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Speaker 1: Hi. There a quick note before we start. Most of

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Speaker 1: you love listening to ads.

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Speaker 2: I know that.

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Speaker 1: But if you don't, here's an option. Subscribe to True

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Speaker 1: Crime Clubhouse on Apple Podcasts. You'll get ten episodes of

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Speaker 1: Empire on Blood the Director's Cut ad free and one

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Speaker 1: week early with exclusive bonus content. And it's a year

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Speaker 1: two ninety nine a month. Ever. Try to set up

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Speaker 1: microphones in a criminal court in the Bronx. It takes

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Speaker 1: a court order, you know. I think it rained the

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Speaker 1: first day of the trial too, And we got one.

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Speaker 1: We've got the courtroom wired. We will hear everything.

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Speaker 3: Come to orders.

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Speaker 4: Continue hearing all all these president you're calling number one, continued.

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Speaker 5: Hearing people say New York versus Covinzari.

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Speaker 1: President Calvin Bowari is in court today to appeal his

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Speaker 1: life sentence. Cal is forty six years old. He's muscular,

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Speaker 1: clean shaven. He wears a crocheted cap a crown to

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Speaker 1: honor his African roots and to hide his receding hairlines. Oddly,

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Speaker 1: he seems almost relaxed today. Cal has been a ward

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Speaker 1: of the New York State Department of Corrections for more

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Speaker 1: than two decades. Convicted of a double homicide, my name

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Speaker 1: is Calvin bar.

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Speaker 6: Bua.

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Speaker 1: Long ago, Calvin Bowari made headlines in New York City.

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Speaker 1: Back then, he seemed to be one of the most

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Speaker 1: dangerous and flamboyant crack dealers in all the Five Barrows,

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Speaker 1: ruining neighborhoods while wearing mink. He was, according to those headlines,

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Speaker 1: a master of violence. Reports claim to use not only

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Speaker 1: automatic weapons, but black magic. Calvin says they got it wrong.

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Speaker 1: He did deal drugs, but he's not a murderer. Still,

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Speaker 1: he's been locked away. No one in authority will believe

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Speaker 1: he's innocent.

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Speaker 3: All right, Before I begin my decision, I just want

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Speaker 3: to make sure the audience is aware there is to

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Speaker 3: be no outbursts or instantaneous whatever in this courtroom.

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Speaker 1: Does everyone understand, yes, today is the day Calvin's been

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Speaker 1: waiting for his last shot. Even if he wins, caw

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Speaker 1: will face other barriers to freedom. But if he loses today,

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Speaker 1: he will in all likelihood die in prison. His future

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Speaker 1: depends on the next few minutes on whether a State

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Speaker 1: Supreme Court judge rules in his favor. Do people consent

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Speaker 1: it to a hearing?

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Speaker 3: And said hearing was held before this court on March

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Speaker 3: twenty seventh, twenty seventeen. The cases on today for the

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Speaker 3: court's ruling, and my statements will be briefed because they written.

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Speaker 3: Full decision will follow.

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Speaker 1: That's the sound of Cal's handcuffs being removed. He takes

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Speaker 1: his place next to his lawyers. He stares at the

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Speaker 1: judge and waits. This reckoning has been twenty two years

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Speaker 1: in the making, the judge addresses in almost empty courtroom.

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Speaker 1: There's no jury for an appeal. I'm a journalist, and

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Speaker 1: I'm the only person seated on the hard bench of

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Speaker 1: the jury box. I've spent seven years following Cal's story,

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Speaker 1: seven years despite my best instincts and my best interests.

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Speaker 1: I know all about the love story at its center,

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Speaker 1: and the turncoat, and the betrayal and the perjury. I

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Speaker 1: know that someone else confessed to the murders, and that

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Speaker 1: the justice system would not let that confession stand. I

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Speaker 1: know that new eyewitnesses have come forward. I was the

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Speaker 1: first to interview them. And I know that people have

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Speaker 1: died waiting for this moment to come. I even know

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Speaker 1: who committed these murders, at least I think I do.

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Speaker 1: As for the outcome of today's appeal, in due time,

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Speaker 1: first join me in the jury box. I'll explain it

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Speaker 1: all from Orbit Media. This is Empire on Blood, a

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Speaker 1: story of murder, betrayal and a man who fought the

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Speaker 1: law for two decades, and also of an obsession, my

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Speaker 1: obsession with one murder case. I'm Steve Fishman. One evening

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Speaker 1: in twenty eleven, I got a collect call from a

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Speaker 1: New York State correctional facility. I was at home. The

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Speaker 1: call came from a prison payphone. At the time, I

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Speaker 1: was a magazine journalist. I'd written about criminals. I'd sat

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Speaker 1: down with the infamous serial killer son of Sam, I

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Speaker 1: chatted with inmate Bernie Madoff, and I'd covered a wrongful

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Speaker 1: conviction or two. Because of that, prisoners sometimes sent me long,

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Speaker 1: handwritten letters, accompanied by thick envelopes. They were stuffed with documents.

