August 12, 2021 • 41 mins
As Vaughn faces the death penalty, his initial defense team is faced with increasingly negative optics and overcoming significant gaps in Chris’s recollection of the killings. Four years into mounting a case for Vaughn’s innocence, their efforts are rendered useless.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Murder in Illinois is a production of iHeartRadio. Nine days
after they were killed, Christopher Vaughan was arrested for the
murders of his wife and three children. Vaughn's arrest occurred
at seven point fifty am once he arrived at a
Missouri funeral home to bury his family. For investigator Bill Clutter,
(00:22):
that timeline and the decisions driving the events is telling.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I mean, they charged him so they believed he was guilty,
and then just to rub salt in his wounds, they
snatched him away right before he's to attend the funeral
of his children, his wife. And that's a pretty harsh
sentence right there, just punishing him before he's actually convicted.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Do you think that was intentional?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Sure it was. Yeah. They could have waited.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
They could have They were decent human beings, they would
have waited until after the funeral, pulled him aside and
then put.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Him into hand and cuffs, just in terms of the
message that it would have sent the media and the public.
Do you think timing was intended?
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah, that was also the thing that's part of the
media show voting is because the media was right there
prepared to cover it.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Many at the time, watched the arrest unfold in real
time on the news.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Well, I mean, what a perfect state. And maybe they didn't.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Tip off the media that he was going to be arrested,
but they knew the media was going to be outside the.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Fumor because it's a high profile case.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
It's part of the theatrics of the publicity, and there
was no presumption of innocence. They decided they would punish
him before he's even tried or convicted, and.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
To go back to that earlier point because they knew
the press would be on hand. They also knew that
they could arrest him quite publicly.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Oh yeah, and they did. And that's what happened.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
I'm Lauren Brett Pacheco and is murder in Illinois.
Speaker 5 (02:03):
Calloy guy afty.
Speaker 6 (02:12):
Gay You fear.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
The ground, hay hay.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
The Once arrested, the prosecution made it clear Chris Vaughn
(02:50):
was likely facing the death penalty. At this point in time,
in Illinois, a death penalty case was advantageous in terms
of defense because of what's ref to as heightened due process.
Individual death penalty cases were provided hundreds of thousands of
dollars from the state for top tier lawyers, experts, investigators,
(03:12):
and anything needed to provide the accused with a proper
legal team and fair defense. But Christopher Vaughan's public image
was under scrutiny from the start, and his guilt seemed
presumed from the beginning. Bill Clutter recalls seeing the initial
stages of the case on television.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
This was a high profile case. It was in the media,
was in the state drone register, and it was on
the news. I did CNN covered it live. They flew
helicopters over the crime.
Speaker 7 (03:44):
Scene at the time, so I was aware of the case,
and my initial impression, just based off the news coverage
was that this is probably a sensing case rather than
a guilt Innison's phase.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
The media immediately began to to Chris's background in history.
What they uncovered didn't paint the best picture and only
served to solidify his increasingly unflattering image to the public.
Christopher Vaughan was not a perfect husband or father.
Speaker 8 (04:14):
Once detectives started questioning him, at one point saying that
he didn't remember what had happened in the suv now.
While in the emergency room after the shootings, he reportedly
was upset about blood on his cowboy boots.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I mean, right off the bat, the media reports, and
this happens in so many cases where a person is
really tried and convicted in the media before they even
hit a courtroom. The media reports picked up on some
sensational facts.
Speaker 9 (04:44):
Vaughn frequented strip clubs in Chicago and the suburbs. Months
before the murders. He told one of the strippers he
was single.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
And he made two visits to a strip club and
spent an enormous amount of money I think over four
thousand dollars. And of course this is a guy who
was making I mean he moved to Chicago to take
a job that was paying him almost two hundred thousand
a year, which there's very few people that make that
kind of salary. Those things really, I think turned public
(05:16):
opinion against him.
Speaker 6 (05:18):
Lots up theirs, visits to strip clubs and plans which
did not include his family, and.
Speaker 9 (05:24):
As many as four exotic dancers are expected to testify.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
The media's salacious covering of those strip club visits and
other extramarital activities would later prove detrimental to Chris at
his trial.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Up to that point, they had the first major lead
was the strip club.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
The interviewed the dancer.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
At Scores, so that was in between his initial interrogation
and the arrest.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Before the funeral.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
They had that, and then they discovered the email cats
with Steve Willett in Canada, and so.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
That became ability.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
He's aha mobids, He's wanted to hike into the Yukon
and leave his family.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
That's why he killed them. And so, which is all
really weak.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
We'll revisit those strip club and wilderness fantasies later in
greater detail.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
There's no stronger compelling probable cause that he did. And
then it was Bob Dieal's report where he interpreted that
the large satury blood on the passenger's seat belt had
to have been from her bleeding onto it while the
seat belt was.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Buckled, I mean, nathological explanation.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
But then after the DNA comes back that no, that's
not how it happened.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
But they ran with that and lost in.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Sergeant Lawson, who was the case agent who deal disagreed
with used that as evidence that he staged the crime scene.
He unbuckled the passenger seat after Kim was killed, and
that didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
The prosecution's initial theory, which was based on the initial
crime seen investigator Bob Deal's observations and report, hinged on
the fact that the retracted passenger side seat belt, once extended,
revealed sections that were saturated with blood. The prosecution's original
theory was that Kimberly Vaughn was wearing that safety belt
(07:17):
when she was shot, and that Christopher Vaughan unbuckled it
to stage the crime scene by making it appear she'd
removed it to enable turning around to shoot the children
over her left shoulder. The problem what investigators didn't know
at the time of Chris Vaughn's arrest was that the
blood on the retracted safety belt didn't belong to Kimberly Vaughn.
