December 26, 2019 • 33 mins
Throughout this podcast we've seen the victimization of people caught in the crosshairs of politics and corruption. Lives twisted or destroyed by those with great power and little accountability. This episode addresses one of the darkest political scandals in Oregon's history - a woman deeply damaged as a result of a childhood disrupted, by a man who became one of the most powerful men in Oregon...and how that scandal played into the investigation of Mike Francke's murder.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Murder and Oregon as a production of I Heart Radio.
Shortly after Michael Frankie's murder, then reporter Eric Mason attended
a press conference held by Governor Neil gold Schmidt. At
the time, Mason attributed Goldschmidt's demeanor to Michael's murder. Eric
recalls what it was like. Only later would we understand that.
(00:24):
I think what was going on there was the governor
thinking my own secrets might come rolling out of the closet,
my own skeleton might be revealed here in the process
of a murder happening, right, you know, in my inner circle.
And I think that might have been also a part
of how shell shocked Governor Goldschmidt was that morning, was
(00:45):
that he had his own deep, dark secrets, and I wondered,
if you know, there was more to that very grim
look on his face than I remember seeing the morning.
I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco, and this is Murder and Oregon.
(01:20):
We want to warn listeners that some of the events
and circumstances were about to cover involve sexual abuse of
a minor. But these details are crucial to fully understanding
the narrative around Michael's murder. On the surface, Neil Goldschmidt
should have been eager to support a thorough investigation into
the murder of Michael Frankie, the newly hired head of
(01:42):
Corrections he personally recruited, was dead murdered on state property.
But instead the governor went after members of the press
for theories of corruption within the Corrections Department and dismiss
the idea that Frankie's murder was anything more than a
random Kelly ing, and he pushed back against the efforts
(02:02):
of Mike's brothers and Phil Stanford. What really puzzled me
at the time still puzzled me was why he had
resisted so strenuously, why he had resisted any real investigation
into corruption in the prison system. First of all, the attacks,
public attacks against me and Kevin. You know, where is
(02:24):
this garbage coming from? But as we know now, there
was a great deal of talk in his office. We
have the memo that shows that he wanted to keep
the FBI out and he wanted to keep State Senate
from investigating corruption in the prison system. So why it
didn't make any sense because the corruption we were talking
about had occurred before he had become governor, and he's
a very smart politician. All he had to do was
(02:47):
blame it on his predecessor. Goldschmidt was by many accounts
an effective governor. His economic reforms and policies brought the
state out of a nearly decade long recession. He passed
workers complegislation and promoted children's literacy. A second term victory
was a given. Then he made a stunning announcement. Newspaper
(03:12):
reporter Jim Redden recalls that day he unexpectedly announced that
he was not going to run free election in the
middle of his term. And I was there at that
press conference when we did it, and it was a shock.
I mean, it was a stunning announcement. He called press
conference and we didn't know what he was going to announce,
announced he was not going to run for re election.
(03:33):
Nobody said anything, Nobody even asked a question, I mean,
and then turned around and walked out of the room.
Here's Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for the will llamb a Week,
Nigel ja Quis. He had been mayor of Portland in
his twenties, a point by President Jimmy Carter, we transportation
secretary his thirties. David Broder, the Washington Post columnists, who
(03:56):
was sort of the leading national political columnist of the day.
Had I entified him and Bill Clinton, uh and Governor
Keen of New Jersey as sort of the three Democrats
who might be president at some point. So gold Fromant
was really, at least for political insiders, and national figure
of great promise. He was widely expected to run for
(04:16):
a second term in nineteen nine, and he did abruptly
announced early in that year that he wasn't going to
seek a second term. He was going through a divorce
at the time, and the press accounts at the time
attributed left a great deal of uncertainty. Nobody was sure
exactly why he wasn't going to run again, and it
(04:37):
sort of remained an enduring mystery in Oregon politics. Why
had this person who was a phenomenon and a very successful,
very effective politician just walked away in the prime of
his political life. Here's Pilligan. Well, it was odd for sure,
I mean, he was a shoe in for a second term.
(04:59):
The prob like explanation does that recall, was that he
was separating from his wife and he wanted to spare
the children. You know, you always have to be just
a little bit suspicious whenever a professional politician says he's
resigning or dropping out of a race for the sake
of the children. And Neil Goldschmidt's secret, it turns out,
(05:23):
was a pretty horrible one. So I was supposed to
find out what he'd been doing since he left office,
and in the course of reporting on what he had
done in the fourteen years since he left office, I
got a tip that there had been an issue in
his past involving a babysitter, and so that led me
(05:45):
to trying to find out what had happened back when
he was Portland's mayor in the nineteen seventies. What Nigel
uncovered was something beyond unexpected. It turned out that he had,
over a period of a number of years that numbers
sort of remains in dispute, but at least three or
(06:06):
four years uh sexually abused a neighbor's daughter, the young
woman who was either thirteen or fourteen. Again that number
is in dispute as well when sexual abuse began, but
in either case she was well under the age of
legal consent. So when we well aim it, we broke
that story in two thousand four. It was a real
(06:26):
bombshell because Goldschmid, although he had left politics, was really
the kingmaker in Oregon. He was the most influential private
citizen in the state, and many of the elected officials
and corporate officials in the state out their position either
directly to him or indirectly to him. So he had
a sort of an unparalleled in Oregon network of influence.
(06:50):
And so it was a major story at the time
during his time as mayor of Poor when Neil Goldschmidt
was regularly committing statutory rape with a girl who was
barely a teenager. The Oregonian caught went of Jake was
his reporting and attempted to get ahead of the story
(07:12):
with what seems an apparent spen. Margie Boulet was a
columnist for the paper at the time. The Oregonian found
out probably because Nigel Jake was contacted Goldschmidt to answer questions.
But the Oregonian found out well EMTT week was going
to break this story, and whether they wanted to beat
(07:33):
them to the story or whether they wanted for some
reason to print Goldschmidt's version first, who knows, But the
Oregonian brought in Neil Goldschmidt to a meeting with a
hand picked group of journalists and editors, and Neil gold
Schmidt arrived with a statement he read about his health
(07:56):
uh and his heart problems, quoted doctor. The impression a
lot of people at the meeting got was that he
was on the brink of death, seriously seriously ill um.
