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[Music]
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the medical examiner ruled the death an
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accident
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but a forensic detective
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disagreed
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the final resolution took three long
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years and raised questions about the
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accuracy of an autopsy
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[Music]
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[Music]
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paterson new jersey is an industrial
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suburb outside new york city which has
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its share of violent crime
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one of the town's most unusual cases
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happened in 1980.
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i would personally rank it as being one
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of the most interesting challenging
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cases i ever had
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29 year old frankie pullian was found
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dead on a deserted road underneath an
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abandoned car
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apparently the person driving the
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vehicle hit frankie then fled the scene
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leaving the vehicle behind
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frankie pullian worked for a local
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funeral home as a handyman
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before that he served a brief stint in
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the u.s military he would run errands
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for the funeral home
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and the funeral home was also kind of a
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stopping off point for the police as
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well
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and it was one of the
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the more successful black funeral homes
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in paterson
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police discovered that the hit-and-run
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vehicle had been stolen a month earlier
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the owner was a retired policeman who
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lived nearby who had an alibi for the
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night before he was an elderly gentleman
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there was no way that anyone would even
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in their wildest dreams or imagination
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uh suspected he was involved in this
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to approximate the time of the accident
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patterson police checked patrolman's
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records for the night before
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and found
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an important clue
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earlier that morning at approximately 4
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a.m the same patrol unit did pass that
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area and the significance of that is
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when they did pass at that time
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the maverick and the body were not there
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since frankie's body was discovered at 6
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00 am
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the accident occurred sometime between
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4 and 6 a.m
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[Music]
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but what was frankie pullian doing
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walking along this street in this part
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of town
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so early in the morning
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it wouldn't be a place where you'd
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generally be taking a walk but it
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certainly would be a good place for a
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crime because it was dark and
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it was unlikely there'd be other people
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around
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frankie's body went directly to the
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funeral home where he worked the medical
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examiner conducted the autopsy there a
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common procedure at the time
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state county did not have a centralized
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more and what they did have were
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contracts with various funeral homes
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that would act as morgues
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the medical examiner concluded that
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frankie died of massive trauma
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the result of the hit-and-run accident
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there was nothing to show otherwise that
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it was other than a hit and run due to
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the nature of the injuries
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that were reported by the m.a
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but despite the autopsy report
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investigators were troubled
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they thought some of the elements of the
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accident scene looked staged
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this car was at the far end of dead end
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street the car looked like it was facing
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out i don't know how this individual
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driving this vehicle could have gotten
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enough speed to run over somebody and
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kill them in the short distance
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investigators searched the stolen
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vehicle for clues to the driver's
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identity
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there were no fingerprints in the car
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not even on the steering wheel but
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investigators found blood inside the car
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on the passenger side which was very
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suspicious
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then instantly it gets more interesting
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and the focus of the investigation
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began to change
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to find out whether frankie pullian's
