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Speaker 1: January seventeenth, twenty twenty four, phone conversation with Hey, Danny

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Speaker 1: Smith from meremr PDI catch it at that time? Are

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Speaker 1: you good?

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Speaker 2: No?

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Speaker 3: I'm good. This case is.

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Speaker 1: Has got a life of its own. And I've learned

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Speaker 1: that two boxes became three, that became six, and I'm like,

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Speaker 1: you know what, I'm just gonna set up in my

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Speaker 1: garage and work from here from now on.

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Speaker 3: Well, I think I can close some circles for you.

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Speaker 2: I don't know who you know and what you don't, Daniel,

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Speaker 2: but I could kind of put if you think of

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Speaker 2: it as terms of that is silent, I can kind

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Speaker 2: of put all the voices in the perspective behind it,

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Speaker 2: people and each and every one of these people that died,

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Speaker 2: and each and every one of these people.

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Speaker 4: I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff, and

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Speaker 4: this is cold blooded. The Apollo Jim murders. In January

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Speaker 4: of twenty twenty four, Miramar Police Department held a press

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Speaker 4: conference to announce that it had sufficient evidence to officially

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Speaker 4: reopen a nearly forty year old cold case, our case,

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Speaker 4: the unsolid homicide of twenty eight year old Billy Halper.

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Speaker 1: Good morning, I want on behalf of the Miramar Police

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Speaker 1: Department and the Helping family. We want to thank all

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Speaker 1: of you for coming out.

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Speaker 4: With Billy's sister Laurie at his side. Detective Danny Smith

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Speaker 4: addressed members of the South Florida.

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Speaker 1: Press October twenty first, nineteen eighty six. Billy Helper was

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Speaker 1: killed in his Miarmore count home. Billy was bound, beaten,

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Speaker 1: and ultimately killed. This was done in broad daylight.

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Speaker 4: The story of murder, muscles and the mob played like

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Speaker 4: breaking news and.

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Speaker 1: Also new at noon Miramar Police announcing a major break

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Speaker 1: in a cold case and involves.

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Speaker 4: The brutal murder of a firefighter in his home back

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Speaker 4: in nineteen eighty six, and dominated the front page of

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Speaker 4: the next morning's Miami Herald. But of course, Danny and

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Speaker 4: I had been at this for more than a year,

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Speaker 4: knocking on doors, interviewing witnesses, testing DNA, and generally trying

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Speaker 4: to untangle the web of facts, lies, and legend surrounding

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Speaker 4: the Apollo Gym, which we believed was at the center

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Speaker 4: of a string of unsolved murders.

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Speaker 1: Billy's murder has been tied to numerous other murders throughout

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Speaker 1: the Daytenbrower area back in the nineteen eighties. Central to

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Speaker 1: those murders was a former Miami Day police officer, Gil Fernandez,

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Speaker 1: and his partner Burt Christie, who both worked and owned

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Speaker 1: or ran Apollo Gym out of Hollywood.

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Speaker 4: The goal first to raise awareness among the general public

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Speaker 4: that Billy's case was still unsolved and that Billy, like

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Speaker 4: any victim, was still entitled to his share of justice.

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Speaker 1: We believe that Billy heard something he shouldn't have heard,

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Speaker 1: and he saw something he shouldn't have seen, and we

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Speaker 1: believed that Billy was killed to keep him quiet and

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Speaker 1: for nothing else.

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Speaker 4: Danny also wanted to appeal to any potential witnesses who

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Speaker 4: might know something about Billy's murder to come forward and

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Speaker 4: share that information with police, someone who may have been

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Speaker 4: too afraid or too involved to come forward before.

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Speaker 1: So we're asking the public to come forward and even

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Speaker 1: give us a name of someone who they believe was

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Speaker 1: there that we can potentially get their DNA and compare

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Speaker 1: that to what we have.

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Speaker 4: A DNA match could help Danny finally close the case

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Speaker 4: on Billy's murder, but more importantly, it would give Billy's

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Speaker 4: family the closure they so deeply deserved.

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Speaker 5: As a possibility that someone out there knows something, knows

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Speaker 5: who may be.

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Speaker 1: Responsible for this. If there was a message that you.

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Speaker 2: Had for then what would it be.

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Speaker 1: Come forward, Call Danny, call them, call Mirrama, mirror mar

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Speaker 1: and thank you for coming and being brave. Don't be afraid,

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Speaker 1: come and tell them what you know. I'd be grateful,

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Speaker 1: My family would be grateful.

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Speaker 4: Less than four hours after the press conference ended and

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Speaker 4: was televised on local news channels in South Florida, Danny

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Speaker 4: received a phone call from someone whose name who's nowhere

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Speaker 4: to be found in the original case file or ours.

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Speaker 4: The caller claimed he had information not just about Billy's murder,

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Speaker 4: but also about Gil Fernandez, Harry Collier, and even a

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Speaker 4: couple of new names of people he believed were responsible

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Speaker 4: for Billy's murder.

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Speaker 2: There were other people that were, at least, let me say,

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Speaker 2: like part of the read from the gym that no

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Speaker 2: one has ever mentioned.

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Speaker 4: And like anyone who was in the South Florida bodybuilding scene.

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Speaker 4: He was also a regular at the Apollo Gym. For

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Speaker 4: reasons that will become apparent, this witness would only reveal

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Speaker 4: his identity to law enforcement, requesting that information not be released.

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Speaker 2: I became very close to Burke, and I would be

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Speaker 2: at the gym all the time, all the time, so

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Speaker 2: I'd be listening to things that I should have been

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Speaker 2: listened to, and then I would always walk out, and

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Speaker 2: I guess they appreciated the fact that I didn't want

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Speaker 2: to know anything that was going.

