WEBVTT - Introducing - Earwitness: Chapter 1 | Behind the Crown 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.240 Hi there, I'm Steve Fishman from Orbit Media and I've 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:06.040 got a goodie for you. Today we're dropping the first 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:10.080 episode of ear Witness, which is a favorite podcast of 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:13.520 mine from our friends at Lava for Good. They released 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:16.120 it in twenty twenty three and it didn't get enough attention, 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:23.520 so luckily they're re releasing it in their Bone Valley feed. Personally, 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:27.880 I think this podcast will rile you. It riled me. 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:32.000 It's the story of Tafarest Johnson, a man who was 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:36.320 wrongfully convicted for murder in Alabama and is still on 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:41.040 death row. There weren't any eyewitnesses, no physical evidence to 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:45.720 forrest had ten witnesses who put him at some place 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:48.560 other than the scene of the crime. The state tried 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:52.720 to convict a different man for the same crime. Maybe 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:56.600 most disturbing of all is that his conviction relied on 0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:01.000 an ear witness that's the name. This was a woman 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:04.560 who claimed to have evesdropped on an incriminating phone call, 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:11.199 a woman whom prosecutors paid for her testimony in secret, 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:15.840 a secret they never revealed. Fans of the Burden and 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:20.040 Empire and Blood will love this story. All eight episodes 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:30.720 of ear Witness are available now wherever you get your podcasts. Enjoy. 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:35.160 This is quite a wall here. Oh, these are some 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:36.080 great photos. 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:43.120 That's Jimmy Carter enough me, uh huh, yes, me and 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:44.440 Lorena Lynn. 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:48.440 How did this come about? She was given a. 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:51.720 Concert in burmah Allen carrying me backstage to leader. 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:54.920 Look at this suit that you have on. Maybe you've 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:58.520 never heard of Bill Baxley, but here in Alabama he's 0:01:58.560 --> 0:01:59.280 a big deal. 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:01.360 Oh. 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:01.880 Wow. 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:06.960 Baxley is eighty two, slightly balding, with silver hair and eyebrows. 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:10.080 In the pictures he's showing me on the wall of 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:14.360 his office. I see him looking younger. His hair is dark, 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:18.280 and he's standing with famous musicians and politicians. 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:21.880 As my dad, I sweared me in for my first term. 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:22.720 Wow. 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:26.680 Baxley was elected as Alabama's Attorney general when he was 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:30.680 just twenty eight years old. He later served as lieutenant governor, 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:35.800 and he's still practicing law today. During his career, Baxley 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:40.519 prosecuted hundreds of cases and sent three people to Alabama's 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:41.040 death row. 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:46.280 There are some crimes that are so wrong and so 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:50.520 horrible that they only deserve one punishment. 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:55.880 He's a lifelong defender of the death penalty. A true believer, 0:02:56.919 --> 0:02:59.799 like when the US Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:04.160 in the nineteen seventies, Baxley worked hard to bring executions 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:09.600 back to Alabama. He's that kind of true believer. So 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:13.160 it's not surprising that Baxley was skeptical when his son, 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:16.560 who's also an attorney, asked his dad to look over 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:20.200 a case because he believed an innocent man was on 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:20.839 death row. 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:26.200 Over the course of my long career, I've had dozens 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:31.280 and dozens of answerces were these I'll call them do gooders, 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:35.320 but they are. They're good people. They take up there's 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:38.640 causes of people that have been sentenced to death, and 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:41.680 they get interested in trying to help them, and they 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:43.360 all think they're always innocent. 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:47.840 Baxley didn't even glance at the case file until weeks later. 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:51.960 On an icy winter morning, it was too slippery to 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:55.080 walk down the driveway and grab the newspaper, so he 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:57.960 picked up the file that his son sent him and 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:02.320 began reading about a black man named to Forrest Johnson, 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:05.520 who was sentenced to death for killing a shareff's deputy. 