WEBVTT - The Case of a Lifetime 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.119 I remember so clearly the first time I told this story. 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:05.600 It was to my good friend Johnny at a bar 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:08.200 in Atlanta during the summer of two thousand and three. 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:11.080 After a few bourbon on the rocks, the details were 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:14.600 just flowing out of me. Muhammad Ali was back to 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:17.520 boxing in the fall of nineteen seventy after a three 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:21.840 year suspension for refusing to enter the military draft. There 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:25.680 were celebrities, politician, journalists, and hustlers from all over the 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:31.319 country that converged into Atlanta to celebrate his return. I 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:34.560 told him about a hustler named Gordon Williams, a k a. 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:37.800 Chicken Man, who was throwing the biggest party of his life. 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:41.680 But when his guests walked inside, they were greeted by 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:45.440 seven mask gunmen. Was sawed off shotguns who escorted them 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:48.279 down to the basement, stripped them out of their clothes, 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:51.440 and robbed them of a million dollars in cash and jewelry. 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:55.320 When I was done, Johnny looked at me with a 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:59.120 shocked expression on his face. Slowly, he turned to the 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:02.120 stranger sitting at the barn is left and said, you've 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:04.960 got to hear this story. Then he looked back at 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:09.960 me and demanded, tell it again, Jeff Okay, Johnny here 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:14.080 it is. Why did the press keep following this story? 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:18.240 Mamma Ali, Cassius Clay, there's not one number two. It 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:22.759 was a big robber. You're ready to worry Blackmark. Yeah, 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:27.680 I said they had robbed the blackmark. This fight represented 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:31.920 the brace Muhammad Ali. All the hotels were so loud, 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:36.600 guys had their rolls royces flown to a Maxi beautiful people. 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:42.200 Little bit star Ali was in exile in the boxing community. 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:46.640 He was stripped of his heavyweight title and the big 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:50.280 fight commissions. No one would touch him. They wasn't diving 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:54.120 and they were serious dropped because they hadn't known when 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:57.200 they were robbing. Then they were robbed. So when did 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:05.760 the investigation end? You wanted from my Heart radio and 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:14.920 doghouse Pictures. This is fight Night. I'm Jeff Keithing. Ever 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:17.000 since I was a kid, I've had a passion for 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:20.640 true crime. It all started forty years ago with my 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:23.880 dad in a hotel room in New York City. He 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:27.560 showed me a very r rated film, The French Connection 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:32.120 Behind My Mom's Back. This nine seventies true crime thriller 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:35.920 star Gene Hackman as the fearless detective pop by Doyle 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:40.359 and Fernando Ray as the cunning French heroine smuggler known 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:44.040 as Frog One. It was a classic depiction of cop 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:49.200 versus criminal, cat versus mouse, but also showed the incredibly 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:53.720 thin line between police and the criminals they chase. Needless 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:57.560 to say, I was hooked. Fast forward twenty years later, 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:00.239 my dad told me a true prime story that had 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:03.560 all the same things I loved about that movie. This 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:07.440 one was based in my hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. Another 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:12.079 classic case of cop versus criminal, but this time the 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:21.320 cat protects the mouse. Good morning, Good morning, sir. How 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:24.960 are you doing. I think I'm okay. This is my dad, 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:27.920 Tom Keating. He was in Atlanta the night of the fight. 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:31.000 In fact, he was at the hotel where Muhammad Ali 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:33.120 was staying, and I called him to ask him a 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:35.320 few questions about what it was like, and I would 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:39.880 have been out of my element. And it was just 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:45.840 an overwhelming array of glitter and clothing and colors and 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:51.960 festivities and pomp and circumstance, which later was called the 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:57.160 you know, the most unusual collection of black power and 0:03:57.200 --> 0:04:02.120 black money, uh and sports and in history coming together 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.720 in a city, in our city, in the city that 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:09.160 I've been in since, so it would have been just 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:12.480 over years later. When I was an aspiring screenwriter in 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:15.880 my early thirties, my dad told me this incredible story 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:18.880 for the very first time. He remembered the headline from 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:21.919 the morning he left on his honeymoon with my mom, 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.359 so I dragged him down to the Decatur Library to 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:29.239 find out more. After hours searching through microfilm, we finally 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:33.240 got it. This is from the Atlanta Journal Evening edition, 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:39.200 October ninety. It was written by Orville Gaines and Larry Woods. 