0:01

Due to the nature of this episode,

0:03

listener discretion is advised. This

0:05

episode includes discussions of substance

0:08

use, sex, violence, and murder.

0:11

Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen.

0:16

With a name like Bloody Babs, you'd

0:18

think Barbara Graham would have had a

0:20

body count a mile long, but not

0:23

so much. Prior to the spring of 1953,

0:26

the striking beauty only had

0:28

a few misdemeanors and a perjury charge

0:30

under her belt. Hardly

0:32

bloody, right? But then

0:35

she was picked up for murder, which

0:37

obviously changed everything. Before

0:39

she knew it, she was declared guilty and

0:41

sentenced to death. And that's

0:43

where we're starting today. Because although

0:46

it might seem like the tale of Bloody

0:48

Babs was coming to a close, you haven't

0:50

heard the full story. And

0:52

when you have, it'll be time

0:54

to decide once and for all,

0:56

was Barbara Graham guilty as sin?

1:00

Or was she just in the wrong

1:02

place at the wrong time? I'm

1:12

Vanessa Richardson, and this is Serial

1:14

Killers, a Spotify podcast. You

1:16

can find us here every Monday. Be

1:19

sure to check us out on Instagram,

1:21

at Serial Killers Podcast. Last

1:23

week, we learned about a motley crew of

1:25

criminals who broke into the home of Mabel

1:28

Monaghan and left her for dead. We

1:30

followed authorities as they caught their

1:32

suspects, and set up a sting

1:35

operation that left Barbara Graham's defense

1:37

in tatters. This week,

1:39

we'll go back in time to piece together

1:41

how Barbara found herself caught up in a

1:43

murder trial. Then we'll

1:45

watch as the fight to save

1:48

Barbara begins. Stay

1:50

with us. This

1:56

episode is brought to you by Sonic,

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your first purchase. Barbara

3:34

Graham was going to die.

3:36

And even as she protested her

3:39

innocence, it's easy to imagine the

3:41

30-year-old wondering how it had come

3:43

to this. Where had it

3:45

all gone wrong? Well, according

3:47

to her, the first misstep happened

3:49

before she even took her first

3:52

breath. When Barbara was born in

3:54

Oakland, California in 1923, her mother, Hortense Ford,

3:56

was only 17.

4:01

More importantly, given the time period, she

4:03

was unmarried and either didn't know or

4:05

didn't care to name the father. So

4:08

with the Great Depression just around the corner,

4:10

it wasn't a great time to be a

4:12

single mother. By the

4:14

time she was 19, Hortense was a

4:16

mother of two and it seems her

4:19

parents were fed up. So

4:21

they sent her to the California School

4:23

for Girls at Ventura, a reform school

4:25

for young women who, quote, lacked

4:27

strong moral values. Of

4:30

course, two-year-old Barbara and her

4:32

baby sister didn't understand what

4:34

happened. To them, Hortense had

4:36

simply disappeared. Before we

4:38

continue with Barbara's psychology, please note that

4:40

I'm not a licensed psychiatrist or psychologist,

4:42

but we have done a lot of research for

4:45

the show. According

4:48

to psychologist Dr. Jonice Webb,

4:51

parents leave their children in many

4:53

different ways and for many reasons.

4:56

Whether they left because of divorce,

4:58

death, or choice, the reason matters

5:00

far less than the fact that

5:02

he or she left. Dr.

5:04

Webb goes on to point out that it's Psychologist

5:12

Dr. Audrey Sherman adds that

5:14

the effects of child abandonment,

5:16

both physical and emotional, are

5:18

long-lasting. Aside from anything else,

5:20

it can plant an insidious

5:22

idea in a child's mind

5:24

that they are unloved or

5:26

unwanted. This potentially leads

5:28

to a whole host of

5:30

problems that can follow a

5:33

child into adulthood, like poor

5:35

coping mechanisms and compulsive behaviors,

5:37

attachment disorders, relationship problems, and

5:40

promiscuity. Her mother's disappearance likely

5:42

affected Barbara in more ways

5:44

than one, even if she didn't understand

5:47

why or how. So when

5:49

Hortense was finally able to go back home

5:51

in the summer of 1927, the

5:54

four-year-old was just happy to have her

5:56

mom back. As

6:00

far as I can tell, Hortense was eager

6:02

to make up for her two-year absence. But

6:04

at the end of the day, she was 21. She

6:07

was in the prime of her life. Not

6:09

to mention, she was very beautiful

6:12

and enjoyed the attention this brought.

