Fate of the Union (Conservative Politics & True Crime)
Fate of the Union (Conservative Politics & True Crime)
Episode 31 - The New York Times Lies for Kevin Cooper . . . Again
In this installment of Fate of the Union, we return again to the case against Kevin Cooper. The New York Times, via Nicholas Kristof, has returned perpetuating lies that have been disproven for years. Nevertheless, these falsehoods have permeated the commentary and public perception surrounding the case of Kevin Cooper. Here, we once again take these actors to task and set forth the case of the Chino Hills Massacre against Kevin Cooper.
If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe on YouTube for more videos, as well as iTunes for the Fate of the Union podcast. You can also find out more about the show and its host on Twitter at Fateoftheunion_, searching Fate of the Union on Medium, and at franklinfotu@gmail.com.
Links to Atheism is Unstoppable series on Kevin Cooper:
https://altcensored.com/watch?v=UkXUJgK8-HI
https://altcensored.com/watch?v=OAtMoNi3yvk
And welcome to fate of the union as always. I am your host Franklin, and it appears again here in January, 2021, we are going to go over for a third time now on the program, the case of Kevin Cooper, if you'll remember from our initial episode. And then when we followed up regarding the continued advocacy to try to get Kevin Cooper out of jail, Nicholas Christophe was really the originator of one of the most pervasive lies regarding this case. And we'll get into that in a second. That would be the three white men theory that has really permeated through every line of argument, every case of advocacy on his behalf. But I would again, encourage everyone to go back and watch our initial episode on Kevin Cooper, especially, and the follow-up. And again, I must must say that everyone should go to Devin. Tracy atheism is Unstoppables, uh, Patrion go on old censored, wherever you need to find his videos on this case, which are especially good. Uh, even for Devin's track record, going through the facts of the case, the particular pieces of evidence and what have you. So for those of you just checking in, we're really as just a brief refresher on the case of Kevin Cooper, I think it's worth going into a little bit of background about the family here. You'll see the Bryant family. If you're watching on YouTube, the family was, uh, father Douglas, Mo mother Peggy, and then the two kids were Jessica and Josh, the little boy. And you'll see here that on a particular night in 1983, when the what's been dubbed, the Chino Hills masker occurred justice friend, Chris Hughes, uh, an 11 year old boy that he was friends with was staying the night. So the background of the case was that 1983, the Ryan family lived in the neighborhood of Chino Hills, California, Chino Hills over the years, and really in present day has grown to be a bit more upscale. There's still a fairly large ranching community. It's a nice neighborhood, but even back in 1983, it was a relatively nice neighborhood. The one pitfall to Chino Hills is that it is home to a very large prison, a Benz penitentiary. And in that penitentiary area is one of, if not the largest group of death, row inmates, particularly male death row inmates. Now on the night of June 4th, 1983, the Ryan family arrived home from barbecue that they went to. And again, Josh's friend Chris Hughes was spending the night. However, after they returned home, their house was invaded by a man who proceeded to murder the Ryan family. Again, later to come to be known as the Chino Hills massacre. As we now know with the exception of Josh Ryan, the rest of the family and Chris Hughes did not survive the attack. The weapons of choice in the attack included a hatchet, a knife, and a nice pic dug. The husband and mother father was murdered in his dark bedroom. He was first one to be killed by the intruder. He was stabbed 26 times and asked 11 more times with wife, Peggy stab some 25 times and another seven times I'll put hearing the screams of their mother. The children ran to the bedroom. The next one to be murdered was Jessica Ryan. Her screams drew the attention of her brother and his friend, Chris Hughes. Chris Hughes was next. This man, the male intruder, uh, split his throat and he died. Josh Ryan was attacked last, the man knocked him, unconscious slit his throat, punctured his lungs and broke a rib. And he was ultimately left to die. But miraculously having some kind of survival instinct or some kind of presence of mind, that really is, uh, pretty remarkable for her. A nine-year-old kid. You can see he's a very small kid here. Um, he basically lodged his four fingers into his neck wound and he survived, uh, 11 hours overnight until Chris Hughes's dad came over the next day. He was worried that the family wasn't answering the phone. Uh, he wanted to check up on his son after the sleepover. And of course, nobody