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By AP
Dateline:
SALEM, Ore. - Frank E.
Gable, a central figure in the investigation of the murder of Oregon
corrections chief Michael Francke, swears he did not commit the crime and doesn't
know who did.
In a copyright story in
yesterday's Statesman-Journal, Gable spoke publicly for the first time since
authorities identified him as a focus of their investigation in the killing of Francke, who
was stabbed to death outside his
``I have a 10-year-old
daughter who I love more than anything in this world, but God strike her dead
if I had anything to do with Mr. Francke's death,'' Gable said. ``I haven't always been a
good man, but I believe in God and would never make a statement like that if I
killed him.''
Gable, 30, said a group
of former or current convicts, all with links to methamphetamine trafficking or
gunrunning, are out to get him for revenge or to save
their own skins.
The interview was
conducted last week in the
He said investigators have
accused him of killing Francke.
``A couple of weeks ago,
they were in here telling me they have their case,'' Gable said. ``They told
me, `We're just trying to decide whether to charge you with aggravated murder
or murder.'
``It's like they're trying
to scare me into copping or rolling over on someone else. But I ain't copping, and I ain't
rolling over. I told them, `If you got your case, then come on with it. Let's
roll.' I know I'd win.''
Gable said he learned
that he was being linked to the Francke killing when he was arrested in
``The arrest papers said
I was wanted in questioning in a murder case,'' he said. ``They asked me where
was I that night. I told them, they said OK, and that was it.''
Officially, he was
charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and for being a felon in
possession of a handgun. The charges were dropped because there was
insufficient evidence for a conviction,
Gable said the charges
were dropped because he agreed to work for the Keizer
Police Department as an informant.
In September, Gable was
arrested in
``It's all because last
summer we were sitting around with a couple of friends when something about the
Francke
thing came on the TV,'' Gable said. ``We all had our
opinions about how it happened, and I had mine.
``After I was arrested
in September, she told them I knew how it happened because of what I said in
the summer.''
Unaware of his wife's
accusations, Gable said he was called by the state police, who said they wanted
to eliminate him as a suspect if he would just take a lie-detector test.
``I knew I had nothing
to do with the killing, so I thought it would be OK,'' he said.
Gable was never told
that he failed the test, just that he had been deceptive on certain questions,
he said.
``They asked me if I
killed Michael Francke.
I told them no, and they later told me I passed that question. They didn't ask
me if I had ever met Michael Francke or if I was on the hospital grounds that night. I
would have told them no, and I would have been right.
``It was like they were
asking me questions not because they thought I did it but because they thought
I might know who did - which I don't,'' Gable said.
The investigators took
hair and blood samples from Gable, which led him to believe that police had
samples from someone that didn't match Francke.
``But if they match
mine, then why haven't they charged me?'' Gable asked.
Now he's worried that a
group of former or current convicts are being used by police to intimidate him
or railroad him into the penitentiary.
``They're all a bunch of
`meth heads' who either owe me money for drugs or are
looking to make deals to get out.''
``The cops are
frustrated,'' he said. ``If they're whacking on me, it's obvious their case
isn't progressing because I didn't do it.
But I'm getting real
tweaked that they're getting to the point where they need to hang this on
someone, and that someone is me.''
Penn refused to comment
on specific people in the case. But, he said, ``No one is going to be
railroaded by prosecutors in
Gable said that now the
fact he was a police informant is public knowledge, he is worried that he'll
always have to worry about being attacked by people associated with the
methamphetamine dealers and gunrunners who were the subjects of the
But for now, he said he
is most concerned with severing ties to the Francke investigation.
Penn said recently that
the primary motives for the killing are that Francke caught a car burglar or
that someone was seeking revenge for something that Francke did that affected
inmates.
``I don't think it was a
car burglar,'' he said. ``I mean, who is stupid enough to turn a car burglary
into a murder? You don't do no time for car burglary.
Besides, it don't take no time to get in and out of a
car.''
A car burglar would have
run, he said.
For that reason, Gable
said, he thinks Francke
knew at least one of the people present when he was killed. He said it wasn't
him, although he said he doesn't remember what he was doing that night.
``Does anybody remember
what they were doing on a specific night a year ago?'' he said. ``Add to that
the fact that I was in the bag, strung out on `crank,' and had been up several
days, 24 hours a day, with some friends. I don't even know which day was
which.'