Criminal - Perfect Specimen

Episode Date: February 5, 2016

The 500-year-old Treaty Oak in Austin, Texas was once called "the most perfect specimen of a North American tree." But in 1989, Austin's city forester John Giedraitis realized that the Treaty Oak didn...'t look so good, and began to wonder whether someone had intentionally tried to kill it. The Austin police were on the case, so when Paul Stedman Cullen was arrested for the criminal “mischief,” it was time to unearth what his motives for killing a tree could be. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow. We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop.  Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Support for Criminal comes from Apple Podcasts. Each month, Apple Podcasts highlights one series worth your attention, and they call these series essentials. This month, they recommend Wondery's Ghost Story, a seven-part series that follows journalist Tristan Redman as he tries to get to the bottom of a ghostly presence in his childhood home. His investigation takes him on a journey involving homicide detectives, ghost hunters, and even psychic mediums, and leads him to a dark secret about his own family.
Starting point is 00:00:30 Check out Ghost Story, a series essential pick, completely ad-free on Apple Podcasts. Hey, it's Scott Galloway, and on our podcast, Pivot, we are bringing you a special series about the basics of artificial intelligence. Thank you. So, tune into AI Basics, How and When to Use AI, a special series from Pivot sponsored by AWS, wherever you get your podcasts. So, it's about 50 feet tall. So, it's not a giant tree according to tree standards, but down here in the south, that's a pretty good-sized tree. So, about 50 feet tall, 100, 120 feet in diameter. So, it's a very sort of low and spreading tree. Big branches coming out and swooping down and touching the ground and going back up to the sky again.
Starting point is 00:01:32 Just a beautiful tree. This is John Godritis, former city forester for the city of Austin. He's describing a famous tree in downtown Austin known as the treaty oak. Quercus virginiana, southern live oak, very, very common all the way from Florida all the way to Texas along the Gulf Coast. So you'll see them, you know, they're the big trees of the south. That's the live oak, the ones with the Spanish moss hanging off them.
Starting point is 00:01:57 Very, very common in the south. In fact, it's the tree of the south. The live oak is common across the south, but the treaty oak is an unusually good-looking tree. In 1922, the American Forestry Association named it the most perfect specimen of any living tree in the country. Not only was it perfect, but it was the only surviving live oak in a group of 14, known as the council oaks, that were revered by Native Americans long before Texas was Texas. According to legend, it's also where the so-called father of Texas, Stephen Austin, signed a treaty with Native Americans agreeing to divide the land.
Starting point is 00:02:37 Texas doesn't have a lot of history in terms of, you know, since the white man came. It's only been a state since the middle of the 1800s. So there are actually remnants of the original Texas history, and some of them are even alive, like the Treaty Oak. And now, of course, it's pretty much downtown Austin. There's big skyscrapers all around it. There's cars and traffic and buses and all that stuff. And there's this little park with this big tree in it. And my own personal history is I proposed to my wife underneath the tree because it's a big, strong, important tree that symbolizes timelessness and endurance and strength and that sort of stuff.
Starting point is 00:03:22 Were there other contenders or did you always know this was going to be the spot where you'd get down on one knee? If you're in Austin and you're the city forester, Treaty Oak is the tree. There are other historic trees, there's other bigger trees, but a tree that has its own park is a pretty important tree, and it's role in Texas history. It's just a wonderful place to do something that you hope is going to last a long time. On March 2nd, 1989, two years after John proposed to his wife, he was giving a tour showing some fellow tree people the highlights of Austin.
