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After a hard day fighting crime, Michael Frankie walked to his car in the night's shadow. His footsteps echoed in the empty lot. Michael possessed an incredible work ethic, coupled with a burning desire for positive change. A modern-day superhero. As Michael opened his car door, horror struck. An attacker pierced a knife through this champion's heart.
The director of the Department of Corrections bled to death a few hundred feet from his office. No knife found, no evidence. Nobody saw anything at the Department of Corrections? Hmm. This is Forensic Tales, episode number 68, The Murder of Michael Franke. ♪♪
Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell.
Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast covering real, spine-tingling stories with a forensic science twist. Some cases have been solved with forensic science, while others have turned cold. Every remarkable story sends us a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings.
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Now, let's jump right into this week's story. In the 1980s, Michael Franke was at the very top of his career. If you were a resident in Oregon, anytime you heard anything about the Department of Corrections, you thought of Michael Franke. He was personally going to clean up the United States prison system. Before Michael became the director of Oregon's Department of Corrections, he led a remarkable life.
Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Michael attended college at New Mexico Highlands University on a football scholarship. If one bachelor's degree isn't impressive enough, Michael graduated with a bachelor's degree in a combined major of political science, economics, German, and French. After college graduation, he received a full-ride scholarship to study law at the University of Virginia Law School.
In 1971, Michael graduated from law school and was admitted to the Virginia Bar. The following three years, he worked as a judge advocate general for the U.S. Navy. In 1975, Michael left the Navy to relocate back to New Mexico to work as an assistant attorney general and counsel to the state's corrections department. Like in all aspects of his life, Michael quickly moved through the ranks of the judicial system.
By 1980, at just 33 years old, Governor Bruce King appointed him a judge for the first district court in Santa Fe. Later that same year, he secured his seat on the bench by winning the election. Becoming a judge is a dream that many attorneys share. For many, this achievement symbolizes the top of their careers. But not for Michael. He was destined for more.
While Michael served as a judge in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a single event changed his life forever. On the night of February 2nd, 1980, a group of inmates from Dormitory E2 at the Penitentiary of New Mexico concocted a prison pooch batch, a potent mix of fermented raisins and yeast smuggled out of the prison's kitchen. By 10.30 p.m., the inmates were beyond intoxicated.
In jail and drunk? Well, that's a recipe for disaster. After the inmates drank the homebrew, the correctional officers began their counts for the night, a process that involves going from one cell to the next, ensuring that every single inmate is accounted for. As two correctional officers did the counts, a third officer was stationed to guard each wing entrance.
As the guards approached Dormitory E2, two inmates overpowered the guards before closing the prison cell doors. The inmates took the two officers hostage and the third officer who was guarding the door at the wing's end, a situation igniting the most violent prison riot in U.S. history. Over the next 36 hours, New Mexico prison inmates took control of the prison.
The inmates took 12 correctional officers hostage. Other prisoners turned on each other. Inmates who were considered police informants were tortured and mutilated. Once authorities regained control of the prison, 33 people died, 12 correctional officers were held hostage, and over 200 inmates were seriously injured.
Luckily, none of the 12 correctional officers who were held hostage were killed, but seven of them suffered serious injuries, injuries including beatings and rapes. An investigation into the New Mexico prison riot uncovered grave issues in the U.S. prison system. When authorities took a closer look at how a riot of this magnitude could have even happened in the first place, well, they weren't too surprised, actually.
During the 1980s, the conditions of United States prisons were, for lack of a better term, horrendous. I would even say unlivable at some of these facilities. The biggest issue was prison overcrowding and inferior prison services. On the night of the riot in New Mexico, over 1,100 inmates lived there with only a little over 900 beds.
Most inmates lived in unsanitary dormitories. They slept alongside mice and cockroaches. So prison officials also cut many educational and recreational programs, many of which were aimed at rehabilitation. Since the state cut these programs, the rehabilitation hours were now hours that they had to spend in their cells. Inmates were subject to much longer periods of lockdowns.
Prison lockdowns are associated with several negative consequences, including feelings of deprivation and depression, feelings that oftentimes lead to disorder and violence within a prison setting. When the investigation into the New Mexico prison riot was all said and done, it was no surprise that the inmates were reacted in such a manner. They were suffering, they were angry, and they were fed up.