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.800 I mean mid morning, I couldn't believe what I was reading. 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:12.520 I wouldn't have believed that something like this could have happened. 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:14.480 What was so unbelievable about it? 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:18.520 Everything? Everything. I don't know how the guy got indicted, 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:22.360 how they got I didn't see how the jury convicted him. 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:25.000 I would have never believed that that could have happened 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:30.400 in Alabama, no question in my mind. This guy was 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:36.000 not guilty of this crime, and I couldn't comprehend how 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:36.679 this could happen. 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:41.600 There's only one other case where Basley thought the defendants 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:45.119 were innocent, and that case is almost one hundred years old. 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:50.680 So what is it about this case to Forrest's case 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:55.120 that convinced Basley that Alabama is trying to execute an 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:55.960 innocent man? 0:04:57.200 --> 0:05:02.200 If it's a unique absurdity that I've never sleen before, 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:07.559 it's too late to give him back all those years 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:10.279 he's been on death road, but it's not too late 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:15.239 to correct it today and get him out for the future. 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:19.679 It's wrong that it's gone this long. It is still 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:21.560 not too late to correct. 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:26.640 My name is Beth Shelburne. Like Bill Baxley, I was 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:29.680 born and raised in Alabama. I grew up about a 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:32.359 mile away from where the crime at the center of 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:36.200 this story took place. I'm a journalist and writer, and 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:39.560 for the last three years, I've been investigating the case 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:44.320 that rocked Bill Baxley's world. The story begins on a 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:48.440 hot July night in nineteen ninety five. It unfolds in 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:53.080 two places at once, the Crown Sterling Sweet's Hotel and 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:57.520 a nightclub that's almost four miles away called Tea's Place. 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:01.320 By the end of the night, one man will be 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:05.600 shot dead and two others will encounter someone who will 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:10.600 put them at the center of the murder investigation to 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:14.920 Forrest Johnson is still on death row and he's running 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:15.719 out of time. 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:42.719 M do you heed my man? 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:47.400 Laughter? 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:49.040 Haads? 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:50.839 My fe. 0:06:55.160 --> 0:07:11.080 Souls save bly is in this bad of tears? I 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:21.720 want to see revelation. I want to know who you are, 0:07:24.880 --> 0:07:37.600 am reation in this inspiration to the Who's holding stand, 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:45.320 to the Who's holding Stand. 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:56.000 I'm Beth Shelburne. This is ear Witness, Chapter one, behind 0:07:56.240 --> 0:08:06.600 the Crown a Lot. 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:10.040 Yes, ma'am, this is very calling from Crown Sterling Sweet 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:13.920 Hotel in Birmingham, Alabama. I'm calling because I've had several 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:16.480 guests report what appears on the windows who have been 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:18.920 two gunshots and people running in the parking lot. 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:24.679 It's twelve fifty five am on July nineteenth, nineteen ninety five. 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:28.280 It's twenty three critch flight. 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:30.840 That is correct. I have security on the premises, which 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:32.640 is ship of the County Police. But I'm calling you 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:36.160 because I want to make sure that the Birmingham Police arrive. 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:38.720 Please all right, we'll get the one out, thank you 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:39.200 very much. 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:40.680 All right. 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:48.680 The Crown Sterling Suites Hotel was a nine story building 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:54.160 in Birmingham. Today, the hotel is an embassy suites. Inside 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:57.720 the main entrance of the hotel, there's a pale tiled 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:01.920 walkway that leads through the lobby. The front desk is 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:05.000 to the left, but keep walking past it and you 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:10.080 enter a huge atrium, an open space surrounded by windows 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:14.240 with an indoor garden of leafy green plants and trees. 