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- [Alan] In Sarasota, Florida,

everything and everyone revolves around the arts.

[dramatic string music]

- It was a place where arts lovers

can really indulge themselves.

- But in 2004, this haven for artists was traumatized

by the brutal murder of 61-year-old gallerist

Joyce Wishart.

- It was different than any other crime scene

that we had encountered.

This is something that was straight out of,

like, a horror movie.

- A crime scene so twisted that investigators are searching

in the darkest corners for clues.

[dramatic music]

- The art behind Joyce's hand had blood on it.

- We looked at each of those pictures and thought,

"Is there a clue in any of these paintings

that lead us to the killer?"

- Could an evil artist be hiding

in this tight-knit community?

[dramatic music]

- The arts community went into panic mode.

Everyone was walking on eggshells with fear.

[dramatic music]

- And that deeply-connected community is now looking around

and wondering...

[dramatic music]

if it could be one of their own painting the town red.

[dramatic string music]

[dramatic string music continues]

[eerie music]

[eerie music]

[eerie music]

- The 911 call came in about a little after one o'clock

in the afternoon.

Certainly, when the caller eventually describes

that the person is green and laying nude,

you realize this is going to be probably a homicide.

[intriguing music]

Myself and Detective Glover,

the three of us then rode over to the crime scene together.

[intriguing music]

- [Police] Okay, we have [indistinct] coming out there...

[intriguing music]

The crime scene was Provenance Gallery.

It's a unit along Palm Avenue with some other art dealers.

[intriguing music]

- There were several restaurants around,

there were other galleries and boutiques around,

and it was a quiet part of town.

[intriguing music]

- [Mark] When we arrived, we did proceed into the crime scene

to view it ourselves.

- [Police] Okay, we have [indistinct] coming out there...

- The first thing that hits you in the face is the odor.

It is powerful.

And once you've smelled it, you can never forget.

- [Mark] Also, there was the sound of classical music,

which was playing at the same time, which was very eerie.

[dramatic orchestral music]

One of the things we know as soon as we came in, though,

there was no scene of a struggle.

[dramatic orchestral music]

Everything looked completely fine

walking into the art gallery.

[dramatic orchestral music]

- [Suzanne] We find the body lying on the ground

in between two partition walls

where she can't be seen from the front door,

and she's laying face up.

[dramatic orchestral music]

- [Alan] The maintenance worker who found the body

knows exactly who it is.

[eerie music]

Provenance Gallery owner, 61-year-old Joyce Wishart.

[eerie music]

in the exact area.

That was the only area that had anything disturbed.

[eerie music]

- [Suzanne] She was already in a state that indicated to us

that she had been dead probably for several days.

[eerie music]

So that was a starting point for a timeframe

of when to start looking.

[eerie music]

And then, as I walked closer to her body,

she had pairs of shoes,

which were now pointed in towards her body.

Her legs were spread. She was laying on her back.

[eerie music]

- [Suzanne] She had obvious extensive trauma to the neck,

where it appeared as though her head was almost removed.

[eerie music]

The most unusual injury on the body

is that her entire genital area was missing.

[intriguing music]

- [Mark] You could see there was multiple stab wounds.

You could see that there was wounds to her hands

that would most likely be defensive wounds.

[eerie music]

So it appeared by the wounds that a knife was used

for the stabbings and for the cutting of her throat.

[eerie music]

And we noted that the body looked completely staged.

[intriguing music]

Well, at that point we're thinking the perpetrator

was purposely leaving the body in a certain position

to get some kind of shock value out of it.

[intriguing music]

- The woman's right hand is gesturing towards a painting

of a blonde woman on her back, nude,

and her left hand, with a crooked finger,

is gesturing towards an open copy of Sarasota Magazine,

to a page of an article called

"A Fine Madness," written by Marcia Corbino,

the queen of the Sarasota art scene.

[intriguing music]

- [Mark] It was different than any other crime scene

that we had encountered in the past.

This was something that was straight out of,

like, a horror movie almost,

with the way the body was positioned, of a sexual nature,

and how it had been mutilated

and probably meant to be that way by the killer.

[eerie music]

- [Suzanne] Because of the way the body was found,

it was clear to us from the very beginning

that our suspect was most likely a male.

[dramatic string music]

- [Alan] Detectives start to track down Joyce's next of kin

while the news that Joyce Wishart has been murdered

ripples through the nearby galleries.

