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Charles Erickson /// Part 2 /// 440

November 11, 2022 / 41:47

This episode discusses the wrongful convictions of Ryan Ferguson and Charles Erickson, featuring Bill Ferguson, Ryan's father. Key topics include the trial's mishandling, the role of defense attorney Kathleen Zellner, and the psychological impact on both men.

The episode highlights Bill Ferguson's experience in court, expressing frustration over the defense attorney's performance. Ryan Ferguson's demeanor during the trial is also examined, suggesting a disconnect between his situation and his emotional response.

Charles Erickson's background and family are discussed, emphasizing his intelligence and potential. The episode contrasts his experience with Ryan's, noting the lack of public outrage for Charles.

Key discussions include the role of false confessions, witness testimonies, and the psychological manipulation by law enforcement. The episode raises questions about the integrity of the judicial process and the implications for both men.

Finally, the episode touches on the ongoing efforts to clear Charles Erickson's name and the need for justice for Kent Heitholt, the murder victim.

TLDR

Ryan Ferguson and Charles Erickson's wrongful convictions are examined, highlighting trial mishandlings and the ongoing fight for justice.

Episode

41:47
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everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime oh [Music]
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we couldn't talk about this case the wrongful conviction of Ryan Ferguson and Charles Erickson without introducing
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someone who's a very very big part of this case and this story Bill Ferguson Ryan Ferguson's father and his efforts
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to right this wrong and get his son out of prison and for me the bill Ferguson story starts with seeing him in court
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fully supporting his son and what's amazing to watch the body language and the facial expressions as
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the trial goes on and what you can tell he is thinking on the inside he's I've hired this defense attorney this guy is
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a reputable supposed to be one of the best in the area and he's watching this guy fumble through the case fumble
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through the trial and he's thinking my god I've paid this man all this money and this is not going to work out for my
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son we also see Ryan Ferguson on the stand who as the captain pointed out he seems a little
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unengaged or or doesn't seem doesn't come off to at least Express the severity of the
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situation and I think we've seen that plenty of times with these individuals who deep down in their heart they know
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they're innocent they're sitting there on trial and I think that they think at some
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point the truth will come out there's no way they can convict me of something I couldn't have done well and the other
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problem is this defense attorney looks like a penis with a mustache [Music] [Laughter]
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I mean am I wrong every time he talked all I could see was a penis with a mustache but could you
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imagine Bill Ferguson you being Bill Ferguson sitting there at this trial thinking of the who knows how much he
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paid that I've I've reviewed cases where they've paid defense attorneys a hundred
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and fifty thousand dollars and these guys don't put on a good case they don't represent their client to their best of
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their abilities he's sitting in court going I just paid this man all this money and he can't even he can't even
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poke holes in the prosecution's theory he can't even show up with a map with the actual buildings on it that he's
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talking about you know we see this all the time time and that's the thing this wasn't even a public defender and not
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not to [ __ ] on public defenders I mean they literally do the most amazing work
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they are incredibly underpaid and overworked but that's the problem they're underpaid and overworked so you
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know if you can afford to hire a private lawyer you always think oh this person's
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going to be better than a public defender who has a million cases and sometimes only goes and sees clients
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once twice before the trial um so it's really it's it's really sad it's really sad that that happened what
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was the background of Charles's family his his parents what did they do for a living yeah so Charles's father Works in
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he worked for the public defender's office he was an investigator and Marianne currently is a is a professor
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or a teacher um I don't know what she was doing back then but they are both you know he does
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come from a very nice well-to-do middle class family well it also seems like Charles Charles was gifted like he had
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above average level of IQ still does he's he Charles is brilliant and he did and that's
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that's what I highlight a lot you know he was amazing athlete he was incredibly smart he did get a scholarship to
