Small Town Murder - #570 - Twelve Scary Hours - Westport, Connecticut

Episode Date: February 15, 2025

This week, in Westport, Connecticut, it's a race against time, when a man horribly murders a woman, in her own beautiful home, before abducting her teenage daughter, and driving away. Police frantically search, trying to fing the young woman, before it's too late. Even if she's found alive, will this horrible person ever be caught? It's a heart pumping story, that is later called "12 hours of hell"!Along the way, we find out that you don't want to name your band after a food that will make you sick, that no matter how exclusive & leafy your neighborhood is, anything can happen, and that people are sometimes way more capable than they think they are!!New episodes every Thursday!Donate at: patreon.com/crimeinsports or go to paypal.com and use our email: [e-mail] to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder & Crime In Sports!Follow us on...twitter.com/@murdersmallfacebook.com/smalltownpodinstagram.com/smalltownmurderAlso, check out James & Jimmie's other show, Crime In Sports! On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Wondery+, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Small Town Murder early and ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. In the depths of an Atlanta forest, a clash between activists and authorities ends in tragedy. I'm Matthew Scherr, and on my new podcast, We Came to the Forest, we expose the hidden truths behind a shootout that left one activist dead and countless lives forever changed. Binge all episodes of We Came to the Forest ad-free on Wondery Plus. Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yeah and choo choo.

Oh yay indeed Jimmy, yay indeed. My name is James Petragallo, I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you folks so much for joining us all aboard the murder train pulling away from the station. We have a very weird episode for you today. Just a strange one. Can't wait to get into it before we do very quickly. Shut up and give me murder.com is

where you get tickets for all your live shows. If you would like to come to a live show, get your tickets now. I'm telling you right now the tickets may is the next batch of shows coming up, which is Chicago and St. Louis. St. Louis is just about sold out. Chicago's getting there. Grand Rapids is just about sold out. I think Madison's sold out. I'm pretty sure that Portland is sold out. San Diego is sold out. It's really, really, if you want tickets, get them right goddamn now and get in there and do that. Shutupandgivememurder.com. Also, Patreon is what you want. Patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get all the bonus material. We have so much bonus material for you. Anybody $5 a month or above, you are going to get all of it, including as soon as you

subscribe hundreds of back episodes you've never heard before of bonus stuff. And then new ones every other week, including this week. This week for Crime and Sports, we're gonna talk about disasters of all kinds. We did some industrial disasters, some hot air balloon disasters. It's just like a disaster grab bag we're gonna talk about there.

We love when it goes bad. It's crazy, yeah, especially when it's like old timey, like the Molasses River that happened in Boston. That was wild. And hot air balloons, how do you expect that to go right? It doesn't, it seems like it would be a miracle every time it lands, I would imagine. Oh my God, how'd that happen? Then for small town murders, since we always debunk everything, we're going to talk about

psychics that actually succeeded in what they were trying to do, find bodies and do things like that. Very interesting stuff there. We'll get into all that and more. Patreon.com slash crime in sports. That said, I think it's time to get into this. I think it's time everybody to sit back. Let's all clear the lungs here, arms to the sky.

Let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this everybody. Yeah, let's go. Let's go on a trip, shall we? We have to. up and give me murder. Let's do this everybody. Yeah, let's go. Let's go on a trip, shall we? We have to. We are going to Connecticut this week here. Westport, Connecticut.

Westport is in southwestern Connecticut. It's the west port, the one by the land. Well, it's down on the Long Island Sound down there. Oh, is it? It's on the water, yeah. So it is a port, yeah. It's a port, Well, it sits down on the Long Island Sound down there. Oh, is it? It's on the water, yeah. So it is a port. It's a port, yeah. It's Westport, southwestern Connecticut

by the Long Island Sound. It's basically a suburb of New York City, though. Anything within two hour driving distance is a suburb of the city. And this is about an hour and a half, depending on traffic, to New York City from here. So definitely a burb. It's about an hour and a half in

the other direction to Ellington, Connecticut, which was our last episode, our last Connecticut episode, Detective Fitbit. I remember that was wild. That was interesting. A whole case solved by a Fitbit. That's crazy shit. Then this is in Fairfield County. Population in this town, 27,168. So a a nice sized town, it's remained that size for years and years and years. They're not building anything more, it's nice, a lot of larger properties on wooded lots and shit like that.

This is a very leafy suburb. The median household income here, buckle up, 236,892. That's median. My God. Median is almost a quarter of a million a year. Median home cost here, you better be making a quarter million a year, because the median home cost

is $1,473,500. Almost 1.5. It's all I can say to that. Good for you guys, that's great. Holy shit. The nickname, they don't have a motto, but they have a nickname of this town, which is Capital W, little E, capital P, little O. We Po, which is, they're not Po and O.

No, you are not. And O, they're not Par in the slightest, these fucking people. I get it, it's Westport, We Po. But no, it's not. Don't do that, because that's what it sounds like. Little bit of history of this town here. Officially incorporated in 1835,

they got lands from Fairfield, Weston, and Norwalk and just made a town out of it here. I guess there was a guy named Daniel Nash led 130 people to petition the town of Fairfield for Westport's incorpor and corporation and they wanted to Assist their seaports economic viability that was being undermined by neighboring town seaports So you have a seaport you're concerned with that, but we're concerned with our seaport So let us deal with this shit. So for several decades after that, it was a big agricultural community

Decades after that it was a big agricultural community It was the leading onion growing center in the United States, which I had no idea you can smell it in fucking Times Square You can smell the onions. That's crazy, and it became a shipping center in part to transport the onions, right? So it worked once the collapse of the onion industry happened then mills and factories replaced that and now it's just replaced with rich people So that's it starting about 1910 This is when people in New York City discovered a nice little leafy burb about an hour and a half away And this this is when artists and musicians started moving here Oh became an artsy town f Scott Fitzgerald moved here

moving here. Oh, this became an artsy town. F Scott Fitzgerald moved here. Uh, I did some shit. Yep. Cause he didn't want to be, he didn't want to deal with the business, all the business shit in New York. So he just started spangled banner guy moving there. No, no. F Scott Fitzgerald is not these. No, is he not a, uh, uh, uh, he's a writer. He's a writer. He's an author. I've Scott, the great Gatsby. I know who he is. The great guy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which would make sense seeing the light across the thing you're on a sound it all makes sense now um so that was before we wrote that to we moved there got key Francis Scott key

there you go yeah it's an F Scott you got him I'm on board you got that shit the this it became got a reputation as an art center and people were calling it a creative heaven at that point all All right. And then in the 20th century there's industrialization and all this in New York and that all this industrialization everywhere else made fashionable people come here and it became Westport very fashionable more writers and artists came farmers started yeah farmers were selling off their land for housing developments and shit like that and it changed from farmers to the suburbs at that point then

Famous people started moving here in 1960 Paul Newman moved in and lived there till he died Live there's that till he I'm sure he had five houses, but he yeah, he lived there being handsome Oh, yeah, just had being handsome till he's dead and his wife Joanne Woodward the other actress She still lived there after he died even just stayed there liked it Here's reviews of this town got a couple reviews here five stars I appreciate the location of the town and what the town has to offer It's an hour from New York City making the city very accessible and contains a beach a nice downtown area a public pool the public Sports courts and fields the high school is very intense,

but contains amazing sports theater and music facilities and programs. These are rich kids. The parents are monitoring, they're not necessarily smart, but rich. Rich, all rich people think their kids will be smart no matter if they're dumb or not. That's what rich people think.