[dramatic string music]

- [Mark] There was a crowd developing

and you start thinking,

could the perpetrator actually be in the crowd?

They could be still on scene watching what we're doing.

[dramatic string music]

- [Alan] It doesn't take long for Joyce's close friends

to learn of the tragedy.

[ominous music]

- When I first heard that Joyce had been found dead,

it was complete and utter shock

How can this be possible?"

[ominous music]

When we found out the grizzly details, it was horrific

to contemplate what must have actually happened to her.

[ominous music]

- [Michael] Joyce Wishart's kind of an amazing woman.

She spent 20 years being married.

She had a family in Cincinnati, Ohio.

She left her husband and decided he was a deadbeat dad.

She went to school.

She got an associate's degree, a bachelor's degree,

and a master's in marketing and management.

She said her dream one day was to move

to a warm weather climate and operate an art gallery.

So that dream came true.

[melancholic music] [audience applauding]

- [Linda] I first met Joyce Wishart when I was exploring

Sarasota as a place to move from upstate New York.

She found out that I had gotten the job

as the marketing director of the symphony here.

She had a celebratory dinner for me.

And I have a very vivid memory of raising a glass

and celebrating the fact that I'd gotten the job.

She was very friendly, very open.

And one of the things I admired about Joyce

is that she was really able to transform her life.

It was a real metamorphosis

and it was wonderful to be able to witness that.

[intriguing music]

- [Alan] Joyce's journey ended as she had lived it,

surrounded by art

and in the heart of a thriving arts community.

And that is exactly where investigators

must look for her killer.

- [Karen] We assumed from the very beginning

that this was a person that knew our victim

and had some plan to eliminate her,

some sort of personal reason to kill her

and kill her in the manner in which she was slain.

[intriguing music]

- [Alan] Joyce had no employees to question.

So, some detectives canvas the area

immediately around the gallery

and others continue to scour the crime scene

for useful evidence.

[intriguing music]

- [Suzanne] And as we looked around the gallery,

we found several things of interest.

One was that the front door was locked

and the maintenance man could not get in without a key.

So that indicated to us that the killer locked the door

after he left.

[intriguing music]

Fingerprints were collected from all over the gallery

by crime scene technicians.

[intriguing music]

And we tried to find matches.

Who did these fingerprints belong to?

[intriguing music]

The art behind Joyce's head had blood on it.

And some of the blood was clearly smudged blood,

which would indicate that the killer

probably touched this item after the murder

with blood on his hands.

[intriguing music]

- [Mark] Certainly our hope is that the killer

has left some of their own blood behind,

which will be DNA that we could use

in a profile to help identify the killer.

[intriguing music]

One of the things that we'll do at a crime scene

to find additional blood is luminol,

which is going to pick up stuff

that a perpetrator's going to think they cleaned an area,

that they don't see it.

[intriguing music]

In the bathroom, it lit up like neon.

There was all kinds of blood splattered

that had been in there that had been wiped down

but not completely.

So there was a lot of cleanup

that had gone on in that bathroom,

which, you know, certainly would be the perpetrator.

- [Alan] Detectives hold high hopes that some of the blood

in the bathroom belongs to the perpetrator,

but they'll have to wait on DNA testing to be sure.

[intriguing music]

At the gallery next door, investigators discover

a security camera and eagerly review the footage.

- [Suzanne] We were able to get one small piece of video

that showed figures that would go in and out of the door,

but nothing was clear enough to be useful.

[intriguing music]

- [Alan] The shadowy images may not be helpful,

but thankfully there are plenty of other leads

to investigate.

[intriguing music] [phone ringing]

- [Mark] We were getting numerous tips

of people calling in the Sarasota Police Department.

We had some about an individual on a bike, for instance,

who had gone into one of the galleries

and caused a disturbance.

[intriguing music]

- [Michael] A thin white man, tall, sandy color hair,

who was belligerent and was upsetting people.

He'd gone inside one gallery

and had to be chased out by the owner with a broom.

[intriguing music]

The reports of Bicycle Man are similar enough to one another

that police absolutely believe they're true and accurate,

but they don't know who the guy is.

[eerie music]

but investigators are watching for him in case he reappears.

[intriguing music]

Back at the crime scene in the Provenance Gallery,

detectives attempt

to put the bizarre pieces of the puzzle together.