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college and then you know as happens with a lot of teens he just got really into partying and that all kind of went
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out the window for a bit and led to where he is now well but when you look at his background and his parents it
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makes zero sense that it wasn't his father that stopped this whole train because
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like we like Nick was saying with uh with Ryan Ferguson's father he's a real estate agent knew nothing
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about criminal justice and gets all these wheels and motions and basically is the reason his son got freed from
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prison well and I want to take this moment to do a little Public Service Announcement here because if you are
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going into this trial let's put yourself in the Ferguson situation your son's being charged with something you believe
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him to be innocent for you hire a defense attorney a defense team to represent him at court Ryan Ferguson
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received the highest bail 20 million dollars the highest bail from what the documentary tells us to be
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in the United States ever for a single murder charge if your defense attorney gets you the highest bail ever in the
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history of the United States it's time to switch teams right then and there 20 million dollars this kid they were not
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going to let him out for a single day before his trial so Ryan spent how long in in prison Ryan
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did it 10 years Charles has um a pro hearing coming up in 2023 yes he has a parole hearing do you think
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that is one of the reasons because anybody that hears the Ryan Ferguson case I think it scares people because
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it's just something that could happen to anybody if it could happen to this guy and he wasn't even there and he should
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have a solid Alibi driving his buddy home that solid Alibi turns into the nail in
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your coffin yeah so I think this a story when people hear it it scares the living
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[ __ ] out of them because it could happen to you if it happened to this kid there
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was again the prosecutor sitting there on the stand saying there's zero physical evidence to even put them at
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the crime scene so I think that is what scares the living [ __ ] out of people it does
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it's it's absolutely terrifying and I think we we're talking about it a minute ago when we're talking about they both
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come from well-off middle class white families able to hire private Defenders and this still happened to them and it
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and I think that's what scares people it's like if they're not safe who is safe from corrupt law enforcement well I
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think that's what created the outrage when people see the initial story because you have to go back and forth a
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little bit to go okay well but Charles is saying that they were there so there's a possibility that this guy is
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guilty we've seen that before but eventually everybody gets to the conclusion that neither one of these
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guys are guilty and it seems like there was this huge outrage for Ryan but there's
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never been that outrage for Charles well there's a couple things to that so Kathleen Zellner comes on in
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2009 and that's of course what actually leads to Ryan um having the conviction vacated she
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comes on in 2009 and at this point Charles realizes Ryan didn't have anything to do with this and he finds
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out Ryan has hired Kathleen Zellner pre-making a murderer but she was still a pretty big shot lawyer she has gotten
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some people who are wrongfully convicted off and Charles reaches out to her and says I have to say something and so this
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is what we see in dream pillar and and parts of it are on Charles's website is this deposition she takes from Charles
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where he sits her down and says actually I lied Ryan had nothing to do with this
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but I did and I I did this alone and she was like what so shock to her because she's done she knows it that neither of
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them did it yeah so she's like what well okay um still gotta get my client out so we
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get Ryan out and Charles is still convinced of his guilt at this point and he said I was doing what I could to help
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Brian I realized I [ __ ] up like he had nothing to do with this but I still did
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because at this point Charles doesn't know that these police reports were false he doesn't know that this
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these alleged reports of people saying they heard Ryan confessing are false so he still thinks there's evidence against