6:14

So it's not that surprising that

6:16

in 1929, she found herself pregnant

6:19

for a third time. Though

6:21

she tried her best, Hortense struggled to

6:24

keep things together. She found work

6:26

at a laundry facility, but it was hard to find

6:28

someone to keep an eye on the kids. When

6:31

she couldn't rely on family

6:33

and friends, she sometimes left

6:35

them completely unsupervised. This

6:37

wasn't ideal. And

6:40

in 1935, social workers caught wind of

6:42

the situation and placed 11-year-old Barbara and

6:45

her younger sister in an orphanage. You

6:50

might be used to hearing nightmarish stories about

6:52

how awful orphanages can be, but Barbara

6:54

said it was one of the best times

6:56

of her life. Unlike Hortense,

6:58

the nuns who ran the orphanage

7:01

were kind and attentive. They

7:03

made her feel loved. Perhaps

7:05

things would have turned out differently if

7:07

Barbara had stayed in their care. But

7:10

before the year was up, Hortense brought

7:12

the girls home to Oakland. Only

7:15

for Barbara, the homecoming was short-lived.

7:21

By this stage, Barbara was on the

7:23

cusp of teenagehood, and her behavior changed

7:25

for the worse. She started

7:28

acting up, as most preteens do,

7:30

and Hortense didn't have any patience

7:32

for it. Making things

7:34

worse was the fact that Hortense seemed

7:37

to actually resent Barbara. If

7:39

this was the case, it's possible this

7:41

animosity stemmed from the fact that she

7:43

was the eldest. Her birth

7:45

had marked a turning point in Hortense's life.

7:49

And again, it's also possible that

7:51

Hortense was simply jealous of her

7:53

daughter. Because even at

7:55

a young age, Barbara was already getting

7:57

attention. And it wasn't just boys

7:59

her own. own age who pined after her, grown

8:02

men couldn't take their lecherous eyes

8:04

off her. Once upon a

8:07

time, Hortense had been the center of

8:09

attention, but now people only seemed to

8:11

have eyes for her daughter. Whether

8:14

this attention got to Hortense or

8:16

she just couldn't handle her daughter's

8:18

behavior, she'd had enough. Just months

8:21

after bringing Barbara back home, she

8:23

sent the 12-year-old off

8:25

to the home of the Good Shepherd, a reform

8:28

school for wayward young ladies.

8:30

But like always, the situation was

8:33

only temporary, like so much of Barbara's

8:35

life had been. After a

8:37

few months at the school, she was allowed to return

8:39

home in 1936, and it seems her

8:43

time away had done nothing to

8:45

curb her rebellious streak. She

8:47

started hanging out with a rougher

8:49

crowd, often skipped school and stayed out

8:51

late. She also started running

8:54

away whenever things got tough, which

8:56

isn't surprising given how transient her

8:58

life had been. And it

9:00

was a habit she'd have a hard time breaking.

9:03

Still, she always came back

9:05

home, either by force or

9:07

on her own volition. But

9:09

eventually, Hortense had had enough

9:12

again. In

9:16

the summer of 1937, she

9:18

sent Barbara to the California School for

9:20

Girls at Ventura. It was the

9:22

same reform school Hortense had attended

9:24

years earlier. The matrons running

9:27

the facility informed Barbara that she

9:29

was, quote, a chip off the

9:31

old block. And to be

9:34

fair, they weren't wrong. Both Barbara

9:36

and Hortense had been locked

9:38

away for being promiscuous, at

9:40

least by the standards of their time. But some

9:42

of the girls she was rubbing shoulders

9:45

with at Ventura were actual criminals.

9:47

We're talking convicted thieves and

9:50

gang members. To keep

9:52

them all in line, the school forced their

9:54

students to abide by a strict regimen. From

9:57

sunrise to long past sundown, the

9:59

girls were trained in the art

10:01

of domestic and commercial work. And

10:03

acting out was not an option.

10:05

Put a toe out

10:07

of line? Well, corporal punishment wasn't

10:10

out of the question. While

10:13

we don't know for sure if Barbara

10:15

was ever subjected to any physical abuse

10:17

at the school, she clearly wanted out

10:19

of there. She managed to run away

10:21

three times. Once, she

10:24

made it the 300-odd miles home

10:26

to Oakland and begged her mother

10:28

to hide her. She promised

10:30

she'd change her ways that she'd be

10:32

better. But Hortense wasn't

10:34

moved. She promptly called the

10:36

authorities and had Barbara taken

10:39

away again. It's

10:42

possible this is what really

10:44

cemented Barbara's trajectory. While she

10:46

would eventually outgrow the system,

10:48

she'd have a much harder

10:50

time growing past the emotional

10:52

whiplash of her childhood. It

10:54

felt like she'd only ever been loved in

10:57

fits and starts, and it left a hole

10:59

in the pit of her stomach. And so

11:01

much of what came next seemed like

11:04

attempts to fill that emptiness. Love,

11:06

attention, support. It didn't matter.