[intriguing music]

- [Mark] Is this killer trying to send us a message

by, "Look at this article"

and this would have a clue as to who that person was

or something along those lines?

[intriguing music]

- [Karen] It was important for us to think about the fact

that this took place in an art gallery,

that her life was surrounded by art.

There were multiple pictures surrounding the body

and we thought, "Is there a clue in any of these paintings

that give us a clue about why this happened,

how it happened, and who did this?"

[intriguing music]

- [Suzanne] It did seem that the killer was making

some statement.

It wasn't obvious what the statement was.

[intriguing music]

- [Alan] Coming up...

- [Linda] It made us all very nervous and very scared

that there could actually be a killer among us.

- [Suzanne] His fingerprints are all over the gallery,

and his magazine is part of the crime scene.

- They said, "Ms. Wishart was found holding the magazine."

[dramatic music]

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- [Alan] It's been eight hours

since Joyce Wishart's brutalized body was found

in her Sarasota art gallery.

[intriguing music]

At the station, detectives have finally been able to find

and notify Joyce's adult children.

A somber responsibility.

[intriguing music]

- [Mark] Ms. Wishart had four children,

two of which she was estranged with

and two of which she was in contact with.

[intriguing music]

- [Suzanne] And we spoke to her daughter first

and had to notify her, obviously, of what had happened.

We also spoke to her son, who was very distraught as well,

and he hadn't seen her in several weeks.

[intriguing music]

- So when her family got the news of the murder,

shocked doesn't cover it.

They were completely devastated.

[intriguing music]

- [Alan] When asked if they had any idea who did this,

Joyce's grieving family shares an unsettling detail.

[intriguing music]

- [Mark] We did learn from the children

that the ex-husband had some issues with drinking

and had been volatile in the past.

[intriguing music]

- [Suzanne] He had allegedly been violent to her

and allegedly stabbed her in the legs before.

[intriguing music]

- [Mark] It certainly raised our concern

that if he had been abusive in the past,

that he could be somebody who had been be violent again.

So, certainly he was a person of interest.

[ominous music]

- [Alan] But when they find Joyce's ex,

he's not what they expect.

[ominous music]

- [Mark] The ex-husband was several states away,

was in a frail condition

and not able to be a suspect in this crime.

[ominous music]

- [Alan] With the ex-husband out of suspicion,

investigators now turned back to the very arts community

that Joyce had thrived in for many years.

- [Suzanne] Sarasota Police Department wanted to know

what members of the art community had been

in and out of Joyce's gallery within the previous week.

[dramatic string music]

So they were using various things to compile a list.

Her phone messages that we found on her answering machine,

her appointment book.

[dramatic string music]

[intriguing music]

- [Mark] At that time, we were exploring different theories

as to what had occurred,

one of which would be she had art there on consignment.

Could this be an artist or somebody that's upset with her?

Somebody that was trying to sell art to her

that was upset with her?

[intriguing music]

- [Suzanne] Investigators also spoke to the people

that were right in that complex,

other art gallery owners, to see what they had seen,

if they knew anything

or if there were any suspicious people.

[intriguing music]

- [Alan] Despite the extensive canvas, no new leads emerge.

However, evidence gathered at the crime scene

is starting to paint a clearer picture of the murder.

[intriguing music]

as possible evidence.

They took that to the crime lab

and then were able to do an analysis,

and the analysis showed that the computer

had been logged off at 4:52 PM, Friday 16th,

and she did not log back in.

[intriguing music]

Friday, that whoever killed her must have done it very quickly

after she logged off of the computer

because she would've closed the gallery at five o'clock.

[intriguing music]

- We also contacted her alarm company.

We were able to establish that she typically logged off

each day at 5:00 PM

and she had not done that on that Friday.

[intriguing music]

Once we determined that Ms. Wishart had logged off

at 4:51 PM, that the alarm had not been set at 5:00 PM,

this gave us a timeframe as to when we believe

the homicide had occurred.

[intriguing music]

- [Suzanne] It was very possible that whoever did this

was someone close to her or the community,

because they would have the knowledge

of when the gallery closed.

[intriguing music]

[dramatic string music]

- [Alan] And then the crime lab results come back

with a fingerprint match.

- [Mark] The hit that we did get on the fingerprints

was a man by the name of Jimmy Dean.

[dramatic string music]

- [Alan] Jimmy Dean is a prominent local businessman

whose prints were in the system because he had volunteered

with a youth group in the city.

