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Speaker 1: Before we get started with today's episode, I just wanted

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Speaker 1: to give you a heads up that I will begin

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Speaker 1: to post photos from this case on my Instagram account

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Speaker 1: which is at Weinberger Media, including some of the most

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Speaker 1: crucial evidence which sat untested for decades now on to

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Speaker 1: today's episode.

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Speaker 2: Maybe nine months or so after I moved to Florida,

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Speaker 2: there was a series of murders.

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Speaker 1: That's the voice of Mark Lopez, a friend of Billy

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Speaker 1: Halburn's and an ex employee of the Apollo Jim.

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Speaker 2: I didn't know exactly what was going on, if they

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Speaker 2: were selling dope or they were doing shakedowns or whatever

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Speaker 2: they were doing, but suddenly people started to get killed,

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Speaker 2: and a lot of them were two murders at a time.

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Speaker 2: They were either shot in the back of the head

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Speaker 2: roats cut.

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Speaker 1: Mark is talking about the nineteen eighty six murder of

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Speaker 1: Billy Helper and as well as the eighty seven murders

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Speaker 1: of Billy's friend Mitch Hall, Mitch's girlfriend char Linda, and

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Speaker 1: two more fellow members of the Apollo Jimmy high Note

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Speaker 1: and Harry.

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Speaker 2: Collier, and the Common Thread amongst them, where they were

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Speaker 2: members of the Apollo Gym Right and some of these guys,

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Speaker 2: you know, pad ties to gil.

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Speaker 1: Five murders, but even more unanswered questions like why were

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Speaker 1: they killed? Were all of the murders connected, and if so,

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Speaker 1: who was behind them.

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Speaker 3: My brother came to me and he said, Billy Helpern

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Speaker 3: died and I'm going to find out who killed him.

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Speaker 3: And I said, Mitch, don't can involve with those type

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Speaker 3: of people. And then six months later, May sixth is

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Speaker 3: when he was killed.

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Speaker 1: Scott Weinberger, investigator, journalist, and former deputy sheriff. And this

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Speaker 1: is cold blooded. The Apollo Gym murders. Back in May

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Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty seven, local investigators from the Miramar Police

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Speaker 1: Department and the Brier County Sheriff's Office had their hands full.

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Speaker 1: They were sitting on five execution style murders at three

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Speaker 1: different crime scenes, no suspects, and very few leads. What

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Speaker 1: physical evidence found at one of the crime scenes was

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Speaker 1: about to pay some very big dividends, with the potential

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Speaker 1: to break all three cases wide open. Investigators were able

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Speaker 1: to pull a single partial fingerprint from the electrical tape

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Speaker 1: found wrapped around Mitch Hall's wrists, and lo and behold,

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Speaker 1: that print was a match with one of the victims

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Speaker 1: found shot eight days later in Pembroke Pines, Harry Collier.

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Speaker 4: I never knew very Gollier, but apparently his fingerprints were

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Speaker 4: on the tape.

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Speaker 5: They found the Collier's prints on the tape for his girl.

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Speaker 1: Yes, this was huge. The discovery of Collier's partial print

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Speaker 1: at the scene of the earlier murders seemed to be

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Speaker 1: irrefutable proof that Harry Collier was at least one of

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Speaker 1: the people responsible for killing Mitch Hall and his girlfriend

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Speaker 1: Tarltonda Drought.

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Speaker 6: They came to my work, I remember I was working

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Speaker 6: at over there by the airport, Kay Realtive.

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Speaker 1: That's Mitch's sister Kim, who remembers how Broward detectives delivered

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Speaker 1: the news that they were making headway in her brother's case.

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Speaker 6: Were basically saying that because they believe Collier and they

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Speaker 6: believed Jimmy was there and they killed him, and now

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Speaker 6: they're both dead, so we're going to close his murder case.

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Speaker 6: I'm like, okay, you know what am I going to say?

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Speaker 6: They're both dead, But they still believed there was other

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Speaker 6: individuals involved.

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Speaker 1: And given the similarities to the helping crime scene investigators

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Speaker 1: were eager to conclude that Collier was a strong person

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Speaker 1: of interest in Billy's murder, but obviously so many questions remained,

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Speaker 1: like why was Billy killed in the first place, what

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Speaker 1: was the motive? And who killed Jimmy high Note and

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Speaker 1: Harry Collier. Those were the questions that haunted this case

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Speaker 1: and that Danny Smith and I were determined to answer

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Speaker 1: because Detective Smith wasn't willing to let sleeping dogs lie.

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Speaker 1: Someone was behind the execution of five people and they

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Speaker 1: had gone unidentified, unpunished for nearly forty years. It was

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Speaker 1: time to bring that person to justice.

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Speaker 5: International assist Kayla, can I help you?

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Speaker 7: Hey?

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Speaker 5: Kayla is Cassie and by chance, this is Danny Smith

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Speaker 5: from Mirmarpiti.

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Speaker 1: In April of twenty twenty three, Detective Danny Smith reached

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Speaker 1: out to a private DNA lab located in Deerfield Beach, Florida,

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Speaker 1: to request testing on some of the physical evidence that

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Speaker 1: was collected in nineteen eighty six by the original investigators

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Speaker 1: of Billy Halpern's murder. The evidence that seemed to have

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Speaker 1: the most promising potential pieces of black electrical tape that

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Speaker 1: were found around each of Billy's wrists. They had been

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Speaker 1: stored in an evidence locker at the Baro Kenny Sheriff's

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Speaker 1: office for nearly forty years, and before now, they had

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Speaker 1: never been tested for evidence of DNA.

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Speaker 5: The first moment that I realized that we may have

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Speaker 5: something here is when we were able to locate the

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Speaker 5: bindings from Billy Hawpern's wrist, the electrical tape. When that

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Speaker 5: was found in evidence, unmolested, sealed, everything was good to

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Speaker 5: go with that evidence. That was the first turning point

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Speaker 5: for me where I actually said to myself, we have

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Speaker 5: a shot here. This has never been tested before. We

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Speaker 5: have it, we have a lab that's willing to test it,

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Speaker 5: we have the money to test it. Let's get it done.

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Speaker 1: Danny's on the phone with Cassie, a case manager at

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Speaker 1: DNA Labs International.

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Speaker 8: I also wanted to confirm who if.

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Speaker 9: The tape is all kind.

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Speaker 1: Of like jumbled up and you.

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Speaker 2: Know, as pretty much, and isn't okay if we kind

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Speaker 2: of like trying to easily take apart when it happened.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I mean it needs to get tested and

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Speaker 5: you know, let's be honest, it's almost forty years old.

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Speaker 1: We do we have to do when Billy's body was

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Speaker 1: discovered the ribbon of thick black electrical tape wrapped around

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Speaker 1: his wrists were actually torn in two, which should give

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Speaker 1: you an idea just how strong Billy was. The two

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Speaker 1: hundred plus pound bodybuilder had apparently broken free of his

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Speaker 1: makeshift handcuffs in the struggle to save his own life,

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Speaker 1: a struggle that tragically ended with his throat being slashed

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Speaker 1: from ear to ear. But before he died, Billy had

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Speaker 1: also managed to grab a fistful of hair, presumably from

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Speaker 1: one of his attackers here that was recovered from the

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Speaker 1: crime scene and also had the potential to help identify

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Speaker 1: his killer.

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Speaker 5: And regarding the hair, do you want me to go

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Speaker 5: back and get it and drop it off to you guys?

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Speaker 7: Or wait, I.

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Speaker 9: Hold off the world why and longer?

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Speaker 2: Okay, see what we get off of the and then

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Speaker 2: we can kind of go from there.

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Speaker 1: Danny was feeling confident that the DNA from the tape

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Speaker 1: or the hair might finally reveal who is responsible for

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Speaker 1: Billy's murder and answer a question that had dogged law

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Speaker 1: enforcement for years. Was it connected to one of their own?

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Speaker 1: Former Miami Dade Police officer Gil Fernandez.

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Speaker 8: Well, what I've read about it was he was very violent,

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Speaker 8: and he was in internal affairs a lot that he

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Speaker 8: had a reputation for roughing up suspects. They seemed like

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Speaker 8: a very violent individual, and he was like that as

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Speaker 8: a law enforcement officer and continued to.

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Speaker 7: Be that way.

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Speaker 1: That's Cindy and Parrada. Cindy had started her law enforcement

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Speaker 1: career as a police officer before putting herself through law

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Speaker 1: school and eventually joining the statewide Prosecutor's office in Florida.

