Michael Francke /// Part 1 /// 247 | Forensic Files

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gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] foreign
[Music] of 1980 all hell and I do mean hell broke loose at 1am on February 2nd inmates at a
Maximum Security Prison just south of Santa Fe jumped three prison guards during a routine dorm count
by 205 am the inmates had complete control of the prison two prison gangs the Chicanos the Aryan
Brotherhood they had their own agendas after the Takeover the call was to immediately seek revenge against the
snitches housed in cell block 4. as Dawn broke a group of inmates later nicknamed the execution Squad broke into
cell block 4. the rioters could not open the cell doors however they managed to find blow
torches that were used to renovate the overcrowded prison in Block 5. Unfortunately they were able to use the
blow torches to open each cell in Block four one at a time when opened the victims were pulled from
their cells to be tortured dismembered hanged or burned alive inmates killed inmates with piping work tools and
homemade shanks some of the inmates in this time of chaos and crisis showed they were of
good character some of the correction officers held captive were protected by inmates at
inmates instruction two officers removed their uniforms and put on Prison clothes
to disguise themselves and avoid being attacked these two officers were later escorted
out of the prison protected by inmates however other inmates showed their true colors given the opportunity it reminded
us all why they were locked up in the first place as two very unfortunate officers were so
brutally beaten and raped that they had to be carried out of the prison on stretchers
seven officers were severely injured the riot only lasted about 36 hours but in the end the official death toll was
33 people all of them inmates 12 of the victims had been housed in the protective custody unit
most of the 33 were brutally murdered some died from a drug overdose more than 200 inmates were treated for
injuries later there would be several books about this prison riot and its causes and aftermath
and to give you a better idea of the Total Carnage one book is titled the hate Factory and the other the devil's
butcher shop the 1980 New Mexico State Penitentiary Riot was the most violent prison riot in
American history then state official Michael Franke was brought in to completely revamp the
troubled and broken New Mexico prison system Frankie investigated and exposed the
corruption that was leading to severe problems and was officially recognized for his achievements by political
leaders such as former U.S President Jimmy Carter he served as a judge for three years and
in 1983 became the director of the New Mexico Department of Corrections in May of 1987 Oregon governor Neil
Goldschmidt hired Michael Franke to fill the corresponding position in Oregon Frankie was hired to address problems in
the Oregon State's Department of Corrections after coming to Oregon Frankie learned many unfavorable things
about what was happening behind Prison Walls the corruption was rampant and included murder prostitution drugs and
even stealing cattle as it turns out prison guards in the 80s were taking inmate crews out and stealing cattle
from local farms and ranches and then making money by supplying Stakes to local restaurants
it was exposed during the 1980s that officials at the Oregon Department of Corrections were enlisting the help of
convicted murderers inside the prison and rewarding them by providing them weekend passes
at least one of these weekend passes for a convicted murderer led to another murder
simply put Michael Frankie was hired to clean up a giant mess Frankie told his family he was going to blow the lid off
of corruption in the Oregon prison system and implicate several top government officials however
it did not happen because he was murdered before he could do so Michael Frankie was a good man an
ethical man that stood up for what was right and fought corruption and the corrupted this is his story
[Music] foreign Ty was a native of Kansas City Missouri he was born October 2nd 1946 and after
graduating high school he attended New Mexico's Highland University on a football scholarship he would graduate
with a Bachelor of Arts degree in a combined major of political science economics German and French then he
attended the University of Virginia law school and he graduated with a law degree in 1971 as and was subsequently
admitted to the Virginia bar for the next three years he served as a Judge Advocate General in the United
States Navy at Long Beach Naval Station now in 1975 he was admitted to the bar in New Mexico and worked as an Assistant
Attorney General and counsel to the State Department of Corrections he served in this capacity until 1980 when
he became a judge for the first district court in Santa Fe he served as a judge for three years and then in 1983 became
the director of the New Mexico Department of Corrections and we heard in the trailer there captain
what state the they were in as far as the Department of Correction goes for New Mexico state the the problems there
were bad that Riot that we described probably and most likely was was caused by severe overcrowding within the prison
system that particular prison had almost doubled the amount of inmates that it was built to house some of them sleeping
without beds and then we also have brutality from both sides of the cell block door from the inmates and from