And that's not all.

- [Suzanne] And that was interesting

because he was the publisher of Sarasota Magazine,

and the magazine that was laying next to Joyce's body

was the Sarasota Magazine and had blood on it.

[dramatic string music]

We didn't know what the relationship was

and it was something that needed to be investigated.

[dramatic string music]

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- [Alan] Investigators have matched fingerprints found

at the scene of Joyce Wishart's murder

to those of the prominent publisher of Sarasota Magazine,

Jimmy Dean.

[intriguing music]

- His fingerprints are all over the gallery

and his magazine is part of the crime scene.

[intriguing music]

- [Alan] He's brought into the station for questioning.

[intriguing music]

- [Suzanne] Jimmy Dean said that he was friends with Joyce

and that he would go by her gallery

once every couple of weeks

to see if she wanted ads in his magazine.

[intriguing music]

- We talked to him about

when he was last at the Provenance Gallery.

He advised he was there the day of the murder.

[intriguing music]

But he said that wasn't unusual for him.

[dramatic string music]

- [Alan] Detectives then present Jimmy Dean

with the evidence that places him at the crime scene.

[intriguing music]

- I had no idea what this was about.

I, you know, had no idea.

[intriguing music]

open to this page and she was touching it."

[dramatic string music]

They said, "We found your fingerprints

all over her gallery."

I heard that and I must have just turned white.

[intriguing music]

"And that's what leads us

to you here this morning, Mr. Dean.

Sounds a little fishy."

[intriguing music]

They then proceed to ask me a series of questions.

[intriguing music]

The salient question that stood out,

was I in a romantic relationship with her?

[intriguing music]

And I was married, happily married with kids,

and, you know, no, I...

We're friends.

[intriguing music]

- [Alan] Before they leave Jimmy Dean,

investigators ask him for a DNA swab.

It could link him to the murder or prove his innocence.

[intriguing music]

- [Suzanne] When law enforcement asked for his DNA sample,

he freely gave it.

[intriguing music]

- [Alan] Detectives hang their hopes on Jimmy Dean's DNA

matching the bathroom blood samples at the crime scene.

[intriguing music]

- [Mark] We did get a DNA profile

from Florida Department of Law Enforcement,

a male subject whose DNA was left at the crime scene.

[intriguing music]

- [Suzanne] And they were able to eliminate

Jimmy Dean as a suspect

because his DNA did not match the profile

found in the bathroom.

[dramatic string music]

- [Jimmy] She was a very good woman.

What happened to her did not deserve to happen.

Who could have done such a horrible thing?

[dramatic piano music]

- [Alan] Jimmy Dean is relieved to be cleared of suspicion

but troubled by his connection to the murder.

[dramatic piano and string music]

- [Jimmy] The questions that went through our heads

at the magazine was,

"Why is our magazine so involved in this murder?"

[dramatic piano and string music]

As we were going through our mental rolodex

of possible suspects,

we couldn't come up with any solid lead,

and who could we possibly know that is that evil?

[dramatic piano music]

- [Linda] All of the arts community was on edge after this

murder because this person had not been found.

This person could still be living in the same community.

[intriguing music]

- [Jimmy] The arts community in general went into panic mode.

They did not stay open late.

Many of them closed before dark.

Many of them kept their doors locked all day.

[intriguing music]

- [Linda] If there's somebody here who was walking the

streets, who was eating at the local diner, who was riding a

bicycle, walking the sidewalks, who could it be?

It made us all very nervous and very scared

that there could actually be a killer among us

and we would never know it.

[intriguing music]

[dramatic piano and string music]

- [Alan] It's been a month since Joyce's murder

and the intense media attention is finally paying off.

[dramatic piano and string music]

- [Mark] We get a tip from a man who says

he thinks he saw the killer the day of the murder.

[intriguing music]

- [Suzanne] It was someone that frequented the gallery.

On the day of the murder, he was outside the gallery.

He wanted to speak to Joyce.

But he didn't go in because he saw her speaking to a man

in a leather jacket.

And we wondered, could this be our killer?

[intriguing music]

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- [Alan] As the investigations into Joyce Wishart's murder

stretches into its second month,

a man named Henry Gabo calls the tip line.

[intriguing music]

- [Mark] In speaking to Mr. Gabo,

he gave a description of a male subject

that had been in the gallery.

