Roger Harris interview with John Kevin Walker, August 6, 1993 re: Kevin Walker’s testimony in Frank Gable’s trial for murder of Michael Francke.

 

RH:      Roger Harris.  I’m an investigator, uh, working on behalf of Karen Gable.  Today  

            is August 6th, I believe, and I’m talking to, uh, John Kevin Walker at his house

            near Salem, and, uh, Kevin, you want to introduce yourself and just say if there’s

            any coercion or anything going on here?

 

JKW:  Yeah, my name is John Kevin Walker.  There is no coercion going on.  I’m not

           being promised any money.  I’m giving this statement freely, um…

 

RH:     Ok.

 

JKW:  …and I’m ready to begin.

 

RH:     Alright.  Me, too.  What we’re gonna do is go through the points, in, uh, the

           transcript of your testimony in court, um, in Frank Gable’s trial, and just, uh,

           discuss, uh, the vario…various points, uh, in your testimony, and I’ll just sort of

           skim through here to find a first topic.  Said you were residing in Salem uh…um,

           first personally met Frank at a friend’s house; Russ Eastep.  Could you discuss

           that?

 

JKW:  I was selling, um, crank to Russ for resale to, um…I was…I wa…I met Frank

           through Russ, because I was selling crank to Russ for resale by Russ to Frank.

           Russ got tired of being the middleman, and um, introduced me to Frank because

           he said, ‘Well, Frank’s just got out of the joint, too, and, you know, he doesn’t

           have any problems meeting you if you want to meet him,’ and I told Russ that’d

           be alright.

 

RH:    Do you remember where that was?

 

JKW:  Um, on…the apartment on Hawthorne.

 

RH:     Ok, was that Frank’s apartment or Russ’s?

 

JKW:  No, it was…it was at Russ’s apartment.

 

RH:     And about when was that?

 

JKW:  Somewhere in ‘88.  The beginning of ‘88.

 

RH:     Ok.  And, let’s see, in your testimony here it says, uh, Frank was, uh, living around

           the corner, or Russ was living around the corner from where Frank was living.

 

 

Roger Harris/John Kevin Walker interview

August 6, 1993

Page 2

 

JKW:  Russ was living in the second building…as you pull into the apartment complex,

           there were three buildings; two of them running perpendicular to Hawthorne, the

           third building running parallel to Hawthorne.  Russ lived in the second perpen-

           dicular building to Hawthorne and Frank lived in the parallel building to

           Hawthorne.

 

RH:    Ok.  And who was living with Frank?

 

JKW:  Uh, Janyne…Janyne and, uh, Jessica.

 

RH:    Ok.  In the testimony it says, uh, let’s see, the question was, ‘How was it that Russ

          Eastep introduced you to Frank?’  You said you were selling some crank to Russ.

          Ok, this is probably what you just explained.  Um, Russ would run over to Frank’s

          and sell it.  Russ got tired of being the third man.  Ok.  Frank was in the kitchen

          and, uh…

 

JKW:  Well, it, uh, actually got to the point where Frank would see my car pull in, and

           immediately after that, like within ten, fifteen minutes, Russ would be knocking

           on Frank’s door saying, ‘I got the stuff that you want,’ and it got to the point

           where Frank would recognize the car pulling in, and then asked him if he could

           m…could meet me, and I said…and that’s when Russ said, ’Well, he wants to

           meet you, you want to meet him, and I’m tired of being third…the middleman,’

           so…

 

RH:    Yeah.  Ok the testimony says that, uh…uh, you’d both been in the [Oregon State]

           Penitentiary and you thought you knew him from the Penitentiary, or knew of him.

           Do you…do you remember meeting Frank at all in the Pen?

 

JKW:  No.

 

RH:    Did you ever see him there, or were you there at the same time, do you know?

 

JKW:  Nope.  According to, uh, prison records, uh, I don’t believe that Frank was ever in

           the Penitentiary at all, the same time that I was.

 

RH:    Mkay.

 

JKW:  We were talking about Gary Davis and how, uh, yeah, I knew Gary Davis and how

           Frank knew Gary Davis and, um, that’s pretty much how we even had the, uh,

           discussion…you know, when you meet somebody…when you meet somebody on

           the streets that was in the Pen, you have a tendency to say, ‘Oh, yeah, I remember

Roger Harris/John Kevin Walker interview

August 6, 1993

Page 3

 

           you; you remember this dude, here?’, and that way, if you know the…the people

           and you know how the Penitentiary is set up, then you can make it so that it’s not,

           um, a set-up, you know what I mean?