We can buy them being smart. Yeah, I am rich enough that that kid dumb or not. That's a rich people thing. We can buy them being smart. Yeah. I am rich enough that that kid is not dumb. It's weird. Very fucking weird here. Here's three stars, beautiful town and relatively nice people. In my opinion, people can be spoiled, arrogant and extremely out of touch. They're called rich people.

They're called rich people that live in this. Yeah, this is not the real world. And then finally one star, a very all caps nasty town. Oh, nasty. It's run shit about you. Oh, she's got a whole. This is a whole thing here. It's run by an insider's clique of real estate people, hedge fund people, showbiz types. And if you're not

a quote insider type you're deemed a sub citizen. So if you're not rich yeah that's how rich works. Yeah. If you're not wealthy these people don't like you. Really? Yeah. Is that right? Are you here to trim my hedges? That's what they think at that point. The police are very nasty, basically thugs for the real estate people. And if you complain to town hall about them, what does town hall do? They quote, refer your complaint back to the police. They are nasty people, the whole lot of them. The realtors are also extremely nasty and they engage in serious blacklisting practices. Yeah, it's a small town where you're not rich. It's a small town of rich people

that don't want anybody that's not rich there. Because you bring down the property value, you poor fuck. That's why we don't live there. Yeah. So things to do here, Westtoberfest. Okay. Yeah, it's a craft beer and fall festival. Let's see here.

Promising a day of craft beer delights, live music, community camaraderie in the heart of downtown Westport, beer enthusiasts can indulge in a diverse selection of over 50 local and regional beers from crisp lagers and bold IPAs to rich stouts and refreshing non-alcoholic drinks. The festival promised- Rich douche beer. Rich douche beer. Rich douche beer, rich IPA. Yeah, Tears of the Poor is what one is called.

It's great. Yeah. Tears of the Poor Children. This one's called Two Pennies. Holy shit. The festival promises more than fantastic brews. It will also feature delicious food and lively music. Local culinary favorites will serve mouth-watering treats to satisfy any appetite and the musical

performances will be by one band called One Bad Oyster. Why? How do you have a rich community and just have one shit band you probably priced out the riff-raff dude, you should see their logo is a cartoon oyster shell open with a Looks like a lump of gray an oyster Like angry like it's got teeth and it's like er and it's got a it's got a bomb sitting next to it with like a you know Cartoon bomb with like a you know

Fucking thing coming off use it. Yeah, that's because they're one bad oyster Wow and they'll also be a Stein holding contest a pumpkin chunking event hosted by CVS news CBS news Weather anchor and Westport resident Lonnie Quinn. Oh, well then, there's Lonnie Quinn. By the way, One Bad Oyster, here's how they describe them, One Bad Oyster's not your average band, they're an energetic and lively ska surf band hailing from the vibrant Fairfield County in Connecticut. Oof, that sounds...

No thanks. ...rough, but they say they've been rocking the tri-state New England venues with their infectious beats and catchy tunes holy shit let's talk about a murder I gotta get to the murder I have to murder that before I have to talk more about one bad oyster now we're gonna go back in time farther than I think we've done one case older than this maybe two who normally don't go back in time this far but this is such a fucking harrowing tale that I read it and I'm like, how do we not tell this story?

Just because it's like a story of, it's one of those narratives where it's like, then this happens, then this happens. It's not like this is what happened. It's the, you're gonna go through it and it's white knuckle and it's like, it's a story of death and survival and horrifying shit. It's wild, we'll get into it, let's go here.

1962. 63 years ago, way farther back than we usually go here. So let's talk about some people, Pierre and Isabelle Ceylon, Ceylon, S-I-L-L-A-N. If his name's Pierre, I'm going Cilan, because it's Pierre. Pierre and his wife, Isabelle, she's 50 years old, he's a little bit older than that.

They have some kids as well, they have three kids. They have Paul, who is 24, his son, he's the oldest. He is in the army stationed in Germany by now, in 62. Pierre Jr., again, somebody named the junior the second kid, so weird. Must've had a commitment to name something after somebody's dad or some shit before that. So Pierre Jr. is 20 and he's away at college.

So neither of the boys are in the house at this point. They're both out of the house doing their own thing. They have one child at home and that is Gail, their daughter, G-A-I-L, not G-A-L-E, she's 14 years old. Oh. So they live in a fucking incredible mansion, these people. Really? It's a three story home in a wooded area, 31 Stony Brook Road, and I'll give you the stats on it later, but I'm going to show you a picture of this fucking house. What the fucking shit. It looks like an apartment complex. Yeah, it is probably four stories. There's three. It's three above.

It's looking at that great room. It's got three Arcadia doors. Insanity, dude. That's the garage. I don't even know what to say about this fucking place. It looks like four houses, like four big houses. They crammed into one house. It is a five bedroom eight bath 6,503 square foot house. I can't believe there's only that many bedrooms. There should be Wow 11. It's Bunker do this house is it's all rooms. You think there'd be more it's on a point nine five acre wooded lot backed up to woods It's fucking incredible, this house. These people are doing very well for themselves.

They're happy. They smile a lot. They bought it a couple years earlier for $75,000, which was an exorbitant amount of money for a house back then. Absolutely like next level expensive. So they're doing very well for themselves here. So the exact date we're

going to go to is November 12th 1962. It is Veterans Day this day. It's a Monday. It's very important that it's a Monday and a veteran's day because the kids are home from school this day. It's a holiday for a lot of people, not for Pierre. Pierre is a textile designer. Pierre is a very successful man. He does not take days off. Doesn't he? He doesn't get fucking federal holidays off. When you live in a 6,500 square foot house, you work when other people aren't, hopefully, unless you're an inherited asshole. I'm a veteran of the textile industry. I have to work.

So it's a holiday for the kids though. So Pierre leaves for work at about 7 a.m. He's got a commute to New York City. So he leaves his wife and daughter in the house. They're both asleep. Like I said, the boys are ones at college, ones in Germany. He goes out the kitchen door, which God knows how many doors there are

in this fucking house. I mean on the backside it's got so many. So many, which he closes but he doesn't lock. Because it's 1962, this is a very good neighborhood. Yeah, so he doesn't even lock it. They don't even bother locking this giant house up. So he then gets on the train and goes to New York on the commuter train.

Okay, now, here comes what I'd like to call 13 hours of hell. Oh. Okay, I'll give you a quote, this is Gale, 14 year old Gale. what I'd like to call 13 hours of hell. Oh. Okay. I'll give you a quote. This is Gale, 14 year old Gale. Quote, I awoke suddenly and thought my watch had stopped. I couldn't seem to figure out what time it was.

I put on a red wardrobe over my flowered nightgown and went out into the second floor hallway. I was going to check the time on a grandfather clock downstairs. No phone sitting next to her, nothing like that. She's got to check that. She said, as I walked into the hallway, a man was standing there and not her dad or either of her brothers. He was a tall, light skin man. He had worked in our house as a handyman about two weeks ago. Okay. Okay. So, she knew, she recognized him.

