WEBVTT - Witness - E8 0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:07.200 Murder in Miami is a production of iHeartRadio, previously on 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:11.400 Murder in Miami. I think I actually found Leslie Bickerton. 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:16.280 She's been hiding for forty years. That's it's no way 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:17.400 to live Phil. 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:19.680 She's still afraid for her life. 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.079 I've realized this over the years. What happened to me 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:27.480 forty one years ago has been with me my entire life. 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:30.800 I mean, it stole my life and I stole my voice. 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:34.680 By the time Leslie Bickerton, who also dabbled in modeling 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:38.360 while living in Hawaii, crossed paths with Lamar Chester, she 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:40.040 was barely thirty years old. 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:43.839 Before I had even heard of Lamar Chester. I was 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:47.440 working in the Caymans because I have a CPA background 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:50.200 and an international tax background. 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:53.120 In addition to accepting the challenge of living on the 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:56.160 island and the job with him, Leslie Bickerton would also 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:59.840 become romantically involved with Chester. All three of those things 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:01.040 come back to haunt her. 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:04.560 Just boom boom boom. And then about somebody that had 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:08.120 been killed off. Yeah, I was going to talk about him, 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:11.880 I guess. And there were contracts out on his life 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:14.720 and contracts that I was also in danger. 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:22.880 So in the fall of nineteen eighty one, a frantic 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:25.959 Leslie Bickerton is trying to figure out how to undo 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:29.560 the damage done by crossing paths. 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:32.560 With international drug smuggler Lamar Chester. 0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:36.200 Though she only worked with him off and on over 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:39.600 the course of seven months, in many ways, she's still 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:43.240 trying to figure out the ripple effect of that time period. 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:47.400 Changed the course of my life, and still today it's 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:52.040 like it just happened yesterday. In one sense, forty one years. 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:55.000 It's not like I was allowed then to go back 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:58.600 to a normal life. 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:03.280 Those months forever, I'll your life, oh completely, It's set 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:04.720 a course that I didn't even know. 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:07.600 I wasn't setting the course. Somebody else was setting the 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:08.960 course and I didn't even know it. 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:13.120 Having been told by Chester that her life was in danger, 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:17.040 not knowing who was behind that threat, and isolated on 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:20.600 his farm in a time before cell phones or the internet, 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:23.120 Bickerton's fears are left to fester. 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:28.880 Just sort of left me there. So emotionally me just 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:32.640 a wreck, scared to death. But at the same time, 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:35.200 so when my brain works anyway kind of a little 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:40.320 bit analytically, it's like, Okay, what do I need to do? Right, okay, one, two, three, four, 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:43.480 immediately coming up with the names in my mind that 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:46.880 I had to take me into consideration. It wasn't just 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:50.400 about me. It was about those that could be at 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:55.440 risk and protecting everybody just in case, because I didn't 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:56.880 know what I was dealing with. I mean, I knew 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:00.360 I was dealing with something that was big, really big, 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:02.720 and way out of control. That's all that I knew. 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:07.560 It must have felt like being unknowingly exposed to a 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:11.840 very contagious, very deadly disease. 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:17.960 Beyond that, horrific. That's the impact that it had on me. 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:22.839 And how do you disprove that if someone tells you, well, 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:25.440 now you're in a lot of trouble and someone's out 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:26.080 to kill you. 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:30.280 Right, and you isolate them? M hmm, right, that's one 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:32.359 of the other parts of that. The more you isolate 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:36.040 a person, you keep them right separate from everybody, You 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:39.720 keep them separate from their families, friends, people who can 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:44.120 help them, and you war and more psychologically feel like 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:45.800 you're out there on your own. 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:49.560 And that would have broken you down pretty quickly. 