some of the correction officers as well in May of 1987 Oregon governor Neil Goldschmidt hired Michael Frankie to
fill the corresponding position in Oregon Frankie was hired to address problems in the Oregon State's
Department of Corrections the main purpose however for his hiring was to oversee the largest prison expansion in
Oregon State history it was necessary to expand due to severe overcrowding in these prisons as well now we already
spoke of the checkered history of the Oregon prison system and Michael Franke was the man tasked with removing the
corruption of the Oregon State Department of Corrections but he took heavy criticism when he first came in by
legislatures for the cost of overruns and delays in the state's prison construction program these same
legislators were also growing increasingly frustrated about the rising inmate population so the organ system
was EXP experiencing severe overcrowding with up to five thousand inmates crammed
into prisons originally designed for 2 800 people still it's believed by many that he
figured out who was doing what and was ready to report it to his superiors Frankie told his family that he was
going to blow the lid off of corruption and the Oregon prison system and implicate several top government
officials now this leads us to January 17 1989. so we know a little bit about Michael
Frankie's background but what we didn't say is that Michael was a hard-working dedicated and determined individual and
he was expected that he expected the same out of those who worked for him Michael was known to work late many if
not most work days he often worked into the evening on Tuesday January 17 1989 Michael Frankie held a regular meeting
this was with the five division heads and other top staff members on his staff on this Tuesday the meeting lasted until
6 pm Michael Frankie talked with some Personnel after and was seen by several people inside what is the Dome building
what is called the Dome building there were several floors of offices in this building and Michael Frankie's office is
on the ground level reports from Witnesses indicate that Mr Frankie left the dome building shortly
after 6 30 pm other reports indicate that it was closer to 6 45 PM but just to be clear
no reports read that Mr Frankie left his office after 6 45 pm two senior staff leaving the Dome
building approximately 40 minutes later discovered Michael Frankie's car parked in its designated spot outside the front
entryway with the driver's door open Frankie's white Pontiac Bonneville was one of only a few cars left in the
parking lot at the corrections headquarters at this time of night the two staffers observed no noticeable
damage to the vehicle and no obvious signs of forced entry on the vehicle were observed
the staffers closed and locked the car door and returned to the Dome building where they made numerous phone calls to
other senior staffers to determine Frankie's whereabouts all to no avail security was notified at the nearby
communications center and the staffers left the dome building at approximately 805 pm
two other senior staffers Richard Peterson head of Institutions and David Coley head of planning and budget arrived at
approximately 8 35 pm and conducted what they described as a meticulous search of
the Dome building but found nothing amiss there was thought that maybe someone had
picked Michael Frankie up and maybe they had went to dinner this was discussed by several of the
persons looking for him so the senior staff members went home for the night after they failed to locate Mr Frankie
and assume that he was at a private dinner engagement police were not notified at this time around 12 30 a.m
January 18th the night Watchman on duty Stephen Rubino was told to be especially
observant as he made his rounds of the Dome building now as he came to a dimly lit porch at
the side of the building Rabino spotted a large man sprawled on the porch he was
surrounded by bloodstains and a panel of glass at the porch doorway was smashed the night Watchman had discovered
Michael Frankie's body police secured the area the inspectors quickly noticed some of
Michael Frankie's belongings may be missing this was his briefcase there was also broken glass on and near his body
now it's believed that Michael Frankie as he was being murdered he had tried to unlock the door to get back into the doc
office the Department of Corrections office but could not unlock the doors and in his final moments of Life Frankie
broke a glass panel from the door attempting to get inside or at the very least call for help
some have said that all of Frankie's documents from his year-long investigation were later shredded at the
Department of Corrections within hours of his body being found this is according to quote inside sources now
these inside sources are not listed just to be clear here the newspapers that very same day
covered the story the information that they released was this Michael Franke was found stabbed to death just outside
the office building in which he worked he died of a stab wound to the heart with massive bleeding the medical
examiner said it was quote a definite homicide but there were no suspects so now we have a judge that was brought in
to clean up this prison system and he's murdered yeah and later the Michael Frankie murder investigation was
described as the largest of its kind in Oregon history at that time the number of investigators fluctuated between 6
and 30 full-time investigators the media coverage was intense to say the least and then Governor Neil Goldschmidt he
was really according to the papers putting the police department under intense pressure to make an arrest and
