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Pre-inquiry
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Commission
of Inquiry Into the Wrongful Conviction of David Milgaard:
(Page 16)
Honourable Mr. Justice Edward
P. MacCallum, Commissioner
| Commission website
| Lockyer shows similarities
with Guy Paul Morin investigation |
Even as millions are spent
on this inquiry into a 37 year old murder, two prime examples
of how wrongful convictions occur are unfolding in Saskatoon.
Wilfred Hathway is having
his defence severely handicapped as prosecutor Brent Klause has
successfully obtained an order from now Chief Justice Robert
Laing to keep disclosure out of the hands of his defence team.
Denver Crawford's
memory is not being well served. Material has surfaced which
indicates Dominic McCullock's
lawyer, Mark Brayford, did not provide a vigorous defence for
his client who was convicted of killing Jaime
Wheeler. This brutal murder was described as savage, committed
by a dangerous person, by Judge Laing, even though the conviction
was for second degree murder. This raises again the 2000 conviction
of Leon Walchuk who has steadfastly
maintained his innocence in the murder of his wife and whose
appeals have been turned down, despite evidence not presented
at trial which would show serious flaws in the Crown's case.
<
< < Page 15 | More
background (also see links on sidebar) Sask
to give inquiry another $700,000
Milgaard nemesis to testify
at inquiry
By KATHERINE HARDING, Globe
and Mail, Monday, September 19, 2005
SASKATOON -- A public inquiry
is turning to an unlikely source for insight into how the justice
system failed David Milgaard -- the man who committed the savage
crime.
Larry Fisher is scheduled to
appear today at the inquiry examining Mr. Milgaard's wrongful
conviction 36 years ago.
"The question is whether
or not he was aware of any cover-ups, any conspiracies, which
have been alleged at the commission so far," said Brian
Beresh, who represents Mr. Fisher.
"He's looking forward
to getting this over with and moving on with his life."
Saskatchewan authorities first
trained their attention on Mr. Fisher eight months after Mr.
Milgaard was sentenced in 1970, at the age of 17, to life imprisonment
for the rape and murder of Gail Miller, a 20-year-old nursing
aide.
Mr. Milgaard always vehemently
maintained that he was innocent. However, he languished in prison
for 23 years before justice officials conceded they had punished
the wrong man.
In 1999, seven years after
Mr. Milgaard was released, Mr. Fisher, a convicted serial rapist
who by then had spent most of his adult life in jail, was found
guilty of the Miller murder.
Mr. Fisher says he had nothing
to do with the crime, but Mr. Beresh said the guilt or innocence
of the 56-year-old native of North Battleford, Sask., is irrelevant
at the inquiry.
Mr. Fisher's testimony is scheduled
to last until Wednesday.
The Milgaard family has long
maintained that knowledge of Mr. Fisher and his criminal past
was suppressed or ignored by Saskatchewan justice officials in
order to keep Mr. Milgaard behind bars.
Ms. Miller was on her way to
work on Jan. 31, 1969, when she was pulled into an alley, raped
and murdered.
Her partially clad body was
found face down in a snowbank. She had been stabbed and slashed
more than two dozen times.
Shortly after the killing,
Saskatoon police told the public they suspected it was the work
of a rapist who had struck in the same area where the murder
had taken place. (Mr. Fisher was convicted of those rapes in
1971.)
But in 1969, as the homicide
case began to turn cold, the officers' focus turned to Mr. Milgaard.
He was a 16-year-old hippie who had been passing through Saskatoon
the day Ms. Miller was killed.
In 1970, based on unreliable
witnesses and forensic work, he was sent to jail.
The public inquiry, which started
in January and was supposed to finish in the spring, has seen
its projected budget balloon from $2-million to $7.7-million.
Mr. Justice Edward MacCallum,
who is heading the inquiry, cannot assign civil or criminal blame,
but will be able to table recommendations intended to ensure
similar mistakes never occur.
It is also expected to be the
final word on why justice officials failed Mr. Milgaard.
While Mr. Milgaard is expected
to testify as early as January, he has not attended the proceedings.
