December 18, 2025 • 41 mins
Early on the morning of January 18, 1989, a security guard found the body of Michael Francke lying in a pool of blood on the floor of the North Portico of the Dome Building of Oregon State Hospital in Salem, OR. An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a stab wound to the heart. Michael Francke - who had a background as a military man, former prosecutor and judge, and then head of the New Mexico Dept. of Corrections where he rooted out corruption - had been hired by Oregon Governor Mike Goldschmidt to do the same in Salem, OR. Four months later, Police received a tip that Frank Gable, a petty criminal and police informant, was involved. 11 months after that, several other police informants had come forward claiming Frank was involved. Based largely on their questionable testimony, Frank was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode of wrongful Conviction contains discussion of suicidal ideation.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Please listen with caution and care. At six forty five
pm on January seventeenth, nineteen eighty nine, the director of
Oregon Corrections Michael Frankie, had left work ready to testify
the following day before the state legislature about corruption within
his department. But by seven to twenty pm, staffers notice
(00:29):
that his car was still in his parking spot with
the door ajar, but Frankie was nowhere in sight. Five
hours later, his body was discovered outside the building's portico,
fatally stabbed. Local authorities were quick to call it a
car burglary gone wrong, even though Frankie's wallet, watch, and
keys warrant missing. Then months later, an alleged tip led
(00:52):
them to twenty nine year old Frank Gable, who maintained
his innocence through a violent interrogation. So police found eight
more people who were willing to cooperate as for the
testimony Michael Frankie was scheduled to deliver that following day.
That must have had nothing to do with it. This
is wrongful conviction. The Fox Foundation is proud to support
(01:18):
this episode of wrongful conviction and the work of After Innocence,
a nonprofit that helps hundreds of people nationwide rebuild their
lives after wrongful incarceration. Each year, innocent people are released
after spending years behind bars for crimes they didn't commit.
Nearly all of them leave prison with nothing more than
the clothes on their backs, with no help or compensation
(01:41):
from the state as they face the steep challenges of
rebuilding their lives after wrongful imprisonment. After Innocence is changing
that After Innocence helps exoneries get and make good use
of essential services like health care, dental care, mental health support,
legal aid, financial counseling, and more. Since twenty sixteen, they've
(02:02):
brought that help to more than eight hundred exoneries across
forty six states, working tirelessly to ensure that no one
released after wrongful incarceration is left behind. Learn more at
after Dashinnocence dot org and join After Innocence to support
exoneries as they rebuild their lives. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction.
(02:33):
This is Lauren Bright Pacheco and I am joined now
by Jason Flahm, and I have to tell you, Jason,
this is such an incredible full circle moment for me
because on this episode we're speaking with Frank Gable, who
was wrongfully convicted and spent nearly thirty years for the
murder of Michael Frankie, who was the then head of
(02:58):
Oregon's Department of Corrections. But indirectly, it's really why you
and I met In twenty eighteen, I had left television
but took a freelance job as a producer just to
meet you, because when I was researching Murder and Oregon,
it was the first real wrongful conviction I had encountered
(03:24):
from an investigative standpoint, and so to educate myself, I
googled wrongful conviction and what pops up but your podcast,
which is why I wanted to meet you. And I
casually mentioned that I had a podcast too, and that's
when we made the connection that you were actually listening
(03:45):
to Murder and Oregon at the time.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Well, I mean listening is not the right word. I
had been obsessing about it. It's just got so many
layers of insanity as it goes up levels into the
even government, it's almost too much.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
It is a case of corruption that went high up
the ranks.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yeah, and I think the one hope that we have
is that by shining a light and not letting this
story die, that maybe eventually people in positions of power
will feel the heat.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
All right, Well, with that, we will share the interview
with Frank Gable, who, again I feel very connected to Frank,
to you, to Michael Frankie's brothers, Pat and to Kevin,
and to Phil Stamford. It's very much a full circle
moment for me. And I don't know if justice will
truly ever be served in this case. But if there
(04:42):
was ever a case in which accountability is called for,
it is the conviction of Frank Gable in the murder
of Michael Frankie.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
It was so.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Brutally murdered for no other reason than the fact that
he was trying to do the right thing.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
He was trying to fix the system.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was trying to fix it, and
so the whole thing is exactly opposite of.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
What it's supposed to be.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
In nineteen eighty seven, Michael Frankie, a Navy veteran, former
prosecutor and judge who went on to be the director
of Corrections in New Mexico, was then hired to overhaul
the Oregon Department of Corrections, which was headquartered at the
Dome Building in Salem, Oregon. And in a town like
this where the main employer is the prison, one can
(05:28):
typically expect a sluggish economy with a thriving drug market,
and it appears those two elements had intertwined in Salem.
In fact, just a year earlier, an investigation into drugs
smuggling at the prison led to the resignation of the
prison superintendent as well as several guards losing their jobs.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Like, I've seen a lot of just shady stuff there,
you know, like use an inmate labor, to stealing equipment,
to funneling drugs in and out, to all kind of
just criminal behavior that they were doing.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
That is Frank different Cloud, known to the state as
Frank Gable, talking about the corruption in Salem that even
a state representative had described to me as similar to
the mafia.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, there's an all buddy system because it's the prisonal hire.
Like your uncle and your grandpa, you know, his brother
and then so if something happens, who they going to
believe the three cousins that are making a story up
on you and telling you, oh, yeah, he had these
drugs or whatever. He had, and you know, and that's
how they do it.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
So Michael Frankie was hired as the director of Corrections
in Oregon, only to be murdered twenty months later. And
Frank was framed for that murder. And I'd like to
welcome him as well as his attorney, Rachel Brady.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I think he's glad to do it.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
And so, Frank, you were a married man at this time.
Tell us about your life in Salem.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I don't know, like, you know, I'm just like to say,
I'm an outdoors person. I like to fish in a hunt.
But then you know, I got off track, you know,
was drinking and using myth infetamine and you know it
was just bad. You know, it's shit I'm not proud of.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
But you were surrounded by that in Salem at the time.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Yeah, there was a lot of it around there, and
you know, I wasn't just in it for a short time.
But it didn't take but a short time to just
destroy my life, you know, and might caused a lot
to just have it.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Frank's involvement in the drug scene made him familiar with
the system, including a bunk exchange program which was born
out of overcrowding, allowing inmates to cycle out for a
week at a time to make room for others, which
also allowed for the free flow of contraband, and one
can imagine that this Golden Boy outsider, Michael Frankie, was
(07:48):
not welcomed by the folks who were profiting from that
free flow. In fact, Michael was set to testify in
front of the State legislature on January eighteenth, nineteen eighty nine,
about his findings, which brings us to the night before.
Around six forty five pm, Michael Frankie left work at
the Dome building and according to the Custodian, around seven
(08:10):
pm he'd seen two men in the parking lot in
some kind of altercation and one walked back to the building,
while the other who fled was described as six foot short,
dark hair, one hundred and seventy five pounds, twenty to
forty years old, wearing a tanned trench coat. Now between
seven o five and seven to twenty pm, several other
staffers had seen Michael's car still in his parking space
(08:33):
with the door ajar, but Michael was not discovered until
twelve forty am, lying in a pool of blood at
the Dome Building's north portico, stabbed in the torso, arm
and heart. He also had some defensive wounds, and despite
the almost six hour gap between an alleged altercation in
the parking lot and the discovery of his body, the
(08:54):
official theory became a car burglary gone wrong.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yeah. Yeah, there's a whole story of you know, their
car burst. This foolish. I mean, like I've seen crime
seen photos and stuff, and you could look in that car,
like if you just looked in the window, there's nothing
in there. Who's going to break into it?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yeah, parts in front of the head of the Department
of Correction sign Frankie's found with his wallet, his watch,
his car keys. Nothing was gone except they think the
briefcase that would have had floppy discs and his computer,
which would have been the meat of the investigation.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
They just jumped on something because I think Johnny Kraus
put that in their head and they just went with
that theory after that, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
In February nineteen eighty nine, another local named Johnny Krause
told his parole officer that he'd witness a group of
men beating up one man by the Dome Building that night,
which later became that he'd been offered three hundred thousand
dollars to murder Michael Frankie. Then that April, Kraus confessed
again to the carburglary theory, which sounds suspicious, but his
(10:07):
confessions contained elements not shared with the public, like the
location of the stab wounds, that he'd worn a tan jacket,
and that Michael yelped when he was stabbed, which aligned
with the custodian's account. He'd also repeated this confession to
his brother, mother, and girlfriend in front of authorities, and
soon we'll discuss why this lead was ignored in favor
(10:30):
of Frank Gabel.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Well, first, I got arrested in I think it was
June in Salem for driving an unauthorized motor vehicle. They
come in and wanted to talk to me then, and
we're asking all people that are inmates where you were.
