Let's Go To Court! - 56: Fugitive Slave Anthony Burns & the Power of Suggestion (Part 2)

Episode Date: February 20, 2019

Anthony Burns was born into slavery in Stafford County, Virginia. Despite laws that forbade him to do so, he learned to write and read. He became a preacher. As he got older, there was one thing he wanted more than anything: Freedom. So he boarded a ship to Boston and escaped. For a while, Anthony lived as a free man. But his former “owner,” Colonel Charles F. Suttle Douchelord the Third, wanted Anthony back. Unfortunately, Charles had the law on his side. Then Brandi finally ends the suspense by wrapping up her two-part series on the Beatrice Six. In last week’s episode, she told us about 68-year-old widow Helen Wilson, who was discovered raped and murdered in her apartment in Beatrice, Nebraska. Police initially suspected Bruce Allen Smith, but a blood test ruled him out. The case grew cold. But then, a hog farmer and former police officer named Burdette Searcey stepped in. He was determined to solve the crime — by any means necessary. And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases. In this episode, Kristin pulled from: “Anthony Burns Trial of 1854,” www.famous-trials.com “Anthony Burns and the Fugitive Slave Act,” www.longroadtojustice.org “Anthony Burns,” PBS The book, “Boston slave riot, and trial of Anthony Burns” Wikipedia entries for Anthony Burns, Twelfth Baptist Church, Boston Vigilance Committee, Fugitive Slave Act of 185, and Franklin Pierce In this episode, Brandi pulled from: “Presumed Guilty Part Four: Pointing Fingers” by Catharine Huddle, Lincoln Journal Star “Presumed Guilty Part Five: Threat of Death” by Joe Duggan, Lincoln Journal Star “Presumed Guilty Part Six: The Trial” by Catharine Huddle, Lincoln Journal Star “Presumed Guilty Part Seven: DNA Changes Everything” by Joe Duggan, Lincoln Journal Star “Presumed Guilty Part Eight: A New Investigation” by Joe Duggan, Lincoln Journal Star “Memories of a Murder” by Rachel Aviv, The New Yorker “Even in 1989, forensics didn’t point to men and women who went to prison for crime” by Joe Duggan, Omaha World-Herald InnocenceProject.org  

One semester of law school. One semester of criminal justice. Two experts! I'm Kristen Pitts. I'm Brandi Egan. Let's go to court! On this episode, I'll talk about the trial of fugitive slave Anthony Burns. And I'll be talking about the power of suggestion, part two.

We can get a good slavery trial in here. That's sure to be lighthearted fare. It's fascinating. Okay. So shut your mouth. I did have a question though. Okay. It's my turn to go first. Yeah. But I feel like this two-parter thing

is it better for you to go first? No, I don't think it matters because I went first at the they've already had to listen to your shitty case. Oh! No, I'm just kidding. No, I loved your case. Oh, really? What was your favorite part about it?

Uh, Chichester? Okay, fine. I was hoping you were going to be like me and like once we finished recording I forget everything. No, I remembered out of your brain completely. Yeah. I remembered all of it. Wow.

I could recite it word for word. Well, congratulations. No, someone on our Reddit thread. Yeah. The unofficial Reddit thread. Let's go to the number two court podcast was like,

don't you think it would have been nice if they like, yeah, would have put these two segments together. Yeah. That would have been fucking fucking smart i'm sorry that we're not that smart but yes it would have been smart for me to go last last week and first this week i apologize that we were not that forward so did you read that too yeah somebody said it on our uh instagram as well okay so yeah i saw that and i was like huh yeah that would have been that would have been a pretty good idea. Well, that ship has sailed. And I don't think it matters at this point. So let's stick to our routine.

OK. Stick to the routine. Creature of habit, Kristen. OK. Fugitive slave, Anthony Burns. You're making a face like this is going to be the saddest thing ever. It's a really good story. Great.

Okay. First of all, shout out to FamousTrials.com. Famous Trials has a huge write-up on this case. I will say, though, I'm kind of on – I already wrote my script for next week and I'm on an old timey kick here and when you do the old timey

we're talking like 1800s, 1700s every site has different details so I just tried to go with what was most consistent I mean sometimes they were just blatant sometimes you just really couldn't figure it out so I just kind of went with whatever source I trusted the most what was most consistent. I mean, sometimes they were just blatant.

I mean, sometimes you just really couldn't figure it out. So I just kind of went with whatever source I trusted the most or whatever seemed to make the most sense. Got it. Also, last week I talked about Adam and Connor sending us the list of Boston cases, which I'm keeping from you because I love them. Correct. And they talked about wanting a Boston series.

Yeah. And I remember thinking like, well, you know, we'll see. You know, I'll do a few cases. The Boston series is happening. Oh, great. So last week I did a Boston one. This is a Boston one. Oh, okay.

Just like pure accident. Didn't need to. And next week is a Boston one and who knows. All right. Maybe I'm just on a Boston kick. Great. So. Reliving the glory days, huh?

If you can call them that. Just a lot of Mike's hard lemonade. And doing very well in school. Okay, you ready? Yes. Yeah, let's touch up Mike a whole bunch. Yeah, sorry. You got the limp noodle, Mike?

It's just like I had it up by my eyeballs i don't know why i had it up that high sorry we so you know this i don't have to tell you this but we just ate i know our routine is backwards today yes so like we just ate wings and we had stromboli so like my throat is just like yeah it's it's a mess. So here we go. Anthony Burns was born in 1834 in Stafford County, Virginia. He was born a slave. Even though it was illegal, he learned to read and write. He became a preacher. He was a gifted speaker and an intelligent person. As he got older, he knew there was one thing he wanted more than anything, his freedom. So when he was around 20 years old, some say 19, some say 20,

I say who cares, he escaped slavery. He got on board a ship headed for Boston. A while later, they docked in Boston, and Anthony was free. Almost immediately, he picked up jobs here and there. And eventually, he started working at... Coffin Pits. Ooh. Coffin, like... A coffin. A coffin.

Pits, like my last name. Okay, what do you think that store is? Oh, it's a store. Yes. Oh, I was thinking it was like an advertising firm. Gravedigger. No, it's a clothing store. Oh, yeah.

Hey, where'd you get those shoes? Oh, coffin pits. Oh, yeah. Hey, where'd you get those shoes? Oh, Coffin Pits. Oh, yeah. I know they're kind of pricey, but I just love them. So, get that computer ready. This clothing store, Coffin Pits, was located at 36 Brattle Street in Boston, Massachusetts. B-R-A-T-T-L-E. Well, I spelled it differently.

Did you spell it with a bunch of Ds? I did. I didn't put in the city, and then Rhode Island came up. Jeez. I'm so stressed right now. You know, it's a good thing I always cut out. People must think we're the fastest Googlers in the West,

because I always cut out a good 30 seconds of us being like, click, click, click. It's now a bank. Yeah yeah it looks like a city bank so it's like I mean it's basically in like Harvard town yeah so for about a year Anthony was a free man in Boston but he didn't want to entirely cut ties with his family so he sent a letter to his brother. In the letter, he said, hey, I'm doing okay. I'm living in Boston. I'm working at Coffin Pits at 36 Brattle Street. Don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds. He tried to send this letter in a smart way so he didn't just like send it from boston to virginia he sent it to canada first and then from canada it went to virginia so on the outside it looked like this

letter was coming from canada okay this next part is a little tricky one source says that anthony and his brother had been owned by the same guy who who will from now on be known as Colonel Charles F. Suttle, Douche Lord III. Yeah. So when the- That just makes my stomach cringe when you say they were owned by the same guy. Yeah. Ugh. I had a really rough time with like, you know, reading through all this stuff and so-and-so was a slave, so-and-so was their master. And like, I know those are just the terms.

Yeah. And, you know, you can't get around that. Well, actually, the way I'm getting around it is I'm not calling anyone master. I'm calling this guy douche lord the third. That's great. I love it. You know, that'll right some wrongs. Wow.

I feel like there's going to be a lot of healing all thanks to this. So when the letter arrived, Charles F. Settle, douche lord III, opened it immediately and read it. Another source said, and I think I believe this other source, it just makes more sense to me,

that Anthony's brother wasn't owned by the same guy as Anthony. And that Anthony's brother actually lived in Richmond, Virginia. So whichever douche lord owned Anthony's brother spotted that letter, read it, and was like, oh my, a black man has his freedom. And then mailed it to Alexandria to give a heads up to Charles F. Settle, douche lord the third. To me, that just makes more sense. Because I feel like Anthony would have been, I don't feel like Anthony would have sent it back to the place where the douche lord lived. Yeah. You know, even if it did come from Canada.

