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Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you were doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host Nick and
00:01:47
with me as always is a man who you can see live at Go Bananas coming soon. Here is the Captain. Go Bananas, [music] more
00:01:55
like Go Nuts. It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling [music] a friend.
00:02:04
Today in the garage, we are drinking Remington Gold by the family-owned MPH Brewing. Remington Gold is a slightly
00:02:14
hopped golden ale. It's potent without being overbearing and it won't pierce the palate. ABV 7.3%
00:02:24
garage grade three and three quarter bottle caps out of five and let's give some thanks and praise to our good
00:02:32
garage friends that we think are absolutely gold. First up, a cheers to Alex in La Pine, Oregon. A big we like
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to give goes out to Jack Meehan in >> [music] >> Reading, Massachusetts. Next up, we have
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a long distance cheers to Cindy Stevenson in Loire Valley, France. And last but certainly not least, we have
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Emily from Biddeford, Maine. Everyone we just mentioned went to truecrimegarage.com
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and helped us out with this week's beer fund that went for the beer run and filled up the old garage fridge and for
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that, we thank you. [music] Yeah, b w e e r u n, beer run. Check out truecrimegarage.com, click on the merch
00:03:13
page, treat yourself. And Carl, that's enough [music] of the b, isn't it? All right, everybody gather around, grab a
00:03:19
chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. >> [music] [music] [music] [music]
00:03:55
>> The following is from the Arizona Republic. The headline, Hunt for killers of Indian boys
00:04:03
unsuccessful. The search for suspects in a murder location is continuing without any success in the
00:04:11
deaths of three Gila Indian boys. They were stabbed to death before their bodies were laid on railroad tracks to
00:04:18
be run over by a freight train. The bodies were discovered at 12:35 a.m. on June 1st, 1976
00:04:28
by an engineer and two brakemen of Southern Pacific freight train, which struck them as they lay on the track
00:04:36
about a quarter mile northeast of the intersection of Recker and Rittenhouse roads.
00:04:42
The site is 25 miles southeast of Phoenix. The Sheriff's Department's Sergeant Dominic Spizano said that six deputies
00:04:53
are working the case, but they have been unable to turn up any major leads. Quote,
00:05:00
it's a matter of trying to stumble onto something. Like somebody getting arrested or
00:05:05
someone stopping the right car and finding blood in it. The victims were identified as Richard
00:05:11
Chase Jr., age 11, his brother Russell, age 10, and David Johns, age 11, all of Blackwater, a reservation town.
00:05:22
Spizano said a missing link is from 10:30 p.m. May 31st, when the boys were last seen
00:05:31
until 2 hours later when the train struck the bodies. He said they were last seen about a mile
00:05:38
and a quarter southeast of where they were found. Spizano said that they were still hoping
00:05:43
to get some suggestions and leads from the public. Meanwhile, a relative of the three boys
00:05:51
who lives on the reservation called the murder just madness. Mrs. Betsy Green, the tribal secretary
00:06:00
for the Gila Indian Reservation Tribal Council, said, quote, "It's part of the madness that seems to
00:06:07
be occurring all over the world. We have no feeling of hatred. The boys are just gone."
00:06:16
Mrs. Green said people on the reservation have all been touched by it >> [music]
00:06:21
>> because it is not something that normally happens among our people. She says she didn't believe an Indian
00:06:29
person is involved in the murders. Quote, "There isn't anyone I know on the entire reservation who would do anything
00:06:38
like this." End quote. These boys were killed on May 31st, 1976, and run over by a train just a
00:06:47
short time later in the early morning hours of June 1st, 1976. And Mrs. Betsy Green is absolutely
00:06:56
correct. It is just madness. This is True Crime Garage. >> [music] [music] [music]
00:07:18
>> On November 21st, 1977, the town of Vinita, Oklahoma, moved through a Monday with the quiet cadence
00:07:27
of a small town. The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, also called the MKT or even
00:07:36
more popularly the Katy, cut behind backyards, threaded beneath bridges, and pressed a line of steel through
00:07:44
neighborhoods bound by schools, churches, and family ties. The town's identity was shaped by its
00:07:52
connection to both the Cherokee Nation and its role as a crossroads. And the train rolling through this town
00:08:03
was a big part of their daily life. A 7-year-old boy lived an ordinary life, a life that by nightfall would be
00:08:11
shattered beyond understanding. His name was Michael James Martinez. He was born
00:08:17
in February of 1970. At this time, he's a first-grader. He's slight, bright, and earning A's and B's.
00:08:25
He was actually repeating the first grade because of too many absences the prior year, not because he couldn't keep
00:08:33
up with the schoolwork. Teachers found him to be precocious and kind, and neighbors remembered soft eyes beneath
00:08:41
heavy black bangs and a shy boy. He was of Native American descent, however, newspapers of the era left his tribal
00:08:50
affiliation as unspecified. He lived on East Flint Avenue with his mother, Bonnie Ruth Martinez, two sisters, and
00:09:00
two brothers. An older sister, Brenda Easter, lived only a few blocks away. His father, Robert Martinez, lived in
00:09:08
Bartlesville, about an hour's drive from Vinita. The family had modest means. Now, that
00:09:16
afternoon, that November afternoon, Bonnie planned a night out with some friends, so she sent Michael and his
00:09:23
brother to Brenda's house, their older sister's house. Brenda's back fence bordered the Katy line, and her neighbor
00:09:33
was a teenager named Roy Robinson. Bonnie's evening out was a rare break for the single mother
00:09:42
raising six children. One of them grown by this point. Earlier that day, Robert Jr. and
00:09:50
Michael, these are the two boys that go to their older sister's house, to Brenda's house.
00:09:57
Their father had given the boys brand new bicycles. A couple of wonderful gifts from their
00:10:03
father, but that wasn't all. Each boy also received a crisp, clean $1 bill. So, that evening Michael and brother
00:10:12
Robert are doing great. They are living life, loving life, filled with a day on new bicycles, and now hanging out that
00:10:21
evening at their big sister's house. One of the best gifts you can get as a child, new bicycle. Bicycle represents
00:10:29
freedom, my friends. Earlier in Vinita, another story was unfolding beside the tracks. Let's introduce another
00:10:36
individual that is paramount to our story. This is Gary Leroy Whistler. W H I S L E R. And it will become clear
00:10:47
later in our true crime story why I am spelling his name out for you. He's a local teenager, Gary Leroy Whistler.
