May 8, 2019 • 20 mins
Michael Gargiulo, the so-called “Hollywood Ripper” is on trial this week to face two murder charges stemming from 2001 and 2008. He is also connected to a 1993 murder in Chicago. All of his victims were young women who lived nearby him. Tarpley Hitt, reporter for the Daily Beast joins us for who the Hollywood Ripper is and the dramatic court testimony from one of his survivors.
Next, the fight between the White House and Democrats in the House continue to escalate. The latest twist in the story is that the White House told former counsel Don McGahn not to comply with a subpoena for documents related to Robert Mueller’s investigation. The White House is also refusing to give Democrats the president’s tax returns, and AG Barr could be held in contempt of Congress. Daniel Lippman, reporter for Politico, joins us for more.
Finally, an interesting case out of Plano, Texas, where a drunk man killed 8 people in 2017. But just last month, the bartender who served him was arrested and charged with violating the “Sale to Certain Persons” law. While she did serve him the alcohol, she also followed him and called the police, still she has been arrested. My producer Miranda joins us to help explain this case.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Wednesday, May eight. I'm Oscar Ramirez in Los Angeles
and this is the Daily Dive. Michael Gardjulo, the so
called Hollywood Ripper, is on trial this week to face
two murder charges stemming from two thousand one and two
thousand eight. He has also connected to murder in Chicago.
(00:21):
All of his victims were young women who lived nearby him.
Tarply Hit, reporter for The Daily Beast joins us for
who the Hollywood Ripper is and the dramatic court testimony
from one of his survivors. Next, the fight between the
White House and Democrats in the House continue to escalate.
The latest twist in the story is that the White
House told former council Don McGann not to comply with
(00:43):
a subpoena for documents related to the Mueller investigation. The
White House is also refusing to give Democrats the President's
tax returns. An attorney general bar could be held in
contempt of Congress. Daniel Lippman, reporter for Politico, joins us
for more. Finally, an interesting case out of plain O exits,
where a drunk band killed eight people in seventeen, but
(01:03):
just last month, the bartender who served him was arrested
and charged with violating the sale to certain person's law.
While she did serve him the alcohol, she also followed
him and called the police. Still she has been arrested.
My producer Random joins us to help explain this case
that snooze without the noise. Let's dive in. Michael Garjuelo,
(01:25):
for almost fifteen years, was watching, always watching, and his
hobby was plotting the perfect opportunity to attack women. Joining
us now is Tarply hit West Coast reporter for The
Daily Beast. We're gonna be talking about an interesting true
crime story. It's that of the Hollywood Ripper. It's currently
going to trial right now. There's a guy who's been
(01:48):
accused of three murders, all dating back to so he's
on trial right now and there's a few high profile
connections to it. One of his victims was former girlfriend
of actor Ashton Kutcher. It's possible that he might be
hitting court to testify in this case. Tell us a
(02:08):
little bit about who the Hollywood Ripper is. The Hollywood
Ripper is this man named Michael Gardjulo. He's a man
in his forties and air conditioner repairman who authorities alleged
has murdered three women, one in Chicago, too in California,
and attempted to murder a force woman. His method roughly
is to enter their house while they're asleep. Usually targets
(02:30):
young women that are his neighbors and then stab them.
In a couple of the murders, he's been wearing surgical
booties or latex gloves and then leave them murdered. The
trial for Michael Gardjulo just started earlier this week. Some
of the most compelling testimony came from one of the
survivors to his attacks, a woman by the name of
(02:53):
Michelle Murphy. And he in particular, as you said, he
would kind of follow them. They were usually neighbors or
live close by to him. He would follow them, see
exactly what they're doing, and then would strike at night
at their homes. For Michelle Murphy, tell us about what
happened to her. Because she woke up in the middle
of the night, he was already on top of her,
stabbing her repeatedly. She has some nerve damage, she has
(03:16):
a bunch of scars from the attack. Obviously she was
able to make it out. Tell us what happened with her.
This is back into April of two. She's twenty six,
she's living in Santa Monica. She has a roommate, she
has a boyfriend of two months. They have this big
apartment and she has a neighbor across the alleyway. She's
one of those alleyways where you can't park your car
behind the house, and she has this neighbor across the alleyway.
(03:36):
Never meets him. Basically, the only interaction that they have
is that he drives this white van that says dust
the plumber because at that point Guard Julo, and air
conditioner repairman, had gone into business with a plumbing company,
so he was doing the heating and air for a
larger business. Murphy probably sees him ten fifteen times just
in the driver's seat of his van. They like, you know,
(03:58):
do the hey, how are you away? In their backyard,
but really never say hi. He's never in their house.
