Cold Case Files - A Killer Confession

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

The quiet town of Redding, California is rocked by the disappearance of Frank McAlister - a teen with a recent cash windfall who leaves only a blood-stained car behind. Twenty-five years will pass before someone makes a stunning on-air confession. Homes.com: We’ve done your homework. Hungryroot: Go to Hungryroot.com/coldcase and use code coldcase to get 40% off your first box and a free time of your choice Quince: Go to Quince.com/coldcase for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns ZocDoc: Check out Zocdoc.com/CCF and download the Zocdoc app for free! 

Hi, cold case listeners. I'm Marisa Pinson. And before we get into this week's episode, I just wanted to remind you that episodes of Cold Case Files, as well as the A&E Classic Podcast, I Survived, American Justice, and City Confidential are all available ad free on the new A&E Crime and Investigation channel on Apple Podcasts and Apple+,

for just $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. And now on to the show. The following episode contains intensely disturbing accounts of violence. Listener discretion is advised. Franky made friends with everybody. There was no stranger in his life. He loved being outdoors. You get him anything to do with fishing and he was so happy. When we found the vehicle, it appeared abandoned. The amount of blood that the officer was seeing,

that person was likely the victim of a fatal injury. I realized he was gone. I'd never see him again. It was an emptiness. My heart broke. You can only push so hard. You can't put him in handcuffs and drag him into the police department.

This is ridiculous. This is ridiculous. I love this new set. pushed so hard. You can't put them in handcuffs and drag them into the police department. The whole time she just kind of had this look on her face like she couldn't believe this was happening. There are over 100,000 cold cases in America. Only about 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. On January 10th, 2018, in Redding, California, a man walks into a newsroom with a secret he needs to reveal. I've been through hell. my whole life because of this. These things that have happened for over 25 years have pushed me and pushed me to do the right thing.

I'm going to turn myself in for a crime I was involved in years ago and somebody lost their life. It was murder. John Severson and Rusty Bishop are retired detectives with the Redding Police Department. On May 7th, 1993, the Redding Police Department received a missing persons report from Denelle Tadich. Denelle indicated that her fiance, Frank McAllister, had borrowed the

car the day before and had not returned. Denelle woke up on the 7th, realized Frank still hadn't come home. She had called his pager several times. He wasn't calling her back. She said that that was outside of his character and she was concerned. Cindy Tomakov is Frank's mom.

I got a call from Donnell telling me that Frank was missing and so was her car. I just go, what? It's not like him to just up and leave. I hung up the phone and me and my husband Jack went up there dreading. I just kept thinking, he's going to be there when we get there. Then when he still wasn't, then I started worrying. Something's wrong with him. Jonathan McAllister is Frank's uncle.

I didn't think of anything at the time. I just figured he was gone somewhere, you know? But if he was gonna go out of town, say to leave Reading to go to LA or whatever, he would have told somebody so that they would know. In a typical missing person case of an adult, such as Frank, you know, he's a 19-year-old adult male.

He'd only been gone in less than 24 hours at the time she reported it. 19-year-old guy, sometimes that happens. But Donnell reported that Frank had gotten in a vehicle accident a few months prior, totaled his car, and received a $5,000 insurance settlement from that case. So he had just cashed that insurance check the day that he went missing.

Frank was supposed to return the previous night, had cash on his person, and did not return. So obviously our concern there is, okay, has something happened to him, or has he voluntarily left and not returned? Frank was born September 20th, 1973 in Linwood, California. He was a good baby. He loved to joke. He'd love to tease you and do whatever he could do to get your attention. Frank would get into his dad's fishing poles,

and he always got by me and had that fishing pole in his hands outside. Because he would practice. He would throw the fishing rod like he's catching fish and reel it in. You get him anything to do with fishing, and he was so happy. My husband Doug and I separated when Frank was about eight years old.

We'd had a lot of ups and downs and we just couldn't make it anymore. And Frank went to live with his dad up in Reading. It was hard, but I didn't want him to stay with me, but I didn't have a car to get around in. I needed to establish my life. So yes, at the time, I thought he was better off with his dad. Doug and Frankie were constantly doing stuff together. We live so close to the river,

and the weather's so hot here in Redding for about seven months out of the year that that's what you keep to do. You go to the river. This is a good spot. There's a nice deep hole right there. So we just bring food and water and spend the day down here doing things. You just climb up the side and jump off into the water.

