Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
E183: Beverly Lynn Smith
6k Plays2 years ago
The tragic case of Beverly Lynn Smith’s death is a hard one to wrap your head around, mostly because there have been several confessions (though many argue they were coerced) and many changing recollections of that cold December 9th night in 1974 in Oshawa, Ontario. Which version, if any, that we have heard contains the full truth? The answer to that question alone (along with evidence to back up the answer) is the only way to finally find justice for a heartbroken family who has spent nearly fifty years seeking that truth.
BlendJet Offer: Use my special link (https://zen.ai/coffeeandcasespod4) or go to blendjet.com and use code coffeeandcasesblend12 to save 12% at blendjet.com. The discount will be applied at checkout!
Motley Fool Offer: Save $110* off the full list price of Stock Advisor for your first year, go to zen.ai/coffeefool and use promo code coffeeandcases and start your investing journey today!
*$110 discount off of $199 per year list price.Membership will renew annually at the then current list price.
Cure Hydration: Try Cure today and feel the difference for yourself! Use my special link (https://zen.ai/coffeeandcasespod20) for 20% off your order, coupon activated at checkout!
Please consider supporting the pod by joining us over on our Patreon page! Are you up-to-date on all our regular content? Get access to monthly mini-episodes as well as one full solved case per month by joining today! Be a part of the C & C Fam by going to https://www.patreon.com/coffeeandcases to register!
Recommended
Transcript
The Unique Bond of Twins
00:00:00
Speaker
We've all heard stories about the deep connection between twins, particularly identical twins. Psychology Today explains why that bond is so strong with them. Quote, they share a primary attachment that is irreplaceable and forms a lifelong attachment and bond as well as an indelible identity. Sharing their in utero life is the beginning of their nonverbal communication and their need for closeness.
00:00:29
Speaker
and comfort can be found in physical proximity, where a sense of oneness is maintained and often endures throughout their lifespans." Not only do they look alike, but they also often develop the same interests, run in the same crowds, and even finish each other's sentences.
Supernatural Connections
00:00:48
Speaker
It is also said that they can feel one another's pain.
00:00:52
Speaker
Further still, while there's no scientific studies to prove it, there are also stories that twins feel when their mirror-imaged counterpart dies, and struggle with how to live life afterward in a new existence, alone, after a whole life of connectedness with another sibling, which often results in extreme notions of survivor's guilt for the remaining twin. Their whole lives have been built upon the fact that they're not alone,
00:01:22
Speaker
So when something happens to a twin, it's almost as though the surviving twin feels the loss on an almost supernatural level. Such was the case for Barbara Brown. On the evening of December 9th, 1974, Barbara was walking home from playing Uyghur with friends when she suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of her head.
00:01:47
Speaker
As she neared her parents home, her mother ran out, calling for Barbara to get inside quickly. Something had happened to her twin sister. This is the case of Beverly Lynn Smith.
Introduction to 'Coffee and Cases'
00:02:35
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Alison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron.
00:02:45
Speaker
We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement. So justice and closure can be brought to these families with each case.
Listener Engagement on Social Media
00:02:56
Speaker
We encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, coffee and cases podcast, because as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee and listen to what's brewing this week.
Personal Stories of Twins
00:03:13
Speaker
Did you know Anthony's dad is a twin? I did not. Yeah, they are twins. They're not identical twins. But yeah, they do still obviously look alike. Since it skips a generation.
00:03:28
Speaker
Yes, so that was a big thing when we were doing all of our IVF because you have a stronger likelihood of having twins when you have IVF done, plus we had the genetic factor as well. So that was one of the reasons they were really adamant on only transferring one egg.
00:03:43
Speaker
That makes sense. To increase odds, which we would have been fine with with twins. Just be done in one loop. What a day.
Family Dynamics of Beverly and Barbara
00:03:53
Speaker
Well, Beverly was actually one of four girls to her parents. She had an older sister and then came the twins, Beverly and Barbara, and then another sister. And the four were very close growing up, though obviously the twins shared a special connection.
00:04:13
Speaker
Yeah, and it is really sweet to see like Anthony's dad and his uncle their connection that they have. And to hear stories about, you know, them growing up and doing all kinds of twin things. And they have other siblings too, but it's just really special to watch them together. Yeah, it's like a completely different experience, I think. And because identical twins aren't that common, everyone in town knew them or knew of them.
00:04:41
Speaker
Well, so another fun fact, I guess this must run in the water in Eastern Kentucky. So when I was growing up in middle school, my best friends were two sets of twins. Oh, wow. And I think, I know for sure one was identical. I think they both were actually, but yeah, so I was like the fifth little will. Well, when I say that,
00:05:04
Speaker
Beverly and Barbara were identical? I mean it. An article in Toronto Life by Michael Lista even said that one of the only ways their mother could tell them apart was from the freckle that Beverly had on the end of her nose.
00:05:19
Speaker
She has to paint one fingernail on one kid. That's right. So while the twins did nearly everything together, eventually, you know, they're of dating age and they began doing some things on their own.
Beverly's Early Marriage and Lifestyle
00:05:35
Speaker
And it was while in high school that Beverly met Doug Smith.
00:05:39
Speaker
and they grew to be inseparable. They knew from the time they started dating in high school that they wanted to get married, and they decided that they didn't want to wait. Oh. Yes. So Beverly and Doug were very young when they got married. She was around 17 or 18, her sister recalled. So Beverly's father actually had to sign permission for Beverly to get married. And were they still in high school when they got married?
00:06:08
Speaker
So I didn't read whether they were or weren't, but the fact that her sister said she believes she was 17 or 18 makes me feel like Beverly was either a senior in high school or had just graduated. Yeah, because my mom was 17 when she got married and she had just graduated and her parents had a son for her too, which is crazy. But, you know, each their own. That's right. So the newlyweds moved to Raglan, which was a little community between Oshawa
00:06:38
Speaker
and Port Ontario. We are in Canada this week in Ontario. They moved into an older brick house but Beverly was super excited to start her new life. They were young but they did like to
00:06:56
Speaker
You know, and you could kind of sense their youth, I guess, because they still invited friends over to their home for house parties. Yeah, they would be, you know, drinking some recreational drug use. We are in the 70s and general partying. And all of that information is according to an Amazon Prime documentary on the case entitled The Unsolved Murder of Beverly Lynn Smith.
00:07:25
Speaker
And I do remember when Anthony and I first got married, we would have like a Halloween party every year or a Christmas party every year. And then like, we turned into old bogeys and now we're just like,
00:07:35
Speaker
Maybe later. Let's take a nap first. Yeah. And then maybe we'll see how we feel.
Marital Struggles and Drug Issues
00:07:42
Speaker
Yeah. In the early days of their marriage, Doug worked at the General Motors assembly plant in Oshawa. It was called, according to the documentary, the schwa as locals. Sounds kind of fancy though. Ontario. And to add to his income, according to stories in Toronto Life,
00:08:05
Speaker
Doug also sold some marijuana on the side. It was reported that Beverly was not a fan of the side business, even though her family, they did acknowledge in that documentary that she would occasionally use pot. Do you say use pot?
