- I'm kate snow,
And this is "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
- Michael george fell prey to the two issues
Most known to common man, sex and money.
- Fun place, a comic book store,
But not that night.
- They said, "you can't go through.
"somebody was killed."
- She was a young wife and mother
Minding the store for her husband.
Was it robbery, revenge, or something else?
- We might wanna look at his relationship
With his employee named renee.
- They're a little cozy. Check it out.
- Uh, yes.
- Years passed without an arrest,
But for one prosecutor, this cold case was personal.
- That was the case that was unsolved for my old man,
For my dad.
- The clues-- that lover's triangle,
Cash, and a bearded lady.
- And he said, "it looked like a woman in a fake beard,
"a really thin guy."
- It's a mystery with so many head-snapping turns...
[sobbing]
...It took two trials.
- You wait 18 years for justice
Only to have the carpet pulled out from under ya.
- To uncover the truth.
- We have a verdict.
- But was it the truth?
- An adulterer is a person who's done evil things,
But that does not make him a murderer.
♪♪
- Hello, and welcome to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
Michael george and his wife, barbara,
Owned a comic book store
Where the shelves were filled with epic tales
Of superheroes battling villains.
Then barbara was shot dead at work,
And while police searched for answers,
A dark secret managed to remain hidden.
It would be years before a team of real life good guys
Swooped in to unearth a telling clue,
But would it be enough to unmask a killer?
Here's dennis murphy with "the comic book murder."
- I looked at him.
I said, "hey, let's go down to the comic book store
"and help barb with the party."
[sirens wailing] we pulled up at the party.
The police stopped us. I knew immediately.
All the crime scene tape was there,
And they said, "you can't go through.
"we're investigating a homicide.
"we're investigating the comic book store."
- The comic book store was a mom and pop shop
In a strip mall outside detroit.
Out front by the register,
Bins of the fantasy big guys,
Spidey, hulk, x-men,
But in the storage space in back
Was an ugly reality.
One of the shop owners, the woman, was on the floor
With the life draining out of her.
Customers had found her.
- Most of the time, we were there on Friday nights.
- It was July of 1990, a Friday the 13th,
When tom and lenora ward stopped by the comic book shop
Before going out to dinner.
They liked buying from the woman there, barb.
- She knew our names.
Immediately, when we would walk in,
She would light up with a smile.
Um, many times, she would actually come around
The counter to greet us.
- But not on this summer evening.
It was just after 6 o'clock.
Tom and lenora had picked out a comic,
But there was no one behind the counter
To take their money,
Not barb or her husband, michael, the co-owner.
- It wasn't uncommon
That someone wouldn't be at the cash register,
But this was a longer than normal time,
So we thought we would, uh, stick around
Just to make sure,
You know, because we liked her.
- Some teenager customers were also in the shop browsing,
And they, too, were itchy to pay and go.
They were the first ones to peek into the back room
And see barb sprawled.
- Cried out, "there's somebody back here!"
And at that time,
Tom and I rushed to the back storage area
And found barb, um, on the floor.
- We thought she perhaps had fallen backwards
And hit her head.
- I noticed that she was blue around her mouth,
Um, her pupils were dilated and big,
And, um, I could not find a pulse.
- Lenora, the customer,
Happened to be a nurse and took charge.
She noticed only a small amount of blood
And concluded that barb had suffered a heart attack
Or a seizure.
She told her husband to call 911
While she began administering cpr.
- I had never done cpr on someone
That I knew and loved.
It was please, god, let this be okay.
She's a mother.
- As the ambulance rushed barb to the hospital,
Lenora ward felt she'd done her professional best,
But she wasn't at all sure
Her prayers would be answered.
- I knew that she was medically in-in dire straits.
- The woman rushed into the emergency room that evening
Was 32-year-old barbara george.
She was a little heavy but physically fit,
An enthusiastic softball and volleyball player.
Doctors and nurses began working feverishly to get a pulse,
Thumping the woman's chest in rapid bursts.
One e.R. Nurse was kris kehoe.
- If you can give 100 compressions per minute
To that patient,
The better the chance of reviving the heart.
- But after 15 minutes, it was all over.
A doctor pronounced barb george,
The mother of two, dead.
It fell to nurse kehoe to clean up the body
For the family to view. That's when she saw it.
- When we were straightening up her hair,
Uh, we noticed some blood on the top of her head.
I noticed that there was a small hole.
My first thought as a nurse
Was that it had to be a bullet hole there.
- Imagine that. Barbara george,
The nice lady behind the counter,
Shot to death.
- We were shocked. Shot in the head?
It didn't seem like it could happen
To such a good person.
- Back at the comic book shop,
Friends and family continued to arrive
For what was supposed to be a surprise birthday party
That night for michael george, barb's husband.
What a pleasant night it should have been
With toasts, the singing of "happy birthday,"
And all the superheroes from his beloved marvel
And action comics looking on.
All those guests now stunned
To find the party turned into a crime scene
And barb, the hostess, dead.
- The investigation kicks into high gear
As witnesses give police what could be two key clues
To solving the mystery.
Right after the murder, reports of a speeding car.
- And we both thought to ourselves
And then said it to each other,
"boy, that car is going too fast."
- And a man waiting outside the comic book shop.
- He had on kind of a dark outfit
For that time of the year.
A greek fisherman's cap is how I would describe it.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Their hole in the wall shop,
Comic's world, had been barb and michael george's
Just-go-for-it passion.
He'd collected thousands of comics over the years,
And he liked superheroes adventures
Way more than he liked selling insurance.
So, with some help from barb's parents,
They took the jump and opened their little shop
In a clinton township, michigan strip mall
In the winter of 1988.
Joe kowynia is barb's brother.
When we met joe,
He earned a living by removing dents and dings from cars,
But back in 1990,
He was the kid brother who looked up to his sister,
Admired her on the softball field
Where she was a standout.
- I used to go to her games.
I remember goin' to the tournaments with the family.
You know, she was your typical older sister.
She was always there to help ya.
- Barb had been brought up in a traditional
Polish catholic family,
And when she found her man, michael george,
Marriage became the organizing principal of her life.
Was she a happy bride? - Very happy, yeah.
She couldn't, uh, she couldn't wait.
- And when children came along, two girls,
Barbara george seemed complete.
- Her kids were her pride and joy,
And I think that was everything to her.
- The night of Friday the 13th,
Brother, joe, and his then girlfriend,
Now mary shamo, drove over to the comic shop
For what was to be a celebration,
Barb's surprise birthday party
In the store for michael. He was turning 30.
Michael's mother was going to keep the two kids
At her house for the weekend
While barb and michael took off after the party
For a cozy couple of days at a lodge.
So, that would've been a Friday night,
And it was gonna be a romantic weekend.
- Right. [sirens wailing]
- A weekend not meant to be
Because by the time joe and mary
Got to the comic book store just before 9 o'clock,
There was confusion, cop cars.
- We pulled up,
And-and-and joe rolled down the window.
The police stopped us,
And they said, "you can't go through.
"we're investigating a homicide.
"somebody was killed."
- I immediately thought mike
'cause I thought no one hated my sister,
Absolutely nobody.
[sirens wailing] - but the victim wasn't mike.
It was joe's sister,
And it was up to detective sergeant donald steckman
To make sense of the senseless.
He'd been the investigator on duty
When the hospital called that they'd had a woman come in
With a single gunshot to the head.
- So, now we had a full-blown homicide.
- You know it's gonna be a long night.
- Yes.
- As the detective's team scoured the strip mall dumpsters
For maybe a tossed weapon, clothing, something,
He turned over the few facts he had, so far.
A woman with children gunned down execution style
In the back of a little comic book store.
Police interviewed merchants and customers at the mall.
Had anyone seen anything out of the ordinary?
It turned out tom and lenora ward did.
The couple who'd given barb first aid
Had picked up on something
When they first arrived that evening,
A speeding car in front of the comic book shop.
- And we both thought to ourselves
And then said it to each other,
"boy, that car is going too fast."
- Later, they'd wonder if that was the getaway car,
But another observation tugged at them.
Who was that guy lurking outside the comic book shop?
- He had on kind of a dark outfit
For that time of the year.
A greek fisherman's cap is how I would describe it.
- Another man visiting the strip mall would say
He saw a different suspicious character,
Someone wearing what appeared to be a fake beard,
Possibly a bearded lady.
The shop was small, deeper than it was wide,
Aisles of bins filled with comic books out front
By the register, and a door to the back storage room.
Barbara george had been found just inside
The back room.
On the far wall, was a locked door
That led to the alley in the rear.
- Now inside the comic's corner.
- Crime scene techs began videotaping the crime scene.
- So, the cash register.
- There was $750 still in the cash register untouched.
In a glass case just behind the till,
A wall of collectible vintage comics,
The good stuff. They hadn't been ransacked.
In the storage area,
Some bins had been toppled over,
But the emts might have done that as they rushed in
To assist barb george as she lay on the floor.
More than $400 would be found in her pockets.
The good jewelry she was wearing wasn't taken.
