#579 - Millions To Murder - Sunnyside, California

Summary

Small Town Murder: Episode #579 - "Millions To Murder - Sunnyside, California"

Hosts: James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman
Release Date: March 20, 2025

In this gripping episode of Small Town Murder, comedians James Pietragallo and Jimmie Whisman delve deep into the unsettling case of the Yule family’s tragic murders in Sunnyside, California. Blending thorough research with their unique comedic perspective, the hosts unravel the intricate layers of this horrifying event, exploring both the personal dynamics of the Yule family and the broader implications within the small community.

1. Introduction to Sunnyside, California

James and Jimmie set the stage by introducing Sunnyside, a census-designated suburb in Fresno County. They provide a rich backdrop of the town’s history, demographics, and socioeconomic status, painting a vivid picture of the environment in which the tragedy occurred.

James Pietragallo [07:11]: "Sunnyside used to be known as Malta Morrow... Sunnyside sounds like there's gonna wake up to waves crashing on your front."

They discuss Sunnyside’s transformation from sheep and wheat farming to a community with significant oil production, highlighting both its economic growth and underlying social issues like high unemployment rates and crime.

2. The Yule Family: Background and Dynamics

The focus shifts to the Yule family, comprising Glee Ellen Mitchell Yule, her husband Dale Allen Yule, and their daughter Tiffany Ann Yule. The hosts meticulously outline each member’s background, revealing a family marked by privilege, control, and underlying tensions.

Jimmie Whisman [07:13]: "A couple Years older. He's from Ohio. He is described as a tall, husky Air Force pilot."

Glee, portrayed as a devoted mother and community pillar, contrasts sharply with Dale, a ruthless and manipulative businessman with little regard for personal relationships. Tiffany, the quiet daughter, adds another layer of complexity to the family’s dynamic.

3. The Murder Incident

On April 21, 1992, the Yule family’s beach house became the scene of a brutal triple homicide. James and Jimmie provide a detailed narrative of the events leading up to and following the murders, supported by timestamps and direct quotes from the investigation transcripts.

James Pietragallo [20:09]: "So the killer just stepped into the hallway behind him and shot him. They never even got the chance to bring in their suitcases from the Jeep that they arrived."

The victims—Tiffany, Glee, and Dale—were found murdered in various parts of the house, with signs pointing to a meticulously planned execution rather than a random act of violence. The absence of forced entry and the staged burglary suggested deeper motives behind the killings.

4. Investigation and Suspects

The investigation unveils numerous potential motives, primarily centered around Dale’s contentious business dealings. Dale’s aggressive sales tactics and accumulation of wealth garnered him many enemies, making him a prime suspect in the eyes of law enforcement.

James Pietragallo [34:31]: "He's more concerned about more money, but it was hard to c. He was the ultimate manipulator."

James and Jimmie discuss how the investigation initially focused on former associates and family members, highlighting the complex web of relationships and financial entanglements that complicate pinpointing the true perpetrator.

5. The Trial and Verdict

The episode delves into the courtroom drama that unfolded as Dana Yule, the son of the murdered couple, stood trial for the triple homicide. The hosts analyze the prosecution’s focus on Dana’s obsession with wealth and his strained relationship with his father, juxtaposed against the defense’s arguments of procedural misconduct and lack of concrete evidence.

Jimmie Whisman [164:46]: "He's the greediest person I've ever met in my life."

Despite a compelling case presented by the prosecution, the trial concludes with the jury finding both Dana and his close associate Joel Radovich guilty of first-degree murder. They face life sentences without the possibility of parole, a decision influenced by the overwhelming narrative of greed and manipulation.

6. Aftermath and Reflections

James and Jimmie reflect on the broader impact of the murders on Sunnyside and the Yule family’s legacy. They ponder the societal and psychological factors that may lead individuals to commit such heinous acts, emphasizing the delicate balance within small communities where everyone’s actions are closely scrutinized.

James Pietragallo [166:49]: "I don't think any one of it has been beneficial to solving this crime. The challenge is to resolve every aspect of the crime and identify the perpetrator, not to simply take aim at Dana in light of one's own limitations or inabilities."

7. Notable Quotes and Moments

Throughout the episode, numerous poignant and revealing quotes from both the investigation transcripts and the hosts themselves provide deeper insights into the case:

• James Pietragallo [03:02]: "We have some, some greedy, greedy people today and some very... It's just weird."

• Jimmie Whisman [07:32]: "Have you been?"

• James Pietregallo [117:32]: "That's how it worked. Now, after learning about all these lies that he told the Yules, Dale and Glee modified their estate plan slightly."

• James Pietregallo [175:17]: "This is a bit of symmetry with Menendez. They're still doing it."

8. Conclusion

Small Town Murder successfully combines meticulous storytelling with sharp comedic elements, making for an engaging exploration of the Sunnyside murders. James and Jimmie invite listeners to ponder the dark complexities of human nature and the hidden secrets that small towns can harbor.

James Pietragallo [178:42]: "We will be here and we'll keep coming back. You want to follow us? Shut up and give me murder.com. Drop down menu. Take you wherever you want to go."

For those intrigued by true crime woven with a touch of humor, this episode stands out as a compelling listen that not only narrates the events but also encourages deeper contemplation on the motives and consequences of such tragedies.

Transcript

[James Petregallo]

Hey, everybody. Just gonna take a quick break from the show to get you styled up with Stitch Fix. Shopping's hard. It's hard. With Stitch Fix. You get a stylist, though, who understands your style, your size, your budget, and they do all the shopping for you. Wow. This is excellent shopping. I'm telling you. Shopping and figure out your style. It's overwhelming. Let somebody help you. When it comes to getting dressed, we don't know what we're doing. So we let Stitch Fix help us out. A Stitch Fix stylist there, they know it works on us. We get the prices that make us look really good. And it feels good. You get some confidence boost walking around knowing that you're looking decent here.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[James Petregallo]

We just give the stylist our sizes, style, budget, preferences. I hope we order boxes when we want, how we want. No subscription or any of that required. And they send all just for me pieces as well. Oh, like maybe you'd like this. And it's awesome. Outfit recommendations, styling tips. You keep what you love, you send back the rest. It's super easy. You can do it. And we are doing it because it's excellent personal styling for everyone. Get started [e-mail] STM that's stitchfix.com STM.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Now back to the show.

[James Petregallo]

Don't miss Good American Family. We have a little girl here for adoption. She has dwarfism. Starring Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplock. Something is off. She's just a little girl.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You think she's faking?

[James Petregallo]

She has adult teeth. There are signs of puberty. Inspired by the shocking stories that tore a family apart. I don't know what's going on. How old are you? You should get a lawyer. You have no idea how those people hurt this girl. The Hulu Original series, Good American Family. New episodes Wednesdays, streaming on Hulu. Escape to a bygone age of mystery, danger and romance as you immerse yourself into the world of June's Journey, a hidden object mystery mobile game that puts your detective skills to the test. Join June as she unravels the truth behind her sister's mysterious death and use your observation skills to find hidden clues and uncover dark secrets. You can even explore stunning hidden object scenes from New York parlors to Parisian sidewalks. As each new chapter reveals captivating mysteries. Can you unmask the truth? Download June's Journey for free today on iOS and Android. This week in Sunnyside, California, when a slaughter takes place in a suburban home, detectives scramble to figure out if this was a random act for the public to fear or a very calculated attack for a very specific reason. Welcome to Small Town Murder. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder. Yay. Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petregallo. I'm here with my co host.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I'm Jimmy Wisman.

[James Petregallo]

Thank you, folks so much for joining us today on another absolutely insane edition of Small Town Murder. We have some, some greedy, greedy people today and some very. Wow, this is like a Menendez situation going on here. Except not brothers and not any. You'll see it's just weird. We'll get into it, but yes, but no, you'll see it's very Menendez y though in the middle of it you'll go, this sounds familiar. But before we get to that, shut upandgivemerder.com is the site to head to. What is there, you may ask? Well, tickets to live shows. Absolutely. Get in there. The April 19, 4:20 virtual live show. Just like a regular live show, except you can watch it anywhere on the planet that has Internet, wherever you want to watch it. We will be in costumes. We'll have the screen and the pictures and the regular, all the live show tropes except you don't have to go anywhere. It's pretty awesome. It's available for two weeks after the April 19th date as well. You can buy, you can watch it 100 times. You can do whatever you want with it. Shut up and givememurder.com While you're there, get your tickets for regular live shows as well. Our next batch is St. Louis and Chicago. St. Louis is sold out, but Chicago still a few tickets at the Riviera. So get in there and get those. A lot of shows are selling out. Madison, San Diego's about sold out. Grand Rapids, Portland, sold out. So if you want to go to a show later, get your tickets right now. Do that. Shut up and givememurder.com also listen to our other shows, crime in Sports, which we're in the midst of an Evel Knievel series right now. You don't have to like sports at all. It's just you have to like hearing a story about a crazy person. So that's a lot of fun. And then also listen to your stupid opinions, which is reviews from all over the Internet. And we find out what people are upset about and then make fun of them. And then when you've listened to all that, check out patreon patreon.com crimeinsports. That's where you get all of Your bonus material, anybody, $5 a month or above, you get all that we have for you, you're gonna immediately get hundreds of back episodes you've never heard before, a bonus stuff, and then new ones every other week. One crime in sports, one Small Town Murder. This week is no different. You get them all. This week for crime and sports, we're gonna do more sports songs, more athletes poorly singing and rapping, which is a lot of fun to listen to. Chris Webber, Manny Pacquiao with more. We got all sorts of stuff here. Then for Small Town Murder, we are going to talk about a 1980s New York City con man named Louis Carlucci or Con Juan or the con man Casanova, who had wives and girlfriends and they couldn't find him. And he was like. He was like the Jack the Ripper of cons in the 80s in New York. Guy's just a dumpy dude. It makes no sense whatsoever. We'll talk all about it. Patreon.com. that's it. CrimeInSports is where you get all that. And you get a shout out at the end of the show as well. Jimmy will go ahead and mispronounce your name for you. That said, disclaimer time. Hey, everybody, it's a comedy show. We are comedians. The stories are 1000% real. So don't think, oh, it's a comedy show. They're making stuff up and trying to enhance the funniness. Not at all. We wish. That's the sad part. These are extremely real stories, extremely detailed research and everything like that. We want to give you the best of all of that and we're going to make some jokes. That's how that works here. What we don't do though, is we never make jokes about the victims or the victims families because we're assholes. But we're not scumbags, see? I mean, there's a line that you cross there. So if that sounds good to you, you're going to hear a crazy story. If you think true crime and comedy should never go together. Well, I don't know what you're here doing here, first of all, but you may not be what you think. So check it out. Stick around. Either way, no complaining later. Let's just say that, that said, I think it's time to sit back, everybody. Let's all clear the lungs here, arms to the sky. Let's all shout, shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody. All right. Let's go on a trip, shall we? Let's go. We're going to California. This week we're going to Sunnyside, California. Now, I know there's gonna be some controversy here just for the fact that it's in. It's Fresno is what it is.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, yikes.

[James Petregallo]

Some places have it as a part of Fresno as like a neighborhood of Fresno. But many, many other places like Spurlings and Niche and Wikipedia, even all these others have it as a suburb here that's sort of. You know what I mean? It's a census designated suburb is the way they do it. So it's still.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Fuck even if it's Fresno. Have you been?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, Fresno's Fresno is an interesting place. It's in central California. About three hours to San Francisco, four hours to la. So you're right in the middle of everything there. Kind of like the mountains are just to the east of there in the north. Like to go to Reno, you can't just make a straight shot. You have to like go this weird circuitous route around mountains that it takes like five hours to go, what should take two. If you flew, you know, if you went how the crow flies.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You have that showed. There was a. There was a fighting movie in the 80s and it was an Asian man that was fighting out of Fresno, California. And they showed him back home fighting.

[James Petregallo]

To get out of Fresno. He's fighting to get out of Fresno, California is what he's doing.

[Jimmy Wisman]

He's fighting because he's from Fresno.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Got to get out of here. Even if the fights aren't in Fresno, I'm winning. So this is about four and a half hours to Lomita, California. That's our last California episode. Cooking Up Murder. That was the Chef and the whole, that whole thing, that was pretty crazy. This is in Fresno county, area code 559. Little bit of history here. Sunnyside used to be known as Malta Morrow. That's what it used to be. Well, it was named after a guy, apparently here it was named after the postmaster, George H. Maltar. So they were going to call it that, but then they changed it to Sunnyside because that sounds way more welcome. Sunnyside sounds like there's a beach nearby and there isn't, trust me. Well, rivers are not. You know what I mean? People don't go, oh, nothing's more beautiful than a river. But Sunnyside sounds like you're gonna wake up to waves crashing on your front.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Door, the sunny side of the tracks.

[James Petregallo]

And it's anything but. Fresno is Spanish for ash tree, by the way, in case you were wondering there. Yeah, so they brought. At first, when people first got here, there was land disputes and natural disasters. Floods caused tons of damage everywhere. Fires were breaking out everywhere. Yeah. In 1882, the greatest of the early day fires wiped out an entire block of the city of Fresno and then was followed by another big fire in 1883. So there's a lot. People brought sheep here. In 1865, they had sheep and it started to. They've gone really through a lot of transitions. First there was sheep and then there was wheat. And then raisins became a big interest. Big thing here.

[Jimmy Wisman]

California raisins.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Actually a guy that. They invented raisins by accident because some guy couldn't pick his grapes for wine. So they dried up on the vine.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And he got raisins.

[James Petregallo]

They were like, hey, these are sweet and good. We should eat these.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Let's box these and give them to Todd.

[James Petregallo]

Box these and don't tell anybody. They're have more sugar than three Pepsis.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And you'll shit your pants if you eat a lot.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, yeah, yeah. They're full of all sorts of fiber in there. That's great.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Pants shitters is what they are.

[James Petregallo]

Then they found oil here in 1910. Yeah, the Coalinga oil field, the largest field in Fresno County. It was the most richly productive oil field in California. They had a huge 1909, a big gusher, and it was the biggest in California up until that moment. And yeah, it actually. It was such a big deal. They shut down the Los Angeles Stock Exchange for a day so that all the stock people could go look at it. They took a train and went and looked at it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Go look.

[James Petregallo]

Just go look at it. Yeah. Wow.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Fuck everybody's stocks. Go look at the black stuff coming.

[James Petregallo]

Out of the ground. And that field still produces oil and is the 8th largest field in the state of California as well.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, my God.

[James Petregallo]

Reviews of this town. This is for Fresno county, for the whole county as a whole here. So we'll just do a few of them here. Here is four stars. One thing I like about my Fresno county is the mayor and many volunteers help keep the city clean by cleaning the highways and streets. That's how he ran for mayor.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Kevin Johnson?

[James Petregallo]

No, he's Sacramento.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, Sacramento.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. So I just see him out there going, listen, guys, you elect me, you elect me. I get a mop, I get a broom. I got. Put those big yellow dishwashing gloves on and I'm hitting the city. Let's just put it that way.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Belt loop full of fucking keys. Watch it.

[James Petregallo]

You know, it's three stars. I've Lived in Fresno county my whole life. And I would say that overall, I've had an okay experience. That's three stars. All right. An okay experience. Some days are better than others, but that is everywhere. I would rate my overall experience in fresno about a 7 out of 10. More like a 4 star, I think. Then that's people who have a little more concrete opinion here. Two stars. It's a giant hot valley that's muggy and filthy. There's lots of drugs, violence, and the Fresno police department shoots someone dead just about every day. So there's that great fire department, though, that's. They have practice, basically. Phoenix, I was gonna say, sounds like Tucson. One star. Fresno is too hot. It is boring. There is no activity for you to do. The little activity that it has. It's too hot to enjoy the entertainment. The buses stop running early. That's a. Yikes. Lazy bus driver, man. So this guy is, like, pissed off because it's still hot out, but the bus isn't running, so he's got to walk. It's not good.

[Jimmy Wisman]

He doesn't want to go do anything. And even if he did, he'd have to ride the bus, but he can't because the sun goes down and it's nice out.

[James Petregallo]

6:36, 30 buses are done. Population 4,468 here. So it's like a little enclave Sunnyside. There's a few more females than males, kind of with the national average, median age is a little over 41, but that's, you know, kind of, again, close to the national average, which is like 37 and a half, 61% married. This is very much. You get married, you have kids, you move out to here. This is like a safer area in Fresno. You know what I mean? Race. In this town, we have 45.5% white, 3.8% black, 14.3% Asian, 34% Hispanic. We have religion. 53% are religious here. And the highest denomination is going to be Catholic. And I would assume that would be the Hispanic population would probably have that. Otherwise, you know, regionally, that's. The Asian fighters. Yeah, yeah. They're into it. They're into it. The unemployment rate is almost 10% here, which is very high compared to the rest of the country. Median household income here is $87,250 a year, which is a little higher than the $69,000 average working.

[Jimmy Wisman]

They're doing great.

[James Petregallo]

They're doing all right. And the cost of living here, 100 is average. Here it is 104. So it's not that. Not that far off. Housing is the highest thing. Median home cost here is 398,500 bucks.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

So housing's expensive, a little bit high, and you'd expect that too. So case, we've. I don't know how you wouldn't be just clamoring to move to Fresno, chomping at the bit. You got a U haul in your driveway right now, just pushing your couch in. We have for you the Sunnyside California Real Estate Report. Average two bedroom rental here goes for $1,260 a month, which is close to the national average. That's not bad. Here's a three bedroom, three bath. So t bowl for each and every b hole here. 2,000 square feet. It's a standard raised ranch. Kind of looks like the Brady Bunch house. A little bit like that. Just standard California raised ranch. You know, in a suburb here, the kitchen's updated. It's okay. Backyard's a little dead and Sad. That's not great. $499,999 for that sounds a little bit much for 2,000 square feet in a sad backyard. Here's a four bedroom, three bath, 3,036 square feet. It's on 0.65 acres. It's a cool looking house. It's totally not California style whatsoever. The listing has it as elegant Tudor estate. So it's a Tudor. So it's got that like old school like you'd see in Connecticut or something. It's a weird thing with privacy, charm, and custom features. There's a big giant window. There's a nice pool out back. It's a cool house. It's actually really cool. 875,000 bucks for that house.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

Which isn't that. Yeah, but it's not out of whack more than you'd expect kind of a thing.

[Jimmy Wisman]

What it is, it's a lot of money for. Not necessarily expensive. It's just a lot of money.

[James Petregallo]

It's a lot of money. But yeah, for the market it's probably fine. But for. If you just reach in your pocket to pay for it, you go, that's a lot of fucking money if you've got it. Here's five bedrooms, four bath, 8393 square feet. Huge.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Holy shit.

[James Petregallo]

Massive house. 1.14 acres is a really weird house. It's long and I can't tell how many levels it is. I don't like it. From the outside it looks like it was like. It's a Lego house that was like pieced Together. It's a little bit weird. There's a fireplace in the kitchen, which is a strange feature. I don't see that very often. It's a custom built home designed by a British architect. Okay. And it is $1,200,000 little bunch. Nice house. It's a huge house. It's a huge giant house. Yeah. That's not. That's not that out of whack things to do here. We have Kingsburg Swedish Village. Yeah, that's a. It's weird. Kingsburg Swedish. Swedish village. Features beautiful, intricate Swedish architecture. Dala or Dala Horses. D, A L A. You know anything about that? I don't know shit about horses. So I don't know anything.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I know they're probably Swedish horse.

[James Petregallo]

I know they're big and they're brown a lot of the time. That's about all know about horses.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I know they weigh a lot.

[James Petregallo]

They're pretty fast.

[Jimmy Wisman]

What a cart.

[James Petregallo]

And one of them bit my cousin in the face one time. So I know that's a. That's a factor to worry about.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I used to lead them around shirtless.

[James Petregallo]

When I was seven.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's what I know about.

[James Petregallo]

No idea. Discover their Swedish downtown, featuring over 30 restaurants and unique gift and collectible shops. Are we clamoring for Swedish things that much? Really? Yes. So we have ikea. That's enough.

[Jimmy Wisman]

There's a fish.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, we have ikea. That's enough. That's enough Swedish shit. We get it. You sell the meatballs, the lingon ball things, whatever the fuck they are. Great fish. There you go. Visit the Kingsburg Chamber of Commerce and Visitor center and receive a hearty Valk omen to Fresno County. I think that's welcome in Swedish. Really do. That's all it is.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Swedish welcome.