And then there was a brief mention of a relationship
that gold Schmidt had had with a fourteen year old
girl back when he was mayor of Portland, and then
(08:16):
the subject was returned to gold Schmidt's health. I have
heard a recording of that, and I took notes. I
was not allowed to keep it. I was not given
a transcript. I just was allowed to sit down and
listen to it when I was working on my story later.
But um, the reporters in the room were very respectful
of him. They were very concerned about his health. I
(08:38):
do not recall hearing anyone ask questions about the relationship
with the girl, and if they did, the questions were
not of serious concern. But the Oregonian softball handling of
gold Schmidt would elicit public outcry. After the Oregonian story ran,
and while I'm a Week story ran, there was huge
(09:00):
public response. The Oregonian got a lot of negative response
because the headline used in the very first story about
Geldschmidt's admission of a relationship was that he had had
an affair, quote unquote an affair, and people were rightly
outraged that it had been depicted in The Oregonian as
(09:24):
an affair when it was child sex abuse, it was
rape of a child. Here's reporter Nigel jaqu was Again.
A lot of people were very disgusted by his conduct
and thought it was a terrible crime, and we're very angry.
(09:44):
There were also a lot of people who thought the
story never should have been written, that it was history,
and that it was no longer current or relevant, and
that there was no public purpose to be served by publication.
Throughout this podcast, we've seen the victimization of people caught
(10:07):
in the cross hairs of politics and corruption, lives twisted
or destroyed by those with great power and little accountability.
In two thousand and five, Marquis Boulet began interviewing the
now grown woman who had been the underaged victim of
gold Schmidt, who was still one of the most powerful
men in Oregon after the stories had broken A short
(10:32):
period of time passed, and then I got a telephone
call at The Oregonian from a woman about whom I
had written in the past. She had been the victim
of a crime, and she did not want the perpetrator
to find her because the perpetrator had never been identified,
and so I protected her in the ways that I
was able to do that using journalistic ethics in my
own conscience. So she said, I have a story for you.
(10:55):
I am friends with Neil Goldschmidt's victim. She wants to
tell her story, but she doesn't trust anybody in the press,
and I told her that I thought she could trust you,
and she wants to meet you. Markie met with Goldschmidt's victim,
Elizabeth Dunham, a name she hesitates to use even now.
Elizabeth felt she could trust Margie and agreed to be interviewed.
(11:20):
She was forty two, but she seemed older in some
ways and younger in other ways. I believe that her
emotional maturity stopped the day she became involved in a
sexual relationship with the mayor of the town, whom her
parents idolized. Um. I'm not sure she was ever able
to fully mature after that. Physically, she looked much older
(11:44):
than her age. She was very unhappy with the way
she had been portrayed. But she was being portrayed as
someone who was a throwaway kid before he ever approached her,
and that wasn't true. She was very, very intelligent. She
was a beautiful writer. She was insightful, she was generous.
(12:04):
We had an agreement that she would call me because
she was traumatized because she had been used by so
many people. The last thing I wanted to do was
to use her. It could be no one will ever
believe this, But the truth is I really didn't give
(12:25):
a damn about getting a scoop. I just wanted her
story to be told, because when the story was written,
it was always from his perspective. Elizabeth grew up in
close proximity to gold Schmidt and his inner circle, which
made her easy prey. Her parents were huge fans of Goldschmidt.
(12:47):
They lived in the same neighborhood. She even said frequently
that her parents idolized him, and so she grew up
idolizing him. Her parents, she said, worked on Neil Goldschmidt's
pains for the city council, and when he ran for mayor,
He was a frequent visitor to her childhood home and
(13:08):
that's where the abuse began. It was her mother's birthday party.
She remembered it very clearly, and gold Schmidt and she
went down to the basement and there was sexual behavior
at that time, she said. And how old was she
said she was thirteen, and she was very clear about that.
(13:29):
She said. The sexual predatory behavior by him toward her
from that point on continued on a regular basis. She
and her friend told me that after school in the afternoons,
they would go upstairs at Elizabeth's house and sit in
a particular window where you could see the street, and
they would watch for the mayor's driver's car that took
(13:55):
him home every early evening. And when the car drove by,
because Goldschmidt lived the neighborhood, if the lights on the
car flash, that meant that later that evening Goldschmidt would
come to her home and late at night, she would
leave the door unlocked after her parents went to sleep,
and he would arrive and she would greet him and
(14:16):
they would go down to the basement and have sex.
He would rape her. He was mayor of Portland and
flagrantly wielded that power her girlfriends from those years middle school,
Jude High School, um early high school when she was before,
(14:36):
she dropped out so she could be more available to
him to have sex during the day. She told me
her girlfriends said they saw him grow her. They saw
him grow her breast in front of them. You heard
that correctly, This young, vulnerable girl dropped out of school
so she could be sexually available to gold Schmidt at
(14:56):
any time. She told me that she went to St. Mary's,
a ken me downtown because it was a couple blocks
from city Hall and she would be more available to him.
That he had suggested that. Then, she told me that
she dropped out of school so she could be more
available to him. He told her, according to her, um,
you're so smart, you don't need to go to school.
(15:17):
I'll give you a reading list. So she was in
city Hall a lot, and even as he was stealing
her childhood and innocence, Goldschmidt manipulated her with false promise
of a future together. She believed for a long long
time that it was an affair, that he was in
love with her. She told me that he said to
(15:37):
her he would marry her when his children were older,
because he didn't want them to have a broken home
while they were still in school, and Elizabeth couldn't even
turn to her own family for help or protection. She
told me the first person she told when she was
fourteen or fifteen was her grandmother, and her grandmother reacted
(15:59):
as if it was a great honor, that's such a
great man would fall in love with you and and
have an affair with you. Then later her mother found
out shortly after that, and she told me that her
mother went on a bike ride with Neil gold Schmidt
and said, I understand you're having sex with my daughter.
