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There's no safe like Simply Safe. The

1:08

missing child is Lucia Blix,

1:10

nine years old. Please let

1:12

her come back home safely.

1:16

Thursdays, the kidnappers plundered

1:18

meticulously. If money is what it

1:20

takes to get her back, we're gonna pay it. The

1:23

secrets they hide. You can't talk

1:25

about this. You can't write about it. Are

1:27

the clues. The mother's hiding something.

1:29

I know it. To find her. Tell me

1:31

where she is. The

1:33

stolen girl. New episodes Thursdays.

1:35

Stream on Hulu. This

1:38

episode of Swindled may contain

1:40

graphic descriptions or audio recordings of

1:43

disturbing events which may not

1:45

be suitable for all audiences. Listener

1:47

discretion is advised. We

1:53

all kind of take our cars for granted. But

1:56

cars don't just happen. There's

1:58

a lot of careful planning and engineering

2:00

that goes into every one of them.

2:03

Our Toyotas are built by the

2:05

world's third largest automaking company, and

2:07

the most modern auto plants in

2:09

the world. Toyota's fun. It's

2:11

a joy to own and drive. Americans

2:14

are intrigued with Toyota. They

2:17

know that Toyota means quality, value,

2:20

service, economy, and

2:22

dependability that good things

2:24

really do come in

2:26

small packages. The

2:30

Mole Sisters were still beaming

2:32

from the concert they had attended

2:34

in Miami that night, June

2:36

16, 1979, as they

2:38

climbed into a mustard -green 1973

2:40

Toyota Corona for the 45 -minute

2:43

drive home. 18 -year -old

2:45

Pamela was behind the wheel. It was

2:47

her last summer in Florida before heading off

2:49

to college at Purdue. 25

2:51

-year -old Denise was sitting in the front passenger

2:53

seat. She had already started her career

2:55

as an accountant. Their younger

2:57

sister, Wendy, a 15 -year -old high school

2:59

freshman, occupied the back seat. The

3:02

girls weren't sure when they would have time

3:04

to do something together like that again,

3:06

so they savored every moment. About

3:09

30 minutes into the trip, driving north

3:11

on I -95 near Hallendale Beach, the car

3:13

in front of them lost control and

3:15

spun out on the rain -slick road. Pamela

3:18

Moll slammed on the brakes of her

3:20

reliable little subcompact imported car and came

3:22

to a screeching halt in the middle

3:24

of the highway, making only minor contact

3:26

with the other car's bumper. Whoa,

3:28

is everybody okay? That

3:30

was a close call. Moments

3:36

later, a 1969 Oldsmobile Delta

3:38

88, traveling at 39 miles

3:40

per hour, slammed into the

3:42

rear of the Moll's sister's

3:44

corona, which instantly burst into

3:46

flames. A moving wall of

3:48

fire traveled from the back of the car

3:50

into the passenger compartment within seconds. The

3:52

doors jammed. Pamela, Denise, and

3:55

Wendy were trapped inside. Bystanders

3:58

yanked on the handles, but the doors wouldn't

4:00

budge. The heat eventually forced the

4:02

Good Samaritans to abandon the effort, and

4:04

the screams coming from inside the

4:07

car eventually stopped. When the

4:09

flames were extinguished and the doors were pried

4:11

open, rescue workers carefully removed

4:13

the smoldering remains of all three

4:15

mole sisters. too charred for their

4:17

parents to identify at the morgue. Beyond

4:20

being absolutely tragic, accident

4:23

investigators noticed something bizarre about

4:25

the scene. The 1973

4:27

Toyota Corona was demolished,

4:29

mangled, a burnt -out

4:31

shell. Meanwhile, the

4:33

Oldsmobile, admittedly a much

4:35

larger car, had a broken radiator hose

4:37

and cosmetic damage, similar to what

4:39

you might expect to find after a

4:42

minor fender bender. Its

4:44

occupants a young couple walked away

4:46

completely unharmed. What

4:48

exactly happened here? The

4:50

answer was quickly deduced. The

4:52

Toyota Coronas fuel tank, which was located

4:55

underneath the trunk of the car, had

4:57

ruptured. When the tank was

4:59

forcibly pushed forward by the rear -end

5:01

collision, the tank's filler hose, a 14

5:03

-inch rigid steel pipe, acted as a

5:05

bottle opener, essentially, ripping open

5:07

the tank and spewing gasoline into the cabin

5:09

of the car. Combined with the crushing

5:11

effect of the car's body, which more or

5:13

less sealed the door shut, the

5:16

1973 Toyota Corona was

5:18

in most automotive experts

5:20

opinion, unreasonably dangerous. In

5:23

fact, the Insurance Institute for Highway

5:25

Safety had already compiled data

5:27

concluding that 35 people had burned

5:29

to death following gas tank

5:31

ruptures in the Japanese -built Toyota

5:34

Corona and Corolla models made between

5:36

1966 and 1979. Make

5:38

that 36. 20 -year -old

5:40

Seth Fishman burned to death in his

5:42

corona on a different stretch of I -95, three

5:45

days after the mole sisters. We've

5:47

been urging them now for

5:49

several years to initiate both

5:51

an investigation and a recall

5:54

campaign requiring the manufacturer, we

5:56

would expect would do it

5:58

anyway, to

6:00

fix these vehicles. And

6:03

the worst part, Toyota had

6:05

been aware of the fuel system defects

6:07

for years, but refused to address the

6:09

issue. When the company crash

6:11

-tested Corona in 1966, into

6:14

rear -end collisions as slow as 20

6:16

miles per hour, the gas cap located

6:18

behind the license plate was pried

6:20

off while the filler pipe rotated forward,

6:22

repeatedly. Furthermore, Toyota

6:24

conducted additional research in the

6:27

early 70s, which concluded that The

6:29

safest location for the fuel tank is just

6:31

behind the rear seatback instead of beneath

6:34

the floor of the luggage compartment. What

6:36

did Toyota do with this information? Nothing,

6:40

at least not for the Corona. Toyota

6:42

did alter the fuel system configurations

6:44

of several other models to

6:46

include much safer sidefield over the

6:48

axle tanks. As a matter

6:50

of fact, the Corona was the only

6:52

vehicle in Toyota's entire 1973 line that

6:54

continued to utilize the behind the axle

6:56

tank. Why? Because according

6:59

to Toyota, there was nothing

7:01

wrong with it. And Toyota issued

7:03

a statement saying there's no defect in

7:05

the design or construction of the

7:07

fuel reserve system of these models. The

7:09

parents of Denise, Pamela, and Wendy

7:11

Moll were not convinced. This

7:14

1973 Toyota Corona burst into flames

7:16

moments after it was struck in

7:18

the rear near Hollywood, Florida two

7:20

years ago. Three sisters, Denise,

7:22

Pamela, and Wendy Moll, were

7:24

trapped inside and burned to death.

7:26

The girls' parents charged Toyota with

7:28

manufacturing a car with gas tanks

7:31

that tend to explode and doors that

7:33

jam in accidents. They

7:35

went to circuit court seeking

7:37

$165 million. The

7:39

Mole family sued Toyota in

7:41

the Broward County Circuit

7:43

Court in 1979, seeking $165

7:45

million, $55 million for

7:47

each daughter lost. They refused

7:49

to accept an out -of -court settlement like

7:51

so many victims of Toyota's negligence

7:53

had before. Betty Mole, the

7:55

girl's mother. one of the jury to hear

7:57

the case, to bring the issue to the

7:59

public's attention. The

8:02

complain alleged that Toyota had

8:04

been, quote, negligent and careless

8:06

in its construction, design, manufacture,

8:08

and use of materials regarding

8:10

the corona, and that Denise,

8:12

Pamela, and Wendy's deaths were

8:14

the direct and proximate result of

8:16

that negligence, which Toyota willfully,

8:18

wantonly, and knowingly failed to fix,

8:20

despite having the knowledge. The

8:23

mole's attorney, Sheldon Schlesinger, called the

8:25

case, quote, the grossest example of

8:27

corporate indifference that has ever been

8:29

brought into a courtroom, a quote,

8:31

tragedy of monumental human proportion,

8:33

in which a survivable moderate

8:35

speed accident created a flamethrower. That

8:38

vehicle was unreasonably dangerous, Schlesinger

8:40

told the jury, and

8:42

Toyota did nothing about it. It

8:45

was unfit to

8:47

be used on highways

8:49

in this country. It

8:53

was... Unreasonably

8:56

dangerous by

8:58

virtue of its

9:00

design and manufacturing.

