July 8, 2021 • 41 mins
In the quiet pre-dawn hours of June 14th, 2007 the Vaughn family- Christopher, his wife Kimberly and their three children- set out for an impromptu trip to a waterpark. The family would never arrive.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Murder in Illinois is a production of I Heart Radio.
If you spend enough time investigating true crime stories, you
wind up with some pretty disturbing content, and that's how
this case landed on my radar. Back I was wrapping
up my first podcast, Happy Face. Maybe at some point
(00:23):
I'd entered the keywords killer dad or father who kills
but the tenure anniversary of the Vaughan family murders wound
up in my feet. I'd never heard of the two
thousand and seven killings, although regionally around Illinois they received
a ton of press. But it was the father's mug
shot that caught my attention and its expression that actually
(00:45):
made me click that link. Suddenly I found myself staring
into the eyes of Christopher Vaughan. I scanned some articles
and viewed a few news pieces about the gruesome murders.
Three kids and their mother, all not dead. Then I
went back to the top, reabsorbing the timeline and the details.
Some like infidelity and strip clubs were tabloid headlines, some
(01:10):
disturbing and all heartbreaking. But I kept getting drawn back
to the look on this guy, Christopher Bond's face. There
was this unnervingly odd, almost eerie look in his eyes,
eyes that belonged to a man the Will County States
Attorney described as the heartless, soulless psychopath. I remember thinking,
(01:32):
for a guy convicted of killing his entire family, Vaughn
looked a hell of a lot more bewildered than evil.
Putting on my glasses, I leaned in closer and expanded
the screen until it was filled entirely with just Bond's eyes,
and thought, what could possibly drive a parent to kill
their kids in such a twisted, cruel and confrontational way?
(01:55):
And why did the eyes staring back at me look
so confused, almost lost? They had this pained intensity, heightened
by the slight furrow of the sparse brows that topped them,
and punctuated by the dark circles beneath them. Those eyes
didn't look like they belonged to a guy who shot
his entire family at close range. They looked haunted. Then,
(02:17):
almost as an involuntary reflex, I typed, could Christopher von
be innocent? Into Google? The results that popped up would
put me on a troubling, nearly two year path filled
with staggering twists, turns, and bombshells. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco
and this is murder in Illinois. Kange. Christopher Vaughan is
(03:35):
a former private investigator who specialized in computer forensics. He
is today sitting in the Illuinois Department of Corrections in Pinkneyville, Illinois,
convicted of the murder of his family that consisted of
his wife, Kimberly, and three children. The deeper I got
(03:56):
into was case I realized that he's actually in a
that's Bill the man. My internet search and Devon's possible
innocence led me to My name is Bill Clutter. I
work as a private investigator, been doing this for over
thirty years now, and we have developed a specialty of
(04:18):
criminal defense investigation. Clutter was a detective for Vaughan's initial
defense team, but initially didn't believe he was innocent. I
was influenced by the media as much of the public was,
and just assumed he's got these superficial injuries. He's the
sole survivor, and so initially I assumed this was going
(04:39):
to be a mitigation case where we would focus on
telling a story that would persuade a jury to spare
his life. There are a number of developments that take
us from there to why Bill Clutters still involved with
the case fourteen years later, nine years after Vaughan was convicted.
Over the years, have worked on a number of people
(05:00):
who have been wrongfully convicted, and it led me to
create what's now the Illinois Innocence Project. And that was
almost twenty years ago. I started investigating innocence after I
moved to Louisville, Kentucky, after Illinois abolished the death belty.
Clutter stays pretty busy trying to get people out of prison,
which is why it took me a while to track
(05:21):
him down. When we finally connected by phone, I had
just pulled into Columbus, Ohios, getting late in the evenings
sometime after seven and ELPs parked literally outside of a
restaurant to have dinner in Dublin, Ohio. That was December
of ten, thousand and eighteen. We've been talking ever since.
(05:42):
I'd get to know Bill Clutter as an affable, principled
guy with an almost boyish enthusiasm about social issues balanced
by pragmatics somewhat pessimistic takes on the judicial system and politics.
He ran for the Illinois Senate twice, almost became the
first Democrat in eighty six years to win that seat.
(06:03):
Once COVID lockdown hit, I started communicating more with Bill
than just about anybody living outside my house, mostly about
his frustrations involving his long history challenging Christopher Vaughan's conviction.
You know, I've been trying to pitch the Vaughn case
and line up pro bono representation for him. I could
(06:23):
show you stacks of letters that I've sent out to
the president of the Illinois Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers,
who I knew and I got no response, and to others,
and trying to get him support. Not exactly an easy undertaking,
since Clutter is one of the few people who believe
Chris Vaughn is innocent outside of Chris's parents and siblings.
(06:44):
I've never given up on Christopher con In the eyes
of the law, he is a convicted killer, and so
you're starting at that point, and it's difficult to change
people's minds once they hear that. Hopefully, the more we
peel away at this case and expose the wrongful nature
(07:06):
of the conviction, those minds will change. But many minds
have already been influenced by the reality Vaughan was the
sole survivor of a horrific crime for which he was convicted,
and it was salaciously covered, especially by local news. This
all played out in the media and they really had
a field day. Vaughan is accused of killing his wife
(07:27):
and three children. There was just a drone of negative
media about him and his case. Prosecutors said that Vaughn's
motive was his wife's one million dollar life insurance policy.
So understandably, to many living around Illinois, Vaughan is considered
an especially evil man. Prosecutors in the Christopher Vaughan murder
(07:47):
trial argue he murdered his family because they were obstacles
in his life. Joe Hoosie was one of the local
reporters who covered the story at the time, the One
family murders. I was working at the Juliet Harold News
newspaper and Juliet Lane Way, and I got one of
the editors that sometimes calling me on my cell and
demand who they know where I am. He's like, we
(08:08):
got this huge stories. It is a big murder in Shanahan.
The whole family has been murdered. Then the Grouse fo
case was it was a very big case locally. I mean,
yet the Chicago media down here. It was. It had
a great impact. I mean, three children and their mother
on their way to a water park and then executed.
That's going to be a big story. Joe is a
(08:28):
prolific journalist and the author of Fatal Vows, The Tragic
Wives of Sergeant Drew Peterson, which was later made into
a movie called Untouchable starring Rob Low as the wife
killing cop. It unfolded the same year as the Von tragedy,
along with another high profile case. Seven was an unusual
year around here. They had the disappearance of least aesthetic
(08:50):
mother and wife in Playfield and she was going through
a divorce but living in the same house as or
a strange husband, and she vanished. That was a huge
story in the Chicago area. Soon after that you had
the laws Christopher Vaughan and his family mother and three
children shot at that. Then months after that you had
Drew Peterson, which pulled all the attention off of both
(09:12):
of those cases. Really, I mean Drew Peterson, Stacy Peterson,
Kathleen Savio that that story pulled the lime light away
from all of them. Drew Peterson's high profile trial grabbed
national headlines, and his trial also happened at the same
time in the same building as Christopher Bonds. I ended
up covering most of the trial after Drew Peterson's was over.
(09:34):
Is a very photogenic family, very attractive family, adorable children,
and they were terribly brutally murdered. I don't think I
saw the crime scene photos until the trial, but which
they were heartbreaking. But you don't really need to see
the crime scene photos to have your heartbroken. Anytime there's
(09:55):
a case involving murdered children and murdered mother, it's heartbreaking,
It's terrible. There's nothing worse than I can really think of.
