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beer run you do the same thing bwe Double R you win beer run and that's enough the B is me all right everybody
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gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] let's take a few minutes to talk about
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these poor little girls Denise Milner was 10 years old and the only African-American girl at Camp Scott
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she originally was excited to go to camp and sold a lot of cookies to help raise
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money but became nervous just before leaving a counselor that rode the bus to Camp
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with her said that she was very quiet and her mother asked if Denise could be allowed to call home the next day since
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she was very hesitant to go once she got to Camp Scott we know Denise was homesick Denise's father was
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a Tulsa police officer Denise was involved in a lot of activities including tap dancing singing and
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gymnastics Betty Milner her mother related what happened to her when she found out when
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her daughter was dead saying they told me Denise is dead she and two other girls I asked if it
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was an accident adding I could accept an accident then they told me she had been beaten to
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death Betty was the one that urged her daughter to go to Camp that's probably something that weighs on her pretty
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heavily Lori farmer was very mature for her age the blonde-haired brown-eyed little girl skipped a grade because she
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was so advanced Lori was just eight years old but her birthday was in June and her parents
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Beau and Sherry plan to visit their daughter at camp on her special day Sherry farmer said her husband Beau
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arrived back from his overnight shift at a hospital said he looked awful ghost white then
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she noticed he wasn't alone with him was his colleague Dr Anderson Anderson spoke first he said Sherry you
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need to sit down and I said no I'm not going to sit he said Lori is dead where do you put that in your brain there is
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no place to put that she said Sherry has been haunted by her daughter's final moments in the presence
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of one or more killers Lori's led her home written that night reads quote I've met two new friends I'm sharing a tent
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with them we're sleeping on cots I couldn't wait to write love Lori since her daughter's death Sherry farmer
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has taken up the cause of victims rights over the past four decades she has met spoken to and counseled thousands of
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people in classes seminars and one-on-one together with her husband farmer also started a parents of murder
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children's chapter in Oklahoma farmer said quote if you have something bad happen ask yourself how can this
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help anybody else yeah they constantly say when you feel bad about your situation then give service to others
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and through that you'll feel positivity Michelle gussay was nine years old when she left for Camp Scott which she
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attended and loved the previous Summer she was also into soccer she left explicit instructions to her parents to
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water her plants while she was gone her parents said that they were told that their daughter had been killed but they
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learned of actual circumstances of her death from the TV news after Michelle's death her father threw himself into
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victims rights efforts in Oklahoma becoming a leading voice and volunteer of the crime victim and witness Bill of
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Rights a package of laws adopted by State Legislature from there gussay was appointed by the governor to the crime
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victim's compensation board which was created in that effort he said quote this is my commitment to
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our situation gussay said in 1994 after 13 years of never missing a board meeting
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stated because of my daughter maybe the world will be a little better place to be hopefully some good is coming out of
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this on June 23rd 1977 10 days after the murders Mays County district attorney Sid wise called a news conference a
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suspect he said was being charged with the murders this is a 33 year old Jean Leroy Hart a
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Locust Grove native and Cherokee Indian Hart was already familiar to authorities
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a convicted rapist and burglar he was a two-time prison escapee and was on the run for four years since his second
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escape from the mays County Jail in 1973. well it doesn't seem like he was so much on the run but when he got out
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he was kind of protected by the reservations well his his previous convictions uh they the sentences for which totaled
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more than 300 plus years yeah he was now facing three first-degree murder charges
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wise announced wise said that items found in a cave close to Camp Scott were connected to Hart who was believed to be
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hiding in the area well yeah Hart's mother lived roughly a mile from the campground but there was also a cave
