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[Music]
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while on a business trip in 1986
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ed poe spent the morning jogging near
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his hotel in downtown st louis
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[Music]
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when he returned to his hotel room
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he discovered his wife dead
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in the bathtub
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the medical examiner ruled the death was
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by drowning
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presumably
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accidental
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but homicide investigators weren't so
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sure
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[Music]
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[Music]
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hmm
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ed post met julie thigpen when they were
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both students at the university of
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southern mississippi in the 1960s
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they married in 1967 had two daughters
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and moved to new orleans
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ed went to work in the real estate
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business
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his outgoing personality and
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sophisticated manner made him a
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successful salesman right from the start
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i thought ed was a good fellow what
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you'd expect a real estate salesman to
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be kind of relentlessly cheerful
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after a few years ed post became part
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owner of the wagner truax real estate
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firm
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julie post also joined the company and
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was very successful selling over a
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million dollars of real estate every
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year from 1982 on
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in june of 1986 the posts attended a
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real estate convention in saint louis
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missouri at the omni hotel at union
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station
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on the morning of june 3rd
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ed post decided to go jogging before the
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meeting started
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he said he drew his wife a bath and woke
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her before leaving around 7am
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[Music]
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julie
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julie
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it's time to wake up
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on his way out he thanked the hotel's
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concierge for a suggestion she made to
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the posts the day before really
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wonderful i'm so glad it's a wonderful
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place if there's anything else i can do
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for you just let me know
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hello siri having a nice day yes i am
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thank you have a nice run sure head post
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jog past bush stadium
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around the city's famous arch and
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returned to the hotel at 7 40. how was
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your run sir
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it's great that's true had a great
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workout this morning
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have a nice day sir
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[Music]
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when he entered his hotel room
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he said he discovered his wife lying
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face down and unconscious in the bathtub
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after pulling her body from the water he
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called for an ambulance at 7 43.
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it looked as if julie post lost her
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footing and grabbed the towel ring which
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pulled out of the wall
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at the hospital julie post was
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pronounced dead she was 39 years old
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the autopsy revealed that death was due
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to drowning
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ed post immediately phoned his brother
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who was a lawyer together they
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photographed the broken towel ring and
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wall mount for a lawsuit against the
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hotel
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his brother told a policeman here in
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saint louis i'm assumed for 450 million
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dollars you watch
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ed post was convinced that had it not
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been for the faulty towel ring his wife
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julie might still be alive
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after julie post was pronounced dead
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an autopsy was performed in saint louis
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before the body was transported to new
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orleans for burial
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the autopsy found no sign of alcohol or
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drugs in her system
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there were no skull fractures or
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bleeding in the brain that would have
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been present if the victim had been
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struck in the head before drowning
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in short
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the pathologist could find no evidence
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of foul play
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i was certainly not convinced that it
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was an accident
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on the other hand i couldn't prove that
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it was
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anything else
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on the death certificate the manner of
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death was undetermined
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when the saint louis post dispatch
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reported the news of julie post's death
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there were some interesting reactions
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dee joyce hayes was a prosecutor in the
