Original subtitles

This is a story about a very rich man I once knew.

He owned a beautiful house.

He made gobs of money in business.

Jacques, are you okay?

He knew all sorts of people. Mr. Mosler?

We're so quiet.

He had a gorgeous wife and loving children.

faithful dog.

He was on top of the world.

And then, early one morning in 1964, someone stabbed him to death

in his swanky Key Biscayne condo.

How's that for a surprise ending?

Miami in the 60s had a sheen of glamour, illicit sin, gambling, reckless

sowing of wild oats.

Key Biscayne was slightly more restrained.

Key Biscayne was just a 20 -minute drive over the causeway from Miami and much

more refined than downtown.

It was modest in its pretensions, but it still had the sense of a gated

community.

Which is why it was so shocking that it was here, at the exclusive

Governor's Lodge apartment, that Jacques Mosler was murdered.

He's covered with a blanket. He's been stabbed.

Actually, he had 39 stab wounds.

Even the blanket that covered him had stab wounds in it.

You got him good.

and his head had been bashed in by some object.

Beneath the blanket, Jacques is wearing only a white nightshirt.

There's a hair in the palm of one of his hands.

There's a glass wand vase that's broken lying on the floor.

They also find on a counter two highball glasses, one with three cigarette butts

in it.

They left one on print on the kitchen countertop, and that was the only print

that was found.

Yes? Hi, good morning, ma 'am.

There were about three or four neighbors that were interviewed.

as to what was heard at the time the murder took place.

Well, I had just gone to bed, so it must have been about 2 a .m. Peggy Fletcher

tells them that she saw a couple of other neighbors in the hallway.

They discussed what was going on.

Pretty soon, the dog quieted down, so Herbert and Irene and all went back to

bed. What did you hear?

Herbert House, the upstairs neighbor, tells police that he hollered down.

Hey, get that dog out!

Because the dog was on the terrace barking at that point.

He said that he heard a male voice saying, don't do that to me. And then

was a silence.

After you were woken by the dog, you came out of your apartment.

A downstairs neighbor, Irene Dura, was also a witness.

Did you see anyone that you didn't recognize?

I saw somebody just going around the corner.

She walked out and saw him get into a white car.

Pardon me, Ms. Mosler.

Yes.

Any homicide investigation begins with detectives building wider and wider

circles around the victim.

Now pay attention.

That's Candace Mosler.

Candy to her friends.

She was Jacques' wife.

We were all part of the same social set back in Houston where the Moslers lived

most of the time.

You know, parties, auctions, the annual order of the Alamo ball.

They were practically royalty.

The state in those days were worth about $33 million, which in

today's market is worth a heck of a lot more than that.

It's very customary for the police to look first at family members.

I understand that you had left the house earlier this evening.

Yes, I was at the hospital all evening.

Receiving treatment for... For my headaches.

Candy was one of those poor souls who suffered with migraines.

Yes, did Candy?

I'm lost for... Yes.

You can wait right in here, okay?

Thank you. The doctor will be with you in a few minutes.

Not just a bad headache she called a migraine, like some of those wilting

violets we knew, but a terrible, debilitating affliction.

That night, she went to the hospital for her to get a shot.

She arrived at 2 .06 a .m.

and left at 4 .05 a .m. Okay, that's it. I appreciate it.

39 stabbings were enough to kill him. The blows to the head were enough to

him. Whoever was killing him wanted to destroy this man.

Ms. Mosler, do you have any idea of anyone who would want to hurt your

Someone from work, maybe, that disliked him.

Musler was in the financing business. And he was a pretty ruthless

And would seize people's cars, seize their businesses, seize their homes.

Now, I don't pretend to understand all the ins and outs of Jacques' business.

And I'm sure Candy didn't either.

Back then, wives didn't trouble themselves with that kind of thing.

But I'd be lying if I told you I hadn't heard that Jacques was considered...

Unmerciful. His enemies were legion. There were any number of people in South

Florida with reasons to kill Mosler.

Jacques Mosler, one of the richest men I ever had the pleasure of knowing, had

gotten himself murdered, hit on the head, and stabbed 39 times.

Seems like someone wanted him dead real bad.

The question was, who?

Everybody knew he was a vicious businessman, that he repossessed cars,

foreclosed mortgages, and had a lot of enemies in the business world.

When you think about it, finding a killer is like planning a dinner party.

want to keep the invitation list short and well -edited, But when a man has as

many enemies as Jacques, the hostess, or detectives in this case, we're going to

have a devil of a time narrowing that list.

