527 Lime Street

The '527 Lime Street' episode of the 'Criminal' podcast recounts a devastating house fire that occurred on October 15th, 1990, in Jacksonville, FL. The blaze resulted in the tragic deaths of six individuals: Gerald Lewis's wife, her sister who was seven months pregnant, and four children. Gerald Lewis, the husband and father who survived along with his toddler son, was found at the scene visibly upset and claimed that the fire started from a couch cushion inside the house. Investigators, however, found evidence of accelerants and poor patterns indicative of arson, leading to Lewis's arrest and charges of murder and arson.

The narrative takes a turn when Frank Ashton, the assistant state attorney, is approached by the public defender representing Lewis. The defender questions the reliability of the state fire marshal's testimony and the evidence presented. Ashton, intrigued by the defender's claims, engages independent fire investigator John Lentini to review the case. Lentini's analysis casts doubt on the presence of gasoline on Lewis's clothing, a key piece of evidence used to charge him. The story then delves into an unprecedented step in criminal investigation: a controlled burn of a similar house next door to recreate the fire and test both the defense's and prosecution's theories.

The experiment, which cost around $20,000 and took five weeks of preparation, involved meticulously outfitting the house to match the conditions of the Lewis home on the night of the fire. The first test, which simulated Lewis's account of the fire starting from the couch, resulted in the house being engulfed in flames within minutes, supporting his version of events. The second test, based on the prosecution's theory involving accelerants, showed that the house burned just as quickly without the use of accelerants, undermining their case. Astonishingly, the same burn patterns initially thought to be conclusive evidence of arson were present in both tests.