And I told mom, I think I was home with
my wife, you know, and I was it, and they
asked times and he put the police report in there,
(10:52):
and that's what it says.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Mind you, this is four months later, so Frank wasn't sure,
and he said, I think I was home with my wife.
And as investigators continued to ignore Kraus's confession, they spoke
with other potential suspects, like Michael Kieran's, who deflected blame
from himself by claiming Frank Gable had confessed to him,
at which point the police went to the local media
(11:16):
to broadcast that Frank Gable, who they also alleged was
a police informant, was now their main suspect. And so
ten months in, they dragged Frank in again to ask
his whereabouts, and again Frank wasn't sure, so he offered
that perhaps he was with his friend Shelley Thomas.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
They was interrogating me, telling me, oh, well, where else
could he have been? I said, well, if I wasn't there,
I was at Shelley's. And then they'd go, oh, Shelley says,
you wasn't there. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
The crazy thing is I think it would be difficult
for anybody to remember where they were.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Not ten months later. I mean I didn't even remember
telling like I read a bunch of police supports and
then we talked a bunch and like, you're not going
to know unless it was like somebody specific, like birthday
or you were at work and you knew that, and
that's what he said. When it was interiorgating, He's like, oh, well,
you said you were here, and you said you were there,
and I said no, you asked me where I possibly
(12:11):
would and I'm trying to help you figure out where
maybe I was.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
But it turned out that they knew where Frank was.
On January seventeenth, nineteen eighty nine, Frank and his wife
Janine didn't have a quiet night at home. They hosted
a pretty loud party, one that was so loud, in fact,
that their landlord issued them an eviction notice the next day.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, we had that eviction notice. And that kathing on
that eviction notice is when the police asked me. He said, well, Frank,
what did you get the eviction notice for? And I
don't hesitate. I don't say, well, which one, because like
we had multiple ones we had won, and that was
that eviction notice. And they asked me that. I said, oh,
blah blah blah, and they said, well, who was all there?
(12:52):
I said all the neighbor kids through the play. These
people were all here, and blah blah blah. Then immediately
he realizes, I think that I know where I was
on that night because the key here is he doesn't
say that eviction notices for the night of the seventeenth,
which is the night of the murder. He just says,
what did you get the eviction notice for? And I
started telling now all these people, there's nine people at
(13:15):
this plate being thrown or mentioned this plate being thrown,
or the landlady, or my ex wife, or the two
neighbor kids, Lamontley, Robert Cornett, Kevin Walker were all there, everybody,
and I'm listed it off. And then he goes off
tape right there and says, oh, we're gonna go off tape,
and then comes back on a completely different subject. So
(13:35):
at that point he knew that I knew where I.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Was, and perhaps this explains why they're alleged main suspect
was let go once again. But then they picked up
Jody Swearingen, a team runaway with a juvenile record who
initially said she didn't know anything, but according to her
later recantations, trial testimony, and sworn Affidavid's, she was interrogated
(13:59):
twelve times, given twenty three polygraphs, after each one being
told she was lying and that she was going to
face criminal charges. So she told a story about how
her boyfriend Kapi had picked her up at the Dome Building,
which also housed the Oregon Psychiatric Hospital, and from his
car they had witnessed Frank stab Michael. So they arrested
(14:20):
Frank and tried to coerce a confession.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Well, they wanted me to take a polygraph. I'm telling
them I didn't do it. All these multiple detectives are
just interrogating you and calling you murder and talking bad
about your ex wife and your mom, telling you she's dying,
telling me I'm going to get to death penalty, all
kind of crap like that, trying to make me confess
to something. It was crazy, like they had me crying,
(14:46):
they break me down, and they got so mad because
I keep repeating over and over I didn't do it.
I don't know who did. I wasn't there. If you
read the police reports, it just says that I don't
know how many times I said that, And McCafferty got
mad and that's why he choked me because I kept
saying that and he goes, oh, you're going to cry
or something, and I said, oh, you want me to
cry like that. I was getting irritated with him, and
(15:10):
he choked me out I woke up doing the dry
tuning like this, and my shoulder was full of slobbery
because that's how long I was blacked out because right
here was all wet. And then Fred Akerman had said, oh,
well they had and argument, but he never really choked him.
He choked me on. I mean, if the guy didn't
choke me now here, I am sixty six years old,
why would I need to lie about the guy choking me.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
I just think back to how confused you must have been,
knowing that you were innocent and not understanding why they
were so aggressively trying to get you to confess.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yeah, because all they do is ask you questions to
try to implicate you. Period. That's all they're doing. They're
not trying to like, go, oh it is this guy innocent.
They're just trying to implicate your ass. They don't care,
they don't have to have no evidence, nothing, They will
just come at you.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
I want to just point back to two things. One
you mentioned the tape going off and the tape going
back on, And that's really important because they basically use
selective recordings to make it look like you were incriminating yourself.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Oh yeah, they would make statements then try to make
it sound like I said something that I didn't like
the God me statement.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
The God me statement Frank's talking about was a moment
in this stop and Go recording in which Frank said
there were quote only two people who know who killed Frankie,
Frankie and God end quote and a detective pointed out
that Frankie couldn't know because he was dead.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
And I said, well, I know this, I know and
God know. And then he jumps on and says, oh,
Fridian slip. And I said, well, what's that now. I'm
just a young country kid. I didn't know what the
hell Freudian slip man. And he's explaining the Freudian slip.
It's like, well, your mouth says something before your mind
catches it, and da da da, And so you just
confess to the murder that you said only you and
(17:18):
God know who did it. I said, no, I didn't
say that. I said, you cut me off with the
Friudian slip thing.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
But it appears that even they knew that didn't amount
to a confession, since they dragged in a trove of
people from the drug scene in Salem looking to gather
statements and they use the same tactics that they used
on Frank and Jodi Swarringen.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
So polygraphs are unreliable, they are not admissible in court,
they are impossible to verify, and they are subject completely
to the polygraph examiner's interpretation of the information that comes
out at the charts. Polygraphs are also really scary, and
they're intimidating, and for witnesses who have other crimes in
(18:04):
their backgrounds, for witnesses who are vulnerable in any number
of ways, witnesses who are being threatened with other crimes,
this crime, witnesses who are being threatened to have their
children taken away from them, any number of vulnerabilities can
be exploited.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Some of the stuff they did to some of these
witness and like say Shelley Thomas go over there, threaten
to arrest her take her child away if she didn't
bring the right story. Or John and Kelly Bender, they
got them turn on each other and make different stories.
And then the stories that they were developing, I mean
it was so like you can just see they weren't true.
(18:41):
So then they'd take them and change that story, like
take them out to the crime scene or give them
a polygraph.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
So when you have a person who comes into a
polygraph in a heightened emotional state with a lot on
the line, can very easily figure out what answer they
think they're supposed to be giving to any question on
a polygraph. And none of these witnesses were polygraphed once.