9:03

The plaintiffs called a string of

9:06

witnesses to prove this point during the

9:08

month -long trial. Automotive design and

9:10

accident experts testified that the Corona's fuel

9:12

system was hazardous. They even brought

9:14

in the rear half of a 1973

9:16

model into the courtroom as a

9:18

visual aid. Firefighters

9:20

and eyewitnesses testified about the intensity and

9:22

speed of the fire. and Betty

9:24

Moll described to the jury how their

9:26

family was tormented by the accident,

9:28

how she and her husband and still

9:30

-living children even relocated to get away

9:32

from the memories, but testified that

9:34

she still saw visions of her daughters,

9:36

how objects moved mysteriously, and how

9:38

weird noises kept her up at night.

9:41

There was no escaping the grief. Toyota's

9:44

defense attorney, Tom Rumberger,

9:46

discounted that sorrow. If

9:48

you take the sympathy out of this

9:50

case, they've got nothing, he told a

9:52

newspaper. Instead, Rumberger wanted to focus on

9:55

the car, which he and Toyota executives

9:57

claimed was just as safe, if not

9:59

safer than any other subcompact car on

10:01

the American highway. It

10:03

passed all the tests, and there

10:05

were no federal standards for rear -end

10:07

crashes at the time the 1973 Corona

10:09

was designed, Rumberger pointed out. No

10:11

car that size could be expected to

10:13

survive a 39 -mile -an -hour crash, he told

10:15

the jury. That's part of the trade

10:17

-off, to achieve economy. It's

10:19

a reasonable expectation to sacrifice a

10:22

bit of safety. And no

10:24

car is truly safe, as long as there

10:26

are reckless drivers on the road, Rumberger noted, shifting

10:28

the blame to the 21 -year -old driver

10:30

of the Oldsmobile. That car,

10:33

as long as it is properly

10:35

operated, and

10:37

the people in its environment are

10:39

properly operated, is as

10:41

safe as any vehicle that any of

10:43

us want. The

10:45

jury did not accept Toyota's defense. However,

10:48

on September 10th, 1981, it

10:50

awarded the Mole family only $5 million, about

10:53

$160 million short of what they had

10:55

requested. Betty Mole was

10:57

offended. It's absolutely stupid, she

10:59

said afterward. It's an insult

11:01

to the girls and a disgrace. I

11:04

can't see that it's reasonable. We

11:06

lost three daughters. Three daughters.

11:08

There's no vehicle on the road that was

11:11

made as stupidly. No disrespect

11:13

intended, but actually there

11:15

was. A fiery highway

11:17

crash with a car bursting into flames

11:19

after being struck from behind by

11:21

another vehicle. The deaths of young

11:23

women in that crash. It all sounds

11:25

like last year's Ford Pinto trial. Just

11:28

a year earlier, another automobile manufacturer

11:30

was on trial for almost the

11:32

exact same reasons, which made the

11:34

Toyota Corona and the Mole Sisters'

11:36

tragedy feel like deja vu. Except

11:39

in the case of the Ford Pinto, the

11:41

stakes were even higher, resulting in

11:43

a landmark case in which,

11:45

for the first time, A corporation

11:48

responsible for a defective product

11:50

was charged criminally with homicide. Can

11:52

big business get away with murder? What

11:55

do you think? Ford Motor

11:57

Company's popular subcompact car

12:00

is accused of being a death trap

12:02

on this episode of Swindled. Support

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for Swindled comes from Honey Love. Alright.

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standard in bras with Honey Love. How

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about the threat of the Volkswagen? Well,

13:57

the Volkswagen has become very popular

13:59

in the... As I

14:01

understand, they will sell this year

14:03

more cars than all the other

14:05

cars imported into the United States

14:07

together, total together. Why

14:09

that is, I don't know, but apparently people

14:12

in the United States do like the Volkswagen.

14:14

But there's still a market for a small

14:16

car. I think there is. I

14:18

don't think there's a market necessarily for

14:20

a small car for an American manufacturer. That's

14:24

the voice of Henry Ford

14:26

II, responding to a

14:28

question about the Volkswagen Beetle. The

14:30

German manufactured subcompact vehicle that

14:32

took America by storm in the

14:34

1960s. Hank the Deuce, as

14:36

some called him, was skeptical of

14:38

the small car's success. They

14:40

were slow, noisy, and ugly,

14:42

he was quoted as saying. Ford

14:45

II dismissed the Beetle in similar

14:47

imports as a fleeting thad. But

14:50

not everyone at the Ford Motor Company

14:52

shared the Chairman's view. Lee

14:54

Iacocca, Ford's tough -talking executive

14:56

vice president of North

14:58

American operations, recognized an emerging

15:00

trend at the end of the decade. Volkswagen

15:03

had the Beetle, Datsun had

15:05

the Bluebird, Honda had the Civic,

15:07

Toyota had the Corona and the Corolla.

15:10

Even American companies like Chevrolet

15:12

and AMC had fuel -efficient

15:14

subcompact automobiles in the

15:16

pipeline. If Ford didn't act

15:18

now, it was almost a certainty the company

15:21

would be left in the dust. Ford's

15:23

president, Bunky Nudson, favored the

15:25

company's large and medium -sized

15:27

vehicles and had no desire

15:29

to compete in the small car market. But

15:32

Lee Iacocca's opinion carried a lot

15:34

of weight that Ford, after he spearheaded

15:36

the launch of the immensely successful

15:38

Mustang a few years earlier. A

15:40

power struggle ensued, Nudson

15:42

resigned, and Lee's car, as

15:44

it became known, received the green light.

15:47

As newly appointed president of the

15:50

Ford Motor Company, Lee Iacocca

15:52

rushed his vision of a

15:54

subcompact car into production. and

15:56

micromanaged every aspect, codenamed

15:58

the Phoenix. The

16:00

vehicle must weigh less than 2 ,000

16:02

pounds and cost less than $2

16:04

,000, Iacocca demanded. A

16:07

feat that the company hadn't accomplished

16:09

since 1907. Didn't matter,

16:12

no exceptions. Additionally,

16:14

Iacocca announced that this car must

16:16

be on Ford's showroom floor

16:18

by 1970, which was approximately two

16:20

years away. Ford's normal

16:22

time span from conception to production

16:25

was a little less than four years.

16:27

Again, Iacocca reminded the company's

16:29

engineers, no exceptions. And

16:32

he meant it. One Ford engineer later

16:34

recalled that whenever a problem was raised

16:36

that meant a delay, Lee would

16:38

quote, chomp on his cigar, look out

16:41

the window and say, read the

16:43

product objectives and get back to work. So

16:45

they did. And the result? A

16:47

peppy little European style subcompact

16:50

car. The featured a 2

16:52

.3 -liter, 75 -horsepower engine that

16:54

averaged 25 miles per gallon

16:56

and required minimal routine maintenance. Rear

16:59

-wheel drive, front disc brakes, and

17:01

a quote, all steel,

17:03

rattle -resistant, unitized chassis

17:05

construction welded together like

17:07

a battleship. The Phoenix would

17:10

also be the first mass -produced

17:12

American automobile to incorporate rack and

17:14

pinion steering. Also, it was

17:16

no longer called Phoenix. Ford stuck

17:18

to its horse theme. and renamed

17:20

its newest creation, Pinto.

17:34

The

17:37

Pinto, a little

17:39

carefree car from Ford, went

17:41

on sale at dealerships across

17:43

the United States on September

17:45

11th, 1970, with the suggested

17:47

retail price of $1 ,919, approximately

17:50

$16 ,000 in today's

17:52

dollars. The company could not

17:54

have timed its launch any better. An

17:57

energy crisis would soon sweep

17:59

western countries after OPEC's oil

18:01

embargo. American consumers demanded

18:03

a more economical car, and

18:05

now Ford had one to

18:07

offer in Hatchback or Sudan, and

18:09

15 different colors. Ford

18:12

had a winner in the pinto,

18:14

selling more than 300 ,000 units during

18:16

its first year. despite multiple recalls within

18:18

the first six months for a

18:20

sticky accelerator and an engine compartment that

18:22

had the tendency to catch fire

18:24

when the car was started. Sales

18:26

increased in the following years

18:28

before peaking in 1974

18:30

at 540 ,000 units. Pinto

18:33

leaves you with that warm feeling

18:35

the advertisements read. Ford

18:37

certainly felt that warm feeling. The

18:39

company was completely dominating

18:41

the domestic subcompact market

18:43

until afternoon. During

18:48

the past two years, Mother Jones

18:50

Magazine and its publisher, The

18:52

Foundation for National Progress in San

18:54

Francisco, has conducted extensive research

18:56

on corporate decision -making. A

18:58

recent investigation of high -level policy

19:00

formulation in the automotive industry as

19:02

it relates to vehicle safety has

19:04

uncovered an astonishing case study in

19:06

the Ford Motor Company. In

19:08

August 1977, Mother

19:11

Jones Magazine published an

19:13

11 -page award -winning expose by

19:15

investigative journalist Mark Dowey, which

19:18

accused Ford of defectively designing

19:20

the Pinto's fuel system. The

19:22

story was titled Pinto Madness, and

19:24

it recounted the story of Sandra

19:26

Gillespie and Robbie Carleton, a woman

19:28

and a teenager respectively, who

19:31

were involved in a Pinto -related accident

19:33

in May 1972. Sandra

19:35

was driving her six -month -old

19:37

1972 Pinto on a Minneapolis highway

19:39

when the engine stalled. Thirteen

19:42

-year -old Robbie was riding shotgun. A

19:44

car traveling at an estimated 28

19:46

miles per hour struck them from

19:48

behind. The pentose gas

19:51

tank ruptured. Gasoline filled the cabin.