Do you think one of these men came back to get him?

Yes, of course.

Any particular names?

Well, who knows for sure.

How long have you been married?

We just had our 15th.

Wedding anniversary.

Now, I know what you're thinking.

Candy must have been trading on her looks all along, just hoping to land a

wealthy man.

But people just don't realize what Candy achieved on her own.

She married young, had a couple of kids. Marriage fell apart fairly quickly.

She became a model and opened a modeling and finishing school.

Left flat with two little ones.

Then she up and starts her own business.

I don't know of another gal who is that much of a go -getter at such a young

age.

How about some baked Alaska?

Candy met Jacques when on top of raising the children and running her business,

she was helping out with the fundraiser.

I hope you don't think that this dinner replaces that donation.

The opera company has you down for $300.

Even back then, Jacques' business was going gangbusters.

He had money, and he knew how to spend it.

One of those types who'd buy a new boat when he got the old one wet.

Oh, they are so beautiful.

I'm so proud of them.

Like their daddy.

This one?

She is as smart as a whip.

Jacques had just been through a nasty divorce himself.

His ex had taken him for a pretty penny.

But he still got to see his children.

This is my Rita, my oldest.

Looks just like her mama.

She is adorable, just like her mama.

There was the usual ugly talk about her being his trophy and him being her meal

ticket.

But that was nonsense.

Can you tell me about your children?

Certainly. We have ten children between the two of us.

What an impressive family you have.

She had two by a prior marriage.

He had four daughters by a prior marriage. And then they adopted four.

He built her a fabulous mansion in Houston.

They had a grand life together.

They were quite a team.

And if that wasn't enough, 10 children.

They also ended up taking in Candy's nephew.

Melvin Powers is the 22 -year -old son of Candy's older sister.

Of course, the police take stock of anyone who was a part of that tight

around the victim.

But obviously, Melvin Powers lived in Houston.

The homicide took place at the governor's lodge in Key Biscayne.

Do you have any idea who might have done this to your husband?

Jacques had changed.

They had a fabulous relationship for quite a number of years.

Jacques was no spring chicken when they got married.

And after about 10 years, his age was starting to show.

In about 1962,

Mr. Mossler suffered some medical problems, experienced respiratory

He traveled to Europe by himself to get treatment for his respiratory problem.

Jacques was away for the better part of a year.

And when he came back, he was like a whole new man.

Keith said the ocean air was better for him than steamy old Houston.

So he started spending big stretches of time in Miami, staying in the company

apartment.

Ma 'am.

When Jacques moved to Florida,

He made a couple of new friends.

Male friends, mostly.

Candy tells investigators that in this period his personality changed.

I don't want to put a...

our family business out into the world.

Candace was concerned that he was exhibiting certain homosexual

He would meet a strange man and invite him back to his apartment for late night

conversations.

I don't know what one of those Men could do.

And she suggested that perhaps this murder was about a gay affair gone bad.

Jacques Mosler was dead, and nothing was going to change that.

But then, the things that Candy was saying about Jacques.

Well, they really made me wonder if I ever knew the man at all.

According to Candy, he had many lovers with whom he would often quarrel.

Do you know the name of any of these men?

C -A -L -D -A -G.

When Jacques Mosler decided to spend more time in Miami, he had very unusual

living arrangements for a multimillionaire.

He was living in a small apartment above one of his offices with this

fellow named Vincent Calderon.

He was an employee of the bank, a much younger man.

And previously, Mr.

Mossler had him live with him, not paying any rent.

How did you come to know Mr. Mossler?

I was working for Mr.

Mossler in Houston.

And when I transferred to Miami, I took a pay cut.

So I insisted on a furnished apartment as part of the deal.

Mosler had me stay in his penthouse to save himself the money. I slept in the

pull -out sofa.

Done.

It's all yours.

They don't get that rich without being frugal.

That was Jacques.

So where were you the night of the murder?

I was with Jacques earlier in the evening.

But I was at home, in bed alone, at the time that he was murdered.

He had no alibi.

But there was nothing that could connect Khaled Jerome to the homicide, other

than the fact that at one time they had shared the same apartment.

I appreciate your time.

All that came out of that was a lot of ugly talk and rumors.

Mr. Calderon swore up and down that neither he nor Jacques was a homosexual.

Candy should have known better.

Now, the only real lead the Miami police had was the car that was seen leaving

the governor's lodge that night.