This is our swimming pool. This is where summer happened for us, for Frankie. At night, we received a call from employees of the Costco in Reading. They had reported a vehicle in the parking lot. It had been there for two nights and it appeared abandoned. The driver's side window was down, the vehicle was unlocked, the keys were still in the ignition. We had one of our service officers respond out there to look at the vehicle. She noticed blood stains on the outside of the vehicle, and the license plate was able to connect that vehicle

as belonging to Danel Tadic. At the time, I was the lead investigator assigned to the Major Crimes Division, and because of the missing persons case on Frank McAllister, as well as the blood stains on the outside of the vehicle. I was called out to the scene. Upon arrival, we had turned our attention to a close examination of the vehicle. There was a significant amount of blood

down the driver's door, the armrest, and down the inside part of the door. The patterning of the blood was primarily centered around the driver's seat. A white t-shirt that was on the floorboard behind the driver's side seat, it had a significant amount of blood on it. And then a backpack had some newspaper sticking out of it that had blood on it as well. Also, there was dirt on the vehicle vehicle on the wheels and the wheel wells. So we had

this very strong suspicion that something had happened somewhere else and the vehicle had been transported and left abandoned in the Costco parking lot. If we look back to all the cases we had worked where we saw this amount of blood, it was almost always coincided with a homicide case. So we were very, very concerned that someone had been killed in the driver's seat and then something had happened to them. So we wanted to focus this as if it was a homicide case. Detectives contacted Donnell. Donnell tells detectives that Frank was working as a cook at a local restaurant.

They had also just gotten engaged. They were going to elope in Reno and get married and start a life together. She said that Frank had dabbled in the use of narcotics, specifically methamphetamine, but she was trying to get Frank back on track, get him out of the drug use. Donnell told detectives that Frank realized

he only had 5,000 bucks, not a lot for them to get going in life. So he told Donnell that he wanted to purchase a large sum of methamphetamine and then sell that methamphetamine for a profit. Violence and crime surrounds the drug community. Over the years, I was involved in numerous cases where one drug dealer killed another drug dealer.

The dots are starting to be connected that Frank maybe got hooked up with some wrong people, and if he's naive to kind of that world, to a certain element of criminal in our area, he would have been a huge target. Bottom line is, you did not pass the test. Okay. Not even close.

But I need you to start being honest with me. And I need you to start doing that right now. Frank had told Donnell that he was going to buy a large sum of methamphetamine and sell it, make a profit, so the two of them could have a life together. When I found out what the police said about the amount of blood in the car I thought well Frankie's gone you know because it was his car and he's missing you know he didn't have a

background of being a drug dealer he didn't have a background of buying drugs. He was pretty naive. I realized then that I don't think Frank was coming back. And he was gone. I'd never see him again. It was an emptiness. My heart broke. If he'd have been living with me the whole time, would he have been still alive to this day?

Why was he up here doing this shit he was doing? It's not him. It wasn't him. He was a good kid. With suspicions of a drug deal gone wrong, detectives reach out to the friends that Frank's fiancé, Danel, says he was heading to see when he borrowed her car—17-year-old Shawna Culver and her brother, 21-year-old Curtis Culver. Shawna told detectives that she last saw Frank on the afternoon of May 6th, that Shana and

Curtis were hanging out at their apartment. Brian Hawkins was there. Brian was kind of an off-again, on-again boyfriend with Shana. Frank came by, and Shana, Curtis, Frank, and Brian all got in Frank's car and drove around Redding just kind of hanging out. Shawna told detectives that Frank had gotten a text on his pager, and he made a phone call from a payphone. After he made the call, he got back in the car, and he told Shawna, Curtis, and Brian

that he needed to meet with somebody and it was urgent, and that he would have to drop them off in town at another location, but he would come back and pick them up after he was done meeting this person. Shawna, Curtis, and Brian hung out there for a while and realized that Frank probably wasn't coming back, and Shawna said that they ended up catching a taxi back to their mom's apartment.

