Small Town Murder - Butchering Family - Harrington, Delaware

Episode Date: June 19, 2026

This week, in Harrington, Delaware, the discovery of a couple who have been stabbed over 70 times each, in their own living room sends this small community into a spiral of fear. But luckily for detectives, these killers haven't done much to cover their tracks. One of the murderers leaves the bloody sword, used in the murders, right in his kitchen. These murders are so brutal, that the only question remaining is, will these killers end up before the executioner?   Along the way, we find out that racing pigs are apparently a betting oppurtunity, that when you steal frozen food, you should probably put it in a freezer, and that you probably shouldn't prominently display the bloody murder weapon, in your kitchen!!   New episodes, every Wednesday & Friday nights!! Check us out on VIDEO Wednesday and Friday evenings on Netflix! www.netflix.com/smalltownmurder Donate at patreon.com/crimeinsports or at paypal.com and use our email: [e-mail] Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder, Crime In Sports & Your Stupid Opinions!   Follow us on... instagram.com/smalltownmurder facebook.com/smalltownpod   Also, check out James & Jimmie's other shows, Crime In Sports & Your Stupid Opinions on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!!

Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay, choo-choo! Yay, indeed, Jimmy. Yay, indeed. My name is James Petrigal. I'm my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wiseman. Thank you folks so much for joining us today, all aboard the murder train, pulling away from the station.

We have a wild story, as we always do. Every episode, whether it's an Express or a regular, it's always crazy. And this is no different than any of them. We're going back to a different place. We haven't been in a while. It's going to be a lot of fun. Before we get to all that, definitely, head over to shut up and give me murder.com.

All the merchandise you could possibly want there. In addition to that, tickets to live shows. We want those. Our live shows are so fun. They're a big comedy show, and there's also a murder, and it's a lot of fun,

and there's so many. You never seen anything like this. No, you haven't. People that see our show, like people in the comics and stuff are like, that's a crazy show you guys put on. That's wild. Pretty fucking legit.

It's pretty legit. There's a lot of pictures with jokes and pictures of stuff, and we're always riffing. It's a good time. So get your tickets right now for September the 18th at the Pabst in Milwaukee. Can't wait for that. Those are almost gone. So get those now. And then also the next night, State Theater in Minneapolis on September 19th.

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Listen to our other two shows. Yeah, crime in sports, which we're doing a big series on the Yahweh-Bin-Jawa cult that murdered a whole bunch of people. So you don't have to like sports to like that. Your stupid opinions is as hilarious as ever, actually more. It's getting better and better. And it's so much fun. So do that and listen to those shows. Get yourself Patreon.

Very important. Patreon.com slash crime in sports. Just like the name of that show that we do there. what you get there, anybody $5 a month or above, never going to grow up. That's what it is, $5 a month. You get everything we put out. As soon as you subscribe, you get hundreds of back bonus episodes you've never heard before, almost 400 of them, like a whole other feed. Then you get new ones every other week, one crime and sports, one small town murder, and you get them all of it.

That's right, every damn drop of them. So get in there this week, which you're going to get for crime and sports. We're going to talk about different hostage situations over the years. Fantastic. It's so much fun. After that Stockholm one, I'm fascinated by these things. And then Small Town Murder, it is Corey Richens Part 3. And believe me, there's reason for it because it's all new information.

Now we have what her kids said happened that night, which is bonkers. And the complete opposite of what she said and makes her 10 times worse of a murderer. She's awful. And how bad – they talk about how bad of a mother she is. Her kids rip her a new asshole. It's crazy stuff. And then her allocution is crazy too. We'll talk about all that and more.

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That said, I think it's time, everybody, to sit back. What do you say? Clear the lungs here. Get ready for everything. Arms to the sky. Let's all shout. Shut up and give me. Murder.

Let's do this, everybody. All right. Let's go on a trip, shall we? Let's do it. We're going to Delaware. It's lovely. Every time there's no real reaction to Delaware. Delaware.

Oh, that's by Maryland, isn't it? That's all you say. I just consider it. It's probably just a lot of houses with blue and gold all over. A lot of blue, yeah, maybe some nautical themes, blue and white, possibly. A lot of boat wheels in these homes. Oh, tons of them. This is in central Delaware.

All things kind of one big panhandle. It's just like a strip that they cut out of another. That's it. It's 30 minutes to Dover, Delaware, about an hour and 40 minutes to Baltimore. You want to go that way. And about an hour and 10 minutes to Newcastle, Delaware, which was our last Delaware episode. This is episode 710. That was episode 528.

God damn. Been a minute since we've done some Delaware. So definitely that's been a while. This is in Kent County. That episode was called Murder Math by the. the way. That was a fun one. Area code here 302, population, 3,730. So a pretty small place. And it's, there's a lot of rural areas around here, too. There's some like farmland and it's very rural. Median household income here is just below the national average about $62,639. But the

median home cost is well under the national average as well. That is $221,900, which is pretty inexpensive compared to everywhere else. And it has two mottos here. Two, one is the hub of Delaware. It's not, but okay. It's in the middle. I mean, that's, you know. And then because these are all like geography-based, it feels like just where they're located. The next one is where Delaware comes together.

Does it? Because it's the middle of it, I guess. That's all I can think. Now, a little bit of history. Harrington was named for the Honorable Samuel, Maxwell Harrington, who's a former chancellor of the state. Yeah. I don't know what's going on there. The town developed at a railroad junction along the Delaware Railroad and served as a trading center.

Before it was Harrington, it was known as Clark's Corner. Clark's Corner. Clark's Corner. It was fashioned out of 6,000 acres of forest is basically it. Clark was Benjamin Clark. And in 1780, he built a home and a tavern here and kind of started the place on the corner of two roads. Benjamin Clark was a pretty big deal. I've never heard of it before.

13 original colonies? Benjamin Clark? I feel like he was one of the authors of, no? Did he not sign that? I don't think so because in 1780 he was running a tavern in the middle of here. Yeah, maybe he retired early. Yeah, I can't imagine he fell that far in four years from, hey, Ben, will you sign this? We need your signature on this day.

Fuck off and go tell drunks to get out of your fucking place. It's a little different. I hope that didn't happen. That feels like an important name, though. Unless he really just gave up on everything. I was like, fuck it, I'm selling boots. Might have had a big scandal. Just had to open a bar.

It's a huge scandal. Who knows? A scandal back then would have to be crazy because everybody was fucking everybody. The scandal would be you didn't go to church on Sunday or something. Scandal would be he didn't fuck those people. Yeah. But he could have had like 45 illegitimate children, half of them with fucking slaves. It wouldn't have mattered.

Like they would have been, well, I mean, that's fine. He should have went to church Sunday. We're going to hold him responsible for that. So 1862 is when they named it Harrington, and who was the Chancellor of the Delaware Railroad. Oh. Yeah, I don't think. I don't think that matters.

No. Reviews of this town here. Five stars. Harrington is a nice small city in Delaware, and it is somewhere nice to move if you prefer small towns and not big cities. We have a couple of places that are walking distance, and overall is a nice town to live in. A couple of places that are walking distance.

Yeah. Sounds like that person just had a stroke by the way they're writing. It's just like very... There's only 4,000 people and you got nothing walkable? Not even 4,000. There's a lot of rural areas around here, too. That's the thing. So long distances.