And Dan Illinois, Christopher Vaughan is thought of as the
guy who killed his wife and three children to escape
his marriage. Was there ever any sympathy for Christopher von
(10:15):
not that I can recall. I mean, I don't think
anybody really bought into his version of events. Yet. There
are many more complicated pieces to the story. Will be
covering them all, but we have to start with the
murders Christopher Vaughan was convicted of committing. While the details
are disturbing and brutal, they are also critical to understanding
(10:37):
the case and whether the man now serving life actually
took four lives. The murders occurred on June two thousand
and seven. In the quiet pre dawn hours of that
Thursday morning. The Vaughan family, Christopher, his wife Kimberly, and
(10:57):
their three children, loaded up their red Ford X Petition suv,
setting out before five am from their home in Oswego
for an impromptu family trip to a water park three
hours away in Springfield, Illinois. They would never arrive. At
approximately five fifteen am, a passing motorists stopped to render
(11:18):
assistance to Christopher Vaughan, who was found limping along the
frontage road of Interstate fifty five south of Joliet, Illinois.
Vaughan had two gunshot wounds. One bullet had pierced his
left wrist, the other went entirely through his left leg.
When the man asked if Vaughan had been in a
motorcycle accident or if he'd been stabbed, he replied, no,
(11:40):
I think my wife shot me. The rest of his
family wouldn't fare as well. At five twenty four am,
first responders would encounter a trail of blood reaching roughly
a hundred and forty feet, which led to the family's
red Ford expedition nestled in a secluded area of the
frontage road of Interstate fifty five. Upon their arrival, all
(12:02):
the doors to the suv were closed. Inside were the
remaining members of Christopher Vaughan's family dead. His three children
were in the back seat. Abigail, aged twelve, behind the
driver's seat, shot once in the head and once in
the chest, had been clutching a Harry Potter book and
a stuffed animal. Her younger sister, Cassandra eleven, in the
(12:24):
center seat, and their little brother, Blake, age eight, seated
behind the passenger seat, had also been shot twice. Evidence
would later show the young boy was holding his arms
out in a defensive position and likely saw what was coming.
The body of their mother, Kimberly Vaughan, was slumped in
the passenger seat, a single gunshot wound under her chin.
(12:46):
On the floorboard. At her feet were her purse and
a nine millimeter Torus handgun. The murder scene was so
traumatizing that a police chaplain was brought out to provide
counseling to responders. Christopher Vaughan, old surviving member of the family,
was loaded into an ambulance bound for the hospital on
the way there, Cris Vaughn appeared to believe his family
(13:09):
was still alive. Upon arriving at the hospital, he told
a nurse, you should call my wife. She gets mad
when I don't call her. That disconnect would continue. After
being released from the hospital, Christopher Vaughan was taken to
the District five police headquarters, where he was interviewed by detectives.
Vaughan had apparent gaps in his recollection of the morning events.
(13:32):
He said his wife wanted him to pull off the
highway because she was feeling nauseous, a side effect of
anxiety induced migraines, or possibly the prescription medication she was
taking for the condition. Vaughan remembered pulling off, parking in
front of the cell phone tower along a frontage road
to provide privacy for his wife, and then getting out
(13:53):
of the car to check the back tires. He recalled
re securing the strap on the lugged rack and observed
ing a deer in the adjoining cornfield. It was only
after getting back into the vehicle Vaughan noticed his leg
was bleeding, but had no memory of being shot. Over
the next twenty hours, police would interrogate Vaughan still clad
(14:14):
in a hospital gown, and Vaughan's reaction during the questioning
raised scrutiny, especially those captured by hidden video cameras when
the officers left the room. At one point, when alone,
confronted by a photo of his eight year old son, Blake,
Vaughan crumpled it and threw it into the corner of
the room. Less than a week later, Christopher Vaughan would
(14:35):
be arrested at the funeral of his wife and children.
Five years later. During Vaughan's five week trial, incriminating revelation
after revelation would drop, none of them flattering for the
accused killer. This morning, Assistant State's Attorney Mike Fitzgerald meticulously
reviewed the evidence from the five week long trial, testimony
(14:56):
from dozens of witnesses. Fitzgerald claimed Van's guilt is painfully obvious.
The jury would take fifty minutes to find von guilty
on all four counts of first degree murder. Christopher Vaughan
has never confessed, and for fourteen years, has maintained no
memory of what actually happened to his family in their
(15:18):
sub that day, no recollection of the four murders for
which he is now serving a life sentence. Here's Bill
Clutter again. Generally, my rule of thumb as your client
is your best source of information. The biggest obstacle was
Christ's inability to remember the events of what happened that morning.
The lone survivor, the only person who would have been
(15:41):
an eye witness to what happened that day, couldn't provide
you with that information. That was the frustrating part of
the case. Yes, Vaughan's defense would attribute his recollection gap
to something called dissociative amnesia, a disorder that involves the
inability to recall important personal information that is usually caused
(16:02):
by trauma or stress. He really had no memory and
and this is the thing. The probable cost to arrest
him cited the fact that he had basically these gaps
in his story, and it became clear that he couldn't
remember what actually happened. But many people in Illinois can't
(16:23):
forget it. It was a strange case. I'll say that
it was one of the status ones I've covered. It'll
never leave me. And I've covered serial killer cases, defitalty
sentencing hearings and us and terrible things, and this one
will be with me. For him, that's journalist Erica Worst,
(16:45):
a seasoned local reporter who feels deeply rooted to the
bond case just to hear the word as we go
and now that that's my community and that's where I
grow up. We never I mean to have three children
and a mother killed and a father, you know, being
convicted of that crime. I mean, you would not find
(17:07):
that around here, would not. At the time of the murders,
Worst was a reporter at the Chicago Sun Times, a
newspaper that had already done a profile on the exceptionally
photogenic family before the tragedy for a real estate article.
It was weird because when the story happen, we were
looking through our types for any pictures we might have
(17:28):
had of them, and then we're like, holy shit, they
were in our own paper not that long ago. So
that was that was a photo they used often, the
family photo when they moved into their house and as
weeto um. We had a weekend feature in the paper
that was a design feature, talked about home, et cetera,
(17:51):
and their home was featured in their banding in front
of the bay window and it's all of them and
it's just talking about how they moved here in their
house and missing that Google Christopher Vaughan's family, and two
of those photos are in the top results. One of
Chris and Kim seated in front of their three standing children,
(18:11):
another of the family of five seated together on a
brown sectional couch. All are casually clad in jeans, the
three kids peering out beneath silky bangs. Abigail's coloring leaning
more towards the strawberry blonde of her mother, Cassandra, and
Blake a bit more brunette like their dad. Chris looked
significantly heavier than he'd later appear in mugshots. Kimberly is
(18:34):
beaming beautifully in both photos. The only member of the
family smiling broadly enough to reveal teeth the home was Christine.
They had just moved in. They're all standing there, and
they kind of been much younger than they were the
age they were killed, because they hadn't lived in last week.
Go to on. You just think, okay, butt a flip
(18:57):
past this picture without even own it, not even residue article.
It was just a picture and the paper that I
looked at every single day to look at the picture
and think, oh my god, four of those five people
are dead. Now those kids are dead forever and ever
(19:20):
and ever and ever and ever, and that's what haunting.