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:43.600 The headline reads like this, after fight partygoers robbed of 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:47.920 a hundred thousand in cash jewelry. My dad grinned when 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:50.719 he saw my reaction, and I said to him, this 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:54.359 is going to be my next film. This set me 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:56.680 on a path that led to the podcast you're listening 0:04:56.680 --> 0:05:00.120 to right now. The interviews in this show spent is 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:02.920 to four decades and were sourced from all kinds of 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:07.760 things like VHS tapes, microcossette camp orders, phone calls, anything 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:10.119 I could get my hands on. Some of these tapes 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:12.480 were never meant to be heard by anyone but me, 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:15.479 so bear with me because some of the recordings are 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:19.640 higher quality than others. But now many of the people 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:22.919 involved in this story are no longer alive, and I 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:26.200 need you to hear from them, the ones who lived it, 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:30.080 in their own words, so you can truly believe what happened. 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:38.320 After researching several more articles from newspapers around the country, 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:40.560 I was able to zero in on one of the 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:44.000 top cops on the case, J D. Hudson, and with 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.799 the help that the Public Affairs Division of the Atlanta 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:50.600 Police Department, I tracked him down and got an interview. 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:56.080 On July one, two thousand two, I parked my STUV 0:05:56.400 --> 0:05:59.240 on a street in southwest Atlanta and walked to the 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:02.200 front of J. D. Hudson's house. I knocked lightly on 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:05.320 the door and waited. When he finally came out, j 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:08.600 D immediately reminded me of the character Shaft played by 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:15.080 Richard Rowntree in the nineteen seventies crime films Shit, Chef's 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:19.159 his name, Chef's his game. He blocked the entrance while 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:22.039 puffing on a white out miniature cigar and blew a 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:26.200 big smoke ring that engulfed my head. He said, I 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:28.320 don't have to talk to you. I don't have to 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:35.400 talk to anybody, now get inside. While I was grateful 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:39.080 to escape the heat, j D was not particularly welcoming. 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:41.360 He didn't say a word as he led me back 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:44.480 to his living room and plopped down into his worn recliner. 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.920 Turned his attention back to the Williams sisters playing at 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:51.159 Wimbledon on TV. J D made it clear he would 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:53.880 not be turning off the game, though we did lower 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:56.560 the volume and notch is kind of a throwaway courtesy. 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:00.000 I pressed the record button and I asked my first quest, 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:10.040 gen what happened the night of the robbery? All right, 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:12.160 take me back to this party, because I'm so confused 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.320 about the point I think. Let me try to get 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:18.840 that you thankless birthday. J D told me about a 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:22.440 hustler named Fireball who asked his friend Chicken Man, toast 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.600 a big party in Atlanta after the Ali Corey fight. 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:30.040 Who's who of hustlers and gangsters from New York, Philly, 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:34.080 Miami and other big cities around the country were all invited. 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:37.560 Chicken Man wanted this to be like New Year's Eve, 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.800 the Super Bowl and Marty Grawl all rolled into one 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:46.680 big party and matter after the frightenes. Okay, when you 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:52.520 talk about a hustles party, rich very rich people, heaven, 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:55.400 the food you can eat right out of you can 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:59.600 drink Okay, Okay, that the big chatter they depend the 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:03.200 girls man. Okay, movie kind of stuff and expects him 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:11.880 and how about a day you know? Right? J D 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:14.960 had risen through the ranks of the Atlanta Police Department 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:18.520 to become the first black man in charge of internal affairs. 