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GameChanger [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:44
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who once faked his own death so he could make out
00:01:50
with Wendy Peppercorn here is the captain lotioning and oiling lotioning and oiling it's good to
00:01:59
be be seeing and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a [Music]
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friend today we are very happy to be featuring Peacemaker that's an anytime ale by the hardworking and colorful
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garage ship Sailors right here first up a cheers to Jane and I think she's in Georgetown Texas and a big shout out to
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Lisa in cisero New York next up Captain we have Graham in Walnut Creek California and a big we like your jib to
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Holly Mckenna Texas all right here's a cheers to Abdul hammed in Oakley California and last but certainly not
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enough of the Beers N all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
00:03:58
crime [Music] [Music] [Music] la Thursday May 18th 1978 Austin Texas it's just after
00:04:38
midnight when 26-year-old patrolman Ralph ablano stopped a red 1966 Mustang on East Live Oak Street near Travis
00:04:48
Heights Boulevard the officer called in a code for routine traffic violation check the officer approached the vehicle
00:04:58
the driver was a young woman Sheila mayard sitting shotgun was a white male in his late 20s the officer obtained
00:05:08
their names and information and walked back to his patrol car officer abeno wrote mayor a ticket for driving without
00:05:16
a license and ran a radio check on the passenger David Lee pal the check came back that pal 27 years of age was a
00:05:26
wanted man wanted for some minor infractions misdemeanor theft and two hot check
00:05:33
charges ablano got out of his patrol car and once again he approached the vehicle
00:05:39
the officer was hit with automatic gunfire coming from the vehicle in front of him the shots knocked out the rear
00:05:47
window of the Mustang the officer was hit several times in the arm and chest his bulletproof vest that he was
00:05:56
wearing which was standard procedure for Austin Patrol in 78 was really no match
00:06:02
for the high-powered gunfire ablano went down and the Mustang drove off somehow abeno was able to send
00:06:12
out a distress call Austin PD Officers rushed to the scene officer Joe Vagas spotted the 66
00:06:21
Mustang about two blocks away in the parking lot of the Travis Park Apartments vas pushed the pedal to the
00:06:29
floor approaching the parked vehicle at a high rate of speed as he got closer shots were fired
00:06:36
coming from the Mustang vus was able to avoid being hit he slammed on the brakes
00:06:42
and returned fire then David Lee pal still in the passenger seat pulled the pin from a hand grenade and tossed it at
00:06:52
vus thankfully it failed to explode then the woman Sheila mayor jumped out of the vehicle with her hands
00:07:02
raised High screaming at the officer she surrendered pal flung open the passenger
00:07:09
door and ran for the Woods by now was 12:30 a.m. officer Ralph ablano was rushed to the nearest
00:07:21
hospital officer ablen died shortly after arrival about 255 police and at least two armed security officers surrounded
00:07:31
the woods which was estimated to be a mile long and half a mile wide they stopped dozens of cars and
00:07:40
pedestrians they waited and waited but David pal never came out just after 6:00 a.m. it was decided
00:07:50
that six police and two canine officers would enter the woods and go in there and get
00:07:57
pal the remaining police were to maintain the perimeter they wanted only a small
00:08:04
amount of police officers to enter the woods to minimize the risk they decided that no one else was
00:08:12
to enter they needed a set number of officers only that way if they saw any movement
00:08:20
at all they would know immediately it was not a fellow officer in other words they were
00:08:27
prepared to shoot onite sight the two dogs and six officers entered the woods with Flack jackets and
00:08:35
loaded shotguns two armed security guards whose shifts ended hours ago but decided to
00:08:43
stay and assist the police in any way they could now decided it was time to call it a night and let the police do
00:08:51
their jobs guards Charles Howard and Gary Nelson were now near Travis High when they spotted movement the two guards
00:09:04
with pistols drawn moved slowly toward something they saw moving in the bushes it was a man crouched down trying
00:09:13
to conceal himself at a distance of about 3 ft one of the guards in a Stern voice
00:09:19
instructed the man to come out before standing up the man said loudly his voice shaking I'm not going to do
00:09:28