They'll never get any older than they were in that picture.
The tragedy that photo now represents is in stark contrast
to the stunning good looks of the Telegenic family. I mean,
there were a picture perfect. That's the kind of couple
that I would look at and be like three I
(19:41):
was there, likes you know, three cute little kids and
take knife out and camp seems so heavy, and that
that's what I would point to and say, that's what
I want. And you know, I never know what's going
on behind closed doors. H much of which would come
(20:02):
out in court in front of both Chris and Kimberly's grieving,
torn apart families. The Vaughan's and the Phillips worst kept
meticulous notes throughout the von trial and finds them difficult
to revisit. It's hard when it's a family family thing.
Usually one guy against another guy in a different family,
and in this case, it's like total devastation. The whole
(20:25):
family that was sad. Here's these families that used to
be one family, and now we're sitting on different sides
of the courtroom, and they believe one thing, and they
believe one thing, and it's never going to be resolved,
So there's no justice. No one's gonna get what they want,
which is their loved ones. Back Covering the five week
(20:56):
trial gave Worst ample time to scrutinize Christopher Vaughan and
his behavior. I was there and watched every nine witnesses
and every piece of evidencely with Gerald, and every autopsy photo.
When you saw Vaughan in person as opposed to seeing
the mug shot, can you just take me to your
(21:18):
thoughts of how he presented in the courtroom. Well, I mean,
he's a handsome man. He was well dressed. You don't
look at Chris and be like, slaughtered your family. It's
just not the vibe he gives off. It's like he
can't be the epitome of evil. But then you think
back to the autopsy photos and you're like, no, that's
(21:40):
pretty damn evil. Hello, Hey, Gail, it's Lauren. Hi here, Lauren.
How are you? I am doing very well. That's Crispawn's mother, Gail.
We'd connect it by email then phone. Her voice reminds
(22:02):
me of Yankee candles warm and comforting throughout our calls.
I was struck by the consistently positive energy she radiates
every time she picks up the phone. For over a year,
we've talked about just about everything, including fishing. We've got
some pretty good size ones around here, and when I
finally get one, I usually fish only for the little
fun fish. So when I get something that them's my
(22:26):
rod backwards, it's like, no, I don't want this, and
Pierre's usually with me, so I say, if you don't
want this fish, I'm just dropping the rod, and he'll
scramble the eye into the book. He said, give me,
give me, give it. Well, they're not. It's a good
thing that you fish together then, or you'd be losing
a lot of rods. Yes, but when the topic turns
(22:47):
to Chris, the eldest of her three sons, you hear
a sudden shift, almost like a WinCE from an old injury,
followed by frustration. Well, my son is innocent. He did
not kill his three children nor his wife. My son
did not do this, and he's sitting there in prison
(23:07):
in the middle of Illinois. Nobody can sold him. When
this happened. There was nobody to talk to him after
he lost these his family. We had counselors, we had
each other. Chris had no one for fourteen years. Gil
has been trying to get her son out of prison
(23:29):
with little support, something she's grown used to. A couple
of days after this, it's awful tragedy. Mr Glasgow appeared
on TV with all the higher up people that we're investigating.
She's referencing James Glasgow, the will County States attorney who
(23:50):
prosecuted her son, and he pretty much pointed out that
Kimberly was an angel and he would deal with the
person that did this, and he was pretty sure he
knew who it was, and it never deviated from his
point of view there. He was always trying to fit
the evidence into the crime instead of following the evidence.
(24:13):
The jurors some of them actually fell asleep during the trial.
I mean, how can somebody put somebody into prison that
doesn't listen to all of the facts. Gail moderates a
Facebook group Christopher Vaughan is Innocent, the last word in
(24:34):
all caps. It had sixteen members when I looked it up.
In addition to Bill Clutter, many of them are Vaughan relatives.
This is hard to put together all of the things
that went wrong and what we should have said throughout
the whole trial. We kept our emotions in because that's
what our lawyers told us to do. That Facebook groups
(24:57):
banner image is a photo of Vaughan in prison issue blue,
standing between Gale and her husband Pierre, who also goes
by the nickname Pete the three or arm in arms,
smiling at the camera in front of the photo backdrop
of a slightly tropical sunsetting sky. Above them is a
string of glittery paper hearts that looks like it would
be more at home in an elementary school than a prison.
(25:19):
Chris sports symmetrical features, a shaved head and a slim
trim goatee. He's a pretty balanced mixture of his parents,
with a scale tilted maybe the slightest bit towards his mother.
Chris shares her define jaw and like her as. His
eyes are lighter than Pierre's dark brown ones, but almost
identical in shape to his dad's. Both parents are wearing
(25:39):
similar plaid flannel shirts, have salt and pepper shades of hair,
and the same expression the combination of happiness, vulnerability, and weariness.
They're visiting a son sentenced to life for killing their
three grandchildren and daughter in law. The look in all
their eyes is at odds with the smiles beneath them. Pierre, Yes, hey,
(26:02):
it's Lauren. Hi, Lauren, how are you. I'm fine. Gail
told me to call this number. Pierre Bond shares his
wife Gail's belief in Chris his innocence, but it's tampered
with a bit more anger and cynicism. He was convicted
before he even started. My son was presumed guilty immediately.
(26:25):
They took him after he was treated for being shot. Uh,
they took him immediately from the hospital to the police station,
and the police were relentless and pursuing him and persuading
him and lying to him, uh, to get him to confess.
(26:47):
And he never did do that, and that was never
brought up into trial. My son who was shot, his
family was killed, and he lost everything, and nobody stopped
to think about, you know, wait a minute, what if
he did not do this. So you don't feel that
(27:07):
Chris got a proper defense, Absolutely not, Absolutely not. When
I first started speaking with Chris Vaughn's parents, Pierre was
transitioning towards retirement and the couple was in the process
of moving to the last home they planned to live in,
one that includes a room for Chris. My son did
not do this. He needs to come home. It's not
(27:31):
surprising that parents would believe in the innocence of their
own child. Gale and Pierre's printal allegiance and optimism aside,
the process of revisiting the conviction of Christopher Vaughan is daunting.
According to Bill Clutter, these cases are uphill climb, even
when you have newly discovered evidence that just blows the
(27:52):
doors off the conviction. These are hard cases, and you're
always going to get pushed back on some level, and
especially at the lower court of the court where the
case original, you're always going to get pushed back when
you go back there. I did reach out to the
office of James W. Glasgow, the Will County States Attorney
who mounted the case against Bonon Glasgow's website, sports has
(28:16):
polished mustachioed photo which calls to mind a more Hollywood
version of Mike Ditka, and a lengthy list of his
accomplishments during an unprecedented seven terms as Will County States Attorney.
Prominently featured is that Glasgow quote successfully prosecuted Christopher Vaughan
and secured a life sentence for the murder of his
(28:37):
wife and three children unquote. Vaughan is second in billing
to another career highlight convicting wife killing cop Drew Peterson,
listed as quote a landmark case that attracted international attention unquote.
While Glasgow's office politely declined our request for a formal interview,
(28:58):
they did share the clothes saying arguments for the people
of Illinois versus Christopher Vaughan and the impressive power point
presentation that accompanied it. It's quite thorough and was obviously
successful in terms of swaying the jury to convict. But
Bill Clutter contends it was built on a problematic foundation.
