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You are now listening to True Murder the most shocking killers in true crime history and the authors that have written about them.
Gasey, Bundy, Dahmer, The Nightstalker DTK.
Every week another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and infamous killers in true crime history. True Murder with your host journalist and author Dan Zufanski, Good Evening. How does a high school valedictorian, former member of the famed one hundred and first Airborne, respected church, deacon, husband and father of three end up with a first remurder conviction
and serving life without parole. Deacon's Crossbow is a bone chilling and compelling work of true crime about fate, fear, facts, and personality, especially that of convict Donald S.
Graham. Donald and his wife were driving home from dance lessons when they happened upon two men on Interstate ninety five in Massachusetts. When Donald reached for his crossbow, all hell broke loose. The end result, the mail driver is dead and the deacon is in prison. For the rest of his life. He will follow a labyrinth of events
from the incident all the way to the present. The story is unique because it includes mister Graham's views and sentiments from within the walls of incarceration, as well as perspectives from a freeman. The author was justice served or was the driver the aggressor and the deacon the victim. The book that were featuring this evening is Deacon's Crossbow, The True Story of a crossbow killing on Interstate ninety five,
with my special guests, author David G. Brown. Welcome to the program, and thank you very much for agreeing to this interview. David G. Brown, Thank you, thanks a lot.
Thank you, Dan, it's good to be here.
Thank you very much for joining us. Let's talk right away with how you came to be the author of this your relationship to this story, and how you decided the decision to be the author of Deacon's Crossbow.
Well, Dan, believe it or not, it started with a nightmare, and it started ten years after the road rage experience occurred. Event occurred, and it was I do mention this in the book. I had intended on starting the book telling how it was a nightmare, but I opted to go directly to the scene the incident. But I woke up in the middle of the night. We were living in
California at the time. I was wearing a T shirt while I was sleeping, and my t shirt was all sweaty, and I had a dream of Donald Graham and we were in the desert and I'm walking along on the top of a mason and I heard someone shouting in the distance, and I came to the edge of a cliff and there was Done, holding on for dear life to a branch of a dead of a tree, and he's looking up at me and he's yelling, Hey, help me.
I woke up the next morning and I shared the incident with my wife, and she said to me, you've got to write about this. You've always loved to write. You got yourself a heck of a story here, and lo and behold, about three years later I had I had a book published.
UH.
And that was in twenty twelve. So that's how that's how it came about. UH. I guess I'd also have to include the fact that I always had a lot of admiration for Dodd Graham from the minute I met him, uh and throughout the years that we developed, at first a business relationship, UH, we developed a strong friendship. UH. And once I had found out about the about this
horrible incident that occurred, this road rage incident, occurred. It really stuck with me, and obviously it stuck with me long enough to have a very very bad nightmare and influenced me to write the book.
Okay, now, you opened the book in mid October two thousand and six, and we're in Providence, Rhode Island, and you're going to Shirley, Massachusetts, and you arrive at the souths of Bereanowski Correctional Center the SBCC to visit Donald S. Graham, and you wanted to know some information. So tell us about it as you do what he imparts to you about what happened, because you say, what the hell happened? So you want to hear it all. So what did
he say to you about this incident? So tell us as you do in the book.
Well, I'll do my best at that. Keep in mind it was quite some time ago that I wrote the book, and I'm not going to read from the book, but actually, prior to that first meeting at Susan Bereanowski, we had shared several correspondents and essentially when I was sending what I was asking Don what could I do to help out? And that's how it led to first forty pages and then on and on until I had a page of close to two hundred and fifty pages and the book
was completed. But he gave a very very thorough description to me as to everything happened happened that evening, that Sunday afternoon. And we're making reference to February twentieth, nineteen ninety four. Don and his wife Sandra had traveled to Boston to go to they took dance lessons, and they got done with their dance lessons and they were heading back. They were heading back to our hometown, not only Don and Sandras, but my hometown of Wood Socket, Rhode Island.