(07:38):
It belonged to Chris. This will prove significant as we
dive deeper into the investigation and the way in which
it was handled. Bill Clutter believes tunnel vision, largely based
on that initial theory, was firmly in place even before
the crime scene was properly analyzed.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Sergeant Gary Lawson was driving that bus, but it heads
with Bob Deal, the crime scene investigator, who pointed out
all the flaws of this theory that he had that
Christopher Vaughan did it and never conducted a complete investigation,
never delved into him state of mind. Of course, later
(08:18):
the FDA would issue its findings regarding the medication she
was taken.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
There were safeguards that were meant to be in place
to protect people from that rush to judgment. Yeah, did
that work out for Chris No. Not.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
The recommendations of the Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment. That report,
I think was released in April of two thousand and two,
and that's the report that retrospectively studied the innocent people
who had been wrongfully convicted.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
And put on death row.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
And one of the recommendations of that Governor's Commission was
that law enforcement agencies need guard against tunnel vision. And
they defined what tunnel vision is, and it's this rush
to judgment and you disregard other evidence, you know, such
as Bob Deal's point was the bullet trajectories all support
a murder suicide, and they do. And our crime scene
(09:15):
investigator Katie Hartman, who's reviewing deals work, so he concurs
with that and points to that as strong evidence of
supporting a murder suicide.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
But none of that was done. It was a rush
to judgment.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
They had their suspect and they were going to forge
the facts to fit their theory, which is what Bob
Deal's deposition describes. It's classic tunnel vision. And that was
one of the things that the Governor's Commission warned was
that at play in many of these wrongful convictions that
sent innocent people to death row. And of course, at
the time Chris is facing the death.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Penalty, that tunnel vision, coupled with the emotional bias the
media was fully projecting, became a significant challenge in defending Vaughn.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
In so many cases.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
And there's that initial outrage, especially once you make the
accusation that he did it, and oh my god, what
an awful thing to kill your own these adorable children
who were innocent to any of the marital conflict that
they might have had.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
That's the part of it that people have a.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Hard time understanding the emotion of that, and the media
really ramping up and pointing the finger at him.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
He really had no chance.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Clutter believes that outrage proved an insurmountable hurdle.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
You know, people can get caught up in the emotion
of a crime and forget about the same guards that
we are supposed to have the guardrails to protect an
innocent person from being thrown into the meat grinder of
the justice system.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
And do you feel that that's what happened to Chris.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
That's absolutely what happened to him.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Chris and his family started putting together a legal team
with John Rogers, a defense attorney from Saint Louis. Rogers
brought on Bill Clutter as one of the investigators for
the case.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I received a phone call from John Rogers that he
was getting involved, you know. I asked if I would
be interested if it looked like they were pursuing the
death penalty. A few weeks later that I traveled up
to Joliet and had a meeting with Jerry Killian, who
was the local council, and John Rogers. That was the
(11:38):
first time I had worked with Kerry Killy and I
had worked with John Rogers on another case that attempted
murdered case in which our client had poisoned his girlfriend
with dallium. It's a rat poison that had been banned
years ago, so we had worked before.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Because of their history, I was interested in Clutter's thoughts
on Rogers.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
He's a very thorough attorney and very thoughtful and how
he approaches cases.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
John has a reputation of being a sought out.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Criminal defense attorney.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Started out, I think as a public defender, went into
private practice, and just enjoyed a very successful law practice
as a criminal defense attorney. By the time we got
together as a defense team, you know, Jerry had gone
through the twenty hours of videotape interrogation of Chris, and
(12:36):
I just remember in that additional meeting, Jerry had some
doubts about Chris's guild based on what he saw in
the video interviews.
Speaker 6 (12:47):
Why would she bring a gun into the car with
the kids?
Speaker 10 (12:51):
I don't know why, he said, I can't. I can't
see her doing that. I can't see her shooting me.
I can't see her ever shooting the kids.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
When he was given every opportunity to blame her, he
defended her to the hilt. I mean, he never took
that bait that they put in front of him, which
you know, if somebody were guilty, they would jump on
that and be delighted. The police were inviting him to
point the finger at his wife, and he defended her
(13:33):
the entire time.
Speaker 11 (13:36):
I don't think she's not capable of of herting somebody
like that.
Speaker 6 (13:42):
Then who possibly could have done it one of the kids.
Speaker 11 (13:45):
No, I didn't see her do it.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I don't know, but interrogation tape observations aside. Like most
of the public, Bill came on to the defense team
believe Vaughn was likely guilty. And then he met him.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
My first meeting with him, I went in with my
ex wife, who was at the time working as a
mitigation specialist, and I recall going into the Will County
jail being introduced to Chris.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
I just was struck.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
By how he didn't strike me as as a killer.
I mean, he just didn't. And you know, I have
many clients who do, and I really was.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
It was one of.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Those things where, you know, my initial thoughts of the case,
expecting to meet this cold budded killer who was charged
and facing the death penalty for having killed his family,
and coming away from that initial meeting just there was
an incongruity between the charges he was facing and the
(14:57):
person that I encountered in the Will County jail. I
mean he was very meek, a mild individual, very introverted.
The last personnel prolocu would expect to be facing those
types of charges.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
I asked Bill to describe that meeting and it's setting
in greater detail.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
You know, the initial meeting wasn't subsidient, but it was
more of just trying to make an introduction with the
client and to gather some impromation that would assist with
the fact investigation.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Bill elicited details about Vaughn's relationship, difficulties behind the scenes
of his marriage, and some of the issues the couple
had been struggling with. Based on Christopher's responses, any number
of recent events within the household could have led to
the tragedy.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
He referred to this as a perfect storm. A lot of.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Things in the relationship with his wife, Kim were reaching
a point where, I mean, he had recently confessed to
her that he had had a relationship when he was
out of the country in Mexico, when he was interrogated
by police, he disclosed that.
Speaker 10 (16:12):
But I was trying to make things right. I was
taking her on a honeymoon this weekend. We're going to
go back to Herman where we had her first honeymoon.
Two things all over again.
Speaker 11 (16:24):
Who's gonna watch kids? My mom and her sister were
coming up on Friday.
Speaker 10 (16:32):
Tahaw, Yeah, there comes in the house to watch the
kids for the weekend.
Speaker 11 (16:42):
Kim, and I was surprised.
Speaker 10 (16:43):
I didn't want her to have to worry about any
of the details or anything like that.
Speaker 12 (16:47):
So I set it up.
Speaker 10 (16:49):
And I told her parents. I told my parents to
kind of coordinate the details.
Speaker 11 (16:54):
But I'm going to take her.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
So your mom and your sister know my mom and
my hands her sister. We're gonna come up Friday.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
When were they.
Speaker 6 (17:07):
Supposed to show up around you or so maybe something?
And Kim had no idea they were coming.
Speaker 11 (17:13):
I was gonna tell her later today, what.
Speaker 6 (17:18):
If she would have said a going.
Speaker 11 (17:21):
Ain't gonna happen? Why should have said that this is?
It was gonna be good.
Speaker 6 (17:30):
Do you think one weekend sex with your wife is
gonna make her forget that you've been having sex with
all these other women?
Speaker 11 (17:41):
You think who wasn't all these other one It was
just one time in Mexico, and it was a start.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Remember, Vaughan agreed to that interrogation, waving his right to
a lawyer.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
There was just a lot of things going on. What
struck me is is his characterization of this being a
perfect storm. It's really an apt description now that I
know what I know about the case, because she was
under tremendous stress.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
She was taking an online.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Class, was hoping to become a private investigator like he
had been in Washington State. That was their goal as
a couple, was to have a business together. That she
would take this online class get her degree in criminal justice.
But in the meantime, she was experiencing a stress related
(18:36):
migraine headaches and was prescribed topamax, which we later discovered
had an FDA warning six months after this had happened again.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Topamax, or to pyramate, is a medication used to treat
migraines and sometimes by polar disorder. In two thousand and eight,
a year after the tragedy, the FDA stopped just short
of issuing a black Boy warning for the drug, their
firmest guidance against using a medication, and instead released a
strong warning that people on top pyramid maybe twice as
(19:10):
likely to experience suicidal thoughts. But we'll come back to
that now.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Well, that first meeting in Joliet, I just remember going
back to Jerry Killian's office and my ex wife raised
the possibility that he could be innocent. Jerry Killian, you know,
I had watched the twenty hours of the video interrogation
of Christopher Vaughn, and Jerry gave an example where in
(19:42):
the interrogation the police are telling him that, well, you know,
the vehicle was parked under a cell phone tower, and
because of nine to eleven, we now have cameras on
cell phone towers, which wasn't true. I mean, they were
lying to them to extract a confession. But the way
he reacted was genuine and like he wanted to know
(20:04):
what did they show?
Speaker 10 (20:06):
Why can't that one guy get the video camera that
he was talking about?
Speaker 11 (20:11):
What are you talking about?
Speaker 10 (20:12):
I don't know what other detective or sergeants said. He
had a video camera the whole deal, in front of
the truck in some tower, a video camera.
Speaker 11 (20:22):
It recorded everything.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
This remains a pretty compelling question. Why would a guilty
person be so eager for police to provide what they
claimed was security footage of the crime scene. And this
began the foundation of the defense's case in support of Christopher.