[James Petregallo]

Swedish welcome. And then finally, the Tequila Fest Fresno. Okay, okay. Let's figure out. I put these two in here specifically. Let's figure out what are the two most different crowds possible. The Swedish Village crowd. And Tequila Fest Fresno. Starring Ludacris, of course.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Stop it.

[James Petregallo]

It's Ludacris. It is Nelly. Nelly. And who's the other one? There's one more. That's always Sir Mix A Lot. Buster Rhymes was the headliner last year. Ludacris. The Yin Yang Twins, of course.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Hell yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And more. They won't tell what they're like if.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Those two are great.

[James Petregallo]

If Ludacris won't get you here. No one's coming, man. No one's coming.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And it says Ludacris will get you here. And Stick around for the Whisper song.

[James Petregallo]

Celebrate a night filled with throwbacks, Cerveza's tacos and tequila. Hosted by DJ K. Rich. I don't know K, but you're going to see Ludacris. It's basically like a county fair, but with tequila. So. Sounds great. That's about all that's going on there. Crime rate in this town, what we are interested in here, property crime is just below the national average. So just under it. Violent crime, murder, rape, robbery, and of course, assault. The Mount Rushmore of crime is also just below the national average. So really, Fresno proper, not like that at all. Crime rate high. That's what I mean. This is like a little, kind of little enclave to itself.

[Jimmy Wisman]

This is safety. This is. Yeah, if there's, if there's a murder game, this is where people go, I'm on base.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, I'm moving to Sunnyside, so you can't murder me. Can't murder me here. That said, let's talk about some murder.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Let's do it.

[James Petregallo]

Let's do this shit. Okay, let's start out on April 21st, 1992. Okay? This is two days after Easter.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Okay?

[James Petregallo]

All right. Now the address is 5663 East Park Circle Drive. We'll talk more about the house later. So the maid arrives, okay, right away, we know this is a decent house because the maid arrives for duty and she's about to enter the house when the neighbor comes over. Also, there's a neighbor that pops by. She was called by the 22 year old son of the family who lives there because he couldn't get a hold of his family. So he called a neighbor and said, hey, would you go see what's going on with my family? I can't get a hold of him. Okay? So they end up going in the house and what they find is right in the kitchen, they find a dead body. There's a woman dead on the floor right in the kitchen. And then they look up and see another dead person sitting in a chair in the living room. And there's a lot of blood and it's a mess. So they take off out of the house, the maid and the neighbor. This goes far beyond neighborly duty of, you know, can you see if my parents are still there? You see if the phones are working? This is a different thing completely. So they, yeah, they got a call here and the police. So the neighbor calls 91 1. The police arrive and they say, you know, the, the neighbor and the maid. Maid says, I got here for duty. You know, I'm here to clean. And the neighbor said, I got a call from the son. That's why I'm here. So they said this, that the son called and said he couldn't get his family on the phone. So he asked the neighbor to go over and check it out. When she arrived at the house at about 9:10am the housekeeper and her crew had just got there. Everybody was kind of going in together. The housekeeper had a key to the house. That's how they got in. Oh, she's got a key to come and go and clean. They immediately noticed several things out of place. Right away, they're like, what's going on here? What are they doing? And that's when they discovered the body on the kitchen floor. So then the neighbor ran across the street to call 91 1-SMART. They didn't touch anything. That's good. And also contacted the son of the family to say, well, I checked on them. There's a.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Not so good.

[James Petregallo]

At least two of them are dead, I assume so. That's not great.

[Jimmy Wisman]

We saw two when we left.

[James Petregallo]

We took the fuck off. You might want to call the cops. Okay, so who lives in this house? Let's find out. Here it is. The Yules. E W E W. Or I'm sorry, E W E L L S. Yules. Yules. Yeah. Starting off, let's talk about the. The matriarch of the family here. Glee Ethel Mitchell is how she was born. Glee. G, L E E. Glee. And that's her mom's name also. And that's her legal. Not like a nickname they call her. Her name is Glee. Glee Ellen Mitchell. She's born January 13, 1935. She's from Chicago. Her parents are Glee and James. She's an only child growing up in Chicago. Back then, her father was an instructor at the Chicago Squash Club.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, I still don't know what squash is.

[James Petregallo]

I don't either. I just know it's a game that people that went to like Harvard play.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, it's rich.

[James Petregallo]

That's it. Yeah, because Frazier and Niles were always playing squash and they had a racket and they dressed like they were playing tennis, but I don't think they were playing tennis. I don't know what the fuck it was that they were doing. I really don't.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And then an American Psycho, he offered to play squash and the guy declined.

[James Petregallo]

Is it like. Is it tennis for non athletic people perhaps?

[Jimmy Wisman]

There's. It's tennis and it's different rules.

[James Petregallo]

There's a racket. I'm sure. And I think it's like a. Like a racquetball type of thing, too. There's, like, walls, I think, involved in it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It is racke.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. There you go. Why do they call it squash?

[Jimmy Wisman]

I don't know.

[James Petregallo]

Who cares? It doesn't matter. But it's fucking stupid rich people.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's why. Because you can't racquetball. Sounds like trash is playing it.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, I guess so. You could play that at the park. This. You need a membership to something for squash. So the family was middle class. Dad's, you know, squash instructor. I don't know what the hell they make. And then her mother, I guess, had family who died and they inherited oil money. They had, like, Oklahoma oil money in their family that they inherited. So now, all of a sudden, they're doing great. She's doing awesome. Glee ended up. Now think about. She's born in 1935. So when she's ready for college, it's like 1953, where it was like, ladies either got married or went to secretarial school or went to the college closest to them or something like that. But a lot of girls didn't go away to college back then. That wasn't a thing that happened very often. But Glee went away to college out of state. She. Well, you'll. When I tell you where she went, you're gonna go, oh, bad move. University of Arizona. She goes to Shit Tucson.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Poor thing.

[James Petregallo]

She does really well, though. She wins Phi Beta Kappa honors with her degree in International or Inter American Studies. I don't know what that is. I don't think that exists anymore.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Studies that translate in from Iowa.

[James Petregallo]

Anywhere from Iowa to fucking Florida, somewhere in there. But she's very smart, very respected. Does very well her diploma. And she speaks Spanish fluently.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Hell, yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Leads her to an interpreter's job with the CIA.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Great.

[James Petregallo]

So she's working for the CIA. She spent two years with the CIA in Argentina before returning to the United States. And then after that, we don't really know what her role is, because with the CIA. Yeah. We don't know if she's. Who knows? That's what I mean. So we don't know if she's doing stuff in the States under the guise of. I'm just Glee. I'm a mom of three, and I'm doing great and all that shit. So in 1961 is when she meets a guy named Dale Allen Ewell. Okay? They met at a party in Arizona outside Tucson. Now he's born October 11, 1932. So a couple Years older. He's from Ohio. He is described, by the way by a reporter as a tall, husky airport air force pilot. So you're gonna attract the co eds in the 50s, in 1961, you know. And you're a pilot too. That sounds cool as shit. He came from, like a farm area in Ohio. His father raised corn, oats, soybeans, and livestock. And his mother was a teacher. And he comes from a family with. He has a sister and three brothers, and his mother was a teacher. And just really, really pushed education on them big time. The way to, you know, do what you wanted to do. So Dale studied aeronautical engineering at Miami University in Ohio there and worked for aircraft companies in California, joined the air force. He's just all about planes. Loves planes.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, he's doing it.

[James Petregallo]

Loves planes. So they get married on December 28, 1961. They get married here. Now he is a workaholic, so she's got to deal with that. But he's a workaholic. He has a job selling airplanes here. That's what he does. And that's what makes them move to the Fresno area, is there's a lot of plane stuff going on here.

[Jimmy Wisman]

So Tucson's just where planes go to die.

[James Petregallo]

They go to go to die graveyard out there or to take off from the base there. That's one of the two. So he made a name for himself and was very good at being a Cessna salesman. He's selling Cessna planes to people, little private planes. There's a guy last name of Purcell, who will work with him for years later on, and then we'll find out we'll eventually own his company here. He worked with him for 14 years, and he said that Dale made a smart move early by targeting people he knew best, which was farmers like his dad. He knew those guys and what their needs were. So right away he would. What he'd do is he'd take a plane out, one of these Cessnas, land the plane on their farm and take them for a ride. Come with me. And if they buy, he said, if you buy, I'll teach you how to fly it. Oh, wow. So, yeah, they get him crop dusters, basically, and things like that. And if you buy it, I'll teach you how to fly it. So they said he would, you know, just go up and he'd sell them. The sizzle is what the guy said. That's what he did. He said you weren't selling aluminum. It was the 250 miles per hour, 15,000ft fun of flying. The romance, the Scarf and goggles. The power and ego you're selling. Don't you want to be cool?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Don't you want to be a fucking pilot?

[James Petregallo]

You want to be the Red Baron? What's wrong with you? Get up there. Yeah, so that's what, that's what he would sell him. And he knew that was the button to push with them because they led dull lives. A lot of these guys, they went out on the farm and they went and sat in their house. How'd you like to go up and fly through the fucking air and look cool? 250 miles an hour you get home and your farm wife will be blowing you. You know what I'm saying? She'll be like, you're so hot. Yeah, that's how that goes. That's what they're thinking. So the 60s were good years for being in this business too. Air travel was becoming way more comfortable too. People were becoming more comfortable with planes and just an everyday thing from then. In the 70s, the business got even better. Even then he. We're talking 60s, 70s, he could make $30,000 or more on a single two seater transaction. Just a transaction. So, yeah, one of the airplane dealers said business was outstanding. You couldn't get enough product. You could sell everything you could get your hands on. And at a large margin.

[Jimmy Wisman]

There must be a giant profit margin on planes. It must cost almost nothing back then.

[James Petregallo]

And if, especially if the supply is greatly outweighing or the demand is greatly outweighing the supply, you can charge whatever you want at that point. So he. So Dale made a lot of money doing this. Obviously he's doing very well. Not a lot of people like him though. He's not a real well liked guy around the area here.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Salesmen are oftentimes not.

[James Petregallo]

No. Well, his boss said, quote, he was the most hated aircraft dealer in the world.

[Jimmy Wisman]

In the world.

[James Petregallo]

In the world. Even somebody in Pakistan somewhere, not as bad. Sorry. Yeah, they know him and they don't like him. It's very interesting. So this guy, I guess, hired Dale away from another firm in 1965 and then left him in charge when his boss was sent to prison for smuggling marijuana. Which is what a lot of the planes were used for back then.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, I mean, if I've got a shitload of planes, so much smuggler, I might pack a couple of them full of weed and move them around.

[James Petregallo]

Well, we know from crime and sports, any of the guys who had speedboats and did speedboat racing, they were all trafficking drugs. Yeah, because there's no other way to pay for that fucking business. Except for that. So. But instead, when this guy went to prison, you'll supposed to Dale supposed to take care of his business and foster it. Instead, Dale just goes and starts his own business and lets this one flounder just says fuck it. Yep. He starts Western Piper sales and he also took with him the rights to sell Piper airplanes in Fresno. So just completely fuck this guy. Hey, everybody, Just gonna take a quick break from the show and tell you a little bit about our safest sponsors, SimpliSafe. And everyone has routines that you go through, make you feel good, make you feel secure, like you have control over the world. And a lot of times you don't, but you do. If you're us and it's on, your routine includes arming your SimpliSafe home security system. You know that's gonna do well for you. So when we're heading out, both of us, we both have them in our houses, our studios. You lock up for the night. Yeah. This simple step does more than just protect you. Gives you peace of mind. You're gonna feel good about leaving and you're gonna know it's gonna be the same when you get back. You'll sleep more soundly. I can leave the house with confidence, and it's amazing how a push of a button can give you that kind of confidence. And with SimpliSafe, we love it. Like I said, it's in our studios, in our homes. It's really easy to install too. You can get professional instruments installation also. But if we can put it up, you can put it up. Put it that way. Visit simplisafe.comsmall to claim 50% off a new system with a professional monitoring plan and get your first month free. That's simplisafe.com/s I m p l I safe.com small there's no safe like simplisafe.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And now back to the show.

[James Petregallo]

Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you a little bit about life360. It's a new year. Things are going on. You're juggling your family, you got school, things to do. And I know you're on school.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You got a new driver in the house.

[James Petregallo]

You have a new driver in the house like Jimmy does here. You're juggling all this stuff you need to get Life360. It's a location sharing app that works whether you're on iPhone, Android, doesn't matter. Life360 makes coordinating your family's daily routines and activities so much smoother. You open up the app, you can see real time locations for everyone in your family. That takes away all the stress of wondering, where are they? Are they going to be here in 10 minutes? When are they coming?

[Jimmy Wisman]

How fast are they going?

[James Petregallo]

Like you do with your son. You can monitor. That's great. Jimmy's been monitoring his son because he's a new driver. That's what's awesome. It really does. You can coordinate things, you know, and you. Because, I mean, obviously you could text somebody, but you don't want them texting and driving. So this way you can just look at it. It's really awesome. It's amazing how much more coordinated your family can be. Family proof your family with Life360, visit life360.com or download the app today and use Code Small Town murder to get 15% off. That's life360.com, code small town Murder.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Now back to the show.

[James Petregallo]

So, yeah, this, the Lambie is this old boss and the guy who went to jail and he said Dale Huell did not respect you or thank you for anything you had done. This guy filed and lost two different lawsuits against Dale as well. Another guy who's the general manager of a flying service said that he said about Yule that Yul wasn't out here to be the most lovable guy. He was a no nonsense kind of guy. He was making money. That's all.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's business, man.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, it's business. He's not out there to make friends. And so the one, the guy who said that owns a Cessna dealership next door to Western Piper. And he said he doesn't. Yule doesn't let his customers get the upper hand. He said when a deal was done and the money was exchanged, Dale had a reputation of don't come back crying if you had a problem. He took a real tough line. That's your deal. And it doesn't get any better. Yeah, that's that. So. And now his wife is the complete opposite, by the way.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Angel.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Glee is considered very, very nice.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Glee.

[James Petregallo]

Glee. That's what I mean. She's happy. No. And she helps people and she cares about people and she does charity work and shit like that. A lot of people said Dale was, quote, an old fashioned chauvinist. Which, I mean, he's a military guy born in 1935. What do you want from the fucking guy? That's like when I was like, oh, yeah, we were talking about our dad's. Not really. Whatever. And you go, your Dad's an Italian biker, James. What do you want? And I went, yeah, good point, good point. Yeah, there you go. So it's the same type of thing. Yeah. What do you expect from a guy who was in the military, you know, flying over fucking Korea, dropping bombs like he's not.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Probably drinks some whiskey and pinch his ass from time to time.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. I don't know how. Yeah, that's just the way it was. So Glee, though, does all sorts of shit. She does public service. She volunteers for the Fresno County Grand Jury, the Civil Service Commission, the Valley Children's Hospital. She sits on the board, this State Bar Board of Governors. She's involved with museums, the philharmonic, if there's a charity in Fresno. And something that she's working it, man. A lot of parties that she has to go to and all that kind of thing.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Some hungry kids benefiting from her work.

[James Petregallo]

I'm sure she's feeding somebody somewhere. Yeah. And people are always sending her thank you cards and all this type of shit. One her friend of hers for more than 35 years said you could talk to a hundred people in Fresno and they tell you that she was their best friend. So that's just how she is. The complete opposite of Dale. No one would tell you he's their best friend. So they have a daughter on May 1, 1967. Her name is Tiffany Ann Yule. And she's a real quiet girl. And there might be a reason for that here. People, her family, mainly dad and mom, say that her personality, they think was shaped by a car accident she was in when she was a young child. Apparently she had a very bad head injury.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That'll do it.

[James Petregallo]

And they said doctors had to install a steel plate to heal her skull.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, wow.

[James Petregallo]

She's like fucking Cousin Eddie now she's got a steel plate in her head.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Very rare to hear of a girl with a metal plate in her voice.

[James Petregallo]

She knocks on, goes every time I turn the microwave on, I get hbo. Whatever the fuck Cousin Eddie said.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I don't know, I think he forgot his name and pissed his pants.

[James Petregallo]

That's what it was. Forgot my name, pissed my pants. So the one friend who worked with Dale said, quote. Dale always said it slowed her down a little. He called her his, quote, imperfect angel. That's a terrible.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You can just call her an angel.

[James Petregallo]

My little angel. My little imperfect angel. See how your head's lumpy on that one side because you're imperfect? That's shitty. A real shitty thing to say, my.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Not quite round headed angel.

[James Petregallo]

That's. You look at that. Feel that here. Hear that? That's not what a normal skull sounds like. There, sweetheart. Poor girl. Poor fucking girl, man.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Jesus drinks Ovaltine because her head's an oval.

[James Petregallo]

She was voted the shyest person in the Class of 1985 at Fresno's Catholic High School San Joaquin Memorial. Or has a head injury. This just doesn't have a lot to say. A lot of factors here that go into this.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, scrambled eggs will make you a little fucking.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, shy something. Her father helped her find a school that suited her. I think she's a little slow is what we're trying to get at here. The whole time, everybody says she's just a little bit slow. She goes to college in Linfield, linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon. And people said she was pleasant, but, you know, was pretty. Also very shy. That's just the way she is. She returned home to take graduate courses in accounting at California State University at Fresno. The president of the club for accounting students said she was a real sweet, quiet person. So everybody says she's nice, doesn't say shit. Not really doing much. Another classmate said Tiffany was the opposite of her mother. Really quiet, very shy. She was extremely private, just very sweet, very lovely, a wonderful personality. But you really had to draw her out in conversation. Yeah, I think she's a very insecure young lady who has a head injury that's, you know, and you may have.

[Jimmy Wisman]

To dominate a conversation or two.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, you might have to get it out. And like I said, and Dad's calling her an imperfect angel and everything else that'll make you. Your shoulders will go up and your head will go down. When somebody does some shit like that, your dad. There's like a weight going on your neck. It's rough.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I can't believe he calls for that.

[James Petregallo]

That is rough, man. So according to the guy who worked with Dale, the Purcell guy, he ate lunch with Dale nearly every weekday for nine years. He said that Dale considered women second class citizens and felt his daughter was, this is a crazy, quote, doubly handicapped because of her personality, too. I mean, right away she's got that vagina. That's a disability right there. She's born with a, you know, with a hole where one shouldn't be. That's number one. That's a disability. And then number two, what the fuck, you know what I mean? She's imperfect. On top of this shit, she's got a fucking dent in her head. So he. Doubly handicapped, he would tell her, felt bad for her. So what he would do is think.

[Jimmy Wisman]

In the first place. And now she's really messed up.

[James Petregallo]

No shit. He would favor his daughter over the other kid. That's how he does this. Because he feels bad for her, especially financially. Her trust fund was bigger than the sun's because the sun has a lot of capabilities. We'll talk about him in a minute. And he felt that Tiffany didn't. So the Purcell guy said he felt Tiffany couldn't make it in this world without help. But he told Dana, that's his son, who we'll talk about. You're a man. You can make it on your own. You're not. You're not doubly handicapped. Grabs him by the crotch, he's like, see this right here? Lead with it, lead with it. That his son is Dana James yule. He's born January 28, 1971. So four year difference between him and his sister. His personality is night and day from his sisters. Night and day. Here he wow people when he's in like second grade. Teachers describe him as professional.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Like he sees his dad and what he does and the business he deals with. His dad also owns a farm, a fig farm. All this different shit. And he sees that and he goes, yeah, that's me. I do that.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Third grade, he drew us a nice cow on his own letter.

