Speaker 1: I never met, y'all.
Speaker 2: I don't even know him.
Speaker 1: I know who he is.
Speaker 2: He came into a restaurant that I worked at with
Speaker 2: his family and my friend who knew him. Do you
Speaker 2: know that Gil Fernandez, who we didn't kill Billy. I'm like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, and I was freaking out, and then
Speaker 2: I couldn't wait on him. I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: I think he killed my brother.
Speaker 3: Laurie Halpern is convinced that ex Miami police officer Gil
Speaker 3: Fernandez and is Apollo Jim Co owner Bert Christi were
Speaker 3: the men behind her brother Billy's.
Speaker 4: Nineteen eighty six murder. She's not the only one.
Speaker 5: They got wins somehow that he had information. He suspected
Speaker 5: he said something out loud that somebody overheard and had
Speaker 5: got back to Bert or Gil or both, and so
Speaker 5: they took him out.
Speaker 3: That was Prosecutor Cindy Imperado, who believe Fernandez and Christi
Speaker 3: were running a crew of fellow bodybuilders that were responsible
Speaker 3: for a string of ripoffs and shakedowns, some of them deadly,
Speaker 3: and when they feared Billy knew too much about their
Speaker 3: criminal activity, Christie ordered Gil to make the threat disappear.
Speaker 5: Whether he did it or not. Nothing's been proven. I mean,
Speaker 5: he hasn't been charged with it, but that was the
Speaker 5: theory of the case. So you had a police officer
Speaker 5: who was ripping off drug dealers and killing them and
Speaker 5: then killing anybody else that might witness it.
Speaker 3: If true, it may account for Billy's execution style murder
Speaker 3: in October of nineteen eighty six, the murder of his
Speaker 3: friends Mitch Hall and Charlotte de Drought in May of
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty seven, and the executions of two of Gil's
Speaker 3: own crew, Jimmy high Note and Harry Pollier just six
Speaker 3: weeks later. All of them were members of the Apollo,
Speaker 3: which means all of them could have had the goods
Speaker 3: on Fernandez and Christie.
Speaker 6: If Billy was killed because he knew too much, which
Speaker 6: is the theory that I'm working on, then anyone that
Speaker 6: he could have put into prison by giving that information
Speaker 6: or led that information out, that's who would have benefited.
Speaker 6: So if Billy had information that could put someone in
Speaker 6: jail with what he knew, then killing him is going
Speaker 6: to benefit that person or those people.
Speaker 3: And that may even include members of organized crime.
Speaker 6: There were multiple people that gave information saying that Burt
Speaker 6: Christie was working for the Columbo family out of Chicago.
Speaker 6: Was Billy just in as much danger if a Columbo
Speaker 6: family didn't know about him?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think he was.
Speaker 6: But I think that a little bit of pressure from
Speaker 6: maybe bosses so Burt Christie would seal a deal for
Speaker 6: Billy and it really seal his faith.
Speaker 3: But if that were true, and Billy was in possession
Speaker 3: of information that could endanger Fernandez and Christie's operation, a
Speaker 3: larger question still looms. How would Gill and Burt have
Speaker 3: known that Billy was a potential threat? After all, according
Speaker 3: to Mark Lopez, there were plenty of guys at the
Speaker 3: gym that knew what was going on and were smart
Speaker 3: enough to look the other way.
Speaker 8: Do you have to realize something that people were very
Speaker 8: afraid because, you know, if he and d was the
Speaker 8: one committing these murders, they thought if they went in
Speaker 8: or cooperated, they were going to be in a jackpot.
Speaker 3: Was Billy's mere proximity to the rumors swirling around the
Speaker 3: Apollo really a reason to kill him?
Speaker 4: It seemed unlikely.
Speaker 8: It just was a guy that I don't think anybody
Speaker 8: thought was tied up. And you know a lot of craziness, right,
Speaker 8: So I think it was just shocked for most people,
Speaker 8: like why would anybody kill this guy?
Speaker 3: But if Billy had indeed gone to the police, that
Speaker 3: was another story. When Billy's friend, Mitch Hall was killed
Speaker 3: six months later, Mitch's sister came to believe that the
Speaker 3: motive behind both their murders was right there in black
Speaker 3: and white.
Speaker 9: My brother came to me and he said, Billy Helpurn
Speaker 9: died and I'm going to find out.
Speaker 4: Who killed him.
Speaker 9: And he went to the police station and he was
Speaker 9: killed the next day. So I'm assuming there was a
Speaker 9: leak in the police station and somebody said Mitch Hall
Speaker 9: knows who killed Billy, and then they went and killed
Speaker 9: him that next day.
