Theres aid body on the water. He was butchered and murdered. Many people proclaim their innocence. In this case there are a number of things that stink. 24 is man is remorseless. The electric chair flashed in front of my eyes. Get a conviction at all costs. December 9th, 1981. Little broke the afternoon quiet in sacramentos rosemont neighborhood. Then at this modest home on rosewood avenue there was a knock on the door ed davies was in the kitchen. His wife grace checked out the window and opened it for a repairman. He said, man, we got some kind of report about your phone and would like to look into it. She said, okay, come on in. He went to the telephone and then turned around and pointed a gun at them, she and her husband. He hog tied them and put blankets over their head so they couldnt see. Grace davies heard a second man enter her home. The perpetrators were screaming, wheres the silver . Wheres the gold . Ed davies was an amateur coin collector but never told his wife about the trove of Precious Metals he had hidden in that home. Now he refused to tell the robbers. And one of the perpetrators put a knife to her neck and said if you dont tell us where the gold is, well kill her. So mr. Davies told them. Grace listened while they dug in the garage. Then one walked back in the kitchen. She heard a ping and felt her husbands legs quivering on her legs. The sound was the bullet hitting her head. Against all odds the woman regained consciousness hours later. Someone had reentered the ho e house. Grace didnt move. She was half in shock and half just lying still, hoping they would go away. She could tell her husband was moving, and then she heard another gunshot, and then she didnt feel her husband moving at all. Terrified and bleeding, grace eventually freed her hands and tried to dial 911 only to find the line had been cut. She dragged herself to the couch and collapsed. In the morning early, all of a sudden the tv just comes blaring on. It woke her up, and so she crawled outside on her hands and knees. A shocked commuter found grace bloodied and unconscious. Miraculously the 76yearold woman would survive. Police arrived and discovered ed davies lifeless body. Youd like to think that upstanding citizens arent going to suffer that kind of torture and murder in their own home. Detectives found no fingerprints at the scene, but they did learn ed had recently bought two bags of silver at the allied coin shop owned by a man named Virgil Fletcher. Estimated value, 27,000. Who knew that . Whats the connection . How did somebody know that this large cache of silver was in the home . During an unrelated arrest days later, a local criminal told detectives who might have done the davies job. That was gary masse and steve desantis. They were wellknown thieves, neerdowells, thugs. They had been in and out of custody for various crimes. I dont think the police were at all surprised. Stephen was an angry young guy that just didnt know how to make a living other than robbing people. Gary is unstable. He was a regular drug addict who had more ins into the criminal element. And the first thing the police did was go after gary masse and Stephen Desantis. Police launched a man hunt but for days came up emptyhanded. Meanwhile, grace davies recovered and told police that a suspicious woman had come to her door a week before the robbery. Police now believed there was a third conspirator, and their suspicions were confirmed when joanne masse, wife of suspect gary masse, showed up at the sheriffs department. Joanne was not a dumb woman. If youre the one to give the information, youre the one to get the better deal. The first thing she said was say my husband was involved. But stephen fired the shots. Sheriffs demanded to talk to gary and joanne promised she would bring him in. But detectives also wanted to know how gary and stephen had learned about ed davies treasure. Joanne came up with gloria. She said a woman named gloria helped plan the robbery. Gary is completely innocent and it is gloria and Stephen Desantis who are totally responsible. The new suspect was Gloria Killian, a 35yearold divorcee and law student. Gloria was renting a room from Virgil Fletcher, the owner of allied coin when she saw the davies murder reported on tv. I said, oh, my god, thats horrible. That poor woman had actually lived and crawled out onto the street and all those horrible things happened to her. It was awful. A week later, gloria was helping out at her boyfriends auto body shop when police came calling. We didnt happen to have a customer scheduled then, so we were going to close for lunch and have sex. We got everything locked up. Im busy taking my shirt off and there comes a knock on the door. Four sheriffs come to the door, and they say we want to talk to Gloria Killian. I was mortified. Can they come talk to us . Sure. No problem. They haves were taking gloria to be questioned as the robberys alleged mastermind. As were walking out the gate, little miss big mouth goes you have the worst timing. I always get caught. They fell into a kind of formation, one guy behind me, one guy in the side of me and one guy kind of leading me. And im thinking, this is really strange. Within days, gloria would be facing the Death Penalty. Thats a man interviewino. For a job. Not that one. That one. The one who seems like hes already got the job cause he studied all the right courses from the getgo. And thats an accountant, a mom, a university of phoenix scholarship recipient, who used our unique scratch that awesome careerplanning tool. And thats a student, working late, with a day job, taking courses aligned with the industry hes aiming to be in. Ready to build an education around the career that you want . Lets get to work. On december 16th, 1981, sheriffs brought Gloria Killian in for questioning. We are investigating the death of ed davies. We want to talk to you in regard to that. Gloria thought she would be asked about her landlord, Virgil Fletcher, owner of allied coin. The man that was murdered was a coin collector. Gloria thought she was being