Killing for Love Storyville

This programme contains some strong language and scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.

WATER TRICKLES

The members of the jury reached a verdict.

We, the jury, find the defendant guilty

of first-degree murder of Derek William Reginald Haysom

and Nancy Astor Haysom

and fix punishment and imprisonment for life.

-Why didn't you say anything?

-Do you still say you're innocent?

Anything else?

All right, everybody out of the way.

Move it, please.

Get back on the sidewalk.

I was the investigator for the Sheriff's Office.

It was around three o'clock that Wednesday afternoon we got the call,

it came over the radio.

'Ricky was there, too.

'Ricky and I worked side-by-side, hand-in-hand.'

Chuck Reid and I lived this case.

It was the amount of overkill that was involved and the amount of blood

that was there. It was just...

I'd never seen anything like that before.

Stepped inside and it was like stepping inside of a slaughterhouse.

You know, "What gang of people did this?"

Mr Haysom was lying face up, just inside the door.

I had to step over him and go into the dining room,

and it was covered in dried blood.

And on the kitchen floor, Miss Haysom was lying deceased.

Upstairs, in Miss Haysom's room,

we found some photos of Elizabeth,

her daughter, in the nude.

She was kneeling down at the side of her bed like she was praying.

In front of her was a Shakespeare book.

The photos were taken kind of from the side.

We just had heard, you know,

the kind of relationship between her and her mother.

Miss Haysom, you refer to yourself as Lady Macbeth.

-Yes.

-Your Shakespeare is certainly much better than mine,

but it seems to me, if I recall,

Lady Macbeth encouraged old Macbeth to commit murder,

-didn't she?

-Yes, she did.

Miss Haysom, in the police sentencing reports,

you make some statement that you had a full-blown sexual relationship

with your mother at one point...

Could you answer that, please?

You did state you had

a full-blown sexual relationship with your mother?

I didn't put it that way, no, sir.

-How did you put it?

-Well, the investigator asked me about

photographs that my mother took of me.

Miss Haysom, your mother has been butchered.

-Yes, she has, sir.

-You called her a liar and an alcoholic.

-I did not call her an alcoholic.

-Was she a sexual abuser?

Did she sexually abuse you?

If she didn't, for God's sake, clear her name now.

She did not sexually abuse me.

Thank you.

-Hey!

-Hey, Chuck.

-How are you all doing?

-Great to see you, man.

-Good to see you.

-Yeah, come on in!

The last time I was in here, it was a mess.

Mr Haysom was here.

He was laying right here.

Miss Haysom was right here, her head was right here.

She was laying like this. And, supposedly...

..Jens was supposedly over here

and got up and walked around behind Mr Haysom.

And cut across his throat this way.

-The thing that came up is Haysom abusing Elizabeth.

-Mm-hm.

We found five or six pictures of Elizabeth...

totally in the nude.

Supposedly, her mother did that.

Jens Soering, he was so possessed over that girl,

she did nothing but use the boy.

She used him... I think she used him to get to her parents.

-I call it the way it is and the way I see it.

-Mm-hm.

Then you can decide for yourself.

I'll never forget the night we luminoled it.

If you know what luminol is... It's a spray.

If you bleed on this table, someone can come in here, wipe it up,

six months from now, come in and spray luminol on it

and you'll see a greenish, bluish glow.

Ricky was upstairs and all of a sudden,

bluish-green footprints you could see just step outside the door,

just started appearing and going across the grass.

Derek WR Haysom and his wife Nancy

were stabbed to death in their home Monday.

The bodies were discovered at their Holcomb Rock Road home.

Haysom is a Canadian resident and a prominent Nova Scotia businessman.

No motive at all has been determined.

Paul Freifeld, News 13.

TRANSLATED FROM GERMAN:

"My dearest Jens, the days go slowly.

"It is time to risk all for the truth.

"You will not forgive me.

"Hate me, hit me, whatever.

"But please, hug me when we meet.

"Promise me, Jens,

"whatever it takes now,

"promise me you will not let me ruin your life.

"I have seriously fucked up on mine, don't let me destroy yours.

"This is the first real and good thing I have ever done.

"I would kill myself if I discovered

"that you were compromising yourself for me.

"Don't do it.

"I love you. Elizabeth."

TRANSLATED FROM GERMAN:

Where did you go to school?

I went to Wycombe Abbey in England.

Wycombe was considered one of the most prestigious schools in England.

How much contact did you have with your mother and father?

They never came to...

..to my...

successes or failures while I was at school.

They never saw me play a lacrosse match. They never saw me perform.

I started having some problems at school. My father adored me.

And...he saw me as being perfect.

'I was a reporter with the Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper'

and I covered western Virginia.

When we heard about the Haysoms' double murder,

at that time, they thought it was just a random killing.

And the story began for me right there,

starting with the mysterious murder

of two very well-known, prominent people.

It was a big, big story in Virginia, and Elizabeth is...

Number one, she was a very unconventional beauty.

I mean, she wasn't your standard beauty.

And I think she had a way of speaking and a charm about her

that attracted a lot of people.

And I don't know exactly what that charm was. It was a bit of...

When she walked into a room, you straightened your spine a bit,

because she just seemed like she knew a lot.

She was very worldly, very articulate, smart, obviously.

I spoke to my parents about changing my A-level subjects.

And my father said it was nonsense.

-I'm sorry, your father said what?

-It was nonsense.

I... I completely overreacted.

I...

I threw everything up, I ran away.

I was using drugs extensively.

What types of drugs were you using?

A lot of LSD, and I was doing a lot of heroin.

-What...?

-Heroin.

'At the same time, you could tell that she lied.'

She was a good liar, she lied,

but you could tell simply that she was used to lying.

And she'd been a drug addict, which she admitted,

and, of course, drug addicts often learn how to lie very well

and often can't stop themselves.

So I think the number one thing I would take away from it is that,

for her, she was a beautiful, charming liar.

I wrote a poem for my mother.

She always wanted me to write poems about her or to her. For her.

And I was now falling into this role

of again playing the perfect daughter, of being...

..social and charming.

And I was being taken around and exhibited.

I wanted to find out what was going wrong with my life and instead,

I was... I was paraded.

They controlled every aspect of what I was doing.

My mother would turn up at odd hours of the day and night

in my dorm room to check on me and what I was doing.