00:10:57
He's unemployed. He's a high school dropout, so not setting the bar too high. Winner,
00:11:02
winner, loser dinner. Yeah, he had drifted in and out of institutions since he was about 9 years old.
00:11:09
He was going to go over to his buddy's house. This is Roy Robinson's home. Roy was only 17. The two spent the
00:11:19
afternoon together in the shed behind Robinson's house. Uh this is described as a rough
00:11:26
outbuilding with an opening toward the railroad, a direction toward the railroad. Whistler
00:11:33
reportedly had been sniffing paint before he arrived at Roy Robinson's house. So, he's already showing up to
00:11:41
Robinson's pretty messed up. And he gets to Roy Robinson's house about 3:30 that
00:11:48
afternoon. They settled into the afternoon They settled into an afternoon of drinking whiskey and inhaling paint
00:11:56
fumes together. So, party party. Normal Monday afternoon jackass behavior. Yeah, these are
00:12:06
two typical butt plugs. Yeah, this is um Don't get me started on Roy's mother, but you're like, "Hey, this is this is
00:12:15
the old the slightly older kid that you're going to hang out with. He's unemployed and dropped out of high
00:12:20
school. No No, thank you." Yeah. [clears throat] At approximately 8:45 p.m., Gary and Roy left on foot
00:12:30
with the goal of finding more liquor. Previously that day, as said, they were hanging out in the shed
00:12:37
together. They were getting messed up. They had gone out one time prior to get some more liquor and paint. Now,
00:12:46
this time they decide, "We need to go back out and we're This time we just need to get some
00:12:51
liquor." Yeah, but like you said, it's 1977, right? So, in their defense, being bored back then
00:13:00
was difficult. It was a challenge. Kids today will never understand what being really bored means. And probably
00:13:09
not good adult supervision here as well. I mean, they're not They're not out in the middle of the woods somewhere hiding
00:13:16
hiding under a bridge. They're in Roy Robinson's backyard. Yeah, but it's also a time period where it's like, "Hey, why
00:13:23
don't you go outside and I'm going to lock the door so you can't get back in." So, they go out for liquor. This is
00:13:29
roughly about 9:00 p.m. or so at this point. Somewhere between returning from the store back to Roy's mom's house, the
00:13:37
two parted ways. So, it sounds like there's multiple reports here. Okay, one report says that Roy stayed outside cuz
00:13:47
he's the younger of the two. The thought was that Gary could get in there and maybe buy some liquor without getting
00:13:55
carded cuz he's the older of the two. Right. And one report says that Roy was kind of watching through the the store
00:14:03
window or glass door and thought that oh, the transaction's not going to go down so he bailed.
00:14:11
The other report says that shortly after leaving the store, Roy was ahead of Gary, thought Gary was following him
00:14:18
back to the house and somehow they got separated. Roy makes it home, Gary doesn't.
00:14:24
Whatever the case, that's the scenario by the time Roy gets home. Roy is home, Gary is not no longer with him. Now,
00:14:32
let's go to the neighbor's house, right? Brenda's house. Back at Brenda's house,
00:14:36
we have little Michael. He has something that he's very excited about, that $1 bill.
00:14:43
A small treasure for a first-grader and it is burning a hole in his pocket. He wanted to spend it. Not a saver. So,
00:14:52
he tells his brother, "Hey, I'm going to go to this nearby convenience store." I
00:14:58
think he was trying to convince the brother, but the brother had no interest in going with him. So, he tells his
00:15:04
brother he's going to ride his new bike a few blocks away to a nearby convenience store. So, sometime between
00:15:09
9:00 and 9:30 p.m., his older brother Robert Jr. watched little Michael ride off into the twilight toward a nearby
00:15:18
convenience store with that single dollar in his pocket. He was wearing blue jeans, a windbreaker, and he
00:15:24
pedaled away on his new maroon 20-in bicycle. Now, one thing we should point out right here,
00:15:32
Captain, is as we've already said, we we have Roy Robinson, the 17-year-old, and
00:15:37
we said Roy's home is right next door to Brenda Easter's home. Some reports have
00:15:43
them living as next-door neighbors, others state that they lived nearby on the same street, but either way, every
00:15:50
report states that Brenda's backyard and Robinson's backyard both face the Katy railroad tracks. Now, after all this,
00:16:02
Gary Whistler disappeared for about an hour, ish. So, a little after 10:00 p.m., cries are
00:16:09
heard from Robinson's backyard. "Help me. Help me. God help me." Roy steps outside of
00:16:18
his home, seeing his buddy Whistler stumbling from the shed, holding a half-empty fifth of whiskey in his hand.
00:16:27
Wow. So, Roy and his mother Irene, they run out and they help Roy's friend Gary into their house, where he
00:16:36
collapses on the couch, and both mom and son would later report that Gary slept there
00:16:44
until late the very next morning, until about 11:00 or 11:30 a.m. on November 22nd, 1977.
00:16:53
Yeah, like you said, they've already been drinking. He's huffing paint, and now we have this other half-empty
00:16:59
bottle. It's all good, man. It's not like he's got a job or school to go to the next day. Yeah.
00:17:05
So, that is where that dude is sleeping on the couch until 11:00 or 11:30 the next
00:17:13
morning. Now, let's go back in time a little bit here, Captain, to the small hours of that same day, November 22nd,
00:17:22
1977. So, at 12:58 a.m., a Katy train crossed the bridge between North Van Street and
00:17:31
North First Street at about 15 mph. As the engine rolled through, the crew noticed something on the tracks. By the
00:17:40
time they understood what they were seeing, it was too late. Beneath the trestle, Michael's small body had been
00:17:46
severed into three parts by the passing train. The crew immediately reported what they had seen. Police officers
00:17:55
arrived at the scene to beams of the train lights. What was discovered is within 50 ft northeast of the bridge,
00:18:05
they found a scatter of objects. They found the boy's body on the tracks. Police acknowledged
00:18:13
that this area was a known drug hot, and they were searching this area high and low looking for any clues or evidence as
00:18:24
to why this boy had been placed on the tracks and then passed over by the train. Right. When news broke, of
00:18:32
course, shock rippled through Vinita. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation,
00:18:39
OSBI, with Agent Jack Lay among the core, joined up with Craig County Sheriff's Department and the Vinita Police
00:18:50
Department to investigate, search the area, reconstruct Michael's final hours. The manner of death was
00:18:59
declared a homicide. Yeah, cuz I guess the first thing you're going to ask yourself is is this just an
00:19:07
accident? He got a new bike. He's going to ride to the convenience store to he mistime the train and and get hit by the
00:19:16
train. Yeah, I could see how one would would think that, but the problem with that equation then becomes the witnesses
00:19:25
actually see him on the track prior to the paint the train passing over him. Right.