19:53

A spark ignited the fuel. Sandra

19:55

suffered agonizing burns to her entire

19:57

body and died of congestive heart

20:00

failure on the way to the hospital. Robbie

20:02

survived, but over 90 % of

20:04

his body was burned. He lost

20:06

his nose, his left ear, and

20:08

four fingers, among other permanently disfiguring

20:10

injuries. He would spend nine months

20:13

in the hospital. and undergo more than 50

20:15

surgeries over the next 10 years. We

20:17

now know that Sandra Gillespie and

20:20

Robbie Carlton were pseudonyms for Lily

20:22

Gray and Richard Grimshaw. That

20:24

accident happened in San Bernardino,

20:26

California, not Minneapolis. We

20:29

know because Gray's family and

20:31

Grimshaw eventually sued. Ford Motor

20:33

Company. Mark

20:40

Dalvey used internal Ford

20:42

documents obtained from that

20:45

lawsuit and other sources

20:47

to form the basis

20:49

of his Mother Jones

20:51

article. Those documents conclusively

20:53

revealed a disturbing truth. The

20:56

Ford Pinto's fuel system was a

20:58

disaster waiting to happen. For

21:00

starters, the gas tank was located between

21:02

the rear axle and the back bumper. A

21:05

back bumper that, as the

21:07

auto safety design expert Byron Block

21:09

explained, was largely considered ornamental. So

21:17

when a Pinto was rear

21:19

-ended, the back bumper provided

21:21

little resistance and would buckle

21:23

like an accordion up to

21:26

the back seat. allowing the

21:28

fuel tank would set just six

21:30

inches ahead to be pushed into the

21:32

differential housing on the rear axle, which

21:34

was situated just three inches forward. That

21:37

differential housing featured more than half a dozen

21:39

sharp protruding bolts that would rip into the

21:41

fuel tank like a can opener, and

21:43

the welds on the tank would break when

21:45

squeezed. Speaking of welds, those

21:47

on the floor the car would pull apart

21:49

when the rear end was crushed, leaving gaps

21:52

in the pentho's passenger cabin. that allowed fuel

21:54

to intrude from the rigidly attached filler pipe,

21:56

which was ripped out from the cap end

21:58

when the tank was moved. Well,

22:00

first of all, the rear of the car begins

22:02

to crush. And because

22:04

of the location of the fuel tank,

22:06

it is right in the zone

22:08

where the crush occurs. The fuel tank

22:10

begins to move forward and contact

22:12

the differential, the shock absorber mounts,

22:16

and the fuel filler

22:18

cap, the fuel filler tube. can

22:20

very easily be pulled out of the tank in

22:22

a rear end collision. At a

22:24

spark from grinding metal or

22:26

lit cigarette to truly achieve that

22:28

warm Ford Pinto feeling, and

22:31

don't bother trying to leave, the doors

22:33

would jam shut. A crushed

22:35

rear end would wedge the Pinto's frame

22:37

tightly against the doors, making them virtually

22:39

impossible to open. Byron

22:41

Block called the design of the Pinto's

22:43

fuel system a catastrophic blunder. He

22:46

elaborated to Mother Jones, telling the

22:48

magazine that Ford made, quote, an

22:50

extremely irresponsible decision when they placed

22:52

such a weak tank in such

22:54

a ridiculous location and such a

22:56

soft rear end. It's almost

22:59

designed to blow up. Premeditated.

23:02

Premeditated because Ford Motor Company discovered

23:04

the hazard during the production of

23:06

the Pinto and chose to do

23:08

nothing to alleviate it. Internal

23:10

company documents revealed that Ford secretly crash

23:13

tested the Pinto more than 40

23:15

times before it went on the market.

23:17

and that the Pinto's fuel tank

23:19

ruptured in every test performed at speeds

23:21

exceeding 25 miles per hour. This

23:23

1973 Ford Pinto is about to suffer

23:25

a rear -end collision at 38 miles

23:28

an hour. The impact drives

23:30

the gasoline tank forward into the

23:32

differential, causing a rupture spilling gas.

23:34

Any spark and the tank explodes. The

23:37

company had even financed a UCLA

23:39

study that focused on fire safety and

23:41

high -speed rear -end crashes. The conclusion

23:43

of that study, which was published in

23:45

the Journal for Automotive Engineers read

23:47

quote, fuel tanks should not

23:50

be located directly adjacent to the rear

23:52

bumper or behind the rear wheels adjacent

23:54

to the fender sheet metal, as this

23:56

location exposes them to rupture at very

23:58

low speeds of impact. So

24:00

why, then, were these cars

24:02

on American roads with that exact

24:04

configuration? The unnamed

24:06

Ford engineers who talked to Mark

24:08

Dowie pointed to the Pinto's rushed

24:10

production schedule, quote, Design,

24:12

styling, product planning, advanced engineering, and

24:15

quality assurance all have flexible

24:17

timeframes, and engineers can pretty much

24:19

carry these on simultaneously. Tooling,

24:22

on the other hand, has a fixed time

24:24

frame of about 18 months. Normally

24:26

an auto company doesn't begin tooling until

24:28

the other processes are almost over. You

24:30

don't want to make the machines that stamp and

24:32

press and grind metal into the shape of car

24:34

parts, until you know all those parts will work

24:36

well together. But Iacocas speed up.

24:38

When the Pinto tolling went on at

24:41

the same time as product development, so when

24:43

crash tests revealed a serious defect in

24:45

the gas tank, it was too late. The

24:47

tolling was well underway. Even

24:49

minor changes were out of the question for

24:52

Ford management. Because the company at the

24:54

time was rushing the car into production, to

24:56

compete with the fast growing Volkswagen, assembly

24:59

line machinery was already tooled

25:01

when this defect was discovered. Top

25:04

four officials decided to manufacture

25:06

the car anyway. Exploding

25:09

gas tank and all, even though

25:11

Ford owned, at the time, the

25:13

patent on a much safer fuel

25:15

system. Correct. Ford

25:17

already owned the patent to a

25:19

much safer fuel tank than it

25:21

had developed for a similarly sized

25:23

car. It was called a saddle

25:25

tank, or capri tank, because it was used

25:27

in the Ford Capri, which was sold

25:29

exclusively in Europe. A capri tank

25:32

was positioned over the rear axle,

25:34

safely cradled between the rear wheels and

25:36

protected on all sides. Ford

25:38

engineers actually tested it in

25:40

the Pinto and no leaks were

25:42

detected after rear -end collisions and

25:44

it only cost $9 .95 per

25:46

car. But Ford decided against

25:48

using the Capri tank due to

25:50

quote, undesirable luggage space

25:53

attained. Lee Iacocca was adamant

25:55

that the Pinto's trunk be able

25:57

to fit the set of golf clubs.

26:00

No worries, other remedies prove

26:02

just as effective in crash tests

26:04

and even cheaper. For example,

26:06

a simple plastic shield between the gas

26:08

tank and the differential housing. It

26:10

would have likely cost less than $3

26:12

in parts and labor to install. Or

26:15

again, like the Capri that could reposition

26:18

the spare tire to absorb some rear

26:20

-end impact. Add some steel body rails

26:22

to prevent crushing and smooth out the

26:24

sharp points on the axle at minimal

26:26

cost. Engineers also proposed

26:28

lining the existing gas tanks with

26:30

a heavy rubber bladder that would retain the

26:32

fuel in the event of a puncture. or

26:35

wrap the outer tank in a rubber

26:37

-flak suit to prevent a puncture or

26:39

add polyurethane foam between two metal

26:41

shells like a tank and tank solution.

26:44

None of these remedies would cost more

26:46

than $11 per car. Ford

26:48

crunched the numbers to see if

26:50

it was worth it. An

26:52

example of this cost -benefit analysis

26:55

was found in a 1973 inter

26:57

-office memo by Ford's Environmental and

26:59

Safety Engineering Department titled Fatalities -Induced

27:01

Fuel Leakage and Fires. which

27:03

later became known infamously as the

27:05

Pinto Memo. In that

27:07

memo, Ford estimated that recalling

27:09

and modifying all of its

27:11

lightweight vehicles to meet proposed

27:13

federal fuel safety regulations would

27:15

cost approximately $11 per vehicle, multiplied

27:18

by 12 .5 million lightweight vehicles sold

27:20

in the US each year to

27:22

arrive at a total cost of

27:25

$137 million. Ford

27:27

estimated that making those improvements

27:29

would save 180 lives and

27:31

prevent another 180 serious injuries. Ford

27:35

also calculated the benefit of saving those

27:37

lives, or units, as they're referred

27:39

to in the memo. Ford

27:41

used the National Highway Traffic

27:43

Safety Administration provided amount of

27:45

$200 ,000 for each of the

27:47

180 estimated dead. It

27:49

used 67 ,000 for the

27:51

180 serious burn victims and

27:53

$700 for each damaged vehicle.