So, this is about 8.45 p.m. She gets up, starts down the hallway toward her parents' bedroom, also to go downstairs the same direction. P.m.? Ah, a.m. I'm sorry, a.m. Okay, all right. She walked past an intersecting hallway and that's when this man grabbed her by the neck

and pulled her back into her bedroom. Uh-oh. Pushed her up against the, closes the bedroom door and pushes her up against the bedroom door that's closed. Yeah. He held her by the throat. 14 year old. Yeah. Here comes the mom, here comes Isabel.

She knocks on the door saying, is everything all right? I heard, is everything all right? She couldn't answer from in there. She's getting choked. Gail passes out. Oh, that kind of, heavy choke. Choker, yeah, he's choking her so she can't get noise out to alert her mother.

So chokes her till she passes out. She hits the ground, passes out. Okay, this is great. Now it could have been fainting, but it's probably choking, probably from the choking. So this guy who has come into this house is Harless Miller, H A R L I S Harless. I've never heard as a name before. I don't think it really exists. Nope. Harless Miller. He's 32 years old at the time and he is a part-time landscaper and gardener who has done work around here for 10 years. Okay, he's worked on this property as a matter of fact on at least six different

occasions in October and November of 1962 and on the adjoining property on at least four occasions during the same period. So for the last two, he's been around doing landscaping shit now Now harlis had never failed to report for work on a scheduled day ever But on November 10th, he he was supposed to work Monday. They told him Saturday You have to work Monday, but he didn't show up to work that day the first time he's ever done that Now a little bit about Harless. He is from Sarasota, Florida, but he lived in Norwalk, Connecticut. And I, like I said, didn't show up that morning for work. And when one of his employers telephoned his landlady

to see where the fuck he was, she just said he was out. So he wasn't home. He wasn't sick. They also said that Harless was, we find out he's the oldest of seven children. He's born to, his mom's name is Mary Jones, and everybody calls her Aunt Mary. And everybody said that she is a very upstanding lady down there. Her first husband died right after her last child was born, which is convenient. Now you have seven kids and fucking by yourself. Her second husband was killed in a gun duel with a neighbor. Wow. Yeah that is 50s in the wild in like the 40s I think. Yeah. That is fucking crazy. Through it all though Aunt Mary would raise her kids up by

this is she made a living by picking beans and selling hogs. Ooh, that is rough going, man. Um, the County never had, um, trouble with his, with Harless at all though. Um, one guy here though said that, uh, that was down there, but the deputy police chief, Jack Royall of Sarasota, said that he used to work in a pool room down there, and meaning Harless, and he said, Harless had a record of three arrests, gambling, carrying a deadly weapon, and rape.

They accelerated fast. They were fast, yeah. The last charge was dismissed in 1960 on the grounds of insufficient evidence. Now, Harless calls himself several aliases, Harris, Hollister and Ulysses as well as Harless. That's what he goes by. So, um, it's, it's very interesting. A little background on Harless here. Uh, his mom, Mary, would never say anything bad about her, but Harless was married before this to a woman named Jimmy Sue.

Jimmy spelled like you, Jimmy Sue. God damn it. Jimmy Sue called Harless a quote, mean man and accused him of carrying a gun everywhere. Wow, original Florida man. He is. Jimmy Sue said Harless was a turpentine worker when she married him in 1953. So he's got excessive brain damage probably

if he's been working around turpentine in the 50s, probably just ate everything he's got so not just for the inhalement but inhalement inhaling it but everything doesn't matter the absorption but all the chemicals through the skin it's crazy in the 50s there wasn't like safety measures or anything like that yeah oh sure you kidding me get out of here so during their marriage the first year of their marriage, she said that this is amazing. She marries a turpentine worker and things aren't all settled. During the first year they're married, honeymoon period, okay, he tried to rape his aunt.

What? He tried to rape his own aunt. Ew, what the What the fuck man? I don't know but his uncle shot at him and he ran away. His uncle was not impressed. Not having this shit. Harless Hollister, who the fuck you want to call yourself? Boom! At least there's one sane person in Florida. Jesus Christ and the sanest guy is the guy shooting at somebody, that's the craziest thing here. Shooting at his nephew, raping his wife. What the fuck, man?

He tried to rape his aunt. Oh boy. Oh man, so he ends up having a son with her, of course, because he's gotta be fertile if he's this fucking stupid. Wow. It's gross, so after that, well before the son was born, Harless went off to Florida while his son Willie James was born and he didn't return until the baby was two months old. He was left for four months when his wife was pregnant.

Then Jimmy Sue said, he banged my head against the wall and he beat me up very often. Then luckily for her, he finally abandoned her in 1957. She was like, whew, thank fuck. Where she had to get a job as a cook at the local jail to support her son. And she described her son as, uh, ain't got no temper like his pa. I don't know, that's confusing. His Pa's got a temper and he ain't got it. Okay, that's good.

He's a calm kid. He's a calm kid. He's not a jerk like his dad, which is terrific, I guess. So he was been, when he was around Westport, he went four months without a job and then he'd been a handyman for the last two months doing landscaping and shit like that And that's when he's been hanging around this neighborhood He drove apparently he the his boss that he worked for Said quote Harless drove a relative of mine up from Florida about six months ago He just sort of took a vacation until he started working with me two months ago. He wasn't doing anything

He said that This boss said said that the boss's brother, Clyde, have a long, have a cleaning business, and they hire guys all the time, and he seemed like a good guy. So here's this good guy. This is who Gal is trapped in a room with. Who we? Tried to rape his aunt.

Yeah. That's where we're at right now. So I am not. And is that the second rape, that the one that we oh that's a charge with that That was just family affair. I shot out of he ran away. Everything's fine boy. That was an official Yeah, so who knows how many people especially in the 50s even less people reported rates Damn it. I mean he might have been doing this everywhere. He's a bad bad bad man. So got a temper like his pal. So Gail said he grabbed me and put a piece of cord around my neck and started choking me. I Tried to pull the cord loose and he forced me back into my bedroom held held me with the cord as he locked the door

Then he started choking me again Holy shit. She said I fought him as hard as I could, but he pushed me back onto my bed. Just then my mother must have heard me struggling and choking. And she started pounding on the door and shouting my name. I guess then I must have fainted or passed out from being choked. So, wow. She gets her consciousness back here comes to, and there's nobody there. She's alone in a room.

So she goes downstairs and sees Harless on top of her mother on the floor with his hand around her neck choking her mom. So she tries to help her mother. By the way, Harless is 6'3", 195 pounds. So he's my size, my size, an inch shorter. So that's a pretty big guy, you know what I mean? So she's trying, she's a 14 year old trying to help

with a physically imposing person here. But what ends up happening is he just sees that she's awake and then grabs them both and drags them both back to the mother's bedroom. Oh boy. Where he chokes both of them and places a rope around Gail's neck. And so this is how Gail describes it.

Apparently he went to the door, unlocked it and started choking my mother. When I came to I ran out into the hallway and the man was bending over my mother and was choking her with a cord. She had been forced down to the floor and was fighting and screaming. The man then forced us into my mother's bedroom. This is fucking crazy. Then she said, my mother asked him if he wanted money and he said he didn't want any money.