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that they believed that heart was staying in yeah wise added that the heart had the advantage in eluding law
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enforcement and that he was an expert Woodsman and had many family members living in the area and so the Manhunt
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that would go down as the largest in State history began the hunt for heart Fanning out for Miles through tick and
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snake infested Hill Country and involved a 600 person Army of Searchers and dogs
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and aircraft well they had to do is start sniffing to see if they could smell that piece of
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[ __ ] a physical description of Gene Hart began to appear daily in media reports
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he's five foot ten inches tall weighs about 220 pounds black hair brown eyes smells like Duke in the days after the
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heart was a suspect announcement the atmosphere was emotionally charged with hundreds of volunteers getting into
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fights and showing up armed and or drunk American Indian movement the aim officials came in to make sure people
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didn't start just quote shooting Indians the Oklahoma highway patrol special weapons and tactics team got involved
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and by June 29th 40 FBI agents had arrived despite Hart being a convicted double rapist many in Mays County
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doubted Hearts guilt he was seen by many as a scapegoat for the white establishment a quote handy suspect yeah
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well this is [ __ ] anyways because he escaped from prison he raped and tortured women before
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then his community the Indian Community claimed that well he actually didn't rape them and didn't torture them that
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that they were trying to escape from their husbands Hart's mother told reporters quote my boy didn't do it and
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Sheriff Weaver wants to frame him because he don't like Indians the idea that Hart was being targeted
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because he was an Indian struck a chord with many in the area which had a large American Indian population
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when Hart was charged in the killings his friends and relatives believing he was innocent closed ranks around him
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according to someone cry for the children Hart had 250 relatives living within a half mile square area and they
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were more than willing to help him other sympathizers agreed that sheriff Weaver
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had a personal grudge against heart but they thought it was because Hart had escaped twice from his jail
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those escapes former journalist Mike wheat believes had helped create an aura of mystery about heart quote he had
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become this folklorish kind of character a local Legend said wheat heart seemed to be able to appear and disappear at
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will wheat said well and I'm sure look I'm sure in that area and in that time there's plenty of crimes that were not
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committed by an Indian the Indian person did the time for that crime I'm sure there was some kind of racial bias there
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um but this guy because of being able to escape from prison he seemed to become a
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legend people seem to actually believe that Hart was capable of shape-shifting according to Legend and ability that
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some Cherokees may have I have that ability this some believed is how he escaped prison twice and continued to
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elude capture heart was also a local football star he had excelled in high school and was considered to be of NFL
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caliber somehow he took on the reputation of a hero which did not help investigators trying to get people to
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turn him in so through the summer of 1977 agents used tracking dogs ground Searchers and
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aerial heat-seeking equipment to hunt for heart it's like they were chasing a ghost or
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like Bigfoot one of the agents Harvey Pratt a Cheyenne Arapaho was a firm believer in American Indian mysticism
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someone cry for the children quotes Pratt is saying quote the Indians in this part of Oklahoma believe that
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medicine men have medicine so strong that they can change themselves into birds or animals or give someone else
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this power yes to the shape-shifting or or Skin Walkers as they may be called right so when Hart was in prison
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you know being a piece of [ __ ] for them being in jail for the the the rapes he
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turned he shape-shifted into diarrhea and he slid right through those bars well all of this just simply added to
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the Mystique about art and there were rumors that he was under the protection of tribal medicine men
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this explained not only his elusiveness many believe but other strange happenings in and around the Manhunt
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like the deaths of two of the law enforcement tracking dogs they were said to have been cursed by
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someone authorities or they put out poison for the dogs well the authorities became