Speaker 4: Billy's sister, she'd been harboring the same.
Speaker 2: Thought, like you were going to tell what you knew
Speaker 2: about Billy and none then you get killed. Who in
Speaker 2: the police department is a bad guy?
Speaker 3: It was time to talk about the elephant in the room.
Speaker 3: I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff, and
Speaker 3: this is cold blooded the Apollo Jim murders.
Speaker 4: It is truly a terrifying thought.
Speaker 3: But when Danny had to confront could Gil Fernandez, the
Speaker 3: next cop with dozens of friends in contacts still on
Speaker 3: the force, had been tipped off that Billy halpurn was
Speaker 3: cooperating with law enforcement, and if so, did it cost
Speaker 3: Billy his life?
Speaker 6: My initial thought was not a chance, and that's probably
Speaker 6: a little naive on my part, because obviously there's a chance.
Speaker 3: The first step in uncovering the truth would be the
Speaker 3: search for any record of Billy Halpern's contact with investigators
Speaker 3: in either Miramar or Broward County.
Speaker 6: Well, considering that the Danger Road triple murder was in
Speaker 6: nineteen eighty three and Billy was eighty six, I figured
Speaker 6: there may be some kind of a record that Billy
Speaker 6: was interviewed, just like many other people that were around
Speaker 6: the Apollo gym.
Speaker 3: Which, as we heard from Mark Lopez, would have carried
Speaker 3: with it considerable risk.
Speaker 8: People were very afraid because they knew not he was
Speaker 8: a hardcore gangster, but he was an ex cop and
Speaker 8: he had friends still on the force, So it was like, well,
Speaker 8: if he runted a law how do you know that
Speaker 8: one of his buddies, I'm going to look it back
Speaker 8: to him, and then you're in trouble.
Speaker 3: Danny hoped the truth would lie somewhere in the forty
Speaker 3: year old case file.
Speaker 6: All I could do was just read every single piece
Speaker 6: of paper and at least the case fall that I have,
Speaker 6: and look for any indication that Billy was interviewed.
Speaker 7: And I really couldn't find anything.
Speaker 3: According to the case file kept by a mirror MARPDI,
Speaker 3: there was no evidence that Billy had ever cooperated with investigators.
Speaker 3: Of course, no record on file didn't mean Billy was
Speaker 3: never approached.
Speaker 4: It may just mean that Billy was smart.
Speaker 3: Enough to keep it a secret, and Danny, he's smart
Speaker 3: enough to know that not everything makes it.
Speaker 4: On paper and into an investigative file.
Speaker 6: I was able to speak to a couple of the
Speaker 6: detectives that previously worked in these cases back in the
Speaker 6: eighties and asked them, and they also said that they
Speaker 6: don't have any recollection Billy being interviewed.
Speaker 3: So what if Billy didn't go to police, it was
Speaker 3: still likely he had heard the rumors about Gilan Burt,
Speaker 3: possibly even their involvement in the triple murder on Danger Road,
Speaker 3: and that by itself would have been dangerous information to possess.
Speaker 6: I think that Billy did know. I think that anyone
Speaker 6: that spent any amount of time over at the Apollo
Speaker 6: gym would either hear the rumors or maybe even see
Speaker 6: the meetings, or even hear certain conversations by being there.
Speaker 6: The odds of them hearing about certain crimes, I think
Speaker 6: is possible.
Speaker 3: This was confirmed by other Apollo members like Mark Lopez
Speaker 3: and Dave Fasano, guys who had more than an inkling
Speaker 3: of what was going on, but who were wise enough
Speaker 3: to mind their own business.
Speaker 4: So what made them different from Billy?
Speaker 3: Why target Billy and not the other guys at the gym?
Speaker 6: Best guess, and this is speaking with a lot of
Speaker 6: people that were very close with Billy. I think Billy
Speaker 6: was less willing to play ball and keep his mouth shut.
Speaker 6: I think that Billy was probably a little outspoken at
Speaker 6: the atrocities that he had heard about.
Speaker 4: Mark Lopez tends to agree.
Speaker 8: I don't think Billy was necessarily tied up in anything specifically.
Speaker 8: I think he may have just inadvertently been exposed to
Speaker 8: some information and the powers that be thought, why take
Speaker 8: a chance, right, It's just one more guy that's going
Speaker 8: to need to.
Speaker 4: Go one person.
Speaker 3: Danny thinks Billy may have talked to his friend, Mitch Hall.
Speaker 3: The evidence was circumstantial but persuasive, and I said.
