Morbid - Episode 545: The Career Girl Murders (Part 2)

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

While the tragic loss of two young lives was particularly shocking, the Career Girl Murders is better remembered as one of the most egregious cases of police coercion and abuse in the state��s history. Eight months after the murder, investigators arrested nineteen-year-old George Whitmore, an intellectually disabled day laborer from whom they elicited a false confession, not only for the murder of Hoffert and Wylie, but also for the murder of a single mother in Brooklyn. Eight more months would pass before the charges against Whitmore were dropped, and several more years before police arrested Wylie and Hoffert’s real killer, twenty-two-year-old drug addict and burglar Richard Robles. The murders of Emily Hoffert and Janice Wylie were just two of several high-profile New York City murders that reshaped how wealthy and middle-class white people thought of urban life in the 1960s. More importantly, however, it’s more important legacy is the extent to which it shined a light on how race and class can influence a police investigation and jury verdict, and how justice can be delayed or diverted in the interest of efficiency and the illusion of safety.ReferencesAnderson, David. 1965. "Jury that convicted Whitmore to be questioned on race bias." New York Times, January 15: 19.Bigart, Homer. 1963. "Killing of 2 girls yields no clue; police question 500 in a month." New York Times, September 27: 1.Buckley, Thomas. 1964. "Youth is accused in Wylie slaying." New York Times, April 26: 1.Clark, Alfred E. 1963. "Girl got phone threats 10 days before murder." New York Times, August 30: 13.Gansberg, Martin. 1964. "East Side tenants sigh in relief at capture of slaying suspect." New York Times, April 27: 21.Johnson, Marilynn S. 2011. "The Career Girl Murders: Gender, Race, and Crime in 1960s New York." Women's Studies Quarerly (The Feminist Press at City University of New York) 244-261.Jones, Theodore. 1965. "Jury finds Robles guilty in Wylie-Hoffert killings." New York Times, December 2: 1.—. 1965. "Witness says Robles pondered murdering girls." New York Times, November 4: 40.Kihiss, Peter. 1964. "Brooklyn indicts 3-slaying suspect." New York Times, April 29: 48.Lefkowitz, Bernard, and Ken Gross. 1969. The Victims: The Wylie-Hoffert Murder Case and its Strange Aftermath. New York, NY: Putnam.National Registry of Exonerations. n.d. George Whitmore, Jr. Accessed January 17, 2024. https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetailpre1989.aspx?caseid=358.New York Times. 1963. "2 girls murdered in E. 88th St. flat." New York Times, August 29: 1.—. 1975. "Max Wylie, writer, murder victim's father, is suicide." New York Times, September 23: 24.—. 1946. "Suspect in slaying of 2 career girls found sane here." New York Times, October 17: 31.—. 1964. "Whitmore guilty of rape attempt in Brooklyn case." New York Times, November 19: 43.Roth, Jack. 1965. "Trial fading out in Wylie murder." New York Times, January 22: 17.The People of the State of New York, v. Richard Robles. 1970. 27 N.Y.2d 155 (Court of Appeals of the State of New York, September 24).Tolchin, Martin. 1964. "Victim describes Brooklyn attack." New York Times, November 13: 30.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Morbid early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. You're listening to a Morbid Network podcast. This episode is sponsored by the Audible Original Series, Exposed, the Ashley Madison hack. In the early 2000s, millions of people joined AshleyMadison.com, a dating site for married people to have affairs. But the promise of discretion was shattered in the summer of 2015 when anonymous hackers published millions of cheating spouses' information into a searchable database. Presented by award-winning Canadian actress Sophie Nalise, this new audible original explores

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or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of The Last City right now at free on Wondery Plus. Get started with your free trial at Wondery.com slash plus. Hey weirdos, I'm Alina. I'm Ash. And this is morbid. And that's the computer and that is life. Save it for the outtakes.

Oh, I said that in my send it to Darryl Voice and I'm wearing that sweatshirt. You did. Hey, look at that. Hey. So, hey, what's going on? We just changed the lighting in this room because we got little fancy light bulbs. Yeah, your... On Mikey's recommendation.

And that was a great recommendation that he had. Yeah, they're these cool light bulbs and you can change them to different moods. Yeah, what do we pick? Right now, we're in peaceful. Yeah, earlier it was so dreamy, but I was like, it's a little too dreamy. Me in here. I think I'm about to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz I just did some sage before that. I did some Palo Santo. We really, yeah, cleansed our asses up in here. Just cleansed our asses. Not like an enema, but like a spiritual enema.

Yeah, there you go. A spiritual enema occurred in this room and we feel good. Yeah, yeah. How do you feel today, listener? How do you feel? I just let no listener. Hello listeners. Everybody listening was just like, what the fuck? Do we break up? Like, are you dating someone else? Why are you calling me listener? Weirdo. No, weirdo.

Weird. How do you feel today? Listener. What's going on? What's that in my body? It was a soul. It was. It was a soul. It was. It was a soul. It was. It was a soul. It was. It was. It was. What's happening? I don't know, I'm so tired. I had more end of the world anxiety last night so I didn't sleep good. Somebody, a couple people messaged me actually and were like, Ash, I felt crazy that I had end of the world anxiety until you said you had it and like that made me feel better. So you are seen. You're all in this together. Yeah, I reached out to a therapist last week.

It's true. And then me and Mikey were like, we will be very real. Yeah. And try to logic it to the other side. It really did help. So you know, we try. Thank you. We're all in this together, guys. We're all just trying to get through the day. You know, couldn't have said it better myself. Just trying to get to lunch, really. Yeah. And we did that. And we did that with some chicken fingers. We did. We had chicken fingers.

All right. We're OK. Anyway, a quick little side note. What's up? Just before we start. OK. Talkies. Controversial. What the fuck is up with those? I know, weird out of the blue, but it's not if you were in my head. Or in the room.

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

Why leave the house? We live in the 21st century. You can have whatever you want. Go get you some talkies. So I did. I ordered one and I said, oh, this is yummy. It's, it's very artificial, but it's very spicy and I enjoy that. You liked it in the moment.

I had one bite and I was like too spicy. Too spicy. I liked the spice, but I was like, too spicy. Too spicy. I liked the spice, but I was like, wow, this is extraordinarily artificial. And I like Taco Bell. So that's saying something. Yeah, that's the most artificial. But I was like, okay, like this is fine.

