00:00:04
on this episode of women behind bars
00:00:06
one woman allegedly murdered her elderly
00:00:09
parents
00:00:09
there was a obvious sign of a struggle
00:00:11
with the blood trail there were pieces
00:00:12
of broken frying pan
00:00:14
obvious stab wounds point forward trauma
00:00:16
there were
00:00:17
there was no blood on my clothes there
00:00:19
was no blood on my shoes
00:00:21
how is it possible to have done that
00:00:24
with no blood anywhere then marianne
00:00:27
acker tells her story
00:00:28
she was convicted of murdering one man
00:00:30
in hawaii and one in california didn't
00:00:33
threaten me
00:00:33
[ __ ] if you don't do what i tell you
00:00:35
i'll kill you shot
00:00:37
twice once in the ankle once in the head
00:00:41
and left to die here two women two
00:00:43
brutal crimes
00:00:45
these are the stories of deborah
00:00:46
parringer and marianne acker
00:01:07
[Music]
00:01:13
on november 2nd 2001 lloyd and agnes
00:01:16
courtney were found dead in their home
00:01:19
each had been stabbed and bludgeoned
00:01:21
repeatedly it was very brutal
00:01:23
it was very bloody collectively
00:01:26
lloyd and agnes courtney had been beaten
00:01:30
stabbed and cut a total of 75 times
00:01:34
police became suspicious of the
00:01:36
courtney's daughter 48 year old deborah
00:01:38
perringer
00:01:39
on the night they informed her of her
00:01:40
parents death she had a very flat effect
00:01:43
when they told her they noticed that she
00:01:45
had a band-aid or bandage on her left
00:01:47
index finger
00:01:49
when they asked her about it she said
00:01:51
that she had cut her finger doing dishes
00:01:53
that morning
00:01:55
was debra perringer framed in the brutal
00:01:57
slaying of her parents
00:01:59
or was this a calculated
00:02:00
murder-for-profit scheme
00:02:05
deborah lynn perringer was the only
00:02:07
child born to lloyd and agnes courtney
00:02:09
in june of 1953 in a middle-class
00:02:12
neighborhood in fort worth texas
00:02:14
we had to leave it to beaver home and so
00:02:17
did the neighbors
00:02:18
and and so did our family and everybody
00:02:22
around us that we knew
00:02:23
we were all alive the courtneys went to
00:02:25
church
00:02:26
every every sunday it was a big part of
00:02:30
their lives
00:02:31
she was a wife and a homemaker but she
00:02:33
was
00:02:34
very active in the community she was a
00:02:36
child advocate
00:02:37
and volunteered her time she loved to
00:02:39
sing by all accounts a very very sweet
00:02:41
lady lloyd courtney had been
00:02:43
employed with the fourth police
00:02:44
department for almost 50 years
00:02:46
he originally started as a certified
00:02:49
peace officer
00:02:50
worked his way up and worked as a latent
00:02:52
print examiner
00:02:53
my dad was the greatest man i ever knew
00:02:56
she was his pride and joy when she was
00:02:59
31
00:03:00
debra enrolled at texas wesleyan
00:03:01
university in fort worth to become an
00:03:03
accountant
00:03:04
while still in college she met her
00:03:06
future husband paul perringer
00:03:08
the day i met my husband i knew i was
00:03:11
going to marry him
00:03:13
and so i had to wait six months for him
00:03:18
to ask me out and uh
00:03:21
that was it and on january 16 1988 the
00:03:24
34 year old coed got married
00:03:26
almost a year and a half later she
00:03:28
graduated college i got a job
00:03:30
with tarrant county in fort worth
00:03:33
as an auditor and i did that for nine
00:03:36
years and really enjoyed it
00:03:38
five years after the couple married
00:03:40
debra gave birth to a baby girl named
00:03:42
angela
00:03:43
about three or four years later i
00:03:45
started
00:03:46
suffering from depression and i was put
00:03:49
on an antidepressant
00:03:50
deborah says the depression so
00:03:52
incapacitated her that she was unable to
00:03:54
work
00:03:55
forced to retire early she went on
00:03:57
disability
00:03:58
i was treated for depression at first
00:04:00
and then they found out that it was
00:04:01
really a bipolar disorder
00:04:04
and you know you can have the highs and
00:04:08
the lows
00:04:09
at the same time her husband paul
00:04:11
contracted a debilitating case of
00:04:12
hepatitis
00:04:13
and lost his job as a plumber the couple
00:04:16
unable to make ends meet
00:04:18
leaned on debra's parents for financial
00:04:20
support
00:04:21
my parents helped me financially because
00:04:25
when i was on the bipolar highs i would
00:04:29
go shopping
00:04:29
retail therapy oh it worked wonders for
00:04:32
my mood
00:04:33
it didn't do anything at all for our
00:04:35
finances
00:04:36
the way that debra
00:04:40
handled her money didn't please her
00:04:42
parents she owed them
00:04:43
an upwards of forty thousand dollars
00:04:46
some of the
00:04:46
family members had said the reason that
00:04:48
lloyd courtney had actually gone back
00:04:50
to work after he had retired was because
00:04:53
of the amount of money that he was
00:04:54
having to give to ms paringer and
00:04:56
her husband and that he was angry about
00:04:58
that he didn't want to work anymore
00:05:00
despite the strain deborah's financial
00:05:01
difficulties and bipolar disorder caused
00:05:04
her family
00:05:04
she maintained a close connection with
00:05:06
her parents and saw them frequently
00:05:09
on the morning of november 2nd 2001
00:05:11
debra visited with her mom and dad
00:05:13
i went over to my parents house and my
00:05:16
mother wasn't home yet
00:05:19
so i sat and talked to my dad he was
00:05:21
playing on the computer
00:05:23
my mother got home and we visited for a
00:05:26
little bit
00:05:27
and then i had to go shopping
00:05:30
she said that when she left that her
00:05:35
mother and father were fine that
00:05:37
afternoon a neighbor became concerned
00:05:39
when he noticed that lloyd courtney
00:05:41
hadn't left for work at his usual time
00:05:43
the neighbor across the street noticed
00:05:46
that my dad had not left for work
00:05:49
