Lex talionis, or the law of retaliation, is perhaps better known by the more familiar maxim of taking an eye for an eye. Although codes of law had been established many years previously, the formal enacting of reciprocal justice is thought to have originated in Babylonian times, with an ancient code proposed by Babylonian king Hammurabi carved onto a basalt pillar sometime around the middle of the eighteenth century BC.
Hammarabi's code consists of two hundred and eighty two laws, outlining a variety of crimes, from simple theft to the refusal of accepting corn as a payment for a drink, alongside the various punishments criminals could expect to receive for perpetrating them. It is here, over a thousand years before the creation of the Torah later adapted as the Old Testament, that we first find such retributive ideas as if a man has destroyed the eye of a man, they shall
destroy his eye. Or if a man should knock out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall too be knocked out. The code listed twenty five crimes that were considered capital offenses, meaning those that were punishable by death. However, it isn't until the sixteenth century BC that we see the first evidence of capital punishment actually being carried out, with the enforced suicide of an Egyptian nobleman accused of
the heinous crime of practicing magic. Although invariably skewed in favor of the wealthier classes, it could be said that such penal laws were vital for the management of increasingly complex society, for better or worse. In the years since those first punishments were meted out, capital punishment has been employed at some point by almost every nation and culture that has come into existence today, although the methods of execution might be considered more broadly humane, fifty seven countries
continue to enforce a death penalty. For all those countries that have abolished it. There is one simple reason why
that stands out above all others. A two thousand and fourteen study released in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluded that over four percent of people sentenced to die in the United States of America have been convicted for crimes they did not commit, a figure that, if correct, would suggest that as many as one hundred and twenty of the three thousand prisoners currently on death row have been wrongfully convicted, and of the one thousand,
four hundred and sixty seven prisoners that have been executed since nineteen seventy six, as many as sixty of those people might well have been innocent of their supposed crimes. On hearing these statistics, there will be some in favor of the death penalty who might consider this little more than an unfortunate consequence of an essential system. Others, however, might think twice, given how often support for capital punishment stems largely from that old maxim of an eye for
an eye. After all, as some might say, just because those innocent people are now dead, it doesn't mean they won't still be seeking retribution. This is unexplained, and I'm Richard McClean smith. Early Saturday morning, October thirty first, nineteen eighty one, on the outskirts of the panhandled city of Amarillo, Texas, rain and sleet batter the chapel windows of the Saint Francis Convent, whereinside forty nuns are gathered for morning mass.
As the ceremony comes to a close, Sister Bernice notices with alarm that Sister Tadea is not in attendance. A colleague sent to check on her whereabouts, returns moments later, ashen faced and gasping for air. Come quickly, she says. Sister Bernice and the convent nurse race up the stairs to the narrow single bed room at the far end of the hall, passing a small crowd gathered outside. Lying completely still on the floor is seventy six year old
sister to Daya bends naked under a sheet. The nurse rushes to the woman's side, but is unable to find a pulse. The shake of her head is followed by gasps and muffled sobs from outside the room. It is only then that Bernice notices the drops of blood on today's pillow and on the sheet draped over her body. Uncharacteristically, a dirty white T shirt has been left on the floor. Turning back to the body, the nurse examines some bruising
and scratches around the neck. It was common during a heart attack to struggle for breath, she says, suspecting she may have clawed at her own neck and fallen out of bed in the panic. Deciding not to remove the sheet to protect their colleague's modesty, the devastated nuns wrap another around the body and lift it carefully on to the bed. After wiping some blood from Today's face, Bernice collects herself and makes the call to the convent physician.
Doctor Winst is fast asleep when the phone rings, but soon snaps into action. Satisfy vied with Sister Bernice's assessment, he instructs workers from the local funeral home to collect the body and deliver it to the mortician. As some of the nuns gather to pray for their dear departed colleague, others return to her room to straighten things out, knowing only too well how embarrassed Sister Todaya would have been for her room to be found in such a state.
