There are moments in a person’s life--generally few but always significant--when he or she is faced with a choice, the outcome of which reveals a glimpse of their character. Those moments are usually not the ones we seek out for ourselves, but are rather thrust upon us unexpectedly. But is precisely the unexpected nature of those moments that makes them such a powerful lens with which to view someone’s character--in being surprised they act instinctively, more out of true, inner nature than considered evaluation. John faced such a moment shortly after his release from prison in 1997.
On Saturday, June 14th, 1997, Bruce Johnson received a phone call. Bruce Johnson owned an apartment building at 801 South 9th Street in Lincoln, Nebraska. One of his tenants is calling him to tell him that there is a strong odor coming from one of the apartments and a lot of flies buzzing around. So Mr. Johnson goes up to the apartment and he sees flies everywhere and he smells something very bad. He calls 911. The EMT and police arrive. Mr. Johnson unlocks the front door to the apartment, pushes open the door and immediately recognizes the tenant, Harold Fowler, face down on the carpet, dead. He also sees that there is another person in the living room beyond Mr. Fowler, also clearly dead. The second man would later be identified as Duane Johnson, Mr. Fowler’s roommate.
Fowler was shot once in the chest, three times in a tightly grouped pattern, like a cloverleaf, toward the back of his head, and shot two more times through the head--six shots in all, no exit wounds. Johnson was shot three times in the head, again in a kind of close cloverleaf pattern, once more in the head, once in the mouth, and once in his genitals. Six shots in all, just like Fowler. Among the evidence recovered at the scene was a pillow with gun residue on it, near Johnson’s body. It had a number of holes into and out of it, later determined by police to have been used as a makeshift silencer by the shooter.
Twelve shots in all, and twelve shell casings - later determined to have been fired from a Ruger 10 .22 caliber rifle. That rifle will prove to have a disturbing connection to John. But that wasn’t the only, or the worst, connection he had to this case.
It would take nine years before the police could identify and charge the man responsible for the two execution-style murders, Jeff Hoover--in what was later determined to be a drug deal gone bad. But John knew much, much earlier.
John was released from Nebraska state prison on his robbery convictions on July 28, 1997 - about three months shy of 7 years from when he went in. By now 26 years old, John had been given a fourth chance to turn his life around after having now spent one-third of his life in prison.
Let’s let John tell you in his own words what happened next. The following is an excerpt from John’s testimony at Hoover’s murder trial in 2007:
On Saturday, June 14th, 1997, Bruce Johnson received a phone call. Bruce Johnson owned an apartment building at 801 South 9th Street in Lincoln, Nebraska. One of his tenants is calling him to tell him that there is a strong odor coming from one of the apartments and a lot of flies buzzing around. So Mr. Johnson goes up to the apartment and he sees flies everywhere and he smells something very bad. He calls 911. The EMT and police arrive. Mr. Johnson unlocks the front door to the apartment, pushes open the door and immediately recognizes the tenant, Harold Fowler, face down on the carpet, dead. He also sees that there is another person in the living room beyond Mr. Fowler, also clearly dead. The second man would later be identified as Duane Johnson, Mr. Fowler’s roommate.
Fowler was shot once in the chest, three times in a tightly grouped pattern, like a cloverleaf, toward the back of his head, and shot two more times through the head--six shots in all, no exit wounds. Johnson was shot three times in the head, again in a kind of close cloverleaf pattern, once more in the head, once in the mouth, and once in his genitals. Six shots in all, just like Fowler. Among the evidence recovered at the scene was a pillow with gun residue on it, near Johnson’s body. It had a number of holes into and out of it, later determined by police to have been used as a makeshift silencer by the shooter.
Twelve shots in all, and twelve shell casings - later determined to have been fired from a Ruger 10 .22 caliber rifle. That rifle will prove to have a disturbing connection to John. But that wasn’t the only, or the worst, connection he had to this case.
It would take nine years before the police could identify and charge the man responsible for the two execution-style murders, Jeff Hoover--in what was later determined to be a drug deal gone bad. But John knew much, much earlier.
John was released from Nebraska state prison on his robbery convictions on July 28, 1997 - about three months shy of 7 years from when he went in. By now 26 years old, John had been given a fourth chance to turn his life around after having now spent one-third of his life in prison.