[intriguing music]

Mr. Gabo described the individual as a male

with a leather jacket with slicked-back hair.

Although he could not provide very much detail,

Mr. Gobo believed he was in the gallery at 4:45.

[intriguing music]

One of the things that was interesting to us

was that we know that the crime occurred

somewhere in between 4:51

and around five o'clock that evening,

that there was not much time for the killer

to actually enter without being seen.

[intriguing music]

So we believe that the killer was watching the scene,

casing it, and waiting for his exact opportunity

to get inside the gallery with no one else there.

[eerie music]

- [Alan] Mr. Gabo agrees to look at a photo lineup

of potential suspects.

[eerie music]

- Ultimately, he was unable to pick anyone out of the lineup

because he didn't get a clear view of this individual.

He only got a partial side view of him

and was not able to make an identification.

[eerie music]

[intriguing music]

- [Karen] It was very frustrating.

We had many, many brainstorming sessions

trying to figure out

what in God's name happened to this woman,

who did it, and why they did it.

Why did such a horrible crime like this take place

in broad daylight in downtown Sarasota?

[eerie music]

- [Alan] Investigators are still holding out hope

that DNA gathered at the crime scene

will help find the killer.

[intriguing music]

- [Suzanne] It was imperative that we got as many DNA profiles

as we could and try and match it to this unknown profile.

[intriguing music]

They went to Joyce's associates.

They went to people that worked with Joyce.

They went to her friends, they went to anyone that knew her.

They even started swabbing complete strangers.

They took probably 100 different DNA profiles

from people in the community

just to see if they could get a match

to this unknown profile.

[intriguing music]

- [Mark] We knew we did have the DNA,

we just did not have a DNA match.

[intriguing music]

The fact that we did not have a DNA hit

would mean either the person

who committed the crime has never been arrested

and never was compelled to give a DNA sample.

So, that was what we're looking at,

that there's a possibility

that maybe we would never get a DNA hit.

- [Karen] And yet when we looked at the crime itself,

it seemed that only a person that knew Joyce,

that disliked her so intensely

could have committed this kind of personal crime.

[intriguing music]

- [Linda] All of us were pretty nervous,

because we felt that the perpetrator

could still be in the community.

[intriguing music]

- [Alan] Despite investigators' intense effort,

leads in the case begin to run dry.

[ominous music]

- [Mark] Six months goes by

doing pretty much everything we could possibly do.

[ominous music]

- [Alan] With no breaks in the case,

the tension in Sarasota is as high as ever.

- You could not go anywhere without people wanting to know,

"Have you heard anything else?" "What do you know?"

[ominous music]

Everyone was walking on eggshells with fear.

[intriguing music]

- So there was, generally, I would say, a level of anxiety,

particularly in the downtown area,

that this person could be out and about.

[intriguing music]

And who knows what else he might do.

[intriguing music]

- [Alan] And then almost seven months

after Joyce Wishart's brutal murder,

a lead comes in from 1,000 miles away.

[eerie music]

- [Mark] In July of 2004,

we get a DNA hit on a subject who was in Houston, Texas.

[eerie music]

- [Suzanne] We were ecstatic.

[intriguing music]

- [Mark] It was very exciting

that we've been working so hard on this case

and now we actually had a match on a suspect.

[intriguing music]

- [Suzanne] When we looked into who the profile belonged to,

it was a bit perplexing because he wasn't a name

that came up on any of the lists, any of the canvases.

[intriguing music]

- [Mark] The DNA match actually came from a subject

by the name of Elton Brutus Murphy.

[intriguing music]

- [Suzanne] He had been arrested in Texas for burglary

and he was sitting in jail.

We needed to tie him to Sarasota,

and we needed to show that he was present

during the time that Joyce was murdered.

[intriguing music]

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- [Alan] Investigators have matched the DNA found

at the Wishart crime scene

to a man named Elton Brutus Murphy.

It's a huge break in the case, but far from case closed.

[intriguing music]

[ominous music]

- [Mark] Even though we had the DNA hit,

that's not enough at that time for an arrest.

Then there was a whole host of other things we needed to do

to try and establish him as the suspect in a crime.

[intriguing music]

- [Alan] How is this man in a Houston jail

connected to a Sarasota gallerist's murder?

[intriguing music]

- So, law enforcement immediately went to Texas

to interview him.