answered from there. The police were able to hone in on somebody who was likely staying at the neighboring house, the owner of the house next door to the Brian's, as you'll see right here, if you're watching on YouTube, the lower light right-hand at the screen, it was a vacated house to the extent that the owner was that actively living there, it was rented out. But when he came back, obviously he wanted to see what was, what was up with there being this terrible, terrible tragedy, right next door. But when he got to his house, he noticed that several things were missing among them an ice pick a hatchet and not to mention it was very clear when he returned to this rental home here, neighboring the Ryan's home that somebody was squatting, their linens sheets were being used. There were, uh, an ample amount of blood, other bodily fluids. It was very clear. Someone was taking advantage of the house being empty. So police were able to hone in on a suspect in so far as the suspect must've needed a place to stay. And even back in 1983, Chino Hills did not have a really large homeless population. So the cops were able to narrow it down for a suspect that needed a place to stay. It just so happened in the recent days before the Chino Hills massacre on June 3rd, 1983, there was an escape E from the nearby Chino Hills prison. Obviously someone escaping the prison would need a place to stay. The man who escaped from prison was on record as a man named David Troutman. Yeah. That's an important name, David Troutman. And if you go back into the inmate booking photos, things like that, you'll see a man that looks like this here. If you're watching on a YouTube, uh, very large Afro scruffy beard, kind of a tall lanky black man, younger black man. It just so happened that the man really known as Kevin Cooper had used the alias of David Troutman, a to throw the center off his trail after escaping a prison the first time and escaping law enforcement, a series of times stemming from offenses in Pennsylvania and elsewhere had to use named David Troutman, a name that didn't have a criminal history attached to it. Now we know that Kevin Cooper was later apprehended after, uh, actually sexual assault or rape on a woman, uh, on a cruise ship. He had fleet the scene at Chino Hills and use another fake name to get a job as a deck hand on the boat, uh, in, uh, farther South in California. And the woman who was tacked by Cooper, went to the precinct to report her attack. And lo and behold, the wanted poster for the man supposedly responsible for the Chino Hills massacre was up and being displayed on the precinct. And she said that not only was I attacked, that's the man who did it. The man on that picture police eventually apprehended Kevin Cooper and the trial went about as well as you would think for a man who has now had a series of crimes stemming from simple evasion of law enforcement. Uh, he has a statutory rape charge, uh, back from Pennsylvania. Uh, the, certainly the murders of the Ryan family and now another rape, uh, in California to boot here's a brief overview at the evidence found in connection with this case. And I've separated into three separate venues, three separate locations for the evidence that is the Ryan at home up here on the upper left part of the map, their car, which was missing when police reported to the scene. So it at least had the appearance that someone had used a getaway car that's number two. And number three, the rental lease home that I mentioned earlier. So let's give kind of a step-by-step breakdown of the evidence that was discovered were we'll start at the Ryan home, the place of the slayings in and around the Ryan home. There were shoe prints. This the shoe prints are important here because police discovered that the shoe prints were unique to Kevin Cooper in that the print and size were unique to the shoes issued to Chino Hills inmates. Now, the police already had an inkling, had a lead for an escapee of the prison because of the abandoned house next door. So the fact that we are now dealing with very unique shoe prints of the kind that would be worn by an escapee of the prison is definitely a central piece of evidence here. Along with that, I've placed at the home here at the top, right? Josh Ryan, the survivor of the attack is consistent description that a darker skin man with an Afro was the killer. This disproves, the quote three white men theory, really the launchpad of Nicholas Christophe and then others, which we'll get to in a second, the Ryan family car used as the getaway by the man now known as Kevin Cooper. There was tobacco in the car unique and only available to, again, Chino Hills prison inmates. You can find this in retail stores, even a homeless person who could have been on the suspect list. Wouldn't have been able to walk into a seven 11 into a convenience store and get this particular type of
Speaker 2:Tobacco.
