WEBVTT - Episode 9 - The Close 0:00:02.360 --> 0:00:03.400 I never met, y'all. 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:05.240 I don't even know him. 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:07.200 I know who he is. 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:10.880 He came into a restaurant that I worked at with 0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:15.400 his family and my friend who knew him. Do you 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:18.400 know that Gil Fernandez, who we didn't kill Billy. I'm like, 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:21.520 oh my god, and I was freaking out, and then 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:23.040 I couldn't wait on him. I'm like, oh my god, 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:24.160 I think he killed my brother. 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:29.880 Laurie Halpern is convinced that ex Miami police officer Gil 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:33.760 Fernandez and is Apollo Jim Co owner Bert Christi were 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:36.120 the men behind her brother Billy's. 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:40.559 Nineteen eighty six murder. She's not the only one. 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:47.080 They got wins somehow that he had information. He suspected 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:49.760 he said something out loud that somebody overheard and had 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:53.760 got back to Bert or Gil or both, and so 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:54.800 they took him out. 0:00:57.040 --> 0:01:01.760 That was Prosecutor Cindy Imperado, who believe Fernandez and Christi 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:05.560 were running a crew of fellow bodybuilders that were responsible 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:10.320 for a string of ripoffs and shakedowns, some of them deadly, 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:13.520 and when they feared Billy knew too much about their 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:18.400 criminal activity, Christie ordered Gil to make the threat disappear. 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:22.760 Whether he did it or not. Nothing's been proven. I mean, 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:24.720 he hasn't been charged with it, but that was the 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:28.240 theory of the case. So you had a police officer 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:32.440 who was ripping off drug dealers and killing them and 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:35.120 then killing anybody else that might witness it. 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:40.480 If true, it may account for Billy's execution style murder 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:43.880 in October of nineteen eighty six, the murder of his 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:47.160 friends Mitch Hall and Charlotte de Drought in May of 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:51.160 nineteen eighty seven, and the executions of two of Gil's 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:56.160 own crew, Jimmy high Note and Harry Pollier just six 0:01:56.240 --> 0:01:59.720 weeks later. All of them were members of the Apollo, 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:03.520 which means all of them could have had the goods 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:05.440 on Fernandez and Christie. 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:09.079 If Billy was killed because he knew too much, which 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:13.400 is the theory that I'm working on, then anyone that 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:16.639 he could have put into prison by giving that information 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:20.200 or led that information out, that's who would have benefited. 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:24.640 So if Billy had information that could put someone in 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:28.320 jail with what he knew, then killing him is going 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:31.160 to benefit that person or those people. 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:35.880 And that may even include members of organized crime. 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:41.240 There were multiple people that gave information saying that Burt 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:44.639 Christie was working for the Columbo family out of Chicago. 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:49.240 Was Billy just in as much danger if a Columbo 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:51.320 family didn't know about him? 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:52.360 Yeah, I think he was. 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:56.280 But I think that a little bit of pressure from 0:02:56.360 --> 0:03:01.360 maybe bosses so Burt Christie would seal a deal for 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:04.480 Billy and it really seal his faith. 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:08.720 But if that were true, and Billy was in possession 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:13.600 of information that could endanger Fernandez and Christie's operation, a 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:18.040 larger question still looms. How would Gill and Burt have 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:23.239 known that Billy was a potential threat? After all, according 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:26.280 to Mark Lopez, there were plenty of guys at the 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:30.400 gym that knew what was going on and were smart 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:32.240 enough to look the other way. 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:36.080 Do you have to realize something that people were very 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:39.080 afraid because, you know, if he and d was the 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:42.840 one committing these murders, they thought if they went in 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.840 or cooperated, they were going to be in a jackpot. 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:51.240 Was Billy's mere proximity to the rumors swirling around the 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:53.560 Apollo really a reason to kill him? 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:55.440 It seemed unlikely. 