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him in the form of Jerry Trump saying that they saw them he doesn't know Shayna ornt says she never saw them so
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he doesn't know any of this so he's still thinking well you know people are saying I was there so I guess I was yeah
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one of the real big things in this case for Charles was his friend Dallas Mallory I believe is
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his name that Eric was always convinced that he saw Dallas at some point in the night because Dallas was dressed up as a
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possible cop or something but is 100 convinced that so he knows that he went to these parties he went to this bar he
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knows that for certain he has thousands of people backing up that or hundreds of
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people backing up that part of the story the rest of the night in Charles's mind
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is I blacked out I don't remember anything but one of the things that he keeps remembering is I saw Dallas in his
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car at this traffic light while the traffic light just so happens to be close to the
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crime scene so that's really well that's the thing they that's what was the LIE they told him that Dallas said that he
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saw him at that intersection Dallas said he never saw him Dallas was like I saw him at the party earlier that's what
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Charles is remembering he knows he saw Dallas but it was at this Halloween party but the police are lying to him
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and saying uh Dallas saw you near the crime scene and Charles was like well I do remember seeing Dallas so I guess he
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saw me by the crime scene Charles again has no idea any of this is not true until
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long after his statement to Zellner around 2013 I believe he told me he started kind of figuring out all of this
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was fabricated and you know he has these now fake memories planted in his head from the police and the prosecution well
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and this is where it gets pretty interesting to me because they're telling him like you said Charles knows he saw
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Dallas that night at the party they start saying well you saw him at this intersection and Dallas was parked at a
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red traffic light you talked to him for a little bit and then he drives off obviously when the
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light turns green so then you have Ryan Ferguson's father that goes down to the crime scene walks it multiple times
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goes to this intersection and realizes at that time of day there's no red light there's just blinking yellow lights so
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just that part of the story is fake and then Dallas then comes forward and says I felt pressured to say anything I
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basically told the prosecution whatever you want me to say I'll go along with and at the time of the murder he did not
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have a vehicle or a license more impossibilities of Charles actually seeing him the night of the murder yeah
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you know exactly it's um and then so you know I talk about Dallas a lot in my podcast but there's also Megan Arthur
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and Richard Walker similarly Charles is given police reports from them saying Ryan confessed and they both later
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recant and he has no idea about this he has no idea so he's still thinking oh you know these two people are saying you
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know I did this um but do you think with his Pro hearing being so close that that's a reason why
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people are don't seem as willing to like try to do something or create some kind
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of a commotion to help get him out no I don't I don't think anyone even really knows about the parole I think he's been
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he's been forgotten much of the story was intentionally focused on Ryan he was the more
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sympathetic person in the story and then once Ryan gets out it was kind of that's that I mean so many people I
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talk to have no idea there was a co-defendant they have no idea Ryan Ferguson was the story and now Ryan
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Ferguson is this the overcoming a wrongful conviction like hero story right and and that was that and yeah he
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had a show on MTV for a little bit that's what the whole show was about which you'd think the first person that
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he would try to help out would be the guy that he knows a hundred percent didn't
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commit a crime yeah and there's there's a lot there um that I don't understand and I've asked
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Charles Lawyers family members you know what has Ryan done to help you or to help Charles
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and it's nothing little to nothing if anything at all other than his original statement when he came out of prison
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where he said Charles Erickson is a lot of things but he's not guilty of this murder and
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then he's kind of moved on with his life I don't know I've never been wrongfully