being brought down to give them any information about virgil. But detectives suspected gloria of orchestrating the deadly home robbery. And then they just started attacking me. You are in trouble. We have been talking to a lot of people. Your name has come up. In what regard . Well, thats what i wanted you to tell me. We know you planned this. We know you know everything that happened, and i just went, huh . Detectives believed gloria had coaxed information from virgil about ed davies hidden treasure. They asked her questions. Do you know ed davies . And she said, i dont think so. Well, have you been to his house . And her response is, well, if i dont know him, i dont think ive been to his house. I have a tendency to be a little flip when im nervous. Gloria also insisted she had never met alleged perpetrators. Gary masse or Stephen Desantis. I had no idea what they were talking about. I couldnt figure out why they thought i had set this up. There is a distinction between being cooperative and being honest. You arent being honest. I cant tell you what i dont know. The more i said i didnt know, the angrier it made them. One of them spent the time just staring at me, staring in my eyes. But i still didnt have anything to tell them. After two hours, detectives had had enough. They stood up and said, youre under arrest for the murder of edward davies. Everything just started to narrow in front of me. And it was almost like, what i could hear were echos. But i couldnt really hear what they were saying. You dont want to take a polygraph. Is that what youre saying . Im saying am i being arrested. No, we asked you to give us a specific answer. I dont want to answer any more questions if im being arrested. You know, whatever is wrong with these fools, i am not talking to them anymore. Well, that made them really mad. A detective handcuffed gloria for the trip to county jail. He said, you are going someplace that no nice little white girl like you has ever been, and we will break you. Gloria killian was not the usual suspect. A year earlier, gloria was on her way to becoming a lawyer. No mean feat for a 35yearold wife and stepmother who never attended college. What a life. She had loved the law. She studied at home for the law boards and scored incredibly high. I was married at the time. I was bored out of my skull. I absolutely totally believed in the law, and they accepted me. But glorias personal life disrupted her law school career. She got into a dreadfully difficult love affair. She was married. He was married. Gloria divorced to be with her lover, but the relationship soon turned ugly. I had to get away from him. It was screwing up my grades, it was screwing up every single thing, and i needed to just get out of there for a while. It has been said that she took a leave of absence. She didnt take a leave of absence. She dropped out. She didnt have a place to live. She didnt have a husband, and she didnt have any money. I was literally looking for friends, which is how i met the people that i shouldnt have met. One of glorias new best friends was a 60yearold woman named niva snyder. I really became very fond of niva. I probably was looking for a mother because she was that much older. What i didnt realize, because i didnt have a scrap of street sense, was that there was someone involved in the drug trade. Neva snyder dealt methamphetamine. Gloria succumbed to temptation. As someone who hadnt the faintest idea how to express her feels, i think selfmedication was the answer. A pill here, a pill there, some powder. I dont know know, fine. That was the criminal element where that little area hung out, nevas house. Gloria got involved with the wrong crowd. The regulars at nevea house included gary and joanne masse. The day after gloria was arrested, gary finally turned himself in. Gary was known to use a lot of valium, and he mixed it with street drugs including heroin, and he was catatonic. Gary refused to answer questions. But his wife had already confessed for him and implicated gloria. Two days later with gunman Stephen Desantis still on the run, gary and gloria were arraigned together in a capital murder case. The electric chair flashed in front of my eyes. There is something about hearing the word death. That really does take you to another plane. Gloria was held without bail for four months. And when she finally got a hearing to determine if prosecutors could proceed to trial, she was shocked to see the judge. Theres her former legal professor presiding over a case where she is facing the Death Penalty. Judge sheldon grossfelt, my family law professor, it was just mortifying. But judge grossfelt soon lost patience with the prosecution. They couldnt proceed to trial. There was no evidence, and so, of course, it was dismissed. Even as gloria stepped out into the street as a free woman, she felt uneasy. I had this weird feeling. I would say it was like some sort of internal dread. And i tried really hard to get rid of it, but i couldnt. Just one year later gloria would be arrested for the murder of ed davies again. One year after the murder of ed davies, alleged gunman Stephen Desantis was still a fugitive. His partner gary masse went on trial for murder. Garys trial lasted a very, very short time, and he was found guilty almost immediately. Gary admitted that he was part of the scheme, and under the aiding and abetting laws in california, he was guilty. Gary was sentenced to life with no possibility of parole. He didnt see it coming. A lot of people feel that it went beyond where i wanted it to go. I didnt do the shooting. Everyone will realize im not guilty of murder, and they have no clue that they are standing on that Railroad Track and a train of guilt is about to run them right over. When the reality of his sentence hit, gary quickly requested a meeting with police. Gary tells the sheriffs department, i want to talk now if youre willing to listen. He wanted a reduced sentence, and he didnt want to be known as being a snitch. He thought he would get a knife in the back. And he wanted immunity for his