Bruce Lisker Wrongful Conviction Survivor

My Personal Life

The Lisker family, in photographs: my mother and father before me, the three of us, the years inside, and the day I walked out. Ninety-seven images, described in my own words.

Mom & Dad · 1916–’65 seventeen photographs

Mom (Dorka; Czechoslovakian for Dorothy) is the youngest kid in this photo, sitting on her mother Mary's lap. The entire Zeman family is here, probably on the stoop of their austere Havre, Montana home. (Original photo B&W, restored and colorized in Photoshop) - 1917

Mom showing off her hand-made dress on the lawn beside her family's Havre home (Original photo B&W, restored and colorized in Photoshop. Credit unknown, from Ancestry.com) - c.1921

Dad's family: Sister Roxane (Roxy), Dad, mother Rivka, and sister Shiela (Original photo B&W, restored and colorized in Photoshop) - 1935

PFC Robert Bruce Lisker, USMC. He's 17 here. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor about a year prior. By the following year, he'll be wading ashore with a rifle held dry over his head in the U.S. Marines' second day landing upon Tarawa Atoll, with his "K" Co. comrades, Third Battalion, 8th Marines, 2d Mar Div. – 1943 enlistment photo

A signed photo of Mom (29) and Dad (19) shot in Tijuana, Mexico moments after their wedding, as a way to announce their nuptials to one and all. (Original photo B&W, restored and colorized in Photoshop. Credit unknown, from Ancestry.com) - Jan 1, 1946

Mom looking super glamorous, laughing at a magazine in a booth in one of the many restaurants she and Dad frequented in the day - c.1955

The house my folks built in the early 1950s. Jadestone Drive, Sherman Oaks - c.1957

Mom and friends at the Jadestone house - late 1950s

Dad at Jadestone - late 1950s

At the Jadestone Drive house - late 1950s

Mom at Jadestone Drive - late 1950s

Dad at the Jadestone house - late 1950s

Mom and her crew at Technicolor, Hollywood. She was a well-respected film negative cutter there. She and Dad met after he'd accidentally snapped a reel on the rewind bench, and took it to her to be repaired - 1960s

Mom cutting into her 46th birthday cake, on vacation in Hawaii - 1962

Mom and Dad on her 46th birthday, in Hawaii - 1962

Mom and Dad on vacation in Hawaii - 1962

Mom and Dad on vacation in Hawaii - 1962

Mom, Dad & Me · 1965–’75 fifty-six photographs

Mom and me catching some rays by the pool at Tyrone Terrace Apartments - 1965.

Mom and me at the L.A. Zoo - 1969

In my crib at Tyrone Terrace Apartments (#12-B), around 8 months old - 1966.

Not the last time I'd be dragged before the Superior Court. Me, Dad, and Mom at my official adoption proceedings, Family Court, Los Angeles - 1965.

Me with a big stuffed tiger, surrounded by more tigers in the background - 1965.

Mom and me at our first Christmas together at Tyrone Terrace Apartments - 1965.

My first birthday at Tyrone Terrace Apartments - June 1965.

Mom and Dad and me - 1965.

A studio portrait that hung prominently on the breakfast room wall - 1966.

Proudly showing off my Las Vegas vanity plate while waving from atop my shiny red tricycle in the driveway of our new home at 15472 Huston Street, Sherman Oaks - 1967.

On the toilet with tigers in hand at Huston Street - 1967.

Happily reading the funny papers on the breakfast room floor - 1967.

Me in front of the bears (possibly Knott's Berry Farm) - 1967.

Pretty happy with my big stuffed camel at the Huston Street house - 1967.

Escaping the afternoon heat on the cool dichondra lawn of our Huston Street yard, with a Japanese White Pine and Blue Fescue ground cover behind me - 1967.

Getting a closer look at that curious tree - 1967

With a stuffed Tommy Trojan, the USC Football mascot - 1968.