And he admitted it, and she said, do you think
(16:21):
that's a good idea? And he said probably not. And
he said it would stop, but it didn't. It was
heartbreaking betrayal, a child knowingly subjected to abuse by the
people who should have been protecting her. As Elizabeth got older,
(16:53):
she began to fully comprehend the damage gold Schmidt had
done to her. She got angry. She looked at her
her life, and her life was in tatters, and she
wanted to make something of herself. She wanted to pull
her life together. She did not have the skills to
do that. She was too damaged and too sick, really sick,
(17:14):
but she still wanted to try, and she knew that
she wasn't making it, so she said she went to
him and said, you know, I need to get a degree.
And that's when he began giving her money for tuition
for the community college in Seattle. He began pulling strings
to get her accepted into places, and she started telling people.
She started telling cops in bar. She'd be in a
(17:34):
bar and she'd be drunk and she'd start telling cops.
And some of those cops contacted me and told me
that she did and it was getting back to him,
and she told me that she was given cash payments.
This is long before the attorney goun involved. She was
given cash payments to pay her rent and to pay
tuition to keep her in Seattle so she'd stop telling
(17:54):
people in Portland. That's what she told me. Eventually Goldschman
lawyers got involved. It was agreed that in exchange for
her shattered life and silence, Elizabeth would be paid hundreds
of thousands of dollars. Marquis Boulet conducted most of her
interviews with Elizabeth between two thousand and five and two
(18:16):
thousand and seven, but The Oregonian refused to publish Margie's
articles without fully naming Elizabeth, even though she was a
rape victim, and they kept demanding more sources and information,
even though it had already been extensively and meticulously researched
by Boulet. I couldn't understand why they were asking for
(18:40):
more documentation, more witnesses, more direct quotes, more use of
real names from people who might have been willing to
speak to me off the record or be quoted without names.
I couldn't understand why they were making it so difficult
for this story to be told, because if you went
back and read early stories about gold Schmidt's side of things,
(19:02):
they just printed his side. I could not figure out
why they would not run the story without her name.
I later learned that several of the editors at the
paper were close personal friends of Neil Goldschmidt's, and I
believe that they were trying to protect him. It's just
my opinion. It wasn't until four years later, in two
(19:25):
thousand and eleven, that The oregon Ian finally published the story,
and only after Elizabeth had died. I was told that
she died of complications from her alcoholism. But there are
so many ways she could have died as a result
of the emotional and physical crises she endured, she believed,
(19:50):
and I believed, as a result of what gold Schmidt
did to her. Gold Schmidt, on the other hand, did
not seem to suffer substant repercussions. He just walked away.
I mean, yeah, the public knew, but his rich and
powerful friends have stuck with him to this day. He
owns a beautiful home in France. At least last I heard,
(20:11):
he still did. He owns a beautiful, fabulous home in
the hills of Portland. I'm not going to say he
got off scott free because his reputation was badly damaged,
but the statute of limitations had expired. Otherwise I doubt
he would have come forward and admitted it to The
Oregonian or to anyone so he could not be prosecuted.
(20:35):
His wealthy and powerful friends stuck with him. They even
gave him a party to make him feel better. After
the stories were first published, which sickened me and made
her cry. People continued to cover up and not say
what they knew because they had benefited from their ties
to this powerful man who rewarded people who kept his secret.
(20:57):
In my opinion and in her opinion, in the fact
remains Neil gold Schmidt was only allowed to abuse Elizabeth
Dunham because multiple people around him were willing to look
the other way. Some of them were indebted to him,
others had their own transgressions to hide. Here's Nigel Jakes again.
(21:20):
I think the answer to why that could remain a
secret for so long as the influence in the power
that gold Schmidt wielded. So he had many proteges, As
I mentioned, Governor Koligowski was one, but there weren't many
who were in the state's utilities. He was close to
everybody who mattered in in Oregon, and most of them
were people who owed him something and who had risen
(21:43):
with him. So they both had a reason that they
owed him something, not to divulge his secret, but they also,
I think, perhaps in a more interesting fashion, would be
admitting something about themselves. If the person to whom they
owed so much was shown to be this flawed criminal,
(22:06):
you know, essentially a child rapist, Well, what would I
say about them if the person that gave them their
start or helped their careers was a terrible person. Phil
has another take. If, as we know now, all these
people knew about it, there were some who certainly didn't
have Goldsmith's best interests at heart, that wanted to use him,
(22:30):
or to put another way, blackmail with this information. And
in fact, that's what I think is probably the best
explanation for why he was resisting any decent investigation of
the Frankie murder. At the time, law enforcement the state
police would have known about it. In fact, I think
(22:50):
the Portland's City police knew about the girl back when
he was mayor. His driver was assigned by police intelligence.
There's a reason why police departments do this, so they
will report back on what the mayor is doing. In fact,
we know that the driver would go drive past the
girl's house and blink the lights as a signal. Yes,
(23:13):
of course the Portland police knew it, and there's no
reason to believe that they wouldn't have used it against
him to get raises, to get whatever they want. So
here he is, he's governor and once again, his driver,
his security man, Bernie Giusto, is an officer with the
state police. Do we really believe he wasn't reporting back
(23:35):
to his bosses. And there was something else, one more
thing that has come out that that came out in
the press and was all over the newspapers at the
same time, and this probably explains why Goldsmith was separating
from his wife at the time. The driver was having
an affair with Goldschmidt's wife. Been a great deal of
(23:57):
publicity on that state police officer who was his personal
driver was also having an affair with gold Schmidt's wife. Yeah.
I mean he's talked about it with me. He told
me that gold Schmidt's wife told him that gold Schmidt
was negotiating with the girl and her lawyers to keep
from Milsha. I also spoke with her roommate, and the
(24:21):
roommate told me that during this time, Elizabeth would call
down to the Governor's office, get gold Schmidt on the
phone and scream, you raped me, you owe me. Yeah,
there was pressure on gold Schmidt to keep the lid
on at this time. Sure. And would that have been
the same time as the Michael Frankie murder investigation. Oh? Yes.
