May 10, 2023 • 13 mins
Kevin Francke and Phil Stanford join Lauren Bright Pacheco to share the news that Frank Gable, who was wrongly convicted of killing Oregon Corrections Director Michael Francke, has been completely exonerated as of Monday, May 8, 2023. They also discuss the reality that the murder of Michael Francke remains unsolved- and his real killers have never been brought to justice.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hello, This is Lauren Bright Pacheco and I am so
pleased to be joined today of all days, by Kevin,
Frankie and Phil Stanford to share some absolutely incredible news
and a wonderful update. Kevin, will you take us through it?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Boy? Where to start? A week ago? Yesterday so we
could go. Last Monday, there was a meeting with the
Attorney General and with Frank's attorney, Noel Brown in front
of Judge Acosta that I wish to God that there
had been there and microphone was there, because I've never
(01:03):
seen a judge as controllably livid when he realized that
the Marion County District Attorney's Office representative was not going
to be there. And finally he got it out of
the Attorney General Assistant Attorney General mister Gutman, that Marion
County had no intention of pursuing the case against Frank Gable,
(01:27):
but mister Gutman also expressed that he would like the opportunity,
through the District Attorney's Office in Marion County, to prosecute
Frank Gable at any time in the future, six months,
six years, sixteen years from now. And that is when
(01:48):
the fireworks went off and Judge Acosta has head. Judge
Acosta asked both sides to submit their opinions on what
should be done with Frank in terms of his indictment
and his future prospects of being prosecuted and further persecuted
(02:09):
by the state, and Nell and mister Goodman both got
those in a few days ago, and as expected, we
got a very prompt decision, a very brief decision and
statement by Judge Acosta, and fact it included capital letters.
(02:30):
And the bottom line is that from this day forth
and forever more, Frank Gable is not to be retried
in any way, shape or form for the murder of
Mike Frankie, my brother. And it's gone forever.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
So he has been exonerated, and they cannot retry him.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Correct and that is with prejudice. They cannot come back
and change their minds and say whether or not, here
we come. We've created a whole new batch of witnesses
for your perusal.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Well, Phil, you, along with Kevin and Pat Frankie had
been fighting on behalf of Frank Gable for more than
three decades at this point. What does this mean to
you after all these years?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
It's a relief Finally you know that, after all this
time and after all this proof that Frank Gable was innocent,
I mean that he was a patsy, that he's finally free.
And I think it's worth saying for everyone out there
who hasn't been following it quite as closely as we
(03:37):
have for the past thirty some years, that this meeting
court meeting that Kevin was just talking about occurred after
this judge Acosta, federal judge about four years ago, had
overturned the conviction. Frank Gable had already been in prison
about thirty years, and it went to the Ninth Circuit
(03:59):
Court of Appeals and they issued an even stronger ruling
of findings that all the evidence against Frank had been manufactured.
They'd made it up. There never was any physical evidence
against Frank.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
This false foundation was established, called Frank Gable, and then
they were trying to pile this case on top of
it with further bullshit created witnesses on a foundation that
had absolutely no basis, and the whole thing should have crumbled.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I think it stands to question what would have happened
if they had put as much effort into investigating your
brother's death as they did to manufacturing a case against
frank That is.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
The string that they never wanted to pull. That's the
string that would have pulled the whole sweater apart. And
that string is called Johnny Krauss.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Listeners of the po Post may remember that Johnny Krause
confessed more than once to killing Michael Frankie.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
And Phil and I talked about this the other day.
Is that that is when they hit the panic button
and said, holy shit, Kraus is connected to this person
over here, who is connected to these people? Who are
the people that killed Mike Frankie.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
I have to ask you both to you know, certainly
this is I don't want to even call this a
happy ending, because this is a tragedy on so many levels.
As you mentioned, Phil, frank lost thirty years of his
life for a murder we now can say with complete
(05:44):
clarity that he did not commit. But also you both,
in going to bat for him and in questioning who
really killed Michael Frankie, you were both thrown under the bus,
particularly by the media. What does this mean to you
now to be validated and vindicated in this way.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Well, from the beginning, I was writing the column for
the Oregonian back then, and then I became aware of
the murder in Salem that wasn't really being covered, and
as I watched the reporting in my own paper, you know,
it was obvious that the reporters weren't asking any questions.
