By Ex Cathedra
What The Jury Didn’t Hear
A reasonable doubt as to the defendant’s guilt may arise from the evidence, it may arise from conflicts in the evidence, or it may arise from lack of evidence.
We must attend to both sides of an argument before forming an opinion. However, a murder case is not about what we think, but what we know.
Upon putting a man on death row, judges will specifically instruct the jury as follows:
A reasonable doubt as to the defendant’s guilt may arise from the evidence, it may arise from conflicts in the evidence, or it may arise from lack of evidence.
If you have a reasonable doubt, you should find the defendant not guilty.
If you have no reasonable doubt, you should find the defendant guilty.
I looked deep down at this rabbit hole, fearing the worst. What I found verified my fears.
Trepal’s lawyer produced a weak defense, investigators ignored other suspects, and the case was based on assumptions regarding incomplete or even fabricated evidence.
Circumstantial evidence point to a suspect, but not enough to solidify guilt. The court system might have failed to carry out justice in this case.
Right from the beginning, the details make little sense. The evidence points to a suspect, but it also seems the focus shifted to what investigators believed and not to what they discovered.
George James Trepal And The Murder of Peggy Carr
The court sentenced George James Trepal to death for the murder of Peggy Carr. Trepal is currently on death row for more than 30 years.
He had a history of disregarding the health and safety of others and fitted as a suspect, enough for the jury to convict him on circumstantial evidence.
Trepal’s Background:
George James Trepal was born in 1949 in New York City.
In 1972, he earned a psychology degree. While at university, Trepal also studied chemistry, and reports suggest he was also using and producing hallucinogenic drugs.
In 1975, he was arrested and charged as the lead chemist and mastermind behind a large methamphetamine lab. He served 36 months jail time for this incident
He was married to Diana Carr (no relations to the Carr family) and moved to Alturas, Polk County, Florida in 1982.
Trepal and his wife (no children) lived next to the Carr family. Their houses were close, and they even shared water from a well.
Both Trepal and his wife Diane Carr (no relation to the Carr family) were Mensa members, a society of individuals who outperform in intelligence tests containing arithmetic abilities, spatial recognition, short-term memory, and analytical thinking.
George Trepal and Diane Carr were also hosting Mensa Murder weekends in its home at Alturas, with other Mensa members.
The Carrs were often disturbing Trepal with loud music and constant troubles. The two families confronted each other on a dozen occasions.
October 23, 1988, Alturas, Polk County, Florida
On that day, Peggy Carr was poisoned after drinking a tampered bottle of coca-cola containing Thallium nitrate (according to all reports). Thallium is a poisonous chemical that was banned from pesticides in 1965. However, the substance is widely used in the chemical manufacturing of methamphetamine.
More members of the Carr family were poisoned by the same substance but survived. Investigators went undercover seeking clues, with one of them suspecting mainly Carr’s neighbor, George James Trepal.
Although, the police did not search Trepal’s home until he moved out a year later. The investigators discovered the missing link to this case, an old bottle of Thallium, left behind in Trepal’s garage.
Peggy Carr died in March 1989.
Police initially suspected Peggy’s husband Parealyn (Pye) Carr.
During the initial stage of the investigation, Pye showed the police a letter with a serious death threat he had received a few months before the incident (in June 1988)
The police did not publicize the letter, but reports suggest it was threatening the Carr’s family:
You and all your so called family have two weeks to move out of Florida forever, or else you all die. This is no joke.
Pye Carr was Peggy’s second husband. He and his two children moved with Peggy to form a family of five. They were only married for four months and already faced several difficulties.
Pye Carr was maintaining extramarital relations with another woman, and from the first few months, he sensed his marriage with Peggy may had been a mistake.
The police turned their attention to Trepal right after their first discussion and never looked back on any other suspect.
The investigation allocated all its resources to Trepal, ignoring the fact that even circumstantial evidence was perhaps pointing to another suspect, as Peggy discovered Pye Carr had taken a life insurance policy on her and her children prior to the incident.