Sander was sitting in the passenger in the front passenger sleep She was sleeping. Don was driving en Route ninety five. In case people don't realize that that's the major highway that goes from Maine all the way down to Florida. They were traveling between Boston and Providence. Don had kind of a beat up automobile, as I recall, it was
a Toyota and he was driving. He had was driving at fifty five miles an hour on the inside lane, and he couldn't help but notice that there was a car traveling in the outside the passing lane that was going slower than fifty five, probably about fifty miles an hour, which was unusual because I would say that at average speed in that passing lane was about seventy miles an hour. And then he notices he notices that this gal was also in the passing lane and almost bumped into him
because it was going so slow. You could almost feel that she was very irritated. She put her bright lights on and then slipped into the middle lane, passed the drivers in the passing lane to get in front of it to continue on. At that point, the two fellows that were in the slow vehicle, they sped up and they started turning their bright lights on and off. Uh. Don started this.
Uh he's.
Later on I'll probably give you a thorough description of Don's personality, but but uh, he got very concerned about this, and and he immediately figured that these two guys were predators because they kept almost bumping into this gal's rear fender and turning their brights on and off. So Don made a decision. I'm not gonna say that this was the wisest decision of the world, but he made a decision, and he said that I'm going to show teach these
guys a lesson. So he pulled out of the inside lane and got into into the passing lane behind these two guys, and he put there his bright lights on them. Then there were a series of unusual things that happened over the next few miles. The first thing I could tell you was that the girl disappeared. She got off. It was no longer a part of the scenario.
Right.
Don is following these guys, and at one point they came to a complete stop. And it's almost impossible, maybe divided to mention that he didn't crash into them, or somehow someone didn't rearent him, because coming to such a short a quick stop, that could have been a very likely occurrence. They started up again. At one point these guys started throwing some things out the window at Don's car.
They actually stopped the second time. They pulled a couple of other little tricks along the road that I thoroughly described in the book. And once they got past the Route four ninety five intersection, they slowed down and pulled off to the side of the road, and Don, thinking that at no point would it be wise for him to get in front of these guys, in other words, to accelerate and try to just shake these guys. He
decided to pull off besides them. I guess another thing that went through his mind is is that had he pulled up adjacent to them, they actually might have pulled their car and tried to sideswipe him. This was not no longer a friendly summer drive. This was turning into something that was not good at all. Anyway. Now you have both cars that are pulled off the side of the road with all kinds of traffic that's coming. It wasn't exactly a roadside rest.
But it was. It was.
It was enough to get both cars well off the side to the side of the road.
Uh No.
Sooner, Don pulled up, maybe about as I recalled him telling me it was somewhere around one hundred feet to one hundred and twenty five feet behind the other car. I might as well tell you that the driver of the car was a fellow by the name of Michael Michael Michael Blodgett, and his the other fellow in the car was a fellow by the name of Stephen Austin. And they got out of their car and they started walking back towards Don's car, the driver lodge. It was
walking in the road. Don noticed that he was carrying what's called a mag or a police flashlight, one of those long black flashlights in his hand. That light the flashlight was on uh and Aston got jumped over the guardrail and started coming back at him through the woods, probably maybe with intentions of getting up behind Donald. At any rate, Sandra was now awake. She was just sitting there horrified. And Donald immediately jumped out of his car, ran to the truck of his car, and pulled out
a crossbow. Now he was not a hunter, but he was an expert target shooter, and he locked a bolt in its place and started telling these guys, you know this, this party is over. It's time for you to go back to your car and get on with your wife. And he said this a couple of times. But they were close because there was only about one hundred one hundred feet of separation between the two cars. So this
all happened very very quickly. Brogett kept advancing and at one point, and at the critical point, he was so close to Don that he raised his hand to try to knock the crossbow out of Don's hand. And I'm not one hundred percent sure about this, and I've talked to Donald about this several times, but the way he tells it, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Bligett's hand didn't touch it didn't hit the crossbow. And at that point, uh Don either reflexively or deliberately pressed the trigger,
and that's a key point. And a bolt went off they called they called the arrow a bolt, and the bullets went off. I don at first thought that it flew over Blodgets, over over Blodget's head, but it ended up hitting him in the right shoulder and it hit a vein, a vein, And I think rather than continue the story, I'll let you get back to other questions. But I could tell you that five and a half hours Michael Blodgett died.
