WEBVTT - Episode 3 - Danger Road 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:03.200 Before we get started with today's episode, I just wanted 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:04.920 to give you a heads up that I will begin 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:09.320 to post photos from this case on my Instagram account 0:00:09.320 --> 0:00:12.840 which is at Weinberger Media, including some of the most 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:18.440 crucial evidence which sat untested for decades now on to 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:19.520 today's episode. 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:26.200 Maybe nine months or so after I moved to Florida, 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:27.880 there was a series of murders. 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:32.920 That's the voice of Mark Lopez, a friend of Billy 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:36.760 Halburn's and an ex employee of the Apollo Jim. 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:40.159 I didn't know exactly what was going on, if they 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:44.680 were selling dope or they were doing shakedowns or whatever 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:50.080 they were doing, but suddenly people started to get killed, 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:53.880 and a lot of them were two murders at a time. 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:57.320 They were either shot in the back of the head 0:00:57.960 --> 0:00:59.240 roats cut. 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:04.360 Mark is talking about the nineteen eighty six murder of 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:07.280 Billy Helper and as well as the eighty seven murders 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:11.480 of Billy's friend Mitch Hall, Mitch's girlfriend char Linda, and 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:15.600 two more fellow members of the Apollo Jimmy high Note 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:16.880 and Harry. 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:21.240 Collier, and the Common Thread amongst them, where they were 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:25.040 members of the Apollo Gym Right and some of these guys, 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:27.120 you know, pad ties to gil. 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:33.360 Five murders, but even more unanswered questions like why were 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:37.520 they killed? Were all of the murders connected, and if so, 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:40.080 who was behind them. 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:45.120 My brother came to me and he said, Billy Helpern 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:48.600 died and I'm going to find out who killed him. 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:51.920 And I said, Mitch, don't can involve with those type 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:56.160 of people. And then six months later, May sixth is 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:57.240 when he was killed. 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:04.960 Scott Weinberger, investigator, journalist, and former deputy sheriff. And this 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:16.679 is cold blooded. The Apollo Gym murders. Back in May 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:20.160 of nineteen eighty seven, local investigators from the Miramar Police 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:23.800 Department and the Brier County Sheriff's Office had their hands full. 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:29.480 They were sitting on five execution style murders at three 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:36.560 different crime scenes, no suspects, and very few leads. What 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:39.560 physical evidence found at one of the crime scenes was 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:43.760 about to pay some very big dividends, with the potential 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:50.400 to break all three cases wide open. Investigators were able 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:54.360 to pull a single partial fingerprint from the electrical tape 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:59.760 found wrapped around Mitch Hall's wrists, and lo and behold, 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:03.639 that print was a match with one of the victims 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:09.359 found shot eight days later in Pembroke Pines, Harry Collier. 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:15.120 I never knew very Gollier, but apparently his fingerprints were 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:15.760 on the tape. 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:21.120 They found the Collier's prints on the tape for his girl. 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:27.080 Yes, this was huge. The discovery of Collier's partial print 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:29.680 at the scene of the earlier murders seemed to be 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:34.400 irrefutable proof that Harry Collier was at least one of 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:38.280 the people responsible for killing Mitch Hall and his girlfriend 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:39.520 Tarltonda Drought. 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:43.840 They came to my work, I remember I was working 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:48.400 at over there by the airport, Kay Realtive. 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:54.640 That's Mitch's sister Kim, who remembers how Broward detectives delivered 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:58.120 the news that they were making headway in her brother's case. 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:04.000 Were basically saying that because they believe Collier and they 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:08.280 believed Jimmy was there and they killed him, and now 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:12.800 they're both dead, so we're going to close his murder case. 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:15.520 I'm like, okay, you know what am I going to say? 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:19.880 They're both dead, But they still believed there was other 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:22.520 individuals involved. 