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Speaker 1: And there may be no one who knows more about

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Speaker 1: gil Fernandez and his career as both a cop and

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Speaker 1: a criminal, which makes sense since she's ultimately the one

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Speaker 1: responsible for putting him in jail, but we'll get to

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Speaker 1: that later. Gilbert Fernandez Junior was born and raised in

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Speaker 1: the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York, which in the

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Speaker 1: fifties and sixties was a rough and tumble neighborhood of

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Speaker 1: working class immigrants, Puerto Rican gangs, and the Irish mob.

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Speaker 1: Street violence was commonplace and often fatal. It's no wonder

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Speaker 1: why his parents moved the family to Florida when gil

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Speaker 1: was just a teenager. The Fernandez family settled in Dade County,

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Speaker 1: just outside of Miami. Gill Junior played a little football

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Speaker 1: in high school, but skipped college instead entering the police

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Speaker 1: academy and joining the Miami Dade Police Department as a

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Speaker 1: patrolman in nineteen seventy six. In photographs, Fernandez looked like

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Speaker 1: the part of a perfect cop, cropped black hair, a

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Speaker 1: chin sculpted from granite, and a six foot two hundred

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Speaker 1: and twenty pound frame that filled out his crisp blue uniform.

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Speaker 1: But over the next six years, Fernandez was dogged by

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Speaker 1: internal affairs and a growing list of brutality complaints. After

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Speaker 1: the race riots broke out in Miami in nineteen eighty

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Speaker 1: after the death of Arthur McDuffie at the hands of

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Speaker 1: white Miami Dade cops, Fernandez was singled out in the

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Speaker 1: press for his brutal tactics. The reporter dubbed Fernandez the

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Speaker 1: meanest cop in Miami. Guys that new Gil from the

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Speaker 1: gym said he reveled in the notoriety. Here's Mark Lopez.

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Speaker 2: When I met Gil, I never got the cop vibe

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Speaker 2: from Gil. Like it almost still is crazy to me

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Speaker 2: to think about it, because I just can't really picture

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Speaker 2: him as a cop in my mind, because when I

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Speaker 2: met Gil. The first impression to me in my mind

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Speaker 2: was that guy is a fucking gangster, right Like, there

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Speaker 2: was no Hey, this guy is law enforcement.

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Speaker 1: But his days in law enforcement were numbered. The brass

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Speaker 1: pulled him from his beat and banished him to the

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Speaker 1: property room. He turned in his badge in nineteen eighty three.

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Speaker 1: After quitting the force, he turned his full attention to

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Speaker 1: bodybuilding and found a new home at Them.

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Speaker 2: I know, Gil didn't have really tons of money at

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Speaker 2: that time. I mean he was driving around like a

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Speaker 2: five or six year old Camaro that the air conditioning

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Speaker 2: didn't work. You know, he was always kind of scraping

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Speaker 2: for money. He started, really the first guy that I

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Speaker 2: ever knew of that started doing personal training, and he

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Speaker 2: was selling steroids as well.

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Speaker 1: The Apollo became his refuge, and within months he had

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Speaker 1: added forty pounds of pure muscle. The steroids helped, but

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Speaker 1: they also made him irritable and short fused. Mark Lopez

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Speaker 1: witnessed Gil's notorious temper firsthand.

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Speaker 2: I'm in the gym working out. Gil was there behind

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Speaker 2: the front desk, and there's a guy in the gym

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Speaker 2: working out, another body builder by the name of Frank.

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Speaker 2: It was a firefighter, but there's some type of verbal

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Speaker 2: beef and all I heard Frank say.

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Speaker 7: Was, well, fuck you, Gil.

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Speaker 2: He says, no fuck me, just no fuck you, and

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Speaker 2: Gil basically picks him up by the seat of the pants,

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Speaker 2: in the back of the sweatshirt and ramrods his head

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Speaker 2: right into the plate glass windows in the front of

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Speaker 2: the gym.

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Speaker 7: And I mean he.

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Speaker 2: Hit his head so hard against the windows that I

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Speaker 2: swear that the concrete slab shook that day when he

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Speaker 2: did that, And like I thought that he killed them,

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Speaker 2: like his next broke. You know, it just he's done,

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Speaker 2: and everybody was just really silent, and when all that

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Speaker 2: was over, everybody just went back to their business and

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Speaker 2: their workout.

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Speaker 1: Gil eventually became a co owner of the apologym with

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Speaker 1: his mentor and former mister Florida, Bert Christie, who was

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Speaker 1: twenty years Gil.

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Speaker 2: Senior, and I think he nurtured that relationship with Gil

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Speaker 2: when Gil was younger and became almost like a father

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Speaker 2: figure at the Gil and you know, they had a

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Speaker 2: very close relationship for a long time.

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Speaker 1: Together. Bert and Gil trained a new crop of young bodybuilders,

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Speaker 1: and their motto, if you're going to be dumb, you

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Speaker 1: better be tough, but eventually their partnership would go far

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Speaker 1: beyond bodybuilding.

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Speaker 8: And that was when Burt Christy came into the picture.

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Speaker 8: He was supposedly the organized crime connection.

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Speaker 1: Christy cut his teeth in racketeering by collecting debts for

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Speaker 1: Joey Flowers Rotano, who ran a gambling ring from a

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Speaker 1: string of flower shops in Browie County. According to one

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Speaker 1: federally protected witness, Christy may have also been responsible for

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Speaker 1: two contract killings in nineteen eighty and nineteen eighty two.

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Speaker 1: By the time he put Gil Fernandez under his wing,

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Speaker 1: he was putting together his own crew, hiring muscle straight

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Speaker 1: from the gym. It included Gil Fernandez and a handful

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Speaker 1: of local bodybuilders like Tommy Felts, Jimmy high Note, and

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Speaker 1: Harry Collier.

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Speaker 2: Gill and Tommy were the muscle, and Bert was basically

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Speaker 2: the guy given direction.

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Speaker 8: I think that Burt trusted Gil but nobody else. So

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Speaker 8: he would go to Gil with potential targets, and then

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Speaker 8: Gil would get Tommy Felts or Collier, whoever it was,

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Speaker 8: to go with him to do the job.

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Speaker 1: The work was simple but brutal. On Bert's direction, they

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Speaker 1: might shoot up a home of a local drug dealer

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Speaker 1: and then return to sell them protection under threat of

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Speaker 1: extreme violence. Another favorite scheme set up phony drug buys

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Speaker 1: with local dealers in order to steal their stash, money

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Speaker 1: or both.

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Speaker 2: They were basically going to guys that Tommy Felts had

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Speaker 2: gone to high school when junior high school with in Hollywood,

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Speaker 2: that were guys now that were.

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Speaker 7: You know, in the drug business.

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Speaker 2: Generally just you know, little crews that banded together that

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Speaker 2: were selling drugs, smuggling drugs.

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Speaker 1: The drugs then flowed out of the Apollo gym with

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Speaker 1: impunity while Bert and Gil scoped out bigger and better scores.

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Speaker 2: And they were doing that to a number of different

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Speaker 2: crews out there from all over the place.

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Speaker 7: So you know, you're going to do that to the.

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Speaker 2: Wrong people and eventually somebody is going to come for you.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty five, Tommy Felts was first to fall

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Speaker 1: victim to a rival's violent retribution.

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Speaker 2: Eventually Felts, you know, did that to the wrong guy,

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Speaker 2: and they rolled up on him at a stop late

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Speaker 2: right at Stirling Road. I got a Sunday afternoon and

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Speaker 2: broad daylight and gunned them down.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty seven, Two more members of their crew,

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Speaker 1: Jimmy Heinot and Harry Collier, were also found dead, this

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Speaker 1: time with bullets to the back of the head. As

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Speaker 1: Mark Lopez remembers it, a rising body count was starting

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Speaker 1: to attract the wrong kind of attention.

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Speaker 2: They started to notice that were, you know, a lot

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Speaker 2: of cop surveillance around the gym's right, And I didn't

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Speaker 2: know what it was initially at the time, and like

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Speaker 2: it could have been anybody, right, because there was one

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Speaker 2: hundred plus guys in the Jim DeLand dope. But then

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Speaker 2: when you start hearing about friends getting called in by

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Speaker 2: BSO and detectives spoking around asking questions, that's when you

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Speaker 2: kind of knew the shit had hit the fan.

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Speaker 1: The BSO would be the brawer of Sheriff's office also

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Speaker 1: sniffing around the Apollo. The FBI.

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Speaker 8: Defense were the ones that started the investigation because there

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Speaker 8: were all these homicides, all these drug ripoffs that were

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Speaker 8: in all different locations. But also I believe part of

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Speaker 8: their interest was because of Bert Christie's organized crime connections,

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Speaker 8: and I think that they were trying to make a

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Speaker 8: reco case against him.

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Speaker 2: At that time, we knew that law enforcement was out

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Speaker 2: there poking around about Gil. They were starting to question

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Speaker 2: people that were close to him, including me, And when

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Speaker 2: it happened, I told Gil about it.