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district attorney's office her husband
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gary was a detective in the saint louis
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police department
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he had just read an article about a
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woman
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who was who had drowned in a bathtub at
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the omni hotel
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and
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she said gary make sure you read this it
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doesn't sound right to me we both read
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the article and looked at each other and
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said
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nah
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no way
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the hotel management found it hard to
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believe that a 120 pound woman like
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julie post could have pulled the towel
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ring from the wall since the ring had
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been designed to withstand more than
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twice that weight
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we went to the two adjoining rooms
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and i
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probably weighed close to 220 pounds at
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the time
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with all my weight hung onto both towel
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rings in both rooms and neither one of
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them gave
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nothing
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ed post told police that he and his wife
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had a very good relationship
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but a background check of the post's
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finances revealed an interesting
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coincidence we went to the insurance
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company
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and lo and behold
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i don't know 27 29 days uh prior to
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julie
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poe's death
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ed had it increased her insurance like
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four or five hundred thousand dollars
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now this is a woman who's making
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uh in the low to mid twenty thousand
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dollar a year
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range and salary
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and he's got this
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six seven hundred thousand dollar life
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insurance policy on his wife
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that's when i
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begin to believe maybe we have something
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here police also discovered that ed post
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was enamored with the married woman who
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worked in his office her name was kim
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otan
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on the day of julie post's funeral ed
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made an unusual request to kim otan
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kim otan had a twin sister and at the
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time of the funeral
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of julie
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ed post said to kim otan maybe when this
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is over you can set me up with your
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sister
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and that seemed
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a most inappropriate thing to be saying
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and particularly saying at the time that
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he's alleged to have said it
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police were also suspicious about the
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way ed post told the story of finding
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his wife's body
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the story never varied almost as if it
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had been rehearsed
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st louis police tape recorded those
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conversations
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and then when she came over the edge of
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the tub
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uh
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being as wet as she was uh in the water
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then at that point once i got her
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partially out of the tub i was not
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prepared for what happened next which
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was she literally slid out at that point
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do you think that because she did hit
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her head on the front portion
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it's the fact that ed pulse
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in his
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golden tongue
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glib
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manor
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came off as a
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as a non-caring
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person that
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had this alibi
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who had everything down
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pat i mean he didn't change his story
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one iota from the first time he told it
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to the second time he told it
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and some of the hotel employees noticed
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that ed post was acting suspiciously on
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the morning of the accident
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before leaving the hotel for his morning
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run
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ed post made sure that the concierge
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knew who he was thanking her for a favor
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she did for him the day before i believe
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you're the one that told us about the
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botanical gardens my wife finally had a
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chance to visit there yesterday it was
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spectacular really wonderful i'm so glad
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and the hotel doorman said that post
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introduced himself by name before going
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out for his run are you enjoying your
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stay yes i am thank you my name is ed
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post i'm going on a run this morning
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i'll be going about 30 minutes uh watch