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death was truly the result of a
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hit-and-run vehicle accident
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investigators called in walter suhaka a
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nationally recognized expert in accident
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reconstruction
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luckily police had taken numerous photos
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of the scene
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and what suhaka didn't see in those
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pictures
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was telling
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behind the car there were no skid marks
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anybody that comes down the road that
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hits a pedestrian in those days before
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abs brakes the first thing a person
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would do would be slam on the brakes
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there's no skid marks
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there should have been
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serious front-end damage to the car but
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there was none
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and the position of the body under the
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car didn't make any sense
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in a pedestrian accident with a
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gentleman who's five foot eight inches
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tall and he weighed 144 pounds you would
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expect that if he was struck by a car he
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would end up on the hood of the car
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striking the windshield and then roll
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off the side
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also it looked as if the impact
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literally knocked the victim's coat off
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his body suhaka said this could not be
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the natural result of an accident how
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does the coke come off it did not make
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sense also there was a watch with just a
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watch face with no straps
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that didn't make sense at all we never
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found the straps
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but most telling was the blood found in
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the tire tracks behind the car
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if frankie had been hit by the front of
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the car
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and lodged underneath
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his blood wouldn't be behind the rear
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tires
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[Music]
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and mr suhaka found blood spatter on the
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windshield inside the car and blood
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drops on the inside trim of the
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passenger side door
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obviously there wouldn't be blood inside
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a car from a collision outside
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it was one of my suggestions that we
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need to exhume the body to find out
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what the actual injuries were
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since the death had officially been
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declared an accident
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it took more than three years of legal
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wrangling to get permission for the
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exumation
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the second autopsy was conducted by dr
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gita natarajan
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a pathologist with the state coroner's
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office
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the first thing i noticed is the
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level of preservation
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and the condition of the body being fair
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the second most important finding was
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that the external
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body surface
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failed to show
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any injury there were no
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bruises
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there were no
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brush burn like he was dragged by a
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vehicle
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dr natarajan discovered four linear
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fractures along the back of the skull
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one
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a depressed circular fracture was not
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noted in the first autopsy
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this blow
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by a hammer-like object to the back of
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the head
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did not happen from being hit by a car
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it's a very small
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area of concentrated energy
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and that's unusual
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when someone is struck by an automobile
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you can't
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take an automobile and make it you know
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and have a person's
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skull
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being struck by by a small area of one
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and a half by three quarter inch
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and there were wood splinters around the
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wound
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well first of all under a car in front
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of car there's no wood
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why would there be wood splinters in the
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skull this was never mentioned during
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the first autopsy nor do i believe
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that an autopsy or an examination of the
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full examination of the skull was ever
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done during the first autopsy
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there were also no broken limbs
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virtually unheard of when a pedestrian
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is hit by a car
