Episode 289

Summary

Sword and Scale: Episode 289 – "Burning Bonds"

Introduction

In Episode 289 of Sword and Scale, titled "Burning Bonds," the dark and harrowing story of Elizabeth Bell and her tumultuous relationship with Frank Brett Jr. unfolds. This episode delves deep into the horrifying events that led to Elizabeth's brutal death and Frank's subsequent self-destruction, offering listeners a comprehensive look into the complexities of human emotion, revenge, and the devastating consequences of unchecked anger.

Setting the Scene

The episode begins on a cold January morning in Buffalo, New York. Mike Boudet sets the eerie atmosphere:

"It's a cold January morning in Buffalo, New York. The sky is black and clear, the kind of stillness that feels a little unnatural, a little unsettling, like the city itself is holding its breath." [02:00]

Fire Marshal Paul Simonian is introduced as he prepares for what seems to be a typical house fire call. The tranquility is soon shattered when his team responds to an emergency:

"A fire on the east side. Within seconds his team is pulling on their gear, boots slamming against the concrete." [00:12]

The Crime Scene

Upon arriving, the fire department initially perceives the incident as a routine house fire. However, Paul Simonian's instincts tell him something is amiss:

"Shortly after, the lieutenant called back, said, no, it's not rubbish. We have a victim up here. We have a fatality." [03:25]

Inside the house, the devastation is immediate. Elizabeth Bell, aged 28, is found dead amidst the ruins of her bedroom, engulfed in thick smoke and fire damage:

"Elizabeth had hollowed out in the middle. Her stomach was like the pit of a campfire." [08:00]

Investigation and Evidence

Paul Simonian's meticulous investigation uncovers critical evidence pointing towards arson. He discovers gasoline on the wall, indicating the use of an accelerant:

"There's a little juice bottle that's tipped over and it's dripping. And I take a smell of that and I notice it's gasoline. It smells like gasoline, like an accelerant." [06:37]

This revelation shifts the case from a mere accident to a potential homicide investigation. The Buffalo Police Department is promptly involved to piece together the sequence of events.

The Relationship Between Elizabeth and Frank

The episode delves into the volatile relationship between Elizabeth Bell and her ex-boyfriend, Frank Brett Jr. Their connection, once marked by intense passion, deteriorated into bitterness and hostility. Former District Attorney John Flynn provides insight into their tumultuous history:

"When Frank moved in, things slowly got worse. It was like he'd lost all his charismatic power being in their home." [21:09]

Their relationship was characterized by frequent fights, primarily communicated through heated text messages and social media exchanges. The breaking point came when Elizabeth discarded Frank's beloved motorized bike, a significant emotional trigger for him.

The Night of the Murder

On the night of January 11, 2018, Frank's simmering rage culminates in a horrifying act. Armed with gasoline, lighter fluid, and charcoal briquettes, he enters Elizabeth's home in the early hours. Despite Elizabeth being in a deep, alcohol-induced sleep, Frank intentionally pours gasoline over her, igniting the fire:

"The flames were still clinging to Frank as he ran like a madman... He made it down to the street before breaking into the first unlocked house he could find." [30:23]

Tragically, Elizabeth is left to burn alive, while Frank's own attempt at revenge results in his severe disfigurement as the fire consumes him along with Elizabeth.

The Trial

Frank Brett Jr.'s trial, which began in 2023, was a pivotal moment in the case. Despite overwhelming evidence, including his DNA on key pieces of evidence and multiple eyewitness accounts, Frank maintained his innocence. The defense argued that Elizabeth, in a drunken stupor, was responsible for the fire. However, the prosecution's case remained steadfast:

"He poured gasoline on a 28-year-old mother and burned her alive because she got rid of his bike. It's nothing but pure evil." [45:04]

The jury, influenced by the damning evidence and the testimonies of first responders, ultimately found Frank guilty of first-degree murder, sentencing him to 25 to life:

"He was sent to Green Haven Correctional facility in Stormville, New York. His earliest possible release date is April of 2043." [49:11]

Expert Commentary

The episode features insights from Professor Teresa Gannon, a forensic psychologist specializing in fire setting. She discusses the rare and complex nature of arson as a weapon of choice in crimes:

"It's really unusual for someone to use fire to actually kill another human being. It's really unusual." [32:38]

Her analysis suggests that Frank's actions were not driven by an obsession with fire but rather by intense emotional instability and a misguided sense of revenge.

Aftermath and Final Thoughts

John Flynn reflects on the case's closure, emphasizing the absence of satisfaction in witnessing such tragedies:

"No, I didn't feel any satisfaction that he was guilty. Because it's not a win-win anywhere." [51:25]

Mike Boudet eloquently summarizes Frank's misguided attempt at vengeance, highlighting the profound loss and the twisted irony of Frank's fate:

"Frank thought he was orchestrating some grand act of revenge over his bike. When in reality, he was just an idiot. Igniting the fuse to his own destruction." [52:17]

The episode concludes by underscoring the irreversible consequences of Frank's actions—not only for Elizabeth but also for himself, who is left to live with the physical and psychological scars of his heinous deed.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Paul Simonian: "There's a little juice bottle that's tipped over and it's dripping. And I take a smell of that and I notice it's gasoline. It smells like gasoline, like an accelerant." [06:37]

• John Flynn: "He was, like I said before, severely burned. Like almost dead burned. Like almost dead burned." [15:39]

• Teresa Gannon: "It talks about this theory, the idea of fire setting scripts. Now all of us, you and me, have a script about fire and what that means is it's a cognitive rule that we learn usually as children about how and when fire should be used." [34:35]