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desperate and on its front page August 3rd 1977 the Tulsa World addressed an open letter to Heart urging him to
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surrender the letter included the governor's personal guarantee ensuring heart security and a fair trial but this
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did not work so let's talk about what led law enforcement to Heart you've already
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brought up his previous convictions so we have Sheriff Weaver and we also have agent Linville they stated that within
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hours of the murders at Camp Scott authorities were making a list of people they thought could have done this people
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whose Mo was similar Gene Hart's name was on this list his Mo in his previous crime had some
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similarities particularly the chord and tape method of binding multiple young victims
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locals were likely right that Weaver did have a grudge against Hart he had been able to elude Authority since his second
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escape from Weaver's jail 1973. there are local rumors also that Weaver had personal reasons to hate heart
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something about a woman I've gone through all those rumors they all go back to some kind of relationship with
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with a woman I'm unclear of the details of such was it a woman Bigfoot what we do know is that authorities
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investigating the murders checked with Mental Hospitals and prisons in the area for a list of outpatients and Parolees
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with histories of sex offenses on that list would have appeared Jean Leroy Hart's name as he had escaped the
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convicted rapist and fugitive whose mother lived less than half a mile from Camp Scott at the time of the murders of
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course investigators checked out other potential suspects in those early days they spoke with one guy who was living
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in his car in the area but for whatever reason they dismissed him they spoke with
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and I don't know if this is his real name but this is the name given okay with a man named Mike
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a camper seen in the area who was caught stealing a hatchet and supplies from the
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boy scout camp the week before the murders a Native American hitchhiker was arrested as well and was released after
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questioning so they did look at some other individuals now three days after the murders two squirrel Hunters found a
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flower sack with some fresh human excrement with wadded up newspaper in front of a cave three miles Southwest of
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Camp Scott there were lots of footprints going in and out of the cave one of the hunters got the Eerie feeling
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that they were being watched at this time so rather than enter the Cave the hunters contacted the highway patrol
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inside the cave and near the ruins of a Cellar and Foundation nearby investigators found two tattered
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photographs of women a roll of masking tape and a piece of plastic garbage bag stuck to it two pieces of newspaper one
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pair of broken sunglasses and a beige vinyl case a pair of gloves a broken slingshot and some women's underwear the
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newspaper was the April 17th edition of Tulsa World the same Edition in section as the one inside the flashlight at the
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murder scene Susan Emery the Kiowa counselor identified the sunglasses and the case
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as hers the cave was located a hundred feet from the ruined Cellar and Foundation of Gene
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Hart's childhood home tracking dogs from Camp Scott had also alerted to an area near a second cave this is two miles
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from Camp Scott and overlooking the home of Hart's Mother where a farmer had reported seeing someone who looked like
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heart a week after the murders now did we did I hear this correctly that there was
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there's some dookie and by the newspaper yeah in in a flower bag I believe did they test this dookie
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I'm being serious four well wouldn't they be able to tell you what kind of dookie it is is it human
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dookie is it is it dog dookie um well the reports are that it was human okay but now could they link this
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to Heart I could they say that it was this piece of shit's piece of [ __ ] I don't know
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look I went to school for computer so I don't know how they would link that to her and all that reading that you've
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been doing wouldn't you be able to find out through all that reading if you could link [ __ ]
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to [ __ ] well I'm questioning what test would be available to do so in 1977. the
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whole [ __ ] test well maybe back in 1977 they didn't have tests but poop is Rich
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with DNA so they should be able to test that to see if at least that matches heart and then we'd know that heart was
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used in that cave well it was at this cave that investigators found a boot print that matched the boot print intent
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number eight and a hair attached to a bandage that was found to have the same microscopic characteristics as hearts