His lawyer, Hersh Wolch, has said he is interested in the outcome,
but doesn't want to relive the experience by attending.
Every horrible moment of the
36-year-old case is being torn apart and carefully studied.
Before the inquiry wraps up,
likely in March, about 200 witnesses will have testified and
more than 320,000 pages of documents reviewed.
At times, the hearing has been
unbearable for Mr. Milgaard's mother, Joyce, who has attended
several days of the proceedings. She fought for years to free
her son.
She wept when a retired Saskatoon
police detective, who helped lead the murder investigation, said
he felt sorry for Mr. Milgaard, but the teenager's conviction
was not his fault.
"I did nothing wrong in
my opinion and I don't feel I have anything to apologize for,"
Eddie Karst told the inquiry last month.
Mr. Karst said later that he
could not explain why he never acted on information the force
received in 1980 from Mr. Fisher's ex-wife. She had told police
of suspicions that the former construction worker raped and killed
Ms. Miller.
The inquiry, however, has also
been an opportunity for Ms. Milgaard to hear from people who
helped move her son's case forward.
Recently, she thanked and hugged
Bruce Lafreniere, the once anonymous source who called Mr. Milgaard's
lawyer in 1990 with information about Mr. Fisher's past. Mr.
Lafreniere, whose identity was unearthed by the RCMP, is a former
friend of Mr. Fisher.
Until then, the Milgaards had
never heard the name Larry Fisher. The clue proved invaluable.
Within two years of Mr. Lafreniere's
call, the Supreme Court of Canada overturned Mr. Milgaard's conviction
and he was set free at the age of 39.
It would take another five
years until DNA evidence taken from Ms. Miller's underclothes
exonerated Mr. Milgaard.
That same evidence was used
to convict Mr. Fisher in 1999. Later that year, the Saskatchewan
government awarded Mr. Milgaard $10-million in compensation .
Doug Hodson, the commission's
lawyer, said the list of witnesses has not been finalized, but
there is a possibility former federal justice minister Kim Campbell
and former Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow could be called to
appear. Mr. Romanow was the province's attorney-general in the
1970s.
There had been speculation
that former prime minister Brian Mulroney may also be asked to
appear, but Mr. Hodson said that is highly unlikely now.
Transcripts from the inquiry
can be found at http://www.milgaardinquiry.ca
Fisher defiant: Serial rapist
can't recall day of killing
Betty Ann Adam, The
StarPhoenix; with Canadian Press files, September 20, 2005
Larry Fisher maintained Monday
that he didn't kill Gail Miller and didn't learn for 11 years
that David Milgaard had been convicted of the crime.
Thirty-five years to the day
since Fisher's first spree of sexual assaults ended after he
was caught in Winnipeg raping his sixth victim, the silver-haired
convict denied the crime, but gave telling contradictions in
his evidence to the commission of inquiry into Milgaard's wrongful
conviction.
Fisher, 56, was convicted with
DNA evidence in 1999 that had exonerated Milgaard, who had served
23 years in prison for raping and stabbing to death the 20-year-old
nursing assistant on a bitterly cold morning on Jan. 31, 1969.
He was asked directly by inquiry
lawyer Doug Hodson about whether he raped and then stabbed Miller
to death.
"No, I did not,"
Fisher replied, in a hushed, barely audible tone.
Fisher also gave a qualified
denial when asked if Saskatoon police questioned him about Miller's
death when they met with him in Winnipeg in 1970 after he admitted
to two Saskatoon sexual assaults.
After a deep breath and a head
shake, Fisher said, "Not that I know of."
Fisher said he has no memory
of the day of the murder but later said he did remember an argument
with his wife, in which she accused him of committing the murder.
Fisher's ex-wife, Linda Fisher,
told the RCMP in 1990 that her accusation was prompted by a radio
news report about the murder the morning it happened. She said
the pair of them were arguing because Fisher had stayed out all
night.
When the news of the murder
came on the radio, she had flung the accusation at her husband
without really believing he had done it, but she was surprised
by his silent reaction. "He seemed guilty," Linda Fisher
told the RCMP in 1990.
