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The John Spirko Story Justice: Denied
Case Based On A "foundation of sand"
By John Spirko On August 9, 1982 at about 8:30 am, the Elgin, Ohio Post Office, was robbed of stamps and money orders, and Postmaster Betty Jane Mottinger was abducted. Elgin, Ohio was a rural town with a population of approximately 50 people. U.S. Postal Inspectors took charge of the case that afternoon and set up a Task Force to solve the crime. The physical evidence recovered, a few fingerprints lifted from the safe and surrounding area, gave investigators few leads. The postal inspectors and local Van Wert County police interviewed two “eyewitnesses” several times. One of the witnesses was Opal Seibert, a 65 year-old woman who wore heavy rimmed glasses. She said she was drinking coffee on her back porch that morning and that her husband was with her. She stated that she saw Betty drive up in her car at about 8:20 am and park near her house, just as she did each morning. Seibert said Betty got out of her car and started across the street, but then came back to the car to retrieve something. She then walked across the road to the post office, unlocked the door, entered the building, and then closed the door and locked it. Seibert said that at exactly 8:30 am she saw a man drive up to the post office. He got out of the car and looked all around. Seibert stated that she had never seen the man before. She said she watched as he stood between the car and the open door with his arm on the car’s roof. She was certain there were no other cars or people in front of the post office. The postal inspectors interviewed Seibert several times and had her describe this man to a sketch artist. She gave the initial description of a lean, clean-shaven man, 6'-4", who had heavy, dark eyebrows and dark hair that was combed straight back. He was wearing a blue long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and he wore glasses. However, in subsequent interviews her descriptions of the man’s height went from 6'-4", to 6'-2", then 6'-0", and finally, she said he was 5'-8". Seibert also said she had a clear view of everything in front of the post office. The only traffic was a semi-truck that came from the north at about 8:35 am. Seibert said that as soon as the truck passed, the man who had been standing by his car drove off at a high rate of speed heading south across the railroad tracks. The other eyewitness was Mark Lewis, a truck driver for the Elgin Grain Company, located behind the post office. When The postal inspectors and local Van Wert County police interviewed he returned to the grain elevator on the afternoon of August 9th, Lewis was told of Mottinger‘s disappearance and gave a statement. Lewis recalled he left that morning for Toledo at about 8:20 am and noticed a man standing between the car and the open door with his arm on the roof of the car. Lewis said the man wore dark glasses, weighed about 240 pounds, had a potbelly, wore a short sleeve green shirt with orange stripes, and had sandy brown or reddish hair and a light mustache. Lewis said he drove by this guy heading north and only had a quick look at him -- no more then two or three seconds. Lewis could not remember if he stopped his truck to get cigarettes. However, he did say that Betty Jane Mottinger crossed the street in front of him that morning. It is worth noting that the only similar aspect of Seibert and Lewis’ description of the stranger is that he wore glasses. Both witnesses later underwent hypnosis in an effort to gain more insight into what they saw that morning. The Task Force’s investigation involved scores of state and federal law enforcement officers, who conducted thousands of interviews spanning 38 states. Six weeks after the crime, Betty Jane Mottinger’s skeletal remains were found in a Hancock County bean field wrapped in a paint-smeared drop cloth. She was fully clothed and had been stabbed more than a dozen times. The postal inspectors intensified their manhunt after Betty’s remains were found. Lewis was shown a photo array and picked out a photo of a man he said looked like the stranger. This man had been paroled from a federal prison for robbing post offices in the general area of Elgin. After a nationwide manhunt, the man was located in Texas. He was later cleared of involvement in Mottinger’s murder by a girlfriend’s alibi.
Ruse To Spring LuAnn Smith From Jail There was a television in the block, and one day I saw a news story about the Betty Jane Mottinger case. The FBI and postal inspectors were looking for leads concerning her murder. I then had the idea that I could claim I had information about the case, and work out a deal for LuAnn. My problem was I didn’t know anything about the case. So I got all the articles I could find about the Mottinger case and I watched the TV for new developments in the investigation. I then had my brother-in-law call the FBI to tell them I wanted to discuss the Mottinger case. Several days later, a postal inspector came to see me. He asked what information I had. I told him I was not going to say anything until I had a deal for all charges to be dropped against LuAnn. He said he could not do that, but that he would pass the information on to his boss. About a week later, I was taken to Fulton County to answer to the new charges against me. After the hearing, I was taken into a room with seven or eight law enforcement officers, including FBI agents and postal inspectors.
The head of the Task Force was there and he asked me what information I had. I said I was not going to say anything until I had a deal for my girlfriend’s release, and I also included myself in the deal. He said he couldn’t make a deal, but if my information was good, he would talk to the people who could. He then asked me what I knew. I told him I saw a mailbag with money orders and change in it while I was at a party with some bikers, and they told me they robbed a post office in Elgin. He asked me if I would meet with a member of his team for additional information while he tried to get a deal for me. I said I would. In late November, while I was in the Lucas County Jail, I first met with a US Postal Inspector Paul Hartman. During the course of a month or so, I gave him 12 to 15 different stories that I had made up. I made up names like Rooster, the Dope Man, Dirty Dan, Spooky, and Swartz weaving stories involving conspiracies and drugs. I did not sign anything, nor were any of the interviews recorded or witnessed by anyone, although Hartman took notes of what I said. I finally entered into a plea agreement. I agreed to plead guilty to two state charges of assault in return for two sentences of 5-15 years in prison, to be served in a federal prison. I believed my girlfriend would be given probation for her actions in the failed escape. In December 1982, I was transferred to the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. When Hartman tried to verify my many stories, he found I had been not been truthful. He interviewed me again and told me he was aware of my lies, but I just fed him new lies. When he came to see me again in January 1983, he threw a mug shot of Delaney Gibson on the table. He said he knew Gibson was the person I was protecting with my lies. He said an eyewitness had made a positive ID of Gibson, placing him in front of the Elgin Post Office the morning Mottinger disappeared. I told him he was nuts to think I was protecting Gibson because I had not seen him in years. Hartman told me that LuAnn was due for sentencing in March, and unless he had something to take to his boss her deal was off and she would go to prison. I was very upset about that, since all my lies up to that point had been to try to help LuAnn. Thus, I told him, “Yes, I saw Gibson and he told me about this crime.” I then gave yet another false story about what I knew. In March 1983, LuAnn was sentenced to 1-to-5 years in prison; I was shocked and very upset about that. I called the postal inspectors and they came to see me. However, this time they brought a tape recorder with them. I told them if they would let LuAnn out of prison, I would tell them what they wanted. They said they didn’t know if they could do that, so I told them to turn off the tape recorder. After the recorder was off, I stated if they couldn’t help LuAnn, I couldn’t help them. They asked me about Gibson. I told them I didn’t know anything about Gibson because I had not seen him in a few years and they left. In September of 1983, I was flown to the state prison in Columbus, Ohio. The next day I was served with a state indictment for aggravated murder and kidnapping. Gibson was indicted as my co-defendant for the same charges. The State’s theory was that Delaney Gibson and I robbed the Elgin Post Office, abducted Betty Jane Mottinger, then killed her and disposed of her body.
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