Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - Police Destroyed Him - The Randall Dale Adams Story

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

Randall Dale Adams was wrongfully convicted of murdering a Dallas police officer in 1976 and sentenced to death, spending over 12 years in prison despite being innocent. His case gained national attention through Errol Morris’s 1988 documentary, The Thin Blue Line, which exposed suppressed evidence and perjured testimony, revealing the real killer was David Harris.

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Now the guy's name is Randall, and Randall's 27 when this story starts, and he's living in Dallas, Texas. And Randall, he has a problem. He's out of gas. So one day, in 1976, he's on his way home from work. And that is when his car runs out of gas. Well, no big deal. He just takes this plastic jug from his car, and he walks to the nearest gas station. and he tries to get some gas.

But then, the attendant tells him that he's not allowed to put gas in a plastic jug. So, unfortunately, there appears to be no way for Randall to get fuel to his car. So now he doesn't know what to do. I mean, how's he going to get home? So he starts walking again. And that is when this teenager pulls up, David Ray. And David Ray is 16, and he's actually in the middle of running away from home. And the car he's driving is stolen.

So David Ray pulls up, and he doesn't tell Randall that he's a runaway. No, no, he offers him a ride. And Randall's like, go. So David Ray helps Randall get gas for his car. After that, I guess they just decide to keep hanging out, and they spend the rest of the day together, because, you know, they like each other's company. So they're driving around Dallas, and they're like drinking beer, and they're getting high. And come nightfall, they keep the party going.

They decide to go see a drive-in movie together. Now eventually, Randall gets tired or whatever, and he decides to call it a night, and he has David Ray drop him off at his motel. Now, remember, David Ray has just run away from home. So he's got nowhere to go because his family's house is like 300 miles away from here. So when they get to the motel, he asks Randall if he can crash there with him. But Randall's like, nah. And so David Ray leaves, and he does.

drives off. And I assume David Ray must be drunk or stone because when he drives off, he doesn't turn his headlights on, which isn't a big deal until he gets pulled over. And so David Ray gets pulled over and an officer comes up to talk to him, you know, I'm probably just going to let him off with a warning or whatever. But David Ray knows that he's in a stolen car and that he also stole some money when he ran away from home. So he's probably freaking out that this officer is going to figure out everything and bust him. And he isn't about to let that happen. So he grabs his pistol from under his seat and blam, blam, blam, blam, blam, blam, blam, he shoots him five times. And this kills him. Then another officer sees this and she jumps out of the car behind him and blam,

blam, she starts shooting. But scur, David Ray is already fleeing and ultimately he gets away. And from here, David Ray drives from Dallas all the way back to where he lives in Viter. Meanwhile, police in Dallas, they're all over this case, and they start investigating. And at the same time, David Ray is back in his hometown. And I guess, because he's an idiot, he starts to flex to his friends that he killed a police officer back in Dallas. Like, I blew away this pig back in Dallas. And so pretty quickly, rumors spread and word gets back. to police in Viter.

So they look into it and they find David Ray and they bring him in for questioning. And while he's being questioned, he lies to police saying that, oh, I never killed anyone. I was just talking shit and trying to impress my friends. But after a little investigating, police figure out that he's lying.

They know he ran away from home and stole a car. Not only that, but the pistol that was used to kill that officer in Dallas just happens to be registered to David Ray. father. And so police questioned David Ray again. And that is when he does something really messed up. He changes his story. And he says, I didn't kill that cop. I picked up a hitchhiker. And the hitchhiker stole my dad's gun and he killed him. A hitchhiker named Randall. So he ends up putting the blame

all on Randall. And he agrees to cooperate with prosecutors and testify against Randall if they drop all the charges against him. And crazy enough, police agree. And so David Ray tells the police where to find Randall. And police bring Randall in and they question him and they ask if he killed any cops lately. And of course he tells them he's never killed anyone because he hasn't. So they put Randall in a police lineup and they bring in a witness. Apparently the day that that officer was killed, a woman was driving by and saw the whole scene. And so the witness comes in and she doesn't point at Randall. She points at another random guy in the lineup. But instead of police taking this as a sign that Randall isn't the guy they're looking for, an officer tells this witness to just point to

Randall. And they actually offer to drop some robbery charges against her daughter if she just agrees to testify against Randall later. And this woman agrees. So now poor Randall is fucked. And bam, police arrest him. Here's his mugshot. And so eventually, Randall goes to trial and David Ray testifies against him. And in 1977, he's found guilty and he gets sentenced to death by lethal injection. And so it looks like he's going to die over a crime that he had no part of. Until. Eight years pass.

And it's now 1985. And Randall is still on death row waiting to be executed. Now, that same year, this guy travels to Dallas. His name's Errol. And Errol is a documentary filmmaker, and he's actually in Dallas because he's shooting a documentary about a well-known psychiatrist who is notorious for being shady. Now, this shady psychiatrist is often an expert witness, paid by the prosecution. So he will often testify in trials on behalf of the prosecution. And so this guy just happens to have testified in Randall's trial against Randall. And so, Errol goes and he interviews Randall about this psychiatrist for his documentary. And Randall ends up telling Errol his

whole story about how he ran out of gas one day and then was given a ride home by David Ray and how he hung out with David Ray for the rest of the day. And then after that, he went back to his motel. And how later David Ray suddenly started accusing him of murder and even testified against him in court. And so Errol hears all this and he immediately becomes fascinated with Randall's case. In fact, he becomes so fascinated that he ditches his documentary about the psychiatrist and decides to make one about Randall. So Errol gets to work on this and he starts doing a ton of research and he uncovers a bunch of police and prosecutorial misconduct and he also finds previously hidden evidence. And so now what he really wants to do is,

do is interview David Ray, the man who accused Randall of murder. And where does he end up finding David Ray? In prison. On death row, because he was involved in a kidnapping completely unrelated to Randall's case.

And this kidnapping resulted in him murdering someone. Anyway, so then Errol tracks down David Ray and he interviews him several times, and David Ray finally basically confesses and says that Randall didn't actually kill anyone.

So then, Arrow puts all of this into his documentary, and he lays out all this evidence. And in 1988, the documentary finally comes out. It's called the thin blue line. And a lot of people see it, and this documentary gets a ton of publicity, because people are

watching it going, what the fuck this Randall guy didn't kill anyone? And there's a bunch of public outcry. And that public outcry eventually persuades a judge to grant Randall another hearing. And after all that, ultimately his conviction is overturned. And in 1989, he's finally released.