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:27.520 And given the similarities to the helping crime scene investigators 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:31.320 were eager to conclude that Collier was a strong person 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:37.440 of interest in Billy's murder, but obviously so many questions remained, 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:42.039 like why was Billy killed in the first place, what 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:45.719 was the motive? And who killed Jimmy high Note and 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:50.159 Harry Collier. Those were the questions that haunted this case 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:54.200 and that Danny Smith and I were determined to answer 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:59.640 because Detective Smith wasn't willing to let sleeping dogs lie. 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:03.800 Someone was behind the execution of five people and they 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:09.200 had gone unidentified, unpunished for nearly forty years. It was 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:12.040 time to bring that person to justice. 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:18.280 International assist Kayla, can I help you? 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:18.800 Hey? 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:23.719 Kayla is Cassie and by chance, this is Danny Smith 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:24.520 from Mirmarpiti. 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:30.440 In April of twenty twenty three, Detective Danny Smith reached 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:35.000 out to a private DNA lab located in Deerfield Beach, Florida, 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:38.240 to request testing on some of the physical evidence that 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:42.720 was collected in nineteen eighty six by the original investigators 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:48.080 of Billy Halpern's murder. The evidence that seemed to have 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:52.960 the most promising potential pieces of black electrical tape that 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:56.760 were found around each of Billy's wrists. They had been 0:05:56.800 --> 0:05:59.720 stored in an evidence locker at the Baro Kenny Sheriff's 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:05.720 office for nearly forty years, and before now, they had 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:10.560 never been tested for evidence of DNA. 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:14.320 The first moment that I realized that we may have 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:17.760 something here is when we were able to locate the 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:21.080 bindings from Billy Hawpern's wrist, the electrical tape. When that 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:26.400 was found in evidence, unmolested, sealed, everything was good to 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:29.000 go with that evidence. That was the first turning point 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:32.120 for me where I actually said to myself, we have 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:35.720 a shot here. This has never been tested before. We 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:38.400 have it, we have a lab that's willing to test it, 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:41.400 we have the money to test it. Let's get it done. 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:45.800 Danny's on the phone with Cassie, a case manager at 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:47.640 DNA Labs International. 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:51.480 I also wanted to confirm who if. 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:54.200 The tape is all kind. 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:55.880 Of like jumbled up and you. 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:58.640 Know, as pretty much, and isn't okay if we kind 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:01.200 of like trying to easily take apart when it happened. 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:05.520 Yeah, yeah, I mean it needs to get tested and 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:10.720 you know, let's be honest, it's almost forty years old. 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:15.440 We do we have to do when Billy's body was 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:19.520 discovered the ribbon of thick black electrical tape wrapped around 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:23.720 his wrists were actually torn in two, which should give 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:29.080 you an idea just how strong Billy was. The two 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:33.240 hundred plus pound bodybuilder had apparently broken free of his 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:36.920 makeshift handcuffs in the struggle to save his own life, 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:41.920 a struggle that tragically ended with his throat being slashed 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:47.280 from ear to ear. But before he died, Billy had 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:51.960 also managed to grab a fistful of hair, presumably from 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:55.640 one of his attackers here that was recovered from the 0:07:55.720 --> 0:08:00.160 crime scene and also had the potential to help identify 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:01.160 his killer. 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:05.640 And regarding the hair, do you want me to go 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:07.360 back and get it and drop it off to you guys? 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:10.320 Or wait, I. 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:12.200 Hold off the world why and longer? 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:15.400 Okay, see what we get off of the and then 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:16.800 we can kind of go from there. 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:21.679 Danny was feeling confident that the DNA from the tape 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:26.000 or the hair might finally reveal who is responsible for 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:29.960 Billy's murder and answer a question that had dogged law 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:34.199 enforcement for years. Was it connected to one of their own? 