Speaker 1: January seventeenth, twenty twenty four, phone conversation with Hey, Danny
Speaker 1: Smith from meremr PDI catch it at that time? Are
Speaker 1: you good?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: I'm good. This case is.
Speaker 1: Has got a life of its own. And I've learned
Speaker 1: that two boxes became three, that became six, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm just gonna set up in my
Speaker 1: garage and work from here from now on.
Speaker 3: Well, I think I can close some circles for you.
Speaker 2: I don't know who you know and what you don't, Daniel,
Speaker 2: but I could kind of put if you think of
Speaker 2: it as terms of that is silent, I can kind
Speaker 2: of put all the voices in the perspective behind it,
Speaker 2: people and each and every one of these people that died,
Speaker 2: and each and every one of these people.
Speaker 4: I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff, and
Speaker 4: this is cold blooded. The Apollo Jim murders. In January
Speaker 4: of twenty twenty four, Miramar Police Department held a press
Speaker 4: conference to announce that it had sufficient evidence to officially
Speaker 4: reopen a nearly forty year old cold case, our case,
Speaker 4: the unsolid homicide of twenty eight year old Billy Halper.
Speaker 1: Good morning, I want on behalf of the Miramar Police
Speaker 1: Department and the Helping family. We want to thank all
Speaker 1: of you for coming out.
Speaker 4: With Billy's sister Laurie at his side. Detective Danny Smith
Speaker 4: addressed members of the South Florida.
Speaker 1: Press October twenty first, nineteen eighty six. Billy Helper was
Speaker 1: killed in his Miarmore count home. Billy was bound, beaten,
Speaker 1: and ultimately killed. This was done in broad daylight.
Speaker 4: The story of murder, muscles and the mob played like
Speaker 4: breaking news and.
Speaker 1: Also new at noon Miramar Police announcing a major break
Speaker 1: in a cold case and involves.
Speaker 4: The brutal murder of a firefighter in his home back
Speaker 4: in nineteen eighty six, and dominated the front page of
Speaker 4: the next morning's Miami Herald. But of course, Danny and
Speaker 4: I had been at this for more than a year,
Speaker 4: knocking on doors, interviewing witnesses, testing DNA, and generally trying
Speaker 4: to untangle the web of facts, lies, and legend surrounding
Speaker 4: the Apollo Gym, which we believed was at the center
Speaker 4: of a string of unsolved murders.
Speaker 1: Billy's murder has been tied to numerous other murders throughout
Speaker 1: the Daytenbrower area back in the nineteen eighties. Central to
Speaker 1: those murders was a former Miami Day police officer, Gil Fernandez,
Speaker 1: and his partner Burt Christie, who both worked and owned
Speaker 1: or ran Apollo Gym out of Hollywood.
Speaker 4: The goal first to raise awareness among the general public
Speaker 4: that Billy's case was still unsolved and that Billy, like
Speaker 4: any victim, was still entitled to his share of justice.
Speaker 1: We believe that Billy heard something he shouldn't have heard,
Speaker 1: and he saw something he shouldn't have seen, and we
Speaker 1: believed that Billy was killed to keep him quiet and
Speaker 1: for nothing else.
Speaker 4: Danny also wanted to appeal to any potential witnesses who
Speaker 4: might know something about Billy's murder to come forward and
Speaker 4: share that information with police, someone who may have been
Speaker 4: too afraid or too involved to come forward before.
Speaker 1: So we're asking the public to come forward and even
Speaker 1: give us a name of someone who they believe was
Speaker 1: there that we can potentially get their DNA and compare
Speaker 1: that to what we have.
Speaker 4: A DNA match could help Danny finally close the case
Speaker 4: on Billy's murder, but more importantly, it would give Billy's
Speaker 4: family the closure they so deeply deserved.
Speaker 5: As a possibility that someone out there knows something, knows
Speaker 5: who may be.
Speaker 1: Responsible for this. If there was a message that you.
Speaker 2: Had for then what would it be.
Speaker 1: Come forward, Call Danny, call them, call Mirrama, mirror mar
Speaker 1: and thank you for coming and being brave. Don't be afraid,
Speaker 1: come and tell them what you know. I'd be grateful,
Speaker 1: My family would be grateful.