11:08

She'd take whatever she could

11:10

get. Of course, she wasn't

11:13

going to get a morsel from her mother.

11:15

And if she wasn't going to get what

11:17

she wanted from her family, she'd just have

11:19

to go looking for it elsewhere.

11:24

Up next, Barbara searches for love

11:27

in all the wrong places. This

11:30

episode is brought to you by

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12:32

Now back to the story. In

12:36

the late 1930s, Barbara Graham

12:38

was living in a state-run reform school

12:41

in Ventura, California. It

12:43

was supposed to be a facility

12:45

that straightened out troubled teens, but

12:47

the environment only exacerbated Barbara's behavioral

12:50

problems. Desperate for

12:52

attention, she continued acting out

12:54

and receiving write-up after write-up.

12:57

Finally, in 1939, even the school officials wanted

13:00

to wash their hands of her. They

13:03

allowed the 15-year-old out on parole

13:05

on the condition that she find

13:07

a place to live and work. So

13:10

that April, Barbara got a job as

13:12

a domestic servant, but after

13:14

a few months of scrubbing floors and

13:17

washing dishes, she was let go. According

13:19

to Barbara, her patrons were worried that

13:21

she would steal from them, but no

13:23

job meant that Barbara would have to

13:25

return to the system she'd just

13:28

escaped, and she wasn't going to let

13:30

that happen. So 16-year-old Barbara

13:32

set out on her own, oscillating

13:35

between Northern and Southern California.

13:37

To get by, it seems

13:39

she started dabbling in sex

13:41

work, capitalizing on her striking good

13:43

looks. But after a few

13:46

short months, she started to think about

13:48

her future more seriously. Deciding that she

13:50

needed to settle down, she made her

13:52

way back to the Bay Area and

13:55

enrolled in college. But

13:57

as good as her intentions were, Barbara

14:00

was still a teenager, with all

14:02

the impulse control issues you'd expect.

14:05

When she wasn't in class, instead of studying,

14:07

she frequented local bars. And

14:10

that's where she met

14:12

26-year-old mechanic Harry Keilhammer.

14:18

Barbara told Harry that she was

14:20

23 and the two started dating,

14:22

but things got real when Barbara

14:24

became pregnant. She didn't want

14:27

to have a child out of wedlock, so

14:29

she copped to her real age, and the

14:31

two gave married life a shot. But

14:34

Barbara was still very much a child herself. When

14:36

she gave birth to their son in July of

14:38

1940, she was overwhelmed. Not

14:43

knowing how to cope, Barbara did what

14:45

she did best. She ran away

14:47

from her problems. Exactly how

14:49

long she was away for, we don't know.

14:51

But we do know she ended up in

14:54

San Diego, where she was arrested for vagrancy

14:56

in March of 1941. Only

15:00

she wasn't exactly alone, because

15:02

she was pregnant again. Needless

15:05

to say, when Barbara returned to the

15:07

Bay Area that winter, her marriage was

15:10

on shaky ground. She

15:12

and Harry went their separate ways in

15:14

1942, and the kids went to live

15:16

with Harry's mother in Seattle. According

15:19

to Barbara, the arrangement was supposed to

15:21

be temporary. She wanted to get her

15:23

GED, find a job, then get her

15:26

boys back. She had a

15:28

plan. But well, the

15:30

thing about plans is, they don't

15:32

always work out. Because no

15:34

matter how hard Barbara tried to turn

15:36

her life around, few people wanted to

15:38

hire a reform school runaway.

15:41

So Barbara returned to San Diego

15:43

and allegedly got into sex work

15:45

once more. That

15:48

is until 1944, when a

15:50

sailor made an honest woman out of her.

15:53

But things fizzled out after the guy shipped

15:55

off to war, and the two got divorced.

16:00

Barbara was back on her own and

16:03

back on the streets. She was

16:05

arrested for vagrancy months later in

16:07

San Diego. Then in June

16:09

she was picked up in San Francisco

16:11

for a third vagrancy charge. Today

16:14

vagrancy laws are a rarity. That's

16:17

because they're super vague and

16:19

pretty discriminatory, but back

16:21

in Barbara's day cops used vagrancy

16:23

laws to arrest anyone they deemed

16:26

socially unsavory. This included the homeless

16:28

and women who they thought were

16:30

committing sex work. In Barbara's

16:33

case it's believed she was arrested for

16:36

the latter and facing her third vagrancy

16:38

charge in as many years Barbara Graham

16:40

seemed like a puzzle to the courts.