So well, let's let's go back to this. Let's go back to this sixteen inch bolt. Now you talk about an arrow and you talk about a crossbow. So I have some questions for you before we continue on. How again, at the time you write in the book that at the time Blodget with his partner, there were much bigger or bigger guys one six foot one's close to six foot and your friend dons about one hundred and fifty
pounds but stocky. So the thing is is that these guys can't We're intimidating their their advance on the car. Sandra has woken up well before this, but she is, like you say, horrified, terrified, sitting in that car, wondering what they're going to do. When he is shot in the shoulder, not everybody even realizes, even his partner doesn't really his friend that he's a coworker. Robert Aston doesn't realize that he's a shot. He says, he says that
he's been shot. He says, the motherfucker shot me. And so he pulls out, he pulls out this sixteen inch bolt out of his shoulder. And he's an emergency. He's an EMT worker and so is his partner. In this car, they're coming from work. So what does your friend Dawn do and his wife Sandra? Sandra's mad, you write, Sandra's mad? But what did they do? And this is important? What
do they do after? What do they think has happened, how serious they think it is, and what do they do before we see what happens to Blagette and his partner Robert Aston and the police.
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Right. Well, before I answer that question, let me just tell you it was not a wise move to pull that pull that arrow out of his shoulder. That was a good move. They they sat in their car in total amazement. I maybe shock would be a better better word to use. They were both virtually immobilized. They they obviously watched Logic pull the arrow out of his out
of his should. Older. Uh, they watched blodget uh take that mag flashlight, by the way, when when Blodgett was advancing on Donald, he was shining that that flashlight right in Donald's eyes. And that's a big flashlight with with with with serious light. Uh. Right, But but they he he took that mag flashlight and he destroyed the rear left light in Donald's car, at which point he then watched the two of them work the way to the
front of the car and start heading back to their car. Uh. As Donald was watching, he didn't think that the injury was that fatal. Uh, at the time. Uh, for all intentsive purposes. Eventually, what happened is is that he bled out. Uh. But they then went back to their car and they drove off. So want either Don said to Sandra or vice versa, what do we do now? And they said, well, we've got to report this to the police. And Sandra said, look,
I am sick. Let's go home and we can proceed with all the things that we have to do once we get home. And kind of the odd thing that she said to Don that remains fresh in his mind, she says, I must get home and brush my teeth. Kind of an interesting reaction. But essentially that's what they saw and that's what they did, and they did return home.
You talk now, you writing the book about the reason why you said he blew out. But again, an experienced person with a crossbow with the sixteen inch bolt, your friend Don knew very well if something he didn't think it was that serious that shot. Why was that shot so serious other than he pulled out this arrow? Is there other reasons that you've discovered for the read for his death, which was a surprise to most people.
Well, I don't remember the exact name of the ottery. It's located in the shoulder. I know I wrote about I specified it in the book, but being both of these guys were empts, by the way, so there's the Sturdy Memorial Hospital is probably somewhere in the city of ten miles away from where the incident occurred. So they made a b line for the Sturdy Memorial Hospital. At which point, let's put it this way, we couldn't describe Sturdy Memorial as a five star hospital. It's a real
small hospital located in Attleborough, Massachusetts. And when they got there, there's a lot of questions as to whether the doctors that took care of Logic did the right things, and I go into that in detail. I even made a point of doing some research with one of the top surgeons in Rhode Island, who I knew quite well, to get his opinion about it. And essentially what he said to me is that based on the amount of blood that Logic had lost, had he lived for sets of purposes,
he would have been a vegetable. And the last thing that I could tell you is that after uh Blogic had been its Sturdy Memorial for several hours, he was then helicoptered out to mass General, which is a five star hospital, to the Western Massachusetts branch, and that's where he passed away.
Right now. Meanwhile, while Don and and Sandra are contemplating their next move, police come to their door. What is Don and Sandra's reaction and what did the police do? And this is important in terms of what do they have in terms of warrants and how do they proceed? Tell us about that.
Well, uh, in a million years, never did they expect that the p police would show up at the door less than ten minutes after they arrived at home Ashton. Apparently he had gotten part of Donald's driver's license, his license plate number, and with that information they tracked down They very very quickly obviously tracked down Donald's address, and so there were two one Socket police members of the Wood Socket Police Force that showed up at his door.
