
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


In 1982, postmistress Betty Jane Mottinger was abducted from her one-room post office in Elgin, Ohio — a town of fifty people and murdered.
Six weeks later, John Spirko, a career criminal with a talent for spinning stories, decided to trade invented information about her death for a deal that would keep his girlfriend out of prison. It didn't work. Instead, his web of lies contradictory, provably wrong, and completely fabricated, somehow became the centrepiece of a capital murder prosecution. No physical evidence. No connection to the victim. No connection to the crime scene. Just the words of a man who admitted he made it all up.
John Spirko has been on Ohio's death row, and now serves life without parole, for over forty years. A federal judge called his conviction a foundation of sand. A governor said there was enough doubt to spare his life but not enough to free him.
This is his story as told by him from his prison cell in Ohio.
EARLY AND AD FREE ACCESS: for as little as $1.69 a week!
Apple + HERE
Patreon and find us on Facebook here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
By Jack Laurence4.8
148148 ratings
In 1982, postmistress Betty Jane Mottinger was abducted from her one-room post office in Elgin, Ohio — a town of fifty people and murdered.
Six weeks later, John Spirko, a career criminal with a talent for spinning stories, decided to trade invented information about her death for a deal that would keep his girlfriend out of prison. It didn't work. Instead, his web of lies contradictory, provably wrong, and completely fabricated, somehow became the centrepiece of a capital murder prosecution. No physical evidence. No connection to the victim. No connection to the crime scene. Just the words of a man who admitted he made it all up.
John Spirko has been on Ohio's death row, and now serves life without parole, for over forty years. A federal judge called his conviction a foundation of sand. A governor said there was enough doubt to spare his life but not enough to free him.
This is his story as told by him from his prison cell in Ohio.
EARLY AND AD FREE ACCESS: for as little as $1.69 a week!
Apple + HERE
Patreon and find us on Facebook here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1,364 Listeners

464 Listeners

793 Listeners

556 Listeners

64 Listeners

623 Listeners

393 Listeners

88 Listeners

269 Listeners

47 Listeners

122 Listeners

23 Listeners

99 Listeners

68 Listeners

10 Listeners

25 Listeners