Speaker 4: Less than four hours after the press conference ended and
Speaker 4: was televised on local news channels in South Florida, Danny
Speaker 4: received a phone call from someone whose name who's nowhere
Speaker 4: to be found in the original case file or ours.
Speaker 4: The caller claimed he had information not just about Billy's murder,
Speaker 4: but also about Gil Fernandez, Harry Collier, and even a
Speaker 4: couple of new names of people he believed were responsible
Speaker 4: for Billy's murder.
Speaker 2: There were other people that were, at least, let me say,
Speaker 2: like part of the read from the gym that no
Speaker 2: one has ever mentioned.
Speaker 4: And like anyone who was in the South Florida bodybuilding scene.
Speaker 4: He was also a regular at the Apollo Gym. For
Speaker 4: reasons that will become apparent, this witness would only reveal
Speaker 4: his identity to law enforcement, requesting that information not be released.
Speaker 2: I became very close to Burke, and I would be
Speaker 2: at the gym all the time, all the time, so
Speaker 2: I'd be listening to things that I should have been
Speaker 2: listened to, and then I would always walk out, and
Speaker 2: I guess they appreciated the fact that I didn't want
Speaker 2: to know anything that was going.
Speaker 4: On and what was going on. According to the original investigation,
Speaker 4: drug dealing, shakedowns and deadly ripoffs all directed by former
Speaker 4: Mister Florida Burt Christie and carried out by Gil Fernandez
Speaker 4: and his crew. But according to this new witness, Bert
Speaker 4: Christy was not always the one calling the shots. He
Speaker 4: mentioned a name that neither Danny or I had heard
Speaker 4: mentioned in this investigation, a name that for now is
Speaker 4: being redacted.
Speaker 3: Have you ever heard the name?
Speaker 1: Not a name I've come across now, No, I.
Speaker 2: Don't think anyone knows him. In working at the gym
Speaker 2: was a guy from New York and he would come
Speaker 2: down once a month or it would go outside and
Speaker 2: would not park. They would be pulling into the porking lot,
Speaker 2: but Bert would be nervous that take.
Speaker 3: He would go get in the car and be gone
Speaker 3: for whatever time, half hour, hour, hour, and a half.
Speaker 1: Whatever, I'm sorry you said he was Gills boss, or
Speaker 1: Bert's boss was Gills boss.
Speaker 3: And was Burt's.
Speaker 4: It was the first time Danny had heard mention of
Speaker 4: Christie's boss, someone who potentially was not just aware of
Speaker 4: Christie's criminal enterprise, but behind it.
Speaker 2: Was one of those shady guys. When his name was mentioned,
Speaker 2: everyone said, don't ever save that name. Don't ever save
Speaker 2: that name. And I guess in retrospect he was giving
Speaker 2: bird orders and what would happen was.
Speaker 3: Burt would come back and he would be nervous as shit.
Speaker 4: But there was one visit in particular that always stuck
Speaker 4: in his memory. It was nineteen eighty five. Business at
Speaker 4: the Hollow was booming, and with each new score, Burtngill's
Speaker 4: crew was getting more brazen.
Speaker 2: Are don't work, Gil and Tommy all went out and
Speaker 2: bought beautiful cars, and all of their wives got implants.
Speaker 2: It's everything you told someone not to do after committing
Speaker 2: a crime and making money.
Speaker 4: Not only that, but according to Mark Lopez, drug use
Speaker 4: among the Apollos in a circle, particularly the injection of
Speaker 4: anabolic steroids, was getting out of control.
Speaker 5: You got to realize when you start loading your body
Speaker 5: up with lots of artificial distosterone that can make it
Speaker 5: super aggressive, and it can kind of distort your thoughts,
Speaker 5: so it could make you excessively violent if you don't
Speaker 5: know how to rail yourself in.
Speaker 4: Eventually, their rising profile started to attract the attention of
Speaker 4: law enforcement, including the South Florida Field Office the FBI. Obviously,
Speaker 4: with law enforcement sniffing around the Apollo, the larger enterprise
Speaker 4: was at risk, even with Gill's connection within the police force,
Speaker 4: because as we know, where there are detectives, there are
Speaker 4: potential informants, maybe even a whole gym full of them.
Speaker 4: So on one of his boss's visits, Christy was given
Speaker 4: strict instructions, get your house in order.