They've never spoken or said a word ever. So then
in April, Murphy's roommate, Olga, is in Poland visiting family
for a wedding, and so she's in this apartment completely
alone and she has a very normal day, goes to
(04:18):
where it comes back, exercises, watches TV, goes to bed,
and then wakes up with a man straddling her in
bed dabbing her. He's only stabbing her arm, but is
stabbing her repeatedly, and she's obviously screaming and struggling and
saying like why are you doing this? And he's not answering,
So her instinct is to reach up and grab the blade.
(04:40):
He's stabbing her with a serrated blade, and she grabs
it with both of her bare hands and is like
struggling while he while it's obviously like cutting her hands,
and then also pulls her legs up to her chest,
kicks him off to the floor, and then once he
falls onto the floor, he just runs away. The unfortunate
thing was that it was a hot day. She had
(05:00):
a fan on, and she left the window open to
her room, and that's exactly how he got in. You know,
you had been mentioned they had seen each other through
the alleyway. He ripped the screen and got in that way,
you know, very quietly, undetected, until he was on top
of her. Already. She called the cops and she found
him in the in the living room right before he
(05:20):
ran away completely. I guess he turned around and said
I'm sorry twice, but that was all the interaction she
had with him. It's unclear why he ran away or
you know why he said I'm sorry. The old thing
is just kind of mysterious because with the other victims,
if it is gar Julo who did the other three murders,
there was clearly a struggle in some of the other ones,
and he hurt the bodies so obscenely, much like one
(05:42):
of the victims had forty seven stab wounds to the
neck and in another one the victim's breasts were cut
off and posed around the room. The one that had
the forty seven stab wounds was Ashley Ellern. She's a
twenty two year old fashioned student. She was the one
that was connected to Ashton Kutcher. They had planned to
go to some Grammy Awards after party that was at
(06:03):
the height of Ashton Kutcher's fame on that seventy show.
He came to pick her up, but he told investigators
that she had never come to the door. Take us
back to because that's when investigators suspect he got his start.
As a matter of fact, when this trial is over
in Los Angeles, he's going to be extradited to Illinois
to face charges there, so tell us how he got
(06:24):
started in if Garjulo is convicted of this murder, what
authorities believe happened is that he was living in the
suburb of Chicago, and there was this eighteen year old
high school student who had just graduated high school and
was about to matriculate at Purdue. She had a full
engineering scholarship. And it was the younger sister of one
of Gardjulo's friends. And she was coming home one night
(06:47):
after school and at like one am is attacked on
the stoop of her house as she's trying to get
in the door, and her father found her there the
next morning. Authority believed that Garjulo was responsible for this,
but he wasn't charged with that murder until years later,
after he'd already allegedly killed Ashley Ellern and a thirty
two year old woman in Los Angeles named Maria Bruno.
(07:09):
I think what's most interesting about this case is that
the prosecutors have said that they will ask for the
death penalty if Scarjulo is convicted or which is just
a sort of bizarre thing given that the state hasn't
executed anyone on death row in a decade, and obviously
the governor last month wrote an executive order placing a
moratorium on the procedure. So there's this odd disconnect between
(07:30):
the prosecutors who are pushing for this and what the
state wants. Voters, just as recently as a few years ago,
voted against abolishing the death penalty. There's seven hundred and
thirty seven prisoners on death row in California right now.
Even if they do get granted that nothing will happen
until Gavin Newsom stops being governor. So it is a
very interesting note on that. One tarply hit West Coast
(07:52):
reporter for The Daily Beast, thank you very much for
joining us, Thank you for having me. Democrats are so
busy attacking the president and trying to undermine his uh
when in sixteen that they can't focus on some of
(08:12):
the big problems facing us, like infrastructure, lowering drug prices,
making things better for our veterans. Joining us now is
Daniel Littman, co author of the political playbook Let's talk
about this ongoing fight between the White House and Democrats.
Since the Muller report came out, the President claimed victory
and total exoneration Democrats are continuing the investigations. They want
(08:34):
more and more out of what came from the Mueller report.
So the White House wants us all to be over.
Republicans want this all to be over. Democrats want to
keep investigating Daniel. Please help us make sense of this
whole thing. Just the other day, the White House told
Don McGan to not supply the documents related to the
Muller Report that Democrats had subpoena. Tell us a little
(08:55):
bit about that. What are these documents that they're wanting
to get from him? So these are the internal memo
of us he wrote at the time of his tenure
in the White House. They were documenting exactly what President
Trump ordered Don McGan to do in terms of interfering
with investigation or trying to fire Mueller and other d
o J officials. And so Democrats want to see the
(09:16):
actual original source material, and the White House and McGan
are trying to prevent that from happening. Don McGann spent
more than thirty hours speaking to the Special Council Robert
Mueller's investigators, And as you were saying, you know, some
of that stuff that they're really focused on is when
the President asked him to have Mr Mueller dismissed, and
(09:36):
um later asking Mr McGan to deny some of these
reports about those conversations. So I know that's one of
the big things that they want to get out of it.