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and a third cave was found one mile from the camp this is on Jack schroff's property cops were led to this cave by a
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young Jail inmate Darren Creekmore who told authorities he met with heart at this cave after the murders in this cave
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written on the wall were the words the killer was here bye-bye fools 77-6-17 investigators arranged to have the
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photos found near the first cave to be published in the local papers seeking information on the subjects and locals
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quickly identified them as two women who had attended a wedding in 1969. investigators traced the photographs to
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Louis Lindsay who had worked at a prison Lindsay moonlighted as a photographer and developed his pictures in the
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prison's dark room he shot the 1969 wedding of prison workers daughters and used a man named Jean Leroy Hart as his
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assistant in the prison dark room processing these photos Hart could easily have printed extra copies and
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kept two for himself without anyone knowing the evidence against heart is starting
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to pile up so who is Gene Hart was a Cherokee indian-born November 27 1943 in Claremore Oklahoma he was raised
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by his mother and barely knew his father he was a c average student in school but
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it excelled in sports and was considered a local football hero he married young and his wife soon had a child they later
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divorced and she refused to let him see his offspring in 1966 Hart was working for a Tulsa
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Steel company that is when he raped the two women the victims Joan and Barbara were both 19 married and pregnant
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they were best friends since junior high school as they were leaving a Tulsa Club
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one night a large Indian man according to an account of the crime and someone cried for the children pushed his way
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inside their car brandishing a revolver he locked one of the girls in the trunk which he had lined with newspaper while
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he raped the other in the back seat making strange animal like grunting or moaning sounds the girl in the trunk had
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to listen to the whole thing Hart then drove some distance and duct taped the girl's noses mouths and eyes
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and led them into the woods where he raped and sodomized each of them while the other listened petrified he left
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them hogtied in the fetal position just like Michelle gussay with nooses around their necks that tightened if they tried
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to free themselves so clearly intending for them to die despite choking nearly to death one of the women managed to
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free herself and then her friend they stumbled to the highway and waved down a car one of the women saw the rapist
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license plate number and both women identified this person as Jean Leroy Hart the evidence against him combined with
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the identification of both victims LED Jean Hart to plead guilty to two charges of kidnapping and one charge of
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first-degree rape he was sentenced to a very light three ten-year terms served concurrently and he was paroled after
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serving just 28 months this was in March of 1969. one of the rape victims told police Hart tried on her glasses he wore
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them while he was driving and he kept them Hart was soon arrested again in June 1969 after attempting to burgle the
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home of a female police officer who awoke to find him entering her apartment cops pinned three other burglaries on
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him as well Hart refused to take a plea deal and in 1970 he got a stiff sentence
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of 305 years in prison so it's nice to find out that the burglaries not the rapes of two pregnant women were what
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got him this basically this life sentence he escaped from the county jail in May
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of 1972 jumping off the roof he was recaptured 11 days later and was assigned to the State Penitentiary
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in April 1973 Hart was transferred back to the county jail in September 1973 he escaped again hacksawing his way out
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with a saw supplied by a friend accompanied by two inmates Hart was still at large when the Girl Scout
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murders occurred four years later investigators spent long nights in the woods as they continued surveillance on
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places they thought Hart might be hiding finally they got a Break by late September 1977 reward money gathered
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from various sources had grown to more than twenty thousand dollars and that was enough for one informant to offer
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police help in finding heart this from the Tulsa World newspaper quote the informant told authorities that Hart's
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brother-in-law was plotting to drive heart to the Cherokee reservation in North Carolina
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so the OSBI put a tracking device on the brother-in-law's car the agent's plan was thwarted when heart supporter who
