In the pressure and rush to solve the temple murder case, investigators thought they got a big break when they obtained incriminating admissions from four young Tucson men. Instead, it would become their most embarrassing moment. A key cop tells us what happened.

 

Sheriff's Sgt. Russ Kimball was coordinator of the multi-agency task force that conducted the massive search for the killers of nine people at the Buddhist temple. Writing with Features Editor Laura Greenburg, he relives the investigation.

September 10, 1991

The investigation into the murders of nine people at the Buddhist temple was already a month old and detectives wanted-no they needed-to solve this case bad. This was evident even in late August, when a young Phoenix woman called the tip line and said a friend was acting strangely, and had commented to her that he had killed the monks. The Maricopa County Major Crimes Task Force had roared into action in a thirty-six-hour blitzkrieg, serving warrants with SWAT teams and rounding up the mans friend's and acquaintances, until thirteen people were stacked up and waiting to be interviewed.

Detectives verbally prodded, poked and accused, but the man wouldn't confess. Why should he? He was innocent. And when they checked out the old woman, they found she was suffering from delusions-she was positive the man not only was guilty, but also thought he ate body parts from the slain monks that he kept in a vacant apartment.

Still, Sheriff's Sergeant Russ Kimball remembers that the pressure to clear the case was so great, that task force brass would continue to seek links to the man long after he was released. Eighteen months later, sheriff's detective Rick Sinsabaugh would tell an internal review; "He didn't have anything to do with the case...I remember standing in the hallway watching the interview.We wanted to solve this thing so bad. I saw us lose it (our objectivity) right there."

Kimball, coordinator of the sixty-member multi-agency force, would later muse that he had seen a preview of the future. For on the night of September 10,1991, Kimball was at task force headquarters waiting to interview a tipster who would fool law enforcement machinery.

It had begun with a call from Tucson Police, lead number 511. The tipster, who called himself "John." He wanted to snitch on "Kelsey Lawrence"-both were really Mike McGraw, twenty-four, then a resident of the Tucson Psychiatric Institute. "John was persistent, he had dialed TPD four times. His initial all mentioned, "...he's got a Bronco or Blazer, something like that, and remember watching on the news. But the suggestion that his information came from the media didn't register then.

Two task force members of Department of Public Safety Officer Larry Troutt and Sheriff's Detective Don Griffiths, made the 120-mile drive to Tucson."Kelsey" talked a blue streak about a Tucson group that caravans to Phoenix, about hearing gunshots, seeing people running from a church...But it was lukewarm until, according to Troutt, McGraw invited him into his bedroom, closed the door, then asked the officer something about blood or something about blood on the walls. Though the exact words will remain in dispute, it sounded like a direct hit.

The word Bloods was carved on the wall of the Wart Promkunaram Temple in the west Valley the August night that six monks-in-training and a temple helper were shot and killed execution-style, and that information had not leaked out. Troutt called Phoenix and by midnight Kimball and others were gathering at task force headquarters to await McGraw's arrival.

Detectives obtained permission for the trip from the hospital director, while doctors cautioned them about the man's suicidal behavior.

Before he was whisked to Phoenix, he was given medication to relax. Along the way he yakked, ate a burger, stopped at a restroom. At 1:01 a.m., September 11, McGraw-still Kelsey- was read his Miranda rights in the police vehicle.

.... Task force members from ten agencies were streaming into headquarters, setting up in the bureaucratic decor of aging green vinyl chairs and steel desks. Everyone was exhilarated. Sheriff's Captain Jerry White,commander of the task force and Kimball's boss, was one of the first to show;followed by case agent Pat Riley, DPS officers, the FBI, and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. White phoned Chief Deputy George Leese who called Sheriff Tom Agnos to explain what appeared to be a lucky break in the case. Eager detectives huddled in groups and exchanged tidbits about what had gone down in Tucson. Smiles popped like flashbulbs.

