Speaker 1: Pushkin Jake Alpern here before we get started, I wanted
Speaker 1: you to know that deep Cover Season two will be
Speaker 1: dropping weekly on Mondays, but the full season is available
Speaker 1: right now ad free for Pushkin Plus subscribers. That's all
Speaker 1: ten episodes right away. Fine Pushkin Plus on the deep
Speaker 1: Cover show page in Apple Podcasts, or at Pushkin dot Fm.
Speaker 1: Previously on deep Cover. By the mid nineteen seventies, Bob
Speaker 1: Cooley had earned a reputation in Chicago as a flashy
Speaker 1: criminal defense lawyer who knew how to win. Sometimes he
Speaker 1: won Fahren Square, but he was also willing to place
Speaker 1: a bribe to get the verdict he wanted. In nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy seven, Bob was approached by Pat Marcy, the mob's
Speaker 1: political czar. Marcy asked him to fix a murder case,
Speaker 1: something that Bob had never done before. And this wasn't
Speaker 1: just any murder case. It was the trial of a
Speaker 1: mob hitman named Harry Alaman. He's like a bantam rooster,
Speaker 1: looks like somebody who if you rubbed up against him,
Speaker 1: you sort of believe. Because he's the razor's edge. Bob
Speaker 1: knew that he needed to get this case into the
Speaker 1: hands of the exact right judge, and according to Bob,
Speaker 1: he had the perfect person in mind. Bob Cooley was
Speaker 1: a guy who seemed to know everyone when he wasn't
Speaker 1: in court. Bob liked to eat out, party, and gamble.
Speaker 1: Sometimes he mixed work with pleasure. He was an off
Speaker 1: the book silent partner of an Italian restaurant, a place
Speaker 1: called Grecos, where he schmoozed with lawyers, judges and clients,
Speaker 1: and sometimes he took the guys he really liked to Vegas.
Speaker 1: Bob gambled so much the casinos would often fly him
Speaker 1: and his friends out on a charter plane. Bob says
Speaker 1: he made one such trip in the mid seventies with
Speaker 1: a judge named Frank Wilson. I should tell you Judge
Speaker 1: Wilson is no longer alive, so I couldn't ask him
Speaker 1: about this trip or get his side of things. But
Speaker 1: according to Bob, he and the judge get out to Vegas, gamble,
Speaker 1: have a good time, part ways at some point, and
Speaker 1: then in the wee hours of the morning they reconnect.
Speaker 1: You're sitting at the bar and there's a girl sitting
Speaker 1: next to him, who I'm assuming as a working girl.
Speaker 1: Bob says that the judge had a bit too much
Speaker 1: to drink that night. So Bob and this quote working
Speaker 1: girl helped the judge back to his room. Afterwards, this
Speaker 1: woman goes back to Bob's room with him. Once there,
Speaker 1: she suggests that they take a shower before you know, so,
Speaker 1: I know, I get naked. I go in there. She's naked.
Speaker 1: When I go in there, I get in the shower.
Speaker 1: She doesn't get in the shower. Okay, I'm in there
Speaker 1: no more than three or four minutes. And now it
Speaker 1: hits me. I got about I don't know how much
Speaker 1: five to six seven thousand in cash in my pocket.
Speaker 1: I had just gotten a big fancy diamond ring not
Speaker 1: that long before. Suddenly I jump out of the shower.
Speaker 1: By the time I get out, she's already out the door,
Speaker 1: because I opened the door and I see her towards
Speaker 1: the elevator, and I'm naked, and I'm running. The moment
Speaker 1: I come out and she's gone. I know, damn well,
Speaker 1: what happened. And I opened the door and I see her,
Speaker 1: and as I say, I'm naked, but I go running
Speaker 1: after her. She gets in the elevator and down she goes.
Speaker 1: Wait seriously, Bob, honestly, you were running naked down the hallway.
Speaker 1: What did I just say? Bob frantically hits the down button.
Speaker 1: In hot pursuit. A new elevator arrives, Bob rushes in.
Speaker 1: I get in there, and there's an old couple, old
Speaker 1: couple standing in there. Like I said, it's about six
Speaker 1: in the morning. Now I just put my hands over
Speaker 1: my schmuck and I don't say a word. A woman,
Speaker 1: especially like as if she, if she could have pushed
Speaker 1: her way out the back of the elevator going down,
Speaker 1: she would have wait. Hold up, Just to be just
Speaker 1: to be totally clear, Bob, you're buck naked in the elevator,
Speaker 1: covering your private ports and there's an elderly couple corned
Speaker 1: over the other far end of the elevator. Not but
Speaker 1: the elevator wasn't that big. We're talking a small elevator,
Speaker 1: probably about three feet behind me. And I turned my back,
Speaker 1: and you know, but I'm covering. I'm covering my shug.
Speaker 1: But now I have to get out of there. And
Speaker 1: were at the ground level, so I run over to
Speaker 1: the poll and I grab a towel and I go
Speaker 1: see the security and I said, I just got robbed.
Speaker 1: I didn't know, but I assumed I got wrapped or
Speaker 1: she wouldn't have been, you know, gone. All my life,
Speaker 1: I've been able to instantaneously, you know, figure things that
Speaker 1: are happening. That's been my nature. Well maybe not instantaneously.