00:19:31
>> These are the the crew members of the train and he's just laying there flat on
00:19:36
the tracks at that time. Could could he have been pinned down? Maybe, but he's not show he
00:19:42
was not moving as the train was drawing closer and closer and closer to his body
00:19:48
before passing over. Right. So, at the body discovery site about 50 ft from where
00:19:57
his body was discovered, authorities found a gold spray paint can, plastic bags with paint inside,
00:20:06
a blood stained soda bottle, scattered nickels and dimes. Remember, police already said
00:20:15
or at least acknowledge that this area was known as a drug haunt. What they did not find was equally
00:20:21
important here, though. They have no clear murder weapon and no sign of Michael's new bicycle. The autopsy takes
00:20:31
place the very next day. Michael's remains were autopsied at the state medical examiner's office in Tulsa,
00:20:38
Oklahoma. The cause of death was listed as multiple stab wounds. According to the medical examiner's early estimate
00:20:47
the killing took place between 11:00 p.m. and midnight on November 21st, 1977. The murder weapon was determined to be a
00:20:57
small blade and the victim had been stabbed again and again. Early reports counted 38 stab wounds. Wow. Later the
00:21:08
tally settled around 29. So, the official report here Captain saying 25 punctures, wounds to the head, back, and
00:21:18
chest. One pierced the heart. Four cuts on Michael's left hand were ruled as defensive wounds. So, the the child's
00:21:26
palm lifted against the blade to defend against the blade during the attack. There were no signs of sexual assault.
00:21:35
His body was left between the rails within blocks of his home exposed to what would come next,
00:21:43
the passing train. Yeah, so so many questions. What's the motive? It's probably not money
00:21:50
cuz he's a child. But then you wonder is is this a sexually motivated crime or possibly did somebody attack him just
00:22:00
because of his race? Yeah, the key here is he we know what time he left his home.
00:22:08
And what you're going to want to determine quickly is did he ever make it to his destination, which he told his
00:22:15
brother where he was going. So, you're dealing with a small window of time anyway, the the time in question.
00:22:24
That window could get significantly smaller if he doesn't make it to that convenience store. So, really what you
00:22:32
have here is you have Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. We already mentioned Agent Jack Lay. We have other
00:22:39
OSBI personnel working there as well. You This is typical for most states, and it's very similar
00:22:49
to how we operate here in Ohio, especially during this time period. You have the
00:22:56
local the most local of authority show up, which would be the Vinita Police Department. And luckily, any big call
00:23:04
that they get, I would imagine they're a rather small outfit. Any big call that they're going to get is also going to
00:23:11
make its way to the Sheriff's Department, who's going to come in and assist and probably just take over,
00:23:16
especially in a case like this. But, both of those outfits are going to call in the biggest and best of resources
00:23:23
they have, which is OSBI. So, we have pretty much all hands on deck rather quickly
00:23:31
in the scenario. And immediately, we have a great lead. That same day that Michael's body was discovered, I mean,
00:23:40
it's truly it's the middle of the night, but at some point that same day, an unidentified man in his early 30s was
00:23:47
arrested near the railroad tracks by Craig County Undersheriff Carol Cheney. So, we have a transient that was
00:23:55
detained near the tracks by a Craig County. Right. This is where the story steps way outside of the murder of
00:24:04
Michael Martinez. So, it gets way into the weeds here, but that's okay, because that's where we live, my
00:24:10
friends. We live in the weeds. So, Captain, if you will allow me to pull the audience into the weeds with us, I
00:24:16
thought this was a garage, but now I know after 10 years, it's actually a building full of weeds. It's a garage
00:24:24
surrounded by acres of weeds. Somebody needs to come out here and mow. So, I'm going to I want to get into some
00:24:31
very dark Oklahoma and then Arizona true crime history here for a moment. We're here for it.
00:24:39
Right. Well, very quickly, what we have is hope. It it you have fear and hope that's
00:24:49
fusing into like a single possibility here for the investigators, okay? We have a sheriff from Mayes County.
00:24:57
He's in the city of Vinita. He's there on a cattle theft investigation and he sees this man that
00:25:05
they've detained near the tracks. Of course, they they've detained him cuz they want to talk to him and question
00:25:10
him, what does he know about the murder of this boy? Well, this sheriff says, "Hey, wait a second. I think that might
00:25:17
be who we've been looking for for a long time, Gene Leroy Hart, an escaped prisoner." So, of course, always time
00:25:28
and geography are huge, huge factors. So, geography, Vinita is in Craig County, Oklahoma. Craig County is the second
00:25:37
most northeastern county in the state. So, it's right up there by Missouri. Just south of Craig County is Mayes
00:25:45
County. So, just 5 months prior to the murder of Michael Martinez in Craig County, three girls, Lori Farmer, Doris
00:25:55
Milner, and Michelle Guse were pulled from their tents seemingly one by one and murdered in the woods during the
00:26:02
night. This was at Camp Scott. This is the Girl Scout murders, the Oklahoma Girl Scout murders case.
00:26:09
>> Right. This took place in Mayes County, just one county south of where this case
00:26:15
is. So, the sheriff visiting from Mayes County wondered if the detained transient could be Gene Leroy Hart.
00:26:25
He's a fugitive accused of the Girl Scout murders. Gene Leroy Hart had been at large since
00:26:32
1973 after escaping from a Mayes County jail, but he was known to still be in the area
00:26:39
and he was a natural suspect in the triple murder because he escaped from jail after being convicted of kidnapping
00:26:46
and raping two pregnant women. Jesus. This guy's a monster. So, the authorities from Mayes County thought,
00:26:54
"Look, we finally caught up to Hart. We found our guy." However, quickly they learn that this
00:27:02
was not Gene Leroy Hart. And in fact, it was a guy named Gerald Ray White, a rail-riding vagrant.
