0:13

Hi. I'm your host, Kimbo. Grab a

0:16

beer and pull up a deck chair.

0:17

This is True Crime Ireland,

0:19

another True Crime podcast, bringing

0:22

a True Crime from

0:23

around the world Hi,

0:36

Islanders. I hope you're all well. We're

0:38

heading into the festive season, the end

0:40

of the year now. So I hope everything's

0:43

going fine for you.

0:44

Now this week, we have case from the USA.

0:47

It's about a missing wife that turns

0:49

up dead. And the husband is

0:52

suspected of doing away with

0:55

another one. That references

0:57

today are from the Akron Beacon

1:00

Journal, which covered this case quite

1:02

a bit. The Daily News, I've

1:04

got some court records in there. And

1:06

there's this book, which I do

1:08

recommend. It's called The Stranger

1:11

in my bed by Michael

1:13

Flehmann. Now I did the usual

1:16

I got my audio

1:18

audible audio book

1:20

for this. I must have listened to it

1:23

ten times. And it is

1:25

a really good book. Really, we'll go into

1:28

more detail than I can hear.

1:29

Alright. So this week, we go

1:32

to Ohio in the USA.

1:34

We're back in the seventies, November

1:36

seventy four to be precise. We're

1:39

Janice Elaine Hartman

1:41

twenty three is missing. It's

1:43

just days after filing for

1:46

divorce from her abusive husband or

1:48

not so much filing for divorce, her

1:50

divorce has just come through from

1:53

her husband twenty three year old

1:55

John David Smith. The

1:57

third. Okay. So in

1:59

nineteen sixty nine, Smith and Jan

2:01

met at a high school party in Seville.

2:04

Now Jan was described by her brother as

2:06

a bit of a tomboy and a free spirit.

2:09

So when she met John Smith with his

2:11

leather jacket and motorbike, she was

2:13

attracted to him. Now he's a bit

2:15

of a bad boy but by the photos

2:17

of him, he looked a bit nerdy.

2:20

Now, school friends at Smith described

2:22

him as intelligent but introverted.

2:25

Now this also attracted Jan to

2:27

him. After Janice and Smith

2:29

graduated, they are loped to

2:31

Detroit. Now this was totally

2:33

against Janice's parents' wishes,

2:36

and they were married in nine eight seventy.

2:39

Following their marriage, they moved to Columbus

2:41

and were estranged from their relatives

2:44

for a few years. Now,

2:46

Dan was a store manager at a gas

2:48

station, and John studied engineering

2:51

at Ohio State University.

2:54

But things weren't good in their marriage. By

2:56

nineteen seventy four, the couple separated

2:58

with John Ghosn delivered a trailer park

3:00

in Worcester and Janice

3:03

moved in with a father, a doils

3:05

town. Now that's about twenty

3:07

miles or thirty two k's apart

3:09

or about a half hour drive. Now

3:12

Janice worked as a coyote dancer

3:14

at a bar, which, again,

3:16

went against what a family like,

3:18

but she invited them to come

3:21

and see what she was doing. You

3:23

see a coyote coyote dancer

3:26

doesn't strip like a Gogo dancer

3:28

does. They didn't go and see her. And

3:30

this made her realize feel a lot

3:32

more comfortable about what she was doing.

3:35

And it looks like Janice

3:37

also served as a police

3:39

informant on drug related

3:41

matters. On the fourteenth of

3:43

November, Janice was granted On

3:45

the fourteenth of November, Janice

3:48

was granted an uncontested divorce

3:50

from Smith. But a few

3:52

days before that, on November the

3:54

tenth nine eight four, Janice

3:57

was physically attacked, sexually

3:59

assaulted, and threatened. In

4:01

a police report filed shortly after

4:04

the incident, Janice described

4:06

what had occurred. Now she

4:08

states that while at portage pub

4:10

in Doylestown, She, in the

4:12

date, Leonard Bennett, were invited

4:14

by a blond haired man to a potty

4:17

at Larry Swain's house. While

4:19

at Larry Swain's residence, a

4:21

man threw her to the floor, removed

4:23

her clothing, dragged her into

4:25

the bedroom, and attempted to have

4:27

sexual intercourse with her. According

4:30

to Janice, the man told her

4:32

that bitches like you don't

4:34

deserve to live. At

4:36

that point, several other men entered

4:38

the bedroom and held Janice down.