Later, the medical examiner determined
That the shop owner had been shot from above.
The bullet entering almost the very top of the skull,
Indicating she'd been crouching.
Another bullet had been fired first, police believed.
It missed
And went through a swimsuit calendar on the wall
And into the empty shop
On the other side of the sheetrock.
If it was a robbery at the comic book store,
It was an unusual one.
Just after 8 o'clock, detective steckman was told
That the husband of the victim had just arrived.
- He identified himself,
And he said, "what's going on?"
We said, "well, there's been an incident here,
"and we're sorry to tell ya,
"but your wife has been injured," and I told--
- Injured not dead. - Yes.
We never told him what--
Never told him what happened to her.
- He doesn't know what has happened to his wife.
- He had no-- to our knowledge,
He had no idea what was going on.
And I said, "well, you need to go over to the hospital
"'cause your wife is really-- is seriously injured."
- At the hospital, michael george was informed
That his wife had died of a gunshot wound to the head.
A few minutes later,
Mary and his brother-in-law joe came rushing in.
The girlfriend was undone by the awful news.
- I'm blown away. I'm shocked.
I wasn't even related to her, and I was devastated,
And I was crying, and I was upset.
- But there was someone
Who didn't seem as upset as mary was,
The new widower, michael george.
Why was she so suspicious of the comic book man?
- Coming up...
An untroubled husband with a very troubled marriage.
- We started receiving phone calls.
We might wanna look at his relationship
With his employee named renee.
- They're a little cozy. Check it out, huh?
- Uh, yes.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Barbra george had been shot to death
In the storage room of the comic book shop
She owned with her husband, michael.
Six hours after her murder,
Michael george had returned from the hospital
To show the chief detective, sergeant steckman,
Around what was now a crime scene.
The back room where barb was shot
Was also where michael said
A robbery must have happened.
He noticed two important white boxes were gone.
- Soon as he walked in the back room,
He looked and said there were two cardboard boxes
Full of very expensive comic books missing.
- So, he's sayin',
"I had some expensive stuff back here."
- Two boxes of comic books.
- And it's gone. - And they're gone.
- Michael george made a written list
Of stolen comics from the white boxes
And estimated their value at $12,600.
He'd later file an insurance claim
For vintage editions of spider-man,
Green lantern, and iron man to name just a few.
So, he's talkin' about robbery,
Is his likely scenario.
- His-his whole scenario was it had to be robbery.
- At the comic book shop,
Michael george told the detective
He had no idea what had happened to his wife.
He said he'd last seen her a little after 4 o'clock
When she'd relieved him behind the counter.
He said he took their two kids over to his mom's
And remained there napping on her couch
Until a little before 8 o'clock
When he returned to the comic book store.
Detective steckman asked michael george
The questions that a cop would
When the wife has just been murdered.
- "let's get all this up straight.
"were there any-any girlfriends?"
"no."
"were you having any affairs?"
"no."
"any-any problems with your marriage?"
"no, everything was fine."
- At the funeral, days later, mary shamo,
The girlfriend of barb's brother,
Couldn't make out what he was feeling
Because his eyes were concealed
Behind dark, dark sunglasses.
- Like something that, uh, a blind person would wear,
Something you see stevie wonder wear.
- And mary's sense
That michael was acting strange,
Even goofy, only increased
After a visit to the trailer park home
Where michael george and barbara had lived.
She and joe, barb's brother,
Had gone over to give michael some support
During tough days.
- He comes in, and-and her vacuum is sitting there,
And he grabs the vacuum, and he embraces the vacuum,
And he's just, like, like...
He showed more emotion with this vacuum
Than he did the whole time.
- What's he saying to the vacuum?
- And he's just saying, "oh, this was barb's vacuum,"
And, "oh, my god,
She's never gonna use this vacuum again,"
And-and-and then he would--
He would go to, like, a blender, and he's like,
"she's never gonna be in this kitchen again."
- Are you thinkin', "what's up with this guy?"
- And I'm looking at him like he was a screwball.
Here you are grieving over a vacuum
And all these appliances,
And there wasn't one tear in his eyes.
There was no swell-- swelling going on in his eyes.
He just-- he had-- he had nothing going on.
It was all an act.
- The police, meanwhile, were chasing down bank records,
Insurance policies,
Looking for leads on the speeding car,
The man in the greek fisherman's cap,
The so-called bearded lady,
And whether this could have been
A botched robbery after all.
They were also getting a crash course
On the value of vintage comics.
Unhappily for them,
The case detectives hadn't found the gun,
And hoped for forensics like a bloody print
Just weren't there,
But the investigators were getting calls on the q.T.
About michael george maybe having a girlfriend.
When did you learn about a shop assistant named renee,
A friend of both him and her?
- That was two days late-- two days later.
We started receiving phone calls, um, from people
Advising us that, uh, we might wanna look at
His relationship with his employee named renee.
- They're a little cozy. Check it out, huh?
- Uh, yes.
- It was barb george
Who'd met and befriended renee,
Renee kotula, at their children's school,
And brought her to work at the comic book store.
Renee had five children and needed the money.
Her floundering marriage had ended in divorce
Just three weeks before barb's murder.
Not long after they buried barbara,
Mary shamo remembers dropping in unexpectedly
At the comic book shop
Along with her boyfriend, joe,
And the pair got a shockaroo.
They saw michael and renee, the shop assistant, canoodling.
- They didn't see us pull up. They were really close,
And they were giggling together,
And their arms were crossed over to each other.
And when you lose somebody in your life,
You kinda look around at the world like,
What's going on? Why is the--
Why does the world keep moving
When I've just lost somebody so important?
And here this man is, is just--
He's as happy as a clam.
You wouldn't think that he had any care in the world
The way he was carrying on with her.
- Michael and renee would set up a new home together
With the help of a $130,000 life insurance
Payout on barb that he'd received
As beneficiary.
Is he becoming what cops call a person of interest?
- Yes. At that point, he was.
At that point, he had to be.
- He'd talked to the police casually
At the store that night,
Then in a more formal interview
At the police station six days later,
But there would be no follow-ups.
According to detective steckman,
Michael george said he would hire an attorney,
Lawyer up.
They'd stop talking. - Exactly.
- So, this is a-- this is a big unsolved case.
- Yes, yes.
- How much frustration is building within the family?
- What can ya do?
You can't take--
I mean, you can take the law into your own-own hands,
But what's gonna happen with that?
- Did you ever talk about it?
- I felt it.
There was times, um, I felt, you know,
That I should do somethin',
But, you know, I-I-- I'm a catholic.
I-I couldn't live with it.
- In the comics, superheroes are ageless,
But the comic book shop
In the clinton township strip mall wasn't.
It closed its doors in 1992.
Michael george, the shop owner,
And his new wife, renee, had moved from town.
They'd settled some 375 miles southeast of detroit
In windber, p.A., population 4,000,
An old coal mining town.
On the main drag there,
The georges had opened their new shop,
Comics world.
With his two kids and renee's five
Being raised together in their spacious new home,
They found friends in windber
Among the other parents involved
In their kids' sports teams.
Michael coached pastor brad westover's daughter
In basketball. He never missed a game.
- Tremendous family man,
Um, respected businessperson in the community.
- Okay, great.
- Jeff lively had the electrical supply shop
Three blocks down from comics world.
- His life was for the kids,
And I'd have to say his life was for renee.
He treated her like gold.
- The georges endeared themselves to a town
Where families went back generations
By raising money for the make a wish charity
And giving comics to the public library.
Besides his good works,
His friends said he was just plain fun.
- The guy always had a smile on his face,
Always jokin'.
Everybody enjoyed bein' around him.
- Michael george had all but severed ties
With his murdered wife's family.
Uncles and an aunt back in clinton township, michigan
Rarely saw barbara's two girls.
Come the year 2000,
Was michael george even aware
That the longtime chief of police
In his former town had passed away?
Chief robert smith had died
Without solving the nagging case
Of the comic book murder.
- Everyone in this town was aware of that crime,
Um, and probably myself more so
Because my dad was the chief of police
At that time.
- Chief smith's son, eric smith.
- I'd driven by that store 1,000 times with my old man.
Just about every time we drove by there,
There was, um, there was somethin' he said.
- Was still gnawing at him.
- There's no question about it.
- Four years after his father's death,
Eric smith was elected chief prosecutor
In macomb county, michigan.
He became responsible for all the criminal cases
In clinton township and beyond.
- And I can't tell ya how many people came up to me
And said that a family member of theirs
Had been murdered or, um, had been killed,
And nothing had been done,
And you could see the desperation on their face,
And they really thought
That the system had passed 'em by,
And if I'm gonna be the chief
Law enforcement officer of this county,
Uh, I-I-I can't let people out there think
That-that we don't care.
So, we started a cold case unit,
Uh, very soon after I came in.
- One of prosecutor smith's first acts in office
Was to send out a letter to all the police departments
In his county asking police chiefs
And detectives to look at their old unsolveds
With fresh eyes.
- I did it with michael george in mind.