and that was like i think one o'clock
00:05:52
so the neighbor became concerned and he
00:05:54
ended up calling the police
00:05:56
later that day the police arrived on the
00:05:59
scene
00:06:00
the police officer appeared inside and
00:06:02
noticed the contents of a purse had been
00:06:04
dumped it appeared that the house had
00:06:05
been
00:06:06
burglarized he got a key from
00:06:10
a neighbor and entered the home and
00:06:12
that's when he found the bodies
00:06:13
it was a extremely
00:06:18
violent crime scene it looked like the
00:06:21
the dining room table leg which had been
00:06:24
[Music]
00:06:26
broken or knocked off apparently in the
00:06:29
struggle
00:06:30
was then used after lloyd was probably
00:06:33
down already
00:06:34
face down to beat him on the back of the
00:06:37
head
00:06:38
and then there was also a blood trail
00:06:40
from the dining area
00:06:41
into the southwest bedroom
00:06:44
where agnes was located and then when
00:06:47
they went to the back bedroom
00:06:50
their bedroom my mother was on the
00:06:55
oh
00:07:00
i remember the picture
00:07:04
71 year old agnes courtney was found in
00:07:06
a bedroom
00:07:07
next to the bed which was soaked in
00:07:09
blood and littered with pieces of cast
00:07:11
iron skillets
00:07:12
she had been cut or stabbed 22 times and
00:07:15
had suffered multiple injuries to the
00:07:17
head
00:07:17
her throat had also been slit she and
00:07:21
her 75 year old husband lloyd
00:07:23
were pronounced dead on the scene cause
00:07:25
of death multiple stab wounds and blunt
00:07:27
force trauma
00:07:29
when women behind bars continues floyd
00:07:31
courtney's body was found in the dining
00:07:33
room but his
00:07:35
right leg had a note that
00:07:38
was attached to his pants by a small
00:07:42
white-handled paring knife
00:07:53
on the morning of november 2nd 2001 48
00:07:56
year old deborah perringer visited
00:07:58
with her parents police officer and
00:08:00
fingerprint expert lloyd courtney and
00:08:01
his wife agnes
00:08:03
later that day police arrived at the
00:08:05
courtney residence and found that the
00:08:07
couple had been stabbed and bludgeoned
00:08:08
to death
00:08:10
police discovered a note on one of the
00:08:12
victims lloyd courtney's body was found
00:08:15
in the dining room but his right leg
00:08:19
had a note that was attached to his
00:08:22
pants
00:08:23
by a small white-handled paring knife
00:08:26
and the note said something that
00:08:29
something to the effect of
00:08:30
look what i learned in prison thanks for
00:08:33
the memories
00:08:34
and then there was a string of
00:08:35
expletives and then it said
00:08:37
you better watch who you let in through
00:08:39
the door next time
00:08:42
the note implied that the crime had been
00:08:44
committed by someone that he had put in
00:08:46
prison
00:08:47
later that evening when police notified
00:08:49
debra that her parents had been killed
00:08:50
they were surprised by her lack of
00:08:52
emotion they
00:08:54
both noted that her reaction was
00:08:56
somewhat odd
00:08:58
she appeared to be upset but never
00:09:00
actually cried any tears
00:09:02
the police came at 10 30
00:09:06
and um
00:09:09
told me that they'd been murdered and i
00:09:11
just
00:09:15
i just shut down i just went inside
00:09:18
myself
00:09:19
she immediately mentioned the
00:09:22
possibility that
00:09:23
the family had always worried that mr
00:09:25
courtney would be murdered by someone
00:09:26
who had recently gotten out of prison
00:09:30
somebody he had helped put away which
00:09:32
was of course you know
00:09:33
coincidental based on the letter that
00:09:35
was found with mr courtney's body
00:09:37
growing up with a policeman as a dad
00:09:41
he always got threatening phone calls
00:09:44
threatening letters
00:09:47
so always in the back of my mind was
00:09:50
that fear that one day
00:09:53
it would really happen and when it did
00:09:55
[Music]
00:09:58
i just i just couldn't i didn't function
00:10:02
debra claimed that her father had
00:10:03
testified in a gang-related trial and
00:10:05
had been receiving death threats
00:10:07
but the police could find no evidence of
00:10:09
such threats in reference to
00:10:11
the threats made to lloyd there were
00:10:13
never any reported
00:10:15
to the police department never to the
00:10:17
supervisors
00:10:18
that we know of someone was angry
00:10:21
because of a conviction
00:10:23
they would most likely lash out at the
00:10:24
detective who
00:10:26
was most responsible for that case not
00:10:30
an employee who just analyzed some
00:10:32
evidence the police investigated that
00:10:34
thoroughly they were never able to
00:10:36
locate
00:10:36
anybody who had recently gotten out
00:10:39
they talked to co-workers supervisors at
00:10:42
the police department
00:10:43
all of whom said it's common that if you
00:10:45
are receiving some sort of threat
00:10:47
to alert your supervisors nobody had
00:10:49
ever been alerted that there was any
00:10:51
type of a threat ever made
00:10:52
mr courtney had not testified in court
00:10:55
in a number of years
00:10:57
police also had suspicions about the
00:10:59
authenticity of the note
00:11:01
the note just it just did not look right
00:11:03
it did not look like something that
00:11:05
someone would have done
00:11:07
come from prison to get revenge
00:11:10
for being sent away and leave a note
00:11:13
like that it looked like
00:11:15
someone who was trying to cover up
00:11:18
you know what they had done and put it
00:11:20
off on someone else
00:11:22
a cut on debra's finger and bruises on
00:11:24
her arms
00:11:25
also raised officers suspicions ms
00:11:28
perringer
00:11:29
stated to the police that she had fallen
00:11:31
down the stairs on november the 2nd when
00:11:34
she had overslept from a nap
00:11:35
whenever we interview somebody who
00:11:38
possibly has something to do with the
00:11:39
offense
00:11:40
see if they have any type of injuries on
00:11:41
their hands wounds