27:56

The total benefit of implementing

27:58

safety improvements and eliminating death pain

28:00

and suffering? About

28:02

$49 .5 million. The

28:04

implementation costs far outweighed the

28:06

expected benefits, the memo

28:08

read. High -ranking Ford executives

28:11

decided it was more cost -efficient to

28:13

manufacture and sell a dangerous car

28:15

than to correct the problem. This

28:17

decision would save the company tens of millions

28:19

of dollars over the next few years. It was

28:22

cheaper to pay off a grieving mother than

28:24

to repair the pinto. And

28:26

Ford was paying off plenty of grieving mothers

28:28

in the early 70s, but most of

28:30

those lawsuits were sealed under the guise

28:32

of trade secrets that never made public.

28:35

However, it's reasonable to assume the company

28:37

spent millions of dollars settling litigation.

28:39

but still a pittance compared to what

28:41

Ford spent lobbying against safety standards

28:43

at the same time. For close to

28:46

eight years after this decision was

28:48

made, Ford lobbied vigorously against the federal

28:50

safety standard that would have forced

28:52

the company to change the Pinto's gas

28:54

tank configuration. In

28:56

1968, the National Highway

28:58

Traffic Safety Administration adopted standard

29:00

301, fuel system integrity, to

29:03

mitigate the hazard of fires

29:05

resulting from motor vehicle crashes.

29:07

The standard initially only applied to frontal

29:09

crashes, but the NHTSA was preparing

29:12

to expand it to include rear end

29:14

crashes as well. Because there was

29:16

no federal regulations concerning how safe a

29:18

car must be from gas leakage

29:20

and those types of collisions, it

29:22

passed all cars should be able to

29:24

withstand a fixed barrier impact of 20 miles

29:26

per hour without losing fuel. Ford

29:30

objected. Fires

29:32

were a minor problem, the

29:34

company contended. So the NHTSA

29:36

spent months afterwards studying accidents

29:38

to prove that that claim

29:40

was blatantly untrue. Okay,

29:42

maybe they are, Ford conceded,

29:44

but rear -end collisions are

29:46

relatively rare. The NHTSA

29:48

spent additional months disproving this

29:50

new argument. Okay,

29:53

well, most of the victims in these

29:55

cases would have died from impact injuries

29:57

anyway, Ford claimed, buying itself even more

29:59

time and profit. Each

30:01

time the NHTSA would prove the need

30:03

for rear -end crash regulations, Ford would

30:05

respond with the flurry of falsehoods,

30:08

sending the agency back to its labs.

30:10

The delays were part of the company's

30:13

patriotic duty to protect against the

30:15

demise of American industry, according to Henry

30:17

Ford the deuce. If we

30:19

have to close down some production because we

30:21

don't meet standards, we're in for real

30:23

trouble in this country, he warned. With

30:26

the help of the Nixon administration, Ford

30:28

successfully stalled the new regulations

30:30

for eight years. In

30:32

1977, the NHTSA finally

30:35

expanded Standard 301 to mandate

30:37

that all new cars be able

30:39

to withstand a 30mph moving

30:41

barrier rear -end crash without fuel

30:43

leakage. Ford complied by adding

30:45

a polyethylene shield and improving the

30:47

filler pipes of the gas tanks and

30:49

newer Pinto models. However, by then,

30:51

more than one and a half million

30:53

Pintos within adequate fuel systems had

30:55

been built and sold. resulting in

30:57

what Mark Dowey at Mother

30:59

Jones considered a conservative estimate

31:01

of 500 deaths. And there

31:03

were more to come. The sweeping

31:05

charges against the second largest

31:08

automaker, Ford, came by a consumer

31:10

-oriented magazine. They said 2 million

31:12

pre -1977 Ford Pentos are potential

31:14

death traps. that their fuel

31:16

tanks, rupturing and rear -end collisions,

31:18

as seen in this demonstration film,

31:21

have been responsible for at

31:23

least 500 burning deaths and thousands

31:25

of serious burn injuries. The

31:29

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today is a story of corporate

34:37

callousness at the highest levels of

34:39

the Ford Motor Company. A

34:42

callousness expressed by President Lee

34:44

Iacocca, who knew both before the

34:46

sale of the Pentos and

34:48

during the sale of the Pentos,

34:50

that the fuel tank was

34:52

in a very vulnerable position and

34:54

could lead to the fiery

34:56

deaths and injuries of Pinto occupants

34:58

in case of a rear -end

35:00

collision by another car. as

35:03

speeds as low as 21 or

35:05

22 miles per hour. That's

35:08

Ralph Nader, the lawyer and

35:10

political activist who published a

35:12

best -selling expose of the

35:14

automotive industry in 1965 called

35:16

unsafe at any speed. Nader

35:19

appeared at a press conference with

35:21

Mother Jones journalist Mark Dowey within

35:23

days of pinto madness hitting the

35:25

newsstands. Dowey and Nader called on

35:27

the Department of Transportation to issue

35:30

a recall on all pre -1977

35:32

Ford Pentos for retrofitting of safer

35:34

fuel tanks. Ford had

35:36

already responded to Dowey's article in

35:38

the press release. The company

35:40

assured the public that there was, quote,

35:42

no serious hazard in the fuel

35:44

system of the Pinto, nor were any

35:47

Pinto models exceptionally vulnerable to rear -impact

35:49

collision fires. The Mother

35:51

Jones report contained distortions and half -truths,

35:53

the statement read. The performance of

35:55

the Pinto's fuel tank system in

35:57

actual accidents appears to be superior

35:59

to that which might be expected

36:01

of cars its size and weight,"

36:03

wrote Herbert L. Misch, Ford's vice

36:05

president of environmental and safety engineering.

36:08

At the press conference, Ralph Nader

36:10

responded to Ford's recent claims. I'd

36:13

like to say in

36:15

conclusion that the Ford Motor

36:17

Company's response to these

36:19

disclosures as predictable as they

36:22

may be. illustrate the

36:24

utter inability of the

36:26

top executives of Ford Motor

36:28

Company, Lee Iacoco and

36:30

Henry Ford, in behaving like

36:32

human beings, like people

36:34

who care about people on

36:36

the highway, about people

36:38

who are being exposed

36:40

to a process of victimization

36:42

in order to keep

36:44

Ford Motor Company's profits at

36:46

a few higher dollar

36:48

levels. To further legitimize his

36:51

reporting, Mark Dowie provided a

36:53

packet of documents to the media

36:55

members who attended that press

36:57

conference. These included crash tests, internal

36:59

Ford memorandum, and correspondence between

37:01

Dowie and Ford. Several media

37:03

outlets confirmed his findings and ran

37:05

with the story, including ABC News

37:07

and CBS's 60 Minutes, of which

37:09

Ford Motor Company was a principal

37:11

sponsor. Ford refuses to

37:14

comment, won't let us film inside a

37:16

Pinto production plant, and has denied

37:18

the Pinto is any more dangerous than

37:20

other cars. After years of delay,

37:22

the Federal Highway Traffic Safety Agency is

37:24

just starting crash tests to establish

37:26

the fire danger of the Pinto and

37:28

other small cars. If they

37:30

find the Pinto has unique fire

37:32

dangers, it could result in the largest,

37:35

most costly recall in Detroit history. In

37:38

response to Pinto madness, the

37:40

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

37:42

launched a formal defect investigation

37:44

into the Pinto on September

37:46

13, 1977. The

37:48

agency uncovered 38 cases, which

37:51

rear -end Pinto crashes resulted

37:53

in fuel system damage, gasoline

37:55

leakage, and fire. It also

37:57

conducted its own crash tests, which

37:59

concluded that Pintos were indeed more

38:01

likely to spill fuel than similar

38:03

models from other manufacturers. Here's the

38:05

second of the 12 test Pintos

38:07

that burned after being hit. This

38:09

after being struck by full -sized

38:12

cars at 35 miles per hour.

38:14

Destruction was total, with fuel flying

38:16

through the air, both from the

38:18

fuel tank ruptured by bolts below

38:20

and the filler line pulling out.