Speaker 9: Mitch, don't can involve with those type of people.
Speaker 3: Mitch's sister also remembers Mitch telling her that he was
Speaker 3: willing to go to the police and tell them what
Speaker 3: he knew.
Speaker 9: And he went to the police station and he was
Speaker 9: killed the next day.
Speaker 3: Billy's sister, Laurie, was also convinced that the timing of
Speaker 3: Mitch's murder was no coincidence.
Speaker 2: I really think there had to be a rat, a
Speaker 2: dirty rat in a police department.
Speaker 3: Even a CoP's son like Danny Smith, whose father worked
Speaker 3: in law enforcement for nearly thirty years, knows that South
Speaker 3: Florida in the nineteen eighties was plagued with police corruption.
Speaker 3: The easy money from drugs flowing into South America proved
Speaker 3: irresistible to a lot of people, including some members of
Speaker 3: law enforcement. In fact, the result of a massive crackdown
Speaker 3: on police corruption in nineteen eighty seven revealed that up
Speaker 3: to ten percent of the entire MIAMIPD had been suspended, fired,
Speaker 3: or incarcerated for their involvement in criminal activity. Whether that
Speaker 3: corruption reached the much smaller departments in Brier County or
Speaker 3: MI or mar.
Speaker 4: We don't know.
Speaker 6: I obviously want to give the investigators or the police
Speaker 6: officers and the tecers back then the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 7: However, is it possible? Yeah?
Speaker 6: Absolutely, And the only way that I could verify that
Speaker 6: is just to legitimately read every word of every document
Speaker 6: that was provided to me and see if there's anything there,
Speaker 6: and then moreover me or speak with the previous detectives
Speaker 6: and just ask ask the question.
Speaker 3: If Danny could find the evidence that Mitch Hall had
Speaker 3: indeed filed a report or met with anyone at Mirror,
Speaker 3: Marpadi or Browie County Sheriff's office, it would go a
Speaker 3: long way to casting suspicion on someone within law enforcement
Speaker 3: being complicit in his murder. But according to Danny, there
Speaker 3: was no record that Mitch had ever met with.
Speaker 6: Police now it happened the crimes were eighty six in
Speaker 6: nineteen eighty seven. Is it very easy for investigators to
Speaker 6: have that conversation with Mitch Hall and not take any
Speaker 6: notes and just ignore it.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, There's no way I could verify that, And if
Speaker 6: they didn't want to tell me, then there's nothing I
Speaker 6: can do about that. But assuming that there were notes
Speaker 6: taken because the case file that I have on Billy
Speaker 6: Holburn is extremely well done, well written organized. If anyone
Speaker 6: came in and had an information on Billy's murder, that
Speaker 6: that would have been written down.
Speaker 3: Whether that was enough to quell rumors that someone within
Speaker 3: law enforcement leaked information to Gil. Danny still doesn't know.
Speaker 6: Most of the rumors, if not all. The rumors were
Speaker 6: centered around the fact that Gill was a cop, and
Speaker 6: the assumption was that all cops know each other and
Speaker 6: all cops share information, and there's the idea of he's
Speaker 6: a cop. Even if he's bad, other people are gonna
Speaker 6: cover for him because he's a cop.
Speaker 3: Danny has been in uniform for twenty seven years and
Speaker 3: he knows as well as anybody about the sworn loyalty
Speaker 3: that exists between people who every day put their lives
Speaker 3: into each other's hands. And he can also understand the
Speaker 3: suspicion surrounding his fellow brothers in blue.
Speaker 6: It's a society. Police officers have their own family. There's
Speaker 6: good cops and bad cops out there. Obviously, again, it
Speaker 6: would be naive on my part to blindly say that
Speaker 6: there was never any corruption at any level. I feel
Speaker 6: that it was incumbent upon me to go through and
Speaker 6: check to see if there was any internal affairs investigations
Speaker 6: or any statements that show corruption, because it does happen,
Speaker 6: let's be honest with each other.
Speaker 3: But that search also yielded no evidence that any member
Speaker 3: of law enforcement was ever suspected of being complicit in
Speaker 3: Billy or Mitch's murder.
Speaker 6: There was no indication that there was an internal affairs
Speaker 6: investigation on anyone that related to helping Gil.
Speaker 1: Or helping the Apollo, or saying anything that can be hearing.
Speaker 1: Put the investigators on a different path on purpose. So
Speaker 1: there were never any substantiated rumors naving specific comps or
Speaker 1: improper behavior.
Speaker 7: But they were there. The rumors were around. Everyone around
Speaker 7: it knew it.