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Speaker 7: I specifically told.

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Speaker 2: Him that BSO was trying to call me in and

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Speaker 2: that I said, listen, I said, I'm.

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Speaker 7: Going to go in.

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Speaker 2: I'm going on record with you now to tell you

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Speaker 2: I'm not saying nothing. I don't know nothing. And I said,

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Speaker 2: one word done, pawkin. I said, I'm gonna come right

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Speaker 2: back to you and tell you exactly what They asked, MA,

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna ta you exactly what I said.

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Speaker 1: Detectives were looking for someone willing to testify against Fernandez

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Speaker 1: and Christy.

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Speaker 2: I said, you guys honestly think that me or anybody

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Speaker 2: else like me is going to cooperate with you to

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Speaker 2: go after Gil Fernandez. I said, you're crazy, Like I'm

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Speaker 2: not that crazy. For one, I said, because if I

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Speaker 2: ever agreed to do something like that, you know my

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Speaker 2: fate is sealed.

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Speaker 1: In other words, at the Apollo Jim, snitches get much

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Speaker 1: more than stitches. They might wind up dead. But as

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Speaker 1: the scrutiny from law enforcement increased, neither Gil nor Bert

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Speaker 1: were above doing a little polishing of their public image.

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Speaker 2: Well almost overnights, not just him, but him and Bert

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Speaker 2: Christie become born again Christians, okay, which is like a

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Speaker 2: black to white moment, right, And to me, I just

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Speaker 2: love from the surface this is a cleanup act, right.

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Speaker 1: But given the litany of their past sins and victims,

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Speaker 1: there was little chance they could outrun their reputations.

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Speaker 7: Bert just couldn't sell that act. He just couldn't, right,

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Speaker 7: He tried to, he couldn't.

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Speaker 1: But according to Mark Gill's act was considerably more convincing.

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Speaker 2: Gil changed considerably and I didn't know if it was

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Speaker 2: an act or if it was genuine. He went off

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Speaker 2: all steroids, you know, so he lost a considerable amount

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Speaker 2: of size and weight.

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Speaker 7: His attitude changed.

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Speaker 2: He started putting pictures of Jesus or religious pictures in

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Speaker 2: the gym. He was going to church every week. And

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Speaker 2: I was again small enough never to ask is this

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Speaker 2: an act?

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Speaker 1: But despite all the suspicions scrolling around him and his

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Speaker 1: potential involvement in multiple unsolved homicides, Jill Fernandez was never arrested,

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Speaker 1: never even brought in for questioning.

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Speaker 2: Do you have to realize something that people were very

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Speaker 2: afraid because you know, if he and he was the

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Speaker 2: one committing these murders. They knew not he was the

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Speaker 2: hardcore gangster, but he was an ex cop and he

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Speaker 2: had friends still on the force, not just in Miami

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Speaker 2: Metro where he was a cop, but you know, Hollywood, Davy,

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Speaker 2: Cooper City, Fort Lauderdale, North Miami Beach.

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Speaker 7: We had cop friends all over.

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Speaker 2: So it was like, well, if you runted a law

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Speaker 2: how do you know that one of his buddies, I'm

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Speaker 2: going to look it back to him and then you're

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Speaker 2: in trouble.

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Speaker 1: But it would only be a matter of time before

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Speaker 1: someone close to Gil would be forced to take that gamble.

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Speaker 1: It would happen. In nineteen ninety, a member of Gill's

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Speaker 1: crew was popped in Alabama and was being held on

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Speaker 1: extortion charges, but rather than face federal time, he said

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Speaker 1: he was ready to make a deal and he had

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Speaker 1: the goods on Gill. He said, remember those three bodies

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Speaker 1: that were found out on Danger Road, Yeah, that was us.

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Speaker 1: Cindy and Parrado always wanted to be in law enforcement,

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Speaker 1: and after graduate school, she spent nine years as a

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Speaker 1: uniformed officer in Tallahassee.

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Speaker 8: This was the early eighties, so there was a lot

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Speaker 8: of resistance with mal law enforcement officers for females to

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Speaker 8: be part of the crew. A lot of them only

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Speaker 8: had high school educations and I had a master's degree,

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Speaker 8: so they didn't like that, and you know, they could

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Speaker 8: have figured out why I was there.

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Speaker 1: But she eventually earned her stripes and her props within

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Speaker 1: the force.

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Speaker 8: I think the first time I got in a fight

359
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Speaker 8: and got punched out and didn't cry or quit or

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Speaker 8: anything else, then I became one of the boys and

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Speaker 8: they accepted me.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty nine, Cindy began working her way through

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Speaker 1: law school, eventually taking a job with the statewide Prosecutor's

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Speaker 1: office in Fort Lauderdale. She first became familiar with the

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Speaker 1: name gil Fernandez in nineteen ninety when she was a

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Speaker 1: brand new prosecutor assigned to a triple homicide case that

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Speaker 1: had gone unsolved for seven years.

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Speaker 8: I worked homicide briefly when I was in Tallahassee, and

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Speaker 8: it was like, well, you know, you were thomis IDEs before,

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Speaker 8: and now you're a lawyer and you were a cop,

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Speaker 8: so we're putting you on this.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty three, three years before Billy Hoppin's murder,

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Speaker 1: the bodies of three men have been discovered on the

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Speaker 1: edge of a canal about ten miles inland from Hollywood Beach.

375
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Speaker 1: It was a stretch of Everglades backcountry that locals dubbed

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Speaker 1: Danger Road.

377
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Speaker 10: Michael White took his entarrain vehicle to Jones Fish Camp

378
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Speaker 10: in the Everglades on a Sunday morning in April of

379
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Speaker 10: nineteen eighty three. He hasn't forgotten what he found that day.

380
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Speaker 11: Oh, we were riding along and we thought it was

381
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Speaker 11: like a store dummy or something, and we stopped and

382
00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:43,840
Speaker 11: got off and looked down to make sure, and there

383
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:47,240
Speaker 11: were three people dead there. I walked down there to

384
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Speaker 11: the closest victim to me and nudged him with my

385
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Speaker 11: foot to see, in fact, if he was dead, And

386
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Speaker 11: how's the positioned. He had his hands time behind his back,

387
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Speaker 11: laying face down.

388
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Speaker 1: The crime scene suggested a professional execution. Three men had

389
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Speaker 1: been bound, blindfolded and shot point blank in the head.

390
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Speaker 1: The victims were identified as twenty six year old Walter Leahy,

391
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Speaker 1: twenty five year old Richard Robinson, and thirty one year

392
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Speaker 1: old Alfred Triingalli. Suspected low level cocaine dealers who had

393
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Speaker 1: all grown up in and around South Florida. At the time,

394
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Speaker 1: Brower County investigators had chalked up the murders to the

395
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Speaker 1: escalating violence surrounding the drug trade ravaging South Florida in

396
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Speaker 1: the early eighties. Their killers could have been Colombian suppliers,

397
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Speaker 1: local mobsters, or just another group of crooks in a

398
00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:54,200
Speaker 1: drug deal gone bad. With no witnesses or leads, their

399
00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:59,720
Speaker 1: cases went unsolved for years, just another triple homicide in

400
00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:05,199
Speaker 1: an never ending drug war. But in nineteen ninety that

401
00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:08,560
Speaker 1: all changed when a detective from the Broward Sheriff's office

402
00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:12,399
Speaker 1: responded to the Fort Lauter office of the FBI to

403
00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:18,040
Speaker 1: hear the proffered statement of a man named Michael Carbone.

404
00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:23,480
Speaker 1: I asked Mark Lopez what he knew about Carbone.

405
00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:27,000
Speaker 2: Michael worked for a local mobster by the name of

406
00:26:27,080 --> 00:26:31,720
Speaker 2: Joey Rotuno, who was a colombo guy. Joey everybody called

407
00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:35,399
Speaker 2: Joey Flowers because he owned flower shops around Hollywood and

408
00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:41,560
Speaker 2: Paramac and Allendale. Typical kind of strong arm mob guy

409
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:47,800
Speaker 2: where they were running you know, shylock business, sportsbook doing extortion,

410
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:51,560
Speaker 2: doing some drug dealing, some of the low level scams

411
00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:52,400
Speaker 2: and stuff like that.

412
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Speaker 1: The stocky, blonde haired Carbone was also a fixture at

413
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Speaker 1: the Apollo Gym.

414
00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:04,800
Speaker 2: Michael was generally mister Shakedown as I used to call him.

415
00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:07,880
Speaker 2: But he was a dope because every time he tried

416
00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:10,960
Speaker 2: to extorte somebody, they ran to the FBI and he'd

417
00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:16,400
Speaker 2: get pinched. He was always in trouble, always was a liability.

