michale callahan now knew the case against randy steidl was deeply flawed and needed to be reinvestigated. in the year 2000, he took his findings to his superiors. we went into the lieutenant s office, very plush. she closes the door, and she s in uniform. she sits down behind her desk. callahan walked her through the evidence, the conflicting testimonies and the recantations. he even highlighted reports that detectives parish and eckerty had plied reinboldt and herrington with alcohol to shape their testimony. she looks at us, and she says, you cannot reopen the rhoads case, it s too politically sensitive. i flashback to all the days i went undercover, risking my
callahan found evidence pointing to karen rhoads as the main target. there was one initial report from karen rhoads say she had seen her boss, bob morgan loading machine guns and large amounts of cash in his corvette and heading to chicago. bob morgan was one of the most powerful men in paris, and karen didn t want to cross him. according to her mother, she was considering quitting her job, but just a few weeks later she was murdered. i started looking at that case and saying, wow, this was definitely a motive. they did talk to bob morgan, and he gave them a statement that he felt that probably some bikers got drunk and went back to rape karen rhoads and things got out of hand and she was killed. bob morgan denied any involvement in the murders and passed a polygraph test. but callahan wondered if investigators had turned their gaze away from the influential businessman for fear of political pay back. one of the very first
many people proclaim their innocence. in this case, there are a number of things that stink. this man is remorseless. he needs to pay for it with his life. the electric chair flashed in front of my eyes. get a conviction at all costs. let the truth fall where it may. the tiny town of paris, illinois, is located 200 miles south of chicago. neighbors in paris know one another and sleep with their doors unlocked. three words to describe paris. conservative, agricultural, and small.
in 1987, randy steidl was sent to death row for the murders of dyke and karen rhoads. while preparing randy s appeals, the defense hired bill clutter to help with the case. the first time i met randy, he was going into what they call the condemned unit and having a prisoner who s shackled and brought in front of you. i mean, the reality of that really hits you. you know, i was pretty distraught, angry with the system. my hopes were dashed. attorney mike metnick, a death penalty specialist, handled randy s appeals. randy was assigned an execution date, but it s an incredibly long process to get from point a to point b. mike metnick and bill clutter come to see me. laid out the case.
the state of illinois was facing an ultimatum in the randy steidl case. retry randy for the rhoads murders or set him free. michael callahan now had a small window to deliver what he d discovered about the case. one day he got a call from the deputy attorney general. i went over everything in the case, my concerns of misconduct, the fact that the two eyewitnesses had no credibility. had detectives had actually distorted and lied in reports, witnesses that were ignored. but mike mcfattridge who prosecuted randy steidl thought the jury got it right the first time. ever since the attorney general, lisa madigan, came in charge of the appeal, the case has been mismanaged either from indifference or incompetence. they were clearly capable of committing murder and that was