And I know she was doing it out of love,

and she was concerned.

And I suppose I took it the wrong way.

I was resentful of this attention.

What is your first recollection of Jens?

I met him...the...

..the very first day I was there.

It was a barbecue for the scholars in the evening,

and I was introduced to him.

And, um...

..my very first thought of him was that he was very rude,

he was very hostile, he was very aggressive.

But he was also very brilliant.

TRANSLATED FROM GERMAN:

He was introduced to me as the Jefferson Scholar and as a German.

And I think...that appealed to me.

TRANSLATED FROM GERMAN:

Some writing that you made, is that right?

Yes. It's a letter in diary form, I suppose.

Where was this written?

This was written at Loose Chippings in Lynchburg. Holcomb Rock Road.

-That's your home?

-Yes. Writing is the way I express myself.

I expose my heart on paper.

TRANSLATED FROM GERMAN:

I shared everything with him,

and...I shared this with him.

"My dearest Jens.

"A day of raining loneliness.

"This morning, I built my father a desk for his computer.

"I didn't smoke.

"My parents began to drink."

I think I was trying to tell him that...

I was unhappy.

He always described how unhappy he was at home,

and I was describing to him that we all have strife at home

at various times.

I expressed this.

"I bought cigarettes.

"My father fell down.

"I prayed."

I got carried away on many occasions.

It all becomes very surreal.

Would it be possible to hypnotise my parents, do voodoo on them?

-"Do voodoo on them."

-Will them to death.

"Will them to death.

"It seems my concentration on their death is causing them problems.

"My father nearly drove over a cliff.

"And my mother fell into a fire.

"I think I shall seriously take up black magic."

I expressed this very cruelly, very forcefully.

"I want to be with you, around you, in you, through you,

"tied to you forever and ever.

"Please, my darling Jens.

"Oh, I love and miss you.

"Elizabeth."

TRANSLATED FROM GERMAN:

Larry, this is Carlos Santos with the Fluvanna Review.

I'm trying to interview Elizabeth Haysom.

If you could help me get a request in to her,

I'd appreciate the return call.

She'd be on our cover, I'll tell you that.

Thanks, bye.

I'd love to talk to her.

I'd run down there in a heartbeat.

The whole motive never made sense.

When you set up your theory,

you see things in the light of those theories.

And so something like what Elizabeth said, you know,

"We both belong here." She didn't say he belonged in prison,

she said, "We both belong here."

You know, there's a ring of truth to that.

TRANSLATED FROM GERMAN:

He was angry with my parents that...

they weren't providing me with sufficient funds and they were

supposed to be so incredibly wealthy, which is not true.

He wanted to go down to my parents' home and to sort it out with them.

What did you say?

That I could kill them.

At the bottom of page six, would you refer to that, please?

"Dear Liz. I love you.

"Je t'aime. Ich liebe dich.

"How do you feel about a couple of drinks back at my place?

"I have this new Jacuzzi - wild, baby, wild.

"It's me again, the Jens, lying in his bed at 22 minutes past midnight.

"Ghosts dancing all around."

"Were I to meet your parents, I have the ultimate weapon.

"Strange things are happening within me."

"I'm turning more and more into a Christ figure.

"I believe I would either make them completely lose their wits,

"get heart attacks, or they would become lovers of the world.

"Love is a form of meditation,

"and the ultimate weapon against your parents.

"My God, how I've got the dinner scene planned out.

"In the meantime, I love you as totally as I can for right now.

"Your Jens."

What did you do after he left?

As soon as he was gone, I went to a bar next door.

I bought some drinks and I scored a couple of grams of heroin.

The fact that I hated my mother so much,

I feel responsible for that hate and pulling Jens into it.

Allowing him, in a sense,

as I feel now, to have killed my parents.

-Did you go to Lynchburg?

-Did I go to Lynchburg? No.

CHEERING

-ALL: Y!

-What's that spell?!

ROCKY!

When Jens returned to Washington that Saturday night, what did he say to you?

I was at The Rocky Horror Picture Show,

and I came out of the show and I waited on the side.

He drove up - he was on the other side of the road.

And I crossed through the traffic.

And when I opened the car door, the light inside the car came on.

And he was...

wearing some kind of white sheet,

and he was covered in blood from head to toe.

So I got into the car, we drove back to the Marriott Hotel,

and he said that he'd killed my parents.

I was stunned by the situation.

It was so huge, so overwhelming, so definite, so final.

It's extraordinary. I mean, Jens is just...

He's a wimp. You can't imagine him doing something like that. It's extraordinary.

Jens Soering was mad.

He hated the Haysoms.

He says that he went there trying to reason with them,

because she had filled his head with all these ideas about how much

she hated her parents

and that he couldn't have anything to do with her,

and he wanted that more than anything.

He wanted that more than a Jefferson Scholarship,

he wanted that more than anything. He wanted Elizabeth.

# In a little honky-tonky village in Texas

# There's a guy who plays the best piano by far... #

I was hired by an attorney by the name of Gail Ball.

She didn't think that Jens Soering was guilty of this.

And I felt there's a lot of things missing.

And this is the footprint.

It says, "University of Virginia Police Department".

Oh, my dear.

This is a sad one.

This is Mrs Haysom's, what she was wearing.

'Richmond FBI.'

Uh, yes, ma'am, this is Chuck Reid.

I'm trying to contact a former agent of yours, Ed Sulzbach.

He was doing a profile for me on a murder case.

'Uh-huh.'

I got a phone call from the Sheriff in Bedford County.

And the different sheriffs and chiefs around the state of Virginia

knew me and knew that I was a profiler.

And I drove out to Bedford County.

My mission was to study the crime

and come up with possible suspects.

And Mrs Haysom was wearing her nightgown with a robe,

and it occurred to me that Mrs Haysom would never entertain

strangers in such attire.

Who might be close enough to her that she would feel comfortable entertaining in a nightgown, a robe?

We're dealing with, uh...

somebody who's close to these people.

And that, I suggested to the investigators.

'I settled on a daughter, because Mrs Haysom was a very proper woman.

'And I came to the conclusion pretty quickly that it was someone they knew very well.'

Ed, did you all do any paperwork on that?

You and another agent did a psychological profile for us.

