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You're listening to a Morbid Network podcast. The Last City is a new scripted audio drama from WNDYRI. Enjoy The Last City on the WNDYRI app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of The Last City right now, ad free on WNDYRI Plus. Get started with your free trial at Hey, weirdos. I'm Elaina. I'm Ash. And this is Morbid. And that's the computer. And that is life.

Save it for the outtakes. Oh, I said that in my send it to Darryl voice, and I'm wearing that sweatshirt.

You did.

Hey, look at that. Hey.

So, hey. Hey. What's going on? We just changed the lighting in this room because we got little fancy light bulbs. Yeah. On Mikey's recommendation.

And that was a great recommendation that he had.

Yeah. They're these cool light bulbs, and you can change them to different moods. Yeah. What do we pick? Right now we're in peaceful. Yeah.

Earlier it was so dreamy, but I was like, it's a little too dreamy in here. I think I'm about to off to sleep.

It's because it's gloomy outside of Massachusetts today, which is delightful.

Yeah, always welcome.

But you can't have too dreamy a mood when it's gloomy outside or you'll just fall asleep. Exactly. And we have a ton of candles lit and stuff, so the vibe is right.

It's hella cozy in here.

It's a little cozy.

It smells like the witchiest shop you've ever walked into. It's true. It does. I just did some sage before that. We did some Palo Santo. We really cleansed our asses up in here.

Just cleansed our asses.

Not like an animal. Enema, but like a spiritual enema.

Yeah, there you go. A spiritual enema occurred in this room, and we feel good.

Yeah. How do you feel today, listener?

How do you feel? I just said listener. Let us know, listener. Hello, listeners. Everybody listening was just like, What the fuck? Do we break up? Are you dating someone else? Why are you calling me listener? No, weirdo.

No. How do you feel today, listener? What's going on? Who was that? Who was in my body.

It was a soul. It was. It was a soul.

It was.

It was.

What's happening? I don't know. I'm so tired. I had more end of the world anxiety last night, so I didn't sleep good. A couple of people messaged me, actually, and were like, Ash, I felt crazy that I had end of the world anxiety until you said you had it, and that made me feel better. So you are seen.

You're all in this together.

Yeah. I reached out to a therapist last night.

It's It's true. And then me and Mikey were like, We will be very real with you and try to logic it to the other side. No, it helped.

It really did help.

So we try.

Thank you.

We're all in this together, guys. We're all just trying to get through the day.

You So couldn't have said it better myself.

Just trying to get to lunch, really. Yeah.

And we did that. And we did that. We had some chicken fingers. We did.

We had chicken fingers. We're okay. Anyway. Quick little side note. What's up? Just before we start. Okay. Takis.

Controversial. What the fuck is up with those?

I know weird out of the blue, but it's not if you were in my head.

Or in the room.

Or in the room. I keep seeing people eating Takis, and I was like, well, I love a strange snack, so let's do this. And usually they're fiery, they're spicy, and I love a spicy moment. And I've never had them. So today I said to Mikey and Ash, I said, I want Takis. And they said, order Takis on DoorDash. Why I'll leave the house?

We live in the 21st century. You can have whatever you want.

Go get you some Takis. So I did. I ordered one and I said, oh, this is yummy. It's very artificial, but it's very spicy, and I enjoy that.

You liked it in the moment. I had one bite and I was like, too spicy.

I liked the spice, but I was like, wow, this is extraordinarily artificial. And I like taco Bell, so that's saying something. Yeah, that's the most artificial. But I was like, okay, this is fine. Within 10 minutes, I felt like I was going to throw up for 20 minutes. And I was like, oh, I'm I'm not going to eat Takis again. That's the thing. I'm not saying Takis are like, poisonous or something. I'm not trying to down Takis. They just aren't for me. And I'm a little sad about it. And I just wanted to share that with you guys.

You were so excited. That's the thing you were really excited to try them? Yeah.

And I think I'm a little sad to know that my body has a food boundary.

A limit?

Yeah. I've never met that boundary before, and I just met it with Takis.

Do you remember when I met it with the Captain Crunch slurpy?

Yes, we all know when you met it there.

That was crazy. That was such a different time in my life where I was willing to put a 711 Captain Crunch slurpee that I bought for perhaps 90, maybe 89 cents. It was blue. It was fucking the most artificial blue. And then let me tell you something, I was blue for quite some time.

You were green for a little while. But yeah, it's a weird moment when you figure out, Oh, I can't just eat anything.

Growing up is weird. It's horrible.

And again, weird because I love spice, and it just made me feel yucky for a little while. So I was like, Oh, maybe that was just a little too much.

And that's the thing. It wasn't even like you ate them too fast or anything like that. She just had a few. You didn't even have that many, really.

Yeah, but me and Taki, so we're not- Elaina's Taki journey. That was my Taki journey, and I just wanted to share that with you.

Now, you can't do the thing that they do on TikTok. Remember we were talking about it the other day? With the pickle? I wanted to have you try that.

You wanted to have me try that. I love that.

No, honestly, I wanted to try it until I had a Taki, and I was like, I don't like this.

And then you're like, no.

And I was like, But I want to have you try that.

It's a sad day when you meet your food limit.

When you meet your maker, the Taki.

Yeah, that is a sad day. I thought I thought that was happening for a second, but alas, I did not. I'm good now, though.

Yeah, you look great. She got her hair darker.

Yeah, I died my hair darker. I ate a Cadbury egg, and I was right as reined.

Everyone's like, Maybe that's what? No, I'm just kidding.

Everybody's like, What boundary is that, though? Explain your boundary.

If you don't like Cadbury eggs, you can get the fuck out of here.

Cadbury cream eggs, guys. So good.

I even like the caramel ones. Yeah, those are great too. The cream ones are my favorite. The cream ones are my favorite.

Superior. But you know what? We're not here to talk about that. No. But we had to get our... You guys are who we talk to, so we had to get all that out real quick. No one else cares about my talkie journey. Just our two-minute.

Yeah, our two-minute Hey, what's up, corner. Listener.

Listener. Dear listener. We are in a part two situation right now. Yes. And I left you guys on a little bit of like a, excuse me, what?