418
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:19,480
Speaker 2: He wasn't well liked by anybody.

419
00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:22,800
Speaker 1: As they say in the movies. He also had a

420
00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:28,240
Speaker 1: rap sheet a mile long, including convictions in five separate felonies.

421
00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:34,159
Speaker 8: Well, Michael Carbone got arrested again, so he knew he

422
00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:35,080
Speaker 8: was going to prison.

423
00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:38,160
Speaker 9: So that's when he said, well, I have something.

424
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Speaker 1: Something was an understatement in exchange for immunity. Carbone was

425
00:27:45,359 --> 00:27:49,520
Speaker 1: ready to confess to his role in the Everglades triple slaying,

426
00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:54,399
Speaker 1: a crime he claimed was ordered by Burt Christie and

427
00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:58,920
Speaker 1: carried out by his protege, Gil Fernandez, who in April

428
00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:03,040
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three, when the murders took place, was still

429
00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:10,480
Speaker 1: a uniformed member of the Miami Dade Police Department. According

430
00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:14,560
Speaker 1: to his sworn statement, Carbone had agreed to meet Fernandez

431
00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:18,280
Speaker 1: and Tommy Feltz and a department in Hollywood Beach, where

432
00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:21,520
Speaker 1: Gil had set up a drug buy with a trio

433
00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:25,520
Speaker 1: of local dealers. When Danny Smith got his hands on

434
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:29,320
Speaker 1: Carbone's statement, it read like a scene out of a

435
00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:30,200
Speaker 1: gangster movie.

436
00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:35,119
Speaker 5: The plan that was given by Gil Fernandez was to

437
00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:39,360
Speaker 5: have Carbone waiting or hiding into a nearby bedroom. They

438
00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:43,920
Speaker 5: would show the drugs, and then Fernandez would give Carbone

439
00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:46,880
Speaker 5: the signal he would call to him. Carbone would come

440
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:50,959
Speaker 5: out with his machine gun and essentially take charge of

441
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:54,240
Speaker 5: that room and make sure that nobody leaves or does

442
00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:57,880
Speaker 5: anything that Fernandez doesn't want them to do well.

443
00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:01,680
Speaker 1: Carbone claimed that when he entered the room wielding a

444
00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:05,880
Speaker 1: vintage Tommy gun, he saw three men on their knees

445
00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:11,200
Speaker 1: and Gil wearing latex gloves, holding a chrome plated revolver

446
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:15,360
Speaker 1: in the mouth of one of the victims.

447
00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:21,360
Speaker 8: And then Carbone comes out of the other room with

448
00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:26,560
Speaker 8: the Tommy gun and they all get gagged and blindfolded.

449
00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:30,560
Speaker 5: They were there for quite some time, sitting there, blindfolded,

450
00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:35,800
Speaker 5: bound with some kind of rope and held at gunpoint.

451
00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:42,280
Speaker 5: They were contained and isolated, and they were essentially neutralized.

452
00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:48,120
Speaker 1: Gil's crew would eventually relieve their victims of a cooler

453
00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:52,760
Speaker 1: filled with eight kilos of cocaine worth close to one

454
00:29:52,800 --> 00:30:00,920
Speaker 1: million dollars. But Fernandez had another much darker plan. This

455
00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:05,840
Speaker 1: is actual audio from Michael Carbones's later court testimony.

456
00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:08,920
Speaker 12: And I just feel that it's more than just going

457
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:13,520
Speaker 12: to be a rip off right here and then. And then,

458
00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:15,440
Speaker 12: you know, they were yelling out that they were going

459
00:30:15,520 --> 00:30:18,960
Speaker 12: to see the boss and different things like that. But

460
00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:23,720
Speaker 12: I just knew deep down inside that there was more

461
00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:24,720
Speaker 12: than this.

462
00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:32,840
Speaker 1: The men were transported to Carbones car. Then they drove

463
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:36,480
Speaker 1: them in west out Highway twenty seven and pulled off

464
00:30:36,520 --> 00:30:42,320
Speaker 1: the pavement just past a ramshackle tavern called Jones's Fish Camp.

465
00:30:44,160 --> 00:30:47,800
Speaker 1: When he cut the engine in headlights, they were engulfed

466
00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:51,840
Speaker 1: in the impenetrable darkness of the Florida Everglades.

467
00:30:54,200 --> 00:31:00,640
Speaker 5: The Everglades are a place that's in addition to all

468
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:05,800
Speaker 5: the rumors and speculation and almost infamy of that area

469
00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:10,320
Speaker 5: where quote unquote bodies have been left and never found

470
00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:16,720
Speaker 5: over years and years, the Everglades is desolate, not very

471
00:31:16,720 --> 00:31:21,320
Speaker 5: well lit, and the only time that anyone goes out

472
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:25,800
Speaker 5: there is either for hunting and vision or for something nefarious.

473
00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:30,480
Speaker 1: In his statement and in court, Carbone went on to

474
00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:34,239
Speaker 1: describe how Gil removed each of the men from the

475
00:31:34,280 --> 00:31:37,400
Speaker 1: car and made them kneel at the edge of the

476
00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:38,360
Speaker 1: Miami Canal.

477
00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:41,400
Speaker 12: All I saw was him getting in the water with

478
00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:44,640
Speaker 12: the individual, told the individual to kneel, and I heard

479
00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:49,680
Speaker 12: a gunshot and then I heard the water splash.

480
00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:52,840
Speaker 8: So you can imagine how terrified they must have been

481
00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:56,480
Speaker 8: when they're telling you to walk down this shirt road

482
00:31:56,600 --> 00:31:59,400
Speaker 8: into the water, and especially once you hear the first

483
00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:01,719
Speaker 8: person get shot and dropped into the water. You know

484
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:04,800
Speaker 8: what's coming, You're next. It's not what You're never going

485
00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:08,280
Speaker 8: to walk away. So the terror that they must have

486
00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:11,840
Speaker 8: lived through from the time they were tied up until

487
00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:14,520
Speaker 8: the time they were actually murdered, it's actually it's hard

488
00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:15,120
Speaker 8: to conceive.

489
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:21,600
Speaker 1: Ultimately, Gil fires twice more, killing the other two men

490
00:32:21,640 --> 00:32:25,600
Speaker 1: with bullets to the back of their heads.

491
00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:28,000
Speaker 12: There's no doubt in my mind who shot the m

492
00:32:28,080 --> 00:32:29,840
Speaker 12: three individuals there was Gil Fernandez.

493
00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:36,760
Speaker 1: Carbone also clearly recalled what Fernandez said next.

494
00:32:38,600 --> 00:32:40,240
Speaker 9: Says, if you ever opened your mouth, he says, I

495
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:41,200
Speaker 9: will kill your family.

496
00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:44,040
Speaker 12: He says your kids, and he says, I o'kay, how far

497
00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:46,280
Speaker 12: you go to China or whatever? He was going to

498
00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:47,320
Speaker 12: kill my family.

499
00:32:48,760 --> 00:32:51,520
Speaker 8: You get the feeling that he was supposed to be

500
00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:56,520
Speaker 8: killed that night, because Gil was so frantic, telling him,

501
00:32:56,760 --> 00:32:58,160
Speaker 8: if you ever say anything, I'm going to kill you,

502
00:32:58,200 --> 00:32:59,320
Speaker 8: I'm going to kill your family.

503
00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:03,280
Speaker 9: I'm coming, I'll come for you. And it just sounded like.

504
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:06,880
Speaker 8: Carbone probably was supposed to be taken out too, but

505
00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:07,880
Speaker 8: it didn't happen.

506
00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:14,760
Speaker 1: Ultimately, Carbone netted fifty thousand dollars for his cut of

507
00:33:14,840 --> 00:33:19,840
Speaker 1: the robbery. Bill received one hundred and fifty thousand, and

508
00:33:19,880 --> 00:33:23,600
Speaker 1: the rest of the loot trickles upstream to Burt Christy

509
00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:25,200
Speaker 1: and beyond.

510
00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:28,280
Speaker 8: I know it was a lot of money for all

511
00:33:28,320 --> 00:33:33,560
Speaker 8: of them, And of course they were instructed, according to Carbone,

512
00:33:33,600 --> 00:33:38,720
Speaker 8: to not go and buy anything fancy, do anything silly

513
00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:41,920
Speaker 8: that would bring law enforcement attention, and I think everybody

514
00:33:41,960 --> 00:33:45,320
Speaker 8: did just the opposite. These guys are going out buying

515
00:33:45,560 --> 00:33:49,560
Speaker 8: new cars and doing silly things, which of course gets

516
00:33:49,600 --> 00:33:50,800
Speaker 8: law enforcement's attention.