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Speaker 4: On and what was going on. According to the original investigation,

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Speaker 4: drug dealing, shakedowns and deadly ripoffs all directed by former

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Speaker 4: Mister Florida Burt Christie and carried out by Gil Fernandez

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Speaker 4: and his crew. But according to this new witness, Bert

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Speaker 4: Christy was not always the one calling the shots. He

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Speaker 4: mentioned a name that neither Danny or I had heard

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Speaker 4: mentioned in this investigation, a name that for now is

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Speaker 4: being redacted.

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Speaker 3: Have you ever heard the name?

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Speaker 1: Not a name I've come across now, No, I.

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Speaker 2: Don't think anyone knows him. In working at the gym

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Speaker 2: was a guy from New York and he would come

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Speaker 2: down once a month or it would go outside and

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Speaker 2: would not park. They would be pulling into the porking lot,

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Speaker 2: but Bert would be nervous that take.

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Speaker 3: He would go get in the car and be gone

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Speaker 3: for whatever time, half hour, hour, hour, and a half.

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Speaker 1: Whatever, I'm sorry you said he was Gills boss, or

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Speaker 1: Bert's boss was Gills boss.

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Speaker 3: And was Burt's.

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Speaker 4: It was the first time Danny had heard mention of

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Speaker 4: Christie's boss, someone who potentially was not just aware of

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Speaker 4: Christie's criminal enterprise, but behind it.

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Speaker 2: Was one of those shady guys. When his name was mentioned,

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Speaker 2: everyone said, don't ever save that name. Don't ever save

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Speaker 2: that name. And I guess in retrospect he was giving

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Speaker 2: bird orders and what would happen was.

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Speaker 3: Burt would come back and he would be nervous as shit.

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Speaker 4: But there was one visit in particular that always stuck

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Speaker 4: in his memory. It was nineteen eighty five. Business at

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Speaker 4: the Hollow was booming, and with each new score, Burtngill's

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Speaker 4: crew was getting more brazen.

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Speaker 2: Are don't work, Gil and Tommy all went out and

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Speaker 2: bought beautiful cars, and all of their wives got implants.

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Speaker 2: It's everything you told someone not to do after committing

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Speaker 2: a crime and making money.

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Speaker 4: Not only that, but according to Mark Lopez, drug use

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Speaker 4: among the Apollos in a circle, particularly the injection of

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Speaker 4: anabolic steroids, was getting out of control.

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Speaker 5: You got to realize when you start loading your body

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Speaker 5: up with lots of artificial distosterone that can make it

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Speaker 5: super aggressive, and it can kind of distort your thoughts,

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Speaker 5: so it could make you excessively violent if you don't

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Speaker 5: know how to rail yourself in.

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Speaker 4: Eventually, their rising profile started to attract the attention of

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Speaker 4: law enforcement, including the South Florida Field Office the FBI. Obviously,

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Speaker 4: with law enforcement sniffing around the Apollo, the larger enterprise

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Speaker 4: was at risk, even with Gill's connection within the police force,

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Speaker 4: because as we know, where there are detectives, there are

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Speaker 4: potential informants, maybe even a whole gym full of them.

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Speaker 4: So on one of his boss's visits, Christy was given

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Speaker 4: strict instructions, get your house in order.

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Speaker 2: I mean when he came down with the last times

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Speaker 2: and you could see it in his mind if something

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Speaker 2: concerned him so much that he just had to go home. Now,

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Speaker 2: whether he got orders, I don't know. Whether the orders

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Speaker 2: were so over the top that there were people that

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Speaker 2: just had to be cleaned up, I don't know.

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Speaker 4: Thanks to the information presented in gil and Bert's later trial,

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Speaker 4: we know that both local and federal law enforcement had

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Speaker 4: been surveilling the Apollo gym and looking for for any

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Speaker 4: Apollo employees who may have been willing to offer incriminating

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Speaker 4: testimony against their bosses. In fact, when we first talked

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Speaker 4: to Mark Lopez, he described what it was like to

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Speaker 4: live under the eye of both the cops and Gil Fernandez.

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Speaker 5: At that time, we knew that law enforcement was out

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Speaker 5: there poking around about Gil and I know when it happened.

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Speaker 5: I told Gil about it. I specifically told him that

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Speaker 5: BSO is trying to call me in and call my

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Speaker 5: girl in with me.

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Speaker 4: These particular detectives were looking for information on the nineteen

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Speaker 4: eighty three murders on Danger Road.

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Speaker 5: We met them for the first time in the Broward

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Speaker 5: maw two detectives. I said, you guys, honestly think that

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Speaker 5: me or anybody else like me is going to cooperate

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Speaker 5: with you, because if I ever agreed to do something

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Speaker 5: like that, I said, you know, my fate is sealed.

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Speaker 4: Gil had become the top suspect in the still unsolved

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Speaker 4: triple homicide out on Danger Road, and by nineteen eighty

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Speaker 4: five he was beginning to feel the heat.

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Speaker 5: As time went on, you could see that there was

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Speaker 5: some type of underlying issue, and you can just see

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Speaker 5: it in someone. Then when they're carrying something heavy right,

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Speaker 5: or they're worried about something. He was easily agitated, you know,

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Speaker 5: when he was agitated, like you could see it on

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Speaker 5: his face. And I would always when I saw that look,

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Speaker 5: I would give him a wide berth.

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Speaker 4: Everyone at the Apollo was unnoticed. With law enforcement closing in.