Speaker 1:There were also cigarette butts with Cooper saliva on it. We know that because it was confirmed by post-conviction DNA testing. This is a particular shortcoming of the case on, on Cooper's defense and in his appeals that is never really discussed, never really talked about by his defenders because there was a series of DNA testing actually requested by Cooper's legal team. And then wouldn't, you know, it, it all comes back and we have confirmed that it was actually Cooper's DNA. So that really was a very large egg on the face of Cooper's defense team, both during and again, after trial Cooper's hair samples in a similar fashion were confirmed to be unique to Cooper by two different independent experts at trial, which lead it, which led to his conviction. Now we're going to get to the rental home. This is where the killer. Now, now this Kevin Cooper was staying early on in his stay at the home Cooper, uh, actually masturbated at the home. So of course left behind seaman on a blanket there. And that was later later discovered to be Cooper's. Now it's an ice pick were reported by the home owner to be missing. We now know that that was two of the murder weapons use in the Chino Hills massacre. The unique shoe prints were also found in and around the rental home. There were bloody footprints in the bedroom and the shower, and again, a hatchet and at the unique instrument, but also a murder weapon was missing from the home. Now, this was later found on the side of the road during the search for the suspect at large, and the hatchet actually had still on it hair and blood samples consistent with Josh Ryan and his father. So we know that that is an instrument, a murder weapon used in the massacre, but later discarded at a later date, presumably during the getaway on the bathroom sink was Jessica Ryan's hair and, uh, threads or, uh, traces of cloth from her nightgown. That would be the daughter, Jessica Ryan, the unique prison tobacco was also found at the rental home. A bloodstain rope was found at the rental home and call logs supported the argument that Cooper was staying at the rental home because, uh, if you trace the calls, it was later established at trial that Cooper was staying there and had made calls to female acquaintances to try to get money, to kind of fund his escape. Uh, all of those female acquaintances turning down the offer from Kevin Cooper trial was an interesting, because the later claims of racial or racial Animas, the targeting of Kevin Cooper were not as present during the trial, as you would think back in the 1980s, that's in the overall view of the case and we're relatively new development in the desperation and increased hail Mary attempts to try to get this man out of prison in prison because Cooper's DNA was at the house because the call logs are unique. His defense team only had so much to work with. And in that he himself through his legal representation at trial admitted that he was in this rental home in the days leading up to the murder. His contention is that by the day of the murder, he wasn't there anymore. He had, he had fled. So anybody who went next door here and committed the murders, it wasn't him because the evidence did pin down Kevin Cooper at the rental home. So he had to basically play with the timeline of events in order for against some kind of desperate plea to get away from the conviction. However, we now know this was unsuccessful and he was convicted. Cooper has had numerous appeals evidentiary hearings in state court, uh, appeals based on constitutional issues in the federal circuit court of appeals. And while there have been some dissenting opinions, the majority, the controlling opinions in every court have upheld the conviction of Kevin Cooper. Now let's get to, to this New York times piece here by Nicholas Kristoff, it's titled quote, it's an innocent man, still languishing on death row. We know from a review of the evidence and of the post-conviction arguments, that that answer is a resounding no, not in the case of Kevin Cooper. Here's a bit of a background, uh, and we'll kind of take excerpts from Nicholas Kristoff's piece here. When a neighbor arrived at the Ryan home on June 5th, 1983, to pick up his son from sleepover, he couldn't process what he saw through the window. He thought all the red must be paint. We know that to be the various, uh, samples of blood splattered throughout the house, as a result of, of the Chino Hills massacre, here's an especially important paragraph quote, the horrifying murder of a beautiful white family in Chino Hills, California created enormous public pressure on the San Bernardino County Sheriff's office to solve the crime. Although Josh had indicated that the attack was committed by several white men. The sheriff announced just four days after the bodies were found that sole suspect was Kevin Cooper, a young black man with a long criminal record who had recently walked away from a minimum security prison and then hit in an empty house near the Ryans. Now, if you go back and watch demonstrates these video series, which I, again, highly recommend, and you review the actual evidence