Having tidied a few things away, finally they stripped the blood streaked sheets from the bed and deliver them to the laundry room. An hour or so later, a soft knocking sound coming from the far end of the large community hall downstairs draws one of the sisters to an unlatched window beating gently against its frame. Hearing the crack of glass under foot, she realizes one of the panes has recently been smashed inwards. Sister Bernice is informed immediately
and in turn calls the police. When two officers arrived shortly after nine thirty a m. They discovered that the screen outside the window has been slashed. A long piece of wood that had likely been used to break the glass appears also to have been dumped on the ground below it. At the funeral home, having taken receipt of the body, the morticians are surprised to find a number of puncture wounds running up the side of Sister to Day's body from her thigh to her neck, which also
has a significant amount of bruising. It's odd, they think, how the bruises look almost like finger marks, but since due to a mix up of information, doctor Wincett had stated that the unfortunate nun had fallen down the stairs, they thought nothing more of it as they continue preparing the body for the embalming. Back at the convert the sisters have gathered to determine if anything has been stolen for suspected break in, but find nothing of note to
speak of. Perhaps the burglar had been spooped and run away, suggests the police as they prepare to head back to the station. There was one thing, thought sister Bernice What's that, asks one of the officers. We found our colleague sister todaya dead in her room this morning, but we think it was a heart attack, she says. The look on
the officer's faces says it all. A short time later, an irate L. B. Bartlett, Potter County Justice of the Peace, furious that doctor Wincett had not consulted him before sending to day of Bens's body to the funeral home, orders the embalming process stopped and the body to be held pending a formal inquest. By the time the police arrive, however, the cadaver has already been washed and the arterial embalming pleted.
Back outside the convent, Homicide Captain Jimmy Davis of the Amarillo Police Department arrives to oversee a search of the premises. Stepping out of his car into the cold, gray and wet, he takes a moment to assess the surroundings. Already he has a bad feeling about this one. The convent, located on the quiet northeastern fringes of the city, is positioned fifty yards away from the end of northeast eighteenth Avenue
and surrounded by trees. Inside Davis and his team mount a thorough search of the premises, beginning with Today's room, where they find a bent butter knife under the bed and recover a number of finger prints. Blood spatters are found on the inside of the building's back fire exit, leading Davis to suspect that if to day I had been murdered, the perpetrator most likely escaped that way. The dirty t shirt and blood stained sheets are collected from the laundry, and later a stake knife is found in
the convent driveway. Facing the terrible prospect that their colleague may have been murdered, a few of the nuns recalls strange incidences from the night before. One received a phone call some time around two thirty a m. From a man calling himself Father Jose, who spoke with the Spanish accent and begged her to help with his sexual problems.
Another recalled hearing a muffled scream coming from the direction of Todaya's room sometime around four thirty a m. Later that afternoon, pathologist doctor Ralph Erdmann performs a formal autopsy, confirming everyone's worst fears. To day a Ben's had sustained multiple blunt force trauma about the face, chest, and arms, and had been stabbed numerous times cross her body. A crushed larynx is clear indication of death by strangulation, but
there is something else. Sister Todaya had also been raped, with her hymen being torn in the process. Erdman conducts a vaginal wash and successfully retrieves samples of sperm and prostrate secretions before concluding that her death occurred around four am that morning. He makes the call to Captain Davis to deliver the horrific news. For Davis, it is a
particularly galling turn of events. Not only was there a rapist and killer on the loose, but if his hunch is correct, this isn't the first time he had struck. Are you always taking care of your family? Do you often take care of others and not yourself? Now it's time to take care of yourself, to make time for you. You deserve it. Teledoc gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling your best to feeling like yourself again. With teledoc, you can speak
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Download the app or visit teledoc dot com forward slash Unexplained podcast today to get started. That's teladoc dot com slash Unexplained podcast. In July, barely two miles from the convent, seventy seven year old Nannie Bryson had been due to meet some friends from her church group to go grocery shopping, but had failed to show up. When a friend from the group went to Nannie's house to check up on her, she found three days worth of newspapers accumulated on the
front porch and a back door unlocked and a jar. Inside, she found Nannie's dead body sprawled out on her bedroom floor. She had also been brutally raped and murdered, strangled to death with a telephone cord. The following week, three blocks away, a twelve year old girl had woken in the middle of the night to find a man standing over her at the foot of her bed. Mercifully, the man fled