Right. Either way, the douche lord gets a hold of this letter and he's pissed. He's like, that man is my property and I will get him back. And I can do that thanks to a horrible little thing called the Fugitive Slave Act. So, pause to talk about that. There's a super early law on the books called the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, and that's not the one I'm talking about right now. I'm talking about the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which passed three years before Anthony arrived in Boston. required that any enslaved person who escaped to a free state had to be returned to the douche lord who owned them and and this is okay so this is the part that pissed people off big time

all the public officials in the free state and just the regular everyday citizens of the free state had to cooperate with this law if a public official didn't help capture a suspected runaway slave, they could be fined $1,000. Wow. Adjusted for inflation. Yes, give it to me. $32,000. Can you imagine?

Wow. Plus, any citizen who provided food or shelter or I'm sorry, any citizen who provided food or shelter to someone who had escaped slavery could get a fine, that thousand dollar fine, and they could face like six months in jail. Oh, my God. Yeah. This law pissed off the free states like crazy. Yeah. It was part of the something compromise shit the the compromise of 1850 this is not my fucking case kristin why am i supposed to i'm just thinking there are gonna be so many people who are angry that i don't remember anyway it was supposed to be a compromise but it just pissed off the

free states like crazy because obviously yeah speaking of things that people are pissed about that we don't know oh no oh no remember in the rockefeller case he somebody was having a date with a mountbatten and we were talking yeah lord mountain batten yeah so that's uh prince philip's last name that's that family name really oh i feel so dumb let's just show the world that we're midwest trash we have no idea you know what i i actually knew i just didn't want to make you feel bad my dad yeah my dad told me that yesterday he's like oh you know that's prince philip's family name and And I was like, no, I did not. And you were like, shut up. I did not. Well, that's good to know because honestly, Mountbatten sounds made up to me.

Clearly, it's not. Okay, sorry. Did you decide what compromise it is? Okay. I'm going to call it the Compromise of 1850. I'm going to Google it right now. Oh. Oh. Oh, boy. I'm so to Google it right now. Oh! Oh!

Oh, boy, I'm so smart. You ready for this? You ready? You ready to hear this? Did I tell you you were wrong? The Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18th, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850. Excellent.

Kristen Pitts is a genius. I can't believe it says it right there. So, this law that I remembered and described perfectly. On your own case. Pissed off. I mean, it's not like you came up with some law that I mentioned on my case and you like whipped it out of nowhere. You just researched this.

You should fucking know it. Brandy, let me be proud of myself. You're right. I'm so sorry. I'm not going to dull your shine. Thank you. This law pissed off the free states like crazy. Obviously.

Imagine that. pissed off the free states like crazy. Imagine that. You had people who were adamantly against slavery, but you also had people who probably didn't think about slavery a whole lot, probably didn't care a whole lot, but then all of a sudden

they're supposed to enforce slavery. Yeah, that's crazy. So they're like, no, we didn't sign up for this. What is happening? I feel like I've got a hair stuck to that terrible Carmex I was putting on earlier.

Do you need a wax? How dare you. I waxed it last week. Thank you. Got most of it up pretty good so the law was the law so when charles f subtle douche lord the third wanted anthony burns back he was like this should be easy he went to virginia state court submitted all the required paperwork and the court was like yeah you've proven that you own this guy

you've proven that he escaped and thanks to the fugitive slave act you can totally get him back so the douche lord was like thank you judicial system love you goodbye he goes to boston and he takes his buddy william brent who was also super pissed that Anthony Burns was a free man. So this is something that I just looked into very briefly. But I believe that this Charles Suttle guy, his family had been pretty wealthy from a few generations back, but then his dad died, his mom kind of mismanaged the money, so he was trying to build back up the wealth and one of the ways he was doing

that was trying to like basically rent out slaves yeah great so william brant had like agreed to pay for two years worth of work for anthony burns and so when anthony burns escaped william brant was pissed and charles subtle was right so charles f, Douche Lord III, and his buddy William go to Judge Edward Loring in Boston. They're like, here's our paperwork. We're here for our property. And Edward looked it over and said, okay, you're right. He issued a warrant for Anthony's arrest. he issued a warrant for Anthony's arrest.

That night, when Anthony got out of work, six men surrounded him and carried him to the Boston courthouse. Oh, my gosh. Uh, yeah. Unnecessary. Yeah. They locked him up in a jury room and they said,

you're getting a rendition hearing tomorrow morning and you're heading back to Virginia. Goodbye forever. There was just one problem. What? This was fucking Boston. They weren't in Virginia. Uh-huh.

So Boston was home to this little group called the Boston Vigilance Committee. This was a racially diverse group of total badasses. They fought to protect escaped slaves and lead escaped slaves to freedom. The Boston Vigilance Committee was fired up about the stupid Fugitive Slave Act. They hated it. So when they found out about what happened to Anthony Burns, they were like, oh, hell no. The next morning, when it was time for Anthony's rendition hearing, members of the Boston Vigilance Committee showed up.

Two lawyers said, hey, we will represent you pro bono. Wow. One was Richard Henry Dana. Richard was this Harvard-educated white guy who, as a boy, went to a private school that was run by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Oh, wow. Yeah. Dude was super educated and not a fan of slavery at all.

Right. The other lawyer was Robert Morris. Robert Morris was one of the first black attorneys in the United States and the first black attorney to win a lawsuit in the United States. Oh, wow. Yes. Civil rights issues were his thing. He made a name for himself by fighting for school integration

and fighting the Fugitive Slave Act. This guy was a total badass. So now Anthony had these two fantastic lawyers, and right away the lawyers got the hearing postponed. In the meantime, Anthony was still locked up in the courthouse, and the Boston Vigilance Committee was torn about what to do. Some of them were like, let's do this the non-violent way. Let's see if we can get him out of slavery by fighting this in the courtroom. Another group of them said, this is a money issue. If we just go to Charles F. Settle, douche lord the third, and pay him off, he'll go away.

We can buy Anthony's freedom. But others were like, yeah, great ideas all around. No bad ideas in brainstorming. But Charles is a douche lord and we kind of hate to give him money and as for the legal route we could do that except the law is super clear yeah we're gonna lose this thing so how about, we storm the courthouse and bust him out? Oh my gosh. So that's what they did?

Well, it was a big group. Lots of different opinions. Couldn't really agree on any one tactic. So, meanwhile... The look on your face! Meanwhile, word of Anthony's story spread. That night, thousands of people gathered in Faneuil Hall to protest on Anthony's behalf. You can look up Faneuil Hall.

F-A-N-E-U-I-L Hall. How? That's the way to spell it. It's an insane way to spell it. i'm not the one who made it up it's um oh yeah a lot of important things have happened there um a very important thing happened to me there important what happened to you there well okay it was during a college visit i was 18 we had visited simmons which was where i would eventually go and we were just kind of seeing the sites one of them being faneuil hall and i remember we crossed the street and we kind of like turned back to look behind us and there was another group like a family crossing the street and in the

middle of the crosswalk a bird shat on your face no on someone else's face on someone else's face i saw this happen to this girl she was about my age pooped right in the middle of her forehead and so when i looked this up for this very important case all i could think of was the look on that girl's face when the poop splattered oh no poor girl it's you know what's funny is like at first she didn't even look mad. It was just so shocking. And then, you know. And you're like, I've got bird shit on my face. There's only so long you can deny that.

Thousands of people gathered to protest on Anthony's behalf. People were fired up. One abolitionist told the crowd that if Anthony Burns leaves the city of Boston, Massachusetts is a conquered state. Wow. By about 930, the protest was winding down. The crowd shrank from thousands to hundreds. A few of the men had axes.

Oh, okay. A few had a big beam of wood wood which was taken from a construction site. I often travel with a beam of wood. They were like, we're busting Anthony out of this courthouse. They rammed the courthouse's doors with the beam. They rammed it and rammed it until finally they broke

open. I'm picturing it like a ramrod. I get it. Do you get it? I get it. They all, like everyone had open. I'm picturing it like a ramrod. I get it. Do you get it? I get it. They all, like, everyone had part of the beam. That's how a ramrod works. Yeah, they pushed it forward. Okay. I don't think you get it.

Say car ramrod. Huh? Nothing. It's a Super Troopers reference. A movie you've never seen, I'm sure. True. I've never seen Super. Actually, it's the one with the cops, right?

They're actually Highway Patrol. They go through the drive-thru? Oh, do they? They sure do. It was chaos. There were roughly 50 guards inside the courthouse. Things got violent. And one of the guards died.