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:22.640 He also knew the world of these hustlers, and he 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:25.760 personally knew several of the people directly involved in the 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:29.440 party and the robbery. In fact, he grew up with 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:33.040 some of them in a predominantly black neighborhood in Atlanta 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:37.120 known as Buttermilk Bottom. I grew at an Atlanta the 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:40.839 neighborhood known as the Whole foot Water but that was 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:46.160 baptized at age twelve and the Butt Street Baptist Stretch 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:50.600 from Butler Street. I looked at the Salmon School. There 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:53.960 was some check Jackson and d l being on a Wednesday. 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:57.640 J D knew the world of hustlers and low level 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:00.840 criminals from an early age, but he was also front 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:03.640 and center in the earliest days of the civil rights movement. 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:07.400 Also that I had contact with Andy. I'm starting to 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:11.240 cooking and King and I were friends. And yeah, most 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:16.160 people in the movement Lenne King then Brown as we 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:20.840 grew up together, griping in my MC together. The Butler 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:23.520 Street y m c A was a very important institution 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:26.839 located uh in the Sweet Arban district of the Old 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:31.760 Fourth Ward. This is Dr Maurice Hobson, Atlanta historian, scholar 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:34.520 and author of the award winning book The Legend of 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:37.439 the Black Mecca, Politics and Class and the Making of 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:41.160 Modern Atlanta. Though it served, as you know, a venue 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:44.320 for the young Man's Christian Association, it also served as 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:47.040 the venue for the Hungry Club, which was the black 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:51.800 political sphere in Atlanta. So any political figure that was 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:54.319 interested in courting the black vote had to come to 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:57.000 the Butler Street y m c A. As with most 0:09:57.040 --> 0:10:00.079 places in the United States, African Americans were designated it 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:04.079 two low lying areas that oftentimes with flood it was 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:07.640 undesirable land because standing water or stagnant water that made 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:11.680 it more accessible for yellow fever malaria across the American South. 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:13.880 If you lived in that area, that was called the bottom. 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:17.680 So every black community across the American South, there's always 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:21.960 the bottoms, and it usually floods. That particular area becomes 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:25.760 very much a haven. As to how Black America really 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:29.160 begins to congregate, j D never intended to be a cop, 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:32.480 but when he decided to take the officers exam, he 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:35.400 aced it. He was destined for a life enforcing the 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:40.120 law as one of Atlanta's first black policeman. And I 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:43.360 sat down and picks in and made the highes bo 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:47.319 that side. It came up faces. I was one in 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:50.360 the chief praade with Herbert Jenkins, and he sware me 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:56.800 in as a Niga Polies, sware me in as a Nigatholies. 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:03.400 J D dealt with the same struggles that many black 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:07.040 men and women faced in Atlanta during the Civil Rights movement, 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:11.360 and the chief of Police, Herberty Jenkins, who swore j 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:14.719 D n using a racial slur, would develop into a 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:20.760 progressive leader defending the black citizens in the city. You 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:23.440 noticed I I didn't notice it. I just thought about 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:28.800 a respect because I'm used later when he evolved and 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:32.000 founded being one of the most liberal police chiefs in 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:35.480 the country. There's no accident that the headquarters of all 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:39.599 the civil rights movements located in the Atlantic because the 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:42.400 protection the lad Abo Atlanta said the government through her 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:47.360 Virginia's he would not allow whites to attack rights in Amata, 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:50.800 and he demanded were not have arresting. Atlanta was not 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:54.559 gonna be torn about our rights. Now. We were restrictive. 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:57.400 We could not arrest right people. We could not arrest 0:11:57.559 --> 0:12:01.920 white people in Atlanta. When the first black cops were 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:04.760 commissioned by the City of Atlanta, it was seen as 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:09.280 purely ceremonial and symbolic. However, the power bestowed upon them 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:12.400 as police officers had little to no effect. They had 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:16.679 no real policing powers. They could not arrest white people. 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:19.480 They were not even allowed to use the locker rooms 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:21.520 at the Atlanta Police station, and so they had to 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:23.839 get dressed at the Butler Street Y m c A. 