bring closure to the case of course given the nature of Frankie's work the possibility that the murder was
a hit was immediately considered right despite interviews with thousands of people including several convicts and a
reward fund exceeding twenty thousand dollars the investigators assigned to the case were not catching any big
breaks early on in the investigation what we do know was this due to eyewitness accounts the police were
convinced that the killer was a dark-haired man with a light-colored coat who was seen running from the scene
but that man's identity was unknown there were some problems with the investigation one being that the time of
death was not known so the window for the time of death is simply 6 30 PM which is approximately the last time
that Mr Frankie was seen right and just after 12 30 a.m when his body was found well he's found by security right
correct effect so do they not have any security cameras in this facility they did not
and the thing here is Captain we can't even at the very least narrow that down any because when his body was found the
body temperature was never taken nor recorded I'm sorry which would have shortened that window for us so all we
can say is that sometime between the last time he was seen alive in the time that he was found dead near this door
that's when he was killed another question keypad entries or is it strictly just it's it's a key
it's 1989 and this so we need to be clear here this this is a little bit difficult you say well
if there were several people looking for this individual why was he not located well there's a couple problems with this
okay so it's January 1 is a problem because by the time he would have left work that day it was already dark so
they're at a disadvantage looking for someone especially outside um where he would later be found and
this the door that he died in front of was it was like a side door and I believe it was on the second floor so
let's say he was attacked his car door was found open so there's some thought that he he was attacked at that car
right and then managed to try to seek help and he made it to that door before he expired so please say the door that
he was found on was the second floor yes so I don't know if this would have been
the most the the nearest door for him I'm guessing that's where he would go to so let's say it's the nearest door he
would have had to run from his vehicle after being attacked and then go up the stairs and try to get into that door and
then unfortunately he passed away there before help could arrive or the attack continued
that the the attacker followed him up there and and killed him in front of the door so no keypads and no security video
footage of this correct and you bringing up the keypad is interesting because there was at least
I off the top of my head captain I think only one article that I found regarding
the case and the crime scene there was an article that stated any articles on the case no I meant stating the
following um that the locks to the doors were changed that day now I don't know that I
believe that I don't I have no reason to discredit it I have no proof that it didn't happen that day but what I will
say is this there and it this will be obvious by the end of this episode there's a lot of
questions around this murder and there's a lot of thoughts about who committed this crime and I think that the idea of
the locks being changed that day adds to the Mystique of it or to the the confusion right of the whole crime scene
the problem I have with that statement though Captain is that Michael Frankie was the boss he was the
he was the the number one dude in this building there were as I said there were several floors of offices inside this
building of the Oregon Department of Corrections building right he was the man in there if the door locks were
changed that day if there's one person that you make sure has that key when the doors are changed when the locks are
changed it's the boss it's that guy it's that guy and the other thing too to to paint the picture of the scene or to get
an idea of what when we try to think of what could have happened to this man Bob
Ross please keep in mind Michael Frankie remember we said he went he he went to college on a football scholarship this
was not a tiny man this was this dude was six foot three wow 225 pounds and he wasn't the kicker
I have no idea what position he played I'm just saying he could have went played football and he could have been
the kicker well he could have been but changes things a little bit but what we we know he was not small he was six foot
three 225 to 230 pounds this is a big guy get right back to this after this quick beer break
[Music] thank you [Music] all right cheers me ladies cheers Captain we have a big break in
the case because on April 8th 1990 so this is nearly 15 months after Frankie's death
the police arrested Frank Gable who was at the time 30 years old he's arrested for the murder of Michael
Frankie so who is he uh well so Frank Gable his name did not surface as a suspect I guess until about
eight months after the crime when the murder investigation was at what they were calling at the time a standstill
two people initially pointed the finger at gable one was Michael kieran's the other tipster was Janine Vera Gable
Frank Gable's wife so the police at this time believed that Michael Frankie was murdered in a an attempted robbery the
police interrogated known drug dealers and Street criminals looking to figure out if somebody had heard something you
