Verdict and Aftermath of the Case

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So close to finishing Yeah That's I think that's all we have. Yeah. so ding Now it starts. there you go So we're going be talking about the Ota family killings and a killer prophit today. O I feel like I don't even want to call this man a prophet He'd probably just called himself that. I don't even know if he did. I think he just got kind of like dubbed that. Damn, That's even worse. Yeah, this is a really awful story. Andne that I actually hadn't really heard that much about before, Dave suggested it and I was reading into it and I was like, oh my god. Yeah, I think I know this one. I think you probably do. It was right It was in California around the seventies, like very close to the Manson familyilys like literally This happened while the Manson family was on trial. Oh wow. yeah So a little past eight PM on the evening of october nineteenth, nineteen seventy Firefighters got an emergency call about an out of control fire at nine do hundred ninety nine Rodeo Gulch Road in Sokell, California. It's a suburb of Santa Cruz County. Okay. Now this was a multim million dollar mansion and it was the home to forty five year old doctor Victor Ota, who was a very popular local ophthalmologist He lived in that house with his wife, Virginia as well as their two sons, twelve year old Derek and eleven year old Taggart. The couple also had two daughters, Lark and Tora who were away at boarding school luckily when the fire began Now the house sat on top of a really high hill with two long driveways leading down to the main road And when firefighters arrived to the scene, they found that the main driveway was blocked by mister Otass Rolls Royce. It was parked across the driveway, like the width. That's not usual. No. Now there was a second car, which was a large Lincoln Continental and that was parked across the same way, the second driveway, like really try to keep people from getting there Yeah. wow. Luckily, firefighters were able to push one of the cars out of the way and they managed to get the truck up to the house. But once they got there, they ran into another problem The house was too far from any fire hydrants to connect the hose and start extinguishing. I feel like that is that like I don't think that would be like up to COVD. I was gonna to say that's not okay. No, I don't think so. that was not all right at all. It was the seventies. Yeah Dam I really thought that. So they were like code about it. Yeah. I don't care code. Yeah. So thinking fast, one of the firefighters suggested that they could siphon water from the swimming pool in the back of the house.. Pretty good idea. That was smart. I don't know if that would work if you had like a saltwater pool though. I was thinking It's like, Ohh my head But also then like there's a lot of chemicals in pools, so it's just interesting to think about. Yeah They had to do something. The fire wasn't it was serious, but it wasn't as large as they expected. So the pool would be a pretty suicient source of water So they dragged the hose to the back of the house, but when they reached the pool, They made a terrible discovery Five bodies floating face down in the water Fire Chief Ted Pound said, I went to the pool to see where the end of the pipe came through, and my flashlight beam my flashlight beam spotted one of the kids So Chief Pound called out for one of the detectives on the scene and was met at the back of the house by Detective Terry Medina. Medina later said The first thing that I noticed was that the bodies are tied, but not with rope They're like silf scarves that are knotted together to tie the hands. to everybody's surprise This simple fire had just turned into a multi murder scene. Damn Now they soon learned that the bodies were those of Dr. Ota, his wife Virginia The two youngest children, Derek and Taggart. And the fifth body was doctor Ota's longtime secretary, thirty eight year old Dorothy Cad Walleter. Based on the medical examiner's initial observations, it seemed like Dr. Ota had been shot once in the chest and twice in the back before he was pushed into the pool And the other four victims had all been shot once in the back of the neck and then were pushed into the pool. God All of the victims had their hands bound with colorful silk scarves and Dr. Ota was known to wear. those scarves instead of like a regular necktie. Oh Godd. So those were all of his own personal scarves That's spooky. and all five victims were also blindfolded Now as far as the forensic investigators could tell, the victims were each shot beside the pool, like I said, and then immediately pushed in Now to the frustration of investigators, the crime scene really didn't have that many clues as to what happened at the house that night All five victims seem to have been shot at close range execution style And the killer or maybe multiple killers, had set several small fires throughout the house, presumably to cover up the crime. Yeah Fortunately, the fires failed to catch were really spread as easily as they probably hoped they would So there was minimal fire damage but there was still not that much to be found inside From what investigators could tell, nothing looked to be missing, so they were able to rule out robbery as a motive But even more concerning was the lack of evidence of any kind of struggle This is a family of five you would expect There's also that of struggle It seemed very unlikely to investigators that a single intruder could overtake and completely control Five people, three of which were grown adult. Yeah and they had to face the terrifying possibility at that point that they were dealing with What one detective described as another Manson case. Oo, 'cause that had what just happened. Literally, like I said, the Manson family was on trial. Yeah, that was probably one of the first things they thought of. It was. It cannot be understated how significant the fear of another Manson style murder was at the time of these murders It was a little more than a year earlier when Charles Manson and his followers broke into the Hollywood home of director Roman Polansky and his wife Sharon Tate while Polansky was away in Europe As we know, they killed five people staying in the house, including Sharon Tate, who was eight and a half months pregnant. And then the very next day, they murdered Leno and Rosemary La Bianca Now the murders had always been symbolic of a larger shift in fear toward uncertainty, but they were just the first of a lot of horrific acts that would go on to reshape California throughout that period At the time, residents of the San Francisco Bay Area were being terrorized by the Zodiac killer. L out all this was going on And there were a slew of other violent criminals who kept Californians in constant fear of being killed. Yeah. Like California in the seventies, it cannot testify en how insane it was 'ause then just a couple of years later, you would have Ed Kemper. Y, there like there's so many more. Oh yeah, some