anything and he slowly emerged from the bushes the guards handcuffed him and called the police police searched the
00:09:38
bushes and found a light blue coat a knife and a 45 caliber pistol set in the cocked
00:09:46
position the man in handcuffs was 27-year-old David Lee pal the petty thief and hot check artist
00:09:55
was now a cop killer police pushed David pal into the backseat of a police cruiser it was now 6:30 a.m. the sun was
00:10:06
just starting to rise and it was already a bad day in [Music] Austin the Sun is up in Austin and it's
00:10:29
the start of a new day we go now to a different side of the city where parents are waking their children and families
00:10:37
are starting their morning routines a family of six living in a nice part of the city on rockage Cove is
00:10:45
preparing to leave for the day and venture out to their duties and obligations the second youngest is John
00:10:53
Christian he is 13 years of age and in the e8th grade at merchison Junior High School John was even taking
00:11:02
a special class or two classes for exceptional students deemed to be gifted and talented Jon's family is full of gifted
00:11:12
and talented people Jon's father is George Christian George served as the press secretary for the United States
00:11:20
36th President lynon Johnson he then became a top advisor to Texas governor Dolph
00:11:27
Brisco John's mother Joanne was a respected lawyer now the Christian home was near John's school so he would walk
00:11:37
to school but not on this day now on this day John did something he has never done before and would never do again he
00:11:46
hid in a closet and waited in silence as his parents and brothers left the house George Christensen as he drove off
00:11:56
to work heard on the radio that there had been a shootout in the middle of the night on the city's South Side resulting
00:12:04
in the death of one Austin City's finest the cop killer was arrested back at the
00:12:11
Christian House John is still in the closet listening carefully and after several minutes of silence he exited the
00:12:20
day before he told a classmate that he was bringing a gun to school and now it was time to go and get that gun
00:12:28
according to classmates of John the day before in Mr Wilbur Grayson's class two things very much out of the norm took
00:12:36
place first the teacher Wilbert Grayson who went by Rod Grayson to friends and of course Mr Grayson to the students was
00:12:46
absent Rod Grayson was the father of a young boy who was just about one year old both he and his wife Laura Grayson
00:12:54
worked Lura was a teacher at another school their child was not feeling well and it
00:13:02
was Rod's turn to stay home and take care of their boy Grayson's gifted and talented classes would be conducted by a
00:13:10
substitute teacher on this day during the first class conducted by The Substitute John Christian and another
00:13:18
student were scheduled to give a presentation John had the floor first for some bizarre reason the normally
00:13:26
quiet young man gave a loud and obnoxious presentation that was not only hard to follow but was quite the
00:13:35
performance John was making all kinds of commotion jumping up and down waving his
00:13:41
hands yelling and teasing the small crowd of students in the classroom several times the class
00:13:48
erupted with screams laughter and general excitement for Jon's wild manlike performance by the end of the
00:13:55
class Jon had taken up all of the time for for that day the other student not getting to make his
00:14:03
presentation and the class was in such an uproar that he likely did not want to the substitute quickly lost control of
00:14:11
the class and with John leading the way the classroom turned very chaotic when the bell rang at the end of
00:14:19
the class a fellow student said to John you know tomorrow when Mr Grayson returns he's going to kick our butts
00:14:28
John said it's okay because tomorrow I'm going to bring a gun the student thought
00:14:34
John was joking John was probably still high from his bizarre performance and so
00:14:39
the student simply replied yeah I'll bring one too now back to the morning of Thursday May 18th John retrieved his
00:14:48
Browning 22 caliber rifle that his parents got him for Christmas this was Texas and a teenage boy will learn to
00:14:57
shoot and hunt later John would tell psychiatrist that he spent several minutes contemplating killing
00:15:05
himself but he didn't instead he made sure that the gun was loaded and he marched off to school like a soldier in
00:15:12
some kind of secret battle but in many ways it was more like a Hunting Expedition as his enemies were unaware
00:15:20
that there was a war Brewing inside of Jon's head they didn't even know that they were targets the following is
00:15:27
according to Texas monthly who like all of their work did a phenomenal job with their story on this
00:15:33
case class had already started without John Christian and what transpired next is based on the Recollections of eight
00:15:42
