Murder in Oregon is a production of I Heart Radio.

Hey Lauren, what's going on?

Hey Phil, is it okay if I ask you a few more questions?

Well, I sure.

I met Phil Stanford while I was producing a podcast about serial killer Keith Hunter

Jasperson.

Phil's a crime reporter and the newspaper columnist who branded Jasperson the happy face killer.

He and I hit it off and we became friends to the point where we talk a couple of times

week.

I joke the only person I call more is my mom and that's how I got hooked on this story.

The 1989 murder of Michael Frankie who is the director of Oregon's Department of Corrections.

His killing is deeply intertwined with deception, greed and corruption that radiates to the

highest levels of politics and power.

It's never been solved and it's haunted Stanford for 30 years.

It was not an accident.

It was not a car burglaried gone bad.

It was an assassination.

It was a public official who discovered corruption in his own department.

The victims were going to roll.

The night before he was to address the legislative committee on this very subject, he was stabbed

in the heart in front of the building where he worked.

It was a cover-up from the beginning.

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