WEBVTT - #321 Jason Flom with Barry Beach - Part 1 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:03.080 In recording our coverage of Barry Beach, we realize that 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.000 there are so many details and twists and turns that 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:09.960 the story simply warrants two episodes, so we've split the 0:00:10.000 --> 0:00:12.800 episode and released both for your listening pleasure at the 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:14.440 same time. Enjoy. 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:21.840 On Montana's Fort Peck Reservation, just after seven am June sixteenth, 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:25.279 nineteen seventy nine, the body of seventeen year old Chimneys 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:28.680 was found on the bank of the Poplar River. Her 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:31.120 car was parked about one hundred yards away, and it 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:34.400 appeared to be the scene of a vicious beating, potentially 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:38.720 involving multiple assailants. Bootprints could be seen in the path 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:41.519 from the car to the river, and fingerprints made in 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:44.680 blood were found on the interior and exterior of the car. 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:49.640 The police interrogated many local young men, including Barry Beach, 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:52.440 who was initially cleared as a suspect, and for three 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:56.800 and a half years the case remained cold. Barry Beach 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:59.920 moved to Louisiana to build a relationship with his strange father. 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:03.800 When his stepsister ran away and ended up in his apartment, 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:08.160 Barry's stepmother notified police, also making sure to mention that 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:11.600 Barry had been interviewed three times about a murder in Montana. 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:16.520 The police in Monroe, Louisiana interrogated Barry about three open 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:20.160 serial murders involving young women, but having been out of 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:23.319 state for each, they began pressing him about the murder 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:27.440 back in Montana. Eventually, Barry gave a confession that was 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:31.240 presented at his trial. With a confession as well as 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:34.080 the specter of a potential hair match, a punishment of 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.039 life plus one hundred years must have seemed like justice 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:40.800 was being served by the state of Montana. But this 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:59.480 is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful conviction. I don't 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:02.360 even know what to say. I'm actually at a loss 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:04.920 for words. What I'm going to do is just start 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:11.120 by apologizing, Okay, to our guest today, Barry Beach, for 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:15.280 what is one of the most egregious injustices that I 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:18.800 have ever seen in almost thirty years of doing this work. 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:22.760 So this story is going to blow people's minds anyway, 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:26.320 without further ado, Barry Beach, Welcome to ronfel conviction. 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:28.440 Thank you, Jason, and good morning to you. 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:31.440 And as I always say, I'm happy you're here because 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:33.480 I'm honored to talk to you, but I'm sorry you're 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:36.280 here because of everything, the hell that you went through 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:38.360 that is going to form the basis of the story 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:40.920 we're about to tell. And we'll also be talking to 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:42.799 one of the heroes in this story in a bit, 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:46.240 an investigator named Richard Hepburn, who helped unravel the open 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:49.840 secret the prevailing wisdom of a small town in Montana, 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:53.880 which is what actually happened on a terrible night on 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:56.760 a hillside next to the Popular River all those years ago. 0:02:57.280 --> 0:02:59.960 But let's go all the way back to your childhood. 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:01.840 Did you grow up there in Poplar, Montana? 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:05.440 I actually grew up in several different locations, but mainly 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:10.240 in Poplar, Montana, on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:13.800 the northeast corner of the state of Montana. In a 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:16.960 lot of ways, I had a very normal and happy 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:21.880 childhood because my grandparents owned a large farm and ranch, 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:26.440 and that was the best memories of my childhood was 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.079 the horses and the cattle and the chores and the 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:32.840 work and the labor, you know. But along with that, 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:37.280 my mother was divorced when I was two years old 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:41.360 from my father, who was an Air forceman. And was 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:45.320 stationed in several different locations during my early years of life. 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:47.200 You did get to know a bit the year that 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:49.880 this incident happened, I guess when he was stationed down 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:50.560 in Louisiana. 