Okay, here's the thing. Things got violent. And one of the guards died. Okay. Here's the thing. It said he died from a wound to his groin. No! I know. And, like, it also, it didn't say an axe to his groin, but, I mean, dudes had axes, and I feel like. Oh, no. I know. I know. Oh. axe to his groin but i mean dudes had axes and i feel like oh no i know i know oh so that's a way to go no kidding soon police descended on the scene a bunch of abolitionists were arrested

i'm sure everyone was cupping their junk president franklin pierce weighed in he was not a fan of the anti slavery movement so he was like hey could everyone just like chill i think the most important thing here perhaps more important than freedom and liberty is that we respect this law oh my gosh by the way according to wikipedia he was one of our worst and least memorable presidents. Yeah, when you said his name, I was like, oh yeah, that was a president. I'm so glad you said that because I was like, Franklin Pierce, that's one, if I'm reciting presidents, I'm never going to name him. I'm never getting that one. Nope.

By this point, Boston is a mess mess we've got one dead u.s marshal we've got 13 people under arrest we've got one shitty federal law and we've got a guy who just wants to be free and is headed for trial meanwhile a group of abolitionists were still talking about buying Anthony's freedom. They talked to Charles F. Settle, and the douchebag was like, no way. I'll sell him, but not to anyone who's going to set him free. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah.

Two days go by. Now it's time for the rendition hearing. Right off the bat, the defense loses on the legal question. Yes, a fugitive slave certificate issued in Virginia is valid. Yes, Congress has the power to insist that Massachusetts accept the certificate. So that sucked pretty bad. But then the defense took a different route they were like how do we know for certain that this man is the man you claim to own i think we've got a case of mistaken identity here oh that is a good argument you Yeah. Yeah, in this day and age. Yeah.

Because, yeah, how do they prove for sure who he is? Yeah, it's like, oh, did you have photos? Yeah. DNA? No. That is a great argument. They were like, hey, the defendant doesn't even match the description on the certificate. So I think this is super interesting.

The certificate says he has a scarred right hand but look the defendant's hand isn't scarred it's super damaged the certificate says he has a scar on his left cheek but look there's no scar there it It's a brand. So basically, so my opinion, in this certificate, they tried to fancy up how this man had been treated. Oh, it's not that, you know,

he got his hand mangled. Oh, it's not that we took an iron and branded his cheek. There's a scar. Yeah. So they're trying to use that to their advantage because this was was anthony

burns you know yes the prosecution was like nah dude that's him that's for sure him they called up william brent who was the douche lord's long-term friend and william said i've known anthony burns for years and that guy right there, that's Anthony Burns. And by the way, when he was arrested, I asked him why he ran away. And he told me, I fell asleep on board the vessel where I worked and before I woke up,

she set sail and carried me off. Which, I mean, say what you gotta say. Yeah. But, yeah. Come on. So that was pretty damning testimony. But the defense kept fighting.

Anthony escaped slavery on March 20th. So the defense called eight witnesses who all said they saw him in Boston before March 20th. Then the prosecution called a guard up to take the stand. And the guard said, yeah, I had a conversation with Anthony. He told me that he arrived in Boston in late March, which late March could still be March 19th, but you know, whatever. In closing arguments,

the defense begged the judge to presume freedom. Richard said, may your judgment be for liberty and not for slavery, for happiness, not for wretchedness, and for hope. I've already messed it up. Hang on. Back that ship up. Back that ship up. I fell asleep while I was on it. Now I'm in Boston.

Let me back it up. I fell asleep while I was on it. Now I'm in Boston. Let me back it up. He said, May your judgment be for liberty and not for slavery, for happiness and not for wretchedness, for hope and not despair.

Beautiful. Yeah. When said correctly. When it came time to rule, Judge Loring said that the Fugitive Slave Act was cruel and wicked. But ultimately, the law was the law. Anthony was sitting there listening to all of this, and he silently mouthed the word no, just as the judge ordered that he be sent back to Virginia and back into slavery. The people of Boston were stunned. No. Wow.

Wow. 50 000 people lined the streets of boston to protest anthony's return to virginia wow a ton of people soldiers for the army marines and u.s marshals all escorted anthony burns to virginia by the way i didn't get into this in the script but this was like super fucking expensive yeah this whole thing was insanely expensive because they had to like call in all these extra troops and like people got mad about that because it's like really yeah for one guy who just wanted to be free yeah shut up when anthony arrived in virginia he immediately went to prison they kept him in a tiny cell and gave him just enough food and water to keep from dying. Four months later, the douche lord sold Anthony Burns at auction. A plantation owner from Rocky Mount, North Carolina named David McDaniel Douche Nozzle II bought him for $905. By the way, the

Boston people, I think they'd offered to pay either $1,200 or $1,300. So this was not a money thing. It was truly, yeah. But the people in Boston's abolitionist movement hadn't forgotten

about Anthony. Two clergymen from the 12th Baptist Church, you ready for this? Located at 160 Warren Street, W-A-R-R-E-N. Thank you. i know how to spell fucking warren oh wow listen to you battle um or brattle or whatever that was i can't even remember roxbury massachusetts got it i don't know if that's the same building surely that's not the

same building but anyway it's this prominent african-american church that's been around forever two clergymen from that church were keeping track of anthony they found out who had purchased him and they turned to the congregation and they said please help us you know this man's story what can we do yeah so the congregation raised one thousand three hundred dollars which i didn't adjust for inflation but it's got to be like 30 something So the congregation raised $1,300. Oh my gosh. Which I didn't adjust for inflation, but it's got to be like 30-something thousand. Then the clergyman reached out to David McDaniel Duschnasel II, and they said, hey, that new slave you just bought.

We'll take him. Can we buy him from you? And Daniel McDaniel, David McDaniel, sorry. You know, when I add on like douche nozzle, I mean, it's just messing me up. The guy said, sure. And they worked out a deal. Everything looked like it was going to be okay. But pretty quickly, word got out.

To douche lord the third? What do you mean? Did douche lord the third find out about it and got pissed? Original douche lord. He didn't have any. Right. Sorry. I was getting lost in the douche lord.

I can tell you were. So he didn't have any say at this point. Okay. All right. Sold. I won't interrupt anymore. Okay. Please don't.

So word gets out in North Carolina and people are pissed. Is that a pause for dramatic effect? For sure. It wasn't just me losing my place. If that's what you're asking. Word gets out in North Carolina. They're super mad because they find out, okay, David McDaniel is planning to give this guy his freedom, essentially. We can't have that. So they go, they point a gun

at douche nozzle the second and they start threatening him. But he says, basically, sorry, y'all. Deal's a deal. Yeah, deal's a deal. So the angry mob just kind of dispersed, and the plan worked. That church in Boston, or excuse me, Roxbury, bought Anthony Burns' freedom, and he went on to do so much with it.

He became a public speaker, and he told crowds about what slavery was really like. He talked about being captured. He wrote a biography, and then he used the money from his biography to go to college. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I'm getting goosebumps. This is so exciting. He attended Oberlin College in Ohio on a scholarship, and after college, he preached in Indianapolis. He later moved to Canada to preach at the Zion Baptist Church.

And I'm sorry, because Canada is a huge country, and I feel really stupid just being like, he moved there. You didn't find out where in Canada? I couldn't find where. Great. I'm not going to pretend like I looked really hard for it, but I'm just saying, like, I looked a little. He died in 1862 of tuberculosis when he was just 28 years old oh my gosh I know but I think about like what an impact he had yeah in just 28 years like what he was able to do with his life is incredible incredible even though Anthony Burns died young, he had a huge impact on the judicial system.

Immediately after his trial, people in Boston were super fired up. They formed an anti-manhunting league. They burned copies of the Fugitive Slave Act. And they also burned copies of Judge Loring's decision. Am I having a stroke right now? No, you're not. The chandelier in this dining room is like flickering like crazy anthony burns is here with us anthony burns and he's asking me

why i'm doing such a bad job on this amazing story so they burned copies of judge loring's decisions against him the boston vigilance committee was so incensed by judge Loring's decisions against him. The Boston Vigilance Committee was so incensed by Judge Loring's decision that they lobbied to have him removed as a probate judge. Wow. And it worked. Wow. Okay. So the Massachusetts legislature, blah, blah, blah.

The Massachusetts. Oh, no. No. I'm the one having this stroke. I don't know what's wrong with me today oh i think it's because we did things out of order we did do things i'm a creature of habit we cannot be eating lunch before we record we can't do open houses lunch then record it has to be record then lunch yeah the massachusetts legislature oh beautifully said than lunch. The Massachusetts legislature beautifully said removed him

saying Massachusetts required her judges to bring instincts to the bench favorable to liberty and justice and not against them. But the governor stepped in and said no way. He blocked it? You can't remove him.