They were polygraphed repeatedly, multiple times over the same day,
over in the middle of the night, over the course
(19:09):
of months. These witnesses were given polygraphs, and each time
they were told which questions they passed and which questions
they failed.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
So they were using them as a training tool.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Yes, absolutely, And so if any person could figure out, oh,
I failed this particular question on a polygraph, and my
freedom is at stake, let me just give a different
answer next time I'm asked a similar question. And you
can see the progression every single witness. You can see
the progression and the questions they're asked and how their
answers change over time.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Like what happened over Jody's swearing gens twenty three polygraphs.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Jody said they took her to the crime scene like
thirteen times, told her there were cigarette butts on the ground,
what kind they were? Just so they could form a
later story. Said, oh, well, there were some cigarette butts
over here. Do you smoke camels? And she says yeah, Jody,
she's a sixteen year old runaway and you're taking her
out of Hillcrest giving her a nine hundred dollars in
(20:04):
cash at sixteen seventeen years old. What do you think
she's going to go do with it? She's gonna go
buy myth and fetomine and hang out with the meth heads.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Like her boyfriend Kathy Hardin, who came in and backed
up her story that they had actually seen Frank Gable
stab Michael Frankie in the parking lot. And investigators visited
other vulnerable people from the Salem drug scene who knew Frank,
like Earl Childers, who claimed to have seen Frank driving
near the scene that night and that Frank later confessed
(20:34):
to him while they were doing meth. Then there was
Mark Gesner, who claimed that Frank had dropped by his
house that night and asked him to get rid of
a bag of clothes. And then Kevin Walker said that
Frank had confessed to him the following day.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Now, I've never ever had any real bones with Kevin
Walker ever like I liked him, he liked me, I
thought him or Mark Gist's dumb ass. And I didn't
even meet Mark gust until then. First came to my
house was that viction. Notice that's the first night. So
how was I ever going to his house and bring
him a damn bag of clothes or whatever he said
and throwing it off a freaking bridge or a river.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
That's the crazy part about Kevin Walker and Mark Gesner.
On the night of the murder. They were both at
Frank's house party that got him evicted, So they should
have been alibi witnesses.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Like every one of them had some kind of crime
against him, like charge like Guesner's federal charges and guns, drugs,
and then like Earl Childers Jeanie, all of them.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Frank's wife should have been an alibi witness too, But
somewhere during this investigation, she and Frank had a huge
falling out and she had lost custody of her daughter.
So investigators promised to get her daughter back if she
said there was no house party on January seventeenth, but
rather that she was home with her daughter while Frank
was out somewhere in the car in addition, there were
(21:55):
Daniel Walsh and Linda Perkins who also claimed that Frank
had made vague, incriminating statements.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
The thing that sets Frank's case apart from most of
the other cases that I've worked on is just the
sheer volume of the misconduct. There are some cases and
small departments where one detective coerces one witness into providing
a false identification and the whole investigation is wrapped up
in twenty four hours. Frank was antagonized by law enforcement
(22:23):
for months and months before he was ultimately charged, and
law enforcement went to such astonishing lengths to tie up
any possible loose end and really perfect the false narratives
that they were putting forward. And they weren't just relying
on one person to provide a false inculpatory statement.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
They'd amassed a web of at least nine liars, one
of whom Michael Kieran's, who testified at the grand jury,
recanted on the eve of trial in May nineteen ninety one.
So the state moved ahead with what they thought were
eight witnesses, most of whom had allegedly heard a confession
or should have been alibi witnesses. But Capy Harten testified
(23:07):
that he and Jody Swearingen had actually seen Frank stab
Michael in the parking lot, and then Jody Swearingen took
the stand. Yet she decided to recant, saying that neither
she nor Cappy had seen anything, and they pulled out
her grand jury testimony, but she insisted that she had
been pressured to lie.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
So.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
In addition to the states now seven witnesses, some of
the investigators testified about various things Frank said that were
presented as incriminating, like the god me statement.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
The Freudian slip thing. That was a big thing in
my trial because I said, well, I know this, I
know and God know that. He jumps on and says, oh,
Friudian slip, you just confess to the murder. I said, no,
I didn't say that. I said you cut me off
with the Freudian slip thing. But in trial they told
the jury that I said, oh, only me and God
know who did.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
They also presented Frank's confusion over his whereabouts as deceit.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
It made it sounds of the jury like, oh, well
he said he was here, then he said he was there,
And the whole time they had my alibi, and they
hit it, and they literally just hit the freaking eviction. Notice,
my attorney does nothing with it.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
And even though Frank's trial council called his landlord to
testify about the party on January seventeenth that resulted in
the eviction, the defense failed to use that information to
impeach Kevin Walker, Mark Gesner, and Janine Gable, all of
whom were at that party. The defense also tried to
raise Johnny Krause's confession, but the state's evidence rules barred
(24:40):
it from trial. So, with so many unimpeached witnesses incriminating Frank,
the verdict came back guilty, and then the jury voted
again on his sentence, life without the possibility of parole
or death.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
I was two votes away from the death penalty. So
that's like ten people thought I wasn't worthy to live
and then they give you life without parol. I never
thought I was going to get out. As I went
(25:26):
through prison, I studied law myself. I did a lot
of classes. You know, then once you read the stuff
and you see what happened, oh the crap, and then
you really understand what happened and things they were doing.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
What kept you going all those years against all odds.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
I don't know. I don't know if I was really
like going. I just was like living, just trying to survive.
I actually tried to commit suicide a couple of times,
but I didn't have the courage.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
I'm so glad you didn't make that choice, because now
you have a wonderff.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Different for me. You know, I'm thankful I to do
nothing stupid, I am too.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
You know what's crazy too about this is the amount
of support that you did have, not just from Michael
Frankie's brothers, Kevin and Pat, but also you had almost
the who's who of journalists in Oregon constantly writing about
(26:32):
your case. You would Phil Stamford from the Oregonian, You
had Steve Jackson from the Statesman Journal, in addition to
Nigel Jaquis from willam At Week, and then of course
Jim Reddin from the Portland Tribune. Whereas so many of
these wrongful convictions are waiting for the attention, your case
had the attention and still because of as we've talked about,
(26:56):
the forces above and beyond your control.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Yeah, going to let it am.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Not at state level anyway, unfortunately, frank State remedies were
not exhausted until two thousand and seven, when he could
move on to filing a federal habeas where proper attention
might be paid not only to the confession of Johnny Krause,
but also some recantations, starting with Kevin Walker in nineteen
ninety three, who admitted that he had been at the
(27:23):
Gables House party on January seventeenth, which also impeached Janine
Gable and Mark Gesner. And then in two thousand and five,
Kapy Hardin swore that after he was repeatedly questioned, polygraphed, threatened,
and told that Frank had informed on him that he
had decided to align with JODI's false statement. But Frank's
(27:44):
federal proceedings didn't get traction until Frank's attorney, Nell Brown
came on board in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Before Nel Brown coming on, like, I had other attorneys
and I had to get some of them fired disbarred
because they were just selling out and not doing no
job for me at all. I was tired of taking
advantage of me.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
How did you get connected with now?
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Well, now just got a pointed through the federal defenders
and we just kind of clicked right out of the gate,
and then like she seen all the stuff, and then
she believed in it and started really championing my case.
You know, in between my wife and all the investigative
stuff she did and research on legal stuff she did,
we put together a case.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
The wife he just mentioned is Rainy, who he married
while he was still inside. She was and is still
his fiercest advocate. And so by twenty fourteen, there were
four more recantations, Jody Swarringen, Janine Gable, Daniel Walch, and
Michael Kieran's. In addition, Mark Gesner and Linda Perkins were
impeached by the other recantations or witnesses to the circumstances
(28:51):
of their statements, which just left Earle Childers who is
now just not sure about what he said he saw
or heard. And all of the witnesses described the same
coercive tactics, for which the defense hired an expert to
testify about how those tactics can lead to false statements.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
They knew, I was, there's no way you couldn't know.
The eviction, noticed the phone records and all the stuff
that don't match their bullshit stories. I Mean, there was
just so many red flags along the.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Way, including the biggest red flag, Johnny Krause. So after
his credible April nineteen eighty nine confession, that June he
gave more information involving a conspiracy among state officials who
tried to hire him to kill Michael Frankie to keep
him from exposing their prison drug operation, And in the
(29:46):
following months other witnesses came forward identifying another man named
Timothy Natividad as participating in the murder as well at
the behest of the same cabal. But most telling was
in November nineteen nine, Kraus was offered immunity from prosecution
for making alleged fault statements to the police. So unless
(30:07):
he went on records saying that his previous confessions involving
the state officials was false, they were going to prosecute
him for it. So he accepted immunity and went away quietly.