This was their way of letting officials know that something needs to be done about prison conditions in the United States. The 1980 New Mexico prison riot really opened up Michael Franke's eyes. He was serving as a judge for the First District Court in Santa Fe. Immediately after authorities regained control, he took a tour of the prison. He witnessed firsthand how overcrowded it was and the horrific living conditions.
He also recognized the problem about cutting educational and rehabilitation programs. Michael wasn't going to be just another onlooker. He needed to create change in the U.S. prison system. Big change. As a reminder of the prison riot, Michael kept the blood-soaked boots he wore to the prison that day. A reminder that significant prison reform was needed, not only in New Mexico, but across the entire country.
After serving on the bench as a judge for a little over three years, Michael decided to hang up his robe. In 1983, he left the court to become the director of the New Mexico Department of Corrections. He understood that if he wanted to create a difference in our prison system, he needed to get into a position with the power to create that change. As soon as he took office, Michael became the leading figure in New Mexico's prison reform.
His first attempt at prison reform put him at the top of a $95 million for-prison construction project for New Mexico. While serving as director, Michael made significant improvements with prison facilities.
Besides constructing four new facilities throughout the state, he led initiatives to upgrade current prisons. He restored educational programs for inmates. He placed a greater emphasis on the need for rehabilitation, not just punishment. He was one of the first people to really address some of the U.S.'s prison's major concerns. Michael was different from a lot of Department of Correction directors before him.
He believed the state was responsible for the conditions of their prisons. He didn't believe that if someone commits a crime and is sentenced to prison, that they don't deserve a second chance at life, a chance at rehabilitation. Michael's work for New Mexico's Department of Corrections caught the attention of prison officials across the entire country. Many of them looked up to Michael.
a courageous leader revolutionizing state prison system management. One of the people who started to notice was Neil Goldschmidt, the governor of Oregon. Neil Goldschmidt also took notice of the condition of America's prisons. Prison overcrowding and poor living conditions also haunted him. When he took the governor's office in Oregon, he reached out to Michael for advice on dealing with the state's prison issues.
Neil Goldschmidt knew that if Michael could clean up the mess in New Mexico, he could do the same anywhere across the country. But Oregon's governor wasn't just after Michael's advice on prison reform. Goldschmidt wanted him to come to his state and do what he did in New Mexico. Michael was passionate about change. Another prison mess needed his magic touch.
In May 1987, Michael Franke packed his bags and moved to Oregon. Oregon's governor hired Michael to become the director of the state's Department of Corrections, the same title he held back in New Mexico. That's, well, that's where the similarities ended. The state of Oregon's prisons were a disaster. Almost every prison facility was overcrowded. Prison staff were poorly trained and severely underpaid.
Prison programs were cut right and left, and the state was on the verge of seeing another prison riot, just like what happened back in New Mexico. Oregon's prisons set Michael's stage. He was the man leading prison reform. But when Michael arrived, politicians, well, many politicians didn't welcome him with open arms.
Not all state politicians agreed with his philosophies on prison reform. Believe it or not, not everyone agrees on improving prison conditions. Some people feel like if you commit a crime, well, then you better be prepared to do the time, no matter how bad prison life is. So a handful of state politicians disagreed with what Michael did in New Mexico.
They didn't believe the public should be spending hard-earned tax dollars on improving prison inmates' lives. They thought that the money was better allocated probably pretty much anywhere else other than criminals. Early into his tenure at Oregon's Department of Corrections, many members of the state's legislation criticized his work. These legislators were upset at how much of the state's money was being spent on prison reform.
They also disagreed with the state's budget to construct several new prison facilities throughout the state. And, like most construction programs, many of the new prison facilities experienced delays, which in turn cost the state more money. But Michael didn't seem to let the noise of the state's legislation bother him. He came to Oregon to do a job, reform the state's prison system. And that's exactly what he was going to do.
But Michael's courageous reform efforts grew enemies hiding in plain sight. In the early morning hours of January 18, 1989, a security guard patrolled the Dome Buildings parking lot in Salem, the headquarters of Oregon's Department of Corrections. While out on his patrol, the security guard noticed a parked car in the lot overnight.
On any typical morning, there wouldn't be any cars parked in the lot. The security guard investigated to determine if he knew the owner. And as he inched closer to the car, he froze. There was a body. Michael Franke was found dead, lying in a pool of blood right next to his car. He parked his car only a couple hundred feet away from the North Portico of the Dome building. The injuries to Michael's body were extensive.