• Paul Simonian: "I remember when I finished testifying, I walked out. As I walked out, Elizabeth's mother was in the back pew, and she reached over and grabbed my hand and just said, thank you." [46:27]

• Mike Boudet: "Frank was little more than an enraged psychopathic killer. He poured gasoline on a 28-year-old mother and burned her alive because she got rid of his bike. It's nothing but pure evil." [51:25]

Conclusion

Episode 289 of Sword and Scale meticulously unravels the tragic narrative of Elizabeth Bell and Frank Brett Jr., offering listeners a profound exploration of human emotions run amok. Through detailed storytelling, expert analysis, and poignant reflections, the episode serves as a stark reminder of the devastating impact of unresolved anger and the lengths to which individuals might go when driven by revenge.

Transcript

[Mike Boudet]

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

[John Flynn]

She was literally burnt alive. There was not much left of her body.

[Mike Boudet]

If you support independent media such as podcasts like this one, head on over to swordandscale.com and consider joining plus and help keep us alive. This is season 12, episode 289 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. When you join plus, starting at just 10 bucks a month, you get commercial free early access to a whole ton of extra stuff. Just go check it out swordandscale.com or download our app on Android or iOS. This show was written, written and produced by Mish Barbara Way It's a cold January morning in Buffalo, New York. The sky is black and clear, the kind of stillness that feels a little unnatural, a little unsettling, like the city itself is holding its breath. Moonlight casts long shadows across the snowy streets. Not even the wind stirs. Nothing moves in this cold snap except a faint curl of smoke rising in the distance, a warning no one has noticed yet. At the local fire station, Fire Marshal Paul Simonian cradles another mug of coffee hunched over his desk, passing the time with paperwork. Then the call comes in. A fire on the east side. Within seconds his team is pulling on their gear, boots slamming against the concrete. The fire engine roars to life as they tear through the frozen streets towards the house on fire.

[Paul Simonian]

So they get there, pitch black. The room's full of smoke. You see a little glow on the floor and they say, we. We have no fire on the first floor. We're in the second floor. We see some rubbish, maybe a pile of clothes burning in the center of the room.

[Mike Boudet]

Paul listens to the radio. It seems like your typical house fire. His men are on it. He turns back to his work, keeping an ear on dispatch.

[Paul Simonian]

Shortly after, the lieutenant called back, said, no, it's not rubbish. We have a victim up here. We have a fatality.

[Mike Boudet]

Paul suits up, gets in his vehicle and speeds towards the fire.

[Paul Simonian]

En route I get to the fire scene. I go up to the incident command, ask him what's going on. He says, there's some occupants that are across the street at a neighbor's house, some brothers and a mom.

[Mike Boudet]

I go, okay, the victim's family made it out. Now they huddle inside a neighbor's house, away from the biting cold. But inside, 28 year old Elizabeth Bell is dead. Thick smoke curls from the top windows of the little house, twisting into the night like something alive, red and blue Lights slash across the neighbor's windows, shaking the street. Awake neighbors step cautiously onto their porches, drawn by the unmistakable pull of disaster. Only minutes before, firefighters were barking orders, hauling hoses and attacking the inferno on the second floor. But now the fire is out and the smoke is settled. So when Paul arrives, he takes a breath, steadying himself. Then he steps inside.

[Paul Simonian]

Go in the front door. There's no visible fire at all down on the first floor. I go to the back of the house where the stairs are. I just start seeing some smoke smudge down the stairs and some fire debris. I meet the lieutenant up there. He takes me, shows me where Elizabeth is. She's in the back room of the house. There's some big aquariums on the side with some reptiles in it. There's fire damage in there, like ceiling heat damage and things like that. And our fire crews did their overhauling, which ripped down the ceilings and the walls and looking in the channels make sure there's no more fire. Then we proceed to the front of the house and there's a small little room on the left. There was a little girl's bed in there, like a hello Kitty bed or something like that.

[Mike Boudet]

But the little girl's room wasn't the place where the fire originated. So Paul moved over to Elizabeth's bedroom.

[Paul Simonian]

And then I went in Elizabeth's bedroom, and you could see the mattress was burned pretty good on a third of it. Maybe it was a big mattress, maybe a king size mattress burned into the box spring a little bit. There was some fire damage in there, more heat damage.

[Mike Boudet]

The fire started on Elizabeth's bed. The mattress was burned into the box spring, black and charred. Coiled springs flinging upwards like a broken jack in the box. The fire on her mattress was still petering out.

[Paul Simonian]

The ceiling was down, some of the walls were torn down. And I happened to just look, you know, I was just looking across the room, seeing what's going on. I look for candles, I'm looking for smoking, overloaded extension cords, anything like that. And I see a piece of drywall that's broken down and something's dripping on it, but it's leaving a sheen, like a rainbow sheen.

[Mike Boudet]

The oily rainbow sheen made Paul do a double take. He stepped closer. He knew what that was. He just couldn't believe it.

[Paul Simonian]

There's a little juice bottle that's tipped over and it's dripping. And I take a smell of that and I notice it's gasoline. It smells like gasoline, like an accelerant. My flag goes up. I go, well, we probably have a crime scene here. I go back out with the lieutenant. I said stop the overhauling. Don't rip anything else down anywhere. Don't touch Elizabeth.