I mean, he was sort of typical police reporting. Police
(06:28):
reporters rely so much on information from the cops that
they are eventually captured by the cops, and that was
certainly the case here. The reporters for the Oregonian were
just stenographers for the state police.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
We were struggling, encouraged not to speak with the press
right after Mike's murder, and I started getting hits from
this guy, Phil Stanford up in Oregon, and he was
the whitest red columnist in the Northwest paper in competition,
and no reporter, nobody in competition, so he had quite
(07:07):
a following.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
And he gave you quite a megaphone.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
I eventually parted from there, and then a few years
later another newspaper started up, the Portland Tribune, and I
started writing columns about the Frankie murder again and talking
more with Kevin, of course, and sort of poking the bear,
(07:35):
trying to get them to react and they did.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
They did.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
They did like a three page hit piece. There's no
other way to look at it, because it was so
very personal, attacking me and Kevin.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
And calling your thoughts about the murder conspiracy theories.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
They were taking the states line on this, the state
police line, and so they wrote this three page hit
piece attacking me. I expected that, but they went after
Kevin in a way I've never seen before in a newspaper.
They tried to make him out as crazy. Well, this
had been the state police line from the beginning, that
he was crazed by grief and he was making up
(08:19):
all these stories, these conspiracy driven theories about why his
brother was killed. He was obsessed, Well, we were all obsessed.
Anyone who's maintained an interest for more than five minutes
was obsessed breaking new journalistic grounds, attacking a member of
the murder victim's family for raising questions about his brother's death,
(08:45):
his brother's murder, about the investigation of his brother's murder.
And to this day, the Oregonian has not apologized for that,
and that's something I'd like to see.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Nearly thirty five years later, you guys have been proven
absolutely right in raising the questions that you did. And
your theory wasn't a conspiracy theory, it was reality.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
You know what we were saying at that time, that
we were attacked for so personally by my own newspaper,
my former newspaper. This is essentially the same thing that
the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said, you know, raising
the same questions, coming to the same conclusions about the
(09:39):
absolute emptiness of the case against Frank Abel. They had
no physical evidence against them. All they ever had was
what they had made up and what they'd fed to
their line witnesses. They had no case then, but it's
clear it's over, have nothing.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Well, it's a wonderful week for Frank, and this is
just a wonderful testament to your effort. So I thank
you both.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
And I talked to Frank twice yesterday. The first time
we couldn't even talk. Had to do it later to
get our shit together. But many, many thanks to everybody.
And he was still stunned and literally felt like he'd
been hit by a car. Just didn't know what to
(10:36):
say or how to react. All his senses were maxed out.
But the biggest thing that he could barely get out
was just thank you, everybody, Let.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Me ask you this, Kevin, having had the news of
the exoneration and the fact that Oregon cannot ever, in
any way, shape or form, retry frank what is left
for you? What does justice mean to you? What does
it remain?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I spent the better part of last night fighting a
lot of demons that I know are going to be
coming up. And the biggest demon is the preservation of
the evidence, the ends that they may have gone to
to destroy evidence or corrupt evidence. Who is going to
(11:27):
take on the new case? How can they do that
under the jurisdiction correct jurisdiction is the Oregon State Police.
Are they going to investigate themselves in the process and
how can that even occur? And are we going to
go through this whole process again where the Cranky brothers
(11:52):
and phil are marching with pitchforks and shovels saying this
is nonsense.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Because thirty five years later, the question remains, who killed
Michael Frankie. Oregon has never answered that question, and the
fact that frank has now been cleared makes that question
even more pressing.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Almost as big a question today is why did they
kill Mike Frankie? Why did they fabricate, create a case
that takes them completely out of the realm of the
individual or individuals I should say, or responsible for the murder.
