PHI Interview with Arlene Melton

November 6, 2002

PHI Case reference - AM1102-769

Background note:

Arlene Melton approached the offices of PHI following her interview with Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's department about the death of Wenzel Hitzig.

She feels under suspicion and is eager to prove her innocence. She was with Wenzel when he died. He was shot dead, and she was injured, but she feels the Sheriff's department has suspicions she either faked her injury or there was another party involved with her. Arlene Melton has agreed that for the purposes of establishing her innocence, all interviews can and will be recorded and transcribed, and that she will give all assistance possible to PHI investigators.

The following is a transcript of the first interview to take place between Arlene Melton and PHI. Present were Pearl Monroe, Harry Lear and Arlene Melton.

PM = Pearl Monroe

HL = Harry Lear

AM = Arlene Melton

TIME: 5:25 p.m.

PM: Arlene, this will be a little different from the way the Sheriff's department does it. We're not using this tape in any possible legal way. This really is just so we have an accurate record of what was said, by who, and so on. Is that okay?

AM: Sure, that's fine. I really appreciate you guys agreeing to look into this for me.

HL: We'll do what we can, Arlene. You know we might even find evidence that incriminates you?

AM: I didn't do it, Harry. I know that's easy for me to say, but I really didn't. There shouldn't be any evidence against me.

PM: Why do you think the police think you did it?

AM: Because they're all dumb. It's just laziness, oh Arlene was there, she must have done it. Why didn't they suspect Tate?

HL: I think they might.

AM: Really? Why would he kill Wenzel? That's just crazy!

HL: They don't think he did it alone. Surely you've realized they think Tate and you may have been in it together?

AM: I don't know what to say.

PM: Let's go back to what I said a moment earlier. Let's look at why the police think Arlene is a suspect.

HL: Okay, good idea, Pearl. Well, we have certain facts about the murder that can't be contested. Arlene was with Wenzel when he died, which gives her the opportunity. We now know she stood to gain a half a million dollar life insurance policy, which some people might think gives her motive, and the forensics officer thought she had gun residue on her hands, which could be said to mean she fired the shot that killed him.

AM: Gee thanks, Harry. Way to go to make a girl feel better.

PM: Harry's right, Arlene. We've got to be honest about this between us. I'm not working your case if I feel I'm going to be jerked around and not get complete cooperation. Okay, well, let's look at what we've got. I don't think there is any way of proving whether you did or did not know about the life insurance policy. Unless of course you have a letter from Wenzel somewhere which says "Hi Arlene, I'm leaving you half a million bucks when I die." ... Well, do you?

AM: No, I don't. He never even mentioned it to me. I still find it difficult to believe, but I think I know why he did it.

HL: Why?

AM: He didn't really have anyone else, did he? Yeah sure he had friends, but he didn't have another girlfriend, or kids, and only his sister in London who he doesn't see that often. And I also gave him a bit of a hard time back at the start of the year about stringing me along with the TINAG game.

PM: What did you say to him?

AM: I only said I thought it was unfair to have got me to come along and take part in his stupid game, with all his promises about getting rich and how much he cared for me, when he probably wouldn't ever get it done. I thought maybe I'd just been some fool who'd fallen for a corny line and the promise of some money. I didn't really mean most of it. I was just feeling sorry for myself, start of the year blues you know?

So anyway, he told me that he did care for me. I mean, he made it sound really sincere, and he said he always felt really sorry for me that we hadn't turned the game into a commercial success yet, but that he would work on it, and whatever happened, he would make sure I was taken care of. He also said he needed this badly himself. Maybe that's when he got the idea to leave his life insurance policy to me.

PM: Can you understand why people might look at you and Wenzel and think you make an unlikely couple?

HL: He was a bit older than you wasn't he Arlene? Not the greatest looking guy in the world?