As matter of fact, Don said to them, I'm assuming that you're here because of the incident on Route ninety five, and they were a little bit surprised to hear that, but they said yes. Don told him his side of the story while they were standing outside of the house, and by that time Don had already taken the crossbow and brought it down into his basement and and put it with him with several other uh firearms and weapons that Don Don had uh and he said to the police,
he says, would you like to see the weapon? And they said yes. So Don turned around and started walking into his house. A little did he know at that moment that they were standing behind him with guns drawn. And they followed Don into the house without a warrant. I might add uh from there on in uh Don's two kids were upstairs watching television. They came they they
came down. Uh there was one of the uh uh private detectives from the One Socket force that showed up, a fellow by the name of Marzini, and they questioned Don and and and seeing and they then arrested both of them and brought them down to the to the Wood Socket Police department. And also while they were there, uh Massachusetts State Police showed up and they took uh uh they took a report of the incident.
Also, did Don and Sandra say, listen, we're not going to be answering any questions. Will we opt to talk to an attorney first? What what did they do in that regard and what was the result of their decision.
They at the time didn't feel like they were guilty of any say. Uh, as far as Don was concerned, his action was an action of self defense.
Uh.
I kind of put the whole incident into it's a three acts, the act one being the drive, act two being the road rage incident, and actually being the aftermath. So this would be the beginning of the aftermath. And they were very straightforward and honest with every and any question that both the local police and the Massachusetts State Police asked that at that time. I don't know if no, at that time there was no attorney discussion at all.
That didn't happen till for several days after the incident.
Well, that's that's the point. They made statements. They both made statements, and then they were charged, both of them. He charged with more serious charges, obviously and including first degree murder, which in in Massachusetts would net you life without the possibility of parole. She is charged for accessory after the fact, and soon after is released on a recognissance. But then there's an issue of bail. Does Donald get bail?
And then right away you include really the incredible articles that occur in the media, and right away Da Prosecutor Liturno comes forward, and we've just heard the depiction from down and from your investigation. This da Liturno in the article portrays presents a much different perspective about what happened that day in February, doesn't He.
He really did not describe Dot all of very complimentary terms. From the contrary, he almost described Donald as a ruthless, heartless, uh criminal. I was just aching to use that that crossbow at some time in his life, and that is just so untrue. Yea, I go ahead, yeah, let me let me, let me just share share this with you. I became I became friends with Don Graham the first day I met him.
Uh.
I just had had such interesting conversation with him. Uh. I found him to be so fascinating. He's a Canadian citizen number one. As a matter of fact, to this day, he still has maintained his Canadians Canadian citizenship. But he was also a member of the United States one hundred first Airborne Division, which is one of the more feigned divisions in all of American military.
Uh.
He's a brilliant man. He was valedictorian of his class. Extremely well read, uh terrific sportsman. By the way, of course, being from Canada, hockey is his first love. But he just loves sports, very very He's kind of quiet, low key, dry wit, uh, but extremely straightforward.
You know.
He just calls the spade a spaate. You know that that that type of a person. Uh uh And maybe a little bit too straightforward to suit his own good, but that's his nature and I admire that, uh And I always found him to be what as honest as the day is long. And lastly, he was deacon of his church, which kind of made it relatively easy for me to draw the conclusion that the title of the book should be Deacon's Crossbow. Kind of has a twist
in the name of it. But he was so good in that position that he helped form the very first soup kitchen for the poor in the city of wind Socket, which was domiciled in the basement of the first of the wind Socket first Baptist Church. So I hope that that gives you a good description as to what my friend was like. Hardly the description of the personality that Laturno created.
But Dia Liturno has to put a narrative that will aid in the prosecution so other than you know, giving a thirst that he's a bad character bringing up his driving record of impaired driving in Rhode Island, tried to equate that with the criminality in general, and that this guy was a guardian of the highway and had a crossbowl ready to use it, and depicted some of the things that you have said in terms of not advancing, basically saying, well, sure they advanced on the car, but
Donald Graham had every opportunity to leave, which is conflicts with what Donald has said and your investigation.