So now we've got an even uglier situation that they've
(12:36):
got to hide.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Well. I thank you both so much for the dedication
that you've shown to clearing an innocent man and the
compassion that you have for not just one another, but
for the legacy of your brother Michael Frankie, and I
(13:03):
very much appreciate you two joining me to share on
the update.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Thank you, Thank you. Lauren
Hello, This is Lauren Bright Pacheco and I am so
pleased to be joined today of all days, by Kevin,
Frankie and Phil Stanford to share some absolutely incredible news
and a wonderful update. Kevin, will you take us through it?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Boy? Where to start? A week ago? Yesterday so we
could go. Last Monday, there was a meeting with the
Attorney General and with Frank's attorney, Noel Brown in front
of Judge Acosta that I wish to God that there
had been there and microphone was there, because I've never
(01:03):
seen a judge as controllably livid when he realized that
the Marion County District Attorney's Office representative was not going
to be there. And finally he got it out of
the Attorney General Assistant Attorney General mister Gutman, that Marion
County had no intention of pursuing the case against Frank Gable,
(01:27):
but mister Gutman also expressed that he would like the opportunity,
through the District Attorney's Office in Marion County, to prosecute
Frank Gable at any time in the future, six months,
six years, sixteen years from now. And that is when
(01:48):
the fireworks went off and Judge Acosta has head. Judge
Acosta asked both sides to submit their opinions on what
should be done with Frank in terms of his indictment
and his future prospects of being prosecuted and further persecuted
(02:09):
by the state, and Nell and mister Goodman both got
those in a few days ago, and as expected, we
got a very prompt decision, a very brief decision and
statement by Judge Acosta, and fact it included capital letters.
(02:30):
And the bottom line is that from this day forth
and forever more, Frank Gable is not to be retried
in any way, shape or form for the murder of
Mike Frankie, my brother. And it's gone forever.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
So he has been exonerated, and they cannot retry him.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Correct and that is with prejudice. They cannot come back
and change their minds and say whether or not, here
we come. We've created a whole new batch of witnesses
for your perusal.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Well, Phil, you, along with Kevin and Pat Frankie had
been fighting on behalf of Frank Gable for more than
three decades at this point. What does this mean to
you after all these years?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
It's a relief Finally you know that, after all this
time and after all this proof that Frank Gable was innocent,
I mean that he was a patsy, that he's finally free.
And I think it's worth saying for everyone out there
who hasn't been following it quite as closely as we
(03:37):
have for the past thirty some years, that this meeting
court meeting that Kevin was just talking about occurred after
this judge Acosta, federal judge about four years ago, had
overturned the conviction. Frank Gable had already been in prison
about thirty years, and it went to the Ninth Circuit
(03:59):
Court of Appeals and they issued an even stronger ruling
of findings that all the evidence against Frank had been manufactured.
They'd made it up. There never was any physical evidence
against Frank.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
This false foundation was established, called Frank Gable, and then
they were trying to pile this case on top of
it with further bullshit created witnesses on a foundation that
had absolutely no basis, and the whole thing should have crumbled.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I think it stands to question what would have happened
if they had put as much effort into investigating your
brother's death as they did to manufacturing a case against
frank That is.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
The string that they never wanted to pull. That's the
string that would have pulled the whole sweater apart. And
that string is called Johnny Krauss.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Listeners of the po Post may remember that Johnny Krause
confessed more than once to killing Michael Frankie.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
And Phil and I talked about this the other day.
Is that that is when they hit the panic button
and said, holy shit, Kraus is connected to this person
over here, who is connected to these people? Who are
the people that killed Mike Frankie.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
I have to ask you both to you know, certainly
this is I don't want to even call this a
happy ending, because this is a tragedy on so many levels.
As you mentioned, Phil, frank lost thirty years of his
life for a murder we now can say with complete
(05:44):
clarity that he did not commit. But also you both,
in going to bat for him and in questioning who
really killed Michael Frankie, you were both thrown under the bus,
particularly by the media. What does this mean to you
now to be validated and vindicated in this way.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Well, from the beginning, I was writing the column for
the Oregonian back then, and then I became aware of
the murder in Salem that wasn't really being covered, and
as I watched the reporting in my own paper, you know,
it was obvious that the reporters weren't asking any questions.