00:08:23
Speaker
smoke pot herself. Smoke pot, I think. Yeah. The devil's lettuce. That's right. From Harley Doucet, yeah, episode. But she did want Doug to stop. And I don't know if that's out of fear of the other players in the drug scene or what the specific reason was, though, that she wanted him to quit. But perhaps- Mom will be like, you're breaking rules, so we can't do that. Right, right, yeah.
00:08:50
Speaker
This is against the law. Though I do speed. I guess I probably shouldn't say that out loud. Oh, I do too. I don't count that. Perhaps it was that just 10 months earlier, though, they had welcomed their beautiful daughter, Rebecca, into the world. So that might have had something to do with why she wanted him to. Oh, yeah.
00:09:14
Speaker
Yeah, it was 1970. That's right. It was 1974. Beverly was 22 and Doug was 25. And I'm sure they were both tired because, you know, newborns take some adjusting to the sleep schedule with a newborn.
00:09:32
Speaker
Something to look forward to. Yeah, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about here in a few short months. And there had been some friction between the two, though I only heard this mentioned in the documentary. I didn't see it in any of my other research that Beverly had actually found out that Doug had cheated on her, which had caused a lot of arguments recently.
00:09:57
Speaker
Yeah. As you can imagine. But they were working through their issues, making, you know, trying to make their marriage stronger, which could be yet another reason it's reported that Beverly wanted Doug to stop selling drugs, too. You know, like, let's focus on what's important.
00:10:15
Speaker
Yeah. Their actions on Monday, December 9th, 1974 were that of a typical family. They had run errands together, including buying stamps so Beverly could send out the Christmas cards that she had at home. I am horrible about that. I don't know if I've ever sent out Christmas cards, though I always wish I were the type. I think we did like
00:10:39
Speaker
Me too and I like to get them and I think we did like the first two years we were married but we always take Christmas photos like we're going to send them out but then it's two days before Christmas and I'm like okay never mind. Right yeah. So when they returned Doug actually got ready for work and as he was pulling out of the driveway he looked up
00:11:03
Speaker
to see Beverly standing in the window, the curtains were kind of pulled to the side. She was holding Rebecca in her arms and she took Rebecca's hand to wave bye-bye to Daddy. So that's a sweet little image, yeah. Doug clocked in at 553 because his shift began at six.
00:11:25
Speaker
Meanwhile, Beverly had spread out the Christmas cards. She'd gotten to work on writing those. She also made a phone call to her family because, you see, Beverly hated the nights when Doug worked late because she was home alone.
00:11:42
Speaker
And I totally understand that. It was typical for her that as soon as she watched Doug leave, she would pull the curtains tight and call her family to pass the time. I mean, sometimes she would even talk to them into the wee hours of the morning. And Doug had also taken to calling Beverly on his break from work just to check in on her.
00:12:06
Speaker
On this particular night, Beverly had asked her twin, Barbara, to come over, but Barbara, who nearly always came over whenever Beverly called her, actually had plans for that euchre game that I mentioned in the introduction and had declined. So Beverly had called her other family members just to chat.
The Tragic Death of Beverly Lynn Smith
00:12:30
Speaker
Doug tried calling his wife at 8.33 p.m.
00:12:36
Speaker
but she didn't answer. After calling- Is that normal for her not to answer? No, that is not normal. She would always answer when he would call.
00:12:48
Speaker
So after calling several times and getting no response, Doug starts to grow worried. And so he calls the neighbors, Al and Linda Smith, same last name, but who are not related, who had, they had gotten home themselves a little bit after seven. So around the same time that Beverly had hung up from talking to her family. So Doug calls them at 8.35 PM.
00:13:15
Speaker
to go across the street to check on Beverly because she's not picking up. Linda walked across the street and when no one answered the door she peeked in the window. That's when she saw Beverly on the kitchen floor motionless with a pool of blood surrounding her head.
00:13:37
Speaker
Oh, how traumatic. Yes. She ran back over to her home and she told Doug, who was still waiting on the phone, to hurry home. That's something that happened to Beverly. Linda then had her husband, Alan, who a lot of people call Al, so I'll call him Al, to go have a look. He does. And he tells Linda when he comes back to call an ambulance.
00:14:00
Speaker
In the meantime, Al took his Humane Society track, he worked for Humane Society, across the street, and he turned on the spotlight in an attempt to help first responders to locate the home, because I guess it was kind of, or at least a little bit rural.
00:14:18
Speaker
so he wants them to be able to see where to go. When first responders arrived, they saw the scene exactly as it had been described. The kitchen was immaculately clean, safe for the blood surrounding Beverly and the Christmas cards spread out on the table. EMTs immediately attempted CPR, but Beverly was gone.
00:14:43
Speaker
Do we know how long she was dead before they got there? Well, she got off the phone with her family at seven. Oh, right. So it would have been pretty quick. Yeah. So there's only an hour and a half span when something happened. Autopsy reports would later show that her cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the back of the head.
00:15:09
Speaker
execution style from no more than five feet away. Now, that pain that I mentioned at the beginning that her twin Barbara felt when she was walking home in the back of her head seems ominous, right? Because she's feeling that exact same pain. Beverly had been shot, yeah, by a .22 caliber rifle, so a fairly cheap and common gun.
00:15:40
Speaker
There was no sign of struggle, nor a forced entry. There was a door frame that was broken that first responders noted in their police notes that, or I guess documentation, that the neighbor, Al told them he had done in breaking the door down to get in to Beverly.
00:16:06
Speaker
It was actually a claim that he later disputed, saying that he was not the one who knocked the door down, but that EMTs were the ones to break the door down. Okay, so at first we have it that he broke it down.
00:16:26
Speaker
That's in the dog. But we're just going on based on what first responders said, right? Like first responders say Al told me this and then he's like, that wasn't me.
Investigation Flaws and Theories
00:16:35
Speaker
They were the ones that did it. Right. And, you know, most people would be like, well, of course I'm going to believe the, you know, with the EMT responders said, you know, and things like that. But from several of the accounts that I read, there was reason to doubt
00:16:55
Speaker
the police statements. You see, the police department in general was barely older than baby Rebecca. They had just been formed in January, and this is December. Okay, so speaking of baby Rebecca, is she okay? She is, actually. She had just been in the neighboring room from where Beverly was found.
00:17:25
Speaker
Wow. So I mean, it clearly was a targeted attack. Yes, clearly. They kind of, they hand baby Rebecca over to the neighbor, Linda. They also had a little girl until Doug got home. So yeah, the police department is newly formed. This is their first homicide investigation.
00:17:47
Speaker
And in addition to that, the department had all been at a department Christmas party when the call had come in, and several witnesses even went so far as to say that they smelled alcohol on several of the officers. Oh my, that's a no-no. Mm-hmm.
00:18:06
Speaker
And whether due to drinking or to inexperience, there were many things that the investigators botched. They didn't take many pictures. They lost files. They didn't interview everyone that they should have. One officer even put out his own cigarette in the ashtray in the home.
00:18:29
Speaker
And even an unidentified hair that was found under one of Beverly's fingernails was lost. Oh, you know, though, I will say, I don't know. Maybe this is just me and you, if we were these investigators. I think if it was our first homicide investigation, we would be
00:18:56
Speaker
like bagging everything, bagging and bagging everything. Nobody's coming in. Nope. We would be overly thorough. Overly. Not the opposite. Yep. I agree. Yeah. So I think we could chalk it up to something more than inexperience. Yeah. But here's what we do know. We know that Beverly's blouse looked kind of tussled, but we do know that that was due to the CPR attempt.