00:27:13
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>> All right, we are back. Talk hands in the air. True crime nerds, mount up. Cheers, Captain. When we left off, we
00:29:01
were talking a little bit about the Oklahoma Girl Scout murders. And long-time listeners of this show will
00:29:07
remember that we covered that case back in December of 2018 in a three-part series. Yeah. And that is episodes 265,
00:29:18
266, and 267 on your garage radio dial. So, where we are now, we figure out that this dude is not Gene
00:29:30
Leroy Hart. He's a train-hopping hobo. It's Gerald Ray White. Yeah, but just because
00:29:37
you're train-hopping doesn't mean you're a murderer of children. Well, he's in the area.
00:29:45
Yeah. And that makes him a better suspect than most, or at least somebody that they need to talk to. Now,
00:29:55
this is going to lead investigators to believe that perhaps this dude who hops trains in multiple states, that is
00:30:03
picked up near the tracks where we find a homicide victim, maybe he's the perpetrator of another
00:30:11
triple homicide, the one that we described in the trailer at the top of today's show.
00:30:18
A case where three boys were killed and then placed on the railroad tracks so that the bodies could be destroyed. That
00:30:25
case out of Arizona in just a year and a few months prior. So, this Gerald Ray White, who has no home and travels
00:30:34
alone, naturally has no alibi for the night in question, right? Because we only have a short window again to deal
00:30:43
with here as investigators. Michael leaves sometime between 9:00 and 9:30 p.m. and then the train passes over him
00:30:51
just before 1:00 a.m. So, White was questioned not only about Michael's murder, but
00:30:58
also about the May 1976 triple homicide in Arizona that shared unnerving similarities.
00:31:09
And of course the railroad track signature. Let me read this from the Tulsa World
00:31:14
News. Yes. >> And I'll take some bits and pieces of it here. A 35-year-old man described as a
00:31:20
transient is being held in the deaths of four Indian boys. He's being questioned in the stabbing of
00:31:29
a victim that was found here. So, they're referencing Vinita, Oklahoma. But he's also being questioned in the
00:31:37
stabbing of three victims found near Chandler, Arizona. Right. >> And so they brought in two investigators
00:31:46
from Maricopa, Arizona. And they have local authorities there as well per the article questioning Gerald
00:31:55
Ray White in the deaths of Michael James Martinez and then three boys from May 31st, 1976 in Arizona. All the
00:32:06
victims' bodies were placed on railroad tracks after the slayings and run over by trains.
00:32:13
White was arrested a day after Martinez boy's body was found. Officers said the boy had been stabbed
00:32:21
several times before the body was placed on the tracks. They go on to say that he is a sort of
00:32:28
transient who rides the rails from Bakersfield, California to the state of Missouri. The detectives said that he
00:32:35
has relatives in California and Missouri. Arizona officers flew to Oklahoma after learning of the
00:32:42
similarities in the slayings. And these are these are their words and I'm taking their words
00:32:48
from the articles. It says, quote, you have four young Indian males, you have them all dead of multiple stab wounds.
00:32:55
They are all apparently robbed. They were all killed at night and whoever killed them placed their bodies on the
00:33:02
train tracks, said detective K. Lines of Arizona. They were all run over, too, says K. Lines.
00:33:13
They did say that the article does say, Captain, that White has not been charged, but did appear before a judge
00:33:20
and was being held under $250 bail. So, this is a guy that you can put him, or at least he has the
00:33:28
ability to have been in both locations, and you hear the similarities in the crimes.
00:33:35
Those three boys, unfortunately, were all killed that night, May 31st, 1976. The similarities being that they were
00:33:43
they were younger they they were on the younger side, but they were all older than our Martinez victim here in
00:33:50
Oklahoma. But they were stabbed and placed on the tracks and left there. And then
00:33:56
Martinez, what we do know is he was stabbed and killed and then placed on the tracks as well. And this would be
00:34:03
somebody that would hop on a train, ride into a to a town or ride somewhere and then hop off
00:34:12
and wait to catch the next one and then make his way back and forth between these two different locations,
00:34:18
California and Missouri. So, when they bring this Gerald Ray White in for questioning, he immediately fails two
00:34:24
polygraph exams. Not good. So, yeah. >> Liar, liar, pants on fire. >> It's looking more and more like they
00:34:31
have their guy. Now, as they continue to look into this guy, he goes on to fail as many as 20 more polygraph
00:34:41
examinations over the course of four days. But also the problem with this is what is this guy's mental state? I mean,
00:34:49
he is riding the rails. Mhm. Is he riding the rails cuz he's just a man full of adventure or is there something
00:34:57
going on with him mentally? Here's what I'm picking up here. It the Have we ever done a case where we hear
00:35:05
that they administer 22 polygraph examinations in the course of four days? Or and I also
00:35:15
>> if or if I'm reading this wrong, 20 Right. polygraph examinations the Usually, when somebody fails one, they
00:35:23
might give them one or two more, maybe three at most, but at some point they arrest the guy
00:35:29
and charge him. Right. >> what they're doing here. They just keep giving him polygraph examinations. I
00:35:35
think this is To me, this is tipping me off that it's something that you were talking about, that something is telling
00:35:41
them there's something not right with this guy. Well, and do they administer a test where they know all the answers he
00:35:50
is giving them are correct but still failing the test? So, you're exactly right. You are exactly
00:35:58
Meanwhile, he's probably sitting there in the room like, "Man, these tests are really hard. I've failed 20 of them
00:36:04
now." >> [snorts] >> So, what they conclude what investigators conclude and Look, we hear so many cases where this
00:36:13
goes the opposite way, right? Guy failed a bunch of polygraph examinations. He's got no alibi. He's
00:36:20
some bum that's been riding the rails. Lock him up, convict him, sentence him to death for the murders of four
00:36:29
little boys, and then he's killed, right? The The state kills him. One of these two states execute him.