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convicted by somebody I don't know I'm I I cannot blame him for having so much anger 10 years of his life were stolen
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but Charles is also a victim and I can't imagine not wanting to help this person
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who has been completely forgotten I mean the least you could do is use your platform to say hey don't forget about
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this guy well it makes the whole case pretty confusing because if they're letting this individual out
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and then they're saying he didn't not do this crime then by definition that's the reason why they
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kept going after Ryan Ferguson in the beginning they said well we know that Charles was with you
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so if Charles is saying he was at the crime scene and he killed a man then guess what you were with him
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and so by using their own logic if Ryan is innocent of this crime than by using their own logic so is
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Charles so they just filed a petition for actual innocence in June in June it was denied
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and now they are waiting to file another appeal he confessed to this and that that presents a whole other level of
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issues in trying to get him out yeah they ignored logic when they took his confession they ignored logic when
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they prosecuted Ryan Ferguson and here they are conveniently ignoring logic again could you tell us who Kathleen
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Zellner is for for the for the few listeners because most will know but could you give us a little background on
00:18:10
Kathleen Zellner yeah so Kathleen Zellner became famous in making a murderer season two she took Stephen
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Avery's case and she is famous for having had a few exonerees she's worked for and or I don't even
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know if I want to say a few I think she's taken 13 cases and and gotten them all out I'm not like an expert on her
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background but I know she has incredible backgrounds and her whole thing is I will not take your case she investigates
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these cases and you know she'll only take a case if she thinks somebody is innocent because she's done the leg work
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well she even goes a little step further because she doesn't even just try to get you off on a technicality
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she's also trying to solve the case herself right and so that's like what I was getting at earlier I mean she has
00:19:00
found with her investigators much better suspects than Boyd Charles and Ryan obviously two men who
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who later in 2005 committed another very bizarre murder of seemingly random murder and I don't want to you know name
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names right now but I am going to get into this in an episode very soon on my patreon talking with the brother of one
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of these guys Charles's mom she knows a lot about these two and these were two guys that were uncovered by Kathleen's
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investigation so we're thinking that these two guys were indeed these what the eyewitnesses saw this one guy looks
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almost identical to the police sketch to Shayna orange sketch yes so these guys we don't believe we're just walking by
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the scene we believe that these guys were the actual murders yes based on some um their own family saying you know they
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they have made confession statements um based on the fact that they have been tied to I don't I don't want to say
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convicted I know one of them is dead right now um from suicide but tied to another very
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strange random murder of a professor in a very similar situation you know she actually just sent me all these files
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this morning so I haven't like fully dove in but I I'm going to dive in and do an episode on it well and when you
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read about how great of a person Kent was it didn't seem like he had any enemies
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it the the question to me was always which I think made Michael Boyd at least a decent suspect because well he worked
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underneath him so could there be some assignment that he didn't like did he just don't like working under the person
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that would be at least a motive maybe not a good enough motive for murder but other than that what's the motive here
00:21:00
yeah I mean and that's the thing too with Boyd there was allegedly that argument
00:21:05
between him and height holds but I mean the murder was so brutal I mean he is strangled with his own belt he is
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bludgeoned it seemed either incredibly personal or incredibly random and Psychopathic and I think with these two
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other suspects it seems that they are serial murderers and it is incredibly psychopathic
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[Music] foreign [Music] did get right that it was a random act of violence and I think it's a weird
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thing with these two persons that are seeing two young white males are seen near the murder scene at the time of the