Within 10 minutes, I felt like I was gonna throw up for like 20 minutes. Yeah. And I was like, oh, I'm not gonna eat talkies again. And that's the thing. I'm not saying talkies are like poisonous or something. You know, like I'm not trying to down talkies. They just aren't for me.

And I'm a little sad about it. And I just wanted to share that with you guys. That's the thing you were really excited to try them. Yeah. And I think I'm a little sad to know that my body has like a food boundary. A limit? Yeah. I've never met, I've never met that boundary before

and I just met it with talkies. Do you remember when I met it with the Captain Crunch slurpee? Yes, we all. I don't know when you met it there. That was crazy. That was such a different time in my life where I was willing to put a 7-11 Captain Crunch Slurpee that I bought for perhaps, maybe 89 cents.

It was blue. It was blue. It was fucking the most artificial blue. And then let me tell you something, I was blue? It was blue. It was fucking the most artificial blue. And then let me tell you something. I was blue for quite some time. You were green. Yup. Yup.

Yup. But yeah, it's a weird moment when you figure out like, oh, I can't just eat anything. Growing up is weird. It's horrible. And again, weird because I've never, I love spice. And I still like, it just made me feel yucky for a little while.

So I was like, oh, maybe that was just a little too much. And that's the thing. It wasn't even like you ate them like too fast or anything like that. Like she just had a few. You didn't even have that many really. But me and Taki's were not. Alina's Taki journey.

That was my Taki journey. And I just wanted to, you know, I just wanted to share that with you. Now you can't do the thing that they do on TikTok. Remember we were talking about it the other day. With the pickle. I wanted to have you try that. You wanted to share that with you. Now you can't do the thing that they do on TikTok. Remember we were talking about it the other day? With the pickle? I wanted to have you try that. You wanted to have me try that.

No, honestly, I wanted to try it until I had a talkie and I was like, I don't like this. And then you're like, And I was like, but you, I want to have you try that. It's a sad day when you meet your food limit. And you meet your maker. The talkie. Yeah, that is a sad day.

I thought it was happening for a second, but alas, I did not. I'm good now though. Yeah, you look great. She dyed her hair darker. Yeah, I dyed my hair darker. I ate a Cadbury egg and I was right as rain. Everyone's like, maybe that's what. No, I'm just kidding.

Everybody's like, where, what boundary is that? Explain your boundary. If you don't like Cadbury eggs, you can get the fuck out of here. Cadbury cream eggs, guys. So good, so good. I even like the caramel ones. Yeah, those are great too. The cream ones are my favorite.

Superior. But you know what? We're not here to talk about that. Nope. But you know, we had to get our, you guys are like who we talk to. So we had to like get all that out real quick. No one else cares about my talkie journey.

Yeah, our two minute like, hey, what's up, corner. Yeah, so. Listener, listener, what's up corner? Yeah, listener. Listener, dear listener. Dear happy. So we are in a part two situation right now. Yes. And I left you guys on a little bit of like a, excuse me,

what? Yeah, I was pissed at you. Yeah. And it was mostly because like this whole next part of this is just so infuriating at times. And you can just see how ridiculous and how negligent a lot of this was. So when we left you,

we were talking about Detective Eddie Bolger there, the detective who was incredibly racist. I was gonna say the racist one. I was like, I don't know a nice way to say that. And I don't care. So he's an incredibly racist detective and he was kicked off of the case. And then he decided to insert himself back into it.

He apparently photos were found in George Whitmore's coat pockets, they were of a woman. He said he found those in the trash and then he was just using them to like, kind of like hype himself up to his friends and be like, this is my girlfriend. Yeah. You know, he's a young kid.

Yeah. Like he's a teen. And like I have a feeling he has nothing to do with this. That's adorable. It is. It was, he's just- In a weird way that that's adorable. Yeah, he's just trying to be like, this is my girlfriend.

Yeah. And Detective Bolger there decided to declare that that person in those photos was Janice Wiley. Incorrect, I feel. So now he is being charged, like he's being looked at and suspected at the very least of killing Janice and Emily. Yeah.

And that's where I left you, which was like, oh no, what's gonna happen? That really is where you quite... Now, detectives interrogated, you're like, you quite literally ruined my life. Pretty much. So detectives interrogated you, you're like, you quite literally ruined my life. Pretty much. So detectives interrogated George Whitmore for 26 straight hours. Jesus.

26 straight hours. And after which he not only confessed to the assaults of Elba Barrero, but also to the murders of Janice Wiley and Emily Hoffert. Yeah, after 26 hours of straight prodding, I might confess to a lot of shit that I didn't do. I think a lot of people would.

Yup. He also confessed to the murder of Minnie Edmonds, who we talked about that was killed a week before Elba Barrero was attacked. Right. At no time was he informed of his rights. So that's not good. Or asked whether he wanted a lawyer.

That's illegal. The interrogation resulted in him signing a 61 page confession that included very intimate details of the Wiley-Hoffert murders. Only the killer would have information about or someone that was at the scene. Or the detectives. Including descriptions of the broken bottle

during the attack and the knives used to kill both women, the fact that the knives broke, like all those little details that they hadn't released to the public yet. Right. According to the Whitmore statement, he had entered the apartment building unseen. So he said he somehow got into that apartment building

and no one saw him. Okay. And had been on his way to the roof when inexplicably he just left the stairway and entered the corridor. For no reason, he couldn't come up with a reason why he did that. Probably cause it didn't happen.

And he said he entered the corridor on the third floor and just began trying doors until he came to Janice and Emily's which he found unlocked. But it wasn't. Does everyone remember part one? Uh-huh. That door was locked. It was locked when Pat got home. Right. That door was not unlocked and they found no evidence that it was unlocked. In fact, that was what was fucking them up about like obviously aside from the obvious brutality, that's what was fucking them up about this crime scene is they were like, how did someone get in?

There's no way somebody got in, there's this open window, but we're on the third floor and there's no fire escape. But now he's saying in his confession, the door was unlocked. It reminds me a lot of the Jesse Miscally thing. I was thinking about that. Where there's blatantly wrong details, but they are just pretending that's fine.