There was this snap judgment that he did it. This
(29:21):
happened early in the morning on June four, two thousand
and seven. There was a three day period where he
was interrogated by police. It was shortly after that, as
he was preparing to attend the funeral of his family
in St. Louis, that handcuffs were placed on him and
(29:43):
he was whisked away, taken to Joliet, and he hasn't
seen the light of day since. There was a rush
to judgment and we didn't realize the extent of the
tunnel vision until we started taking depositions. You know, none
of their theories of how this happened that the crime
(30:04):
scene evidence. Clutter's convinced he can mount a post conviction
case that can clear Christopher van If you just analyze
the evidence in the case without these blinders of emotion
and prejudice, it's a pretty clear case of actual innocence.
(30:28):
Attorney Keith Altman agrees, like Clutter, he was involved in
Vaughan's initial defense team, but as an expert, will dive
more deeply into that in future episodes. I believe that
Chris did not get the defense that his case demanded.
Once the death penalty was taken off the table, the
(30:50):
States stop funding his defense. Altman is referencing that Democratic
Governor Pat Quinn signed legislation on March nine, tleven, to
abolish the death penalty in Illinois. It went into effect
on July one, two thousand eleven, and with it went
the funding for the impressive team who had been mounting
(31:10):
their defense a Vaughan for the past four years. And
this happened a little more than a year before his trial,
when Chris was under the threat of the death penalty,
the state of Illinois ensured that he received the best
possible success. Between the attorneys who were involved, who were superb,
(31:31):
I was able to bring one of the top experts
in the world on psychiatric adverse events of drugs and
work in support of him, David Healy. The ballistic that's
that they had were world class. As soon as the
death penalty was taken off the table, the public defender
(31:53):
abandoned all the works that we had done, never called
any of us, never did anything honey of us, and
never really gave Chris his proper and so it just
bothers me to the day. Altman's online profile is accompanied
by a burly, pleasantly smiling photo, but his records a
(32:16):
little more pitful than Teddy Bear. He led a series
of potentially precedent setting lawsuits against some of the world's
most powerful social media companies, an effort to hold them
accountable for allowing terrorists to radicalize people through social media channels.
He maintains that same fierceness in his belief of Chris
Pahn's innocence. Chrisms case harms me because between me and
(32:38):
the other experts, I believe we had a very strong
presentation of evidence indicating Chris and unfortunately the circumstances of
the death seal to be taken off the table meant
he did not have access to those resources. And you know,
I believe that the truth should come out, and I
don't think he taught the justice that he deserved. In
(33:20):
two thousand eleven, Christopher Vaughan was left with a public
defender who had just over a year to get up
to speed for the trial. Here's Bill Clutter again. That's
the thing that bothers me most of all is that
you had these reforms that were put in place to
guard against an innocent person facing the death penalty from
being convicted. But then you become vulnerable. Once a decision
(33:43):
is made not to seek the death penalty. You're stripped
of all those resources intended to prevent a miscarriage of justice.
And he's used up all his appeals. He had his
direct appeal and there was no appeal to that right now.
The only way for him to be free is to
(34:03):
prove actual innocence. And that's a hard road. That's a
that's a very hard road. It's a road that journalist
Erica Worst isn't entirely convinced we should be setting out
on at all. Christopher had a plan. I feel like
he executed that plan, and I feel like it didn't
(34:25):
go the way he wanted to. What do you think
was his plan then? In other words, what did he
hope would happen? That it would be viewed as murder suicide? Yeah,
he wanted it to be viewed as murder suicide. And
then you know what, oh, four weeks later and less
than that, I don't know. He's getting her life insurance money.
(34:48):
He basically he has said, this isn't the life I
want to live. This isn't the life I want to live.
This isn't a life for me. Worst also takes issue
with any scenario that places Chris Paul as a possible victim.
How does he get out of that car and go
running for help, leaving him in there with a gun
(35:08):
and the three kids. No one would do that. He
says that he has no recollection whatsoever of that. If
that is true, you know he's in a duel kind
of prison, right he doesn't know what happened, whether or
not he was holding the gun or not. If he
really doesn't remember, if he had some kind of a break.
(35:29):
Then why the first thing he says when he stumbles
upon die on the street, you know, after he had
been shot. Why does he say, my my wife shot
meet like immediate? That's an immediate You're giving a statement
immediately after occurred. If he's saying he got out of
the car and he didn't see anyone else get shot,
(35:53):
why is he in such a disassociative state just from
being shot in the risk and the legs? Superficially I
caused the break in him. My husband is not an
aggressive person or anything of that nature. Um, but you
better believe he'd go to bat for us if something
like that has happened, and not just get out of
the car and walk away. In other words, how do
(36:16):
you walk away if your kids have been shot or
haven't been shot? How do you leave it? You don't?
I mean, there's so many unknowns which will probably remain unknown.
But the state put together enough of a case to
(36:41):
get that verdict. They wanted a verdict worst agreed with
then and now I believe with nine percent, shorty that
Christopher van so his I said, really an freaking this
(37:02):
was open and shut, And I know you guys are
looking into Christian's innocence, and I think everyone deserves that chance.
I'm just going to be really interested to see what
you guys are finding that I may have missed during
(37:26):
every single day of that trial. There is much more
to this tragedy than the brutal horror that unfolded in
that red suv in two thousand and seven, including dysfunctional
family dynamics, a troubled marriage, deception and betrayal. As we
(37:48):
set out on this path, it's with the acknowledgement that
on many levels, at many times, it may be polarizing.
This was an absolutely horrific event, and we intend to
cover it with intech, pretty and sensitivity, but we also
understand revisiting it at all is painful for many of
the parties involved, especially for those close to Kimberly Vaughan.
(38:09):
While to date her family has not responded to our
multiple requests for an interview, we hope they will reconsider.
It is not our intention to disparage anyone living or dead.
It's to re examine a case that's been tightly closed
to shed light on whether Christopher Vaughan was justly charged, tried,
and convicted, and explore whether pertinent facts and later developments
(38:33):
that could have been utilized in his defense were overlooked
or ignored. What happened in the Vaughan family's suv was unfathomable.
Three innocent children died facing a gun that was held
by one of the last people they ever thought would
harm them. But the only thing that could make this
tragedy any more disturbing is the possibility that the man
(38:54):
serving life sentences for having taken those lives didn't actually
commit the murders. That is the possibility will explore and
in the process uncover answers to questions deemed mysteries for
fourteen years. This season of Murder in Illinois cay me
(39:17):
do as good things well Tha can never. On our
next episode, we'll explore the upbringing and marriage of the
man who would become one of Illinois's most vilified fathers
(39:38):
and the intricate dynamics that led to a horrific tragedy.
He was just instantly smitten with her. I mean it
was just a clique. They really had nothing income. Did
you ever think in a million years that Chris would
come home from college and tell you guys he was
getting married. No when they got to the point of
(40:01):
the pastor said if anybody has objections, please say so now,
and then lightning struck. That was a little awkward. It's
always cry Gain Feud Order and Ellinois, product of My
(41:00):
Heart Radio. Executive producers are Lauren Fright Pacheco and Taylor Chokogne.
Written by Lauren Fright Pacheco and Matthew Riddle, Story editing
by Matthew Riddle, editing and sound design by Evan Tyre
and Taylor chokogn Feature music by Cicada Rhythm with new
compositions engineered and mixed by Evan Tyre and Taylor Chokogne.
