- I want you to meet a man who made national news,
also as a teenager, once described by prosecutors
as a cowardly killer.
That's what they said he was.
A spoiled rich kid who wanted to kill
his parents for their fortune.
Marty Tankleff denies that even though he did confess
to the murders, like Michael Crowe,
he says his confession at the time was false,
and that it was coerced by the police.
And here's some background on Marty's story.
OPRAH: Here are the facts that Marty Tankleff and the Suffolk
County Police Department agree on, on September 7th 1988,
at 6:14 in the morning, Marty Tankleff left called 911.
Within minutes, police arrived at the Tankfleff home.
Moments later, paramedics discover Marty's father,
Seymour, on the floor in his office,
unconscious and bleeding profusely
from a stab wound to his neck.
He is rushed to the hospital in a coma.
Marty's mother Arlene is found dead in the bedroom,
nearly decapitated, her throat slashed.
Marty tells police he thinks his father's
business partner, Jerry Steuerman,
is behind the attacks.
He said Steuerman owed his father hundreds of thousands
of dollars and was the last to leave
a card game at the Tankleff home the previous night.
But here's where Marty and the police stories began to differ.
Lead Detective, James Macready, noted
Marty was oddly unemotional when police arrived on the scene.
I think he would've been crying.
I think he would have been shaken and very upset.
He's sitting there with his legs crossed
and his hands folded over his knees.
It struck me odd that he would be so calm,
and didn't appear to be upset.
OPRAH: But Marty says he was unemotional
because he was in shock.
When he's brought in for questioning,
Marty believes he's helping the police
piece together the murder.
What he doesn't realize is that he is their prime suspect.
For several hours, Marty denies any involvement in the attacks,
so police try a different tactic.
JAMES MCCREADY: When I'm saw I wasn't
getting anywhere with the questioning,
I came up with an idea.
I tricked him.
Yes, I did.
I made believe that an officer at the hospital called.
They had pumped this father full of adrenaline,
that he had come out of his coma,
and that he had said Marty, you did it.
OPRAH: That's when Marty's story suddenly
changes, sealing his fate.
Well, not only did his story change,
17-year-old Marty actually confessed
to murdering his parents.
During his interrogation, police say Marty told them
he used a barbell and a kitchen knife to commit the crime,
and even asked for psychiatric help
because he thought he might be possessed.
Police and prosecutors were certain they had their man,
but Marty never signed confession.
So as a result of his confession,
coerced or not Marty, was charged with double murder,
facing a possible life sentence in prison.
He went to trial he took the stand.
ATTORNEY: Did you kill your Mother?
MARTY TANKLEFF: No I didn't. OPRAH: Did you kill your father?
MARTY TANKLEFF: No, I loved my parents.
I had nothing to do with this.
OPRAH: In court, Marty insists his confession was a result
of being tricked by detectives.
MARTY TANKLEFF: Because they were saying my father said,
I did this.
My father never lied to me.
They had me believing that I did it,
and that's what they wanted to hear.
OPRAH: As they build their case against Marty,
prosecutors describe tension in the Tankleff home.
Marty and his parents argued about chores,
and plans for his future.
They also paint him as a greedy teenager,
unhappy with the Lincoln, his parents had given him,
and desperate to inherit their fortune.
Yes, he said if my parents were killed,
I could have any car I want.
OPRAH: But Marty's defense counteracts
with witnesses of their own.
ATTORNEY: Did he ever complain about his parents?
MAN: No, he didn't.
ATTORNEY: Did her ever complain about his car?
MAN: No, he didn't.
ATTORNEY: Did he ever complaint about his boat.
MAN: No he didn't.
MARTY TANKLEFF: After nine weeks in court,
the jury revealed their verdict.
JUDGE: How do you find, as the defendant, Martin Tankleff
as to count two murder, second degree.
JUROR: Guilty.
JUDGE: How do you find, as the defendant, Martin Tankleff,
as to count three, murder second degree.
JUROR: Guilty.
Marty Tankleff was sentenced to 50 years
to life for the murders of his parents.
After waging a 17 year battle from prison
to prove that he was innocent, he was finally
freed this past December, and just three months ago,
all charges against Marty were dropped.
Please welcome Marty Tankleff.
[APPLAUSE]
I've got to tell you, when I'm looking at your face
when the verdict is being read, it made
me feel a little choked up.