Republicans want this all to be over. The White House
wants is to all be over. Mitch McConnell has said
that the Democrats are just angry that the facts disappointed
them and that the system won't magically undo the twenty
election for them. He says that this whole matter is
(09:58):
case closed and urged Democrats to move on. I know
Nancy Pelosi has come out pretty strong on that and
says the case is not closed. I mean, this is
just going to keep going on for a long time.
This is a risk for Democrats because they don't want
to be seen as relitigating the Mueller investigation when I
found or when it charged Trump with no crimes. And
so a lot of Democrats are privately saying that, hey,
(10:19):
maybe we should talk about healthcare or transportation, or infrastructure
or prescription drug pricing instead of this investigation that doesn't
it's not going to lead to Trump's impeachment most likely,
and so Democrats are are fearful that they are kind
of going to vote over their skis in terms of
how much the A market people care about cares about
this issue. On what grounds did the White House instruct
(10:41):
on McGan to not supply those documents. The White House
is trying to prevent this from becoming a bigger story,
but they also want to keep it in the headlines
because they view it as positive for the President and
his re election hopes, because the more people are talking
about instigation that didn't lead to charges them, it's easier
for them to win. But they're asserting executive privilege to
(11:04):
basically say that he doesn't have to supply these documents.
That's one of their tactics to do that, to say
that these are private conversations and that this is kind
of routine business in an executive branch where they're making
lots of decisions about what they should do in office,
and so they don't have an obligation to release this,
and so this is gonna be a test that it
(11:24):
will ultimately be decided the courts most likely. Let's talk
about some of the other fights that the President and
the White House are currently having with the Democrats. The
House Judiciary Committee is going to vote on holding the
Attorney General Bill Barr in contempt of Congress because he
missed the deadline to give them an unredacted version of
the Mulla Report. And on the other side, the Trump
(11:45):
administration has already refused to give his tax returns to
the House Ways and Means Committee. So that's just another
thing right there that they're just constantly fighting over. The
White House is saying no to all subpoenas coming out
of the House. They're stopping all of these in their tracks.
And that's a risk because it makes it look like
the Trump White House and the administration is not transparent
(12:06):
and that they're not recognizing that converse does have this
oversight role and that even if some of the subpoenas
are overwrought or unnecessary, that doesn't mean that the entire
oversight functions of Congress should just completely come to a stop.
And so the White House and the indministration looks looks
pretty secretive that they're trying to hide something. It doesn't
(12:26):
show that they are pro transparency. We're supposed to know
what our government does in our name, and it doesn't
look like the Trump restriction cares that much about leaving
an impression that is, you know, the opposite the Mueller Report.
For all that to take place, it took two years,
and just experts are saying that it could be years
for all of this other stuff to play out, also
(12:46):
getting more redactions out of that Mueller report, to get
the Trump tax returns, and then all these fights, legal
fights and subpoenas and whatnot could take so long. So
the president who is going to face this throughout his
entire term piac Yeah, this is a fight that will
just continue every day until he's out of office. Daniel Littman,
co author of the Political playbook, thank you very much
for joining us, Thanks for having me. Under this Texas law,
(13:17):
a person is guilty of the offense the sale to
certain persons if he or she negligently sells an alcoholic
beverage to a habitual drunk or an intoxicated or an
insane person. And this is a misdemeanor. It carries up
to a year in jail or a fine of up
to I mean, I was my producer, Miranda. We've all
heard the stories about how a bartender it's their responsibility
(13:41):
to stop serving somebody when they get too drunk for
fear that they might drive and get a car accident
hurt other people. This story is the first time I've
actually heard of anybody getting charged with something like this.
The story starts in where men named Spencer Height went
on a shooting spree in Plano, Texas. He got nk
at the local public house in Plano, Texas. There it
(14:02):
was a bar a few blocks away from his ex
wife's home. Then he stumbled through her door heavily armed
with a pistol, a semi automatic rifle, and a knife.
There he killed eight people and later on he was
killed in a shootout with police. But just last month,
police arrested and charged Lindsay Glass, who was the bartender
who served Height that night, and she's being charged with
(14:24):
violating the sale to certain person's law. What do we
know about this randon? Under this Texas law, a person
is guilty of the offense the certain sailed to certain
persons if he or she negligently sells an alcoholic beverage
to an habitual drunk or an intoxicated or an insane person.