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Speaker 1: The inmates all claimed to be innocent, framed. They wanted

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Speaker 1: me to write about the injustice visited on them. I

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Speaker 1: skimmed the letters and I put them aside. They might

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Speaker 1: be worthy, they might be true, but I didn't have

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Speaker 1: the time. Their stories were complicated, and well, every prisoner

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Speaker 1: is innocent, right, But something was different about cow Someone

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Speaker 1: I knew, a former prisoner one who'd been exonerated, had

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Speaker 1: sent Cow my way and vouched for him. He gave

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Speaker 1: Cow my phone number. I didn't record that first conversation,

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Speaker 1: but I remember it vividly. Cal raced through the evidence

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Speaker 1: of what he said was his innocence as if he

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Speaker 1: were up against a stopwatch. Worried I'd lose interest. I

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Speaker 1: found myself thinking, what if Cal is innocent? What would

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Speaker 1: it be like to have the system against you and

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Speaker 1: to have to run a campaign for your freedom from

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Speaker 1: a prison payphone. I can't imagine feeling completely helpless, can't you.

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Speaker 1: I told him i'd look at the transcript of his

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety five trial, and then it arrived, all one thousand,

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Speaker 1: three hundred and eighty four pages of it. I come

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Speaker 1: from a completely different world than Cal, but I too,

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Speaker 1: lived in New York City in the early nineties Cal's heyday.

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Speaker 1: Reading that transcript, I realized I knew nothing about the

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Speaker 1: world Cal lived in or the justice system that pursued him.

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Speaker 1: That transcript was like a record from a foreign country,

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Speaker 1: another era. Here's the event that started Col's life in prison.

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Speaker 1: It's just after nine at night on September tenth, nineteen

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Speaker 1: ninety two. In the North Bronx, two brothers, Elijah and

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Speaker 1: Salhadin Harris, aged thirty one in twenty six, park a

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Speaker 1: white BMW on East two hundred and thirteenth Street. It

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Speaker 1: will rain later, but right now it's a warm late

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Speaker 1: summer night. The temperature is in the seventies. After parking,

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Speaker 1: the two brothers get food to go from a local

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Speaker 1: Jamaican restaurant, Frank's Soup Bow. They decide to dine in

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Speaker 1: their car. One drinks a Heineken, the other east a sandwich.

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Speaker 1: The car radio is playing volume up, and then at

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Speaker 1: nine thirty five, gunshots. Someone opens fire from the sidewalk

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Speaker 1: a few feet behind the BMW's passenger seat, sprang the

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Speaker 1: car with thirteen nine milimeters bullets. The brother's bodies jerk,

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Speaker 1: they die instantly. A corner will later report who shot

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Speaker 1: the Harris brothers in cold blood. For years, prosecutors couldn't

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Speaker 1: convict anyone of the crime, but then they finally got

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Speaker 1: their man, at least the man they believe killed the brothers,

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Speaker 1: and that brings us to Exhibit one. Calvin Buwari. Back

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Speaker 1: in the day, his day, the late eighties and early nineties,

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Speaker 1: Cow was an innovator in the crack cocaine trade, he

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Speaker 1: was also a fashion pioneer. His style became what citizens

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Speaker 1: thought of when they thought of drug dealers raking in money.

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Speaker 1: I have many favorite outfits.

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Speaker 6: There was a time when whenever I liked I bought it.

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Speaker 6: It was like I was just young, fresh and flash

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Speaker 6: is what I called it. I had a couple min coats.

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Speaker 6: I had a brown one. I also had the weak

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Speaker 6: colored one, full length one. Imagine that.

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Speaker 1: Isn't it draw attention to you? I think it did.

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Speaker 6: Man, when you're young and you don't know no better,

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Speaker 6: you just want to feel like you living a life.

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Speaker 6: Like all imitated life. Back then, rappers looked up to

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Speaker 6: the individuals that were in the street that were really

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Speaker 6: living in life.

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Speaker 1: I loved to think about those days. I could hear

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Speaker 1: it in his voice. He told me he loved to drive. Also,

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Speaker 1: he loved the statement A card made, especially a B. M. W.

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Speaker 6: Black Man's wish is what I called it. It was

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Speaker 6: like to get that was like a dream come true.

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Speaker 6: You know, like that was the part when you really

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Speaker 6: thought you made it, you know, because it was something

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Speaker 6: that you wasn't really accustomed to from a minority at

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Speaker 6: that time hid So.

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Speaker 1: He had two beamers, col ran his business, lived and

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Speaker 1: worked in the Bronx. His fortunes rose and then fell

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Speaker 1: on one particular intersection where East two hundred and thirteenth

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Speaker 1: Street meets Bronxwood Avenue. For cal this was the center

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Speaker 1: of the universe, an intersection a local newspaper dubbed the

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Speaker 1: Corner on Blood, a reference to the many murders in

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Speaker 1: and around there in the early nineties. When talking about

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Speaker 1: this place at this time, I'm also going to call

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Speaker 1: it the Corner on Blood. That corner is an hour's

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Speaker 1: ride by subway from the Empire State Building. It's perfectly

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Speaker 1: situated for a crack dealer who wants to serve the

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Speaker 1: locals and also the kids of doctors and lawyers from

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Speaker 1: affluent Westchester County. They could zip down the Bronx River

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Speaker 1: Parkway and Daddy's Mercedes, a trip of as little as

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Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. Back then, East two thirteen in Bronxwood was

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Speaker 1: an open air drug market, crowded with dealers. They were shifts, yes,

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Speaker 1: eight hour shifts. On one corner was a Jamaican gang,

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Speaker 1: the violent Shower Posse on another were Cow's associates. One

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Speaker 1: of those who sold Cow's drugs was Jermaine Russell Loney.

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Speaker 1: Back in the nineties, he was a teenager known as Jamo.

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Speaker 1: He's our first character witness. I I thought, I thought

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Speaker 1: I pictured your difference.

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Speaker 7: Yeah, tell me, what did you picture me Likeana?