The next thing they needed to do was to examine
the vehicle.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
The aha moment was when we inspected the vehicle. It
was at the Joliet prison, the one in the Blues
Brothers in the opening scene where Juliet Jake walks out
of prison with That's where the four exposition was being stored.
We had our bloodstain expert Tom Bevell there and he
(21:08):
was interested in doing a trajectory of one of the
shots that killed the child that was seated in the
middle Sander.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
That examination of the vehicle became a critical moment for
the defense.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
There was a shot that penetrated the chest and it
went through the back of the seat into the third
seat in the Ford expedition, it's a large vehicle, so
it has two bench seats in the back well. This
trajectory when we asked the crime scene services for the
(21:42):
Wedn Estate Police to lend us a doll rod, and
these are typically used to show the trajectory of the
path of a bullet. When the doll rod was inserted
through the bullet hole in the seat into the hole
where the bullet came to rest and extended that dog bot.
(22:04):
That shot was clearly fired by the person who was
seated in the passenger seat, and that person was Gimbon,
and that was really the ah moment when there was
this realization that this indeed was a murder suicide.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
In Bill's opinion, the bullet trajectory made it impossible for
Chris to have been the shooter. There was also DNA,
the blood on the retracted seat belt, and other problematic
things about the crime scene and the way in which
it was handled. For example, the white terry cloth towel
the gun was stored in was neatly laid out on
Kimberly Vaughn's left thigh when our body was found. Crime
(22:41):
scene photos clearly show its placement and that it was
splattered with blood. For some reason, that towel was not
saved as evidence. In fact, it was somehow discarded before
the autopsy. This reflects an apparent pattern of evidence not
pointing at Chris Vaughn as the shooter being discounted. And
(23:02):
when the initial police crime scene investigator on the case,
Bob Deal, expressed his concern over the investigation's nearly immediate
tunnel vision, he was removed from the case. Deal was
deposed by the defense in twenty eleven and shared his
thoughts on the experience. Here's Bill Clutter.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Normally, in Illinois, defense attorneys don't get to take depositions.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
But because this was a capital case.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
One of the reforms to prevent an innocent person from
facing the death penalty was to allow depositions in criminal cases.
And when we took the deposition of the crime scene
investigator of the Illna State Police, I mean, he described
this rushed to judgment, this tunnel vision. As a matter
of fact, I documented this in a letter to the
(23:53):
office of the Executive Inspector General, and I wanted an
internal investigation when you got to the deposition of Bob Dial.
The crime scene investigator describes this pressure from day one.
He described getting a phone call from the Sowne commander
convinced that Christopher Vaughan committed this crime.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
You know.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
He described how he was telling this commander that, you know, the.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Evidence didn't support that theory.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
That he was looking at both theories, whether it was
a murder suicide or whether it was a crime committed
by Christopher Vaughan. He had all the crime scene evidence
pointed to a murder suicide. And he describes how, you know,
after expressing that opinion, he got taken off the case.
He had no further contact with the investigators.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
This is classic tunnel vision. I mean, it really is.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
According to his deposition, Bob Deal received a phone call
in which then commander of District five, Captain Ken Kalpus,
told him Vaughn was a criminal mastermind who premeditated the murders.
And this call came before five point thirty pm on
the same day the murders occurred. And yes, that's the
same District five where Vaughn was interrogated for twenty hours
(25:27):
in his hospital gown. Throughout the one hundred and sixteen
page deposition of the former Illinois State Police crime scene
investigator Bob Deal, shares multiple and alarming examples of bias
against Vaughn that started before Deal had even completed the autopsies,
including an exchange with will County State's Attorney James Glasgow
(25:48):
at a large meeting just one day after the murders
on June fifteenth. Here's a quote. I got up to
give my presentation and explained to everyone what was going on.
And I believed that, and then believed this day that
at some point Kimberly had that gun in her hand,
and the exact thing in front of everybody was Kimberly
(26:09):
was an angel and there's no way she could have
ever held a gun in her hand, And from that
day on, I was totally dismissed as to anything that
had anything to do with this case. That tunnel vision,
along with Bond's apparent memory gaps, presented daunting challenges. Back
to Bill Clutter and the defense team strategy.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Yeah, I spoke to doctor Terry Killian.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Terry Killian as a psychiatrist and not to be confused
with Jerry Killian, one of the attorneys on the case.
The defense enlisted him to evaluate Bond's behavior and statements
during his initial twenty hour interrogation.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Terry Killian was one of our consulting experts on the case,
and he was looking specifically at the issue of dissociative amnesia,
analyzing the statement that Chris had given. Of course, a
big part of this case when he was indicted was
his inability.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
To recall certain details.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Doctor Killian, the thing that stands out is I think
about his report is that he described that Chris had
referred to his family in the present tense when he
was interviewed by police and after he was shown the
photographs of his family and was shown that they were dead,
(27:33):
that he switched and started using the past tense. He
said that that was something that would be very hard
to fake, that nuance of going from present tense to
past tense when referring to his family. So he will
be able to explain issue of dissociative amnesia. Said he
(27:55):
wouldn't be surprised if Chris is unable to recall what
happened even to this day.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Doctor Kellyan wrote a forty six page report asserting his
opinion that Chris's condition was genuine. It would later prove
problematic that doctor Kellian never actually spoke to Chris in person.
The confirmation of dissociative amnesia and subsequent report was based
solely on reviewing the hours of interrogation and other reports
(28:23):
that were provided. The defense then turned its attention to
the possible effects of the drug Kimberly was taking for
her migraines. For that, they turned to Keith Altman, a
principle of his own law firm as well as a
litigator for the Linto Law Group who specializes in complex
and scientific cases, including pharmaceuticals.
Speaker 13 (28:44):
I've been involved in psychiatric averress events associated with drugs
for some time, including theer Pittman case then at South Carolina,
which was his twelve year old who was charged with
murder for killing his grand parents three days after they
choose the Nola dosage, and several other SSR related cases.
(29:05):
Will Clutter contacted me said Hey, I got a situation
I want to bring in on. I was brought in,
had the conversation with Jerry Tillion, who was his lead attorney,
and then I remember going down to Saint Louis to
meet with Mill and Jerry and some other people. And
I was the one who also brought David Healing, one
(29:26):
of the top experts in the world on psychiatric adversus
as of drugs, to the equation to see what we
could do here in terms of the evidence personal but
general capacity topomax to cause negative mood and behavioral disturbances.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Keith happened to be ideally suited for the job.
Speaker 12 (29:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 13 (29:46):
At the time, as I happened to be working on
a to a pyramid suicide case, I was extremely familiar
with the capacity of pad propermax of causing suicidal and
self injurious behavior and the best predictor of homicidal behavior
as suicidal behavior the other way around. That's why you
(30:08):
see so many murder suicides. And then the minute he
said tokamac I said, I know what's going on here.
In fact, in two thousand and nine, there is now
a warning on all of the anti convulsives, including tropomax,
for suicidal behavior. And I was the motivating force behind
(30:30):
that labeling change happening because of another drug I was
working on related to pyramids. I had a lot of
expertise in understanding the address events associate with the drug.
It just hit a nerve ride away as soon as
I heard it.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
A reaction to the medication would have also been the
best and most plausible explanation for a sudden violent outburst,
if that's truly what happened.
Speaker 13 (30:55):
She had had a dosage change recently, and that appears
to be when there's the greatest risk of a negative
outcome associated with these drugs. It's the same thing as
true to the antidepressants. And you see these you see
these effects, And as soon as I heard that, I
had a strong suspicion. But when I was in Saint
Louis and learned of the ballistic evidence, I was utterly
(31:20):
convinced that this could not could not have been Chris.