Let’s let John tell you in his own words what happened next. The following is an excerpt from John’s testimony at Hoover’s murder trial in 2007:
Q. You were paroled in 1997, correct?
A. Yes.
Q. Where did you go to live when you were paroled?
A. Eagle, Nebraska.
Q. And at that time where was your brother Steve living?
A. He was living in Lincoln.
Q. Who did Steve live with at that time?
A. Shanda McCaul, his wife, and his two children, and I would stay there a little bit off and on.
Q. Why were you staying there?
A. Just hanging out. I never -- I didn't know anybody in Eagle.
Q. So would you stay overnight sometimes?
A. Yeah, sometimes.
Q. How often do you think you were staying there when you first were released?
A. I think there was a month that I stayed there quite a bit, more than the rest of the time. I was staying there probably one every three days.
Q. Did you meet other individuals while you were there?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you develop some friendships?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you know Jeff Hoover?
A. Yes, I do.
Woah …
Q. How did you meet Jeff Hoover?
A. Through my brother Steven.
Q. How did that come about?
A. He would come over to the house quite a few times while I was there, and that would have been Steven's apartment.
Q. Do you recall when you first met Jeff Hoover?
A. Yeah. It was over at Steven's house.
Q. About how long was it after you had been released from prison?
A. About two weeks.
That would be about a month after Hoover murdered Fowler and Johnson.
Q. Did you talk with Jeff Hoover from time to time?
A. Yes.
Q. And did Jeff Hoover ever make any statements to you regarding a couple of deaths in Lincoln?
A. Yes, one time.
Q. Do you recall approximately when that was?
A. About the third time I met him.
Q. Do you know who else was at your brother's apartment that day?
A. Yes.
Q. Who else was inside?
A. A friend named Nate. Shanda, Steven's wife, and Steven and his two children.
Q. And during the course of that conversation, did Mr. Hoover mention any action that he had done?
A. Yeah, he said he's pretty good at handling himself.
Q. Did he give you any specific example of how he could handle himself?
A. He told me he has had to take out a couple people. I think his exact phrase was whack them.
Q. When Mr. Hoover said he had to whack some people, did he say how many?
A. There's two.
Q. How did you respond to that?
A. I kind of gave him a weird look, said I thought whack meant beat them up, but he rephrased it and said no, I killed them.
Q. Those were the words he used?
A. Yes.
Q. Did Mr. Hoover explain to you what happened?
A. Yes.
Q. What information did he tell you about the two people that he had whacked or --
A. That he was going to go handle some business with some people, he didn't feel comfortable about it, so he had to go back and get a gun.
Q. After the defendant told you that he had whacked these two people with a gun and that he had killed them, what did you do with that information?
A. [...] I just started shutting the conversation down.
Q. Why?
A. I had just got out of prison and you hear that kind of stuff in there all time and I was interested in other things.
Q. Did that change at some point?
A. Yes.
Q. When did it change?
A. When I heard that law enforcement was looking to start questioning people about it in regards to him.
Now it’s important to note that when John heard law enforcement was looking to start questioning people about the Hoover case, he had already been indicted on his federal firearms charges and was sitting in jail awaiting trial.
So let’s review. John is two weeks out of prison and begins to hang out with his brother, his brother’s wife and their two children at their apartment. In the course of hanging out there he meets Hoover, who a month prior brutally murdered two people in a drug deal gone bad. Hoover is eager to brag about his crimes to John, even explicitly telling John that he had killed two people. What does John do with this information?
Does he warn his brother, “Hey, this guy is bad news--you need to keep him away from your wife and kids.” No.
Does he go to the police and say, “Hey, I heard about two murders in Lincoln - you might want to talk to this guy Jeff Hoover.” No.
Does he think about the families of the two men brutally murdered by Hoover, and think to try and provide them some closure? No.
Does he think about the safety of the community, about how there’s a cold-blooded double murderer walking around free? No.
Does he even feel uncomfortable around this acknowledged double murderer, and stop hanging out with him and Steve? No.
No, John does absolutely nothing.
This choice wasn’t made just one time. John continued to hang out with Steve and Hoover over the next several weeks and months. And he continued to ignore pleas by the police over the next nine years, who would periodically raise media awareness about the now-cold case.
No, John kept what he knew to himself. Right up until he could benefit personally by trading on the information. Then suddenly he was more than happy to talk. In exchange for agreeing to testify against Hoover, the government dropped one of the gun charges he was facing. And after he testified and Hoover was convicted the government reduced John’s sentence from 15 to 7-½ years. Gotta give credit to John, he did manage to maximize the value to himself from what he knew.