Yeah, I was pissed at you.

Yeah. And it was mostly because this whole next part of this is just so infuriating at times, and you can just see how ridiculous and how negligent a lot of this was. Yeah. So when we left you, we were talking about Detective Eddie Bolger there, the Detective who was incredibly racist. I was going to say the racist part. Got it. I was like, I don't know a nice way to say that, and I don't care. So he's an incredibly racist Detective, and he was kicked off of the case, and then he decided to insert himself back into it. Apparently, photos were found in George Whitmore's coat pockets. They were of a woman. He said he found those in the trash, and then he was just using them to hype himself up to his friends and be like, This is my girlfriend. He's a young kid. He's a teen.

And I have a feeling he has nothing to do with this. That's adorable.

It is. In a weird way, that's adorable. Yeah, he's just trying to be like, This is my girlfriend. Yeah. And Detective Bolger there decided to declare that that person in those photos was Janice Wiley.

Incorrect, I feel.

So now he is being charged, like he's being looked at and suspected, at the very least, of killing Janice and Emily. Yeah. And that's where I left you, which was like, Oh, no, what's going to happen?

That really is where you quite are.

Now, detectives interrogated. You're like, You quite literally ruined my life. Pretty much. So detectives interrogated George Whitmore for 26 straight hours. Jesus. 26 straight Hours. And after which he not only confessed to the assault of Elba Barrero, but also to the murders of Janice Wiley and Emily Hoffert.

Yeah. After 26 hours of straight prodding, I might confess to a lot of shit that I didn't do.

I think a lot of people would. He also confessed to the murder of Minnie Edmonds, who we talked about that was killed a week before Elba Barrero was attacked. At no time was he informed of his rights.

So that's not good.

Or asked whether he wanted a lawyer.

That's illegal.

The interrogation resulted in him signing a 61-page confession that included very intimate details of the Wiley Hoffer murders only the killer would have information about or someone that was at the scene.

Or the detectives.

Including descriptions of the broken bottle during the attack and the knives used to kill both women, the fact that the knives broke, all those little details that they hadn't released to the public yet. Right. According to the Whitmore statement, he had entered the apartment building unseen. So he said he somehow got into that apartment building and no one saw him.

Okay.

And had been on his way to the roof when, inexplicably, he just left the stairway and entered the corridor. He couldn't come up with a reason why he did that. Probably because it didn't happen. And he said he entered the corridor on the third floor and just began trying doors until he came to Janice and Emily's, which he found unlocked. But it wasn't. Does everyone remember part one?

.

That door was locked. It was locked when Pat got home. Right. That door was not unlocked. And they found no evidence that it was unlocked. In fact, that was what was fucking them up about, obviously, aside from the obvious brutality, that's what was fucking them up about this crime scene. They were like, How did someone get in? There's no way somebody got in. There's this open window, but we're on the third floor and there's no fire escape. But now he's saying in his confession- The door was unlocked. That the door was unlocked. It reminds me a lot of the Jesse Miskeli thing. I was thinking about that. Where there's blatantly wrong details, but they are just pretending that's fine. Like, just what? Don't worry about that.

They're like, no, look at this other detail. It's so right.

This detail is right, though. And it's like, well, that's wrong. And that's a big one.

That should negate the other ones.

So for eight months, frustrated investigators in Manhattan had been under intense pressure to solve the Wiley Hoffer murders at this point, but they had not made even a single step of progress at this point. Despite a lot of efforts, they were canvassing the whole place, and they had Unrestrained resources. The entire Manhattan Police Department was on this. Because of this, reports of Whitmore's arrest came as a huge relief, not only to the residents of New York, but also to the investigators and politicians who were feeling that intense pressure. So this is not a good mix of things because everybody's like, great, we got someone, don't care if it's the right person. Within days of his arrest, however, several people began to doubt the credibility of the confession. At his arraignment, for the murder of Minnie Edmonds, he actually recanted his confession, with his lawyer telling the judge that George had been coerced into signing the document by Brooklyn detectives and was beaten into it. Oh, no. During that interrogation. He was Very much not doing that under his own volition.

And you know, if Detective Bolger, if he was there, you know that guy was definitely beaten. Yep. That's so sad. That hurts my heart.

Yeah. And George even requested to take a lie detector to prove that he was telling the truth.

I mean, come on. Obviously, there are cases where someone's the killer and they're like, yeah, I'll take a lie detector test because they're just so confident.

But this guy is younger. His IQ is very low. And he is not understanding what's going on. And the other thing is he's not understanding because he's dealing with that whole thing. But also no one's explaining things to him. No one's even trying to make him understand what's going on. So it's like he's not going to yell, I'm going take a lie detector test just to be like, I can take lie detector test and I can fool it. He's doing that because he's like, I'm innocent and that'll prove it. Right.

And he's a teenager?

He's 19. 19 years old. Oh, my God.

This show is sponsored by Better Help. A lot of us spend our lives wishing that we had more time, more time, more time. The question is, time for what? If time was unlimited, how would you use it? I feel like I would definitely have a nap if I had some more time. Maybe I'd exercise more. I'd try that. But anyway, the best way to squeeze that special thing into your schedule is to know what's important to you and how to make that a priority. And therapy can help you find what matters to you so that you can do more of it. I love therapy. I'm actually going back this very week, and I'm so excited to be working with a new therapist. I feel like she's just going to get me and we're going to get my life on track. If you're thinking of starting therapy like me, give better help a try. It's entirely online. It's designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. And all you have to do is fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. Let's do therapy together, guys, but separately, obviously.

Learn to make time for what makes you happy with Betterhelp. Visit betterhelp. Com/morbid today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P. Com/morbid. Audible lets you enjoy all your audio entertainment in one single app. You'll always find the best of what you love or something new to discover. They offer an incredible selection of audiobooks across every genre, from bestsellers, new releases, celebrity memoirs to mysteries, thrillers, motivation, wellness, business, and more. More, more, more. Audible is the destination for thrilling audio entertainment with highly anticipated new releases and next listen recommendations to habituate every type of thriller listener. Keep your heart rate up month after month with this Pulse Pounding collection you can't hear anywhere else. I have invited our resident mystery reader, Ms. Elaina Irkart, to the pod today to tell you about what she recently listened to.

