Signal Mountain Murder Case Featured On A&E Wednesday

  • Saturday, July 28, 2001

The Signal Mountain Murder Case will be featured on national TV next Wednesday night.

A&E's City Confidential at 10 p.m. will focus on "Chattanooga: Dangerous Trespassing."

A preview about the show says:
"When three visitors to Signal Mountain are murdered in the woods, suspicion falls on Frank Casteel, who liked to threaten trespassers with his shotgun. Includes an interview with Casteel's former mistress, who wore a wire to gather evidence against him."

Casteel several months ago won a new trial for his conviction in the triple murder case.

Prosecutors later said they would proceed with a retrial rather than appeal the decision of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals.

District Attorney Bill Cox and special prosecutor Lee Davis are set to try Casteel in the Signal Mountain murders.

Casteel, who remains behind bars, is represented by attorneys Don Poole and Phil Lawrence.

The 1998 conviction of Casteel on three counts of first-degree murder was overturned on grounds that portions of tapes should not have been played to the jury.

He was convicted in the 1988 shotgun slayings of Richard Mason, 49, of Signal Mountain; Kenneth Griffith, 22, of Red Bank; and Earl Smock, 23, of Decatur, Tenn.

Prosecutors said Casteel was mad that the men were trespassing on his remote Signal Mountain property near the Blue Hole. Casteel says he is not guilty of the murders.

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