Like just what? Don't worry about that. Like, no, look at this other detail. Yeah, this detail's right though. And it's like, well, that's wrong. And that's a big one. That should negate the other ones. So for eight months, frustrated investigators in Manhattan had been under intense pressure

to solve the Wiley Hafer murders at this point. But they had not made even a single step of progress at this point. Despite the, you know, a lot of efforts, they were canvassing the whole place and they had unrestrained resources. Like the entire Manhattan police department was on this. And because of this,

reports of Whitmore's arrest came as a huge relief, not only to the residents of New York, but also to the investigators and politicians who were feeling that intense pressure. So this is not a good mix of things because everybody's like, great, we got someone don't care if it's the right person. Within days of his arrest, however,

several people began to doubt the credibility of the confession. At his arraignment for the murder of many Edmonds, he actually recanted his confession with his lawyer telling the judge that George had been coerced in deciding the document by Brooklyn detectives and was beaten into it during that interrogation.

Like he was very much not doing that under his own Volition and you know if detective boulder if he was there, you know Yeah, that guy was definitely beaten. Yep. That's so sad that like hurts my heart. Yeah, and George even like requested to take a lie detector to prove that he was telling the truth I mean come on. Yeah, he's not gonna Obviously there are cases where someone wants to kill her and they're like, yeah, I'll take a lie detector test because they're just so confident.

But this guy is younger. His IQ is very low. And he is like not understanding what's going on. No one's even, and the other thing is like, he's not understanding because like, he's dealing with that whole thing, but also no one's explaining things to him. Like no one's even trying to make him understand what's going on. So it's like, he's dealing with that whole thing, but also no one's explaining things to him. Like no one's even trying to make him understand

what's going on. So it's like, he's not gonna yell, I'm gonna take a lie detector test, just be like, I can take a lie detector test, and I can fool it. You know, like he's doing that because he's like, I'm innocent and that'll prove it. Right.

And he's a teenager? He's 19. 19 years old, oh my God. Yeah. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. A lot of us spend our lives wishing that we had more time, more time, more time. The question is, time for what? If time was unlimited, how would you use it? I feel like I would definitely have a nap if I had some more time. Maybe I'd exercise more, I'd try that. But anyway, the best

way to squeeze that special thing into your schedule is to know what's important to you and how to make that a priority. And therapy can help you find what matters to you so that you can do more of it. I love therapy. I'm actually going back this very week and I'm so excited to be working with a new therapist. I feel like she's just gonna get me and we're gonna get my life on track. If you're thinking of starting therapy like me, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online. It's designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. And all you have to do is fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapist

anytime for no additional charge. Let's do therapy together, guys, but separately, obviously. Learn to make time for what makes you happy with better help. Visit betterhelp.com slash morbid today to get 10% off your first month. That's better help, H-E-L-P dot com slash morbid. Audible lets you enjoy all your audio entertainment in one single app. You'll always find the best of what you love or something new to discover. They offer an incredible selection of audiobooks across every genre, from bestsellers, new releases, celebrity memoirs, to mysteries, thrillers, motivation, wellness, business,

and more. More, more, more. Audible is the destination for thrilling audio entertainment with highly anticipated new releases and next-listen recommendations to habituate every type of thriller listener. Keep your heart rate up month after month with this pulse pounding collection you can't hear anywhere else. I have invited our resident mystery reader, Miss Elena Urquhart to the pod today to tell you about what she recently listened to. Guys, this weekend I just finished listening to an amazing story.

It's called Chasing the Boogie Man by Richard Chismar. It is so good, it's really unique. I don't wanna ruin what it is. It's like, you'll be reading it and you won't realize exactly what it is. It's spooky, it's chilling, and it's really mysterious. It keeps you guessing. And I just found out that there's a sequel to it

called Becoming the Boogie Man, and I'm gonna be listening to that immediately. Incredible, that was our resident mystery reader, Elena Urquhart. She's an Audible member and you can be too. As an Audible member, you can choose one title a month to keep from the entire catalog, including the latest bestsellers and new releases

and titles that Elena recommends. New members can try Audible free for 30 days. Visit audible.com slash morbid or text morbid to 500-500 days. Visit audible.com slash morbid or text morbid to 500-500. That's audible.com slash morbid or text morbid to 500-500 to try Audible Free for 30 days. Audible.com slash morbid. Despite his continued claims of innocence, Deputy Police Commissioner Walter Arm told reporters, quote, this man came up with details that could have only been known by,

it could have been known by no one but the police and the man who committed the crime. He had information that was never released publicly. And like again, we said, the person who committed the crime and the detectives, Brooklyn District Attorney Edward Silver made similar remarks to the press. He said, I would not proceed as speedily if I did not have more than a confession. What else do you have? So yeah, that's the thing, let us know what else you have.

Proceed speedily to tell us what else you have. Now for some of the investigators leading the team in Manhattan, it was really that extent of the details in the confession that were actually suspicious to them as well. In fact, it was as though the confession was a little too good, little too detailed. It didn't just contain information

never released to the public. It contained details about the crime scene so minute that only someone processing the scene with a keen eye would have noticed them. That's exactly because like in the craziness of all of whatever took place, no killer's gonna notice like- The tiny little details.

This blood stained over here and I saw it. Exactly. Like no. He's gonna be like, it was chaos. I know what I did, I know what I saw in that moment, but that's it. But he's, like you said, he's not gonna notice these little details

that a crime scene technician would. Exactly. Then there was the photographs that were found in George Whitmore's possession at the time of his arrest, which Detective Bulger claimed or of Janice Wiley. When he was shown the photographs, he repeated what he said.

He said, that's, I don't know who that is. I found them in the trash. I honestly don't know who that girl is. If it's Janice Wiley, I didn't know that. I just found them. Which of course they were like, yeah, yeah, like likely story. But then they asked Max Wiley, Janice's father.

Oh no. And they had him look at them and he told investigators they were definitely not photos of his daughter and he had never seen the woman in those photos before and he was definitive about that. Wow. And these weren't like strange photographs that you were like, I don't know, maybe it's a woman.

Like he knows his daughter. He's looking at the woman's face. He's like, that's not my kid. Like I think he would know. Yeah. And again, for this man, he's probably hoping they're catching the guy. Of course.

Who did this to his daughter. So he's gonna hope that this is the guy. So he's not gonna, if anything is gonna kind of not hope, it's like hard to word it, but he's not gonna want this to not be the end of the, the closure that they want, you know what I mean? So for him to say. It is all false closure.

Yeah, so for him to say that's not her, that's not her. Like he's gonna want this closed. And if it's not the guy, he wants the right guy. Like he wants the right guy off the streets. They did this. Yeah, definitely. Finally, there was also George Whitmore's alibi. And this one blows my mind.