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:38.520 Former Miami Dade Police officer Gil Fernandez. 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:43.360 Well, what I've read about it was he was very violent, 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:48.240 and he was in internal affairs a lot that he 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:53.080 had a reputation for roughing up suspects. They seemed like 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:56.800 a very violent individual, and he was like that as 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:58.959 a law enforcement officer and continued to. 0:08:58.920 --> 0:08:59.440 Be that way. 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:04.280 That's Cindy and Parrada. Cindy had started her law enforcement 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:08.240 career as a police officer before putting herself through law 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:13.959 school and eventually joining the statewide Prosecutor's office in Florida. 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:17.000 And there may be no one who knows more about 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:21.440 gil Fernandez and his career as both a cop and 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:25.640 a criminal, which makes sense since she's ultimately the one 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:30.920 responsible for putting him in jail, but we'll get to 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:39.680 that later. Gilbert Fernandez Junior was born and raised in 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:43.080 the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York, which in the 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:46.920 fifties and sixties was a rough and tumble neighborhood of 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:51.360 working class immigrants, Puerto Rican gangs, and the Irish mob. 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:57.480 Street violence was commonplace and often fatal. It's no wonder 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:00.520 why his parents moved the family to Florida when gil 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:06.199 was just a teenager. The Fernandez family settled in Dade County, 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:09.880 just outside of Miami. Gill Junior played a little football 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:14.439 in high school, but skipped college instead entering the police 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:18.120 academy and joining the Miami Dade Police Department as a 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:24.920 patrolman in nineteen seventy six. In photographs, Fernandez looked like 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:29.000 the part of a perfect cop, cropped black hair, a 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:33.160 chin sculpted from granite, and a six foot two hundred 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:38.360 and twenty pound frame that filled out his crisp blue uniform. 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:43.280 But over the next six years, Fernandez was dogged by 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:49.679 internal affairs and a growing list of brutality complaints. After 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:52.520 the race riots broke out in Miami in nineteen eighty 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:55.840 after the death of Arthur McDuffie at the hands of 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:59.480 white Miami Dade cops, Fernandez was singled out in the 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:05.200 press for his brutal tactics. The reporter dubbed Fernandez the 0:11:05.280 --> 0:11:09.360 meanest cop in Miami. Guys that new Gil from the 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:14.600 gym said he reveled in the notoriety. Here's Mark Lopez. 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:19.880 When I met Gil, I never got the cop vibe 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:23.440 from Gil. Like it almost still is crazy to me 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:25.960 to think about it, because I just can't really picture 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:28.720 him as a cop in my mind, because when I 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:32.559 met Gil. The first impression to me in my mind 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:36.360 was that guy is a fucking gangster, right Like, there 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:39.119 was no Hey, this guy is law enforcement. 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:44.040 But his days in law enforcement were numbered. The brass 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:47.080 pulled him from his beat and banished him to the 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:51.160 property room. He turned in his badge in nineteen eighty three. 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:56.360 After quitting the force, he turned his full attention to 0:11:56.440 --> 0:12:02.319 bodybuilding and found a new home at Them. 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:05.560 I know, Gil didn't have really tons of money at 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:08.320 that time. I mean he was driving around like a 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:12.840 five or six year old Camaro that the air conditioning 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:15.920 didn't work. You know, he was always kind of scraping 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:19.320 for money. He started, really the first guy that I 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:22.000 ever knew of that started doing personal training, and he 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:23.400 was selling steroids as well. 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:28.559 The Apollo became his refuge, and within months he had 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:34.400 added forty pounds of pure muscle. The steroids helped, but 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:38.960 they also made him irritable and short fused. Mark Lopez 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:43.439 witnessed Gil's notorious temper firsthand. 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:47.720 I'm in the gym working out. Gil was there behind 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:52.600 the front desk, and there's a guy in the gym 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:54.559 working out, another body builder by the name of Frank. 