AM: I know what you're saying, but I actually thought he was kinda handsome. Sure he was a big guy, but I've never let that stop me. I like men with drive and presence, something about them. He was very sweet, courteous. He had good manners, a nice smile. He was intelligent and he was different from a lot of men.

HL: In what way?

AM: Look Harry, you know what I used to do for a living?

HL: The, er..., dancing?

AM: Yeah, the "er" dancing. You see guys all the time. Good looking guys, guys with wives and kids, tongues hanging out like they're at some big caveman barbecue, throwing money at you, like you're a piece of meat ready to throw on their fire.

PM: That's an interesting analogy, Arlene!

AM: Well what I mean is that I guess sometimes I don't always go for the conventional. I've seen too much.

HL: You and Wenzel didn't have an exclusive relationship though, did you?

AM: No, that's true. And I'm sure that's another reason why those detectives think I'm involved.

PM: You're probably right. If you don't mind me saying it, it makes you look a bit cheap.

AM: I don't mind you saying it, but I don't think it's fair. If I was a guy, you wouldn't judge me like that. If Harry here had a few casual girlfriends, just for dates and fun stuff, you'd think, oh he's just a young man making his way in the world. He'd be a ladies man, someone the other guys look up to...

HL: I see what you're saying. You think there is a double standard applied when it is a woman who behaves like that?

AM: I don't think, Harry, I know. None of the men in my life were under any illusions as to their place. I never said, oh we are going to be in an exclusive relationship, or demanded they had no one else in their lives but me. I thought for a short while that me and J.P. might have something a little more going on, but that wasn't to be. After that, I've been seeing a few people, and yes I have been intimate with some of them, but I've always been sensible and safe about that. I really don't see that it's such a big deal in this day and age.

HL: Point taken. Okay, who are we dealing with here?

AM: Well okay, you know about J.P. Wallace, Tate Moore, Wenzel, of course. There was another guy I saw in May a couple of times, but he's moved on. He was working for a few weeks at the football stadium. Tom Gambini, I think he was from New Jersey, if you wanted to trace him.

PM: Do you think he had anything to do with this?

AM: No. Nothing at all.

PM: Well we'll push him to one side for the moment.

HL: What about Kevin Travers?

AM: Are you asking me if I've had a sexual relationship with him, Harry?

HL: Yeah

AM: No I haven't. I get along fine with Kevin, and he made it clear we could have had something, but he was also okay about it when nothing happened. Sometimes I've felt he's a bit possessive, and I know he looked at my emails, but he's pretty harmless I think. I wasn't too happy about that at the time, but that was then. Anyway, Kevin's been dating recently, seems pretty happy.

HL: Do you know who he is dating?

AM: Vicky something. I don't really know her second name.

PM: Where was Kevin when you and Wenzel went out the morning he died?

AM: He left home about half an hour before me. Him and Vicky were going somewhere together. I didn't take much notice.

HL: I don't think this has anything to do with Wenzel and Arlene really.

PM: No, I'm not sure that it has either, but we've got to look at every angle. We need to find out exactly what Wenzel has been up to, what he is involved in, who he has been in contact with and anything else.

HL: Can you help us there, Arlene?

AM: Sure, I will. I can let you have the last couple of emails he sent me. I don't have any from before that. I had some computer trouble. Whatever I can remember from our phone conversations as well I'll share.

PM: That's a good start.

HL: Arlene, can you type?

AM: Well, a little, yes. I'm not fast or anything.

HL: That's okay. Here's what I want you to do. Go and use my desk, and write up two documents. One is for whatever you can remember about what you and Wenzel did since he arrived in Oxford on Saturday November 2nd. The second is for all names, all places, anything at all you can write down which you can remember about Wenzel and his life away from you. I'm going to make a few calls about this gunshot residue. I have a buddy in Kentucky who may be able to help us on this. We'll stop the tape here, take a break, and reconvene in an hour or so. Is that okay with you both?

PM: Sounds fine to me.

AM: Okay.

Tape stopped at 6:07 p.m.