16:43

Here was a beautiful young woman who

16:45

was full of potential and yet she

16:48

kept making a mess of her life. Perhaps

16:51

that's why when the courts held her

16:53

for 30 days they also ordered her

16:55

to undergo a personality test. Maybe they'd

16:57

find a way to explain why she

16:59

wasn't doing better in life. Now

17:02

it's unclear exactly who examined Barbara

17:04

while she was behind bears, but whoever it

17:06

was they determined that she had

17:09

quote psychopathic tendencies that lead

17:11

to delinquency. Whether this was an

17:13

official diagnosis or not it seems

17:15

she never received any treatment for

17:17

the issue and after a month

17:20

she was released from custody and

17:22

ready to make the most of

17:24

her freedom. During

17:28

the next few years Barbara hopped

17:30

around big cities working odd jobs

17:32

to get by. In Reno

17:34

she worked as a dealer in dice games.

17:37

In Chicago she was a cocktail

17:39

waitress and whenever necessary she

17:41

turned to sex work. No

17:44

matter the location all of her

17:46

jobs placed Barbara in somewhat shady

17:48

working environments where she met plenty

17:51

of unsavory characters. But

17:53

if you think about it it's easy to

17:55

imagine Barbara feeling right at home there. As

17:57

a teen she'd been thrust into close quarters.

18:00

with young ladies who'd crime their

18:02

way to reform school. After

18:04

that, she'd spent much of her time

18:06

drifting from place to place, getting by

18:08

with help from people who probably had

18:10

remarkably similar experiences. I'm

18:13

willing to bet that Barbara felt like the

18:15

world's outcasts were her true

18:17

family. These so-called undesirables

18:19

gave Barbara the love and

18:21

attention she'd always craved as

18:23

a child. They called her

18:25

beautiful. They called her loyal.

18:28

And in return, she called them

18:30

her friends. Unfortunately

18:33

for Barbara, sometimes being

18:35

a good friend meant committing

18:37

a crime. In

18:42

1947, a man named Mark

18:44

Monroe asked Barbara for a

18:46

favor. He was on trial

18:48

for attempted murder in San Francisco and

18:51

needed an alibi. Ever

18:53

reliable, Barbara told authorities that she

18:55

was with Mark in San Francisco at

18:57

the time of the incident. But

19:00

Barbara never expected the authorities to

19:02

do their homework. They checked

19:04

her testimony and discovered that she

19:06

was actually in Chicago that day.