Sitting forward with his hands
clasped and his forearms resting calmly on the table before him,
Fisher said he doesn't remember the news report.
Though he doesn't remember
the day, he is certain he went to work.
(Linda Fisher also told the
RCMP her favourite wooden-handled paring knife with a serrated
blade was missing. The murder weapon was a plastic-handled paring
knife with a smooth blade. Years later Linda Fisher said she
was missing one like that, too, but had forgotten about it until
she saw a photograph of the murder weapon. Larry Fisher acknowledged
Monday they had owned a plastic-handled paring knife.)
Larry Fisher also told the
inquiry he didn't know about the Friday murder until the Monday
after, when Saskatoon police questioned him at the bus stop where
he and Miller regularly caught the 6:49 a.m. bus.
In the months before the murder,
Fisher, a construction worker, had raped a 17-year-old and a
22-year-old in the same neighbourhood and had been scared off
in during an attempted rape near the university campus where
he worked.
Despite his current admission
of those offences, Fisher told the inquiry he wasn't particularly
concerned when two police officers questioned him at the bus
stop.
Fisher slipped through the
police dragnet, despite another bus rider's recollection of a
man with a yellow hard hat who got on the bus at that stop, along
with the nurse.
The yellow hard hat had also
been mentioned in the statement of one of the previous rape victims.
The police appear to have been
diverted by the bus driver, who told police a man with a red
hard hat often rode on the bus. That lead threw suspicion on
another man who wore a red hunting cap and who was later eliminated
as a suspect.
There was a hiatus in Fisher's
attacks after the murder.
His next recorded rape occurred
Feb. 21, 1970, three weeks after Milgaard was convicted of Miller's
murder.
That summer, Fisher moved to
Winnipeg, where he raped a young woman on Aug. 2.
On Aug. 19, 1970, Fisher was
finally caught. His sixth victim had screamed when he grabbed
her and forced her into an alley, as was his habit. A man who
lived in the area, heard the disturbance and called the police,
who responded quickly.
Fisher's pants were around
his ankles when he heard a car approaching and attempted to flee.
Police chased Fisher on foot, then went back to find the woman
they'd heard crying in the bushes as the chase began. She told
the police her assailant had dropped a knife, which they found.
It turned out to be a kitchen paring knife.
Within days, Fisher admitted
the two Winnipeg rapes, along with one Saskatoon rape and the
attempted rape.
Two Saskatoon police officers
went to Winnipeg to take statements about the crimes. They questioned
him about the other rapes but he doesn't remember if they mentioned
the murder to him.
Fisher said Monday his eagerness
admit the truth was fueled partly by a desire to be moved out
of the jail where he was being held and where he said he was
beaten by the guards.
"I was thrown into the
strip cell . . . handcuffed, leg-ironed to the floor, no clothes,
nothing," Fisher said. "Then I was beaten on the back
of the legs, in the back with a club while I was shaving."
But Fisher appeared to contradict
himself later, saying he would have confessed to the crimes anyway.
He said he had wanted to turn
himself in before he was arrested. He'd stood outside a Winnipeg
police station and considered going in but was "scared shitless."
The hearing would have been
Fisher's first opportunity to admit the crime since he was convicted
in 1999 and sentenced to life in prison.
Joyce Milgaard, David's mother,
said outside the hearings, she no longer fears Fisher and thinks
he is pathetic.
"I went in there very
frightened. He frightened me so much at the Supreme Court of
Canada. After being in there for a very few minutes, I suddenly
lost my fear of him and I just thought he was pathetic.
"I didn't see the venom.
I didn't see the hate," she said.
"I feel stronger now.
I'll be sitting there with my tongue in cheek while he sits there
and says he didn't do it.
"The fact is he did it.
David didn't. It doesn't matter what he says up there, he's guilty.
Knowing that, that frees me. That's why in a sense I did feel
sorry for him," Milgaard said.
"He does seem so pathetic."