0:03:57.080 --> 0:03:59.480 It just was a guy that I don't think anybody 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:03.040 thought was tied up. And you know a lot of craziness, right, 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:05.560 So I think it was just shocked for most people, 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:07.480 like why would anybody kill this guy? 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:11.760 But if Billy had indeed gone to the police, that 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:15.680 was another story. When Billy's friend, Mitch Hall was killed 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:19.560 six months later, Mitch's sister came to believe that the 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:23.520 motive behind both their murders was right there in black 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:24.960 and white. 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:28.760 My brother came to me and he said, Billy Helpurn 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:31.640 died and I'm going to find out. 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:32.280 Who killed him. 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:35.440 And he went to the police station and he was 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:39.000 killed the next day. So I'm assuming there was a 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:42.159 leak in the police station and somebody said Mitch Hall 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:46.320 knows who killed Billy, and then they went and killed 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:47.240 him that next day. 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:52.080 Billy's sister, she'd been harboring the same. 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:55.159 Thought, like you were going to tell what you knew 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:57.839 about Billy and none then you get killed. Who in 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:00.280 the police department is a bad guy? 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:04.600 It was time to talk about the elephant in the room. 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:10.360 I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff, and 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:16.000 this is cold blooded the Apollo Jim murders. 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:23.080 It is truly a terrifying thought. 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:27.480 But when Danny had to confront could Gil Fernandez, the 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.279 next cop with dozens of friends in contacts still on 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:33.520 the force, had been tipped off that Billy halpurn was 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:38.200 cooperating with law enforcement, and if so, did it cost 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:40.640 Billy his life? 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:44.600 My initial thought was not a chance, and that's probably 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:48.360 a little naive on my part, because obviously there's a chance. 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.279 The first step in uncovering the truth would be the 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:57.200 search for any record of Billy Halpern's contact with investigators 0:05:57.200 --> 0:05:59.520 in either Miramar or Broward County. 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:05.040 Well, considering that the Danger Road triple murder was in 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:08.919 nineteen eighty three and Billy was eighty six, I figured 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:11.440 there may be some kind of a record that Billy 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:14.599 was interviewed, just like many other people that were around 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:18.440 the Apollo gym. 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:20.080 Which, as we heard from Mark Lopez, would have carried 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:21.840 with it considerable risk. 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:27.479 People were very afraid because they knew not he was 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:32.080 a hardcore gangster, but he was an ex cop and 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:35.960 he had friends still on the force, So it was like, well, 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:38.480 if he runted a law how do you know that 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:40.080 one of his buddies, I'm going to look it back 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:41.679 to him, and then you're in trouble. 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:46.719 Danny hoped the truth would lie somewhere in the forty 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:47.839 year old case file. 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:51.719 All I could do was just read every single piece 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:54.400 of paper and at least the case fall that I have, 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:58.400 and look for any indication that Billy was interviewed. 0:06:58.440 --> 0:06:59.880 And I really couldn't find anything. 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:03.520 According to the case file kept by a mirror MARPDI, 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:08.440 there was no evidence that Billy had ever cooperated with investigators. 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:12.840 Of course, no record on file didn't mean Billy was 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:13.800 never approached. 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:17.160 It may just mean that Billy was smart. 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:20.960 Enough to keep it a secret, and Danny, he's smart 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:23.080 enough to know that not everything makes it. 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:26.160 On paper and into an investigative file. 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:29.760 I was able to speak to a couple of the 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:32.800 detectives that previously worked in these cases back in the 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:36.320 eighties and asked them, and they also said that they 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:38.640 don't have any recollection Billy being interviewed. 