(24:45):
At this point, we want to stress that we've reached
out to Neil gold Schmidt multiple times by certified letter
and voicemail for a statement or interview, and to this
date he has not responded to our requests. And then
(25:10):
there was perhaps the most public victim of the murder
and subsequent investigation other than Michael Frankie himself, Frank Gable.
At the time Jake was his Goldschmidt article was published
in two thousand and five. Frank Gable had been in
prison for nearly fourteen years for a crime he remained
adamant he didn't commit. When Boulet's article was published, it
(25:34):
had been nearly twenty years. But throughout gables incarceration there
was someone who wanted to make sure his story stayed
on the public's radar no matter what. Phil Stamford and
Gable read Phil's articles in the Portland Tribune. Over the
course of the years of exchanging letters back and forth,
(25:55):
I came to see Frank as a person who was
much more than just someone who had been wrong. Obviously,
he had been wrongfully convicted, but here here was someone
who was really suffering it. From the beginning, it was
easy for me to empathize, to use an overused word
(26:17):
with with Kevin and Pad. I talked to them and
I could see what they were going through. But now
I was able to see Frank as well, and I'm
sure it just kind of drove home that there were
two lives here that were lost. You know, Mike lost
all of his and Frank was actively losing his life
(26:39):
in prison. Oh, two victims, for sure. It was through
their correspondence that Phil began to grasp how much Gable
had lost and the true extent of his suffering as
his life eroded in prison. He's kept those letters, which
spanned decades. December two thousand three, Hello there, old friend.
(27:03):
After these many years, it almost feels like you and
I are friends. I read and reread some of your
articles dozens of times, sent articles to anyone I thought
would listen to or help me gain my freedom. But
if you don't have the money, you can't ever buy
an ear to hear. There is now no question. He
underlines that I can prove I did not do this
(27:24):
crime film. I've spent several years going over everything over
and over. I can prove the state police in the
d A's office knowingly set me up to wrongfully convict
me and use statements they could have easily proven we're
not true. And Gables desperation and hopelessness during his fruitless appeals.
(27:44):
Process is heart wrenching. I feel completely in the dark
on what's going on that after fifteen years, could this
truly finally be the end of this insane nightmare? Oh God,
how I hope and pray it is felt. No words
can express what it's like to go through something like this.
A former matth user and drug dealer, Gabel, fought to
(28:05):
clean up his life in prison. I told my homies
I'd stop everything and change my life. I've done that, Phil,
I've stayed clean and sober, and life is better than ever.
I will not let you and Kevin Downfil. I will
make you all proud and glad you believed in me
and thought to help me. With new clarity, Gable also
(28:30):
began to understand the extent to which he was manipulated
and set up. This case of mine proves tweakers will
say anything. It's the tweakers who made up all the
lives against him. Of course, they dogged me so hard, Phil.
One minute, they had me crying, the next mad and yelling,
then crying kept me up all night. He's talking about
how they when they first gave him the polygraphs, and
(28:52):
they um said they caught him lying, asking me questions like, Frank,
you were so spun out on drugs, could you have
done it and not remember? I told him hundreds of times,
no way, I did not do it. I was not there.
I don't know who did it. Over and over. Sergeant
McCafferty got so mad because I kept saying that that
he choked me until I blacked out. But I'd still
(29:13):
not admit to something I did not do. It's only
because I was raised so hard and had suffered so
much as a boy. They could not make me say
something or admit to something I did not do because
I am strong in my heart from years of abuse.
He wrote Phil about his childhood, his background, personal things
about himself. Beyond the case and beyond his conviction, Gable
(29:37):
was just a man wrongfully accused, wasting away in prison.
Phil would send him stamps and books. He even shared
Gable's prison address in one of his articles so people
could send him Christmas cards. Dude, are you insane? I
started getting all these cards from people, and one had
a clipping of your article you did and had my
(29:58):
address in it. I honestly can't tell you how good
it felt to get so many cards and words of support.
Thank you. Though I'm a very shy person, and after
all I've endured, I tend to isolate a lot and
not trust people, but I have started writing them all
a thank you note. I'm not going to let what
happened in the past hinder my life in any way.
These people were kind enough to reach out and show
(30:19):
kindness to someone they don't know at all, especially to
a person in my situation. But Bill's articles and public
support couldn't change the relentlessly depressing, crushing reality of Frank's
life sentence. I just wonderfil if it will ever end.
(30:40):
I've been so depressed as of lately. Some guy hung
himself several months ago, and that really bothered me a lot.
You wonder if he had the better idea. It's all
bothered me almost more than I endure. I'd never let
another person die, never stabbed someone like that, never let
someone just die or leave them hurt. I guess that's
(31:00):
what bothers me a lot. They have people thinking I'm
a piece of ship like that, you know, Phil. What
I really don't understand is how is the system meant
to bring justice allow a man to spend nineteen years now,
wrongfully convicted. How do the people of Oregon allow it?
Because it really doesn't affect their life? So who really
gives a ship anyway? They're going to dinner, a movie, camping,
(31:24):
so on. Who honestly gives a damn about a guy
like me who they don't know? But soon Gabel would
find a small seat of hope that would blossom into
something much bigger on the next Murder and Oregon. This
(31:50):
case has been controversial from the start. When Gabel was
arrested for the murder, he claimed he was set up.
I believe that I walked into a complicated drug ring
and really don't know how complicated was until now. And
you think maybe that drug ring had something to do
with Frankie's murder. I believe so. Yeah. He has filed
multiple appeals. Then a lawyer emerges willing to take on
(32:11):
the nearly impossible odds. Alright, talked Togevin and he said, yeah,
I cried like a baby, and I said me too.
Murder and Oregon is hosted by Lauren Bright Pacheco and
Phil Stanford. Executive producers are Noel Brown, Lauren Bright Pacheco,
(32:33):
and Phil Stanford. Supervising producer and lead editor is Taylor Chikoyne.
Sound designed by Tristan McNeil, Story editing by Matt Riddle,
Written by Phil Stanford, Matt Riddle, and Lauren Bright Pacheco.
Music written and performed by the Diamond Street Players and
mixed by Taylor Chikoyne, with music supervision by Noel Brown.