He had a gaping stab wound to the front of his chest so deep it penetrated his heart. This type of wound would have caused him to bleed out within minutes. Michael never even had a chance. Michael also had several defensive wounds to his hands and also his fingers. Wounds we see when a person is trying to defend themselves.
In cases of a knife attack, the victim's hands or fingers will be cut while basically trying to shield themselves from the knife and their attacker. Defensive wounds are also an indication that the victim attempted to fight off their attacker. In Michael's case, his hands and fingers were covered in defensive wounds. He fought his attacker right up to the bitter end.
A couple of Michael's co-workers told investigators that they saw Michael in the dome building around 6.45 p.m. the previous night. Two senior staff members also came forward and told detectives that when they left the office sometime around 7.30 p.m., they saw Michael's car still parked in the parking lot, but they noticed that the driver's side door was open.
When they approached Michael's car, they didn't see anything unusual. They figured maybe, well, maybe Michael got into his car to head home, realized he forgot something in the office, and then headed back inside. So once the staff members closed the car's door, they went back into the dome building to search for Michael. One of them went down the hall to his office to find him. But Michael was gone. Thirty minutes passed and still no Michael.
The staff decided to call the building security. It was just so strange why his car door would be open without any sign of him. If he went back into the office because he forgot something on his way to the car, well, then where could he be now? The dome building security arrived around 8.05 p.m., and the two staffers went home.
In their place, two different senior staffers, Richard Peterson and David Cawley, were notified of Michael's disappearance. They both arrived at the building around 8.30 p.m. Peterson and Cawley did what they described as, quote, a meticulous search of the building for any sign of Michael Franke. But the search turned up empty. No signs of a crime, no signs of trouble, and no Michael.
Richard Peterson and David Cawley returned home a few hours later under the assumption that Michael's probably out to dinner. The reason why his car is parked at the office is because someone picked him up, but Michael didn't have dinner plans. Sadly, Michael Frankie would never eat another dinner again. When we first meet someone, our smile is often the first thing people notice about us.
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The cause of death was a single fatal stab wound to his heart. The stab wound would have caused him to bleed out within minutes. The stabbing also told investigators that this was a personal attack. Stabbings are incredibly personal. They require that the offender get incredibly close and personal with their victims.
Unlike shootings, where the offender can target their victims from several hundred yards away, stabbing needs a confrontation. Whoever stabbed and murdered Michael needed to get close enough to him to stab him. This type of wound could also suggest that his attacker caught Michael off guard. This offender could have been lying in wait somewhere near Michael's parked car. When Michael tried to open his car door, he was attacked.
This theory could explain the two staffers' statements. It may also suggest that Michael may have known his attacker. The killer could be someone he knew and trusted. Only a trusted individual could get close enough to stab him through the heart, right?
Forensic experts didn't recover any significant pieces of evidence at the scene. Michael's car was thoroughly searched for DNA, blood, fingerprints, you name it. Anything that could reveal a possible suspect. But nothing turned up. Forensic experts examined Michael's body and his clothing. But again, nothing. Which is unusual in a case like this.
When a victim is stabbed, you'd expect to find some of the attacker's blood or DNA evidence left behind on the victim's body or possibly their clothing. Or in this case, you might be able to recover some forensic evidence from the inside or outside of the car. But not in this case. And besides no DNA evidence, forensic experts also didn't recover a murder weapon during their search of the entire parking lot.
It was as if Michael's killer magically appeared and then disappeared without leaving a drop of forensic evidence behind. Initially, investigators thought that maybe this was a botched car burglary. They knew Michael's car door was open, so it's possible that after the attacker stabbed Michael, he opened the car's door and tried to steal it. But the assailant failed and abandoned his plan.
Now, this theory seemed plausible, but the evidence pointed in a different direction. Besides a botched car burglary, investigators explored the possibility that someone wanted Michael Franke dead. Investigators had questions. Did he have any enemies? Was there anything going on in his personal life? Would anyone benefit from his death, financially or otherwise? They were all legitimate questions investigators had to ask themselves.
If it wasn't a botched car burglary, then someone wanted Michael dead? But who? Was Michael Frankie's murder a hit? At the time of his murder, Michael's Oregon's Department of Corrections was a mess. Despite the governor bringing Michael into the department to clean it up, Michael's actions put him in the crosshairs with those who benefited from the department's current state.
Some of the state's most influential politicians didn't see eye to eye with Michael's philosophy. These politicians saw no need for improvements in the state's jails or prisons. Michael also received a lot of heat from politicians across the aisle due to the department's overspending.