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so dr natarajan changed the official
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manner of death from
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accident
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to homicide
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but how were these injuries overlooked
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in the first autopsy
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the medical examiner who did the autopsy
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who issued the initial death certificate
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was not a forensic pathologist
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he was not even a pathologist he was a
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general practitioner
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he did what best he he could do under
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the circumstance but he was not
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trained formally in pathology or in
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forensic pathology
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and that autopsy was conducted at the
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funeral home of e lee white
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the victim's employer
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apparently white started the examination
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before the coroner arrived
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the medical examiner remembers mr white
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calling him and saying
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doc i will go ahead and start with the
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case so when you get here i'll have the
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organs out
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investigators now suspected that the
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original medical examiner didn't perform
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much of an autopsy
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apparently he accepted the hit-and-run
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scenario since frankie's body was found
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underneath the car
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regardless
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investigators now knew frankie pullian
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was murdered
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but why
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there were two separate autopsies
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performed on frankie pullian's remains
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done three years apart
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the original autopsy concluded frankie's
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death was the result of an automobile
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accident
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the second autopsy concluded he was
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murdered with a blunt instrument before
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his body was placed beneath the car
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had law enforcement had that information
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in the very beginning obviously this
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case would have gotten in much different
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direction right from day one
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and the photos of the vehicle provided
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evidence of where frankie was killed
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when i started reading reports they said
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there was blood inside the car i i had
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to read the report twice it just didn't
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make sense turned out there was spatter
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from blood on the inside windshield in
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on the dashboard
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serology test identified the blood in
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the car as type o
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the same blood type as frankie pullian
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now suspicious
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investigators dug a little deeper into
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frankie's background
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for a man making less than ten thousand
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dollars a year frankie had
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nine separate insurance policies on his
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life with a total payout of nearly a
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million dollars it's very unusual that
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you would take out almost a million
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dollars worth of insurance and then
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within a few short months someone should
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die i mean that to me that raises a flag
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automatically
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the insurance premiums total 3 500 a
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year almost half of frankie's annual
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salary
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first thing you're thinking is that
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certainly this is not right it's very
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odd to say the least but
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it certainly raises the possibility that
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there's an insurance fraud going on
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and who were the beneficiaries of
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frankie's life insurance policies
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one was his boss and long-time
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benefactor e lee white
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for his employer to insure him so
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heavily with multiple policies for large
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sums of money was very suspicious
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and which now creates a motive
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for
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the death of franklin bullion
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another beneficiary was erna boone
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listed on the policy as frankie's sister
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but records showed frankie had no sister
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and that erna boone was the maiden name
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of e lee white's wife
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and two of white's friends
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lawrence scott and william brown were
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also beneficiaries
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brown had been convicted a few years
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earlier for fraud
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lauren scott and william brown who both
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had affiliations with the funeral home
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and with mr white
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also were beneficiaries on the policy
00:13:04
and the familiar relationship that was