There's no question in my mind that, at the time,
While I was hoping that we'd get a lotta cases,
I was hoping that clinton township
Would pick this case up, which really--
- And maybe resolve one for the old man.
- That's it. That's it.
That was the case that was unsolved
For my old man, for my dad.
- Just as he'd hoped, the clinton township p.D.
Reopened the dusty comic book murder case
And what a surprise the detectives found there.
Someone did have a vital piece of information
About the night of the murder,
But his story had slipped through the cracks.
How could police have missed it all those years?
- A phone call to the comic book shop
That seemed to come at a very bad time.
- He sounded like he was busy.
He was in a hurry to get off the phone.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Welcome back to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
I'm kate snow.
In the wake of his wife, barbara's, murder,
Michael george quickly moved on with his life.
He got remarried, settled in a new town,
And opened another comic book store,
But some of barbara's loved ones
Had a nagging suspicion
Michael was hiding a deadly secret.
Now, a team of detectives was about to take a new look
At an old lead,
And it would send this case into overdrive.
Here, again, is dennis murphy
With "the comic book murder."
- The comic book murder files came out of the archives,
And the lead detective blowing off the dust
Was lieutenant greg keith.
He'd been on the clinton township force
Long enough to remember the killing at the strip mall,
And he took it personally that someone out there
Had gotten away with murder.
The lieutenant had identified with the victim.
- I was approximately the same age
And had children the same age,
And maybe that was something
That just stuck with me.
- This is a tough one to pick off the stack.
- Yes. I knew that goin' in,
But I always operate under the theory,
You don't shoot, you don't score,
And I thought I owed it, a, to myself
'cause it was something I had told myself,
But then I owed it to barb, too.
- The detective needed help,
Good old fashioned shoe leather cops
To make the calls, knock on the doors.
So he recruited veteran detectives jimmy hall
And lenny hrecho.
The three of them went into the old box
Reading and rereading yellowing police reports,
But there's a reason crimes go into the cold case file
And stay unsolved,
A lack of evidence.
The three wondered if they had one of those here.
- Is this even doable?
And, uh, finally, when we came to the conclusion
That it's doable, we need to notify the family,
That's when we finally contacted them.
- The cold case detectives were painfully aware
Of giving barb george's family false hopes
After 17 years,
But, in early 2007,
The detectives laid out what they'd found,
Warts and all, for barbara's brother, joe,
And other family members.
- And we were honest with them.
We don't know how successful we're gonna be here.
- Still, after that meeting with the detectives,
Barb's family and friends allowed themselves
To be optimistic.
- I told my sister
When we walked out of that police station,
I said, "something will come out of this."
- Joe and mary, his girlfriend back then,
Had broken up after barbara's murder,
But they remained close over the years.
- My dad was in the hospital at the time,
He was dying of cancer,
And I told my dad what was going on,
And my dad was just-- and-and, again,
He-he could barely even talk,
And he lit right up,
And he said, "good, good.
"god's gonna get him."
[sirens wailing]
- The detectives started their investigation
As though it were July 13, 1990,
And the 911 call had just come in.
All three of them knew
This wasn't going to be an episode of "csi,"
Forensic science saving the day.
No weapon, no blood smears, no hair fibers,
None of that. - Nothing.
- In terms of what people are used to seein' nowadays,
Uh, with dna and things like that,
We didn't have it.
We just had to do detective work.
- Which means?
- Get out there and interview people.
- They say, without preconceived theories,
They chased down the old leads, again,
The speeding car,
The man in the greek fisherman's cap,
The bearded lady,
And reexamined the old motive.
Was it possible that barbara had been shot to death
Over a pricy collectable comic book?
- Thank you, sir.
- The cold case detectives interviewed over 100 people,
And of all those fresh 2007 interviews,
The one they did with this man
Turned out to be the gamechanger.
His name, mike renaud, a girls softball coach
Who was confined to a wheelchair
After a swimming pool accident in 2003.
Back in 1990, renaud was a college senior
And a spider-man fanatic.
On July 13th, the night of the murder,
The detectives learned,
Renaud had placed a call to the comics world store.
He thought it had been about 5:30 or so,
About 30 minutes before the murder.
The avid collector wanted to know
Why one of his comic books had zoomed in value.
A voice he knew very well answered the phone.
It was michael george, the shop owner.
- He sounded like he was busy.
He was in a hurry to get off the phone.
- Did he say, "you know, I'm busy?
"there are people in the shop.
"I gotta go."
- No, no, just it was just a short--
- Just something you could hear in his voice
Or the way he-- - we would b.S. A little bit,
And he just-- there was no time for b.S.
- The cold case cops had struck gold.
Mike renaud's story was the missing puzzle piece
The detectives had been looking for, for years.
If renaud's account is true,
It does nothing less than demolish
Michael george's alibi that he was napping
At his mother's house when barb was murdered
Around 6 o'clock.
Renaud's phone call story meant that george was lying,
And renaud was certain that he'd talked to
The comic store owner at his shop
And that that brief conversation
Must have taken place
Just a few minutes before barb was killed.
The embarrassing thing about this nugget of a clue
Was that mike renaud had told the very same story
To the police back in 1990, the day after the murder.
What looked like a case breaker in 2007
Had simply slipped through the cracks back when.
They'd had it in the case file all along.
In clear handwriting, there it was,
A record of renaud's July 14th phone call
To the police.
"mr. Renaud stated that he called comic world around 5:30
"and talked with the owner, michael george."
- Well, that's the one piece that was missing.
- Even so, it was a piece
That still had flaws as evidence.
There were no existing phone logs
To corroborate renaud's story
Or to pin down the exact time
He said he placed the call.
To this day, former detective donald steckman
Doesn't know how that note from renaud went astray,
But he says he was unaware
Of the comic book collector's story
Of talking to the husband in the shop
Minutes before the murder.
- How did you not see it?
Well, I never saw it.
If we'd a seen it,
We would not be sitting here today.
- You would have gone for an arrest and indictment.
- Yes, no doubt.
- And gone to trial in 1991. - No-no doubt about it.
Yes, no doubt about it.
- And now the investigative leads
Pointed just one way, toward the husband.
- It just kept coming back to mike,
And it was like a funnel effect.
We started off looking at a lot of things
And a lot of people,
And it just narrowed down, um, just like a funnel.
- It was time for the cold case detectives
To take a road trip to pennsylvania,
A trip across miles and time.
They were going to make a surprise visit
To michael george at comics world.
Was the one-time husband finally collectible?
- After 17 years, a conversation
A suspected killer never expected.
When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Two of the cold case detectives,
Hrecho and hall, punched up a mapquest address
For comics world in windber, pennsylvania
And motored southeast.
It was 2007,
17 years after the murder,
And, like commandos synchronizing their watches,
The detectives had decided to execute
Simultaneous surprise interviews
On michael george's turf.
- We had teams of detectives
Go to all three locations at exactly the same time.
- Michael at the store,
His wife, renee, at the house,
And michael's mother at her home
Back in hazel park, michigan.
Unannounced. - Unannounced.
- When they found comics world,
The two detectives waited for some customers to leave,
Checked their watches, then sauntered in.
- We were probably about a minute behind
The other detectives.
So, when we walked in, mike george was on the phone,
And we assume he was talkin' to renee, his wife,
And he says, "no, there's nobody here,"
And he had his back to us
As we walked through the door.
He turned around, and he goes, "they're here,"
And he got off the phone,
And he just looked pretty sick, at that point.
- Detective hall switched on the tape recorder
He'd concealed in his jacket.
- Introduce ourselves.
Mike was pretty much unemotional.
He said, "hey, come on in.
"have a seat." started talkin' to him.
- This is some of that conversation.
- He didn't say much at the beginning.
- Does he say, "this is great news?"
- No. - Very unemotional.
- "I've wondered for 17 years what's happened."
- No, he-- no, he doesn't give the--
- "I've been waiting for you guys
To come in and tell me you-you've solved it."
- No.
- Does not give the typical response
Like, "you found somebody," or, "well, that's good,"
You know, like you say. No.
- "what do you have?" - nothing.
He just started staring. - Nothin' at all.
- 17 years on, michael george claimed
A flickering memory for events.
Is he gettin' sweaty, twitchy, anything?
Is this-- - oh, he was very nervous.
- He was very pale. - Very nervous.
- Didn't make eye contact.
Most of the interview, his head was looking down
Towards the table.
- In 1990, in his late night conversation
With the lead detective at the store
After the murder,
Michael george had speculated
That barb was killed in a botched robbery,
Someone after valuable vintage comic books.
- He couldn't remember exactly how many comics were taken,
Or the amount.
- Although he was sketchy on those details,
He had no trouble coming up with a totally new answer
When the cops asked him to speculate on why barbara,
Of all people, had been murdered.
Listen as michael's theory switches from robbery
To revenge.
This was a vendetta, and that what,
Barbara took the bullet that was meant for him.
- Exactly, and that was something entirely different
From what he told the police back in 1990.
- Is that as interesting as anything else you heard
That day? - Oh, absolutely.
- Well, very interesting.
He'd come up with a new motive.