Speaker 6: Unfortunately, no solid answers were found in the documentation, and unfortunately,
Speaker 6: in a cold case, that's all I've gotten for now.
Speaker 3: The rumors proved to be just that prosecutors sending imperado
Speaker 3: things that even for Florida cops, there was a limit
Speaker 3: to their loyalty.
Speaker 5: For the most part, law enforcement is loyal to their
Speaker 5: own But I think once they saw what he was
Speaker 5: charged with and everything, it was a different story.
Speaker 3: But considering the client tele at the Apollo, Fernandez and
Speaker 3: Christie probably didn't need a crooked cop to keep threats
Speaker 3: at bay.
Speaker 4: They had enough eyes and ears right there in the gym, including.
Speaker 3: One long time friend who may have set the stage
Speaker 3: for Billy's murder. By nineteen eighty six, Billy Halburn had
Speaker 3: left his job as a paramedic at the Hollandale Fire
Speaker 3: Department due to a lingering back injury.
Speaker 4: Billy told his sister Laurie.
Speaker 3: That he was going to deploy his charm and good
Speaker 3: looks into a new career in sales, namely the trade
Speaker 3: of fine art and rare coins. The career change suited him,
Speaker 3: after all, South Florida in the mid eighties seemed to
Speaker 3: be flushed with easy money, and Billy was eager to
Speaker 3: get a piece of it.
Speaker 2: I think Billy probably still had been for Nickolie ever
Speaker 2: made when he died.
Speaker 7: She was so frugal.
Speaker 2: He had a paper of a pad like that of
Speaker 2: all the money that people owed him.
Speaker 3: But according to Laurie, she did notice signs that the
Speaker 3: rare coin trade might have given way to another more
Speaker 3: lucrative business.
Speaker 2: Then Billy and Jimmy got involved with I thought our
Speaker 2: dealing or you know, I'm not even sure what I
Speaker 2: thought they were doing, but I didn't really think about
Speaker 2: it because we all grew up together.
Speaker 1: Were there a couple of guys that said that you
Speaker 1: might have been selling a little bit of drugs here
Speaker 1: and there?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 10: Oh huge death last Yeah, I mean, we're not an idiot,
Speaker 10: and safe to say it paid a lot better than coins.
Speaker 2: They were making money. Oh my god, the money was
Speaker 2: sick that you would that they were making. And I
Speaker 2: really always felt that he would talk about it too much.
Speaker 4: But according to Laurie, Billy was never long for that world.
Speaker 11: He bought property up in Melbourne Beach at nineteen eighty
Speaker 11: four and it was extream, you know, make the money,
Speaker 11: get out, go up to Melbourne, beef bee surfer, live
Speaker 11: on REGI, you know, live my life.
Speaker 4: But he would never get the chance.
Speaker 3: Instead, he was killed in his home in October of
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty six. Laurie realizes now that he's pleased to
Speaker 3: leave town before his death may have been more than
Speaker 3: just an idle daydream.
Speaker 2: Billy had left me, you know, money, He had a will,
Speaker 2: and when he went to some and do the will,
Speaker 2: it's like Lord by come on, we're going to bob
Speaker 2: our childhood friend to drop a will. I'm like, get
Speaker 2: out of here, and we're not going to get away.
Speaker 11: No, I'm serious, lord, come on.
Speaker 3: Was Billy's wonderlust desire to leave South Florida to another
Speaker 3: paradise up the coast, or wasn't motivated by fear of
Speaker 3: what could happen if he stayed.
Speaker 12: Let me tell you, I remember that when I lived
Speaker 12: with him, he came to the door my bedroom at
Speaker 12: the front, the front door, and he opened up my door, Floria,
Speaker 12: I love you.
Speaker 2: If anything happened to me. She knows that I love you,
Speaker 2: I'm like, and he caught me off gard like what
Speaker 2: are you talking about?
Speaker 12: And he ran off, like where are you going?
Speaker 4: Looking back, Laurie now thinks he sounded like a guy
Speaker 4: who was in too deep and was fearing for his life,
Speaker 4: and she thinks she knows who's to blame. After Billy
Speaker 4: was murdered, Laurie was shaken by a memory of walking
Speaker 4: into a tense meeting at Billy's town home.
Speaker 2: Well, I came over one day and I walked in.
Speaker 2: I'm like, Jimmy, like, what do you what he doing here?
Speaker 3: By this time, Jimmy high Note was a regular member
Speaker 3: of Gil's shakedown crew. We can only speculate as to
Speaker 3: why one of Billy's suspected killers was in his town
Speaker 3: home just weeks before Billy was killed.
