The Waddell Buddhist Temple Shooting

A Tragedy Unfolds

In the stillness of the early hours on August 10, 1991, a quiet Buddhist temple in Waddell, Arizona, became the site of a horrifying massacre. The Wat Promkunaram, a place of peace and meditation, was shattered by the sound of gunfire, leaving nine people dead. This brutal act was, at the time, the most deadly mass shooting ever to occur in a place of worship in the United States. Only later would it be matched in brutality by the 2015 Charleston church shooting and surpassed by the tragic events of the Sutherland Springs church shooting in Texas in 2017. Even so, as of 2024, it remains the deadliest mass shooting in Arizona's history.

The victims, all connected to the temple, were of Thai descent. They included the temple's abbot, Pairuch Kanthong; five monks—Surichai Anuttaro, Boochuay Chaiyarach, Chalerm Chantapim, Siang Ginggaeo, and Somsak Sopha; a nun, Foy Sripanpasert; her nephew and novice monk, Matthew Miller; and a temple employee, Chirasak Chirapong. Their bodies were discovered later that same day by a cook who had come to the temple. The scene was macabre, with each victim shot in the back of the head and placed face down in a circle. The investigators recovered 17 spent rifle casings and 4 spent shotgun shells from the crime scene.

The Investigation Begins

Initial Arrests

The subsequent investigation led to the arrest of four men from Tucson. The catalyst for these arrests was a call from Mike McGraw, a patient at a mental hospital in Tucson, who claimed to know the perpetrators and provided names to the Maricopa County Sheriff's investigators. The men were subjected to grueling interrogations, some lasting over 30 hours, with one individual enduring a 13-hour session. Under this pressure, three of the four men confessed in writing. However, the fourth suspect consistently maintained his innocence, which was eventually corroborated by video evidence showing he was working at a dog racing operation far from the temple at the time of the murders.

A pivotal piece of evidence - a Marlin Firearms .22 caliber rifle - was mishandled during the investigation. Although it was in the possession of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, it wasn't tested for nearly two months. This overlooked detail turned out to be crucial as the rifle was connected to two local teenagers and not the initial suspects. The charges against these men, known in the media as the "Tucson Four," were dropped, leading to significant controversy regarding the investigation's integrity.

A New Direction

The investigation took a decisive turn when the murder weapon, a .22-caliber rifle, was found in a car belonging to a friend of 17-year-old Johnathan Doody, an ethnic Thai born in Thailand. This discovery drew investigators' attention to Doody and his accomplice, 16-year-old Allesandro Garcia. Garcia confessed that he and Doody had gone to the temple with the rifle and a 20-gauge shotgun, intending to rob it of approximately $2,600 and some audio-visual equipment. According to Garcia, Doody panicked, fearing recognition by one of the monks as the brother of a temple attendee, and decided to eliminate all witnesses. He shot the victims in the head with the rifle, while Garcia followed up by shooting four of them in the torso with the shotgun. The crime, as Garcia revealed, had been meticulously planned with the intent to leave no witnesses.

Legal Proceedings

Both Doody and Garcia faced charges of armed robbery and first-degree murder. In 1993, to avoid the death penalty, Garcia entered a guilty plea and received a 271-year prison sentence. Doody, convicted in 1994, was sentenced to 281 years. Garcia also admitted to the murder of Alice Cameron, a crime he committed with his girlfriend Michelle Hoover two months after the temple massacre.

Doody's defense later appealed the conviction, arguing that his confession was involuntary, as his father was absent during the interrogation, and that the Miranda warning had been improperly administered. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Doody's conviction in 2008 and again in 2011. His second trial ended in a mistrial in 2013. However, in January 2014, a third trial concluded with Doody being found guilty on all counts, including the nine murders, based on Garcia's testimony and circumstantial evidence. Doody was sentenced to nine consecutive life terms and is currently incarcerated at the La Palma Correctional Facility.

Controversy and Legacy

The investigation into the temple massacre is widely regarded as flawed. The initial arrests of the Tucson Four sparked controversy, highlighting the questionable methods used by investigators. McGraw, the initial informant, was later deemed unreliable due to his history of making outlandish claims. Despite scant evidence, investigators considered McGraw credible, believing his hospitalization was due to suicidal guilt over the killings.

After McGraw's tip led to the Tucson Four's arrest, the investigation into Doody and Garcia stalled. The murder weapon, critical to solving the case, languished untested in the Sheriff's Office for weeks. It was later revealed that the Tucson Four had been coerced into confessing through aggressive interrogation techniques, including the use of leading questions and threats of the death penalty. The Sheriff's Office exploited the suspects' knowledge of details, which they had gathered from staged crime scene evidence, to elicit false confessions.

The Tucson Four, excluding McGraw, later sued Maricopa County. In 1994, two of the men received $1.1 million each, while a third received $240,000 in settlements. Similarly, Doody's confession was also ruled as illegally coerced by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, highlighting further issues with the interrogation methods.

The case had profound implications, contributing to the public's dissatisfaction with Maricopa County Sheriff Tom Agnos. This dissatisfaction became a pivotal issue in the subsequent election, where Joe Arpaio campaigned on restoring the Sheriff's Office's credibility, ultimately defeating Agnos in the November 1992 general election.

Sources

• Wikipedia - Jonathan Doody