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:54.480 Oh very much, so, very much so. 0:03:56.920 --> 0:04:00.680 I'm Lauren brad Pacheco, and this is murdered in Miami. 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:13.120 Feeling trapped, Bickerton was also terrified of confiding to anyone 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:16.440 she knew, bearing it could place them in danger too. 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:22.360 I think sometimes you draw deep withinside yourself, even though 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:26.000 you don't have the answers, you'll figure it out, you know, 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:27.560 a survival mechanism. 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.960 And in that mode, Bickerton remembered a group of Army 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:36.120 rangers stationed nearby she'd befriended after coming to Georgia. 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:40.840 I went up to this event in Helen, Georgia, these 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:46.440 hot air balloons and it saw place Touristco And that's 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:49.800 on the big grounds that they had there for the 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:52.479 hot air balloons. That's where I met them. Just stuck 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:55.880 up a conversation. I don't drink drink, but had a 0:04:55.880 --> 0:05:00.719 beer with them and just kind of like clicked. And 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:03.640 they were really great. And they were just funny, great 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:04.880 sense to humor. 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:05.960 Wholesome and friendly. 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:06.840 Yeah. 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:12.040 Yeah, they were also oddly suited to understand the situation 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:15.640 and danger. Bickerton suddenly found herself. 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:18.359 In the Airborne Ranger. Guys that I met were staff sergeant. 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:20.760 I mean these were like the top top guys in 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:23.400 the training and I know one of them was like 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:25.880 one of the top snipers. They were telling me about 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:32.000 their adventures overseas, what they were doing, and that's who 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:35.640 I immediately thought to reach out to. That's the only 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:39.000 people I knew up there were those military guys. 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:45.200 Rangers are the Army's elite and premier infantry force, rigorously 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:48.440 trained to carry out intricate operations such as raids and 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:53.440 assault missions well within enemy territory. It's a position requiring 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:57.599 a daunting degree of mental, physical and moral fortitude. 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:01.680 I have a contract all my life. So I did 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:05.839 reach out to the military guys and we kind of 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:07.440 figured out a game plan. 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:10.400 A plan that plays like a movie plot. 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:14.719 I would marry one because that would then they could 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:18.920 legitimately bring me over to the camp so that Lamar 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:21.279 couldn't get near me and nobody could get near me, 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:25.000 that I would be physically protected. They were concerned about me, 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:29.120 like being at war. You know, all right, strategy immediately 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:31.320 thinking outside the box. You got to think on your 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:33.640 feet what can be done right now? What can be 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:37.960 done next? What can be done next? And by marrying 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:41.279 in name only as that allowed. 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:46.440 So you thought the plan that you hashed out with 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:49.479 these guys. Was that you would make a public show 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:53.560 of marrying one of them, so Lamar would be intimidated 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:58.799 to no longer mess with you. Exactly, And apparently that's 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:03.600 exactly what did immediately planning a wedding, which seemed a 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:06.520 sensical option given her surreal situation. 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:10.600 I knew Lamark was not going to mess with these 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:17.120 guys period. Instinctively, people liked Lamar. They just know who 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:21.640 not to mess with. We actually had a ceremony as well. 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:26.200 A ceremony Bickerton's family attended, fully believing to be real. 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:32.400 From the outside, it all looked real or unreal, but legitimate. 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:35.440 Almost like for the same reasons people fake their own death. 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:39.200 You wanted your own family to believe it. You wanted 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:43.800 to really sell it so that you could then disappear. Yes, 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:46.920 was it a marriage and name only? 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.280 Yeah? And it was a note within two months or 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:51.119 something like that. 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:56.000 While it may sound like a far fetched plan, Bickerton 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:59.200 sent me photos of the small outdoor wedding. In them, 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:02.559 Leslie's wear ring a somber expression and a simple white 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:06.560 sleeveless gown while clutching a simple bouquet of wild flowers. 