08
store clerk
00:20:09
we're going down the highway all of a
00:20:11
sudden all these cops were coming around
00:20:13
us and we were arrested right there
00:20:28
in august of 1992 as news of the
00:20:31
gruesome murder of tom bower made local
00:20:33
headlines
00:20:34
people in the community of granite city
00:20:36
illinois were left wondering
00:20:38
how such a tragedy could have happened
00:20:40
the facts around this case
00:20:41
not only were very grisly but it was a
00:20:44
particularly nasty case because of mr
00:20:46
bauer's background
00:20:48
he'd been poisoned by his wife he was
00:20:50
left crippled
00:20:52
mostly confined to a wheelchair and then
00:20:56
to find out that he had been
00:20:57
attacked so brutally like this was
00:21:01
was really beyond what we're what we're
00:21:03
used to seeing
00:21:04
the granite city police department's
00:21:06
lead suspect was 38-year-old cab driver
00:21:08
rowena ashing
00:21:10
who was already in jail on theft charges
00:21:12
so i'm sitting there in the um
00:21:15
holding so you know just sitting there
00:21:19
all said i'm all over the tv i'm all
00:21:21
over the newspapers
00:21:23
mastermind in murder also in the news
00:21:27
was rowena's youngest daughter nona who
00:21:29
was tracked down by a local reporter
00:21:31
nona just 16 years old defended her mom
00:21:34
[Music]
00:21:36
no no you were just questioned by police
00:21:38
your mother was charged with murder
00:21:40
and theft how are you feeling about all
00:21:43
this are you surprised
00:21:44
yeah about the murder i am i mean i just
00:21:46
i can't believe they did it
00:21:48
i think she gave the orders to strangle
00:21:51
bauer and to to burn his house down
00:21:54
that's the kind of mother you
00:21:55
have but that's what everybody's saying
00:21:57
but i don't think
00:21:58
i mean i don't think she really did it
00:22:02
on august 17 1992 rowena ashing was
00:22:05
charged along with jeff ramsey john
00:22:07
mcintyre bill russell and richie loftus
00:22:10
with the murder of 57 year old tom bower
00:22:13
in the state of illinois there's a part
00:22:15
that's called accountability
00:22:17
if you're accountable for someone others
00:22:19
someone else's actions
00:22:21
you could face and will face criminal
00:22:24
sanctions against you
00:22:25
had it not been for her they would not
00:22:27
have been there
00:22:29
according to police the corroborating
00:22:31
statements made by the members of jeff
00:22:33
ramsey's crew were enough to charge
00:22:34
rowena with murder
00:22:36
she ended up pleading guilty to um
00:22:40
the murder basically the mastermind of
00:22:41
the murder
00:22:43
only because her lawyer told her that if
00:22:45
it went to trial
00:22:47
that there was no way that they would
00:22:50
find her
00:22:51
anything but guilty and they would seek
00:22:53
the death penalty
00:22:55
she would get a life without parole and
00:22:57
she would never get out and never see
00:22:59
her children or son again
00:23:00
i think that rohena is a killer if
00:23:03
you're innocent
00:23:04
to me you're not going to plead guilty
00:23:06
to murder you're going to take it to
00:23:07
trial
00:23:08
and had she been innocent she would have
00:23:11
chose to take that that avenue
00:23:13
but it was obvious that she's guilty of
00:23:15
this crime
00:23:26
i was in total disbelief
00:23:29
i turned around i said how can you call
00:23:31
yourself a judge a learned counsel
00:23:34
and give me 40 years when you know i
00:23:36
didn't do this
00:23:37
my son
00:23:38
[Music]
00:23:41
my son was there and he said jesus
00:23:43
mother i'll be 48 when you get out of
00:23:45
prison
00:23:46
i say son done chill come on now
00:23:49
and he was crying and everything you
00:23:50
know
00:23:52
[Music]
00:24:03
after 16 years behind bars time served
00:24:06
has been especially hard on her oldest
00:24:08
daughter
00:24:08
35 year old loretta not having my mom
00:24:13
that would be the hardest
00:24:17
my mom wasn't um
00:24:21
she wasn't uh
00:24:25
you know the lovey-dovey type warm
00:24:27
loving mom
00:24:30
my kids every day a thousand times a day
00:24:34
they say i love you
00:24:35
we say i love you and
00:24:38
you know my mom missing out on what that
00:24:41
life is like
00:24:46
rowena ashing has served most of her
00:24:48
sentence at a maximum security prison
00:24:50
for women in illinois
00:24:52
i write poems i write stories i write
00:24:54
books
00:24:55
i try to be a mentor to the younger
00:24:57
women i try to tell them look
00:24:59
you didn't they didn't put you here you
00:25:01
do what they tell you
00:25:03
that's the bottom line improve yourself
00:25:06
you don't sit here and feel sorry for
00:25:08
yourself because that makes your time
00:25:09
just go drag
00:25:11
due to state sentencing reforms her
00:25:13
40-year sentence was reduced to 20.