know they want to find out the word on the streets right one of them claimed that he witnessed
the murder and then identified the killer as a drug dealer named Frank Gable according to this witness Gable
was in the act of breaking into Michael's car Michael Frankie's car when Michael came out of the office building
around 7 PM Gable then stabbed Frankie very badly wounding him it is believed at this time that Gable stole Michael
Frankie's briefcase and fled the scene Michael Frankie then staggered up a set of stairs to a side entrance to the
building attempting to get in could not and then broke the glass pane on the door in a desperate desperate attempt to
get back into his office now after getting this tip that led police to drug dealer Frank Gable
Frank was already in jail for beating his wife when he was arraigned for killing Oregon prison director Michael
Frankie the charges go ahead so Frankie's attacked January of 89 when is the suspect arrested for beating his
wife uh that I don't know and I'm going to be honest with you Captain I don't know a ton about this Frank Gable
um it it wasn't until April of 1990 that he is charged with Frankie's murder but
we do know that he became on he got onto police radar about eight months after the murder I don't know if that means he
was locked up around that same time one of my thoughts is that it could very well be the case because one of the
witnesses is his wife who he has already been charged with uh assaulting and he's
in jail for that assault right so one good thing is hey we got a suspect that we really like and he's not going to be
hard to find because we know where he is he's sitting in a jail somewhere but with his wife being one of the supposed
eyewitnesses or people willing to point the finger at this Frank Gable I can't believe that if that was going
on in their relationship that she was going to tell the police about it before he's arrested for hitting her now the
charges for Frank Gable would be six counts of aggravated murder and one count of intentional murder for
allegedly fatally stabbing Michael Frankie aggravated murder is a capital crime and organ and the prosecutors said
they will seek the death penalty if Gable is convicted now investigators never found a weapon
or other physical evidence tying Gable to the crime and Gable well he never confessed to the crime either in fact in
a jailhouse interview after his court appearance Gable said he was innocent saying quote
don't let me get railroaded he told k-o-i-n television I just asked that they not stop looking there is a killer
out there somewhere the indictment offers a series of possible motives for the murder
including that Gable killed Frankie during a theft or robbery or that the slang was related to Frankie's work as a
prison's chief the trial at trial the prosecutor said that Frankie caught Gable breaking into
his car and in a panic Gable stabbed him now again no physical evidence was produced even at trial however the
prosecution was allowed to introduce as evidence a knife that was purchased by investigators
which matched Frankie's wounds Gable's ex-wife testified that she had gave Gable a similar knife at some point in
their relationship all right that seems like there's some holes no pun intended in this
is that the worst evidence you've ever heard yeah I mean again have some proof have some evidence I mean if she had a
receipt of a knife that she bought prior then okay but right but we don't so and
and how many stab wounds do we have his autopsy is difficult so the way that this the way that it reads is that he
was stabbed directly in the heart the problem with what was released to the public is that we don't know if that
stab came from the back or the front right there was not a ton of information released publicly regarding his autopsy
they do state that there were some defensive wounds on the victim there was also some sign of blunt force trauma
however this sounds terrible um the blunt force trauma they don't believe was part of the attack they
actually believed that his his body uh occur that blunt force trauma to the body occurred when he he was most likely
slumped up against the door in the wall in the corner as he was trying to get into that door that office door to to
get help right and then at some point he fell onto the concrete and they believed
that that blunt forced trauma to the body occurred at that time and not during the course of the attack so I'm
going to ask an obvious question I'm hoping for an obvious answer okay you put me on the spot count so he he's
breaking into a car he's breaking into the vehicle that's what they think happened that's what the prosecution is
stating so we have fingerprints um no we don't and again remember the troubling thing here too is we have the
eyewitnesses the the people that closed the car door that found the car door open Frankie's car door opened they
stated that they didn't see any damage to the car any sign of a scuffle any obvious signs that that somebody broke
into the vehicle right you know it almost looks like to me with given that description it
more likely sounds to me that Frankie opened up his own car door and then was attacked and the car door
just happened to be left open possibly or the way that the prosecution Paints the picture is that Frank Gables in mid
break-in and the I would have to guess Frank Gables already got the door open by the time
that Frankie discovers him and says hey buddy what are you doing with my car yeah now you got a six foot three large