Guys, this weekend, I just finished listening to an amazing story. It's called Chasing the Boogie Man by Richard Chismar. It is so good. It's really unique. I don't want to ruin what it is. It's like you'll be reading it and you won't realize exactly what it is. It's spooky, it's chilling, and it's really mysterious. It keeps you guessing. And I just found out that there's a sequel to it called Becoming the Boogie Man, and I'm going to be listening to that immediately.

Incredible. That was our resident mystery reader, Elaina Irkart. She's an audible member, and you can be, too. As an audible member, you can choose one title a month to keep from the entire catalog, including the latest bestsellers and new releases and titles that Elaina recommends. New members can try Audible free for 30 days. Visit audible. Com/morbid or text morbid to 500, 500. That's audible. Com/morbid or text morbid to 500-500 to try Audible free for 30 days. Audible. Com/morbid.

Despite his continued claims of innocence, Deputy Police Commissioner Walter Arm told reporters, This man came up with details that could have been known by no one but the police and the man who committed the crime. He had information that was never released publicly. And like, again, we said, the person who committed the crime is and the detectives. Brooklyn district attorney, Edward Silver, made similar remarks to the press. He said, I would not proceed as speedily if I did not have more than a confession. What else do you have?

So, yeah, that's the thing. Let us know what else you have.

Proceed speedily to tell us what else you have. Now, for some of the investigators leading the team in Manhattan, it was really that extent of the details in the confession that were actually suspicious to them as well. In fact, it was as though the confession was a little too good, a little too detailed. It didn't just contain information never released to the public. It contained details about the crime scene so minute that only someone processing the scene with a keen eye would have noticed them. Exactly.

Because in the craziness of all of whatever took place, no killer is going to notice. The tiny little details. And then this blood stained over here and I saw it. Exactly.

No. He's going to be like, It was chaos. I know what I did. I know what I saw in that moment, but That's it. But like you said, he's not going to notice these little details that a crime scene technician would. Exactly. Then there was the photographs that were found in George Whitmore's possession at the time of his arrest, which Detective Bolger claimed were of Janice Wiley. When he was shown the photographs, he repeated what he said. He said, I don't know who that is. I found them in the trash. I honestly don't know who that girl is. If it's Janice Wiley, I didn't know that. I just found them. Which, of course, they were like, Yeah, likely story. But then they asked Max Wiley, Janice's father. Oh, no. And they had him look at them, and he told investigators they were definitely not photos of his daughter, and he had never seen the woman in those photos before, and he was definitive about that. Wow. And these weren't strange photographs that you were like, I don't know, maybe. It's a woman. He knows his daughter. He's looking at the woman's face. He's like, That's not my kid.

I think he would know. Yeah.

And again, for this man, he's probably He's really hoping they're catching the guy- Of course. Who did this to his daughter. So he's going to hope that this is the guy. So if anything, he's going to not hope. It's hard to word it, but he's not going to want this to not be the end of the closure that they want. You know what I mean? So for him to say- He doesn't want a false closure. Yeah. So for him to say, That's not her. That's not her. He's going to want this closed. And if it's not the guy, he wants the right guy. He wants the right guy off the streets. They did this.

Yeah, definitely.

Finally, There was also George Whitmore's alibi, and this one blows my mind. He claimed he was at work when this was happening, washing dishes in a Wildwood, New Jersey restaurant at the time of Janice and Emily's murders.

So he's all the way in New Jersey?

That's what he's saying is his alibi. Nearly all of George's coworkers confirmed that he was at the restaurant at that time, and they distinctly remembered this. And they said they remember this because we were all watching together a televised speech given by Dr Martin Luther King at the March on Washington when Whitmore was supposedly in Manhattan killing Janice and Emily.

And that held no ground whatsoever?

They were just like, what? All his coworkers were like, he was there with us. He was watching it.

And they're just like, no, he wasn't.

No, he was in Manhattan killing two women.

It's like he's a whole state away. I know, He has an alibi. New Jersey and New York are close, but what?

But it's like he has an alibi that people are confirming. How is that not worth anything?

Oh, it makes you feel so shitty that there wasn't cameras and shit.

I know because you're like, Oh, I just want them to be like, See, here he is. He's washing dishes.

He's right there.

Now, in October, Whitmore's attorney successfully petitioned the court for his client to at least be evaluated by a psychiatrist, at the very least. After what he described as, The longest study of one patient in Bellevue's history, the hospital's director of psychiatry, Dr. Arthur Zitrin, declared George Whitmore sane and able to stand trial for the murder of mini Edmonds. But although he was declared sane, that didn't necessarily mean that he was competent to stand trial. Okay. He had actually, like we had said, dropped out of school in the eighth grade, I believe it was, and had an IQ that was well below average. So he didn't even know what was... He couldn't understand the complete heaviness and gravity of everything that was happening. And he couldn't understand how he was being fucked with.

Yeah, he's like, I was at work. These pictures are of a different girl. I found them in the garbage.

Yeah, he's telling you the truth. I found these in the garbage. That's not even of her. I don't even know her. I was at work when this happened. I have people to confirm that for you.

How scary is that, that you can have all of those- A whole restaurant of coworkers say that you were there. All of that defense behind you, and they could still railroad you. Yeah. That is so scary.

And despite that and all the questions surrounding the confession and the supposed evidence against him, the district attorney in Brooklyn moved forward in the case against George for the assault of Elba Barrero.

That's shocking.

Yeah, well, shocking. It is and it's not. Unfortunately. Now, in November 1964, George Whitmore went on trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court for the attempted sexual assault of Elba Barrero. In court, Barrero told the jury her assailant caught up with her on the sidewalk and grabbed her from behind. In November 1964, George Whitmore went on trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court for the attempted sexual assault of Elba Barrero. In court, Barrero told the jury that whoever attacked her had caught up with her on the sidewalk and had actually grabbed her from behind. And she said snatched her pocketbook, placed his right-hand over her mouth and his left hand around her neck, and said, If you scream, I'll kill you.

