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beer run you do the same thing BW double are you in beer run and that's enough the Beals Nia all right everybody gather
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around 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 Miller was 10 years old and the only African American girl at Camp Scott she
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originally was excited to go to camp and sold a lot of cookies to help raise money but became nervous just before
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leaving a counselor that rode the bus to camp with her said that she was very quiet and her mother asked if Denise
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could be allowed to call home the next day since she was very hesitant to go once she got the camp's cot we know
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Denise was homesick Denise's father was a Tulsa police officer Denise was involved in a lot of activities
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including tap dancing singing and gymnastics betty Millner her mother related what happened to her when she
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found out when her daughter was dead saying they told me Denise is dead she and two other girls I asked if it was an
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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
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there pretty heavily Lori farmer was very mature for her age the blond-haired brown-eyed two little girl skipped a
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grade because she was so advanced Lori was just eight years old but her birthday was in June and her parents Bo
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and Sherri planned to visit their daughter at camp on her special day Sherri farmer said her husband Bo
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arrived back from his overnight shift at a hospital said he looked awful ghost white then she noticed he wasn't alone
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with him was his colleague dr. Anderson Anderson spoke first he said sherry you need to sit down and I said no I'm not
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going to sit he said Lori is dead where do you put that in your brain there is no place to
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put that she said sherry has been haunted by her daughter's final moments in the presence of one or more killers
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Lori's letter written that night reads quote I've met two new friends I'm sharing a tent with
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them we're sleeping on cots I couldn't wait to write love Lord since her daughter's death
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sherry farmer has taken up the cause of victims rights over the past four decades she has met spoken to and
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counseled thousands of people in classes seminars and one-on-one together with her husband farmer also started a
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parents of murder children's chapter in Oklahoma farmers said quote if you have something bad happen ask yourself how
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can this help anybody else yeah they constantly say when you feel bad about your situation that give
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service to others and through that you'll feel positivity Michelle GU say was nine years old when
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she left for camp Scott which she attended and loved the previous summer she was also into soccer
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she left explicit instructions to her parents to water her plants while she was gone her parents said that they were
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told that their daughter had been killed but they learned of actual circumstances
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of her death from the TV news after Michelle's death her father threw himself into victims rights efforts in
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Oklahoma becoming a leading voice and volunteer of the crime victim and witness Bill of Rights a package of laws
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adopted by state legislature from their GU say was appointed by the governor to the Crime Victims Compensation Board
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which was created in that effort he said quote this is my commitment to our situation kousei said in 1994 after 13
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years of never missing a board meeting stated because of my daughter maybe the world will be a little better place to
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be hopefully some good is coming out of this on June 23rd 1977 ten days after the murders Mays County District
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Attorney Sid wise called a news conference a suspect he said was being charged with the murders this is a 33
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year old Jean Leroy Hart a Locust Grove native and Cherokee Indian heart was already
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familiar to authorities a convicted rapist in burglar he was a two-time prison escapee and was on the
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run for four years since his second escape from the Mays County Jail in 1973 law doesn't seem like he was so much on
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the run but when he got out he was kind of protected by the reservations well his his previous convictions they said
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the sentences for which totaled more than 300 plus years yeah he was now facing three first-degree murder charges
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wise announced why 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 believe that Hart was staying in yeah wise added that the Hart had the