He claimed he was at work when this was happening. Washing dishes in a Wildwood, New Jersey restaurant at the time of Janice and Emily's murders. So he's all the way in New Jersey? That's what he's saying is his alibi. Nearly all of George's coworkers confirmed that he was at the restaurant at that time. And they distinctly remembered this.

And they said they remember this because we were all watching together a televised speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King at the march on Washington when Whitmore was supposedly in Manhattan killing Janice and Emily. And that held no ground whatsoever. Like they were just like, What?

All his coworkers were like, he was there with us. He was watching it. And they're just like, no, he wasn't. No, he was in Manhattan killing two women. It's like he he was there with us. He was watching it. And they're just like, nah, he was in Manhattan killing two women. It's like he's a whole state away. I know, obviously New Jersey and New York are close, but like what? But it's like he has a new, an alibi.

Yeah. That people are confirming. Like how is that not worth anything? Oh, it makes you feel like so shitty that there wasn't like cameras and shit. I know, cause you're like, oh, I just want them to be like, see, here he is. Like, whoom, he's right there. Now in October, Whitmore's attorney

successfully petitioned the court for his client to at least be evaluated by a psychiatrist at the very least. After what he described as quote, the longest study of one patient in Bellevue's history, the hospital's director of psychiatry, Dr. Arthur Zitron, declared George Whitmore sane and able to stand trial for the murder of many Edmonds.

But although he was declared sane, that didn't necessarily mean that he was competent to stand trial. Okay. He had actually, like we had said, dropped out of school in the eighth grade, I believe it was, and had an IQ that was well below average. So he didn't even know what was,

like he couldn't understand the complete heaviness and gravity of everything that was happening. And he couldn't understand how he was being fucked with. Yeah, he's like, I was at work. These pictures are of a different girl. I found them in the garbage. Yeah, like he's telling you the truth. I found these in the garbage.

That's not even up her. I don't even know her. I was at work when this happened. I have people to confirm that for you. How scary is that that you can have all of those... A whole restaurant of coworkers say that you were there. All of that defends behind you, and they can still railroad you. Yeah.

That is so scary. And despite that, and all the questions surrounding the confession and the supposed evidence against him, the district attorney in Brooklyn moved forward in the case against George for the assault of Elba Barrero. That's shocking. Yeah. Well, shocking. It is, and it's not. Unfortunately. Now, in November 1964, George Whitmore went on trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court for the attempted sexual assault of Elba Barrero. In court, Barrero told the jury her assailant

caught up with her on the sidewalk and grabbed her from behind. In November 1964, George Whitmore went on trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court for the attempted sexual assault of Elba Barrero. In court, Barrero told the jury that whoever attacked her had caught up with her on the sidewalk and had actually grabbed her from behind.

And she said, snatched her pocketbook, placed his right hand over her mouth and his left hand around her neck and said, if you scream, I'll kill you. That's so scary. Now Barrero then claimed that she and her attacker, quote, walked face to face for two blocks to 192 Bristol Street,

where the assailant took her down a flight of stairs to the basement, pressed her against a wall and briefly removed his hand from her mouth. This is when she started screaming. Following her testimony, Elba Barrero again identified George Whitmore as the person who attacked her that day. So wait, she said they walked face to face?

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

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

surrounding this because I mean, right from the way that they made her identify him was completely tainted. Completely wrong. Yeah, so it's like there, a lot of this is like, oh. From the start. Yeah, now under cross examination, Elba Barrero admitted to Whitmore's defense attorney,

Jerome Lefthou, that she had already met with lawyers from Newsweek to discuss the $10,000 reward money. And when asked whether she had met with them before or after her appearance before the grand jury, she replied, I don't know. after her appearance before the grand jury, she replied, I don't know. However, on redirect, she told the assistant district attorney that she had been entirely unaware of their reward

when she went before the grand jury. Okay, so that's a little flitch floppy. Whatever her, whatever the like, you know, intention here is, it's just not coming off clear what's happening here. You're not coming off clear in what is going on here. Not at all. And after a week of testimony, the all white, all male jury deliberated for nine hours.

So not a jury of his peers whatsoever. Nope. They deliberated for nine hours before finding Whitmore guilty of the assault and attempted rape of Elbubberera. Wow. The conviction carried with it a maximum sentence of 10 years for the attempted rape

and five years for the assault. And they said, quote, unless psychiatrist find him to be a perpetual sexual menace to the community, in that case he can be imprisoned for life. Oh my God. Yeah. And that's just this one crime.

There's others that he's going to trial for. Yeah, there's more that are coming. However, Judge David Malbin elected to withhold sentencing in the case pending the outcome of the cases against Whitmore for the Wiley-Hoffert murders and the murder of many Edmonds. Okay. Now, while they waited for the judge's decision, Jerome Lefthou had petitioned

the court for a new trial after receiving a sworn affidavit from one of the jurors claiming that, quote, another member of the panel had made invidious remarks to the jury room about Black people. The affidavit also noted that during the trial for the attack on Barrero, jurors were made aware of the additional charges against George Whitmore for the three murders. How many? That is completely not okay. That's the thing, I'm like, how many conflicts of interest are we at now? Like 47?

And Leftau obviously argued that this could have further biased the jury against their client. This is all illegal. They've biased everyone against him from the start, putting him in an interrogation room and telling him that's the suspect and then having Elba Barrero identify him,

you've already biased her again, that she thinks he's a criminal. Wow. And now he's in there, you can't tell them that he's up for three murders. Like that's what are you doing? That's insane. And then this jury member signed a sworn affidavit

saying members of this jury are racist and made racist remarks against black people while deliberating. That's so heinous. It really, like that breaks your heart. What the fuck? And both the prosecution and the judge were wholly resistant to the claims.

Didn't wanna hear it. That's awesome, racist. With Judge Malbin's telling reporters, quote, I'm not going to make searching inquiry. We want to protect the sanctity of the jury as to what happens in the jury room during deliberations. We wanna protect this racist ass jury is basically what that man just said.

Yeah, I wanna let them be racist if they wanna be racist. I don't like, no, I'm not doing this. Wow. Cool. Cool. Wow. Meanwhile, one of the jurors later said that he actually heard another juror say in that room, quote, this is nothing compared to what he's going to get in New York.

Oh my God. So they were well aware and all assumed he was guilty and were like kind of giddy about it. Like can't wait to watch that. That's gross. While the prosecution and the majority of law enforcement were honestly committed to believing Whitmore's confession and guilt were genuine,

which is really upsetting. There were many who had been skeptical of the case from the start. Like there were a lot of investigators that were like, I don't buy this. Like I think this is fucked up and dirty, which is at least good. Good, good, I guess.