Mensa Murder Mystery Weekends & The Undercover Detective
It seems that Trepal was immediately considered a suspect after responding to this police question:
Police: Why would somebody want to poison the Carr family?
Trepal: Perhaps someone that wanted to get them to move.
According to investigators, this conversation was the reason they focused on Trepal and dismissed other suspects.
When the police learned that Trepal and his wife were hosting Murder Mystery weekends with other Mensa members, they infiltrated the event.
Susan Goreck is the undercover cop who (for nine months) tried to find clues of Trepal’s guilt.
She sent a letter to Trepal under the alias Sherry Guin, posing as a Mensa member wanting to participate in the event. Police laid an elaborate trap for Trepal, making it look like Goreck was someone in need of help, in danger from an abusive husband.
Police laid the trap, but it did not work as expected. Goreck kept calling Trepal after the Mensa weekend, and Trepal tried to help her with her fake husband issue. Actually, he did, as he found a way for her to claim another identity and disappear into another state.
Not what the police expected or wanted.
Police didn’t have enough evidence to order a search warrant at that time. So, when Trepal moved out in 1990, Goreck asked if she could rent the house.
Trepal agreed, and Goreck moved in. The police then searched the whole place without a need for a warrant.
In the garage, they found a bottle containing thallium. Goreck visited Trepal again, and chatted with him at a cafe, perhaps as a last attempt to extract an admission of guilt.
This conversation convinced Goreck beyond doubt (as she mentioned) that Trepal was the murderer.
Goreck’s last conversation with Trepal
Goreck : I think you neglected to tell me something.
Trepal : Oh, what’s that ?
Goreck : That something had happened in the neighborhood. A lot of well meaning people scared me out of my wits.
Trepal : Oh, oh yeah. Somebody got poisoned next door.
Goreck : That might not be a lot to you, but it’s a lot to me.
Trepal : Oh, well sorry.
Goreck : You weren’t afraid, were you ?
Trepal : No, apparently it was some sort of personal vendetta. I mean it’s not like, they’re running around poisoning everybody.
Goreck : I think you neglected to tell me something.
Trepal : Oh, what’s that ?
Goreck : That something had happened in the neighborhood. A lot of well meaning people scared me out of my wits.
Trepal : Oh, oh yeah. Somebody got poisoned next door.
Goreck : That might not be a lot to you, but it’s a lot to me.
Trepal : Oh, well sorry.
Goreck : You weren’t afraid, were you ?
Trepal : No, apparently it was some sort of personal vendetta. I mean it’s not like, they’re running around poisoning everybody.
Trepal made an educated guess here. He had examined the case, as everyone else did in the small Alturas community.
This wasn’t a slip-up as the police suggested. The Alturas community discussed the poisoning for months. Beyond that incident, there was nothing else, no more attempts against the Carrs or any other poisonings in Alturas.
You do not have to be a genius to reach this conclusion. Whoever did it, it was personal and wasn’t a threat to the rest of the Alturas community.
Once again, there was no evidence but yet another hypothesis.
“Apparently, it was some sort of personal vendetta.”
Who would not have guessed that right from the beginning? You ask an intelligent person to make an educated guess here, and he gives you a reasonable response. Police assumed incorrectly twice..
This sentence does not incriminate Trepal and doesn’t back any claim.
Investigators built this case against Trepal around an old bottle of Thallium, slip-ups that supposedly happened, a bottle capper that a witness said Trepal owned six years ago, a few books about chemistry and poisons, and an Agatha Christy novel.
Did Trepal and his wife only have chemistry books and that particular Agatha Christy novel in their library?
It would not be surprising if the Thallium evidence was planted. This bottle leads to Trepal’s arrest, anyway. There was no direct link to Trepal other than a gut feeling before that.
There is another side to this coin.
Investigators were growing desperate with the futility of their 9-month-long case and it was getting rather expensive. The pursuit of Trepal was leading nowhere, so they had two choices.