- Meanwhile, the prosecutor back in michigan,
The son of the one-time police chief,
Was deeply curious
About how the swoop down interview was going.
Were you surprised to hear that he talked to them,
That he hadn't lawyered up or said,
"I'm getting on the phone to my attorney, right now?"
- Very surprised but--
And I really think that he was so shocked
By the fact that we're still lookin' at him,
So shocked that he didn't know what to do,
And that's why we didn't call him.
That's why we didn't give him a heads up.
- As the interview continued,
Michael george, as he hadn't in 1990,
Now owned up to his philandering.
Late in the 90-minute interview,
The conversation circled back to that earler theme, robbery,
The supposed theft of valuable comics.
The detectives asked if anyone knew
That he kept the good stuff in the back storage room.
That's when things got testy
And listen as george's previously passive tone
Becomes more direct and confrontational.
The next day, in fact, he would need a lawyer,
A criminal defense lawyer.
The michigan detectives
And the pennsylvania state police
Arrested him at his workplace,
The comic book store.
As he was led away after a later court appearance,
He loudly proclaimed
That police had nabbed the wrong man.
- They know I didn't do it.
I was with my daughters and my mom.
They know.
They know I didn't do this.
- The cold case had turned red hot.
Michael george was returning to michigan
And would stand trial for the first degree murder
Of his wife,
A case prosecutors knew would be hard to prove
In the age of csi and show me forensic evidence.
That's because there was none.
So, it would come down to a single witness
And his recollection of a solitary phone call
He said he made on a Friday the 13th, 1990.
- A twist in court few would have predicted.
- Did you expect it was possible he was gonna come out
And say, "this case is dismissed?
"jurors, you're released. We don't have a case here."
- Initially, never crossed my mind.
After five hours, you start to worry.
[sighs]
- That's probably the toughest moment
I ever had as a lawyer.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Welcome back.
After 17 years, detectives believed
They had michael george on the ropes.
He had just confessed a long suspected secret,
That he cheated on his first wife, barbra.
The philandering husband also changed his story
About why he thought she was murdered,
Saying it wasn't a botched robbery
But a bungled revenge killing.
Comic books are filled with tales of justice.
Was barbara's family about to get theirs,
Or did this story have another twist in store?
Once again, here's dennis murphy
With "the comic book murder."
- All rise.
- In a michigan courtroom
Not far from his old comic book store,
Michael george was standing trial,
Charged with the first degree murder
Of his then wife, barbara.
- He was the husband from hell.
- In early 2008,
The man who intended to put george away
Was steve kaplan,
Then the trial prosecutor for the county's cold case unit.
- It's true we didn't have forensic evidence
Supporting our case.
- He knew getting the comic book man
With nothing but circumstantial evidence,
No weapon, no witness, no dna,
Made this case a tough one to win,
Something he'd never led on to the jury, of course,
- We will prove to you that it is a murder,
And if it's a murder,
There's only one person in this world
Who had a reason to kill this wonderful person,
And that's michael george.
- For kaplan, proving it all boiled down
To a case of who do you trust.
Would the jury believe janet george,
Michael's mother?
She said her son was sleeping on her couch
At the time of the murder.
Or would the jury accept the word
Of the comic book collector, mike renaud?
He said the defendant was in the store
Around that time answering his phone call.
- Who answered the phone?
- Michael george.
- How long did you talk to the defendant,
At that time?
- Less than five minutes.
- What time did you call the defendant?
- Anywhere between 5:15 and 5:45.
- Do you remember how he seemed to you?
- He seemed like he was in a hurry.
- How important is he to your case?
- Without michael renaud, we cannot win this case
Because without michael renaud, we cannot place
The defendant physically in that store
Close to the time of barbara's shooting.
- And then came a routine moment
That we've all seen in courtroom dramas on tv.
The prosecutor, in this case, steve kaplan,
Rose and told the judge...
- Your honor, the people rest.
- And the defense response in this michigan courtroom
Just as predictably
Was to try to get the case thrown out.
Not enough evidence,
The state hadn't met its burden,
Argued defense attorney carol marlinga
And asking the judge for what's called
A directed verdict.
- When you just don't know, you have to--
You have to pull the plug.
You have to say, "that's it."
- And then it got really strange.
And you say,
"your honor, the state has not proved its case.
"we ask that you dismiss it, right now,
"that it not go to the jury."
- Right. - Happens all the time.
- Right, and we did.
- And almost always, you're rebuffed.
- That's right, and-and you're-- almost always,
You're rebuffed within about ten to fifteen seconds.
- That didn't happen here. - No.
- This time, the judge, james m. Biernat,
Listened intently for 20 minutes
As michael george's defense lawyer argued
That there was no way the prosecution had proven
Beyond a reasonable doubt
That the defendant was in the comic book shop
With a gun in his hand.
- A trial judge is obligated to make a call
To say whether or not there is sufficient evidence
To justify this.
- Prosecutor kaplan knew that by law
The judge has to regard all evidence
In a light most favorable to the prosecution.
He took just 30 seconds
And parried with a brief citation of case law
Arguing why the case should go to the jury.
- The evidence presented to this court
Creates a question of fact for the jury
Whether michael george is the murderer,
And the motion should be denied.
- And then the judge retired to his chambers
To ponder this motion to dismiss,
And ponder he did, staying out for hours.
Eric smith was the county's chief prosecutor.
What was going on?
- Well, I... [chuckles]
I can tell you what was going on
In the prosecution's end.
We were, uh, fit to be tied.
We've all tried hundreds of cases,
And these motions for directed verdicts
Are dismissed almost immediately.
- Did you expect it was possible
He was gonna come out and say,
"this case is dismissed? Jurors you're released.
"we don't have a case here."
- Well, initially, never crossed my mind.
After a couple hours,
It still hadn't crossed my mind.
After five hours, you start to worry.
- For the defense,
Carl marlinga was feeling better by the hour.
- I remember walking outside with-with my client
And saying, "this is obviously good news.
"I cannot lie to you.
"judges don't take this long to decide these motions."
- After hours of watching the clock go 'round,
The defendant, out on a million dollar bond,
Praying with his circle of friends and family
In the hallway,
The judge at last returned to the bench.
- The court has been reviewing this matter
For approximately five hours,
I think an extraordinary length of time
To review any motion for directed verdict.
- He started.
There was a case to be made for the defense's position.
- Albeit, it could be argued
That this evidence is marginal.
- Then, he seemed to point out the merits
Of the prosecution's argument.
- This is, in many ways, a classic murder case.
If the evidence is believed by the jury,
Then the, uh, jury could reach a finding of guilt.
- On the one hand and the other,
Where was the judge going?
- So, the court, at this point,
Cannot substitute its judgment
For that of the jury.
- He decided for the prosecution.
There was enough evidence to go forward.
- Your directed verdict is denied.
- The defense had lost a five hour long
High stakes game
And apparently by the closest of margins.
[sighs]
- That's probably the toughest moment
I ever had as a lawyer.
- You thought you might have had it.
- I thought I might have delivered this guy
From this horrible, horrible experience
Of not only having lost his wife
But then being falsely blamed for it
After all of these years.
I thought-- I thought the ordeal was almost over.
- All rise for the jury, please.
- The jurors filed back in for the defense case,
Unaware of how close they'd come
To being thanked and sent home
Without ever hearing any more evidence.
Fired up by the knowledge
That the judge had almost tossed out the case,
The defense set out to counter
The prosecution's crucial phone call
That seemed to place the defendant at the scene.
- Michael could not have been at the store
Committing this murder.
- Lead defense attorney carl marlinga
Said it was impossible to be in two places at once,
And so he called michael george's mother
As his alibi witness
To tell the jury that michael arrived at her house
Sometime after 5 p.M. On that Friday the 13th.
- He said he was tired,
And I told him to lay down
And take a nap for a while.
- Mrs. George then testified
She took her two granddaughters
To the school playground.
- Now, when you got back,
Did you observe michael at all?
- Yeah, I went in.
- Where was he?
- He's on the couch sleepin'.
- Now, it would be up to the jurors
To decide whether they believed michael george's mother
Or the witness who said
Michael george answered his phone call.
Decision day, March 17, 2008--
Michael george prayed quietly to himself.
His freedom, his family, the life he'd enjoyed
In pennsylvania were at risk forever.
A murder conviction meant mandatory life,
No possibility of parole.
- All rise for the jury, please.
- The jury of eight women and four men
Filed in nervously, as one juror explained.
- My hands were sweating,
And I took a look at michael george,
And I saw his family, and I was numb
And scared at the same time.
- My brother turns to me.
He says, "is your heart beating fast?"
And I said, "yeah, it is. I mean, this is it."
- Coming up, the verdict.
- Count number one, first degree murder,
We find the defendant...
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Welcome back to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
I'm kate snow.
The michael george murder trial
Came down to a case of he said, she said.
The he was prosecution witness mike renaud
Whose testimony put michael george
At the scene of the crime.
The she was michael's mother, janet,
Who insisted her son was at her house
When barbara george was killed.
Now, the jury was about to speak,
But even it wouldn't have the last word in this story.
