Death Tracks ////// 929 | Forensic Files

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Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you were doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host Nick and
with me as always is a man who you can see live at Go Bananas coming soon. Here is the Captain. Go Bananas, [music] more
like Go Nuts. It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling [music] a friend.
Today in the garage, we are drinking Remington Gold by the family-owned MPH Brewing. Remington Gold is a slightly
hopped golden ale. It's potent without being overbearing and it won't pierce the palate. ABV 7.3%
garage grade three and three quarter bottle caps out of five and let's give some thanks and praise to our good
garage friends that we think are absolutely gold. First up, a cheers to Alex in La Pine, Oregon. A big we like
to give goes out to Jack Meehan in >> [music] >> Reading, Massachusetts. Next up, we have
a long distance cheers to Cindy Stevenson in Loire Valley, France. And last but certainly not least, we have
Emily from Biddeford, Maine. Everyone we just mentioned went to truecrimegarage.com
and helped us out with this week's beer fund that went for the beer run and filled up the old garage fridge and for
that, we thank you. [music] Yeah, b w e e r u n, beer run. Check out truecrimegarage.com, click on the merch
page, treat yourself. And Carl, that's enough [music] of the b, isn't it? All right, everybody gather around, grab a
chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. >> [music] [music] [music] [music]
>> The following is from the Arizona Republic. The headline, Hunt for killers of Indian boys
unsuccessful. The search for suspects in a murder location is continuing without any success in the
deaths of three Gila Indian boys. They were stabbed to death before their bodies were laid on railroad tracks to
be run over by a freight train. The bodies were discovered at 12:35 a.m. on June 1st, 1976
by an engineer and two brakemen of Southern Pacific freight train, which struck them as they lay on the track
about a quarter mile northeast of the intersection of Recker and Rittenhouse roads.
The site is 25 miles southeast of Phoenix. The Sheriff's Department's Sergeant Dominic Spizano said that six deputies
are working the case, but they have been unable to turn up any major leads. Quote,
it's a matter of trying to stumble onto something. Like somebody getting arrested or
someone stopping the right car and finding blood in it. The victims were identified as Richard
Chase Jr., age 11, his brother Russell, age 10, and David Johns, age 11, all of Blackwater, a reservation town.
Spizano said a missing link is from 10:30 p.m. May 31st, when the boys were last seen
until 2 hours later when the train struck the bodies. He said they were last seen about a mile
and a quarter southeast of where they were found. Spizano said that they were still hoping
to get some suggestions and leads from the public. Meanwhile, a relative of the three boys
who lives on the reservation called the murder just madness. Mrs. Betsy Green, the tribal secretary
for the Gila Indian Reservation Tribal Council, said, quote, "It's part of the madness that seems to
be occurring all over the world. We have no feeling of hatred. The boys are just gone."
Mrs. Green said people on the reservation have all been touched by it >> [music]
>> because it is not something that normally happens among our people. She says she didn't believe an Indian
person is involved in the murders. Quote, "There isn't anyone I know on the entire reservation who would do anything
like this." End quote. These boys were killed on May 31st, 1976, and run over by a train just a
short time later in the early morning hours of June 1st, 1976. And Mrs. Betsy Green is absolutely
correct. It is just madness. This is True Crime Garage. >> [music] [music] [music]
>> On November 21st, 1977, the town of Vinita, Oklahoma, moved through a Monday with the quiet cadence
of a small town. The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, also called the MKT or even
more popularly the Katy, cut behind backyards, threaded beneath bridges, and pressed a line of steel through
neighborhoods bound by schools, churches, and family ties. The town's identity was shaped by its
connection to both the Cherokee Nation and its role as a crossroads. And the train rolling through this town
was a big part of their daily life. A 7-year-old boy lived an ordinary life, a life that by nightfall would be
shattered beyond understanding. His name was Michael James Martinez. He was born
in February of 1970. At this time, he's a first-grader. He's slight, bright, and earning A's and B's.
He was actually repeating the first grade because of too many absences the prior year, not because he couldn't keep
up with the schoolwork. Teachers found him to be precocious and kind, and neighbors remembered soft eyes beneath
heavy black bangs and a shy boy. He was of Native American descent, however, newspapers of the era left his tribal
affiliation as unspecified. He lived on East Flint Avenue with his mother, Bonnie Ruth Martinez, two sisters, and
two brothers. An older sister, Brenda Easter, lived only a few blocks away. His father, Robert Martinez, lived in
Bartlesville, about an hour's drive from Vinita. The family had modest means. Now, that
afternoon, that November afternoon, Bonnie planned a night out with some friends, so she sent Michael and his
brother to Brenda's house, their older sister's house. Brenda's back fence bordered the Katy line, and her neighbor
was a teenager named Roy Robinson. Bonnie's evening out was a rare break for the single mother
raising six children. One of them grown by this point. Earlier that day, Robert Jr. and
Michael, these are the two boys that go to their older sister's house, to Brenda's house.
Their father had given the boys brand new bicycles. A couple of wonderful gifts from their
father, but that wasn't all. Each boy also received a crisp, clean $1 bill. So, that evening Michael and brother
Robert are doing great. They are living life, loving life, filled with a day on new bicycles, and now hanging out that
evening at their big sister's house. One of the best gifts you can get as a child, new bicycle. Bicycle represents
freedom, my friends. Earlier in Vinita, another story was unfolding beside the tracks. Let's introduce another
individual that is paramount to our story. This is Gary Leroy Whistler. W H I S L E R. And it will become clear
later in our true crime story why I am spelling his name out for you. He's a local teenager, Gary Leroy Whistler.