The governor said Judge Loring tried to apply the law But the governor stepped in and said, no way. Blocked it? Mm-hmm. You can't remove him. Damn it. The governor said, Judge Loring tried to apply the law neutrally, and that's what he did. The law's the law. He applied it. Wow. The next year, with a new governor, the Boston Vigilance Committee tried again. And this time, their efforts were successful. So this guy was, I think, on the faculty at harvard law at the time and after that decision they refused to reappoint him wow yeah

yeah oh my gosh not everyone was disgusted by edward loring's decision though jeez I'm sorry his decision I'm the one who decided to have lunch before the podcast oh god oh no good thing we're not recording this and letting

other people listen no shit jeez who Good thing we're not recording this and letting other people listen. Other people listen to this. Oh, shit. Jeez. Whew. Get it together, Kristen. I'm trying, but I mean, like, gosh, I'm in the home stretch here. You're really fine.

I like it. I'm thinking about changing the way I pronounce it. That's a decision you have to make on your own. We all have to decide for ourselves. So not everyone was disgusted by Edward Loring's decision. Great. Uh-huh. Really? In fact, some people thought it was pretty cool.

No! Yeah. So it's like you think this guy's going to get a little justice, but then in 1858 president james buchanan appointed him to a federal judgeship awesome yeah sorry that happened to you have a promotion anthony burns's trial did more than just change things in the short term after the trial massachusetts passed laws that made it so that if an alleged slave wanted a jury trial, they could get one. It wasn't going to be just some like,

oops, send you back to wherever within five minutes. The laws placed the burden of proof on the douche lords who claimed to own a fugitive slave, not the other way around. They said that people coming into Massachusetts claiming to own a fugitive slave had to bring at least two neutral witnesses to prove the case. So probably not some guy who also has a financial stake. And that's the story of how one man's fight for freedom was ultimately successful and fueled opposition to slavery. Wow. So I view it as kind of an uplifting it even actually is it sounds like it's gonna be horrible than i thought it was gonna be yeah

yeah oh my god so on famous trials like the professor who runs that site was basically like this is one of those interesting cases where you you know, we always kind of say, oh, judges are supposed to apply laws neutrally. Just like go by the book. But can you really? Right. And he talked about like, this was a big thing, you know, in the Third Reich, like judges applied these terrible laws. Yeah. Neutrally. And should they have done that? Yeah. Like, judges applied these terrible laws neutrally.

And should they have done that? Yeah. Well, fucking no. Like, you've got to, you've got to have some morals. Yeah.

I think it's interesting. It is interesting. So that's a Boston case for you. Woo! All right. I'm excited for this Boston series. There's a, there's a lot of town names

that I'm excited to pronounce. Two wins, feeling good about it. Yeah? Yeah. That one turned out way better than I thought it was going to. Oh, yeah. You think you can do a better job than I did? We'll see.

Goodness gracious. It just occurs to me now, like, the people who were just suffering through that so they could get to part two of yours, that had be real rough it's really painful i'll get through the girl who can't talk to get to part two of this exciting story okay okay are you gonna do like a recap i need a recap all right i um before i do my recap i want to say a couple things first of all i did not give this shout out on last week's episode and i feel badly about it um it is i just want to say a couple things. First of all, I did not give this shout out on last week's episode and I feel badly about it. It is – I just want to thank Joe Dugan and Catherine Huddle who are the authors of the eight-part series of articles in the Lincoln Journal-Star where I got the majority of the info for these episodes. Okay.

So quick recap of part one. On last week's episode of rocky and bullwinkle before i do the recap let me just say that in general the feedback has been good people have liked the two-part series there's been only one or two people who have actually said like i don't think it's for me i'm telling you it's gonna be worth it after the conclusion people actually say it wasn't yeah one person one person, one or two people were like, I like it when it all wraps up in one episode. Okay, quick recap of part one. Yes.

February 6th, 1985. 68-year-old widow Helen Wilson is found murdered in her apartment in Beatrice, Nebraska. She had been raped and suffocated. Her hands were bound and an afghan was tied around her face. Evidence of the crime scene was fairly limited, but did include blood and semen that told investigators they were looking for a Type B non-secreter. Within 10 days of Helen's murder, investigators had zeroed in on a suspect. They had multiple witnesses who could put Bruce Smith in the area of Helen Wilson's apartment around the time of the murder. They also had witnesses who had seen him that day with what looked like blood on his clothes.

Bruce had already skipped town, but when detectives followed him to Oklahoma and they learned that he'd been a suspect in a murder that looked an awful lot like Helen's, they were pretty sure they had their guy. But when they sent blood and saliva samples off to the Oklahoma City Police Lab, they were shocked to learn that he couldn't be their guy. Bruce Smith was a type B secretor. And that's when the hunt for Helen Wilson's killer went cold. That's also when Bert Searcy entered the picture.

Bert was a former police investigator turned hog farmer who recognized Helen Wilson from the cleaners he used to take his police uniforms to, and he felt called to investigate her murder himself. Fast forward four years, and Bert is back in uniform, this time as a sheriff's deputy, and he wouldn't stop talking about the Wilson murder case. Thanks to a confidential informant, he was sure he knew who was responsible for her death. He just needed to get the right person to listen to him. Neither the sheriff nor the police chief

seemed to be taking him seriously, so he took his evidence directly to the county attorney, Richard Smith, and was able to secure arrest warrants for Joseph White and Joanne Taylor. And on March 15, 1989, the two were taken into custody on suspicion of first-degree murder. From the moment of his arrest, Joseph White maintained his innocence and said he had no knowledge of Helen Wilson's death. And he asked for a lawyer. Joanne Taylor at first also said she knew nothing of the murder. But after some very helpful coaching by the authorities, memories of the crime started to come back to her.

Well, coaching by Burt, right? Yeah, who is an authority? Well, I mean, like you're saying authorities. It was just the one dude, right? Was it? Are you kidding me? Find out more on this episode of Let's Go to Court. So excited.

When we left off last week, Tom Winslow had just been arrested on suspicion of first degree murder after being picked out of a photo lineup by joanne taylor winslow had also been named by the confidential informant early on and when question had claimed to be present in helen wilson's apartment the night of her murder but said that he had left when white and taylor had forced helen wilson into the, and she'd begun screaming. But remember, this all took place in the living room. Now under arrest, Winslow had asked to speak to Searcy, and this time he told him he'd been lying before.

He'd simply told him what he wanted to hear at that initial interview. He'd never been inside Helen's apartment. This infuriated Searcy. Because it was Winslow's statement. That had secured the arrest warrants for White and Taylor. Now he wasn't sure what to believe. And that's when Searcy got the call. That there were some other people.

That he needed to talk to. People who would confirm. What he had already believed. That he was on the right track all along. Oh god. Enter the Sheldons. Okay to be totally fair I don't know for sure what took Searcy to the Sheldons house on March 24th 1989. Nine days after he had taken Taylor and White into custody. He could have gotten a call that they had a tip. Or a much more believable version of events, in my opinion, is that he knew he could get the Sheldons to corroborate the version of the story

that he had come to believe took place in Helen Wilson's apartment that night. Because I believe by this time he was truly spinning out of control, grasping at anything and anyone after Winslow retracted the statement that had been so instrumental in securing the arrest warrants. Yeah. Either way, the Sheldons were unbelievably helpful. Oh, boy. Deborah Sheldon happened to be Helen Wilson's great niece. And she grew up in foster care, so she didn't meet Helen until she was in her 20s.

But she told Circe that Joanne Taylor had confessed to the murder in a letter she once read. But, you know, no longer had. Well, that's too bad. You know, I often throw out murder confessions myself. Like, I'm probably not going to need this, right? Then, Circe went and talked to Deb's husband, Cliff Sheldon, who was sitting in jail on unrelated assault charges. Does that sound familiar? Tom Winslow was also sitting in jail on unrelated assault charges when Searcy interviewed him.

In fact, Cliff Sheldon was Tom Winslow's co-defendant in that unrelated assault case. Oh no! Yes! And wouldn't you know it, he had a whole lot of information about Helen Wilson's murder. Oh my. He was like, oh yeah. Taylor, White, Winslow, they were all there that night. But that's

not all. My wife Deb was there. What? And so was James Dean, this young construction worker who worked often in the area. So Bert Searcy's like, yeah, great. Getting some really good information here out of the sheldons how many people is this oh that's we're up to five people now that have been

okay at what point do you just say how big is this apartment exactly there's one man semen there yeah that's yeah that's insane so now we're at five people okay great so burt searcy went back to deb sheldon and he was like uh you know your husband says you were involved in helen wilson's murder and according to him she was like oh yeah yeah you're right i was i was totally there with winslow white and taylor that night i remember hearing Helen scream, and I remember that my head was bleeding. I must have gotten hurt somehow. What? And Circe's like, excellent.