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:44.080 So what if Billy didn't go to police, it was 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:47.640 still likely he had heard the rumors about Gilan Burt, 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:52.320 possibly even their involvement in the triple murder on Danger Road, 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:58.120 and that by itself would have been dangerous information to possess. 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:03.560 I think that Billy did know. I think that anyone 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:07.120 that spent any amount of time over at the Apollo 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:10.960 gym would either hear the rumors or maybe even see 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:16.200 the meetings, or even hear certain conversations by being there. 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:19.720 The odds of them hearing about certain crimes, I think 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:20.560 is possible. 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:26.240 This was confirmed by other Apollo members like Mark Lopez 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:30.440 and Dave Fasano, guys who had more than an inkling 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:33.559 of what was going on, but who were wise enough 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:35.559 to mind their own business. 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:38.280 So what made them different from Billy? 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:44.120 Why target Billy and not the other guys at the gym? 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:47.360 Best guess, and this is speaking with a lot of 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:50.200 people that were very close with Billy. I think Billy 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:52.760 was less willing to play ball and keep his mouth shut. 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:57.480 I think that Billy was probably a little outspoken at 0:08:57.520 --> 0:08:59.360 the atrocities that he had heard about. 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:03.160 Mark Lopez tends to agree. 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:07.720 I don't think Billy was necessarily tied up in anything specifically. 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:11.840 I think he may have just inadvertently been exposed to 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:17.719 some information and the powers that be thought, why take 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:21.840 a chance, right, It's just one more guy that's going 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:22.360 to need to. 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:24.960 Go one person. 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:28.520 Danny thinks Billy may have talked to his friend, Mitch Hall. 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:34.120 The evidence was circumstantial but persuasive, and I said. 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:36.200 Mitch, don't can involve with those type of people. 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:41.240 Mitch's sister also remembers Mitch telling her that he was 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:44.000 willing to go to the police and tell them what 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:45.360 he knew. 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:48.959 And he went to the police station and he was 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:50.000 killed the next day. 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:56.240 Billy's sister, Laurie, was also convinced that the timing of 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:59.080 Mitch's murder was no coincidence. 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:03.280 I really think there had to be a rat, a 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:04.880 dirty rat in a police department. 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:11.760 Even a CoP's son like Danny Smith, whose father worked 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:15.560 in law enforcement for nearly thirty years, knows that South 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:19.560 Florida in the nineteen eighties was plagued with police corruption. 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:24.600 The easy money from drugs flowing into South America proved 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:29.000 irresistible to a lot of people, including some members of 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:33.880 law enforcement. In fact, the result of a massive crackdown 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:37.120 on police corruption in nineteen eighty seven revealed that up 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:42.040 to ten percent of the entire MIAMIPD had been suspended, fired, 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:47.200 or incarcerated for their involvement in criminal activity. Whether that 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:50.280 corruption reached the much smaller departments in Brier County or 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:50.840 MI or mar. 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:51.679 We don't know. 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:56.120 I obviously want to give the investigators or the police 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:58.959 officers and the tecers back then the benefit of the doubt. 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:01.520 However, is it possible? Yeah? 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:05.679 Absolutely, And the only way that I could verify that 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:09.720 is just to legitimately read every word of every document 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:13.440 that was provided to me and see if there's anything there, 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:18.079 and then moreover me or speak with the previous detectives 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:19.560 and just ask ask the question. 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:23.480 If Danny could find the evidence that Mitch Hall had 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:26.839 indeed filed a report or met with anyone at Mirror, 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:30.040 Marpadi or Browie County Sheriff's office, it would go a 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:33.559 long way to casting suspicion on someone within law enforcement 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:38.680 being complicit in his murder. But according to Danny, there 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:42.240 was no record that Mitch had ever met with. 