Speaker 1: I mean, she did get away, but you got to
Speaker 1: give Bob an a for effort. Eventually, Bob says, he
Speaker 1: checks in with the judge in the morning. I see
Speaker 1: Frank and Frank is complaining. You know, he had like
Speaker 1: eight nine hundred bucks in his pocket and she robbed him.
Speaker 1: He said, why'd you let her do that? Yeah? Why?
Speaker 1: He said? Why did you let her? Explain the name
Speaker 1: for him getting robbed? But I said, she got me
Speaker 1: for a lot more than she got you. The whole
Speaker 1: thing was like a scene right out of the Hangover.
Speaker 1: It was a classic what happens in Vegas stays in
Speaker 1: Vegas moment. Bob says that he did all this simply
Speaker 1: because he liked to have fun and he valued Frank
Speaker 1: Wilson as a friend. But all of this male bonding
Speaker 1: served another purpose. It built trust, something that Bob might
Speaker 1: use to his own advantage if he ever wanted to,
Speaker 1: which is why in early nineteen seventy seven, when Bob
Speaker 1: was asked to fix a high profile murder case. Bob
Speaker 1: thought of Judge Frank Wilson. Bob says he just knew
Speaker 1: this would be the judge to ask the man to
Speaker 1: take the bribe, and if it worked, if Bob could
Speaker 1: pull this off, he'd prove his worth to Pat Marcy
Speaker 1: and the Mob. He'd be the man in Chicago. I'm
Speaker 1: Jake Halburn and this is Deep Cover mob Land, Episode three.
Speaker 1: The fix Bob's relationship with Judge Wilson. It was complicated,
Speaker 1: and all we have is Bob's version of what it
Speaker 1: was like, which should be taken with a grain of salt,
Speaker 1: because look and stories, Bob tends to be the hero.
Speaker 1: With this in mind, I did some digging and tried
Speaker 1: to figure out exactly who Judge Wilson was. People who
Speaker 1: knew the judge well remember him as a no nonsense
Speaker 1: Irish guy, a World War Two vette who walked with
Speaker 1: a limp and had a reputation for being tough on
Speaker 1: the bench, a serious man. So he walked with a limp.
Speaker 1: Here's crabby, and he was very state minded. That's Bill Murphy.
Speaker 1: He worked as a public defender in Frank Wilson's courtroom.
Speaker 1: He also happened to go to college with Bob, so
Speaker 1: he actually knew both men pretty well. He says that
Speaker 1: in college, Bob was a wild man. I mean, I
Speaker 1: like Bob. He was a good wrestler. When he was
Speaker 1: at college, he was He's good in a fistfight, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, he just was out of control. By contrast,
Speaker 1: Judge Wilson, or Frank as he calls him, was a
Speaker 1: play by the rules kind of guy. Lawyers would you know,
Speaker 1: come in to say hello to Frank. You know, it
Speaker 1: was pretty congenial. If there were certain lawyers that would
Speaker 1: come into his chambers, he would signal me to come
Speaker 1: in there too, being a witness that no hanky pinky
Speaker 1: was going to go on. Does that make sense to you?
Speaker 1: This made perfect sense to me. This was a city
Speaker 1: and a courthouse plagued by corruption, and Judge Wilson was
Speaker 1: taking precautions, protecting himself and making it clear that he
Speaker 1: was operating above board. Murphy says one time a lawyer
Speaker 1: tried to send Judge Wilson a referral fee. Apparently the
Speaker 1: judge had sent a client his way and lawyer wanted
Speaker 1: to show his thanks. Wilson flat out refused. Apparently, this
Speaker 1: lawyer was still determined to show his gratitude, so he
Speaker 1: sent a case of scotch to Judge Wilson's bailiff. You
Speaker 1: know the guy in the courtroom who says all rise.
Speaker 1: Judge Wilson put the kibosh on this too. He insisted
Speaker 1: that the bailiff returned the case of scotch. In fact,
Speaker 1: he asked Bill Murphy to help move the liquor because
Speaker 1: apparently the bailiff was an older guy and had a disability.
Speaker 1: Frank said to me, he said, we're not taking I'm
Speaker 1: not letting my bailiff take that. He can't carry it
Speaker 1: back to the lawyer's car. Would you do it? And
Speaker 1: I did. Murphy was also now a witness, someone who
Speaker 1: saw the judge had done the right thing and saw
Speaker 1: that the judge didn't want even a whiff of impropriety
Speaker 1: in his courtroom. Bill Murphy told me that's just who
Speaker 1: Frank Wilson was. An honest man. I didn't really have
Speaker 1: you know, illusions about him. He was a very tough father.
Speaker 1: You know. He wasn't telling me it was great all
Speaker 1: the time. It was kind of just the opposite. But
Speaker 1: in spite of all that, I really admired him. That's
Speaker 1: Frank's daughter, mary Anne Duncan. I don't know. He just
Speaker 1: really loved the law. He watched Perry Mason, like every
Speaker 1: single parent Mason about one hundred times. And when he
Speaker 1: became a judge, I don't think I've ever seen anyone
Speaker 1: happier in a job. Marianne says that her dad made
Speaker 1: a comfortable living as a judge. The family always had
Speaker 1: enough money because her dad was frugal, a no frills
Speaker 1: kind of guy. Like when they went on vacation, we
Speaker 1: would say like a Howard Johnson's, but then we would
Speaker 1: go have a drink or something at like the fancy hotel,
Speaker 1: but we'd be back at the more average place. So anyway,
Speaker 1: was never extravagant. She says that her father wasn't driven
Speaker 1: by money and would never take a bribe. Now you
Speaker 1: might be thinking, of course, isn't this what any daughter
Speaker 1: would say, But Marianne was adamant. I thought my father
Speaker 1: did anything wrong, I would admit it, you know, because
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be something I did, you know, it wouldn't
Speaker 1: be my fault. If he did something wrong. Marianne also
Speaker 1: disputes that her dad and Bob Cooley were even friends,
Speaker 1: and in a way, I can see why she says this.