4:41

She stated that she struggled and was

4:43

struck in the face. Others

4:45

attempted to engage in sexual relations

4:48

with her, and at some point, the

4:50

blonde haired man came into the room

4:52

with a loaded shotgun. Pointed

4:54

it at her and said, Knox

4:57

always have an easy way out. Another

4:59

man shouted not to kill her, and

5:02

Leonard Bennett and Janice were eventually

5:04

released. So that's pretty shocking.

5:06

Now this looks like it's got to

5:08

do with what her

5:11

drug in for Informa's duties

5:13

were with the police. Who knows?

5:16

Now as you can imagine, they don't really take

5:18

the cops. Don't really make take much

5:20

notice of this. Janice being

5:22

drunk, she works at a at

5:24

a bar, as a dancing, you get

5:26

the sort of drift. But what

5:28

does get more of their attention is

5:30

that John Smith on the nineteenth

5:32

of November, five days

5:34

after the divorce is finalized, reports

5:37

Janice missing two police.

5:39

Now he says that he lasts Sorrower

5:42

two days earlier at the Sun

5:44

Valley Inn outside Doylestown. He

5:47

said to police that he was with

5:49

Janice and laid out that

5:51

they were still married when he

5:53

was speaking with them. This is weird.

5:55

He didn't tell them that they were divorced.

5:57

Right? He was with he

5:59

said he was with Denise and a female

6:01

friend and that they left the bar at

6:03

different times because Denise

6:06

was giving the friend a live tone.

6:08

He woke up the next day in a car,

6:10

a Mustang was parked next to his trailer,

6:12

but she was nowhere to be found. And

6:14

so he filed the missing person's report

6:17

the next day. But this

6:19

isn't the story he told the relos. He

6:22

told them that Jan was hit parking

6:24

across the country and was headed towards

6:26

Florida, adding that a

6:28

car had been found on interstate seventy

6:30

one near Columbus and

6:32

towed back to his place. Now

6:34

the family did believe this story

6:37

as Janice was a free spirit

6:39

and was prone to take off at any

6:41

time. Now Smith,

6:43

he tells his brother that Janice

6:45

was going to a witness relocation program

6:48

because she was a drug informant. So

6:51

he's telling different people,

6:53

different stories. Now we know

6:55

that's always us. But as

6:57

time went on and with no word

6:59

from Janus, Her family

7:01

became more and more worried. They

7:03

even paid a private investigator two

7:06

thousand dollars to try and find her,

7:08

but with no results, Janice

7:10

had disappeared and the family were

7:12

becoming suspicious of John

7:14

Smith. Even if the cops

7:17

really didn't put much effort in the looking for

7:19

her because again her job

7:21

and a lifestyle. But Janice

7:23

was close to her family. And even

7:25

if she did take off, she would have

7:27

been in touch with him sooner or later,

7:29

and that just didn't happen. And

7:31

eventually, the case just went cold

7:33

or the missing person's report.

7:35

In the late seventies, Smith

7:37

lived in Hammond, Indiana. Now now

7:39

that's not far from his grandparents. His

7:42

house was in Seville. Now

7:44

Smith and his brother Michael were pretty

7:46

much brought up by their grandparents after

7:48

their parents divorced. Now

7:51

in nineteen seventy nine, Chester Cheney,

7:53

that Smith's grandpa, was

7:55

cleaning out his garage with grandson,

7:57

Michael, the brother, when they

7:59

came across a four foot long

8:02

homemade wooden box that

8:04

was nailed shut. Now,

8:06

Michael, he ends up

8:08

levering the top of the box off

8:10

and saw it that it contained some old

8:12

clothes. He was shocked

8:14

though when he saw the remains of his sister-in-law,

8:16

Janice Hartman, inside. They

8:19

ended up calling John on the phone and

8:21

tolling to get the box out of the

8:23

garage ASAP. Now,

8:25

John drove over in his corvette t

8:27

Top, loaded up the box,

8:30

and Chester and Michael vowed to

8:32

keep this a family secret.