He's unemployed. He's a high school dropout, so not setting the bar too high. Winner,
winner, loser dinner. Yeah, he had drifted in and out of institutions since he was about 9 years old.
He was going to go over to his buddy's house. This is Roy Robinson's home. Roy was only 17. The two spent the
afternoon together in the shed behind Robinson's house. Uh this is described as a rough
outbuilding with an opening toward the railroad, a direction toward the railroad. Whistler
reportedly had been sniffing paint before he arrived at Roy Robinson's house. So, he's already showing up to
Robinson's pretty messed up. And he gets to Roy Robinson's house about 3:30 that
afternoon. They settled into the afternoon They settled into an afternoon of drinking whiskey and inhaling paint
fumes together. So, party party. Normal Monday afternoon jackass behavior. Yeah, these are
two typical butt plugs. Yeah, this is um Don't get me started on Roy's mother, but you're like, "Hey, this is this is
the old the slightly older kid that you're going to hang out with. He's unemployed and dropped out of high
school. No No, thank you." Yeah. [clears throat] At approximately 8:45 p.m., Gary and Roy left on foot
with the goal of finding more liquor. Previously that day, as said, they were hanging out in the shed
together. They were getting messed up. They had gone out one time prior to get some more liquor and paint. Now,
this time they decide, "We need to go back out and we're This time we just need to get some
liquor." Yeah, but like you said, it's 1977, right? So, in their defense, being bored back then
was difficult. It was a challenge. Kids today will never understand what being really bored means. And probably
not good adult supervision here as well. I mean, they're not They're not out in the middle of the woods somewhere hiding
hiding under a bridge. They're in Roy Robinson's backyard. Yeah, but it's also a time period where it's like, "Hey, why
don't you go outside and I'm going to lock the door so you can't get back in." So, they go out for liquor. This is
roughly about 9:00 p.m. or so at this point. Somewhere between returning from the store back to Roy's mom's house, the
two parted ways. So, it sounds like there's multiple reports here. Okay, one report says that Roy stayed outside cuz
he's the younger of the two. The thought was that Gary could get in there and maybe buy some liquor without getting
carded cuz he's the older of the two. Right. And one report says that Roy was kind of watching through the the store
window or glass door and thought that oh, the transaction's not going to go down so he bailed.
The other report says that shortly after leaving the store, Roy was ahead of Gary, thought Gary was following him
back to the house and somehow they got separated. Roy makes it home, Gary doesn't.
Whatever the case, that's the scenario by the time Roy gets home. Roy is home, Gary is not no longer with him. Now,
let's go to the neighbor's house, right? Brenda's house. Back at Brenda's house,
we have little Michael. He has something that he's very excited about, that $1 bill.
A small treasure for a first-grader and it is burning a hole in his pocket. He wanted to spend it. Not a saver. So,
he tells his brother, "Hey, I'm going to go to this nearby convenience store." I
think he was trying to convince the brother, but the brother had no interest in going with him. So, he tells his
brother he's going to ride his new bike a few blocks away to a nearby convenience store. So, sometime between
9:00 and 9:30 p.m., his older brother Robert Jr. watched little Michael ride off into the twilight toward a nearby
convenience store with that single dollar in his pocket. He was wearing blue jeans, a windbreaker, and he
pedaled away on his new maroon 20-in bicycle. Now, one thing we should point out right here,
Captain, is as we've already said, we we have Roy Robinson, the 17-year-old, and
we said Roy's home is right next door to Brenda Easter's home. Some reports have
them living as next-door neighbors, others state that they lived nearby on the same street, but either way, every
report states that Brenda's backyard and Robinson's backyard both face the Katy railroad tracks. Now, after all this,
Gary Whistler disappeared for about an hour, ish. So, a little after 10:00 p.m., cries are
heard from Robinson's backyard. "Help me. Help me. God help me." Roy steps outside of
his home, seeing his buddy Whistler stumbling from the shed, holding a half-empty fifth of whiskey in his hand.
Wow. So, Roy and his mother Irene, they run out and they help Roy's friend Gary into their house, where he
collapses on the couch, and both mom and son would later report that Gary slept there
until late the very next morning, until about 11:00 or 11:30 a.m. on November 22nd, 1977.
Yeah, like you said, they've already been drinking. He's huffing paint, and now we have this other half-empty
bottle. It's all good, man. It's not like he's got a job or school to go to the next day. Yeah.
So, that is where that dude is sleeping on the couch until 11:00 or 11:30 the next
morning. Now, let's go back in time a little bit here, Captain, to the small hours of that same day, November 22nd,
1977. So, at 12:58 a.m., a Katy train crossed the bridge between North Van Street and
North First Street at about 15 mph. As the engine rolled through, the crew noticed something on the tracks. By the
time they understood what they were seeing, it was too late. Beneath the trestle, Michael's small body had been
severed into three parts by the passing train. The crew immediately reported what they had seen. Police officers
arrived at the scene to beams of the train lights. What was discovered is within 50 ft northeast of the bridge,
they found a scatter of objects. They found the boy's body on the tracks. Police acknowledged
that this area was a known drug hot, and they were searching this area high and low looking for any clues or evidence as
to why this boy had been placed on the tracks and then passed over by the train. Right. When news broke, of
course, shock rippled through Vinita. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation,
OSBI, with Agent Jack Lay among the core, joined up with Craig County Sheriff's Department and the Vinita Police
Department to investigate, search the area, reconstruct Michael's final hours. The manner of death was
declared a homicide. Yeah, cuz I guess the first thing you're going to ask yourself is is this just an
accident? He got a new bike. He's going to ride to the convenience store to he mistime the train and and get hit by the
train. Yeah, I could see how one would would think that, but the problem with that equation then becomes the witnesses
actually see him on the track prior to the paint the train passing over him. Right.