(41:22):
Archived news records provided by W g Enn. For more
podcasts from My Heart Radio, check out the I Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get the stories
that matter to you.
Murder in Illinois is a production of I Heart Radio.
If you spend enough time investigating true crime stories, you
wind up with some pretty disturbing content, and that's how
this case landed on my radar. Back I was wrapping
up my first podcast, Happy Face. Maybe at some point
(00:23):
I'd entered the keywords killer dad or father who kills
but the tenure anniversary of the Vaughan family murders wound
up in my feet. I'd never heard of the two
thousand and seven killings, although regionally around Illinois they received
a ton of press. But it was the father's mug
shot that caught my attention and its expression that actually
(00:45):
made me click that link. Suddenly I found myself staring
into the eyes of Christopher Vaughan. I scanned some articles
and viewed a few news pieces about the gruesome murders.
Three kids and their mother, all not dead. Then I
went back to the top, reabsorbing the timeline and the details.
Some like infidelity and strip clubs were tabloid headlines, some
(01:10):
disturbing and all heartbreaking. But I kept getting drawn back
to the look on this guy, Christopher Bond's face. There
was this unnervingly odd, almost eerie look in his eyes,
eyes that belonged to a man the Will County States
Attorney described as the heartless, soulless psychopath. I remember thinking,
(01:32):
for a guy convicted of killing his entire family, Vaughn
looked a hell of a lot more bewildered than evil.
Putting on my glasses, I leaned in closer and expanded
the screen until it was filled entirely with just Bond's eyes,
and thought, what could possibly drive a parent to kill
their kids in such a twisted, cruel and confrontational way?
(01:55):
And why did the eyes staring back at me look
so confused, almost lost? They had this pained intensity, heightened
by the slight furrow of the sparse brows that topped them,
and punctuated by the dark circles beneath them. Those eyes
didn't look like they belonged to a guy who shot
his entire family at close range. They looked haunted. Then,
(02:17):
almost as an involuntary reflex, I typed, could Christopher von
be innocent? Into Google? The results that popped up would
put me on a troubling, nearly two year path filled
with staggering twists, turns, and bombshells. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco
and this is murder in Illinois. Kange. Christopher Vaughan is
(03:35):
a former private investigator who specialized in computer forensics. He
is today sitting in the Illuinois Department of Corrections in Pinkneyville, Illinois,
convicted of the murder of his family that consisted of
his wife, Kimberly, and three children. The deeper I got
(03:56):
into was case I realized that he's actually in a
that's Bill the man. My internet search and Devon's possible
innocence led me to My name is Bill Clutter. I
work as a private investigator, been doing this for over
thirty years now, and we have developed a specialty of
(04:18):
criminal defense investigation. Clutter was a detective for Vaughan's initial
defense team, but initially didn't believe he was innocent. I
was influenced by the media as much of the public was,
and just assumed he's got these superficial injuries. He's the
sole survivor, and so initially I assumed this was going
(04:39):
to be a mitigation case where we would focus on
telling a story that would persuade a jury to spare
his life. There are a number of developments that take
us from there to why Bill Clutters still involved with
the case fourteen years later, nine years after Vaughan was convicted.
Over the years, have worked on a number of people
(05:00):
who have been wrongfully convicted, and it led me to
create what's now the Illinois Innocence Project. And that was
almost twenty years ago. I started investigating innocence after I
moved to Louisville, Kentucky, after Illinois abolished the death belty.
Clutter stays pretty busy trying to get people out of prison,
which is why it took me a while to track
(05:21):
him down. When we finally connected by phone, I had
just pulled into Columbus, Ohios, getting late in the evenings
sometime after seven and ELPs parked literally outside of a
restaurant to have dinner in Dublin, Ohio. That was December
of ten, thousand and eighteen. We've been talking ever since.
(05:42):
I'd get to know Bill Clutter as an affable, principled
guy with an almost boyish enthusiasm about social issues balanced
by pragmatics somewhat pessimistic takes on the judicial system and politics.
He ran for the Illinois Senate twice, almost became the
first Democrat in eighty six years to win that seat.
(06:03):
Once COVID lockdown hit, I started communicating more with Bill
than just about anybody living outside my house, mostly about
his frustrations involving his long history challenging Christopher Vaughan's conviction.
You know, I've been trying to pitch the Vaughn case
and line up pro bono representation for him. I could
(06:23):
show you stacks of letters that I've sent out to
the president of the Illinois Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers,
who I knew and I got no response, and to others,
and trying to get him support. Not exactly an easy undertaking,
since Clutter is one of the few people who believe
Chris Vaughn is innocent outside of Chris's parents and siblings.
(06:44):
I've never given up on Christopher con In the eyes
of the law, he is a convicted killer, and so
you're starting at that point, and it's difficult to change
people's minds once they hear that. Hopefully, the more we
peel away at this case and expose the wrongful nature
(07:06):
of the conviction, those minds will change. But many minds
have already been influenced by the reality Vaughan was the
sole survivor of a horrific crime for which he was convicted,
and it was salaciously covered, especially by local news. This
all played out in the media and they really had
a field day. Vaughan is accused of killing his wife
(07:27):
and three children. There was just a drone of negative
media about him and his case. Prosecutors said that Vaughn's
motive was his wife's one million dollar life insurance policy.
So understandably, to many living around Illinois, Vaughan is considered
an especially evil man. Prosecutors in the Christopher Vaughan murder
(07:47):
trial argue he murdered his family because they were obstacles
in his life. Joe Hoosie was one of the local
reporters who covered the story at the time, the One
family murders. I was working at the Juliet Harold News
newspaper and Juliet Lane Way, and I got one of
the editors that sometimes calling me on my cell and
demand who they know where I am. He's like, we
(08:08):
got this huge stories. It is a big murder in Shanahan.
The whole family has been murdered. Then the Grouse fo
case was it was a very big case locally. I mean,
yet the Chicago media down here. It was. It had
a great impact. I mean, three children and their mother
on their way to a water park and then executed.
That's going to be a big story. Joe is a
(08:28):
prolific journalist and the author of Fatal Vows, The Tragic
Wives of Sergeant Drew Peterson, which was later made into
a movie called Untouchable starring Rob Low as the wife
killing cop. It unfolded the same year as the Von tragedy,
along with another high profile case. Seven was an unusual
year around here. They had the disappearance of least aesthetic
(08:50):
mother and wife in Playfield and she was going through
a divorce but living in the same house as or
a strange husband, and she vanished. That was a huge
story in the Chicago area. Soon after that you had
the laws Christopher Vaughan and his family mother and three
children shot at that. Then months after that you had
Drew Peterson, which pulled all the attention off of both
(09:12):
of those cases. Really, I mean Drew Peterson, Stacy Peterson,
Kathleen Savio that that story pulled the lime light away
from all of them. Drew Peterson's high profile trial grabbed
national headlines, and his trial also happened at the same
time in the same building as Christopher Bonds. I ended
up covering most of the trial after Drew Peterson's was over.
(09:34):
Is a very photogenic family, very attractive family, adorable children,
and they were terribly brutally murdered. I don't think I
saw the crime scene photos until the trial, but which
they were heartbreaking. But you don't really need to see
the crime scene photos to have your heartbroken. Anytime there's
(09:55):
a case involving murdered children and murdered mother, it's heartbreaking,
It's terrible. There's nothing worse than I can really think of.