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murder we know this by these are witnesses here we also know our Witnesses are saying it
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was not Ryan Fergus and he was not one of the people that I saw that night it gets weird though because the the
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statements from the witnesses at times have been that these two individuals who may be
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suspects were saying something like this man needs help so you go okay well maybe
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these are just two people that happened to walk by and see that something horrible went down just minutes ago
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they're doing their best as a good citizen to get help for this individual that they don't know but then the
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problem is they must be suspects I think because you got even two years later before Ryan
00:23:03
is arrested before Charles is arrested where these people if they witness something they never come forward this
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story is in the news they don't come forward to say I was the person that was walking that night I was the person that
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called out for help I was the person that saw somebody and said we need to get somebody here to help this man to me
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very briefly skimming the surface of these two guys seems like it almost could have been like a facetious kind of
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like we just committed this murder and this guy needs some help and then they walk away not even like an actual Cry
00:23:37
for Help like hey uh this guy might need some help over here and then they walk away is a possibility this was not a
00:23:44
robbery gone bad this was I mean they had the opportunity whoever did this judging by the evidence they had the
00:23:51
opportunity to stop at some point they could have easily they they took this man
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beat him they could have taken whatever possessions he had that they wanted right then and there but whomever did
00:24:03
this they took it a step further with the belt I mean think about that psychologically to take the belt off the
00:24:09
victim and then use it to kill the individual well I think they actually strangled him so hard that snapped parts
00:24:18
of his neck I know the belt broke itself broke yep yeah it was it was vicious violent and I believe that at some point
00:24:25
regardless of what started the attack at at some point there was a clear intention of Murder By whomever did this
00:24:34
now you mentioned earlier that there were two persons everybody knows of the witnesses who recant Trump and then we
00:24:43
have uh Shauna ort who says that Ryan Ferguson was not one of the people that I saw we have Charles Erickson who
00:24:50
changes his story multiple times it starts off with he and Ryan did this together then it ends up with he did it
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by himself that Ryan may have told him to stop at some point or Ryan witnessed some of it Charles Erickson says he's
00:25:04
uncertain how much of this crime Ryan would have actually witnessed and then at some point
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Charles's story becomes Ryan didn't do this Ryan didn't witness me doing it either because I didn't do it myself
00:25:20
right right who who were the two people remind me who were the two people that said hey Ryan Ferguson told us about
00:25:29
this said that he was involved or talked about it at a party they later changed their story I don't know the details of
00:25:35
that do we know why they change their story are there are they saying the same thing that crane convinced us to come
00:25:42
forward with this false information how does their their story change yes so one
00:25:47
of them he is in prison at the time and or in jail I think he's in jail at the time so he's got a couple charges
00:25:55
and basically and that's the thing with trunk too that's how they got how crane got Trump trump was on Parole for um
00:26:03
some kind of sex offense crane came to him and said hey you know I'll give you a deal and whatever whatever if you say
00:26:10
what I need you to say so here's this other guy jailhouse informant who is striking deals and says uh Ryan
00:26:18
confessed to me while in prison later he says you know that didn't happen I was making a deal with the
00:26:23
prosecutor for you know a lesser sentence or charges whatever it is and then the other one is Megan Arthur who
00:26:32
was at a party she did not say that she heard Ryan she says she thought she heard Ryan say something along these
00:26:40
lines which it's very possible Ryan was saying yo Charles is being crazy saying we did this so she tells this to the
00:26:48
police and they basically twist her entire statement and say you know she told us she heard
00:26:54
Ryan saying this and so both her and the jailhouse informant said none of this happened jailhouse informant says I was
00:27:01
just striking a deal but I actually completely lied or I never confessed to me and Megan Arthur says they completely
00:27:07
took my words out of context I never said that I heard Ryan confessing I thought I might have heard something and
00:27:13
I wanted to help with Zellner being involved with Ryan's case has she been giving this information over to
00:27:20
Charles's new lawyer they had in the past I don't think there's been much recently with that because what's next
00:27:29
for Charles yeah yeah he had PL denied recently in July and now they're working on filing another actual
00:27:39
innocence appeal and basically it's on the grounds they're trying to get an evidentiary hearing they can present all
00:27:45
of this evidence all of this prosecutorial law enforcement misconduct if they can present that there is no
00:27:51
evidence if they can get anything further tested you know basically they just want to present their side in front
00:27:58