00:11:43
that would have been inflicted on them
00:11:44
from the victims that cut on debra's
00:11:46
finger it wasn't
00:11:47
i mean like a gashing wound but
00:11:50
it was noticeable when they asked her
00:11:52
about it she said that she had cut her
00:11:54
finger doing dishes that morning and i
00:11:58
was washing some dishes and i
00:12:02
you know jammed my hand down in the
00:12:03
dishwater and
00:12:05
cut my finger on a knife
00:12:09
and so i put a band-aid on it and then i
00:12:11
went over to my parents house
00:12:13
i went in the kitchen and i saw a few
00:12:15
little dishes
00:12:16
and i thought well you know i'll wash
00:12:19
them while i'm waiting
00:12:21
and so my band-aid got wet and i just
00:12:24
took it off and i didn't think anything
00:12:26
of it
00:12:27
and i didn't realize that that it was
00:12:29
still bleeding
00:12:30
investigators spent four days at the
00:12:32
crime scene and recovered a large amount
00:12:34
of blood evidence
00:12:35
and the murder weapons a paring knife
00:12:38
four shattered cast iron skillets
00:12:40
and a table leg we believe that it is
00:12:42
likely that when mr courtney was struck
00:12:44
he was initially struck
00:12:46
by some sort of an object there was a
00:12:48
table leg that had some of his blood on
00:12:50
it
00:12:51
and then the cast iron skillet it was a
00:12:52
very very
00:12:54
brutal bloody scene and they suspected
00:12:56
from the beginning
00:12:58
that the killer likely injured themself
00:13:02
during the attack and possibly the
00:13:04
killer's blood was also in the house
00:13:06
so it became very significant from the
00:13:08
beginning to collect
00:13:10
as much blood evidence as possible and
00:13:12
for that blood evidence to be tested
00:13:15
against their suspects as well against
00:13:17
as against their victims
00:13:18
despite her explanations police quickly
00:13:20
zeroed in on deborah perringer
00:13:22
as a prime suspect from the time of the
00:13:25
offense occurred we had obvious
00:13:27
suspicions that it was deborah
00:13:29
one of the neighbors told the police
00:13:31
that she had seen
00:13:32
deborah about 10 15 that morning outside
00:13:35
of the courtney's home
00:13:36
walking towards her car then they turned
00:13:38
to me
00:13:39
because they found out i had been there
00:13:41
that morning she maintained her instance
00:13:43
from the time the
00:13:44
police first talked to her there were
00:13:46
there was no blood
00:13:48
on my clothes there was no blood on my
00:13:50
shoes and
00:13:51
uh they said that no one had washed up
00:13:54
in the house
00:13:55
they checked the drains how is it
00:13:58
possible
00:13:59
to have done that with all of that blood
00:14:02
have no blood in the car no blood
00:14:05
anywhere on you
00:14:07
and yet no one washed up in the house it
00:14:10
doesn't make sense
00:14:13
seventeen days after the murder police
00:14:15
executed a search warrant at deborah's
00:14:17
house
00:14:18
we didn't find any pieces of frying pan
00:14:20
any bloody clothing
00:14:23
we collected some knife to comp possibly
00:14:25
compare
00:14:26
to the knives that we found at the scene
00:14:29
but nothing ever that
00:14:30
actually incriminated her the only thing
00:14:33
that of note that was found in miss
00:14:35
parringer's
00:14:36
car was in the trunk and there was
00:14:38
actually
00:14:39
a purchased copy from a bookstore of the
00:14:43
texas probate code a book that explained
00:14:47
how the probate code
00:14:49
was used how wills are executed
00:14:52
timelines my mother gave us that book
00:14:55
to try to get us to make our own wheels
00:14:58
after our daughter was born
00:15:00
by canvassing the neighborhood police
00:15:02
found an eyewitness who had spotted a
00:15:04
man in the courtney's backyard on the
00:15:06
day of the murder
00:15:07
there was a neighbor who lived almost
00:15:10
directly behind the courtneys
00:15:11
she got up and went outside
00:15:15
and and reported that there was a man
00:15:18
dressed in coveralls in the
00:15:20
courtney's backyard she assisted police
00:15:23
in
00:15:24
drawing a composite sketch if that
00:15:26
person existed we never
00:15:28
did identify anyone i don't think
00:15:30
anything was ever done with that i don't
00:15:31
it wasn't put on the news or anything of
00:15:33
that nature
00:15:34
i think the police had basically decided
00:15:37
that that wasn't the route they were
00:15:38
going to go
00:15:40
no arrests were initially made but five
00:15:42
months later
00:15:43
dna testing came back linking perringer
00:15:46
to the crime scene
00:15:47
a warrant was issued for debra's arrest
00:15:50
we did dna analysis
00:15:51
on several blood samples that were found
00:15:54
in the house there was an enormous
00:15:55
amount of blood that came back to both
00:15:57
lloyd or agnes courtney
00:15:59
however there were six samples that were
00:16:03
tested
00:16:04
in the crime lab that came back to
00:16:05
deborah parringer
00:16:07
perringer was arrested at 8 a.m friday
00:16:09
april 19
00:16:10
2002 after dropping off her daughter at
00:16:13
school
00:16:13
when she was arrested and advised that
00:16:16
she was under arrest for capital murder
00:16:19
once again she had a very flat effect i
00:16:21
i
00:16:22
shut down again when they handcuffed me
00:16:25
and put me in the car i was just
00:16:27
i was just in shock when women behind
00:16:30
bars continues
00:16:31
we believe that on the morning of the
00:16:33
day of their death that
00:16:34
mr courtney probably got into some sort
00:16:36
of a verbal altercation with deborah
00:16:39
and that the assault started on mr
00:16:41
courtney and later in this episode of
00:16:43
women behind bars
00:16:44
marianne acker is accused of murder in
00:16:46
two states
00:16:47
i was arguing with him about that and
00:16:50
suddenly he held the gun on me and
00:16:51
threatened me
00:16:52
[ __ ] if you don't do what i tell you
00:16:54
i'll kill you
00:16:55
[Music]
00:17:02