Speaker 1: They seem kind of like opposites. But I can also
Speaker 1: see how Judge Wilson's honorable reputation would be attractive and
Speaker 1: quite useful to a guy like Bob Cooley, especially if
Speaker 1: he wanted to fix a murder case and make it
Speaker 1: all look perfectly legit. Bob says that he also chose
Speaker 1: Judge Wilson in part because he drank too much, and
Speaker 1: this was essentially his achilles heel. When I asked Marianne
Speaker 1: about this, she said her dad did have a drinking problem.
Speaker 1: He would drink to excess for a few weeks, then
Speaker 1: stop and go dry for a spell. The bottom line
Speaker 1: for Bob was he felt if he talked to the
Speaker 1: judge in just the right way, at just the right moment,
Speaker 1: the judge might agree to the bribe. I had no
Speaker 1: idea how I was going to approach until I walked
Speaker 1: up before him. I had no idea what I was
Speaker 1: going to say. I didn't like to prepare something. He
Speaker 1: was just gonna wing it. So here's what Bob says, happened.
Speaker 1: He had this restaurant, Grecos, and he knew that the
Speaker 1: judge liked to dine there. So Bob heads to Grecos
Speaker 1: one night, hoping to bump into the judge. Just so
Speaker 1: you can picture it, Grecos was a huge place, looked
Speaker 1: like a wine seller, adorned with ornamental trellises and vines,
Speaker 1: good home cooked food prepared by Italian ladies from the neighborhood. Anyway,
Speaker 1: Bob shows up and spots the judge sitting with some friends.
Speaker 1: He gets the judge's attention and brings him over to
Speaker 1: a secluded spot. Then, ever so casually, Bob says, Judge,
Speaker 1: somebody contacted me and wants me to handle a case.
Speaker 1: That was the word Bob always used in situations like this,
Speaker 1: handle a case. If he would have said to me anything,
Speaker 1: did he affect that I don't want to talk to
Speaker 1: you about it or whatever? You know, so be it
Speaker 1: and the conversation. But he said something that really struck
Speaker 1: me as bizarre. He said to Bob, you mean the
Speaker 1: Harry Alaman case. Bob was taken aback. It was as
Speaker 1: if the judge knew what Bob was going to ask
Speaker 1: before he even asked it. The judge then told Bob,
Speaker 1: they sojade me on that case. S o j that
Speaker 1: stands for substitution of judge in Illinois, if a case
Speaker 1: is assigned to a judge and for whatever reason, either
Speaker 1: side doesn't like that judge, they have a chance to
Speaker 1: veto him ask for another judge. So that's what Wilson
Speaker 1: was saying to Bob. He'd been so ojade blocked on
Speaker 1: this case. Turns out Harry Alimon's legal team had vetoed Wilson,
Speaker 1: and they've done this almost certainly because of Wilson's tough reputation.
Speaker 1: This was news to Bob, but Bob had a hunch
Speaker 1: that with the Mob's help, they could pull some strings
Speaker 1: and undo this, get the case in front of Wilson,
Speaker 1: in other words, a problem that could be solved. Bob
Speaker 1: just plays it cool. He doesn't say anything right away. Instead,
Speaker 1: he waits. A few nights later. According to Bob, he
Speaker 1: bumps into the judge again and brings up the whole
Speaker 1: matter once more, tells the judge what a weak case
Speaker 1: he thinks this is, and makes his pitch, so I
Speaker 1: can get the case to you, you know, will you
Speaker 1: take it not? Saying to fix it or anything else.
Speaker 1: And he said to me, you can't do it. And
Speaker 1: I said, well, I think we can notice how careful
Speaker 1: Bob is being. He's poking around looking for a soft spot,
Speaker 1: testing whether the judge would even consider this. And Bob
Speaker 1: says the judge isn't giving him a hard no, more
Speaker 1: like a maybe, which is all he needs. Now comes
Speaker 1: the full charm offensive. He invites the judge to dinner
Speaker 1: at his restaurant. Bob's laid out all the groundwork. Now
Speaker 1: it's just a matter of locking him in. About maybe
Speaker 1: fut halfway through dinner, the judge went to the bathroom.