For one of the problems is, and it's been Chris's
problem all along, is for people to accept the horrifying
reality that a mother could have killed her three children.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
The assumption that Chris, the father was the killer also
aligns more comfortably with the sentiments we hold as a
society about maternal nature. Most people find it more difficult
to accept the notion that a mother could ever kill
her children, despite a number of cases where this has occurred.
Speaker 13 (31:57):
But this is not the first time that we have seen.
Is everybody probably remembers Susan Smith who drowns her children
in South Carolina. This does happen. Mental illness is horrible,
and these drugs can cause these horrific behavioral changes, to
cause people to do things that just are unimaginable, and that.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Would also explain Chris's inability. He reiterated multiple times during
the interrogation that he did not believe his wife could
have done that.
Speaker 13 (32:30):
Absolutely. Brain chemistry is a real thing. These drugs alter
brain chemistry. They don't necessarily know how or why, but
they do make changes, and the changes can be profound
in a very short period of time. And I always
tell anybody I ever know who is going to be
on an antidepressant is make sure that your family watches
(32:50):
you in the week to two weeks after you start
or change the dosage, so that is when the risk
is most acute. Based on all the evidence that I
have seen, people just had an expectation that and mother
could nevigate us for their children. But I submit that
this was the drug altering her move behavior and I'll
(33:14):
bets you're off.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
And now the defense had their case. Christopher Vaughn's defense team,
now staffed with excellent lawyers and expert testimony, was ready
to make the case that not only did forensic evidence
at the crime scene not match up with the version
of the events that the police were reporting, but also
the idea that Kimberly Vaughn may have been experiencing behavioral
(33:38):
anomalies due to a reaction to her medication. And that
brings us to Randy's stitle and the impact his high
profile case would ultimately have on Christopher Vaughn's Here's journalist Jojosey,
editor of the Herald News.
Speaker 14 (33:56):
Randy's stitle was convicted of murder in nineteen eighty seven.
It's convicted of murray a couple in Paris, Illinois, which
is downstate southeastern part of the state Indiana. He had
his co defended Herb Woodlock, were sentenced to death.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Stitle appealed his wrongful conviction for more than a decade,
and in doing so exposed a trail of lies and
corruption that ran through multiple layers of government and law
enforcement in Illinois. He was freed in two thousand and
four and charges against him dismissed, citing that exculpatory evidence
had been purposely withheld at trial.
Speaker 14 (34:33):
Stitle had two execution days before he was taken off
death row. He was ultimately freed from prison, ensued a
number of law enforcement officials in the state's attorney and
was granted a six million dollar judgment.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
At the time of his release, Stitle was the seventeenth
person to be released for wrongful conviction who'd been on
death row in Illinois, something that resonated and resulted in
active reform.
Speaker 14 (34:58):
There was a moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois,
and it was later abolished after a large number of
convictions were.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Revealed in twenty eleven. The same year Illinois abolished the
death penalty, Stitle settled a two point five million dollar
lawsuit against the Illinois State Police, and in twenty thirteen
settled an additional lawsuit against Edgar County Police for three
point five million. One of the defendants named in Stitle's
case against the Illinois State Police, Captain Kenkalpus, the same
(35:30):
commander of District five who called crime scene investigator Bob
Deal the day the Vaughan family was killed. The arising
Vaughn was a criminal mastermind who'd premeditated the murders. Stitle
accused Calpus of working to keep him in prison even
after it became a parent. There was not enough evidence
to substantiate his conviction.
Speaker 14 (35:51):
In two thousand and four, ken Copus was brought in
to investigate. I believe there's a captain went to State
Police at the time. From what I read, he tried
to orchestrate in over here shortly before Stytle was to
be released from prison, and over here with another prisoner
trying to implicate him in the murderer.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
So an over here is that he would have had
another inmate try to tape a confession.
Speaker 14 (36:15):
Yeah, another inmate would wear a wire and try to
record mister Style saying something that would implicate.
Speaker 6 (36:23):
Him in the murder.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
When the death penalty was abolished, Chris Vaughn and other
Illinois prisoners who were given the benefit of heightened due
process to prevent a death sentence were stripped of the
funding and additional money provided for their defense by the state.
So in twenty eleven, Chris's legal team was defunded and dismantled,
and he was assigned a public defender for his twenty
(36:45):
twelve trial. By this point in my research, I'd reached
out to Kimberly's family multiple times, and other than a
brief initial text exchange with Dell Phillips, her father, received
no responses to my requests, established strong connections with Christopher
Vaughan's parents, Galeen Pierre, and multiple members of his family.
(37:06):
In addition to gathering the insights of journalists, investigators, and
other experts, I prioritized focusing on the sole survivor of
the Vaughn family murders. Initially, Chris and I corresponded through
mailed letters. My intention was to open a line of
communication before visiting him in person, and then COVID and
(37:28):
lockdown hit. Because Chris felt phone calls were more invasively
monitored by both staff and other inmates. We settled into
a steady stream of emails routed through a private company
the Department of Corrections contracts to link incarcerated individuals with
family and friends. While our interactions were screened, we were
(37:49):
able to discuss many intimate details about the murders, Kim
and their marriage without any overt censorship. While initially awkward,
I slowly cultivated an authentic rapport with Chris and in
doing so, earned his trust. But it was a sensitive process,
as this early email reflects, quote Lauren, sorry for not
(38:15):
having written sooner. I keep writing, rewriting, and discarding email.
I'm certainly out of practice trying to get my thoughts
expressed and written word Truthfully, I'm a bit apprehensive. I
have not spoken about this because I was and am
convinced it will do no good. I was told I
would be convicted because I was alive. Someone needed to
(38:35):
be held accountable, and nothing I could do would change that.
I have no reason to believe differently now.
Speaker 5 (38:42):
Unquote, as they say, Sama, well married, Tum get four
thoughts till night, bah good, they get fine love.
Speaker 4 (38:59):
Tum wimblows gold.
Speaker 5 (39:02):
Do not Duzzy.
Speaker 6 (39:05):
I did not play found.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Coming up on the next Murder in Illinois, Christopher Vaughan
is put on trial.
Speaker 13 (39:15):
The prosecutors put up their big shock and awe performance.
Speaker 10 (39:19):
They showed pictures of h children lying dead in the seats.
Speaker 13 (39:26):
They showed pictures of Kimberly.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
It was terrible and more damning revelations drop.
Speaker 13 (39:33):
He was lying to people about being married, he was
lying people about having a child.
Speaker 14 (39:37):
When you're in jail for murdering your family and you're
writing poems about a tripper that's probably not a great optic.
Speaker 6 (39:47):
Called this feet to.
Speaker 5 (39:49):
My no nighte fly Dinna.
Speaker 4 (39:53):
He's swown in up, change in mind, summer, I hope
he foes.
Speaker 5 (40:07):
Disoit to Mark sail.
Speaker 12 (40:13):
Toyitima Bright and yahoyitya.
Speaker 6 (40:36):
It's what.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Murder in Illinois is a production of iHeartRadio. Executive producers
are Lauren Brt Pacheco and Taylor Chaqoine. Written by Lauren Bright,
Pacheco and Matthew Riddle, Story editing by Matthew Riddle, editing
and sound design by Evan Tyer and Taylor Chaqoine. Featuring
music by Cicada Rhythm with new compositions engineered in Mexx.