Starting point is 00:03:55 And he took them to the Treaty Oak. And we stopped there and we saw that there was a circle of dead grass around the bottom of the tree. And I thought that was pretty strange, but we use common edging chemicals in the parks department. So we had these kind of chemicals. I assumed that one of our parks workers had just gotten a little bit sloppy and spilled some on the ground or, you know, he'd let his tank sort of drip. John says he didn't think much about it until a couple of months later when he got a call from a resident who said she thought the tree looked like it had oak wilt, a common tree disease in Texas. He went down to take a look and he knew right away that the tree was sick. But it wasn't
Starting point is 00:04:37 oak wilt. He had no idea what was going on and he collected soil samples and sent them off to the Department of Agriculture. So when we went out there, we assumed that everything was accidental. There was some sort of accident that had happened to the tree. But once we got the samples back from the Department of Agriculture, we realized right away that the compound was a, it's a compound that's used in forestry operations in pine plantations. And they'll go over, they'll fly over the pine plantations after a couple years after they're planted and they'll
Starting point is 00:05:08 kill everything oaks and poison ivy and blackberries all everything that's not a pine tree basically gets knocked back so it's once we knew it was that kind of compound that compound called velpar made by DuPont we knew that there was there was no accident. There was absolutely no reason to put this stuff at the bottom of this tree unless you wanted to kill the tree. There's just no other reason for it to be there. So we knew right away that something was up. Just a few ounces of Velpar could kill a large tree, and John estimated that at least a gallon had been poured on the treaty oak. He had no doubt that someone, for some reason, wanted the tree dead.
Starting point is 00:05:49 And whoever it was had used more than enough poison to finish the job. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. I immediately called the DuPont people, and they have a facility in La Porte, which is around Houston, on the bay. And I called them up. I said, well, what's the deal? What is this stuff, and how do you cure, how do you get rid of this stuff, and all that stuff? They said, well, we've really done a lot research on, and we know this stuff works really good, but we've never tried to undo one before. So they offered a $10,000 reward,
Starting point is 00:06:30 and that was quickly followed by the Texas Forestry Association also offered a $1,000 reward. So we had a $11,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person that was, or persons that were responsible for this. The Austin Police Department had a very strange problem on their hands, and no leads. And city forester John Godritis, who was only 26 years old, was trying to figure out how in the world he was supposed to save the famous tree. I mean, it's a big, huge tree.
Starting point is 00:07:01 I mean, it'd take three or four people with their arms all together to reach around it, you know, holding hands together to reach around it, you know, holding hands all the way around it. So we really didn't think there was much chance. And frankly, the experts didn't think there was much chance. This stuff works really good in pine plantations and on mesquite out in the rangeland and things like that. So we didn't hold much hope. When word got out to the people of Austin that the tree had been poisoned on purpose and would likely not survive, they were furious. But it wasn't just a local story. John was interviewed live by Barbara Walters for a story called
Starting point is 00:07:35 Who's Trying to Murder Austin's Treaty Oak? The Washington Post and New York Times ran the headlines Texas Mourns Imminent Death, a Poisoned Tree Stirring Fear of Copycat Killer. and New York Times ran the headlines, Texas mourns imminent death, and poison trees stirring fear of copycat killer. This is the CBS Evening News. Dan Rather reporting. Good evening. With saw or axe, we routinely kill trees every day of the year. Then why are people in the Texas state capital so upset over efforts by a person or persons unknown to kill just one tree? Scott Pelley explains.
Starting point is 00:08:08 An unknown assailant attacked the oak with a herbicide. Since then, the tree has struggled to sprout new leaves. Thousands of people have visited the tree as if it were a sick friend, their sadness edged with anger. It had to be an idiot or maniac who would kill a child to kill a tree like that. I don't think it's very nice to poison a tree. Caretaker Bruce O'Neill seeks Texas justice. I think you should swing from one of these limbs.
Starting point is 00:08:34 The tree doctors hope the oak can hang on until the herbicide breaks down. When the news of the tree's poisoning got out and the fact that it wasn't accidental, it was intentional, and rewards were going out and all that stuff, I got a call in my little house in South Austin from H. Ross Perot. Of course, he's an industrialist and billionaire and a Texas patriot. So he called me up and said, you know, no matter what it takes, however long it takes, you just send me the bill and don't let those bureaucrats get in your way. And I said, yes, sir. And that's what we say in the South when people give you a blank check. Yes, sir. And we decided to form a little task force. And we had 22 PhDs come in from all over the nation. And these are the best of the best. They know about live oaks. They knew about the herbicides, roots, that sort of thing. We got them all together for a couple days around the tree.