Speaker 2: I mean when he came down with the last times
Speaker 2: and you could see it in his mind if something
Speaker 2: concerned him so much that he just had to go home. Now,
Speaker 2: whether he got orders, I don't know. Whether the orders
Speaker 2: were so over the top that there were people that
Speaker 2: just had to be cleaned up, I don't know.
Speaker 4: Thanks to the information presented in gil and Bert's later trial,
Speaker 4: we know that both local and federal law enforcement had
Speaker 4: been surveilling the Apollo gym and looking for for any
Speaker 4: Apollo employees who may have been willing to offer incriminating
Speaker 4: testimony against their bosses. In fact, when we first talked
Speaker 4: to Mark Lopez, he described what it was like to
Speaker 4: live under the eye of both the cops and Gil Fernandez.
Speaker 5: At that time, we knew that law enforcement was out
Speaker 5: there poking around about Gil and I know when it happened.
Speaker 5: I told Gil about it. I specifically told him that
Speaker 5: BSO is trying to call me in and call my
Speaker 5: girl in with me.
Speaker 4: These particular detectives were looking for information on the nineteen
Speaker 4: eighty three murders on Danger Road.
Speaker 5: We met them for the first time in the Broward
Speaker 5: maw two detectives. I said, you guys, honestly think that
Speaker 5: me or anybody else like me is going to cooperate
Speaker 5: with you, because if I ever agreed to do something
Speaker 5: like that, I said, you know, my fate is sealed.
Speaker 4: Gil had become the top suspect in the still unsolved
Speaker 4: triple homicide out on Danger Road, and by nineteen eighty
Speaker 4: five he was beginning to feel the heat.
Speaker 5: As time went on, you could see that there was
Speaker 5: some type of underlying issue, and you can just see
Speaker 5: it in someone. Then when they're carrying something heavy right,
Speaker 5: or they're worried about something. He was easily agitated, you know,
Speaker 5: when he was agitated, like you could see it on
Speaker 5: his face. And I would always when I saw that look,
Speaker 5: I would give him a wide berth.
Speaker 4: Everyone at the Apollo was unnoticed. With law enforcement closing in.
Speaker 4: Gil was on a tear and according to the investigation,
Speaker 4: anyone that could potentially inform on him was seen as
Speaker 4: collateral damage. And according to this new witness, that meant
Speaker 4: Billy Halburn could have found himself squarely in Bert and
Speaker 4: Gill's crosshairs.
Speaker 2: He got a little sloppy Burton gulp, and I saw
Speaker 2: things I probably shouldn't have seen, and a greody guess
Speaker 2: because of the fact that Billy was there alive, he
Speaker 2: probably saw things he shouldn't have seen. And I think
Speaker 2: that's the reason Harry was called down, well, whatever reason,
Speaker 2: because I recalled vividly that went towards the end when
Speaker 2: Bibe came down.
Speaker 4: The caller is again referring to the man he believed
Speaker 4: to be Bert Christie's boss.
Speaker 2: Bert not that he was nervous that he would come
Speaker 2: down normally, but he would when he was visibly upset
Speaker 2: when he learned that Harry came down.
Speaker 4: Harry as in Harry Collier, the same Harry Collier whose
Speaker 4: fingerprint would later be found at Mitch Hall's murder.
Speaker 2: And that's when this thing started getting out of control.
Speaker 2: Anybody who do anything. They just started going after him
Speaker 2: and silencing everybody.
Speaker 4: One thing you learned from talking with witnesses with more
Speaker 4: than a passing understanding of the criminal world. They have
Speaker 4: a particular fondness for understatement.
Speaker 3: Okay, Harry was gone. Harry was not a friendly guy.
Speaker 4: Also, according to this new witness, Harry Collier had a
Speaker 4: very particular skill set.
Speaker 3: I don't know how I came out of this a lot,
Speaker 3: but to make a long story short, it would be.
Speaker 2: Talking about knives and shit. I so know that he
Speaker 2: was really into knives.
Speaker 4: The medical examiner determined that the official manner of Billy
Speaker 4: Helpern's murder was trangulation, but someone had also likely used
Speaker 4: a large knife to cut Billy's throat, leaving a wound
Speaker 4: so jagged and deep it appeared that they were trying
Speaker 4: to remove his head. Six months later, Mitch Hall and
Speaker 4: his girlfriend char Linda would be killed the very same
Speaker 4: way it was an opening that Danny couldn't pass up.