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worked at the police headquarters snitched and told Hart's family about the bug but eventually the OSBI
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informant learned Hart was staying with an old man in a tar paper Shack in the cookson Hills
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on April 6 1978 OSBI agents closed in and took Heart by surprise without a single shot being fired
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The Manhunt lasted 10 months consumed more than 10 000 man hours and cost the taxpayers two million dollars it's worth
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noting that when heart was captured he was wearing shorts a tank top and women's glasses once heart was captured
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and trial loomed Indian activists spoke up for heart his supporters sponsored benefits to raise money for his defense
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their vehicle sported bumper stickers that read quote the heart of Gene country the American Indian movement sent
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representatives to Oklahoma to monitor the situation in the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council voted to donate twelve
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thousand five hundred dollars for heart's defense supporters wore t-shirts with slogans like stop the mays County
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Railroad right right because this guy is completely innocent of everything yes hinting that heart was being railroaded
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and set up for an unfair trial [Music] all right cheers mates cheers Captain all right let's dive into the evidence
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that they have against heart well there was an overwhelming amount of circumstantial evidence linking heart to
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the murders so let's review this first what links him to the deaths of Michelle Lori and
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Denise Hart was an escaped rapist whose Mo seemed similar he targeted multiple young vulnerable victims at once
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he came prepared to the scene with materials to bind and gag his victims and he used both rope and duct tape to
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do so hog tying them with a with strangulation forms he also had the ability to rape multiple times in quick
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succession the evidence found in the caves was linked to Heart the photos from the
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prison wedding he developed a roll of duct tape that matched tape found at the scene of the murders a roll of masking
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tape with a piece of plastic attached to it that had the end of the tape torn exactly matching the tape used to cover
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the lens of the flashlight the plastic also matched Hearts co-escape e Larry dry testified
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at trial that he and Hart had used the cave while living on the lamb and we know it was right next to Hart's
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childhood home and then the newspaper found in the flashlight the writing on the wall taunting the police the
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sunglasses belonging to Susan Emery the nine Diamond glasses yes the nine volt flashlight they had been modified to
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emit only a thin beam of light we also have an associate of hearts that testified at trial that heart had been
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known to modify flashlights in this manner in his burglaries for furthermore the newspaper at the cave was the same
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addition and section as found inside the flashlight heart was described by an associate as
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quote night blind and he notoriously stole glasses wherever he went Larry dry testified that Hart stole glasses from
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homes he burglarized the killer that night stole and discarded several pairs of glasses from Camp Scott and kept at
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least two pair that we know of two pieces of evidence found at the shack owned by Sam pigeon where heart
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was apprehended were found to have been stolen from counselor and training Karen
00:27:11
Mitchell at Camp Scott this was a souvenir corn cob pipe and a small blue hand mirror was he building a snowman
00:27:19
well with all the stuff you were talking about earlier I think he was building a
00:27:25
[ __ ] man but these items the tricky thing about these items Captain they were found only upon a second search of
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the shack right and some lead this leads some people to believe that these were planted pieces of evidence and that's
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what his defense attorneys at trial would point out you know that these they actually straight up said these were
00:27:46
planted desperately by the sheriff to frame heart testimony at the preliminary hearing and
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or trial by people who knew heart tended to implicate him in the murders Larry dry testified to Hart's penchant for
00:28:01
young girls and Jimmy Don Bunch testified that he was in prison with heart after the
00:28:07
murders and Hart told him that he was stoned and was drinking wine for three days when he woke up in the cave all
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bloodied and he was not sure whether he had killed those girls or not all right so this jailhouse informant slash
00:28:23
jailhouse snitch is telling us that heart got boozed up which it happens for days
00:28:31
it happens it's been known to happen it's called binge-worthy so he gets all boozed up he wakes up in
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this cave he's covered in blood doesn't know what he did but again this is kind of you know I don't like these
00:28:49
um to me this is not evidence this to me this is less than hearsay right and because it's a jailhouse snitch
00:28:57
Larry dry testified that he and Hart broke into Camp Scott more than once when it was empty to steal food so as we