8:35

Well, Michael, he wanted

8:37

to call police, but grandpa

8:39

Chester punched him in the face and

8:41

told him not to betray the

8:43

family. So John Smith

8:45

is driving around town with his four

8:47

foot long wooden box poking out

8:49

one of the tea tops in his

8:52

core vet because it's not gonna fit

8:54

properly in that car. Now

8:56

something you just want the cops

8:58

to pull you over for, isn't it? Especially

9:00

when your ex wants bodies in

9:02

it. But by some sort

9:04

of foul luck, he's

9:06

able to get rid of it.

9:08

Now we go a bit further on April

9:10

the twenty second nineteen eighty.

9:13

Road workers are repairing a road

9:15

at Morocco. The roadwork

9:17

team, they work they

9:19

work as a pair. The first team,

9:21

go ahead, they fill up these crack

9:23

the cracks in the road with an oily

9:26

tire, while the second team come

9:28

along and they fill up that oily crack

9:30

with the rocky type road

9:32

material. Now the first team was getting

9:34

a bit too far in front, and

9:36

this oily stuff will dry out. It's

9:38

no good. So they stopped for a

9:40

break while the second team catches

9:42

up. And while stretching

9:44

his leg, leg says his leg.

9:46

He might have had one leg. I don't know.

9:48

While stretching his legs, the rye worker

9:50

saw a wooden box on the side of

9:52

the rye. Now, guys, I have to have a look

9:54

and got his mates to help him carry it

9:56

closer to the to the truck. Now,

9:58

they gimme the lead off the box

10:00

and they saw like an old blanket at some

10:02

old clothes. But when they lifted this

10:04

blanket up, they were shocked

10:06

to see a human skull. Now,

10:08

that cops were called, and the box and

10:10

contents were taken to a funeral home

10:12

for examination. Now,

10:15

usually, in these out back side of

10:17

town, the funeral home is

10:19

like the the council

10:21

morgue. That's where things are gonna

10:23

get examined. Inside

10:25

the box was that old blanket,

10:27

plus it was numerous clothing items,

10:30

which seemed to date back to the

10:32

late sixties or the early seventies

10:34

like bell bottom jeans in that. There

10:36

was a multi cut there's a multi colored

10:38

hair found amongst the clothing. Now

10:40

I'm thinking this multicolored

10:43

hair from the other clothing colors

10:45

is probably leached into the hair. It wasn't

10:47

that the hair started off multi

10:49

color. Okay. Not only did they find

10:51

a human skull, but they also

10:53

found multiple bones. Now

10:55

when laid out, there was almost

10:57

a complete skeleton. Except

11:00

the leg bones and the feet. All

11:02

all that from just under the knee

11:05

had been cut off.

11:07

Now some jewelry was also found in

11:09

the box, a couple of rings, and a

11:11

necklace. Now, there was no

11:13

ID found in the box. But it was

11:15

determined that the body was of a

11:17

young female. The body of

11:19

Janice Hartman would become

11:21

known as the lady in the

11:23

box, Jane Doe. Now, one

11:25

thing that was noted was on

11:27

a thin dress inside the

11:30

box that had been covering it looks like

11:32

covering the face or the skull, there

11:34

was an imprint of the facial

11:36

features, sort of like the

11:38

shroud of Chiran. Now

11:40

the body would end up being buried in a purpose

11:43

grave but his skull somehow

11:45

ended up on a dentist's desk.

11:47

Now I guess he was getting the

11:49

dental records and forgot to get the skull

11:51

back. Oh, I don't know. It would that

11:53

just seems a bit weird to me. Okay.

11:56

So Morocco, Indiana, and

11:58

Doylestown, Ohio. They're

11:59

about three hundred and fifty miles or

12:02

five hundred and sixty kilometers

12:04

apart, which will make

12:06

identification of this body difficult

12:08

as Denise had no

12:10

dental records. So even if they

12:12

did have some connection, there's

12:14

no she hasn't got any dental

12:16

records to go off. So

12:18

Smith moves around from state to state.