Speaker 1: So actually, I'd like to stay on Harry for a minute,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to be very upfront with you. I
Speaker 1: am more than ninety percent sure that Harry Collier was
Speaker 1: at Billy's and took part in his in his murder.
Speaker 2: I know Harry was down for an extended period of time,
Speaker 2: and it seemed like everything was happening during that span
Speaker 2: of time when Harry was down here.
Speaker 3: That's what he was down for. If you asked me,
Speaker 3: I guess.
Speaker 2: As they were backtracking over their people, anyone met new anything.
Speaker 4: Our witnesses theory Billy, like a lot of other guys
Speaker 4: at the gym, had learned too much about Bert and
Speaker 4: Gill's criminal activity, specifically the triple homicide on Danger Road,
Speaker 4: and according to Dave Fasano, Bert and Gill's involvement was
Speaker 4: an open secret.
Speaker 6: Everybody knew about it, everybody had talked about everyone knew
Speaker 6: about it, especially the guys that were worked out there.
Speaker 4: Now, Danny and I checked and there was no record
Speaker 4: anywhere that Billy had ever contacted either local or federal
Speaker 4: law enforcement. But perhaps because of his clean record or
Speaker 4: a refusal to be part of Gill's gang. Billy was
Speaker 4: a threat, and threats had to be eliminated. Here's Dave
Speaker 4: Fasano again, this time recalling that fateful morning in October
Speaker 4: of nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 3: I went to work.
Speaker 6: And when I was pulling into the parking lot, you
Speaker 6: could see Billy's block from the swimming pool, and I
Speaker 6: saw the ambulances and stuff, and I'm like wow. And
Speaker 6: I got out of the car and people were coming
Speaker 6: up to me, Hey, somebody was murdered. Somebody was murdered.
Speaker 6: And I walked down the street and I see that
Speaker 6: it's Billy's house and I realized it's Billy. I kind
Speaker 6: of went back to the pool by myself, and I
Speaker 6: was going over and over in my head. You know
Speaker 6: that Bert must be involved.
Speaker 4: Mitch Hall and Charlnda Drought were killed less than six
Speaker 4: months later.
Speaker 1: So Mitch Hall and Charlinda his girlfriend, who appeared to
Speaker 1: be in the wrong place at the wrong time, we
Speaker 1: were killed with a very similar mo.
Speaker 3: That Billy was.
Speaker 2: And you let just see this points the atmosphere of
Speaker 2: the one was looking over the shoulder towards the egg.
Speaker 3: Who's next.
Speaker 2: Because of a short spend period of time, all of
Speaker 2: a sudden all his people died, so.
Speaker 4: Who was ultimately responsible who was calling the shots? Harry
Speaker 4: Collier was rumored to be a hit man from up
Speaker 4: North with a thing for large knives, the kind of
Speaker 4: weapon used to nearly decapitate Billy, Mitch and Charlnda. Collier
Speaker 4: also happened to leave a fingerprint on a piece of
Speaker 4: electrical tape at the Mitch Hall crime scene, even without
Speaker 4: his DNA. This is strong circumstantial evidence that he was
Speaker 4: at least one of the men behind all three murders.
Speaker 4: But if it was Collier, who was with him who
Speaker 4: ordered the hits. Since Jimmy high Note was found murdered
Speaker 4: alongside Collier just a week after Mitch and Charlnda, it's
Speaker 4: not a leap to assume he was also present at
Speaker 4: Billy's murder. This fit with our assumptions that Billy was
Speaker 4: ambushed by multiple assailants.
Speaker 1: The theory is that Billy would not have opened the
Speaker 1: door for Harry. He didn't know Harry. He wouldn't open
Speaker 1: the door for Harry, but he knew Jimmy hin Note
Speaker 1: action and he grew up with Jimmy high Note. And
Speaker 1: my theory is that Harry and Jimmy high Note with
Speaker 1: one other person, whether it's Gill or someone else.
Speaker 4: Once again, it appears all signs seem to point to
Speaker 4: Gil Fernandez, but without any physical evidence linking him to
Speaker 4: the crime scene, it might be impossible to know for
Speaker 4: sure if he was there, perhaps helping high Note and
Speaker 4: call your tie Billy up, giving the orders to kill,
Speaker 4: or even doing it himself. And while he may not
Speaker 4: have any proof that Gil Fernandez killed Billy Halpurn, what
Speaker 4: about the murders of Jimmy high Note and Harry Collier?