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:54.800 Right, for over a year and a half, maybe two years, 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:59.760 I had been trying to leave Poplar, Montana and discover 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:02.840 my my biological father, who I did not know until 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:06.160 I was seventeen. That being said, I had actually gone 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:09.080 to work for a local farmer, saved up some money, 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:12.200 purchased a car, was going to drive down there and 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:15.720 spend the summer with my biological father for the first 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:18.880 time in my entire life. So I don't know my 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:22.159 dad from my childhood, but I had a stepfather who 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:26.640 was a full blood Lakota Sioux. And just like any 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:31.480 racial tension area in the United States of America, reservations 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:35.400 were racially tense areas to live. That doesn't make it 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:37.560 a bad place to live, It's just that there was 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:41.200 always that conflict growing up in a mixed race home, 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:43.880 and it created problems at school and. 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:46.840 Right, you were from a mixed race household going to 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:49.960 school in Poplar, Montana, a small farming and oil community 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:52.960 where over seventy percent of the population were Native American, 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:57.400 maybe twenty eight percent white. Also notable about the population 0:04:57.560 --> 0:04:59.800 is that there were only about a little over that 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:02.279 some people living there, and the typic of graduating class 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:06.279 was around twenty kids, so you all knew each other 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:10.320 pretty well even between grades, you know, which put you 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:15.039 in close proximity with the victim in this case, Kim Niese, 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:17.599 a young white woman who was a great ahead of you. 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:21.040 We actually grew up on the same block, just four 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:24.000 houses apart from each other, and one of the things 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:27.720 that I've been talking about is the aspect of mixed 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:31.800 racial tensions on the reservation as we grew up as kids. 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:35.440 Kim Nice was also the granddaughter of a state senator. 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:41.679 Her uncle, Stanley was the local banker. Her dad, Ted 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:44.640 was a farmer as well as involved with some of 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:49.839 the local oil explorations. So Kim was on that upper 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:57.920 level of school of classmates of society. Growing up in 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:02.160 in the United States of America are the most poverty 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:06.719 stricken areas of our entire nation, which is a Native 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:08.320 American reservation. 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:11.719 So she kind of stood out a bit in the area, 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:14.520 as did her sister, who was two years behind. 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:18.280 You, and I actually dated Kim's younger sister, Pam, off 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:20.960 and on for over two years, and we were still 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:23.520 kind of dating off and on when this happened. 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:26.320 And you had seen her on the day of the murder, 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:27.920 right earlier in the day. 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:31.719 I had seen Pam and we talked for twenty minutes 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:34.120 or so that day before I left town for the river. 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:36.640 I did not see Kim because Kim and I did 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:42.040 not associate with each other, being that Kim was very athletic, 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:46.440 she was the upper social class of society. I was 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:51.159 a known drug user and alcoholic and fighter, and drove 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:54.159 fast cars and liked rock and music. I was the 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:57.479 guy that you do not take home. DeMont got it. 0:06:57.520 --> 0:06:59.479 So I guess her sister was really just kind of 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:02.719 rebelling by dating you. I mean, from what I understand, 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:05.760 in addition to being a wild kind of guy, you 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:08.159 and your family were not as well off, not even 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:09.480 close as the News family. 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:15.120 We were a lower to middle class family economically, even 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:19.160 though we were a hard working family. It just sometimes 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:23.240 you can work really hard not go anywhere. But by 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:25.960 the time I did get into high school, I was 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.640 fairly regular user. And I do think that along with 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:35.120 being from a biracial family, contributed to making myself a 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:37.840 susceptible target for law enforcement. 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:40.920 But up until this point, your run ins with the 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:45.720 law consisted of a few traffic tickets, so no prior 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:50.280 violence or criminal record to speak of. And there's something 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:53.760 about the jurisdiction of law enforcement on a reservation that's 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:55.920 a bit complicated. 