Detectives interview Curtis Culver and Shawna's boyfriend, 19-year-old Brian Hawkins. Their accounts of that day are the same as Shana's. During our interviews with Brian, Shana, and Curtis, we did not notice any physical injuries on their hands, fingers, or anything like that, such as you might suspect if there was any sort of fight involving an edged weapon, a knife perhaps. We had every intention of going back and

re-interviewing Shanna and Curtis and Brian, but all three of them pretty much did not speak with us any further. And at that time we did not have an injured person or a dead body. Without that physical evidence, we're missing pieces of the puzzle to put it all together. Since Frank had a plan to make a drug deal, investigators turned their attention to the local drug community. At that point, the tips coming in to the police department

pretty much exploded. One of the tips that came across us involved an individual by the name of Brian Bennett. Brian Bennett was a small-time drug dealer in the Reading area, so they were familiar with this name when it came in. There were several variations on this tip involving Brian Bennett and his involvement with Frank.

First one is that they got together, and Brian shot him in the head and dropped him down by the river. The second indicated that Brian had been seen driving Frank's car with Frank in the passenger seat. A third tip, they said that Brian had been at his house and that Frank had showed up to try and get him to sell him some methamphetamine. Brian Bennett had left his house and had returned really late at night, like 2, 3 o'clock in the morning. He's acting very nervous, and his truck is covered in mud,

and there's blood on his truck. It's one thing to get one tip or maybe even two. But when you get three like that, all naming the same guy. And the fact that law enforcement's already familiar with Brian being involved in that drug world, and Frank was looking to make more money off of selling drugs, this is starting to maybe make some sense.

So they're thinking at this point that they're definitely on the right track here. The detectives are now armed with these three tips on Brian Bennett. They want to talk to him immediately at that point. They track him down. They bring him in for an interview. Brian right away said, hey, I have nothing to do with this. In fact, that night when he would have disappeared, or that day, I would have been at home.

I was hanging out with a group of friends. I was working on my truck. We in fact examined the bed of his truck, the whole tailgate area and all the cracks. Did not see any debris or blood evidence, anything like that. Detectives were able to check on his alibi and confirm that the information he had provided detectives about what he was doing that day on the 6th matched up.

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and I'd recommend it to anyone. So stop putting off those doctor's appointments and go to zocdoc.com.com.ccf to find and instantly book a top rated doctor today. That's zocdoc.com.ccf, zocdoc.com.ccf. As 1993 rolls on, the hunt for Frank continues. My brothers Mark and Doug, Frank's dad, scoured the area looking for Frankie for months and months. Then I think hope turned into just wanting to find the body. Now it's like, well, let's find them so we can put them to rest. It's April 12th, 1994, in Shingletown, California.

A little over 11 months after Frank's disappearance, I was contacted by the sheriff's office and they indicated they were up in the Shingletown area, which is a good 24 miles east of Redding up in the pine forest. which is a good 24 miles east of Redding up in the pine forest. Two mushroom hunters stumbled across human remains, specifically bones from a skeleton. And at that point they had also discovered some ID laying on the ground belonging to Frank McAllister. The remains were found 20 to 30 yards off the road. We're approximately seven miles down the dirt road from Highway 44.

When I arrived on scene, we conducted a fairly systematic grid search, where we walk as a line trying to discover any and every piece that we can see. These are areas that are marked off to indicate certain items. Over in this area where the flag is waving in the tree is what appears to be some type of human or animal bone. These remains were fairly widely scattered. The skull was there, the jawbone was there, the teeth were there, there were ribs and vertebra.

The lower part of the body all had been scavenged by animals and the bones dispersed. They found some dark-colored tennis shoes, a dark pair of jeans, and a sock. These were all consistent with the clothes that Frank was reported to have been wearing by Danel when she made the missing person report 11 months prior. Dental records confirm that the remains are those of Frank McAllister. I got a call from the police. They said, we found your son's remains. And I dropped the phone and I just started crying.

I mean, I didn't know what to do. And then to find out he was murdered and left where he was left, you know? and left where he was left, you know? We wanted closure, and that was some comfort. We can lay Frankie's remains to rest and have a place to go and talk to him. It was hard to bury your son so young and not get to really see him grow up and be something. It was really hard. As 19-year-old Frank is laid to rest, the autopsy report hits detectives' desks.

The forensic anthropologist discovered two knife wounds, one on the jawbone and one on one of the upper vertebra. Kelly Cahful is a prosecutor with the Shasta County DA's office. It was evident from the markings on the spine that Frank McAllister's throat was likely slit. There were other marks in the spine that showed a knife had gone through and nicked the spine, consistent with having somebody over the top of you stabbing you through your chest. So this thing's ramping up now. We just went from having a missing person case

to a full-blown homicide investigation. Now we're gonna be making another push to get another interview with the Culver's and Brian Hawkins. If you re-interview people, sometimes their stories start changing. They were the last three to most likely be seen with Frank before he was killed.