eyewitnesses in the classroom as well as those of others at school that day sitting as he always did not behind
00:15:51
his desk but on his stool directly in front of the students Mr Grayson had begun by asking asking his students what
00:16:00
the hell had happened the previous day the students acknowledged their own misbehavior but added Mr Grayson johon
00:16:09
was acting so weird the teacher waved them off he said you just don't understand him the way I do then Mr
00:16:18
Grayson said where is JN anyway class had begun JN is absent there he is someone exclaimed directing their
00:16:27
attention to a figure outside of the classroom window who was heading down the grassy Hill beside the football
00:16:34
field and someone else said he's got a gun what occurred in the next 2 minutes would be remembered through trauma's
00:16:43
Kaleidoscope John stepped into the doorway seeing him Mr Grayson may have smiled maybe he even laughed Grayson
00:16:53
said okay John the joke's over John held the gun at his hip pointed at his teacher and a classmate
00:17:02
heard him say the joke's on you yeah 13-year-old John Christian with his 22 caliber rifle shot his
00:17:13
teacher and the chest The Head and the arm the description given by the other students there that day say that Grayson
00:17:23
was hit three times just in the locations that you said and as he was hit he fell from his stool and collided
00:17:31
with the student's desk that was immediately in front of him they say his tall lean body thudded heavily to the
00:17:39
floor blood was pouring out of one of his ears his eyes were still wide open and they say that he looked
00:17:48
terrified now as John turned and walked out without a word the classroom exploded into screams the students began
00:17:57
to flee several ran to the principal's office and told the administrators at the front desk what had just happened
00:18:04
but of course there's no way for them to believe them you know there's there's no
00:18:10
reaction that that can really be warranted right here they're they're in disbelief one of the kids is yelling
00:18:19
godamn it he killed him godamn it he killed him the gym class was already underway this was going on outside of
00:18:27
the school over by the football field a few kids saw Jon toss the rifle against the bicycle rack and then run up the
00:18:36
slope he's running away from the school an Athletics coach witnessed JN fleeing the scene he decides he's going
00:18:46
to jump in his truck and follow the kid he caught up to JN and he jumped out of his truck and he grab the boy he says
00:18:54
what did you do John said I shot Mr Gra mhm so John was taken to the principal's
00:19:02
office and of course the police were called and paramedics as well the police and really no one else could believe
00:19:10
what had happened that morning a 13-year-old student shot and killed his teacher in front of 21 other eighth
00:19:19
grade students John was arrested and his classmates were bust off to the police station to give statements and to answer
00:19:29
any questions that the police may have describing the event decades later was a man Payton Smith he was the student that
00:19:40
was nearest to Mr Grayson when the shooting began he said lives were shattered lives
00:19:47
were changed every person in that room was a victim but what a heroic thing the FED teacher did I mean because we know
00:19:57
John is homicidal he did not he he saw the gun but he didn't know if Jon had another gun on him yeah I mean he saw he
00:20:07
may have seen the gun being tossed over by the the bicycle rack who knows if he heard the shots because this teacher is
00:20:14
outside MH and of course by his own recollection he's saying as soon as I caught up to the boy and grabbed him I
00:20:24
asked him what he did so he may not have fully been aware of what went down although he was like you said heroic
00:20:32
enough and and smart enough to go apprehend the boy this part of the story is a little weird to me Captain because
00:20:39
it I don't really know where this boy intended to go what what was his intentions after shooting his teacher he
00:20:47
didn't turn the gun on his fellow classmates he shot the teacher that seemed to be his only target he walks
00:20:54
out of the building throws the gun down and starts heading up the the hill who knows if he was heading back home or
00:21:02
where his what his intentions were I don't know because it's no mystery who committed this crime it's not like he's
00:21:10
fleeing the crime to so nobody knows that it was JN that did it yeah I believe if he was suicidal before the
00:21:17
shooting that he was probably going to go back home and and possibly uh decide to be suicidal at home and this case is
00:21:26
such a weird case in itself but then let's think about the whole situation for the Austin Police Department they
00:21:33
spent the whole night before in a 6-hour standoff against a guy that killed a cop
00:21:39
in a what should have been a routine pullover right they probably thought there's no way that this day can get any
00:21:48