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advantage in eluding law enforcement and that he was an expert woodsman and had many family members living in the area
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and so the manhunt that would go down as the largest in state history began the hunt for Hart fanning out for miles
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through tick and snake-infested hill country and involved a 600 person army of searchers in dogs and aircraft all
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they had to do is start sniffing to see if they could smell that piece of [ __ ] a
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physical description of gene heart began to appear daily and media reports he's 5
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foot 10 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
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rapist many in mayes county doubted hearts guilt he was seen by many as a scapegoat for the white establishment a
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quote handy suspect yeah while this [ __ ] anyways because he escaped from prison he raped and
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tortured women before then his community the Indian community claimed that well he actually didn't rape them and didn't
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torture them that that they were trying to escape from their husbands hearts mother told reporters quote my boy
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didn't do it and sheriff Weaver wants to frame him because he don't like Indians
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the idea that Hart was being targeted because he was an Indian struck a chord with many in the area which had a large
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American Indian population when Hart was charged in the killings his friends and
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relatives believing he was innocent closed ranks around him according to someone cry for the children Hart had
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250 relatives living within a half mile square area and they were more than willing to help him other sympathizers
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agreed that sheriff Weaver had a personal grudge against Hart but they thought it was because Hart had escaped
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twice from his Jail those escapes former journalist Mike wheat believes had helped create an aura of mystery about
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Hart quote he had become this folklorist kind of character a local legend said we
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Hart seemed to be able to appear and disappear at will we said well and I'm sure look I'm sure in that area and in
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that time there's plenty of crimes that were not committed by an Indian that an Indian person did the time for that
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crime mm-hmm I'm sure there was some kind of racial bias there but this guy because of being able to escape from
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prison he'd seem to become a legend people seem to actually believe that Hart was capable of shape-shifting
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according to legend and ability that some Cherokees may have where I have that ability this some believed is how
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he escaped prison twice and continued to elude capture Hart was also a local football star he had excelled in high
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school and was considered to be of NFL caliber somehow he took on the reputation of a hero which did not help
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him the Gators trying to get people to turn him in so through the summer of 1977
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agents used tracking dogs ground searchers and aerial heat-seeking equipment to hunt for heart it's like
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they were chasing a ghost or like Bigfoot one of the agents Harvey Pratt a Cheyenne Arapahoe was a firm believer in
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American Indian mysticism someone cry for the children quotes Pratt as saying quote the Indians in this part of
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Oklahoma believed that medicine men have medicines so strong that they can change
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themselves into birds or animals or give someone else this power yes so to the shape-shifting or or skinwalkers as they
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may be called right so when the heart was in prison you know being a piece of [ __ ] for them being in jail for the the
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rapes he turned he shape-shifting into diarrhea and he slid right through those bars well all of this just simply added
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to the mystique about heart and there were rumors that he was under the protection of tribal medicine men this
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explained not only his elusiveness many believe but other strange happenings in and around the manhunt like the deaths
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of two of the law enforcement tracking dogs they were said to have been cursed by someone mm-hmm authorities were they
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without poison for the dogs well the authorities became desperate and on its front-page August 3rd 1977
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the Tulsa world addressed an open letter to Hart urging him to surrender the letter included the governor's personal
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guarantee ensuring Hart's security and a fair trial but this did not work so let's talk about what led law