Speaker 1: That's when I thought I will approach him. This would
Speaker 1: be the moment he may be thinking really in the bathroom,
Speaker 1: But as you'll come to see, this was Bob's go
Speaker 1: to place to have discreet conversations. Anyway, Bob says. They
Speaker 1: get to the bathroom and Bob slips his hand into
Speaker 1: his pocket and clutches a wad of cash twenty five
Speaker 1: hundred dollars. I just took it out, and I put
Speaker 1: my hand out, and he put his hand out and
Speaker 1: he took it, and he said, what's this for? And
Speaker 1: I said, judge, you know that's for you. I said,
Speaker 1: if I can't get the case to yousopiate and I
Speaker 1: walked out. It was a shrewd play. Bob knew perfectly
Speaker 1: well that once the judge accepted the money it was
Speaker 1: a done deal. He was corrupted. So for the time being,
Speaker 1: the judge appeared to be on board. Bob had promised
Speaker 1: him that he'd get him ten thousand total once he'd
Speaker 1: quitted Harry Alaman, so that was one problem solved. Not
Speaker 1: long after this, Bob got a call from a mobster
Speaker 1: he knew. He asked Bob to meet at a motel
Speaker 1: out by the airport. When Bob arrives, they head upstairs
Speaker 1: to an empty room. A few minutes later, there's a
Speaker 1: knock on the door and in walks Harry Elaman. Harry
Speaker 1: had stone cold eyes. He just did. He reminded me
Speaker 1: a lot of Pat Marcy. Pat Marcy was the same way,
Speaker 1: but Harry looked pure evil. Apparently there was no mistaking
Speaker 1: who or what this guy was. He looks like what
Speaker 1: he was. He looks like a mobith guy, short, in
Speaker 1: pretty good shape physically. All he's wore a suit. Never
Speaker 1: saw Harry without him in a suit. I wonder if
Speaker 1: he went swimming in a fucking suit. Technically, Bob wasn't
Speaker 1: representing Harry. Harry had a veteran trial lawyer who would
Speaker 1: be arguing the case in the courtroom. Bob was just
Speaker 1: the fixer. But apparently Harry wanted to talk with Bob
Speaker 1: directly about Judge Wilson. According to Bob, Harry was worried,
Speaker 1: worried about the judge's tough reputation, and you can understand
Speaker 1: why Harry might also be a little confused. First, his
Speaker 1: legal team had blocked this judge. Now they were wrangling
Speaker 1: to get into his courtroom, which was kind of weird.
Speaker 1: And apparently Harry wanted to make sure that everything was
Speaker 1: under control. And I said, look, I said yes, I
Speaker 1: said I would handle the case. And that's when he said,
Speaker 1: if there's a problem, you're going to have a problem.
Speaker 1: What does he mean by that, If there's a problem,
Speaker 1: you're going to have a problem, Like, what does that
Speaker 1: actually mean? It means that you're probably going to get killed?
Speaker 1: What I assume it means. Even so, Bob says he
Speaker 1: didn't worry. Everything was going as planned, and the case
Speaker 1: did end up in front of Wilson. It wasn't until
Speaker 1: the trial began that Bob started to panic. By the
Speaker 1: time that Harry Alaman went on trial for murder, it
Speaker 1: was already a full blown media spectacle. Harry showed up
Speaker 1: in court dressed to the nines with all the panash
Speaker 1: of a celebrity. He even looked a bit like a
Speaker 1: young al pacino, sporting a series of silk ties and
Speaker 1: perfectly tailored suits. The way the media described him, it
Speaker 1: was like the Grim Reaper had gone shopping at Barney's.
Speaker 1: Right off the bat, Harry's defense team tells the judge
Speaker 1: that they're giving up their right to a trial by jury.
Speaker 1: Now some defendants like juries see them as more sympathetic,
Speaker 1: which makes sense, unless, of course, you've bribed the judge.
Speaker 1: Then you want a bench trial because in a bench trial,
Speaker 1: well it's all up to the judge. With that matter settled,
Speaker 1: the trial begins. The first witness to be called to
Speaker 1: the stand was from the family of the victim, Billy Logan,
Speaker 1: his sister you know her as Aunt Betty. The famous
Speaker 1: Chicago columnist Mike Royko captured the scene. He described Harry's
Speaker 1: reaction as the Logan sisters testified about the death of
Speaker 1: their brother. He wrote, quote, Harry just sat there, looking
Speaker 1: as cool and impassive as he has throughout. If being
Speaker 1: unjustly accused is a nightmarish experience, he's holding up about
Speaker 1: as well as anyone could. Turns out, this cool and
Speaker 1: impassive appearance. It was very deliberate on Harry's part. It
Speaker 1: was a whole way of being, and Harry's family had
Speaker 1: to follow it. Frankie for Leano, his daughter, remembers this, well,
Speaker 1: if I don't care what they say to me, I
Speaker 1: don't care what they do to me. You are just
Speaker 1: show no emotion, get up and walk away from these reporters.
Speaker 1: Don't give anybody any satisfaction. Okay, let's talk about motive.
Speaker 1: This was a hole in the prosecution's case which they
Speaker 1: never really addressed in a satisfying way. There were reports
Speaker 1: in the press that Billy Logan may have been murdered
Speaker 1: because he refused to help the mob in a hijacking scheme. Now,
Speaker 1: if you recall, Billy was a teamster in theory. He
Speaker 1: had access to all kinds of information about trucks, when
Speaker 1: they arrived, when they departed, what they were carrying. The
Speaker 1: mob apparently wanted this info, Billy said no, and well
Speaker 1: he ended up dead because of it. That was one
Speaker 1: theory anyway. I say theory because Billy was dead so
Speaker 1: he couldn't talk, and the mob well didn't exactly have
Speaker 1: a pr guide to comment, so theory was all there
Speaker 1: was without a clear cut motive. The heart of the
Speaker 1: prosecution's case was the testimony of not one, but two
Speaker 1: witnesses to the crime. The first was Harry Alaman's accomplice,
Speaker 1: the driver of the getaway car, Louis Almeida, a childhood
Speaker 1: friend of Harry's. Louise testimony was pretty damning. Louis recalled
Speaker 1: the knight of the murder, how they'd driven over to
Speaker 1: Billy's house, how Harry had yelled out the car window
Speaker 1: to get Billy's attention and then shot him twice, he said,
Speaker 1: five or six seconds past, and then Harry shot Billy
Speaker 1: a third and final time. Louis said he started to
Speaker 1: speed away, but Harry told him, quote, drive slow, he's gone.