of the scariest ones So just one morning after the OtA murders, nineteen year old Tom DeCeo was found dead inside the gas station where he worked and his body was stuffed into an alcove just off the main garage The station was in Saratoga, which was just thirty miles from where the Otaah family lived Like the Otas, DeCeco had been shot in the back of the head execution style, and his wrists were also bound this time with electrician's tape According to the medical examiner, his murder occurred roughly two hours after the OtA murders And that brought to everybody's mind the murders of the La Biancas. Investigators declined to comment on whether the crimes were related, but they couldn't help think of the Manson murder spree and wonder if this was some kind of copycat crime. Yeah. I mean, I would think that a whole family and then a kid, you know. So the fear of a new murderous cult only grew deeper when investigators started combing over the crime scene at the Otah home and they reached the cars at the bottom of their driveway. It was clear, obviously, like we said, that the killer rearranged the cars on purpose to prevent the firefighters from reaching the house and the police too The k is so fucked up and so like thin That's so premeditated. It is absolutely. I'm so glad that you said that The killer actually even went as far as to break the key of doctor Otta's car off in the ignition. sort of they move it. That's why they got one of them. But more disturbing was the typewritten note that they found tucked under the windshield.. It read. Halloween nineteen seventy. Today World War three will begin, as brought to you by the people of the free Universe From this day forward anyone and or everyone or company of persons who misuses the natural environment. or destroy sameame will suffer The penalty of death by the people of the free universe I and my comrades from this day forth will fight until death or freedom against anyone who does not support natural life on this planet Materialism must die or mankind will stop. And then it was signed Kight of Wands, Night of Cups Knight of Pentacles, Kight of swwords. All of those knights were spelled correctly like KN Other than the Pentacles. That one was spelled like nighttime. Like night. Okay, which is just weird No, Detectivive saw similarities between the note and the apocalyptic ranting of from the Manson family, like similar kind of vibes there But the signatures at the bottom of the note were entirely new and entirely unfamiliar to investigators.. Not everybody was very familiar with Tarot back then. Yeah So the reference to four possibly occult sounding names only reinforce the concern that they were dealing with a newress cult and a copycat if that Now elsewhere in the house, more evidence suggested that the OtA murders were not an impulsive act In addition to the killer or killers haven't taken the time to block the driveway Investigators quickly discovered that the killer had also cut the phone lines, which is the scariest thing Yeah And they also discovered a box of twenty two caliber shells which indicated that they had the forethought to bring additional ammunition.. But the killer had collected all the spent cartridges at the scene and left little evidence of having been there at all Wow. Now when considered together, the evidence suggested that these murders were definitely planned in advance And the presence of the note suggested that whoever was responsible seemed intent on killing again. Yeah So despite the presence of several high profile cases in San Francisco and Los Angeles in the summer and the fall of nineteen seventy Violent crime was really something that didn't happen in the quiet suburban area of Santa Cruz. In fact, the Ota murder was the first murder in the county's history. Wow crazy No.'ve we've done it that was like the Martha Moxley case. Yeah. it was like like it was like one of the first. This was legit. the first. Wow Under the circumstances, suspicion quickly settled on the relatively small hippie community in and around Santa Cruz, and especially I think, because of the Mansons. I was gonna to say the Mansons didn't help hippies No, they did not. One neighbor told a reporter, It looks like another Manson thing to me And another commented, lookooks like drugs which like It doesn't really look like drugs because there was a lot of careful p. I was going say it's not chaos. No, not at all. Like that that is a very planned out Almost professional crime scene. I don't know if they said looks like drugs because of like the execution style killings. Yeah. who knows? Or they're just thinking of hippies. Eiterly drugs. Exactly In reality, detectives had no idea what the motive could have been If it had been drugs, then they reasoned that the killer would have at least taken some of the jewelry or the other valuables that were in plain sight around the house. I mean, this is a mansion. likeike there's valuables everywhere. Yeah I was shocked by that. Yeah And if it were a Mansing copycat, they expected some sign of the occult left behind. aside from the cryptic mysterious note There was not that much to indicate a motive In fact, Other than the note, the only thing detectives knew for sure was that the killer or killers had stolen Virginia Ota's green oldlds Mobile station wagon District atttorney Peter Chang told reporters, This was the most tragic murder scene I've witnessed in nine years We will need all the outside help we can get Now in the absence of any forensic evidence pointing to a motive or a suspect, detectives started looking into the background of the victims family friend Douglas Liticoote said, The L of Dr. Victor Ota reads like a classic American dream. Yeah. He was born in Montana to Japanese immigrant parents who worked really hard to build a life for their family, only to have everything ripped away from them when they were placed in an internment camp in nineteen forty one. shit Despite everything he faced, Victor was a great student. He worked all these odd jobs to support not only himself through college, but also his parents. He always sent money to his parents. After graduating with an undergrad degree, he enlisted in the Army in nineteen forty three. and served two years before returning home and enrolling at Northwestern University, where he studied ophthalmology At night he drove a cab in order to support himself and his parentsn because by that point they were too old and too weak to work anymore After graduating in nineteen fifty, he met and married Virginia. and before long, she was pregnant with their first son Uncertain about their financial situation, Victor decided actually to re enlist in the Amy and he served several years as a flight surgeon. Whoa, crazy. That must be while next level. Yeah And then eventually he returned to Northwestern to continuous studies and he was just determined to become the top specialist in his field. Well yeah, which he really did become one of them. Now it was during this time that tragedy struck and the couple