12:20

He's on pretty good money as an

12:22

engineer. In nineteen eighty

12:24

seven, he ends up at Milford, Connecticut

12:27

where he buys a house and lives there

12:29

with his girlfriend. He then

12:31

moves to Florida for a better paying job

12:33

in nineteen ninety Here

12:35

he meets forty eight year old Betty

12:38

Fran Gladden, an executive secretary

12:41

ten years old of any. Now Fran

12:43

was pretty fit for a h She's

12:45

petite at five forty two, and

12:47

had always been a good looker with

12:49

great taste in fashion. In her

12:51

younger days, she'd even done a bit

12:53

of modeling. Now they were a bit of an

12:55

oddball match. Friend

12:57

being fashionable and a bit glamorous

12:59

and smooth, but he he was

13:01

totally geeky even since

13:03

he was the kid where I said he looked a

13:05

bit doggy. He had this

13:07

orange haired bowl cut and

13:09

freckles, but France

13:11

seemed to be attracted to that.

13:13

It was pretty much a whirlwind

13:16

romance as after just a

13:18

couple of months dating, Fran

13:20

and Smith were married in

13:22

May of nine thousand and ninety. They then

13:24

build a house in Florida next

13:26

to Frank's aging mom. So,

13:29

I guess, Frank could take care of her. But

13:32

things didn't go so well. On

13:34

February the fifth nineteen ninety one,

13:36

Fran was home, entered a knock at the

13:38

door, and was served served with

13:40

divorce papers. Now, Fran was pretty shocked

13:42

as they hadn't fought and thought things were

13:44

pretty okay between the couple.

13:46

Now, when she called Smith about the divorce

13:48

papers, he's at work. You see?

13:50

They eventually reconciled and

13:52

ended up moving to West Windsor

13:55

Township, New Jersey, because

13:57

Smith had some work at a company

13:59

called Carba

13:59

random.

14:01

Now, was it unit 9104

14:04

Heritage Boulevard, Princeton

14:06

That's a three story condo of

14:08

just thirteen units. Now, Fran

14:11

didn't really wanna relocate there

14:13

because she had a family ties in Florida.

14:15

But she relented and she did

14:18

move. Now, while up there, she

14:20

noticed that Smith had a property

14:22

in Connecticut. He still had that property

14:24

in Connecticut. And queried him

14:26

as to why that didn't stay there

14:28

while he found work rather than

14:30

in West Windsor. Now

14:32

Smith toller, that his sister was

14:34

living there. And that the house wasn't

14:36

winterized, but his sister didn't care

14:38

about that, so she's just gonna stay

14:40

there. Now even though a friend

14:42

tried to get to see this sister,

14:44

get to see the house. He just avoided

14:47

it week after week saying, I'm too busy.

14:49

Can't go there. Not not not.

14:51

So you can imagine she might

14:54

start beginning a bit south.

14:56

She's getting divorce papers out

14:58

of out of the blue. Which he

15:00

then reconciles saying he's made a

15:02

mistake. He's got this secret

15:04

house that she's not allowed to look

15:06

at. Anyway, in the August of

15:08

ninety ninety one. Smith again

15:10

took off. But this time,

15:12

he took all his stuff. No

15:14

message or anything. Now, this

15:16

stage's friend realized how vulnerable

15:18

she was financially. All the

15:20

stuff they brought for the Florida House,

15:22

which they weren't living in now, was

15:24

supposed to be in storage. But

15:26

she had no idea where this storage

15:28

unit was. She had nothing in her

15:30

name, no bank account, no credit cards

15:32

because Smith took care of all

15:34

the financials. So he'd left

15:36

on a Friday, and Fran called

15:38

his work to find

15:40

him there on the following Monday.

15:43

He told her that he just had to

15:45

clear his head up and he'd gone away

15:47

for a few days and slept in his

15:49

car, then Smith

15:51

went back home. That sounds sass,

15:53

doesn't it? Is he maybe

15:55

going to Connecticut where

15:57

it's not his sister staying,

15:59

but I girlfriend staying. He spent

16:01

the whole week in there. Who

16:03

knows? But this time, Fran,

16:05

when he came back, Dady

16:07

Multi Maintenance. She wanted her

16:09

name on a bank account. She wanted to

16:11

go to his house in Connecticut

16:13

and meets his sister. And she

16:15

said she's gonna go and get a job.

16:17

Well, at least she got the job.

16:20

Smith stalled in doing any

16:22

of the other things on France

16:24

ultimatum list.

16:28

Now things weren't great between the

16:30

couple still, and they ended up going on

16:32

a bit of a retreat to help their

16:34

relationship Now this is on the

16:36

I'm sure it's the Labor Day weekend in

16:38

September of nineteen ninety one.

