RECIPE TO BAKE A KIM HALLOCK CAKE

A few years ago I was entertaining myself reading about cold cases. I came across a feelgood newspaper story – a cat-saved-from-tree type piece – about how the sketchy neighbor who murdered Maria Ridulph was finally brought to justice 50 years later. The snow fell gently and the whole town rejoiced.

Back in 1957, a strange man named “Johnny” offered 7-year-old Maria Ridulph a piggyback ride, and she was later found murdered. Police were always suspicious of a sketchy neighbor named John Tessler. But Tessler’s mother gave him an alibi, saying he was home at the time of the murder.

Then in 2008 Tessler’s half sister told police that way back in 1994, Tessler’s mother said on her deathbed that John Tessler did it. Police arrested Tessler. The newspaper reporter was gleeful to share how Tessler had immediately confessed to two other inmates in the jail that he had indeed killed Maria Ridulph, and was therefore easily convicted.

I left a comment under the newspaper story “You do know this is a total scam, don’t you?” Jailhouse confession witnesses always are. And the public doesn’t care because they give the public what they want.

What I didn’t know when I left that comment, is that John Tessler’s conviction had already been overturned when I wrote it. The later news stories say what the feelgood conviction story left out, that the jailhouse witness stories were suspect to begin with. One said Maria had been smothered, the other that she had been strangled with a wire. An autopsy said she had likely been stabbed.

But it did not matter to the jury or to the public, that jailhouse witnesses always lie and in this case appeared to be lying. The jury cannot fathom that the state would put liars in front of them as a standard practice. And the public still wants Tessler in jail to this day.

It is not that different from my friend Mandi May Jackson’s case, where the jailhouse witness stories contradict piles of physical evidence. This includes 1) the victim was not drugged, 2) witnesses said he jumped and was not thrown over, 3) the murderer did not hide in the back of the car, 4) the death took place two hours later, not immediately when the victim arrived home, 5) the gun was not a black Glock, 6) Scott Love did not drive Mandi to meet the victim, 7) the apartment was not ransacked, 8) there was no signature on the credit card receipt, and the whole story is easily proven nonsense.

People will also remember William Dillon’s jailhouse confession witness did not fit the evidence. He gave the wrong location for the murder. And it didn’t matter, Dillon spent 27 years in prison. Because like John Preston’s dog, jailhouse confession witnesses are a witch-pricking device. They convict whomever the public wants to convict.

All that is necessary to convict someone is 1) disseminate the narrative to the public, and 2) put the accused in jail with other inmates facing drug sentences. The other inmates will climb over each other to swear the accused confessed, because they know it can get them out of jail no questions asked, sometimes in as little as a few hours.

This is generally used on the poor or those accused of serious crimes who cannot make bond. But it can easily be used on someone like Kim Hallock with a crime as simple as DUI. It will literally only take as little as a few hours in jail, and every black girl in that jail will be swearing that Kim Hallock confessed to killing Chip.

And unlike William Dillon, John Tessler, and Mandi May Jackson, there will be no inconsistencies in the stories jailhouse witnesses will say Kim confessed to. After all these years, every one of them will know exactly what they are supposed to say and what the public wants to hear: Chip and Kim got high at the baseball park, they were playing around with the gun, and Kim accidentally shot Chip. Or in a fit of anger or jealousy, while arguing over Chip’s other girlfriend.

You may think this sounds crazy or silly, or is a little bit of an exaggeration. You can’t just give Kim Hallock the death penalty like that. What you are saying is instantly convict someone of murder based on nonsense, not even good nonsense, but crap a child could see through – if only someone told him to see through it instead of the opposite. It is not really that easy to convict someone of murder based on nonsense. But it is that easy. The only ingredient necessary to turn nonsense into creme brulee, is the public desire.

There are 10,000 innocent people in Florida prisons right now based on total nonsense, with the only necessity that the public wants it, it fulfills their active imagination. People will run their minds in circles and lie to themselves to turn nonsense into fact, when their hearts desire someone to be in prison. And the prosecutor will say here is a jailhouse witness to recite your nonsense, remember who your hero is on election day.

Don’t tell William Dillon or John Tessler or Mandi May Jackson or 10,000 other people it is not that easy. Do you know what you are allowed to tell the jury about the past crimes, the reputation, the lifestyle of a jailhouse confession witness? Nothing. The system, the case law, is designed to make it work, to make it foolproof. You drop the penny in the machine, the prize comes out every time, believe it.

So the means are there and readily available, to give Kim Hallock the death penalty. All that is missing is the want-to. You just need one person – an estranged cousin, a neighbor, a high-school enemy – to say Kim Hallock confessed. All you have to do is get Kim Hallock in jail for one day, and you can get a real pro to do it, a criminal sociopath who knows the game better than any lawyer. If you could just get a cop to follow Kim around until she weaves or something, you could arrest her on a fake DUI and have her on death row in 18 months.

That’s how you get what you want in this world. It’s not a free lunch, but it is as close to free as you are going to get, a 10-cent lunch. Why use it on William Dillon, or on a half-retarded hooker Mandi May, but not on the person you really want? Are you sheep? You think those strip-club scumbags didn’t bag their hog Mandi May? But you guys stand around like suckers, waiting for what?