Speaker 1: Not to mention the fact that shortly thereafter, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you remember Gil had to go to the
Speaker 1: hospital with lead in his eye.
Speaker 4: I remember, that's right. The day after high Note and
Speaker 4: Collier were shot dead. Police reports show that Gil was
Speaker 4: admitted to the emergency room with a very telling injury.
Speaker 4: Somehow a small piece of lead had lacerated his eye.
Speaker 4: According to the report, it was a shard of iron
Speaker 4: from a weightlifting accident. But our witness had an opinion
Speaker 4: about that too.
Speaker 1: What do you feel about that? That excuse that it
Speaker 1: was a dumbbell that broke, or of.
Speaker 3: Course, of course you know better than that, and I
Speaker 3: know better than that.
Speaker 2: Of course, now in retrospect, it's hideous that I believed
Speaker 2: what I believe. You know, it was obviously a freight
Speaker 2: mint from lead from a gunshot.
Speaker 4: In October of nineteen eighty six, Harry Collier was summoned
Speaker 4: to the Apollo Gym in Hollywood Beach, Florida. Burton Gill's
Speaker 4: operations had gotten sloppy. People were talking, and according to
Speaker 4: the investigation, it was Collier's job to help clean things up.
Speaker 2: Every day you'd go in, they're wondering who's going to
Speaker 2: be dead next. That was the atmosphere in the gym
Speaker 2: at the time.
Speaker 4: It reminded me of something Billy's friend Dave Fasano told
Speaker 4: us about a particularly ominous conversation with Burt Christy just
Speaker 4: a few days before Billy was killed.
Speaker 6: I was at the gym one day and I was
Speaker 6: working out, and Bert came up to me, So your
Speaker 6: friends would Biblity to help hert right? And I said yeah,
Speaker 6: He says, how good a friend? He says, well, I
Speaker 6: don't want you hanging out with him anymore. I don't
Speaker 6: want you to go to his house. I don't want
Speaker 6: you to get in a car with him. I don't
Speaker 6: want you to go out with him to a club.
Speaker 6: I don't want you to do nothing with him. If
Speaker 6: he calls you, you make an excuse, but don't go
Speaker 6: anywhere near him.
Speaker 4: Later that week, Billy Helperan was murdered.
Speaker 6: And I'm thinking, holy shit, Bert had to know something,
Speaker 6: because why did he tell me to stay away from Billy?
Speaker 6: So Bert in a way protected me at the same time,
Speaker 6: was involvable killing one of my closest friends.
Speaker 4: It may have been a warning, a mentor and coach
Speaker 4: looking out for his bodybuilding protegee, but it also clearly
Speaker 4: was a threat. And you know what, it worked.
Speaker 6: When the cops came to me, they asked me to speak,
Speaker 6: asked to speak to me. They came in the gym
Speaker 6: and they said, it's David Fasano win here and they
Speaker 6: pointed me out. They came over and they pulled me
Speaker 6: out of the gym and the frock in the parking
Speaker 6: lot and started questioning me. The first question was that
Speaker 6: you know, there's all these murders and your name is
Speaker 6: in all the phone books that we've recovered.
Speaker 3: Why why is that one?
Speaker 6: And I said, well, because we all worked out here
Speaker 6: to pollow gym. And we're friends from this gym. I
Speaker 6: remember just being nervous as hell because Gil was looking
Speaker 6: out the window.
Speaker 3: And I was terrified.
Speaker 6: I was afraid I was going to get killed because
Speaker 6: and so I kept my mouth shut. And I felt
Speaker 6: guilty for keeping my mouth shut at that time because
Speaker 6: I thought I could help Billy, but I was terrified
Speaker 6: that they were going to kill me.
Speaker 4: He had reason to be afraid. Supposedly, Bitch Hall had
Speaker 4: heard the same rumors about Bert and Ill that Billy had,
Speaker 4: and when Billy was killed, he made the decision to
Speaker 4: come forward and share what he knew with law enforcement.
Speaker 4: It's still painful for his sister Kim to recount what
Speaker 4: happened next.