Here, again, dennis murphy
With "the comic book murder."
- Michael george was on trial for gunning down his wife
In the back room of their comic book shop.
His future was about to be decided.
The foreman read the verdict.
- Count number one, first degree murder,
We find the defendant guilty.
- Guilty of first degree murder.
Michael george slumped and sobbed
In his attorney's arms.
[sobbing]
- Please be seated.
- Barb's sister and two brothers
Seemed to share a gasp of relief.
- He took away my oldest sister.
She didn't get to see me get married.
She didn't get to see my son bein' born.
She will never get to see him do anything.
I mean, he took a part of me away.
- Across the room, the convicted man's
Younger daughter, one of barb's two children,
Collapsed into her stepmother, renee.
Michael george would go on weeping
For a full two minutes.
[sobbing]
- I didn't do this.
- But lieutenant craig keith,
The cold case detective who rediscovered
The crucial evidence,
Was unmoved by george's tears.
- Mike showed no emotion back in 1990,
And now he cries, and my impression of that
Is, mike is crying for himself.
- It was devastating. It was just devastating.
- Barely able to stand,
George was helped to the podium
To face the judge,
The same judge who had apparently
Been a heartbeat away
From dismissing the case altogether.
- The, uh, jury has found you guilty of all charges.
At this time, I'm remanding you
To the custody of the macomb county
Sheriff's department. - Oh, my god.
- The comic book man was now a convict.
[sobbing]
- Okay.
Put your hands behind your back.
[sobbing] - oh, my god.
I didn't do this.
- His hands were cuffed,
And deputies led him away.
- I had no doubt that the verdict
That we came to was the correct one.
- The jurors had returned to their deliberation room.
They said they could hear george sobbing,
But that didn't shake their confidence
In their verdict.
They said it had come down to the testimony
Of the man who said he called about a spider-man comic.
I think I hear you all saying he was tripped up
By answering that phone call from michael renaud.
[all] - yes. - Yes.
- He should not have been there
When, uh, mike renaud called.
- The cold case unit started by prosecutor eric smith
With this case in mind had won a conviction.
- I really thought he was finally gonna face,
Uh, the just punishment he deserves.
- And smith had notched one up for his dad,
The late police chief, or so he believed.
- Uh, my next thoughts went right to my old man.
I thought, huh, I wish he was here to-
To share this with, but I know he's smilin'.
- The losing defense lawyer voiced the kinds of comments
You'd expect to hear.
- I think that the jury got it wrong.
I believe that we have a strong shot with this judge
To be able to get either an out right reversal
Or a new trial.
- But that wasn't brave bluster.
In this case, michael george's defense attorney
Was being prophetic.
Six months later, the defense tried again,
A motion for a new trial before the same judge.
One of the grounds for the appeal
Was prosecutorial misconduct.
- This is not a robbery. It's not a robbery.
It's a murder.
- What happened was, in his closing argument,
The prosecutor had a display for the jury.
- This timetable is--
- And out of the judge's eyeshot
Began assembling pieces of a photo like a jigsaw puzzle.
The punchline when you put the picture together,
Voila, jurors, there's your killer.
- It's michael george.
- Maybe clever or maybe cornball,
But, either way,
The prosecutor may have overstepped his bounds.
The image of the finished puzzle
Was a mugshot of michael george
That was never introduced into evidence
And, according to defense lawyers,
Showed him in a bad light.
Prejudicial error the defense argued,
Strike one.
Strike two was newly discovered evidence
In the police case files
Possibly favorable to the defense.
Judge biernat had had enough.
- A judged ruled michael george should get a new trial
In the 1990 comic book store murder case.
- Biernat threw out the jury's guilty verdict
And was now giving once convicted michael george
Another chance to win his freedom.
- It was just elation.
It's like, okay, the greatest injustice
That I had ever been associated with
As a lawyer had just been corrected.
We are going to get a new trial.
- Defense attorneys carl marlinga and joe kosmala
Always believed in their client's innocence,
And now they'd won another chance to prove it.
[sobbing]
- Michael was, uh, devasted by the verdict.
[sobbing] - I didn't do this.
- And suddenly, he's got new life.
Suddenly, he has faith again in the system.
- I think you had two things working.
You had new evidence.
You had some unfairness in the closing argument
On top of this real heartfelt feeling
By-by judge biernat that an innocent man
Had been convicted.
- The county prosecutor, eric smith,
Wasn't buying any of it.
The judge seems to have directed
That there be a new trial
Because of prosecutorial misconduct.
- He hung his hat on a lotta things,
And that was clearly one of 'em.
Since this case began,
It appears that he has not been comfortable
With this case,
And what he did was set aside a murder conviction,
Which is unheard of.
- Smith was beside himself
Even though the judge's controversial decision
Was eventually backed by michigan's highest courts.
- You wait 18 years for justice,
And you finally get justice
Only to have it--
The carpet pulled out from under ya.
- After the 2008 guilty verdict,
Barb's brother had gone to her gravesite
To share the good news.
- We finally got him, you know?
Um, he didn't get away with it,
And, you know, you can rest now.
- But now there was the judge's blockbuster decision.
- It tore a hole in our hearts.
It's somethin' that, you know,
Here we thought it was over.
- Barb's family would have to go through
Its painful ordeal all over again
And with even more uncertainties this time around.
Though the jury had found michael george guilty,
The judge clearly had serious doubts.
A new jury could go either way,
Especially since the defense now had new evidence,
More possible alternate killers,
And just dug up dirt
On the prosecution's star witness.
But two completely new prosecutors
Were revved up for the coming courtroom battle.
Steve fox and bill cataldo
Teaming up to make michael george
Face the music one more time.
The trial of the comic book murder
Volume two was now at hand.
- Coming up...
A different jury, different prosecutors...
- Michael george fell prey to the two issues
Most known to common man, sex and money.
- Will there be a different verdict
When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- September 2011...
In the nearly three years
Since the last comic book murder trial,
Michael george had been locked up in the county jail
Where he said inadequate care
Caused a vitamin b12 deficiency that crippled him.
He was now confined to a wheelchair
As his second trial got underway
Before a new judge, mary chrzanowski.
- Officially calling the case
Of people versus george, who is present.
- But if the defendant's disability
Made him appear feeble
And maybe more sympathetic to jurors,
The new prosecution team of bill cataldo and steve fox
Would work hard to demonize him.
- Michael george fell prey to the two issues
Most known to common man, sex and money.
- So, bill, what was your theory for the jury?
- I-I think motive is important,
And it was easy, $130,000 in insurance proceeds
And the fact that he really didn't wanna be married.
He didn't like his wife.
He found her completely unattractive.
- He wanted a new life.
- In his opening argument,
Prosecutor steve fox told jurors that, in 1990,
Michael george was having a torrid affair
With his shop assistant, renee kotula,
Now his second wife.
- He wanted to get rid of his overweight wife
And move on to something better.
- Before the murder,
The husband wasn't bothering to hide his disdain
For his wife, barbara,
According to this prosecution witness.
- Raise your right hand.
- Theresa danieluk testified
That she and her son went to comics world
The Saturday before the murder.
Michael, barbara,
And their two young daughters were in the store
When teresa walked in.
- I had remarked to him
How beautiful his little girls were.
- What did he say?
- That, um, if it wasn't for his daughters,
That he would not have been with his wife,
That he found her unattractive and heavy,
And if it was up to him,
He would take the girls and move to florida.
- What was your reaction to that response?
- I couldn't believe he had something like that
To me while she was right there in the store.
- And that same customer was shocked again days later
When michael made what she thought was a pass at her
During his own wife's viewing
At the funeral home.
- He gave me a very inappropriate hug.
It would have been a hug
That I would only have given my husband.
- Meaning?
- It's a very intimate hug.
- A little creepy but the following Saturday,
As was their custom,
Teresa and her son stopped by comics world.
Michael slipped her a note.
- Would you read that note for the jury?
- "you look very, very, very pretty today.
"thanks for coming in. Sincerely, michael."
- Publicly scornful of his wife,
Hitting on other women,
And now a longtime friend of barbara's
Was testifying that her friends and family
Were all well aware of capital "t" trouble
In the marriage.
Kathy treece got a call from barb
Weeks before the murder.
- She was crying, very upset.
Uh, mike wanted a divorce.
- And did she convey to you
Whether she would agree to that?
- Oh, she did not want a divorce.
- Prosecutor fox then asked the witness
About seeing the defendant at barb's funeral.
- I overheard mike saying to his mother,
Kinda yelling out,
"mom, did you call the insurance company?"
It just didn't sound good
Because of the phone conversation
I had with barb and then now her death.
- Michael george,
A one-time insurance salesman himself,
Received $130,000 tax free
From his wife's life insurance policies,
Not bad money in 1990.
A witness who worked with michael
In the insurance business was asked about the money.
- What is documented there?
- Uh, this is a claim statement
For, um, payment of the proceeds.
- Who signed the claim?
- Michael george looks like.
- On what day?
- 07-18 of '90.
- July 18th of 1990?
- Yes, sir.