38:22

It was so bad that firemen

38:24

had a hard time opening the

38:26

doors. Federal safety experts

38:28

contend that victims inside probably

38:31

could not have gotten out. While

38:34

the NHTSA's investigation proceeded,

38:36

Litigation and Richard Grimshaw's

38:39

personal injury case against

38:41

Ford concluded. Experts

38:43

testified that Lily Gray's death and

38:45

Richard's injuries were the result of

38:47

the Pinto's defects. In

38:49

February 1978, a jury awarded

38:51

$665 ,000 to the Gray

38:53

family and a record -breaking

38:55

$127 .8 million in damages

38:57

to now 18 -year -old

38:59

Richard Grimshaw. Grimshaw is not

39:01

really sure what he

39:03

will do with all that

39:05

money. I have no idea.

39:07

I'd like to donate some of it to the

39:09

Orange County Medical Center, the Berm unit, and

39:12

the rest, I'm not sure.

39:14

It's just unreal and unbelievable. You

39:17

want to spend a little something on yourself, maybe? No,

39:21

not for a while, not for a

39:23

long time. I

39:25

mean, I'm doing all right myself,

39:27

I guess. Are you bitter about what happened? Well,

39:30

not bitter. I'm, you know, always sad

39:32

that it happened and stuff, you

39:35

know. but you know I'm trying

39:37

to overcome it but you know it's still

39:39

there but I think it'll work out

39:41

one of these days. Ford

39:43

called the massive Grimshaw Award unreasonable

39:46

and unwarranted since the Pinto met

39:48

all applicable federal safety standards at

39:50

the time never mentioning that they

39:52

were one of the main reasons

39:54

those standards were so lax. The

39:56

company appealed after 10 years

39:59

of litigation Grimshaw ultimately accepted an

40:01

out -of -court settlement of six

40:03

point six million dollars. Ford

40:05

also lost several other lawsuits during

40:08

this period. Chester Kamensky

40:10

and his friend Linda McAfee were

40:12

awarded $900 ,000 when her pinto caught

40:14

on fire after it was rear

40:16

-ended leaving a church in Alabama. Chester

40:19

suffered significant burns to over 37

40:21

% of his body. I've had

40:23

almost a total of a year, years

40:26

worth of medical treatment, and I'm

40:28

still going to surgery during the summer,

40:30

each summer. It put me

40:32

back a year in school. And

40:35

I can't participate in sports like

40:37

I used to. In

40:39

Virginia, Ford was ordered

40:41

to pay $657 ,000 to six

40:43

-year -old Jeremy Norton for an

40:46

accident that left him orphaned. When

40:48

Jeremy was two years old, he was riding in

40:50

the back of his parents' pinto when it was

40:52

struck by another vehicle. The collision

40:54

turned the car upside down before it

40:56

burst into flames. Mrs. Norton fled

40:58

from the car in flames and died

41:00

later. Mr. Norton was killed

41:02

in the fire. The child was rescued

41:04

by construction workers. Last month,

41:06

a Virginia court awarded the

41:09

son now $6 ,657 ,000 for

41:11

his injuries and the loss

41:13

of his parents. By

41:15

May 1978, Ford

41:17

was facing 29 lawsuits related to the

41:19

Pinto, with more being filed each passing

41:22

day. The company had already settled or

41:24

lost at least eight of those cases.

41:26

The publicity had been detrimental to

41:29

their bottom line, to put it

41:31

mildly, and the hits kept coming.

41:33

That month, the NHTSA sent a

41:35

letter addressed to Ford's president, Lee

41:37

Iacocca, announcing it had completed its

41:39

initial investigation. The agency

41:41

had determined, quote, the existence

41:43

of a safety -related defect

41:45

in the 1971 through

41:47

1976 Pentos and the 1975

41:49

-76 Mercury Bobcats, the Pentos

41:51

Canadian Twin. The NHTSA

41:53

scheduled a public hearing for June

41:56

14th at which Ford would be

41:58

allowed to address the findings. could

42:01

not let this happen. They tried

42:04

to save face instead. It's the

42:06

most expensive recall in history. Ford estimates

42:08

it could cost them up to

42:10

$40 million. Five days

42:12

before that hearing, Ford announced

42:14

a recall of one and a

42:16

half million pre -1977 Ford Pentos

42:18

and 30 ,000 7576 Mercury Bobcats

42:20

for modifications to the fuel

42:22

tank, which included a polyethylene shield

42:25

and a longer filler pipe

42:27

similar to those already implemented in

42:29

newer models. The estimated

42:31

cost was $20 to $30 per

42:33

car. The spokesperson for Ford stated

42:35

that the total cost could reach $45 million,

42:38

but realistically, only about half

42:40

of the eligible vehicles would be brought in for

42:42

the improvements. So again, judging by

42:44

their own calculations, Ford would

42:46

still come out ahead. Ford also

42:48

made it clear that this recall was not an

42:50

admission of guilt. In a statement,

42:52

the company said that it disagreed

42:54

with the NHTSA's determination that a safety

42:57

defect existed. but decided to act

42:59

accordingly to address public concerns that had

43:01

arisen from the criticism. This

43:03

is Ford's safety chief, Herbert Mish. Well,

43:06

simply because we think in

43:08

total the vehicle is a good,

43:10

sound, safe automobile and you're

43:12

trying to focus in on one

43:14

specific issue of it rather

43:16

than the vehicle in total and

43:18

it has had an excellent

43:20

record. Despite the

43:22

company's assurances, sales of the

43:24

Pinto plunged in the aftermath of the

43:26

recall, but only temporarily. to combat

43:28

the negative sentiment. Ford lowered the

43:31

price and offered sales promotions to

43:33

dealers and carlots. They also

43:35

used the opportunity to promote the

43:37

Pinto's newest features. And since

43:39

the 77 model year, redesigned fuel

43:41

system features that include a longer filler

43:43

pipe and polyethylene shield. Philip and

43:45

Renona Light have just purchased a 1978

43:47

Pinto. They say they think the

43:49

car is safe and they feel they

43:51

got a good deal. I don't

43:53

think they'll sell me a car, but I'll go out and get killed

43:55

then. Judy

44:02

Ulrich was proud of her

44:05

bright yellow 1973 Ford Pinto.

44:07

It was her first car, a gift from

44:10

her father for graduating from high school. Judy

44:12

worked at an ice cream parlor to

44:14

help cover the cost, but she had

44:16

the day off on Thursday, August 10,

44:18

1978, so she, her younger

44:20

sister Lynn and their cousin Donna decided

44:22

to go watch the church -sponsored volleyball

44:24

game that evening. It was about a

44:26

30 -minute drive from Osceola, Indiana to Elkhart,

44:28

but the Ulrich girls planned to stop

44:30

by their aunt Esther's house in Goshen

44:32

on the way since Donna was only

44:34

in town for a few days. They

44:37

departed around 6pm. 18

44:41

-year -old Judy Ulrich was driving.

44:43

Cousin Donna, born one day apart from

44:45

Judy at the same hospital, sat in

44:47

the passenger seat. 16 -year -old

44:50

Lynn sat in the back seat.

44:52

They headed southeast along US Highway

44:54

33. About halfway

44:56

through the trip near Dunlap,

44:58

Indiana, Judy pulled into a

45:00

checker gas station to refuel. By

45:02

6 .15 pm, their Pinto was back on

45:04

the road. Minutes later, Judy

45:07

looked on her side mirror and noticed the fuel

45:09

door was open. It dawned on her that

45:11

she had left the gas cap sitting on the

45:13

trunk. Judy glanced at her

45:15

rearview mirror just in time to see

45:17

the chrome gas cap rolling across the

45:19

five lanes of highway behind them. She

45:21

decided to retrieve it. Judy turned on

45:23

the Pinto's hazards. and made a U

45:26

-turn. At

45:28

the same time, 21 -year -old

45:30

Robert Duggar was headed northwest

45:32

on Highway 33 in his

45:34

1972 gold Chevrolet van. He

45:36

was on his way to a friend's house to

45:39

clean out the vehicle, which was a mess in

45:41

preparation for an upcoming vacation. Duggar

45:43

was trying to light a cigarette, which

45:45

tumbled off his lips into the driver's

45:47

side footwell. Keeping his

45:49

left hand on the steering wheel, Duggar felt

45:51

around the floor mat with his right hand.

45:53

And for a brief moment, he took his

45:55

eyes off the road. When he

45:57

looked back up, he saw a yellow Ford

46:00

Pinto with lights flashing, ten feet in

46:02

front of him. Robert Duggar

46:04

slammed on the brakes, but it was too

46:06

late. The two -ton van slammed into

46:08

the back of the Pinto, forcing the rear

46:10

of the car to the ground, which dragged

46:12

along the road. Duggar said

46:14

he smelled gasoline almost immediately. He

46:17

didn't know it at the moment, but the

46:19

Pinto's fuel tank had ruptured and its filler pipe

46:21

ripped out. The Pinto's

46:23

cab soaked in gasoline. Eyewitnesses

46:26

described hearing and seeing two explosions

46:28

as the pinto became engulfed in flames.