Speaker 7: Charlette was pulled from the shower. My brother was not
Speaker 7: home yet, and they cut her throat. And then my brother,
Speaker 7: he Messa, went to the store because they have had
Speaker 7: a six pack of beer on the kitchen counter, and
Speaker 7: then I guess he went to the room and he
Speaker 7: tried to get to his gun, which was in the closet,
Speaker 7: and I guess they cut his throat.
Speaker 4: The truth was no one was safe, as high note
Speaker 4: in Collier's murders proved when it's time to clean house.
Speaker 4: Even the hitman gets hit.
Speaker 7: My brother died May sixth. When I went to the funeral,
Speaker 7: of course, he had like five hundred people at the funeral.
Speaker 7: He was very pop. My brother and Jimmy High Note
Speaker 7: was there and he came up to me and he
Speaker 7: was sweating. He it seemed like he was like just
Speaker 7: got out of the shower and never dried off. He
Speaker 7: was sweating and sweating, and he hugged me. I'm sorry
Speaker 7: about Mitch. I'll never forget it. He said, I'm going
Speaker 7: to be next. And I said, Jimmy, you need to
Speaker 7: go to the police. You have to go talk to somebody.
Speaker 7: I can't kim I'm going to be next. Then a
Speaker 7: week later, he was next.
Speaker 4: He was shot alongside the same man who most likely
Speaker 4: killed her brother, Harry Collier. The realization hit her like
Speaker 4: a ton of bricks. She had known Jimmy high Note
Speaker 4: her whole life, she just never knew what he was
Speaker 4: allegedly capable of.
Speaker 7: I believe in my heart he was there, and I
Speaker 7: just have this feeling and I'm thinking, oh my god,
Speaker 7: I if Jimmy he was there and he killed my brother.
Speaker 7: I actually hugged his murderer.
Speaker 4: During this investigation, Detective Danny Smith made efforts to learn
Speaker 4: more about both Jimmy high Note and Harry Collier, and
Speaker 4: while plenty of people had memories of high Note, who
Speaker 4: was a South Florida local, Collier had fewer Florida ties,
Speaker 4: and until his arrival at the Apollo, he was relatively unknown.
Speaker 4: But in the fall of twenty twenty three, we were
Speaker 4: able to talk to his widow, Noami Collier. Danny had
Speaker 4: already uncovered a lot of damning, circumstantial evidence that put
Speaker 4: her husband, Harry, not only at the Mitch Hall crime scene,
Speaker 4: but also at Billy Halpern's. His obvious relationship with Burton Gill,
Speaker 4: his keen interest in knives, and of course, his fingerprint
Speaker 4: left at the scene of a double homicide. It all
Speaker 4: pointed to Collier as a cold blooded killer, but he
Speaker 4: was a victim himself, and we had the feeling that
Speaker 4: peeling back the layers of his story would shine light
Speaker 4: not only on Billy Hoppern's murder, but his own and
Speaker 4: the men that ordered it.
Speaker 1: Our hom side was October twenty first of eighty six,
Speaker 1: and then seven months later, about May of eighty seven,
Speaker 1: a guy the name of Mitch Hall and Charlon de
Speaker 1: Drought were killed, and then eight days later, Jimmy and
Speaker 1: Harry were killed, and that was in Pines.
Speaker 4: Harry Collier's wife agreed to cooperate with Detective Smith's investigation because,
Speaker 4: like so many people affected by these crimes, she's been
Speaker 4: left with too many unanswered questions for too long.
Speaker 1: I think the common denominator here is everyone involved in
Speaker 1: all these homsides somehow had a connection with Gil Fernandez.
Speaker 1: Now maybe ninety five percent of the people that I've
Speaker 1: spoken to have all said, why are you doing this?
Speaker 1: This case is solved, will be already told gil did it,
Speaker 1: Bert did it. It's a done deal. And I've explained
Speaker 1: to them that actually it's not.
Speaker 4: It's clear from her body language there is no love
Speaker 4: lost for Gil Fernandez, and no matter how painful it
Speaker 4: was to revisit her husband's murder, she knew it was
Speaker 4: important to finally confront the truth.
Speaker 1: She essentially said that she's a mom, you know, as
Speaker 1: a wife, she would want to know and find out
Speaker 1: exactly what happened and who did what, and if there's
Speaker 1: still someone struggling with finding out what happened, I think
Speaker 1: she would like to assist with that.