[James Petregallo]

In his own letter he said, this is a drawing of my cow. Now I'll tell you how to chop it up for a good profit if you want. What do you say, teacher? So, yeah, that's a real weird thing. One woman who went from kindergarten through eighth grade with Dana and then later on at Santa Clara University, where he'll go. She said he was very competitive in getting good grades. He's very smart and he knew how to carry himself very well. He's got. Yeah, this guy's got a personality and he's very forceful and he's very intelligent, too. Dana, another one of Dana's friends from middle school said that Dana was, quote Mr. Wall street, he was all about money in the eighth grade. In the eighth grade, he's all about money. So that is weird. He said these two. His friend, and he attended Edison Computech in southwest Fresno, which was a magnet school for gifted kids. Dana excelled at the school's specialty, which was computers. And he stood out as one of the smartest kids around. Basically everybody thought so. He. Well, you know what kids dress like. You know, they wear shit he was wearing. He dressed like he was going to a board meeting. He'd wear like pants. Pants not jeans. And would only wear the polo shirts, Ralph Lauren polo shirts, with the, you know, with the pony and all that shit with the little horsey. That's all. It's the only shit he would wear as a kid. His one friend described him as really mature and energetic, saying he was always in a hurry, walking what he called his New York walk, and bragging that he could get by on four hours sleep. He's like a 12 year old and he's like, listen, I'm a corporate raider. I know what I'm doing. I don't need sleep. You know what I mean? I got a blood pressure cuff on my desk like Michael Douglas on Wall Street. I'm walking here. So I guess Dana had a Mac computer before any of the other kids did back in the day here. And he had a great stereo and all this shit in his room. They said it was very weird. He had a dresser drawer filled with bottles of men's cologne when he was like 10 years old. I don't know what's up with that shit. Very strange. His friend said. When I would go over to his house, his room was kind of a mess. I would kick some clothes over, and I would see a hundred dollar bill on the floor that used to blow me away.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's crazy.

[James Petregallo]

And we're talking in the early 80s here. $100 is a lot of money. And this kid's just. It's on the floor under some dirty clothes.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It falls out of some old pants. He threw in the pile.

[James Petregallo]

When we were kids, which was well after this period, if you had $100, you knew exactly where that fucking hundred dollars was. In one bill, dude, it would be in a frame.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I know, exactly.

[James Petregallo]

Handcuffed.

[Jimmy Wisman]

To me, it's somebody else's.

[James Petregallo]

It'd be handcuffed to, like in a Halliburton. Like a.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Like nuclear.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, like a nuclear footballer. Like one of those bank guys who's going to the next meeting. That's what I would do. This person, Shelby, saw Dana at a mall one day, and Dana walked by and asked in a mock English accent, are you low on funds today, Mr. Shelby? And handed him a $20 bill. Here you go. Just giving out $20 bills at the mall. Another person who went to school with him here, Kathy, said that he was driven as a kid even. And she said that was like his father. She said, I remember sitting and talking with him on the phone, and he would be writing letters to people in businesses he admired. What a fucking. What a boring kid. What a. If my kid Was right as a child, was writing letters to CEO of Mattel. I'd be like, dude, what are you doing? This isn't what you're supposed to. You're supposed to be into, like. Like music and, like, things that make you feel shit and like, you know.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Mr. Mattel, thank you for the GI Joe this week.

[James Petregallo]

You have decades for your soul to die, you know what I'm saying? And start caring about business and all that kind of shit.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I really want to commend you on the kung fu grip.

[James Petregallo]

That's amazing. It's wonderful. You can hold all the little guns. So, Mr. Kenner, thank you for these Star wars figures. Excellent. I don't know. I think it was Kenner that you put those out. And Kenner toys. There was Hasbro and Kenner and all those fucking.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, yeah. Hasbro, too. That was a good.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, she said that. That he would be writing letters. She said that he didn't say much about his parents. He said his mom was. She said his mom was nice and his father was into his business. That's.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's what they're supposed to do.

[James Petregallo]

They said he had a wild side, too, where he'd get in trouble and do shit, but his parents would either ignore it or cover for him. That's how it works. Like a lot of rich kids, essentially.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Yep. He. Before he could get a driver's license, he would sneak off and steal his father's Lincoln Continental. Even when he got caught, though, he wouldn't get in any trouble. It wasn't a big deal. His friend said his parents were totally blind to everything he did. One night, him and his friend decided to what they called TP a house, which is to wrap it in toilet paper, obviously. Yeah. I don't know if people around the world know what TPing is. I don't know. People listen from other countries.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's what we do.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, you TP shit. And there you go. So they ran out of paper. Dana left for more, they said. So he returned with a bottle of vodka, a tomato, and some eggs.

[Jimmy Wisman]

What do you do with that?

[James Petregallo]

Well, he smeared the tomato and the eggs on the inside of this family's car while the other guy was wrapping up the thing. They were like, what did you do? So the family figured out who did it. Dana's friend confessed and said, yeah, me and Dana did this. Blah, blah, blah, blah. And Dana said, I don't know what you're talking about. That's crazy. I was never there. I know nothing.

[Jimmy Wisman]

He egged the inside of the car.

[James Petregallo]

Inside of the car. And a tomato, too. He's a dick. And his parents believed him and fought for him, even though he obviously fucking did it. Yeah. This was a friend of his house that he did this to. This was, like a girl he knew.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Imagine being an enemy.

[James Petregallo]

Jesus. The young lady he was friends with said Dana categorically denied it. His parents stuck up for him. It was very sad to see his values were so warped that he couldn't admit it when something went wrong. It was just a prank. But ever since then, I lost respect for him.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Sure.

[James Petregallo]

When he was in high school, his dad bought him a Mercedes, which is what you should do for a high school student, obviously. Jesus Christ. I had a. No, you don't buy a kid a Mercedes. First of all.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Mercedes. Come on.

[James Petregallo]

And a monthly allowance of $800 in the 80s.

[Jimmy Wisman]

80S.

[James Petregallo]

Good salary. 200 bucks a week in the 80s. He's making this kid. You wouldn't even have time to spend that as if you were, like, in the ninth grade.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

What would you buy? After three months? You'd have everything you want.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You buy $200 things every week.

[James Petregallo]

That is crazy. One time, Dana wrecked the family car or his dad's car. Near the family's beach home, which they have a couple of, by the way. Dale covered for him by pretending he was the one who was driving. He told the cops he crashed it. Not his license list.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Not his kid.

[James Petregallo]

Not his license list child here. Then he bought him another Mercedes.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Sure.

[James Petregallo]

Of course. So the guy who works with him, with the father, Dale said, but that's really. That was really Glee's doing. She was compensating for what Dale was doing to him. Yeah. So, yeah, he had these, like, parents going back and forth. Dad being very tough and then mom being very soft. And it, you know, which doesn't. Doesn't add up to a middle ground. Upbringing just fucks you all up.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You're gonna. You're gonna ruin that kid. He has no sense of. It's an entirely warped sense of reality. And it's a very privileged upbringing.

[James Petregallo]

It is. And they. Her friend. His friend said that, you know, Glee was always only trying to be a good mother. But she also said there wasn't anything Dana wanted that he didn't get. And also, he told. This is another thing. He told lies about his parents and told weird lies. Dana. Yeah. One time, Dana told a friend of his to drop him off across the street from his house. Because, quote, that's where his real father lived. That's odd. So the mother said that this friend's mother said Dana talk about visiting his real father in Europe. So the mother said, I mentioned that to Glee. We thought Dale was his stepfather at that point. She said, no, Dale is his father. He just lies. Said Dana came up with different kinds of stories like that. I kind of thought at times he lived in a fantasy, not in the real world. It's a lot. He just pretends. It's really weird. Now they end up going to the Catholic high school, San Joaquin Memorial. Even though they're not Catholic. It's just a good high school. So they go there. One person from high school, a young lady said he was just so different and mature compared to other students. He didn't seem concerned about the usual like football games. He said he'd wear a suit and tie to school, which was odd. They had a uniform with like a sweater. But he just wore a suit and tie instead, which they were like, I guess that's okay. She said he wore a trench coat. Sometimes he just looked like he was going to the office, this guy. And always carried a briefcase. 13, 14 years old, trench coat, suit, tie, briefcase. Ah, boy, fucking traffic out there today. I'll tell you what he told his friends. That he had traded securities on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange as a child. And he was always talking about money and idolized Michael Milken. If you don't know who Michael Milken is, he's the guy that Michael Douglas character in Wall street is based on. He's a huge scumbag who went to prison for insider trading and stock market. Basically the crash of 87. Huge responsible part of it as he was huge. Him and people like him were caused that shit. So there you go. That's who his idol is. Perfect. Dale's company here. Now we'll talk about dad. He's at this point owner and president of Western Piper Sales Inc. The airplane company we talked about. Also owns two different two different farms that have a combined total of 320 acres of fig and pistachio trees in Merced county as well. So a lot here. Now the guy who Purcell who started, who worked for Dale said he began selling airplanes for Dale in 1978 and kept going because of the money. He said not he didn't like working for Dale, but the money was good. He said his relationship with Dale was a lot like the one between Dale and Dana. He treated me like a shithead son basically. He said you have to call it a love hate relationship. For 14 years I'd go home every night tied up in knots because of him. He was the ultimate manipulator. He was one of the best there was at cowing you down, making you feel no good. That's Dale. So he said. Then he would make a big sale. And Dale would ask him, what have you done for me lately? Though? But what have you done for me lately? Like, that sale was two days ago now. What are you doing? Making you feel like shit. So at one point he was hospitalized with cancer. Purcell, the guy who works for Dale, okay. And Dale canceled his insurance. While he was in the hospital getting treatments for cancer, he canceled his insurance.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You're gonna bankrupt a man.

[James Petregallo]

And Purcell said. I asked him, how could you do such a thing? Hang me out like that? He said, it's not my fault that you smoke.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh my God. You did this to you?

[James Petregallo]

Wow. Yeah, okay. But you still have insurance. That's.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's a wild thing to say to somebody.

[James Petregallo]

That is crazy, man. So another friend said he cared more. More about more money, but it was. He cared more about more money, but it was hard to c. He was in his own favorite charity, meaning Dale. His hobby was counting money. And he could never get enough. At one point, he had $10 million in cash in the bank. And he thought he was a poor man. Still felt like that. He said, we'd have customers come in, really rich customers worth a hundred million and more. And he'd say to me, I shudder to think about his money. He was in awe. Yes. I hated him much of the time, but I admired him too. He said that his. Dale's relationship was. Date with Dana was really weird to witness. He said Dale wasn't physically abusive. He never hit his kids. I never heard him raise his voice, but he was mentally abusive. Nothing Dana ever did could be good enough. Dale bragged about him. He talked about him, but he abused him. He treated him like he treated me to everybody else. He's. He's proud of him. But he, God forbid, could never tell his son. He's proud of him. One of those fucking guys. He's got to talk shit about him. Him.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Brutal.

[James Petregallo]

That's tough, man. That's tough. So he at this point too. Later on, Glee. Glee becomes the assistant director of the Fresno Regional foundation, which is a big charity thing here. 1992, okay. Dana is in college now. In high school. He's almost a straight A student. But he didn't get into Stanford University. Didn't get in. Now Stanford's a top tier university. Very hard and A couple of B pluses will fuck that up for you. And if you want to go there, your sats have to be perfect. Every. They have to have all the extracurriculars, which he doesn't have, things like that.

[Jimmy Wisman]

There's probably more people that get straight A's, and, you know, there's probably more people with. With the grades than get accepted.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, absolutely, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. That's not nowhere near good enough now, like, just to be straight A grades.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Than you're not getting in, you have.

[James Petregallo]

To have all sorts of other shit there. But he was very pissed off about this. He claimed it was only because he wasn't a minority that he wasn't let in. That's what he said. So he went to Santa Clara University, which is near San Jose, up there. So it's still within a few. Isn't that where Steve Nash went to college?

[Jimmy Wisman]

I think it is.

[James Petregallo]

There you go. During his freshman year, he obtained a card from the University of California State school system that said he was a faculty member. You go, what does that get you? What, coffee? And the machine in the teacher's lounge? No, it gets you textbooks. So instead of buying textbooks, he would write to the publishing companies, claim he was an instructor and interested in previewing a book for a class, and they'd just send him one and he'd get free textbooks. He also used the same techniques to get books for people he knew, dorm people. He said he'd run his own little entrepreneurial scams like that. Said Chris Turner, who lived two doors down from him in college. He's like, he'd always be doing shit like that. A philosophy professor caught Yule caught Dana plagiarizing a paper for a business ethics class. That is wonderfully ironic. Like, you just sit him down and go, you see what we're doing here? Right? You see the irony in this? I hope. This is wild here.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You know why you're failing, right?

[James Petregallo]

Holy shit. I'm giving you an F for this. So he was suspended from the honors program as a result of that. Yeah, which makes sense. One kid here who was a roommate of Dana for a full quarter of their fresh or a fall quarter of their freshman year, said he remembers Dana returning to their room shortly after a professor assigned a paper topic with a tall stack of books in his arms that he knew that Dana was never going to read. He said, what the fuck are you doing? Why'd you do that? And he said that Dana only checked the books out so other students couldn't get them. He didn't want them to get good grades even if he wasn't going to do the work.

[Jimmy Wisman]

If I can't do it, nobody can do it.

[James Petregallo]

Yep. He said he'd do all sorts of off the wall things just because he thought he was more special. Everything was a competition to him and he had to be better than everybody else. Even his student housing. He moved into an exclusive dormitory with apartment. They were apartment suites, they weren't dorm rooms. It was called Casa Italiana. Yeah, and unlike your usual kind of cafeteria that they. These dorms often have Casa Italiana dining hall has, this is a wild quote, an intimate feel with classical Italian music quietly playing in the background. Thin transparent curtains hanging over the windows. Clean white tablecloths draped over the three long dining tables. All 59 students, residents of the dorm, including the resident minister and chef, gather here every weeknight to eat a specially prepared Italian dinner. Yeah, this is crazy.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Well, I'm not going to college unless I get some shrimp scampi.

[James Petregallo]

I want to get. I need to go. I need to have some veal franches right now if I'm going to college. This is.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It needs to be ready every night of the week. Otherwise, what's the point?

[James Petregallo]

One of these dinners. During one of them, Dana told the resident director, Patty Kirsten, nothing but lies here. She asked him what his plans were for the upcoming Thanksgiving vacation. Dana said he'd be flying to New York City to interview for a summer internship with the New York Stock Exchange. Not true at all. Then he proceeded to share with her all sorts of other lies. He told her that he ran a multi million dollar company when he was in high school and successfully invested money for his clients in the stock market when he was in high school. So they were like, oh, wow, that's interesting here. So the lady said it was like, is he for real or is he just trying to impress me?

[Jimmy Wisman]

You're getting it.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, it's both of those. Yeah, he wishes he was for real, but he's not. Another student here who became a friend of his in the dorms said that he was very intelligent, very assertive and created the impression, though Dana did, that he was wealthy but responsible with his wealth. You know, he's all buttoned up, said he had. He had a very good computer and hardware in his room. But I never saw him waive money. Like he had expensive things. His clothes were expensive, but he was never waving money around. Another person said that he said it was crazy. He said he found it very ironic that Dana got an A in ethics. He said this guy Was smart. Very, very smart. He said, you just didn't know what his limits were. The thing that was striking about this person was his sense of moral bankruptcy. I'm not just saying this, you know, to be a. Whatever. He was like, I'm not just saying this because I'm an asshole. I don't like him, or he stole my girlfriend or something. It's true.

[Jimmy Wisman]

He's literally morally bankrupt.

[James Petregallo]

Morally bankrupt. Obsessed with money and social status. What he would do at college, though, at Santa Clara, he would just start attributing his father's accomplishments to himself. He'd say, yeah, I'm a wealthy entrepreneur, because his dad's a wealthy entrepreneur. A Santa Clara newspaper and Santa Clara University yearbook both printed stories on Yule in 1990 depicting him as a self made millionaire who was enjoying the luxuries afforded by his business success. The yearbook blurb was called Flying High on Wall Street. I don't think he's ever been to New York, the state, the city, anywhere. It said that Dana was a stockbroker and aircraft salesman and president of his own aircraft dealership. His father does 2/3 of those things, but not him. It ran on November 21, 1990, in a neighborhood edition of the San Jose Mercury News. Also that got picked up from the Santa Clara newspaper describing him as a teen mogul. The article describes his clothes, his gold Mercedes with the Yule Co license plates.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

Yep. But it's all bullshit. Here's a sample of the of the article. With his short cropped hair and lean, athletic build, Ewell looks like the typical college sophomore. Yet get him talking about his business dealings and his eyes begin to sparkle. He recounts with great enthusiasm his days starting in elementary school when he began reading the Wall Street Journal and purchasing stock with his allowance. In sixth grade, Ewell invested $2,000, his life savings in an aircraft manufacturer just before it was taken over by a larger company. He made $8,000 in the deal. None of that's true.

[Jimmy Wisman]

No.

[James Petregallo]

He made up details like that, like it's crazy. The reporter said, her name is Shelby Grad. She ended up working for the Los Angeles Times later on. She said that she was suckered. She said the University affairs office proposed the article and vouched for Dana. So they I thought, you know, how.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You gonna question her?

[James Petregallo]

She said that he drove Dana, drove this guy past an air freight business that he claimed to own. She didn't. The guy said he had a whole press packet. He showed me a lot of awards he had won, programs he had done. He had Pictures of himself in front of airplanes. I guess he convinced me that he was really in business and had some grasp of financial markets. Now, when his friends from home heard about all of this, they described it as, quote, typical Dana. That's what he does.

[Jimmy Wisman]

He got him. He snowed them all. And these people at home are like, look what he's doing.

[James Petregallo]

We know him. That's the problem. And his high school buddy, one of his best friends from high school, Mike Poindexter, said that Dana was embarrassed when word of the publicity reached Fresno. That embarrassed him. He's like, oh, shit. Didn't know I was gonna get caught by people I know. Yeah, that's pretty interesting. A longtime friend of Glee asked Glee about it and said, what are you gonna do? And Glee just said, dana's taking care of it. Like, you know, it was a misunderstanding. The lady misunderstood her. The article person. You know, those journalists, you can't trust them. That's what she said.

[Jimmy Wisman]

She doesn't make things up all the time.

[James Petregallo]

They just made up a bunch of stuff. Yeah. So now, after learning about all these lies that he told the Yules, Dale and Glee modified their estate plan slightly.

[Jimmy Wisman]

How so?

[James Petregallo]

To structure it so he doesn't get a lot of money right away if anything should happen or things like that. To structure his money out. Because they're like, he is a little bit crazy here. This show, Small Town Murder, is sponsored by BetterHelp. We're huge therapy people here. Opponents, you can use. Therapy you can use. I'm pointing out there to the audience, what about you? How about you? And I'm pointing to Jimmy. Right now, everyone is me. Absolutely. And let's here, let's talk numbers. Let's do raw numbers here. Traditional in person therapy can cost anywhere from $100 to $250 per session. That adds up fast. But with BetterHelp online therapy, you can save an average of up to 50% per session. And this month, BetterHelp is giving you the biggest discount on starting therapy that we've ever offered on this show. With 90% off your first week, everybody. Don't miss it. You can't beat it. You gotta try it. Therapy's big. Jimmy's alive because of therapy. It's great and it'll help you. And honestly, you'll feel better physically. When your mental health feels much better too.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You'll use it for the rest of your life. I promise.

[James Petregallo]

Your well being is worth it. For a limited time, visit betterhelp.com smalltownmurder to get 90% off of your first week. That's betterhelp. H e l p.com SmallTownMurder now back to the show. Hey, everybody. Just gonna take a quick break from the show and tell you a little bit more about our stylish and fashionable friends over at Quint's. Elevating your style, that used to be a real expensive thing. You want to change your.it's expensive. But with Quints, this is the way you can do it. The right way. You can get high end, versatile pieces at a price that we can all actually afford and actually want to pay. And now I can upgrade my style. Getting nice, real good luxury items and essentials that sync up with what I want and what I want to pay. It's perfect. And Quint's has all the must haves, like Mongolian cashmere sweaters from $50. Come on, that's ridiculous. Iconic. 100%. Leather jackets and comfortable pants for every occasion, which I got a leather jacket and Jimmy got comfortable pants. That's exactly what we did. It's great stuff. So you too should do this. Indulge in affordable luxury. Go to quince.comsmalltownmurder for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N c e.comsmalltownmurder to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.comsmalltownmurder and now back to the show. Hey, everybody, just gonna take a quick break from the show to tell you a little bit about a delicious sponsor, Thrive Market. We have both been trying to eat healthy. Thrive market is where you go. And that's why we like Thrive Market. You see these ingredients and you're like, I don't know what that is.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, it's hard to figure out what's good for you and what's not. But Thrive has it all in one convenient spot.