While they waited, an intelligence specialist began checking on Kelsey Lawrence. He found zip, not even a traffic ticket under the name. Foreheads creased, frowns started, but the good mood remained.

Techs frantically hooked up and checked audio devices in interview rooms so detectives outside could monitor conversations. But the building was old, the acoustics varied from room to room, and the small microphones concealed in the ceilings and walls and the tape recorders placed in monitor rooms were poor in duplicating quality. Though scratchy and hollow-sounding tapes would later prove the bane of the investigation-the sound inconsistent,often distorted or inaudible-the tapes also would virtually save the lives of innocent young men,wrongly accused.

When McGraw arrived at 1:15 a.m., Kimball was ready to call K.C. Scull from the county attorney's office, but White told him to hold off. A major suspect was in the building and the task force was without legal counsel, Kimball thought. For chrissakes,this is not a normal case.

Troutt and Riley began a series of interviews with "Kelsey Lawrence." Outside the interview room, investigators crammed around an audio device like excited kids, hanging on his story. Volumes of words...he talked until 6 a.m.And after detectives got word that Kelsey Lawrence didn't exist,a sheepish McGraw gave his real name and conceded he was also "John," the tipster.It was about the only real thing that came out.

The "facts" McGraw gave feinted left, darted right,shrank then grew larger as he seemingly relaxed and gave up more and more in each session.The gist of his final version according to documents, was this:

McGraw remembers three people meeting at Lakeside Park in Tucson on August 9, where plans were discussed to go to Phoenix and rob the buddhist temple. There was discussion about a stolen vehicle. He mentioned a brown Ford Bronco and dark blue Chevy Blazer.They went to a house and got a few more guns, one a 9mm Glock.

A rifle went in the Blazer and other weapons were carried in the Bronco. When they got to Phoenix they met up with four other young men.

They all went to the temple following directions provided by a "Kim."At the temple,everyone went through double doors,except McGraw and another man, who waited in the vehicles.McGraw says he got curious,so he looked in the temple and saw an old woman lying face down on the floor and some other people dressed in robes being led into the room and ordered to lie down on the floor.

McGraw says one man was standing over the woman, slapping her,holding a statue and threatening to hit her with it if she didn't show him where "it" was. Then McGraw got scared and went back to the Bronco.

Soon, he heard several gunshots-eight to ten-then right after, three louder shots. Suddenly, everyone was running from the temple to the Bronco and Blazer,one man carrying a black cloth bag. They were agitated,out of breath and someone stuck a gun in McGraw's face and told him to get moving. The Bronco and Blazer took off.

Although he was in a mental hospital, detectives had reason to believe McGraw. They relied on the unspoken homicide credo:uncommon knowledge. The media, the community, didn't know about the word BLOODS carved on the wall, they didn't know that the only victim in white was a nun in her seventies. They didn't know about the double doors. Or did they?

Meanwhile, detectives protected their prime suspect. He was given a Sprite and took detectives on a wild goose chase through Phoenix to point out routes and addresses. At 8:30 a.m. he was taken to the Sheraton Hotel, food was ordered, and McGraw slept under the watchful eyes of officers. Later that day an officer even bought McGraw a t-shirt, socks, underwear, a toothbrush and shoes.

September 11,1991

Earlier, while McGraw gossiped, detectives already were documenting names and information, spinning it through computer databases, hunting down addresses, phone numbers, criminal histories, photographs. The atmosphere was chaos mimicking order, as they scurried to confirm details, write search warrants, solidify facts. Unlike Kelsey Lawrence, McGraw fingered real people.

Investigators didn't check out McGraw with the same vigor. There wasn't time. The command staff was chomping at the bit, pushing to do everything right now. In the task force's zeal to weave McGraw's threadbare statement into the fabric of a crime begged to be solved, no one paused to consider-no one had time to consider-that the information could be wrong.

