Florida Vampire /// Part 1 /// 749 | Forensic Files

[Music] [Music] n [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
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grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime Thursday November 21st 1985 Malibar
Florida it had been mostly a clear day and relatively comfortable by Florida standards a 19-year-old woman was
walking down the quiet and friendly streets of Malibar her trip to Florida seemed far less eventful than she had
hoped for this young woman was in town for from California she had planned to stay for a
while and visit some friends who had recently moved from California to Florida it was around 1:00 p.m. the
temperature was a steady 80° she was getting tired of walking that is when a car slowed down
and pulled over to the side of the road just feet from the young woman the car was average looking the windows were
down and she could hear the radio being turned down as the car's wheel slowed to
a complete stop the driver was average looking as well he was a man in his mid-30s or so
at least that was her guess he looked very Florida she thought he was thin about medium height with dyed blonde
hair and a Florida tan where are you going do you want to ride he yelled out looking at her
through the passenger side window that was in the fully down position the young woman approached the car and
leaned in she told the man where she was headed he told her he would be happy to
accommodate her she jumped in the back seat and the car pulled from the curb and continued down the street they had
some quick chitchat what's your name where you from sort of stuff he seemed nice enough she thought the man said
that where the young woman was going was near his place of work and good news for
her that was where he was going as well he told her that he was on his lunch break
and due to be back to work soon he was going to head to his house real quick and pick something up he had
a notebook there that he needed to collect for work he said after the brief stop the
two would be on their way it didn't take long and the car was turning into a gravel driveway the house looked nice
bigger than normal with a good-sized yard the house was somewhat nestled back off of the road behind some full grown
trees she could feel the temperature of the car's interior cool a bit when the car pulled into the driveway under the
shade of several trees the vehicle stopped the man looked back at her and said well this is it
this is my house we have a couple of minutes would you like to come in for a drink he asked
no thank you she replied he asked again oh come on he said it would be quick no thanks she
replied the man got out of the car and he walked around to the back of the passenger side he opened up the door to
the back seat this startled her a bit again he was asking her to go inside the house with him and again she said
no that is when the man reached over her he put a rope around her neck with both
hands then he twisted the Rope she grabbed onto the Rope herself but it was no use it was too late she
was too small and he had control of her the man tightened the Rope again and this time he leaned back and leveraged
his weight against hers he easily pulled her from the car the Rope around her neck in the hands of this man was now
dictating her movements she tried to fight back but he Dred dragged her from the car he forced
her down to the ground then he started pulling her toward the house dragging her slowly a
couple of feet at a time she could feel her body burning as she was dragged along the dirt and
gravel she could feel her neck burning from the Rope digging into her skin and now she couldn't
breathe she was becoming weaker with every tug of the Rope the Rope was so tight that she could not scream for
help the man dragged her from the car across the yard over the threshold and through the
doorway she couldn't scream she couldn't breathe her vision had gone black she gasped even convulsed trying to get air
her hearing was gone then she blacked out the this is true crime [Music] [Music]
garage the woman whose real life nightmare we just described was 19-year-old Laura Murphy the young woman
woke up unsure of how long she had been out she was fully restrained she was tied up and tied down to a countertop in
the kitchen of her abductor she was nude the man had ripped the clothes right off
of her he was naked too then he raped her she blacked out again when she came to she could tell by the lack of
sunlight coming into the home that it was now much later in the day the man was inserting needles into her arm he
was withdrawing blood from her what are you doing she screamed at him he looked at her and said calmly I'm taking your
blood out I'm a vampire she turned her head she could see a beaker filling with her blood and
then she blacked out again this time she woke up she was handcuffed and naked she
was in a water bed with the man now it must have been morning time she thought her wrists were handcuffed together and
her ankles were cuffed as well she was very weak from the whole attack by this time she did not know how long she had
been inside the abductor home or how many times he had raped her and how much blood of hers that he had quote taken
out after the assault the man moved from the bed to a nearby bathroom he pushed her to the floor inside the small
bathroom and closed the door she could hear him locking the door from the outside she was hysterical but she
forced herself to be quiet she wanted to try her best to stay awake and to see what she could hear maybe she
could try to determine what was going on outside of that bathroom she wanted to see if she could
hear the man coming back but things seemed to quiet down and after a while she thought that perhaps she had heard
the man leave she heard what sounded like the front door closing a car starting and the driving off now if this
were true the man had not secured her good enough and even though she was bloodied beaten and very weak she