00:25:16
she's expected to be released in the
00:25:17
year 2012 and will be 58 years old
00:25:21
for the police officer who helped put
00:25:22
rowena ashing away
00:25:24
her release is an unsettling notion five
00:25:27
people were taken off the street
00:25:29
and i believe that that that's the best
00:25:31
that the state could do
00:25:32
it's troublesome to the police
00:25:33
department that any murderer is walking
00:25:35
the streets
00:25:36
i'll leave at that that's troublesome
00:25:40
as for regrets rowena has a few it's got
00:25:43
to do with the fact that i use poor
00:25:44
judgment and the people i ran with
00:25:47
that's the bottom line and then i
00:25:48
started running around with jeff
00:25:50
because he was you know young and
00:25:52
exciting and all this good stuff
00:25:54
you know and i was bedazzled by it as it
00:25:57
were
00:25:58
and the regret of it is that the man
00:26:01
died
00:26:04
next up on this episode of women behind
00:26:07
bars a woman is arrested for the robbery
00:26:09
and murder of a liquor store clerk
00:26:12
we went into that parking lot with the
00:26:13
intentions to get some cigarettes from
00:26:15
that liquor store
00:26:17
for more information about women behind
00:26:19
bars go to www.wetv.com
00:26:32
on february 26 1980 in northern
00:26:34
california
00:26:35
41 year old frank gummer a liquor store
00:26:37
clerk was found shot to death at his
00:26:39
place of work
00:26:40
gummer a family man worked at the liquor
00:26:42
store part-time at his second job
00:26:45
the killing would be linked to connie
00:26:47
keel who according to court documents
00:26:49
had sat in the getaway car
00:26:50
waiting for her husband ricky keel and
00:26:52
his cousin jeffrey taylor
00:26:54
to exit the liquor store it was a very
00:26:57
cold-blooded murder connie would claim
00:27:00
she had no prior knowledge of the
00:27:01
robbery
00:27:03
the evidence clearly showed that her
00:27:06
presence there was not just a ride-along
00:27:08
but she was there
00:27:09
acting as a lookout she knew that a
00:27:11
robbery was going to take place
00:27:13
did connie keel knowingly participate in
00:27:16
the robbery and murder of frank gummer
00:27:18
or was she an innocent bystander
00:27:27
i grew up in santa monica california
00:27:30
i am the second to the oldest
00:27:34
my mother and father have four children
00:27:36
then my father and his wife have four
00:27:38
children
00:27:39
connie was real young she was a
00:27:42
she was a beautiful kid but at three
00:27:45
years old connie's childhood innocence
00:27:47
came to an abrupt end
00:27:48
when she claimed she was molested by a
00:27:50
distant relative
00:27:52
i had a lot of sexual abuse when i was a
00:27:54
child the things that happened to those
00:27:56
girls sexually
00:27:59
unbelievable connie had no one to turn
00:28:02
to when the alleged abuse began
00:28:05
my mom had her own things going on with
00:28:08
her own life
00:28:09
her and my father were getting a divorce
00:28:11
i was pretty much alone
00:28:13
i wish i would have had a courage enough
00:28:15
to tell somebody
00:28:17
back then that it wasn't something you
00:28:20
did
00:28:21
in 1965 connie's parents divorced
00:28:24
connie's mother won custody of the four
00:28:26
children because connie says her father
00:28:28
could not afford to fight in
00:28:30
court connie's father eventually
00:28:32
remarried
00:28:33
but still stayed in touch with connie
00:28:34
and her siblings but her life at home
00:28:36
with her mother who was on welfare
00:28:38
was still a struggle i didn't have
00:28:40
friends
00:28:42
i was um adventurous because i didn't
00:28:44
like being at home
00:28:45
i used to jump trains and ride the
00:28:47
trains
00:28:49
with the bums um all the way to la and
00:28:52
back
00:28:52
she started doing things that i wouldn't
00:28:55
allow her to do
00:28:56
she's on the street too much at 15
00:29:00
connie met a friend of her older brother
00:29:02
ricky keel who was also 15 years old
00:29:05
according to connie ricky's family was