Additional music by Tristan McNeil. Archival elements courtesy of KGWN Portland, Oregon.
(32:59):
The state and behind the podcast Urge to Kill. Murdering
Oregon is a production of I Heart Radio
Murder and Oregon as a production of I Heart Radio.
Shortly after Michael Frankie's murder, then reporter Eric Mason attended
a press conference held by Governor Neil gold Schmidt. At
the time, Mason attributed Goldschmidt's demeanor to Michael's murder. Eric
recalls what it was like. Only later would we understand that.
(00:24):
I think what was going on there was the governor
thinking my own secrets might come rolling out of the closet,
my own skeleton might be revealed here in the process
of a murder happening, right, you know, in my inner circle.
And I think that might have been also a part
of how shell shocked Governor Goldschmidt was that morning, was
(00:45):
that he had his own deep, dark secrets, and I wondered,
if you know, there was more to that very grim
look on his face than I remember seeing the morning.
I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco, and this is Murder and Oregon.
(01:20):
We want to warn listeners that some of the events
and circumstances were about to cover involve sexual abuse of
a minor. But these details are crucial to fully understanding
the narrative around Michael's murder. On the surface, Neil Goldschmidt
should have been eager to support a thorough investigation into
the murder of Michael Frankie, the newly hired head of
(01:42):
Corrections he personally recruited, was dead murdered on state property.
But instead the governor went after members of the press
for theories of corruption within the Corrections Department and dismiss
the idea that Frankie's murder was anything more than a
random Kelly ing, and he pushed back against the efforts
(02:02):
of Mike's brothers and Phil Stanford. What really puzzled me
at the time still puzzled me was why he had
resisted so strenuously, why he had resisted any real investigation
into corruption in the prison system. First of all, the attacks,
public attacks against me and Kevin. You know, where is
(02:24):
this garbage coming from? But as we know now, there
was a great deal of talk in his office. We
have the memo that shows that he wanted to keep
the FBI out and he wanted to keep State Senate
from investigating corruption in the prison system. So why it
didn't make any sense because the corruption we were talking
about had occurred before he had become governor, and he's
a very smart politician. All he had to do was
(02:47):
blame it on his predecessor. Goldschmidt was by many accounts
an effective governor. His economic reforms and policies brought the
state out of a nearly decade long recession. He passed
workers complegislation and promoted children's literacy. A second term victory
was a given. Then he made a stunning announcement. Newspaper
(03:12):
reporter Jim Redden recalls that day he unexpectedly announced that
he was not going to run free election in the
middle of his term. And I was there at that
press conference when we did it, and it was a shock.
I mean, it was a stunning announcement. He called press
conference and we didn't know what he was going to announce,
announced he was not going to run for re election.
(03:33):
Nobody said anything, Nobody even asked a question, I mean,
and then turned around and walked out of the room.
Here's Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for the will llamb a Week,
Nigel ja Quis. He had been mayor of Portland in
his twenties, a point by President Jimmy Carter, we transportation
secretary his thirties. David Broder, the Washington Post columnists, who
(03:56):
was sort of the leading national political columnist of the day.
Had I entified him and Bill Clinton, uh and Governor
Keen of New Jersey as sort of the three Democrats
who might be president at some point. So gold Fromant
was really, at least for political insiders, and national figure
of great promise. He was widely expected to run for
(04:16):
a second term in nineteen nine, and he did abruptly
announced early in that year that he wasn't going to
seek a second term. He was going through a divorce
at the time, and the press accounts at the time
attributed left a great deal of uncertainty. Nobody was sure
exactly why he wasn't going to run again, and it
(04:37):
sort of remained an enduring mystery in Oregon politics. Why
had this person who was a phenomenon and a very successful,
very effective politician just walked away in the prime of
his political life. Here's Pilligan. Well, it was odd for sure,
I mean, he was a shoe in for a second term.
(04:59):
The prob like explanation does that recall, was that he
was separating from his wife and he wanted to spare
the children. You know, you always have to be just
a little bit suspicious whenever a professional politician says he's
resigning or dropping out of a race for the sake
of the children. And Neil Goldschmidt's secret, it turns out,
(05:23):
was a pretty horrible one. So I was supposed to
find out what he'd been doing since he left office,
and in the course of reporting on what he had
done in the fourteen years since he left office, I
got a tip that there had been an issue in
his past involving a babysitter, and so that led me
(05:45):
to trying to find out what had happened back when
he was Portland's mayor in the nineteen seventies. What Nigel
uncovered was something beyond unexpected. It turned out that he had,
over a period of a number of years that numbers
sort of remains in dispute, but at least three or
(06:06):
four years uh sexually abused a neighbor's daughter, the young
woman who was either thirteen or fourteen. Again that number
is in dispute as well when sexual abuse began, but
in either case she was well under the age of
legal consent. So when we well aim it, we broke
that story in two thousand four. It was a real
(06:26):
bombshell because Goldschmid, although he had left politics, was really
the kingmaker in Oregon. He was the most influential private
citizen in the state, and many of the elected officials
and corporate officials in the state out their position either
directly to him or indirectly to him. So he had
a sort of an unparalleled in Oregon network of influence.
(06:50):
And so it was a major story at the time
during his time as mayor of Poor when Neil Goldschmidt
was regularly committing statutory rape with a girl who was
barely a teenager. The Oregonian caught went of Jake was
his reporting and attempted to get ahead of the story
(07:12):
with what seems an apparent spen. Margie Boulet was a
columnist for the paper at the time. The Oregonian found
out probably because Nigel Jake was contacted Goldschmidt to answer questions.
But the Oregonian found out well EMTT week was going
to break this story, and whether they wanted to beat
(07:33):
them to the story or whether they wanted for some
reason to print Goldschmidt's version first, who knows, But the
Oregonian brought in Neil Goldschmidt to a meeting with a
hand picked group of journalists and editors, and Neil gold
Schmidt arrived with a statement he read about his health
(07:56):
uh and his heart problems, quoted doctor. The impression a
lot of people at the meeting got was that he
was on the brink of death, seriously seriously ill um.