Speaker 4: We will paraphrase her answers here because quite honestly, what
Speaker 4: she told Danny Smith sheds all new light on many
Speaker 4: of the details of this case. Now. Webby explained that
Speaker 4: she and Harry had relocated from the Northeast to Coral Springs, Florida,
Speaker 4: in the early eighties. She got a job teaching in
Speaker 4: the Broward County Public school system, and Harry, she told us,
Speaker 4: worked as a counselor at the Broward Juvenile Detention Center,
Speaker 4: which was news to us. Harry Collier worked with law
Speaker 4: enforcement first up in the Northeast and now South Florida,
Speaker 4: but the Colliers were also bodybuilders, and it was only
Speaker 4: a matter of time before Harry fell in with fellow
Speaker 4: workout fiends Bert and Gil.
Speaker 1: She mentioned Gil and Bert and Harry. They were always together.
Speaker 1: They did everything together. They basically woke up and their
Speaker 1: daily routine was they would call each other, they would
Speaker 1: hang out with each other, and they would do everything together.
Speaker 4: And it wasn't long before she noticed a disturbing change
Speaker 4: in her husband's demeanor and appearance.
Speaker 1: She said that she saw the change in Harry, that
Speaker 1: she saw that he got more aggressive. He put on
Speaker 1: a lot of size, and his entire personality changed a
Speaker 1: bit in an aggressive manner. She at various times would
Speaker 1: see him with vials of something some kind of a
Speaker 1: liquid inside the house.
Speaker 4: Thanks to a new regimen of intravenous steroids, Harry was
Speaker 4: constantly sweaty, irritable, and was quickly bulking up.
Speaker 1: It was almost a situation where even when he was
Speaker 1: home or she was around him, she didn't recognize him
Speaker 1: as the same Harry that she knew, or the same
Speaker 1: Harry that she married.
Speaker 4: But hysteroic aduse was not the only thing about her
Speaker 4: husband that was raising her suspicions. According to Harry, he
Speaker 4: had a new job with Gil. They were doing what
Speaker 4: he called private investigations, a job that often kept him
Speaker 4: out all night, armed and flushed with cash.
Speaker 1: And he even asked her to hold on to a gun,
Speaker 1: which was completely out of character and not anything that
Speaker 1: Harry had asked his wife to do. So she was
Speaker 1: immediately suspicious. Didn't know exactly what was going on, but
Speaker 1: definitely knew that there was something the faarius that was happening.
Speaker 4: But one night in particular stuck out in her memory.
Speaker 4: Then on me was seven months pregnant and back in
Speaker 4: the Northeast at her mother's house on bed rest. Harry
Speaker 4: called her to let her know that he had to
Speaker 4: do one last job for Gil and he would come
Speaker 4: join her at her moms as soon as it was done.
Speaker 1: And he said that Miami, we're going to go do
Speaker 1: a job tonight and just pray for me that everything
Speaker 1: works out.
Speaker 4: According to Harry, this particular job was going to be
Speaker 4: dangerous but potentially very profitable.
Speaker 1: And as you can imagine a wife hearing that from
Speaker 1: her husband, you would be worried. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: she's got to be thinking, what exactly is going on
Speaker 1: that I have to pray for my husband on a
Speaker 1: job where he's doing PI work.
Speaker 4: A week later, Harry informed Nuami that he was finally
Speaker 4: leaving Florida and heading back north in a hurry. But
Speaker 4: when he never arrived, never called, Noomi had a feeling
Speaker 4: something had gone terribly wrong. Noemmi made some calls. Gil's
Speaker 4: wife told her that Harry had come over for dinner
Speaker 4: Gil before they left together.
Speaker 1: And Gil's ex wife said, Harry came over, hung out
Speaker 1: with Gil for a short period of time. I believe
Speaker 1: they had dinner together, and then that was all she knew.
Speaker 4: But according to Noami, when she reached out to Gil,
Speaker 4: he denied it, claiming he hadn't seen Harry in days.
Speaker 1: In Noemi's words, he was yelling at her. He was saying,
Speaker 1: I don't know why you keep calling me. Stop calling me.
Speaker 1: He's out somewhere. There's no reason for you to call
Speaker 1: me anymore about this.
Speaker 4: The next day, she reported her husband missing. Four days
Speaker 4: after that, his body was discovered in an empty townhouse
Speaker 4: in Pembroke Pines, a single gunshot wound to the back
Speaker 4: of the head.