thought that she had just enough left in her to try to make an escape because if
that man came back he was going to kill her once he was done with her and there was no doubt about that in her mind this
was her chance one last chance to save her own life she managed to get out through a window she wasn't able to get
her wrist and ankles freed from the handcuffs however once outside she was forced to crawl
so she was incredibly weak and she didn't know how far she'd be able to make it or how much longer she had our
victim is trying to save herself but she doesn't know if her body is going to be
able to sustain her escape and she has no clue really what time of day or night it is exactly because she's been
blacking out she's in and out during the course of this attack her abductor is in
control of everything she's not aware how long she's been held captive by this man who was draining her blood so she
doesn't know it Captain but it is actually just before noon on Friday November 22nd
1985 and she's crawling alongside of Hall Road in Malibar Florida this is when a passing motorist finds her so
this person driving gets out of his car he runs over to the woman she told him that several car had already passed by
without helping he told her that he was not going to leave her there and that he
was going to get her some help so he pulls her up puts her back onto her feet helps get her into the car and she's
begging him don't make me go back to that house that house he asked which one she motioned to a house not too far away
one that was nestled off of the road behind some large trees the woman in a very weak voice told the man do not
forget that house that is the house that I just escaped from this is our Good Samaritan of the week here Captain he
picked her up and he took her to his house lucky for him there's other people there to assist once they arrive his
mother-in-law was there to try to help calm the woman and make her as comfortable as possible while our Good
Samaritan called for an ambulance and then called to the police at the hospital this young woman Laura Murphy
was told that she has that truly she was just hours away from Death she had lost
a little more than 40% of her blood Miss Murphy told police that she was visiting
from California and a man had picked her up hitchhiking he had stopped by his house
under the pretense of picking up a notebook then thrown a rope around her neck dragged her inside the police
determined that the woman had been held captive for about 22 hours wow she told the police everything that the man did
to her or at least everything that she could remember right she went on to tell them that the man also used surgical
equipment to drain her blood into a jar then he drank what he could the house and the location both described to
police by the victim and the Good Samaritan was determined to be 2180 Hall Road Malibar Florida the the house
belonged to 39-year-old John Brennan crutchley crutchley lived there with his wife and four-year-old son after hearing
the victim's story detectives got a search warrant and descended on crutch ley's home we should point out here
captain that the Good Samaritan we are talking about is Thomas Frank Harper so as law enforcement is going to
investigate This Woman's claims they're also going to speak with this Good Samaritan yeah Frank the Tank Harper
they need to talk to him find out what he saw what she told him right because she's transported to the hospital she's
in a very weak State she may have given him valuable information and now she's unable to pass this along to police so
they're going to get some details from him and they're going to talk to his family as well and the strange thing
here is he actually lives very nearby John crley but he tells the police that he did not know the man and had never
spoke with him even though the two were practically neighbors once at the crutchley home they do speak with John
crutchley he told the detectives that this was all a misunderstanding he said yes that he did
pick up the young woman from California in his car and yes he did take her to his house but crutchley said the victim
was quote a second generation Charles Manson follower and she' consented to kinky sex with him none of that mattered
the police had their search warrant and they were coming in crutchley they said was fidgety invisibly nervous during
their interaction with him once they were inside of his home police quickly learned that crutchley wife and
four-year-old son who lived at the house as well they were out of town for the weekend visiting her
parents in Maryland so this is right around you notice the date it's right around the Thanksgiving holiday so his
wife and son traveled back home to see her parents for the holiday yeah when the wife is away the psychopath will
play crutchley tried and tried to plea his case to detectives remember he's sticking with
his story that the woman had consented to this kinky sex with him and that he had done nothing wrong he told police
that he had done this with other consenting women in the past and he was into this sort of sex with bondage and
pain and that women were into the sort of thing too he told them that the blood was just another part of the Kink and
that oftentimes the bloodletting was performed on both the woman and himself as well crutchley almost seemed
excited to talk to the detective about the blood letting but at some point his fast talking slowed down then he was
quiet then he became hysterical and he was crying in front of the officers this is after police found items in the home
confirming the young woman's story she's still at the hospital but they're finding evidence of everything that she
said happened that this monster did to her detective Leo who was on the scene later said quote I think it was starting
to set in that he was going to be arrested and I think he thought that's why crutchley started crying in front of
