Original subtitles

This is the address

Where my life changed in 1979.

It looks just like it did then.

Reporter: This house here

In the 10100 block of briar rose

Is the scene of what homicide detectives say

Is a triple murder, the family shot to death.

No forced entry, it just didn't appear

There was any struggle inside the house.

We don't have a weapon in the house at this time.

This case is legendary in the houston police department

Because of the complicated web of suspects

And because of the bureaucratic interference.

It took dedicated investigative work to solve.

Johnny: That's the picture that haunted me.

Just a reminder every day

Of why I was working on that case.

Because of this case, johnny gained the moniker

"the cop who wouldn't quit" rightfully so.

Just every time I turned around, I was told, "you can't do this.

"quit kicking a dead horse."

But I knew that it's gonna come together.

[killer speaking]

Even though this case was a victory for johnny bonds,

This case broke him, and it's still hard for him

To talk about it to this day.

Johnny: I wasn't gonna let anything stop me.

It's about justice, and it's about truth.

♪♪♪

[suspenseful instrumental playing]

Kelly: On the morning of July 6th, 1979,

A housekeeper that worked at the wanstrath home

Went to work, knocked on the front door,

Trying to get in, nobody answered.

So she went to the window, and peered in,

And saw john and diana slumped over in their living room.

And when help arrived, they went inside the house,

And found that john and diana had been shot in the head.

They called the houston police department,

And sergeant johnny bonds responds to the scene.

Johnny: We walked in, and I immediately see

Diana wanstrath laying on the floor

In front of the fireplace.

John wanstrath is sitting

About ten feet away from her.

They had not started decomposing,

Wasn't any odor, so we knew they'd been dead

About 12 hours when they were discovered.

Then I went into the nursery.

[foreboding music playing]

[exhales, voice breaks] I can't believe

I still get so emotional.

There was a crib there,

And a 14-month-old baby's

Lying facedown on a mattress...

Surrounded by stuffed animals in a pool of blood,

And been shot in the back of the head.

Except for the blood, you'd think this was

Just a baby sleeping.

It's hard.

[emotional piano instrumental playing]

Still hard.

It's one of those things that...

I wished-- I wished I couldn't see.

[eerie instrumental playing]

Didn't appear the house had been burglarized or forced entry.

I was thinking that probably the husband

Killed his wife and baby, then killed himself.

He was a big man, and he filled up the chair.

I thought, well, the gun's going to be

Beside him in the chair, or it's gonna to be

On the floor under the chair.

When we moved the body, there's no gun there.

We searched the house thoroughly.

Not only was there no gun,

There was nothing to indicate they ever owned a gun.

So there wasn't any doubt in my mind

That this was not suicide,

That, you know, that it was a murder.

[suspenseful music playing]

Rick: John wanstrath is a scientist.

He's an oceanographer.

He developed a computer model

To predict the storm surges of hurricanes.

It was revolutionary at the time.

Diana wanstrath was almost the exact opposite

Of john wanstrath.

She was exuberant, she was a socialite,

And the trappings

Of being a socialite mattered to her,

Where john, he couldn't care less.

Everybody was talking about what wonderful people they were.

No marital problems, very happy.

I learned all this while I'm out talking

To friends and neighbors.

All the neighbors adored them.

John, he was just a delightful,

Intelligent person,

And diana loved him very much.

They had wanted a child, and when diana realized

That she couldn't have a child of her own,

She accepted it, and she moved forward and adopted kevin.

He was wonderful.

I mean, we were thrilled for her.

She was very doting.

They'd recently moved back to houston.

They were planning

Their 10th wedding anniversary.

She had social connections.

They didn't have any enemies.

You know, the first thing I look for is motive.

At that point, who would want to kill them,

And why kill the whole family?

And one of the first thoughts that I had

Would be money and inheritance.

So I started looking at who would benefit

From the family's death, and, of course,

It was other family members.

John and diana's estate

Is worth about a million dollars,

And that's in 1979.

Today that would be over four million.

Kelly: We've seen people killed for a whole lot less.