So the court allowed all of this procedurally barred evidence
to be heard based on Frank's actual innocence claim, and
(30:27):
the ruling finally came down in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Yeah, I was like out on the yard and then
I talked to my wife and I said, well, I'm
going to go in. It was like I worked out
in the yard, and so I go in and shower
and hanging outside the tier because like a lot of
the guards, you know, they liked me, said they let
me run around a lot. So I thought, well, I'm
gonna jump on the phone real quick and call my wife.
So I went around the phone and she said, I'll
(30:53):
be there Friday to get you. I said what she said. Yeah,
Judge corst it is just with your favor. You're one
hundred present exonerated. You just do nothing but cry. I mean,
I just broke down. It was crazy hearing that. You know,
you kind of believed it would come, but you just
(31:16):
didn't never really want to hope that much where it
would crush you, you know what I mean, you didn't
want to hope that much.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Judge Acosta's ruling rachel He didn't just overturn Frank's conviction.
He called it constitutionally invalid, ordered the entire record expunged,
and barred the state from ever trying him again.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
It is very difficult to get the kind of relief
that was granted in this case. As a general matter,
I mean, there are so many people who they never
get out they never get the relief. So the fact
that Judge Acosta acknowledged the misconduct, that he acknowledged this
signal nificance of the evidence in the case is no
(32:02):
small deal.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Absolutely, And you know, the state is still challenging Frank's
innocence despite multiple court siding with him.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
Yeah, it's an interesting posture that the certificate of innocence
case is in because it shows the competing interests at
play here. And so you have the State of Oregon,
and you have the organ Attorney General and the governor,
and then you have the individual defendants and the wrongful
conviction case, and you have the Oregon State Police. And
(32:35):
it shows that their competing interests here and that doing
the right thing is not the only interest at stake.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
So even though their certificate of innocence is a separate
suit from the civil matters, it might have an impact
on the dynamic and their other proceedings.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
I'm sure communication is happening on the back end about
how the wrongful conviction case would be impacted by a
certificate of innocence. So we want everybody to do the
right thing, but these cases have a lot of working
parts and a lot of it is political and unfortunately,
you can't force someone to do the right thing.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Yeah, you know, in an ideal world, people would acknowledge mistakes,
take responsibility, make amends. That's what accountability really should look like. Frank,
you and I have had conversations about accountability, and I
know that. You know you've been compensated just to the
(33:30):
exact amount that Oregon they thought they had to compensate you.
But you filed a suit now against twenty four officers
who helped build the case against you and fabricate evidence.
Why is that accountability so important?
Speaker 1 (33:48):
They just shouldn't be allowed to do this to somebody.
It's like, and it's not just me, there's many. It's
like they just keep doing it and there's no accountability.
They need to change the laws, like something like you
can just take a person's life for thirty years. Make
me basically live in hell, you know, watching people get murdered,
(34:10):
stab shot, you know, riots every day, and then they think, oh,
throw some money at them, and I don't make it better.
I guess I got a little bit of money. I'm
not much happier, you know. I still every day I'm
in turmoil. Every day I have nightmares about prison violence
and people getting stabbed and you know their throats cut
(34:33):
or shot.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Well, you told me something about the doorbell ringing.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Oh yeah, any well, certain noises say like somebody drops
a broom and it cracks on the floor. I mean
I instantly like get in a chemical adrenaline thing in
my throat and my mind, you know, goes right back
to prison and you know, people getting shot. It just
immediately reminds you of, you know, that freaking nightmare.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
In terms of preventing this nightmare from happening in the future,
what do you think needs to be done in terms
of the system. You and I talked about the fact
that you need to go to school longer to be
a barber.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Oh yeah, it takes longer to be a barber than
go to be at the academy at the state police office.
Ten weeks, you know, and then they're deciding your life
where they lock you up, what their constitutional rights is.
Come on, you can't tell me you know enough about
the law and the constitution in ten weeks and look
what happened. Just retrain them all, get rid of all
(35:38):
the buddy buddy crap, you know, cousins and brothers in
there to cover each other's back.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
What to you, Rachel, would accountability look like, not just
in this case, but you know, perhaps in wrongful convictions
in general.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
I think one of the things that I wish would
happen in our cases generally is I wish somebody would
admit what they did, and I wish that they would say, look,
we got it wrong, and we're really sorry, and we're
going to fix it, and we're not going to challenge
your innocence petition, and we're not going to resist giving
you relief and giving the accountability that you're seeking. It
happens every so often, but I think that the impulse
(36:17):
for law enforcement is to protect their convictions no matter what,
even when they are so obviously false. And I think
there's probably some level of you know, if we admit
that we got it wrong, then what does that mean
for the rest of our convictions, and what does that
mean for our belief in the criminal legal system generally?
And so you have to just dig in your heels
and say we didn't get it wrong. And I wish
(36:42):
that that didn't happen. I wish that folks were willing
to really reflect on what they did and acknowledge when
they did it wrong.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
That's wild because frank in a way, when this all
went down, that's what you wanted. You wanted that acknowledgment,
that apology.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
I think the apology means more to me than the
money man. Look me in the face and apologize, you know,
it's simple thing. There should be. What kind of character
do you have? You know, if you can't look another
man in a face and apologize when you did something
wrong and admit it, you know, and it's like people
don't care, you know. It's like they put you in
(37:23):
prison and they throw you some money and say, oh,
we're sorry, but that doesn't help. You know, my mom
and dad died when I was in there. All my
uncles passed away. Get out and a year later my
brother dies. A year after that, my sister, you know,
my two of my best friends die. Since I've bet out,
it's like, you know why I even get out sometimes
(37:49):
and so every day you wake up thinking, well, why
did I have to suffer all this? And why did
my family have to die? And why did all these
other people have to go this? Like the Frankie family,
they don't have justice yet, you know, And I'm out
here and you know, we're pretty good friends, and so
I'm trying to like not celebrate like I'm free and
(38:12):
you know, I got a settlement while they're suffering.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
That's the bittersweet thing of this. You know, the Frankie
brothers have championed you from the beginning. They knew that
you didn't kill their brother. But you're right, they've had
no justice. Yeah, it's still an unsolved murder, and unfortunately,
it doesn't seem that there's a lot of interest in
solving it, which is an injustice in and of itself.
(38:41):
They should want to know who killed a high ranking
public official. They should want to have the right person
health account.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Yeah, you would think I told them that in the interview.
I said, look, there's a murder out there running around,
and you're coming at me and my knowledgy list join
a cross. Are he's still out there? Because I have
no idea.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
I have some theories. We can talk about it.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
After Oh I have no idea. It's like, oh, grip
all right.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Last question for both of you, Rachel, what do you
hope people take away from Frank's story.
Speaker 4 (39:17):
A lot of folks think, you know, this could happen
to someone else, but it would never happen to me,
but it can happen to anybody. And until police are
held accountable for what they're doing, and until it is
crystal clear that you cannot prosecute someone without probable cause
and you can't make up evidence to support your theory,
(39:39):
it has to work the other way around. You follow
the evidence, not the person, that that this work will
never stop and that they're innocent people in prison, and
there needs to be a concerted effort to uncover all
of the wrongful convictions and get folks out of prison
who are innocent. It is such an injustice that this
(40:00):
happens to even one person, and people need to understand
in law enforcement needs to understand that this can't.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Keep happening right beautifully put, Frank, do you want to
add anything to that? No?
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Oh, gied.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
If you could sit down with anyone who doubted you,
what would you want them to know and what would
you want them to take away from your experience?
Speaker 1 (40:27):
I'd want to know that there's just because you've got
a shitty live doesn't mean you don't have value, And
don't send a person that you think don't have no
value to present wrongfully convicted.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen
to this and all LoVa for Good podcasts one week
early and add free by subscribing to LoVa for Good
Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'd like to thank our production
team Connor Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well as executive
producers Jason Vlahm, Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and Jeff Clyburn.