00:19:22
Speaker
There were no other signs of sexual assault. So of course that's ruled out as a motive. And again, whether the EMT or the neighbor broke down the door, there is no other sign of forced entry.
00:19:40
Speaker
Right? So somebody broke it down, but we have explanations as to who it was. So that seems to indicate that whomever had hurt Beverly had been someone that she trusted enough to let into her home. Because the shot came from inside her home. And I know they had the parties there, but did they have
00:20:01
Speaker
Did she have a truly big circle of friends or was it mainly just her family? I'm trying to figure out who this could have possibly been. I do think that they had, from what it seems, though I didn't read this explicitly, a decent sized circle of acquaintances at least. I wonder if it was the lover, if it was Doug's lover. I mean, potentially. I mean, there's lots of things that we'll talk about.
00:20:30
Speaker
Um, and she's, you know, the, the person he had cheated with isn't even someone who most people bring up. Interesting. I know. And while Doug, who had arrived obviously frantic and took baby Rebecca back from the neighbor, Linda did admit to officers to, you know, that he sold drugs.
00:20:53
Speaker
He actually told law enforcement officers when he started looking that six ounces of marijuana was missing. But there's another- So that's a potential motive? Well, there's another six ounces in the upstairs of the home and individually wrapped packages. So I feel like if that's the motive, why wouldn't you take all of it?
00:21:16
Speaker
unless they were in a hurry and just grab what they could see and then left. I mean, maybe. But I agree with you. Yeah. So whoever had done this, they also hadn't robbed the Smiths. So they'd taken no money, no jewelry, no valuables from the home. So they're thinking, OK, what could be the motive and why? Why Beverly? Mm-hmm.
00:21:43
Speaker
At the time, there were a few potential suspects who were looked into for the crime. Doug, of course, was looked into, but he had punched in at work. And while it is possible that someone could have clocked in for him, police found that scenario unlikely. Yeah, I think it would be difficult because I wonder how far away you worked.
00:22:09
Speaker
you know, would there have been enough time? I don't know. And who would you convince to punch your card for you? Yeah. And then wouldn't they come out and say, Hey, he asked me to punch his card for him that day. Then there were Al and Linda Smith, the neighbors who had discovered Beverly, but Linda stated that the two of them had been together since they got off work until Doug called them and she had found Beverly in the kitchen.
00:22:38
Speaker
right after he asked them to go check.
00:22:41
Speaker
So it seemed law enforcement would have to look outside of the neighborhood. One of the early suspects was Mark Kenny. He was another drug dealer, though like lower level. He would buy from Doug and then go sell at the local high school, which is unfathomable. That's good. Yeah. There had been a plan for Mark who was trying to gather money together.
00:23:10
Speaker
to meet Doug for a buy that evening or to pick up a buy. But Mark was eventually ruled out as a suspect. He said he was never able to get all the money together. Other theories explored were whether this was a professional hit. I mean, a lot of people think that because of the execution style shot from someone higher up in the drug ring, maybe somebody who was upset because Beverly wanted Doug out.
00:23:40
Speaker
or as a sign if Doug owed somebody money. However, if that were the case, then it would seem likely that they would have taken the rest of the drugs from the home to me. And I don't think she would have just opened the door for a random person. Right. I wouldn't think so.
00:24:00
Speaker
Another early theory was a man named Doug Daigle. A tip came in that Daigle could be involved in the murder. He was actually Doug's drug supplier. And according to one source had floated Doug some drugs and he was ready to be paid back.
00:24:22
Speaker
I feel like this is a whole new language I'm learning. I know. Loaded some drugs. Yeah. I know. I don't know what context clues. Right. You should see what I was Googling just to understand all this drugs. So Daigle was also said to act erratically when he himself was using PCP.
00:24:44
Speaker
And that he allegedly said when asked if he were involved in Beverly's murder, something like, I may have done it. I don't know. I was stoned. What's PCP? It is fencyclidine, also known as angel dust.
00:25:05
Speaker
Okay. No, thank you. Mind altering effects. Oh, so then he really could have done it. Yeah. Hallucinations, distorted perceptions and violent behavior, according to Wikipedia. Okay. So he could have done it and not even known. And that's basically what he said. However, there was zero concrete evidence to tie him to the crime and he was never charged.
00:25:31
Speaker
So, whether police believed Dagle responsible or not, you know, when you don't have any solid evidence to link him to the crime, what can you do?
00:25:43
Speaker
So according to investigation discovery, the best logical scenario that law enforcement could create as to what had happened was that Beverly had let someone in who had come to make a marijuana purchase and that as soon as she handed the drugs over, she had been shot. If you're getting your drugs,
00:26:12
Speaker
And you're not robbing. Why? Yeah. Unless I guess you're on something else. Yeah. Or I could see if they had stolen the drugs upstairs, you know, cause then they, there was theft involved, but to just get what you came there for and get it without any hesitation or anything like that, then why kill them? Right. It doesn't make any sense. Hmm.
00:26:39
Speaker
I did also read in an article by Liam McConnell from April 19th, 2022 that police were able to determine that Beverly had several guests to her home on that December 9th. Now it didn't say when, so I don't know if this is before Doug leaves for work, if it was afterward, but I did also read that they had all been eliminated as suspects in the case.
00:27:08
Speaker
So I guess they're all vetted. Police say, nope, it's none of these people without knowing who could have committed the crime. Beverly's sisters recall walking around the town and thinking about each person who they see. Could that be the killer? Was that him? You know, because there were no witnesses to anything and no one even heard anything.
00:27:36
Speaker
And you add that, it gets compounded with the fact that there's no clear motive for the murder. So it's hard to know where to even begin. And because of that, the case soon went cold. And I honestly think that that could be potentially more scary than having a clear motive as to why someone died, because it's like,
00:28:04
Speaker
Was she just randomly picked? You know what I mean? It just adds a whole nother level of unknown to something that already has so many different factors in it. And it could literally be anyone. Exactly. And that's so scary. So the case was cold until 2007.
00:28:26
Speaker
when a man named Dave Monder came to police with a claim.
Revived Investigation and New Leads
00:28:32
Speaker
Yeah, so this crime happens in 1974. And now we're in 2007 is where we're jumping forward to. So this man, Dave Monder, he stated that he had actually asked the neighbor across the street, Al, to get him some pot
00:28:55
Speaker
and that Al told him he knew where he could get some from his neighbor Doug's house. So if this claim is true, then that, because Dave, this Dave Monder said that Al gave him marijuana the next day. If this claim is true, then it would put Al in Doug and Beverly Smith's home before the discovery of Beverly's body.
00:29:23
Speaker
Right. Because it's Linda who goes over there and sees it first. He also tells police, Dave did, that Al owns a 22 rifle. I wonder, this could be very stupid and I could potentially sound very naive. But I wonder if we had that information at the time, you know, in the seventies and not 2007, if there would have been a way to determine
00:29:54
Speaker
that the weed that Dave bought from Al was the same weed that was in Doug's home. Now I think we would be able to tell to kind of match. But probably not then. Right. Yeah.