You know, Dan, I'm the kind of person that pretty much I've got to see it to believe it, all right. Part two is when I tell you that I have always felt double Graham just to be the most honest person, I just have always felt whatever Donald said is the way is the is the way it happened. But I have to leave a little bit of a percentage out there that maybe the way he tells the story might
not be one hundred percent. I think I think that, particularly with all of the the interviews that you do UH where you're dealing in similar type issues when you're in a critical traumatic state of mind, traumatized ah ah it makes sense that you don't remember whether you whether the bolt accidentally went off or whether he pressed that whether he pressed that trigger on purpose. He doesn't remember.
That's why I earlier, earlier suggested that I of believe that that blodget hit that crossbow and that's what triggered the arrow going off, the bolts going off.
Let me ask you this question. Let me ask this question. Did you ask? And I think the audience is asking too. Okay, he uses the crossbow for target passing practice, as you're right, doesn't use it for hunting. But why and you do tell in the book why would he have a crossbow? And I think this is important. It didn't come up into trouble. I think this is important. Why would he have a crossbow in his trunk? What for?
What?
In case of what? In New England?
Good question, that's that's a good question. As I recall, Uh Darn had said to me that he always had concerned that maybe something really bad might happen, and maybe it was prophetic because something something bad did happen. He had also indicated to me that Ah that that Uh, there were a lot of raccoons. This might sound a little bit odd, but but you know, they are rodents.
You can get rabies from raccoons, and that there had been some in his in his neighborhood and in his yard, so that he had he had he had that crossbow in there. But I think it was primarily because just as a defense mechanism, a defense tool, a firearm, that's not a crime.
Uh.
Maybe you and I wouldn't do that, and maybe the majority of people wouldn't do that, but he did. He did. Mm hmm.
Well, I think it's I think it's reasonable for the first part of that answer, in terms of he recognized this as a viable weapon that he was quite good at. He was an expert, but he was quite adept at using this cross bowl. And so I don't know if that makes a huge difference, but I thought at least that question would come up, especially when given this literno, the DA's prosecution and how he depicts not only Donald but the turn of events that led to this fatality.
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turning story. And you put not the blame but some of the reasons for things turning out the way they were, not only in as you described later on in the book, the choices that Donald made that night, that faithful night, but also his decisions in terms of statements he made, and we talk about him taking the witness stand Sandra being on the witness stand testifying. Tell us you weren't at there, but at the trial, but you describe the events in the book just if you were there. Tell
us what happens in this incredible trial. Tell us a little bit about that.
Well. I can't be like one hundred percent correct in all of my answers here, Dan, simply because I wrote the book from two thousand and nine to twenty twelve, so several years ago, and during that time I've also been writing, I published another book, and I'm in the process of a third book coming out, So all of
that is not one hundred percent clear. The first thing that I want to tell you is that I thought it would really be a good idea to cover the trial primarily through newspaper articles from the newspapers in the area, mostly our local newspapers, the Wins I could call in the Providence Journal. As far as some of the specifics of the trial are concerned, I believe that virtually everything
that Donald said during the trial was totally honest. Uh. And he created for himself and and kind of took charge of his attorneys and and kind of dictated the terms as to how he wanted the trial to go, which is very unusual and maybe maybe not the wisest thing in the world. But this is Donald's personality. As I said, He's a straight ahead kind of guy, and he felt that that self defense was the way to go.
Uh. I know that his.
Attorneys had suggested that that maybe he could have poleted a temporary insanity uh plea which which which could very well be possible. H Uh. In Donald's testimony, Uh, he was very again, very straightforward and very aggressive. Uh. And throughout the throughout the trial, Uh, malaternal just kept building a monster.
And and.
There's another underlying feature to the case. Uh, Michael Bligett's family. Uh. His father, if I'm not mistaken, was head of the civil defense program. Either in Massachusetts or in in the Attleborough area, and his brother was a local policeman. UH. And I mentioned that because so many of us as the trial was taking place, we felt that Don was kind of being rail roaded.
Uh.
Going back to the scene of the crime. Uh, it was never it was never cordoned off.
UH.