What do you feel when you see that?
I don't ever like looking at that video
because it's hard to imagine that was 20 years ago,
and all I ever remember about is hearing my family scream
screaming the background, and knowing I'd never knew when I'd
see them as a free man again.
What kept you fighting?
My family.
I knew I was innocent.
My family's with me today.
My mother's sisters my father's brother
had been with me ever since.
There wasn't a day that I didn't wake up in prison knowing
that they were there for me.
And you pray that you have a family
like I did because that's what got me through it every day.
So I know you don't like looking at yourself there
and don't like going through all of this,
but we're on television, and I'd like you to bear with us.
So you went to your mother's funeral
after she'd been murdered, and went to your mother's funeral
in shackles.
In shackles, yes.
What do you remember because your video
your interrogation was not videotaped.
- Correct. - OK.
It was a hostile environment, and I remember
that I kept saying it wasn't me, it wasn't me,
and they kept saying, we don't care.
Just tell us what we want to hear.
We want to know what you.
And you get to a point where you start doubting yourself.
You get to the point where you just
want to escape that environment, and you
know you're not telling them the truth,
but you just want it to end.
How long do you recall it going on?
- Hours. - Hours.
I couldn't tell you.
I remember being brought into the police station
when it was light outside, and leaving when it was dark.
Now when you were first brought
into the police station, did you know that you
were their prime suspect. - No.
No.
All they kept asking me was about my former business
partner Jerry Steuerman any problems my parents had
with people, my background, my family, and that's
what I thought I was there for.
Tell me what happened when you woke up that morning.
I woke up.
It was supposed to be my first day of school.
And I found my parents--
OPRAH: As a senior.
As a senior, yeah.
I had just turned 17 on August 29th,
and it should have been a great year.
Instead it changed my life forever.
So when you discovered your father, he was still alive.
He was still alive.
I called 911.
I tried to follow the instructions as best as I
could, and after I found my father,
I went looking for my mother.
And found her.
And so was there a point during the interrogation
when you started to believe, or think maybe you did do it?
I was always brought up to trust law enforcement.
I was brought up that cops don't lie.
My father was the police commissioner of Belle Terre.
We lived in a very good neighborhood,
and when the cops turn around and said
your father said you did it, I started to doubt myself.
I'm saying, my father would never lie to me.
I mean, I knew in my heart and my soul,
I wasn't responsible for this.
When the cops start telling you, we know you did it,
and your father said you did it, you start to doubt yourself.
OK, so what did you then do.
Did you decide, I'm going to make up the story,
or did you think, well, maybe I did, or?
Basically, what ended up happening
was that I offered to take a polygraph.
They refused to give me one.
OPRAH: You asked for a polygraph?
I asked for a polygraph right because I said,
I'm not guilty of anything.
I didn't do anything.
And they never gave me a polygraph.
But as the interrogation went along, every time I
denied knowing something or identifying anything,
they would feed me facts.
Marty, we know used this knife.
Marty, we know you did this.
And I would say, no I didn't.
And they said, just tell us that you did so this can end.
And so by the end, you finally said I did.
What made you say, I did it?
I just wanted it to end.
So even though--
how soon after you confessed, did you then, wait to the trial
to, then, say it didn't happen?
Immediately, that day.
The minute I got out of the confines of law enforcement,
I basically said they made me say it.
So it was literally that night.
OPRAH: That night.
That night.
And so your family believed you.
Yeah, they've been by me every step of the way.
So what did you think, family, when
you heard that first he did confess, and then
later he said he didn't do it.
I think what happened that day was that the police had--
this whole thing had started bad because the police were lying
to us for almost six hours.
They kept telling us that Marty was coming,
and so they were lying to us, while had
hidden him locked up in a room and were interrogating him.
So the whole thing smelled bad to begin with.
Then we finally got a call from Marty,
and he told us on that call, he said I only said
it because they made me say it.
And we also knew about the partner.
I mean we were aware of the whole family situation.
So there was no doubt in our mind from the beginning.
Well, Marty and his team of lawyers and investigators
believe there is evidence that links Jerry Steuerman,
a former business a partner of Marty's father, to the crime,
but authorities have never charged Steuerman,
nor have they ever considered him a suspect.
Why?
Well, there's been clear evidence
that the lead detective in my case, McCready,
was friends with Steuerman.