>> These are the the crew members of the train and he's just laying there flat on
the tracks at that time. Could could he have been pinned down? Maybe, but he's not show he
was not moving as the train was drawing closer and closer and closer to his body
before passing over. Right. So, at the body discovery site about 50 ft from where
his body was discovered, authorities found a gold spray paint can, plastic bags with paint inside,
a blood stained soda bottle, scattered nickels and dimes. Remember, police already said
or at least acknowledge that this area was known as a drug haunt. What they did not find was equally
important here, though. They have no clear murder weapon and no sign of Michael's new bicycle. The autopsy takes
place the very next day. Michael's remains were autopsied at the state medical examiner's office in Tulsa,
Oklahoma. The cause of death was listed as multiple stab wounds. According to the medical examiner's early estimate
the killing took place between 11:00 p.m. and midnight on November 21st, 1977. The murder weapon was determined to be a
small blade and the victim had been stabbed again and again. Early reports counted 38 stab wounds. Wow. Later the
tally settled around 29. So, the official report here Captain saying 25 punctures, wounds to the head, back, and
chest. One pierced the heart. Four cuts on Michael's left hand were ruled as defensive wounds. So, the the child's
palm lifted against the blade to defend against the blade during the attack. There were no signs of sexual assault.
His body was left between the rails within blocks of his home exposed to what would come next,
the passing train. Yeah, so so many questions. What's the motive? It's probably not money
cuz he's a child. But then you wonder is is this a sexually motivated crime or possibly did somebody attack him just
because of his race? Yeah, the key here is he we know what time he left his home.
And what you're going to want to determine quickly is did he ever make it to his destination, which he told his
brother where he was going. So, you're dealing with a small window of time anyway, the the time in question.
That window could get significantly smaller if he doesn't make it to that convenience store. So, really what you
have here is you have Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. We already mentioned Agent Jack Lay. We have other
OSBI personnel working there as well. You This is typical for most states, and it's very similar
to how we operate here in Ohio, especially during this time period. You have the
local the most local of authority show up, which would be the Vinita Police Department. And luckily, any big call
that they get, I would imagine they're a rather small outfit. Any big call that they're going to get is also going to
make its way to the Sheriff's Department, who's going to come in and assist and probably just take over,
especially in a case like this. But, both of those outfits are going to call in the biggest and best of resources
they have, which is OSBI. So, we have pretty much all hands on deck rather quickly
in the scenario. And immediately, we have a great lead. That same day that Michael's body was discovered, I mean,
it's truly it's the middle of the night, but at some point that same day, an unidentified man in his early 30s was
arrested near the railroad tracks by Craig County Undersheriff Carol Cheney. So, we have a transient that was
detained near the tracks by a Craig County. Right. This is where the story steps way outside of the murder of
Michael Martinez. So, it gets way into the weeds here, but that's okay, because that's where we live, my
friends. We live in the weeds. So, Captain, if you will allow me to pull the audience into the weeds with us, I
thought this was a garage, but now I know after 10 years, it's actually a building full of weeds. It's a garage
surrounded by acres of weeds. Somebody needs to come out here and mow. So, I'm going to I want to get into some
very dark Oklahoma and then Arizona true crime history here for a moment. We're here for it.
Right. Well, very quickly, what we have is hope. It it you have fear and hope that's
fusing into like a single possibility here for the investigators, okay? We have a sheriff from Mayes County.
He's in the city of Vinita. He's there on a cattle theft investigation and he sees this man that
they've detained near the tracks. Of course, they they've detained him cuz they want to talk to him and question
him, what does he know about the murder of this boy? Well, this sheriff says, "Hey, wait a second. I think that might
be who we've been looking for for a long time, Gene Leroy Hart, an escaped prisoner." So, of course, always time
and geography are huge, huge factors. So, geography, Vinita is in Craig County, Oklahoma. Craig County is the second
most northeastern county in the state. So, it's right up there by Missouri. Just south of Craig County is Mayes
County. So, just 5 months prior to the murder of Michael Martinez in Craig County, three girls, Lori Farmer, Doris
Milner, and Michelle Guse were pulled from their tents seemingly one by one and murdered in the woods during the
night. This was at Camp Scott. This is the Girl Scout murders, the Oklahoma Girl Scout murders case.
>> Right. This took place in Mayes County, just one county south of where this case
is. So, the sheriff visiting from Mayes County wondered if the detained transient could be Gene Leroy Hart.
He's a fugitive accused of the Girl Scout murders. Gene Leroy Hart had been at large since
1973 after escaping from a Mayes County jail, but he was known to still be in the area
and he was a natural suspect in the triple murder because he escaped from jail after being convicted of kidnapping
and raping two pregnant women. Jesus. This guy's a monster. So, the authorities from Mayes County thought,
"Look, we finally caught up to Hart. We found our guy." However, quickly they learn that this
was not Gene Leroy Hart. And in fact, it was a guy named Gerald Ray White, a rail-riding vagrant.