No. She then asked, why are you doing this? And he said, quote, you wouldn't understand. This is for fun. Which I honestly think he's being honest. You wouldn't understand. This is for fun. Which I honestly think he's being honest. You wouldn't understand what a rapist and a monster guy feels like here. So then Gail said, why do you hate us? You must hate us to do this to us.

Why are you doing this? And he said, quote, I don't hate you. You wouldn't understand. I hate me. Yeah. So then he started choking her after that. After she said, why do you hate us? And he choked her unconscious again. So now she's been choked unconscious twice now, Gail. When she regained consciousness, she was on the floor

with her hands tied, like hog tied basically, hands and feet bound, and her mother was on the floor beside her with a rope around her hands tied, but hog tied basically, hands and feet bound. And her mother was on the floor beside her with a rope around her neck, unconscious and breathing heavily. So he like left her there. So Gale said, I kept fainting and waking up, fainting and waking up. When I came to, he was choking my mother again and I screamed, stop, stop. The man then ran over to Gail.

Harless does picks her up drags her in her own bedroom. Yeah. He tied her hands and feet here again because this was she was untied and then whatever. The mom was tied. It takes one guy out there to say who's that. Kyle thinks he can just get on a microphone on a podcast and start publicizing this s***? From iHeart Podcasts and Tenderfoot TV comes a new true crime podcast, Crook County.

I got recruited into the mob when I was 17 years old. Meet Kenny, an enforcer for the legendary Chicago outfit. And that was my mission, to snuff the f*** life out of this guy. He lived a secret double life as a firefighter paramedic for the Chicago Fire Department. I had a wife and I had two children. Nobody knew anything. People are dying.

Is he doing this every night? Torn between two worlds. I'm covering up murders that these cops are doing. He was a freaking crazy man. We don't know who he is, really. He is my father. And I had no idea about any of this until now. Welcome to Crook County, available now.

Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In the 1980s, a rose swept the country. Hey Mike, I really like this white Zinfandel. Well good, good. Now put it down, I'm going to try another one. White Zin became America's top selling wine. But most don't know that this sweet drink has a sour history. What began in 1986 with counterfeit bottles… A big fraud.

A multi-million dollar fraud. Sent investigators chasing one of the most powerful families in the business, the Lacharties. But the closer the feds got to them, the more dangerous things became. It's a story of deceit. At the time I was paranoid. Threats. You touched my kids, I will kill you.

And murder. With a.22 caliber bullet to the head. What started with a scheme to mislabel wine spilled into a blood-soaked battle for succession. Welcome to Blood Vines. You can binge listen to Blood Vines exclusively and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple podcasts, or Spotify. Then he went back to the mother's room and she heard him pulling out drawers and dumping

shit on the floor. She said I called to my mother but there was no answer. He comes back into her room. Well he cut her bonds first of all she was bound and then he cut them and brought her back into the room and then bound her again. Then left the room returned and untied her again He's untied her and tied her up like five times already He orders her to change into a different nightgown

Yeah Put on a different nightgown get your fucking robe and your slippers Okay, then he tied her up again Then he covers her up with a quilt like makes like a big Santa sack with her basically Okay gets a big quilt covers her all up with that and carries her downstairs He then takes her outside Puts him puts her on the floor of the back seat of his car and drives away with her. Oh my god. He just took her Okay Oh my god. He just took her. Okay, so Gail said her words were when the man returns He wrapped me in a blanket after warning me to keep quiet and took me downstairs and outside where he put me in the back

Car in the back of his car on the floor Gone, okay gone by 9 15 out of there. Yeah makes you feel like she was the reason he came there It's kind of the opposite actually we We find out what, yeah, it's weird. 6 30 PM. Pierre gets home from work. He gets home. He found his house dark. Yeah. What the fuck? The living rooms and just complete disarray. The bedrooms a mess. What's going on? No, he can't find anybody. No one in the bedroom. No one in the living room. No one in any of the bedrooms

He then says he has to go to the bathroom opens up the bathroom door and finds his wife Isabelle in her nightgown dead as can be sitting on the toilet with her head resting against the wall He fucking posed her on the toilet. That's wild with her head resting against the wall Yeah, she'd been dead for hours already So he oh Jesus Christ ran out called 9-1-1 or at the time just called the local police or did whatever he could hear She turns out she died from asphyxiation due to strangulation caused by a rope or clothesline around her neck Marks encircled her neck could have been made by clotheslines like the ones used to bind them both here.

Wow. So this is fucking crazy. So clotheslines are a big thing. All of this tying up is done with clotheslines, by the way. So let's get into the hell car here. He just drove around for hours. Drove around the countryside for hours. Just driving around. Once he stopped and lit a cigarette and Gail asked, what are you going to do now? And he said, haven't made my mind up yet.

And then drove off again. At one point he stops, gets her out of the car, puts her in the trunk. And drives away. Very indecisive man. Has no idea how, if you want you tied up, if he wants you in the car in the trunk, he has no clue. He's, Gail said, we drove around for a long time. Then he stopped in a lonely place and put me in the trunk of the car. My hands were tied behind my back. This is terrifying. Um Then they drove around again for a long time. She said just felt driving and turns and all the normal driving things

then They stop at a restaurant a bar restaurant And she said he opened up the trunk and asked me if I wanted a chicken sandwich Not particularly no, it's the best one now really She said I shook my head and told him I wanted to go home. It take me home I don't want a chicken fucking sandwich. You're strangling me all the time here. This is crazy. So That's fucking wild. Okay, um, that's fucking wild. Okay. Um, he then, um, he, he says he's going to get a sandwich.

Um, he takes her out of the trunk, places her in the back seat, ties her hands behind her back and to the rear door handle of the car. He then left to go get the sandwich. He returned shortly telling her that the sandwich wouldn't be ready for like a half hour and at that point he untied her and took off her nightgown and what she said quote did something to her. Oh boy. Yeah. He then he rapes this young girl which is fucking horrible in this car which is a nightmare

obviously and yeah he then placed her on the floor with her hands tied behind her back and used another rope to tie her to the door handle again Then I guess He went in to get the sandwich. Yeah came out got the sandwich and He You know, this was and he asked offered her some she didn't want any She said afterwards meaning after he attacked her He, you know, this was, and he asked, offered her some, she didn't want any. She said afterwards, meaning after he attacked her, I pleaded with him for a drink of water and he left me.

Okay. He left her. She oh my God, she struggled. She said, quote, I struggled with the ropes as hard as I could and managed to, she like ripped her fucking skin off to get the ropes off her hands like chew your arm off to make an escape basically pulls it off then tries to untie the one in the handle but she's still tied up and she only has one hand she said I quote I then pushed the handle with my head and fell out face first. Wow. She stripped her fucking hands apart, struggling and opened a door with her head.

Those are those big, those big handle. I mean, this is a survival. Like this is, this is like the guy driving the snowmobile while he's bleeding and shot and all. This is crazy. And this is a 14 year old. It's a big chrome handle that you got to yeah get out of it with your head. Yeah This is fucking crazy. So now she's still tied up her hands are tied behind her

She's sobbing her her clothes are soaked in blood. Yeah, she's sobbing She's she just takes off and fucking runs as fast as she can Hands tied behind her back in a bloody nightgown screaming bloody murder She just takes off and fucking runs as fast as she can. Hands tied behind her back in a bloody nightgown, screaming bloody murder. She goes to the nearest house she finds and just kicks the door until somebody opens it. It was about 6 p.m.