Handcuffs on, please. You're under arrest. And he took Deb Sheldon to jail. What? Yes. So she said she was there. Yeah, that's what he says. Oh, oh, come on. Now it was time to track down that fifth suspect, James Dean. Everybody following along so far? We've got White, Taylor, Winslow, Sheldon, all currently in custody on suspicion of first-degree

murder. Now CRC's out tracking down the next guy implicated in the case. It was April 15th, 1989, by the time they tracked down James Dean. He was headed to a bar in Lincoln, Nebraska, to celebrate his birthday. And when he got out of the car to go in, police swarmed him and placed him under arrest for murder. He told the police he knew nothing of the murder, though he did know some of the other suspects. He even agreed to take a polygraph. And when he learned that he failed it, he began to question his own memory. Oh, no. Wait, are all of these people kind of like on drugs or kind of mess. OK, OK. That makes sense. So by May of 1989, we've got five suspects in custody and only one, Joseph White, was flat out denying any involvement in the case.

The others seemed somehow unsure of their memories, though they had all denied involvement at some point. How could that be possible? If you were present for a murder, you'd remember it. If you weren't, you wouldn't, right? I mean, unless you have someone who is manipulating you and you don't trust your own memory. I mean, if you're drugged up or I don't know. This is where the power of suggestion really started to play a role in this case. When James Dean began to question himself after he learned that he failed his polygraph, the county attorney, the sheriff, and Dean's public defender all worked together and asked Beatrice psychologist Dr. Wayne Price to evaluate him. In his report after the evaluation, Dr. Price wrote that Dean repeatedly denied any involvement in the Wilson murder,

but Price wrote, he began to realize that the polygraph was revealing, at least on the unconscious level, his awareness that he was present in the apartment. But he couldn't reconcile that with the conscious belief that he was not there. Yeah, I mean, this is so sad and terrible. It is.

Price concluded that Dean likely witnessed Wilson's death, but repressed the memory. He recommended therapy and Dean agreed to therapy, but wanted to talk to someone else. He didn't feel Price had his best interests in mind because he was, drumroll please. What? A part-time deputy for the sheriff's office. No. Right? No.

No. Yeah. This, this is horrible. It's horrible. And, of course, this wasn't Price's first involvement in the case. Dr. Price had worked with the Beatrice police immediately after Helen Wilson's murder to help put together a profile of the suspect. He told them the killer likely acted alone and had... Wait, no, I'm sorry.

There's five. This is after she was first murdered this is the profile he's putting together weird okay well he got it wrong because there's clearly like 17 people involved he told them the killer had likely acted alone and had great anger toward older women and then he would go on to have contact with all but one of the suspects in the case as it progressed he had traveled south with detectives when they went to arrest white and taylor he'd actually sat in on white's initial interrogation though he never actually spoke to him on tape anyway and he'd actually been joanne tay's psychologist through the public health system before she was a suspect

in the case. Wait, say that again. Sorry. Dr. Price was Joanne Taylor's psychologist through the public health system in Beatrice before she was ever a suspect in the case. He was actually the first person she saw when she got back to beatrice after her arrest dr price also met with deb sheldon at the request of her public defender to evaluate her for competency i'm surprised these public defenders are blowing my it blows my mind that just shows that these public defenders do not have their clients' well-being in mind all the time. I mean, not these ones, no. I also wonder, like, when you're in a town this small, is it hard to find?

I don't know. But even then, I feel like you've got to. There's not a psychologist who's not also a sheriff's deputy? Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Like, surely there's the next town over. Right, exactly. Yeah, they're not that far from Lincoln.

Okay, then go to the freaking Lincoln. That's right, that one dude was going to Lincoln to go drink. Yeah, for his birthday, yeah. Yes. So he'd met with Deb Sheldon at the request of her public defender to evaluate her for competency. Sheldon had actually already pled guilty at this point, but said she was having trouble remembering the details of that night. Oh, yeah, because she wasn't there. She said she needed help remembering the details so she could help make things right by testifying against the others.

Oh, God. the others. Oh, God. Dr. Price also saw Tom Winslow at some point, but later he couldn't remember if it was as a regular patient prior to his arrest or if it was after he was already a suspect in the case. And he was also about to meet with our next suspect, who we haven't yet met. who we haven't yet met. The only person in this case he never met with independently was Joseph White, who also happened to be the only one who was consistently claiming his innocence.

Yeah, that is disturbing. Yeah, yeah. All right, time to meet our last suspect. Oh. Yeah. All right. Time to meet our last suspect. Oh, my God. So at this point, we've got five suspects, but there's one big problem. None of them did it? None of them are type B.

Oh, that's too bad. So they're like, all right, who else you got? Who else you got? You're bound to find someone eventually, right? And that's when the name Kathy Gonzalez came up. Kathy Gonzalez was living in Denver in May of 1989 when detectives came to speak with her. But she had lived above Helen Wilson at the time of the murder. Kathy's name had surfaced as a suspect during an interrogation of Deb Sheldon.

Kathy maintained that she knew nothing about the murder, but agreed to come back to Nebraska to answer their questions and clear her name. In Nebraska, she continually denied any involvement, but began to question herself when detectives told her that multiple people were claiming her involvement. Oh, a lie.

Oh, that was just a flat lie. Just a flat lie. Her name had only come up once and it was from Deb Sheldon. Oh, my gosh. She so Kathy Gonzalez was like, I legitimately have no involvement. I have no memory of this. She has to be hypnotized to free some long suppressed memories. But the court discouraged it.

Anything divulged during a hypnotism would likely be deemed inadmissible. And yeah, so she turned to Dr. Price. This is so sad to me because these people like they're like if i if i was involved if i did this i yeah yeah then i am okay being punished if i didn't punish me that is so yeah that is so rare i feel like and here they all are trying to do the right thing. Yes. Yeah. So several of them had drug issues. Several of them were of less than average intelligence. So yeah, it was. Yeah, all of that makes sense to me as to why you might think,

well, gosh, I can't trust my own judgment. All these other people who seem to be level-headed and intelligent are telling me this one thing. Maybe I did it. So Kathy told Price that she didn't understand why she would have blocked out this memory. No. She said she'd had a lot of bad things happen to her in her life, and she could remember them all. This had to be really, really bad if she couldn't remember it at all.

And Price told her her it is bad i've been involved in a lot of investigations and this one was one of the worst kathy told him i don't think i was there but they seem to have evidence against me or they wouldn't have arrested me and price told her well enough evidence to convince the judge what yeah so he's like well yeah they probably do have enough evidence to convince a judge oh and then there were six six suspects in the murder of helen wilson they would come to be known as the beatrice six kathy and again her apartment wasn't messed up or anything right it was not there was six people are in there was one footstool turned over green in color covered in vinyl yes no that's that just doesn't oh yeah kathy gonzalez would later say they just found a bunch of suckers they weren't getting anywhere so they found a bunch of disposable people

and that was us ouch yeah but yeah yeah she she got it totally right yep as 1989 moved forward joseph white sat in jail wondering how his life had come to this point he was still maintaining his innocence and his trial date had been set for october 30th 1989 he could maintain his innocence until he was blue in the face and he would, but the others were starting to stack up against him. Deb Sheldon, someone Joseph White had never even met, had already pled guilty to aiding and abetting second degree murder.

She told authorities that she saw White beat and rape her great-aunt Helen, and she was ready to testify against him. Next came James Dean. He started talking. He told investigators that he now remembered being with a group of people who broke into the apartment and attacked Helen Wilson. When asked by the county attorney, who often sat in on the interrogations, why he suddenly remembered this when he denied involvement previously,

he said it came to him in a dream. Oh. Well, I feel I remembered it in my sleep, Dean said. I obviously had some kind of subconscious block or something i don't know what it is for sure i couldn't remember and i thought i was telling the truth is this not just like this is heartbreaking it's terrible yep and where were these other people's consciences right They knew what was going on. Pretty quickly after that, Dean went from a confused man, unsure of his memories, to a full-on chatterbox. He gave authorities a series of five more statements over the course of two months, all of them different.

And then, Circe played Dean the crime scene video. Upon seeing Helen Wilson's lifeless body, he buried his head in his attorney's coat and sobbed. Then he said he was ready to plead guilty to aiding and abetting second degree murder. In doing so, he agreed to give total cooperation to the state of Nebraska. Nebraska? Nebraska.

I love that Lady Gaga song. In doing so, he agreed to give total cooperation to the state of Nebraska regarding the homicide of Helen Wilson. The plea bargains for Dean and Sheldon reduced the possible punishment from death. They were told

they were facing the death penalty. Oh my gosh. To a maximum of 10 years in prison. Who wouldn't take that deal? Yeah. Yeah. Even if you knew nothing. Yeah're not gonna risk no dying yeah during depositions both dean and sheldon said much of what they recalled from the murder about the murder came from dreams dean estimated 90 of his memories were revealed to him as he slept.