Speaker 1: It was a chilling account of a professional murder. The
Speaker 1: problem with Louis as a witness is that he was
Speaker 1: serving a ten year federal sentence on a weapon's charge.
Speaker 1: He was testifying, at least in part to get his
Speaker 1: sentence reduced. In the end, the whole trial really came
Speaker 1: down to the second witness, Robert Lowe. This is the
Speaker 1: guy who told Betty I saw it all, the guy
Speaker 1: who'd been out walking his dog when Billy Logan got shot.
Speaker 1: A guy who had absolutely nothing to gain and everything
Speaker 1: to lose by testifying, and you know it's the seventies.
Speaker 1: He was a young guy, very impressionable, and I think
Speaker 1: that did carry the day. That's Maurice Posley. He's a
Speaker 1: former Chicago journalist who wrote a book about Robert Lowe
Speaker 1: and this trial. It's called Everybody Pays. It really boiled
Speaker 1: down to Bob low and whether you believed Bob Lowe,
Speaker 1: and he was very believable. Basically, Poseley says that Robert
Speaker 1: Lowe is the star of the show. Everyone knew it
Speaker 1: from the moment Robert Lowe entered the courthouse, because he
Speaker 1: was surrounded by guards all with their guns drawn. It
Speaker 1: was like the President had arrived or something. And in
Speaker 1: a way it was no less momentous. Here was a
Speaker 1: regular guy, father of four, working stiff, don't forget dog
Speaker 1: owner who'd volunteered to take on the mob and thus
Speaker 1: far he had not been killed. That was like being
Speaker 1: in downtown Chicago and seeing Bigfoot with a red sox
Speaker 1: hat on Maurice Poseley. He points out, this didn't just happen.
Speaker 1: Robert Low didn't just wake up one morning, make a
Speaker 1: cup of foldiers, look in the mirror and say, you
Speaker 1: know what, I think I'm going to testify against that
Speaker 1: really scary hitman today. No, the prosecutors told Robert basically
Speaker 1: that he had a chance to do the impossible, put
Speaker 1: a mob hitman behind bars from murder. They laid it
Speaker 1: on thick, this was an opportunity that rarely came long
Speaker 1: for men such as them to actually get a conviction
Speaker 1: in these cases, and that this guy was the lynchpin,
Speaker 1: and so he became sort of, you know, their darling.
Speaker 1: You might say, we'll take care of you, will give
Speaker 1: you a new identity. You're going to have to change
Speaker 1: your life, you're going to have to move, but it's
Speaker 1: going to be an opportunity for you. And they impressed
Speaker 1: upon him his value to them, which was sort of
Speaker 1: not just a personal value, but it was a value
Speaker 1: to the society at large of what he was doing
Speaker 1: as a public service, but that's not all. In his book,
Speaker 1: Posley recounts a scene where Robert is told by prosecutors
Speaker 1: that he might be in danger. The subtext was clear,
Speaker 1: sign up with us, do your part, and you'll be safe.
Speaker 1: Do this for the good of your wife and your kids.
Speaker 1: So yeah, just a little bit of pressure. At the
Speaker 1: court house, he took the witness stand and began to
Speaker 1: recount what he'd seen that night. He had been taking
Speaker 1: his dog for a walk when he saw Billy Logan
Speaker 1: come out of his house. Robert began to cross the
Speaker 1: street so he could chat with Billy. Then a car
Speaker 1: pulled up. Robert testified that he heard a bang, and
Speaker 1: then he saw Logan's body fly back about four or
Speaker 1: five feet into some bushes. He then heard another bang.
Speaker 1: Moments later, the car door opened and an armed man emerged.
Speaker 1: Robert said his dog, Ginger, lunged at the man. He
Speaker 1: had to hold Ginger back. Then he made eye contact
Speaker 1: with the killer for four full seconds. Then came the
Speaker 1: most dramatic moment in the whole trial. The prosecutor said,
Speaker 1: mister Lowe, I'd like you to look around the courtroom
Speaker 1: and see if you can see that man in court today.
Speaker 1: That's when Robert raises his hand and points directly at Harry.
Speaker 1: The prosecutor then says, let the record indicate that the
Speaker 1: witness has identified the defendant Harry Alaman. Robert's wife, who
Speaker 1: was seated on a front row bench, heaved an audible
Speaker 1: sigh of relief. It was as if, after all of
Speaker 1: these weeks and months and years of living with this nightmare, maybe,
Speaker 1: just maybe it was finally over. During the cross examination,
Speaker 1: the defense did its best to poke holes in Robert's
Speaker 1: credibility and its testimony. They focused on inconsistencies in what
Speaker 1: he told the authorities, mainly small details like whether or
Speaker 1: not the getaway car had bucket seats. They said, in effect,
Speaker 1: his story at trial didn't match up exactly with what
Speaker 1: he'd told investigators previously. The defense attorney pressed on relentlessly.