 

RH:    Yeah. Ok.  And in the transcript it says that was probably around May of ’88 you

           guys met.  Um, also that it was at nighttime.  Do you recollect that, or does that

           sound right?

 

JKW:  It…you know the truth of the matter, it could have been daytime, it could have

           been nighttime.

 

RH:    Mkay.

 

JKW:  It was probably nighttime or evening-time because, um, I lived in Corvallis, worked

           in Albany and drove to Salem every night.  So it had to have been after…it would

           had to have been after 6:00.

 

RH:    Ok.  Worked in Corvallis, lived in Albany…

 

JKW:  No.  Lived…

 

RH:    Other way around…sorry.

 

JKW:  Lived in Corvallis, worked in Albany…

 

RH:    Ok.

 

JKW:  That’s exactly what they had me saying there, too.  Um, I lived in Corvallis, at

           1160 NW 16th Street with my mother and my brother, Mickey [phonetic], and my

           brother Jerry [phonetic], and my brother Kelly [phonetic], and, um, shortly after I

           moved in, approximately three or four months after I moved into my mom’s house,

           Mickey moved to Colorado, where he still resides.  Um, I worked in Albany at, uh,

           1600 SW 9th Street, I think, at Cub QP, which is a quick printing place, and I

           would drive from there to Salem and deal drugs, pick up cash, do whatever it was I

           was doing in Salem, and then go back to Corvallis, where I did, maybe, or maybe

           not, get some sleep or rest, and then did the whole thing, ah, the next day.

 

 

RH:    Ok.  You had a regular route that you drove…

 

JKW:  A regular route.

Roger Harris/John Kevin Walker interview

August 6, 1993

Page 4

 

RH:    …each evening after work.

 

JKW:  Mhmm.

 

RH:    Alright.  And you explain that in the testimony.  Left work in Albany, drove down

           I5, stopped at houses along the way.  Ok.  And after you met Frank, you had a

           continuing relationship with him.

 

JKW:  Yeah, Frank was a pretty good guy.  I like Frank.  I still like Frank.  Though he

           feels that way about me, I don’t know.

 

RH:    Ok.

 

JKW:  Those are two dogs playing.

 

RH:    [laughs]  The noise in the background…

 

JKW:  Yeah.

 

RH:    …yeah.  Ok.  I’m in a quiet part here.  I’m just reading, uh, to myself the, uh,

           transcript so that I can get to the points that are important to what we’re doing.

           Um, you had continued to go to Russ’s apartment and you would meet Frank

           there.  Frank would see your car, and he’d come over to talk to you.

 

JKW:  Yeah, a lot of times, after I…after I met Frank and started selling to him directly,

           lots of times, I’d just pull in, and, um, go directly to Frank’s apartment, sell him

           whatever it was I wanted…you know…he wanted to buy, or go up there and do…

           do s…crank with him, um, or you know, smoke pot with him, and then I’d go over

           Russ, or Russ’s would, you know, Russ would go over to Frank’s apartment, it

           was…you know…in a…in a small apartment complex, it turns out to be pretty, uh,

           close-knit.  You see one person pulling in that’s a friend of yours, you can go over

           to their house and visit them as a friend.

 

  

 RH:    Yeah.  Ok.  You apparently didn’t know Dan Walsh, is that right, from

           testimony here?

 

JKW:  Uh, doesn’t sound familiar.

 

RH:    And, uh…

 

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August 6, 1993

Page 5

 

JKW:  Richard Dav…uh, Richard David Welch, also known as “Dallas”.

 

RH:    Hm.

 

JKW:  I know him.

 

RH:    Yeah.  I think that’s a different guy.

 

JKW:  Yeah.

 

RH:    Mark Gesner you had known for several years.

 

JKW:  Yeah, I know him.  He was the la…mhm…I was with him the last time I got

           busted.

 

RH:    Ok.

 

JKW:  We’d just gotten some pot from his brother, who lived on Lancaster at the time.

           We were followed there, and Mark made a U-turn in the State Police , uh, complex

           when it was there on Airport Road and State Street…

 

RH:    Mhmm.