'Yeah. I remember that well. Contact the Richmond office.

'They can pull the file.

'Person I suggest to talk to is Debbie Propst - P-R-O-P-S-T.'

Dave, this is the letter from Bedford County Sheriff's Department.

-Uh-huh.

-In reference to the FBI criminal profile,

Major Ricky Gardner insisted there was no profile conducted.

And it's official letterhead.

PHONE RINGS

-Hello?

-'Hi, man.'

-Ricky, how you doing?

'Chuck, they're coming back now.

'Chuck, we never did an FBI profile.

-Yeah, we did.

-'No, we didn't.'

It was Ed Sulzbach and another special agent.

See, that's how I got to know Ed.

Chuck Reid absolutely misspoke

when he said there was never any profile done on this case.

There was never a profile done in this case.

Now, I don't know how nobody ever wrote anything down...

'Chuck, if we had done one of those, that would have been exculpatory evidence.'

To be honest with you, I have a copy of some old field reports and stuff.

'But, obviously, there was nothing mentioned in the...'

-The profile...

-'The profile.'

Yeah, yeah, it's in there.

It's stating that Special Agent Ed Sulzbach did the psychological profile

and came back to a female acquaintance, and...

It's four or five different things that's in there.

'So you think they have thrown one out?'

Yeah, I know they have.

The FBI never throws anything away.

It's somewhere in the FBI's vast...

'It's still there somewhere.'

Thank you, John. Ms Haysom.

You went there and cleaned up the blood, didn't you?

You went to the house to mop up the...

I never wiped up any blood in the house.

Professional cleaners mopped up the blood.

But the fact is, Ms Haysom,

that you insisted on going back to the house and cleaning yourself.

That's not correct, sir.

If Howard Haysom, your brother, said that that is indeed the case,

-would you disagree with him?

-Yes, I would.

Did you also make the statement that as you were cleaning round the fireplace,

that one of your friends heard,

"There's Pop's brains, just cleaning up Pop's brains"?

It's rather inaccurate.

It was not around the fireplace, it was around a door.

Excuse me, I'm not interested in where it was, I'm interested in whether...

Well, we're supposed to be dealing here with accuracy.

What happened, what did not happen.

Thank you, then. You did make the statement nevertheless.

What I said, and what happened...

I was doing some cleaning and there was...

several hairs from my father's head on the door.

And I was sick.

TRANSLATED FROM GERMAN:

So we drove to Charlottesville to talk to Elizabeth at the University of Virginia Police Department.

I asked, I said, "How can we get a hold of this Jens fella?

"We need," you know, "we need to talk to him."

I'll never forget sitting in the office the day that Sunday

that Ricky and I was interviewing him.

In my mind, I'm thinking to myself, "This boy...

"There's no way this little boy could've done something like that."

So when he left that day, he told me, he said,

"Look, let me go back to university. I'll think about it."

And on Wednesday, the 9th,

October the 9th, he said, "I'll give you a call

"and let you know what I've decided to do."

I got a call about ten o'clock Sunday night.

The same time Ricky did.

That we needed to get to Charlottesville,

that Elizabeth and Jens had skipped the country.

I was working at that weekend in which Jens's father called me.

Jens is the same age as my middle child.

They were in prep school in Atlanta.

The boys were about 11 or 12.

Jens's father was a high government official

in the German consular court in Atlanta.

He said, "I have a problem, would you pick me up at the airport?"

I said, "Of course I will."

-VOICE CRACKS:

-It was an awful day.

We travelled to the University of Virginia from here,

which is about an hour and a half.

I'm sorry for this.

But we got to the University of Virginia,

and on the way over, he told me what had happened.

"Dear officers Reid and Gardner.

"I'm certain that sooner or later, you'll become involved in whatever

"investigation may be made into my disappearance.

"I tried to save you some effort by including photocopies of the letters

"I'm leaving for family and friends.

"But undoubtedly, you will travel extensively through my belongings anyway.

"Please try to leave them in a decent state

"and return them to my parents.

"They may want to keep them.

"I assume that especially you, Mr Gardner,

"will be very excited by now, which is why I hate to disappoint you.

"Unfortunately for you, I really am leaving, for the reason

"I discussed in my letter to my parents.

"I suggest that you continue your investigation as before.

"Undoubtedly, you will find who you're looking for.

"From what Liz has told me of what you discovered at Loose Chippings,

"I can only say that I'm incapable of such a thing.

"There's still much to do, so I must say goodbye.

"Try to be kind to my parents - they're going to have a tough enough

"time without you gentlemen.

"Sincerely, Jens Soering."

Jens had left the University of Virginia, and I saw Klaus collapse.

He essentially dissolved.

Because at that point, he realised how terribly serious this was.

"Dear Mum, Dad and Kai.

"I'm writing you to tell you that I sincerely love you,

"and that the pain I'm probably causing you is also causing me great suffering.

"As you know, I've not been happy at school for a very long time.

"There's a fundamental and deep difference between me and almost everyone else here."

His mother was shattered.

I mean, you would have to think of glass. Just crumbs.

"I love you and I will be in touch, though probably not soon.

"The car keys are in the brown business folder in Liz's bedroom."

Jens said it would become clearer to his father shortly

why they had left the University of Virginia.

"There's a chance that certain officers, Reid and Gardner,

"will interpret my leaving as being connected with the death of Liz's parents.

"It is for their benefit that this letter is in English.

"They have a voyeuristic tendency to read other people's personal mail anyway.

"I can almost certainly guarantee you that I did not do what they may think I did.

"And Kai, take the Scirocco and the two accounts and find yourself a good college.

"And for Christ's sake, don't become a dentist."

His father is a broken man.

His mother's dead.

His brother has essentially divorced him.

He has nothing left.

According to Scotland Yard, they questioned the 23-year-old

Haysom girl and 19-year-old Jens Soering today

at the Richmond Police Station in south-west London.

The two were arrested for writing about 6,000 in bad cheques.

Haysom and Soering may also be involved in drug trafficking.

May the 25th of 1986, I received a telephone call

from a detective constable, Terry Wright, in London,

and he asked me if I had any interest in Jens or Elizabeth Haysom.

And I said, "Sure, I do."

And the second question he asked me was, he said,

"Are her parents dead?"

And I said, "Yes, they are."