They searched the records for Jacques Mosler's company for a possible link to

white Chevrolet, and sure enough, they find one. And it turns out that the

company has a white Chevrolet that had been repoed that the family had been

using. That was one of the perks of being Mrs. Jacques Mosler.

You see, if Jacques' company loaned you money to buy a new car and you missed a

payment, Candy was waiting right there to take a spin in her new, well, almost

new ride.

Okay, yes, sir.

The car manager for the company says talk to Roscoe Brown.

Roscoe Brown worked for Mr. Mosler in Miami, but he was also sort of a go -to

guy, kind of like the family's fixer. Often he dealt with issues with Candy's

transportation and so forth.

Well, Roscoe Brown told the detectives...

That, yeah, he knows about that white Chevrolet because he delivered it to

Candace in Miami six days before Jack Mosler was killed.

Candy was coming back from a trip to the Bahamas.

It was a family trip with her that day where her daughter Rita, Rita's fiance,

and Candy's nephew. And Roscoe met her at the airport with your car.

Welcome, Ms. Mosley.

Please, sit down.

Detective.

Tell me about this white Chevrolet.

Candy explains that she did have a white Chevrolet, but she returned it to the

company three days before the homicide happened.

The company says it doesn't have any record of where the car had gone.

So the police put out an all -points bulletin.

Late model Chevrolet.

White in color.

They're fine.

The car is located at Miami International Airport in one of the

Why is it there?

If Candy says she dropped the car back off at the company lot, but the folks at

the company say it never came back, well, that's kind of a he said, she

If I were the police, I'd have been asking, what was the last time we know

sure where that car was?

What was the name of Candy's nephew?

It was Melvin Powers.

Well, it's time to more completely check out Melvin Powers.

And that's when those detectives in Florida got wind of a little smidge of

gossip out of Houston.

Melvin? He had been a bit of a handful.

He had been in some trouble earlier in his youth, and Candace's sister asked if

she could please give him a job and please try to straighten him out.

Jacques hired him at a handsome salary with the idea that he was going to groom

him to be a manager for one of his businesses.

You know, Candace became very close with him.

And Jacques Mosler treated him like a son.

If those detectives are making up that short, well -edited list of people to

invite to the investigation, I'd say nephew Melvin had made the cut.

And police began working angles.

In Houston.

And they learned that there had been a confrontation a year before.

Where Jacques Mosler kicked Melvin Powers out of the house.

And Powers said, I'm not getting out of this house.

So Mosler called the police.

Naturally, police want to find out what happened between Jacques Mosler and

Melvin Powers.

And that was another slightly bigger smidge of Gotham.

Candy loved Jacques in her own way.

But what's that saying?

Women keep a special place in their hearts for sins they've never committed.

Sure, that is, until they do.

Hello.

And then they keep a special place in their calendar for them.

Good man is hard to find.

You always get the other kind.

Oh. Uh -huh.

Better watch out. That costs money.

No.

And this is not some distant relative. This is her sister's son

that she's having an affair with.

There's been a courtship, brief but intense.

But before the act of mutual good feeling takes place, Candy

required Melvin to have four minor operations.

First of all, he had to be circumcised.

Secondly, he had to have his ears pinned to the side of his head.

Thirdly, he had a rough complexion and it had to be smoothed out.

And then I also have his tonsils removed in the event that he snored.

It was only after he had, you know, passed these trials that he was allowed

the presence of the Holy Grail.

Melvin bragged about the sexual power that he has over Candy.

Specifically, oral sex.

The people who worked at the mansion all knew what was going on.

The people who knew the family there, this was not a secret in Houston.

They'd meet in various motels.

They'd drive around together in a large and flashy Cadillac convertible.

There'd been whispers about it for months and months and months, and

Somebody whispered to Jacques Mosler himself.

Jacques looks at Candy's diary, and in the diary, Candy reveals all.

And it was at that point that Mr. Mosler fired Mel Powers from the position at

the bank and ordered Mel Powers out of the house.

And that's about the same time we heard Jacques had gotten himself that swanky

apartment at the Governor's Lodge in Key Biscayne.

Melvin Powers has now become the key person of interest in this case.

Now you're probably thinking, Melvin may have been kicked out of the house, but

he was still living in Houston.

Jacques was killed in Florida, so how could Melvin have done it?