[Mike Boudet]

Paul knew that spray of gasoline on Elizabeth's wall was the beginning of their story. Now he had to find out what the rest of it was. This looked like the aftermath of a terrible accident or a desperate attempt to end it all. The Buffalo Police Department was called onto the scene. Paul racked his brain to figure out what had happened to Elizabeth. It was all so strange and unsettling because Elizabeth lay splayed on the floor where she died wearing only a bra, the fabric fused to what was left of her. She had clearly been sleeping when the fire started. And it didn't start around her, it started on her. Her stomach had been the source and it was charred beyond anything human, from.

[Paul Simonian]

Her knees to her belly, you know, all in the. All in there, her groin, her thighs, all that area, not her face or her upper body. So it was all right there.

[Mike Boudet]

It was a grisly sight, something you should probably never see in your lifetime. Elizabeth had hollowed out in the middle. Her stomach was like the pit of a campfire.

[Paul Simonian]

It's very disturbing because some of the area is red, some is black. It's just burned, burned like you burn food. But Elizabeth was burned in some areas to the bone. I could see her thigh.

[Mike Boudet]

Paul and the investigators went across the street to talk to Elizabeth's family. The house was rented by Elizabeth's mother, who lived there along with Elizabeth, her young daughter and Elizabeth's brother. When Paul and the investigators spoke with Elizabeth's brother, he told them how everything started that night.

[Paul Simonian]

Then it kind of started really taking a twist that her boyfriend came over, some yelling going on back and forth.

[Mike Boudet]

Elizabeth's newly estranged boyfriend, Frank Brett Jr. Had showed up at the house in the middle of the night. Elizabeth's brother said he came in and walked straight up to her bedroom. Her brother heard some yelling and then an earth shattering boom.

[Paul Simonian]

And the one brother said he heard Frank come down the back stairs very fast and he opened up his bedroom door. He went into the kitchen and he saw Frank on fire and they were trying to put him out. And he told the brother, go upstairs, help your sister. And he ran out the back door.

[Mike Boudet]

Frank fled the house on fire, leaving Elizabeth burning in her bedroom and the horrid smell of smoke billowing behind him. This is former Buffalo District Attorney John Flynn.

[John Flynn]

He took off out of the house, went to the backyard, jumped a fence and then ran down the Backyards to another street. And he broke into a house on Leroy street and hid in a closet.

[Mike Boudet]

The flames were still clinging to Frank as he ran like a madman, Peeling off his burning clothes and throwing them behind him in the snow. He made it down to the street before breaking into the first unlocked house he could find.

[John Flynn]

He's now hiding in the closet of this house that he broke into. A little girl who lived in that house wakes up mommy and daddy in their bedroom and says, mommy and daddy, someone's in the house. Now put yourself in that situation, okay? I got five kids, all right? If one of my kids did that, I'd be like, no, honey, you're dreaming. You had a bad dream. Go back to bed. And that's exactly what dad did here. Well, mom now, who's lying in bed, says, hmm, I think I smell something. You know, mom and dad, you know, are kind of up in the bed now, and they're kind of sniffing now. And mom's like, yeah, I smell something. And so dad gets up. What he's smelling is burnt flesh. Unbelievable.

[Mike Boudet]

The unmistakable smell wafting from the closet had given Frank away.

[John Flynn]

Dad follows the smell of burnt flesh into this closet and opens the closet door. He now grabs this guy, takes him out of the closet, takes him out of the house and throws them outside on the front lawn.

[Mike Boudet]

But at the same time, police officers from the scene at Elizabeth's house had noticed Frank's trail in the snow and started following it.

[Paul Simonian]

Blood on fence posts and climbing over the fence. We see clothing. They find a burn jacket behind a bush. They're tracking this person in the snow. The blood trail in the snow, the clothing. Climbing fences, broken picket fences. And then they get a call, the police get a call of somebody in a man's house around the corner.

[Mike Boudet]

Frank lay in the snow on the front lawn, his raw, red flesh exposed to the elements. He was a mess of soot and blood. But unlike Elizabeth, he was alive.

[John Flynn]

Three different people in the neighborhood now have called 911 and police fire, first responders. Everyone's coming to the neighborhood. And as you can imagine, there is a blood trail of him running from these backyards all the way down to where this house was again. Unbelievable.

[Mike Boudet]

It was unbelievable. What had started as a routine house fire had spiraled into chaos on the east side of Buffalo. Flames, smoke, an injured child, and then something far worse. A dead woman who looked like she'd been burned alive. Frank was burned badly, too. Unrecognizable, actually. But he was breathing. And for investigators, that meant One thing, if he survived, he might be the only one who could explain what really happened inside that house. But by the time that he could speak, a story would already be taking shape. One where investigators wondered if the fire started in Elizabeth's hands or his. 27 year old, Elizabeth Bell had been burned alive in her east side home in Buffalo, New York. What started as a routine house fire quickly turned into a potential homicide investigation when firefighters discovered that Elizabeth was the source of the inferno. Even more shocking, her former boyfriend, Frank Brett Jr. Had also gone up in flames. He fled the scene burning alive, only to be caught after breaking into a stranger's home, his scorched flesh giving him away. Elizabeth was pronounced dead at the scene. Fire marshal Paul Simonian hypothesized that gasoline had been thrown on her torso and ignited. Elizabeth had stumbled and crawled away from her bed into the hallway, where she passed out and perished. During the chaos. Elizabeth's child had run too, burning only the bottoms of her feet as she escaped downstairs out the front door with the other members of the house. No one else had been hurt in the fire except Elizabeth and Frank. And the police were zeroing in on Frank. After all, innocent people don't run and hide. But Frank had been taken to the hospital, not a holding cell.