The music in this production was supplied by three time
(41:13):
OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us
across all social media platforms at Lava for Good and
at Wrongful Conviction. You can also follow me on Instagram
at Lauren Bright Pacheco. Wrongful Conviction is a production of
Lava for Good Podcasts and association with Signal Company Number One.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported
in this show are accurate.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in
this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect
those of Lava for Good
This episode of wrongful Conviction contains discussion of suicidal ideation.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Please listen with caution and care. At six forty five
pm on January seventeenth, nineteen eighty nine, the director of
Oregon Corrections Michael Frankie, had left work ready to testify
the following day before the state legislature about corruption within
his department. But by seven to twenty pm, staffers notice
(00:29):
that his car was still in his parking spot with
the door ajar, but Frankie was nowhere in sight. Five
hours later, his body was discovered outside the building's portico,
fatally stabbed. Local authorities were quick to call it a
car burglary gone wrong, even though Frankie's wallet, watch, and
keys warrant missing. Then months later, an alleged tip led
(00:52):
them to twenty nine year old Frank Gable, who maintained
his innocence through a violent interrogation. So police found eight
more people who were willing to cooperate as for the
testimony Michael Frankie was scheduled to deliver that following day.
That must have had nothing to do with it. This
is wrongful conviction. The Fox Foundation is proud to support
(01:18):
this episode of wrongful conviction and the work of After Innocence,
a nonprofit that helps hundreds of people nationwide rebuild their
lives after wrongful incarceration. Each year, innocent people are released
after spending years behind bars for crimes they didn't commit.
Nearly all of them leave prison with nothing more than
the clothes on their backs, with no help or compensation
(01:41):
from the state as they face the steep challenges of
rebuilding their lives after wrongful imprisonment. After Innocence is changing
that After Innocence helps exoneries get and make good use
of essential services like health care, dental care, mental health support,
legal aid, financial counseling, and more. Since twenty sixteen, they've
(02:02):
brought that help to more than eight hundred exoneries across
forty six states, working tirelessly to ensure that no one
released after wrongful incarceration is left behind. Learn more at
after Dashinnocence dot org and join After Innocence to support
exoneries as they rebuild their lives. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction.
(02:33):
This is Lauren Bright Pacheco and I am joined now
by Jason Flahm, and I have to tell you, Jason,
this is such an incredible full circle moment for me
because on this episode we're speaking with Frank Gable, who
was wrongfully convicted and spent nearly thirty years for the
murder of Michael Frankie, who was the then head of
(02:58):
Oregon's Department of Corrections. But indirectly, it's really why you
and I met In twenty eighteen, I had left television
but took a freelance job as a producer just to
meet you, because when I was researching Murder and Oregon,
it was the first real wrongful conviction I had encountered
(03:24):
from an investigative standpoint, and so to educate myself, I
googled wrongful conviction and what pops up but your podcast,
which is why I wanted to meet you. And I
casually mentioned that I had a podcast too, and that's
when we made the connection that you were actually listening
(03:45):
to Murder and Oregon at the time.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Well, I mean listening is not the right word. I
had been obsessing about it. It's just got so many
layers of insanity as it goes up levels into the
even government, it's almost too much.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
It is a case of corruption that went high up
the ranks.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yeah, and I think the one hope that we have
is that by shining a light and not letting this
story die, that maybe eventually people in positions of power
will feel the heat.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
All right, Well, with that, we will share the interview
with Frank Gable, who, again I feel very connected to Frank,
to you, to Michael Frankie's brothers, Pat and to Kevin,
and to Phil Stamford. It's very much a full circle
moment for me. And I don't know if justice will
truly ever be served in this case. But if there
(04:42):
was ever a case in which accountability is called for,
it is the conviction of Frank Gable in the murder
of Michael Frankie.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
It was so.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Brutally murdered for no other reason than the fact that
he was trying to do the right thing.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
He was trying to fix the system.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was trying to fix it, and
so the whole thing is exactly opposite of.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
What it's supposed to be.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
In nineteen eighty seven, Michael Frankie, a Navy veteran, former
prosecutor and judge who went on to be the director
of Corrections in New Mexico, was then hired to overhaul
the Oregon Department of Corrections, which was headquartered at the
Dome Building in Salem, Oregon. And in a town like
this where the main employer is the prison, one can
(05:28):
typically expect a sluggish economy with a thriving drug market,
and it appears those two elements had intertwined in Salem.
In fact, just a year earlier, an investigation into drugs
smuggling at the prison led to the resignation of the
prison superintendent as well as several guards losing their jobs.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Like, I've seen a lot of just shady stuff there,
you know, like use an inmate labor, to stealing equipment,
to funneling drugs in and out, to all kind of
just criminal behavior that they were doing.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
That is Frank different Cloud, known to the state as
Frank Gable, talking about the corruption in Salem that even
a state representative had described to me as similar to
the mafia.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, there's an all buddy system because it's the prisonal hire.
Like your uncle and your grandpa, you know, his brother
and then so if something happens, who they going to
believe the three cousins that are making a story up
on you and telling you, oh, yeah, he had these
drugs or whatever. He had, and you know, and that's
how they do it.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
So Michael Frankie was hired as the director of Corrections
in Oregon, only to be murdered twenty months later. And
Frank was framed for that murder. And I'd like to
welcome him as well as his attorney, Rachel Brady.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I think he's glad to do it.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
And so, Frank, you were a married man at this time.
Tell us about your life in Salem.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I don't know, like, you know, I'm just like to say,
I'm an outdoors person. I like to fish in a hunt.
But then you know, I got off track, you know,
was drinking and using myth infetamine and you know it
was just bad. You know, it's shit I'm not proud of.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
But you were surrounded by that in Salem at the time.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Yeah, there was a lot of it around there, and
you know, I wasn't just in it for a short time.
But it didn't take but a short time to just
destroy my life, you know, and might caused a lot
to just have it.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Frank's involvement in the drug scene made him familiar with
the system, including a bunk exchange program which was born
out of overcrowding, allowing inmates to cycle out for a
week at a time to make room for others, which
also allowed for the free flow of contraband, and one
can imagine that this Golden Boy outsider, Michael Frankie, was
(07:48):
not welcomed by the folks who were profiting from that
free flow. In fact, Michael was set to testify in
front of the State legislature on January eighteenth, nineteen eighty nine,
about his findings, which brings us to the night before.
Around six forty five pm, Michael Frankie left work at
the Dome building and according to the Custodian, around seven
(08:10):
pm he'd seen two men in the parking lot in
some kind of altercation and one walked back to the building,
while the other who fled was described as six foot short,
dark hair, one hundred and seventy five pounds, twenty to
forty years old, wearing a tanned trench coat. Now between
seven o five and seven to twenty pm, several other
staffers had seen Michael's car still in his parking space
(08:33):
with the door ajar, but Michael was not discovered until
twelve forty am, lying in a pool of blood at
the Dome Building's north portico, stabbed in the torso, arm
and heart. He also had some defensive wounds, and despite
the almost six hour gap between an alleged altercation in
the parking lot and the discovery of his body, the
(08:54):
official theory became a car burglary gone wrong.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yeah. Yeah, there's a whole story of you know, their
car burst. This foolish. I mean, like I've seen crime
seen photos and stuff, and you could look in that car,
like if you just looked in the window, there's nothing
in there. Who's going to break into it?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yeah, parts in front of the head of the Department
of Correction sign Frankie's found with his wallet, his watch,
his car keys. Nothing was gone except they think the
briefcase that would have had floppy discs and his computer,
which would have been the meat of the investigation.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
They just jumped on something because I think Johnny Kraus
put that in their head and they just went with
that theory after that, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
In February nineteen eighty nine, another local named Johnny Krause
told his parole officer that he'd witness a group of
men beating up one man by the Dome Building that night,
which later became that he'd been offered three hundred thousand
dollars to murder Michael Frankie. Then that April, Kraus confessed
again to the carburglary theory, which sounds suspicious, but his
(10:07):
confessions contained elements not shared with the public, like the
location of the stab wounds, that he'd worn a tan jacket,
and that Michael yelped when he was stabbed, which aligned
with the custodian's account. He'd also repeated this confession to
his brother, mother, and girlfriend in front of authorities, and
soon we'll discuss why this lead was ignored in favor
(10:30):
of Frank Gabel.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Well, first, I got arrested in I think it was
June in Salem for driving an unauthorized motor vehicle. They
come in and wanted to talk to me then, and
we're asking all people that are inmates where you were.