Speaker 4: Was Jimmy warning him of imminent danger?
Speaker 3: Or was he casing the location on orders from Gil
Speaker 3: and Burt?
Speaker 2: And I think with the art pretending to be into
Speaker 2: the art maybe or coin collecting, but maybe that was
Speaker 2: the way he got in comfortable with Billy on behalf
Speaker 2: of them.
Speaker 3: I think maybe, whatever the reason, after Billy was killed,
Speaker 3: Laurie said she knew it was no innocent.
Speaker 2: Visit, you know. Then I knew Jimmy had to be involved.
Speaker 3: Which brings us back to that empty safe in Billy's
Speaker 3: bedroom and the possibility that it contained not rare coins,
Speaker 3: but what Dave Fersano called the best coke in town.
Speaker 6: I know that some people say that Billy was ripped
Speaker 6: for drugs. Some people say that he was ripped for
Speaker 6: coins and art.
Speaker 7: I heard that rumor a lot.
Speaker 6: I did, and after a year and a half of
Speaker 6: looking into it and trying to either confirm or deny
Speaker 6: those rumors, I feel that the rumors were.
Speaker 7: Just that.
Speaker 3: No matter what evidence Danny had turned up about Billy's
Speaker 3: source of income, he remains convinced Billy's.
Speaker 4: Murder was no robbery, It was a hit.
Speaker 6: The comment thoughts and ideas that I got from those
Speaker 6: closest to Billy, Gil, Harry, Collier, Apollo, Jim was that
Speaker 6: Billy was killed because he knew or overheard or was
Speaker 6: told something about murders that occurred or who could have
Speaker 6: been involved in those murders. And I honestly think that
Speaker 6: people just were not comfortable with Billy having.
Speaker 3: This information, information that threatened the illicit livelihood of Fernandez
Speaker 3: and Christi, but also that of his old friend Jimmy Heinault,
Speaker 3: whose betrayal may have resulted in Billy's murder.
Speaker 13: The concept of clearing a case exceptionally is relatively simple,
Speaker 13: and what it means is that the prosecutor, in conjunction
Speaker 13: with law enforcement who investigated the matter, is convinced that
Speaker 13: there is probable cause to charge someone with the crime. However,
Speaker 13: for some reason, it is either an opportune or impossible
Speaker 13: to charge the suspect with the offense, and the way
Speaker 13: that most frequently occurs is that the suspect is dead
Speaker 13: at the time probable cause is developed, as so happened
Speaker 13: in this case.
Speaker 3: Brian Porter is a veteran prosecutor who is not associated
Speaker 3: with this case. He is a legal scholar who has
Speaker 3: been part of several investigations I've reported on.
Speaker 13: I've been the elected prosecutor in my jurisdiction for over
Speaker 13: eleven years, and I've made exceptional case closure calls on
Speaker 13: any number of occasions. And really what it boils down
Speaker 13: to is it's the same exact analysis that I would
Speaker 13: make if a detective came to me and asked me
Speaker 13: to charge somebody with murder. It's not a lesser standard
Speaker 13: in my mind, It's the same exact standard.
Speaker 3: Danny had untangled as much as he could with the
Speaker 3: given evidence, and he believed he had a convincing version
Speaker 3: of what happened to Billy Halpern. But still he had
Speaker 3: to convince Broward County's top homicide prosecutor that he was right.
Speaker 6: Writing the close up memo to the State Attorney's office
Speaker 6: was really an opportunity for me to take all of
Speaker 6: the work that I've done and shrink it to five
Speaker 6: or six seven page memo giving the bullet points as
Speaker 6: to what I found, and why I believe that this
Speaker 6: case should be solved.
Speaker 3: The keystone in his argument was the striking similarity between
Speaker 3: the Hall Drought murders and Billy Halpern's murder.
Speaker 13: In this case, a great deal of the case relies
Speaker 13: on what we would call common scheme or plan evidence.
Speaker 13: In other words, is it very obvious that these offenses
Speaker 13: had to be related, because the individual facts that each
Speaker 13: murder are so similar in nature that it kind of
Speaker 13: just defies logic that they weren't related.
Speaker 7: Neither had fourth century.
Speaker 6: The same materials were used to bind all three victims
Speaker 6: in the two cases, the binding, the way that they
Speaker 6: were bound was similar or even identical, and the use
Speaker 6: of a sharp edged tool, which neither weapon was found,
Speaker 6: so we can't verify exactly if it was the same weapon,
Speaker 6: but the modus opera and I, or the way that
Speaker 6: these crimes were committed were literally almost identical.