And Price had encouraged it. What does that mean? He was like, think about what comes to you when you're sleeping. Those are your repressed memories. He told this to both of them. I believe he told it to all of the people involved in the case, but these are the two that recovered the most memories while they slept oh well great then i've got a lot of stuff to confess to right that's how that works and the stories they told were devastating for white they said a group of six white taylor

sheldon dean tom winslow and kathy gonz, had broken into the apartment with a plan to rob the woman. White and Winslow took turns raping Wilson. Taylor helped hold her down and put a pillow over her face. But it wasn't a pillow. It was an Afghan, right? That's correct. Okay. I guess he needs to keep dreaming.

Right? Is there any part of this that you remember from actually being there? White's attorney asked Dean during a pretrial deposition. Oh. Well, when you dream about something you did, you were actually there. No, dude. Yeah. What?

Yeah. That is the direction that he was given from Dr. Price. That is, that's nonsense. Yeah. What? Yeah. That is the direction that he was given from Dr. Price. That is, that's nonsense. Yeah. Yeah. Ugh. When Dean was asked to give a physical description of Joseph White, the man he claimed to have seen rape and murder Helen Wilson,

he couldn't do it. I wouldn't know if I seen him on the street, Dean said during a deposition. He could not describe him, yet he was going to testify in court that he watched him rape and murder someone. Yeah, no, no. Joanne Taylor was the next to plead guilty.

The county attorney told her that he was going to seek the death penalty against her. Or she could plead guilty to second-degree murder, testify for the state, and stay off death row. She took the deal. Joseph White was offered the same deal. Plead guilty to second degree murder and be sentenced to 25 years to life he refused he was innocent he said it was September of 1989 by this point Joseph White's trial was a month away and yet another co-defendant was about to turn witness for the prosecution kathy gonzalez

pled no guilty to eight no no woman no cry kathy gonzalez pled no contest to aiding and abetting second degree murder the state now had four potential witnesses, all liars if you ask Joseph White, and all he could do now was hope a jury would agree. Oh shit. On October 30th, 1989, 26 year old Joseph White walked into a packed courtroom to stand trial for the murder of Helen Wilson. County attorney, Richard Smith thought he had a solid case. He had confessions and guilty pleas from three of the people charged in the case and a no contest plea from a fourth.

Three of them were ready to testify against white. What he didn't have was a single piece of physical evidence to tie any of them to the scene. In opening statements, White's attorney asked the jury to consider the credibility of Joanne Taylor, James Dean, and Deborah Sheldon. He noted that Taylor said in her statements that she was so high that she saw paint bleeding down the walls of Helen Wilson's apartment. He also pointed out to the jury that she had given several different versions of events over her many statements. As for James Dean and Deborah Shelton, their memories had been recovered from dreams. How reliable could that be?

The prosecutor countered the claims against the witnesses by offering, If the state could bring you in a priest or a rabbi or a nun or a minister that was there and put them on the stand for you, we would. But these are the people that were there. on the stand for you we would but these are the people that were there okay that no that doesn't work right that doesn't that ignores the stuff about two of these people saying it was all a dream right yeah and you can't just ignore that right yep the prosecutor also admitted that the jury would find inconsistencies between the witnesses' statements. But he said that all three would say White was there and that he'd raped and murdered Helen Wilson. Well, that's a powerful thing to say.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. It all started in a bathroom, Deb Sheldon testified. On the night her great aunt was killed, Taylor and Dean met to talk in a bathroom of a friend's apartment. Then the three of them went riding around with Tom Winslow and Joseph White, who they knew as Lobo. They ended up at Helen Wilson's apartment. Her great aunt recognized Sheldon and said hello. Then Taylor and White started shoving the woman around, elbowing Sheldon when she tried to stop them, knocking her into a wall so hard that her head was bleeding and she passed out.

When Sheldon came to, she said her great aunt was on the living room floor, her hands bound behind her back. Taylor knelt near the woman's head and held a pillow over her face. Winslow held her feet and Lobo straddled her. I heard Mrs. Wilson screaming. She was trying to get up. She was struggling with her head back and forth, trying to get released out of Tom's hands. When Lobo was finished raping the 68-year-old widow, Winslow rolled her over and took his turn, Sheldon testified. Helen Wilson didn't move anymore after that. On cross, Joseph White's attorney came out swinging. Sheldon acknowledged that she'd met White only once, on the night of the murder,

and she admitted she'd said in August that she didn't know what he looked like. Would you agree with me that you've changed your testimony a number of times, the attorney asked? Yes, she said. What prompted you to change your testimony? Was it a person? Was it dreams? What was it? Nothing, she said. Nobody told me anything. I just did it. And that's when White's attorney zeroed in on the role of Dr. Price. And that's when White's attorney zeroed in on the role of Dr. Price. And Dr. Price helped you with your memory regarding those dreams, didn't he?

Yes, Sheldon replied. Now, do you remember telling me in the deposition that everything you recalled about this murder you remembered in your dreams. And she said, I remember it by seeing it. I know exactly. And he said, can you separate for me, Mrs.

Sheldon, the facts that you recall from your dreams, from the facts that you remember from this case? Or are they identical? They're identical, she said. This is a good attorney, okay. Next on the stand was James Dean. Dean testified he saw White, Taylor, Winslow, and Sheldon in apartment four i just froze i didn't know what to do i wasn't watching i wasn't paying attention to what was going on yet somehow he gave

a vivid description of the rapes and he said taylor did more than cover Wilson's face. She was holding the hands and licking the upper body of Mrs. Wilson, which what remember Helen Wilson's hands were bound. Uh huh. So there's no way she was holding her hands. He also remembered that Joanne Taylor made coffee and he remembered that Kathy Gonzalez was head was bleeding and she was holding a brown washcloth over her face okay this this prosecutor had said details were different these

are big big details big details and it's real this is a really important piece of testimony about Kathy Gonzalez bleeding in the apartment. Yeah. Because she's the only member of the six with type B blood. And type B blood was found in the apartment. Of course. And nobody else says that anybody with type B was bleeding in there. Yeah. Yeah.

Nobody else is telling this same story yeah the defense bored in on the fact that dean had given multiple statements each different from the last they pointed out the inconsistencies in his testimony from what they knew to be fact of the crime scene and they focused on an earlier conversation they had with dean about joseph white do you recall at a deposition that you were asked if you could identify him the defense asked yeah i wouldn't know if i've seen him i can't say that right i wouldn't know because he says it's so weird Okay. I wouldn't know him if I seen him. That's what he says. Wouldn't know him if I seen him. Joanne Taylor testified next.

She testified that she held a pillow on Helen Wilson's face so that she wouldn't see who was raping her. She'd done it to protect her. Boy, that's great. Yeah. Her testimony also tied white to a piece of physical evidence. Lobo, she said, did a trick that ended with him tearing a $5 bill. Exhibit number 19 in his trial for first degree murder was part of a five dollar bill found on the floor of helen wilson's apartment apartment number four the defense asked taylor about the

vastly different accounts she'd given of helen wilson's death and how she had come to a version that more closely matched the crime scene are you telling me that at no time police officers fed you information to you to testify to what you have testified today? The defense asked. I wouldn't say they fed it to me. No, sir. Then I take it that the information they gave you was pretty influential in helping you remember,

the defense countered. Yeah, it helped me sort things out a lot. Oh, I bet it did. Had they not helped you with the information, do you think you'd be able to remember anything? No, Taylor answered. Wow. Yeah. That says it all. Uh-huh. Joseph White took the stand in his own defense and denied any role in the crime. He said he'd never done a trick with a $5 bill and he'd never even met Deb Sheldon. And can we just, how common is it in a rape and murder scene for someone to do some trick? Yeah.

Right? Yeah. And then the prosecution did something the defense hadn't thought to prepare their client for. the defense hadn't thought to prepare their client for. They held up a portrait of Helen Wilson dressed in her Sunday best and said, can you tell me what this is, if you know? And White replied flatly, it's a picture of an old woman. The defense winced.