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:09.679 She's standing next to her groom, whose name she doesn't 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:13.600 want revealed, but is formally decked out in full Rangers 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:17.200 dress uniform. The couple is surrounded by other fully outfitted 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:20.840 Airborne Rangers, and the small group of gathered well wishers 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:24.520 include Leslie's family. Her mother is standing in front of 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:29.600 a goateed and grinning Lamar Chester, who's sporting a sport coat, 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:33.319 alongside his wife Artist, who's wearing white slax, a pink 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:36.600 top and dark sunglasses, while leaning to her left so 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.200 as to get a better view of the bride. The 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:41.240 photo also provides something else. 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:47.960 My father loved photography. He took the photos, and my 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:52.000 father labels everything. It's meticulous. So that's how I could 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:54.760 get the date. It said September nineteen eighty one, because 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:57.400 I couldn't remember the month when I was married to 0:08:57.440 --> 0:08:58.560 this military person. 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:02.200 I want to quickly point out. Leslie says she hastily 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:05.520 arranged the wedding immediately after Chester told her about a 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:09.360 Clayton being murdered and fed to the alligators. Williams went 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:13.720 missing mid September, but his body wasn't found until October tewod, 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:17.400 which gives weight to the theory Chester knew of the 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.880 murder before the body was found, and to Bickerton's concern 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:22.839 for her safety at the time. 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:27.840 I mean, I'm just grateful for the military guys in Georgia, 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:31.200 that group of guys, because I don't know if I 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:33.319 would have ever been able to even get out of Georgia, 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:36.440 but it bought me enough time. Without them, i'd be 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:41.560 I'd probably did. I'm almost sure of it. I owe 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:42.640 my life to them. 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:46.040 After the nuptials, Bickerton says she hit out with the 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:48.680 rangers until she could put together a plan to flee 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:53.280 to another location. Interestingly, Dan Davis, the reporter slash River 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:57.040 Hills publicist who was on Chester's payroll, would later be 0:09:57.200 --> 0:09:59.880 interviewed by CEB Hackworth in nineteen eighty three for an 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:04.480 article in the Citizen Chester series. In that article, Davis 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:08.760 would offer a pretty scathing interpretation of the wedding, characterizing 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:12.240 the groom as quote one of those gung home military 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:16.800 types who enters the service at sixteen unquote, and Bickerton, 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:20.040 who was thirty one at the time as quote Leslie 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:23.840 who was maybe thirty five or forty, and there's this 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:28.479 Rick twenty and she wanted to get married so they did. Unquote. 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:33.079 The same article quotes Chester reacting to Leslie being referenced 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:36.960 as his mistress and public record. Quote. He balks at 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:41.280 that description and refers to her instead as an occasional 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:45.560 girl I saw unquote. Now keep in mind that Chester 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:50.280 was married and that Davis was basically his hired mouthpiece. 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:51.720 Here's Leslie. 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:57.840 This whole article basically was a smear campaign against me. 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:00.640 If it was nowadays and this was happen, I take 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:03.400 them to court like it's nobody's business and I would win. 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:09.839 And again, nobody has ever bothered to approach me back 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:13.280 then or any time to get my side of the 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:16.640 story or exactly what was happening during that time period. 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:20.440 And you had never seen this article until I sent 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:21.360 it to you. Correct. 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:25.800 Correct, So it's interesting looking at it now and going 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:29.520 through all of this several comments. I'm going to make 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:34.160 this emphasis on age and this was somebody that I 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:38.000 had married that was young and naive, and that's not 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:41.240 true at all. None of it that they wrote down 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:42.239 is true. 