Hosing off the built-in bench in our backyard at Huston Street - 1967.

My aunts, Roxy and Sheila, and me with Tommy Trojan and Dobie the dog. Christmastime at the Huston Street house - 1967-ish.

Dad and me with my cool Fire Dept car on the back patio of the Huston Street house - 1968.

Dad and me on Mission Bay Beach, right beside the Bahia Motor Hotel in San Diego, CA. We vacationed there and visited friends in town almost every year - 1968.

Mom with a horse - 1968.

On a carnival motorcycle - 1968.

Aunt Roxy holding me tight - 1968.

Beside our first-floor Tower room at the Bahia Motor Hotel on Mission Bay - 1969.

At the balloon-popping game - 1969

My favorite photo of my Dad and me, taken in the driveway of our Huston Street house - 1969

At an unknown location overlooking the ocean - probably 1970

In a ride at the carnival - 1969

With our family nativity set, assembled each year on the flagstone hearth of our living room fireplace at Huston Street - 1969.

Fourth Birthday party - 1969

Carefully eyeing a spinning red UFO atop a stick in the front yard, 15472 Huston St - 1969

Mom, me and friends at table - 1969

Halloween with Mom and a pumpkin full of candy. Butterfinger bars remain my favorite to this day. Mom didn't like being in photos much since she'd had extensive facial reconstructive surgery after a devastating car accident in her teens - 1969.

My Great Aunt Evelyn, my Mom, my Great Uncle Rob, and me in front of the Japanese Pine tree in our front yard. Uncle Rob had a pacemaker the size and shape of a deck of cards he would show off, implanted beneath the skin of his chest; freaky stuff for a kid! - 1969

Aboard my first two-wheeler bike (with training wheels) on the patio outside my parents' bedroom, 15472 Huston - 1969

At the petting section of the Los Angeles Zoo - 1969

With Dad at the L.A Zoo - 1969

At the petting section of the Los Angeles Zoo. I still recall the smell of the dust, and the handfuls of animal feed pellets we could buy, and the feel of the animals' hot breath and snouts tickling my palm as I fed them - 1969

Dad and me at the Los Angeles Zoo. For those as obsessive about detail as me, that's Tongva Peak rising against the skyline of the El Miradora neighborhood of Glendale - c.1969

Proudly graduating from Kindergarten at Hesby Elementary School, just around the corner - 1970.

At an unknown location overlooking the ocean - probably 1970

In full Superman regalia, with Dad - 1970

Still in Superman mode, with Mom and a strange mystery man (LOL) - 1970

Pointing at some ducks fleeing into the lake at Reseda Park, Reseda, CA - March 1970

Japanese Gardens, possibly at the Yamashiro, Hollywood, CA - 1971

Sixth Birthday party, Aunt Roxy on the dining room patio behind me, at the Huston Street house - 1971

With our tiny Poodle-and-Papillon mix Baby Doll, Christmas morning in front of the tree - Dec 24 1971

Dad and Mom dressed as Old West characters - Halloween 1973

Throwin' them peace signs whilst sporting a bold motocross shirt, vacationing in Hawaii - 1973

With Baby Doll and friend Lauren, on the back patio of the Huston Street house - 1973

Dad and me (flashing peace signs again) on the sidewalk in front of Aunt Sheila's house on Ranchito, Van Nuys - Thanksgiving 1973.

With our family friend Kevin on his family's boat in San Diego. We vacationed with them almost every year; a cherished memory that spans my entire youth - 1973.

Posing proudly with two teammates and our trophies from the Encino Little League "Pirates" baseball club. (Tragically, during my mother's brutal robbery and murder in our Huston Street home nine years later, this very trophy would be used as a weapon to inflict multiple blunt force traumas.) - Summer 1973.

My Ninth Birthday party - June 1973.

In my All-Stars team ("Reds") uniform photo - 1975.

Tweens & Teens · 1976–’83 eight photographs

Christmas morning with a gift: a book about puberty - 1976.