16:40

It's not the Memorial Day

16:42

weekend, which when I was doing

16:44

the research, they were getting a mixed up. I'm

16:46

sure it's a Labor Day weekend in September

16:48

ninety one. Those in US will

16:50

know what I'm talking about. Anyway,

16:53

They went to this place called Strickland's

16:55

Mountain Inn, a three

16:57

twelve Woodland Road, Mount

16:59

Pocono. Now this and

17:01

in the Pukono area at the time is

17:03

what they called a honeymoon

17:06

hotel. It was big business in

17:08

in Pokeno during the seventies, the eighties,

17:10

the nineties, not so much now.

17:12

Now, the rooms, they

17:14

had heart shaped spa bars

17:18

right in the middle of the room, they had

17:20

mirrors on the ceilings, on the

17:22

walls, all this sort of stuff

17:24

to get you on me on my side and get

17:26

it on. The ring they booked at a

17:28

like I said, at a spot out in

17:31

the middle, So Fran got in and she's

17:33

relaxing. But the TV for the room

17:35

was broken, so the maintenance guy was

17:37

cool. Now when he knocked Fran

17:39

made a way at towards

17:41

the bathroom where she slipped and

17:44

broke her hip and ended

17:46

up in Pokeno Medical Center in

17:48

East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.

17:51

Now friends stuck in hospital for weeks until

17:53

she's able to go home. Now

17:56

this condo she's been living

17:58

is is three floors

18:00

up and it hasn't got any lifts.

18:02

As you can imagine, this restricts her

18:05

movement and it starts to piss her off.

18:07

She can't leave the

18:09

house. On Saturday, September the

18:11

twenty eighth, Frank spoke

18:13

to her daughter Diana on

18:15

the phone and she told her that she's going out

18:17

shopping later to get a gift for a

18:19

grandson. Now this would be the

18:21

first time she'd attempt to delete

18:23

the house after breaking her

18:25

hit. She will be going out

18:27

shopping with John to a

18:29

sister as she was still on crutches.

18:31

See? Now, Diana heard Smith

18:33

in the background which is on this call.

18:36

Now, he says in the background that

18:38

I already bought a gift and

18:40

Fran was

18:41

pretty pissed off. And Smith

18:43

could be heard telling Fran he was too busy

18:45

to take her out shopping anyway.

18:47

Now Fran was pretty upset, not being able to go out

18:49

after being stuck inside for

18:51

so long. And she told Diana

18:53

she's gonna call her a Monday.

18:56

Now Monday came and Diana called friend,

18:58

but she didn't pick up. She

19:00

tried calling on Tuesday, but again,

19:02

there was no answer. She's tried

19:04

to gain that night, but still

19:06

no answer. She starts to

19:08

get worried. We'd now answer

19:11

on Wednesday she called Smith

19:13

Adi's work asking where her mother

19:15

was. Now Smith replied that

19:17

he thought she was with her.

19:19

Now he said that he came home on Tuesday night,

19:21

and there was a note saying feed

19:23

the fish, I'll be back in a couple of

19:25

days. Adding that she'd been talking

19:27

about going to Florida to visit her

19:29

and he just thought she had.

19:32

Diana didn't let this

19:34

go. Asking how she could do this with a broken hip.

19:36

But Smith told her the airport

19:39

bastard stopped out the front of the

19:41

condo. When asked where this note was,

19:43

so she could have a look at it. Smith told

19:45

her he'd thrown it in the bin.

19:48

Now, Diana, she

19:50

thought Smith was

19:52

sounding a little bit too late back

19:54

on this phone call as if he didn't

19:56

care where Fran was. And

19:58

you'd think he would be worried

20:00

knowing she wasn't at home or with where he

20:02

said she should be her

20:04

relows. With the Anna and

20:06

friend sister Sherry pestering

20:08

him for the next few days, They

20:10

finally get Smith to file a missing

20:12

persons report on Friday the fourth

20:14

of November. Now he

20:17

told police that he'd come home on

20:19

Tuesday night, the first of November, and

20:21

he'd found that note. But

20:24

friend, who's never seen a

20:26

game. Well, the investigators did

20:28

go around and interview Smith

20:30

after he'd filed that report, and he

20:32

seemed a bit evasive when answering

20:35

questions. Now about the note that he

20:37

mentioned that he had to feed the

20:39

fish, well a couple had a dog and

20:41

that wasn't mentioned. Ask what

20:43

he did to look for Fran and

20:45

Smith told the cops that he put flies

20:47

up around town. But this was

20:49

a lie as the investigators already

20:51

knew that Fran's family had

20:53

been the only ones to put them up, and they were

20:55

pretty pissed off that he didn't help.