lost their son, Kevin to pneumonia when he was only two years old. The daughter Ding. Their first son at two years old, like two years old. That's aic Their daughter Lark said, I know it was traumatic. It was another two years before they even considered having more children. So the emotional toll of the loss and the added expenses of a funeral pushed Victor back into the army, where he managed to finish his studies while also making a livable wage. And that finally made it possible for them to consider having more children Now over the course of the next decade, doctor Victor Ota built one of the most successful medical practices in Santa Cruz County. Hell yeah. And at the same time served as a founding member on the board of the Dominican Hospital. Wow, like doing the damn thing. Yeah Not long after establishing his own private practice, he hired Dorothy Codwalliter as his secretary She became an indispensable asset to the family. and in no time she really just became part of their family. She joined them for holidays, birthdays, vacations And actually, unfortunately, they did have quite the bond because Dorothy and her husband had also lost a child at a young age. Their child was struck and killed by a mail truck. Holy shit. Yeah Now As far as anybody knew, doctor Ota and the family had no enemies to speak of, and nobody could imagine who might want them dead like him specifically much less his entire family. You also wonder with stories like that, you're like Why do some people? J just have to just worst lo. All the shit. It's so. And a lot of times it's like the nicestest people, best kind of people Like that never makes sense to me. No, I feel like we know so many families like that. Yeah, because like her like Dorothy and her Husband lost a child in such a horrific way. and now he loses her this way. Like why do they have to deal with all that? And then the Otas like I just don't Whenever you hear about that, you're like, Jesus. And Dorothy and her husband much like the Otas went on to have more children. Yeah. her children and her husband lost her. It's awful. You just don't get it. I don't either Dr. Louise Weelman and a friend said, never once did I hear him speak an angry word to anybody. Dr. Ota was always friendly, always generous to give to charitable organizations. That breaks my heart. Yeah, Lark, his daughter, echoed the sentiments of friends and neighbors and colleagues. Literally everybody in this community loved this family. Lark said, My dad was a magnanimous man. He was generous and outgoing and friendly. He was just a good man. He was loved in that community I also love that name, Lark. I do too. It's such a name. In the US, there's a break in every twenty six seconds. That is insane. and it means that somewhere right now, an intruder is getting closer The problem is, most security systems only alert you after that break in has already started, and that's obviously too late. 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Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state, coverage options are selected by the customer, availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state Now, the same was true for the other victims. Like her husband, Virginia Ota grew up in an immigrant family, and she worked alongside her husband to make sure that their kids had opportunities that her and her husband never could have dreamed of. Lark said of her mother, she was the strongest and most determined person that I knew, and I miss her deeply. Victor may have been the face of several charities at the hospital, but Virginia was very much working behind the scenes to ensure that everything ran smoothly more than just a doctor's simple stylish wife She was an active, integral member of this community, and she was a dedicated mother. She was so committed to raising those kids. to not only have the best opportunities, but with an awareness of both sides of their heritage. While Dorothy Call Walleter might not have been as outgoing as Dr. Ota in Virginia She left an impression on the labs that she touched Her daughter Melinda said, My mom was very elegant. She was very sixties make of false lashes and hairstyles Dorothy spent her entire professional life working in healthcare, and for the previous eight years she worked in doct. Ota's private practice, she managed nearly every aspect of that business always jumped into help with the Otta children when the parents were too busy. and all the children loved and respected her. Like this was very much like a family. Yeah, like a blended family. Yeah Now in Victor in Virginia had to go out of town or to a conference or a charity event Dorothy and her husband would welcome all of the Ota kids into their wow and just treated them like they were their own children. Damn. Lark said, Dorothy was perfect, like a sixties TV mom, except that she worked. She was beautiful inside and out Nearly everything investigators had learned about the Otoffh family and about Dorothy indicated that these were all well liked, deeply appreciated people in their community. It like great people. They were the last people anybody would expect to be the victims of violent crime The only involvement with the law that doctor Ota had in his past was in nineteen sixty seven when a group of thieves actually broke into his office and they stole a cocaine solution that he used in his surgical procedures. Geez, so it wasn't even him. No Otherwise, there appeaar to be nothing in the background of any of the victims that pointed toward their killer. So in the absence of any new evidence, any new leads, anything, detectives turn their attention back to their original theory that the victims had been killed by either a cult or a Manson family copycat Santa Cruz County and Socal in particular had always been a quiet area In the summer, the area was popular with tourists They like to visit the beaches, but othertherwise, it was mostly populated by wealthy retirees. Okay. So By the mid sixties though, the University of California opened a campus in Santa Cruz and that brought a younger crowd to the area And by the end of the sixties, many among that crowd embraced the hippie lifestyle, It was very much of the time but also very much to the disappointment of locals, I'm sure. In reality, the small but noticeable hippie community in the area, they were mostly peaceful. They actually really didn't engage with many protests or They just vibing. Yeah, like all across the country, there were activism, different things like that going on. But here, these hippies just kind of hung out around this cafe and coffee shop called The Catalyst. They hosted folk music and poetry readings regularly, like Its just a very chill really not I just that just made me think of something completely unrelated to this, but I feel like you need to know it right now. I do. I just thought of the name the catalyst as like I'm like, wow, want to name for a cafe. Did you know that ninety eight degrees almost name themselves spontaneous combusted? I actually did. and