Now just two months after his conviction for the attack on Elba Barrero, a source within the Manhattan district attorney's office told reporters that the case against Whitmore for the murder of Janice and Emily was quote, shot full of holes. Mm. So he told the reporter like, this is bullshit. Wow.

Not happening. Now, officially the DA's office refused to comment on the state of the case against Whitmore, but many in the press felt that there was a strong possibility that the case was going to be dropped against him. That's how bad it was. I hope so. Now the district attorney wasn't the only one skeptical about the potential for a trial against Whitmore. George's own lawyers were feeling pretty confident that the charges were going to be dropped

and they were more than happy to fill in the reasons why. Like they were like, fuck this. His lawyer said, quote, the facts show that a picture the police said was of Miss Wiley and was supposedly stolen from by Whitmore from her apartment is not a picture of Miss Wiley. It is instead a picture of a girl named Arlene Franco who lives in Wildwood, New Jersey. Oh, they found her and that's where he works. That's where he works, where Whitmore's father runs a junkyard. Dude. And he said he found it in the trash.

Yeah. Whitmore's lawyers went on to emphasize the number of other discrepancies in the case against George, including that several people placed him in New Jersey at the time of the murders, and that he had an intelligence quotient of 60, and could not possibly have comprehended the language in the confession that he supposedly made. Wow. There was no way that he could understand all of that language. So it's just point after point after point after point of why he's not guilty.

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

Yeah, they were like, this is from his coat. What the fuck? How are you even able to get away with that? Well, just two months later, Judge David Malbin who didn't want to hear about the racist jury wanted to let them be racist if they wanted to. Did he also not want to hear all the evidence as to why this black man didn't quit this crime? Yeah, he was like, no, I don't want to hear about the racist jury, wanted to let them be racist if they wanted to. Did he also not want to hear all the evidence as to why this black man didn't quit this crime?

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

on second thought, I just can't sleep at night. It's like, wow. Yeah. Given the questionable nature of the confession and the evidence against him in the other case, we would all assume at this point that the charges are gonna be dropped. Like looking at everything I've just told you.

So yeah. Logical brains would be like absolutely. But based on forward with that. Based on these fuckers, I'm like nah. Yeah. In April, the district attorney in the Edmunds murder case proceeded as though nothing had changed. I really hope that he like ended up suing

the district attorney at some point. In that case, the jury deadlocked, but the prosecutor vowed to try Whitmore again. What? In the case, the jury deadlocked, but the prosecutor vowed to try Whitmore again. What? In the meantime, Wait, I'm actually shocked that they deadlocked. Yeah, right? In the meantime, because I think they had nothing.

I think that was later. They probably deadlocked based purely on like, some of them were probably racist. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like it's like, they didn't have anything in that case. Like that was just like a, what evidence do you have? They have that confession.

That's about it. Right. And it's a shitty confession. In the meantime, the district attorney in Manhattan decided not to pursue the case against Whitmore for the murders of Janice and Emily. But that didn't mark the end of legal troubles for George Whitmore.

Don't think that was the end of everything. The following year, the district attorney in Brooklyn retried George for the attack on Barrero, and he was found again guilty. So that was evocated. That's why they were able to retry him. And they retried him again for the Elba Barrero attack, and he was found guilty in sentence.

So it's literally, this is a manhunt. And he was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison. Oh my God. The conviction would be overturned a year later. But had he was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison. Oh my God. The conviction would be overturned a year later. But had he already spent a year in prison at that point? Yeah. And probably longer. On the ground that the judge had refused to allow the defense

to cross-examine police concerning the false confession in the Wiley Hofford case. Why? For what reason? Why not? Just like, nah, I decided I can sleep at night these days. Different judge? No, that was the same judge that they were talking about. That's why it was overturned.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. For me, I'm trying to follow a really rigid schedule during the week between work, going to bed at the right hour, and waking up pretty early. I'm pretty rigid on myself.

When it's time for the weekend, I go to look cray cray. I stay up late. I hang out with my friends. I help people move. I do a lot over a big weekend. When it's time to start another big week, I like to get back into my routine and I like to celebrate Hydration Monday with Liquid IV. I, the Rican Love Liquid IV, it is one of the easiest things to implement into your schedule. It comes in this little stick that you can bring

anywhere. If you don't even have a pocket, you could tuck it behind your ear if you really needed to. And you just put it in 16 ounces of water and boom! You are so freaking hydrated, you're more hydrated than if you just drank one glass of water. And also, the flavors are freaking delicious. Strawberry lemonade, are you joking me? Absolutely delectable. And guess what? It's got three times the electrolytes of the leading sports drink. Also has eight vitamins and nutrients and it's non-GMO. It's also free from gluten, dairy, and soy. Guys, weekends are forgoing wild, so have a game plan for Monday with Liquid IV. Grab your Liquid IV hydration multiplier sugar-free in bulk nationwide at Costco, or get 20% off your first order when you go to liquidiv.com and use Code

Morbid at checkout. That's 20% off your first order when you shop superior hydration today using promo code morbid at liquidiv.com. Hey, weirdos! We have a ton of episodes that we think you will just love, but if you scroll down the feed just a bit, there's one we think you should definitely check out if you missed it. Episode 531 Tom Bird and Lorna Anderson Eldridge is one of our favorite episodes. And you might even get a little bit more out of it, especially in light of the viral TikTok series Who the Fuck Did I Marry that is taking the internet by storm.

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

Tom Bird and Lorna Anderson Eldridge, or by searching Morbid Bird Anderson wherever you listen to podcasts. Now, the same year it was alleged that Whitmore was actually under the influence of Truth Serum, which he, when he was evaluated at Bellevue Hospital that, like before this all started. Okay. Finally, that came out. That's kind of shaky, right? That's kind of shaky, but? That's kind of shaky, but he was under the influence of that. And during that time, he kept insisting he was innocent.

They usually use truth serum to be like, tell us that you did it. Yeah, and he was like, no, I'm innocent. And his confession, he kept saying, the confession was coerced, I was beaten into saying this. And because of this, there was an investigation requested into this, because now they're like, wait a second.

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

you know, like we don't want to do that. So I don't want to make sure that people aren't being beaten into confessions. We don't want to check up on any of our systems in place. We just want to let them roll, you know? That answer is essentially, why bother? Why bother? Yeah, I don't really want to is really the answer. I don't really want to. It's really the answer.

