One of them was Melvin Reynolds, a 25‑year‑old man of limited intelligence who had been sexually abused himself as a child and who had homosexual experiences as an adolescent. Reynolds, although agitated by the investigation, cooperated through several interrogations over a period of months, including two polygraph examinations and one interrogation under hypnosis. In December 1978, he was questioned under amobarbitalbelieved at the time to be a truth serumand made an ambiguous remark that intensified police suspicion. Two months later, in February 1979, the police brought the still cooperative Reynolds in for another round of interrogation: fourteen hours of questions, promises, and threats. Finally, Reynolds gave in and said, "I'll say so if you want me to".