I mean, he was sort of typical police reporting. Police
(06:28):
reporters rely so much on information from the cops that
they are eventually captured by the cops, and that was
certainly the case here. The reporters for the Oregonian were
just stenographers for the state police.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
We were struggling, encouraged not to speak with the press
right after Mike's murder, and I started getting hits from
this guy, Phil Stanford up in Oregon, and he was
the whitest red columnist in the Northwest paper in competition,
and no reporter, nobody in competition, so he had quite
(07:07):
a following.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
And he gave you quite a megaphone.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
I eventually parted from there, and then a few years
later another newspaper started up, the Portland Tribune, and I
started writing columns about the Frankie murder again and talking
more with Kevin, of course, and sort of poking the bear,
(07:35):
trying to get them to react and they did.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
They did.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
They did like a three page hit piece. There's no
other way to look at it, because it was so
very personal, attacking me and Kevin.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
And calling your thoughts about the murder conspiracy theories.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
They were taking the states line on this, the state
police line, and so they wrote this three page hit
piece attacking me. I expected that, but they went after
Kevin in a way I've never seen before in a newspaper.
They tried to make him out as crazy. Well, this
had been the state police line from the beginning, that
he was crazed by grief and he was making up
(08:19):
all these stories, these conspiracy driven theories about why his
brother was killed. He was obsessed, Well, we were all obsessed.
Anyone who's maintained an interest for more than five minutes
was obsessed breaking new journalistic grounds, attacking a member of
the murder victim's family for raising questions about his brother's death,
(08:45):
his brother's murder, about the investigation of his brother's murder.
And to this day, the Oregonian has not apologized for that,
and that's something I'd like to see.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Nearly thirty five years later, you guys have been proven
absolutely right in raising the questions that you did. And
your theory wasn't a conspiracy theory, it was reality.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
You know what we were saying at that time, that
we were attacked for so personally by my own newspaper,
my former newspaper. This is essentially the same thing that
the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said, you know, raising
the same questions, coming to the same conclusions about the
(09:39):
absolute emptiness of the case against Frank Abel. They had
no physical evidence against them. All they ever had was
what they had made up and what they'd fed to
their line witnesses. They had no case then, but it's
clear it's over, have nothing.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Well, it's a wonderful week for Frank, and this is
just a wonderful testament to your effort. So I thank
you both.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
And I talked to Frank twice yesterday. The first time
we couldn't even talk. Had to do it later to
get our shit together. But many, many thanks to everybody.
And he was still stunned and literally felt like he'd
been hit by a car. Just didn't know what to
(10:36):
say or how to react. All his senses were maxed out.
But the biggest thing that he could barely get out
was just thank you, everybody, Let.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Me ask you this, Kevin, having had the news of
the exoneration and the fact that Oregon cannot ever, in
any way, shape or form, retry frank what is left
for you? What does justice mean to you? What does
it remain?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I spent the better part of last night fighting a
lot of demons that I know are going to be
coming up. And the biggest demon is the preservation of
the evidence, the ends that they may have gone to
to destroy evidence or corrupt evidence. Who is going to
(11:27):
take on the new case? How can they do that
under the jurisdiction correct jurisdiction is the Oregon State Police.
Are they going to investigate themselves in the process and
how can that even occur? And are we going to
go through this whole process again where the Cranky brothers
(11:52):
and phil are marching with pitchforks and shovels saying this
is nonsense.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Because thirty five years later, the question remains, who killed
Michael Frankie. Oregon has never answered that question, and the
fact that frank has now been cleared makes that question
even more pressing.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Almost as big a question today is why did they
kill Mike Frankie? Why did they fabricate, create a case
that takes them completely out of the realm of the
individual or individuals I should say, or responsible for the murder.
So now we've got an even uglier situation that they've
(12:36):
got to hide.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Well. I thank you both so much for the dedication
that you've shown to clearing an innocent man and the
compassion that you have for not just one another, but
for the legacy of your brother Michael Frankie, and I
(13:03):
very much appreciate you two joining me to share on
the update.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Thank you, Thank you. Lauren
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