Evan Tyer and Taylor Chicogne. Archived news reports provided by WGN.
(41:13):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get the stories that matter
to you.
Murder in Illinois is a production of iHeartRadio. Nine days
after they were killed, Christopher Vaughan was arrested for the
murders of his wife and three children. Vaughn's arrest occurred
at seven point fifty am once he arrived at a
Missouri funeral home to bury his family. For investigator Bill Clutter,
(00:22):
that timeline and the decisions driving the events is telling.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I mean, they charged him so they believed he was guilty,
and then just to rub salt in his wounds, they
snatched him away right before he's to attend the funeral
of his children, his wife. And that's a pretty harsh
sentence right there, just punishing him before he's actually convicted.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Do you think that was intentional?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Sure it was. Yeah. They could have waited.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
They could have They were decent human beings, they would
have waited until after the funeral, pulled him aside and
then put.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Him into hand and cuffs, just in terms of the
message that it would have sent the media and the public.
Do you think timing was intended?
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah, that was also the thing that's part of the
media show voting is because the media was right there
prepared to cover it.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Many at the time, watched the arrest unfold in real
time on the news.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Well, I mean, what a perfect state. And maybe they didn't.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Tip off the media that he was going to be arrested,
but they knew the media was going to be outside the.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Fumor because it's a high profile case.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
It's part of the theatrics of the publicity, and there
was no presumption of innocence. They decided they would punish
him before he's even tried or convicted, and.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
To go back to that earlier point because they knew
the press would be on hand. They also knew that
they could arrest him quite publicly.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Oh yeah, and they did. And that's what happened.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
I'm Lauren Brett Pacheco and is murder in Illinois.
Speaker 5 (02:03):
Calloy guy afty.
Speaker 6 (02:12):
Gay You fear.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
The ground, hay hay.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
The Once arrested, the prosecution made it clear Chris Vaughn
(02:50):
was likely facing the death penalty. At this point in time,
in Illinois, a death penalty case was advantageous in terms
of defense because of what's ref to as heightened due process.
Individual death penalty cases were provided hundreds of thousands of
dollars from the state for top tier lawyers, experts, investigators,
(03:12):
and anything needed to provide the accused with a proper
legal team and fair defense. But Christopher Vaughan's public image
was under scrutiny from the start, and his guilt seemed
presumed from the beginning. Bill Clutter recalls seeing the initial
stages of the case on television.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
This was a high profile case. It was in the media,
was in the state drone register, and it was on
the news. I did CNN covered it live. They flew
helicopters over the crime.
Speaker 7 (03:44):
Scene at the time, so I was aware of the case,
and my initial impression, just based off the news coverage
was that this is probably a sensing case rather than
a guilt Innison's phase.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
The media immediately began to to Chris's background in history.
What they uncovered didn't paint the best picture and only
served to solidify his increasingly unflattering image to the public.
Christopher Vaughan was not a perfect husband or father.
Speaker 8 (04:14):
Once detectives started questioning him, at one point saying that
he didn't remember what had happened in the suv now.
While in the emergency room after the shootings, he reportedly
was upset about blood on his cowboy boots.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I mean, right off the bat, the media reports, and
this happens in so many cases where a person is
really tried and convicted in the media before they even
hit a courtroom. The media reports picked up on some
sensational facts.
Speaker 9 (04:44):
Vaughn frequented strip clubs in Chicago and the suburbs. Months
before the murders. He told one of the strippers he
was single.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
And he made two visits to a strip club and
spent an enormous amount of money I think over four
thousand dollars. And of course this is a guy who
was making I mean he moved to Chicago to take
a job that was paying him almost two hundred thousand
a year, which there's very few people that make that
kind of salary. Those things really, I think turned public
(05:16):
opinion against him.
Speaker 6 (05:18):
Lots up theirs, visits to strip clubs and plans which
did not include his family, and.
Speaker 9 (05:24):
As many as four exotic dancers are expected to testify.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
The media's salacious covering of those strip club visits and
other extramarital activities would later prove detrimental to Chris at
his trial.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Up to that point, they had the first major lead
was the strip club.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
The interviewed the dancer.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
At Scores, so that was in between his initial interrogation
and the arrest.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Before the funeral.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
They had that, and then they discovered the email cats
with Steve Willett in Canada, and so.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
That became ability.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
He's aha mobids, He's wanted to hike into the Yukon
and leave his family.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
That's why he killed them. And so, which is all
really weak.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
We'll revisit those strip club and wilderness fantasies later in
greater detail.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
There's no stronger compelling probable cause that he did. And
then it was Bob Dieal's report where he interpreted that
the large satury blood on the passenger's seat belt had
to have been from her bleeding onto it while the
seat belt was.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Buckled, I mean, nathological explanation.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
But then after the DNA comes back that no, that's
not how it happened.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
But they ran with that and lost in.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Sergeant Lawson, who was the case agent who deal disagreed
with used that as evidence that he staged the crime scene.
He unbuckled the passenger seat after Kim was killed, and
that didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
The prosecution's initial theory, which was based on the initial
crime seen investigator Bob Deal's observations and report, hinged on
the fact that the retracted passenger side seat belt, once extended,
revealed sections that were saturated with blood. The prosecution's original
theory was that Kimberly Vaughn was wearing that safety belt
(07:17):
when she was shot, and that Christopher Vaughan unbuckled it
to stage the crime scene by making it appear she'd
removed it to enable turning around to shoot the children
over her left shoulder. The problem what investigators didn't know
at the time of Chris Vaughn's arrest was that the
blood on the retracted safety belt didn't belong to Kimberly Vaughn.
(07:38):
It belonged to Chris. This will prove significant as we
dive deeper into the investigation and the way in which
it was handled. Bill Clutter believes tunnel vision, largely based
on that initial theory, was firmly in place even before
the crime scene was properly analyzed.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Sergeant Gary Lawson was driving that bus, but it heads
with Bob Deal, the crime scene investigator, who pointed out
all the flaws of this theory that he had that
Christopher Vaughan did it and never conducted a complete investigation,
never delved into him state of mind. Of course, later
(08:18):
the FDA would issue its findings regarding the medication she
was taken.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
There were safeguards that were meant to be in place
to protect people from that rush to judgment. Yeah, did
that work out for Chris No. Not.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
The recommendations of the Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment. That report,
I think was released in April of two thousand and two,
and that's the report that retrospectively studied the innocent people
who had been wrongfully convicted.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
And put on death row.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
And one of the recommendations of that Governor's Commission was
that law enforcement agencies need guard against tunnel vision. And
they defined what tunnel vision is, and it's this rush
to judgment and you disregard other evidence, you know, such
as Bob Deal's point was the bullet trajectories all support
a murder suicide, and they do. And our crime scene
(09:15):
investigator Katie Hartman, who's reviewing deals work, so he concurs
with that and points to that as strong evidence of
supporting a murder suicide.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
But none of that was done. It was a rush
to judgment.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
They had their suspect and they were going to forge
the facts to fit their theory, which is what Bob
Deal's deposition describes. It's classic tunnel vision. And that was
one of the things that the Governor's Commission warned was
that at play in many of these wrongful convictions that
sent innocent people to death row. And of course, at
the time Chris is facing the death.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Penalty, that tunnel vision, coupled with the emotional bias the
media was fully projecting, became a significant challenge in defending Vaughn.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
In so many cases.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
And there's that initial outrage, especially once you make the
accusation that he did it, and oh my god, what
an awful thing to kill your own these adorable children
who were innocent to any of the marital conflict that
they might have had.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
That's the part of it that people have a.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Hard time understanding the emotion of that, and the media
really ramping up and pointing the finger at him.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
He really had no chance.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Clutter believes that outrage proved an insurmountable hurdle.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
You know, people can get caught up in the emotion
of a crime and forget about the same guards that
we are supposed to have the guardrails to protect an
innocent person from being thrown into the meat grinder of
the justice system.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
And do you feel that that's what happened to Chris.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
That's absolutely what happened to him.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Chris and his family started putting together a legal team
with John Rogers, a defense attorney from Saint Louis. Rogers
brought on Bill Clutter as one of the investigators for
the case.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I received a phone call from John Rogers that he
was getting involved, you know. I asked if I would
be interested if it looked like they were pursuing the
death penalty. A few weeks later that I traveled up
to Joliet and had a meeting with Jerry Killian, who
was the local council, and John Rogers. That was the
(11:38):
first time I had worked with Kerry Killy and I
had worked with John Rogers on another case that attempted
murdered case in which our client had poisoned his girlfriend
with dallium. It's a rat poison that had been banned
years ago, so we had worked before.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Because of their history, I was interested in Clutter's thoughts
on Rogers.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
He's a very thorough attorney and very thoughtful and how
he approaches cases.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
John has a reputation of being a sought out.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Criminal defense attorney.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Started out, I think as a public defender, went into
private practice, and just enjoyed a very successful law practice
as a criminal defense attorney. By the time we got
together as a defense team, you know, Jerry had gone
through the twenty hours of videotape interrogation of Chris, and
(12:36):
I just remember in that additional meeting, Jerry had some
doubts about Chris's guild based on what he saw in
the video interviews.