of a in front of a judge or judges they think it's going to move forward is basically what they have to do and and
00:28:04
they're doing this on the grounds of that Charles had his constitutional rights violated when they knowingly and
00:28:10
willfully got a false statement from him now we know that Charles responded to a
00:28:15
letter that you sent but take us through the process of working with Charles and
00:28:19
putting together your episode what does that typically involve with the individuals that that you are you are
00:28:26
now meeting and presenting their stories I hear from Charles once a week twice a
00:28:31
week you know he's doing a lot in prison he's working with his dog training program he helps rehabilitate dogs and
00:28:39
adopt them out those are like his best friends he said you know again he's in therapies taking medication he's working
00:28:45
on himself he's going to school he's running again which is what he used to do back in high school that's how him
00:28:51
and Ryan actually met so you know when I first started speaking with Charles there was just so much to talk about
00:28:57
because he's doing so much so it was like okay we want to talk about the case we want to get to all this but I also
00:29:03
just want to like hear about you as a person we only hear about this crazy guy with dreamlike memories or snapshots is
00:29:11
what he calls them who is Charles you know what do you do and he is just so smart and has so much to say I could
00:29:18
talk to Charles forever so yeah there was a lot to fit in this one episode and I think we covered a lot of stuff that
00:29:25
wasn't in it but you know with the episode I just really wanted to make clear that there is this other person in
00:29:32
prison and he's a good person and he he was also a victim of all of this yes it very quickly became the free Ryan
00:29:40
Ferguson story and then once Ryan got out everything is just kind of forgotten about as you said Charles Erickson still
00:29:49
in prison the murder of Kent heitolt unsolved no justice for his family no justice for Kent height Holt yeah and I
00:29:58
believe his family is even on the on the pro Ryan and Charles side I mean they think also recognize I'm pretty sure I
00:30:06
did come across a Facebook page that his family runs that that they also believe
00:30:10
that this has not been solved this is a wrongful conviction they want Justice for their loved one he was a father he
00:30:16
had two kids he had a wife they want to know who murdered their dad and it was not Charles and Ryan and they support
00:30:23
them right if you don't get Justice for Charles you will never get Justice for Kent absolutely because it's it's a
00:30:32
closed case it's uh not being investigated any further why are they going to further test DNA evidence when
00:30:37
we got this guy in prison until Charles is out they are not getting Justice for Kent
00:30:43
Heidel well not only out but technically the conviction vacated right because it's one thing to let him out we've
00:30:50
actually seen some cases where they let the wrongfully convicted out but never vacate the conviction therefore it's a
00:30:59
closed case technically there's no reason to for the state to investigate West Memphis Three yep yeah with Boyd on
00:31:07
the surface he looks like a good suspect he looks like somebody that we would have would question his actions and some
00:31:13
of his statements but as you said they probably have something that tells them that Boyd is
00:31:22
not their guy it could be the janitors the witnesses saying we saw two younger white males and Boyd doesn't fit that
00:31:31
description but there probably has some kind of physical evidence at the scene the captain pointed out that we have
00:31:39
seven or more unidentified fingerprints there's a bloody palm print bloody Footprints there's hair at the scene
00:31:46
none of this matches Ryan Ferguson we we have that that might be the only honest
00:31:53
words that came out of the prosecutor's mouth at that trial was that we have no physical evidence linking this guy to
00:32:00
the crime you have to wonder if some of that evidence if it doesn't point the void as well you know Zellner was pretty
00:32:07
convinced that they did a really shitty job investigating Boyd and I think he even says they didn't even really
00:32:14
investigate him so I was just thinking like oh well maybe they took some of his uh hair samples and DNA or whatever and
00:32:20
compared it to what was at the crime scene but according to Zellner at least and how she feels the investigation went
00:32:26
I don't actually think that happened um yeah I believe he's only interviewed twice yeah sample was taken I don't
00:32:35
think so either so I don't really know what they had that they did not follow up on him I don't think they did compare
00:32:42
his samples well the most suspicious thing about that is the getting rid of one of his cars and not
00:32:49
really understanding what he did with it or the what he told law enforcement later they figured out was a lie yeah
00:32:58
and like we said there would be so much blood at the scene that you would think if Michael Boyd was involved you'd think
00:33:05
that he would at least saw the two two individuals that people think are involved well I think that becomes part
00:33:12
of the issue that people have with his story because originally he's telling police that he
00:33:18
didn't see and and Maggie correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is he's saying he
00:33:25
didn't see anybody and now when we have two people to pin this on Ryan Ferguson and Charles Erickson then later he's
00:33:33
saying yeah I saw two younger white males at the at the scene is that correct yeah yeah he he was all over the
00:33:41
place it is it is odd and I I you know I I wonder if he's just all over the place
00:33:46
because he knows he's the last person to see him alive and is scared um again he's he's not a white person he's
00:33:55
a person of color like he you know a lot of people that I talk to just instantly
00:33:59
become afraid of the police and that could be why we have the multiple changes in the story again I think there
00:34:06
are much better suspects than than Boyd so you know when I talk I kind of lean towards the it's not void but I do think
00:34:13
it was really shoddy of them to not investigate him further than they did take samples do more than two interviews