00:29:06
all suspected heart was clearly familiar with the camp so let's talk about physical evidence
00:29:12
shall we we shall well first off we have speculated about some different weapons
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and some things found but technically as far as this case goes and as far as what
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is on record there is no weapon no murder weapon that was found and we also have no fingerprints were
00:29:31
found that they could link to Heart there was a single hair on Denise Milner's body that forensic experts who
00:29:38
analyzed it and testified stated it quote microscopically was similar to that of Hearts right similar but not
00:29:47
100 percent positive it was Hearts correct and we've learned things within the past 15 years that will suggest that
00:29:55
it's very difficult to say this is a 100 match when you're comparing you know hairs found at a scene and Harris
00:30:03
founded at another location and the other thing too regarding the sexual assaults on the victims
00:30:11
the evidence Left Behind was complicated here's how it was explained by ay magazine quote seminal fluid obtained
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from the victim's bodies presented a conundrum sperm was present yeah but heart had a vasectomy earlier so they
00:30:27
claimed that he couldn't actually produce sperm correct the prosecution argued that Hart's vasectomy was only
00:30:34
partially successful Consulting Physicians said such cases could result in non-productive deformed
00:30:42
sperm Hart had type O blood as does 45 of the population he was a secretor like 80
00:30:51
percent of the population the semen sample from the victims was from a non-white male who was a
00:30:58
secreter with blood type O and it contained deformed sperm the number of people in the United States who met all
00:31:06
of that criteria represented .002 percent of the population the osbi's website States the deformed sperm
00:31:15
seemed to match a sample from Gene Hart it's also worth noting though that the Oklahoma State pathologist who performed
00:31:23
the autopsies Dr Neil Hoffman claimed not to have found sperm however the OSBI conducted its own
00:31:31
investigations and they claim sperm was present and it was the same from each of the victims so
00:31:38
simply meaning if the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is correct in their stated findings there was only one
00:31:47
rapist who left deposits and their analysis of physical evidence including sperm samples and other bodily fluids
00:31:54
revealed that only .002 percent of the population met the unique characteristics contained in that
00:32:03
evidence this is obviously a very very small percentage of population but it does include Gene Hart right
00:32:12
.002 that's very very small percent what about the evidence it tended to show that it wasn't hard
00:32:20
we have the boot print which appeared to some people to be smaller than a size 11
00:32:25
and a half the size Hearts lawyer maintained that he wore yeah there's a bunch of conflicting stories about this
00:32:32
I've heard as small as nine and a half shoe size the second shoe print was smaller it was the sneaker print and
00:32:40
this was believed to be around size seven this obviously also does not fit Hearts size of 11 and a half
00:32:48
the flashlight contained one fingerprint and that was not hearts but but again the flashlight we believe was stolen
00:32:57
from the farm no we have the farm owner who says he could not identify the flashlight that doesn't mean that it
00:33:03
didn't come from his rather large property right however I think that one thing we can think about here is we know
00:33:10
that Hart was known to burglarize many properties right so it could have been stolen from anywhere anywhere and that
00:33:17
fingerprint doesn't mean that that has to match the killer right or it could match the killer that's the that's the
00:33:25
problem with this flashlight here so the other thing too though is why weren't Hart's fingerprints found on anything
00:33:32
they weren't found on anything in the caves they weren't found on the flashlight they weren't found on the
00:33:38
duct tape if investigators found Fingerprints of hearts at the murder scene or maybe even
00:33:45
in the caves their case would have been a lot stronger so some more information came to light
00:33:52
in the course of the two trials in this case one was a Civil Trial and one was Criminal
00:33:58
a month or two after the murders a camp counselor named Michelle Hoffman contacted Barbara day and told her a
00:34:05
disturbing story this occurred in April of 1977. the counselors had returned to their tent to find it ransacked with
00:34:16
their things scattered and some money missing a box of donuts had been emptied and a note left Inside the Box a
00:34:24
counselor read the note remarked how creepy it was and threw it away so now she told Barbara day that the note said
00:34:32
something along the lines of four girls will be killed or we are on a mission to
00:34:38
kill three girls so we don't know or don't have any evidence at all about this note because remember it was thrown
00:34:46
away they didn't report it to the higher ups at the time later stating that they believed that it
00:34:52
was just a prank so they dismissed it only after the murders did Michelle tell Barbara about it but because of its
00:35:00
seeming foreshadowing this note has taken on almost mythical proportions well they should have reported it
00:35:07
because I mean frankly it's bad enough that you leave that creepy note but once you steal Donuts you cross the line well
00:35:15
the thing too though that we got to keep in mind no one can really even prove that this note ever existed
00:35:22
and if it did no one can recall the exact wording on the note or even the number of girls that it threatened right
00:35:29
but my point is if you can prove that there was donuts and you can prove that there's some missing you can prove that
00:35:35
there's a monster out there I think given this situation I think it would be incredibly unlikely that the killer
00:35:42
would have left a warning note you know months in advance before killing these girls
00:35:49
My Only thing would be if you look at somebody like Hart that has done heinous crimes before maybe he has a
00:35:58
wrestling you know wrestles with not wanting to commit the crime and by maybe somehow when he went to uh still
00:36:06
something that he decided to leave a note to maybe stop himself if he's hiding in the area and has been for
00:36:13