the officers police arrested John crutchley and they collected plenty of evidence from his home this included
ribbons rope and leather restraints they also found a jar of hair clippings nothing strange about that
chains marijuana and drug paraphernalia dozens of women's necklaces surgical type equipment tubing needles
and the jar that was being used to drink the woman's blood can you imagine being
law enforcement and hear in this psycho try to minimize every action that he did against this victim well and as a
you know cop and detective you're walking around as you're walking out and you're seeing other officers arrive on
the scene or you're talking to officers just outside of the house after they've been inside themselves you're going yeah
been on the force 15 years been on a lot of calls this one might be the strangest
one yet in the end Captain John Brennan crutchley was was arrested on 11 charges
including kidnapping robbery aggravated battery possession of a controlled substance and two counts of sexual
battery following the arrest he was held without bond in the brev County Florida
jail the police were calling him count Malibar and the newspapers called him the vampire rapist so who is this psycho
vampire this is one of those things right you you make the arrest in this case and to law enforcement anybody on
the scene anybody that talked to the victim anybody that talked to crutchley as well looks pretty darn guilty of some
pretty heinous crimes but don't hit the stop button yet here my garage friends because this
story is truly just getting started for those that tuned in last week you already have some sense of where the
story may be going right plus our Florida listeners who followed the news and following true crime in the 80s and
90s know that this is a huge story with tentacles stretching far and wide to not
just unsolved murders but also women disappearing in Florida but also we need to include several other states as well
now John Brennan crutchley at the time of his Florida vampire case arrest was 39 years old living with his wife Karen
and son at 2180 Hall Road he was an engineer in the government systems division of
Harris Corporation which has locations in Orlando Palm Beach and Melbourne Florida now th those areas are all
fairly close together you could drive to all three in about a matter of an hour and a half's time right crutchley moved
to Florida in 1983 keep in mind this case is 1985 so he's not been in the state for terribly long now I've not
been able to pinpoint the exact date when he moved there we do know it was in 1983 I did find some information that
that states that he moved there in June of 1983 but we don't have the exact date
which could come into play when we start talking about some other cases that we might try to tie him to the thing that
gives us that June date is we know that he started working at the Harris Corporation in June of 1983
so that would make some sense it is noteworthy to to know that the Harris Corporation was highly involved with
NASA research and launch facilities and a contractor of the Navy as well so due to the nature of his work crutchley also
had top secret security clearance at several facilities and access to classified materials remember last week
we spent some time discussing security clearances especially at the the Norfolk Navy base up in Virginia last week we
have spies this week we have vampires growing up John was just one of four kids unfortunately the eldest child a
daughter passed away at the young age of 13 this was more than a year before Jon
was born and her death was due to health issues it is believed that this is why Jon's parents chose to have more
children because there's a gap between the ages of these children this was an affluent family in
Clarksburg West Virginia John would later claim that his parents subjected him to severe abuse his mother spoke
with newspaper reporters and said that John made that up we know that during the sentencing process a review of
mitigating factors are taken into consideration to arrive at what should be the proper punishment for the crimes
that a person is on trial for I can't say captain if Jon was abused or not but it would not be the first time that a
convict fought for leniency by lying about his childhood it becomes chicken or the egg or nature versus nurture I
can say this Florida detectives interviewed John's mom and are on record stating that his childhood was anything
but normal details TBD I guess right now early in his adult life John cretchley moved around a lot in some cases this
appears to be out of necessity for things like education jobs and maybe even his
spouses I think one could also make a strong case that in some cases he may have been running from something so can
I point out something here that that I know to be true in a couple of one-off homicide cases that we've covered but
also in some serial offender cases MH knowing if you if you are one of these types of bad guys knowing that you are
going to move states away far away for legit reasons is a scary thing to ponder when
you are talking about these types of bad guys right that they know that they're going to move or they're going to be
called for military service or they're going to go off to college somewhere they're going to be taking a job in a
state three states away 3 months from now well to these types that means now I can do some damage here and I can
just Burn Rubber and get out of Dodge yeah it's almost like they look at it as a window of opportunity crutchley was a
smart kid he had no trouble with classes that he took an interest in but his grades were terrible in the subjects
that he did that didn't hold his attention right one thing that a lot of men find of interest is that someone
like John who who we already know is not just a strange bird but quite a sick and
depraved individual he seemed to possess the ability to find relationships fairly easy you know those