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Speaker 4: Gil was on a tear and according to the investigation,

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Speaker 4: anyone that could potentially inform on him was seen as

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Speaker 4: collateral damage. And according to this new witness, that meant

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Speaker 4: Billy Halburn could have found himself squarely in Bert and

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Speaker 4: Gill's crosshairs.

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Speaker 2: He got a little sloppy Burton gulp, and I saw

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Speaker 2: things I probably shouldn't have seen, and a greody guess

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Speaker 2: because of the fact that Billy was there alive, he

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Speaker 2: probably saw things he shouldn't have seen. And I think

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Speaker 2: that's the reason Harry was called down, well, whatever reason,

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Speaker 2: because I recalled vividly that went towards the end when

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Speaker 2: Bibe came down.

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Speaker 4: The caller is again referring to the man he believed

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Speaker 4: to be Bert Christie's boss.

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Speaker 2: Bert not that he was nervous that he would come

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Speaker 2: down normally, but he would when he was visibly upset

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Speaker 2: when he learned that Harry came down.

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Speaker 4: Harry as in Harry Collier, the same Harry Collier whose

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Speaker 4: fingerprint would later be found at Mitch Hall's murder.

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Speaker 2: And that's when this thing started getting out of control.

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Speaker 2: Anybody who do anything. They just started going after him

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Speaker 2: and silencing everybody.

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Speaker 4: One thing you learned from talking with witnesses with more

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Speaker 4: than a passing understanding of the criminal world. They have

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Speaker 4: a particular fondness for understatement.

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Speaker 3: Okay, Harry was gone. Harry was not a friendly guy.

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Speaker 4: Also, according to this new witness, Harry Collier had a

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Speaker 4: very particular skill set.

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Speaker 3: I don't know how I came out of this a lot,

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Speaker 3: but to make a long story short, it would be.

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Speaker 2: Talking about knives and shit. I so know that he

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Speaker 2: was really into knives.

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Speaker 4: The medical examiner determined that the official manner of Billy

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Speaker 4: Helpern's murder was trangulation, but someone had also likely used

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Speaker 4: a large knife to cut Billy's throat, leaving a wound

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Speaker 4: so jagged and deep it appeared that they were trying

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Speaker 4: to remove his head. Six months later, Mitch Hall and

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Speaker 4: his girlfriend char Linda would be killed the very same

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Speaker 4: way it was an opening that Danny couldn't pass up.

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Speaker 1: So actually, I'd like to stay on Harry for a minute,

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Speaker 1: and I'm going to be very upfront with you. I

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Speaker 1: am more than ninety percent sure that Harry Collier was

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Speaker 1: at Billy's and took part in his in his murder.

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Speaker 2: I know Harry was down for an extended period of time,

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Speaker 2: and it seemed like everything was happening during that span

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Speaker 2: of time when Harry was down here.

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Speaker 3: That's what he was down for. If you asked me,

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Speaker 3: I guess.

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Speaker 2: As they were backtracking over their people, anyone met new anything.

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Speaker 4: Our witnesses theory Billy, like a lot of other guys

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Speaker 4: at the gym, had learned too much about Bert and

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Speaker 4: Gill's criminal activity, specifically the triple homicide on Danger Road,

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Speaker 4: and according to Dave Fasano, Bert and Gill's involvement was

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Speaker 4: an open secret.

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Speaker 6: Everybody knew about it, everybody had talked about everyone knew

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Speaker 6: about it, especially the guys that were worked out there.

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Speaker 4: Now, Danny and I checked and there was no record

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Speaker 4: anywhere that Billy had ever contacted either local or federal

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Speaker 4: law enforcement. But perhaps because of his clean record or

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Speaker 4: a refusal to be part of Gill's gang. Billy was

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Speaker 4: a threat, and threats had to be eliminated. Here's Dave

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Speaker 4: Fasano again, this time recalling that fateful morning in October

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Speaker 4: of nineteen eighty six.

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Speaker 3: I went to work.

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Speaker 6: And when I was pulling into the parking lot, you

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00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:10,360
Speaker 6: could see Billy's block from the swimming pool, and I

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00:16:10,400 --> 00:16:13,080
Speaker 6: saw the ambulances and stuff, and I'm like wow. And

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Speaker 6: I got out of the car and people were coming

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Speaker 6: up to me, Hey, somebody was murdered. Somebody was murdered.

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Speaker 6: And I walked down the street and I see that

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Speaker 6: it's Billy's house and I realized it's Billy. I kind

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Speaker 6: of went back to the pool by myself, and I

255
00:16:29,760 --> 00:16:34,000
Speaker 6: was going over and over in my head. You know

256
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Speaker 6: that Bert must be involved.

257
00:16:39,600 --> 00:16:43,240
Speaker 4: Mitch Hall and Charlnda Drought were killed less than six

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Speaker 4: months later.

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Speaker 1: So Mitch Hall and Charlinda his girlfriend, who appeared to

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Speaker 1: be in the wrong place at the wrong time, we

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00:16:52,640 --> 00:16:57,080
Speaker 1: were killed with a very similar mo.

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Speaker 3: That Billy was.

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Speaker 2: And you let just see this points the atmosphere of

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Speaker 2: the one was looking over the shoulder towards the egg.

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Speaker 3: Who's next.

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Speaker 2: Because of a short spend period of time, all of

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Speaker 2: a sudden all his people died, so.