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Speaker 1: I thought you was like I don't know, I was

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Speaker 1: like Sad. I pictured Jamo different too, from our phone

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Speaker 1: conversations and his commanding tone. I expected someone physically imposing,

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Speaker 1: but Jamo's short and skinny. Apparently I'm less savvy than expected,

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Speaker 1: which I guess means I'm older, square, more serious looking.

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Speaker 1: But according to Jamo, I do have one redeeming quality. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you do a good job.

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Speaker 7: It's talking to you know, to people of different back rows,

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Speaker 7: You know what I mean?

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Speaker 8: Yeah I didn't.

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Speaker 7: Sometimes I think I'm talking with a homie.

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Speaker 1: You homie or home in Tasha. Jamo is talking about

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Speaker 1: something that's probably obvious. I'm a white guy. I come

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Speaker 1: from suburban New Jersey and have a college education. As

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Speaker 1: a teenager, I earn my spending money cutting neighbors loans.

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Speaker 7: If I seen you half the ship, I say to you,

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Speaker 7: I'll put it out even set of that way I

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Speaker 7: thought it would have, because you know, vernacular is official.

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Speaker 7: So yeah, there's words and you know, phrases that I

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Speaker 7: might not have told.

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Speaker 1: Okay, but you better talk like natural. Oh no, it's

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Speaker 1: to lay down.

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Speaker 9: That's I know.

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Speaker 1: I ain't gonna change up there. So well, let's hold

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Speaker 1: over a bar.

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Speaker 8: We begin to hear.

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Speaker 1: Jamo is a maintenance man now, but during seven years

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Speaker 1: in prison, he wrote a novel called with Friends Like

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Speaker 1: These Friends with a Z and These with a Z.

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Speaker 1: Jamo says his self published book is a work of fiction. Still.

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Speaker 1: It's set in the drug culture, not far from East

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Speaker 1: to thirteenth. One of the characters is a dealer named Smooth.

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Speaker 1: He bears a striking resemblance to col Jamo did do

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Speaker 1: a lot of research. The crack was sexy in the

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Speaker 1: early nineties.

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Speaker 7: I swear it was.

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Speaker 1: She was awesome.

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Speaker 7: I mean power, the fucking power that came behind that.

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Speaker 1: She was ridiculous.

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Speaker 7: I'll never forget, boy, I'm blessing thinking about it, even

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Speaker 7: though I know that's it's no good.

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Speaker 1: But there were the good old days. Man sixteen years old,

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Speaker 1: whoever the fuck you want to do the center of

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Speaker 1: this sexy scene, Calvin Buwari no mistaking. He was savvy

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Speaker 1: and cunning and ruthless, at least about the money which

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Speaker 1: he stockpiled. Mink coats and matching mink hats, expensive cars

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Speaker 1: by Bavarian Motorworks and the Italians Gucci Armani VERSACEI on

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Speaker 1: his back and a gold rolex on his wrist. Cal

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Speaker 1: was easy on the eyes, as they say, popular with

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Speaker 1: the ladies, but men adored him too. Cal spoke softly,

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Speaker 1: he whispered. You had to get close to hear him.

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Speaker 1: Jamo leaned in so as not to miss a word.

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Speaker 10: I know a lot of y'all't even noticed Me and

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Speaker 10: Calvin lived together, so I know this man, Like I said,

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Speaker 10: damn it either father figure or a big brother figure,

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Speaker 10: you know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: His accidents spoke loud of their words of me. Was

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Speaker 1: it fun to live under the same roof with cal

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Speaker 1: It was pretty much the same, you know, Like it was.

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Speaker 7: I was in a room with some morning he was

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Speaker 7: with the room mat It was amusing or to see

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Speaker 7: a swag now that nigga's crazy Nigga used to walk

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Speaker 7: through the fucking the Nigga used to go through the

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Speaker 7: living room with a fucking Felix slippers with a felile

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Speaker 7: roam with a kingo all type of shit. I I

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Speaker 7: never knew a maker dress like that that make a boy.

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Speaker 1: In Jamo's telling nineties, thug life with Cal was awesome,

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Speaker 1: getting money fast and spending it just as fast, and

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Speaker 1: that that allowed someone like Jamo to dream. Yo.

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Speaker 7: Cal inspired me for the longest because I remember, yeah,

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Speaker 7: I remember before I did a lot of things that

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Speaker 7: I said I was going to do now my dreams.

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Speaker 1: He never doubted me. Everything was connected to Cal. And

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Speaker 1: then Cal started to attract attention the wrong kind from

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Speaker 1: the cops. For them, Col was a king too, or

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Speaker 1: kingpin as they say at the station, so dangerous that

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Speaker 1: the cops spread a rumor in the press that Cal

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Speaker 1: had supernatural powers. That was enough to upset Jamo's mother,

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Speaker 1: who'd been Cal's trusting landlady.

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Speaker 7: This is the guy that's been in my house for

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Speaker 7: mteen years eating crees and children, have a fun, loving

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Speaker 7: god in the media saying drug nineteen year old drug

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Speaker 7: being no black magic, She's like, no, well you.

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Speaker 9: Can't live here.

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Speaker 7: That's who you're supporting, and that's where I was born.

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Speaker 1: Now, before the media talked about Calvin Buaria as if

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Speaker 1: he were a Voodoo prince. Before the Crack Empire and

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Speaker 1: the Firs and the exotic cars, Cal was just another

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Speaker 1: kid in a hurry, good athlete, decent student, living with

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Speaker 1: his mother in a nice neighborhood of immigrants, most of

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Speaker 1: them Caribbean, blue collar church going. Their bronx was not

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Speaker 1: the bronx of overcrowded housing projects and boarded up houses.