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enforcement to Hart you've already brought up his previous convictions but so we have sheriff Weaver and we also
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have agent Linville they stated that within hours of the murders at Camp Scott authorities were making a list of
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people they thought could have done this people whose mo was similar gene Hart's
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name was on this list his MO in his previous had some similarities particularly the
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cord and tape method of binding multiple young victims locals were likely right that Weaver did have a grudge against
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Hart he had been able to elude authorities since his second escape from Weaver's Jail 1973 there are local
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rumors also that Weaver had personal reasons to hate Hart something about a woman I've gone through all those rumors
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they all go back to some kind of relationship with with a woman I'm unclear of the details of sighs was it a
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woman Bigfoot what we do know is the authorities investigating the murders checked with mental hospitals and
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prisons in the area for a list of outpatients and parolees with histories of sex offenses on that list would have
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appeared Jean Leroy Hart's name as he had escaped the convicted rapist and fugitive whose mother lived less than
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half a mile from Camp Scott at the time of the murders of course investigators checked out other potential suspects in
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those early days they spoke with one guy who was living in his car in the area but for whatever reason they dismissed
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him they spoke with and I don't know if this is his real name but this is the name given mm-hmm okay with a man named
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Mike a camper seen in the area who was caught stealing a hatchet and supplies from the Boy Scout camp the week before
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the murders a Native American hitchhiker was arrested as well and was released after questioning so they did look at
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some other individuals now three days after the murders - squirrel hunters found a flower sack with some fresh
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human excrement with wadded-up newspaper in front of a cave three miles southwest
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of 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 in a beige vinyl case a pair of gloves a broken slingshot in 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 as hers the cave was located a
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hundred feet from the rune cellar and foundation of gene hearts childhood home tracking dogs from Camp Scott had also
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alerted to an area near a second cave this is two miles from Camp Scott and overlooking the home of Hart's mother
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where a farmer had reported seeing someone who looked like Hart a week after the murders now did we did I hear
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this correctly that there was there was some Dookie and by the newspaper in a flower bag I believe did they test this
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Dookie how I'm being serious for well wouldn't they be able to tell you what kind of Dookie it is is it human Dookie
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is it is it dog dukey well the reports are that it was human okay but now could they link this to heart I could they say
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that it was this piece of shits piece of [ __ ] I don't know look I didn't went to school for
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computer so I don't know how they would link that to her and all that reading that you've been doing when you be able
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to find out through all that reading if you could link [ __ ] - [ __ ] well I'm questioning what test would be available
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to do so in 1977 the old [ __ ] test well maybe back in 1977 they didn't have tests but poop is rich with DNA so they
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should be able to test that to see if at least that matches Hart and then we'd know that Hart was used in that cave
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well it was at this cave that investigators found a boot print that matched the boot
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in tent number eight and a hair attached to a bandage that was found to have the
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same microscopic characteristics as hearts and a third cave was found one mile from the camp this is on Jack
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Shroff's property cops were led to this cave by a young jail inmate Darren Creekmore who told authorities he met
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with heart at this cave after the murders in this cave written on the wall were the words the killer was here bye
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bye fools 77 - six - seventeen investigators arrange to have the photos found near the first cave to be
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published in the local papers seeking information on the subjects and locals quickly identified them as two women who