[intriguing music]

Detectives at the time did not know what to expect.

They were hoping that this person would speak to them.

[intriguing music]

As it turns out, Elton did want to speak to them.

He waived his right to remain silent,

which was somewhat unexpected.

[intriguing music]

- [Alan] The person detectives meet in that Texas prison

is stranger than they could have imagined.

[ominous music]

- He said, "My name is the Lord God Brutus Elton Murphy.

I get my commands directly from God, I work with aliens."

[ominous music]

- [Mark] And he elaborated on us talking about

how he could hypnotize somebody and have sex with them.

- [Dr. Casey] We usually see this in crime novels, fiction,

whether it's "Silence of the Lambs,"

where the person is literally acting out a film

that's in their head and their mission and process focused.

[intriguing music]

- [Alan] Then Elton finally gives them the connection

to Joyce Wishart that they've been seeking.

- [Suzanne] We found out that he actually lived in Sarasota

at one time.

[intriguing music]

He worked in Sarasota.

[intriguing music]

And then he tells law enforcement that he's an artist

and he's been drawing quite a bit while he's been in jail.

[intriguing music]

- [Mark] Elton brought up several different places

that he had tried to sell his art,

one of which was a shop in Southgate Mall, in Sarasota,

that he had gone into

and offered them to sell some of his artwork on consignment.

[intriguing music]

his art at flea markets and different places.

He also did some art with plates

and was trying to get buyers for them.

[intriguing music]

- [Mark] I believe he probably did go into the

Provenance Gallery.

trying to have Ms. Wishart sell his art on consignment.

[intriguing music]

- [Alan] The Sarasota detectives are confident

they have their killer,

but can they get a confession to seal the deal?

- [Karen] Elton Murphy was a cool character.

[eerie music]

He played cat and mouse through three interviews.

He thoroughly enjoyed the contest of wills

between himself and the detectives,

and he wasn't about to admit anything.

[intriguing music]

- [Mark] I think he felt he was at a very high intelligence

level and he could speak to us

and maybe play with us a little bit in the interview,

but not give any good information.

- [Michael] I remembered one of the motifs that investigators

find when they talked to people in the area

is that there had been a man on a bicycle.

[ominous music]

- [Mark] Mr. Murphy did have a vehicle.

However, he had sold it back to his brother

and then was just using a bike

the rest of the time while in Sarasota.

[ominous music]

- [Suzanne] And he freely admits that he was riding his bike

around Sarasota the day of the murder.

[ominous music]

- [Michael] Boom.

[intriguing music]

And they arrest him and extradited him back to Sarasota.

[intriguing music]

- When news broke that an arrest had been made,

there was a giant collective sigh of relief

through the entire community.

Thank God someone's been caught.

[intriguing music]

The killer was part of the community for a while.

He moved around a little bit,

but he spent a great deal of time in the community

as a hairstylist, a barber,

and people started putting him together

with the bicyclist and the leather jacket.

[intriguing music]

- It was a palpable sense of relief personally,

you know, for the community.

And the fact that hopefully some justice would be done,

some vindication of this horrendous murder

of my dear friend.

[intriguing music]

- [Alan] Elton Brutus Murphy is in custody

and charged with first-degree murder.

[intriguing music]

But the road to a trial is long and winding.

- [Suzanne] So, one of the largest concerns

was that Elton may be incompetent,

or found incompetent before trial.

The doctors at this point give Elton a diagnosis,

schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type,

and he also suffers from delusions.

[intriguing music]

The judge rules at the first competency hearing

that he's incompetent,

and he's sent to the Florida State Mental Hospital

for competency restoration.

[intriguing music]

- [Dr. Casey] When someone is deemed mentally ill

on such a severe scale that they don't know

what's going on around them

and, this is the important thing,

can't assist with their own defense,

they could be ruled incompetent to stand trial.

It's a very different thing than the insanity defense.

The trial can't even happen.

[intriguing music]

- [Michael] He's treated with psychotropic drugs,

which are designed to stop his hallucinations.

And they work.

[intriguing music]

- [Suzanne] He would have a competency hearing, be found

incompetent, go to the state hospital for competency

restoration, and then come back,

and then he would appear to be incompetent again.

[intriguing music]

- [Alan] Shuttling back and forth

between the mental institution and the Sarasota courts

goes on for years.

[eerie music]

- The thing about Elton, he's very, very, very mentally ill.