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Speaker 4: Who was ultimately responsible who was calling the shots? Harry

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Speaker 4: Collier was rumored to be a hit man from up

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Speaker 4: North with a thing for large knives, the kind of

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Speaker 4: weapon used to nearly decapitate Billy, Mitch and Charlnda. Collier

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Speaker 4: also happened to leave a fingerprint on a piece of

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Speaker 4: electrical tape at the Mitch Hall crime scene, even without

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Speaker 4: his DNA. This is strong circumstantial evidence that he was

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Speaker 4: at least one of the men behind all three murders.

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Speaker 4: But if it was Collier, who was with him who

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Speaker 4: ordered the hits. Since Jimmy high Note was found murdered

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00:17:58,359 --> 00:18:02,840
Speaker 4: alongside Collier just a week after Mitch and Charlnda, it's

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00:18:02,960 --> 00:18:05,960
Speaker 4: not a leap to assume he was also present at

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Speaker 4: Billy's murder. This fit with our assumptions that Billy was

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Speaker 4: ambushed by multiple assailants.

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Speaker 1: The theory is that Billy would not have opened the

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Speaker 1: door for Harry. He didn't know Harry. He wouldn't open

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Speaker 1: the door for Harry, but he knew Jimmy hin Note

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Speaker 1: action and he grew up with Jimmy high Note. And

286
00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:32,520
Speaker 1: my theory is that Harry and Jimmy high Note with

287
00:18:32,920 --> 00:18:36,600
Speaker 1: one other person, whether it's Gill or someone else.

288
00:18:39,359 --> 00:18:42,840
Speaker 4: Once again, it appears all signs seem to point to

289
00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:46,520
Speaker 4: Gil Fernandez, but without any physical evidence linking him to

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00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:49,240
Speaker 4: the crime scene, it might be impossible to know for

291
00:18:49,280 --> 00:18:52,639
Speaker 4: sure if he was there, perhaps helping high Note and

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Speaker 4: call your tie Billy up, giving the orders to kill,

293
00:18:56,280 --> 00:19:00,480
Speaker 4: or even doing it himself. And while he may not

294
00:19:00,560 --> 00:19:04,480
Speaker 4: have any proof that Gil Fernandez killed Billy Halpurn, what

295
00:19:04,560 --> 00:19:07,720
Speaker 4: about the murders of Jimmy high Note and Harry Collier?

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Speaker 1: Not to mention the fact that shortly thereafter, I don't

297
00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:15,159
Speaker 1: know if you remember Gil had to go to the

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00:19:15,160 --> 00:19:16,679
Speaker 1: hospital with lead in his eye.

299
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Speaker 4: I remember, that's right. The day after high Note and

300
00:19:22,720 --> 00:19:26,760
Speaker 4: Collier were shot dead. Police reports show that Gil was

301
00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:30,600
Speaker 4: admitted to the emergency room with a very telling injury.

302
00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:35,320
Speaker 4: Somehow a small piece of lead had lacerated his eye.

303
00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:38,920
Speaker 4: According to the report, it was a shard of iron

304
00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:43,280
Speaker 4: from a weightlifting accident. But our witness had an opinion

305
00:19:43,359 --> 00:19:44,080
Speaker 4: about that too.

306
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Speaker 1: What do you feel about that? That excuse that it

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00:19:49,200 --> 00:19:52,040
Speaker 1: was a dumbbell that broke, or of.

308
00:19:51,920 --> 00:19:54,359
Speaker 3: Course, of course you know better than that, and I

309
00:19:54,480 --> 00:19:55,239
Speaker 3: know better than that.

310
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Speaker 2: Of course, now in retrospect, it's hideous that I believed

311
00:19:59,200 --> 00:20:03,160
Speaker 2: what I believe. You know, it was obviously a freight

312
00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:05,280
Speaker 2: mint from lead from a gunshot.

313
00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:21,600
Speaker 4: In October of nineteen eighty six, Harry Collier was summoned

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00:20:21,600 --> 00:20:25,119
Speaker 4: to the Apollo Gym in Hollywood Beach, Florida. Burton Gill's

315
00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:30,240
Speaker 4: operations had gotten sloppy. People were talking, and according to

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00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:34,960
Speaker 4: the investigation, it was Collier's job to help clean things up.

317
00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:39,439
Speaker 2: Every day you'd go in, they're wondering who's going to

318
00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:42,680
Speaker 2: be dead next. That was the atmosphere in the gym

319
00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:43,399
Speaker 2: at the time.

320
00:20:44,440 --> 00:20:47,480
Speaker 4: It reminded me of something Billy's friend Dave Fasano told

321
00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:52,280
Speaker 4: us about a particularly ominous conversation with Burt Christy just

322
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Speaker 4: a few days before Billy was killed.

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Speaker 6: I was at the gym one day and I was

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00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:04,360
Speaker 6: working out, and Bert came up to me, So your

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00:21:04,359 --> 00:21:08,320
Speaker 6: friends would Biblity to help hert right? And I said yeah,

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00:21:08,440 --> 00:21:11,480
Speaker 6: He says, how good a friend? He says, well, I

327
00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:14,840
Speaker 6: don't want you hanging out with him anymore. I don't

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00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:17,040
Speaker 6: want you to go to his house. I don't want

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00:21:17,080 --> 00:21:19,200
Speaker 6: you to get in a car with him. I don't

330
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Speaker 6: want you to go out with him to a club.

331
00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:23,280
Speaker 6: I don't want you to do nothing with him. If

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00:21:23,320 --> 00:21:25,520
Speaker 6: he calls you, you make an excuse, but don't go

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00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:27,280
Speaker 6: anywhere near him.

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Speaker 4: Later that week, Billy Helperan was murdered.