worse than this we've done our work probably for the next several weeks you know we've had one of the hardest days
00:21:54
most tragic days that we will have maybe of the whole year we lost one of our own
00:21:59
a young officer and then just hours later a few hours later they're responding to a school shooting well as
00:22:06
officers were going back home you know that there was one officer after this long night saying all right boys you
00:22:14
guys get some sleep and we'll take care of it from here and it can't get any worse and then it did right and weirdly
00:22:23
enough this is the same city that experienced the Charles Whitman Ram page at the University of Texas at the tower
00:22:32
just 12 years earlier right there's something in the water buy bottled water don't drink that water right but if they
00:22:39
weren't able to get John alive they might not get as many answers to why this tragic event happened speaking of
00:22:51
answers their Captain George Christian John's successful father he was asked several questions that evening by
00:22:58
reporters that were positioning themselves on the front lawn at the Christian house on the advice of his
00:23:05
attorney he said very little he told the press that the gun used did come from the Christian house mhm he said he would
00:23:14
say nothing else because he didn't want to run the risk that any of his statements would hurt his boy who was
00:23:21
still yet to face trial George did ask reporters about the 28-year-old teacher that was killed and George became very
00:23:30
emotional when he was told that Rod Grayson had a wife and a small [Music] child
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[Music] all right we're back cheers mates cheers to you Captain cheers to the great state
00:26:22
of Texas I do have a couple notes go for on the first part first of all we did Cover the Charles Whitman case
00:26:30
that's episode number 20 229 that's episode number 229 and I believe that was with me and Justin from
00:26:41
Generation Y that's my favorite episode best episode of all time and also this case seems very familiar different set
00:26:51
of events but people probably remember the hit song Jeremy by a band Pearl Jam mhm
00:26:59
Jeremy Dell Deli it's d l e which that happened uh January 8th 1991 he shot himself in front of his
00:27:12
English class but it it seems very familiar and oddly enough that happened in Richardson Texas in an English class
00:27:21
which shares some similarities to the case that we're discussing Captain I want to jump back in expand on the story
00:27:29
that we started in today's trailer David Lee po was born in Texas in 1951 David grew up on the Family Farm
00:27:38
And he was raised Catholic in the pal family they were well- known and respected in their small Texas town
00:27:46
David excelled in school by High School it was determined that David was an exceptionally bright and gifted student
00:27:54
he told his parents and teachers that he wanted to become a doctor doctor now David graduated high school at the age
00:28:01
of 16 as valedictorian wow he applied to the University of Texas this was their plan
00:28:08
two program which was designed for only the best and brightest young students one of several requirements for
00:28:17
admission was to submit an essay David wrote an essay on how he wanted to be a doctor so he could help people now I
00:28:25
don't know the particulars of of this next bit but several sources reported that David I'm guessing maybe in this
00:28:34
essay or something else that David did but he was on record as correctly predicting the fall of the Soviet Union
00:28:43
including the how why and when and all of this with great accuracy M David was accepted to the university with what is
00:28:53
said to be the highest ever recorded SAT score submitted to UT's pre prestigious
00:29:01
program Austin Texas and college life was very very different from the farm and Country Life that David was
00:29:09
accustomed to at school David was swept up with the changing world he became a True Believer in the Society of youthful
00:29:17
thinkers and activists but David was seduced by something else while away at school The Nightlife the wild parties
00:29:25
and more specifically for David the drugs Captain this led to the old turn on tune in and drop
00:29:34
outm yeah old LSD there you go David dropped out of school and spent the next several years traveling this great big
00:29:42
country mm now by 1978 David was addicted to methamphetamine Not only was he using on The Daily but he was
00:29:51
manufacturing and he was a street Pusher as well in the 70s it was widely believed that methamphetamine was
00:30:00
non-addictive but of course we know that that is completely false it's the old hey try this drug it's recreational you
00:30:09
can have fun with it and whenever you want to you can just stop well no you can't because you're addicted at one
00:30:16
point David was so desperate to stop using now we got to keep in mind this was the mid to late 7s so rehab was not