That's so scary.

Now, Barrero then claimed that she and her attacker, quote, walked face to face for two blocks to 192 Bristol Street, where the assailant took her down a flight of stairs to the basement, pressed her against a wall, and briefly removed his hand from her mouth. This is when she started screaming. Following her testimony, Elba Barrero again identified George Whitmore as the person who attacked her that day.

Wait, she said they walked face to face?

Yeah.

I don't even know how to picture that.

Yeah. I don't know if- Like one of them was walking backwards and the other was walking in front of it. That's what it sounds to me. That's how it's described. I'm not sure exactly what the logistics of that are.

But then she also, when it had originally happened, said she couldn't quite remember the person's face. So it's just weird how that changed up a little bit. I'm not saying that she's lying. I'm just like, did somebody tell you to say that a certain way? So it sounded better?

Yeah, there's definitely some strange things surrounding this because, I mean, right from the way that they made her identify him was completely tainted. Completely wrong. Yeah. So it's like a A lot of this is like, oh. From the start. Yeah. Now, under cross-examination, Elba Barrero admitted to Whitmore's defense attorney, Jerome Leftau, that she had already met with lawyers from Newsweek to discuss the $10,000 reward money. And when asked whether she had met with them before or after her appearance before the grand jury, she replied, I don't know.

Oh.

However, on redirect, she told the assistant district attorney, that she had been entirely unaware of their reward when she went before the grand jury.

Okay, so that's a little flip-flopy.

So it's just a little whatever the intention here is, it's just not coming off clear what's happening here. No. You're not coming off clear in what is going on here.

Not at all.

And after a week of testimony, the all-white, all-male jury deliberated for nine hours.

So not a jury of his peers whatsoever? No.

They deliberated for nine hours before finding Whitmore guilty of the assault and attempted rape of Elba Barrera. Wow. The conviction carried with it a maximum sentence of 10 years for the attempted rape and five years for the assault. They said, quote, Unless psychiatrists find him to be a perpetual sexual menace to the community, in that case, he can be imprisoned for life. Oh, my God. Yeah.

And that's just this one crime. There's others that he's going to trial for.

Yeah, there's more that are coming. However, Judge David Malbin elected to withhold sentencing in the case pending the outcome of the cases against Whitmore for the Wiley Hoffert murders and the murder of Minnie Edmonds. Okay. Now, while they waited for the judge's decision, Jerome Leftau had petitioned the court for a new trial after receiving a sworn affidavit from one of the jurors claiming that, quote, another member of the panel had made invidious remarks to the jury room about Black people. The Rafa David also noted that during the trial for the attack on Barrero, jurors were made aware of the additional charges against George Whitmore for the three murders. How many? That is completely not okay.

That's the thing. I'm like, How many conflicts of Chris, are we at now? Yeah. Like 47?

And Leftou obviously argued that this could have further biased the jury against their client. This is all illegal. They biased everyone against him from the start, putting him in an interrogation room and telling him that's the suspect and then having Elba Barrero identify him, you've already biased her again. She thinks he's a criminal. Wow. And now he's in there. You can't tell them that he's up for three murders. What are you doing? That's insane. And then this jury member signed a sworn affidavit saying, members of this jury are racist and made racist remarks against Black people while deliberating.

That's so heinous. That breaks your heart.

What the fuck? And Both the prosecution and the judge were wholly resistant to the claims. Didn't want to hear it. That's also racist. With Judge Malvin telling reporters, I'm not going to make searching inquiry. We want to protect the sanctity of the jury as to what happens in the jury room during deliberations.

We want to protect this racist ass jury is basically what that man just said.

Yeah. I want to let them be racist if they want to be racist. No, I'm not doing this. Wow. Cool. Cool. Wow. Meanwhile, one of the jurors later said that he actually heard another juror say in that room, This is nothing compared to what he's going to get in New York. Oh, my God. So they were well aware and all assumed he was guilty and were like, gitty about it. Like, can't wait to watch that. That's gross. While the prosecution and the majority of law enforcement were honestly committed to believing Whitmore's confession and guilt were genuine, which is really upsetting, there were many who had been skeptical the case from the start. There were a lot of investigators that were like, I don't buy this. I think this is fucked up and dirty, which is at least good. That's good. Good, I guess. Now, just two months after his conviction for the attack on Elba Barrero, a source within the Manhattan district Attorney's office, told reporters that the case against Whitmore for the murder of Janice and Emily was, quote, shot full of holes. So he told a reporter like, This is bullshit. Wow. Not happening.

Now, officially, the DA's office refused to comment on the state of the case against Whitmore, but many in the press felt that there was a strong possibility that the case was going to be dropped against him. That's how bad it was. I hope so. Now, the district attorney wasn't the only one skeptical about the potential for a trial against Whitmore. George's own lawyers were feeling pretty confident that the charges were going to be dropped, and they were more than happy to fill in the reasons why. They were like, Fuck this. His lawyer said, The facts show that a picture the police said was of Ms. Wiley and was supposedly actually stolen by Whitmore from her apartment is not a picture of Ms. Wiley. It is instead a picture of a girl named Arlene Franco, who lives in Wildwood, New Jersey.

Oh, they found her, and that's where he works.

Yes, that's where he works, where Whitmore's father runs a junkyard. Dude. And he said he found it in the trash. Yeah. Whitmore's lawyers went on to emphasize the number of other discrepancies in the case against George, including that several people placed him in New Jersey at the time of the murders, and that he had an intelligence quotient of 60 and could not possibly have comprehended the language in the confession that he supposedly made. Wow. There was no way that he could understand all of that language.

So it's just point after point after point after point of why he's not guilty.

Oh, and that button that was taken that Elba Barrero had ripped from her attacker's coat? Yeah. The FBI gave a report that stated the button did not match Whitmore's coat. So what are we even fucking doing here? So they introduced that button in that trial, and they used it as like, Here it is, a smoking button. Didn't even match.

But they said it did?

Yeah. They were like, this is from his coat.

What the fuck? How are you even able to get away with that?