Fisher returns to the stand
today.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
Fisher remains as
stubborn as he is evil
Les MacPherson, The
StarPhoenix, , September 20, 2005
Never mind, for a moment, the
misguided police and prosecutors. More than them, more than anyone
else, it's Larry Fisher who's responsible for the wrongful conviction
of David Milgaard.
It was Fisher's wickedness
that set in motion the runaway train that would later roll over
Milgaard.
It was Fisher who remained
silent for more than 20 years while an innocent man languished
in prison. It was Fisher, and only Fisher, who knew the truth
when no one else did.
Monday at the Milgaard inquiry,
Fisher for the first time was asked under oath to explain himself.
He responded with pathetic denials. In spite of damning evidence
to the contrary (including his DNA all over the crime scene,
just for starters), in spite of a chance to impress future parole
boards by coming clean, in spite of an opportunity to do the
right thing for once in his rotten life, Fisher insisted he had
nothing to do with the 1969 rape and murder of Gail Miller.
He's as stubborn as he is evil.
Unfortunately, he will not
be aggressively cross-examined, at least not in this venue. There's
no need, explained inquiry counsel Doug Hodson.
Fisher has been duly tried
and convicted. The inquiry accepts his guilt as established.
That Fisher claims otherwise only undermines the credibility
of anything else he says.
Not that he was very credible
to begin with. After brutalizing too many women to mention here,
Fisher has spent more than 30 of his 56 years in prison. He's
now got 19 years left, at least, on his life sentence for the
Miller murder.
Fisher could in theory reduce
that by 10 years through the so-called faint-hope provision for
early parole.
Given his apparent remorselessness,
however, the very slim chance of that ever happening is all but
eliminated.
Fisher is serving his time
in a medium-security prison in Agassiz, B.C. It shows. He's not
as pale as you'd expect of a lifer in maximum security. Dressed
as he was in a T-shirt and denim jacket, Fisher looked more like
an ordinary working stiff than a convicted sex murderer.
It helped that he was spared
the shackles and leg irons that dangerous prisoners are sometimes
made to wear when they testify in court.
From all indications, he is
not considered dangerous. His guard consists of just one RCMP
officer.
This would suggest that he's
better behaved as a prisoner than he was on the outside.
Fisher reveals no visible hint
of the malevolence concealed within. Short and stocky, with white
hair and dark, caterpillar eyebrows over metal-frame eyeglasses
and a prominent nose, he does not appear the least bit scary.
His victims know better.
Fisher wasted no words on Monday.
If you discount the bare-faced lies, he's a co-operative witness,
but one who volunteers almost nothing. This would make it easier
for him to keep track of his lies. For example, he claims he
wasn't worried a few days after the murder when canvassing police
questioned him at a west side bus stop where he and Miller habitually
caught the same bus. But he previously assaulted at least three
other women in the neighbourhood. These are crimes he would later
admit to. Even if he hadn't killed Miller, he must have been
worried about any attention from police. For him to say otherwise
is simply unbelievable.
Fisher's appearance at the
inquiry illustrates how frustratingly close police came to catching
him almost immediately. When they questioned him as part of the
neighbourhood canvass for witnesses, he was wearing a yellow
hard hat.
This was presumably the same
hard hat described by at least one of his previous victims. For
reasons that have never been explained, the connection eluded
police. This even though they believed that the cases might be
connected.
Had they only followed up,
they would have learned that Fisher lied about his alibi, that
his behaviour around the time of the murder was highly suspicious
and that he was suspected of murder even by his own wife.
Speaking of whom, Fisher's
suspicious wife was also overlooked in the police canvass, even
though they lived just two blocks from the murder scene. Years
later, when she went to police with her suspicions, they blew
her off.
It was not until 1997 that
Fisher was finally implicated by ever-improving DNA analysis.
Even so, Saskatoon police let him leave town.
No thanks to them, he was arrested
a week later in Calgary. This is not for Fisher to explain.
lmacpherson@sp.canwest.com
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
Fisher sticks with denial
Milgaard lawyer lays out theory of Miller murder
Betty Ann Adam. The
StarPhoenix. September 21, 2005
Sparks flew at the David Milgaard
wrongful conviction inquiry Tuesday when convicted killer and
serial rapist Larry Fisher took a defiant tone in response to
questions from Milgaard's lawyer.
