Now, for the first time, the prints would be subjected to expert analysis. Criminalist Ronald J. Raquel peered through a magnifying glass at a police photo of one of the footprints, found in a bathroom near the kitchen.
His conclusion: It was definitely not made by Lisker's shoes.
Gavin turned his attention to Ryan. He tracked down several of Ryan's old friends from the apartment on Sepulveda Boulevard. Gavin learned that Bruce had boasted to Ryan that his parents were rich and that his father owned a stamp collection worth more than $100,000.
One of the friends was dying of AIDS. Gavin flew to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to interview him. The man said that before Dorka's murder, some of Bruce's friends had planned to rob the Liskers and had cased the home. Ingels, the private investigator, told Gavin he had information that Ryan had been in that group.
Was it possible an innocent man had been convicted? Gavin wondered. He was determined to find out, but his superiors had other ideas, he said. Supportive at first, they had grown impatient as his investigation dragged on into 2004.
His job was to look into complaints of police misconduct, they said, not to reinvestigate decades-old homicides. Gavin said he was told to limit his inquiry to Monsue's letter and wrap it up quickly.
"I was told to shut it down," he said. "I was told I was done."
Gavin followed orders and turned in an abbreviated report. He wrote, but did not submit, a longer report. The title page read: "The Case of Bruce Lisker: Did a faulty investigation by an LAPD officer lead to Lisker's murder conviction?"
Without telling his superiors, Gavin also gave Ingels a copy of the criminalist's report on the bloody footprint.
"He told me that he was probably going to catch some heat for doing that," Ingels said. "But he said: 'I'm OK with that.' "
Claims Dismissed
Last July, Lisker found in his prison mail a letter on LAPD stationery. It was the department's response to his complaint. An investigation had found no merit to his allegation that Monsue lied to the parole board, wrote Capt. James A. Rubert, the detective's immediate superior.
As for Lisker's broader claims -- that Ryan was the real killer and that Hughes had lied on the witness stand -- those had already been addressed by the courts, Rubert wrote. No further investigation was warranted.
