John Spirko has been in prison for the murder of Betty Jane Mottinger for 40 years. Dead Before Deadline host Robin Yocum believes he has spent four decades of his life incarcerated for a crime that he did not commit. Spirko, Yocum says, had nothing to do with the murder. He’s the only guy Yocum has ever met who inserted himself into an investigation into a murder he did not commit and talked himself into an indictment, was convicted, and then told the jury to give him the death penalty. “In retrospect, not one of my smarter moves,” Spirko now says.
John Spirko was convicted of the 1982 kidnapping and murder of Mottinger, who was the postmaster in the tiny village of Elgin, Ohio. In this three-part episode, Yocum recounts his investigation into the murder and Spirko’s subsequent conviction. Spirko is no saint and he has a long history of convictions and prison time, including a stretch for killing an elderly woman in Kentucky. However, Yocum is convinced that he did not kill Betty Jane Mottinger.
Listen to this three-part series as we explore one of the most bizarre cases Yocum ever investigated as a reporter with the Columbus Dispatch.