in early 2003 deborah perringer was the
00:17:04
main suspect in the murder of her
00:17:06
parents
00:17:07
after investigators found her blood at
00:17:08
the crime scene
00:17:10
perringer claimed that an ex-con had
00:17:11
killed her parents as an act of revenge
00:17:13
against her father
00:17:14
a police officer
00:17:17
[Music]
00:17:23
perringer's defense attorney argued that
00:17:25
although deborah was at her parents home
00:17:27
on the day they were murdered
00:17:28
and her blood from a cut was found at
00:17:30
the crime scene she did not kill
00:17:32
them she testified in her own defense on
00:17:35
her own behalf
00:17:36
that she had cut her finger the morning
00:17:39
washing dishes at her own home
00:17:42
and later went to her parents house and
00:17:44
was doing dishes the bandage became wet
00:17:47
and while doing some light housekeeping
00:17:49
she had
00:17:50
blood droplets that that were
00:17:53
in various parts of the house and that's
00:17:55
the way they explained away the blood
00:17:57
and then her blood just happens to be in
00:17:58
the exact same locations that the killer
00:18:00
would have touched
00:18:01
and you left a large amount was
00:18:03
described as a large amount of blood
00:18:05
on the door going into this bedroom that
00:18:07
just happens to be where agnes courtney
00:18:08
was found
00:18:09
that's not very believable but the
00:18:11
defense disputed that the amount of
00:18:13
blood was enough to implicate deborah
00:18:16
what they didn't tell you was it was a
00:18:17
little drop
00:18:18
[Music]
00:18:19
a drop on the table a little smudge on
00:18:22
the door
00:18:23
the amount of deborah perringer's blood
00:18:27
depends on who you ask the defense is
00:18:29
going to say that they were very it was
00:18:31
a very minute amount little droplets
00:18:33
here and there
00:18:34
the police would tell you that they were
00:18:35
actually significant mounts it was
00:18:38
it was a smear on the mirror or on the
00:18:40
knife drawer
00:18:41
was it was visible to the eye so
00:18:43
therefore it was
00:18:45
it was significant prosecutors made a
00:18:47
case that perringer had financial motive
00:18:49
to kill her parents
00:18:50
and that she cut her finger while
00:18:51
attacking them
00:18:53
we believe money was the motive to kill
00:18:55
mr mrs courtney
00:18:57
mr mrs courtney both had been
00:19:00
financially supporting deborah paringer
00:19:02
and her husband for a very long time
00:19:04
she stood inherit somewhere between 200
00:19:07
and 250 000
00:19:09
in the event of their death the way that
00:19:10
she was portrayed was that she was
00:19:13
a greedy woman and she was dependent
00:19:15
financially dependent on her parents
00:19:17
that she owed them an upwards of forty
00:19:19
thousand dollars
00:19:21
deborah perringer when she testified she
00:19:23
talked about the financial relationship
00:19:25
between her parents
00:19:27
she explained that yes her parents had
00:19:29
given her and her husband money over the
00:19:31
years
00:19:32
that it was something that they wanted
00:19:33
to do the defense also claimed that
00:19:36
deborah was not strong enough to commit
00:19:38
the killings
00:19:39
they maintained the murder was a revenge
00:19:41
killing done by an ex-convict
00:19:43
but experts for the prosecution
00:19:45
testified that the choice of murder
00:19:47
weapon
00:19:47
did not fit the profile and that debra
00:19:50
could have committed the double homicide
00:19:52
i thought that the use of the four
00:19:53
skillets as a murder weapon that this
00:19:55
was someone
00:19:56
who had come back from prison to track
00:19:58
him down to kill him
00:20:00
out of revenge for having you know
00:20:02
testified against him or in some way
00:20:04
sent him off to prison you're not going
00:20:05
to bring a cast iron skillet over there
00:20:07
to murder with it was
00:20:08
obviously there it was just a weapon of
00:20:11
opportunity
00:20:11
we believe that on the morning of the
00:20:13
day of their death that
00:20:15
mr courtney probably got into some sort
00:20:17
of a verbal altercation with deborah
00:20:19
and that the assault started on mr
00:20:21
courtney
00:20:22
based upon the way that the crime scene
00:20:25
was
00:20:25
found it appears that miss courtney
00:20:28
arrived home
00:20:30
either during the middle of this or
00:20:31
immediately thereafter
00:20:33
and found her husband either dead or
00:20:35
bleeding
00:20:36
and found her daughter there the state
00:20:38
contended that
00:20:41
deborah probably was caught in the act
00:20:43
or something had happened
00:20:44
where miss courtney had walked in and
00:20:46
found this going on
00:20:48
and then she didn't have any choice but
00:20:50
to go after her mother
00:20:51
well the prosecution's theory on
00:20:55
on the killing was that somehow
00:20:58
you know in the heat of passion the
00:21:00
adrenaline flowing that that
00:21:03
debra had this you know
00:21:06
exceptional strength to be able to uh
00:21:09
hit somebody with a with a
00:21:10
cast iron skillet hard enough to break
00:21:12
the skillet uh and to beat two people to
00:21:15
death without
00:21:16
being or overcome by them especially a
00:21:19
trained police officer
00:21:20
it would have taken you know some severe
00:21:24
strength i don't think debra matches
00:21:27
that kind of
00:21:28
brute strength there was no dna evidence
00:21:30
ever linking anyone else to the crime
00:21:31
based upon the timeline that we have of
00:21:34
mr courtney's morning mrs courtney's
00:21:37
morning and then the time that deborah
00:21:38
perringer
00:21:39
was there that they were the only three
00:21:40
people who were in the home
00:21:42
on january 20th 2003 the jury returned
00:21:45
their verdict
00:21:46
guilty of capital murder i was just in a
00:21:49
fog
00:21:52
i just couldn't believe it unless i was
00:21:55
one that cried i started crying and they
00:21:57
took me out of the court
00:21:59
for the offensive account for murder