00:30:11
Speaker
In 2007, there was a new lead detective, Detective Leon Lynch, assigned to the case, and he decided to reopen the investigation. In doing so, he noticed a discrepancy in the claim about the broken-in door, right? Because remember, the EMT said that Al told them he broke it in, but then he read in other documentation that
00:30:39
Speaker
Al said it was the EMTs who broke it in. And so that discrepancy together with Dave's claim, Detective Lynch decided to take a closer look at Al Smith. So he called in Linda, who had long since been divorced from Al and her story began to change.
00:31:04
Speaker
Detective Lynch also called Al back in and asked him to take a polygraph test, which he agreed to do. They asked him in this polygraph test if he killed Beverly Lynn Smith or if he knew who killed Beverly Lynn Smith. He answered no to both questions, but the polygraph examiner told him that deception had been indicated.
00:31:34
Speaker
And Maggie, I watched the video when this polygraph examiner is telling Al the news and is saying, basically, I know you're lying. The polygraph exam indicates deception. And Al is immediately and visibly upset. Like he keeps stating, I had nothing to do with it. Those can't be the results because I'm innocent. I had nothing to do with it.
00:32:04
Speaker
Those are the things he keeps saying. I mean, it's a little fishy, though. Yeah. Oh, if you think we're in a roller coaster now, you just wait. So Linda, too, was when she was brought in, given a polygraph test.
00:32:21
Speaker
She too was asked whether she killed Beverly Lynn Smith or whether she knew who had killed Beverly Lynn Smith. She also answered no to both questions. Again, deception was indicated.
00:32:40
Speaker
Police became convinced that the two were hiding something. Yeah, obviously. Yes. Now, before I go into what they ended up hearing from Linda, I did want to go ahead and tell you about Alan Linda's relationship kind of in the meantime.
00:33:01
Speaker
So back in 1974, when they were Doug and Beverly's neighbors, they too were a young couple with a young daughter. But by 1978, the two had grown increasingly apart. Linda decided to leave their lifestyle of drug abuse and join the church. But it said that Al had a harder time with that change in lifestyle.
00:33:30
Speaker
She accused him of being abusive due in part to his drug and alcohol addictions and noted that he had a long history of depression and had attempted suicide at least three times.
00:33:47
Speaker
OK, so mixing the drugs and alcohol in there probably wasn't the best choice for your mental health. Right, exactly. And the two had divorced in the 90s and Linda had moved in with a friend, Janet, who she had met at church and who she kind of looked up to as a spiritual guide. So that's kind of what has happened in the meantime. So when they're calling Linda back in, she and Al had long since been apart.
00:34:17
Speaker
Janet and the police, so Janet remembers Linda's roommate and friend, and the police soon began working together to see what information Linda could provide. Even getting approval for wiretaps after Linda had failed her polygraph.
00:34:41
Speaker
So Linda had been told about Dave's statement, right? Remember that he had a pot and all of that stuff. And then she soon began to wonder if maybe she had just buried some memories in her mind out of fear. And that's why she couldn't remember anything about the night other than that she and Al had been together the whole time.
00:35:12
Speaker
Now she changes her story. She says now she remembers that Al had gone over to Doug and Beverly's house to get something for Dave.
00:35:28
Speaker
Okay, and just to make sure my timeline is correct, Linda and Al are gone until about seven. That's when they get back home. Beverly last talks to her family around that same time. And then they supposedly go to check on her, or well, Linda goes to check on her around like 8.30. Correct.
00:35:52
Speaker
I wonder if her family remembers her saying something like, Oh, someone's at the door. I have to get off the phone. I didn't see that in any of the research. So I do not believe that that's the case. But he did have time to go over there though. But she had in all of the years since maintained that they had been together the whole time. But now she's saying something different happened. So during the course of a nine hour interview with Linda, yeah, she says, you know what?
00:36:22
Speaker
Al did get a call that evening that he answered, and then she says she watched him leave the house. She now says that they weren't together the whole time, that he was actually gone a while, and that she heard a noise that sounded like it could be an engine backfiring.
00:36:43
Speaker
and that when she saw him again in their driveway, that she also saw him put a gun under the seat in his work vehicle.
00:36:53
Speaker
I feel like they need to hypnotize her and see what her memories truly are. Yeah. So based upon this new information, Al was arrested in March 2008 for Beverly's murder, and Linda was charged with obstruction of justice for not telling this information at the time, though her charges were eventually dropped.
Al Smith's Legal Battles and Family Support
00:37:20
Speaker
Interestingly, several of Al's siblings, including his sister who was interviewed for the documentary, believe him when he continued to maintain his innocence. She said in the documentary that she knows when her brother Al is lying because he does something unique with his eyes when he fibs.
00:37:44
Speaker
And she said that when she asked him if he had anything to do with Beverly Smith's murder, she swears that she believes he's telling the truth when he says he didn't. Anthony's nose flares when he lies. Oh, so there you go. You would know whether he's lying or not. And there are some problems with Linda's story, Maggie.
00:38:08
Speaker
First, according to one of Al's attorneys that he of course had to hire when he's charged with the murder, when Linda took the lie detector test
00:38:18
Speaker
Her answer to, do you know who shot Beverly Smith of no, did not indicate deception. Her answer to, did you shoot Beverly Smith of no, did indicate deception. So, first of all, that would seem to say that it was Linda who did it, not Al, number one.
00:38:43
Speaker
But number two, his lawyers actually point out, no, it's neither one of them. Because those two answers cannot logically coexist because if she did shoot Beverly, then she would know who shot Beverly.
00:39:02
Speaker
Right. So they're saying that proves that this lie detector test is just flawed. Yeah. On the contrary, obviously the polygraph examiner stands behind his ruling on the polygraph results. Well, obviously he's going to be like, yeah, I screwed up. Right. Al's lawyers argue that law enforcement were feeding information and scenarios to Linda.
00:39:30
Speaker
Like the Dave confession story.
00:39:34
Speaker
They argue that lead detective Lynch had Linda convinced that Al had so much power over her that her fear of him had just pushed down the truth. And they really need Linda to switch from being an alibi to Al into a witness who had, you know, who could give them corroborating evidence to support their working theory that they now have because of Dave.
00:40:03
Speaker
And if Linda and Al had a rough divorce, it could almost be like she's getting back at him. Yeah, that's another possibility. And it did seem like Linda was doing just that, moving from an alibi to a witness against him. If she could just remember what really happened, maybe they could locate evidence to prove Al's guilt. This is what they're thinking. Because right now, they have nothing. Nothing to put Al in the home.
00:40:33
Speaker
no motive for him to commit the crime, and they don't have a 22 in custody that was linked to him. I mean, we have Dave saying that he had one, but we don't have it. There's literally no evidence. What's more, says Al's lawyers, in a case that truly hinges upon Linda's story, she keeps changing it.
00:40:58
Speaker
You see, after the story that I just told you, Linda comes back to the police with a different scenario about the night in question. So her third story? Yes. Now she says, Al went over there to get pot for Dave, but he was taking too long.
00:41:18
Speaker
She says she always knew that Al had a crush on Beverly and Linda was growing jealous. So she had gone over there to see what was taking so long. She says that when she arrived, she saw Al backing away from the table and her first thought was that he was cheating again. She says there was a rifle near the doorway, so she grabbed it. And now she thinks she's the one who shot Beverly.