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:29.640 And we worked uh all of the Avenue Van City 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:35.920 far as the avenue whatever. That was gradually expanded, but 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:39.959 we started it was very restrictive. Things eight hours. We 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:42.839 were not allowed to drive through his uniform through the 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:47.240 white community. We were not allowed to well our uniforms 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:52.920 home made defense on white prison. It was fascinating. You know, 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:58.760 you're a guy who had unprecedented authority in the back community, 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:03.720 no black man and whield the authority and in latter 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:05.559 in the city. As a matter of fact, that a 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.120 black policeman did, people did what you told him to do. 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:12.640 People ask you for information, that you were the webserviction there. 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:15.400 People smiled and waved at you. As a matter of fact, 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:17.800 people who followed us around us that we want as 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:21.679 every one on. Black people were very proud about. Yes 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:24.400 they were. Black communities of Atlanta were extremely proud of 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:27.400 these black police officers. And one of the things that 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:30.839 was characteristic of these police officers is that many of 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:33.040 them were from the community in which they were police, 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:36.679 and so there was a trust between black communities and 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:40.440 the black police officers. And the rules and laws changed, 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:47.880 you still had hostility, had resentment. Ah ask a couple 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:49.319 of guys who didn't want to work from me, who 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:53.199 were white. Once they wake from me, they want to 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:57.079 leave men. I was hin the top of the hill, 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:03.199 I was hot, stunned, I was police celebrity. That was 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:07.880 the vie White brothers on the police department. He's a 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:11.320 big to write with me. So it makes some cases. 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.800 J D had been dealing with inequality and racial tension 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:19.840 on the Atlanta police force for years. In fact, early 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:23.000 on he wasn't allowed to arrest white people, but he 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:26.400 would eventually be faced with an even more complicated dilemma 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:29.800 having to arrest black people who were out fighting for 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:33.520 his rights as a black man. This tension came to 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:36.840 a head at a place called Lebs Diner. Here's Dr 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:40.440 Hobson so. Lebs Diner was a New York delicatessen that 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.200 was located across from what is now the rialto Unlucky 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:46.040 and Forsyth in the early nineties sixties. It was a 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:50.240 whites only restaurant with the students of the Atlanta Student movement. 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:53.080 It was one of the restaurants where black students would 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:56.840 come and promote non violent direct action. And so this 0:14:57.080 --> 0:14:58.600 was one of the lunch counters that they would go 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:02.400 to and to be seated in a respectful manner, and 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:05.640 usually the police would show up, had to arrest people. 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:10.640 Uh done. It's a rights movement who were fighting for 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.120 my freedom, half of my right to vote, my right 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:16.760 to be a citizen at the resting. You know, so, 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:21.360 I guess I should be a very bitter man. Some 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.600 of the challenges of a black police officer was how 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:29.320 to earned the respect of their constituency, but at the 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:32.200 same time, how to enforce the laws which sometimes are 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:36.440 created to marginalize this franchise, criminalized and demonized the same communities, 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:39.480 and which the from Oftentimes, black police officers may have 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:43.440 been harder on black communities then white police officers, because 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:46.120 what the black police officers were trying to do was 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:48.480 trying to show the white establishment that they were not 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:53.160 like some of these criminals in the black community. Being 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:55.560 one of the first black police officers in the country 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:59.160 was very empowering for j D. But it also presented 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:02.720 a constant dream of moral dilemmas. As he rose through 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:05.480 the ranks of the Atlanta p D, his job became 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:10.920 increasingly complicated, a delicate balancing act between his responsibilities and 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:22.920 limitations as a black cop. By seventy j D. Hudson 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:25.440 had been promoted to the head of internal affairs for 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:29.520 the Atlanta Police Department, having risen through the ranks more slowly, 