"I'm not going to get
technical about dates," Fisher said with a tone of irritation
in his voice as Hersh Wolch quizzed him on why, when questioned
by Saskatoon police in Winnipeg in 1970, he admitted committing
two sexual assaults in Saskatoon but denied two.
Fisher maintained he never
lied because he eventually pleaded guilty to all four offences.
"I'm not going to get
into little psychological games," Fisher said with an air
of dismissal.
"I didn't lie to them.
I just didn't tell them," he insisted.
Wolch was trying to find out
how it was that Fisher pleaded guilty to four serious offences
in Saskatoon but received an unexpectedly lenient sentence.
Fisher received no additional
time beyond the 13 years he was already serving for two rapes
in Winnipeg.
At sentencing in Regina in
1971 on the Saskatoon offences, Fisher was given four years on
each of the three rapes and six months on one attempted rape,
but all were to be served concurrent to the Winnipeg term.
Neither Fisher nor his lawyer
of the day, Lawrence Greenberg, say they know why Saskatchewan
justice officials agreed to the sentence.
Both said Fisher always said
he wanted to plead guilty to all of the charges. Fisher has said
he wasn't particularly concerned about the sentence but was waiting
to see what term he would get.
Fisher wrote to his wife that
he expected to receive a stiff sentence for the Saskatoon crimes.
As well, the Manitoba prosecutor
who dealt with Fisher on two Winnipeg rapes had written to Saskatchewan
justice authorities informing them the Winnipeg judge had not
considered the outstanding Saskatoon rape charges when he sentenced
Fisher to 13 years.
Milgaard's supporters have
alleged Saskatchewan justice authorities wanted the Fisher convictions
kept quiet to avoid raising questions about his possible role
in the death of Gail Miller on Jan. 31, 1969.
Milgaard was convicted of first-degree
murder in the Miller case in 1970. He spent 23 years in prison
before he was released in 1992. DNA evidence was used to prove
his innocence in 1997 and to convict Fisher in 1999. Fisher was
sentenced to life in prison.
Milgaard's lawyer did not find
out about Fisher and the similarity of his rapes to the Miller
killing for 19 years, when an old friend of Fisher's notified
Milgaard's lawyer about Fisher's ex-wife's suspicion of him as
the murderer.
"The Crown was asking
for no time," Wolch said to Fisher, seeking an explanation.
Fisher said he didn't know
why he received the light sentence.
"I could have expected
a life bid on any of them," Fisher said.
"That was thanks to them
sending me to Regina," he said, but could offer no further
explanation.
Wolch also pressed Fisher for
his movements on the morning he raped and killed Miller.
Wolch suggested Fisher borrowed
his wife's uncle's car and parked outside Miller's rooming house.
When Miller set out walking to the bus stop one block away, Fisher
moved the car to a nearby alley, then grabbed Miller and dragged
her to the car, Wolch suggested. Fisher had her undress to the
waist, then covered her face with her sweater and raped her on
her coat, he said.
Miller was leaving with her
coat, but not her dress top, back on, when she saw Fisher's face,
Wolch suggested.
"That's why you killed
her. She knew you as the guy from the bus," Wolch said.
"She saw. You chased.
You stabbed," Wolch insisted.
"No. I'm just saying I
didn't do it," Fisher said.
Wolch continued to lay out
his theory of Fisher's movements after the rape, suggesting Fisher,
"or someone with (Fisher's) DNA," returned a borrowed
car to its owner and walked back home, stopping to grope a university
student he met along the way.
Wolch suggested that Fisher
went home, where his wife accused him of the killing, which was
broadcast on the radio news, and that Fisher left to go to work
and get away from his wife.
As he walked to the bus, Fisher
saw police in the area and decided to get rid of evidence he
was carrying, Wolch suggested.
"You realized you had
the victim's wallet and you hid it in the snowbank on your way
back to the bus stop," Wolch said.