00:22:00
since the death penalty was waived the
00:22:02
sentence is an automatic life sentence
00:22:03
and for capital murder that means
00:22:05
40 calendar years that she'll have to
00:22:07
serve before she's eligible for parole
00:22:09
i would be 89 years old when i would be
00:22:11
eligible for parole
00:22:13
we were satisfied that we brought lloyd
00:22:16
magnus's
00:22:17
killer to justice we were certainly
00:22:19
saddened by the fact that we had to
00:22:21
prosecute
00:22:22
their daughter to do so i don't think
00:22:24
there was anybody in law enforcement
00:22:26
who took pleasure in the fact that we
00:22:27
had to put lloyd and agnes courtney's
00:22:29
own daughter
00:22:30
in prison for this murder but that's
00:22:32
what justice required
00:22:33
justice was not done in deborah's case
00:22:38
deborah is not guilty
00:22:41
and the evidence to support that
00:22:44
was not clearly represented
00:22:48
so no i don't believe justice was done
00:22:50
in this case
00:22:52
48 year old perringer was incarcerated
00:22:54
at the maximum security facility in
00:22:56
gatesville texas
00:22:58
she's been in prison for five years and
00:23:00
has appealed her case
00:23:01
her first appeal was rejected and she's
00:23:03
now working on her second
00:23:04
focusing on new evidence there were
00:23:08
and it's sort of unusual that agnes
00:23:12
courtney's ring was found it had several
00:23:15
hairs in it
00:23:16
but there wasn't anything that linked
00:23:17
the uh the hairs to anybody in the house
00:23:20
they weren't agnes hairs they weren't
00:23:22
lloyd courtney's hairs and they weren't
00:23:24
deborah perringer's hairs
00:23:26
that's a unsolved mystery that again
00:23:28
adds to
00:23:30
the question of whether or not deborah's
00:23:31
in jail for something she didn't do
00:23:33
there was also a dna of a unknown
00:23:36
individual
00:23:37
found on the caller id box again giving
00:23:40
you
00:23:40
another potential that somebody else was
00:23:43
there
00:23:44
while she waits for news about a second
00:23:45
appeal deborah relies on her faith
00:23:48
my spirituality has actually grown
00:23:54
but it gets tested
00:23:57
quite often i do a lot of bible studies
00:23:59
and i
00:24:00
do my best to stay out of trouble
00:24:02
deborah's husband her 15 year old
00:24:04
daughter angela and several of her
00:24:06
friends
00:24:06
continue to support her my husband and
00:24:08
daughter are 100
00:24:09
behind me i have four visitors that come
00:24:13
regularly i go see deborah once a month
00:24:17
and i drive uh one way 165 miles
00:24:23
i'm convinced that that she's guilty and
00:24:27
she deserves that sentence
00:24:28
debra maintains her innocence she still
00:24:30
grieves for the loss of her parents
00:24:33
well i see myself leaving prison
00:24:37
in 2008 and
00:24:42
i'm going to go home and enjoy my
00:24:44
retirement
00:24:45
i'm just going to enjoy life one day my
00:24:48
world was
00:24:50
perfect and the next day
00:24:53
my heart was ripped out and
00:24:57
not a day goes by that i don't think
00:24:59
about my parents
00:25:00
i feel their their spirit
00:25:03
with me always because we were so
00:25:08
close
00:25:13
it'll never replace them next up
00:25:16
on this episode of women behind bars a
00:25:18
woman is on the run for two murders
00:25:20
when he killed um lawrence hasker i had
00:25:23
no doubt that he would not hesitate to
00:25:25
kill me too if i didn't do what he
00:25:26
wanted me to
00:25:29
for more information about women behind
00:25:31
bars go to www.wetv.com
00:25:42
on june 23 1978 20-year-old lawrence
00:25:45
hasker was found dead near the
00:25:47
picturesque site
00:25:48
of hanama bay he was walked down
00:25:51
the access road to hanama bay and shot
00:25:54
twice
00:25:58
but it would take police almost a year
00:25:59
to link hasker's death to marianne acker
00:26:02
and her husband william
00:26:03
both were already serving time in
00:26:05
california for the murder of another man
00:26:07
cesario arasa after coming to hawaii
00:26:11
and committing the crime the actors left
00:26:14
hawaii under
00:26:15
assumed names
00:26:19
in a case of he said she said william
00:26:21
acker claimed marianne killed lawrence
00:26:23
asker
00:26:24
while she maintained it was her husband
00:26:26
who pulled the trigger
00:26:28
was marianne ecker a cold-blooded
00:26:29
murderer or was she the unwilling
00:26:31
participant in her husband's schemes
00:26:39
[Music]
00:26:40
at three months old marianne acker was
00:26:42
adopted by a devout mormon family
00:26:45
she grew up with one sister in phoenix
00:26:47
arizona where her life revolved around
00:26:49
school and church
00:26:51
my childhood was pretty normal childhood
00:26:54
i grew up in a middle class home
00:26:57
my mom pretty much stayed home with me
00:27:00
when i was a kid
00:27:01
my family was a very religious family
00:27:03
they were latter-day saints
00:27:05
i was raised in the mormon church but
00:27:07
for marianne
00:27:08
her idyllic life came to an end when her
00:27:10
parents moved from phoenix to yuma
00:27:12
arizona
00:27:13
that's when i started getting kind of
00:27:15
ticked off about life in general because
00:27:17
my parents disrupted my 14 year old
00:27:19
little world i started
00:27:21
questioning the church and the teachings
00:27:24
marianne decided that when she graduated
00:27:26
high school she would move back to
00:27:28
phoenix to be with her friends
00:27:30
i had no goals no direction i just knew
00:27:32
i wanted to get out of yuma
00:27:34
and away from mom and dad after
00:27:36
graduation from high school in 1977
00:27:39
marianne went back to phoenix got an
00:27:41
apartment a job
00:27:42
and met 28 year old william acker who
00:27:44
was working at a local hardware store
00:27:46
i met my co-defendant at work when i was
00:27:49
18 years old
00:27:51
his sister introduced us linda spaulding
00:27:54
was a juror in marianne's case
00:27:56