Starting point is 00:09:28 And the plan was to make the tree as comfortable as we could. So reduce the stress on it, whether it was drought or heat or whatever. And I don't know if you've ever had 22 PhDs in a room. But generally, you get at least 20 or so different opinions about what to do. And Ross Perot was paying these guys? Yeah, yeah. He paid all the bills. I never even saw him. Mr. Perot's office. Yes, this is Phoebe Judge. I just spoke with Mr. Perot, and I was hoping to speak with him for one more moment about the Treaty Oak.
Starting point is 00:10:06 Okay, he has stepped away. We might have to call you right back, maybe five minutes. Sure. What's the best number? I'm in the studio right now, and it's hard to call in, but I'm happy to hold if that's more convenient. Okay, hold on, please. I'm going to put you on another line. One moment. Yeah, not at all.
Starting point is 00:10:25 Ross Perot. Hello, Mr. Perot. It's Phoebe Judge again. Thank you on another line. One moment. Yeah, not at all. Ross Perot. Hello, Mr. Perot. It's Phoebe Judge again. Thank you so much for speaking with me. Now that I have you, I'm in a studio. I was just called me and they asked me and I did it. That's all I can tell you. Do you remember seeing the tree yourself? Yes, way back when. Just go, I've been by it, I knew about it. It's supposed to be a very beautiful tree, isn't it?
Starting point is 00:11:00 Well, it was a very, it's not as much there as it was, all right? No, no, you're right. They lost so much of it. But at one time, it was just supposed to be such a beautiful tree. Yes. So you just thought it was an important thing to do for Texas? That's a bit of history, yeah. Great.
Starting point is 00:11:17 Well, thank you very much. You're welcome. Okay, bye. Support for Criminal comes from Apple Podcasts. Each month, Apple Podcasts highlights one series worth your attention, and they call these series essentials. This month, they recommend Wondery's Ghost Story, a seven-part series that follows journalist Tristan Redman
Starting point is 00:11:37 as he tries to get to the bottom of a ghostly presence in his childhood home. His investigation takes him on a journey involving homicide detectives, ghost hunters, and even psychic mediums, and leads him to a dark secret about his own family. Check out Ghost Story, a series essential pick, completely ad-free on Apple Podcasts.
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Starting point is 00:12:54 biology-based approach. Sign up for your trial today at Noom.com. John says that most of the money that Ross Perot donated was spent testing the soil. $100,000 of soil samples. Because the way this poison works is it's activated by water in the soil. And what happens is the chemical goes through the roots, up the trunk, out the twigs, and into the leaves. And there it concentrates, and it blocks a key step in photosynthesis. So the tree leaf can't make any energy. The tree realizes that and sheds the leaf.
Starting point is 00:13:30 And as soon as the leaf is shed, there's a bud right behind it, and it puts on a new leaf. The new leaf comes out. The water is transported out. Imagine a time-lapse video of the tree growing new leaves, losing them, and then immediately growing new ones over and over until it can't go on. The leaves fill up with chemical, fall off, until the tree just runs out of energy, can't make any more leaves.
Starting point is 00:13:54 So that's how the tree is killed, is the tree just runs out of gas, literally just runs out of stored carbohydrates, out of stored energy, and it dies. And so we saw this in June. We saw the first set of leaves, second set of leaves, and by the fall we were on our fourth or fifth set of leaves. And all the experts who were familiar with live oaks and this particular kind of compound herbicide said, this tree is smoked.