And then there was a brief mention of a relationship
that gold Schmidt had had with a fourteen year old
girl back when he was mayor of Portland, and then
(08:16):
the subject was returned to gold Schmidt's health. I have
heard a recording of that, and I took notes. I
was not allowed to keep it. I was not given
a transcript. I just was allowed to sit down and
listen to it when I was working on my story later.
But um, the reporters in the room were very respectful
of him. They were very concerned about his health. I
(08:38):
do not recall hearing anyone ask questions about the relationship
with the girl, and if they did, the questions were
not of serious concern. But the Oregonian softball handling of
gold Schmidt would elicit public outcry. After the Oregonian story ran,
and while I'm a Week story ran, there was huge
(09:00):
public response. The Oregonian got a lot of negative response
because the headline used in the very first story about
Geldschmidt's admission of a relationship was that he had had
an affair, quote unquote an affair, and people were rightly
outraged that it had been depicted in The Oregonian as
(09:24):
an affair when it was child sex abuse, it was
rape of a child. Here's reporter Nigel jaqu was Again.
A lot of people were very disgusted by his conduct
and thought it was a terrible crime, and we're very angry.
(09:44):
There were also a lot of people who thought the
story never should have been written, that it was history,
and that it was no longer current or relevant, and
that there was no public purpose to be served by publication.
Throughout this podcast, we've seen the victimization of people caught
(10:07):
in the cross hairs of politics and corruption, lives twisted
or destroyed by those with great power and little accountability.
In two thousand and five, Marquis Boulet began interviewing the
now grown woman who had been the underaged victim of
gold Schmidt, who was still one of the most powerful
men in Oregon after the stories had broken A short
(10:32):
period of time passed, and then I got a telephone
call at The Oregonian from a woman about whom I
had written in the past. She had been the victim
of a crime, and she did not want the perpetrator
to find her because the perpetrator had never been identified,
and so I protected her in the ways that I
was able to do that using journalistic ethics in my
own conscience. So she said, I have a story for you.
(10:55):
I am friends with Neil Goldschmidt's victim. She wants to
tell her story, but she doesn't trust anybody in the press,
and I told her that I thought she could trust you,
and she wants to meet you. Markie met with Goldschmidt's victim,
Elizabeth Dunham, a name she hesitates to use even now.
Elizabeth felt she could trust Margie and agreed to be interviewed.
(11:20):
She was forty two, but she seemed older in some
ways and younger in other ways. I believe that her
emotional maturity stopped the day she became involved in a
sexual relationship with the mayor of the town, whom her
parents idolized. Um. I'm not sure she was ever able
to fully mature after that. Physically, she looked much older
(11:44):
than her age. She was very unhappy with the way
she had been portrayed. But she was being portrayed as
someone who was a throwaway kid before he ever approached her,
and that wasn't true. She was very, very intelligent. She
was a beautiful writer. She was insightful, she was generous.
(12:04):
We had an agreement that she would call me because
she was traumatized because she had been used by so
many people. The last thing I wanted to do was
to use her. It could be no one will ever
believe this, But the truth is I really didn't give
(12:25):
a damn about getting a scoop. I just wanted her
story to be told, because when the story was written,
it was always from his perspective. Elizabeth grew up in
close proximity to gold Schmidt and his inner circle, which
made her easy prey. Her parents were huge fans of Goldschmidt.
(12:47):
They lived in the same neighborhood. She even said frequently
that her parents idolized him, and so she grew up
idolizing him. Her parents, she said, worked on Neil Goldschmidt's
pains for the city council, and when he ran for mayor,
He was a frequent visitor to her childhood home and
(13:08):
that's where the abuse began. It was her mother's birthday party.
She remembered it very clearly, and gold Schmidt and she
went down to the basement and there was sexual behavior
at that time, she said. And how old was she
said she was thirteen, and she was very clear about that.
(13:29):
She said. The sexual predatory behavior by him toward her
from that point on continued on a regular basis. She
and her friend told me that after school in the afternoons,
they would go upstairs at Elizabeth's house and sit in
a particular window where you could see the street, and
they would watch for the mayor's driver's car that took
(13:55):
him home every early evening. And when the car drove by,
because Goldschmidt lived the neighborhood, if the lights on the
car flash, that meant that later that evening Goldschmidt would
come to her home and late at night, she would
leave the door unlocked after her parents went to sleep,
and he would arrive and she would greet him and
(14:16):
they would go down to the basement and have sex.
He would rape her. He was mayor of Portland and
flagrantly wielded that power her girlfriends from those years middle school,
Jude High School, um early high school when she was before,
(14:36):
she dropped out so she could be more available to
him to have sex during the day. She told me
her girlfriends said they saw him grow her. They saw
him grow her breast in front of them. You heard
that correctly, This young, vulnerable girl dropped out of school
so she could be sexually available to gold Schmidt at
(14:56):
any time. She told me that she went to St. Mary's,
a ken me downtown because it was a couple blocks
from city Hall and she would be more available to him.
That he had suggested that. Then, she told me that
she dropped out of school so she could be more
available to him. He told her, according to her, um,
you're so smart, you don't need to go to school.
(15:17):
I'll give you a reading list. So she was in
city Hall a lot, and even as he was stealing
her childhood and innocence, Goldschmidt manipulated her with false promise
of a future together. She believed for a long long
time that it was an affair, that he was in
love with her. She told me that he said to
(15:37):
her he would marry her when his children were older,
because he didn't want them to have a broken home
while they were still in school, and Elizabeth couldn't even
turn to her own family for help or protection. She
told me the first person she told when she was
fourteen or fifteen was her grandmother, and her grandmother reacted
(15:59):
as if it was a great honor, that's such a
great man would fall in love with you and and
have an affair with you. Then later her mother found
out shortly after that, and she told me that her
mother went on a bike ride with Neil gold Schmidt
and said, I understand you're having sex with my daughter.