And this is a misdemeanor. It carries up to a
year in jail or a fine of up to five
(14:47):
or both, and a lawyer for Lindsay Glass said, you know,
this guy, Spencer Height, committed the American Nightmare. He was
hell bent on committing this act. You know, it's it's
reckless to blame a bartender a year and a half
later after. In fact, bartenders and and drinking establishments do
have that duty to monitor their guest. If somebody's getting
too crazy, what do they do? They kick you out
(15:07):
because you're being too rowdy or too drunk or something.
But you don't know what the intent in somebody's mind
is when it's going to be some heinous crime like this.
I mean, he had it set in his head that
he was gonna go murder his ex wife. And that
being said Oscar, Lindsay Glass was friends with Spencer Height.
She was friends with Meredith Height, the ex wife. She
was actually supposed to be a guest at this barbecue,
(15:30):
but the ex wife was hosting, but she got called
into work. You know, I think gets fair to say
Lindsay went above and beyond what she was expected to
do as just a bartender serving a customer in this situation,
because when he came in, he came in at two
separate times. He arrived at two thirty in the afternoon.
He ordered two Gin and tonics and left. He came
(15:50):
back four hours later ordered two Miller whites and a
shot of lemon vodka. And that's when it was starting
to get weird. He was spinning a knife on the
bar top, saying that he had some dirty work he
had to go do. Several people in the bar confronted him.
Lindsey called her manager, saying, Hey, he's asking for a shot.
I don't want to give it to him. He's being
(16:11):
drunk and weird. What should I do? The boss encouraged
her to keep serving him. She did everything. She followed
him in her car so that he wouldn't get into
a car accident until she realized he had reached his
destination safe and she called the police. Also when as
she was following him, she called the police. She didn't
stay long enough to witness any of the shooting or anything,
but that's kind of where her lawyers are saying that,
(16:34):
you know, she is not responsible for what happened. The
police actually commended her at the time, saying that she
saved a bunch of lives that day by calling nine
one one when she did she took all these actions
that weren't legally required of her. I mean, I guess
under that act, you're just flat out not supposed to
do anything, but you know, she did. She persuaded him
(16:55):
not to drive, and he didn't listen. She called the
owner and asked whether she she should call the East.
He said not to, and then then she followed him home.
She even texts another bartender and said, Hey, this guy
is acting really weird. He's like acting kind of like
a psycho. That other bartender confronted him outside on the
patio of the bar. Yeah, he convinced him, Hey, you know,
(17:16):
why don't you let me drive you home? Give me
your He also saw a gun, apparently this other bartender.
Give me your gun, give me the knife. I'll drive
you home. It's not a big deal. And that's when
Spencer Height said, no, I have to do this. I
have to see Meredith tonight and what I have to
do when I see her. I have to be this
drunk to do it. But all this had happened after
he was already served the drinks. I mean, he had
(17:36):
it set in his head that he was gonna go
do it. They said that he had planned this out
very meticulously. He came armed with a thirty eight caliber handgun.
He had an a R fifteen rifle and that folding knife.
Police discovered rounds of ammunition and binoculars inside of his car.
They found another rifle, additional ammunition and gun accessories at
his apartment. He had like two ounces of weed. He
(17:57):
had a pound of mushrooms in his a heart mint.
So this guy was pretty crazy to begin with. He
was ready to go. Yeah. They say that when police
showed up to the house after a Lindsay Glass called
nine on one and reported the suspicious behavior. As her
lawyer points it out, this was a clear example of
if you see something, say something, which she did. Cop
showed up, they found four bodies out in the front
(18:18):
yard off the bat Inside, he was still actively shooting
at people when they arrived, and he was able to
take down four more people, including his ex wife. And
many of the victims were people who were actually wedding
party members that stood up for them when they got
married previously. Yeah, many agree that this Texas statute is
(18:38):
very rarely applied. Um, So it's going to be interesting
to see how this plays out, because this is gonna
really set a precedent for a lot of other things.
You know, if anything else happens, they're going to be
able to point to something like this happening. And you know,
if she gets convicted of this, it is a misdemeanor.
As you said, it's one year in jail when y're jail,
possibly five fine, maybe both, depending on the severity of it.
(19:01):
But there's already been a big lawsuit that the families
of the victims had. They were suing for a million
dollars and damages against her and the local public house,
but that civil suit got dropped later on. And that's
what her lawyers are arguing this arrest is all about,
is they want someone to go down for this. They
don't have anyone to blame since the actual perpetrator died
(19:23):
at the act, so she's the scapgoat for this. Essentially.
