Inside the public library in Griffin, Ga., a cell phone sits on a conference room table, set to speaker. The calm and confident voice on the other line is coming from inside prison walls at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison’s death row.
It’s the man dubbed Columbus’ infamous ‘Stocking Strangler.’
What does a man say just hours before he knows he will die?
“The truth. I want people to know, you got me wrong,” he pleaded one final time.
“Why am I here?”
It’s an argument well-documented by his defense attorney, Jack Martin, including during Wednesday’s clemency hearing before the state’s parole board.
And he wants the real story to be heard. His story.
“The only thing that I want everybody to know about Carlton Gary is the truth,” he said without hesitation.
Carlton Gary
11Alive Digital Journalist, Jessica Noll interviews convicted serial killer, Carlton Gary, known as the "Stocking Strangler" on Wednesday, March 14, 2108, just hours before his impending execution. (Brendan Keefe / WXIA)
Jessica Noll: Did you rape those women?
Carlton: Absolutely not.
Jessica Noll: Did you kill those women?
Carlton: Absolutely not.
Jessica Noll: Did you have any knowledge, or anything to do with their murders?
Carlton: Absolutely not.
“This is the story that they told—not recorded, not signed, not initialed by anybody,” he argued. “The only thing I want them to know is you got me wrong. The lies and stuff that they were talking about, I don't do that.”
But, what is the truth according to the 67-year-old who’s facing death?
“Well, the real story is that, from the very beginning, this thing has just been one-sided, from the very beginning,” he said.
He said he never confessed to any of the crimes he was convicted of more than 30 years ago.
Furthermore, he said, the statement given to the jury wasn’t signed—by anyone.
“Think about this, if I was gonna refuse to be recorded, why didn't they sign the so-called confession? Neither one of the police signed it; neither one of them initialed it—they presented to the jury an unsigned, uninitialed [sic] something that somebody wrote down. They pared it down from 12 pages to three pages. What happened to the other pages that was missing?”
When he was arrested, he said, he didn't even know that he was being charged with murder—he thought he was arrested for robbery out of South Carolina. He said police did not talk to him about the murders.
“We talked about South Carolina... we talked about the robberies I had in Albany, Ga.; we talked about the robberies I had in Columbus. I didn't find out what I was charged with until I got on the telephone and I called my companion at the time in Augusta, Ga.”
“I called her up and I said, 'Listen, I 'spose I'll be back in South Carolina in a couple days, so... She said, 'No, they got you for murder.' And I like to fell out.”
But, he maintains that he had nothing to do with any of the rapes or murders that will ultimately be the reason he will receive a lethal injection Thursday.
He touched on all of the evidence not presented at the trial, and evidence that was presented that he called false—including one of the surviving victims, who testified that Carlton was the one who assaulted her, Gertrude Miller.
“What I feel about that is sorrow. My wife and I have talked about this long before you guys come on the scene, and I've often told lawyers and everybody, you want to talk about an injustice... what they did to that woman. They made that woman lie.”
According to his appeals filed by Martin, Miller originally told police she did not see the man. But years later, after Carlton was arrested, she testified in court that he was the culprit.
“She could not identify the person and then she could…” Carlton questioned.
But, he doesn’t blame her for, what he called, misidentification.
“They did that poor woman wrong. She did not have a clue as to what happened and when she saw me on TV, again, surrounded by all these Caucasian police, and they identified me as the so-called 'Stocking Strangler,' she still waited 27 more days before she reported this,” he said.
People shouldn’t listen to him, rather look at the documented facts, he challenged.
“They shouldn't listen to me, because I have the documents... it's not me talking; other people might talk, but we have the documents... it's the facts.”
“The one thing I tell people... is you got me wrong,” he said. “I don't play no games at all, I'm just straight up.”
Regardless of the clemency hearing’s outcome—(unknown at the time of this interview)—ultimately, he is holding out for God to show him mercy.
“I trust in God almighty. You know, I have no thoughts of that. We've gone through this before and we don't think along those lines. I understand that realism is going on, but I also understand that according to the good book, that tells me that there were Hebrew boys thrown into the fire, but he come out. I've heard about seas that's been parted; I've heard about water being turned into wine,” Carlton said.
“I just prepare for it. I prayed, I know what's facing me, but I do not let it bother me, because I trust in God. I take it to him in prayer.”
LISTEN>>> Full interview with Carlton Gary over two phone calls on Wednesday, March 14, 2018
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