Speaker 1: He questioned Robert's memory, hammering away in particular at the
Speaker 1: idea that he'd stared at the killer for a full
Speaker 1: four seconds. I'm going to read you a portion of
Speaker 1: his cross examination. Defense, how was this man dress that
Speaker 1: you stared at for four seconds? Robert, I was looking
Speaker 1: at his face? Defense, Well, it was a brightly lighted area.
Speaker 1: Was bright enough to see good, wasn't it, mister witness Robert, Yes, sir, Defense,
Speaker 1: And you can't tell the court what the man was wearing, Robert,
Speaker 1: I wasn't looking at anything but his face. Defense. Was
Speaker 1: he wearing a sweater? Robert I didn't notice. Defense. Was
Speaker 1: he wearing a coat? Robert I don't know, sir, Defense.
Speaker 1: Was he wearing a breaker? Robert, I don't know, sir, Defense.
Speaker 1: You want the court to believe that you stared at
Speaker 1: a man for four seconds and you can't tell him
Speaker 1: one thing as to his apparel. Prosecutor objection Judge. Judge
Speaker 1: overruled Robert. All I had in my mind on was
Speaker 1: his face. I'll never forget that face as long as
Speaker 1: I live. The good news for Robert was that most
Speaker 1: of his testimony was corroborated by other witnesses. His account
Speaker 1: matched up with what Louis Almeida, the accomplice, had described.
Speaker 1: It also matched up with what Aunt Bettie had said.
Speaker 1: At some point, there was a brief recess, and there
Speaker 1: was this moment captured by a local reporter. One of
Speaker 1: the victim's sisters approached Robert. Lowe's wife, grabbed her hand,
Speaker 1: then told her tearfully what your husband's doing. It can't
Speaker 1: bring Billy back, but maybe it'll stop them from doing
Speaker 1: this to anybody else. The scene made the papers. It
Speaker 1: seemed to capture the human drama that was unfolding here,
Speaker 1: a reunion of neighbors. Once upon a time they waved
Speaker 1: friendly hellos across the street, and now one family was
Speaker 1: risking everything so that the other might have a shot
Speaker 1: at justice. It was the kind of story that could
Speaker 1: make people care, see this is just not another mob murder,
Speaker 1: but a parable about courage and family and community. The
Speaker 1: newspapers covered each day's proceedings ravenously. It was a media circus,
Speaker 1: and at the center of this was Judge Frank Wilson.
Speaker 1: His daughter mary Anne told me that the press camped
Speaker 1: out on their front lawn, that they hounded her father
Speaker 1: with questions and her too. It was relentless. Everyone was
Speaker 1: angling for a clue. How would the judge rule? To
Speaker 1: local media in Chicago, the trial of Harry Alman was
Speaker 1: the gift that kept on giving. Every day offered new
Speaker 1: storylines that enticed readers and soul papers. I was still
Speaker 1: living with my mother and I was commuting on the
Speaker 1: train because I was on the south Side, and so
Speaker 1: every day I was reading the paper on the train
Speaker 1: and there was this trial going on day after day.
Speaker 1: This is Katherine Fleming, one of the many women who
Speaker 1: worked for Bob over the years. At the time of
Speaker 1: the trial, she was his trusted secretary, and well, I'll
Speaker 1: just let her explain their relationship. You know, he was nice,
Speaker 1: we liked each other, We worked together easily. There was
Speaker 1: an attraction. So yeah, it was easy. It was easy.
Speaker 1: It was easy, it was fun. Katherine dated Bob on
Speaker 1: and off for about twenty years and what was largely
Speaker 1: a commitment free relationship. They were very close, but she
Speaker 1: says she didn't know the ins and outs of how
Speaker 1: Bob operated. Yeah, I'm not sure. I really didn't know
Speaker 1: what he was doing. I was not part of any
Speaker 1: client meetings ever, so I had no sense of what
Speaker 1: he was or wasn't doing other than getting criminals off,
Speaker 1: for instance. Even though she was reading about the Harry
Speaker 1: Alaman trial every day on our way to work, she
Speaker 1: had no idea that Bob was involved in this case.
Speaker 1: He never let it slip, not at work, not in bed,
Speaker 1: not ever. Bob kept all of his dealings in this
Speaker 1: case very hush hush. The best thing he could do,
Speaker 1: in fact, was stay away from everyone involved. So he
Speaker 1: says he wasn't thrilled when during the thick of the
Speaker 1: trial he got a call from Judge Wilson himself. I
Speaker 1: get a phone call from the judge. He called me
Speaker 1: from a pay phone over there by twenty sixth Street.
Speaker 1: He calls and he says, you know, can I meet
Speaker 1: He wanted to meet me at the at a restaurant
Speaker 1: over on Ciero. According to Bob, he shows up at
Speaker 1: the restaurant, sees the judge and together they head off
Speaker 1: to yep, you guessed it, the bathroom. And he's like,
Speaker 1: he's like shaking, He's like all nervous. What's matter? And
Speaker 1: I said, Judge, you know, look, you know what what
Speaker 1: can I tell you? Now? I am nervous, you know,
Speaker 1: and there's nothing I can do about it. And I said, well, Judge, hey,
Speaker 1: you know what can I tell you if something goes wrong?