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:47.360 Police now it happened the crimes were eighty six in 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:52.120 nineteen eighty seven. Is it very easy for investigators to 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:57.080 have that conversation with Mitch Hall and not take any 0:11:57.120 --> 0:11:58.280 notes and just ignore it. 0:11:58.360 --> 0:11:58.520 Yeah. 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:01.080 Absolutely, There's no way I could verify that, And if 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:03.840 they didn't want to tell me, then there's nothing I 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:08.720 can do about that. But assuming that there were notes 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:11.640 taken because the case file that I have on Billy 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:17.480 Holburn is extremely well done, well written organized. If anyone 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:19.800 came in and had an information on Billy's murder, that 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:20.839 that would have been written down. 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:25.720 Whether that was enough to quell rumors that someone within 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:30.600 law enforcement leaked information to Gil. Danny still doesn't know. 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:34.360 Most of the rumors, if not all. The rumors were 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:38.720 centered around the fact that Gill was a cop, and 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.600 the assumption was that all cops know each other and 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:46.000 all cops share information, and there's the idea of he's 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:48.280 a cop. Even if he's bad, other people are gonna 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:49.960 cover for him because he's a cop. 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:55.640 Danny has been in uniform for twenty seven years and 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:58.840 he knows as well as anybody about the sworn loyalty 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:03.080 that exists between people who every day put their lives 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:08.000 into each other's hands. And he can also understand the 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:11.880 suspicion surrounding his fellow brothers in blue. 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:18.200 It's a society. Police officers have their own family. There's 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:20.880 good cops and bad cops out there. Obviously, again, it 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:23.200 would be naive on my part to blindly say that 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:26.360 there was never any corruption at any level. I feel 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:29.679 that it was incumbent upon me to go through and 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:32.720 check to see if there was any internal affairs investigations 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:35.960 or any statements that show corruption, because it does happen, 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:37.720 let's be honest with each other. 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:42.520 But that search also yielded no evidence that any member 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:46.520 of law enforcement was ever suspected of being complicit in 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:48.320 Billy or Mitch's murder. 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:52.680 There was no indication that there was an internal affairs 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:58.160 investigation on anyone that related to helping Gil. 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:01.959 Or helping the Apollo, or saying anything that can be hearing. 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:05.840 Put the investigators on a different path on purpose. So 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:10.439 there were never any substantiated rumors naving specific comps or 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:11.360 improper behavior. 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:14.240 But they were there. The rumors were around. Everyone around 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:14.720 it knew it. 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:20.040 Unfortunately, no solid answers were found in the documentation, and unfortunately, 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:23.080 in a cold case, that's all I've gotten for now. 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:28.680 The rumors proved to be just that prosecutors sending imperado 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:32.440 things that even for Florida cops, there was a limit 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:33.760 to their loyalty. 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:38.360 For the most part, law enforcement is loyal to their 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:41.960 own But I think once they saw what he was 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:44.120 charged with and everything, it was a different story. 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:49.200 But considering the client tele at the Apollo, Fernandez and 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:52.560 Christie probably didn't need a crooked cop to keep threats 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:53.040 at bay. 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:59.400 They had enough eyes and ears right there in the gym, including. 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:02.640 One long time friend who may have set the stage 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:18.480 for Billy's murder. By nineteen eighty six, Billy Halburn had 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:21.000 left his job as a paramedic at the Hollandale Fire 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:23.680 Department due to a lingering back injury. 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:26.880 Billy told his sister Laurie. 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:29.040 That he was going to deploy his charm and good 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:34.040 looks into a new career in sales, namely the trade 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:39.400 of fine art and rare coins. The career change suited him, 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:42.640 after all, South Florida in the mid eighties seemed to 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:46.640 be flushed with easy money, and Billy was eager to 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:47.520 get a piece of it. 