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>> All right, we are back. Talk hands in the air. True crime nerds, mount up. Cheers, Captain. When we left off, we
were talking a little bit about the Oklahoma Girl Scout murders. And long-time listeners of this show will
remember that we covered that case back in December of 2018 in a three-part series. Yeah. And that is episodes 265,
266, and 267 on your garage radio dial. So, where we are now, we figure out that this dude is not Gene
Leroy Hart. He's a train-hopping hobo. It's Gerald Ray White. Yeah, but just because
you're train-hopping doesn't mean you're a murderer of children. Well, he's in the area.
Yeah. And that makes him a better suspect than most, or at least somebody that they need to talk to. Now,
this is going to lead investigators to believe that perhaps this dude who hops trains in multiple states, that is
picked up near the tracks where we find a homicide victim, maybe he's the perpetrator of another
triple homicide, the one that we described in the trailer at the top of today's show.
A case where three boys were killed and then placed on the railroad tracks so that the bodies could be destroyed. That
case out of Arizona in just a year and a few months prior. So, this Gerald Ray White, who has no home and travels
alone, naturally has no alibi for the night in question, right? Because we only have a short window again to deal
with here as investigators. Michael leaves sometime between 9:00 and 9:30 p.m. and then the train passes over him
just before 1:00 a.m. So, White was questioned not only about Michael's murder, but
also about the May 1976 triple homicide in Arizona that shared unnerving similarities.
And of course the railroad track signature. Let me read this from the Tulsa World
News. Yes. >> And I'll take some bits and pieces of it here. A 35-year-old man described as a
transient is being held in the deaths of four Indian boys. He's being questioned in the stabbing of
a victim that was found here. So, they're referencing Vinita, Oklahoma. But he's also being questioned in the
stabbing of three victims found near Chandler, Arizona. Right. >> And so they brought in two investigators
from Maricopa, Arizona. And they have local authorities there as well per the article questioning Gerald
Ray White in the deaths of Michael James Martinez and then three boys from May 31st, 1976 in Arizona. All the
victims' bodies were placed on railroad tracks after the slayings and run over by trains.
White was arrested a day after Martinez boy's body was found. Officers said the boy had been stabbed
several times before the body was placed on the tracks. They go on to say that he is a sort of
transient who rides the rails from Bakersfield, California to the state of Missouri. The detectives said that he
has relatives in California and Missouri. Arizona officers flew to Oklahoma after learning of the
similarities in the slayings. And these are these are their words and I'm taking their words
from the articles. It says, quote, you have four young Indian males, you have them all dead of multiple stab wounds.
They are all apparently robbed. They were all killed at night and whoever killed them placed their bodies on the
train tracks, said detective K. Lines of Arizona. They were all run over, too, says K. Lines.
They did say that the article does say, Captain, that White has not been charged, but did appear before a judge
and was being held under $250 bail. So, this is a guy that you can put him, or at least he has the
ability to have been in both locations, and you hear the similarities in the crimes.
Those three boys, unfortunately, were all killed that night, May 31st, 1976. The similarities being that they were
they were younger they they were on the younger side, but they were all older than our Martinez victim here in
Oklahoma. But they were stabbed and placed on the tracks and left there. And then
Martinez, what we do know is he was stabbed and killed and then placed on the tracks as well. And this would be
somebody that would hop on a train, ride into a to a town or ride somewhere and then hop off
and wait to catch the next one and then make his way back and forth between these two different locations,
California and Missouri. So, when they bring this Gerald Ray White in for questioning, he immediately fails two
polygraph exams. Not good. So, yeah. >> Liar, liar, pants on fire. >> It's looking more and more like they
have their guy. Now, as they continue to look into this guy, he goes on to fail as many as 20 more polygraph
examinations over the course of four days. But also the problem with this is what is this guy's mental state? I mean,
he is riding the rails. Mhm. Is he riding the rails cuz he's just a man full of adventure or is there something
going on with him mentally? Here's what I'm picking up here. It the Have we ever done a case where we hear
that they administer 22 polygraph examinations in the course of four days? Or and I also
>> if or if I'm reading this wrong, 20 Right. polygraph examinations the Usually, when somebody fails one, they
might give them one or two more, maybe three at most, but at some point they arrest the guy
and charge him. Right. >> what they're doing here. They just keep giving him polygraph examinations. I
think this is To me, this is tipping me off that it's something that you were talking about, that something is telling
them there's something not right with this guy. Well, and do they administer a test where they know all the answers he
is giving them are correct but still failing the test? So, you're exactly right. You are exactly
Meanwhile, he's probably sitting there in the room like, "Man, these tests are really hard. I've failed 20 of them
now." >> [snorts] >> So, what they conclude what investigators conclude and Look, we hear so many cases where this
goes the opposite way, right? Guy failed a bunch of polygraph examinations. He's got no alibi. He's
some bum that's been riding the rails. Lock him up, convict him, sentence him to death for the murders of four
little boys, and then he's killed, right? The The state kills him. One of these two states execute him.
So, kudos to these investigators that didn't didn't jump to that conclusion and did their due diligence because what
they conclude is that he was a quote guilt complex reactor. Someone whose physiology
mimics guilt without culpability. So, someone who reacts as though they have guilty knowledge even though they
do not. Meaning exactly what you're saying. When they start to detect like, "Hey, maybe
this guy there's something wrong with him and we just have the wrong guy." They start giving
him tests that include questions of things that they know he cannot be guilty about or things that he could not
be lying about. >> Right. And so, when he continues to fail test after test after test after test,
Well, then you know, right? Then you have to go And it's not saying that lie detector
tests are complete [ __ ] but we're saying for this guy for this guy Well, we can't take uh
we can't take these tests serious. This should be an Abbott and Costello bit where you're questioning the guy, he
keeps failing the lie detector test. And then and and the one guy goes, "Man, are you sure that machine's I keep
failing these tests, man. I I These tests are hard. Are you sure it's working right? You sure your machine's
not broken?" And the detective's like, "Well, we figured out you're broken, so." Yeah. Yeah. We figured out you're
the broken >> Another butt plug in this story. So, he gets out. They they they rule and
determine that this guy it's he's not our guy and they actually clear him and rule him out as being a viable suspect.