Well, just two months later, Judge David Malbin, who didn't want to hear about the racist jury, wanted to let them be racist if they wanted to.

Did he also not want to hear all the evidence as to why this black man didn't commit this crime?

Yeah, he was like, no, I don't want to hear it. He vacated Whitmore's conviction in the Barrero trial after it was determined that the jury had been racially biased and may have been influenced by learning of the other charges against him. Maybe. Perhaps. We're two months later, he was like, after all this heat came, he was like, You know what? I think you're right.

On second thought, I just can't sleep at night.

Given the questionable... On second thought, I just can't sleep at night. It's like, wow. Yeah. Given the questionable nature of the confession and the evidence against him in the other case, we would all assume at this point that the charges are going to be dropped. Looking at everything I've just told you, logical brains would be like, absolutely. But who's going forward with that?

But based on these fuckers, I'm like, nah. Yeah.

In April, the district attorney in the Edmunds murder case proceeded as though nothing had changed.

I really hope that he ended up suing the district attorney at some point.

In that case, the jury deadlocked, but the prosecutor vowed to try Whitmore again. What? In the meantime- Wait, I'm actually that they deadlocked. Yeah, right? In the meantime, because I think they had nothing. I think that was literally... They probably deadlocked based purely on... Some of them were probably racist. You know what I mean? It's like they didn't have anything in that case. That was just like, what evidence do you have? They have that confession. That's about it. It's a shitty confession. In the meantime, the district attorney in Manhattan decided not to pursue the case against Whitmore for the murders of Janice and Emily. But that didn't mark the end of legal troubles for George Whitmore. Don't think that was the end of everything. The following year, the district attorney in Brooklyn retried George for the attack on Barrero, and he was found again guilty. So that was vacated.

That's why they were able to retry him.

And they retried him again for the Elba Barrero attack, and he was found guilty and sentenced.

This is a manhunt.

And he was sentenced to 5 to 10 years in prison. Oh, my God. The conviction would be overturned a year later.

But had he already spent a year in prison at that point?

Probably longer. On the ground that the judge had refused to allow the defense to cross-examine police concerning the false confession in the Wiley Hoffer case.

Why? For what reason? Why not? Just like, nah. I decided I can sleep at night these days. Different judge?

No. Well, that was the same judge that they were talking about. That's why it was overturned. Yeah.

For me, I'm trying to follow a really rigid schedule during the week between work, going to bed at the right hour, and waking up pretty early. I'm pretty rigid on myself. So when it's time for the weekend, I go a little cray-cray. I stay up late, I hang out with my friends, I help people move. I do a lot over a big weekend. So when it's time to start another big week, I like to get back into my routine, and I like to celebrate Hydration Monday with Liquid IV. I freaking I love Liquid IV. It is one of the easiest things to implement into your schedule. It comes in this little stick that you can bring anywhere. If you don't even have a pocket, you could tuck it behind your ear if you really needed to. And you just put it in 16 ounces of water and boom, you are so freaking hydrated. You're more hydrated than if you just drank one glass of water. And also the flavors are freaking delicious. Strawberry lemonade, are you joking me? Absolutely delectable. And guess what? It's got three times the electrolytes the leading sports drink, also has eight vitamins and nutrients, and it's non-GMO.

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If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good you are a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious. And if that's true, then you're in luck. Because once again, Mr. Ballen podcast, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories is available everywhere you get your podcasts. Each week on the Mr. Ballen podcast, you'll hear news stories about inexplicable encounters, shocking disappearances, true crime cases, and everything in between. Like our recent episode titled White Dust. After a middle-aged couple failed to answer their daughter's messages calls, the daughter drives the few hours to her parents house to check on them. But after arriving and seeing both her parents' cars in the driveway, the daughter gets an uneasy feeling and just can't stomach going inside. To hear the rest of that story and hear hundreds more stories like it, follow Mr. Ballen podcast on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Prime members can listen early and add free on Amazon Music. Now, the same year, it was alleged that Whitmore was actually under the influence of Truth Serum, which when he was evaluated at Bellevue Hospital, before this all started. Okay. Finally, that came out.

That's shaky, right?

That's shaky. But he was under the influence of that. During that time, he kept insisting he was innocent. They usually use truth serum to be like, Tell us that you did it. Yeah. And he was like, No, I'm innocent. In his confession, he kept saying, The confession was coerced. I was beaten into saying this. And because of this, there was an investigation requested into this because now they're like, Wait a second.

Did you beat him into this?

Now, days after this was revealed, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller refused the request for an investigation. He said he, quote, had no jurisdiction over the courts, and therefore it would be inappropriate to seek to intervene in matters pending before them. He's like, I don't want to seek out justice. We don't want to do that.

I don't want to make sure that people aren't being beaten into confessions.

We don't want to check up on any of our systems in place. We just want to let them roll.

That answer is essentially, why bother? Why bother?

Yeah. I don't really want to is really the answer. I don't feel like doing it.

I don't feel like it.

The DA's office tried Whitmore for a third time, and he was again convicted and sentenced to 5 to 10 years in prison.

How many years and years of this man's life were disrupted because of this?

Dealing with this shit. By 1972, George Whitmore had begun to lose complete hope of clearing his name. I'm sure. He was like, This is it. Then a journalist from the New York World Telegram received an affidavit from Elba Barrero's sister, stating that prior to identifying George Whitmore, more as her attacker, Elba had already identified two other men as the assailant.

Kind of iconic that her sister was like, Hey, I love my sister, but...

It was in an affidavit. She was being truthful on the affidavit, saying, I'm not saying he didn't do it. I'm not saying she's not, but I'm just telling you, she identified two other guys before that. So that doesn't hold a lot of weight. Wow. The way he was identified and the fact that two other people had already been identified. I mean, come on.

And how many years later did this come out? Like, Jesus Christ. This poor fucking man. Yeah.

And in fact, Elba had only identified Whitmore after Detective Bolger Racist ass motherfucker. And his partner had made her aware of the $10,000 reward being offered by Newsweek.

So they literally just waved a bag of cash in her fucking face.

And that is precisely when she agreed to change her statement.