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:18.480 The tiled walkway leads to a koi pond with a 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:23.640 fountain at the center. It's lush and humid inside, but 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:28.280 despite all the windows, the field is dim and moody. 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:33.199 Keep walking past the koi pond and there's a short 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:38.200 hallway that leads to the hotel's back parking lot. It 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:41.760 was here outside the double doors of the Crown Sterling 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:47.400 Suite's hotel, where a deputy sheriff was killed. No one 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:50.800 saw the murder, but a few people heard gunshots. 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:55.440 I remember hearing popping noises from the distance. 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:59.760 Barry Rushikov was working at the front desk when he 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:01.439 made made that nine to one one call. 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:04.480 When I heard it, I believe that's when I tried 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:08.480 to call Officer Hardy on the radio with no response. 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:13.000 Officer William Hardy, who went by Bill, had been a 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:16.960 deputy with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office for twenty three years. 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:20.200 He was also a security guard at the hotel, where 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:24.280 he worked the night shift to make extra money. Hardy 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:27.600 was five foot ten, had a thin mustache, and wore 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:30.480 his hair in a Jerry curl. He was known to 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:35.400 be easy going and friendly. When Deputy Hardy wasn't making 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:40.120 hotel security rounds, Barry usually saw him wearing his brown 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.480 and tan deputy uniform, sitting at one of the tables 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:48.520 in the hotel's atrium, smoking more brand menthol cigarettes and 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:49.480 drinking coffee. 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:51.719 You know, when I worked there, and when I was 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:55.880 working nights, it was me, you know, Officer Hardy or 0:10:55.920 --> 0:10:59.640 whatever officer on duty, and or we would sometime have 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:02.679 a house who is cleaning floors or something, but very 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:05.080 minimal group, and I never felt unsafe. 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:10.000 Barry wasn't the only person to hear the popping noises. 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:14.760 A few guests at the hotel also heard gunshots, including 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:18.640 Marshall Kelly Cummings, a guest in a fourth floor room 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:21.320 directly above the hotel's back exit. 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:24.079 David, I can remember like it was yesterday now as 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:25.360 far as the details. 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:28.640 As I worked on this project, I started referring to 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:32.600 Cummings as the Keebler cookie guy, because in nineteen ninety 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:36.760 five he worked for Keebler as a truck driver. 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:39.760 When I was with Keebler driving Wonder step Lands and 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:41.840 delivering cookies and crackers and stuff. 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:45.760 And Cummings was staying at the Crown Sterling for a 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:49.640 company training. After the workday was over, he drank a 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:53.199 few beers at the hotel bar with some coworkers, and 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:56.280 then he and the other Keepler employee he was rooming 0:11:56.320 --> 0:12:01.120 with turned in between ten and eleven PM. But Cummings 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:02.480 was not asleep for long. 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:05.200 But it just I woke up and it was I 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:07.840 kept hearing somebody talk kind of talk. 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:11.200 So you heard some voices and it sounded like they 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:12.800 were arguing or not. 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:14.880 Really bad, but they. 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:15.560 Were having a conversation. 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:18.400 Yeah, it was male voices. 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:22.600 Yeah. Well they quit arguing and then I didn't hear anything. 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:27.440 So I laid back down. And it probably wasn't twenty seconds, 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:28.800 thirty seconds, forty five. 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:29.199 I'm out. 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:33.200 I didn't count boom, small caliber gun. They won a 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:35.640 big caliber and all of a sudden, a few secons 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:38.720 of a boom about the second time I saw it, Ben, 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:40.400 that was a. 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:49.480 Gun, he remembers, turning to the coworker he was sharing 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:51.160 a room with and. 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:54.400 I said, you hear that? He says, yeah. So I 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:57.160 stood up and opened the blind to get my eyes 0:12:57.200 --> 0:12:59.680 fixed because it was dark. Then they had the lights, and. 