when the child screamed for help. Later, footprints were found at the young girl's house that were the same found at the Brison property. As it happens, there are potentially four more unsolved crimes of a similar nature, including the beating and rape of a ninety two year old woman that had occurred as far back as May, and there
was more to come. The same afternoon. Doctor Erdman is carrying out sister today as autopsy Captain Davis receives word that another elderly Amarilla resident, aged seventy seven, has been found in her home beaten into a coma. The timing couldn't have been worse for the city's beleagued police department, who were under heavy public scrutiny after failing to close a slew of capital murder investigations that had resulted in
embarrassing acquittals and a number of costly retrials. Newly appointed Police Chief Jerry Neil and the recently elected District Attorney Danny Hill are determined not to fail this time, with Hill, being particularly eager to solve the case with all the fire and brimstone of a Bible belt. Minister Hill had run for election on a promise of tougher reprimands for criminals and a promise to seek the death penalty more often and more swiftly. There would be no better opportunity
to prove his worth. As children and their families gear up to celebrate Halloween that cold October night in nineteen eighty one, things take a devastating and ominous turn when Captain Davis informs the press that Sister to Day, a bends of the Saint Francis Convent, has been found raped and murdered. Both Davis and Hill draw comparisons with the Bryson murder, with Hill not unreasonably stating he had strong feelings that the same person had been involved in both cases.
The public are, of course deeply shocked by the news, but that a virginal nun had been the victim triggers a particularly acute trauma for the deeply religious, predominantly Christian population. It is a crime of unimaginable depravity, worthy of the
Devil himself. A task force is immediately set up to tackle the investigation, combining members of the Potter County Sheriff's Office, led by Lieutenant Jimmy Boydston, with the Amarillo Police Department being led by Lieutenant Gerald Jacobs, both departments contributing their best and finest in pursuit of the rapist and murderer
on the loose in their city. On Monday morning, Amarillo Police officers begin a door to door sweep of the neighborhood surrounding the convent, asking for any information that might be pertinent to the investigation. Less than half a kilometer away, the body of the gentle sister to day A Benz is being laid to rest. The much loved nun, who had dedicated her life to helping others, had moved to
the US from Switzerland in thirty three. More than two hundred people arrived to pay their respects at the service led by Bishop Leroy Matheson of the Amarillo Diocese. Later that evening, shortly before midnight, having spoken to most of the residents, on Northeast eighteenth Avenue, two officers in a squad car heading back to the station notice a man standing in a front lawn beating at a bush with
a stick. At the sight of the car. The man rushes inside the house, a modest bungalow located three blocks down from the Saint Francis Convent. The officers made a note of the address number four thousand and ran a check on the property, finding it listed in the name of Charlotte Cameron. The officers added to their report and clock off for the night. All in all, the leads reveal very little other than a number of conflicting reports describe a Latino looking man being spotted near the grounds
of the convent the night before Sister Todaya's murder. But when the examination of the nun's sheets and nightgown revealed strands of jet black hair similar to hares found at the scene of Narnie Bryson's murder, it is all the evidence District Attorney Hill needs. Within days, under DA Hill's instructions, the investigative team turned their attention to a number of Cuban refugees, the majority of which were skilled and professional
workers who had recently settled in the area. The refugees were received as part of a politically motivated placement program assisting Cubans fleeing President Fidel Castro's anti capitalist regime. Hill's efforts are scuppered, however, when Catholic Family Services, who had helped the refugees settle, refused to hand over background data for their clients. But then the police believe they have
caught a break. Twenty eight year old Fernando Flores, a Cuban refugee who had recently arrived in the city from Miami, was picked up on the night of Tuesday, third of November in connection with a burglary and the attempted rape of a twenty one year old resident of North Amarillo
that had taken place on Halloween night. Although Flores's prince failed to match with any found in Sister to Day's bedroom, a raid of his apartment results in the discovery of a number of fibers on Flores's clothes that appear to be from sister Benz's blue night dress and bedsheets. A series of witnesses who claimed to have seen a man lurking around the Saint Francis Convent late on the Friday