Now, of course, the case doesn't close. The town still has a dead child and no answers
to what happened in this horrific case. Now, a few days after Michael's body was
discovered, funeral services were held for Michael James Martinez at Ribbon Indian Church
in Spavinaw, Oklahoma. We have scores of family, friends, classmates, and neighbors who attended.
Afterward, he's buried in Ribbon Indian uh sorry. He's buried in Ribbon Indian Cemetery.
The community the these old stories, they almost seem like something that didn't happen.
You know, when we look back so many years after the fact, this would be close to 50 years ago
now, and even the way that some of the newspaper accounts of these cases read, it doesn't
seem real in some way. This was very much real, man. This was This was a community that pulled together and had
no clue what the hell had happened. They didn't They didn't know how to deal with this. The community
they're trying I mean, for the most part, they're performing the rituals at the ceremony of a of a murdered
7-year-old. Holding hands, saying prayers together, all while knowing that the killer had
not been named in any final way. And the manner of death was so violent. This has
got to have a fear factor of nine or 10 in it. It It almost feels a little bit more like a
warning rather than a crime. Eight days after the killing. So, he was killed late November. This puts us at November
29th. Officers found Michael's maroon 20-in bicycle tossed into high weeds about 25 ft off of the railroad tracks.
This would be actually about three blocks from the bridge. And the bridge area is about
where he he was run over. That was another question that I had is motive. Right? Is this uh a racial thing? Is it
a sexual thing? Is it just I'm on drugs so I'm going to kill you thing. Or what does this kid have? He has a new
bicycle. So that would have value. But like you said, freedom. So if you have an
individual, whether they're a teenager or adult, that's transportation. So if you're walking down the road
and you stumble upon this kid, you go, well, I'll take this bike and my walk becomes a lot faster.
Absolutely. Absolutely. But once you find the bike, then you go, well, that that's probably not what happened unless
the person came back and dumped the bike later. Yes. And And I apologize, not everybody is cool with
the term Indian, but I'm reporting this as I prefer to say Native American, but But
you're reading the reports. >> I'm the reports at the time that that is the word, the terminology that would have
been used back then and was used back then. So what we end up with you, Captain,
this would take us months later. So now we're into March of 1978. We have 14-year-old Daryl Scott.
He found a small pocketknife near the crime scene. He turns it over to police. Its
dimensions matched the wounds or at least could be the murder weapon. They never
say that this is is the murder weapon, but it is consistent with a weapon that did the
did the job here. Right. And >> [clears throat] >> it bore no fingerprints linking to
anybody, but this would make sense if it were to be the murder weapon, then it's been sitting outside for the course
of roughly 4 months. But by this time, the investigation had already taken a big pivot.
And that was because on February 8th, 1978, police arrested 19-year-old Gary Leroy
Whistler after his father, Jerry, reported a domestic disturbance involving his son,
Gary. So, according to the report, Gary Whistler appeared high and panicked when police
arrived at the home, and he was hallucinating saying that there were men that were
trying to kill him. His father telling police like he he started freaking out at some point talking about these men
who were trying to kill him, and he started behaving very not just erratically, but very
violently. So, he's in custody getting picked up for this domestic disturbance. That's on February February 8th. On
February 10th, while still in custody, he signs a statement in the presence of Undersheriff Cheney, OSBI Agent Jack
Lay, and District Attorney Secretary Ann Williams. The statement did not name Michael
Martinez, and it did not include date. It was really like a hazy, disjointed, I guess more of an impression than a
confession, but it was regarded as a confession to the murder of little Michael Martinez.
In the signed document, Whistler said that he remembered being at the railroad trestle
drinking and sniffing paint. He believed something was after him. So, he grabbed a knife and started
stabbing to defend himself. He recalled throwing something on the tracks. He said maybe it could have been
a body, but he didn't remember what it was. And tossing a knife away. He says he also remembered picking up a
bicycle and throwing it into a field but before returning to his friend Roy Robinson's backyard and going into the
shed. Mhm. This is Look, I don't know if police pushed him into this confession or if he was
completely blurred by intoxication or if he's just trying to hide the absolute truth here.
But regardless, this signed document will lead to prosecutors charging him with the first-degree murder
of 7-year-old Michael Martinez. They did hold a preliminary hearing on March 29th, 1978 and after that with
this contained testimony from law enforcement, train crew, family, and such, the a judge ordered
Whistler to be held for trial, right? So, that's those charges and now we're going to have a murder trial,
right? Leading up to this trial, they did do a toxicology report, but as one would imagine back in
the '70s, this was not a quick process. The toxicology results come in and would later become a
bitter point of dispute in this case because the testing results indicated large quantities of spray paint of a
spray paint chemical in Michael's system. The victim's system and a 0.04% blood alcohol level. Now, unfortunately,
Captain, some of the Craig County residents living in glass houses were straight-up eager to cast some stones on
Bonnie Ruth Martinez. The mother. Of course. And they at the time they were casting these stones, I don't think
because of this spray paint chemical found in his system or the blood alcohol found in his system.