00:36:36
So, kudos to these investigators that didn't didn't jump to that conclusion and did their due diligence because what
00:36:42
they conclude is that he was a quote guilt complex reactor. Someone whose physiology
00:36:51
mimics guilt without culpability. So, someone who reacts as though they have guilty knowledge even though they
00:36:59
do not. Meaning exactly what you're saying. When they start to detect like, "Hey, maybe
00:37:05
this guy there's something wrong with him and we just have the wrong guy." They start giving
00:37:10
him tests that include questions of things that they know he cannot be guilty about or things that he could not
00:37:18
be lying about. >> Right. And so, when he continues to fail test after test after test after test,
00:37:24
Well, then you know, right? Then you have to go And it's not saying that lie detector
00:37:29
tests are complete [ __ ] but we're saying for this guy for this guy Well, we can't take uh
00:37:37
we can't take these tests serious. This should be an Abbott and Costello bit where you're questioning the guy, he
00:37:44
keeps failing the lie detector test. And then and and the one guy goes, "Man, are you sure that machine's I keep
00:37:51
failing these tests, man. I I These tests are hard. Are you sure it's working right? You sure your machine's
00:37:57
not broken?" And the detective's like, "Well, we figured out you're broken, so." Yeah. Yeah. We figured out you're
00:38:02
the broken >> Another butt plug in this story. So, he gets out. They they they rule and
00:38:08
determine that this guy it's he's not our guy and they actually clear him and rule him out as being a viable suspect.
00:38:18
Now, of course, the case doesn't close. The town still has a dead child and no answers
00:38:25
to what happened in this horrific case. Now, a few days after Michael's body was
00:38:31
discovered, funeral services were held for Michael James Martinez at Ribbon Indian Church
00:38:39
in Spavinaw, Oklahoma. We have scores of family, friends, classmates, and neighbors who attended.
00:38:47
Afterward, he's buried in Ribbon Indian uh sorry. He's buried in Ribbon Indian Cemetery.
00:38:54
The community the these old stories, they almost seem like something that didn't happen.
00:39:01
You know, when we look back so many years after the fact, this would be close to 50 years ago
00:39:08
now, and even the way that some of the newspaper accounts of these cases read, it doesn't
00:39:15
seem real in some way. This was very much real, man. This was This was a community that pulled together and had
00:39:23
no clue what the hell had happened. They didn't They didn't know how to deal with this. The community
00:39:31
they're trying I mean, for the most part, they're performing the rituals at the ceremony of a of a murdered
00:39:39
7-year-old. Holding hands, saying prayers together, all while knowing that the killer had
00:39:46
not been named in any final way. And the manner of death was so violent. This has
00:39:52
got to have a fear factor of nine or 10 in it. It It almost feels a little bit more like a
00:39:58
warning rather than a crime. Eight days after the killing. So, he was killed late November. This puts us at November
00:40:05
29th. Officers found Michael's maroon 20-in bicycle tossed into high weeds about 25 ft off of the railroad tracks.
00:40:14
This would be actually about three blocks from the bridge. And the bridge area is about
00:40:20
where he he was run over. That was another question that I had is motive. Right? Is this uh a racial thing? Is it
00:40:29
a sexual thing? Is it just I'm on drugs so I'm going to kill you thing. Or what does this kid have? He has a new
00:40:38
bicycle. So that would have value. But like you said, freedom. So if you have an
00:40:44
individual, whether they're a teenager or adult, that's transportation. So if you're walking down the road
00:40:54
and you stumble upon this kid, you go, well, I'll take this bike and my walk becomes a lot faster.
00:41:02
Absolutely. Absolutely. But once you find the bike, then you go, well, that that's probably not what happened unless
00:41:11
the person came back and dumped the bike later. Yes. And And I apologize, not everybody is cool with
00:41:17
the term Indian, but I'm reporting this as I prefer to say Native American, but But
00:41:24
you're reading the reports. >> I'm the reports at the time that that is the word, the terminology that would have
00:41:30
been used back then and was used back then. So what we end up with you, Captain,
00:41:36
this would take us months later. So now we're into March of 1978. We have 14-year-old Daryl Scott.
00:41:46
He found a small pocketknife near the crime scene. He turns it over to police. Its
00:41:53
dimensions matched the wounds or at least could be the murder weapon. They never
00:42:00
say that this is is the murder weapon, but it is consistent with a weapon that did the
00:42:08
did the job here. Right. And >> [clears throat] >> it bore no fingerprints linking to
00:42:13
anybody, but this would make sense if it were to be the murder weapon, then it's been sitting outside for the course
00:42:20
of roughly 4 months. But by this time, the investigation had already taken a big pivot.
00:42:28
And that was because on February 8th, 1978, police arrested 19-year-old Gary Leroy
00:42:37
Whistler after his father, Jerry, reported a domestic disturbance involving his son,
00:42:44
Gary. So, according to the report, Gary Whistler appeared high and panicked when police
00:42:53
arrived at the home, and he was hallucinating saying that there were men that were
00:42:59
trying to kill him. His father telling police like he he started freaking out at some point talking about these men
00:43:07
who were trying to kill him, and he started behaving very not just erratically, but very
00:43:12
violently. So, he's in custody getting picked up for this domestic disturbance. That's on February February 8th. On
00:43:20
February 10th, while still in custody, he signs a statement in the presence of Undersheriff Cheney, OSBI Agent Jack
00:43:30
Lay, and District Attorney Secretary Ann Williams. The statement did not name Michael
00:43:37
Martinez, and it did not include date. It was really like a hazy, disjointed, I guess more of an impression than a
00:43:46
confession, but it was regarded as a confession to the murder of little Michael Martinez.
00:43:52
In the signed document, Whistler said that he remembered being at the railroad trestle
00:43:59
drinking and sniffing paint. He believed something was after him. So, he grabbed a knife and started
00:44:07
stabbing to defend himself. He recalled throwing something on the tracks. He said maybe it could have been
00:44:14
a body, but he didn't remember what it was. And tossing a knife away. He says he also remembered picking up a
00:44:22
bicycle and throwing it into a field but before returning to his friend Roy Robinson's backyard and going into the
00:44:31
shed. Mhm. This is Look, I don't know if police pushed him into this confession or if he was
00:44:40
completely blurred by intoxication or if he's just trying to hide the absolute truth here.