man getting ready to come down upon you for breaking into his car I breathe heavy into your ear well and I I think
we don't well let's go ahead but but Frank Gable could have just been checking cards to see if they're
unlocked and then he goes oh this car is unlocked I open up the door right when I
open up the door Frankie sees me yeah so that could have happened too that's a possibility but again guess whose hands
on that door unless you're telling me that that he was wearing gloves or whatever the individual that was spotted
is believed to have been wearing gloves that there was a man remember we have the eyewitness account of a dark-haired
man and a light-colored coat running from the scene the problem with that is this person is spotted running from the
area of the vehicle not necessarily running from a murder scene you know it's not like anybody says I saw a
murder or a man attacked and then this description of this guy ran away from the area right now there's just a dude
that's spotted in the area now that guy from every from every statement I could find sounds like the guy was wearing
gloves so well it could just be a guy that you know randomly was leaving work and
decided you know what I really need to get in better shape I'm going to start right now running well and look it's
January don't people wear gloves in January I mean I do get with it people put on some gloves
hey don't you wear don't you wear gloves I also wear socks in January too yeah hey at the trial the state produced
several witnesses this is going to be the troubling thing for Mr Frank Gable these Witnesses all of whom were
criminal Associates of gable and claim that Gable confessed the crime to them after the fact the testimonies were from
the following first we have a woman named Jody Swearingen she's a local teen runaway who testified before a grand
jury that she had witnessed the murder police reports indicate that she had identified Frank Gable as the
perpetrator of that murder then we have Cappy AKA shorty Hardin happy shorty if your first name is Cappy
do you need a nickname unless you're incredibly short then he's then he's sure what if he's like three foot seven
then you're shorty yeah he testified at trial that he was parked near the Dome building with the young woman we just
discussed Jody Swearingen when he said shorty was yeah he saw Frank Gable according to Cappy or shorty whatever
you want to call him he saw Frank Gable stab Michael Frankie then we have Mike Kearns
we also have Dan Walsh and Kevin Walker all three separately testified that Gable confessed to them that he had
killed Frankie so these are so why are these guys in the area why is this guy parked
um I don't know if they were parked in the car and fooling around or if they were leaving the area so this building
is actually near a very large hospital so almost across the street from the parking lot where we believe Michael
Frankie was attacked would be a very large parking lot for a state hospital so they very likely could have been in
the State Hospital parking lot right but I want to know why they were there seems to me that they're just finding
people that know Frank Gable and who's just going hey just say you're there oh no I apologize I think I I think the way
that I describe that is weird I don't believe that Jody Swearingen and this Shorty Hardin actually knew who Frank
Gable was okay um they were able to say hey the person we saw attack Michael Frankie was this
man they were able to identify him the people that knew Frank Gable were that Michael Cairns Dan Walsh Kevin Walker
these were known associates of Gables who at one point he confessed according to them that he had killed Michael
Frankie then we have Janine Vera remember the married to Gable at the time of Frankie's murder right she
testified that Gable was not home on the night of the murder and that she didn't
know where he was she also testified that Gable said at some point quote I stuck the guy she says what guy
he says quote the guy at the hospital Gable answered now that's an interesting statement here Captain because one thing
I had wondered about when the prosecution gave their theory of the events and of the murder and how it
occurred in the motive right was that this guy's breaking into a car well if I'm a criminal if I'm a thief
you probably are I'm not choosing a vehicle that's in the parking lot of the Department of Corrections the head the
you know the headquarters for the Department of Corrections unless you don't know
unless you think it's a hospital right and that's what's interesting about what she says when she testifies that Gable
referred to him as the guy at the hospital the other thing that's interesting there too is that that also
implies that Frank Gable did not know the man that he attacked he didn't know him by name
now the verdict that little bit of evidence those people testifying that's all the evidence they
had all here say all circumstantial and you know we had last week's case of Scott Peterson where people got a little
upset and said how can you convict on circumstantial evidence uh there was a what I would refer to as a mountain of
circumstantial evidence against Scott Peterson against Frank Gable here however that's it that's a molehill of
circumstantial evidence well I still like the way that Nancy Grace talks about it is the idea that you go
into work and it's sunny and it's beautiful out then you go out for lunch and there's puddles everywhere and your
car is wet and there's all this circumstantial evidence that lets you know that it probably rained right and