00:29:07
in the restaurant business
00:29:09
when i first met him we were young kids
00:29:11
and i thought he was
00:29:12
arrogant and had everything he wanted
00:29:15
flaunted it in the beginning of our
00:29:18
relationship he was really
00:29:19
quite nice to me his family owned
00:29:23
restaurants you know and we'd go
00:29:24
to his family's restaurant he whined and
00:29:26
dined me and that's when i fell in love
00:29:28
with him
00:29:29
he gave me the things i didn't have but
00:29:31
there was another side to ricky keel
00:29:34
he was still a little rebel he just was
00:29:36
more manipulative about the things that
00:29:38
he did
00:29:39
he hid it well i'd met ricky a few times
00:29:42
i knew there was trouble because the way
00:29:45
he talked and
00:29:48
the people they ran with the things they
00:29:50
said i knew there was going to be
00:29:52
trouble
00:29:53
for connie the trouble was just
00:29:54
beginning as soon as he got me where he
00:29:57
knew
00:29:57
i cared about him he started drinking a
00:30:00
lot
00:30:01
and he started getting high at 16
00:30:04
connie became pregnant with her daughter
00:30:06
alicia
00:30:08
in january 1979 ricky and connie were
00:30:11
married
00:30:11
shortly after they had another child a
00:30:13
boy they named ricky
00:30:15
she was a good mom she played with them
00:30:17
she was a kid with them you know we'd go
00:30:19
outside and play and kick it
00:30:21
but life for the young couple was not
00:30:22
easy ricky and connie's marriage was
00:30:25
pretty rocky
00:30:26
ricky loved the ladies connie put up
00:30:28
with a lot of crap
00:30:29
in that area his brutality increased
00:30:32
he started becoming very mean to other
00:30:35
people around me if he thought somebody
00:30:36
was looking at me
00:30:37
he would approach them very violently he
00:30:40
scared me a lot
00:30:41
ricky and connie used to get in some
00:30:44
pretty good fights
00:30:45
connie would be upset vocally and ricky
00:30:49
would be upset physically i was always
00:30:51
worried about connie
00:30:52
he was kind of a crazy guy whatever he
00:30:55
wanted to do that's what they did
00:30:56
he made all the decisions and believe me
00:30:58
they weren't good decisions
00:31:03
connie claims that as her husband's
00:31:05
behavior became more violent she
00:31:06
attempted to leave the marriage several
00:31:08
times
00:31:10
he would want to slap me around
00:31:13
punching me in the face and telling me i
00:31:16
wasn't going there pulling my hair
00:31:19
connie claims ricky and his cousin
00:31:21
jeffrey became more involved in drugs
00:31:23
and according to court documents ricky
00:31:25
was involved in criminal activity
00:31:27
including armed robbery connie feared
00:31:29
for her children's safety
00:31:31
they had been robbing liquor stores i
00:31:33
asked him to stop doing it not to bring
00:31:35
it around our family but
00:31:38
less than a year into the marriage a
00:31:39
fearful connie left ricky
00:31:41
took her kids and stayed at a relative's
00:31:43
house he was doing things that
00:31:46
i didn't agree with and that's why i did
00:31:48
leave him
00:31:49
for a while because i didn't want to
00:31:53
endanger my kid's life ricky's family
00:31:56
found out where she was staying and
00:31:57
asked her to come back
00:31:59
connie reluctantly returned a month
00:32:02
later on february 26
00:32:04
1980 connie and ricky went out for the
00:32:06
night while his parents watched their
00:32:08
kids
00:32:09
the whole reason we were out that night
00:32:12
was because
00:32:13
his parents didn't want me to
00:32:16
um they wanted
00:32:20
me to try to work on the relationship
00:32:23
and so they encouraged us to go out
00:32:25
that night according to court documents
00:32:28
connie ricky and his cousin jeffrey
00:32:30
taylor ended the night by going to a
00:32:31
local liquor store in campbell
00:32:33
california
00:32:34
we went into that parking lot with the
00:32:36
intentions to get some cigarettes from
00:32:37
that liquor store
00:32:38
my husband's cousin jeff he wanted to