00:44:50
But regardless, this signed document will lead to prosecutors charging him with the first-degree murder
00:44:58
of 7-year-old Michael Martinez. They did hold a preliminary hearing on March 29th, 1978 and after that with
00:45:09
this contained testimony from law enforcement, train crew, family, and such, the a judge ordered
00:45:17
Whistler to be held for trial, right? So, that's those charges and now we're going to have a murder trial,
00:45:25
right? Leading up to this trial, they did do a toxicology report, but as one would imagine back in
00:45:31
the '70s, this was not a quick process. The toxicology results come in and would later become a
00:45:38
bitter point of dispute in this case because the testing results indicated large quantities of spray paint of a
00:45:46
spray paint chemical in Michael's system. The victim's system and a 0.04% blood alcohol level. Now, unfortunately,
00:45:56
Captain, some of the Craig County residents living in glass houses were straight-up eager to cast some stones on
00:46:05
Bonnie Ruth Martinez. The mother. Of course. And they at the time they were casting these stones, I don't think
00:46:14
because of this spray paint chemical found in his system or the blood alcohol found in his system.
00:46:23
It was more about Bonnie Ruth Martinez making the decision that would ultimately later be used
00:46:30
against her by some of these people in the harshest way possible. Saying, you know, she sent Michael
00:46:35
to Brenda Easter's house before going out for the evening. That she'd rather be out bar hopping than
00:46:43
tending to her 7-year-old boy. Something that she didn't do often. Right. And here And here's the thing.
00:46:50
Look, we've talked about this before. Newspaper coverage at the time this some of the reporting
00:46:59
just played out this way and I think it fueled people in the communities back then.
00:47:05
And it's it's a real pisser because if you go back in time these these old newspapers and the some of the reporters
00:47:13
that filled their pages were quite brutal with their handling and writing about family members of these victims,
00:47:20
especially when it's children. When it's a child that's murdered. Shaming the parents or
00:47:27
parts of the victim's day or choices that the victim made. It It A lot of these read almost as, you know,
00:47:33
everything's a cautionary tale in the telling of some of these stories in the old newspapers. So, this is going
00:47:41
to bring us to the murder trial. Yes, the trial opened on October 12th, 1978 before District Judge William J.
00:47:50
Whistler. An uncanny similarity of name, but spelled differently than the defendant's
00:47:57
name. That's why we spelled the other whistler's name prior. At the trial, we'll try to stick to the highlights and
00:48:04
of course the lowlights, I guess you would say. District Attorney Sid Wise and Assistant
00:48:10
District Attorney Royce Hobbs represented the prosecution. The defense was led by Tony Jack Lyons with
00:48:17
co-counsel of Gary Dean. On the 12th and 13th of October, the prosecution laid out the scene and the
00:48:26
science. With Chief Forensic Toxicologist Richard Prouty described described large
00:48:33
quantities of toluene. That's that chemical found in spray paint and also describing the alcohol in
00:48:41
the victim's system. Pathologist Dr. Nicholas T. Forbes detailed the 29 stab wounds, 25 to the
00:48:50
head, back, and chest and one fatal puncture to the heart, four defensive wounds on the left hand, no sexual
00:48:57
assault. He mentioned a diagnosis of tuberculosis. Raised cautiously the possibility that
00:49:06
this could be brought on by repeated paint sniffing. It could explain the tuberculosis.
00:49:13
So, again, mom thrown under the bus. So, Bonnie Martinez, she she does take the stand here and she vehemently
00:49:23
rightfully so denies that her son her 7-year-old son was huffing paint and drinking alcohol.
00:49:29
She's pointing out like this is tied to his murder. This isn't stuff that he was
00:49:33
doing leading up to his murder. This is something that happened the night that he was killed and probably in my my
00:49:41
opinion has everything to do with why he was killed. It explains some of that night and probably describes the
00:49:50
perpetrator or perpetrators of his murder. Yeah, cuz the scenario I see kid takes his new dollar bill with his
00:49:57
new bike. He's going to go to the convenience store to get something from runs across
00:50:04
one teenager, maybe multiple teenagers. They either ask him if he wants to do it, he does it
00:50:10
out of fear, or maybe they force him to do it. I mean, we've all done some stupid stuff when you're a kid and you
00:50:17
run across some teenagers and they go, "Hey, kid, you want to hit of this whiskey and a hit of this
00:50:23
cigarette?" Sure, you know. And some of that is you're trying to fit in, or some
00:50:28
of it is you're scared to say no. And a lot of times the person offering that up
00:50:34
might be doing it out of their own amusement and mean no real harm in in the matter, either. But
00:50:41
the the kid's seven. Se- Look, I'm I only represent one 7-year-old, one, you know, myself, who
00:50:49
was once seven. Yeah. >> I didn't None of that was I wouldn't even known that that stuff
00:50:55
existed. Um I don't even think I knew what alcohol really was when I was 7 years old.
00:51:01
I was too busy with things like bicycles and G.I. Joes. Right, but some douchebag kid
00:51:09
some douchebag teenager says, "Hey, man, take a hit of this." And maybe has a knife out.
00:51:15
>> You know. And he either did willingly or at the suggestion of an older person, or
00:51:23
did it under protest, it was forced to do it. But what I'm saying is I'm backing up the mom saying I I
00:51:31
it would it would shatter my world to learn that he was doing this on a regular basis
00:51:37
Yeah. prior to the night that he was killed. So, we also get Craig County Medical
00:51:43
Examiner Dr. Charles Benton who states that his estimated time of death was between 11:00 p.m. and
00:51:53
midnight. And he did say that that would be a guestimate. Katie crew members that So, the train
00:52:02
crew members testified that the body was not present on their first pass around 11:30 p.m. nor on their second
00:52:10
pass. Right. But, they saw it around 12:50 a.m. on their third pass and then unfortunately the train passed over it.
00:52:19
So, now again this window's getting even smaller and smaller and smaller. Because what do we
00:52:26
know took place? He was attacked. He was stabbed 29 times and then placed on the railroad tracks. Yeah, which is
00:52:34
difficult, too, because did this happen way earlier and then somebody went back to move the body.