Starting point is 00:14:20 It's a goner. They don't live past this sort of thing. Susan Lampe is doing what parents have done for generations in Texas, taking her children to see the 500-year-old treaty oak come alive in the spring. And I think it's amazing that it's lived for so long. But this spring, the legendary landmark near downtown Austin is dying. Only about a third of the tree is producing leaves. The rest of it is dead.
Starting point is 00:14:47 I'm not very happy that it might die, but I'm happy that it's living right now. The residents of Austin were coming by the busload to try to help. People would come down to the Treaty Oak, and they would leave cans of chicken soup. They would leave bottles of Maalox and Tums and, you know, I'm not sure exactly what that was for. And we set up a little fence around it just to keep people from, you know, compacting the soil around it. And people would leave things there.
Starting point is 00:15:21 They would leave cards and letters. We had the, you know, every day or two I would go out there and I would put them all in a box and take them over to the history center. And they still have them all over there. But there would be letters from – we got one from Germany. There were letters from all over the United States. And they would just address it to the Treaty Oak, Austin, Texas. And it would be, you know, get well soon, that sort of thing. And a lot of them from kids, they would draw pictures and, you know, say, we're sorry that this happened to you. get well soon, that sort of thing. A lot of them from kids, they would draw pictures and, you know, say,
Starting point is 00:15:46 we're sorry that this happened to you, get well soon, that sort of thing. A local rock station brought in a Dallas psychic named Sharon Capehart to perform a healing ceremony. She said that she sensed that the tree was a woman named Alexandria. One man asked if he could bring in some sort of healing pyramids to place inside the water tanker that kept the tree hydrated. And John said, as long as they aren't too big, I guess it's okay. By June, the Austin Police Department had become interested in a man named Paul Stedman Cullen, who worked at a farm supply store and had easy access to Velpar. They learned about Cullen
Starting point is 00:16:26 after a woman named Cindy Blanco came forward and said she'd seen two containers of Velpar in the back of Cullen's truck. They went to the same methadone clinic, and sometimes he would give her a ride. She also told police that Cullen was infatuated with their methadone counselor, a woman who was not interested in Cullen. And she was in love with someone else. She had her own life and all that business. So that he went to the library, took out a book on the black arts, and cast a spell under the tree, creating a magic circle. And that circle, of course, was with the herbicide, not with... I'm sure the book didn't have that in it, but that was his interpretation. And then put something in the circle so that as
Starting point is 00:17:13 the tree would die, so would his love die for this woman. The police needed evidence and asked Cindy Blanco to wear a wire. She agreed. And when Cullen picked her up, she got him to speak about the poisoned tree. He told her that if he had to do it all over again, he probably wouldn't, because he said he likes trees. He was arrested on June 29th on a felony criminal mischief charge. Because he had a previous felony conviction for burglary, he was facing a possible life sentence. Did you go to Cullen's trial? Did you testify? Well, I was in the trial. They had me on the stand as an expert witness on the value of the tree. And when you're called to witness, you can't sit in the trial and watch, because I really wanted to sit in there and watch it.
Starting point is 00:18:03 I wanted to see, why did this guy do this? What's, what's this all about? And then how, how does, you know, how do you get justice for a crime like this? But they wouldn't let me sit in there. They said, no, you're, you're a witness. You can't hear anything. You have to, you can't sit in here. You just, you just showed your true colors because you said, how, how do you get justice for something like this? Which is really, which is really something a tree guy would say. Because, you know, a non-tree person said, well, I guess you give him a fine and maybe put him in jail. But you're a real tree guy. How do you get justice for something like this?
Starting point is 00:18:34 Well, it's a little different down here than it is in other areas of the country. And what it is down here is you, if somebody, you know, you can shoot somebody dead in the street, okay? I mean, you know, literally, it's the Wild West. If you go out there and you have a gunfight and you shoot them dead in the street, well, that's okay. You know, you're having a gunfight. But if you steal somebody's horse, what happens? They hang you. So property crimes are very, very serious in Texas law,
Starting point is 00:19:05 going back all the way to the beginning of Texas. There were people in Austin that said, this is not worth it, you know, this is just a tree. Bob Perkins was the judge for Paul Cullen's trial. You know, we have people getting killed and stuff. That's the kind of thing that we ought to be spending time on in the courts. We shouldn't be worried about somebody killing a tree. But, you know, this is the thing.