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:48.280 They somehow tried to discredit you by claiming there was 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:53.560 an age difference between you and your groom, when Chester's 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:56.760 the one who's twenty years older. Right, he had children your. 0:11:56.679 --> 0:12:01.280 Age, Oh right, and I knew his children. Looking back 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:05.760 at it now, in the pattern that Lamar Chester presents 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:10.880 himself to the media, presenting themselves in such a way 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:15.320 that they can't be touched. And so how do you 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:19.000 present you discredit the other person, right, You create your 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:23.800 own storyline to raise your own image as a so 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:28.559 called family man, which he wasn't. I mean, Lamar had 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:32.600 relationships with other women. I know that for a fact. 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:38.360 So interesting that he quote bulks at the description of 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:41.680 you as his quote mistress and public record, it almost 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:47.200 sounds like it's Chester's way of appeasing his bruised male ego. 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:51.320 A lot of it is ego. And by dismissing who 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:57.000 I am, then it takes the judgment off of him, right, 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:01.719 which is sort of a classic and by ment. And 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:04.920 I thought about this. I wasn't as mistress, I mean, 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:07.240 now you know, I look at it, give the definition 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:11.880 of a mistress. I wasn't. I wasn't being kept right 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:14.520 as a kept woman. Kept have sort of here's my 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:17.400 dark humor coming again, right, you know, Yes, I was 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:20.640 kept as a hostage. In one sense, I would never 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:23.000 have gone to Georgia had not been for my dog. 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:28.439 After the rushed and staged wedding, Bickerton would land in Houston, 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:32.520 which was also the location of the Lone Star investigation, 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:36.080 something of which Bickerton a test. She was unaware. 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:40.800 It was inferred that I went to Houston and that 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:45.040 I just showed up at the Federal Building, turned myself 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:49.600 in to the Feds of the Federal Building and gave 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:54.160 them all this information. And that is not true. So 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:56.679 you're moving really fast, and it's like, where can I 0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:59.680 go next? Try to figure what would be my next step, 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:02.800 and didn't want I jeopardized my own family, so I 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:05.560 would not have gone back up to New England. I 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:07.800 would not have gone back to the Cayman Islands because 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.160 I wouldn't have put anybody in jeopardy there that had 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:13.520 nothing to do with Lamar. So I had some friends 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:19.000 in Houston, so I made a call and stayed with 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:21.760 friends actually initially, but didn't want to put them in 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:25.600 jeopardy because I didn't know how extensive this was. I 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:29.120 knew it was serious, so I rented a small apartment 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:32.760 and just took a temporary job. Had no plans of 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:35.840 staying there. It was just temporary. And then that's when 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:40.560 I got that phone call saying that Houston people, Feds 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:44.160 in Houston were going to come after me. And so 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:48.640 that's when I met the people in Houston. I think 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:50.280 it was the grand jury first. 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:53.640 The only reason you went to Houston was because you 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:56.920 had a friend there who could get you employment and 0:14:56.960 --> 0:14:58.760 you could live under the radar there. 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:03.280 Yeah, temporary, it was where can I go immediately? I mean, 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:06.760 I'm just thinking on my feet, knowing that my life 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:11.120 was probably in jeopardy and knowing what Lamar was now 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:12.280 more involved with. 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:17.320 You left Georgia and then the FED show up at 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:21.880 the military base looking for you. Yes, yes, and you 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:25.040 get the heads up that they're looking for you while 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:26.400 you're in Houston. 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:30.440 So that then would have been getting a phone call 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:34.960 that Houston people were going to come looking for me. 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:38.520 That also meant the CIA, because don't forget, Lamar told 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:41.360 me about that he was involved with the CIA. So 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:44.840 I didn't know what was Houston. All I knew was 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:48.960 the FEDS, which could have been anybody, were looking for me, 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:55.040 and that would have been October is when they tried 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:58.760 to find me on the military base and the guys 0:15:58.760 --> 0:15:59.520 were protecting me. 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:07.680 And when they found her, the prosecution already seemed to 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:10.880 have honed in on Bickerton's fears in terms of safety 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:13.320 and her other vulnerabilities too. 