They would not discover that McGraw may not have mentioned an old lady in white, just an old lady. Or reflect that the double doored temple and surrounding area exploded from every newspaper and television picture account for days after the murder. Or connect that "Kim" probably was Kim Ly Lim, a nineteen-year-old Cambodian arrested August 16,1991,in California in connection with a brutal murder in Houston. Lim's brief stint as a temple case lead put his picture in newspapers and on television sets across Arizona. Or check whether McGraw was really at work in a Tucson factory when he said he was meeting people and driving to Phoenix.

Instead, Kimball and the others felt they were finally tasting the beginning of victory.Of truth.

At 4 a.m. Kimball had been given permission to call K.C. Scull,who would arrive at 5:30. Task force members had already been dispatched to Tucson to get physical descriptions and scout locations of suspects' homes. When Kimball sat down with Scull in the conference room-eerie neon lights playing off of several laminated banquet tables that were shoved together-the veteran prosecutor asked the crucial question: "Where did you get this guy?"

Kimball would never forget Scull's expression when he answered-total surprise and dismay spread across the face of Maricopa County's top felony prosecutor. "You got him where?"But Kimball was the cheerleader and reassured him...McGraw admitted himself to a mental ward because of all the guilt he harbored over killing the monks. After all that what Kimball was told.

The pyrotechnics of urgency had everyone fired up. This case,this horrible murder investigation where nothing was ever normal, was actually on track...what a lucky break, it looked like they got their boys and that was key because the political strains were trickling down from the command staff and affecting everyone.

By the time the sun was up, tired detectives moved at Mach speed. And despite the unexpected multiple suspects,a logistics problem,the brass was pumped up, glowing. More county attorney's arrived,so did technical personnel, even the SWAT team-a small army necessary to launch an assault on Tucson.

Now cheerleader Kimball was starting to go nuts, things were moving too fast, he was losing control. Crap work destroys officers in court; lawyers make the look like buffoons. Why the hurry? McGraw came voluntarily, hell he called them. They should take their time, line up all their ducks...

But the rub in the murder investigation is that once the chattering begins, people find out, evidence gets destroyed. The streets have ears, and scuttlebutt was that word had been leaking in Tucson that Mike McGraw was in custody, snitching everybody off. So the killers had to be busy escaping, busy damaging evidence. Which meant the task force had to press harder.

Kimball stayed at the booster in the confusion, telling everyone there would be light at the end of the tunnel. Weeks later, after their house of cards crumbled, a detective told Kimball: "Your goddam light at the end of the tunnel was a train, buddy."

A runaway train-that's how Kimball himself would one day characterize the investigation. Privately, he did try to slow it down that morning by telling Scull his concerns, figuring Leese and White might listen to a prosecutor. But Scull wasn't in a position to do anything.

Down in Tucson, search teams, detectives and support personnel waited at the DPS compound. Commanders were yipping at Kimball,who leaned on Riley to hurry with search warrants-surveillance had already begun, officers were getting antsy, time was slipping away.

. As it zeroed in on the people McGraw had named, the task force intended simultaneous "soft," low key entries in Tucson and Phoenix. That's jargon for knocking on suspects' doors, politely telling them their homes will be searched, and would they please come to headquarters for interviews? Suspects rarely say no. Then a search team takes over while the transportation team is whizzing people away.

Those were the instructions given in a morning briefing.But Tucson police had other ideas.Low key? Forget it, they told Phoenix.They were on their turf and claimed the South Park neighborhood was the dark underbelly of drug labs and crack addicts...they insisted on leading the way with their SWAT team.Kimball suggested to Capt. White that either he or Sgt. Mark Mullavey go to Tucson to help homicide detective Tom Shorts supervise and negotiate with TPD,but White said no.

Later, when the media began to crucify the task force for its heavy handed tactics,Kimball and his commanders would learn that TPD had hit some of the homes SWAT-style, kicking doors, even using a "flash-bang" concussion device. One suspect, Mark Nunez, 19, was put face-down on the floor and handcuffed. Kimball would also learn that some of his own officers handcuffed another suspect-Leo Bruce-who was invited to Phoenix.