I saw you post about that. If you didn't see that post, I just needed everybody to know that. Fpontaneous combustion. It would make them a completely different band. Yeah like a completely different band One of them also wanted to be called inertia Oh inertia could have been cool It's been sitting within me. so I just had to put it out there when I heard the catalyst. I feel like they didn't quite know what vibe they were going for because those are three completely different like gen Rs. That's the thing. It sounds like they knew the vibe they wanted to go for. They just could not. But then they went They went with the right hand They went with the right name for the for the v Spontaneous combustion will live in my soul. Yeah Yeah. I feel like the catalyst is also a catalyst name for a coffee shop. It's a really cool name for a coffee shop. That's why it made me think of it. Like anything. Yeah. E even a band name name cataly. Catalyst. I think catalyst is a band. Probably Here it's a coffee shop And they you know, they had like little hippie gatherings all the time. Hippie gatherings, you know, one. Even though things were pretty chill with this group and they kept to themselves, after the OtA murders, the local police were very worried that there would be tension between the hippies and the older residents in Santa Cruz. E just tension between the hippies. No, neverever tension between the. It's always outsiders. Always I'm just picturing like hipp's fighting. Yeah just like tention. Weird. Yeah. Now at the time, the contents of the note found on Dr. Ota's windshield had not yet been made public And it was truly only because of the Manson murders that the locals even suspected somebody from the Catalyst community was responsible for the murders Dr. Terry Medina said there was already fear people were already buying guns. We didn't want retaliation against hippies or vigilantism, so we decided not to release the contents of this note I think was a good idea. Probably smart because unfortunately whether they wanted it or not Retaliation was inevitable. As soon as the news about the murders made the papers, the catalysts started getting all kinds of harassing phone calls and even a few bomb threats. Wow, which like you guys don't know anything about this murder That's It's wild to know that even then before the internet people going people People were still peopleing in a way of being like, I know the whole story. even though I know nothing about the story. way way worse now, but I feel like it's there it is because people have always been doing that thing where they're like, well, I heard this much of the story. So let's p So now I know the whole story And I'm going to act based on that tiny little grain of sand that I know. Y. We all have to stop doing that. We do. Can we stop that? Can we all agree collectively to stop doing that? I'm down. until you know a whole story inside and out Don't act. And here's the thing, when these things are initially reported on, you know nothing. Yeah, you know notothing. The tip of the tip of the ice. Oh, yeah, just a little They know what you want them or what they want you to know. that's the thing Now, given the way that they've been treated in the community and now facing harassment The staff and the patrons at the catalyst had every reason not to trust the police, trust the locals or really talk to anybody But when investigators canvas the restaurant They found a group of people who were actually very eager to help Yeah No one at the catalyst really knew anything about the murders or the Otah family. But when detectives brought up the contents of the note to these people They learned from one of the patrons that the four signatures at the end of the note were not signatures. They were suits from the tarra. Yes Now back at the police station, detective Medina and the other investigators laid out The Knight of Wwns, the Kight of Cups, the Knight of Pentacles, and the Knight of Swords on the desk in various configurations. hoping that the cards might tell themselves about the contents of the note or the murders. Modina said, we really didn't come up with very much, but it was still very cultish What it Very cultish cultish. I love very cultish.ly seventies to have that take. J like pretty cultish. Imost like, do you want to bring in one of the hippies who knows Tarot who can maybe tell you something? Yeah That's the thing. Yeah. G some experts. Exactly. Now on the second day of the investigation, just as they were settling into their theory of a newly formed cult Investigators got a call that would undermine that theory altogether The call was from a gas station attendant on the outskirts of Sokle. who had been working on the night of the murders. According to the caller, he'd been sitting outside the gas station when a young man in a green station wagon pulled up looking for gas At the time, that specific station had run out of gas. Also the attendant directed the driver to another station about a mile down the road He couldn't remember the exact time, but he said it was probably a little before eight PM which was not long after the Oas were killed. According to the attendant, the car matched the description of Virginia Ota's oldsmobile And there was only one person in the car And while the attendant never saw the man's face in the light He did say that the driver had a fairly distinct voice and he was certain that he would recognize it if he heard it again Now that was just the first of many calls that investigators got that day. Most reporting leads that really went nowhere But among the DUD calls, there was someone from the Southern Pacific Railroad with valuable information The caller reported that one of their trains had collided with a green old mobile wagon in a tunnel not too far from the gas station where it had been spotted on the night of the murder. So sheriff's deputies rushed out to the scene, hoping that they would find the killer or the killers But by the time they reached the train tunnel where the car was discovered, the driver was nowhere to be found Fortunately, neither the train nor the car suffered much damage in the collision The only damage from the fire was to the upholstery inside the car But any hope of finding useful evidence was quickly dashed It had rained that morning, off course. And it had transformed the area of the tunnel into like kind of a mud pit. Goddamn. And it washed away any physical evidence that might have been left on the exterior of the vehicle but there were several footprints left in the mud around the car. And while it was difficult to be one hundred percent certain, it did seem that these footprints all belong to the same person. Okay. So since the bodies were discovered, the police and the press had been operating on the assumption that there was more than one killer. Yeah. But now investigators with all this new information were starting to wonder if they had it wrong The footprints found outside the car and the statement from the gas station attendant seem