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:17.840 Houston had promised me that they were going to get 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:18.600 my dog. 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:22.480 And so they promised you that they would go to 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:25.160 the Derby Islands and get your dobermen. 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:27.720 Yep, no problem. 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:33.800 And did they no? Oh no, But you had no 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:39.480 idea that there was an investigation into Lamar in Houston. 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:44.800 No, no, And didn't know about Lance Eisenberg either, investigation 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:46.360 with Smythe. 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:49.760 Smythe was the name of the Cayman's account. 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:53.240 I mean, that's what Euston was after, was Smythe with 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:56.000 Lance Eisenberg and his clients. 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:59.120 It sounds like a line out of Casablanca. But of 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:02.840 all the the states in the country, you end up 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:04.840 in the one state, in the one city. 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:11.520 Yeah, you know, you're right, He knew right. So here's 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:15.680 my dark New England humor. You know the old cartoons Bullwinkle, 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:18.399 my God, watch me pull a rabbit out of my 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:22.760 hat and the lion comes out roaring and blow Winkle 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:26.399 goes wrong, hat wrong hat. 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:26.679 No. 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:30.080 I had no idea. I didn't know anything about Houston 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:34.040 and their investigation. I didn't know that Houston was looking 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:34.560 for me. 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:49.800 Phil Stanford finds Leslie's explanation of her move to Houston 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:53.400 in keeping with many surreal aspects we've covered. 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:59.600 Coincidences have happened all through this story, my meeting Playway 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:03.440 in the bar, Happy, flying over the ocean, and meeting 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:07.240 Lamire at several thousand feet, So I don't have any 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:11.840 problem with it being a coincidence she ended up in Houston, 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:16.160 as she says that the FEDS went to her soldier 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:18.800 friends in Georgia said where is she? And they said 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:20.960 she's in Houston, and then they tracked her down. In 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:23.640 any case, they would have found her anyway. 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:27.880 She's adamant that it was a coincidence, and either which 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:30.160 way it certainly wasn't beneficial for her. 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:34.920 She does say that they got involved. She does say 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:37.560 that she took a job knowing that he was looking 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:42.639 for an accountant and a mistress. It's easy enough to 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:46.199 falter her judgment on that all sorts of people have 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:49.800 made mistakes along the way in this story and just 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:50.760 about any other story. 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:54.320 I suppose what I think is interesting, though you have 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:58.840 this young woman. He's her employer. Then at that point 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:02.280 then I felt that she was pretty maligned in the 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:07.440 press as being of less moral character because she was 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:09.919 as mistress. When he's the one who's married, he's the 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:12.080 one with the wife and kid. He's the one who's 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:14.639 twenty years older. And I thought it interesting that not 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:18.440 a single reporter, not one, ever reached out to her. 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:22.360 But there was pretty widespread coverage of the nineteen eighty 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:26.000 three grand jury in Atlanta, sensationalized by the fact the 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:28.919 foundation of it was built upon the Houston leg of 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:33.280 Operation Lone Star, which would be mired in controversy and 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:38.560 allegations of corruption and misconduct. Here again is phil The. 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:42.480 Real corruption was in the US Attorney's office in Houston. 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:47.359 The investigators had been touring the Caribbean for some time 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:51.520 on the government tab. A new junior US attorney had 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:56.600 come in and tried to report them and gotten crosswise. 0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:00.320 The whole office was in turmoil. In fact, one of 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:05.080 the US attorneys had actually contacted Jeff Bogart, one of 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:10.879 Lamar's lawyers, and offered to tell him about the illegal 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:14.919 tactics that they were using, including altering the documents for 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:17.680 the grand Jury offered to sell it for a couple 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:18.679 hundred thousand dollars. 