At this point, they're really the only solid leads that detectives have. I don't want to do it. I'm not doing it. I'm not gonna talk anymore. Is there any reason why? No, I'm just... I don't want to be doing this anymore. Unless you're gonna detain me and arrest me. Sure. Hold on.

Detectives did try and make another run at Shawna and Curtis Culver, Brian Hawkins. But it's only been 11 months. Shawna is still a minor at this point, so we're not going to be able to talk to Shawna at all. You can only push so hard. You can't put them in handcuffs and drag them into the police department.

You have to have a reason to do that. In this case, we were shut down. They cut off all contact with us. Two years after Frank is murdered, the investigation into the teen who never came home goes cold. In my heart, he was gone and he was buried. And then one time, I went upstairs to lay lay down and he was there when he was eight years old. His hair, the way I combed it and everything, and he looked at me and he says,

Mom, I'm okay. Don't worry about me no more. I'm okay. And then he went away and I woke up and I said, he's okay now. He's in heaven, he's okay. It's January 9th, 2018, nearly 25 years after Frank's murder, when a young KRCR news reporter, Courtney Kreider, gets a phone call. So in January of 2018, I'm six months in as a brand new reporter at KRCR.

And I get this call from my grandpa, and I say, hey, Grandpa, you know, I'm working. What's up? And he goes, well, I have this guy. He's got some information on this murder in Shingletown from 25 years ago. He wants to talk to you. And I'm thinking, I don't have time for this.

But I hear him out. A lot of people know my grandpa, Tony Trapaso, here in Reading. to you and I'm thinking, I don't have time for this. But I hear him out. A lot of people know my grandpa, Tony Trapasso, here in Reading. My grandma and grandpa go to church every Sunday, but my grandpa Tony, on this Sunday, had a man approach him saying that he had some things that he wanted to talk to him about and pray about.

But specifically, he wanted to speak with him about Frank McAllister's death. And the man's name was Brian Hawkins. Courtney rushes to Jennifer Scarborough, the news director at KRCR, to pitch the breaking story. My boss said that she remembered this story and knowing that somehow we might have details that could help this cold case. We both agreed, okay well we can't pass up this opportunity to talk to this man because no one has solved this in 25 years. Seeing Brian Hawkins for the first time, he was looking around fidgety, nervous. He sat down and I said, so what'd you come here to tell me today?

I'm going to turn myself in next door at the Sheriff's Department for a crime I was involved in years ago and somebody lost their life. It was murder. And right there I'm like, wait, what? God and Christ, these things that have happened throughout my whole life since then, for over 25 years, have pushed me and pushed me to do the right thing. He said that God had led him to that. He had gotten saved and that he knew that he needed to make it right. The one thing that he wouldn't give me details of and what I wanted, I wanted details about the murder.

Somebody came up with an idea or whatever you want to call it. They knew him. It wasn't my idea. Almost every minute of every day has been a nightmare. I've been through hell my whole life because of this. While I finished the interview with Brian, my boss was calling the police department and telling them, hey, we have these details. He's going to be bringing himself in.

And they said, hey, there's two other people involved in this case. Can you hold off on airing this interview until we can go get them? KRCR management agrees to delay airing Hawkins' confession for 24 hours. I remember my sergeant coming into my office and saying, hey, you need to get over

to the sheriff's office because there's a guy in there that's wanting to confess to the Frank McAlister homicide. I'm like, what? One of the things you do as a new detective is familiarize yourself with cold cases. But I hadn't looked at the McAllister case since 2012. So it's like six years. In interviews with suspects, you always try and get a rapport going with that person.

We're out of root beer with cherry Pepsi and we're like right on, man. What, you like that? Yeah, yeah. Right on. I introduced myself to him and I just told him. I looked at this case six years ago. I said, I haven't looked at it since. I'm going to give you your time.

So I'd like to hear, at this point, kind of what you have to say. My girlfriend at the time was Shawna Culver. She had an idea. She wanted to murder Frank because he had money on him. And he wanted to buy a quarter pound of crack. She gave me a knife. She showed it to me in the bedroom.