They start talking to some of the airport personnel, and they discover

that the date of the murder, Mel Powers caught a plane in Houston,

paid cash for it, and that he was in a real rush. He said he had to catch that

plane. He flew from Houston to Miami on the afternoon before the late -night

murder, and he flew out of Miami back to Houston fewer than seven hours after

Jacques Mosler was killed.

The authorities had come up with a fairly damning list of evidence against

Melvin Powers.

He was having an affair with Candace Mosler. He'd had a confrontation with

Jacques Mosler over that affair and over his job.

There's a strange, quickie trip from Houston to Miami.

On a hunch, they start checking at bars and restaurants on the causeway leading

from the airport to Key Biscayne. Looking for information about a man who

have been in here about two months ago.

They find out that Mel Powers, after arrival in Miami, goes to a club called

Stuffed Shirt.

Mel paid two separate visits there on the night of the murder.

One not long after his plane had landed.

And then another time nearly midnight that same night.

That bar was smack dab on the road between the airport and the governor's

And Melvin was there just hours before Jacques was killed.

Thank you.

You don't have to be Perry Mason to figure out what happened next.

So police feel we got enough to arrest this guy and charge him with Mosler's

murder.

After the arrest, several new pieces of evidence turn up.

The one print that was lifted from the countertop turns out to be Melvin Lane

Powers' palm print.

If that's not the hand in the cookie jar, I don't know what is.

And it didn't take long for those detectives to start wondering, was this

all Melvin's idea on his own?

But Candy left Miami before they could talk to her. It was her migraines, she

said. She checked herself into the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota indefinitely.

The investigators are convinced that Candace is part and parcel of this.

The police believe that there was a partnership between Melvin and Candy,

this was a joint venture.

But murder is a serious business.

If Candy was through with Jacques, she didn't have to kill him. She could have

just divorced him, right?

Candy had a prenup agreement.

She would only get $200 ,000 if she filed for divorce.

So if Candace wanted his money, there was only one way for her to get it, and

that was for Jacques to die before she did.

She liked what Jacques had to offer.

And she certainly liked what Mel had to offer. But choosing between them?

That wasn't Candy's style.

She was always a go -getter, remember?

It's a very strong, circumstantial case against Powers.

But there's really no case against Candace.

And so they spend months here trying to...

Get evidence to drag her in.

So the Miami police called in Roscoe Brown again to see if maybe they dug a

little deeper they'd strike oil.

Hi, Mr. Brown.

Have a seat.

And sure enough, they did.

Turns out that on June 29th, the day before the murder, Roscoe was involved

some more jockeying having to do with that white Chevrolet.

He said that he had washed and gassed up the car at the governor's lodge in Key

Biscayne and that he had seen Candace Mossler drive away with it the day Mr.

Mossler had been murdered.

This directly contradicted Candy's contention that she hadn't seen the car

number of days before the homicide took place.

Rothko didn't know that Candy told the police that she'd returned the car.

And it must have been awful when he realized that his version of events put

Candy in a tight spot.

Like with the police asking more questions about Candy's visit to the

that night.

So you had mentioned before that the night of the crime, Ms. Mosler was here.

Yes, that's right.

The investigators began talking.

to witnesses at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Actually, she received three phone calls that night.

Good morning, emergency department.

Sure. Mrs. Mosler?

Phone for you.

The night that the murder occurred, she received several telephone calls.

It was the same man's voice.

The last phone call was close to 4 .30 a .m. It was the police's theory that it

was Mel Powers telling her, all is clear, you can come back to the

now.

Before we knew it, Candy Mosler was under arrest for murder.

Now, money may not buy happiness, but it sure buys a lot of other things.

And let's just say Candy had more than diamonds up her sleeve.

This is where the big legal drama of the year, perhaps the biggest in the United

States, will begin next week when the Mosler murder case opens.

The state charges that Jock Mosler was murdered because he objected to the

alleged love affair between his wife.

And her nephew.

The

monster trial

was the sensation of the season.

This case became notorious for three things.

Sex, money, and murder.

There was front page coverage, coast to coast.

What is the big attraction?

Well, I think it's exciting and has mystery.

It's a very unusual case.

The best crime and court reporters at the biggest papers in the country flock

Miami to cover this.

That man right there is Jacques' brother, Marku.

He came all the way from Israel.

to see justice done.

The trial began at the beginning of 1966.

And when it started, it kicked off with a bang. A man named Billy Mulvey.

A surprise witness.

What time of day was this?

Around midnight, I'd say.

I'd like to hear more about your description of your relationship with

deceased.