"It's a good story, you
should stick to it," Fisher responded.
"I am," Wolch retorted.
"That's good because I'm
not going to believe anything you say like that. It didn't happen,"
Fisher shot back.
Fisher said he feels no remorse
because he didn't commit the crime.
Fisher's lawyer, Brian Beresh,
took issue with Wolch's questions, saying, "these are not
truth and reconciliation hearings."
Inquiry commissioner Justice
Edward MacCallum agreed that feelings of remorse or apologies
to injured parties are not within the commission's mandate.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
Fisher may call
for public inquiry of his conviction
Betty Ann Adam, The
StarPhoenix, Thursday, September 22, 2005
Larry Fisher wants the same
as David Milgaard -- a wrongful conviction inquiry to look into
his conviction for the rape and murder of Gail Miller.
Brian Beresh, Fisher's lawyer,
said in an interview Fisher is in an "absolutely identical
situation" as Milgaard was after his wrongful 1970 conviction
for the same crime.
"(Fisher) said to me a
few moments ago that he himself may call for a public inquiry
about his conviction," Beresh said, adding he will look
at testimony from the Milgaard inquiry carefully.
"There's now new evidence
that is strikingly inconsistent with what was said at (Fisher's
1999) trial. It causes me concern about his conviction,"
Beresh said after Fisher finished testifying at the inquiry Wednesday.
Beresh wouldn't say what new
evidence he was referring to beyond noting some people's observations
and the names of other suspects from 1969 were not disclosed
to the defence at Fisher's trial because they were considered
"not disclosable or not relevant" by the prosecution.
He said the information arose
out of the RCMP's 1993 investigation into Milgaard's allegation
of wrongdoing by police and justice officials after his conviction
was quashed by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1992.
Beresh contends the DNA evidence
used to convict Fisher of murder was circumstantial, whereas
Milgaard was convicted on the strength of direct, eyewitness
evidence.
Milgaard's mother, Joyce, called
Fisher's suggestion "ridiculous," and said it shows
Fisher didn't take the inquiry seriously.
"With the DNA evidence
and everything that's out on the table, it's a joke. A bad joke,"
she said.
"I guess I had that hope
(of a confession) in my heart. . . . I knew realistically that
it wouldn't happen, but you know, mothers sort of dream.
"It would have been really
good for David if it had, because you know it's been a long haul
for him."
Hersh Wolch, David Milgaard's
lawyer, said if Fisher wants a wrongful conviction inquiry, he
should get in line behind notorious sex killers Paul Bernardo
and Karla Homolka.
"We're dealing with a
rapist killer. What do you expect? . . . He just came across
as what he is. You can't place anything on what he says.
"What he had to add was
almost zero, I think, but it was important to have him for completeness,
to give us a sense of it," Wolch said.
The inquiry also heard Wednesday
from two uncles and an aunt of Linda Fisher, Larry Fisher's ex-wife.
Cliff Pambrun said he sometimes
lent Fisher his car, though he can't remember Fisher ever having
it overnight or early in the morning when Pambrun would have
needed it to get to work.
Pambrun's wife, Anita, said
Linda Fisher told her sometime after Fisher was imprisoned for
five rapes and an indecent assault that she had accused him of
killing the nurse, and that his face had gone pale.
Anita Pambrun also was aware
Linda had gone to Saskatoon police in 1980 to tell them she suspected
Fisher was the real killer of Miller. Saskatoon police never
acted on the information.
Roy Pambrun, Cliff's brother,
recounted a incident that he thinks might have occurred the day
Miller was killed.
Pambrun said Fisher showed
up on his doorstep around 8 a.m. on a cold and windy winter morning
without shoes or a coat and asking to borrow some. Fisher said
his shoes and coat had been stolen from a party, Pambrun said.
He said Fisher had lit a fire
in the burning barrel in the back alley and had explained it
by saying no one had answered Roy's door when Fisher first knocked,
so he had lit the fire to warm up. Roy Pambrun said he didn't
check the barrel to see what Fisher had burned.