In all fairness to John though, he wasn’t the only McCaul to exhibit such self-serving behavior. Remember that Ruger 10 .22 caliber rifle? Turns out, it was his brother Steve’s gun. Yes, that’s right. The night of the murders, Hoover calls Steve McCaul and asks to borrow Steve’s gun. Steve happily hands it over, without asking any questions. Hoover later tells Steve he murdered two people with the gun and then disposed of it.
And what does Steve McCaul do with this information? True to McCaul family form, absolutely nothing. The man’s gun was just used in a double homicide and he does absolutely nothing about it--no calls to the police, no obvious concern for his family’s safety, let alone the safety of the community; nothing. He and Hoover even continued to be drinking buddies for months afterward.
In 2007 when the police figure out that the gun was Steve’s, they start to question him about it. Even then, Steve initially denies any knowledge about the murders, and claims he threw away his gun after it jammed on him. Frustrated, the police begin to hint they’ll charge Steve with obstruction of justice, or being an accessory after the fact. Then suddenly he’s eager to share the truth about Hoover and the gun. Just in time to save his own ass. Just like John.
These apparently are the family values John is so eager to impart to Sonya. Don’t do the right thing unless it can benefit you personally. Don’t care about anyone but yourself. It’s okay to hang out and socialize with murderers.
But believe it or not, what John said above wasn’t even the most shocking thing that came out during his testimony. Stay tuned for that.
So let’s review. John is two weeks out of prison and begins to hang out with his brother, his brother’s wife and their two children at their apartment. In the course of hanging out there he meets Hoover, who a month prior brutally murdered two people in a drug deal gone bad. Hoover is eager to brag about his crimes to John, even explicitly telling John that he had killed two people. What does John do with this information?
Does he warn his brother, “Hey, this guy is bad news--you need to keep him away from your wife and kids.” No.
Does he go to the police and say, “Hey, I heard about two murders in Lincoln - you might want to talk to this guy Jeff Hoover.” No.
Does he think about the families of the two men brutally murdered by Hoover, and think to try and provide them some closure? No.
Does he think about the safety of the community, about how there’s a cold-blooded double murderer walking around free? No.
Does he even feel uncomfortable around this acknowledged double murderer, and stop hanging out with him and Steve? No.
No, John does absolutely nothing.
This choice wasn’t made just one time. John continued to hang out with Steve and Hoover over the next several weeks and months. And he continued to ignore pleas by the police over the next nine years, who would periodically raise media awareness about the now-cold case.
No, John kept what he knew to himself. Right up until he could benefit personally by trading on the information. Then suddenly he was more than happy to talk. In exchange for agreeing to testify against Hoover, the government dropped one of the gun charges he was facing. And after he testified and Hoover was convicted the government reduced John’s sentence from 15 to 7-½ years. Gotta give credit to John, he did manage to maximize the value to himself from what he knew.
In all fairness to John though, he wasn’t the only McCaul to exhibit such self-serving behavior. Remember that Ruger 10 .22 caliber rifle? Turns out, it was his brother Steve’s gun. Yes, that’s right. The night of the murders, Hoover calls Steve McCaul and asks to borrow Steve’s gun. Steve happily hands it over, without asking any questions. Hoover later tells Steve he murdered two people with the gun and then disposed of it.
And what does Steve McCaul do with this information? True to McCaul family form, absolutely nothing. The man’s gun was just used in a double homicide and he does absolutely nothing about it--no calls to the police, no obvious concern for his family’s safety, let alone the safety of the community; nothing. He and Hoover even continued to be drinking buddies for months afterward.
In 2007 when the police figure out that the gun was Steve’s, they start to question him about it. Even then, Steve initially denies any knowledge about the murders, and claims he threw away his gun after it jammed on him. Frustrated, the police begin to hint they’ll charge Steve with obstruction of justice, or being an accessory after the fact. Then suddenly he’s eager to share the truth about Hoover and the gun. Just in time to save his own ass. Just like John.
These apparently are the family values John is so eager to impart to Sonya. Don’t do the right thing unless it can benefit you personally. Don’t care about anyone but yourself. It’s okay to hang out and socialize with murderers.
But believe it or not, what John said above wasn’t even the most shocking thing that came out during his testimony. Stay tuned for that.