Thank you, Miranda, Thanks Oscar. That's it for today. Join
us on social media at Daily Dive Pod on Twitter
and Daily Dive Podcast on Facebook. Leave us a comment,
give us a rating, and tell us the stories that
(19:44):
you're interested in. Follow us and I Heard Radio, or
subscribe wherever you get your podcast. The Daily Dive is
produced by Miranda Morando, an engineered by Tony Sarrantino. I'm
Oscar Ramirez and this was your daily dive FA
It's Wednesday, May eight. I'm Oscar Ramirez in Los Angeles
and this is the Daily Dive. Michael Gardjulo, the so
called Hollywood Ripper, is on trial this week to face
two murder charges stemming from two thousand one and two
thousand eight. He has also connected to murder in Chicago.
(00:21):
All of his victims were young women who lived nearby him.
Tarply Hit, reporter for The Daily Beast joins us for
who the Hollywood Ripper is and the dramatic court testimony
from one of his survivors. Next, the fight between the
White House and Democrats in the House continue to escalate.
The latest twist in the story is that the White
House told former council Don McGann not to comply with
(00:43):
a subpoena for documents related to the Mueller investigation. The
White House is also refusing to give Democrats the President's
tax returns. An attorney general bar could be held in
contempt of Congress. Daniel Lippman, reporter for Politico, joins us
for more. Finally, an interesting case out of plain O exits,
where a drunk band killed eight people in seventeen, but
(01:03):
just last month, the bartender who served him was arrested
and charged with violating the sale to certain person's law.
While she did serve him the alcohol, she also followed
him and called the police. Still she has been arrested.
My producer Random joins us to help explain this case
that snooze without the noise. Let's dive in. Michael Garjuelo,
(01:25):
for almost fifteen years, was watching, always watching, and his
hobby was plotting the perfect opportunity to attack women. Joining
us now is Tarply hit West Coast reporter for The
Daily Beast. We're gonna be talking about an interesting true
crime story. It's that of the Hollywood Ripper. It's currently
going to trial right now. There's a guy who's been
(01:48):
accused of three murders, all dating back to so he's
on trial right now and there's a few high profile
connections to it. One of his victims was former girlfriend
of actor Ashton Kutcher. It's possible that he might be
hitting court to testify in this case. Tell us a
(02:08):
little bit about who the Hollywood Ripper is. The Hollywood
Ripper is this man named Michael Gardjulo. He's a man
in his forties and air conditioner repairman who authorities alleged
has murdered three women, one in Chicago, too in California,
and attempted to murder a force woman. His method roughly
is to enter their house while they're asleep. Usually targets
(02:30):
young women that are his neighbors and then stab them.
In a couple of the murders, he's been wearing surgical
booties or latex gloves and then leave them murdered. The
trial for Michael Gardjulo just started earlier this week. Some
of the most compelling testimony came from one of the
survivors to his attacks, a woman by the name of
(02:53):
Michelle Murphy. And he in particular, as you said, he
would kind of follow them. They were usually neighbors or
live close by to him. He would follow them, see
exactly what they're doing, and then would strike at night
at their homes. For Michelle Murphy, tell us about what
happened to her. Because she woke up in the middle
of the night, he was already on top of her,
stabbing her repeatedly. She has some nerve damage, she has
(03:16):
a bunch of scars from the attack. Obviously she was
able to make it out. Tell us what happened with her.
This is back into April of two. She's twenty six,
she's living in Santa Monica. She has a roommate, she
has a boyfriend of two months. They have this big
apartment and she has a neighbor across the alleyway. She's
one of those alleyways where you can't park your car
behind the house, and she has this neighbor across the alleyway.
(03:36):
Never meets him. Basically, the only interaction that they have
is that he drives this white van that says dust
the plumber because at that point Guard Julo, and air
conditioner repairman, had gone into business with a plumbing company,
so he was doing the heating and air for a
larger business. Murphy probably sees him ten fifteen times just
in the driver's seat of his van. They like, you know,
(03:58):
do the hey, how are you away? In their backyard,
but really never say hi. He's never in their house.
They've never spoken or said a word ever. So then
in April, Murphy's roommate, Olga, is in Poland visiting family
for a wedding, and so she's in this apartment completely
alone and she has a very normal day, goes to
(04:18):
where it comes back, exercises, watches TV, goes to bed,
and then wakes up with a man straddling her in
bed dabbing her. He's only stabbing her arm, but is
stabbing her repeatedly, and she's obviously screaming and struggling and
saying like why are you doing this? And he's not answering,
So her instinct is to reach up and grab the blade.