- Are you aware that barbara george
Had been buried on July 17th of 1990?
- Yes.
- Womanizer, scoundrel--
The prosecution dissected michael george's character
And referred to him as the only possible killer.
- Our concentration was to show
That he was the only guy,
That he was the one that had to have done it
Because no one else on earth would have.
- Speak loudly.
Your first name is kim? - Yes.
- Prosecutors called this witness
Who'd worked at a nail salon in the same strip mall
As comics world.
- I would say that I witnessed
About 30 to 35 arguments.
- She testified she heard many heated arguments
Between michael and barbara that summer,
But the one she overheard that afternoon,
Friday the 13th, sounded even uglier.
- It was much louder. Um, he was much angrier.
Uh, it seemed much more violent.
- Than the ones in the past? - Yes.
- Less than four hours later,
Barbara george would be discovered by customers
On the floor in the back of comics world.
Yet, in this public place of a strip mall,
Customers coming and going,
Cars, no witness remembered hearing gunshots
Though two had been fired,
And no one remembered seeing anyone leave the store,
And no witness saw michael george at the store
From the time he left after 4 o'clock
Until he drove up at 8 o'clock
For what was to be his birthday party.
By then, police were all over the scene.
- He told us who he was, identified himself,
And wanted to know what happened at his store.
- Lead detective donald steckman,
Then of clinton township p.D.,
Testified that michael said his wife was working
At comics world.
- I advised him there had been an incident at the store,
And his wife had been injured.
- Did he ask you about her condition?
- No.
- Did he ask you about how it happened?
- No.
- Steckman told the husband
That then lieutenant donald brook
Would be driving him to the hospital
Where he could find out about his wife.
The former lieutenant testified
That michael started chatting without prompting.
- He made a statement that I thought was,
Uh, noteworthy.
- And what was that statement?
- Uh, "something must have fell or dropped on her
"in the back room."
- Why is that statement interesting to you?
- Uh, because I never told him
That mrs. George was in the back room of the store.
- He knows things he shouldn't know.
- So, he knows evidence
That only the shooter would know,
Not realizing how unique that information is.
- Later that night, according to police,
Michael george told investigators
That two white boxes of expensive comics were missing
And that poor barbara must have stumbled
Into a robbery gone bad,
A theory police and prosecutors
Subsequently rejected.
- This is why it's not a robbery.
Diamond ring was on barb's hand,
And we know that ring was worth at least $2,500.
There was $720 cash in the registers.
They were untouched.
The expensive comics behind the glass
Were untouched.
The safe untouched.
- The safe was in the back storage room
Where michael claimed the missing boxes
Of comics had been.
- And what's unique about that is,
These two white boxes were unmarked.
They didn't say expensive comic books here.
- Missing comics were never found.
The prosecutors believe they were never stolen either,
Even though michael recovered
A $12,600 insurance claim for them.
- There's 100 unmarked white boxes in that room.
The only way to know which ones to grab
Would be is if it's an inside job.
- But the only inside job, according to the prosecutors,
Was the murder itself.
- The reason it's an inside job
Is because of the accessibility to that door.
- That door was central to the prosecutors' theory
Of the murder.
Michael george, they said, sneaked in the back door
And concealed himself
Until his wife was alone in the store.
When she came into the back room,
Their belief was he fired two shots.
The first one hitting a swimsuit calendar
In the wall,
And the second striking barb in the top of her head
As she was ducking away.
- The murder took place,
And where he went from there,
Our theory is out the back door and gone.
- Slipping into the alley sight unseen
But not before doing what only he could do,
Bill cataldo told the jurors.
- As stealthily as he came in,
He left through the back door,
Locking that lock, double-locked.
- Indeed, the door was locked from the outside
When police arrived,
Something prosecutors claimed
Only michael george could do.
- You have to have those keys.
- No one but the defendant had keys to the back door
Prosecutors maintained,
And they added any supposed robber
Would have fled through the busy front door
And certainly would have been spotted.
- There were too many witnesses
That started walking in within a minute
To two minutes of that gunshot.
No one saw anyone leaving with boxes of comic books.
No one saw anyone running out the front door.
- And what about the people
Who were spotted by witnesses
Around the comic book shop
Minutes before and after the murder,
The guy in the greek fisherman's cap,
The suspicious character who seemed
To be wearing a fake beard,
The so-called bearded lady?
Police even made a sketch of the bearded lady,
But prosecutors said none of the would-be suspects
Ever amounted to anything
Except in the case of the bearded lady.
Prosecutors theorized that this person
May have been michael george's accomplice.
Now, the prosecutors would offer up their star witness,
The sole person
Who could say the husband was indeed in the store
As the minutes were counting down
To murder, comic collector mike renaud,
But, this time, the defense was ready
With new evidence to challenge
Not only renaud's credibility
But also his memory.
- Coming up...
- In 1990, you used marijuana,
And you drank alcohol on the weekends.
Did you not?
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Once again, michael george's guilt
Or innocence would likely come down to the man
Who said he made an innocent phone call
About a spider-man comic book.
- People would call mike renaud.
- In the first trial, the jurors had bought
Mike renaud's account
Of speaking to the shop owner over the phone
Apparently just minutes before the murder.
The judge, however, had seemed skeptical,
But now 12 new people would be deciding the case,
So prosecution and defense lawyers
Had to start afresh with the all important star witness.
The stakes couldn't be higher.
Michael renaud, without him,
Would you have had a case?
- No.
He's the only one who puts defendant at the scene.
He's the only one that alone
Can destroy the defendant's alibi.
- Without him, we don't even issue a warrant.
- Defense lawyers marlinga and kosmala knew
Their client's freedom depended both
On their challenging renaud's story
And reinforcing the defendant's alibi.
- It's a one witness case on the prosecution side.
- So, what we really had to focus on
And what we hoped to direct the jury to focus on
Was specifically that alibi.
- The defendant's 1990 story
Was that he'd left his clinton township shop
Sometime after 4 p.M.
To go to his mother's house.
She lived in hazel park about a half hour away.
It's michael george's alibi
That he was at his mother's house
From about 4:30 to 7:30.
A little after he arrived,
His mother said she took her grandchildren
To the park,
And he was sleeping on the couch
When they got back sometime after 6 o'clock.
Barb was murdered a little after 6 o'clock.
If michael george's account is true,
He was at his mother's at that time
And, therefore, could not be the killer.
But, according to prosecutors,
Michael george wasn't napping on the couch at all.
They contended he'd returned to comics world
And sneaked into the storage room with a gun
When barb left to order pizza for his birthday party.
And about what time was that?
- Between 5 and 5:30.
- That's the timeframe when this witness,
A friend of barb's, came to the store.
It was locked, and she had to wait
For barb to return from the pizza place.
- If she's not in the store at 5:30,
She couldn't possibly answer the phone at 5:30.
Correct? - Correct.
- So, if somebody answered the phone at 5:30,
It'd have to be someone other than her.
- Correct.
- Now, prosecutors questioned the one witness
They said who could identify who answered the phone.
- Again, it's michael renaud?
- Yes, sir. - Mike renaud.
In 1990, a decade before his disabling accident,
Renaud was married, had a young daughter,
And was holding down two jobs.
- Were you also attending school?
- Yes, I was going to wayne state.
- And how well did you do at wayne state?
- Uh, I graduated cum laude.
- The prosecution wanted the jury to regard renaud
As both a serious person
And a knowledgeable comic book collector.
- And before July 13, 1990,
How frequently would you go to the store?
- Uh, at least once a week.
- The day of the murder, he testified,
He actually stopped by comics world before work,
But renaud's critical story for the jury
Had to do with a phone call he made later in the day
To the shop.
He had a collector's question
About a spider-man comic he owned.
- He called because he was excited that some book
Had jumped from $8 to $40.
- Did you contact anyone to discuss the reasons
For it going up in value?
- Yeah, I called mike.
- He knew the voice.
He knew the time that he would be there,
And that's-that's the whole case.
- Tell me about the demeanor
Of michael george in that phone call.
- The answers were very short,
And he seemed to kinda be in a hurry
To get off the phone.
- So, you might wonder, as so many people did,
If michael george was lying in wait
To murder his wife in just moments,
Why would he be so dumb
As to pick up a ringing phone in the store?
- He picks it up for one of two reasons.
Either as a businessman, it's a call,
And he doesn't wanna lose business,
Or, number two,
It's his accomplice from the outside
Letting him know what's going on.
- Couldn't investigators simply pull the phone logs
And verify renaud's story
By seeing what time the records showed
The call coming in?
Not in 1990.
The phone company didn't keep those kinds of logs
On local calls.
But remember, renaud's story
Had fallen through the investigative cracks altogether
Until a cold case cop, craig keith,
Came upon it in 2007,
And in that rediscovered file
Was a statement saying that a guy named renaud
Had called the police department
The day after the murder.
He wanted the detectives to know that he'd spoken
With michael george in the comic shop at 6 p.M.
On the fateful day.
- After you hung up the phone with the department,
Did you think about it further?
- Yes. - Okay. Why?