That's disgusting.

That is disgusting.

I know that's a lot of money, but that's not worth sending somebody to jail for. That's disgusting. That's a human being. To prison for the rest of their life.

That you're falsely... Yeah. That's fucked up.

That's on another level.

At the request of the newly appointed Brooklyn district of attorney, Eugene Gold, the case was reopened, and the statements from Elba's sister were confirmed. And that's when Whitmore's convictions were overturned and he was officially exonerated. So luckily, the new Brooklyn district attorney was like, Whoa, whoa. Oh, so there was a new attorney. Open that shit back up. Oh, so there was a new attorney. Put these in here. Put all this new information in here. And he got it overturned. Wow. After being released from prison in 1973, George sued for violations of his civil rights. But he lost his case.

In what fucking world?

And received no compensation.

How did he lose that case?

No compensation.

What?

This whole legal circus and truly nightmare he found himself in.

For years and years.

Yeah. Actually ended up being one of the catalysts for abolishing the death penalty in New York as well. And it also aided in the Supreme Court's Miranda ruling in 1966. That guarantees criminal suspects the right to consult with an attorney. Oh, wow. Okay. So something good came out of it somewhere, I suppose.

That's the thing, though. It's like, yeah. Because I know we talk about the death penalty a lot. You say you're a little less gray. I'm always pretty gray. But then a case like this comes along and it's like- That'll throw you for a loop. Yes, genuinely.

Because he would have been facing the death penalty.

You can fuck it up so badly. And then what if all of that came to light after they had already put this man to death?

Yeah. He would have been sent to death for these murders.

Wow. That actually just turned my stomach. Yeah.

And what makes the cases against George Whitmore so egregious is that the charges against him in the two Brooklyn cases were mostly just a pretense that would have validated the charges against him for the murders of Janice and Emily. Right. Making Eddie Bolger there and the Brooklyn detectives look like fucking heroes. The whole thing behind this was Eddie Bolger and his little cronies wanted to look like fucking heroes at the end of the day.

Please tell me that that man got karma. Please tell me.

The problem here was that even before Whitmore went on trial for the attack of Elba Barrero, investigators in Manhattan were fairly certain he had nothing to do with the Wily Offer murders. Investigators were like, no, we don't think he did this. So even though Detective Bolger was like, I want to get my hero status and get this all, most of the investigators were like, Fuck off. This doesn't work. In October 1964, police arrested Out of this was like something totally different, arrested 35-year-old Nathan Delaney for the murder of a rival drug dealer.

Oh, wow.

As this was his third arrest for a violent crime, Delaney knew he could receive the death penalty. That's a three-strikes rule. That's a three-strikes rule for the murder, so he offered to tell the DA the name of the real killer in the Wiley Hoffer case. Damn. At the time, there was still intense pressure to close this case, and the DA's office knew the case against Whitmore was in He didn't do it. So they agreed to delay these conditions because remember, there's still a case against George Whitmore for this part. They only were able to exonerate him for the Alba Barrero situation. And Minis murder, right? And Minis Edmonds. But like this, they're still- This was still hanging over his head. They were still trying to fit pieces into this one. Now, according to Nathan Delaney, he had been at home on the afternoon of August 28, 1963, which is when Janice and Emily were killed. And he said there was a knock on his door. So he opens the door, And Delaney was surprised because he saw his acquaintance, whose name is Richard Ricky Robles.

Okay.

He was covered in blood and visibly shaken. As he would have been. Now, Ricky, who had just been released from prison, told Delaney that he had gone out looking for drug money and had killed two women. What? And the way he said it was that he said, quote, he justiced two dames.

What the fuck?

That's how he described it. And Delaney claimed he gave Robles a new set of clothes, and his wife, Delaney's wife, gave him a garbage bag for the bloody clothes, which I was like, wow.

You guys are disgusting.

Yeah. Now, Nathan Delaney agreed to wear a wire. Holy shit. And together with his wife present, they engaged Ricky Robles in the conversation, just a regular conversation. And during that whole time talking, he again admitted to killing Janice and Emily on the wire. They were able to steer the conversation to like, remember that time? And he was like, oh, absolutely.

So he was just looking for drug money?

He was. So we'll go. He'll explain. So all of this was recorded, him admitting to the whole thing, and it was submitted to the prosecutor. And the taped confession was enough to get a warrant for his arrest, and Ricky Robles was taken into custody on January 27, 1965. At the station, Ricky Robles maintained his innocence and asked for a lawyer. So nice that they gave him that. In case you were wondering, he is white. I had a feeling. So he got a lawyer, and he was read his rights.

And I'm sure they read him his full rights.

He was promptly provided a lawyer, and the two were left alone in the administrative office. After about 25 minutes, Robel's lawyer needed to leave the room and asked the officers waiting outside to watch his client until he came back. In the interrogation room, the detectives offered Ricky some food, and he declined, and at which point one of them said, Rick, did you ever think it would wind up like this? And without thinking, he replied, he thought it would, from what he read in the newspapers, that he thought someday he would be arrested for killing those two girls. So his lawyer left the room after 25 minutes to go get something to eat or drink or piss or something like that just for a second. And those detectives were like, Hey, Ricky, you do this? And he was like, Sure did. Sure did.

As soon as his lawyer left. So does that It didn't matter, though, that his lawyer had left the room? Is that a conflict?

I think it ended up working out. It worked out. Okay. So I think it's fine. It's okay. Because I think it was just in casual... They weren't interrogating him. They were just like, did you ever think it... That was just convo. They didn't even say, did you ever think you would get caught. They just said, do you ever think it would wind up this way? Yeah, that's innocuous. And he was like, Yeah, it's crazy. I murdered people. And they were like, Wow, I didn't know you were going to say that.

I don't understand.

So when they asked what happened, Robles replied, Don't know. I went to pull a lousy burglary and I wound up killing two girls.

Just to be that callous about it?