[James Petregallo]

They have everything. They're a no junk online grocery store that bans over 1,000 harmful ingredients. And their team of product researchers like, I love a cookie. Okay. Yeah, I like a cookie. I like a chocolate chip cookie. I like almonds, baby, in it. They have a delicious alternative. I found here that is a gluten free almond chocolate cookie. And it's delicious. And I'm like a cookie snob too. I will. I usually don't like anything that's off. Oh, I don't know. I want sugar and all that. But no, these are delicious and they're gluten free and they're really good. Try them out. You can find better options way easily with Thrive Market's Healthy Swap scanner. You can scan a product and it instantly recommends cleaner alternatives. That's great. So if you, if you know, you know you like this, but this isn't good for you. Let's find a better alternative. Are you ready to make the switch? Go to thrive market.com Small Town Murder for 30% off your first order plus a free $60 gift. That's T H R I V E market.com Smalltown Murder thrivemarket.com Small Town Murder they also a lot of people said that Dale was planning on ending his financial support for Dana once he graduated from college. So that's a problem now. Yeah. So from 1990 to here from that article, the San Jose Mercury they talk about him saying he's a self made millionaire. He's turned, they call him a young mogul selling mutual funds and converting a bankrupt airplane dealership to into a four million dollar business while still in his teens.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That is crazy about. When you do have money you're able to just make up any story oh people and people invest in any idea.

[James Petregallo]

You, oh they love it because you're wealthy. Well he's wealthy so maybe I'll just bleed off some of his wealth and that'll work.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, right now he just has more of your money, he's more wealthy and you're broke, you dummy.

[James Petregallo]

That's fucking nuts. You just explained a lot of the financial system in a very short amount of time.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, I've lost a lot of money, James.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. So Yule was quoted as saying, when I go into class, I drop all of my money and companies and think of the teacher and Plato. Not Plato, Plato the philosopher. That's what he's thinking. I don't think about all of this. I only think about what's in front of me. He said that he had discussed his wealth only with close friends. You know, I don't let everybody know this. He said, you know, I'm not a braggart or anything. That is fucking hilarious, man. And then another one said another article said by the time he was a high school senior, the company he had formed had grossed over $2.7 million, making freshman Yule one of the youngest and most successful entrepreneurs anywhere in the United States.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Right. Let alone for us and all five fuck.

[James Petregallo]

So at this point in 92, that's what he's doing. He's in college and you know, being kind of a scout guy.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Really killing it.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, but I'm sure enjoying himself. Tiffany is a graduate student At Fresno State at this point, family's doing very well. Besides Dana being a bit of a douche. They own the business like we said they have, they have the farms. They also have substantial investments and all things like that. The family was so well off, but they lived a very modest lifestyle. The house they live in, it's not a crazy house. It's a 3,000 square foot house. Not a crazy house. You know, it's a decent size, a nice comfortable house, but it's not like a mansion or anything like that. Their financial, they have a lot of money here. This is in 1992. They have an estimated $8 million in all their shit, which is like about, you know, 17, 18 million nowadays having.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I'll bet it's more than that.

[James Petregallo]

That's not bad. No, that's what it is. Adjusted for inflation. I have the number. Yeah. Not like I did research or anything on this fucking thing.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I just assumed.

[James Petregallo]

So the, that's, that's how much. And Dana knew how much this was because he helped his dad type up a statement of net worth on about April 1, 1992. It detailed the family's holdings, including $2.6 million in cash, $675,000 in stocks and bonds, a million $1.1 million in pension and profit sharing fund, 1.9 million in farmland. All total. Their net worth was $7,974,500. Doing pretty well, which is very good. And Dana and Tiffany are set to inherit each of the estate in the will. So that's why. Another reason why they were doing this, so they could break it up. You know how it goes. Dana wants to be an investment banker. That's his big deal here. That's what he wants, an investment bank douche. Which sounds boring, but I guess you can make a lot of money if you're a criminal. So you know you're a piece of shit.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You could probably do very well.

[James Petregallo]

You have no moral compunction whatsoever. You can really do great in. So Easter weekend 1992 comes. This is April 18th, 19th is a Saturday Sunday there of 1992. Now Dana, Glee, Dale, Tiffany, the whole family spend easter weekend of 1992 at the family beach house near Watsonville. Yeah, not bad. They arrived at varying times on Thursday and Friday. Tiffany and Gleed drove from Fresno. Dale flew from Fresno in one of his planes. And Dana drove down from Santa Clara about, we say about a three hour drive where he attended school. So there he is now. That's the weekend. Sunday, April 19th. That's Easter Sunday, Dana and Dale played tennis together in the morning, little tennis game. Then the family had lunch and took a walk on the beach. What a fucking nice day. Jesus. Not bad at all. Dana left around 2:15 to 2:30pm and drove to Morgan Hill, where his girlfriend Monica Zent lives. He's gonna have Easter dinner with his girlfriend's family. He remained there with his family, or with her and her family, Monica, until sometime that evening when he and Monica together returned to school. So that's how that goes. Now, Dana assumed his mother and sister left the beach house shortly after he did, because that's what they were saying, we're going to take off. Dale returned to Fresno by plane, arriving at the Fresno air terminal just before 3:30pm so everybody kind of left about the same time. Yeah, you know, to something. All right, we're going here. He called Dale, called Marlene Reed, who is Western Piper's business manager, from the office phone sometime around 4pm so he went in, did some office shit, even though it's Easter Sunday. But when he called his family then Dana called later on and nobody was home at his house. No one answered later on when he called, when he was like, they should be home by now. So he was unable to reach anybody again the next day when he called on Monday and he also called the office and they said that Dale hadn't been in. And he's usually up that his office manager's ass, calling her 20 times a day. She hasn't even heard from him. She's like, what's going on here?

[Jimmy Wisman]

He's letting me just. He's not even micromanaging me today.

[James Petregallo]

No, it's just. It's weird. Yeah. That has to feel like, what's going on? Why isn't he bothering me? You'd be expecting these phone calls by now. Just reflex. So that next day, Monday, April 20, 1992, Dana expresses concern about his family to Monica's father, John Zent, who is an FBI agent at the time. Yeah, so he says, I don't know what's going on. I called my family, no one's answering. Marlene Reed here can't get a hold of my dad. And you know, they're attached all the time. He's calling her, yelling at her for one thing or another. So they didn't understand it. So Marlene Reed, the office manager, told Dana, why don't you talk to one of your parents, neighbors, I'm sure you have somebody's phone number and ask him to go check the house. So he said, yeah, maybe I'll do that. But then the next day, he hadn't done it that day. Then the next morning, Dale didn't show up for work again. And this Marlene's like, you gotta call and see what's going on here. Figure this out. So that's when he called the neighbor on Tuesday, April 21, called the neighbor to ask the neighbor to check out the house because no one's answering the phone. They arrive as the maids are coming shortly after 9am now they walk in and here's what they find. As we told you, there's bodies everywhere. Well, they find Tiffany. She's the one lying face down on the kitchen floor in a pool of her own blood, and I assume an even less perfect skull at this point. So she'd been shot once in the back of the head with the bullet exiting her forehead like a. Like a fucking mob hit. Yeah, that's cold, man. That is cold for like a slow 24 year old girl or whatever. That's. That's brutal, man. Dale, he was found lying face down in the hallway. He'd been shot once in the back of the neck with the bullet exiting below his right eye.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, good lord.

[James Petregallo]

So back. These are all from the back?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Glee was lying partially on her back and partially on her left side in the office, like on a couch there. She'd been shot four times. The other two are like clean hits. This is four times, including once just below the eye with the bullet exiting the back of her head.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Just brutal.

[James Petregallo]

These are all through and throughs too. Now they said rigor mortis and lividity had set in as to all three victims. So they have been here a while. It takes a while for lividity to set in, so they know that they've been here. They appeared to have been shot at the location where they fell based on spatter and blood, obviously blood pools and things like that. Now the cops, as they're walking through the one, observes that the house appeared to have been ransacked. So like maybe this is a burglary, there's ransacking taking place. They were also looking for signs of forced entry. Based on this officer's observation of the bodies, as well as information given to her by paramedics prior to her entry, she concluded the death is obviously a murder. Clearly there's also holes in the walls which appear to be bullet holes, some of which this officer initially saw and some of which they took her a while, a while to find. And in the case of Dale's body, a blood patter, spatter that Suggested high velocity gunshot evidence. So they determined that a search needed to be made for the bullets themselves to try to do have comparisons here. She also needed to inspect the underneath of the bodies, but couldn't do that until the coroner arrived and took them, took possession of them here. So the deputy coroner and pathologist arrived about 5:45 that afternoon, inspected the scene and the position of the bodies in order to help determine the cause of death. And the bodies are removed by 8pm now the police officer here went to each room of the house noting the layout and looking for items that may have been associated with the bodies. She was specifically looking for signs of forced entry. Details concerning the ransacking, they said, the appearance of which was present in virtually every room. So it looks like every room's been trashed. Blood evidence, firearms evidence, fiber evidence, latent fingerprints, all that kind of shit. The walkthrough excluded the master bedroom or included the master bedroom. I'm sorry. Where she observed two rifles and a shotgun, several boxes of ammunition, a handgun shipping box, a gun carrying case and a loose nine millimeter bullet.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

She. This detective said this was a. In their experience, this is a complicated crime scene and you don't want to fuck anything up because something weird is going on here. This is. It's a burglar, it's a robbery, but it's not a robbery. And there's something up here. So they're really taking this extra careful. They said that the pathologists could not determine the order in which Glee's wounds were inflicted or in which the victims were killed. But they have a theory that the women returned. Tiffany and Glee returned home first, entered the house together or one right after the other. Tiffany was shot first, having been taken by surprise when she passed by the killer's location. The killer then emerged and shot and wounded Glee, who retreated into her office where she was killed. And Dale was killed last because he came in later, period. So they said the times of death were estimated at between approximately 5 and 6pm so sometime after 2 or 3pm on April 21, this day that they're looking through the house, detectives were conducting an investigation of the crime scene. They met with the. Another sheriff's lieutenant, met with Dana Yule and John Zent in the lieutenant's office at the sheriff's office there. John Zent is the girlfriend's father who's an FBI agent. Now Yule and Dana and Zent were very curious and wanted information about what had happened at the scene. I would assume if that was your family, you'd want to know that kind of. Now, the sheriff did not have that much information at the time. He was aware detectives were conducting the investigation of the crime scene. So they told Dana that his family had been murdered. It said probably occurred sometime between 3 and 5pm when they. Then they had reached, you know, they had gotten confront confirmation that it was his parents and his sister and all of that. So at some point during the meeting, Dana started, stated a willingness to fully cooperate with the investigative efforts and, you know, find who killed my parents. Basically. Basically here. So they believe that the killer was probably waiting either inside or in the bushes just outside and snuck in after them type of deal here. And that's what shot him from the back. They never even got the chance to bring in their suitcases from the Jeep that they arrived.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, they're still in the car?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, they. They were going in, put some stuff down, probably go out, grab the suitcase. They didn't even get a chance to do that. So they said that Glee was shot as she sat in a chair in the living room and then she got up and ran. Tiffany ran to the kitchen to get away, but was shot as well. Yeah, so they said that Dale, they know that he arrived more than 30 minutes after them. He had made a call and not only to his office manager but to another aircraft dealer to argue with him before making the short drive home. He parked his Lincoln Continental in the garage. There's mail scattered all around him. So I think he came in with a stack of mail that the Spirit they've gotten over the weekend and started came in through the back door and started down a hallway. They believe that the gunman was in a bedroom off the hallway. As he walked past the bedroom door. They think the shooter just stepped into the hallway behind him and shot him. They said he probably never saw a fucking thing come and didn't know what happened. So the murder weapon, they suspect the murder weapon is a 9 millimeter. Obviously that they figured that out and they said those weapons are usually automatics. So they're wondering where shell casings are because there's no shell casings. So we got nine. Shit. But we got no shell casings. And people who clean up people who clean up shell casings are like Mafia hitmen. You know what I mean? That's not a normal thing to clean up your shell cases.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, I mean Mafia guys will shoot you and then just leave the whole gun and everything there.

[James Petregallo]

That's why they.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's like they like more.

[James Petregallo]

They like revolvers a lot of times too. There's no casings, and that they're reliable.

[Jimmy Wisman]

They were not a lot of 9.

[James Petregallo]

Millimeter revolvers, not a ton of them out there. And they did find a box of 9 millimeter Winchester cartridges containing 18 rounds of ammunition in the master bedroom. And the loose round located on the master bedroom floor as well, which is odd. So analysis of the bullets and tool marks showed the bullets recovered from the crime scene almost certainly came from this box of cartridges. Cartridges.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. So the investigation revealed that Dale had purchased that box of ammunition together with a 9 millimeter Browning pistol in 1971, 21 years ago. The pistol, which should have been in the residence was missing as well. Oh, that's not good. There did not appear to be any signs of a struggle other than the ransacking, which. That's not a struggle, it's a. A different thing. The authorities concluded the burglary had been staged and this happened for a reason. Now, part of this, they're wondering is, you know, Dale has pissed off a whole shitload of people in his business dealings. A lot of them.

[Jimmy Wisman]

The whole world hates him.

[James Petregallo]

A lot of people. And a lot of people have a lot of money, too. He's pissed off. So, you know, that's a big factor where they're like, jesus, there's a lot of people that could have wanted to kill this guy, but why would they do it in his home where his wife and daughter are too? Why wouldn't they just kill him when he's out in his, you know, out of his business or something? Like, get him when he's leaving the office one night.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You don't slaughter a slow 24 year old and a man's wife.

[James Petregallo]

No.

[Jimmy Wisman]

A bad Cessna deal?

[James Petregallo]

No, it's weird. They said that there was no signs of forced entry. All the doors and windows were secured with the exception of the front and back doors that were unlocked when the sheriffs came. The skylights didn't appear to have been damaged or disturbed. The alarm, which is normally armed, was not on and had not been triggered because they were home. So they probably came in, turned it off. So what happens is they complete the crime scene processing on April 24, and the residence is turned back over to Dana. It's your house now. Nobody else. So he had the locks changed that evening, which is probably smart. You don't know if this murderer had a key to the house or something like that. So Dana and the detective walk through the house and discussed what had been found. Dana requested inventory of everything that had been removed from the home. During the detectives contacts with Dana on the 23rd and 24th of April, Dana did not indicate any resistance or problem with the investigation, except that he was upset about a padlock being cut off the back gate. You. You cut off my $9 master lock? What the fuck, man? Wow. Because Dana had showed the detective where a key to the lock was hidden, but she ap and explained that the sheriff's personnel didn't know there was a key, so they had to cut off the lock to, you know, do their jobs and get in there and crime scene shit in there and stuff like that. So Dana apologized to the detective as he was leaving or she was leaving. So that's how that worked. Now the funeral for this family happens. 400 people show up. And the reverend calls Glee the ultimate giver and said Dale was a gentle giant and Tiffany was a delicate flower just ready to bloom, just ready to bloom, just ready to pop. And then Dale popped up from his coffin and goes, she's never going to bloom. She's a dud up here. She ain't right. It ain't not going to work. They were like, put him back in the casket. So friends of Dana said he was very shaken up by the deaths and things like that. But they said he also at the funeral was a little bit odd because he was complimenting friends on their outfits and making a big fuss over the size of one woman's giant diamond engagement ring, which at a funeral, you do. We Italians all gamble at funerals. This is just. It's. That doesn't mean you don't have any empathy or sympathy or you're not sad. You just. You fucking move on. You make jokes and you. I'm a comedian. We are. We make jokes at funerals. That's just what you do. It's. Can't help it. So the next day, investigators said that Dana hitched his father's ski boat to his mother's Jeep and took a keg of beer and a group of friends out to the lake.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, attaboy.

[James Petregallo]

The next day. That'll cheer you right up there.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's how I grieve.

[James Petregallo]

Wow. He still had his gold Mercedes when he started driving his father's car and threw out his briefcase and used his father's from now on.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, yeah, that's probably nicer.

[James Petregallo]

I'll just be dead, that's all. Now, under the wills here, okay. The estate is distributed to a trust until Dana turned 25. The amount paid to him was discretionary amount with the trustee who is obligated to pay Enough from income or principal or both to support and educate him, but not, you know, you don't have to give him everything. Between the ages of 25 and 30, all income would be paid to Dana, although any payment from the principal would remain discretionary with the trustee. So he can take the profits of things, but he can't take chunks. At age 31, half of the principal would be distributed to Dana with the remaining half distributed to him at age 35. So that's. They have it all laid out. There's a lot of different things he has to hit here.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's a structure. Yeah, he has got some milestones, some achievements. He's got a master P level contract.

[James Petregallo]

Well, no, that one you actually had to produce, though. This one. All he has to do is live to 35 and then he gets all his money.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's not bad.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Ricky Williams had to get like fucking 1900 yards a year to make fucking minimum salary or some shit. So his uncle obtained a copy of the will shortly after the bodies were found and informed Dana that it contained no burial instructions. And Dana said something like, well, okay, but what about the money?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Dana?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, well, we know he loves money. So when informed about the provisions, including the age stipulations, he became very angry and he pounded on a table as he lurched out of his chair and asked why his father had done that to him.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Bastards to him for life.

[James Petregallo]

Fucking. Yeah, when I'm 35, big fucking deal. What about till then?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So now, in order to assist him in compiling family financial records, Michael Dowling, it was a. I guess a money guy that works for them, gave Yule access to an office in Dowling's building and provided a telephone there that Yule was authorized to use for business affairs. During the first couple months following the murders, Dana was at the office almost every day. This is at the Western Piper office. Telephone records for the office show From May through July 1992 show telephone calls to the residences of friends, parents. Friends, parents, paint and body shop. Just all kinds of shit here. In early May 1992, bank accounts and insurance proceeds in the amount of $317,888.47, which were not part of the probate estate, were turned over to Dana, as were a portion of Tiffany's, approximately $119,000 in assets and some $375,000 in certificates of deposit. There's also a preliminary distribution from the estate from which Dana received various effects worth approximately $65,000. And his Mercedes. Now, although he wasn't permitted to run Western Piper Sales as Dana wanted to. Dana was hired as vice president of the company at a salary of $2,000 per week. Whoa.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Eight grand a month.

[James Petregallo]

Eight grand a month. In addition to what he's getting. And he's not running the place. He doesn't have the responsibility. Now. The detectives are like, this is a little bit weird, the way he is with the money and all that. He's a little bit too concerned. You at least give lip service to, oh, I'm sad my family's dead. You know, the money's coming. Just chill out. So at one that had a lot.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You'Re the only one left.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, this is weird. This Detective Curtis walked Dana through the crime scene and thought his reactions to the crime scene were highly unusual. And afterwards said, quote, that kid's dirty, dirty, dirty. Something's up here. So he. Right after the homicides, he was. Dana was living with one of his uncles before the house, before he got back in the house. He moved out of there within a couple weeks and said he was staying with a friend in the neighborhood. He specifically said he was not living in the family house, which he definitely was, because within a month of the funeral, he was giving his old high school friend Michael Poindexter a tour of the house. So he was definitely in there. He was living in the house at the time, despite the fact that only some of the cleanup work had been done. There's still bullet holes, blood, and brain matter on the walls, and he's living there.

[Jimmy Wisman]

What the hell, man?

[James Petregallo]

There's fucking brain on the walls, and he's living in this house? No, you got to get the professional cleaning crew to come in there, do that, paint the walls. This is crazy. So that's wild, I guess. Dana told Poindexter, quote, they will never solve this case. They're a bunch of dummies. And then he told Poindexter that he didn't have to talk to the detectives. If they want to talk to you, you don't have to talk to them, you know, so fuck them. So April 30th, Dana drops out of school.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, yeah. Why do that anymore?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, like I said, he tried to take over the business, but he ends up being the vice president. And Purcell, the guy from before, said he came in the first few months and acted like he owned the place, but that didn't sit well with the employees. He didn't have the experience to own it. He kind of did own the place is the problem, but he didn't. Can't Run the place. They said that he just spent time on the phone with the door closed the whole time. That's all he did. So, May 1992, the cops are checking all around. They decide they need to dig into Dana a little bit more. So they're questioning friends and acquaintances traveling to Washington, Utah, California, College, Santa Clara, everywhere. They meet in Utah with Michael Poindexter. Okay. Poindexter is going to Utah State University at this time. And like I said, he was one of Dana's best friends in high school. Poindexter said the questions made it clear to him that Dana was under suspicion by these cops. Uh, he said, this is. This is Poindexter talking about the cop. He said. He told me, we're trying to clear Dana, but I told him, no, you're not. You're trying to nail him. The detectives questioned Poindexter about his whereabouts the weekend of the killings and determined that he was in Utah. So, you know, couldn't happen. Poindexter said, they acted like I had done it. And I thought, right, he's going to hire a friend to get it done on the cheap. That's how you. What are you, an idiot? Hire your college friend. Yeah, real shrewd. So, you know, that's one of those. That's like toilet paper or toothpaste. You buy quality when you're talking about hitmen. So he said. The detectives questioned him about the interest that he and Dana shared in Joe Hunt, the founder of the Billionaire Boys Club, where that whole mess. No, we'll do. We'll do a bonus episode on that, but it's the. From the newspaper here. The highly publicized group was a confederation of ambitious young Southern Californians whose efforts to make a fortune through investments ended it when members were involved in two murders, as they always are.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Whoops.

