Why didn't any of these men say anything?

[raccoon]

A man who has now been convicted of hiring a hitman to murder his wife told numerous other men at the gym where he worked out that he was going to kill his wife.

This was on “48 Hours Mystery” last Saturday.

…And it was at the gym that (Det. Larry) Davis heard about some interesting conversations Fratta had been having about his wife.

"He said, 'I’m gonna find a way to knock her off,'" said Mike Edens, who worked out with Fratta. "And I said, 'Knock her off?' And he goes, 'Yeah.'"

Edens said Bob (Fratta) casually asked him if he knew someone who would kill her.

"'What about some of these people you work with? You think they might be interested?' 'I don’t know,'" Edens said.

He never thought Fratta was serious; just frustrated by the divorce.

But Fratta sure did like talking about killing his wife.

Jimmy Podhorsky also worked out at the gym. "He asked me if I knew of anybody. It seemed to be pretty much what he wanted to talk about… to me and everybody else."

According to Prosecutor Kelly Siegler, "15, 17 different guys" all said pretty much the same thing as Edens and Podhorsky.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/06/48hours/main6181905.shtml?tag=currentVideoInfo;segmentUtilities


17 different men? And none of them mentioned anything to the police or the wife?

[peace13]

1. The boys club!

Hey, she was just a soon to be ex-wife and everybody knows the best time for an accident is right before the divorce is final. Those guys want the whole pie. This is a sad story!

[Jim__]

2. "He never thought Fratta was serious; just frustrated by the divorce."

I think that's why. Threatening to "kill" someone is an accepted exageration in our society. It's generally not taken seriously.If you were really thinking about killing someone, would you announce it to a lot of people?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. "Threatening to 'kill' someone is an accepted exageration in our society"

I think that's exactly it. Nobody at the gym took him seriously. Bad mistake.

[raccoon]

4. When Bob Fratta started asking men at the gym if they knew somebody who would kill her,

seems to me that should have been a tip-off.

That's going a step further.

This reminds me of the Kitty Genovese incident.

[Jim__]

5. I think Kitty Genovese was different.

Then, people in their houses heard a woman screaming for help, screaming, and no one called the police. It was a crime in progress, a violent crime in which someone was being murdered.

Something like this happened near my house once. A man came into an Albertson's carrying guns, and shot his wife (I bleieve they were getting divorced) and the store manager who tried to help the woman, and the first statepatrolman to show up on the scene. Killed all 3. When they talked to people he knew, people at the bar he hung out at, they all said they knew he would kill her - but, of course, no one said anything.

[seabeyond]

6. one of my brothers, alcoholic, possibly abusive going thru divorce

his aggressiveness and anger, well rage, had me thinking murder was possible. wouldnt have been surprised at all. take out the whole family.

how do you do anything with police, with just a thought. cant be done.

the best we could do was monitor and stay in touch. at a point father and i pooled money to move him three states away.

[Jim__]

10. Alcohol and rage.

What can you do when someone is in that state of mind?

[seabeyond]

11. exactly. nt

[raccoon]

8. Ok, in the 48 Hours case and the case you mentioned, what do we need to be doing?

Telling the wife? (or whoever the wannabe murderer is talking about killing?)

Telling the cops?

Anyone want to jump in here?

[Jim__]

9. Tell the wife is a good idea; but my guess is she already knows.

My guess is that the police will say he hasn't broken any laws and there is nothing they can do. I'm not sure there is any easy answer.

We need to change our society so that killing doesn't seem like an answer (e.g. eliminate the death penalty). But, what the hell does it take to change the way a society thinks?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

7. As an aside, I see the world-famous Texas death penalty did jack shit to deter this fucker. -nt