quite some time and he's on the run from the police I feel like it would be I feel like it would be kind of a big
00:36:21
hay here here's somebody you should be looking for let's look around this area for what's going on so do you think the
00:36:27
note is this a [ __ ] story and maybe it's just to add to the urban legend of the whole thing I don't want to call any
00:36:34
of these people out because I I firmly believe that anybody at the camp that day that night is probably traumatized
00:36:42
in some form from this whole horrible horrific scene and tragedies I mean but take take example of your counselor and
00:36:53
you see some kind of glowing light a flashlight in the distance in the woods and you're Char and you're tracking it
00:37:01
and then it disappears at some point you're gonna go I wish I would have checked that out further
00:37:07
but also maybe if you're the one that checks that out further you become a victim so there'd be a lot of scenarios
00:37:15
that are probably playing through these Camp counselors Minds the parents Minds the other the campers minds of what
00:37:23
could have happened what should have happened and maybe what they could have done to stop it well as you can see
00:37:30
already in this case to really tear through it you have to have a lot of different boxes a lot of
00:37:37
different compartments to put all of this information and the whole story about this note
00:37:43
being left threatening the lives of some girls I'm going to kind of put that in the box the same boxes
00:37:51
Gene Hart was a shape-shifter box right Bigfoot the murder trial began on March 25th 1977 after a month-long preliminary
00:38:01
hearing the longest in State history the trial was held on the third floor courtroom of the Mayes County Courthouse
00:38:08
in Prior with judge William J Ressler presiding special prosecutor buddy follis Jr and
00:38:15
chief prosecutor Ron Shafer were appointed to assist district attorney Sid wise who later had to withdraw
00:38:23
because of his alleged intention to profit from a book about the case apparently he agreed to furnish a
00:38:31
journalist with confidential information in return for part of the prophets the prosecution requested and was denied
00:38:39
a change of venue they were arguing that it was too much there was too many people in the public that were in favor
00:38:46
of heart that didn't believe that he was guilty too many supporters Garvin Isaac's a former public defender from
00:38:54
Oklahoma City was hired to defend Hart this was after the Unexplained departure of Hart's first attorney Larry Oliver
00:39:01
both baffles me you know I know you're on a roll right now but it still baffles me that Hart played pled guilty
00:39:10
to the charges that he was faced with before these three murders he pled guilty to raping and the murders of
00:39:19
those women right and and it still seems like the community around him is like yeah he was
00:39:26
lying about that yeah you know I mean like it's almost like they dismissed that that ever
00:39:32
happened well and here's the thing too you have to wonder had he not pled guilty what evidence they could have
00:39:38
shown at that trial because there would have been a trial what evidence they could have shown at that trial may have
00:39:44
changed the whole Public's perception of this guy yeah but because because he pled guilty
00:39:51
he avoided a trial now we talked about his first attorney in this trial who he had this unexplained departure uh
00:39:59
from The Trial Larry Oliver years later Oliver went on to say that he felt heart could have done it and
00:40:06
that's why he didn't represent him he said that he felt that Hart had a quote dark side
00:40:12
jury selection question 110 jurors that eventually led to six men and six women that were impaneled not a single jury
00:40:22
member was Native American but heart had the unwavering support of many in the community
00:40:30
in a sad note one of the victim's parents remarked that when they entered the courtroom
00:40:36
they felt that they were seen as the enemy media from all over the country flocked to the courthouse to attend the
00:40:42
trial and the atmosphere was described as a circus with Spectators lining up hours in advance to get seats Native
00:40:50
American activists attending and Community supporters voicing their opinions throughout the trial was
00:40:57
Sensational punctuated from start to finish without burst both attorneys were free object yeah both attorneys were
00:41:05
frequently called to the bench for reprimands as tempers flared and verbal Jabs were traded
00:41:11
at one point Schaefer the prosecutor even challenged Isaacs to go outside preferred to arm wrestle during closing
00:41:20
arguments by the defense the audience would often applaud or holler the judge was forced to clear the courtroom more
00:41:27
than once during the trial we won't go into the whole trial here as we've already discussed evidence against heart
00:41:36
but the state called 32 Witnesses and what we didn't mention fully is Larry dry the convict and former
00:41:44
co-escapee of Hearts testified that he and Hart hid out in the caves where evidence linked to the murders was found
00:41:52
right he also said he received three threatening letters from an unknown person who he assumed to be heart saying
00:42:00
that if dry told anyone where heart might be hiding out his wife and daughter were in danger
00:42:08
counselor Celia Stahl testified that two Girl Scouts were scared when quote two mysterious men were near their tent
00:42:16
sometime around the time of the murders and Richard day testified that he saw a tall stranger near the creek the day
00:42:24
before the murders Hart maintained his innocence throughout the trial he stated in one press conference he
00:42:31
gave before the trial that at the time of the murders he was in Tulsa at his uncle's house
00:42:37
the uncle conveniently died during The Manhunt and couldn't testify at the trial nevertheless even without an alibi
00:42:45
the defense went on the attack and effectively undermined much of the prosecution's case
00:42:51
its Witnesses testified that the hair and sperm evidence was not conclusive it claimed evidence was planted the
00:42:58
mirror and the pipe the photographs found near the cave which had supposedly been seen in Sheriff Weaver's possession
00:43:05
before they were found it claimed a homosexual female counselor could have killed the girls it even
00:43:13
presented an alternative theory that another man had committed these murders and although a witness who testified
00:43:20
implicating this other man was eventually charged with perjury the damage seemed to have been done the
00:43:27