And he would muse: when you kick doors, wrest people into handcuffs and haul them 120 miles away from home and family, I think those are clues that they're under arrest, even if you haven't told them so.

But the task force didn't immediately realize what happened in Tucson. And Kimball knew they didn't want to arrest anyone yet, because arrest set a legal clock ticking: within 24-hours, an initial appearance before a judge is required: within 48-hours a formal complaint must be filed or the accused walks. They hadn't even talked to these folks; probable cause was iffy.

One by one, the men named by McGraw were corralled and chauffeured to task force headquarters. All of them were read their rights. Those 72-hours would become legal legend.

September 11-13,1991

Interrogations took place over three days with Tucson suspects, including 20-year-old Dante Parker, Leo Bruce and Mark Nunez. Within that time,those three implicated themselves in the temple murders, along with McGraw. Defense attorney Peter Balkan later would call the interrogations "psychological root canals. "But they were treated the way homicide treats suspects. They had been read their rights, all chose to talk. They were given pizza and burgers and fries, water, Sprite, Cokes-McGraw had orange juice.The bathroom was available, they were allowed time to rest.

Not that it was a debutante party. To Kimball, it was typical murder interrogation strategy: isolate the suspect on your turf, overcome his resistance to confess, talk until he tries to correct you, convince him he'll feel better when he owns up, coax him into the belief that everyone else is snitching, putting him in the jackpot, the last liar doesn't stand a chance with the system.

Then develop themes-like you were drunk and didn't realize what you were doing-that will help him overcome his basic instinct for self-preservation.The good homicide detective becomes the priest. Treat them like gentlemen,but trash the rules of etiquette. At least that's the way Kimball works, you have to out think them. You may be dealing with a killer.

In each interrogation, investigators focused on vehicle information, where the guns were, where stolen property ended up. They came up with air. Three men were questioned and released.Another, Victor Zarate ,28, was held but never conceded guilt. Meanwhile, McGraw kept spewing information, and detectives pounded the pavement searching for several named but phantom suspects. Everyone was weary...

When the confessions came out, they came out weird, they came out strange, they came out slow and tired and tangled, but they came. After hours and hours that turned into days. The scenario that emerged was that a wild party of strangers and friend from Tucson broke into the temple for the purposes of robbery and killed the residents when they were discovered. Killed them with 12-gauge shotguns and deer rifles, with .22-caliber pistols, 9mms, and .45 caliber autos.

The weapons weren't the only things that conflicted. Investigators dug through notes and tape to try to weave the individual stories together. Man, there had to be a thread that would tie up all the loose ends. But the pieces of the quilt didn't fit right,the facts were murky, distorted-like the reflections in a carnival mirror.

The story of Leo Bruce exemplifies the problem. At 28 Bruce worked two jobs and had lived in his own apartment for three years. He had loyal friends, co-workers liked Leo, respected him. He had no criminal record.

Bruce was plucked up by the task force at 11 p.m.,September 11, handcuffed and zipped to Phoenix headquarters. He thought the officers wanted to question him about a traffic ticket.

By 2:30 a.m. September 12, Bruce was put in an interrogation room wired with tape recorders. The first wave of investigators took their shots at him. The documents report:

Bruce wondered why he was being questioned about a murder. He couldn't think of any reason why police would want to interview him. He'd heard about the temple murders-who hadn't-but only on television and radio where he listened to reporters talking about "some Oriental guy connected with the Texas shootings(Kim Ly Lim)

He was read his Miranda rights. He did not ask to speak to an attorney.

Within the first 15 minutes, one of the detectives mentions the names of the other suspects, the vehicles and the guns, and hints that detectives knew all about Bruce's role in the killing at Wat Promkunaram. He tries to shmooze Bruce into confessing, telling him investigators have information that he was involved in a "deal that went down up here, " telling him "your time is now."

