out of getting a divorce without paying child support. the prosecutor put crystal on the stand, of course, and then told them bob duke s way out of marital dissatisfaction was shove his wife off the cliff and collect the $60,000 in insurance. when that money ran out, then bob and his brother concocted a scheme to have their parents killed for their insurance money. bob duke took the stand himself to deny the allegations against him. denied for example crystal s story although he agreed they did hang out together. reporter steve core found his testimony flat, expressionless. he came across as arrogant, he came across as not remorseful. but the jury apparently had a lot to talk about. an hour went by, then five, then 10. it was late when roger brauburger got a call.
spitting image of bob. a gentle kid. who seemed to love his daddy. yep. the neighbor remembers how young eric looked up to his dad. bob had a trick bike and there was a lot of kids in the complex and he would go out and do tricks for the kids and his son, eric, would love to watch his dad. bob had given up on college. he had a family to support. but he was smart. people liked him and he soon built a solid business as one of the premier carpet installers. he always had money. he had a nice car, nice jeep, nice home. you know. he took pretty good care of his family financially. roger spiraled into drug addiction. and all of its intended failures, disappointments and remorse. i did envy the fact that he was successful. looked like he had no worries, you know? but the friendship survived.
i didn t want to associate the bob duke i knew with the bob duke that would kill his family. i tried to separate it all. roger the drug addict was busy hitting bottom. i was a slave to that. i was using intravenously. i would do anything for the next fix. then one january night, roger answered the phone and it was bob calling from houston where he had gone to live with his older brother. he called me and wanted to know if i would get him automatic weapons. he was working security in a high-rise and there were people who wanted certain people dead and he could make money like this. what was it like to hear the voice again? it was like the nightmare all over again. bob knew that roger s drug dealing friends had connections. he knew if anybody could help him, roger could. why didn t you just say no? i don t know why. i guess i am a coward in that way. so roger played along for a while until bob called a few weeks later with a more bizarre
his dad was head narcotics detective and he was someone i could trust. i received a call from roger and he was in a total panic. kill me, kill me. i said who is going to kill you? i m not sure. mecham tried to talk roger down. he wanted to swim the river and meet by the cover of darkness. all that stuff. they met the following morning. what was the first thing out of roger s mouth? basically, you know, that he knew that bob had killed his wife and kids. and there was more. the new plot to kill bob s parents. that was a shocker. that was the shocker. only one thing to do now. roger would have to do the one thing he thought he would never do. cooperate with the police. he would have to catch his old friend in the act of plotting to kill. the fbi was called in. they put a tap on roger s phone. agent todd scott gave him directions.
i haven t said a word to no one. were you nervous that he would realize that somebody was overhearing it? i guess. i don t know how he didn t ever figure it out. i was hyperventilating. the fbi was nervous, too. they assigned extra cops around the homes and surrounded bob s apartment in houston, ready at a moment s notice. today is january 8, 1999 at 11:59 a.m. this is in reference to conspiracy to commit murder. still, they needed more from roger. though he had extracted evidence about the murder plot against bob s parents, roger hadn t asked bob to admit he killed his wife and son. he d have to make one more call. you said you would send me the key? you know i am thinking about that. i don t think that is a good idea. why? it won t look like an accident.