to suggest that these five murders actually could have been committed by one single killer.'s Horrific and just to think you have to think about how that possibly could have happened. Yeah. Now you have to go back and be like, whoa whoa whoa.ight. Wait a minute So frustrated with the lack of evidence and leads, detectives went back to question family and friends of the Otas in order to try to establish some kind of timeline which like would have accounted for the day of the murders. Yeah. So they learned that on the day of the murders, Dorothy had picked up one of the boys from school and drove him home because his mom was going to be late Okay that is the back poack Okay. Yeah, already this is adding up changing the routine a little bit Now from the beginning of the investigation The assumption had been that the Otaah family had all been home at the same time exactly when they were attacked. Which would make that insane. Right if Dorothy had picked up one of the children and Virginia planned to be home later That strongly suggested that the family members could have arrived home one or two at a time. And if that was the case, an armed gunman easily could have overtaken them as they entered the house two by two. especially if he had been lying in wait as they suspected, which is so fucking terrifying. Horrible Now the new theory did seem to match the evidence, but did little to point them in the direction of somebody Out of options and running the risk of this case going cold, investigators did make the decision to release the one piece of information that they had been holding back that note, that note on the car They hope that somebody might recognize the language in the note And on the day that it was published in the paper, Roger Cron, the owner of the Catalyst and several others at the cafe were reading that paper and recognized the content as being very similar to the ranting of a young man who'd been coming into the cafe recently. Isn't that interesting that it's the catalyst people that are like, wait a second. Theyre like, wait a minute we can help And that it's like a newcomer to the catalyst. not like the typical through So Roger Crohn spent a lot of the afternoon agonizing over whether he should turn in one of his own customers and his own community members to the police But in the end, he reasoned that if it was the same man, there was a very good chance he could kill again So with the early hours of Just quick, he was notot sure if he should He was stressed out about it. like this I'm just being clear Yeah with myself. Yeah. so There's a possibility that this person murdered an entire family including children. Yeah. And that was Like some you were wrestling with? Rog Roger was nervous to turn on his own community. Okay. ye. I mean But he eventually realized he couldn't not do that becausecauseuse you literally canntot do you can't do. I'm glad you realed. And he said he was like if this is the same guy, he could kill again. and like ye Yeahah, I gotta tell some. He was already murdered kids. So he did the right. And that goes to show you. that you can You know, you shouldn't, but you can sit there and question things for a minute and they ultimately come to the right decision. Yeah, there you go. You can mull things over for about a minute and a half and then you can on with the right thing. I'm glad he made the right decision. did in the end. There's always that that Just had to be chance for you. clear. Yeah. I was like what? So in the early mornings of october twenty second, he met privately at the catalyst with District attttorney Peter Chang. And he told him the note found at the scene sounded a lot like the apocalyptic rhetoric of a man named John Lindley Frasier He'd been coming into the cafe in recent weeks. And according to Crn, Frasier generally seemed like he was suffering from some kind of mental illness. He came into the cafe regularly ranting about capitalism, the rich destroying the earth and he seemed very preoccupied with World War I. All of that sounds Very familiar. All of that was in the note. And you know what I can I can at least take a step back now and say, okay, so he wasn't positive that this guy's the thing the person. Like he's not sitting there being like, I know he did it. That's the thing. He was like, I think that sounds It is difficult to take that first step in Hes because you want to be like now Hopefunately that guy coming into my bar or not my cafe didn't murder a whole family an later. likeike yeah. Eactly. So I'll step back. There L at it from a different angle. So see, you're always cable at that too. Yeah. I thought about it. Gth. So Roger provided a general description of Frasier, but you didn't really know that much about him. He didn't know where police might find him In fact, given the increased bomb threats that the caafe had been receiving and the fear of violence that his customers were feeling, John wanted to make sure that Chang and all the other investigators understood that despite his appearance John Frasier was not a member of the hippie community and he did not represent their values. He was like, please understand that. Don't conflate us. The DA indicated that he understood and that he would do his best to relve the message. but first he needed to find and stop John Lindley Fraser So who the fuck is John Lindley Frasier? Truly who the fuck is he This is a doozy of a background. boy. John Lin Lley Frasier was born january twenty sixth, nineteen forty six in New Mexico to Pat and William Frasier. He was an aquarius The family was very far from Malthy, but they were well known in the area because they had a rabbit farm And Pat, the mother was an outspoken advocate of rabbit farming and animal welfare both activities that she would later enlist the help of her son with. In nineteen seventy, she told a reporter, John was always kind to animals. He couldn't stand abuse of life. Wow Acording to Pat The first year or two of John's life were pretty ordinary, The family was generally happy. But in mid nineteen forty seven, they moved to Ohio to be closer to her husband's family And that was when Pat started to notice that William, her husband His personality was changing and he was just behaving in odd ways She said he'd go out all night, forget where he lived, and get involved with other women. Oh. It's unclear whether his behavior was the result of a mental illness or if he was just unhappy. But either way the sudden change in his personality took obviously a serious to on his relationship with his wife and his son. Pat tried to convince her husband that moving back to his hometown maybe was a mistake and suggested that they move and start over on their own, but He was not interested So Pat said, I left and I thought he might come to his senses, but he didn't. So I started off on my own. Wow Now a single mother with no income. She moved to Hayward, California. to live with her own family. And she found a job working at a local hospital At first, the new situation was really tough for