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:59.440 It was a firefighter, but there's some type of verbal 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:02.040 beef and all I heard Frank say. 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:03.480 Was, well, fuck you, Gil. 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:08.360 He says, no fuck me, just no fuck you, and 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:12.000 Gil basically picks him up by the seat of the pants, 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:15.920 in the back of the sweatshirt and ramrods his head 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:17.760 right into the plate glass windows in the front of 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:18.520 the gym. 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:19.400 And I mean he. 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:24.040 Hit his head so hard against the windows that I 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:26.720 swear that the concrete slab shook that day when he 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:30.160 did that, And like I thought that he killed them, 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:33.439 like his next broke. You know, it just he's done, 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:36.280 and everybody was just really silent, and when all that 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:38.319 was over, everybody just went back to their business and 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:38.920 their workout. 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:47.360 Gil eventually became a co owner of the apologym with 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:51.720 his mentor and former mister Florida, Bert Christie, who was 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:53.480 twenty years Gil. 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:59.360 Senior, and I think he nurtured that relationship with Gil 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:02.480 when Gil was younger and became almost like a father 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:05.400 figure at the Gil and you know, they had a 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:07.640 very close relationship for a long time. 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:13.520 Together. Bert and Gil trained a new crop of young bodybuilders, 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:17.079 and their motto, if you're going to be dumb, you 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:22.840 better be tough, but eventually their partnership would go far 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:25.440 beyond bodybuilding. 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:29.800 And that was when Burt Christy came into the picture. 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:33.120 He was supposedly the organized crime connection. 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:38.200 Christy cut his teeth in racketeering by collecting debts for 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:42.720 Joey Flowers Rotano, who ran a gambling ring from a 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:47.440 string of flower shops in Browie County. According to one 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:52.080 federally protected witness, Christy may have also been responsible for 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:56.480 two contract killings in nineteen eighty and nineteen eighty two. 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:00.760 By the time he put Gil Fernandez under his wing, 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:05.480 he was putting together his own crew, hiring muscle straight 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:09.960 from the gym. It included Gil Fernandez and a handful 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:14.680 of local bodybuilders like Tommy Felts, Jimmy high Note, and 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:15.600 Harry Collier. 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:19.960 Gill and Tommy were the muscle, and Bert was basically 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:21.040 the guy given direction. 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:25.440 I think that Burt trusted Gil but nobody else. So 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:29.400 he would go to Gil with potential targets, and then 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:33.720 Gil would get Tommy Felts or Collier, whoever it was, 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:35.520 to go with him to do the job. 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:41.560 The work was simple but brutal. On Bert's direction, they 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:44.320 might shoot up a home of a local drug dealer 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:48.960 and then return to sell them protection under threat of 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:54.160 extreme violence. Another favorite scheme set up phony drug buys 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:57.960 with local dealers in order to steal their stash, money 0:15:58.440 --> 0:15:58.920 or both. 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:03.880 They were basically going to guys that Tommy Felts had 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:06.880 gone to high school when junior high school with in Hollywood, 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:09.400 that were guys now that were. 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:10.720 You know, in the drug business. 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:14.400 Generally just you know, little crews that banded together that 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:16.800 were selling drugs, smuggling drugs. 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:21.240 The drugs then flowed out of the Apollo gym with 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:27.520 impunity while Bert and Gil scoped out bigger and better scores. 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:30.600 And they were doing that to a number of different 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.840 crews out there from all over the place. 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:35.840 So you know, you're going to do that to the. 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:39.880 Wrong people and eventually somebody is going to come for you. 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:45.320 In nineteen eighty five, Tommy Felts was first to fall 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:48.560 victim to a rival's violent retribution. 