[John Flynn]

He was, like I said before, severely burned. Like almost dead burned. I suspect that you and your listeners have heard in the past degrees of burns, first degree, second degree, third degree. They don't really use degrees anymore. I mean, some people do, but what they use now is the terms superficial, partial thickness and full thickness.

[Mike Boudet]

A superficial burn is painful but tolerable. You've probably suffered quite a few in your lifetime. Think of a really bad sunburn or that fleshy little lump you get when you touch a hot pan. Partial thickness burns are more severe and injure deeper layers of skin called the dermis. This burn will take weeks to heal and is the most painful because no damage has been done to the nerves. This kind of burn is pretty agonizing, but a full thickness burn destroys most of the dermis, getting right down to the muscle and bone. The burned part of the body is left with a waxy white appearance. It's completely terrifying. A full thickness burn destroys most of the nerves. There's no blister because the burn has gone straight so deep it's plowed through all that flesh, blood and muscle.

[John Flynn]

He had full thickness of burns throughout his body. He had to have a cadaver skin graft done of his face. He lost all of his fingers. They actually had to put him in a induced coma, to actually do the skin graft of his face. And they had to graft on new eyelids on his eyes. To say he was jacked up is an understatement of the century.

[Mike Boudet]

Frank was a mummified version of the man he once was. Just a day before, he'd been a handsome, healthy 33 year old man. Now he was a monster. Burned on 90% of his body with stubs for hands and ears that melted into the side of his head. His lips looked like two banana slugs resting on an old leather mask. He would never be the same again. Karma's got a funny way of working, it really does. It can be quite efficient too.

[John Flynn]

There was no way he was leaving the hospital. He was not a flight risk. So there was no. There was no rush to arrest him, to keep him in jail. He wasn't going anywhere. So in this case we made the decision to not arrest him right away and to just work up our case, do the investigation and then put it in the grand jury.

[Mike Boudet]

Paul Simonian, the head fire marshal at the time, was already piecing together what had happened based on the evidence.

[Paul Simonian]

You learn, you learn not to just rush to a snap judgment because so many things could happen. You know, you don't, you don't know the players. You don't know what actually transpired in that bedroom. Who did what? Who said what? I said, you got gasoline up here that doesn't belong up here. So something's wrong there. You have a boyfriend that ran out. They were both on fire. He didn't say that or try to help her. He ran out. How badly is he burned? This is way before we have any information about Frank, any threats he's made in the past or history with Elizabeth.

[Mike Boudet]

Frank may have been incapacitated, but Elizabeth's family was unharmed and they knew far too much about the couple. That 1300 square foot yellow house in Buffalo wasn't just a home. It was a tight knit world where no secret stayed hidden. Especially between Elizabeth and Frank. Elizabeth Bell was unconventional and eccentric. She was bold, passionate and impossible to ignore. She had a deep love for animals, working at a veterinary clinic and filling her home with strays in need of care. Her aquarium teemed with reptiles and a cage of ferrets rattled with energy. Each one adored. Her bedroom was like a zoo. In her early 20s, she had a daughter from a previous marriage and was raising her with the help of her mother. She was the kind of woman who dyed her hair every color of the rainbow. You know, the Type. You probably are the type, judging by our demographics data. Anyway, she thrived in Buffalo's alternative scene, where music misfits and mayhem collided. That's where she met Frank, a fixture in their tight knit friend group. They'd known each other for years, but in 2017, their friendship turned into something more.

[John Flynn]

He had actually moved in with her, into her mom's house and was living there. In the fall of 2017, Frank was.

[Mike Boudet]

Working in construction, doing odd jobs when he could. He was just as wild to look at as Elizabeth, with his long, dyed red beard and alternative clothing. Think punk rock meets medieval tavern vibes with a dash of white guy with dreadlocks. That's the phenotype we're working with here. But he was charismatic and kind. Even Elizabeth's mother remembered how fond she had always been of Frank. He was the type of guy who really locked eyes with whoever he was talking to and made them feel like they were the center of the universe. He had a way about him that was inviting. When he wanted it to be, that is. Elizabeth and Frank were both intense type people. She wielded words like weapons, and he never backed down either. What had started as a blissful relationship full of fun and excitement quickly turned into toxicity. When Frank moved in, things slowly got worse. It was like he'd lost all his charismatic power being in their home. The personality he had put forth to impress people was washed away by tight living quarters. The real Frank started to show that fall. Elizabeth's family all had to listen to the couple's fights getting worse. They would be screaming at each other well into the night. Two hard headed, passionate people, both unwilling to give in. By December, it was all over. Their relationship hadn't even lasted a year before Elizabeth told Frank to get out. He didn't go quietly either. On his way out, he put his fist through a window and he moved out.

[John Flynn]

And again now. This homicide occurred on January 11, so he moves out now in December, approximately a month before the homicide. And the breakup was not smooth. It was a very contentious breakup.

[Mike Boudet]

Frank packed up his things and left in a huff to stay with his mom, who wasn't too far away. Though they had separated, Elizabeth and Frank continued. Their fighting.

[John Flynn]

That month, from December to January was extremely contentious, contentious, you know, text messages going back and forth between the two.

[Mike Boudet]

Of them through the safety of their cell phones. They argued about bills one party didn't pay and stuff they needed back from each other. You know, that kind of stuff. They hurled insults at one another like petty children via text.

[John Flynn]

What really Took it over the top was a bike that he had that he left there.