517
00:33:52,840 --> 00:33:56,520
Speaker 1: But incredibly, Bill and his Apollo crew were not only

518
00:33:56,560 --> 00:34:00,520
Speaker 1: able to avoid arrest, we'll continue to operate their criminal

519
00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:06,880
Speaker 1: enterprise for years with little to no interference from the police.

520
00:34:07,160 --> 00:34:09,759
Speaker 1: But as some members of the crew would find out

521
00:34:10,200 --> 00:34:12,719
Speaker 1: the police were not the only threat they had to

522
00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:18,560
Speaker 1: worry about. Two years after the danger Road murders, Tommy

523
00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:22,400
Speaker 1: Felts would be gunned down in his car.

524
00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:28,240
Speaker 8: Originally, the theory was that Gil had killed Tommy Felts

525
00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:30,400
Speaker 8: because Tommy was there at the triple.

526
00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:35,280
Speaker 1: Over the next year, Jimmy high Note and Harry Collier

527
00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:40,120
Speaker 1: would also meet their fate. Was guild cleaning house or

528
00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:43,680
Speaker 1: was it payback from his growing list of dangerous enemies.

529
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:49,360
Speaker 1: Either way, the chickens were certainly coming home to roost.

530
00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:55,359
Speaker 8: The basic premise was that his mo was to rip

531
00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:59,160
Speaker 8: off drug dealers and then kill them, and then kill

532
00:34:59,200 --> 00:35:01,279
Speaker 8: whoever was with him when he did it, so there

533
00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:06,239
Speaker 8: would never be any witnesses, and that's why Michael Carbone

534
00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:10,000
Speaker 8: the fact that he was still alive was a lucky

535
00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:13,240
Speaker 8: thing for us. But everybody else that he was involved

536
00:35:13,239 --> 00:35:14,880
Speaker 8: with was murdered.

537
00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:19,239
Speaker 1: And when Carbone turned state's witness, it seemed that Gil

538
00:35:19,239 --> 00:35:25,000
Speaker 1: Fernandez and Burt Christie might finally face the music. But

539
00:35:25,200 --> 00:35:29,840
Speaker 1: one thing remained uncertain. As law enforcement untangled the bloody

540
00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:35,000
Speaker 1: web of ripoffs, shakedowns, and murder, would they ever uncover

541
00:35:35,120 --> 00:35:39,520
Speaker 1: the evidence necessary to connect the murder of Billy Halpering

542
00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:44,000
Speaker 1: or was there someone out there determined to keep it

543
00:35:44,040 --> 00:36:00,720
Speaker 1: buried deep behind the thin blue line. According to Cindi

544
00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:04,560
Speaker 1: and Perrado, the young prosecutor assigned to the case, Michael

545
00:36:04,560 --> 00:36:10,399
Speaker 1: Carbone's cooperation against Gil Fernandez and Bert Christi was never guaranteed.

546
00:36:11,239 --> 00:36:13,600
Speaker 8: I think he was afraid before of Gil, that Gil

547
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:17,200
Speaker 8: would kill him if he ever gave him up. Everybody

548
00:36:17,239 --> 00:36:21,600
Speaker 8: was afraid, so Carbone was reluctant. But then when he

549
00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:25,840
Speaker 8: was looking at significant time and this was federal time,

550
00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:28,759
Speaker 8: That's how he ended up becoming a witness for the

551
00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:30,399
Speaker 8: statewide prosecutor.

552
00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:35,719
Speaker 1: Another real risk someone tipping off their suspects and Fernandez

553
00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:41,719
Speaker 1: and Christie going on the run incredibly. Mark Lopez discussed

554
00:36:41,719 --> 00:36:45,240
Speaker 1: this possibility with Fernandez himself.

555
00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:48,240
Speaker 2: And I told him more than a couple of times,

556
00:36:48,360 --> 00:36:51,880
Speaker 2: But I said, Gil, you know is how this is

557
00:36:51,920 --> 00:36:54,400
Speaker 2: going to end, right, Like, why don't you just grown

558
00:36:54,960 --> 00:36:58,000
Speaker 2: like going to lamp And I just think that he

559
00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:00,000
Speaker 2: wasn't going to do that, right And his wife was

560
00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:02,640
Speaker 2: pregnant by the time with their second kid, and he

561
00:37:02,760 --> 00:37:04,799
Speaker 2: was like, well, he didn't say this to me, but

562
00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:06,520
Speaker 2: I just thought he had the attitude like, if this

563
00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:07,920
Speaker 2: is gonna come, I'm going to take it on the

564
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:09,880
Speaker 2: chin and I'm going to do what I can do.

565
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:12,600
Speaker 2: But I don't think he ever had any intentions in

566
00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:13,239
Speaker 2: trying to run.

567
00:37:14,680 --> 00:37:17,200
Speaker 8: Law enforcement was snooping around at the gym. They were

568
00:37:17,200 --> 00:37:20,480
Speaker 8: going to Apollo. They were talking to people that he knew,

569
00:37:21,360 --> 00:37:25,600
Speaker 8: and I think Gil definitely knew, because that was the

570
00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:27,799
Speaker 8: theory is that's why he left the police department, that

571
00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:30,440
Speaker 8: he knew that it was just a matter of time,

572
00:37:30,880 --> 00:37:32,680
Speaker 8: and especially once we had carbone.

573
00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:41,120
Speaker 1: Finally, in July of nineteen ninety, law enforcement made their move.

574
00:37:42,239 --> 00:37:44,320
Speaker 2: We didn't know exactly when it was coming, but we

575
00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:47,120
Speaker 2: knew it was coming. They knew he left early in

576
00:37:47,120 --> 00:37:49,320
Speaker 2: the morning to go to the Apollo to open a gym.

577
00:37:49,680 --> 00:37:52,080
Speaker 2: He would get there at five to work out. So

578
00:37:52,239 --> 00:37:55,000
Speaker 2: I think, to my understanding, that they called the house

579
00:37:55,080 --> 00:37:58,359
Speaker 2: right at like four o'clock or four thirty, and he

580
00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:02,000
Speaker 2: entered the phone, they hung up. He was an ex cop, right,

581
00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:04,240
Speaker 2: He's like, yeah, that's the all the strick in the book.

582
00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:06,200
Speaker 2: They're trying to see if I'm here. He gets in

583
00:38:06,239 --> 00:38:08,480
Speaker 2: this car driver to the gym and they pull him

584
00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:09,759
Speaker 2: over on the road on the way to the gym,

585
00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:11,040
Speaker 2: and they take him down right there.

586
00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:15,160
Speaker 1: Thirty seven year old Gil Fernandez and fifty seven year

587
00:38:15,160 --> 00:38:18,719
Speaker 1: old Bert Christie were both arrested and charged with three

588
00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:24,359
Speaker 1: counts of first degree murder. Before their trial, each man

589
00:38:24,600 --> 00:38:27,600
Speaker 1: was offered a chance to avoid the maximum penalty on

590
00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:31,680
Speaker 1: the law by testifying against their alleged accomplice.

591
00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:36,680
Speaker 8: I believe they were both offered life to cooperate against

592
00:38:36,719 --> 00:38:37,680
Speaker 8: the other one.

593
00:38:38,080 --> 00:38:40,600
Speaker 9: So Christy was offered.

594
00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:44,280
Speaker 8: Life to testify and skill and Gil was offered life

595
00:38:44,280 --> 00:38:49,000
Speaker 8: to testify against Christie, but they both rejected it, which

596
00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:55,640
Speaker 8: is pretty normal for organized crime types the wise guy mentality.

597
00:38:58,960 --> 00:39:01,880
Speaker 1: Both men would stand trial for the three homicides in

598
00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:05,560
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three, but there was also pressure to hang

599
00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:10,320
Speaker 1: more charges on Fernandez and Christy for their suspected involvement

600
00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:14,240
Speaker 1: in many other crimes, including other murders.

601
00:39:16,480 --> 00:39:21,080
Speaker 8: There was talk about if we had enough information to

602
00:39:21,160 --> 00:39:24,200
Speaker 8: try to do a Williams rule when you have similar

603
00:39:25,520 --> 00:39:27,719
Speaker 8: type crimes, that you can bring evidence of the other

604
00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:31,320
Speaker 8: crimes in to prove the crime that you're trying.

605
00:39:32,560 --> 00:39:36,319
Speaker 1: Even with several unsolved murders on the books, that strategy

606
00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:38,200
Speaker 1: carried significant risk.