(04:40):
He's stabbing her with a serrated blade, and she grabs
it with both of her bare hands and is like
struggling while he while it's obviously like cutting her hands,
and then also pulls her legs up to her chest,
kicks him off to the floor, and then once he
falls onto the floor, he just runs away. The unfortunate
thing was that it was a hot day. She had
(05:00):
a fan on, and she left the window open to
her room, and that's exactly how he got in. You know,
you had been mentioned they had seen each other through
the alleyway. He ripped the screen and got in that way,
you know, very quietly, undetected, until he was on top
of her. Already. She called the cops and she found
him in the in the living room right before he
(05:20):
ran away completely. I guess he turned around and said
I'm sorry twice, but that was all the interaction she
had with him. It's unclear why he ran away or
you know why he said I'm sorry. The old thing
is just kind of mysterious because with the other victims,
if it is gar Julo who did the other three murders,
there was clearly a struggle in some of the other ones,
and he hurt the bodies so obscenely, much like one
(05:42):
of the victims had forty seven stab wounds to the
neck and in another one the victim's breasts were cut
off and posed around the room. The one that had
the forty seven stab wounds was Ashley Ellern. She's a
twenty two year old fashioned student. She was the one
that was connected to Ashton Kutcher. They had planned to
go to some Grammy Awards after party that was at
(06:03):
the height of Ashton Kutcher's fame on that seventy show.
He came to pick her up, but he told investigators
that she had never come to the door. Take us
back to because that's when investigators suspect he got his start.
As a matter of fact, when this trial is over
in Los Angeles, he's going to be extradited to Illinois
to face charges there, so tell us how he got
(06:24):
started in if Garjulo is convicted of this murder, what
authorities believe happened is that he was living in the
suburb of Chicago, and there was this eighteen year old
high school student who had just graduated high school and
was about to matriculate at Purdue. She had a full
engineering scholarship. And it was the younger sister of one
of Gardjulo's friends. And she was coming home one night
(06:47):
after school and at like one am is attacked on
the stoop of her house as she's trying to get
in the door, and her father found her there the
next morning. Authority believed that Garjulo was responsible for this,
but he wasn't charged with that murder until years later,
after he'd already allegedly killed Ashley Ellern and a thirty
two year old woman in Los Angeles named Maria Bruno.
(07:09):
I think what's most interesting about this case is that
the prosecutors have said that they will ask for the
death penalty if Scarjulo is convicted or which is just
a sort of bizarre thing given that the state hasn't
executed anyone on death row in a decade, and obviously
the governor last month wrote an executive order placing a
moratorium on the procedure. So there's this odd disconnect between
(07:30):
the prosecutors who are pushing for this and what the
state wants. Voters, just as recently as a few years ago,
voted against abolishing the death penalty. There's seven hundred and
thirty seven prisoners on death row in California right now.
Even if they do get granted that nothing will happen
until Gavin Newsom stops being governor. So it is a
very interesting note on that. One tarply hit West Coast
(07:52):
reporter for The Daily Beast, thank you very much for
joining us, Thank you for having me. Democrats are so
busy attacking the president and trying to undermine his uh
when in sixteen that they can't focus on some of
(08:12):
the big problems facing us, like infrastructure, lowering drug prices,
making things better for our veterans. Joining us now is
Daniel Littman, co author of the political playbook Let's talk
about this ongoing fight between the White House and Democrats.
Since the Muller report came out, the President claimed victory
and total exoneration Democrats are continuing the investigations. They want
(08:34):
more and more out of what came from the Mueller report.
So the White House wants us all to be over.
Republicans want this all to be over. Democrats want to
keep investigating Daniel. Please help us make sense of this
whole thing. Just the other day, the White House told
Don McGan to not supply the documents related to the
Muller Report that Democrats had subpoena. Tell us a little
(08:55):
bit about that. What are these documents that they're wanting
to get from him? So these are the internal memo
of us he wrote at the time of his tenure
in the White House. They were documenting exactly what President
Trump ordered Don McGan to do in terms of interfering
with investigation or trying to fire Mueller and other d
o J officials. And so Democrats want to see the
(09:16):
actual original source material, and the White House and McGan
are trying to prevent that from happening. Don McGann spent
more than thirty hours speaking to the Special Council Robert
Mueller's investigators, And as you were saying, you know, some
of that stuff that they're really focused on is when
the President asked him to have Mr Mueller dismissed, and
(09:36):
um later asking Mr McGan to deny some of these
reports about those conversations. So I know that's one of
the big things that they want to get out of it.