Speaker 1: And ultimately the police get with her and they say
Speaker 1: that Harry never left Florida. He was supposed to go
Speaker 1: up north. He never left. He was with Gil, and
Speaker 1: from there Gil and Harry went somewhere together, and then
Speaker 1: Harry never came back.
Speaker 4: Miami said that for nearly four decades, she's been convinced
Speaker 4: that Gil Fernandez pulled the trigger.
Speaker 1: Noemi knew that Gil had something to do with Harry's
Speaker 1: murder because he was the last person he was with
Speaker 1: and was never heard from again.
Speaker 4: It's been harder to come to terms with the idea
Speaker 4: that her husband may have also been a killer.
Speaker 1: I had a very lengthy conversation regarding Harry's fingerprint being.
Speaker 5: At the hall Draft murder.
Speaker 1: Scene and Noemi's I guess the impression of it is
Speaker 1: that Harry would never do anything like that on his own,
Speaker 1: and if his fingerprint was there, he was forced to
Speaker 1: do it, and the fact that he was there or
Speaker 1: even took part in a double murder was strictly as
Speaker 1: a result of Gil forcing him, probably by a threat
Speaker 1: of death.
Speaker 4: The one problem with that theory, of course, was that
Speaker 4: Danny's investigation still had no proof Gil was there at all.
Speaker 1: Right now, there's no information that shows that Gil was
Speaker 1: at that house. There's no forensics, there's no witnesses that.
Speaker 4: Put him there, even with the fingerprints to prove it.
Speaker 4: Jemmy was still convinced that the Harry Collier she married
Speaker 4: was no killer, But it turns out that she might
Speaker 4: just have the proof that he was. Toward the end
Speaker 4: of the conversation with don't let me mention something that
Speaker 4: caught him off guard. Months after her husband's murder, she
Speaker 4: found something amongst her husband's things that did not match
Speaker 4: anything they had at home.
Speaker 1: Naami mentioned that her mom, know Me's mom came across
Speaker 1: a towel that appeared to be bloodstained, and it was
Speaker 1: shortly after the Helper murder.
Speaker 4: The towel had been washed, but the dark stains were
Speaker 4: unmistakable and the implications unforgivable.
Speaker 1: And she opted to keep that towel, hold it and
Speaker 1: basically keep it as safe keeping. And I don't think
Speaker 1: she knew exactly what she was going to do with it,
Speaker 1: but she felt it was important enough to hold on to.
Speaker 4: After her husband, Harry's murder, she moved back to the Northeast,
Speaker 4: taking the bloody towel with her, but eventually Noemmi contacted
Speaker 4: investigators in Florida to tell them what she had.
Speaker 1: She reached out to the Broward Sheriff's office and she
Speaker 1: said that I've got this towel. She gave the circumstances
Speaker 1: around the towel, and she said, if you guys want it,
Speaker 1: come on up and get it.
Speaker 3: I'll give it to you.
Speaker 4: Noemi gave the towel to Browid County investigators and it
Speaker 4: was filed as evidence. But according to our records, the
Speaker 4: towel had never been tested, the mysterious stains never identified,
Speaker 4: and most importantly, any potential DNA never collected, so whose
Speaker 4: blood was it? Could it be Mitch Hall's Shrulinda Droughts
Speaker 4: or could it belong to Billy Halper. We had to
Speaker 4: find that towel, and if it contained DNA belonging to
Speaker 4: any of the known victims, it was definitive proof finally
Speaker 4: that Collier was indeed the killer, the Apollo Jim's own
Speaker 4: hit man for hire. But if it didn't, well, we
Speaker 4: might just be right back where we started. Cold Blooded
Speaker 4: The Apollo Jim Murders is a production of iHeart Podcasts
Speaker 4: and Authentic Wave Media. Scott Weinberger, Kevin Bennett, and Walker
Speaker 4: LeMond are executive producers. Sabrina Siree is our line producer,
Speaker 4: scoring sound design and mixing by Mark lamoorgg Z For
Speaker 4: iHeart Podcasts, Christina Everett is executive producer, and David Wasserman
Speaker 4: is brand marketing manager. And with special thanks to the
Speaker 4: Miramar Police Department, Chief Delrich Moss, p Io Tanya Ardaz,
Speaker 4: and Detective Susie Smith,