she wrote a book about marianne's life i
00:27:59
think when marianne met
00:28:00
william she was naive she'd had other
00:28:03
boyfriends she'd been to parties
00:28:07
but she'd lived in this very restrictive
00:28:09
home environment
00:28:10
he had that bad boy image he was 10
00:28:13
years older than me
00:28:14
and there was that part of me mom and
00:28:15
dad would just absolutely hate him
00:28:17
i was already so much enthrall with him
00:28:21
i needed him in my life i was just
00:28:25
very much a people pleaser very you know
00:28:27
i needed a relationship
00:28:28
but william acker's charisma and good
00:28:30
looks hit a mysterious dark past
00:28:32
that marianne would not discover until
00:28:34
it was too late
00:28:35
he had been in custody for 14
00:28:39
of his 29 years
00:28:42
marianne didn't know that obviously
00:28:44
there was some
00:28:46
discussion about him being on parole and
00:28:48
he
00:28:50
downplayed that issue significantly no
00:28:53
one really knows
00:28:55
very much about him except that he had
00:28:56
numerous arrests and he was
00:28:59
incarcerated for all but
00:29:03
14 months of his adult life all of a
00:29:05
sudden he was living with me
00:29:06
within about eight weeks he was talking
00:29:08
about getting married
00:29:09
she remembers being in love with him and
00:29:11
how you know incredibly
00:29:14
[Music]
00:29:15
strong a feeling that was in april of
00:29:18
1978
00:29:20
william and marianne were married
00:29:22
shortly after
00:29:23
marianne claims williams started
00:29:24
becoming controlling
00:29:26
when i first noticed william was
00:29:28
isolating me from my family and friends
00:29:29
it was when he just
00:29:30
alienated my best friend that was the
00:29:32
first time he just really
00:29:34
shoved somebody out of my life he'd
00:29:36
separated her from her world
00:29:38
and what she knew of herself in june
00:29:41
1978 according to marianne
00:29:43
williams suggested that they go to
00:29:45
hawaii to visit relatives and have a
00:29:46
belated honeymoon
00:29:49
when we got over to hawaii he didn't
00:29:51
want me calling my parents and telling
00:29:52
him where we were going
00:29:53
it's all a big secret and they have to
00:29:57
register and do everything under her
00:29:59
maiden name
00:30:00
because he has jumped parole in order to
00:30:03
make this honeymoon
00:30:04
trip still unaware of william's
00:30:06
extensive criminal
00:30:08
past marianne went along with his plan
00:30:10
after vacationing in hawaii
00:30:12
marianne claims william decided he
00:30:14
wanted to stay there permanently
00:30:16
they get to hawaii they get an apartment
00:30:20
and they run out of money i started to
00:30:22
say well i'll go get a job
00:30:24
suddenly now he didn't want me working
00:30:26
and i realized now that was just because
00:30:28
he wanted the control of me
00:30:30
he talked about robbing tourists so she
00:30:33
doesn't want to do robberies he wants to
00:30:34
do robberies and i was arguing with him
00:30:36
about that
00:30:37
and suddenly he held a gun on me and
00:30:39
threatened me [ __ ] if you don't do what
00:30:41
i tell you
00:30:42
i'll kill you and that was when it began
00:30:48
at that point i didn't think about
00:30:49
trying to get away i mean i'm
00:30:51
on this island thousands of miles
00:30:55
you know from my family from everything
00:30:57
i knew
00:30:58
and then he started threatening my
00:30:59
family that if i left him if i
00:31:03
tried to report him if i did anything he
00:31:06
would have my family killed
00:31:07
on june 10 1978 to pay for their new
00:31:10
life in hawaii the couple's crime spree
00:31:12
began
00:31:13
he wanted me to pick up men in bars
00:31:16
basically i was just this little
00:31:18
wallflower
00:31:20
not approaching anybody until he would
00:31:24
come back over and say hey go talk to
00:31:25
that guy over there
00:31:27
at the bar the actors met their first
00:31:29
victim joe leach
00:31:30
who lived in hawaii according to
00:31:32
marianne william used her as the bait to
00:31:35
lure in the victim
00:31:36
william came up and introduced himself
00:31:38
as my brother
00:31:39
[Music]
00:31:40
and suggested that me and this man go
00:31:43
someplace else and dance it was a better
00:31:45
place or whatever
00:31:46
and hey while we're on our way can we
00:31:47
drop him off someplace
00:31:50
so we went out to the man's car he got
00:31:53
in the back seat
00:31:54
and as we pulled out of the parking lot
00:31:56
he pulled the gun on the man
00:31:58
and directed him where to go william
00:32:00
pulls a gun on him and they drive him
00:32:01
out to hanauma bay
00:32:03
they tie him up they take his money they
00:32:04
take his car he wanted me to tie the man
00:32:07
up
00:32:08
i said i don't know how to tie anybody
00:32:10
up i
00:32:11
you know you're crazy well here hold the
00:32:13
gun
00:32:14
you know so i i held the gun while he
00:32:16
tied the man up
00:32:18
i was kind of on autopilot
00:32:21
i was doing what he told me to do i
00:32:24
became utterly terrified of him
00:32:26
marianne and her husband william left
00:32:28
their victim gagged and tied up on the
00:32:29
side of the road at hanauma bay
00:32:31
but after the ackers drove off he
00:32:33
managed to free himself and make it to
00:32:35
the police station three miles away
00:32:38
the police took leach's information but
00:32:40
no arrests were immediately made
00:32:42
meanwhile 10 days after their first
00:32:44
robbery the couple went back to the same
00:32:46
bar
00:32:46
where william found their second victim
00:32:48
he met a guy and struck up a
00:32:50
conversation with him while we were
00:32:51
sitting around at the bar
00:32:53
and he pulled me to the side and started
00:32:55
talking about wanting
00:32:57
to rob this guy twenty-year-old lawrence
00:33:00
hasker was a graduate of a local high
00:33:02
school
00:33:02
he had been working as a boat deckhand
00:33:04
but was unemployed the night he met the
