MARK OBER’S SOFT SPOT FOR SERIAL KILLERS, PART I

Dateline: February 20, 2009

MARK OBER’S SOFT SPOT FOR SERIAL KILLERS, PART I


Warning! Potions of the following court records involving Hillsborough State Attorney Mark Ober’s most infamous client, serial killer and rapist, Oscar Ray Bolin, are graphic and disturbing, and should not be read by anyone who is easily horrified. Proceed at your own risk. If you are a friend, employee, or campaign contributor to Mark (and many people fall into all three categories), after reading this, you may never look at Mark the same way again.

First, I want to state unequivocally that I have no personal animosity toward Mark Ober, despite all the unethical actions he has directed toward me over the past thirty years or so, the use of suborned perjury, the withholding of evidence, the false statements he’s made, all pointing toward a level of personal animosity and vindictiveness that recalls the old Sicilian concept of vendetta. After I rejected all Mark’s offers of plea bargains and reduced sentences in exchange for my guilty plea to a murder I did not commit, Mark did his best to strap me into “Old Sparky,” the electric chair. When the judge and jury rejected his arguments, he took it personally. It’s okay, Mark—I forgave you a long time ago.

That doesn’t mean I can’t inform the public of certain acts of hypocrisy that Mark has committed since that time, especially concerning his vigorous defenses of Oscar Ray Bolin, perhaps the most notorious serial killer in Hillsborough County history.

Did you know that Mark accused me of “moral turpitude” before the Florida Parole Commission in 2002? That was in addition to his other false, misleading, and malicious statements meant only to keep me in prison for a crime I didn’t commit.

Do you have any idea what “moral turpitude” means? It really shocked me to read the transcript of the hearing, and to find out that I was guilty of moral turpitude, so I looked it up in “Black’s Law Dictionary:”

“Moral turpitude means, in general, shameful wickedness—so extreme a departure from ordinary standards of honest, good morals, justice or ethics as to be shocking to the moral sense of the community. It has also been defined as an act of baseness, vileness, or depravity in the private and social duties which one person owes to another or to society in general, contrary to the accepted and customary rule of right and duty between people.” (50 am.Jur. 2d Libel and Slander 165 at 454 (1995) ).

Pretty scary stuff, huh? It was in fact, a false accusation, and I won’t even bother going into the basis of all that now. Let’s get back to Mark’s favorite client, who made him famous, the infamous, Oscar Ray Bolin, Jr. There is too much material here to cover in one account, so I will start with Part I, then proceed from there.

For those who are anxiously awaiting more about “Millionaire Mark Ober and His Gifts and Campaign Contributions questions,” I’m still researching that subject, waiting for more outside information to come in. Be patient.

Oscar Ray Bolin drove a truck back and forth between Florida and Ohio for some time. He had a pretty good M.O., as serial killers and rapists go. While driving up Interstate 75, he’d pick an exit, get off at some random town, snatch up an unsuspecting victim, have his way with her, discard her, get back on the interstate, and be miles away before anyone even discovered the body. Lots of little roads, lanes and ditches out there in the woods on either side of the interstate. Look at a road atlas, trace I-75, and you’ll see how huge Oscar’s hunting ground was. No one will ever know how many victims he actually has out there.

Miraculously, one escaped from him in Ohio after he raped her, and before he could kill her, or the toll might have been much higher. He went to prison in Ohio, where he sat when his ex-wife spilled the beans about Oscar’s exploits in Hillsborough and Pasco Counties.

Three young women, Teri Lynn Matthews, 26 years old, Natalie Blanch Holley, 25 years old, and Stephanie Collins, 17 years old, fatally made the acquaintance of Oscar Ray Bolin over a short period in 1986.

While in the Hillsborough County Jail, Oscar tried to cheat the executioner by attempting suicide. He left a stamped envelope addressed to Captain Gary Terry in the cell, quoted as follows:

“P.S. these were the only five for the state of Fla. That I knowed anything about. If there’s Ever anything Else that you really want to know about then you’ll haft to ask [Coby—his ex-wife], Because she knew just about Every thing that I was Ever a part of. She help spend the money from most of all the armed Robbery’s, and she know about all 3 of these homicide which I’m charged with.”

You might wonder why a hotshot defense attorney like Mark Ober would take on the case of a sick puppy like Oscar Ray Bolin, especially after reading that letter and viewing the evidence against him. “Publicity hound.” Does that make sense? Mark wanted all those prospective paying criminal clients to see his name and photo in the Tampa Tribune and St. Pete Times every day for the weeks, months, and years all his death penalty trials and appeals would dominate the media. You can’t buy such publicity:

“Fred, who do you think I ought to hire to defend me on this cocaine case? “
“Well, that guy, Mark Ober, used to be a prosecutor. He can cut any kind of deal you want. And since he’s defending that notorious serial killer and rapist, Oscar Ray Bolin, you know he has the moral code of an alley cat. That’s your man. Give him a call.”

And they did—enough to make Mark a millionaire before he decided to run against the tainted Harry Lee Coe in 2000, who supposedly blew his brains out before the election, paving the way for Mark to become a public servant. (You’ll have to read my book about the Mafia in Tampa to learn about an alternate theory of Hanging Harry’s death.)

This, in brief, is what the Florida Supreme Court had to say about one of Bolin’s victims:

“Stephanie Collins was last seen on November 5, 1986, in the passenger’s seat of a white van. On December 5, 1986, her body was discovered alongside a road in Hillsborough County. An autopsy revealed that Collins sustained a number of stab wounds and several potentially fatal blows to the head.”

The investigation into Collins’ murder proved unavailing until July, 1990, when Danny Coby telephoned Crime Stoppers in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, with information about the murder. Danny Coby obtained the information from his wife, Cheryl Coby, who had acquired the information during her prior marriage to Bolin. After Mr. Coby’s call, Mrs. Coby told investigators that on November 5, 1986, Bolin, her husband at the time, picked her up from a restaurant, and took her back to their travel trailer. Coby stated that while they were driving, Bolin made several attempts to explain the presence of a dead body in their trailer. Bolin finally told Coby that he had killed a girl by hitting her over the head and stabbing her. Coby further explained that upon their arrival at the trailer, she saw Bolin load what appeared to be the body wrapped in a quilt into his truck. He and Coby then drove to a spot where Bolin dumped the body. Coby later identified that spot to police. When she returned to the trailer, Coby observed that everything inside, including a knife beside the kitchen sink appeared wet. Coby also noticed several blood stains in the trailer.

After Coby’s disclosure, Bolin was extradited to Hillsborough County to await trial for the murder of Stephanie Collins. On June 22, 1991, Bolin attempted suicide.

Despite Mark Ober’s most valiant efforts, his favorite serial killer was convicted of three murders and was sentenced to three death penalties. How could there be any doubt as to his guilt? But thanks to some legal technicalities, Bolin’s murder cases were overturned, he was retried, and sentenced to death again.

Teri Lynn Matthews’ poor mother stated to the newspaper, “How do you get three murder convictions and not be guilty of something? This is a sham of justice. And it’s draining the life out of all of us.”

Had Mark Ober had his way, and the jury believed him, Oscar Ray Bolin would have been found not guilty of all those murders, and could be walking the streets today. Of course, considering what a homicidal maniac he is, odds are that he would have been caught for more murders later, anyway. Somehow, though, the fact that Mark tried so hard to free Bolin scares the crap out of me. I wonder what depths of moral turpitude poor Mark reached when he signed on to that case?

More on that later.
Charlie