Fair and Public: The Martin Fosher Story
A true crime documentary directed by Richard Stephenson, and released in 2015. Stephenson was inspired by the online reaction to recent popular Franco-British true crime documentaries in America, which focused on dubious murder convictions, claiming that false convictions displayed in those could never happen in the socialist democracy of America. Stephenson was familiar with Fosher, due to the latter's interview in Stephenson's previous documentary
The Red Terror (where Fosher described the extralegal measures taken against members of counterrevolutionary groups like Sons of Liberty during the 30's). He discussed with Fosher making an American documentary on his false conviction, and Fosher agreed. Stephenson hoped to avoid the controversy surrounding the Franco-British documentaries that focused on ongoing cases.
Martin James "Marty" Fosher was born in 1946 in Los Angeles
. His father was killed serving in the Pacific during World War II, leaving his mother to raise Martin until her own death when he was 8. He was then raised in the Culbert Olson Children's Crèche. Whilst he described the caretakers there as good, he was simply distant from them, and they couldn't help him bond with the other children there. He began to sneak out, and interact with seedier parts of the LA commune. He served a single year in the militia without distinction. By age 19, he was living in a single dwelling, where he sold legal soft drugs and pornography. He rarely ever participated in social life.
His 1966 assault charge was discussed in detail. Fosher was at a bar, and began to flirt with a girl sitting next to him, Deborah Falk. Her brother Dan became protective of her, and hit Marty's face with a bottle. This began a bar fight, and Fosher, having been one of the fighters, was among those arrested. Fosher was left with a large distinct scar on his left cheek. He went through 6 months of mandatory service and rehabilitative services. (Dan and Marty were able to bury the hatchet, and both Deborah and Dan spoke at his trial in his defense).
After his service, he sold off his remaining stock, bought a motorcycle and headed east. During the late 60's, he went through the Southwest, buying and selling goods from town to town. Fosher said he had little direction in his life at this point. He simply drifted from place to place, and his deals weren't even for survival, just to satiate boredom. In 1971, He ended up in Haywood City, where he set up shop for several months. Fosher said that he had only tangentially had heard of the disappearances and murders that were occurring across the city at the time. It had started before he had entered the city in 1968. He then moved down to the Navajo ASR, where he decided to gain more purpose in life. While continuing to buy and sell, he also worked delivery for several Navajo shops.
Little did Fosher realize that a series of murders similar to the ones in Haywood City were also happening around the Navajo ASR. The killer (who also murdered several in Nevada ,Colorado, and Arizona) was dubbed the "Colorado River Killer", due to the states involved. Local Navajo militias investigating learned of a strange traveler with a scar was in the proximity of some of the murder sites (not very close, but somewhat close), and it matched vague descriptions of the killer by survivors in Haywood City (which were done in the dark). The Navajo militia matched it to Fosher, and after learning that Fosher was in several of those states around the time of the murders (though several miles away, and sometimes months before the women were even reported missing).
With this rather tenuous evidence, Fosher was arrested in 1975 on multiple manslaughter charges. Fosher describes his shock at this turn of events, and films of the event show him profusely stating his innocence. He was transferred to the Union Tribunal Court in Haywood City. While the defense vigorously pointed out the various flaws with the charges, the prosecution was able to use the jury's own biases. Fosher's anti-social tendency was emphasized, as was the lack of participation in the system. His assault charge was brought up as an indication of his "violent tendencies."
This factors made Fosher fit into the mold of serial killers that many people in America held at the time, going back to the persecution of
Albert Fish in 1934. The Jury ultimately came back with a guilty verdict. Fosher was sentenced to death by the Tribunal. Fosher noted that during the trial, several other women went missing.
At first, it seemed a victory of the socialist justice system... until another woman was found dead in train tracks in Provo. Another was discovered in an agricultural collective near Haywood City. It became clear that the real killer was still out there. Fosher noted the injustice of his sentence was short lived, as the appeal overturned his conviction in 1976, fairly quickly.
The case was eventually taken over by the CSS, who managed to locate the real killer, a well-respected union leader and minor political player Herbert Koehler, in 1978. Koehler immediately confessed as he was taken in, and was sentenced to death (which was carried out in 1981).
Fosher, for his part, examined his situation, and realized that there could potentially be victims like him, falsely accused for crimes. He decided to act to ensure it would not happen again. He cleaned up his act, sold his motorcycle, and went back to California. He finally went to a university, and eventually to law school. He became a public defender, particularly for those whose charges were spurious at best. He joined the Innocence Project, and became a legal personality on TV. He co-wrote a book discussing the Red Terror from a legal perspective, describing the violations of due process during the era.
-----------------------------