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Speaker 1: Call's neighborhood had two or three story homes, some with driveways.

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Speaker 1: It was solid, lower middle class, more a Caribbean version

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Speaker 1: of Roseanne than the wire so. Cal is a first

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Speaker 1: generation American, a striver who wants to be a success.

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Speaker 1: Cal's father is African from Ghana, though he departed before

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Speaker 1: Cal really knew him. His mother is from Barbuda. She

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Speaker 1: raised two sons by herself. She was quiet, religious, hardworking.

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Speaker 1: As one friend of Col's told me, her priorities were

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Speaker 1: taking care of her sons and making sure that they

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Speaker 1: had what they need as opposed to what they want.

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Speaker 1: But her oldest son, Col, he didn't only have needs.

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Speaker 1: He had once look around. How do you get respect

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Speaker 1: in America?

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Speaker 6: Cal answered, Money to me is one of the things

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Speaker 6: that I felt that was more powerful than anything. That

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Speaker 6: was my power life. When I see so many people

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Speaker 6: how much they valued the dollar and how much they

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Speaker 6: respected an individual that had money, I think that that's

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Speaker 6: what kind of like showed me power more than anything.

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Speaker 1: It was Cal's godmother, a bishop in the local church,

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Speaker 1: who taught him if you look good, you feel good.

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Speaker 1: And Cal he wanted to look good as shown on TV.

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Speaker 1: He wanted air Jordans desperately. His mother couldn't afford one

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars pair of sneakers, but it was no secret

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Speaker 1: who could. So Cal dropped out of tenth grade to

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Speaker 1: do the hand to hand as it's called selling crack

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Speaker 1: cocaine in Harlem. He earned the cash to get his sneakers.

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Speaker 1: It was a fateful purchase. Cal might be thinking small,

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Speaker 1: I want some Jordans, but larger forces were in motion.

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Speaker 1: Cal's desire for quick money that plunged him into the

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Speaker 1: middle of a culture war. Sloop Dogs is their names

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Speaker 1: an pound the game and not just a war of ideas.

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Speaker 1: One of Cow's favorite artists was Snoop Dogg, whose real

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Speaker 1: name is also Calman. By the way, Snoop's first album

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Speaker 1: for Death Row Records dropped in nineteen ninety three. It

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Speaker 1: debuted at number one on the charts with songs like

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Speaker 1: serial Killers of the game, John It Dog that we

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Speaker 1: need to put you to breast. Put two slug danning

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Speaker 1: your chests.

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Speaker 5: Now you did thedn't the motherfucker creeping.

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Speaker 1: Sleep bestakes big deep bend fuck it with the snoops vernacular.

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Speaker 1: Put two slugs dead in your chest. It scared the

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Speaker 1: but Jesus out of a lot of people, middle class

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Speaker 1: white people in particular. This is Hillary Clinton in a

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six speech talking about criminal youth.

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Speaker 6: They are often the kinds of kids that are called

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Speaker 6: super predators, no conscience, no empathy. We can talk about

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Speaker 6: why they ended up that way, but first we have

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Speaker 6: to bring them to heal.

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Speaker 11: And the president is asked bring.

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Speaker 1: Them to heal? How was oblivious to national debates about

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Speaker 1: super predators? What mattered to Cal success? And for Cal

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Speaker 1: success meant one thing. Get that money kid.

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Speaker 6: I always looked and ask myself, Cayle, what is your gift?

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Speaker 12: Like?

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Speaker 6: What are you good at doing? I think, like, that's

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Speaker 6: why I think that I'll be so greatful business is

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Speaker 6: because I'm good at looking for a demand of something

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Speaker 6: and trying to meet the supply for that demand. And

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Speaker 6: I think that I get a great feeling of seeing

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Speaker 6: things that other people don't. At the time, I was

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Speaker 6: an individual that came from Harlem that came up to

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Speaker 6: the Bronx where it's that at the time they only

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Speaker 6: sold marijuana and cocaine, and they were accustomed to the

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Speaker 6: crap game. So at that time it was a market

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Speaker 6: for crack up there. And you know, I was the

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Speaker 6: individual that supplied that domain.

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Speaker 1: Cal says he purchased crack for two dollars a vial

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Speaker 1: in Harlem, then he and his crew sold it in

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Speaker 1: the Bronx.

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Speaker 6: And they started buying it for ten dollars update.

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Speaker 1: So crack for Cow was a business opportunity. A profit

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Speaker 1: of eight dollars a vial meant hundreds of dollars a

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Speaker 1: day in his pocket. Later he told me he understood

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Speaker 1: that he was destroying a neighborhood, his neighborhood. He was

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Speaker 1: appalled at some of the things he did. Appalled is

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Speaker 1: Cow's word. But as I listened to him, reminisced, well,

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Speaker 1: I don't hear appalled. Cal reveled in his success.

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Speaker 6: Whenever they tried to do what I was doing. I

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Speaker 6: was ahead of the curve, and if they sold to

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Speaker 6: dollar bottles, I might come back and sell two for fives.

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Speaker 6: I might come back and I sell three dollar bottles

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Speaker 6: and they couldn't really compete with me.

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Speaker 1: In the early nineties, Col's on top of his game

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Speaker 1: in the Bronx. Young Fred Shin flashy enter the prosecution, and.

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Speaker 2: I like that.