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had attended a wedding in 1969 investigators traced the photographs to Lois Lindsey who had worked at a prison
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Lindsey moonlighted as a photographer and developed his pictures in the prison's darkroom he shot the 1969
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wedding of prison workers daughters and used a man named Jean Lee Roy Hart as his assistant in the prison darkroom
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processing these photos Hart could easily have printed extra copies and kept two for himself without anyone
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knowing the evidence against heart is starting to pile up so who is Jean Hart Hart was a Cherokee Indian born November
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27 1943 in Claremore Oklahoma he was raised by his mother and barely knew his father he was a C average student in
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school but it excelled in sports and was considered a local football hero he married young and his wife soon had a
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child they later divorced and she refused to let him see his offspring in 1966 Hart was working for a Tulsa steel
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company that is when he raped the two women the victims Joan and Barbara were both 19 married and pregnant they were
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best friends since junior high school as they were leaving a Tulsa club one night
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a large Indian man according to an account of the crime and one cry 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 backseat making strange animal-like grunting or moaning sounds the girl in the trunk had
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to listen to the whole thing heart then drove some distance and duct-taped the girl's noses mouths and eyes and led
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them into the woods where he raped and sodomized each of them while the other listened petrified he left them hogtied
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in the fetal position just like Michelle GU say with nooses around their necks that tightened if they tried to free
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themselves so clearly intending for them to die despite choking nearly to death one of
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the women managed to free herself and then her friend they stumbled to the highway and waved down a car one of the
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women saw the rapist license plate number and both women identified this person as Jean Lee Roy Hart the evidence
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against him combined with the identification of both victims led Jean Hart to plead guilty to two charges of
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kidnapping and one charge of first-degree rape he was sentenced to a very light three 10-year terms served
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concurrently and he was paroled after serving just 28 months this was in March of 1969 one of the rape victims told
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police Hart tried on her glasses he wore them while he was driving and he kept them Hart was soon arrested again in
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June 1969 after attempting to burgle the home of a female police officer who woke
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to find him entering her apartment cops pinned three other burglaries on him as well
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Hart refused to take a plea deal and in 1970 he got a stiff sentence of 305 years in prison so it's nice to find out
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that the burglaries not the rapes of two pregnant women or what got him this basically this life sentence he escaped
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from the county jail in May of 1972 jumping off the roof he was recaptured eleven days later and was assigned to
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the State Penitentiary in April 1973 Hart was transferred back to the County Jail in September 1973 he
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escaped again hack sawing his way out with a saw supplied by a friend accompanied by two inmates Hart was
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still at large when the girl-scout murders occurred four years later investigators spent long nights in the
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woods as they continued surveillance on places they thought Hart might be hiding
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finally they got a break by late September 1977 reward money gathered from various sources had grown to more
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than twenty thousand dollars and that was enough for one informant to offer police help in finding Hart this from
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the Tulsa World newspaper quote the informant told authorities that Hart's brother-in-law was plotting to drive
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Hart to the Cherokee reservation in North Carolina so the OSBI put a tracking device on the
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brother-in-law's car the agents plan was thwarted when Hart supporter who worked
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at the police headquarters snitched and told Hart's family about the bug but eventually the OSBI informant learned
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Hart was staying with an old man in a tarpaper Shack in the Cookson Hills on April 6 1978 OSBI agents closed in and
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took Hart by surprise without a single shot being fired the manhunt lasted ten months consumed
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more than 10,000 man-hours and cost the taxpayers two million dollars it's worth