I don't feel like doing it. I don't feel like it. The DA's office tried Whitmore for a third time and he was again convicted and sentenced to five to 10 years in prison. How many years and years of this man's life were disrupted because of this? Dealing with this shit.

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

Kind of iconic that her sister was like, hey, I love my sister, but. It was in an affidavit. She was being truthful on the affidavit, saying like, I'm not saying he didn't do it. I'm not saying she's not, but I'm just telling ya, she identified two other guys before that. So that doesn't hold a lot of weight.

Wow. The way he was identified and the fact that two other people had already been identified, I mean, come on. And how many years later did this come out? Like Jesus Christ, this poor fucking man. Yeah. And in fact, Elba had only identified Whitmore

after Detective Bulger and his partner had made her aware of the $10,000 reward being offered by Newsweek. So they literally just waved a bag of cash in her fucking face. And that is precisely when she agreed to change her statement. That's disgusting.

That is disgusting. Like, I know that's a lot of money, but that's not worth sending somebody to jail for. That's a human being. To prison for the rest of their life. Yeah, like that's fucked up. That's on another level. At the request of the newly appointed Brooklyn district attorney Eugene Gold, the case was reopened

and the statements from Elvis sister were confirmed. And that's when Whitmore's convictions were overturned and he was officially exonerated. So luckily the new Brooklyn district attorney was like, whoa, open that ship back up, put these in here, put all this new information in here, and he got it overturned. Wow. After being released from prison in 1973,

George sued for violations of his civil rights, but he lost his case. And what fucking world? And received no compensation. How did he lose that case? No compensation. What? This whole legal circus and truly nightmare

he found himself in. For years and years. Yeah, actually ended up being one of the catalysts for abolishing the death penalty in New York as well. And it also aided in the Supreme Court's Miranda ruling in 1966 that guarantees criminal suspects the right to consult with an attorney. Oh wow, okay. So something good came out of it somewhere, I suppose. That's the thing though, it's like, yeah, because I know we talk about the death penalty a lot. You say like you're a little less

gray, I'm always pretty gray. But then a case like this comes along and it's like, yeah, because I know we talk about the death penalty a lot. And like you say, like, you're a little less gray. I'm always pretty gray. Yeah. But then a case like this comes along and it's like, that'll throw you for a loop. Yes. Like genuinely. Because he would have been facing the death penalty. Because it's like, you can fuck it up so badly. And then what if all of that came to light after they had already put this man to death?

Yeah. Like he was, he would have been sent to death for these murders. Wow. That's that, like that actually just turned my stomach. Yeah. And what makes the cases against George Whitmore so egregious is that the charges against him in the two Brooklyn cases were mostly just a pretense

that would have validated the charges against him for the murders of Janice and Emily. Right. Making Eddie Bolger there and the Brooklyn detectives look like fucking heroes. That was the whole, the whole thing behind this was Eddie Bolger and his little cronies wanted to look like fucking superheroes

at the end of the day. Please tell me that that man got karma, please tell me. The problem here was that even before Whitmore went on trial for the attack of Elberberero, investigators in Manhattan were fairly certain he had nothing to do with the Wileyhoffer murders. Investigators were like, no, we don't think he did this. So even though Detective Bolger was like,

I want to get my hero status and get this on, most of the investigators were like, fuck off, this doesn't work. In October, 1964, police arrested, out of this was like something totally different, arrested 35 year old Nathan Delaney for the murder of a rival drug dealer. Oh, wow.

As this was his third arrest for a violent crime, Delaney knew he could receive the death penalty. That's a three strikes rule. For the murder. So he offered to tell the DA the name of the real killer in the Wiley Hoffer case. Damn. At the time, there was still intense pressure

to close this case. And the DA's office knew the case against Whitmore was in champ, like he didn't do it. So they agreed to delay these conditions. Cause remember, there's still a case against George Whitmore for this part. They only were able to exonerate him for the Elba Barrero situation.

And Minnie's murder, right? And Minnie Edmonds, but like this, they're still. This was still hanging over his head. It was still trying to fit pieces into this one. Now, according to Nathan Delaney, he had been at home on the afternoon of August 28th, 1963, which is when Janice and Emily were killed. And he said there was a knock on his door.

So he opens the door and Delaney was surprised because he saw his acquaintance whose name is Richard Ricky Robles. Okay. He was covered in blood and visibly shaken. Now, Ricky, who had just been released from prison, told Delaney that he had gone out looking for drug money and had killed two women.

What? And the way he said it was that he said, quote, he just iced two dames. What the fuck? That's how he described it. And Delaney claimed he gave Robles a new set of clothes and his wife, Delaney's wife, gave him a garbage bag for the bloody clothes,

which I was like, wow. You guys are disgusting. Now, Nathan Delaney agreed to wear a wire. Holy shit. And together with his wife present, they engaged Ricky Robles in the conversation, just a regular conversation. And during that whole time talking,

he again admitted to killing Janice and Emily on the wire. They were able to like steer the conversation to like remember that time. And he was like, oh, absolutely. So he was just looking for drug money. He was, so we'll go, he'll explain. So all of this was recorded him admitting to the whole thing and it was submitted to the prosecutor. And the taped confession was enough to get a warrant for his arrest and Ricky Robles was taken into custody on January 27th, 1965. At the station, Ricky Robles maintained his innocence and asked for a lawyer.

So nice that they give him that. In case you were wondering, he is white. Yeah, I had a feeling. So he got a lawyer and he was registered. And I'm sure they read him his full rights, yep. He was promptly provided a lawyer and the two were left alone in the administrative office. And after about 25 minutes,

Robles lawyer needed to leave the room and asked the officers waiting outside to watch his client until he came back. In the interrogation room, the detectives offered Ricky some food and he declined. And at which point one of them said, Rick, did you ever think it would wind up like this? And without thinking, he replied,

he thought it would from what he read in the newspapers that he thought someday he would be arrested for killing those two girls. So his lawyer left the room after 25 minutes to go like get something to eat or drink or like piss or something like that just for a second. And those detectives were like, Hey, Ricky, you do this. And he was like, sure, did sure did.

Like as soon as his lawyer left. But so does that matter though, that his lawyer had left the room? Is that like, is that a conflict? I think that's I ended up working out. It worked out. Okay. So I think it's fine. It's okay. Because I think it was just in casual.