John. His mom had to rely on her family to watch him while she was working twelve hour overnight shifts. And everything was made significantly worse in the months that followed when John's health appeared to be declining. One night, while Pat was working at the hospital, her aunt brought John in and he had a high fever and acute stomach pain At first, the attending doctor diagnosed him with pneumonia But the situation took a very dramatic turn just a few hours later when his appendix ruptured. Oh shit. yeah. From there, things only got worse After the surgery to remove his appendix, he was kept at the hospital for a few days and he was inadvertently exposed to measles. Oh my. So that added another two months onto his hospital stay Oo, yeah Now his measles were followed by other upper respiratory illnesses. Yeah, measles su Upper respiratory illnesses. Yeah, that's why they have vacces for measles too. And that's why Th they are proponents of vaccine. hell yeah Now Eventually, doctors removed his adenoids and they also removed his tonsils and he started to improve but then inevitably declined again when he was afflicted with just what seemed to be severe colds that went on and off for months. Oh, that sucks. Now believing that the move and the living arrangements were contributing to her son's poor health quit her job and she moved to the San Francisco area. She enrolled in dental school and found new doctors for her son And it took some time before they were able to properly diagnose him But eventually it was discovered that he had contracted tuberculosis. Holy shit. Yeah Now, this was all further complicated by injuries that he sustained in an auto accident in nineteen fifty two. What is going on? Everything In that accident, he broke his collarbone and also got a concussion What? he was blind for several weeks after that accident? This is so much trauma this kid isn't even in first grade. This is an incredible amount of trauma. This kid isn't even in first grade yet. That's He's got a burst appendix, measles, tuberculosis, adenoise removed, tonsils removed, broken collarrok collarbone, went blind went blind and a concussion. Holy shit. Yeah Now Once he had been properly diagnosed, his physical health improved dramatically But there were several unusual behaviors that persisted regardless of the doctor's attempts to try to curb them. John frequently wet the bed, and it ultimately seemed to stop when he got married Oh wow. He was like a very long wait. yeah, bedweater He was also a chronic sleepwalker who struggled with other sleep disturbances for years. Oh man after he was quote unquote stabilized Pat realized that she wasn't going to be able to go to school full time, work at the evenings, and take care of her son So she ended up placing him in foster care where he lived for two years. By the time that he did reach first grade, she was able to regain custody But from that point forward, he struggled with a lot of behavioral problems. The amount of trauma that happened to this child before first grade. Yeah is unthinkable. It really is. It's also a wild concept to me that like you could just drop your kid off in foster care and then go a couple of years later and just be like, okay. Yeah. a lot. So his first brush with the law came when he was ten years old. Wow and got caught shoplifting a pen knife from a store in San Francisco. Police were called and he was given a citation and had to appear in juvenile court Eventually the charges were dropped, but his attitude and his behavior only continued to get worse His eighth grade teacher said, he was kind of a tough kid. His attitude was poor at times. He didn't seem like a happy kid. Yeah It's like I don't know that I'd be happy it either Two years later, after his mom moved to Santa Cruz, John was arrested again when he and his friends vandalized a tile factory in town The parents of all of the boys made them clean up the factory and repair the damages, so the company agreed that they wouldn't press charges. It didn't do much to stop defiant behavior By the time he reached high school, he was almost entirely uneducated and going to school. He went to a vocational school, but within a few months he started skipping classes and soon he was just skipping school days altogether Teachers and counselors tried to keep him engaged, but He continued to miss long stretches and eventually just dropped out entirely Pat said that was when he started to get in trouble No, I feel like that's not wor start again bab. Yeah, that's not it. Objectively, that's not when he started getting in trouble got arrested at ten years old baby. Yeah ninety one percent of dog parents say their pup is an important member of the family. Sfe to say people are obsessed. I get it. I'm obsessed with my dog. She had to go to the vet the other day and I was a mess. If anyone gets being dog obsessed as well, it's Ollie. They're relentless about delivering the best food and experience for not only you, but of course your dog. 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There were also charges for shoplifting and petty violence In nineteen sixty one, he was removed from his mother's care for a second time, this time involuntarily and placed again in foster care His relationship with his foster parents got off to a very bad start, and it basically stayed that way for the entire duration of the placement. In nineteen sixty two, he was reported to the police by his foster parents for stealing a twenty two caliber pistol which he said he took in order to shoot animals for food So that charge got him sent back to a juvenile justice center in Watsonville, where he continued to demonstrate a very defiant and antisocial behavior, particularly when it came to authority figures In nineteen sixty six, he found work in the auto partarts section of Disco, which was a San Francisco department store And it was there that he met Dolores, his soon to be wife Not to be confused with my sweet Angel of a daughter. No Now she later said, I started taking Johnny home because he didn't have a car. And every time I took him home, we got closer and closer She was married at the time, but within a few months, she divorced her husband so that she could be with John Frazer. Wh voices. At first, the relationship was pretty good. Every seemed normal, but then she started to notice some unusual behavior in John. She said he would get horribly sweaty and cold and he'd yell and cry and whimper in the middle of the night Oh, that's really sad. It is And she said at times, he seemed so paranoid that he kept a loaded gun in the drawer of his nightstand. He's clearly suer off from something. has been to tell us a hundred percent. So the couple got married in nineteen sixty seven and moved to Washington, hoping to make a fresh start But unfortunately, things did not work out out there. Jobs were very hard to come by. So they struggled and they scraped together enough just to get by But in September of that year, Dolores found out that she was pregnant with her daughter, Lisa