And Dan Illinois, Christopher Vaughan is thought of as the
guy who killed his wife and three children to escape
his marriage. Was there ever any sympathy for Christopher von
(10:15):
not that I can recall. I mean, I don't think
anybody really bought into his version of events. Yet. There
are many more complicated pieces to the story. Will be
covering them all, but we have to start with the
murders Christopher Vaughan was convicted of committing. While the details
are disturbing and brutal, they are also critical to understanding
(10:37):
the case and whether the man now serving life actually
took four lives. The murders occurred on June two thousand
and seven. In the quiet pre dawn hours of that
Thursday morning. The Vaughan family, Christopher, his wife Kimberly, and
(10:57):
their three children, loaded up their red Ford X Petition suv,
setting out before five am from their home in Oswego
for an impromptu family trip to a water park three
hours away in Springfield, Illinois. They would never arrive. At
approximately five fifteen am, a passing motorists stopped to render
(11:18):
assistance to Christopher Vaughan, who was found limping along the
frontage road of Interstate fifty five south of Joliet, Illinois.
Vaughan had two gunshot wounds. One bullet had pierced his
left wrist, the other went entirely through his left leg.
When the man asked if Vaughan had been in a
motorcycle accident or if he'd been stabbed, he replied, no,
(11:40):
I think my wife shot me. The rest of his
family wouldn't fare as well. At five twenty four am,
first responders would encounter a trail of blood reaching roughly
a hundred and forty feet, which led to the family's
red Ford expedition nestled in a secluded area of the
frontage road of Interstate fifty five. Upon their arrival, all
(12:02):
the doors to the suv were closed. Inside were the
remaining members of Christopher Vaughan's family dead. His three children
were in the back seat. Abigail, aged twelve, behind the
driver's seat, shot once in the head and once in
the chest, had been clutching a Harry Potter book and
a stuffed animal. Her younger sister, Cassandra eleven, in the
(12:24):
center seat, and their little brother, Blake, age eight, seated
behind the passenger seat, had also been shot twice. Evidence
would later show the young boy was holding his arms
out in a defensive position and likely saw what was coming.
The body of their mother, Kimberly Vaughan, was slumped in
the passenger seat, a single gunshot wound under her chin.
(12:46):
On the floorboard. At her feet were her purse and
a nine millimeter Torus handgun. The murder scene was so
traumatizing that a police chaplain was brought out to provide
counseling to responders. Christopher Vaughan, old surviving member of the family,
was loaded into an ambulance bound for the hospital on
the way there, Cris Vaughn appeared to believe his family
(13:09):
was still alive. Upon arriving at the hospital, he told
a nurse, you should call my wife. She gets mad
when I don't call her. That disconnect would continue. After
being released from the hospital, Christopher Vaughan was taken to
the District five police headquarters, where he was interviewed by detectives.
Vaughan had apparent gaps in his recollection of the morning events.
(13:32):
He said his wife wanted him to pull off the
highway because she was feeling nauseous, a side effect of
anxiety induced migraines, or possibly the prescription medication she was
taking for the condition. Vaughan remembered pulling off, parking in
front of the cell phone tower along a frontage road
to provide privacy for his wife, and then getting out
(13:53):
of the car to check the back tires. He recalled
re securing the strap on the lugged rack and observed
ing a deer in the adjoining cornfield. It was only
after getting back into the vehicle Vaughan noticed his leg
was bleeding, but had no memory of being shot. Over
the next twenty hours, police would interrogate Vaughan still clad
(14:14):
in a hospital gown, and Vaughan's reaction during the questioning
raised scrutiny, especially those captured by hidden video cameras when
the officers left the room. At one point, when alone,
confronted by a photo of his eight year old son, Blake,
Vaughan crumpled it and threw it into the corner of
the room. Less than a week later, Christopher Vaughan would
(14:35):
be arrested at the funeral of his wife and children.
Five years later. During Vaughan's five week trial, incriminating revelation
after revelation would drop, none of them flattering for the
accused killer. This morning, Assistant State's Attorney Mike Fitzgerald meticulously
reviewed the evidence from the five week long trial, testimony
(14:56):
from dozens of witnesses. Fitzgerald claimed Van's guilt is painfully obvious.
The jury would take fifty minutes to find von guilty
on all four counts of first degree murder. Christopher Vaughan
has never confessed, and for fourteen years, has maintained no
memory of what actually happened to his family in their
(15:18):
sub that day, no recollection of the four murders for
which he is now serving a life sentence. Here's Bill
Clutter again. Generally, my rule of thumb as your client
is your best source of information. The biggest obstacle was
Christ's inability to remember the events of what happened that morning.
The lone survivor, the only person who would have been
(15:41):
an eye witness to what happened that day, couldn't provide
you with that information. That was the frustrating part of
the case. Yes, Vaughan's defense would attribute his recollection gap
to something called dissociative amnesia, a disorder that involves the
inability to recall important personal information that is usually caused
(16:02):
by trauma or stress. He really had no memory and
and this is the thing. The probable cost to arrest
him cited the fact that he had basically these gaps
in his story, and it became clear that he couldn't
remember what actually happened. But many people in Illinois can't
(16:23):
forget it. It was a strange case. I'll say that
it was one of the status ones I've covered. It'll
never leave me. And I've covered serial killer cases, defitalty
sentencing hearings and us and terrible things, and this one
will be with me. For him, that's journalist Erica Worst,
(16:45):
a seasoned local reporter who feels deeply rooted to the
bond case just to hear the word as we go
and now that that's my community and that's where I
grow up. We never I mean to have three children
and a mother killed and a father, you know, being
convicted of that crime. I mean, you would not find
(17:07):
that around here, would not. At the time of the murders,
Worst was a reporter at the Chicago Sun Times, a
newspaper that had already done a profile on the exceptionally
photogenic family before the tragedy for a real estate article.
It was weird because when the story happen, we were
looking through our types for any pictures we might have
(17:28):
had of them, and then we're like, holy shit, they
were in our own paper not that long ago. So
that was that was a photo they used often, the
family photo when they moved into their house and as
weeto um. We had a weekend feature in the paper
that was a design feature, talked about home, et cetera,
(17:51):
and their home was featured in their banding in front
of the bay window and it's all of them and
it's just talking about how they moved here in their
house and missing that Google Christopher Vaughan's family, and two
of those photos are in the top results. One of
Chris and Kim seated in front of their three standing children,
(18:11):
another of the family of five seated together on a
brown sectional couch. All are casually clad in jeans, the
three kids peering out beneath silky bangs. Abigail's coloring leaning
more towards the strawberry blonde of her mother, Cassandra, and
Blake a bit more brunette like their dad. Chris looked
significantly heavier than he'd later appear in mugshots. Kimberly is
(18:34):
beaming beautifully in both photos. The only member of the
family smiling broadly enough to reveal teeth the home was Christine.
They had just moved in. They're all standing there, and
they kind of been much younger than they were the
age they were killed, because they hadn't lived in last week.
Go to on. You just think, okay, butt a flip
(18:57):
past this picture without even own it, not even residue article.
It was just a picture and the paper that I
looked at every single day to look at the picture
and think, oh my god, four of those five people
are dead. Now those kids are dead forever and ever
(19:20):
and ever and ever and ever, and that's what haunting.
They'll never get any older than they were in that picture.