607
00:39:39,239 --> 00:39:44,360
Speaker 8: In Florida, almost every case that prosecutes used Williams rule evidence,

608
00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:47,719
Speaker 8: it seems to get reversed because it's just cumulative and

609
00:39:47,800 --> 00:39:49,960
Speaker 8: kind of overwhelming for the jury. You're looking at this

610
00:39:50,040 --> 00:39:52,799
Speaker 8: triple homicide, but now you're going to talk about five

611
00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:56,200
Speaker 8: other homicides or how many other homicides that they allegedly

612
00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:58,239
Speaker 8: occurred that you don't have enough to charge them.

613
00:39:59,520 --> 00:40:03,360
Speaker 1: Charging Christine Fernandez in a federal reco case could have

614
00:40:03,560 --> 00:40:09,640
Speaker 1: also allowed prosecutors to include other past homicides, possibly even

615
00:40:09,640 --> 00:40:13,480
Speaker 1: the murders of Apollo Jim members, Jimmy high Note and

616
00:40:13,560 --> 00:40:17,799
Speaker 1: Harry Collier, and if the evidence led them there, Mitch

617
00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:19,440
Speaker 1: Hall and Billy Halpern.

618
00:40:21,719 --> 00:40:24,799
Speaker 8: I had all those reports about all the different homicides

619
00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:28,480
Speaker 8: and all the different players, so I was definitely familiar

620
00:40:28,520 --> 00:40:31,120
Speaker 8: with it all. But it ended up being the focus

621
00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:33,239
Speaker 8: on the triple, and the judge was very clear that

622
00:40:33,280 --> 00:40:34,000
Speaker 8: we couldn't.

623
00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:34,960
Speaker 9: Talk about anything else.

624
00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:38,759
Speaker 8: But there just wasn't enough evidence in other cases at

625
00:40:38,760 --> 00:40:39,320
Speaker 8: the time.

626
00:40:40,680 --> 00:40:44,440
Speaker 1: CHRISTI and Fernandez's trial would be limited to the Danger

627
00:40:44,520 --> 00:40:45,320
Speaker 1: Road murders.

628
00:40:48,120 --> 00:40:51,200
Speaker 2: I never saw him post arrests. I was given in

629
00:40:51,239 --> 00:40:54,440
Speaker 2: strict instructions from my father, do not go to County

630
00:40:54,440 --> 00:40:55,280
Speaker 2: to see him.

631
00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:57,360
Speaker 7: Do not go to trial.

632
00:40:57,400 --> 00:40:59,040
Speaker 2: When he goes to trial, do not go to trial

633
00:40:59,120 --> 00:41:01,760
Speaker 2: and go in the courtroom, stay away from the trial.

634
00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:07,719
Speaker 1: With the brutal details of the triple homicide and they're

635
00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:12,520
Speaker 1: alleged ties to organized crime, the trial did attract a

636
00:41:12,600 --> 00:41:16,239
Speaker 1: considerable amount of attention from the press.

637
00:41:17,320 --> 00:41:20,440
Speaker 10: Today, a Gilbert Fernandez, the ex com sits in court

638
00:41:20,560 --> 00:41:23,919
Speaker 10: charged with killing the three men White found eight years ago.

639
00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:27,960
Speaker 10: Prosecutors say Fernandez tied the victim's hands and shot them

640
00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:30,839
Speaker 10: in the head. Investigators say the triple murder was the

641
00:41:30,920 --> 00:41:34,040
Speaker 10: end result of a million dollar drug ripoff. The alleged

642
00:41:34,120 --> 00:41:36,720
Speaker 10: mastermind is co defendant Hubert Christie.

643
00:41:38,320 --> 00:41:41,840
Speaker 1: The trial's high profile put not a small amount of

644
00:41:41,840 --> 00:41:44,640
Speaker 1: pressure on the young state prosecutor.

645
00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:48,000
Speaker 8: I don't know if it was because it was such

646
00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:49,320
Speaker 8: a high profile case.

647
00:41:49,360 --> 00:41:50,600
Speaker 9: It's a triple homicide.

648
00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:56,239
Speaker 8: You've got every newspaper, every camera on you twenty four

649
00:41:56,280 --> 00:41:59,160
Speaker 8: to seven, so it can definitely make or break somebody's career,

650
00:41:59,640 --> 00:42:02,080
Speaker 8: to your years out of law school doing a triple homicide,

651
00:42:02,120 --> 00:42:06,120
Speaker 8: death penalty case, doing the opening statement, So it was

652
00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:07,720
Speaker 8: very intimidating.

653
00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:14,360
Speaker 1: Given the defendant's reputations for violence, and retribution against those

654
00:42:14,719 --> 00:42:18,880
Speaker 1: that betray them. There was also considerable concern about the

655
00:42:18,880 --> 00:42:21,080
Speaker 1: safety of their star witness.

656
00:42:22,480 --> 00:42:25,600
Speaker 10: Carbone is the state's star witness, and he's expected to

657
00:42:25,640 --> 00:42:29,320
Speaker 10: take the stand later this week. Carbone's testimony against Gilbert

658
00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:32,200
Speaker 10: Fernandez and Hubert Christie will keep him from going to

659
00:42:32,280 --> 00:42:33,880
Speaker 10: jail on unrelated charges.

660
00:42:35,160 --> 00:42:38,120
Speaker 8: We had a battle at the judge because we wanted

661
00:42:38,680 --> 00:42:42,520
Speaker 8: the marshals to be in the courtroom when Carbone was testifying,

662
00:42:42,600 --> 00:42:46,480
Speaker 8: and he didn't want them there. The chances of somebody

663
00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:49,960
Speaker 8: taking somebody out in court with all the security that

664
00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:53,080
Speaker 8: we had for that child would be hard to imagine,

665
00:42:53,080 --> 00:42:55,240
Speaker 8: but you never know what's going to happen.

666
00:42:56,719 --> 00:43:00,200
Speaker 1: As the trial got going, the challenges for the prosecution

667
00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:02,240
Speaker 1: became readily apparent.

668
00:43:03,560 --> 00:43:07,239
Speaker 8: There were no angels in this trial because even the

669
00:43:07,360 --> 00:43:12,560
Speaker 8: victims were drug dealers, but certainly no one deserves what

670
00:43:12,640 --> 00:43:13,880
Speaker 8: happened to them.

671
00:43:14,280 --> 00:43:17,520
Speaker 9: Fernandez took his victim, who was gagged.

672
00:43:17,200 --> 00:43:21,120
Speaker 8: Blindfolded, his hands tied behind his back, to the bank

673
00:43:21,160 --> 00:43:24,279
Speaker 8: of the canal. He instructed him to kneel down, and

674
00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:27,799
Speaker 8: with the coldness of an executioner, shot him twice in

675
00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:29,640
Speaker 8: the head and killed him.

676
00:43:30,520 --> 00:43:35,240
Speaker 1: Prosecutors painted a compelling picture of events, but they also

677
00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:39,160
Speaker 1: had no murder weapon, no forensic evidence tying the accused

678
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:43,000
Speaker 1: to the crime scene, and no one able or willing

679
00:43:43,480 --> 00:43:45,600
Speaker 1: to corroborate Carbone's story.

680
00:43:47,480 --> 00:43:51,279
Speaker 8: One big concern was is jury going to believe Carbone?

681
00:43:52,120 --> 00:43:55,880
Speaker 8: Obviously for him to be able to hold three people

682
00:43:56,440 --> 00:44:00,759
Speaker 8: at gunpoint for multiple hours and be there for a

683
00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:03,759
Speaker 8: triple homicide and be involved in other things, obviously he

684
00:44:03,840 --> 00:44:08,560
Speaker 8: wasn't a good guy. We're out there on sketchy grounds

685
00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:11,359
Speaker 8: relying on his testimony. I mean, if the jury didn't

686
00:44:11,400 --> 00:44:14,200
Speaker 8: believe him, I think, you know, we would have been

687
00:44:14,480 --> 00:44:16,640
Speaker 8: in big trouble. You know, it's not like we had

688
00:44:17,080 --> 00:44:20,000
Speaker 8: fingerprints or DNA or something that you go to the

689
00:44:20,080 --> 00:44:23,200
Speaker 8: jury and say, absolutely, this is what happens.

690
00:44:23,239 --> 00:44:26,680
Speaker 9: So it's Carbone was basically the case.

691
00:44:28,880 --> 00:44:33,160
Speaker 1: Neither Christi or Fernandez testified in their own defense, much

692
00:44:33,280 --> 00:44:36,200
Speaker 1: to the dismay of the press and the trial audience,

693
00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:39,520
Speaker 1: many of whom were giving the benefit of doubt to

694
00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:43,440
Speaker 1: the Bible toting X cop and former mister Florida.