One star, I will never spend a cent in this corrupt town. Okay. I hope their little speed trap racket is worth it to their revenue. One of those towns. That's how they make it right. traveler right there. That's somebody that's going to spend any time here. They spent whatever it took to be stopped by the police here. It's the same review we leave of that town in Texas we got pulled over going through.

Same thing. That's hope it's worth it because we're never doing it again. There's a couple in New Mexico, a couple in U-Saw. They're all over the southwest. Those little towns are going, that's all they make money. That's the only way they make money. And finally, one star, a terrible place to live. Yeah. Wow.

Very corrupt and many clicks, just waiting until I can get out of here. How'd they spell clicks? They spelled it correctly. How about it? I'm surprised, honestly. The last person didn't spell cities correctly, but they spelled clicks correctly. So that's good. Things to do, Harrington has been a big harness racing town.

Is that right? Yeah, like chariots? Apparently, yeah, it started in the 1946. In the next year, they had swarmed an association called the Harrington Raceway and built the track that is still there and it's still a major attraction. Wow. Then there's also the Harrington Raceway and Casino, a quote, $6 million slots palace with 1327 machines to play. It doesn't seem like a lot. No, it attracts 1.5 million people every 10 months, which is a very odd measurement of time to build.

How about do we just do it every 10 months? Is 10 months a fiscal year? What are they doing? You got me. I don't know what's going on. That really shocked me. They must close down for a couple of months. They have to.

And then there's also the Delaware State Fair is in Harrington. Oh. And at the Delaware State Fair, they have the Hollywood racing pigs. What are those? Pig races. Well, the highly energetic show features adorable mini pigs and pot-bellied pigs racing around a custom-built obstacle-strewn track to win their favorite prize, an Oreo cookie. That's their reward at the end.

So we all watch pigs run for a cookie? Run for a cookie. Pig races. And you bet on them here because they're a reward. It's at the casino, I'm sure. And they have celebrity pig puns. That's what the draw is, as they name the pigs. There is Kevin Bacon, obviously.

That's a given. Snoop Hogy Hogg. Okay. Britney spare ribs. I like that. Yeah. That's funny. Ari Hammegrande.

That's my favorite. I knew that was going to be a ham reference. That's a good one there. So, yeah, there's also racing corgis. Uh-huh. So tiny dogs racing, which is kind of hilarious. A dog that looks most like a pig. That's right.

Yeah. With their faces. Very small and long and fat. Yeah. And also performing there will be Jess Kelly Adams following the Hollywood pig races. That's where you want to follow. And also Adam Calvert. It's me.

No idea. Those are country acts. And there's also Dan Dan the Farmer Man. That's hilarious. Okay. That said, let's talk about some murder, shall we? All right. Let's do this.

All right. That's fair sounds great, though. That sounds like fun. At least they've got senses of humor about it. They know it's stupid, right? Ari Hammond, Grande is good. Yeah. So this murder, let's talk about Bayard and Alberta Smith, first off.

There's 68, Bayard, B-E-R-E-R-E-N-E-R-E-R-D. Bayer with a D, B-Y-A-R-R-D. Never seen that name before in my life. That's a fun one. Yeah, so I was like, okay, Bayard. Now, as of 1979, that's where we're going to catch up with them. They're living in a nice little two-story house, modest, but nice. They've done all right for themselves.

They're retired now. Money's tight. They live on Social Security. They're not wealthy people or anything like that. They keep shitloads of frozen food. Oh. Shitloads. They're like paranoid running out of food.

Think about when they came up. This is 1979. They came up during the Depression. Yeah. They keep, they can get food now, they stockpile it for later. That's how it is. What kind of frozen food? Do they like freeze everything?

Everything. No, frozen shit. Boxes of it, bags of it, frozen dinners, frozen things, frozen. They're into, and that must be a thing because one of my grandmothers, the racist nan, was very much like that. She had a freezer in the basement that was just packed with shit. And I'm talking shit that when she, like, when my grandfather died, I remember my father died, I remember my father. went down and he cleaned out the freezer and there was steaks in there that were

twisted and white and the sell by date was like 14 years ago that's how much they just store shit she'd ate it too that's the sad part she'd tried to serve it to somebody well you can freeze things it doesn't stop

the breakdown but it slows it tremendously and it starts a different kind yeah and a lot of the foods a lot of the frozen foods are on your frozen food section is full of fucking preservatives also. That's full of it. It's a frozen preserve.

It's meant to be frozen and stay frozen for a while. So they would keep that. They have adult children, who, including a son named Arthur, who's about 35 years old and lives right across the street. They have a daughter who lives in the area. They have a lot of family right around them on the streets. One of these rural areas where one family kind of dominates a whole area here. Other family in the area, they have Alberta, the wife, has a half sister named Mildred,

who lives on the street as well. Her son also lives there, and that is William Henry Flamer. Yeah, he had a tough time in junior high, this kid. The worst. The worst. Hey, Billy Flamer, look at you. Now, William had been raised mostly by his grandmother,

Florence Benson, in a house about 150 yards from Byrd and Alberta. That's because he had a terrible life, essentially. Born in 1954, raised by his grandmother, Florence Benson, with his father also in the home, but not great. He recalls basically his father was always drunk, and he said that his dad would, quote, jump on mom and take her money. I learned alcohol from him. I learned alcohol from him.

I've never heard that. We've never heard that phrase ever. I don't think that's ever been said before. Yeah. I've never heard anybody say, I've learned drugs from him. Yeah. It just doesn't make sense. That doesn't know.

Yeah, he worked at the racetracks, different, the Harrington one and a different one. This is William did. He said, but he spent most of his time, quote, this is a great 1979, quote, partying and jiving. Jiveen. Just jiving. Real 70 style. Not the hand variety. No.

There's only about a 10-year period of time in the world where you could have been jiving. And that's from about 71 to 81. Other side of that, there's no jiving going on. You could hand-jive in the 50s. You could do that, but you can't be just partying and jiving. Just generally jiving? No, you got to get a job. A general jive was a very small window to have a general jive here.

And he said, I could drink a fifth at a time as well. Partying and driving, drinking a fifth. His mother lived elsewhere, but basically he said he saw his mom every day after she'd get off work when he was young. But he lived with his grandmother since the age of five. He started drinking pretty much around then. Like elementary school. He's an elementary school drinker. He started at that age.

His mother said he was a good student until the 11th grade when he quit school and just started drinking full time. He was a good student and then it was like, nah, I'm done. He just wanted to drink all the time. Wow. And everybody says his personality would change switch on a dime when he was drunk, which some people, that's what they do. he got married briefly that didn't work out and mainly because he was drunk uh 1976 he has a daughter as well um that's in the middle of jiving he's I mean party and that's that's what happens when you're partying and jiving you knock somebody up that's part of the jiving yeah I jive during us I'm

unprotected and this is what happened so yeah 1975 he's got some problems um he couldn't hold steady work a lot of it was his drinking um and in 1975 he picks up two felony convictions for forgery. Shit. Because he's just trying to, like some check thing or something, trying to get a few bucks. And he's doing odd jobs. Yeah, he's doing odd jobs and part-time work.

And now he's got a friend of his who he hangs out with here named Andre Stanley Deputy, like a deputy officer. Wow. Now, deputy was not from this town. No. Deputies from Wilmington. He's about six years older than William and, also pretty big too.