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:51.840 I think Billy probably still had been for Nickolie ever 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:53.560 made when he died. 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:56.440 She was so frugal. 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:00.480 He had a paper of a pad like that of 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:03.920 all the money that people owed him. 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:07.280 But according to Laurie, she did notice signs that the 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:11.080 rare coin trade might have given way to another more 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:12.320 lucrative business. 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:17.840 Then Billy and Jimmy got involved with I thought our 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:21.000 dealing or you know, I'm not even sure what I 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:23.600 thought they were doing, but I didn't really think about 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:24.800 it because we all grew up together. 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:26.600 Were there a couple of guys that said that you 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:28.800 might have been selling a little bit of drugs here 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:29.120 and there? 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:29.440 Yeah? 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:34.880 Oh huge death last Yeah, I mean, we're not an idiot, 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:40.320 and safe to say it paid a lot better than coins. 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:45.000 They were making money. Oh my god, the money was 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:48.640 sick that you would that they were making. And I 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:52.160 really always felt that he would talk about it too much. 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:58.280 But according to Laurie, Billy was never long for that world. 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:03.400 He bought property up in Melbourne Beach at nineteen eighty 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:07.960 four and it was extream, you know, make the money, 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:12.080 get out, go up to Melbourne, beef bee surfer, live 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:15.280 on REGI, you know, live my life. 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:17.480 But he would never get the chance. 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:21.679 Instead, he was killed in his home in October of 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:26.680 nineteen eighty six. Laurie realizes now that he's pleased to 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:30.560 leave town before his death may have been more than 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:33.600 just an idle daydream. 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:37.600 Billy had left me, you know, money, He had a will, 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:41.840 and when he went to some and do the will, 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:46.240 it's like Lord by come on, we're going to bob 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:49.880 our childhood friend to drop a will. I'm like, get 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:52.520 out of here, and we're not going to get away. 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:54.280 No, I'm serious, lord, come on. 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:59.919 Was Billy's wonderlust desire to leave South Florida to another 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:04.720 paradise up the coast, or wasn't motivated by fear of 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:07.040 what could happen if he stayed. 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:10.720 Let me tell you, I remember that when I lived 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:14.280 with him, he came to the door my bedroom at 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:18.400 the front, the front door, and he opened up my door, Floria, 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:20.280 I love you. 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:22.720 If anything happened to me. She knows that I love you, 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:24.480 I'm like, and he caught me off gard like what 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:25.399 are you talking about? 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:29.240 And he ran off, like where are you going? 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:34.119 Looking back, Laurie now thinks he sounded like a guy 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:37.080 who was in too deep and was fearing for his life, 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:43.720 and she thinks she knows who's to blame. After Billy 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:47.280 was murdered, Laurie was shaken by a memory of walking 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:50.040 into a tense meeting at Billy's town home. 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:53.920 Well, I came over one day and I walked in. 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:56.400 I'm like, Jimmy, like, what do you what he doing here? 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:01.720 By this time, Jimmy high Note was a regular member 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:05.520 of Gil's shakedown crew. We can only speculate as to 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:09.440 why one of Billy's suspected killers was in his town 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:12.200 home just weeks before Billy was killed. 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:15.600 Was Jimmy warning him of imminent danger? 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:19.560 Or was he casing the location on orders from Gil 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:20.439 and Burt? 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:25.080 And I think with the art pretending to be into 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:28.679 the art maybe or coin collecting, but maybe that was 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:32.480 the way he got in comfortable with Billy on behalf 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:32.880 of them. 