The tragedy that photo now represents is in stark contrast
to the stunning good looks of the Telegenic family. I mean,
there were a picture perfect. That's the kind of couple
that I would look at and be like three I
(19:41):
was there, likes you know, three cute little kids and
take knife out and camp seems so heavy, and that
that's what I would point to and say, that's what
I want. And you know, I never know what's going
on behind closed doors. H much of which would come
(20:02):
out in court in front of both Chris and Kimberly's grieving,
torn apart families. The Vaughan's and the Phillips worst kept
meticulous notes throughout the von trial and finds them difficult
to revisit. It's hard when it's a family family thing.
Usually one guy against another guy in a different family,
and in this case, it's like total devastation. The whole
(20:25):
family that was sad. Here's these families that used to
be one family, and now we're sitting on different sides
of the courtroom, and they believe one thing, and they
believe one thing, and it's never going to be resolved,
So there's no justice. No one's gonna get what they want,
which is their loved ones. Back Covering the five week
(20:56):
trial gave Worst ample time to scrutinize Christopher Vaughan and
his behavior. I was there and watched every nine witnesses
and every piece of evidencely with Gerald, and every autopsy photo.
When you saw Vaughan in person as opposed to seeing
the mug shot, can you just take me to your
(21:18):
thoughts of how he presented in the courtroom. Well, I mean,
he's a handsome man. He was well dressed. You don't
look at Chris and be like, slaughtered your family. It's
just not the vibe he gives off. It's like he
can't be the epitome of evil. But then you think
back to the autopsy photos and you're like, no, that's
(21:40):
pretty damn evil. Hello, Hey, Gail, it's Lauren. Hi here, Lauren.
How are you? I am doing very well. That's Crispawn's mother, Gail.
We'd connect it by email then phone. Her voice reminds
(22:02):
me of Yankee candles warm and comforting throughout our calls.
I was struck by the consistently positive energy she radiates
every time she picks up the phone. For over a year,
we've talked about just about everything, including fishing. We've got
some pretty good size ones around here, and when I
finally get one, I usually fish only for the little
fun fish. So when I get something that them's my
(22:26):
rod backwards, it's like, no, I don't want this, and
Pierre's usually with me, so I say, if you don't
want this fish, I'm just dropping the rod, and he'll
scramble the eye into the book. He said, give me,
give me, give it. Well, they're not. It's a good
thing that you fish together then, or you'd be losing
a lot of rods. Yes, but when the topic turns
(22:47):
to Chris, the eldest of her three sons, you hear
a sudden shift, almost like a WinCE from an old injury,
followed by frustration. Well, my son is innocent. He did
not kill his three children nor his wife. My son
did not do this, and he's sitting there in prison
(23:07):
in the middle of Illinois. Nobody can sold him. When
this happened. There was nobody to talk to him after
he lost these his family. We had counselors, we had
each other. Chris had no one for fourteen years. Gil
has been trying to get her son out of prison
(23:29):
with little support, something she's grown used to. A couple
of days after this, it's awful tragedy. Mr Glasgow appeared
on TV with all the higher up people that we're investigating.
She's referencing James Glasgow, the will County States attorney who
(23:50):
prosecuted her son, and he pretty much pointed out that
Kimberly was an angel and he would deal with the
person that did this, and he was pretty sure he
knew who it was, and it never deviated from his
point of view there. He was always trying to fit
the evidence into the crime instead of following the evidence.
(24:13):
The jurors some of them actually fell asleep during the trial.
I mean, how can somebody put somebody into prison that
doesn't listen to all of the facts. Gail moderates a
Facebook group Christopher Vaughan is Innocent, the last word in
(24:34):
all caps. It had sixteen members when I looked it up.
In addition to Bill Clutter, many of them are Vaughan relatives.
This is hard to put together all of the things
that went wrong and what we should have said throughout
the whole trial. We kept our emotions in because that's
what our lawyers told us to do. That Facebook groups
(24:57):
banner image is a photo of Vaughan in prison issue blue,
standing between Gale and her husband Pierre, who also goes
by the nickname Pete the three or arm in arms,
smiling at the camera in front of the photo backdrop
of a slightly tropical sunsetting sky. Above them is a
string of glittery paper hearts that looks like it would
be more at home in an elementary school than a prison.
(25:19):
Chris sports symmetrical features, a shaved head and a slim
trim goatee. He's a pretty balanced mixture of his parents,
with a scale tilted maybe the slightest bit towards his mother.
Chris shares her define jaw and like her as. His
eyes are lighter than Pierre's dark brown ones, but almost
identical in shape to his dad's. Both parents are wearing
(25:39):
similar plaid flannel shirts, have salt and pepper shades of hair,
and the same expression the combination of happiness, vulnerability, and weariness.
They're visiting a son sentenced to life for killing their
three grandchildren and daughter in law. The look in all
their eyes is at odds with the smiles beneath them. Pierre, Yes, hey,
(26:02):
it's Lauren. Hi, Lauren, how are you. I'm fine. Gail
told me to call this number. Pierre Bond shares his
wife Gail's belief in Chris his innocence, but it's tampered
with a bit more anger and cynicism. He was convicted
before he even started. My son was presumed guilty immediately.
(26:25):
They took him after he was treated for being shot. Uh,
they took him immediately from the hospital to the police station,
and the police were relentless and pursuing him and persuading
him and lying to him, uh, to get him to confess.
(26:47):
And he never did do that, and that was never
brought up into trial. My son who was shot, his
family was killed, and he lost everything, and nobody stopped
to think about, you know, wait a minute, what if
he did not do this. So you don't feel that
(27:07):
Chris got a proper defense, Absolutely not, Absolutely not. When
I first started speaking with Chris Vaughn's parents, Pierre was
transitioning towards retirement and the couple was in the process
of moving to the last home they planned to live in,
one that includes a room for Chris. My son did
not do this. He needs to come home. It's not
(27:31):
surprising that parents would believe in the innocence of their
own child. Gale and Pierre's printal allegiance and optimism aside,
the process of revisiting the conviction of Christopher Vaughan is daunting.
According to Bill Clutter, these cases are uphill climb, even
when you have newly discovered evidence that just blows the
(27:52):
doors off the conviction. These are hard cases, and you're
always going to get pushed back on some level, and
especially at the lower court of the court where the
case original, you're always going to get pushed back when
you go back there. I did reach out to the
office of James W. Glasgow, the Will County States Attorney
who mounted the case against Bonon Glasgow's website, sports has
(28:16):
polished mustachioed photo which calls to mind a more Hollywood
version of Mike Ditka, and a lengthy list of his
accomplishments during an unprecedented seven terms as Will County States Attorney.
Prominently featured is that Glasgow quote successfully prosecuted Christopher Vaughan
and secured a life sentence for the murder of his
(28:37):
wife and three children unquote. Vaughan is second in billing
to another career highlight convicting wife killing cop Drew Peterson,
listed as quote a landmark case that attracted international attention unquote.
While Glasgow's office politely declined our request for a formal interview,
(28:58):
they did share the clothes saying arguments for the people
of Illinois versus Christopher Vaughan and the impressive power point
presentation that accompanied it. It's quite thorough and was obviously
successful in terms of swaying the jury to convict. But
Bill Clutter contends it was built on a problematic foundation.