 

JKW:  …and, at that particular time, it was raining, and I had just crushed my hand, um,

           on…after working on my truck, and we got busted for pot.

 

RH:    Did you introduce Frank and Mark?

 

JKW:  Um…yes, I believe I did.

 

RH:    Ok.  Yeah, you describe in here being followed by some police.  Mark made a

           U-turn, got busted.

 

JKW:  That’s in there?

 

RH:    Yeah.

 

JKW:  Oh.  Hmm.

 

RH:    You said, ‘After that, I hadn’t seen him for about a year or so, and then I saw him

           again at the AM PM.’

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August 6, 1993

Page 6

 

JKW:  Well, ‘cause Mark got busted in Senora, California, for supposedly bringing up

           33 pounds of pot, and my observations of 33 pounds of pot’s a federal offence.

           Well, Mark didn’t do any federal time at that time.  So…

 

RH:    33 pounds is a pretty good amount.

 

JKW:  Of skunk bud?  Yeah.

 

RH:    Hmm.

 

JKW:  This is the kind of pot that you could have an ounce inside of a house, anywhere

           inside of a house, and walk in the house and smell it.

 

RH:    Hmm.  Ok, then, uh, Mark met you over at Russ’s house after you had bumped into

           each other, I guess, at the AM PM.

 

JKW:  Actually, what happened was, I pulled into the AM PM there on Portland Road

           right by where the new State Police Headquarters is, and as I was leaving, Mark

           said , ’’Ey,’ and I said, ’Hey,’ and I told Russ, I said, ’Hey, man, uh, I’m gonna

           meet you back at the apartment.  I’m gonna go take care of some business.’  And

           that’s when I got hooked up with Mark gettin’ large amounts of crank, instead of

           having to go to Portland, which is where I was getting it.  Now, I’d just go

           basically across the street and get it.  Kept all my traffic in town instead of having

           to go once a week to Portland, which was a long drive, and, you know, I mean, if

           you know where Corvallis is, and Albany, and Salem, and, um, Vernonia, which is

           ou…up…up towards, uh, Astoria…

 

RH:    Yeah.

 

JKW:  …that’s a lot of driving in a week.  And I pretty much cut my Portland connection

           off, and started dealing with Mark, and that’s, uh…huh…when all my troubles

           began again.

 

RH:    Ok.  And it’s right here that, uh…

 

JKW:  Mark dropped me off over there, because that’s where my car was at.

 

RH:    Yeah.  ’Mark ran me over Russ’s house to drop a…drop a car off, and Frank came

           out, and that’s how I introduced Frank and Mark.’

 

JKW:  Mhmm.

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August 6, 1993

Page 7

 

RH:    And it was just like one of those things; ‘Hi, this is Mark, this is Frank, you know.’

 

JKW:  Mhmm.

 

RH:    ‘We’re taking off.’  And then the question, ok.  ‘So during this five or six period…

           six year period that you have known Mr. Gesner, is that kind of the nature of the

           relationship you’ve had with him over those years?’  ‘Yes.’  Ok.  And then you

           anticipated a question.  ’And at one point did you introduce them--Mr. Gesner to

           Mr. Gable?’  ’Yes, I did.’   So I guess the question there that you anticipated is if

           you introduced Frank and Mark.

 

JKW:  Correct.

 

RH:    Ok.  Did you know that question was gonna be asked?

 

JKW:  Mhmm.

 

RH:    And, uh, how did you know that?  Uh, just describe the background of that.

 

JKW:  Um…before I testified in court, I was downstairs with…uh…Tom Bostwick and

           Sara Moore, and we were talking about the type of questions that would be

           asked…um…and…uh…the responses; not the responses that I should give, but the

           responses that I would…um…be…uh…not required to answer, but, th…th…th…

           the answers that I were [sic] to give were to be consistent with…the…results of

           the polygraph and the, uh, subsequent…State Police…questions.

 

RH:    Ok.  We discussed a little bit before, the last time we talked, uh, the polygraphs.  I

           think you said you had three polygraphs?  Is that right?

 

JKW:  Mhmm.