The harder thing here to appreciate happening

Is that you would also want to kill your own blood,

And to kill a baby.

Rick: The day of the funeral,

Johnny went to john wanstrath's family

And told them he wanted to polygraph everyone.

They were a little shaken up.

I did this intentionally for them to be together.

I said, "you all are going to get money out of these deaths."

So I said, "unfortunately,

"you're suspects until I can prove otherwise."

They didn't protest. They all agreed to do so.

So they came into homicide, and john wanstrath's family

Passed the polygraph.

After johnny was able to clear out

By polygraphing all of john wanstrath's family,

He brought in diana's only surviving family member.

Johnny: Diana wanstrath had a brother

That lived in houston named markham duff-smith.

Markham comes in with cindy, his wife.

This guy looks like he just walked out of a gq magazine.

He's got on a suit, a tie, perfect hair.

Kelly: Markham duff-smith says he was home all night

With his wife, cindy, and she confirms that.

Johnny: And I said, "I'd still like for you

"to take polygraph, so I can eliminate you,

"and work on whoever actually did this."

But now markham's almost indignant,

You know, "how long is this going to take?

"my lawyer told me I shouldn't take this test."

You know, his attitude was just wrong.

And markham, his graph was all over the place.

The heart rate, respiration and perspiration,

He failed the polygraph test.

At this point, my number one suspect

For the murder of the wanstrath family

Is markham duff-smith.

But polygraphs are not admissible in court,

And markham duff-smith has an alibi backed up by his wife.

And then this case took another crazy turn

When the medical examiner released his findings.

Dr. Joseph jachimczyk is the most respected

Medical examiner in the whole state,

And this is his case.

The autopsy results

Came in seven months later,

Because, for the first time ever,

Dr. Jachimczyk wanted to do

This psychological autopsy

With this new expert that he brought in from the outside.

Johnny: Dr. Thomas welu, he's also a catholic priest.

He's a psychologist, there to work

On psychological autopsies.

And at that point, this was the first psychological autopsy

That had been done in harris county.

It was a political thing. New york and la

Both had staff psychologists

That did psychological autopsies,

And jachimczyk wanted to have the same capability

That new york and la had.

Kelly: I never heard of this [bleep].

It was a new thing going around in, I guess,

Medical examiner circles back then.

I'm not familiar with it. I never heard of it.

Rick: Diana had recently been treated for depression.

Dr. Welu believed suicide

Could possibly run in the family.

Diana's mother, gertrude zabolio, died from suicide

Four years earlier.

So it was understandable if diana did too.

Ellen: They wanted to know all about the conversation

I had with diana the day she died

To see what was going through her mind.

And I told them, diana would never hurt kevin or john.

She couldn't have been planning this party,

And so happy, and tending to kevin

And there was-- she just wasn't capable of it.

Johnny: But as thomas welu is doing

The psychological autopsy on diana,

He finds a playboy magazine in the house,

And he finds a vibrator.

He told me that diana was probably a lesbian,

And that she killed everybody

Because she was afraid this was gonna come out.

And I told him, I said, "you're just making this crap up

"saying this might be suicide," and I'm like, "there's no gun."

And welu says, "well, now you don't rule that out.

"somebody could have taken the gun.

"maybe you haven't found it yet. Maybe it's hidden somewhere."

And I'm like, "how do you kill yourself and then hide the gun?

"it's like you're creating something that doesn't exist

"to fit your scenario, and it's ridiculous."

When you get a case that's ruled suicide

By the medical examiner's office, we're done.

That's a solved case.

Ellen: Front page, "murder, suicide."

The medical examiner had made his ruling,

And it was just like the day I had the call

That they had been murdered.

I wanted diana's name cleared of this horrible thing.

When the newspaper came out, I was working on the city desk,

And I get a call that morning.

[phone ringing]

The anonymous caller said that they didn't know

About the wanstrath murders,

But diana's mother's death four years earlier...

Was not a suicide.

Johnny: Diana wanstrath inherited like $100,000

From her mother's death.