00:30:26
so readily available like it would be today the resources were just not there in the way that they are now yeah I mean
00:30:34
if he wanted to get help today he could check himself into a rehab clinic but since that wasn't available he went to
00:30:42
his doctor and said hey I'm taking drugs and I'd like to stop yeah so the doctor
00:30:48
trying to help David out prescribed something called Syer now I've not heard of this drug and that makes sense
00:30:56
because this drug has has since been banned the side effects for this stuff are terrible some patients taking this
00:31:03
drug experienced psychosis during all of this mess this is when David asked a former girlfriend
00:31:11
Sheila mayor to drive him out of town this out of town trip was for the purpose of David selling about4 to
00:31:19
$5,000 worth of meth I could not determine if Sheila was fully aware what the trip was for
00:31:27
mhm and we know how that ended that trip with David in a shootout and cuffed and
00:31:34
thrown in a Cell both David and Sheila were initially charged with capital murder
00:31:41
Sheila turned witness for the state's case against David pal she testified for the prosecution against David the
00:31:49
charges against Sheila were then reduced she was sentenced to 15 years but got out on good behavior this was after
00:31:58
four officer ablano was a good cop and a decorated officer he was married with two small children he was only 26 years
00:32:08
old when he was shot and killed David was convicted of capital murder in September of
00:32:16
1978 and he got a death sentence he went off to Texas's death row and then off to
00:32:23
Rusk state hospital for the criminally insane after several months there he was returned to death row now most of his
00:32:32
years in prison he had a good amount of privileges he worked frequented the library he taught many of his fellow
00:32:40
prisoners how to read he became an advocate for the mentally and physically disabled David was even featured in a
00:32:48
film documentary about the Texas death row because of how bright David was he could better articulate life on death
00:32:56
row than the others that were interviewed he became the main interview for the documentary because of his
00:33:03
compelling descriptions of Life on death row over the years David went through several trials and of course the appeals
00:33:11
process there was the argument that information was not presented at David Pal's trial that could have affected his
00:33:20
sentencing this was the argument that David was not the only shooter the thought here captain was both of these
00:33:28
individuals David and Sheila were in the vehicle so David's defense is trying to
00:33:34
make the argument that Sheila was shooting as well and there were some statements that said that Sheila could
00:33:40
have possibly been the one that threw the grenade officer vgas people argue this and say you know what if this had
00:33:49
come out and if it in fact it is true because we have for every one person that said Sheila was involved in the
00:33:55
shooting and may have thrown thrown the hand grenade there's a person that says no that pal was the only one to be
00:34:03
shooting at the cops and trying to take people out that day so the people against the death penalty have always
00:34:10
argued if this information would have been presented at David's first trial then maybe once found guilty he would
00:34:17
not have been sentenced to death where I wonder something else captain and first
00:34:24
off I actually don't believe that it's true that Sheila was shooting at police or throwing hand grenades or any of that
00:34:29
I believe it was all David that night but I wonder the opposite had this information been presented at his first
00:34:37
trial maybe it doesn't spare David's life but maybe both end up receiving a death sentence because we have a cop
00:34:46
that was killed on duty as well as several other attempts on lives of officers that came to help that officer
00:34:54
that night right I think that's a pretty good point there were plenty of attempts
00:34:59
to commute David's death sentence there was the ongoing argument about what kind
00:35:05
of prisoner David was so again the people that are against the death penalty come running to the front line
00:35:11
and they say David was a model prisoner once he got off the drugs once he was behind bars he never heard anybody he
00:35:19
was the perfect prisoner and he even helped people he taught people how to read and he was an advocate for uh
00:35:25
people that had disabilities do we know if he was medicated at or not once he was in prison I don't know that
00:35:33
he was medicated I do believe he would have been medicated when he was at the hospital for the criminally insane right
00:35:41
and the way he ended up there Captain was once he was in prison he refused to eat for several days so it it looked
00:35:48
like he was trying to end his own life they transfer him there he kind of gets right after several months and then they