46:30

This slowly spun in a clockwise

46:32

rotation as it separated from the van

46:34

before coming to a stop straddling

46:37

the curb. Bystanders were

46:39

helpless. They couldn't get close

46:41

to the roaring inferno. Five -foot

46:43

flames shot out of the back glass and

46:45

over the top of the pinto, the grass

46:47

around it was set ablaze. Robert

46:49

Duggar fell to his knees. He pounded

46:51

the ground with his fists, perhaps

46:53

trying to drown out the three

46:56

young women's screams. A

46:58

retired carpenter who witnessed the accident braved

47:00

the heat long enough to pry open

47:02

the driver's door. Judy Ulrich

47:04

tumbled out, burned beyond

47:06

recognition. Muttering helped me

47:08

in a raspy voice. Most

47:11

of Judy's clothes were gone, except the

47:13

tennis shoe that had melted around her foot.

47:15

Her hair had been incinerated. She

47:18

had third -degree burns on 95 %

47:20

of her body. Judy no longer

47:22

had lips, ears, or nose. Only

47:24

the whites of her eyes remained. An

47:27

EMT rushed her aside. Do

47:30

I still have the ears? She asked him. Yes,

47:32

he replied. Do I

47:35

still have my nose? Of course. I

47:37

bet I smell. I bet I'm

47:40

ugly. No, sweetie. You

47:42

couldn't be ugly if you tried. Be

47:45

honest with me, Judy demanded. Am

47:47

I going to die? No,

47:50

you're not. The paramedic

47:52

lied. Judy

47:54

Ulrich was transported to a burn center

47:56

in Fort Wayne, where she was

47:58

pronounced dead eight hours later. Lynn

48:00

and Donna Ulrich never made it out

48:03

of the car. When firefighters

48:05

ultimately recovered their bodies, they

48:07

were unrecognizable. Both of

48:09

their mouths stretched open in horror. Sunglasses

48:11

melted around their eyes. Three teenage

48:14

girls died in this 1973 pinto

48:16

on August 10th. While stopped on

48:18

a highway near Goshen, Indiana, the

48:20

car was struck in the rear

48:22

by this van. Damage

48:24

to the van was minor,

48:26

its driver survived, but the

48:28

Pinto exploded on impact, its

48:30

occupants incinerated. The Indiana

48:32

State Troopers investigation of the Oric

48:34

accident immediately focused on the Pinto's

48:36

gas tank in light of the

48:38

recent recall and publicity. Their

48:41

suspicions were confirmed. Other

48:43

notable observations included the fact that the

48:45

Pinto's gear shipped remained in second gear. Both

48:47

vehicles were moving at the time of

48:49

the collision, which meant that the crash happened

48:51

at a much lower speed than if

48:53

the Pinto had been stationary. The

48:55

headlights on Robert Duggar's van weren't

48:57

even broken. The van

49:00

was hardly damaged, but the car looked like

49:02

it had been run over by a steamroller. Recall

49:04

to Elkhart County's aggressive prosecutor,

49:06

Michael Costantino. It just didn't make

49:09

sense, he said. Costantino

49:11

had taken a special interest in the

49:13

Ulrich crash because he was convinced the

49:15

three girls would have survived. if not

49:17

for the Pinto's defective design. Constantino

49:19

also believed that a civil penalty,

49:22

regardless of the amount, would not

49:24

deter corporations from producing dangerous products

49:26

in the future, as long as

49:28

their bottom line remained green. Million

49:31

-dollar civil judgments don't necessarily

49:33

accomplish anything. Large companies

49:35

take their tax deduction and go on their

49:37

merry way, he told People Magazine, adding,

49:46

I just believe in what I'm

49:48

doing. With the information I

49:50

had, I felt a moral obligation

49:52

to press charges." Criminal charges,

49:54

Costantino meant. A recent

49:56

change to Indiana statutes allowed corporations

49:58

to be prosecuted criminally for

50:00

reckless homicide. Michael Costantino wholeheartedly

50:02

believed that the Ford Motor Company

50:04

should stand trial for the deaths

50:06

of Judy, Lynn, and Donna Oric.

50:09

and with all the internal company

50:11

information obtained from previous civil litigation

50:13

that proved Ford knew about the

50:15

Pinto's issues while actively producing it,

50:17

Constantino felt he could convince a

50:19

jury to find the company guilty.

50:22

The thrust of the state's

50:24

case will be primarily

50:26

based upon the fact that

50:28

the design and engineering

50:30

and manufacturing of the Pinto

50:33

motor vehicle was inappropriate

50:35

and recklessly done. and

50:37

that Ford Motor Company came to

50:39

know of the defects in the

50:42

Pinto Motor Vehicle and did nothing

50:44

about it. But it wasn't

50:46

going to be easy. For one, there

50:48

was no precedent. A corporation

50:50

had never been criminally charged for designing

50:52

a defective product. Constantino

50:54

was in uncharted territory.

50:57

And two, he was David trying to

50:59

prosecute Goliath. Ford was the

51:01

third largest corporation in the United States

51:03

at the time. It had half

51:05

a million employees and unlimited resources. Meanwhile,

51:08

Michael Costantino was a small -time

51:10

county prosecutor with a $200 ,000 budget

51:12

and a handful of volunteers. But

51:14

the 41 -year -old believed in the case

51:17

and believed in himself. Costantino

51:19

had prosecuted murder cases for 25

51:21

years and won them all. It

51:23

was worth the shot. Costantino

51:25

convened a grand jury at the

51:27

Elkhart Superior Court. He introduced the

51:29

damning documents and called on engineering

51:31

and safety experts to support his

51:33

case, some of whom were

51:35

former Ford employees, some of whom

51:37

had testified or worked behind the scenes on

51:39

the Grimshaw case. Ford sent

51:41

two executives to appear before the grand

51:43

jury to defend themselves, Henry

51:46

Ford II declined to appear. As

51:48

did Lee Iacocca, Ford's president, who

51:51

was soon fired from the company,

51:53

but hired by Chrysler almost immediately.

51:55

The Pinto currently is Ford Motor

51:57

Company's most successful small car, but

51:59

now it's the centerpiece in one

52:01

of the most serious legal charges

52:03

ever made against an American corporation, reckless

52:06

homicide. The grand

52:08

jury reached a unanimous decision

52:10

on September 13, 1978. Ford

52:13

Motor Company was indicted on three

52:15

counts of reckless homicide and one misdemeanor

52:17

count of reckless conduct. Henry

52:20

Ford II was personally served with

52:22

a copy of indictment. Robert

52:24

Duggar. The driver of the van

52:26

was not charged. If

52:28

convicted, Ford faced

52:30

a maximum fine of $30 ,000.

52:33

But it wasn't about the money. Michael

52:35

Costantino wanted to send a message

52:38

and set a legal precedent. It

52:40

may put on notice the

52:42

manufacturers that once they have a

52:44

defective product and they have

52:46

knowledge of that defect that they

52:49

have to fix it. That's

52:51

the whole intention. is to make

52:53

the manufacturers as responsible as you and

52:55

I have to be. And

52:58

that is when they make a product, they have to make a

53:00

safe product. Ford, on the

53:02

other hand, was worried about the

53:04

money. Not the potential fine, but

53:06

the long -term damage to the brand. Imagine

53:08

the stigma the company would carry

53:10

if it became the first American automaker

53:13

to be criminally charged for selling

53:15

an effective car. Imagine the

53:17

floodgates that would open in other states

53:19

if Indiana were to successfully pull

53:21

this off. Imagine the effect on all

53:23

the civil litigation the company faced.

53:25

What's next? Individual corporate executives

53:27

being indicted for the products their

53:29

company produced? The legal precedent

53:31

established by this case could forever

53:33

alter corporate America and rid their most

53:35

product safety laws obsolete. Needless

53:38

to say, the state of

53:40

Indiana versus Ford Motor Company would

53:42

go down in history as

53:44

a landmark case. Ford attorneys accepted

53:46

the indictment without comment. The

53:48

company issued a statement calling the

53:50

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55:05

the small Indiana town of

55:07

Winimac, a landmark case began today

55:10

on trial the Ford Motor

55:12

Company, the charge reckless homicide. Specifically,

55:15

that negligence in the making of the Ford Pinto

55:17

led to the deaths of three young women

55:19

in an accident two years ago. Despite

55:21

Ford's 55 page best effort

55:24

to have the case dismissed for

55:26

being unconstitutional, jury selection

55:28

for state of Indiana v Ford

55:30

Motor Company began on January

55:32

7th, 1980. By then, the

55:34

misdemeanor charge against the company had been

55:36

dropped and the trial venue was

55:38

moved to Winimack, Indiana and Pulaski County.