with the fairer gender soon after high school he got married this was 1969 he's only 19 years
old this will be his first of two marriages then after the marriage he earns a Bachelor of Science degree in
physics from Defiance College in Ohio this is in 1970 he then goes on to earn a master of
engineering degree in an engineering administration at George Washington University in Washington DC so we know
that he was in West Virginia as a boy we know he's in Ohio as as a 19-year-old young man and now we
have him in Washington DC just the following year and what and the question that law enforcement is going to have to
start asking themselves is when do we think that he started his his when do we think he started his
criminal activities yeah because the very bizarre behavior that he's arrested for in 1985
down in Florida he's 39 years old at this time and we've talked about this plenty of times on the show that the
average age of an active serial killer is mid to late 20s now after his time in DC then he and his first wife they move
out to cooko and we are not talking about the Beach Boys cooko of course we are talking about cooko Indiana the
Aruba Jamaica o I want to take you to Bermuda Bahamas come on you pretty mamas is that
how it goes we're talking about cooko Indiana the number one Numero Uno vacation
destination in America there he was working for a company that accused him of stealing
like $4,000 worth of some kind of equipment uh so then he and his wife they're already having marital problems
you think and him losing this job likely was the straw that broke the camels back
poor camel after cooko he moved to Fairfax Virginia and remarried in the mid 70s John then
worked for several high-tech firms in the Washington DC area including TRW a and logicon process systems now at
the time of his 1985 Malibar Florida arrest he was successful with a well-paying respectable job his
neighbors said that John his wife and four-year-old child were as quiet as their
[Music] [Music] neighborhood all right we are back cheers to you mates tall can in the air
cheers to the people in the back right the home and property where John and his wife lived I think is a little
interesting here Captain this is a three-bedroom two bath nicer sized home it's well landscaped it's a little out
of the way so he's not you know he doesn't have any really close neighbors it's a 2.7 acre lot complete with two
separate living quarters a swimming pool slide and a swing set there is an open space that John called the pasture area
the lot includes double carports and John owned a bunch of motorcycles and a red mg sports car plus he also owned
another vehicle that we're going to talk about here in a little bit that will be
more important to our investigation John crutchley is arrested in the early morning hours of November
23rd 1985 so un fortunately several hours would pass between the time that his victim escaped from his little
vampire layer by knocking out the bathroom window climbing up and then falling face and shoulder first to the
ground outside to win the time that the police can get the actual search warant and get to the house and get inside the
house so of course that's going to be problematic but it happens all of the time when seeking a search warrant so if
in fact that is the case John crutchley is going to have a little bit of time from the time that he
gets home from work realizes that she's gone to the time that they can get this search warrant he's going to have some
time to try to destroy some of the evidence and there's a part of him that wanted to go lay down in his coffin to
reenergize his vampire spirits but he knew that he had to clean a real vampire would have worked the third shift but uh
John's one of those one of those fake vampires yeah the other part of this that sucks
but is also understandable is that he was held so at first he's held without bond and then that's changed to $50,000
Bond remember he's got a good paying job so he just pays this and he actually gets out for about four weeks You' think
they would say that he's a Flight Risk right I would think so but I mean this is the definition of caught red-handed
he could turn into a bat and at any time just fly away yeah and you don't want that to happen right so he he gets this
we have this weird scenario here where and I think a lot of this has to do with the crimes right I there's not there's
not a bone in my body that doesn't know that this guy would have killed this young woman Laura Murphy he just didn't
get the opportunity to he was going to slowly kill her over the course of that weekend that his family was gone she
luckily for her was able to escape so I think because he's not charged with murder he's charged with just about
everything that you can be except for a homicide and murder that he's allowed to
make this Bond pay the bond and he gets out like I said he's out for approximately four weeks do we have any
clue what's happening with his family during this time period because if I came home and my husband was accused of
kidnapping raping and sucking the blood as this victim I wouldn't be sticking around well I don't know exactly what's
happening between you know inside those four walls she's just walking around with piles of garlic on her husband and
wife but but what's weird here is I do know in the end she did divorce this man at some point and I think good good for
her yeah and I don't think we're far away in our timeline from that divorce but but she also kind of defends him
publicly as well so what I what I'm getting at is I if I had to take a guess at it I don't think that
she is she clearly wasn't throwing them under the bus when she talked to the newspapers but the well I guess there's
a piece of for every piece of yeah but what's going to be problematic here is remember police and detectives
are always at a disadvantage in this little game right this little investigation game they're because of