And he admitted it, and she said, do you think
(16:21):
that's a good idea? And he said probably not. And
he said it would stop, but it didn't. It was
heartbreaking betrayal, a child knowingly subjected to abuse by the
people who should have been protecting her. As Elizabeth got older,
(16:53):
she began to fully comprehend the damage gold Schmidt had
done to her. She got angry. She looked at her
her life, and her life was in tatters, and she
wanted to make something of herself. She wanted to pull
her life together. She did not have the skills to
do that. She was too damaged and too sick, really sick,
(17:14):
but she still wanted to try, and she knew that
she wasn't making it, so she said she went to
him and said, you know, I need to get a degree.
And that's when he began giving her money for tuition
for the community college in Seattle. He began pulling strings
to get her accepted into places, and she started telling people.
She started telling cops in bar. She'd be in a
(17:34):
bar and she'd be drunk and she'd start telling cops.
And some of those cops contacted me and told me
that she did and it was getting back to him,
and she told me that she was given cash payments.
This is long before the attorney goun involved. She was
given cash payments to pay her rent and to pay
tuition to keep her in Seattle so she'd stop telling
(17:54):
people in Portland. That's what she told me. Eventually Goldschman
lawyers got involved. It was agreed that in exchange for
her shattered life and silence, Elizabeth would be paid hundreds
of thousands of dollars. Marquis Boulet conducted most of her
interviews with Elizabeth between two thousand and five and two
(18:16):
thousand and seven, but The Oregonian refused to publish Margie's
articles without fully naming Elizabeth, even though she was a
rape victim, and they kept demanding more sources and information,
even though it had already been extensively and meticulously researched
by Boulet. I couldn't understand why they were asking for
(18:40):
more documentation, more witnesses, more direct quotes, more use of
real names from people who might have been willing to
speak to me off the record or be quoted without names.
I couldn't understand why they were making it so difficult
for this story to be told, because if you went
back and read early stories about gold Schmidt's side of things,
(19:02):
they just printed his side. I could not figure out
why they would not run the story without her name.
I later learned that several of the editors at the
paper were close personal friends of Neil Goldschmidt's, and I
believe that they were trying to protect him. It's just
my opinion. It wasn't until four years later, in two
(19:25):
thousand and eleven, that The oregon Ian finally published the story,
and only after Elizabeth had died. I was told that
she died of complications from her alcoholism. But there are
so many ways she could have died as a result
of the emotional and physical crises she endured, she believed,
(19:50):
and I believed, as a result of what gold Schmidt
did to her. Gold Schmidt, on the other hand, did
not seem to suffer substant repercussions. He just walked away.
I mean, yeah, the public knew, but his rich and
powerful friends have stuck with him to this day. He
owns a beautiful home in France. At least last I heard,
(20:11):
he still did. He owns a beautiful, fabulous home in
the hills of Portland. I'm not going to say he
got off scott free because his reputation was badly damaged,
but the statute of limitations had expired. Otherwise I doubt
he would have come forward and admitted it to The
Oregonian or to anyone so he could not be prosecuted.
(20:35):
His wealthy and powerful friends stuck with him. They even
gave him a party to make him feel better. After
the stories were first published, which sickened me and made
her cry. People continued to cover up and not say
what they knew because they had benefited from their ties
to this powerful man who rewarded people who kept his secret.
(20:57):
In my opinion and in her opinion, in the fact
remains Neil gold Schmidt was only allowed to abuse Elizabeth
Dunham because multiple people around him were willing to look
the other way. Some of them were indebted to him,
others had their own transgressions to hide. Here's Nigel Jakes again.
(21:20):
I think the answer to why that could remain a
secret for so long as the influence in the power
that gold Schmidt wielded. So he had many proteges, As
I mentioned, Governor Koligowski was one, but there weren't many
who were in the state's utilities. He was close to
everybody who mattered in in Oregon, and most of them
were people who owed him something and who had risen
(21:43):
with him. So they both had a reason that they
owed him something, not to divulge his secret, but they also,
I think, perhaps in a more interesting fashion, would be
admitting something about themselves. If the person to whom they
owed so much was shown to be this flawed criminal,
(22:06):
you know, essentially a child rapist, Well, what would I
say about them if the person that gave them their
start or helped their careers was a terrible person. Phil
has another take. If, as we know now, all these
people knew about it, there were some who certainly didn't
have Goldsmith's best interests at heart, that wanted to use him,
(22:30):
or to put another way, blackmail with this information. And
in fact, that's what I think is probably the best
explanation for why he was resisting any decent investigation of
the Frankie murder. At the time, law enforcement the state
police would have known about it. In fact, I think
(22:50):
the Portland's City police knew about the girl back when
he was mayor. His driver was assigned by police intelligence.
There's a reason why police departments do this, so they
will report back on what the mayor is doing. In fact,
we know that the driver would go drive past the
girl's house and blink the lights as a signal. Yes,
(23:13):
of course the Portland police knew it, and there's no
reason to believe that they wouldn't have used it against
him to get raises, to get whatever they want. So
here he is, he's governor and once again, his driver,
his security man, Bernie Giusto, is an officer with the
state police. Do we really believe he wasn't reporting back
(23:35):
to his bosses. And there was something else, one more
thing that has come out that that came out in
the press and was all over the newspapers at the
same time, and this probably explains why Goldsmith was separating
from his wife at the time. The driver was having
an affair with Goldschmidt's wife. Been a great deal of
(23:57):
publicity on that state police officer who was his personal
driver was also having an affair with gold Schmidt's wife. Yeah.
I mean he's talked about it with me. He told
me that gold Schmidt's wife told him that gold Schmidt
was negotiating with the girl and her lawyers to keep
from Milsha. I also spoke with her roommate, and the
(24:21):
roommate told me that during this time, Elizabeth would call
down to the Governor's office, get gold Schmidt on the
phone and scream, you raped me, you owe me. Yeah,
there was pressure on gold Schmidt to keep the lid
on at this time. Sure. And would that have been
the same time as the Michael Frankie murder investigation. Oh? Yes.
(24:45):
At this point, we want to stress that we've reached
out to Neil gold Schmidt multiple times by certified letter
and voicemail for a statement or interview, and to this
date he has not responded to our requests. And then
(25:10):
there was perhaps the most public victim of the murder
and subsequent investigation other than Michael Frankie himself, Frank Gable.