And he said, "Well, let me ask you, were they murdered?"

And I said, "Yes."

And he said, "Well, perhaps you might want to fly over to London.

"I believe we have the murderers locked up here and you may want to come over and talk to them."

You know, I'm not believing this is happening. I said,

"You stay right where you are and I will call you back within an hour.

"Don't move, don't leave the phone, I will call you right back."

You know, "Who are you again?"

So I drove up to the courthouse,

to Commonwealth's Attorney Jim Updike's office.

And I started telling him, "I just got off the phone

"and he told me Jens and Elizabeth are in jail in England and we've got to go over there."

Today, we've presented indictments on both Jens

and Elizabeth for murder of their parents.

We landed at Heathrow Airport early Tuesday morning

and the detective constable and a sergeant met us.

Within five minutes, they started pulling out the letters.

So over the next couple of days,

we interviewed Jens and Elizabeth four or five times.

"Dear sweetie, I love you so very much.

"The first chunk is the long promised dirty letter to get you in a good mood.

"The room is lit only by two candles.

"And with my best Nazi voice, I slowly say,

" 'You are going nowhere, my liebchen.

" 'Tonight, you're my prisoner of love.'

"We kiss each other deeply now, our tongues playing with each other.

"I move to your clitoris

"and you let out a small moan as my tongue massages

"the flesh between the clitoris and the vagina."

"Sweetie pie, I can't wait to get you all to myself.

"I want to sit on your lap and feel your finger.

"I love you."

"The nasty in our past could be too much to block out.

"But you will overcome this experience, because you want a good,

"strong fuck and a two-hour licking from the guy who loves you.

"You are in a horrible position, more horrible than mine.

"Let me clear a couple of things up.

"Erase all written evidence of Bedford.

"Cross it out. That's all I have time for, sweetie.

"Always trust me, always love me."

"I've been upset, scared, lonely, worried.

"You won't leave me to take the rap alone.

"If I go to Germany and get convicted,

"I will go away for only a few years and your trial will not be

"a hyped up publicity thing,

"since the star attraction, me, is missing.

"Your parole board will give you an early parole,

"especially when they take my early release into consideration.

"So in a few years, we will hopefully both be out and together.

"Trust me and go with the flow.

"Forever yours, Jens."

When Sergeant Beever confronted me in the cell with

Jens's statement,

he was very careful to tell me

a couple of details

about Jens's statement.

My response was anger that Jens had let me down.

While I was...

continuing to cover up for him.

So you were mad at him,

so you just decided to put him in it a little bit deeper?

After they had confessed in London,

she wrote Jens a letter.

Elizabeth wrote Jens a letter severing their relationship

and she said, "Look, I'm going to go back to Virginia.

"I'm going to admit to my part in my parents' death.

"I don't love you any more."

You know, "You're on your own."

Elizabeth Haysom has told prosecutors

she would be willing to testify against her former boyfriend,

Jens Soering.

Virginia prosecutors are still trying to get Soering back

to Virginia to face capital murder charges.

When I came over here,

I believed that if I was convicted of this murder with Jens,

that he would also have to be convicted

and that he would not be able to get a second degree murder conviction.

And worst of all, I stayed with him.

And worst of all, I stayed with him willingly.

What I want you to realise is that Jens acted of his own free will.

He had a choice.

He had a choice. He had a full hour drive.

I never believed he would do that to my parents.

I still can hardly believe it.

No matter what I said to him, no matter what I had written to him,

he had a choice whether he killed my parents or not.

Welcome to Larry King Live!

Is Elizabeth Haysom a beautiful and intelligent murderer?

Or the victim of an obsessive relationship

with a cold-blooded killer?

Our guests are Dr Robert Showalter, psychiatrist,

and Ken Englade, author of the new book, Beyond Reason,

the story of the shocking murder in a sleepy Virginia town.

You think what of her?

She probably developed symptoms that we call

clinically borderline personality disorder very early in life.

Elizabeth kept telling us over and over again,

"I was never allowed to think for myself.

"I could never do anything for myself."

She could not even socialise.

If she were invited to a party,

she will be escorted to the party by a chauffeur, left off,

picked up in 30 minutes.

-This gets bizarrer and bizarrer.

-Oh, it's incredible, yeah.

Long Island, New York, hello?

Was there sexual intercourse between you and this man

who had butchered your parents,

and after you had attended their very own funeral?

You go to the funeral, you take Jens Soering with you and Christine Kim?

Yes.

On the very night of the funeral,

you and Jens Soering make love, don't you?

I was in a separate room, in a single bed,

sharing that room with Christine, my roommate.

Jens came to me and he said that he needed me

and that he was lonely, he was scared.

And I went with him and, up until this time,

he had been completely and totally impotent.

And I got into bed with him, and I woke up, sir.

He was making love to me.

Making love to you.

Why did your parents die?

My parents died...

..because Jens and I were obsessed with each other.

And he was...jealous of anything else in my life.

While all of the testimony is shocking,

the biggest shock of the day came when Haysom's two brothers,

Richard and Howard, took the stand.

She has lied to me in the past.

And...and, frankly, continues to lie.

I personally am not satisfied with the explanation

that her guilty plea provided.

I think Elizabeth was in the house at the time of the crime.

We have an obligation to society

to show to people what the consequences of such a crime are.

I, therefore, would want to see...

..the most severest penalty possible.

I cannot imagine a crime more vile

than participating in the killing of the very people

that gave birth to you, that raised you, that cared for you

when you couldn't care for yourself.

I have been on the bench for 22 years.

Most of the time, cases do not bother me too much.

But I have lost some sleep over this one.

Many of Elizabeth's accusations against her parents,

particularly her mother, were the product of fantasy.

She helped create a fertile field for rumours.

Elizabeth Haysom has pled guilty to two offences

which each carry maximum life sentences.

Miss Haysom,

I sentence you to 45 years in prison on each charge,

the sentences to run consecutively - a total of 90 years.

If my sister had been convicted of capital murder,

I could have...

loved her, hugged her and kissed her,

and walked her to the electric chair if that was what the law called for.

Jens's father, Klaus, said, "I need to get Jens a lawyer."

The key lawyer had already been hired by Elizabeth.

I got the names of three major criminal lawyers in Virginia.

