Speaker 1: I don't want to buy a bottle of water. Oh,
Speaker 1: my producer, Austin and I are killing time in between
Speaker 1: interviews in the East Village. Right there is that. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, Austin, look where we are that right there? Wait? Stop? Oh?
Speaker 1: Should we just walked past. We're in the middle of
Speaker 1: the thing. We're safe. That is the news stand where
Speaker 1: Red worked. Okay, so we're st Marks and third. That's
Speaker 1: the hotel. Oh, that's Marks. That's thirteen third Avenue. That's
Speaker 1: the storefront. Thirteen third Avenue is the storefront where Rebecca
Speaker 1: and Billy lived. Back then, this place was fly paper
Speaker 1: for weirdos. Now it's a salon called hair Mates. This avenue.
Speaker 1: How it is pretty big in there, huh, room enough
Speaker 1: for four rows of chairs to go all the way back,
Speaker 1: with a reception in the front, and it looks like
Speaker 1: a little kitchen or office in the back. It's pretty big.
Speaker 1: Standing here. I try to imagine what it looked like
Speaker 1: that day, the day that changed everything, The day Rebecca
Speaker 1: came home to find the storefront blocked off with police tape,
Speaker 1: the window blown out, cops everywhere, the day that Billy
Speaker 1: was shot from Crime Town. I'm io till it right,
Speaker 1: and this is the Ballad of Billy Balls. I might
Speaker 1: be one of those people that comes alive in Danger
Speaker 1: and Romance. A lot of people are afraid of crawl.
Speaker 1: I'm in New York City, afraid that there's no such
Speaker 1: thing as a safe neighborhood anymore, afraid of right, and
Speaker 1: off the elevator comes Billy Balls. And it's called love
Speaker 1: It First Sight. And when I come up to the
Speaker 1: Starfront on Avenue when we lived in, there's orange tape
Speaker 1: all over and they says, William Heinzman, he shot five
Speaker 1: times and he's in such and such hospital. Chapter two.
Speaker 1: He's not done yet. My mind was just fucked and disoriented.
Speaker 1: And they told me the wrong hospital. And I went
Speaker 1: there and it says this is the wrong hospital and
Speaker 1: he's in such and such and I ran there and
Speaker 1: they told me he's empty. The blood bag on his
Speaker 1: tight Rebecca finally found Billy at Cabrini Medical Center. He
Speaker 1: was in rough shape, but he was alive. I saw
Speaker 1: her in the first time. He was away in the
Speaker 1: distance and almost like a shrine, like it's so far back.
Speaker 1: It's dark back there, and there was a nurse changing
Speaker 1: his sheet like you change the diaper of a baby,
Speaker 1: and he was like being turned over, and his head
Speaker 1: kind of came my way, but his soul was floating
Speaker 1: above his body. It looked like he was made of
Speaker 1: criscal His soul is not in his body, it was
Speaker 1: floating above him. His ankle was handcuffed to the rail
Speaker 1: of the bed, and next to his shoulder was an
Speaker 1: armed pig. Rebecca says, Billy was being guarded by the cops,
Speaker 1: even though it didn't seem like he was going anywhere.
Speaker 1: And first of all, he had a trickier respirator down
Speaker 1: his his windpipe. And I took a fixture of his
Speaker 1: belly where there are big meat hooks holding his belly together,
Speaker 1: and it was slashed all the way across three times
Speaker 1: and big meat hooks holding it together because it wasn't
Speaker 1: even sewn together yet. And he had stitches his cut
Speaker 1: where his collar bone once was. They removed his collar bone,
Speaker 1: which was the favorite part of my favorite part of
Speaker 1: his body was just go to you cute little collar
Speaker 1: bones and chest. And when I saw his stitches and
Speaker 1: his collar bone, my niece buckle, and for the first
Speaker 1: and only time in my life, I started to faint.
Speaker 1: And he said, he said to the guard give her
Speaker 1: and he was a stupid pig and he didn't do ship.
Speaker 1: And the nurse is bringing him a plate of a
Speaker 1: chicken leg and this big solid food, which makes no
Speaker 1: sense whatsoever. How are you going to feed somebody holding
Speaker 1: their belly together with meat hooks this big solid food.
Speaker 1: And that's the day when I'm walking down the hall
Speaker 1: and he shouts to me, baby, do what you want.
Speaker 1: That meant, do what the fuck I want, Like he's
Speaker 1: cutting me loose because he is in some deep ship
Speaker 1: and he knows it. You know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 1: I was freaking the funk out, And yes, I was
Speaker 1: crying like a banshee NonStop. And I didn't know what
Speaker 1: the funk to do, but I did know what the
Speaker 1: funk to do. I knew exactly what to do. My
Speaker 1: instincts just told me what the fund to do. That's
Speaker 1: after the break with Billy in the hospital, Rebecca went
Speaker 1: back to Avenue and tried to piece together what had happened.