They don't back off. They're trying to strike the chord that will start Bruce talking. But he doesn't react, doesn't get angry mad or excited, his conscience is tugged but nothing works. He keeps saying, "I wasn't there." Then the second wave takes over.

The interrogators learn Bruce owns a Marlin .22-caliber rifle that he keeps in a linen closet in his apartment. When asked if the rifle could be anywhere else, Bruce says no. His answer tweaks suspicion, because only a .22-caliber cleaning kit was found in a search of Bruce's apartment.

Bruce says,sure, he knows some of the others being questioned, they come from the same neighborhood, but still claims he wasn't there.

And then a DPS special agent takes a shot at Bruce. He's an experienced interrogator who played a major role in the Prime Time Rapist case in Tucson. Bruce wouldn't fool him.

When the agent leaves, he tells Kimball that he doesn't believe Bruce was there. Kimball becomes a bully, gets in his face, and tells the agent Bruce is lying, he's guilty, others have dropped a dime on him. The agent is told, you're tired, you've got to dig deep down, then he's sent back in. Still, Bruce won't budge.The questioning continues...

According to documents, shortly after 2:30 p.m. September 12, it's showtime for Leo Bruce. He has been awake for 33-hours. He's been grilled by at least three sets of detectives, shown newspapers,and allowed to study the "prop room"-a room with photos of the bodies,diagrams, names of the suspects and descriptions of the vehicles and weapons-for more than 40 minutes. By 3:15 p.m., almost thirteen hours after his interrogation began, a tired Bruce begins to incriminate himself. Before it is over, Bruce will tell detectives he shot all nine people in Wat Promkunaram in the head with his Marlin .22-caliber rifle.

Later he would be quoted in an American Lawyer article by Roger Parloff that he just wanted to end the hammering."My head felt like it was hollow...Everything echoed in there...I don't know how to put it...[the only thing I can compare it to is] when I when in for surgery and they put anesthesia on me. It was like a dream,and I couldn't wake up and I couldn't do anything to get out of it..."

By the time the interrogation of Leo Bruce was completed, it was about 21-hours after questioning began, including rest breaks. He dealt with ten members of the task force.

The next day, he will retract his confession, say he was making it up because of the pressure, apologize for misleading the investigators,. But then it is too late.

In essence, Kimball could reflect later, it appears that under pressure, Bruce had repeated information he received from a succession of detectives and the prop room. There was no way to keep track of what one detective said, then another who quickly took his place.

But Bruce wasn't alone. According to documents, Nunez, Parker, McGraw and Bruce all confessed after varying lengths of interrogation punctuated by sophisticated maneuvering by the task force.

... God, why would anyone confess to a crime they didn't commit? And four people confessing to the same crime? Any objections left unanswered in the confessions were overridden by this simple question. Odds are better you could win the lottery, or get struck by lightning.

Looking back, Kimball remembers that it was as if a black hole settled over the task force and sucked up all logic and reason.

So insistent and impassioned were detectives, Kimball thinks the suspects unwittingly jumped on the bandwagon. Their fractured,skewed admissions were mostly parrotings from details handed them by well-intentioned, but inexperienced interrogators-some had never worked a homicide case-that at the time made sense to drained cops and prosecutors desperate to solve a high profile case.

Kimball remembers detectives couldn't think straight. Sometimes a few would nod off in the conference room between power surges of energy...some would stare blankly when asked to answer basic questions. No one could recall what someone had said at the beginning of a fifteen-hour interview. And Kimball remembers suspects who were confused with exhaustion and fear, draped in chairs or slumped in the corners of shabby interrogation rooms with fast-food refuse overthrowing garbage cans and littering the floors.