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Speaker 1: I thought, this is the kind of man I want

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Speaker 1: to be the father of my children. And Rudy is

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Speaker 1: such a great dad. I wish all New York is

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Speaker 1: about to get a new dad who's not fresh or flashy.

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Speaker 1: He's about discipline. Rudy Juliani for me after the break,

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Speaker 1: Rudy and Cal not a love story.

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Speaker 5: Stay with us, Hi, it's Steve Fishman. I want to

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Speaker 5: introduce you briefly to our next series featuring deep reporting

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Speaker 5: and an amazing story. This one's about a journalist who

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Speaker 5: goes on the hunt for some torturers, her torturers.

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Speaker 1: It's great. Here's the trailer.

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Speaker 13: It was much more than a feeling.

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Speaker 12: I knew that I was being followed.

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Speaker 2: Late afternoon, nineteen seventy seven, Medium Lewin is running for

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Speaker 2: her life. She's nineteen Argentina's military has taken power.

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Speaker 13: I turn my head and I see a dark red

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Speaker 13: Ford falcon and a long gun barrel hanging out from

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Speaker 13: one of the windows. He says, I am the man

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Speaker 13: responsible for your life and your death.

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Speaker 2: Four decades later, Medium is among the few to survive.

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Speaker 2: Her fellow prisoners had been put on planes and tossed

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Speaker 2: into the sea.

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Speaker 12: This plane was used to throw people to their deaths,

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Speaker 12: people I knew, people I loved. I still ask myself,

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Speaker 12: why did I survive? I'd say it was to bring

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Speaker 12: at least some of those pilots of the death flight

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Speaker 12: to justice.

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Speaker 2: From Orbit media, this is Avenger.

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Speaker 1: A quick word about subscriptions. If you love ads, listen

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00:24:14,359 --> 00:24:17,720
Speaker 1: on You're not so keen on ads, sign up for

377
00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:22,719
Speaker 1: True Crime Clubhouse on Apple Podcasts. That's our subscription channel.

378
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:26,480
Speaker 1: You'll get no ads, and also you can binge the

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00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:31,600
Speaker 1: entire Avengers series. It's just two ninety nine a month. Thanks.

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Speaker 1: We're back with Empire on Blood. Let's return to the

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Speaker 1: New York of the early nineties. Cows New York.

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Speaker 14: We were under siege, so we were going to lose

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Speaker 14: the city of New York.

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Speaker 1: This is a defense attorney named Oscar Mitchellin. He grew

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Speaker 1: up in the Bronx, not far from Cow's Corner.

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Speaker 14: You couldn't walk in the city inwork, you couldn't go

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Speaker 14: out to eat in the city of New York. Cops

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Speaker 14: were telling you if you drove through Hallam at night,

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Speaker 14: don't stop at the light. We're not going to write

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Speaker 14: your tickets. If you're a citizen, keep going, man, don't

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Speaker 14: worry about it.

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Speaker 1: Do not stop.

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Speaker 14: You're gonna get carjacks. Delivery trucks had to add extra

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Speaker 14: people on the they were getting carjack while they were moving.

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Speaker 14: It was insanity, and Jorgia called the numbers.

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Speaker 1: In the early nineties, there was an average of two

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Speaker 1: thousand murders a year in New York. That's more than

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Speaker 1: five every day. Back then, I lived in a tiny

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Speaker 1: walk up apartment in the West Village. My apartment was

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Speaker 1: burglarized four or five times in a few years. The

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Speaker 1: last time the burglar bent back a metal gate then

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Speaker 1: climbed in the window. It must have taken hours, and

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Speaker 1: for what everything had already been stolen.

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Speaker 6: We've got to change the rules on the drug dealers

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Speaker 6: and the street criminals.

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Speaker 8: If we keep going merrily along this city's going down.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety three, New York elected a new mayor,

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Speaker 1: Rudy Giuliani, the man with a plan. He was a

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Speaker 1: tough talking former US attorney who vowed to take the

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Speaker 1: city back from the criminals.

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Speaker 14: Ladies and gentlemen. The Mayor of the City of New

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Speaker 14: York Rudolph W.

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Speaker 1: Giuliani. Giuliani was sworn in in January of nineteen ninety four.

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Speaker 1: New Yorkers were ready for a prosecutor as mayor, and

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Speaker 1: Giuliani got going. On his watch, violent crime did start

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Speaker 1: to drop across New York, but there'd always be one exception.

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Speaker 1: Giuliani later put it this way, quote if you were

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Speaker 1: to take the bronx out of the city statistics, then

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Speaker 1: murder is down in the entire city. Wish for thinking, Rudy,

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Speaker 1: even big bad Giuliani couldn't wipe the bronx off the

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Speaker 1: map of New York City. But Calvin, well, maybe you

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Speaker 1: could take Calvin Buari off that map. The rumors showed

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Speaker 1: up first in the New York Daily News in nineteen

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Speaker 1: ninety five of Calvin Bari. Quote. They that's a reference

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Speaker 1: to the cops. They say he's a smooth talking twenty

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Speaker 1: five year old drug dealer whom locals feared both for

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Speaker 1: his violent nature and their strong belief that he used

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Speaker 1: black magic. End quote. The cops told the media, and

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Speaker 1: the media told the public Calvin Boari was some kind

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Speaker 1: of witch doctor. Get him off the streets before he

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Speaker 1: casts his spell again.

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Speaker 9: Hello, Yeah, can you hear me? See?

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Speaker 8: I can hear you street?