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noting that when Hart was captured he was wearing shorts a tank top and women's glasses once Hart was captured
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and trial loomed Indian activists spoke up for Hart 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 Jean country the American Indian Movement
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sent representatives to Oklahoma to monitor the situation in the Cherokee Nation tribal council voted to donate
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$12,500 for Hart's defense supporters wore t-shirts with slogans like stop the Mayes County Railroad
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because this guy is completely innocent of everything yes hinting that Hart was being railroaded
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and set up for an unfair trial what makes us acid when does frustration and anger turned
00:24:43
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to new york or calm slash garage [Music] all right cheers mates Cheers captain all right let's dive into the evidence
00:28:35
that they have against Hart well there was an overwhelming amount of circumstantial evidence linking Hart to
00:28:42
the murders mm-hmm so let's review this first what links him to the deaths of Michelle Lori and Denise Hart was an
00:28:51
escaped rapist whose mo seemed similar he targeted multiple young vulnerable victims at once he came prepared to the
00:29:00
scene with materials to bind and gag his victims and he used both rope and duct tape to do so hog tying them with a with
00:29:10
strangulation forms he also had the ability to rape multiple times in quick succession the evidence found in the
00:29:18
caves was a link to Hart the photos from the prison wedding he developed a roll of duct tape that matched tape found at
00:29:25
the scene of the murders a roll of masking tape with a piece of plastic attached to it that had the end of the
00:29:32
tape torn exactly matching the tape used to cover the lens of the flashlight right the plastic also matched Hart's Co
00:29:40
escape II Larry DRI testified at trial that he and Hart had used the cave while living on the lam and we know it was
00:29:49
right next to Hart's childhood home and then the newspaper found in the flashlight the writing on the wall
00:29:56
taunting the police the sunglasses belonging to Susan Emery the Neyman glasses yes the 9-volt flashlight they
00:30:05
had been modified to emit only a thin beam of light we also have an associate of hearts that testified at trial that
00:30:12
Hart had been known to modify flashlights in this manner in his burglaries fort furthermore the
00:30:19
newspaper at the cave was the same addition in section as found inside the flashlight Hart was described by an
00:30:26
associate as quote Knight blind and he notoriously stole glasses wherever he went
00:30:33
Larry DRI testified that Hart stole glasses from Holmes he burglarized the killer that night
00:30:39
and discarded several pairs of glasses from Camp Scott and kept at least two pair that we know of two pieces of
00:30:47
evidence found at the shack owned by Sam pigeon where Hart was apprehended were found to have been stolen from counselor
00:30:53
and training Karen Mitchell at Camp Scott this was a souvenir corncob pipe and a small blue hand mirror nor was he
00:31:01
building the snowman pot well with all this stuff you were talking about earlier I think he was building a ship
00:31:08
man but these items the tricky thing about these items captain they were found only upon a second
00:31:15
search of the shack right and some lead this leads some people to believe that these were planted pieces of evidence
00:31:22
and that's what his defense attorneys at trial would point out you know that these they actually straight-up said
00:31:29
these were planted desperately by the sheriff to frame Hart testimony at the preliminary hearing and/or trial by
00:31:37
people who knew Hart tended to implicate him in the murders Larry DRI testified to Hart's penchant for young girls and
00:31:45
Jimmy Don bunch testified that he was in prison with Hart after the murders and Hart told him that he was stoned and was
00:31:54
drinking wine for three days when he woke up in the cave all bloodied and he was not sure whether he had killed those
00:32:01
girls or not all right so this jailhouse informant slash jailhouse snitch is telling us that heart got boozed up
00:32:11
mm-hmm what did it happen for days it happens it's been known to happen it's called binge Worthy
00:32:19
so he gets all boozed up he wakes up in this cave he's covered in blood doesn't know what he did mm-hmm but again this
00:32:28
is kind you know I don't like these to me this is not evidence this to me this is less than hearsay right because it's
00:32:38
a jailhouse snitch Larry DRI testified that he and heart broke into camps got more than once when
00:32:45
it was empty to steal food so as we all suspected Hart was clearly familiar with
00:32:52
the camp so let's talk about physical evidence shall we can we shall well first off we
00:32:58
have speculated about some different weapons and some things found but technically as far as this case goes and
00:33:05
as far as what is on record there is no weapon no murder weapon that was found and we also have no fingerprints were
00:33:14
found that they could link to Hart there was a single hair on Denise Milner's body that forensic experts who analyzed
00:33:22
it and testified stated it quote microscopically was similar to that of Hart right similar but not 100% positive
00:33:32
it was Hart's correct and we've learned things within the past 15 years that will suggest that it's very difficult to
00:33:40
say this is a 100% match when you're comparing you know hairs found at a scene and hairs found at another
00:33:47
location and the other thing too regarding the sexual assaults on the victims the evidence left behind was
00:33:55
complicated here's how it was explained by a Y magazine quote seminal fluid obtained from the victims bodies
00:34:02
presented a conundrum sperm was present yeah but Hart had a vasectomy earlier so