Speaker 3: Danny went on to argue that because Harry Collier's fingerprint
Speaker 3: was proof he killed Paul and Drought, then it stands
Speaker 3: to reason that he was also the man who killed
Speaker 3: Billy Halpern.
Speaker 6: I was able to write it up and say that
Speaker 6: if Harry Collier were alive today, then I would feel
Speaker 6: comfortable taking this to grand jury, and even more comfortable
Speaker 6: or confident that we would give an indictment.
Speaker 3: You may be asking, as I did, wasn't this case
Speaker 3: against Collier based entirely on circumstantial evidence?
Speaker 4: Again, here's veteran prosecutor Brian Porter.
Speaker 13: Unfortunately, in my opinion, television and the movies have led
Speaker 13: way people to kind of equate the phrase circumstantial evidence
Speaker 13: with weak case, and that's most definitely not the situation.
Speaker 13: The only type of direct evidence that actually exists would
Speaker 13: be either eyewitness testimony, a confession by the suspect, or
Speaker 13: perhaps nowadays, if you had video of the actual offense
Speaker 13: being committed. And to be quite honest, because most murderers
Speaker 13: do not confess to their murders, and because most murderers
Speaker 13: do not commit murders in front of video cameras, and
Speaker 13: because murderers do their best to kill people when there
Speaker 13: are no eyewitnesses, the vast majority of murder cases an
Speaker 13: investigation that I've been involved in my career require us
Speaker 13: to build a case from circumstantial evidence, And if I
Speaker 13: were reluctant to do so, there would be a lot
Speaker 13: of very angry victim families if I told them, hey,
Speaker 13: I've got a pretty strong case, but it's all circumstantial
Speaker 13: and therefore I can't charge the murderer.
Speaker 3: After nearly two years on Billy Halpin's murder case, Danny
Speaker 3: submitted his memo to the State Attorney's office.
Speaker 13: In the end, the evidence in this case is very compelling,
Speaker 13: and I think prosecutor would be duty bound to close
Speaker 13: the case exceptionally.
Speaker 4: But we would have to wait and see.
Speaker 7: I submitted the memo.
Speaker 6: In reality, it was probably a couple hours, but it
Speaker 6: felt like four years. But I got a response from
Speaker 6: the State Attorney's office and they confirmed my findings and
Speaker 6: they agreed with me.
Speaker 3: The state attorney agreed that there was enough evidence to
Speaker 3: charge Harry Collier with Billy Helper's murder, but because Collier
Speaker 3: was dead and unable to stand trial, the state attorney
Speaker 3: would exceptionally clear the case. Danny was confident in his
Speaker 3: conclusion that Harry Collier killed Billy halpern.
Speaker 6: So obviously I was happy. I was happy for the case.
Speaker 6: I was happy for Laurie. It was short lived, honestly,
Speaker 6: because as happy as I was for Laurie and the
Speaker 6: helping family and all their friends. Honestly, my mind immediately
Speaker 6: went to Harry Collier's widow and his son.
Speaker 3: Holly's wife Miami, had cooperated, her son had given DNA,
Speaker 3: and they had held on to hope that Harry was
Speaker 3: not the man they suspected him of being.
Speaker 6: I tend to view them as victims in this case
Speaker 6: also because they didn't ask for any of this, and
Speaker 6: this information is going to come out and he's essentially
Speaker 6: going to victimize his family again from beyond the grave.
Speaker 3: But as a detective, his was still first and foremost
Speaker 3: to Billy and his surviving family. And after thirty seven years,
Speaker 3: it was finally time to give lour some good news.
Speaker 6: May fourteenth, twenty twenty four. It is one oh one
Speaker 6: in the afternoon. I'm just about to go sit down
Speaker 6: with Lori Halpern and do really one of the good
Speaker 6: things that we get to do as homicide detectives, which
Speaker 6: is to speak with victim's family and give them a resolution,
Speaker 6: give them some kind of comfort that we've identified the
Speaker 6: person that's involved, for the person responsible for their loved
Speaker 6: ones murder.
Speaker 3: Laurie Halpurn has been intimately involved in Danny's investigation since
Speaker 3: the beginning, so no news was going to come completely
Speaker 3: as a shock, but it was important to Danny to
Speaker 3: deliver the state attorney's decision in person.
Speaker 1: What I have here is a memo that I wrote
Speaker 1: to our state Attorney's office. This is what we have,
Speaker 1: this is the evidence, this is what my conclusion is,
Speaker 1: and then I leave it up to them.
Speaker 3: Danny summarizes his case, including the disappointing reality of the
Speaker 3: inability to use DNA to id Billy's killer.