20:58

When Smith's employer was interviewed,

21:01

They were shocked that Fran was missing.

21:04

Smith hadn't even mentioned to his

21:06

employer or even his work

21:08

people that she'd gone missing.

21:11

Now, friend's daughter, she ended

21:13

up having a key to Smith's house. And

21:15

when he left one day, she went in with the

21:17

relays and found that basically all

21:19

of Frank's clothes and stuff were

21:21

still in the house. In a suitcase

21:23

that Smith said Frank had packed the

21:25

things in when she left, That was

21:27

still there. Investigators did the

21:30

usual of asking around the bus

21:32

companies, rental car agencies, and

21:34

airlines, But nothing was booked

21:36

in Fran's name nor was

21:38

anyone of Fran's descriptions

21:40

cited around the time that she was

21:42

supposed to have been. To have

21:44

left. And you can imagine this

21:47

frail petite woman on crutches

21:49

trying to get around with

21:51

broken hip that's just getting

21:54

better, someone would have seen her.

21:56

Smith was now a prime suspect.

21:59

But they just didn't have enough evidence that

22:01

he was involved in her disappearance.

22:04

They did they had no body. They

22:06

had no sighting a friend. Well, Deanna

22:09

and Sherry, they started to do a little

22:11

bit of investigating themselves, and

22:13

they found that John Smith had

22:15

been married before and that

22:17

his first wife, Janice, had gone missing

22:20

also. Sherry tried to find

22:22

relatives of Janice, and after many

22:24

phone calls, she hit the

22:26

jackpot and got in contact with her brother.

22:28

Now, he tells her how Janice

22:30

had gone missing just days after

22:32

her divorce to Smith

22:34

and that the investigation had gone

22:37

cold. They haven't seen or heard

22:39

of Janice since November of nineteen

22:41

seventy four. It was now

22:43

nineteen ninety one, and that's seventeen

22:45

years. I'm with this

22:47

information, Sherry contacted the

22:49

investigators on Friends case. Now,

22:51

the investigators got in contact with

22:53

their colleagues that handled the Janice

22:56

disappearance. And by luck, the

22:58

original officer involved was

23:00

still working. Going over the

23:02

Janice Hartman files, investigators

23:05

noticed a lot of

23:07

inconsistencies in the missing persons

23:09

report. Now, two bigies that Smith told police

23:11

that he was Janice's husband,

23:14

even though they had been divorced.

23:17

also that she was living with

23:19

him in that trailer home at

23:21

Worcester, which also wasn't

23:23

correct. And she didn't live with him. She was living

23:25

with her father in Doylestown. Eventually,

23:28

both cases go coal. But

23:30

law enforcement and France

23:32

family, they just don't give up.

23:34

When the FBI became involved, they did a

23:36

profile on Smith. They went over

23:38

all the interviews with Smith and also

23:40

all the witness statements.

23:42

In May of nineteen

23:45

ninety nine, so this is another eight

23:47

years. They set up a huge

23:49

and very costly operation.

23:51

To not only interview Smith, but to interview

23:53

as many of the witnesses

23:55

to both cases as they could find,

23:57

including his brother, Michael.

24:00

Now they knew Smith would be eager to

24:02

find out what the FBI had on him

24:04

as he'd been always willing to

24:06

have passed interviews with police

24:09

for going he's right to silence or having a lawyer

24:12

present. You see, not only is

24:14

Smith a bit of a decade, but he

24:16

also think he's thinks he's the smartest

24:18

person in the room. He could deal

24:20

with more questioning, and he would try to

24:22

get more information out of

24:24

the investigators, especially

24:26

FBI that he would give back.