Oh. And he's got a fucking hell of a story here. Wow. He's got, by 79, he's already had a bunch of convictions, one for manslaughter. What? One for sexual assault and one for the manufacturing of Molotov cocktails. He's a bad man. He's serious.

He's not doing a little forgery. He's raping and killing and blowing shit up. There's bodies in his wake and things are getting set on fire. It's fucking crazy. Now, he was born in Wilmington. He's the son of a preacher and one of 11 children. Yeah, I don't think this is who she was singing about, though. No, this is not.

Well, maybe. She likes to be raped and set a flame by a Molotov cocktail, maybe. Yeah, he was Hansy. He was a little antsy. He dropped out of school in the ninth grade and worked odd jobs at racetracks, just like the other guy. Long history of shit with the law. And he is a story. His origin story is like a comic book or something.

When he was 12 years old, he saw his mother killed by a shotgun blast in front of him. That's got to be a little dramatic, I would say, right? Your mom, yeah. That'll set you drinking, I think. He explained it as my sister had this boyfriend, and he told her if she leaves him, she would never go with anyone else again. And they broke up. One night, he sneaked into our house, came through the third floor window, and sneaked down the stairs. Deputy said he was sitting in the living room with his mother, two of his brothers, and his baby sister.

And he said, the boyfriend had a shotgun. My mother told him to put the gun down. She got up and he shot her. Oh, my God. Right there in the living room in front of all the kids. That's a terrible story. That's a horrible story. That's some shit you'd see of how a comic book villain is formed.

Or a hero, one of the two. That's crazy. A guy broke up with his girlfriend and went and, broke into the house and murdered her mother. In the living room. This makes Batman's origin story look like bullshit. Like he's a pussy who should have just went to therapy twice and he would have been fine. This is way worse.

This is terrible. I mean, everybody goes to therapy for a long time. He saw Batman and was like, bullshit, pussy. That's what sets you off. So it's bad. So with the death of the mother, him and his brother, basically started jiving, I assume, just really out there jiving it up. What happened to the sister?

She's alive. She's off jiving somewhere too, probably. Partying and jiving. He said that basically the dad, his dad, quote, showed Andre and his siblings no, little to no affection, spending all of his time except when he was at work in church. Because his dad is a preacher. He said, I wasn't allowed to have friends. My father was strict. He thought that if I fooled around with other kids, I'd get into trouble.

I got in the trouble anyway. And he was. At age nine, he was still soiling himself in bed and basically living in like a dream world, not living in reality. So he was sent off to the Governor Bacon Health Center near Delaware City. He sent off to like a mental hospital for children. When he's nine. When he's nine.

Before he even saw his mom murked. That's before he saw his mom murked. So he had problems to begin with, and then his mom got murdered, and it all went crazy. He said all of his siblings became horrible alcoholics, by the way, which seems about right. And this guy's a rapist slash manslaughterer. And bomber as well. Yeah. And in 1979, in February, when he's hanging out with William Flamer, there's one more thing.

He also has a warrant out for his arrest at this point. For what? Warrant for murder. A fucking murder warrant here. James W. Jackson was killed on July 15th, 1977. After an argument over, I'll let you fill in the matter here. An argument over, you'll never get it in a million years. Well, you're 79?

77, 77, July 77. 77. Tron. It's a pinball game. A game of horseshoes. Horshoes. Of course. Of course it's a close counts, man.

Horshoes. The only game that close actually points. This counts in. Yeah, he's crazy. So there's that. Now, what they do, William and Andre is hang out at the blue moon, which is a far. Was that more? Yeah.

Just hanging out here and day drinking. Just bad times. It's a good time. It's the one of you said that time. I'm like, that sounds great. Yeah, it's good times. Nothing good comes from that, though. If you do it consistently.

If you do it one day, it's an amazing vacation. If you do it every day, your life is a fucking disaster. You do it once a year. It's like, man, what a great thing. I'm taking a nap by 4 o'clock. This is fantastic. When you day drink and you don't do it, you go, we should do this more often.

And then 6 p.m. you go, I don't ever want to do that again. That was terrible. My whole night's ruined now. Whole night's fucked. Yeah. So they're shooting pool hanging out. Nobody knows that this guy's wanted for murder or anything. So that's what's going on.

That's the crew in the. neighborhood and everything. Now, February 7, 1979, at 8 a.m., Arthur Smith, who is Byrd and Alberta's son, who lives across the street, 35 years old, this morning, he glances over. It's a heavy snowstorm this morning. It's snowing like crazy. So he looks over to his parents' house and notices his father's car is missing from the driveway. He's like, that's weird. That doesn't go out in the snow in the morning. Yeah, who the fuck is at all? Where's he going? So, yeah, he looks over, saws that, sees that, sees the weather, and he's like, this isn't right at all. So he goes over to the house to see what's going on and goes inside.

And what he finds is both of his parents, that's good. Problem is they're both dead on the living room floor. Oh, no. Surrounded by shitloads of, I mean, blood is fucking everywhere. If you made a horror movie and you said, I mean, cover it in blood, you could not do this. It's that much blood. Oh, you guys, this is too much. No one is you believe this.

It's that, it's on the ceiling on the wall. I mean, it's fucking everywhere. When we hear what the attack was, you'll understand why. Overturn chairs are everywhere. It just looks like, it's horrifying. It looks like, it looks like two lions came in and mauled them to death in here and like knock shit over while they were doing it, like two giant wild animals. A sofa cushion had cut marks where a knife had gone through it.

Oh. His dad's trouser pants are turned inside out, so someone's looking for something. And the television's gone. The antenna cable is cut, because back then they had a cable from the antenna. That's cut and left dangling there, so they know the TV is gone. And the other thing is in the kitchen, frozen food is all over the place. There's family. And all over the house, there's frozen food packages on the ground, things that came out of the freezer.

All over the place. They kept the money in the freezer or something. But not all the frozen foods on the floor. Just some of it packed shit strewn about. So Arthur Smith calls the police, as one does in that situation. They arrive, the Delaware State Police Homicide here. They come in and they said that it was the worst thing they'd seen in years at best. You know what I mean?

Vandigamps everywhere. All sorts of fish sticks as far as the eye can see. Gorton's fisherman. is working overtime here. So the bodies, they find crazy amounts of injuries to the bodies. They've been stabbed a lot. I mean a lot. And there's wound patterns.

And they're old. And they're old. They're not bothering anybody. The wound patterns tell of two distinct weapons, too. These are not the same knife. There's one big knife and one small knife that you can tell they've been stabbed with. Hey, everybody, Jess, going to take a quick break from the show to tell you. you a better way to get your wine with First Leaf. Try First Leaf.com.

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So a little pin for the watch banner up here, yeah. They find that little tiny thing lying loose, which near Byard's body. So probably came off of his watch. Yeah. Overturned furniture, emptied pockets, purses, purse upside down and, you know, contents strewn about. Then while they're still at the scene working this, they get a call saying they found the Smith's car. Oh. Byard and Alberta Smith.

They found their car because that was missing. It was abandoned north of Felton. So they have to go find the car. The residents in Felton described, they have witnesses that saw a man leaving the car, which is good. They see a man leaving the abandoned car that morning. So a hardware store employee named William Wooters described a man coming into his store using the phone. A witness named Clara Green saw a man leaving the area with a suitcase, another item. and everybody got a good look at this guy.