00:32:41
rob the liquor
00:32:42
store my husband said no he didn't want
00:32:44
to do it
00:32:45
he wasn't prepared to rob a liquor store
00:32:47
jeffrey kept egging on
00:32:49
my husband ricky um asking him to just
00:32:51
come on cuz don't be a punk we could do
00:32:53
this and i'll take the first shot cause
00:32:55
i pleaded with them and there was they
00:32:57
were just going to do what they were
00:32:58
going to do
00:32:59
maybe if i would have kept my mouth shut
00:33:01
maybe ricky wouldn't have agreed to it
00:33:02
he said i'm the one with the gun
00:33:05
you just shut up and stay here and i did
00:33:08
and i just watched them walk out
00:33:12
get out of the car and walk in the
00:33:13
liquor store i can't even tell you why
00:33:15
i sat there i could have left the keys
00:33:18
were in the car the car was running
00:33:20
i could have just got in the driver's
00:33:22
seat and took off
00:33:24
but i didn't
00:33:28
at 11 30 p.m ricky keel and jeffrey
00:33:31
taylor went into the liquor store with
00:33:33
firearms
00:33:34
while connie waited in the car according
00:33:36
to the prosecution
00:33:38
connie's role was more than just an
00:33:39
innocent bystander
00:33:41
sometime around midnight the two male
00:33:44
defendants
00:33:45
came into the store armed with firearms
00:33:48
and made the victim turn over the money
00:33:51
from the cash register
00:33:53
of the 210 ricky and jeffrey took during
00:33:56
the robbery
00:33:57
some were bills that had been marked
00:33:58
garden city liquors
00:34:00
these marked bills also known as bait
00:34:02
money were meant to help identify cash
00:34:04
taken in the event of a robbery
00:34:06
ricky and jeffrey did not realize they
00:34:08
had taken the marked money
00:34:09
ricky and jeffrey shot part-time liquor
00:34:11
store clerk frank gummer four times with
00:34:14
two different weapons
00:34:15
he died at the scene they filled him
00:34:17
full of lead from their guns
00:34:19
both of them shot him and killed him and
00:34:22
they both
00:34:22
left there could be no other reason
00:34:26
besides just being a monster
00:34:28
to have shot and kill him because he
00:34:30
complied with him 100 percent
00:34:34
connie kiel sat in the car she was
00:34:36
aiding and abetting the commission of a
00:34:39
robbery which also turned out to be a
00:34:40
murder connie claimed she was appalled
00:34:43
when she heard the gunshots coming from
00:34:45
the liquor store
00:34:46
well i sit in that car all i could think
00:34:48
about was how can i get out of here
00:34:50
how can i get out of here and get my
00:34:53
kids
00:34:55
according to connie she became even more
00:34:57
frightened of ricky because of his
00:34:58
cold-blooded behavior
00:35:01
they didn't run back to the car they
00:35:04
walked back to the car
00:35:05
they were like joking with each other
00:35:07
they kept making fun of me because i was
00:35:09
so
00:35:11
upset over what they did once we got to
00:35:13
my house
00:35:14
ricky wouldn't let me leave his side
00:35:16
everywhere i went he had his eye on me
00:35:18
he didn't trust him an eyewitness would
00:35:21
later id
00:35:22
jeffrey taylor and ricky keel but could
00:35:24
not identify connie in the car
00:35:27
[Music]
00:35:29
when women behind bars continues ricky
00:35:31
and connie are arrested for the murder
00:35:33
of frank gummer
00:35:35
we're going down the highway and all of
00:35:37
a sudden all these cops were coming
00:35:39
around us
00:35:39
and we were arrested right there
00:35:46
[Music]
00:35:49
in february 1980 ricky keel and his
00:35:51
cousin jeffrey taylor committed a
00:35:53
robbery that turned into a brutal murder
00:35:55
the entire incident was caught on a
00:35:57
surveillance camera
00:35:58
but ricky's wife connie keel who was in
00:36:01
the getaway car
00:36:02
denied any participation in the crime
00:36:06
the photos were a series of 35
00:36:08
millimeter
00:36:09
photographs had been taken by a hidden
00:36:11
camera in the liquor store
00:36:12
that showed not only the robbery but the