- So did markham. - We agreed we would make

A deal with walt waldhauser about everything.

It's sort of like making a deal with the devil.

[dramatic music playing]

Kelly: Even though the deaths of the wanstrath family

Were ruled a murder-suicide,

Johnny bonds continued to work the case.

In the meantime, a call comes in anonymously

To the local newspaper saying that there's more

Going on to the death of gertrude zabolio.

Rick: The anonymous caller said that diana's mother's death

Four years earlier was not a suicide.

Mrs. Zabolio was murdered by a coin collector.

I went to the police,

And that's where I met johnny bonds.

Diana wanstrath inherited like $100,000

From her mother trudy zabolio's death.

So did her brother markham.

After further investigation,

Found out that johnny and diana

Had done a will about six months before they were killed.

In the case of simultaneous death,

They left everything to their adopted son, kevin,

And named markham and cindy duff-smith

As the guardians of the child.

And if kevin had been killed, markham was going to inherit

A lot of money from this.

Kelly: So now johnny bonds hears this tip

And starts to wonder if diana's brother,

Markham duff-smith, wiped out his whole family.

Bobby: The detectives that worked on the case

Are entitled to their opinion with any case.

I've never known one yet

That there wasn't unanswered questions.

Adams.

Johnny: I was getting pressure

From the homicide captain,

More or less saying, "back off."

I was told, "you gotta work with dr. Joe.

"don't make him mad."

He was a powerful man.

He made more than the governor

Or the football coach at university of texas.

But I felt like I owed it to diana

To prove that she was not a killer.

Kelly: If you know johnny bonds like I do,

You know that he doesn't back off from anything.

So johnny takes this information,

And starts looking even harder

Into diana's brother, markham duff-smith.

[dramatic music playing]

At this point, duff-smith is the suspect.

So I was going around talking to everybody

I could find out that knew him,

And that's how I found out about walt waldhauser.

They were the closest of friends.

The guy was a licensed gun dealer.

He had a pilot's license,

And he was a real estate investor

And a coin collector.

Kelly: Could walt waldhauser have been the coin collector

That the anonymous tipster talked about

When they called in to say that gertrude zabolio's case

Wasn't a suicide?

Johnny sure thought looking down that road

Might help him figure out what happened

To who murdered john and kevin and diana.

Johnny: It wasn't that much later

That I was transferred from homicide

To internal affairs against my wishes.

I think I was transferred to get me out of homicide.

Kelly: It's really crazy and really sad

How often egos can affect a case.

Dr. Joe was a very powerful man in harris county,

And he did not like being questioned.

And johnny bonds was doing that very loudly.

Johnny: If I wasn't in homicide,

I shouldn't have been working on that case at all.

Luckily, I had some supervisors that knew me.

They didn't mind if I did keep working on it.

During that period of time, we worked together

In internal affairs, I knew that he would continue

To investigate the wanstrath murders.

I was asked by johnny to help him on the case.

I think all of us, to some extent,

Were obsessed because of the depravity of it.

The idea that you would go in, and kill a little baby

Sleeping in his crib, and kill his parents,

That's a pretty strong motivating factor for you

To keep working on something.

Johnny: That's the picture that haunted me.

That's the one that looks so much like my son.

I had pictures of kevin.

And I had a picture of my son.

They looked like twins.

And I put them on the wall side by side in my office.

[emotional instrumental playing]

Just a reminder every day of why I was working on that case.

I kept up with walt waldhauser and markham duff-smith.

I knew where everybody lived. I knew what they were doing.

I was actually going by their houses,

And watching them.

There were days I'd find reasons not to go home.

My wife wanted me to quit.

We were fighting a lot.

I had my wife tell me, "is this dead family

"more important than the family you have here?"

And that's a hard question to answer, because I felt like,

You know, I'm doing something important,

And you ought to understand that.

We ended up splitting up, and that was it.

[brooding music playing]

In the summer of 1980,

One year after the wanstrath murders,

It's discovered that markham duff-smith

Had left his wife and moved into this mansion

Along with walt waldhauser, who'd also left his wife.