 

RH:    Um…

 

JKW:  The first one, I told…I told the truth, and Fox, I guess his name is, he left and said,

           ‘Ok, just a minute,’ and he came…left out, he left the room; about five minutes

           later, came back in, and said, ‘Well, Mr. Walker, I don’t believe you’ve been truth-

           ful with me.’  It’s like, I’m going, ‘Man, I’ve totally told you all the truth that I

           know.’  And that’s when he made statements like, ‘Well, you don’t seem to see…

           realize how serious this is and, um, if you don’t start cooperating, uh, you’re

           going to be standing on the curb with Frank.’  Er…n…’Get on the bus now; or

           stand on the curb with Frank, and you can go down with him,’ and it was not

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August 6, 1993

Page 8

 

           stated as such, but it was implied to me, or understood by me, that that statement

           meant that they were going to charge me with an accomplice after the fact,

           accessory after the fact, namely because they told me the entire thing even started

           when they came to my house in Corvallis and said that, ’Frank said he was with

           you the night of the murder.’  It’s like, huh, ’Bullshit!’  Sorry, I don’t mean to put

           that on tape, but it’s like, ‘No way!’  I know where I was…I don’t know where I

           was at the night of the murder, but I do know that I wasn’t committing any murder

           and I wasn’t helping anybody commit any murder.  I mean, uh, you can ask Frank

           this, or you can ask anybody else who’s been…wired out on crank for days and

           days at a time, that, um…huh…it…i…i…it’s called a ‘tweaker’s day’.  ‘I’ll be over

           there tomorrow,’ or, ‘I’ll be over there the next day.’  Well, is that a tweaker’s day,

           or is that a real day?  Well, a tweaker’s day might be four or five days later, you

           know what I me…all, one d…one day is one day.

 

RH:    Mhmm.

 

JKW:  If you don’t sleep, it’s all one day.  Um…so that was how I got involved in this

           entire case.

 

RH:    Who was it that first approached you, in Corvallis?

 

JKW:  Um, it was, I believe, Dean Perske, and at the time, I wasn’t home, and Dean left

           a…a…business card with my brother, Kelly, stating that, ’Well, we’re here

           investigating the Francke murder and what Ke…er, what Mr. Walker’s involve-

           ment is in it and we’d appreciate it if you’d give him…have him give me a call at

           this 800 number at the State Police headquarters in Salem.’  Well, I got home

           and, needless to say, I was on the phone in about two seconds.  Um, you know, I

           didn’t know anything about it, and here I’m being questioned about it?

 

RH:    Ok.  So, the police approached you with the, uh…uh, suggestion by them that

           Frank had told them that he was with you…

 

JKW:  Allegedly told them, yeah.  I found out that the police went around telling every-

           body that Frank said that they were with him that night.

 

RH:    Hmm.

 

JKW:  And from my understanding, through Frank, is that…he didn’t know where he was

           at, at…at the particular time that this happened.  So he was, you know, the…the

           cops might have just been sayin, ‘Well, Frank said this…,’ and it’s like, ‘Well,

           what’s your…what’s your reaction going to be to this?’

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August 6, 1993

Page 9

 

RH:    Your reaction was, as you said, ‘Bullshit,’ because you didn’t have anything to do

           with it.

 

JKW:  I didn’t have anything to do with the murder.

 

RH:    Ok.

 

JKW:  There are three things I will never do, and that’s rape, robbery or murder.

           Guaranteed I will never do.

 

RH:    Yeah.  The…the implication, though, is that, um…they’re saying, ‘Frank said he’s

           with you,’ and therefore you’re…you may be guilty as an accomplice…

 

JKW:  Correct.

 

RH:    …where actually…

 

JKW:  Whereas Frank’s testimony would  be against me!  I didn’t know, I mean, we were

           all strung out on crank.  I didn’t know what the hell was going on.

 

RH:    But if Frank actually was with you, it means that Frank was not involved in the

           murder.

 

JKW:  Correct, because I wasn’t involved in the murder.

 

RH:    But they approached it in a way, apparently, as I’m reading it, approached it in a

           way that, uh, would get a reaction from you of, ’Bullshit, because I had nothing to

           do with the murder, therefore I must not…’

 

JKW:  Correct.

 

RH:    ’…therefore, I wasn’t with him.’

 

JKW:  Mhmm.  Yeah, that’s exactly right.  That’s a very good way of putting it.