Republicans want this all to be over. The White House
wants is to all be over. Mitch McConnell has said
that the Democrats are just angry that the facts disappointed
them and that the system won't magically undo the twenty
election for them. He says that this whole matter is
(09:58):
case closed and urged Democrats to move on. I know
Nancy Pelosi has come out pretty strong on that and
says the case is not closed. I mean, this is
just going to keep going on for a long time.
This is a risk for Democrats because they don't want
to be seen as relitigating the Mueller investigation when I
found or when it charged Trump with no crimes. And
so a lot of Democrats are privately saying that, hey,
(10:19):
maybe we should talk about healthcare or transportation, or infrastructure
or prescription drug pricing instead of this investigation that doesn't
it's not going to lead to Trump's impeachment most likely,
and so Democrats are are fearful that they are kind
of going to vote over their skis in terms of
how much the A market people care about cares about
this issue. On what grounds did the White House instruct
(10:41):
on McGan to not supply those documents. The White House
is trying to prevent this from becoming a bigger story,
but they also want to keep it in the headlines
because they view it as positive for the President and
his re election hopes, because the more people are talking
about instigation that didn't lead to charges them, it's easier
for them to win. But they're asserting executive privilege to
(11:04):
basically say that he doesn't have to supply these documents.
That's one of their tactics to do that, to say
that these are private conversations and that this is kind
of routine business in an executive branch where they're making
lots of decisions about what they should do in office,
and so they don't have an obligation to release this,
and so this is gonna be a test that it
(11:24):
will ultimately be decided the courts most likely. Let's talk
about some of the other fights that the President and
the White House are currently having with the Democrats. The
House Judiciary Committee is going to vote on holding the
Attorney General Bill Barr in contempt of Congress because he
missed the deadline to give them an unredacted version of
the Mulla Report. And on the other side, the Trump
(11:45):
administration has already refused to give his tax returns to
the House Ways and Means Committee. So that's just another
thing right there that they're just constantly fighting over. The
White House is saying no to all subpoenas coming out
of the House. They're stopping all of these in their tracks.
And that's a risk because it makes it look like
the Trump White House and the administration is not transparent
(12:06):
and that they're not recognizing that converse does have this
oversight role and that even if some of the subpoenas
are overwrought or unnecessary, that doesn't mean that the entire
oversight functions of Congress should just completely come to a stop.
And so the White House and the indministration looks looks
pretty secretive that they're trying to hide something. It doesn't
(12:26):
show that they are pro transparency. We're supposed to know
what our government does in our name, and it doesn't
look like the Trump restriction cares that much about leaving
an impression that is, you know, the opposite the Mueller Report.
For all that to take place, it took two years,
and just experts are saying that it could be years
for all of this other stuff to play out, also
(12:46):
getting more redactions out of that Mueller report, to get
the Trump tax returns, and then all these fights, legal
fights and subpoenas and whatnot could take so long. So
the president who is going to face this throughout his
entire term piac Yeah, this is a fight that will
just continue every day until he's out of office. Daniel Littman,
co author of the Political playbook, thank you very much
for joining us, Thanks for having me. Under this Texas law,
(13:17):
a person is guilty of the offense the sale to
certain persons if he or she negligently sells an alcoholic
beverage to a habitual drunk or an intoxicated or an
insane person. And this is a misdemeanor. It carries up
to a year in jail or a fine of up
to I mean, I was my producer, Miranda. We've all
heard the stories about how a bartender it's their responsibility
(13:41):
to stop serving somebody when they get too drunk for
fear that they might drive and get a car accident
hurt other people. This story is the first time I've
actually heard of anybody getting charged with something like this.
The story starts in where men named Spencer Height went
on a shooting spree in Plano, Texas. He got nk
at the local public house in Plano, Texas. There it
(14:02):
was a bar a few blocks away from his ex
wife's home. Then he stumbled through her door heavily armed
with a pistol, a semi automatic rifle, and a knife.
There he killed eight people and later on he was
killed in a shootout with police. But just last month,
police arrested and charged Lindsay Glass, who was the bartender
who served Height that night, and she's being charged with
(14:24):
violating the sale to certain person's law. What do we
know about this randon? Under this Texas law, a person
is guilty of the offense the certain sailed to certain
persons if he or she negligently sells an alcoholic beverage
to an habitual drunk or an intoxicated or an insane person.
And this is a misdemeanor. It carries up to a
year in jail or a fine of up to five
(14:47):
or both, and a lawyer for Lindsay Glass said, you know,
this guy, Spencer Height, committed the American Nightmare. He was
hell bent on committing this act. You know, it's it's
reckless to blame a bartender a year and a half
later after. In fact, bartenders and and drinking establishments do
have that duty to monitor their guest. If somebody's getting
too crazy, what do they do? They kick you out
(15:07):
because you're being too rowdy or too drunk or something.