Speaker 6 (12:47):
Why would she bring a gun into the car with
the kids?
Speaker 10 (12:51):
I don't know why, he said, I can't. I can't
see her doing that. I can't see her shooting me.
I can't see her ever shooting the kids.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
When he was given every opportunity to blame her, he
defended her to the hilt. I mean, he never took
that bait that they put in front of him, which
you know, if somebody were guilty, they would jump on
that and be delighted. The police were inviting him to
point the finger at his wife, and he defended her
(13:33):
the entire time.
Speaker 11 (13:36):
I don't think she's not capable of of herting somebody
like that.
Speaker 6 (13:42):
Then who possibly could have done it one of the kids.
Speaker 11 (13:45):
No, I didn't see her do it.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I don't know, but interrogation tape observations aside. Like most
of the public, Bill came on to the defense team
believe Vaughn was likely guilty. And then he met him.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
My first meeting with him, I went in with my
ex wife, who was at the time working as a
mitigation specialist, and I recall going into the Will County
jail being introduced to Chris.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
I just was struck.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
By how he didn't strike me as as a killer.
I mean, he just didn't. And you know, I have
many clients who do, and I really was.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
It was one of.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Those things where, you know, my initial thoughts of the case,
expecting to meet this cold budded killer who was charged
and facing the death penalty for having killed his family,
and coming away from that initial meeting just there was
an incongruity between the charges he was facing and the
(14:57):
person that I encountered in the Will County jail. I
mean he was very meek, a mild individual, very introverted.
The last personnel prolocu would expect to be facing those
types of charges.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
I asked Bill to describe that meeting and it's setting
in greater detail.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
You know, the initial meeting wasn't subsidient, but it was
more of just trying to make an introduction with the
client and to gather some impromation that would assist with
the fact investigation.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Bill elicited details about Vaughn's relationship, difficulties behind the scenes
of his marriage, and some of the issues the couple
had been struggling with. Based on Christopher's responses, any number
of recent events within the household could have led to
the tragedy.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
He referred to this as a perfect storm. A lot of.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Things in the relationship with his wife, Kim were reaching
a point where, I mean, he had recently confessed to
her that he had had a relationship when he was
out of the country in Mexico, when he was interrogated
by police, he disclosed that.
Speaker 10 (16:12):
But I was trying to make things right. I was
taking her on a honeymoon this weekend. We're going to
go back to Herman where we had her first honeymoon.
Two things all over again.
Speaker 11 (16:24):
Who's gonna watch kids? My mom and her sister were
coming up on Friday.
Speaker 10 (16:32):
Tahaw, Yeah, there comes in the house to watch the
kids for the weekend.
Speaker 11 (16:42):
Kim, and I was surprised.
Speaker 10 (16:43):
I didn't want her to have to worry about any
of the details or anything like that.
Speaker 12 (16:47):
So I set it up.
Speaker 10 (16:49):
And I told her parents. I told my parents to
kind of coordinate the details.
Speaker 11 (16:54):
But I'm going to take her.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
So your mom and your sister know my mom and
my hands her sister. We're gonna come up Friday.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
When were they.
Speaker 6 (17:07):
Supposed to show up around you or so maybe something?
And Kim had no idea they were coming.
Speaker 11 (17:13):
I was gonna tell her later today, what.
Speaker 6 (17:18):
If she would have said a going.
Speaker 11 (17:21):
Ain't gonna happen? Why should have said that this is?
It was gonna be good.
Speaker 6 (17:30):
Do you think one weekend sex with your wife is
gonna make her forget that you've been having sex with
all these other women?
Speaker 11 (17:41):
You think who wasn't all these other one It was
just one time in Mexico, and it was a start.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Remember, Vaughan agreed to that interrogation, waving his right to
a lawyer.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
There was just a lot of things going on. What
struck me is is his characterization of this being a
perfect storm. It's really an apt description now that I
know what I know about the case, because she was
under tremendous stress.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
She was taking an online.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Class, was hoping to become a private investigator like he
had been in Washington State. That was their goal as
a couple, was to have a business together. That she
would take this online class get her degree in criminal justice.
But in the meantime, she was experiencing a stress related
(18:36):
migraine headaches and was prescribed topamax, which we later discovered
had an FDA warning six months after this had happened again.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Topamax, or to pyramate, is a medication used to treat
migraines and sometimes by polar disorder. In two thousand and eight,
a year after the tragedy, the FDA stopped just short
of issuing a black Boy warning for the drug, their
firmest guidance against using a medication, and instead released a
strong warning that people on top pyramid maybe twice as
(19:10):
likely to experience suicidal thoughts. But we'll come back to
that now.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Well, that first meeting in Joliet, I just remember going
back to Jerry Killian's office and my ex wife raised
the possibility that he could be innocent. Jerry Killian, you know,
I had watched the twenty hours of the video interrogation
of Christopher Vaughn, and Jerry gave an example where in
(19:42):
the interrogation the police are telling him that, well, you know,
the vehicle was parked under a cell phone tower, and
because of nine to eleven, we now have cameras on
cell phone towers, which wasn't true. I mean, they were
lying to them to extract a confession. But the way
he reacted was genuine and like he wanted to know
(20:04):
what did they show?
Speaker 10 (20:06):
Why can't that one guy get the video camera that
he was talking about?
Speaker 11 (20:11):
What are you talking about?
Speaker 10 (20:12):
I don't know what other detective or sergeants said. He
had a video camera the whole deal, in front of
the truck in some tower, a video camera.
Speaker 11 (20:22):
It recorded everything.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
This remains a pretty compelling question. Why would a guilty
person be so eager for police to provide what they
claimed was security footage of the crime scene. And this
began the foundation of the defense's case in support of Christopher.