Beresh attacked the story,
pointing out that Pambrun admits he didn't like Fisher and saying,
"repeating it again doesn't make it true."
Documents presented at the
inquiry show Linda Fisher told a different version of the story
to Joyce Milgaard in 1990.
Linda said Roy was burning
garbage and Larry Fisher tossed in a pair of good work boots.
Wolch's theory of Fisher's
actions the morning of Miller's death does not include a visit
to Roy Pambrun's house, which was on Grey Place, a cul-de-sac
off Idylwyld Drive, three blocks north of 33rd Street.
The scene of the killing and
Fisher's residence were about three kilometres away, around 20th
Street and Avenue O.
A woman who may have been groped
by Fisher that morning was at Avenue F near 20th, and Cliff Pambrun's
residence was at Avenue C near 24th Street.
Wolch has said he thinks Fisher
used Cliff Pambrun's car and returned to the Avenue C residence
after the murder.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
Ex-wife suspected Fisher
Took concerns to police station, inquiry hears
Betty Ann Adam, The
StarPhoenix, September 27, 2005
Larry Fisher's ex-wife confronted
him within two years of Gail Miller's 1969 murder with her suspicion
that he was the real killer.
Linda Fisher told the David
Milgaard wrongful conviction inquiry Monday that the suspicion
was also fueled by the fact her paring knife had gone missing
around the time of the murder, and Fisher's shocked reaction
to her off-handed and angry accusation during an argument on
the day of Miller's murder that he might be the killer.
Fisher denied killing Miller
when Linda Fisher asked him about it during a visit at the Saskatchewan
Penitentiary in 1971, after he pleaded guilty to raping women
in Winnipeg.
Linda Fisher thinks that conversation
happened before Fisher pleaded guilty in Regina to four Saskatoon
sexual assaults.
The suspicion continued to
bother Linda Fisher throughout the 1970s and she sometimes talked
to extended fam-ily members about it, she said.
Family members thought Milgaard
would not have been convicted unless there was "serious
evidence" against him, she said.
"Most people thought the
court wouldn't make a mistake. That was the basic reason (why
she didn't go to authorities then)," Linda Fisher said.
Milgaard spent 23 years in
prison before he was released in 1992. DNA evidence was used
to prove his innocence in 1997 and to convict serial rapist Larry
Fisher in 1999. The commission of inquiry is looking into the
murder investigation, the prosecution of Milgaard and whether
the case should have been reopened as new information came to
light.
Linda Fisher was moved to action
in August 1980 after Fisher was charged with attempted murder
and rape in North Battleford while out on parole, and just days
after Milgaard escaped from custody.
By then, Linda Fisher was aware
that Milgaard was protesting his innocence and her old suspicion
was bolstered by Fisher's new charge.
Linda Fisher went into the
Saskatoon police station and gave the inspector a statement,
fully expecting to be more closely questioned in the days ahead.
Saskatoon police never called.
Linda Fisher also told the
inquiry Monday that Fisher told her, before his 1980 release,
that he had not received treatment while in prison and that he
thought he might re-offend when he got out. Linda Fisher said
she told correctional or parole officials who came to visit her
what Fisher had said.
A corrections document presented
to the inquiry shows Linda Fisher did tell them she thought the
escalating violence of Fisher's crimes indicated he might kill
someone next time.
The document did not say anything
about Linda Fisher suspecting her husband had already killed
someone.
Linda Fisher also told the
inquiry she once saw her husband washing his hunting coveralls
during the year they lived in a basement suite of the Cadrain
house. It was unusual because Fisher normally never did laundry,
she said.
Linda Fisher said in the 1980
police statement that Saskatoon police never questioned her about
the murder, but she recalled Monday that an officer spoke to
her at the door within a week of the murder, asking if she had
observed anything unusual on the day of the murder.
She said she must have forgotten
that when she gave the police statement.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
Inquiry hears Joyce Milgaard,
Linda Fisher exchange
Betty Ann Adam, The
StarPhoenix, Wednesday, September 28, 2005
The Milgaard inquiry on Tuesday
glimpsed the dramatic moment in 1990 when, after a decade of
searching, Joyce Milgaard finally learned important information
pertaining to Larry Fisher the day Gail Miller was killed.