the nature of what they do they're always one step behind right the crime is committed and then you start your
investigation so you start off behind the ball well not to point this out but you can't start the investigation before
the crime happens it's not Minority Report but in this in this situation what the police do not know I bet you
the season detectives are guessing this that we might have to look at this guy for other crimes but the thing here is
you went and you investigated the crime that he was accused of by Laura Murphy you arrested him you place him in jail
now now he's there's going to be a delay until there's a trial he makes bail and
he gets out for four weeks so while you later will determine that you need to investigate this guy for other crimes he
now has bought some time of four weeks so that during this time he can what evidence there may have been he has the
opportunity to hide conceal burn bury and Destroy any of that evidence yeah and and I know we've caught her a victim
of what we should be stating and it's obvious she's a freaking hero yes because if she doesn't get out if she
doesn't save her own life then we we might never be on to this guy we might not be able to look into this vampire
quote unquote into other crimes he would have just kept doing what he was doing so not only did she save her life but
she might have saved a ton of other victims lives so a whole lot of red flags here we're going to talk about
about some of the things that they found in the searches right because they they
end up ultimately conducting multiple searches on this guy leading up to his trial so the H is searched and we did
talk about some of the items already recovered from his house I left out dog collar so listen to this report
detectives quickly learned of crutch ley's kinky violent behavior in his house they found dog collars ropes
chains and surgical equipment used to drink his victim's blood so if you are a detective captain and you enter the home
of a sexual satus blood Drinker and you find a bunch of dog collars and no dog well that's an uncomfortable situation
you you think hey um nice dog collars uh where's your labber doodle and then listen to
this so you know that your guy is likely a Serial abductor when you find the following okay so this is part
of the report when police were conducting their search of crutch ley's home they noticed crutch ley's Nissan
stanza automobile all of the markings identifying the make and model of the car had been stripped off and he had
used black tape to cover the logo the Nissan logo on the hubcaps because he couldn't remove it but any of
the other Nissan marks or stanza marks have been markings have been stripped off the vehicle you're only doing that
to try to go undetected not only is this guy a psycho that's going to try to kidnap you rape you and kill you but
he's also cheap cuz he's not going to buy new hub caps right he could I guess he could have just replaced him but he
he taped over him and then this son of a gets out for 4 weeks a couple months before trial and he had to be
getting rid of evidence at this point so this is from a jailhouse buddy of John crutchley this dude's name is Jackie
Horton Horton was awaiting trial on robbery and false imprisonment charges when John crutchley posted his bond
December 2nd so remember he's arrested on the 23rd of November he's end up he's able to pay to get out on December 2nd
he not only paid his but he paid Horton's too because they had become buddies talking in jail so when Horton
gets out of jail with John crutchley Horton moved into John crutchley Malibar home so he could suck each other's blood
well Horton later told police that crutchley wanted sex and then on one occasion Horton said
he feared for his life when crutchley began choking him during intercourse said quote he was holding
onto my throat and I had to use both of my hands just to contain his hand so he a bisexual vampire well Horton had other
news for police and this is even more disturbing according to a sworn statement Horton gave detectives after
crutchley got out of jail he began Gathering items from the safe that was located in his home the
computer room and other parts of the house and Horton said that crutchley filled about a third of one of those
large trash bags and when crutchley was finished filling the bag he left the house on
foot to dispose of the bag and he returned about 20 minutes or so later and he says quote he just advised me
that it was best that I didn't know what he was doing end quote he also told Horton that he should stay in the house
and ignore what he was doing for a while Sheriff's detective Bob left row recently said that the location and
contents of the bag continue to haunt him and everyone else who has investigated the case quote we've done
everything air searches ground searches water searches dog searches the detective said is it still out there I
just don't know I would love to find it yeah cuz I wouldn't want to open that bag but obviously it's important for
their investigation kind of reminds me of the OJ Simpson travel bag I'd really love to
know what was inside what the contents of that U that bag was well and remember police are responding to an abduction in
a rape case right they're not responding to a homicide or a serial killer case when they but do you think do you
actually think law enforcement is so dumb to not see where this crime was heading no no I don't think that for one
bit right but I'm pointing that out because what we do have is a a gentleman that gets involved in this case is
Robert westler who we know is legendary mind Hunter FBI profiler one of the first to start the profile MF FBI yeah
one one of the first to start the profiling business so he gives his two cents about this case and he's saying
conventionally trained police officers just aren't trained to see certain things the things that you know he he's