It was more about Bonnie Ruth Martinez making the decision that would ultimately later be used
against her by some of these people in the harshest way possible. Saying, you know, she sent Michael
to Brenda Easter's house before going out for the evening. That she'd rather be out bar hopping than
tending to her 7-year-old boy. Something that she didn't do often. Right. And here And here's the thing.
Look, we've talked about this before. Newspaper coverage at the time this some of the reporting
just played out this way and I think it fueled people in the communities back then.
And it's it's a real pisser because if you go back in time these these old newspapers and the some of the reporters
that filled their pages were quite brutal with their handling and writing about family members of these victims,
especially when it's children. When it's a child that's murdered. Shaming the parents or
parts of the victim's day or choices that the victim made. It It A lot of these read almost as, you know,
everything's a cautionary tale in the telling of some of these stories in the old newspapers. So, this is going
to bring us to the murder trial. Yes, the trial opened on October 12th, 1978 before District Judge William J.
Whistler. An uncanny similarity of name, but spelled differently than the defendant's
name. That's why we spelled the other whistler's name prior. At the trial, we'll try to stick to the highlights and
of course the lowlights, I guess you would say. District Attorney Sid Wise and Assistant
District Attorney Royce Hobbs represented the prosecution. The defense was led by Tony Jack Lyons with
co-counsel of Gary Dean. On the 12th and 13th of October, the prosecution laid out the scene and the
science. With Chief Forensic Toxicologist Richard Prouty described described large
quantities of toluene. That's that chemical found in spray paint and also describing the alcohol in
the victim's system. Pathologist Dr. Nicholas T. Forbes detailed the 29 stab wounds, 25 to the
head, back, and chest and one fatal puncture to the heart, four defensive wounds on the left hand, no sexual
assault. He mentioned a diagnosis of tuberculosis. Raised cautiously the possibility that
this could be brought on by repeated paint sniffing. It could explain the tuberculosis.
So, again, mom thrown under the bus. So, Bonnie Martinez, she she does take the stand here and she vehemently
rightfully so denies that her son her 7-year-old son was huffing paint and drinking alcohol.
She's pointing out like this is tied to his murder. This isn't stuff that he was
doing leading up to his murder. This is something that happened the night that he was killed and probably in my my
opinion has everything to do with why he was killed. It explains some of that night and probably describes the
perpetrator or perpetrators of his murder. Yeah, cuz the scenario I see kid takes his new dollar bill with his
new bike. He's going to go to the convenience store to get something from runs across
one teenager, maybe multiple teenagers. They either ask him if he wants to do it, he does it
out of fear, or maybe they force him to do it. I mean, we've all done some stupid stuff when you're a kid and you
run across some teenagers and they go, "Hey, kid, you want to hit of this whiskey and a hit of this
cigarette?" Sure, you know. And some of that is you're trying to fit in, or some
of it is you're scared to say no. And a lot of times the person offering that up
might be doing it out of their own amusement and mean no real harm in in the matter, either. But
the the kid's seven. Se- Look, I'm I only represent one 7-year-old, one, you know, myself, who
was once seven. Yeah. >> I didn't None of that was I wouldn't even known that that stuff
existed. Um I don't even think I knew what alcohol really was when I was 7 years old.
I was too busy with things like bicycles and G.I. Joes. Right, but some douchebag kid
some douchebag teenager says, "Hey, man, take a hit of this." And maybe has a knife out.
>> You know. And he either did willingly or at the suggestion of an older person, or
did it under protest, it was forced to do it. But what I'm saying is I'm backing up the mom saying I I
it would it would shatter my world to learn that he was doing this on a regular basis
Yeah. prior to the night that he was killed. So, we also get Craig County Medical
Examiner Dr. Charles Benton who states that his estimated time of death was between 11:00 p.m. and
midnight. And he did say that that would be a guestimate. Katie crew members that So, the train
crew members testified that the body was not present on their first pass around 11:30 p.m. nor on their second
pass. Right. But, they saw it around 12:50 a.m. on their third pass and then unfortunately the train passed over it.
So, now again this window's getting even smaller and smaller and smaller. Because what do we
know took place? He was attacked. He was stabbed 29 times and then placed on the railroad tracks. Yeah, which is
difficult, too, because did this happen way earlier and then somebody went back to move the body.
Or move the body and never had left the area prior to Right. >> placing the body on the tracks. So, the
confession, that signed confession was introduced at trial. The defense attacked it as a product of pressure on
a troubled youth signed by somebody who was susceptible to suggestion and clouded by intoxication.
They introduced a potential alternate suspect Gerald Ray White, the transient detained near the tracks the
day Michael's body was found who had also drawn attention in an eerily similar Arizona case.
Now, we have OSBI at the trial. They did acknowledge that look, White originally
was a suspect. He became a suspect because of where we found him and then the failed polygraph
examinations, but he testified that he had failed 15 to 20 more in rapid succession
And stated that he had that pattern of a guilt complex reactor with no physical evidence tying White to
the Vinita crimes or the Arizona crimes. Well, what's sad about this whole case is because of the time period,
if it was today, this would be probably solved very quickly. And there would probably be a mountain of evidence
because we have what we assume is the murder weapon. We also have this vehicle, the bicycle, that might have
evidence on it. And uh also we have the victim. And the bags, the the spray paint cans and all that
stuff. So, I mean, you got tons of stuff that you could test for DNA and fingerprints and and other things.