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out for me please i sure will have a
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nice run sure he made it a point
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to say good morning to the doorman at
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the hotel
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say who he was and what room he was in
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and that he was going to go out and jog
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i mean like it was from the book of who
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cares the doorman didn't care
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why would you do that
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but all of these incidents simply raised
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suspicions
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homicide investigators had no hard
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evidence that ed post played any role in
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his wife's death
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investigators decided to conduct more
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sophisticated tests on the broken towel
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ring to see if a woman julie post size
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could have pulled it from the wall
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during a fall
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[Music]
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prosecutors in saint louis were starting
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to wonder whether the death of julie
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post in the hotel bathtub was truly an
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accident
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the autopsy did not find any evidence of
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foul play
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so prosecutors decided to exhume julie
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post's remains for a second autopsy
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she had been buried in a cemetery
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outside of new orleans
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the water table is so high in new
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orleans that most people are buried in
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above ground vaults
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but julie post had been buried in the
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ground
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and her body was placed in a wooden
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casket
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investigators feared that water damage
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to the body would be significant
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when they opened the grave it was almost
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completely filled with water
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fortunately the foot of the casket was
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the part that sunk
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her head was the only part of her body
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that was not submerged in water and her
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head
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was in perfect shape
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the casket had collapsed and pushed down
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and had pressed flattened her nose from
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the pressure but that was the only
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disfiguration from the collapsing of the
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casket most of the casket collapsed had
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been at the foot end
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the pathologist who performed the second
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autopsy found numerous bruises that were
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not noted during the first autopsy
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that's not unusual because some bruising
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continues to develop even after death
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ed post's attorney said that the
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additional bruises proved nothing that
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they could have been caused by the
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removing of her organs and bones for
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donation shortly after her death
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but the pathologist found two new
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bruises in a critical area
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the only additional finding at the
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autopsy
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was an area of bruising that was very
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low far down on the back of the head in
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the upper neck region
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where in a normal autopsy i usually
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don't take the scalp down quite that far
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i'm looking at these bruises and as far
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as i'm concerned it's from a thumb
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and a hand
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if you're holding somebody under water
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you got to hold them by the base of the
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neck if you're they're going
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next prosecutors turned their attention
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to the metal towel ring found inside the
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tub next to julie post's body
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the towel ring was attached to metal
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studs inside the wall with one and a
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half inch screws the ring and wall mount
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had been designed and manufactured to
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withstand hundreds of pounds of force
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prosecutors hired bolter kelsey an
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accident reconstructionist to attempt to
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recreate the accident
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kelsey conducted his experiments at the
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hotel omni
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in a room with an identical towel ring
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attached to the wall in the same way as
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the towel ring in ed and julie post's
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room
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and for the test
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kelsey used a woman who was the same
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height and weight as julie post
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kelsey asked the model to simulate a
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fall by grabbing onto the towel ring
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with all of her weight nothing happened
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then she was asked to wrench the ring
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back and forth
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again
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nothing happened
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what we found was that
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doing some calculations based on what
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information we had on the ultimate
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strength of the ring
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that we could not