00:36:15
homicide
00:36:16
it showed ricky keel holding a bag while
00:36:19
the
00:36:19
clerk put the money from the tail into
00:36:22
the bag
00:36:23
the next photo showed ricky shooting the
00:36:26
clerk
00:36:27
there was a lot of evidence for the for
00:36:29
the investigators to go on
00:36:31
they had photographs which showed the
00:36:33
defendants
00:36:34
they had description of the vehicle the
00:36:36
police took the surveillance photos to
00:36:38
local liquor stores in an attempt to id
00:36:40
the killers
00:36:42
ricky kiel's uncle who also owned a
00:36:43
liquor store and ricky's father were
00:36:45
there
00:36:46
when the police arrived to show them the
00:36:47
photos
00:36:50
the detectives came and were showing
00:36:51
those photographs of the murder
00:36:55
and my co-defendant's father identified
00:36:57
him and told him where we lived
00:37:00
it was connie's father-in-law who
00:37:02
identified his son ricky in the photo
00:37:04
and told police where the couple lived
00:37:06
however according to court documents
00:37:08
ricky's father also phoned ahead to warn
00:37:10
the couple that the police were on their
00:37:12
way
00:37:13
after attaining a search warrant the
00:37:14
police headed to the keele's home
00:37:17
my father-in-law sent my brother
00:37:20
down to our house to tell us that the
00:37:23
police were coming
00:37:24
before authorities arrived on february
00:37:26
28 1980 ricky and connie left their two
00:37:29
kids with a family member and drove off
00:37:31
hoping to elude the police
00:37:33
but they didn't get far shortly after
00:37:35
they left their home they were stopped
00:37:36
by the police
00:37:38
we're going down the highway all of a
00:37:39
sudden all these cops were coming around
00:37:41
us
00:37:42
we affected a routine felony car stop
00:37:45
which includes drawn weapons and
00:37:48
commands to the occupants to
00:37:50
to come out of the car one at a time
00:37:52
when
00:37:54
the defendants including connie kiel
00:37:56
were arrested
00:37:58
some of the bait money was found in her
00:38:00
purse
00:38:01
all three defendants were charged with
00:38:03
first-degree murder and
00:38:04
armed robbery although connie did not
00:38:06
actually enter the liquor store or
00:38:08
pulled the trigger
00:38:09
her presence in the car at the time of
00:38:10
the robbery and murder made it possible
00:38:13
for the police to charge her as well as
00:38:14
her co-defendants
00:38:21
[Music]
00:38:25
connie was tried along with her two
00:38:27
co-defendants her husband ricky and his
00:38:29
cousin jeffrey taylor
00:38:31
al bender was the primary prosecuting
00:38:33
attorney for the case
00:38:35
this was a fairly complicated case
00:38:36
actually involved three defendants one
00:38:38
of which is connie keel her
00:38:40
defense essentially was let's see if
00:38:42
there's enough evidence to prove that i
00:38:44
was there and that i had an intent
00:38:48
to facilitate the commission of the
00:38:49
crimes the other
00:38:51
two defendants their defense was one
00:38:52
which we used to refer to as
00:38:54
diminished capacity which means okay i
00:38:57
did it but
00:38:58
i was so high on drugs that i could not
00:39:01
form
00:39:01
the intent to commit the underlying
00:39:03
crime there's not
00:39:06
much in that trial that's about me
00:39:09
except
00:39:10
that we got arrested together two days
00:39:12
later i had
00:39:14
marked bills from that liquor store in
00:39:16
my purse
00:39:19
when we would go to court and connie
00:39:20
would be sitting up there
00:39:23
you know that she didn't belong there
00:39:25
honey was guilty for a lot of things
00:39:27
like stupidity but nothing like
00:39:29
the degree of the charges that they were
00:39:31
charging her for
00:39:33
as the prosecution presented their case
00:39:35
the evidence unfolded
00:39:37
as a part of the investigation a search
00:39:39
warrant was
00:39:40
authorized at the place where the keel
00:39:43
family lived
00:39:44
they went back dug up the area they
00:39:47