00:13:05
cited there was one of being cousins
00:13:07
they weren't cousins
00:13:09
coincidentally the insurance policies
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also contained an accidental death
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provision meaning
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there was an extra payout of 350 000
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if frankie pullian died
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in an accident
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[Music]
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the last of the policies was issued just
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five days before frankie's death
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frankie's medical records indicated he
00:13:35
was released from the military because
00:13:37
he was neurologically impaired
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i think within six to eight months he
00:13:41
was released discharged from the service
00:13:44
because he couldn't pass the particular
00:13:46
tests that were required of him
00:13:49
yet the man who underwent the physical
00:13:52
examination for the life insurance
00:13:54
policies was not neurologically impaired
00:13:58
that individual who purported to be
00:14:00
franklin pullian was healthy and fit
00:14:03
certainly it wasn't the same person
00:14:05
and there was another bizarre incident
00:14:08
at the physical examination
00:14:10
the person who represented himself to be
00:14:12
mr pullian had notes handwritten notes
00:14:15
and every time he was asked a question
00:14:16
about his life his lifestyle he referred
00:14:18
to his notes
00:14:20
which i would think would cause some
00:14:22
concern but apparently did not
00:14:25
a forensic document examiner compared
00:14:28
frankie's known handwriting samples to
00:14:30
the signatures on the insurance policies
00:14:33
and concluded
00:14:35
they were forgeries
00:14:36
so someone who met with the insurance
00:14:39
riders the insurance salesman
00:14:42
had to pose as mr pulliam
00:14:45
it's pretty crazy and these are the
00:14:46
things that we would look at and all of
00:14:47
a sudden you realize you know what
00:14:49
there's something that really is wrong
00:14:50
here
00:14:52
when questioned by investigators e lee
00:14:54
white admitted he purchased the life
00:14:56
insurance policies but said
00:14:59
he had nothing to do with frankie's
00:15:01
death
00:15:03
then a witness came forward with some
00:15:07
not so surprising information
00:15:09
on the night before frankie's murder
00:15:12
she saw the car from the staged accident
00:15:14
scene parked outside e lee white's
00:15:17
funeral home
00:15:19
[Music]
00:15:22
the only ones who stood to gain from
00:15:24
frankie pullian's death were his boss
00:15:26
elie white's wife and two fellow
00:15:29
employees lawrence scott and william
00:15:32
brown
00:15:33
they were beneficiaries of nine
00:15:36
different insurance policies on
00:15:38
frankie's life that totaled nearly
00:15:40
a million dollars
00:15:42
humans are very greedy people and now
00:15:44
they see that there's an opportunity for
00:15:46
them to make almost a million dollars
00:15:48
they forget about their consciences and
00:15:50
they'll do anything to make a fast buck
00:15:53
prosecutors believe that mr white was
00:15:56
the ringleader and he had planned the
00:15:58
crime for years hiring frankie for the
00:16:02
sole purpose
00:16:03
of killing him
00:16:05
it's extremely sad but apparently the
00:16:07
people that perpetrated this crime
00:16:09
realized that that's the kind of victim
00:16:10
that they needed they needed to find
00:16:12
someone that no one would care about and
00:16:15
no one would come forward and knock on
00:16:17
doors and look
00:16:18
to question anything that had
00:16:20
happened mr white purchased multiple
00:16:23
life insurance policies on frankie's
00:16:25
life and sent imposters to the required
00:16:29
physical examinations
00:16:32
a witness reported seeing the stolen car
00:16:35
parked outside the funeral home the
00:16:37
night before the crime
00:16:42
[Music]
00:16:45
the evidence indicates someone
00:16:47
no one knows who
00:16:49
lured frankie pullian into the stolen
00:16:52
vehicle and hit him on the back of the
00:16:54
skull
00:16:54
[Music]
00:16:58
this created the blood spatter on the
00:17:00
inside of the windshield and dashboard
00:17:02
and
00:17:03
the dripping blood on the chrome strip
00:17:06
on the bottom of the passenger side door
00:17:13
the perpetrators placed frankie's body
00:17:15
on the ground
00:17:17
and drove over it
00:17:19
but in doing so
00:17:20
left blood behind the vehicle
00:17:23
they made other mistakes too like
00:17:25
leaving frankie's clothing and shoes in
00:17:28
the wrong position
00:17:30
ely white knew that frankie's body would
00:17:33
come directly to his funeral home for
00:17:36
the autopsy
00:17:38
he also knew he could start the autopsy
00:17:40
without raising the suspicions of the
00:17:43
medical examiner who apparently
00:17:45
did little to investigate the death on
00:17:48
his own
00:17:49
he did not go to the scene he did not
00:17:51
look at the vehicle he did not talk to
00:17:54
the officers who were at the scene he
00:17:55
did not look at any photographs he did
00:17:58
not examine the clothing of the victim
00:18:00
these are all types of things that one
00:18:02
would expect would be done
00:18:03
following a proper protocol of an
00:18:05
autopsy
00:18:07
and investigators believe
00:18:09
white chose frankie pullian as his
00:18:11
victim because he was single and had no
00:18:14
close family living in the area
00:18:18
e lee white and his alleged
00:18:21
co-conspirators were all charged with
00:18:23
murder and insurance fraud
00:18:26
they claimed there was no physical
00:18:29
evidence tying them to a murder and
00:18:31
investigators agreed
00:18:33
but they said the circumstances linking
00:18:36
the defendants to the crime
00:18:38
were overwhelming
00:18:40
you take all of that together you know
00:18:42
that there was an intentional killing
00:18:43
but you know that it was a staged
00:18:45
accident and you know that four people
00:18:47
stood to make
00:18:48
over nine hundred thousand dollars if
00:18:51
this theory of an accident could hold up
00:18:54
you put all of that together and it
00:18:56
spells out one thing to us and that is
00:18:58
murder for profit
00:19:00
perhaps what's most tragic about the
00:19:03
case is that frankie pullian was an
00:19:06
unwitting participant
00:19:08
in his own murder he was the kind of
00:19:11
person
00:19:12
that would not suspect anything beyond
00:19:14
the obvious
00:19:15
[Music]
00:19:17
e lee white
00:19:18
lauren scott and william brown were all
00:19:21
found guilty of first degree murder and
00:19:24
insurance fraud
00:19:26
and sentenced to life in prison this
00:19:28
case is probably the most fascinating
00:19:30
case i had in the 23 years that i served
00:19:33
as a judge the murder mystery is
00:19:35
actually who did it
00:19:38
there were three people that were tried
00:19:40
and three people convicted
00:19:42
but
00:19:43
who did it there has been no one that
00:19:46
has come forward with any information
00:19:48
regarding the homicide of franklin
00:19:51
pullian
00:19:52
that would indicate
00:19:54
who the actual killer was
00:19:56
the compelling conclusion was that the
00:19:59
individuals who were the owners and
00:20:00
beneficiaries of these policies were the
00:20:02
ones that were responsible for bringing
00:20:04
about the death of franklin pulling
00:20:06
we can't say that they did it by their
00:20:08
own hand we don't know who did it
00:20:10
but we know that they conspired to have
00:20:12
it done
00:20:14
ely white's wife erner was convicted of
00:20:17
fraud and theft by deception she was
00:20:20
placed on probation
00:20:23
investigators say
00:20:24
eli white and his accomplices almost got
00:20:27
away with a cold calculated murder
00:20:31
but their greed and the clues they left
00:20:34
behind
00:20:35
finally exposed the truth
00:20:38
if frank and pullian didn't die so soon
00:20:41
after the policies were written maybe no
00:20:43
one's suspicions would have been aroused
00:20:45
at that time but i think they saw this
00:20:47
pot of gold and they probably tripped
00:20:49
themselves up because they wanted a fast
00:20:51
payoff
00:20:53
it all comes down to forensic evidence
00:20:55
and forensic evidence doesn't lie
00:20:58
it doesn't make up stories
00:21:01
what it is
00:21:04
[Music]
00:21:14
[Music]
00:21:28
[Music]
00:21:34
[Music]
00:21:41
you