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remove it or a person couldn't remove it
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at that size unless she fell about 64
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feet
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and grabbed the towel ring as she went
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by and of course the hotel room has an
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eight-foot ceiling
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so there's no way that that could happen
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finally as a last resort kelsey asked
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the model to use both hands to remove
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the towel ring in any way she could
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after considerable effort
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the ring came off
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concept the julie post somehow
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grabbed this towel ring during a fall
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and pulled it off the wall was
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impossible it could not physically have
00:14:02
happened that way
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next prosecutors sent an identical towel
00:14:07
ring and wall mount to dr william wines
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a professor of mechanical engineering at
00:14:12
the university of nebraska in lincoln dr
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wines was asked to determine how much
00:14:18
force was required to remove the towel
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ring from the wall attachment
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those tests revealed that it took
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between 480 and 500 pounds of force to
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remove it from the wall
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it was also obvious very early on the
00:14:34
testing that those types of modes of
00:14:37
force application straight pulls pulls
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down
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clearly didn't match the evidence the
00:14:43
the deformed towering the failed
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tolerance didn't look anything like the
00:14:46
towering in question here
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the base plate had damage underneath the
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stem
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and on the left side the towel ring
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itself also had been damaged
00:14:58
dr wines performed 23 different tests to
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reproduce the damage found on the base
00:15:04
plate and towel ring
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all without success
00:15:09
but on test number 24 dr wines produced
00:15:13
something very close that test indicated
00:15:17
that the towel ring was removed from
00:15:19
outside the bathtub
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our conclusion was that it was taken off
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the wall
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by someone with considerable strength
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and it was
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uh you know the type of action where one
00:15:33
would grab it and pull outside the tub
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and it was
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if you look at the location of it it
00:15:40
would be consistent for instance with
00:15:42
someone like putting their foot on the
00:15:43
edge of the tub and grabbing the towel
00:15:45
ring and then pulling it off out out
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toward the outside of the tub
00:15:49
prosecutors now had scientific proof
00:15:53
that julie post's death was no accident
00:16:01
in 1986 new orleans was going through
00:16:04
its worst economic downturn since the
00:16:07
great depression
00:16:08
many local businesses were affected and
00:16:11
real estate was just one more casualty
00:16:14
ed post was 10 owner of the wagner truax
00:16:17
real estate business and was responsible
00:16:19
for 10 of the losses which in 1985 and
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86 were substantial
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and the post's marriage was going
00:16:27
through a downturn of its own
00:16:29
friends said that ed and julie fought
00:16:31
frequently fights which were sometimes
00:16:34
physical
00:16:35
and kim otan who worked with the posts
00:16:38
said that ed post had made advances
00:16:41
towards her in the months before julie's
00:16:43
death
00:16:44
i think that ed fell in love with kim
00:16:47
otan just him being a free man
00:16:51
wouldn't get kim
00:16:52
he had to be a free man with lots of
00:16:54
money
00:16:55
[Music]
00:16:57
to compete with her husband
00:17:00
and
00:17:01
he hatched his plan
00:17:03
prosecutors believe that plan was in
00:17:06
motion one month before julie's death
00:17:08
when ed post increased his wife's life
00:17:10
insurance
00:17:20
on june 3rd
00:17:22
1986
00:17:24
before going out for his morning run
00:17:26
prosecutors believe that post drowned
00:17:29
his wife in the hotel bathtub
00:17:44
afterwards
00:17:45
he pulled the towel ring from the wall
00:17:48
not only to corroborate his cover story
00:17:50
that julie fell while holding onto the
00:17:52
towel ring but also for the money the
00:17:55
potential settlement from the hotel in a
00:17:58
civil lawsuit
00:18:00
after the murder
00:18:02
post made sure to speak with both the
00:18:04
hotel concierge and doorman to cement
00:18:08
his alibi yes i am thank you my name is
00:18:10
ed post i'm going to be going on a run
00:18:12
this morning thank you
00:18:13
the whole business with the towering
00:18:15
which is really what killed him
00:18:17
not literally but figuratively
00:18:20
you know he had to go pull that off the
00:18:22
wall
00:18:25
he had to go pull that off the wall so
00:18:27
that he could set up a lawsuit against
00:18:29
the omni hotel and get more money
00:18:33
the greedy s.o.b
00:18:35
three years after julie post's death
00:18:38
ed post went on trial
00:18:41
for first degree murder
00:18:43
ed post pleaded not guilty and took the
00:18:46
stand in his own defense ed's demeanor
00:18:48
on the stand i think could best be
00:18:50
described
00:18:52
as follows
00:18:53
he was very well dressed he was very
00:18:56
articulate
00:18:57
spoke
00:18:58
at a very sophisticated level
00:19:02
including his use of the language
00:19:05
spoke i think far differently
00:19:08
than
00:19:09
the jurors were accustomed to speaking
00:19:11
or hearing
00:19:13
uh he did not speak with a southern
00:19:14
accent at all although he was from new
00:19:16
orleans
00:19:18
and he came across
00:19:20
as
00:19:21
ed often came across
00:19:23
as condescending
00:19:25
and i think that
00:19:27
those things did not play well
00:19:29
and the scientific experts provided
00:19:32
powerful testimony that julie post was
00:19:35
not capable of removing the towel ring
00:19:37
during a fall
00:19:39
it took the jury less than a day to
00:19:41
reach its verdict
00:19:43
ed post was found guilty of first degree
00:19:46
murder and was sentenced to life in
00:19:48
prison without possibility of parole ed
00:19:52
post and his attorneys appealed the
00:19:54
conviction
00:19:55
and in a plea bargain post agreed to
00:19:57
plead guilty to second-degree murder and
00:20:00
confessed to the murder of his wife in
00:20:03
exchange for a 30-year prison sentence
00:20:06
that included the possibility of parole
00:20:09
if he doesn't take the towering off
00:20:11
he gets away with it
00:20:13
it's just an accidental drowning
00:20:17
i
00:20:18
mean at how it happened almost everybody
00:20:21
classified it as undetermined or
00:20:23
accidental
00:20:24
but for that
00:20:26
ed posted beyond his merry way he
00:20:27
probably sued the army got a couple
00:20:29
million dollars and
00:20:30
had seven hundred thousand life
00:20:31
insurance
00:20:34
wouldn't know who he was
00:20:36
in my opinion
00:20:39
the most important thing
00:20:42
in the trial
00:20:44
was the science it was the tile ring
00:20:47
when you when you can show that it was
00:20:49
wretched back and forth back and forth
00:20:51
until it until it broke or until it came
00:20:53
loose
00:20:55
that convicted him
00:20:57
if he would have left that out of there
00:21:00
he might be a free man today
00:21:03
[Music]
00:21:14
[Music]
00:21:22
so
00:21:25
[Music]
00:21:25
[Applause]
00:21:29
[Music]
00:21:40
you