[Mike Boudet]

Frank's main way of getting around town was on his beloved bike. But this wasn't just any old mountain bike. He'd rigged it up to what he really fancied, a real special machine.

[John Flynn]

And he put some kind of a fancy engine on the bike. So he turned the bike into kind of like, you know, a motorbike, all right? And so he had this, like, souped up bike that he left there. Elizabeth apparently put the bike to the curb, to the trash, and either someone picked the bike up or the garbage.

[Mike Boudet]

Men did and threw it away in an irritated rage. One afternoon, Elizabeth threw Frank's bike on the curb along with his tools, the tools that his father had given him. She took a photograph of the pile and texted it to Frank.

[John Flynn]

The bottom line is that he lost his bike. And he believed that she threw it away. And he was livid at that point. There were text messages going back and forth where he basically threatened to kill her. He threatened to burn her. Like, literally said, I'm gonna burn you and your whole fat effin family.

[Mike Boudet]

After the threat, Elizabeth wrote to Frank. Someone already thought your bike was trash. I'll bring everything else inside. Please don't burn our fat selves down. Good thing I paid for that bike. No love lost, he responded. Not a joke.

[John Flynn]

He also made threatening remarks to his boss. So Frank was kind of a handyman, laborer, construction kind of guy. He worked for this one guy who became a witness at trial. He basically told his boss that, hey, I'm gonna pay her back for what she did or I'm gonna get her. Words to that effect.

[Mike Boudet]

Frank had lost his mind. That bike had pushed him to the point of no return. Elizabeth and Frank were so innately intense that when it was good, it was euphoric. But when it was bad, it was World War Three. And when she finally kicked him out, Frank had nowhere to put the wreckage of his emotions. He didn't process it. He didn't grieve. He just flipped the switch. The love and passion he once felt for her all curdled into pure, undiluted hate.

[John Flynn]

The early morning hours of January 11, 2018. He. He got on a bike. Okay. Kind of ironic that he used a bike to go do the murder scene.

[Mike Boudet]

You can say that again.

[John Flynn]

He did not break in. The door was open. Apparently at 3 o'clock in the morning. The adult brother who lived there was still up, and he saw him come in, and he didn't think anything of it. Because, you know, he had lived there up until a month ago. He was kind of coming in and coming out, you know, and he was still around.

[Mike Boudet]

Apparently, Elizabeth's brother wasn't privy to all the intense drama between her and Frank that was going on between the two of them via texts and social media. So he watched Frank walk upstairs and said nothing.

[John Flynn]

He had with him a satchel. And in the satchel, he had, like, charcoal briquettes, you know, like charcoal you use on a grill. And he had lighter fluid. He had a lighter. And he also had a Hawaiian Punch container filled with gasoline.

[Mike Boudet]

Frank went quietly into the room that he used to share. He found Elizabeth asleep in her bed. And he undid his satchel.

[John Flynn]

She was asleep or perhaps passed out in the bed. Now, I say passed out because when the autopsy was done, there was a significant amount of alcohol in her system.

[Mike Boudet]

Alcohol knocks you into a heavy sleep. It's like a sleep so deep, you wouldn't notice being moved, let alone someone dripping liquid onto your skin.

[John Flynn]

He took his Hawaiian Punch bottle that he had with gasoline and he dumped it on her in the room, all.

[Paul Simonian]

Over the bed, on the floor. And some might have got on him, but there's fumes now in that room. That whole room is like a little bomb.

[Mike Boudet]

Frank stood over a sleeping Elizabeth. His anger simmered as he emptied the juice bottle, gasoline soaking into the sheets. But like Paul said, the real danger wasn't just the liquid. It was the fume seeping into every inch of that tiny bedroom, turning the air itself into a weapon.

[John Flynn]

When he took his lighter out to light her on fire, the whole room blew up.

[Paul Simonian]

When that ignition happens and you're surrounded in fire, it's immediate. It's like a flashover. Whatever he's wearing is on fire now, too.

[Mike Boudet]

It happened in an instant. Flames roared to life, engulfing Elizabeth as her screams shattered the air. Fire and smoke swallowed the room. Then Frank felt the searing pain. His own skin was burning.

[Paul Simonian]

He didn't realize that that was gonna flash on him. Gasoline is so volatile. And the fumes. It's the fumes that burn and flash. And then the gasoline just keeps fueling the fire. And the fumes. That's what's burning is the fumes, not the liquid.

[Mike Boudet]

Because the gasoline had been poured on Elizabeth, she was on fire. She stumbled out of her room, grasping at anything to help put her out, but it was useless. The second floor was filled with black smoke, and she couldn't breathe or see. She couldn't stop the fire that was taking her Life away.

[Paul Simonian]

Elizabeth has gasoline on her, so that liquid gasoline was still producing fumes. So it's like a source. It just kept burning.

[Mike Boudet]

But Frank was on fire, too, and that was not his plan. He left Elizabeth to burn alive and ran 10, 12ft.

[Paul Simonian]

He made it down the stairs, saw the brother with the commotion, said, go help your sister, and he ran out.

[Mike Boudet]

Elizabeth's brother tried to smother the flames on Frank, but it was useless. That's when Frank bolted out and broke into the house down the street. Elizabeth's mother tried to get up the stairs to reach her daughter, but the smoke in the hallway choked her, the heat driving her back. The fire was too fast, so she had no choice. Leaving her daughter behind was agony, but no one could get up those stairs. Elizabeth was left alone to burn.