335
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Speaker 6: And I'm thinking, holy shit, Bert had to know something,

336
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Speaker 6: because why did he tell me to stay away from Billy?

337
00:21:39,680 --> 00:21:44,400
Speaker 6: So Bert in a way protected me at the same time,

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00:21:44,800 --> 00:21:47,840
Speaker 6: was involvable killing one of my closest friends.

339
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Speaker 4: It may have been a warning, a mentor and coach

340
00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:56,920
Speaker 4: looking out for his bodybuilding protegee, but it also clearly

341
00:21:57,040 --> 00:22:01,000
Speaker 4: was a threat. And you know what, it worked.

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00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:04,600
Speaker 6: When the cops came to me, they asked me to speak,

343
00:22:05,040 --> 00:22:06,400
Speaker 6: asked to speak to me. They came in the gym

344
00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:09,040
Speaker 6: and they said, it's David Fasano win here and they

345
00:22:09,080 --> 00:22:11,359
Speaker 6: pointed me out. They came over and they pulled me

346
00:22:11,400 --> 00:22:13,040
Speaker 6: out of the gym and the frock in the parking

347
00:22:13,040 --> 00:22:16,560
Speaker 6: lot and started questioning me. The first question was that

348
00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:20,359
Speaker 6: you know, there's all these murders and your name is

349
00:22:20,359 --> 00:22:22,560
Speaker 6: in all the phone books that we've recovered.

350
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Speaker 3: Why why is that one?

351
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Speaker 6: And I said, well, because we all worked out here

352
00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:31,720
Speaker 6: to pollow gym. And we're friends from this gym. I

353
00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:34,720
Speaker 6: remember just being nervous as hell because Gil was looking

354
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Speaker 6: out the window.

355
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Speaker 3: And I was terrified.

356
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Speaker 6: I was afraid I was going to get killed because

357
00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:42,080
Speaker 6: and so I kept my mouth shut. And I felt

358
00:22:42,119 --> 00:22:46,320
Speaker 6: guilty for keeping my mouth shut at that time because

359
00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:49,480
Speaker 6: I thought I could help Billy, but I was terrified

360
00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:50,480
Speaker 6: that they were going to kill me.

361
00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:57,720
Speaker 4: He had reason to be afraid. Supposedly, Bitch Hall had

362
00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:01,480
Speaker 4: heard the same rumors about Bert and Ill that Billy had,

363
00:23:01,880 --> 00:23:05,240
Speaker 4: and when Billy was killed, he made the decision to

364
00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:09,080
Speaker 4: come forward and share what he knew with law enforcement.

365
00:23:10,359 --> 00:23:13,840
Speaker 4: It's still painful for his sister Kim to recount what

366
00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:14,560
Speaker 4: happened next.

367
00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:20,240
Speaker 7: Charlette was pulled from the shower. My brother was not

368
00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:25,119
Speaker 7: home yet, and they cut her throat. And then my brother,

369
00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:27,800
Speaker 7: he Messa, went to the store because they have had

370
00:23:27,800 --> 00:23:30,840
Speaker 7: a six pack of beer on the kitchen counter, and

371
00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:33,359
Speaker 7: then I guess he went to the room and he

372
00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:36,480
Speaker 7: tried to get to his gun, which was in the closet,

373
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Speaker 7: and I guess they cut his throat.

374
00:23:40,920 --> 00:23:45,240
Speaker 4: The truth was no one was safe, as high note

375
00:23:45,280 --> 00:23:48,840
Speaker 4: in Collier's murders proved when it's time to clean house.

376
00:23:49,680 --> 00:23:51,520
Speaker 4: Even the hitman gets hit.

377
00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:56,720
Speaker 7: My brother died May sixth. When I went to the funeral,

378
00:23:56,800 --> 00:23:59,199
Speaker 7: of course, he had like five hundred people at the funeral.

379
00:23:59,280 --> 00:24:03,080
Speaker 7: He was very pop. My brother and Jimmy High Note

380
00:24:03,119 --> 00:24:06,040
Speaker 7: was there and he came up to me and he

381
00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:09,560
Speaker 7: was sweating. He it seemed like he was like just

382
00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:11,919
Speaker 7: got out of the shower and never dried off. He

383
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:15,560
Speaker 7: was sweating and sweating, and he hugged me. I'm sorry

384
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:18,480
Speaker 7: about Mitch. I'll never forget it. He said, I'm going

385
00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:21,760
Speaker 7: to be next. And I said, Jimmy, you need to

386
00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:23,920
Speaker 7: go to the police. You have to go talk to somebody.

387
00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:28,199
Speaker 7: I can't kim I'm going to be next. Then a

388
00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:30,320
Speaker 7: week later, he was next.

389
00:24:30,600 --> 00:24:35,960
Speaker 4: He was shot alongside the same man who most likely

390
00:24:36,040 --> 00:24:40,600
Speaker 4: killed her brother, Harry Collier. The realization hit her like

391
00:24:40,640 --> 00:24:43,479
Speaker 4: a ton of bricks. She had known Jimmy high Note

392
00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:47,240
Speaker 4: her whole life, she just never knew what he was

393
00:24:47,359 --> 00:24:48,880
Speaker 4: allegedly capable of.

394
00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:54,159
Speaker 7: I believe in my heart he was there, and I

395
00:24:54,359 --> 00:24:58,000
Speaker 7: just have this feeling and I'm thinking, oh my god,

396
00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:01,840
Speaker 7: I if Jimmy he was there and he killed my brother.

397
00:25:02,240 --> 00:25:04,640
Speaker 7: I actually hugged his murderer.