Each of them, as I recall, said

about a half a million dollars - US, cash, upfront.

I never heard further,

until Klaus called and said that he had hired Richard Neaton,

who was a Detroit lawyer.

Mr Neaton had been referred to the Soering family

by somebody at the consulate.

I did not know Mr Neaton.

The defence will call its witness.

Call Jens Soering.

Raise your right hand.

Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony that you shall give

will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

I do.

Prior to today, have you had any opportunity to testify under oath

about the events of that day?

No, I haven't.

I'd like to call your attention to that day.

Did you go to the home of Derek and Nancy Haysom

and kill Mr and Mrs Haysom?

No.

MURMURING

On March 30, 1985,

were you Washington, DC?

Yes, on a Saturday.

Elizabeth had basically gotten into debt with a person both of us knew,

called Jim Farmer, who she'd been buying drugs from at UVA,

and she told me that Jim Farmer had asked her to pick up a package

from somebody he knew in Washington,

and drive back down to Charlottesville.

Jim Farmer's parents also lived in Lynchburg

and she told me that the families knew each other socially.

Her parents were very worried about Elizabeth using drugs,

because she'd used a lot of drugs in the past.

At that point, she said the only way I can help her

would be for me to function as her alibi.

Hmm.

Yeah.

James Farmer.

There you go, right here.

He's got a criminal record.

But it's probably traffic.

Oh! No.

Possession of a controlled substance.

He got jail time, too.

Did she ask you to do anything specific?

Well, she asked me...

You'll have heard already,

to go and buy two tickets to a film,

and then meet her at the hotel afterwards.

Hello, my name is Dave Watson.

I'm trying to get a hold of Mr James Farmer.

You say your son is ill, do you know how I can reach him?

Back in the '80s, I was a police officer up in Northern Virginia.

Right.

You were a judge, where, in Bedford?

What I want to do is talk with him to see what his relationship was

with this girl, Elizabeth.

You know what I'm talking about, or...?

OK.

Jens Soering testified that Elizabeth was going to meet Jim that night.

I think that was part of her alibi.

That... OK.

All right.

Is there any way that I'd be able to talk with your son?

PHONE HANGS UP

His son did give her a ride to Lynchburg one time.

He was friends with the Haysoms, the parents.

We knew that Elizabeth had gotten a ride home with him.

But on the weekend that they were murdered,

Jim Farmer's name was never mentioned in any...in any scenario,

until the trial of Jens Soering in... Five years later.

So how could we have asked him anything

if we didn't know it at the time?

I mean, this is coulda, shoulda, woulda hindsight.

Jens and Elizabeth rented a car!

Jim Farmer's name was not on the rental car.

She never said anything about it.

He never said to me, Jim, well, that was... I...

Jim Farmer drove...

When did...?

I don't know, I mean...

After you agreed to do this, did she drive off?

Well, we got in the car, and she just drove me down to the theatre

that was playing Witness.

-How many tickets?

-I bought two tickets, as per plan.

And approximately what time of the afternoon was this?

About five o'clock.

After the film was over, what did you do?

Caught a taxi back to the hotel.

I cashed a cheque at the front desk of the hotel,

using the credit card as a guarantee.

They write the number on the back,

and that guarantees that the cheque will be paid.

Did you sign for it?

Yes, I did, that was the point.

Did you stay in the room?

For a while, yes. But not very long.

Because in case she didn't come back,

I should then continue with this alibi production business.

THEY CHANT

When you got back to the hotel, was she there?

No, she wasn't.

It was around two o'clock, I guess.

She came to the room, knocked, stormed past me into the room.

She started basically repeating the same things over and over again.

"I've killed my parents, I've killed my parents."

You know, "It wasn't me, it was the drugs that made me do it."

"You've got to help me. If you don't help me, they'll kill me."

I had to protect her.

I could not turn her in.

Were you in love with her then?

Well, of course.

And...

I loved the girl.

And I almost saw her as a sort of third victim of this...tragedy

that apparently had happened.

It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done.

We basically expected the police to arrive within the next few hours.

And we thought, we have to make a decision now, come up with a plan,

how I would have done it, and what for me to tell the police

to make the whole story believable.

The script of what had happened that day.

Give the jury an example of how that conversation took place.

For example, what happened at the house, what was her mother doing?

Your Honour, I asked the defendant what his position was.

His position, as far as what happened, and, Your Honour,

he maintained the position throughout,

and his position was that he killed Derek and Nancy Haysom.

And he admitted that.

And I feel, Your Honour, that that's improper.

That you cannot take a position earlier in a legal proceeding

and then later take one that is entirely different.

It's not proper and it's not honest.

October 4, 1986.

You state that there came a point when you became angry.

That you stood up, Mr Haysom pushed you back into the corner,

and that you bumped your head?

That's what I said here, yes.

That you grabbed a knife, and that you came around behind Mr Haysom?

That's what I said.

And that you cut him across the neck, left to right.

-You stated that?

-That's what I said here, yes.

You know, it's very well-known that people have confessed to crimes

that they didn't commit.

He felt he had that diplomatic immunity,

and she was such a manipulator to that young boy that, yes,

he would take a rap for her, knowing that, well, if I get caught,

they'll send me back to Germany, I'll pull a couple of years

and I'm out of it, and then me and Elizabeth will be back together.

If you look at those,

do you recognise them as some correspondence that was obtained

from a flat in England, April of 1986?

Love is a form of meditation,

and the ultimate, quote, weapon against your parents.

What it says right here is love, our love.

Elizabeth's love for me and mine for her.

That was supposed to be the quote, unquote, weapon against her parents.

This business about her father being cold and unfeeling

and her mother being very cruel.

I loved Elizabeth, and I believed that my love for her

had become more mature, real love.

That's how I felt about it, anyway.

The motion hearing will resume tomorrow morning at 9:30,

when witnesses will include British authorities

who also questioned Soering in England.

Judge William Sweeney will then decide whether or not

incriminating statements made by Soering will be used against him.

Pam Windsor, News Centre 13, Bedford County.

-State your name, please, sir?

-Kenneth Beever.

Your profession, please?

I'm a Detective Inspector at the London Metropolitan Police.

Very good.

Look at those.

The items of correspondence were inside, sir, this diary.

Where were those items recovered?

They were recovered at a flat in London.