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:53.160 Eventually Felts, you know, did that to the wrong guy, 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:54.840 and they rolled up on him at a stop late 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:57.720 right at Stirling Road. I got a Sunday afternoon and 0:16:57.800 --> 0:16:59.440 broad daylight and gunned them down. 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:04.399 In nineteen eighty seven, Two more members of their crew, 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:09.119 Jimmy Heinot and Harry Collier, were also found dead, this 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:14.200 time with bullets to the back of the head. As 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:18.200 Mark Lopez remembers it, a rising body count was starting 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:20.560 to attract the wrong kind of attention. 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:25.440 They started to notice that were, you know, a lot 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:29.600 of cop surveillance around the gym's right, And I didn't 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:32.040 know what it was initially at the time, and like 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:34.600 it could have been anybody, right, because there was one 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:38.400 hundred plus guys in the Jim DeLand dope. But then 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:42.280 when you start hearing about friends getting called in by 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:49.040 BSO and detectives spoking around asking questions, that's when you 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:51.000 kind of knew the shit had hit the fan. 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:56.520 The BSO would be the brawer of Sheriff's office also 0:17:56.560 --> 0:18:00.239 sniffing around the Apollo. The FBI. 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:06.280 Defense were the ones that started the investigation because there 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:10.520 were all these homicides, all these drug ripoffs that were 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:15.439 in all different locations. But also I believe part of 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:20.960 their interest was because of Bert Christie's organized crime connections, 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:24.600 and I think that they were trying to make a 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:28.480 reco case against him. 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:32.600 At that time, we knew that law enforcement was out 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:36.520 there poking around about Gil. They were starting to question 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:41.320 people that were close to him, including me, And when 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:43.119 it happened, I told Gil about it. 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:44.680 I specifically told. 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:49.520 Him that BSO was trying to call me in and 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:52.000 that I said, listen, I said, I'm. 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:52.480 Going to go in. 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:55.919 I'm going on record with you now to tell you 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:00.560 I'm not saying nothing. I don't know nothing. And I said, 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:03.080 one word done, pawkin. I said, I'm gonna come right 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:04.600 back to you and tell you exactly what They asked, MA, 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:06.119 I'm gonna ta you exactly what I said. 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:12.520 Detectives were looking for someone willing to testify against Fernandez 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:13.520 and Christy. 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:20.520 I said, you guys honestly think that me or anybody 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:24.280 else like me is going to cooperate with you to 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:31.040 go after Gil Fernandez. I said, you're crazy, Like I'm 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.040 not that crazy. For one, I said, because if I 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:37.240 ever agreed to do something like that, you know my 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:38.560 fate is sealed. 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.960 In other words, at the Apollo Jim, snitches get much 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:49.160 more than stitches. They might wind up dead. But as 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:53.280 the scrutiny from law enforcement increased, neither Gil nor Bert 0:19:53.640 --> 0:20:00.320 were above doing a little polishing of their public image. 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:03.240 Well almost overnights, not just him, but him and Bert 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:08.359 Christie become born again Christians, okay, which is like a 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:12.199 black to white moment, right, And to me, I just 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:15.520 love from the surface this is a cleanup act, right. 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:20.200 But given the litany of their past sins and victims, 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:24.320 there was little chance they could outrun their reputations. 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:28.560 Bert just couldn't sell that act. He just couldn't, right, 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:30.160 He tried to, he couldn't. 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:38.879 But according to Mark Gill's act was considerably more convincing. 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:45.680 Gil changed considerably and I didn't know if it was 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:49.120 an act or if it was genuine. He went off 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:51.879 all steroids, you know, so he lost a considerable amount 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:52.680 of size and weight. 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:54.120 His attitude changed. 