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Speaker 1: Cal had started calling me regularly from prison after his

435
00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:51,600
Speaker 1: first call in twenty eleven. He sometimes phoned a few

436
00:27:51,600 --> 00:27:55,760
Speaker 1: times a week, and I started recording our conversations. I

437
00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:59,280
Speaker 1: have a library of them. They're chronicles of a journey

438
00:27:59,320 --> 00:28:03,080
Speaker 1: we were taking together. But when I listened to those tapes,

439
00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:07,360
Speaker 1: I hear something else too. They're a chronicle of a relationship,

440
00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:12,400
Speaker 1: one of the more complicated and compelling relationships I've ever had.

441
00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:16,440
Speaker 8: You would say, were you able to get the last

442
00:28:16,440 --> 00:28:17,800
Speaker 8: two messages that I sent you.

443
00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:21,199
Speaker 1: I didn't set out to be Cow's friend or to

444
00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:24,000
Speaker 1: spend years trying to get to the bottom of his case.

445
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:28,520
Speaker 1: And still I kept taking Cow's calls.

446
00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:30,480
Speaker 8: For a record game. Because there's a lot of things

447
00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:34,639
Speaker 8: that just don't make more sense. All an of stuff,

448
00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:38,120
Speaker 8: a lot of no black man yang, all that was

449
00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:39,000
Speaker 8: like a property.

450
00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:43,880
Speaker 1: Once Cal got rebbed up about his case, well, the

451
00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:47,760
Speaker 1: talking points spilled out, evidence disappeared, witnesses lines.

452
00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:52,080
Speaker 7: Anybody said that Count did something and they automatically believing that.

453
00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:58,440
Speaker 1: I heard it many times, and I learned to wait

454
00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:01,760
Speaker 1: for him to wind down. But there were other kinds

455
00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:06,280
Speaker 1: of costs. I was just thinking about you, actually, because

456
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:08,000
Speaker 1: I just gone, that's gone.

457
00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:09,360
Speaker 8: I'm a live a long time.

458
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:12,800
Speaker 1: How you doing, I'm hagging it.

459
00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:14,080
Speaker 8: I'm all right.

460
00:29:14,280 --> 00:29:17,920
Speaker 1: How you Col chatted with me about life in prison.

461
00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:23,400
Speaker 9: It's like thirty degrees today.

462
00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:27,840
Speaker 8: The prison is heated, right, it's heated, but no matter what,

463
00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:30,840
Speaker 8: it's always like it's round cold because I guess all

464
00:29:30,840 --> 00:29:33,800
Speaker 8: of the still us around, but it doesn't never get

465
00:29:33,880 --> 00:29:39,400
Speaker 8: to the point where it's just all away totally warm.

466
00:29:39,440 --> 00:29:41,760
Speaker 1: One day, when I had a cold, he offered me

467
00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:43,520
Speaker 1: his recipe for curing colds.

468
00:29:43,720 --> 00:29:46,760
Speaker 9: You know, the little herb or herb mentalistic but like

469
00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:51,600
Speaker 9: the little candy. Yeah yeah, I prefer I precat in

470
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:56,160
Speaker 9: tender tea with some honey.

471
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:04,280
Speaker 1: Cal's life was endlessly Our relationship was warm, friendly, lighthearted.

472
00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:08,160
Speaker 1: At times, we shared things. But there's something I should

473
00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:12,400
Speaker 1: confess I didn't always like Cow. I didn't dislike him,

474
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:16,040
Speaker 1: but I sometimes found him opaque, like he suddenly switched

475
00:30:16,080 --> 00:30:19,680
Speaker 1: gears on me. Maybe it was me, but on important

476
00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:24,560
Speaker 1: matters he sometimes resorted to dull aphorisms. He talked about

477
00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:28,080
Speaker 1: classes half full and burning bridges and lights and ends

478
00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:32,080
Speaker 1: of tunnels. Cow frustrated me at times. I mean, Col,

479
00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:35,760
Speaker 1: if what you're telling me is true, you must be furious.

480
00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:39,960
Speaker 1: I didn't hear fury. Sometimes I didn't know if Cal

481
00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:44,680
Speaker 1: was being entirely genuine with me. But one day Cal

482
00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:47,320
Speaker 1: calls with his own thoughts about our friendship.

483
00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:49,720
Speaker 8: I caught you, did I catch you at the wrong

484
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:50,240
Speaker 8: tom though.

485
00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:53,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I want to spend a few minutes which

486
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:54,320
Speaker 1: you tell.

487
00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:56,960
Speaker 8: Me again what you were just saying about Lamb. Now,

488
00:30:56,960 --> 00:30:59,040
Speaker 8: I'm just saying, it is so good to kind of

489
00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:01,440
Speaker 8: like drop maskle I wasn't true and just be able

490
00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:05,240
Speaker 8: to smile and laugh and be a little free and open,

491
00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:08,680
Speaker 8: you know, and be able to finally talk. That is

492
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:11,880
Speaker 8: something that normal for me, you know.

493
00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:15,040
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, I know that.

494
00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:18,680
Speaker 8: I just can't wait to get in a situation where

495
00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:22,320
Speaker 8: I'm around the people that truly genuinely love me, so

496
00:31:22,360 --> 00:31:27,000
Speaker 8: I could just be me truthfully, you know, and just

497
00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:30,840
Speaker 8: be free, you know, and just just smiling, just sitting down,

498
00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:34,560
Speaker 8: smiling and just have an open conversation and just you know,

499
00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:36,959
Speaker 8: that's so good to do that. I said, I just

500
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:37,840
Speaker 8: wanted to tell you.