398
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:10,280
Speaker 4: During this investigation, Detective Danny Smith made efforts to learn

399
00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:14,560
Speaker 4: more about both Jimmy high Note and Harry Collier, and

400
00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:17,480
Speaker 4: while plenty of people had memories of high Note, who

401
00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:21,919
Speaker 4: was a South Florida local, Collier had fewer Florida ties,

402
00:25:22,359 --> 00:25:26,200
Speaker 4: and until his arrival at the Apollo, he was relatively unknown.

403
00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:31,080
Speaker 4: But in the fall of twenty twenty three, we were

404
00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:36,000
Speaker 4: able to talk to his widow, Noami Collier. Danny had

405
00:25:36,040 --> 00:25:40,480
Speaker 4: already uncovered a lot of damning, circumstantial evidence that put

406
00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:43,760
Speaker 4: her husband, Harry, not only at the Mitch Hall crime scene,

407
00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:50,680
Speaker 4: but also at Billy Halpern's. His obvious relationship with Burton Gill,

408
00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:55,159
Speaker 4: his keen interest in knives, and of course, his fingerprint

409
00:25:55,240 --> 00:25:58,240
Speaker 4: left at the scene of a double homicide. It all

410
00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:03,560
Speaker 4: pointed to Collier as a cold blooded killer, but he

411
00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:06,600
Speaker 4: was a victim himself, and we had the feeling that

412
00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:09,920
Speaker 4: peeling back the layers of his story would shine light

413
00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:14,360
Speaker 4: not only on Billy Hoppern's murder, but his own and

414
00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:15,960
Speaker 4: the men that ordered it.

415
00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:20,960
Speaker 1: Our hom side was October twenty first of eighty six,

416
00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:27,919
Speaker 1: and then seven months later, about May of eighty seven,

417
00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:31,800
Speaker 1: a guy the name of Mitch Hall and Charlon de

418
00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:37,360
Speaker 1: Drought were killed, and then eight days later, Jimmy and

419
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:39,800
Speaker 1: Harry were killed, and that was in Pines.

420
00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:46,119
Speaker 4: Harry Collier's wife agreed to cooperate with Detective Smith's investigation because,

421
00:26:46,640 --> 00:26:49,959
Speaker 4: like so many people affected by these crimes, she's been

422
00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:54,080
Speaker 4: left with too many unanswered questions for too long.

423
00:26:56,560 --> 00:27:01,280
Speaker 1: I think the common denominator here is everyone involved in

424
00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:04,520
Speaker 1: all these homsides somehow had a connection with Gil Fernandez.

425
00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:11,280
Speaker 1: Now maybe ninety five percent of the people that I've

426
00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:15,080
Speaker 1: spoken to have all said, why are you doing this?

427
00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:18,320
Speaker 1: This case is solved, will be already told gil did it,

428
00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:22,400
Speaker 1: Bert did it. It's a done deal. And I've explained

429
00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:23,879
Speaker 1: to them that actually it's not.

430
00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:29,640
Speaker 4: It's clear from her body language there is no love

431
00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:33,080
Speaker 4: lost for Gil Fernandez, and no matter how painful it

432
00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:36,960
Speaker 4: was to revisit her husband's murder, she knew it was

433
00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:39,520
Speaker 4: important to finally confront the truth.

434
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:44,880
Speaker 1: She essentially said that she's a mom, you know, as

435
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:48,359
Speaker 1: a wife, she would want to know and find out

436
00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:54,600
Speaker 1: exactly what happened and who did what, and if there's

437
00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:58,400
Speaker 1: still someone struggling with finding out what happened, I think

438
00:27:58,440 --> 00:27:59,760
Speaker 1: she would like to assist with that.

439
00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:06,040
Speaker 4: We will paraphrase her answers here because quite honestly, what

440
00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:09,800
Speaker 4: she told Danny Smith sheds all new light on many

441
00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:14,320
Speaker 4: of the details of this case. Now. Webby explained that

442
00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:18,160
Speaker 4: she and Harry had relocated from the Northeast to Coral Springs, Florida,

443
00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:21,159
Speaker 4: in the early eighties. She got a job teaching in

444
00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:24,400
Speaker 4: the Broward County Public school system, and Harry, she told us,

445
00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:28,639
Speaker 4: worked as a counselor at the Broward Juvenile Detention Center,

446
00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:33,800
Speaker 4: which was news to us. Harry Collier worked with law

447
00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:38,560
Speaker 4: enforcement first up in the Northeast and now South Florida,

448
00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:42,120
Speaker 4: but the Colliers were also bodybuilders, and it was only

449
00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:44,920
Speaker 4: a matter of time before Harry fell in with fellow

450
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:47,320
Speaker 4: workout fiends Bert and Gil.

451
00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:56,040
Speaker 1: She mentioned Gil and Bert and Harry. They were always together.

452
00:28:56,480 --> 00:29:01,800
Speaker 1: They did everything together. They basically woke up and their

453
00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:06,080
Speaker 1: daily routine was they would call each other, they would

454
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:08,760
Speaker 1: hang out with each other, and they would do everything together.

455
00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:13,560
Speaker 4: And it wasn't long before she noticed a disturbing change

456
00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:15,800
Speaker 4: in her husband's demeanor and appearance.

457
00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:19,479
Speaker 1: She said that she saw the change in Harry, that

458
00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:24,440
Speaker 1: she saw that he got more aggressive. He put on

459
00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:29,600
Speaker 1: a lot of size, and his entire personality changed a

460
00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:34,240
Speaker 1: bit in an aggressive manner. She at various times would

461
00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:38,160
Speaker 1: see him with vials of something some kind of a

462
00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:39,800
Speaker 1: liquid inside the house.