There was this snap judgment that he did it. This
(29:21):
happened early in the morning on June four, two thousand
and seven. There was a three day period where he
was interrogated by police. It was shortly after that, as
he was preparing to attend the funeral of his family
in St. Louis, that handcuffs were placed on him and
(29:43):
he was whisked away, taken to Joliet, and he hasn't
seen the light of day since. There was a rush
to judgment and we didn't realize the extent of the
tunnel vision until we started taking depositions. You know, none
of their theories of how this happened that the crime
(30:04):
scene evidence. Clutter's convinced he can mount a post conviction
case that can clear Christopher van If you just analyze
the evidence in the case without these blinders of emotion
and prejudice, it's a pretty clear case of actual innocence.
(30:28):
Attorney Keith Altman agrees, like Clutter, he was involved in
Vaughan's initial defense team, but as an expert, will dive
more deeply into that in future episodes. I believe that
Chris did not get the defense that his case demanded.
Once the death penalty was taken off the table, the
(30:50):
States stop funding his defense. Altman is referencing that Democratic
Governor Pat Quinn signed legislation on March nine, tleven, to
abolish the death penalty in Illinois. It went into effect
on July one, two thousand eleven, and with it went
the funding for the impressive team who had been mounting
(31:10):
their defense a Vaughan for the past four years. And
this happened a little more than a year before his trial,
when Chris was under the threat of the death penalty,
the state of Illinois ensured that he received the best
possible success. Between the attorneys who were involved, who were superb,
(31:31):
I was able to bring one of the top experts
in the world on psychiatric adverse events of drugs and
work in support of him, David Healy. The ballistic that's
that they had were world class. As soon as the
death penalty was taken off the table, the public defender
(31:53):
abandoned all the works that we had done, never called
any of us, never did anything honey of us, and
never really gave Chris his proper and so it just
bothers me to the day. Altman's online profile is accompanied
by a burly, pleasantly smiling photo, but his records a
(32:16):
little more pitful than Teddy Bear. He led a series
of potentially precedent setting lawsuits against some of the world's
most powerful social media companies, an effort to hold them
accountable for allowing terrorists to radicalize people through social media channels.
He maintains that same fierceness in his belief of Chris
Pahn's innocence. Chrisms case harms me because between me and
(32:38):
the other experts, I believe we had a very strong
presentation of evidence indicating Chris and unfortunately the circumstances of
the death seal to be taken off the table meant
he did not have access to those resources. And you know,
I believe that the truth should come out, and I
don't think he taught the justice that he deserved. In
(33:20):
two thousand eleven, Christopher Vaughan was left with a public
defender who had just over a year to get up
to speed for the trial. Here's Bill Clutter again. That's
the thing that bothers me most of all is that
you had these reforms that were put in place to
guard against an innocent person facing the death penalty from
being convicted. But then you become vulnerable. Once a decision
(33:43):
is made not to seek the death penalty. You're stripped
of all those resources intended to prevent a miscarriage of justice.
And he's used up all his appeals. He had his
direct appeal and there was no appeal to that right now.
The only way for him to be free is to
(34:03):
prove actual innocence. And that's a hard road. That's a
that's a very hard road. It's a road that journalist
Erica Worst isn't entirely convinced we should be setting out
on at all. Christopher had a plan. I feel like
he executed that plan, and I feel like it didn't
(34:25):
go the way he wanted to. What do you think
was his plan then? In other words, what did he
hope would happen? That it would be viewed as murder suicide? Yeah,
he wanted it to be viewed as murder suicide. And
then you know what, oh, four weeks later and less
than that, I don't know. He's getting her life insurance money.
(34:48):
He basically he has said, this isn't the life I
want to live. This isn't the life I want to live.
This isn't a life for me. Worst also takes issue
with any scenario that places Chris Paul as a possible victim.
How does he get out of that car and go
running for help, leaving him in there with a gun
(35:08):
and the three kids. No one would do that. He
says that he has no recollection whatsoever of that. If
that is true, you know he's in a duel kind
of prison, right he doesn't know what happened, whether or
not he was holding the gun or not. If he
really doesn't remember, if he had some kind of a break.
(35:29):
Then why the first thing he says when he stumbles
upon die on the street, you know, after he had
been shot. Why does he say, my my wife shot
meet like immediate? That's an immediate You're giving a statement
immediately after occurred. If he's saying he got out of
the car and he didn't see anyone else get shot,
(35:53):
why is he in such a disassociative state just from
being shot in the risk and the legs? Superficially I
caused the break in him. My husband is not an
aggressive person or anything of that nature. Um, but you
better believe he'd go to bat for us if something
like that has happened, and not just get out of
the car and walk away. In other words, how do
(36:16):
you walk away if your kids have been shot or
haven't been shot? How do you leave it? You don't?
I mean, there's so many unknowns which will probably remain unknown.
But the state put together enough of a case to
(36:41):
get that verdict. They wanted a verdict worst agreed with
then and now I believe with nine percent, shorty that
Christopher van so his I said, really an freaking this
(37:02):
was open and shut, And I know you guys are
looking into Christian's innocence, and I think everyone deserves that chance.
I'm just going to be really interested to see what
you guys are finding that I may have missed during
(37:26):
every single day of that trial. There is much more
to this tragedy than the brutal horror that unfolded in
that red suv in two thousand and seven, including dysfunctional
family dynamics, a troubled marriage, deception and betrayal. As we
(37:48):
set out on this path, it's with the acknowledgement that
on many levels, at many times, it may be polarizing.
This was an absolutely horrific event, and we intend to
cover it with intech, pretty and sensitivity, but we also
understand revisiting it at all is painful for many of
the parties involved, especially for those close to Kimberly Vaughan.
(38:09):
While to date her family has not responded to our
multiple requests for an interview, we hope they will reconsider.
It is not our intention to disparage anyone living or dead.
It's to re examine a case that's been tightly closed
to shed light on whether Christopher Vaughan was justly charged, tried,
and convicted, and explore whether pertinent facts and later developments
(38:33):
that could have been utilized in his defense were overlooked
or ignored. What happened in the Vaughan family's suv was unfathomable.
Three innocent children died facing a gun that was held
by one of the last people they ever thought would
harm them. But the only thing that could make this
tragedy any more disturbing is the possibility that the man
(38:54):
serving life sentences for having taken those lives didn't actually
commit the murders. That is the possibility will explore and
in the process uncover answers to questions deemed mysteries for
fourteen years. This season of Murder in Illinois cay me
(39:17):
do as good things well Tha can never. On our
next episode, we'll explore the upbringing and marriage of the
man who would become one of Illinois's most vilified fathers
(39:38):
and the intricate dynamics that led to a horrific tragedy.
He was just instantly smitten with her. I mean it
was just a clique. They really had nothing income. Did
you ever think in a million years that Chris would
come home from college and tell you guys he was
getting married. No when they got to the point of
(40:01):
the pastor said if anybody has objections, please say so now,
and then lightning struck. That was a little awkward. It's
always cry Gain Feud Order and Ellinois, product of My
(41:00):
Heart Radio. Executive producers are Lauren Fright Pacheco and Taylor Chokogne.
Written by Lauren Fright Pacheco and Matthew Riddle, Story editing
by Matthew Riddle, editing and sound design by Evan Tyre
and Taylor chokogn Feature music by Cicada Rhythm with new
compositions engineered and mixed by Evan Tyre and Taylor Chokogne.
(41:22):
Archived news records provided by W g Enn. For more
podcasts from My Heart Radio, check out the I Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get the stories
that matter to you.
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