Yeah, I I think that they may have found that knife a lot faster, a lot sooner today. And if it were in
fact there that night, lying somewhere near our crime scene, and was located that night, they
could have potentially have found suspect blood on it or fingerprints. But also we could find
to today with our technology, we might be able to find a a purchase for that pocket knife
through Amazon or whoever. We do get dueling psychiatrists here. Oh, that's fun.
>> we have What kind of gun did he use? >> O'Carroll, he represented the defense team and he
says that uh two exams showed him that Whistler was schizophrenic and prone to fantasy and suggestion, to put it short.
And then we have Dr. R. D. Garcia, chief forensic psychiatrist at Eastern State Hospital, who said
he examined Whistler three times, found no signs of schizophrenia, and diagnosed antisocial personality,
and testified that the defendant knew right from wrong. In the end, the prosecution called 22
witnesses, the defense called six. Whistler did not testify. The handling of evidence came under
fire, most notably the bicycle and the knife, but >> I mean I don't know why they would say the
handling of evidence. They They just didn't find the stuff. And may maybe that's what came under fire was not
being able to find, not being able to locate the knife. I The bicycle, we know the bicycle was
his. There's no question about that. What would come into play would be the knife. We don't know The knife was found
near the murder scene, but when was it placed there? If you could prove that it was placed there the
night of the murder, well, then it looks to be much more likely to be the murder
weapon. But having found it months later, it could have been dropped at any time.
>> Well, again, if you have a knife and you have a good autopsy, you'd be able to
determine if this knife could have been the murder weapon. So, I think a lot of this I think a lot of the problems in
this case is simply the time period. And OSBI is pretty good a pretty good outfit. I wasn't alive at this time, so
I couldn't vouch for their work back then, but yeah, I think you're absolutely right. I think a lot
of this has to do with the difficulties of it being 1977. Yeah, I was alive at this time, but I
was in a different human vessel, so uh I don't remember much from that time period.
>> On October 14th, the case went to the jury. They were instructed to consider some possibilities here. First-degree
murder, first-degree manslaughter, not guilty, or not guilty by reason of insanity.
By 11:00 p.m. that night, deadlocked at eight for guilt and four for acquittal, they could not agree and the judge,
William Whistler, declared a mistrial. Gary Leroy Whistler was returned to the Craig County Jail on $50,000 bond. Now
we have 5 months that passes. And now it's March of 1979 when a second trial will begin.
This time we have Assistant District Attorney Dan Allen representing the state. Tony Jack Lyons once again representing
the defendant. Photographs of the scene were introduced. Former Vinita Police Sergeant Bob Marshall and three Katie
crew members described rails, the bridge, the discovery of the body after the third
pass. None, of course, could place the defendant at the scene of the murder or at the killing.
On March 14th, 1979, Roy Robinson, despite recent hospitalizations and injuries,
a slashed wrist, a stab wound, again he testified that his friend Whistler returned around
10:00 p.m. on the night in question, very drunk, but with no blood on his clothes or hands,
and that Whistler had slept on the couch until late morning. And then again we have the dueling
psychiatrists with their findings. Yeah, you'd think that there would be some blood on this individual. Oh,
absolutely. 29 stab wounds. Absolutely. The thing here though is so let's get to
this dueling psychiatrist cuz one thing that I find interesting in the second trial is described slightly slightly
different than it was in the first. Okay, so Dr. O'Carroll said that Whistler lived in a fantasy world. He
was both homicidal and suicidal. And he testifies that he had attempted self-harm multiple times. Remember this
is the doctor for the defense team. For the defense of this young man. And he also says that the this young man is
extremely susceptible to suggestion and coercion. So in a lot of ways this is suggestive
that look it would be easy to get a confession out of this guy especially one that's kind of vague like this that
doesn't name the victim. But it also states that he found him to be homicidal and suicidal. So it's
really kind of setting the table for a defense of a couple of things that either he's innocent or he's innocent by
because of insanity. Yeah. An insanity defense. Again the for the state we have Dr.
Garcia who pushed back against the schizo schizophrenia and maintained that the defendant knew right from wrong.
And that was his findings. >> Yeah, but that becomes difficult too cuz you might know right from wrong when
you're sober, but if you're high on paint And really drunk like I I would assume
>> copious amounts. Yeah. >> copious amounts. The way that Roy Robinson describes it
and the papers describe it they're on like their they're they've gone through two bottles
of whiskey at this point. Now were they both full? We don't know. Like we don't get a great
description here, but that's a lot of liquor for two people. Yeah. especially two younger dudes.
This time the case goes to the jury, but they only the deliberation is only for two hours.
And the jury acquitted Gary Leroy Whistler of the murder of Michael James Martinez.
And acquitted him of placing the body on the tracks. He declined to speak to reporters.
As he left the courthouse, he walked away free having been incarcerated, being held for trial
since February 1978. So, 13 months in jail. If if if you're sitting there and you think and believe that he's
absolutely guilty, well, he he wasn't he didn't go completely unpunished. He did
technically sit in jail for a little more than 13 months. The problem here is a couple things for
me with this case. Like I think what where he gets the acquittal, I think the problems for the jury
are twofold. One, the time of death. Because if you put a lot of weight into the time of death, we have the doctor
saying, "Well, I put the time of death between 11:00 p.m. and midnight." And you have the witness along with his
mother, so you technically have two witnesses saying, "Well, by 11:00 you know, he was home." What did they
say? But they they he was home prior to 11:00. Yeah. He was in their shed. He came out
of the shed saying, "God help me. Help me." And I I think that that is a is was a big
hurdle for the jury. I think the other part of this that's a big hurdle for the jury is your witness, Roy
Robinson, right? Like because here's here's the here's where I can't get away from
these two guys as being the best suspects. It's what was found in the victim's body. The paint chemical in the
liquor. That kid ingested this stuff sometime after 9:00 9:30 that night, and then he's placed on the tracks after
being stabbed. Right. >> I don't think he did any of that on his own. I think he did that at the suggestion of
somebody else, maybe two persons, maybe one. But then you go, "Okay, well, can you
say 100%? Can you feel good saying 100% that it was just Gary Leroy Whistler that did this?"