The acidic smell of fear mingled with sweat and exhaustion and the odor of stale pizza. It was overwhelming. ,p. When the suspects were taken to the Sheraton Hotel for rest, it also bought the task force more time to interview them again. Individual statements still didn't fit. Because none of the suspects had asked for attorneys,and because they all kept talking, detectives felt their responsibility was to keep asking questions. And so they kept at it until all chronicles jibed.

Kimball remembers that as detectives brought one suspect to the hotel, another was sent to task force headquarters for questioning. It was a revolving door. Suspects were put into lineups to be picked out by other suspects.They were shown endless photo lineups for confirmation. Photo IDs were the only investigative thing done at the hotel...it was easier than ferrying people back and forth, although the media would later insinuate that the drawn out investigations took place there.

The task force had used standard tricks of the trade in the interrogation process. Pass-bys, for instance: You set up chance meetings by suspects. Kimball knew the theory-guilty people often think,"Oh, I'm really caught, he's probably spilling his guts, just like the cops said." And that's the fear they worked to instill, to relieve the men of their guilty consciences. Each suspect,Kimball recalls,had a chance to glimpse at least one other person police were talking about.

The "prop room" was the FBI's idea, Kimball remembers. You set up a room to resemble a commander's office filled with little attractions that signal the cops have tons of information, that they know The Truth. The prop room was decorated with photos of the victims alive and dead. There was a line drawing of the temple, enlarged snapshots of shoeprints so grainy they looked like the surface of the moon, video tapes and a link chart showing the associations of the Tucson suspects as outlined by Mike McGraw. he chart revealed weapons and vehicles and names of the other suspects.And then a bunch of meaningless papers scattered on a table and desk, a telephone, nameplate, chairs.

The suspect is made to believe he's been left in the room by accident. After a two-minute stay, he's supposed to be yanked by an angry commander who yells at the detective for putting the guy there.

The whole ruse is for its shock value, to let a suspect think cops already have the inside scoop, that lying won't do any good. Prop rooms are supposed to reduce interrogation time, if they're used correctly. But Kimball will think later that the task force went overboard, like kids with a new toy.

Suspects being given newspapers...suspects spending too much time in the prop room, able to regurgitate data...suspects facing wave after wave of detectives-some who hadn't even been to the crime scene...Kimball remembers these were the kinds of Keystone Kop things that kept occurring,perhaps innocently,but still enough to taint the information from the Tucson Four, as McGraw,Parker,Bruce and Nunez became known.

The result was an investigation that was a tumbleweed blown in a thousand directions by gale-force winds. Kimball directed weather as best he could,but clearly the brass had taken over...it was like they were having a hands-on panic attack, he thought.

When interrogations were being conducted simultaneously, Kimball remembers an ebb and flow of detectives running into the conference room to ask questions. "Hey, were there double doors on the temple?" And then as interviews wound down, the detectives would be debriefed by White and Leese who fired questions machine gun-style.

Did he say there were double doors? And some did say that. But what detectives didn't say in the debriefing, was that when Leo Bruce said their were double doors, he described them as being wood-carved. When Dante Parker said he saw double doors, they had big red knockers. In reality,they were metal doors painted white.

It is those things that become the crux of a homicide investigation,Kimball knows. You hear that they both said double doors. You hear what you want to hear because that's all the detective has time to tell you.

Then the information from the debriefings is run all the way up the chain of command to Sheriff Agnos. Double doors, double doors, double doors.Uncommon knowledge? Maybe in the fog of sleep-deprived detectives' minds who hadn't the time to look at the newspaper and television pictures of Wat Promkunaram.

Unfortunately, it's easy to get caught up in this. Kimball remembers when Nunez confessed after about four hours of questioning. It was after Riley came out of the interview and told him that he simply couldn't go on anymore and so Kimball and Mullavey took over. It was early in the morning. Within five minutes, Nunez was incriminating himself, and there was hardly any pressure put on him at all. Afterward, Kimball remembers walking out and Mullavey grabbing his hand and saying, "Congratulations,bub." Those words still ricochet in his head two years later.