[James Petregallo]

This Hunt guy was serving life sentence for the 84 robbery and murder of an associate of his. So Poindexter said that Dana. He and Dana became fans of Hunt after watching a television movie on the Billionaire Boys Club. He said they were impressed by the ability of young and inexperienced businessmen to make big profits in the commodities market. These people always miss the other part of the story where they were corrupt, doing illegal shit and then murdering each other for it, that they just ignore that part. It's like watching, like, just the. Like the middle, like, about a half hour into the wolf of Wall street for, like, the next 45 minutes. If you just watch that part, you're like, this is going.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I'm doing my whole life after it.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Not the beginning, not the end. Not any of that part.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah. How about the part where he drove a Lamborghini all the way home, bashing.

[James Petregallo]

It into things the whole way? So he said that Dana wrote to Hunt in prison. Hunt wrote back, but only because he thought that Dana was a girl. Because his name is Dana. He was asking for pictures of her tits and shit. That's what he wanted. They're like, oh, fucked up.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Hey, Dana, why don't you send some pictures of you and laundry? I could never do that, bro.

[James Petregallo]

He's like, I mean, I'll send them to you, but I don't know if you're gonna wanna jerk it to him. So a reporter asked Poindexter what the. At one point, someone said something about the murder could be justified. And a reporter asked Poindexter what that meant. And he said, not for me, because of my moral code. And they said, well, what about for Dana? And he said, well, you'd have to ask him. They said, what did Dana think of his parents? He said he admired his father for his tough business sense. What about his mother? Poindexter said, nice lady. Okay. They said, could he have killed them? And Poindexter said, could have. Anything's possible. I don't know. That's crazy. So just a few weeks after the murders, a new name pops up here. Joel Patrick Radovich. Radocich Radovich. His name is weird. R, A, D O, V, C, I, C, H. Radovich. Joel. We'll call him Joel. Joel. Here. Joel's a Joel Joel. He's a college friend of Dana who abruptly dropped out of college right after the murders. And so he came under a bit of suspicion. They look into him a little bit. He. They find out he has a huge preoccupation with guns and explosives. Loves them. Loves making bombs and silencers and shit. That's his jam. So the detectives here and their team set out to obtain background information on Dana as well as to look at other possible suspects in the course. This is when Joel's name was mentioned as being a friend of Yul's from college. They contacted him on May 7, 1992, while they were in the Los Angeles area. And they said, listen, we're working on a triple homicide case. They called him up. They said, we're working on a triple homicide case where the parents of a Santa Clara student were the victims. Joel asked, why do you want to talk to me here? Basically, because he said, I've heard about the murders and I know Dana, but I mean, why do you want to talk to me? They said, well, we understand that you used to be a good friend of his and that, you know, I'm conducting a background investigation on him. So, you know, we're talking to everybody. And Joel's response was, are you going to arrest me?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, Joel, that's a bizarre.

[James Petregallo]

Huh?

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's a weird question, man.

[James Petregallo]

Fuck did that come from? Yeah, hi, how you doing? We're working at Triple Homicide. There's a guy, you know, and we're just asking some background questions. Should I put the cuffs on? Like what?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Where's the cage car?

[James Petregallo]

What is happening right now? The detective said, no. What? Like no? And he said, all right then I'll talk to you then. Sure, let's chit chat then. So they met the next day. Almost immediately, Joel brought up his prior question about being arrested again. Am I going to be arrested here? They're like, wow, why would you get arrested? Because we're asking background questions about a guy who we don't even suspect he's the murderer. What are you talking about? So he said that he thought they were cops from Santa Clara and were harassing him about some shit from Santa Clara. That's what he thought. That's what he told them. He said he first met Dana in the fall of 1990 when they lived in the same dorm at Santa Clara. We know that dorm. Joel said that they were friends and would hang out together, but that their friendship was limited to school and they did not communicate outside of a school setting. He said he had been to Fresno one time in the spring of 91 and had met Dana's parents at their house. And Joel also related that he had spent a couple days at the beach house with the Yule family as well. He said his last contact with Dana was in the winter quarter of 1991 and that he had not been to Fresno since his graduation from college in December 1991. She didn't graduate then. When he was asked about his whereabouts on Easter Sunday, he replied that he was at Hamrick's Paint and Body Shop, which is, by the way, one of the numbers that Dana called many, many times while he was at the office for the next those few first few weeks after the murders, Hamrick's Paint and body Shop. Joel also related that Dana had once said that he had owned his own airplane business. Though Joel said he knew Dana was that Dale was the true owner of the business. Turns out, though further investigation, they know each other a little better than we met a few Times in college and kicked around. Apparently they have a very good friendship here. According to school records, Joel began attending Santa Clara in the fall of 1988, while Dana's attendance began in the fall of the following year. Prior to the spring quarter of 91, their course loads were within the normal range. But beginning that quarter, both took much heavier unit loads than normal. On February 6, 1991, Dana exercised his right state under federal law and requested permanent non disclosure of all academic records. On June 11, 1991, Joel made a similar request. Yeah, they said fewer than 1% of enrolled students request non disclosure in either temporary or permanent form. So for the two of them to do it together, they said that Dana, you know, that's what they were doing. So Joel and Dana lived in the same dormitory until early 1991, when Joel and two other students were charged with stealing $3,800 worth of furniture from the dorm. Joel left Santa Clara after graduating with a business degree. He'd been estranged from his family for several years. That's. He's just hanging out in the LA area now. Other people they talked to from Santa Clara said, oh, yeah, they were really tight, Joel and Dana. They said, we never understood it because we had one guy who was like suit and tie and briefcase. And then Joel's like, real shaggy and like real kind of sloppy and not that kind of guy. They said he is just a little weird. One guy said Joel was a character. He would ride around on his skateboard in the dorms. He would spit on the walls. He would grind on people. And I don't mean grinding with your skateboard trucks. I think he means he would hump on people. It was difficult to see what those two had in common. And another person said Joel was shady. I always stayed away from him.

[Jimmy Wisman]

For him to have that reference of him spitting on the walls, that has to be multiple times.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, yeah, yeah. That's just what he would do. He would ride around and go, what is that? Look at, look at how much I don't care about shit now. I'll destroy shit spit indoors. I never understood those. Like, in school there would be kids that would do shit like that. Like, I'm gonna fuck that thing up. For what? What, what advantage does that give to you? I'm not doing anything unless I can see a clear advantage in it for me. Do I get something from this? Like, just for attention? I guess I didn't. I don't know. I just knew I wasn't getting attention, so I just. I wasn't looking for it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

A lot of people think spitting's like disgusting. I spit fucking constantly.

[James Petregallo]

But not indoors.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Not indoors.

[James Petregallo]

On walls. You spit outside all the time. Not like I'm just spit while I skate by.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I don't think I've ever seen it. And I would probably have the same reaction that most people have to people spitting outdoors.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, like what are you doing on the walls?

[Jimmy Wisman]

And I'd probably be viscerally sick.

[James Petregallo]

He spits on the wall. So then if somebody leans on the wall, he goes, ha ha. That's all it is. Yeah. We all knew those kids in school that were like that, that would do shit just to go, oh, then you're gonna get that on you and I'll laugh. Okay, great.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Why do you want your.

[James Petregallo]

I don't get it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Why don't you spit on me, man?

[James Petregallo]

Why do you want to be spitting? So Joel left Casa Italiana, the dorm and the college in 1991 after he and the students were charged with stealing furniture from the building. And according to the court records, the charges were dropped after the school was reimbursed for the $3,800 loss. So, June 1992. During the first week of June, Joel was seen at Dana's house, the Park Circle murder house. When Dana wasn't even there. He appeared to be living there and had his clothing in the master bedroom. So we don't know each other very well, but when his parents die, I move into their bedroom. That is fucked. Now Sheriff's department of surveillance of Yule began of Dana began on June 25, 1992 and will continue for the next year. We'll talk about all this. Surveillance conducted in June 1992 revealed that Dana was living at the Park Circle residence and that Joel was staying there at least part of the time. When they went somewhere together, Dana drove his Mercedes or one of the family vehicles. Places they went included banks, the office, Western Piper, a property that was part of the estate that they had. Dana also went to some of these places alone. At times he employed counter surveillance driving techniques. They said Dana thinks he's being watched this whole time. By the way, they said that Dana and Joel were also observed separately going to corporate air for helicopter lessons.

[Jimmy Wisman]

What?

[James Petregallo]

Yes. Now Joel has no known source of income. His parents don't do shit. Prior to his graduation, his mother brought him, bought him a car for graduation. And then in December 91, following his graduation, he moved back to the West Hills area and sporadically resided at in the family home. And Joel's mother paid him for doing construction type projects around the house and also deposited small amounts of money into his checking account for food and similar items. Not enough for helicopter lessons. So other than these amounts, she didn't provide him with money from December 1991 on, from graduation on. She heard he was working piecemeal at places during that time, but didn't personally know if he had a job. So working temp work or construction jobs on and off. To her knowledge, he had no other money available except for a trust fund over which she exercised control. Other than for his car, she didn't provide any money for him out of the trust fund during the time this was going on. Friends and other family members didn't know him to have a job aside from the work he did from his mother either. However, despite his lack of funds, Joel was interested in finance while in college and frequently talked about being a millionaire. During the summer of 1991, he had books sent to the home of college acquaintance Thomas Duong. Some of the books, which were from Paladin Press, concerned building silencers and similar subjects. Joel asked this friend of his if he knew anyone who had a gun for sale. Joel said he wanted something along the lines of an AK47, but he didn't want to go to a gun shop. You know, I want a street gun. I'd like a street gun, please. They do in Arizona. Hey, Jesus, you can go to any pawn shop in Phoenix and get an AK.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You think so?

[James Petregallo]

I mean, ARs are more popular, but they have AKs. Yeah, the one on Indian school says AK47s right in the fucking window. There's a sign there.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I don't think they make that gun anymore.

[James Petregallo]

No, no, but they'll advertise bad gun. So he said he didn't want to go to a gun shop. Not long after, in October, November 91, Dana began dating Monica Zent, who lived in the same dorm. And he had become friends with her in the fall quarter of 1990. And it was common knowledge within the dorm that Monica's father's an FBI agent. So Joel and Dana are having a ball. They're Menendezing. Let's call it. Let's give it a verb here.

[Jimmy Wisman]

They're Menendezing, but they're certainly Menendez.

[James Petregallo]

They're still doing it. They're making cash purchases for items such as helicopter flight lessons and communicating via a complex system of pagers and payphones and all this other type of shit. They're buying like jewelry and going out and partying, and they're having a full on Menendez. That's exactly what they're. And this is like two years after Menendez.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

That was 89. Menendez happened. So three years later, like, you think they'd be going, hey, let's not look too Menendez here. You know what I mean? I mean, I don't want to be the Lyle.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You know, they really shit their own bed guy. Yeah, let's not shit our bed.

[James Petregallo]

So November 1, 1992. Newspapers are talking about the case, the Fresno Bee, as a big headline. Detectives still digging in the Yule slayings case. And then the sub headline is, the lawyer for Dana Yule, son of the murdered couple, says he is being defamed by investigators because they continue to question his associates. They're always talking to everybody he's ever met. So they said that, you know, this. His attorney is off. His attorney said that his client's been devastated by the innuendo that's been going on. In a written response to inquiries from the Bee, the newspaper here, the lawyer accused investigators of repeatedly defaming Dana Yule and his reputation by leaving the impression with his friends, business associates, and in his college community that he's a suspect in this horrible crime. Dana feels that he's being scapegoated because of. The investigators have completely been ineffective in finding and prosecuting those responsible. And if, in fact, the sheriff's office is not intending to spread these rumors, then they should make it clear on the record that Dana is not a suspect. The sheriff here said that he's not a formal suspect, but he hasn't been ruled out either. They said, we know that he wasn't in Fresno when it happened, so that's part of it. But they said, we're looking at everybody, including family members. It's a very complex case.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And that's that. And then the. The guy who. The lawyer, Michael Dowling, who is administering the trust, he's the trustee, he said that Dana has not been ruled out as a suspect, but that they really don't have anything on him, quote, unquote, which sound makes him sound like. Makes him sound like he's in the mafia again. Like it ain't got nothing on him. It'll never stick.

[Jimmy Wisman]

But it's also really tip in your hand. I don't know if they're real. They may. They may be lying to us. They do that a lot.

[James Petregallo]

They do that a lot.

[Jimmy Wisman]

They're known for that.

[James Petregallo]

So in a letter to the police last week, the lawyer said, Dana, you'll adamantly denies any participation in this heinous crime. He's cooperated with you in spite of the fact that he considers your investigation and innuendos to be unprofessional and offensive. Offensive. If you intend to prosecute Dana Yule, there are legal procedures. If you intend to just. To just harm him by rumor and innuendo, please be advised that he is prepared to seek every legal remedy for your actions. Please be advised my retainer is paid and this motherfucker will use me. So around that time, that's when these articles are appearing and it's kind of popping back, you know, into the public consciousness here. At the time this article appeared, housekeepers noted that Joel was staying at the murder house with Dana. It appeared that Joel was staying in the master bedroom while Dana occupies his old room, like his childhood room. They also said there was a pistol on one of the nightstands in Dana's room and another hand got on a nightstand in the master bedroom. They said that Joel's hair was a dark color at this time and that he kept it fairly short. Housekeepers found empty hair dye bottles, latex gloves and hair trimmings in the master bedroom and what appeared to be paper ashes in a pot on the stove in the kitchen. They also observed Joel and Yule looking at a map. He writes this. This is Dana on April 19, 1992. Four wonderful lives ended in tragedy. This is to a newspaper. He wrote this. My father, my mother and my sister were brutally murdered. My world was shattered and my life was changed forever. The reality of a loss like this can hardly be imagined even after this length of time. And he told all of his friends that the sheriff's department was botching the investigation. And he dismissed the two lead detectives as Mutt and Jeff. And he said they'll.

[Jimmy Wisman]

There's a cartoon.

[James Petregallo]

Cartoon character. Yeah, it's got a couple of dogs, like sloppy dogs who didn't do anything right and fucked up all the time. He said, they'll never catch the people who killed my family. Never. But they do have a reward. Apparently one of Dale's brothers put up $25,000 right away. And then a couple months later, not until October, Dana. Dana finally adds another 25 grand to it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, boy.

[James Petregallo]

Now, during this time, they are, like I said, taken helicopter lessons from Matzy Flying Service. Dana paid for both he and Joel's lessons with checks totaling $16,377.94. In addition, the flight school received cash payments from Joel totaling $3,400. Joel expressed an interest in pursuing his instrument rating and possibly his commercial rating. The minimum cost to obtain both would have exceeded $20,000. Although Joel started on the second part of his training, his last flight with this company was on November 8, 1992. He subsequently informed the company that he was going to the Los Angeles area and asked for a refund on the balance of his account. Remember when the maids came back? He wasn't there. He was down in LA. If you're a woman over 40 dealing with hot flashes, insomnia, brain fog, moodiness or weight gain, you don't have to accept it as just another part of aging. The experts at MITI Health know all these symptoms can be connected to the hormonal changes of menopause. And MITI can help with safe, effective, FDA approved solutions. Covered by insurance, 91% of MITI patients get relief from symptoms within just two months. Book your virtual visit today at joinmidi.com.

[Jimmy Wisman]

There'S one thing that will forever change.

[James Petregallo]

The way you sleep and it's the softest 100% organic cotton bedding from Boll and Branch. You'll fall asleep faster wrapped in the most luxurious comfort. You'll never sleep hot again. With airy blankets, cloud like duvets and breathable sheets. You'll experience pure comfort on night one and feel your bedding get softer with every wash. Discover the difference with 15% off your first order at bolandbranch.com with code WONDERY15EXCLUSIONS. Apply C Site for details A check which was made payable to Joel was sent to the was sent to the the murder house. It was endorsed by Joel and Dana and deposited in one of Dana's bank accounts. Payments made to the helicopter place on Joel's account totaled $11,489. 61. Dana also buys a hundred thousand dollar airplane, a Piper 4 seater and put fucking 50,000 miles on it just flying all around. At least the Menendez's didn't fucking buy a plane. They bought watches and clothes and a fucking Jeep. They didn't buy a plane. That's that is like ostentatious. Yeah, a plane is like the pinnacle of wealth is I have my own plane. You know what I mean? So November 20, 1992, while all this is going on, those newspaper articles are just coming out. He's calling a mutton Jeff. In the newspaper Dana comes into the police department to get a handgun that had been removed from the house. Oh yeah, he wants it back. During the course of the conversation, detectives said they were concerned about Joel and wanted to talk to Dana about him. Like we've seen some weird stuff with Your buddy Joel, Dana responded, quote, I'm out of here. I got what I want. And left. He said, yep. They said he jumped up from his chair, goes to take off. When the detective told Dana they needed his cooperation, he said, I have been. And then he left. Fuck off. Not interested.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I've given you all the. You guys are. Do your fucking job.

[James Petregallo]

Do your job. November 25, 1992. Letter to the editor of the Fresno Bee. Written by none other than John Zent, FBI agent and Dana's girlfriend's father. He says letting suspicion linger on Dana Yule is cruel. That's the headline in response to your article Concerning Dana Yule. November 1st. Detective, still digging in the slayings case that we talked about. My family believes that both the Fresno Bee and the Sheriff's office have, without validity, tried to link Dana with the death of his family. It's well known to the sheriff's office that Dana was with our daughter having dinner in our Morgan Hill home when the crimes occurred. Evidence, along with witness statements, including my own, fully support Dana's whereabouts. The concept that Dana hired someone to do this crime is really grasping for straws. Perhaps it isn't apparent, but Dana is a victim. He has lost in one crime, all of his immediate family. During the Easter weekend on Saturday with my family spent a long, enjoyable dinner with Dale, Glee, Tiffany and Dana at their beach home. The Yule's took great pride in Dana's accomplishments at Santa Clara University and his relationship with our daughter Monica, also an SCU student. We stayed late into the evening taking a walk on the beach. Two families enjoying their children's happiness. Dana's love for his family, his respect for his parents was mirrored in their love for him. That pride parents have in realizing their kids are doing well. I've been in federal law enforcement working complex criminal investigations for over 21 years. In my opinion, there's been a number of improper procedures coupled with a lack of professionalism and objectivity within this case. On that Tuesday, April 21st, when Dana's family was found. Earlier in the morning, I had called the sheriff's office to request they check the family residence after Dana had received a guarded response from a neighbor. He had called for that same purpose, realizing there might be a problem at Fresno. I not I not. The Sheriff's office had Dana and Monica flown with me to Fresno for that week or more. We stayed with Dana while he, along with surviving relatives, made arrangements for his family's funeral. During that week, Dana made made time and was available frequently to the sheriff's office to answer questions and provide any assistance requested by them. Some have taken note that Dana has a nice car and clothes and goes to an expensive college. Having spoken with Dale and Glee, I know they were very happily providing the best for both Dale and Tiffany. The fact that the Yules had significant financial resources simply made it easier for them to give the best to their children. That is an action any parent would do if money wasn't the issue. Without question, Dana has suffered great loss, compounded by those who would link him to this crime without any factual basis. Eventually someone will be caught who will explain the events surrounding this sad crime, Usually after getting off the hook for some other crime. Until then, idle speculation or unfounded implications should be avoided by all. Put yourself in Dana's shoes. He would gladly forego all the money to simply be with his family again. Our family supports and loves Dana as part of our own. Before this crime and since he has been a very welcome guest in our house, the harm that has been done to him within Fresno and Santa Clara University will pass. But none of it has been beneficial to solving this crime. The challenge is to resolve every aspect of the crime and identify the perpetrator, not to simply take aim at Dana in light of one's own limitations or inabilities. Just because you're not smart enough to figure it out, don't just say it's the son.