0:07:55.360 --> 0:08:00.760 Right correct. In nineteen sixty two, the federal government passed 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:04.600 what is called Public Law six point eighty. Native American 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:09.880 Indian reservations are federal land established by the federal government 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:16.520 during the eighteen hundreds. Therefore, the FBI have jurisdiction over 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:24.200 that land. However, Native American tribes are independent governments nations, 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:27.600 so they control the land even though it belongs to 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:31.080 the federal government. Where that applies to jurisdiction is when 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:35.400 there is a major crime such as a robbery, homicide, kidnapping, 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:40.480 that takes place on a reservation. It is immediately the 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:46.439 jurisdiction of the FBI until it is established that the 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:51.200 perpetrator of that crime is not an enrolled tribal member. 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:57.120 So on the reservations you have four, possibly five different 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:03.840 law enforcement agencies with split jurisdiction and control. So you 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.719 will have at the bottom of it what they call 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:10.720 the BIA Police, which is a federally funded tribal police. 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:15.040 Then you're going to have your city police, which controls 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:20.440 the city limits, mainly involving non Native Americans. Then you 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:24.840 have your county Sheriff's department, who will control the county, 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:29.280 but they only have jurisdiction over non tribal members. And 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:33.319 then you have the FBI, who have jurisdiction over tribal 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:37.839 members and tribal lands and over all of those agencies. 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:41.400 Sounds like a recipe for at a minimum, confusion and 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:45.560 potentially disaster, since when anything happens on the reservation, there's 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:49.960 not just one single agency that's responsible and accountable. You 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:54.120 have all these competing agencies mucking up the crime scene 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:58.079 together trying to figure out who should ultimately be working 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:01.480 the case or have jurisdiction, and by the time that's determined, 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:06.520 so many different hands, different people have tainted the investigation, 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:10.120 which unfortunately happened here with the death of Kimneys and 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:14.200 the investigation that included all of these agencies, not to 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:20.280 mention also the police in Monroe, Louisiana that ultimately led. 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:23.280 All of this just led to your prosecution, leaving the 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:28.040 true perpetrators free. So let's get into that. So this crime, 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:31.600 this horrible crime, took place on the early morning hours 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:35.760 of June sixteenth of nineteen seventy nine. Kimberly Neese was 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:39.200 murdered at the Poplar River on the Fort Peck Indian 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:43.640 Reservation near Fort Peck, Montana. Now, she was a by 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:46.320 all accounts, a lovely seventeen year old girl who had 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:50.240 just graduated from high school. And she graduated as valedictorian. 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:53.559 Which you know, it doesn't matter because this shouldn't have 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:55.320 happened to anyone, but it kind of makes it even 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:58.400 feel worse. It's giving me the chills. That night, that 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:00.440 faithful night, she went to a drive in movie with 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:03.640 her boyfriend, a guy named Greg Norgard, and he dropped 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:06.480 Knees off at her home right after the movie. Well, 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:09.800 she was home for about fifteen minutes before she left 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:13.480 in her dad's truck around twelve eighteen am, r after midnight. Now, 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:17.040 witnesses reported seeing her parked at the Exxon gas station 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:19.520 on Highway To around twelve thirty, and she was later 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:23.400 seen following several cars towards the Poplar River at one am. 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:25.760 Now to set the stage, the Poplar River was an 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:28.440 area where kids would go to drink and smoke pod 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:31.440 and party until late at night, like countless other places 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:32.760 like it all around the country. 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:36.960 Yeah, the Poplar River had had several areas. There are 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:40.560 four or five areas because it encircled the town on 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:44.360 three different sides. But the train bridge was definitely one 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:47.000 of the areas where people not only partied, but they 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:50.080 would go down there to swim and hang out. The 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:52.960 boat docks were down in that area. It was a 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:55.880 local park as well, so there was a baseball field 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:56.400 down there. 