463
00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:45,160
Speaker 4: Thanks to a new regimen of intravenous steroids, Harry was

464
00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:48,960
Speaker 4: constantly sweaty, irritable, and was quickly bulking up.

465
00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:54,200
Speaker 1: It was almost a situation where even when he was

466
00:29:54,280 --> 00:29:57,600
Speaker 1: home or she was around him, she didn't recognize him

467
00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:00,960
Speaker 1: as the same Harry that she knew, or the same

468
00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:01,959
Speaker 1: Harry that she married.

469
00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:06,000
Speaker 4: But hysteroic aduse was not the only thing about her

470
00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:10,840
Speaker 4: husband that was raising her suspicions. According to Harry, he

471
00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:13,440
Speaker 4: had a new job with Gil. They were doing what

472
00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:17,560
Speaker 4: he called private investigations, a job that often kept him

473
00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:25,000
Speaker 4: out all night, armed and flushed with cash.

474
00:30:22,840 --> 00:30:25,800
Speaker 1: And he even asked her to hold on to a gun,

475
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:30,280
Speaker 1: which was completely out of character and not anything that

476
00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:33,920
Speaker 1: Harry had asked his wife to do. So she was

477
00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:38,000
Speaker 1: immediately suspicious. Didn't know exactly what was going on, but

478
00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:41,880
Speaker 1: definitely knew that there was something the faarius that was happening.

479
00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:46,800
Speaker 4: But one night in particular stuck out in her memory.

480
00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:50,240
Speaker 4: Then on me was seven months pregnant and back in

481
00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:54,280
Speaker 4: the Northeast at her mother's house on bed rest. Harry

482
00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:56,600
Speaker 4: called her to let her know that he had to

483
00:30:56,600 --> 00:30:59,160
Speaker 4: do one last job for Gil and he would come

484
00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:03,560
Speaker 4: join her at her moms as soon as it was done.

485
00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:06,720
Speaker 1: And he said that Miami, we're going to go do

486
00:31:06,760 --> 00:31:10,240
Speaker 1: a job tonight and just pray for me that everything

487
00:31:10,280 --> 00:31:10,760
Speaker 1: works out.

488
00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:15,680
Speaker 4: According to Harry, this particular job was going to be

489
00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:19,560
Speaker 4: dangerous but potentially very profitable.

490
00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:24,920
Speaker 1: And as you can imagine a wife hearing that from

491
00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:28,480
Speaker 1: her husband, you would be worried. But at the same time,

492
00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:31,840
Speaker 1: she's got to be thinking, what exactly is going on

493
00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:34,760
Speaker 1: that I have to pray for my husband on a

494
00:31:34,840 --> 00:31:36,880
Speaker 1: job where he's doing PI work.

495
00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:42,040
Speaker 4: A week later, Harry informed Nuami that he was finally

496
00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:46,880
Speaker 4: leaving Florida and heading back north in a hurry. But

497
00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:51,000
Speaker 4: when he never arrived, never called, Noomi had a feeling

498
00:31:51,480 --> 00:31:57,160
Speaker 4: something had gone terribly wrong. Noemmi made some calls. Gil's

499
00:31:57,160 --> 00:31:59,720
Speaker 4: wife told her that Harry had come over for dinner

500
00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:02,600
Speaker 4: Gil before they left together.

501
00:32:03,760 --> 00:32:08,640
Speaker 1: And Gil's ex wife said, Harry came over, hung out

502
00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:11,480
Speaker 1: with Gil for a short period of time. I believe

503
00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:15,360
Speaker 1: they had dinner together, and then that was all she knew.

504
00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:19,240
Speaker 4: But according to Noami, when she reached out to Gil,

505
00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:24,000
Speaker 4: he denied it, claiming he hadn't seen Harry in days.

506
00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:28,920
Speaker 1: In Noemi's words, he was yelling at her. He was saying,

507
00:32:28,960 --> 00:32:31,600
Speaker 1: I don't know why you keep calling me. Stop calling me.

508
00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:35,960
Speaker 1: He's out somewhere. There's no reason for you to call

509
00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:37,200
Speaker 1: me anymore about this.

510
00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:42,800
Speaker 4: The next day, she reported her husband missing. Four days

511
00:32:42,840 --> 00:32:46,640
Speaker 4: after that, his body was discovered in an empty townhouse

512
00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:50,360
Speaker 4: in Pembroke Pines, a single gunshot wound to the back

513
00:32:50,400 --> 00:32:50,880
Speaker 4: of the head.

514
00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:56,520
Speaker 1: And ultimately the police get with her and they say

515
00:32:57,520 --> 00:33:01,720
Speaker 1: that Harry never left Florida. He was supposed to go

516
00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:06,520
Speaker 1: up north. He never left. He was with Gil, and

517
00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:10,640
Speaker 1: from there Gil and Harry went somewhere together, and then

518
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:11,640
Speaker 1: Harry never came back.

519
00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:17,400
Speaker 4: Miami said that for nearly four decades, she's been convinced

520
00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:19,880
Speaker 4: that Gil Fernandez pulled the trigger.

521
00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:26,480
Speaker 1: Noemi knew that Gil had something to do with Harry's

522
00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:29,640
Speaker 1: murder because he was the last person he was with

523
00:33:30,400 --> 00:33:32,520
Speaker 1: and was never heard from again.

524
00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:36,240
Speaker 4: It's been harder to come to terms with the idea

525
00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:40,080
Speaker 4: that her husband may have also been a killer.