The inquiry reviewed transcripts
of tape recordings Milgaard made of her March 1990 meetings with
Fisher's ex-wife, Linda Fisher.
Milgaard had tracked Linda
Fisher to her home in a small town near North Battleford after
an anonymous caller had tipped off David Milgaard's lawyer that
Fisher, a serial rapist, had lived in the basement of the house
Milgaard had visited the day of Miller's death.
The caller said Linda Fisher
thought her ex-husband had killed Miller because he had blood
on his clothes the day of the killing.
On March 9, 1990, Joyce Milgaard
and private investigator Paul Henderson sat with Linda Fisher
as she expressed surprise that it had taken them so long to come
and see her.
"I gave everything I had
to the . . . in that statement," Linda Fisher said.
"What statement? Did you
give a statement to the Saskatoon police? When was that?"
Joyce Milgaard asked.
"Ten years ago,"
Linda Fisher replied.
The inquiry has heard that
Fisher's 1980 statement to Saskatoon police, in which she said
why she suspected her husband was Miller's real killer, was filed
and never acted upon.
Fisher gave the statement around
the time Joyce Milgaard made a public plea for information that
would help exonerate her son, who was convicted in 1970 of first-degree
murder in Miller's death. David Milgaard was released in 1992.
DNA evidence was used to prove his innocence in 1997 and to convict
Larry Fisher in 1999.
In the transcript presented
to the inquiry into Milgaard's wrongful conviction, Linda Fisher
recounted an incident in which she awoke one morning and was
surprised to find her husband home instead of at work.
He was wearing his dress clothes
instead of his work clothes.
Contrary to the anonymous tip,
Linda Fisher said she never saw blood on Larry Fisher's clothing.
Joyce Milgaard eventually learned
that a girl in the house where the Fishers lived had told friends
she saw a pile of bloody clothes in the basement.
Linda Fisher said the couple
fought about Larry Fisher not coming home the night before. In
the course of the argument, a news report of Miller's death came
on the radio and Linda Fisher hurled an angry, offhand accusation
at her husband.
"I said you were probably
the one that did it and his face just turned pale and white .
. . "
"You're kidding,"
Milgaard responded.
"He just looked so guilty.
Like I never forgot that look," Fisher said.
As the conversation continued,
Linda said she was angry at Larry.
"Because you were mad
and unwittingly you think you maybe hit the truth?" Joyce
Milgaard said.
"Also my paring knife
is missing," Fisher said.
"Your paring knife is
missing?" Milgaard asked.
"Oh, oh, oh, oh,"
Henderson said.
"Wow," Milgaard said.
In the months that followed,
Linda maintained the missing knife had a wooden handle.
When she saw the actual, maroon,
plastic-handled murder weapon at Fisher's 1999 trial she recognized
it as a different one she had forgotten about.
She said she and Fisher had
bought it at an OK Economy store in 1968.
She told the inquiry her mother
later gave her the better, wooden-handled knife, and when it
went missing she didn't bother to look for the plastic-handled
knife because she didn't like using it.
A knife with a wooden handle,
which matched the description of the first missing knife, was
found at the scene of a Winnipeg rape when Fisher was caught
there in the fall of 1970.
Linda Fisher also recalled
a third missing knife, a bone-handled butcher knife from a set
she and Larry had received as a wedding gift.
Linda Fisher said she did not
believe, during the accusatory 1969 argument, that her husband
really had killed anybody, but interpreted his reaction as shock
that he thought she believed it.
After Fisher was convicted
of two Winnipeg rapes in 1971, Linda Fisher remembered the argument
and began to suspect her husband in Miller's death.
In cross-examination by Richard
Elson, lawyer for the Saskatoon police, Fisher acknowledged her
description of her missing knife was "not even close"
to the plastic-handled murder weapon, just as former detective
Jack Parker had commented to another officer who asked him about
Linda Fisher's 1980 statement.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
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on the stand
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