So I wanted to meet with waldhauser's wife,

Debbie waldhauser.

And at this point, walt and debbie

Were getting a divorce.

So I basically just approached her.

I said, "look, I've been working on this case."

And debbie says, "I'll tell you everything

"I know on one condition.

"you gotta help me get my child back.

"we're having a child custody hearing

"in civil court Friday afternoon."

And I decided to show up, I'm outside the courtroom.

Here comes waldhauser with duff-smith and his attorney

And waldhauser sees me over, and he walks up, "johnny,"

Like we're old friends, "what are you doing here?"

I said, "I'm gonna say you're a suspect in killing

"the wanstraths and trudy zabolio."

He says, "you can't say that."

And I said, "that's what I'm gonna say."

And the attorney gets the little boy's hand,

Walks over, and hands him off to debbie waldhauser.

They get in the elevator, and leave.

So she got her kid back,

And I said, "it's your turn."

She told me about him taking all the stuff

Out of the house, and there's a pile of garbage.

And I said, "well, let's go out there.

"I wanna look, and see what he left."

And I started digging around in it,

And I found two or three letters

From a guy named allen janecka

To walt waldhauser.

Dan: Allen janecka is a rougher character.

He's been to the pen before.

Johnny: The letters were very vague,

But they're talking about, "when I get out,

"we're gonna do this deal."

They were talking about doing crimes,

But not specific.

So johnny had started to believe

That markham duff-smith and walt waldhauser

Had hired allen janecka to kill gertrude zabolio.

And then ultimately, to kill the wanstrath family.

Johnny: I was working in internal affairs,

And I went and talked to the captain,

I said, "this is fixing to come together.

"it's still gonna be a problem because of the medical examiner,

"and he's not gonna like this."

So the captain of internal affairs

Ended up going to the chief of police,

And they basically said, "you work on this case,

"and don't you worry about anybody else, you're covered."

Dan: We were looking through police records,

And saw where a detective in homicide,

Pulled allen janecka's rap sheet

In the investigation of the death of a drug dealer.

Rick: Johnny and dan find out that in 1979,

Allen janecka and this guy named richard bufkin

Killed a small-time drug dealer

Over a marijuana deal that went bad.

And richard bufkin went to jail for it.

Janecka got away.

Sometimes situations come along

That investigators wanna take advantage of.

In this case,

Bufkin had been sentenced

On a crime that janecka skated on.

So johnny's hope was that bufkin

Would be mad enough with janecka

That he'll give him some new information on it.

Dan: Richard bufkin, he has paroled out.

We traced him down through his family.

- [phone ringing] - he calls us,

And bonds is able to interview him.

[ominous instrumental playing]

Richard: Hello?

Bonds: Okay.

Richard bufkin said, "janecka abandoned me.

"he took off, and left the country,

"and I got left holding the bag."

Said, "I got arrested, and he never even got picked up."

Then I got to asking him about that, and I said,

"let me ask you something else," I said, "did he ever say

"anything about wanting to kill a family?"

Kelly: Johnny believed with all of his heart, [brooding music playing]

This was not a murder-suicide, and he wasn't gonna

Let anybody get away with it.

So, johnny tracked down richard bufkin

Just doing a long shot, hoping he was mad at janecka,

And would say something.

Bufkin confesses that he'd been approached

To do the murders of the wanstrath family.

He says, "janecka, he asked me if I'd help him

"kill this family, that he had a friend

"that wanted his sister and her husband

"and their baby killed."

When he told me that, I cried.

I just set to bawling.

That's the day everything fell in place.

That's the day I found out who my killer was.

Now that johnny bonds and dan mcanulty have

More information on janecka and what he was capable of,

It's time for them to track him down,

And start asking him some hard questions.

We get information that allen janecka's

In the atlanta area.

So I fly out and arrange to meet

With the local police to locate him.

The local police have identified

His girlfriend, karen holder.

They've been surveilling her and her sister.

They work at a supper club in the area.