19:09

So in 1948, Barbara was charged with perjury and

19:14

sentenced to a year in jail. Interestingly,

19:18

her time behind bars wasn't so

19:20

bad. While she cooled her heels

19:22

in San Francisco County Jail, Barbara

19:24

had time to indulge her love

19:27

of music and literature. She listened

19:29

to hours and hours of jazz,

19:31

dove into Oscar Wilde, and recited

19:33

poetry. Her probation officer

19:36

even described Barbara as a pleasant

19:38

and quiet girl. It

19:40

seemed like if given the chance, she

19:42

might have been quite content to live

19:44

a quieter life, maybe even study

19:47

a little. But Barbara couldn't

19:49

just walk away from the life she

19:51

loved. So when she was released in 1949,

19:55

the 25-year-old headed straight to

19:57

Reno, back to the world of

19:59

fascinating. money and even

20:01

faster romances. Around

20:06

this time, Barbara met and married

20:08

a traveling salesman, but like all

20:10

the others, the union was short-lived

20:12

and the trail of broken relationships

20:14

was starting to look like a

20:17

pattern. According to

20:19

psychiatrist Mark Bancik, one common explanation

20:21

for increasing divorce rates with each

20:23

successive marriage is that people often

20:26

enter into relationships on the rebound

20:28

from their last. In

20:30

this scenario, it's possible that serial

20:33

brides like Barbara don't give themselves

20:35

enough time to, quote, recover

20:37

from their divorce or to get

20:39

their priorities straight before taking their

20:41

vows again. They enter

20:44

their next marriage for the wrong

20:46

reasons, not having internalized the lessons

20:48

of their past experience. The

20:50

upshot of this is that these

20:52

people are liable to repeat their

20:54

mistakes, making them susceptible to similar

20:57

conflicts and another broken

20:59

marriage follows. Barbara

21:01

certainly followed this pattern, but in early 1950,

21:04

she had more important things on

21:07

her mind than finding husband number four. After

21:10

leaving Nevada, she made her way

21:12

to Washington, hoping to reunite with

21:14

her two boys. The eldest

21:16

was now 11 and the youngest, nine. But

21:21

her mother got to them first. She

21:23

told the boys paternal grandmother

21:25

about Barbara's perjury conviction. She

21:28

also got in touch with Barbara's

21:30

San Francisco probation officer and told

21:32

him that Barbara was an unfit

21:34

mother. After that, seeing

21:36

the boys seemed next to impossible. Obviously

21:40

Barbara was upset with her mother's betrayal,

21:42

but she wasn't just frustrated. She

21:45

was done. She was ready to throw

21:47

in the towel. It's not

21:49

like trying had ever done her any

21:51

good anyway, so she gave up her

21:54

dreams of getting her boys back and

21:56

stopped reporting to her probation officer altogether.

22:00

made her a fugitive on the run.

22:05

With the open road ahead of

22:07

her, the 27-year-old went to South

22:09

Los Angeles, where she met up

22:11

with a guy named Emmett Perkins.

22:13

He ran an illegal gambling parlor

22:15

just outside the city, and he

22:17

offered the striking beauty a job.

22:20

Every so often, Barbara would put on her

22:22

best outfit and head to a bar. There,

22:25

she'd flirt with whichever man tried his

22:27

luck, then bring him on over to

22:29

the parlor. At the end of the

22:31

night, Emmett gave Barbara a share of

22:33

the man's losses. Interestingly,

22:35

it was while she was working

22:37

that Barbara met her fourth and

22:39

final husband. Only, Henry

22:42

Graham wasn't a mark, he was

22:44

the bartender, and they fell head

22:46

over heels for each other. They

22:48

tied the knot in November of 1950. Now

22:52

that she was married to someone she

22:54

truly loved, with a steady income, it

22:57

seemed like Barbara might be turning a

22:59

corner. Slowly, she let

23:01

herself hope again. Maybe

23:03

she could have a happily ever after,

23:05

after all. The

23:09

problem was, Henry wasn't as solid

23:11

and dependable as Barbara thought. He

23:13

was a regular drug user, and

23:16

was arrested on narcotics charges at

23:18

least once. Even after

23:20

she gave birth to their son, in February

23:22

of 1952, the

23:25

first time father couldn't curb his

23:27

dependency. He eventually lost his

23:29

job, which meant that the family of

23:31

three had a new problem, cash

23:34

flow. According to Barbara, she

23:36

begged Henry to find another job, but

23:38

he didn't see the point. He got

23:41

enough from his unemployment checks to fund

23:43

his next fix. When it

23:45

came to luxuries like groceries and

23:47

medical bills, well, that was

23:50

another story. Needless to

23:52

say, Barbara was livid. She

23:54

thought she'd finally made good, but after

23:56

less than three years, her marriage

23:59

was a complete... nightmare. All

24:01

they ever seemed to do was fight. Which

24:04

brings us to the fateful night of

24:06

March 9th 1953. Now

24:09

before we go any further I want to

24:11

point out how important this next part is

24:14

because it's where you're gonna need to

24:16

decide if you trust Barbara's version of

24:18

events or not. This is the night

24:20

Mabel Monahan was murdered in her

24:22

Burbank home. When

24:27

she told her story to reporters later, Barbara

24:29

said that she was at home

24:31

with Henry that night. They were

24:34

having the biggest blowout of their

24:36

lives. Without a steady income, Barbara

24:38

had been forging checks to get

24:40

by which only exacerbated their existing

24:42

issues. The domestic quarrel

24:44

began in the afternoon and lasted

24:46

until the early hours of the

24:49

next morning. They finally called it

24:51

quits around 4 a.m. which

24:53

is when Henry walked out.

24:56

After that, Barbara called her

24:58

friend and boss Emmett Perkins.

25:00

She needed help. She

25:02

was alone, she had no money, and the

25:04

police would surely be knocking on her

25:06

door over the forged checks any day.

25:09

She needed to get out of the apartment fast.

25:14

So at some stage after Henry

25:17

left, Barbara went on over to

25:19

Emmett's parlor. That's where, according

25:21

to her, she encountered John

25:23

Santo. It's also where she found

25:25

out that she, Emmett and Santo

25:27

were accused of murdering a woman

25:30

during an attempted robbery. Again,

25:32

this is Barbara's version of events, so

25:34

it's entirely possible her account of this

25:37

moment wasn't the whole truth. But

25:39

if we take her at her word, then

25:41

we know the accusation floored Barbara.