0:11:56.640 --> 0:12:00.440 So it's an area that you might find in any town, 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:03.280 USA where kids just go to hang out. And sometimes 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:05.760 I find it helpful to look a place up on 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:08.720 Google Maps, and here you have, like Barry said, the 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:12.600 Poplar River that encircles the town on three sides, along 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:16.720 with the Missouri River. US Route two runs through the 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:19.560 town and as it heads west out of town it 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:22.720 meets the Poplar River, you can see a train track 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:24.720 that also crosses the river just to the south. So 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:28.000 this is where it happened. And from what I understand, 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:30.520 there's a hill that runs down to the river from 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:34.440 where some younger kids heard what happened that night. In fact, 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:37.320 there may have been a whole bunch of eyewitnesses who 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:40.000 were close to this murder that simply never came forward 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:44.040 for fear of reprisal. But what witnesses did feel safe 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:47.720 reporting was that Kimney's's car was seen around one am, 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:51.040 following several other cars to this area, and then at 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:54.959 four AM, two of the tribal police officers observed the 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:58.040 truck parked in the deserted field near the Poplar River, 0:12:58.120 --> 0:12:59.760 but they didn't feel the need to check it out 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:02.280 of the time, it was just a truck parked in 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:06.040 a field. Around seven am that morning, as the officers 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:08.400 were driving back into town, they noticed that the same 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:12.000 truck was still there and they decided to investigate further. 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:16.080 They found blood in the interior of the truck, a 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:18.000 large pull of blood at a clump of hair near 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:20.800 the passenger side, and a trail of blood leading down 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:24.280 to the river. When they followed the trail, sure enough, 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:29.040 they found this poor girl's lifeless body a semi submerged 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:30.520 in the Poplar River. 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:34.520 Correct, But there actually were calls that we'd later found 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:39.199 out years later that took place from several different citizens 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:44.760 to law enforcement at about two o'clock reporting loud female 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:48.560 voices and screams in the area of the park. And 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:53.080 there is actually one report that a city police officer 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:56.720 by the name of Stevie Greyhawks supposedly went down there 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:00.880 and checked on those reports and reported that there was 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:02.960 nothing down there interesting. 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:09.360 Stevie Greyhawk. Let's let's tuck that name away because it's 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:13.120 going to come back around later. So it seems like 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:16.840 this crime should have been discovered sometime after two am 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:21.400 by this city police officer, but it wasn't reported to 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:25.040 be discovered until seven am by the tribal police. 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:28.960 Tribal police officers noticed the vehicle and went down there 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:32.000 and found the body. They called the city police department 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:35.800 and the Sheriff's department, and the Sheriff's department then called 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:36.520 the FBI. 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:40.280 Wow. So this complex web of law enforcement has already 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:44.200 given us a lazy and unaccountable investigation into what was 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:47.160 going on down by the river at two am. And 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:51.080 then four agencies entered a bloody and scattered crime scene 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:54.480 in and around seven am, beginning with the truck. Now 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.800 blood evidence indicated that the attack began in the cab 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:01.080 of the truck on the driver's side. His knees was 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:04.000 then yanked out the passenger side, where the bludgeoning and 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:07.600 hair pulling continued and concluded about ten feet from the truck. 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:11.360 Her one hundred and twenty pound body was then dragged 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:14.040 almost the length of a football field down to the river, 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:18.680 down an embankment, and then that's where it was found 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:23.000 semi submerged in the water. The autopsy report noted skull 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.040 fractures and brain injuries from the more than thirty blows 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:28.960 to the head. There was no evidence of a rape, 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:35.240 sexual assault, or anything remotely sexual about this attack, but 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:38.040 there was a ton of blood and other physical evidence. 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:43.640 The crime scene itself was absolutely loaded with physical evidence. 