But you don't know what the intent in somebody's mind
is when it's going to be some heinous crime like this.
I mean, he had it set in his head that
he was gonna go murder his ex wife. And that
being said Oscar, Lindsay Glass was friends with Spencer Height.
She was friends with Meredith Height, the ex wife. She
was actually supposed to be a guest at this barbecue,
(15:30):
but the ex wife was hosting, but she got called
into work. You know, I think gets fair to say
Lindsay went above and beyond what she was expected to
do as just a bartender serving a customer in this situation,
because when he came in, he came in at two
separate times. He arrived at two thirty in the afternoon.
He ordered two Gin and tonics and left. He came
(15:50):
back four hours later ordered two Miller whites and a
shot of lemon vodka. And that's when it was starting
to get weird. He was spinning a knife on the
bar top, saying that he had some dirty work he
had to go do. Several people in the bar confronted him.
Lindsey called her manager, saying, Hey, he's asking for a shot.
I don't want to give it to him. He's being
(16:11):
drunk and weird. What should I do? The boss encouraged
her to keep serving him. She did everything. She followed
him in her car so that he wouldn't get into
a car accident until she realized he had reached his
destination safe and she called the police. Also when as
she was following him, she called the police. She didn't
stay long enough to witness any of the shooting or anything,
but that's kind of where her lawyers are saying that,
(16:34):
you know, she is not responsible for what happened. The
police actually commended her at the time, saying that she
saved a bunch of lives that day by calling nine
one one when she did she took all these actions
that weren't legally required of her. I mean, I guess
under that act, you're just flat out not supposed to
do anything, but you know, she did. She persuaded him
(16:55):
not to drive, and he didn't listen. She called the
owner and asked whether she she should call the East.
He said not to, and then then she followed him home.
She even texts another bartender and said, Hey, this guy
is acting really weird. He's like acting kind of like
a psycho. That other bartender confronted him outside on the
patio of the bar. Yeah, he convinced him, Hey, you know,
(17:16):
why don't you let me drive you home? Give me
your He also saw a gun, apparently this other bartender.
Give me your gun, give me the knife. I'll drive
you home. It's not a big deal. And that's when
Spencer Height said, no, I have to do this. I
have to see Meredith tonight and what I have to
do when I see her. I have to be this
drunk to do it. But all this had happened after
he was already served the drinks. I mean, he had
(17:36):
it set in his head that he was gonna go
do it. They said that he had planned this out
very meticulously. He came armed with a thirty eight caliber handgun.
He had an a R fifteen rifle and that folding knife.
Police discovered rounds of ammunition and binoculars inside of his car.
They found another rifle, additional ammunition and gun accessories at
his apartment. He had like two ounces of weed. He
(17:57):
had a pound of mushrooms in his a heart mint.
So this guy was pretty crazy to begin with. He
was ready to go. Yeah. They say that when police
showed up to the house after a Lindsay Glass called
nine on one and reported the suspicious behavior. As her
lawyer points it out, this was a clear example of
if you see something, say something, which she did. Cop
showed up, they found four bodies out in the front
(18:18):
yard off the bat Inside, he was still actively shooting
at people when they arrived, and he was able to
take down four more people, including his ex wife. And
many of the victims were people who were actually wedding
party members that stood up for them when they got
married previously. Yeah, many agree that this Texas statute is
(18:38):
very rarely applied. Um, So it's going to be interesting
to see how this plays out, because this is gonna
really set a precedent for a lot of other things.
You know, if anything else happens, they're going to be
able to point to something like this happening. And you know,
if she gets convicted of this, it is a misdemeanor.
As you said, it's one year in jail when y're jail,
possibly five fine, maybe both, depending on the severity of it.
(19:01):
But there's already been a big lawsuit that the families
of the victims had. They were suing for a million
dollars and damages against her and the local public house,
but that civil suit got dropped later on. And that's
what her lawyers are arguing this arrest is all about,
is they want someone to go down for this. They
don't have anyone to blame since the actual perpetrator died
(19:23):
at the act, so she's the scapgoat for this. Essentially.
Thank you, Miranda, Thanks Oscar. That's it for today. Join
us on social media at Daily Dive Pod on Twitter
and Daily Dive Podcast on Facebook. Leave us a comment,
give us a rating, and tell us the stories that
(19:44):
you're interested in. Follow us and I Heard Radio, or
subscribe wherever you get your podcast. The Daily Dive is
produced by Miranda Morando, an engineered by Tony Sarrantino. I'm
Oscar Ramirez and this was your daily dive FA
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