And I told mom, I think I was home with
my wife, you know, and I was it, and they
asked times and he put the police report in there,
(10:52):
and that's what it says.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Mind you, this is four months later, so Frank wasn't sure,
and he said, I think I was home with my wife.
And as investigators continued to ignore Kraus's confession, they spoke
with other potential suspects, like Michael Kieran's, who deflected blame
from himself by claiming Frank Gable had confessed to him,
at which point the police went to the local media
(11:16):
to broadcast that Frank Gable, who they also alleged was
a police informant, was now their main suspect. And so
ten months in, they dragged Frank in again to ask
his whereabouts, and again Frank wasn't sure, so he offered
that perhaps he was with his friend Shelley Thomas.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
They was interrogating me, telling me, oh, well, where else
could he have been? I said, well, if I wasn't there,
I was at Shelley's. And then they'd go, oh, Shelley says,
you wasn't there. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
The crazy thing is I think it would be difficult
for anybody to remember where they were.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Not ten months later. I mean I didn't even remember
telling like I read a bunch of police supports and
then we talked a bunch and like, you're not going
to know unless it was like somebody specific, like birthday
or you were at work and you knew that, and
that's what he said. When it was interiorgating, He's like, oh, well,
you said you were here, and you said you were there,
and I said no, you asked me where I possibly
(12:11):
would and I'm trying to help you figure out where
maybe I was.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
But it turned out that they knew where Frank was.
On January seventeenth, nineteen eighty nine, Frank and his wife
Janine didn't have a quiet night at home. They hosted
a pretty loud party, one that was so loud, in fact,
that their landlord issued them an eviction notice the next day.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, we had that eviction notice. And that kathing on
that eviction notice is when the police asked me. He said, well, Frank,
what did you get the eviction notice for? And I
don't hesitate. I don't say, well, which one, because like
we had multiple ones we had won, and that was
that eviction notice. And they asked me that. I said, oh,
blah blah blah, and they said, well, who was all there?
(12:52):
I said all the neighbor kids through the play. These
people were all here, and blah blah blah. Then immediately
he realizes, I think that I know where I was
on that night because the key here is he doesn't
say that eviction notices for the night of the seventeenth,
which is the night of the murder. He just says,
what did you get the eviction notice for? And I
started telling now all these people, there's nine people at
(13:15):
this plate being thrown or mentioned this plate being thrown,
or the landlady, or my ex wife, or the two
neighbor kids, Lamontley, Robert Cornett, Kevin Walker were all there, everybody,
and I'm listed it off. And then he goes off
tape right there and says, oh, we're gonna go off tape,
and then comes back on a completely different subject. So
(13:35):
at that point he knew that I knew where I.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Was, and perhaps this explains why they're alleged main suspect
was let go once again. But then they picked up
Jody Swearingen, a team runaway with a juvenile record who
initially said she didn't know anything, but according to her
later recantations, trial testimony, and sworn Affidavid's, she was interrogated
(13:59):
twelve times, given twenty three polygraphs, after each one being
told she was lying and that she was going to
face criminal charges. So she told a story about how
her boyfriend Kapi had picked her up at the Dome Building,
which also housed the Oregon Psychiatric Hospital, and from his
car they had witnessed Frank stab Michael. So they arrested
(14:20):
Frank and tried to coerce a confession.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Well, they wanted me to take a polygraph. I'm telling
them I didn't do it. All these multiple detectives are
just interrogating you and calling you murder and talking bad
about your ex wife and your mom, telling you she's dying,
telling me I'm going to get to death penalty, all
kind of crap like that, trying to make me confess
to something. It was crazy, like they had me crying,
(14:46):
they break me down, and they got so mad because
I keep repeating over and over I didn't do it.
I don't know who did. I wasn't there. If you
read the police reports, it just says that I don't
know how many times I said that, And McCafferty got
mad and that's why he choked me because I kept
saying that and he goes, oh, you're going to cry
or something, and I said, oh, you want me to
cry like that. I was getting irritated with him, and
(15:10):
he choked me out I woke up doing the dry
tuning like this, and my shoulder was full of slobbery
because that's how long I was blacked out because right
here was all wet. And then Fred Akerman had said, oh,
well they had and argument, but he never really choked him.
He choked me on. I mean, if the guy didn't
choke me now here, I am sixty six years old,
why would I need to lie about the guy choking me.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
I just think back to how confused you must have been,
knowing that you were innocent and not understanding why they
were so aggressively trying to get you to confess.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yeah, because all they do is ask you questions to
try to implicate you. Period. That's all they're doing. They're
not trying to like, go, oh it is this guy innocent.
They're just trying to implicate your ass. They don't care,
they don't have to have no evidence, nothing, They will
just come at you.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
I want to just point back to two things. One
you mentioned the tape going off and the tape going
back on, And that's really important because they basically use
selective recordings to make it look like you were incriminating yourself.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Oh yeah, they would make statements then try to make
it sound like I said something that I didn't like
the God me statement.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
The God me statement Frank's talking about was a moment
in this stop and Go recording in which Frank said
there were quote only two people who know who killed Frankie,
Frankie and God end quote and a detective pointed out
that Frankie couldn't know because he was dead.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
And I said, well, I know this, I know and
God know. And then he jumps on and says, oh,
Fridian slip. And I said, well, what's that now. I'm
just a young country kid. I didn't know what the
hell Freudian slip man. And he's explaining the Freudian slip.
It's like, well, your mouth says something before your mind
catches it, and da da da, And so you just
confess to the murder that you said only you and
(17:18):
God know who did it. I said, no, I didn't
say that. I said, you cut me off with the
Friudian slip thing.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
But it appears that even they knew that didn't amount
to a confession, since they dragged in a trove of
people from the drug scene in Salem looking to gather
statements and they use the same tactics that they used
on Frank and Jodi Swarringen.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
So polygraphs are unreliable, they are not admissible in court,
they are impossible to verify, and they are subject completely
to the polygraph examiner's interpretation of the information that comes
out at the charts. Polygraphs are also really scary, and
they're intimidating, and for witnesses who have other crimes in
(18:04):
their backgrounds, for witnesses who are vulnerable in any number
of ways, witnesses who are being threatened with other crimes,
this crime, witnesses who are being threatened to have their
children taken away from them, any number of vulnerabilities can
be exploited.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Some of the stuff they did to some of these
witness and like say Shelley Thomas go over there, threaten
to arrest her take her child away if she didn't
bring the right story. Or John and Kelly Bender, they
got them turn on each other and make different stories.
And then the stories that they were developing, I mean
it was so like you can just see they weren't true.
(18:41):
So then they'd take them and change that story, like
take them out to the crime scene or give them
a polygraph.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
So when you have a person who comes into a
polygraph in a heightened emotional state with a lot on
the line, can very easily figure out what answer they
think they're supposed to be giving to any question on
a polygraph. And none of these witnesses were polygraphed once.