55:41

A small town would be flooded with

55:43

lawyers and media for the foreseeable future. Presiding

55:46

over the trial was Judge

55:48

Harold Staffelt, a lifelong resident

55:50

of the area. Ford immediately

55:52

hired Judge Staffelt's longtime friend

55:54

and law partner Lester Wilson as

55:56

their local counsel to add

55:58

to their already powerful defense team,

56:00

led by James Flash Neal. Neil

56:03

was a Nashville -based white -collar

56:05

crime attorney whose thick southern draw

56:07

became familiar to everyone in

56:09

the country during his time as

56:11

the chief prosecutor in the

56:13

Watergate court cases. James Neil had

56:15

also famously prosecuted Jimmy Hoffa. In

56:18

this case, Neil and his team

56:20

of 80 legal staff along with their

56:22

$1 million budget would act as

56:24

advocates for American industry and federalism. I

56:26

think that American industry today is

56:28

an underdog and there's more to be

56:30

said for American industry then. Maybe

56:32

as being said, he told the New

56:34

York Times, I see the

56:36

case as sort of a microcosm of some

56:38

of the issues that exist today between

56:40

some of the consumer advocates and industry. We

56:43

expect to show that the thing is

56:45

not dangerous. We

56:47

expect to show that not only it is not

56:49

dangerous, that forward did not know it was dangerous,

56:51

and it forward didn't act recklessly. Elkhart

56:53

County prosecutor Michael Costantino

56:55

presented his opening arguments on

56:58

January 15, 1980. The

57:00

state will prove to you that Ford

57:02

management was aware of the fire risk

57:04

to its Pinto customers and totally disregarded it,

57:06

he told the jury. Even

57:08

with direct evidence of Pinto

57:10

fire hazards and additional direct

57:12

evidence of feasible ways to

57:14

eliminate Pinto fired deaths, Ford

57:16

management deliberately chose profit over

57:18

human life. Constantino further alleged, Judy

57:21

Lynn and Donna Oric, quote,

57:24

needlessly died as a result of the

57:26

callous and different and reckless acts

57:28

and omissions of the defendant, Ford Motor

57:30

Company. Again, he said,

57:32

Ford sacrificed human life for

57:34

profit. In the defense's opening

57:37

statement, James Neal did not deny

57:39

that Ford had made some mistakes. We

57:41

don't even deny that we could be wrong,

57:43

he said. But we do deny

57:45

that we are reckless killers. Ford

57:48

was made up of over half

57:50

a million employees and 300 ,000

57:52

stockholders Neal noted and warned the

57:54

jury, you'll be trying decent

57:56

people in a very difficult

57:58

world that's getting more difficult. every

58:00

day. The defense's

58:02

case was based on the fact that

58:04

the 1973 Ford Pinto met every

58:07

fuel system safety standard required by the

58:09

federal government and that it was

58:11

comparable in design and manufacture to many

58:13

other 1973 subcompact cars. There

58:15

were other factors to blame for the death

58:17

of the three Ulrich girls Neil pointed out. US

58:20

Highway 33 was poorly designed with

58:22

its eight inch curbs that prevented people

58:24

from pulling onto the shoulder. And

58:26

let's not forget Robert Duggar. It doesn't matter

58:28

how safe a car is, as long as

58:30

there are reckless drivers on the road. As

58:33

for the documents the prosecution planned

58:35

to introduce, which seemed to suggest the

58:37

Pinto was dangerous and Ford was

58:39

well aware, James Neal had

58:41

no intention of letting the jury see

58:43

those. The defense filed a

58:45

motion to suppress all internal Ford

58:47

documents and crash tests that did not

58:49

specifically relate to the 1973 model

58:52

of the Pinto. Judge Staffelt,

58:54

who the local media described as

58:56

seemingly star -struck by the famous

58:58

James Nill at times, granted

59:00

Ford's request. Michael Costantino

59:02

would have to try his case without

59:04

his most crucial evidence, including the

59:06

infamous Pinto memo. Our story

59:08

is not being told, Costantino complained to

59:10

the media. We should have been

59:13

able to get more evidence in than we have.

59:15

I have well over 200 documents. I've been

59:17

able to put in 10 or 12 of them.

59:19

The prosecution suffered another setback. when

59:21

Neil successfully prevented the jury from

59:23

viewing photos of the Ulrich girls,

59:26

not just from the grotesque aftermath

59:28

of the accident, but even photos

59:30

from when Judy Lynn and Donna

59:32

were alive and well. This

59:34

isn't a matter to be tried on emotion,

59:36

no argued. It deserves to be

59:38

tried on the issues. Well,

59:40

it appears that Ford is attempting

59:42

to sanitize the state's case

59:44

and make the three girls not

59:46

the victims of this collision,

59:48

but to make them statistics. The

59:51

prosecution would have to rely on

59:53

its witnesses. Tomorrow the first witness,

59:56

the mother of Judy and Lynn Ulrich,

59:58

as the prosecution begins its homicide case

1:00:00

against Ford Motor Company. Maddie

1:00:03

Orrick told the jury that she

1:00:05

received a Pinto recall notice from

1:00:07

Ford in February 1979. Seven

1:00:10

months after the company decided to do

1:00:12

the recall, six months after

1:00:14

her daughters and niece were burned

1:00:16

alive. Mrs. Ulrich said she would

1:00:18

have gotten rid of the car had she

1:00:20

received the notice earlier. Alfred

1:00:22

J. Clark, the retired carpenter who

1:00:24

pried the Pinto door open for

1:00:26

Judy, testified that the devastation

1:00:28

of the accident surprised him. He

1:00:31

estimated that the Pinto was traveling at

1:00:33

30 to 35 miles per hour, while the

1:00:35

van that hit it was moving at

1:00:37

about 40 to 45 miles per hour. The

1:00:40

young man did not hit a parked

1:00:42

car. That young fella has been

1:00:44

crucified as far as I'm concerned. in the

1:00:46

paper and that he had a parked car. It

1:00:48

was moving. Both of them

1:00:51

were moving, Clark said. All

1:01:06

of the other eyewitnesses

1:01:08

concurred with Alfred Clark's depiction

1:01:10

of two moving vehicles.

1:01:12

including Clark's wife Pauline, another

1:01:14

married couple, and the

1:01:17

driver of the van himself,

1:01:19

Robert Duggar. Duggar testified

1:01:21

that he was certain his van was traveling

1:01:23

at 50 miles per hour because he had

1:01:25

just passed a highway patrolman which made him

1:01:27

look down at his speedometer. Duggar

1:01:29

said the Pinto was probably traveling at

1:01:31

15 or 20 miles per hour. The

1:01:34

speeds at which both the Pinto and

1:01:36

the van were moving were a critical part

1:01:39

of the case. The prosecution alleged that

1:01:41

if it weren't for the Pinto's dangerous flaws,

1:01:43

the Ulrich girls would have walked away

1:01:45

unharmed. The defense, which claimed the

1:01:47

Pinto was at a full stop on the

1:01:49

highway, sought to prove that no car of

1:01:51

that size could have been expected to survive

1:01:53

such a violent impact. James

1:01:55

Neal challenged the prosecution's witnesses

1:01:58

about the speeds. He got

1:02:00

Robert Duggar to admit that he only had a

1:02:02

split second to determine how fast the Pinto in front

1:02:04

of him was moving after picking up the cigarette. Neal

1:02:07

also highlighted Duggar's spotty driving

1:02:09

record, convictions for running a stop

1:02:11

sign, failing to yield and

1:02:13

citations for speeding. Duggar's license

1:02:15

had only been reinstated 33 days before

1:02:17

the accident, after it had been suspended

1:02:19

for a second time. A

1:02:21

further interest Neil pointed out was what

1:02:24

was found in the van, empty

1:02:26

beer bottles, marijuana roaches, rolling

1:02:28

papers, and caffeine pills. However,

1:02:30

Robert Duggar had taken a voluntary blood test

1:02:32

the day of the accident. It was

1:02:34

determined that he was completely sober. One

1:02:37

of the prosecution's key witnesses in

1:02:39

the trial. was independent auto safety

1:02:42

design consultant Byron Block. In

1:02:44

painfully technical testimony that went

1:02:46

on for days, Block explained

1:02:48

to all of the issues with the 1973

1:02:50

Ford Pinto's fuel system. He even brought

1:02:52

the rear half of the car into the

1:02:54

courtroom as a visual aid. Ford

1:02:57

tried to discredit Block by having him

1:02:59

admit that he was not an engineer

1:03:01

and that he had never been employed

1:03:03

by an automotive company. The defense also

1:03:05

made him concede that millions of American

1:03:07

cars were built with similar fuel systems.

1:03:14

The prosecution

1:03:17

saved

1:03:20

its star

1:03:23

witness

1:03:26

for last,

1:03:29

a former Ford Motor Company engineering executive

1:03:31

named Harley Cop. He had worked for

1:03:34

the company for over 30 years and

1:03:36

had inside information on the decisions that

1:03:38

were made during the development of the

1:03:40

Pinto. Cop spent six

1:03:42

days on the witness stand confirming the

1:03:44

rushed schedule, the safety sacrifices, and

1:03:46

the pressures of foreign competition, all of

1:03:48

which led to a fuel system

1:03:50

that was, quote, grossly inadequate,

1:03:53

Cop said. The weakest I've seen

1:03:55

in the car in 10 or 12 years.