The next thing they needed to do was to examine
the vehicle.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
The aha moment was when we inspected the vehicle. It
was at the Joliet prison, the one in the Blues
Brothers in the opening scene where Juliet Jake walks out
of prison with That's where the four exposition was being stored.
We had our bloodstain expert Tom Bevell there and he
(21:08):
was interested in doing a trajectory of one of the
shots that killed the child that was seated in the
middle Sander.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
That examination of the vehicle became a critical moment for
the defense.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
There was a shot that penetrated the chest and it
went through the back of the seat into the third
seat in the Ford expedition, it's a large vehicle, so
it has two bench seats in the back well. This
trajectory when we asked the crime scene services for the
(21:42):
Wedn Estate Police to lend us a doll rod, and
these are typically used to show the trajectory of the
path of a bullet. When the doll rod was inserted
through the bullet hole in the seat into the hole
where the bullet came to rest and extended that dog bot.
(22:04):
That shot was clearly fired by the person who was
seated in the passenger seat, and that person was Gimbon,
and that was really the ah moment when there was
this realization that this indeed was a murder suicide.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
In Bill's opinion, the bullet trajectory made it impossible for
Chris to have been the shooter. There was also DNA,
the blood on the retracted seat belt, and other problematic
things about the crime scene and the way in which
it was handled. For example, the white terry cloth towel
the gun was stored in was neatly laid out on
Kimberly Vaughn's left thigh when our body was found. Crime
(22:41):
scene photos clearly show its placement and that it was
splattered with blood. For some reason, that towel was not
saved as evidence. In fact, it was somehow discarded before
the autopsy. This reflects an apparent pattern of evidence not
pointing at Chris Vaughn as the shooter being discounted. And
(23:02):
when the initial police crime scene investigator on the case,
Bob Deal, expressed his concern over the investigation's nearly immediate
tunnel vision, he was removed from the case. Deal was
deposed by the defense in twenty eleven and shared his
thoughts on the experience. Here's Bill Clutter.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Normally, in Illinois, defense attorneys don't get to take depositions.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
But because this was a capital case.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
One of the reforms to prevent an innocent person from
facing the death penalty was to allow depositions in criminal cases.
And when we took the deposition of the crime scene
investigator of the Illna State Police, I mean, he described
this rushed to judgment, this tunnel vision. As a matter
of fact, I documented this in a letter to the
(23:53):
office of the Executive Inspector General, and I wanted an
internal investigation when you got to the deposition of Bob Dial.
The crime scene investigator describes this pressure from day one.
He described getting a phone call from the Sowne commander
convinced that Christopher Vaughan committed this crime.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
You know.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
He described how he was telling this commander that, you know, the.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Evidence didn't support that theory.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
That he was looking at both theories, whether it was
a murder suicide or whether it was a crime committed
by Christopher Vaughan. He had all the crime scene evidence
pointed to a murder suicide. And he describes how, you know,
after expressing that opinion, he got taken off the case.
He had no further contact with the investigators.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
This is classic tunnel vision. I mean, it really is.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
According to his deposition, Bob Deal received a phone call
in which then commander of District five, Captain Ken Kalpus,
told him Vaughn was a criminal mastermind who premeditated the murders.
And this call came before five point thirty pm on
the same day the murders occurred. And yes, that's the
same District five where Vaughn was interrogated for twenty hours
(25:27):
in his hospital gown. Throughout the one hundred and sixteen
page deposition of the former Illinois State Police crime scene
investigator Bob Deal, shares multiple and alarming examples of bias
against Vaughn that started before Deal had even completed the autopsies,
including an exchange with will County State's Attorney James Glasgow
(25:48):
at a large meeting just one day after the murders
on June fifteenth. Here's a quote. I got up to
give my presentation and explained to everyone what was going on.
And I believed that, and then believed this day that
at some point Kimberly had that gun in her hand,
and the exact thing in front of everybody was Kimberly
(26:09):
was an angel and there's no way she could have
ever held a gun in her hand, And from that
day on, I was totally dismissed as to anything that
had anything to do with this case. That tunnel vision,
along with Bond's apparent memory gaps, presented daunting challenges. Back
to Bill Clutter and the defense team strategy.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Yeah, I spoke to doctor Terry Killian.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Terry Killian as a psychiatrist and not to be confused
with Jerry Killian, one of the attorneys on the case.
The defense enlisted him to evaluate Bond's behavior and statements
during his initial twenty hour interrogation.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Terry Killian was one of our consulting experts on the case,
and he was looking specifically at the issue of dissociative amnesia,
analyzing the statement that Chris had given. Of course, a
big part of this case when he was indicted was
his inability.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
To recall certain details.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Doctor Killian, the thing that stands out is I think
about his report is that he described that Chris had
referred to his family in the present tense when he
was interviewed by police and after he was shown the
photographs of his family and was shown that they were dead,
(27:33):
that he switched and started using the past tense. He
said that that was something that would be very hard
to fake, that nuance of going from present tense to
past tense when referring to his family. So he will
be able to explain issue of dissociative amnesia. Said he
(27:55):
wouldn't be surprised if Chris is unable to recall what
happened even to this day.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Doctor Kellyan wrote a forty six page report asserting his
opinion that Chris's condition was genuine. It would later prove
problematic that doctor Kellian never actually spoke to Chris in person.
The confirmation of dissociative amnesia and subsequent report was based
solely on reviewing the hours of interrogation and other reports
(28:23):
that were provided. The defense then turned its attention to
the possible effects of the drug Kimberly was taking for
her migraines. For that, they turned to Keith Altman, a
principle of his own law firm as well as a
litigator for the Linto Law Group who specializes in complex
and scientific cases, including pharmaceuticals.
Speaker 13 (28:44):
I've been involved in psychiatric averress events associated with drugs
for some time, including theer Pittman case then at South Carolina,
which was his twelve year old who was charged with
murder for killing his grand parents three days after they
choose the Nola dosage, and several other SSR related cases.
(29:05):
Will Clutter contacted me said Hey, I got a situation
I want to bring in on. I was brought in,
had the conversation with Jerry Tillion, who was his lead attorney,
and then I remember going down to Saint Louis to
meet with Mill and Jerry and some other people. And
I was the one who also brought David Healing, one
(29:26):
of the top experts in the world on psychiatric adversus
as of drugs, to the equation to see what we
could do here in terms of the evidence personal but
general capacity topomax to cause negative mood and behavioral disturbances.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Keith happened to be ideally suited for the job.
Speaker 12 (29:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 13 (29:46):
At the time, as I happened to be working on
a to a pyramid suicide case, I was extremely familiar
with the capacity of pad propermax of causing suicidal and
self injurious behavior and the best predictor of homicidal behavior
as suicidal behavior the other way around. That's why you
(30:08):
see so many murder suicides. And then the minute he
said tokamac I said, I know what's going on here.
In fact, in two thousand and nine, there is now
a warning on all of the anti convulsives, including tropomax,
for suicidal behavior. And I was the motivating force behind
(30:30):
that labeling change happening because of another drug I was
working on related to pyramids. I had a lot of
expertise in understanding the address events associate with the drug.
It just hit a nerve ride away as soon as
I heard it.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
A reaction to the medication would have also been the
best and most plausible explanation for a sudden violent outburst,
if that's truly what happened.
Speaker 13 (30:55):
She had had a dosage change recently, and that appears
to be when there's the greatest risk of a negative
outcome associated with these drugs. It's the same thing as
true to the antidepressants. And you see these you see
these effects, And as soon as I heard that, I
had a strong suspicion. But when I was in Saint
Louis and learned of the ballistic evidence, I was utterly
(31:20):
convinced that this could not could not have been Chris.