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:32.400 he says, because he was never one to suck up 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:35.520 to his superiors. It was the same year that j 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:39.920 D was given an incredible assignment to guard Muhammad Ali, 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:43.200 a k A. Cassius Clay. In the days leading up 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:48.640 to his triumphant return to boxing, I had the responsibility 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:55.040 of Goden Cassius Clay, because that in about five thousand 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:58.800 threats against the Slight. So I had been with him 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:02.600 all day, and I cared him to the fight and 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:05.919 led him into the range. Matter of fact, I got 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:08.320 beat up. See his head is on around me and 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:12.040 I was walking in front of it. God was practically 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:18.800 only hid and so I was a debate that stayed 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:21.600 with him for twenty whiles a day, seven days a week. 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:26.439 The time he got into and he left, I ran 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:29.800 into all kinds of people rich and the famous and 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:33.399 all that stuff. But j D had no idea about 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:36.399 the million dollar heist which was brewing behind the scenes 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:40.359 of Ali's comeback fight, or that less than twenty four 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:43.639 hours later the chief of police would assign him the 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:46.879 case of his life. J D's assignment made perfect sense. 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:49.760 He was the best man for the job and one 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:52.000 of the only men on the force who was able 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:55.080 to navigate the world of both cops and criminals, and 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:58.440 he understood the relationship between the two. Were there any 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:01.480 police than they were in love to, you know, illegal 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:05.280 activities back in the seventies of that time, policeman involved, 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:11.600 and every hustle and every city in this country. Okay, 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:16.080 money is exchanging hands, always had, always as well, okay, 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:19.920 and the press is trying to clean us up, right, 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:23.639 And I'm being a trader to the policeman because they 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:26.639 don't like me, because this ain't supposed to say it. 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:32.960 Everybody loves the cooking cops get red boded those and 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:36.560 everybody encourages the proper to be cooking. They won't admitted. 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:42.120 Oh hell, I don't care. Two manion policemen m two 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:46.119 many hustles paroh right. See, that's a world if you 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:48.720 don't know about it. That's what I'm trying to reach 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:51.840 as the world girl't know about. Chief of Police Herberty 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:55.800 Jenkins needed j D for two reasons, to navigate racial tensions, 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:58.920 and because he was an honest cop. But j D 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:02.560 said that jenkins confidence in him was isolated. He felt 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:05.560 that others on the force, the press, and even the 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:09.920 FBI seemed to judge him based on racial stereotypes, which 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:14.080 had been advanced by pop culture for decades. So yeah, 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:21.240 I understand black books to the second, and you state 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:25.440 them so step and fetch it was more or less 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:28.639 kind of a black face caricature. When we begin to 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:33.240 talk about caricatures, particularly black caricatures, what we're talking about 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:40.200 our aspects of minstrel shows. This is not for a candidate. 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:43.920 This happens to be a cod And so there's a 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:47.080 longstanding history in the United States dating back to the 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:51.840 eighteen twenties that deals with minstrel shows and what minstrel 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:55.760 shows are where these exaggerated characters of who black people 0:19:55.800 --> 0:20:00.400 were supposed to be that were often performed by white ethnics. 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:03.880 And so they took a fictitious narrative of who black 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:07.480 people were as dumb and ignorant and promiscuous and and 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:10.960 you know, self loathing and slower the uptake. They took 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:14.200 that to be real. And so when we think about 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:17.840 the embodiment of you know, and ain't Jemima Uncle ben 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:22.040 uh step and fetch it, the notion was to promote 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:28.520 a white supremacy that showed that the most unintelligent white 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:33.200 person was smarter than the smartest black person. This was 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:37.840 a real conversation around white supremacy. You don't know, that's 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:42.200 for nothing. They're dumb as white man it's black man. Okay. 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:45.960 At the end of Southern you'll tell you that. Okay, 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:48.880 right now, I had to take off from guys who 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:52.800 couldn't chat max usely, right, my boss. Right, I'm a lawyer. 