00:33:06
actors
00:33:06
i tried anything i could think of to
00:33:09
talk william
00:33:10
out of this by the same token i could
00:33:12
only go to a certain point
00:33:15
before he would flip we went back to our
00:33:17
apartment and while we were at our
00:33:18
apartment
00:33:19
he pulled the gun on the guy said he was
00:33:22
robbing him
00:33:23
tied him up we left we took his car left
00:33:25
our apartment
00:33:26
found out where he lived where the money
00:33:29
was my co-defendant had me
00:33:31
go up to the apartment get the money i'm
00:33:34
still
00:33:35
trying to not do this i'm still trying
00:33:37
to get out of this but
00:33:39
i go and i do what he tells me because
00:33:41
he's still threatening
00:33:43
once inside the apartment marianne found
00:33:45
four hundred dollars in twenty dollar
00:33:47
bills hidden in a book inside a bureau
00:33:50
i come back he's tied up
00:33:58
when they get to hanama which is a long
00:34:00
drive they pull in
00:34:02
larry gets out of the car william gets
00:34:04
out of the car
00:34:05
and he tells me to wait for him so i'm
00:34:07
in the car waiting
00:34:09
i had been driving and they walk off
00:34:13
an embankment at the side of the road
00:34:15
and i hear gunshots
00:34:18
he was shot twice once in the ankle
00:34:21
once in the head and left to die here
00:34:24
and he comes back to the car and he says
00:34:27
okay let's go
00:34:29
i'm like what the hell are you doing he
00:34:32
said oh you wouldn't understand it was
00:34:33
just something
00:34:34
i had to do but according to the
00:34:37
testimony later given by william it was
00:34:39
marianne who killed larry hasker
00:34:42
william macker testified that he did
00:34:45
what she told him to do
00:34:46
that she was the dominating person in
00:34:48
the relationship
00:34:49
he said that she shot hasker
00:34:52
[Music]
00:34:56
when he killed lawrence hasker
00:35:00
it put to rest any doubt i may have had
00:35:04
that he would carry out his threats
00:35:05
against me and my family this man's life
00:35:08
did not matter to william
00:35:11
and by the same token like i said his
00:35:13
threats became even more real
00:35:15
the next day it was like i told him i
00:35:17
said look i just want to go home
00:35:19
i don't care what you do i just want to
00:35:21
go home he said no we're leaving we're
00:35:23
going back to the mainland
00:35:25
[Music]
00:35:27
when women behind bars continues
00:35:29
marianne and her husband take their
00:35:31
crime spree across the ocean to
00:35:32
california
00:35:34
and he looked at me and he said you want
00:35:35
me to cop to a murder i didn't do and i
00:35:37
just looked him in the eye said didn't
00:35:38
you do it you son of a [ __ ]
00:35:43
in june of 1978 marianne acker and her
00:35:46
husband william robbed 20-year-old larry
00:35:48
hasker after meeting him in a hotel bar
00:35:50
in waikiki hawaii
00:35:52
they would each claim the other shot and
00:35:53
left him to die on the side of a road
00:35:55
but the trail of blood would not end
00:35:57
there as the couple fled hawaii
00:35:59
to california they were hitchhiking from
00:36:02
northern california down to
00:36:04
us at the los angeles area a young man
00:36:07
named
00:36:08
cesario araza picked him up in his
00:36:11
pickup truck and this guy stopped and
00:36:13
gave us a ride and we were coming down
00:36:15
chatting we stopped to get something to
00:36:17
eat everything was fine
00:36:19
my co-defendant pulled the gun on him
00:36:21
told him to pull off to the side of the
00:36:23
road
00:36:24
took his wallet told him to get out of
00:36:27
the vehicle
00:36:28
and they walked down an embankment and i
00:36:31
heard the gunshots
00:36:34
according to court documents the couple
00:36:36
left cesario arousa dead on the side of
00:36:38
the road
00:36:39
took his vehicle and drove to los
00:36:41
angeles where they stayed in a motel
00:36:43
a few days later police say the couple
00:36:45
robbed three convenience stores
00:36:47
on june 28th marianne was driving
00:36:49
arousal's car to get a pack of
00:36:51
cigarettes for william
00:36:52
when the crime spree would finally come
00:36:54
to an end
00:36:56
for the first time in this month's span
00:36:59
he sent me to the store he gave me the
00:37:01
keys to the car he gave me money
00:37:03
and i'm thinking okay i'm out of here
00:37:06
and i got about
00:37:09
another block away from the motel and
00:37:12
got pulled over because they were
00:37:13
looking for the car
00:37:16
when police arrested marianne in
00:37:18
arousal's car they were able to link the
00:37:20
ackers to the robberies
00:37:22
marianne claims that william watched the
00:37:24
police arrest her from an alcove in the
00:37:26
motel
00:37:27
he then fled to marianne's parents home
00:37:29
where her father convinced william to
00:37:31
turn himself in
00:37:32
and initially we were just arrested on
00:37:34
the robberies three weeks later
00:37:36
they filed the murder charges according
00:37:39
to marianne
00:37:40
william told her that he would take full
00:37:42
responsibility for the murder
00:37:44
we were supposed to start jury selection
00:37:45
and my attorney came to me and said
00:37:46
marianne they're offering you guys a
00:37:47
deal
00:37:49
they will give you the robberies if he
00:37:50
pleads to the murder
00:37:52
but william had something else in mind
00:37:54
and he looked at me and he said you want
00:37:56
me to cop to a murder i didn't do
00:37:58
i just looked him in the eye and said
00:37:59
didn't you do it you son of a [ __ ]
00:38:01
after her arrest marianne discovered
00:38:04
through her attorney that william had an
00:38:05
extensive criminal record
00:38:08
the judge ordered william and marianne's
00:38:10
cases to be tried separately
00:38:12
in 1979 in a trial heard only by a judge
00:38:15
marianne was found guilty of
00:38:17
first-degree murder robbery
00:38:19
and grand theft auto i was sentenced to
00:38:22
seven years to life
00:38:26