00:41:48
Speaker
She says that Al then took the rifle in his Humane Society vehicle and had disposed of the gun in the land around the Humane Society. And she tells police, you know what? You could probably go there. I could probably lead you to where the gun is. And if you take a metal detector, you'll probably find it. But when taken to the location, she seems disoriented. She's commenting on how much things had changed about the location over the years.
00:42:18
Speaker
And when police turn up nothing from the search, she admits to them that this third story was really just a quote unquote logical conclusion from what she thought may have happened.
00:42:34
Speaker
She's not making any sense to me. Linda was charged with obstruction of justice again and is sent to a psychiatric hospital for treatment. While their friend Janet, who was now working even more extensively with police, visits her and she tells Linda, you have to tell me the truth. And if you continue to lie, we can no longer be friends. So Linda now tells,
00:43:03
Speaker
another version of what happened that night. She still maintains that Dave wanted drugs, so Al went to go get them. But she says she followed him over there. She said that she was the one who knocked on the door and got Beverly to answer. That when Al made the drug purchase, that Al pulled a gun at that point,
00:43:32
Speaker
and shot Beverly, and that Linda herself had run home out of fear. Well, I have some problems with this theory as well, though, or this story, I guess I should say, because that makes it sound like Beverly was shot in the front. If she's answering the door, they're doing a drug exchange. She hands it over, you know. Yeah, because why would you turn around in the back of the head? If people are there. Yeah, why would you turn around if people are at your door?
00:44:01
Speaker
My daughter and I love smoothies, but what we don't love are smoothie bar prices. With our Blenja 2 Portable Blender, we can make smoothie bar quality drinks for a fraction of the price.
00:44:13
Speaker
BlendJet 2 is portable, so you can blend up a smoothie at work, a protein shake at the gym, or even a margarita on the beach. And it's small enough to fit in a cup holder, but powerful enough to blast through tough ingredients like ice and frozen fruit with ease. Even better, BlendJet 2 is whisper quiet, so you can make your morning smoothie without waking up the whole house. Plus, it lasts for 15 plus blends and recharges quickly via a USB-C.
00:44:39
Speaker
You guys have heard me say it once and I'll say it again. Best of all, the BlendJet 2 cleans itself. Just blend water with a drop of soap and you're good to go. Plus they have so many trendy colors to choose from. The hardest decision will be which design you want to rock. We also want to introduce you to the Orbiter Drinking Lid. The Orbiter Drinking Lid balances a leak proof design with one hand use convenience and a modern minimalist design.
00:45:05
Speaker
The Orbiter Drinking Lid is so easy to use, you only need one hand. BlendJet's patent-pending design allows you to open and drink by simply rotating the lid with your thumb. Just when we thought the BlendJet 2 couldn't get any better, it did. Now you can blend anywhere without spilling everywhere. So what are you waiting for? Go to blendjet.com and grab yours today. And be sure to use the promo code coffeeandcasesblend12 to get 12% off your order and free two-day shipping.
00:45:36
Speaker
No other portable blender on the market comes close to the quality, power, and innovation of the BlendJet 2. They guarantee you'll love it or your money back. Blend anytime, anywhere with the BlendJet 2 portable blender. Go to blendjet.com and use the code COFFEEINCASESBLEND12 to get 12% off your order and free two-day shipping. Shop today and get the best deal ever.
00:46:01
Speaker
I don't know if it's been the same for you, but it feels like the price of everything keeps rising and my bank account keeps shrinking. Even when I had money passively sitting in investment accounts, those funds rarely rise at the rate of inflation, leaving me feeling like I was in the same boat. All my money was going somewhere, but never coming back to me. The age of stock picking is here, with towering inflation and elevating interest rates.
00:46:24
Speaker
Sticking your money in a passive market fund just isn't going to get you what it used to. But it doesn't mean you have to abandon the market. There are still ways to invest for the future. You just need to know where to look, which is where the Motley Fool comes in. The Motley Fool Stock Advisor Service highlights two stocks
00:46:43
Speaker
each and every month for members so they can add them to their portfolios. And it literally has paid to listen to them. Historically, their average stock recommendation is up over 400% as of April 10, 2023.
00:46:58
Speaker
and listeners of Coffee and Cases can now access Motley Fool's Stock Advisor for just $89 for their first year. That's a full $110 off the list price. What are you waiting for? Visit fool.com forward slash podcast to start your investing journey today.
00:47:19
Speaker
Did you know that dehydration is the leading cause of daytime fatigue? I was shocked to learn that even mild dehydration can cause headaches, muscle weakness, and brain fog. But luckily, there's a solution, cure. Cure believes that hydration should be simple and effective, but also clean and natural. That's why they use only the highest quality plant-based ingredients and avoid any artificial or harmful additives. They're committed to transparency and honesty.
00:47:47
Speaker
All of their ingredients are clearly listed on their website and packaging, and they're always happy to answer any questions or concerns. Ready to combat dehydration? Try CURE today and feel the difference for yourself. Use code COFFEEINCASES for 20% off your order.
00:48:07
Speaker
So it's when they start looking at this changing testimony from Linda that a judge ruled in July 2008, so after spending more than four and a half months in jail waiting trial, that there was, quote, not a reasonable prospect of condition, end quote, meaning there was not enough evidence to hold Al Smith.
00:48:33
Speaker
because without her, he's got nothing. There's nothing, yeah. And if he is innocent, which I'm sure we'll talk about, I think that's so sad because that's four months of his life he will never get back. I know. He was released and again made a public statement of innocence. So those who believe Al Smith argue that Detective Lynch basically saw Linda as weak
00:48:58
Speaker
and had manipulated her into telling a story that would implicate Al so that the case could be solved. Seems like it was working. And yeah, there's other cases we've covered that we've talked about that possibility. We've seen that even in cases that have been solved that witnesses are manipulated. And they argue what we just said. There is no physical evidence to support the theory that Al Smith committed the murder. None. Zilch.
00:49:27
Speaker
For Beverly's family, though, they were beginning to believe, as many investigators were as well, that the police had the right guy. They just didn't have the evidence yet.
00:49:42
Speaker
In the documentary, Beverly's twin sister, Barbara, recalls Al staring at her in court, quote, like he saw a ghost, end quote. Well, I feel you can explain that though. If she looks that much like her sister, I mean, he found Beverly dead. So yeah, I think that would cause a little bit of a shock to see someone sitting there that looked exactly like her. Right. But for Barbara, it was that look in her mind.
00:50:11
Speaker
that told her all she needed to know. Because in her mind, he's looking at her like that because he's guilty. Rebecca,
00:50:21
Speaker
Remember baby Rebecca, now a grown woman was in court right next to her aunts. She had actually learned of the murder when she was only six years old, and her grandma's neighbor's daughter had shown her a newspaper clipping about her mom's murder. Wow, traumatic way to find out.
00:50:42
Speaker
Since then, she too had been desperate for justice, and she too didn't find it easy to let go of Al Smith as a suspect. So she did admit she realizes that more evidence is necessary. In the documentary, she said something to the effect of the fact that she didn't want an innocent person to pay the price for her mother's death, but that she does want the guilty party to pay. Yeah.
00:51:09
Speaker
But the next move by police to try to elicit a confession from Al, who they still believe is guilty, law enforcement does, becomes even more questionable, as I'll tell you about in just a moment. But before I get to that, I need to tell you about what Al was up to after his release from jail in 2009. I'm interested. I'm intrigued.