The political climate was a regular day in government. No news for an alarm. But then Michael's brothers stepped up with some information about a possible hit. Michael's brothers, Patrick and Kevin Franke, shared with authorities that Michael feared for his safety.
According to Patrick and Kevin Franke, their brother revealed to them that he was scared not only because of his work on prison reform throughout the state, but because he discovered a network of corruption within the Department of Corrections, and that the department's corruption was at the hands of some of the state's top prison officials.
Patrick and Kevin Franke told investigators that Michael learned about weapons and drugs being illegally smuggled into several different state-run prisons just before his death. Several of the state's top prison officials were fully aware. According to Patrick and Kevin, Michael also uncovered falsified prison records and stolen state property. Again, all at the knowledge of many state officials.
Now, these are some pretty serious allegations, right? If true, Michael would have discovered damning evidence of a statewide corruption scheme involving some of Oregon's top-rated officials. If this information had gone public, these officials wouldn't just be facing the possibility of losing their jobs. They would also face some pretty serious criminal charges.
But investigators assigned to Michael's case were just as interested in what he might have uncovered before his death as much as they were interested in what Michael was scheduled to do the day of his murder. On the very day Michael was murdered, he was scheduled to present an argument in front of the state's legislature. But it wasn't just any argument.
According to Michael's brothers, he was expected to speak to the state's legislation about some of these corruption allegations that he's uncovered. That same day he was murdered, he was going to get up there in front of the state's highest politicians and present some pretty damning evidence of a statewide corruption ring.
But, of course, what we know now, Michael would never make it to the state's legislation. But he was killed just hours before the meeting started. When investigators uncovered evidence that Michael may have known about corruption within Oregon's Department of Corrections, several names emerged as possible suspects. Two names that appeared early on were Timothy Natividad and Hody Cupp.
The local police knew Timothy Natividad for being a violent drug dealer in the Salem, Oregon area, and Hoyt Cupp was the former warden of the Oregon State Penitentiary. Two weeks after Michael Franke was murdered, Timothy was killed.
These two men's names came up in Michael's case after a convicted felon came forward and claimed he witnessed Hoyt Cupp and another high-ranking prison official pay Timothy Natividad $20,000.
Later, Timothy told this convicted felon the money was given to him as payment for Michael Frankie's murder. He was essentially establishing the first big theory that corrupt prison officials paid someone to murder Michael. Killing Michael would stop him from testifying in front of the state's legislature.
Shortly after, investigators had this story about Timothy Natividad Hoyt Cup and this unnamed prison official. Investigators didn't find any evidence to support any of this. They looked into Timothy and didn't find any evidence to suggest he was ever in contact with Hoyt Cup or anyone else who worked for the Department of Corrections. They also didn't find anything about this alleged transaction.
So without any corroborating evidence here, Timothy Natividad and Hoyt Cupp were ultimately cleared in Michael's murder. So after Timothy Natividad and Hoyt Cupp, another name surfaced, Scott McAllister, Oregon's former assistant attorney general. Scott McAllister served as an attorney for the Department of Corrections where he met Michael Franke.
Initially, Scott McAllister and Michael Franke were friends. They even took a trip together to attend a conference. But something in their friendship changed by the end of 1988.
After 19 months working together at Oregon's Department of Corrections, they got into some sort of argument. And when all was said and done, Michael Franke requested a new attorney for the department. He didn't want Scott McAllister anymore. Scott would be reassigned to another State Department. But in December 1988, before Scott McAllister was reassigned officially, he quit.
He took a job for the Utah Department of Corrections. He took the job less than one month before Michael's murder. It's unclear what happened between Scott McAllister and Michael Franke, or what caused Michael to reassign him to a different department. But in the months and years following Michael's death, Scott McAllister passed a polygraph about his involvement in the murder.
Like Timothy Natividad and Hoyt Cup, there wasn't any solid evidence linking him to Michael's murder. Investigators continued to try to get their hands on whatever evidence they could find. But as the weeks turned into months, no credible suspects emerged. After a year of investigating, the case was on the brink of turning cold until a new name surfaced.
In April 1990, 15 months after Michael's murder, a new suspect emerged. This time, investigators felt pretty good about him. His name was Frank Gable. Frank Gable was known to Salem police for being a local drug dealer, small time. He had a lengthy criminal record for selling meth and stayed in county jail.