and so that's how you get to that conclusion yeah there's not a mountain of evidence here the difficult things
one is your your two eyewitnesses are criminals then these so-called Associates that you confess to well it's
believed and I'm going to say allegedly because I can't say um that I have hardcore evidence of this
or saw lots of reports stating the same but allegedly I would guess five out of the six people that testified that he
was guilty or six out of six would have been probably drug users at the time and I
can say that because look Frank Gable was he was a known drug dealer and so his associates are either going to be
other dealers or users most likely okay and they've also been referred to publicly in newspaper articles as just
that as drug users as far as Jody Swearingen and Cappy hardengo AKA shorty I believe
similar that they were drug users at the time again I don't think they had any knowledge of Frank Gable prior to seeing
the person that they described as Frank Gables stabbing Michael Frankie so what's interesting is with Frank Gables
you wonder why would he break into somebody's car I mean if he's a drug dealer then why are you breaking into
somebody's car that's that's kind of a lower level crime so you're probably making money off the
drugs why would you break into a car but if the car is you think is at a hospital
or you're breaking into it because you think this person is a doctor and there's something that you can get out
of this you could get some prescription pills or something like that well that's
an interesting thing that you bring up here and one thought is that okay so Frank Gable was considered quote
unquote a career Criminal by this point in his life this is somebody that has been had trouble with the law it wasn't
his first run-in with the law he was a known drug dealer he was a guy that was going to make his living off of
committing crimes can you imagine that though I mean you and I have both been in positions
where we're at a job that we're not we're not in love with but it pays okay and the benefits are
all right so it starts becoming hey maybe I can turn this into a career can you imagine the guy
that's selling a little bit of dope here a little bit of dope there breaking into
cars starts thinking I don't I'll have many options this is going to be my career
well the other thing though too is I don't know that it's about options I think a lot of times with these
individuals it's about they don't give a [ __ ] about two weeks from now two months
from now two years from now that's right they're living in the moment and it's how can I get some money for today maybe
tonight maybe tomorrow is the furthest they can think ahead so let's talk about the car though Captain so neither
Frankie's car phone nor his stereo were tampered with we do know that from the police report yeah the car phone yeah
interesting well remember back then I'm guessing it's one of those Motorola deals that has like the it has a little
station with it it looks almost like a tiny briefcase yeah and and some people would keep it in their glove box or kind
of there in the center between the two front seats so it'd be very obvious now what makes that interesting though too
is if I am a criminal looking for something expensive and I see that sitting on the passenger seat or are in
the front portion of the vehicle I'm going to go man I'd like to steal that car phone right
so well the question here is now is this car owned by Frankie or is this given to
him by the state I believe that he owns the vehicle and the only thing I have to
go off of is that it's referred to as Frankie's car phone and his stereo were not tampered with well because sometimes
I mean heads of detectives will get a detective vehicle for example and they might have the radio in there but also
have emergency cell phone service so that's kind of why I was wondering and then that also makes me wonder
if it was owned by the state then how many people have access to to Keys the other thing that we should call in a
question is the body so Michael Frankie's watch wallet and cash were still on him when he was found after he
he was dead what kind of Watch was it how how would I know what kind of I don't know what kind of watch it is
um and regard well I think if you're trying to if you're the defense for example right and you say hey he's he's
wearing a he's wearing a baller watch he's wearing a Thomas he's wearing a Rolex this Timex of baller no time this
is not a baller watch this one that's what makes it a joke those are the people that are bawling in uh fifth
grade right but what I'm saying is I that does make a difference and you'd think that the defense would have
brought this up to say hey if if he was breaking into the car because he wanted to get money or
whatever he was looking for then wouldn't he take this watch I mean if it's a if it's a crap watch you're not
gonna take it I mean it might have been a little calculator watch we don't know because it's not reported but again
these items would suggest that the money was not the priority of the Killer is what a lot of people would point out
again my problem with Frank with Frank Gable's motive is if he is a drug dealer one why would you be breaking into carbs
that seems like a downward move in your career you're selling drugs you're making money
your ball on out of control you're wearing Timex you got five Timex on your left arm
so why are you breaking into the car but again he thought it was the the hospital
so you're breaking into a car because you think it's a doctor's car so you're trying to break in to get drugs or or a