At the time Jake was his Goldschmidt article was published
in two thousand and five. Frank Gable had been in
prison for nearly fourteen years for a crime he remained
adamant he didn't commit. When Boulet's article was published, it
(25:34):
had been nearly twenty years. But throughout gables incarceration there
was someone who wanted to make sure his story stayed
on the public's radar no matter what. Phil Stamford and
Gable read Phil's articles in the Portland Tribune. Over the
course of the years of exchanging letters back and forth,
(25:55):
I came to see Frank as a person who was
much more than just someone who had been wrong. Obviously,
he had been wrongfully convicted, but here here was someone
who was really suffering it. From the beginning, it was
easy for me to empathize, to use an overused word
(26:17):
with with Kevin and Pad. I talked to them and
I could see what they were going through. But now
I was able to see Frank as well, and I'm
sure it just kind of drove home that there were
two lives here that were lost. You know, Mike lost
all of his and Frank was actively losing his life
(26:39):
in prison. Oh, two victims, for sure. It was through
their correspondence that Phil began to grasp how much Gable
had lost and the true extent of his suffering as
his life eroded in prison. He's kept those letters, which
spanned decades. December two thousand three, Hello there, old friend.
(27:03):
After these many years, it almost feels like you and
I are friends. I read and reread some of your
articles dozens of times, sent articles to anyone I thought
would listen to or help me gain my freedom. But
if you don't have the money, you can't ever buy
an ear to hear. There is now no question. He
underlines that I can prove I did not do this
(27:24):
crime film. I've spent several years going over everything over
and over. I can prove the state police in the
d A's office knowingly set me up to wrongfully convict
me and use statements they could have easily proven we're
not true. And Gables desperation and hopelessness during his fruitless appeals.
(27:44):
Process is heart wrenching. I feel completely in the dark
on what's going on that after fifteen years, could this
truly finally be the end of this insane nightmare? Oh God,
how I hope and pray it is felt. No words
can express what it's like to go through something like this.
A former matth user and drug dealer, Gabel, fought to
(28:05):
clean up his life in prison. I told my homies
I'd stop everything and change my life. I've done that, Phil,
I've stayed clean and sober, and life is better than ever.
I will not let you and Kevin Downfil. I will
make you all proud and glad you believed in me
and thought to help me. With new clarity, Gable also
(28:30):
began to understand the extent to which he was manipulated
and set up. This case of mine proves tweakers will
say anything. It's the tweakers who made up all the
lives against him. Of course, they dogged me so hard, Phil.
One minute, they had me crying, the next mad and yelling,
then crying kept me up all night. He's talking about
how they when they first gave him the polygraphs, and
(28:52):
they um said they caught him lying, asking me questions like, Frank,
you were so spun out on drugs, could you have
done it and not remember? I told him hundreds of times,
no way, I did not do it. I was not there.
I don't know who did it. Over and over. Sergeant
McCafferty got so mad because I kept saying that that
he choked me until I blacked out. But I'd still
(29:13):
not admit to something I did not do. It's only
because I was raised so hard and had suffered so
much as a boy. They could not make me say
something or admit to something I did not do because
I am strong in my heart from years of abuse.
He wrote Phil about his childhood, his background, personal things
about himself. Beyond the case and beyond his conviction, Gable
(29:37):
was just a man wrongfully accused, wasting away in prison.
Phil would send him stamps and books. He even shared
Gable's prison address in one of his articles so people
could send him Christmas cards. Dude, are you insane? I
started getting all these cards from people, and one had
a clipping of your article you did and had my
(29:58):
address in it. I honestly can't tell you how good
it felt to get so many cards and words of support.
Thank you. Though I'm a very shy person, and after
all I've endured, I tend to isolate a lot and
not trust people, but I have started writing them all
a thank you note. I'm not going to let what
happened in the past hinder my life in any way.
These people were kind enough to reach out and show
(30:19):
kindness to someone they don't know at all, especially to
a person in my situation. But Bill's articles and public
support couldn't change the relentlessly depressing, crushing reality of Frank's
life sentence. I just wonderfil if it will ever end.
(30:40):
I've been so depressed as of lately. Some guy hung
himself several months ago, and that really bothered me a lot.
You wonder if he had the better idea. It's all
bothered me almost more than I endure. I'd never let
another person die, never stabbed someone like that, never let
someone just die or leave them hurt. I guess that's
(31:00):
what bothers me a lot. They have people thinking I'm
a piece of ship like that, you know, Phil. What
I really don't understand is how is the system meant
to bring justice allow a man to spend nineteen years now,
wrongfully convicted. How do the people of Oregon allow it?
Because it really doesn't affect their life? So who really
gives a ship anyway? They're going to dinner, a movie, camping,
(31:24):
so on. Who honestly gives a damn about a guy
like me who they don't know? But soon Gabel would
find a small seat of hope that would blossom into
something much bigger on the next Murder and Oregon. This
(31:50):
case has been controversial from the start. When Gabel was
arrested for the murder, he claimed he was set up.
I believe that I walked into a complicated drug ring
and really don't know how complicated was until now. And
you think maybe that drug ring had something to do
with Frankie's murder. I believe so. Yeah. He has filed
multiple appeals. Then a lawyer emerges willing to take on
(32:11):
the nearly impossible odds. Alright, talked Togevin and he said, yeah,
I cried like a baby, and I said me too.
Murder and Oregon is hosted by Lauren Bright Pacheco and
Phil Stanford. Executive producers are Noel Brown, Lauren Bright Pacheco,
(32:33):
and Phil Stanford. Supervising producer and lead editor is Taylor Chikoyne.
Sound designed by Tristan McNeil, Story editing by Matt Riddle,
Written by Phil Stanford, Matt Riddle, and Lauren Bright Pacheco.
Music written and performed by the Diamond Street Players and
mixed by Taylor Chikoyne, with music supervision by Noel Brown.
Additional music by Tristan McNeil. Archival elements courtesy of KGWN Portland, Oregon.
(32:59):
The state and behind the podcast Urge to Kill. Murdering
Oregon is a production of I Heart Radio
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