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:03.800 The lights directly beneath his window. Cummings sees a four 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:07.959 door car it's dark copper or light brown with a 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:12.800 vinyl top, parked facing the hotel's back double doors. He 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:15.679 sees a tall person get into the driver's side of 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:20.080 the car, close the door, and slowly pull away with 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:21.120 the headlights off. 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:24.160 And so I called down to the front desk. I said, hey, 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:25.920 there's men shots fired. I heard I did you hear that? 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:28.920 I believe I got a phone call from someone in 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:30.840 the room saying they heard gunshots. 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:34.679 So Barry makes that initial nine to one one call, 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:38.240 hangs up, and decides to investigate it. 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:41.120 Jumped over the counter to walk back, and I was 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:43.520 walked back. I saw Offsta Hardy's radio. 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:48.080 Barry sees Deputy Hardy's radio on a table in the 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:52.440 hotel's atrium, and right next to it his cigarette still 0:13:52.480 --> 0:14:01.960 burning in an ash tray. Meanwhile, back on the fourth floor, 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:05.280 Marshall Kelly Cummings hangs up the phone with Barry and 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:06.559 goes back to the window. 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:09.520 And I kept looking, and I kept looking. Finally my 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:12.920 eyes got where I could see, and I looked down. 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:14.360 I could see him laying on the ground. 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:17.120 I went, oh, no, this ain't good. 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:21.720 Cummings spots a body on the ground and realizes someone 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:25.520 has been badly hurt. It's right around this time Barry 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:28.120 makes the same terrible discovery. 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:30.960 There's a hallway that went to the door that went 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:33.880 back out to the back parking lot. As I turned 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:36.560 the corner to go down that hallway and I looked 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:39.480 out the door in the distance, I saw Offsta Hardy 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:42.280 on the ground. That's when I ran back to the 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:52.680 front desk, made an emergency phone call to the police. 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:56.520 Yes, man, it's a very cross again and I have 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:59.680 a pit what appears to be a. 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:00.960 Go to the county police officer shot. 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:03.320 In the back of our ability. He ends that moving 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:04.440 people in. 0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:09.880 The car drove away and he's lying on the on 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:13.640 the pavement. I'm a little afraid to go. Yes, he 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:16.760 is a Birmingham police out Jefferson County. He is a 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:20.760 hired night time security for us. Right, do you know 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:21.640 if you can. 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:23.720 Sign out anything like if you breathe? 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.880 I protesting how much flood I'm trying, man, my my promise. 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:29.360 I don't know if the people are still out there. 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:32.520 Okay, we we should be that Charlotte, you say much. 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:34.560 I'm gonna go back. Okay, thank you. 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:42.760 Jess County Debut has been shot on the back entrance 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:46.400 of the hotel clown show Sweet. It is one of 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:48.720 us and we are they have got one down who 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:55.160 has been shot and it looks too bad. Three three two? 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:59.960 Do we have any information? Do we have anything? 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:00.120 No? 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:05.520 Nice afect anything. 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:19.720 After he makes the second nine to one one call, 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:23.360 Barry walks down the hallway to the back parking lot, 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:25.960 and then I went back out the office. 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:29.640 Already he was not a good condition. He did have 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:34.160 a wound to his face. He was making a gurgling, 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:35.080 gasping noise. 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:38.440 You know, he was not conscious. 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:42.240 I believe I took my jacket off, my uniform jacket off, 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:44.720 to try to cover him, or put under his head, 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:49.920 or try to comfort him. But fortunately officers arrived so 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:54.480 quickly and I was removed from that area immediately. 