What was, why she said she was giving me a knife at that time, or that's what she wanted to use to kill me. Later that day, Frank shows up at the apartment and Brian told Frank that he could be the middleman for that methamphetamine deal. The four of them get in Frank's car together. Frank's driving the car. Brian's seated right behind Frank. Curtis Culver's in the right front passenger seat and Shawna's sitting right behind her brother. Brian directs Frank to drive to the Shingletown area. They get back to this real remote area and he's sitting the car and talked for a couple of hours and Brian tells me that Shawna kind of nudges him

and pulls out the knife that she had shown him. What exactly is she saying to you in the back seat? To stab him. She's telling you to stab him? That's when Brian tells me Curtis pulls his own knife out. And who stabbed him? Curtis. Curtis did from the front passenger seat? Mm-hmm. Brian tells me that Frank gets out of the vehicle

and falls down on the ground just outside his car. I know I'm probably mad. I stabbed him also in the neck. I don't know how many times. What made you get on to it? What made you try to do that? I don't know. And you stabbed him, and he told me a whole bunch of times.

In the neck? Yeah. In his neck? Yes. What made you stop doing what you're doing to him? Because I was yelling. You were yelling? Yeah. Screaming.

What were you screaming? I don't know. He was crying. He was visibly shaking uncontrollably at times. You could tell he was seeing it all over again in his head. He said he didn't got off of him. He recalled Curtis grabbing Frank and dragging him up towards the front of the vehicle.

I hear him say, hey, Brian, look. And he dropped a big rock on his head. Curtis? Yeah. He just dropped it on his head. Brian told me that Shawna and Curtis drug Frank's body up into the trees. They get into the car.

Brian says he drives to Costco. While Shawna and Curtis are inside making phone calls for a taxi, Brian tells me that he grabs like a newspaper and he's trying to wipe up blood the best that he can. And then Shawna and Curtis came out of Costco. Shawna and Curtis pulled out a big wad of cash. They gave me some money.

You looking for a break? Yes. There was blood on it. Brian told me that Shawna and Curtis gave him a few hundred dollars, and they essentially parted ways. I've been scared to death ever since. When it comes to grocery shopping and meal planning, I've got this problem.

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quince.com slash cold case. With Brian Hawkins' televised confession set to air in less than 24 hours, Redding detectives race to find the Culvers. We're really on the clock at this point and the stars align. Within like a few hours, they had tracked both the brother and sister Shawna and Curtis Culver down to a town south of us in Red Bluff. So they headed out that next morning. Curtis agreed to come up for an interview. Shawna dug her heels in and was refusing to come up.

I don't want to do it. I'm not doing it. I'm not going to talk anymore about it. Is there any reason why? No, I'm just, I don't want to be doing this anymore. Unless you're going to detain me and arrest me. Shawna, hold on. Hold on.

And I said, well, arrest her and bring her here. Detectives split up the Culver's to interview them, with Rusty Bishop taking Shawna. Shawna waves her rights and she talks about the case, gives the same story she gave in 1993. And I tell her, well, I guess some things have changed. Ryan came in yesterday, and he told us everything that happened from the get-go. And based on that, there was anything else that may have. He's been arrested for murder.

Obviously, your name came up. Curtis' name came up. I just don't understand it. Well, Sean, I think you do. I think you do. He did not do it. Why are you saying that? He didn't do it. How do you know? Because I just know he didn't do it. How do you know?

Because I just know you didn't do it. So she still doesn't really believe. Brian confessed, so I end up queuing up the interview on a laptop. I have an idea. Do you want it to probably finish? I have an idea? It's alive.

And the whole time, she just kind of had this look on her face like she couldn't believe this was happening. She gave me the knife. That's what she wanted to use. I don't know why he's saying that. This is ridiculous. This is ridiculous. I'm not listening to that.

It's fucking lie. What exactly is she saying to you in the back? She just had one. It's not true. Tell me what really happened then. I never did any of that. I never did anything. I never did anything.

I never did anything. I never did anything. I never did anything. I never did anything. I never did anything. you in the back? She just had one. It's not true. Tell me what really happened. I never did any of that. You tell me what happened. Anything.

You saw it. He said, I can have a knife. You saw what happened. I gave him a knife. And you tell me what happened. I never did any of that. I never did that. I never said that.

He's a liar. He's a liar. The whole time, she's trying to distance herself from him at this point, she realizes this is her worst nightmare. Why would he even say that? Things that he told me in that interview could be supported by political evidence. Well, then it's just part of it's difficult.