00:34:20
you know what do you think the likelihood that uh Charles will make parole in 2023. parole is so hard
00:34:28
because with parole they're not looking at actual innocence um they're looking at do you have
00:34:34
remorse for the crime that you're convicted of Charles didn't do this how is he supposed to show remorse for murdering
00:34:41
somebody when he didn't do this you know and a lot of these people I talked to like JJ Velasquez in in my case he's up
00:34:47
for parole and he's says yeah I'll go in front of the board but I'm not going to
00:34:51
confess to something I didn't do yeah I could walk out of here tomorrow but I my
00:34:56
Integrity is worth so much more than being paroled for something I didn't do and I haven't really
00:35:04
asked Charles but my guess is it would be similar I don't think he has any intention on saying yes I feel bad for
00:35:12
murdering Kent heitles so you're not getting paroled unless you say that and you know I talked to some folks my first
00:35:18
episode episode Jermaine Smothers he's up for parole and I do think he'll get paroled because while he didn't commit
00:35:26
the murder he feels like a lot of actions in his life contributed to this murder he was in a gang lifestyle so he
00:35:34
is going to go in front of the parole board and say like yes I'm remorseful for this because my actions contributed
00:35:39
to it so that is different because what actions did Charles do that that contributed to this murder I mean
00:35:46
nothing so I I don't think he's going to be paroled and the two people that you find interesting for this as good
00:35:54
possible suspects remind me how they came onto the radar so these were um from Kathleen zellner's private
00:36:01
investigators and again I haven't fully you know I have the statements the affidavits from her pis you know
00:36:09
interviewing people who say like yes this person um you know told me this and I I think
00:36:15
the brother even I'm gonna speak with the brother believes his brother did it and and I'm not going to name their
00:36:20
names here yet until I go through everything but um I am going to do an episode about this on my patreon but um
00:36:27
they one of the men at least was linked to the murder of a professor a very brutal murder where he was found stabbed
00:36:38
stuffed in his trunk and the car was lit on fire in a parking garage as he left work
00:36:44
and one of these men was his DNA was linked to the crime scene so to me that sounds very similar to a
00:36:51
random murder of Kent heitoltz I mean there it's the same it's Boone County so the I'm gonna look into this further but
00:36:58
this is something that Zellner uncovered and I do think you know one of these guys at least is
00:37:03
still alive and I know that actually Marianne Erickson has been skeptical about uh saying his name because he's
00:37:13
dangerous and he's out there and this is in 2005. so these are only a couple years apart that this um Professor was
00:37:21
murdered and found burned in his the trunk of his car yeah four years from from Kent so that's the whole point when
00:37:29
you wrongfully incarcerate people when you knowingly I I do not stray away from saying that uh Kevin crane knowingly
00:37:39
incarcerated the wrong people that you leave the real murderers out there and now another innocent person is
00:37:47
dead if these two were the ones that were involved in can't hide Holtz murder and this man looks
00:37:54
just like the police sketch and you're saying that the other the this professor that they believe this individual is
00:38:02
responsible for killing there's no connection between suspect and victim it just appears to be some kind of random
00:38:10
act of violence yeah yeah and and so again I haven't dove into this super far but it looks like this was also a cold
00:38:18
case I mean it happened in 2005 and it looks like you know that he's this name is coming up in 2013 linking him to the
00:38:25
murder so that's how you get away with things is random murder and and I know you guys know we talked about this in
00:38:31
the Mora Murray case when these things are random it's it's really hard to to find the killer there
00:38:38
is a website freecharles erickson.org and there is a reward fund of ten thousand dollars for information
00:38:49
in the case in the unsolved we should say murder case of Kent heith Holt and that money is coming from the Ferguson
00:38:59
family yes so they're working to at least uh help to find more information that could help Charles Erickson or at
00:39:09
least help the investigation for finding the real killer of Kent heitol absolutely yep and like you said
00:39:16
Charles has uh this hearing coming up pretty soon and then a parole Hearing in 2023 I know that you have a group on
00:39:27
Facebook can you tell the listeners a little bit about that so they could follow that for any update in this case
00:39:34
yes so it's the unjust and unsolved podcast Discussion Group Marianne Erickson Charles's mom is in there
00:39:43
almost every if not every unless they don't have an ins unless they don't have a Facebook but every Advocate you've
00:39:49
heard in the episodes every sibling as many investigators as I could get are in there to help answer questions and just
00:39:56
be part of these discussions to help solve solve these crimes to unsolve murder Ken height holds killer is out
00:40:02
there potentially if I said these two guys have killed somebody else so potentially
00:40:08
again killing more people hurting more people everybody always ask where can we find
00:40:22
the music for the show all the music each week is created by me your captain and you can find it it's
00:40:31
all for free on Apple music Spotify or go to our website and click on the music page Colonel do we have any recommended
00:40:41
reading for this week how about a little recommended listening make sure that you
00:40:46
check out the unjust and unsolved podcast featuring our friend who you just heard here today Maggie it's part
00:40:54
of the True Crime obsessed Network and you can find it wherever you listen to your podcast and come back and see us
00:41:02
next week on Monday we have a new off the record on Tuesday we have a new case until then be good be kind and don't
00:41:10
live foreign [Music]

