City Confential's opening narration each week includes the words "a unique place......the last place anyone would suspect a murder." Many times, that description is not true, but it sure is in this case. This is a unique place and the murderer is extremely unique.
The setting for this crime story is one of the prettiest I've seen, and City Confidential has shown some beautiful towns and areas. I'm probably like almost everyone else taking their first look at Bigfork, Montana: very impressed. Wow, what a spectacular-looking town and area. You can easily see why people fall in love with this place and why first-time visitors return to make it their home. Not only that, it seems like it's inhabited by down-to-earth, honest and good people.
The most shocking aspect of this story is that even a place like this - as close to Paradise as one might hope with its trustworthy residents which don't even need a police force - is still subject to evil entering it. There is no 100 percent guaranteed safe place in the world, as this City Confidential episode reminds us. Darkness is somebody's heart can lay dormant and then one day - look out!
One day in Bigfork, one of the most respected and well-liked of its citizenry was murdered, shot seven times, and only because he happened to stumble upon a burglary. He just went over to tend to his neighbor's house, something he always did when his neighbor was out-of-town. Who would have believed who was behind the crime? A guy in a wheelchair? A local hero? A poster boy for disabled athletes? You have to be kidding!
Well, it's all true. Ted Ernst must have snapped, or evil was inside him bursting to get out, or terrible hostility....maybe all of the above. Who knows why some people do what they do? There can be many answers. Some people in this episode simply thought it was a spiritual "darkness" which enveloped the man, and led him to this. For years, the only negative thing anyone had to say about Bigfork, including Native Americans who left the place, was that there seemed to be an unexplained "evil presence" in this "picture postcard" town. Others say "there are evil people anywhere you go."
Whatever the case, another sad aspect of this tragedy was that the killer had an accomplice: his 14-year-old brother who idolized him and did whatever he asked (except kill a man). The really weird thing about the young teen was that at the trial, he - not his older brother - showed no remorse and was smirking throughout. And he's the one who's going to be released from jail in a few years, most likely, according to City Confidential. (Note: he has been released!). The older brother got 100 years with no parole but in a 2006 interview on NBC Dateline, he didn't seem to think the murder was a big deal. Wow. Obviously, both brothers are pretty sick and it's scary that one of them is a free man.
Ted Ernst said, through a novel he was writing which parallel his crimes, that he was out of challenges, that robbing people's homes provided thrills and new challenges for him. I'm not making that up. Ernst wound up very good at burglarizing, as he was with other things despite his physical handicap. How he and his brother covered made it look like two sets of footprints in the snow at that murder scene was extremely clever, especially considering he had to think fast.
Larry Streeter was the victim. He was a man who came to Bigfork in 1980. Soon he opened up a corner coffee shop where town folks hung out, then another little shop and another. His influence spread all over the area and everyone liked him. As anyone who gains income, he and his family moved into a nicer home. He then sold it to Dr. John Bradshaw of PBS and "Healing the Inner Child" book fame. It was Bradshaw's house Streeter was looking after. They had become neighbors and good friends.
There is so much fascinating info about all the people involved in this case, I could write a really long and winded review and summary of this case. Suffice to say, if you see this listed to be shown on TV, watch it. It's one of the better CC episodes. You just can't believe some of the things you'll included a murder two days after this one connected to the case. I'm telling you....it's incredible.
The setting for this crime story is one of the prettiest I've seen, and City Confidential has shown some beautiful towns and areas. I'm probably like almost everyone else taking their first look at Bigfork, Montana: very impressed. Wow, what a spectacular-looking town and area. You can easily see why people fall in love with this place and why first-time visitors return to make it their home. Not only that, it seems like it's inhabited by down-to-earth, honest and good people.
The most shocking aspect of this story is that even a place like this - as close to Paradise as one might hope with its trustworthy residents which don't even need a police force - is still subject to evil entering it. There is no 100 percent guaranteed safe place in the world, as this City Confidential episode reminds us. Darkness is somebody's heart can lay dormant and then one day - look out!
One day in Bigfork, one of the most respected and well-liked of its citizenry was murdered, shot seven times, and only because he happened to stumble upon a burglary. He just went over to tend to his neighbor's house, something he always did when his neighbor was out-of-town. Who would have believed who was behind the crime? A guy in a wheelchair? A local hero? A poster boy for disabled athletes? You have to be kidding!
Well, it's all true. Ted Ernst must have snapped, or evil was inside him bursting to get out, or terrible hostility....maybe all of the above. Who knows why some people do what they do? There can be many answers. Some people in this episode simply thought it was a spiritual "darkness" which enveloped the man, and led him to this. For years, the only negative thing anyone had to say about Bigfork, including Native Americans who left the place, was that there seemed to be an unexplained "evil presence" in this "picture postcard" town. Others say "there are evil people anywhere you go."
Whatever the case, another sad aspect of this tragedy was that the killer had an accomplice: his 14-year-old brother who idolized him and did whatever he asked (except kill a man). The really weird thing about the young teen was that at the trial, he - not his older brother - showed no remorse and was smirking throughout. And he's the one who's going to be released from jail in a few years, most likely, according to City Confidential. (Note: he has been released!). The older brother got 100 years with no parole but in a 2006 interview on NBC Dateline, he didn't seem to think the murder was a big deal. Wow. Obviously, both brothers are pretty sick and it's scary that one of them is a free man.
Ted Ernst said, through a novel he was writing which parallel his crimes, that he was out of challenges, that robbing people's homes provided thrills and new challenges for him. I'm not making that up. Ernst wound up very good at burglarizing, as he was with other things despite his physical handicap. How he and his brother covered made it look like two sets of footprints in the snow at that murder scene was extremely clever, especially considering he had to think fast.
Larry Streeter was the victim. He was a man who came to Bigfork in 1980. Soon he opened up a corner coffee shop where town folks hung out, then another little shop and another. His influence spread all over the area and everyone liked him. As anyone who gains income, he and his family moved into a nicer home. He then sold it to Dr. John Bradshaw of PBS and "Healing the Inner Child" book fame. It was Bradshaw's house Streeter was looking after. They had become neighbors and good friends.
There is so much fascinating info about all the people involved in this case, I could write a really long and winded review and summary of this case. Suffice to say, if you see this listed to be shown on TV, watch it. It's one of the better CC episodes. You just can't believe some of the things you'll included a murder two days after this one connected to the case. I'm telling you....it's incredible.