[Jimmy Wisman]

So this is so ballsy of an FBI agent, right?

[James Petregallo]

That's November 25th. December 10th, 1992. In the same Fresno B newspaper, Dana has an ad going in the classified sections. Fur coats gorgeous Nomar Normarts. Beige beige opossum $400. Ranch mink 450 mahogany 1000. White fur 500. Then leaves a phone number. Ask for Dana Yule. He's selling his mom's shit. Fur coats with a fucking classified ad with his name in it. Oh boy, if I found that now. It's probably really easy to find. 30 something years ago.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Unloading this bitch's shit.

[James Petregallo]

Wow. So Dana goes back to college in Spring of 93, where he graduates in June of 93. While this is happening though, narcotics agents and other deputies are pulled off their regular assignments to follow Yule and Joel all around the Bay Area. In Southern California. The department invites FBI behavioral experts to study the crime as well. So they keep them under close surveillance for several months. In one instance, a detective wore a recording device and stood as close close to Joel at a pay phone in May of 1993. Overhearing him make comments such as, quote they don't have evidence and they will try to catch you in a lie saying shit like that. They don't know. They don't know the context of it, but we can assume so. They conducted extensive surveillance and investigation of the pair over the course of this next year. And here's a condensed version of that here. During the course of the surveillance, officers learned that Joel frequently used pay telephones, especially Those at the 7:11 at the intersection of Sadaquoi and Fallbrook in Canoga Park. While not far from his mother's residence. These were not the payphones closest to the house. So he's doing like the fucking wire when the low rises were tapped. Like, don't go to these payphones. You go three blocks over, he said. On occasion by surveilling occasion surveilling officers pretended to use the telephone next to the one being used by Joel in an attempt to overhear his conversations. On at least one occasion, Joel's actions were consistent with his calling a pager. He just typed a number and then typed another one. So commencing 4-1-93 Sheriff's detectives obtained telephone records in conjunction with their surveillance operation. On April 1, during which time Dana was living in a dormitory at Santa Clara, Joel used one of the telephones at the Saddle and for Fallbrook 711 to make a brief call to Dana's dorm number. Several minutes later, he made a call to the pay telephone at a Shell station at the Alameda San at the on the Alameda in Santa Clara. The Approximately midway through Joel's conversation, which lasted around 30 minutes, the sheriff sergeant went to the pay telephone next to the one he was using and attempted to overhear the conversation. Joel expressed concern about staying there too long as all they had to do was drive by and that they might see him. He also asked whether the person to whom he was speaking was getting any heat. Yet later in the conversation, Joel said, get this lawyer down here so it doesn't look like the buddy buddy system or something. I didn't tell them anything. Can't you find anyone cheaper in Los Angeles, Fresno or San Francisco? Portions of the conversation concerned flying, and at one point Joel mentioned a commercial license and asked the other person whether he or she wanted him to get his fixed wing while he still had the time he's talking to Dana. Later that day, Joel returned to the same telephone, appeared to dial a pager number, then waited in his car. Telephone company records showed a call to Yule's dormitory room. About 10 minutes later, Joel returned to the phone and placed a call to The Shell station near Santa Clara as well. So, see, he calls him, he pages him back with the payphone he went to. Then they talk payphone to payphone. This is more than they did in the wire.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, this is real.

[James Petregallo]

If they did this, they wouldn't have been able to catch him, right? If they did this, the whole wire would have been, these fucking guys are good. It would have just been Ben Freeman sitting down in the basement going, I don't know. Shit. I got all these computers set up. I don't see nothing. I don't know what's happening.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I'm just gonna make some more tiny chairs.

[James Petregallo]

Fuck it. Fuck it. I got a little armoire to make now. Let's do it. On April 5, Joel telephoned the office of Fresno attorney E. Terrance Wolf. Now, Joel was over here to say that he was a referral from Mr. Berman and needed to see Mr. Wolf about a homicide. So he's definitely talking about the murders here on or about April 8th. Joel personally paid Wolf $3,000 for attorney services. Know where he's getting that? Wolf said he didn't know where Joel got the money. And Joel's parents did not pay that money. We do know that because the police asked them about it, and they said, we did not provide that money for them for him. Now, more suspicious stuff. Lots of shit going on here. Forensic analysis found the murder weapon was a high end 9 millimeter specialty rifle manufactured by Feather Industries in Trinidad, Colorado. Yeah, okay, that's one thing. So they figure out who made the murder weapon based on the bullets.

[Jimmy Wisman]

A place in Trinidad. Huh?

[James Petregallo]

Place in Trinidad, Colorado. Made it. I don't even know they had gun manufacturers in the middle of nowhere and call it. Where's Trinidad?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Trinidad. It's on the. It's between. It's. It's southern Colorado. It's near.

[James Petregallo]

It's between the shit section of Colorado, the flatlands.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's between Pueblo and the Springs, I believe.

[James Petregallo]

Well, whenever we play Denver, the people that live there, they go, we drove like four hours. Jesus, it's awful down there. And they'll tell us how terrible it is to live there. We're like, jesus, I'm sorry. Like the wind. It just never stops, man. It's always 75 miles an hour. I'm like, God, that sounds terrible. So Dana's mad at the cops again. He issues a statement accusing the media of compounding his grief here, too. He's all of this shit. He says that the media is spreading gossip and it's unsupported by fact. All this type of shit. In June of this year, the captain, the sheriff's captain, says in a letter to the Yule family's probate lawyer, it's the position of our department that Dana Yule is to be considered a prime suspect in the investigation. And Yule's lawyer said, well, you didn't give any facts, so I'm not going to freeze anything or do anything that you want me to do based on. We think this. Enter. If you want proof, enter Ernest Jack ponce. He is 24 years old. And Joel and Ponce didn't page each other often. And the reason why they figured out who Ernest Ponce was is because of pages with Joel around there. So company records here, by the way, for the company in Trinidad, Colorado, showed that one rifle, a 9 millimeter, the exact model that they were looking for, had been purchased by Ernest Jack Ponce, a friend of Joel's family, right before the murders.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Nine millimeter rifle.

[James Petregallo]

That particular rifle was purchased by a friend of Joel's family. Now, Ponce admitted first he said he bought it for his own self. I bought it for me for my birthday. And they were like, okay. Then he said, okay, fine, I did buy it for Joel, but I didn't think it was gonna be used for a crime. That's fucking crazy. And he also concealed any of this, even when he knew about it later on. So we'll talk about that. Now they have a clone pager. So this is the wire. Now it's turned into November clone 1, they said. In November of 92, Joel obtained a pager with statewide coverage from Communication headquarters in Los Angeles. In April 1993, the detective served a search warrant on the company to duplicate a clone pager so they could do that. On April 21, they intercepted a page from Joel to the San Jose Jet center, which was not far from Santa Clara University. Telephone company records for April 22 show calls made from pay telephones at the Ranch Market at the intersection of Mesa and Irvine in Costa Mesa to Dana's dorm room. April 27, records for those telephones show calls to a telephone booth at the San Jose Jet Center. So this, they're just.

[Jimmy Wisman]

This is crazy intricate, dude.

[James Petregallo]

This is death. This is the picture of fucking Charlie Day with all the strings on the wall of the cigarette. That's exactly what this is like, the amount. Yeah, the amount of work. To put this all together in a. Right, in like a, you know, an affidavit form of Here's a story to tell would be just as hard as putting this together in a podcast form. To put a fucking story together because this was crazy. Bitch of a beast to do, dude. So they didn't, they said that he didn't utilize the clone pager between April 21 and April 27 because Joel returned to the communication headquarters and expressed concern that someone else might be receiving his pages. So he, he knows that it's being cloned somehow. He inquired whether any police had been asking about him and he was told no. Joel subsequently requested that the name on his account be changed to Mike Smith and that he be given a new pager number. This was done. And after the guy got a new search warrant and a new pager number and did all that, they did the same shit again. What the fuck? They talked to Dana again. This is May 12, 1993. So over a year later, detectives go to Santa Clara University to confirm Dana's class schedule and to see if he attended classes that day. At about 1:45 that afternoon, Dana spotted detectives that he recognized and proceeded to follow them around campus in a very brazen manner. They say, just follow them. Oh, you're looking for me. You're looking for shit for me. About shortly after 2:30 that afternoon, the detective intercepted a page to Joel from a pay telephone at the San Jose Jet center and he asked detectives in the area to check on the location. At some point that afternoon, Dana was observed using a telephone inside the San Jose Jet Center. So 8:05 that evening, the two detectives, accompanied by Public Safety campus officers, went to Dana's dorm room to speak to him. They. They knock. A voice asked who it is. They said it's, you know, police. Dana opened the door and there's Monica Zenta sitting on the bed as well. So it's him and Monica in the room. They told Dana that they had information on who might have killed his parents. You're not gonna like it though, because you. That's a no. Dana said he didn't want to talk to them. I don't want to talk to you.

[Jimmy Wisman]

The information on your parents killers. I want to talk about it.

[James Petregallo]

I don't talk about it. Okay. When they said again they had information, he responded that he felt it was not the right time to be bothering him in regard to this incident. Huh? When would be a more convenient time for you to talk about murder? After further conversation, the one cop asked whether Dana was interested in finding out who killed his parents. Dana said yes, but that he needed to make some phone calls first. So at a later time later they asked, well, who are you going to call? He replied that he's going to call his attorney.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, they say Ghostbusters.

[James Petregallo]

You had it all set up, man, all set up. It was the wrong time. So they reiterated. Dana reiterated that he did not wish to speak to the detective. Detectives there at the dorm room. He then asked the detective where whether he had enjoyed the campus. And when they said yes, Dana said he made a report at the police department against the detectives for following him around. When the detective told Dana to call when he was ready to hear the information, Dana repeated that it was not the appropriate time or place and asked how they would like it if somebody came banging on their door at 11 o'clock at night. The cop pointed out, It's 8 o'clock at night. It's 8 o'clock. It's a college dorm. Not a lot of people sleeping in a college dorm at 8:00 at night. You know what I'm saying?

[Jimmy Wisman]

The parties haven't even started yet, man.

[James Petregallo]

It's still light outside. Kind of like it's. This is crazy. So they said it's 8:00. And they noted they did this kind of thing all the time and that people generally are welcoming of information about who killed their entire family. You know, that's normal. So Dana said that he turned his attention back to the campus police officers and said he did not want to talk to the other cops, but he would talk to the campus police officers.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You seem insignificant.

[James Petregallo]

You seem like you have no power to do anything. Judging by the lack of weapon and handcuffs.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, it feels like you probably can't even make arrests.

[James Petregallo]

No. So he starts to shut the door. Dana does. At which time the detective said, by the way, just so you know, the information we have leads us to believe that Joel Radovich is the. Is responsible for killing your family. They said Dana immediately became quiet and appeared stunned. He said he then seemed to collect himself and that he still felt it was not appropriate to be discussing at this particular time of the evening. I don't discuss murder past, what, 4, 4:30? It's a day thing. It's a business hour, banker's hour thing.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Makes me scared. I don't even like watching Dateline 9 to 6.

[James Petregallo]

That's it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I record it and I watch it in the morning when the sun's up.

[James Petregallo]

When it's bright, when I hear birds chirping. He then shut the door in the middle of the statement. Pretty much about 15 minutes later, the cops watched Dana and Monica Zent exit the building and enter his Mercedes. He drove to the public safety office and went Inside for a few minutes, they got back in his car and left the area. A few minutes later, the Mercedes was observed entering the 880 freeway from Alameda. The detective followed Dana into the far left lane. As they neared the first exit, Dana suddenly pulled across the other two lanes of traffic and took the exit it so the cops couldn't follow because there was. It wasn't safe. So about 9pm the cops intercept a page to Joel that originated from the business complex at 1520 Alameda. Detective Osborne responded to the location and observed Dana hanging up the receiver on the payphone. Not good. Not good at all. His vehicle was parked alongside with the lights on. Monica Zent seated in the passenger seat of the vehicle. When Dana hung up, he went directly to the car, exited the lot and ultimately was seen driving northbound. Two days later, May 14, the detective intercepts a page which originated from the airport Holiday Inn in Fresno. Joel was found at a pay telephone in Costa Mesa. Telephone company records show a 45 minute call to the Fresno airport Holiday Inn. Detective Knight, who was wearing a transmitting device, wearing a wire, basically approached Joel's location and was able to place herself at the telephone around the corner from him, but within three feet of so right there. Joel, who was already on the phone when the surveillance team arrived there. Knight was only able to hear a small patch of the conversation of his side due to the telephone being located under an airport's jet takeoff flight path. So the tape recordings didn't turn out well and he couldn't really hear very much. They said that they were able to hear portions of the conversation which with Joel was involved. She was unable to take notes while she was listening, but it was possible she took sentences and attributed them to the wrong telephone calls. As best she could recreate the conversations. She thinks that Joel said he was a little worried and was going to dis this place. Okay, Dis is what she said. During the first conversation. The discussion turned to money. She heard words. Stock market values as well as sums. 25 million and 1 million. So that's the first conversation she overhears there that he's just got a fucking pocket full of quarters over here, pumping them into a payphone. During the second conversation, she heard Joel say, quote, don't worry about it. She doesn't know anything. She's about to burst. She can't say anything. She won't. Then said, I miss you. They think they got something. Evidence they need to make an arrest. Politically, they need it. Just play the game. I think it's going well. I advise you not to talk to him. They blew it. They blew it at. They blew it at the first, then said, we have everything to lose and nothing to gain. And they heard him, you know, as a long call. He kept putting money in. During a third conversation, he appeared to be pleading with the other person, saying, they can't tap your phone. It's against the law in this country. If you love me, you won't say anything. That's not good.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Know what the fuck he's talking about?

[James Petregallo]

No. If they have reason to, then the warrants, they can. They won't. If you love me, you won't say anything. They spread lies. They hope to trip you up. They try to catch you in a lie. If you talk to them, they'll mix you up and twist your words. Go have breakfast with Pete. I love you. And then he hung up the phone. So that is fucking interesting. So they heard some of it on a recording here as well. One person said, they'll try. Or one recording they got on there was all of that. And they also recorded. They might try to plant evidence. They plant marijuana, like, they'll plant weed on you. Nothing to gain, everything to lose. You just don't think you'll win the game. If you care about me, I advise you not to talk to them. They're going to lock you up. I can't be around you. Also, my life is fucked. You need to keep on repeating it. They will play on your fear. And I love you, too. Oh, man, that's fucking funny. Then another time, he's on the phone with Dana. They hear Joel say, okay, Dana, okay, After I call. Okay, tell her to call me and I'll talk to her. Right? Okay. Okay, I'll do that. So I call her back, right? They heard him saying that. Then they heard him say would be a mistake. So I called her parents and told them what kind of deep shit she's getting into. And her mom called, which was this morning. I called her. Then I called my wolf guy. That's the lawyer. Joel expressed concern that either the telephones were being tapped or there were snitches.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh.

[James Petregallo]

And suggested someone is running around listening. Listening to us or something. Not bad. I'm telling you, they have a lot of, like, senses for this. Anyway, from June 3rd, he's doing terrific with.

[Jimmy Wisman]

With.

[James Petregallo]

He's like, they're listening to me. Let me say. Terrible shit.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's what's done with the backdoor stuff. He just doesn't realize that they've caught on.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, well, it's weird to Say, I think they're listening. And then say incriminating shit. That's really a weird response to that. So you'd say, I think they're like, don't say anything about the thing. You know what I mean? Like, fuck. So on the afternoon of June 3, Joel received a page bearing Ponce's page or number and numeric code. He also received a page with a numeric code from a pay telephone from San Jose Jet Center. Ten minutes later, Dana was seen conversing on the phone. A detective tried to overhear the conversation. During one of these, Joel asked, then why don't you. Then why don't they just pick us up? I call him like I just called him now I got to talk to my guy and see if they can actually charge. Charged me with something in that three shirt deal. I don't know how three shirt now. Three murders, triple homicide. Three shirt deal. I don't know how far that goes. Yeah, yeah, no problem. Right? And then he also said that he wanted us to be extra careful and that we just gotta hang tough about three shirts. About the three shirts. That's like saying, are you gonna bring over the ounce of pencils that I asked for? What time will you be here with my ounce of pencils?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Don't forget that. QP A, Gatorade.

[James Petregallo]

Don't forget that. I need that. I need an ounce of jeans. So can you bring that to me? I actually, I'll never forget that because I remember a kid actually saying that on the phone when I was a teenager. He said, I need an ounce of jeans. And I was like, just fucking say weed. They get it. It's an ounce. If no one's listening, we're teenagers. What are you doing?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Even if they are not fooling them.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, and jeans almost rhymes with weed too. So it's like I was like, this is the worst fucking. The worst fucking code I've ever heard in my life. So November 15, 1993, Dana and Joel enroll with Aqua Sports in Fresno for scuba diving lessons. They both gave the Murder House as their address. They selected the same classes, took their classes and pool sessions at the same times, and performed their open water dives and received their certifications on the same date. Isn't that cute? So how much money have they spent here?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Well, gotta know, I mean, thousands.

[James Petregallo]

Between April 1992 and March 1995, Dana withdrew a total of. And this is just in cash, okay. Withdrew a total of $124,153 in unaccounted for cash from various accounts. Cash. Yeah, yeah. This was cash. Which could not be traced to specific expenditures or transactions. One bank record revealed that most of Yule's withdrawals from the bank were in $100 bills with secondarily $50 bills. Other bank records didn't provide that information of denominations. Between January 93 and February 1995, Joel took airplane and additional helicopter lessons from various flight schools in Los Angeles. The cost of the lessons exceeded $21,000 and may have exceeded $33,000. Joel always paid cash and hundred dollar bills, by the way. Interesting. Would have cost a minimum of $43,000 for him to obtain all of the flight certifications that he ended up with. So someone paid 43 grand in cash for him. And I think we know who that is. March 16, 1994. Joel is seen inside Dana's airplane hangar on. That's right before they sold the joint there. 3-16-94. Dana and Joel both exited Dana's plane when it landed at the Fresno airport. Now, during all this, extensive investigation of the physical evidence is taking place to unusual scratches on the bearing surfaces of the six bullets recovered from the crime scene. And autopsies led them, and especially this Alan Border Boudreaux, a firearms expert, to determine all six bullets were fired by the same weapon. That the weapon had a portal, a ported barrel, which holes are been drilled in it, and that a homemade silencer was used. That's what caused the scratching. He also determined the weapon was not a revolver or the Browning that was missing from the Park Circle Drive residence. Further investigation led him to find the 89 manufactured by Feather Industries with a barrel made by Green Mountain Barrels, which we talked about before. That's the 2-18-94. Ponce admitted to detectives that he had purchased an AT9. He first, like we said, said he bought it for himself for his birthday and that Joel had never even seen it and that the gun had been stolen from him.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

In a subsequent interview, though, he continued to lie and denied that it was his gun which was used in the homicides. Even when they said they believe you have given or loaned the gun to a man but had nothing to do with the killings, we think that's what happened. Someone asked to borrow your gun, you lent it to them. You didn't know that was going to be used for killings. And he kept to his story of not knowing anything because he had heard of a case in which the person who supplied the gun received a long prison term. So he wouldn't say shit. Now, March 2, 1995. Dana, Joel and Ernest Are all arrested Ponce there too? Ponce was. I believe it's Ponce that was quickly arrested. While working at a TGI Fridays near his San Bernardino home. Joel was arrested. He's. He's fucking. He is slinging fucking Jack Daniels chicken. And Joel is arrested at a Taco Bell in la. Jesus, man.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Fucking diet for these two.

[James Petregallo]

That's what I mean. It's terrible. I mean, they are 24 or some shit, but still. The deputies wanted to arrest Dana by nightfall, but he was gone. And they didn't know where he was. So they put an APB out on him. He ends up surrendering at the Long Beach Police Department. All the way down in Long Beach. His lawyer said he surrendered as new as. As soon as he knew he was wanted. By the way, Ponce will help detectives find the gun barrel that they're looking for as well. Yeah. They also arrest Joel's brother Peter, who's 26 years old. They arrest him too. Not great here. So there are a lot of people arrested here, Dana.

[Jimmy Wisman]

What did Peter do?