And so she'd been a prisoner for, this is going on 13 hours here. Not 13, but yeah, about 13 almost. So, or no, a little less than that. So the it's like 10 hours. Yeah. So this is, uh, Mary Burgow is the woman in the house and she found this is a Norwalk. She found Gail on her front porch bleeding and tied up and said, Holy shit child come inside. So she tells her the story. Gail tells her what just happened to her and this this lady Mary burgo calls the police then she called

The her home she called the Pierre and Isabelle's house, you know Gail's home to let her know that she's alive, right? You know what I mean? So then she's transported to the hospital after that. They take her to the hospital This is crazy now before All of this they before they take her to the hospital. This is crazy. Now before, uh, all of this, they, before they take her to the hospital, the cops advise that she be kept under heavy guard until the murderer and kidnapper is caught because quote, I'm sure he would try to kill her if he got the chance because she can identify him. Absolutely. So where the fuck is Harless now?

Besides shitting his pants. You'd imagine driving as fast as he could towards some other jurisdiction would be what he's doing. Towards Canada or Mexico. Well, we'll find out here. Number one, the bartender and two patrons of the Calypso Tavern, that's where the chicken sandwich was purchased, remembered that a man fitting the description given by Gale bought a chicken sandwich

at about six o'clock. The bartender noticed him particularly because his customers usually didn't order food at that hour. When the fuck are they eating? It's six o'clock. That's the time, isn't it? They eat at 10 o'clock, they eat at three o'clock,

I have no idea. They usually drink their dinner. Yeah. Chicken sandwiches are ordered around 9 p. at 3 o'clock, I have no idea. They usually drink their dinner. Yeah. And chicken sandwiches are ordered around 9pm. People eat late? I don't know. The bartender noticed this Harliss particularly because his customers usually didn't order food and he observed the man's left ear was lower than his right ear.

And it stuck out. I don't know. Stuck out to him. He must be real slanted for this guy to notice. No shit, man. Like really off to notice that. It's got to be like at least like a two inch difference, right? Is that a bad haircut or are you real misshapen, son? Real fucked up. Jesus Christ. Oh man. So the inspector for the Norwalk police talked with Herman and Clyde Whitmore who

owned the landscaping and housekeeping firm that he worked for and I guess they're retained by many many well to do families in the area and yeah all this shit and they said he confirmed that yes their crew had worked at the salon house two weeks before and one of their temporary employees does fit the description of the fugitive and he said only you should also say he has heavy lines under his eyes. You should also say that diagonal head and a fucked up lopsided head. So the landless is his landlady Mrs Mrs. Elizabeth Richard, told police that Harlan might be the man you're seeking.

She said, only you should say he has a heart-shaped face and a narrow chin. It's getting better. He has a hideous... A narrow chin and a fucked up ear thing. You talk to three more people he's gonna have a horn This is crazy Man and she added he and his wife Lucille Were nice quiet people

And they said were we mean were and she said oh they left here last night about 930 without saying goodbye She said I wasn't surprised though because he went off yesterday morning and told Lucille when I come back be ready cuz we're going away He he's he planned this he said I'm gonna go out and do some raping and pillaging you get your shit together Cuz then we're gonna fucking flee. Yeah, but instead what he did was he went to sleep that night They slept there that night, left in the morning. He was tired, all tuckered out from his adventures here. It's a big day, yeah. Big day. They asked what kind of person he was,

and the landlord said, Harless was a pleasant sort. He'd just come here after a day of working, sit and watch TV. He offered pleasant company to me, him and his wife. One of those where they probably rented a room and they all had to watch TV together in the living room. So yeah, he went home, went to bed.

After that, him and his common law wife took off heading south. That's that. Investigators couldn't say whether the motive for the crime was robbery, kidnapping, rape. Who knows, all three, we don't know. They expected to find the house empty or, you know, they said they thought maybe he expected

to find the house empty or was surprised when it wasn't just the wife. Because if he watches every day, husband leaves at this time, kid leaves at that time, wife's in the house by herself. But it's Veterans Day, but he's not off today. So he probably didn't realize that the kids had off from school that day. Oh Shit, so they're surprised they're thinking that she surprised him. He's like, oh shit fuck and that's child. Yeah, there's two people What do we do here?

But he decided well, that's the one I want to fucking kidnap and just fucking attack and destroy forever. So his boss is surprised at all this. I would hope so. Like, that's what I expected from him, but I hired him anyway to go into people's private residences, I thought that was good. I mean, his head, I shoulda known. It's all lopsided and stuff.

I can't believe they sent that guy to the nice neighborhood. Yeah, that's still a landscaper, still get what you can get they sent that guy to the nice neighborhood. Yeah, still a landscaper, still bringing down the property value. His employer voiced astonishment saying a good worker, a fellow who didn't ask questions. Is that a good worker? Just doesn't ask questions. Just does what he sold. Yeah. He wasn't one to talk much, but he gave me a good day's work. Somehow though, I just figured he didn't care much about anything. He never objected to anything and he never favored anything either. He just, whatever.

He was just like, all right. He's like Richardson from Deadwood. So he also says, I wonder what made him do it. I guess he wonders now himself what made him do it. Probably not because he's a rapist, I think. That's what he does. You wouldn't understand, man. You wouldn't, like he said, you wouldn't understand.

I don't understand. You don't understand. I don't get it either, man. And if you're listening and you understand, I'm worried about you. Yeah, arrest yourself. Arrest yourself. Holy shit. By the way, this neighborhood, it was like a bomb fucking hit it. They went

bonkers all of a sudden. Not only are doors locked, extra locks, fucking double pain locked wind. I mean, it is now everybody is a big, all of it guns, everything else. Um, yeah, they're waiting cause he hasn't been caught. They think he's stalking all their neighborhood here. Now at the hospital, it's Monday night when Gail comes in, she sleeps through most of Tuesday. They probably gave her a sedative instead of fucking calm down. Her father was persuaded to stay away from her. Okay, if you're this 14 year old girl who's just been fucking attacked and raped and all you need your people Yeah, I think I think you seeing your father would make you feel Say that's some secure. Yeah, no one's gonna fucking come get me now

Like there'd be some feeling of grounding and security instead They convince him that it's better that he stays away Because he will be she will be able to see on his face his sadness and she'll know her mother's dead and that's not good for her recovery right now they said. Maybe he just is sad that his daughter's hurt and we're not going to talk about mom right now worried about you. No they said let's wait till let's give her a couple days. So her brothers were notified her one brother was rushing home from college and they even

let Paul fly home from Germany where he was stationed in the army. Your mother's dead your sister's raped. I one brother was rushing home from college and they even let Paul fly home from Germany where he was stationed in the army. Your mother's dead, your sister's raped. I think you can come home. That gets you some R&R, right? I would hope. So now by Wednesday, now the newspapers are all have the story in it and she yelled at everybody and said, is my mother dead? And the father broke into Sobs and said,

yes, she's dead. She didn't even know her mother was dead until Wednesday, this poor girl. Holy shit. Police talked to the press. A police officer told reporters that, she is a very brave girl. No one could have gone through a more terrible experience,

but she's feeling much better today. And eventually she will have to know about her mother. And then she was, yeah, then they found her because she read that quote probably. You know what I mean? Fucking newspaper. So the State Motor Vehicle Bureau provided the information that Connecticut plates 574252 had been issued

for a turquoise and cream 56 mercury hardtop sedan. Oh my, Harleys mill. That's a dope car. Pretty dope car. Good color too, shit. Yeah, not bad at all. He's described as 31, 63, 195, with obviously narrow chin, heart-shaped face, and uneven ears.