in a separate trial william did not
00:38:27
contest the charges against him
00:38:29
and was convicted of first-degree murder
00:38:31
and robbery he was also sentenced to
00:38:33
seven years to life
00:38:34
and sent to a maximum-security prison in
00:38:37
california
00:38:39
marianne was convicted of what amounts
00:38:41
to felony murder
00:38:42
because she participated in a robbery
00:38:47
in california if you are a participant
00:38:50
in a felony
00:38:51
crime where anyone is killed
00:38:55
you are as responsible for that murder
00:38:58
as
00:38:58
the person who actually did the shooting
00:39:00
the judge convicted me but he stated
00:39:02
it's not because i think he pulled the
00:39:03
trigger i don't believe you did
00:39:05
but you were there and you did nothing
00:39:06
about it
00:39:08
marianne was sent to a medium security
00:39:10
facility in california to serve her time
00:39:13
meanwhile the murder of lawrence hasker
00:39:15
in hawaii still remained unsolved
00:39:17
after marianne had been in prison for
00:39:19
less than two months marianne's husband
00:39:21
william acker also in prison in
00:39:23
california
00:39:24
asked to speak with the authorities at
00:39:26
one point he
00:39:28
sits down with the detective here in los
00:39:31
angeles and says oh by the way
00:39:34
there is a homicide in hawaii that i
00:39:37
know about
00:39:37
he proceeds to tell the detective in los
00:39:40
angeles that
00:39:41
marianne was the shooter in hawaii the
00:39:43
investigation was a joint effort between
00:39:45
the local police force honolulu police
00:39:48
department
00:39:48
and the los angeles county sheriff's
00:39:50
department william had struck a plea
00:39:52
agreement
00:39:53
he would plead guilty to the robbery of
00:39:55
lawrence hasker but the murder charges
00:39:56
would be dropped in exchange for his
00:39:58
testimony against marianne
00:40:06
linda spaulding was a juror in the
00:40:07
second trial when marianne came to the
00:40:10
stand
00:40:10
she sat there in a slight sort of daze
00:40:12
she was so frightened
00:40:14
or so repressed
00:40:18
that she didn't leave much of an
00:40:19
impression
00:40:21
on the jury the only evidence that they
00:40:24
had
00:40:25
was acker's statements that she
00:40:28
had shot and killed the hasker
00:40:31
in hawaii they gave him a polygraph
00:40:35
test concerning his statements about
00:40:38
marianne
00:40:39
he failed but the polygraph test was not
00:40:42
admissible in court
00:40:44
the prosecution presented their case
00:40:47
jamsu to the prosecutor
00:40:48
argued throughout the trial that
00:40:51
marianne was in control of william
00:40:53
that she told him what to do
00:40:56
the defense argued that william
00:40:58
threatened marianne and forced her to
00:41:00
participate in the crimes
00:41:02
our defense was to show that william was
00:41:05
not a credible witness
00:41:07
they had reason to lie during the trial
00:41:10
the physical evidence did not support
00:41:11
williams
00:41:12
version of what occurred at the murder
00:41:14
scene when william was on the stand
00:41:17
he he was he was incredibly sort of
00:41:20
charismatic and very
00:41:21
cocky and he did change his story a bit
00:41:24
but it was always
00:41:25
always that marianne had shot larry
00:41:27
hasker at hanauma bay
00:41:31
the trial concluded after three weeks of
00:41:33
testimony
00:41:34
deliberating for less than two hours
00:41:36
marianne's fate
00:41:37
was in the hands of the jury
00:41:46
what i got second and third hand was
00:41:48
that the jury was looking at
00:41:50
the fact that she was present she was a
00:41:54
participant
00:41:55
in at least the robberies and therefore
00:41:57
with regard to the murder
00:41:59
that she necessarily had to be punished
00:42:02
for it
00:42:03
i thought that the evidence
00:42:06
did not support the conviction of murder
00:42:09
marion acker committed these crimes in
00:42:11
conjunction with her then husband
00:42:12
william acker
00:42:13
she was responsible for the murder of mr
00:42:15
haskett the prosecutor didn't
00:42:17
really care i believe who did the murder
00:42:20
as long as they got a conviction
00:42:22
marianne was given 30 years to life for
00:42:24
the murder of lawrence hasker
00:42:25
william was sentenced to 20 years
00:42:28
marianne is serving
00:42:30
concurrent life sentences she was
00:42:32
returned to california and has been
00:42:34
serving
00:42:35
those two sentences here in california
00:42:37
since
00:42:38
um 1979. when i first arrived here it
00:42:42
was
00:42:43
it was rather difficult to adjust i was
00:42:45
young i was still a teenager
00:42:47
i needed to learn and grow up
00:42:50
and deal with what i had done what i had
00:42:53
been through
00:42:54
over time marianne has adjusted to
00:42:57
prison life
00:42:58
i just completed a correspondence course
00:43:00
on veterinary assistance
00:43:02
we have a prison puppy program here i'm
00:43:05
a
00:43:06
primary trainer it helps me overcome so
00:43:09
much with
00:43:09
working with the dogs we train them to
00:43:11
be service dogs for handicapped people
00:43:14
and that gives me something bigger than
00:43:16
all my stuff
00:43:18
it still is one thing that's very hard
00:43:20
for me to deal with the devastation that
00:43:22
i caused
00:43:23
to so many people to my family to the
00:43:27
families of these young men
00:43:29
so many people suffered behind this
00:43:33
in 2005 marianne acker's murder charge
00:43:36
in hawaii was overturned
00:43:37
but later that year hawaii's district
00:43:40
attorney's office decided to retry her
00:43:42
marianne is currently waiting to begin
00:43:44
her new trial in hawaii
00:43:46
william remains in prison in california
00:43:48
[Music]
00:43:51
my hopes for my future are really simple
00:43:55
life after prison
00:43:58
i want to be reunited with the family
00:44:00
that i do have
00:44:01
i want to get a job i want simple things
00:44:04
and mainly just make a life for myself