Either admit they pursued a costly operation on the wrong person and cancel the investigation at the cost of having their job on the line or finally discover the evidence and justify the cost of this operation.
To summarize, Trepal was arrested a year and a half after the incident, only after moving out to another location, and police searched his house to discover a bottle of Thallium in his garage.
A bottle with poisonous thallium Trepal (a person of admirable intelligence) did not consider disposing of all that time.
Sure the police can be correct, and Trepal might be the killer. Still, on rare occasions, you get your results right, even with a flawed procedure. You can get it right sometimes by a mere coincidence.
If Trepal is the murderer, the fact is that the police could not prove it, as it was missing proof.
There was no case without the bottle in Trepal’s garage.
The Case And The Trial
March 6, 1991
The jury decided by nine to three and recommended George James Trepal the death penalty for the murder by poisoning of Peggy Carr and attempted murder of more members of her family. The court accepted the decision, and Trepal is on death row since then.
Trepal was convicted of the first-degree murder of Peggy Carr and six counts of attempted first-degree murder (other members of the Carr household). (sourse)
The court decided that Trepal poisoned the Carr family after threatening them with an anonymous letter, according to the police investigation and the evidence brought before the jury.
The State developed the case on George James Trepal’s past as a methamphetamine chemist, on words spoken during anger against his neighbors, and on a death threat letter police linked to Trepal.
However,
Crucial evidence, known to prosecutors, implicating Peggy’s newlywed husband Parealyn “Pye” Carr was kept from defense counsel. Witness testimony favorable to Trepal was also ignored and blocked from being presented to the jury through a series of legal maneuvers.
A conference between judge Maloney and the lawyers proceeded after the trial, with the judge questioning the defense strategy:
In a conference with the lawyers afterward Judge Maloney remarked that the defense had failed to take the opportunity it had sought: to ask Pye about his troubles with Peggy.
“I thought you said we couldn’t go into it,’ Jonathan Stidham (defense counsel) said.
Maloney replied, “I said that you could.”
Trepal’s lawyer failed to assemble a solid defense.
Why would questioning a witness not apply to this case? Pye Carr’s wife had died, and police had also suspected him. The insurance money was a solid motive instead of the questionable one raised against Trepal.
Trepal paid for his animosity against the Carr family, but the investigation failed to exclude other suspects while all the evidence was only circumstantial.
And based again on a hypothesis (that a father would not harm his children), the investigation focused on the eccentric neighbor with a background in meth manufacturing.
More questions emerge since Trepal’s wife could have been involved as well, or perhaps she was the actual culprit here.
Trepal meets the basics, but the procedure brought a questionable decision leaving everyone today wondering if the wrong person is on death row. The jury convicted a person with the death sentence, but some vital details were suppressed from the trial.
For thirty-two years, Trepal maintains his innocence. Why would he do that? He and his wife divorced in 1996. His wife died in 2021. He is 72 today. He probably has a maximum of ten years more to live and already lost decades of his freedom.
He would have regretted his actions by now and admitted guilt.
Reasonable Doubts
- 1. Is intelligence a crime?
This investigation from the beginning inferred that an intelligent person had to be behind the poisoning.
It makes no sense to back this case with this approach. Is this even a standard practice? Couldn’t other suspects have had access to thallium? It appears that Pye Carr had such access.
Or, Pye could have gotten it from Silver City phosphate mine, where he worked. Again according to Larry, when Margaret Carr, Pye’s ex wife, suggested this in front of police, — “they’ve got two chemist labs out there, do you know anything about this — — the kids got into” — he (Pye) told her to shut her goddamn mouth.
(source)
The evidence at trial showed that Trepal is extremely intelligent..
Trepal’s intelligence should reduce suspicions in this case. Instead, everyone considered high IQ a verification of the crime performed. We watch ridiculous accusations against Trepal. Even remarks that Trepal despised lower intelligence than him. How is this assumption incriminating evidence?