501
00:31:43,480 --> 00:31:46,600
Speaker 1: I want to introduce you to someone else. A crucial

502
00:31:46,760 --> 00:31:50,880
Speaker 1: character witness for Cal. My relationship with Cal began with

503
00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:54,880
Speaker 1: this guy, a guy named Email McDowell. Email is a

504
00:31:54,960 --> 00:31:58,480
Speaker 1: round shaved headed Brooklyn guy who was arrested for murder

505
00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:01,600
Speaker 1: when he was seventeen years old and an honor student.

506
00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:04,959
Speaker 1: He was sentenced to twenty five years to life and

507
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:08,920
Speaker 1: eventually engineered his own release. He met Call in prison

508
00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:10,400
Speaker 1: in two thousand and seven.

509
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:13,440
Speaker 11: Yeah, I was seating the legal research class in Auburn

510
00:32:13,520 --> 00:32:18,120
Speaker 11: Correctional facility and Cal used to come down to lower library.

511
00:32:19,320 --> 00:32:23,440
Speaker 1: Email was the prison self taught legal scholar clients. That is,

512
00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:27,560
Speaker 1: other inmates sought them out for legal opinions. He helped

513
00:32:27,560 --> 00:32:31,760
Speaker 1: them write appeals. Email even got one client out of prison.

514
00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:35,600
Speaker 11: And so Col's telling me this whole story based upon

515
00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:39,120
Speaker 11: you know, his emotions and his feelings, and you're smiling,

516
00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:46,160
Speaker 11: and yeah, I'm smiling because in prison, honestly, everybody's innocent. Yeah,

517
00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:51,560
Speaker 11: there's very few prisoners, even after conviction that accept what

518
00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:54,320
Speaker 11: they really did. I mean you could have them on video,

519
00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:57,200
Speaker 11: on a crystal clear video which is high definition, and

520
00:32:57,240 --> 00:32:59,840
Speaker 11: you could see their face looking up, you know, during

521
00:32:59,880 --> 00:33:02,480
Speaker 11: the and but you know I didn't do it.

522
00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:03,160
Speaker 1: I didn't do it.

523
00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:06,360
Speaker 11: So when I was told that, I smiled just like

524
00:33:06,400 --> 00:33:08,560
Speaker 11: you saw me smile just now. And I was like, oh okay.

525
00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:13,040
Speaker 11: But there was some things that just didn't seem right

526
00:33:13,720 --> 00:33:16,560
Speaker 11: about the trial. When he's telling me, I'm just like,

527
00:33:17,560 --> 00:33:19,080
Speaker 11: can I take your transcripts back?

528
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:23,200
Speaker 1: I agreed with him. Now, Cow's try was strange. I'd

529
00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:24,400
Speaker 1: read the transcript too.

530
00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:27,040
Speaker 11: By the time I met Cal, I had to read

531
00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:30,520
Speaker 11: at least and not only murders, but different trials. I

532
00:33:30,520 --> 00:33:34,080
Speaker 11: would say at least ten ten different sets from ten

533
00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:37,200
Speaker 11: different trials in New York City. So you know, I

534
00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:40,680
Speaker 11: was I had seen the practices and what would happen,

535
00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:43,560
Speaker 11: but his case was something.

536
00:33:43,520 --> 00:33:46,600
Speaker 1: Different, different, like really different.

537
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:47,080
Speaker 14: Yeah.

538
00:33:47,760 --> 00:33:51,480
Speaker 11: Yeah, it actually scared me when I read them because

539
00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:56,400
Speaker 11: I remember I was still fighting a wrongful conviction myself,

540
00:33:57,320 --> 00:34:00,840
Speaker 11: and though there was issues, my thing was, hold on,

541
00:34:01,600 --> 00:34:05,960
Speaker 11: if this is satisfactory for conviction, I might.

542
00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:10,680
Speaker 1: Be in for an extremely long haul. To understanding Male's fears,

543
00:34:10,719 --> 00:34:14,040
Speaker 1: we need to better understand the circumstances that led to

544
00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:18,160
Speaker 1: Cow's conviction for double homicide. The Harris Brothers case had

545
00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:21,600
Speaker 1: been hanging around for three years by the time Cow's

546
00:34:21,640 --> 00:34:24,560
Speaker 1: trial got underway, like it was waiting to be as

547
00:34:24,640 --> 00:34:28,680
Speaker 1: signed to someone. Let's return to the night of September tenth,

548
00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:34,640
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two, the night of the murders. Cold cases

549
00:34:34,680 --> 00:34:38,840
Speaker 1: never start out cold, of course, their tragedies plus time

550
00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:43,520
Speaker 1: the clock starts on this one. In the North Bronx,

551
00:34:43,960 --> 00:34:48,040
Speaker 1: a few feet from the corner on Blood, Elijah and

552
00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:52,600
Speaker 1: Salhadin Harris make their fateful decision to stop for a bite.

553
00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:55,879
Speaker 1: The brothers aren't connected to the drug scene. They've been

554
00:34:56,000 --> 00:35:00,399
Speaker 1: arrested a few times for car theft. Neighborhood people are

555
00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:04,120
Speaker 1: hanging around the drug dealers have mostly finished their shifts.

556
00:35:04,440 --> 00:35:06,800
Speaker 1: One sits on a crate in front of the Jamaican

557
00:35:06,840 --> 00:35:10,600
Speaker 1: restaurant on the corner that's Frank's soup bowl. A few

558
00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:13,759
Speaker 1: kids shoot baskets at the hoop Cow installed on a

559
00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:18,480
Speaker 1: phone pole near the park BMW. A couple of teenage girls,

560
00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:21,839
Speaker 1: one of them pregnant chat on a stoop a few

561
00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:26,360
Speaker 1: yards past the basketball hoop. After parking their car, the

562
00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:28,919
Speaker 1: two brothers get food to go from Frank's soup bowl.