Speaker 1: I see Ming Super. One of the only witnesses was
Speaker 1: the building's maintenance guy, a dude named Ming Ming saw
Speaker 1: cowboy hat, a person walk with Billy the way Rebecca
Speaker 1: remembers it. Ming said, Billy and this man in a
Speaker 1: cowboy hat walked around the neighborhood and they came back.
Speaker 1: They went downstairs, then went down in the basement through
Speaker 1: a hatch in the sidewalk. Bime, Billy came back up
Speaker 1: alone and went into the house, and then that dude
Speaker 1: with the cowboy hat broke down the door, shooting. So
Speaker 1: then the question became, who's the guy in the cowboy
Speaker 1: hat that was an undercovering narcotics detective. I don't know
Speaker 1: the guy to tell what happens. He was an undercovering
Speaker 1: narcotics detective. Billy told me that, and he came to
Speaker 1: see Billy in the hospital when he was alive, and
Speaker 1: he said the hospital, Billy said to me that the
Speaker 1: dude that shot him came to the hospital and said
Speaker 1: to him, if it was up to me, you wouldn't
Speaker 1: be in here. Rebecca realized that she needed to talk
Speaker 1: to a lawyer, and I called Mark Pines. Mark Pines
Speaker 1: is a videographer that invented music video. He knew Billy
Speaker 1: and respected him, and I called him and I told
Speaker 1: him what the fuck and he told me two of
Speaker 1: the heaviest lawyers in New York City right off the bat,
Speaker 1: because it was clearly a big civil suit, you know,
Speaker 1: and some horrible crime against Billy Balls. And they were
Speaker 1: hot on it because they saw a big box, you know,
Speaker 1: how the fucking lawyers are because it was an obvious
Speaker 1: civil suit. No, but it's another thing that I just
Speaker 1: can't fucking remember because my mind has just put this out,
Speaker 1: you know. And then Rebecca says, something really weird started
Speaker 1: to happen. I did receive a creepy threatening phone call
Speaker 1: in the night avenue. I can't tell you that exactly,
Speaker 1: but they were saying weird ship. It was just short
Speaker 1: and I can't quite remember it. It was a scare tactic.
Speaker 1: It was definitely a police type guy. Not long after,
Speaker 1: Rebecca got the worst phone call of all I know.
Speaker 1: It was around my mother's birthday, which is June. And uh,
Speaker 1: that morning, I piste. These little white particles were in
Speaker 1: my piss, like little weird white particles. It was really weird.
Speaker 1: And out the window though brick was all dusty, crumbling,
Speaker 1: you know, there was rags, rats and shipped outside the window,
Speaker 1: and the windows all covered with grimy ships, and the
Speaker 1: sunlight streams through all that grimy ship, which intensifies the
Speaker 1: grim nous, you know. And on the radio was Jennifer
Speaker 1: Holiday's song and telling you You're not God leaving, You're
Speaker 1: the best thing I ever had. When the hospital called
Speaker 1: and told me that they had taken him to the floor,
Speaker 1: yes thirteen is favorite number for some reason, and that
Speaker 1: he started vomiting bio which is bio is from you know,
Speaker 1: kidney or something, and his heart stopped. He didn't he died,
Speaker 1: and the dude told me to come down and identify
Speaker 1: the body. That's how he phrased it. He said, can't
Speaker 1: can you come down to identify the body? A William
Speaker 1: Heightsman and I just, of course just went into this
Speaker 1: kind of like it's white mm hmmmmm. Less than two
Speaker 1: weeks after Billy was shot, he was dead and Rebecca
Speaker 1: had to go to the city Morgue to identify his body.
Speaker 1: And I went with Billy's very close friend, Robbie Bowman,
Speaker 1: who was a musician, great musician, and Robbie went with
Speaker 1: me two the medical examiner on First Avenue to identify
Speaker 1: the body, and the little Puerto Rican girl rolled out
Speaker 1: a gurney with a sheet over it and pulled back
Speaker 1: the seat and there he was with the Prince of
Speaker 1: the devil and a little kind of smile of mischief,
Speaker 1: and his beard was starting to have a five o'clock shadow,
Speaker 1: and he had a towel wrapped turban style around the
Speaker 1: top of his head, and that fucking number on the toe.
Speaker 1: And I screamed, and I said, he's not He's not
Speaker 1: done yet. He's not done yet. I went to the
Speaker 1: actor's funds because I needed to get money for his cremation.