 

RH:    Hmm.  Ok.  We’re straying away a little bit from, uh, the, uh, transcript, but that’s

           fine.  Co…continue and explain a little bit about additional contacts with the police

           or with, uh…uh, the prosecutors.

 

JKW:  Well, oh, I didn’t have any con…c…contacts with the prosecutors until after I was,

           uh, except for the…the grand jury indictment.  [snaps fingers, aside to dog] Go

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August 6, 1993

Page 10

 

           ’way.  Um, my next con…or my contact…initial contact with Dean Perske was…

           not, because he wasn’t there at the office.  It ended up where we got…got in touch

           with each other, and he said, ’Well, can you come in and talk to me?’ and I said,

           ‘Well, y…I suppose,’ and he said, ‘Well, I know you have, um, several outstanding

           warrants for your arrest.’  One of ‘em was for burglary in the first degree, one of

           ‘em was for menacing, and one of ‘em was for failure to appear on, uh, sentencing

           for possession of a controlled substance, to wit--methamphetamines.  Um, at that

           time I said, ‘Well, I know I have these things ta…you know, but I’m trying to get

           ‘em taken care of.’  I knew I failed to appear on the sentencing for the crank

           charge, but my mom had a heart attack at the time.  She went…underwent triple

           bypass surgery, she was in intensive care for two weeks, um, she was in th…the

           hospital for an en…an entire stay of over a month.  At that time, I was staying

           home, taking care of my mom; going to the store, picking up her insulin, her

           insulin needles, her medications, cooking food for her, being basically a live-in

           nurse for my mom.  So I had a few more important things to do than go for

           sentencing, which I knew I was gonna get probation for anyway.  Since it was

           already plea-bargained out, they’re not gonna charge me with anything else except

           failure to appear.  Well, um…I went in and talked to Dean.  I s…I said, ‘Well,

           Dean, if I…if…’--at the time, it was Mr. Perske…Officer Perske.  I sa…’If…

           if I have your word that you will not arrest me, I’ll come in and talk to you,’ and

           he goes, ‘You have my word.’  I said, ‘Ok, I’m gonna hold you to it,’ and he goes

           ‘Ok.’  And I’ll tell you what, through this entire case Dean Perske never once lied

           to me.  He never once, um, led me astray, he never once did anything other to…

           other than to…proceed with the investigation at his end.  I went and talked t…

           talked to him.  The entire…the entire primary, uh, interview probably lasted

           forty-five minutes or an hour.  Um, he said, ‘You’re free to go, but I would li…I

           would like to remind you that you need to get these things taken care of,’ and I

           said , ‘I will.’  And all the way out the door, man, I’m thinking’, ‘He’s gonna slap

           those ‘cuffs on me,’ and he never did.  And throughout this entire investigation,

           he’s the only person that I would willingly talk to.  In fact, I called him after I was

           assaulted.  I had him called, and sa…and he wasn’t even on the case anymore, but

           he came down and talked to me.  And I…have a great deal of respect for that man.

           Whether he may have screwed somebody over, or not, he never screwed me over.

 

RH:    [inaudible]

 

JKW:  Bill Pierce, on the other hand…he did nothing but lie and connive, and cheat, ‘n’

           steal ‘n’ rob ‘n’ everything he could of…nah, he didn’t steal ‘n’ cheat ‘n’ rob, I’m

           sure of that, but…huh…he did everything he could to get me arrested and confined

           where, uh, my uh, my access was…readily available to the State Police.

 

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August 6, 1993

Page 11

 

RH:    Go ahead and talk about that.  At…at some point, apparently Bill Pierce took over

           from Dean Perske?

 

JKW:  Yeah, ‘cause Dean Perske was off the case.  He was only on…on it for a certain

           amount of time.  And then, I was sittin’ at home one night, and got a phone call,

           and said, ‘Hello, is, uh, John Walker there?’ and as soon as they asked for John

           Walker, I knew it wasn’t a friend.  Nobody asks for me by ’John’ except the law,

           or an attorney, or somebody collecting money or something.  So, I said, ’Well, let

           me check.  Oh, ok.’  An’ I mean, I held it so he could hear it, and it was like, ‘Is

           Kevin here? Oh, ok, he left a little while ago.  Ok, he’ll be back…ok.  Uh, no, he’s

           not here,’ and he goes, ’Heh, heh, heh, I didn’t think so.  Ok, if you’ll just tell him

           Officer’, you know, ’Pierce called, uh, I’d appreciate it, and blah, blah, blah,’ and

           I went, ’Ok, I’ll do that,’ and…prob’ly..hour…maybe two hours later, um, the…

           cops came and arrested me, at the house.