It was his deeply honest answer but it had just given off the impression that he was a cold-blooded cold-hearted killer oh shit yes it was likely that he didn't have any idea that that was a picture of helen wilson well yeah just an old it was just a picture of an old woman. But it made a huge impression. Yeah, I can totally see that. Though the jury was instructed by the judge to consider the motives of those who had testified against Joseph White. So he was said, keep in mind that these people may have gained something from testifying in this trial. If you think that there are questions about their testimony or that they were motivated by something other than the truth, do not convict on their testimony. Despite that, the jury deliberated for only four hours before finding Joseph White guilty of first degree murder on November 9th, 1989. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Following White's trial, Winslow pled no contest and was sentenced to 50 years for the rape and murder of Helen Wilson. Joanne Taylor was sentenced to 10 to 40 years while Gonzalez, Dean and Sheldon were all sentenced to 10 years. Even after his conviction, Joseph White maintained his innocence. He started to hear about DNA testing in prison and knew it would be the thing to prove his innocence. Yes. He took jobs at the prison to save up money for an attorney.

It took him seven years. Well, yeah, because they don't make anything. They don't even make minimum wage, right? No, no, no. They make like 30 cents an hour. And that attorney took his case nowhere but white didn't give up hope in 2001 the nebraska dna testing act took effect it allowed people convicted of felonies to file motions for dna tests if the technology was unavailable at the time of their convictions. White wrote to a law firm in Norfolk that he'd heard was good at post-conviction appeals.

Wait, Norfolk? Yeah, what did I say? Well, I think, oh my God, am I about to correct you? Okay, there's Norfolk, Virginia. The L is silent. But maybe in Norfolk, Nebraska, it's... I bet it's Norfolk, Virginia. The L is silent. But maybe in Norfolk, Nebraska, it's... I bet it's Norfolk, Nebraska. I don't know.

Okay. People, tell us if Brandy has finally mispronounced something. Over in Missouri, they pronounce the L in everything. They call it Versailles, Missouri. Wow. We're a classy state. So he wrote them in 2001, that law firm. They heard nothing back.

Then in 2005. Oh, my gosh. The senior partner from that firm, Doug Stratton, was at the prison meeting with another client. And he decided that he would tell Joseph White face-to-face that he wouldn't be taking the case. Four years later! Boy, not a moment too soon, right? Can you imagine?

Yeah, didn't hear anything back. And then four years later, a senior partner at that firm shows up and is like, hey, I just want to let you know we're not going to take your case. And I'm sure he was like, I kind of put that together. Thank you. But something happened in that meeting and Stratton changed his mind. Oh, wow. He started looking into the case, interviewing co-defendants, and he saw what a shit show it was.

He urged Winslow to get representation and fight for DNA testing at that time too. And in October of 2005, both men filed motions to have the crime scene evidence tested. On August 28, 2006, a district judge

denied both motions. What? Essentially, the judge said a favorable result for White or Winslow would only suggest one or the other didn't rape Wilson. The men could still have participated in the crime in other ways. So, they appealed that decision to the Nebraska Supreme Court. And the high court ruled in their favor on November 2nd, 2007. Oh, Kristen's birthday. More than 22 years after Helen Wilson was murdered.

After Helen Wilson was murdered. The justices decided DNA testing might exclude both White and Winslow as sources of the semen. Such a result would have caused jurors at White's trial to seriously doubt the testimony of Taylor, Dean, and Sheldon. Yes. Run the DNA tests, they said. In 2008. So this is just like slogging along. This is so sad. I mean, once the judicial system has their closet, you're done. So in 2008, the Human DNA Identification Laboratory at the University of Nebraska Medical Center tested blood and semen samples recovered from the apartment. Two cuttings

from Helen Wilson's nightgown were tested. Two slides and a cutting from the carpet were tested. A slide of fluid taken from inside Helen Wilson was tested. And they also tested blood from White, Winslow, and Wilson. Lab analysts use a method that required only tiny samples to extract DNA. The age of the sample mattered little, but it needed to be free of cross-contamination. In other words, if the police who collected the evidence contaminated it with their own cells, the tests wouldn't work. Oh no, what are you about to tell me? So they send these tests off, and the tests wouldn't work oh no what are you about to tell me so they send these tests off and the tests worked oh they also excluded white and winslow of course additionally

none of the crime scene dna matched taylor, Sheldon, or Gonzalez. Oh my gosh. It belonged solely to Helen Wilson and an unidentified male. Yep. Joseph White was released from prison on October 15th, 2008, after serving more than 18 years in prison. God, that's terrible. Tom Winslow was released two days later.

Joanne Taylor, the only other co-defendant still in prison, was released in November. On November 10, 2008, Joseph White was fully exonerated. His five co-defendants could not be exonerated in the same way as they had pled guilty or no contest. Wow. They are the first six people in Nebraska history to be exonerated by DNA evidence. Each member of the Beatrice Six was paid five hundred thousand dollars in compensation by the state of nebraska that's it joseph white died in a workplace accident in 2011 after receiving only

twenty five thousand dollars of his compensation the rest went to his estate. Isn't that devastating? Yes. His life was stolen from him. It was. He shouldn't have had to be working after that. He should have been set for life. Mm-hmm.

A federal civil lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Beatrice Six against Gage County, and the case was dismissed twice. What on earth for? But the dismissal was reversed twice. and a jury awarded $7.3 million to Joanne Taylor, Tom Winslow, and the estate of Joseph White. It also awarded $2 million to James Dean and Kathy Gonzalez, as well as $1.8 million to Deb Sheldon. The county has appealed the judgment and is considering filing bankruptcy

to keep from paying. Wow. Yep. Oh my God. That was horrible. I'm not done yet. You're not done? Okay.

What happened to Bruce? What's his face? So who killed Helen Wilson? Okay, I have a theory. What's your theory? You know that original guy who looked so good and who seemed like he had to have been a secretor? They had to have, like, messed that up somehow. It had to have been him.

Bruce Smith killed Helen Wilson. Seriously? You are correct. You are correct. Ohson seriously oh my god okay what happened a test of dna showed that bruce smith was an exact match for the dna left of the scene oh my god so those initial tests that were done yeah they were done by joyce gilchrist forensic chemist, and she was the one who ruled him out as a suspect in the early days of the investigation. Since then, she has been widely discredited and accused of falsifying evidence. She continued to work for the Oklahoma Lab until her dismissal in 2001 and played a role in countless other erroneous blood semen and dna results oh my god yep but she's not in prison right now right no she's actually she's actually dead but no she

never these people should be in prison any charges or anything from that's insane they had the right guy from day 10 that oh does that not blow your fucking mind i mean really what blows my mind is everything that came afterward. Because, someone messing up at a lab, or even like,

I don't know why she would purposefully. I don't know that it was purposefully done. I think she was probably just really fucking terrible at her job. Yeah, it sounds like she didn't know her ass from her elbow, and then messed that up. I'm surprised they didn't push more more considering all the evidence against that guy. But then to go after these innocent people and they weren't even people who looked good for this. You know, I mean, it just didn't let me tell you how much it didn't make sense. Okay. So after the exonerations,

a task force started looking back over the case to see how it could have gone so wrong. Well, no kidding. They need to learn some lessons. And it was glaringly obvious that Burt Searcy had developed tunnel vision based on a false theory from the very beginning. He believed that Joseph White was the prime suspect in that unsolved string of attacks on elderly women in 1983.

Do you remember me talking about that in the last episode? That had formed the whole basis of his investigation and theory about the Wilson murder case. But Joseph couldn't possibly have been a suspect in those cases. He was in the army at the time, stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. The task force then put together a laundry list of inaccuracies from Searcy's theory. Wilson's apartment exhibited every hallmark of a sex crime, not a robbery. Well, they didn't take anything. The original police investigators also had thought it was a sexually motivated killing.

At White's trial, two witnesses testified that the apartment had been searched for cash, but investigators found no sign of ransacking. More to the point, $1,300 in cash was left in wilson's purse yeah what are they the worst robbers ever yeah and i'm sorry there's six of them and one of them doesn't look in the purse yeah no i guess they were too busy doing that fun trick yeah with the five dollar bill in addition investigators on the task force had never known rape to be a spectator crime. None could think of a sexual assault in which the rapist took women to watch. Yeah, that is.

I didn't even think about it that way. That is weird. Yes. The DNA results decimated the eyewitness testimony of Joanne Taylor, Deborah Sheldon, and James Dean. Testimony that was the heart of the prosecution's case. Clearly, White and Winslow did not rape the victim. And if those witnesses were telling the truth, where was the blood Sheldon left on the bedroom wall from the head wound? Yeah. That blood had been Bruce Smith's. Of course.

Where was the type B blood from Kathy Gonzalez? Blood she had spilled after, you know, being kicked in the nose or whatever when she was holding that washcloth. Again, it was Bruce Smith's blood. Mm-hmm. If anyone else was involved in this crime, they miraculously left no biological evidence behind. Looking further into this, the task force members interviewed the witnesses. Taylor and Dean said that they had lied in 1989 to cut deals with the state yeah both gave polygraphs to the task force that indicated that they were telling the

truth this time only sheldon stood stood behind her trial testimony oh she claimed it was the truth that poor woman none of the six knew bruce smith at all there's no connection of them to the from any of these six to the actual killer so the task force dug deeper if taylor dean and sheld lied, how did they essentially tell the same lie? Because it was fed to them. And they found their answer in the interrogation tapes. The six surviving tapes revealed multiple examples of leading questions posed by Searcy and Police Sergeant Sam Stevens.

