#555 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Frank Gable
Wrongful Conviction
Lava for Good Podcasts
4.4 • 5.8K Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Early on the morning of January 18, 1989, a security guard found the body of Michael Francke lying in a pool of blood on the floor of the North Portico of the Dome Building of Oregon State Hospital in Salem, OR. An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a stab wound to the heart. Michael Francke - who had a background as a military man, former prosecutor and judge, and then head of the New Mexico Dept. of Corrections where he rooted out corruption - had been hired by Oregon Governor Mike Goldschmidt to do the same in Salem, OR. Four months later, Police received a tip that Frank Gable, a petty criminal and police informant, was involved. 11 months after that, several other police informants had come forward claiming Frank was involved. Based largely on their questionable testimony, Frank was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
To learn more and get involved:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murder-in-oregon/id1667171131
https://www.loevy.com/
To get involved in helping exonerees like Frank Gable rebuild their lives after release:
Wrongful Conviction with Lauren Bright Pacheco is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. |
| 0:03.9 | Yo, yo, yo, can we get Thanksgiving first? |
| 0:06.8 | I'm hungry. |
| 0:07.6 | What's up, y'all? It's Kadeen. |
| 0:08.9 | And DeVal, the host of the Ellis Ever After podcast. |
| 0:11.9 | This holiday season, tune out the noise and tune in to Ellis Ever After. |
| 0:15.2 | On Ellis Ever After, we get real with our crew about family, love and marriage, |
| 0:19.4 | and everything else in between. |
| 0:21.4 | Listen to Ellis Ever After on America's number one podcast network, IHeart. |
| 0:25.6 | Follow Ellis Ever After and start listening on the free IHeart Radio app today. |
| 0:30.1 | This episode of wrongful conviction contains discussion of suicidal ideation. |
| 0:34.9 | Please listen with caution and care. |
| 0:39.3 | At 6.45 p.m. on January 17, 1989, the director of Oregon Corrections Michael Frankie had left |
| 0:48.8 | work ready to testify the following day before the state legislature about corruption within his department. |
| 0:56.5 | But by 7.20 p.m., staffers noticed that his car was still in his parking spot with the door ajar. |
| 1:03.4 | But Frankie was nowhere in sight. Five hours later, his body was discovered outside the building's portico, |
| 1:10.5 | fatally stabbed. Local authorities |
| 1:12.6 | were quick to call it a car burglary gone wrong, even though Frankie's wallet, watch, and keys |
| 1:17.8 | weren't missing. Then, months later, an alleged tip led them to 29-year-old Frank Gable, who |
| 1:24.4 | maintained his innocence through a violent interrogation. So police found eight more |
| 1:29.3 | people who were willing to cooperate. As for the testimony Michael Frankie was scheduled to deliver |
| 1:35.5 | that following day, that must have had nothing to do with it. This is wrongful conviction. |
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