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:59.800 More than a dozen officers from four different agencies arrive 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:04.080 at the hotel. One of them is Detective Tony Richardson, 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:08.000 who says he'd known Deputy Hardy since he first started 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:11.680 working for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office in nineteen seventy eight. 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:17.359 Being black and Bill being black, naturally I noticed him. 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:21.920 I was told more than once to get a haircut. 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:25.080 That you know, to be a deputy sheriff, you gotta 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:28.720 have your haircut. So the reason I mentioned that is 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:32.480 because from the first day that I ever saw him, 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:33.840 his hair was out. 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:38.800 To hear big afro, big afro, and he would put 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:44.159 on his hat. He wore that hat religiously everybody else's. 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:46.800 The shaff's office hated those hats. They didn't want to wear, 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:48.840 you know, but he always wore his hat. 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:55.080 Deputy Hardy often wore his traditional broad brimmed tan smoky 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:59.080 the bear style sheriff's hat. It was later entered as 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:02.200 evidence from the rhyme see with a bullet hole through 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:04.199 the brim, and he. 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:06.520 Would have it on his head and all that hair 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:08.920 would be on the side would be out here, And 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:11.640 I'm like, who is this guy? How can he get 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:14.800 away with that? And not only that, he is in 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:18.119 the Sheriff's office. How can he get away with that? 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:23.199 So I was in treat by him, fascinated by him, 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:24.479 but I was scared of him. 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:28.280 I was scared to meet him because I thought, of 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:31.159 my mind, this guy's got to be crazy, you know 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:33.080 who to do that and get away with it. He's 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:34.680 got to be crazy. I was scared of him. 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:39.320 But anyway, when I first met him, I met him 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:40.440 and talked to him. 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:41.480 He started to. 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:44.280 Feel better about well. I started to feel better about him. 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:48.159 We were never just bullsom buddies real close, but we 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:50.080 were close and we knew each other. 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:54.800 Tony Richardson and Bill Hardy had been colleagues at the 0:18:54.880 --> 0:19:00.800 Jefferson County Sheriff's Office for seventeen years. He remembers the 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:03.240 last time he saw Hardy alive. 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:08.600 The last day I saw Bill, my brother and I 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:11.960 My brother would put a sheriff's office also, and we 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:15.359 were standing there smoking and Bill drove out the alley 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:19.680 and he was pulling up twenty second and he stopped 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.719 in the road and he started to talk to us, 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:24.879 and he said, Hey, guys, how y'all doing loan me 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:27.879 some money. It's just you know, stuff like that. And 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:29.760 we laughed and talked for a minute. And that was 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:31.359 the last time I saw him. And the next time 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:33.440 I heard Bill's name was about two o'clock in the 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:36.600 morning when I got the call saying that he had 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:42.240 been shot. At that time, I was what was considered 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:49.000 a Crimes against Persons detective, which meant that I worked homicides. 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:54.440 The lieutenant felt like because it involved a deputy sheriff, 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:57.720 and you know that we needed all the help that 0:19:57.800 --> 0:19:59.439 we could get, So I got called up. 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:02.320 Did you go to the actual scene? 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:03.080 Yeah? 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:05.880 What did you encounter when you got there? 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:11.840 Well, by the time I got there, Beale's body was gone. 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:17.920 Paramedics had already lifted Bill Hardy into an ambulance and 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:21.879 rushed him to the emergency room of Birmingham's largest hospital. 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:26.520 He is gravely injured, with two gunshot wounds to his 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:31.080 head and jaw. A medical examiner notes a bullet wound 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:35.280 to Hardy's finger likely means he raised his hand in 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:40.119 a defensive posture when he was shot. Police go to 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:43.600 his house to tell his wife, Patricia Diane Hardy, and 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:47.679 bring her to the hospital. Jim Woodward, the chief deputy 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:51.159 in Jefferson County, also rushes over when he hears that 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:55.160 Hardy was shot. What do you remember about the incident? 