Yep, at the time, Kimball thought they had the case wrapped up. He was sure of it. But he didn't comprehend then what role the task force's eagerness to get confessions would play. He didn't grasp how personally impassioned he was, how his zeal and convictions about the Tucson Four's guilt rubbed off on everyone else,stirring the hysteria. There was nothing normal about this case.

By 4 p.m. September 13,the rush to justice had begun.County prosecutors on the task force floor yelled "enough." Fearing claims of coercion due to the length of time the Tucson suspects were being interrogated,prosecutors demanded suspects be booked or released. Five were taken to jail, including Victor Zarate, who did not confess. Would never confess.

McGraw, Nunez, Bruce and Parker were booked on nine counts of first-degree murder. The Thai ambassador joined Agnos at a press conference. Within days, Zarate would be freed, with no formal charges filed. The remaining Tucson Four would all retract their confessions.

The day after they were booked, McGraw was telling reporters from the jail that all had been falsely accused; they were innocent.

He was telling the truth this time.

September-October,1991

But that truth would be revealed later. For now search warrants were continuing in Tucson-Bruce's rifle was found and driven to the DPS lab in Phoenix. A buoyant command staff announced that the murder weapon had been found. Within hours they would have to retract the statement because ballistic tests proved it couldn't be the same rifle.

Other things stood out. Investigators were unable to put people in the right vehicles,based on statements. They made conclusions.Two years later, Kimball knows all these things should have been a signal...stories can be unintentionally molded to fit a case,or what you think a suspect is trying to tell you. He would always wonder: Would this have happened to four college-educated adults?

Meanwhile,there was still no physical evidence and the press was snapping. Families and supporters of the Tucson Four staged rallies proclaiming their innocence.

And the task force had to prepare for three grand jury sessions and a preliminary hearing to move the case forward; attorneys wanted transcripts of the interrogations immediately. Kimball remembers that the tapes were of such poor quality, it could take an officer days to correct long paragraphs of unintelligible conversations in one tape.

But the county attorney's office needed them fast and uncorrected versions went to prosecutors before detectives had time to review them, before a document control system could be put into place.

On Saturday, September 14, the entire task force assembled in the conference room for a grueling nine-hour debriefing and planning meeting with prosecutors. The command staff and sheriff were there.Misinformation abounded. Detectives who interviewed the Tucson Four were put on the hot seat, asked to repeat what suspects said during three days of interrogations.

It was impossible for one person to know at the time what everybody said, impossible for any one detective to know the scene and do all the interviews. There were alot of impossibilities built in simply because the investigation was so huge. But the main thing Kimball feels,was the speed which they were compelled to do business. Other detectives felt divisions in the press and on television. On September 22, an Arizona Republic story stated:"The deputies were accused of coercing the suspects by, among other things, threatening them with the prospect of their going to the gas chamber and telling one that he would not look very well in a lake with an anchor tied around his neck."

Kimball checked on what really happened: a detective would tell a suspect in an interview, these rooms are full of people, they're all confessing,man. They are tying a rope to your leg and you're going down. We're trying to throw you a lifeline, if only you'd tell us your side of the story. The gas chamber was usually mentioned in response to a suspect's question: what could happen to me? It never came out the way it was said. But rules of criminal investigation and prosecution precluded task force members from defending themselves publicly-saying anything about the investigation-so reporters went to outside "experts" for more criticism. Pressure was mounting again.

Rick Romley came to the task force with the hierarchy of his office for another meeting. The task force command staff, including Sheriff Agnos, sat on one side of the room while the attorneys sat on the opposite side. Kimball thought lines were being drawn in the sand. Romley was miffed. When he stared at George Leese and Jerry White, it bore into the tense atmosphere between the two groups.