00:35:56
they send him back to death row I commend David for helping all of these other prisoners for teaching them to
00:36:04
read and for being an advocate and standing up for people with dis disabilities I think that is phenomenal
00:36:11
stuff that he was attempting to do after he was a complete horrible person piece
00:36:17
of [ __ ] well and see David's David's whole thing is a very difficult situation for me it's something
00:36:23
something that I struggle with because when we talk about the death sentence it's it's a crazy thing I mean here's
00:36:30
this guy where without the drugs and without this possible psychosis brought on by the prescribed medication right
00:36:39
maybe he isn't a a killer maybe he isn't a violent man but I did a little digging
00:36:46
he was not a perfect prisoner he didn't spend all of those years in prison without any infractions at all he had
00:36:52
several minor infractions but he was not the perfect prisoner that that the people against the death penalty would
00:36:58
would scream and yell to the presses right well always fine no matter if you're for the person or against the
00:37:04
person nobody really likes the truth right but it's like again if this psychosis State plus the
00:37:13
drugs this is why mental health is so important to be talked about and to be open about and
00:37:21
to again you can't just prescribe pills and just go let's see what happens because then this happens now who's
00:37:30
responsible well is this guy responsible or is the doctor responsible in in the defense of the doctor David's also still
00:37:39
doing methamphetamine daily right at that time and one thing that I recently learned about meth that I that I was
00:37:46
unaware of because I'm like man these these meth heads are always killing people and of course you think hey
00:37:52
they're going to do anything to get this drug some may even steal or become violent but one thing I learned is that
00:38:02
meth also will create paranoia in in the addicted yeah and they start thinking things that are not
00:38:10
real this person's after me this family's trying to kill me so in some of these instances when they when they go
00:38:16
out and they kill somebody they actually think that they're defending themselves
00:38:20
well see I I kind of wonder if you even take a couple steps back here's individual that graduates high school at
00:38:29
16 valedictorian it maybe this whole TuneIn tun on whatever it is this LSD experiments that he was going on maybe
00:38:40
this was some kind of self-medication for maybe early onset schizophrenia it's a possibility and
00:38:51
that's why I wondered you know is he doing fine is he um a good member of the the prison population because he's
00:39:02
medicated and and then if so is is all these cause and effect not because he was a druggie but because he was
00:39:10
self-medicating because yeah schizophrenia it's impossible to tell really and that's the thing if we could
00:39:19
look at somebody and dissect them 100% and fully understand what was going on with them then it would make the
00:39:25
sentencing process a lot easier for the jury and all involved I'm going to ask a
00:39:31
weird question but do we know if he got any scholarships that is a good question
00:39:36
he may because of his SAT score was so high well and you also talk about weird let's open up the doors and let this guy
00:39:44
in but you also talked about this weird thing about him predicting the future yeah see this is why I wonder
00:39:53
maybe he got like the merit scholarship which like the merit scholarship was known um was connected to a bunch of
00:40:00
different people but in Harvard uh Henry Murray would do test a lot of people that got the the merit scholarship he
00:40:10
would do test on famously U one of his people that he did a lot of test on was uh Ted kazinski so that's just why I
00:40:19
wondered if there was some kind of connection normally when you have these very young bright students
00:40:26
that go to universities early that sometimes they're offered these kind of alternative testing B especially during
00:40:36
the late 60s early 70s I don't know with the Tim Larry quote I just threw that in
00:40:41
there something that popped in my head when I thought of this young man who gets all caught up in the the
00:40:48
subculture of that lifestyle at once he went off to college the war activist is going on or anti-war movement he's going
00:40:59
heavily into drugs yeah but Timothy Larry was doing these tours where he was going from different universities and
00:41:07
doing these yeah I'm not say in tune out whatever I'm not saying that it's not possible I'm just saying that that that
00:41:13
was just a a slogan that popped into my mind that I just kind of randomly threw out there I I was there's never been
00:41:21
presented to me or that I could find any connection between the two and David Lee
00:41:26
po was executed by the state of Texas on Tuesday June 15 2010 he spent 32 years on death row for
00:41:37