presented in this case, this paragraph is, and with no equivocation can be forcefully, said an outright lie. There's the Nicholas Kristoff is the originator of this lie. Josh Ryan had not indicated that the attack was committed by several white men. This is absolutely not true. There was one claim made momentarily several years after that. When visiting Josh, Ryan in the hospital, he supposedly squeezed someone's hand. When they asked if the people who did this were white. It has never been substantiated by, by, by, uh, corroborating source. Josh Ryan says this never happened that there's absolutely no substantiation, no credibility to that claim whatsoever. Josh Ryan has been adamant the whole time that it was not three white men at the house, but actually three Hispanic men at the house much earlier in the day than the massacre later that night. And even Josh Ryan had said, listen, these guys have nothing to do with it. I'm just telling you there are other people there earlier in the day, but we can rule out. They're basically looking for landscaping work. They were looking to do some yard work, get some money, but they also similarly have nothing to do with this case. So the several white men theory, the three white men theory is absolutely not true. This is a completely unsubstantiated tip that Nicholas Christophe has repeatedly promoted. As absolute fact is again, an outright lie. The sheriff announced just four days later after the bodies were found that the sole suspect was Kevin Cooper. Now we've gone through why Kevin Cooper met the bill of a suspect description. We AE needed a person who needed a place to stay. The abandoned home needed to offer refuge to whoever was standing in it. We know someone was staying in it because it had blood in it. It had the appearance of being at the shoveled. Linens food was used. Somebody was staying there. We now know that it was by his own admission. Kevin Cooper was staying there again. Sadly, a tan t-shirt believed to have been warned by one of the killers. Didn't produce enough DNA to provide a profile. Now that part is true. There is a shark that has inconclusive blood splatters on it, but we know that Kevin Cooper's particular DNA is at various parts of the Ryan home, the lease home and the getaway car later found in the town where Cooper was apprehended.
Speaker 2:[inaudible]
Speaker 1:Here's another aspect. And you'll remember this. If you go back and watch our, our episode, our original episode on here, quote, this other suspect is a white man whom I'll identify just by his first name Lee for, he must be presumed. Innocent is a convicted murderer who has completed a sentence I'd been out of prison for less than a year when the Ryans were killed. This is a man by the name of Lee furrow. If you go back and watch Devin Tracy's video, this'll definitely be a name that rings a bell, uh, Lee furrow. Again, this is never, it will let let's, let's read this quote. We for his girlfriend, uh, reported that he had returned home late on the night of the killings wearing bloody coveralls in a card that resembled the Ryan station wagon. But the problem with this is we know it wasn't the Ryan station wagon. We know that it was found in long beach, California, where Kim Cooper had skate to. So the fact that it may resemble the car, it may also be a station wagon is now known to be totally irrelevant. We know where the specific Ryan vehicle was, and it wasn't with Lee furrow. Additionally, the bloody coveralls. And this is of course, something never mentioned, never mentioned by Nicholas Kristoff. He just slightly says that the bloody coveralls were handed over to the Sheriff's office and they threw them out without even testing them. So Nicholas Christophe, again, plays with the case to show that, well, they just rushed to judgment about him. Did he even bothered testing these bloody coveralls? They just threw them away. What he does not tell you is that for his girlfriend only gave them to the Sheriff's office because according to her and her friends, having a witching seance and had some kind of illusion during the seance, that's what told them that these coveralls had blood on it. And that blood was from the series of events of Lee furrow, committing that, you know, Hill's massacre. Now I will tell you that a court of law will obviously see this as is totally irrelevant. It's unreliable. You can't connect something to a murder because some kind of vision, some kind of other worldly, suppose it, uh, being told you that this was connected to the murder. So it was rightly discarded by judge Hough, uh, during the series of legal proceedings. And rightfully so, moreover we know from subsequent interviews, both, uh off-camera and on-camera with Lee, how he had a pretty solid alibi. He was, uh, at a concert, some 50 miles away from the Chino Hills masker, uh, in the, in the days around, uh, uh, around slayings of the Ryan family. And there's even strong indication that he had gotten a motel room with a female acquaintance. And essentially he was a separate from time and place for being in Chino Hills. And he couldn't have possibly pulled off