Like they weren't interrogating him. They were just like, did everything. And they didn't even say, did you ever think you would get caught? They just said, you ever think it would fine. It's okay. Because I think it was just in casual, like they weren't interrogating him. They were just like, did you ever think it? They didn't even say, did you ever think you would get caught? They just said, do you ever think it would wind up this way? Yeah, that's innocuous. And he was like, yeah, it's crazy. I murdered people. And they were like, wow, I didn't know you were going to say that.

So what? Like, I don't understand. So when they asked what happened, Robles replied, don't know. I went to pull a lousy burglary and I wound up killing two girls. Just to be that careless about it. Now, according to Robles, this is what happened. He had gone out that morning with the intention of finding an apartment to Rob,

which is what led him to the building on East 88th Street, which he said he chose because there was no doorman at the time. I thought there was though. There wasn't any of you. There wasn't a doorman, but I don't know if the doorman was on break or like wasn't at the door at the time. When he entered the lobby, no one was present.

So he just walked right in and he was able to get into the maintenance corridor and found his way to the third floor. That's terrifying. When he found all the doors locked, including Janice and Emily's, because remember it was locked. Even though George Whitmore's confession said it was unlocked

Ricky Robles is saying it was locked. They were all locked Robles poked his head out of the windows and saw that a window in apartment 3c was open So he's in the maintenance like hall and there's windows. He peeked out the window in the corridor, saw that there was an apartment with a window open. So he climbed out on the ledge and slid over to the window. So he did scale the building. Which is how he got into the apartment. So one of my comments in part one was like, he couldn't like, nobody could like scale a building.

He literally essentially did. So technically he didn't scale up. No, right, but he scaled over. Sideways, What the fuck? Which they were not even thinking that was a possibility. Because you really wouldn't. Like a third floor in New York. Like obviously that's not super high for New York.

But like you're gonna land on concrete. It's like that's dangerous. You think you're safe at that point. You're on the third floor. Yeah. Like why not? He's got to scale over a ledge. He went through over a ledge to get into that apartment. That's terrifying.

So Janice Wiley was just in her room and this man just crawls through the apartment window. And she's probably like getting ready for work at this point, like ready to head out for her day. So once inside the apartment, Ricky Robles found Janice Wiley in her bedroom. He said, quote, with a sheet wrapped around her. And he said he immediately decided to sexually assault her. Oh my God.

So she was still sleeping. Yeah. Now, according to Delaney's wife, while he was assaulting Janice, Robles quote, heard the front door and he got up against the wall and then the girl with the glasses came in. That's Emily. Emily.

Just as she got to him, he tried to take her glasses off her face as with the glasses came in. That's Emily. Emily. Just as she got to him, he tried to take her glasses off her face as soon as she walked in and she said, don't touch me, leave my glasses alone. So as Robles tied the two women together, he heard Janice tell Emily to do as he said and they won't get hurt.

So Janice was being like, let's just go along with whatever he says and we're not gonna, she really thought they weren't going to get hurt. Oh my God. But Emily was angry. She's locked in her fucking apartment and she sees this guy sexually assaulting her friend and roommate. Like she's panicked too.

And so she repeatedly had said she wanted to quote, get a good look at him to identify him later. Oh, and she was trying to, like she was pissed. Yeah. But this caused Ricky Robles to panic. And he went into the kitchen where according to Delaney's wife, quote, he thought it over and in about five minutes decided he was gonna kill them.

With his decision made, Robles grabbed the glass bottle, a kitchen knife and then returned to the bedroom and stabbed both women to death. With both of them finally dead, he stole about 20 or $30 from Emily's purse and then fled the building. And they were each stabbed over 60 times with three different- A broken bottle,

a knife that ended up breaking, and then a bigger knife. So he went back and forth between that kitchen at least twice. Did they ever say if he was like under the influence? Because that just seems so... He was a heroin addict and he was breaking into this apartment to get money to get more heroin. So that is part of this is that he was, that was the intention here is to get money. And he specifically, he is quoted as saying to get more heroin. That was the whole point. the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious. And if that's true, then you're in luck. Because once again, Mr. Ball and Podcast,

Strange, Dark, and Mysterious stories is available everywhere you get your podcasts. Each week on the Mr. Ball and Podcast, you'll hear new stories about inexplicable encounters, shocking disappearances, true crime cases, and everything in between. Like our recent episode titled White Dust. After a middle-aged couple failed to answer

their daughter's messages and calls, the daughter drives the few hours to her parents' house to check on them. But after arriving and seeing both her parents' cars in the driveway, the daughter gets an uneasy feeling and just can't stomach going inside. To hear the rest of that story and hear hundreds more stories like it,

follow Mr. Ballin podcast on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Prime members can listen early and add free on Amazon Music. ["Memories of the Moon"] Now, I don't like that he decides to try to use Emily as like, well, she said this so I paid. So that's why this happened.

And that's when I did it. And it's like, no, you piece of shit. That wasn't it. No. Like you're a piece of shit and you were gonna like... Like just run out of the apartment. Don't try to put it on her. Cause that's the thing is like she's saying

I want to get a good look at you. Get out of there. Yeah. Get out of there. Get the fuck out of there then. You shouldn't be here in the fucking first place. Yeah. Cover your face and run out of there. Yeah. Get out of there. Get the fuck out of there then. You shouldn't be here in the fucking first place. Yeah. Cover your face and run out. Wow.

But I just don't like, regardless of whether she said that or not, cause we don't know if she said that. The only people who know whether she said that is Janice and Emily and him. And he's the only one that can talk and to be quite honest, he's not fucking credible as far as I'm concerned.

So he's a piece of shit. So Ricky Robles went on trial for the murders in October 1965 and a jury deliberated for five hours before finding him guilty. You scared me. Guilty of two charges of felony murder in the first degree. Good. After the verdict was read, reporters asked assistant DA John Keenan why police had pursued George Whitmore when they knew he was not the real killer.

And Keenan replied, quote, there were good and bad policemen, and he insisted that the defense had used Whitmore as a quote, smoke screen to cloud the case. At least he was honest. Yeah. Like there's good, there's some bad fucking policeman out there. And that's the truth. They were on it. Yeah. They are bad ones.

A month later, Ricky Robles was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 26 years. Why? Yeah. He is also, you know, he's not getting parole. It's not happening. No. Now once investigators settled on George Whitmore

as their suspect, nearly everyone seemed convinced of his guilt and never bothered to consider any alternatives and look what happened, regardless of any of the evidence. After being kicked off the case in Manhattan, Detective Eddie Bulger believed his arrest of Whitmer would make his career and vindicate him in the eyes of anyone who disapproved of his methods. That was his whole thing.