So I go into the club with one of the local officers

In plain clothes.

We do see the girls

Talking to some guys at a table.

The deputy that I'm with recognizes this man

As a former law enforcement officer.

So I go talk to him.

He told me that karen had told him

That she has a pistol

That this guy killed some people with in houston.

Johnny: There was one bullet recovered at the crime scene.

It was a hollow-point .22 magnum round.

When the firearms people examined the bullet,

It came back 100% to one gun,

Which had never happened in my whole life.

This was 100% colt frontier scout .22 magnum,

Like what you would see in an old western.

Very seldom you see a gun like that used in a murder.

The next morning we got to karen holder's apartment,

Knocked on the door, karen was there with her sister.

I then confronted her, I said, I've talked to someone

Who told me that you have the gun that allen janecka

Killed some people in houston with.

She gets up, walks to the bedroom,

Comes back with this pistol in her hand.

Johnny: Dan mcanulty called me and said,

"sit down. You're not gonna believe this."

He had the actual murder weapon in his hand.

Firearms expert was testing the gun, and saying

That is the gun that fired the round that killed kevin.

Dan: Karen holder told us where allen janecka

Was staying in houston.

But our plan was to first, have karen call allen janecka,

Let me record it.

I brought an old cassette recorder with me.

She speaks to him for almost an hour on the phone,

Getting him to make certain admissions,

Telling him she's nervous

About the gun being in the house.

"I'm gonna go throw it in the river."

And he's saying, "no, karen, don't do that.

"I'll come there. Let me get rid of it.

"and don't say anything to anybody and you need to quit

"talking like this over the phone."

Once she finishes talking to him, I called bonds,

Tell him to go in and get him arrested now.

Dan: The Sunday before thanksgiving in 1980,

We actually got swat out that night to arrest him.

He was arrested without incident.

Dan: He subsequently made a sworn written statement

At the police station later that night

Wherein he denied being involved.

So I'm gonna take him back up to the jail

Up on the fifth floor.

So on the way up, he says,

"look, I want to talk to you.

"I'm not gonna go down by myself on this."

He waives his right to a lawyer, agrees to talk to me,

And then proceeds to confess to killing the wanstrath family.

Johnny: We had a confession. We had the murder weapon.

It just-- it happened so quick. I don't know how to describe it.

It's like having a terrible pain and all of a sudden it's gone.

Dan: He agreed to tell me in great detail how the planning

Occurred with walt waldhauser,

How they secured a gun,

And that that was the gun that he used.

Waldhauser was paying janecka

Through a western union telegram.

We found the original receipt he signed and filled out.

Waldhauser's prints were on that receipt.

We already had janecka in jail.

And then we arrested waldhauser.

At the time that walt waldhauser was arrested,

We had a very strong case on allen janecka.

But dangling out there, was markham duff-smith

Who was the mastermind behind everything.

We didn't have enough evidence on him to convict him.

We agreed we would make a deal with walt waldhauser

To get him to testify against markham duff-smith

About everything.

Nobody liked it, because walt waldhauser

Was as bad as any person I have ever come across, ever.

Far as his moral capability,

Right and wrong, nothing fazed him.

But we didn't have any other choice

To go after duff-smith.

It was sort of like making a deal with the devil.

That's how we felt.

Johnny: Waldhauser agrees if we reduce

The capital murders to murders,

He gets 30 years

And immunity on anything else he tells us.

He'll testify that markham duff-smith

Hired him and janecka to kill the wanstraths.

Walt waldhauser and allen janecka

Are only involved in this crime,

Because they did it for markham duff-smith.

That's who hired them. That's who the mastermind is.

That's who's the most culpable of all these defendants.

Sometimes, based on the state of your evidence,

And in this particular case, you have to cut a deal,

Because if you don't cut a deal, then you're running the risk

That the most egregious defendant walks,

Or maybe even everybody walks.

Having to tell a family

That you're cutting a deal is awful.

You're telling them that one of the people

Involved in murdering their loved ones

Is gonna get a sweet deal

In order to get justice for anybody.