saying that he worked on the Jeffrey dmer case and that police there miss dozens of items that would have been
seen if they had been trained to you know so he's he's saying that you know if if me and John Douglas and and other
individuals from the FBI were the ones to respond to the scene that they would be looking for different things than
what your regular cop would be looking for yeah because I felt like again Captain Obvious normal detectives have
to be vast vastly versed in what they look at and the different crimes they look at where the profilers are
experts in certain areas of the Criminal Mind that most detectives will never encounter well and to to the credit of
law enforcement especially the one in this case again it I think it really boils down to you are responding to a
call right you are you're already behind the ball there you're responding to a call when the FBI is called in and
responding and going to a house they're already pretty sure like you know we're only being called in because this is a a
very serious offender right like and I know that it gets a little confusing to the listeners and even to us because we
talk about a serial killer once a month here in the garage most police officers and detectives will
work their entire career and never investigate a serial killer they they they never will it's just it's a rare
type of offender and so I think that you become seasoned to that and used to that and
that routine over the years that most of your killers that you will encounter and
investigations that you will work during your career are people that simply kill
one person and so I think that when you walk into that scene I think that Robert wrestler
is correct that they are not trained to search for certain things and look or to
see things the way that that Robert wrestler would see them if he were at the crime scene absolutely he very
likely would have conducted his search in a different manner but I don't think that we should look at that as a
critique or a criticism of law enforcement because again they are responding to the call that they got but
aren't they the ones that have to then call in the FBI so correct well and which they did in this case yes and
every time this happens it it's like I just want to scream from the rooftops if you're not an expert call in the expert
you don't have to be the smartest guy in the room you don't have to be the smartest guy in the garage you just have
to be the guy that set up the microphone to record that guy and you can get pretty far in life by doing that I'm
proof of it well and the detective here letho I really like this guy he this guy
has a a a passion for his work that he does in a in a very with like the cut of his jib he's very passionate about this
case in particular and I've heard him speak about this case and I will say this like he at times sounds like a
defeated confused man because I think he worked this as best as he could and I don't think that the Cas or the
investigation went to where he thought that it could um but again no judge should have let this man out well you're
right I I agree with that and I understand that we we have a system that is supposed to be innocent until proven
guilty but when there's crimes that are this heinous and we have a definitive victim here we there's no question that
she was a victim by somebody right so therefore we go hey until we can figure this out it's in the
best interest of the public and the best interest of this investigation to leave
this pile of vampire wannabe in in jail right and the thing is he's not he's not necessarily caught
red-handed but when you have a woman who as you pointed out so rightfully so is very obviously the victim of something
you pick her up she gives you the statement and then you go inside this guy's home and you find needles tubing
surgical equipment and a beaker that was used to drain her blood guess what you go into to thousands and thousands and
thousands of homes you're not going to find any of that stuff so that stuff to me very much confirms her story as being
true as being real as being factual you have the guy uh so he he's not caught red-handed but he looks incredibly
guilty so I'm I'm with you and of course of course there's a lot of people in this story and in a lot of true crime
stories that look back and wish that they would have done things differently right but we also have a credible
eyewitness and he can State for the record when I found her and in the state that she was in she pointed to this
house and who lives there the guy that we arrested and this guy doesn't get to go free he doesn't get a chance because
again go back to that bag what's in the bag if they could find the bag what other crimes does that possibly connect
him to is that the nail and the coffin no pun intended in this case and possibly other cases so to the police's
credit here they did conduct a search of his office so John ley's work office at
Harris Corp was searched and that search was conducted on December 20th 1985 crutch ley's office at Harris Corp
was searched after they fired crutchley on December 20th and then denying him access to the plant before he could
retrieve his personal belongings so I I don't have enough detailed information here to say this 100% but I what I
believe this to mean here Captain is that while he was arrested on the 23rd he doesn't get out until December 2nd I
don't think he had access to his office at any time from December 2nd To December 20th when it was searched right
and I think that it was I don't know if they were just doing things by the book and and waited until he was officially
fired from that job before the search was conducted but we do know a search was conducted so investigators in his
desk they found a wallet insert you remember those old inserts that you would put in a wallet this insert
contained an identification card belonging to a one Patty valinski and it also had pictures of a little boy later
police would learn that the pictures of the boy were of Patty valin's son right so they find this at