[James Petregallo]

They think we'll talk about it. They think he was involved and was helping. Helping out with this whole thing. They said Dana, in his court appearance, was wearing handcuffs and a maroon jail issue jumpsuit. When he appeared, the detective, Chris Curtis, one of the guys who had been following him around for everything, showed up in court to look at him. And he said, I just wanted to see if he'd have a polo pony on his jumpsuit. So during a March 2, 1995 search of the home of Joel's mother, a container of drill bits was seized from the garage. In the drill bit index, Boudreau found particulate matter, which included larger white particles, drill turnings, and small pieces of what appeared to be steel wool. He also found a lot of particulate matter on the clothes Glee was wearing when she was killed, including small metallic particles, Particles of what appeared to be a dark, rubbery type substance, and a fluorescent yellow fibers which were consistent with the nap on tennis balls.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Huh.

[James Petregallo]

Boudreaux obtained an 89 and various. Yep, you got it. I was waiting for it to click in. I was like, fuck, yeah. Making homemade silencers out of tennis balls.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Drilling out tennis balls and putting it on the front of his gun with.

[James Petregallo]

Steel wool inside of it. Basically making a tennis ball brillo pad. You can make either a silencer or a great meth pipe with that. One of the two.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's the only thing you're using.

[James Petregallo]

Yep. So boudreaux obtained in at 9 various barrels. Also constructed a silencer out of PVC pipe, tennis balls and steel wool, as shown in a book on how to make silencers. Because they figured that'd be the only way they'd know how. This is pre Internet, so. And use the porting configuration Contained in a barrel Whose location was revealed by jack pont and conducted test firing. So drilled the holes the same way. He concluded that the tennis ball particles, Such as those found on glee's clothing and in the piece of the carpet which had been under glee's body, which would have been ejected had a bullet been fired through a sound suppressor made with tennis balls. And that steel wool particles, again, Such as those found in glee's clothing, Would have also been ejected from a homemade sound suppressor. Boudreaux also determined that the piece of carpet Contained particles of chrome, molybdenum, Molybdenum, moleb. Molybdenum, Steel like or of like composition to drilled metal specimens from green mountain barrels. So matching it all up, they cleaned the recovery same metal. Boudreaux clean the recovered barrel, which was packed with dirt as. Because when he. Oh, my God. When they hid the fucking barrel. This is what's so ridiculous. When they hid the barrel, they tried to just drive it into the ground. Yeah, but the guy was driving it in, Realized he didn't. He was touching it, and it was, like, in the fucking ground more. So he just stomped it into it more to get it, like, way into the ground. So that's how they. That's where they found it. So it's packed with fucking with, you know, dirt, they said. In the course of cleaning the barrel, Boudreau discovered steel wool fibers inside. The movement of gases which occurred when it occurs when a weapon is fired, Would move steel wool in a sound suppressor from the outside of the barrel to the inside. Boudreau conducted test firings with the barrel and concluded all six crime scene bullets were fired through it. They're fucked. Now, Joel's brother Peter was arrested for three counts of murder. Same thing as ponce. Everyone was arrested for triple murder. Now, Peter became friends with Jack ponce When both were in high school. They remained friends following Peter's 1989 marriage to Danielle. Another woman. Peter, who was employed by sketchley mason as a plumber. And had a workshop set up in his garage, Occasionally accompanied ponce to a shooting range Called the firing lane. Ponce was a good shot. Joel, who knew Ponce, did not accompany them. Nor did Peter know go with. Allow him to go to the range ranges with them. So Peter and ponce would either rent weapons at the range or use a weapon belonging to Ponce. Ponce had a llama semiautomatic pistol which belonged to his stepfather. And the gun tended to jam. At some point, possibly the summer of 91, Peter unsuccessfully attempted to solder a barrel extension that Radovich that Joel gave him onto a.22 caliber firearm which belonged to Ponce but was in Joel's possession. Following Joel's graduation from college, he had Peter braze an extension tube which Joel provided onto the end of a barrel of Ponce's llama. Okay, so he does barrel work and does shit like this is what they're trying to get at. Peter understood the work was being done in order to build a silencer. Peter performed the work inside his parents garage and later heard a weapon being fired inside, Although did not see a finished silencer. He did not see the llama again until after the homicides. Sometime after Easter Sunday, though, a panicked Joel unexpectedly came to the apartment one night and told Peter that he had gotten a code. Peter gotten a code Peter assumed meant on his pager and needed to get out of town. He said Peter might see his face on America's Most Wanted. Oh, that's not a good thing to say. When Peter refused to help him, Joel left and Peter didn't see him again for two weeks. And Peter's garage was a large box of Joel large box in which Joel stored a variety of shit. At some point, Peter saw a backpack in there that has not been present since. Sometime after dark on April 22, 1992, day after the bodies were found, Peter was in his garage when either Ponce or Joel handed him the backpack. A cardboard box which contained a Soldier of Fortune magazine. Why is it always Soldier of Fortune in this show? How many times does that fucking magazine come up in the show?

[Jimmy Wisman]

That magazine's responsible for more murders than.

[James Petregallo]

Any other magazine other than those detective magazines that all the BTK's and people got horny about in the 50s and 60s.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I would say these are worse because there's only a couple serial killers that read those shits and a lot of them read them afterwards. These fuckers all read this.

[James Petregallo]

That is wild. As well as five to ten paperback books with pictures of guns on the covers and a pair of gray Nike tennis shoes. Peter was told to dispose of the items. He took them to his shop at Sketchley Mason, where he was joined by Ponce. Joel was not there. At the shop, Peter looked inside the backpack and discovered gun parts. He believed that three guns, all of which were in pieces, were in the backpack. One was the Llama, which still had the extension welded onto it. Peter broke it off. Also in the backpack was the barrel onto which Peter had welded the washer. The washer was off, and the barrel was full of holes. The barrel and the stock, which was also in the backpack, were consistent with a photograph of an AT9, which they showed later on. The other weapon in the backpack was a semi automatic pistol of some sort. It also had holes in it. None of the weapons was a revolver, and all had holes where the serial numbers used to be. Also in the backpack were a lot of brass shell casings, tennis balls that were cut in half, and a cylindrical object with PVC caps at the end. Peter believed this to be the silencer. So Peter and Ponce were at the shop for about a half hour. Ponce sprayed the bag's contents with WD40 to take off fingerprints that'll eat the oils. When they left, Peter drove and stopped at various locations, then remained in the vehicle while Ponce got out and threw things away. At one point, Peter asked Ponce whether the the gun. He did not specify which one was thrown away, and Ponce said no. Ponce suggested their general route, which took them to a commercial district in the San Fernando Valley and all through a bunch of other shit here. Eventually, all Ponce had in the backpack, which contained the. Was the barrel. Basically, Peter was in a hurry to get home because his wife had been paging him, and the Ponce said he would get rid of the barrel. So they returned to Peter's residence. Peter went to his apartment while Ponce left in his own vehicle. And that's what happened there. And then Ponce went and buried the shit in the ground. So now Ernest Jack Ponce here. Jack Ponce, he's arrested also for three counts of murder. He is going to get an immunity agreement, though. Oh, and yeah, they're gonna let him have immunity if as long as he testifies against these other two dipshits. So he. Ponce and Peter were friends. They had both fought. They had fallen out of contact with each other after college. But then around 1990, they started hooking up again and hanging out, and they ended up, at one point, stealing two motorcycles together.

[Jimmy Wisman]

What?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. And also, they had helped each other steal car parts at one point, apparently. Guys, that sounds very Fresno.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Stop crimin. Together.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, don't do that anymore. You're done. Don't murder with people you've done other crimes with also. And then during the summer of 91, that's when Ponce learned that Joel was looking for a gun that he didn't have to put his name on. And Then they were talking about silencers and all that kind of shit. In March, Joel and Ponce, they basically got an at 9. Ponce needed money in order to purchase the Sketchley Mason van in which they intended to. He intended to live and agreed to buy the gun. Joel said, did not say why he wanted the gun or why he needed it immediately. So sometime later, Ponce received. It's a little bit at least after the murders. Sometime Later, Ponce received $1,500 in $100 bills, as we know what that's like from Joel. On March 23, 1992, Ponce purchased the AT9 from National Gun Sales and Reseda for $437. And at Joel's request, he later also purchased an extra clip and some subsonic ammunition. Joel paid Ponce $500 for making the purchases, and Ponce returned the rest of the cash to him. Ponce picked up the weapon after the waiting period. And yeah, Ponce said that when Ponce turned over the gun, Joel told him to report it stolen. After a while, Ponce did so about six months later when his car was burglarized. And Joel criticized this as being too soon. It's too, too shady. Need to be. Later in making his report to the police, Ponce named a friend's roommate as a suspect.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh.

[James Petregallo]

Ponce saw. Next saw the AT9 not too long after April 8. The gun, which was in the garage of Joel's residence. His family, residents anyway, his parents now had a silencer on it that looked like a PVC pipe. Ponce saw Joel fire the gun into a block of wood. The silencer muffled the sound. Ponce believed that Joel was going to sell the weapon, asked if Joel was going to make a lot of money off the gun, and he said, oh, yeah, you bet. Just in a different way. At one point, Joel told Ponce that the silencer was a series of baffles made out of cut up tennis balls. And later said he found that steel mesh worked better. So yeah, at some point, Ponce saw a shell catcher in the garage.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, really?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, shell catcher, man.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You put that right on the top.

[James Petregallo]

And it catches your shells so you don't leave casings. Joel said he had fired the weapon once and then spent a half hour finding the shell. So he constructed a shell catcher.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, he made it. It's homemade.

[James Petregallo]

It's homemade. A small plastic box that was glued on the outside of the slide to catch the shells when they were ejected. Glued. That's gonna work class, man. Jesus Christ. That is fucking funny, man. So sometimes imagine.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, the fucking. These guys are shitbags. Imagine being murdered with something with Glue all over it. And some fucking glue.

[James Petregallo]

And tennis balls and Brillo pads. What kind of a crackhead shot me? Oh, you crackhead fuck. Jesus Christ.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You fucking scumbag.

[James Petregallo]

You people are pure scum. Sometime after Easter, Ponce believed it was the night of April 12th or 21st Tuesday. Ponce received a telephone call from Joel who said that something was wrong and that he needed to come over. Ponce, who was staying at a girlfriend's condo, let Joel come into the closed parking structure where Joel parked his car and then covered it. He said he didn't want anyone to see it. He appeared nervous and worried and was looking around and kept his hood up over his head, you know, so he doesn't look suspicious. Joel kept frantically repeating that he did not know what had gone wrong. He said he needed to get as far away as possible. As Joel and Ponce entered the elevator and proceeded to the condominium, Ponce asked what was wrong, and Joel said, it has to do with a triple homicide and me. Okay. Then Ponce told Joel not to tell him anymore. I don't want to fucking know anymore. The two later went for a ride, and Joel was pondering places he might go. Ponce suggested that if he didn't know what was going to happen, he could get a lawyer. When Joel said no, he couldn't do that, Ponce began to think that Joel might be more than just accidentally involved in whatever was going on with respect to the reason why it happened. Joel said something to the effect of it had to do with $8 million. And that, quote, we're going to assume the throne now. April 29, 1992, a week later, is when the Rodney King riot started, when the Los Angeles riots started and continued for several days. During this time, Joel was using Ponce's van, and Joel and Ponce drove to the Malibu area, where there was, I assume, no rioting. Yeah, they there. They sat down on the beach. Joel had not officially heard what, if anything, had happened and was trying to figure out what had gone wrong with the murder, not with Rodney King. We knew what went wrong there, so that was pretty obvious. Ponce invited him to explain what happened, so he does. He spills it. Now, Joel says that he had shot three people with the 89 and that it had been done to split $8 million as part of an inheritance. Ponce already knew it was the Yule family, obviously, although Joel did not tell him the name at the time. Joel said the shootings took place in Fresno and that he'd been to the home prior to the homicides. He said he knew the family would be away at the time he arrived and that he knew roughly the time they would return. He said he had previously removed all of his body hair. Oh wow.

[Jimmy Wisman]

He did some shaving, huh?

[James Petregallo]

Knewing he would be there a long time. Long enough where he would have to use the bathroom and didn't want to leave. He might drop a fucking pube on there. Drop your taint. Fucking scratch on there.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Walking into a urinal.

[James Petregallo]

There's dick hair all over it. Yeah, it's all. That's all there is. Everywhere is dickhead everywhere. So Joel related that he drove his car to Fresno, but he didn't say how long, how he gained entry into the house. He said there was a window leading into the garage that did not have an alarm on it, but he didn't say whether he used that window. He said he arrived before the family did and got the AT9 into the house by loading it in his backpack. Once inside, he took the gun out and assembled it. He related that he brought some plastic sheets to lie in, although he did not say where he waited for the family so he wouldn't leave anything behind. He said he had to sleep on the plastic and that he wore rubber latex gloves. So he just camped out in the house waiting for these fucking people. Joel described the Yule home as lush digs. Said the mother and daughter arrived first. He said the daughter walked by the laundry room where he was waiting and he shot her in the back of the head and she fell straight down. He said the mother must not have heard it because she kept talking. He said he went and shot her and that she was possibly the only person who saw him. He said he had to shoot her multiple times and had to put a new clip in after that to shoot her a bunch. He also said that he put on a different pair of gloves for some reason. He then waited for the father to come home. He said he didn't say how long he had to wait when the father came in the door. He said he waited until the door closed and the father walked past the room where he was located, just like the cops thought. Joel then stepped out and shot him. The father who was in the hallway was shot in the throat area and something came out of his eye. That's what he said. He shot in the back of the neck and it came out something. I don't know what it was. Joel said he heard a gurgling sound, that there was something oozing out of his eye, which is why he thought that he was probably dead.

[Jimmy Wisman]

He shot. Wow, that's A terrible way to die. That man bled to death. He didn't even like. He was probably conscious. That's fucked up.

[James Petregallo]

That's real fucked up. With a bullet, probably severed a spinal cord, took out his eye. That's fucking horrifying.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Jesus.

[James Petregallo]

Joel told Ponce that after the shootings, he tried to check the victim's pulses by digging his gloved forefingers into their people's forearms to try to get a pulse. Ponce told him that probably would not have worked very well and demonstrated how you do it on your wrist. This guy didn't know how to check a pulse. He was feeling around their forearms for it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Just jamming it through the thing.

[James Petregallo]

It's so strange, Joel. I don't know which one that is. Joel, one of them. Joel further related that he took a cover weapon and some money. Ponce. Ponce believed it was the fifteen hundred dollars that Joel had from. At the hotel, from the house. Joel said he took a weapon because he had learned that a cover weapon is taken to throw people off concerning what gun was actually used. That's why he stole the brownie. Joel said that after the shootings, he disassembled the AT9 on a desk in an office and took off the gloves. He said he thought he might have left one of the gloves as he was wearing multiple pairs. And that was the only thing he could think of that went wrong. He said he put the disassembled weapon in the backpack. He also related that the shell catcher had malfunctioned. He said he had to wait a while so he could leave when it was dark outside. He then told Ponce that he had committed the murders to split the inheritance, which he thought was $8 million. Joel said he would have to wait approximately three years for the money. Several times during the discussion, Ponce castigated Joel for using the gun that he had supplied. He's like, I gave you that gun. What the fuck are you doing? And each time he apologized, Joel did. And on the way home, Joel said, quote, if there's a God, I'm fucked.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, I would say so.

[James Petregallo]

Sometime later, Ponce asked Joel what he would do or say if the police asked him his whereabouts on Easter Sunday. And Joel responded that he might say he was at Hamrick because it was 24 hours a day and it was hard to tell who was there at any given time.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's why he said it.

[James Petregallo]

That's it. So they searched the apartment also. Here, this is July 3rd, 1994. Oh, this is. They were. He was renting an apartment from July to march from 94 to 95 you a Dana rented an apartment at Broadcast Center Apartments in Los Angeles. The gas account was in the name of Dan James, but payment was made by cashiers check one of which bore the name of Dana Yule as the purchaser. So following Dana's arrest, the defense investigator moved property from the apartment to a mini storage unit in Fresno. The pager belonging to Mike Johnson was subsequently received, retrieved from the mini storage unit. A gun cleaning kit bearing Joel's fingerprint was also seized from the mini storage unit, as were two pistols. A box that matched one of the weapons which was purchased in 1993, was found during the March 1995 search of the murder house. Also found in the mini storage was a Kenwood receiver, which was consistent with brochures found during the search of the residence as well. March 6, 1995. Estate lawyers begin freezing Dana's assets.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, fuck.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Today. This was the day he was supposed to get the first chunk of his money. That's why they arrested him ahead of time. It was supposed to be more than $1.5 million in cash and properties. Instead he's sitting in a fucking jumpsuit in a county jail. A court hearing on the matter has been pushed aside by another, which is his arrangement for murder. So the executor of the estate, though, planned to put more than $1.5 million in property and cash into the trust that day. The trustee was to be John Hyle, who they hired to oversee Western Piper sales here, which has been sold. Now they said he would have final say in which items and preliminary discretion. They were going to give him 250 grand in cash, plus the two farms in Merced County. That's what they were going to give him that day. Transfer from the estate to the trust would have given him influence over what would have been done with the assets. So as it is, they said that preliminary distribution is postponed until further developments in court. Yeah, Dana has no cash as his problem now. It's been more than three years and it left him in control of, you know, nearly $400,000 of his wealthy grandmother's trust fund. He's had access to as well. But the account was down to less than $2,000 when he was arrested. Wow.

[Jimmy Wisman]

What?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, he was cash poor. Spent like a fuck, dude. He's just bending, spending, spending on everything.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Like he's got fixed wing and helicopter fucking licenses.

[James Petregallo]

Same. Same thing the Menendez brothers did. It was like winning the lottery to them. They didn't have to work for that money, so they were like, and when you.

[Jimmy Wisman]

When you first get money, you got to set yourself up after you got.

[James Petregallo]

To get a car and a place and clothes.

[Jimmy Wisman]

So hard to get rich.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, rich.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Then you spend it all. Then you got to maintain that.

[James Petregallo]

Then you got to maintain it. At least you have stuff at that point. So that's a big deal, they said. Armed with stacks of search warrants, the prosecutors here learned of bank accounts in Fresno, Pasadena, Los Angeles, Woodland Hills, Beverly Hills and Granada Hills. A total of 27 accounts at 14 different banks. Some are in Dana's name only, while others he held jointly with his grandmother, Glee Mitchell, while others were joint accounts with his girlfriend Monica, who used to work in a bank. By the way they searched is described in confidential records as they asked for permission to subpoena financial records and wrote, Dana Yule and Monica Zent have taken extraordinary measures to conceal the cash flow taken from Glee Mitchell Trust and to disguise the source of the funds. March 8, 1995. Ponce is released after agreeing to be a prosecution witness. And so is Peter, because he agrees to testify against his brother. And he. They let him go, too. So they got all the information we told you earlier about all that they spilled. They're gonna testify to every bit of that shit now. Trial comes up, okay. Big thing is, prosecution wants to show all those people from back in the day that said he's obsessed with money. All he cares about is money. He lies to show how much money he has. And the defense is saying, that's irrelevant.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh.

[James Petregallo]

And they're saying, no, it's not irrelevant because it shows that he was so concerned with status and money that he was willing to lie for it and willing to fucking do everything for it. Do anything for it, including kill people. So this trial lasts eight months, by the way. Wow. Eight months. That's longer.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Expensive.

[James Petregallo]

That's longer than OJ's trial. Think about that. How long that was longer? Eight months. I don't even. I don't even know how long. Wow. I mean, I know, like, federal trials can go on forever, but usually, yeah, I don't know. State murder trial.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You're entitled to a speedy trial. Eight months?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Speedy at all.

[James Petregallo]

A guy I knew, his brother was involved. He's a mob guy. He was involved in the longest federal trial that ever happened. It's a Vin Diesel movie, by the way. And that was because there was, like, fucking 20 defendants that had, you know, lists of charges 17 miles long and RICO shit and all this stuff. Murders and financial shit. So Joel's attorney believing the evidence Was so overwhelming against Joel that a guilty verdict was probable. Made his main goal, avoiding the death penalty. Because the death penalty's. They're going for the death penalty on both of these guys for sure.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So the prosecutor in his opening said Jack Ponce also tells us about what Joel said about why he committed the murders. He. Joel says that he committed the murders in order to split the $8 million inheritance. That's only admissible against Joel. And he stated that he expected to collect half his half of the proceeds when Dana turned 25, due to a stipulation in the will. They said, finally, against both. Admissible against both. Admissible against both. Joel tells Jack Ponce, we're going to assume the throne. And he tells him, I hope there's no God, because if there is, I'm fucked.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That is crazy. He helped his dad get all his finances in order. He saw how much it was and was like, well, this motherfucker and everybody else is dead.