It's a hard pill to have to swallow.

[brooding music playing]

Johnny: Waldhauser tells us duff-smith

Had approached diana and john.

He wanted to build a new house in their neighborhood.

And they were gonna loan him money

To get the house built.

And duff-smith says, "well, I've got a contractor

"that wants to meet with y'all."

And that contractor was janecka.

Janecka tells waldhauser, "I can't do this by myself."

So waldhauser goes with him to the house.

They're sitting on the couch facing john and diana.

Janecka gets up, pulls the gun out.

John's sitting in the chair, he comes up behind him,

Shoots him in the top of the head twice.

[muffled gunshot pops]

Dan: Waldhauser instructed allen

All of them had to die,

Because it was an inheritance

That was being sought

And they couldn't leave an heir.

Johnny: The next day, they bring waldhauser

From the jail to a courtroom,

And he and his attorney shows up,

I've got a typewriter,

And I start typing his confessions.

And right off the bat, waldhauser looked at me and says

He has information on another murder.

[brooding music playing]

We start talking to walt waldhauser,

And he tells us about the murder of trudy zabolio

By allen janecka and a guy named paul macdonald.

Paul macdonald was a friend of waldhauser's.

Paul told us about the phone call

That he gets in '75

That "waldhauser has a friend that wants his mother killed.

"and do you know anybody to do it?"

So he just looks, going, "hey, allen,

"a guy wants somebody killed, you know somebody to do it?"

He said, "yeah, I'll do it."

Ted: Paul macdonald drives the car,

They go over to the zabolio house.

Allen janecka goes in, and he's in there an hour or so.

He had her write some notes

Like she was committing suicide,

And he placed them around there in her room,

And then he strangled her to death.

Homicide detectives show up.

Medical examiner rules, "well, she committed suicide."

She choked herself to death.

Kelly: Back then, forensics was not nearly

As good and evolved as what we have today.

Johnny: Allen janecka, he tells me that markham says,

"I want proof that they'd killed his mother."

So, janecka had got trudy zabolio's

Driver's license out of her purse.

They meet duff-smith at a coffee shop,

And paul macdonald

Hands markham duff-smith

His mother's driver's license.

Ted: Even though walt waldhauser found the hitman,

Because of his deal to give information

Against markham duff-smith, he is not charged

With the murder of gertrude zabolio.

Paul macdonald got 16 years.

Janecka denies strangling gertrude zabolio.

And even though johnny and dan felt like allen janecka

Was instrumental in gertrude zabolio's murder,

They just could never prove it.

In December of 1980, allen janecka was charged

With the murder of kevin wanstrath,

Because not only did they have evidence

From janecka admitting he committed that murder,

They also had the bullet recovered

That matched janecka's gun.

They could have charged him with any of the three murders,

But they chose the one of the baby,

Because, like, how emotional that would be to a jury.

Rick: After walter waldhauser confessed he was involved

In the death of gertrude zabolio and the wanstrath killings,

And implicated markham duff-smith,

The big day had finally arrived,

And johnny and dan went out

To markham duff-smith's house.

His girlfriend answered the door.

Markham was just getting out of the shower.

Johnny: He looks at me in the mirror, he doesn't flinch.

He just looks up, and he's shaving.

I said, "markham, I got a warrant for your arrest."

Handcuffed him, took him out.

Dan had his personal camera with him,

And we're walking out to the car and dan says, "wait."

And he walks in front of me,

And I'm standing there holding him like this,

And dan takes a picture.

We're both standing there real solemn-looking,

And I'm kinda biting my tongue

Trying not to smile, and I didn't.

We actually ended up arresting duff-smith

For trudy zabolio's murder.

And he wasn't charged for the wanstrath case.

He was tried for killing his mother.

Kelly: They could have charged him with any of the murders,

But you don't wanna put all your eggs in one basket.

You wanna pick your best case, and try that one.

Because what happens if the defendant's

Found not guilty, if there's a hung jury,

If the punishment is way less than what you expect?

