Byers tried to get Douglas Pfeiffer to confess to a murder he framed someone for using the man's mother but this tact failed. Ultimately, the attempt on Pfeiffer's life by another inmate converted him fully and led him to confess to that second murder. Alberta Pfeiffer slapped Byers when she encountered him after her son's execution. Crying she walked off into the rain. She had asked them to save her son but they had found the truth about her son. Perhaps his confession that saved Spike/Atherton was his way of being more like the man his mother thought he was. (The Lone Gunmen: Maximum Byers)