526
00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:46,960
Speaker 1: I had a very lengthy conversation regarding Harry's fingerprint being.

527
00:33:46,840 --> 00:33:51,000
Speaker 5: At the hall Draft murder.

528
00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:57,600
Speaker 1: Scene and Noemi's I guess the impression of it is

529
00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:01,920
Speaker 1: that Harry would never do anything like that on his own,

530
00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:05,200
Speaker 1: and if his fingerprint was there, he was forced to

531
00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:10,480
Speaker 1: do it, and the fact that he was there or

532
00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:16,680
Speaker 1: even took part in a double murder was strictly as

533
00:34:16,680 --> 00:34:21,280
Speaker 1: a result of Gil forcing him, probably by a threat

534
00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:21,680
Speaker 1: of death.

535
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:26,160
Speaker 4: The one problem with that theory, of course, was that

536
00:34:26,239 --> 00:34:32,719
Speaker 4: Danny's investigation still had no proof Gil was there at all.

537
00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:37,319
Speaker 1: Right now, there's no information that shows that Gil was

538
00:34:37,440 --> 00:34:41,319
Speaker 1: at that house. There's no forensics, there's no witnesses that.

539
00:34:41,320 --> 00:34:45,399
Speaker 4: Put him there, even with the fingerprints to prove it.

540
00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:49,200
Speaker 4: Jemmy was still convinced that the Harry Collier she married

541
00:34:49,680 --> 00:34:53,520
Speaker 4: was no killer, But it turns out that she might

542
00:34:53,680 --> 00:34:59,000
Speaker 4: just have the proof that he was. Toward the end

543
00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:01,759
Speaker 4: of the conversation with don't let me mention something that

544
00:35:01,840 --> 00:35:06,160
Speaker 4: caught him off guard. Months after her husband's murder, she

545
00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:10,320
Speaker 4: found something amongst her husband's things that did not match

546
00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:12,240
Speaker 4: anything they had at home.

547
00:35:14,280 --> 00:35:22,120
Speaker 1: Naami mentioned that her mom, know Me's mom came across

548
00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:24,719
Speaker 1: a towel that appeared to be bloodstained, and it was

549
00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:27,720
Speaker 1: shortly after the Helper murder.

550
00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:32,839
Speaker 4: The towel had been washed, but the dark stains were

551
00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:38,040
Speaker 4: unmistakable and the implications unforgivable.

552
00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:42,880
Speaker 1: And she opted to keep that towel, hold it and

553
00:35:43,960 --> 00:35:51,640
Speaker 1: basically keep it as safe keeping. And I don't think

554
00:35:51,680 --> 00:35:54,360
Speaker 1: she knew exactly what she was going to do with it,

555
00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:56,840
Speaker 1: but she felt it was important enough to hold on to.

556
00:35:58,520 --> 00:36:02,360
Speaker 4: After her husband, Harry's murder, she moved back to the Northeast,

557
00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:08,719
Speaker 4: taking the bloody towel with her, but eventually Noemmi contacted

558
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:12,239
Speaker 4: investigators in Florida to tell them what she had.

559
00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:17,120
Speaker 1: She reached out to the Broward Sheriff's office and she

560
00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:21,800
Speaker 1: said that I've got this towel. She gave the circumstances

561
00:36:21,800 --> 00:36:24,560
Speaker 1: around the towel, and she said, if you guys want it,

562
00:36:24,600 --> 00:36:25,480
Speaker 1: come on up and get it.

563
00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:26,239
Speaker 3: I'll give it to you.

564
00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:31,040
Speaker 4: Noemi gave the towel to Browid County investigators and it

565
00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:34,839
Speaker 4: was filed as evidence. But according to our records, the

566
00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:40,000
Speaker 4: towel had never been tested, the mysterious stains never identified,

567
00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:47,040
Speaker 4: and most importantly, any potential DNA never collected, so whose

568
00:36:47,080 --> 00:36:51,120
Speaker 4: blood was it? Could it be Mitch Hall's Shrulinda Droughts

569
00:36:51,840 --> 00:36:57,040
Speaker 4: or could it belong to Billy Halper. We had to

570
00:36:57,080 --> 00:37:00,560
Speaker 4: find that towel, and if it contained DNA belonging to

571
00:37:00,680 --> 00:37:04,800
Speaker 4: any of the known victims, it was definitive proof finally

572
00:37:05,320 --> 00:37:10,080
Speaker 4: that Collier was indeed the killer, the Apollo Jim's own

573
00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:15,000
Speaker 4: hit man for hire. But if it didn't, well, we

574
00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:29,320
Speaker 4: might just be right back where we started. Cold Blooded

575
00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:33,400
Speaker 4: The Apollo Jim Murders is a production of iHeart Podcasts

576
00:37:33,440 --> 00:37:38,640
Speaker 4: and Authentic Wave Media. Scott Weinberger, Kevin Bennett, and Walker

577
00:37:38,719 --> 00:37:44,480
Speaker 4: LeMond are executive producers. Sabrina Siree is our line producer,

578
00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:51,120
Speaker 4: scoring sound design and mixing by Mark lamoorgg Z For

579
00:37:51,239 --> 00:37:56,480
Speaker 4: iHeart Podcasts, Christina Everett is executive producer, and David Wasserman

580
00:37:56,840 --> 00:38:00,200
Speaker 4: is brand marketing manager. And with special thanks to the

581
00:38:00,239 --> 00:38:05,920
Speaker 4: Miramar Police Department, Chief Delrich Moss, p Io Tanya Ardaz,

582
00:38:06,520 --> 00:38:08,200
Speaker 4: and Detective Susie Smith,