00:52:41
Or move the body and never had left the area prior to Right. >> placing the body on the tracks. So, the
00:52:49
confession, that signed confession was introduced at trial. The defense attacked it as a product of pressure on
00:52:57
a troubled youth signed by somebody who was susceptible to suggestion and clouded by intoxication.
00:53:04
They introduced a potential alternate suspect Gerald Ray White, the transient detained near the tracks the
00:53:12
day Michael's body was found who had also drawn attention in an eerily similar Arizona case.
00:53:20
Now, we have OSBI at the trial. They did acknowledge that look, White originally
00:53:27
was a suspect. He became a suspect because of where we found him and then the failed polygraph
00:53:33
examinations, but he testified that he had failed 15 to 20 more in rapid succession
00:53:43
And stated that he had that pattern of a guilt complex reactor with no physical evidence tying White to
00:53:52
the Vinita crimes or the Arizona crimes. Well, what's sad about this whole case is because of the time period,
00:54:01
if it was today, this would be probably solved very quickly. And there would probably be a mountain of evidence
00:54:07
because we have what we assume is the murder weapon. We also have this vehicle, the bicycle, that might have
00:54:14
evidence on it. And uh also we have the victim. And the bags, the the spray paint cans and all that
00:54:23
stuff. So, I mean, you got tons of stuff that you could test for DNA and fingerprints and and other things.
00:54:29
Yeah, I I think that they may have found that knife a lot faster, a lot sooner today. And if it were in
00:54:39
fact there that night, lying somewhere near our crime scene, and was located that night, they
00:54:47
could have potentially have found suspect blood on it or fingerprints. But also we could find
00:54:55
to today with our technology, we might be able to find a a purchase for that pocket knife
00:55:01
through Amazon or whoever. We do get dueling psychiatrists here. Oh, that's fun.
00:55:07
>> we have What kind of gun did he use? >> O'Carroll, he represented the defense team and he
00:55:14
says that uh two exams showed him that Whistler was schizophrenic and prone to fantasy and suggestion, to put it short.
00:55:26
And then we have Dr. R. D. Garcia, chief forensic psychiatrist at Eastern State Hospital, who said
00:55:35
he examined Whistler three times, found no signs of schizophrenia, and diagnosed antisocial personality,
00:55:44
and testified that the defendant knew right from wrong. In the end, the prosecution called 22
00:55:52
witnesses, the defense called six. Whistler did not testify. The handling of evidence came under
00:56:01
fire, most notably the bicycle and the knife, but >> I mean I don't know why they would say the
00:56:07
handling of evidence. They They just didn't find the stuff. And may maybe that's what came under fire was not
00:56:12
being able to find, not being able to locate the knife. I The bicycle, we know the bicycle was
00:56:18
his. There's no question about that. What would come into play would be the knife. We don't know The knife was found
00:56:25
near the murder scene, but when was it placed there? If you could prove that it was placed there the
00:56:31
night of the murder, well, then it looks to be much more likely to be the murder
00:56:36
weapon. But having found it months later, it could have been dropped at any time.
00:56:41
>> Well, again, if you have a knife and you have a good autopsy, you'd be able to
00:56:49
determine if this knife could have been the murder weapon. So, I think a lot of this I think a lot of the problems in
00:56:56
this case is simply the time period. And OSBI is pretty good a pretty good outfit. I wasn't alive at this time, so
00:57:05
I couldn't vouch for their work back then, but yeah, I think you're absolutely right. I think a lot
00:57:11
of this has to do with the difficulties of it being 1977. Yeah, I was alive at this time, but I
00:57:18
was in a different human vessel, so uh I don't remember much from that time period.
00:57:27
>> On October 14th, the case went to the jury. They were instructed to consider some possibilities here. First-degree
00:57:37
murder, first-degree manslaughter, not guilty, or not guilty by reason of insanity.
00:57:43
By 11:00 p.m. that night, deadlocked at eight for guilt and four for acquittal, they could not agree and the judge,
00:57:53
William Whistler, declared a mistrial. Gary Leroy Whistler was returned to the Craig County Jail on $50,000 bond. Now
00:58:03
we have 5 months that passes. And now it's March of 1979 when a second trial will begin.
00:58:12
This time we have Assistant District Attorney Dan Allen representing the state. Tony Jack Lyons once again representing
00:58:20
the defendant. Photographs of the scene were introduced. Former Vinita Police Sergeant Bob Marshall and three Katie
00:58:31
crew members described rails, the bridge, the discovery of the body after the third
00:58:38
pass. None, of course, could place the defendant at the scene of the murder or at the killing.
00:58:46
On March 14th, 1979, Roy Robinson, despite recent hospitalizations and injuries,
00:58:55
a slashed wrist, a stab wound, again he testified that his friend Whistler returned around
00:59:04
10:00 p.m. on the night in question, very drunk, but with no blood on his clothes or hands,
00:59:12
and that Whistler had slept on the couch until late morning. And then again we have the dueling
00:59:19
psychiatrists with their findings. Yeah, you'd think that there would be some blood on this individual. Oh,
00:59:26
absolutely. 29 stab wounds. Absolutely. The thing here though is so let's get to
00:59:32
this dueling psychiatrist cuz one thing that I find interesting in the second trial is described slightly slightly
00:59:40
different than it was in the first. Okay, so Dr. O'Carroll said that Whistler lived in a fantasy world. He
00:59:47
was both homicidal and suicidal. And he testifies that he had attempted self-harm multiple times. Remember this
00:59:55
is the doctor for the defense team. For the defense of this young man. And he also says that the this young man is
01:00:03
extremely susceptible to suggestion and coercion. So in a lot of ways this is suggestive
01:00:11
that look it would be easy to get a confession out of this guy especially one that's kind of vague like this that
01:00:17
doesn't name the victim. But it also states that he found him to be homicidal and suicidal. So it's
01:00:24
really kind of setting the table for a defense of a couple of things that either he's innocent or he's innocent by
01:00:33
because of insanity. Yeah. An insanity defense. Again the for the state we have Dr.
01:00:40
Garcia who pushed back against the schizo schizophrenia and maintained that the defendant knew right from wrong.