Starting point is 00:19:31 The deal is, if we were not going to protect that tree, then you could just declare open season on all trees because you wouldn't defend any. The prosecution argued that Cullen had poisoned the tree in a ritual to try to kill his love for the methadone counselor, like Cindy Blanco said, but also to try to get back at the state of Texas for putting him in prison before. Defense attorneys argued that Cullen had, quote, low self-esteem and that everything he told Cindy Blanco was a lie. He was just bragging to try to impress her. First of all, it's not likely that a woman's going to be impressed by a guy that poisons a good-looking tree. I mean, that's not very logical. But the second thing is, if you did poison it,
Starting point is 00:20:24 you'd pretty much try to remain anonymous anyway. So how are you going to get credit for something if you do it anonymously? So there's a lot of problems with that theory. In my mind, he was getting back for the time that he had to do in the penitentiary before. That's what I've always believed. I'm sure the answer to this is, I'm sure this will not elicit a response from you, but as a judge, you have to kind of be impartial and sit up there, but it seems like this is the type of case where you might just want to look at this guy and say, you know what? You're an idiot. Yeah. Well, you know, I think, according to my theory, he's not so much idiotic. He was actually very, I don't know, he actually did exact a big amount of revenge, you know, against the state of Texas by doing what he did. But it was a very strange case and a very unique case. You know, I mean, this concept about somebody killing a tree and then getting prosecuted for it is just not, I mean, that just doesn't happen at all. I mean, you never hear about that.
Starting point is 00:21:38 Colin was found guilty of second-degree criminal mischief and sentenced to nine years in prison and a $1,000 fine. Right after the conviction, he told reporters that when he got out, he'd open a nightclub and call it the Velpar Spot. As for the Treaty Oak, a third of it was dead. After many months of work, a lot of Ross Perot's money, plus the Maylocks and chicken soup, John and his team decided to try a Hail Mary. We said, well, if the tree is using up its energy, what would happen if we just put more energy into the tree? So we did that. We injected the tree with a giant IV full of sugar.
Starting point is 00:22:20 And I mean, it wasn't research. We don't know if it worked or not, you know, so it didn't hurt it, we hope. They also started collecting hundreds of cuttings from the tree's twigs and roots and sending them all across Texas with the hope that someone could make one of them sprout into what would become a new tree. And one of the cuttings took. It started growing like wild, and John saw an opportunity. When the tree roots from live oaks grow together after a couple of years, they actually fuse together and become a single root system. So we put that tree next to it to act as a nurse tree, literally a nurse tree. So as it would grow good and healthy, it was in good, clean, fresh soil, it would graft to the old, to the mother tree. And that's what's actually happened. It's grafted
Starting point is 00:23:10 together and it's supplied nutrients to the tree. And so the mother tree looks great and the baby tree looks great. So they're both surviving. They're both doing great. And I'd say we got another couple hundred years out of him. Paul Cullen only served three years of his sentence. He died in California in 2001. He was 57. So, in the long life of the 500-year-old tree, Paul Cullen is actually just a dot. Criminal is produced by Lauren Sporer and me. Audio mix by Rob Byers. Julianne Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of Criminal. You can see them at thisiscriminal.com. Special thanks to Alice Wilder and Chelsea Corinta, and also to Colby Ricks. Criminal is recorded in the studios of North Carolina Public Radio, WUNC.
Starting point is 00:24:18 We're a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. And as we begin 2016, we want to say thank you to everyone who donated to the Radiotopia Fall Campaign, especially designer and illustrator Jez Burrows, whose most recent project, Dictionary Stories, is a collection of very short stories entirely composed from example sentences from the dictionary.
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