- I did not wanna get mike in trouble if, uh,
I was wrong on my time.
And according to those newly discovered police records,
Renaud had called the police back
Almost immediately to amend the time
He'd spoken to michael george.
- And what did you advise police this time
When you called back?
- It was closer to 5:30 instead of 6.
- There were multiple calls to police.
We actually saw that as a strength
Rather than a weakness.
He's actually trying to help michael george.
He's trying to tell the police
Don't get him in trouble because of me.
It's establishing that he's not in this
Because he has some ill will against the defendant,
Or he's just making it up
For-for 15 minutes of fame.
- That's not how the defense team saw renaud.
They thought he was basking in the limelight
Of a big murder trial.
- We think he's just kind of, like,
Exaggerating his own importance in his mind.
He saw a way to become important
In a homicide investigation.
- When the defense had its crack at renaud
On cross-examination, it wanted the jury
To question his motives, memory, and credibility.
- First of all, this guy, mike renaud, makes himself
Sound like he's a really good buddy of michael george.
He talks to him all the time.
Michael george doesn't remember him at all.
- As the defense told it, renaud's multiple calls
To the police changing his times
Indicated that this witness didn't have a good handle
On his recollections
And was, therefore, unreliable.
- He called back several times being uncertain of the time
When he was making the call.
- If the call to michael george happened at all,
And the defense disputes that it did,
Defense attorney marlinga believed
It must have been placed before the shop owner
Left for his mother's house.
That was more than an hour before the murder.
- So, you're saying renaud is not just mistaken
In his times, that he is--
- He's-he's a little bit motivated.
- He's a person of mischief.
- We think he wanted to-to-to become a hero.
- In fact, since the last trial,
Renaud had tried to bolster his story
By adding new facts, according to the defense.
Renaud revealed for the first time
That he went to the clinton township
Police department days after the murder
To make a report in person.
Marlinga's tough cross-examination
Brought out that renaud's memory
Of that police interview was, at best, hazy.
- The person that you met with
In the face-to-face conversation,
Do you know the name of that person?
- I do not.
- How about the gender? Male or female?
- It was a male.
- Old or young? - I cannot say.
- Was this person in a uniform,
Or in a suit, or sport coat,
Or-or shirt? - I cannot say.
- Do you remember seeing a badge?
- I cannot say.
- Did you ever see a police report
That was generated as a result of that interview?
- No, sir.
- There is, in fact,
No police report of that interview.
Was it another example in the defense's theme
Of inept policework
Or a figment of renaud's imagination?
- Either the police department
Lost a very important police report
Or-or the lack of police notes is a fact
Because the interview never happened.
Isn't it true, sir, that you invented,
That is you made up, this conversation?
- I did not do that.
- But now the defense was moving on,
Telling the jury there may be a reason why
Renaud's memory is so hazy.
Back in those days, the lawyers asserted,
He was often in a haze of pot smoke.
- Can you even remember the times
That you were high?
- Objection. Relevance. Argumentative.
- So, the strategy is to go nuclear on mike renaud?
- Uh, I wouldn't say nuclear. No.
I mean, we-we regard it as just bring out the facts.
In 1990, you used marijuana,
And you drank alcohol on the weekends.
Did you not?
- Uh, I was in college,
And that would not surprise me.
- Okay.
The homicide that we're talking about occurred
On Friday, July 13th.
Your two initial calls into the clinton township police
Occurred on Saturday, July 14th of 1990.
We are agreed that Friday and Saturday
Are weekend days, correct?
- Correct. - All right.
- When questioned whether he got high
On the only weekend that mattered, July 13th
And 14th, 1990, renaud had to admit
He just didn't remember.
- You could have used it,
Or you could not have used it.
You don't remember. - Correct.
- Again, the defense's goal
Was to raise reasonable doubt with the jury
About renaud's recall and credibility.
- Marijuana can cause a time distortion,
So we're talking to a person who might not have
The best handle on time.
- Now that the defense believed
It had shredded renaud's story,
It was ready to tell the jury
Who really murdered barbara george.
- Coming up...
Another possible suspect
In an impossibly strange disguise.
- And he said, "it looked like a woman in a fake beard,
"a really thin guy...
"with, like, womanly hips or somethin'."
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Welcome back.
Michael george was back in court,
Charged, once again,
With the murder of his first wife, barbara.
His attorneys fought hard to discredit
The prosecution's star witness,
Who said michael answered the phone at the store
Shortly before barb was shot.
Soon, they would turn their focus to michael's alibi,
His mother's insistance that he was at her house
During the murder, and this time
They had a secret weapon to help prove it.
Here again is dennis murphy
With "the comic book murder."
- Michael george had been married to his second wife, renee,
For almost 20 years.
Through thick and thin,
They still seemed very much in love.
- This case will show you-- - but, at his 2011 trial,
The defense acknowledged right up front
That during his first marriage,
Michael would never have won an award
For husband of the year.
- This is not a matter of suspicion, inuendo,
Disgust with a person for having affairs.
This is a matter of evidence.
- So, lead defense attorney carl marlinga reminded jurors
The defendant was on trial for murder.
- An adulterer is a person who has done evil things,
Uh, but that-that does not necessarily
Make him a murderer.
- The victim's shoe can be seen.
- As for any hard evidence
That michael george killed his wife in cold blood,
The defense maintained it just didn't exist.
And you have no weapon.
- Exactly.
- No witnesses. - No.
- No forensics. - Nothing.
- There's nothing to tie your guy to the crime.
- Zero, zilch, nada that ties him to the crime.
- The jury, your honor, the people are happy to say
That we rest.
- And then, just as in the first trial,
Came that moment when the prosecution rested,
And the defense filed a motion saying,
"your honor, they haven't proved their case."
- There is no physical evidence
Which links michael george to the crime.
- But, this time, there was no five hour retreat
To chambers for the judge to think about it.
Her ruling came in seconds.
- The court is finding that the prosecution
Has presented substantial evidence.
- The defendant teared up.
There was enough evidence, the judge declared,
To go forward.
- The basic conclusion, gentlemen,
Is that the motion is denied.
- So, with that setback, not unexpected,
The defense began its three pronged line
Of attack,
That the original policework was inept,
That there was evidence, some of it new,
That someone else committed the murder,
And, thirdly,
That michael george had a strong alibi.
- We decided that our strongest evidence
Was the alibi,
And that would normally be sufficient to-to win,
But knowing that we are dealing with, uh,
Michael's history and the affairs
That could make him an unlikeable character,
Joe and I realized that we really almost
Had to prove innocence.
- Michael george told police
That he'd left the store with his daughters
A little after 4 p.M. That Friday.
They went to his mother janet's house
About 30 minutes away.
He said he was asleep on his mother's couch
When tragically his wife was shot.
Janet george, the mother,
Had testified in the first trial
And backed up her son's asleep on a couch story.
- He's on the couch.
- But defense attorneys altered their strategy
For trial number two.
- And, ma'am, do you swear,
Affirm that you're gonna read word for word
Everything that's in that transcript?
- I do.
- Mom didn't testify in-person this time around.
The defense had a stand-in read janet george's
2008 testimony into the record,
An account in which michael arrived at her house
A little after 5 p.M. That day.
She said he was tired, so he took a nap
While she took her granddaughter's
To a nearby playground.
- Now, when you got back,
Did you observe michael at all?
- Yeah. - Where was he?
- He was on the couch sleeping.
- If the jurors believed the story
Being recited to them,
Michael george couldn't possibly
Have been at his shop around 5:30
Answering the phone.
That's when the star prosecution witness,
Mike renaud, said he talked to him.
- Janet george, his mother,
Is the heart of his alibi.
She's still alive.
Why didn't you put her on the stand?
[both sigh, chuckles] - tough-tough call--
We agonized about it.
The problem with janet george is that
She loves her son, but she's a wild card.
Her-her memory is fading.
- But the lawyers were confident
About their decision not to call the mother
Because they had a strong witness
To substantiate parts of her story.
- Okay, have a seat right up here.
- Peggy marintette was janet george's
Next door neighbor.
On that Friday the 13th, like most days,
Peggy said she got home from her job
Between 5:45 and 6 o'clock.
- As you got close to your house,
Did you see anybody?
- Um, I actually saw janet and the two girls
In the school playground at the end of our street.
- When you saw them there,
What, if anything, did they do?
- We just waved. - Okay.
As you pulled into your house, what, if anything,
Did you see, uh, in front of, uh, janet's house?
- There was a-a van parked in front of the house.
- Okay, and did you recognize whose van it was?
- I assumed it was one of, uh, michael's vans. Yes.
- In the prosecution's theory of the timeline,
There was a missing link of logistics.
How did michael get from his mother's place
And back to the store in time to kill barbara?
The neighbor's sighting of his van outside his mom's
Could plant the seed of reasonable doubt.
- She has no dog in the-- in the fight.
She's not a close, close bosom buddy
Or lifelong personal friend of janet or michael's.
She's a neighbor.
Why wouldn't you believe her?
- When you take the combined testimony
Of janet george and peggy marintette,
You have solid evidence
That he was at someplace else.