wife. But why would gary masses wife joanne need immunity . The answer would only emerge months later in the halls of the local courthouse. A grandmother named Elizabeth Lee spotted joanne masse and rushed to find a court officer. She said, i just solved my case. Theyre the people right there, and she pointed to gary and his wife. Lee had also been the victim of a home invasion, and just like grace davies, lee said a suspicious woman had come to her door. She was now certain it was joanne masse. The assistant d. A. Was in the courthouse but his reaction was not what he expected. They hustled around the courthouse. They said, we cant have this. That was the end of it. Just as gary masse had requested, the prosecutor turned a blind eye to joannes alleged crimes. He also moved gary to a new prison under an assumed name. And a reduced sentence . That would be decided at a later date. And then gary became the chief witness for the prosecution. Gary masse says, Gloria Killian is the one who gave me the information. Gloria killian told him about the davies and went with him to the house a week or so before. Gary now painted gloria as the crimes mastermind. Unfazed by the murder, gloria had called afterwards to demand her take. One year after she was released, sheriffs arrived at glorias work again. Now because of what gary is saying, they can arrest gloria again. When they start unsnapping their holsters, this is not the time to discuss it. Again, gloria was locked away without bail. The Death Penalty looming over her. I had terrible nightmares. Im in a prison and i cant get out. Someone is chasing me. You dont know who. I was afraid. But in late 1983, a California Supreme Court ruling changed everything. People charged as accomplices to murder could no longer face execution. The Death Penalty is off the table. And that was that. And since she doesnt get the Death Penalty, she is allowed to be out on bail. Gloria was eligible for bail but there were objections from the new prosecutor on her case, an assistant d. A. Named kit cleland. Kit cleland was far more emotional than the first prosecutor. He was just angry and very sarcastic. You know, shes a murderer, shes a killer. Shes going to run, and cleland seemed to feel that he was the avenging angel of god. The judge didnt buy it. Look. Did you pull her off an International Flight . Did you catch her running down the road . And cleland went, no, not exactly. And the judge said, you know what . Shes out on 25,000 bail, and you can leave her alone. Gloria was free on bail for almost two years. But waiting for her day in court proved to be an emotional roller coaster. I would go from thinking they will never convict me of something i didnt do to thinking theyll send me away for a million years. I did everything i could to avoid it. There was no way that i could even cope with the idea. Shutting herself off, gloria missed some critical developments. The fbi discovered Stephen Desantis holed up in texas. He went on trial in 1985. I acted as if it had nothing to do with me at all. I should have been studying the daily transcript of it. I would have known that Stephen Desantis said he never heard of me, never saw me in my life. The star witness against Stephen Desantis was gary masse. The jury found desantis guilty of murder and sentenced him to death. Gary would next testify at glorias trial starting just five days later. Four years after ed davies was killed, Gloria Killian went on trial as the heists mastermind. The prosecutor called coin dealer Virgil Fletcher, who once told police that his tenant, gloria, plied him for information about davies. Virgil didnt directly say that Gloria Killian was involved but she had talked to him about wanting to meet mr. Davies and does he date younger women, will he go out on his wife so he had an interest. Virgil said i was asking about mr. Davies. But i didnt know the davies. I didnt know they had money. I didnt know they shopped at allied coins. And under oath, virgil seemed hesitant to implicate gloria. Prosecutor kit cleland also called grace davies to the stand wanting the widow to identify gloria as the suspicious woman who came to the door. Grace davies was 80 years old with a bullet in her head. She had five or six times been unable to identify gloria as the woman who came to the door. And i think she finally said, well, it could be. Despite these struggles, cleland did not call joanne masse to implicate gloria. Joanne was now suspected of committing similar robberies with her husband, so the case came down to the star witness. Gary masse. Gloria is almost relieved. Theyre not going to take the word of a career criminal over me. That would make no sense. The jurors are instructed, they dont have to believe gary masse. And they listened and they found him to be credible. Masse testified that he met gloria at niva snyders house and she recruited him to rob the davies. Gary masse says, we went here, we went there, and i did it with Gloria Killian. And masse was hard to crossexamine. Because it was a conspiracy case, they didnt to have prove anything, gloria actually did which made it very hard for the defense to discredit him. Gary masse was so loaded during this crime. So he got around an awful lot of it by saying, i dont remember, i dont recall. It is all very hazy. It was like trying to fight your way through a bunch of cobwebs. Gloria took the stand still insisting she didnt know the robbers or the victims. Cleland hammered away at glorias credibility starting with her first statement to police, i always get caught. We were just about to lock up and make love. Thats why i said that. You can believe that if you want. Some of her explanations were pretty incredible. Cleland also confronted gloria with suspicious notes discovered in her date book. They found three or four pages that really caught their attention. She always looking out window. Grace davies testified, i never open that front door unless i would see who is there. And then, dont approach at coin shop. Okay. Now it sounds like someone casing the davies themse