crutch ley's office now they also found a identification belonging to crutch ley's first wife and to a former
roommate and I don't want to go too down too too far down this path here yeah the
rabbit hole over the years I've heard a lot of different versions of ID cards and driver's license that
they found in this case some of them even State like well we know he killed 12 or 24 women because they found 24
different drivers license when they arrested this guy and searched his home and his office or they found 12
different driver license and identifications cards in his home right you know the the the true the the real
story you you can go read all those if you want there they're certainly out there and you can go listen to them too
they're certainly available for your earballs and your eyeballs but the true story from the mouth of the detective
who led this case and did this investigation St we found four four identification cards or
driver's license and we've been given we've been told who those belong to so one of them was this Patty
valinsky the other was his first wife and the other was a former roommate now the first wife and former
roommate they're still alive they're obviously not murder victims so where did the fourth where does the fourth
identification card come in so earlier when detectives searched crutch ley's house and this is to their credit
where wrestler believes they may have missed some things this this I believe shows that they were conducting a very
thorough investigation and this comes from the detective's mouth so he says when we we were searching crutch ley's
house we discovered a driver's license belonging to the kidnap and rape victim right and the detective says quote John
felt he'd beat us he'd gotten rid of all the victim stuff but he had to keep her California
driver's license he couldn't let it go he put it in the little pocket of a soaking wet bathing suit that's how
crafty he was he figured no one would pick up the wet bathing suit well they did and when they were there they found
that driver's license in that bathing suit confirming 100% near 100% that that woman was in
his home as she said she was he that's that's interesting the psychology of what the that's what the detective's
talking about the psychology of this man that he he was there at the home and had
opportunity to get rid of evidence it's fascinating but he couldn't he couldn't part with this driver's license he
needed to keep it for some reason and he tried to hide it from the detectives thinking they would never find it and
then he could keep it later as some kind of trophy it's fascinating because it's
the the Obsession the addiction is is is so strong that I that he couldn't part with this
item and almost like that he would lose connection to the crime that maybe he would lose connection to the fantasy
of the crime if he lost this item so I mean it's fascinating well and he had a good attorney too so when you have a
good attorney and you have the means to get out of jail and you tell your attorney who has to work as a fiduciary
for you and you tell him look I I want to be out I want to be home waiting for this trial rather than sitting in this
jail cell so your attorney is going to go before the judge and and point out all the reasons why you should be
allowed to to pay the bond post the bond and get out of jail and of course the attorney does this so it says you know
he's a he's never been arrested you know my client has never been charged with anything this is all a misunderstanding
he's able to P post the bond he is contributor to society he is the bread winner for his family his wife and son
depend on him and depend on his income so you make all these reasons why he should be allowed to leave and so as
said he posted that Bond so to to kind of complete our timeline a little better here crutchley is out of jail and free
to roam the State of Florida from December 2nd when he posted bond this last until January 9th this is really
interesting this is where the judge and the prosecutor I think got a little creative because I don't I'm I'm with
you Captain he shouldn't have been leted out you wish that he wouldn't have been
leted out I think that the judge and the prosecutor wish that he wouldn't have been let out as well and I think that
this is evidence of this so well because it's a it's a dangerous time period it's
just like if we rewind for a second what you said when a psycho knows that they're going to move it's a window of
opportunity to commit crimes and then once I move I'm not going to become a I'm less likely to become a suspect but
you have the same scenario when somebody's released from prison and if in his mind if he starts thinking hey
they really got me on this crime and and there's no chance that I'm going to get
away with this I might as well commit more crimes before I go away for the first crime so he's out until January
9th yeah and I love this move right here so the judge then decides leg well he decides oh your very important
respectable job that you have remember I I let you out I let you post bond because you are a contributor to
society you are bread winner and you you have to take care of your wife and kid and the house and everything
oh Harris Corporation fired you because you're a vampire I wonder if that's what
they put on the the paperwork yeah reason vampire um like that's an easy HR move right
vampire yeah why were you fired from your last position well they said I was a vampire and they don't like vampires
so the judge then goes well you are no longer contributing to society you don't have a job you are no longer providing
for your wife and child because you lost your job so your ass is going back to jail and waiting for this trial so they
they raised the bond from 50k to 500k wow and that is why he was returned to jail to wait for his trial now we're