Gable came under the police's radar after his former prison cellmate came forward to investigators with a story. Gable's former cellmate told investigators that Gable confessed to him about Michael's murder. The cellmate even confirmed the police's first theory that the murder was resulted from a botched car burglary.
He claimed Gable told him how he didn't want to kill Michael that night. He said he didn't even know who Michael Frankie was. He was just trying to steal his car when Michael caught him. He told his cellmate that he had no choice but to stab him to death and then run away.
So based on the cellmate's intel here, Frank Gable was arrested and charged with first-degree murder for killing Michael Franke. Did you know that big tech companies make a lot of money from your data? Well, they do. And the worst part is, you aren't getting your fair share of their profits. Introducing Tiki. Tiki believes it's your data and you should be paid for it.
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they stuck with their initial hunch that Michael's murder was a result of a botched car burglary. In April 1990, authorities arrested and charged Frank Gable. Even without any trace of forensic evidence linking him to the murder, the police believed they had one creative piece of evidence, and it wasn't the former cellmate's testimony. Police had a theory about the murder weapon.
Based on the forensic pathologist's information, police knew the blade's size, length, and even the type of knife used in the murder. They had everything, except the knife. But that small detail didn't stop the police. According to Frank Gable's ex-wife, she gifted Frank a similar style knife before Michael's murder. She described to authorities in exact detail the knife's appearance.
where she purchased the weapon, even how much it cost, everything. And even though authorities didn't have the actual knife used in Michael's murder, they believed Frank Gable's ex-wife testimony would be enough to prosecute him. So more than a year after Michael's murder, Frank Gable was put on trial.
After being arrested and put in jail, Frank Gable maintained his innocence. At this point, the police had more than just Gable's former cellmate's testimony and his ex-wife's testimony. They had a third witness, then a fourth witness, and then a fifth witness.
A local teen runaway and fellow meth addict, Jody Swearingen, came forward and told the police that she saw Frank Gable stab Michael Frankie. After Jody Swearingen, Cappy Harden came forward. Cappy Harden, another drug addict and convict, told the police that he too saw Frank Gable commit the murder.
Both said they witnessed Frank Gable attempt to steal Michael's car, and when Michael approached him, he pulled out a knife and stabbed him.
A guy named Eric Mason also told police that he knew what Gable did. Mason told police he overheard Gable bragging about the murder as payback for slowing down the illegal drug smuggling inside of the state's prison system, something Michael Franke was made aware of within his department. While Frank Gable was in custody, authorities searched the apartment he shared with his mother.
Inside the apartment, investigators initially claimed that they had recovered some clothing that tied Gable to Frankie's murder. But when the media grilled authorities about what exactly the clothing meant to the case, the police then dismissed this evidence. Even without physical or forensic evidence linking Frank Gable to Michael's murder, prosecutors put him on trial based on eyewitness testimony from fellow drug addicts and cellmates.
At his trial, the same eyewitnesses testified in front of a jury. One by one, they told the jury that they saw Frank Gable stab Michael that night in a botched car burglary. Others testified they heard him confess to the murder. Gable's ex-wife testified she was the one who purchased the knife, the murder weapon. All of this testimony was incredibly damning, even without physical or forensic evidence.
Making matters worse for Gable was that he couldn't produce a defense other than his innocence. His only defense at trial was claiming that the eyewitnesses against him were just retaliating. Gable argued that because he had once worked as a former jailhouse informant for the police, that these people were trying to point the fingers at him in the murder.
According to Gable, nobody saw him commit the murder because he wasn't there. A simple defense of, I wasn't there, I didn't do it, well, that type of defense wouldn't be good enough in the eyes of these 12 jurors. On June 27, 1991, Frank Gable was convicted of murder.
The jury was comfortable with their verdict. They didn't need any physical or forensic evidence to convict him. To the jury, eyewitness testimony provided more than enough. So before I discuss the twisted ending here, let's investigate these events. Eyewitness testimony in a criminal trial can be incredibly problematic. I, for one, have studied eyewitness testimony in grad school.
The current research of what we know reveals that eyewitness testimony can be extremely unreliable. Jurors tend to love eyewitness testimony. After a trial, some jurors will state that they believed eyewitness testimony over complicated forensic evidence that was presented. Eyewitnesses are overly confident about their memory's accuracy, even when they're wrong.
Human memory makes us terrible crime witnesses. What we think we saw and what actually happened can be completely different stories. Research on this topic suggests that eyewitness testimony is one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions, and it usually takes DNA or some sort of other forensic evidence to clear the wrongfully accused.