- 2. The Investigation Never Retrieved A Bottle Capper Yet It Still Became Evidence
A testimony that Trepal possessed an antiqued bottle capper six years before the crime. A bottle capper which nobody ever found. However, during an appeal in 1996, the Supreme Court of Florida mentioned that such an object was discovered in Trepal’s home, which isn’t true.
Did Trepal dispose of the bottle capper but kept the thallium nitrate in his drawer? How is this reasonable for someone with Mensa-level intelligence?
“The officers found a container of thallium and a bottle-capping machine, among other things (Source)”
- 3. Character Assassination
There is absolutely no reason for police to consider Trepal as someone arrogant enough to think that authorities would not discover him.
Individuals with high intelligence understand the risks of their actions. They know they will find trouble, especially if they murder someone.
Certainly, Trepal does not seem like a person that cared for his neighbors. Does anyone care, though?
- 4. The Reasons Trepal Became A Prime Suspect
The investigators immediately focused 100% of their efforts on Trepal after he mentioned in an interview: “someone might wanted to make them leave”.
Investigation completely abandoned other suspects with a clear motive (life insurance) and concentrated resources on Trepal, all because of a hunch!
A hunch about why someone (who was clearly intelligent) could have figured it out. Not everyone can calculate odds as fast as some of the brilliant minds of our times. By following a hunch, the police completely ignored other suspects.
- 5. The Thallium Bottle
Why would Trepal not get rid of the bottle of Thallium all that time? It was just a bottle, nothing difficult to empty somewhere and break into pieces.
If he had committed the murder, he would know he had to dispose of the weapon used. Was Trepal not that intelligent to consider destroying that bottle of Thallium?
- 6. Jury Manipulation
The judge denied many questions by Trepal’s lawyer during the trial as hearsay.
Some of these questions seem significant and would have helped the jury understand the events better.
The defense wanted to ask Pye Carr whether he had told his girlfriend Laura Irving that he had made a mistake by marrying Peggy and that he wanted Irving back (R. 1724).
Pye Carr said he would answer “no” to that question (R. 1724). The defense said that Irving had told the police that Pye Carr had said this (R. 1725). The court ruled the defense could not ask the question because it was hearsay (R. 1725).” — Doc #1 e. (below)
— Todd G. Scher
Moreover, it seems Peggy was fearful of Pye after he took an insurance on her and her children.
“Peggy’s son Allen, in the navy in Tennessee, would testify that they developed a password system so that she could tell him when she was coming, without Pye knowing. Peggy was afraid, and she was planning her escape.”
— Gray R. Proctor
- 7. Lab Misconduct And False Statement
The FBI lab that tested the findings (Coca-Cola bottles) concluded they contained Thallium nitrate.
Yet:
Roger Martz, the expert who testified about the poison used, was investigated for misconduct. The postconviction court found that “there is no doubt that the data available at the time of trial did not support the opinion Martz offered and that he knew it.” (Petition for Clemency, Gray Proctor)
The agent didn’t use an acceptable procedure when testing the Coca-Cola bottles for Thallium nitrate.
- 8. Biased Reporting
The documentaries that followed perplex the case further.
In this case, we don’t even know what to believe. The blunders are countless and what we think we learned raises even more questions after examining the details.
It looks like in the end, everything was made up, with evidence appearing out of nowhere, invalidating previous arguments.
The documentaries about the case and the news reports further confuse with mixed-up dates, omitted details, and weak representations.
- 9. A medical condition that enhanced suspicions
The officers that first examined Trepal assumed he was acting suspicious by fidgeting and clucking his tongue.
Yet they did not consider these are symptoms of a medical condition called dysarthria and that Trepal is suffering from it.
- 10. The jury didn’t hear the whole story
Assistant State Attorney John Aguero described Trepal as a diabolical killer who perceived himself smarter than the police.
It seems this was a case to prove competence instead of looking for an actual solution.
Why would anyone care if someone thought he was smarter than the police?
What people care about, is the cost of the 9-month investigation that required justification for not delivering any results.