695
00:44:46,360 --> 00:44:48,319
Speaker 2: There are people in there that were now coming in

696
00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:51,640
Speaker 2: that only new Gill is born again Christian Gil, right,

697
00:44:51,960 --> 00:44:55,200
Speaker 2: So these are people that are like, how I can't

698
00:44:55,200 --> 00:44:57,839
Speaker 2: believe this? You know, I can't. He's such a good

699
00:44:57,880 --> 00:45:01,440
Speaker 2: guy and so, you know, a sweetheart. I'm thinking I

700
00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:03,960
Speaker 2: might go, well, you know, he might be a sweetheart

701
00:45:04,000 --> 00:45:05,600
Speaker 2: in the hell. But believe me, a year ago, who

702
00:45:05,600 --> 00:45:06,560
Speaker 2: you wouldn't have had.

703
00:45:07,920 --> 00:45:13,680
Speaker 1: Fernandez and Christie sat there stoically as Carbone offered testimony

704
00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:16,799
Speaker 1: that could put them both in the electric chair.

705
00:45:18,960 --> 00:45:22,360
Speaker 10: Carbone, who's under the Federal Witness Protection Program, told the

706
00:45:22,440 --> 00:45:24,960
Speaker 10: jury he was hired as a surveillance man to help

707
00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:27,879
Speaker 10: in the drug scam. Since coming forward, Carbone has told

708
00:45:27,880 --> 00:45:31,000
Speaker 10: his story half a dozen times. Each time details of

709
00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:32,280
Speaker 10: his testimony changed.

710
00:45:34,200 --> 00:45:37,240
Speaker 8: The problem with Carbone was he had given a statement

711
00:45:37,280 --> 00:45:40,680
Speaker 8: to the Feds, he'd given a statement to the grand jury.

712
00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:42,239
Speaker 9: He had given a deposition.

713
00:45:43,040 --> 00:45:45,680
Speaker 8: So again, as you know from being a law enforcement officer,

714
00:45:45,680 --> 00:45:49,680
Speaker 8: when you get a person on the witness stand and

715
00:45:49,719 --> 00:45:53,120
Speaker 8: their subjects to cross examination, and now you've got four

716
00:45:53,239 --> 00:45:55,839
Speaker 8: or five different statements and you can make a big

717
00:45:55,880 --> 00:46:01,920
Speaker 8: deal out of small inconsistencies, it would be hard for

718
00:46:01,960 --> 00:46:04,920
Speaker 8: me to fathom the jury not believing he was there.

719
00:46:05,360 --> 00:46:07,960
Speaker 9: No one knew the details like he did. I mean,

720
00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:09,839
Speaker 9: you knew that these people were ripped off. You knew

721
00:46:09,840 --> 00:46:10,520
Speaker 9: they were murdered.

722
00:46:10,600 --> 00:46:13,960
Speaker 8: You suspected Gil and Bert were involved, because that's how

723
00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:19,759
Speaker 8: they operated. And Carbone there, you just couldn't make up

724
00:46:19,840 --> 00:46:21,839
Speaker 8: all those details that he had about it.

725
00:46:26,440 --> 00:46:29,960
Speaker 1: His story was also bolstered by the testimony of his wife,

726
00:46:30,280 --> 00:46:33,680
Speaker 1: who also took the stand to say that Carbone had

727
00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:36,880
Speaker 1: confessed to witnessing the triple murder.

728
00:46:38,520 --> 00:46:41,040
Speaker 13: He told me that they got into the car, and

729
00:46:41,080 --> 00:46:44,600
Speaker 13: that they took them out to some place somewhere out

730
00:46:44,719 --> 00:46:51,120
Speaker 13: west by some water, and that they got out of

731
00:46:51,160 --> 00:46:55,959
Speaker 13: the car, and that Gil took the one man into

732
00:46:56,000 --> 00:47:00,640
Speaker 13: the water and then he shot him.

733
00:47:01,600 --> 00:47:05,799
Speaker 1: The defense rested its case on one simple premise that

734
00:47:05,840 --> 00:47:09,680
Speaker 1: the testimony of a career criminal purchased with a promise

735
00:47:09,719 --> 00:47:13,360
Speaker 1: of immunity wasn't worth the paper it was written on.

736
00:47:15,040 --> 00:47:17,960
Speaker 8: They didn't put on a real I mean, it was

737
00:47:18,000 --> 00:47:20,120
Speaker 8: mostly just a tear apart our case, and be like,

738
00:47:20,160 --> 00:47:22,480
Speaker 8: we'd improve it beyond a reasonable doubt, And how can

739
00:47:22,520 --> 00:47:23,640
Speaker 8: you believe Carbone?

740
00:47:23,680 --> 00:47:25,440
Speaker 9: And he's getting this sweet deal.

741
00:47:25,520 --> 00:47:28,840
Speaker 8: He'll say whatever they want him to say.

742
00:47:29,000 --> 00:47:30,960
Speaker 1: Now, there are many other lines that you'll find out,

743
00:47:31,040 --> 00:47:31,520
Speaker 1: he says.

744
00:47:31,560 --> 00:47:35,080
Speaker 2: The law enforcement on other cases, You're going to find.

745
00:47:34,880 --> 00:47:38,600
Speaker 9: Out that he's a five time convicted.

746
00:47:38,120 --> 00:47:44,600
Speaker 1: Felt Mark Lopez, the former Apollo employee, had no love

747
00:47:44,840 --> 00:47:49,520
Speaker 1: for Michael Carbone, but he thought relying solely on Carbone's

748
00:47:49,520 --> 00:47:54,480
Speaker 1: testimony made the state's case against his former boss flimsy

749
00:47:54,640 --> 00:47:55,240
Speaker 1: at best.

750
00:47:56,560 --> 00:47:59,759
Speaker 2: Look, he was a three time loser basing fifteen to

751
00:47:59,800 --> 00:48:02,480
Speaker 2: life if this third extortion beef, and he would have

752
00:48:02,480 --> 00:48:03,760
Speaker 2: gave up his own mother.

753
00:48:04,120 --> 00:48:05,879
Speaker 7: To walk right.

754
00:48:06,040 --> 00:48:07,920
Speaker 2: So I think that they thought that John was going

755
00:48:07,960 --> 00:48:09,920
Speaker 2: to be able to break Carbone down on the stand,

756
00:48:10,680 --> 00:48:13,080
Speaker 2: and that the jury would see that and think that

757
00:48:13,160 --> 00:48:16,160
Speaker 2: he was allying a three time loser scumbag trying to

758
00:48:16,200 --> 00:48:17,600
Speaker 2: save his own ass, which he was.

759
00:48:19,960 --> 00:48:22,799
Speaker 1: It would be up to the jury to decide who

760
00:48:22,880 --> 00:48:23,360
Speaker 1: to trust.

761
00:48:26,200 --> 00:48:29,239
Speaker 7: The highly publicized murder trial of a former Metro Dad

762
00:48:29,280 --> 00:48:31,800
Speaker 7: police officer and his business partner is in the hands

763
00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:33,360
Speaker 7: of a brower jury at this hour.

764
00:48:33,560 --> 00:48:35,840
Speaker 2: The men are accused of killing three drug dealers in

765
00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:36,560
Speaker 2: the Everglades.

766
00:48:38,640 --> 00:48:44,040
Speaker 8: Usually in a criminal case, the longer the jury's out,

767
00:48:44,120 --> 00:48:47,359
Speaker 8: it's usually better for the defense. So when they were

768
00:48:47,400 --> 00:48:52,880
Speaker 8: coming back with questions about different degrees of murder and

769
00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:56,080
Speaker 8: everything else, we were believing we were sweating it out

770
00:48:56,239 --> 00:48:58,640
Speaker 8: that they were going to come back with a lesser

771
00:48:58,920 --> 00:49:01,040
Speaker 8: or do something else, or that they were going to

772
00:49:01,480 --> 00:49:02,320
Speaker 8: be a hung jury.

773
00:49:04,239 --> 00:49:08,280
Speaker 1: Instead, the jury found both men guilty.

774
00:49:09,320 --> 00:49:12,560
Speaker 14: As to the defendant Gilbert Fernandez, as to count one

775
00:49:12,600 --> 00:49:15,560
Speaker 14: of the indictment, the defendant is guilty of first degree

776
00:49:15,640 --> 00:49:19,759
Speaker 14: murder without a firearm. To defendant Hubert Christie, as to

777
00:49:19,800 --> 00:49:22,279
Speaker 14: count one of the indictment, the defendant is guilty of

778
00:49:22,280 --> 00:49:23,800
Speaker 14: first felony murder.

779
00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:28,680
Speaker 1: Eight years after the triple homicide on Danger Road, Fernandez

780
00:49:28,719 --> 00:49:32,560
Speaker 1: and Christy were convicted of three counts of first degree

781
00:49:32,640 --> 00:49:35,640
Speaker 1: murder in the commission of a felony and were handed

782
00:49:35,680 --> 00:49:37,800
Speaker 1: down heavy sentences.