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:23.600 That chaos spilled into the tone and content of Atlanta's proceedings. 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:28.159 It was a mess, a hot mess. It sounds like 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:32.160 some hotshot crosscutors were trying to bring in some big 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:35.560 money or hundred indictments and fell down at rabbit hole 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:38.080 and found up an alice in wonder owner. 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:43.080 That's reporter Tracy Thompson's take. She's now a prolific author 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:46.400 and journalist, but was then reporting for the Atlanta Constitution. 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:49.879 In addition to covering the Atlanta Grand Jury, she had 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:54.480 also extensively covered the charismatic council representing Lamar Chester in 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.600 the case. Bobby Lee Cook a man known for his 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:01.679 flamboyant personal style and equally fetching eloquence. 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:07.720 He had a type of charisma that very few people have. 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:11.399 It was an interesting thing when he walked into the room. 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:15.840 Everybody who bodyly Cooked was there. He could easily have 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:20.000 walked out of the nineteenth century. He parted his hair 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:23.960 in the middle. He had gold spectacles that he bore 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:25.920 on the tip of his nose so he could look 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:29.960 at you over them. He had a gold pocket watch 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:33.960 and this very large chain that he kept on He 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:39.320 very easily could have walked out of eighteen seventy. He 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:45.000 cultivated that damage. He also had a Rolls Royce and 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:48.760 a chauffeur. And somebody asked him once if he was 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:51.239 afraid that that would be off putting to jurors, and 0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:53.800 he said no. He said, I think they see me 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:56.200 with a Rolls Royce and they know I'm a smart guy. 0:21:56.880 --> 0:22:01.560 Got my money because of smart and and trust me because. 0:22:01.280 --> 0:22:05.600 Of that, and they could trust he would ruthlessly defend 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:06.680 his clients. 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:10.000 People were scared of him, and I needed to be 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:14.200 scared of him because he was. He was vicious and 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:20.040 cross examinations. You didn't want to tell bobbyly Cook a 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:22.960 story with any holes in it, because he would find 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:25.120 it and ruth was late with them. 0:22:26.000 --> 0:22:27.440 Here's Phil Stamford's take. 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:30.680 Yeah, Bobby Lee Cook is certainly one of the more 0:22:31.040 --> 0:22:37.000 formidable people I've ever run across. Extremely smart lawyer. Never 0:22:37.040 --> 0:22:39.240 seen anyone who could talk on his feet like that. 0:22:39.840 --> 0:22:43.760 He lived in this tiny town in North Georgia that 0:22:43.960 --> 0:22:46.440 was half boarded up. When I finally went down there 0:22:46.440 --> 0:22:49.919 and talked to him. He had a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce, 0:22:51.800 --> 0:22:54.400 and he looked so homespun that was part of his act. 0:22:54.480 --> 0:23:00.520 He wore hush puppies, suspenders, had a beard, and he 0:23:00.560 --> 0:23:03.120 could adapt to just about anything. I mean. He represented 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:07.359 the Rockefellers and the Carnegies in some dispute. He represented 0:23:07.400 --> 0:23:11.840 a lot of the Southern mob who's a wonderful lawyer. 0:23:12.040 --> 0:23:14.040 At one time he was thought to have been the 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:18.560 model for this TV character, Matt Locke, a serious about 0:23:19.040 --> 0:23:23.760 a Southern lawyer who was also very homespun and very effective, 0:23:23.800 --> 0:23:24.720 like Bobby Lee Cook. 0:23:25.640 --> 0:23:28.080 Tracy Thompson has agreed to read excerpts from one of 0:23:28.119 --> 0:23:30.720 her pieces at the time, which really paints a picture 0:23:30.760 --> 0:23:33.760 of the courtroom dynamic. As one of the former prosecutors 0:23:33.760 --> 0:23:37.600 from Lone Star's Houston leg John Johnson, was questioned by 0:23:37.640 --> 0:23:38.480 Bobby Lee Cook. 0:23:39.560 --> 0:23:44.280 John Johnson, a baby former federal prosecutor from Houston that 0:23:44.480 --> 0:23:46.760 gripping the size of the witness box like a man 0:23:46.880 --> 0:23:51.560 driving a tractor. Before him stood Somerville's defense attorney Bobby 0:23:51.600 --> 0:23:54.879 Lee Cook, who surveyed Johnson over the rims of his 0:23:54.960 --> 0:23:59.920 glasses like a cat contemplating a cage canary. The subject 0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:04.040 a four year old federal drug probe named Operation Lone Star, 0:24:04.680 --> 0:24:09.880 and the secret government informant named Leslie Bickergon MS Vickerton, 0:24:10.000 --> 0:24:15.400 Chester's former office bookkeeper, told Houston investigators that Chester eliminated 0:24:15.440 --> 0:24:20.040 one potential snitch from his organization by having him murdered 0:24:20.040 --> 0:24:24.119 and feeding his courts to alligators in Florida. Quickly became 0:24:24.200 --> 0:24:28.520 the unofficial master of ceremonies, striding about the room waving 0:24:28.560 --> 0:24:31.680 his arm glaring that witnesses like a pale, blue eyed, 0:24:31.800 --> 0:24:37.320 rapid god preacher. The flamboyant Somerville lawyer dominated the proceedings. 0:24:37.920 --> 0:24:41.280 In a phone conversation we had C. B. Hackworth recalls 0:24:41.400 --> 0:24:44.920 bumping into Cook that day, right before he headed into 0:24:44.920 --> 0:24:46.840 the courtroom to question Johnson. 0:24:48.359 --> 0:24:53.679 We were outside the program after a lunch break. Bobby 0:24:53.720 --> 0:24:57.880 Lee Cook was pacing back and forth in the hallway. 0:24:58.440 --> 0:25:02.239 He was obviously getting his thoughts together to go in 0:25:02.320 --> 0:25:06.480