They were polygraphed repeatedly, multiple times over the same day,
over in the middle of the night, over the course
(19:09):
of months. These witnesses were given polygraphs, and each time
they were told which questions they passed and which questions
they failed.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
So they were using them as a training tool.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Yes, absolutely, And so if any person could figure out, oh,
I failed this particular question on a polygraph, and my
freedom is at stake, let me just give a different
answer next time I'm asked a similar question. And you
can see the progression every single witness. You can see
the progression and the questions they're asked and how their
answers change over time.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Like what happened over Jody's swearing gens twenty three polygraphs.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Jody said they took her to the crime scene like
thirteen times, told her there were cigarette butts on the ground,
what kind they were? Just so they could form a
later story. Said, oh, well, there were some cigarette butts
over here. Do you smoke camels? And she says yeah, Jody,
she's a sixteen year old runaway and you're taking her
out of Hillcrest giving her a nine hundred dollars in
(20:04):
cash at sixteen seventeen years old. What do you think
she's going to go do with it? She's gonna go
buy myth and fetomine and hang out with the meth heads.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Like her boyfriend Kathy Hardin, who came in and backed
up her story that they had actually seen Frank Gable
stab Michael Frankie in the parking lot. And investigators visited
other vulnerable people from the Salem drug scene who knew Frank,
like Earl Childers, who claimed to have seen Frank driving
near the scene that night and that Frank later confessed
(20:34):
to him while they were doing meth. Then there was
Mark Gesner, who claimed that Frank had dropped by his
house that night and asked him to get rid of
a bag of clothes. And then Kevin Walker said that
Frank had confessed to him the following day.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Now, I've never ever had any real bones with Kevin
Walker ever like I liked him, he liked me, I
thought him or Mark Gist's dumb ass. And I didn't
even meet Mark gust until then. First came to my
house was that viction. Notice that's the first night. So
how was I ever going to his house and bring
him a damn bag of clothes or whatever he said
and throwing it off a freaking bridge or a river.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
That's the crazy part about Kevin Walker and Mark Gesner.
On the night of the murder. They were both at
Frank's house party that got him evicted, So they should
have been alibi witnesses.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Like every one of them had some kind of crime
against him, like charge like Guesner's federal charges and guns, drugs,
and then like Earl Childers Jeanie, all of them.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Frank's wife should have been an alibi witness too, But
somewhere during this investigation, she and Frank had a huge
falling out and she had lost custody of her daughter.
So investigators promised to get her daughter back if she
said there was no house party on January seventeenth, but
rather that she was home with her daughter while Frank
was out somewhere in the car in addition, there were
(21:55):
Daniel Walsh and Linda Perkins who also claimed that Frank
had made vague, incriminating statements.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
The thing that sets Frank's case apart from most of
the other cases that I've worked on is just the
sheer volume of the misconduct. There are some cases and
small departments where one detective coerces one witness into providing
a false identification and the whole investigation is wrapped up
in twenty four hours. Frank was antagonized by law enforcement
(22:23):
for months and months before he was ultimately charged, and
law enforcement went to such astonishing lengths to tie up
any possible loose end and really perfect the false narratives
that they were putting forward. And they weren't just relying
on one person to provide a false inculpatory statement.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
They'd amassed a web of at least nine liars, one
of whom Michael Kieran's, who testified at the grand jury,
recanted on the eve of trial in May nineteen ninety one.
So the state moved ahead with what they thought were
eight witnesses, most of whom had allegedly heard a confession
or should have been alibi witnesses. But Capy Harten testified
(23:07):
that he and Jody Swearingen had actually seen Frank stab
Michael in the parking lot, and then Jody Swearingen took
the stand. Yet she decided to recant, saying that neither
she nor Cappy had seen anything, and they pulled out
her grand jury testimony, but she insisted that she had
been pressured to lie.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
So.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
In addition to the states now seven witnesses, some of
the investigators testified about various things Frank said that were
presented as incriminating, like the god me statement.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
The Freudian slip thing. That was a big thing in
my trial because I said, well, I know this, I
know and God know that. He jumps on and says, oh,
Friudian slip, you just confess to the murder. I said, no,
I didn't say that. I said you cut me off
with the Freudian slip thing. But in trial they told
the jury that I said, oh, only me and God
know who did.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
They also presented Frank's confusion over his whereabouts as deceit.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
It made it sounds of the jury like, oh, well
he said he was here, then he said he was there,
And the whole time they had my alibi, and they
hit it, and they literally just hit the freaking eviction. Notice,
my attorney does nothing with it.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
And even though Frank's trial council called his landlord to
testify about the party on January seventeenth that resulted in
the eviction, the defense failed to use that information to
impeach Kevin Walker, Mark Gesner, and Janine Gable, all of
whom were at that party. The defense also tried to
raise Johnny Krause's confession, but the state's evidence rules barred
(24:40):
it from trial. So, with so many unimpeached witnesses incriminating Frank,
the verdict came back guilty, and then the jury voted
again on his sentence, life without the possibility of parole
or death.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
I was two votes away from the death penalty. So
that's like ten people thought I wasn't worthy to live
and then they give you life without parol. I never
thought I was going to get out. As I went
(25:26):
through prison, I studied law myself. I did a lot
of classes. You know, then once you read the stuff
and you see what happened, oh the crap, and then
you really understand what happened and things they were doing.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
What kept you going all those years against all odds.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
I don't know. I don't know if I was really
like going. I just was like living, just trying to survive.
I actually tried to commit suicide a couple of times,
but I didn't have the courage.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
I'm so glad you didn't make that choice, because now
you have a wonderff.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Different for me. You know, I'm thankful I to do
nothing stupid, I am too.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
You know what's crazy too about this is the amount
of support that you did have, not just from Michael
Frankie's brothers, Kevin and Pat, but also you had almost
the who's who of journalists in Oregon constantly writing about
(26:32):
your case. You would Phil Stamford from the Oregonian, You
had Steve Jackson from the Statesman Journal, in addition to
Nigel Jaquis from willam At Week, and then of course
Jim Reddin from the Portland Tribune. Whereas so many of
these wrongful convictions are waiting for the attention, your case
had the attention and still because of as we've talked about,
(26:56):
the forces above and beyond your control.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Yeah, going to let it am.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Not at state level anyway, unfortunately, frank State remedies were
not exhausted until two thousand and seven, when he could
move on to filing a federal habeas where proper attention
might be paid not only to the confession of Johnny Krause,
but also some recantations, starting with Kevin Walker in nineteen
ninety three, who admitted that he had been at the
(27:23):
Gables House party on January seventeenth, which also impeached Janine
Gable and Mark Gesner. And then in two thousand and five,
Kapy Hardin swore that after he was repeatedly questioned, polygraphed, threatened,
and told that Frank had informed on him that he
had decided to align with JODI's false statement. But Frank's
(27:44):
federal proceedings didn't get traction until Frank's attorney, Nell Brown
came on board in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Before Nel Brown coming on, like, I had other attorneys
and I had to get some of them fired disbarred
because they were just selling out and not doing no
job for me at all. I was tired of taking
advantage of me.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
How did you get connected with now?
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Well, now just got a pointed through the federal defenders
and we just kind of clicked right out of the gate,
and then like she seen all the stuff, and then
she believed in it and started really championing my case.
You know, in between my wife and all the investigative
stuff she did and research on legal stuff she did,
we put together a case.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
The wife he just mentioned is Rainy, who he married
while he was still inside. She was and is still
his fiercest advocate. And so by twenty fourteen, there were
four more recantations, Jody Swarringen, Janine Gable, Daniel Walch, and
Michael Kieran's. In addition, Mark Gesner and Linda Perkins were
impeached by the other recantations or witnesses to the circumstances
(28:51):
of their statements, which just left Earle Childers who is
now just not sure about what he said he saw
or heard. And all of the witnesses described the same
coercive tactics, for which the defense hired an expert to
testify about how those tactics can lead to false statements.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
They knew, I was, there's no way you couldn't know.
The eviction, noticed the phone records and all the stuff
that don't match their bullshit stories. I Mean, there was
just so many red flags along the.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Way, including the biggest red flag, Johnny Krause. So after
his credible April nineteen eighty nine confession, that June he
gave more information involving a conspiracy among state officials who
tried to hire him to kill Michael Frankie to keep
him from exposing their prison drug operation, And in the
(29:46):
following months other witnesses came forward identifying another man named
Timothy Natividad as participating in the murder as well at
the behest of the same cabal. But most telling was
in November nineteen nine, Kraus was offered immunity from prosecution
for making alleged fault statements to the police. So unless
(30:07):
he went on records saying that his previous confessions involving
the state officials was false, they were going to prosecute
him for it. So he accepted immunity and went away quietly.
So the court allowed all of this procedurally barred evidence
to be heard based on Frank's actual innocence claim, and
(30:27):
the ruling finally came down in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Yeah, I was like out on the yard and then
I talked to my wife and I said, well, I'm
going to go in. It was like I worked out
in the yard, and so I go in and shower
and hanging outside the tier because like a lot of
the guards, you know, they liked me, said they let
me run around a lot. So I thought, well, I'm
gonna jump on the phone real quick and call my wife.