00:51:37
Speaker
In the time after Al was released from jail, as you can imagine, his friend group had dwindled and jobless. He was forced to accept the offer to stay in his daughter's basement. There was really only one thing that connected Al to his old life, and that was his lifelong love of fishing.
00:51:59
Speaker
And luckily, almost pretty soon after his release from jail, he won a contest to go ice fishing on Lake Simcoe.
00:52:12
Speaker
So a vehicle had shown up to pick up Al and the other winners of this contest and take them to their prize. And it was on this trip that Al befriended one of the other winners, Danny. And you know, here's Al. He doesn't have any other friends who, you know, was really stuck around. And
00:52:32
Speaker
Al grew increasingly close to Danny. They started going fishing together all the time, talking on the phone every day. But Danny soon made a proposition that would forever change Al's life.
Controversial Police Sting Operation
00:52:50
Speaker
Danny was involved in selling drugs.
00:52:53
Speaker
and wanted to know if Al wanted in on it as well as an easy way to make some extra cash. And again, jobless, this sounds pretty good to have. Right. Sounds pretty good. Yeah.
00:53:07
Speaker
So other than fishing, Danny and Al begin committing crimes together, selling drugs, getting a small cut of the sale, with basically Al often being the lookout when the deals would go down. But the crimes that the two were involved in soon escalated, and Danny introduced Al to the drug kingpin, Jake.
00:53:33
Speaker
So the sales that they're involved in grew larger, as did the payoff, with one sale being of 40 pounds of marijuana. Wowza. Yeah. But this sale was different from the ones that had come before because Kingpin Jake didn't like the man who was paying for the weed in the sale.
00:53:56
Speaker
And he had tasked Danny and Al with stealing the marijuana back from the man as soon as Jake got the money from the sale. So Jake is basically like, Danny, Al, make the sale of 40 pounds of marijuana, get the money, bring me the money, and then I want you to rob the man and get the marijuana back too. Oh, so then they can sell it again. So they did.
00:54:22
Speaker
And then afterward, the two, Danny and Al kind of chat about the high that they felt from the adrenaline rush in that moment. And they actually had plans to go fishing the next morning afterward. So, Al hears a knock on his window in the middle of the night. And at first he thought it was Danny just deciding that they need to leave early for their fishing trip, like earlier than expected.
00:54:45
Speaker
but that wasn't the purpose of the visit. Instead, Danny came to get Al because Jake, the kingpin, needed to see them both, and he needs them to bring a change of clothes for him. OK. Are we going to a water park? Because that's really the only reason. Yeah. So the two arrive at this big industrial park to meet with Jake, who is covered in blood and has a body wrapped in a blue tarp.
00:55:15
Speaker
So Jake tells them that the man who they had robbed earlier began to suspect that Jake was behind the robbery, right? To take the drugs back and had confronted him about it. And that in that confrontation, Jake had basically taken care of the problem. He said, quote, I met with that effing guy. He tried something. He's no longer around. Okay. I just think
00:55:44
Speaker
This is such an intense world, like beyond the world that you and I live in. I would never be brave enough. So I could never be a gangster. I could never be brave enough. No, I couldn't either. I'd be peeing my pants.
00:55:58
Speaker
Yeah. So Jake tells them that he needs them, Danny and Al, to dispose of the body, to burn the clothes. He tells them to wait at least 20 minutes after dumping the body before calling him to let them know that it's done and then to meet him at his cottage. So the pair do everything that Jake had asked them to do and then they go to that cabin.
00:56:24
Speaker
there when Jake finally arrives, he says basically to Danny and Al, well, now you have something on me and I'm not comfortable with that being the case. We need to make it even. So he demands that both Danny and Al give him some deep secret in return so he can have a secret on them and basically some assurances that they're not going to go to the police and rat them out.
00:56:53
Speaker
I mean, mine would literally be like, one time there was these command strips underneath the poster I bought and I accidentally left the store without paying for them. And I went back in and told the cashier and paid for them. Mine's like, I speed sometimes. Yeah. But according to investigative reporter Michael Lista, these demands from Jake took place at knife point.
00:57:20
Speaker
And it was then that Al made a confession. What he later confessed to was being involved in Beverly's murder, but saying that it was Dave Monder, remember the guy who told police that he had asked Al to get him some weed, who pulled the trigger.
00:57:41
Speaker
So the conversation between Al and Jake went something like this, according to Wendy Gillis' August 3, 2014 article in the Toronto Star. Now, Maggie, I know you haven't seen this or heard this, but I'm going to have you read Jake.
00:57:59
Speaker
just so our listeners can kind of tell how this conversation is going. Okay. And how do we have this confession? I'll get to that in a moment. Okay. Okay. So, yes, you're Jake. Al says, my buddy, Dave and I had set up this guy, Doug. Yeah. We were watching for the longest time. So he got in 40 pounds of weed. Back then, him and I were
00:58:25
Speaker
We were hurting. Who's Dave? He was my buddy back then, Dave Monder. Well, where's he now? He lives in Calgary. Okay. When was the last time you talked to this effing guy? A year ago. All right. And we had it set up that when Doug went to work at General Motors at six at night, that we were going to just shortly after to get the 40 pounds.
00:58:50
Speaker
So I went in, I ran upstairs, got the 40 pounds. He was downstairs. He had a 22 with him just for backup. Now she ran toward the cupboard and Dave doesn't know what she's running for the cupboard for, whether it was a handgun or just a normal rifle, whatever. So he plugged her in the back of the head.
00:59:11
Speaker
once just once yeah and she went down and that was it she was out quick that was who wasn't that plugged her dave monder dave monder plugged her yeah then jake asks about the murder weapon where's the gun she's long time buried oh yeah it's been it's been buried now for for for eons like about uh
00:59:36
Speaker
I would imagine by now 20 feet down in the quagmire. So who buried it? Swamp. Swamp. Oh, I did. You ever touch it? No, no. How'd you get it buried? What? How'd you get it buried? It was wrapped. You mean the cloth? Yeah, what'd you wrap it in? It was an old jacket, an old red
01:00:02
Speaker
an old red, not Fisher jacket, but a red shirt. I just... Did you throw any bullets in with it? Everything. Everything's in the swamp. I'm the only guy that knows where it is. Interesting. That's the confession. So, Al wouldn't come any closer to admitting his own involvement in the murder until another confession in November 2009.
01:00:30
Speaker
This one came after Jake, remember the kingpin, says he hired a private investigator to look into the claims that Al made, right? This Dave Monder pulled the trigger to know if it's, you know, the complete truth or not. And when threatened- He's really dedicated to having these- Yeah.
01:00:51
Speaker
When threatened, Al says, you know what? You're right. It's not true. I lied. I actually had nothing to do with Beverly's murder.
01:01:03
Speaker
Okay. But can you blame him though? Cause he was at knife point. So, um, if I hadn't done anything bad, I would think of something to lie about. Right. So, well, Jake grows upset, you know, when he says you're right, I lied, I didn't have anything to do with it. And he says, you know, basically, well then where's that leave us? Because now I don't have any dirt on you, Al. So Al's friend, Danny, who's there in a situation with him begins to pressure out to just tell Jake the truth so they can all leave happy.