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:57.600 He started putting pictures of Jesus or religious pictures in 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:01.600 the gym. He was going to church every week. And 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:05.800 I was again small enough never to ask is this 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:06.359 an act? 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:11.160 But despite all the suspicions scrolling around him and his 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:17.600 potential involvement in multiple unsolved homicides, Jill Fernandez was never arrested, 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:20.720 never even brought in for questioning. 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:24.120 Do you have to realize something that people were very 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:27.159 afraid because you know, if he and he was the 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:30.440 one committing these murders. They knew not he was the 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:35.560 hardcore gangster, but he was an ex cop and he 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:40.560 had friends still on the force, not just in Miami 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:45.840 Metro where he was a cop, but you know, Hollywood, Davy, 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:49.520 Cooper City, Fort Lauderdale, North Miami Beach. 0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:51.600 We had cop friends all over. 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:53.760 So it was like, well, if you runted a law 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:56.120 how do you know that one of his buddies, I'm 0:21:56.119 --> 0:21:57.840 going to look it back to him and then you're 0:21:57.880 --> 0:21:58.400 in trouble. 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:02.840 But it would only be a matter of time before 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:06.600 someone close to Gil would be forced to take that gamble. 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:10.679 It would happen. In nineteen ninety, a member of Gill's 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:14.119 crew was popped in Alabama and was being held on 0:22:14.200 --> 0:22:19.240 extortion charges, but rather than face federal time, he said 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:22.960 he was ready to make a deal and he had 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:27.800 the goods on Gill. He said, remember those three bodies 0:22:27.840 --> 0:22:39.160 that were found out on Danger Road, Yeah, that was us. 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:46.280 Cindy and Parrado always wanted to be in law enforcement, 0:22:46.560 --> 0:22:49.800 and after graduate school, she spent nine years as a 0:22:49.920 --> 0:22:52.359 uniformed officer in Tallahassee. 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:58.600 This was the early eighties, so there was a lot 0:22:58.600 --> 0:23:03.320 of resistance with mal law enforcement officers for females to 0:23:03.359 --> 0:23:06.480 be part of the crew. A lot of them only 0:23:06.480 --> 0:23:09.240 had high school educations and I had a master's degree, 0:23:09.280 --> 0:23:11.840 so they didn't like that, and you know, they could 0:23:11.880 --> 0:23:13.280 have figured out why I was there. 0:23:14.800 --> 0:23:18.440 But she eventually earned her stripes and her props within 0:23:18.520 --> 0:23:18.960 the force. 0:23:19.760 --> 0:23:22.280 I think the first time I got in a fight 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:26.399 and got punched out and didn't cry or quit or 0:23:26.440 --> 0:23:28.480 anything else, then I became one of the boys and 0:23:28.520 --> 0:23:29.199 they accepted me. 0:23:30.680 --> 0:23:33.600 In nineteen eighty nine, Cindy began working her way through 0:23:33.720 --> 0:23:37.880 law school, eventually taking a job with the statewide Prosecutor's 0:23:37.880 --> 0:23:41.639 office in Fort Lauderdale. She first became familiar with the 0:23:41.720 --> 0:23:45.800 name gil Fernandez in nineteen ninety when she was a 0:23:45.840 --> 0:23:49.960 brand new prosecutor assigned to a triple homicide case that 0:23:50.040 --> 0:23:52.879 had gone unsolved for seven years. 0:23:54.560 --> 0:23:58.040 I worked homicide briefly when I was in Tallahassee, and 0:23:58.400 --> 0:24:01.320 it was like, well, you know, you were thomis IDEs before, 0:24:01.440 --> 0:24:03.600 and now you're a lawyer and you were a cop, 0:24:03.720 --> 0:24:05.240 so we're putting you on this. 0:24:06.720 --> 0:24:11.200 In nineteen eighty three, three years before Billy Hoppin's murder, 0:24:11.600 --> 0:24:14.399 the bodies of three men have been discovered on the 0:24:14.520 --> 0:24:18.200 edge of a canal about ten miles inland from Hollywood Beach. 0:24:19.040 --> 0:24:22.960 It was a stretch of Everglades backcountry that locals dubbed 0:24:23.200 --> 0:24:23.960 Danger Road. 0:24:25.760 --> 0:24:28.680 Michael White took his entarrain vehicle to Jones Fish Camp 0:24:28.720 --> 0:24:31.240 in the Everglades on a Sunday morning in April of 0:24:31.320 --> 0:24:34.640 nineteen eighty three. He hasn't forgotten what he found that day. 0:24:34.840 --> 0:24:37.080 Oh, we were riding along and we thought it was 0:24:37.640 --> 0:24:40.919 like a store dummy or something, and we stopped and 0:24:41.600 --> 0:24:43.840 got off and looked down to make sure, and there 0:24:43.840 --> 0:24:47.240 were three people dead there. I walked down there to 0:24:47.920 --> 0:24:51.840 the closest victim to me and nudged him with my 0:24:51.920 --> 0:24:54.919 foot to see, in fact, if he was dead, And 0:24:54.960 --> 0:24:58.840 how's the positioned. He had his hands time behind his back, 0:24:59.440 --> 0:25:00.600 laying face down. 0:25:03.240 --> 0:25:08.480 The crime scene suggested a professional execution. Three men had 0:25:08.480 --> 0:25:13.080 been bound, blindfolded and shot point blank in the head. 0:25:14.080 --> 0:25:17.840 The victims were identified as twenty six year old Walter Leahy, 0:25:18.320 --> 0:25:21.960 twenty five year old Richard Robinson, and thirty one year 0:25:21.960 --> 0:25:27.120 old Alfred Triingalli. Suspected low level cocaine dealers who had 0:25:27.200 --> 0:25:31.240 all grown up in and around South Florida. At the time, 0:25:31.320 --> 0:25:34.240 Brower County investigators had chalked up the murders to the 0:25:34.520 --> 0:25:39.399 escalating violence surrounding the drug trade ravaging South Florida in 0:25:39.520 --> 0:25:44.200 the early eighties. Their killers could have been Colombian suppliers, 0:25:44.680 --> 0:25:48.480 local mobsters, or just another group of crooks in a 0:25:48.560 --> 0:25:54.200 drug deal gone bad. With no witnesses or leads, their 0:25:54.280 --> 0:25:59.720 cases went unsolved for years, just another triple homicide in 0:25:59.800 --> 0:26:05.199 an never ending drug war. But in nineteen ninety that 0:26:05.320 --> 0:26:08.560