I mean, he wasn't hiding himself. He came in, went into the store, used the phone, everything. So the detectives, they have a description. Several witnesses describe the exact same person. Yeah? So they go, this got to be the guy. And they all given, if you have five different people and they all give the same description, that's probably who it is.

And they haven't talked to each other. So they take that description to the Smith family. Oh. Which is an odd move. Does this sound familiar? Yeah. Is do you know this person? so they take because there's no forced entry.

So like they let somebody in the house. Or they had the door unlocked, whatever, but they're saying that this is not like a, someone, no one kicked in the door or anything. So do you know this person? And they give the description. Their daughter heard it and said, that's William Flamer.

That sounds exactly like William Flamer, who is her cousin. That's William. Brace yourself for his last thing. You guys are going to want to make fun of him when you put the cuffs on. Don't worry. And they said, well, do you know where he lives?

And they go 150 fucking that way. Right there. Right there. That one. See, the green one? That's the house he runs. Yeah. Yeah.

So the detectives go up the street to 147, Miss Pylion Street, where Florence Benson, the grandma, answers the door and says, he is not home. And I don't know where he is. Oh. So they say, do you mind if we come in and look around? a bit and she said, come on in. Oh. And invited him in to search the house. Okay.

They go, well, where's William's room? And she says up there. So they go there first and they find brown paper bags of frozen food. Why did he do that? Not even in the freezer. They're in his room. So it's just going to rot. And they're wrapped in brown paper bags the same way as the food sitting on the floor in the house.

In the first floor closet, they find a TV seat. set with an antenna cable cut. Cut free. Which matches up to the other end over there. Also a fan that they stole. They stole a fan, Jimmy. Like a standing fan? Like a fucking fan.

Or a box fan? Either way. Either way. A portable thing. Back then, $8. A fan. The fan was there. Then the cuda gras here. They go into the kitchen and they're talking to Florence and they look over

out in the open, sitting on a stand is a bayonet just covered in dried blood. What the fuck? A fucking giant bayonet covered in dried blood and the sheet is covered in blood. It's just covered in blood sitting right in the middle of the goddamn kitchen. So it's human blood. Yeah. Something's wrong with him.

Stupid? Is that it? Drunk? I mean, something's wrong? You didn't even consider that this is weird? Drunk is the problem, as we'll talk about. All right. So the detectives went before Justice of the Peace.

They got a first-degree murder warrant. And there's got to be some stupid, too, because that's crazy. I feel like if you're really smart, you don't get, you don't get like half as smart if you're drunk. You know what I mean? Yeah. I feel like it takes a lot of your intelligence away. And if you're not that smart, it could really make you super stupid. But you'd have to be a little stupid to begin with to end up there, I feel like.

Bad for it. It's weird. That, I mean, you'd have to. be just ossified drunk to be able to... Fucking wrecked. To get to this level of stupid and... Is this arrogance what is? I don't take frozen food.

I'll just get all of it. I'll make it all tonight. It's okay. And what is the... Is this like filet? What's in there that's wrapped up that's... Is it salmon chunks? What is that?

I have no idea. So they get the warrant and while they're still at the courthouse, they get a report that William Flamer has been seen at the Blue Moon Tavern on Route 13 south of Woodside. Right now. Right now. So by 315, they are converging on the Blue Moon Tavern. So they found the scene at 8, and by 315, cases solved, and we're going to get the guy,

which is impressive, I got to say. So three state police detectives and two Harrington officers converge on three men walking down the shoulder of Route 13, always a sign of success when grown men are walking down the shoulder of a major road. That's how you know things are going well. Three wide. And, yeah, it's Flamer, Andre Deputy, and a guy named Ellsworth Coleman. Okay. Now, one of the detectives recognizes Flamer because it's a small town and he's dealt with him before. So he knows, he goes, that's the guy we're looking for. They confront them. Hey, guys, how you doing? Flamer is covered in blood. He's covered in blood. He has not changed yet.

He hasn't even washed his hands. His hands and face are covered with blood. Yeah. Blood on his clothing, covering it. And he has fresh scratches all over his neck and chest. And, I mean, it looks like, hey, I'm a guy who murdered someone a little while ago. Like I said, if you were in a movie, the makeup would be he just slaughtered two people. This is exactly how you'd put him, dress him.

Oblivious is the word. Oblivious, walking down the street. Like, he went to a bar. covered in blood still. He's arrested on the warrant. All three men are frisked. Okay? Officers feel a wallet in Andre Deppity's back pocket.

They don't take it out right now because they don't have a warrant for him. But they ask him for identification. He says he doesn't have any. They ask Andre Deputy, what's your name? Now he's got a murder warrant, so he's not going to tell them. And he says, Ray Anderson. Good guess. Good shot.

So all three of them are. taken to the police station about 4 p.m. Now, Coleman, the third man, is questioned and released. He just met up with them like an hour ago. So he's like, I don't know what the fuck they did earlier. I just met them. I just met up with them. But I'm crazy too, because I walked down the street with men covered in blood.

Covered in blood. And I'm like, you want to walk down the road? And I go, yeah, man covered in blood. I'd like to walk down a highway with you. Sure. Let's go for a walk. The two he is. So February 7th, 1979, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

here's the here's what goes on here is flame or story version one okay um okay he's mirandized and everything like that he says well i was a home i was home asleep that's it and he said andre deputy woke me up that morning and asked me to come along to my aunt and uncle's house to get some food we're gonna steal some food from them okay okay so they did that he said when he got there he found the smits were already dead he said we walked in that's how we found it that's terrible

it's awful and he said they were already dead he said I just helped carry out the food that's where I got blood on me because there was blood on the food stuff so I just took it you know being in the house you saw it

you know he said I'm not a killer I just wanted to get some fucking Swanson's just going for a banquet what are we doing here you've seen the market price for Santh these Salisbury steaks are expensive so yeah he said

just that and he said the blood and he goes yeah the food run, you know. And they go, well, why didn't you like call the cops and say they were dead? And he's like, oh, well, I didn't know what happened. I didn't want to really be involved, you know. I don't want to shake things up. I don't want to be involved. Now down the hall, they have Andre deputy. Now they pat him down because he's an interrogation room. They have to pat him down and make sure he has no weapons. So they pat him down. They pull his wallet out. It's Byard

Smith's wallet. It's not his, yeah. In the wallet is Byard Smith's driver's license, Social Security card and two watches. One of them is missing a watch band pin that matches the pin they found on the floor. He couldn't have a better puzzle piece of evidence to give them. What did they think was going to happen? That's what I mean. This is the least thought through fucking murder of all time. $25 in cash he had also.

That's what we got out of them. Some frozen food watches. Probably $15, $20 they just spent a blue moon. Then that, yeah, who knows. So they said, well, why do you have this shit if you weren't there? And he said, well, William Flamer gave me the wallet. He just said, here's a wallet. You'd carry that for me.

And I said, sure, and put it in my pocket. Okay. So they go, okay, you're under arrest for murder two, by the way. Not murder too. Murder also. Also. In addition to him, you got this dude's wallet. You're under arrest.

So about 6 p.m., William Flamer and tells the deputies that, listen, guys, I'm, I'm be honest with you. I'm going to be straight up with you. Now he's going to be honest. I'm not a killer, obviously. Look at my record. I'm a forger or whatever. I'm a nice guy.