To Kimball, it seemed clear that Romley blamed White's approach for the problems with the Tucson Four case. Romley told White that Romley's people should have been involved from the start. White said they were. Kimball remembers men shouting, the sheriff couldn't get a word in edgewise. Romley carried on about modern investigation strategies, saying it wasn't cops against the prosecutors anymore, but teamwork.

White fired back, but Romley held his ground, leaning forward in his chair, chin firmly set. Finally, Kimball interrupted and pleaded for the two to bury their differences and find a way to work together. White's face froze, then the room settled. They had to work together. Still, individual feelings were etched,the gap had turned into a canyon of differences.Kimball could see this in eyes around the room, feel it in the air.

Task force members reacted to the hits by insulating themselves against the world,drawing closer together, an armed camp isolated on the fourth floor of their concrete tower.

In three grand jury proceedings, Leo Bruce, Mark Nunez and Mike McGraw were indicted by jurors who ,Kimball was told, were suspicious and had as much difficulty as anyone else understanding the chain and progression of events as outlined by the suspects to detectives.

But task force members knew they didn't screw up the way the papers painted it. The last defendant, Dante Parker, was given a preliminary hearing in open court. It would be a way of informing the public how strong the case really was against the Tucson Four. But it wasn't any better. Kimball testified about the figurine. In other testimony, he and his fellow task force members were still forced to sometimes rely on hearsay. The judge found probable cause and ordered Parker to stand trial.

The dust never settled. The investigation had turned into the worst nightmare. The cyclone-like energy, the fury of the commanders and Kimball reluctance to challenge them, kept the storm alive.

And the defendants weren't rolling over anymore. They accused as easily as the task force. The tables were turning.

There was talk that detectives put a black bag over Nunez' head. What really happened was this: While the interrogations were going on, reporters had the task force surrounded like Ft. Apache. Some suspects, including Nunez, didn't want to be seen being driven to the Sheraton and asked if there was a way to hide from the media.Detectives said, yeah,you can lie down in the back seat and put a blanket over you or the SWAT team has these black bags they use sometimes. Nunez never used the bag, according to detectives.

Task force families took a whipping from friends and neighbors who believed the evil Gestapo rap. A detective taking college courses was attacked and criticized by classmates, and asked to justify task force actions. Police deputies with the sheriff's office were jeered.Kimball's wife was forced to defend her husband over the roar of blow dryers in her hair salon-her clients wanted to know what really happened...

By the first week of October, attorney's were thinking ahead to trial and knew more evidence-any evidence-was needed. They were pushing hard for more information, more interviews, corroboration. Still no physical corroboration had been found. Meanwhile, the final versions of the transcripts had been prepared, most reports had been completed and officers had opportunities to read what really happened.

A shuttle was run daily between Tucson and Phoenix, hauling detectives and cases of paperwork back and forth. A Tucson branch of the Maricopa County Major Crimes Task Force had been developed and was rooting for information in South Park. A document control officer was brought in and long-overdue procedures for document management were set up; cutting edge computerization was just around the corner-the only good things that grew from the debris.

Newspapers with headlines such as Justice looks like a victim in temple case were scattered on desktops. Perhaps foreshadowing a major task force division, detectives stood in small groups around headquarters, talking in hushed voices. They would scatter when supervisors or commanders drew near. Mullavey and Kimball continued to push their people hard to come up with answers.

But Kimball had little else to do except log the daily assignments. The day-to-day operations had virtually been taken over by Leese,White and Sheriff Agnos. Soon they'd have a new commander,even more intense.

And though Kimball didn't know it yet, soon the case would be solved. A rifle left behind an office door would be the key.

And soon Romley would free the Tucson Four, dropping the charges. Millions of dollars in lawsuits were looming.

And the methods by which the confessions were extracted would become infamous; false confessions would be the subject of network television and national articals.

Kimball frequently stands looking out across the sprawling Valley through the narrow windows of the fourth floor of the East Court Building. He wonders how things could have gone so wrong. Detectives wonder if he would jump.

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