[James Petregallo]

Killed him within three weeks.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

He's like, you have that much money? Holy shit. I'm gonna kill everybody, especially Tiffany, because I'm not giving that dullard half of this shit. You know, that's what that asshole was thinking. I'm not giving old fucking, you know, eggshell skull over there shit.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Rusty brain. Fuck her.

[James Petregallo]

Nothing. So in opening statements, defense attorney said, uh, did the. The evidence will show that Joel and Dana were good friends? Did you notice a few minutes ago, the prosecutor started to bring up promissory notes? That's correct. Promissory notes. They got the case and material and all this money turned over. You heard the evidence that Mr. Ponce is going to say? Mr. Ponce is going to say that Joel's going to get 4 million bucks at the $8 million estate. A man who's going to get $4 million has to sign promissory notes to Mr. Businessman Dana Ewell to repay back $16,000. Think of that in your inferences and in your evidence. That's why he wanted to bring it up now. He said, yes, there was some money given to him. He made him sign promissory notes. Okay? So they talk about that. Also discussed the statement concerning assuming the throne and argued it was ludicrous because Dana was already on the throne. In the apex of life. He was already on the throne. So childhood friend of Dana's testifies saying, quote, I've never known anybody like Dana in the respect that when one judges their life's worth or life's value. Nobody has come close to Dana in all the people that I have met. And come in contact with and have been friends with to where money has been the most single most important determining factor of one's value. The most. And they also said, compare the relative degree of Dana's interest in money to other people. And the response is like, scale of 1 to 10. It was an 11. To him it was. I don't know, he didn't feed on it. It was a high. A big interest in him. Like, money makes things go round and people, you know, money won't necessarily make you happy, but it can buy you the Porsche you want and it can buy you the ski lodge that you want. And I don't know, I think money made him very happy. The impression that he had a lot of money. Michael Poindexter said, he's the greediest person I've ever met in my life. And they said, did you ever describe that character as Dana wanting you to think he was as rich as God? And he said, as rich or richer. So he said he wanted to show everyone how much money you have. Talk about the money, dress in the nicest clothes, make sure everyone knows you've got the expensive car, the expensive house, come from a well to do family. Let people know you always have cash. It would be completely in line to say you would always pay with big bills because it made you look like you have more money. When you go to buy a candy bar, you say, can you break 100? It's the smallest I have. That was his type of flashiness. Now, some women say he was a nice guy. A bunch of women testify. Yeah, one guy said that even Joel was a nice guy. He sent me a beautiful framed picture of Marilyn Monroe. This one said people from like college and shit like that.

[Jimmy Wisman]

He's dating women that like framed pictures of Marilyn Monroe.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, it's very easy to please those girls. You give them a framed picture of Marilyn Monroe, no matter how many they already have, they'll love it. They'll put more up. One person describes Joel as a shady character. And she said, but by shady, I mean he's mysterious and internalized. No, that is not at all what that fucking means. They talk about his lack of alibi, the fact that his family went to church, but he didn't go with them that day, all of that shit. Ernest Jack Ponce testifies and says everything there. He describes the murders from Joel's standpoint, but says, and I saw the. I then corrected himself. Several jurors later believe that Ponce was there with him. That's what they believe. They believe that Ponce was There with him. Um, that's why he said, then I saw the eye. Not then. Joel said he saw the eye. So they think. But Ponce passed the lie detector test too, so.

[Jimmy Wisman]

So he probably wasn't there, but he knows what he's doing.

[James Petregallo]

Closings, they said. So what happens here with all this scheming? Dana finds himself as the toast of the town there in Santa Clara, running around in his suits, driving his gold Mercedes. Have you ever seen how very, very rich people, men, get treated by their fellow men? Have you ever seen that? But it's. I know not all of us treat them that way, but there's a great deal of power, admiration, respect, even sexual attraction that's accorded to the so called rich. All these things come to a person perceived to be, or actually be wealthy. And that's what Dana was putting out there. The defense here said that they ridiculed the prosecutor's references to Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky, labeling the prosecution's assessment of motive as garbage, and said, this is ridiculous. That's crazy. You think that wasn't a planned question. The one about richer than God? He said, no, not going to be richer than God, but he's going to be richer than Moses or something. He's not going to have that kind of an answer. Part of that garbage. I have evidence. Throw it against the wall and see what sticks.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Maybe one of the backup dancers.

[James Petregallo]

Maybe one of those. Maybe Kevin Federline or some bullshit. Yeah, we both went to her stable somehow. Verdict comes in, jury deliberates for 11 days.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Jesus. Might as well, I mean, eight months. How are you gonna do that in less than a week?

[James Petregallo]

Both found guilty of first degree murder. First degree sentencing now. Death penalty on the table. Okay. The jury is deadlocked during sentencing.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Can't figure it out.

[James Petregallo]

Can't figure it out. So the judge declares a defense. Default sentence of you says may fuck off. Life in prison without parole. So they're there in prison. Dana's in the protective housing unit of the California State Prison at Cochrane, along with a lot of other murderers and Charles Manson and Sirhan Sirhan. High profile people. They put in that he tries to get executive clemency in January 2022. That shit didn't work. His appeal didn't work either. He won a couple of points, but not the ones about murder. Unfortunately, not the ones that matter. No. 2023, the house was for sale.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, really?

[James Petregallo]

3,600 square foot. Blah, blah, blah, blah. They said it was listed for 559. It sold for 480.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, my God.

[James Petregallo]

Sold for way below what they wanted for. It's a fucking murder house too.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

People were slaughtered there.

[Jimmy Wisman]

They wanted 550 for it.

[James Petregallo]

Yep. It had been sold in 1998 for 175,000. And then they ended up.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's a great return.

[James Petregallo]

Not bad. So. Yeah, he's there 2024. Dana wants a retrial. He said he's been. He's been. The appeal is a long, powerful, and it's substantial. The trial procedure violations are ones that very much go to the guilt or innocent of Dana. And it's the appeal that the California General Attorney General will be worried about. He's also said he's a devout Christian now. Yep. He said God has allowed me some extraordinary events to occur in my life and completely broke me down and rebuilt me back up in the love of Christ. Okay, great. Terrific. Good. Then you can worship Jesus in there for the rest of your fucking life. Enjoy.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You're a free to do so. I mean, that's the only free you are.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. And the prosecutor said, I mean, that's nice and all, but he said also Dana's the kind of guy who would say something to make you believe what you want to believe. So he said, I just can't believe that anyone who did what he did has professed love to find God. Yeah, I agree. Right now, if you go to inmate.com you can hang out with Dana because he's looking for ladies here.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, is he?

[James Petregallo]

Oh, yeah, he's on there. Dana Yule, inmate.com experience it says the most brutal of all teachers. But you learn. My God, do you learn? C.S. lewis. He puts at the top. If you can relate to the above, you're not alone. A finance graduate from Santa Clara University was pursuing a career on Wall street when my dishonest, self defeating behavior and bad decisions resulted in devastating consequences. Coming to prison became a turning point, a life changing opportunity where I realized how lost and totally depraved I had become. In my pride, a chaplain spoke about the Gospel's message of grace. And that's when everything changed. So he keeps going, he says. Born and raised in Central California, I grew up around general aviation and learned how to fly airplanes as a teenager. I also love to travel and play tennis. Blah, blah, blah. How about you? It's amazing how God works in our lives, isn't it? Never could I have imagined that coming to prison would be the best thing that's happened to me. But it was. Jesus taught me that love is stronger than hate. And Forgiveness is stronger than revenge. You can write to him at Dana Yule, P04759 CSP COR4A 4R16L.PO Box 3476, Corcoran, California.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I love that they make it real fucking hard.

[James Petregallo]

Fucking difficult. Who the hell can find that? The case has been covered by a shitload of TV shows, including the Forensic Files, New Detective, City Confidential. Behind mansion walls. That's a stretch there. So, yeah.

[Jimmy Wisman]

550 now.

[James Petregallo]

I mean, it's 3,600 square feet. Nice house, but not a mansion burial. Whole family seems to be buried at Belmont Memorial park in Fresno. In the garden of The Apostles, Section 2020, Space 6. And Ernest Jack Ponce. Maybe the biggest surprise of this whole thing, became an attorney in Orange County.

[Jimmy Wisman]

What?

[James Petregallo]

Yes. Never responded for repeated emails and requests for any of these people to talk to him.

[Jimmy Wisman]

But let's talk about that one crime.

[James Petregallo]

We don't know what happened, what he was doing, but he's a fucking lawyer now, so quickly, we'll bust through the end here. Thank you so much for listening. If you like that show, please tell the goddamn world about it. Get on whatever app you're listening on. Give us five stars. It helps a ton. Dana sucks is a fine thing to say. Definitely do that. You should also follow on social media at Smalltown Murder on Instagram, Small Town Pot on Facebook. Definitely do. Shut up and give me murder dot com. Get your tickets for live shows. April 19th. Virtual live show. The 420. Virtual live show. Just like a regular live show, except you're in your living room, wherever you are in the world with WI Fi and we are in costumes and we're gonna get super stone with crazy bongs and I'll make Jimmy smoke them. It's gonna be fun. Tickets for live shows. Chicago in May. Get your goddamn tickets now. St Louis is sold out. Do that. Shutupandgivemerder.com Patreon.com CrimeAndSports all the bonus material you want. $5 a month or above. Whole back catalog. Hundreds of episodes. You get immediately. New ones every other week. One Crime and sports. One Small Town Murder. You get it all this week. Crime and Sports. More sports songs. Let's hear Manny Pacquiao singing Chris Weber. Rap. Fuck it. And for Small Town Murder. Louis Carlucci, con man. Casanova guy from the 80s that had like 20 women he was like half married to. They're searching all over the city. No one can find him. Huge con man. Hilarious shit. We'll talk all about that. Patreon.com, crime and sports. And you get a shout out at the end of the show, which is right now. Jimmy, hit me with the names of the people who are so goddamn wonderful they never shoot us with homemade silencers.

[Jimmy Wisman]

This week's executive producers are Sammy the Judgmental Potato, whatever that is.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, I love a judgmental. I love a potato with sentient emotions. That's what I like.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Danielle Schmidt, happy birthday. Good for you. Thank you for participating in this. For your birthday, I think. Aaron Snyder's birthday, too. Holy.

[James Petregallo]

Happy birthday, everybody.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Christina Wilson's birthday, too. It might be all of these people's birthday.

[James Petregallo]

Everybody's birthday. All of your parents. Yeah. In whatever it is. June, I don't know.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And Danny with Summerfuckers. Danny with an eye with no last name. Thank you. No birthday. Thank you, Danny.

[James Petregallo]

She or he probably get it together with a birthday.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I don't know. They are terrific.

[James Petregallo]

Thank you.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Good people. Other producers this week are Happy Hour in Claysville, Pennsylvania. Is that that town we drove? Was it Claysville?

[James Petregallo]

It's one of them, I think. Yeah. There was like, on the way to Columbus. Yeah. We looked it up and we're like, God. And we were like, there's that many. It doesn't look like it. It's like it's, well, abandoned.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah. Janice Hill. I think it was that. And I. I believe.

[James Petregallo]

Sounds right.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I'll bet. Happy Hours on the same ride from Pittsburgh to Columbus.

[James Petregallo]

Wouldn't surprise me.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Tough ride. Happy Hour. Peyton Meadows. Alyssa Gant. Giant Gant, perhaps. Thank you. Also Justin Stepanow. Andrea. Nope, That's Adrian Mora. Savannah Eichenauer. Yep. Justine, Margot, Patricia. I think that's too. That might be Justine. Marco might be a person. And I didn't hit Enter and get Patricia with no last name. Or Margo. Patricia. Maybe that's her. Is that your full?

[James Petregallo]

Justine, Margot, Patricia.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's three people, three first names. Justin Petrak. Petrak Patrak. Probably Jamie Smith. Alexander. Clear. Caitlyn with no last name. Andrea Menard. Laura Decker. Chris with no last name. Kimberly. Carl. Chad Chatterson. Alexis Larson. Arie. Ari.

[James Petregallo]

Ari.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Martin. Diana. Diana. Is that right? Ply wax. Ply wax.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, I don't know.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Deanna. Diana is a diner know. Lindsette. That's probably Lindsay. The T and the Y are close together. Harris. I don't know what I've done this week. David Dudro. Rihanna or Raina. Jamie Oberle. Rihanna has no last name. Mateo has no last name. Dodie McCully. The Jacks of All Trades. James. I think that's a Jacks, isn't it? It's Jacks of all. Joshua Deland. Emma O'Brien. Amanda Duprow. Michael Hall. Tara Fisher.

[James Petregallo]

Kathy. Michael.

[Jimmy Wisman]

No last name. Brittany Marie. Gina Perry. Denise Durham. Mark Molesky. That sounds too close.

[James Petregallo]

Better than molested. Yeah, it's better than that.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's a tough last.

[James Petregallo]

Make sure to enunciate, Mark. Enunciate. Key.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Kristen Svara Jones. Nikki Allen. J. Jolie. 2004. Ranger. 11B2. 2000. I don't know what that is. Jennifer Mole. Mall. Oh, what was. Richard was the guy from Night Court.

[James Petregallo]

Right? Richard. Yeah. Ball guy.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Amy Raider. Elizabeth Renner. How else we got here? Lisa with no last name. Shauna Hensley. Joshua Nevins. Debbie Parapara. What? What the is going on? Oh, Alice Valentine. Valentine. Uh, Morgan Pagan. Rr. Two R's. This show brought to you by Two R's. Christy Jablonski. Christopher Corral. Cody Day. Oh, who's Day?

[James Petregallo]

Charlie. Charlie Day. You got lost there, Nick.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Fox Data Brooks. Ivan C. Dylan Holm. Liana Saladis. Matt Jensen. Jason Miller. Virgie J. Nail Lady Rice Petrie Nipples. Sparks. 480.

[James Petregallo]

Whoa.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That is.

[James Petregallo]

Watch out for that. That sounds terrible.

[Jimmy Wisman]

The other four hundred and seventy nine of them, too. Lindsay and Lucy Hamilton. Amy with no last name. April Marshall Vaughn with no last name. Emily Amelia Kelly. Adam Leaton. Phoenix with no last name. Fred Yanez. Michaela Landberg. Ruth Kinnison. Emily Spearing, Sam with no last name. Ian Harvey. Drew Lindsay Sea Dog. Sizzle Shilly. Sheila. Sheila Sapienza. Sapienza. Gary Creeders Jr. Jesus. Becky Avanetti Avenenti. Isa. Isa. Isa Asgari.

[James Petregallo]

That's. Wow. All right.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Danielle Bliss. Jennifer Stricker.

[James Petregallo]

Tamara.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Tamara. Jen S. Lindsay Green.

[James Petregallo]

He did a Tamara. He did a po. He did a Pomelo. Maybe she pronounces it like that.

[Jimmy Wisman]

There's nobody named Tamara.

[James Petregallo]

Might be. You don't know.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Daughters Tomorrow and yesterday.

[James Petregallo]

Yesterday.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Aiden Gossett. Like Jew. Like Lou. Lindsay Green. I think I said that. Jen S. Did I say that? Cody Holzer.

[James Petregallo]

Michael. Like Lou, but really white. But Aiden.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Aiden Gossett.

[James Petregallo]

Like Lou, but white.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Galaxy Beth Dick Monte. Matthew Kelly. Michael with no last name. Matthew Kelly. I said that. God damn it.

[James Petregallo]

Yes. Christina Parisi. Danielle Matthew. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Allison Blackwood. Gino Rose Gir. Ducci Guarducci.

[James Petregallo]

There you go.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's a U. That's what that is.

[James Petregallo]

Richard Grimes.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Dick Grimes. That's gross. Todd Voight. Suzanne Wilson. Robbie Sin Table. Papa. Papa Woody. All right, you got it. Are you Happy now? Lock and kill.

[James Petregallo]

Lock.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And Kai. What? Kai. K. I I. That's Locke and Kai. Jason with no last name. Sarah Pierce. Annalise. Annalisa. Bed. Bet. Wow. Bedecked. Bedecked.

[James Petregallo]

Bedecked and bedazzled.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Both the decked. If you're not careful. Don't you watch out for that front of me. Rebecca Gambrel. Gambrell. Stephen Heifert. Heath Heifert. Zucchini Zach. Eileen Split. That can't be a real name. Susie Burgess. Dagum with no last name.

[James Petregallo]

That can't be a real name.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Amber. Amber Massey. Daniel Nottingham and Beth Temple. Aaron. Aaron. Connor Paulson. Stephen. Hi. Oh, hell fright. It will. And frozen over. Also. Alexander Breisler.

[James Petregallo]

Brischler.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Allison Hagman. Chuck with no last name. Alexander Pentecost. Jennifer Pentecost. Both of them. Thank you both so much. They got to be related or in the same household.

[James Petregallo]

Jennifer Lee.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Jamie Cotton. Arrow. Arrow. Lisa Jesus. Bridge Dial. What? Okay. Ben Ferrara. Jesse Kachula. Don Drake. Aaron Ingram. Younger with no last name. Alan Cabat. Cabanat. Cabinets. Cabanas. Cabanas. All right. Cali D. Lieutenant. IDC or just lt? Idc I don't.

[James Petregallo]

Lieutenant. I don't care.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I think that's what it is. Marshall Mayhem. Is that your real. That's the coolest name.

[James Petregallo]

That would be awesome.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's Marshall spelled like Marshall Mathers. If it's. If your name is Marshall Mayhem, you.

[James Petregallo]

Should write a comic book about yourself.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And I will.

[James Petregallo]

Also called Marshall Mayhem.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Any show we were at. Carrie Shepard. Carrie Lord.

[James Petregallo]

Grz. You didn't do anything to earn that. Someone.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I think it's the coolest name.

[James Petregallo]

Someone gave it to you.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah. That's true. I'll buy your parents drinks.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, get your dad and mom out there and we'll buy them a cocktail.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Carly Wagner. Carolyn Lloyd Ashland with no last name. Skin Skittle. Shentle Ingram. What the fuck? Janelle Bassett. Bassett. Nikki Bell. Calorie Belkalori. That's a name. Marlene. Maylene with no last name. Marlene Kotoska. Paul Starenberg. Jesus. This is really devolving fast. Megan.

[James Petregallo]

The wheels are coming off here, Guys.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Jude with no last name. Jenny Rochi. Emily Ditchburn. Okay. Sigrid Langford. Cheryl. What? Sheriff Alicia. W. Linda. Cerny Howard. Diane B. Ember with no last name. That might be I. She might be somebody I know. She's fantastic. Patty Purvis. Somebody that I used to know. Lyndon Burette Burnett. Tanner Hart. And all of our patrons. You guys are the fucking greatest. Thank you.

[James Petregallo]

Thank you. So much everybody. You wonderful fantastic bastards. We love you so much and we just can't thank you enough for what you do for us. We will be here and we'll keep coming back. You want to follow us? Shut up and give me murder.com drop down menu Take you wherever you want to go. That said, until next week everybody, it's been our pleasure. If you like small town murder, you can listen early and ad free now by joining Wondery plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen early and ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short [e-mail] survey are you captivated by the dark and mysterious world of true crime? Wondery offers you the ultimate true crime experience with early access to new episodes, exclusive content, and a seamless ad free.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Listening journey with Onery.

[James Petregallo]

You'll get access to hundreds of podcasts, including more than 50 true crime series like Dr. Death, the shocking true story of a trusted surgeon who brought unimaginable pain and suffering to his patients. This was not an operation that was performed. This was attempted murder. And there's Morbid, the hit podcast that's a lighthearted nightmare. With Wondery, you get access to exclusive bonus content too, allowing you to dive deeper into the cases you love. Like in Suspect, where an ordinary Halloween party turned into a terrifying murder mystery that left its mark on the community. This case is one of those roller coaster rides where it's like, no, he did it for sure. No, he for sure he did it. Each story is crafted to keep you enthralled, revealing the complexities and motivations behind every crime. Subscribe to Wondery plus on the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify today. Unlock the door to a world of true crime like never before with Wondery plus. The best true crime stories are always at your fingertips.