Now, according to Robles, this is what happened. He had gone out that morning with the intention of finding an apartment to Rob, which is what led him to the building on East 88th Street, which he said he chose because there was no doorman at the time. I thought there was, though. There was a doorman, but I don't know if the doorman was on break or wasn't at the door at the time. He just didn't see him. When he entered the lobby, no one was present. So he just walked right in and he was able to get into the maintenance corridor and found his way to the third floor. That's terrifying. When he found all the doors locked, including Janice and Emily's, because remember, it was locked. Even though George Whitmore's confession said it was unlocked. Ricky Robles is saying it was locked. That's a big part of this.

They were all locked.

Robles poked his head out of the windows and saw that a window in apartment 3C was open.

So he's in the maintenance hall and there's windows.

He peaked out the window in the corridor, saw that there was an apartment with a window open. So he climbed out on the ledge and slid over to the window, which is how he got into the apartment.

So he did scale the building. So one of my comments in part one was like, he couldn't Nobody could scale a building. He literally essentially did.

Technically, he didn't scale up. No, right. But he scaled over.

Sideways.

What the fuck? Which they were not even thinking that was a possibility. Because you really wouldn't.

Like a third floor in New York. Obviously, that's not super high for New York.

But you're going to land on concrete. It's like, that's dangerous.

That's a broken bone at the very least.

You think you're safe at that point. You're on the third floor.

Yeah. Why not leave your window open?

He's got to scale over a ledge. He went through over a ledge to get into that apartment. That's terrifying. So Janice Wiley was just in her room, and this man just crawls through the apartment window.

And she's probably getting ready for work at this point, ready to head out for her day.

So once inside the apartment, Ricky Robles found Janice Wiley in her bedroom, he said, With a sheet wrapped around her. And he said he immediately decided to sexually assault her. Oh my God.

So she was still sleeping? Yeah.

Now, according to Delaney's wife, while he was assaulting Janice, Robles, heard the front door and he got up against the wall, and then the girl with the glasses came in. That's Emily. Just as she got to him, he tried to take her glasses off her face as soon as she walked in. And she said, Don't touch me. Leave my glasses alone. So as Robles tied the two women together, he heard Janice tell Emily to do as he said, and they won't get hurt. So Janice was being like, let's just go along with whatever he says, and we're not going to... She really thought they weren't going to get hurt. Oh, my God. But Emily was angry. Yeah, I would be fucking angry, too. She just walked in her fucking apartment, and she sees this guy sexually assaulting her friend and roommate.

Like, she's pissed. And you're panicked, too.

And so she repeatedly had said she wanted to, quote, get a good look at him to identify him later. And she was trying, like she was pissed. Yeah. But this caused Ricky Robles to panic. And he went into the kitchen where, according to Delaney's wife, quote, he thought it over and in about five minutes decided he was going to kill them. With his decision made, Robles grabbed the glass bottle, a kitchen knife, and then returned to the bedroom and stabbed both women to death. With both of them finally dead, he stole about $20 or $30 from Emily's purse and fled the building.

And they were each stabbed over 60 times with three different- A broken bottle, a knife that ended up breaking, and then a bigger knife.

So he went back and forth between that kitchen at least twice.

Did they ever say if he was under the influence? Because that just seems so- He was a heroin addict, and he was breaking into this apartment to get money to get more heroin.

So that is part of this, is that he was... That was the intention here, is to get money. And he specifically, he is quoted as saying to get more heroin. That was the whole point.

Hey, weirdos.

We have a ton of episodes that we think you will just love. But if you scroll down the feed just a bit, there's one we think you should definitely check out if you missed it. Episode 531, Tom Bird and Lorna Anderson-Eldrich, is one of our favorite episodes, and you might even get a little bit more out of it, especially in light of the viral TikTok series, Who the Fuck Did I Marry? That is taking the internet by storm.

Here's the deal, you guys. Tom Bird and Lorna Anderson, they wanted to spend their lives together, but there was a catch. They were already married to other people. So they did as deviance do, and they devised a mischievous and murderous plan to rid themselves of their respective spouses. But just how far were they willing to go with their lies? And would they get away with it? You can find this episode by following Morbid and scrolling back a little bit to episode 531, Tom Bird and Lorna Anderson-Eldrich, or by searching Morbid Bird Anderson, wherever you listen to podcasts.

Now, I don't like that he decides to try to use Emily as like, Well, she said this, so I panned it. And that's when I did it. And it's like, No, you piece of shit. That wasn't it. No. You're a piece of shit, and you were going to...

Like, just run out of the apartment.

Don't try to put it on her.

Because that's the thing. It's like she's saying, I want to get a good look at you.

Get out of there. Yeah. Get out of there. Get the fuck out of there then.

You shouldn't be in the fucking first place. Yeah.

Cover your face and run out.

Wow.

But I just don't like it, regardless of whether she said that or not, because we don't know if she said that. The only people who know whether she said that is Janice and Emily and him, and he's the only one that can talk. And to be quite honest, he's not fucking credible as far as I'm concerned. So he's a piece of shit. Ricky Robles went on trial for the murders in October 1965, and a jury deliberated for five hours before finding him guilty. You scared me. Guilty of two charges of felony murder in the first degree. Good. After the verdict was read, reporters asked Assistant DA, John Keenan, why police had pursued George Whitmore when they knew he was not the real killer. Keenan replied, There were good and bad policemen, and he insisted that the defense had used Whitmore as a, smoke screen to cloud the case.

At least he was honest. Yeah.

There's some bad fucking policemen out there. That's the truth. They were on it. There are bad ones. A month later, Ricky Robles was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 26 years. Why? Yeah. He is also, he's not getting parole. It's not happening. No. Now, once investigators settled on George Whitmore as their suspect, nearly everyone seemed convinced of his guilt and never bothered to consider any alternatives. And look what happened, regardless of any of the evidence. After being kicked off the case in Manhattan, Detective Eddie Bolger believed his arrest of Whitmore would make his career and vindicate him in the eyes of anyone who disapproved of his methods. That was his whole thing.

How did that turn out for you?

I was like, did that help?

Yeah. Did that work out? You also hope that... I mean, this is very obvious that he just steamrolled this entire thing. Was any action taken against him?

Neither he nor anyone else involved in the false imprisonment and false arrest of George Whitmore were ever held accountable. At all? For any of the reprehensible actions that they committed. Nope. Wow. They got him nothing.