And it became clear that they weren't going to be able to make it in Washington So they returned to the Santa Cruz area where John found work at an auto shop. Like always, things would be pretty good for a while, but then after a few months, John would find faults with his employer, with his coworkers, he'd get into arguments and he'd eventually get fired Dore said he always had to change jobs because there was always someone who he couldn't get along with or who was always picking on it. Oh we all know people like that. It's never their fault.ever their fault Yeah. Finally, in nineteen sixty nine, he got a job with Performance West, which was a foreign car mechanic And this was the one job that seemed to stick The owner, Richard DePont told a reporter, he was the best worker I ever had. Whoa. yeah. So Frasier managed to stay out of trouble until mayay of nineteen seventy when he was picked up by police for harassing a local girl on the sidewalk Awesome. ye According to Dolores, the young girl had been walking down the sidewalk on her way to school when she was verbally assaulted by John He denied it was him, but she was able to identify him in a lineup. After the identification, they let him go with a warning because he only frightened her That's it You have to actually cause somebody Youve got to really hurt and happen. Hurt someone.'t hit her No. She just scared the shit out of. Terried on the way to school. He just menaced her. That's all. It's fine. Yeah. men are allowed to do that peopleople are idots. Yeah It's a man's world. What youinking So to investigators, he sounded like countless other petty criminals that they'd run into. young guys with bad upbringings who were mad at the world and their parents and wanted to take it out on whoever stepped on their path He definitely seemed like a nuisance. But to investigators, he really didn't seem like the kind of guy who could plan and execute a mass murder of a family For no obvious reason. Valen Now detectives managed to track him to performance West where they discovered he'd been working until a few months earlier when he quit unexpectedly Remember this 's the best they've ever had. The description of Frasier given by DuPont, that of a clean cut married man and a great employee, seemed at odds with the man that investigators came to know through his criminal record But as it turned out, there was an explanation for that After DuPont gave them the address that they had on file for Frasier Detectives learned that right around the time he quit his job there, he also left his wife abruptly and moved out of the house. Oh According to Dolores, a few days before he was picked up for that verbal assault, He was in another car accident. and hit his head when he rear ended another car. Oh shit. At the time, she said he didn't seem to be hurt in an obvious way, in any obvious way, at least not physically. but she did say he had a bump on his forehead. It wasn't bleeding, just raised, but he wouldn't let me touch it at all. He wouldn't see a doctor and he wouldn't hardly let me near him. Oh boy Now on the days that followed, he continued to insist that he was fine But he started to behave even more strangely According to his friend, David Marlow, he started hearing voices that were warning him against catastrophe. This is such severe mental health issues Dolores said he said he heard voices that said he should never drive again or he'd be killed. He was very different. His whole attitude was cheap and aggressive said that's a read. That's wow. What a way to describe that cheap and aggressive. You're acting cheap. It's crazy. Holy shit. At first, Dolores was hesitant to tell the detectives where John had gone, but eventually she relented and she told them. Gys we gotta stop hesitating I think she was embarrassed. Everyone's very hesitant. this look don't hesitate. T you guys's not hesitant. Drick. Now after he moved out of the house, he moved into an abandoned shack in the woods J just a few miles from the Otas family house I hate this Later, after his picture was published in all the papers Nighbors of the Otoh family told the police that they saw somebody who looked very much like Frasier, Walking from the woods to a water tower near their houses, where he appeared to watch the Ota house with binoculars For hours on end and then climb down from the water tower and retreat into the woods. to which I say neighbors. If you see a strange man in the woods using binoculars to watch a family home Maybe call the police before that entire family gets murdered The amount of unnecessary hesitation in this story is sending me into fucking orbit. Especially this one, they're like I to think of it. You know what? There was the guy in your water tower. This guy who lives in the woods. was watching this family for literally hours on end. Aop the water toer. Aop the water tower And it just slit my mind. That would be something That would be top, tip top. also my mind the end of her day come knock on my door. I would hope and say, hey there's a man watching your home with binoculars atop the water tower. We should do something. Do you want me to call someone? like guys should go somewhere. Yeah Hello I'm shook by everybody in this. So now certain that they had the right suspect. Yeah, pololice and sheriff's deputies has combed the woods around the Otah house for hours until they ended up finding the shock But there's no sign of John anywhere. Convinced he would return at some point, they set up a stake out and they watched the shock for almost an entire day aroundround eight AM on the morning of october twenty third They saw him return not wanting to alert him to their presence They waited an hour or two longer before finally storming the shack more hesitancy But, you know, I'm like I'm like I realize you don't wantan to like scare them right away but like twenty five minutes. likeike an hour or two hour hour or two feel like twenty minutes. twenty minutes. Max, Max. M thinkks. Like I've never done settle in it out before. For twenty minutes like he's He's doing his thing. Yeah, you're free to storm the shack at that point. Storm it. Storm the fucking shack, please Everybody Hustle, Pulldrg. Hustle, Holdrg. This is California. Everybody's chiller. If this was Lice coast, you'd never see it good You'd never see it be this slow. And noody can be that slow over here. They like like I said, they waited an hour or two before they stormed the shock And that's where they caught Frasier asleep on a dirty mattress laid out on the floor. Holy shit He was startled by the presence of police in his shack. But as soon as he understood what was happening He looked at Terry Medina and said, Why don't you give me what I deserve Whoa, Chilling. That's really chilling. Now he was taken into custody that morning And a few hours later, he was charged with the murders of The four members of the Otah family and the murder of Dorothy Codwalliter. The arrest was a major relief to everybody in Santa Cruz County, especially when District A