Fred Shockner News Today

Promised a christmas gift, worrying washington that they could launch a long-range missile. welcome back. the mystery of line shockners murder was being unraveled by long beach police. they arrested nick harvey, who admitted to stabbing lynn. thanks to an undercover sting operation, they believe they also tied lynns death to another man, frank jaramillo. investigators believed they had one more dot to connect. now it was time to go after a person they suspected of masterminding the crime. retu...

>> reporter: but frank kept going at him, and fred finally let something slip. >> im scared, fred. i dont know, i understand youre scared, too. you have to understand. we would not be in this position if it wasnt for her. if it wasnt for lynn, we would not be here. >> thats true. and if it hadnt been sloppy on nicks part we wouldnt be here either. >> reporter: fred referring to nick harvey, the hired killer. for the first time connecting himself to lynns murder. but frank kept going after him, a...

And that she was so nervous about doing it and didnt know if it was the right choice or what to do about it. >> reporter: whatd you think? >> my first thought was very excited, because it was just great to be able to think of getting away from him. >> reporter: and then, finally, more than a year later lynn hired family law attorney lisa brandon. what did she tell you she wanted from you? >> she wanted a fair division of the property. >> reporter: but, said lisa, fred controlled all the finances...

Compelled to watch his familys darkest secrets spill out. then in the end he would get the opportunity to speak directly to his father here with the conclusion of our story is keith morrison. >> you hold your breath. the world kind of stops. >> a hushed courtroom in long beach, california. fred schockner, charged with commissioning the murder of his wife, caught on tape blaming a sloppy hit man, took the stand in his own defense. >> he was very defiant. and completely maintained his innocence un...

And so with a pending separation lisa worried about lynn and charlies safety. >> i wanted her to move out of the home with charlie. she wouldnt do it. she wouldnt leave her home. she wouldnt disrupt charlie. he was just starting high school. theyd lived in the neighborhood forever. so she was a sitting target. >> reporter: did she understand that it was dangerous for her? >> yes, yes. >> reporter: and yet, she went ahead and did it anyway? >> thats how important getting out of that relationship ...

Long beach was in the dark. no one seriously believed what the police now firmly believed that fred schockner ordered and paid for his own wifes murder. as charlies uncle mark said -- >> never in my wildest dreams, even after she was killed, because the circumstances, nothing pointed at fred. and the police did not point at fred. >> reporter: but, said detective richard birdsall, they had their reasons. >> we used them in a lot of respects. and you felt guilty because theyre beating their chests...

Hulk as a child, incredible hulk. and he said that he had taken steroids just to get bigger and, you know, stronger. and you know, its was very hard for the jury to have sympathy for him. >> reporter: and they didnt. the jury found him guilty in about 35 minutes. first-degree murder and burglary. next was frank jaramillo. >> he said that he wouldnt have done it had schockner not threatened his wife and his in-laws. >> reporter: so this was -- he did it out of fear then? >> yeah, he said, literal...

And his wife, susan, even though they did not tell mark about their suspicion. >> i was surprised, i am still to this day, that fred allowed that to happen, but he did. >> reporter: perhaps fred had more pressing things to think about. whatever his reason he put charlie on a plane to georgia just in time for the main event in the murder investigation. frank jaramillo, under arrest as the alleged middleman, was spilling it all, telling police he took money from lynns husband. a lot of it. and use...

That must be going through him. and then the old man who didnt look like he was doing particularly well either. >> reporter: did he look frightened or something? >> yeah, they both looked scared. they both looked like trapped rats on a burning ship, you know? >> reporter: and as they feared, fred was suspicious. he sat down, said not a word. but hed written something on his notepad. >> at which point, fred schockner lifted that note up that says, "are you wired?" >> im not. >> very possible. >> ...

>> it was terrifying. to know that it was actually going to happen, that this was the culmination of everything. it was a lot of emotion. >> also a way of saying good-bye to him. >> yeah. yeah. >> through all of this fred schockner maintained his innocence. in fact, even before his trial began fred did carry out a threat he added right after the murder. he launched a lawsuit against the long beach police department for not protecting his wife, lynn. >> he went to the city and filed a claim, whic...