Speaker 1: I said, I've got a problem. And I had no
Speaker 1: idea what he would do now myself, because he might
Speaker 1: find him guilty. I mean, that's with making me nervous
Speaker 1: because it sounds like maybe he's gonna say forget about it.
Speaker 1: I don't know what he's going to do, Jake. I
Speaker 1: don't know what you're gonna do tomorrow. I don't know
Speaker 1: what he's gonna do. What would happen if he found
Speaker 1: him guilty? I'd probably wind up getting killed. Bob was
Speaker 1: a bit shaken, but he did his best to calm
Speaker 1: the judge down, assure him that everything would be all right.
Speaker 1: And it turns out Bob did have an idea how
Speaker 1: he might fix things or make them better. He says
Speaker 1: that at one point the judge it complained about how
Speaker 1: much money he was being paid, So Bob decided to
Speaker 1: go back to Pat Marcy and see if they could
Speaker 1: up the bribe offer more than just the ten thousand.
Speaker 1: So Bob paid a visit to Counselor's row and found
Speaker 1: Pat Marcy. The mob's politicals are the guy with the
Speaker 1: tinted glasses. We walked out into the hall and I said,
Speaker 1: he's a nervous wreck. Well he better doing you? I said,
Speaker 1: you should we offer him some more? Should we offer
Speaker 1: him some more? And he says he said he'd do
Speaker 1: it for ten. It better be done for ten. That
Speaker 1: saw not a nickel more that ratt and sib and
Speaker 1: that was it. There was nothing more that Bob could do.
Speaker 1: The trial drew to a close in late May of
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven. Bob, by his own admission, was a
Speaker 1: nervous wreck. So the night before the verdict was announced,
Speaker 1: Bob did well what Bob always liked to do. He
Speaker 1: hit the town kind of like a last hurrah. I
Speaker 1: went to my restaurant, I went to the nightclubs, a
Speaker 1: couple of nightclubs. I was out until about met maybe
Speaker 1: about three or four o'clock in the morning. I went
Speaker 1: home with one of my sweethearts. When we got up
Speaker 1: in the morning, I packed a couple of bags. That's
Speaker 1: when I said, well, just in case there's a problem,
Speaker 1: I'm getting the hell out of here, Bob says the
Speaker 1: next morning, he got on the highway and headed west.
Speaker 1: Had no idea where he was going, just away from Chicago,
Speaker 1: because he knew if the verdict was guilty, he'd be
Speaker 1: on the hook. Pat Marcy would hold him accountable. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: back in Chicago, it was standing room only in the courtroom.
Speaker 1: It seemed like the whole city was hanging on the outcome.
Speaker 1: What would Judge Wilson do? Did he have enough reasonable
Speaker 1: doubt to acquit or would he send a hitman to
Speaker 1: jail for murder for the first time and as long
Speaker 1: as anyone could remember. The judge began his statement by
Speaker 1: issuing a stern warning. He said, quote, all right, ladies
Speaker 1: and gentlemen, it's now time for the finding by this court.
Speaker 1: When I announced my decision, I will not tolerate any
Speaker 1: outbursts by anybody in this courtroom. He then explained that
Speaker 1: in his tenure as a judge, he'd presided in over
Speaker 1: a thousand cases, some tough, some easy. He'd even sentenced
Speaker 1: two men to the electric chair. Although this case has
Speaker 1: created a certain amount of public interest, it is not
Speaker 1: a particularly difficult one, he told the courtroom. It all
Speaker 1: came down to the credibility of the two eye witnesses,
Speaker 1: he explained. The judge said he was required by law
Speaker 1: to view the accomplices testimony with suspicion because he was
Speaker 1: an accessory to the murder. The judge gave more credence
Speaker 1: to the testimony of Robert Lowe, but he wasn't entirely
Speaker 1: won over by it either. He pointed out some discrepancies
Speaker 1: between what Robert said on the stand and what he
Speaker 1: told investigators prior to that. The judge went on to say, quote,
Speaker 1: my job here is not to say whether the defendant
Speaker 1: is innocent, and I do not say at this time
Speaker 1: that he is innocent. That is between him and his God.
Speaker 1: That's the moment that made it into all the papers,
Speaker 1: the moment when everyone seemed to understand where exactly this
Speaker 1: was headed. Johannes and Tanello, the niece of the victim,
Speaker 1: remembers this moment vividly because I remember my mom squeezing
Speaker 1: my hand and she started to cry, and he said,
Speaker 1: how could this be? How could it be that he's
Speaker 1: saying this is between him and his God. I think
Speaker 1: everybody was just stunned and it wasn't making any sense.
Speaker 1: The judge continued, my decision may not be a popular one,
Speaker 1: but for those who disagree, I wish to state that
Speaker 1: every defendant, and I mean every defendant, no matter who
Speaker 1: he might be, is entitled to a fair trial. With
Speaker 1: all of this in mind, the judge concluded, I find
Speaker 1: the state has fallen far short of their burden of
Speaker 1: proving the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. There was
Speaker 1: an uproar for Harry's daughter, Frankie. There was no immediate
Speaker 1: joy or even relief. It was just like, I don't
Speaker 1: even know. I was just numb. That was just numb.