Obviously, because I need a lawyer. I need a lawyer. That's all I'm gonna say. That's all I'm gonna say anymore. I want a lawyer. — Down the hall, Detective Bishop's partner, Eric Garnero, interviewed Shawna's brother, Curtis Culver. — Curtis Culver stuck to the same story

that he had been telling for the last 25 years. It was almost a script we knew we would hear. — He got a page, and then he, um, he should see us out of this car. He doesn't need to drive you guys back home? No, no. During his interview, my partner convinced Curtis to take a polygraph.

Test was about to begin. Were you physically present when Frank was killed? No. That was the greatest thing that ever happened. Curtis bombs it. Bottom line is you did not pass the test. Okay. Not even close. But I need you to start being honest with me.

And I need you to start doing that right now. I think that Curtis realized he just didn't have anywhere to go. This thing is over. He had to tell him what really happened. Curtis said he didn't have the same knowledge about trying to rob or kill Frank prior to them going to Shingletown. He honestly thought it was a drug deal that Brian was setting up for Frank. Curtis had a different spin on the confrontation in the car. Said he got really scared. He couldn't tell my partner why he got scared, but he said he

pulled the knife out and he held it, pointing it at Frank. He's just pointing it at him. And then what happened? So, Brian did this. So he grabbed his head? Yeah, and... Did he do a slash or was he stabbing? Oh really? He's going right for it, huh?

Yeah. Frank gets out of the car, falls down. All three of them get out of the car. Brian gets on top of Frank and proceeds to stab him over and over. When Brian is done stabbing Frank, Curtis says he picks up a rock, which he described as about the size of a basketball.

Was he saying anything at this point? If he was, it was nothing that I could understand. Was he moving? Yes. And how did you use this rocket? I threw it at him and said, mercy. Mercy? Mercy. But that also tells us that Curtis essentially helped with the murder himself, so that's huge. Redding detectives have all three suspects in the murder of Frank McAllister under arrest, just as KRCR airs Brian Hawkins' admission.

A confession nearly 25 years in the making from Brian Keith Hawkins. I know the wrong can't be changed, but this is as close as I can come to doing the right thing. It's kind of weird that Frank never even got to have a life, and either did I, and now probably most likely won't anyways. I believe he really did get God to tell him to confess. But why did he wait so long to get this off his chest? Why 25 years? I'm sorry I don't have him with me no more because I am. But

why? Just because your girlfriend told you to do it? Prosecutors believe they have a solid case against their three suspects despite contradictory accounts of what happened that day. The evidence shows that Frank most likely had his throat slit from behind based on the cuts to the vertebrae. It makes more sense too because it's a position of advantage. It's a surprise. Brian's in a perfect spot. It may have been a plan of Shana's to kill Frank, but we knew of some animosity between Brian and Frank. It seemed like Brian was accumulating anger.

Like, he thought that Frankie was trying to put the news on my sister. He snapped and took Frank's life because he was angry with him. In November of 2019, Brian Hawkins came into court and pled guilty to murder and robbery and all the enhancements. He then was ultimately sentenced to 25 to life for first-degree murder of Frank McAllister.

Facing a mountain of evidence, the Culver strike a plea deal. On January 14th of 2022, Shana Culver pled guilty to her responsibility for the murder, to robbery and additional charges and received 20 years in state prison. Curtis Culver pled guilty to manslaughter and robbery and various other assault charges and he received 35 years in state prison. I wanted justice, but truthfully, nothing will bring back your child. I know he went to heaven.

He's up there with his dad now. They're probably fishing all the time, and he's in a better place than we are right now. But it happened to go so long without finding an answer, and going through half of my life not knowing what happened. What good is it now? It can't bring him back.

We can't bring him back. It's easier to think about what Frankie lost out on in his life. Dreams and aspirations. And he was dreaming of having a life, having a girlfriend or a wife, of having a kid of his own and getting to watch him grow up. He missed out on being with his father when his father passed away. He missed out on all that.

Frankie could have led a normal, everyday life. The chance is gone. It's just a sad ending to his short life. We're celebrating Black History Month with our curated collection of Black content all streaming for free. Find groundbreaking films including Selma, Django Unchained, Ali and Coach Carter. You have an incredible gift up here. Gripping series like Power and The Game, next level comedies, music video channels and more. Brilliant Black entertainment intentionally curated and all free. This month and always on Pluto TV.

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