night identify Flores as the man they had seen. News of the refugee's arrest does much to calm the rising fear in the community, with many praising the fast and efficient efforts of the city's new District Attorney. Two days later, the force wait expectantly as identification technician Sergeant Gregg Saltice flies to Washington, d C. Carrying two boxes of evidence
to be tested by the FBI. Inside are a vast collection of samples of Florre's and sister Benz's clothes, the white shirt found at the scene, as well as the nun's bloody sheets, and the black hairs found in her room and on her body. By the afternoon, the bureau returns their findings Flores is not a match. In desperation, the police turned to the seventy seven year old Amarilla resident who had seemingly been beaten into a coma the
afternoon after sister to Daya's murder. Having emerged from her coma unable to remember anything about the attack, the woman is brought in to District Attorney Hill's office to meet with a hypnotherapist. After the session, in conjunction with a series of tests carried out on ever from her home, the police are forced to concede that the woman was not attacked after all, but rather had fallen accidentally down her stairs. The investigation team are back to square one,
and the pressure is beginning to mount. The community grows increasingly restless, fearful that the perpetrator is still at large, and frustrated once again by the possibility of yet another bungled investigation. The offer of a ten thousand dollar reward for any information leading to the arrest and indictment of
a suspect does little to move the case along. Over a week after the murder, on the early evening of Monday, November the ninth, at four thousand Northeast eighteenth Avenue, where police had witnessed a man apparently acting suspiciously outside, a family has gathered together to watch Monday night football. Mother of four Charlotte Cameron is casually knitting on her sofa alongside her two daughters and her seventeen year old son,
Johnny Garrett, who is sitting at her feet. When there is an unexpected knock at the door, Charlotte opens it to find a whole squad of police brandishing a warrant to search a property and for the arrest of her son. Before she has even had time to process the situation, Charlotte can only look on with shock and desperation as her son, Johnny, is handcuffed and marched into a waiting
squad car before being taken away. Later that evening, the Amarillo Police Department hold a press conference to announce the arrest of seventeen year old Garret in connection with sister to Day's rape and murder. As it turned out, Garrett's name had apparently come up after Detective Sergeant Walter Jager reviewed the initial leads that had been documented at the beginning of the case, recognizing Garret as the person who
had been seen running into number four thousand Northeast eighteenth Avenue. Yaga, who had also been processing finger prints for a number of other burglaries at the time, ran Johnnie's against the prince found in sister to Day's bedroom. Incredibly, they found a positive match with at least two prints, one found on the headboard of the nun's bed and one on
the butter knife discovered bent and discarded underneath it. As reporters start to disperse, Johnny's mother, Charlotte is seen in floods of tears shepherding her three other children into the Major Crimes Unit, desperately looking for more answers as to why her son had been arrested. What they tell her moments later but hadn't yet told the press stops her in her tracks. They know Johnnie did it, they say,
because he had confessed it only hours before. After arriving at the police station, Johnny had been led into an interview room, where at five p m. Detectives Morris and Jimmy Boydston would later claim to have elicited a confession from him. In the apparent statement, Johnny is alleged to have confessed to breaking into the convent, loaded up on whiskey and acid, with the intention of stealing a number of stereos that he had been led to believe were inside.
While looking around the convent, he was supposedly spotted by sister to Daa, and in an effort to silence her, had ended up choking her to death before deciding to sexually assault her corpse. The statement ended with Johnny apparently claiming to have left the convent the same way he came in, through the broken window, despite blood spatters being found by the convent's fire exit. There was only one problem,
Johnny was refusing to sign the statement. Later that evening, when Charlotte is finally given a moment with her son as he looks his mother in the eyes and tells her he didn't do it, it is clear to her that something terrible is happening. Part two of Lex Talionis will be released on Tuesday, May first. If you enjoy listening to Unexplained and would like to help supporters, you can now go to Unexplained podcast dot com forward slash support.
All donations, no matter how large or small, are massively appreciated. All elements of Unexplained are produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the show on it tunes. Feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or on Twitter at Unexplained Pod. Now, it's time to
take care of yourself. To make time for you, teledoc gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video anytime between seven am to nine pm local time, seven days a week. Teledoc therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download the app, or visit telldoc dot com Forward slash Unexplained podcast Today to get started, that's t e l A d oc dot com slash Unexplained Podcast