this terrible crime Here's there's growing recognition in the criminal justice circles that Kevin Cooper may be innocent. Quote, the San Bernardino Sheriff's department framed him. William May Fletcher. I distinguished federal appeals court. Judge declared it in a lecture. This is an absolute judicial malfeasance. This is judge Fletcher did give a previous dissenting opinion on this case. This is wholly out of bounds for a judge to issue this kind of ridiculously speculative opinion, no less for a judge who oversaw one of the proceedings in this case, this is absolute malfeasance and not for nothing. Judge Fletcher, who repeatedly in his opinion say things like this could have been manipulated. This could have been planted. This may have happened. We are now some 30, some odd years after the conviction. We're not looking for may haves anymore. We're not looking for could haves. There is DNA evidence at various points that, that provide a very thorough and concrete timeline events that pin it on one person, Kevin Cooper. So at this point, there's no more could hats. There are no more maybes, was it? Or wasn't it, Kevin Cooper still decades later can not provide that evidence to us. And so the conviction must stand very noteworthy in this piece by Nicholas Kristoff is that, of course he doesn't mention judge Hough, her opinion, her writing on the case. Of course, it's not mentioned anywhere because she's not the kind of distinguished judge that Nicholas Kristoff views William Fletcher to be,
Speaker 2:Um,
Speaker 1:Throughout the rest of this piece, uh, Christophe points to different, uh, different, uh, individuals like Kim Kardashians and law professors who continue to speculate and provide their conjecture for why Kevin Cooper is not guilty of this crime. Uh, additionally, they, he, he relies on the resistance of the San Bernardino County district attorney's office and law enforcement to test DNA. However, what he doesn't say that on numerous occasions, these subsequent DNA testing requested by Cooper's legal team after it has already been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he was in fact, the perpetrator of these crimes actually came back and, and solidified and confirmed him as the killer so much so that, um, the cigarette butts, which we spoke about earlier that had the saliva on it in the Ryan station wagon actually came back in the district attorney's office and their independent examiner were able to come to the conclusion that this alive is so specific. It's so solidly Cooper, saliva, that it would match Cooper when compared to 19 billion other people, the second sample for one in 110 million people, it is without a shadow of the town. Cooper's saliva on these cigarette butts on the station wagon, which was used to travel from the Rhine home to the town where our Cooper's leader apprehended. So by Cooper's own DNA, we know, and by his own admission, he was in the rental home. We had his DNA in the Ryan home. We had the kind of cross-contamination that's, that's really a solid through line here. How did objects, how did things from one house get to the other and vice versa. There's prison tobacco at one house there's prison, tobacco with the other
Speaker 2:House there's
Speaker 1:Unique prison issued shoe prints at one house it's at the other house. Cooper's hair sample is on the car. It's also at the house at the rental home. There was a carrier of that evidence between these three locations. And that carrier was, we now know Kevin Cooper,
Speaker 2:Any
Speaker 1:Desperate claims to try and justify any of this evidence as planted is further conjecture. Uh, really again, originating from Nicholas Kristoff, his, his journalistic malpractice and outright lies on this case has provided a great bedrock for people who do not look into this case, like the Kim Kardashians of the world, like the young Turks to kind of use this general outline. You see here of the three white men theory, which is incontrovertibly untrue of things like the lack of DNA testing. Nevermind. We've gone through several rounds of additional DNA testing, post conviction at the request of Cooper's legal team that solidified him as the killer, regardless of all, that this is the kind of general outline that you'll see the young Turks you'll see of Hollywood types when they get to anything resembling specifics of the case. They'll kind of use this general roadmap that was really originated with Nicholas Kristoff, but I hope that this provides a better view of the case. Um, this is kind of your home base for proving case against Kevin Cooper. These kind of kind of lists bullet points for the home to various points of evidence found in this case, if you can combine that with post-conviction DNA testing, solidifying Cooper as the killer and by Cooper's own admission, being at the rental home, at least up until the Chino Hills massacre, you can clearly see that the perpetrator of the Gino Hills massacre is one Kevin Cooper. There is one additional round of DNA testing that continues to be dragged out by the state of California. And we will, of course, keep everyone updated on that at the end