24:28

Now Smith when approached his

24:30

workplace, he was now living in California, he

24:33

was quite happy to be

24:35

interviewed. Now, this

24:37

interview went as before. He

24:39

would be asked questions. And if

24:41

what he said was able to be proven

24:43

to be a lie, It just change the

24:46

story to fit with the facts. Eventually,

24:48

he's called out in one of

24:50

these lies. And the investigators

24:52

They actually had a phone tap

24:55

recording of him, and that was proving

24:57

he was lying in his

24:59

own words. Now, Smith

25:01

is he's all calm and collected, but

25:03

he starts to lose his composure.

25:05

He ends up screeching

25:07

out this unholy sound.

25:09

And he told the investigators that he

25:12

needed to lie down as he

25:14

basically felt he was having a heart

25:16

attack. Well, You can't

25:18

just let him die even if he's

25:20

bullshitting. And the interview was

25:22

over. The FBI really had nothing

25:24

new, and this whole operation

25:26

had cost a lot of money to set up. And

25:28

as you know, when you get budgeted a

25:30

certain amount of money to get

25:32

someone, if you just file

25:34

It's not gonna look good with your

25:37

bosses. And probably, it's just

25:39

gonna be all over. Now,

25:41

his brother Michael Smith, he'd

25:43

been interviewed as well. He wasn't

25:46

happy at all about being approached to his

25:48

workplace workplace, and he

25:50

didn't give up much either. But

25:53

then, he ends up having this change a

25:55

heart, and he lied to contacts the

25:57

interviews, the FBI asking for

25:59

another meeting. And he would go there

26:01

with a lawyer. Well,

26:03

Michael, he ends up getting investigators the

26:05

breakthrough they need it. He ends

26:07

up telling him about this

26:09

box and how seen brother actually build

26:11

it, fill it with clothes, and

26:13

it ended up being stored in the

26:16

grandpa's garage. Now years later when

26:18

he was cleaning up and the box was

26:20

open, he saw that what

26:22

he was pretty sure was

26:24

Janice's decompose body.

26:27

The only bit he didn't see was the legs,

26:29

and they'd seem to be cut off below the

26:31

knees. He went on the side that a pact

26:33

was made with his grandfather

26:36

not to tell a soul. And then

26:38

John was called to come get the box and

26:40

get the fuck out of here. Michael

26:42

continued saying that John just casually

26:45

turned up put the box in the back of his corvette

26:47

and drove off. Well,

26:49

the FBI, after being

26:51

downhearted, after that John

26:53

Smith interview, which just going

26:55

nowhere. All of a

26:57

sudden, they had reason to believe they could

26:59

catch this son of a bitch. They

27:01

end up tracking down that corvette

27:03

that John had on sold. And

27:05

by putting the word around, they found

27:07

out that a body had been found

27:09

in a box in Morocco, Indiana,

27:12

in nineteen eighty, and it was

27:14

a Jane Doe case. Well,

27:16

x assumation and DNA testing showed that

27:18

the body in the box, the jaines

27:22

Hartman. The corvette had

27:24

scuff marks inside the

27:26

interior which looked like

27:28

would have been made by a box the size

27:30

that Janice had been found in.

27:33

Now, further searches of John

27:35

Smith's properties did uncover

27:37

fragments of a skull and

27:39

teeth. Day and

27:40

I testing would prove that it

27:42

wasn't France. And of course, Janice's

27:45

skull was intact. That was a skull

27:48

been on that dentist's desk.

27:50

So the

27:51

investigators have the theory that Smith had

27:54

not only killed dentist, but

27:56

may have also killed the missing friend, and

27:58

there could be a third victim that

28:00

no one knows about. Of

28:02

course, Smith denies everything.