25:44

She'd been accused of a lot of

25:46

things in her life, but murder? The

25:49

thought was absurd. Still,

25:51

ridiculous or not, she knew it

25:53

didn't look good for her. She'd

25:55

violated her probation, had a conviction

25:57

for perjury, and had been If

26:01

the cops believed this story, then she

26:04

was in trouble. So

26:06

Barbara decided to do what she'd always done. She

26:09

went on the run and hit out

26:12

with Emmett and Santo, although

26:14

she wasn't very good at laying

26:16

low. About

26:18

a month later, in April, cops noticed her

26:20

walking around L.A. as if she wasn't wanted

26:22

for murder. They

26:25

eventually followed her to an old auto shop in

26:27

Linwood, where they also

26:30

scooped up her supposed accomplices. In

26:33

the interrogation room, Barbara swore

26:35

she never crossed paths with

26:37

Mabel, but investigators weren't buying

26:39

it. They charged all three of

26:41

them with the murder, and in September

26:43

of 1953, the trio were found guilty. And

26:49

that's exactly how Barbara found herself

26:52

locked up, facing a date with

26:54

the gas chamber. From

26:58

her jail cell, she told her life

27:00

story to journalist Stuart Palmer for

27:03

American Weekly magazine. After the two-piece

27:05

story hit the stands in April

27:07

of 1954, there

27:09

was a bit of a shift in the

27:11

way people felt about Barbara. After her arrest,

27:14

bloody babs had become a bit of a

27:16

minor celebrity. According to the

27:18

media, she was a gorgeous, ruthless femme

27:20

fatale who'd killed a

27:23

defenseless woman in a moment of

27:25

greedy frustration. It was

27:27

a juicy take on the story. But

27:29

now, as readers flip through the pages

27:32

of American Weekly, something new

27:34

entered the narrative. Doubt. Maybe

27:37

Barbara wasn't a ruthless killer after

27:39

all. Maybe they had gotten her

27:42

all wrong. Then again, authorities

27:44

had captured her on tape, admitting

27:46

that she was with Emmett and Santo the night

27:49

Mabel was killed. So who's to say

27:51

what really happened? Well, that's where I

27:54

come in, because

27:56

I think the truth is buried among the

27:58

different versions of this story. Do

28:01

I trust Barbara's version of events completely?

28:03

No. I think it's most likely

28:06

that she was there the night of the murder. Her

28:08

story changed too many times before and

28:11

after her trial, and that's a red

28:13

flag. But do I think she

28:15

killed Mabel? Also no. I

28:18

think she was along for a payday, sure,

28:20

but given what we know about Barbara, it

28:22

just doesn't seem like it was in her

28:24

nature to be violent. If it

28:26

was, wouldn't that have popped up on her

28:28

record somewhere along the way? And

28:31

that seemed to be a conclusion that quite a lot of

28:33

people were coming to in 1954. And

28:36

if Barbara wasn't a killer, then she

28:39

didn't deserve to die. But

28:41

if she was going to be saved,

28:43

there wasn't much time left to do

28:45

it. Coming

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up, the fight to save Barbara's

28:51

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Now back to the story. When

29:57

Barbara Graham was sentenced to death. in

30:00

September of 1953 for the

30:02

murder of Mabel Monaghan. Most Americans

30:04

thought justice had been served, but

30:07

after reading Barbara's version of

30:09

events, some people started to

30:11

doubt her guilt. One

30:13

of those people was journalist Edward

30:15

Montgomery. He was there the day

30:17

Bloody Babs Graham was sentenced and

30:20

had been 100% confident that she deserved the moniker.

30:25

But by the summer of 1954, that certainty had

30:27

evaporated and

30:30

he wasn't content to let it go. So

30:33

he set out to try and convince

30:35

the people in charge that Barbara was

30:37

innocent. Through his connection at

30:40

the San Francisco Police Department, Ed

30:42

got his hands on John Trues'

30:44

initial statement. That was when he'd

30:46

first accused Barbara, Emmett Perkins

30:48

and John Santo of killing

30:51

Mabel. Ed compared that

30:53

document with Trues' court

30:55

testimony and noticed a

30:57

glaring difference. The first

30:59

time around, Trues said that Emmett had

31:01

been the one to place a pillowcase

31:04

over Mabel's head, but on the stand,

31:06

he laid the blame on Barbara instead.