So in Frank Gable's case, I'm not surprised that a jury convicted him of Michael Frankie's murder, even without DNA or any other type of forensic evidence. Eyewitness testimony holds incredible power over any jury. So after a jury convicted Gable of Michael Frankie's murder on June 27th, 1991, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Ironically, Gable was sent to serve out his life sentence in the same prison facility that Michael Franke worked to reform. Gable would spend the next 29 years in prison for a murder he says he didn't commit. While incarcerated, he continued to appeal his conviction. His attorneys pointed to the lack of physical or forensic evidence in the case.
They continued to argue that Michael's death was likely a result of his pursuit of prison reform, that this wasn't a car burglary gone wrong. His murder meant much more. In October 2014, Frank Gable received the news he hoped for. Oregon's Federal Public Defender's Office agreed to reopen the case on appeal. Gable received his first shot at having his conviction overturned.
But like many matters in our criminal justice system, justice isn't always swift. Gable continued to serve out his life sentence awaiting appeal until April of 2019. He had no choice but to count the days. On April 18th, 2019, an Oregon judge ruled that Frank Gable must be retried by the prosecution or released within 90 days.
The judge ruled, quote, Although the evidence presented at trial in 1991 resulted in a guilty verdict, the court concludes that this is more likely than not that no reasonable juror would find Gable guilty in light of the totality of all the evidence uncovered since then. End quote.
So the new evidence the judge is referring to is the eyewitnesses themselves, the same eyewitnesses who convicted Gable in the first place. Well, since 1991, many of those eyewitnesses have recanted their testimony. They were basically saying that what they said during the trial, well, that might not be true.
Since Gable's conviction relied solely on eyewitness testimony, there wasn't any physical or forensic evidence. The judge on appeal found no reason to be able to uphold the conviction in the first place. So by 2019, the prosecution either needed to retry him or the state needed to release him from prison and they had 90 days to decide.
And after 90 days passed, the prosecution decided to not retry him. After 29 years, Frank Gable was released from prison on June 28, 2019. To this day, the murder of Michael Franke remains open. There have been no additional suspects named. Since Frank Gable's acquittal, many speculate the murder was a hit crime.
especially Michael's family. Remember the name Scott McAllister, the Oregon former attorney who Michael reassigned? Well, private investigators who worked for Gable's defense uncovered documents in Mike McAllister's possession. These were documents sent to McAllister's new home in Utah. Documents containing sensitive information about Michael Franke's murder.
They contained information that nobody who wasn't involved in the murder investigation should possess. Scott McAllister's former girlfriend told authorities that she overheard a conversation one day. McAllister told someone that Michael's murder was a botched hit. Michael's murder was supposed to look like a suicide.
Authorities took a closer look at Scott McAllister and found some pretty disturbing information. McAllister was ultimately arrested on second-degree felony charges of sexual exploitation of a minor after police discovered child pornography in his home. Scott McAllister maintains his innocence in Michael Franke's murder to this day.
Who killed Michael Franke? A botched car burglary at the correction center? The question haunting investigators and forensic scientists to this day is who would benefit from his death? Corrupt politicians and prison insiders didn't need Michael's heroics ruining their cushy lives.
Ultimately, the same corruption Michael knew in his heart to be wrong had brave Michael stabbed through the heart. But without any physical or forensic evidence, we may never know exactly what happened to Michael, the champion of prison reform Frankie, on the night of January 17th, 1989.
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If you love the show, consider leaving us a positive review or tell friends and family about us. You can also help support the show through Patreon. Thank you so much for joining me this week. Please join me next Monday. We'll have a brand new case and a brand new story to talk about. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.
Forensic Tales is a Rockefeller Audio Production. The show is written and produced by me, Courtney Fretwell. For a small monthly contribution, you can gain access to bonus content and be one of the first to listen to new episodes. Or, if you simply want to support the show, head over to our Patreon page, patreon.com slash forensic tales.
You can also help support the show by leaving us a positive review and telling friends and family about us. Forensic Tales is a podcast made possible by our Patreon producers, Tony A, Nicole L, William R, David B, Sammy, Paula G, and Selena C.
If you'd like to become a producer of the show, head to our Patreon page or email me at Courtney at ForensicTales.com. For a complete list of sources used in this episode, please visit ForensicTales.com.
Please join me next week. We release a new episode every Monday. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.
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