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Home John Spirko The Case Ruse To Spring LuAnn Smith From Jail Ruse To Spring LuAnn Smith From Jail
Thursday, 20 July 2006
By John Spirko
Edited by Sheila Howard, JD Editor
A stupid idea takes form
There was a television in the block, and one day I saw a news story about the Betty Jane Mottinger case. The FBI and postal inspectors were looking for leads concerning her murder. I then had the idea that I could claim I had information about the case, and work out a deal for LuAnn. My problem was I didn’t know anything about the case. So I got all the articles I could find about the Mottinger case and I watched the TV for new developments in the investigation. I then had my brother-in-law call the FBI to tell them I wanted to discuss the Mottinger case. Several days later, a postal inspector came to see me. He asked what information I had. I told him I was not going to say anything until I had a deal for all charges to be dropped against LuAnn. He said he could not do that, but that he would pass the information on to his boss.
Lying to make a deal
About a week later, I was taken to Fulton County to answer to the new charges against me. After the hearing, I was taken into a room with seven or eight law enforcement officers, including FBI agents and postal inspectors.
The head of the Task Force was there and he asked me what information I had. I said I was not going to say anything until I had a deal for my girlfriend’s release, and I also included myself in the deal. He said he couldn’t make a deal, but if my information was good, he would talk to the people who could. He then asked me what I knew. I told him I saw a mailbag with money orders and change in it while I was at a party with some bikers, and they told me they robbed a post office in Elgin. He asked me if I would meet with a member of his team for additional information while he tried to get a deal for me. I said I would.
Hartman
In late November, while I was in the Lucas County Jail, I first met with a US Postal Inspector Paul Hartman. During the course of a month or so, I gave him 12 to 15 different stories that I had made up. I made up names like Rooster, the Dope Man, Dirty Dan, Spooky, and Swartz weaving stories involving conspiracies and drugs. I did not sign anything, nor were any of the interviews recorded or witnessed by anyone, although Hartman took notes of what I said. I finally entered into a plea agreement. I agreed to plead guilty to two state charges of assault in return for two sentences of 5-15 years in prison, to be served in a federal prison. I believed my girlfriend would be given probation for her actions in the failed escape. In December 1982, I was transferred to the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas.
When Hartman tried to verify my many stories, he found I had been not been truthful. He interviewed me again and told me he was aware of my lies, but I just fed him new lies. When he came to see me again in January 1983, he threw a mug shot of Delaney Gibson on the table. He said he knew Gibson was the person I was protecting with my lies. He said an eyewitness had made a positive ID of Gibson, placing him in front of the Elgin Post Office the morning Mottinger disappeared. I told him he was nuts to think I was protecting Gibson because I had not seen him in years.
Hartman told me that LuAnn was due for sentencing in March, and unless he had something to take to his boss her deal was off and she would go to prison. I was very upset about that, since all my lies up to that point had been to try to help LuAnn. Thus, I told him, “Yes, I saw Gibson and he told me about this crime.” I then gave yet another false story about what I knew.
The futility of scheming; acts of desperation
In March 1983, LuAnn was sentenced to 1-to-5 years in prison; I was shocked and very upset about that. I called the postal inspectors and they came to see me. However, this time they brought a tape recorder with them. I told them if they would let LuAnn out of prison, I would tell them what they wanted. They said they didn’t know if they could do that, so I told them to turn off the tape recorder. After the recorder was off, I stated if they couldn’t help LuAnn, I couldn’t help them. They asked me about Gibson. I told them I didn’t know anything about Gibson because I had not seen him in a few years and they left.
In September of 1983, I was flown to the state prison in Columbus, Ohio. The next day I was served with a state indictment for aggravated murder and kidnapping. Gibson was indicted as my co-defendant for the same charges. The State’s theory was that Delaney Gibson and I robbed the Elgin Post Office, abducted Betty Jane Mottinger, then killed her and disposed of her body.
In May 2004, Judge Ronald Lee Gilman on the Federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals voted to grant John Spirko an evidentiary hearing, writing that the case against him was built on a "foundation of sand," and that the "complete absence" of physical evidence raised "considerable doubt" that he had been lawfully convicted. Judge Gilman was outvoted 2 to 1.