1:03:58

Cop listed a string of measures Ford

1:04:00

allegedly knew would lessen the vulnerability

1:04:02

of the Pinto's fuel system, and on

1:04:04

each one, Prosecutor Cassantino asked Cop, what

1:04:07

did Ford do about those problems? The

1:04:09

answer? Nothing. Why not? Because

1:04:12

of design costs, production

1:04:14

costs, retooling costs, all

1:04:16

the things that affect the company's profits. Cassantino

1:04:19

asked, was Leigh

1:04:21

Iacocca a good engineer, a

1:04:23

responsible, thorough, conservative man? No,

1:04:26

said Cop. His ambitions overbalanced

1:04:28

his sense of morality. The

1:04:31

prosecution rested its case. Michael

1:04:33

Costantino did the best he could with the

1:04:35

hand he was dealt. The case

1:04:37

isn't as strong as I would like it

1:04:39

to be at this point because of the

1:04:41

lack of the documentation. If it

1:04:43

were sympathy, Costantino was looking for.

1:04:46

He wouldn't find any from James Neal. I

1:04:48

don't lose a ruling by the court

1:04:50

and come down here and belly ache and

1:04:52

complain that we're not getting to try

1:04:54

our case. We're not getting to put our

1:04:56

proof in. We were getting ruined.

1:04:59

The judge did what he thought was right. The

1:05:03

defense opened its presentation with a

1:05:05

surprise witness whom Ford had flown to

1:05:07

Winimac on a private jet. Levi

1:05:09

Woodard, a 29 year old

1:05:12

hospital orderly, one of the last

1:05:14

people to speak to Judy

1:05:16

Ulrich. Woodard said Judy was

1:05:18

asking for someone to talk to her about

1:05:20

Jesus and the emergency room, and he volunteered

1:05:22

to do so. During that conversation,

1:05:24

he said, Judy explained how the

1:05:26

accident happened, how she forgot to put

1:05:28

the gas cap back on, how she saw it

1:05:30

rolling across the highway in a mirror, how she

1:05:32

made a U -turn, and how she stopped the

1:05:34

car on the side of the road to pick

1:05:37

it up. Stopped.

1:05:39

Sensational. Sure

1:05:51

did and James Neil had additional

1:05:53

tricks up his sleeve He introduced

1:05:55

him to evidence crash test conducted

1:05:57

by an accident Reconstructionist named John

1:06:00

E Haberstad Based on his attempts

1:06:02

to duplicate the auric crash Haberstad

1:06:04

was convinced that it occurred at

1:06:06

55 miles per hour in other

1:06:08

words He too thought the pinto

1:06:10

was stopped Prosecutor Michael Cosentino admits

1:06:12

the evidence hurt his case Cosentino

1:06:14

was asked why he didn't do

1:06:16

crash test. I Let alone not

1:06:18

be able to crash test, I

1:06:20

could even afford to buy the

1:06:23

car. I mean, does that

1:06:25

cost money? We don't have those kind of funds. James

1:06:28

Nill concluded his case by calling multiple

1:06:30

employees of the Ford Motor Company to

1:06:32

the stand. Thomas J. Feeney,

1:06:34

the vice president of engineering, testified

1:06:36

that the company only instituted the

1:06:38

recall because of the reputational problems the

1:06:40

media was causing. We

1:06:43

voluntarily recalled 1 .5 million

1:06:45

perfectly safe cars, he

1:06:47

said. To drive that

1:06:49

point home, other Ford engineers

1:06:51

testified that they had purchased

1:06:53

the 1973 model in question for

1:06:55

themselves and family members. Harold

1:06:58

C. McDonald, the main architect of the

1:07:00

Pinto, said he drove one himself and

1:07:02

so did his son. McDonald

1:07:04

says he was confident in the Pinto's

1:07:06

fuel system because he was, quote,

1:07:08

very sensitive about the subject. His

1:07:10

father had died in a fiery car

1:07:12

crash back in 1932 when the fuel

1:07:14

tank in his model A ruptured. Harold

1:07:17

McDonald was the perfect example of

1:07:19

a high -level Ford employee who

1:07:21

would do everything in his power

1:07:23

to create a safe car, James

1:07:25

Neil argued, and he just so

1:07:27

happened to be the same person who

1:07:29

designed and built the Ford Pinto. See

1:07:47

what they are, judge it. During

1:07:50

closing arguments, prosecutor Michael Costantino

1:07:53

delivered an emotional appeal to

1:07:55

the jury. In a

1:07:57

real sense, this jury, by its decision,

1:07:59

can give meaning to these senseless deaths

1:08:01

by planting the seeds of change, the

1:08:03

needed seeds of corporate moral

1:08:06

responsibility, and corporate accountability.

1:08:09

You and only you can send a message

1:08:11

that can be heard in all boardrooms

1:08:13

of corporations across the country. This

1:08:15

is the car Ford built for you

1:08:17

to drive, for your families to drive,

1:08:19

for your children and grandchildren. Do

1:08:22

you think it's right? If you

1:08:24

think it's right, you go into that room and find

1:08:26

Ford not guilty. But if you think

1:08:28

it's wrong, you stand up and say

1:08:30

so. When you and I get up and get

1:08:32

out of bed in the morning, you have

1:08:34

to be morally responsible. You leave your neighbor's wife

1:08:36

alone. You have to be legally responsible. You

1:08:38

don't go out and steal somebody else's money. And

1:08:40

you have to be accountable for your actions. That's

1:08:43

what this case is about. I

1:08:45

think large corporations have to be held

1:08:47

to the same accountability as you

1:08:49

and I. Corporations cannot pollute

1:08:51

our air in the name of

1:08:53

profit. Corporations cannot pollute our

1:08:55

streams and rivers and lakes in the

1:08:57

name of profit. And they cannot kill

1:08:59

our people in the name of profit. And

1:09:02

if Ford is found not guilty, does

1:09:04

that mean they can? I think it exonerates

1:09:06

them. James Neil,

1:09:08

again, appealed to personal

1:09:10

responsibility. If this country is to

1:09:13

survive, it's time to stop

1:09:15

blaming industry and business, large or

1:09:17

small, for our own sins. Ford

1:09:19

Motor Company is not perfect, but

1:09:22

it is not guilty of reckless homicide.

1:09:25

After more than two months of testimony,

1:09:27

the jury of seven men and

1:09:29

five women convened on March 10th, 1980.

1:09:32

They deliberated for 25 hours over a

1:09:34

period of four days. They

1:09:36

emerged on Thursday, March 13th with

1:09:38

a verdict. Ford Motor

1:09:40

Company was Not guilty. The

1:10:16

exoneration was a wait of

1:10:18

Henry Ford II's shoulders. It

1:10:20

could relax now knowing that the company his

1:10:22

grandfather built would survive to see another day.

1:10:25

Ford II stepped down as chairman of

1:10:27

the Ford Motor Company later that evening. The

1:10:30

headaches the Ford Motor Company has had

1:10:32

with the Pinto will not end with this

1:10:34

trial. More than 30 civil suits

1:10:36

from other people killed or severely burned

1:10:38

in Pinto crashes are still pending. According

1:10:41

to news reports, the Pinto

1:10:43

accounted for at least five more

1:10:45

deaths in 1980 after the

1:10:47

reckless homicide trial. It

1:10:50

now faced more than 30 civil

1:10:52

lawsuits and counting, including one

1:10:54

brought by the parents of Judy

1:10:56

Lynn and Donna Oric. That

1:10:58

case was eventually settled. for $7

1:11:00

,500 each. 1980

1:11:02

also marked the last year of

1:11:04

the Pinto's production. In

1:11:06

total, more than 3 million units had been

1:11:08

sold, which was well short of the

1:11:10

company's goal. But if you

1:11:12

look at the bottom line, and Ford

1:11:14

always does, the Pinto was

1:11:16

a resounding success. Swindled

1:11:30

is written, researched, produced, and

1:11:32

hosted by me, a concerned citizen,

1:11:34

with original music by Trevor

1:11:36

Howard, a .k .a. Deformer, a .k .a.

1:11:38

Bunky Nudson. For more

1:11:40

information about Swindled, you can visit

1:11:42

swindledpodcast.com and follow us on Instagram,

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1:12:52

Thanks for listening. My

1:12:55

name is Peter from Little Rock.

1:12:57

Hi, my name is Kelsey from Sydney,

1:12:59

Australia. What's up, man? My name

1:13:01

is Quinn. I'm from Houston, Texas, man.

1:13:03

I'm the current citizen. Man,

1:13:09

could y 'all drop some more motherfucking episodes,

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drop some more shit, bro. Hey,

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and keep on doing what y 'all

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