prescription pad or whatever it is possibly possibly I don't know that I would say that Frank Gable was above
breaking into cars um again I believe this is an individual that's a career criminal uh he's any
he's those types of individuals look for opportunity and when opportunity presents itself they
seize the moment and steal whatever it is that they can Captain they did not need Nancy Grace
sitting on the sidelines cheerleading for the prosecution here because the verdict that would come down
Gable was found guilty and received life in prison with no chance of parole alright so
an open and shut case right yep easy easy I'll see you next week done one parter great one parter well not so fast
as the there are major doubts in this case there were TV and newspapers that came
forward in February of 1991 um and this started prior to Gable's conviction the Michael Frankie story was
featured on an episode of the TV program Unsolved Mysteries the killing sparked widespread speculation that Frankie was
murdered because he was about to expose corruption in his Department one of Frankie's brother was also hired for
though yes it's believed that he was hired for that was part of the reason that he was hired one of Frankie's
Brothers said that the prisons Chief told him shortly before his death that he had discovered organized crime
elements in the prison's system the case also became somewhat of a Battleground between the three leading
Portland newspapers a leading advocate for the wrongful conviction slash conspiracy theory was local journalist
Phil Stanford Stanford wrote extensively on the case and wrote a screenplay for a
film based on the Frankie murder called without evidence this was released in 1995 featuring Angelina Jolie and one of
her first major roles now she played the person that we already mentioned Jody Swearingen then even after the
conviction persons close to the case started calling into question many interesting aspects of the case and the
murder scene we already discussed the car we already discussed the body but one thing that they would keep going
back to is the timing of the murder because we have Frankie's brother who says that shortly before his murder he
told him he was going after an organized criminal element within the prison system
Frankie's employees told police he had received threats shortly before he was murdered and on several occasions sent
security guards to his home now we have Chuck sides a former State lawmaker who played basketball with Michael Frankie
that later said that shortly before Frankie's murder that Frankie started carrying a pistol in his gym bag for
self-defense because he was taking steps to disrupt drug trafficking inside the prisons that's quite interesting Captain
for several reasons because we have the prosecution that state that the main motive for the murder of Michael Frankie
was that he disrupted a car thief right and it was killed as a reactionary thing during the course of that robbery
right and here we have we have a lawmaker we have people that he worked with that are staying that
there obviously was something in Michael Frankie's life that he believed that he
was in danger he's sending police officers to his home from time to time he's actively carrying a gun in his gym
bag right these would point to signs that this man believed that he was going to be part of a premeditated attack on
his life and not necessarily a situation where he surprises a car thief yeah so then the question becomes did he just
interrupt a simple car break-in or was his investigation such on the right track that it was leading them down the
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Michael Francke /// Part 1 /// 247

Part 1 of 2

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Michael Francke was a good man. He was hired in 1987 as the Director of Oregon state’s Department of Corrections. Michael was brought in to oversee the largest prison expansion in the state’s history. The Oregon prisons were very badly overcrowded. Many believe that Michael discovered something unsavory. This could have been corruption in the Oregon Department of Corrections, or an organized criminal element in the prison system. People believe this because Michael was telling them this. Before he could reveal the evil that lurked beneath the surface someone attacked and killed Michael Francke. Beer of the Week - Doublecross by Crux Fermentation Project Garage Grade - 4 out of 5 bottle caps

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Brief Summary

The episode examines the 1980 New Mexico prison riot and Michael Frankie's controversial murder investigation.

Key points

The Most Violent Prison Riot. The 1980 New Mexico State Penitentiary Riot was the deadliest in U.S. history, resulting in 33 inmate deaths.
Michael Frankie's Murder. Michael Frankie, tasked with cleaning up prison corruption, was murdered before he could expose it.
Frank Gable Arrested. Frank Gable was arrested 15 months after Michael Frankie's murder, marking a breakthrough in the case.
Frank Gable's Confession. Witnesses claim Gable confessed to the murder of Michael Frankie.
Circumstantial Evidence. The case against Gable relies heavily on circumstantial evidence and witness testimonies.
Life Sentence for Gable. Frank Gable is found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Music is the food of love.

Captain's humorous introduction.

0:55WatchNov 24, 2022

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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