How did that turn out for you? Yeah, I was like, did that help? Yeah, did that work out? Like, ee. You also hope that, I mean, this is like very obvious that he just like steamrolled this entire thing. Yeah. Was any action taken against him?

Neither he nor anyone else involved in the false imprisonment and false arrest of George Whitmore were ever held accountable. At all? For any of the reprehensible actions that they committed. Nope. Wow.

They got nothing. Wow. The fact that this man, like we were just saying, like steamrolled this entire fucking thing. Totally derailed it. Just was like, bye, see you later. Like this is what I think. So this is what happened.

And let's just throw this poor man in jail forever. And he just got to keep on doing that probably. Who knows how many other cases race factored into that he was on. And he probably just did like, wow. Like were other people falsely imprisoned because of him? Like this isn't the first time he's done this or the last time.

Like this is not something you just do. And who was, I forget who the person was that made the comment of like, there are gonna bad police. It's like you sit there and you admit that and nothing is done about it. Yeah, nothing's done. They got nothing. Wow. What a frustrating case.

Yeah. I'm glad that at the end of like, obviously, like it's horrible, but I'm glad that at the end of the day, the right person got put into prison. But it's like, but it's, but it's, he didn't. So after he was released from prison, George Whitmore went back to New Jersey where he briefly owned and operated a fishing boat. Well, good for him.

And eventually worked odd jobs and just, you know, floated around and George, he struggled a lot. I bet. Like he went through a lot and he ended up dying of a heart attack on October 8th, 2012. Wow. At the age of 68. That's so young. Although his case and exoneration have become

one of the most taught examples of coercion and false arrest in the United States, the state of New York never made any attempt to right the wrongs committed against him or take responsibility for anything that happened during this. Just the fact that he sued and didn't get anything in return. Like, what he was clenching through is out,

but it's so similar to like the Jesse, Miss Kelly and the West Memphis three of it all. Like they don't get anything. Just get out of here and shut up. Yeah. And deal with the rest of your life, deal with what's happening. Wow.

Now Ricky Robles, when this was all going on, because remember he was just out in the world while George Whitmore was being railroaded here. He watched the whole thing play out. He watched Whitmore almost die for what he had done and he was quoted as saying quote, I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to get him off. And then he said I didn't want the guy to go to the electric chair, but how could I help him without implicating myself? Well, that's the whole thing. You couldn't, but you knew what to do. Why can't you implicate yourself?

This man should pay for what you did. You did it. He didn't. Like, that's what? That's somebody that just like, doesn't have a conscience or a soul or anything. Like that's completely soulless. No.

And there's a lot of sadness at the end of this case too. So following the death of his daughter, Max Wiley, did become like a crusader against these kinds of crimes. And he ended up authoring a book in 1964 titled, Career Girl Watcher Step. Like many in the media and law enforcement at the time, Max wrote, no matter how accustomed to your own community you may become, never grow to feel safe in it.

Feel threatened, you are threatened, you are never safe. That is such a social commentary on being a woman. Yeah, no, on September 24th, 1968, Janice's mother, Isabel, actually died from cancer. Oh God. And the following year, Janice's sister, Pam, died of pneumonia. Oh my God.

So he was like, Just alone. He lost everyone. His wife and both his children. And after so much tragic loss in like the smallest span of time, in just like quick trigger warning because this is a very sad end to this case,

Max Wiley checked into a motel in Fredericksburg, Virginia on September 21st, 1975. And after calling the front desk to report that he was having a heart attack, he shot himself in the head with a 38 caliber revolver. Oh my God. Yeah. During the trial, it was also learned that during the initial canvas,

the police had spoken to Ricky Robles. No. But his mother, No, no. Lied to detectives and told them on the day of the murders her son was at her apartment asleep on the couch. You know what? There's no excuse for that. There's no fucking excuse for that. You can't see me but I'm flipping this woman off right now.

No. Fuck you. No. Two people's daughters were viciously, brutally, savagely murdered by your son. You can go ahead and say, I don't think he did it, but you know so well he was not asleep on your couch. Yeah, you don't lie, man. I understand the inherent need or urge to protect your child, but not when they're in the wrong like that.

And you don't lie. You don't lie. You don't say he was there when he wasn't because it's like, dude, that's gonna come back. You don't know that. That's gonna come back. And how do you, I'm sorry, how do you live with yourself after? Yeah, I couldn't.

Dereiling, and that's the thing, derealing the investigation and then look at George Whitmore. Exactly. Like, come on, man. What a frustrating case all the way to the very end. Yeah, and Ricky Robles maintained his innocence until 1986, when hoping that he was going to win parole, he admitted to the parole board

that he murdered Janice Wiley and Emily Hofford. And Robles has consistently been denied parole and is currently serving his sentence at the Attica Correctional Facility in Upstate New York. Wow. Because after he admitted to it, he, of course, was like, no, I'm innocent and this is all bullshit. And that is the career girl murder case.

Oh, what a tragic first of treating. A murderous treating. Yeah. Janice Swiley and Emily Hoffert. So sad. And just how senseless that was. And the brutality that's attached to such a senseless murder. Like, yeah.

Wow. Wow. Like flabbergasting. It really is. It's the crime itself is so fucked up and so brutal and so horrific. And then the investigation afterwards is even it's the, it's, it's also brutal and horrible and fucked up. Well, and I was so expecting, I expecting, I was so expecting you to say that

it was somebody that knew Janice and like had previously dated her or like felt as though she wronged them in some way. Yeah, just that's what they were going off of too. Like how just personal it is to stab somebody over 60 times. And he, and she seemed to get more. Yeah.

She did get more than I mean Emily was also brutalized, but like Janice too. Yeah. It's just so crazy. He had also he'd come in there and immediately sexually assaulted her. He was sexually assaulting her. And it was and I didn't go into the details

because I just don't want to. It was a brutal sexual assault. She went through a brutal sexual assault by this fucking pig He is a pig before he did so it's like he he's a monster Wow, we need a palette cleanser brother. Yeah, we do Oh, so yeah, well with that we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it So yeah. Well, with that, we hope you keep listening. And we hope you.

Keep it weird. But it's so weird that you watch somebody take the fall for a heinous crime that you committed. Yeah, don't keep it that weird, listener. Don't do that. Don't do that. Follow Morbid on the Wondery app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and add free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

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