And, in fact, Mr Soering took me to the flat.

On that day, sir, he had a reddish-coloured hair

and he was wearing a false moustache,

somewhat similar to yours, sir.

LAUGHTER

My name is Terry Wright. I'm a Detective Constable.

At that particular time

I was attached to Richmond Police Station in London, England.

What led you to make the phone calls to Virginia?

Yes, sir, there was a photocopy of a letter

which was actually addressed to Officers Reid and Gardner.

Ooh!

-Hello?

-Gail, David.

Yes. What have you found out?

Farmer is deceased.

Oh, goodness.

He passed away two weeks ago.

If he was involved in this thing he carried forever,

can you believe that no detective went and talked to him?

Oh, my dear.

I'll let you look.

This letter is in handwriting

that I recognise as belonging to Elizabeth Haysom.

"My dearest Jens.

"I think I shall seriously take up black magic.

"My father has put Vera Lynn on, and her first song was Lili Marlene."

# Underneath the lantern

# By the barrack gate. #

"My mother begins her sixth gin,

"and then on her ninth gin, Jim Farmer calls.

"A party, he says,

"breaking my concentration on the many murder stories I have read.

"An unshaven homosexual having a drink with my parents."

"My father calls, like an alarm clock.

"I must turn him off and put him on snooze.

"The scene of a feckless dinner party.

"William Styron, (Sophie's Choice).

"I'm sitting in the bath with lots of bubbles.

"It makes me sleepy, and I've drunk lots of beer.

"The days go slowly.

"Why don't my parents just lie down and die?

"I despise them so much."

"We can either wait until we graduate and then leave them behind,

"or we can get rid of them soon."

-And your objective here?

-Was to tell the truth.

And to convince these jurors that you didn't do anything, correct?

That's the truth, yes.

You are capable of doing that, right?

Of telling the truth?

If you are capable of lying to protect yourself,

then you are almost certainly capable of lying to these people

-to avoid these charges.

-But that's not what I'm doing.

Aren't you capable of doing it?

Theoretically, because in one case I'm lying to protect Elizabeth,

and here I'm just telling what happened.

At this point, you can't do anything to Elizabeth any more.

Jens was very bright.

He was a Jefferson scholar and an Eccles scholar.

The incidence of those scholarships being visited upon one person

is beyond rare.

She, too, was academically a very talented person.

And it was the proximity of their IQs

that seemed to bring them together, at least initially.

-Is it an intellectual challenge for you?

-No, it isn't.

Is it...? It certainly wouldn't be a challenge for you

with your intellect to outwit me, would it?

Well, I think, so far, you've been outwitting me.

There is a burden that comes with being so bright,

and there's some folks don't like you very much because you're bright.

And sometimes bright people don't hide their brightness

or mask it very well.

And so, to a certain extent, Jens had...

..some challenges.

I just can't understand, sir,

why you, at times, are sitting up there under these circumstances,

on trial for murder, laughing.

I'm not laughing.

Haven't you laughed, didn't you laugh just a few minutes ago?

I smiled because you're trying to mislead the jury.

Well, I would like to discuss that with you a little bit more.

You have to recast this situation

in such a way that we appeal to the humanity,

and that is why I have initiated the pulling together

of a small group of people to look at this case

differently from how they have looked at it in the past.

-Good morning.

-Good morning. Hi.

Good to see you all. Hi, good morning.

Hi.

This memo is from Virginia citizens interested in the release

and repatriation of Jens Soering.

The Virginia Parole Board considered his parole eight times before today.

I have known Jens Soering since he was 11 years old.

I would accept him to live with me right this minute.

As long as he wants to.

I've been involved in prison ministry for over 35 years.

I got a letter from Jens Soering asking for help to get a priest.

He'd had this crisis in faith.

His grandmother wrote a letter to him that the honourable thing to do

would be to commit suicide.

So we started meeting regularly once a month.

And have been ever since then.

27 years in prison, he has absolutely no infractions.

And, to my knowledge,

there is no-one in our prison system that has a record like his.

So that convinced me that he never had the ability

to act the way those crimes happened.

It's just not...

This is not part of his make-up.

There is absolutely no risk to society. It's in your power...

I was in the Attorney General's Office for eight years.

A friend of mine in the office was a friend of Jens's father, Klaus.

And he said, I have a very interesting case,

I would like you to try to help this young man,

who had a very unfair trial.

So I brought all the files in.

And I read all the police reports.

And I looked at everything in the case.

And I said, "This man is innocent."

"We've got the wrong man, this man didn't do it."

-State your name please, ma'am.

-Annie Robertson Massie.

Could you just briefly describe the circumstances that led you

to go to the victim's house?

Elizabeth had telephoned from Charlottesville

that she had not been able to reach her parents,

and asked if I knew where they were.

And I told her, no, I had been trying as well.

-What did you do then?

-I telephoned my husband.

We planned to go directly to the house.

I opened the door.

And what did you see?

I saw Derek, dead.

Where was he?

He was lying to the left of the door.

The body had not been moved.

So Bill and I drove to Charlottesville

to tell Elizabeth in person about the deaths of her parents.

Did you see the defendant while you were there in Charlottesville

-on that occasion?

-Yes, I did.

The family were gathering.

And I also invited her roommate, Christine Kim.

And so we brought the three back.

Mrs Massie, I'd like to ask you some questions

of a rather sensitive nature.

Had Nancy Haysom ever shown you any nude photographs

of Elizabeth Haysom?

No, Nancy had not.

Was there ever an incident at Loose Chippings

when you complimented Elizabeth Haysom on her physical appearance

and tweaked one of her breasts?

Objection, your honour.

Well, I...

Have you ever talked to Elizabeth Haysom

about whether she was there on the night of March the 30th?

No.

-No?

-No, I asked her once.

Objection.

The question has certainly started off wrong.

I don't know how it would have ended up,

but based on the way it started off, I sustain.

Mr Neaton had been a friend of Jens's father, Klaus.

He was not from Virginia.

And Virginia has some very...

peculiar rules about procedure, default rules,

so that you can lose your opportunity to make a certain argument

if you don't do it procedurally, exactly the correct way.

You know, some facts would suggest that Elizabeth Haysom...

-Objection.

-Mr Neaton, that's an improper question.

I sustain the objection. You're an experienced trial lawyer.