[John Flynn]

She was burnt so bad. Just awful, awful, awful way to die. Burned alive. Alive.

[Mike Boudet]

When the police found Frank on the neighbor's lawn, he muttered the words motive and opportunity. Multiple first responders heard it. As police, prosecutors, and fire investigators placed the case together. They uncovered the how, but the why remained a haunting mystery. Fire wasn't just a weapon here. It was a statement. A slow, agonizing way to make someone suffer. If Frank truly meant to burn the whole fucking fat family down like he had threatened, why not torch the house? Why make sure Elizabeth was the source? The brutality of all of this set his crime apart.

[Teresa Gannon]

It's actually really, really unusual for someone to use fire to actually kill another human being. It's really unusual. I can think of probably two or three examples in my whole career, and I started working in fire setting over 15 years ago now.

[Mike Boudet]

This is Professor Teresa Gannon. She's a forensic psychologist at the University of Kent who specializes in fire setting. She became interested in arson when she was tasked with analyzing a case involving fire as a weapon.

[Teresa Gannon]

Everyone presumes that people set deliberate fires or try and harm people with deliberate fires or warn people off or, you know, send a message about their own distress because they're inappropriately interested in fire. And quickly I became interested in the fact that some of the people I was coming across in clinical assessment and treatment, they didn't have an inappropriate interest in fire, but they were still using it.

[Mike Boudet]

Teresa started looking into deliberate fire setting. It turned out that the field was vastly ignored by the rest of forensic psychology.

[Teresa Gannon]

The field is probably about 20 years behind other fields of criminal behavior, such, such as our understanding of sexual offending or violence. There are well over 200 risk assessment tools for people who've committed violence, and there are no properly developed risk assessment tools for people who set deliberate fires. In fact, that's something I'm currently working.

[Mike Boudet]

On because Teresa is the go to specialist when it comes to fire setting. Years ago, she and three other researchers pioneered the multi trajectory of adult fire setting theory or as it's known in the field, the mtaf.

[Teresa Gannon]

It talks about this theory, the idea of fire setting scripts. Now all of us, you and me, have a script about fire and what that means is it's a cognitive rule that we learn usually as children about how and when fire should be used. With people who set deliberate fires, what we propose is that they have learnt an inappropriate fire script.

[Mike Boudet]

For example, Teresa once worked with a man who had grown up on a farm. The common practice on the farm was to set fire to any pest or rodent that was destroying the crops. Later in adulthood, when his wife became a pest to him, he decided to get rid of her much in the same way.

[Teresa Gannon]

But I would argue that some individuals may learn that fire is the best way to instill fear or to punish another person for a supposed wrongdoing.

[Mike Boudet]

We don't know what Frank had learned as a child. When it came to fire, he was never really given a full psychological evaluation due to his year long hospital stay. He also never claimed insanity. When Frank lived at Elizabeth's house, he had an attitude of taking the law into his own hands. There was that one time when he heard Elizabeth's mom talking about him on a private phone call. So he tore down the fence he'd built for her garden. What a petty and childish way to handle hearing someone talk behind your back. Teresa says that the biggest misconception about criminals who use fire as a weapon is that they're obsessed with it, that they love fire. But that's not really true. At least that's usually not true. Most people who set fires to cause harm fear it just as much as anyone else.

[Teresa Gannon]

You show fire to any animal, it will kind of back away, you know what I mean? It's very powerful and evolutionary wise we're kind of programmed to be scared of it.

[Mike Boudet]

The MTAF theory breaks down fire setters into five distinct personality types. Frank would fall under the worst one, the multifaceted fire setter.

[Teresa Gannon]

And these are individuals characterized by two kind of prominent factors. They've got offence supportive attitudes that support criminal behavior and also inappropriate fire interest. So they're really interested in fires and they're really proud criminal behavior.

[Mike Boudet]

Frank didn't have a criminal record that we know of, but his responses to things not going his way were unhinged. Like when he broke Elizabeth's mom's garden fence or when he shattered the window after being told to move out. He had no control over himself. He was just running on raw, unchecked emotion. His life wasn't made up of planned actions, but only a chain of knee jerk reactions to the world around him. He was like a toddler.

[Teresa Gannon]

And I would argue that the case that you've been talking about sits somewhere between the multifaceted, the last one I've just mentioned, and the grievance subtype, but maybe doesn't fit them exactly. It shows you the breadth of motivators lying behind fire setting.

[Mike Boudet]

Beyond Frank's emotional immaturity, he lacked stability in his personal life. Frank was in his 30s and he had no family, no career, and no home of his own. He was in arrested development, living one day at a time and avoiding adult responsibilities, like so many do these days. Not only was Frank vengeful, but he was also stupid. He packed his satchel full of lighters, gasoline and charcoal briquettes with a loose game plan to murder Elizabeth by setting her on fire. He didn't know anything about the way fumes worked and ended up blowing himself up too. There's a poetic justice to his disfigurement. Somehow there's art here in all the pain and horror. By the time he was well enough to be discharged from the hospital, District Attorney John Flynn and his team had already received a warrant for his arrest and an indictment from the grand jury.

[John Flynn]

We then went to the hospital, took a judge with us to the hospital, and we arraigned him in his room in the hospital. And that's when the legal proceedings started.