If any of those bad outcomes happen,

You still have other cases you can file on a defendant

And try them for.

Ellen: I remember johnny called,

And he said that markham was arrested.

Oh, it was poetic justice.

It was relief of a sort.

I just remember being so ecstatic

That we were getting where we were getting.

Finally, once all the confessions are in hand,

The murder weapons obtained,

Reluctantly, the medical examiner's office

Changed the ruling of the wanstraths' death

To triple homicide.

[dramatic music playing]

Reporter: Yesterday janecka's former girlfriend,

Karen holder, told the court he gave her the pistol,

Saying he'd used it to kill three people.

But so far, judge jimmy james has not allowed her testimony

To be heard by the jury.

The defense in this case claimed

Karen was common-law married

To allen janecka.

We were pretty surprised about that.

The judge said, "they're married,

"you can't use anything she said at the time of the offense,

"or since the time of the offense about allen janecka.

"all of her testimony and statements are inadmissible."

In some of the southern states,

Because it's about the sanctity of marriage.

The marriage is more important

Than getting away with murder, believe it or not.

And what it means is that you can't testify

Against your spouse on any communications you had

During the time you're married.

It's very much a problem and a complication.

Ted: So, now we have the gun,

But the difficulty was to prove

That allen janecka had it, and gave it to karen.

♪♪♪

[dramatic music playing]

Kelly: Judge jimmy james ruled that allen janecka's girlfriend

Couldn't testify about the gun

Due to the marital communications privilege.

The prosecution needed to figure out a workaround

To make that gun evidence admissible.

Ted: And that was proved through karen's sister

Who was there in the apartment, who lived in the apartment.

And other witnesses could tie allen janecka

To bringing the gun to the apartment.

The jury finds allen janecka guilty

Of capital murder of murdering

Kevin wanstrath for money,

Which made it a capital offense.

He got the death penalty.

And then we started the trial

With markham duff-smith for killing his mother.

[ominous instrumental playing]

We did everything we could

To keep walt waldhauser

From ever being around markham duff-smith

In the county jail.

So they never had contact with each other.

And then one time

The sheriff's department made a mistake.

Walt waldhauser and markham duff-smith

Were in the same holding cell together alone.

They were working a deal how they'd both could go free.

As it turns out, once a conman, always a conman.

[ominous instrumental playing]

Walter waldhauser starts talking to another inmate

To sabotage his confession

Against his pal markham duff-smith.

Walter would start telling people

In the county jail, "oh, I'm making this all up.

"I'm doing this to frame markham duff-smith."

'cause he had already gotten his 30 years on three cases.

And we looked at the agreement, never in there did it say,

"if you change your testimony,

"the deal is off."

We had to go through with the deal,

'cause we didn't draw it up good enough

To keep that possibility from happening.

Kelly: The prosecution decided that because walt waldhauser

Was making stuff up in the back, he's a liar.

So how credible can he be to a jury?

So they ended up not even calling him.

Oh, I was pissed. I was so mad.

We went to trial thinking

We may not even convict markham duff-smith

'cause the evidence was so flimsy.

But then there was a once-in-a-lifetime

Courtroom moment.

We get a call from the warden.

"you got a guy up here that wants to talk to you."

Jerry sol eickenhorst.

He was serving time in a texas penitentiary.

He was serving two life sentences,

One for armed robbery, one for rape,

And I prosecuted him on the rape case.

Johnny: He says-- duff-smith approached me,

And said if I'd lie that he'd help pay for my appeal,

And that when I got out of jail,

He'd give me some money if I'd lie for him.

Then he gave me this to testify. He pulls out this script.

Two full pages of a script for him to testify to.

So we brought it back.

We got duff-smith's fingerprints on this,

And eickenhorst's too.

We had a handwriting expert look at it,

And I had the notebook that we could say was his writing,

He said, "yeah, that's the same guy "who wrote this," you know?

There was a discovery period.

If we'd have had this information

Two weeks before the trial,

We would've had to give it to the defense,

Then we would've called him.