There was never anything brought up from the prosecution. UH that that they found glass on the on the road from where Brogeic had broken had broken the light. UH when they had uh asked and testify.
Uh.
He said that that at no time did Donald give them any warning, whereas Don said on two distinct, two distinct moments, he did tell them to stop and go back. Asking totally denied that as being true. So it's a little bit difficult for me Dan to recreate all those moments that I wrote about in the book. I will defend myself on that comment by saying, if you read the book, you could see that I dotted all my
eyes and I crossed all my teas encovering it. So if you wanted to ask a couple of more specific questions related to the trial, probably I can remember. So I reacted to it all as it was taking place.
Well, needless to say, it's interesting too when you were faced with Donald taking the stand. But he's not, for various reasons, a sympathetic figure. There are statements originally that he made where he's asked if he's sorry and he says, I'm you know, I'm so. He doesn't have that remorseful, empathetic and emphatic, emphatic persona that he can present at trial. But also exact wife Sandra, His wife Sandra is really
of no value because she didn't really witness anything. So the testimony that's real valuable is this Robert Aston and they're co workers, not necessarily friends as you try to investigate. But that testimony was very strong, and the prosecutor's case
in theory was pretty strong and presented pretty well. At this trial Don's defense again, Don is somewhat combative or trying controlling with his attorneys David Cooper and Scott Loots, but they're failed at basic lease defending the idea that it was self defense because Don makes some honest statements, again, very honest statements, not very calculating as a criminal. So
I understand what you're saying. He just said, well, I'm not sure if it was intentional or if it was an accidental You know, he makes statements like that that didn't help him, didn't help him, a trial didn't help him before. What is the result like this?
I agree with I agree with that. I agree with that there. I agree with that. I think that it would have been wise for uh LUTs and Cooper to have brought some character witnesses, UH, people that could make statements about Don so that so that the jury would get a softer sense of this man's character. Uh that
that never took place. Uh, there's a number of things that I questioned in the book, UH of issues that that that uh Don's attorneys did not bring up right, So well, I would have to agree with you, mhm. Go ahead.
Now, the idea is that Don has his day, and you talk about an interesting national media attention, tell us when Dan Rather and CBS twenty twenty comes into the picture, and what Don's hopes are with this interview, and then tell us what happens in that interview.
Basically, Well, the event took on some national consequences. It's like Don became like the poster boy for road rage, not exactly the most enviable position to hold a reputation to have. But Dan rather yes, he did a program, sorry, the twenty four Hours. I think that was the name of the show, and I know I devote a chapter
to that. But he did a really good job of earning Donald's trust in the interviews that he conducted prior to the television program, and Don felt that Ratheric could possibly be helpful in setting him free as opposed to
the life of out parole setencing. As it turns out, the program was really seted on road rage, not only Donald's case, but several other cases at the time time during around nineteen ninety four when the incident took place, So the program was pretty much designed to encourage people to take it easy. We all experience moments of road rage, but don't let what happened to Donald Graham happened to you.
So I wasn't exactly overwhelmed or satisfied with the program, And as it turned out, it was not helpful for Donald's cause.
And Donald was was very angry at the portrayal overall disappointed, wasn't he.
Yes he was, yes, he was. Yeah, he did not. Let's put it this way, he could have made a better witness, But he's this is his style, this is his way, and he felt that in no way, shape or form should he have been chock judge with first degree or life without And from that standpoint, Dan I fully agree with him.
Oh certainly.
Well, when I think of so many other cases that I've uh, that I've read about, or movies that I've seen, that some of these that like Hanson manson some of these cases, I mean, these people deserve first degree life without parole. Donald Graham I think should have been manslaughter to manslaughter or manslaughter too, I think would have been the correct the correct sentence.
Well, let's talk about what he does post conviction. You get involved ten years after the trial, and so your your goal is to help out as much as you can. You put a team together of people a reverend Francis vic Blank. You put a team of people that have different skills and you want to have the same goal. Try to do try to get to the issues. You find out all the facts, you've got all the information.
Now you're trying to reinterview people. You're trying to get to people to see what they might know that will help you build a case. Tell us in what you do, who do you have to approach and what is the approach in terms of retrial approaching a governor? What is it exactly you do right?