Speaker 1: My mom was next to me and just staying there,
Speaker 1: and my Mom's like, it's okay, It's gonna be okay.
Speaker 1: Harry eventually made his way out of the courtroom, walked
Speaker 1: away a freeman, all the while the news cameraman clicked away.
Speaker 1: It was an iconic moment. Here's Maurice Poseley, the journalist,
Speaker 1: the image of Harry walking out of the courthouse with
Speaker 1: his wife and attorney with a sort of smirk, self
Speaker 1: satisfied smirk on his face that gave you the impression
Speaker 1: of see, I could have told you that this was
Speaker 1: going to happen. Meanwhile, miles away in his car heading west,
Speaker 1: Bob Cooley was listening to the news I heard on
Speaker 1: the radio. You know, the judge found him not guilty.
Speaker 1: You know, everybody's screaming because the evidence was overwhelming and
Speaker 1: all the rest of that bullshit. I turned the car around,
Speaker 1: turned his car around because he'd done it. He'd gotten
Speaker 1: the verdict he'd wanted. He'd come through for Harry Alaman,
Speaker 1: and more importantly, for pat Marcy, the Mob's political czar,
Speaker 1: Bob had taken a huge risk. Even for a veteran
Speaker 1: gambler like Bob. This was an epic roll of the dice.
Speaker 1: As the city of Chicago came back into view and
Speaker 1: the recently completed Sears Tower loomed in the distance, it
Speaker 1: must have seemed like this city was his for the taking.
Speaker 1: But first there was something he had to do. He says,
Speaker 1: he had to pay off Judge Wilson, pay off the
Speaker 1: balance of what he owed, because he'd only given him
Speaker 1: twenty five hundred so far. They arranged to meet at
Speaker 1: a restaurant on this final meaning between the two of them.
Speaker 1: Bob says he decided to bring along his secretary slash lover,
Speaker 1: Catherine Fleming. He said he did it to lighten the mood,
Speaker 1: though he didn't tell Katherine why they were meeting up
Speaker 1: with the judge or even who he was. When they
Speaker 1: arrived at the restaurant, they spotted the judge. Bob says
Speaker 1: he looked terrible, like he'd aged fifteen years in the
Speaker 1: last two weeks. Katherine had a similar memory. He looked old, alcoholic, thin, drawn, sad, unhappy.
Speaker 1: They quickly parted ways with Catherine and looked for a
Speaker 1: place to talk. We walked into the bathroom. He turns around,
Speaker 1: he said, you've destroyed me. According to Bob, the judge
Speaker 1: told him that he was going to be crucified in
Speaker 1: the newspapers for this decision, that his days as a
Speaker 1: judge were effectively over. He told Bob, you did this
Speaker 1: to me. At some point, Bob says, he handed him
Speaker 1: an envelope with the money, but he didn't know what
Speaker 1: to say to the judge, Not really, I mean, what
Speaker 1: was there to say? Even smooth talking Bob Cooley was
Speaker 1: at a loss for words, and before he could figure
Speaker 1: it out, the judge just turned around and walked out
Speaker 1: the door. After leaving the bathroom, the judge sat down
Speaker 1: next to Katherine and he said something to her that
Speaker 1: she still remembers very clearly, even now, almost forty five
Speaker 1: years later. The judge looked at me and he said,
Speaker 1: you look like a nice girl. Stay away from him.
Speaker 1: He's bad. It was a very pointed remark. What do
Speaker 1: you make of that when he says it to you
Speaker 1: that he was having a problem with Bob. I just
Speaker 1: slipped him in the eye and let him know that
Speaker 1: I was listening to him. That's it, That's all you
Speaker 1: can do. Bob soon emerged from the bathroom. He glanced
Speaker 1: over saw the judge with Catherine, but he couldn't bring
Speaker 1: himself to join them. He says, he didn't want to
Speaker 1: be there, and so he walked past their table and
Speaker 1: just kept going. Next time on deep Cover, I said,
Speaker 1: if anybody thinks for one second, I'm gonna even take
Speaker 1: a beating, they're thinking wrong, I said. And if I
Speaker 1: think I got a problem with you, I said, You're
Speaker 1: gonna have the fucking problem. Deep Cover is produced by
Speaker 1: Jacob Smith and Amy Gaines and edited by Karen Shakurge.
Speaker 1: Our senior editor is Jan Guera. Original music in our
Speaker 1: theme was composed by Louise Gara and Fawn Williams as
Speaker 1: our engineer. Our art this season was drawn by Cheryl
Speaker 1: Cook and designed by Sean Karney. Mia Lobell is our
Speaker 1: executive producer. Special thanks to Heather Fain, John Schnarz, Carli Mcgliori,
Speaker 1: Maya Kany, Christina Sullivan, Eric Sandler, Mary Beth Smith, Brant Haynes,
Speaker 1: Maggie Taylor, a Coolemarano, Megan Larson, Royston Beserve, Lucy Sullivan,
Speaker 1: Edith Russello, Riley Sullivan, Jason Gambrel, Martin Gonzalez, and Jacob Weisberg.
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Halbern. Subscribe to Pushkin Plus and you can
Speaker 1: binge the rest of the season right now adds free.
Speaker 1: Find Pushkin Plus on the deep Cover show page in
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot fm. To find more
Speaker 1: Pushkin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to podcasts.