Fishing in a hotel pond in Hawaii - 1976.

At the zoo with friends – 1977.

Enjoying a family vacation in Hawaii, braces and all - 1978.

Dad and me at the Susanville, CA boys home where I was sent to escape the 'big-city' influences of pot, and some of the Huston Street kids I was hanging with - 1979.

Yearbook photo from Lassen High School, Susanville, CA - 1980.

Yearbook photo from Birmingham High School, in Van Nuys - 1981.

Driver's license photo taken 3½ months before my arrest - Nov 1982.

Imprisonment · 1983–2009 ten photographs

Unit 'Boys ICU' at Sylmar Juvenile Hall, where I spent 23 hours a day alone in my cell for the first 33 days of my wrongful imprisonment. (I believe my cell is the first door on the right.)

Looking on mutely as Judge Richard Kolostian sentences me to 16 years to life for the second-degree murder of my mother. I am 20 years old and innocent - Feb 7, 1986.

Weekly visits with Dad were my only joy at the notorious 'Gladiator School' — the CA Youth Authority's Youth Training School (YTS) in Ontario. (Note my black eye, still visible from the fight I was challenged into upon arrival, weeks prior) - 1986.

A friend at San Quentin's Receiving & Release ('R&R') offered to take some shots for posterity with one of the cool antique cameras he had access to there - 1989.

A polaroid taken on C-Yard, Mule Creek State Prison. Lifting weights helped me pass the endless time—and project a tougher facade, making life a bit safer - 1991.

Visits with my dad were sacred. They sustained my strength and humanity during the darkest of days. Together, we glowed. Sadly, this was our last visit—he died a few months later - 1995.

Behind my clerk's desk in C-Facility's Education Department at Mule Creek State Prison. Depressing as it looks, this was one of the better prison jobs, and it allowed me to work on my case after I'd completed my daily clerical tasks - 1995.

A typical dayroom at Mule Creek State Prison, where I spent 19 years of my life. After this photo, the benches in the upper-right were replaced with 40 (later expanded to 60) inmate beds. I was released from one of these 'e-beds' on Aug 13, 2009.

When the 'emergency overflow beds' (aka 'e-beds') arrived, overcrowding became even more unbearable. The groaning, reeking crush of human bodies was inescapable.

My actual bunk, just hours after my release. Its metal frame is bolted to the concrete floor of a dirty dayroom in Building 11, Facility C, Mule Creek State Prison. This was my last prison housing assignment. (Note the URL scrawled on my prison-issued towel, WWW.FREEBRUCE.ORG, predecessor to this website) – Aug 13, 2009.

Freedom · 2009–present six photographs

Being driven out of Mule Creek State Prison by Paul Ingels, the private investigator who secured my exoneration and release, in his truck "Big Blue" - Aug 13, 2009.

Minutes after my release, savoring freedom (and sausages with boysenberry syrup) at IHOP in Elk Grove, CA - Aug 13, 2009.

At IHOP - Aug 13, 2009.

Laughing at myself for being momentarily stymied by motion-sensing water faucets at a roadside convenience store—they didn't have many of those in prison! - Aug 13, 2009.

Superior Court, Criminal Courts Building, Los Angeles, as the Deputy District Attorney announces they cannot retry me for my mother's murder due to "destruction of evidence and death of witnesses" (To clarify: only two potential witnesses were dead at that point. My dad, who would have been a stellar witness to my innocence, and Mike Ryan, who certainly murdered my mother. Both were extremely good for me, making the State's excuse for being unable to proceed transparently false.) - Sep 21, 2009.

Filming the 48 Hours Mystery episode "The Whole Truth" in the decommissioned Sybil Brand women's jail in Los Angeles. Being in a dusty, deactivated jail was surreal and empowering, a step in reclaiming my life from those who stole so much for over 2½ decades. The episode aired on October 16, 2010, on CBS, featuring host Erin Moriarty.