0:20:55.520 --> 0:20:59.159 I got to call that Hardy had been shot, and 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:03.560 they told me some looked very serious. So I got 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:07.680 in my car and went down to the hospital. I 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:10.200 stood there while they were operating on me, and then 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:13.280 I just heard one say that's it. 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:14.000 It's over. 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:15.080 We can't do it anymore. 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:17.840 It's over. We can't save him. He's gone. 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:22.240 What does that feel like when you are a career 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:24.240 law enforcement officer and one well. 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:28.080 It's kind of devastating to you. You know, you get 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:32.440 to know these guys, and I knew Hardy that's a 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:34.399 very devastating thing that happened to you. 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:40.720 Deputy Bill Hardy is pronounced dead seven hours after he 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:45.080 was shot. The cause of death is two gunshot wounds 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:51.639 fired at close range. I wanted to know more about 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:55.920 Deputy Hardy, so I wrote to several family members inviting 0:21:55.960 --> 0:22:00.280 them to talk. They never responded, and I can only 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:03.800 imagine his murder must be one of the hardest things 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:08.000 they've ever experienced. But I have learned a few things 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:12.280 about Deputy Hardy. He was married to Patricia Diane Hardy. 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:17.320 He had two children and four adult step children. Hardy 0:22:17.440 --> 0:22:21.480 started working as a deputy in nineteen seventy two. His 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:26.879 duties included delivering subpoenas and directing traffic outside the courthouse. 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:30.159 You know. 0:22:35.880 --> 0:22:36.480 It was rough. 0:22:37.520 --> 0:22:38.080 It was rough. 0:22:38.200 --> 0:22:39.119 It's rough right now. 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:46.760 There's a rough right as many working homicide. I've worked 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:52.760 at bunch, but none of them affected me like the 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:56.000 killing of a deputy ship. You know, you have a 0:22:56.160 --> 0:23:00.679 bond with the guys you work with in the uniform. 0:23:00.760 --> 0:23:03.720 Whether you know him or not, you have a bond. 0:23:06.480 --> 0:23:11.399 So when I was a deputy shareer working another deputy 0:23:11.480 --> 0:23:13.840 SHA's murder, do you think that was emotional. Yes, it 0:23:14.160 --> 0:23:20.960 was very and had it been my decision the day 0:23:21.040 --> 0:23:24.560 we caught the people that did it, let's put them 0:23:24.600 --> 0:23:25.200 on death throat. 0:23:31.400 --> 0:23:35.280 Lead Detective Tony Richardson and his team of investigators have 0:23:35.560 --> 0:23:39.240 no eyewitnesses to the shooting, and there's no known motive. 0:23:40.200 --> 0:23:43.359 A fellow officer has just been shot, and they have 0:23:43.640 --> 0:23:57.440 almost no evidence to go on. At the exact time 0:23:57.600 --> 0:24:01.240 that Deputy Bill Hardy was shot to Forest Johnson and 0:24:01.359 --> 0:24:04.600 his friend ar dragas Ford were four miles away from 0:24:04.640 --> 0:24:08.720 the crime scene at a downtown Birmingham nightclub called Te's Place, 0:24:09.359 --> 0:24:13.560 but they would soon become the focus of Tony Richardson's investigation. 0:24:31.600 --> 0:24:34.959 Just a few hours before Deputy Hardy is shot, our 0:24:35.040 --> 0:24:38.760 dragas Ford gets into the passenger side of his nineteen 0:24:38.920 --> 0:24:43.320 seventy one black Monte Carlo. It's an old car and 0:24:43.440 --> 0:24:47.040 the driver's side door doesn't open, so he slides over 0:24:47.160 --> 0:24:50.640 into the driver's seat, starts the ignition, and heads out 0:24:50.720 --> 0:24:53.560 to pick up his friend to Forrest Johnson to go 0:24:53.680 --> 0:24:58.600 to a club called Te's Place. I wasn't able to 0:24:58.720 --> 0:25:03.719 interview to Forest Ardregas for this podcast. The Alabama Department 0:25:03.800 --> 0:25:06.720 of Corrections doesn't allow people on death road to do 0:25:06.880 --> 0:25:10.520 interviews with reporters like me. So I was unable to 0:25:10.600 --> 0:25:15.879 talk to Forrest directly. And Ardregas died in twenty twenty one. 0:25:16.400 --> 0:25:19.000 I didn't get a chance to interview him before then. 0:25:20.400 --> 0:25:23.760 I was able to speak to Ardregas's mother, Joyce Ford. 0:25:25.880 --> 0:25:28.399 That particular night, they said they was going to teas 0:25:29.200 --> 0:25:32.359 and see he would go to tease every Tuesday and 0:25:32.480 --> 0:25:36.479 he have his particular same parking space and everything because 0:25:36.520 --> 0:25:37.880 he will give them good tips. 0:25:39.200 --> 0:25:42.000 Ardregas was willing to pay for a good parking space 0:25:42.520 --> 0:25:46.720 because he was in a wheelchair. When Ardregas was a teenager, 0:25:47.160 --> 0:25:50.600 a group of men began shooting outside an apartment building 0:25:50.640 --> 0:25:54.440 he was visiting. He was shot trying to shield his 0:25:54.680 --> 0:25:56.840 cousin and her baby from gunfire. 0:25:58.000 --> 0:26:00.920 My son when he got shot when he was fifteen, 0:26:01.920 --> 0:26:03.920 I had just gotten off from work. I was tied 0:26:03.960 --> 0:26:06.600 in the phone, Rang Rang Rang. I didn't answer the phone, 0:26:06.760 --> 0:26:11.399 you know, and I finally answered it and they stated 0:26:11.480 --> 0:26:15.720 that he had gotten shot. I need to rush to 0:26:15.840 --> 0:26:20.320 the murdency room. Who That was like a dream, you know. 0:26:20.440 --> 0:26:24.080