[Mike Boudet]

Frank was facing first degree murder charges for the intentional death of Elizabeth Bell. When prosecutors visited his hospital room, they gave him a choice. Plead guilty or go to trial. So he lawyered up, ready to go to court. Waste everybody's time and money, I might add. But according to Frank, everyone had it wrong. Only he knew what had happened in Elizabeth's bedroom that night. And when he finally spoke, his words would leave everyone stunned. Elizabeth had started the fire. Elizabeth Bell had burned alive in her East Buffalo home. For a month, she'd been fighting with her ex boyfriend, Frank Brett Jr. Over their breakup. One afternoon, she took his beloved electric bike and left it on the curb for someone else to take. She texted Frank a photo of his bike and he lost his mind. He threatened to burn her whole fucking fat family quote and even told his boss how angry he was that his Bike would was gone. Frank had packed a satchel of charcoal briquettes, lighter fluid and gasoline. Then he went over to Elizabeth's house at 3:30 in the morning. Within minutes, her bedroom exploded. Elizabeth was burned alive and Frank escaped death by the skin of his teeth. Speaking of which, there wasn't much left. After a nearly year long hospital stay with Burns on 90% of his body, Frank was ready for court. He was a disfigured monster with clubs for hands, melted ears and a big bald star on his head where his hair used to grow. But Frank said that he didn't start the fire, Elizabeth did. He claimed that he only went there to talk about the bike. She woke up, their fight escalated and then she was the one who threw the gasoline on him. She was the one who struck the lighter. It seemed a little, I don't know, bullshitty. But then Elizabeth's brother said something that cast a dark shadow of doubt on the whole trial.

[John Flynn]

When the police interviewed the brother. At the end of the brother's statement, the brother made a comment along the lines of, you know, I didn't go upstairs, I didn't see what happened. I didn't see her do it, you know, I don't know what happened. Maybe she lit him on fire.

[Mike Boudet]

It was such an odd thing to hear. The possibility of it being true lingered in the air. The police may have been focused on the wrong person the entire time. Trying to convict an innocent victim instead of a cold hearted killer. Frank might have been the real victim in all of this. After all, it was Elizabeth's mother who admitted that her daughter had a sharp tongue and she could say things that would cut you to the bone. There were only two people in the bedroom that night and one of them was dead. The other one was facing life in prison.

[John Flynn]

Why the brother would say that, I have no idea. Not to be disparaging of the brother because he lost his sister. It was traumatic. So I'm not trying to beat the brother up here, but let's be honest. He sees this guy walk in the house at 3 o'clock in the morning. He moved out a month earlier. If I was the brother, I'd be like, what the hell you doing in my house at three in the morning? All right? But he didn't think anything of it and let him walk upstairs, you know, so again, I'm not blaming him, don't get me wrong. But again, he did make the comment to the police in his interview.

[Mike Boudet]

And that comment was what the defense hung their hat on. Frank's trial didn't start until 2023, almost five years after the murder. And he had acquired very good defense lawyers. They fought hard to create reasonable doubt for the jury. Frank sat motionless in the courtroom. The jurors tried to focus on the case, but their eyes kept drifting towards his grotesque mutilations and scars.

[John Flynn]

The defense lawyers made the argument that she was drunk, she had a lot of alcohol in her system. The defense lawyer said that at trial that she also had drugs in her system, but there was no proof of that at all. There was proof of alcohol in her system, though, to be fair. And so they made the argument that she got up in a drunken stupor. They got into an argument, she dumped the gasoline on him, she lit him on fire, and that's what happened.

[Mike Boudet]

Frank's defense not only grossly disparaged Elizabeth by claiming she was on drugs, but it crumbled against the physical evidence.

[John Flynn]

His DNA was on the Hawaiian Punch bottle and the lighter. And he left the Hawaiian Punch bottle in the apartment. And the lighter. The lighter was found on the stairs.

[Mike Boudet]

There was another detail, too, besides the threats Frank made telling Elizabeth that he would burn her and her family. He also texted his mother right before he got to Elizabeth's house that night. He wrote, I love you, Mama, always. It was ominous, to say the least.

[John Flynn]

He left a trail of blood. He left a trail of burnt flesh, and he left a trail of witnesses.

[Mike Boudet]

And all those witnesses took the stand in court. The first responders who all heard Frank say motive and opportunity, the neighbor who pulled Frank out of his closet, Elizabeth's brother, Frank's boss, and all the medical experts who examined her body. Oh, yeah, and of course, they had Paul Simonian, the fire marshal who helped crack the case.

[Paul Simonian]

I remember when I finished testifying, I walked out. As I walked out, Elizabeth's mother was in the back pew, and she reached over and grabbed my hand and just said, thank you.

[John Flynn]

In this case, he admitted he was there. He admitted Elizabeth died. He admitted that he sent these text messages, okay? He just didn't admit to how it went down in the bedroom, which, again, that's very, very unusual. But it obviously, thank God, didn't work out for him.

[Mike Boudet]

Maybe if Frank had pleaded guilty to the obvious, he might have gained some leniency from the judge, but he stuck to his lie. Forensic psychologist and fire expert Theresa Gannon had some theories as to why.

[Teresa Gannon]

If you don't want to admit to yourself that you set the fire or committed the crime or whatever. Also you can lose a significant amount of social support if you do admit that you did do it. So by remaining in denial, you know, you still get visitors or people still believe you might not have done it, whereas as soon as you admit it, of course, you might lose the last remnants of social support that you have.

[Mike Boudet]

Maybe he was afraid of losing what little love and support he had left in the world. And that is why Frank refused to accept responsibility. Responsibility. Maybe he was just lying to himself for comfort, telling himself something that he knew deep down wasn't true. If he never admits to this heinous thing, then maybe it wasn't his fault that he's a disfigured monster in prison. But by denying his own accountability, Frank lost the little shred of dignity he had left. Now he's just a pathetic killer, a sick liar.