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:37.760 I think maybe, whatever the reason, after Billy was killed, 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:41.600 Laurie said she knew it was no innocent. 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:46.399 Visit, you know. Then I knew Jimmy had to be involved. 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:50.440 Which brings us back to that empty safe in Billy's 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:54.960 bedroom and the possibility that it contained not rare coins, 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:59.000 but what Dave Fersano called the best coke in town. 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:03.600 I know that some people say that Billy was ripped 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:05.919 for drugs. Some people say that he was ripped for 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:08.359 coins and art. 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:11.440 I heard that rumor a lot. 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:15.840 I did, and after a year and a half of 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:19.280 looking into it and trying to either confirm or deny 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:21.760 those rumors, I feel that the rumors were. 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:22.720 Just that. 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:27.080 No matter what evidence Danny had turned up about Billy's 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:31.000 source of income, he remains convinced Billy's. 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:33.960 Murder was no robbery, It was a hit. 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:39.400 The comment thoughts and ideas that I got from those 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:44.480 closest to Billy, Gil, Harry, Collier, Apollo, Jim was that 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:48.879 Billy was killed because he knew or overheard or was 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:53.919 told something about murders that occurred or who could have 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:56.240 been involved in those murders. And I honestly think that 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:59.040 people just were not comfortable with Billy having. 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:04.600 This information, information that threatened the illicit livelihood of Fernandez 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:09.240 and Christi, but also that of his old friend Jimmy Heinault, 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:13.880 whose betrayal may have resulted in Billy's murder. 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:20.920 The concept of clearing a case exceptionally is relatively simple, 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:25.920 and what it means is that the prosecutor, in conjunction 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:29.480 with law enforcement who investigated the matter, is convinced that 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:34.400 there is probable cause to charge someone with the crime. However, 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:39.840 for some reason, it is either an opportune or impossible 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:43.120 to charge the suspect with the offense, and the way 0:21:43.160 --> 0:21:46.600 that most frequently occurs is that the suspect is dead 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:49.399 at the time probable cause is developed, as so happened 0:21:49.400 --> 0:21:50.000 in this case. 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:55.600 Brian Porter is a veteran prosecutor who is not associated 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:58.640 with this case. He is a legal scholar who has 0:21:58.680 --> 0:22:02.560 been part of several investigations I've reported on. 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:08.080 I've been the elected prosecutor in my jurisdiction for over 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:13.080 eleven years, and I've made exceptional case closure calls on 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:16.240 any number of occasions. And really what it boils down 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:19.800 to is it's the same exact analysis that I would 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:22.000 make if a detective came to me and asked me 0:22:22.040 --> 0:22:25.120 to charge somebody with murder. It's not a lesser standard 0:22:25.119 --> 0:22:27.600 in my mind, It's the same exact standard. 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:32.760 Danny had untangled as much as he could with the 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:36.280 given evidence, and he believed he had a convincing version 0:22:36.640 --> 0:22:41.920 of what happened to Billy Halpern. But still he had 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:46.560 to convince Broward County's top homicide prosecutor that he was right. 0:22:48.359 --> 0:22:53.440 Writing the close up memo to the State Attorney's office 0:22:53.480 --> 0:22:57.240 was really an opportunity for me to take all of 0:22:57.280 --> 0:23:03.160 the work that I've done and shrink it to five 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:07.040 or six seven page memo giving the bullet points as 0:23:07.080 --> 0:23:09.600 to what I found, and why I believe that this 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:10.960 case should be solved. 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:16.920 The keystone in his argument was the striking similarity between 0:23:16.920 --> 0:23:19.960 the Hall Drought murders and Billy Halpern's murder. 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:25.199 In this case, a great deal of the case relies 0:23:25.240 --> 0:23:27.880 on what we would call common scheme or plan evidence. 0:23:28.119 --> 0:23:31.440 In other words, is it very obvious that these offenses 0:23:31.520 --> 0:23:34.800 had to be related, because the individual facts that each 0:23:34.880 --> 0:23:37.480 murder are so similar in nature that it kind of 0:23:37.600 --> 0:23:39.440 just defies logic that they weren't related. 0:23:40.760 --> 0:23:42.280 Neither had fourth century. 0:23:43.440 --> 0:23:47.280 The same materials were used to bind all three victims 0:23:47.320 --> 0:23:51.360 in the two cases, the binding, the way that they 0:23:51.359 --> 0:23:56.360 were bound was similar or even identical, and the use 0:23:56.400 --> 0:23:59.760 of a sharp edged tool, which neither weapon was found, 0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:02.959 so we can't verify exactly if it was the same weapon, 0:24:03.000 --> 0:24:07.479 but the modus opera and I, or the way that 0:24:07.560 --> 0:24:11.960