found
00:39:47
the weapons used in the robbery murder
00:39:50
the evidence with reference to connie
00:39:52
keel was on the thin side to start with
00:39:54
but got better during the trial
00:39:58
the defense attorney for ricky's cousin
00:40:00
jeffrey taylor made an opening statement
00:40:02
that even surprised the prosecution
00:40:04
i'll never forget it the attorney for
00:40:08
taylor said that a witness
00:40:11
the uncle of ricky keel
00:40:16
had seen connie kiel the night before
00:40:20
with a gun in her purge and said we're
00:40:21
gonna do a 211 tomorrow the prosecution
00:40:24
believed that now they had the proof
00:40:26
that connie had prior knowledge of the
00:40:28
robbery
00:40:28
also known as a 211 but on the stand
00:40:31
ricky's uncle changed his story and
00:40:33
denied ever seeing connie with a gun
00:40:36
in the end connie did not testify at all
00:40:39
even in her own defense
00:40:41
the reason i didn't put a defense on in
00:40:43
my trial
00:40:45
is because i believed that
00:40:50
the case spoke for itself they had
00:40:52
pictures of the crime i wasn't in the
00:40:54
pictures
00:40:55
i didn't participate in the crime i
00:40:58
believed in the justice system
00:41:02
on may 14 1981 the jury reached a
00:41:05
verdict
00:41:07
every defendant was found guilty of
00:41:08
murder in the first degree which is the
00:41:10
law when you commit
00:41:12
a murder during the course of a robbery
00:41:14
the evidence clearly showed and the jury
00:41:16
agreed actually that connie was not just
00:41:18
a ride-along but she was there acting as
00:41:20
a lookout and clearly that she knew
00:41:22
that a robbery was going to take place i
00:41:25
was shocked
00:41:26
when the verdict came back guilty for me
00:41:28
i thought that they would
00:41:29
find me not guilty because i didn't
00:41:32
participate in the crime
00:41:34
that my co-defendants
00:41:38
actually did the crime when she got
00:41:40
convicted of first degree murder
00:41:42
that was worse than a nightmare
00:41:46
i'm gratified that our system of justice
00:41:48
prevails
00:41:49
because it was a very cold-blooded
00:42:00
murder
00:42:03
[Music]
00:42:05
i think her sentence was very harsh
00:42:08
because
00:42:08
um you know she did try to stop them
00:42:12
she's not the one that actually
00:42:14
pulled the trigger or committed the
00:42:16
murder
00:42:18
connie and ricky divorced while in
00:42:19
prison connie's two children were raised
00:42:22
by ricky's parents
00:42:25
connie was taken to a maximum security
00:42:27
prison an hour east of los angeles to
00:42:29
serve out her sentence
00:42:32
ricky keel and jeffrey taylor were sent
00:42:34
to a men's correctional facility
00:42:36
in california in the beginning of my
00:42:38
prison term
00:42:39
i was very angry i was angry at the
00:42:42
system i was angry
00:42:44
at my co-defendant i was just mad at
00:42:46
everybody
00:42:47
i went through a lot of therapy here i
00:42:50
went to a
00:42:51
survivor of sexual molestation therapy
00:42:53
here and i did it for six years
00:42:56
and that's the best thing i ever did for
00:42:58
myself
00:42:59
for a long time i've been in a lot of
00:43:02
pain
00:43:04
paid for what happened
00:43:06
[Music]
00:43:09
in this crime paid for what it did to my
00:43:13
family
00:43:15
my children had to grow up without a
00:43:17
mother and a father
00:43:20
connie kiel has been incarcerated for 27
00:43:22
years
00:43:24
she will be up for parole soon she still
00:43:26
thinks about the day frank gummer was
00:43:28
murdered
00:43:29
i wish i would have left that scene of
00:43:31
that crime
00:43:33
even after all these years it's horrible
00:43:36
you know
00:43:40
to sit there and listen to those shots
00:43:43
go off
00:43:44
makes me sad he didn't do anything
00:43:48
you know for them to take his life
00:43:51
i want to go
00:43:55
home i want to go be with my children i
00:43:58
have grandchildren
00:43:59
and i um
00:44:02
[Music]
00:44:04
have parents that are all elderly now
00:44:07
it's time for me to give back