But let me tell you, my friend in there, his name ain't Ray Anderson. His name is Andre Deputy, and he's wanted for murder. It's a bad man over there. He's a bad man, and I'm a little scared of him at this point. You guys are being real casual with a murderer. So then they go in, and they go, hi, Andre Deputy, and he goes, fuck. Shit, now I'm extra screwed. No, I just said Ray.

Oh, shit. The ray of entree. Damn it. Yeah, I got that part, right. So then the cops give them dinner because they're going to have a long night. They stay the night. Now, the reason they stay the night, they're supposed to drive them to Dover, but it is a huge snowstorm. And they're not going to drive to Dover an hour and a half, as we said, in the snow.

Yeah, give the opportunity for this car to crash, and now I'm in the woods with a fucking murderer. Now we've got a 48-hour situation where Eddie Murphy's scampering off from a bus accident. So they hold the men overnight there, and they're going to take them in the morning, which is a very important thing. Normally they would have been sent to jail. That's it. End of story. They'll go to court. But Flamer is in a cell here, and Deputy is in a different place. Flamer is in a cell at Troop 5, and Deputy is at the Bridgeville Police Department. By the way, Deputy will claim later that while he was at the police department, he slept in a cold cell, was threatened by, police with a hollow point to his head, he said. That's what they told him.

And this is the greatest complaint of jail I've ever heard in my life. He was, quote, deprived of cigarettes and liquor. They didn't even bring women in here for me to fuck. It was ridiculous. It was crazy. No cocaine. I couldn't jive at all in here. This is crazy.

Just the weed for Christ's sake. Come on, a little something. I'm in jail. Where am I going? Whiskey, cigarettes, or pussy? This place. sucks. Oh, this is terrible.

Fucking place is lame, man. You guys are boring. He really? This is the least jive in prison I've ever been in, man. This sucks. I can't even jive in here. I have very little jiving room on top of everything. How am I supposed to jive in here, guys?

I'm looking around. It's unjiveable. I can't do it. They deprived me of booze and cigarettes. Isn't that amazing? Deprived, he actually is. Yeah, that's jail. Now, late evening, Flamer has version 2 of his story.

Oh. They confront him with the physical evidence. They say, we pulled a blood-covered bayonet from your own grandmother's kitchen. There's blood all over you. There's blood under your fingernails on your hands. Come on. What are we talking about? I got news for you.

My grandma's a psychotic bitch. She's crazy. They said, you were there. And he says, okay, fine, I was there. But, but. And the but's the very important part. there's actually a third guy there and he did all the stabbing. Oh.

He was a psycho. He could not control him. What's his name? Johnny Christopher. Now, if you're going to make up, by the look, there's no such person as Johnny Christopher. If you're going to make up a name, don't start it with Johnny, which sounds immediately like you made it up. Well, he was going to say Christmas, but he caught it in the half. Fuck.

No, yeah. Christmas defer. Johnny is a bad fucking name. Johnny Christmas. That's a fur. shit, something like that. So now he's either asleep at home and he came over and they're all dead or he invented a person now. So now there's two stories.

So the next morning, the 8th of February, the snow lets up. Flamer is taken to the Justice of the Peace, Court 6 in Harrington for his appearance. Okay. He's informed with the charges, four counts of first degree murder, two intentional, two felony, and he's advised of his rights again. Yeah. He asked the magistrate if he can call his... mother to ask about bail and about possibly being represented by Herman Brown Sr., the family's lawyer. They say, yes, you can make the call, and they appoint a public defender for him in the

interim. Both men sign the form, Flamer requesting appointment of counsel and the magistrate appointment, appointing it. So now he calls his mother Mildred Smith, who's the sister of the woman he's charged with murdering, obviously, and tells her that he, the mom tells her, Herman Brown, senior retired. So he can't be your lawyer. So she meets him, comes down and meets him, and then she leaves. And then Corporal Porter steps in, okay? He's a local cop, and he knows William Flamer. And Porter, this is how he describes it later on. He said, quote, I asked him, I said, do you believe in God? Oh, boy. And he said, yeah. And I said, then you've got to believe in heaven and hell, right? And he said, yeah. I said, by the way, if they ever ask you detectives

down the, just disagree with everything they say. Sky's blue, right? I don't think so. I don't know. Do not ever say yes to them. It's a thing that they're doing. He said, well, then, you're going to burn in hell unless you get straight with me about what happened today or what happened yesterday. I want you to tell me. He said, I said, you have to clear your conscience of what's going on. And this is when he started weakening up a little bit. He had some teeth. He had some tears in his eyes and he said, okay, I'll talk to you. And that's when I took him out of the cell. Oh. This is a very common strategy by cops.

Yeah? They start with God. Then they go to, you know, you said you were raised by your grandmother. What would your grandmother think about this? You're going to disgrace your grandmother. You should tell the truth. You know that's what your grandmother would want you to do. They should start that. Threats, guilt. There's all, they can, psychologically they're trying to tell. So they said, you used your little knife to stab Bayard. Who had the big knife? Right. Because you know there's a big knife and a little knife.

And he said, André. He said, and he used it to stab who. And he said, he killed my aunt Alberta. And then he was killing Bayard. That's what he said. Uh-huh. Okay. Now, February 8th, on the other place, Andre Deputy is there.

And he agrees to a polygraph. Oh. He takes the test. They say, you failed miserably. Probably. Not good. Yeah. So then he says, okay, I'll talk.

He said, I went with William to the. Smith's house to get money and an argument broke out. So he said that William started stabbing Bayard Smith out of nowhere, just started hacking at him. And Alberta Smith begged deputy to stop the attack, begged him, and he said, I just left. I don't know what happened after I left. He goes, there was a stabbing going on, this lady saying stop him. And I was like, it was too much for me.

I got to go. I got to get jiving. I got to go now. Why do both of these guys not want to just tell it? I mean, you're so fucked. Either deny it or tell it. That's the thing. But you're so fucked.

Yeah. The truth sometimes sets you free, but lies always put you in prison. Yeah. Well, or they can just, you can't do both. That's the thing. Right. Either pick one, either tell the truth or lie. Pick one.

Or say nothing. But just tell them, if you keep lying, it looks like you did the murdering. If you tell what you did, well, if they tell what they did, they did the murdering too. I think they're fucked here. I think you're kind of, especially with all this evidence, if you come in covered in blood or holding the dead person's wallet with their ID in it, either way, you're kind of fucked at that point. So the, Andre deputy,

he goes before the Justice of the Peace. He's committed to the Sussex Correctional Institution in default of bail. So he's supposed to be driven to a jail. Instead, Detective Chaffinch has him brought back to Troop 5 instead, Uniformed officers depart with deputy, headed for the prison, and this guy directs them to turn around and bring him back. So officers are following a judge's order and taking them, and this detective says, no, no, no, no, bring him back to me. Why? Now, because Flamer, during his own confession, just told police that both men stabbed with two different knives.

Now they've recovered the second knife, a pairing knife that Flamer threw off to the side of Route 13, where he was arrested. When he saw the cop come and he tossed the knife. A pairing knife. They're such bad knives for murder. Awful. Awful. And because Deputy claimed he went to the Smith's house for money and was arrested carrying $25, this guy wanted to question him. So he told Deputy, he says that he said, when I come back, we will sit down and get the whole truth and put it on a tape statement and he'll be taken to SCI.