 

RH:    Hmm.

 

JKW:  And it was like at 11:00 at night, or 10:30, somewhere around there, at night,

           an’ soon as I heard the knock on the door, I knew it was cops.  I took my pit bull

           out back, let him out in the back yard, and there was two cops commin’ up behind

           the fence, and I didn’t know who they were, I didn’t…they had flashlights.  That’s

           all I saw.  I didn’t know they were cops at the time.  And he goes, th…the lady

           said, uh, ’Mr. Walker?’  I said, ’Who is that?’ and she goes, ’Mr. Walker?’ and I

           said, ‘Who wants to know?’ and she goes, ‘Are you Mr. Walker?’  I said,

           ’If you don’t tell me who you are, I’m gonna turn this dog loose,’ and she goes,

           ’Well, we’re the police, and we wanna know if you’re John Kevin Walker,’ and I

           said, ’Well, yes I am.’  ’Well, we’ll…we’re…we’re here to arre…’…um they

           didn’t say that, ’We’re here to arrest you,’ but, um, they said, ’Would you please

           put the dog up?’ and I took the dog inside the house, and at the time I got inside

           the house, the other two officers were in the house, ’cause my mom let ’em in,

           and…um…at that time, uh, I was placed under arrest, and from then on out, and it

           was February 6th, I believe, because it was snowing outside, and from that time

           forward , um…I was incarcerated.  I was not…I was not released.  Even though

           the charges that were brought against me were not so severe that I could not have

           been released.  I mean, a menacing charge is…is not that big of a deal.  A burglary

           one, um, was a residence of my ex-girlfriend’s house, who, all I was doing was

           getting my stuff out of the house, and she called the cops, and by the time the cops

           got there, I was gone, but because she told me to leave, technically, by law, I had

           to leave, otherwise I was committing burglary.  And the possession of a controlled

           substance, that I had already plea-bargained on, was, uh, just awaiting sentencing.

 

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August 6, 1993

Page 12

 

RH:    How long were you incarcerated, then?

 

JKW:  Um, well from February 6th, until…February 6th, 19...90 until…October 31st, 1991.

 

RH:    Ok.  So that’s, um…

 

JKW:  Well, no, let me see…it was, uh…1990...’91.  Ok, it was ni…February 6th, 1990

           to October 31st, 1990, and I was released…on parole…to California, even though,

           at the time, the State law required I be returned back to the county of or…origin.

           The county that the crime occurred in was Benton County for the initial charge of

           menacing, and at that time, the State law required that I be returned back to that

           county, and they tried to release me back onto Tony Starr’s doorstep, in Eugene,

           which, needless to say, uh, bothered me greatly, and, um…I said, ’Well, no,’ and

           then I ended up in California, maintaining weekly contact with the Distr…District

           Attorney’s office, actually, Jerry Frazier, and, um…that’s it.

 

RH:    Mkay.  Let’s go back to the, uh, transcript, and continue on through that.  Um…

           let’s see; you’re recalling here in your testimony about, uh, Frank and Mark.  You

           introduced them…

 

JKW:  [inaudible]

 

RH:    …you’d gone over there t…to drop your car off, apparently.

 

JKW:  Yeah, well, th…in there, there also says that, um, I…sold…Mark and I went and

           sold a quarter-pound of crank to Robert Cornett and Chris Warilla, um, in the alley

           behind the Coca Cola plant, and at the time, I stated that Frank Gable was there in

           the house, and, Frank wasn’t in the house.  Frank was…I don’t even know where

           the hell Frank was at the time tha…tha…that drug transaction took place.

 

RH:    Ok, is that a d…um, that something that you testified to in here, that’s uh, is that a

           specific date that you recalled, or…

 

JKW:  Um, actually I don’t know if that was actually testified to in the, uh, in court, in

           open court, but I do know that that is in my, um, supposedly accurate, uh,

           investigation.

 

RH:    Ok.  So during that drug deal you said that Frank was in the house, but he was not

           in the house?  Is that right?