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:57.880 I think about it. I knew what happened, I knew 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:00.960 about the party, I knew about the people. I understood 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:05.280 the culture of the night in question of the culture 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:08.560 the people there. So now JD is heading up the 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:12.560 investigation into the heist that stole the spotlight and the 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:16.960 headlines from Muhammad Ali's epic comeback fight, and in those 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:20.760 headlines you start to see a very interesting narrative emerge. 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:25.719 Fight fans are invited by engraved invitation two hundred thousand 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:29.679 dollar hold up. Police say, hold up conceived in New 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:34.159 York lottery figure and girlfriends saw it in two hundred 0:21:34.200 --> 0:21:39.040 thousand dollar fight. Party plucked by robbers to Chicken Man, 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:44.920 says chicken Man. Who was this Chicken Man? I had 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:48.119 to find out, So I kept digging into more and 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:52.080 more headlines and saw this name Chicken Man pop up 0:21:52.240 --> 0:21:56.040 over and over again as the prime suspect who organized 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:59.200 the heist. I asked j D about it, and he 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:03.560 said that his boss, the FBI, and other policemen were 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:07.960 pushing this hustler. Street named Chicken Man as the prime suspect, 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:12.560 but j D wasn't so sure. Chief Chaplains, who at 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:17.760 that time was super detective, believe ah. He said that 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:22.159 he had the most relivable meation in the world. Uh, 0:22:23.440 --> 0:22:27.200 that was Chicken Man in his group. That he set 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:30.680 the whole thing up. That was just a buncha boo. 0:22:30.840 --> 0:22:33.200 I couldn't tell my boss that, but I told the 0:22:33.280 --> 0:22:36.720 chief that. So the Chief said, it's your decision, you 0:22:36.840 --> 0:22:43.600 make it, and I did. Chicken Man had been a 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:46.240 person of interest to the Atlanta p D for years 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:51.119 for crimes ranging from bootlegging and drugs to running illegal lotteries. 0:22:51.800 --> 0:22:56.160 J d's boss, Chief of Detectives, Charles Chaffin, believed Chicken 0:22:56.240 --> 0:22:59.480 Man had organized the after hours party so he had 0:22:59.520 --> 0:23:03.520 all the side information he needed to also organize the heist. 0:23:04.240 --> 0:23:07.200 But j D didn't believe the heightst originated in Atlanta 0:23:07.240 --> 0:23:10.520 at all. In fact, he thought Chicken Man had nothing 0:23:10.600 --> 0:23:13.080 to do with it. J D would turn out to 0:23:13.160 --> 0:23:16.360 be onto something with that New York connection, and we'll 0:23:16.400 --> 0:23:19.760 explore that in more depths throughout the story. But for now. 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:23.280 What's important to remember is that Chicken man, whose real 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:26.720 name was Gordon Williams, was already a big time hustler 0:23:26.840 --> 0:23:29.879 making a lot of money in Atlanta. J D believed 0:23:29.920 --> 0:23:32.000 it just didn't make sense for him to put all 0:23:32.080 --> 0:23:34.560 of that on the line by robbing his own party, 0:23:35.280 --> 0:23:38.840 let alone the types of high level gangsters that could 0:23:38.920 --> 0:23:42.800 have and would have had him killed. J D had 0:23:42.800 --> 0:23:46.879 a moral code. While he was absolutely toughest nails as 0:23:46.920 --> 0:23:50.359 a cop and wanting to put away criminals, he would 0:23:50.400 --> 0:23:53.359 never even consider penning a crime on someone that didn't 0:23:53.400 --> 0:23:57.240 do it, and he resented those above and around him 0:23:57.520 --> 0:24:00.880 who would have done just that. I always called myself 0:24:00.960 --> 0:24:03.520 a cold, better professional. Now I didn't care who you are. 0:24:04.280 --> 0:24:06.840 I love the hated You had nothing to do. Mean 0:24:06.960 --> 0:24:08.920 folks in the law. You know my best friend, and 0:24:08.960 --> 0:24:10.520 I caught your body. No, I locked you up. You 0:24:10.640 --> 0:24:13.639 might waste any man person. I hate it with all 0:24:13.760 --> 0:24:16.560 kinds of passion. If you didn't do anything wrong, I 0:24:16.680 --> 0:24:20.720 wasn't gonna bother you, and it bothered me the policeman 0:24:21.359 --> 0:24:24.440 when in fact trying to get this man killed. I 0:24:24.560 --> 0:24:26.879 knew they were gonna kill it, and the police were 0:24:27.040 --> 0:24:29.399 going to be responsible because they kept on bless his 0:24:29.560 --> 0:24:31.720 name out of the police say an FBI. They thought 0:24:31.760 --> 0:24:36.440 he had robbed a black mafia. The figures black hustlers 0:24:37.280 --> 0:24:40.040 in this country, some of the toughest men in this country, 0:24:40.800 --> 0:24:43.120 some of the dead list men in this country, Guys 0:24:43.119 --> 0:24:45.560 who would not hesitate to blow your head off because 0:24:45.640 --> 0:24:49.119 you stepped on that shoe. They would have killed it. 0:24:50.560 --> 0:24:53.440 And according to the New York Times, that's exactly what 0:24:53.640 --> 0:25:00.520 they did Wednesday, October, informed sources associate created with the 0:25:00.560 --> 0:25:05.359 police department suggested today that the police believe Williams planned 0:25:05.359 --> 0:25:08.280 the robbery to raise funds to repay a large debt. 0:25:08.720 --> 0:25:12.280 The sources also said that the Atlanta police now believe 0:25:12.720 --> 0:25:16.280 Williams is dead as the result of a contract released 0:25:16.320 --> 0:25:20.600 on him Gangland Terminology for an arrangement of his murder, 0:25:21.960 --> 0:25:24.520 and over the next six months, more bodies would be 0:25:24.600 --> 0:25:28.320 discovered from Atlanta to New York. As I read this 0:25:28.560 --> 0:25:31.680 article on microfilm at the Decatur Library, my mind was 0:25:31.880 --> 0:25:35.760 racing my main source for this story. The lead investigator 0:25:35.800 --> 0:25:39.520 into the heist, Detective J. D. Hudson, didn't believe Chicken 0:25:39.560 --> 0:25:42.840 Man had anything to do with the robbery, but now 0:25:42.920 --> 0:25:46.119 I find out he's dead. So if Chicken Man didn't 0:25:46.160 --> 0:25:59.920