31:09

But why would he change his story? Well,

31:11

according to one of Ed's sources, John

31:14

Santo had arranged for Barbara to take

31:16

the fall. He wanted the

31:18

beautiful mother of three to get blamed

31:20

for the violence because he figured she

31:23

was more likely to get off. If

31:25

that was true, it might explain

31:28

Trues' different versions of events. Realizing

31:30

he was onto something, Ed met

31:32

with Barbara as well as her

31:34

psychiatrist. Dr. Karl Palmberg

31:37

firmly believed that she was innocent

31:39

because in his eyes, what she

31:41

was was a compulsive liar. Which

31:47

according to clinical psychologist Linda

31:49

Blair, doesn't make

31:51

someone a bad person. Compulsive liars have

31:54

an issue with impulsivity. They literally can't

31:56

stop themselves from telling falsehoods whether or

31:58

not they have any. motives. Blair

32:01

further explains that if you're an

32:03

impulsive person, it's really hard to break

32:05

the habit because you have this terrible

32:07

feeling inside you that you have to

32:09

sort things out right now. So when

32:12

it comes to your head, you just say

32:14

it. That doesn't mean you necessarily lie, but

32:16

it's a little harder for you to stop

32:19

from lying more than it is for someone

32:21

who's more reflective. The

32:23

reasons for why this happens are

32:25

still a bit unclear, but clinical

32:28

psychologist Dr. Patapia Tsotsoli suggests that

32:30

pathological lying might be a way

32:33

to bolster self-esteem, or it could

32:35

be a defense mechanism. Dr.

32:37

Tsotsoli also points out that

32:39

people who pathologically lie demonstrate an

32:42

impaired ability to distinguish between

32:44

fiction and reality, and it is

32:46

often observed that the lie

32:48

eventually wins power over the

32:50

pathological liar, and he

32:53

loses mastery of his own lies.

32:59

This might account for Barbara's own varied

33:01

version of events, and why she didn't

33:03

seem capable of sticking with just one.

33:06

In Ed Montgomery's mind, compulsive lying

33:08

was what had landed Barbara on

33:10

death row, not guilt.

33:13

He was so convinced of Barbara's innocence

33:15

that he reached out to California's Attorney

33:17

General to request that Barbara be given

33:20

a lie detector test. Not

33:22

wanting to upset law enforcement,

33:24

the AG ultimately said no.

33:27

Meanwhile, Barbara's new attorney, Al

33:29

Matthews, worked on legal appeals.

33:31

Her petition made it all the way

33:34

to the United States Supreme Court in

33:36

March of 1955, but

33:39

the court denied the appeal. After

33:42

that, Barbara's execution date was

33:44

finally set for June 3rd.

33:47

Al looked for other ways he could get

33:49

Barbara's conviction overturned, while Ed

33:52

tried just about everything else. In

33:55

May, he tried to convince California

33:57

Governor Goodwin Knight to issue a

34:00

pardon, but that was a non-starter.

34:02

So later that month he wrote to

34:04

Emmett Perkins in San Quentin. He was

34:07

facing the same date with the gas

34:09

chamber as Barbara and John Santo,

34:12

and Ed thought he might be able to reason with the

34:14

man. He implored him to

34:16

tell the truth and clear Barbara's

34:18

name. All Emmett had to

34:20

do was tell the warden, and Ed

34:22

would come running. At

34:24

first Emmett stayed quiet, but

34:27

then, as the execution date loomed

34:29

closer, the warden reached out

34:31

to Ed. Emmett was ready to

34:33

talk. Ed

34:36

was ecstatic. He arrived at San Quentin

34:38

a couple of days later, ready to

34:41

hear the confession that would change everything.

34:44

But then he had the rug pulled

34:46

out from under him. When the men

34:48

finally sat down to speak, all

34:51

Emmett said was, quote, That

34:53

old lady was never pistol whipped.

34:55

She was beat with her own

34:57

cane. According to Ed,

34:59

John Santo had heard Emmett was preparing

35:02

to change his story and had convinced

35:04

him not to. Why that

35:06

would be, we don't know. But

35:08

one of Ed's last hopes had

35:10

been dashed. With that,

35:13

officials prepared for Barbara's

35:15

execution. On

35:19

June 2nd, 1955, 31-year-old Barbara

35:22

Graham was brought into a

35:24

holding cell. She spent the

35:26

night lounging in red silk

35:28

pajamas, listening to music and

35:30

talking to her prison nurse.

35:33

At dawn, she ate a few scoops of

35:35

hot fudge Sunday, but she didn't have much

35:37

of an appetite. From

35:40

9 a.m. as prison attendants prepared

35:42

the gas chamber, Barbara prepared

35:44

to die. But

35:46

before she could start the long walk,

35:49

the telephone rang. It

35:52

was good news. The court had granted

35:54

a stay of execution so that it

35:57

could hear Barbara's lawyer's latest petition. Matthews

36:00

argued that evidence seized illegally

36:02

couldn't be used against criminal

36:04

defendants. We can't say for

36:07

certain, but it seems this argument was aimed

36:09

at the secret recording of Barbara admitting to

36:11

being with Emmett and Santo the night of

36:13

the murder. If the

36:15

court agreed, the recording would be

36:18

inadmissible, and without that, then there

36:20

was no concrete evidence that placed

36:22

Barbara at the scene of the

36:24

crime. But the

36:26

petition was rejected, and the

36:28

execution was back on. Around

36:32

10.30 a.m., Barbara received communion

36:34

and was given her last

36:36

rights. She was ready

36:38

to go. But

36:43

at 10.41 a.m., the phone rang for

36:45

a second time. Al

36:47

had convinced the governor to order another

36:49

stay. Since John True

36:51

had altered his testimony, Al's argument

36:53

was that he had perjured himself.