So that's what he says. By 950, he returns and talks to Deputy about, quote, Getting the truth is what he says. At 9.50, Deputy gives the second tape statement. This time, he and William went there for money. The Smiths refused. William started stabbing Byrd. Alberta begged Deputy to stop.

And he says at that point, he took the knife from Flamer and stabbed Alberta while she begged them to stop. Oh, boy. So an old sweet lady is begging you not to stab her husband and you go, I got to shut her up and start stabbing her. Okay. He said he kept up, Flamer kept stabbing Byrd with another knife. And he said, Deputy said he killed Alberta out of fear she would report them to the police. There you go. I would think so.

So it ends with, you killed Alberta Smith? And he said, I guess so. I don't know. And they said, what do you mean you guess so? And he said, I don't know whether she was dead or not. She wasn't moving. Wait do you hear how many stab wounds? Oh, Jesus.

They said, you're reasonably sure she was dead? and he said, probably she was dead, and he said, yeah. And they said, and there's no question about the truth. Everything you've told us is the truth. And he said, everything's the truth. Now, the autopsy, wounds from two different blades, Bayard Smith has 79 stab wounds. God damn it.

Ten more than his age. You don't need to stab him 79 times. 19 are positively attributable to the bayonet. Eight are attributable to the pairing knife, and 52 could have come from either. There's so many stab wounds It's hard to tell where one starts and one ends Okay

Alberta Smith had 66 stab wounds That's so crazy 25 from the bayonet Two from the bearing A pairing knife and 39 Indeterminate All over the place All over the wounds are concentrated

On the head, neck, throat, and chest You know, all the important stuff Horrifying They had defensive wounds on their hands I mean these fucking poor people tried to fight back And try to defend themselves These poor people.

They did nothing. So here we go. What they have is bayonet with human blood and fibers microscopically similar to Alberta Smith's clothing. Television with a cut antenna matching the severed cable at the scene. Frozen food wrapped identically to the Smith's with Bayard Smith's own fingerprints on one of the bags, by the way. That they had. Then what they had on them, blood on his hands, coat, shoes, and face. Blood, he himself admitted, came from the scene.

Blood under his fingernails, scratches on his job. check in neck and chest, consistent with people fighting. On deputy, you got the wallet, the social security card, and the watch with the missing pin. Oh, by the way, you also have witnesses who saw the man at the abandoned car who was William Flamer. So it's ridiculous the amount of, it's an embarrassment of riches here. Then they have two taped confessions from deputy, one full tape confession from Flamer, plus a preliminary, all of his lies that he sold at first, too. which is just crazy. So putting both of their stories together,

here is what happened that day. Okay. Tuesday, February 6th, yeah, unfortunately you have to. Tuesday, February 6th, 979. 150 stab wounds on elderly people, James. This is so fucked up. Just kindly senior citizens. So fucked up.

Just eating frozen fucking. Worked the balls off to retire to eat fucking... To eat that little tiny peach cobbler. It's two bites. Frozen meatballs. Fuck. So this was in the middle of one of the nastiest winters. There's snow everywhere.

This is Tuesday, February 6th. Flamer said the 6th was, quote, a day of drinking. Deputy said he woke up at 9, headed down to town in search of liquor. By noon, he had consumed three-fifths, three-fifths of Tiger Rose. What the fuck is that? Cheap whiskey, I guarantee it. That makes Thunderbird look good. Like, that is Typerth's.

Tiger Rose? I've never heard of that. That feels like it's the name of a liver disease. It really, you've got Tiger Rose. What do you mean? It's a euphemism for cirrhosis. We call it Tiger Rose. Tiger Rose.

So, Deputy said he drank for a while with Flamer's father, then passed out about 7 p.m. When Flamer came home about 11.30 p.m. Then Deputy woke up and started drinking again with him. He and Deputy drank throughout the whole next day there. And by the late evening, or they drank that whole night. And by late, by the end of the night, they need money. And food. Yeah.

So they armed themselves before walking to the Smith's house, was they figured that'll be a place that they have money in there. That's literally what they went for was Tiger Rose money. Tiger Rose, yeah. They took a bayonet, a smaller knife, and the medical examiner called it a kitchen pairing knife. And they took a shotgun as well. Oh.

They went outside, decided the shotgun would be too loud, so they buried it in the snow outside the door. door before they went in so no one would see it. Flamer had the pairing knife, deputy had the bayonet concealed under his coat. Now what they did to get in the house, they knock on the door, it's about midnight, and they say, Grandma just had a stroke and we can't find her. That's how they got in? She had a stroke and wandered off into the neighborhood. We need help finding her. Oh, my God. She's out there slurring somewhere. And it's snowing, so they're like, oh my God, it's her nephew. He lives up the streets.

They're like, yeah, yeah, come in, come in. And that's the problem. They stood inside the house talking for 10 or 15 minutes. Then Flamer said deputy gave a signal, and then Flamer started stabbing his uncle on the signal. He said after he started stabbing Bayard, Andre Deputy began stabbing Alberta with the bayonet. And at some point, deputy turned the bayonet on Bayard as well. By deputy's confession, basically, that's exactly what he said. He said he started stabbing Flamer.

Flamer started stabbing his uncle. Alberta said, make this stop. And then he started stabbing Alberta. So they both said that. That seems to be what happened. They turned out Byard's pockets. They opened the purse. They found four wallets.

They cut the, you know, they got the TV. They got a fan, frozen food. And that's why it's dropped and scattered as they left because they were just holding frozen food. And it was falling out of their arms and shit. They loaded it into the Smith's car and drove to Flamers' house where they stashed the TV, the fan, the food, and burned three of the four wallets. Deputy kept the fourth in his pocket with the driver's license and all that, the real incriminating one. Then he got back in his uncle's car, drove off in the snow, went to the outskirts of Felton, and then got so drunk he felt.

He was so drunk he fell asleep in the car at that point. Fell asleep in the car after all this. Drove that. He woke up in the battery. He was dead. So he abandoned the car and just walked off carrying a suitcase. He went to the Blue Moon Tavern, met back up with deputy, and spent the late morning and afternoon shooting pool and drinking. And then he was run into on the street.

And that's what happened. Whatever is in Tiger Rose should be illegal. Badge. That's probably why I've never heard of Tiger Rose. And they've pulled it off the market at this point. They were like, we can't have that out there. At least change the name. This is terrible.

That shit makes you crazy. Wow. You've never heard of somebody smoking weed and doing this to people. No. Never. No, no, no. This story doesn't exist. It might, but it's not for weed money.

I don't think this story exists. Like, they might be a, you could get Ted Bundy Stone and he'd still probably kill somebody. Actually, he wouldn't that night, probably. He'd be like, I don't feel like it. I'm right. This is good. You're going to get hungry. You're going to your uncle's house for all that frozen food.

But the opportunity to stab somebody, you're not. doing it. No, you're like, oh, then I got to run away, I got to hide. I got to fuck that. So much work. It's just too much work. I'll just make you nachos too. I'll make a second plate. How about that? Is that better? Is that easier? Can you jive with that? Is that fine? Drive with me. Can you drive with these nachos?