It's going at it a different way. Sustain.

With reference to item 11B,

a hair sample obtained from the bathroom sink.

Did you have the occasion to compare this

with the defendant's hair sample?

Yes, sir, I did.

The head hair was dissimilar to the submitted head hair sample

reportedly from Jens Soering.

-Any further questions?

-No, sir.

The witness may step down. The witness is excused.

Mr Young, you were submitted fingerprints

for comparison purposes.

Item 17LR, which would be the liquor bottles over here.

Yes, sir, there were 14 fingerprints developed on these bottles.

Nine fingerprints of Derek Haysom.

Two that were later identified as whose prints?

Those were identified with

the submitted fingerprints of Elizabeth Haysom,

which were lifted from the Absolut Vodka bottle.

So, nine of the prints were Derek's,

two of the prints were Elizabeth Haysom's.

The other three were not identified

with any of the submitted fingerprints.

This interview is taking place in Bedford, Virginia.

The person being interviewed is Charles Reid.

-Chuck Reid.

-Chuck Reid. Former...

I was a criminal investigator for the Bedford Sheriff's Office.

And that was you, Ricky Gardner...

You see, Ricky had just came in.

That was the first murder case Ricky had worked,

let me put it to you that way.

We took over 1,000 pictures.

The way the bodies were laying on the floor,

their heads were pointing in a northerly direction.

I don't think Elizabeth alone did it, by no means.

There's no doubt in my mind some other people to be involved.

TRANSLATED FROM GERMAN:

Still, to this day, after 30 years, there's a question in my mind.

The physical evidence was not there.

They were just overwhelming convinced with that sock print

found in the house, and blood.

By observing the form of this foot, LR3,

and Jens Soering's walking impression,

I could not make an elimination

that this foot could not have made that impression.

Well, in the first place, this man was not a sock print

or a footprint expert - he was a tyre expert.

And he should never have been allowed to have an opinion.

If that is the suspect print found at the scene,

and if this is Jens Soering's footprint,

and you lay them on top of one another like that

and it fits like a glove...

You pull that out, and it matches, and it fits like a glove.

This was so out of professionalism or any expertise.

This is senseless. This is not science.

This is ridiculous.

Nobody can tell anybody's foot from a...

A smeared sock print.

The footprint basically is what,

besides his statement of admitting to it,

put him where he's at.

75% of the people that are in jail today, their mouth put them there.

It's not the evidence, it's their mouth.

And that's exactly what put Jens where he's at.

Mr Gardner, did you have information that the shoe print

that was left in the Haysom house was consistent

with a woman's size 8-8.5 shoe?

I'm not certain, Mr Neaton,

because I don't know when we got the report back

from the lab in Richmond.

Mr Gardner, you were present during Elizabeth Haysom's interviews,

-is that correct?

-Yes, I was.

And at that interview, did Elizabeth Haysom tell you that her shoe size

-was a size eight?

-Objection, your honour.

The jury either be excluded or we open up this area entirely.

Well, I think this is a matter that we need to send the jury out.

Members of the jury, I'll ask you to go to your room, please.

Lynchburg Cablevision presents same-day coverage

of the Jens Soering trial from the Bedford County Circuit Court,

brought to you as a public service by Lynchburg Cablevision.

So, let me make sure, from Baker's report,

somebody said the shoe type was, what, a New Balance?

Size... Is that correct?

Yes, sir.

And that it was a women's what size?

It was an 8.5 shoe, woman's size.

8.5 in woman's size.

So that tells me there are other people to look at here.

Was a profile requested by your department?

Ed's back. He and another individual came in and did the profile.

But, see, that wasn't brought up in court.

It was not.

Gardner said it didn't happen.

The existence of a profile

not provided to the defence?

That's a pretty high bar.

Sit down.

Would you tell the jury your name?

I'm Jean Bass. I lived on Holcomb Rock Road,

just beyond the Haysom house.

Do you recall driving by the Haysom house that night?

Yes.

It was either Saturday night, Sunday night or Monday night.

It was just getting dark.

We saw every light inside and outside of the house on.

And we saw cars parked

on the driveway, all the way up that driveway as far as we could see.

I would say there were at least five or six cars.

I just want to make sure, there were cars all the way down the driveway?

The end of the last car was within two or three feet

of Holcomb Rock Road.

-And all the way up the driveway?

-Yes, as far as we could see.

Why would she rent the car in her name,

but yet let him drive it back over there and kill some people

when anybody could take a chance

to see that and recognise that car there that night?

So who's to say that she didn't rent it and he stayed in DC?

She comes back in the car, parks the car somewhere else

and get with some people in another car and goes to the crime scene.

If another group of people in a different car commit the crime,

go back and get in the rental car,

then they can trace the car back to her.

I'm just saying, hey, you know, anything is possible.

Can I ask you about Jim Farmer?

I knew his dad, the judge.

Farmer was a general district judge in Bedford.

So, you were in Washington on Saturday.

And Elizabeth Haysom says to you,

I've got to take some drugs back to an individual in Charlottesville?

That's correct.

She was supposed to pick up drugs in Washington, DC,

with the person that she told me was her drug dealer, Jim Farmer.

Why are you so interested in attacking that individual?

I haven't asked you about him.

I mean, it's what she said to me.

Jens, had Elizabeth ever told you

that she had purchased the 10:15 ticket?

No. Elizabeth basically got the times confused,

because she wasn't there when I bought the tickets in DC.

Just like I got the position of the bodies confused

because I wasn't in Lynchburg.

OK. Can you step down? And we're going to have to do some explaining.

When Elizabeth went to clean up the house with her brothers,

she wrote me a letter in which she said

that the house was different from when she'd left it

and somebody else must have come after her to the house.

She said the bodies were aligned along the same axis.

See, this is the living room, right?

Now, when she said to me in the doorway,

I naturally assumed that she meant in the doorway like that, right?

Which is wrong.

What she meant in the doorway was that Mr Haysom was lying like that,

blocking the doorway.

And that's why I changed Mrs Haysom's body from that

-to that.

-OK, we can resume this statement.

What happened to that letter?

I threw that away. Because I thought

this letter made it quite clear that she had killed the Haysoms.

But it didn't occur to me that somebody else

was part of a conspiracy to kill her parents.