The interrogations also mentioned details from the crime scene never released to the public, details which may have helped the witnesses seem more credible. A couple of times, the suspects changed their stories or produced more accurate details after breaks in the tape. The task force then found something that was both the smallest detail and the biggest red flag lisa brown searcy's confidential informant remember her yes she's at the very beginning of this story she's the one who like saw 1018 memorized, memorized the make and model of the car. Yep. So in her original statement, she said that Joanne Taylor came up to her at 730 a.m. on February 6th, 1985, and they stood

outside the school and they watched as the police cars were over at Helen Wilson's apartment. And she said that Taylor said, I just killed a woman in there and I can tell you exactly how she's laying and I can prove it because there's a footstool knocked over. It is vinyl covered and green in color. There's a significant problem with that story. And it was a discrepancy that was originally overlooked by the investigators, by the prosecution and by defense attorneys. Oh my God, what? The timing is wrong.

Wilson's brother-in-law didn't dial 911 until 929 AM. Whoa. Yeah. Okay, that's terrible. Yeah. Police cars. Were those defense attorneys just asleep? I don't know.

That's crazy. Yeah. Police cars wouldn't have arrived at Helen Wilson's apartment that day until Lisa Brown was well into her school day. Yeah. was well into her school day. Yeah. To this day,

Bert Searcy believes that his investigation was not flawed. He believes that two crimes took place in Helen Wilson's apartment that night. First, he believes that those six people broke in and killed Helen Wilson. Then, in a

separate crime, Bruce Smith entered Helen Wilson's apartment sometime later, found her dead body, and raped it, leaving behind the physical evidence. I'll go to my deathbed on that, he said. Okay.

Okay. I mean, I guess you have to believe that, right? Because either you believe that, or you believe, I have done something unspeakably horrible because I was so, I mean, I don't even like calling it tunnel vision. Because at a certain point, when you're feeding people information, no, it's not tunnel vision anymore. You're doing something really bad. Okay, one last bit about the power of suggestion okay

to this day because of what dr price told her deb sheldon believes that she was involved in the murder of helen wilson that is so sad. And Joanne Taylor has flashbacks where she can feel herself holding a pillow over Helen Wilson's face. It never happened. She has to speak this mantra to herself to get her out of the flashback. She can physically feel it in her hands.

Yeah. That is the power of suggestion. Oh my God. Is that not the craziest case you've ever heard? It is so terrible. So upsetting. So sad. But so well told and. Oh God, it's just terrifying.

It is so scary. Yeah. That some dum-dum who's bored being a hog farmer decides, I'm going to solve this. Yep. And then everyone buys it. Yep. Yeah.

I just feel like there's a presumption of guilt. I mean, when a jury hears, yeah, it came to me in a dream and just, ugh. So this eight-part series of articles, the title of the series is Presumed Guilty. Good title. Very good title. Oh my God, that was so good. Worth two parts, right? I totally agree it was worth two parts.

This needs to be a documentary. It's nuts. Nobody has heard of this case. It's so good. Yeah. So good. It's nuts. And I feel like nobody has heard of this case. It's so good. Yeah. So good. It's nuts. And I feel like nobody has heard of it.

So what's Bruce doing now? Bruce is just hanging out? Bruce died of AIDS in 1992. Wow. Well before they were able to confirm that he is the one. Oh, I'm sorry. I meant the other Bruce. Bert?

Bert. I'm sorry. I was like, wow, didn't see that coming. Okay. No. Bert Searcy? Sorry. Okay.

So I tried to find this. Yeah. The latest mention I can find of him is 2016. Uh-huh. And he was still in uniform. No. Yup. As a sheriff's deputy.

That's deeply disturbing. I don't even know what to say to that. Yep. Oh. Mm. Mm-hmm. Did you, like, find him on facebook or something no i found his linkedin but his linkedin says that he still is currently but i found an article yeah where he was because he testified at the um the civil uh-huh trial where he was like don't worry we got it yeah yeah that's where he testified

that he believed that this was his investigation was not flawed and that just you know two different crimes happened in that apartment that day that is the dumbest dumbest fucking theory yes so what six people went in murdered someone didn't leave behind no evidence shred of evidence. Didn't take anything. Didn't really mess anything up besides the footstool. They kicked that thing over. He also claims that this is the case because they made coffee. There was coffee made in the apartment and there were several mugs out with coffee in it.

It's not true. It's not on the crime scene videotape anywhere it's completely a false memory of the crime scene okay and i'm sorry even if that were the case yeah that's not enough for me right oh cups of coffee left out i've got three upstairs oh that's insane yeah so i had never heard of this case before i follow the innocence project on um on instagram and uh they had mentioned it because they were involved in the exoneration of the Beatrice Six. Man, that was incredible. Yeah.

That was so, so good. Yeah. Thank you for telling it. Absolutely. Absolutely. Worth it. Suck it, whoever thought two parts wasn't good. Brandi, we don't have a big enough audience for you to be telling people to suck it.

I take it back. Something exciting happened. What? We received a package in the mail. So I have to admit something. Okay. So we got something in the mail. It's from a listener.

Excellent. It's from Vonnie. Oh, yeah. Who has listened to, yeah, she's been listening for a long time. She was one of our early Twitter followers when there were like 12 people following. Yeah. So she sent us something in the mail. I got so excited because she doesn't really know this, but I like, so she goes to all

the video game conventions and stuff and so like i'd heard her name from norm for a long time oh yeah so i kind of had that creepy thing of like i know who you are you don't know who i am but like so it's like oh yeah yeah so i had no self-control i was gonna wait till you got here but it was just sitting on the kitchen counter i opened it it's fine so she did the sweetest thing for us first of all she got us a gift card to bevmo which was like i didn't know what that was oh that's cool yes yeah it was so sweet it's like i guess if you want to get yourself some drinks they can be delivered that's awesome like like Like Grubhub for drinks. Exactly. Yes. But in addition to that, she got us something pretty funny. She got us a magnifier. So we can be Sherlock Holmes at our own fancy wine party?

Okay, you're ten times smarter than me because I was like, well, that's nice. I don't know why. But that's exactly right. She'd listen to that wine episode. She was like, okay, you know, I use these in the shop. You know, you can look at the label, make sure it's legit. Let's see. So she wrote in this really sweet letter.

I won't read the whole thing, but she said, Kristen and Brandy, that episode of the fake booze got me thinking. I do carry a pocket magnifying glass for work, and you guys should too, for fake wine reasons. I love it. Hope you, too, find a real tasty bottle and watch out for those fake labels. Ugh. Yeah.

That's so awesome. It was so sweet. Thank you so much. Yeah. That was... It was really, really cool to get something. That's really awesome. We appreciate it very much.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So you know how I'm doing this new thing where I put notes to myself? Yeah. Okay, so I made the notes.

My heart was full of joy today, and I just wrote, thank you to Vani. Also, joy of listeners, which I think just meant like, I really like our listeners. That's quite the note. Joy of listeners.

Joy of listeners. No, but it's been like I feel like we've had a lot of really nice, funny people reach out. Oh, my gosh. It's so sweet. Just like the last like three days, we've gotten like five really amazing thought out reviews that people took the time to write for us it just like just warms our hearts when you guys take the time to do that it's so

awesome thank you thank you for doing that yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah but i mean if you're one of those listeners that's sitting there and hasn't given us a rating or given us a review yet. Listen, freeloader. Yeah. We're going to need you to get your ass over to iTunes, give us five stars, leave us a review, and then find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit. We're in all those places. And then join us next week when we'll

be experts on two whole new topics. Podcast adjourned. And now for a note about our process. I read a bunch of stuff, then regurgitate it all back up in my very limited vocabulary. And I copy and paste from the best sources on the web and sometimes Wikipedia. So we owe a huge thank you to the real experts. For this episode, I got my info from FamousTrials.com, PBS, Wikipedia, TheLongRoadToJustice.org, and the book Boston Slave Riot and the Trial of Anthony Burns. And I got my info from an eight-part series of articles in the Lincoln Journal-Star, as well as The Omaha World, The New Yorker, and TheInnocenceProject.com. For a full list of our sources, visit LGTCPodcast.com. It's probably TheInnocenceProject.org.

Any errors like that are, of course, ours, but please don't take our word for it. Go read their stuff.