Metallica. So yeah, they're thinking, is he headed to Sarasota maybe? Right. Where he was. They talked to the sheriff down there, and he says, quote, I don't think he's headed here Why okay?

Reason he said quote he's too well known and he knows it why not try Valdosta, Georgia. That's where he comes from Sure, but you know don't bother me I got stuff to do yeah So a Valdosta police, the Valdosta police reported that Miller hasn't lived there since he and his wife and son, Ten, at the time, his old wife, moved to Soperton, Georgia. Soperton or Soperton, Georgia, which is where he was born. And he says, by the way, his wife's name

is Jimmy Sue, not Lucille. That's because Lucille's his new wife. Jimmy Sue was his wife down there. This city has no idea. Nope. He said Lucille must be a girlfriend. Nope, it's his wife. So that is fucking amazing. This county sheriff down there where Soperton is said that Miller was not in Soperton, but he'll keep an eye out for him just in case So Friday Gail is still in the hospital. This is the day that she's that mom's gonna be buried Isabel is buried this day and They since they did not know where the kidnapper was still the police captain Asked that Gail be kept in the hospital and miss her mother's funeral so she can be protected in the hospital.

Oh boy. Because they haven't caught this man yet. So they're using a hospital as like a hostage in there. I doubt a kidnapper is going to show up to the funeral to kidnap or kill the little girl. It's a lot of witnesses. While she's holding hands with her father. It's a lot of witnesses. Yeah.

And she's a murder victim so I bet there'll be cops there. I don't think they're going to pop up and take her probably, I would say. I mean, it'd probably be a lot cheaper for everyone just to have a cop hang out out in front of their house. That would be the cheapest and easiest way to do this, and probably the most effective too. November 16th, 1962. This is about the same time that Isabel is being put into her grave in

Terrytown, beautiful place, 900 miles away there's some drama here. Here we go. Word reached the sheriff that a turquoise and white mercury with Connecticut license plates was parked at Aunt Mary's house, his fucking mother's house. Really? Yes, which is off the road a bit on the outskirts of Soperton when an eight with an agent for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and three FBI men they drove down this area is called the bottoms by the way yeah not great they drove down and saw the mercury in the yard and a young woman leaning against it

She was looking at a pickup truck also parked in the yard. Aunt Mary sat there on her back porch So they said the sheriff said is Harless here Yeah, and Mary didn't answer because she thought the sheriff's were there to arrest her son for non support of his wife and child Because he abandoned them. Yeah. He's a deadbeat. So she just sits there silent and the cop notices movement beneath a bag in the back of the truck. Oh. He ran over, pulled up the burlap and yelled, come out of there. And Harless stood up and there he was. What the fuck? In all his glory. He just jumped in the back of a truck and hid. Yup.

He submitted to arrest without resistance. Yeah. He, and this is fucked up too. We don't know. Okay. First he was described as two men in the car. Then it was him and Lucille, but now when they're here, they're calling her Rosalie Millage.

The woman he's with, who's 23. But I don't know if that's what Lucille goes by, if that's her middle name, or I don't know what the fuck it is. But from what I know, she is with him because I've seen a picture of the two of them in the sheriff's office together. So she was there, and they were like,

this is this, and him and his wife Lucille. So he didn't put up a fight, and they were both, him and his wife, were taken in to the Soperton police station before he was told why he was under arrest Yeah, he said I he said quote I never knew any family name salon up there all I knew up there was my bosses I worked for and he said that he had that you guys have hunted down the wrong guy. I didn't do this and I'm not fleeing from anything. I'm just coming to see my wife. Sir, your head. Your head bro. So easy to draw. She got you. She got yeah. Fuck. He

they said you were you were coming down here anyway. It's just a coincidence that you left the day after a murder. He said, well, I knew it would get cold up there and my landscape and job would play out That's what it was. I knew about you know, it's gonna be cold He said so I was heading back to Florida and I stopped to see my mother And the woman said she knew nothing about the crime. She was just returning to Florida with harlis to escape the winter That's all and they said, you know, they said you got the wrong guy you got the wrong guy So they said okay. Why'd you shave off your mustache? Why why can't you explain who owns the red bathrobe belt found in your trunk? Oh?

Yeah, along with clothing that belongs to them blankets from their house and a narrow brimmed hat Exactly the type described by Gail. Why would he keep that? Why you have all that, sir? Oh, and they're going to find tons of clothesline all over the place and everything else. A few miles from the glass spires of Midtown Atlanta lies the South River Forest. In 2021 and 2022, the woods became a home to activists from all over the country who gathered to stop the nearby construction of a massive new police training facility, nicknamed Cop City.

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So agents of the FBI join the investigation here, obviously they went up to do this, and they charge Lucille and Harris with unlawful flight to escape prosecution, and then they'll put everything else on later. By the way, the Mercury that he was driving went through eight states undetected on the way back. He got pulled over three times on the way

from Florida up to his mom's house. Oh wow. Going north, he got pulled over three different fucking times. But not at all on the way down. Jeez, he drives like an asshole. He must've thought he's got away with it, didn't care. And they didn't have like a, you know, nationwide plate system. So yeah.

Then he says some incriminating shit when they get him in the police station. Well, this is fucking crazy. He, they get him in the Westport police headquarters here and they will talk about, this is before they get him to Georgia or to the headquarters in Westport but he's in Georgia at this point and he's quoted as saying quote if everybody says I did it and then I must have must have must have and that he said he was quote sorry for what he'd done to that woman not good both of them not fucking good. So They take him back to Connecticut They're arraigned in Georgia before the US Commissioner Martha Daniel then they were held in custody without bail in Augusta and they waived extradition and were driven back to Connecticut by the

Fairfield County District Attorney his investigator and The two men spelled each other driving on the 875 mile trip. They made it in 17 and a half hours. Good time right there. So they arrive in Connecticut at 534 a.m. Now while he's in jail, a Connecticut County detective and a Westport police sergeant went to Georgia, this is before they took him back up, and examined his car without getting a

search warrant. What? Just went down there to pick through it. Then the car is brought back to Connecticut. They do a full take apart examination again. No fucking warrant. They get no search warrant for this shit at all. They just said, oh, what the fuck, we can do that.

The upholstery, by the way, teeming with blood and hair from Gale, just all over the place. I mean, physical evidence is a big deal here. Seals are dummy. History by the way, teeming with blood and hair from Gale. Just all over the place. Physical evidence is a big deal here. Who seals the dummy? Fucking unbelievable. Certain objects taken from the car were submitted to the State Laboratory in Hartford for examination. No search warrant again. It's a lot with this no search warrant.