I barely knew the man.

Mulvey tells investigators that he was approached by Candy Mosler and Melvin

Powers together. They were soliciting a hit on Jacques Mosler.

So let me get this straight.

He's in the apartment by himself most times.

They got a vacation house.

They paid me the $7 ,000, but never gave me the other $3 ,000, so I didn't do

it.

The investigators must have come up with at least six people who said that they

had been offered money to kill Mr. Mosler.

Once the prosecutor showed that Candy and Mel wanted Jacques dead,

I think they call it establishing motive.

Then they got to the main event, explaining how they might have done it.

Melvin was flying in to the Miami airport at about 6 o 'clock.

Candace picks him up in the white Chevrolet.

Mel Powers went to the stuffed shirt. He killed some time having a drink.

At 1 .30 in the morning, Candace and her children leave the governor's lodge

because she is suffering from violent migraine.

Goes to a nearby hospital for relief.

Fifteen minutes later, Melvin arrives.

enters the apartment jacques mossler is awakened

somehow he's wearing only a nightshirt so he grabs this orange blanket and puts

it over him and walks out to see what the heck is going on

and there he finds melvin powers

It happened fast, or as fast as it takes to stab somebody 39 times and bash

their head in.

He then gets up, washes his hands in the kitchen sink there, and in the process

leaves a palm print on the kitchen counter.

He then slips out of the apartment, gets into a white Chevrolet, and drives

away.

Prosecutors alleged that Melvin then went and found a phone and called Candy

the hospital and told her that the deed was done and it was safe to go home.

It certainly didn't look good for Candy and Mel.

But the star of the next part of the trial was the formidable Percy Foreman.

A man so slick, they said he could charm the skin off a snake.

Percy Foreman was the dominant figure at the trial.

It was his show.

Let me begin by commending the prosecution for their courage.

I never once tried a case in which the prosecution dared to come to trial with

little... Oh, no evidence.

There were really two important pieces of forensic evidence. One was the palm

print, which they were able to match with Melvin Lane Powers.

However, they also had this hair that was found in Mosler's hand that did not

match Melvin Powers or Candace Mosler. And this, of course, opened the door to

the defense arguing that some unknown person committed the murder.

Mosler was as ruthless in business as any pirate that ever sailed the Sea of

Commerce. If each of the 39 wounds on the body of the deceased had been

inflicted by 39 different people, there still would be three times as many

people in the state of Florida who want the death of Jacques Mosler.

Foreman tried to get the jury so disgusted at the victim that they wanted

him up and kill him all over again.

How many crimes have you committed, sir?

Five felonies.

Five felonies.

And then Mr. Foreman put Billy Mulvey back on the stand and just eviscerated

him.

Foreman played with Mulvey the way a large predatory bird plays with a dead

rabbit.

Now, Percy Foreman is not a great legal scholar.

What he could do is get on his feet and make an impassioned argument.

And that's what he did.

There's a scripture in the Bible.

The adulteress is brought to Jesus in the temple.

The mob onto the stone. But Jesus said, let him without sin

cast the first stone.

And Jesus was alone.

with the adulteress.

And Jesus said to her, neither do

I condemn you.

This closing statement to the jury went on for five hours with quotations from

the entire thesaurus Western civilization.

The defense rests.

What Percy Foreman and the defense lawyers had to do in this trial was

reasonable doubt.

They did not have to prove their innocence.

They just had to poke holes in the prosecution's case.

State of Florida versus Melvin Lane Powers and Candace Mossler.

We, the jury at Miami -Dade County, Florida, find the defendants, Melvin

Powers and Candace Mossler, not guilty.

I was of two minds about it, I won't lie.

I was relieved to see my friend go free, but at the same time, it didn't feel

quite like justice.

To this day, I still think about it and wonder, if you had everything you wanted

just dangling out in front of you, wouldn't you be tempted to just reach

take it?

They drive off together in triumph with TV cameras, cheering crowd.

It's like a homecoming queen.

Now, we may speculate that there is a substantial amount of evidence,

particularly against powers.

But in all fairness, these people are still presumed innocent.

And the jury made the decision.

Our system is set up as a contest between two stories. And the judge is

a referee.

It was a matter of who could tell the better story.

The other kind.

Just when you think he's your pal, you look for him and find him fooling

around some other gal. Then you race.

You even crave to see him laying in his grave.

So if your man is nice, take my advice.

Hug him in the morning, kiss him every night.

Plenty loving and treating.