Speaker 1: And I explained that he was a rock and roll
Speaker 1: piano player and that he was killed, and that I
Speaker 1: needed help with the funeral costs and the cremation. The
Speaker 1: little old lady, sweetest, tiny, tiny little old lady, arranged
Speaker 1: a check. And when I went down there to the
Speaker 1: funeral parlor, which is on Lexington, the man behind the
Speaker 1: desk right inside the glass doors got on the phone
Speaker 1: to call for the body to be transferred to the
Speaker 1: funeral parlor, and they told him that the body had
Speaker 1: been taken to Potter's Field. A Potter's Field is a
Speaker 1: cemetery where unclaimed bodies are buried in mass graves. And
Speaker 1: I said, what two, what the fuck? What's the fucking
Speaker 1: phone number. I got the number of the Potter's Field
Speaker 1: and I called that number, and on the other end
Speaker 1: it was the Grave Diggers. And I says, I will
Speaker 1: need the body. Where is the body of William Heitzman?
Speaker 1: And they laughed, They laughed on the other end of
Speaker 1: the phone. They laughed, and the bottom fell out of everything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my heart burst because I fucking loved him, you know.
Speaker 1: And they told me you can just spind the rest
Speaker 1: of your life running and pursue this. But you know what,
Speaker 1: I don't give a funk about that. But it was
Speaker 1: my heart burst, the one I love him so much.
Speaker 1: This is a tape Rebecca made when Billy died, My
Speaker 1: baby boy, right cuddle rape. I remember when he would sleep,
Speaker 1: he low air through his little uptuous tender lips, incredible
Speaker 1: bubble got His breath was so delicious that I would
Speaker 1: snuggle up too close to where the bubble of airs
Speaker 1: escaping through his lips and breathing. It was like breathing
Speaker 1: this delectable breath of life is delicious, smelling and tasting
Speaker 1: wreath of light. I miss you so much and my
Speaker 1: head is sort of closing it all myself. And you
Speaker 1: know when I start to feel like everything else is
Speaker 1: kind of fading. I'm definitely gonna have to reproduce to
Speaker 1: give some of somebody else's chance. You know, just watch
Speaker 1: how cool they could be, because there's some spirit floating around.
Speaker 1: It just needs a little human body to crawl into.
Speaker 1: And I knew and I know who that spirit is.
Speaker 1: And I thought, if I got a baby, well that
Speaker 1: would be okay. You know, I remember just the fraw
Speaker 1: feeling of the fucking pain of the grief, and I
Speaker 1: would like to not remember that feeling. Quiz. The only
Speaker 1: thing this stopped it was you being born, all right,
Speaker 1: Rebecca did have a baby. Me. I'm not gonna m
Speaker 1: m hm. You smell like clean laundry. Her, you smell
Speaker 1: like clean laundry. Don't tell anybody, Ye, Billy was not
Speaker 1: my father. I was born a couple of years after
Speaker 1: he died. I know that Billy's sudden death broke my
Speaker 1: mother's heart and her mind. And I also know that
Speaker 1: if he hadn't been killed, I wouldn't be alive. So
Speaker 1: much will be so much on but my goal in arms.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna find that, Okay, Okay, So now I
Speaker 1: want to do something I have no idea how to do.
Speaker 1: I want to track down Billy's body and try to
Speaker 1: solve his murder. I want to give my mom an
Speaker 1: ending to the Ballad of Billy Balls. In the next
Speaker 1: chapter of the Ballad of Billy Balls, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I saw some hot yearbook photos in there? Did you
Speaker 1: fucking find Billy's your book? Yeah? Ye. Crimetown is Zach
Speaker 1: Stewart Pontier and Mark smirlin. The Ballad of Billy Balls
Speaker 1: is hosted by me Io till it Right and made
Speaker 1: in partnership with Cadence. We want to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can find me on the internet. Um Io loves
Speaker 1: you on everything, and we set up a voicemail for
Speaker 1: you to call us and share your thoughts on the case,
Speaker 1: or your feelings or what you ate for breakfast. We'll
Speaker 1: air a good one next week. The number is five
Speaker 1: seven oh nine six zero. Our website is the Ballad
Speaker 1: of Billie Balls dot com and you'll find a discussion
Speaker 1: board there too. On The show is produced by me
Speaker 1: Kevin Sheppard and Ryan Sweigert. Our senior producer is Austin Chold,
Speaker 1: editing by Zack Stewart Pontier and Mark Smirling. Fact checking
Speaker 1: by Jennifer Blackman. This episode was mixed and sound designed
Speaker 1: by Kenny Kusiak. Music by Kenny Kusiak. Our title track
Speaker 1: is Dark Allies by Light Asylum. Archival research by Brennan Reese.
Speaker 1: If you want to know more about my story, pick
Speaker 1: up my memoir, Darling Days Closely thanks to Drew Nellis,
Speaker 1: Jesse Rudoy, Ula Culpa, Jamie Reisin, Wade Slitkin, Daniella Aria,
Speaker 1: Rachel Lee Wright, Emily Wiedermann, Green Card Pictures, Alex Weinberg,
Speaker 1: Alessandro Centauro, Bill Clegg, Ben Davis Orn Rosenbaum, and the
Speaker 1: team at Caden's thirteen, and of course Rebecca, without whom
Speaker 1: none of this would be possible. L