Including they found human hair identified as Gale's on the crank handle of the rear window and on the rear seat and floor. Completely corroborating everything. They found blood stains on the cover of the rear seat, the blood being the same type as Gale's, which is as close as you could get back then. They do a lineup. They bring him back and Gale is asked to identify him

and she does in the lineup, obviously. She was brought to headquarters and picked him out of a lineup of six men. Now the officer later said the girl was given instructions by him, viewed the lineup without pointing to anyone in it, then left the room and talked with the officer, after which time she returned to the lineup and pointed him out. So at this point he is a lawyer because he's been arrested and his lawyer is saying the identification wasn't made on the first viewing only on the second viewing and the officer probably told her who to pick.

Now my thing is she's 14 and back then everybody in 1962, everyone on earth hadn't seen a million police procedurals where they would show lineups and stuff. She might have asked, can they see me? She might have asked, is this safe? She might have asked, can he hear me? She might have asked anything on fucking earth. So that's an interesting thing here.

But the court, they're going to go to trial. The prosecution here says my client wasn't there and didn't kill But he was but if he was there he didn't mean to commit the murder He wasn't there and didn't do it, but if he did he was an accident so either way Wow He said this is the prosecution That's wild man the prosecution, by Gail's story, I say Harless Miller was there and murdered Mrs. Salon.

And they said that he was acquainted with the lay out of the home, because he's been in there before. And he, though, the defense says he contends he was in a bar part of the day of the murder, but the state introduced testimony that he wasn't there. As a matter of fact, he was there at the exact time she said he was getting the exact type of food that she said he did.

Yeah. So charging that Miller, that Harlan, Harless went to the salon home with a rope. The prosecutor claimed that if he was as startled as the defense claims, the assailant may have been why didn't he kill mrs Salon downstairs where gail testified she saw him attempting to strangle her there was no frantic situation He had time to premeditate. Yeah, he was deciding what he was gonna do They said if the law requires that the eyewitnesses were needed at the exact moment of expiration How few cases would we be able to prove? Yeah, someone had to watch you murdering a person, yeah.

They said there's no question of Dale's life identification or Gail's identification. She was with Miller for about 12 hours under all sorts of circumstances. She knows him. She'll pick his ass out. They also talk about the rope. There's several, there's evidence

which attempted to connect him with the murder. They said a piece of rope which had been tied to her wrist was introduced. But the home she ran to that the girl fled to afterwards, she testified she thought the piece was heavier than the one that was shown in court. The woman from the not the gal who was tied up, the woman, how she went to said, I thought the rope was different. Okay. Which is very weird. Yet a police officer examining a piece of rope in court said he was able to identify it

because of two knots tied in the two ends. So they said, yeah, this connects to that. So another piece was introduced, found on the ground in the rear of his home of Harless's house by Westport police a few days after many newsmen and other spectators had visited the premises and failed to turn up the rope. So they're saying that could have been planted by anybody. Sure. But nobody knew at that point that it was a rope with certain knots. So yeah, they said the type a blood found on the seat covers of the car, which matched

Gale's blood, quote, could be anybody's blood. And also he has a common physical appearance. A lot of people look like him. Really? I've never seen anybody that looks like him and I've only heard his description. That's what I mean. And at the fact that back then then 6'3 was extremely tall. Right now in the United States 6'4 and over is 1% of the population.

What do you think it was back then to be 6'3, 6'4? That was considered a giant back then. So that's crazy. So Gale... S face. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of things to pick out. The ear, the weird... The fucking's face. Yeah. Yeah, you should there's a lot of things to pick out the ear the weird

the fucking heart face so Gail testifies she has to and the I apparently they try to get a mistrial because she's describing what took place in the automobile and all of that kind of thing and And accusing him of committing heinous acts. So they're like, mistrial, this is ridiculous. They said, we have no facts before us on the record concerning this incident during the trial except the bare statement and the finding that the defendant moved for a mistrial based on the witnesses mischaracterization of this offense. They're like, she's a liar, that one.

And they tried to get a mistrial. Then Harless himself is testified. He has to testify too. He takes the witness stand. He's got to do some acting here. He described his position in the two lineups in which Gale viewed him and testified to what he wore for each lineup. He said he could see the legs and bottom of the coat of the quote lady or woman who wore or viewed the lineup and could hear her voice Despite the bright lights which were shining on him. Yes, because lights don't make sound different. That's why generally

I think you make it louder if you had a headache, but that's it. That's about it. Yeah Did you have a migraine at the time? No Asked whether his name was on the sweatshirt. He wore for one of the lineups He said the word Miller was up his shirt for one of the lineup appearances So that's interesting. Yeah, that wouldn't be great, but she's standing there right there going that guy did this Period. Yeah. Yeah The defense in closing recounted the events and they said he Miller came up here He gave you his best effort to recount the events and they said he Miller came up here. He gave you his best effort to recount the events.

He said that he was, his client was upset because of the argument he had with his wife the night before. And he said, no one can recall what, what he did. No one can recall what he did every minute of every given day, which is true. That's true enough. Wow. They call her Lucille Harris and Rosalie Millage, interchangeably, his wife, by the way. Don't get it. So the lawyer says, you must examine every detail

because a man's life is at stake. Said his summation required more than 20 minutes and the defense was very dramatic. He said, in this case, many questions have arisen as to who, how, and when. The state has attempted to prove by one witness all these elements. Yeah, one witness who you held hostage for hours.

Right. Wow, he said it was difficult to even cross-examine Gayle. It was difficult to ask her questions about the thing that happened to her mother. The question is whether Gail told the whole story, he says, alluding to several times during her testimony when she didn't remember something or didn't know, you know, because it was the most traumatic thing that's happened to a fucking eighth grader. Yeah. The state had failed to prove premeditation, he said. Also, He said the excitement described in the home that day was a continuing thing. There was no time to reflect.

None. Okay. Yeah. Pointing out there were two telephones that were not used in the home, the public defender said this fact proves that this was an excitable period of time. They didn't even call the cops because they were getting strangled intermittently. What a fucking wild thing to say. Then he says this and this I would assume if you said this now a jury would come out

of the box and fucking beat you with hammers. It's dangerous to rely on one witness especially a 14 year old impressionable girl in a first degree murder case. You can't believe. Can't depend on a rape victim. She doesn't know. She's 14. How does she know who raped her?

That's ridiculous. He said that this case would require intensive deliberation on the part of the jury, which he said must decide the life or liberty of Harless Miller. He also said that they must prove homicide, an unlawful killing done by another and that the accused committed the acts resulting in the death and that those acts were committed with the specific intention of causing death. Can't have an accident here. So the jury is eight men, four women, which I'm shocked there's four women on the jury back then. A lot of these back then. Remember we just did the case.

They don't have any rights. No. Well, on the one we were talking about on the Patreon, the lady from 19, right around this time, same, it was the same kind of shit, so, and she got acquitted by an all-male jury, and it was like 1963. So, there's a lot of circumstantial evidence and shit like that.

They find him guilty of first degree murder and rape. Yeah, you really have to hear but they did also recommend Mercy as well. They recommended mercy, which means they did not want him executed They said they also recommended life in prison without the benefit of parole Don't kill him. Just hang on to him forever and ever. Kill him forever, yeah. Now after the trial, by the way, his wife Lucille Rosalie is released from custody. She had no idea it was going on. Yeah, she didn't know, she's just real dumb.