I don't think you can because I think his buddy Roy, for all the reasons that you would say
that Whistler might be guilty, Roy looks to be just as guilty. The other thing, too, that I I wonder how
well the prosecution challenged this, is we have that vague confession. I'm really surprised that that vague
confession didn't work back in 1977, especially when you have a high school dropout
drug user. Mhm. But it didn't work. But as vague as that confession is, or maybe it's coerced, what have you.
Also keep in mind who who is saying that the timeline doesn't line up, that that the time frame
doesn't line up? It's his buddy Roy Robinson. But Roy Robinson isn't saying that that night or the next day. He's
not telling police, "No, this guy was here all night. He was here at the time that you think that the kid was killed,
so he couldn't have done it." He He's saying this in February. So, 4 months, 3 and 1/2 months later,
how accurate is that witness statement? And I get it that his mom backs that up.
Irene backs that up. But how accurate is that when they're being asked to to recount
the events of a night from 4 months prior? That becomes extremely difficult. And also
some of the people they're asking to recount these events were intoxicated or high on paint fumes.
>> And the doctor said that the time of death was a was a guestimate. Yeah, but also the this idea that
>> Meaning he could have stab he he could have stabbed the boy. The problem, I guess, is the crew
members' statements of not seeing the boy on the tracks when they pass cuz they What I wonder is how deep are these
stab wounds? I know there's multiple, but is there any evidence of of him being placed on the train tracks or is it
possible that he moved himself onto the train tracks trying to get help? It's difficult to say without
having I mean, I understand that there's a lot of stab wounds, but when you when they're saying, "Hey, we found this
pocket knife and that could be the murder weapon." Well, there's multiple blades on a pocket knife. So, how deep
are these stab wounds and is it there is there any possible chance that when he was left
>> Well, but you have the one you from the report you have the one that says the there was one that reached
the heart. Right. >> And so, the way that the the report we have, the way that that reads to me is
that once that injury occurs, he's dead. Right. He's not moving. 4 months after this
acquittal, this would be July 19th, 1979 while mowing grass at Fairview Cemetery
Gary Whistler was reportedly attacked with a knife. The assailant was 19-year-old Bill
Hensley, described as a friend of the Martinez family who attended both trials. He was charged with the
assault. The suggested motive was revenge. Having believed that Whistler was guilty of killing the
Martinez boy, he chose to attack him with a knife. Whistler was not harmed, from my
understanding, in the attack. Michael James Martinez's case is listed on Oklahomacoldcases.org,
and it talks about everything in a brief summary that we talked about here in our
coverage today, discussing that the last known sighting of him was him riding his bicycle saying he was going
to go to a convenience store, only about two blocks away from where his body would eventually
be found. And according One thing that it states here, too, Captain, is according to
media reports, upwards of 15 people were polygraphed in the case. Eventually, though, authorities would arrest
19-year-old Gary Leroy Whistler, though the arrest did not lead to a conviction. After two
trials, one hung jury, Whistler was acquitted of having committed Michael's murder. No one else has ever been
charged in the case. If you have any information regarding the murder of Michael James Martinez, please contact
OSBI at 800-522- 8017. >> [music] >> Well, thank you so much for joining us here in the garage or the garage full of
weeds. For everything true crime, check out truecrimegarage.com. Sign up on the mailing list and until next [music]
week. >> Be good, be kind, and don't >> [music] [music] [music] >> My Mochi Ice Cream makes every Memorial
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Death Tracks ////// 929

Part 1 of 1

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For some strange reason murder does not seem to live far from the train tracks when it comes to True Crime Garage stories. This week we examine an old unsolved murder case from Oklahoma. This was a case that at one time was thought to be a possible link to the Oklahoma Girls Scout Murders that occurred just a couple of months prior, and just one county over. Some suspected the murder could be a continuation of a horrific triple murder on the tracks in Arizona the year before. There were some very good suspects in this case, and some who were living right by the tracks.

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Brief Summary

The episode details the murder of Michael James Martinez and the ensuing investigation, trials, and acquittal of suspect Gary Leroy Whistler.

Key points

Ryan Reynolds' Mint Mobile Message. Ryan Reynolds urges listeners to stop overpaying for wireless services with Mint Mobile.
Tragic Murder of Indian Boys. The search for suspects in the murder of three Gila Indian boys continues without success.
Michael James Martinez's Last Day. A glimpse into the life of 7-year-old Michael before his tragic end.
Discovery of Michael's Body. Michael's body was discovered on the tracks, leading to an investigation.
The Girl Scout Murders Connection. The investigation into Michael Martinez's murder leads to connections with the infamous Girl Scout murders.
Gerald Ray White's Confession. Gerald Ray White's hazy confession raises more questions than answers about the murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's part of the madness that seems to be occurring all over the world.

Mrs. Betsy Green on the murder of the boys

6:03WatchMay 20, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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