36:56

As such, his assertion that Barbara

36:59

had attacked Mabel was invalid. While

37:02

Al fought valiantly, his efforts

37:04

only delayed the inevitable. The

37:07

court rejected the petition within minutes,

37:09

and by that point, Barbara couldn't

37:11

take it anymore. If she

37:13

wasn't going to be pardoned, then she was

37:16

ready to end this torment once

37:18

and for all. And

37:20

as Ed pleaded with Emmett to

37:22

change his story, Barbara accepted what

37:24

Ed and Al couldn't. It

37:27

was over. And

37:29

so at 11.30 a.m., Barbara was

37:31

finally led into the gas chamber,

37:35

blindfolded so that she couldn't see

37:37

the 40 or so witnesses waiting in

37:40

the viewing room. Barbara

37:42

hadn't wanted any of her loved ones there.

37:44

She didn't want them to see. She

37:47

asked that her three boys forget

37:49

about her altogether, better than

37:51

to live with the shame of having

37:53

a convicted killer as a mother. Before

37:56

Barbara took her last breath,

37:58

she said, Good

38:00

people are always so sure

38:03

they're right. And

38:05

as far as last words go,

38:07

those are fascinating. Was she

38:09

talking about someone in particular, Ed and

38:12

Al perhaps? Maybe the prosecutors

38:14

who'd put her there. Unfortunately,

38:16

we'll never know. The

38:19

31-year-old died moments later.

38:23

Hours later, Emmett Perkins and

38:25

John Santo met the same

38:27

end. And

38:31

that was that. The

38:33

story of Mabel Monahan's murder came

38:35

to a close with the death

38:38

of Barbara Graham. But

38:40

people remained fascinated with the tale

38:42

of Bloody Babs long after she

38:44

was gone. It was

38:46

retold in books, articles, and even

38:48

a song. Then in 1958, a

38:52

fictionalized version of the saga made it to

38:54

the silver screen. Ed

38:56

Montgomery himself consulted on the film,

38:59

I Want to Live, which earned

39:01

Susan Hayward an Academy Award for

39:04

playing Barbara. But

39:06

not everyone was moved. The

39:08

prosecutor in Barbara's trial, Jay

39:10

Miller-Levy, said that the film

39:13

was, like so much of

39:15

Hollywood, just make-believe. Barbara,

39:17

he said, was nothing more

39:20

than a cold-blooded killer. But

39:22

like I said earlier, I'm not so sure

39:25

about that. Of course, we'll never

39:27

really know the truth about March 9th, 1953. Then

39:31

again, maybe we already do. Maybe

39:34

the courts got it right and Barbara

39:36

got what she deserved. Or

39:38

maybe she just chose the wrong

39:40

friends. Maybe she was in

39:42

the wrong place at the wrong time.

39:45

But almost 70 years after

39:48

her execution, the search for

39:50

answers seems almost pointless. The

39:53

people who knew the whole story

39:55

are long gone. The

39:57

truth can't help anyone

39:59

now. Thanks

40:08

for listening to Serial Killers, a Spotify

40:11

podcast. We're here with a new episode

40:13

every Monday and be sure to check

40:15

us out on Instagram, at

40:17

Serial Killers podcast. For

40:19

more information on Barbara Graham, amongst the

40:21

many sources we used, we found Proof

40:24

of Guilt by Kathleen A. Carnes. Be

40:27

helpful to our research. Stay safe out there. Serial Killers

40:29

is a Spotify podcast. This

40:33

episode was written by Jane O

40:36

with writing assistance by Joel Callen,

40:38

fact-checked by Bennett Logan, researched by

40:40

Mickey Taylor and Chelsea Wood, and

40:43

sound-designed by Juan Borta, with production

40:45

assistance by Joshua Kern. Our

40:47

head of programming is Julian Warro. Our

40:50

head of production is Nick Johnson, and

40:52

Spencer Howard is our post-production supervisor.

40:54

I'm your host, Vanessa Richardson.