01:01:34
Speaker
So eventually, Al begins talking again. This time, Al says that Dave didn't pull the trigger. He did. He stated, quote, look, if I tell you this for F's sake.
01:01:51
Speaker
Dave had nothing to do with it. It was me. I did it all myself. I sold the pot off quietly, bits and pieces." End quote. He said that Beverly had let him in and that she had never even noticed the gun. It was when Beverly turned to warm up little Rebecca's bottle that he shot her a single time in the back of the head and that he spent the rest of his life, quote, playing dumb about it.
01:02:21
Speaker
When pressed for details of how he hid the gun from Beverly though, right? Cause he says she didn't notice it, you know, at all. His details kept changing. At one point he says he hit the gun behind his back. At another point he said he hit it down his pant leg. In another version he says he hit it in his coat, but he ended by providing a motive for the murder in the following exchange.
01:02:48
Speaker
Mmm, so you just, you were gonna pluck her no matter what or what happened. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. She had a big mouth. Oh yeah? Was she chirping about ya? Yeah, prior to it all. Oh yeah? What was she chirping? Well, this chick I was banging, a friend of her sister's. Yeah, mmm. And you're afraid of the ex finding out? Uh, that and losing everything.
01:03:14
Speaker
My whole family thinks I'm as innocent as the day is long. Yeah. And they're always going to think that. So that's the second conversation that happens. And now you asked a fantastic question earlier, Maggie, and now I'm going to tell you the answer. You said, how do we know all of this? And Maggie, we know all of this information because none of it was real.
01:03:39
Speaker
The questionable tactics employed by police that I told you about a little bit ago was part of a grand hoax called a Mr. Big Sting operation.
01:03:51
Speaker
It is a practice that was developed in Canada, but has been ruled illegal to use in many other countries around the world, like the United States. But it's basically when an undercover officer puts on this huge production that they're all part of a crime ring. And literally everyone involved is an undercover cop, except for the one person that they're trying to elicit a confession from.
01:04:20
Speaker
So, you're telling me that Jake is not a real person? Correct. He's an undercover cop. Danny. I was really into this. An undercover cop. All the people who they sold to, the guy who they robbed, undercover cops. Yeah. So, even the fake, the body they hid? It was a weighted mannequin.
01:04:41
Speaker
I can see why this should be ruled illegal. It's a little suspect. So basically, they try to get the person so involved in the criminal activity that they eventually meet the lead mobster or lead drug dealer or what have you, who tries to get a confession of a crime in order to gain credibility in the group that the person thinks is real. So Al thinks all of this is real.
01:05:09
Speaker
And by the way, Jake and Danny were not their real names. Those were the names that were used in the documentary to describe them. So I just use the same names here. Gotcha. And that's exactly what this quote unquote Danny did. He was an undercover officer who befriended Al. He made Al think that they were best friends.
01:05:29
Speaker
that they were they make up the fishing the fishing thing too oh yeah it was a lot they made up the contest yep and made al believe that they were in this situation together he then introduced al to quote unquote jake the boss who got them in even deeper and when jake tells danny and al that he needs something on them to make it all even
01:05:51
Speaker
That's the confession that law enforcement are looking for. So they're wanting Al to admit that he was responsible for Beverly's death. I mean, I know we're talking about a murder, but that's a little shady in and of itself.
01:06:08
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know. I don't know how I feel about it. Yeah. I don't know. So based on these two confessions, they come to arrest Al in December 2009 and charge him with first degree murder. And it was while he was at the station. I want you to imagine, I know we're talking about Al and we don't know whether he's guilty or not. We still don't.
01:06:32
Speaker
But imagine how devastating this is because while he's at the station, he sees his quote unquote friend Danny and Jake now in uniform and realizes that his whole life for the past. This went on for almost a year.
01:06:48
Speaker
has been a lie. So he didn't know until he saw them there. Oh my God. I feel like if he is not guilty, he is do some, I don't know, like reimbursement or something. That is traumatic. And like his family knew Danny and everything.
01:07:13
Speaker
Kind of reminds me of 21 Jump Street, how they get real in there. Oh, wow. OK. So while he's there at the police station, they did finally tell Al that the quote unquote body he believed he helped dispose of was just a weighted mannequin and that the blood that he had seen on Jake was sheep's blood. He was told that during all of the drug exchanges that he took part in, everyone involved but him was an undercover officer.
01:07:41
Speaker
So I mean, even if they don't get him on murder charges, can they have him on the drug charges? See, I don't know how that works. And I didn't see that they charged him with anything like that. So I'm thinking no. But they argued that what Al did tell them during those two confessions in their minds proved that he
01:08:00
Speaker
had committed the murder of Beverly Lynn Smith, because they're thinking, why else would he have said something like that? So they argue, if he's going to, quote unquote, create a crime, why was it that one if it weren't true? Like, why not fabricate something else?
01:08:19
Speaker
But I think that would be easy for if we're playing devil's advocate. I think that would be easy for him to fabricate that because he's been accused of that his whole life. So I'm sure if he was coming up with a lie, that would be the first thing that he would come to mind because it's been. Yeah. And there were some problems with Al's
01:08:38
Speaker
confessions since he got some of the details wrong. Like, for example, he said that he had taken 40 pounds of marijuana from Dave the night of the murder when, remember, Dave said only six ounces are missing. Well, there's a huge difference between 40 pounds and six ounces. 40 pounds was how much Al had exchanged in his last, quote unquote, run for Jake.
01:09:06
Speaker
not on December 9th, 1974. So his lawyers point out that that detail for them shows that Al was making things up on the spot. The police argue that during their entire investigation, they had gotten to know Al very well, and that even when they disposed of the body,
01:09:33
Speaker
you know, Danny and Al, that it seemed as though to this undercover officer, Danny, that Al had done something like this before and even felt like Al was, quote unquote, coaching Danny through how to process this, like telling him to breathe in, breathe out, try not to think about it. And I actually listened to some of these tapes because Maggie, they recorded everything.
01:10:03
Speaker
And I think that could potentially...
01:10:07
Speaker
You know, I think reading about it or hearing about it as we're doing here on a podcast can make you feel one way compared to if you're actually listening to the legitimate conversation. You know, then you get tone and all that stuff. Right. Right. So Al's lawyers, on the other hand, they argue that the entire time Al was afraid for his life. And that's why he said the things he said out of fear that if he didn't confess to something big, that he too would die.
01:10:37
Speaker
And the tapes do have Al, because I listened to some of them. They were part of that documentary.
01:10:45
Speaker
They do have Al seeming to give Danny advice because he does say like, okay, breathe in, breathe out, try not to think about it. But it also shows Al is a man who's so emotionally distraught after the crime of disposing of this mannequin that he turns to Danny and he says, just don't talk to me for a little bit. Okay. Because he says he just can't talk right now. And he keeps saying, I think I'm going to puke. I think I'm going to puke.
01:11:14
Speaker
So I feel like I am really playing devil's advocate with Al and I'm not intending to do that because I know we all want closure and I want the, just like Rebecca, I want the correct person to pay for this crime.
01:11:29
Speaker
Something I've noticed about myself, so two different instances where this sticks out. So like a week and a half ago, we had baby birds in the little nest and I was walking to see them outside and I missed the last step. And so I like twisted my ankle really bad and I was in a boot for a while. And in the video when, because I was trying to figure out obviously if I needed to call the OBGYN because I failed.