00:34:09
they claimed that he couldn't actually produce sperm correct the prosecution argued that Hart's vasectomy was only
00:34:17
partially successful consulting physicians said such cases could result in non-productive d-formed sperm Hart
00:34:27
had type O blood as does 45 percent of the population he was a secretor like eighty percent of the population the
00:34:35
semen sample from the victims was from a non-white male who was a secretor with blood type O and it contained deformed
00:34:44
sperm the number of people in the United States who met all of that criteria represented point zero zero two percent
00:34:53
of the population the OSB i's website states the deformed sperm seemed to match a sample from gene heart it's also
00:35:01
worth noting though that the Oklahoma state pathologist who performed the autopsies
00:35:07
dr. Neil Hoffman claimed not to a found sperm however the OSBI conducted its own
00:35:13
investigations and they claimed sperm was present and it was the same from each of the victims so simply meaning if
00:35:23
the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is correct in their stated findings there was only one rapist who
00:35:30
left deposits and their analysis of physical evidence including sperm samples and other bodily fluids revealed
00:35:38
that only point zero zero two percent of the population met the unique characteristics contained in that
00:35:45
evidence this is obviously a very very small percentage of population but it does include gene heart right point zero
00:35:55
zero two that's very very small percent what about the evidence it tended to show that it wasn't heart we have the
00:36:04
boot print which appeared to some people to be smaller than a size 11 and a half
00:36:09
the size hearts lawyer maintained that he wore yeah there's a bunch of conflicting stories about this I've
00:36:15
heard as small as nine and a half shoe size the second shoe print was smaller it was the sneaker print and this was
00:36:24
believed to be around size seven this obviously also does not fit hearts size of 11 and a half mm-hmm the flashlight
00:36:31
contained one fingerprint and that was not hearts but but you know the flashlight we believe that was stolen
00:36:39
from the farm no we have the farm owner who says he could not identify the flashlight that doesn't mean that it
00:36:46
didn't come from his rather large property right however I think that one thing we can think about here is we know
00:36:53
that Hart was known to burglarize many properties right so it could have been stolen from anywhere in any way and that
00:36:59
fingerprint doesn't mean that that has to match the killer right or it could match the killer that's the that's the
00:37:08
problem with this flashlight here mm-hmm so the other thing too though is why weren't Hart's fingerprints found on
00:37:15
anything they weren't found on anything in the caves they weren't found on the flashlight they weren't found
00:37:20
the duct tape if investigators found fingerprints of hearts at the murder scene or maybe even in the caves their
00:37:29
case would have been a lot stronger so some more information came to light in the course of the two trials in this
00:37:37
case one was a civil trial and one was criminal a month or two after the murders a camp counselor named Michelle
00:37:45
Hoffman contacted barber day and told her a disturbing story this occurred in April of 1977 the counselors had
00:37:54
returned to their tent to find it ransacked with their things scattered in some money missing a box of
00:38:02
donuts had been emptied in a note left inside the box a counselor read the note remarked how creepy it was and threw it
00:38:11
away so now she told Barbara day that the note said something along the lines of four girls will be killed or we are
00:38:20
on a mission to kill three girls mm-hmm so we don't know or don't have any evidence at all about this note because
00:38:28
remember it was thrown away they didn't report it to the higher-ups at the time later stating that they believed that it
00:38:35
was just a prank so they dismissed it only after the murders did Michelle tell Barbara about it but because of its
00:38:43
seeming foreshadowing this note has taken on almost mythical proportions well they should have reported it
00:38:50
because I mean frankly it's bad enough that you leave that creepy note but once you still donuts you cross the line well
00:38:57
the thing too though that we got to keep in mind no one can really even prove that this note ever existed and if it
00:39:06
did no one can recall the exact wording on the note or even the number of girls that it threatened right but my point is
00:39:13
if you can prove that there was Donuts and you can prove that there's some missing you can prove that there's a
00:39:18
monster out there I think given the situation I think it would be incredibly unlikely that the killer would have left
00:39:25
a warning note you know months in advance before killing these girls my only thing would be if you look at
00:39:35
somebody like heart that has done heinous crimes before maybe he has a wrestling you know wrestles with not
00:39:43
wanting to commit the crime and by maybe somehow when he went to still something
00:39:49
that he decided to leave a note to maybe stop himself if he's hiding in the area
00:39:55
and has been for quite some time and he's on the run from the police I feel like it would be I feel like it would be
00:40:03
kind of a big hey here here's somebody you should be looking for let's look around this area for what's going so do
00:40:09
you think the note is this a [ __ ] story and maybe it's just to add to their urban legend of the whole thing I
00:40:16
don't want to call any of these people out because I firmly believe that anybody at the camp that day that night
00:40:24
is probably traumatized in some form from this whole horrible horrific scene in tragedy
00:40:31
I mean I might take two example of your counselor and you see some kind of glowing light a flashlight in the
00:40:40
distance in the woods and you're trapped in you're tracking it and then it disappears at some point you're gonna go
00:40:47