attorney Chang announced that they had captured the sole person responsible for the murders.. And true to his word, Peter Chang made sure to tell reporters that they could not have apprehended John Fraasier if it was not for the help of the hippie community who were quote, unquote totally revulsed by the mass executions. Look at him. I know. That's nice that he kept his word. It is because it's the truth. It is Now in their interviews with Frasier's family and friends, they learned that after one of the most recent recent accident, John had developed a fixation with wealthy people that he believed were quote unquote too materialistic He said that they were harming the earth, but the one person he was the most fixated on was Viictor Ota H according. to a former friend in the weeks leading up to the murders John made several statements about how big things would be happening next Monday indicated his plan to kill the Otas That same friend also told detectives that John confessed to him that he had broken into the Otah family home on several occasions when they weren't there. And while inside, he stole several items including the binoculars he was using to stalock them and the twenty two caliber pistol that they were killed with you don say something. Yeah. Later, when Lark, their daughter was shown the items found in Fraser's possession, she identified them all as having belonged to her father. Now the evidence was already quite substantial by the end of the day that he was arrested. But there was still more to be learned in the days that followed. Shortly after his arrest, he was placed in a voice lineup where he was identified by the gas station attendant as the man seen driving Virginia Ota station wagon on the night of the murders And beyond that, there were his own statements about the murders made the day following his arrest. According to John, he said he received a message from God, telling him that the Ota family needed to die because they were too rich and they were harming the earth with their reckless materialism. Wow Now, meanwhile, these people are like giving back to their community. That's the thing and you're using their wealth for good Now, on the day of the murdder, he said he broke into the house early in the afternoon when no one was home, which is so fucking scary That's when he found the twenty two caliber pistol and the scarves that and he started planning the executions in their home Wow. He placed a call to mister Ota's office saying that Virginia wouldn't be able to pick up the children from school because she was having car trouble knowing that it would require them to change their plans and now that they would all be coming home at different times. that's too much premeditation for me. Like he thought that through way too well. Oh yeah When Dorothy returned to the house with Derek Otagh a few hours later, John ambushed them at the door and tied them up with the scarbs mrter Oton and Taggart returned home next and they were ambushed and tied up in the same way. And finally, Virginia came home and she too, was ambushed and tied up with the entire family, bound and gathered in the living room John ranted for some time about his beliefs about how they were harming the earth And then he explained that he needed to destroy their home. and actually even asked Victor Ota to help him do it Victor Ota did not respond to the request, but instead he said, we'll give you whatever you want you can have any money that you want and please just let my family live. But the mention of money in possession sent John over the edge and now he was enraged he dragged mister Ota, doctor Ota, out to the pool pushed him in and then shot him three times. Now once he started killing, he said he understood that there was no going back Moments later, he brought Virginia and Dorothy out to the pool and told the blindfolded women to kneel down. After they did as he instructed, John asked Virginia whether she believed in God And when she said that she did, he said, Then you have nothing to fear. and shot them both from the back of the neck and push their bodies into the pool. This is so fucked up. It's so dark. Now after killing all three adults, he said he hesitated when it came to the children who were eleven and twelve He told investigators that he kneeled down on the pavement beside the pool begged God to give him a sign that he should spare the children But when he didn't receive a sign, he said he had no other choice than to accept that the sins of the father had been passed on to the sons. Oh fuck off So he shot and killed both boys, Derek and Taggard. Wow Now it was clear to detectives that he had absolutely killed the family But the question on many people's minds, which I'm sure you can say it with me was he legally sane when he committed the murders I'm so happy you've been pointing out the premeditation here. Yeah So in the weeks after his arrest, he was placed in the custody of the county jail where He made a suicide attempt in his cell by cutting one of his wrists find a In a statement to the press, Peter Chang told reporters, He made a very super official cut on one wrist. He is in no danger In fact, it seemed that most of his behavior while in custody was that of somebody trying to convince people that he was mentally ill rather than somebody who was genuinely suffering from a mental disorder. I'm not here to say that he didn't have a mental disorder, but it very much seemed like he was he was trying to play it up a little more. Yeah Now For instance, just before his interview with an evaluating psychiatrist, he shaved all the hair on one side of his head, including his eyebrows. For no apparent reason other than just to I just saw that picture and it is very unsettling. It's really chilling Terry Medina said in twenty twenty, it very quickly just became a media train wreck From the moment he was arrested, Santa Cruz County was descended upon by journalists from Not only just all over the country, but some case in some cases all over the world The case was very sensational, and being that it was nineteen seventy one, the idea of a spree killer was still pretty unfamiliar to most people So a figure like John Frasier terrified ordinary people Yeah, especially coming so close on the heels of the Manson murders Now as a result, the defense filed several motions that delayed the start of the trial includluding a request for a gag order on everyone involved in the case and a motion to move the trial out of Santa Cruz County to ensure that he would be treated fairly A judge approved the motion for the relocation, specifically citing the local population's animosity toward the hippie community and commending Peter Chang for his attempts to minimize those negativegs. He did try. He did. Now in late October of nineteen seventy one, a year after the murders had been committed, the trial finally got started in Redwood City, which is about fifty miles from Santa Cruz And there were countless spectators, journalists, everybody gathered inside the courtroom.