Speaker 6: She had no DNA for Gil in there. The DNA
Speaker 6: that we had was so degraded. And to answer your question, Gil,
Speaker 6: I cannot say that he was involved. I'm not saying
Speaker 6: he wasn't involved, but I can't prove that he had
Speaker 6: any knowledge or he had any involvement of being there.
Speaker 6: But I can say that Harry Collier was involved, He
Speaker 6: was there, took part in it.
Speaker 2: What about Jimmy hin Note.
Speaker 1: Jimmy h Note is the same for me as Gil.
Speaker 1: I believe that he probably was there, but I don't
Speaker 1: have enough that I can definitively say that, yes, Jimmy
Speaker 1: was there, Gil was there, or even in Mike Carbone.
Speaker 1: I can't say any of them just because the science
Speaker 1: isn't there.
Speaker 3: But despite the degraded DNA, Danny believed his case against
Speaker 3: Harry Collier was rock solid.
Speaker 1: So for me as an investigator, I was able to
Speaker 1: do this document, send it over to the State Attorney's
Speaker 1: office and say, if Harry Callier were alive today, I
Speaker 1: would be taken him to Grand Jerry and I would
Speaker 1: probably be arresting him on the evidence that I have.
Speaker 7: And they said, we.
Speaker 1: Agree, we agree.
Speaker 14: And for nothing though, I mean, if he didn't believe it,
Speaker 14: truly sad you kick everything away from my fit parents
Speaker 14: for devastated and for nothing.
Speaker 2: How can you kill people like that and not even
Speaker 2: think anything of it?
Speaker 1: You're a freaking evil, sir.
Speaker 2: He's pure evil.
Speaker 14: How do you get involved with Jimmy?
Speaker 2: I know?
Speaker 1: So Collier was not from down here, which is why
Speaker 1: really not many people know him.
Speaker 6: He was from the northeast, Okay, and he had ties to.
Speaker 1: Burt Christie. But it looks like he was the guy
Speaker 1: that they called and they said we need something done.
Speaker 2: He was the hit man.
Speaker 1: Was he was a hit man? Yeah, he was a violent,
Speaker 1: violent man.
Speaker 3: Here's the thing about solving a murder case. It can
Speaker 3: answer long unanswered questions. It can unburden survivors of uncertainty
Speaker 3: surrounding a loved one's death, maybe even deliver a sense
Speaker 3: of justice, but it can't bring a victim back, and
Speaker 3: the end is always bittersweet.
Speaker 1: I believe we've proven that Harry Collier was a principal
Speaker 1: and was involved in Billy's murder. He's dead and there's
Speaker 1: really not a whole lot that can be done. But
Speaker 1: at the very least it'll give you a little bit
Speaker 1: of something.
Speaker 14: I hope no my parents be happy to know that
Speaker 14: you cared enough to do this.
Speaker 7: Well.
Speaker 1: I'll be honest, I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't
Speaker 1: get a live person to charge now. I really wanted to, but.
Speaker 2: It wouldn't matter even if Gil didn't. You had proof
Speaker 2: that Gil did it. I mean, he's Gurdi in jail
Speaker 2: for life. What's going to happen Nothing, I have.
Speaker 3: To admit I shared some of Laurie's frustrations about why
Speaker 3: it took nearly forty years to get real answers, but
Speaker 3: it is a credit to Danny that he remained steadfast
Speaker 3: in his commitment to what he could prove, not what
Speaker 3: he may have believed to be true.
Speaker 1: But here again, I felt it was important to put
Speaker 1: this officially.
Speaker 7: I say it is.
Speaker 1: My opinion that Billy heard mention of the triple murder
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty three that was committed by Gil Fernandez.
Speaker 1: I mentioned that I agree with the previous investigators that
Speaker 1: Fernandez orchestrated and potentially participated in the murders of not
Speaker 1: only Billy, but Mitch Sharonda, Jimmy Heina, and Harry Pollier.
Speaker 1: I don't have jurisdiction on those cases, so I can't
Speaker 1: pursue them, but I am working with other detectives that
Speaker 1: have now reopened those cases.
Speaker 3: Really, the fact was that Billy's case may have been cleared,
Speaker 3: but that does not mean it has been closed. The
Speaker 3: DNA sample retrieved from the help and crime scene may
Speaker 3: have been inadequate to ideas suspect, but there was no
Speaker 3: telling where the science would be in a few years
Speaker 3: and what it may reveal about who else was in
Speaker 3: the room when Collier killed Billy.
Speaker 2: You got my carbone DNA?