Tiger Roach should be illegal. For sure. For sure. 1980 is the Flamer trial. They separate trials. He goes to on four counts of first. degree murder, like we said, two intentional, two felony, plus possession of a deadly weapon during a felony and first degree robbery and also misdemeanor theft as well. Yeah. His public defender, Dennis Reardon, his strategy was William didn't do it. Any participation

he had, was because he was scared of Andre deputy who had a giant bayonet. That's it. That's a bad defense. I don't give a fine. It's not a good defense. Without him, this doesn't happen. Yeah, it's not his aunt and uncle. Right. This is your idea. So the project. So the project. Cessicution said, look at all this evidence we have. We found him covered in blood and all of the shit was in his house. What are we talking about? And also, we have a confession tape as well. Hey, let's walk through, here's maps to visuals of the bodies in an autopsy way.

Let's walk through 145 stab wounds right now. How's that? No one's going to care if this guy forced you or not. You did that because you're scared? Yeah. So in the defense, Flamer takes the stand. Uh-huh. And he comes up with a different version of what happened on the stand.

Yeah. He said, deputy woke him up on the night of the murder and brought him to the Smith house to help steal frozen food. He asked deputy where the smiths were, and deputy's answer was, never mind about that. Then he saw the bodies. This is after they've heard his taped confession. His story is it already happened. It looked, yeah. So during closings, this is the craziest shit ever.

The defense attorney waives closing argument. I'm good. Really? Yeah. What's that strategy about? It is a strategy and later on in an appeal it's going to come up and it's a legitimate strategy because he said the Kent County prosecutors in that era were known to basically do a short, soft opening summation, then let the defense in to try to do their big thing.

Then they come in with their massive rebuttal, which is the thing they were going to say to begin with. They're going to basically. Yeah, they're going to go up there for things. three hours of some crazy thing. That's what they would do. Courts called the practice sandbagging, and it's actually documented in the case of Billy Bailey, who we talked about,

the last man hanged in the United States there. So one of Flamers' own prosecutors said that he'd been prepared for two to three hours of rebuttal. Okay. So they said, no, no closing. Oh. So the verdict comes in, obviously guilty. Very, yeah.

Very guilty. Sentencing comes in. Okay. Mitigating hearing, they call three witnesses. Flamer himself, who narrated his life through, I'm a drunk and I'm my daughter, I have a three-year-old daughter and odd jobs and I've always been a mess and just my life has always been shit. His mother, Mildred, who described him as a good student who quit in the 11th grade and changed when he drank. And his grandmother, Florence, who said that, quote, he was a good boy to me. He was a good boy.

Okay. The prosecution calls nobody. Really? They just bring in Flamers to forgery convictions, which weren't allowed in during the trial, but now in sentencing they're allowed. And also called both of them, quote, real scum bums.

We've heard that before. Scum bums. Yeah, we have. Real scum bumps, in it? I think it is. What's a scum bum? You're not properly driving is what that means. So,

the defense closing said, ladies and gentlemen, although we're here today talking about murder, I'm simply going to ask you to show mercy. Do not kill William Henry Flamer simply because the law and the state of Delaware says you can. There is a far, far greater law than anything conceived by this state and punished by this state, which tells you thou shall not kill. Thank you. Because death penalty is on the table here. Yeah. So he's saying if you give him life without, that's a win for me. That's great. That's all he's asking for. It's already convicted. So, Now the prosecution says the robbery, there's a robbery commission. That's one of the, you know, aggravated factors.

And the outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible, or inhumane act, which it absolutely is. The prosecution said, yeah, thou shalt not kill pertained to William two. He had free choice. And then they said, quote, please be fair. Okay, comes back. You, sir, may fuck off death by hanging. Oh, jeez. That's not good.

We're going to do this specifically. Help him with this fucking fall. Help me with my fucking fall. Deadwood reference for everyone out there. Now, Andre Deputy, during his trial, pretty much they have the same evidence. Everything comes out the same. They said, you know, they'd get the deputy in there. And they try to get him about the, you know, do you believe in God and all that kind of shit.

Or not the deputy is the one that they said, you brought him back from the jail, basically, which you weren't supposed to and all that. But comes in guilty anyway. Yeah. Now, in sentencing, during mitigating, three ministers and a Bible study instructor testified to his conduct in jail, and deputy took the stand himself expressing reverence and describing the changes in his lifestyle.

Also, the ministers played a tape for the jury of deputies singing in the prison chapel, saying you can't kill him. He sings like an angel, literally. He has raped before. He sings like an angel, Jimmy. You haven't heard him jive. That's the problem. He's wanted for murder outside of this.

Yeah, that's the thing. And that's the other thing they bring up in the aggravators. They say not only was it all horrible, he's got priors for sexual assault. Fuck, he killed a guy. He's a bad guy. He's getting worse. So the jury returns, you, sir, may fuck off four times death penalty. Oh.

Times four. Okay. Now that's actually good though because later on as we'll see here, two of those will get struck down. But then there'll be two left. So you collect as many as you can. Because he's going to throw him away. He's going to throw him away. Like it's go fish or something.

I'm going to keep those threes. You never know. So Flamers direct appeal very quickly here. They affirm his convictions. Among the issues, Delaware's statutory aggravator that a murder be outrageously. or wantonly vile, horrible, or inhumane. They say the language is so vague that you can't really pin that on anything.

And they went, we get what it is, and it's what he did. Bye. Fuck off. Deputy appeals, and that's the, they appeal, the Delaware Supreme Court throws out the second tape confession, the one with the I guess so in it. Okay.

And they said holding that the magistrate committed him and his Sixth Amendment right to counsel had attached nine hours in a holding cell, in defiance of a court order engineered by a detective is not okay. Okay. A judge said, take him here and you disobeyed him and took him somewhere else. Right. Right there, that's thrown out.

But the first one's there. Both intentional murder convictions are reversed. Okay. But the felony ones stick with two death penalties attached to them. That's why you give four. They ruled an error harmless to the felony murder. Now, Flamer tries to get more. They say his confession should have been suppressed, saying that he was, they said no, he was

Mirandized and he kept talking and requested to inquire about possible representation with his mother, but that's not an unambiguous demand for counsel. And we've gone over this. Unless you say, lawyer right now, stop talking to me. It's not a request for a lawyer. So how will they die if they're killed? Well, they have the gallows for hanging. They were built in 1986 by the Delaware Department of Corrections on the prison grounds.

Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Like the prison guards and not the prison guards and not the, not the prison. He's a department of corrections paid for it is what that means. Not they put a bunch of prison guards out there with hammers and nails. Build us a gallows, boys. All right.

Yeah, or the prisoners building up. That would be even worse. It's a two-story wooden structure with a 15-foot platform, trap door, roof and stairs. They built this. for Billy Bailey, essentially. Really? Yeah, there's some weird shit about that, too. The gallows required renovation and strengthening before the 1996 execution date of Billy Bailey, because the last previous hanging was in 1946.

Oh, boy. Yeah. Oh, that's some rotten wood. That's not going to work. Yeah, put a deck on your house and leave it there for 50 years and see how it looks after a while. See if you'll even walk out on it. Yeah, see if it doesn't collapse under you. So Flamer, while he's in prison, he's on death row, but has a job, which is weird.