Well, step number one is that we interviewed a couple of different lawyers. We came up with a fellow by the name of Tom Dickinson who was a prosecutor. As a matter of fact, he worked for a number of the Rhode Island attorney generals. And after talking with Tom on several occasions, we then reported back Vick and I reported back uh to Don and suggesting that we thought
it would be a good idea to hire Tom. Now, now what I could tell you in Massachusetts, Uh, you get to two opportunities to appeal.
Uh.
And by the time we brought Tom Dickinson in, uh, Donald had already exercised his second appeal and had been turned down. So one of the things that that that that Dickenson shared with us, he says, you know, he said,
because of that, our chances are not very good. Uh And and UH we kind of came to the conclusion, uh that the only way that his case could be brought up again for trial is there would have to be what's referred to as new news an E. W. A e w any ws something extraordinary related to the case that warranted reopening the case and having a new trial. And I believe that that Tom did the best he could to try to find something to that extent, I write thoroughly about the variety of things that Tom.
Did do.
To no avail. I might add, but one of the other things was to see if we couldn't pursue a pardon from the governor or the positive ability of done being transferred to Canada. And in my very last conversation with Don, he told me that that is still a possibility. And I believe that if that were to happen, there's a good chance if he become a free man, because the maximum sentence for any crime in Canada is fifteen years. I hope that helps.
Sure. The thing is very interesting too, is all through this, you know, you do include the incarceration of your friend, you know, a deacon, Yes, now in prison with killers. This person that has to make his way. Sandra has to divorce him because of civil suit actions. So that's understanding.
So he says alcoholism, you know, his marriage survived or alcohol his merriage of I have the alcoholism, but his you know, but his uh, but his pardon me, his marriage survived the alcoholism, but they ended up divorced anyway out of this.
Yes, yes, yeah. If not now with this, sand would have lost her home because because the Prodge of Family brought brought a suit against against Donald, a civil suit.
Just now with this is with this Don's Don's personality prevails with this as well, and he knows this case better than anyone, he believes, and so through you and through Vic he is talking talking to Dickinson and any attorney after this as well, because there are more attorneys after this, and that he thinks that there's two key issues, two key issues, and he thinks the most important issue is that the misconduct by Judge McHugh denying his constitutional
right to an open public trial in that they did close chambers in the first day of this trial. So Tom Dickison would disagree with that. With that in terms of the best idea to move forward or the best motion to move forward with and have the best success with, potentially he thought that it would be better to look at this in terms of ineffective counsel. But Tom was very adamant about that. Now, regardless of what Don wanted.
They did try to do this the way Tom Dickinson tried, had had envisioned, and like you say, it didn't work out, did it?
No?
Correct, You've done your homework very well. Damn, because I'm really happy that you brought up the fact about ineffective counsel. Interestingly enough, there are two other lawyers that I had thoroughly discussed the case with and they also felt that that would have been the better move of any possible move to see if he could have gotten a retrial. Never came to be. Never came to be.
It's fascinating in the book to you take the reader through the journey of the close calls, the twists and turns, the doors that have to be basically broken down. But then there is so much hope and optimism, even from people that are veterans in the legal community like Dickinson, to say, you know, I think we can do this. There's long there's odds, but I still think essentially, But unfortunately,
there is no happy ending in this. Do you say that even the Canadian angle, that he would be able to be transferred to a Canadian risen That's not as easy as it sounds, is it exactly.
No, you're exactly right about that. And as far as maybe getting a different council at the time or ten years later when I started writing my book, you gotta pay a lot of money for these big time lawyers, big big books, and that wasn't exactly Donald's situation. So unless he could find a top notch lawyer that was gained to participate pro bodo, he wasn't going to get
one of the country's top lawyers to defend him. And I think that you struck on a good point there because possibly if he did have that type of a lawyer, he'd be a freeman today.