 

JKW:  Ah, nah…I don’t know where the heck he was at.

Roger Harris/John Kevin Walker interview

August 6, 1993

Page 13

 

RH:    What’s the significance of that, and why…did someone want you to say he was in

           the house, or…?

 

JKW:  Well, because…well because we were talking about how, um, I’ve seen  Frank

           slam a sixteenth, you know, shoot; intravenously shoot, uh, a sixteenth of crank

           at a time, and it was at the particular time that Mark and I sold Chris and Robert,

           um, a quarter-pound of crank.  Well…I believe…a person could, if they had a

           needle big enough, inject themselves with a sixteenth of an ounce of crank, if

           they’d been up on an extended…an extended high.  In other words, like, three…

           four…five…six…seven…eight…nine….ten days with no sleep at all, your body

           requires that drug to maintain its…suppressed level of awakeness.  Um, if you

           co…if you could fit a sixteenth into a standard U-100...that would be awful thick

           syrup.  That would be awful thick, and, um, he would have to have been up for

           days before that kind of drug would not have killed ’im…that amount of drug.  A

           sixteenth, i…i…if you were to shoot a half a gram…if you or I, right now, were

           to shoot half a gram of crank, we’d O.D.  We would go into ventricular fibrillation

           and we’d die, and, um, so the significance of w…w…what I just told you is the

           fact that I told them that Frank…I sho…I saw Frank shoot up a sixteenth of a…

           of a, uh, ounce of crank.  Now, I used to sell dope, and I used to do an awful lot

           of it, and…to the best of my…experience, a person could not survive a sixteenth

           of an ounce of methamphetamines injected into them.

 

RH:    So…why…then what was the situation in which you told them that you had seen

           Frank do the sixteenth?

 

JKW:  [aside to dog] That’s ‘nough!  At the particular time I told ‘em this, I was

           fillin’ ‘em so full o’ shit that you’d have to change the diaper every five minutes.

           Um, they got me…they changed…they made me change…n…they didn’t make

           me…ok, I don’t want to say that.  They didn’t make me change my initial testi-

           mony for the lie detector test.  What they did was, they structured it so that…if

           I did not answer the questions that were asked me…to the best of my ability,

           whether that be lying…      [end of tape]

 

RH:    …turned the tape over, and we’ll continue where we left off.

 

JKW:  …they were gonna charge me with accessory after the fact.  I’d never been inver…

           involved in a murder investigation.  I didn’t know what the heck was goin’ on.

           The most I’d ever been involved with up at that time…up until that point, was…

           granted, it was a Class A felony, but it was a burglary.  And all the burglaries I

           ever did, I commi…I confessed to.  We never went to trial over ‘em.

 

Roger Harris/John Kevin Walker interview

August 6, 1993

Page 14

       

RH:    So you were in a position that, if someone wanted to intimidate you with, uh, what

           could be done to you, and…

 

JKW:  Oh, I was in a position to be intimidated.  We’re looking’ at…we’re looking’ at a

           murder of a State Corrections officer, the largest invest…the largest, most

           important murder in Oregon’s history, as far as, um, as far as single people go.

           We’re not talkin’ about, um, you know, rapes and murders and stuff like that, but

           we’re talkin’ about a cop, or a State Prison official, or anything along those lines

           that holds an immense amount of power, um, yeah, I was definitely in a position to

           be intimidated.

 

RH:    At the…

 

JKW:  And I was intimidated.

 

RH:    At the point that the police involved you in the investigation, Frank was already the

           suspect…

 

JKW:  He was a suspect, yes.  Actually, I believe he…at…at…at that time, he was the

           primary suspect.  Overlooking the fact that Johnnie Crouse commi…confessed to

           the, uh, murder.

 

RH:    Ok.  So aside from Johnnie Crouse, Frank, at that time, was the suspect, or the

           primary suspect.

 

JKW:  Mhmm.

 

 

RH:    Now, incidentally, on a tangent; do you know Johnnie Crouse?

 

JKW:  If he were to walk down the driveway right now, I probably would recognize his

           face and not be able to place a name with it.

 

RH:    Hmm.  Ok.

 

JKW:  A lot to times, when you’re dealing dope, you meet a lot of people, and you see a

           face, and you can recognize a face.  I can always place where I’ve seen a face, but

           I might not be able to place a name.