Speaker 9: You do?
Speaker 11: I do?
Speaker 1: And that was a big one. That was a big
Speaker 1: one because if I couldn't get him on this, at
Speaker 1: the very least, maybe I can help another agency or another.
Speaker 2: Ida great if he has something to do with it.
Speaker 1: So indirectly Billy's investigations, he could.
Speaker 2: Help open the other rights are yeah, that would be great.
Speaker 3: After Danny's visit with Laurie, we discussed whether after nearly
Speaker 3: two years of an investigation and successfully clearing the Helper
Speaker 3: and cold case, he still had any lingering, doubts or
Speaker 3: uncertainty about his conclusions.
Speaker 6: I was happy that I was able to ensure that Laurie,
Speaker 6: after this is all said, Laura helped and has more
Speaker 6: answers than she has questions. After all these years, I
Speaker 6: know there's more to the story, and there are certain
Speaker 6: things that I just simply was unable to get an
Speaker 6: answer to. I gave everything that I had, but I
Speaker 6: still feel that it's slightly incomplete because there's just answers
Speaker 6: that I don't have.
Speaker 3: Many of those questions revolve around the role of Gil
Speaker 3: Fernandez or Christi, and even the unseen forces that may
Speaker 3: have been behind the order to kill Billy.
Speaker 1: I would have loved to prove that additional people were involved,
Speaker 1: and I do feel very confident.
Speaker 7: That there were other people involved.
Speaker 6: But at this stage in the investigation, I can only
Speaker 6: go as far as the evidence will take me, and
Speaker 6: in this case, the evidence took me to an ending.
Speaker 6: I just I don't think it's the ending. I think
Speaker 6: it's an ending, but not the ending.
Speaker 3: This was also the story of DNA, its promise and
Speaker 3: its limitations.
Speaker 6: And at the very beginning, every single piece of evidence
Speaker 6: that I asked to be tested, I was, in my
Speaker 6: mind positive we were going to come back with a
Speaker 6: hit and a match.
Speaker 3: The discovery of untested DNA at Billy's crime scene felt
Speaker 3: destined for an instant match and swift resolution to the investigation.
Speaker 4: But of course that proved not to be the case.
Speaker 6: And unfortunately it was a It was a punch in
Speaker 6: the gut every time I got those results.
Speaker 3: But those disappointing results had a positive effect too, in
Speaker 3: that it forced Danny to lean on what he did best,
Speaker 3: the research, the interviews, and the old school gumshoe detective
Speaker 3: work that helped piece together the narrative of the crime.
Speaker 3: And while the DNA results did not prove who was
Speaker 3: present at Billy's murder, it did not disprove any theories either.
Speaker 6: Just because someone's DNA is not on a piece of
Speaker 6: evidence does not mean that they were not involved. I
Speaker 6: think a lot of people will hear that, oh, well,
Speaker 6: Gill's DNA was not located on the binding, so that
Speaker 6: means he wasn't involved, And no, that's not the case.
Speaker 6: I'm not saying that he was or wasn't because I
Speaker 6: can't prove it, but I can say that it's possible
Speaker 6: that anyone is involved even if their DNA was found
Speaker 6: on the evidence.
Speaker 3: Harry Collier was a hulking hit man, hired for his
Speaker 3: muscle and his ruthless skills with a knife, and ultimately
Speaker 3: he bears responsibility.
Speaker 4: For the murder of Billy Halpern.
Speaker 3: But Danny and I still can't shake the one thing
Speaker 3: that everyone we talked to agreed on, and the fact
Speaker 3: that the evidence supported Billy's killer did not work alone.
Speaker 3: And while most of the suspects in our investigation were
Speaker 3: long dead, there was still one man who Danny thought
Speaker 3: might be interested in hearing the results of the investigation,
Speaker 3: the man once known as the meanest cop in Miami
Speaker 3: and the last remaining suspect in Billy's murder, Bill Fernandez.
Speaker 4: Cold Blooded.
Speaker 3: The Apollo Jim Murders is a production of iHeart Podcasts
Speaker 3: and Authentic Wave Media. Scott Weinberger, Kevin Bennett, and Walker
Speaker 3: LeMond are executive producers. Sabrina Sire is our line producer,
Speaker 3: scoring sound design and mixing by Mark lamoorg Z. For
Speaker 3: iHeart Podcasts, Christina Everett is executive producer, and David Wasserman
Speaker 3: is brand marketing manager. And with special thanks to the
Speaker 3: Miramar Police Department, Chief del Rich Moss, p Io Tanya Ardaz,
Speaker 3: and Detective Susie Smith