28:04

But the testimony of his brother

28:06

would be his downfall. Now

28:09

there's a race for time to get Smith

28:11

rested right, charged and died it, and off

28:13

the trial. Now, I'm not gonna go into

28:15

complexities of the law, but they

28:17

had to take this very secret, so

28:19

Smith couldn't slip out of

28:21

their grasp. So

28:21

maybe please read

28:22

or listen to a stranger in my bed

28:24

by Michael Freeman. Like I said,

28:26

it's really well written book

28:29

it covers a a lot more of the detail that

28:31

I can't really go here. So

28:33

you guys at trial for the murder of Janice

28:36

Hartman. His brother Michael is the main

28:38

witness. They have his testimony

28:40

about seeing John make the box, put

28:42

Janice's clothes in it, then

28:44

later, Michael sees her body

28:46

in it, and then John takes

28:48

it away. Witnesses say they

28:50

saw Smith at the club where Janice

28:52

worked and their they actually left together and

28:55

she was never seen a guy. Her

28:57

car was at his trailer the day after

28:59

she went missing and was still there

29:01

when police came to intervene. Now

29:03

Smith's story changed multiple

29:06

times when he was ever caught out in a

29:08

lie. He told his relatives

29:10

different stories and he told

29:12

the police. And, of course, his

29:14

own family. Now in defense,

29:16

Smith told the court that yes, he did

29:18

put a body in the box, but she'd been

29:20

killed by drug dealers, and he was

29:22

scared that he'd be blamed by police, and

29:24

that's why he did it. But the

29:26

jury didn't believe it, and he would be found

29:28

guilty of the murder of Janice

29:30

Hartman and sentenced to fifteen

29:33

years to life. But

29:35

what about Fran? Well, he denied

29:37

having anything to do with her

29:39

disappearance. Well, in

29:41

twenty nineteen, so it wasn't long

29:43

ago, a grand jury indicted

29:45

Smith on her murder.

29:47

But the fact that he murdered Janice

29:50

wouldn't be allowed as evidence in

29:52

the trial. He was offered a plea

29:54

deal in twenty twenty one for

29:56

a twenty term to be run consecutively with his

29:59

current sentence. In his current

30:01

sentence, he would be up for a parole

30:03

hearing in twenty twenty nine.

30:06

either he takes his plea deal or he goes

30:08

to trial. We may know

30:10

the outcome soon.

30:12

So

30:13

There you go. He Gilsey's

30:16

first wife who just divorced him,

30:18

stores a body in a box for

30:20

years in his grandfather's garage,

30:22

the box is found, but the body's

30:24

jane dove for years, then

30:26

his second wife goes missing. But

30:28

almost another decade goes by before all the

30:31

joint dots are joint, and

30:33

his brother finally has the

30:35

balls to spill the beans on

30:37

what had gone on. Now, Janice

30:39

had a legs cut off below

30:41

the knees. Now, the shrinks reckon

30:43

that this is not only to fitter

30:45

in the box, but also

30:48

represented not her being able to

30:50

walk out on Smith ever

30:52

again. Then I were cut off

30:54

with a serrated knife, not a sword.

30:56

They weren't hacked off with an axe

30:58

or anything, but with a knife.

31:01

That just shows that determination

31:04

for Smith to cut off her

31:06

legs, it wouldn't have been easy at

31:08

all. And the bottom half of her

31:10

legs were never found.

31:12

John Smith just couldn't handle Janice divorcing

31:15

him going out having fun and

31:17

meeting you men. Working as a

31:19

coyote dancer in abbar, living her

31:21

life, and driving her my

31:23

staying. So the jut kills her

31:25

and cuts off her legs. Michael

31:27

his brother. Now, fair enough, he

31:29

did wanna go to the cops when he first

31:32

discovered Janice in the

31:34

box, the granddaddy forced him to

31:36

keep quiet. But after the Grand

31:38

Folks died, he was able to get it off

31:40

his chest and help bring bring

31:42

closure and justice to the

31:44

Hartman family. Friend,

31:46

Gladden Smith and her family, where they might just get

31:49

some justice soon after

31:51

nearly twenty years. Let's

31:54

hope Smith gives up the location

31:57

of her body. Well,

31:59

well I understand what a case spanning

32:02

from nineteen seventy

32:04

four to present day. Now,

32:06

of course, you've seen in the news we're getting

32:08

more and more of these cases

32:10

being solved as technology

32:13

progresses. And a lot of Jane Doe's and

32:15

John Doe's are being identified

32:18

via DNA or the

32:20

family chain of DNA. Well, that's

32:22

it for this episode. For

32:24

my patrons, there's a special message

32:26

there for you and next to John Kelly for

32:28

the PayPal donation. I'll grab a few beers with

32:30

that for sure. The sale of

32:32

Christmas, so I may or may not

32:35

another episode out before then or before

32:37

new year. If not, I hope everyone has

32:39

a happy, festive season and

32:41

a fantastic new year.

32:44

I've been your host, Camber. You've been

32:47

listening to True Crime Island. Don't

32:49

forget

32:50

to delete your browser history.

32:53

Bonfancamonga, you know.