of the day, the current order from, uh, governor Gavin Newsome and likely even if this recall gets sorted out in a way that has him replaced, we'll likely stand in that although someone is on death row, they are not the state of California, as it stands today is now carrying out any execution. So in essence, Ken Cooper and others like him really are effectively serving a life sentence. They are technically, as far as the paperwork in the, uh, inmate, uh, recording, uh, documentation, yes, he has quote unquote on death row, but as it stands now, he is effectively serving a life sentence. I want to end this video with a quick excerpt from, from a letter that Josh Ryan wrote to then governor Jerry Brown. And he wrote it because, uh, at the time they're really starting this later, uh, this later round of DNA testing, and he wrote a letter to, um, the governor's office in order to voice his opinion. And I want to read that to you all right now,
Speaker 2:[inaudible] and here's the letter
Speaker 1:From Josh Ryan in April 20th, 2018, dear governor Brown. I was eight years old. I lived on a ranch in Chino Hills with my family. We had horses and like to ride and show them. We were a perfect family. Our house is filled with love. It was 1983. I invited my best friend, Chris Hughes to spend the night at my house. If I had not, Chris would still be alive. I blame myself for what happened to him in the middle of the night. I heard screams coming from my parents' bedroom. I ran toward the screens. I tripped over my sister's body. She was laying in the doorway. The only things I vividly remember after that is lying in a pool of blood, being unable to move and looking all night. And my mother who was lying dead beside me the next morning, I heard bang on the sliding glass door. And so on Mr. Hughes, I look of shock and horror on his face that I will never forget. He left. And I heard the front door bash again. And Mr. Hughes in the room cradling his son and sobbing and moaning, which will always echo in my ears. I remember being put in a helicopter. I later learned no one thought I would survive. I tried to escape from Kevin Cooper by not reading the newspaper, but I can not escape his presence. I tried to get him out of my mind and banish him from my memory, but I could not escape. People will tell me he's on Facebook, puts on a monthly show from a sale in California. I think it's ridiculous. The California gives him everything he wants. It gave him the home at the Chino prison, which climbed through to make his escape, which enabled him to murder my family and friend. We know about the hole in the fence that he escaped through because he later bragged about how easy it was to escape. California started subsidizing Kevin Cooper long before Facebook and his monthly talk show. When he made his way to my house to burden my family and friend, and almost murdered me. He walks in shoes, supplied by the prison and smokes tobacco supplied by the prison. California has given Kevin Cooper, everything he wants. He wants DNA testing. So California gives it to them. It proves they Cooper's a killer. So it says the blood was planted and once more DNA testing and for good measure and investigation of the police for framing him because of his race, Kevin Cooper is a liar. He lies about everything. When he's caught in his lies, he lies more and more. He gets other people to believe and in broadcast his lies because Kevin Cooper, because of Kevin Cooper, I was accused of being a liar on national television. Tina ends death row stories, calling a show about Kevin Cooper, which presented his many lies as facts. The police framed him and coach me to lie under oath. Kevin Cooper is in my mind every day, the nightmare, the place over and over in my head, I can never get away from him. The latest is this request for clemency, something he rightly does not deserve, but he does not stop there. He also wants more DNA testing and investigation of the police and prosecutors. This is ridiculous. It is obscene. Please deny Kevin Cooper's request, but please explain the reason why this time someone told the truth. The company did it. His time someone spoke up for me and Chris's family. Since he really Joshua Ryan, we now know that governor Brown responded to this plea by granting Cooper's latest request from our DNA testing anyway, and the Supreme court has affirmed even more DNA testing beyond that, to the delight of Kevin Cooper and his supporters. This is at best a waste of valuable judicial resources and puts victims like Joshua Ryan seen here in limbo worrying that this man may be set free in which case is my personal opinion that he is his life is in grave danger.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:At worst, it sets a precedent for future cases to be overturned just by sheer speculation. I would, I would implore everyone to share this video with people who may be interested in the case. And remember that we have the perpetrator of the Chino Hills masker. We do have him in custody and this latest round of DNA testing will further prove that that individual is Kevin Cooper. Thank you for listening.