- And that neighbor was a person
The defense team had found on its own.
The police had never knocked on doors
To corroborate michael's alibi
Of being at his mother's,
Evidence in itself, the defense argued,
Of shoddy policework.
Even the former police lieutenant
Admitted on cross-examination
That aspect of the investigation
Could have been better.
- If you were the officer
In charge of this case,
Would you have conducted a canvas
Of his mother's neighborhood
To see if people could have placed him there
At or about the time of the homicide?
- Yes, sir.
- Inept policework was a defense theme.
For instance, the police never tested michael george
For gunshot residue the night of the murder.
- And the rear entry door.
- And also failed to dust the prosecution's
Critical back door for fingerprints.
- If the bad guy reached for the handle to try
To get out that way, um,
He would have left some prints,
But we'll never know that
Because the police didn't dust that.
- And there are some plastic storage bins.
- And police photos inside the comic shop storeroom
Where barbara was found
Seemed to show a lot of clutter
Blocking that back door.
How could michael george have gotten in or out
Past all of that?
- Does that look like the room
When you saw it in the back?
- Shown a photo, the former lead detective
Didn't know how to read that junk
Apparently in the way.
- Now is that actually leaning up against the door?
- I really can't tell the perspective here.
I-I-- it's hard to tell.
- The defense felt it had already raised
Enough reasonable doubt to secure a not guilty verdict,
And even though they in no way had to,
The lawyers wanted to offer the jury
Other possible murder suspects to consider
In a scenario of a robbery gone bad.
- The defense calls mr. Thomas quinton hicks.
- The defense put on a witness who told a story
About being with two friends
Outside a comic book shop in flint, michigan
Some 50 miles away from michael george's shop.
A sinister looking guy, he said,
Was peddling what appeared to be hot comics.
- A man approached us in the parking lot
And asked us to take a look at some, uh,
Old comics that he wanted to sell.
- This new defense witness said he came forward
Only after watching the first comic book murder case
On "dateline."
He testified that the then teenagers
Didn't trust the seller and bought nothing from him.
- The vibe that the gentleman was giving us,
Uh, told us, uh, no way.
- The witness said that encounter took place
July 14, 1990,
Significantly,
The day after barbara george's murder,
But his friends called by the prosecution
Contradicted him
And said it actually happened weeks earlier.
- And we were walking towards the building.
- But the defense wasn't out of alternative suspects.
One of the store customers
Who'd initially come upon barbara george,
Thomas ward, recounted seeing a suspicious man
Lurking about when he got to comics world
A little after 6 p.M.
- It appeared that this individual was looking,
Trying to gaze into the store,
Quite, uh, focused, in a quite focused fashion.
- Ward said he remembered the man
Because of his distinctive hat.
- Had on a greek fisherman's cap,
Black cap.
- A cap like this.
- I'm gonna show ya defense exhibit 105.
- It was real-- pretty similar to that. Yeah.
- And still, another new witness testified
That, in 1990, she'd briefly dated a guy
Who wore a short-brimmed hat like that,
A guy who carried a gun and was up to no good
When it came to the comic book stores
They frequented.
- I realized after we left these comic book stores
That he was stealing these comic books.
- These were all possible suspects the defense claimed,
But on the top of its list of curiosities
Was someone who became known as the bearded lady.
- We were comin' around here.
- Witness joe gray, a friend of the georges,
Came to the store before 6 o'clock to drop off supplies
For michael's birthday party.
Gray was with a friend
Who'd gotten a gander of something strange.
- And he said, "it looked like a woman
"in a fake beard, a really thin guy
"with, like, womanly hips or somethin'."
- Gray and his friend were so concerned
About this weird bearded lady out front
They even warned barbara george
To be on the lookout.
It didn't feel right.
- Why would somebody be wearing a fake beard?
I think maybe somebody was comin' to the party
As a joke
Or maybe they were trying to rob the place.
- It was joe gray's friend who'd helped police
Make a sketch of the so-called bearded lady.
- I believe that the person with the fake beard
And mustache is the killer.
- That's your solution to this.
- That's right.
It's a fake beard and mustache on a July day
With no little theater productions
Or Halloween parties.
This is just too suspicious
In these circumstances. That person is the killer.
- What would 12 fresh jurors believe this time?
The comic book murder case: Volume two
Had one final chapter left.
- Coming up...
- All right, gentlemen. We have a verdict.
- All rise for a jury.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- The comic book murder was a grueling case
In search of an ending.
Barbara george had been shot to death in 1990.
Her husband was arrested in 2007.
[sobbing]
His first trial ended in a guilty verdict
That was later overturned.
And now, after a six week retrial in 2011,
A second jury was behind closed doors deliberating.
Twenty-one years in all,
And, once again,
Michael george hadn't testified,
As was his right.
His lawyers had put him through a mock
Cross-examination that sprang leaks.
They said his memory was faulty
After all that time.
- I put together a pattern of cross-examination questions
Where he had to say, "I don't remember,"
About 20 times in a row,
And we have two solid alibi witnesses.
It's almost malpractice to put him on the stand.
- But the prosecutors believe his reluctance to testify
Was more about him not being able
To stand up to the grilling he would have faced
In a real cross-examination.
- My wife was murdered.
That's the most important day of my life,
And I forgot what happened that day.
It's because maybe I talked myself
Out of wanting to remember.
- I wanted to hear what he had to say.
- These jurors said the entire panel
Was disappointed that it didn't hear the story
From michael george's own mouth.
- I think you can see a lot about a person
When-when they talk about themselves.
- "dateline" talked to ten of the twelve jurors,
And they told us their first draw vote
Revealed a split, seven guilties, five not.
And your not guilties what,
Needed to be persuaded, or-- - it was the robbery.
- Not so much persuasion-- just clarification.
- Yeah, it was-- - right.
- It was clarification and-and a couple really had
An idea that maybe the robbery did happen.
- The central question for each juror was
Which story to believe,
The comic book collector
Who said he talked on the phone to michael george
In the shop just before the murder
Or the defendant's mother, his alibi witness,
That he was napping on her couch across town
At the same hour?
- To me, ultimately,
It came down to michael renaud's testimony,
Um, and the phone call that he made
That placed michael george at the scene of the crime.
- So, did the defense damage mike renaud's credibility
By attacking him as a marijuana smoking,
Beer guzzling college kid? Not to this juror.
- I think they were just trying to personally attack him
To get us to all believe that, of course,
He couldn't remember anything
Because he was a drug abuser.
- And several jurors questioned
The mother's recollection of events.
- I'm not saying she would lie for him,
But, I mean, would you stick up for your kids?
- The jurors talked it through for three days
And finally took a vote.
- All right, gentlemen. We have a verdict.
- Their job was done. - All rise for a jury.
- Michael george cried quietly.
His wife, renee, remained stoic.
On the benches across the court,
Barb's brother hoped for justice from a second jury.
- It's 12 people.
You don't know what they're thinkin'.
- The foreperson read the verdict.
- First degree premeditated murder
Of barbara george,
Guilty of first degree premeditated murder.
- Guilty, murder in the first degree
And guilty on the other counts, as well,
Felony firearm and insurance fraud.
- Guilty of insurance fraud.
- Michael george didn't break down this time.
He closed his eyes and seemed to talk to himself.
- Behind him, his wife, renee, buried her head.
Barb's brother contained his joy out of respect
For his nieces,
Who'd lost their mother and now their father.
- It's a little bit bittersweet.
I mean, they still have to come to the realization
That their father's a murderer.
- The prosecutors quietly congratulated each other
On the conviction.
- It was a huge relief to know that finally
The family is getting what they deserve.
They're getting the justice they deserve.
Michael george was led out of the courtroom
To begin the rest of his life in prison,
No possibility of parole,
A terrible injustice
As his staunch defense attorney saw it.
- I've lived with this case for four years,
And I just don't see any evidence that he was there
Committing the crime,
And I've prosecuted killers, and I've defended killers.
This man is not a killer.
- I don't know why god has put us through this,
But I do know he loves us.
- Six weeks after the verdict,
Michael george did finally speak out
But as a convicted murderer
At his pro forma sentencing hearing.
- The catastrophe of putting people away
That are innocent has not started with me
And will not end with me.
Before this, I've never been accused of any crime,
No domestic violence.
I have no police record,
No problems with drinking or drugs.
I can only hope and pray
That the lives that are destroyed
By people being overzealous in the police community
Will find mercy in god above.
- Barb's brother, joe, expected nothing
And said he got it.
- Once again, no apology.
He thinks he's better than everybody else,
And he thought he was gonna get away with it.
- And as barb's family saw it, since 1990,
He did get away with murder
Until county attorney eric smith's cold case unit
Finally made him pay.
- Do you still talk to barbara?
- Yes.
- Did you talk to her in the courtroom that day?
- Yes. - What'd you say?
- That I love her, you know, that we miss her,
And that we finally got him,
And, hopefully, you can rest in peace,
And, you know, we can move on.
- That's all for this edition
Of "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
I'm kate snow. Thank you for watching.