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Episode Highlights

  • Welcome to True Crime Garage
    Hosts Nick and the Captain kick off the show with gratitude and humor.
    “It's hump day, it's good to be seen!”
    @ 00m 57s
    November 11, 2022
  • Bill Ferguson's Fight
    Bill Ferguson's unwavering support for his son during the trial.
    “I just paid this man all this money, and this is not going to work out for my son.”
    @ 03m 49s
    November 11, 2022
  • The Flawed Defense
    Critique of the defense attorney's performance during the trial.
    “If your defense attorney gets you the highest bail ever, it's time to switch teams.”
    @ 07m 48s
    November 11, 2022
  • The Wrongful Conviction of Ryan Ferguson
    A deep dive into the wrongful conviction case and its implications.
    “This story scares the living out of people.”
    @ 08m 38s
    November 11, 2022
  • The Brutality of the Crime
    The attackers had the chance to stop but chose to escalate the violence.
    “They took it a step further with the belt.”
    @ 24m 03s
    November 11, 2022
  • Charles Erickson's Story
    Charles, wrongfully convicted, is working on self-improvement while in prison.
    “He is just so smart and has so much to say.”
    @ 29m 14s
    November 11, 2022
  • The Fight for Justice
    The families involved seek justice for Kent Heitolt and support Charles's innocence.
    “If you don't get justice for Charles, you will never get justice for Kent.”
    @ 30m 26s
    November 11, 2022

Episode Quotes

  • Could you imagine being Bill Ferguson?
    Charles Erickson /// Part 2 /// 440
  • This story scares the living out of people.
    Charles Erickson /// Part 2 /// 440
  • This is where it gets pretty interesting to me.
    Charles Erickson /// Part 2 /// 440
  • This was not a robbery gone bad.
    Charles Erickson /// Part 2 /// 440
  • They took it a step further with the belt.
    Charles Erickson /// Part 2 /// 440
  • If you don't get justice for Charles, you will never get justice for Kent.
    Charles Erickson /// Part 2 /// 440

Key Moments

  • Beer Segment01:14
  • Trial Observations03:22
  • Bill Ferguson's Struggles04:41
  • Defense Critique05:03
  • Witness Recantation24:40
  • False Testimony26:10
  • Charles's Rehabilitation28:36
  • Unsolved Murder29:52

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown