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Statement and gave it to jay wolchansky to use against walter ogrod, what would that mean to you? i don t know how you can do that. i have now documented that that story was fabricated by john hall. no, you haven t and unless you have something from jay saying that none of that was told to him by walter and that he made it all up and hae s willing to testify to the fact that he committed perjury, that s something else. at one point she said to me i thought you were trying to write a book, not get the guy a new trial. i said i m trying to find the truth of this. the notion that they re sending someone to death row based on this clearly fabricated snitch story is not okay. having lost his own father, tom now felt he owed it to barbara jean s parents, sharon and john fahy to share what he had discovered. my experience of losing someone to murder is you have days where it just destroys you as much as it ever did. ....
and john sat down with jay and he gave jay the story, and he helped jay write the letter to the d.a. s office. at the trial, the prosecution told the jury that neither john hall or jay wo wilchansky got a teal for what they did. john wrote to me and said he got a sweet deal. john was looking at 50 years and the ogrod case got him off. jay wolchansky only got a few months. i had no idea that a d.a. s office such as in philadelphia could use a snitch ring, you know, could use a guy like john hall over and over and over again. i have the paperwork. i have phyllis, and it s all fitting together. tom decided he now needed to confront the prosecutor who had put wolchansky on the stand, judy rubino. what are you trying to do? i m trying to figure out what happened. ....
Journalist, but i knew i was onto something, and i had to keep going. tom found clues that jay wolchansky s story may have actually been invented by a fellow inmate, an infamous snitch named john hall. john hall s specialty was to take murder cases for which there is no evidence and give the prosecution a conviction. there s this 1997 article in the daily news about john hall, who everybody calls the monsignor because he s heard more confessions than a priest. the article said john hall had spoken with police about walter. tom wanted to know why. just boggled my mind. the story that jay tells at walter s second trial, the john hall story. looking for answers, tom tracked down john hall s wife, phyllis. anything that you tell me is on the record. if you say this is off the record, it s off the record. most of everything i m going to give you is going to be that way because the situation with ....
Had serious doubts about how walter had landed on death row. the key point about the first trial is that walter testified, and it was from hearing walter talk, hearing how he expressed himself that the jury came to the belief that he couldn t have given the confession. and then you say, okay, well, what got him convicted at the second trial? this is the second time a jury has been charged with deciding the fate of walter ogrod. the first trial ended in a hung jury. in the 1990s, the philadelphia d.a. s office sought the death penalty more than any other in the country. walter s second trial was assigned to prosecutor judy rubino. judy rubino was a legendary tough prosecutor in philadelphia. someone had told me jokingly that she had her own wing on death row. her case relied on jailhouse informant jay wochansky who said walter had confessed to him in prison. the motive for the crime was ....