So I went around the phone and she said, I'll
(30:53):
be there Friday to get you. I said what she said. Yeah,
Judge corst it is just with your favor. You're one
hundred present exonerated. You just do nothing but cry. I mean,
I just broke down. It was crazy hearing that. You know,
you kind of believed it would come, but you just
(31:16):
didn't never really want to hope that much where it
would crush you, you know what I mean, you didn't
want to hope that much.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Judge Acosta's ruling rachel He didn't just overturn Frank's conviction.
He called it constitutionally invalid, ordered the entire record expunged,
and barred the state from ever trying him again.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
It is very difficult to get the kind of relief
that was granted in this case. As a general matter,
I mean, there are so many people who they never
get out they never get the relief. So the fact
that Judge Acosta acknowledged the misconduct, that he acknowledged this
signal nificance of the evidence in the case is no
(32:02):
small deal.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Absolutely, And you know, the state is still challenging Frank's
innocence despite multiple court siding with him.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
Yeah, it's an interesting posture that the certificate of innocence
case is in because it shows the competing interests at
play here. And so you have the State of Oregon,
and you have the organ Attorney General and the governor,
and then you have the individual defendants and the wrongful
conviction case, and you have the Oregon State Police. And
(32:35):
it shows that their competing interests here and that doing
the right thing is not the only interest at stake.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
So even though their certificate of innocence is a separate
suit from the civil matters, it might have an impact
on the dynamic and their other proceedings.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
I'm sure communication is happening on the back end about
how the wrongful conviction case would be impacted by a
certificate of innocence. So we want everybody to do the
right thing, but these cases have a lot of working
parts and a lot of it is political and unfortunately,
you can't force someone to do the right thing.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Yeah, you know, in an ideal world, people would acknowledge mistakes,
take responsibility, make amends. That's what accountability really should look like. Frank,
you and I have had conversations about accountability, and I
know that. You know you've been compensated just to the
(33:30):
exact amount that Oregon they thought they had to compensate you.
But you filed a suit now against twenty four officers
who helped build the case against you and fabricate evidence.
Why is that accountability so important?
Speaker 1 (33:48):
They just shouldn't be allowed to do this to somebody.
It's like, and it's not just me, there's many. It's
like they just keep doing it and there's no accountability.
They need to change the laws, like something like you
can just take a person's life for thirty years. Make
me basically live in hell, you know, watching people get murdered,
(34:10):
stab shot, you know, riots every day, and then they think, oh,
throw some money at them, and I don't make it better.
I guess I got a little bit of money. I'm
not much happier, you know. I still every day I'm
in turmoil. Every day I have nightmares about prison violence
and people getting stabbed and you know their throats cut
(34:33):
or shot.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Well, you told me something about the doorbell ringing.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Oh yeah, any well, certain noises say like somebody drops
a broom and it cracks on the floor. I mean
I instantly like get in a chemical adrenaline thing in
my throat and my mind, you know, goes right back
to prison and you know, people getting shot. It just
immediately reminds you of, you know, that freaking nightmare.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
In terms of preventing this nightmare from happening in the future,
what do you think needs to be done in terms
of the system. You and I talked about the fact
that you need to go to school longer to be
a barber.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Oh yeah, it takes longer to be a barber than
go to be at the academy at the state police office.
Ten weeks, you know, and then they're deciding your life
where they lock you up, what their constitutional rights is.
Come on, you can't tell me you know enough about
the law and the constitution in ten weeks and look
what happened. Just retrain them all, get rid of all
(35:38):
the buddy buddy crap, you know, cousins and brothers in
there to cover each other's back.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
What to you, Rachel, would accountability look like, not just
in this case, but you know, perhaps in wrongful convictions
in general.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
I think one of the things that I wish would
happen in our cases generally is I wish somebody would
admit what they did, and I wish that they would say, look,
we got it wrong, and we're really sorry, and we're
going to fix it, and we're not going to challenge
your innocence petition, and we're not going to resist giving
you relief and giving the accountability that you're seeking. It
happens every so often, but I think that the impulse
(36:17):
for law enforcement is to protect their convictions no matter what,
even when they are so obviously false. And I think
there's probably some level of you know, if we admit
that we got it wrong, then what does that mean
for the rest of our convictions, and what does that
mean for our belief in the criminal legal system generally?
And so you have to just dig in your heels
and say we didn't get it wrong. And I wish
(36:42):
that that didn't happen. I wish that folks were willing
to really reflect on what they did and acknowledge when
they did it wrong.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
That's wild because frank in a way, when this all
went down, that's what you wanted. You wanted that acknowledgment,
that apology.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
I think the apology means more to me than the
money man. Look me in the face and apologize, you know,
it's simple thing. There should be. What kind of character
do you have? You know, if you can't look another
man in a face and apologize when you did something
wrong and admit it, you know, and it's like people
don't care, you know. It's like they put you in
(37:23):
prison and they throw you some money and say, oh,
we're sorry, but that doesn't help. You know, my mom
and dad died when I was in there. All my
uncles passed away. Get out and a year later my
brother dies. A year after that, my sister, you know,
my two of my best friends die. Since I've bet out,
it's like, you know why I even get out sometimes
(37:49):
and so every day you wake up thinking, well, why
did I have to suffer all this? And why did
my family have to die? And why did all these
other people have to go this? Like the Frankie family,
they don't have justice yet, you know, And I'm out
here and you know, we're pretty good friends, and so
I'm trying to like not celebrate like I'm free and
(38:12):
you know, I got a settlement while they're suffering.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
That's the bittersweet thing of this. You know, the Frankie
brothers have championed you from the beginning. They knew that
you didn't kill their brother. But you're right, they've had
no justice. Yeah, it's still an unsolved murder, and unfortunately,
it doesn't seem that there's a lot of interest in
solving it, which is an injustice in and of itself.
(38:41):
They should want to know who killed a high ranking
public official. They should want to have the right person
health account.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Yeah, you would think I told them that in the interview.
I said, look, there's a murder out there running around,
and you're coming at me and my knowledgy list join
a cross. Are he's still out there? Because I have
no idea.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
I have some theories. We can talk about it.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
After Oh I have no idea. It's like, oh, grip
all right.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Last question for both of you, Rachel, what do you
hope people take away from Frank's story.
Speaker 4 (39:17):
A lot of folks think, you know, this could happen
to someone else, but it would never happen to me,
but it can happen to anybody. And until police are
held accountable for what they're doing, and until it is
crystal clear that you cannot prosecute someone without probable cause
and you can't make up evidence to support your theory,
(39:39):
it has to work the other way around. You follow
the evidence, not the person, that that this work will
never stop and that they're innocent people in prison, and
there needs to be a concerted effort to uncover all
of the wrongful convictions and get folks out of prison
who are innocent. It is such an injustice that this
(40:00):
happens to even one person, and people need to understand
in law enforcement needs to understand that this can't.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Keep happening right beautifully put, Frank, do you want to
add anything to that? No?
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Oh, gied.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
If you could sit down with anyone who doubted you,
what would you want them to know and what would
you want them to take away from your experience?
Speaker 1 (40:27):
I'd want to know that there's just because you've got
a shitty live doesn't mean you don't have value, And
don't send a person that you think don't have no
value to present wrongfully convicted.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen
to this and all LoVa for Good podcasts one week
early and add free by subscribing to LoVa for Good
Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'd like to thank our production
team Connor Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well as executive
producers Jason Vlahm, Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and Jeff Clyburn.
The music in this production was supplied by three time
(41:13):
OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us
across all social media platforms at Lava for Good and
at Wrongful Conviction. You can also follow me on Instagram
at Lauren Bright Pacheco. Wrongful Conviction is a production of
Lava for Good Podcasts and association with Signal Company Number One.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported
in this show are accurate.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in
this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect
those of Lava for Good
Hosts And Creators
Lauren Bright Pacheco
Maggie Freleng
Jason Flom
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