Wow. The fact that this man, we were just saying, steam rolled this entire fucking thing. Totally derailed it. Just was like, Bye. See you later. This is what I think, so this is what happened, and let's just throw this poor man in jail forever. And he just got to keep on doing that, probably. Who knows how many other cases race factored into that he was on. Exactly. And he probably just did like, wow.

Do you do the same thing?

Where other people fall asleep imprisoned because of him.

Like, this isn't the first time he's done this or the last time. Like, this is not something you just do.

And I forgot who the person was that made the comment of like, there are good and bad police. It's like, you sit there and you admit that and nothing is done about it.

Yeah, nothing's done. They got nothing. Wow.

What a frustrating case. I'm glad that at the end... Obviously, it's horrible, but I'm glad that at the end of the day, the right person got put into prison.

But it's like- But he didn't... So after he was released from is. And George Whitmore went back to New Jersey, where he briefly owned and operated a fishing boat. Well, good for him. And eventually worked odd jobs and just floated around. And George, he struggled a lot after this. I bet. He went through a lot, and he ended up dying heart attack on October eighth, 2012, at the age of 68. That's so young. Although his case in exoneration have become one of the most taught examples of coercion and false arrest in the United States, the state of New York never made any attempt to write the wrongs committed against him or take responsibility for anything that happened during this.

Just the fact that he sued and didn't get anything in return.

What he was put through his- He got nothing.

But it's so So similar to the Jessie Miss Kelly in the West Memphis Three of It All. They don't get any- Just get out of here and shut up.

They don't get anything. Yeah. And deal with the rest of your life. Deal with what's happening. Wow. Now, Ricky Robles, when this was all going on, because remember, he was just out in the world while George Whitmore was being railroaded here, he watched the whole thing play out. He watched Whitmore almost die for what he had done. And he was quoted as saying, I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to get him off. And then he said, I didn't want the guy to go to the electric chair, but how could I help him without implicating myself?

Well, that's the whole thing. You couldn't, but you knew what to do. Why can't you implicate yourself? This man should pay for what you did.

You did it. He didn't. That's what?

That's somebody that just doesn't have a conscience or a soul. No. That's completely souless.

No. There's a lot of sadness at the end of this case, too. Following the death of his daughter, Max Wiley did become a crusader against these crimes, and he ended up authoring a book in 1964 titled Career Girl: Watch Your Step. Like many in the media and law enforcement at the time, Max wrote, No matter how accustomed to your own community you may become, never grow to feel safe in it. Feel threatened. You are threatened. You are never safe.

That is such a social commentary on being a woman. Yeah.

No. On September 24, 1968, Janice's mother, Isabel, actually died from cancer. Oh, God. In the following year, Janice's sister Pam died of pneumonia.

Oh, my God.

So he was like- Just alone. He lost everyone. His wife and both his children. And after so much tragic loss in the smallest span of time, and just quick trigger warning, because this is a very sad end to this case. Max Wiley checked into a motel in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on September 21, 1975. And after calling the front desk to report that he was having a heart attack, he shot himself in the head with a 38 caliber revolver.

Oh, my God.

Yeah. During the trial, it was also learned that during the initial canvas, the police had spoken to Ricky Robles.

No.

But his mother-No. No. Lied to detectives and told them on the day of the murders, her son was at her apartment asleep on the couch.

There's no excuse for that. There's no fucking excuse for that.

You can't see me, but I'm flipping this woman off right now. No. Fuck you.

No.

Two people's daughters were vicious, brutally, savagely murdered by your son.

You can go ahead and say, I don't think he did it, but you know lie. For well, he was not asleep on your couch.

Yeah, you don't lie.

I understand the inherent need or urge to protect your child, but not when they're in the wrong like that.

And you don't lie. You don't say he was there when he wasn't because It's like, dude, that's going to come back.

You don't know that.

That's going to come back.

I'm sorry. How do you live with yourself after derailing? Yeah, I couldn't. Derealing. And that's the thing, derailing the investigation and then look at George Whitmore.

Exactly. Like, come on, man.

What a frustrating case all the way to the very end.

Ricky Robles maintained his innocence until 1986, when hoping that he was going to win parole, he admitted to the parole board that he murdered Janice Wiley and Emily Hoffert. Robles has consistently been denied parole and is currently serving his sentence at the Attica Correctional Facility in Upstate New York. Wow. Because after he admitted to it, he, of course, was like, No, I'm innocent. This is all bullshit. And that is the Career Girl Marter's case.

Oh, what a tragic, frustrating. A murder streeting.

Yeah. Janice Wiley and Emily Hoffert.

So sad. And just how senseless that was. And the brutality- That's the thing. Attached to such a senseless murder. Yeah. Wow. Wow. Like, flabbergasting.

It really is. The crime itself is so fucked up and so brutal and so horrific. And then the investigation afterwards is even- Same thing. It's also brutal and horrible and fucked up.

Well, and I was so expecting... I I was so expecting you to say that it was somebody that knew Janice and had previously dated her or felt as though she wronged them in some way. Yeah.

Just because of- That's what they were going off of, too.

Just because of how just personal it is to stab somebody over 60 times.

And he- That's the thing.

And she seemed to get more. Yeah. She did get more than... I mean, Emily was also brutalized, but Janice, too.

Yeah. It's just so crazy. Because he'd come in there and immediately decided he was sexually assaulting her. He was sexually assaulting her. I didn't go into the details because I just don't want to. It was a brutal sexual assault. She went through a brutal sexual assault by this fucking pig. He is a pig. Before he So it's like, he's a monster.

Wow. We need a palate cleanser, brother. We sure do.

Yeah, we do. So, yeah.

Well, with that, we hope you keep listening.

And we hope you... Keep it weird.

Keep it weird. But not so weird that you watch somebody take the fall for a heinous crime that you committed. Yeah.

Don't keep it that weird, listener. Don't do that. Don't do that.

Follow Morbid on the WNDYRI app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad-free by joining WNDYRY Plus in the WNDYRY app or on Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wundery. Com/survey.