the 1978 murder of Austin Police Officer Ralph ablanedo his attorneys had argued that
00:41:44
he did not pose a future threat to society as determined by the juries that had sentenced him to death three decades
00:41:52
earlier at the time he was the longest serving inmate executed in Texas since the state resumed carrying out
00:42:00
executions in 1982 according to murder pedia his last meal was four eggs four chicken
00:42:07
drumsticks salsa four jalapeno peppers lettuce tortillas hash browns garlic bread two pork chops white and yellow
00:42:17
grated cheese sliced onions and tomatoes a pitcher of milk and a vanilla shake Jesus well I mean calories this is that
00:42:27
10,000 calories it doesn't really matter at that point now does it yeah and according to everywhere he had no final
00:42:35
last words he simply stared at the witnesses as he died before their eyes well that's because he's probably
00:42:42
already dead from that meal now we don't know for sure we don't know if he was medicated in prison or not so we don't
00:42:49
know if he had some kind of form of schizophrenia but they believe that John Christian possibly had some sort of
00:42:58
schizophrenia yeah in the other story of the 13-year-old who shot his teacher during court proceedings it was two
00:43:07
psychiatrists that testified that Jon was acutely de depressed and suffered from Laten
00:43:13
schizophrenia and it was decided that psychiatric treatment for JN was much needed John was sent to Timberon
00:43:21
Psychiatric Hospital a private facility in Dallas until his 18th birthday or until he
00:43:30
recovered John's family would be paying the bills for this treatment not the taxpayers per the judge's
00:43:38
ruling after 20 months at Timberon Jon was upgraded to outpatient care this was kind of a weird scenario
00:43:49
here Captain because what they did was he was sent home but not to his home he was sent to the home home of a doctor
00:43:58
who would then be John's guardian and John would continue to receive some form of Outpatient Care from this psychiatric
00:44:07
facility and we mentioned that his family was required to pay the bills for this treatment I did the math on this
00:44:17
and figured it up kind of conservatively but for 20 months in this treatment facility his family spent near
00:44:28
$100,000 to treat this young man John Christian did go on to college and law school to this day he is currently
00:44:38
practicing law in the Greater Austin area wow Wilbur Rod Grayson was the English teacher at an independent Austin
00:44:50
School District in Austin Texas Grayson was a graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington and was in his first
00:44:58
year of teaching when he was killed on the job in Grayson's free time he was an amateur
00:45:05
actor news reports reveal that American Educators have been losing their lives in school tragedies since
00:45:14
1764 members of the national teachers Hall of Fame believe that it is time to recognize and honor these Brave
00:45:21
Educators for their dedication to their jobs and to their students Emporia State
00:45:28
University in Kansas in partnership with the national teachers Hall of Fame created a monument and Memorial area
00:45:37
that will be a permanent tribute to Educators who literally gave their all for their profession yeah this site is
00:45:45
called the memorial to Fallen Educators which was designated as a National Memorial in
00:45:53
2018 the names engraved on two granite slabs include teachers from Sandy Hook marjerie Stoneman Douglas Santa Fe and
00:46:03
yes Wilbur Rod Grayson from merchon Junior High yeah and one of the things I think 2020 has taught a lot of us is how
00:46:12
appreciative we should be towards a lot of our teachers I know personally friends of mine that are having to
00:46:19
homeschool some of their kids and just the difficulty of one trying to get them excited to learn it uh but also to
00:46:27
understand the information themselves and to give it back so so a big shout out to all the teachers out there and I
00:46:33
think a shout out to all of the police officers on the Austin City PD as well as all the Educators and students that
00:46:43
were at merchon Jor high on that very tragic day Thursday May 18th 1978 a day that started with tragedy and
00:46:53
ended with tragedy [Music] for everything True Crime Check out true crime garage.com and there you'll find our
00:47:16
recommended reading page do we have any recommended reading for this week yes sir Captain this week we are
00:47:23
recommending one of my favorites check out Texas monthly magazine Texas monthly does several absolutely brilliant long
00:47:32
form true crime stories each year Robert Draper did one on the Grayson case that
00:47:38
we covered today back in April that's Texas monthly find that in many more great recommendations at true Crim
00:47:45
garage.com and until next week be good be kind and don't litter [Music] the Angie's List you know and trust is
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