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:48.360 There were numerous clumps of bloody hair and footprints found 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:51.640 around the pickup and in the drag trail. There were 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:57.480 three different sets of footprints and i'man identifiable footprints in 0:15:57.560 --> 0:15:59.800 the trail that they used to carry Kim to the river, 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:03.520 which was two hundred and fifty six feet long. There 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:08.240 were over twenty eight fingerprints inside of the pickup, on 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:11.240 the outside of the pickup and also on twenty three 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:17.680 beer cans around the vehicle and specifically fingerprint sets number five, 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:21.920 ten and number eleven. Those three sets of fingerprints were 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:25.320 found on beer cans around the vehicle, on the outside 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:27.680 of the vehicle, and they were also found on the 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:31.200 inside dash of the vehicle. Some of those fingerprints were 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:36.360 in blood, but the most significant evidence when the assailant 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:40.800 drug Kim out of her pickup, they placed their palm 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:45.120 on the side of the cab, leaving a full palm 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:48.680 print in Kim's blood on the side of the pickup. 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:51.520 The owner of that palm print has still never been 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:53.040 identified to my understanding. 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:53.960 Correct. 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:07.959 We'll be right back after this. 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:12.160 This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company. 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:16.000 AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and is making 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:18.800 a positive difference in the lives of its employees and 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:21.520 in the communities where we work and live. In light 0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:24.359 of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:28.440 in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform, 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:32.480 the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:36.240 other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:44.840 All of the evidence that was collected ended up going 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:49.040 to different jurisdictional locations. Some of it was sent to 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:52.600 the FBI crime Lab in Butte, Montana. Some of it 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:56.600 was actually taken to the local Poplar City Police department 0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:58.240 and put into an evidence room. 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:02.399 It really is not that there was, perhaps still is, 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:07.439 no standard practice or protocol for evidence collection in these instances. 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:11.120 It seems so obvious that it should be collected by 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:14.199 one bureau or one agency every time in one place. 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:18.280 How can you mount an effective investigation in this manner? Well, 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:22.240 the short answer is obviously that you can't. But even 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:27.200 with this nonsensical evidence collection procedure, what about good old 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:30.919 fashioned just talking to people. This was a very small 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:33.520 community with only about twenty kids in a graduating class, 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:37.440 and one of their recent fellow graduates just got murdered. 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:42.120 There had to have been at the very least rumors 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:43.040 going around town. 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:46.800 For the first week or so, we all heard and 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:50.439 knew around school and around town that it was supposedly 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:54.600 this group of girls allegedly. Because I don't want to 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:58.000 point the finger at somebody that has not been forensically 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:00.840 and scientifically connected to this, that's something that we have 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:04.080 to keep in mind as we talk about this case 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:08.320 is that the State of Montana, the FBI, the city police, 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:12.640 and the tribal police to this day, three forty four 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:17.280 years later, have never matched any of those fingerprints, the 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:21.360 palm print, the footprints, the blood samples to anybody. They 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:26.480 have never made a legitimate, honest arrest with anybody but 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:31.119 law enforcement. We're bringing numerous of US high school kids 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:36.200 in for questioning and taking statements, and myself personally, six 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:41.200 months or seven months after the crime, I was brought in. 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:45.080 I was questioned, I gave fingerprints, I gave blood samples, 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:49.199 I gave footprints, I gave hair samples, and was told 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:53.160 that none of the physical evidence matched me and that 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:56.639 they knew I did not commit the crime. That process 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:59.560 right there actually took place with a lot of people 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:00.840 in town. 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:07.040 But somehow or other they managed to bring you, and 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:09.120 as you said, a lot of other people in town 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:12.960 in there, and they managed to I don't know if 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:16.159 it was willful, but somehow or other they managed to 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:20.760 not bring in the people who actually matched to this evidence. 