01:00:48
And that was his findings. >> Yeah, but that becomes difficult too cuz you might know right from wrong when
01:00:53
you're sober, but if you're high on paint And really drunk like I I would assume
01:00:59
>> copious amounts. Yeah. >> copious amounts. The way that Roy Robinson describes it
01:01:06
and the papers describe it they're on like their they're they've gone through two bottles
01:01:11
of whiskey at this point. Now were they both full? We don't know. Like we don't get a great
01:01:16
description here, but that's a lot of liquor for two people. Yeah. especially two younger dudes.
01:01:25
This time the case goes to the jury, but they only the deliberation is only for two hours.
01:01:33
And the jury acquitted Gary Leroy Whistler of the murder of Michael James Martinez.
01:01:40
And acquitted him of placing the body on the tracks. He declined to speak to reporters.
01:01:48
As he left the courthouse, he walked away free having been incarcerated, being held for trial
01:01:57
since February 1978. So, 13 months in jail. If if if you're sitting there and you think and believe that he's
01:02:04
absolutely guilty, well, he he wasn't he didn't go completely unpunished. He did
01:02:10
technically sit in jail for a little more than 13 months. The problem here is a couple things for
01:02:18
me with this case. Like I think what where he gets the acquittal, I think the problems for the jury
01:02:26
are twofold. One, the time of death. Because if you put a lot of weight into the time of death, we have the doctor
01:02:34
saying, "Well, I put the time of death between 11:00 p.m. and midnight." And you have the witness along with his
01:02:43
mother, so you technically have two witnesses saying, "Well, by 11:00 you know, he was home." What did they
01:02:52
say? But they they he was home prior to 11:00. Yeah. He was in their shed. He came out
01:02:59
of the shed saying, "God help me. Help me." And I I think that that is a is was a big
01:03:05
hurdle for the jury. I think the other part of this that's a big hurdle for the jury is your witness, Roy
01:03:12
Robinson, right? Like because here's here's the here's where I can't get away from
01:03:19
these two guys as being the best suspects. It's what was found in the victim's body. The paint chemical in the
01:03:27
liquor. That kid ingested this stuff sometime after 9:00 9:30 that night, and then he's placed on the tracks after
01:03:34
being stabbed. Right. >> I don't think he did any of that on his own. I think he did that at the suggestion of
01:03:41
somebody else, maybe two persons, maybe one. But then you go, "Okay, well, can you
01:03:47
say 100%? Can you feel good saying 100% that it was just Gary Leroy Whistler that did this?"
01:03:57
I don't think you can because I think his buddy Roy, for all the reasons that you would say
01:04:01
that Whistler might be guilty, Roy looks to be just as guilty. The other thing, too, that I I wonder how
01:04:09
well the prosecution challenged this, is we have that vague confession. I'm really surprised that that vague
01:04:17
confession didn't work back in 1977, especially when you have a high school dropout
01:04:23
drug user. Mhm. But it didn't work. But as vague as that confession is, or maybe it's coerced, what have you.
01:04:34
Also keep in mind who who is saying that the timeline doesn't line up, that that the time frame
01:04:41
doesn't line up? It's his buddy Roy Robinson. But Roy Robinson isn't saying that that night or the next day. He's
01:04:48
not telling police, "No, this guy was here all night. He was here at the time that you think that the kid was killed,
01:04:55
so he couldn't have done it." He He's saying this in February. So, 4 months, 3 and 1/2 months later,
01:05:06
how accurate is that witness statement? And I get it that his mom backs that up.
01:05:13
Irene backs that up. But how accurate is that when they're being asked to to recount
01:05:19
the events of a night from 4 months prior? That becomes extremely difficult. And also
01:05:27
some of the people they're asking to recount these events were intoxicated or high on paint fumes.
01:05:35
>> And the doctor said that the time of death was a was a guestimate. Yeah, but also the this idea that
01:05:41
>> Meaning he could have stab he he could have stabbed the boy. The problem, I guess, is the crew
01:05:47
members' statements of not seeing the boy on the tracks when they pass cuz they What I wonder is how deep are these
01:05:54
stab wounds? I know there's multiple, but is there any evidence of of him being placed on the train tracks or is it
01:06:03
possible that he moved himself onto the train tracks trying to get help? It's difficult to say without
01:06:12
having I mean, I understand that there's a lot of stab wounds, but when you when they're saying, "Hey, we found this
01:06:18
pocket knife and that could be the murder weapon." Well, there's multiple blades on a pocket knife. So, how deep
01:06:25
are these stab wounds and is it there is there any possible chance that when he was left
01:06:31
>> Well, but you have the one you from the report you have the one that says the there was one that reached
01:06:39
the heart. Right. >> And so, the way that the the report we have, the way that that reads to me is
01:06:47
that once that injury occurs, he's dead. Right. He's not moving. 4 months after this
01:06:55
acquittal, this would be July 19th, 1979 while mowing grass at Fairview Cemetery
01:07:05
Gary Whistler was reportedly attacked with a knife. The assailant was 19-year-old Bill
01:07:13
Hensley, described as a friend of the Martinez family who attended both trials. He was charged with the
01:07:21
assault. The suggested motive was revenge. Having believed that Whistler was guilty of killing the
01:07:31
Martinez boy, he chose to attack him with a knife. Whistler was not harmed, from my
01:07:37
understanding, in the attack. Michael James Martinez's case is listed on Oklahomacoldcases.org,
01:07:49
and it talks about everything in a brief summary that we talked about here in our
01:07:54
coverage today, discussing that the last known sighting of him was him riding his bicycle saying he was going
01:08:02
to go to a convenience store, only about two blocks away from where his body would eventually
01:08:09
be found. And according One thing that it states here, too, Captain, is according to
01:08:14
media reports, upwards of 15 people were polygraphed in the case. Eventually, though, authorities would arrest
01:08:21
19-year-old Gary Leroy Whistler, though the arrest did not lead to a conviction. After two
01:08:30
trials, one hung jury, Whistler was acquitted of having committed Michael's murder. No one else has ever been
01:08:37
charged in the case. If you have any information regarding the murder of Michael James Martinez, please contact
01:08:44
OSBI at 800-522- 8017. >> [music] >> Well, thank you so much for joining us here in the garage or the garage full of
01:09:01
weeds. For everything true crime, check out truecrimegarage.com. Sign up on the mailing list and until next [music]
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