- [Suzanne] But we wondered just how much he was playing into

this and how much he was putting on

to try and be found incompetent by the court

because it was to his benefit.

[intriguing music]

[e

[eer

[eerie

[eerie m

[eerie mus

[eerie music

[eerie music]

- [Alan] After three long years,

the persistence of prosecutors finally results

in Elton Brutus Murphy being declared competent

to stand trial in the murder of Joyce Wishart.

[dramatic string music]

- We knew we could prove he did it,

but we still had an uphill battle

trying to get him to prison.

[ominous music]

- When the trial finally began,

it was a big deal in Sarasota.

It was a very, very high-profile case

and, of course, the suspense had been building

over years and years and years.

[ominous music]

- [Suzanne] The biggest challenge in the case against

Elton Murphy was that he was legitimately mentally ill.

[dramatic string music]

[dramatic string music]

[intriguing music]

- [Karen] So, all of us that were involved in the case

were on tenterhooks.

[intriguing music]

When it was the time for the defense experts

to take the stand and talk about how they believed

he should not be held responsible as in go to prison

but should be locked up in a mental institution.

[intriguing music]

- [Suzanne] We knew that Elton Murphy was insane,

but we also knew that he knew what he was doing was wrong

and he knew the consequences of his actions.

[intriguing music]

- [Alan] Convincing a jury is another matter.

[intriguing music]

- [Suzanne] The way we prove that he knew

what he was doing was wrong was by the cleanup.

If someone doesn't know that it's wrong,

then why are they cleaning up?

[intriguing music]

The only reason a person would clean in this situation

is to avoid detection, to avoid showing evidence,

to avoid getting caught.

And that's the hallmark of knowing that something is wrong.

[intriguing music]

- [Alan] But one question remains unanswered.

Why did Elton Murphy murder Joyce Wishart?

[intriguing music]

- [Mark] He considered himself an artist.

[intriguing music]

Maybe she rebuffed him, did not like his art,

and that was enough for him to be upset with her.

[intriguing music]

But how he chose her as a victim,

it could have been because of the art connection.

[intriguing music]

- The time and effort that was taken into posing the body

and having the fingers touch the magazine

and placing the artwork around her head.

[intriguing music]

In his mind, everything he saw was a potential movie scene

or photograph to be preserved.

An artistic creation.

[intriguing music] [door closes]

[dramatic string music]

- [Suzanne] Our message to the jury in the end was,

"This man is mentally ill,

he is not criminally insane,

and he should be found guilty and sent to prison."

[dramatic string music]

- [Alan] While the jury deliberates,

prosecutors wait anxiously.

[dramatic string music]

- Oh, it's always nerve-wracking when the jury goes out,

because you never know what a jury is going to do.

[dramatic string music]

- [Michael] I don't think that the prosecution thought

it was a slam dunk.

[dramatic string music]

There's always a chance that there's going to be a juror

who says, "I can't convict this guy, he's obviously crazy."

[dramatic string music]

- [Alan] When the jury returns to the verdict,

the courtroom holds its breath.

[eerie music]

- [Karen] The jurors came back with the verdict of guilty.

[dramatic string music]

We were over the moon.

[dramatic string music]

- [Mark] We were happy that he was convicted of the homicide.

[dramatic string music]

- [Suzanne] We worked so hard for so many years,

and so many people were affected by this,

and we felt an obligation to the community

to put this man away.

He was so dangerous.

And to have that actually happen

was a highlight in my career.

[dramatic string music]

[melancholic piano music] [birds twittering]

- [Jimmy] This episode of my life left me with a sense of...

[melancholic piano music]

and he's never going to see the light of day again.

[melancholic piano music]

- [Michael] Elton Murphy was a dangerous and sick person.

The world is a much better place without him on the streets.

[melancholic piano music]

- [Linda] There was a certain sense of relief.

[melancholic piano music]

But it didn't really provide closure for me

because, to me, Joyce's life will never be closed.

[melancholic piano music]

And her great suffering is still something

that I carry inside of me.

So I'm glad he's in jail,

but I'm really sad that my friend is gone.

[melancholic piano music]

- [Alan] The terrorized enclave took years to recover.

[melancholic piano music]

But through that process, one truth emerged.

Art itself has the power to heal.

And for the artisans and gallery owners,

the healing only strengthened their bond

and their belief in it.

[melancholic piano music]