But it would've been better if they called him.

And that's exactly what they did.

Ted: So during the defense, they start calling these inmates

In the county jail who got on the witness stand

And said, "walt waldhauser told me

"that he was framing duff-smith,

"and that he was not telling the truth,

"and he did it all," et cetera.

They all were saying the same thing.

Then they called eickenhorst,

He takes the witness stand, the defense says,

"walt waldhauser did the killings,

"and framed duff-smith, and is that true?"

"that is not a true statement."

"well, how do we know you're telling the truth now?"

"well, I've got evidence."

Out comes this piece of paper where markham duff-smith

Had written out what you're supposed to say.

Talk about a moment in time.

There was a gasp in the courtroom.

The jury, the spectators, the lawyers,

And markham duff-smith,

And he turned completely white,

Then red, and was shuddering.

Physically shuddering.

Candelario: I looked over at markham duff-smith,

And I said, "markham, you just signed your death warrant."

Ted: The lawyers say to eickenhorst,

"well, why would you do that?

"the prosecutors promised you something?

"why would you do that? Aren't you a snitch?"

Eickenhorst says, "yes, I'm a snitch."

The worst thing in the penitentiary in texas

Is to be a snitch

Except to be a baby killer.

♪♪♪

After deliberating [dfor only 40 minutes,g]

The jury in gertrude zabolio's murder,

Where the defendant was markham duff-smith,

Came back with a verdict.

The jury comes back, and says, "guilty."

I had feelings of jubilation.

Ted: The jury then goes, and deliberates

After the verdict of guilty on the issue of punishment,

And they have to answer two questions--

Whether the conduct was deliberate, and whether or not

He would commit criminal acts of violence in the future.

They gave him death in--

I think it was a record-- in like 12 minutes.

It was the quickest death sentence I ever experienced.

Both of us felt this sense of relief.

For a year and a half, we lived and breathed this case,

And spent a lot of time away from our families.

It's a great feeling to find out the truth,

And have the right result to occur.

Reporter: So you definitely feel that justice was done today?

Yes, it was done.

When the verdict was rendered against markham,

I was actually happy.

When I say that I was happy, it's not the happy of joy.

I guess it's really more of a relief.

This was just-- this had to be done.

Candelario: I was not surprised at all.

The minute that script was read to the jury, it was over.

[dramatic instrumental playing]

The day of markham's execution,

As he's on the gurney, and they're putting

The lethal injection in his arm,

He confesses.

Asked for forgiveness, he was a sinner.

And yes, he'd killed his family, and was eternally sorry for it.

I guess it was a surprise that he actually confessed,

But maybe his conscience had gotten to him.

All along, all I wanted was for diana, john and kevin--

And trudy now-- you know, to have their justice,

And to give us some peace and closure.

I witnessed allen janecka's

Execution in 2003.

You know, I didn't feel sorry for him,

And I didn't feel any great relief.

His execution was gentle

Compared to all the damage he'd done.

[emotional instrumental playing]

Later, when it's all over with,

I got all kinds of awards and, you know, accolades.

And then got a book written about the case,

And I got this meritorious service award,

Which is like the highest award that a police department gets.

Captain adams, the one that told me shut up,

He nominated me for that award,

And he asked me to come back to homicide.

In the long run, it ended up being great for my career.

Because I stuck with it, it ended up being

The best thing ever happened in my life.

Waldhauser comes up every year for parole,

And I show up protesting his parole.

If anybody ever ought to die in prison, it's him.

I've wept a lot over this case.

That picture of kevin wanstrath, I'll never forget it.

There was pressure to let up, to quit,

But I couldn't live with myself to let that happen.

Kelly: When you see johnny and dan and ted poe

Talk about this case and what it did to them,

I bet you they would tell you that this case

Was the defining case of each of their careers.

I think that these murders is just a reminder to all of us

Who do this job what the cases do to you.

They take away a little bit of your soul.

They take away a little bit of your humanity.

Might make you stronger,

Might make you better in the courtroom,

But it also makes you a different human being.