[John Flynn]

To be honest with you, this really wasn't rocket science, you know, it wasn't really a tough case to prove. 99 out of 100 homicide trials take a week, maybe two weeks at the most. Okay, so this was a typical homicide trial. Took about a week, and the jury was out like three or four hours and came back with a guilty verdict on the intentional murder. And the judge gave him the max, which was 25 to life. He drew a tough judge. Quite frankly, he drew the best judge in the building, from my perspective, because this judge is the hardest judge on criminals.

[Mike Boudet]

Frank was sent to Green Haven Correctional facility in Stormville, New York. His earliest possible release date is April of 2043. But for now, he sits in that prison in his wheelchair, wearing a star of David and kippah or yarmulke, claiming he's found religion. We contemplated reaching out to Frank, but then we decided not to after speaking with John Flynn. Frank is so obviously guilty that we didn't want to entertain his lies. But another network did. And we'll just tell you what he claims happened on that very day. Frank says that on the night it all happened, he and Elizabeth had a brutal fight. She had confided in him about being abused by a friend at the age of eight. And in a moment of cruelty, he told her the abuse was her fault. He wanted to wound her, just as she had wounded him with her words time and time again. He claimed he turned to leave. Then something hit him over the head. The next memory he had was waking up on the floor surrounded by smoke and flames. He says he immediately became concerned about Elizabeth's daughter. Daughter. And pushed his way into her little bedroom, heroically grabbing her from her bed and rushing downstairs to safety. Then he fled. But that's all Completely untrue, in case you haven't figured it out. Elizabeth's mom, her daughter and her brother all confirmed that things happened the way the prosecution argued it did. Despite the cold, hard evidence, Frank continues to deny what he did. He continues to believe his own lie. But we do not. We know what he did. We have brains. He poured gasoline on a 28 year old mother and burned her alive because she got rid of his bike. It's nothing but pure evil. Demonic, if you really think about it.

[Paul Simonian]

No, I didn't feel any satisfaction that he was guilty. Because it's not a win win anywhere. Elizabeth lost her life. Frank is physically mentally damaged. His freedom's taken away from him. There was no satisfaction that he was found. I mean, he just had to be held accountable for what he did.

[John Flynn]

You get to the point where you do something like that and you're not thinking clearly, obviously you're an enraged psychopathic killer. And I use that word, psychopath, not in a medical sense, but in a. Just a human sense that you are a sick killer. There are very few smart criminals out there. There are some, but you know, he wasn't one of them, obviously.

[Mike Boudet]

Fire is a force beyond human control. It's ancient, primal, and merciless. Once unleashed, it obeys no one. Not even the man who strikes the match. Frank thought he was in charge of that fire. But like everything else in his life, he was wrong. Frank's actions that night were like a game where he moved blindly, reacting instead of thinking, never seeing more than one step ahead. Even the contents of his satchel define his stupidity. Charcoal briquettes? I mean, what's your plan? Are you starting a barbecue? You ever like charcoal briquettes? You know how long it takes to light charcoal briquettes? What kind of a fucking idiot brings that to a murder scene? To lay them on Elizabeth and start a campfire on her? I don't know if there's a word in the English language to define how stupid that is. Maybe he thought he'd use them to start a small fire downstairs to in fact burn the whole fucking fat family down. Like he wanted to, but changed his mind when he saw her brother was still awake. The lighter fluid, the gasoline, that makes sense, I guess. But I'll never understand why those briquettes were in his bag. Never. The guy must have never started a barbecue in his entire adult life. Interesting. There's another question that lingers too. He saw that her brother was awake, and yet Frank went forth with his plan to set Elizabeth on fire. Just really let that ruminate for a minute. Frank was not afraid of getting caught. Because if he was, he would have turned around at the first sight of a witness. Instead he just plowed ahead. And like every other insane choice he's ever made leading up to that fire, his final move was just as short sighted. He was a man ruled by unregulated emotion. A creature of impulse rather than intellect. Rage rather than reason. You know anybody like that? Because there's a lot of people like that around in my day to day. Kinda makes you think, doesn't it? Frank, however, didn't think. He didn't understand that fire wouldn't stay contained. That it wouldn't follow his orders. That the fumes were would turn that little bedroom into a bomb. He believed he was orchestrating some grand act of revenge over his bike. When in reality he was just an idiot. Igniting the fuse to his own destruction. John Flynn was right. Frank wasn't just a murderer. He was a fool. A man too wrapped up in his own bitterness and and failures to see the inevitable consequences of his own actions. A man who for all his hatred, ended up punishing himself more than anyone else ever could. How Shakespearean is that? Elizabeth Bell died in agony. Her final moments spent in a nightmare no human should ever endure. But at least her pain ended. At least she's free from it. Frank, on the other hand, has to live with the aftermath. He has to wake up every day with the scars and the missing hands, with the mangled face. Living in a reminder of his own stupidity. The man who thought he was in control but ended up losing everything in his final failure. He created a hell on earth just for him. And it will haunt him for the rest of his life. Oh geez. Don't leave yet, you lollipops. We're gonna load up the store with a bunch of additional merch from my garage, so go check it out. It's gonna be on deep, deep discount. I need to get rid of it. Lots of people are shit stuff. Lots of cool stuff. Just go look. Go look. It's like super, super, super cheap. Stay safe.

[Paul Simonian]

Sa.