going to fast forward from January to June thankfully he's behind bars all that time so June of 1986 John crutchley
pleads guilty to three of the 11 charg so they had a bit of a plea agreement here he pleas guilty to three of the 11
charges the rest were dropped this is Circuit Judge John alun listen to this this this guy got
creative here as well yeah so John alun sentenced crutchley to 25 years in state
prison which was which was the maximum that he would be allowed like and you know judges have a lot of power but the
but the state determines what the maximum sentence can be in a lot of these cases and so in a way here judge
alun he he's a bit handcuffed himself he really wanted to put this dude in prison
for life because he thought he was so dangerous such a danger to society that he should never be able to leave the pr
Prison Walls but he's Bound by the state to only 25 years which was the maximum so he gets 25 years in state prison with
psychiatric treatment and after that he's going to get 50 years of probation now that's what the judge could do that
he gave him 5050 years of probation which is really interesting to me because one that makes it a lot easier
for him to go back to prison but two if the probation is properly conducted then
he should be checking in meaning you can keep tabs on this guy a little bit right
at least at least you'll have some some checks and balances here with this very dangerous man and you're hoping that he
has to spend the full 25 years in prison and maybe he would Age out of this sexual Devany or or even this violent
nature that he has well what's great is hey let's put him on probation if he sneezes and accidentally farts he's
going back to jail but I I think maybe the play here and let me know if you agree is we
think that we can get him on other charges and maybe he's possibly connected to other crimes so if we get
him behind bars and we know that he's going to be there for 25 years now the public is
safe and now we have a chance to build cases against him that then will put him away in prison for life and to give some
credit where credit is due Robert wrestler was called to testify at the trial yeah and or at the sentencing I
should say and wrestler testified and told the judge look look I've been doing this a
long time I've seen a lot of these guys this guy is one of those guys this guy is a serial killer I believe he's killed
before I believe he will kill again if it were up to me judge I would lock him up for his entire life and throw away
the key but as we all know you can't punish someone for something you think that they did or think they will do you
have to punish them on something that you can prove that they did so they were a little bit limited as well everybody
wanted this guy to go away forever well I shouldn't say everybody we'll see that
in just a minute but almost everybody wanted this guy to go away forever but their hands were tied a little bit so
they gave him the best sentence I believe that they possibly could now his family some of his family expressed
shock and outrage at what they call the harshness of the decision his wife Karen
tell the newspapers I can't see why it meaning the punishment exceeded the guidelines
and crutch ley's wife Karen said quote it was a gentle rape hard to believe that a woman would say that to which I
respond listen dummy there is no such thing as a gentle rape no and I think if you are convicted of rape you should
spend the rest of your life in prison because that victim has to deal with your actions and has to deal with that
assault for the rest of their life they're affected for the rest of their life so you should be affected for the
rest of your life and and stay in prison hey vampire boy come take your dog collar off and stay a while get cozy cuz
you're going to be doing more in prison than just sucking blood want to thank everybody so much for
joining us here in the garage stick around for part two and until then be good be kind and don't
[Music] litter [Applause]

Florida Vampire /// Part 1 /// 749

Part 1 of 2

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In November of 1985 in Malabar, Florida authorities responded to a strange and disturbing call. A young woman who had been abducted the day before somehow managed to escape from her captor’s home. A motorist found the young woman on the side of the road. He took her to his home for both her protection and to call first responders for help. The woman described to detectives what the abductor had subjected her to over the last 22 hours. An abduction case was rare but perhaps the most startling detail of the woman’s story was that the man who had offered her a ride and then tortured her in his home, also drank the woman’s blood. The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office had a serious case on their hands and the community had a monster living among them.

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Brief Summary

Laura Murphy escapes abduction by John Crutchley, the "vampire rapist," leading to his arrest and complex investigation.

Key points

The Abduction of Laura Murphy. 19-year-old Laura Murphy is abducted in Malibar, Florida, leading to a harrowing escape.
John Crutchley's Arrest. John Crutchley is arrested after police find evidence confirming Laura's horrific story.
The Vampire Layer Escape. A victim escapes from a horrifying situation, potentially saving many lives.
The Disturbing Discovery. Detectives uncover unsettling items in Crutchley's home, revealing his violent tendencies.
The Stripped Car. Crutchley's car was found with identifying marks stripped off, raising suspicions.
Detective's Discovery. Detectives find a driver's license belonging to a victim in a bathing suit.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I'm taking your blood out, I'm a vampire.

The abductor's chilling claim to Laura Murphy

8:34WatchApr 10, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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