For one of the problems is, and it's been Chris's
problem all along, is for people to accept the horrifying
reality that a mother could have killed her three children.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
The assumption that Chris, the father was the killer also
aligns more comfortably with the sentiments we hold as a
society about maternal nature. Most people find it more difficult
to accept the notion that a mother could ever kill
her children, despite a number of cases where this has occurred.
Speaker 13 (31:57):
But this is not the first time that we have seen.
Is everybody probably remembers Susan Smith who drowns her children
in South Carolina. This does happen. Mental illness is horrible,
and these drugs can cause these horrific behavioral changes, to
cause people to do things that just are unimaginable, and that.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Would also explain Chris's inability. He reiterated multiple times during
the interrogation that he did not believe his wife could
have done that.
Speaker 13 (32:30):
Absolutely. Brain chemistry is a real thing. These drugs alter
brain chemistry. They don't necessarily know how or why, but
they do make changes, and the changes can be profound
in a very short period of time. And I always
tell anybody I ever know who is going to be
on an antidepressant is make sure that your family watches
(32:50):
you in the week to two weeks after you start
or change the dosage, so that is when the risk
is most acute. Based on all the evidence that I
have seen, people just had an expectation that and mother
could nevigate us for their children. But I submit that
this was the drug altering her move behavior and I'll
(33:14):
bets you're off.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
And now the defense had their case. Christopher Vaughn's defense team,
now staffed with excellent lawyers and expert testimony, was ready
to make the case that not only did forensic evidence
at the crime scene not match up with the version
of the events that the police were reporting, but also
the idea that Kimberly Vaughn may have been experiencing behavioral
(33:38):
anomalies due to a reaction to her medication. And that
brings us to Randy's stitle and the impact his high
profile case would ultimately have on Christopher Vaughn's Here's journalist Jojosey,
editor of the Herald News.
Speaker 14 (33:56):
Randy's stitle was convicted of murder in nineteen eighty seven.
It's convicted of murray a couple in Paris, Illinois, which
is downstate southeastern part of the state Indiana. He had
his co defended Herb Woodlock, were sentenced to death.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Stitle appealed his wrongful conviction for more than a decade,
and in doing so exposed a trail of lies and
corruption that ran through multiple layers of government and law
enforcement in Illinois. He was freed in two thousand and
four and charges against him dismissed, citing that exculpatory evidence
had been purposely withheld at trial.
Speaker 14 (34:33):
Stitle had two execution days before he was taken off
death row. He was ultimately freed from prison, ensued a
number of law enforcement officials in the state's attorney and
was granted a six million dollar judgment.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
At the time of his release, Stitle was the seventeenth
person to be released for wrongful conviction who'd been on
death row in Illinois, something that resonated and resulted in
active reform.
Speaker 14 (34:58):
There was a moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois,
and it was later abolished after a large number of
convictions were.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Revealed in twenty eleven. The same year Illinois abolished the
death penalty, Stitle settled a two point five million dollar
lawsuit against the Illinois State Police, and in twenty thirteen
settled an additional lawsuit against Edgar County Police for three
point five million. One of the defendants named in Stitle's
case against the Illinois State Police, Captain Kenkalpus, the same
(35:30):
commander of District five who called crime scene investigator Bob
Deal the day the Vaughan family was killed. The arising
Vaughn was a criminal mastermind who'd premeditated the murders. Stitle
accused Calpus of working to keep him in prison even
after it became a parent. There was not enough evidence
to substantiate his conviction.
Speaker 14 (35:51):
In two thousand and four, ken Copus was brought in
to investigate. I believe there's a captain went to State
Police at the time. From what I read, he tried
to orchestrate in over here shortly before Stytle was to
be released from prison, and over here with another prisoner
trying to implicate him in the murderer.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
So an over here is that he would have had
another inmate try to tape a confession.
Speaker 14 (36:15):
Yeah, another inmate would wear a wire and try to
record mister Style saying something that would implicate.
Speaker 6 (36:23):
Him in the murder.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
When the death penalty was abolished, Chris Vaughn and other
Illinois prisoners who were given the benefit of heightened due
process to prevent a death sentence were stripped of the
funding and additional money provided for their defense by the state.
So in twenty eleven, Chris's legal team was defunded and dismantled,
and he was assigned a public defender for his twenty
(36:45):
twelve trial. By this point in my research, I'd reached
out to Kimberly's family multiple times, and other than a
brief initial text exchange with Dell Phillips, her father, received
no responses to my requests, established strong connections with Christopher
Vaughan's parents, Galeen Pierre, and multiple members of his family.
(37:06):
In addition to gathering the insights of journalists, investigators, and
other experts, I prioritized focusing on the sole survivor of
the Vaughn family murders. Initially, Chris and I corresponded through
mailed letters. My intention was to open a line of
communication before visiting him in person, and then COVID and
(37:28):
lockdown hit. Because Chris felt phone calls were more invasively
monitored by both staff and other inmates. We settled into
a steady stream of emails routed through a private company
the Department of Corrections contracts to link incarcerated individuals with
family and friends. While our interactions were screened, we were
(37:49):
able to discuss many intimate details about the murders, Kim
and their marriage without any overt censorship. While initially awkward,
I slowly cultivated an authentic rapport with Chris and in
doing so, earned his trust. But it was a sensitive process,
as this early email reflects, quote Lauren, sorry for not
(38:15):
having written sooner. I keep writing, rewriting, and discarding email.
I'm certainly out of practice trying to get my thoughts
expressed and written word Truthfully, I'm a bit apprehensive. I
have not spoken about this because I was and am
convinced it will do no good. I was told I
would be convicted because I was alive. Someone needed to
(38:35):
be held accountable, and nothing I could do would change that.
I have no reason to believe differently now.
Speaker 5 (38:42):
Unquote, as they say, Sama, well married, Tum get four
thoughts till night, bah good, they get fine love.
Speaker 4 (38:59):
Tum wimblows gold.
Speaker 5 (39:02):
Do not Duzzy.
Speaker 6 (39:05):
I did not play found.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Coming up on the next Murder in Illinois, Christopher Vaughan
is put on trial.
Speaker 13 (39:15):
The prosecutors put up their big shock and awe performance.
Speaker 10 (39:19):
They showed pictures of h children lying dead in the seats.
Speaker 13 (39:26):
They showed pictures of Kimberly.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
It was terrible and more damning revelations drop.
Speaker 13 (39:33):
He was lying to people about being married, he was
lying people about having a child.
Speaker 14 (39:37):
When you're in jail for murdering your family and you're
writing poems about a tripper that's probably not a great optic.
Speaker 6 (39:47):
Called this feet to.
Speaker 5 (39:49):
My no nighte fly Dinna.
Speaker 4 (39:53):
He's swown in up, change in mind, summer, I hope
he foes.
Speaker 5 (40:07):
Disoit to Mark sail.
Speaker 12 (40:13):
Toyitima Bright and yahoyitya.
Speaker 6 (40:36):
It's what.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Murder in Illinois is a production of iHeartRadio. Executive producers
are Lauren Brt Pacheco and Taylor Chaqoine. Written by Lauren Bright,
Pacheco and Matthew Riddle, Story editing by Matthew Riddle, editing
and sound design by Evan Tyer and Taylor Chaqoine. Featuring
music by Cicada Rhythm with new compositions engineered in Mexx.
Evan Tyer and Taylor Chicogne. Archived news reports provided by WGN.
(41:13):
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