They said that there's only three death row inmates allowed to work in the whole state. Billy Bailey, Reginald Sanders, and William Henry Flamer. Bailey's a barber, and Flamer works in the laundry room there. And, yeah, they said they said it's one step below maximum security, but not as much freedom as the general population in medium or minimum security. So they're the trustees of death row essentially. Now, Flamer said when he went to prison and death row, at first I felt hate, a man can't die but once, but a man without funds doesn't stand a chance.

So that's what he's saying about going to prison to begin with. He didn't have money for a real lawyer. So if you don't have money, you're fucked. He said, if you've never been faced with death, you cannot understand the fears and anxieties that come down on a person. But to meet your maker can bring on. suicide, hatred, violence, or rage, or a man could reach inside himself for some hidden talent or reach for God. For the first year and a half, I worried.

He said his weight dropped from 181 to 129 pounds, and he developed an ulcer. And so he said, that wasn't great as well. It didn't like that. But he's been, you know, it's been difficult times, obviously, in prison, which is real. Flamer said that baseball's been his main diversion. He said, quote, I hit 179 home runs over the fence in one season. I don't know what the dimensions of this field are. He said, but in March of 1980, he said he found God.

And he said, since then, he's declared his, quote, Moorish American nationality that has let him achieve a higher plane mentally and physically and is dedicated to uplifting fallen humanity. Great. Terrific. That's great. Yeah, he says, I have love in my heart. I am at peace. I tell the truth. I shall be free. And justice will take its own course. Terrific. Great. Deputy is never seen without his Bible. He carries one in black leather with his name engraved and gold letters, a present from a minister. He says, this is the first time in my life. Nothing else matters. He said, and one of the guards said, André is one of the happiest guys in here. He always has a smile on his face. Yeah. He said that he feels like he's going to be executed. Prison guards say they're usually skeptical when it comes to jailhouse religion, but they say they believe Flamer and Deputy, actually. They seem to be genuine.

Deputy dreamed to being a professional singer when he was younger, but now he sings in the gospel choir in jail. He's composed a couple of gospel songs, including, quote, Jesus is the best of. best thing that ever happened to me, which is a bit wordy for a title. That's, yeah, it's chunky. Can't fit that in the old jukebox slot there back in the day. So, yeah, he does all of this. He said that, you know, all of his family are still alcoholics. His brother John is, quote, still a drunk in Wilmington, but his brother Ronald is living

in New York and joined Alcoholics Anonymous. Great. Terrific. So he said, I used to get in trouble about five times a month, cursing the guards, just nonsense. I got tired of it. So I had this 12-hour lockdown and I was smoking two packs a day. I said, God, if you're real, come into my life and make me quit smoking.

You're asking a lot. Some things you have to do on your own. Make me. Well, the thing about that is that that's chemical, babe. Yeah, well, he said, you see, I had to test this a little. And he said, when he came out a lockup, he had no desire for cigarettes or booze and hasn't wanted them ever since. That's what he said. He said, God replaced alcohol.

He said alcohol was something to fill the void of my mother's loss. Now I know that void was a lack of God. He's also got his GED and participated in Scared Straight programs. So he's telling kids, I want your shoes, motherfucker. That's him. He's doing that. Oh, my God. I mean, that's the bad guy that you want yelling at kids.

I'm going to fuck your face. That's the guy. Yeah. Give me a toothpaste. You can have whatever you want. He cooks, too, in the prison. He said, I like my own cooking. He said, if I had things to do over,

I'd be a rebel or it'd be a minister. He said, I just, he said, I was pushed too hard and that's why I rebelled. My father was too religious. Oh. If he was somewhere in the middle, then everything would have been fine, I guess. Now, 93, Andre is nearing execution. Yeah.

He's a born again. Christian, a prison chaplain and stands to the Board of Pardons. And, yeah, a prison staff chaplain called him a role model. No, he's not a prison chaplain. A prison chaplain called him role model who put his faith in God and the board said, no, I don't care. Don't think so. You put your knife and two old people. Fuck off.

So he sent a letter to the editor of a newspaper. My name is Andre Deputy, and unless God intervenes, I'm scheduled to be executed on June 23rd at midnight. No matter what has been said, I did not commit the murders of the Smiths. Okay. I'm very, very sorry for their family and I wish I had tried to stop it instead of running out of fear. There was no blood found on me or fingerprints on their stolen price.

property. I'm trusting my Lord and Savior to save me so I can serve him in the prison and lead others to him. The scripture I'm believing in is some horseshit. I will not die, but I will live and declare the works of the Lord. Please pray for me. I'm believing in God, but at times it gets rough. Thank you to all the people who have supported and written to me. Now he's denying it. He's an innocent man. He didn't do it at all. So June 23rd, 1994 is execution day. for Andre. Relatives and clergy and his attorneys visit him. Last meal, everybody. They're going to do it. What do you? Fried shrimp and flounder with French fries, rolls, and a coconut custard pie. I hope every one of them was a frozen one. Oh, yeah. All vandy camps.

That sounds great except for the custard pie because I'm allergic to coconuts. That wouldn't work. Everything from the frozen aisle at Costco. That's it. No last words, by the way. He's done. Did they hang him or did they? Lethal injection. After, I guess they had a, you could do a choice by 86. Delaware switched its execution method to lethal injection in 86. But if you were sentenced before 86, you can have a choice of lethal injection or hanging. All right.

Absolutely. William chose lethal injection. He did. William. William Flamer chose lethal injection too. Now, they're trying to get him out. William Flamer get the death penalty taken away. And instead, it's not quite working.

He goes to the pardon board here and says I'm an alcoholic, 11th grade dropout. I'm a loser. He said, you know, I found God, and now I've changed my life, and I've gotten a GED, and I completed college, and I'm a certified dietitian. I've worked in the prison kitchen. And they go, well, that's good. Anyway, denied. And shoot him off of there.

January 30th, 1996 is his execution day. I don't know his last meal. I can't find it anywhere. Horrible. It's four days after Billy Bailey. Billy Bailey with the hanging got all the attention. And then everybody just kind of left. And then four days later, they just kind of killed this way.

They were in a day. Without paying attention. Yeah. They had to go back to wherever they were from. So he is 41 strapped down and inletly injected. And that's that. By the way, 2003, they dismantled the galley. Oh, they're tickle of a part, huh?

There's nobody that was eligible for them. There was nobody else eligible to choose it anymore. So it was just a thing. So there you go. That is Harrington, Delaware, and quite the fucking case of not jiving very well. No. It's just bad.

This is what happens when you drink Tiger Rose. It'll make you roar, babe. It'll make you fucking, we don't know what the other guy was drinking, but that's why it looked like the same thing. Remember I said it looked like a lion attacked him more like a A tiger came in and attacked them. A tiger rose. That should be the commercial.

You take a sip and then you turn into a tiger. It'll make you roar. Isn't there St. I's commercials where you turned into something? Didn't Snoop turn into some shit in a St. Ide's commercial in the 90s? Well, was it kind of similar to that thing that he turned into and murder was the case? In the video. Yeah, I think something like that. That should be Tiger Rose.

They should have did that first. It would have been good for him. So anyway, there you go. There is Harrington, Delaware. If you like that show, get on whatever app you're on. give us five stars. It helps so much. It helps drive the show up the charts. If you're watching on Netflix, thumbs up, please. It helps a ton. So thank you for everyone for doing that. Shut up and give me murder.com is where you get the tickets and everything else for live shows.

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