563
00:35:29,320 --> 00:35:32,200
Speaker 1: As they leave, one of the brothers wise cracks in

564
00:35:32,239 --> 00:35:35,720
Speaker 1: the direction of the drug dealers. Get that money, kid,

565
00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:42,040
Speaker 1: kid hmm, not exactly respectful. The brothers decide to dine

566
00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:51,320
Speaker 1: in their car. Then they are executed. People witness the crime,

567
00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:54,960
Speaker 1: but no one will cooperate with the government, not when

568
00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:58,160
Speaker 1: the perpetrator could be passing you on the street every day.

569
00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:02,799
Speaker 1: This is another dot on a crime map dotted with

570
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:08,799
Speaker 1: unsolved murders. Then six months later, a rival dealer is

571
00:36:08,840 --> 00:36:11,960
Speaker 1: picked up on drug charges, a Jamaican who runs with

572
00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:16,279
Speaker 1: the shower posse Cal's competitors. This guy, he's going to

573
00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:20,640
Speaker 1: be sent to prison, but wait, maybe he can wrangle

574
00:36:20,680 --> 00:36:26,040
Speaker 1: a deal, maybe even avoid jail. He tells the cops

575
00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:29,880
Speaker 1: he saw the killing of the Harris brothers. Calvin Buari

576
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:34,439
Speaker 1: shot those boys. The cops march cal off in handcuffs.

577
00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:40,120
Speaker 1: Then the witness meets an unfortunate end, as they say

578
00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:44,719
Speaker 1: in the movies. He is murdered in Jamaica. And so

579
00:36:44,880 --> 00:36:49,800
Speaker 1: once again the case goes cold one. Two. Three years

580
00:36:49,880 --> 00:36:53,560
Speaker 1: go by. Cal is still technically under arrest, but he's

581
00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:58,160
Speaker 1: out on bail and back at work distributing crack. The

582
00:36:58,239 --> 00:37:03,000
Speaker 1: case against him seems destined to gold forever, but the detectives,

583
00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:07,440
Speaker 1: they don't forget. The simple fact is we have to

584
00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:08,239
Speaker 1: try to fight back.

585
00:37:08,280 --> 00:37:10,279
Speaker 3: We just can't sit here and let this kind of

586
00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:11,000
Speaker 3: carnage go on.

587
00:37:11,880 --> 00:37:15,640
Speaker 1: Then comes the summer of nineteen ninety five. Violent crime

588
00:37:15,719 --> 00:37:19,960
Speaker 1: is down in Mayor Giuliani City, but not in Col's neighborhood.

589
00:37:20,560 --> 00:37:22,799
Speaker 1: In the span of one month, there are more than

590
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:26,440
Speaker 1: eight shootings in and around the corner on Blood. Col

591
00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:30,560
Speaker 1: is shot and survives, but five others are killed. It's

592
00:37:30,680 --> 00:37:33,480
Speaker 1: all over the news. A turf war has broken out

593
00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:37,399
Speaker 1: for control of the drug trade. Word travels down the chain.

594
00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:41,200
Speaker 1: The local precinct, the forty seventh forms a task force.

595
00:37:41,680 --> 00:37:47,920
Speaker 1: Its target. The cops say it openly, Calvin Buari. Then suddenly,

596
00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:52,640
Speaker 1: six people, including three of Col's drug dealers, march forward

597
00:37:52,680 --> 00:37:56,080
Speaker 1: with one name on their lips. They say cow murder,

598
00:37:56,239 --> 00:37:59,480
Speaker 1: the Harris brothers. The motive for Cal to commit this

599
00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:03,759
Speaker 1: double high homicide is well, it's hard to say, but

600
00:38:03,880 --> 00:38:10,279
Speaker 1: remember super predators. They don't need a motive. In the end,

601
00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:12,880
Speaker 1: the jury had everything it needed. In the case of

602
00:38:12,920 --> 00:38:17,840
Speaker 1: the People versus Calvin Bowari, their verdict guilty is charged.

603
00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:21,880
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety five, a judge sentence counted two terms

604
00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:26,120
Speaker 1: of twenty five years to life to run consecutively, and

605
00:38:26,239 --> 00:38:29,640
Speaker 1: that that was supposed to be the last any citizen

606
00:38:29,719 --> 00:38:34,439
Speaker 1: ever heard of Calvin Bowari, except that did I mention

607
00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:39,160
Speaker 1: Cal is relentless. It will take him twenty years, but

608
00:38:39,320 --> 00:38:42,560
Speaker 1: Cal will find a champion on the outside, a lawyer.

609
00:38:45,360 --> 00:38:47,800
Speaker 4: There are tragic cases with his people who are falsely

610
00:38:47,840 --> 00:38:50,320
Speaker 4: convicted and sent away for a long time. It always

611
00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:52,319
Speaker 4: amazes me they come out and they say, oh, I'm

612
00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:56,640
Speaker 4: not angry, I'm not embittered. They should be absolutely bloody furious.

613
00:38:57,640 --> 00:39:02,400
Speaker 1: Coming up Cal's final character witness Attorney Myron Beldoch for

614
00:39:02,520 --> 00:39:04,440
Speaker 1: the defense Stay with us

615
00:39:12,440 --> 00:39:12,799
Speaker 8: M HM