Was it perhaps a matter of honor for the police, and justification of the cost, that would resort to deploying any tactics to prosecute a suspect?
Some of the reasons jurors thought Trepal was guilty:
“There’s one thing I’ve never forgotten. When we announced him guilty, he looked at the jury and he smirked. There were jurors in tears over this, and he smirked at us. I just assumed he was smug about the whole thing and thought he would get away with it.”
This is how a prejudiced and manipulated jury would react.
Is smirking a sign of guilt?
Smirking could mean anything. It could imply disappointment too, which is like how everyone feels upon examining this case.
What do people expect, and how can any reaction prove guilt? They were only seeking reasons to justify Trepal’s guilt.
His reactions were strange, his intelligence threatened them, and more foolish explanations to justify a weak judgment.
The jury voted based on limited and one-sided information presented in a trial. A fair trial would not succeed in convicting George Trepal.
We could agree on several assumptions, though. Neighbors can be obnoxious, drunkards, and irritating and this has, on several occasions, generated situations that concluded with murder.
People flip, and there are even videos with situations escalating fast. Yet, this was not a heat of the moment zone, but premeditated poisoning.
One last detail in this story, why wasn’t Dianna Carr (Trepal’s wife) also a suspect? It appears
Dianna had an immunity agreement during the trial.
She wasn’t allowed to answer certain defense questions, either.
When the defense asked (Diana Carr) whether Mr. Trepal had any speech impediments, the prosecution’s objection was sustained (R. 3580–81).
When the defense asked whether she wrote the plots for the murder mystery weekends, the prosecution objected that the question was beyond the scope of direct, and the court sustained the objection (R. 3580). (source)
The jurors did not get the entire story to decide.
Crucial parts were omitted to support the case against Trepal.
Epilogue
Susan Goreck (the undercover detective), in 1996, published a book regarding the case called Poison Mind, with Pulitzer award winner Jef Good.
Dr. Diana Carr (Trepal’s wife) divorced George Trepal in 1996 and didn’t visit him again. She died in 2018 from complications following a stroke.
George James Trepal is still on death row, 32 years after his conviction. He doesn’t get many visitors besides a couple of friends from Mensa, who still believe in his innocence. His wife didn’t visit him after their divorce.
He lives in a small cell with a TV (but no cable). He spent the last 30 years reading books.
In Conclusion
Society demands justice, but justice is often wrong. A horrible murder occurred but is our society confident it prosecuted the right person?
Is George Trepal a murderer, and did he receive a fair trial?
This is not an ordinary murder case, but one where we suspect foul play, manipulation, evidence tampering, framing, and concluding the trial with an approach that made no sense.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone if a new court finds Trepal innocent and releases him from prison. It won’t be the first one.
The YouTubers who don’t realize the gaps in this story don’t care to dig deeper, since they will get numbers, anyhow. The algorithm won’t punish anyone, and will not promote them more for doing investigative work.
For most YouTubers, this is all about their content following an orthodox course, in agreement with the mainstream, but they never ask serious questions.
Here is a long list of exonerated death row inmates:
List of exonerated death row inmates
Maybe if everyone, even content creators, does a better job, we might live in a world with less injustice.
Notes
The trial did not present an acceptable defense for Trepal.
In a civil trial, a verdict may be reached by a majority of 9 of the 12 members
Only one member more could have changed the outcome.
It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.
References
- George Trepal Appeal Decision, 1993
- PETITION FOR EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY IN A CAPITAL CASE GEORGE TREPAL, DEFENDANT (recommended)
- Reasonable Doubt Murder Mystery Series — Death Row Inmate George Trepal
- Mensa Murderer | George Trepal Case Analysis | High IQ Society or High Narcissism Society? (recommended)
- George James TREPAL
- George Trepal and the Mensa Murder Mystery : Drunk Mysteries
Cover Picture by basilsmith on Pixabay
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Is George Trepal a murderer, and did he receive a fair trial?