I wish I would have checked that out further but also maybe if you're the one that checks out out further you become a
00:40:54
victim so there'd be a lot of scenarios that are probably playing through these camp counselors Minds the parents Minds
00:41:03
the other the campers minds of what could have happened what should have happened and maybe what they could have
00:41:10
done to stop it well as you can see already in this case to really tear through it you have to
00:41:17
have a lot of different boxes a lot of different compartments to put all of this information and the whole story
00:41:25
about this note being left threatening the lives of some girls I'm going to kind of put that in the box the same
00:41:33
boxes Jean Hart was a shapeshifter box right Bigfoot the murder trial began on March 25th 1977 after a month-long
00:41:44
preliminary hearing the long in state history the trial was held on the third floor court room of the Mays
00:41:50
County Courthouse and prior with Judge William J Ressler presiding special prosecutor Buddy Follis jr. and chief
00:41:58
prosecutor Ron Shafer were appointed to assist district attorney Sid wise who later had to withdraw because of his
00:42:07
alleged intention to profit from a book about the case apparently he agreed to furnish a
00:42:14
journalist with confidential information in return for part of the profits the prosecution requested and was denied
00:42:22
a change of venue they were arguing that it was too much there were so many people in the public that were in favor
00:42:29
of Hart that didn't believe that he was guilty too many supporters Garvin Isaac's a former public defender from
00:42:37
Oklahoma City was hired to defend Hart this was after the unexplained departure of Hart's first attorney Larry Oliver
00:42:44
both baffles me you know I know you're on a roll right now but it still baffles me that Hart played plead guilty to the
00:42:54
charges that he was faced with before these three murders hmm he pled guilty to raping and the murders of those women
00:43:02
right mm-hmm and and it still seems like the community around him is like yeah he
00:43:09
was lying about that yeah yeah I mean like it's almost like they dismiss that that ever happened well and here's the
00:43:16
thing too you have to wonder had he not pled guilty what evidence they could have shown at that trial because there
00:43:23
would have been a trial what evidence they could have shown at that trial may have changed the whole public's
00:43:29
perception of this guy hmm but because because he pled guilty avoided a trial now we talked about his first attorney
00:43:37
in this trial who he had this unexplained departure from the trial Larry Oliver years later Oliver went on
00:43:46
to say that he felt Hart could have done it and that's why he didn't represent him he said that he felt that Hart had a
00:43:52
quote dark side jury selection question 110 jurors that have eventually led to six men and six women
00:44:02
that were impaneled not a single jury member was Native American but Hart had the unwavering support of many in the
00:44:12
community in a sad note one of the victim's parents were marked that when they entered the courtroom they felt
00:44:19
that they were seen as the enemy media from all over the country flocked to the courthouse to attend the trial and the
00:44:26
atmosphere was described as a circus with spectators lining up hours in advance to get seats Native American
00:44:33
activists attending and community supporters voicing their opinions throughout the trial was sensational
00:44:41
punctuated from start to finish with outburst both attorneys were free exact yeah both attorneys were frequently
00:44:48
called to the bench for reprimands as tempers flared and verbal jabs were traded at one point Shaffer the
00:44:55
prosecutor even challenged Isaacs to go outside for arm-wrestle during closing arguments by the defense the audience
00:45:05
would often applaud or holler the judge was forced to clear the courtroom more than once during the trial we won't go
00:45:14
into the whole trial here as we've already discussed evidence against Hart but the state called 32 witnesses and
00:45:21
what we didn't mention fully is Larry dry the convict and former Co escapee of hearts testified that he and Hart hid
00:45:30
out in the caves where evidence linked to the murders was found right he also said he received three
00:45:38
threatening letters from an unknown person who he assumed to be Hart saying that if dry told anyone where Hart might
00:45:46
be hiding out his wife and daughter were in danger counselor Celia Stoll testified that two Girl
00:45:55
Scouts were scared when quote two mysterious men were near their tent sometime around the time of the murders
00:46:01
and Richard day testified that he saw a tall stranger near the creek the day before the murders Hart maintained his
00:46:10
innocence throughout the trial he stated in one press conference he gave before the trial that at the time
00:46:17
of the murders he was in Tulsa at his uncle's house the uncle conveniently died during the manhunt and couldn't
00:46:24
testify at the trial nevertheless even without an alibi the defense went on the attack and effectively under minded much
00:46:32
of the prosecution's case its witnesses testified that the hair and sperm evidence was not conclusive it claimed
00:46:39
evidence was planted the mirror and the pipe the photographs found near the cave
00:46:44
which had supposedly been seen in sheriff Weaver's possession before they were found it claimed a homosexual
00:46:52
female counselor could have killed the girls it even presented an alternative theory that another man had committed
00:47:00
these murders and although a witness who testified implicating this other man was
00:47:05
eventually charged with perjury the damage seemed to have been done the defense rested without Hart taking the
00:47:12
stand ten days after opening arguments the jury began their deliberations they retired for the night without a verdict
00:47:21
and was ready within 30 minutes of convening the next morning Wow March 29 1979 they were ready with their decision
00:47:30