defense rested without heart taking the stand ten days after opening arguments the jury began their deliberations
00:43:36
they retired for the night without a verdict and was ready within 30 minutes of convening the next morning wow March
00:43:44
29 1979 they were ready with their decision a unanimous verdict of not guilty was
00:43:51
their decision the courtroom erupted with cheers jury remarks about their findings included quote A Reasonable
00:43:58
Doubt and evidence wasn't there and the investigation was a screwed up mess although some jurors
00:44:07
indicated that they didn't necessarily believe heart was totally innocent one juror told the Tulsa World that all 12
00:44:15
had agreed after only five minutes of deliberation that heart should be found not guilty
00:44:21
it wasn't any one thing they stated there were too many Loose Ends too many things didn't add up
00:44:28
in an Associated Press interview a year later they quoted in the Tulsa World juror
00:44:35
Leela Ramsey said none of us knew whether he did it or did not do it we were shocked that they didn't have more
00:44:43
evidence than what they had or maybe as buddy phallus suggested post-trial it was the fact that Hart was
00:44:50
headed back to prison anyway to serve a 300 year sentence which wasn't admissible but which the defense let
00:44:58
slip in front of the jury wow what a party Foul so the jury knew it could acquit and heart if in fact he had done
00:45:07
it he still wasn't going free so it arguably didn't matter what the jury said prosecutors cried shocked and left in
00:45:17
disbelief at the verdict they felt they had their man right and they thought that they proved his guilt 20 years
00:45:23
later when the O.J verdict came down two of the murder victims mothers said of Hearts trial and that of O.J Simpson's
00:45:31
trial you would be absolutely shocked at how many similarities there were in those two cases Sherry farmer told an
00:45:39
interviewer the alleged planting of evidence the race card all of that was played Betty Milner said watching the
00:45:47
O.J Simpson trial was like it was happening to us all over again Simpson's attorney as we all know the late Johnny
00:45:54
Cochran he talked about a bloody glove when he said if it doesn't fit you must acquit Garvin Isaacs foreshadowed this
00:46:02
20 years earlier referencing the bloody boot print that was allegedly not heart's size saying quote you can't
00:46:10
shrink your foot right according to reports the the heart jury was not allowed to hear evidence regarding
00:46:17
Hart's previous rapes prosecutors and law enforcement who carefully pulled together the case
00:46:23
against heart weren't able to recover from what they called a gross miscarriage of Justice yeah but the the
00:46:30
difference in this case is it look O.J when he was found not guilty he walked free
00:46:37
in this case when heart was found not guilty he was going to spend over 300 years in prison
00:46:45
right so there's there's a big difference there and you can't tell me that the defense didn't let that slip on
00:46:51
purpose you know the the jury was not supposed to know that because remember they prosecution was not allowed to
00:46:57
present his previous crimes of these rapes that he had committed well and think of it this way though the jury
00:47:03
took 30 minutes right 30 minutes the the second day right but my point is by that
00:47:10
second day somebody could have said hey look go home and sleep on it tonight but
00:47:14
it doesn't matter if he's found innocent or guilty he's going away uh to prison for over 300 years
00:47:22
if you think in those terms then then what does it matter if you rule him guilty or not right and I I think that's
00:47:32
the big argument that's presented here because you have this this simple fact okay
00:47:38
I'm asked as a juror to determine Beyond Reasonable Doubt you know that this guy killed these
00:47:46
three girls well they didn't really prove their case Beyond A Reasonable Doubt I I think it
00:47:53
was a bit stacked against them that they didn't have the technology at the time possibly right we'll get into some other
00:47:59
alternative theories here later but this simple situation of well I have this little part of me that says he he
00:48:08
might not have done this okay well if we say that he's innocent all right all right if we say he's guilty okay he's
00:48:16
he's going to serve life sentences right he's already facing a life sentence if we say he's guilty and he actually
00:48:25
didn't do it then the real killer or killers are getting away with murder they will never be apprehended likely
00:48:32
for this case but if we say he's innocent we got nothing to lose other than we can't try him again right he's already
00:48:41
going away in the 18 months following the verdict 22 OSBI agents quit they quit their job
00:48:49
Ted Lemke OSBI and inspector he unprofessionally let's say commented publicly that there would be no further
00:48:58
investigation and they might as well close the case because the jury quote turned loose the man who committed the
00:49:05
murders interestingly after the trial the parents will return the items of clothing
00:49:12
from their dead children what they were wearing that fateful night this a clear indication that the
00:49:18
investigation was effectively over right so the devastated parents looked for other ways to obtain Justice for their
00:49:26
daughters in 1985 the farmers and milners filed civil lawsuits against the magic Council claiming its negligence
00:49:35
was partly responsible for the deaths of their daughters and seeking a 5 million
00:49:40
dollar judgment at the Civil Trial testimony from former campers and counselors included Tales of
00:49:47
thefts break-ins and strange happenings in the years and even weeks and days preceding the murders a story came out
00:49:54
that in 1976 three moms visiting the camp were asleep when a man looked into their tent the story about the warning
00:50:03
note in the donut box was addressed testimony was heard that on the night of the murder screams were heard in the
00:50:10
night tents were opened by strange men or a strange man and there were multiple sightings of a strange man or strange
00:50:18
man in the woods and girls were grabbed but in the end the jury ruled in favor of the council so once again the parents
00:50:27
were left with no closure foreign for all of our old episodes download the Stitcher app and it's free and check out
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00:51:06
in the garage here today we'll be back for part three tomorrow and until then be good be kind and don't let it
00:51:21
thank you [Music]