Yeah, I think she just, I think he found an idiot to do what he wants with, probably. So she went back to Georgia. Now Pierre Salon took Gayail on a long trip to Europe and then moved with her from the horrible house here in Connecticut to a nice apartment in Manhattan. He probably moved a fucking central park and wow, awesome. Wow. That's good. So by the way, there's a new bill introduced right around this time. Oh, headline slaying leads to Plea for Bill,

basically saying that there should be, like a salesman has to register, because he's knocking door to door and doing all this type of shit. Back then he had to register, I don't think you have to do that now. But they said this should apply to domestic staff and landscapers as well.

Really? Yeah, they said the applicant would know he was on file and would have to be without a police record to begin with for all applications would be sent to the FBI and Washington headquarters. So they said, yeah, state rep John Shostak introduced or informed, was informed at his home about the proposal and he said he was in favor. He said, I shall definitely propose such a bill to the state legislature. I discussed this very subject with a friend last night and I think it's needed and needed right now.

A photo fingerprints and description of all house cleaners should be on record in local police offices. Jesus Christ. Have a not trust in your health. That's yeah, no shit. That's interesting. The state legislature convenes, this guy's the former mayor, and he indicated he would first have to consult

with persons knowledgeable in bonding and registration to prepare an accurate proposal. Yeah, you need people that know how to write a law. So 1965. Here we go. Here's the appeal. The appeal is based on no warrant for his car search. Yeah.

The Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, which is a real thing search. The Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, which is a real thing back then, the Supreme Court of Errors, which sounds like they just fuck everything up all the time. They're looking for errors. They said the crime, said Judge John M. Comley, speaking for a unanimous bench, was, quote, particularly revolting and atrocious.

Yet the conviction of him, um, for this, they said that the judge said, not every search without a warrant is illegal. For example, a search, which is an incident, which is an incident to a lawful arrest is proper meaning you pull them out of the car. There's something sitting right there. But the search of Miller's car was remote from the arrest in both time and space They searched it when he was in Connecticut two weeks later and then brought it to Connecticut did again the US citizens immunity from such a legal search is a cornerstone of the Constitution and the court is guarding against any erosion of

that immunity and Also that he wanted a new lawyer as well He said his lawyer didn't call the exact people he wanted to call So he's a shit lawyer. Meanwhile, he's been in the bar since 1946 He's processed 800 cases done 40 jurors jury trials done very well Yeah, prosecuted five appeals to the Supreme Court gives securing reversals on three of them. So I mean he's fine He's the lawyers fine. But the court overturns the verdict. Really? Yep. Overturned, uh, cause he's, they searched his car without

a warrant and a lot of that evidence was used against him and you can't do that. And that may have swayed the jury beyond just the eyewitness. Right. Testimony. So that's pretty fucked up and that doesn't mean he goes free. No, just gonna try again. Just try again So there's a retrial this time no car evidence at all Okay, who gots on the car evidence here? So he was convicted again Yeah, and You got plenty with everything else. You've got an eyewitness for Christ's sake awful lot going on here You have plenty with everything else. You've got an eyewitness, for Christ's sake.

Awful lot going on here. Convicted again and sentenced to use, sir. May fuck off. Life in prison again. Now, and then there's a new law after that though. Okay. Okay, several months passed and the Connecticut General Assembly passed a Public Act 573,

a law abolishing natural life sentences, meaning life without parole. Okay, so you gotta get parole. Yes, it went into effect October 1st. Now Miller and three other inmates in the state, there's only four people in the whole state on that, hope to prove that the law is retroactive and if they succeed, they'll be eligible

for parole in 20 years. Now what happened to Gail? What happened? Gail ended up attending the New York School of Interior Design and working many years at Vital Enterprises in Vista, New York as an interior designer. Wow. And then in 2013 at 64 she died. Damn it. So poor Gayle. Gayle's dead. 50 years later. But yeah, she had a better 50 years than there The house by the way 31 Stony Brook in Westport is worth four million six hundred fifty one thousand dollars right now Which is crazy on Zillow. I tried to find what the fate of Harless was Yeah

I know for a fact he was in prison in the 80s because there was a video of him talking that I could only get a Screenshot off of in the video wouldn't come up. I kept getting an error and it wouldn't work. So but he was in the 80s. He was still in prison and I don't know if he ever got paroled. If he's dead, I tried to find his grave. I tried to find everything. I assume he's dead because he was born in like 1930. So unless he's 95, he's fucking dead because he was 31 in 1962. So he's got to be dead. But I don't know cause he was 31 in 1962. So he's gotta be dead, but I don't know if he died in prison or if he ever got out again.

And I hope not because he's a dangerous son of a bitch here. That's a rapist forever. That is a rapist forever right there. So there you go, everyone. That's Westport, Connecticut. Wow. And you can see why it's, like I said, normally not such an old episode.

Literally the last Connecticut episode was about a Fitbit solved the crime. So I mean, normally we stay pretty modern, but this case just that narrative of this poor fucking girl fighting for her life and surviving. I know it's horrible that there's murder and there's rape and all that, but it's also kind of like she survived. Yeah. It's very similar to the Cheshire murders. A little bit. But like you, very similar to the Cheshire murders.

A little bit. But like he, this guy had a plan to get away. That's right. Yeah. Like he super planned it out. Those two were just willy nilly sick, sick fucks. This guy was gonna try to get away. He knew when he left the house that morning. Yeah.

That he was gonna do this. He told his wife, be ready to fucking take off. Right, be ready to go. He was gonna do some shit. So there you go Holy fuck. That's a crazy case. It's like I couldn't not do it. I had other cases I'm like this is this is though. It's so crazy better than stay fucked him then veterans day fucked him And I got to give just gale as a fucking survivor. She's a fighter

Yeah, and then she went on to have a nice life. You know what I mean? Good for her Helps to be rich, but still good for you know what I mean? So there you go everybody. There is Westport Connecticut. If you like the show or anything about the show, please get on whatever app you're listening on and give us five stars and say something nice. Really helps drive us up the charts and it is a free, quick, easy way to help the show if you'd like to do that. Other ways to help the show, you can go to a live show. Shut up and give me murder.com get your tickets now because they're half the shows are sold out already shows months and months away are sold out so get your tickets right now Chicago st. Louis those are the next ones up in early

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Drop-down menu head over there follow us hang out with us keep coming back each week because you can't get rid of us And until next week. It's been our pleasure Bye. If you like Small Town Murder, you can listen early and ad free now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen early and ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. In the 1980s, a rose swept the country. Hey Mike, I really like this white Zinfandel. Well good, good. Now put it down.

I'm going to try another one. White Zin became America's top-selling wine. But most don't know that this sweet drink has a sour history. What began in 1986 with counterfeit bottles. A big fraud, a multi-million dollar fraud. Sent investigators chasing one of the most powerful families in the business, the Lachartes.

But the closer the feds got to them, the more dangerous things became. It's a story of deceit, threats, and murder. What started with a scheme to mislabel wine spilled into a blood-soaked battle for succession. Welcome to Blood Vines. You can binge listen to Blood Vines exclusively and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.