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:23.480 So, when you're dealing with a small community like that, 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:28.120 how could they not bring in the people that everybody 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:29.359 in town was talking about. 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:34.520 It's hard not to draw a sort of a sinister conclusion, 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:39.879 which is that at some level they were sort of 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:44.920 protecting these people for reasons that may become clear as 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:49.320 we go along in this episode, and thereby putting up 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:53.040 almost like a sinister smokescreen where they were just sort 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:56.000 of acting like they were doing some investigation by bringing 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:59.800 people in to distract everybody from the fact that they 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:03.360 were weren't actually interested in arresting the people that committed 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:04.639 this heinous crime. 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:09.480 Certainly there had to be somebody somewhere wondering why these 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:14.119 people weren't being looked at closer. And to take it 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:18.399 one step further, Kimneys's family put a ten thousand dollars 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:23.720 reward up for information, and that reward went completely ignored. 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:27.679 So even though there were rumors about the group of 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:30.800 young women who had bludgeoned Kimneys to death, the police 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:34.840 were dragging in young men for scrutiny, and then no 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:37.800 one even responded to this ten thousand dollars reward. We're 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:42.640 talking about four decades ago in a little town that's 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:46.840 big money, and in all likelihood, there were eyewitnesses at 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:49.040 this party by the river, so either no one was 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:52.000 talking the police weren't actually trying to catch the assailants 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:55.719 or both. Nonetheless, they had already ruled you out by 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:59.119 virtue of the physical evidence, conclusively proved you could not 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:01.600 have committed this crime, and that should have been it, 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:03.000 but it wasn't correct. 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:05.600 Yes, they did ask me to come in and take 0:22:05.640 --> 0:22:10.000 a polograph test just to finalize their investigation. So I 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:13.880 went in and I took a polygraph test with the FBI. 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:17.159 The polygraph at that time showed that I did not 0:22:17.280 --> 0:22:20.199 commit the crime, but that I had general knowledge of 0:22:20.240 --> 0:22:23.800 the crime, which everybody in town had general knowledge. I mean, 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:26.600 how could you not be in high school in a 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:29.560 small town and understand what's going on around you. 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:33.040 Now, at this point you had been ruled out, no 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:37.639 more suspicion allegedly, so you moved on with your plan 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:40.800 to reconnect with your biological father in Monroe, Louisiana. 0:22:40.960 --> 0:22:44.840 Jumping forward to nineteen eighty, when I returned to Montana 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:49.160 again from down in Louisiana, they brought me in one 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:52.199 more time because of traffic at tickets. I had to 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:55.840 do thirty days in jail for excessive traffic tickets. When 0:22:55.880 --> 0:22:59.600 they released me that day, again, I was going back 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:03.920 to Leuisiana and again they questioned me, but again they 0:23:04.040 --> 0:23:06.320 said that they knew I did not commit the crime, 0:23:06.760 --> 0:23:09.040 they just would like to know if there was any 0:23:09.080 --> 0:23:12.600 information that I had. They released me again. I returned 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:16.159 to my father's house in Louisiana and went on with 0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:16.880 my life. 0:23:17.240 --> 0:23:19.680 Okay, so three times you come in, three times you're clear. 0:23:19.920 --> 0:23:25.160 Here you are back in Louisiana working construction, building holiday inns, 0:23:25.160 --> 0:23:27.280 as I understand it, And then you signed up for 0:23:27.320 --> 0:23:30.160 the Navy and completed boot camp right, and we're preparing 0:23:30.200 --> 0:23:32.800 to be deployed to the Mediterranean Sea. This was the 0:23:32.840 --> 0:23:34.520 time of the conflict in Lebanon. 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:38.480 Correct, Very few people probably remember, but in nineteen eighty 0:23:38.520 --> 0:23:42.920 one eighty two, the Lebanesian Army had just shot down 0:23:42.960 --> 0:23:46.840 two of our American planes over the Mediterranean Sea. So 0:23:46.920 --> 0:23:50.680 we were about to be deployed with the USS Eisenhower 0:23:50.960 --> 0:23:56.800 aircraft carrier to the Mediterranean Sea to defend our international spaces. 0:23:57.240 --> 0:23:59.800 In that process, being that I was new to the 0:23:59.800 --> 0:24:03.360 s and this was my first overseas deployment, they ran 0:24:03.680 --> 0:24:08.000 a background check on me. During that process. The Roosevelt 0:24:08.080 --> 0:24:12.560 County Sheriff had sent a letter to the FBI, stating 0:24:13.119 --> 0:24:18.080 that I was their suspect in a homicide and that 0:24:18.119 --> 0:24:22.560 they had quote unquote two eye witnesses who could put 0:24:22.600 --> 0:24:25.520 me at the scene of the crime. I was confronted 0:24:25.560 --> 0:24:29.000 with that letter by the United States Navy Police Force. 0:24:29.440 --> 0:24:32.520 They put me in the brig and after two days 0:24:32.560 --> 0:24:34.480 of being in the brig, I was given an option 0:24:35.600 --> 0:24:40.119