Here it is. This is from inside.

Elizabeth is a very good writer.

She wrote for this little paper from prison.

Everyday Issues, by Elizabeth Haysom.

"When I first arrived at Fluvanna in 1998,

"I got my head stuck in my four-inch window.

"My day consists of being told to sit, stand, go faster, go slower,

"be quieter, be louder,

"of spending my entire 20-minute lunch breaks

"being told to tighten up, hurry up, finish up and get up.

"I live a few feet from Death Row in segregation,

"which is a reminder of the thin line I walk.

"My green dog reminds me that dreams

"and opportunities don't always arrive in quite the way we expect.

"This is a punishment, it's meant to be tough."

REPORTER: Two weeks of testimony from numerous witnesses.

Tomorrow, Elizabeth Haysom will take the stand.

It will be the first time that Haysom and Jens Soering

will face each other since both were returned to the US.

Pam Windsor, News Centre 13, Bedford.

-Good morning, Miss Haysom.

-Good morning, sir.

If you need a break at any time during the questioning,

indicate to me and we'll take a break.

Elizabeth is beautiful.

She's a beautiful girl.

Miss Haysom, before Mr Soering left Washington...

..did you provide him with any information concerning

-the location of...?

-INDISTINCT

-Yes, I did, sir.

-How was that?

-I drew it on a map.

-You drew him a map.

He's very well-dressed.

And we'll always remember him by his large glasses.

After I'd been interviewed by the police the first time,

Jens and I got together with my roommate, Christine,

and we created a packet of our alibi.

Christine wrote the document out.

We sort of dictated it to her.

I'm not quite sure why we had her do it.

Maybe to have a third person involved.

So, we created this alibi in diary form,

going from the Friday up until the time

that we stayed with the Massies.

And did both you and Jens Soering then dictate this to Christine?

-Yes, we did.

-Christine Kim?

Yes, that's correct.

PHONE RINGS

'This is Global Tel Mate.

-'I have a prepaid call from...'

-Jens Soering.

'..an inmate in Buckingham Correctional Centre.

'Dial zero now.'

'Your call is being connected.'

-Good morning.

-Good morning. Yes.

We still have that beer that we're going to have in Germany

when you get out.

I'm coming over and you're going to show me around, OK?

I wanted to say something about the fact that,

in the trial in 1990, there was this document that was kind of a timeline

for what happened on that weekend.

There was some thought that I might have written this document

and that was clearly not the case.

-ELIZABETH:

-Friday, March 29th.

16-19, Washington trip, arrived at 7pm.

19-22, checked into hotel, room service, sex.

Saturday, 22-24, Stranger In Paradise.

0-2, Rocky Horror Picture Show, late.

2-3, drunken encounter.

Turn left on Cadys Alley Northwest.

Monday, 11:30-3am, E called our parents after movie.

Wednesday, E called Massies.

Call-back 11:10.

And then it has "Massie's" written underneath.

Thank you for reading that. If you can identify the handwriting...

Yes, this is Christine Kim's handwriting.

-JENS:

-But the prosecution never asked Christine Kim

to testify at my trial.

Somebody told me that Christine Kim's

-some kind of

-BLEEP

-Professor at

-BLEEP

-University, maybe.

Hey, Dave. It's Gail.

-Hey, Gail.

-Yes.

What have you found out?

Miss Kim left me a voicemail.

She said that if I came on the property of the university again,

she would call the police on me.

SHE LAUGHS

I have no idea why she would be reacting that way.

Miss Haysom,

I'd like you to read the highlighted portion

on page three of that letter.

"I hated my love for you for a long time.

"I had always believed that I made men fall in love with me

"so that I could screw them, physically and emotionally,

"and take out all the hatred I felt for them.

"I would make a man humiliate himself and, in the end,

"I would give him the best fuck he's ever likely to get

"and then walk out."

That's what you did to Jens, wasn't it?

No, I don't think that that's what I did to Jens.

Did you ever tell my client that Mrs Massie

-had somehow done things to you?

-Objection, your honour.

I apologise, but I have to do it. I feel that it's my duty.

Did you ever tell Jens Soering

that your mother's good friend, Mrs Massie, touched you in any way?

-Yes, she did.

-When you ask a question like that,

you've got to prove it.

You can't just ask questions and then not back it up with proof.

And if you don't, I'm going to strike the question

and I'm going to strike the answer.

There were rumours that there were...

I just don't think we ought to talk about the rumours, honey.

-Well...

-I mean, really... I don't think that adds anything to it.

-None of them were true!

-Well, I know that.

-All kinds of rumours.

-Because that might involve other people,

and I just don't think we ought to go into that.

You said that your mother slept with you.

Yes, sir.

Objection, your honour.

That's not a relevant question.

She abused you, right?

Was that true?

Yes, sir, it was.

Well, when you testified at your guilty plea here,

in October of 1987, you said that was false.

You were asked, was she a sexual abuser?

If she didn't, for God's sake, clear her name now.

And have I said today that she sexually abused me?

You said yes today, right?

I said that she abused me. I did not specify that it was sexual.

Then you didn't lie to us?

No, I did not.

It actually is a mitigating circumstance

if you are abused and you're young

and who knows how long the abuse has gone on and why it all happened?

The prosecutor knows.

It's the key to everything.

I was there when Updike pushed her.

That was the nexus,

that was the crucible in which all of this was cooked.

I still see him talking with Elizabeth and discounting a motive.

And he said, "This is the chance to clear your mother's name,"

and she said... She cleared it.

Your mother's been butchered.

-Yes, she has, sir.

-You called her a liar and an alcoholic.

-I did not call her an alcoholic.

-Was she a sexual abuser?

Did she sexually abuse you?

If she didn't, for God's sake, clear her name now.

-She did not sexually abuse me.

-Thank you.

You said that to get a deal, right?

In order to try to get yourself a light sentence.

-You had the services of an attorney, Mr Rosenfield.

-That is correct.

There are all sorts of promises that get made to prisoners

that induces them to plead guilty.

Sometimes a family member will not be prosecuted

because of a deal worked out.

That's a favourite one by prosecutors.

"If you plead guilty, we won't charge your mother."

And so, Elizabeth Haysom made a deal with the government that,

if she pled guilty and testified against Jens,

that the death penalty would be removed