a unanimous verdict of not guilty was their decision the courtroom erupted with cheers jury remarks about their
00:47:39
findings included quote a reasonable doubt and evidence wasn't there and the investigation was a screwed up mess
00:47:48
although some jurors indicated that they didn't necessarily believe Hart was totally innocent one juror told the
00:47:56
Tulsa world that all 12 had agreed after only five minutes of deliberation that heart should be found not guilty it
00:48:04
wasn't any one thing they stated there were too many loose ends too many things didn't add up in an Associated Press
00:48:13
interview a year later they quoted in the Tulsa world juror Leela Ramsay said none of us knew whether he did it or did
00:48:22
not do it we were shocked that they didn't have more evidence than what they had or
00:48:28
maybe as buddy fella suggested post-trial it was the fact that Hart was headed back to prison anyway to serve a
00:48:36
300-year sentence which wasn't admissible but which the defense let slip in front of the jury oh what a
00:48:45
party foul so the jury knew it could have quit and Hart if in fact he had done it he still wasn't going free so it
00:48:53
arguably didn't matter what the jury said prosecutors cried shocked and left in disbelief at the verdict they felt
00:49:02
they had their man right and they thought that they proved his guilt twenty years later when the oj verdict
00:49:08
came down two of the murder victims mothers said of Hart's trial in that of OJ Simpson's trial you would be
00:49:15
absolutely shocked at how many similarities there were in those two cases Sheree farmer told an interviewer
00:49:22
the alleged planting of evidence the race card all of that was played betty Milner said watching the OJ Simpson
00:49:31
trial was like it was happening to us all over again Simpson's attorney as we all know the late Johnnie Cochran he
00:49:38
talked about a bloody glove when he said if it doesn't fit you must acquit Garvin
00:49:44
Isaac's foreshadowed this 20 years earlier referencing the bloody boot print that was allegedly not Hart's size
00:49:51
saying quote you can't shrink your foot right according to reports the Hart jury
00:49:57
was not allowed to hear evidence regarding Hart's previous rapes prosecutors and law enforcement who
00:50:04
carefully pulled together the case against Hart weren't able to recover from what they called a gross
00:50:10
miscarriage of justice yeah but the the difference in this case is it look Oh Jay when he was found not guilty
00:50:18
he walked free in this case when Hart was found not guilty he was going to spend over 300 years in prison
00:50:27
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
00:50:34
purpose you know the the jury was not supposed to know that because remember the prosecution was not
00:50:39
allowed to present his previous crimes of these rapes that he had committed well and think of it this way though the
00:50:45
jury took 30 minutes right 30 minutes the the second day right but my point is by that second day somebody because said
00:50:54
hey look go home and sleep on it tonight but it doesn't matter if he's found innocent or guilty he's going away to
00:51:02
prison for over 300 years if you think in those terms then then you know what does it matter if you rule them guilty
00:51:13
or not right and I think that's the big argument that's presented here because you have this this simple fact okay I'm
00:51:21
asked as a juror to determine beyond reasonable doubt you know that this guy killed these three girls well they
00:51:32
didn't really prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt I think it was a bit stacked against them that they didn't
00:51:38
have the technology at the time possibly right we'll get into some other alternative theories here later but this
00:51:47
simple situation of well I have this little part of me that says he might not have done this okay well if we say that
00:51:54
he's innocent all right all right if we say he's guilty okay he's he's going to serve
00:52:00
life sentences right he's already facing a life sentence if we say he's guilty and he actually didn't do it then the
00:52:10
real killer or killers are getting away with murder they will never be apprehended likely
00:52:15
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
00:52:23
already going away in the 18 months following the verdict 22 OSBI agents quit they quit their job Ted Lemke OSBI
00:52:33
an inspector he unprofessionally let's say commented publicly that there would be no further investigation and they
00:52:43
might as well close the case because the jury quote turned loose the man who committed the murders interestingly
00:52:50
after the trial the pair we'll return the items of clothing from their dead children what they were
00:52:58
wearing that fateful night this a clear indication that the investigation was effectively over right so the devastated
00:53:06
parents looked for other ways to obtain justice for their daughters in 1985 the farmers and Milner's filed civil
00:53:13
lawsuits against the magic council claiming its negligence was partly responsible for the deaths of their
00:53:20
daughters and seeking a five million dollar judgment at the civil trial testimony from former campers and
00:53:27
counselors included tales of thefts break-ins and strange happenings in the years and even weeks and days preceding
00:53:35
the murders a story came out that in 1976 three moms visiting the camp were asleep when a man looked into their tent
00:53:44
the story about the warning note in the donut box was addressed testimony was heard that on the night of the murder
00:53:51
screams were heard in the night tents were opened by strange men or a strange man and there were multiple sightings of
00:53:59
a strange man or strange men in the woods and girls were grabbed but in the end the jury ruled in favor of the
00:54:07
council so once again the parents were left with no closure [Music] for all of our old episodes download the
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us in the garage here today we'll be back for part three tomorrow and until then be good be kind and don't let
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