01:11:55
Speaker
And so we have a security camera out back. So in the video, when you replay it, like you can hear, I'm talking to myself. I'm like, you're okay. It's okay. It's okay. Just breathe. Just breathe. And then in another instance, I had to drive to Pike County in a snowstorm once after Anthony had surgery. So I was driving and we should not have been driving because you couldn't even see the road. And like the whole time I'm talking to myself.
01:12:20
Speaker
It's fine. You can do this. And so I wonder if it's something like that. Maybe he's not coaching Danny, but he's coaching himself out. Don't think about it. I mean, that's true. That's a fantastic point.
01:12:32
Speaker
Yeah. He told the Toronto Star, Al did, in 2014, quote, they put me through all kinds of horrific scare tactics. I thought my life was in jeopardy. Is this what we do in this country? End quote. Yeah. Like I said, that would be, I mean,
01:12:51
Speaker
Beverly's family, I understand they're dealing with the loss of a loved one and that's so traumatic and so life altering, but if Al is innocent, he's had some traumatic events in his life as well.
01:13:04
Speaker
In the courtroom though, Maggie, law enforcement argued the opposite. They said, nope, Al wasn't afraid of any of these people because, of course, they also know if it's a confession that's made under duress, it's not admissible in court.
01:13:22
Speaker
Al's lawyers, on the other hand, further argued that because of the way the sting operation went down, Al had been denied his right to an attorney and his right to remain silent. And those are freedoms not just guaranteed here in the US, but also under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada. Oh, I hadn't even thought about that.
01:13:44
Speaker
Then one other problem reared its ugly head. So every single minute of the sting operation had been recorded. In those tapes, you can hear, again, because some of them are included in that documentary, Danny will be in his truck and he says like, okay, it is this date and this time and here's our plans for the day.
01:14:09
Speaker
And then you could hear him get out of his truck and then have these interactions with Al as if they're best friends. There were more than fifteen hundred hours of tapes during the entirety of the operation. But it was one tape that interested Al's lawyers the most because on it, one of the officers, and this was the day that Al gave his first confession to Jake,
01:14:39
Speaker
when he says, I need some dirt on you. One of the officers had forgotten to turn off the recorder. And the conversation that was caught was just what Al's lawyers needed because on it, the officers were laughing and talking about how terrified Al is.
01:15:00
Speaker
and that the fear is what led to the confession. Like even telling Danny, Al did, that the only reason he quote unquote confessed was because he was scared. And they're talking about it. But then they joke that if they're asked about it on the stand in court, that they're going to say something like, Your Honor, he wasn't afraid. And if he was, he didn't show it and we're not mind readers. Ha ha ha ha ha.
01:15:31
Speaker
Yeah. And they had made similar statements in court, despite admitting on this tape that the confession came as a result of beer. So Al Smith was brought to trial in 2014. Remember, they arrested him in 2009. So he's been in prison awaiting trial since 2009.
01:16:02
Speaker
Not very speedy. No. So he was brought into trial in 2014, but because the Mr. Big Sting operations, they'd recently been brought into question in another case in Canada, where they discovered that these Mr. Big Stings were known to elicit false confessions.
01:16:20
Speaker
for multiple reasons, because the person involved was often destitute, afraid of losing their only friends, afraid of losing their only access to money, or out of fear of personal harm. So the judge in Al Smith's case ruled that the confessions given by Al during the operation itself would not be admissible in court.
01:16:45
Speaker
So
Acquittal and Family's Continued Beliefs
01:16:46
Speaker
again, we're left with accusations against Al Smith, but zero physical evidence or confessions linking him to the crime. So for the second time, though this time, obviously waiting in prison for four and a half years, not just months, Al Smith was acquitted.
01:17:09
Speaker
He has since sued dozens of officers from the Ontario police due to that sting operation for a total of $19 million. But even though that detail was mentioned in articles from 2016, I didn't read anywhere whether he was awarded any compensation.
01:17:30
Speaker
And that doesn't give him that time back. Right. Yeah. And after the acquittal, one of Al Smith's lawyers, Alison Craig, told the media that law enforcement, quote, not only crossed the line, but they trampled it. She continued, quote, it resulted in a false confession and an innocent man being in jail for many years, and hopefully it won't be repeated. End quote.
01:17:58
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know who is responsible for Beverly's death, but I do hope the responsible party is brought to justice.
01:18:08
Speaker
Despite having no physical evidence and there being inconsistencies in the confessions and details from that night, Barbara and Rebecca still believe in Al's guilt. For them, it's other little details that ring true. For example, for Rebecca, it's that detail that her mother had gone to grab a baby bottle when he said he fired the shot that makes her believe his confession.
01:18:33
Speaker
Needless to say, we still don't know who is truly responsible for Beverly Lynn Smith's murder. But we do know that there must be evidence somewhere because the gun is still missing. And we know that someone's conscience must be screaming to let go of the guilt carried with them for all these years. But without that evidence or an uncoerced confession,
01:19:01
Speaker
Justice remains elusive. What doesn't remain elusive is the pain that is still front and center for those who knew and loved Beverly, particularly so for her daughter who has to rely on stories from others to even tell her own children what their grandmother was like. And for Beverly's twin, Barbara, who is reminded of Beverly's tragic death every time she looks in a mirror
01:19:30
Speaker
Barbara Brown told the documentary makers that she wanted a name for who murdered her twin sister because she wanted somebody to hate. At the end of the documentary, she looks into the camera and states that she has the name she needs. Still others continue to believe the opposite.
01:19:51
Speaker
or at least that there's more needed in this case for a conviction, like Michael Lista, who in his January 27, 2020 article, The Sting from Toronto Life states, quote, confessions are the worst kind of evidence.
01:20:07
Speaker
because there's no empirical truth to them. They have to be checked against what actually happened, corroborated. Otherwise, they're just words. Nouns and verbs don't stick under a victim's fingernails, don't fluoresce like blood under luminol. The human mind is as pliable as plastic." Fortunately for us, the truth isn't pliable, and the truth is still out there.
01:20:37
Speaker
Barbara once said to an officer, quote, I'm losing my hope. Can you hold on to it for me? While handing the officer a pebble with the word hope engraved on it. We here at Coffee and Cases want the family to know that while we don't have a physical representation of their hope, we will continue to hold on to it for them. That one day they will have all the answers they so desperately need.
01:21:05
Speaker
Again, please like and join our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode. As always, follow us on Twitter, at casescoffee, on Instagram, at coffee cases podcast, or you can always email us suggestions to coffeeandcasespodcastatgmail.com. Please tell your friends about our podcast so more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to rate our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon.
01:21:35
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.
01:21:58
Speaker
It's love notes with Maggie and Alison. We have a short one today, but we have lots of love going out to Cindy, Courtney, Keely, Cheyenne, Michelle, Sarah, and Spartacus for reaching out to us this last week with comments on social media. You have no idea how much we love hearing from you.
01:22:20
Speaker
And on top of the love notes, which are already wonderful enough, we wanted to give you a little teaser that we are working on the details for our next live show. You did hear that correctly. And we will pass those along as soon as we get them finalized. So with that, all of our love is going out to each and every one of you. Until next week, sleuthounds.