783
00:49:38,680 --> 00:49:45,400
Speaker 8: Judge Tyson gave them consecutive life sentences, so there's no

784
00:49:46,520 --> 00:49:48,680
Speaker 8: chance of him getting out, which was the idea.

785
00:49:50,520 --> 00:49:53,120
Speaker 2: I was a little surprised, to be honest with you, because,

786
00:49:53,719 --> 00:49:57,560
Speaker 2: like I said, I knew that you know beyond character witnesses,

787
00:49:58,480 --> 00:50:00,799
Speaker 2: So I thought, wow, man, you can they can send

788
00:50:00,840 --> 00:50:05,440
Speaker 2: you away for triple life on one guy's testimony like

789
00:50:05,560 --> 00:50:05,880
Speaker 2: it was.

790
00:50:06,440 --> 00:50:07,880
Speaker 7: That to me was a little surprising.

791
00:50:09,719 --> 00:50:14,000
Speaker 1: As for Michael Carbone, he hasn't been seen in Florida since,

792
00:50:14,600 --> 00:50:18,120
Speaker 1: and speculation is that for the last thirty four years

793
00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:21,840
Speaker 1: has been a guest of a witness relocation program.

794
00:50:22,719 --> 00:50:25,160
Speaker 2: I just talked to a regular friend of mine here

795
00:50:25,200 --> 00:50:28,120
Speaker 2: that's local in Palm Beach County that was an' a

796
00:50:28,200 --> 00:50:30,880
Speaker 2: member of the Apollo Gym too, And he had just

797
00:50:30,920 --> 00:50:33,000
Speaker 2: asked me like a week ago. He said, Hey, whatever

798
00:50:33,080 --> 00:50:35,600
Speaker 2: happened to Michael Carbone? We don't know you know where

799
00:50:35,640 --> 00:50:38,400
Speaker 2: he is or anything. And I said, well, he's not

800
00:50:38,440 --> 00:50:42,920
Speaker 2: Michael Carbone anymore, right, I said, he's Joe Smith in

801
00:50:43,400 --> 00:50:46,720
Speaker 2: you know, Idaho. They said he's in witness protection.

802
00:50:46,880 --> 00:50:48,120
Speaker 7: They got a new identity.

803
00:50:48,239 --> 00:50:51,160
Speaker 2: So if he's still alive, which Michael would have to

804
00:50:51,160 --> 00:50:53,840
Speaker 2: be pushing in like seventy now, you know, he's not

805
00:50:53,920 --> 00:50:55,120
Speaker 2: Michael Carbone anymore.

806
00:50:58,239 --> 00:51:01,279
Speaker 1: But despite justice being served for their role in the

807
00:51:01,360 --> 00:51:06,680
Speaker 1: Danger Road murders, investigators believe there are still multiple unsolved

808
00:51:06,680 --> 00:51:11,280
Speaker 1: homicides that they have good reason to believe were ordered

809
00:51:11,480 --> 00:51:16,120
Speaker 1: and carried out by Bert Christi and Gil Fernandez. They

810
00:51:16,120 --> 00:51:19,760
Speaker 1: include the brutal slayings of Mitch Hall, his girlfriend char Linda,

811
00:51:20,040 --> 00:51:24,000
Speaker 1: and of course Lori Halpern's brother Billy.

812
00:51:30,400 --> 00:51:32,920
Speaker 4: They had pretty much told me that Gil committed the murder,

813
00:51:33,760 --> 00:51:35,920
Speaker 4: so I just figured which I'd be grateful if they

814
00:51:35,920 --> 00:51:39,880
Speaker 4: can prove it. But Mike Hallman did not thought. You know,

815
00:51:39,920 --> 00:51:41,680
Speaker 4: they didn't want to spend the money. They kind of

816
00:51:41,760 --> 00:51:44,160
Speaker 4: knew that he did it. We really need to go

817
00:51:44,200 --> 00:51:46,480
Speaker 4: any farther. Do you want to go through a trial?

818
00:51:47,200 --> 00:51:50,120
Speaker 4: We kind of know we did it. I said, well,

819
00:51:51,040 --> 00:51:52,920
Speaker 4: I don't want my parents to go through that. And

820
00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:55,040
Speaker 4: if you know, I don't want them to. You know,

821
00:51:55,160 --> 00:51:58,160
Speaker 4: they're going to make Billy look bad. And if if

822
00:51:58,239 --> 00:52:00,880
Speaker 4: you think Gil killed Billy, then look, leave it alone.

823
00:52:01,120 --> 00:52:02,320
Speaker 9: Bill kill Billy.

824
00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:08,040
Speaker 1: But something in her heart told her that this wasn't

825
00:52:08,080 --> 00:52:09,040
Speaker 1: the full story.

826
00:52:10,480 --> 00:52:13,640
Speaker 8: I have sent, you know, feelers out to see if

827
00:52:13,680 --> 00:52:18,799
Speaker 8: at some point Gil would be willing to confess to

828
00:52:18,840 --> 00:52:22,680
Speaker 8: the rest of the murders to give the family member's

829
00:52:22,760 --> 00:52:27,480
Speaker 8: peace of mind, if nothing else, for just pleading him

830
00:52:27,480 --> 00:52:32,480
Speaker 8: out to concurrent time. And I do believe that the

831
00:52:32,560 --> 00:52:36,760
Speaker 8: state's attitude was, like we can exceptionally clear these cases.

832
00:52:36,840 --> 00:52:38,800
Speaker 8: You know, he's already serving life. He's not calling it,

833
00:52:38,840 --> 00:52:40,839
Speaker 8: but he's lost all his appeals. It's not like he's

834
00:52:40,880 --> 00:52:44,839
Speaker 8: going to walk out. But his attitude has been from

835
00:52:44,880 --> 00:52:49,800
Speaker 8: the beginning that he's not saying anything. He's got two sons,

836
00:52:50,200 --> 00:52:54,919
Speaker 8: I believe, and he never wants them to know what

837
00:52:54,960 --> 00:52:55,319
Speaker 8: he did.

838
00:52:57,200 --> 00:53:00,960
Speaker 1: But maybe would the emergence of more evidence, Jill Fernandez

839
00:53:01,280 --> 00:53:02,759
Speaker 1: could be convinced to.

840
00:53:02,840 --> 00:53:07,239
Speaker 5: Talk Calassie, say, what's going on?

841
00:53:08,200 --> 00:53:12,239
Speaker 14: I just wanted to touch base with you, so we

842
00:53:12,360 --> 00:53:13,000
Speaker 14: got some.

843
00:53:12,920 --> 00:53:14,040
Speaker 7: Quant and go back.

844
00:53:14,160 --> 00:53:15,720
Speaker 9: There is DNA there.

845
00:53:17,200 --> 00:53:20,879
Speaker 1: Maybe with the new DNA evidence, he would have to.

846
00:53:22,280 --> 00:53:23,000
Speaker 7: Did you go him?

847
00:53:25,360 --> 00:53:28,040
Speaker 1: Now? Whatever you show me, I'll try to help you.

848
00:53:28,600 --> 00:53:31,040
Speaker 2: But other than that, you know, really I'm on to

849
00:53:31,040 --> 00:53:32,480
Speaker 2: hell out of respect.

850
00:53:32,080 --> 00:53:35,279
Speaker 9: Of course, you know, I will just stay see you later.

851
00:53:35,320 --> 00:53:36,799
Speaker 1: Man, if you ain't got a warn and you ain't

852
00:53:36,800 --> 00:53:39,240
Speaker 1: gonna take me to jail or whatever, because I already

853
00:53:39,280 --> 00:53:51,640
Speaker 1: a jail so you know, but yeah, go ahead, cold Blooded.

854
00:53:51,680 --> 00:53:55,719
Speaker 1: The Apollo Jim Murders is a production of iHeart Podcasts

855
00:53:55,760 --> 00:54:00,960
Speaker 1: and Authentic Wave Media. Scott Weinberger, Kevin be and Walker

856
00:54:01,080 --> 00:54:06,800
Speaker 1: LeMond are executive producers. Sabrina Sire is our line producer,

857
00:54:07,719 --> 00:54:13,440
Speaker 1: scoring sound design and mixing by Mark lamarg Z for

858
00:54:13,560 --> 00:54:18,800
Speaker 1: iHeart Podcasts, Christina Everett is executive producer, and David Wasserman

859
00:54:19,160 --> 00:54:22,480
Speaker 1: is brand marketing manager and with special thanks to the

860
00:54:22,520 --> 00:54:28,279
Speaker 1: Miramar Police Department Chief del Rich Moss, Pio Tanya Ardaz,

861
00:54:28,840 --> 00:54:30,560
Speaker 1: and Detective Susie Smith.