So the thing is is it's hard to unwind convictions. It's much harder. Unfortunately, it's easy to say you should have done this. He should have been a better witness, Sandra could have been more prepared the defense if it was ineffective. Ineffective, but who knows how limited they were in terms of experience, in terms of the judge's assistance
as well. Again, you know Don talks about Tom Dickinson. First, I thought it was just typical revenge at the judge that sentenced me, but he did have a different vision or version of events. Once he saw a report from your friend the or associate, the school ron report which outlined everything earlier on. Yes, yes, very very interesting. How important that was report that report was.
Through all of this, John Scarren did an amazing job at detailing all of the all of the flaws and the errors related to the trial.
Uh.
And and you're right. Because of that, I was encouraged. I had a lot of drive and a lot of impetus uh and thinking that that we're going to win this thing. Uh. And you know most people when they're reading, when they're reading a book, dan, uh, they prefer that it be a comedic ending, a comedy as opposed to a tragic ending. And I thought about that that is, as far as this book being extremely attractive to the public, well, maybe it won't be because it is this difficult ending.
And then I received an email from a lady from the Netherlands that had read the book, and she said something in her email to me that really struck home to me and was a bit comforting to me.
Uh.
And she says, your book is a book of conscience. And I never even thought of it that way as I was writing the book, or even after, until I heard that comment, and I think she's right, because I think as you read the book, you can't help but put yourself in the shoes of the of the players, obviously, the two major players being Michael Blodgett, and and and uh and Donald Graham. Uh. There's one o the things that's that's really very unusual here is that. Uh. Yeah,
I'm not happy with what Donald did. I wish she just kept driving and and and had he had a cell phone back in nineteen, I mean ninety four, he could have called the police and says, hey, there's a nut bag out on the road. You probably want to get out here if you can, as quickly as possible, as quickly as possible to see it. But it wasn't meant to be. And here we are with a book of conscience, with what I think is an absolutely fascinating story and one I'm going to have a very very
difficult time ever forget it. You know, it's gonna haunt me for the rest of my life.
It's interesting too, in the discovery as you lead the reader through this, because obviously now we know what this outcome is, but along the way you have this optimism that this book will make a difference that this team will make a difference. That these lawyers attorneys that you had to it was hard to find that these people. Once you can vincedent and you hounded these people. You Don was was adamant, and you were, I think even more, and Vic Blank and Reverend Francis. It's a it's an
interesting team, all with the same goal. Very honorable, very honorable goal. But there's so many close calls. There's so many you tried to contact Robert Aston, you thought there
has to be some other maybe just possibly. So there's so many things that you keep the reader on the edge of their seat thinking that yes, he's close, that this makes sense, that this man certainly made a mistake but doesn't deserve life without parole, and certainly there has to be one valid way after all this time, that this can happen, and yet not. But it was incredible journey, very honorable, honorable ambition.
Thank you, thank you.
I want to thank you very much David G. Brown for coming on and talking about Deacon's Crossbow, the true story of a crossbow killing on Interstate ninety five. Is there a website or a Facebook page for Deacon's Crossbow?
Yes, yes, there is before I give you that, Dave Zupansky, I want to thank you for having me. I possibly could have been possibly could have been a little bit better, a better interview if we're a little bit closer to the time, and I think I hope you can understand that it's difficult to remember all of the details, but trust me, they are in the book. The book can easily be purchased on Amazon just by going to Amazon.
I've also got I've also got a website. It's Brave Down Books b R a v E. Do own books dot com. That's all one word, and if folks so desire, you can go to that website. You can read an excerpt and you can also read an excerpt from the more recent book that I just wrote called Shadowing Dizzy Gillespie. And on Facebook there's a Deacons Crossbow page. We've got a couple of hundred folks that follow it. I'd be delighted for people to check it out, get on board periodically.
I put some information in there. It's amazing Dan to think that this event happens twenty five years ago. So you know, is there a chance that you can get out? Sure, there's a chance that he can get out whether the odds are in his favor, well, maybe they're not. But it is what it is, and for me it will always be an amazing, haunting experience. And I hope that people feel that I did a good job of writing the book.
Absolutely. I want to thank you very much. You've been a great friend to Don and you wrote an exemplary book here. Thank you very much about Deacon's Crossbow, the true story of a crossbow killing on Interstate ninety five. Thank you very much, David G. Brown, have a great night. Good night.
Thank you to you two. Good night, good night.